Interview with Mike Dodd and Steve Saylor on Podcasting

you the TFG1 podcast that will most likely be

out Monday or Tuesday, which is the 13th and

14th of April. I woke up from a nap earlier this

afternoon and said, hey, I don't actually know

where this Week in Geek actually came from. So

with me now at midnight is Mike the Birdman Dodd.

Hello, Mike. Hey, Mike, how is it going? And

to all you listeners out there in radio and podcast

land. It's going good. Hopefully this recording

can continue without any further issues, because

we've already had one hang -up not on either

one of our parts. Skype dropped the call. Fucking

eBay. Love that. Basically, what we're going

to do is I'm going to ask Mike a few questions,

just kind of like what he usually does with guests

on Twig. It's kind of like an Inside the Actors

Studio type thing. We're just going to have a

general geek chat. So the first question is,

even though most of us know you are from Canada,

where did you grow up? Well, I originally grew

up in a place called Shallow Lake, but I spent

a majority of my childhood in a place called

Owens Sound, Ontario, affectionately known as

the Elephant's Asshole of Canada. If you look

at it from a satellite view and use your imagination,

you can see the wonderful place from which I

spawned. And you have a very vivid imagination.

Oh, you bet I do. What were some of your favorite

cartoons and regular TV shows to watch as a kid?

Well, I remember watching a lot of Ninja Turtles

when I was a kid, X -Men. I didn't see a lot

of Transformers, unfortunately. It really sucks.

I had to wait until I was much older to see a

lot of those. I was really into Thundercats,

The Real Ghostbusters, Care Bears, Inspector

Gadget. I'm trying to think. Most of the stuff

that was on the early morning CBS lineup before

it got screwed up, and a lot of the Fox cartoons.

Huge fan of the X -Men, Spider -Man, and the

Silver Surfer. Yeah, X -Men is coming to DVD,

official DVD release from Disney this, I think

the 28th of this month. About friggin time coming

volume one and volume two which is a majority

of the first two seasons episodes I believe I

think it goes up. I think the two volumes go

all the way up into the Phoenix Saga episodes

When did you first realize you were a geek and

what was the one thing if you could pinpoint

it that made you a geek? I would say probably

the first time I got my Nintendo back in 1985.

My mom and my dad got me for Christmas a Rad

Racer with the 3D glasses and the load runner.

So I'm thinking, hmm, this is kind of cool. So

I started playing around with that. The moment

I realized I was a true nerd is when I annoyed

the piss out of a friend of mine named Ryan in

the eighth grade and I was talking endlessly

about Mortal Kombat 3 and he told me to shut

the. hell up and thinking wow hmm they go on

to something here oh plus when I hacked my first

satellite when I was a kid when I used to surf

the transponder channels around three o 'clock

in the morning looking for the feeds that were

sent out to the affiliate stations for certain

shows like x -men and the x -files when did you

get into radio and was it something that you

always wanted to do Well, it's actually kind

of a funny story kind of a roundabout thing.

Um, I used to listen to this station back in

Owen Sound CFOS AM 560 and I used to just call

into the DJs on Saturday nights. I was maybe

10, 12 at this time, listening to them spin oldies

and stuff like that. My parents raised me on

oldies radio. And I met an older DJ there named

Gary. And we just started talking on the phone.

As time went on, we developed a friendship. I

also developed another friendship with a girl

at the station. I think her name was Stephanie.

And we just used to talk all the time. We just

kind of chatted up. I was in grade seven or eight.

She was probably just fresh out of college and

whatnot. So we just kind of chat there. And eventually

I got a tour. of 560 CFOS. And I decided, well,

this is kind of neat. And I just kind of forgot

about it for a number of years, because I have

a stuttering problem. And I figured, you know

what, I'm going to need to see a speech therapist,

whatever. So I did throughout probably till about

grade five in school. And then I just kind of

forgot about radio. until college actually came

around. I originally was supposed to go to university

for psychology when I was younger, but I decided

not to pursue that career path. Instead, I chose

to get engaged, but that ended well. Badly in

one sense, not badly in another, the fact that

I'm where I am now. So I went to Niagara College

and I was with my second fiance and decided,

you know what, I'm gonna go to school for television.

I was working for Rogers Communications at the

time up in Owen Sound, Channel 53, as a technical

director and an audio director. So I was doing

that, and then eventually I ran into my co -host,

Steve Snowball Sailor. Hold on, hold on. I'm

sorry to stop you right there. That's a separate

question. That's a separate story. Oh, OK. I

was going to ask that afterwards, but I guess

you can go ahead and continue that story. I was

going to ask, how did the snowball hit the bird

man in the face? Well, I tried to get him kicked

out of school, actually. Oh my god. Yeah, what

happened is we were taking a course in Niagara

College. We had to do a presentation. And Steve's

presentation was on computer security. And there

was a program that was developed, and I don't

know whether he did it or somebody else did it,

that could steal information from the computers

at school using a flash drive. And we got wind

of this. And we thought, oh my god, this guy

is trying to steal the exams. Well, first off,

good job. Second of all, fuck you. Because we're

having to work for these grades. So we decided,

all right, you know what? We're going to have

a talk. So anyway, actually, Steve just emailed

me right now. That's kind of freaky. So anyway,

so eventually, I own up to it and Steve, I hear

shopping around for a radio co -host. Turns out

in Niagara College during the first year, you're

allowed to do your own specialty radio show once

you've had a year, or not a year, a semester

of radio presentation under your belt. So Steve

approached me because he knew I was huge in the

smallville and all these other nerdy things.

And he's like, well Mike, my original co -host

bailed on me. Would you like the job? Sure, so

I had some ideas for twig and it just kind of

went on from there and Yeah, then me and Steve

did our first show January 27th or 29th of 2007

and It's like we'd known each other for years

me me and Steve had talked a handful of times

outside of class But since that day we were pretty

much inseparable. I mean we only had like one

or two classes together But every time there

was a break or a spare, we were always in my

room in res or just hanging out wherever. That

actually kind of leads into the next question.

Where did the idea for This Week in Geek come

from? Can you kind of walk my listeners through

the creative process you or Steve had with coming

up for the idea? Well, the idea for Twig originally

was a show kind of like This Week in Tech with

Steve's friend Leo Laporte. And then I decided,

You know what Steve, we don't have enough material.

We're not experts in this field. So you know

what, why don't we focus on more nerdy and geeky

things? And he's like, okay, well that's kind

of cool. And then we just started brainstorming

in the cafeteria over a plate of fries and we

just started talking. And eventually the idea

came to fruition and we did a five minute demo

of the show and it just, it worked out tremendously

well. And then as the show progressed through

the first season, things just started to evolve.

I started to take more of an executive producer

control deciding in the segments and then I started

making press contacts because I figured, hey,

you know what? We're technically legitimate media.

We're on a radio station. We have a terrestrial

broadcast wattage. So why don't we expand out

and offer some real news? So I started contacting

some video game companies and some DVD publishers

to get review material. And then things just

kind of, well, pardon the phrase, snowballed

from there. And then we started covering more

events. We covered the Toronto Fan X. We covered

the Star Wars event in Welland for the 25th anniversary.

We also did events, we actually raised some money

in the first year for littlegeeks .org which

is an organization run by butterscotch .com owner

and technology journalist Andy Walkers. charity

foundation which provides computers to children

that don't have internet access. So, as time

went on, I basically took more and more control

of the show, working with Steve to develop topics,

ideas, segments. Then we started bringing in

some of the other co -hosts onto the show, most

notably Pierce Dirks and David Dennis, because

Dave and Pierce were some of my best friends

in college. I figured, well, you guys are pretty

funny here. creative and we started working stuff

out and I can't remember how we got on the idea

of developing Dave's rants. I think I just told

to hear Dave talking about something stupid for

like two minutes a show. Plus he is a good voice

actor. Oh, he is. Dave is a tremendous talent.

In fact, I'm actually Dave's agent. Or I'm going

to officially be his agent after he graduates

school. And I'm going to shop him around to the

interweeb and kind of see what happens with Dave.

Because yeah, he's a tremendous talent. Actually,

for this week in Geek, Myself, Dave, and Pierce

actually represent all three streams of the broadcasting

program at Niagara College, whereas Dave is a

film major, Pierce is a television major, I am

a radio and television presentation major. So,

it's kind of weird, we represent all three streams,

so we have all three unique talents to the listeners

and the viewers of This Week in Geek. Now, my

next question... It kind of doesn't apply because

you've pretty much already told us where The

whole idea came from but because of my background

as far as podcasting and stuff The question is

did listening to podcasts get you into wanting

to host them? Like I did with me like as far

as listening to you guys and a few other or was

it something else entirely? Which you've kind

of already answered Should be told Mike I had

no fucking clue what a podcast was until January

28th the day after we did our first show. Steve's

like, oh, Steve's like, oh yeah, by the way,

our show's gonna be podcast. Podcast? What the

fuck is that? Then he told me about it, and our

first episode was podcasted on February 14th

of 2007. Then we went to this event in Toronto

called PodCamp Toronto, and that was hosted by

one of the social media gurus, Chris Brogan.

And yeah, I started learning about this whole

world of podcasts and thinking, oh my God, this

shit's really cool. And then it pretty much took

over my life during last summer, or sorry, 2007

summer took over my life, because I was doing

nothing but trying to produce episodes and reviews

and everything. In the last two years, the show

has absolutely taken on a life of its own, just

because that's all I do is I listen to podcasts,

talk to social media people. people, new media

people, stuff like that. In fact, one of my best

friends I consider anyway is Brent Morris, the

former host of the Closet Geek Show. He started

getting me into all these different things, and

then Steve finally roped me into Twitter in 2008's

PodCamp. By the way, it's at BirdmanDot if you're

curious. Yeah, we can talk about Twitter a little

bit later. That was going to be another one of

our discussion topics. But yeah, so it just,

that's how I found out about podcasting. Then

I started talking to some other podcasters and

I started reading some of the books by like Evo

Terra, Podcasting for Dummies, Blogging for Dummies

and all that stuff. I mean, and I've been a long

time blogger. I used to have a live journal I

had for about six years and I deleted that in

October of 2007. Which sucks, I lost over 5 ,000

posts. Wow. Yeah, it was my entire life summed

up and I did it because I was involved with my

ex -fiance. She broke up with me on my birthday

of all days. That sucks. Oh, it did and I wrote

in it for a little while and then I kind of decided

one night, you know what? I don't want to be

defined by what I was. I'm going to be defined

by what I am. And then I guess I'm pretty much

defined now by podcasting and some of the radio

work that I now do. What is your favorite word?

