Patrick Dodd- Host of Comedy, Food, Sports

Patrick Dodd is a man with three passions in life: Comedy, Food & Sports. Luckily, he is also hilariously funny, so he balled all that up into a great late nite live show called, suprisingly, “Comedy, Food, Sports“. Patrick brings in local and national comics, food celebrities and sports know-it-alls to talk about the holy trinity of awesome.

Patrick was nice enough to do our very first “10 Questions with…” segment! Please go see his show this Friday Night, March 29th at The Twisted Tail (2nd & South, Phila. PA). The guests are James Hesky (host of the new “The Monthly Hour with James Hesky” at the Philadelphia Improv Theatre) and 97.5FM The Fanatic Radio Host Jason Ashworth.

Food, Sports & Comedy are the three things that more or less run my life. How did you decide to combine those three things into a show instead of, say, just doing standup and talking about food and sports?

It’s my three favorite things in the world.  I’m a sports nut and I’m an above average cook and I’ve been doing stand up for about 5 years.  In the past couple of years I got married and we had a kid about 9 months ago, so I can’t really hit the open mics and work out new material.  I knew I still wanted to utilize my creative side, so I threw some ideas around and thought why don’t I just blog about these three topics.  I wrote a couple reviews and op-ed type pieces and I realized I should be interviewing the pros in these three arenas.  I reached out to Jim Florentine (I featured for him a few times down in Atlanta so we had somewhat of a relationship) and he turned out to be the perfect person to use as sort of template as to how these interviews should go.
The blog really took off and I knew I wasn’t taking full advantage of the potential here.  What is now our production team (The two hosts of the NQAPodcast) and I started talking about the idea of a live version of the blog.  It started with the concept of just a live podcast and it eventually developed into “Conan O’Brien-esque” talk show.  There is still plenty of tweaking to be done, but the concept is rock solid and we’re really happy with it.

Also, I hate when people use the term “well it takes an educated palate to enjoy that.”  So you have to teach your mouth and taste buds to like something that it naturally doesn’t?
That felt pretty liberating…great question!

The previous chef at the Ugly American was originally from Rochester and he made a garbage plate that they still have on their menu.  It’s kind of deconstructed, almost “sober” version that is good, but much different that the Rochester version.  It’s very tasty, but much smaller and it’s missing some crucial elements.  It’s more of a gastropub version of it for lack of a better term.

As a kid, I always remember getting ice cream right around the 7^th inning stretch.  They would put it in the little batting helmet and that was always my favorite part of the game.   I don’t do that now, but I remember almost counting the outs and potential batters to figure out how long it will take until it’s ice cream time.  It was usually the Triple-AAA Baltimore affiliate that we would go see in Rochester, so if they weren’t playing the Pawtucket Red Sox, I didn’t really give a shit if they won or not really.

Are you a fan of the tailgate? If so, what sport and what is a favorite thing to eat while there, bought or cooked. If not, how about just while hanging out at home or at a bar to watch a game?

When I interviewed Rory Scovel, he said he wishes he could just tailgate all the time.  Even if you’re just grilling and drinking beers behind a car in their driveway with no game associated with it.  I always thought that was a hilarious take on it, because tailgating is the best.  Everyone is drinking and eating and trying to one up each other by having the most over the top set up.  I lived in Atlanta for a couple of years and I had season tickets to their games, because anyone can get season tickets basically anywhere they want there.  Anyway, the tailgating was out of control.  People would have huge tents, with DJ’s, competition size smokers, huge RV’s decked out with Falcons logos, and the food was unreal!  Every type of pork imaginable and legitimately some of the best BBQ in the country.  Even though Atlanta fans are pretty fair weather and most people down there aren’t even from Atlanta; it’s kind of a must see.  When the Eagles came down a couple of years ago (Vick’s first time back to Atlanta), you would’ve thought you were at an outdoor concert and BBQ competition.  It’s hard to even explain to be honest.

At a bar, I’m a major sucker for good nachos.  Unfortunately, bars fuck this up all the time.  First off, lettuce has no business being in nachos! I can’t stress that enough.  I would need a full page to explain the rest of my problems I have with most how most bars in the city, and all cities for that matter, serve nachos.  McGillin’s Olde Pub probably makes the best overall nachos I’ve ever had.  I can’t say enough good things about their nachos or the place itself.  Definitely a great spot to watch the game!
When I’m at home watching a game, I try to make everything from scratch.  So I’ll usually make a pizza or two with some nachos or wings or something of that sort, but I try to make sure to create everything from scratch. During the NFL season, I usually make something that’s kind of an all day event.  I’ll make my meat gravy or chili or something like and just let it simmer till midway through the first games.  Meatball sandwiches or just meatballs in sauce are definitely in my top 3 game time at home foods.

Do the comics you have on lean more towards food or sports in their interests?

I’ve somewhat handpicked the comedians I interviewed that I know are into sports and potentially pretty knowledgeable about food, so it’s not super easy to answer that accurately.  Florentine knows tons about sports and not much at all about food, while Nick DiPaolo knows a lot about both and then Dan Levy, literally, knows nothing about sports and is really into crazy types of unique foods.
If I had to guess, comics generally are probably more into food.  It seems like a lot of comics grew up a little bit more on the nerdy side and that’s a big reason why they are so funny and successful, but their sports knowledge is usually pretty below average.  Philly and Boston are probably excluded from that list, because of how into their local teams they are.

You are a member of Red Sox Nation. What foods would you cast as Bill Buckner and Roger Clemens (pre-jerkoff steroid Clemens).

I hate to be “that guy”, but Buckner was a total scapegoat.  There were so many poor coaching decisions that put them in that awful situation.  That being said, I’ve give him some sort of acai berry, blueberry, super fruit smoothie so he can wake up his brain to have some hand-eye coordination to make a play on a simple grounder that my fucking 9 month old son could’ve made.
For Clemens, I would give him some steroid infused pulled pork.  He’s a redneck, so he loves his BBQ and he supposedly started doing roids after he left the Sox.  I think the issue was that no one in Boston was giving him his juice.  He won back to back Cy Youngs after he started pumping needles in his ass cheeks.  The Sox should’ve been feeding him roids from day one!

What is your favorite thing to cook at home and the thing you loathe the most to cook at home?

I love making anything from scratch.  I think it’s just a pretty cool feeling when you create something delicious that came from completely unprocessed, raw items.
I’m really started to love the “low and slow” techniques.  Something like braised short ribs that just cook all day in just a cornucopia of tasty juices.  A lot can be said about how much flavor and texture can be almost perfected with that “low and slow” method.  The comfort level is through the roof if it’s done properly!
I really don’t loathe cooking anything.  I hate working with processed items, but that’s pretty easily avoidable.  I’m not big fan of baking mostly because every measurement has to be so precise.  There isn’t much that you can play around with outside of adding a flavor here and there.  I really don’t measure anything, so it’s tough for me to follow a recipe completely but you pretty much have to with baking.

Thanks again to Patrick for being our guinea pig for “Ten Questions with..” and check out his monthly show!

Flyer for the March 29th Comedy, Food, Sports