Anna Rubanova

Anna Rubanova is a co-host of Left Handed Radio. Follow her on Twitter here. Follow Left Handed Radio on Twitter here and Instagram here.

How did you get into the podcast space?
I’ve always appreciated the relationship between the ol’ ears and throat. When I was young, I was painfully self-aware of my voice, my speaking style, how hard it was to string a sentence together or keep my voice steady. I was an only child with no friends, completely unsocialized, but for some reason thought I should fix that. I suspected that anything could be learned if I had the time and a good teacher. I took improv classes under the guise of “becoming a better public speaker.” And a few years later, when this guy I was dating, Adam, asked me to join an audio sketch team he was starting with some other dudes, I was more excited about the prospect of making funny voices into microphones than having just met the love of my life. And then, years later, I felt halfway decent at it.

How do you describe your show to people?
Well, I will never be able to describe the show better than you did in your newsletter! Your interpretation of what’s going on with us was very sweet and touching. 

Essentially, we think of our show as a universe of sketches, bits, formats, and characters that Adam and I keep adding to. We use sound design and music to flesh out the narrative.

When we encounter new ideas, new people, fun environments, or even something awful we need to get off our minds, we add them to our show. We’re terrible with branding so we follow the fun instead. We’re currently obsessed with Star Trek and have gotten a lot of references and moods from there. There’s certainly no shortage of “terrible” these days; we have a lot to interpret there. And we love NPR, so a lot of our formats live in that space. In the past, we did by-the-numbers sketches and now we’re more likely to fake an audio book. Really, the show is just us.

Fill in the blank. If you like _____ you will like Left Handed Radio.
Joe Frank. He was the greatest. He was doing “sketch” comedy and conceptual radio art for decades without enough attention. The first time I heard his work, I was probably 17 and completely blown away. I tuned in every Sunday night until podcasts of his work became sort of available. But that’s my take on it, because Frank would do whatever he wanted and that’s what we do now. Adam probably would say Steve Martin or Mr. Show or BBC Radio. Also, LHR has changed since Adam and I became the keepers; but it still owes its DNA to our former founders. Brett White is the best narrative and sketch writer I know, his dedication to game and structure is very important to us still. Matt Little brought an earnest love of comedy and nerdom to the mix; I try to remember how much fun he was having and keep that with me. Taylor Moore would masterfully fold philosophy, genre, and mind-bending ideas into very silly sketches, and he experimented with sound design instead of just adding SFX, which we’re constantly building on. And then there’s Dan Chamberlain, the artist who was already a star when we were just messing around and was already the best in every way. Most of us still make podcasts or audio. Because Adam and I kept the name, we dip back into the styles that made the show special at its inception. But close listeners would spot the difference of how we’ve evolved. And I’m sure everyone else has evolved, too. I mean, we’re all ten years older and wiser, you know?

You host and produce, those seem like totally different skillsets. Are most people good at both?
This is an interesting but tricky question. We’re not hosts, we’re performers. And we’re writers, not researchers. Could we host? Maybe, we just don’t, so I can’t say if we’re “good” at “both.” I don’t fault the question, though, scripted shows are rare and so it’s difficult to compare ourselves to many people in the podcast space. Adam and I parody show formats, which is easier for us than making the real thing. I don’t know if we’d make good newsreaders or food critics or historians or interviewers, we’ve never tried. I would still say we’re good producers.

Not accounting for my personal taste or the fact that our show isn’t a typical podcast, I still would assume that, no, most people aren’t good at both. Shows might have great production values and fun energy but no structure. Or they have well-researched topics but hosts with no mic presence. Or they have a whole team of producers who make a great show and have hired charismatic hosts with broadcast training, but then everyone has their role to play and nobody is good at everything. 

How do you come up with ideas for Left Handed Radio?
We’ve tried and failed to have dedicated writing/pitch time. So the thing I’ve found most helpful recently is the voice memo app. 

When Adam and I do a spontaneous bit to make each other laugh, we whip out an iPhone and try to recreate it. Later, it either serves as a fun interstitial or a skeleton for a sketch. When we’re searching for material to release, that’s our first stop. “What did we record?” We used to write ideas down but would forget the essence of the bit.

Actually, a recent LHR episode was written on a dare. Adam was rightfully complaining I wasn’t writing enough so I sat down and banged out a sketch in ten minutes to prove I could do it. “The Computer Cube” felt like cheating because I used whatever was on my mind to write it very quickly - the TV shows we were watching the night before, the fight we were currently having, my desire to be a walking-talking sentient computer. But then we punched it up and made some choices. We decided I would do this halfway Robert Picardo impression and Adam would do Nick Braun and, all of the sudden, it brought us joy, and we hope it brings others joy. The pressure to be funny or bring joy can slow us down. We don’t need help coming up with the ideas or finding the fun, we need help allowing the fun to exist.

What are the ingredients to a perfect Left Handed Radio sketch?
Funny premise. Laser sound effects. Bad British accent.

You also do stuff on Twitch. Do you recommend other podcasters do that? Why does it work for you?
Honestly, I would recommend live-streaming as a good exercise for all media folk. A lot of people like watching their favorite comedians and personalities talk. 

We had a lot of fun streaming. But the intent was to see what was possible with the technology we have. For context, we don’t stream as ourselves, we use animated character puppets (see Chippy the Little Gerbil) and, initially, we played parlor games to get some followers. I think there’s so much potential there for an animated talkshow, a children’s show, or even live sketches or improv done through the puppets, but it would require a lot of pre-production time that we don’t currently have. (Something to watch out for on Twitch are trolls. It’s hard to play a fun drawing game when one person is deliberately uploading offensive imagery for everyone to react to.) We haven’t quit Twitch but we’re going to focus on the talk show format more when we do actually have the time.

