Hollywood and Horsepower Show with Mark Otto

About Hollywood and Horsepower Show with Mark Otto

Through the relationships Mark Otto developed in Thoroughbred Horse Racing and Automotive Racing, during his global travels, the thing that most interested him was the story behind the story, with the famous people he was fortunate to meet. What was it that these people liked to do? How did they get into Hollywood or into Racing? These stories are fascinating! This is what encapsulates the “Hollywood and Horsepower Show”. Bringing you along, we talk to so some of the most interesting people Mark met during his career. Don't be surprised if a few other guests stop by this show. This will be fun! It is where SNL meets The Tonight Show; a perfect mix of talk and comedy.

Publisher

Mark Otto

Category

history · news · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Sept 2024

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

56 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Hollywood and Horsepower Show, October 8, 2026

   Hollywood and Horsepower Show with Mark Otto Howard W. Koch's Hollywood Legacy, Hollywood Park Memories, and Little Red Feather Racing with Billy Koch Mark Otto talks with Billy Koch, grandson of Hollywood producer Howard W. Koch and founder of Little Red Feather Racing, about growing up at Hollywood Park, his family's ties to Casablanca, Airplane!, and Ghost, and his own path from a college racing syndicate to founding The Owner's Box podcast. A Hollywood Royalty Connection Mark Otto opens Hollywood and Horsepower by welcoming Billy Koch, grandson of producer Howard W. Koch and son of Hawk Koch, calling the family royalty in both Hollywood and horse racing. The conversation quickly turns to Casablanca, Otto's favorite film, and Koch explains his grandfather always used the middle initial so no one would confuse him with screenwriter Howard Koch, even wearing a hat reading "I didn't write Casablanca." Otto mentions his friendship with Michael Blowen of Old Friends, who once shared notes exchanged between Julius Epstein and Warner Brothers over the film's censorship. Koch runs through his grandfather's credits, noting he produced many Academy Award telecasts, won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and is best remembered for producing Airplane! and Ghost, plus the Walter Matthau comedies including The Odd Couple. Otto and Koch agree Airplane! is a rare comedy that has only grown funnier with age, still making fun of everybody despite its brief, breezy runtime. Growing Up At Hollywood Park Koch describes Hollywood Park as his childhood home track, where his grandfather would pick him and his sister up on weekends to watch races from the directors' room, calling it a privilege he did not fully appreciate until the track closed. He recalls being at Hollywood Park when Seattle Slew lost to J.O. Tobin, a memory he says still bothers him decades later, and shares a story about running onto the mile oval as a twelve-year-old during reshoots for the Howard W. Koch production Let It Ride, only to quit at the clubhouse turn once the sandy surface proved tougher than expected. Otto and Koch trade affection for Cougar II, a longtime fixture at Kentucky racing events, and lament the string of lost California tracks, including Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows, and Golden Gate Fields. Koch keeps mementos from Hollywood Park, including a barn sign and a box-seat placard, while Otto owns saddle cloths of his own, and both agree the track's closing marked the end of an era unlike any other in racing. Family's Horse Racing Roots Koch traces the family's racing roots to his great-grandfather, also named Billy Koch, who worked as a bookie, a trade Koch jokes may have put racing in the family's blood before his grandfather ever got involved. Howard W. Koch kept horses including Doc Simon and, with actor Telly Savalas, a colt named Telly's Pop who won the two-year-old Western Triple Crown and was considered a Kentucky Derby contender before an injury ended his bid. Koch remembers Savalas, famous for playing Kojak, bringing bags of lollipops to the track and having young Billy hand them out to every woman he saw. His grandfather also owned horses with Walter Matthau under the name Billy Charlie Stables, named for Matthau's son Charlie, and jockeys would give his grandfather their whip whenever a horse broke its maiden, leaving the house full of them. Koch recalls being given twenty dollars by his grandfather at the track each weekend, losing his on daily doubles while his more disciplined sister kept hers, calling it proof he was hooked on the sport from the very start. From Little Red Feather To Ownership Koch explains how he built his own path into ownership after graduating from Northwestern in 1991 with no money but a clear goal, pooling funds with friends from a Cuban restaurant called Versailles to form the Versailles Racing Syndicate and buy a filly named No More Worries. He later ran small claiming funds for fun before frien

2. 

