There was a time, not so long ago, when the whole world was locked indoors, drunk on fear, Lysol, and TikTok. The covid pandemic raged strong and humanity had retreated into its own digital cave, gnawing on DoorDash, wondering if death was at our doorstep and doomscrolling ourselves into comfort. That’s when ZAPPED was born. A Frankenstein’s monster stitched together with microphones, Adderall, Vodka and a complete disregard for professionalism. Steiny, Bob Menery, and myself didn’t have a plan for the show at all. We were bored beyond belief, not allowed to go outside with a chaotic world at our fingertips so we did what everyone did….we started a podcast.
Somewhere between the 3rd wave of the Covid panic and the utter collapse of reality, Bob, Aaron and I bunkered into an Airbnd in Malibu and ZAPPED was born. Quickly rising to become the number one comedy podcast in America. You read that right, number one. People couldn’t get enough of the circus. Bob was our fearless leader, & marched us to the promised land. A loudmouthed tornado with the impulse control of a hyena on meth, BOB WAS THE BEST. I’ve never been into the idea of being an “on camera” talent” so Aaron who would go onto become “Steiny” of the Nelk Boys was anointed the co-host chair to play second fiddle to Bob. And to his credit he crushed it and their chemistry was dynamite.
As for me, I was just trying to learn how to produce a podcast…something I had never done before, but assured Bob I had. I was just trying to steer the ship into calm waters while the captain drunkly pissed overboard.
As the pandemic raged on and we continued to pump out episodes,I finally got Bob to DM people from his multi million follower Instagram to get guests on the show and the guests rolled in like casualties of some deranged talk-show. Actors, NFL players, UFC fighters, OnlyFans models, and Timmy Bounceback all jumped on the show each one feeding the Zapped Podcast machine. The mics worked (kinda), the whiskey was flowing, and we were all convinced this was it. The next media empire. We were getting offers from all the biggest advertisers in the podcast space. Pointsbet, Draftkings, Sports Illustrated, a random butcher shop in Georgia, they all wanted to sponsor the pod. We were elated, here we were a small self produced podcast that was suddenly getting offers from huge advertisers. Million dollar offers in fact. DraftKings offered Bob a 1 year 1 million dollar offer…..
Then, predictably….it all went to shit.
I can remember that night vividly. Who wouldn’t remember their first 1 million dollar offer? Bob told Aaron (Steiny) that he had accepted the 1 million dollar deal from DraftKings and that we would be funded and moving forward with that backing. Aaron was thrilled and decided we need to celebrate so he went out and bought a bottle of Ace of Spades champagne. Only the finest, for the podcast that was never meant to be anything. We popped the bottle, drank the bubbly and were excited about the future.
The next morning it all started to unravel… Up was down, down was up, there were late-night zips, early morning zaps, and paranoid tirades about who owns this or who owns that. Mo’ money, mo’ problems. While a great leader he was, Bob possesses the unique ability to light up a room while also burning it to the ground. Sparknotes version…The deal was squandered with DraftKings for a variety of reasons. Some even believe it never existed in the first place. Just a ploy Bob used in an attempt to bang whatever IG model was at the house at the time.
After a few weeks, Steiny, or to me just Aaron the errand boy, traded Zapped for a bigger stage and left the podcast to become SteveWillDoIt’s assistant. A career move from janitor to well seen jester. From driving us around to riding shotgun in someone else’s rented Lamborghini. A career move I could and never will hold against him, but the final nail in the coffin for the Zapped podcast.
And that was it. No farewell episode. No heroic finale. Just radio silence. The number one trending comedy show in America vanished like a magician’s rabbit. One minute we were kings of digital anarchy, the next, a ghost of what could’ve been. I still tinker with the idea of a relaunch and then face the reality of what can be unburdened by what has been…
Looking back, ZAPPED wasn’t a podcast, it was a fever dream. A manic reflection of a country locked in its own padded cell, desperate for any form of entertainment, laughter, or someone else’s termoil. But for one brief, glorious moment, when the world was upside down and everyone was masked up, for whatever reason ZAPPED made perfect sense. And while it was a horrible time for the country at large, it was a great time for me and I can’t help but miss them. I cant say I miss the podcast itself, and all that went into it, but I most certainly do miss spending time with Bob and Aaron. It was a great era, and one that will never be reproduced or replicated.
RIP ZAPPED. I LOVE YOU.
