Episode 11 — Life's Miracles with Allen Carp

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Hey there and welcome to another edition of Life’s Miracles with your host Allen Carp (Allen Loeb)! Today Allen’s guest is a mother, daughter, and spiritual guide Dr. Marianne Kind. Allen & Dr. Marianne talk about her psychic journey as a child, her book “Back To Life, Better Than Ever,” which chronicles her near death experience, and to do a special tarot card reading. Later, Traci Reardon strolls on through to offer advice to Twitter followers on how to respond to someone who says “I Love You” and much more in her recurring segment, “Help Me, Rhonda.”

[RickSchmittJr 166]

another one producing minimal laughs - gonna have to finally go elsewhere. Loved Wild Horses, but most of the rest was way too hit or miss for me. how this has so many more listeners than Hollywood Handbook is beyond me.

[Game of Scones 5812]

another one producing minimal laughs - gonna have to finally go elsewhere. Loved Wild Horses, but most of the rest was way too hit or miss for me. how this has so many more listeners than Hollywood Handbook is beyond me.

 

sean and hayes should do guest appearances on other earwolf shows if they want more fans. its as simple as that.

 

the thing about this show, I was hoping to hear a little of Lauren as herself. She seems interesting enough. Doing new characters every week is going to be rough with many misses, and using the same characters would be repetitive.

 

Hoping she figures out how to maximize her talent.

[Shannon 2953]

I immediately recognized and was very tickled by the Heart and Souls reference. I was weirdly obsessed with that movie when I was 4 or 5 for reasons I cannot explain. But I think it had a lot to do with this scene

 

 

Although Whoopi wasn't in that movie, but Alfrie Woodard was

[smitty 333]

another one producing minimal laughs - gonna have to finally go elsewhere. Loved Wild Horses, but most of the rest was way too hit or miss for me. how this has so many more listeners than Hollywood Handbook is beyond me.

Thanks for keeping us posted. I know I was dying to hear which podcasts RicketyCricket plans to keep following. Seriously, why not just go listen to something else? Why do you have to come here and trash their work first?

 

If LL or anyone involved with the show actually reads these boards, please do not let people like this change this great show.

[adventureface 137]

I love this show, I love the absurdity and how it always unravels into madness. The monologues completely murdered me, and I had to walk them off. WALK THEM OFF IN THE RAIN.

[wiscomedy 212]

Grepisode, maybe bepisode. I can't believe other people think this show isn't awesome and will need to consult the deck to figure out why.

[JacobCrites 4977]

Grepisode, but not bepisode. The revelation that procrastination lead him to being trampled by a horse absolutely killed me.

 

I definitely like how the insanity slowly unravels, but I also think in general this show could use some Superego-like editing. I think you could cut this into a 20 minute absolutely genius podcast, instead of an hour long podcast that's only kinda funny. It's a new show, and I feel like it's still finding itself. But I'm digging it so far.

[Bumpy 1674]

Allen did a really good job of pushing Lauren for details. I was increasingly convinced Marianne was going to wind up as his sex partner/murder victim. I also would have loved if they had done a little more with the 'children of the damned' origin she implied early on.

 

If I were to criticize anything it would be that the podcasts subject matter tends to blur together into general, vaguely new age, lifestyle shows. A lot of these guests have the chops to try something more daring and Lauren is definiitely capable of that sort of thing.

[TenThousandSandwiches 29]

I really enjoy the way this is finding its feet, or maybe, more importantly, not, and how it is similar to watching how the bread is made.

 

Most importantly, and this is the thing that I just don't understand, but the thing I enjoy about almost all of the Earwolf stuff is that it really just sounds like people who can get people to just like, and I heard this from a Steely Dan song, but "Just go with it man, things do stuff, and black cow," but mostly it is funny people being funny together, even if it isn't fucking hilarious, fun banter is still fun banter.

[burtburt 108]

another one producing minimal laughs - gonna have to finally go elsewhere. Loved Wild Horses, but most of the rest was way too hit or miss for me. how this has so many more listeners than Hollywood Handbook is beyond me.

