With a huge following globally, Melbourne-based Spotify podcasters Toni and Ryan have been on a mission to meet every listener and fan across the USA over the past few weeks.
The pair of podcasters launched their Spotify collaboration back in August 2022, 12 months after they first started broadcasting together. Their podcast has always been about the fans, starting with that first episode where they asked the permission of one dedicated listener, Caitlin, to start the new series. She also provided an “Authorised by Caitlin” message which was added to the audio. It’s a tradition that has continued with one fan authorising every episode.
For their first episode, recorded during a Covid lockdown, Toni Lodge and Ryan Jon wrote Tinder bios for each other. From that launch, the Toni and Ryan army of fans grew across Australia and later thanks to Spotify, across the world. Toni and Ryan’s podcast charts strongly on the Spotify Comedy Chart in the US, their second biggest following outside of Australia.
The hosts recently planned a North American road trip to meet listeners in the US and Canada. The tour lasted 20 days and featured live streams with fans who contributed to special tour episodes.
Toni and Ryan landed in the US on October 25 with a meet and greet in Dallas with Ryan demonstrating his considerable boot scooting skills.
Next stop was Nashville which was the first location on a 24-hour whirlwind with meet and greets also in Louisville, Indianapolis and Chicago.
In Chicago dedicated Toni and Ryan Podcast [TARP] fans decided to commemorate the occasion with tattoos. Toni and Ryan created a one-of-a-kind design for them, resulting in a permanent reminder of the event – an inked jar of Vegemite substituting ‘TARP’ and the Toni and Ryan’s initials for the iconic spread label.
Their one stop Canadian visit saw them engaging with fans in Toronto.
Toni and Ryan at Madison Square Garden
Next stop was New York City where Toni and Ryan met with more fans before the duo lived out a dream to make a cameo on kiss cam at a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.
While in the city the duo recorded an episode at Spotify’s US head office. The Spotify team surprised the visitors with a colossal billboard on Seventh Avenue near Penn Station which said, ‘This podcast is absolute garbage’.
Like all good cross-country trips in the US, a stop in Las Vegas is mandatory. Just days before the Las Vegas Grand Prix roared to life, and not long after Kylie launched her Vegas dates, Toni and Ryan jetted in.
Knowing they would be stopping in Las Vegas, the TARP fan base reached out with a request for the hosts to help with the wedding of fans Kelly and Matt. The wedding had been on hold since Covid. Toni and Ryan said they’d support that nuptials as long as they could also attend the service too.
The final days of their North American odyssey were spent in Los Angeles, with the hosts returning to Australia late last week.
‘This show is absolute garbage’
The dream job
“We’ve gone through about 90 different time zones, met so many American and Canadian TARPers, and signed books, boobs and butts. If this isn’t a dream job, I don’t know what is,” Toni laughed.
Ryan added: “The show wouldn’t be what it is without our North American TARPers so the least we could do was come over and say ‘hi and thank you’. We weren’t expecting the lines to stretch for hours but it’s so good to put faces to the names of so many people who’ve shared their stories, joined live streams and been part of our Patreon community.”
About Toni and Ryan
The video content from their podcast has received over 1 billion views on their socials, they have over 3 million combined followers on their socials (with over 1.7m on TikTok alone) and have massive download numbers for their podcast.
Connections
Toni and Ryan website
YouTube
Instagram:
Toni Lodge
Ryan Jon
Patreon
Facebook
TikTok
See also: Toni and Ryan sign exclusive podcast deal with Spotify