mardi 6 janvier 2009

Who says Jews can't have a cease-fire?

Maybe they can't have one in Israel, but our favorite Jews, after some certainly staged sniping at each other before the holidays, have returned to their groundbreaking webcast with a brandy new show name and a brandy new web site.

Usually Sam Seder and Marc Maron are Melina's beat, but since she is taking care of some family stuff this evening, I'll sit in and fill you in on at least the outside story, if not the inside story.

I knew that "Maron v. Seder" was going to have to be a working title. For one thing, Sam and Marc are practically doppelgangers of each other, with Sam the "good son" who got married, had a child, and despite his warped sense of humor and priceless righteous outrage, no doubt still gives his parents some naches. Marc is clearly the Designated Family Shithead, the repository of all the family neurosis and pain, who has somehow managed to turn what makes most of us just depressed and anxious on a regular basis into a career as one of the smartest, most incisive standup comics in the business.

It's no secret that we here at B@B were devotés of the late and still lamented Morning Sedition. But by some miracle, the current crop of suits at Air America seem to have realized that no matter how much advertising for John Cummuta's get rich quick schemes, or fake penis enlargement products, or annoying life insurance quote ads you sell, you simply cannot replace the kind of ferociously loyal (and patient) listener/fan base these two guys have.

In its first few months Maron v. Seder has been the kind of experimental endeavor we haven't seen since Marshal Efron nearly put Banquet out of the frozen cream pie business in 1971 on The Great American Dream Machine. But after some truly weird efforts in the Air America break room last month involving people like Mark Green, who still hangs around despite no longer being such a big macher in the company, some shadowy visionary at Air America Media, who may very well have been Sam himself, may have stumbled upon a formula that could catapult these Two Live Jews into the kind of cult following that has many of us still listening to old Morning Sedition podcasts from 2005.

The show is now called "Break Room Live with Maron and Seder", which is the next evolution towards an identity which if we are extraordinarily lucky, will recapture the kind of lunatic intelligence which brought us interviews with Mick Ware before he went nuts, Middle East expert Borzou Daragahi, who has managed to keep his sanity, and guest hosting by pro wrestler Mick Foley, who was smarter than anyone ever thought; not to mention Lawton Smalls, the Milfingtons, Sammy the Stem Cell, and the Presidential Palm Pilot -- all of which are immortalized for eternal listening here.

The show's web site describes this new identity as follows:


BREAK ROOM LIVE is the first of its kind; a daily, live online political talk and comedy show. At 3pm Eastern every weekday, Marc Maron and Sam Seder take a seat in the Air America break room to discuss the hot topics of the day, with live guests, comedy sketches, and recurring segments, all streaming live at BreakRoomLive.com. In addition to the daily live broadcast, visitors will be able to view the show on demand, subscribe to vodcasts and podcasts of the show, and chat live, 24/7, with fellow fans and the hosts.

BreakRoomLive.com will also be home to exclusive on-demand video content from Marc and Sam. Along with a fully interactive blog, Marc and Sam will provide BreakRoomLive.com with interviews, political discussions, and irreverent comedy that can’t be seen anywhere else.

“Based upon the fact that no one has developed a model for what we’re doing, we’re confident that people will consider this a success,” said Sam Seder. “I see our show as PornTube meets MSNBC meets Twitter meets PopFly meets Yodio meets SplashCast meets Zillow meets TradeSports meets Meets.com.”

Marc Maron added, “I’m excited that Sam and I will be able to take risks in a new format, and whether we succeed or fail, it will be available online forever.”

Marc and Sam have known each other for 20 years. They’re not quite friends but they’re able to work together. For the right price.


Of course when it comes to Air America, as well as these guys, you never know what the truth is. But the story we're told about how all this happened is basically this:




So, if you're home during the day, or if you work for a company that doesn't block streaming video, check it out, 3:000 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, at Break Room Live.

And no, the fact that they put us on the blogroll, right at the top of the second column, with higher placement than even the Big Blue Smurf himself, has NOTHING whatsoever to do with this endorsement.

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