Interview with Star Joes on Podcasting Journeys

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Partner Spotify.

Hi, this is John Delancey, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Oh, and welcome

to Geekcast Radio. This is episode 68. This is

continuing our Syndication Nation spotlight.

I am one of your hosts, TFJ and Mike. Joining

me is Steve Megatron. Hello. Ah, good day, sir.

And today, we travel to a galaxy far, far away,

because knowing is half su - Oh, God, you fucked

it up, you moron! Take two. Ah, you coward! Anyway,

as you can tell, we have the Star Joe's here.

Star Joe's Ryan and Star Joe's Chuck. Hello,

guys. Hello. Hey, what's up, guys? Glad to be

here. Yes. So we are here to talk to you guys

about how each of you got into podcasting, why

you started the podcast you did, and what has

been your experiences so far doing the journey.

i'd just before the recording looked at itunes

your all's first episode was it's in twenty ten

correct correct january uh... and yet in january

of twenty ten so you guys are going on most you

know four years now or well a little bit over

yeah i don't know yet you know it's five now

uh... chuck how did you come to this whole thing

of podcasting were you a listener at first and

you know you listen other shows and then said

hey i could do this or How did you come to it?

Basically, I only listened to a couple. It was

pretty much the pop culture network guys. I listened

to those guys. Then I listened to Comic Geek

Speak. Ryan was a work associate at the time.

We weren't really friends. We were work acquaintances,

I would say. We just had lunch together at the

same circle of friends and found out we enjoyed

similar interests. We kind of took it from there.

We're both right around the same age. We decided

other people are doing podcasts. We should do

one. Decided you know what it would be on it

would be you know things that we liked 80s properties

And the two main ones were GI Joe and Star Wars

obviously And it just kind of evolved out of

that little idea basically you know at lunch

one day. Just kind of talking I mean there's

stuff happened that Ryan will go into but you

know friends and stuff like that, but I'll let

him touch on that, but that's just kind of how

it was. We just had an idea at lunch one day

and we just decided to run with it. Sounds like

middle school all over again. You want to elaborate

a little on that, Ryan? Yeah. So for me, it was

when it came to podcasting, I had a friend at

work who told me about podcasting and I hadn't

even heard of it and I had a job that required

me to Do mindless stuff for a while without talking

to customers or anything like that? So I needed

something to occupy my mind. You can only listen

to so much music So buddy told me about podcasting

told me about a podcast called the geek savants,

which is a very raunchy podcast, but it's also

hilarious and They're geeks and everything else.

Well, I started I listened to them non -stop

They had like 80 episodes out there and I think

within like a few weeks. I had gotten through

all 80 episodes and started communicating with

them, sending them messages and everything else,

and actually built up a little bit of a friendship

without actually meeting them, which I found

now is pretty normal for podcasters. Then, like

Chuck said, him and I started talking during

lunches and found out we had the same type of

interests and everything else. Then we both found

out we listen to podcasts. I said, yeah, I have

a friend from the Geek Savants who told me it's

actually not too difficult to do and it's not

too expensive either. Chuck says, well, why don't

we do a podcast? We could probably do it on these

things that we like. One other piece of advice

I got from The one guy's name is Dave Dewan.

She's actually part of Action Lab Comics, one

of the founders of Action Lab Comics. Now, he

actually gave me some advice and said, find a

niche, because there's a lot of podcasts out

there that just talk about geek stuff in general,

or they talk about comics in general. You need

to find something that makes you stand out and

why people would want to listen to you. Like

Chuck said, we picked the 80s properties. And

I'm a huge Star Wars fan, so even though Star

Wars wasn't in the 80s, we did both grow up with

it. And it was a huge part of both of our lives.

So we're like, well, let's include that also.

And then we tossed around some names and then

just kind of said, well, OK, we'll just take

the star from Star Wars and the Joe from Joe,

G .I. Joe. just call ourselves star joes and

it kind of had a double meaning because we're

just kind of like average joe type guys and Where

we became internet famous, which means nothing

as we often say on our show And you guys know

what that means it means nothing So not until

you get death threats. Oh, sorry So we started

recording. I got a laptop right before Christmas.

I got a microphone from my wife for Christmas,

specifically for doing the podcast. And we got

together and we started recording. And next thing

you know, we're recording like twice a month

and having a blast, mostly focusing on the comic

books based on those 80s properties, but occasionally

touching on everything else. And I would say

the show has really evolved into where we really

do touch on just about everything that's out

there related to these properties. And then around

then our first interview was with Robert Atkins

He was a comic artist on GI Joe. He reached out

to us we didn't know he was listening which was

pretty awesome when he reached out to us and

said I've been listening you guys since the beginning

and Built up a good friendship with him We had

him on a few times as a for interviews and then

we kind of just built up a friendship with them

and then next thing you know when we got into

the high double digit numbers decided to go ahead

and bring him on for some regular episodes and

Then in episode 100, we formally announced him

as one of our co -hosts. He couldn't make it

tonight, but he is one of our official co -hosts

on the show. Now there's three of us doing the

show and it's awesome. We just released our episode

125. It's been amazing. Yeah, we had a chance

to meet a lot of interesting people along the

way. A lot of real good friends and relationships

were developed because of this little podcast.

uh... it's it was great it's it's it's been great

speaking of interesting people uh... tell us

the story about the uh... The frenemies of Star

Joe's and them throwing you under the RHPs. Nice.

