I love Smoshmouth but…
I don’t know how to say this without seeming overly critical or rude, but I feel like Amanda struggles with the podcast format.
It’s not just these most recent episode (with co-creator of Pen15) - I feel like it happens fairly frequently.
I think she doesn’t know how to “interview” or host with a guest present.
Most of the time when it’s another Smosh cast or crew visiting the show, it flies under the radar because I feel like they are generally chattier with one another and just have a good time.
But when others are invited in, it seems like she forgets the main task of the show, to interview the guest, and instead opts to vocalize her own experiences or share her own opinions at the risk of derailing the convo.
I would have loved to hear more from the guest this week when they were talking about her book and her upbringing, but it ended up being more of Amanda sharing her own experiences reading the book and how she pictured it in her own head, and how it resonated with Amanda’s own story, etc.
It often feels like conversation shifts into somehow interviewing Amanda about herself (again), and misses out on maximizing the guest’s presence for the episode.
*Important Clarification*:
I don’t think Amanda does this intentionally. I’m not sure she has much insight into it at all actually…
Surely reading too far into it, but it seems like Shayne often is tasked to wrangle Amanda back in and guide the convo.
Which is a bummer, because I think some of his candid moments with guests are often a highlight, laughing alongside each other, then Amanda interjects with an attempt at childhood trauma interpretation of someone she’s never met before, or starts talking about her own childhood in a way that makes me feel like I’m just waiting for her to be done with her anecdote so we can get back to the podcast.
(When Shayne was out a few episodes, I feel like her guests even had to help *her* follow a line or theme.)
Don’t get me wrong, she’s hilarious, and consistently so. So I totally get it!
But it does often seem like those on each episode are kind of accommodating the “Amanda”isms and random off-topic stuff - being polite about it.
But I worry that she’s kind of left to her own devices perpetually and that the podcast kind of suffers for it IMHO.
Anyone else out there feel similarly?
Or can put it maybe better / more sensitively / more cleanly than I can?
Maybe I’m just picky or irritable, but I feel like it’s continued for several months though, and that she could benefit from a topics list or some loose script or something to go off of.