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Fast-talking,fast-thtnking hostJrmmy Pardo banters hisway through hisaward-wrnntng podcast,Never Not Funny,now in itstenth season-a nd strllliving up to itsname. By Kyle Dowlrng

ou mayor may not havenoticed, but comedypodcasts have been popping up hesaid, "l thinkl'd havea lot morefun liketoadstools during the pastdecade. ln fact,you couldsay we're living in a producinga JimmyPardo podcast goldenage of the medium.Dozens of performersare churning out podcasts thanbeing the hostof my own."I knew on a weeklybasis, from MarcMaron's l /fFto ScottAukerman's Comedy Bang a littlebit aboutpodcasts. I listenedto Bang to Doug Benson'sDoug LovesMoyies and more RickyGervais's. So we went backand There'sno shortageof programming-or quality-in the burgeoningscene, but one of the forth andtoyed with the idea,trying to first(and still one of the best)shows on the podcastlandscape is Jimmy Pardo's NeverNot figureout whatthe showwould be. Funny.Now in itstenth season, the programconsists of open-endedconversation between Pardo;his producer, Matt Belknap; and a differentguest every week (the showposts on Did you start with the current Mondays). format? Whilethat may not sound, on the face of it,like a formulafor highhilarity, the show, which MB:The original format was mostly won the RooftopComedyAward in 2OO8for BestComedy Podcast, truly strivesto match interviews,but whenwe satdown itstitle-and it mostlysucceeds. That's due in largepart to the chemrstrybetween the fast- with Jimmy,it becamemore of what talking,fast-thinking Pardo and the laid-back Belknap, the Administrator-formerly the you now know asNever Not Funny. Barber,formerly the Entrepreneur,formerly the Producer. Hisquick-witted conversational style We sentour up-and-comingcub reporter,Kyle Dowling, to talkto Pardoand Belknap,to justsort of took over,and that really seeif hecould get the lowdownon NeyerNotFunny and how it got that way.They told him becamethe templatefor NNF. aboutthe show's origins, its future, and the singular pleasures of miningcomedy gold from JP:I hadalways been told by fansthat off-the-cuffriff in9. I shoulddo a blogon my website,but everytime Itried to write it sounded Thanksfor your time today. was a fan and he would come to my likean eighth-grade girl writing in Matt Belknap:Sure, no problem. shows. He had started a podcast herdiary. Writing is not my forte;l'm Jimmy Pardo:Of course.You're doing called ASIRadlo. where he'd get an improvisationalspeaker, So when whatlcan only assume is a college insidethe minds of comediansand Mattsaid, "Let's try thispodcast," it term paper.so, you know. . . talk aboJt the craft of comedy.He soundedoerfect. The first 1O to 15 had me on as a guest.ldidn't know minuteswere going to be me talking lLaughsJ I swear it'll be in an actual Matt that well,but when it was ovet aboutthe previoustwo weeksof my publication.Can you tell me how the life,and then lwould bring a friendon podcast got started? for the lastten minutesto just riff.So JP:I hadbeen doing a showat the whenwe satdown to do the veryfirst UprightCitizens Brigade called one,I hadImy friend,not the former RunningYour Trap. At the time, Matt thirdbasemanl Mike Schmidt with

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me;Matt hadset it up at my dining roomtable. Seconds in, lthought it didn'tfeel right. MB:We concludedthe better approachwould be to justdo what he haddone for that interview,but with a comedianfriend of hissitting with us. It couldbe anaudio version of a bloq.

It's become quite a fixture in the comedy world. Oid you ever think it would be what it is today? JP:In no way,shape, or form.After doing1OO shows-basically two years of doinga podcast-we werestill in a world wherenobody knew what a podcastwas. I reallyfelt like, Am lthat guy who hasa show on cable accessat 2 a.u.and thinks he'sin show busrness?So I told Matt,"Podcasting's not takingoff, why don't we try this payformat to seeif peoplewould subscribeto it?"lsaid if nobody comesalong with thispay structure, thenwe'llgive it up.Again, this was pre-podcastboom, so who knew whatwas coming around the corner?

So what made you stay? JP:The money, I'm not goingto lie, lLaughsllt reallywas. And truth be told,I did enjoy doing it. ljust felt a littlelike the ooen-mike comic who hadbusiness cards, but luckilythis cult followingthat we'dbuilt up came. Herewe are,four yearslater, and peoplestill pay to listento our show. l'm reallypleased with the decision that we made,obviously.