I don't think we're really enemies in any way,

shape, or form. I said frenemies. Yeah, I know.

Well, we were talking with some of the guys from

the What's on Joe Mine podcast. We were talking

with Mikey Rosari and... Ah, crap. Gary. Yeah,

Gary Gotso. I'm sorry, Gary. Blanked on your

name there. We were supposed to talk to Justin

too, but he couldn't make it and Chuck couldn't

make it So it's just Gary and Mike we were talking

to him and we did they did an episode with us

on our show and Mike just kind of coined the

the phrase RHP, which just you know stands for

rock -hard penis So it was a running gag now

anytime you're at a convention No, did he sign

your RHP and you go to a creator an artist and

you just you know Can you sign my book? Can you

sign my my my sketch? Can you do this? I'm like,

well, can you sign my RHP? And speaking of running

Gags, even though it's not really a gag for us

the one thing that really helped us stand out

as a podcast is that even though Chuck and I

Love the same properties We have a huge passion

for these properties. We don't see them the same

way and we don't like the same characters and

we don't You know to see the broad perspective

is I tend to like the good guys and Chuck tends

to like the bad guys there's some exceptions

to that in both sides, but So a lot of times

it was just the banter between the two of us

of like yeah I like this character and you like

that character and they're natural enemies of

each other So there you go and the bickering

just happened naturally The natural replacement

of the other character as they release more,

you know, right toys the 80s properties are toy

driven for the most part. So we're in G .I. Joe,

for example, if you have Duke. Well, Duke was

kind of the leader of G .I. Joe for a while,

and then he was kind of replaced the next couple

years by Flint. who became the leader of GI Joe

in the cartoons and he had a figure come out

the next following year and I like Duke, Ryan

likes Flint, so they're both good guys, they

both are leading GI Joe, it's just, I just prefer

one over the other and neither one of them are

bad, they're both good, I like both characters,

I just prefer one over the other. Same thing

with R2 -D2 and C -3PO. I prefer C -3PO, he just

prefers R2 -D2, it doesn't mean I don't like

him, it's just, you know. Difference of a friend.

Would you say you are a die -hard R2 -D2 fan?

Oh, yeah, he's my number two Star Wars character,

so he's okay All right, so let me ask you as

a die -hard R2 -D2 fan Was it awesome or lame

that he flew in episode two? um awesomely lame

Here's what I'll give you I thought it was awesome,

but the thing that sucked about it was the fact

that there was no establishment of that previous

in the original trilogy. So if it had been in

the original trilogy, I wouldn't have an issue

with it at all. Or if in the prequels they had

shown that those jets got like chopped off or

something like that, then I'd be like, OK, that

makes sense now. Since they didn't do either

of those things, it's not really a great thing

for the character. Always assumed he could do

more than what he did in the original series

So I mean when I saw it I was like that is just

sheer genius Like I said if it had been already

something in the original trilogy I would have

been fine with it or like I said if they at the

end of the prequels if they showed something

Happened that caused those things to get sheered

off, but they didn't do either So I'm kind of

like I kind of have an issue with the Rockets

because they seem a little too convenient for

me The thing I one of the things I really liked

about r2d2 is his limitations is the fact that

this droid is a big impact in these movies and

he's this little Trash can that waddles around

but he has huge impacts to what happens in those

movies Would you say that he is? The most impactful

non -human character absolutely Absolutely. If

not for him, the plans would have never got off

that ship because C -3PO certainly didn't want

to go in the Cod. They would have died in the

trash compactor. I mean, the list just goes on

and on. Well, he saved Luke. He saved the Anakin.

Right. I mean, without him, a lot of things that

happened would not have happened. All right,

so you guys have done a hundred and twenty -five

episodes in nearly five years What has changed

from episode one to episode 125 everything? We

got Robert now Okay. Yes, you mentioned that

Yeah, Chuck go ahead and think you can I think

I'm you know a couple things I think I'm not

so maybe judgmental and cynical I'm able now

to look at both sides of the the coin or the

argument or the discussion and see other people's

points were in the past. I just saw my point

and that was pretty much it. I think I've grown

a little bit. Yeah, I'll give you that. I think

I've grown a little bit more accepting of, you

know, difference of opinions. And that's because

I've met a lot of people with different opinions

and, you know, through discussion and through,

you know, geek banter, you know, they make a

valid point. And I'm like, well, I never thought

about it that way. And maybe, you know, that

does make sense. I learned to like a lot of things

I never liked before and learned to appreciate

a lot of things I've never appreciated before.

One of the things is Star Trek and Ryan has a

big problem with it. Wait, wait, wait, wait,

wait, what? I have just never liked it. I have

never gotten into Star Trek. I tried it many

times. Neither one of us liked Star Trek and

that was a rally we could cry behind. It's Star

Wars, no Star Trek. But, you know, since, you

know, maybe like a year ago, I've, you know,

saw the J .J. Abrams Star Trek movies and I liked

them. I really like them. I don't care. Shut

up. I liked them. But as I have pointed out that

the J .J. Abrams movies are not typical Star

Trek. Oh, they're Star Wars movies. Exactly,

which is why I like them. That's why I don't

like them. I like Star Wars to be Star Wars.

I don't want it being in my Star Trek. I like

chocolate in my peanut butter. I thought you

were saying something else. Anything there, you

know. We are really pushing that explicit tag

this episode. I wasn't trying to. A couple things

that have changed with the show also. One is

we know more of what we're doing now. So I think

quality wise the show is a lot better. If you

listen at first episode I was recording The first

ten are brutal. Yeah. Well, especially the first

episode I didn't know how to insert music and

insert stuff So I just kind of recorded it off

of the laptop and its sound quality was horrible

So I learned how to do things and it got to be

fun for me to like play around with stuff the

first thing I think I ever did was hilarious

because Chuck was I had won our fantasy football

league and he wanted some intro music for him

being the champ and I inserted its reigning men

and he had no idea. Oh, no, no, I told him I

was like, you know, I won this fantasy football

thing, you know, introduced me as a champ or

something to play like some, you know, some wrestling

intro music, like give me Ric Flair's or give

me like macho man Randy Savage. You know the

space odyssey music give me something like that

and i'll pump myself up And he'll just insert

it and i'll pretend like i hear it and i'll just

take it from there And i'm, you know peacocking

all over the place over here and he's like right,

you know after he intros it's it's raining men

It was funny as hell. It was hilarious. So and

I think that's another thing too is we don't

take We typically say it happens sometimes, but

we typically don't take things too seriously.

So, you know, Chuck, yeah, Chuck pokes fun at

me. I poke fun at him. There's been times it's

gotten heated, but most of the time we take it

in good stride. I mean, that's just friendship,

too. You tend to get on each other's nerves sometimes,

too. But I will say, like, as far as also the

thing that's changed is content with the show.

We're now doing shows that we had no... I mean,

if you asked us at the beginning of doing this

series, there's no way we would have thought

about doing... covering the animated series of

G .I. Joe, or covering... Or the M .O .D .U .B.

episodes, where we just review a couple of comic

books that have nothing to do with the topics

we're talking about. It could be Marvel, DC,

or Dynamite, whatever. Yeah, and that came from

a listener's idea of saying, hey, why don't you

guys cover some other comics outside of what...

you normally cover, I'd like to hear your guys'

opinion. Well, that turned into... Yeah, because

he was reading other comic books and he just

wanted to know what we thought about them. So

like, well, let's just do a show on it. Yeah.

Well, it started off as just a segment on our

show and then it turned into its own show. We're

doing now the Star Wars EU books, which I would

have never even thought we would touch those.

We're doing previews episodes. So we're talking

about the comics and books that are coming out.

So there's a lot of variety with our shows now.

I think it's G .I. Joe Marvel comic books. and

other vintage comic books and other 80s franchises.

We're going back and reviewing those and the

G .I. Joe animated series. We're reviewing that.

Which has been a huge hit. Yeah, Ryan and Robert

are having a great time with that one. Yeah,

so I mean it's just the show has evolved and

I think the biggest thing, the biggest change

for us and we mentioned it earlier tonight and

we also mentioned on our 125th episode was We've

just made a lot of friendships like lifelong

friendships with people that we would have never

met if it wasn't for this podcast. We I mentioned

on episode 125, we only knew one of our listeners,

which is his name is Nick. And that's because

Nick and Chuck grew up together. Outside of that,

everybody that. Anyone ever hears us mention

on our show is people that we met because we

are doing the podcast Yeah, it's not these are

not lifelong friends that we've known for 20

30 years These are people we met within the last

40 four and a half years and now they're like

now they're lifelong friends So in Northeast,

Ohio might be a hotbed for geekdom, but we just

don't know those people So Yeah, you know you

talk about you know how you guys eventually came

to just you know banter back and forth and You

know Steve, and I have been at this long time.

