Campfire Classics Podcast

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! With Heather deep in rehearsals for Footloose she was sadly unavailable this week. Fortunately, guest host Emily has graciously agreed to return to the campfire! Ken has selected a story by Edgar Allan Poe, because it's October and Poe is good for spooky season. The story, maintaining the satanic theme of last week, is called "The Devil in the Belfry". It is, however, much less traumatizing than the last Poe story we read. If you...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! This week, we're doing some special "Platinum Members Only" content. But don't worry regular listeners, you're only missing some minor gymnastics work and a brief eyeliner tutorial. Other than that, it's business as usual here at Campfire Classics. Heather has chosen a short story by Guy de Maupassant again and continues to struggle with his name. For details on his life, check out Season 1, Episode 48 entitled Naked Stew! The...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Did you get the title? It's "doody" instead of "duty". Because it's a bathroom joke! That's right loyal listeners, this week our hosts are explaining all of their jokes! After complaints that the humor has become too sophisticated and high brow everything is getting dumbed down just a little more. Can you believe it!? Heather is reading this week, and Ken chose another short story from recent fan and host favorite author Mack...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Reunited and it feels so good! or Almost Heaven. West Virginia. or Guess who's back. Back again. Whatever musical theme you choose for this episode, I promise, it's a good one. Heather has joined Ken in Lewisburg, WV, and together they work their way through another story. This week, Heather has brought back Ambrose Bierce, last appearing in Episode 12, so that Ken can read the story "Beyond the Wall". Heather does sing a lot, and...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Don't panic, but I think there's something different about this week. If you listen VERY carefully, you might notice what it is. Oh no, now I have to try to not give away the surprise in this blurb. Hmmm...that'll be tricky... Okay, this week your hosts **giggle giggle** are tackling another mystery from the Campfire muse Agatha Christie. One of you hosts **giggle snort** reads the story "The Case of the Missing Will". But I'll...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Wow! This is a weird one. Our hosts recorded from different timezones! That's nothing new for most podcasts, but this was an odd experience here at Campfire Classics. Regardless, this week, our intrepid heroes return to the writing of one Mr. L. Frank Baum. Last tackled back in January, this episode comes jam packed with new facts about the author and TWO new stories. That's right folks, it's a two for one deal! "The Queen of Quok"...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Neither rain, nor snow, nor too many Margaritas shall keep us from bringing you this show. And this week, we test a part of that promise. But which part? I'll bet you can guess! This week Ken gets to read a loopholed Public Domain story from beloved children's author and apparent psychopath Roald Dahl. Heather has chosen for Ken a story called "Lamb to the Slaughter," and I have it on good authority that it's not nearly as...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Bienvenue, nos amis! Welcome, our friends! That's right! This week we're taking a crack at French literature, and Heather gets to swing at that sweet sweet troubling language. Our story today comes from author Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc, a French writer often compared favorably to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story Ken has chosen for Heather is called "The Arrest of Arsène Lupin," and is the first ever appearance of the great...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! This week's author is a man who has not only been suspected of actual time travel, but has also been compared to American National Treasure Nick Cage. Did you get my pun? National Treasure? Graham Green (the writer, not the actor from Dances With Wolves) wrote "The End of the Party," and then almost a hundred years later Heather decided Ken should read it. So he did. And now you are moments away from listening to that very read. So...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Are you ready for some new bits!? Here comes Science: Just in Case, a new segment of questionable scientific value where Ken explores stupid ways to set things on fire and Heather listens on in abject horror. The we get to the literature. This week, Heather reads for us another tale from SciFi great H. G. Wells. Ken has chosen a story called "The Truth About Pyecraft". But you could be forgiven for hearing "Pie Craft". We were...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Let's kill Hitler! Good, now we have your attention! Our story this week was chosen by Heather. It's another of those strange, more recent stories that managed to slip between the copyright cracks back in the '50s. Author Mack Reynolds, sometimes known as "Maxine", has a fascinating first in literature related to the Star Trek universe. But, this week's tale, while still SciFi, stays a little closer to home. While Ken reads "Unborn...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! This week's piquant tale is a puerile journey of perfidious intimacy bred of propinquity. Also, we learned a lot of new words that we wanted to squeeze into this intro!! Our story was chosen by Ken from the catalogue of Brazilian Literature. Author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, a criminally under appreciated artist in the English speaking world, brought us "The Fortune Teller," a short that will certainly please any fans of the...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! It's the season 2 premiere! Which really means nothing more than we're restarting the episode count because it feels cool. This week, Heather has selected a story for Ken to read by an author unknown to either of our hosts before this reading. His name was John Kendrick Bangs, and he might have invented an adult film genre. Or possibly just ghost story sub-genre. You know it's hard to tell sometimes. Regardless, the story is called...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Happy anniversary! We've been doing this for a year! A full trip around the sun! 12 calendar pages! 57 episodes in 365 days. To celebrate, we're reading a detective story by a woman who is one of the most important writers in the genre. But no, it's not Agatha. This week's story, "The Ninescore Mystery", was written by Baroness Emma Orczy, best known today for the stories of The Scarlet Pimpernel. This story centers on a detective...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Have you had your taco today? This week, your hosts extend a tentative olive branch to recent Campfire Classics villain Mark Twain as they read the short story that made him famous "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Heather chose this story, and Ken does his best to read it, but it isn't a straight path through. Along the way your literary companions get distracted by Philadelphia geography, spaying and neutering...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! "It started with a load of potatoes." What started!? And what did potatoes have to do with it!? These questions and more will be answered in this week's story "The Thing in the Truck," read by host Heather Michele Lawler and written by Darius John Granger. Kinda. Probably. In a manner of speaking. It's another twisting turning tale from the catalogue of pulp fiction, and is another story in public domain because of one of those...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! It's a party!! A Baby Party!! What? You don't know what a baby party is? That's okay, neither did your hosts before reading this week's story entitled "The Baby Party" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. If you're thinking it's a party where someone is going to juggle babies, you're wrong. Probably. Maybe. Actually, we're still not entirely sure on that part. This week is full of discoveries! What is the word Ken apparently cannot say? Who...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Some content may not be suitable for children. Or adults. Or people with high class standards. This week, Ken has dug up a story for Heather to read from the catacombs of pulp fiction magazines. The story is "The Thing on the Roof" by Robert E. Howard. And folks, this one gets weird. Like...weird. Heather discovers her Achilles' Heel is the word "particularly". Ken very nearly chokes to death because of a flashlight. And how...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! Well, this episode comes with a content warning. Not because it's especially vulgar, just because we decided it's finally time to add one of those. So, there's the business out of the way. Now for the fun stuff. This week's story was selected by Heather and was written by Bret "Not The Hit Man" Harte. My apologies to anyone who is not a fan of '90s WWF wrestling. That joke was a little niche. The story in question, "Tennessee's...

Welcome to Campfire Classics, a Literary Comedy Podcast!! With 50 episodes in the bag, it felt like time to return to our roots. So here's another story from our muse, Agatha Christie. But it's not a Poirot mystery this time. Oh no, this week Ken is giving Heather a Tommy and Tuppence mystery. Which means Heather definitely won't have to pull out her questionable French accent. Right? Well, the adorable detective couple, Tommy and Tuppence, get up to some wild hijinks, and along the way...