Iain Lee’s Shindiggery Episode 4
It’s episode 4 and “Shindiggery” is sounding much more comfortable in its name. It’s more playful, better planned, moves easily between a variety of sketches, songs and phonecalls, and has a whole load more energy throughout.
The podcast begins with the conceit that Iain is holding a party. It’s a well-worn idea to allow the introduction of a number of “guests” on the air, but it works quite well here.
Past the annoyingly catchy intro-music, that will creep up on you unawares during the hours after listening to the show, there is a half hour of good comedy podcasting.
The content has managed to still retain a certain amount of the edge, that sometimes graces the radio show, with some good characterisations that don’t always deliver what is expected. Simon Bates’ “Our Tune” is regularly pilloried, but Lee’s version does bring something a bit different to catch you off guard, and has some very funny patches.
New characters such as “Agent Chris’s” brother are introduced during the podcast, generally successfully.
The final prank phonecall from Iain’s archives is funny, and is a nice ender to the show, though it would be nice if he could use his skill at this to create a new set of prank calls exclusively for the podcast.
All in all, a good podcast, one that is worth subscribing to. Now Iain has proven that he has the ability to pull this off, the challenge is to keep to a fairly regular schedule, to keep it inventive, and to hopefully flesh out the world of “Shindiggery”.