 

man, this is free. this whole site is free! no one forces you to listen. what did you hope to gain by sharing this? holy crap SMH. SMHVH.

[devscoots 2561]

I immediately recognized and was very tickled by the Heart and Souls reference. I was weirdly obsessed with that movie when I was 4 or 5 for reasons I cannot explain. But I think it had a lot to do with this scene

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbZyw5ltHYI

 

Although Whoopi wasn't in that movie, but Alfrie Woodard was

 

If you're a similar age as me it might be because the preview for that movie was on before seemingly every movie I ever rented when I was a kid

[KajusX 1807]

Has anyone by chance written down all of the fake tarot cards they made up during this show? I plan on relistening to jot them all down (maybe to draw them!), but I didn't get that idea until the tail end, so I only have the Man with the Long Pole.

 

The Man with the Long Pole: He's holding a long pole and he's surrounded by other long poles and he's angry.

[Bumpy 1674]

Has anyone by chance written down all of the fake tarot cards they made up during this show? I plan on relistening to jot them all down (maybe to draw them!), but I didn't get that idea until the tail end, so I only have the Man with the Long Pole.

 

The Man with the Long Pole: He's holding a long pole and he's surrounded by other long poles and he's angry.

 

The only made up cards were from when Marianne was talking about making her own deck (it's a box with a lot of lines on it), the ones during the readings were real!

 

Man with a long pole?- 9 of staves.

Guy on the ground stabbed by a bunch of swords? 10 of swords.

Child and gnome? 6 of cups.

 

Being able to recognize which cards they were describing while clearly neither knowing or caring about getting them right made it even funnier for me.

[aristeia 0]

 

man, this is free. this whole site is free! no one forces you to listen. what did you hope to gain by sharing this? holy crap SMH. SMHVH.

Thanks for keeping us posted. I know I was dying to hear which podcasts RicketyCricket plans to keep following. Seriously, why not just go listen to something else? Why do you have to come here and trash their work first?

 

If LL or anyone involved with the show actually reads these boards, please do not let people like this change this great show.

 

sean and hayes should do guest appearances on other earwolf shows if they want more fans. its as simple as that.

 

the thing about this show, I was hoping to hear a little of Lauren as herself. She seems interesting enough. Doing new characters every week is going to be rough with many misses, and using the same characters would be repetitive.

 

Hoping she figures out how to maximize her talent.

 

 

Ok. Are we not allowed to express our opinions on the internet anymore? The guy gave a fair criticism of the show, stop being such Communist psychos. I love the podcast but there is zero reason to gang up on people that don' t. If all comments were nothing but sucking the host/shows dick we'd have no balance. STOP FUCKING WHINING YOU SENSITIVE SALLYS

[DanEngler 5249]

Ok. Are we not allowed to express our opinions on the internet anymore? The guy gave a fair criticism of the show, stop being such Communist psychos.I love the podcast but there is zero reason to gang up on people that don' t. If all comments were nothing but sucking the host/shows dick we'd have no balance. STOP FUCKING WHINING YOU SENSITIVE SALLYS

Because, if there's one thing the Internet is sorely lacking, it's a venue in which people can loudly express disdain for others' creative efforts.

 

"[A]nother one producing minimal laughs" is not "fair criticism", it's shitty and insulting and offers no constructive discussion. Your confusion between "sucking the host/shows dick" and basic human decency suggests you may be beyond help.

[KajusX 1807]

Ok. Are we not allowed to express our opinions on the internet anymore? The guy gave a fair criticism of the show, stop being such Communist psychos. I love the podcast but there is zero reason to gang up on people that don' t. If all comments were nothing but sucking the host/shows dick we'd have no balance. STOP FUCKING WHINING YOU SENSITIVE SALLYS

 

I don't want to gang up, seeing as someone else already addressed your question, but hey, everyone's allowed to express their opinions. Then people are allowed to express their opinion of those opinions, etc etc. If the crowd you have (example: the people on this board) is not your audience (i.e. They don't appreciate shitty opinions stated as fact or ad hominem attacks on the show and its host), then they're going to tell that person they're wrong and crappy.

