Podcasts are in tune with the democratized spirit of Internet media: anyone with a microphone and a computer can offer their listeners hours of recordings, usually for free. Limited only by their imaginations, podcasters have a freedom of expression unrestricted by commerce, censorship or geography. Here to celebrate Denver's great ones is Podcast Profiles, documenting the peculiar personalities behind them.
Perhaps no local podcast has a clearer mission than Werewolf Radar, a paranormal investigation that mines the darkest recesses of human understanding for laughs. "Like all perfect unions, ours was borne of conversation and the realization that nobody else was filling the niche where comedy and the X Files intermix," says co-host Nate Balding.
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Werewolf Radar's perfect union is comprised of comedians Balding, Roger Norquist and Jordan Doll, who also produces and records the podcast each week. Sam Tallent is listed as a regular host, but rarely pops by to record these days. "Sam Tallent is an elusive beast and hard to track down sometimes. He's also impossible to photograph," reveals Doll.
Each episode kicks off with a segment called "The Week in Weird," during which the hosts riff and speculate on any crypto-zoological creature sightings, messages from beyond the grave, or generally unexplained phenomena.
Though it's a reliably hilarious and spooky listen, Werewolf Radar has transcended its audio roots, leading to an upcoming fall tour, a namesake cocktail at El Charrito and a new monthly showcase at the Roostercat Coffeehouse. Norquist assures that the "Werewolf Radar picture show contains the greatest monster movies ever hosted in creature feature fashion, along with magic and rituals to sleeping gods."
Another tenet of the podcast is hosting live recordings in purportedly haunted places, which will be the focus of their national tour this fall. "The upcoming tour is going to be something of a paranormal glimpse through a Southern looking glass that we're bankrolling with standup. Mostly it's an excuse to visit strange places while eating different barbecue," Balding continues. "We fucking love barbecue."
Follow Byron Graham on twitter @ByronFG for more mildly amusing sequences of words.
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