Latest / Fandomonium! A Fandom Comedy Game Show / Cast Interviews - Chris Ragain: A Life Through Fandom

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Cast Interviews - Chris Ragain: A Life Through Fandom · Fandomonium! A Fandom Comedy Game Show

0:00
Hello, Leapfrogs, Welcome back to our cast interview series. This time we'll
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be looking at the life through fandom of one Chris Reagan, a gate Leaper's
0:09
original, and by that I mean one of my very supportive friends who agreed
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to play silly games on a podcast back in twenty twenty one and now is
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in over his head now. Chris, along with his partner Jen, of
0:22
course, they've been so supportive of Gateleapers since the very beginning. They helped
0:27
us get the show off the ground in our first season when we were testing
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out games and formats, and as you know from his hilarious appearances, Chris
0:35
has continued to support us and appear on as many episodes as I ask him
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to throughout a given year, which is just it's just incredible. He's witty,
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he's passionate about fandoms, he's laid back, but also crucially, he
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doesn't want to be found online as a result of his appearances on here,
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So I'm not going to give you any of Chris's socials or anything like that
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that I would normally shout out for people, although come on a few if
1:00
you have to be Internet slutes listening to this a few of you must be
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able to you know, follow the follow the tags on Instagram and all that
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if you if you really want to get more of Chris in your life,
1:08
you know how. But yeah, for now, all I want to say
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is it feels really good to have a funny and supportive friend in your life.
1:15
Everyone should get a Chris. I reckon and a couple of weeks ago
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we had a great chat following our usual life through fandom format that you know,
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Jen came up with, so he could have been practicing these questions for
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ages. So I asked Chris a lot of the usual questions, but we
1:30
got some We got some kind of different answers. You know, we all
1:34
engage with fandom differently. Yeah, I think some of Chris's answers are pretty
1:38
pretty interesting. So hopefully you get to know Chris a little bit more across
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the next forty five minutes. And look, if getting to know us all
1:45
isn't your bag and you're like, hey, just shut up and give us
1:49
more entertainments, well, next week there'll be a brand new panel show and
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if you stick around until the end of the interview, I'll reveal what that
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fandom is and what you have to look forward to next week, but for
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now, please enjoy this chat, this conversation I had with Chris about his
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life through fandom. Hey man, how are you doing? Hey, dude,
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doing good? Doing good? How are you? I'm also doing good?
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Thanks? Yeah? Yeah, thanks for keeping the what has now become
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a tradition with this series and joining me on a weekend morning of a drinking
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coffee, drinking tea. No, I'm going I'm going tea this morning.
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Uh, trying to trying to get over some sickness, so so keeping it
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nice and calm with tea. I miss coffee, though I haven't really had
2:35
any in like a week and a half and that kind of makes me sad.
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But oh not. Yeah, I suppose the caffeine not not quite as
2:40
good during recovery times. But yeah, I had it once and I thought
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I was going to have a heart attack, and I was like, you
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know what, I should probably just wait, I'll wait, yeah, stick
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with stick with the I was going to say the throat lubricating tea, but
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I don't really want to say that phrase at like nine am, say it.
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Say it. I've said it. Yeah. Yeah. Even my watch
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was just like, hey, your heart rate's way too high right now,
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Maybe maybe relax, I don't know, maybe take a take a little break
3:12
from the coffee that but we're gonna call the We're gonna call the ambulance if
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you don't settle down. The ambulance shows up and it's like, what's the
3:20
problem, and you're just like, I had a cup of coffee. I
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had coffee, sir. I'm sorry, sorry, that's five thousand dollars and
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we would like a cup of coffee. Please, thank you for your offer.
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Shit, I mean, obviously I can't now think of a of a
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segue into talking about an ambulance arriving to request a cup of coffee into into
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our first question, because that's actually that's actually pretty tough to do. Uh.
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If you were able to pull it off, I would have been very
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impressed. But I'm still impressed, just not quite as much, you know.
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All Right, all right, well i'll give I'll give that's fair,
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thanks for being impressed. Any right, I'll give. I'll give some thing
4:00
ago. I'll say, Well, people often have their coffees in the morning,
4:03
and being a child is like the morning of your life. So let's
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get right into analyzing your life through fandom. Chris, So, I would
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like to know what was the first pop culture media you were obsessed with as
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a kid. It could be like a VHS slash DVD you had as a
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child, or a toy you couldn't put down or had to collect, or
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a book series that you secretly kept reading under the blanket at night. I
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think there are two main ones. Nice because my family are there, whether
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they admit it or not. They are also a bunch of nerds. Sure
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they're like nerds in a jockey way because they're all like good at sports and
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shit, but they they're still they still like this stuff. But we weren't
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like a big TV family. We're a big movie family. We had a
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big VHS selection, but no cable television or anything like that. So okay,
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it was just always rewatching stuff. So we had uh the the VHS
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original trilogy of Star Wars with including the the George Lucas interview. I forget
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the name of the guy who interviewed him at the beginning of each uh okay
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shoot, it was it was some well known movie guy. Honestly, I
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never watched the interview. I was like, this is so boring because I
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was like eight, and I just wanted men talking to each other. I
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don't care is chewbaka this is your process. I don't give a ship if
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you lightsabers. It's like a lot of adult Star Wars fans now actually,
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because I mean so, I'm sure it was a very interesting interview, but
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I just remember having that and watching really going hard on the those on those
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VHS tapes. And then the other I would say a really big series for
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me and my family was the Chronicles of Narnia. I think this is the
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case for a lot of religious families who were also into fantasy. We were
6:18
like read them out loud with like with each other as a family. Yeah.