We've been at it for Between the two of us 13

years total between the two of us six for me

seven for him seven Well, but that's what I'm

saying like your seven years and my six years

makes thirteen so math but um... you know we've

been doing this for a long time and it wasn't

until i think it was last year sprint started

doing these these are going to come or no no

this is not a good yeah spritz started doing

these commercials about what is on this person's

face book or an email between two people and

they had this thing called Steve's Facebook page

James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell going back

and forth back and forth and I'm like dude that

is so us dude you've turned into a monster you

made me this way And and that's the thing it's

it's it is a friendship and I think that comes

across on the show I think that's the big thing

is that there has to be chemistry There has to

be excitement and and I think another thing that

helps us stand out as a show Compared to a lot

of shows that are out there is we don't yes We

do complain about certain things and yes, we

do point out if something isn't good But we don't

spend most of the show on that stuff We talk

about what we like and what we enjoy I hear Star

Wars podcasts and I hear You know GI Joe podcast

sometimes where all they're doing is just ripping

apart Like I don't like how the the collector

club is doing this and I don't like how Hasbro

is doing that and everything else It's like and

we might mention that also But we might mention

it for a minute in our show and then we move

on to the stuff We do like that they're doing

or the or we mention the stuff something else

that we like It's about keeping it positive because

if someone's tuning into you because they want

to hear about Star Wars and GI Joe They don't

want to hear you taking dump all over it. So

Yeah, they're obviously listening because they're

fans of the property Nate, you know, you don't

want to be negative and who wants to listen to

somebody? That's you know negative for like an

hour So and when we try to remain upbeat and

positive, but we're gonna give our honest opinion

if we like it or not Yeah, and when we are negative,

we usually try to be humorous when we're negative

too It's not we just get a joke out of it or

something. So You know you mentioned earlier

that You know getting started in podcasting that

you know, it's fairly easy anybody can do it.

Yes, that is true but there's something as Shorts

every girl can wear them every girl shouldn't

wear them It's like the spandex shorts we'll

go back to that I'm like the bulge in the spandex

shorts in the front It's like the bulge in the

rear I'm just saying Oh my god. That's what she

said. Exactly. Getting to my game. And together

we make some nice curves. Well yeah, together

we're a curvy lady, but that's okay. Wow. Nah,

like Ryan said, I've done other podcasts before

and been with other people doing other podcasts,

but I don't know, it's just different with Ryan.

It's easy, it's special. It's easy, it's not

forced. Just being ourselves. We don't have to

you know be somebody else Absolutely chemistry

is absolutely key you have to be able to have

you know have a conversation with the person

or persons you're talking to I found that out

Like as soon as we launched the network we uh

on tune cast episode zero is myself optimist

solo and Dion the music man along with somebody

else some kid named uh... it's a long ago he

doesn't remember his name well his name is time

i don't remember his online names probably changed

by now and kick that kid off a long time ago

well here's the thing between myself often the

solo and indian music man it was working fine

everybody was you know giving their opinions

and whatever else and and this kid he you know

through a couple and uh... anecdotes here and

there but he didn't really say anything he was

actually on two episodes he was on episode zero

and the episode one which is the nintendo cartoons

and after that was like we're sorry dude you

just didn't make the cut yeah nice you know get

set back out of the minor leagues yeah pretty

much well and i will say also that the chemistry

plays a factor into guests also because because

like the one of the reasons that robert is one

of our co -hosts now is because we had great

chemistry with him and things work really well

and it's awesome uh and then we have other guests

like uh shannon uh galant and uh mike costa who

we've had on mike costa was the writer of cobra

and shannon galant is the artist on gi joe real

american hero and both of them we had really

good chemistry with that they've come back multiple

times we've asked them to come back and they

Happily come back because they have a good time

when they're talking with us We have had other

guests that it was like pulling teeth and struggling

to talk with them Because there just wasn't we

weren't in sync with each other and it's no fault

of theirs and it's no fault of ours We just weren't

in sync with each other still made for a decent

interview But we haven't really asked them back

because there wasn't really anything there. We

had that happen one time in five years We're

trying guess who? You know who I was only a producer

on that I know Since I've been doing this since

I've been getting these awesome, awesome interviews

we've had for the last five years. We've talked

to David Kaye twice. We've talked to Tara Strong,

I think, three times. We've talked to Greg Berger,

Larry Kenny twice. We've talked to a number of

people. I think the only interview that, as I

was producing it, I was just cringing the entire

time. It was more so for my fellow podcasters

than the guest. was when we interviewed John

Delancey. It just, you know, Kevin and Steve

were asking him questions and questions, and

they were firing on all cylinders. But John's

answers, as much as we love the guy as Q, and

as much as most... It was like we would ask him

something like, you know, what was your favorite

part of this and blah, blah, blah, and he'd be

like, I don't remember. And then, well... Like

a lot of the answers were like one word answers.

Yes. I have actually heard, it's no surprise

to me that you say he was the most difficult

because I have actually heard things about him

from multiple sources that he's pretty much an

asshole. Okay, well, I didn't want to go that

far. No, I know people that will verbally say

that out loud. Wow. It took us six, eight months

to get a hold of him to get an interview after

I initially got the interview. Yeah. You want

to talk about an interview that's taken us years

to get and we still haven't gotten it. Yeah,

but it's no fault of his. No, I mean this is

a guy who I will tell you like from what I've

heard from others who have interacted with him

and interviewed him and everything else He is

somebody who has obviously been successful because

of television yet. He snubs his nose at television

It's like dude. It's the thing that is putting

food on your plate So like why would you snub

those that watch television and snub the shows

that they enjoy that you were in? So it just

doesn't make any sense to me The one actually

that there are two interviews in the five -year

history of the g -serum that I still have not

gotten yet I have been asking and asking and

asking for five years Scott McNeil and Mark Hamill.

Yeah, you and mark. You're gonna get mark. Are

you kidding me? Everybody gets mark except us.

I see him on no -name stuff. You know, I love

the guy. He's a great guy He's great on social

media. He's fantastic everywhere, yet every time

I ask, sorry he's off doing this project or sorry

it's not a good time right now, yet a week later

he'll show up on Fat Man on Batman or he'll show

up on some no -name podcast or whatever else.

I get it. GCRN is not Kevin Smith. I get it.

I don't want us to be Kevin Smith at all. I'll

take the money. I'll take the money. I don't

want to be a whore. I'm sorry. It's just one

of those things that... I don't think Chuck has

a problem being a whore. No. Plenty of practice

makes perfect. Exactly. The guests that we have

had, go to the site, look at it. The list is

a mile long. If you had told me six years ago

that I'd be able to talk to half these people,

I'd have just laughed in your face. Now that

you mention that, too, we're definitely going

to try to get more more people on in the future.

But I mean, the highlight, one of the highlights

for me of doing the show was that I got to talk

to Flint. I mean, Flint was my favorite character.

And for Episode 100, we happened to meet Bill

Ratner at Joe Khan. I was talking to him and

he asked me what Star Joe's was because I was

wearing a T -shirt that had the show on it. And

I told him about it and I says, you know, we'd

love to have you on sometime. He's like, yeah,

just contact me. And he could not have been a

nicer guy. He was just more than willing to work

with us as far as schedule and everything else.

I am then sitting there like an eight -year -old

talking to one of my heroes. Ryan was geeking

out on that one really hardcore. That's funny.

I'm still geeking out from it. I know. Funny

you should say that about Bill Ratner. He actually

does the local announcing for my local ABC station.

Plus one of the guys because I was I'm going

to school like college and everything my Instructor

for media Knows Bill Ratner because he has to

work with them. Thanks for the station and He

started mentioning this in the class like because

it was just an intro video audio class and I

was pretty much the only one that knew anything

in there other than like maybe one other person

and He's like, anybody know who this is? And

I'm like, well, yeah, and I was the only one.

And he's like, well, you know, in a couple of

weeks, we're going to get him for a Skype interview.

And I was like, oh, hell yes. Yeah. And so I

had Mike wear your G .I. Joe t -shirt. I was

sitting in there asking questions and people

were like and You know, he was explaining everything

from voice acting and then he got a call from

his agent for some part and he just is like here

this let's put that on the line too and then

He did that with us too. That's funny. Yeah so

so like we got to hear him do all kinds of different

things on the call and he's sitting there pimping

out other voice actors and then and then showing

us how to become one and everything else and

uh... it so i mean it was we have for like an

hour and a half two hours on this is called mike

sitting there producing like he just hit record

on his end so we could get it also that i was

the thing to stay as i was like i have no way

of doing it for a fricking man the college that

he goes to is all for the max and we're not mac

people i have nothing against max but max for

me or as backwards when it comes to the u i at

least for me personally uh... and steve is like

uh... how am i going to do this and i'm like

well just dial me in on record on my and then

i'll send it to you and then you can give it

to whoever you have to give it to uh... so i'm

sitting here for like an i was at our in forty

minutes almost two hours listening and not saying

anything just listening to bill ratner yeah On

and on and on and on about all the stuff. It

was awesome You don't get me wrong and like two

months later He messaged me on Skype and says,

oh, I'm sorry. I'm later. We doing an interview

I'm broke back. I'm sorry. Mr. Ratner I was producing

the thing with the college a couple months ago,

but I wasn't aware that we had an interview tonight

Oh, no, I would have cancelled everything I had

Probably mistook me for somebody else. I don't

care. Thank you for your time. Yeah, I wouldn't

have faked it. Been like, yo, hey, how's it going?

Yeah, I think this was like a Wednesday and if

I had done that Steve would have killed me because

Steve wouldn't have been around. Follow up to

the whole Bill Ratner thing. So then just like

a little over a month ago He emailed me and I

know he emailed the what's on Joe mine guys also

because he's doing a One -man show called becoming

GI Joe And he needed some props and he wanted

some like 12 inch size action figures. And so

I kind of emailed them back and forth to clarify

what he was looking for. And he was looking for,

you know, either some 12 inch ones that you can

find in the stores or the sideshow ones. And

I said, well, I have a few of the sideshow ones

I'd be willing to lend to you if you promise

to send them back to me because they're expensive

and take really good care of them. And I says,

it just so happens one of the ones I have is

Flint. So he said that would be perfect if you're

willing to ship them out to me He says I will

take excellent care of them and I will send them

back to you So he emailed me just recently saying

that he completed the show Everything went really

well And I asked him if he would be willing to

sign the box to the Flint figure and he says

absolutely no problem So I'm just waiting for

him to come back now and I do you should email

him back and see if we get some glossy headshots

He'll send something else with it for my troubles.

Well, I mean something for me. I just because

I know you If he sends some stuff and it's not

personalized I will be happy to share the wealth

with you is what I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.

That's all I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah I'll take it.

Thank you. No, I mean the only time I really

geeked out You know talking to somebody was actually

when when maybe you were twice when robert contacted

us, yeah through our forums That hey, i'm the

artist on the geiger comic book. You're reading.

I think you guys are doing a pretty good job

Podcasting, you know like to come on. I'm like,

are you serious? That's awesome. Yeah, and the

other time was when we uh, We talked to and interviewed

val staples. Yeah Of yeah, he man. I heard of

a third time. I heard of a third time. That's

where the rhp came from Who's that Larry Hama?

Yeah Now we still have to get never really interviewed

Larry I Mean like yeah meeting him at I met him

a couple times I meant about Baltimore Comic

Con and it was just awesome You know big fan,

you know, let me give you a hand job under the

table. It's awesome. Love you Kisses here's my

hotel key come back, you know, we'll make this

happen And then I met him at Joe con in Indianapolis.

He was there too. So He's really the nicest guy.

I mean people said he's you know, kind of standoffish

or whatever But to me, I mean the two times I

met him he's been really cordial Just the nicest

guy in the world, you know, there was a couple

of people waiting for his table when he got there

He goes. Hey guys, sorry. I was late, you know,

I had some breakfast. He ran a little longer.

Thanks for waiting Both times I... Interactive

with them. It's been very positive. I mean the

one time I was at Joe Connors I stood in line

and I didn't notice the sign until I got out

of the line but this there was a sign at the

beginning of the line says only two items to

be signed and I had three and he signed all three

of them and Didn't even say anything which I

have had creators say stuff, which is fine because

there's a sign And I didn't notice it and he

just he didn't even blink He just like signed

this sign that and then I was walking away is

when I noticed the sign I was like, ooh, I should

only had two items, but I got all three signs.

Yeah It's like it when I went to Baltimore and

I met him I had him sign my GI Joe comic book

number one my special missions comic book number

one. I had him sign a couple of GI Joe action

figures And I had a sketch. I was like, can you

do a sketch for me? He's like, yeah, sure. Who

do you want? I was like, can you do Stalker from

Jedi? He goes, yeah, I know that one. So he knocked

it out. It was awesome. And then I, of course,

had him draw Flint because I'm like, if I'm going

to have the creator of Flint draw my favorite

character, of course. But now, one of the holy

grails for me to get that I think is potentially

attainable, even though I think it'll never happen,

is if I ever get a chance to speak to, even for

a short period of time, Peter Cullen. I will

probably just lose my shit. That's the holy grail

for all of us. Are you kidding me? Any geek would

drop anything in a heartbeat just to talk to

that man. Oh yeah. You mean Uncle Peter? And

Frank Walker. You guys want to talk to my Uncle

Peter? No. I get him on the line. No, we don't

want to talk to your Peter. I'll put him on the

mic now. Keep it in your pants. Who the hell

is wearing pants? This is why we do these Skype

calls with no video. No one's wearing pants.

But like you said also, if we could have Mark

Hamill on at some point, I don't think it'll

ever happen. But if we could, I of course would

geek out being the huge Star Wars fan that I

am. Like I said, huge Masters of the Universe

fan. I listen to the podcast that Val Staples

did, the Rose Google Dinner podcast. Talking

to him and it's like cuz I kind of you have that

geek moment where you're like you forget You're

that guys to some people and you're like, oh

my god, I listen to your podcast all the time.

