From New York to L.A., it’s ‘The Next Big Thing’

Cultural observers, especially in Los Angeles, are continually on the lookout for “the next big thing.” Well, it’s landed in Pasadena, and is far less grandiose than one might expect.

“The Next Big Thing” is an hourlong variety show that features plays, humor, music and interviews, on KPCC-FM (89.3).

The program originates at WNYC-FM in New York, and its title is thoroughly tongue-in-cheek, says host Dean Olsher.

“I like the way it sounded. But we never have meant it literally,” he said.

Instead the show, which went into national syndication in January, and debuted on KPCC this week, airs Sundays from 7 to 8 p.m., is smart without being smart-alecky, Olsher said. Its segments deal with topics all over the map -- from the food and matchmaking offered at a family deli in New York, to the experiences of an heirloom tomato farmer in Pennsylvania, to a piece suggesting that duels be resurrected to replace boring political debates.

Another bit featured news from the year 2013, in which new economic superpower Iraq says it will invade Scotland, purportedly for human-rights reasons. But critics allege it’s because Iraqis are unwilling to reduce their domestic consumption of single-malt whiskey.

Janeane Garofalo, Matthew Broderick, Stanley Tucci, Rob Morrow and Wallace Shawn have all performed on the program, and this Sunday’s episode features a play starring Lili Taylor, from HBO’s “Six Feet Under.”

The show is kindred to “This American Life” and “Studio 360,” both also distributed by Public Radio International. But unlike the latter, Olsher said, “The Next Big Thing” presents the arts rather than discussing them, with plays and music commissioned specifically for his program. And unlike the single themes that shape episodes of “This American Life,” Olsher said his show is “more like a magazine, with a variety of different topics.”

“We make you laugh, we make you cry,” said Olsher, 39, a former cultural reporter for National Public Radio.

And though the program is based in New York, he insists it’s not Gotham-centric or too esoteric for the rest of the country.

“It’s as much about attitude as it is about place,” he said, the same way “Seinfeld” was set in New York but appealed to the rest of America, or the way the New Yorker magazine can be entertaining and informative for those outside the five boroughs. So he’s sure his program will be accepted in Southern California.

“I think it’s a fantastic fit. New York and L.A. are two of the creative centers. The rivalry masks an underlying affection,” he said. Besides, he said the show is doing well in upstate New York, “which is much farther away from New York, psychically, than L.A. is.”

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Radiothon for Mexico shelter

Fans who can’t get enough of “El Cucuy,” the charismatic, enthusiastic ratings king of Spanish-language radio, can get an earful of him this weekend, with Enrique Iglesias and Los Tigres del Norte thrown in for free.

Cucuy, the pseudonym of performer Renan Almendarez Coello, is hosting a weekend-long radiothon to raise money for homeless children and abused women in Guadalajara, Mexico. For 60 hours, starting at 10 a.m. today, Coello will be broadcasting from a stage outside the Grand Olympic Auditorium downtown, where a free concert is scheduled today through Sunday. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, Iglesias, Los Tigres and dozens of other acts are scheduled to perform.

Organizers expect about 20,000 attendees per day, and hope to raise $1 million to build a “village” of foster homes in Guadalajara for about 300 children, as well as a shelter for abused women and children, said Victoria Lichtman, spokeswoman for Coello and his station, KSCA-FM (101.9).

Coello said he encountered the problem of Guadalajara’s street children firsthand when he visited the city last year for Christmas. The mayor, a friend of his, explained the scope of the problem, and Coello said he decided to help.

“I was an extremely poor boy. I spent all of my childhood waiting for Santa Claus and he never came,” Coello said through a translator. “So when I see children suffering from any kind of deprivation, I try to help them. And when I see their smile, I see myself reincarnated in their faces. So I am trying to change the past and the future.”

Last fall he hosted a radio- thon that raised $1.75 million for Padres Contra el Cancer (Parents Against Cancer), a Glendale-based organization that offers education and emotional support for Latino families of children with cancer. Lichtman said Coello hopes to break his record from that event, of staying on the air 58 hours straight.

He said the money collected will go to Promesa, a nonprofit that is building the village, and Coello’s El Cucuy Foundation will audit the expenditures.

Coello had the area’s top-rated morning show for six years until February, when he moved to afternoons to have more time for other projects. Ratings have surged in his new time slot, weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m.