The Series Has Ended

That's right! We have finally released all of the podcasts that we recorded during our first few months on the show before we took a summer break. We decided to go out with the same inimitable immaturity that we managed to carry throughout the entire program and basically threw ourselves a children's party complete with biscuits, sweets, i'm pretty sure there was a pinata at one point and by the end Ryan was crying.

"Oh I'll just search for a picture of strawberry lacHOW THE HELL DID THEY DO THAT" - me, ten seconds ago

A thoroughly enjoyable podcast from start to finish, enjoy fantastic topics such as: my mum, the beast of Lancaster and Ray Mears.

Here's the link: http://soundcloud.com/thelockin/podcasts-series-one-finale

There's also unfortunately no songs or poems on this weeks podcast because we missed the last half an hour of the recording due to technical difficulties. However, you shrewd blog-followers, when the studio re-opens next week we can go into the system and retrieve these tiny nuggets which we'll post up here by themselves.

That's it, a brilliant end to a glorious year (almost 6 or 7 months ago). But if you're sat there reading this and simultaneously getting a little bit depressed thinking, "oh, why does the series have to end?" Don't worry, because we'll be releasing the very first episode of the second series as a podcast in about a fortnight.

Cheerio Listeners, have fun with the podcast

Tom

WTF is the Marc Maron Podcast?

Yes, it is. WTF is a podcast show in which American comedy veteran Marc Maron conducts interviews with lots of different comedians and relevant people on the scene, as well as some other characters of honorable mention.

If you are a big comedy nerd and interesting in all of the inner workings of it, then this is the podcast for you, it's a bit like getting a trade magazine pumped directly into your ears. The interviews cover lots of different aspects of the lives of the comics, including, as most interviews would, the in-depth story of how they got started on the scene.

It's incredibly interesting to a lot of people, to learn how the famous acts that we know today managed to climb to that level. A good element that the show brings to these stories is that no parts are ever sensationalised because of Marc's informal style, so all of the stories consist mainly of guys who hung around enough, doing work where they can until they got a break or got seen by someone of importance. And it's this hanging around where they meet the entire community of stand ups to which Marc Maron has been a long running member. The show made it clearer to me what a community amateur/pro comedians form, seeing each other as they would in different venues and green rooms all over the city or country.

Marc here managing to look spookily like Van Pelt

Each podcast is packed with enough jokes, laughter and interesting insight to keep you hooked for the run time of just over an hour, and not a moment of it seems to be wasted with filler as it seems to be an hour or so of pertinent information. The aspect of the show that best displays Marc's nuanced skill as an interviewer is the way that it seamlessly blends amusing anecdotes or jokes with tragic stories about the hardships that many of these comedians have suffered - whether it's bereavement or substance abuse or serious relationship trouble. Now, most interviews will try to cover these different areas to make a diverse piece, maybe even thinking, "hey, if i can get them to cry i might win an Emmy" but the usual artificial atmosphere is not present on WTF and these shows sound much more like a deep conversation between old friends. Most other interviews switch so mechanically to 'now I'm going to ask you about a sad thing' question that you can almost hear an audible clunk. But they seem to flow in as smoothly as they flow out on WTF, helped largely in part by Marc's self reflective style. He would be the first to admit that he has and has had a few problems in his life, and isn't afraid of turning the subject to himself, making a joke and alleviating the heavy atmosphere when we've learned about the hardship and he doesn't break stride doing it.

It can take a little bit of time to get used to Marc's voice itself, and without sounding too English about this, it's loud with a typically American brashness. But this is something of an off-putting illusion when you learn more about his various neurosis and the empathetic way he conducts interviews. It was particularly noticeable to me, when he interviewed Stewart Lee, one of our more soft spoken personalities; the contrast between the two was startling. But although loud and laden with the occasional unnecessary fuck, it's this friendly "Hey man, what's up" style that originally breaks the ice and places the guests in a warm environment.

His big secret, as it always is, is just extensive hard work. The number of guests that he has interviewed is prolific to an incredible degree. I'm not going to try to even offer a choice sample of the list here, because in terms of comedians, it's nearing a 'name them and he's interviewed them' type level. If you go to www.wtfpod.com you can get the latest 50 episodes for free, but I understand that for the full catalogue there is an app that you can buy if you're lucky enough to own a smart phone.

