“A comedy podcast, an LGBT podcast, a dating podcast, or a round table. The mold of the show doesn’t come from one particular group or identity but rather four real people with families and friends, crappy jobs, and sometimes equally crappy love lives,” says Carolina Hidalgo, producer and co-host of the popular podcast ‘Professional Friends’.
If you decide to give the podcast a listen, what you get is a group of four friends who get together every week and chat about everything under the sun. Having been friends for a long time now makes their show more entertaining. A mix of surprises and familiarity gathers a lot of laughter among themselves, as well as their listeners. They don’t limit themselves, and keeps the topics as varied as sex, dates, weddings, to jobs and getting fired.
Topics like rejection, that certain phase in life where you would only be attending several weddings, those tiring minimum wage jobs, whatever it maybe that goes on in our lives- is spoken about. ‘Like Calvin’s experiences in all male bathhouses or how I inadvertently ended up on a Spanish news report’, adds Carolina with a little chuckle.
Anna, an actor, was the final one to join their gang. Her great rapport with the other cast members made her a regular. She talks about Star Trek, her stint as a nude model and her episodes of being fired from jobs. The episode ‘Naked’ has her speak about her nude modelling days and it’s nothing but a good laugh. She even talks about the kind of students she meets at classes, going on dates with other models and having those awkward moments the next day in class.
More often that not shows and movies representing the LGBTQ community invariably tend to portray the characters as hyper sexual beings, reducing them to just their identity. For example, the Indian web series ‘Four Shots’ shows Umang Singh (played by Bani J) as the token bisexual character, a fact hammered into your head by her philandering ways. While we respect a woman with a healthy sexual appetite, by portraying her as someone who simply sleep around with multiple women her character is made to revolve around that one factor. Whatever happened to multi-dimensional characters?
However, Professional Friends, unlike many others, does not make the sexual identity of two members the sole focus of their podcast. They are just a bunch of friends who meet up once a week or so to hang out and share stories about themselves and support each other through their ups and downs.
“Even though it is a comedy podcast, we are truly ourselves on the show and encourage everyone to be themselves and do what makes them happy.” A light hearted podcast that gives us half an hour of much needed relaxation every week. You can listen to this bunch at any time. Those weekday mornings that are occupied by traffic and noise, this gang of friends will guarantee to make things better. A lot of laughter will only help you get through the day.
Relatability is their strength. Thus, being one of the many reasons for their wide outreach. ‘We’ve gotten so many messages from people who really love our show and wish they could be part of our friend group. Well if you listen to the podcast, you totally are! We do our best to respond to everyone who writes to us because that’s what we’re here for, to make friends!’
