In episode three of Podcaster Stories, I sit down with Bob Reed, Communications Strategy Lead at Element-R Partners, LLC, and co-host of The Old Man Podcast.
After shooting the crap with his neighbour Dave over the years, both men realized they might have something that others may enjoy listening to as well. And so The Old Man Podcast was born, taking a look at life through the lenses of two men as they approach their 60th birthdays.
Bob also talks about why he’s so passionately vocal about the political happenings in his country, as well as why he won’t discuss religion. He also shares his mean impressions of the characters in the classic TV show, Taxi.
Topics on the menu include:
- When he and Dave first realized their neighbourly meanderings might make for a good show
- How a personal tragedy sidelined the show
- His goals for the relaunch of the show
- Why he isn’t apologetic for his political posts on Facebook
- Why religion is something he won’t discuss online
- The funniest line he’s ever heard, from the TV show Taxi
- His impression of the actor delivering that line
Settle back for a fun and engaging conversation about two friends making a podcast, and how that’s been received not just by older men, but women, too.
Connect with Bob:
Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com
My equipment:
- Rode Podmic
- Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen
- TRITON AUDIO Fethead In-Line Microphone Preamp
- Denon DJ HP-1100 Over Ear Headphones
- RockJam MS050 Adjustable Mic Suspension Boom
- Dragonpad Pop Filter
Recommended resources:
Transcript
The following transcript has been created using an automated service, so may not be 100% accurate.
Danny (3s):
Hi, and welcome to Podcaster Stories each week we’ll have a conversation with podcasts. It was across all mediums and share their stories. What motivates them, why they started to show up as a group show more and more, but also talk about their personal lives and some of the things that have happened that made them, the person they have to do. And now here’s your host Danny Brown hi guys. And welcome to another episode of Podcaster. Stories where we meet the people behind the voices of the show is we listen to it this week. I’ve got a friend of mine that I’ve known for a few years now, Bob Reed over in the U S who is the core host of The Old Man Podcast, which I fell into Sue set up and set him what’s the word set in?
Danny (46s):
But serendipitously. There you go. Okay. Thanks for that. My brand is, I mean, it’s the afternoon here now in there where I am in Ontario, Canada, but my brain still hasn’t kicked an edgier. So appreciate that. So Bob tell us about the, the, thanks for joining the us. Tell us about the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself and to end the show and will go from there.
Bob (1m 7s):
Okay. Well, you know, as you said that it’s, The, Old Man Podcast and the idea came about just by me getting older and looking at demographics and saying, man, Man, there’s a lot of Old boomers hanging around. Maybe there might be a market for a lack of a better term, you know, for anybody that may want to listen to their peers, talking about everything and anything that they may be concerned about, or, you know, like worried or just, you know, the, you know, feel like they can have some comradery with a, the same kind of things that they are going through. I mean, that can be anywhere from, you know, from hobbies to a retirement, to health of, of relationships, you know, you name it and we just want to try to cover it.
Bob (1m 57s):
So that’s how Lee and the idea came about with this. And I was trying to figure out who I could actually could have a good You know, somewhat comedic foil a for this. And I’m on my phone is ringing that we can get that. And there was a neighbor, there’s a neighbor of mine who I’ve known for gosh, 20 years now. And we were former co Cub scout leaders hear in the U S and it was like the younger version of boy Scouts, but long story short, just when he and I get together, it just seems to click, we start laughing, we’ve, you know, tell inappropriate jokes.
Bob (2m 42s):
And we both started cracking up. Well, you know, just, it, it just goes, and he says, you know, Bob, you know, every time I don’t have any other relationship, quite like the one I have with you when we start talking. So that kind of clued me and I said, this might be good. And he is funny. I, this guy could do stand up or maybe is that, he’s that quick. All right, go ahead.
Danny (3m 6s):
Right. And so you are, are you a physical neighbors then? Because I know like we want, but you guys have to say,
Bob (3m 11s):
We were literally, maybe about a third of a mile away from each other.
