Podcasts can be at their absolute best when they feel like a raucous party to which you, as a listener, are invited. This is a hard kind of alchemy to achieve: and is incredibly subjective, due to the intimate and often private way in which podcasts are experienced. Something I believe helps a listener feel like they’re in the room with the party is a strong structure, even within anarchic comedy. Hey Riddle Riddle provides not just one structure, but several tiny structures within every episode. The cast is led by Adal Rifai of Hello From The Magic Tavern, an absurdist Lord of the Rings-style improv show which frankly belongs in the Criterion Collection of podcasts. He has recruited humourists John Patrick Coan and Erin Keif to solve riddles with him – and the listeners are on side, too.
Each episode runs through several riddles – some episodes more than others. This structure asks the listener to try and solve these linguistic puzzles with Rifai, Coan and Keif – but we also get to hear them play out the scenes in which these riddles take place. There is a lovely leap in soundscape every time the cast begin to improvise a scene, which lets the listener know we’re in a slightly different world than our own. This is a really clever audio technique that really elevates the listening experience. The scenes are high octane and hilarious – as a trio they are continually one-upping each other. There is a competitive, almost combative tone to their puzzle-solving and it is most definitely not safe for work, and keeping up with the pace asks for a really concentrated listen.
As someone who is normally made deeply uncomfortable by improv’s riskiness, I very quickly trusted the cast of Hey Riddle Riddle to keep the rhythm of the play going. The riddles are sometimes classic, sometimes ones we’ve definitely heard before, and sometimes so challenging they’re utterly frustrating. I recommend starting at the very beginning and listening along as they go, to place yourself comfortably in the game Rifai, Coan and Keif are playing. This is a great listen for turning quiet afternoons or long commutes into a total riot, laced with puzzles of all different kinds.
