There’s a podcast for that
Rachel Aroesti chooses five of the best unscripted podcasts, from a long-running improv sketch show to a musical podcast with a difference
Off Book: The Improvised Musical
Improv is one of the bedrocks of popular comedy in the US – a fact reflected in the phenomenally impressive skillsets of its best practitioners. They include Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino, who joined forces in 2017 for this musical theatre podcast. Usually accompanied by an equally talented guest, each episode of Off Book sees our hosts masterfully ad-lib an entire musical from scratch. Themes include mice and Denmark, but the subject is largely irrelevant: whatever the topic, you’ll be spellbound by their ability to magic up a hilarious – yet still convincing – songbook and script on the spot.
Comedy Bang Bang
With nearly 900 episodes in the can, this long-running show from Scott Aukerman (previously best-known for 90s sketch series Mr Show with Bob and David) is a podcast institution in the US – but its freewheeling, practically format-free nature means it still feels fresh and funny even after all this time. Shows often start with Auckerman conducting an offbeat interview with famous guests including Jon Hamm and Ben Stiller, before introducing some distinctly less real characters into the conversation: one recent episode saw James Acaster chewing the fat with eastern European impresario and mansion-owner Mrs Lyndhurst (the hilarious Lily Sullivan) and a man stuck in a time-warp (Matt Apodaca).
Sound Deals with Max and Ivan
Double act Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez have stormed the Edinburgh fringe countless times with their impeccably crafted long-form sketches, but as co-founders of London improv school The Free Association they are also devotees of unscripted comedy. This podcast sees them flex their ad-libbing muscles as hosts of a deeply weird shopping channel: anyone who has ever wasted precious minutes of their life watching QVC will recognise the blandly upbeat, slightly uncanny nature of their off-the-cuff sales patter, but the products they’re flogging – all listener suggestions revealed to the duo and their guests at the last moment – are also downright bizarre: we’re talking “foam stools”, “drama beer” and of course the vital “bus boy toy”.
Three Bean Salad
Technically, the vast majority of chat pods created by comedians fall into the “unscripted” category. What sets Three Bean Salad apart is that its scope extends well beyond a wisecrack-peppered catch-up. Helmed by a mild-mannered threesome – Mike Wozniak (now co-hosting Junior Taskmaster), comic and cartoonist Henry Paker and Benjamin Partridge, also creator of cult podcast The Beef and Dairy Network – the format sees our beans riff on random, untimely themes sent in by listeners. The resulting chat is restlessly funny, rich with references and often downright surreal – the perfect showcase for the lightning-quick but staunchly left-field workings of the trio’s minds.
Dear Joan and Jericha
Despite being hosted by two ageing agony aunts played by Vicki Pepperdine (The Windsors, Getting On) and the inimitable Julia Davis (Nighty Night, Hunderby, Camping), Dear Joan and Jericha is one of the most gleefully transgressive comedies in recent history. That it is largely made up on the spot is crucial to its appeal: Pepperdine and Davis egg each other on in depraved flights of fancy that springboard from (fictional) listener problems about sex and relationships. Not only is the pair’s advice mesmerically inappropriate (incest is often mentioned), but it also comes cloaked in an extreme – and strangely cathartic – misogyny, as the pair berate the lazy, selfish, unkempt women who fail to appreciate the invariably “gorgeous” men in their lives.
And some more for this …
And also this week, Graeme Virtue chooses five of the best podcasts on video games culture, from a history of Grand Theft Auto to a Desert Island Discs for game dorks
Bugzy Malone’s Grandest Game
With its wanton violence, gleeful satire of US culture and impeccably curated car radio playlists, the swaggering Grand Theft Auto is not just the most influential video game franchise of the 21st century – it is also one of the most profitable, thanks to an online multiplayer component that has been raking in billions since 2013. This seven-part BBC Sounds series from 2022, fronted by Manchester rapper and series devotee Bugzy Malone, illuminates the game’s 1990s origins in defiantly unglamorous Dundee before tracking the many innovations and tabloid scandals on its road to global domination. The result is an impassioned primer ahead of GTA VI’s arrival next year.
Get Played
This weekly comedy podcast launched in 2019 with a remit to play and then mercilessly make fun of terrible video games. Under that criteria, it could have probably run for ever. But in 2022 it pivoted to a more positive vibe, allowing presenting trio Heather Anne Campbell, Nick Wiger and Matt Apodaca to celebrate games they actually enjoy, often with a guest along for the ride. The result is a quick-witted, sometimes ribald snapshot of the current gaming landscape, enriched by the casually comprehensive knowledge of its hosts – particularly the hilarious Campbell, a writer for Rick and Morty with a vast personal collection of rare consoles.
Our Sinclair: A ZX Spectrum Podcast
For gamers of a certain vintage, the ZX Spectrum was a rubber-keyed gateway to countless weird and wonderful games. The monthly Our Sinclair podcast recaptures the excitement of that imperial phase of 8-bit home computing, as a pair of codenamed US enthusiasts – “Amigo Aaron” and caps-lock fan THE BRENT – review an old Spectrum title. At first, the sheer novelty of hearing two drawling dudes from West Virginia grapple with 1980s UK time capsules like Geoff Capes Strong Man or Action Biker is a culture-clash hoot. But a winning combination of affability and diligent research means their love for the humble Spectrum shines through.
My Perfect Console With Simon Parkin
With about 100 episodes banked, My Perfect Console has a long way to go before it matches Desert Island Discs. But in a similar vein to that broadcasting warhorse, it invites a guest to nominate and discuss five of their favourite games, in the process reflecting on their life and career. Simon Parkin, a games writer for the New Yorker and the Guardian, casts his net wide for participants, from industry insiders (such as narrative designers, composers and voice actors) to more familiar names like Iain Lee (a standout episode from February 2024). Parkin has a knack for drawing out intriguing insights while providing useful context for those not immersed in gaming.
Axe of the Blood God: An RPG Podcast
No need for graph paper and pencils: role-playing games (RPGs) are a natural fit for computers and consoles, where microchip processors can take care of all that pesky dice-rolling and statistic-tracking. With games like the award-winning Baldur’s Gate 3 and the recent Dragon Age: The Veilguard becoming blockbuster hits, it has been a busy time for Axe of the Blood God hosts Kat Bailey, Nadia Oxford and Eric Van Allen. Their long-running podcast – first launched under the auspices of a (now defunct) US gaming website before becoming fiercely independent – is a freewheeling weekly roundup of RPG gaming news and reviews with an emphasis on fun and inclusivity.
Why not try …
It Can’t Just Be Me, a frank life advice show from Anna Richardson, host of couldn’t-be-franker nude dating show Naked Attraction.
We Live Here Now, in which progressive journalists Lauren Ober and Hanna Rosin meet their election-denying, January 6-linked neighbours.
HyperFixed, a new getting-to-the-bottom-of-things show from Reply All’s Alex Goldman.
• This article was amended on 6 December 2024 because presenters of the podcast Three Bean Salad were described as “three mild-mannered Englishmen”. Benjamin Partridge is Welsh.
