Titus Paar [Interview]

Hello Folks! Today we have a wonderful interview to share with you all with the brilliant Swedish born filmmaker Titus Paar. Titus has created some wonderful work, especially in the world of action and adventure films. He has directed the likes of Steven Seagal, documented the living world of ancient tribes that most of us probably didn’t even know existed, and re-invented the idea of filming the era of the Vikings, as well as so much more. He is a powerhouse of a filmmaker and a visual mastermind in the world of cinema. We are so excited to have him grace our digital pages to provide a much needed relief from the insane times and events that re surrounding us lately.

So, Folks, please enjoy this wonderful interview with the great Titus Paar!

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When did you first realize that you wanted to work in the world of entertainment? Was it something you have wanted to do since your youth, or was it something that you just sort of fell into?

I was born with a very strong visual mind and have always seen everything in angles and cuts with big storys. Can’t shut it off. Started in the playground with me directing my friends to go out on my big adventures that could stretch weeks.

Then I started acting around the age of 6 and found my passion for theater. At the age of 12 I realized I wanted to star in movies and become the next Arnold (didn’t happen) but I also realised I lived out in the Swedish wilderness with no connections so…

I started making my own movies where I was the leading man and it grew from there. It lead me into making my feature debut at the age of only 15 and became the youngest filmmaker in Scandinavian history to make a theatrical feature.

So I’ve been doing this since before I can remember, natural born filmmaker. I try to stay true to that kid as much as a I can and remember the magic of seeing moves at that young age.

What was your first paid gig in the world of entertainment? And were there any sort of lessons learned from this experience that still affects your work to date?

I was 8 and played Mowgli in The Jungle Book in a play (there were not a huge amount of Indian boys in Sweden, hence the white washing casting of me). It was great, we where on a tour and I made the money that I was able to fund my first film with.

You were recently kind enough to make me privy to a truly wonderful short film entitled Legend of Dark Rider that I absolutely LOVED. Can you tell our readers a bit about this project? And can we expect to hear more about the Dark Rider in the future?

Thanks, Man. Yeah that one is dear to me. I wanted to make a grand old tale based on a world I spent 8 years creating. A mix of everything I loved and I didn’t care if anyone else liked it, just needed to make something I got a kick out of. So I funded this short that also works as a pilot of the first 20 min of a feature .

I wanted to make a bloody barbarian movie in snow landscape, with a elements of Black Metal, Japanese story telling, Viking Folklore and with a story that is thoughtful and not just a guy with muscles trying to save the world/sexy woman.

We actually made this short for only 8k and it was the film that took me to Hollywood. Won 16 best film awards that year and was praised by people like John Carpenter, Anthony Hopkins and Dolph Lundgren.

Check it out HERE for free.

If you were handed the opportunity to create the biopic of any legendary figure in world history, who would it be?

It´s not what I usually do, I´m more into creating my own world with my own set of rules. If you do a bio pic you are very locked in to the real world and real events that you have to respect.

BUT after my experience with the Kogi tribe and my love for a good western. I´m really keen to do a good movie or limited series about Sitting Bull.

There hasen’t been a good one, a true portrayal of the man. Done with real natives in their own language told through his conversations when he had become a circus act to his only friend Annie Oakley as he is reminiscing of his life. That’s a good foundation.

I think it has to be done by an outsider, there is to much pride and things at stake for a native director to tell that story and too much stigma and bad blood for a US director. I think I could make an interesting objective portrayal and find the man behind the legend and sprinkle it with some movie magic and poetry.

I’d like that. I just make movie I want to see that doesn’t exist, always as a fan of film.

What does the future hold for you? Anything you would like to plug to our readers?

I´m in post on Fear of the Woods, a film about bear hunters in Alaska set in the 90s. A monster movie in the sprit on Spielberg. You know when there is a story and characters that are so interesting the film would be good even if you take out the beast crashing the party.

I’ve been wanting to make this film since I saw the anime Silver Fang for the first time when I was like 6. So 30 year later here we are, staying true to the kid.

