Cloves and Fedoras: You Should be Listening to the Podcast "High and Mighty"

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

I've been on the hunt for a new podcast to listen to lately. I still have my standards like "Comedy Bang! Bang!", "How Did This Get Made", "The Bill Simmons Podcast" and "Sklarbro Country". Those are all great and I look forward to them every week, but I was in need of something new. I generally go for comedy podcasts, I do like a good NBA or something like "Serial", but comedy is where it's at for me.

Through listening and a little research, I found out that Jon Gabrus, an actor and comedian that I really enjoy, has his own podcast on the Headgum Network called "High and Mighty". For those of you not familiar with Jon Gabrus, he's appeared on "Comedy Bang! Bang!" a bunch, very recently in fact, as Geno the Intern. He is also on a lot of MTV talking heads shows like "Wild N Out" and "Guy Code". He's been on a lot of the VH1 talking head shows as well and he's had bit parts in quite a bit of movies and TV shows. In fact, he has a newer movie out on iTunes and On Demand called "4th Man Out", that I've heard some pretty good things about.

Odds are, you know who Jon Gabrus is, you just don't know it. People who listen to the specific podcasts I mentioned definitely know him and others, I'm sure you've seen him in something recently. Anyway, I really enjoy when I see that he is going to be on a new episode of "Comedy Bang! Bang!' as Geno. He's funny, crass, rude and great throughout the entirety of the episode. You can tell that even Scott Aukerman loves having him appear on the show because he is laughing throughout. So, when I found out that he had his own podcast, I was intrigued. I didn't know if it would be characters, just an interview show, if it would be improv, the possibilities were endless given his background and his group of comedian and actor friends.

After a few recent listens of "High and Mighty" that the podcast is an interview show, but it is so much more than just an interview show. Marc Maron has the market cornered on straight up one on one interviews as far as podcasting goes, and he's great at it. But, what makes Jon Gabrus' "High and Mighty" so great, at least for me is, he is a younger guy. I believe he is right around my age(33), and I can relate to the stories he and his guests, that are relatively the same age, talk about. The first episode I came across was entitled "Being Fat" with Nick Mundy and Mike Mitchell. For those of you that don't know, Jon Gabrus, Nick Mundy and Mike Mitchell are bigger guys. So am I. People who read my blogs already know that I enjoy Mike Mitchell and his work with the Birthday Boys and his podcast with Nick Wiger, "Doughboys", so the fact that he was a guest on the first episode I listened to was an added bonus. What made this episode great for me was the fact that being a bigger guy myself, so I related to almost 100 percent of what they talked about. When they talked about hitting on girls and how tough it is for chubby guys, I myself had many problems hitting on girls I liked while in high school because I was chunky. Mundy and Gabrus are both married and they both marveled at the fact that they could get such beautiful women to marry them. Me too. I don't know how I convinced my smoking hot wife to marry me, but I'm glad I did. All three of them have big bushy beards, and anyone that has read the site knows that I myself am a bearded fellow, but they all have beards for the same reason I do, laziness and a hatred for shaving. This was a perfect gateway episode for me because I related to everything and it featured two comedians that I really like. Even in the following episode, entitled "Wrasslin" with Matt McCarthy, a sport I have never watched or participated in, I was enamored by the conversation. You could really tell that these two were big time wrestling fans and that they still genuinely love pro wrestling. I liked their insight and their vast knowledge of wrestling old and new. That's the sign of a good podcast, when I don't care for the subject matter, but the conversation is so good, it pulls me in. He followed that episode up with one entitled "Badasses" with Outlook of the Poet(Ben Rodgers and Gavin Speiler). The topic was supposed to be about how they want to be badasses, which they do touch on, but you learn so much more about these three, like their early improv days, their dad issues and their love for action movies. The conversation can literally go anywhere it wants and that's awesome. The most recent episode of "High and Mighty" was about swimming with Anders Holm from "Wolkaholics", "How to Be Single", "Top Five" and many, many other things. Did they talk about all that stuff, yes, but barely. Instead, they had an in depth discussion about swimming and the commitment that it takes. I learned that Anders Holm was such a good swimmer, he got a scholarship to swim at the University of Wisconsin and that he still swims, now it's just for fun, to this day.

The great thing about "High and Mighty" is we always learn something new about Jon Gabrus. One thing I really like that he does on the show, he asks people to give him a 5 star review on iTunes and then to roast him in the comment section and he reads it on the next episode. So, people actually do this and he actually reads the awful things they say about him. It can vary anywhere from him being ugly and fat, to him just not being funny. But, the most common complaint is that he talks too much about himself and his "glory" days. Isn't that what podcasting is for though? People podcast just so they can hear themselves talk and so they can spread their point of view to the world via a free forum. I love that he hijacks the conversation and talks more than anyone else. It's his show and he can do whatever he wants. I know that I talk a whole hell of a lot more on "The X Milennial Man" podcast than RD does. I like to hear the sound of my own voice, just like Jon Gabrus.

