A podcast, recorded live in front of an audience and then put out on the internet unedited, with a first half of stand up that doesn't go out online to give paying customers more value, put out on the British Comedy Guide and produced by Ben Walker? I wish I had thought of that.
But I have been beaten to it by
Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown a podcast panel show which is recording in London over the next few Tuesdays. I was lucky to be a panelist at this historic occasion.
I could probably have done with a night off in all honesty. I had a sore throat and was feeling pretty knackered after my own live podcast show (hold on, I DID think of this first) and a day of working on the show programme and catching up on bits of admin and Warming Up. It's odd how one day I can feel so sharp and manage to improvise amusing conversations about fucking Bin Laden's eye socket and the next feel sluggish and barely be able to remember my own name. Luckily I was going to be rubbish on the Pappy's attempt to usurp my position as king of the podcast, almost like I had deliberately planned it like that to sabotage the PG Tips chimps-style idiots.
In spite of me swearing and being a bit grumpy I thought the evening worked well. It's really great that with minimum financial outlay (though admittedly no massive financial gain) people can start to make their own radio quality shows, which are not hemmed in by constraints of time or standards of decency (though me aside this was quite a family friendly podcast). Those people who used to mope around saying it wasn't fair and because they weren't in the right clique they couldn't get their stuff broadcast (that's people like me incidentally) now have the chance to prove if they can cut the mustard. No one can hide safely behind the smokescreen of impotence now. We all have the power to do this. And to be judged on our merits. Much as I do love radio and TV, the people working there must not be complacent about this. The internet poses a real threat to their business and they must find ways to adapt and survive and incorporate. Back in the early 90s, when we didn't have the internet and pretty much no one had a phone that wasn't connected to their house, if I wanted to get my stuff heard I had to submit it to committees and wait for months and maybe get knocked back because the people in charge didn't understand what I was doing (we were pretty lucky early on, but had a fair few failures and Lionel Nimrod only got on the air because the producer threatened to resign if it didn't). Now we are approaching a time when comedians have a certain autonomy and may not have to try and get their ideas past a panel of people who think that "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" is the shining beacon of comedic excellence that everyone should be aiming to emulate.
Many people think podcasts will not flourish until people find a way to make money out of them, but I am not sure that is relevant. Firstly if you make a good podcast it will probably lead to paid work or to people seeking out the stuff you do that they have to pay for (like live gigs), but secondly maybe making money isn't actually the most important thing. Of course we all need to eat, but that doesn't mean that we can't do some things just for the Hell of it. For fun. To entertain. For the sake of creating something good.
Perhaps society has become obsessed with making money and the idea that if you don't make money from every single thing that you do then you are being ripped off, or missing an opportunity to become richer. But I don't think it was always this way and in any case the artistic community shouldn't be running on those same ideas. If you want to make money then go and work in the city. I was talking to comedian
David O'Doherty about this in Amsterdam and he voiced stuff that I suppose I have been thinking about and living by in the last few years. Maybe we're approaching a future where some people start doing things without an eye on financial gain. Maybe the fact that podcasts don't make any money is irrelevant.
I am very fortunate because I do make a very good living from the stuff I get paid for (though I am reliant on coming up with the goods year on year - there's no guarantee that the next year will bring me a wage), but I would estimate that a good 50% of my working time is spent on stuff that's free. It's not always my most honed stuff, but it gives me personal satisfaction (and hopefully gives others some pleasure too) and that is my payment. To have created something worthwhile or even to have had a go and ended up created something with little worth - in a world without financial considerations all outcomes have some worth, even the worthless ones.
I am hoping that I am at the start of a movement that will lead to a Star Trek style future where money is abolished and we just all do what we do for the good of each other. Or failing that, just a world where people occasionally do something for others without worrying about what they will get out of it themselves.
Ironically enough if you do good stuff for nothing, it will probably lead to financial rewards anyway (and I don't have a problem with being paid) but that makes that doubly sweet if you didn't do the stuff with that in mind.
Podcasts allow us to have a go at making the shows that should exist on TV and radio. We have our alternate Universe now where we can all have a crack at stuff. I think in many cases the TV and radio committees will be shown to be right - some of the things they rejected were rubbish, but without constraints and with the artists in charge of their own destiny who knows what a brave new world we are facing.
Having said that the Pappy's were shit.
No, they weren't. They were adequate. And you'll be able to judge for yourselves when it goes online some time on Wednesday. I always think that with panel shows especially (which often record for up to 3 hours to produce a 30 minute show) it would be entertaining and interesting and fairer to at least put out the unedited version (maybe as well as the edited one). The jokes that fail only prove that the jokes that succeed were genuine and often a lot of the running jokes or even the feed lines are lost in a judicious edit. So it's cool that this show is going out untampered with (having said that there may be a few trims from this first show, but it's still finding its feet).
The future is in your hands. There are no longer any excuses. Go forth and make a load of shit podcasts and show money and the rich the disrespect that they deserve.
