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Tom Rhodes Smart Camp — Comedy
Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

About Smart Camp podcast
Tom Rhodes Smart Camp is a festival of ideas, knowledge, stories, books, and adventures. I have been a comedian for more than 40 years, traveling the world to perform comedy. Whenever I can, I will share my adventures with you on this podcast. Together with my creative partner and best friend, Ashna, we ‘re offering a blend of wisdom, humor, and heart.

Tom
I have been a comedian for more than 40 years. I travel the world, performing comedy. Exploring diverse cultures and connecting with people from all walks of life while doing comedy is at the heart of my journey. Whenever I can, I’ll share my adventures and a global perspective with you on this podcast.

Ashna
Ashna, Dutch artist, photographer, and my ex-wife, is my best friend and she’s an essential part of the Rhodesies production team. We’ve traveled the world together for 8 years. With her background in cognitive psychology and her passion for philosophy and the arts, Ashna shares her unique European perspective.

Copyright: © 2011 Tom Rhodes

Latest Episodes:

303 This Too Shall Pass with Rafinha Bastos Sep 13, 2019

Show notes

People of the earth! Throw down your weapons and rejoice in this excellent conversation I recorded with Brazilian comedy superstar Rafinha Bastos.

In the past year Rafi has become one of my best friends. He lives in my building and we often talk comedy, help each other with jokes and go to the clubs together, all in service to our number one love in life, comedy. Now he is moving to New York City so that he can be closer to Brazil for when he has to fly home to his son Tom and continue to follow his dream of making his mark as a stand up comedian in America. In this episode we talk about his favorite things about America, the best jokes he's written here, Bolsonaro letting the Amazon burn, CNN where the house is always on fire and the best advice a father could ever give to his son. Also in this chat is possibly the birth of what will become his next Netflix special. Also revealed is the knowledge nugget that is the connection between Crazy Horse and Nebraska. Great things happen when I gather with this friend and through the miracle of technology I can pour it straight into your head. You have to love a guy that cheered against his own country of Brazil when I saw the soccer match between Brazil and Peru with him and that guy is the one and only Rafinha Bastos!

302 Lord Byron: Exile & Death Sep 04, 2019

Show notes

The last of my 3 part series on the life of Lord Byron concludes here with his exile in Switzerland and Italy and his death in Greece.

Delight in this dashing dandy's style, his endless carousing with women and his adventurous spirit that eventually led to his death fighting for the independence of the Greeks who weren't willing to fight for it themselves. So many of his heroic moments can be off balanced by the poor choices he made in life. From his Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva where literary history was made to the canals of Venice where he lived every human depravity this episode will take you to his final act of redemption while trying to do good for the people of Greece. As a boy I lived briefly on Lord Byron road in Wilmington, NC and finally today after spending the summer reading about the life of Lord Byron I have found the answer to why this man would be worthy of having a road named after him in North Carolina. Here I also rejoice and recount the brilliant friendship that Byron had with the poet Shelley as I talk you and read you to the conclusion of both of these poets lives on foreign soil. Fill your learning goblet with the scandalous and remarkable life of the one and only Lord Byron. Joy be upon you! www.patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

301 Lord Byron: Years of Fame Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

In the year 1812 Napoleon was defeated, the waltz was the new hit sensation of aristocratic Europe and Lord Byron became a literary superstar over night and the toast of high society England. He was born a gorgeous full lipped curly headed boy and as a man spent vastly to always be stylishly dressed and fancied himself a dandy. He was born with a club foot that he drag slide when he walked. He was both ashamed and short tempered when it came to the topic of his club foot.

