ari – Hour of Misery Comedy Radio Show

Cancer Edition with guests Brett Kavanaugh and Dudley Sanders

In this episode, Odious and the Cockroaches Quartet try and fight of the annoying cancer cells that have invaded their studio. Odious explains why the show was on hiatus for a while — he and the Cockroaches took their show on the road — all the way to the Moon! And because there’s so much commuter traffic on that route now, it took them a whole year to go out and back. But it was worth it to play at one of those glitzy cockroach casinos there. Dudley Sanders brings his world famous magic all the way from the 2nd floor of the Econo Storage Building! And guess who’s in the studio audience? Why, it’s your new favorite Supreme Court Justice!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

A Better Episode 11: Not Down for Whatever

In this episode, Odious decides not to enter the KCRW radio contest because the theme is “Down for Whatever” and he’s offended by such an idea. As a result everyone on his show is down for whatever because that’s how his life goes.

Special guests are Marvin Milquetoast, Janet Plattsburgh, and Boomer Radcliffe-Ortiz. The Grim Reaper makes an appearance and tries to provide some sense. And the Cockroach Quartet plays their new hit, aptly named, “Down for Whatever.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 10 Pride Edition: Frederick the Critic, Sylvia the Juggling Spider Monkey and CPA, and A Minotaur

This is the Hour of Misery: Pride Edition. Odious and the Cockroach Quartet perform an original song called I May Not Have a Whole Lotta Pride, But Luckily I Got No Shame, after which they receive unsolicited feedback from a British critic named Frederick, voiced by the horribly talented Joey Jenkins.

Sylvia the Spider Monkey, a professional juggler and CPA takes time away from her busy schedule collecting dollars on the 3rd Street Promenade and preparing people’s taxes to thoroughly destroy the studio in a pique of anger.

The Hootch Booze ladies give in to spiritual bankruptcy caused by total investment in online reputation and social media status.

And Odious discovers that the phone still works when he gets a call from a Greek mythological creature (also voiced by alarmingly creative Joey Jenkins) who just moved to L.A. from Ancient Greece and is trying to adjust to the feelings of isolation and dubious self worth that such a move would cause.

Topics covered include pride vs shamelessness, unsolicited feedback, violence in juggling and tax preparation, filing for spiritual bankruptcy, devaluing opinions, and being caught between worlds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 9: The Grim Reaper, Our God Shirley, The Flying Rearendas, and Our Dear Listeners

In this episode, Odious has just returned from an endurance art tour of Koreatown and feels the need to spend quality time with his listeners. Listeners call in and Odious offers top shelf life coach advice. The Grim Reaper shows up with a new message from Shirley (There IS a God, and her name is Shirley.). The results are in, the metrics are assessed and human beings are in big effing trouble. The Grim Reaper sings a song on Shirley’s behalf about it.

We are truly blessed to have The Falling Rearendas (Formerly known as The Flying Rearendas) on our show. Sophia and Guiseppi Rearenda had sixteen children to be used as free acrobatic labor and it really has paid off. There are only six of the Rearendas left, but they keep trying and falling and will eventually go extinct one of these lucky days!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 8: Thanksgiving, Hillary Clinton, and Presidential Candidate: Wheat Toast

In this episode Scuttles, Skitters, Creepsy, and Cottentail of the Cockroach Quartet worry that Odious is ill and they try to revive him with green jello — a trick that Creepsy learned while living at the Kaiser Hospital cafeteria.

Odious helps his listeners with their Thanksgiving holiday celebrations by having guest Celebrity Chef Tom Tofurkis on the show answering food preparation questions. Unfortunately, Odious send Tom into an existential crisis by pointing out the conflict of interest that Tom is perpetuating by being a turkey who cooks other turkeys.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses the nation on this special episode! She shows her commitment to the cause of glass ceiling shattering by defining what characteristics a winning female presidential candidate would need to posses. Granted it’s a list of impossibilities, but let’s not shy away from challenges!

