Campfire Classics Podcast

Welcome to True Crimes and a Lie, the gameshow within our podcast where we try to tell the difference between truth and lies.

We're not good at it.

This month's TCaaL comes from Episode 45 of Campfire Classics, and is possibly the most absurd episode we've released yet.

Our guest Wayne joins us from Florida Men on Florida Man, and it is just possible that his Florida based understanding of truly bizarre crimes will give him the edge needed to solve this month's riddle.  You can catch him with his regular crew every week at FMoFM.com.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Everyone's favorite gameshow is back, and this time with special guest contestant, Wayne from the podcast Florida Men on Florida Man. With his insider knowledge of strange crimes and bizarre stories, can he help Heather find the lie, or will Ken prove too tricky for them?  Either way, Wayne is a great addition to the True Crimes and a Lie team.  Do not miss it.

Once that craziness wraps up, we move on to our story.  Ken has selected "Daniel and the Devil" by Eugene Field, and Heather gives a fabulous reading which is interrupted by tangents that seem to be 80% more relevant than usual. This will delight many of our regular listeners.  If it disappoints you, don't worry, next week will probably be back the regular amount of non-sequiturs.

This episode introduces such hard hitting issues as:

"Daniel and the Devil" was first published in 1888.

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Our guest, Wayne, came to us from Florida Men on Florida Man.  Learn more at www.fmofm.com

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

What do you get when you mix two quarantined actors, a long dead author, and a bottle of wine?

Well, you're here, so you've probably guessed the answer is: an Episode of Campfire Classics!

This week it's Ken's turn to read, and Heather has selected a story that has been adapted and referenced countless times in television, film, and other media. "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs.  It is a truly classic tale of the macabre.  Along the way, our hosts discuss wine and movie snack pairings, dream up a new crime solving duo, and definitely do not officially condone attacking your enemies with sticks of butter.

"The Monkey's Paw" was first published in England in the collection The Lady of the Barge in 1902.

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Promo from Let Me Tell You Somethin', Bitch.  Learn more at letmebitchbitch.com

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Thanks for coming back!

This week is big one!  The story comes from a classic author so American he was born the same year the USA won its independence (and we'll leave you to decide for yourself how you feel about that).  Washington Irving wrote some of the first American stories and novels that got to be called literature.  This week, Heather is reading "The Adventure of My Uncle", a story from a quirky collection from an even quirkier author.  Listen, we think you'll agree.

Along the way, we cover such topics as drunken twitterpation, the relative safety of strange mansions in the woods, and creepypasta.

Plus, there's a musical callback to a previous episode!

"The Adventure of My Uncle" was first published as part of Tales of a Traveler in 1824.

Remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Promo from A Few Bad Apples.  Learn more at podpage.com/a-few-bad-apples/

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

It's the first week of April, but we know you're no fool!  How could we possibly know that you ask!?  Because you're here, listening to us.

This week's story comes from a new (to us) author that you probably read in school.  Or you're like Ken and Heather and you didn't.  Either way, Nathaniel Hawthorne is most famous today for having written The Scarlet Letter, but it's his short fiction we're interested in.  Specifically the story "The Minister's Black Veil".

The reading gets underway after some chat about holiday mascots and a brief Fozzie Bear impersonation.  Conversation topics to listen for include rope tugging, open communication, and and the Great Pyramid (scheme) of Literature.

"The Minister's Black Veil"was first published in 1836 in The Token and Atlantic Souvenir. It also appears in Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories by Hawthorne published in 1837.

And remember to tell five friends to check out Campfire Classics.

Promo from I Had to Say It.  Learn more at ihadtosayitpodcast.com

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

Ken threw a little curve ball this week with some fun facts that have nothing to do with the story. What are those facts about? You'll have to listen to find out.

This week's author is a Campfire Classics regular, SciFi great H.G. Wells.  For facts on him, go check out Episodes 3 and 8.  The story is "The Red Room," and Heather's reading is strangely reminiscent of an episode of Frasier.  Along the way, our hosts eschew their traditional sex jokes in favor of a much more high brow style of humor: farts and pee. 

Discussion topics not related to bodily functions include Chekhov's gun, magic fog trees, and geriatric West Side Story.

"The Red Room" was first published in The Idler magazine, in March 1896.

If you patronize us on Patreon you could be the one to put us over our March goal and earn a Campfire Classics Calendar.

Promo from Thanks I Hate It.  Learn more at tihipodcast.com

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to True Crimes and a Lie, the gameshow within our podcast where we try to tell the difference between truth and lies.

We're not good at it.

This month's TCaaL comes from Episode 40 of Campfire Classics, and is full of bizarre twists and turns.

Our guest, Kevin, joins us from The Jury Room.  You can listen to him dissect true crime, conspiracies, and cults at JuryRoomPodcast.com, but will he be able to help heather discern fact from fiction?

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

We're back with another story, three more crimes (one of them a lie), and a whole lot of juvenile banter.

This week is March's "True Crimes and a Lie," but it is also our first story from one of the great American writers, Herman Melville.  This story was specially selected by Heather for Ken to read specifically because of its title, "The Lightning-Rod Man."  It is a wild ride with a couple of dramatic characters and a shocking number of jokes about the male reproductive organ.  Or maybe that's just our hosts reading something into it that wasn't there.

Regardless, it is a fantastic story, and along the way our hosts discuss the Great White Dick, green glass balls, and...yeah, it really is mostly euphemisms.  Though there is also a surprising amount of geography.

"The Lightning-Rod Man" was first published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, August 1854, and despite being one of Melville's lesser known stories is a literary gem.

Kevin from The Jury Room guest as he tries his hand at "True Crimes and a Lie."  He's a great guest, but more importantly a great host of his own podcast, so check him out at JuryRoomPodcast.com 

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

If it's Tuesday it must be...Munich?

This week, you'll be delighted to learn that Heather is going to attempt her German accent again.  Do you think it will be better than last time?  You'll have to listen to find out.  The story is from horror legend Bram Stoker, and in fact was first written to be part of his most famous book Dracula.  The story is called "Dracula's Guest".

As we work through the story, we address some important issues.  Like the value of theatre critics, what is the best transition music, and dyslexia 2.0.

"Dracula's Guest" was first published in 1914, 2 years after Stoker's death, as part of the collection Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories. But today, we're reading it out of the book Classic Horror Tales sent to us from Foggy Pine Books.  Visit them at www.foggypinebooks.com.

Promo: Breaking Down Bad Books (Host Nathan also recommended this week's story, so double shout out, please go support him)

And you can go hear Ken and Heather interviewed in the March 16th episode of Figure it Out with Julia Johnson.

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/733vg-12af24/Figure-it-out-Podcast

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!!

As we near the 1 year mark of being quarantined from the world, let's look back at all the marvelous...

Nah, never mind, how about we just read another story.

This week, Ken gets to read an odd little story by the apparently famous (though we'd never heard of him) Ring Lardner.  "Haircut" is a charming, folksy, storyteller-y short story with more suspicious character crammed into 8 pages than you can shake a stick at (or some other olde timey idiom).

Along the way, Ken and Heather talk Music Man re-writes, grave robbing vengeance, and (stick around until the end) a Campfire Classics animal costume calendar.  

"Haircut" was first published  in 1925, and is his most republished and anthologized story.

Promo: Stolen From Me By Linsey

And, if you can't wait for more of Ken's voice, head over to Plum Forest Podcast and listen to hime in episode 31, The River Rock

So sit back, light a fire (or even a candle), grab a drink, and enjoy.