The Last Podcast On The Left Is Coming For You, Reykjavík

If you like your comedy with a healthy (or unhealthy, depending on your perspective) serving of murder, haunting or war crimes then you’re probably already a diehard fan of The Last Podcast On The Left. Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski and Ed Larson are coming to Reykjavík later this month for a one-night-only live show at Harpa. The Grapevine caught up with Marcus, a veteran investigator of all things bloody and bizarre, about what fans can expect.

OK, so this is not the most impartial interview — you own a stake in the Grapevine and we have been friends for a while. So this won’t be your first time in Iceland.

Iceland was actually my first vacation anywhere outside America and it’s a bizarre place to have as your first trip for pleasure. I came here with my wife and we had a magical time — visiting a horse farm, lying in a hot tub at midnight in the winter, driving through a mountain pass and nearly dying. We joked at the time that “if we die here, they’re going to name a mountain after us,” and our friend Addy said, “Ah yes, they’ll name it ‘Another Dead Tourist Pass.’” That’s when we realised how expendable our lives were and how unsurprised anyone would be if we were to die in Iceland. So we’re coming back!

Has it been tricky to adapt to performing live for non-native English speakers?

The audiences can be a bit more reserved and polite, like in Berlin, but you don’t need the boisterous American laughter all the time. Back home you’ll get people coming to the show tripping on acid and they’ll start talking to us on stage because they forget they are at a live show! But it’s definitely a certain type of person who isn’t afraid to laugh at something dark that comes to our shows — they’re usually a bit more boisterous than your average Berliner or Swede.

There’s a lot of true crime around. What sets Last Podcast apart from the rest?

We have been interested in this stuff since we were children. I was five-years-old and had a picture of Ted Bundy’s corpse on my bedroom wall that I cut out of a Weekly World News.

We actually love this shit and we are truly into the esoteric stuff and the dark historical stuff we cover. Of course we had to teach ourselves how to do this, as we simply weren’t good enough to handle some of the more historical topics in the beginning. Hell, we’re still making it up as we go along!

What goes into a good Last Podcast episode is not just horrible things happening to people — it’s when there’s something kind of ridiculous about it, too.

What can you tell us about the live show without blowing the surprise?

It’s basically a stand-up show with three people. I have a narrative that runs throughout and then Henry and Ed will riff on it. They’ve been working together in sketch comedy for ages, originally with my favourite sketch group of all time, Murderfist, and they are able to bring that energy to a live show.

We used to have different sections devoted to UFOs, cryptids, etc., but now we’re doing one long show on a single subject and I am loving the way it’s going. I’m really proud of this live show and I can’t wait for people to see it.

The Last Podcast On The Left is live at Harpa on October 22. Grab your tickets while you still can at tix.is. See you there.