Although they’ve been around for a while I’ve only recently started listening to podcasts.  So I thought like everything else on this site I’d recommend some of the ones I enjoy.  This post is all about my absolute favorite podcast Doug Loves Movies.  DLM is taped live weekly at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles before their Comedy Death Ray show (also a very good podcast that we’ll cover another time).  It’s hosted by comedian Doug Benson, best known for his appearance in the excellent documentary Super High Me(also On Demand), and each week features a panel of various actors or comedians.  Some of the guests are big stars such as Sarah Silverman or Jon Hamm, and others are lesser known people who are equally as entertaining.  The show does boast a pretty impressive guest list though.

Doug keeps the show pretty light and talks about movies he’s seen recently as well as what his guests have seen or been in.  The format is pretty loose and it’s mainly some fun joking.  The highlight of the show however is the Leonard Maltin Game.  This is a super fun and easy to play, but tough to actually be good at game that you can play at home.  It’s really funny listening to some of the guests play though.  Doug uses the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide iPhone app (also available in bookform for those of you less tech savvy) to give a clue to a movie.  First a guest must select a category Doug comes up with and then choose a year.  After that Doug reads some of Leonard Maltin’s writing about the movie (being careful to not give it away) and then the guests have to wager amongst themselves for who can name the movie in the least amount of names starting from the bottom of the list.  Now the names on the bottom of the list are usually people you’ve never heard of and the top of the list are the stars.  Eventually someone bids low enough that another guest doesn’t think they’ll get it and tells them to “name that movie”.  Then Doug reads the names and they have one guess at what the movie is given the names, the year, and Doug’s category.  If they get it right they get bragging rights and a point, if they get it wrong the person who told them to name the movie gets the point.  The guests play for audience members who receive prizes such as Doug Benson t-shirts and merchandise related to the guests (this is a more recent phenomenon).  The losing audience members get to name who is a shithead, a long standing tradition on the show is signing off by saying “_____ is a shithead”, usually someone who you’d never hear that said about, thus the joke.

Anyway Doug Loves Movies is a great fun listen that’ll easily get you through an hour of your day.  And it’s free.  You can check it out at www.douglovesmovies.com or subscribe (still free) through iTunes.  I also recommend following Doug on Twitter @DougBenson.