“Ishtar.” “From Justin to Kelly.” “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.” “Cats.”
No, this isn’t the marquee of a movie theater in Hell, but rather some of the episodes of bad movie podcast “The Flop House.” For 16 years, Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington and Elliott Kalan have analyzed box office or critical bombs that either failed to make a dent in pop culture or became notoriously reviled.
“The Flop House” is hitting a milestone on July 15, with the group releasing its 400th episode, a discussion of legendary bad movie “Troll 2.” What started as a lark in the early days of podcasting has turned into a refuge for the trio’s creativity, friendship and even a way for the hosts to pay the bills.
Speaking with the trio on a warm spring night at Brooklyn’s Hinterlands Bar, which Wellington owns, it’s clear how their quick wit and easy chemistry has kept the show going. That said, as McCoy is quick to note in his self-deprecating manner, “That’s our secret to success: Be there before everyone else, where it’s easier to get noticed.”
The first episode launched on September 7, 2007, as McCoy, Wellington and another friend riffed on the 2005 action misfire “Stealth.” McCoy was hoping to develop a career in comedy, putting in time at New York’s sketch and improv scenes, and Wellington, despite not having professional comedy ambitions, was his funniest friend. But the “Flop House” formula didn’t quite gel until McCoy invited another mainstay in the improv community, Kalan, to be the new third host starting in early 2008.
“They lucked out in finding someone who can talk, talk, talk without stopping,” Kalan quips. “The show needed a Jewish person on it. These two Midwestern gentiles needed an East Coast Jew, for the tax breaks.”
Kalan’s frequent tangents, which frustrate, mystify and impress his co-hosts in equal measure, were the secret sauce to complement McCoy’s hangdog humor and Wellington’s “cool guy, but knows everything about ‘Warhammer’” persona.
As their banter became breezier, the trio gained more buzz and press, part of which could be attributed to Kalan and McCoy’s eventual day jobs writing for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” The hype around this podcast — two “Daily Show” writers and their funny friend snark on bad movies — was enough to land glowing coverage in The New York Times, The A.V. Club and Slate. With the hype, their audience grew, and “The Flop House” became a more meaningful part of their lives.
“We did it for many years just as a hobby and not particularly professionally,” Kalan said. “Dan would say, ‘Hey, it’s been a while since we put an episode out, we should get together tonight.’ I think once you’re written up in places kind of spontaneously, you start taking it more seriously.”
Another part of the business that became more serious to the trio in recent years is the fiscal element, which has remained remarkably steady for men who work in volatile industries. Wellington, who also owns Brooklyn’s Minnie’s Bar in addition to The Hinterlands, was able to depend on advertising and live show revenue from “The Flop House” to keep afloat during a pandemic. And for Kalan, who left his position as head writer at “The Daily Show” in 2015 and has written for “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and the Fox animated series “HouseBroken” since then, and McCoy, who left “The Daily Show” in 2021 and worked on projects such as “Hell of A Week with Charlamagne Tha God,” the podcast has given them financial stability during the WGA strike.
“No one’s getting rich off of this,” McCoy says. “But it’s nice to know that I currently, after 11 years that I had television writing jobs, having no current television writing job, I’m not going to be on the street, because between the podcast and my wife’s income we can live.”
Kalan noted that despite the fact that both he and McCoy are Emmy-winning writers from a popular show, there is a dependability in podcasting that can’t be duplicated in other entertainment fields.
Beyond the money, the trio maintain what Wellington refers to as “the best enforced friendship” as a result of working together.
“Dan and Stuart are the friends that I’m in contact with the most,” Kalan said. “They’re great dudes and I love them, but also because we have this thing there are times our friendship is hurt by the fact that we also have a show business, business. But it also means that we have to talk to each other regularly, which is really good.”
After episode 400, “The Flop House” is launching a new project called Flop TV, a series of remote live shows focusing on some of the most notorious titles they haven’t covered yet, such as 2002’s “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever” and 1987’s “Nukie.”
And while the movies just don’t get any better, “The Flop House” hosts don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
“Doing the show for so long and doing live shows… there’s just a level of trust I have with these guys,” Wellington says. “I know that they have my back, that they will fill the space, that they will know where I’m going. I trust almost no one in this world as much these guys, and that’s a really big deal for me.”