Who listens? Describe them.
Multifaceted comedy fans who have a sense of humor regarding themselves and the world we live in. They have an open mind and enjoy intricate worlds. They’re probably theater and/or comic book fans, people who are used to unusual combinations of genres and source materials, who like to be surprised.

What's your relationship to your voice and how would you describe it?
My voice is unique and precious to me. I’m very curious about it. It’s one of the few things about me that I’m proud and protective of. I’ve been very carefully adjusting and strengthening and doing reps in private for a few years. When LHR was on hiatus, I was taking voice lessons and going to speech therapy. Now I want to learn some dialects, really dig into it. Know anyone good? 

What do you hope Left Handed Radio does for people?
I hope it lifts them up, period. I hope, if they’re feeling down, that they can play their favorite sketch and laugh off whatever is holding them back that day. There are many ways podcasters use the platform––to enrich themselves, to enlighten others, to promote their brand, to learn a skill, to educate, to talk to their friends, or to make friends of strangers––all valid but not really for us. We hope the show stays evergreen, or comes back into fashion. We want Left Handed Radio to be a weird treat that some fun teacher plays for their History of Podcasting students in a utopian future decades from now.

What have you learned about. yourself or the world making the show?
There’s a point where you’re young and naive and you love something so you decide to learn everything you can about it (in my case, comedy). Then you get tired of it and it makes you kinda sick. Then you fall back in love with it. 

Another lesson. Physically putting the show together, or any show for that matter, I’ve confirmed that details are important to me. But I try to recognize that overworking something does not make it better. I will spend hours in the hole working on a three minute piece. But, if it’s good right of the gate, or just needs a light touch, fantastic. I don’t love working myself to death, I just can’t help doing so when I feel it’s necessary.

How are you different than your Left-Handed Radio co-host Adam, and how are you alike? What do you each bring to the table?
Adam and I are alike in that we enjoy the kind of work that goes into making LHR, but we enjoy different aspects of it. Adam will often cut the radio plays down from raw recordings to make sure the timing is right and the best takes are used, whereas I like to create detailed soundscapes that add a depth of realism to our silly worlds. And I love directing the performances.

Adam and I are also very different comedically. His material can be very reference-heavy or abstracted from real life. I tend to create characters who have a strange, idiosyncratic use of language or are aspiring for a comfortable life in a dystopian world. We have very different brains and we do disagree here and there, but blending the best ideas of those two different sensibilities is where a lot of our best material comes from.

Our partnership is strong from working together for over a decade, but it works best when we play to each other’s strengths.

If you were going to have another show, don't worthy about the logistics or if anyone would listen to it, what would it be?
It would be a show exploring creativity and education. A few years ago, I accidentally fell into music theory because I got to know some musicians and had no idea what they were talking about. Until then, I assumed music was exclusively done through rote learning, that people practiced individual pieces and just knew them. I hadn’t realized it was all math. But how could I ask a question about something I had no concept of? The experience opened my mind in an unforgettable way. You think you understand something you love and you have absolutely no idea. I haven’t been the same person since. There are so many other concepts I’m clearly unaware of that others take for granted. I’d like to have overly indulgent conversations with people about their wonderful minds.

If people haven't listened to Left Handed Radio, where should they start?
Since we’re all over the map, I made a starter pack, a Spotify collection of my favorite episodes. It includes sketches old and new, some NPR parodies, and one or two longer pieces that I consider homages to Joe Frank. And a Harklist of clips that will hopefully pique some interest.

Can you talk about your show's artwork? It's great.
Thank you! Adam has really done a great job over the years with our logos and episode covers. He comes from publishing so he’s a pro at typesetting and graphic design. He’s taught me how to use Illustrator to make some characters and now I use Fresco for almost everything. Our website’s banner and logo are him, the website’s icons and portraits are me. We just keep learning from and being inspired by each other and I think that’s an unexpected neat thing that happened.

How does being a cartoonist and animator fit into your job as a podcaster or comedian. Do you just see the world more differently?
Short answer, yes. Keep in mind, I’m only drawing faces right now. I take a lot of shortcuts. I don’t consider myself a cartoonist at all and only an amateur animator. But of course the point is I know enough about different things to bring it all together. And I enjoy the things I make. When I don’t feel like writing, I can do a little drawing, and maybe that will inspire a written piece later. For someone who was taught that you had to be perfect at and specialize in one thing (and let go of everything else), I’m constantly surprised at how outmoded that sentiment is. We have so many tools at our fingertips, you can dabble and see where it takes you. Yes, you can specialize, that’s up to you. But if you feel stuck and have wanted to do a thing, chances are the only thing stopping you is you.

Which shows do you love?
To be completely honest, since I’ve become a fulltime podcast producer, I don’t listen as much for recreation as I should. The moment my dayjob is no longer editing, I am jumping back in, I promise. The shows that inspired me (Joe Frank, 99% Invisible, Brian Lehrer, Good Food, You Are Not So Smart, You Must Remember This, Radiolab) are probably still great. I listen to Nerdette and Make Me Smart in the car. I fall asleep to No Such Thing as a Fish (and actually can’t without it). But the big guys don’t need me to plug them. I want to list off smaller shows my friends make because I think they work really hard and deserve a kudos. I hope they have a Google Alert set up. Ruined with Alison Leiby and Halle Kiefer, LadyHD with Jenn Welch, Couples Therapy with Naomi Ekperigin and Andy Beckerman, Black Men Can’t Jump [In Hollywood] with Jonathan Braylock, Jerah Milligan, and James III, The Cannon Canon with Frank Garcia-Hejl & Geoff Garlock, and Dude That’s F**ed Up with Erin Saul and Nicole Mackie. 

Thanks, Anna!