Fast-paced sci-fi comedy podcast shines light on local talent
Please Save the Space Bees is a three-part sci-fi/comedy podcast from a cohort of local radio hosts, actors and drag queens (Robert Kaiser, a.k.a. Joan-E). In the show, the universe is controlled by OmniCorp, a mega-company that manufactures a device that is a cross between a cellphone and sentient computer and is implanted in people’s heads. When scientist Laila Naru (Deborah Vieyra) goes missing after exposing the wrongdoing of Omni-Corp, a mysterious stranger hires bartender Sawyer Hugo (radio personality Matt Woodford) to find the whistleblower. We talked to creator Scott Wood.
QHow did you come to create Space Bees?
AI did a show at CJSF (Simon
Fraser University campus radio station) for years called The Interview Show, which was also a podcast. Each week I’d interview a different band or creative. When you interview a lot of people in your hometown you become friends, you do each other’s shows. I had a couple of friends who were creatives but we had day-jobs and we weren’t feeling creatively fulfilled. One day we were all sitting around, venting our frustrations, and I just said, “Why don’t I write a play for us to be in? Half of us are community radio, half of us are actors, we could do something fun.” Everyone thought that maybe it was the beer talking, and we went our separate ways. A couple of months later I finished the play with parts for my friends and we did a table read. It required some rewrites and a couple more table reads and then we decided to record it. It took us about six months before I found myself in a recording studio with 15 people. It started as a lark, where we were all just going to leverage the skills that we weren’t using, and it was kind of like magic that day we recorded it.
QYou recorded the whole thing in one day?
A
Yeah. It was a crazy insane day. There are quite a few speaking parts. Everyone came, did their parts, and then went home when it was a wrap for their character.
QThe sound design (by Light Machines’ Records Jeff Zipp) contributes quite a lot to the story.
A
He (Zipp) did an incredible job of turning my radio-play into this amazing audio movie. There are times you feel like you’re rocketing to space or being blown up. There’s one character that’s killed several times by a laser bolt, and you really feel it.
QIt’s very much like a radio play. Did you look to any other podcasts or earlier radio plays like Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds (1938) for inspiration?
A
I’d listened to a couple of the classic ones. In terms of modern podcasts, I listened to Homecoming (on Gimlet Media), that’s a pretty interesting podcast that’s like a radio play.
QWhat kind of response has Space Bees received?
A
Well, we put it out in late January with the intention of getting it on campus radio stations in Canada, leveraging my name as host of The Interview Show, and then COVID hit. Most of the stations aren’t running right now. But we’ve received some mention on U.S. blogs. People have been shocked that something of this quality is available for free. And they’ve been enjoying the fact that it’s fast-paced. I’m a big fan of shows like 30 Rock, which are a joke-a-minute, and I wanted that in Space Bees. So people have been pleasantly surprised that something at this indie level is as well thought out and put together.