A very special podcast, Superego is a fully improvised sketch show, hung loosely on the premise of case studies involving the psychologically disorderly. Primarily the product of Drs. Jeremy Carter and Matt Gourley, ably supported by resident specialists Mark McConville and Jeff Crocker, the show is Rammed full of heroically ridiculous characters, increasingly farcical improv and reams of hilarious special guests. Superego stands tall in the world of podcasts, bringing a format to it’s peak before competitors can even consider repeating the format. It’s quality also grants it an impressive pulling power, with repeat guests including comedians like Andy Daly, Patton Oswalt and eternal podcast raconteur Paul F. Tompkins.
The premise of case studies in self obsession is one which Superego utilises in many ways. Each sketch is preceded by a suggestion of the disorder which follows, and within which you first assume that only the lead has such problems, but it soon becomes all too apparent that none of the characters are free from such curses. These case studies are the unsolvable problems besieging the psychiatric community, interactions of people so unhinged that their communications have been sent into the world, in the endless hope that there is an outside specialist somewhere who can help. Participants range from fully drawn out characters who unravel at the drop of a hat to those who are the most emphatic caricature of a personality defect. This, crossed with the simple set-ups, such as game shows or dinner tables, allow the characters to range further and further from rationality; much the same concept as horror (where the most everyday things become terrifying in some new mould) the common aspects of some of the characters are so inherent that their focused and explosive insanity is something breathtaking to behold. Superegos focus on emphasising the most emphatically ludicrous cases means that the show bristles with energy from the start to the finish, galloping at an incredible pace that it feels almost over before it’s begun.
Despite the multitude of podcasts now in full swing, there are still very few sketch based podcasts, and even fewer that are fully improvised. This puts Superego in a fabulous place, allowing it to be both a frontrunner in the format, whilst giving it a natural sense of specialness. A show where theatre of the mind is pre-eminent and prerequisite, bringing to life incredibly diverse and strange people in fairly tame domestic circumstance coming together to create something far more than a sum of parts; it truly is something very different. And not only is it different, but it’s brilliant too. It’s sensibility and humour is present from the very earliest episodes, using vague circumstances and the constant introduction of new characters and new ideas before eventually breaking at the end of the sketch. As the sketches themselves are limited to under five minutes, there is very little fat being karted around by the show, intensified further by having the episodes coming in at around half an hour. And as with all artforms, it’s restrictions becomes its greatest asset, using the lack of a major visual element to create incredibly cartoonish creatures and allowing the performers to go to places that they probably couldn’t in a visual medium.
Very often sketch shows suffer from a boom and bust cycle, with some sketches being so incredibly funny as to be unbelievable, whilst others fall incredibly flat. No such problems beset Superego, with the excellence of the editing, performers and scenarios ensuring that no sketch goes by without at least one hearty guffaw. It’s a great credit to the improvisational abilities of the performers, as it would be very easy to just slip into repetition of characters, ideas and formats, but even when Superego brings back a format it is done with a new freshness and a renewed purpose to unearth the funny. Many of the sketches begin insipidly, with a main character or two doing some exposition before other characters arrive one after the other, adding layer upon layer of unabashed madness to the pile. There is a sense of comraderly one-up-manship too, with the performers constantly hunting for that greater laugh that forces the other performers to break character, many sketches ending on that final triumphant outburst.
Superego is a very special podcast, one that prides itself on it’s ability to transfer old ideas into new comedy, one fusing great ideas with great execution, incredible guests with exemplary regulars and it’s comic sensibility with it’s audience. It’s a treat, and you’d be wise to enter a new world of comedy, where the ridiculous meets the everyday, where the outlandish is so outrageous it becomes almost normal.
You can find Superego in iTunes or at www.gosuperego.com. The various cast members are on Twitter; Jeremy Carter is @ShuntMcGuppin, Matt Gourley’s @MattGourley, Mark McConville is @markmcconville and Jeff Crocker is @jeffcrocker. So that’s simple enough.