Oh, fuck, for sure. I was going to say, wait

a second, that's two words. I mean, let me tell

you, the amount of times I drop that word in

an average afternoon, it would astound you. In

fact, I actually have a t -shirt, which I'm hoping

will make it onto one of our videos. And I got

it from t -shirt Helen. It says, I'm not here

to impress none of you motherfuckers. It's my

favorite t -shirt. What is your least favorite

word? Meh. Meh every that or the word whatever

every time somebody says that I want to hurt

something innocent or punch something fluffy

and cute That to me is the lowest The lowest

denominator of human intelligence the only reason

why I even use it is because of the Simpsons

That's the only reason why I ever use it. There

was one scene in one show where Lisa right? Yeah

well it was Lisa that said it but Homer was trying

to get her and Bart to do something and they

both said meh and Homer's like what? She goes

meh meh and just from seeing that episode that's

why I use it. I don't use it all the time but

I use it some of the time. One of my ex -girlfriends

used to use that word so many times, it was literally

maddening. I'm talking HP Lovecraft level of

insanity. Oh my God, I hate that fucking word.

Anyway, go on. Okay. If there was one place you

could visit in the entire world, where would

it be and why? I don't know. I'm trying to think

here. Where would I want to go? Probably New

York City or Los Angeles. You're going to LA,

aren't you? I'm going to LA for the Electronic

Arts Expo. So I guess New York, probably just

to go visit some friends, but mostly just to

turn off my cell phone and wander around with

my camera. Mike, you will never turn off your

cell phone. If you do, it's maybe like once for

about two hours, and then that's it. And that's

only because it's dead. If you could pick, this

goes back to the cartoon questions, if you could

pick one cartoon as your number one all time

favorite, what would it be and why? Probably

the X -Men cartoon by Fox. Just because it was

so groundbreaking in the terms of what it told

in terms of storytelling. It was dramatic, it

was great. It never took itself like it was funny.

Sure, there were funny moments and occasionally

there was a... comedic episode, but the storytelling

never wavered. And I always thought that was

the beautiful part about Fox's X -Men is that

it never was afraid to have bad things happen.

I mean, when Morph died or came back in season

two with Mr. Sinister, it was really cool. But

when the episode I remember the most was the

Days of Future Past series arc. And it was like

two episodes. And that was just frigging fantastic.

And that's the thing that really made me realize

that animation is a true storytelling art. And

that's probably my favorite cartoon of all time,

was the X -Men animated series. Yeah, I can agree

with that. And I think it has stood up over time,

especially with them releasing the DVDs. I mean,

at least we'll have it for all time. If you could

if you had to pick one number one all -time favorite

TV show, this is not cartoons t -show What would

it be and why? Hmm, that's kind of a tough one

considering. I have so many favorites now. Um

Hmm. Yes, we hear 20 CFG one podcast ask hard

-nosed questions 24 is definitely up there. Um

All time fit Buffy the vampire slayers another

one. I'm thinking here. Oh man Jesus. Um I'd

say most recently the show that's really got

my attention and probably stands up there above

all else for right now is Veronica Mars. That

show is probably one of the smartest written

shows I've ever come across. Kristen Bell was

vastly underappreciated in that role. And Enrico

Colottoni, who plays Keith Mars, Veronica's dad,

was, I really think, underappreciated. Should

he have received an Emmy of some kind? You know

what? Maybe. Because he had some really good

roles in there. And Veronica Mars was just a

great show. And it's even... Better in my opinion

than some other shows are like I mean one girly

show I like and love actually is the Gilmore

girls that was another fantastically written

show which I got into because of one of my girlfriends

at the time and Yeah, so for right now. I'm gonna

have to go with Veronica Mars 24 Gilmore girls

and then probably what's another big show like

I Don't know maybe the X -Files. Yeah I never

really get into X -Files. That's because you

suck. The show is amazing. I just don't... I

don't do the sci -fi type of show type stuff

like that. I don't know. It's just me. Anyway...

Yet you like giant robots. Shut up! There's a

big difference between giant robots and bleeding

green spewing aliens. You fool! They could bleed

green? The quintessence bleed green? That's a

that's right, that's a topic for an entirely

different interview Now I have not read comics

myself since I was probably about 14 or 15 I

had wrote down a question here. What are some

of your favorite comics? Some of my favorite

comics um it's actually kind of weird I I've

been floating in in and out of comics for years

um I'd say the comic I liked the most was the

Dreamwave run of the Transformers comics. That

really got me back into it. I actually went so

far as to get all the variant covers for every

issue almost ever published. I'm missing maybe

three or four issues. I'd say, yeah, definitely

that one. The G .I. Joe Declassified series on

Snake Eyes, I think that was Dreamwave, was yet

another series of comics I loved. These they're

not tied to any one publisher that I can remember.

I think it's Nightmare Press, but I'm not 100

% sure It was the series of comics based on Freddy

Jason and Leatherface Love those, love horror

comics. In addition to that, I also used to love

reading the Star Wars Clone Wars and Knights

of the Old Republic comics way back in the day.

I actually remember the Knights of the Old Republic

or whatever it was called, the Old Republic series

of comics by Dark Horse, where Elwik Keldroma

turns to the dark side. And I remember having

that issue when I was a kid. And I'm trying to

think of another comment that I really, really,

really liked. I liked the McFarland run on Spider

-Man. I remember seeing issue 300, which introduced

Venom in stores when I was a kid. Stupidly, I

didn't pick it up. Sonic the Hedgehog by Archie,

actually, I thought was fantastic, especially

the artwork by Spaz and Harvo. I thought that

was really, really, really neat. And... Yeah,

I'd say that pretty much sums it up for me and

comics. Yeah, the follow -up question of that

was, are you a huge Marvel or DC guy, or do you

prefer an independent comic publisher? Well,

I've got two tattoos in my body that prep. pledge

my allegiance to Detective Comics. But at the

same time, I like a lot of the smaller publishers.

I'm a huge fan of Devil's Dew Publishing. And

they do a really fantastic series called Hack

Slash, which is really, really, really neat.

You guys should definitely check it out. But

if I had to fall on one side of the fence, I'd

have to go DC, because I find the storytelling,

it's a lot better if somewhat convoluted, like

they always retcon everything, like, oh, Superboy

Prime, oh, he's not dead, Infinity Crisis on

whatever. And yep, Marvel, if you want to follow

Civil War, here, buy episodes one, two, three,

four, six, seven, eight, nine, 11, 14, and nine

of She -Hulk. And you know what I mean? It just,

the crossovers got re - Ridiculous, and that's

why I'm not a huge fan of Marvel as much, but

I like some Marvel characters With one I'm gonna

say something very very controversial right now

with one it with one exception DC cannot produce

a good movie for shit Marvel owns them on movies.

The only exception to that is the Dark Knight

I Would well, I'd say Batman begins. It wasn't

really good. I didn't like the choice for the

villain for that one, but that's just me Yeah,

I agree it could have been a lot more iconic,

but for what it was it did set up the universe

It's actually funny you talk about the crossovers.

I don't know where I think they're in the other

room I have the all four original issues of the

Marvel DC crossover Marvel versus DC I used to

have that I had I think I had the second issue

and I also had the adventures of Dark Claw. Yeah,

which is I think between those comics and the

comic that I got with my BotCon 2008 set last

year, those are the only comics I own right now.

I'm sitting on about three boxes of comics right

now, not counting the countless. graphic novels

I have in our living room. In fact, actually,

I'm just getting into mangas right now. We just

did a special on This Week in Geek on 20th Century

Fox's Dragon Ball Evolution, and Viz Media, the

guys that do the Pokemon bleach and all them,

sent us some of the Dragon Ball mangas, and I'm

really, really digging those right now. That's

cool, that's cool. Who is your favorite actor

or actress? Wow, that's a toughie. Oh, I'm not

saying you have to like pick a definite. I mean

just like Ones that I favor. Yeah Um, I'm really

a huge fan of Kristen Bell like ever since he

and Veronica Mars. That was absolutely just Wow

Oh Like you wouldn't believe Another one of my

favorites is, she's a little lesser known, but

you know her from the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Levin Rambin, she played the character of Riley

Dawson. I really, really like her, actually.

I really think she's gonna do some fantastic

things in Hollywood. I really, really think so.

As for actors, I would definitely say I'm a huge

fan of Carlos Bernard. He plays Tony Almeida

on 24. Kiefer Sarlin, Jack Bauer, clearly. Should

I think of another character? I really like Frank

Welker. Dean Haglund. He plays Langley on the

X -Files. David Duchovny. Just because I think

he's brilliant and he's quite the comedic actor

when he's given the chance to do something. Californication.

Exactly. Even though I've never seen it, the

only reason why I know that is because Columbia

House sent me a season of it and I sent it back.

Very nice. Actually, it's kind of weird. I sent

for Columbia House application a little while

ago, gave them my credit card number and I never

saw anything. The best way to get it done...

is if you find a Columbia House thing in a magazine,

like, you know, you have those little subscription

cutouts in magazines for that magazine. Yep,

yep. Find one of those and just send it in, like

that, and just, like, click the, or check off

the Bill Me thing, and they'll, you know, they'll

have you select two or three selections or whatever

for the DVD club. I can also give you the link

to the DVD website. See, I actually did that

and I just never heard back from them. Really?

Maybe my credit sucks. I don't know. I don't

know it's certainly broken me We're gonna I'm

gonna save the last quote I'm gonna save the

last question I have for the end of the the end

of the little episode here cuz I kind of want

to get into like Twitter and stuff like that

and the last question is about kind of like podcasting

so Yeah, Twitter. I think the the actress you

mentioned from Sarah chronic conical the from

the terminator tv show that's another one of

the shows i don't watch i think the only time

i've seen that actresses name is when you've

twittered her on twitter i think you've sent

several messages to earn i've seen those go through

uh... yet what is awesome Yeah, Twitter is one

of those things. I used to make fun of Steve

for uses like I'm gonna Twitter those I'm like,

yeah, you fucking nerd and I we went to a pod

camp in Toronto and I'm like, alright Twitter

sounds cool. Let's sign up and Then yeah, it's

just just been one amazing tool. In fact, that's

how I got my gig on 1150 a .m WIIMA through one

of my friends. Her name is Denise Dorman and

she's the wife of Dave Dorman who's a world -famous

Star Wars artist. He does all the oil paintings

for Star Wars. And she hooked me up with some

people over at Clear Channel. And it was just,

wow, this is the power of social networking.

And then... I just met so many really cool people

over Twitter. Obviously, I talk to Levin, I talk

to Leo Laporte, I talk to Greg Grunberg and all

of them. So it's really weird just to see the

amount of people that are out there on Twitter

and how useful this thing is. In fact, another

one of my friends and frequent contributor to

Twig, Kyle A. Baer, host of the Big Ball Broadcast,

is on Twitter. He was some of the voices for

Dragon Ball Z. He was the voice of Teen Gohan

and the Dragon Ball Z announcer. And just seeing

how he uses Twitter to engage his audience is

really, really, really cool. And then obviously

people like the locker gnome, Chris Prillo. In

fact, I knew him just before he got famous, which

is really cool. He doesn't remember me at all.