Danny (3m 15s):
Alright. And so I have, so, I mean, you mentioned that it sent to a set demographic. I know it’s called The Old Man Podcast but can anybody else listen to you? Or would you say,
Bob (3m 23s):
Oh, yeah. I mean, if it’s like a guess analogous. No, not really, but you know, top gear, you know, top here in the grand tour, you know, the, the, the three idiots, 40% of their audience is female. So it has nothing to do with cars. So it just has to do with how they present it in what they do. All right. So,
Danny (3m 43s):
But I know Ear, but not really. It was, and that’s what I used to watch the top gear back in a UK before we moved to Canada. And, and to your point, I think it’s the chemistry between the three cohosts and then obviously a steak there, the driver, you know, who doesn’t really get all of air time, but he was still a legendary, a part of that show. Right. That was great. And especially when it moved to the Amazon office, so this is a bit of a fall out of it. And the BBC that had to move over to Amazon, et cetera.
Bob (4m 9s):
Yeah. You know, Jeremy decided to slug a producer, you know, because he had a knife.
Danny (4m 13s):
So yeah. But now they’re getting over to, and it’s interesting.
Bob (4m 18s):
I know, because, you know, they, they, they, they ditched the tent. They did, they ditched the scripted stuff. It’s because it takes a lot of time and effort to do it. And now they’re doing like two specials a year and, you know, eventually it was just going to trail off just because he has this stuff that they do. And you know, how much physical exertion is for three people who are extremely out of outer shape, you know, except maybe from Richard Hammond. And, but, you know, the, the other two were just like, yeah, we’re kinda done and dusted.
Danny (4m 44s):
Yeah, exactly. I know of, so Richard Harmon had a bad accident a few years back. So I think that probably limited to, of this stuff, he could do it as a touch and go for him for a while. Yeah. That’s a good show. And I enjoy that. And so you mentioned, you know, I think this is a real launch of the show, is that correct? Like you realized it, but, you know, yeah. We’ve had some technical,
Bob (5m 4s):
The whole issues just because we’re, you know, we’re old and we’re not that bright. Yeah. The other issue is the pandemic itself, a, the pandemic has really taken any kind of momentum out of recording a is simply because a Scott had it on for a couple a weeks and then a close relative of his had it and subsequently passed away last week. So, so yeah, I mean, there’s definitely a personal story in there and, you know, he just says not feeling too funny right now. And I said, yeah, well, you’ve got every reason not too, you know, I’m sure it’s something that we are going to address in the future.
Bob (5m 46s):
I hope, but for right now there’s only four episodes. I was actually, you know, pleased as you want to do to reach out, you know, based upon others that have, you know, you know, you, years of content, that reaction we got from people listening to what it was, was quite good. And this is for us just really kind of setting up the microphone and picking a topic. I do a little bit of research for show prep, but then just riffing. I mean, the first show we actually even did, we just decided just to say, Hey, let’s just put it on the recorder and see what happens. And we really listen to it and we can actually kind of like that ourselves. So, you know, if it’s pleasing to you and you have an, you know, and you know, we’re critical about each other, then I think, you know, it may have value and, you know, in relevancy to other people and they may not enjoy it.
Bob (6m 35s):
So, you know, hopefully we can continue.
Danny (6m 38s):
Well, some of my best to Scott, never, obviously I don’t know that it is that something you, you know, that people will talk about some of my best to start and it really started his family member. So to your point about the Podcast, I think that’s why I fell into it. And I enjoy the, as basic as that, like less than to two guys, is that I’ve got a beer and a backyard and talking about anything and everything. And it came down to amaze me a little bit of the tube, you know, and I say this with utmost love and respect, and we have the, the two guys from the Muppets show that would happen to the balcony. Do you never quite sure what it is going to go up, but you’ve got a shadow. You’ve got the order of the friendship between the two and the don’t give a crap, you know, it’s like, they’re talking about basically what they would talk about.
Danny (7m 20s):
And I think that’s the attraction of the show is certainly for me anyway.
Bob (7m 25s):
Appreciate that. Yeah. I think they, you know, there’s, there’s enough content out there that I think it’s, you know, you, you have to find some kind of hook, ah, just to gain interest. And, you know, that was the one that I came up with. It has nothing to do with the work. It has nothing to do with what I do for a living. It, it just sounded fun. And you know, these days is a little bit more fun. It could be had by everybody, you know?
