This interview with the hosts of First Reaction/Fan Reaction is part of a series highlighting podcasts participating in Philly Podfest 2019. See the full line-up of live shows on our Schedule page.
By Sarah Palmatory
I sat down to chat with Cailin and Dara, the hosts of First Reaction/Fan Reaction and creators of WittyClothes Productions, which has a Philly Podfest live show scheduled for 4:30PM at Tattooed Mom on July 27th.
Q: To get started, many festival viewers will be listening to podcasts for the first time. If you were describing your podcast to someone who has never listened to a podcast, what would you say?
A: Well, we are two friends who watch TV shows that one of us has seen and is a big fan of, and the other person is watching for the first time.
Then we review episodes of the show which results in two different perspectives.
Q: Interesting premise. Why did you start the podcast?
Cailin: We've worked together for a while already before we started the podcast! We've known each other since college where we produced a movie/TV review program for our on campus TV station (we actually started producing that show together before we even became friends). After we graduated we still wanted to produce content together, and it was Dara's idea to review shows where one of us has seen it before and the other hasn't
Dara: It also came from discussion about TV shows and being upset when Cailin hadn't watched any of the shows I was talking about, and the experience of watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time and talking about it to Cailin who has loved that show since childhood.
Q: Why podcasting? Do you plan to continue in the media long-term, or move toward producing for TV?
Dara: I think for me I started listening to podcasts in college, and I liked the idea of sitting down with a friend and having a conservation about something. Also it felt like there wasn't a time limit like with video so you could go in depth and go off topic, stuff like that.
Cailin: Yeah, I definitely also think with podcasting there's a lot of variety. I actually do TV stuff for work so I really like the variety that comes with working in a different format!
Q: Do you have any future plans for your podcast? Taking it to the "next step?"
Our idea of "next step" is branching out and covering more content. We have a lot of ideas for other shows so to be able to expand what we already have is where we see ourselves heading in the future. We always have something to talk about!
We have ideas for more reviewing style podcast, discussion podcast, and maybe even scripted podcast. WittyClothes is basically a production company and we want to have a variety of podcasts.
Q: What are you planning to talk about at your live show? Do you format live shows differently than usual episodes?
For our live shows, we tend to review movies instead of TV shows because it's easier to recap a movie in that amount of time. Also it's more likely that more people have seen it. There's definitely more planning that goes into live shows for us. For live shows, we don't have the benefit of editing so we have to have a good idea where we're headed from beginning to end. It makes it exciting and the extra planning makes the show into something special.
We also review a movie so that we can talk about something with a beginning, middle, and end, instead of an episode of a TV show some people might not have seen and have no context for.
Q: Do you know what movie you plan to review at this year's podfest?
Cailin: We're doing After (2019). It's a movie based off a book that was based on a fanfiction. I have a lot more experience with reading and writing fanfiction when I was younger than Dara does, so a lot of our approach to this show will be from the perspective of someone who understands fanfiction and their tropes vs. someone who doesn't.
To check it out for yourself, you can visit the pair on Facebook at facebook.com/wittyclothes and attend the live show at Tattooed Mom on the 27th!