Review of The Clip Show

First airing on July 19, 2006 and brought to you by Ovalworks Media and Flower Street Moving Pictures, The Clip Show was created by Host Jim Kirks and his co-writer/producer Chris Baker. The duo works together in Colorado Springs, Colorado and scripts the show each week. Sifting through the massive vlogosphere, they choose two shows to highlight, comment on, tease, and rate in each installment. The two are also the masterminds behind a growing network of Ovalworks Media sites, including the Hands on Food and Cinema Psychic.

The script that Kirks reads each Tuesday from behind his news desk has a nice blend of witty and casual language, especially for those familiar with the world of internet video – like referring to a “post-Congdon Rocketboom world.” Except for unsolved mysteries and other special installments, each episode shows clips from two video blogs – from TIki Bar TV to Galacticast

– intercut with Kirks’ commentary. His reviews also tend to take on the style of the show under critique, as evidenced exquisitely in Episode 13, in which Kirks parodies the popular Goodnight Burbank by co-hosting and fighting with himself. At the end of each review, Kirks rates the site using The Clip Show’s own rating scale – The COGDN (Cooperative Online Guide to Determining Non-awards). Ranging from a one to 13 – rating of eight signifies “a podcast for the masses,” and a nine means the site is like “warm cookies from grandma” – any relation to Amanda Congdon is surely unintentional. There is also a Vox blog, on which Kirks and crew narrate their filming progress.

A personal favorite is the episode covering Geek Entertainment TV and Freshtopia, where Kirks interacts with a poor man’s R2.