| Poolside Chats | |
|---|---|
Poolside Chats title card |
|
| Format | Internet Talk show |
| Created by | Tom Green and Neil Hamburger |
| Starring | Neil Hamburger |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 6 as of January 15, 2007 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
| Running time | approx. 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ManiaTV! tomgreen.com |
| Original run | August 31, 2006 – present |
Poolside Chats with Neil Hamburger is a live webcast that airs on comedian Tom Green's website.
Contents |
Poolside Chats airs live following Tom Green's House Tonight. The star of the show is self-described "America's Funnyman", Neil Hamburger. Neil takes calls in which he usually trades insults with the callers. He has referred to some of his guests as "diseased degenerate rock and rollers." There is no schedule for the show; it airs randomly when there are suitable gaps in Hamburger's touring schedule. The most recent episode aired in January 2007.
| Date | Special guest(s) |
| 31 August 2006 | Buzz Osborne (Watch) |
| 5 September 2006 | Pleaseeasaur (Main guest), Pool Guy Don (Watch) |
| 27 September 2006 | Jack Grisham (Main guest), Jack's hairstylist (Watch) |
| 24 October 2006 | Bonnie "Prince" Billy (Main guest), Andy Dick, Pool Guy Don (Watch) |
| 8 November 2006 | Kyle Gass (Main guest), Steve O, Pool Guy Don (Watch) |
| 15 January 2007 | Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim (Watch) |
Poolside Chats has a simple format. Filmed outside of Tom Green's house in the evenings, positioned by Green's outdoor pool, hence 'Poolside'. There is a small table where a telephone is positioned, from which Hamburger takes calls for his guest(s). Hamburger is seated to the right of the table, and his guest(s) to the left.
Hamburger takes a mix of questions he has thought of himself and questions from callers. The show operates without (or with very ineffectual) call screening, meaning anyone can call in and ask anything, serious or otherwise.
The show's affiliation with Tom Green (a notoriously confrontational prankster), coupled with its internet-only fanbase leads to the majority of the calls being pranks, insulting Hamburger or his guest(s), shouting racial slurs, or quoting internet memes. This led to Hamburger himself lashing out angrily against the callers (often without even being provoked), and hanging up or berating callers if they either did not respond quickly enough or gave signs they appeared to be setting up for a prank.
This haphazard format leads to few actual questions of worth being asked, and relies on a torrent of genuine insults exchanged between callers and Hamburger for its comedic value.
In the episode of Tom Green Live before Poolside Chats, Tom Green (out of frustration with a repeatedly failing phone system) smashed the thousand-dollar Pepper Pad portable computer supplied by Mania TV. In response, Mania TV cut off the live feed, changing it to Mania TV's feed so viewers saw its programming instead of Poolside Chats.
Poolside Chats carried on unknowingly, until callers informed Hamburger that the feed had been changed (the first few minutes of the show aired before the feed was changed). This led to angry callers demanding the feed to be fixed, Hamburger greeting callers with 'You're not on the air!' and 'Poolside SHIT with Neil Hamburger' (phrases that would be used again in future episodes), and bemused conversations between Hamburger, guest King Buzzo and Tom Green.
With one angry caller, Hamburger claimed that Bob Dole had censored the show, to which the caller replied 'Yeah, fuck Bob Dole!'. Hamburger then suggested the caller 'go down to the local wall' and spray paint 'Fuck Bob Dole' on it, to which the caller replied 'I'll spray paint everything'. This has become a joke with fans of Poolside Chats, who bring up their dislike for Dole because of his censorship.
Eventually Hamburger began breaking character - his voice changed from the Hamburger voice to his real voice, he repeatedly laughed and spoke 'un-Hamburger-like'. This increased when Hamburger was informed as to why Mania TV changed the feed - completely breaking character and actually looking shocked. This eventually led to everyone involved (Hamburger, Buzzo & Tom Green) ending the show early and abruptly, realizing that there really was no show.
The episode was briefly available to view on the On Demand section of the site, before being taken down. There has been some speculation as to why this was. Some have claimed that it is because the audio quality of the episode wasn't up to the standards of future shows. It is more likely that the reason was due to both Hamburger's breaking of character during the episode, and the general chaos the show had fallen into.
Episode 2 was filmed 'live-to-tape' as technical difficulties meant the first few minutes of the show were not broadcast live, but the feed returned after, leading to humorous conversations between Hamburger, Pleaseeasaur and callers who did not know the feed was back up.
An episode of Poolside Chats was planned on February 12, 2007 with special guests King Buzzo and 'Quacker', but was pushed back to February 14, 2007, and then canceled altogether. This was mostly likely due to traveling issues as Hamburger was touring with Tenacious D as their opening act.
As of March 14, 2007, only Episodes 4 and 5 were available to view in the On Demand section of TomGreen.com. When the On Demand section was 'taken down' because 'the system couldn't handle it' (as reported by Tom Green himself) it was said all the previous content would be available from before. No further episodes of Poolside Chats, or major-length content from TomGreen.com had been put back up until all the episodes were removed.
As of the April 4, 2007, all previously hosted episodes of Poolside Chats were removed from the On Demand section of TomGreen.com, as well as the section dedicated to the show. No reason has been given for this, and around the same time the official forum for TomGreen.com also was removed, which featured a section dedicated to discussion for the show. Only via Hamburger's official website and the Poolside Chats fansite are the episodes currently available.
Hamburger had originally stated on the official forum for TomGreen.com that he would be available for a new episode to be filmed on either March 26 and/or 27, 2007. Instead of this, Hamburger appeared on the March 26 episode of Tom Green Live as a guest along with Steve-O and 'Quacker', who was to be a guest on Poolside Chats previously. During this show Hamburger walked off set. This combined with the removal of old episodes from the "On Demand" section of TomGreen.com, which targeted the 'silliness' and comedy Green has been previously associated with, made it uncertain if Hamburger and Poolside Chats would be returning for future episodes.
The Poolside Chats section returned to the "On Demand" section of the TomGreen.com website on May 19, 2007, containing only an 'archive' clip of Hamburger performing as the opening comedy act for an Alien Ant Farm performance, along with some previously removed episodes of Tom Green Live (including the above mentioned episode with Steve-O). These were only available to view for a few months before again being removed.
On the June 19, 2007 episode of Tom Green Live, which featured Hamburger as the guest, Tom Green stated that Poolside Chats was not canceled, and apologized to Hamburger for both his and Steve-O's behavior on the show. In typical Hamburger style this was blown off as Steve-O being 'on drugs' and that he 'needed help'.
Currently, there has not been a new episode of Poolside Chats for over two years, although Hamburger still appears as a guest on Tom Green's House Tonight (formerly Tom Green Live). There is yet to be official confirmation from either Green or Hamburger as to whether Poolside Chats will make a return.
On July 23, 2011 Hamburger responded to a fan on Twitter asking if there would ever be new Poolside Chats episodes by saying "50/50!".