Danny (7m 46s):
Oh, for sure. And I know like, Dan, I’m not sure if was yourself or Scott was talking about, we are in one of your last shorts about the community Jim and the community of gyms. And it was just cracking up. Cause you picked up and that’s, what are some of my favorite comedians are the ones that talk about situational humor, you know? And it’s the things that you can relate to you have every day of life. And I think we have the The Old, Man, Podcast, that’s one of the, the, the cell and features of your life that people relate to it because it can think of, yeah, I can imagine that.
Bob (8m 14s):
Yeah. I guess that’s kind of like, you know, that kind of a hole point. I mean, anything in everything these days have to have some kind of, as I said, there has to have some kind of hook, but if it’s not relatable then, and if it feels as if it doesn’t feel genuine, then it’s not really going to gain any traction. I mean, my daughter listens to my brother, my brother and me, and you can definitely tell all of those, those three guys have such amazing chemistry and improvisational comedian, a comedic chops that it just works and you tune in. And just because you want to see what happens next, because it’s not scripted. It’s pretty darn good stuff.
Bob (8m 55s):
So, I mean, I would love, we don’t have that level of talent, but if you do it more, maybe we’ll get, and we will get better. She’ll go. And my brothers and me, my brother and my brother and me.
Danny (9m 5s):
Okay. So we’ll be sure to check that out. Thanks for that. Very good. Now, obviously you had mentioned at the moment the show’s taking a hiatus When, but prior to that, obviously you’re starting to grow the shore relaunch out with new episodes. What are your goals for the show and what, what do you think that they would be, you know, once you start to get back into it
Bob (9m 24s):
And we’d like to grow the audience, I mean, I’m, I’m not going to lie and say, Oh, you know, could this turned into something that you could have, you know, a nice following, you know, might it have some revenue attached to it? Who knows it, it’s kinda hard to predict. I mean, you can’t, you know, predict a viral, viral ability because you have not met and having my issues to, and it still morning. But th th I think, you know, because what you and I are both in marketing, we both understand that you have to go out there and promote, you know, one of the things that Scott was a little bit hesitant about when I first approached him about the idea was he said, nah, I don’t know about the commitment. I don’t know about, you know, how, if I’m going to like this, I don’t know how I’m going to have, like, how are we going to sound?
Bob (10m 6s):
And once they got into it and he said, well, that’s not too bad. You know, what are your, and he asked, what are your plans for it? And I said, I want to grow it if we can, you know, if we have enough people and we spread it around, but it does take work. The content has to be good first. It was like any other product, if it’s not a good product, no one’s going to buy it. So we’ll see how it will just say, how well will we do?
Danny (10m 27s):
And what’s it been that I know I was looking at the show up earlier on Apple iTunes. And I know people were asking for more episodes to be uploaded. What’s the reaction been from people who have either connected with your listen to the show and maybe, you know, I sent you a feedback afterwards.
Bob (10m 40s):
It’s been pretty positive. You know, just a few people, you know, you know, Scott is giving you some, you know, anecdotal things with relatives and, you know, relatives, or probably the worst critics of what you do cause they know you. And I don’t think they’re going to hold back any kind of criticism about what they’re hearing, but people, you know, I heard it, you know, I’ve heard, you know, the episodes to date and they said, no, this isn’t too bad that you guys are actually pretty funny. And that’s gratifying to here. I mean, even my younger brother who is far more comedic in dark humor than I am is that he goes, Oh, you know, that’s not bad. So when you get that kind of feedback, it kind of encourages, it encourages you to, to do more.
Danny (11m 23s):
Yeah, no, for sure. And like I said, I know I’m, I try to think, you know, if I let my wife’s lesson to the Podcast afterwards, because I’m thinking, okay, she’s going to pick because she always picks out little things that I do. In-person a lot of physical, a lot of texts or whatever. And if they get agitated, I do a certain thing. If I get to speak too fast, I do a certain thing. And she’s always listened for that. I think. So. I hear you and let the personal feedback side.
