blank check with griffin & david - social

Blank Check is a podcast about filmographies - directors who have massive success early on and are sometimes given a series of “blank checks” to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce, baby!

I joined the team at Blank Check in February of 2021 - and it has never felt like a job. Since taking over the podcast’s social accounts, we’ve exploded in listenership (averaging over 100k listeners per episode) and fan engagement, particularly on X - growing from around 23.7k followers to 43k as of April 2024. And that’s even after Elon ruined the site.

Our voice on social is in keeping with the podcast itself – equal parts brainy and absurd. Our fans call themselves “connoisseurs of context” and we often use our feeds to offer additional background on the films and filmmakers covered.

Here are some of my favorite posts, including a “Flat Stanley Kubrick” campaign inspired by the “Flat Stanley” project I remembered from elementary school, some very niche valentines for our listeners, and a slew of other “nerdy shit” (as we say on the pod):

blank check march madness

March is when I really get to shine as part of the Blank Check team, because that’s when March Madness is! Each year, we host a bracket-style tournament where our listeners get to vote on a filmmaker for us to cover.

Alongside hosts Griffin Newman, David Sims, and Producer Ben Hosley, I determine a theme for each year’s tournament and pick 32 beloved filmmakers for our main feed and 32 film franchises for our subscribers-only Patreon.

I also get to stretch my film-school muscles by editing a teaser trailer for each tournament, which really gets the “Blankies” fired up:

Throughout the month, I post daily polls and factoids that highlight each filmmaker in competition:

March Madness is always a wild time for the Blank Check fandom - our 2023 tournament ended up being decided by ONE VOTE OUT OF 20,687 CAST:

blank check - episode appearances and live shows

My role with the podcast has grown to include multiple appearances on episodes and several live shows. Most recently, I appeared on the WONKQUAMAN episode to close out 2023 - a concept I willed into existence that had us covering both WONKA and AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM. You can listen to that here, and all other episodes by searching “Marie Bardi” on your favorite podcast apps.

Performing with the guys as part of Blank Check Live! has been one of the highlights of my life. We take the concept of “putting on a show” seriously, which means we don’t just sit and talk for an hour like we’re in our podcast studio. We make videos, wear costumes, invite special guests, and have even enlisted a team of dancers and choreographers to put together a routine to obscure film scores. In our most recent show at New York’s famed Town Hall, I even sang “Be Italian” from the musical Nine as a tribute to both “the number nine in movies” and also “actors doing bad Italian accents.” My role for the live shows is less social media-related and more production-related, where I come up with creative concepts for bits and moments, and create and track assets for the shows (slideshows, videos, visual aides).

All live show photography courtesy of Arin Sang-Urai (@Photojuice)