So, ultimately, in terms of research, what to learn and take away from this for our own podcasts or interviews? Well, I think I'd certainly place them in different areas serving different purposes. I've never personally enjoyed getting into a heavy discussion with anyone, friends included, and I don't think that I possess the skill as an interviewer to be able to pull it off successfully. I see the WTF podcasts as a broad bio character piece, where as what we try to do (at least at the moment) is invite guests into our world for a bit of a laugh. I think the warm atmosphere is something that has come to us quite naturally (particularly Ryan though I resent saying it). And I think, at this stage, both because of our inexperience and also our youth, it would be challenging and perhaps inappropriate to try to level with some guests about the hardships they've suffered on a one to one peer basis. So I'm perfectly happy to keep playing the kid, asking a wisened veteran about their experience and theories on comedy and the scene. So in terms of things that our shows share, there's laughs and comedy nerdship, which is a nice blend that I'm more than happy with.

Writer's Blog - A Hello From Ryan

It dawned on me that it's high time I got involved with the Lock In blog. So this is it, the first of many posts, from yours truly, Ryan "50% of The Lock In" McCann. It's a strange world to be entering, that of the blog, but an exciting and interesting one too.

The fact is, at the moment whilst term is out, The Lock In doesn't air and since me and Tom live in two separate parts of the county we don't see each other. This could mean that in our time apart, the delightful radio comedy chat and banter could start to wane. If it is a concern of yours then it's a concern you and I share. It would be such a shame if our once great radio show became stale simply because me and Tom haven't seen each other in a while wouldn't it?

What if we couldn't remember precisely how to make the other laugh? What if I forgot how to fool him into believing my utter lies? What if our mutual love for biscuits was to burn out and die?

For better or for worse these issues came into light just last night. I ended up on the phone to Tom. Well the good news is within minutes the typical Lock In idiocy and hilarity was well on the way - with each of us cracking jokes around the theme of how attractive we are and the prospects of people making us sandwiches when we get back to uni (take hints readers). The good news then it would seem, is that even forced apart as we have been, starved of conversation as we are and removed from our beloved radio show too we are still capable of almost instantly making one another laugh. And if you or anyone else are in anyway remotely similar to us, then hopefully we'll be able to do the same for you.

I look forward to finding out in a few weeks time when the Lock In returns.

Radio, Comedy and the works of Stephen King

The worlds of radio, comedy and writing have a lot of crossovers as creative industries. With writing being a much older craft, a lot more has been said about it, but i find that a lot of these truisms can be applied across all creative medium. The internet is awash with memorable quotes, truisms and soundbites from a whole host of famous writers about the craft and most of them are various different messages about writing for truth, for joy and most importantly writing often. But one of the most interesting things that I've come across is something that somebody (I believe wrongly) attributed to Stephen King, which is to read 5 times as much as you write. Arguably not something that you necessarily need to apply to every trade, I wouldn't demand that a blacksmith watches 5 times as many forgers as he does himself.

Blacksmithery is the next entertainment industry

But this is something that is interesting to apply to comedy as well and easy enough to accomplish as a stand up because you'll watch 6 other comedians at any amateur night you go to and it's so popular on TV at the moment. But as a radio broadcaster, podcasts similar to what we are doing here at the lock in are things that you have to actively seek out and tie down. It's easy enough to subscribe to plenty of different shows, particularly when they are all available to download for free, but when you have hours upon hours of unheard shows sitting in your podcast library it can be quite daunting to make a start.

The 5:1 ratio is not a standard I can say that I live up to, come close to, or even may be physically capable of achieving. If you consider the fact that from recording to the finished product each lock in podcast represents at least 15 hours of my life (4/5 hours recording and at least twice that post production), each one should demand that I've listened to 75 hours of extra-curricular podcast research. Even just the recording of the show itself would by this rule be the product of 25 hours of podcastery, which is over a solid day of listening. But the very fact that it seems impossible, is perhaps an advantage of the rule. I'm almost certainly never going to be able to achieve it, but at least this way, I always feel like I should be listening/watching/reading more than I am.