Hillary wows us with a song for the ages. And can she scat!?! Yes, she can!

The Hootch Booze ladies endure the election with the help of Hootch.

And we meet the first entity to declare its run for 2020 and it’s a piece of wheat toast. Wheat Toast feels liberated by Donald Trump’s win and declares that anyone or anything are now free to take on any position they want. Odious is encouraged to become a surgeon with no medical background. Why not? No experience needed, after all.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 7: Schopenhauer, Epictetus, Living, Dying, and Vaudeville

In this episode, Odious is going through some kind of “thing” and ponders humanity’s existence. Luckily, he has help sorting through his confusing thoughts with guest star philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Epictetus!

Schopenhauer’s wise and pessimistic words inspire Odious to write a musical in his honor, and in this episode we are blessed to hear the first song from Schopenhauer: The Musical! As per The Cockroach Quartet’s new contract, I must credit them as composers and performers on this track.

Epictetus time travels from Nicopolis 135 A.D. to Los Angeles 2016 A.D. to perform a Vaudeville juggling act, illustrating his philosophy of how to live. He then joins Odious in a duet about his very helpful teachings on how to achieve tranquility (ataraxia). Spoiler alert: stop listening to the opinions of assholes! Again, as per The Cockroach Quartet’s new contract, I must credit them as composers and performers on this track. I hope they’re happy.

Odious has new-found respect for the Grim Reaper, who chimes in with some sage advice stemming from his professional experience with death. He and Odious almost become friends, but luckily he becomes annoying again in the nick of time.

And the Hootch Booze women are having their own existential awakening, but this one can be attributed to that most well thought out and plausible book that came out some years ago, The Secret. They, of course, add their own alcoholic flair to it and end up becoming unstuck with that delicious beverage, Hootch Booze.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 6: Wealth, Poverty, and Your Favorite Cockroach

In this week’s episode (co-written by Roderick Cumming!) we learn the inspiring life story of our favorite musical cockroach, Scuttles, the leader of The Cockroach Quartet! Odious retells (Again. Yawn.) the story about the time he was asked to perform at Sinatra’s house in Palm Springs in the 50s. And the all-lady musical therapy group, The Bush Administration, performs their latest therapeutic hit “I Just Keep Getting Richer (While You Get Poorer)”.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 5: Mind vs Body

Tonight’s broadcast stars Scuttles, Skitters, Creepsy, and Cottentail of the Cockroach Quartet, The Grim Reaper, and Corporal Emma Terial.

The Grim Reaper stops by and we learn that while being an incorporeal spirit, he also has some sort of material body which has human needs. This incongruity really bothers Odious.

Last week when Odious was doing a performance at the Fluff and Fold Laundromat, there was another great performer on the bill and so he asked her to be on the show. Her name is “Corporal Emma Terial“ and her act is a performative, theoretical, and deterministic demonstration of military marching styles from around the world.

We will hear a romantic original song called You Will Always Be an Angel to Me by The Cockroach Quartet that will make you weep with emotion.

Our Hooch Booze ladies our having another existential crisis that is easily remedied. And we finish up with a class Vaudeville act — spoon bending by way of the mind — performed by Odious.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Episode 4: Aging, Pigeons, and The Amish Vaudeville Circuit

In this episode, Odious deals (poorly) with his growing collection of age-related ailments by sharing his Vaudeville history with his listeners (of which there are none). He takes a musical journey from his first act as a single cell, to his birth on the Vaudeville stage, to his collaborations with big Vaudeville starts like W.C. Fields, Harry Houdini, and Josephine Baker.

Later, he celebrates beautiful acts of human kindness with a song about all the wars his great country participated in during his long, miserable career.

Then we have a special animal act — an acrobatic pigeon troop, and finally we are joined by Miriam Yoder, the premier Amish Vaudevillian in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Prepare for the worst, and expect even worse.