Yeah, it was just I just can't believe how much

Twitter has exploded in the last couple of months

and it's amazing because some people at my school

were like we're just all getting ready to graduate

in the next couple of days and They're like all

Twitter sucks blah blah blah and now I'm starting

to see them pop up on Twitter Yeah, that's right

who the fuck's laughing now Yeah, Steve snowball

sailor had Steve put up a Oh, what did he do?

He asked a question, I think it was a couple

months ago, he asked a question on Twitter about

blogging and between Facebook and MySpace and

Twitter, what do people use the most? And for

me, I have a MySpace page. The only reason why

I have it is because Wanted to be able to check

up on some of my favorite bands like Nickelback

and Lifehouse and just you know bands like that

type of deal just to see what's going on with

them I don't use it for anything else other than

that anymore I'd check up on some of my friends

that post on there But I very rarely will post

any blogs or do anything with it Facebook. I

only join that to My 10 -year high school reunion

is actually next month and I only joined that

to get in touch with some of my old high school

friends and Twitter I use that more often than

not. I use Facebook more often than I do on Twitter.

Yeah Twitter is just it is so much easier whether

you're using the website whether using one of

the mobile apps. TweetDeck is awesome. It just

is. Have it. I just haven't played with it yet.

You need to because it is almost instantaneously

It's not like where you like if you're on Twitter

comm and you say Oh at Steve Saylor You know

email me whatever's you know update and then

you have to refresh to see if he's if he's replied

to that message You have to refresh the web page

with tweet deck It's like instantaneously, whenever

a message comes in, whether it's a general message

from somebody that you're following, whether

it's a direct message for you, whether it's a

reply to you, it comes in as soon as they send

it. See, I use Twitter Fox, and that seems to

work just as well. It's just not as robust, I

guess. Tweetdeck's awesome. Let's see. But by

the way, Mike, you'll be happy to know, or probably

unhappy, rather, that Nickelback in Canada is

actually considered noise. Yeah, well, you people

don't know what good music is, then. You've got

to be frigging kidding me. Seed the video to

Rockstar? OK, now wait a second here. Wait a

second. Production value in the toilet. Now,

I will openly admit, I am not a fan of Rockstar.

OK. They peaked after Silver Side Up. They peaked.

I don't think so. My personal opinion is they

keep getting better. Man, I got to introduce

you to some good music, my friend. OK. Go to

61 .com and just listen. Yeah. When I first found

them, I found them in 2000 right when the state

premiered, when Leader of Men and Breathe were

the two biggest hits they had. I was like, okay,

this is really cool. Really cool. I started listening

to this is back before I get into iTunes and

all that stuff and before the whole digital Media

thing kind of kicked off full blast and then

silver side up came out and yeah I liked a lot

of the songs my main problem with radio in general

is they overplay everything That's because you're

likely listening to a top 40 format station.

That'd be my guess rockstation i mean just just

a regular you know rockstation not really top

forty because the top forty station here mainly

plays rampant hip -hop anyway uh... so yes over

setup came out there's a lot of songs that didn't

get any play off that they're really good like

hollywood and woke up this morning and all that

and then the long road came out and i enjoyed

pretty much every track that wasn't a uh... single

I really enjoyed a lot. And then All the Right

Reasons. Again, I usually look for the tracks

that aren't the singles. Like the one I can remember

that I listened to the most off of All the Right

Reasons was Next Contestant. And then Dark Horse

Hittin'. Love it. But anyway, you know, to each

their own. They suck. I can say that because

I'm Canadian, okay? Actually, it's funny. I'm

not gonna I'm not gonna say names or anything

else but on the earth to don that forums There

is a guy over there that apparently He's a musician

and apparently he had a set either before or

after Nickelback before they got famous and Some

bar fight broke out or whatever else and he ended

up hitting Chad Kroger in the back of the head

I actually saw Chad Crozier at a hockey game

about four years ago. Oh really? Yep, he was

sitting up in the press boxes. I was at an Ottawa

67's game. There's been a lot of speculation

because I started a 24th right over at Earth2

.net and there's been a lot of speculation as

far as this season where Jack might end up where

the show might end up if he does not if Sutherland

does not come back and somebody said I think

I think Tony could take over and I'm like yeah

okay that's not gonna happen it wouldn't be the

same show without Kiefer Sutherland it would

totally tank if it didn't have him Don't think

so cuz there were rumors that Tony Almeida was

gonna get his own spin -off for a while there

and The thing is Jack Bauer has already signed

on for an eighth season. He'll he'll be oh, yeah

I'm sure and I think it was about a month ago.

I kept like for a solid week I kept asking the

question. Nobody answered it. I am surprised

I kept asking the question on Twitter in a fight

who would win Jack Bauer or Vic Mackie Who the

fuck is that Vic Mackie from the shield? Oh,

well, Jack Bauer, because he's Jack Bauer. You're

just a Jack Bauer stalker, that's all it is.

Jack Bauer can kill God, okay? You might not

want to say that standing so close to a lightning

rod. Jack Bauer will own you. Jack Bauer is the

only man on earth that can simultaneously kick

the ever living shit out of Chuck Norris and

Jean -Claude Van Damme. God's most two perfect

creations. Jack Bauer created God, okay? You're

really opening stuff up now, Mike. Oh, yeah.

Okay. I think we're gonna wrap this up with my

last question. If you could give any advice on

podcasting, what would it be, and what would

you tell a potential podcaster to start with?

Lots of naked chicks. However, alternatively,

my real advice is make sure you have the right

training behind you. Passion will take you far.

Passion will lead you to education. But I think

the best thing about podcasting is if you have

a formal radio background, it can be tremendously

helpful to you. And don't be afraid to try for

really big interviews. I mean, sometimes you

get tremendously lucky. And if you have a little

bit of radio background to yourself, you can

offer your audio skills up to radio stations

much like I have. And that opens up a whole new

set of doors and credentials that you can use

to help. Promote your podcast, promote yourself

and develop as a radio professional. But in terms

of podcasting, content has to be good. Content

has to be consistent. That's why on Twig we have

something come out literally every other day

or every two days. There has to be something

out because it keeps people engaged. Some people

say it's information overload, but that depends.

I mean, you're delivering content on demand.

It's not overload if they're choosing when to

listen to it. Exactly. If it's a thing of, like,

for example, I can go through the episodes I

have of Twig that are on my iTunes, because there

are some that I just don't listen to because

I may not like the topic or just, I don't know.

But the best example I can give you is the Disney

Afternoon one. As soon as I saw it download,

I'm like... Wow, they actually did doing something

really cool and I listened to it and a friend

of mine on Twitter a try on 84 Actually listened

to it and he it actually inspired him he wants

to start his own podcast Which he and I are probably

gonna do it together It is going to be called

tune cast and we are going to sit down and review

one cartoon show or series each week And that'll

be coming. I don't know when at some point I

missed a question where Where where is it? Holy

crap? I can't even find it now We all know you're

a huge transformers fan. Where did that fandom

start for you? Um, actually, it's kind of funny

my friend Ryan not the same Ryan that told me

to shut the fuck up but a different Ryan We were

watching YTV in Canada one night, and we saw

this space battle on TV. We were like, what the

hell is this? And it turns out it was Beast Wars.

So I started getting into that with Ryan, and

he would tape the shows for me off of YTV, and

I'd watch them when he was done with them. And

yeah, that reignited my whole Transformers fandom.

Then I found the movie really cheap in a store,

and I bought it. I'd say my fandom really came

alive when the alternators came out. And I collected

almost all of them, I'm missing like maybe five

or six of them. And that really got me back into

the fandom. And then I guess I got more into

it as the Michael Bay movie got closer and closer.

And then when I got my Transformers tattoo, it

was just, you know what, you're a Transformers

fanboy, just live with it. And I'm going to ask

what is it, but I'm not going to ask where is

it. Oh, it's the Autobot logo, and it's on my

left bicep right below Superman. OK. I'm also

going to get the Decepticobra symbol. I just

don't know where yet. His ass is frigging badass.

That's too funny. All right, do you have any

parting words of wisdom or any weird or strange

geek stories that you want to share with us?

I'm trying to think here. Where do I even start

here? I guess words of wisdom is don't ever give

up. If someone says you're not going to be a

success, give them the finger, punch them in

the face, and prove them wrong. Because you know

what? Everybody who laughed at me at Niagara

is regretting it now. I bet they are. You would

be surprised, Mike, how many times I have people

emailing me going, oh my God, Mike, what do I

do? I need help. But the thing is, most important

thing is don't be a dick. Like Will Wheaton said,

don't be a dick. But when you communicate with

people that maybe laugh at you for being a podcast

or laugh at you for being a nerd, be very gracious

with them because it means you're the better

person. Now, that's not a superiority complex

thing, not at all. It's you being gracious in

light of what's happened. It's all about good

karma. So when you help another person out, no

matter what, it'll come back to you in some way.

Don't do it for selfish reasons because, hey,

I'm going to get a Reward someday do it because

you want to be a good person, and I guess that's

the most important thing is is That just be good

what you give to the world you will get back

in spades And I guess there's something else

that really changed my life And I guess I'll

just share it right now sure is I is I did this

thing Last summer called the landmark forum,

and it's a landmark education calm and I went

to this Seminar in Toronto for three days my

friend Andy Walker paid for it And it was the

most amazing life -changing thing I have ever

done in my life. Literally over the course of

three days, I regained my life. And I guess to

boil it down, it teaches you to accept responsibility

for everything that you have ever done, both

good and bad, but know that you're perfect just

the way you are. And the only obstacles that

are ever in your way are the ones that you place

there yourself. So whenever you say oh, I can't

do that because I I'm not good enough That's

a story you're telling yourself You are as talented

as you need to be if you want to do it bad enough

You'll do it and with that stuff in mind just

things changed and twig is experienced a remarkable

growth since then I mean we were a small podcast

now. We're a podcast of over 3 million listeners

Yeah from last time that's crazy. That's that's

really good though It's really cool. Like I've

been spotted in Toronto people going. Oh my god.

It's Birdman. I Had a couple of girls posed with

me for like photos last year at the Toronto Fan

X Because we did shows on Evil Dead the musical

and some other stuff. They're like, hey my god

You're really cool and you're Mike Dodd screw

attacks G one of the year and Well, that's another

adventure, too. True Attack and The Game Heroes.

Speaking of the convention stuff that you have

done, are you guys going to TFCon this year?

When is it and where is it? It's in Toronto.

I don't know when, though. It depends. If it's

the same weekend as Anime North, probably not.

I would like to go this year, because I have

the voice of a Generation 1 bumblebee there.

Yes, yes. I'd love to get some promos from him.

But yeah, I'm not sure the conventions we're

hitting this year. I'm doing E3 likely this year.

I'm probably doing, well, I missed New York Comic

Con, but Pierce went this year. Probably going

to E3, probably EVO, which is this huge fighting

game tournament in Las Vegas. Are you going back

to Iron Man of Gaming? Oh, for sure. I actually.

Well, which is now called SGC, Screw Attack Gaming

Convention. If you keep your eyes on screwattack

.com, sometime in the next little while, you're

going to see a challenge between Jose and myself,

or as I now call him, Jose El Mexitaco. It's

going to be intense, and I intend to win this

challenge. And that's all I can really say, so

I'm not going to spoil it. But cheer for the

bird man. He's got Jack Bauer on his side. Do

you have any twig exclusives that you might be

able to share with us that no one else really

knows about yet? Well, I actually just recently

did an interview with Levin Rambin, one of the

stars of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also

did a really cool bit on Birdman's Boombox with

Entity and Ranger of the 8 -Bit Boys. They're

these nerdcore rappers which are quite friggin'

awesome. In addition to that, we're just working

on a really bunch of really exciting shows. I'm

hoping to get some more really big guests on

the show. In fact, there may be a video I'm gonna

be... be in in a couple of weeks that might feature

some rather big internet stars. We're filming

it in Chicago on Monday, so that's all I can

really tell you. It'll be pretty amazing. All

I can say, he's going to take you back to the

past, and he remembers it so you don't have to.

That's all I can say. I already think I know

who it is. It'll be pretty frigging awesome.

So hopefully I'll be there with one of my motherfucker

t -shirts Last time you were doing exclusives

for us you had mentioned the twig TV show is

there any More development on that Well, since

that time, we have parted ways with the interested

party, mainly because he was a douchebag. But

we are working on developing some new television

properties, which we're going to approach some

of the Canadian media people, hopefully in the

next few months, once we flush out the pilot,

maybe film a short segment of it. Actually, right

now, we're working for the Pones Game Center

here in Hamilton. That's P -O... P o w n z calm

and we're doing all their like fight videos right

now So there may be a possibility of twig getting

on Xbox live from the from the pones game center

So yeah, you never know. In fact, if you look

on Xbox live right now twig is on there twice.

We're at the We're at the Gears of War events.

We're at the halo at the halo wars launch event

and we're in some we're in something else You

can see me in the background quite clearly. Yes,

you guys were also blogged about at G4 and can

you talk about that at all as far as maybe Twig

taking G4 over? Actually, it's kind of funny

you mentioned that. Somebody on Twitter actually

was following me from G4 and I mentioned, you

know what man, Twig's gonna take G4, you friggin'

watch. And the guy contacted me and he's like,

hey. How would you like to be featured on G4?

I'm like, oh, really? Do tell. Let's have a conversation.

So we basically started talking back and forth.

And he's like, well, I really like what you guys

do, consistent content, really good content.

Can we put you guys on the feed? I'm like, sure.

So he did that. And we've been talking back and

forth. And I'm going to approach them about some

other ideas and development projects I have in

mind. You never know. I think Twig's really going

to go somewhere with this. And with that in mind,

it would be awesome if we were on Attack of the

Show, X -Play, EP Daily, or something like that.

I've got some pretty big ideas. In fact, I'd

love to interview Adam Sessler or Morgan Webb

from G4 just to talk about their experiences

as video game journalists. That would be a flip

side, seeing as how they do most of the interviews.

It would be. I mean, and supposedly, Sessler

is a really, really, really cool guy. My boss

over at thegameheroes .com, Handsome Tom, was

talking with him last year and said he was a

really chill guy. So, hopefully. Yeah, hopefully.

You never know. Exactly, so right now twig is

pretty much just getting bigger and bigger and

bigger You can hear me on 1150 a .m. Wima on

the Mike Miller morning show We're on screw attack

calm the game heroes calm and pretty much. We're

all over the net in some capacity I know Steve's

doing some blogging for tech startups calm. I

think that's the name of the website He's also

doing jump the shark which finally premiered

Yeah, which sucks because we lost two of our

episodes which we Recorded prior which means

we just have to re rework them now that those

shows are later in their respective seasons But

yeah, so I'm really really really happy Steve's

doing that so Steve does that Dave is gonna be

doing more fan service stuff more interviews

in the next little while We're actually talking

about a new twig audio drama very similar to

the wrong guy wrong time thing that we did last

year, which was one of our technical marvels.

Like I said, I really wish we'd won an award

for that one at our school, but it came down

to politics in my opinion. But I'm not a sore

loser. The best person won, so whatever. Um,

so yeah, I guess that's really about it. Oh and

stephen the skunk pelce. Well, he's just kind

of there We're hoping that him more involved

in some stuff. In fact, I was very happy He was

my co -host on the most recent episode of the

dragon ball thing I was gonna say pierce has

been the one that's kind of disappeared for a

while. It's like y 'all sent him to since Saskatchewan

or something You know, Pierce has been tremendously

busy with the Bloor Street Cinema in Toronto.

In fact, all the really good -looking videos

on YouTube involving the Bloor Street Cinema

have been Pierce. And he's been working with

director Edgar Wright, who did Shaun of the Dead

and Hot Fuzz, and is right now doing Scott Pilgrim

Takes Over the World in Toronto. So hopefully,

some cool things will come out of that for Pierce.

But he's just been working with all them. They

were doing this Wright Stuff Film Festival in

Toronto. In fact, tonight they're doing... David

Cronenberg's, I think it's The Brood or Last

Night, I can't remember which one it is, and

something else there. It's The Bloor Double Bill.

So that's what he's been doing. He's just been

really, really, really busy. Me and him still

do trauma cast for Trauma Entertainment, but

Uncle Lloyd's terribly busy and so are we. So

we're hoping to do more trauma cast. I think

the next episode is Sergeant Kabuki Man NYPD

or Redneck Zombies. Not too sure Well, I'd like

to thank you for joining me Mike. I'm just gonna

go over Some of the stuff that's going on with

me before we close this out Let's see TFG1 podcast

is up to Steve and I are gonna be recording episode

13 in about four hours Let's see I've actually

had Amazing, amazing response to TFG1. It's actually

surprising. I know a few of the people that are

over at earth2 .net where I first asked for feedback

for the podcast about starting it up and stuff.

A few of them listen that are overseas. I actually

had one guy from Japan Twitter me the other day

about it. So I've kind of gone worldwide with

that. Steve and I are Steve SCP 21 or at SCP

21 on Twitter He and I are still doing all things

transformers. We are going to be starting up

at the end of this year the beast unleashed podcast

which is a review series for Beast Wars and Beast

Machines uh... let's see what else we're gonna

be doing uh... the m wire movie we can review

is going to start july eleventh and i think hopefully

if i can nail him down to the floor and going

to have uh... steve snowball sailor on that with

us because the premier episode of m wire will

be back to the future and seeing as how you all

recorded yours while steve was in class he can

at least get his thoughts on ours are you still

there oh yeah sorry i uh... that's okay i was

going to say wait did he hang up again oh shit

uh... yeah and then i'd already mentioned tune

cast uh... that'll be coming out i don't know

exactly when because i have to talk to my buddy

about that so there's a lot going on for me as

well so uh... i think we're gonna close that

out Close this out. That is all for this episode

of the TFG1 podcast. Join Steve and I next time

when we will be reviewing five more episodes

from Transformers Generation 1 Season 2, those

being The Key to Vector Sigma Parts 1 and 2,

Aerial Assault, War Don, where we will meet Orion

Pax, and let's see if anybody knows who Orion

Pax is, and Trans Europe Express, which is basically

just the Autobot run in Thank you for joining

me on the TFG1 Podcast. There are four ways to

get in touch with me or leave feedback for the

podcast. The first is you can visit the PredaconEmpire

.com forums and get all of your Transformers

discussion topics there. The second is that you

can follow me on Twitter. My Twitter name on

there is TFG1Podcast as well as you can follow

Mike which his is at Birdman Dodd. The third

is you can visit the Earth2 .net forums. I have

a thread over there under the banter section

for the podcast. And the fourth is the email

address, which is tfg1podcast at gmail .com.

In the immortal words of Optimus Prime, transform

and roll out, and thank you for listening. Yippee

-ki -yay, motherfuckers! Goodnight, folks. Okay,

okay, and we are recording now finally This is

the second segment of the TFG one interviews

where I interview the Co the major co -hosts

even though no disrespect to the other guys the

major co -hosts of twig Mike the Birdman Dodd

was in the earlier clip and Now I have hopefully

Steve snowball sailor Hey, how's it going? It's

going I'm about ready to throw this computer

out the fucking window And Steve don't don't

be bashful about cursing because my podcast is

tagged explicit so So we all know that you're

from Canada, where exactly did you grow up? I

grew up in a city in the Niagara Peninsula called

St. Catharines, Ontario. Ontario's a province,

not the city. But the thing that's cool about

St. Catharines is its claim to fame is the school

that you see in the movie A Christmas Story.

You know where the kid wants the Red Ryder to

be begun for Christmas? Yeah, that school is

in St. Catharines. Well, most of the good filming

stuff is in Canada anyway. Exactly, yeah, we

had talked in one of our previous attempts about

uh... skyline and all that stuff and i remember

going there and seeing that little uh... my dad

stood behind a little plastic naira falls in

a barrel thing we had a picture taken that was

really cool yet maybe i mean i thought that the

same thing uh... that was in the niger falls

is that the thing is that the whole areas change

now it's become more commercialize industrial

and this has all kinds of like uh... buildings

that are built up all around the falls in it

it like it that was not the same as when you

get away newer kid like out to say like if you

ever take a look at Superman 2 whenever when

Christopher Reeves basically with like they're

at Niagara Falls that whole kind of side area

where you see like a lot of grass and a hill

and all that stuff oh yeah that's all it's it's

pretty much all buildings from that point on

that sucks what got stevesaylor .net started

up what was behind what was the whole thought

process of yours behind that behind your website

Well, a CISO that I originally started off as

a blog that I wanted to do just because wants

to learn how to write and i figured the good

way to do that is to build a practice so i recently

was going to do a blog a day a blog post a day

for an entire year uh... i'd do originally was

a kind of scale that does that you know what

else try to blog a day to see how long i can

take it can take me uh... i really got up to

about half an hour to about at least a full month

so i was kind of really proud about that and

then and then it went into uh... i moved it over

to fox dot com i use a used internet uh... g

-four tech tv and then i got a beta invite for

box uh... which is owned by Six Apart and I had

my blog there for quite a while. I really loved

it and it was easy to do and it just, I had my,

basically my domain name forwarded to there.

And then it started, basically I brought it back

to, I actually started up a podcast novel and

I figured the best way to be able to promote

the novel was actually using my own name as basically

branding myself. So I, So I used the domain name

SteveSailor .net and I launched the podcast Novel

Black Shadow through that and then it kind of

basically reiterated to more of a formal kind

of a blog and then it kind of is now more of

a formal, I guess media -centric website. It's

basically been going since I think about 2004,

somewhere around there, I think about 2004. So

it's been going for about five years now and

yeah, it's been a pretty fun ride for SteveSailor

.net. Yeah, five years is a great accomplishment.

