June 27, 2019
SOMETHING NEW
Al Jackson & Frank Caliendo Try To Be Serious is very much something the general population would conjure upon hearing the word podcast - dudes just shooting the breeze in a semi-structured way that isn’t actually all that structured. And the dudes are comedians. But the dudes are not both white. And, while rambly, they attempt to avoid riffing - as the title nods to. This break in comedy is refreshing, but the attempt to be serious falls a bit short of the mark. It’s not that I don’t want to listen to a podcast and laugh, it’s that the serious tenor of the conversations are a bit circular and unproductive in generating compelling discourse.
Like most people (I imagine), to me Caliendo scans as the guy that does some bang up celebrity impressions from a couple years back. He had completely fallen off my radar until this show popped up when browsing the new shows on my podcast app a couple months ago. I was intrigued by the title, as my one word identifier for the dude prior to this point might have been “goofy.” The very first offering from the show is Frank interviewing co-host Al Jackson, and I found Jackson’s life story to be really compelling. That episode is by far the most interesting in the series, probably as much a credit to Jackson’s biography and journey into comedy as it is to the far looser structure of all other episodes.
The casual conversive nature is endearing, and the men have both a professional and personal camaraderie that this sort of discussion driven show desperately needs. The co-hosts do seem earnest in their intentions, wanting to prompt people to examine preconceived notions of a thing and to take a more inquisitive and open approach to things from another perspective. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily make for a compelling listening experience. I get and appreciate the sentiment, but the output of this show seems to be a plaintive sigh of “can’t we all just be more cool about things?” The conversation can be a little circular, vague and ill-fit for dealing with the kind of big picture subject matter it yearns for. Jackson tends to play the foil to Caliendo’s ever-so-slight conservatism, but it rarely (if ever?) turns into real moments of transformation or even sustained conflict.
So who is the target audience for this show? The autobiographical bits might translate it into something worthwhile for established fans of Jackson and Caliendo, but I find it a bit difficult to imagine the jump from enjoying a comic’s material to seeking out so much conversation. Maybe people do follow comics like they follow musicians, though I’d wager that the average comedy fan might watch a special or listen to an album once through - as opposed to a music fan who, in theory, might listen to a track or album tens of hundreds of times. In that respect, Try To Be Serious may be better suited for ambivalent listening rather than a Pokémon pod for completists (gotta-catch-em-all, right?). I doubt anyone is going to lose sleep over missing the duo’s take on how politicized the Superbowl Halftime show may or may not have been, but if that’s your jam by all means go for it.
Early episodes focusing on libertarian might give a first-time listener a bit of a shock, but fortunately this isn’t representative of the show. It is not masquerading without some sort of hidden political agenda (if it was, I think it might be more entertaining). In fact, this podcast captures a decent picture of a moderate American. Perhaps I find it a bit bland because I mostly agree with the fairly benign points that are being made. It feels a bit like Try To Be Serious wants to be About Race but for any and all hot button issues. If that is the case, it may be failing to impress me due to its lack of finding a lane and engaging deeply. Does this show do anything new? Not really. But is it enjoyable background listening? Sure. I suppose this could run indefinitely, but I don’t see it really gaining a large following or building a community as some similar shows seek to do.
Like most people (I imagine), to me Caliendo scans as the guy that does some bang up celebrity impressions from a couple years back. He had completely fallen off my radar until this show popped up when browsing the new shows on my podcast app a couple months ago. I was intrigued by the title, as my one word identifier for the dude prior to this point might have been “goofy.” The very first offering from the show is Frank interviewing co-host Al Jackson, and I found Jackson’s life story to be really compelling. That episode is by far the most interesting in the series, probably as much a credit to Jackson’s biography and journey into comedy as it is to the far looser structure of all other episodes.
The casual conversive nature is endearing, and the men have both a professional and personal camaraderie that this sort of discussion driven show desperately needs. The co-hosts do seem earnest in their intentions, wanting to prompt people to examine preconceived notions of a thing and to take a more inquisitive and open approach to things from another perspective. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily make for a compelling listening experience. I get and appreciate the sentiment, but the output of this show seems to be a plaintive sigh of “can’t we all just be more cool about things?” The conversation can be a little circular, vague and ill-fit for dealing with the kind of big picture subject matter it yearns for. Jackson tends to play the foil to Caliendo’s ever-so-slight conservatism, but it rarely (if ever?) turns into real moments of transformation or even sustained conflict.
So who is the target audience for this show? The autobiographical bits might translate it into something worthwhile for established fans of Jackson and Caliendo, but I find it a bit difficult to imagine the jump from enjoying a comic’s material to seeking out so much conversation. Maybe people do follow comics like they follow musicians, though I’d wager that the average comedy fan might watch a special or listen to an album once through - as opposed to a music fan who, in theory, might listen to a track or album tens of hundreds of times. In that respect, Try To Be Serious may be better suited for ambivalent listening rather than a Pokémon pod for completists (gotta-catch-em-all, right?). I doubt anyone is going to lose sleep over missing the duo’s take on how politicized the Superbowl Halftime show may or may not have been, but if that’s your jam by all means go for it.
Early episodes focusing on libertarian might give a first-time listener a bit of a shock, but fortunately this isn’t representative of the show. It is not masquerading without some sort of hidden political agenda (if it was, I think it might be more entertaining). In fact, this podcast captures a decent picture of a moderate American. Perhaps I find it a bit bland because I mostly agree with the fairly benign points that are being made. It feels a bit like Try To Be Serious wants to be About Race but for any and all hot button issues. If that is the case, it may be failing to impress me due to its lack of finding a lane and engaging deeply. Does this show do anything new? Not really. But is it enjoyable background listening? Sure. I suppose this could run indefinitely, but I don’t see it really gaining a large following or building a community as some similar shows seek to do.
From: Standalone
Recommended for:Ambivalently hopeful souls who just want to talk it out
Drop Schedule: Wednesday, Weekly
Average episode length: 55 minutes
Rating: Make It Work
THE LIST
Avery Trufelman’s voice endows a subject with the odd mixture of casual coolness, requisite wonder, historical essentialism, and geeky art student joy. She is the perfect person to deliver stories for 99% Invisible, which effervesces all of those oddly specific descriptors, and the perfect person to host a show about utopias. This inaugural episode of Nice Try! (from real estate blog Curbed) runs a fine toothed comb through the visionary minds that hoped to stoke a lasting flame in America.
This ode to the OG pizza rat is much more fraught with corporate intrigue and intellectual property battles than I ever would’ve guessed while slinging back some za and playing that game where you try and get coins to fall off a moving platform. A perfect target for Decoder Ring: iconoclastically benign.
It is summer, which means it is time for Revisionist History! I have some excellent memories of Malcolm Gladwell spitting his dope sociological yarns, and season 4 is off to a nice start with this beauty about the virtue of speed. Specifically: does doing well on a timed test act as a legitimate proxy for success in day to day living?
Just by accident, I queued up The Scarlet E while walking the dog in a new part of town, some of which featured rental units. This made for an unintentionally great backdrop to this series of stories from On The Media about the origin and evolution of eviction in America. As I strolled through lines of single family homes to duplex apartments clusters and eventually into an industrialized area, I found myself wondering how housing policies had shaped these various structures. Part III features a really compelling idea: how much of a bottom line would property owners be willing to lose in the name of abiding by a higher moral standard? Capitalism and ethics, fickle bedfellows indeed.
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