Bob (11m 47s):
Yeah. We have a, a family relative, I guess a through marriage. It’s a, she’s she’s has a podcast for years now and she is a professional comedian, a improv actress, voiceover actors, and she listened to it and she said that, you know, it’s pretty good. You know, I’d been mined for a long time and you know, you guys sounded like you have something that, that could work her issue is, is that she is filthy as he goes and promote all her stuff. That was funny. And she does it with a former writing partner of hers from a, from, from LA. But she has no idea how to promote it.
Bob (12m 27s):
I think she just does that just to do it that way. I don’t think I could actually just sit here and just do it just for the, for the fun of it. I’d want to have a say on some kind of objective. There is the marketer in me. Sorry.
Danny (12m 37s):
No, and I hear you. I know, I, my own personal Podcast that I was kind of sunset in the way it was like the same. I try just to riff off of what I was thinking of at the time, but they tend to, to find that it could be a hit and miss as I was getting more than two, I started to make lots of bullet points. I want it to cover that in the show, but then, you know, we’ll see what happens.
Bob (12m 54s):
So I’m, I’m kind of like the I’ll do the research and then I will write a fee, you know, jot a few, you know, things down that I want to cover. I’ll share it with Scott and then I’ll just let him go. And that’s when the fun starts happening.
Danny (13m 9s):
And then it gets rid of each other based on,
Bob (13m 12s):
And that’s an F and the other thing that we, that we work to do is we keep it to 30 minutes. There’s a lot of podcasts go on for 45, an hour, hour and a half. And to me, you know, if it’s, if there’s lulls, if I do, I’m not finding that it’s not really landing or a connecting, I tune out and I I’ll shut it off 30 minutes. I think you can maintain some level of attention and a time commitment when people think, okay, I will tell you I’ll do a 30 minutes this, or, you know, I can do that. So we’re going to try to stick with that format
Danny (13m 44s):
When I think the teams, or, I mean, I know a lot of people listening to podcasts, we want to say, what can I do either at the home Jim or the general or anything. And to think to your point may be 30, 40 minutes as our sweet spot for like a, a, a decent workout, right. Where you can listen to one episode and you’re done, you’re done your work cut out for the day.
Bob (13m 58s):
Yeah. And you can move on to the, to the rest of your day.
Danny (14m 2s):
Yeah, exactly. Because you, it is still a phase of the new Podcast and some of you mentioned it is that both you and Scott aren’t real a technical, what advice would you give a guest to any podcasts as a potential Podcast is looking to start over or have just started from what you’ve learned in a first, however, many episodes
Bob (14m 20s):
Or a avoid garage band. Do we not go to a garage band? You know, Apple for all of the things that it does is, you know, even if it’s, you know, since it, it comes with the, you know, the computer that you buy, it is still a very powerful yet unintuitive piece of software. I had to look at many YouTube videos to figure out how to get to Mike’s, you know, you know, pumped into the thing I would look for, you know, something like SquadCast like we’re on. Now. In fact, I have to look at this a little bit more closely because with Scott and my start, we are going to do it through this platform or something like that.
Bob (15m 1s):
I would look for something simple, a little bit more intuitive, a little bit more, you know, directed by, by the platform, but go simple, avoid any type of attempts to do something more than what you’re capable.
Danny (15m 15s):
I would definitely agree with you on the garbage bag. And I was using a Udacity for the longest time and then Apple, Apple update to the rest that, to Catalina. And it stopped functionally for the Udacity, because the dusty, it is fair to a tuber and Catelynn, and he’s 64. And that, yeah. So I think it does is they have got to walk around it’s in the forum, but it’s not ideal. So hopefully they’ll get that because I far prefer audacity to someone, like you said, garbage band wise. I’ll always, you see a good SquadCast is very simple. You just plug in and away you go.
Bob (15m 43s):
So yeah, unlike on this, yeah. This could be a need for a way for Scott and me to actually see each other, because part of it is, you know, were, were reacting, you know, to each other’s well, yeah. You know, nonsense. So it, it, it, it seems to work.
Danny (15m 59s):
That’s a good for the visual queues. I think that that’s one of the most difficult things. We’ve see two people on a podcast that, especially with a note in the same room, try and understand who’s finished a point and who’s ready start at another point and that kind of thing, for sure.
Bob (16m 12s):
Yeah. And I’ll definitely be looking at this in the future.
