Wits ® – APM Podcasts

This week’s episode comes to you from San Francisco’s Sketchfest comedy festival. Hear comedian Paul F. Tompkins as Ice-T in an episode of Cop Squadron: Spoiler Alert Unit and actor Paget Brewster on Eleanor Roosevelt’s exercise cassettes. Plus, comedian Eugene Mirman shows us how wreck a party, Loudon Wainwright III fantasizes about Bill and Hillary Clinton making out to one of his songs, and songstress Nellie McKay performs music that is both timely and timeless.

You built this week’s show. You told us your favorite sketches, songs and segments from the archives of Wits, and we whomped up this episode, featuring Brandi Carlile and Maria Bamford squaring off in the Wits Game Show, a seriously demented hamster, a Pop Song Correspondence to Carly Rae Jepsen, a scene from the slightly off-kilter world of Don Draper, and songs from Jason Isbell and Aimee Mann. Thank you for loving this show!

It’s the first show of our fall season with comedian Dave Foley, much beloved for his work on the sketch comedy favorite The Kids in the Hall and his starring role in the long-running NBC comedy series NewsRadio, and musical guest Mike Doughty: Singer. Songwriter. Guitar player. Poet. Author. Playwright. Photographer. Most Improved Camper, West Point Youth Camp, 1982.

In this week’s episode of Wits, actor Colin Hanks becomes Doug Bagelson, a man offering his services as a professional friend. Also, Jason Isbell plays songs from his latest album “Southeastern” and performs one of the most stunning covers of “Pancho and Lefty” ever. Plus, a resignation letter from a member of the band Lynryd Skynyrd in this week’s Pop Song Correspondences.

On this week’s show, our Pop Song Correspondences features a customer befuddled by the process of buying a Little Red Corvette from a used car salesman named Prince. Plus, comedian Rob Delaney as a customer service representative from Kleiner Appliance who knows the truth about angels lodged inside household appliances, and Neko Case and Kelly Hogan prove they’re more than amazing singer/songwriters – they’ve got strong comedic chops, too.

On this week’s episode, W. Kamau Bell talks with host John Moe about comedy and race, songwriter Brendan Benson, of The Raconteurs, does his best Prince impression, and Charlie Brown’s world gets rocked from a conversation with Franklin.

Folks, this show has it all. Listen up, and you will laugh. Hard. You will cry — unless your heart is a blackened lump of coal, in which case you will at minimum have strong emotional stirrings. Snoopy might die. Or not. Martha Wainwright sings, Julia Sweeney tells stories. So sit back and enjoy this week’s episode of Wits.

This week’s show features Bobcat Goldthwait, just named Esquire Magazine’s Director of the Year for his movie God Bless America, a movie he discussed with host John Moe. We also hear Bobcat make his pitch to become public radio’s morning shock jock, and we hear from an exasperated contractor working on Robert Plant’s stairway to heaven. Plus, music from singer/songwriter Steven Page, formerly of the award-winning Barenaked Ladies and Dave Pirner of local mainstay Soul Asylum.

This week’s show features comedy icon Fred Willard from Best in Show and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with Grammy-award winning songwriter and producer Dan Wilson, and a Commercial Showdown Throwdown game show with an unforgettable jingle for gravy missiles.

In this episode of Wits, top touring comedian Maria Bamford transforms into a mermaid obsessed with the Showtime series Homeland, host John Moe becomes a guy at the bottom of the well, dying from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” and Brandi Carlile blows us all away with the sheer power of her voice and her solid comedic chops.