Laughing With Luke: Recent Episodes
Laughing with Luke
Luke and Sharlene take us behind the scenes, pulling back the curtain to reveal what goes into making the show each and every week.
We meet Glenn, audio producer extraordinaire, Stacy everyone's favorite audio engineer. Freddy, the 22 year old PA who keeps those cappuccinos coming.
Then of course there's Perry the editor and Joey the podcast coordinator, Diego head of global strategy and Barry who runs the eighty-six person (and hiring) merchandising division.
Moving further through the sixteen story HQ of Laugh Incorporated, we take an audio tour across the sales division and into the glassed walled Mergers and Acquisitions department. Where quants and white shoe lawyers work tirelessly to negotiate the leveraged buyout of China National Petroleum and the Atlanta Falcons.
Yes, it's just another day here at our little podcast!
Luke and Sharlene agree to come to this episode having learned a few magic tricks.
Luke kicks things off by tearing up an ace of clubs and then, miraculously unfolding his hand to reveal it perfectly restored.
Sharlene follows by performing a terrifying feat of necromancy. Raising an undead army of moaning zombies, which tear through the recording studio floor to meet their new master.
Luke makes a penny disappear.
They agree to be more explicit about episode topics going forward.
Luke and Sharlene travel to the North Pole, for a fun, whimsical interview with Santa, Mrs. Claus, the jolly elves and all the magical reindeer.
Well, turns out Santa doesn't exist.
On the disappointing trudge home Luke loses three fingers to frostbite and Sharlene smuggles a baby reindeer through U.S. Customs.
Luke and Sharlene are joined by Josh Brolin. In an effort to get the juiciest possible interview, Sharlene jabs him with a syringe of CIA-grade truth serum.
Within seconds Josh is yelling about his role in the JFK assassination. In-between screaming "Find umbrella man!" Josh confesses that he forced the Warren Commission to alter their conclusions. The fact that Brolin was only five years old at the time of the Kennedy's death merely makes these revelations all the more intriguing.
He then opens up about his time working on Dune. Apparently Dennis Villeneuve is an absolute joy and a very willing collaborator.
Hoping to capitalize off the success of humor podcasts like Comedy Bang Bang, Luke and Sharlene try their hand at improv.
They soon discover they have a real knack for riffing and building off each other's ideas.
Unfortunately, they quickly "yes and" their way into robbing a string of banks across the American Mid-West.
After months of sleuthing and tireless research, Luke and Sharlene score the interview of a lifetime, by tracking down D.B. Cooper.
Disappointingly, D.B. doesn't have any interest in discussing his mysterious past and just wants to promote his upcoming book on Transcendental Mediation.
Luke and Sharlene try their hand at investigative journalism. Together they explore the deep, seedy, underbelly of Q-Anon conspiracy theories. How did they begin? What propelled them forward? And who is the shadowy figure behind them all?
They are quickly radicalized and have to spend three days in a sensory deprivation chamber to return to their senses.
"What is the meaning of life?" "What is our place in the universe?" "Is free will an illusion?" "Is there a soul?" "What is consciousness?" "Are we alone in the cosmos?"
All questions Luke and Sharlene ask in this episode, without getting any answers. Probably because they're in an otherwise empty sound studio. This doesn't stop them from continuing to ask (and screaming) these deep, metaphysical questions for the remainder of the episode.
The show's MeUndies sponsorship is up for renewal. To secure further support, Luke and Sharlene must endure the three deadly labors of patronage, by venturing deep into the dungeons of MeUndies corporate HQ.
First, they slay the nine-headed hydra, skinning it's scaly hide and draping it over their weary, battered bodies.
Then, they capture the elusive stag of Arcadia, butchering it quickly before it can whisper its primeval riddles, known to drive anyone who hears them, mad.
Finally, they battle flesh-eating vultures up the ancient steps, to the lost knight of comfort and loungewear. Awakening him from his centuries long slumber, only to tear out his eternal heart of ice.
With that, they are able to once again say "Shop MeUndies for feel good underwear, loungewear, and apparel with free shipping and satisfaction guarantee. Memberships available."
But at what cost? At what cost?
In a quest for better interview guests, Sharlene and Luke begin cloning the world's greatest historical figures. Through the magic of somatic cell nuclear transfer they are joined this episode by Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and philosopher Thomas Hobbes.
Sadly, this trio has zero on-mic chemistry. Continually stepping on punchlines and interrupting each other's stories.
It should thus come as no surprise that around 30:18, a large fight and small, uncontrolled fire, breaks out. During the commotion, Thomas Hobbes slips out the backdoor, muttering that it's finally time to build a giant, robot version of his "Leviathan."
Luke forgets that he has an electrician coming and it interrupts the show right after the MeUndies ad read.
The next 45 minutes are devoted to the loud sound of drilling, which drowns out a very nuanced and fascinating conversation about Israel-Palestine with a panel of leading Middle-Eastern studies professors and Nobel Laureates.
Luke and Sharlene investigate the mysterious world of fight clubs. Sharlene is quickly disqualified for filing her microphone into a shiv, but Luke develops a taste for blood.
Sadly, by uploading this episode, they've broken the cardinal rule of fight club and the secret vending machine door at the back of the Texaco on 4th and 9th now opens to reveal nothing more than an empty basement.
Luke and Sharlene decide to do the show from a Jacuzzi.
Unfortunately this doesn't bode well for much of the electrical equipment, or their guest, the late stand up comic Lenny Perzensky (1978-2021).
Luke and Sharlene share how they spent their Labor Day weekends. Luke, cagey at first, eventually reveals that he drunk drove a parade float through an endangered owl habitat.
Sharlene confesses that she too had some regrettable missteps over Labour Day weekend. Including violating various Geneva conventions (specifically, First, Third and Fourth).
This conversation runs long, leading to the animal handler they'd booked getting bumped. In response, Mike "The Animal Aficionado" Wilbur, floods their recording studio with long-bodied cellar spiders.
A beautiful, poignant, thoughtful conversation with Patrick Stewart is revealed to have been a carbon monoxide leak.
Later in the show Luke and Sharlene are joined by a master sword swallower, who's routine is poorly suited for the audio format.
Finally, Luke and Sharlene have a heart to heart, growing closer as co-hosts and friends. A conversation which is sadly, a second carbon monoxide leak.
Luke and Sharlene kick things off with a debate about if a hotdog is a sandwich. This quickly morphs into an argument about if Christ had distinct human and divine persons. Luke, a devout Nestorian asserts that yes, a hotdog is definitely a sandwich and the divine and human natures of Christ were independent.
Later in the show, they're joined by a meteorologist who's been struck by lightning seventeen times and has started to enjoy it.