The stories of four Vermonters will be featured in a popular podcast. Risk! was the creation of comedian Kevin Allison. You may recognize him from the MTV 90's sketch comedy show, "The State."

The podcast and live show is where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share in public. It has over 1.5 million downloads a month.

Allison has heard stories from celebrities and average people living in communities like Burlington. He was last here in 2017, and recently returned to Arts Riot.

Scott Fleishman: "So, you've done shows in Los Angeles, New York City. Why Burlington?"

Kevin Allison: "Oh my gosh, well, the last time we came here it was a fabulous audience and we had some very interesting stories that came from around here. First of all, a college town is always very receptive to RISK!, because the stories, there's often great stories that come out of the younger years, people's early twenties and stuff like that, yeah."

Scott Fleishman: "Any connections to Burlington or Vermont before then?"

Kevin Allison: "A good buddy of mine is from Vermont, a life long, well, since college and we came up here when I was in college and he took me sailing on Lake Champlain. So, I've always had a fondness for the place ever since."

Scott Fleishman: "These are people that you have never met before and they're going to come up and tell stories that they wouldn't normally tell."

Kevin Allison: "The whole idea of RISK! is where people tell true stories they never thought they dare share in public. So, what happens is on the Podcast on the audio Podcast I'll say, 'Hey Burlington, I'm coming to town in four or so months, so pitch us your stories,' and we'll get a bunch of pitches and then we'll comb through them and see what sounds really emotional or interesting or surprising and will cast four people and then start work shopping with them to make sure they're ready to get up on stage."

Scott Fleishman: "So, you've heard stories from thousands. Not just celebrities too. So, who has the more interesting stories, are they regular people that live in the communities, who are they?"

Kevin Allison: "That is a very good question, because the answer surprisingly is ordinary people. Like there have been a lot of celebrities that have done the show, but often times they are very careful about curating their public personality, so they're a little bit careful about what they say sometimes. Not all of them. Some of the comedians are rather edgy with what they'll reveal, but yes, ordinary people find the Podcast, the audio Podcast, very moving, very cathartic, very human and so they respond, they pitch us they say, 'Well gosh, when I heard that person sharing about that beautiful or that traumatic or that hilarious thing that happened to them, it made me feel like I could share this thing that happened to me and so yeah, the most extraordinary things come out of people who might have no stage experience whatsoever yeah."

The stories from Vermont will be broken up and mixed throughout future RISK! podcasts. You can download RISK! where ever you get your podcasts.