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Yeah, Actually it was really cute. It was one of my favorite
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things. We would, yeah, and we would go through all the books
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all the time. I think the most recent time we did that, I
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want to say I was like twenty and my sister was like thirty, and
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we were just like in we're at home at the same time for some reason,
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and we're like, let's read some Chronicles of Narnia together, and we
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were just like we just went off to some room and we're reading them out
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loud together, and it was really fun. Hell yeah. Did you do
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you do the thing where like one of youse the narrator and one of youse
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the characters. Do you like cast different roles or do you just take turns
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reading the pages. We just take turns with chapters. We just read a
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chapter and keep it. We liked to. We like to do this cute
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stuff, but we also like to keep it efficient. You know, let's
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ship moving on, keep keep it moving. Everyone's got to get the recreation
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time in. We gotta Yeah, we don't have time to dilly dally.
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We can't choose characters, to be sure. I was just wondering if you
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had a sick missed the dumbness voice or something like that. No, no,
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I wish I did. But we did also along with that, we
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had copied. I forget the method of doing it. But you know when
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you could record uh television on TVHS tapes. Yes, yeah, we did
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that with the BBC Chronicles of Narnia. Oh sure, the quite low budget.
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Yeah you're so great, dude. I have them on DVD. I
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bought him reed like in the last decade because I love them so much.
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Because to this day me and my family will still say it's beaver's or its
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tail, because I don't know what it is about that specific line, but
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that just tickled us to it's to no end. It's a it's a funny
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line. And even if your innocent religious family, we were not thinking about
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it. Beaver is a funny word, so it is. Yeah, they
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weren't thinking of it in the vagina way, but it's funny anyways. It's
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it's just funny. It's just it's just good family fun. No, that's
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that's so good And it makes sense knowing you, it makes sense that Star
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Wars and Chronicles of Narnia with a with the two early fandoms for you,
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it makes me realize we've not done a Chronicles of Narnia episode. Yes,
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that's that's got to happen at some point. Maybe we greg Gerwick's films sort
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of a pea would be a good time, that would be. I hope
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I have such high hopes for those. Yeah, same same kills it because
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that'll be that'll be a good time. But yeah, I'd say those two
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were big. I mean obviously the Lord of the Rings, like the Hobbit,
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always reading the Hobbit, a kid, always listening to the audiobook read
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the books when the movies came out and stuff like that. But I think
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I think Star Wars and Chronicles of Narnie a little bit more so, a
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little bit more on my speed as a sub ten year old. Yeah,
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yeah, the sort of the Catholics fantasy writing is tougher to access than the
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Protestants. I think I've got this right way around. Yeah, yeah,
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probably that sounds about right. Good stuff. All right, we'll move on
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to like a little bit. I mean, it could be a little bit
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further in childhood, it could be the same time, but we'll definitely move
9:41
outside of the home here. I think, what was the first fandom you
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remember being a part of? So this is more a point where you remember
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making friends and sort of sharing like a hobby or an interest, or it
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could be part of like an official club, Like it could be more in
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your teenage years at this point. So I've ever never actually like interacted with
10:01
people specifically for fandoms. I wasn't. We didn't really have good internet access
10:09
as a kid. Technically we had it, but we lived like up in
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the mountains and there was just no it like it was. Yeah, you
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still had like early nineties internet, Yeah, up until twenty ten, we
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had early nineties Internet, so I didn't really have access to like to like
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Tumblr. I wasn't a tumbler early in high school. Unfortunately, I would
10:30
have killed with me. Yeah, but I didn't really do that, Honestly.
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I didn't really start like digging deeper into fandoms and shit like that.
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I'd say, like on my way out of college. So when I was
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like twenty three, oh Lake Bluma, Yeah, well, so I had
10:50
always loved all those things, but I didn't really like thinking about it a
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ton. And then something in like the last year of college. I I
11:00
remember watching the prequels of Star Wars, and you know, all through high
11:03
school and college being like these are stupid. Yeah, And then when I
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was like a senior in college, I was like, these are fucking sick.
