Death by Dying · Evening Post Productions

The LOL Show: Interview with the Creators of Death by Dying

·1 hr 57 min·10 clips

Evan shares how Death by Dying's crazy elements helped fans process real grief during the pandemic.

1. Death by Dying co-creators Evan Gulak and Nico Gerantis join Chris Smith on The LOL Show to discuss the origins, craft, and emotional impact of their award-winning audio drama. 2. Evan Gulak created the pilot episode 'Gary Died' for an independent study at Columbia College Chicago and was introduced to Nico Gerantis — president of the school's audio drama club — by a teacher named Matthew Cunningham who heard the recording. 3. The core question the episode addresses is how two first-time podcast creators turned a college project into a show with one million downloads that people describe as 'Murder She Wrote with A Series of Unfortunate Events.' 4. Evan and Nico met on what they describe as a blind date at a coffee shop and bonded over a shared affinity for absurdist humor, after which they began collaborating on what would become Death by Dying's first season. 5. Evan's creative influences include Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Stephen King, Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the 1950s B-movie creature features his parents watched. 6. The show's original concept was a simple anthology called 'Obituaries,' modeled on the dry small-town humor of A Prairie Home Companion, before supernatural elements began entering the writing organically. 7. Evan and Nico operate under a creative rule: if something makes either of them laugh during the writing process, it must go into the episode — which is how the phrase 'discarded bologna' ended up describing a severed limb hanging in a tree after a graveyard explosion. 8. Nico's role on the show evolved into that of producer and sound designer; he discovered a fourth-grade yearbook entry in which he had written that he wanted to be a sound editor, because he had been obsessed with the bonus features of Star Wars that showed Ben Burtt creating R2-D2's voice. 9. The Obituary Writer character — voiced by Evan — began as a straightforward noir detective in the pilot and developed a distinct sassy, opinionated, melodic cadence through the writing process that Evan describes as feeling like 'channeling a separate spirit.' 10. Crestfall, Idaho, the fictional setting, is populated with matter-of-fact supernatural occurrences: haunted bicycles, evil nuns, deranged deer, a support group with hidden motives, and a graveyard groundskeeper with an ancient feud against the local deer population. 11. The show's Season 2 opener places the Obituary Writer in a high-tension chase through a graveyard, hunted with a crossbow by Walter Grimsley who suspects him of being one of the deranged deer — a scene Evan says makes him feel genuine fear every time he hears it despite its absurd premise. 12. A recurring character named Ned has a father who disowned him because of his jazz allergy; the father's ghost later rises from water playing a saxophone, a moment the creators describe as genuinely horrifying underneath its comic surface. 13. Nico explains audio drama technique through a specific scene from a bonus episode: instead of narrating that a possessed girl spills orange juice, the sound design uses the father's muffled voice slowly gaining clarity as her awareness returns, with the sounds of pouring, the cup falling, and liquid on the floor doing the storytelling work. 14. Evan describes the core balance between horror and comedy as similar in structure — both involve creating tension and releasing it, like a setup-punchline versus a scare-jump-scare — but notes that each genre can undercut the other if the balance is wrong. 15. The creators discuss the challenge of writing 'for the ear' versus the screen, noting that screenwriters rely on an actor's face while audio drama must plant the emotional seed through voice performance and sound, trusting the audience to visualize. 16. Fan art for Death by Dying shows consistent visual through-lines for the Obituary Writer, Charlotte, and the Angel of Death despite the creators never fully describing any character — Evan uses this as evidence that suggestion and imagination produce stronger results than over-description. 17. The episode is conducted as a casual, joke-punctuated interview in which Chris Smith asks genuine fan questions and Evan and Nico frequently finish each other's thoughts, reflecting a collaborative dynamic they describe as a constant feedback loop. 18. Both creators express surprise and gratitude at the show's reception, with Nico noting that after uploading the final episode of Season 1 they essentially stepped away, not expecting the response that followed. 19. Listeners who enjoy behind-the-scenes discussions of audio storytelling craft, dark comedy writing, and the accidental emotional depth of absurdist fiction will find this episode directly relevant. 20. Listeners who have not heard Death by Dying and want to avoid any plot details or character references from Seasons 1 and 2 may find this interview premature, despite the hosts' occasional spoiler warnings.

As heard by us

A loose, funny creator chat that treats fandom, jokes, and future episodes as part of the same comic afterlife.

Death by Dying takes a looser, more self-aware turn here, with the conversation circling around how the show began, the jokes that helped define it, and the promise of episodes still ahead.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a creator chat that keeps turning the interview into a bit.

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