Sarcastic Voyage is a unique, interconnected world of sketch comedy, serials and radio plays by Ron "AAlgar" Watt, with the assistance and cooperation of a a vast supporting cast of voice actors and contributing writers.
It began as a podcast, which was launched in 2009 by Ron “AAlgar” Watt and Matt Rowbotham. The pair were just coming off a three year run on a weekly webcomic, and were eager to expand into a different format. Longtime friend Dave Fields and his booming, authoritative voice was brought on as announcer, contributor and occasional guest.
As the show found its legs, AAl and Matt found themselves interviewing their friends, and occasionally people of notoriety, including cartoonist Michael Kupperman, author Maria Bustillos, Axe Cop co-creator Ethan Nicolle and Transformers/GI Joe/Jem writer Michael Charles Hill.
AAl and Matt were excited to speak with these people, but found the interview format was a bit awkward with two hosts. This aspect of the show was gradually dissolved, and ultimately gave way to more pre-written material. A regular cast of voice actors — the Sarcastic Voyage Unpaid Voice Acting Players — was assembled to perform this material. Behind the scenes, a greater effort was made to create a more polished, professional-sounding product.
Eventually the interview/spontaneous host segments were dropped altogether (spinning off as AAl’s More Bits podcast), in favor of a show consisting entirely of prepared material. Longer-form comedic radio plays were also added to the show’s regular output.
A series of successful fundraising efforts have led to a regular Sarcastic Voyage presence at the Emerald City Comicon since 2012, and also to the production of a series of videos. These short films are adaptations of regular SV characters in visual form, using puppets.
Sarcastic Voyage celebrated its fifth anniversary in August of 2014, with a live recording of their 180th episode. In March of 2015, they were granted an hourlong performance in the form of an official panel at the Emerald City Comicon. The show was an overwhelming success, filling the room to capacity and forcing the convention to turn a number of additional people away at the door. They have enjoyed similar success at subsequent Emerald City appearances in 2016 and 2017.
Currently, a number of interrelated projects are released regularly under the Sarcastic Voyage banner, including the comedic soap opera Contentment Corner and a series of one-off radio plays featuring recurring characters Nick and Willikins, Dottie and Mary Madison (among others). In recent years, the Sarcastic Voyage Voice Acting Players have expanded their ranks to include a number of talented performers in the Seattle comedy community.