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This is so much fun, This is so stupid and great, and
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so like I just went on you know, like real deep into Wookiepedia,
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looking into the lore. Yeah, doing all that shit. I read the
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entire Apprentice series, which is like an extended universe, okay, children's book
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series about Obi Wan when he was a padawan. I was going to do
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it as a book club with a buddy of mine at the time, but
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he didn't feel like reading any of the books, so I just read like
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thirty children's books by myself. Yeah. I was gonna say, like,
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if I don't know why, you'd just be joining the podcast now. But
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a reminder, this is Chris Age twenty three. Yeah. Yeah, no,
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honest, no, that was actually that was even later, Okay,
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I was like, that was like twenty six, that was two weeks ago.
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Yeah, honestly, I would read those books again. I bet they
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were easy to read as well. Like the Yeah, I imagine those like
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short novel children's series, it would be a blitz to get through. I
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literally had had them on a PDF on my phone and I would just like
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read one through a day and it was it was nothing, and it was
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Yeah, it was kind of fun. And then same with like Lord of
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the Rings. Also I found out Tolkien. I found Tolkien Gateway, and
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I started getting into all the like Selmarillion in the more lower heavy stuff around
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the same time and just like going on really big deep dives. But I
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wouldn't say at any point I like got into the fandom at all. It
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is more just I got more into these niche Yeah, things. Yeah,
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definitely, definitely. Yeah, I don't think I would say that I've ever
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been like deep into a fandom. Yeah, that's that's fair. Like it's
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not like a prerequisite for being a fan of something, for being engaged in
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pop culture, especially like people who are more introverted or just like quite happy
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to sort of engage with something solo in terms of like, for example,
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reading through Wikipedia. That's something that I relate to massively of just like,
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oh, no, I can absorb lots of information on my own. This
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doesn't have to be a group shared thing. Do you think maybe a little
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bit, because you mentioned your family are kind of like jock nerds, where
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like they hide it. They do like this stuff, but they hide it,
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do you think that could have had a bit of influence in maybe not
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like bonding with people specifically of a fandom because you were like, Nah,
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this is we don't talk about this geek shit outside the house. We only
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read Narnia inside the house. No, no, I wouldn't say that at
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all. It didn't even it just didn't occur to me. I didn't.
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I didn't even think that that was like a thing. Although I will say,
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I guess the deepest I would say that I got into any fandom was
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like fourth grade, all of us getting plastic lightsabers from Walmart and wailing on
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each other at recess. Well, I think that's I guess that's That's probably
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the closest I could say I've been. Yeah, that's a to being in
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a fandom as a child. Yeah, that's a great early early fandom memory
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that just came love me out of nowhere. Yeah. Yeah, I love
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the idea that you were, like, you all bought the lightsabers, you
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all had a great time having a lightsaber fight and beating the show of each
14:33
other with lightsabers, and then you were like, well, that's you a
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fandom socializing for me. I'll come back to this in fifteen years time.
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Yeah, that's pretty much how it went, because yeah, that was like
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right around the time that the prequels were like either coming out or about to
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be done, and so yeah, yeah, and I was going into middle
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school just about too. So it can't be talking about Star in middle school,
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dude, you can't be. Youah, absolutely can't be. We were
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talking about Jesus. Yeah, of course, of course, which is a
15:07
fandom in of itself, But we won't get into that one here. Oh
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yeah, I didn't even think about oh shit, yeah, all right,
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well we'll move on to something that you definitely don't need to be socializing with
15:18
other people to engage with this. I'd like to know what some of your
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teen brain obsessions were. This is sort of things you remember needing to know
15:26
everything about. So obviously we've heard about star Wars and the Wikipedia, but
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has there ever been anything else that maybe came at a time where you were
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developing your sort of emerging identity as well of like, Okay, what are
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the things I must know about? Because these are the things that people perceive
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me as knowing about. I think in high school high school brain, it
15:46
was Harry Potter. I was a little bit late to Harry Potter because it
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was a little frowned on in my circles. But I was able to get
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a couple a couple copies of the first few books down a back alley somewhere,
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and like my brother, okay, okay, I read. I read
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all three at my grandparents house while my parents were on vacation. U So
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yeah, I probably say I went. I went, and I think that
16:15
had a little bit more relevancy to like to. I guess, like the
16:21
time that I was in high school, I think those were more of the
16:22
coming of age type books that were around. So I think I would probably
16:30
say yeah, Harry Potter, because I remember specifically, you know, staying
16:36
up till three in the morning reading The Order of the Phoenix. Also fuck
16:41
Turfs, but you know you know that, Yeah, that goes without saying
16:48
I just had to throw it in there, but yeah, I think that's
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kind of what had more social relevancy when when I was in my teen year,
17:00
Oh it was peak peak part of the time, Like Order of the
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Phoenix was the one that I also remember being like the one that's like,
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oh this, I'm aware of this releasing now. I didn't the first four
17:11
books. I must have read over a summer at some point before then.