Manyof the guestsyou've had on ffffFnow havetheir own podcasts. JP:lt's fascinating to me.Podcasting hasbecome a littleincestuous; we're Ithinkit's a conversation.lt'sjust skillthat I have.Again, it's like a first alldrawingfrom the same talent pool. friendssitting around a dinerlike in date.You're getting to knowthem. MB:But evenif the format isthe same, BroadwayDa n ny Rose,chit-chatti ng MB:I think some are more so than they'reall different because of the aboutour lives. So with those, I think others,though- oersonalitiesbehind them. The format you haveto go into it likea firstdate. JP:Boy, l'm thrilled by that first-date isjust the vessel.lt's the personality It'snot so muchan interviewas you analogy.lt's really the bestanalogy that iscontained within that vessel gettingto knowthe person. l'vecome up with in 20 years.Kyle, if thatmatters, and lthink ours is unique. MB:But I will admit that I was star- may,that's the titleof thisinterview struckto be sittingnext to Conan You've had a wide array of people O'Brien.lt's a littleintimidatinq. ls there a particular guest who you on, from ConanO'Brien and Jon love having on? Someoneyou know Hamm to lesser-knownnames like Ty Evenwith him, it neverseemed like will delivera show? Burrelland Craig Bierko. Do you find an interview. JP:Well, there are the go-to's,like yourself approaching those episodes JP:Hopefully. Very rarely will I brag, PatFrancis, Scott Aukerman, Paul F in the same fashion? but Ithink that speaks to me making Tompkins-theones you knowwill s : JP:Not so muchwith oeoolelike Jon peoplecomfortable and being able to down and be readyto go. Hamm,because I knewhim a bit.8ut talkto themIn a conversationalstyle, whenwe hadTy Burrellon, I had never butstill get informatron.lthink it's a ls there a guest who you haven't had met him before.With peoplelike him, on that you'd like to? CraigBierko, and Conan,ldid haveto JP:I'd love to startgetting some comeinto it a littledifferently. Ifight legendson: Richard Lewis, Joan the word "interview"with our show Rivers.Paul Reiser. Robert Klein. Als: becauseI don'tthink it's an interview: lwould loveto haveRicky [Gervais,

78 PENTHOUSE,COI'4 onbecause he is such an inspiration everyshow like an openmrke. In :o the podcastingworld, in addition 1993,Istarted abandoning [written] to beinga brilliantlyfunny man who material.At the time,there were couldsit there and riffwith you. four bookersin thiscountrY who MB:l've always fantasized about consistentlygave me work.TheY havingTina Fey on the show.She's wouldsay. "You're onto something oneof my heroes.And I feeldeep original.I'm going to brtngyou back down in my heartthat someday, everyfour months,"l'm verygrateful. somehow,we're going to get the real oaulStanley IKiss rhythm guitarist You guys do a charity event called andlead vocalistl. Ithink that would Pardcast-a-thon.Could you explain it beamazing. for our readers? MB:Pardcast-a-thon is a charityevent Would you have Pat Francisthere to that we do everyyear for SmileTrain do hisimpression? [SmileTrain.org].They go to Third MB:lf you know Pat,you know his Worldcountries and helP kids with nature,but heis a legitimatefan of cleftpalates. PaulStanley. He's probably read JP:lt's a 12-hourmarathon of NNF moreinterviews with him than We havea differentguest on every I lookforward to everyMonday. We anyone.I thinkhe would behave halfhour, somebody from comedY flop around until we find the funnY, himselffor the most part. He might or music. andthe f lopping around is just as evenbe starstruik. entertainingas the funny. Comediansare very open about Do you prepare conversationtopics insecurities.Do you think listeners What areyour favoriteelements of for the show? strugglingwith their own issuesfind doing the show? MB:We ltketo haveeverything be in solacein podcasts,to understand JP:The creative outlet. I lovegoing the moment.Jimmy thrives on the they're not the only ones who are somewhereonce a week,riffing and spontaneityof theformat. self-doubtingor alone? havingfun with friends, and this JP:The only things that come close JP:Absolutely. I thinkto be that open cultlikefan base-and I meanthat arethe PatFrancis eBay letters at the aboutinsecurities and stuff,it lets positively-thatwe aremaktng a liveshows. Other than that, I drive to peoplewho arenot comfortable connectionwith. lt's the freedom the podcast thinking,Did anYthing talkingabout it withtheir friends, at to be creativeand beingable to happen that could be something to riskof beingmade fun of-which is reachpeople. lt soundshokey, but jump off of?f hen,before you know whythey're insecure to beginwith- it'sthe truth. it,the mikes are on andwe're talking it'sas you said:Oh, good, I'm not MB:I lovewhen something indelible aboutclouds for 45 minutes. alone. comesout of anorganic moment. Ithinkthe most recent example ts Jimmy, how hasyour off-the-cuff What's been the key to NNPS theIbit] "Stallonein a Bottle."lt really style helped you over the years? longevity? wasjust Jimmy accidentally talking JP:lt's given me a career.Early on, MB:We builtup a reallydevoted fan with the bottle nextto hismouth l'dwrite jokes, 9o to the open mtkes, basein the begtnnlng. They hear the anddoing a weirdvoice. What I like andwhen thelokes didn't work l'd detailsof ourlives, and I think they've aboutthat, and NNF in general,is generate [Johnny]Carson it upand comment builta relationshipwith us that can't that it hasthe capacityto on how badthe lokes went, then be replacedby anothershow. A lot of somethingthat neverwould have commenton mecommenting, peoplehave that f irst-love syndrome comeabout otherwise. The fact that and beforeyou knewit I was with NNF we weretalking into microphones at deconstructingcomedy, even though that momentand capturedit, it felt Ididn't know what that meant at the How muchlonger will you keepit sortof magicalthat it canoccur and time.Eventually, Paul Gilmartin said going? becomea pteceof comedy.lt's fun it in a way that I understood,and the MB:I thrnk every year we havea to rememberthat we createdthat very nextweek I startedtreating conversaton about what we can asa grouP.oF= do.We don t wantto changett Io'ast'ca.t - o-t 'vewant tt to evolve in rtSOr., ^ Crga^rcway. JP: ha,.,e.c ^te/est rnstopping.lt reallyrs fu f ng and lt s somethtng