Podcast blending comedy, unexplained mysteries has Owatonna roots

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There’s a big difference between laughing at someone and laughing with them.

Comedian John Olson strives to make that distinction clear when he invites people to share their stories of the paranormal on his podcast, “Scalarious.”

The show, which Olson co-hosts with fellow comedian DW Surine, tackles stories of ghostly encounters with a comedic twist.

Though he’s an avowed believer in the supernatural, Olson welcomes skeptical perspectives on the podcast. Even Surine has been known to take a jab at his readiness to believe.

“The banter there is what really sells it, I think. He’s legitimately my exact opposite. He doesn’t buy everything in it,” he said.

Originally, they planned to interview other comedians about their paranormal experiences, but he’s found other guests — like mediums and authors — are just as engaging as the entertainers.

“People who love paranormal, they like talking about it,” said Olson.

They started the podcast shortly after Olson moved away from Owatonna in 2023, dropping the first episode last Halloween. Since then, they’ve tackled ghost stories ranging from a haunted strip club to spooky happenings at Olson’s childhood home in Sioux City, Iowa.

In one of their episodes, Olson recounts seeing the apparition of a woman in a white gown when he was toddler, shortly after his family moved to a new home. He’s had a series of strange experiences throughout his life, leading him to take up ghost hunting in his early 20s. Olson’s interest in the paranormal had waned by the time he moved to Owatonna in 2019, but it was reawakened by several strange incidents that occurred locally.

“Owatonna’s haunted history and present kind of inspired me to start dabbling back into it,” said Olson.

Olson reported seeing strange phenomena at his Oak Street apartment, like ghostly figures walking the hallways. During one of his customary evening walks around town, flashing lights in a building on Cedar Street caught his attention. Olson said the phenomenon didn’t resemble electrical problems, and when he took a closer look inside he saw a the light switch flipping up and down with no apparent cause.

He also shared a spine-tingling experience he had at Uncle Tom’s Antique Mall on the northside of town. At the time, he was investigating items with a ghost box, a device that scans radio frequencies for strange audio phenomena.

“I had an occurrence there. I was using a ghost box, and walked by a couple dolls and things started happening, you hear talking on it, whatever else. It was kind of creepy,” said Olson.

Olson seeks to confirm or debunk the accounts that he hears, but there’s still a few stories he’s heard from Owatonna that he hasn’t reached a verdict on. He’s “not 100%” convinced of the veracity of hauntings at West Hills and Central Park Coffee, but he’d jump at the chance to investigate them.

However, his most harrowing experience in Owatonna was entirely natural. In 2021, Olson went into cardiac arrest for over three minutes due to severe COVID-19 complications. At the time, Olson had scaled back his comedy career to open mic nights, but the incident inspired him to stage his first full-fledged comedy show in several years. On the one-year anniversary of his brush with death, he and Surine collaborated on a ”Happy Death Day” show at the American Legion , a location Olson has heard ghost stories about.

Now that their podcast is “growing daily,” Olson said he’s interested in returning to Owatonna. They’re currently booking “Scalarious” live shows around the country, including dates in Madison and Detroit, and he hopes to find a local venue for one of their performances. Olson noted their analytics show they have a strong following in and around Owatonna, and he feels they have the audience here for a show.

That audience runs the gamut from skeptics to true believers, and he welcomes them all.

“We have a mix of people who are there for the paranormal, and we have people who are there for the comedy,” said Olson.