If you are familiar with the world of podcasting you would be aware of the greats, The Ricky Gervais Show, WTF With Marc Maron and Serial. These are definitely worthy of their popularity but there are many other podcasts that are just as good and never get the attention they deserve. It can be quite frustrating, not only for the creators but the consumer who wishes to seek out new and exciting podcasts after binging all the round headed twonk had to offer. For that reason, I plan on recommending/reviewing some of the best of the niche out there every week.
The XFM Elis James And John Robins Podcast
Ever since the dawn of podcasting there has always been one question on people’s lips; “when will a podcast be released that is brave enough to explain to the world the importance of email?”. Now, after ten years that podcast has arrived in the form of The XFM Elis James And John Robins Podcast and people all around the world finally understand that, “you have to be on email”. Not to mention, the show is also one of the most entertaining, hilarious and fun shows out there.
XFM has a long history of hiring very talented comedians with Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Karl Pilkington, Russell Brand, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to name a few. Elis James and John Robins make up part of the British frat pack of comedians that are now dominating the UK’s comedy scene. John Robins is quite easily the biggest Queen fan in the world, who is a comedian, over five feet and has a show on XFM, with his friend Elis. While Elis James is known by many names, he is the rightful heir to the medieval town of Gwynedd, the officer for Anecdote Shire North, the first man in 450 years to be banned from the Isle of Anglesey, among others. Along with their coleslaw obsessed producer Dave, the two release a fifty minute podcast every week consisting of “listeners” problem solving, the outing of humble braggers and radio’s most competitive trivial pursuit. Another notable segment is, “John Reads Aloud From Tony Blackburn’s Autobiography” which does what it says on the tin and Blackburn’s autobiography could quite possibly be the most unintentionally, hilarious autobiography ever written.
Elis and John have carved out their own style of comedy that consists of spontaneous singing, high pitched anger and quality banter. As if this article didn’t already contain enough in jokes, I shall now explain the show in the trademarked James and Robins manner. Ales, ales, anecdote, anecdote, ales, Queen, Welsh history, Queen, anecdote, ales, ales, farthings, anecdote, ales, football, Twitter, ales (as far as I know, they don’t do the show drunk, they just really like talking about larging-it).
I highly recommend giving this podcast a listen as it is one of the few examples of radio that can still work in podcast format. The duo even include some extra content exclusive to the podcast at the beginning and definitely do not favour their live listeners over the online ones. So crack open an ale or a beverage of your choice and do yourself a favour by listening to this absolutely quallo podcast.