17:14
But yeah, the hype for those last three books coming out at school was
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huge. Yeah, yeah, yeap. I honestly, I think I think
17:22
same. I think I I think I caught up on everything, like as
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the fourth one came out, Fuck I forget the Goblet of Fire. Goblet
17:33
of Fire. I think I caught up as that that one came out,
17:36
and then I was like, wait, there's no more and then yeah,
17:40
I remember waiting for the fifth, sixth and seven to drop. Yeah,
17:42
there are at times there's a there's a fifth come in around the corner and
17:47
it's it's a it's a chonky book. I remember how big that book was
17:48
and thinking, wow, books can be big, dude. I felt so
17:52
smart reading that, like, yeah, eight hundred pages, no big deal.
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It's just like as an eleven year old just pushing reading glasses up your
18:00
nose, being like, yes, I am a scholar. Now I'm reading
18:04
the life's work of a transphobe. It's thankless work, you know, it's
18:10
thankless. It is absolutely a rich world to sort of, especially as a
18:17
teenager, to want to know everything about, like who are all the teachers?
18:19
What are all the spells? What are all the potions? Like there's
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a lot of loll there to become a time suck. Yeah, oh yeah,
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absolutely, and like yeah that kind of like escapism but not escapism at
18:32
the same time, or like I'm kind of going through similar things. Uh,
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what's happening in my body? Is it magic? Do I have ginger
18:41
pubes? Like run jesus Na? Still don't. No, that's not one
18:49
of my problems. Dang it. All pubes are valid, All pubes are
18:56
beautiful. Should I say that at nine pint thirty am? I don't know
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you should? I think I think it's beautiful? Good, good, happy
19:04
pride everyone. I'm actually before before we move on, I'd love to know
19:08
if there's there's anything, But don't worry if there's not. An answer to
19:11
this question, is there anything that you were obsessed with as like a teen
19:15
or a kid that you look back on is quite like cringe injuicing or maybe
19:19
growth reflecting off the back of that cringe, but anything way of like,
19:22
God, why was I obsessed with that Dave Matthew's band? A little bit?
19:27
That's a little bit, a little bit because he here, here's the
19:33
thing now, this is this is a fully different type of fandom, still
19:38
pretty sick in some ways, but just like how I how I will partook
19:45
in that type of how you went hard for Dave? Yeah, I went
19:49
real hard for Dave in kind of a cringey way, like posting about it
19:53
on Facebook and stuff, and I see it to this day. I'll like
19:56
jump on Facebook here and there and see posts from fifteen years ago. Oh
20:03
yeah, good. He likes the status from the from the post from fifteen
20:08
years ago, and it's like, oh, yeah, I remember when Chris
20:11
used to left Dave Matthew's band exactly exactly, but you know, I will
20:18
say he is he is still very good and he has specific musicians in his
20:22
band that are very very good. That and that's more of where my appreciation
20:26
comes. Oh but oh yeah, Carter Beauford one of the best drummers of
20:32
all time. Anybody fucking come at me, dude. I theorize that most
20:37
modern drummers, especially in metal, who likes syncopation, got their style from
20:44
Carter Beaufort And that's a hot take. Well, then there you go.
20:48
I don't know enough about drumming to know how hot that take is, but
20:52
it sounds spicy considering one of you've just mentioned the drummer from the Dave Matthews
20:57
band. Yeah, that's that's mainly where the spicy day comes. Yeah,
21:02
he was literally with any other group, he would be Yeah, he would
21:07
be spoken of very highly sure. Sure Yeah, No, like Dave Matthews
21:12
band never really made it to the to the UK in any way. It's
21:17
very like American style rock. But I watched a lot of American TV shows
21:22
and movies growing up, and they were until Nickelback came along. They were
21:26
kind of the butt of every joke. Was the Dave Matthews bands like the
21:30
worst band in America. And so I have a really unfair I can't judge
21:33
whether you're whether that was cringey or not that you were into Dave Matthew's band.
21:37
I'll leave it to the Americans because American media forced a bias upon me
21:41
where I just think they suck. That's fair, you know. And I
21:47
think all all Dave opinions are valid, whether you like him or hate him,
21:53
you know, yeah, all safe in the Dave fandom. Do a
22:00
Dave Matthews bad episode when we're like fifty. What hit single was also the
22:07
main song for that one Adam Sandler movie that I'm blanking on right now was
22:15
the song called Happy Gilmore No, It's Superman. What was that movie?