You're awesome You know you forget like people

say that about me too, and I don't get it. Yeah,

but then it's like I'm telling this guy I'm like,

you know, come on dumbass you people do this

to you And that's probably the most eye -opening

thing and the craziest thing about doing the

podcast in general is that Again, like I said

earlier, we are average guys We you know, we

both have you know, we both try, you know Try

to work we try to have our lives and everything

else and then we just do this little show and

when we can find time to do it and And I'm not

gonna say we don't put effort into it I know

I put a ton of effort in into like post work

and everything else because I want something

good to put out there but it is the most rewarding

thing in the world when someone you're at a convention

and someone sees the t -shirt and says are you

chuck or ryan and I have never met this person

before I don't know who they are and i'm like

i'm ryan they're like I listen to the show all

the time I download it immediately that is one

of the coolest feelings in the world because

like chuck said Someone is listening to us and

going these guys are really cool. Holy crap I

just got to meet one of them and to me I'm like,

this is weird, but it's the cool weird. So Yeah,

absolutely where they're like, you know, I love

I love your episodes You know big -time fan big

listening for a long time, you know, you guys

want to hang out later You know, yeah, it's your

drinks or dinner and I'm like Yeah, sure Or they

send you stuff and it's just and you go why are

you sending this in? They're just like it's just

a thank you for doing the show you put out. Oh

my god We've gotten so many like, you know, not

gifts, you know, I would call them gifts. They're

gifts People have sent to us, you know just for

doing the little podcast, you know, I think I

threw it out there one time just as a joke It's

like we were signing off and I'm like, yeah if

you want to like, you know Send us stuff, you

know, just send it to us, you know PM us and

we'll give you our address you can send us, you

know toys and stuff like that or, you know, comics

or whatever. It's just being jokey and just threw

it out there and people did it. I'm like, are

you serious? Send money. But it's just really,

it's a very cool feeling and it makes you feel

good. And it's amazing how like there's listeners

out there that this literally the second the

episode downloads, they They have listened to

it before I've even had a chance to listen to

it and I'm the one that downloaded it and um,

and that's just amazing and then the other stuff

too is they'll mention stuff that happened in

previous episodes that I don't even remember

happened in a previous episode Yeah, i'm i'm

getting to that point now where somebody might

bring up something It's like dude, honestly,

I i've done so many in six years. It's Just now

the strange thing is I can pretty much remember

almost like if you give me an episode number

I guarantee you I can remember what topic it

will like specifically like tune cast classic

or movie We can review those two shows if you

gave me an episode number I'm pretty sure I could

tell you what what was the topic of that episode?

And everybody we've talked to has been really

nice and super nice, and you know we've gotten

really positive Reviews on iTunes and things

like that there was only one real Kind of scary

moment Kind of I what I you know at a convention

to and he was you know a fan of the show and

he'd like this But I think he'd like this a little

too much kind of a touchy feely kind of guy.

Yeah, but hey, that's cool You know whatever.

Hey, you might have like kidnapped people in

his basement. You know kind of guy Well, and

basically what happened, and it's a very short

story, but basically he emailed us all the time,

communicated with us all the time. We laughed.

We had a great time responding to his emails

and his comments and everything else. And then

he sent me a friend request on Facebook, and

I was totally fine with that. I'm fine with that

with any of our... No, no, no, no. I'm not talking

about that guy. Oh, okay. Well that guy was the

one that scared me yeah Well this other guy scared

you too. We were at the convention Yeah, I didn't

want to say where but we're at the convention

and he's like, you know He's a fan of us and

he's liking us and he's standing there talking

to us and we're talking to him like, you know

Just normal people just talking and he just you

know, he's a touchy feely kind of person You

know that no boundaries of personal space Yeah,

and I'm like kind of creeped me out dude, but

thanks for listening to the show I wasn't as

creeped out by that because he was bothering

Chuck of you kind of thing. But I could be mistaken

in this vibe. I don't know. Yeah. The guy that

creeped me out, like I said, was one that had

communicated with the show and everything else.

He sent me a Facebook friend request, which was

totally fine. Like I said, I don't mind that

with any of our listeners. But then his sister

sent me a friend request, and I didn't know who

the hell she was, but I was like, OK, whatever.

And then he sent a friend request to my wife,

who no one should be sending a friend request

to that listens to the show because none of them

have ever met her other than Chuck. doesn't even

connect with her, but I'd be fine if he did,

because he knows her. Yeah, whatever. So rub

it up through, Barb, so you don't do that. So

then he posted, I made some comment, I think

on our fan page, and he made a very vulgar comment

on my own personal page. And my family, my friends

were on there, and I just said the one episode,

I was like, look. Don't there's no need for this.

There's you don't need to be doing that my personal

wall There's no reason to connect with my wife.

Whatever and we never heard from the guy again.

