Something weird comes alive at the Bijou
‘ODDITIES’ PODCAST HITS THE STAGE TO SHARE STRANGE STORIES AND WEIRD STUFF
“IT’S REALLY NICE TO SEE PEOPLE WHO MAY OTHERWISE FEEL LIKE OUTSIDERS FIND ACCEPTANCE HERE.”
In most circles the word “freak” is seen as deragatory, denoting that someone is abnormal or somehow not accepted by society.
But to Jethro Gilligan Toth and Kat Walls, “freak” isn’t a pejorative. It’s how they affectionately refer to listeners of their podcast The Box of Oddities. Twice a week, Toth and Walls — who live in Bangor, Maine — post the show, in which they tell a bunch of strange and unusual stories.
Recent topics include the tale of Don Decker, dubbed the “Rain Man,” who, legend has it, spontaneously developed the ability to make it rain indoors. With curiosity and no small amount of joy, Walls and Toth dig into tales of the paranormal, the macabre and the just-plainodd. And every week, they sign off by encouraging their listeners to “keep flying that freak flag, you beautiful freaks.”
“(The listeners) refer to themselves as freaks,” Toth says. “They’ve taken the term back.”
Walls and Toth will perform a live version of their podcast 8 p.m. Feb. 29 at the Bijou Theatre, 275 Fairfield Ave., in Bridgeport. The podcast is only a year and a half old, and they’ve already done five live shows. Each show, they say, is tailored to the region in which they’re performing.
For instance, during a show in
San Francisco, Toth says, he told a story about a construction crew in the area that was working on a house and found a coffin on the premises.
Toth and Walls both have a background in radio. They grew disenchanted with that medium because it has evolved to a point where “there’s not a lot of room for creativity,” Toth says.
They both have long had a interest in weird stories, and thought that fascination might be a fun subject for a podcast. To find topics for their show, they turn to that bastion of incredible weirdness known as the Internet. Once they began broadcasting “The Box of Oddities,” they built a following much faster than expected.
“About 30 days after launching, we hit our first thousand downloads,” Walls says.
The show now has 5 million downloads — something of an achievement, given that we’re now in a time where almost everyone has a podcast.
Part of their success is due to luck, Walls and Toth say. One of the first well-known people to find their show was late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and they’ve since been featured in other media outlets, which has grown their audience.
But more than any endorsement, Toth and Walls attribute their growing popularity to the fact that their subject matter seems to have touched a nerve.
“We’ve been overwhelmed at the community that has grown up around us,” Walls says. “It’s really nice to see people who may otherwise feel like outsiders find acceptance here.”
She says part of the reason for that is the tone of the show. Even though the podcast often deals with heavy topics such as severed body parts and possible supernatural happenings, Toth and Walls somehow manage to keep the vibe light and gentle.
“We try to keep things sweet and kind and loving,” Walls says.
When interviewed earlier this month, the duo was just starting to prepare for the Bridgeport show. Though they haven’t decided on what stories they’ll tell, it shouldn’t be hard for them to find weird tales about the former stomping ground of P.T. Barnum. Meanwhile, they’re just excited about playing the Bijou, which they say seems like a departure from their previous venues.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to play in some really nice comedy clubs, but this is our first theater,” Toth says.