Draft:Office Hours Live

Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker (commonly abbreviated as Office Hours Live) is a weekly comedy podcast and live streaming show hosted by comedian, actor, and musician Tim Heidecker. Co-hosted by Doug Lussenhop (aka DJ Douggpound) and musician and video artist Vic Berger IV, the show is celebrated for its absurdist humor, experimental sound design, and incisive cultural satire.

As of December 15, 2024, Office Hours Live has 426 episodes, including episode 0.

History and origins

Office Hours Live began in 2016 as a series of casual Facebook Live streams promoting Heidecker’s then-upcoming album, In Glendale. These sessions marked a significant shift in Heidecker’s public persona. Known for his acerbic satire and guarded, often in-character interviews, Heidecker used this format to engage with fans in a more sincere and personal way.

This newfound openness dovetailed with the themes of In Glendale, which represented a venture into sincerity for Heidecker. While his comedy career is marked by absurdist deconstruction and ironic detachment, his music career began embracing heartfelt storytelling and earnest reflection. The live streams—and later the podcast—reflected this shift, as Heidecker spoke candidly with listeners about his creative process, personal life, and interests.

Format and style

At its core, Office Hours Live is an experimental blend of freeform comedy, listener call-ins, and interviews. Its distinct style comes from the interplay between Heidecker’s sharp wit and the contributions of his co-hosts:

• Sound "Drops": DJ Douggpound and Vic Berger IV use chaotic, real-time sound manipulation to create a unique auditory landscape. Drawing inspiration from the frenetic energy of morning zoo radio, Douggpound’s drops—short sound bites and effects—are pushed to avant-garde extremes. This experimental approach disrupts and amplifies the show’s humor, making the audio itself a source of comedy.

On Oct 13, 2024, Brian Raftery of The New York Times writes at length of his experience in-person viewing a taping of Office Hours:

• "It’s the kind of show where the actor John C. Reilly might show up as Santa Claus or the “Saturday Night Live” cast member James Austin Johnson might call in as Bob Dylan. Much of “Office Hours” consists of Mr. Heidecker joking around with Mr. Berger and Mr. Lussenhop. They weigh in on the news and take calls from viewers. The proceedings are underscored (and often upended) by a seemingly limitless supply of audio samples inserted by Mr. Berger and Mr. Lussenhop, who is known as “D.J. Douggpound.”"

Raftery further explains, "It’s a comfortably chaotic production that showcases Mr. Heidecker’s suburban-dad sincerity and occasional irritability. (He has been known to drop a call the moment he gets bored.) On a recent episode, he guided a listener through an imaginary acid trip; on another, he talked in detail about undergoing a heart procedure. That moment of earnestness was punctuated by ridiculous sound clips.

In many ways, “Office Hours” is a throwback to the zoo-crew morning radio shows of the 1980s and 1990s. Growing up in Allentown, Pa., during that era, Mr. Heidecker listened to Bearman and Keith on 95.1 ZZO, an FM station based in Bethlehem, Pa. From there, he moved on to “The Howard Stern Show.”

Parodies

Office Hours Live has featured several notable parody episodes that satirize prominent figures in media and entertainment. These include:

• Joe Rogan’s Podcast: In a distinct episode, Heidecker mimicked Rogan’s conversational style and approach to controversial topics, poking fun at the self-seriousness and excesses of “bro culture” and pseudo-intellectual discourse.

• Bill Maher’s Club Random: Another standalone episode offered a detailed spoof of Maher’s interview style, recreating the awkwardness and self-indulgence of his freewheeling, unstructured conversations.

Hosts

Tim Heidecker is known for producing and starring in the Tim and Eric Awesome Show on Adult Swim and Tom Goes To The Major. Additionally, Heidecker has created many TV series including Check It Out! With Steve Brule, Beef House, Deck of Cards, On Cinema at the Cinema, Decker, and film Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. Heidecker has released music as early as 2011; his latest album is titled Slipping Away. DJ Douggpound otherwise known as Doug Lussenhop is an editor, writer, and actor known for self-proclaimed “Joke DJ”ing which is a marriage of stand-up comedy and song/soundbite DJing. Lussenhop has worked as an editor for a variety of works such as The Eric Andre Show, Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule, and Portlandia. Douggpound created an online show called Pound House featuring comedian Brent Weinbach. Douggpound produces music including albums Pound It, Up Our Holes, and The Tight Body Workout. Douggpound enjoys skateboarding. Douggpound was born in Darien, IL and is now based in California.

Vic Berger III is a video artist, collaborating with Youtube channel Super Deluxe. His video edits have been featured on VICE News. Vic Berger III graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Music in songwriting. Vic Berger enjoys playing bass guitar and keyboard. Berger is in The Very Good Band.

Reception

Office Hours Live has been noted by a variety of media outlets.

Vulture says this about Office Hours: “So far [Tim]’s chatted with fans from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Sweden, Qatar, Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, and Australia, and you never know when you’ll get a special guest appearance from Nathan Fielder, Vic Berger, or John C. Reilly, who uses the Office Hours platform to check in with Tim, react to other calls, talk about acai bowls, and tease viewers about his in-the-works Office Hours after-show After Hours.”

Office Hours caught the attention of Men’s Health and VICE News after they parodied The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Men’s Health said the show “perfectly encapsulated the cadence and conversational patterns that you'll hear in any given episode of Rogan's show, complete with exceptionally on-brand ad breaks and what many have criticized as a tendency to platform controversial opinions and misinformation. And he did it while wearing a SpaceX hat, in a not-so-subtle nod to Joe Rogan's famous interview with tech CEO Elon Musk.” VICE said “Heidecker, Suresh, and Levick nail the tone and feel of a typical episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. The show, which is often three hours long, meanders from topic to topic with Rogan either peppering an expert with questions that any average Joe would ask, or Rogan and someone who is pointedly not an expert talking in circles around a subject neither of them understands well enough to do anything but spread bad information to millions of listeners.”

Nonesuch Records acknowledged the show when Randy Newman was a surprise guest caller.

Pitchfork gave flowers to Office Hours after their eight-hour marathon show, featuring many guests such as Mac DeMarco and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

AV Club described Office Hours: “The opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a good bit is the primary appeal of improvisational podcasts, and few offer as many opportunities to be in on the joke than Office Hours. Tim Heidecker’s weekly call-in podcast and livestream is chaotic by design, frequently propelled and redirected by of-the-moment topics, off-the-cuff impressions, and stumbled-upon melodies. It’s the latter that inspired the show’s latest effort, a compilation of original music that was conceived live on the air or produced specifically for the podcast.”

External links

• officialofficehours.com