Some historians believe his numerous conquests with women were just an attempt to mask his real attraction to young men. What can be agreed upon by all who studied Byron is that no hole was safe around this guy. His foot might have been lame but there wasn't anything lame about his dick. The married Lady Caroline Lamb had to be dragged out of London because she was acting like a shameless hussy over our poet and disgraced her family name. He reluctantly married Lady Annabella Milbanke who he tortured mentally by being the shittiest most spoiled husband who ever pranced over the streets of London. When the dirty little secret that Byron had fucked his half sister Augusta and had a baby by her, that was the straw that broke the back of this opium addicted household. Annabella took the kid that she had by Byron and ran off back to her mother and father at the family estate. Annabella being much perturbed by the heinous stupefied state with which our poet had spent their married year was all too happy to help spread the very true rumor that not only did Byron fuck his sister he squirted inside of her like an animal and made a baby with her. Once this news hit the mass consciousness of England the people couldn't shut up about it. It was all they wanted to talk about and Byron now being the most loathed turd of society was not welcome anywhere. Byron never liked scenes and now he was afraid to visit the theater for fear of being hissed in public. His life has fallen apart and his shit was weak but at this moment the sales from his books are bringing money in and he sells his family estate to give him the bank roll needed to go live any kind of life he would want to live anywhere. This story I'm going to tell you today is about the period in Byron's life when he was riding high and famous in London. I will read you many highlights from the Peter Quennell book 'Byron The years of fame'. "Rumor and legend are potent aphrodisiacs." Come get some of this in your brain. Enjoy the feast! Long may you run! Or rather, long may you side shuffle while dragging your club foot Lord Byron!

300 Sailing Lake Tahoe with Cameron Hatton Aug 03, 2019

Show notes

Hooray & hallelujah! For episode 300 the lovable human Cameron Hattan has taken me out to the center of Lake Tahoe on a sail boat. After cruising around the majestic beauty of the lake we parked and went down in the cabin to record this episode. Cameron taught sailing on Lake Tahoe for many years, teaches me what a zephyr is and then he goes to intensely pull lines when our lives were in danger.

Sun sparkles on water go perfectly with Native American beliefs in how they read signs from the mountains, the classic Western TV show Bonanza and other California factoids. His worst sailing experience took place on the sea of Cortez in Mexico and mine was in Malaysia between Penang and Langkawi. You will learn about the sea gypsy people of the world who are raising their kids at sea, how to properly clean out the butthole of a lobster, and how to bring vision aid glasses to Honduras. Find your center with the zen wisdom of the film Captain Ron and the Cheech and Chong film Yellow Beard the pirate. Cameron has been a strong advocate of cannabis as medical treatment and this has led his mother to block him on facebook because she doesn't want her quilting group to know that her son is a drug dealer. Genesis 1:12 in the bible clearly states "All seed baring plants I give to you." For the first time in human history we have a chance to treat serious illnesses with cannabis and Cameron eloquently explains how his company Fiddler's Greens is forging the way in this treatment. Louis Armstrong got Richard Nixon to smuggle marijuana into the Unites States for him? According to Cameron this story is true. Its great to have a friend but its even better to have a friend with a boat. Add to this a friend who is also a cannabis expert and you get the nautical adventure that is the celebratory sun sparkles on the lake enhanced episode 300 that will trigger the serotonin in your brain and make you happy. In the immortal words of Bill Murray in the film 'What about Bob?' "I'm sailing! I'm sailing! I'm really sailing!" Ahoy and joy be upon you! Community over competition! Long may you sail! patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

299 109 Degrees in Paris! Jul 27, 2019

Show notes

Bonjour y'all! It was a big week in the news! I am in Paris and experienced the hottest day ever recorded at 109 degrees. I beat the heat by jumping into the fountain at Saint Sulpice and climbing to the top. This week also saw the end of democracy and Donald Trump declaring the 2020 election to be white people versus everyone else. Other big person news is revealed in this audio postcard from my favorite city in the world. With peach tart breath I give you a quick update on myself and all of the pertinent news in our ever crumbling world. Make America less pea brain fuck witted! Make the world more compassionate and get this sweltering holiday treat within your skull. Joy be Upon you my friends!

Patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

298 Sharing Aunt Margie's Banana Bread with Tony Woods Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

Tony Woods is not only one of the most influential comedians ever to grip a microphone he is also one of the most naturally funny human beings you will ever meet in you in your life. This episode needs to other introduction other than in my opinion statues should be erected all over the world to Tony Woods for the amount of laughter he has brought to this suffering globe. No one makes me laugh harder than Tony Woods and he rings my bell multiple times in this conversation.

I love this man with all my heart and there is no one better to share Aunt Margie's banana bread with, that is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Tony Woods!

