So, what is the Midnight Barbecue?

The most frequently asked question we get.

Is it a show about music? Sports? Entertainment? The reviews say it's a "a late-night radio/TV show intended for a college-to-30's audience". What does that mean? How do you define a show that's featured, among many other things, a mullet-rockin' 40-something teaching a clinic in karaoke singing, a road-trip to New Jersey with a prominent music group, a beer taste-test with a nationally-known "master brewer", and a homeless guy singing about pleasuring himself? How do you define a show that's based on the internet (but also can be found on radio and TV) that features a drinking game of-the-week, a contest for the craziest blackout stories, and yet still has been referred to as "smart" and "endearing"? How in the world do you define a show that is taped and broadcast from a studio built in the hosts' apartment?

Unless you watch and listen to every show, there's no way to really put a finger on what the Midnight Barbecue is. It's hysterical. It's interesting. It is whatever you want it to be.....Or, it's this, courtesy co-host Adam Gottschalk (transcribed from a recent interview).

Q: Define the Midnight Barbecue.

A: ...I remember when I was in high school, we used to have this gimmick called "DJ on the Breezeway" (the "breezeway" was a courtyard in the middle of our school, which was absurdly built in the shape of an "A" in honor of, who knows, good grades or something)...basically, a teacher would set up a CD player and speakers, and "spin" dance music while students socialized and ate lunch...it was supposed to be a special treat that only happened a couple times a year.

So anyway, this one particular day, there was a DJ on the Breezeway, and this enormous African-American kid was working microphone between songs, calling himself "the Rock" (the Boulder might have been a better fit) and saying Dwayne Johnson/Rock-like things. At some point, the "Rock" introduced two of our more, let's say, eccentric students, dressed as a bear and a sheep, and explained that they'd choreographed a dance routine to some song. So they start dancing...the bear and the sheep....keep in mind, this whole time, there are like 1,500 students sitting in a big circle, watching this whole thing take place....and then the bear forgets a dance move, and stops---and the sheep starts yelling at him through the costume. And they start fighting....and then they just stop dancing altogether, and sit down with arms folded. Music still playing, students still watching.

And as if on cue, every single (EVERY single), um (what's the politically correct term now?) mentally-handicapped student saw their opportunity; and broke out of their cages (or wherever our southern school kept them) and sprinted down to the center stage....and the retarded dance-party began. These poor kids were in heaven; they got do dance as flamboyantly (and awkwardly) as possible, with a massive audience. And I remember looking over at my friend Jonathan, who was sitting nearby, and we both scanned the whole scene, and took in the incredible absurdity of our whole school sitting captive, watching retarded people dance happily as a 300-pound kid called "the Rock" nodded his head to the music, and two people dressed as a sheep and a bear sat angrily in the middle.....anyway, to me, that's how I'd define the Midnight Barbecue.

So you could trust that description, or you could just watch or listen to the damn thing. Just follow the links and explore the page.

Welcome....