Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site

Shows of the National Lampoon Radio Hour are now being broadcast in their entirety on a regular basis on XM’s comedy station, XM Comedy 150. I can’t tell from their website how often “regular” is. A special receiver is required to pick up the broadcasts, which they claim is higher quality than conventional radio since it’s all-digital. You can’t listen on an ordinary radio, or even over the internet (although they do offer samples on their site). Still, having the shows broadcast at all is a good thing. Update: They seem to have removed that stuff.

Out of the blue, I just heard Brian McConnachie do a very funny piece on NPR’s All Things Considered. He’s just as absurd and funny in his inimitable way as he was at National Lampoon back in the seventies. First PBS kids’ shows and now this. Wonders never cease.

Michael Gross, art director of National Lampoon from 1970 through 1974, is alive and well and living in Oceanside, California, where he is a curator at the Oceanside Museum of Art. I’ve (finally) added his bio to the Staff & Contributors section.

Quite a few back issues of National Lampoon are on sale at The Mad Store, according to proprietor Scott Gosar, pictured at left. He’s the one shoving the Idiot™ into the trash can.

Shary Flenniken is going online soon with a website at www.sharyflenniken.com. Nothing much there at this writing except an announcement, some contact info, and a scan of one of Shary’s drawings.

CD Review Magazine featured a sampler CD of bits from National Lampoon Radio Hour in the early ’90s, according to reader Robert Thompson. This was five years before the Rhino boxed set appeared. Anyone out there ever seen one of these?

National Lampoon Radio Hour Logs, whatever those are, are available here. Courtesy of Scotty Crane from Shaken Not Stirred. Update: Well, they used to be. Gone now. Wonder whatever happened to AOL?

National Lampoon Show alum Sarah Durkee dropped me a line recently to answer question topic “Live Tours in 1978” on the Answers page: Who was in the troupe that toured in spring of 1978?

In addition to appearing in the touring productions of “That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick!” and “If We’re Late, Start Without Us,” Sarah has also worked as a writer on projects and kids’ TV shows with Lampoon veterans Chris Cerf, Henry Beard, and Sean Kelly. She also married Paul Jacobs, the musical director of the original Lemmings. She was also a co-writer with Beard, Kelly, and Cerf on “The Book of Sequels” (1991), which wasn’t a National Lampoon publication, but “sure felt like one, given that we were all Lampoon alums to one degree or another.” David Kaestle was art director as well.

Sarah is curious about whatever happened to her fellow actors from the tours. If you know, let me know.

Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site now has a more flexible system for delivering you, the crazed and aging NatLamp fan, the latest information about this site and the world of National Lampoon.

It’s a spiffy little content management system for weblogs (also known as “blogs”) called Movable Type. If you’ve never heard of “blogs” or “content management systems,” don’t worry. The main thing is that I will be able to update Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site in a simpler and more timely fashion. At least in theory.

Bobby London informed me that there were still more factual errors about him on the Answers page. They are now corrected. (Thanks Bobby, and sorry it’s taken so long.) Incidently, there is now an official Dirty Duck website.