By Austin Price, Staff Writer
Photos by Austin Price
The lights begin to dim, and the iconic picture of podcast hosts and true-crime enthusiasts Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire light up the back wall of the stage. The classic podcast intro music aptly titled “Scary Murder #3” starts to play. The crowd erupts into cheers and applause. True crime fans and their novice significant others recognize the significance of this moment. This is RedHanded. A true-crime podcast.
On March 23, 2023, internationally acclaimed true crime podcast, RedHanded, graced Denver, CO with their presence at The Newman Center in the University of Denver with their first North American tour, EmptyHanded. Suruthi Bala and Hannah Macguire began their podcast in 2016, and now have created nearly 300 episodes ranging in length from 1 hour to 3 hours. They have also starred in several spinoff shows including ShortHand and Sinister Societies, a Spotify Original from Parcast. In addition to their immense collection of true crime material, they have also been awarded many well-deserved accolades including Gold for both 2021 and 2022 in the British Podcast Awards, were listed in Amazon Music’s Best Podcast of the Year collection for 2022, and thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic as they built their platform even more with earning Spotify’s 2020 Number One (Case Closed).
With such an amazing list of accomplishments and accolades, one might wonder why RedHanded has seen the success it has. How did two 20-something British introverts gain such popularity in the never-ending field of true crime? Well, personally I believe their success can be attributed mainly to their friendship but also to their perfect balance of anger towards the guilty, empathy for the innocent, reverence for the victims, advocacy for the survivors, good-natured fun, lighthearted joy in the darkest of cases, just a bit of swearing, and some crazy, too-good-to-be-true personal stories from the two of them. With all these factors, Bala and Macguire certainly delivered a performance to remember in Denver for the 8th stop of their North American, EmptyHanded tour.
The stage in the Newman Center in the University of Denver, ready for the show to start.
The EmptyHanded show began with some lighthearted fun as a video played of Bala and Macguire jumping out of an airplane, fulfilling a promise they made to their supporters if they won Gold for the British Podcast Awards for the second year in a row. They won, and to the delight of fans, we witnessed Suruthi’s childlike excitement in jumping out of a plane and Hannah’s disgruntled attitude and thinly veiled fear as she followed her cohost and long-time friend. While this video was only 3 minutes long, it got the audience laughing and ready to handle a gruesome true crime case after a bit of fun.
After the video was played, Suruthi and Hannah entered the stage. Hannah donned a long, flowy dress with flowers giving her a “garden fairy” look and Suruthi was in a form-fitting black suit, giving off a “businesswoman” chic vibe. As the two made their way to the center of the stage and sat in red velvet chairs, they poured themselves a glass of wine each, and the night began.
Hannah Macguire (left) and Suruthi Bala (right) at the beginning of the show.
The story they chose to tell for this show was one that was shocking with intense scenarios of child abuse and grooming, terrifying with unimaginable naivety, and downright weird with alien communication and warped religious beliefs. This was the story of Jan Broberg and her malicious abuser, Robert Berchtold.
The back wall features the mugshots of Robert Berchtold after his arrest for the abuse and kidnapping of Jan Broberg.
The back wall features an image of Jan Broberg as a child during the time of her abuse.
This story is one that is heartbreakingly true and one that continues to rewrite itself repeatedly. Same coercion, same gullibility; different abusers, different victims. In the case of Jan Broberg, she was groomed, sexually abused, abducted, and trapped by Robert Berchtold as he weaponized her Mormon religion against her and began an intense process of brainwashing, manipulation, and ostracization. As you can already tell, this is a hard case to cover. Bala and Macquire recognized this and in order to lighten the mood, as much as you can in a true crime podcast show, they introduced a fan-favorite, interactive activity to break up the tension. This was called EmptyHanded Time.
EmptyHanded is centered on the idea of failed romance and relationship mistakes. While Bala and Macguire frequently discuss their personal EmptyHanded experiences, the live show was an opportunity for the audience to share their own experiences and often, their own relationship mistakes and confessions. Using an online forum, Bala and Macguire opened the floor for audience members to anonymously share their EmptyHanded stories and would take turns reading these relationship confessions to the audience. These EmptyHanded stories occurred 4 times throughout the show and were strategically placed to break the tension and get some laughs during true crime horror.
Hannah Macguire (left) and Suruthi Bala (right) begin the first session of EmptyHanded time.
As the show continued, the audience laughed and cried, cheered and shouted, but most of all, the audience became one with RedHanded, a true crime podcast. True crime fans can only relate to fellow true crime fans because of the intense and graphic nature behind the content, and when you put hundreds of them in a room together, you're bound to get some laughs in seemingly the worst situations. While the show lasted nearly 3 hours with an intermission, no time is enough to cover the true crime cases throughout history.
With wit and humor, sincerity and graciousness, cleverness, and fun, Hannah Macguire and Suruthi Bala once again delivered their best with their EmptyHanded Tour. They finished the show with the most RedHanded finale ever, a picture of Macguire and Bala in alien costumes, a callback to the alien themes in the case covered featuring Jan Broberg. Here’s to many more podcasts, episodes, cases, and shows to come ladies!
Hannah Macguire (left) and Suruthi Bala (right) dressed as aliens for the finale of the show.