Castos Creator Spotlight: Chrisi, Jeremy, and the Cast of Madison on the Air

The people behind great podcasts

Great podcasts start with great people. The Castos Creator Spotlight is a twice-monthly series featuring creators in our community, exploring the stories, craft, and passion behind their shows.

What Happens When a Makeup Blogger Gets Zapped Into Old Time Radio

In a job interview she didn’t get, Chrisi Talyn Saje was told her resume was “eclectic.” She’d trained at Second City, worked every assistant job Hollywood has to offer (writers’ rooms, casting, production, talent agencies), earned a Masters in Film and TV Producing from UCLA, and has been a professional dog trainer since 2001. She took it as a compliment. All of it, she says, has been a workout for Madison on the Air.

The show has a premise that clicks immediately: Madison Standish, a modern-day makeup blogger, gets zapped into original radio dramas from the 1930s and 1950s. She ends up partnered with Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Marshal Matt Dillon, and more, reacting to everything around her with the full sensibility of someone who grew up with Starbucks and social media. The comparison Chrisi reaches for: “like Mystery Science Theater 3000 or RiffTrax, but inside the shows they riff.” Listeners tend to know exactly what that means the moment they press play.

The show launched February 1, 2021. Over 180 episodes spanning westerns, murder mysteries, superhero serials, and classic literature adaptations including Pride & Prejudice and The Maltese Falcon. Every episode stands alone, so you can jump in wherever a title grabs you.

A Real Collective

Madison on the Air, like other audio dramas, runs like a small theatre company. Chrisi writes, directs, and voices the character she’s been performing in improv since she was a teenager.

Her husband Jeremy handles audio engineering, music composition, and sound design. He also adapts the original radio scores so the show doesn’t face copyright claims, and lends his own voice to every episode. Before all this, Jeremy was a trained singer who fronted a night with Phil Collins and Genesis for symphony orchestras and appeared in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar attended by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He also finally got to fulfill a childhood dream and play Batman.

The cast has grown to dozens of actors recording remotely from across the United States and abroad. Everyone is credited by name with their specific role for each episode.

Meet Chrisi Talyn Saje

Chrisi’s tip: “Make a realistic production schedule and release consistently. If you can’t meet your own deadlines, you need to change them to be able to achieve them. Remember that this is YOUR show, but anyone else working with you has their own lives and priorities. Respect other people’s time.”

The comedy works because Chrisi respects the original scripts by adapting them, not replacing them. The humor comes from Madison’s modern reactions rubbing up against characters who have no frame of reference for what she’s talking about.

Bonus features land on the 15th of each month, covering the history of whatever radio show or era is featured. Recent ones have looked at the golden age of air travel, the history of public service announcements, and the real hurricanes that showed up in an episode’s script. The bonus material started as Patreon exclusives and has since found a wider release.

A couple of episodes worth calling out: Episode 63, “Madison’s Origin Story,” went back 63 episodes in to tell the New Year’s Eve 2020 story of how Madison got zapped into the radio world in the first place. Episode 64 was the show’s fifth anniversary, pairing Madison with Sam Spade for The Maltese Falcon.

What’s Next

Chrisi is straightforward about where things stand. “We have a solid, consistent following, but I would like to break through and reach more audience.” After five years of monthly episodes and a sizable rotating cast of collaborators, that reads less like ambition and more like a show and project that has earned the right to want more.

Listen to Madison on the Air

• Website: madisonontheair.com
• Castos: madison-on-the-air.castos.com
• Patreon: Madison on the Air

Thank you, Chrisi, Jeremy, and the entire cast of Madison on the Air for being part of the Castos community and sharing your voice with the world. We can’t wait to see where Madison ends up next.