What an amazing, versatile medium podcasting is! Where else are you going to hear hot, not-yet-produced feature films as read by a talented cast of Hollywood actors? The Black List Table Reads, the brainchild of Franklin Leonard, and the offshoot of his Black List website (from whence the original material is harvested) kicked off its second season this week.
The first "ear movie" in the new crop is called Three Months, a darkly comic coming-of-age movie about the touchy topic of a young gay man sweating out the 90 days he has to wait to be tested for AIDS after an irresponsible encounter. Written by Jared Frieder and performed by a talented cast which includes Mindy Sterling, Ritesh Rajan, Jee Young Han, Phillip Casnoff, Frances Fisher and a number of others, the listener is carried through the main character's journey not just by dialog but with descriptive narrative, sound effects and even original music that helps to both set the mood but also bridge time spans between certain scenes.
Playing a person who is changed by the events in one's life is hard enough on film, where you have visual cues to help the audience, so it's quite a triumph for the actor playing the main character in Three Months when we can HEAR that transition happen gradually through the arc of the story.
This isn't your typical podcast in many ways, not the least of which is a running time of over two hours. (It runs longer than a visual movie would, due to the fact the narrator has to set many of the scenes, describe character reactions, etc., things which normally occur on film in seconds.)
Many of the screenplays featured on the Black List website have gone on to become award-winning films. It remains to be seen if Hollywood will just as eagerly snap up these new properties now that they're being given the opportunity to listen to them.
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Edging out even further on the spectrum of what comprises a podcast comes The Reigning Lunatic, an ongoing series charting the troubled kingdom under the reign of the Lunatic, a crazed king who hasn't got a clue.
It resembles a sitcom more than anything, with a rambling "A" storyline that's shot through with some side stories, crazy characters popping in and out and, through it all, a kingdom that seems on the edge of either overthrow or self-immolation.
The current episode features the King heading in his royal coach for the wall that surrounds his domain to take stock of a rumored threatening dragon, stopping along the way to poll his constituents about the state of the kingdom. He's immediately distracted by a comely lass but, reminded that there's a Queen back at the castle, it's soon back on task for the tangent-ridden King.
The series comes from Geoffrey Welchman, who formerly had a podcast entitled The Infinite Delirium, which was a collection of audio sketches often featuring the voices of other podcasters. The tone of The Reigning Lunatic is a mix of The Lord of the Rings and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, with more emphasis on the latter than the former.
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Other podcasts I'm listening to this week: Wooden Overcoats - Episode 8: The Trial of Rudyard; and The New Hollywood Podcast w/guest Rob Huebel.
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The The Black List Table Reads, The Reigning Lunatic reviews and other podcasts mentioned originally posted as part of This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com.
Marc Hershon is the host and executive producer of Succotash, The Comedy Podcast Podcast, featuring clips from comedy podcasts from across the Internet as well as interviews with podcasters, comedians, and assorted show biz folk.