Danny (16m 15s):
So just to change things up a little bit, I know like you’re similar to myself, a, when we were on social media were very vocal about our political beliefs and some of us know that that’s a lie down and write like, do you know? I know what I mean. I, I I’ve had many people paying me and say, do it, aren’t you, you know, and you can say that about people taking this in a long way, and that will stop you, you get to work or whatever. Did you ever consider that from that point of view, or do you get your Facebook or the lockdown? What’s your take on that?
Bob (16m 50s):
You know, I, I, I do not have a public facing page only, you know, friends can see it, some friends appreciate the things that I post, you know? Yeah. Are they political? You bet for a lot of reasons, you know, and sometimes people on messenger or text me are saying like, you know, Hey, thanks for saying that because, you know, I don’t have the guts to actually do it. Sure. Have people, you know, blocked me, unfriended me. Yeah. They have, you know, I’ve got like, you know, for a hundred different friends on Facebook, you know, the ones that actually react to this stuff that I post are, you know, a lot fewer than that. I know, but I do try to temper what I say and how I say it. So not to be, you know, completely offensive, you know, I don’t know how, you know, what you think of if I were succeeding or, or failing in that regard, but there’s just things that are, that, you know, around my eyes and, and to kind of in my spleen, umm, you know, there are, there are certain things that I, you know, I do hold back on, you know, anything that has to do with religion, I tend not to criticize or, you know, give my view.
Bob (18m 0s):
I think, you know, where I sit on that whole, you know, spectrum probably similar to you, but I, I, I try not too, you know, make it personal. I, I just tried to use facts. I know we have some people, they may disagree that, that my facts are, you know, not your facts and I disagree with your facts, but you know, I try to be objective,
Danny (18m 20s):
Alternative facts are still one of my favorite times of threes as it was ever uttered by anybody, anywhere alternative facts. So to that point then obviously like you said, you’re a temporary to a degree as to what you share, if you could see, and you don’t have to say it, you know, public or whatever. But if there was one thing or any one thing that you can say to anyone person at all, what would it be and why? Well, that’s,
Bob (18m 50s):
That’s a bit rough because I actually want to say something, but I,
Danny (18m 55s):
Yeah, you don’t want them to Carol future subscriptions too.
Bob (19m 2s):
And you know, I think it’s just, can you, you know, can we please stay in reality? Th there’s just so much whether it comes from, you know, day to day living politics, religion, I know we all have our blind spots, but at the same time people don’t, you know, there’s a, you know, confirmation bias is rampant, you know, depending upon us, no matter which side you’re on, you could be, you know, in the most ardent, you know, Trump supporter or you could be the most, you know, Verlyn, Bernie bro, both sides do it. Then I think the issue is, is that the rest of us, you know, the other 80% are kind of in the middle.
Bob (19m 45s):
And if, if you have the ability to understand what you’re reading and to seek out sources to verify what you’re reading first, before you start posting on anything that, you know, we’ll make, you know, the world a little bit of a better place. Yeah, sure. You have to show compassion. You have to show love. You have to show, you know, consideration, empathy, sympathy, all of that. But it does come down to living in reality. And a lot of us, you know, on both sides, just aren’t
Danny (20m 15s):
I think we see that a lot, especially online where anybody can pretty much drop a lot of a snippet and, and say, yes, that’s the, the, the factual statement right there. So just the way, I guess, finished things off and get people to know what a little bit about you. What’s one thing that not a lot of people that are, it would be surprised to learn about you that know you,
Bob (20m 35s):
But I’m a fairly decent mimic. I, yeah, I I’ve been, you know, I can listen to something, I’ve got a good Ear and I was in high school in musician. I piano of just, you know, but its all by ear. So from that standpoint I can, you know, listen to something I can try to impersonate it. I won’t do anything here cause I’d be embarrassed, but it’s got to be, you know, kind of off the cuff top of mine thing that I do, but I just have always loved listening to sounds and voices and then try to see if I can approximate, you know, what I’m listening to, but yeah.
Bob (21m 17s):
More and more of that.
Danny (21m 18s):
Yeah, no, no it was that. So is that musical America or do you do the impressions too? It’s more voice and you know what to show you one right now and I know what are we talking to my accent?