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Nick Powell [Interview]

Hello, Folks! And welcome back to another week of wonderful showcases here at Trainwreck’d Society. We kicked off the weekend last Friday with a great interview from an absolute legend in the world of stunts. And, well, we enjoyed it so much, I thought why not have at it again? That’s right Folks, we have yet another legendary figure from the world of stunts, and a cat who happens to be a filmmaker in his own right, as the evolution seems to happen. It’s Nick Powell, Everyone!

There has been quite a bit of talk over the years about the fact that stunt work is not celebrated at all in regards to the film world’s highest “honor”, which would be the Oscars. The art of creating realistic and appealing stunts is just that – an art. And it’s absolutely criminal that it is not showcasing to those outside of the world itself as to show just how important of an art it truly is. And it is suffice to say that should the Academy retroactively celebrate one pioneer of the industry, it would be Nick Powell. Not only has Nick worked on some of the finest action/adventure films of all time, he has worked on some of the finest FILMS of all time. This includes Best Picture winners like Braveheart and Gladiator. These films were celebrated for their cinematic achievement. Well, what was one of the most compelling aspects of these films? That’s right, the stunt work. So what is the deal?

Beyond the world of stunts, Powell is also an accomplished filmmaker. As we discuss below, thanks to some incredible research by our friend Chris Eaves which we will be sharing soon, Powell holds the distinction of being only 1 of 2 filmmakers who have worked with screen legend Nicolas Cage on more than one occasion. Check out his wonderful responses below for more details.

So Folks, please enjoy some wonderful words from the legendary Nick Powell!

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What inspired you to get into the world of entertainment? Was it something that you had yearned to do since your youth, or did you just happen to find yourself in this world one day?

I was actually more into sports as a kid and played for a couple of 1st division schoolboy sides so I was very interested in becoming a footballer upon leaving school (soccer if you’re not from England) but was persuaded by careers teachers that I should get a ’solid career’ to fall back on in case it didn’t work out. As a naive 16 year old and maybe not being quite as skilled as I’d like to think I was, I  went to engineering college for two years where I trained and qualified as a design engineer.

At 18, engineering qualification in hand and not really having been active enough as a footballer to get scouted for a pro team, I had a place lined up to study for a masters in engineering at Sheffield University but really couldn’t see myself doing that for the rest of my life. One of the things I’d always loved the idea of was acting but where I came from it wasn’t really something you’d ever tell anyone about, at least not without risking being called a lot of very unflattering names. Anyway, having my university place already guaranteed I took the risk and, without telling anyone at home, I went down to London and auditioned at a couple of Drama Schools hoping that I could learn to be an actor. Maybe I could do well enough to get roles that would pay the bills whilst at the same time inspiring people or at least moving them emotionally the same way I was moved whilst watching a lot of movies as a kid. As I write this I realize just how naive it all sounds and what a long shot it really was.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get accepted at a Drama school and studied acting for a couple of years. I did everything I could to get work after graduating and whilst I was actually one of the lucky ones and managed to find enough work in theatre and TV to pay the bills, just, it was always a hard slog. Whilst I was doing a theatre job I met a guy who was training to become a stunt man and he explained the requirements to get accepted on the British Stunt Register, it sounded like a lot of fun and even if I didn’t succeed I figured I’d learn a lot of things that might help in my acting career. After a couple of years of hard training I qualified as a probationary stunt man and what was intended to be the extra string to the acting bow gradually, over the next 6 or 7 years became the main string.

Stunt work was exciting and well paid, at least in comparison to a lot of the small theatre jobs I’d been doing so I’d take the stunt work over the acting and after being asked to choreograph all the fights and sword work on Braveheart, I figured I’d found what I was meant to do.

What was your first paid gig in the world of entertainment? And were there any sort of lessons learned from this experience that still affects your work to date?

