The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds · All Things Comedy

725 - The Possum Open Mic with Mike Bridenstine

·1 hr 7 min·6 clips

A comedian opens a cooler on stage, releasing a stench so foul it makes a pregnant woman vomit.

Dave Anthony opens by saying he forgot the story. Mike Bridenstine jumps in with a fix, Gareth Reynolds starts poking at it, and the show quickly tips into its usual scramble. It happens right away. The episode settles on a dead possum at an open mic in Kansas City, with jokes about the city’s fountains and barbecue, where Ron Mirrens hears screaming from his office, a table gets knocked over, and the smell reaches the club before the body does. It only gets messier. Ron Mirrens says he hated open mic night anyway, and that he was already in his office when the noise started, then heard screaming and a table getting knocked over before he smelled the dead possum in the club. That smell lingers. Dave keeps circling the idea that this night ended up in a book, which makes the whole thing feel even more absurd. The room can feel it. He then tells another story about someone arriving with something in a bag before a show, and the bag turned out to hold a dead cat. Bad choice. The cat had been found on the street, and the comic wanted to pull it out on stage, which is the kind of idea that should never make it past the first thought. Nobody is buying it. The people around him talk him out of it, because no one is going to enjoy that, and the show stays locked on the terrible judgment behind it. It keeps rolling. Mike Bridenstine stays in the mix, and the episode keeps bouncing between the setup, the interruption, and the growing mess of two awful ideas that should never have gotten this far. Pure chaos. The episode runs on facts getting shoved sideways by interruptions, disbelief, and the repeated realization that a bad idea can take over the whole room.

As heard by us

A forgotten story, a dead possum, and a guest who stays in the mess.

Dave Anthony opens by admitting he has forgotten the story, and that nervousness becomes part of the fun. Mike Bridenstine offers a way in, Gareth Reynolds keeps pace, and the episode orbits a dead possum at an open mic in Kansas City, with Ron Mirrens handling the kind of vivid…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want an American history show that forgets the story and finds a dead possum.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds