The Front

The Canadian humorist Jonathan Goldstein, author of the occasionally hilarious books Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible and Lenny Bruce is Dead, now has a show on CBC radio called Wiretap. Though the CBC lists it as a “Drama” series, Goldstein thinks of himself as a humorist, which, according to his own definition, is “a comedian who doesn’t necessarily make you laugh.” Though actually, there is a good chance his show will make you laugh, but it’s not a simple sort of humor. It will also make you think. It might even make you sad, in a funny way.

Consisting mostly of recorded phone conversations, gloomy monologues, witty short stories, and “self-referential vignettes”, Wiretap offers half-hour-long glimpses into the lives of Goldstein and his small circle of friends, who often get him involved in darkly humorous and absurd situations. Listening to Goldstein’s monotonous voice describe the mediocrity of his struggles is like watching a man trying to read aloud Kafka in the middle of a circus; he seems determined to be gloomy, calm, and intellectual, but is consistently distracted and overwhelmed with the slow-motion horror of someone surrounded by bears on tricycles and cars filled with clowns.

Though there are usually few people on the show besides Goldstein, his friends, and his family, there will occasionally be an interview with some randomly interesting person. For example, Goldstein has interviewed Bart Carter, an atheist who runs a service that promises to take care of the pets of Christians in case the rapture leaves them behind, or Patri Friedman, grandson of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who runs the Seasteading institute, an organization devoted to establishing new nations on man-made islands in the ocean.

Some episodes devote large chunks of time to the reading of one of Goldstein’s stories. More often, Wiretap will begin with a short excerpt from Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by neuroscientist David Eagleman. Each story presents a hypothetical description of what will happen to you when you die. Rarely spiritual, occasionally depressing, and usually insightful, these unorthodox predictions are designed to make you reflect on your life as you understand it now and turn that understanding on its head.

Though now in its 6th season, the show remains relatively unknown outside of Canada, with an estimated audience of 350,000 people. Episodes can be downloaded for free at the Wiretap website and as a podcast on iTunes. It’s good for a laugh, and the gravity with which Goldstein lives his life just might make yours seem a bit lighter. Some good points to start are the episodes Mysteries, 26 minutes, 30 seconds, and Patent Pending,. Enjoy.