To be completely honest, I can’t recall the first few extremely minor jobs I had as an actor after graduation, I think they were in profit share theatre but the first real acting job I do remember was a small role in a BBC TV show The Diary of Anne Frank where I played ‘NSB Man’ with a few lines of dialogue (I think it was a year after I graduated) and I was extremely excited and happy to have gotten the role. I also played the role of Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island in theatre at the Edinburgh Playhouse around the same time and recall one of the actors in the show was a friend from the same drama school I went to and who I and everyone else thought was probably the most likely to succeed, he was a standout at the school and I followed his career which didn’t go very far which was a real shame as he was so talented. I learned from that that it’s not always the most talented people that are successful.

Early in your career, you worked on the stunts for one of my favorite films of all time, which would be the incredible Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I am such a fan boy of this film, and I have to ask how your experience was working on this project. And while you were making it, did you have any idea that you were making the finest depiction of Robin Hood that would ever exist?

When I was working on it, Robin Hood was just another job that I really enjoyed doing when I was starting out. I only had a few weeks work on it as a general stunt man, running around, climbing trees, sword fighting, shooting arrows, that kind of thing. So, no, I didn’t really know what we were making at that point but it was a real pleasure to be working in close proximity to Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman and it was around that time that I began thinking I was becoming a real stunt man. I’d done some work on the Tim Burton Batman movie a year or so before and I was doing a lot of television so things were starting to work out nicely for me at this point. Having the acting background was really helpful as I got a lot of work where directors wanted a stuntman that could act or an actor that could do his own stunts. It kind of kept the dream of one day going back to the theatre alive but unfortunately I never did get back there.

Whilst scrolling through your IMDb credits, I noticed that your first “credit” as a director is with the Nicolas Cage fronted action film Outcast, although you did quite a bit of work beyond the world of stunts prior to it. I am curious to know how this project changed things for you? How was your experience in taking on a project like this as your first role in the director’s chair?

Prior to Outcast I’d been approached to direct a few things – features and TV – but I’d had a lot of bad luck, either because of financing, timing or casting, none of them happened, although they had taken up a lot of time that I could have spent doing other jobs. That’s one of the things about directing, especially in the smaller independent world, you need to commit a lot of time prior to the movie actually happening so that takes you out of the running for things in the field you are already in, at least in my case anyhow. In fact, Outcast took over a year from when I agreed to direct it to actually going into pre production and lot’s of things changed dramatically from the time I said yes to when we started shooting including producer changes, script being rewritten, cast changes etc., etc., etc.

It was not exactly the experience I had hoped it would be as we started out making a movie for the world market and ended up making what was essentially a Chinese movie. I worked as hard as I could to maintain the initial vision that myself and the western producers had but it was essentially taken out of our hands. The main benefit I got from the project was that I realized I worked well with all the cast and I learned how to produce, direct and do a lot of other people’s jobs on the most insanely pressurized project I’ve ever been involved with.

Our dear friend, and resident film historian Chris Eaves, has noted that very few filmmakers have worked with Nicolas Cage more than once. You actually have, you did Outcast, more recently the film Primal. In fact, you are one of two. I am curious to know what you feel as though it is about your working relationship that led to a second outing? And what was it like meeting up with Cage for a second project as a director?

Continuing on from the response to your previous question, none of the western cast and crew had too great an experience on Outcast (for a variety of reasons) but I had developed relationships with the actors and crew whereby they all realized they could trust me and that given the right project and circumstances wanted to work with me again. Nick was especially supportive, and after we had finished on Outcast and realized it was not what we had hoped for he said he’d love to do something with me again under better circumstances. I was sent the script to Primal and immediately thought that Nick would be great for the lead. I reached out to him and within a few days he was onboard. As seems normal from my experience on these sort of projects, depending on producers I’m sure, once again it took a long time to get the project realized. From when Nick said yes it took almost a year before we started shooting. The benefit of working together for a second time is that the sense of trust between us has grown and Nick and I get on even better than before, he is a consummate professional and we have chatted about doing something else together at some point in the future.

If you were handed the opportunity to create the biopic of any legendary figure in world history, in any period, who would it be?

Of course, in the vein of Gladiator and Braveheart etc I’d love to helm a large scale battle pic such as a Genghis Khan movie. Especially since, having done quite a bit of study on the man, there are so many fascinating aspects to his general life story besides the battle elements. I think there are great stories to be told from some of the rock and roll legends such as Mick Jagger, David Bowie and the like whilst I’d love to take on more cerebral characters such as Freud or Jung as well.

What does the future hold for you? Anything you would like to plug to our readers?

I’m in the process of putting together a vampire love story very much influenced by Shakespeare with a lot of anachronistic steampunk type visual references that I’m hoping to shoot in Cuba later this year. Things are coming together as I write and if all goes well I hope we will have a complete picture ready for festivals next spring. I’ve also been approached to shoot a strong female led action project early next year that I’m really looking forward to as well.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

My daughter a few minutes ago who is having trouble with her braces, now, in the middle of the coronavirus shut down I can’t get her an appointment and might have to have a go at adjusting her braces myself, not something I have a clue how to do. you’ve got to laugh!

Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle [Interview]

Hello Everyone! And a happy Friday to you all. For those who are still looking forward to it…it’s the weekend! So, that can be exciting. Speaking of exciting, today’s guest is an absolute legend in the world of excitement in the world of cinema. It’s Lauro David Chartland-DelValle! Lauro is a filmmaker and legendary stuntman. And when I say legendary, I really mean it. He has worked on some of the biggest projects that you know and love. We get into many of them in the questions below, as well has in a truly fascinating photo gallery that Lauro was kind enough to share with us.

But, some of the projects that aren’t mentioned happen to also involved some close friends of ours here at TWS. For example: 2018’s Predator (co-written by Fred Dekker), I’ll Be Home For Christmas (co-written by Harris Goldberg), Mr. Magoo (co-written by Pat Proft), and Masterminds (directed by Roger Christian). And that is just me scrolling through IMDb taking mental note! Seriously Folks, from Jackie Chan flicks to the Indiana Jones franchise, to horror/thriller films from the greats like Tobe Hooper or Christopher Nolan, there is hardly a genre that Lauro hasn’t performed his magic in. He became a full on director a couple of years ago, which he will discuss below, and has some wonderful stuff in the works that we are all very excited about.

And as I alluded to earlier, Lauro was so kind to let us showcase and wonderful collection of behind the scenes shots he has done over the years. And we are oh so grateful that he did. Check them out at the end of the interview! Enjoy!

So without any further babbling on, please enjoy some wonderful words from legendary stunt man and filmmaker Lauro David Charland-DelValle!

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JT Barnett [Interview]

Hello Everyone! If this is your first time stopping by to check out our digital pages, welcome! And welcome back to all of you fine regular readers. Today we have a pretty incredible interview to share with you all! If you have Netflix and/or eyes, you are probably already pretty familiar with the global phenomenon that has taken the internet by storm over the last couple of months. Which would be a little documentary series entitled The Tiger King. It’s a series that certainly didn’t escape our fascination, and I was personally excited about the prospect of gaining even just a bit more insight into the events that took place during the timeframe depicted in the series. And Folks, I feel like we have been given a wonderful opportunity to do just that. Our guest today is a creator who was highly involved in all things involving Joe Exotic and the GW Zoo. It’s producer JT Barnett, Everyone!

Barnett worked for a great deal of time on the original reality series based around the wild and fascinating times of Joe Exotic, creating some of the content that was featured in the Netflix series. He has also continued to work within the Tiger King world since the series was released. JT recently worked on a TMZ/Fox Tiger King investigative special. It aired on primetime this last Monday and is available on the Fox Now app. He gave us some wonderful insight into his time working at the GW zoo, the impact of The Tiger King since its release, and of course we talk a bit about his other work outside of the TK world, which includes an almost decade long stint working in the early days of reality television on the popular series Cheaters.

So Folks, I know you are all eager to get right into these questions, so how about we just jump right into it? Please enjoy some wonderful words from producer JT Barnett!

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What inspired you to get into the world of entertainment? Was it something that you have wanted to do since your youth, or did you happen to find yourself in this world one day?

From a young age I was inspired to write. I became interested in photography later in life, another passion of mine. My father is a welder and his father was a watchmaker. I think that’s where I get the appeal to the technical side of camera work. I find comparisons in our craft as in a finely tuned watch. While I dabbled as a youth, I did found myself working at the age of 18 on what was a then new concept show, Cheaters.

What was your first paid gig in the world of entertainment? And were there any sort of lessons learned from this experience that still affect your work to date?

My first gig was on the show Cheaters. I was introduced to Bobby Goldstein, the series EP, thru my friend Harold Helm. Back then, other than The Real World, there wasn’t any type of reality TV. Bobby Goldstein and Tommy Habeeb were the original founders of this concept. I started out as a PA, I got coffee and ran errands. I moved on to camera after awhile, then to field producing. I was trained by a great set of professionals. The lessons I learned from these men is invaluable. I learned the values of teamwork as well as how to work under pressure. The high stress, rapid production style of shooting this series would prove to be an excellent learning platform. The most valuable lesson I carry to this day is…. Filmmaking is a collaborative art, you are only as good as your team. 

You worked on Cheaters for close to a decade. I am curious to know what this experience was like? The show feels sort of dangerous in a way, so how was your experience getting this footage?

Some of the best days of my life were spent field producing this program. I will always be thankful for this time as it set me on my journey to today. While the show is reality TV, there were many instances when we were in dangerous situations. Anytime you’re dealing with people’s significant others or their emotions… it can get volatile. From busting people cheating in night clubs, to the street races and at fight nights… shooting this program was always an adventure. 

Now, I understand that you were a part of a recent phenomenon that the world can’t stop talking about, which would be The Tiger King. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working as a producer & photographer for the GW zoo and Joe Exotic’s original reality series? And making the infamous “I Saw a Tiger” video? How did you come to land this gig? And what was your takeaway from this experience?

I left Cheaters in 2009 to explore personal projects. A few years later I would meet Joe Exotic through a friend. He was working on a reality TV concept. I helped him develop this reality show and my role from the beginning was as a producer. In 2013 Jason Carbone’s production company, Good Clean Fun, took an interest in our show. I started working with GCF producers Matt Wrablik and Nick Lee on the concept. I field produced and directed the sizzle reel to Joe Exotic – The Tiger King. At the same time Danny Cotton started working with us as a producer and in marketing. He broke dozens of viral clips with millions of views. The sizzle pushed into pilot with A&E that summer. Tragically we were filming the pilot when Saf had the accident in October of 2013. This accident coupled with pressure from radical animal rights groups caused the network to back off. I continued on for many years after this, working as a consulting producer. I worked remotely and on site for a week or so at a time. I will always cherish this time. I also shot a lot of still & motion photography over the years with The Tiger King. I’m glad I was able to be at this place, during this time in the world, to capture these moments. 

In your opinion, as somebody who has been involved in the Tiger King world, how accurate would you say the series got it? Would you say that this is an accurate depiction?

I think Eric Goode, Rebecca Chaiklin and Chris Smith did a tremendous job on the docuseries. It paints a fair picture and brings some shocking discoveries to light. Although, everything the series does get right there are some discrepancies with the truth. Joe was not an animal abuser, I do not support or condone that. If he had exhibited that type of behavior, I wouldn’t have worked with him then, nor would I support him today. One big thing the series gets right is that Joe was setup. He was led down a path by con artists, railroaded by a biased judge and convicted in a failure of justice. I applaud the producers of the series for having the courage to present the facts they did. One massive inaccuracy in the series, is the story of the internet show producer. Rick’s story is largely fabricated and highly dramatized. He takes credit for trying to do something, we successfully did years before. In the end lots of great things in the series outweigh the inconsistencies. I’m happy the two main takeaways from the docuseries are: Joe was setup and Carole did it. 

Are you at all surprised by the reactions that people are having to Tiger King? Is it surreal to you, or does it all make sense? 