22:22
It was mister Deed's nice. There we go. There's your gate Leaper's Dave
22:26
Matthews band. For the For the Dave Matthews fans out there, that's that's
22:30
all you get in. Shut out, all right, not to get like
22:33
we don't have to get into the tough times themselves. But Chris, I
22:37
would like to know what media, text or fandom has been your source of
22:41
comfort during difficult times in life. So you know when people talk about like
22:45
comfort watches, like this is what you return to, what are those for
22:49
you? I would probably say the Simpsons for nice. Yeah, they It
22:57
holds a deer place in my heart. Not to be too much of a
23:07
downer, I lost a family member a few years ago and they were very
23:14
into The Simpsons, and it was one of my favorite memories of this family
23:21
member was him just like losing his mind at the dumbest Simpson's joke and he
23:26
couldn't stop laughing for like ten minutes. Was a specific joke. Oh yeah,
23:30
it was probably okay. So it was the episode where all the kids
23:36
got trapped in the school because of the snowstorm, and they tied up Skinners
23:41
in a in a dodgeball sack and they tried to they like tried to call
23:48
for help by putting one of the hamsters in a hamster wheel and pushing them
23:49
out the window. And I like at the end of the episode, Skinners
23:53
found the hamster and he was a quick chew through my ballsack and the hamster
23:57
just like gave him a look, like just kind of cocked his head and
24:00
rolled away. Yeah, and that was the joke choose my ball sec and
24:07
he just lost his mind and was like crying and it was uh and a
24:14
good gag. It's so it's so I love it so well. So yeah,
24:19
I would probably say, yeah, the Simpsons for sure. I don't
24:23
watch them a ton now. Usually I say that for like flights or something
24:27
because it's easy to down. Yeah, yeah, I could call a couple
24:30
of episodes, but yeah, yeah, i'd say I do have a Homer
24:37
Simpson tattoo because a nice family memor. Uh. And yeah, yeah i'd
24:45
say so, I'd I mean, look that The Simpsons is an absolute perfect
24:51
comfort watch. I always think like the answer to this usually ends up being
24:53
like sitcoms or some kind of like twenty minute comedy like something that's pretty short
24:59
that you can just like, I can watch this in twenty minute twenty five
25:02
minute increments and then decide when I'm done with my comfort in after after four
25:07
of them, or five of them, or six of them. But yeah,
25:11
that's that's fantastic, and I'm I'm glad Matt Graning is there for you.
25:15
Yeah right, he may be a NRA CA card carrying goddamn ecopath.
25:21
But why do I learn all of these things about pop culture icons from my
25:27
childhood? I know that from the Simpsons? Oh really, it was just
25:33
very pro NRA throughout the whole thing. No, there was a bit where
25:36
he where somebody like went into Matt Graning's office and he's like, get out
25:40
of my office and he shot at him on The Simpsons. I don't remember
25:45
that bit, so I'm gonna I'm definitely gonna watch it. I'm blanking on
25:48
which episode it was. Yeah, that definitely happened. Yeah, I believe
25:52
you. It was a bit where they would make fun of him for it,
25:56
which, yeah, you should be roasted for that. Like, I
25:59
think the debate to be had about owning personal firearms, but if you're a
26:03
full fledged member of the NRA, go fuck yourself. And we're gonna get
26:07
into that debate right now, right now, stay tuned for some more hot
26:12
takes. No, we won't be doing that because it's now nine forty am
26:18
and I don't want to do that. All right, So this this could
26:22
be, this could be a tough one. But you did you did say
26:25
that this was more a thing in your in your past, and that in
26:27
the present you've maybe started to engage a bit more and we could replace community
26:33
with friends maybe. So what is your current favorite fandom community to be a
26:37
part of. So it could be it could be in an active way,
26:41
but it also could be in a passive way. Wait you more, just
26:44
like read lots of community things. It doesn't have to be that you because
26:48
I like when I get into something, I'll scroll through a lot of like
26:52
top reddit threads of that thing, but I won't really comment. So is
26:56
there is there anything like that for you? Is there a particular fandom?
26:59
Oh? For sure, I definitely have more. In the last few years,
27:03
got been more present in fandoms with joining Reddit for being very late to
27:11
you know, joining reddit when you're thirty is always a good idea. It's
27:17
built for I think, Yeah, I think so for for us thirty year
27:21
olds to yell at children. I think one of my they're they're kind of
27:27
connected a little bit. First of all, i'd say nad pod not another
27:33
D and D podcast, because the there's so many stupid inside jokes and it
27:41
just is a non ending, like it never ends with whatever anybody posts,
27:45
there's a bunch of dumb shit written, and everybody's having a good time,
27:51
and it's very rare. I think when they first started there was a lot
27:53
more like shittiness in it, because that's just kind of how the D and
27:57
D space was, dudes being like, you can't do it. That's what
28:03
they sound like exactly that that was a spot on impression. But now that
28:11
D and D has become so much more available and what's the word I'm looking
28:17
for, it's just become a lot more It's just become a lot more popular
28:21
and easy to get into. So I think that fandom has become a lot
28:26
more fun to be a part of and see, like, you know,
28:29
people make art for it all the time. That's kind of fun to see
28:32
because I'm not really an art or a drawer or a painter or anything.
28:38
And then kind of connected to that is also just the dropout fantom in general.
28:45
Jen may have said something about this in her interview. I'm not sure,
28:49
but it's it's the same thing. It's just everybody, everybody in the
28:53
fandom is just there to have a good time and just wants to make the
28:56
stupid jokes, and I have made. I don't like comment much on Reddit
29:03
or anything. Every once in a while I'll put a stupid little joke in
29:07
there somewhere you get and you get a lot of people like the very dumb
29:14
things that you say in there, and it's great. It's a fun time
29:18
full of references again and little in memes and stuff like that. Oh yeah,
29:22
Yeah, the dropout community is fantastic. Obviously they make great content and
29:30
everything, But just the way the fans discuss everything is so polite and so
29:34
like whenever a disagreement happens or someone feels uneasy about a certain thing, it's
29:40
never like paused in a way that's like attacking that person or that group.
29:44
It's always in this open discussion way. I don't think I've seen a fandom
29:48
resolve in fandom disputes faster than the Dropout fandom. It's all over in polite
29:52
conversation in twenty four hours, basically. Yeah. And it's super weird to
29:59
like to be scrolling through Reddit and go through uh because I follow one of
30:04
the there's several saltier than create Star Wars. Reddit counts all making fun of
30:14
each other, and I make fun of and I'm on the one that makes
30:17
fun of internet chuds or just like limited Star Wars. So I'm in that
30:22
one. And it's even that it gets to be a lot and it's just
30:26
like, guys, what are we doing? This is silly, you're being
30:30
silly. Everybody's this is dumb. But yeah, drop out and nad pod.
30:37
There's a lot of overlap between those two groups cast members. Yeah,
30:41
yeah, with the cast members and everything like that, and and so in
30:45
fans and yeah, it's yeah, it's just like it's nice. No,
30:49
I've I've had a lot of people it is. It is nice. I
30:52
should follow it was a good interviewer. I should agree with what you've said
30:56
before I then say something doing me. I'm doing it. Joe Rogan,
31:00
Uh, yeah, it's I've had a few people, Well there's obviously yourself
31:04
and Gen, but a few of other cast members have sort of asked,
31:07
can we do a dropout episode? Because it's like it is fandom, it's
31:11
a whole thing, like there's everything like that. Oh and a few listeners
31:15
have asked as well. And I've I've kind of said that for now it's
31:19
too it's too nice a space that makes something that's like in the same vein
31:26
as what we do kind of thing. And so it's like, although we
31:27
absolutely could do trivia on like the cast members and like the different shows and
31:33
the different like story arcs in D twenty, I like using the games to
31:38
roast toxic fan spaces and to like point out the weird trivia about things.
31:44
But dropouts just too nice. I maybe down the line, but like it
31:48
doesn't feel like a good fit because they're too good. Yeah. Maybe maybe
31:52
maybe in a few years if Sam Reich ever sells the company, yes and
31:56
half of and it's and they start bringing in more and of comedians that are
32:00
just shitheads rather than improv comics, and it just kind of goes downhill.
32:06
I don't think that'll ever happen. No, I don't think that either.
32:08
But then we'll then we'll roast them. But then we'll, yeah, we'll
32:12
roast them when that happens. And we were like I remember when it was
32:15
good, all right, good stuff. Let's let's move on to the next
32:22
question. I don't like how clumsy my let's move on to next question sentences
32:25
are, so I'll probably edit those out. So you were just you were
32:29
just mentioning, like corner flows like poking fernet, internet chud subreddits. So
32:35
maybe this question kind of links to that. What fandom or community are you
32:38
conflicted or for being a part of but you can't quit? Or which fandom
32:44
have you quit or had to step away from their actual fans spaces and fan
32:49
subredits and move to the more meme matter ones because you were just like,
32:53
I can't stand how toxic these fans are. This is a bit of a
32:58
newer one, okay, but I think Starfield. Uh so, let's say
33:04
the newest Bethesda game that came out last year, last August September something like
33:08
that, and it was like from the drop, just like really gross.
33:15
Yeah, just everybody having a bad time. And I think that kind of
33:21
goes back to a lot of Bethesda things, because here's the thing, I
33:23
don't know what it is about Bethesda, and I think a lot of people
33:27
feel the same way about it as me. But they just have my fucking
33:30
number. They know what they know what's going to lock me in for way
33:36
too many hours. Yeah. I've not played Starfield yet because of the exclusivity
33:40
console thing, but for all of the games they've released on PlayStation, I'm
33:45
exactly the same I can just drop one hundred hours into those games easily.