 

These messageboards aren't for the shows' hosts, they're for us. Whining at people to stop whining is an amazing messageboard staple but a fruitless endeavor. When the FIRST poster gets in here and says, "I have come here to announce this produces sub-par laughs per minute and I am leaving here forever," other listeners coming to the board are going to say they disagree and good riddance. We're talking to each other here. Lauren isn't dropping in and checking to make sure we're all still on board, and if she was then I wouldn't want her to mistake that guy's opinion of the show for my own.

 

Also, I don't want to nitpick, but that third quote you used to bolster your argument that we're Commie Psychos is actually a fairly reasonable response to that first poster, and it's not even disagreeing with what that poster said.

[Fantastical 14]

I'm enjoying this podcast, but I do wish there were more people on this show. I'd love 3 or 4 people on each podcast. I think it actually allows each character to develop more by reacting to more than one person. So far I think both episodes with more than one other person have been great.

 

Love Lauren so I'll keep listening no matter what.

[JacobCrites 4977]

When comedians perform on stage they have an audience to let them know what's working and what isn't. On a podcast, there's no audience. I'm sure some level of criticism is appreciated, so the host can know what fans do and don't like. I'm a fan of the show and have listened to every episode. I think the show could be better, though, with a little editing. I think it could be tighter, funnier, if the show cut out some of the lagging stretches when the performers are trying to find the funny. The show could get to the game quicker, which would make it more likely for new listeners to stick with the show instead of turning it off after 10 minutes.

 

There's a difference between someone posting what they would like to see out of the show (which the host is in no way obligated to read or care about) and crapping on the show.

 

[Kickpuncher 5012]

I'm enjoying this podcast, but I do wish there were more people on this show. I'd love 3 or 4 people on each podcast.

 

There are three people on most episodes - the host, the guest, and Traci.

[Syme 548]

It's just so weird that you could say you love someone's work elsewhere, and yet still feel comfortable saying you hate something else they do when YOU KNOW THEY'LL BE SEEING WHAT YOU SAY. It's like gossiping about someone who's standing right next to you.

 

I understand people want to give their honest opinion, but do you not get how the internet or empathy work?

[ratpack 129]

Going out of your way to post unhelpful and harshly worded criticism about a free podcast, one that's produced by people who have given you hours upon hours of hilarious free comedy for a very long time, is behaviour not worth defending.

 

It says more about the person writing it (entitled, self-absorbed) than it does about the show.

[JacobCrites 4977]

Sheesh. I think by and large people here are pretty nice and supportive of these shows. I love With Special Guest. But when you love something, you want to talk about it with other people, and along with gushing about your favorite parts, you inevitably talk about things you don't like about it, or that frustrate you or whatever. There was like one mean comment on the forum. As far as the internet goes, that's pretty good. Mean spiritedness is ridiculous and totally uncalled for, especially when the show is free. But I think part of being a fan of something is talking about it deeply, and a lot of times that means talking about stuff that bugs ya or you don't necessarily like. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and I don't think there's anything entitled or self absorbed about it. It's just what you do when you really like something.

[KajusX 1807]

Btw, it slayed me back in episode 1 when during the Help Me Rhonda segment, Traci colorfully described the twitter avatars of the people whose tweets she read. I want that to come back.

[Tehvin 93]

Man I really liked this episode, probably the most since the first. "I know God has a sense of humor because he allowed me to be trampled by a horse a second time," [paraphrase] made me laugh out loud and the new tarot was hilarious. So was the subtle revelation that maybe Mrs Kind was only in it for the money and not to be a spiritual guide.

 

As far as criticism goes ... it's a tricky balance. Like Jacob C says when you love something you want to see its max potential and not just pump it up all the time. There's legitimate ways for the show to improve. On the other hand, I personally feel weird making those recommendations because, ultimately, it's just a stab in the dark for me because I've never done improv and don't *actually* know what I'm talking about. I know how I'd LIKE the show to develop but would that actually be good? I don't know. So I keep my mouth shut in that regard for the most part.

 

But there is a healthy middle ground between spiteful criticism and unabashed love and suggesting changes does not a hater make.