‘How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting About Whatever Happens Next’ with Ben Mandelker of the Watch What Crappens
--
As part of my series of interviews about “How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ben Mandelker is a co-host of Watch What Crappens, a comedy podcast that focuses on Bravo TV. Launching in 2012, Watch What Crappens airs five episodes a week and garners over 2.3 million listens per month. Mandelker and his co-host Ronnie Karam now tour North America, having brought their live show to various major cities and festivals such as SXSW and Just For Laughs.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
I moved to LA to be a writer in 2001, and along the way, while earning my stripes as an assistant, a friend and I started a TV blog. It was the right place at the right time, and our site took off. In 2004, we wound up selling it to Bunim-Murray and taking on more writers, including Ronnie Karam. Fast forward in the early 2010s — long after I had left the blog: I was hired to host a web series called “Housewife Hoedown,” which was a weekly show that covered all the latest “Real Housewives” updates. One of my responsibilities was to find guests every week, and so I often asked Ronnie, who I knew was hilarious from the blog, and my friend Matt Whitfield, who had a razor sharp take on pretty much all aspects of life. The three of us had instant chemistry, and when “Housewife Hoedown” was cancelled, we decided to keep the party going. We launched “Watch What Crappens” in 2012 and broadened it to cover all Bravo TV, not just “The Real Housewives.” In the first year, work obligations pulled Matt away from the show, but Ronnie and I stayed with it, and now it’s our main gig.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
The most interesting thing that has happened has been finding major success as a touring act. I mean, we record over Skype, which means the two of us spend most of our time sitting in our homes — often un-showered and not presentable to the outside world — talking crap about deluded reality stars, and somehow this has allowed us to take…
