It starts with Keegan’s voice, a regal rasp that is one part Crispin Glover and many parts hubby of Rebecca, film writer for the Los Angeles Times. Then there’s Keegan’s wry sense of humor, fed by his experience as a stand-up comedian and one-time host of nowlive.com pop culture talk show Hollywood Babble-On.

In this week’s The Halo Effect episode, Keegan continues his conversation with former Angels pitching great Jim Abbott, author of the new book Imperfect. Among the topics covered are Abbott’s memories of late Angels owner Gene Autry:

“Mr. Autry was a sweet man, completely different from some of the other owners I’ve played for… He’d come down into the clubhouse and he’d look around. And no matter if we’d won or lost, he was always immaculately dressed in a western cowboy suit and hat, and a fresh pair of cowboy boots that were monogrammed with a G.A. Every single one of them. He always had a kind word and loved his ballplayers.”

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During his first few seasons on the NBC show, Hader would spend Sunday mornings surfing the Internet and reading his worst critics. One of the most notable pans took the form of a long April 2006 blog post titled “The Ballad of SNL’s Bill Hader.”

As Hader tells it, he was in LA the following year for some Superbad re-shoots and found himself being driven by a friend of his roommate’s from the days when he lived here and worked as a PA. During the drive, that mutual acquaintance accidentally revealed himself to be the author of the blog post. Per Hader:

“As we’re talking, he’s like, ‘Yeah, I run this website, it’s called blah blah’… And I go, ‘How do I know that name, and I’m like, oh, that’s the affiliate of…’ Do you know this thing called “Ballad of Bill Hader”? And he’s just silent.”

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FishbowlLA was in attendance as deputy editor Julia Turner, film critic Dana Stevens and critic at large Stephen Metcalf discussed the recent Mike Daisey-“This American Life” controversy, Zooey Deschanel‘s pixie-ish charms and the blockbuster adaptation of The Hunger Games. Joining the trio on stage for the last topic was the film’s co-star Elizabeth Banks, who proved to be a very fun participant and helped close out the show’s “personal endorsements” segment with a shout-out for graphic novels.

Bowers, once with NPR, still works out of the public radio network’s Culver City facilities, where he now rents space. Tuesday night’s event, co-presented by Zocalo Public Square, offered the unique pleasure of listening to an Internet podcast while surrounded by vintage cars from the days when vehicles had no radios. Among the second floor stunners flanking the Slate journalists was a shiny black 1949 Alfa Romeo Villa D’Este, the only known such model to exist in the U.S.

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That’s right, king of all geeks Wil Wheaton will be joining tonight’s nerdfest as a moderator. We’ll see if the dual draw is big enough to pull the geek/nerd set away from their battlestations.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

On the November 17 episode of comedian Jay Mohr‘s “Mohr Stories” Smodcast, he welcomed fellow comic Dave Attell. Way back in the day, the two shared an SNL writers’ cubicle with three others. They chatted about all sorts of 30 Rock moments, including their memories of the late Chris Farley:

Mohr: “Remember, Norm [MacDonald] would do warm-up and then he would bring out Chris Farley, who would just stand there and wave. It was like AC/DC came on stage in Sydney, Australia. The crowd went crazy…”

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From the hilarious non-sequitur intro lines – “A 2,000-year-old vampire peruses her Netflix queue with disgust…” – to topics like whether “knucklehead” could have been a term of endearement during Shakespeare’s time, it’s a blast. There are now a dozen episodes archived, including the most recent July 1st posting, recorded mid-June at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles.

One of FishbowlLA’s favorite things about the rise of podcasts by the likes of Tompkins and Doug Benson (“Doug Loves Movies“) is the authentic laugh track. No canned slider-board inserts here; it’s just real folks, laughing (or not) at real gags.

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But the FCC might have something to say about the matter if anything close to an unedited podcast goes over the airwaves. Especially on Sundays at 11AM, which is when KCRW plans to run the program.

The shows KCRW chose to air are all old, so they’ll have plenty of time to scrub them clean. It will be interesting to see what’s left.

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From noon on Sunday May 29th through noon on Monday, May 30th, Smith will preside over “Poddammit,” a live pod-a-thon featuring ten live podcasts and numerous guest appearances. Tickets for the event are $100 and limited to 250 attendees, while fans can also listen live via Smodcast Internet Radio (S.I.R.). Programming premieres include:

The ABC’s of SNL: Smith and Lovitz will kick off a new weekly series about the backstage goings-on at the Lorne Michaels comedy institution.

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Lemon argues in the Times that his decision to come out was especially difficult because of his race.

“It’s quite different for an African-American male. It’s about the worst thing you can be in black culture. You’re taught you have to be a man; you have to be masculine. In the black community they think you can pray the gay away.”

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Duffy sounds a bit like the late, legendary Paul Harvey. He starts off his 26-minute broadcast with some statistical ammunition:

“Some bad news from the federal government for Al Gore and his crowd of environmental exaggerators… The Environmental Protection Agency handed out a new report this week, and guess what? Greenhouse gas emissions are down, and down dramatically, and we didn’t need California cap-and-trade to do it.

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Comedian, WTF podcaster and Highland Park resident Marc Maron was on Conan last night talking about a cabinet he found more intriguing in his old age than the vagina of a 27-year-old fan who wanted to sleep with him. Funny stuff.

At the end of the interview, Maron got a commitment from Conan to come on the podcast. Looking forward to that one. We’ll see if Conan keeps his word.

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Remarkably, in the few months since, Heidi and Frank have found a faithful paying audience with their new podcast. Andrew Wallenstein shares their subscriber stats via a nice profile piece today at PaidContent.org:

The Heidi and Frank Show has attracted well over 6,000 subscribers who are paying anywhere from $5 per month to $50 a year for access to a trove of audio and video programming, including two hours every weekday morning. There’s limited access to a layer of free content intended to get unacquainted viewers sampling and, if this freemium model holds up, signing up for added benefits like ad-free podcasts.

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“In 2011, is it too little to come out and write a column that says, ‘I’m gay?’”

Granderson disagreed: “I’m certain his words touched someone that needed to hear those words. It was evident during the discussion surrounding ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ we have a long way to go to discussing homosexuality in a rational way. So I’m happy he did it.”

Though Granderson has lived as an openly gay man for years–he was an out gay man before he was an out sports fan–he says, “I never wrote an ‘I am gay column.’” Though he certainly has covered gay issues in relation to sports, Granderson’s first column that addressed his own sexuality came after he was gay bashed at a party in New Orleans for the 2008 NBA All-Star Game. “My t-shirt didn’t reach my knees, so they thought it was too small,” Granderson says, of what started the incident. Eight to ten men then surrounded him, calling him “faggot,” until police broke up the scene.

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Comedian Marc Maron–a former Air America host who these days is best known for his podcast WTF, which he tapes out of his garage in Highland Park–just got himself a nice long profile in the New York Times.

A taste:

Mr. Maron, a stand-up comic by trade, has cast himself as an unlikely celebrity interviewer — one who is angry, probing, neurotic and a vulnerable recovering addict. And somehow he’s able to elicit from his guests, mostly other comedians like Sarah Silverman and Ben Stiller, the same level of vulnerability.

The interviews, usually taped in his garage in Los Angeles, often end up feeling more like therapy sessions. Take, for example, Robin Williams talking to Mr. Maron about the dark side of dealing with audiences: “I guess it’s that fear that they’ll recognize — as you know — how insecure are we really? How desperately insecure that made us do this for a living?” continued…

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The show officially launched today and we hear it debuted at #28 on iTunes.

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