WALKING THE ROOM LIVE PODCAST RECORDING

Comedy podcasts are fast becoming a popular alternative to open mics—I'm speaking from the audience perspective here. Instead of being trapped in a bar, watching a panel of unknown comedians (some invariably good, some invariably terrible) rotate onstage for hours, you can download a few free comedy podcasts and listen your way through an unending crop of new jokesters while riding the bus, cleaning the house, running, sitting through work, etc. The style of comedy is also different—instead of delivering the same polished set to a rotating audience, comedians get to make fun of new things every week, meandering-storytelling-style, for their tight cadre of dedicated fans. The podcasts are free, they're accessible, and if the jokes don't click, you can turn them off.

And the really great podcasts—podcasts like Walking the Room, which comedians Dave Anthony and Greg Behrendt have cohosted for more than two years—have started touring. Patton Oswalt recently dropped by to help them celebrate their 100th episode by explaining what makes him "fear come." Now the People's Republic of Komedy is bringing the pair of solid jokesters (Behrendt cringingly brags about cowriting He's Just Not That Into You and writing for Sex and the City) to Chop Suey's stage for a podcast taping. It's your chance to catch two guys talking to each other—live!—about sports, seagulls, shitting your pants, digging up Don Knotts, and "tiny, tiny hippies." (Also, one of them has a ska band.) Or, you know, catch it later on the internets. Chop Suey, 8:30 pm, $10, 21+.