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