What were some of your favorite cartoons and

regular TV shows to watch as a kid? Well, we

kind of covered a little bit of this on Twig

in a recent episode. We talked about the Disney

afternoon. Those were absolutely my favorite

shows when I was a kid. I mean, anything from

Darkwing Duck, Tailspin, Duck Tales, Goof Troop,

Gargoyles. Those were basically my favorite shows

growing up. There was also some really other

different kinds of shows. Even though I grew

up in the 80s, I never really got into the TV

shows of the 80s. I wanted to. but I just never,

I was actually more of a, believe it or not,

even though I was a geek at the time, I still

enjoy playing outdoors, so I never really got

to do anything else other than to play outdoors

with my friends for hours upon end, so a lot

of TV shows I didn't get a chance to watch. But

other than that, I think it was... I did watch

a little bit of Transformers, not too much, but

I did get into it to a small, small degree. Then

what else did I used to watch? Oh, there was

one show that it was never really kind of, I

don't think not a lot of people know about, but

it was around the same time as the Disney afternoon,

and it was a show, it was a cartoon called Bruno

the Kid. And Bruno the Kid was basically like

this little kid who became a super spy, and Bruno,

it was his name, and he actually, was voiced

by Bruce Willis. That was another one of my favorite

shows growing up. It was mainly the Disney afternoon.

I grew up kind of a very sheltered kind of child.

It was just mainly those of the shows that I

got to watch. And all those kind of shows that

you would see on like Saturday afternoon or what

we used to call the TGIF Friday. So yeah, that

was pretty much my shows. Yeah. Actually, it's

funny you mentioned about not watching transfers

too much. You will actually be able to. You'll

have to import them from the US, but Shout Factory

has been... tapped to release the original eighties

cartoon on dvd again uh... they're gonna do a

twenty -fifth anniversary season one coming june

sixteenth a week before the transformers range

of the following movie and they are going to

be doing a complete series later on in the summer

so you should definitely get those on that we

have to give it a try yep when did you first

realize you were a geek and what was the one

thing if you could pinpoint it that made you

a geek Actually, this one's quite easy. I mean,

I pretty much was a geek growing up, but the

one moment that I kind of pinpointed a self -realization

of when I was a geek was when I... I used to

sit at home like, and now I have specifically

saved this because it was a TV show and I specifically

saved it for this particular kind of question.

It was actually Star Trek The Next Generation.

I used to watch that like relentlessly when I

was a kid. I was a major Star Trek geek. I was

never really gotten to the point where I would

dress up with the costumes and stuff like that.

But I had the Star Trek little action figures

or the TNG action figures. I think I had the

card. I had Jordy, I had Worf. uh... i think

i had westly crusher could never remember if

i had them or not uh... but also when my favorite

as it was the uh... uh... it was the tricorder

actually had in our working tricorder that was

it was so cool i can't hand -held it was just

i could push buttons on it was it was really

cool but uh... yeah i remember watching that

uh... it was funny because my my uh... mom and

my dad would watch the show with me and are watching

like every single week whenever a new episode

would uh... would uh... come out and it was when

TNG finished and that's when I found out about

DS9 and Voyager soon afterwards. For me, I never

would have watched those shows if it wasn't for

TNG and I became a huge geek because of that.

I learned everything about Star Trek. I even

had read novels. I read comic books I even like

I would watch like all the old movies like this

is before like TNG actually made any of them

any movies and this is around the time like Still

when like the I think undiscovered country was

still was just coming out at that point when

TNG was still around so it was it was quite cool

to be able to see that and it just Yeah, so back

in the late 80s that's when I really started

becoming a geek and then I kind of somewhat fell

out of it as far as a geek kind of shows other

than the Disney afternoon but I never really

considered those as geeky shows. It was just

more about like just cartoons I would watch and

it wasn't until like into when I graduated from

high school that's when I really started getting

into other branches of geekdom and I started

learning like a lot about movies, TV shows, comic

books, video games, that kind of deal. so it's

been a long journey yes it seems like it and

you're not that you're not that old actually

No, it's weird because I'm only 25 years old.

I know a lot of geeks who grew up in the 80s

as much as I did, it would chastise me for not

being able to love the geeky stuff back in the

80s like Thundercats or Transformers or He -Man

or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles even to a certain

degree. A lot of those stuff I never really got

into because I was more into the sci -fi. I loved

sci -fi because my dad had the same He'd love

like all the old sci -fi movie like a sci -fi

B movies anything like from Godzilla to Like

Vincent any Vincent Price movie as well as he

used to watch of it like only even what got me

the comic books was also was the old Batman series

in the 60s that's also a show I used to watch

like the 60s Batman the animated series and it

was just kind of a it just i look i've got to

make it them in the nineties which uh... which

kind of socks kids i can i wish i was around

for a lot of times in the eighties for the new

cool stuff that happened then but uh... now just

uh... that just was the nineties for me uh...

next couple of questions i kinda want to separate

them a little bit because there's a question

in between the one about where this week and

he came from that i want to ask separate so if

you can kind of just like go with the flow on

this and all kind of tell you first question

is when did you uh... when did you get into radio

and was it something that you always wanted to

do I originally didn't want to do radio I was

never really I mean I kind of had like in the

back of my mind one of those things it was I

would love to be able to someday maybe be a radio

DJ and I and it just was never grew anything

more than just that never really pursued it any

further but it was in 2003 I was I was I got

into a beta invite for the matrix online role

-playing game and it was it was my first kind

of MMORPG that I got to get into, and when I

started playing it, I found out about an online

radio station for the game called the Radio Free

Zion, and this was actually one of the... kind

of not necessarily the officially declared the

official radio station of the matrix online but

it was like Warner Brothers knew who it was who

the station was and they were basically they

would give us like special invites and special

codes to give away and we'd also have like developer

interviews that only go through through Radio

Free Zion and stuff like that and I they had

position availability for for online DJs and

I thought you know what the hell I mean I kind

of I love the game a lot and I thought I had

pretty good to personality bill to be a dj so

i would just started i applied in a uh... and

he said i was at said it was good so i started

uh... doing that and i i was doing that for about

uh... a year and a half uh... roughly and when

i started like it was about six months into doing

the uh... to being a DJ that I got the bug for

being on radio. I actually remember the exact

moment. I was doing a show and the thing is at

the time, Radio Free Zone would throw, they had

these dance clubs in the game that you can go

to and we would always, anytime we would have

a party or a thing on the station, we would always

show up at the clubs and basically host parties.

And we had this one, I'm blanking on the name

of it right now. I think it was Worldwide Rave.

I think it was what it was called. It was basically

across all servers, and it was the biggest dance

party for The Matrix Online, and we were hosting

it. And I was the first DJ to run the first two

-hour block of this Worldwide Rave. And the thing

is, this was, I think, my second shift on air.

And it was kind of funny because... it was the

large it was the that night was the largest listenership

we ever had and From it was on my show and it

was about over 2 ,000 listeners live listening

at that point And it was really, really cool.

I got a huge positive response from that. And

I caught the bug pretty much from there. And

then I went to school at Niagara College for

radio, film, and television broadcasting. And

I wanted to focus in on the radio thing. And

then it pretty much gone from there. And now

I'm at Humber College because Niagara College

kind of handles more film and television than

they do really radio. but uh... yes i might have

a call specifically right now in toronto for

radio broadcasting and uh... i've been on like

a m six forty which is like the largest radio

station hearing well one of the larger stations

in canada uh... i've been turned there and uh...

i just yeah it's been it i love radio i'd just

love it to death Where did the idea for This

Week in Geek come from? Can you kind of walk

the TFG1 listeners through the creative process

you had for coming up with the idea? Well, originally

it actually started off with me. I knew going

into the program that they would... they do for

special credit uh... for the basic five percent

uh... bonus credit for the radio production class

uh... we were allowed to if we wanted to do a

specialty show on the college radio station uh...

just uh... uh... like you do it on your own time

you would run it for about an hour's uh... about

an hour show and i was i was going to do it as

a uh... i don't know if you know uh... notices

but basically by used to be uh... I used to love

watching tech TV back in the day and I would

watch like Leo Laporte on the screensavers and

call for help and he had a radio show called

the Tech Guy and I wanted to basically do that

like basically the version of the Tech Guy where

he would get calls and people ask questions about

tech and stuff like that and I would answer them

live on air and I kind of thought well the thing

is with Niagara College not a lot of people may

not have tech problems that they would want to

call through a radio station to get answers for.

So I expanded it to, I guess, you know what,

let's go with a geek -oriented show, because

that's at least a little bit more broad, and

I can kind of get a larger audience with that.

And then I had a co -host in mind for it, when

we had to submit a 15 -minute demo for the station

to be able to pick the seat. They would choose

the best demos who would get on air. and uh...

i originally was going to like i submitted it

and i asked a friend of mine who was going to

be uh... was going to be my co -host and because

the scheduling that they have the only one that's

pretty much on there within a week i had to choose

a day uh... that unfortunately just did not match

his schedule so He had to basically drop out.

And then I thought, well, maybe doing it alone.

But I thought, you know, I really want to do

a co -host because I really like the conversation

style whenever I talk with my friends. It's more

fun to be able to talk with friends about geek

stuff than it is to talk about it yourself. So

I knew Mike Dodd. I was going to ask him to be

a guest co -host on the show. I wanted to have

him on as basically a comic book expert. I wanted

to have experts on the show. for video games,

movies, that kind of thing. And then I would

just kind of conduct an interview style format.

