"Mister Rons Basement," Storytelling Podcast to Reach 100th Episode

"Mister Ron's Basement," a unique and popular podcast is using the newest of modern mediums to re-popularize long-forgotten humorists. The podcast's 100th episode is scheduled to appear on August 18th.

Woodbridge, VA (PRWEB) August 3, 2005 -- It all started out as a gag; a way to test the waters" of podcasting and see how it worked for a possible future comedy/variety show. But an ever-growing coterie of enthusiastic listeners spurred Ron Evry to continue researching and recording his five-day-a-week podcast, "Mister Rons Basement" (http://slapcast.com/users/revry). The show, which offers readings of humorous works by well-known authors such as Mark Twain and O Henry, and long forgotten writers like Ellis Parker Butler, Bill Nye, and Fanny Fern, has been drawing in an average of 1500 downloads a day, and sometimes more than double that figure. On August 18th, the podcast will reach its milestone 100th episode.

Podcasting itself, a fairly recent innovation, has taken the public by storm. It is estimated that as many as six million people have already downloaded at least one podcast, essentially a form of internet delivered radio that anyone can create, and thousands of people have done this so far, bypassing the traditional mass-audience based broadcast stations. Last months introduction of podcasting by Apples popular iTunes Music Store is bringing more people into podcasting every day.

Evrys search for funny material in the public domain (his operation is too small to deal with paying royalties) has been pretty much limited to works written before 1923. By digging around in old books, he has discovered what he considers "hilarious stuff" from the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

"Its surprising how much of this writing is still funny today," he says. "Stories of con men, crooked politicians, bratty kids, and snooty rich people are timeless.

"Even so, for every undiscovered gem of a writer I turn up, there can be six times as many whose idea of humor is to imitate dialogue from immigrants or racial groups. This kind of thing is rarely funny on its face, even if it once was popular."

Each episode of Mister Rons Basement" include a short musical introduction, culled from the earliest days of recorded music - - extremely old wax cylinders and brittle 78s.

"There is some dispute over whether recorded music from a hundred years ago or so is still covered by copyright, even when the sheet music has entered the public domain," Evry explains. "But even with the remote possibility that some of the tunes I use are miraculously still copyrighted, I am using such short excerpts as a proper introduction to period research, that it distinctively falls under 'Fair Use' rules."

The web server slapcast.com has provided an obliging and reasonably priced hosting service for Mister Rons Basement since the first episode.

To celebrate the 100th episode of "Mister Rons Basement," Evry has planned a spectacular longer than usual program featuring very short pieces by at least a dozen authors, plus an interview, and a few product announcements. There will be an entire Book on CD made available (Canadian author Stephen Leacocks nostalgically witty "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" from 1912), and an academic CD of stories with a study guide for educators. Additionally, he will be offering T-Shirts, Mugs, and Tote Bags, both as contest prizes and merchandise.

Also, there is now a "Widget" linking to the show for users of the
Macintosh Dashboard program. Created by Jeff Greenwald of Podcast Shuffle fame (http://www.podcastshuffle.com), the widget can be
downloaded from http://www.ronevry.com.

The podcast has gathered attention, not just from scholars and educators, but from sponsors as well. Alibris (http://www.alibris.com), the premiere online destination for used, rare, and hard-to-find books will be sponsoring the 100th show to connect to listeners of these classic stories. Specialized sponsors for narrowcasted programs may portend the future for podcasting as an alternative way to reach specific audiences.

Finally, after the 100th episode, "Mister Rons Basement" will switch from five to seven days a week ("It really wont be hard -- I can just give up sleep," he says).

To find out more about the "Mister Rons Basement" podcast, journalists may contact Ron Evry at (703) 490-1534 or by email at revry at panix.com. Photos and graphics are available upon request. All episodes of the program can be downloaded from the iTunes Music Store or from http://slapcast.com/users/revry.

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