I have it on good authority from an artist friend of mine that all of the best artists in the world are thieves at heart. Stealing ideas, techniques and style from their contemporaries and their predecessors unashamedly. But this is widely accepted as true and nobody should complain about it because it's just the way that new ideas and trends are born - from the shoulders of what came before it. So hopefully through my newly enriched passion for other radio podcasts i can find some great ideas to steal and improve. Not to mention that we're always looking for ways to sound more professional and slick when it comes to post-production.

At this point it seems appropriate to mention that I've never actually read a Stephen King novel, on the flawed logic of "It's popular, I probably don't like it". But I've heard a lot recently about what a workaholic he is and it's given me a new found respect for him (one that will eventually manifest itself in the picking up of one of his books). However, in preparation for this post, I made sure to also read at least 5 other Stephen King quotes and though wrongly attributed earlier, he does seem to agree with my argument:

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." - Stephen King

Also he can be quoted as saying "We came here to fuck shit up" so it turns out he's kind of a bad-ass

New banner!

Hi readers,

Today we are doing some general housekeeping with this page and can proudly introduce our new banner.

That's right, the pale blue blank text that you knew and loved is now history and is being replaced by these trendy designs. We've gone for the basic grey but there was a choice of grey blue and red as seen below:

This is just a rough design thrown together by my brother that we are very grateful for. It's small incremental improvements like this that will slowly make this blog, our show and everything we're doing look better and be more enjoyable. It's like making a small deposit in a savings account every time we upload a radio podcast, do a blog entry or make some other kind of progress with the medium and the show that we love.

In that spirit tonight I will devote some time to examine how we can improve the aesthetic quality of this blog, we all know people only like to look at pretty things.

Hope you like the banner. Tomorrow will feature another post telling of another one of our choice radio favourites and professional podcasters.

Tom

Stereotypes and Irony in Comedy

Hi everyone,

Here's something a little bit different for you today. It's not specifically about 'The Lock In' or our wonderful podcasts, but it is an interesting point about the nature of stereotypes in modern day comedy. If you're interested in comedy in the hugely nerdy way that both myself and Ryan are, you'll appreciate the debate. It might not come into play much on our show, but considering Ryan and I both perform stand up as well, it's interesting to look at how comedy is changing particularly when it comes to debates about boundaries, political correctness and offence.

I believe, to an extent, stereotypes are necessary in certain types of comedy, often simply as a shorthand for a large group of people that it would otherwise be impossible to address. At this point, the educated and cultured among us believe (as the twillight zone once taught me) 'people are the same all over'. There are good/bad, smart/stupid, friendly/mean personalities in every group, subculture and organisation you can name. But when it comes to the basic storytelling structure, it's impossible to talk about a group of people without painting them all with one or several similar characteristics. This is so that you can set them up as the fall guy of the joke or the enemy that we're supposed to hate so that we can root for the hero. A simple example of

this is a left wing comedian arguing and ultimately outsmarting or quipping against a conservative or right wing person/figure of authority. We ignore the fact that this person could be a fire-fighter or a mother or any number of wonderful respectable things because for the purpose of the story they need to be represented as evil.

Now, today I like to think that many of us understand that it's wrong to group people together and to judge their character based on their belonging to that group in any real-life situation. What this means for comedy is that if you want to do offensive or prejudice based material to a multi-cultural world you have to do it with a sense of irony. Often the joke is about how stupid the character is to be a prejudiced. A good example of this is Cartman from Southpark an openly racist and offensive character. But the inflammatory things he says are acceptable because it is all done under the knowledge that he is unintelligent and ignorant in comparison to Stan and Kyle. His racism is just an extension of his low intelligence, it's a classic idiot clown joke

because he doesn't understand the society that he lives in and makes obvious logical fallacies based on prejudice.

