Long-time Sound of Young America followers are probably already familiar with Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show on WFMU. It’s a call-in talkshow on the nation’s premier free-form radio station, which Scharpling calls “three hours of mirth, music and mayhem.”
Calling it a call-in talk show, though, undersells it dramatically. On the show, Tom and his partner in crime Jon Wurster have created an entire fictional universe, with recurring characters, feuds, drama… like Arrested Development on the radio. Wurster calls in in-character regularly, and part of the fun of the show revolves around the line between truth and fiction. Even when regular folks call in (and it’s mostly regular folks), half the time Tom pulls them in one direction or the other, leaving us to wonder what he really thinks. It’s half talkshow, half deconstruction of the talkshow — both celebrating and making a mockery of talkshow convention.
Comedy stars like Paul F. Tompkins and Patton Oswalt and rock & rollers like Ted Leo are fans and supporters of the show, and for good reason — it really is something special. I’m a fan myself (in case you can’t tell) and Tom & Jon have been guests on The Sound. I once dedicated an entire Sound of Young America to highlighting material from The Best Show.
The show has been available by podcast for sometime, but the whole three-hours-a-week thing can be tough for a new listener. To help ease people into the world of The Best Show, Tom’s created a new podcast, called Best Show Gems. It’s a sort of greatest-hits compilation, every other week. Easy to digest and follow, easy to laugh at, tons of fun.
You can check out Best Show Gems online here. This is the iTunes link. This is the podcast feed. As the proud winner of a Best Show Award (Worst Caller, 2007), I urge you to take a listen.