It has been a little surreal with all the attention. While we knew it was a hit when we were shooting the pilot 7 years ago, I don’t think we could have ever anticipated this concept would go on to be a #1 Netflix sensation. I think the program grew into something larger than anyone expected. While The Tiger King is an entertaining hit, I also think it’s the perfect storm of the world being quarantined and this program you can’t look away from.

Whilst scrolling through IMDb, I came cross a project you have in the works entitled Bound that is very intriguing, and will feature our dear friend of the site Tina Parker. Can you tell us a bit about this project? What should we be excited to see upon its release?

I haven’t been working with this team lately, although I did work with Guillermo years ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the pleasure of working with Tina Parker during this project.

Instead might I recommend the TMZ/Fox Tiger King investigative special. It aired on primetime this last Monday and is available on the Fox Now app. I was a consulting producer on this project and got the opportunity to work with Harvey Levin. (Thank you Danny Cotton for introducing me.) Harvey did an awesome job being fair and unbiased. If you liked Netflix’s Tiger King you should definitely check it out.

What else does the future hold for you? Anything you would like to plug to our readers?

While I had my tenure in non-scripted, my passion lies in scripted works. I have a lot of great partners from New York to Texas. In NYC I’ve been working closely with veteran producer and partner Mark Lipsky. He’s producing my first feature film, The Scarecrow Bandits. We are also working on several other reasonably budgeted, independent films at WOF Entertainment. The Scarecrow Bandits is based loosely on actual events and written in conjunction with my longtime friend and collaborator Chris Pettie. The film currently stars Jason Mitchell as well as some other well-known talent. Back in Texas, I work with an excellent production team. I am partnered with executive producer Radio Rajeem on the Never Satisfied Studios in Dallas. Readers can follow me on all social platforms as @jtbarnett45. 

What was the last thing that made you smile?

I have several dogs and love animals. While my German Shepards brought a smile to my face today. The thing that makes me smile everyday is my son. I feel truly blessed to have him in my life and to be able to chase my dreams by doing something I love.

Check out some of JT’s original content via his own YouTube channel:

Brendon Walsh [Interview]

Hello Folks, and Happy Holidays to some of you out there. Today we are kicking our week off with some incredible words from an even more incredible comedian, podcaster, leading George Washington scholar, the great Brendon Walsh, Everyone! He’s an extremely hilarious man who has done some amazing work. He’s had late night sets on Conan & Kimmel, worked alongside some of our old friends like Greg Grabianiski and Johnny Pemberton on the hilarious series Pickle and Peanut, starred in our friend Henry Phillip’s film Punching Henry, and has done acting roles as a meth head, porn video clerk, and “scuzzy trucker”.

I first came to love Brendon when I was first introduced to a little podcast he did with comedian who will not respond to our emails, Nick Thune, entitled Do You Know Who Jason Siegel Is? By title alone I was hooked, and have become a huge admirer of his work beyond DYKWJSI. We talk a bit about it in the interview below, but I need you all to know that following Walsh on Twitter is one hell of an experience that I would highly recommend to you all. I’ve never learned so much about a renowned president who died from bloodletting. And that’s just some of the fun! Brendon also has a new podcast out, which we will discuss below as well, entitled World Record Podcast, and I am being told that it is the best thing to hit the internet, ever.

So Folks, please enjoy some incredible words from the brilliant comedian, Brendon Walsh! Enjoy!

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When did you first discover you were a hilarious human being and that the world would be a better place if you worked professionally to make people laugh for a living? 

When I was in the first grade, my teacher was reading a story to the class, but all the students were being crazy and getting on her nerves, so she closed the book and said she wasn’t going to finish the story. I stood up and started fake crying and said “Please! Please don’t stop reading the story, or I don’t know what I’ll do!” Then I pulled a handkerchief out of my back pocket (I carried a hankie on me when I was a kid because my dad did) and I wiped my fake tears with it, then blew my nose crazy loud into the handkerchief. The class lost it. It was like they were blown back by a sonic boom. They were all leaned back in their chairs cracking up. I remember my friend Brian Coughlin’s face was dark red and he couldn’t breathe, he was laughing so hard. 

