DoT EP92: Satirist Jimmy Tingle On Politics and Optimism, plus Audio Excerpts from Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell

Jimmy Tingle is one of the first people I interviewed in the Boston comedy scene years ago. He was hosting and producing a stand-up show on race relations that featured, among others, Patrice O’Neal and Sue Costello. During my twenty years covering this scene, Tingle has always been a community-minded guy, whether it’s been as a theater owner for five years or his Humor for Humanity comedy benefit shows. So it wasn’t a surprise when he declared his candidacy for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts in the Democratic primary last year. He eventually lost, but garnered 41.3 percent of the vote as a first-time candidate in the primary. His new show, 20/20 Vision, recounts his campaign, surreal moments like having Matt Damon and Paula Poundstone record robocalls on his behalf, and presents some of his out-of-the-box ideas, like using exercise bikes as a power source or windmills near highways to power traffic lights.

Tingle is a political comedian, but he’s never been a fire-breathing, tear-it-all-down satirist. He’s always been optimistic and upbeat. It is no easy feat to look at the divisions in this country and offer optimistic solutions. I sat down with Tingle in the Podcast Kitchen and asked him how he remains so hopeful, the one time I ever saw him get angry in a political discussion, about his early days in the Boston and New York comedy scenes, about the campaign, how recovery inspired his political bid, how he believes in government, his cameo on VEEP, and a lot more. You can find out more about where he’s going to be and what he’s up to at jimmytingle.com

I am very pleased to present you with this week’s featured tracks, excerpts from the audiobook of Nathan Ballingrud’s latest collection, Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell. Ballingrud has a remarkable imagination and a delicious vocabulary. Take the subtitle seriously – these are lovingly rendered tales of the horrific. Severed heads with lolling tongues that induce a feeling of violence in anyone around them. Angels who tear apart their hosts to be born into this world. And child-eating ghouls.

About that last one. You may have heard rumors about Jonathan Wormcake. About how he and his friends attacked the Cold Water Fair in 1914, what he does up there in that mansion, about how the children are drawn there by ghastly visions. Maybe some of it is true, but Wormcake is dying, and he’d like to set the record straight on a few myths about ghouls and how the Skullpocket Fair came to be before he goes. And that brings us to the beginning of “Skullpocket,” one of the six stories in Wounds. You can find him at nathanballingrud.com or on Twitter under @nallingrud. He’ll be a guest on the podcast next week

Audio excerpts courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from “Skullpocket”, read by Danny Campbell in the compilation WOUNDS by Nathan Ballingrud. Copyright © 2019 by Nathan Ballingrud. Excerpted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.