Jad Abumrad Robert Krulwich Radiolab credit Jared Kelly
billed as the Lollapalooza of podcasts, is beaming live to a you on Tuesday, locally at 6 p.m. Music, comedy, dance, five podcasts and more, the producer promises “a live stage show simulcast to cinemas, celebrating the emergence of podcasting as a powerhouse medium with millions of obsessed fans.”
Anyone who’s ever enjoyed Radio Lab, Invisibilia, Reply All, the improv comedy show With Special guest Lauren Lapkus (you may know her from “Orange is the New Black”) or The Truth — may want to ditch the private, intimate, earbud experience for a theater full of fellow pod- people.
Seth Lind, co-creator, host and producer, acknowledged this will be somewhat unlike the solo podcast experience, but said, “there’s nothing quite like being in a room full of people excited about the same thing.” Some 800 will be in attendance in New York; the rest of us will be in 500 theaters around the country. “It will be totally energetic, communal, live, public and loud,” he said.
Wrangling the disparate elements has been “exciting, and occasionally brain-destroying,” Lind said. “There is content from so many different sources,” including The Westerlies, Cocoon Central Dance Team, videos and guests. Cast Party counts a cast of 30, a video and stage crew of 80. The running time is roughly 2 hours, 15 minutes.
“This idea of celebrating the (podcast) medium wouldn’t have been possible until recently. It reached a boiling point in the Fall,” Lind said, noting the excitement around the Apple podcast app and the new awareness of advertisers.
Further proof that the podcast’s time has come: this week producers of “StartUp” and “Nerdist.”
