2024 Year in Review Part 4: Cultural Experiences and Podcasts

Now I turn my writing to theatre and cultural arts I’ve experienced. This is where my categorizing of things get a little tricky. I wanted to not only include things I actually saw in person, but also the live screenings of theatrical performances like the National Theatre’s screenings. But, I decided, if I do that, I should include anything filmed in front of a live audience that is intended as a performance / show. So the category now includes comedy specials like Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda (and I decided the Puppy Bowl belonged in this category).

Which speaking of comedy shows, I was scrolling through YouTube (as one does) and saw that not only did the Smothers Brothers do a show in 2006 (!!), but they recorded it and put it up on YouTube for free. If you’re worried they mellowed as they aged, don’t. They have a dig at not only George Bush but Bill Clinton as well and are still bitter (for good reason) at CBS cancelling them back in the day.

Considering it was the 1980s revival of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that introduced me to him, I only feel it’s appropriate to write about P.D.Q. Bach in Houston: We Have a Problem next, which I watched in honor of Peter Schickele’s passing. I also found a copy of An Evening with Robin Williams: Live and Uncensored and watched to see if it aged well, but it just made me miss Williams (although it was pretty funny still).

For streaming theatre, both were partly because of the person in it. (The other part is that I’m a theatre nerd and will pretty much watch anything the National Theatre puts out.) GOOD, starring David Tennant, is a harrowing drama of German professor John Halder (Tennant) during World War II who finds himself slowly getting drawn into the Nazi party. With only three actors (the other two play a variety of people that Halder interacts with), it was gripping and compelling. While yes, Tennant is excellent in it, the other two (Elliot Levey and Sharon Small) manage to not only hold their own, but switch characters in a split second without a hitch. GOOD goes onto the list of things I’ve seen where I’m glad I saw it, it was very good, I can understand why people talk about it, but never EVER want to see again. (I’ve named this list my Shindler’s List list, as that was the first movie that had me saying that.)

Nowadays, you can’t mention David Tennant without mentioning Michael Sheen, and it was indeed Sheen that starred in my other National Theatre viewing. NYE is the story of Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, the man credited for creating the UK’s NHS. Staged as the last moments of his life, Sheen spends the entire show in his pyjamas and barefoot. (He even sings and dances at one point – to “Get Happy”, of all songs!) It was heartrending and inspirational at the same time, and when the National Theatre put it up on YouTube for a brief time, I gladly re-watched it.

For in-person items, my wife and I managed to catch the Skirball Cultural Center’s exhibit Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak. While I was never into Sendak (he just never crossed my radar for some reason), my wife is a fan and was eager to go. Described as the “exclusive West Coast display of the largest and most complete exhibition of Jewish artist Maurice Sendak’s sixty-year career”, it included original art and was a fascinating dive into the world of the late artist.

I’m going to skip over watching Zombie Joe’s Urban Death and Leigh Purtill Ballet Company’s Sweet Sorrow, a Zombie Ballet since I wrote about them both for The Geekiary as part of my Midsummer Scream coverage (and even reviewed the full length version of Urban Death), but I bring it up because the Urban Death full version had what was one of the quotes of the year. The audience was set, watching the person on stage slowly come to life, and the lights go down … only to have an audience member say, “Fuck that shit!”

The final cultural item for me to write about was that I got a chance to see TWICE: a live version of the (no longer active) podcast The Thrilling Adventure Hour. I’ve written before about how much I love this podcast, and I count myself lucky to be in the same city as they are, able to catch these shows for a relatively cheap price. (Especially for LA.) The Elysian Theater had “Unplugged”, while Dynasty Typewriter had “An Evening of ‘Beyond Belief'” (where Paget Brewster hilariously forgot her line at one point, and then reacted to Paul F. Tompkins being a little loud while standing right next to her). They both were well worth the price of admission, and when the producers announced that in 2025 they’d be doing a 20th Anniversary tour, I was quick to make sure I got tickets for their LA performance. (If they’re coming anywhere near where you live, I’d get tickets and fast.)

Podcasts

And speaking of podcasts …. As I’ve written before, I’ve been a fan of podcasts since back when you still had to explain what they are. And heck – I even have my own and had a theatre-based one back in the day. But ever since the pandemic started, my listening has gone down rapidly. I typically would listen to podcasts on my commute to work, and now that I work from home, it’s a little harder for me to convince myself to listen. (I am able to listen while doing basic administrative stuff for work some times, so that helps.)

As with movies and television, Michael Sheen gets a shoutout for having 4 episodes because he was on it. I also listened to an episode of The Writers Panel with Ben Blacker (a podcast I’ve listened to before, but it got put on the ‘when I invent the 48-hour day’ shelf) because it was an interview with David Jenkins, who wrote and directed Our Flag Means Death.

But for the most part, I stuck with my usual line up. I am still trying to catch up on Depresh Mode (this is a show I try to listen to every episode of, as I’m a big fan). I’m finally on the 2023 episodes, although there were a few 2024 ones – including the bonus content that included the segment where I got to interview John Moe. I was expecting maybe ten minutes, got almost 30, and they kept almost all of it for the episode. (And I was told I had “good questions”.) Definitely one of the highlights of my year.

I was also able to catch about 30 issues of KCRW’s The Business. Host Kim Masters is the type of reporter / interviewer I strive to be, and so I listen to it not only to keep up with what’s going on in the industry but to expose myself to her style in order to make my own better. Unlike Depresh Mode, I don’t try to listen to every episode. The only time I listened to one that was from a week I missed was when it was an interview with Russell T Davies.

Finally, in part 5, I will cover my fandom and personal wrap  ups.