#audio comedy

I play Jenny Greenteeth. It’s a fun one so come along and listen to me play a wet, stroppy Lancastrian creature. 😅

Anyway, if you like scripted audio comedy and think there should be more of it in the world, here’s a link you might find interesting:

Do you love random prompts?

Would you like to write for The Random Sketch Generator?

The Random Sketch Generator is a comedy podcast: each episode has a theme, every theme is randomly selected - giving us a month to write some wonderfully random, comedy sketches. 

We've had random themes - ranging from Butterfly, Dull Knife and Movies.

We are now doing open submissions for sketches. Deadline for the next submission window is Monday 18th May 2026 23:00 (GMT)

SUBMISSION FORM: https://forms.gle/2RTxeJPRGNqDXX9Y8

Rules:

We are looking funny, comedy sketches

Keep to the theme - but be imaginative. As long as you can justify how your sketch fits the theme, go for it!

Please keep the content PG - no swearing or inappropriate subject matters. (If you want a sense of tone I would recommend listening to previous episodes)

There's no set rule for length - but try keep it under 5 minutes. We want sketches, not short plays!

No prior writing experience necessary.

Sketches may be subject to light editing (with writer's permission)

Submissions are limited to one per person, but you can upload up to 2 sketches to be considered.

Unfortunately is opportunity is currently unpaid.

Theme

There used to be 2 themes, now there's only one!  

The theme for this month is...

ART

Get writing! And have fun!

Deadline for first submission window: Monday 18th May 23:00 (GMT)

Submit your sketches here.

Listen to our most recent episode here :)

The Firesign Theatre was a surreal comedy group -- composed of Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor -- that worked in audio, from 1966 to 2012, on radio in a mostly-improvisational form, and on LP and CD (and occasionally stage, film, and video) in a densely scripted and layered series of landmark audio works combining high and low comedy, poetry, literature, music, philosophy, metaphysics, theatre, surrealism, absurdism, and social commentary into a thick audio stew.

I've been listening to their albums for literally all 54 years of my life, and my voice (physical and creative) owes everything to them (probably all 75 voices I've performed on Althaar could be directly traced back to one of the Firesigns, if not deliberately imitating some other famous person).

While our show is more plot and character-driven and less abstract than most of their work, I think the influence is apparent, both in audio production and in a kind of philosophy of sonic comedy.

So I'll be sharing some of their work here over the next week, hoping to keep it alive in the Future. No problem if it's not your bag -- there are plenty of dated references, and some of the dialect voices verge on (or cross into) the problematic -- but maybe someone out there catches the bug.

Here is the title track from their first album, Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him, from 1968, originally all of side 2 of the LP. It's a simple start from them, getting to know the capabilities and limits of a real recording studio (only 4 tracks!), but it's pure Firesign.

(and yes, I chose to make one of the opening scenes of Althaar's first episode a Customs check in homage to this piece...)

The Wikipedia article on The Firesign Theatre is a detailed and accurate history if you want to know more.

When meeting the Firesigns at a signing in 1993, I mentioned to David Ossman their huge influence on me and he asked, "What do you do? Comedy?" And I replied, "No, I'm in Audio" (which was my job at the time). And he slammed his signing pen down and said:

"You see! People are always asking me 'where are the comedians influenced by Firesign these days? why does no one do comedy like you anymore?' And I always tell them, the people influenced by us didn't go into Comedy, they went into Audio! That was our real influence!"

And so, 30 years on from that, I find myself winding up doing both.