Getting To Know The No Holds Barred Comedy Podcast: "Hold My Beer"

My name is Danny Mawenz and I am the gracious host of Hold My Beer. A little over two years ago my brother and I decided to start a podcast with an ever rotating cast of our friends. Since then, we have gained a permanent third member named James. Every week we sit down and go over funny headlines, people making poor life decisions, and we review a beer. All in a very "no holds barred" kind of fashion. Our audience, or 'koozies' as we call them, are somewhat hard to gauge, but the analytic page on our website has it at about one thousand listeners per week.

The three core members of Hold My Beer are all big fans of various podcasts, and so we decided to try it ourselves. I purchased a single Blue Yeti microphone, downloaded Audacity to start off with, and purchased rights to a song to use as the intro. Thankfully, we decided to do a free range comedy podcast, so beyond finding a host, that was all the preparation necessary. As for the why we podcast, we are a group of "why not" kind of people. If nothing else, Hold My Beer is an excuse for us to hang out once a week.

We record every weekend and release every Wednesday at midnight. We've never missed a week. I feel like if all parties involved are really enjoying producing content, time is not an issue. We all have day jobs and children, but we just make it work. Editing anything with three to four voices can be a real pain. Sometimes it takes me five hours to edit two hours of raw recording and I end up with an episode that is barely over an hour. Funding is about the same as finding time when it comes to us. We all pitch in because this is a passion project. We now have a sound board and six mics to pass around, and we've all had to contribute to get this far.

Nothing financial at the moment. We're not against the idea, but we're a little crass, and some sponsors frown on that.

Our process is a bit chaotic, I would say. I converted a small room, or a big closet depending on who you ask, in my house into a studio. So there's a lot happening in a small space. For most episodes, everybody brings at least one topic for the group to discuss. Once in a while we do a horror episode, and they take a lot more research and preparation. Hold My Beer is recorded using a four channel Behringer sound board, Neewer brand mics, and I still use Audacity to record and edit. All guests have been recorded in studio, and we have a website through Squarespace to host the episodes.

Poorly. None of us are really "with the times" when it comes to social media. We use Instagram and have a Facebook group. We've tried paying for ads on Facebook, but the results, I feel, weren't worth the cost.

Sit down with someone you find interesting or funny and you'll never regret the conversations you have. Record on a cell phone if necessary, I've done it before. You're creating something that has the potential to be heard by everyone, and that's awesome.

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