33:49
Yeah, and you're like, wait what happened? Wait? Wait did that
33:51
time go? Wait? Did I really just do that? Oh? Fucked?
33:55
And and Starfield was the same for me. I had plenty of problems.
34:00
You know, Bethesda kind of secks as a company for sure, but
34:02
it was just like it was to me, it came off as there's there
34:07
were there was a lot of cool shit in it, and there was a
34:10
lot of people who put in a lot of work into it that clearly cared
34:15
I from my perspective, I might be you know, putting that on them,
34:20
but it just seemed like there was there were parts of it that had
34:23
a lot of love and care and I'm like, why do why we gotta
34:27
like if you don't like it, that's fine, but like, yeah,
34:30
there's the fandom just got really like shitty really immediately, Like immediately, this
34:36
is the worst mooking through. I'm like, maybe maybe this is an unfair
34:39
observation for me to make because I have a sort of with this podcast and
34:45
what we do on the Patreon, I've kind of got an outlet for sort
34:47
of when I don't like something that's happening in a fandom or whatever. So
34:52
maybe I shouldn't be the one to say this, But whenever I don't like
34:54
something, I just don't talk about it online or don't engage with it.
34:59
I've never yeah, but the mindset of like, I hate this thing,
35:02
so now I'm going to let it consume my every waking moments. I've never
35:07
understood that aspect of fan culture. No, that doesn't make sense to me
35:12
even a little bit, because there's so much content that I do like,
35:16
yes, that that could take up several lifetimes. There's so fucking much.
35:23
I can't imagine spending more than two seconds thinking about something that I disliked.
35:29
And that's why I think about this all the time, because I really like
35:30
Starfield. I had a really great time and and it got shot so bad.
35:36
And the only people who should be left in like the online discussion spaces
35:39
that you said, you have to take a step away from the people who
35:44
actually enjoy the game and want to talk about how much they enjoy the game.
35:47
Everyone else should have left those spaces because it's not for them, right.
35:52
It's something that I'll never understand about fan culture, and I think that's
35:54
I mean, I think that's partly why I've never been like a big fan
36:00
culture person anyways. Yeah, because I like what I like, and I
36:04
don't really think to talk about it to people other than you know, my
36:08
close friends that also like those things. Yes, yeah, exactly, exactly,
36:14
and we love it, unless, of course, it is the two
36:16
thousands and you're on Facebook and it's Dave Matthews band, and then the world
36:20
is going to know. Oh dude, I've got some opinions. All right,
36:25
let's we've talked about your life through fandom. We've hopefully listeners have gotten
36:30
a chance to know you a little bit better from more than just your appearances
36:34
on the your fantastic appearances on the show. I feel like in person,
36:37
Chris, I've got to thank you for being an original day Wanner and just
36:42
supporting this show and always playing games with us and being a hilarious good time
36:46
dude. I fucking love coming on and hanging out with y'all and playing these
36:51
games. And I thank you for making the games because that makes it very
36:57
easy for us. Hell yet happy to do it. Happy to do it
37:04
because it's the thing I love most in this world. That's why I'm happy
37:06
to do it all right, Well, we'll finish things off by sort of
37:09
looking to the future here. So we've looked at your life through fandom.
37:13
Let's see what your life in fandom could be at some point. What's a
37:16
fandom or media property that you'd like to get into but you just haven't had
37:21
the chance yet. It could be something that's like always looked fun, but
37:23
you've felt either too old or too young, or priced out in any way,
37:30
or it's just you've looked at it and gone, this is two time
37:31
consuming. I've got no time for this. Honestly, this, I don't
37:37
know if this if I can even consider this a fandom. Okay, we'll
37:45
make it. We'll make it a fandom. We'll make it a fandom.
37:49
Well, there's a lot of things. There's there's plenty of things that I
37:52
haven't gotten into that I think I would probably enjoy. I'll probably never really
37:55
get into because you know, there's only so much time in the day.
38:00
You know, the Soul's Games, Breaking Bad, the Sopranos, these are
38:06
things that are some of the most beloved franchises of all time that I've never
38:12
I just I don't have it in me. Yeah, I feel that souls
38:17
games, yeah, for sure, for sure, But honestly, the one
38:22
that I'm trying to figure out how to get into is PC gaming. Okay,
38:30
just in general PC gaming. It is so intimidating. Ye I am
38:37
just constantly in a loop of it's really I don't really want to build my
38:40
own computer. Uh, it's really expensive to get a decent pre built computer.
38:45
Why not just get a laptop? Why not just get an Apple Mac
38:49
that's not even a gaming computer? And then I'm back at the top,
38:51
and it's just a vicious cycle of and I know that cycle all too well.
