The Best Show on WFMU

Haven't heard last week's yet, but the first two are great. The Philly Boy Roy call was wonderful, but I think the highlight so far was the Bad Companying of the dude calling in to laugh at the previous Bad Companying.

amazing, so good to hear

Tom doing a Spike impression at a casino... "hiiit mehhhhhh"... I almost fell out of my chair

Scharpling posted this this evening. It is worth a careful, thoughtful read.

http://blog.scharpling.com/february-23-2015/

Poor guy

Goddamn do I sympathize. Four years after a string of similarly bad shit and I'm barely staving off the fear of another shoe dropping. It's amazing that he's been able to do the show through all this and that it's still been good, but I'm glad he's willing to do what he needs to do to take care of himself.

This Fall special happening right now is quite something.

Last few weeks of Best Show have been really really good, despite only brief Wurster calls. Tom has been in a much better mood, having pals like Julie Klausner and Jake Fogelnest around probably helped. I'm a little glad he hasn't had any celebrity interviews recently; it was cool he had Kristen Schaal and Ellie Kemper on but he's not really a great interviewer.

Dunno about that -- he is a genuinely good interviewer of musicians (not so much on the Best Show, but on the now on hiatus Low Times), and his interviews with Kemper and John Oliver (apparently also pals) were quite excellent -- and his interview of Turtle from Entourage was fantastic!

Yeah I felt like the Julie Klausner epsiode was the first v.2.0 show to really fire on all cylinders. Tom seemed way more loose and comfortable. The "Touch Me" riffing was killing me

Also banishing the Wheel of Crystal to the sound collage is a good move

I did like his interviews for Low Times. Maybe the difference is interviewing in person vs. over the phone? I don't know.

I just talked to Tom! And told him my embarrassing celebrity story from yesterday! Now I feel embarrassed after talking to celebrities 2 times in 24 hours.

Oh cool. I haven't listened to last night's yet. I can't imagine ever calling in, it seems too scary and I never listen live anyways.

It got way less scary when he did 90% of the talking at the beginning! I shouldn't have read twitter after tho.

I've avoided the urge to call for twelve years, which is probably for the best.

How do you feel about these newish Best Show trends:
* Charley Morgan calls
* accusing the last caller of the night of being a peeper

Also how did you feel about AP Mike's Sun Kil Moon parody?

CM: at times really funny mostly due to Tom's response, at times I completely phase out and stop paying attention because it feels like it's not going anywhere.
Peeper: Funny every time, even though it took me until this week that he does it to EVERY last caller. how did i miss that?
APM vs SKM: I was amused.

Also some other things that are newish (i think? at least new to the new best show):
- everything has two horns, utter classic
- lists are a bit of a crapshoot
- bowling alley confessions a bit of a crapshoot too
- i guess the whole thing with a live 3-hour call-in show is that it's all going ot be a crapshoot anyway
- mapleface must come back

just hearing the two horn sounds makes me laugh now

Oh yeah two horns was instant classic.

I love the two horns. Everything else I'm unfamiliar with because I'm about two months behind (because I'm in the home stretch of finally listening to all of the WFMU shows...just heard AP Mike's "Hi, I'm Dennis!" in context and nearly died).

The Half Hour of Power rules. The word is tomorrow's is all time hysterical.

I love that Charley Morgan has nothing to say and yet keeps calling.

I'm already getting a little weary of Charley Morgan, but him getting drawn into AP Mike's world this week was promising. Also dropping the f-bomb made his long story worth it.

I find the lists pretty entertaining. Bowling alley confessions is mainly funny because it's supposed to offer absolution but Tom just ends up getting pissed at people.

really loving Gary the Squirrel's Hollywood aspirations tanking so badly that he's just burning bridges right and left. His appearance with Patton Oswalt/Lisa Jane Persky was an all-time classic. The recasting of the "Trejo" sitcom with Jim Gaffigan had me in tears.

would imagine the issue with bowling alley confessions is that the people have been on hold for 30+ minutes and weren't calling for that.

also, the hang-up on Brad two hours into the YLT episode is just so glorious to hear.

I like all of these new trends a lot.

I really hate it when Tom gets down on himself/the show though. He's probably ambivalent about doing the show, but his hand wringing is kind of lame.

I dig how purposeless the Charley Morgan calls are. They're just him wandering around, thinking out loud. I imagine him calling from a dark room, three Scotches in, just rambling.

oh and the AP Mike blood story was amazing

I really hate it when Tom gets down on himself/the show though. He's probably ambivalent about doing the show, but his hand wringing is kind of lame.

I hear you on this but he's been doing it as long as I've been listening to the show, it's just part of the deal. Like how after his dad died he said he might do the show less frequently, then I think he took one week off and has done every single week since then.

That stretch in 2010 before he took his long break was the only time that it was seriously overwhelming. Like, he was clearly pretty much hating the show and the fun ground to a dead stop.

I like this show best when it moves rapidly between the smart and the stupid, and the last few episodes have been great for that. Charley Morgan is maybe a good example of that -- he's not got a lot to say and says it and is kind of a joke of a non-celebrity, except that the tiny handful of roles he's had have been solid bits in amazing projects. I thought Scharpling and LJP brought out the best in Patton Oswalt, too.

Oh also the Half Hour of Power is killer

Definitely.

I lost it a few times during this half hour of power. mike is straight fire right now.

he might need to get a promotion to p mike.

I would buy a Free AP Mike t shirt

So, I wrote this:

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Best-Show-comes-to-S-F-with-song-born-in-6469137.php

Tom's two interviews with Marc Maron are great. He talks a lot about the "theater" of radio. Makes me think the show's not doing too bad, which I was worried about.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZL6lcmUpnY
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HJIA_uo7AwI

I'm on Zing, but if those are videos from the Seattle show, someone screengrab & MSPaint circles & arrows round the back of my & Mackro's heads

Those are years-old interviews with Marc Maron.

1/2 Hour of Power rather low energy doing it before rather than after the main show...also, not to pander and it's end of summer, but good to have at least one woman in there in the future

Mrs. Dudio has been on board pretty consistently. Would love to hear more Terre T., but I suspect she has scheduling issues.

Mrs. Dudio has been on board pretty consistently. Would love to hear more Terre T., but I suspect she has scheduling issues.
--Three Word Username

She is, and she is very funny indeed. The show always gets better when smart funny women are involved, and it's clear that Scharpling knows that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MiF7m_v8U

I saw their show dead dad's club in mtl after I called the show and Tom told me I have to and my god, they are just two of the most talented, funny, touching performers and also are insanely kind and gracious and they're the best.

Therese is the only talk show/call-in host that has never made me scream at the radio.

Therese has such a great on-air personality--totally winning.