Here it is, May 13th, and the summer season is around the corner.
Proverbially speaking, of course. And as you may’ve noticed, we’re very fond of speaking in proverbs.
As I was editing the latest show together (with awesome last-minute-help from podcasters Alba Lewis and Monica Hamburg), the Amazing Betty proposed Mother’s Day as a theme for the show. To which I replied: “BRILLIANT!” and immediately started writing the “Maternal Skype” sketch.
At the same time, we realized that it’s May…time to think about what to do about the summer.
This time last year, I planned to take June off after the Memorial Day show. Then my father died, and June became July, and there was just too much to do and no bandwidth for podcasting. It wasn’t until late August that I was able to return InveDel to production with the Labor Day show.
Later, when I ran out of steam again in December, Betty wisely suggested a couple of “Best Of” shows to keep the show going on schedule in January. That worked out very well: the two compilations were fun to put together, and meanwhile I wrote new material. We cruised back into new shows in February, and I think it’s fair to say we have had a really strong spring.
Now it’s nearing break time again . . but we’re going to keep the flow going as best we can!
Next show will be a Memorial Day Show reboot, with a repeat of Carole Montgomery‘s National Mom sketch and some other tasty tidbits.
Next NEXT show will be Summer Vacation show (another Betty idea) with new material to kick off the summer (early June)
Thereafter, there’ll be a couple of Summer best-ofs, possibly with some new material sprinkled in.
There’s a growing queue of hand-picked guest stars who have agreed to appear on InveDel . . . I really look forward to working with these wonderful novelists, podcasters, comedians, podcasters, actors, more podcasters, and even some people without podcasts. And the sketches are forming and even finding their way into the computer!
This year has already been so mind-blowing (see also: Lewis Black) that I can’t predict who will be on the show next (other than podcasters, and they’re an unpredictable bunch), but I can promise more fun than sticks should be shaken at.
Thank you for checking out our little show. Hope you’ll stick around.
Just like you, InveDel has a soft spot for Mum. Hear a conversation with an imaginary mother, a special Mother’s Day edition of Shouting Poe, and our long-awaited interview with Baltimore anchorman Jamie Costello.
Note: The title of this post comes from the fact that De La Soul’s “The Magic Number” has been running thru my head, from their immaculate debut album 3 Feet High & Rising.
Yes, three years of InveDel . . but who’s counting.
Truth is, the third anniversary kinda snuck up on me. Whereas I created a splashy anniversary routine for the 2nd, this year I was caught between some big projects at the dayjob and casting, scheduling, and recording voices for the last few shows. I kept putting off the subject of what to do about the anniversary.
“Yeah, I really should prepare some anniversary . . . WOW! . . Lewis Black said yes???”
So now that I’m forcing myself to sit down and write (see also: think) about it, I can say the following:
I feel happy with the show and intend to keep at it.
I’m very pleased that the show is reaching more people.
I still don’t know exactly what I’m doing.
The more podcasts I listen to, the more my decision to do a ‘clean‘ comedy show seems almost defiant–which was never my intention.
I made the choice at the start, when I posted my first webisode and confronted the “rating” question posed by my host site, Libsyn. The three choices (for “iTunes-style” rating) were Clean, Explicit, or No Rating.
My response was quick and pragmatic: oh, well I should probably go clean, ‘cos I’d reach more people, right?
My day-to-day vocabulary has its share of s-words and f-bombs, but as time has gone on I see that keeping clean provides a benefit to my writing–I think it makes me work harder and think creatively. And of course, it fits in with the NPR aesthetic that I took off from when I conceived the show.
In the end, it’s a pleasure put the show together, and wonderful to see “Like” and comments and tweets . . feel free to email me at gw@geoffreywelchman.com if there’s something you’d like to say.
The Amazing Betty and I spent over an hour gazing at the addictive Red-tailed Hawk Cam last night!
I guess that says a lot about us both.
As someone who delights in nature documentaries (particularly BBC Earth), I was riveted by the close-up view of nesting Red-tailed Hawks on one of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Lab bird-cams. I grew up watching these birds soar overhead in the Connecticut sky, never thinking I’d get such an intimate, close-up view of these fierce creatures.
For those of you already hip to the animal-cam phenom, what can I say….I’m a little slow.
And a late adopter.
And a late bloomer!
PS. Just purchased a couple more BBC Earth productions, both featuring Sir David: Life in Cold Blood, and a series about the animals of Madagascar! Can’t wait!
Let there be mirth aplenty, and much revelling in the streets: InveDelis THREE YEARS OLD! Now we can look forward to losing our baby fat, learning how to take turns and share our toys, and mastering the use of pronouns. Just in time!
We present a comical impersonation of This American Life, a new Science Friction Adventure series, and give a behind-the-scenes look at how we maintain our Clean rating with the Bleeptron system upgrade.
Wanted to say a word about a couple of comedians who appear in our upcoming Third Anniversary show!
Tom Shillueis a terrific storyteller and standup comic who’s been on the Daily Show and on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He was suggested to me by Erica Palgon, a casting agent I met at the NYC Podfest in January.
I immediately googled him and watched his very funny routine on a topic that’s near and dear to us hear at InveDel: nature documentaries!
A bit about the giant squid? How could I not love this guy?
With Erica’s help, I contacted Tom (currently on tour with Jim Gaffigan), and he agreed to play the title role in a sketch I’d written. What’s more, he recorded his lines for me in a hotel room.
True story: he did a great job in his performance. It was a pleasure to edit the sketch together! Can’t thank him enough.
Mike Storck
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .
Baltimore comedian Mike Storck was at the Expert of Nothing show I wrote about recently, and I was impressed enough with his delivery to ask him to be on InveDelthat same evening.
(It helped that he was talking with podguest Kathy Carson, who vouched for our show)
Mike is a touring comic who’s been at it for a dozen years. He’s often on the road, so we were lucky to catch him in town. We lured him to Poison Dart Studios with promises of land deals and oil gushers, and he was kind enough to ignore our obvious insincerity.
It was a pleasure talking comedy with him and hearing a bit about his experiences as a Baltimore comic. He also did a great read for us in the (upcoming) “Bleeptron” sketch. Our thanks to Mike.
Here it is, May 13th, and the summer season is around the corner.
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