The country’s top horror podcast is gearing up for its first-ever live show in Ireland.
The art of the live podcast is a tricky one to get right.
Among the concerns that accompany all live performances – rapport with the audience, jitters and jokes not landing – the live podcast comes with its own set of unique additional challenges.
Chiefly, does the podcast lend itself to the medium of live performance? In my own listening experience, I’ve found myself disappointed in live podcast recordings, feeling either excluded from the rapport between performer and audience or distracted, wondering how much of the banter is organic or canned.
However, one podcast that appears to have mastered the art of live performance is Petrified, an Irish horror anthology podcast
The brainchild of Peter Dunne and Liam Geraghty, Petrified weaves contemporary tales of a darker Ireland. Each episode is a standalone story featuring some of Ireland’s most talented voice actors, and trust us when we say, it’s truly frightening.
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Throughout its three-season run, Petrified has transported the listener to a variety of unique settings, including the backstage of a Dublin pantomime, a ghost estate and a call centre. It’s even dragged its listeners along for a particularly upsetting round of 12 pubs of Christmas (very fertile ground for horror if you ask me).
Each episode is incredibly creative, and Dunne’s twisted storytelling keeps the listener guessing throughout. However, one standout episode of the anthology – and a favourite among the podcast’s cult following – is Melody’s Story Hour, which was performed live at the London Podcast Festival at King’s Place.
Melody’s Story Hour doesn’t follow the traditional path of a live podcast event. It doesn’t feature the hosts reading stories and it’s not a Q&A with the podcast’s creators. Instead, Petrified goes meta. Melody’s Story Hour is a horror story that takes place during a live podcast recording. Audience members watch the terror unfold before them before becoming sucked into the story themselves, resulting in a satisfyingly disturbing twist.
You can listen to Melody’s Story Hour wherever you get your podcasts, and if like me, the episode gives you major FOMO (and the heebie-jeebies), then don’t fret. The folks at Petrified are gearing up for their second live show, this time in Dublin.
Indeed, Petrified Live will be making its Dublin debut on 25 October in The Laughter Lounge on Eden Quay. Spearheading this live show are actors Ali Fox, Margaret McAulife and Anna Sheils-McNamee.
“We’re so excited – and, fittingly, terrified –to do our first live podcast in Ireland,” says Peter Dunne, Petrified’s writer. “It’s going to be a great night for fans of the show and a perfect introduction to what we do to anyone new to Petrified. We’re also looking forward to the Q&A afterwards to meet some of the people who’ve been listening to us since our debut in 2018.”
You can nab your tickets for Petrified Live at laughterlounge.com. Doors open at 7pm and the show kicks off at 8pm. In the meantime, you can stay connected to all things Petrified by following the official account on Instagram.
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