And so I knew, and Mike said he was interested

in being the comic book expert. And then when

I found out that Myrochocos said he couldn't

do it, it we uh... i was like you did but i basically

woke up that morning i was like you know what

the hell just ask mike he said he was interested

so i figured uh... like i'd i think is i didn't

really know it i'd i'd barely knew him at all

i've seen him it around and i like in class and

stuff like that but i barely knew him i believe

in said two words to uh... to a mother than when

he said he was interested and then i got so is

like a you know just you want to be a close on

my show and he's about geeks and he says yeah

sure and so we literally like with the after

after first meeting for the first time we actually

went the studio recorded a promo and then like

two days later we were on air for our first show

and it was like instant chemistry it was as if

we like people had were comment commented on

our first show is basically it seemed as if Mike

and I were friends for years and it was weird

because we only knew each other for two days

and if we just got along so well and it just

kind of grew from there so to speak yeah that

was actually gonna be one of my next questions

was how did the snowball hit the birdman in the

face because he told me a little story about

he tried to get you kicked out of school oh yes

this one this story and now this i didn't know

until uh... at least about a few months after

uh... we started doing the show it was that it

was that but i i do we have this uh... we do

this project uh... uh... for it was it is i think

was a broadcaster was in class we're gonna take

a new story and we had this report will be not

as a report on the kind of give our own perspective

on the story like tell what the story is and

uh... ask what like get questions about like

to tell you the discussion in the class for this

new story and there was one particular new story

that uh... it was for brock university which

is uh... which is the local university in saint

catharines and it was uh... hacker had hacked

into their system and stole two hundred fifty

credit card uh... credit card numbers And I thought,

well, that's perfect because it's right in my

alley. I like hacking and stuff like that. And

the thing is, I had a friend of mine. who ran

his own podcast called Hack 5, it's HAK5, and

they're at hak5 .org, and they actually invented

this thing called the USB Switchblade, and it's

basically, any of the new USB drives have a technology

in it called U3, which basically allows it to,

whenever you plug in a USB key, you can have

it so that an application can automatically open

up as soon as you plug it in. They do the same

kind of technology, like when you plug in CDs,

into your computer and stuff like that uh...

and so my friend uh... darren uh... who was basically

who made the switchblade he figured out a way

to go to create a uh... hidden uh... program

that would launch and what it would do is if

you uh... it would log, it would basically any,

you plug it into your computer and within a few

seconds, unplug it again and then any time someone

else plugs in a USB key to that computer, the

software that's hidden in the background that

will automatically grab all those files and then

email them to any particular email address you

want. And so what I did was, I kind of used that

as an example, it's like how easy it is to hack

something. I actually made my own USB switch

played and actually plugged into the school's

computer. Now, the thing is, Mike was in that

class. We were all separated into five groups,

and he was in another group than I was. But he

found out it was about secondhand. And I told

the teacher that I was going to be doing this,

and I said, I can very easily remove the software,

which it was easy. It wasn't like it was going

to be stuck on there for good. And I had that

example. I actually had someone basically plug

in their USB drive, and then I actually had it

so that all of his stuff on his USB. would load

up in my email and it would and it worked well

somehow i i thought about this and mike found

out about it and he was kind of he kind of uh...

prided himself on being a hacker himself so he

we he found out that i did this and i basically

trumped him he got really really pissed off and

he actually wanted to be able to go to my program

coordinator to try to get me kicked out of school

i had no idea this was going on and i don't know

whether or not he he if he did it or he talked

anybody at all but Apparently he was pretty pissed

off at me, and he wanted to hit me in the face.

Well, what he told me the story was he thought

that you were stealing test answers. Oh, I never

knew about that. And first of all, he said, first

of all, congratulations, but second of all, fuck

you. Now for me, podcasting came about... This

is in coincidence with my next question. For

me podcasting came about from listening to podcasts

and the question I had asked Mike was did listening

to podcasts get you into wanting to host them

like it did with me or was it something else

entirely? Well with me it was I have a obviously

y 'all was very similar to Your stance on it

and the fact that I was I basically what I wanted

to get when I got into actually Podcasting was

listening to podcasts and my very first podcast

to listen to was this week in tech based obviously

we'll report again and then you can find that

twitch .tv is all the podcast he does there and

If I listen to I started listening to that and

I listened to a whole bunch others like a it

was all within like It was pretty much that whole

year was just listening to a whole bunch of podcasts

and I had an iPod at the time It was basically

an iPod third generation and I would love just

putting them all the podcasts on there Just that

like listening to it because I used to go when

I go go to school I would always go on a bus

and the thing is about an hour bus ride. So I

would always have that time to be able to listen

to podcasts. When I started listening to that,

I was like, you know what? I could do that. Me

being stupid, I decided to do a video podcast,

which was so hard enough in and of itself. It

was called Snowballs PC. It was a stupid name.

It was basically a Snowballs podcast. It was

basically a podcast all about podcasting. It

would teach you how to podcast. tools and equipment

and stuff like that. So I started doing that

and I did that pretty much died pretty quickly

because I just never The thing is about podcasting.

It's a lot harder to produce video and takes

a lot more time It's time -consuming to be able

to do video than it is to do audio and I learned

that I learned that lesson really quickly You

know what, just go full bore and just go right

out and just do a video podcast. I originally

thought the appeal for anyone to want to watch

a podcast of me was basically the fact that I

was in Albino, so I thought, ah, I'm interesting

to look at. That's pretty much about it. But

then I started doing other podcasts. I did a

podcast with Alex Albrecht of Dignation, and

then I did other podcasts with my friend Darren

again from Hack 5 and Jen Cutter from OpenAlpha

.tv. uh... then i a basically then the west are

doing twig it was that was pretty much the twig

it is pretty much the longest podcast after i've

i've ran with uh... so going i think about this

past two years now and it's uh... it's still

it's going stronger than it was before so you

yeah i was pretty much is listening to all kinds

of pockets again you know that's the same thing

that happened with me and uh... actually i forgot

to call mike on this on our little interview

but he had said in one of the one year old's

episodes about me getting into to hosting podcasts

because of Twig. It partially was because of

Twig, but the main inspiration was from World's

Finest Podcast, which is a podcast dedicated

to reviewing all of the cartoons in the DC animated

universe. So that's what originally got me into

it. What is your favorite word? It can be curse

word, whatever, doesn't matter. Whoo, you know,

you're going very James Lipton on me on this

one. I'm the tables on you buddy Yeah, Jesus

ago like I'm used to I'm used to doing this stuff.

You know, I had a word and I can't I'm trying

to remember what it was but uh, Oh, you know,

you know, I could I don't know why I didn't think

about this right away. It's awesome Yeah, I use

that it's awesome that's pretty much my own my

favorite word It's it has to be like it's it's

basically it's high it's it's either the word

moist or It's the word macaque, which is the

monkey. I hate that word. I hate those two words

or the passion I forgot I had already I had asked

Mike about this long time ago on Twitter and

we'll talk about Twitter in a little bit Where

did your nickname come from? Oh, well, minigame

snowball started off with, like, I was... I'm

not gonna lie. I was picked up like probably

like a lot of geeks out there I was picked on

a lot when I was in school Mainly because I was

an albino like really thick glasses I wasn't

exactly one of the cool kids and I was getting

sick and tired of them of people calling me names

like albino or whitey or Snowflake or anything

along those lines and I I don't know why at the

time I was really pissed off about so anyone

calling me the word albino now it's like that's

pretty much my like my thing is be calling myself

an albino, but it's I remember when I was in

grade six, I was with my brother and our best

friend, like our best friend lived like literally

two doors down from us, and that's going back

to when I used to play outside. Basically, at

the time, I was like, you know what, I'm getting

sick and tired of getting. called all these names

as well if i wanted to like to create a name

that i can actually be okay with and i i'd like

to actually say like if you can call me this

if you want to call me anything and i would and

i'll be all right with it and so i can't lose

a whole bunch of the names like uh... that we're

came up with it was simply someone snowman or

uh... looking once again snowflake or just and

i was i didn't and then someone basically uh...

if the thoughts snowball and i thought you know

i think i originally thought the names of the

basis snowball and i have this picture in my

head It's basically of a cartoon snowball basically

in a huge snowball fight, and he's basically

being like a badass, kind of throwing snowballs

at other people. And that's the picture I had

in my head when I heard the word snowball. I

was like, yeah, let's do that. And it wasn't

until I got into a teenager that I found out

that it was used in clerks. Let's just say, funny

story, side note, Kevin Smith actually came to

Toronto just recently. He did one of his evenings

with Kevin Smith and he also did a... basically

a screening of all his movies at the Bloor Cinema

and he actually did a Q &A, he would do a half

hour Q &A after each film and I went there for

the first night when they show Clerks in Clerks

2 and Jason Muse was there and Kevin Smith was

there and I was actually in the, literally in

the second row and it was so cool to basically

be there and I decided after the Clerks 2 to

be able to stand up and actually confront Kevin

Smith about the whole snowball nickname. And

I actually did, I basically just said, Kevin

Smith basically said, sir, I wanted to thank

you for ruining my nickname. And that nickname

is Snowball. And the entire audience basically

just erupted in laughter. And so now Kevin Smith

knows who I am and I'm known as Snowball. Oh,

that's funny. If there was one place you could

visit in the entire world, where would it be

and why? I would, I mean, originally I used to

think kind of abroad and I would always want

to go to England or Ireland or Scotland or anything

along those lines, but lately I've been wanting

to really go to California, whether it be LA,

San Francisco, San Diego, doesn't matter, anything

along California because it seems to be that

there's a lot of stuff happening there and I

just like the warm weather and stuff like that.

So yeah, it would either be England or California.

Cool. If you had to pick one cartoon as your

number one all -time favorite, what would it

be and why? Oh, that's easy. Tailspin. Hands

down, Tailspin from Disney Afternoon. kick this

there's so much going on with that show it was

it would be never dumbed it down for kids the

story lines were not like you know like a lot

of cartoons back in the day was like have like

a more like uh... this like the moral of the

day is that kind and it was always episode but

with tailspin it was it was different there it

was kind of along the lines of like Indiana Jones

and it had like a lot of adventure and and uh

and action and comedy and drama and it was it

was really really cool and that like that hands

down like i have to say that tailspin really

squeaks by Darkwing Duck in that respect because

i mean they both were high up there on my list

but i have to say if i had to put them in order

it'd be Tailspin and Darkwing Duck yeah yeah

if you had to pick a number one all -time favorite

tv show like regular like 24 stuff like that

what would it be and why old or new doesn't all

time what all the time if you had to pick one

if you if someone held a gun to your head and

said you need to pick a number one tv show or

else i'm going to shoot you what would it be

you know the cliche thing would be to say star

trek the next generation but i would have to

say right now battle star galactica It's close,

it's close. Oh damn, I thought I was gonna hit

it on the head. No, I was actually thinking,

there's two shows in my head right now, and Battlestar

Galactica is one of them, and I'm trying to decide

on which one. You know, I'm sad that it's gone,

but yeah, no, Battlestar Galactica would be one.

I'm gonna go for it. I'm just gonna say, it might

be controversial, I don't know. Chuck. Chuck

for me right now Every episode since it came

out has been my it's been an ultimate awesome

episode. It's been it's geeky. It's action It's

got hot. It's got the hottest chick on television

You know, it's just it's it's pretty much. Yeah

that uh, oh, you know, it's it's tough You can't

I'm a TV geek. You can't ask me to choose doing

this is to get the the hard -knit the hard -nosed

questions done and she had answers pop out uh...

yeah but no it's like it well yeah i had to say

like as of late it changes over time let me let

me just say that it just a lot my least ever

shows a change over time and and as of right

now i'd say my favorite show would definitely

be uh... would have to be chuck what are some

of your favorite comic books Well, Watchmen,

pretty much right off the hop. I mean, that's

always been a favorite of mine. I love the Batman

Hush series. I have the trade paperbacks for

that one. It kind of has a special place in my

heart for it, but it's the death and life of

Superman, or the death and return of Superman.

where basically, obviously Superman gets killed

by Doomsday. Issue 75, the black issue, yep.

Exactly, exactly. And then there's, that's pretty

much the top three. There is one particular issue

that actually I have akin to. I think it was

Superman number 675. I have it, but it's on a

shelf and I can't grab it so I can't see it.

