The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show

Darren Keith begins the first episode of The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show, explaining that the show is about unbelievable alignment and convergence, the intersection of events, fate, luck, chance, serendipity, kismet, destiny, synchronicity, and the major aura surrounding them.

After this introduction, Keith deadpans, “Okay, that was my introduction. Consider yourselves introducted.” Before Keith launches into the topic of his first episode, he informs the audience that if they discover any inaccuracies in his stories, they should email him at darren@Idon’tgiveashit.com.

He says all this without even a hint of a laugh, chuckle, smirk, or even a titter. That’s one quality that makes Keith — and his show — so funny. He says all this shit as if he was deadly serious.

Here’s another example. In the third episode opening, Keith asks listeners to sit back, relax, and close their eyes. Then he get a phone call from his lawyer, screaming at him, calling him a dipshit because many people listening will be driving and his instructions could cause an accident.

His show is about weird coincidences and twists of fate that often suspend our belief in the random. It’s timely that Darren Keith has released The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show, when conspiracy theorists — who now run the country — deny the existence of coincidence.

The episodes are short, about ten minutes, except for the Titanic episode, which ran 27 minutes. We’ve got presidents dying on the same exact day, a birthday balloon, twins separated at birth, and, of course, The Titanic.

Darren Keith denies comedy conventional wisdom. In a time when podcast comedians have an entourage on their show as a human laugh track, Keith’s husky, guttural voice adopts the stony demeanor of Bob Newhart.

Keith is genuinely funny without smashing you in the face with his sonic comedy stylings. He doesn’t laugh on the podcast, but I do…constantly.

Darren Keith has experienced a life marked by many twists of fate and random acts of destiny, which are reflected in his podcast.

Darren says: “I was a professional freelance drummer (and songwriter) for most of my life…in Philadelphia, where I’ve spent the majority of my years, but spent time living and playing in NYC, Austin, TX, and Branson, MO.”

Darren continues: “Since I was in my early twenties, I thought about doing something with my sense of humor and writing ability, but ultimately never really did anything about it because I was a professional musician. I’ve always had people say that I should be doing comedy and telling me about something funny I had said to them, so it’s always been on mind. Then, a number of years ago, I had one of those profound moments where I knew I had to either pursue this lifelong dream that had been gnawing at me for most of my life, or take it to the grave with me.”

Darren explains: “So…knowing absolutely nothing about any facet of what I was doing and only going on the confidence I had in my sense of humor and writing, I took the leap and created a TV comedy series called DK the gig.”

Darren says: “Eventually, I got a short Pilot filmed, wrote a few episodes, and started reaching out to people with it. It was pretty crazy, because even though I had never done anything like that before, had zero experience or background in it, never had acted before we shot that Pilot.”

Here’s what fate intercedes, and not in a good way. Darren explains: “Later on, I ended up with an Emmy-award winning production company that loved the show and wanted to produce it and shop it to Networks/Platforms. We scheduled the shoot to film the new Pilot…a huge production…and ended up having to pull the plug on it a week or two before the date due to COVID.”

Darren continues: “A year or so later, things were finally looking better, Covid-wise, so we decided to try again and film the Pilot…and a week or so before the start date, we had to pull the plug on the entire production because of Covid again.”

After being a victim of the fickle finger of fate, Darren tried again.

Having become great friends with the owner of the Production company by then, I casually told him about the idea I had for a food series. He loved it so much that he said he wanted to produce that as well, and we actually shot a pilot for that in the great food city of Asheville, NC. As soon as they were done editing it and were ready to take that to the networks/platforms, there were massive industry strikes that I’m sure you’ve heard about, and because of that, we had to put the food series on the shelf.”

Darren plowed ahead: “After both the comedy series and food series were at least temporarily shelved, I was talking to the owner again and happened to mention the idea I’ve had for a show revolving around incredible stories of coincidence, synchronicity and serendipity, etc., given that I’ve had so many of these amazing experiences myself over the years and am completely fascinated with these stories.”

That producer and Darren launched The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show and fate interceded again.

Darren says: “The producer’s entire life changed after a major natural disaster struck the town where he lives, and as a result, I realized that I would have to proceed forward without him. He had been producing three of my shows — and the coincidence podcast at that moment — and was taking care of things outside the creative elements I did, like setting up the RSS page, the final audio mix, planning promotion and monetization, etc…and now, never having done a podcast before, I would have to navigate the entire process myself. I actually had to start all over…from scratch…and blindly go at it alone…new RSS page, new everything. A complete relaunch.”

When we asked Darren about the challenges of starting an independent podcast, he told me, “I wasn’t from this universe at all, so it’s all been new and unfamiliar territory for me, from creating an RSS page to getting the show out there to people who love, and look for, podcasts.”

Like so many indie podcasters, Darren is a one-man show that presents many challenges. He explains, “I produce it, am the host, find the stories, do all the research, write the episodes, record it myself, etc. The only thing I don’t do is the final audio mixing. When I am completely done with an episode, I send it to Rich Desisto — who is great and does a lot in the podcast world, and is the person who told you about my show, and he makes sure the audio sounds as good as possible for broadcast, and that’s it.”

Like so many indie podcasters, Darren enjoys the freedom of operating his podcast without network interference.

He says: “I love the independent spirit I see throughout the podcasting landscape. There seem to be so many possibilities to explore, and you can essentially do anything that you can dream up. Creatively, it’s liberating…you don’t have to conform to any external parameters, criteria, or expectations.” Check out The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show. It’s funny without straining. It’s timely, as conspiracy theories now seem to overwhelm every coincidence. With the twists and turns of Darren Keith’s life, the podcast resembles a mockumentary. The tales of fate, chance, luck, and serendipity are well-researched and unfold with Darren Keith’s unique gift for comedy, satire, and sarcasm.

Finally, we wish Darren well as he recovers from COVID-19 and surgery. We sincerely hope the surgeons did not remove his funny bone. We are looking forward to more episodes of The Incredible And Endlessly Fascinating Fate, Chance And Coincidence Show.