S3 E1: Joe Conklin on the Anatomy of a Great Impression, Doing Comedy in a Hyper-Sensitive World and Why Philadelphia Sports Fans Have Changed

Summary: Joe Conklin, A.K.A. "The Man of a Thousand Voices," is a Philadelphia institution. There is no one like him around here, and perhaps no one like him anywhere else. He can look and sound like anyone he wants: Andy Reid, Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joel Embiid, Merrill Reese, Rich Kotite...the list truly goes all the way to 1,000 and maybe beyond. I grabbed a table with Conklin at the New Wave Cafe in South Philadelphia to talk about where his abilities and comedy and impressions came from, what makes a good joke, whether his industry has become a landmine field because of society's hypersensitivity...oh, and he offers an impression. Or two. Or three. Recorded at the New Wave Cafe in South Philadelphia, February 11, 2020. In this podcast: Conklin talks about how comedy has changed (2:00), how he scripts most of his material on the radio (2:30), what the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident has to do with that (3:00), how modern attitudes have impacted his standup routine (3:40), how he deals with hecklers (5:40), why doing comedy at luncheons can be...interesting (7:20), why his President Obama impression led to the end of one of his acts (8:00), growing up in Olney and attending Temple University (9:00) how the people he grew up with became many of the impressions in his routines (10:15), when he realized he had a gift of doing impressions (11:55), the idea of looking like the person he is doing an impression of (13:20), Joel Embiid (13:55), how he starts from scratch when developing an impression (14:10), why the idea of "recognition" is so important (15:05), John Madden, the most difficult impression he's ever worked on (15:50), how cadence factors into an impression with the example of Merrill Reese (16:40), if anyone ever gets upset with an impression (17:50), when Andy Reid became a little "sensitive" (19:40), why the Philadelphia sports fan has changed (20:50), the idea behind having "celebrity" fans in Philadelphia (22:30), Sixers fans' relationship with Joel Embiid (23:00), generational changes in sports fans (24:05), what is most important with Philadelphia sports fans (25:10), Mike Schmidt (25:30), why social media seems like doubling his work (26:30), being cautious on social media (28:30), his thoughts on Bill Cosby (30:10), if politics have unnecessarily invaded comedy (31:20), being cautious with his impression of President Trump (31:50), Bernie Sanders (33:40), Elizabeth Warren (33:55), favorite Philadelphia athlete (35:33), favorite Philadelphia coach (36:50), favorite comedians (38:20), what is not funny (39:45).