David Letterman has said his last goodbyes and his show's set in the Ed Sullivan Theatre has been carted off, consigned to the showbiz Dumpster. Next up is Stephen Colbert, who is busy running test shows, whipping his writers into a frenzy to generate material, and trying to nail down the new character that he'll become to replace the OLD Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report.
Fortunately for his fans that have been jonesing for his return, Colbert has turned to podcasting to fill the spare moments in his busy days getting ready for the September 8th launch of the new version of The Late Show. And the debut episode of The Late Show Podcast, entitled "In The Bad Room with Stephen" is a yack-packed 20 minutes that doesn't disappoint.
Recorded in "the bad room" -- a square, windowless chamber in the bowels of the show's production office, Colbert is joined by Tom Purcell, his executive producer, and Opus Moreschi, the head writer and supervising producer for the new show. Their conversation rambles around a lot of subjects having to do with the process of gearing up for the show.
Colbert's improv chops are in full view, as he throws off great, bone-dry lines and quasi-jokes as this initial show unwinds. One topic checked off is the width of the new audience seats in the studio -- will they be 21 inches or 24 inches wide? Equated by Colbert as being for "the European ass or the American ass" and, as one might expect, his studio's seats are going to be spec'd for the American ass.
The Late Show Podcast may well be become a viral phenomenon of its own before the three months runs out and CBS takes the warps off of the new The Late Show Starring with Stephen Colbert television show.
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The popular (and only) snack-rating show, Mike and Tom Eat Snacks, may also be the most sporadically appearing podcast (besides my own) on the web. But hosts Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh are back for two consecutive weeks now, so maybe there's a trend emerging.
Or maybe it's just because Cavanagh's character, the Reverse Flash, was killed off at the end of the first season of the CW's The Flash series and neither of the gentlemen are overly busy at the moment.
In any case, fans of the show (or "maties", as they're referred to by the hosts) get at least a couple of nice hits in a row. This week -- spoiler alert -- the boys' snack pick is Quaker Oats White Cheddar Rice Cakes.
As always, the snack is the least important element of this show. It's the banter between Black and Cavanagh that so much listening fun. This episode offers up what can best be termed an angry history lesson about the Greeks by Cavanagh, who seems ill equipped to actually enlighten us about the topic.
This follows a rant about "unnecessary Smart cars" and wristwatches, both of which are contributing to the downfall of mankind. There's also a cool song provided during the break, ostensibly from a fan, about the show itself.
I don't want to give away much more but suffice it to say that if you think they're going to laud the humble rice cake (complete with white cheddar flavoring), it doesn't end up faring so well.
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Podcasts I'm also listening to this week: Drive-Time Podcast: If The Brandy Bunch Kids Found A Porno Tape and Chillpak Hollywood Hour #420: Favorite Funny Ladies of Stage and Screen
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The The Late Show Podcast AND Mike and Tom Eat Snacks reviews 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.