The Dollop
The Dollop is a podcast hosted since April 2014 by American comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds. Each episode centres around an event or person from history selected for its humorousness or peculiarity. Typical episodes feature subjects from American history described by Anthony and commented on by Anthony and Reynolds.
The podcast began as a way of preparing for Anthony’s one-man show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It was a solo project where Anthony would talk out loud about various subjects. Unsatisfied with the initial results, Anthony decided to change to a history focus, and invite other comedians to listen to the stories. Gareth Reynolds was the first guest; after his performance, Anthony decided to keep him as the only permanent guest. Anthony was inspired by the book A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn because it taught him that the history he was taught as a child was full of lies.
Reynolds and Anthony have recorded a number of live episodes in various U.S. cities, as well as Canada and three tours of Australia. Live episodes performed outside of the U.S. have featured stories from those respective countries; for example, topics covered in Australia included the Emu War and Arthur Phillip. Live shows both inside and outside the U.S. often include additional guests, including Patton Oswalt, Wil Anderson, and Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff of the podcast My Favorite Murder.
Occasional episodes reverse the format, and consist of stories selected and read by Reynolds to Anthony (for example the episode on Nim Chimpsky).