   24 Sept 2026

   Hollywood and Horsepower Show, September 24, 2026

   Hollywood and Horsepower Show with Mark Otto Guests: Buck Wilson and Frank Santorelli Cleveland Open Mics, Boston's Comedy Boom, and Landing a Role on The Sopranos with Frank Santorelli Mark Otto continues his series on the history of stand-up comedy with comedian, actor, and writer Frank Santorelli, joined by longtime friend Buck Wilson, tracing Santorelli's climb from a Cleveland open mic to a memorable run on The Sopranos, with detours through The Comedy Store, Monty Python, and the craft of building a set. Second Chapter In A Comedy Series Mark Otto opens the Hollywood and Horsepower Show with his usual rundown of sponsors, including Tony's Steaks and Seafood, Blue Nile, and Cutler Nutrition, before explaining that this episode continues a series on the road to stand-up comedy that began the week before with former Boston Globe writer Michael Blowen. He welcomes two guests, comedian, actor, and writer Frank Santorelli, and his friend Buck Wilson, whom Otto introduces as someone who grew up around Hollywood entertainment through his mother's connections, adding that talking with Buck feels like talking with Hemingway. Otto explains the series aims to show listeners what actually goes into building a career many assume arrives overnight, noting that ten or fifteen years of hard work usually precede any so-called overnight success. He credits Blowen with recognizing stand-up as a real subject worth covering in the 1970s and 80s, back when Frank Santorelli was among the first comics Blowen wrote about for the newspaper. Winning An Open Mic In Cleveland Frank Santorelli recalls how he stumbled into comedy on a whim in 1981, entering an open mic night at the Cleveland Comedy Club with a friend and beating out twenty-five amateur acts to win fifty dollars, using material built from sound effects and bits he had performed since childhood. He explains he then spent four years working as the club's MC, opening for real headliners including Roseanne Barr, Tim Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld, doing only seven minutes at a time until he could reliably fill a full half hour. In 1985 a friend convinced him to move to Boston, one of comedy's four major hubs alongside New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, where a comic named Tony V got him working immediately in front of influential crowds. Santorelli describes Boston's scene as red hot, naming Denis Leary, Steven Wright, and Lenny Clarke as the monsters of the era, and recalls performing multiple sets a weekend across the city's seven comedy clubs and their smaller satellite rooms. Editing A Set Like A Poker Hand Santorelli describes writing as an ongoing process rather than a fixed script, comparing a working act to a poker hand where a comic discards material that has gone stale and picks up new bits to replace it. He says he built his approach around improvisation, sound effects, and reading a room rather than joke-for-joke writing, and stresses that corporate audiences demand a squeaky-clean set with nothing that could offend, citing Steven Wright as the perfect example of material safe enough for any crowd. Otto and Santorelli agree that comedy is as personal as food, noting how wildly different styles, from Wright's deadpan monotone to Steve Harvey's physical animation to Sebastian Maniscalco's improvisational energy, can each fill a room. Buck Wilson adds a memory of comedian Larry Miller's bit about being introduced to make a grieving crowd laugh moments after a police officer's memorial service, a story Santorelli confirms happens more often than audiences realize, since acts constantly have to adjust to whatever mood a room hands them. Buck Wilson Remembers The Comedy Store Buck Wilson describes sneaking underage into West Hollywood's Comedy Store as a teenager, watching performers who would turn up on television just a few years later, and recalls the shock of recognizing a young Michael Keaton from those nights once Keaton appeared in the film Night Shif

3. 

   17 Sept 2026

   Hollywood and Horsepower Show, September 17, 2026

   Hollywood and Horsepower Show with Mark Otto The first in a series, "The path to the comedy stage", what comedians go through to get into show business and entertainment Boston's Comedy Boom, the Art of Building a Set, and Johnny Carson's Magic Touch with Michael Blowen Mark Otto opens a new series on the history of stand-up comedy with former Boston Globe entertainment writer Michael Blowen, who covered the city's comedy clubs through the 1980s and shares stories of Steven Wright, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, and Johnny Carson's outsized influence on young comics. Kicking Off A Series On Comedy History Mark Otto opens the Hollywood and Horsepower Show with his usual thanks to sponsor Tony's Steaks and Seafood before explaining that the episode is the first in a new series on the history of comedy, recorded a day ahead for broadcast. He tells listeners the plan is to show the many different paths comedians take to build a career, since most people assume every comic simply walks onto an open mic and takes off. His guest is Michael Blowen, a former entertainment writer for The Boston Globe who covered comedy through the 1980s. Otto notes that Blowen was one of the first journalists anywhere to treat stand-up as a beat worth covering, at a time before the internet gave comics their own websites and profiles. Blowen agrees, recalling that covering movies meant competing with two or three other writers at every paper, while Boston's booming comedy scene offered him an almost uncontested subject and comics who were unusually accessible to a reporter looking for real stories. Boston Becomes A Comedy Breeding Ground Otto and Blowen dig into what made Boston different from Chicago, New York, or Toronto: its clubs actually paid comics well enough to make a living. Blowen credits Emerson College, where he taught, as a breeding ground for talent, naming Steven Wright and Mike McDonald as students who worked out material there before testing it onstage at night. He recalls that Jay Leno and Henry Winkler both went to Emerson, and that Leno has told the story of playing drums in a strip joint at the edge of the Combat Zone to work his way through school. Otto adds a favorite detail, that Leno once prepped and cleaned a new car for Robert Klein at a Boston dealership before ever meeting him as a fellow comic. Blowen praises Wright as an underrated genius who built his act by trying ideas out in class and then testing them live, and he stresses that facing an unfamiliar crowd with unproven material takes real courage, since a comic alone onstage has nowhere to hide. The Discipline Behind A Polished Act Otto calls stand-up the most honest form of entertainment because the audience's reaction is immediate and unarguable, a point Blowen echoes by comparing comics to cliff jumpers who must keep leaping to stay sharp. Blowen offers Chris Rock as his sharpest example of discipline, describing a night at Bill Blumenreich's Comedy Connection when Rock spent hours polishing just four jokes, playing each one like a musician adjusting tempo and emphasis and recording every version on a cassette recorder to study later. Otto contrasts that meticulous approach with true improvisers such as Don Rickles, who worked largely off the crowd itself, and recalls Frank Santorelli telling him that comics once wrote together in groups of four or five, tailoring bits to each other's styles, a practice Otto says has faded as performers have grown more independent. Blowen notes that Boston's clubs, unlike Chicago's or New York's more competitive rooms, paid comics well enough that many built entire careers without ever leaving the city, citing Lenny Clarke and Steve Sweeney as examples still working decades later. Stolen Jokes And Rodney Dangerfield's Code The conversation turns to the darker side of the business, the material theft that shaped how comics protected their work. Blowen recalls a running joke of

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 22 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

44

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

Contact Hollywood and Horsepower Show with Mark Otto

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.