“By the Way: In Conversation with Jeff Garlin”

Rating: 86

Comedian Jeff Garlin’s most high-profile gig is his regular performance as Larry David’s manager and best friend on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but regular listeners to Doug Benson’s “Doug Loves Movies” podcast know that Garlin is one of the most enthusiastic disrupters in comedy. His tangents are known for memorably and hilariously taking entire episodes off the rails, and on the rare occasion that Garlin, T.J. Miller and Pete Holmes converge on Benson’s show at once, chaos reigns.

Because Garlin is so easily wound up, it was a safe bet that “By the Way: In Conversation with Jeff Garlin” would be an instant new favorite in the rapidly expanding comedy podcast universe. The format of the twice-monthly podcast, available through iTunes or Earwolf.com, is thankfully simple: Garlin sits down with a guest in front of a live audience at Largo in Los Angeles, and they just riff. Anything more complex or high-concept would be instantly violated by Garlin, whose guffawing can approach seismic proportions regardless of who is in the room.