38:58
That's why I've remained placed my entire life. But every time it's a
39:01
new era of console, I always go could this be the time I get
39:06
a PC? And I go through that exact same cycle. And I think
39:08
it's only the fact that I do a lot of like creative things and make
39:12
a lot of things that keeps me on Apple products in terms of like and
39:16
that's not built for gaming, So it's like, I keep those things separate.
39:20
But I know exactly what you mean. I feel like I'm going to
39:22
be stuck in that loop for my entire life. It sucks. It sucks.
39:25
I would really like to get into it. Our friend Adam just yeah,
39:30
in the last year built his first PC. He did. I have
39:35
a couple of other friends who are just like, dude, build your own
39:37
PC. I'll come help you. And I'm like, but I'm scared.
39:40
I don't want to spend two grand on something and break it because I will.
39:45
Yes, yeah, it's it's like it's not just ikea furniture unless it
39:50
is. But to me, it seems like the soldiering involved and stuff like
39:52
that. I don't know, I know, I don't I'm scared. Yeah.
39:59
Even even my barber is just like, you gotta build your own PC.
40:05
I'm like, okay, fuck ship, dude. I know a lot
40:07
about hair, but I also know a lot about gaming. Literally, Yeah,
40:14
So I think I think that's the one. That's the one that I'm
40:16
I'm currently like, that's a good one. It's edging me. I'm gooning
40:22
to oh and take with a with a high spec pcing you can do.
40:30
All I do think of the gun says is it's an absolute mistake that as
40:36
millennials have learned what that word is. It is so great. In my
40:40
day, we used to edge. It's one of the genuinely one of the
40:46
first things that's made me feel old in this sculpture. Okay, that was
40:52
a brilliant journey through your life, Chris. Now I'd like to undercut it
40:58
all, everything we've done in the last forty minutes by asking you to condense
41:01
it all into a simple flow chart that if someone was to ask what your
41:05
life through fandom was, what would be the biggest fandom of your childhood,
41:09
then your teens, than your twenties, and now probably Chronicles and Arnia of
41:15
childhood m Harry Potter for teens, nice, and honestly through my twenties probably
41:24
you know what I'll say. I'll say Star Wars through my twenties, because
41:30
now that I'm in my thirties, I went to New Zealand, I went
41:35
to hobbiton and in my thirties, are the are the year the decade of
41:40
Lord of the Rings? I'll say, nice, And that's great that we're
41:45
only really just at the start of that decade. And yeah, you've already
41:47
been to Hobbit and so I'm excited for all of the Lord of the Rings
41:52
events that happening over the next decade. I guess I just got to keep
41:54
going back to New Zealand. D What a shame, What a shame?
42:00
You gotta keep doing that? Darn it, the perfect country. I have
42:01
to keep going back darning. Oh that's perfect. That's a perfect life through
42:08
fandom condensed for if anyone wanted to skip to the end and not listen to
42:13
all of that lovely chat. All right, graz thanks for your time.
42:16
This is great, Thanks man, and there we go. That was Chris
42:23
Reagan a life through fandom. A lot of the usual hitters there for people
42:28
who've gotten to know Chris over the last few years, but it was also
42:30
nice to have a chat about why these negative fandom spaces exist. That was
42:35
a great little chat and luck compared to some of the interviews, this one
42:38
was pretty pretty short and sweet, pretty to the point. Chris didn't keep
42:43
us gooning for very long. Yes, that's a word that I now know
42:46
the definition of. I don't like it, but I'm gonna use it again.
42:51
I'm not going to keep you guoning for any longer. If you didn't
42:53
get it from the clue last week. Next week our episode, we will
42:57
leap into the world of Sonic the Headshog, that Blue guy and it's such
43:01
a fun episode. I can't wait for you to hear it. There's some
43:06
excellent riffs that still are still making me laugh, and I think we recorded
43:09
it about a month ago. Before I go, I should mention Patreon,
43:13
dot com forward slash gatesleepers, you can support us from a few bucks a
43:16
month if you feel like that's what this show is worth. If you don't
43:21
continue to support for free, give us a rate, give us a review,
43:23
subscribe to this feed, all that good stuff, hit all of the
43:28
buttons. But yeah, if you've got a few bucks kicking around every month
43:30
and you want to support what we do here at Gateleapers, the fandom game
43:35
shows, these cast interviews, the video versions on our patreon, if you
43:39
want to support all of that and help us grow even more as we continue
43:44
to make plans for the rest of this year and into the next, you
43:46
can be a part of that. Patreon, dot com forward slash gatesleepers.
43:51
So yeah, thanks for listening. Lee prugs back next week with a new
43:54
fandom game show, and then we've got oh, there's so much planned for
43:58
July. There's so much planned for August. Look, you're going to be
44:00
absolutely spoiled for fandom based game show content. I promise now run off and
44:07
have a little goon