The Language of Bromance

I love the concept of bromances. Actually, I love the idea of friendship in general, but it seems like society makes it a lot more acceptable for girls and women to be really close and develop long-standing friendships than it is for men to be in those relationships and honest about their love of another man. So, when two men can honestly say that they love each other, I think it’s super cool and often very entertaining.

Which is why, when I found out about The Language of Bromance hosted by Richard and Shawn, long-standing friends and fellow nerds, I was immediately curious. If there’s a bromance strong enough to name itself and create a podcast, I needed to know that story. Luckily, Shawn gave me all the heartfelt details.

Shawn and Richard worked in a restaurant together a lot of years ago and got hooked on Kevin Smith movies. When, in 2007, Kevin Smith started his own podcast, the duo started “ping-ponging” the idea of joining the medium themselves, but they never actually moved past their doubts to get it started. Then it was time to graduate college and move on and the bromance found itself breaking apart in the face of life and distance.

The two planned to meet up after moving away from each other, but Shawn said, “I only got to see him for ten minutes.” Annoyed at not getting to spend time with his best friend, Shawn made a decision and called Richard, telling him “Dude, we’re gonna do a podcast and it’s gonna be our weekly commitment to ourselves.” They planned to talk and joke like they always had and record it, and they did.

Shawn believed that once they had “created something to be committed to,” they would halt the drifting apart. And it worked! The two haven’t missed a week since their start in June 2014, which means 214 straight weeks of episodes. And they have no intention to stop because making the show is a lot of fun and they love laughing together. So what is it?

Shawn described the show as “a great audio, voyeur kind of podcast.” Listeners “sit in” on two good friends talking about all sorts of things, really anything the pair find funny. Shawn explained that they also “make these different universes, follow improv parody storylines that take us on all kinds of different adventures.”

The show has been a lot of fun, but every podcast comes with its challenges. The show saw an immediate jump in its audience, but continuing that growth and turning it into a “podcast success story” has not proved to be easy. The duo hasn’t been able to pursue podcasting full time, but that dream is still burning.

Despite that difficulty, there have been some major highlights as well. The first of which was getting to meet their hero, Kavin Smith, which Shawn described as “really cool.” They were also featured as a Smodco SmodU podcast. But Shawn marked as most memorable “a Father’s Day episode, so we got to do a podcast with our dads… that’s something we can hold onto forever.”

This bromance has gotten to do some pretty cool stuff, but they aren’t planning on slowing down anytime soon. They are most excited to keep making shows as well as getting to travel and do more live shows. There’s a lot to look forward to as they come up on the fifth year of making the show.

So, if you love a good bromance, lots of laughs, a good amount of improv, and some wild adventures, The Language of Bromance is definitely the show for you.

Chasing Pods is a Podchaser blog series dedicated to letting our readers know about podcasts they may not have heard of or provide a sneak peek into the making of their favorite podcast. We talk to podcast creators about their journey into podcasting, the creation of their shows, the ups and downs of the work, and what they’re looking forward to for their podcast

Do you love or make a cool podcast? Do you want to be featured on our blog? Email Morgan ([email protected]) to tell her why your favorite show should be featured next.