Comedians Create a Pandemic Podcast to Get You Through It

Saunders: Our realm, subject matter is everything, everywhere, always, and definitely includes our relationship over the years. There are very few things in life you want to do every single day. This [podcast] is something we actually want to do, and that alone is amazing.

How do you prepare for the show?

Saunders: We start the night before and work backwards. The opening bit is scripted — like a typical panel show — and you take off from there. Now we compete with each other to see who will come up with the opening bit.

Blakeman: Tommy sits in L.A. and I am in Brooklyn and we are on a phone, and a lot of the show is like our regular phone calls. The only difference is that other people get to hear it. We also have an archive of about 100 pages’ worth of stuff we've done, plus stuff we haven't written down. It's great to start with something. The more we do it, we get a better sense of what we need to do.

Saunders pictured on the left and Blakeman on the right.

Courtesy of Tom Saunders

Was your age a factor when you thought about creating this podcast?

Blakeman: It's the old stereotype that only high school kids know how to do it. It's not just the tech, we've had long successful careers individually. For us, it's the most satisfying, creative and professional experience we've ever had. A lot of people say, “I am going to kick back and retire now.” We are doing more than we ever have and enjoying it more and getting more satisfaction out of it, so I think that's something. There is never an age where you can't accomplish that.

Saunders: I embrace my age. I used to be a writer in TV, and age is a really big deal there. I became self-conscious and I grew to resent that feeling. [For the podcast] we don't apologize for dating ourselves. Instead, we dive into that, explain, talk about things like the 1964 New York World's Fair. This has been extremely liberating for me from the perspective of relating to your age.

Will you continue podcasting even after we “get through this” pandemic?

Blakeman: We love doing it, and “getting through this” could apply to anything. Although we hope this [pandemic] part will be resolved. We'd like to keep doing it every day and — once such things are possible — do live versions when people can sit next to each other. Maybe books and other things.

Saunders: Unless there is a huge public outcry against it, of course.

You can find Getting Through This With Tom and Scott on the Anchor app, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitchr and Google podcasts daily.