What was cool about it was the artist of the

issue at the time was fans of podcasts. He actually

had on one particular panel, it's kind of funny

how they have it, but there's this one panel

where... There's a bunch of teenagers stealing,

looting stuff. And there was basically on each

of these teenagers, you can see the logo for

This Week in Tech, you can see the logo for Command

N, which is, and also Hack 5. You can see all

three of those logos distinctly in that one panel.

And the thing is, I'm friends with every single

one of those people on each of those podcasts.

And I'm good friends with all of them. And it's

just amazing, it's like, ah, super, I actually

had... to go out and get like i don't read superman

regularly issue by issue but i had to go out

and actually get that just so i can be able to

have that and and say like hey my friends are

in there and it was pretty cool yeah i think

i only have five comic books right now i have

the original for independent issues of dc versus

marvel and i have the uh... last year's transformers

bot con comic uh... nice next question would

be are you a marvel or dc guy or do you prefer

uh... more independent uh... comic publishers

uh... i'm a huge fan of uh... like the like the

way the independent publishers are do it like

they're doing the stuff right now uh... dark

horse has always been really good for like star

wars and and stuff like that uh... top cow also

uh... is a pretty is a pretty good uh... I would

have to say though, I love independent stuff,

but nothing draws me in more. It used to be DC,

because I'm a huge Batman fan, and I'm a huge

Superman fan, Green Lantern, just Green Arrow,

all those pretty much were some of my childhood,

but lately... More for the character development

has been Marvel because what got me back into

Marvel was basically reading Civil War Even though

it was a huge event book and nothing really kind

of change like change that especially spider

-man because spider the thing is in Civil War

spider -man repeat or Peter Parker revealed that

he was spider -man in Civil War like he revealed

to the entire world but then what happened was

like as soon as Trisinski finished his finish

his run on spider -man and another is here another

there's another artist or a camera the writer

and i wish you did he'd be back on it basically

said oh yeah that whole thing about peter parker

billing he's spider -man yet that's all gone

is that it doesn't exist anymore because all

because of magic and i like how you can't do

that but no not to say right now i mean with

the latest movies that the the could be coming

out as you like iron man incredible hulk uh...

x -men is also be out to save marvel right now

i said i said this in mike's interview when we

talked around I said this may be controversial

but Marvel owns DC when it comes to movies the

only the only DC movie that can touch Marvel

right now is the Dark Knight other than that

Marvel owns the movie stuff Well, I mean, that's

the thing. It's like, yeah, I definitely agree

lately that Marvel owns in regards to movies,

because they've always come out with really good,

consistent movies. Some are hit and miss here

and there, but there's a lot more hits than there

are misses with Marvel. And I agree, yeah, DC

with Batman Begins and Dark Knight, those two

were really high up there. But the thing is,

DC used to rule the roost back in the day. I

mean, I remember we had 1989's Batman. We even

had, like even before that, a decade earlier,

with the Superman movies, those were the iconic

movies of all time. And it just sucks that right

now, DC's lacking in behind, and I really hope

they can be able to build something up, because

with the success of The Dark Knight, they need

to build something up new and something cooler,

and they'd really be able to put Marvel in its

place. And I think a lot of that has to go with

Warner Brothers, because Warner Brothers hold

the franchise of DC. for like the longest time.

And I really think that if DC can be able to

create its own studio like Marvel did, and just

only allow the Warner Brothers to distribute

the movies, I think they could definitely be

able to do a really good job with it. And it

just sucks that it's basically stuck with Warner

Brothers' brass that they're not allowing people

to be able to create the movies that we want

to see. Which, I mean, the good thing is they

gave Christopher Nolan a free rein to do whatever

he wanted with the Batman franchise, and I hope

that... The brass at Warner Brothers are kind

of really kind of lightening their their tight

grip on the DC universe and maybe try something

new and and I don't know I like I remember those

that what the green arrow was or no green horn?

The Green Lantern was gonna do it was gonna be

a movie and now that's gone the Superman is gonna

do that Superman Returns sequel which that super

returns sucked It was good, but it was boring.

Superman Returns was a heaping pile of dog shit.

That's exactly what it was. Yeah, I mean, with

Superman Returns, it was an okay movie for what

it was. I mean, it was a good attempt by Bryan

Singer to be able to bring back, obviously, the

Man of Steel. And it worked, but the thing is,

though, what really kind of irked me a lot in

that movie was you have an entire movie about

Superman. Superman does not throw one punch.

In the entire movie, he does not throw one punch.

All you see him is fly, you see him lift stuff.

That's all you do. You don't see him do anything

else. That's not Superman. Because it's like

Superman, you gotta fight. You gotta fight something.

You gotta punch and have people go through walls

and stuff. That irked me a lot. Other than...

Kevin Spacey and Brandon Ralph as the as the

two main characters the problem with Superman

Returns is number one the writing because they

made Superman into a stalker that's what they

did exactly sorry that's exactly what they did

and it just doesn't work yeah and Superman in

a hospital bed no that never happens in the ER

that does not happen This isn't like a number

one overall, whatever, but who are some of your

favorite actors and actresses? Favorite actors

and actresses? I mean, well, Samuel L. Jackson's

one of them. I always enjoy seeing any film that

he's really in. Wow, I'm trying to think there

now. Actresses? Like Elizabeth Banks, she's always

she's always pretty really good She said you

put me on the spot here I Think is I have like

a whole list and it's like oh Michael J. Fox

would be one as well Jack Nicholson Tom Hanks

always been always been a favorite. I actually

do like uh... should have an amen and all i do

like Tom Cruise to a certain degree like his

earlier stuff was really good not so much as

later stuff is this is the before he got crazy

um... mission impossible stuff i don't like any

of his newer stuff either yeah yeah exactly i'd

i'd agree with you on that one um... oh uh...

greg grunberg love him uh... love him uh... bria

grant from heroes she's uh... i'd i'd love anything

that she's in uh... yeah no it's just tough to

do the decide i i i have a whole list and and

uh... they patrick stewart will we didn't they

can't tell anything on the lines like let let

me know why is that a quick look at it went to

like i can't choose uh... yeah we're not even

into a hero's discussion that's just be a huge

debate uh... boy I like it. Anyway, switching

gears a little bit, what do you think of all

this social networking stuff? Like MySpace and

Facebook and Twitter. Twitter is awesome. Wait,

wait, MySpace still exists? That's the same way

I am too. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, knocking

MySpace is pretty easy to do nowadays, but as

far as your own personal profile on MySpace,

yeah, it's pretty crappy. But as far as bands

and stuff like that, it's really good for that.

Oh yeah, that's all I use it for. Exactly for

musicians and some of that's perfect for it Facebook

I'm kind of starting to lose interest in it Just

because it's of the apps. I really hate the apps

It was like I remember I was on Facebook before

when they were just like doing it for colleges

And that was it before they opened it up to everybody

And so I loved it then and I think I think though

that pretty much I right now I constantly use

Twitter. I mean Twitter for me is like the It's

the perfect place to build a kind of put your

thoughts out there and People can respond to

you like pretty much right away it's it's but

it's better it's kind of like you better than

instant messaging and email and it like all and

kind of a blog micro blog kind of rolled into

one and It's as far as my thoughts on social

networking It's not exactly perfect. Twitter

is obviously never perfect. Facebook is never

perfect. Myspace is definitely not perfect. I

do have some negative things to say about social

networking, but in regards to my life and my

own personal life, social networking has... uh...

impacted my life within the past year and a half

to two years more uh... more so than any other

uh... thing online and it's pretty amazing i

mean i got to like i got to go to at dragon con

in atlanta because of twitter uh... i've gotten

uh... basically got uh... the huge fan base of

my book for both of her podcast novels based

off of uh... twitter uh... i've actually uh...

like uh... I've been invited to speak at several

different conferences because of Twitter. It's

something I'm passionate about and something

that I really think is going to evolve over the

years, but this allows me to be able to connect

with friends and connect with new people on a

global scale. pulls in the fact of like it's

a small world after all and really starting to

become that way like Any given time I can be

able to talk to a friend in England or someone

for or someone from Australia It's just it's

gotten to that point. So Yeah, I just love social

networking and what it can do for not only just

brands But also for your own personal life and

it's definitely impacted me quite a quite a few

And your little response about a month ago about

some article you posted by a famous Canadian

radio station DJ. Yeah. Yeah. He has no idea

what it is. And yeah, but let's not even go there.

But it's just so awesome, especially since I

found TweetDeck. TweetDeck is almost instantaneous.

It is just like instant messaging on Twitter.

like it pretty much as you know where is like

the website or some of the other like the it

like the terrific premium on the iphone you know

you have to refresh it and it'll come up but

we get it goes through instantly you know it's

just instant access and it is just all kinds

of awesome yeah now i would add now i know that

you're on a on a pc but uh... it's such that

you're on that because i found literally uh...

an app that's even better than tweet deck and

unfortunately it's only on the mac right now

uh... i think that i i talked about it yet but

i have a lot professionally over a tech start

-ups dot com and i uh... wrote a post about is

actually is for a program called nambu uh...

n a m b u and it literally has everything you

would want in tweeter that you have been and

love and tweet deck but this so much more, like

I would say there's a post on techstartups .com,

it explains everything and what I love about

it, and it sucks, like I said, it sucks, Mike,

that you're on a PC, but I mean, TweetDeck is

still just as good on a PC, and it literally

has almost everything that Nambu does, but Nambu

does a few things a little bit more that I love

than TweetDeck, because I'm not a huge fan of

TweetDeck, I'm gonna be honest, I mean, I like

it to a certain degree, and it does definitely

do quite a few stuff, but the thing is with TweetDeck

for me, it was always, because i have uh... so

many people that I follow and so many followers

that are following me, anytime I try to use TweetDeck

within an hour, I would always run out of the

API refresh. So I would always have to wait another

hour to be able to get updates in TweetDeck.

So I would always have to quit it and go back

to the web. But with Nambu, doesn't do that.

I don't know how it does it. I don't know how

it accesses the Twitter API or something, but

because it doesn't have that whole 60 % like

you can do whatever, how many API requests you

can send, it just somehow does it automatically.

And I haven't had a crash on me since and it's

just a... really really good program. That's

cool. Yeah, I try to keep the people I'm following

under a hundred. I don't want to end up being

one of those people that's following four thousand

people and I have three, four, five thousand

followers because it just slows. It's hard to

keep up with a lot of them. No, it's understandable.

I mean right now I'm following 720 people but

generally it's those are the people that actually

would respond back to me. Yeah, exactly. Like,

I have 1 ,454 followers as of right now, but,

um, which is twitter .com slash Steve Saylor.

