Character Development: A Comedy Podcast
I wrote a bunch of awful stories when I was younger. Now I’m forcing talented actors to read it aloud with me, and we get to find out whether it’s actually as terrible as I remember.
Every week on Character Development, Vince Dajani digs up an old short story, screenplay, novel, or other regrettable writing from his past and reads it with a guest who has made the terrible mistake of agreeing to participate.
There are space smurfs. There are phallic giants. There are murderers who apparently enjoy musical theater. And occasionally, something Vince wrote 15 years ago turns out to be… actually good?
It’s a comedy podcast about looking back at the terrible things you made, surviving your own artistic adolescence, and discovering that maybe you’ve gotten a little better.
You will cringe. Vince will cringe harder.
Episodes released weekly.
Vince has written a lot of terrible things over the years. Each week, Vince (and one unlucky guest) reads through an old short story, novel or script that should’ve never seen the light of day. It’s a lighthearted, funny and heartwarming look back at growing up, learning to write and developing a little personal character along the way. You’ll cringe. You’ll laugh. Vince will probably cry a little. Episodes released weekly.
When I was 16, I had a dream that played out an entire horror novel. So I wrote it. Then I stupidly shared it with people before being too embarrassed and shoving it in a drawer for over a decade. Now Chris and I are reading the whole thing, one chapter at a time. Here’s part 1.
This is Better the Devil You Know, book one. It starts at a funeral in Dunlap, Kansas, where a 12-and-3/4ths-year-old girl named Cerebellum Priest (yes, really) swears the dead sheriff just smiled at her. Then an old guy in a cloak and a loincloth crashes it. We also get into why every teen writer has to mention Moby Dick, my semicolon problem, and why I kept writing from a girl’s point of view back then.
Character Development is a comedy podcast where actors perform the stories I wrote years ago (mostly as a teenager), and we roast every word.
New episodes every Tuesday
Bonus content: Patreon.com/VinceDajani@VinceInFiction on TikTok & Instagram
0:00 Our first multi-part story0:44 It came to me in a dream1:22 The prologue: a letter3:30 The white whale3:40 Every young writer writes about loving to read4:40 SparkNotes vs. AI chatbots6:07 Back to the human slop7:43 Chapter one: All Smiles8:14 “My tummy”10:05 The dead sheriff11:19 Two spaces after a period12:30 Salty tears13:11 Six semicolons on one page13:50 A ponytail at a funeral17:30 Heterochromia (thanks, Final Fantasy X)18:10 The handwritten first draft20:24 The title: Cerebellum Priest20:47 Underworld appreciation23:53 Why she’s 13 now25:00 I fell asleep reading Harry Potter27:30 The Bones finale I never watched28:00 Her mother31:50 How she got her name34:50 The curse of Dunlap, Kansas36:30 “Boxes, clothes and possible food”37:30 The mustache39:00 Everything I was working through40:30 The stranger in the cloak43:00 The tree with a face46:00 Six fingers47:00 “The TV dinner of Kansas”50:00 Stuffed animals and growing up53:00 More story or more tangents? Tell us57:00 How (not) to end a chapter59:00 Gender, identity and writing as a girl65:00 Send us your old writing66:00 Thanks for listening
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