Podcast Corner: Socks, sunbeds, and other relatable subjects up for discussion
Darren Conway.
Perhaps a rule for podcast listening - always be wary when the series description includes something along the lines of “What's it about? What isn't it about.”
This basically translates as, “two lads from Dublin, one mic. A load of shite talk.” Of course, when one of the hosts is sketch artist and comedian Darren Conway, you can do what you want on your podcast.
From GoLoud - responsible for the brilliant series Invisible Threads, which we featured here recently - Conway is joined by Joe McGucken, an actor and producer in his own right. Theirs can be a puerile conversation, beginning with (long drawn out) talk of getting robbed and continuing from there in a scattershot way.
In the four episodes to date, subjects covered include free socks, collecting Neca (action) figures, sunbeds in Xtravision, whether Star Wars is a sci-fi film, and travelling around Ireland, from Finglas and Ballymun to Santry and Tallaght.
“You know there’s more places to roam than Dublin suburbs,” they laugh.
There is insight amid the laughter too. Like on episode four, ‘Ouija Boards & Samurai Swords’, when they discuss standup comedy.
“I don’t like it. My experience of standup comedy is just stress. I like podcasts because it’s different every episode, but when you’re doing standup comedy, it’s the same every time.”
Stall It has already topped the podcast charts, providing a simple, laddy, jokey escape from modern life.
“A podcast between two friends who pick relatable topics that are close to their lives” - squint and In A Nutshell’s bio sounds kind of similar to Stall It, but well, hosts Gigi Tynan and Anna Brady get much deeper, much quicker.
From Tall Tales - home to the likes of Juvenalia and Creep Dive - the show is named after how they ended increasingly lengthy voicenotes to each other: “In a nutshell, that’s me.”
Their first episode is about romantic relationships and the changing dynamics within. Talking about when they worry or think a relationship is ending, Anna says, “So when I think ‘oh I don’t want to be in this relationship anymore’, what do I do? I go the other extreme - instead of building an armour, I proposed!”
Gigi is also revealing: “I find it so hard to be vulnerable because I cannot fathom someone rejecting me.”
Like Rosemary and Beatrice Mac Cabe’s Not Without My Sister, In A Nutshell is personally revealing and in so doing, should prove helpful to many listeners.
