IRRATIONAL OBSESSIONS: The Masked Man Show
Of all my idiosyncrasies, the oddest may be my devotion to podcasts about things I know nothing about. I’m not talking about some important but obscure historical event that sheds light on the modern world. No, these are contemporary topics that have no particular redeeming moral value whatsoever. Like wrestling. My favorite of these is The Masked Man Show, hosted by David Shoemaker, who’s smart, self-effacing and absolutely winning. He knows he should know better except he’s one of the foremost experts on wrestling anywhere (he was terrific in the HBO Andre the Giant documentary). Do I know what he’s talking about? Hell no! Everything I’ve learned about Becky Lynch and Brock Strowman comes from what he says. (Looking up the spellings I just remembered that Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman are in fact different people whose names I combined into one super-wrestler.)
Shoemaker dutifully discusses the week in wrestling, but for me it might as well be made up. I just want to hear the way he expertly recounts it and his interpretations and digressions. It’s a delicate balance because he’s giving wrestling an importance that I suspect he knows it shouldn’t have—he has to suspend his own sense of disbelief. That gap between his own sense of reverence and his own better judgement is part of what makes the show great. This is probably the most anybody has ever written about a podcast who doesn’t watch wrestling, but I don’t care, he’s that good. And he’s equally good as his unmasked self discussing media and politics on The Press Box.
The Ringer has other great podcasts about topics I don't care about, like college basketball (One Shining Podcast still known as T’d Up with Tate and Titus to its original devotees). I’ll listen to anything Chris Ryan talks about, even Sicario: Day of the Soldado—the more he’s into something the better it is. I’m even up to date on Bachelor Party. I don’t watch reality television, in fact I loathe it, but when Juliet Litman gets revved up as she talks about The Bachelor it’s one of the funniest things on the air. I don’t know who the characters are and I don’t want to know, but when Juliet gets obsessed with some contestant then I just care about her intense reactions.
This happens in literature as well. John McPhee mastered the art of writing brilliantly about obscure topics that end up taking hold of your imagination. Suddenly, you find yourself fascinated with oranges. His books on bark canoes, on shad, and far more esoteric topics are completely absorbing. These meticulously-reported stories are full of dry humor and show an appreciation of truly eccentric people who have rarefied physical skills or are experts in arcane fields. He’s such a polished writer, like E.B. White, that you learn something just by reading him. Mostly you learn how much better a writer he is than you are.
A good writer, of course, can make just about any topic engaging. Take Naomi Fry, who knows more about trashy celebrity culture than is healthy. But that’s one of her beats at The New Yorker, and she’s a pleasure to read on any topic, even tabloid extremism. A writer can’t say I know this isn’t your thing, but trust me keep reading. They have to show the importance or morbid fascination of their subject through their own skill. A podcast host, however, can come right to the point. And it’s a strange thing when in the middle of recounting what happened in Wrestlemania, Shoemaker will say something like “well if you didn’t watch the match then you wouldn’t be listening right now.” David, you couldn’t be more wrong about that!