When I heard the first episode of Alleyoop last summer, I was struck by one thing: the laughter at the comedy show felt real, in that there wasn’t much of it. I so often hear audiodramas about comedians that are stuffed full of canned laughter for every. single. joke. Alleyoop’s laughter is scattered, sparse, slightly awkward. And writer and performer A. Yeshaiek has the right cadence, not over-doing it in the slightest. If you’ve ever gone to an open-mic night in New York, you’ve heard a guy like this. Alleyoop isn’t about stand-up comedy, per se, but it hinges on those performances feeling real. And to my ears, these are some of the most realistic fake comedy sets I’ve heard committed to tape.
I don’t want to give too much away about the rest of the story, but it goes to some weird, dark places. Performed almost entirely by Yeshaiek, who switches between narration and dialogue with ease, Alleyoop is the portrait of Oliver Green, a broken man, a real fuck up. He wants to be better, but he doesn’t know how to move forward. So, like many of us, he ends up looking backwards, placing blame in all the wrong places. Can he get out of this existential rut? Or is just digging himself a deeper and deeper hole?
This is a bit of a different release for Local Files Club, in that Alleyoop was already released as a podcast five years ago. But when I talked to Yeshaiek last year, it was clear that there was still some juice left in this idea, and he agreed to revisit it. The result is the Extended Edition that is available for pre-order today, with the full show dropping on August 7. The original six episodes have been remastered, with new dialogue, voice acting, music, and sound design. Plus, Yeshaiek has revisited Oliver’s story with a brand new epilogue chapter and an extra comedy set. It’s all exclusive to this release, available for a one-time purchase of £6 on Bandcamp.
As always, Local Files Club releases are DRM-free, and after you purchase the files, they’re yours to own forever, or until the power goes out permanently. If you need some advice on what to do with audio files, check out our listening guide.
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