I went to one last night, for a podcast I’ve been listening to regularly since 2021. They’re on tour now, in the US. Another podcast I listen to on occasion just announced their European tour (they’re US-based and cover US-based TV). I also happened to read an article yesterday from 2023 about a “PodLoft” experience in Brooklyn for a podcast “My Favorite Murder.”
I think it’s kind of crazy but also fascinating and wonderful. In the article they talked about an online community for one of the podcasts. I’m part of “my” podcast’s Facebook group, which is more like a community in that we don’t just talk about the podcast or the related shows. Others have Discord channels and active Patreon comments, I’m sure with active community vibes. And more podcasts than you think seem to do live shows.
Being that podcasts are generally free* and bountiful, have you ever spent the money and taken the time to go to a live show of any of your favorite podcasts? Would you?
*FWIW I do pay $8/mo to be on my podcast’s ad-free and extra content tier. I’m invested.
Yep, my first introduction to the world of comedy podcasts was a friend taking me to a live taping of Never Not Funny (which I was very confused by the idea of a live podcast).
Since then I’ve been to:
Doug Loves Movies
How Did This Get Made?
Jordan Jessie Go
Thrilling Adventure Hour
Doughboys (Twice)
I went to a recording of No Such Thing as a Fish in Boston several years ago. It’s done by some of the writers of QI; their first U.S. tour, and I don’t know if they’ve done another since.
I’ve also been to a couple shows by Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist, but I don’t think they were recorded to be podcasts, just stand-alone shows.
i used to go to the Dead Author’s Podcast live-recording regularly…but that’s a little different because that was just an improv show recorded and released as a podcast.
For the most part, there’s not a single podcast I’d want to see live (maybe Weekly Planet but they’re in Australia).
The thing I found interesting was that Garrison Keillor broadcasts the show as-is, mistakes and all. The other two always had some “do-overs” at the end of the performance, where they asked the audience to react as if they hadn’t heard it the first time.
I’'ve also been to tapings of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me (which I expect most posters here have heard of), and Says You! (which is similar, though not as topical). In one of the latter shows, you can hear me calling out an answer from the audience.
It was terrible! I’m used to listening to all my podcasts at 2X speed so being in person was like an hour of feeling like I was living in a dream state where everyone was slowing themselves down to frustrate me. Sadly, not an experience I ever want to participate in again despite how fun the rest of it was.
I haven’t been to one and generally I find live episodes to be inferior to non-live episodes because I have to listen to a bunch of clapping and cheering (which is not what I usually look for in a podcast).
I’ve been to multiple Small Town Murder live podcasts but in their case they rightly don’t actually record the live podcast, they redo the same subject in a studio later for best audio quality.
I went to a live My Favorite Murder podcast show in Vegas and it was really fun. I got to hear a very quirky murder case that even I, as a native, had never heard about. We had VIP passes so we did a meet and greet after the show where I talked about sheep with Karen - it was mortifying actually and I don’t really recommend that part of the experience.
I have also been to a taping of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, like 20 years ago (When Carl Kasell was still scorekeeper), before podcasts were really a thing. It was interesting to see how they did “do overs” when they flubbed a line. At the end of the show Peter had to re-record himself telling a contestant they didn’t win, and they audience went “awwwww”, exactly like we did the first time around.