CENTRE WELLINGTON – Elora and Fergus are being highlighted in a new podcast series by local professional magician Ryan Joyce.
The Elora Fergus Podcast puts a spotlight on what Joyce calls a bustling and beautiful area that tends to draw in interesting characters.
“These people that come here tend not to leave and these people are usually really interesting, fascinating people,” Joyce said. “It’s just a really vibrant community that’s always outgoing.”
Right now, Joyce’s guests are mostly people in the community familiar to him who he thinks have an important message to share. Guests have included an owner of a FreshCo, a Wellington Advertiser columnist, a Lion’s Club president and other similar residents of the area.
“It’s a neat world, the world of podcasting, because the conversation can be a bit deeper,” Joyce said, adding that episodes are about 20 minutes long. “I don’t want to inundate everyone but the point is to be communicative but not waste time.”
Joyce said the podcast gives locals a unique opportunity to share their experience that they normally wouldn’t get.
“We can chat about stuff and hear interesting stories with these business owners here and fascinating people within the community who normally wouldn’t ever have the platform to share that,” Joyce said.
In the pandemic era, Joyce said the most surprising insight he’s gained from his guests is how technology has been forced upon everyone.
“It’s sort of evolved small towns and large towns to the same platform,” Joyce said. “We’re now all virtual communities, whether we like it or not, that’s the position we find ourselves in.”
Joyce said the skills he’s learned as a travelling magician do translate to podcasting. The podcast is largely a solo-endeavour besides a neighbour who helps him craft questions.
“As entertainers we gotta do it all,” Joyce said. “Many of us don’t have agents and people to do our website and all of those skills as entrepreneurs to be successful in our industry.”
Stage performance has also taught him how to quickly gain an audience’s attention. Joyce sees similarities between performing live to a crowd and to podcast listeners.
“It has some parallels to virtual audiences because you’re speaking to kind of one mass,” Joyce said. “It helps you communicate better, it’s refined my communication skills.”
Ultimately, Joyce said he thinks podcasting is a powerful platform for people to be able to learn about interesting people, ideas, events and their community.
“This is a different platform for people to learn about people within the walls of their community,” Joyce said. “In every community there’s fascinating people hidden, just hiding and waiting for their story to come out.”
