This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast more what you hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.
You know Lauren Lipcus from Orange is the New Black. You've also seen her on the Wrong Missy with David Spade. I will always remember her as Stuart's girl Denise in The Big Bang Theory. She is now in a new scripted podcast and it is out wherever you see podcasts to hear podcasts, including the iHeartRadio app. And it is called Haunting. This is a different kind of paranormal podcast, isn't.
It it is? I mean, well, for one thing, it mixes comedy and horror together. I play a dead influencer named Terreza, who is like weaving you into these stories and giving you a little backstory about me and what's going on with me. But then we get to hear really really scary stories from real people.
What was being a part of such an iconic TV show like Big Bang Theory inspirational for you? And do you draw on that experience in this podcast?
Oh? I loved being on that show. It was so fun. I mean it was amazing because I got to come into that show when it was in season eleven, and so you know, it obviously had a rabid fan base at that point. So it was so much fun to go do the tapings where audiences were live in person, so excited to be there. The energy was really amazing, and I loved being a part of that. And I, you know, I think, do I take that into this
horror podcast. I don't know if I take that into the horror podcast, but I think the feeling of loving to perform for people is always there.
How'd you like that hook? I was just trying to kind of weave it all together.
I loved that.
Laura Lovekis is with us. Her new podcast is Haunting. What's funny about death?
God, you know, not much. I mean, I think when we're talking about ghosts, it feels so removed from the actual experience of death that we can separate those things a bit, or we do in our minds. This character that I play, this influencer, she dies in a very you know, embarrassing way that I'll let be revealed on the podcast. But you know, all the stories that we're hearing are real. So it's I guess you automatically think of death, But when I think of ghots, I just
think more being scared. I don't think about the actual person who was alive, who is now a ghost, you know what I mean.
Well, you know, as many funerals as I've been to and as many times as I've been a pall bearer, I'm the one that is usually at the funeral thinking of wow, that's kind of funny. I'll give you well, yeah, please, I'll give you an example. My grandfather's funeral, he used to call my aunt, who was a bit of a snob,
he used to call her house the Sanctum sanctorum. Well, in the midst of the funeral, he was a Freemason, and in the Freemason service, they kept bringing up the Sanctum sanctorum and I looked over my mom, and my mom looked at me, and we had to stifle the giggles that we at this funeral because it was supposed
to be so Yeah, that's an example too. I mean I read about a woman who buried her husband on her own property and it took so long to get the headstone she lost track of exactly where it was, so in the end she lost her husband twice.
You know, Oh my god, you know I've had that where I can't stop laughing at a funeral. So I totally relate that. I mean, I honestly kind of love those moments in life where you can't stop laughing and you're really not supposed to. I had it at a wedding recently, which seems like it wouldn't be bad to laugh,
but this guy was introduced. It was really sweet. It was I mean, I'm a comedian and a bunch of comedians were at this wedding, so we're naturally, you know, going to laugh at things that other people are not laughing at. But the officient was like making jokes about the weather and they just weren't landing, and it was so funny. And then there's that feeling of like I don't want to laugh because I don't want to ruin this like beautiful moment. But then we all start laughing
and could not stop. And it's one of my favorite memories. I just I love that feeling of like trying to hold back laughter.
Laura Locus she doesn't do that. She lets you laugh as much as you want in her podcast Haunting, which is out. Now, what are some of the what are some of the plot twists we're going to hear about and this is this is a scripted thing. This isn't you add living.
The parts where I'm thereza are scripted. And then the stories, the ghost stories are all real, so it's not scripted. It's people calling in and leaving audio messages telling their story.
So you get a little bit of both. But yeah, so from my part, you know, it's really it's it's fun and light and this influencer as a very superficial person who has all the wrong priorities as far as I'm concerned, and you get to just hear a little behind the scenes of her recording the podcast and what's going on in her after life as she's hoping to land in heaven ideally. And then we cut to these stories where we hear people share terrifying things that have
happened to them. There's a story about a school trip where kids go to a haunted house and obviously something supernatural happens. There's one that's really really scary where women are on a care free trip together, just having a vacation and then this scary figure appears at the foot of their bed and they have to deal with that. These there are all things that really happen to people, and that's what makes it so fun because you get to hear you know, these are I love a true story.
I love a true ghost story.
Lauren Lopcis is with us. Okay, I don't know that I've had any ghost stories. I've had things happen to me that I attribute to being a ghost. One example, I was staying at my grandmother's house, who had passed away a good ten years previous to that. She was always obsessing about light. She was worried if you had a subdued light, you were hurting your eyes, so she
was always turning lights on. I'm walking into the bedroom where I'm staying, which is in her house, and it's in her bedroom, and right as I walk in, the lamp by the bedside comes on. And my first reaction was, well, as a matter of fact, Grandma, I did need a light on.
I mean, I believe that was her. That sounds like so perfect.
I've told that story so many times. I'm sure the producers are rolling their eyes. Oh, here we go again.
But that's the perfect context to share it right now. I mean, we've definitely my family has had moments like that where you're talking about someone in a light slickers like things like that that you just can't attribute to anything, and it just feels like it has to be that person. And even if there are definitely skeptics out there, people aren't going to say that's not real. But if it gives you some comfort in those moments, I think that's
totally great. I mean, I'd rather take the moments where it's somebody that I love sending me a message than a terrifying ghost that I have no connection to who's trying to scare me. That's that's not my favorite.
You know her from Orange is the New Black. You've also seen her in the Wrong Missy with David Spade. I remember her Stuart's Girl and the Big Bang Theory Lauren Lipkus and her podcast Hunting with Lauren Lipkis. That was my question, Have you had a scary paranormal experience?
I did have one when I was a kid that my family can we cannot explain, and it's really crazy. We were at home and there was a voicemail or you know, an answering machine had a message on it. It was the nineties, so it was a long time and we played the message and it said you have a Collect call. It was like, if you remember Collect calls, I'm actually just making it telling the oldest story in
the world, but okay, it was. And it said you have a Collect call from and then you hear some like clinking of glasses, and then you hear a voice say Grandpa Joe, which was my great grandpa who had a bar. And we heard that clear as day. And I remember my whole family screaming and freaking out and playing the message over and over again. And I can't explain it, and I think it was real, and I choose to believe it was real because it's way more exciting than somebody prank calling us.
Imagine if you had been home when the call came through and you that would have been better answered the phone. What would have happened to them?
I don't know. What did you want to say? Why was he calling? He was calling Collect? I mean he didn't have a coin, so it makes sense.
Scary. Do you do you do a lot of production elements in the podcast in The Haunting with Lauren Lipkuz.
I don't. We have an amazing team. It's all done by this company, Glass Podcast, and they are so amazing compiling the stories and you know, putting it together with amazing sound effects and giving it a really nice feel. So thankfully I don't have to do that part because that's not my expertise.
Okay, well, we will be listening to Haunting with Lauren Loppez, the podcast available on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere you get podcasts. Thank you for so much great comedy, Lauren, and for joining us today.
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven. An iHeartMedia presentation