Bak to the Future

Few things bring a com­e­dy nerd as much joy as get­ting to spend near­ly 90 min­utes with anoth­er com­e­dy nerd. I’ve declared record­ing with this par­tic­u­lar com­e­dy nerd an annu­al year-end recap/​new year pod­cast tra­di­tion! I can’t resist a lit­tle word­play, and yes, Bak is back to kick off 2024 at Com­e­dy Wham Presents!

You can check out our first episode with Bak from 2022 to get the usu­al back­ground about our French-speak­ing, com­e­dy expert. To kick off 2024, Bak and I talked about some of our favorite moments of 2023 and the req­ui­site dis­cus­sion of the Austin com­e­dy scene. Bak makes a bold pre­dic­tion about Austin, which is known as The Live Music Cap­i­tal of the World. ​“Com­e­dy will sur­pass music — and faster than we think.” I can’t help but agree. For my Top 10 Com­e­dy News Sto­ries arti­cle for The Austin Chron­i­cle, I count­ed that with­in a 2‑mile radius of the Com­e­dy Moth­er­ship, there are 10 com­e­dy clubs or the­aters. Add to that find­ing count­less bar, con­ve­nience store, Alamo Draft­house, or pin­ball venue com­e­dy shows. Com­e­dy is a lot eas­i­er to take in than a live music show since you’re less like­ly to get swept up in a mosh pit, get beer spilled on you, and/​or lose your hearing. 

Some­thing that Bak and I nev­er tire of is watch­ing some­one that seems to have the spe­cial ​“it” fac­tor and pre­dict­ing great things for them. For me, see­ing the rapid rise of Ralph Bar­bosa comes from watch­ing him in ear­ly 2021 at a light­ly attend­ed State The­ater show to his Net­flix spe­cial val­i­dates the joy of find­ing an ​‘it’ fac­tor com­ic. Oth­er names dropped include Sam Lopez, and of course, fan-favorite Casey Rocket. 

Shift­ing to mile­stones achieved in 2023, we both crossed the 300-episode mark for our respec­tive pod­casts. For The Feed­bak Pod­cast, it’s tak­en 10 years, while it’s tak­en Com­e­dy Wham tak­en 7 years. While we’ve large­ly stayed with the same for­mat, Bak got bored of the stan­dard inter­view style and shift­ed to bring­ing top­ics for his guest to discuss.

Com­e­dy affords the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence very cool moments. Bak got the roy­al treat­ment hang­ing out with long-time friend and com­e­dy leg­end, God­frey on a vis­it to New York City and I was unex­pect­ed­ly con­tact­ed to inter­view leg­endary Howie Man­del (remote­ly). Give the pod­cast a lis­ten to hear even more of our com­e­dy nerd con­ver­sa­tion about both Moon­tow­er JFL Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val and Skank­fest Vegas.

What do we want for 2024? More seems to be our con­sen­sus. In addi­tion to con­tin­u­ing to pro­duce Record Play Live, Bak hint­ed at a big project he’s not ready to reveal and adds that he’s been shift­ing into more standup and hopes to build 30 min­utes of mate­r­i­al. The com­e­dy nerd exchange led to Bak issu­ing a chal­lenge to have Com­e­dy Wham be the go-to for cov­er­age of the Austin com­e­dy scene – on tele­vi­sion and in print. We’ll have to report back next year on whether that hap­pens. I may not want to have 30 min­utes of mate­r­i­al, but I do want to per­form more standup in 2024. Either way, we both want to keep learn­ing and tak­ing chances. Bak express­es his goal as ​“every day go to bed less stu­pid.” We’ll accept that goal and we look for­ward to com­par­ing notes next year. Vive la comédie!

Fol­low Bak

• Web­site — the​feed​bak​.com
• Link­tree — link​tr​.ee/​t​h​e​f​e​edbak
• Twit­ter — @thefeedbak
• Insta­gram — @thefeedbak
• Face­book — face​book​.com/​t​h​e​f​e​edbak
• Youtube — youtube​.com/​t​h​e​f​e​edbak

Bak can be seen and heard:

• Record Play — ​“music triv­ia and com­e­dy show with a stank on it”. Win prizes, enjoy com­e­dy, music, and more!
  • Next show: R&B Edi­tion — 2/4/2024 at The Per­sh­ing , 4pm — RSVP at recordplay.live/rsvp
• The Feed­bak Pod­cast