About

Ted O’Gorman and Michael Paul Smith are two childhood friends who will do anything to make you laugh. They’ve been writing and collaborating together for their entire friendship, and it’s high time they read some comedy sketches into microphones. So they made a sketch comedy podcast, and called it Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones. It’s produced by Michael’s wife; podcaster Gillian Pensavalle (The Hamilcast, True Crime Obsessed), and features the three of them, as well as Ted’s brother Mike O’Gorman (Vice Principals, A.P Bio) in every episode.

This podcast is an unapologetic look into the minds of Ted and Michael, who have always been guided by the creative principle of, “If it’s funny to us, it’ll be funny to other people, too.” The sketches may be stand-alone scenes, showcases for their impressions, brief moments of absurdity, or just Ted and Michael being themselves. They range from straightforward and wholesome to bizarre and outlandish, but they are, and will always be, “silly for the sake of silly.”

Ted and Michael are joined by their many comedically gifted friends on each episode of Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones; making the final product one in which the sense of fun and celebration is palpable, contagious, and inclusive without exception. In listening, you’ll get a sense that each scene ends with a burst of laughter, as though the actors themselves could barely hold it together. And if you listen to the outtakes at the end of each episode, this is absolutely true.

This podcast is made for comedy nerds of all kinds. The goal of Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones is simply to make you laugh. Laughter is one of life’s great unifying forces, and this podcast hopes to inject just a little more of it out into the world.  

The Production

The bulk of Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones is recorded in the Manhattan apartment that Michael shares with his wife (and the show’s executive producer) Gillian Pensavalle. Gillian is the creator and host of the popular podcast The Hamilcast, and the co-host of the hit podcasts True Crime Obsessed and My So-Called Podcast. While the out-of-town cast members record remotely, Michael and Gillian’s apartment is where the New York recording happens.

The full cast of Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones is a veritable “who’s who” of comedic talent in New York and LA. The cast ranges from newcomers to veterans, but Ted and Michael are proud to call them all their friends. Michael and Gillian share the editing responsibilities, while all other creative decisions; from script edits, to casting, to directing, to social media, are shared between Ted, Michael, and Gillian.

The Creators

Ted and Michael started writing Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones in March of 2018, although many of the ideas may go back as far as when they were doing plays together in high school, or performing live shows with the other members of their improv/sketch group Basement View Improv. They have also performed together on the former comedy website Black 20 (where Michael and Gillian first met), and on Michael and Gillian’s hit webseries The Residuals. They never stopped getting together to hang out and write, and after abandoning some other concepts for independent projects, they arrived at perhaps the only format that was sure to keep them challenged, and prevent them from getting bored: sketch comedy.

Gillian started out in radio, fell in love with comedy, and brought them both together in her podcasting career. She appears as a performer in each episode of Ted and Michael Read Sketches Into Microphones. Some other regular cast members are Ted and Michael’s fellow members of Basement View Improv: Nick Costa (The Residuals) and Mike O’Gorman (Vice Principals, A.P Bio), as well as Kelly Warne (Coffee Shop), and Luke Sholl (College Humor).