Last Chance Mailbag

Let’s keep things TIGHT this installment and jump into another edition of Last Chance Mailbag, where we get to address letters we don’t have time for on the show!

Hey Peaches,

I was listening to your episode on Return to Silent Hill with Steven Kostanski recently, and I was struck by how well he seemed to fit in with the general vibe of the show. I've always been impressed with how easily your guests usually seem to work within the personality of the show, even if they are new to it. I listen to a lot of podcasts and that is definitely not always the case.

I'm wondering if you all have a method you use to prepare guests to be on the show. Do you ask them to listen to a certain episode that represents the show well? Do you give them a heads-up on bits ("Stuart talks about Warhammer a lot!" "Sometimes Elliott spends twenty minutes doing a Columbo impression" "Dan likes butts!")? Or do you just throw them into it and see what happens?

Also, are there guests you all thought worked really well on the show? (besides Hallie, of course!) And who would be some of your dream guests in the future? 

Thanks guys! Keep on floppin'!

Kevin (Last name withheld) - Next on the Podcast

Thanks for the question! We’ve been blessed to have a ton of amazing guests on the show. We try to make it a priority to have a mix of guest-free episodes alongside the ones where we welcome someone to come play with us, because we know there’s a contingent of listeners who vastly prefer all-Peaches episodes (and speaking for myself [Dan] I do think there’s a special rapport we have from being friends and working together all these years), but one of the great honors of doing this show has been getting to meet a lot of creative people — including many who are personal heroes.

The truth is, we don’t do a whole lot to prepare guests beyond the absolute basics. We give the premise/structure of the show, any listener question they might need to weigh in on, and let them know they’ll be expected to recommend a movie and that they should say their name at the end when we sign off. Other than that, prep is mostly just making sure they’re tech savvy enough to record themselves if they’re not recording with us! (Note to self: should we be preparing our guests more?)

The essential thing is that we have a rapport with the guests — that’s far more important than getting the absolute biggest names (which is good, because it’s hard to get the biggest names)! Some of fans’ favorite guests are on the show because they’re comedy people who are also our friends (Hallie Haglund, Zhubin Parang, Josh Gondelman). If they’re friends who are ALSO podcasters, that’s fantastic (John Hodgman, Jesse Thorn, Jordan Morris, Griffin Newman, and others).

Having someone on with NO context can be more dicey, but there have been several wonderful guests we didn’t know who were wonderful for various reasons — we didn’t really know Linda Holmes, Alonso Duralde, or Jamelle Bouie before the first times we had them on the show, but they’re all (1) talented broadcasters in their own rights, and (2) they were already listener/fans.

On that note — we’d never try to require a guest to listen, but knowing our show is extremely helpful. Chris Weitz came to us through listening to the podcast (including us taking on one of his movies), and the fact he was willing to come on spoke to what a great dude he would be. None of us had ever met Gillian Flynn, but she tweeted at us about bad wigs once, we invited her on, and she was wonderful — in part because she was a fan (which creates enormous comfort). She also happens to be a bad movie lover in her own right, and we’re a fan of hers which helps. Even if we don’t know someone personally, having that context and respect for their work helps tremendously. None of us had met Barbara Crampton, but we were all such fans that we were delighted to have her on (it helps that Barbara Crampton is a fucking delight— similarly with Archer’s Amber Nash).

Occasionally, just one of us knows a guest — Stu pitched The Gilded Age’s Ashlie Atkinson to us because he’s bartended with her. Elliott and I hadn’t met her or seen her most significant work, but we trust Stuart, and lo and behold, another goddamn sweetheart. It’s a tremendous security blanket to know we can all trust one another like that.

So, the short answer is: comedy/talking experience, familiarity, and/or rapport are the KEYS TO PODCAST GUEST SUCCESS ™. (And there’s no way we’d name less successful guests — I’m already worried that I’ll have accidentally offended someone wonderful by not including them, just by virtue of limited space/a bad memory! It’s truly been our honor, everyone. Thanks for doing the show!)

Next on the Podcast!

5/30 - Speaking of great guests, we’ve been wanting to have our pal J.D. Amato on for while (podcast fans might know him as a frequent guest on Blank Check and the showrunner for the MBMBaM Seeso show), but we needed an EXTRA SPECIAL MOVIE, and he found one — the mysterious, nearly scrubbed-from-existence AFTER LAST SEASON! It’s Smallvember in May!

You may have noticed J.D. on a lot of your favorite shows recently. That’s because he has a wonderful new graphic novel for young readers out, called THE ENDLESS GAME! If you have a young person in your life (or if you just like fun comics) consider buying a copy!

6/6 - Dan’s in charge of the next mini, and he’s let the power go to his head — he quizzes Elliott and Stu about movies he saw on his birthday!

Plugging Away

NEW PLUG!

Dan will have a piece for display/sale at this art show at The Museum of Nostalgia, a hybrid vintage toy store/museum in Astoria, Queens, as will John “Creator of FlopTV’s The Cassettis” Holt!

CLASSIC PLUGS:

Check out Elliott’s book, Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense, his current run on DC Comics’ Harley Quinn, and his original comic series, Barbarian Behind Bars!

Stuart paints Warhammer models/chats with viewers most Fridays on his Twitch channel.

You Made it to the End!

Here’s a dumb thing Dan made.