RISK! live podcast takes on the risque and more

You definitely won't hear anything like RISK! on NPR.

Each week the show's creator and host Kevin Allison curates a podcast of R-rated true stories from listeners, celebrities and professional comedians. No topic is taboo, and the subject matter ranges from kinky to catastrophic, horrifying to hilarious and everything in between.

Allison spoke with The Detroit News about the podcast's origins and its first live show in Detroit at the Magic Bag tonight.

Q. Starting the podcast was a huge risk in and of itself. Can you talk about where your life was at personally and professionally when you first had the idea for RISK!?

A. By that point I had been really struggling in my career for about 12 years. The State, my sketch comedy group that had a show on MTV, broke up in about 1996. And I just had a really hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with myself on stage. I kept creating these characters who were telling stories about things I thought were interesting or even things I really cared about, but those characters were just not making a real connection with people.

It was Michael Ian Black, who was in the State, who said to me, "I wish you would just drop the act. I feel like you should be more yourself and tell your own stories on stage." So that's what got it all started. It really turned my entire career around, and I decided to create RISK! out of that.

Q. What were some of the first true stories you told about?

A. The very next week after that conversation with Michael I contacted Margot Leitman, who had a show called Stripped Stories at UCB in New York. Those were all sexually related stories, so I decided to share a story about the first time I tried prostituting myself. It turned out I was not cut out for that kind of work (laughs). I was so terrified that the audience was going to think I was a complete freak for admitting this stuff, but people felt immediately connected.

Q. How do you cultivate a safe place for people to freely share their deepest secrets?

A. I've always been the pied piper, the guy who makes people feel comfortable from the beginning. I have a lot of stories about being gay and kinky, a lot of sexual adventures, some of which are hilarious and some of which are frightening, so I'm able to be the first guy out the gate to share a story and use that to show people it's OK to be talking about this kind of stuff. And I'll encourage the audience throughout to be supportive.

Q. Who do you have on the bill for the upcoming show in Detroit?

A. The second two storytellers I'm still trying to decide, but I do know that Shannon Cason will be there. He's done RISK! before, and he's also done Snap Judgment. In Detroit he's going to share a story about some of the big ups and downs of his marriage, so I think that's going to be really interesting.

The other storyteller I know we'll have is Lindsay Hoffman. She was a radio DJ for a while in Detroit, and she recently shared a story on RISK! about ripping out her dermal piercing. She's going to share a story about a catastrophic night in her career.

Q. Those who've never seen or heard the show should know the title carries an implicit trigger warning.

A. Any evening of RISK! can go anywhere. If something is especially likely to trigger things about people, a story about molestation or rape or murder, I'll try to give a little heads up without spoiling it. An evening tends to go from a hilarious story, to a bizarre story, to a horrifying story, to another hilarious story. Sudden left turns are very possible.

Steven Sonoras is an Ypsilanti-based freelance writer.

RISK! Live Podcast

8 tonight

Magic Bag

22920 Woodward, Ferndale

Tickets $12

themagicbag.com