Podcast Review: <i>WTF</i> with Marc Maron and Guest David Huntsberger

When Marc Maron started the WTF podcast, his guests were mostly friends from the comedy world and some other comedians he didn't know so well. As the show has grown, so has his slate of guests -- both in number and in stature in terms of their scope and popularity. Now that he's passed 500 episodes, he's run through a lot of people and is faced with the question of "Who do I get NOW?"

This week he interviews David Huntsberger, a comedian and fellow podcaster (Professor Blastoff, co-hosted with Tig Notaro and Kyle Dunnigan), whose star in the world of comedy is still on the rise. What made this episode such a fun listen for me was Huntsberger's surprising background.

With so many comics pouring out of the burgeoning scenes in New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere, Maron -- and, by association, us -- are shocked to learn that his guest spent his formative years growing up outside Reno, Nevada, riding in rodeos and shoeing horses. He even chose San Diego as the place to cut his comedy teeth because of the large number of urban cowboys with horses that needed shoeing in the area. ("There are a lot of stables and I could do eight or 10 horses at one time," relates Huntsberger.)

It's likely the first podcast episode to drop so far where the guest laments about having had his family's anvil -- passed down through a couple of generations -- stolen out of his car.

The mild-mannered comedian is now ensconced in Los Angeles, having been part of Last Comic Standing, been featured on Premium Blend and writing for Comedy Central. But one wonders if, when a joke solidly hits with an audience, if there isn't a little voice in his head yelling, "Yee-hah!"

This review originally posted as part of This Week In Comedy Podcasts on Splitsider.com. Marc Hershon is host and executive producer of Succotash, the Comedy Podcast Podcast.