DoT EP56: Comedian and TV Guidance Counselor Host Ken Reid plus New Music from Kassin

This week's guest is stand-up comedian and host of the TV Guidance Counselor podcast Ken Reid, someone I have known for years in the Boston scene and whom I've covered occasionally for the Boston Globe. Reid is a good friend to have if you enjoy horror or comedy in film or television. On TV Guidance Counselor, he gives his guests a copy of TV Guide from their childhood and hashes out what they would have watched that particular week. Chances are, Reid has seen whatever show or movie his guests have seen, and probably owns the soundtrack. "I like to lead my life like the friend you go to to learn how to kill the monster that lives next door," says Reid. "'I have a book on that somewhere,' like that kind of thing." I've always enjoyed our conversations, so I'm happy to have him on the podcast, and also happy to have comedian and actor Jessie Baade back on the show as co-host. We dove right into obscurity in the very beginning when Reid mentions an exploitation movie that was just released on Blu-Ray, and we talked about certain children's movies, like The Peanut Butter Solution, that probably never should be shown to children. As a stand-up, Reid doesn't function like many of his peers. He doesn't crave people's laughter. It's not a high for him. What he wants to be able to do is walk in a room, tell the stories he wants to tell, and control the crowd. And the stories he tells have surprisingly little to do with pop culture. They are more personal, about his father getting his pants ripped off on an amusement park ride or his sister's Make-A-Wish experience with Boy George and a cage of ferrets. I won't describe that here – trust me, you're better off hearing the story from him on his comedy albums or better yet, live. By the way, in our discussion about music, I mention a Beatles' song people are still arguing about, trying to identify the opening chord. The song is actually "A Hard Days Night," not "Help," which came to mind first. And it should be mentioned, you can hear Reid's adorable clan of dogs barking every so often in the background. Our featured track of the week is "Momento de Clareza" from the upcoming album, Relax by Alexandre Kassin, who just goes by "Kassin" for this release. Kassin is an accomplished producer – he's worked with Bebel Gilberto, among dozens and dozens of others, and he's played bass with Caetano Veloso's bands. This is him stepping out on his ownThis is a grooving track with popping bass that reminds me of Paul McCartney's more danceable stuff from the late 70s and early 80s. It's light, upbeat, a perfect summer soundtrack song, but it's about an experience Kassin had narrowly missing a flight with his band that wound up crashing and killing 95 passengers. Kassin apparently enjoys mixing, as he says, "dark lyrics and happy sounds." Relax is out May 11 from Luka Bop, and you can find out more at LukaBop.com.