Jordan and Jesse Go For Eight Hours

Jesse Thorn and Jordan Morris | Spiderman Wears A Jordan Morris Suit | Photo by Noe Montes / used with permission
Jordan, Jesse, GO! can be consistently found in iTunes' Top 50 Comedy Podcasts, year end lists, and on my stereo.

Recorded at Jesse Thorn’s home studio in Silver Lake, Thorn, Jordan Morris, and a guest (typically from the world of non-blue collar comedy) spend the 90 minute podcast goofing around. The results are smart, light-hearted hilarity. Even their occasional bathroom humor seems thoughtful.

Today, from 4 p.m. to midnight, at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood, Jordan and Jesse are having a podcastathon with some of their funny friends. The event marks the end of MaximumFun.org's 2010 MaxFunDrive. MaxFun is Thorn's hub for a handful of podcasts, as well as the virtual home for his nationally distributed public radio show, The Sound of Young America.

Tickets are sold out but the event will be streaming live with both audio and multi-camera video on MaximumFun.org via Ustream. The event will feature Jimmy Pardo & Matt Belknap, The Sklar Brothers, Sarah Thyre & Andy Richter, Paul Scheer & Rob Huebel, Jimmy Dore & Stef Zamorano, Edie McClurg, Scott Aukerman, Stephen Tobolowski, Adam Lisagor, Superego, and more.

LAist had a chance to talk to the podcasting duo about life in the fast lane.

LAist: What is Jordan, Jesse, Go?

Jesse: It's a conversation between friends -- hopefully a funny one.  We always thought that FM talk -- morning zoo DJs and so on -- just didn't have a lot of relevance to us.  When podcasting came along, it was the perfect venue for all of our swearing and silliness and for building a community of like-minded people.

Jordan: A colleague of ours recently coined a term for this type of show: TTWGBAC, or Two Twenty/Thirtysomething White Guys/Girls Bullshitting About Culture.  I think that about sums it up.  It's worth noting that we also have awesome guests that come “comedy-nerd approved.” 

What isn’t Jordan, Jesse, Go?

Jordan: Brunch.

Talk about the MaxFunDrive.

Jesse: My other show, The Sound of Young America, is a public radio show, so I never felt weird about asking for money to support what I was doing.  Nowadays, MaximumFun, the site that started as the home of The Sound is now the home of a sort of mini-network of podcasts -- among them Jordan, Jesse, Go! and Stop Podcasting Yourself.  I make a little money from the radio side of things, but the operation is really supported by an annual fundraising drive.  Of course, this is the first time we've ended the drive with a huge eight-hour show.

On account of Jesse's Put This On project, how dapper a dress do you expect from your studio audience?

Jesse: Hopefully on account of the crossover between the Put This On audience and the MaxFun audience, uhm, they look a little better than usual.  Our audience isn't exactly known for its sartorialism.

Jordan: Well, since it's a marathon show, I hope they dress comfy, erring on the side of comfortable and tacky.

Why Meltdown Comics?

Jesse: Meltdown's a big, beautiful place, sort of a clean well-lighted place for comics, and they have a great gallery space in the back.  It's great for us because most comedy theaters in town rely on turnover to make their rent -- they often have three or even four shows in a night. 

Jordan: I'm sure the non-comics geeks in LA have driven by Meltdown and envisioned something like The Androids Dungeon from The Simpsons.  You won't find any Comic Book Guy types there, just a friendly, attractive (for geeks) staff, and a well-lit/happy shopping area.  Local favorite funny-man Jonah Ray puts on a show there every month that rivals the best night at the Improv or UCB or wherever.

Biggest No Brainer guest?

Jesse: Our buddies Jimmy Pardo and Matt Belknap host an amazing podcast called Never Not Funny.  There were two great reasons to have them on the show -- firstly, because they beat us to the whole marathon podcast idea last year and secondly because Jimmy is really, really allergic to dogs.  I have a dog, so he can't come over to my studio to be a guest on our show. 

Jordan: The Sklar Brothers.  They are identical twin comedians who are like having one guest that's also two guests!

Biggest doesn’t look like the others guest?

Jesse: There are two, both veteran character actors.  Edie McClurg has been all over comedy for thirty or forty years at this point -- she was the secretary in Ferris Bueller, she was even on the Richard Pryor Show in the '70s.  I happened to know her publicist, and I'd seen her do live stuff at the UCB and she's awesome, so I thought, "why not?"  Similarly, Stephen Tobolowsky is pretty much the ultimate "that guy from that thing" -- one of his biggest roles was as Ned, the insurance salesman, in Groundhog Day.  He's on Glee these days.  He hosts a wonderful podcast called The Tobolowsky Files where he tells these beautiful, winding stories from his life.  I knew a guy who knew him, so again: why not?

Jordan: Yeah, what Jesse said.  Our typical guest is someone from the world of alternative comedy or internet nerd-dom.  It's great to finally get some real Hollywood big shots up in this piece.

Which guest(s) would emerge out of a WWE-style royal rumble?

Jesse: It would probably be one of the pairs of guests, since they have tag team possibilities.  Andy Richter and Sarah Thyre are both pretty athletic, but I'd probably go with Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel, just because Huebel gets that fire in his eyes and it's over.

Jordan: Yeah, Rob Huebel looks like he would kill someone and sleep like a baby that night, if not immediately after.

Will Lawrence Taylor be making a special appearance?

Jesse: We didn't have the budget to cover his rider.  I mean, we'll have some blow, but he literally asked for a BUCKET.

Jordan: Who's that?  Brunch?