Success often comes from surprising places, and award-winning comedian and actor Rosie Holt never expected that a video sketch of her playing a right-wing pundit would go viral on Twitter with over six million views.
What was previously created as an outlet for Holt during the COVID-19 lockdown has since been turned into NonCensored - a successful satirical comedy podcast starring Holt as right-wing commentator Harriet Langley-Swindon sharing highlights from her weekly radio show.
Holt and veteran producer Ed Morrish sat down with PodPod to talk about transitioning a viral Twitter video to a podcast format, how to create a satirical podcast on a minimal budget, and why it’s always better to put the talent up front.
Key Takeaways
Utilise the big names that draw people to you show
“Because Rosie Holt has a quarter of a million followers on Twitter, put her name on the logo,” said Morrish. “It destroys the artifice of the show, but it does mean people will find you. ...If Rosie has a quarter of a million Twitter followers, you can probably persuade 10% of them to listen to the podcast.”
Use a format that gives you flexibility
“We present it as ‘these are the best bits of this week's show’ so we can just clip however we want to and present it as ‘on Tuesday we had a conversation with so-and-so’ and if that person's comments are now out of date, it doesn't matter cause that was Tuesday,” said Morrish. “And so really that's the format that gives you the liberty to do anything.”
Find a sustainable production schedule
“We're not funded by anyone, there is no money in this… everything is unpaid. We paid for the time, paid for the music, so we're technically in debt at this point,” said Morrish. “So, if there's no money to pay for people's time, what can we do for free and what is sustainable?”
“And so we were looking for a thing that we could go, Well, what can we make knowing we've got no money, and we, you know, we can't turn down paid work, particularly, to make this happen. So we've got a very flexible schedule that, you know, last week we recorded Rosie's voice over on Friday morning, like an hour before it went out.”
Footnotes
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AudioUK calls for Government to invest in audio production
Parenting Hell podcast officially becomes a Spotify exclusive after parent company joins Megaphone
NonCensored / Runners & Riders, with guest Mark Steel
NonCensored / The Queue, with guest Iain Dale
NonCensored / In Person At King's Place, with guest Tom Walker (Jonathan Pie)
NonCensored / The Producer Martin Takeover, with guest James O'Brien
NonCensored / The First Debate, with guest Chris Atkins
Rosie Holt on Twitter: "Woman upset by slave trader statues being taken down.”
