The Book of the Punchy Set
In which we learn the origin of the punchy set and the definition of gosling.
Chapter 1
1. In the beginning there was Rude Awakenings. 2. And Sizzly did look upon it and tried to stay awake.
Tee hee. So I’ve been a DJ for Eve Radio for almost two years. My first stint was the 3am to 6am EST slot. Appropriately enough I named the show, “Rude Awakenings”. The theme of the show was to play pretty much the same sort of tunes that you hear during the first two hours of Disasterpiece Theater – indie, alt, retro 80’s tunes. In other words: fantastic rock music.
Now, not being a morning person in any sense of the word this time slot was brutal. If I stayed up all night for it I was a disaster for the next couple o’ days. If I tried to sleep I’d barely get out of bed in time to do the show. No matter what I did the last hour or so of the show was quite the challenge. So in order to give myself a little bit of a pick me up at the end of the show I started playing silly stuff. Oddly enough the handful of listeners at that forsaken hour really enjoyed the inclusion of some humor into the show.
Chapter 2
1. And verily, Sizzly did see that the silly was good. 2. Yeah, Sizzly did say, “Let there be a Punchy Set”. 3. And there was much rejoicing.
It wasn’t until I was able to switch my time slot to something a bit more sane that the Punchy Set became a “formal” part of the show. The first week Disasterpiece Theater ran at the 11pm to 2am time slot the vaunted Punchy Set was announced. Originally, the punchy set wasn’t a whole hour. Usually it was only a handful of tunes. But then came the tribute to pirates and discovery of new tunes and the inclusion of standup bits… It kept growing longer and longer until it was an hour long and a staple part of the show for the last hour. Thus the Vaunted Punchy Set was brought into this world.
Chapter 5
1. And it came to past that the people rose up and said, “WTH”. 2. Verily the people cried out, “WTF”. 3. Even more verily the people questioned Sizzly and said, “What the hell is a gosling?”.
So what is the Punchy Set? Well, each week I try to play a varied collection of tracks that are just silly and fun. Although most of it is music, I also throw in a bit of standup and sketch comedy to round it out. We’re looking at novelty or comedy tunes. I try my best to play things that most people aren’t terribly familiar with. Things like P.D.Q. Bach, moosebutter, the Arrogant Worms, Tom Lehrer, etc. That’s not to say that Monty Python and Weird Al aren’t played – I’ve got an hour to fill and good humor tunes tend to be under three minutes. I have to admit, new listeners are a bit shocked when they first hear the opening tunes of the Punchy Set. It’s a bit random and stylistically it’s chaos. But it’s always funny and most folks come around by the end of the set.
Tee hee. I also get a bit of twisted delight from the various, WTF, WTH, and OMG comments I get. It makes me a happy DJ.
gos•ling
Show Spelled[goz-ling]
–noun
1. a young goose.
2. a foolish, inexperienced person.
3. a listener of the most superb Disasterpiece Theater Show on Eve Radio.