Bob (21m 33s):
You know, I, I do, I love, I love it. And I do love accents, you know, you know, the Scottish, it it’s just, you know, amazing anything British, but there are so many different dialects.
Danny (21m 44s):
Did you get it wrong? Well, at least they see, or you’re not seeing them. Irish are wow. She has some value I get that people are asking, you know, that’s what part of your wheels are you from? Is that okay? You know, if you get, yeah,
Bob (21m 56s):
Are you really, you know, down into that deeper guttural, you know, the type of thing North of me, you know, North London, but yeah. Now, I mean there, there was, you know, there’s things that I’ve done that I think one of the, I guess one of the, the, the strangest from television was a, the old program. Taxi I don’t know if you’re familiar with
Danny (22m 14s):
It,
Bob (22m 17s):
You know, Judd, Hirsch and Christopher Lloyd But Christopher Lloyd was great As as Jim Ignatowski, you know, it just the stand out, you know, drug to addled, you know, a taxi driver. Yeah. But there was a one episode with, with him and the late Andy Kalfen where it, and he was playing Latka Graviss and he got this recipe for Cookie’s from his grandmother and he wanted to become the next famous Amos. And all of a sudden people are, are sampling the cookies and their behavior is changing because the cookies had cocaine in them. So so everybody’s acting like really weird in a really strange or whatever, you know, Louis, you know, Danny DeVito, his character comes up.
Bob (23m 3s):
He says he had people who really, you know, act in strange eating all of these cookies. So Jenn takes out, you know, and it takes a whiff and he goes, well, I don’t know about you boss, but you was something more of a magical in here. I have an oatmeal Danny and he says, so he takes it a nibble of it. He goes, hi, hello, 1972, the fall of the rains. And it just cracks me up every single time that he can, you know, it tastes, you know, this cooky and find out the, you know, the bouquet here is actually a process that just cracks me up every time that that was a great,
Danny (23m 43s):
No, but I at least say it was funny to think how many great actors would actually end up that one sitcom, you know, that went on to do really good things.
Bob (23m 52s):
Oh yeah. I mean, but if he’s got, you know, Marilu, Henner, Marilu, Henner, and I’ll, I’ll loop a loop this back to my brother, my brother and me, there was an episode that she was a guest with these guys and she has an endemic memory. She memorized it. She can recall everything and anything that she’s experienced, it’s not photographic. She’s like a she’s. She is just stores away, all her experiences and she can, she can just dredge it up. Wow. Amazing, amazing. Line yeah. I’m going to be a good goal to be good. To be an actor if you’re like that.
Danny (24m 27s):
Well, yeah, exactly. I have to tell us along your lines, that much, just a lot of discipline once you have done good to go. Yup. Good to go. So Bob where can people find you online if they are, they want to connect with you or socially of the one that you don’t do business with the company is the one who knows.
Bob (24m 41s):
Yeah. Yeah. The, the company is called the Element R Partners a.com. So it’s a Element hyphen R dot com or you can also get me on LinkedIn. So I think it’s just, Bob Reed I’m on Facebook, you know, if you’re so inclined, look me up, send me an invite. My Connect might not know that we do. You might just say like yeah. You know, but up to you or open to anybody in any and everyone.
Danny (25m 7s):
Okay. Oh, so I’m going to be sure to drop these links into the show notes, along with that, the link to the doorman podcast itself. And hopefully, ah, as you mentioned, you may, you guys make, get back into that as soon, you know, everything, depending on, you know, they kind of situation obviously in the world,
Bob (25m 22s):
Take it by a day by day, but hopefully, you know, sooner than later, I hope so.
Danny (25m 27s):
I hear. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate it coming on the show today. Bob I hope that the, the lessors and joy as much as I have enjoy chatting too, in fact,
Bob (25m 36s):
It’ll show up
Danny (25m 37s):
And till the next thing you guys take care of, you’ve been listening to podcasts are Stories. If you enjoy this week’s show, be sure to subscribe. So you don’t miss an episode and feel free to leave a review on iTunes to help others find the, show it to you. I will see you in the next time on Podcaster Stories.
