Let's Talk About Sets!

Mar 16 2020 584

Let's Talk About Sets! Podcast artwork

The "science" and craft of stand-up comedy. A playful podcast by comics in NYC.

Hosted by comedians Jeff McBride and Harrison Tweed, the show geeks out over the enigma of stand-up comedy. Laugh and learn with us as we curate some of the best jokes of all time, dissect them, stare at the entrails, and divine their inner workings--all while exploring a "theme" about stand-up as a craft. It's as niche as a documentary about Renaissance oil painting brush bristles...but FUNNY!

If you nerd hard about comedy, or if you actually do stand-up, or ESPECIALLY if part of you has always thought you'd be great at it (but you never tried, you weenie!), then this is your next favorite podcast.

Check out the website for more details:
https://www.letstalkaboutsets.com

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Episode 058 PAIN – Patrick Holbert: “Who is doing the emotional lifting?”

Mar 16 2020 102 mins

PAIN The delightful charm monster, Patrick Holbert, joins us to pick away at PAIN in stand-up comedy. We talk about how pain is the source of much of stand-up, both physical and emotional, and how usually the audience needs to know that the pain is ultimately “ok” in order to laugh. We cover generational pain, the occupational hazards of talking about pain, how to refocus perso

Episode 057 GAY SHIT – Jay Jurden: “Perform for the audience you have”

Feb 07 2020 120 mins

GAY SHIT In this episode, the "illustrious" Jay Jurden joined us to gayly talk about gay humor and also humor about gayness. Our goal was to examine the relationship between stand-up comedy, homosexuality, and homophobia, tracing a path from Richard Pryor to the present. We cover how approaches to jokes about male homosexuality have shifted over the decades as American values have

Episode 056 MORALITY – Roy Wood Jr: “It’s fun to juggle dynamite”

Dec 10 2019 84 mins

MORALITY The Daily Show’s Roy Wood Jr. examines MORALITY in the context of stand-up comedy. Stand-up dances the lines of right and wrong, good and bad, proper and improper. Sometimes the question is,”Why in the world are you behaving like this?” Other times it’s, “Why is the world behaving like this?” The comedy we laugh at the most always plays with transgression, so

Episode 055 CALLBACKS – LeClerc Andre: “Instant in-jokes”

Oct 21 2019 107 mins

CALLBACKS The 8’9″ LeClerc Andre crawled in on his hands and knees to get through the doorway to lay down on the ground while he helped us explore CALLBACKS in stand-up comedy. A specialty of his, LeClerc walked us through (crawled us through, really) how he writes callbacks, the effect they have on the crowd, and how much late night shows love callbacks for their short, 5 minu

Episode 054 CLEAN (2 of 2) – Steven Rogers: “Mastery: when you’re such a genius, you’re an idiot”

Sep 13 2019 58 mins

CLEAN (part 2 of 2) In this second part of our CLEAN comedy interview of the pathologically nice Steven Rogers, we jump right into great material. We listen, laugh, and geek out over it through the lens of everything we explored about clean comedy in part one, so if you haven’t listened to the first installment, do that now. The bits we picked are fantastic–you’ll get some le

Episode 053 CLEAN (1 of 2) – Steven Rogers: “It’s a safe bet”

Aug 23 2019 83 mins

CLEAN (part 1 of 2) It’s hard to say whether Steven Rogers is nicer than he is funny or vice-a-versa, but with Stephen Colbert and Brian Regan giving him their official thumbs up, the formula works. Steven will hate this description, but he’s so neighborly, let’s call him stand-up’s young Mr. Rogers. As such he joins us to discuss CLEAN as it relates to stand-up comedy. Wha

Episode 052 PRESENCE – Bret Raybould: “Don’t give a fuck if this goes well”

Episode 052 PRESENCE - Bret Raybould: "Don't give a fuck if this goes well" PRESENCE The way-too-likable, philosophically funny comic, Bret Raybould, explores the role of PRESENCE in stand-up from a makeshift recording studio inside Bret's private plane. We break this topic down into "being present" and "stage presence", touching on the stages of learning, flow state, body langu

Episode 051 COMEDIC STORYTELLING YES AGAIN – Jeff Simmermon: “Building a gobstopper from the inside out”

May 13 2019 103 mins

PATREON LINK: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkaboutsets SEE JEFF (MCBRIDE) ON TOUR (6/2/19-July)! DETAILS AND TICKETS: http://www.jeffmcbride.com/shows COMEDIC STORYTELLING (AGAIN) The loquacious, award-winning raconteur and NYC stand-up comic, Jeff Simmermon, hopped on the mic for the show’s second foray into COMEDIC STORYTELLING. He explains his own simplified version of Dan H

Episode 050 CONTRAST – Usama Siddiquee: “Contrast is the basis of all humor”

Apr 15 2019 85 mins

50 EPISODES AND 100K DOWNLOADS! Thank you to everyone who supports and listens to our show! And thank you to all of our guests and interns who’ve contributed their time and expertise! And thank you SOOOO much to our Patreons and the listeners who’ve sent us tips to help support what we do! CONTRAST Former NYC comedy wunderkind, now a full grown rocket-to-the-top funny manchild

Episode 049 FAMILY – Jackie Kashian: “Be a whole person”

Mar 22 2019 88 mins

FAMILY The hilarious and legendary Jackie Kashian joined us to talk about FAMILY in stand-up comedy. Everyone has a family, and everyone has family dysfunction, so this topic is one of the most fundamental, relatable, and powerful elements of stand-up. By its nature, making jokes about one’s roots involves talking about the problems, the disappointments, and the tragedies. But ho