'Petty Crimes' And The Perfectly Petty Podcast
The pettier the crime, the better the time.
Long-time friends Ceara O’Sullivan and Griff Stark-Ennis are hosts of the true crime comedy podcast, Petty Crimes. The show investigates the pettiness of interpersonal drama submitted by their listeners every week.
O'Sullivan and Stark-Ennis had grown up in similar regions in upstate New York before meeting during their sophomore year at Boston College. Then they were attracted to the creative mediums of Los Angeles, where they currently reside. Stark-Ennis is an actor and model, while O’Sullivan is an actor, writer, and comedian.
O’Sullivan garnered a respectable presence on TikTok with over 576,900 followers, most of her content focused on stepping into different comedic characters. She was approached by SickBird Productions with the opportunity to host her own podcast because of her platform.
O’Sullivan, who is a big fan of reality television related podcasts, was excited to put her own spin on a new creative outlet. She wanted to have listeners be able to enjoy her episodic content, without having to be knowledgeable about a specific television franchise.
Stark-Ennis shared his perspective as an actor waiting to hear for new opportunities when the podcast came along.
“This was kind of Ceara’s brainchild,” said co-host Stark-Ennis. “...I was really looking for something to have more a say in to produce. This came at a very opportune time for what I was looking for.”
“I feel like the best opportunities are ones when you have a really good idea, and somebody comes to you at the perfect time with a really great opportunity.” said O’Sullivan.
The hosts are receiving an influx of submissions from their listeners, and it takes time to decide what submissions take precedent. The episodes are typically 30 minutes long split up into the main segment, in which the two deliberate the pettiness of the submission, and then the end of the show in which they discuss another submission and whether it is minimal or criminal.
“There’s not a clear guilty person within the crime that’s been submitted. It leaves a lot of interpretation for both of us. We don’t have all of the details, we have whatever the submitter has sent in, and we go with that,” said Stark-Ennis. “I mean we take some time to look through our submissions to make sure the crimes are viable to talk about, but also interesting and get people thinking “Well if I would’ve been in that situation, then I probably would have done the same thing, does that mean I’m guilty?” versus “This guy keyed my car, obviously this guy’s guilty and I’m innocent.””
“And the pettier, the better. We try to technically avoid real crimes and just explore crimes against petty people.” said O’Sullivan.
The two spend an entire day perusing through their Gmail and Instagram accounts to find submissions to discuss on Petty Crimes. Then they take turns on presenting the submissions to keep the reactions natural and have one of the co-hosts on track with the listeners.
O’Sullivan and Stark-Ennis did not start with a handful of submissions, so they had to build from their personal experiences. O’Sullivan kicks off the first episode with an investigation into the pettiness of a neighbor and their dog, while Griff-Stark Ennis discusses a note left on someone’s car outside of his former job. Now, 23 episodes in, they believe to have a better understanding of what makes a podcast stand out.
“The way that Ceara in her mind blended this kind of concept together, I think is a very unique approach to both genres and is something that not a lot of people and correct me if I’m wrong, are doing,” said Stark-Ennis. “So, ours got traction a lot quicker because it is something unique. It would have been a lot easier to do one or the other, I think just finding something that someone wasn’t already saying was very helpful.”
“Podcasting is a marathon, so don’t sweat the small stuff. You have one episode, and you don’t feel amazing about it? It’s okay, let it ride, no big deal. It’s going to be a lot of content.” said O’Sullivan.
Petty Crimes has a new episode out every Tuesday available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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