Podcast Review: The Projection Booth

A podcast I was really digging that took an unfortunate turn!

The Projection Booth

The Gist

The Projection Booth has been on the air since April of 2011. The hosts are Mondo Justin and Mike White. The weekly episodes clock in around an hour, sometimes more, and the focus of each episode is on one film and one film alone. While The Projection Booth does tend to focus on cult and B movies more than any other type of movie, there isn’t any sort of restriction in regards to the films that the show is willing to cover. In addition to a discussion about a given film each episode contains interviews with people who were in some way involved with the movie being discussed. The podcast can also be found on the internet radio network, Jackalope Radio.

Episodes Listened To

#33: The Man From Earth
#34: The Spook Who Sat By The Door
Special: Last Action Hero – Part 2

My Thoughts

The first thing that springs to my mind about The Projection Booth is how laid back and easy going the two hosts are. Mondo Justin and Mike White know their stuff, and they very obviously do a lot of research for their show. Despite the very professional feel of the show the hosts maintain a consistent tone of witty banter and friendly back and forth conversations. The hosts were the main reason I became engaged with The Projection Booth, to be honest the content was often secondary to my enjoyment of the two hosts.

That’s not to say that I don’t like the content that The Projection Booth brings to the table. The show looks at a nice variety of films and imparts to the viewer a lot of good information. The Projection Booth goes beyond a pure opinion based podcast thanks in part to the interviews. The interviews aren’t always the most in-depth interviews, but they do consistently offer a different perspective from that of the hosts.

Sadly, despite what I have just said, there were some unfortunate developments with The Projection Booth as I was planning to write this review. Mondo Justin left the show a couple of episodes after the three I used as my basis for this review. From everything I can gather the parting was amicable, although truth be told that doesn’t much matter to me. Justin left to start up his own podcast, The Mondo Film Podcast Show.

I stuck with The Projection Booth for about five or six episodes after Justin left. I still very much think Mike is a good guy, and he does know his stuff. But for me The Projection Booth was the Mondo Justin and Mike White show. My enjoyment came from their banter and their different takes on the films they were watching. The episodes of The Projection Booth post Justin’s departure didn’t work for me. They were still well put together and had great production values. My issue, and this may be my issue alone, is that minus Justin I don’t find The Projection Booth as interesting or engaging as I once did. Mike has soldiered on and he has tried numerous special guests, a robot voice, and I believe he has finally settled on a new permanent co-host. I wish Mike and The Projection Booth all kinds of good luck in the future but I will not be a part of that future. The Projection Booth is no longer the Mondo Justin and Mike White show and that is why my vote is to unsubscribe from the podcast.

The Bottom Line

Unsubscribe

Cheers,
Bill