Tell us about your podcast, Pick Scraped.
Pick Scraped is a fortnightly sketch show that is made entirely by me (and some royalty free sound effects from the internet). It has a loose structure of an intro and outro concerning the latest fad I’ve gotten far too into and then some unrelated sketches in the middle.
What made you want to create a sketch show in podcast form?
The special effects and locations are better in audio form. Also, I’ve spent far too long listening to other people doing this and not doing it myself so the easiest way to solve that was to finally start doing it.
What is your process for coming up with new sketch ideas?
Sometimes it will be an idea I tried as stand up that is better suited to sketch. Sometimes it’ll start with one line or a single idea that makes me laugh in the car or while I’m cooking. I wish I could be less vague about that as then I’d know where to find more of them!
Each episode contains all the sketches you came up with in the past two weeks. Do you have any goals you want to meet for each episode?
I do. I like to have at least 2 sketches that are at least a few minutes long, ideally no more than 5 or 6 at a push, and a couple of quick, 30-60 second, ones. Because I’m a punk I don’t care for massively long introductions or endings on a lot of things. If I can Ramones a sketch then I will. Sometimes they need a little more at the top but I try to trim them.
Do you have any favourite topics to write sketches about?
Not really. Anything where I can create mental images is fun because doing that with pure audio and not relying on my stupid face like I do in stand up is really fun.
What are the key differences between writing sketch comedy for podcast compared to live shows or video?
They can be set anywhere and you don’t have to worry about poor set design or lousy costumes detracting from the point of the sketch. A bit like how in comic books in the 80s sometimes backgrounds would just be left blank, probably due to time or money reasons, but the backgrounds weren’t important so don’t waste time on them! That might have been all the cocaine I assume was being done in the Image offices but I have no proof of this!
How did you get into sketch comedy?
I’ve always loved it, Round The Horne tapes of my dad’s when I was very young showed me how good comedy made specifically for audio could be. My parents actually named me after a Monty Python sketch (the Sir Edward Ross Interview, for those interested. It showed how versatile the name ‘Edward’ is and they liked it).
I think the need for control that OCD can often instill in a person also let me appreciate how everything in a sketch has been curated. Doing improv I’m only a half or a third in control as to the contents and direction of a scene which is great in a different way. So pure sketch is very satisfying in other ways.
Who are your favourite sketch artists?
Being the age I am, I grew up with the myth of the Pythons and The Goodies and then got to see their stuff later when DVDs came out and everyone had access to them but I loved The Fast Show, League Of Gentlemen, Kids In The Hall, Not The 9 O’Clock News and many more I’m probably forgetting.
However my favorite are probably The Trap. They’ve stopped now but I saw them by sheer chance at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2002. It was a show called Bad Play which was a “The Show What Goes Wrong” style idea but so much better. Then I saw their sketch shows they did which were just something else. Their Psodcast was mainly a 3 guys chatting style effort which I enjoyed a lot but I think their crowning glory is their podcast POTOm. They’ve never confirmed what it means but my theory is that it stands for Podcast of Trap’s Old material, because some of the sketches sound like they’ve taken inspiration from some of the stuff talked about on the Psodcast.
That’s not the point though, they wrote sketches about things they wanted to, one episode involves every sketch ending as an episode of Blake’s 7. Fucking incredible. The dismissal of anything except what they wanted to do is wildly inspirational and when they released the final episode (episode 20) as a part of a full digital pack on Go Faster Stripe I genuinely mourned in a way not since Terry Pratchett died, for texts that were still there and oddly changed by the ending of the creative entity.
Just read that back. Might have been a little verbose about that. Still, The Trap deserved a much bigger audience than the one they got and I really want to let people know about them.
What do you hope people take away from Pick Scraped?
How good The Trap are. Ok, I’ll answer the question.
Hopefully whatever they want, but I hope that they get the sense that Pick Scraped is precisely what it’s trying to be. It is funny too, there’s jokes and voices and stuff.
What are your hopes for the podcast going forward?
I’d love people to hear it. The more people who do the more people who like it will get to hear it. I want to get better at writing, develop more patience for rewriting, something that improv really can knock out of you if you’re not careful, and that I can devote more time to it all. Maybe even turn it into a weekly podcast!
What are your favourite podcasts?
POTOm aside, I love Threedom, The Oxventure Podcast, Mom Can’t Cook, Do The Right Thing, Pappy’s Flatshare Slamdown and I See News (because I’m on that one too!).
Do you have any advice for anyone looking to get into podcasting?
Just start. You don’t need high grade equipment. I have a degree in music production so I learned how to record and mix sound before podcasts were even a thing. That’s an advantage but not a massive one.
Honestly, most people who wank on about what kit you need to do a podcast didn’t know anything about recording technology before they decided to interview 80 entrepreneurs a week about how to be big business boi clever. You can get under your duvet, turn on your dictaphone app with a sock over your phone’s mic and record your stuff on there and it’ll sound clear, without echos and without plosive popping and you can upload it to a free service without ever turning a computer on.
Editing and the like are all skills that can be learned. Just make sure you have something to say or something funny to say.
I wish I hadn’t waited so long to do this. I’ve been a part of other podcasts in the past as I do love collaboration, but this solo effort is hugely rewarding.
Also, don’t expect to make any money and don’t expect your friends or family to listen. Don’t expect anyone to listen.
Make the podcast only you could make. The one you’d happily make for free. Because you will be.
You can listen to Pick Scraped here.
You can follow Pick Scraped on Twitter.
You can keep up with Eddie’s other work by following them on Bandcamp, Twitter and Instagram, and checking out their LinkTree and their website. You can support them on Ko-Fi and Patreon.