Anyway, but, uh, no, I think it's... Like, I

used to think the same way, like I would keep

it at a low number, that people would follow

it so I could keep an update on all my friends,

but it's gotten to the point now where it's like,

I don't really need that anymore. I could basically

kind of just take a look at Twitter and just

kind of scroll through the latest updates and

then I could basically, if I find something interesting,

I'll go even further back into it, but I mean,

it's just good for me to be able to just kind

of get a quick... Check the quick pulse of Twitter,

so to speak. I just like it that way. I don't

want to follow everything that people do, but

it's just one of those things. It doesn't matter

to me anymore how many people I follow. I'm going

to say this right now. If you at reply me or

DM me in Twitter, I will follow back. That's

the thing. If you're conversing with me, then

it's my duty to basically follow you back, because

you take the time out to ask me a question, or

talk to me, or send me a comment. It's my duty

to respond back. So I'm going to follow you.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people I talk to on another

forum site that I'm on, earth2 .net, they think

it's like, well, the same closed -minded type

of deal that Nameless radio DJ has like oh, it's

just you know It's a good way to stalk people

and it's a it's just something you know I really

don't want to know it you know what you're doing

every second of the day and I find I don't I

am NOT posting on Twitter every second of the

day I'm not posting every little thing you know

I I may post something after we get off this

little interview here and say hey I just recorded

an epic interview with at Steve Saylor and You

know I may go to sleep and then wake up around

nine o 'clock and say hey, you know I'm getting

ready to record another interview or you know

you know I mean or record something else. It's

not like you know It's best example. I can give

and people are gonna have to search for this.

Maybe I can put it in the in the The video link

in the reticonempire .com forum thread for this

little interview here. Trouble with Twitters,

or Twouble with Twitter, whatever it is. That

video is fucking hilarious. Mm -hmm, mm -hmm.

I didn't really agree with that one, yeah. That's

the thing with Twitter. It's kind of gotten,

I guess, somewhat of a bad rap for it. Even at

the radio station I interned at, AM640, they're

now starting to get on Twitter. And the thing

is with Twitter, And they think Twitter sounds

like a bad word. Because they think that basically

people who are on Twitter are Twits. And obviously

people think that Twits are a bad word. And the

thing is the audience for AM640 is adults 35

to 54. So they're just adults that don't really

get Twitter. And I slowly started to convince

them about it, but then it got to the point where

it's like, you know, they just don't like it.

They don't want to really mention it. It's slow,

and that's the thing with Twitter. You've got

to be patient with it. You can't just jump on

the huge bandwagon and expect it to get all these

massive replies to anything you say. It took

me two years to be able to get up to the point

where I'm at right now. You've just got to be

patient with it, and then eventually you find

a need that fits you. That's pretty much what

I'll say. One last question before I let you

go if you had to give anyone like any potential

podcasters advice on starting podcasts What would

it be and what I mean, what would you tell somebody

that wanted to start up a podcast of their own?

Well, the thing is like I kind of akin this to

also being being a geek as well is Well, my definition

of the word geek is being passionate about one

particular topic. If you're a car geek, normally

people will call him car nuts or... or nut jockeys

or whatever. But the thing is, if you think about

it, you are a car geek. You learn about every

new car that's coming out. You know the parts.

You know your car inside and out. You're a car

geek. It could be a knitting geek. You can be

a toy geek. You can be a comic book geek. Just

anything along those lines. And it's the same

with the podcasting. Whatever you're passionate

about, that's what you should do to show on.

It's because The best quote I've ever heard is

from David Lawrence. He used to be a radio show

host in California, a tech radio show host, but

now he was just the guest star stint on Heroes.

But he basically said at one point, if you're

interested, you'll be interesting. And that's

the kind of a quote I live my life on, is that

if I'm passionate about something, if I'm interested

in a particular topic, people are going to find

that and basically there and they're going to

think that you're interesting and they're going

to want to listen to you so if you if you if

you're passionate about uh... the baseball cards

do a baseball cards podcast uh... if you're passionate

about uh... a question about music do music podcast

is whatever you like and you know a lot of There's

guaranteed there's other people that are exactly

like you that they're going to want to learn

more about it and be able to kind of converse

with you. And so that's what I would say do exactly.

That's my ultimate best advice is. do whatever

is passionate that whatever you're passionate

about and basically it's been and also to be

patient to passion and patient uh... patients

because you got it uh... you're not don't expect

to be basically be a hit right out of the gate

it's gonna take a lot of the bill to get good

it's gonna take you out of the bill to kind of

build up your audience uh... like it's it took

them to uh... twig two years to really get to

where we're at right now and then by all means

by all means we're not a huge podcast but i mean

worst when we go like we're basically a medium

-sized podcast at this point but still you gotta

be patient yet he still passed about what you

do and if you produce good content, being passionate

about what you're doing and you're patient with

it, yeah, you're guaranteed you'll get a huge

audience. Yeah, yeah, that's the other thing.

Yeah, that's the same thing with me. When I started

TFG -1, those first six regular where I'm reviewing

the shows, the cartoon shows, the first six or

seven, eight or nine episodes are like really

rough because first of all, one -man shows suck.

I agree. If you can get yourself a co -host,

it's always much better because I tried doing

it solo and guarantee, let's just say Twig would

be nowhere right now if I didn't have a co -host

like Mike because it's the conversation that

kind of draws people in. I've always had that

as a saying, if you have a podcast and you have

a best friend who's into the same stuff you are,

Do a podcast with him or her because literally

it's the best way to build it. It makes it more

fun for you too because... It really allows you

to build to like it doesn't feel like a burden

to be able to do a podcast on your own It's like

oh, I've got to record a podcast, but if you

have a friend doing it It's basically like a

recording like your conversation says you normally

would have anyway So why not record it and make

it into a podcast it just makes it more fun for

you. Oh, yeah, exactly This actually just popped

into my head. How did twig jump the shark? Oh

god. Wait, are you talking about the show Jump

the Shark? Yes, I was combining the two. Right,

okay. Well, I don't think we've jumped the shark

as of yet. Although Dave's double D's rants are

getting to that point. Like it's getting to the

point where we're not even sure where Dave's

gonna come. We don't even know what he comes

up with anymore. It's at the point where it's

like we think we have an idea, but he just kind

of throws something that's completely off the

wall. And we just don't even bother telling him

what to do. It's basically, you know what? Just

go nuts and do whatever it is you want to do.

he's got to become that but it's still just as

awesome as ever lost a go out to california hollywood

to see if he can get himself some voice acting

because he is an awesome voice actor He definitely

is. His Arnold is almost spot on. Yeah like it

was funny because him and I like we're like we're

kind of knowing at least in our area for doing

like a lot like the voice stuff and me more kind

of so for like narrators and stuff like that

and I can do certain I can do definitely do kinds

of voices but him and I were actually looking

into pursuing a voice acting career professionally

and yeah him and I we love doing voices and that

the best i think uh... we've never actually record

this but the best uh... uh... the best cover

conversations we would ever do is anything david

i would do uh... the arnold impression together

uh... faces is that you would do is that i would

do mine and it uh... people who always have tons

of wonder that does have to record I think yeah,

you know what, now I'm thinking about it, I think

I want to pitch it to Dave. It's like, Dave,

you know what, let's record a rant where basically

you and I are doing Arnold voices. And I think

that would be tons of fun. Do you have anything

that you want to tell us about as far as upcoming

for you or upcoming for Twig? I know Mike said

he's going to be traveling a lot. Yeah, he's

gonna be traveling quite a bit because he's obviously

doing stuff for like the game heroes and for

Twig and stuff as well. As far as me, I'm basically

kind of become the main host of Twig DVD commentaries,

which I'm loving to do. I love doing those every

single week. Obviously I'm doing Jump the Shark,

running that on Twig right now, and I also run

the website of ThisWeekGeek .net. As far as personally,

I mean, I'm basically looking into doing some

voice stuff. I just got asked to technically

audition, but kind of asked to be able to be

a part of another Star Wars fan. audio drama

uh... because i used to pay added one uh... back

last year called star or star wars uh... code

name star keepers run by uh... get another good

friend of mine jim perry he he can find actually

indiana jim dot net uh... you can find the uh...

my little stints there is basically i was the

main villain for that one and because of that

i've got this i got asked to do another one uh...

so i'm gonna i look forward to possibly doing

that uh... Basically, I'm also going to be doing

some more writing over the summer. I would expect

another podcast novel of mine probably some ...

I hate giving out deadlines because I'm terrible

at deadlines lately for podcast novels, but expecting

a new one, I'm going to hopefully buy this year.

That's what I'm going to hopefully do over the

summer. Then Twig is just going to go strong

and we've got other cool stuff that I can't talk

about right now. expect cool things coming up

in the future. Yes, speaking of your writing,

I have to ask since you brought it up, what the

hell do you do at Starbucks all the time? Well,

originally I used to go to Starbucks a lot to

be able to like... to be able to write, because

I wrote my first podcast novel, Black Shadow,

in Starbucks. I would bring my laptop and I would

just go and sit there and write. It's weird for

me, I can never seem to write at home, because

there's too many distractions, like obviously

watching DVDs, playing video games, watching

TV, that kind of deal. But when I'm at Starbucks,

when it's only just me and a laptop and the internet

to keep me company, at times, basically, that's

the only distraction I have. I can pretty much

just sit there and write. I've been able to sit

there for about two, three hours and be able

to write like 2 ,500 to 5 ,000 words within a

given standard Starbucks. If you follow me on

Twitter, any time you see me saying I'm going

to Starbucks, about 95 % of the time it will

be because I'm going to be writing. It's just

pretty much my place of choice to do that. Several

twig things that are coming up you guys did get

blogged about on g4 and I guess we did I mentioned

to Mike I said Cool twig is gonna take over g4

now at least it'll be a great network You know,

I would hope so. The cool thing is, the best

time of my life was actually working at G4 Tech

TV here in Canada because I used to be the intern

on Call for Help with Leo Laporte. Hence why

I like the guy so much. He's pretty much been

my mentor for the past two years. uh... i'll

i'll love i'd love to take to be back in the

day i was very sad when g four bought out and

i kind of wish you for would be able to come

back and bring it back to uh... the geeky tech

side of things but uh... it's just run by comcast

is not much i can do about that but you know

if there's some things coming up that i can talk

about i think that might may have told you about

as well but there could be something more with

g four then uh... that's more than meets the

eye I don't know if he told me or not. It might

be in his interview. I'm not really sure. What

was the other thing I was going to... Well, let's

just say that if he hasn't mentioned it before,

but yeah, there's something that I can't say

anymore, but let's just say that being blogged

on G4 is right now the first step. So yeah, well,

I'd like to thank Steve for joining me on this

special interview episode This actually came

about Easter Sunday I had taken a nap and I woke

up about Three o 'clock and Mike had twittered

that he wasn't doing anything. He was having

a lonely lazy day at home So I sent him a message

saying hey, do you want to be interviewed? So

that's where this whole thing spawned out of

because I had nothing to do on Easter Sunday

Yeah, I think we're gonna close this one out.

Thanks to Steve. No, thank you. It's been a pleasure

Hang on the line and talk to you a little bit

more off the air. So No worries. All righty,

then this has been the TF G1 podcast interviews