I’ve never told you this before, but I am one of the thousands of people who have unsuccessfully auditioned for NBC’s longstanding reality singing competition “The Voice.” I actually tried twice, once in Atlanta and once in Miami, and at least made it through two songs before getting a polite “No.” I came nowhere near the famous televised blind auditions and those signature red chairs. (I sang “Eternal Flame” by The Bangles and didn’t suck, which is all I wanted.)

Still, I’m a fan, and spend lots of time debriefing with my sister and Twitter followers about who I think deserves to go through each week and who was completely robbed. James Toler and Stephanie D’Accurzio, longtime friends and fellow singers at Columbia’s Bridgeway Community Church, do the same thing.

The difference is that their viewing party is actually a podcast. And when they give their honest opinions about the singers, those singers are actually listening. And talk back to them.

“We never set out to do this to get a following, or a fanbase. We just wanted to have some fun. We thought it would be cool if people bought into the fun that Steph and I were having,” said Toler, of Columbia, who since September has hosted The Pitchy Podcast with D’Accurzio, who lives in Catonsville.

The show, which cheekily takes its name for a description of what it sounds like when you’re not on pitch, land on podcast platforms on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the day after each Monday and Tuesday episode.

Connecting with the actual singers may not have been their intention, but since the beginning of the show’s current 22nd season, they get regular Instagram comments from contestants including Andrew Igbokidi, Kim Cruse, Justin Aaron and singularly-named Bodie, who competes in tonight’s two-part finale.

Both are relatively new fans of “The Voice.” Toler, who auditioned for “American Idol” several years ago, mostly knew it through clips shared with him by friends, and eventually passed them on to D’Accurzio, who he met in their church’s choir.

“What intrigued me was that the coaches didn’t get to see who the singer was, and it was about how the person sounded rather than what they looked like,” D’Accurzio said. For Toler, the draw was that “The Voice” is open to all ages, as opposed to “American Idol,” which has a current age limit of 29.

“I had aged out of it after the first few seasons,” said Toler. He moved to Las Vegas and worked a few years as a singer on the Strip before moving back to Maryland after deciding, “I didn’t like who I was becoming.” Although his current job is in healthcare human relations, he restarted his performing career in 2018, in two shows at Columbia’s Toby’s Dinner Theatre. He took a break after Covid but intends to go back.

“As someone who kinda walked away from a career, and then decided in his middle age to go back, I loved that other people had that opportunity to have that shot,” he said of the show. He and D’Accurzio talk about “The Voice” each week as if they are judges. Toler recalled thinking, “You know, we say some really interesting, funny stuff, and we have a lot to say. So I think other people would love to hear this.”

The hosts combine an enthusiasm for watching performances with actual performing experience, making their podcast more than just snarky opinion. There’s an oomph behind it, which seems to have made an impression with this season’s singers. The two started posting clips of specific performances to their Instagram page, and four broadcasts in, they noticed a comment from Igbokidi, a singer from Hot Springs, Ark.

“Thank you guys, means a lot!! I’m glad you guys liked it,” he wrote. That was followed by comments by Bodie and Cruse, who wrote that their commentary “literally had me in tears.”

D’Accurzio said she had started messaging with Cruse “to tell her ‘Great job in your performance’” at the same time she was messaging with Toler, “and I wrote something like ‘I’ll call you in a minute.’ I was right in the middle of making dinner, thinking I was talking to James, and she messaged back and said ‘OK!’ I was freaking out and said ‘I’m so sorry, that was for somebody else,’ and she said ‘Oh, OK, I was getting ready.’”

Each of the podcasters has their own standard of what they look for in a contestant. “For me, it’s ‘Are you on pitch?’” D’Accurzio said. “I’m always interested in performances that have their own melodic uniqueness to it, like when they take a well-known song and change it up a little.”

“We’re singers. For the most part, we know if something sounds good or whiny within the first 10 seconds,” Toler said, “but there are some who sang a fabulous first line, and the rest of it feels a bit off. But there’s a thrill of hearing a new voice, a new song you’ve never heard before.”

After Tuesday’s finale, the hosts have decided not to review “American Idol,” which starts soon, but will take deep-dives into the most recent season of “The Voice” until the next one starts. Because they’re nothing if not honest, both Toler and D’Accurzio admit that they’re “in mourning,” Toler said, over the shocking eliminations last week of Cruse, Aaron and talented Maryland teen singer Parijita Bastola.

I share their opinion that all three were robbed, but I’m going to keep watching, as are the Pitchy Podcast folks. They said they would love to go to Los Angeles for a taping of the actual show, but Toler’s aspirations are a little more ambitious.

“I would love if someone from NBC noticed us, and we became the official podcast of ‘The Voice,’” he said.

That would be cool. And since I know them, it’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to being on that show.

leslie.streeter@thebaltimorebanner.com