Studio: Chelsea Peretti, Feral Audio
Category: Comedy
What It Is
Comedian Chelsea Peretti takes calls from her fans.
Technical Details
The show is in the dictionary next to sporadic; sometimes episodes come at a fast pace, like one every week or so and sometimes, it’ll be a couple of months with nothing new. Peretti’s busy, that’s all, and with someone this funny, that’s a good thing, so whatever. The show’s at around seventy proper episodes, with several mini-episodes along the way (which are typically very funny, which I need to point out since a lot of mini episodes on other podcasts aren’t). The entire archive is on the iTunes page.
What About It
My introduction to Peretti was via a couple of other comedy podcasts that predated this one, Doug Loves Movies and Comedy Bang Bang. She’s a consistently hilarious, silly & acerbic presence whenever she’s on those shows so I decided to check this out. You may know Peretti from her role as Gina on Brooklyn 99. But anyway, whether you know her or not or whatever, you’ll want to check this podcast out. Peretti sometimes has a guest on and sometimes does a solo show, but every proper episode features her taking calls from her fans to chat about whatever she’s thinking about at the moment. Each episode is a kind of absurdist trip down the rabbit hole; Peretti’s got a way with silliness that just comes out of nowhere and she’s quick to drop a sound clip or a phone call. Yes, the sound clips are actually hilarious; that’s maybe a first for a call-in show. And there is probably nothing as hilarious as Peretti hanging up on someone in midsentence as they’re begging her not to hang up on them. Timing is everything. Yes, there’s occasionally some genuinely interesting discussion of some topic or other, but I listen for the laughs. Just as a matter of personal taste, Peretti kind of crosses the line sometimes and gets a little too silly even for me and occasionally she’ll get fixated on some topic that just doesn’t interest me at all, like some reality show or other, and just talk and talk about it until I kind of check out, but those things happens only rarely. Most of the time, this show is right in my wheel house. If you enjoy laughing, it’s in yours too.
3 stars.
Essential If
You have long fantasized about reality shows where comedians talk to their fans over the telephone.
Avoid Like the Plague If
A woman’s place is in the home, dammit!
Best Entry Point
This one’s actually pretty obvious. Well, number one, I’ve enjoyed just about every episode I’ve ever heard and number two, the show comes out so sporadically that you should probably just go ahead and subscribe so you get the new content whenever it starts up again. But, that said, let me recommend two favorites. First up, 46 – A PRAYER. Brendon Walsh drops by as a guest on this one and the episode begins with . . . well, a prayer of thanksgiving and dedication to the Lord God and let’s just say I have maybe never heard such a lengthy and sidesplittingly hilarious riff on anything in my life. I genuinely don’t remember much else about that episode, but that opening is genuinely amazing and life-altering. Then there’s 40 – GAYDOG & GARLEEN WITH PETE HOLMES. Pete Holmes is another genuinely genius comedian that is, I think, at his best on podcasts; Doug Benson once said of him that he does the “most focused, most intense riffing” of all time and that’s kind of fair. So, he & Peretti are perfect together; they’re close friends and the chemistry comes across in this unbelievably wacky and hilarious episode. Oh, okay, fine, one more . . . 59 – AC + EATING DISORDERS. Peretti’s friend, indie film-maker Tchaiko Omawale, guests on this one and at the climax of the episode, one of the greatest things ever happens, which is that Peretti & Omawale call Omawale’s mother at home and the resulting conversation is non-stop hilarity (and provides some great sound-clips for the following episodes). Anyway, enough. You will know for dead certain by the time you’ve listened to those three episodes if the show’s for you. Hopefully it is, because that will mean you are a person of good taste.