I have to say that following you on Twitter is quite an experience. A phenomenal experience, If I may. You have somehow managed to make a bland yet excruciatingly addicting social media platform just a bit more interesting. I don’t mean to make this a “How Do You Do It?” type question, but I am curious to know what your overall thought process is whilst posting material to a site like Twitter? What would you say your ultimate goal is in the social media realm? 

If I think of the dumbest, most inappropriate, or tone deaf thing that makes me laugh, I tweet it. I just want to be funny on twitter, but mostly make myself laugh by how people respond to whatever dumb shit I said. I’m also an expert on George Washington and will conduct George Washington Q&A’s on Twitter regularly. 

Quick somewhat follow up question to the last one…..if you were able to do so, and were paid an ungodly amount of money, who would you pick to be your partner in a WWE style tag team match that would pit you and one other person against Todd Barry and Duncan Trussell….who would it be?

I don’t think I’d want to tag team with anyone. The arguments I get into with those two “people” are very personal. 

We always like to ask comedians who are kind enough to grace our digital pages who tend to hit the road a bit this one question: What are some places across the country that many people may not realize are actually great places for comedy? Maybe some of those clubs located in “flyover states” that may surprise people to know that they are wonderful places to see live comedy? 

How about the worst club? There’s a place called Off The Hook Comedy Club in Naples, FL. If you’re a comedian just starting out, try to get booked there just for the story. It’s basically a seafood restaurant where people are trying to eat and have conversations. The comedy seems to be an annoyance to them, if they stop talking long enough to realize there is a comedian onstage. I did a weekend there with Blaine Capatch and Drew Carey a few years ago and nobody was paying attention to any of us. It was surreal- we were just talking to each other from the stage at a certain point. It was almost like we were on a hidden camera prank show. I also know two comedians who quit drinking after doing a weekend there. 

I have to admit that I originally became a big fan of yours through the short lived Do You Know Who Jason Segel Is? podcast. It was such a blast to listen to during its time. I am curious to know what your favorite moment from this show was? All of this time later, what really sticks out as a truly wonderful moment from doing this project? 

That podcast was an off-shoot of my first podcast The Bone Zone, which is probably the best comedy podcast to ever exist. Do You Know Who Jason Segel Is? started after Nick Thune was a guest on The Bone Zone and said he thought everyone knows who Jason Segel is. We called a bunch of places on the podcast and proved him wrong. My favorite moments from DYKWJSI are the silliest stuff. The “Secret Garden” stands out where we would call nurseries and tell them we needed plants and vines and stuff to create a secret garden. But the secret garden was very sneaky and secretive so we needed soil I could lie down under then sit up to surprise people, and we needed various hiding places and places we could be sneaky in. Spaghetti sandwiches was an ongoing funny bit. Oh, and when we called Lazik places asking if they can laser off hemorrhoids with their lasers. There are tons of great moments. 

I have recently become privy to a new podcast you have going on known as World Record Podcast, which happens to feature a past guest of ours on just the second episode, the great Shane Mauss. Can you give our readers some details on this new venture? 

The idea for the podcast was to talk about world records, but so far it’s just as silly as everything else I’ve done. In the first episode, me and my wife Amanda call stores looking for salamais for us to use for “weird insertions” then we play the five steps from the New Kids on the Block song “Step By Step” for the person on the phone to make sure we’re doing it right. I guess you just have to listen. We’ve created a new TV show on the podcast called “Urkel’s House” that we’re trying to get off the ground by calling production companies and realtors. Shane and I do an epic prank call to a bridal shop on his episode where I complain that the last bridal shop we were dealing with said my wife (Shane) sounds like a man. It’s currently the funniest podcast in production. 

What else does the future hold for you? Anything you would like to plug to our readers? 

I’m working on a children’s book called Stinkalicious. I’m also involved with a celebrity gossip show called Trash Day with René Fabregé. 

What was the last thing that made you smile? 

A comedy special by a comedian I’m not supposed to like anymore.