Spiked Eggs is a storytelling podcast featuring deliciously twisted and darkly comic tales with a foot in both the present and the reimagined past. I have the joy and honor of being a part of this season's final episode, "Who's the Ass?" and got the chance to connect with series co-creator Frank Donnelly about the creative journey of Spiked Eggs. Here is a snippet of our conversation.
Q: Jane Watson is your creative partner in Spiked Eggs. What’s your story?
I was a newspaper reporter for about 27 years, mainly on Staten Island, here in New York City. Prior to that, I did insurance investigations for about 16 years. Jane was my wife, Pat’s college roommate. Jane is also my daughter, Emma’s godmother. We worked together previously on a documentary called, “Crossing Waters.” It focused on immigration to Poughkeepsie in the Hudson Valley area of New York during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. I helped a little with the writing. It’s an outstanding film and won a number of awards. Even so, it never got the exposure it deserves.
Q: What was the inspiration for Spiked Eggs?
Jane really had the inspiration for Spiked Eggs. She wanted to do a fiction podcast and asked if I could help her out by writing some episodes. Besides my work as a reporter, I had taken several playwriting courses over the years. It seemed like fun, so I jumped in. As for the name, we kicked around a bunch of possibilities, and decided on Spiked Eggs. Part of the reason is the stories are a little dark and cracked, and you can crack an egg. Plus, a spiked egg is unique.
Q: Many of the episodes feature a classic fable that you've put your own twist to. What kinds of things do you take into consideration when you are deciding which stories to include?
In choosing the fables, we focused on those which we felt could be turned on their heads and (hopefully) morphed into off-center comedies. We tried to use a mixture of both “known” and “lesser-known” tales. For example, “A Parsnipian Dilemma” our fourth episode, was based on “The Princess and the Pea.” Our sixth episode, “Sour Grapes” is a mashup of “The Fox and the Grapes” and “The Three Little Pigs.” Other episodes, including the finale, in which you’re featured, also combine several different fables.
Q: What are the dynamics working in a creative partnership? How do you make decisions as a team?
I don’t know if our dynamic is unusual or not, but we live 120 miles apart. So, all our discussions are over the phone, or via text or email. Typically, I write the episode, then Jane edits it and makes suggestions. We’ll go back and forth fine-tuning a script, until we feel it’s completed. We put a lot of time into it. Jane’s got a film background, and she usually comes up with the wackier stuff in the scripts. Jane’s the producer, director, and the sound designer. She gets all the sound effects and melds them with the actors’ voices. She does a great job. We try to make most decisions collectively. Jane sometimes needs to make last-second edits before the episode drops, and I’m fine with that.
Q: The episodes are discrete, so they don’t intersect or cross-over in terms of plot, but there are certainly themes that are shared among them. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Some of our episodes are based on fables; others are stories we came up with. The latter group has a common theme, which is people trying to double-cross each other. That theme will also spill into some of the later fables. I think another theme is don’t underestimate another person regardless of who you might think they are. It’s also nice to take the high-and-mighty down a peg. If there’s an overarching theme to Spiked Eggs, I’d say it’s to entertain listeners. We want them to enjoy the 20 minutes or so they spend with us for each episode and come back for more. Hopefully, we’ve done that, and will continue to get better doing it.
Q: What do you hope listeners will walk away feeling about this work?
As I said before, we want to entertain our listeners. We want them to have a fun experience and be part of the Spiked Eggs universe. There’s plenty of room inside. Mainly, we want people to think, “Hey, that’s something different, unique, enjoyable, and I want to hear more of it.”
Q: You’ve assembled a stellar ensemble cast. For all of the voice actors reading this, what do you look for in a potential actor? What goes through your head during the casting process?
We’ve been very fortunate to have some wonderful actors, including yourself, voice our episodes. It really is a thrill to hear someone bring your words to life, sometimes in ways you hadn’t imagined. I’m very grateful for that. What we look for in an actor is the ability to add something to a character, not merely read the words rote. We want actors who are invested in the characters, even if the role isn’t all that big. Jane pretty much tells them, “Don’t worry, swing for the fences, and if we have to dial it down, we can work on that.” Since we’re primarily comedy fiction, she’ll also tell them to have fun with the role. Whether the actor can do that factors into our casting decisions, as does blending the actors’ voices. We try to avoid having actors with similar-sounding voices in the same episode to avoid confusing listeners.
Q: What’s been the biggest challenge in the project?
The biggest challenge, I think, is building listenership. Millions of podcasts are out there, and it’s a matter of getting people to notice yours and listen to it. It’s not easy. We’re an independent operation, so we’ve financed the podcast entirely ourselves. It gets expensive. It would be nice to offset some of those costs. But more than anything, we’d love to get more people to listen to us and to listen regularly. We think we have a fun, unique product.
Q: What’s next for Spiked Eggs?
What’s next, we expect, is Season Two. We’re still kicking around ideas and themes. We produced standalone episodes for the first season; we’re thinking about a series for the second. Whether it’s comedy, drama, mystery, or something else is too early to tell, but I’m looking forward to it. Stay tuned!
Episodes of Spiked Eggs have been included in the 2024 Swedish International Film Festival & NZ Web Fest. The episode “Bingo After Dark” won the 2024 Communicator Award for Sound Design. Spiked Eggs can be found where podcasts are heard including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Keep up with Spiked Eggs on Instagram @spikedeggs.