But this is not always played out in the correct or safest way and it starts to raise questions about the birth of the joke and its origin. It can usually be easy to see when the origin of the joke was based on prejudice and the author then had to craft and manipulate until it became acceptable. I think I found a good example of this the other day on a comic strip I found online:

The comic strip from what I can tell comes from balderduck.com and this comic as well as the rest of the comics on the site are fairly generic and wouldn't look too out of place in the back of a daily newspaper. However, this one has one important difference that I believe marks out a different period of comedy for the modern day. Now, this strip is about male female stereotypes, the entire humour comes from the characters assuming that women can't park. Just a few years ago, this strip could have existed as it is without the need to add the caption 'stereotypes are bad'. At no point in the 2 panel strip does it imply that stereotypes are bad, the only thing the caption seems to add is to let us know that the author recognises that prejudice is a bad thing. To me it seems to reek of lazy 'ass covering'. The content itself is sexist, the caption might as well just read 'I'm not sexist, gender doesn't actually affect parking ability'.

This comic could potentially say a few things about stereotypes in comedy at the moment. Do we now, as an audience, need to be reassured that the author himself isn't prejudiced before we feel that we can enjoy a sexist joke? I think this removes all type of free thought or scope for different interpretations. An audience member should be allowed to come upon this joke and appreciate it for what it is, whether you agree that the stereotype is true or not. Or is it arguably a joke about stupidity? We're supposed to recognise that applying the assumed gender rules we live by to a cat would be ridiculous. That would align it with my Cartman paradigm and in doing so relieve it of any offensive undertones by my own argument. But my problem with it is that it seeks to leave us with a positive message even though the fact that stereotypes and prejudice are bad is something that everyone already knows. The caption adds absolutely nothing to the joke; it only serves to make us aware of the intent of the author in a very lazy way. In a painfully overly simplified way, it's like ending an episode of 'love thy neighbour' with the post script "don't be racist".

A joke is a joke and should be able to stand by itself without us having to know the intention of the author. This isn't the same as removing a joke from its context and in doing so accuse it of offensiveness like they often do in scandals or campaigns by the media. Offence is often a tool used to tell us things about a certain character like the ignorance of Cartman or the bitterness and nihilistic detachment of the stage persona of Jerry Sadowitz. What is said by the character is not the whole joke, the history of the character and the context at the time all go in to making the joke what it is. But with this comic, as far as I can tell, the entirety of the joke is there contained in the two panels and the caption (I even did some brief research to try find out whether it was part of a series or a recurring character that I was missing).

An ironic joke or script will carry the message it needs to without needing to tack it onto the end. This is why it is so satisfying to hear an author defend their work against those who misjudge it by pointing out the glaringly obvious subtext or satirical intent. If you write a joke that could be perceived as sexist, it undoubtedly will be, you just have to hope that the joke is well written enough that the intended audience will understand what you were trying to do (assuming that sexism wasn't your intention).

I almost certainly have more to say about this subject but at the moment I feel unable to articulate my argument with sufficient accuracy. When you start talking about offence in comedy it can very quickly become a huge discussion, but this has been a fairly untidy spiel sparked by the sight of that particular comic and I hope that you've found my tired over-analysis of the joke entertaining or at least interesting.

We will occasionally post things like this as and when they come to us, so please keep re-visiting the blog like a rich businessman would with a high class escort service [prostitution is bad].

Tom

The growing list of influences

Hello readers,

If you're sitting around on boxing day wishing that you had some more lock in podcasts to enjoy, you could take the time to look at some other podcasts made by people who make money and everything. With that in mind, we thought we'd start to write a few posts about our influences and some of the people that we admire in radio land.

One of the latest radio shows that i've started to enjoy is a show called 'the best show' on WFMU. Being a show called 'the best show' you could understandably assume that i enjoy it for the faux-arrogance of repeatedly claiming that your show is the greatest thing to don listeners ears.

It's a public call-in show from America presented by Tom Sharpling. It seems like a peculiar choice, but it appears to have been picked up and thoroughly endorse by an elite group of the American comedy scene such as Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifinakis and Robert Popper all of whom have appeared as guests. A lot of the best moments for me come from Tom's incessant petty bickering with the people that call in, but he also has plenty of recurring characters and special guests as we mentioned. It's interesting to hear how different American radio can be from what we produce over here just in terms of style and tone.

There are over a hundred podcasts of the show available here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/BS  if you click on the intunes button you can get them all in your podcasts folder.

You'll hear more from us very soon with some of our favourite players in alternative radio comedy

The lock in