Show Notes
Today, we bring a very special guest, one whose face you might recognise, one that appears on your homepages with a sporadic video and seemingly disappears. His name is Benjamin Burke, or simply Ben, he’s the co-creator of KRAZAM, a channel that consists of sketches that combine grotesque and absurdist humor with technological anxiety, satirizing the tech industry and the modern alienation of the corporate life in general.
In this episode, which admittedly is a bit different from the usual, we’ll focus on KRAZAM and its origins, creative process, and what future plans and ambitions the duo has. Both Ben and Shiva started in software engineering, met in college and started doing sketches just for fun, not expecting this project to explode in popularity in the way it did. Ben will also share their unique approach to content and why KRAZAM prioritizes loyal viewers over virality, comedic inspirations. Stay tuned!
Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm
KRAZAM'S Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KRAZAM/videos KRAZAM's X/Twitter: https://x.com/krazamtv KRAZAM'S Website: https://www.krazam.tv/ Krazam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/KRAZAM Ben's X/Twitter: https://x.com/bb_fresh Ben's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnjmnbrk/ Shiva's X/Twitter: https://x.com/shivakilaru Shiva's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shivakilaru/
Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:58 - KRAZAM Origin Story 03:59 - How Much More Footage Is Left After the Recordings? 05:12 - Are Both Ben and Shiva Programmers? 06:46 - Inspiration Behind "The Hustle" 08:47 - Has Ben Read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations"? 09:25 - The Actual Introduction to KRAZAM 10:49 - Microservices 14:04 - Sending Birthday Messages Is HARD 19:06 - On Shiva Not Being in the Microservices Video 20:48 - Favorite KRAZAM Videos 22:22 - Most Underrated KRAZAM Video 32:00 - KRAZAM's Viewers Are Very Loyal 36:03 - Ambitions for the KRAZAM Channel 39:04 - How Did You Know KRAZAM Had Product-Market Fit? 40:59 - Ben's Comedic Inspirations 43:08 - KRAZAM Does Not Aim for Virality 46:47 - Was It Stressful to Do a Live Talk? 49:40 - KRAZAM's Video Release Frequency 51:46 - Competitive Excel 55:34 - Site Reliability Engineer Video 57:50 - AI Bots on Spotify 01:00:27 - Self-Hosting and The Good Old Days 01:02:31 - What's the Churn in the Industry? 01:05:21 - Where to Find Ben and KRAZAM
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