297 Lord Byron: Youth & Adventure Jul 13, 2019

Show notes

The life of Lord Byron was more adventurous and debauched than any rock & roll biography you have ever read. In the words of Lady Caroline Lamb, he was "mad, bad and dangerous to know." Get ready for your mind to be blown away by the life of the king of the romantic poets and learn why no hole was safe around this guy!!

When I was 10 years old my family lived in Wilmington, North Carolina in a housing development called King's Grant where all of the streets were named after English writers. My family and I lived on Lord Byron road. Because of this I have always wondered what was so important about this man that he earned a street in North Carolina to be named after him. Through the years I have collected many books on the life of Lord Byron and I brought them with me to England on this last trip.

For the past two months I have been reading all about the life of Lord Byron and I'm happy to present to you now this amazing tale that has receded from many people's memories because it is so far in the past. His life was filled with much tragedy, triumph and swinging of his dick. It is a story so epic in its scale that I have to break it up in multiple episodes to tell it. For this episode we learn about his youth and the adventurous trip he took as a youth to Turkey and Greece that would forever color his poetry, dreams of the future and life the way he thought that it ought to be lived. It is my pleasure to present to you now the life of Lord Byron: Youth & Adventure.

Subscribe on Patreon and I will send you hand written postcards form different places in the world!

patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

296 The Vanity of Small Differences Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

The legendary punk rock poet John Cooper Clarke returns to TRR Smart Camp!

One of the highlights of my trip to the UK was getting to spend the day with JCC at his house and record this conversation at the very table where he writes and is currently writing his memoirs. We discuss the difficulty of writing the story of your life when your life continues to move forward. If anyone has a life story worth retelling it is this man who has tasted the whip of unemployment, been a friend to the China man's night cap, pissed pure gold, operated in the world of degenerate gamblers, the fickleness of fame and the feeling of being an iconic live performer. He's under pressure to finish his memoir before his deadline but he tells me that the defining turning point in his life was when he could start picking out his own clothes and have the style of his own choosing. We talk about the teacher who introduced the love of poetry into John's life, the 19th century romantic poets, how Poe knew how to drive people mad and how Baudelaire changed his life. In this lively chat JCC tells me the ten songs he would take with him on a desert island and the one book he would like to read forever other than the exciting fucking and fighting books of Shakespeare and the bible. We talk about his none poet heroes Elvis and Napoleon, wages and holidays and how the vanity of small differences is the psychological blip that keeps the whole world from collectively getting their shit together. It is an honor to call this man a friend as he is who I want to be when I grow up and that is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only John Cooper Clarke!

295 The Justice of Ridicule with Romesh Ranganathan Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

In the past 5 years since I worked with Romesh Ranganathan at the Comedy Store in London it has been a joy watching his star rise to where he is now crushing it at the highest levels of the British comedy scene. He was kind enough to take a break from his current TV duties to sit down and record this conversation with me. In this soul and brain enriching episode we talk about his show Judge Romesh where he hands out verdicts of domestic disputes where the punishment is ridicule. Bringing his mother back to Sri Lanka where her humor is archived forever thanks to the BBC and the show that was made from it. Any man who loves his mom and makes time for a comedy brother is a top quality human in my book.

If you already know Romesh you will be elated by his personal stories and if you don't know him yet you will fall in love with him now for the knowledge nuggets he is about to insert into your brain. In this chat he drops potent knowledge like what is the most historically significant event ever to take place in Crawley, the area of London where he grew up. Also, the secret to unlocking the mystery of maths, the best secret technique for acting and why the Wu Tang Clan and Mango coconut beard oil will change your life for the better. That is why it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Romesh Ranganathan! www.patreon.com/tomrhodesradiosmartcamp

294 The Beast Think Tank May 14, 2019

Show notes

Beast master Reginald D Hunter has invited me to open for him on his UK theater tour called Facing The Beast. Now after our first week of performing in lovely old English theaters in Devon we sit down to iron out the problems of humanity with the greatest minds ever to assemble in Walthamstow. With Reginald D Hunter, Kash Yusaf, and Pete Johansson I cover, meander and collide with some of the most complex issues humanity faces today. Also this conversation is sauced with the explicit joy of a group of comedian friends just sitting around shooting the shit.

"I think I was unconsciously affected by 70's children's television, because they would make you laugh but also teach you something." - Reginald D Hunter

Patreon.com/TomRhodesRadioSmartCamp

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