So Yeah, it's probably for the best. Yeah. Oh,

yeah, I Was okay with him Because it was it didn't

happen to me. So I was okay Yeah, but everybody

else genuine, you know down to earth, you know

kind of people Amazingly so. Very generous with

their time and very generous in other areas and

welcome us into their homes. Which is why we've

constantly said, hey, if you see us somewhere

or you have the ability to do so, like... Message

us or whatever or if you see us at a show stop

us and talk to us. We'll hang out with you the

whole convention There was a guy I think his

name was on Andre if I'm remembering right at

the last Baltimore show He came up and talked

with us at the table and he was really nice guy

really cool He had a nice awesome collection

of books and everything else and he emailed After

the convention and said that he didn't want to

take up too much of our time Because he saw that

we were hanging out with some friends and everything

else and he was just excited to have met us and

everything else So we made it a point to say

look all those people that we were hanging out

with those were all people We've met because

of the show. So next time you see a show Feel

free to hang out with us as long as you want

to we're more than happy to hang out with any

of our listeners When we go to shows and we get

the hotel room, we're kind of like the rock stars

of the podcast Parties and you know alcohol in

our hotel room I'm not gonna blow in the bathroom,

but there's blow in the bathroom Guys are the

TFW the GI Joe Star Wars. Yes, we are. Oh my

god The what's on Joe my guys cannot party like

us Well and they keep and they're awesome guys

and they do an awesome show. I love those guys.

Those guys are great. I love those guys. But

they purposely and understandably so they do

keep themselves at least at a PG -13 rating.

We're definitely are And we accept all that comes

with that because they actually can get a lot

more listeners because of it and everything else

and That that's awesome. And yeah, we could get

a lot more listeners, too If we kind of say we

talked about it one time, you know going that

route, but we didn't want to censor ourselves

Yeah, yeah, I just can't I told Steve at the

very beginning if we're gonna do this whole network

thing Everything has an explicit tag on it. If

someone wants to click on it, that's their choice.

I mean, some of the episodes we put out have

been non -explicit. Most of a tag in any way

just in case yeah, I always do I always I think

there's been one or maybe two episodes that I

tagged as Not explicit and the one was the recording

from Joe Khan of the voice actor panel because

we were not on that episode at all Well the one

we did with Al Staples too it wasn't explicit

because he put it on Eman .org Right there was

that one and actually there was a third one It

was the one that we did with I can't remember

the name of the podcast I don't because I don't

think it's around anymore, but the one where

we did the Cobra files or the Cobra What was

it the? Yeah, I know our hearts and minds lines.

Yeah, we did a crossover with them and they kept

theirs kind of a PG rating So we kept our act

clean during that one. So I released their podcast

So we just kind of released it a week or two

after they released it Yeah, and that was a non

-explicit but other than that I always put the

explicit tag because after doing all the editing

I don't remember if there was something in there.

So I just figured better safe than sorry, so

Yeah All right. Well, where can they find you

besides on geek cast radio calm sure? I'll give

you this the short spiel you can find us at starjoes

.com We're also on Facebook. Just look up starjoes

and you can find us on there Just like us you

can follow us on Twitter. It's at starjoes podcast

we're also on stitcher and radio, which is a

free app for your mobile devices. We're also

on iTunes. And that might be, oh, and the forum

for geeks, which is where our forum is. And we

have quite a few people that interact on there.

So it's a lot of fun. Yeah, Facebook and Twitter.

Yep. Awesome. A lot of ways to contact us and

interact with us. All right. Well, Steve, any

final thoughts or any final questions? Nope.

Nice. All right. That's gonna do it for this

episode of GeekCast Radio. Join us next time

when we all get punished by the number 69. No.

Oh, I want to do that. Mike Lake's getting punished.

Next time around, we're going to have the Punisher

Body Count crew of Jake and Dane on to talk about

their history with podcasting. Those are good

guys. How they started a podcast about one character.

An awesome character. Depending on who's playing

him, but yes. No, no, an awesome character. It

depends on who's playing him. No. No, I don't.

Yes, it does. Thomas Jane is the only punisher

that matters. Dolph Lundgren and Ray Stevens

both suck. They're not as good. I'll give you

that. They're not as good, but they have merit.

I'll still take Dolph Lundgren. Really? No, I

like Thomas James fast. Oh, then we're back to

friends now. You know what? All right. Well,

thanks for having us on, guys. We really appreciate

it. Unleash the geek in you, and we will catch

you next time. So let's say you're looking for

a podcast of your favorite 80s comic books, G

.I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He -Man,

et cetera. Where are you going to go to find

us? Welcome to Star Joe's podcast. I'm your host,

Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right, everybody.

We're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast called

Star Joe's Podcast, where we talk about your

favorite comic books, your favorite toys of all

the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers,

M .A .S .K., Thundercats, Voltron, you name it,

we cover it. If it's in the 80s, we will cover

it at some point. Yes, so what you want to do

to find us, you can go to iTunes, you can go

to www .starjoes .com. And remember, the Force

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Radio on the Geekcast Radio Network. There are

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