I have only listened to the four most recent episodes of "High and Mighty", the podcast has a back catalog totaling 29 episodes. I will go back and listen to the older ones soon. He has had Eugene Cordero on a bunch to talk fitness and I want to hear those conversations because Cordero got in crazy shape and I'd like to know how he did that. Also, some of his early episodes are basically reviews of old action movies that he does with his friends. Those I will definitely go back and listen to. I like to hear people from my generation talk about movies like "Blood Sport" and "Predator".

I'm very happy that I have jumped aboard the "High and Mighty" bandwagon. This is a perfect podcast that appeals to the things that I like and can relate to. Keep doing what you're doing Jon Gabrus because it' awesome. I can't wait until Thursday for the new episode.

You can find "High and Mighty" right here.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the more talkative other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He may be a bigger man, but he is half the bigger man he was two years ago. We are proud of you Ty. Show your support for him by pushing the follow button on Ty's twitter @tykulik.

Ty recommends "The Wahlberg Solution" as one of your podcast pleasures.

You want me to listen to what now?

You want me to listen to what now?

 

I have just recently started listening to a newish podcast called "The Wahlberg Solution" and I'm here to tell you, it's great.

You can get the podcast through the "Sklarbro Country" feed since "The Wahlberg Solution" is Daniel Van Kirk's show. Dan Van Kirk is the co host on every Tuesday's episode of "Sklarbro County" and he's a great comedian that's a phenomenal impressionist. He does impressions of a lot of famous and not so famous people. He does Steven Seagal, Rob Durst from "The Jinx, Dr. Phil, the recently deceased former pro football player Doug Bafone, a lonely TSA agent in the Chicago Airport and an annoying traveler who's been everywhere and seen everything. His best impression, in my opinion, is his Mark Wahlberg. It's spot on. I get excited every time I hear that there's going to be a surprise drop in or voicemail on "Sklarbro County" from Mark Wahlberg. Dan Van Kirk does a heightened version of Wahlberg, claiming that he's just run something like a 22k or will only drink water if it has creatine in it. Van Kirk's Wahlberg has popped up on other podcasts, most notably as a guest on "Doug Loves Movies". Fans love when he's on "DLM" and we get crazily excited when his segment, "Doing Lines with Mark", comes on. No, they're not doing cocaine. Doug Benson has "Wahlberg" read a line from a famous movie and the panelists have to guess the movie. If they don't get it right after three tries, "Wahlberg" loses his mind. It's quite funny.

So, when Van Kirk announced that he would have the great people at Earwolf show up to one of his live shows of "The Wahlberg Solution" and have them record it for an episode that you could get through "Sklarbro Country" I was super excited. So were his fans, because they've now done seven episodes. "The Wahlberg Solution" is a lot like Bill Maher's show on HBO "Real Time with Bill Maher". The structure is exactly the same, whereas on each show, the panelists discuss important political and social issues. The difference, "The Wahlberg Solution" is pretty damn hilarious. Van Kirk plays Wahlberg and he invites his comedian friends, that also do great impressions, to be his panelists. Comedians like Kenny Stevenson, who plays multiple people like Nic Cage and Michael Caine, or Marques Ray who plays Manny Pacquiao, or Madeline Walter who does a perfect Anne Hathaway and James Adomian who plays "presidential" candidate Bernie Sanders. Van Kirk has also had a heavy hitter on this show with Jay Mohr doing an excellent Harvey Keitel. He also gets other comedians to come on and just be themselves, comedians like Dominic Dierkes or Andy Peters. To hear these people discuss important topics is great, because they all play glorified versions of their character and they're so out of touch with the regular people. They usually don't understand how anyone anywhere can have problems. They all usually end up asking why people can't just solve their problems by buying some lavish, expensive items. As these celebrities usually do.

The podcast is very, very kooky and very funny. The shows last about 45 minutes to an hour and since there's only seven of them, it's really easy to get caught up. One can only hope that there's going to be a lot more "Wahlberg Solution" episodes since it's so great. Like I said earlier, you can get all the episodes through the "Sklarbro Country" feed. I love impressions and Dan Van Kirk is one of the best impressionist out there right now.

Do yourself a favor and give "The Wahlberg Solution" a listen. You will love it

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the co-host of The X-Millennial Man Podcast. Good comedy in downloadable form so it can be listened to at anytime is how Ty likes his entertainment. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.