There’s a new comedy podcast on the scene, and it’s co-hosted by two vets of the funny business—one of whom will be familair to longtime fans of Conan O’Brien.
Cowbell, which takes its name from the legendary Will Ferrell-written Saturday Night Live Blue Oyster Cult sketch, is setting out to map the world of sketch comedy. The show brings together writers with an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of comedy, giving listeners a rare level of insight into the genre’s history and what makes it work.
Hosting Cowbell is longtime Conan O’Brien writer Andrés du Bouchet and writer Tim Saccardo (American Dad!, Community). Du Bouchet is an acclaimed writer and performer who started with O’Brien in his Late Night days and remained on his team into his TBS run.
The first episode features actor Paul Rust (Love, Inglorious Basterds) discussing his all-time favorite sketches. Rust recently played Paul Shaffer in Saturday Night.
Among the sketches covered in the Cowbell pilot are “Toonces the Driving Cat” from SNL and “Taco Mailman” from MTV’s The State.
Then they take a deep dive into “The Fairsley Difference” from HBO’s Mr. Show. The memorable sketch featured grocery chain Fairsley bullying the smaller Gibbons’ Market with political-style attack ads, hammering them with accusations of rats and claiming Gibbons put children in danger.
Cowbell also features a Writers Room segment. The first episode brings in Andy Secunda (Late Night with Conan O’Brien) and Amanda Sitko (Brockmire), who join the group to discuss what makes “The Fairsley Difference” work from a comedy writing point of view, also pitching ideas for how the sketch could have been reworked into a recurring bit or made into a film.
The team behind the project describes it as “a writers’ room without a show.” The first episode is one of a series of pilots released as part of Jett Road Studios Presents. The new podcast production outlet is debuting several shows it hopes to expand into full-fledged series.
Jett Road Studios was created by another talent connected with late-night, Will Becton. He was the original engineer for the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast and worked at Conan and Team Coco for 12 years. He also hosts his own podcast, Life in Comedy.
The Cowbell pilot is available now as episode 4 of Jett Road Studios Presents on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can also listen to the first episode below:
