Duncan Carson Has a Lot to Celebrate

When you’ve watched someone’s career for almost a decade and had them on your pod­cast as many times as we have, it’s hard not stray into friends hang­ing out mode and for­get that you’re sup­posed to be ​“inter­view­ing” them. This is why it’s hard to resist rem­i­nisc­ing (about Sure Thing) and slip­ping into a lit­tle Poirot discussion. 

But alas, this is our anniver­sary pod­cast episode which tra­di­tion­al­ly means bring­ing back our very first guests to cel­e­brate with us – Bren­dan K. O’Grady and Dun­can Car­son! Except, our pal BKO (a nod to his Insta­gram han­dle @yourpalBKO) has left the frozen tun­dra (in Austin, that just means tem­per­a­tures have fall­en below 60) for the rainy climes of Port­land, Ore­gon. I’m delight­ed to have Dun­can join me for his 6^th appear­ance on Com­e­dy Wham Presents because it’s a dual cel­e­bra­tion! Not only is it Com­e­dy Wham Presents’ 8^th anniver­sary of pod­cast­ing, but at the time of record­ing, the 13^th show anniver­sary of Carson’s newest project, Fall­out Tonight and the com­pan­ion pod­cast Sign­ing Off. Sure Thing Records is also work­ing on new projects this year, too.

After 512 shows, Sure Thing, the co-host­ed standup show­case, wrapped up on Octo­ber 6, 2023, and sev­en days lat­er, Car­son launched Fall­out Tonight, a late-night vari­ety show. Held every Fri­day night at 9:30 at Fall­out The­ater, Carson’s brain­child opens with him deliv­er­ing a mono­logue fea­tur­ing jokes on cur­rent events, three tra­di­tion­al standup sets with a post-set inter­view, and drop-ins by assort­ed char­ac­ters. And by ​“assort­ed char­ac­ters”, it could be the beloved ​“Com­ic Stuck in a Well” (played by Kather­ine Hutchins), an escaped North Pole Elf (played by Gar­rett Buss), or anoth­er delight­ful surprise.

Of the first few weeks, Car­son admit­ted ​“the first three weeks of Fall­out Tonight (tick­et sales) were very low, and the nerves were very high.” But with­in a month the room began fill­ing out. The word needs to get out, and much like Sure Thing, it takes time before con­sis­tent sell­outs are achieved. There’s a recur­ring theme to the con­ver­sa­tion with Car­son. There’s so much work that goes into putting on a show. The care­ful struc­ture, the music playlist with delib­er­ate time stamps, the Wednes­day night writ­ing room, let alone book­ing the per­form­ers. Even with all this effort, Car­son keeps com­ing back to how much fun he’s been hav­ing putting the shows together. 

The show didn’t hap­pen overnight. Far from it. O’Grady gave Car­son a long lead time as far as his move to Ore­gon and Car­son didn’t want to give up on some kind of per­for­mance. It didn’t make sense to replace (gasp!) O’Grady for a new co-host­ed standup show­case and Car­son want­ed to try some­thing new. With the real­iza­tion that announce­ments and oth­er impro­vised riff­ing dur­ing Sure Thing were train­ing him, he con­ceived the idea of the impro­vised inter­views with comics on Fall­out Tonight. Car­son achieved that elu­sive Tik­Tok viral sta­tus with his Your News in a Minute dai­ly videos that he post­ed for a year and real­ized that was train­ing him for the open­ing monologue.

The vision was com­ing togeth­er, but a team would be need­ed to help. Lisa Friedrich (co-own­er of Fall­out The­ater and accom­plished com­ic) signed on to help pro­duce the show. Long time friends with pre-pan­dem­ic com­e­dy fix­tures, Jon Men­doza (Cap City Com­e­dy Club Fun­ni­est Per­son in Austin win­ner, 2018) and Adam Shu­mate, Car­son invit­ed them to be part of the writ­ing team. Bonus con­tent is cre­at­ed when the trio record their week­ly Sign­ing Off pod­cast imme­di­ate­ly after Fall­out Tonight wraps up. They debrief on the show and whatever’s going on in their lives.

Car­son has nev­er been shy about his admi­ra­tion of fel­low Sure Thing Records part­ner O’Grady, and he gush­es open­ly about how Men­doza and Shu­mate have helped him in this new role. The col­lab­o­ra­tion with ​“two bril­liant come­di­ans that usu­al­ly get what I’m going for… (has) turned out to be the most organ­ic fun part of the show.” That and get­ting them back on stage more and more, includ­ing the night that I was on where Men­doza, Shu­mate, and I played a riotous live action game of Apples to Apples. Car­son, just as he did for over a decade with O’Grady, gets to hang out with his best friends at least once a week. The more things change (brand new show), the more they stay the same (week­ly hang with friends), one could posit. 

The one thing that strikes me in our con­ver­sa­tion is Carson’s excite­ment about the new ven­ture. Car­son has always been the chill guy in our past con­ver­sa­tions, let­ting O’Grady excit­ed­ly talk and pro­mote this or that new project. That was the well-estab­lished yin and yang of the Sure Thing duo. With Fall­out Tonight, a ver­sion of Car­son has emerged where he’s now the one excit­ed­ly talk­ing and pro­mot­ing his new project. Case in point. If you ask him how the new show is going, he’s like­ly to respond, ​“I don’t know how to describe how thrilling and excit­ing it has been for me … it feels like doing drugs.” We’re thrilled for him, and you should be, too. You can expe­ri­ence the high for your­self every Fri­day night at Fall­out The­ater, 9:30pm.

Fol­low Duncan

• Twit­ter — @aduncancarson
  
• Insta­gram — @aduncancarson
• Face­book — face​book​.com/​d​u​n​c​a​n​c​arson
• Tik­Tok — @duncancarson

Fol­low Fall­out Tonight

• Link­tree — Fall​out​Tonight​.com
• Insta­gram — @fallout_tonight
  

Fol­low Sure Thing Records

• Web­site — SureThin​gRecords​.com
• Insta­gram — @surethingatx

See Dun­can

• Fall­out Tonight — Week­ly on Fri­days, 9:30pm at Fall­out Theater
• Sign­ing Off Pod­cast — Week­ly episode recap­ping Fall­out Tonight with Jon Men­doza and Adam Shumate