Latest / Fandomonium! A Fandom Comedy Game Show / Cast Interviews - Ben Robinson: A Life Through Fandom

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Cast Interviews - Ben Robinson: A Life Through Fandom · Fandomonium! A Fandom Comedy Game Show

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Hello, leap Frogs, Welcome back to another cast interview in our Life through
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Fandom Interview series. It's where we chat to our regular players about what they've
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consumed throughout their life through media, pop culture, and fandom in a hope
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that you get to know them a little bit better. And this month we
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have an interview with one of our OG guests, one of our OG podcasting
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friends. He is a writer, a maker of comic books, a podcaster,
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and a geek explorer who has dipped his toes into a fair few fandoms
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over the years. It's Ben Robinson. Ben, of course, co creator
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of the Space Oddities comic with his writing partner, his podcasting partner, and
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his best friend John Williams, who you've already heard from on this series.
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So maybe maybe there's a little bit of overlap as they grew up a little
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bit together. This was a great chat with Ben. It's always great chatting
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with Ben. He's a great friend, laid back, he's he going.
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I appreciate so much everything that Ben brings to gate Leapers. It's always a
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good time. We kept up the tradition of recording on a weekend morning,
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as we have been for these interviews, and yeah, I can't wait for
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you to hear this one. As I said, we met Ben about five
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years ago now maybe even No, it can't be six, Maybe it's six.
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There was twenty nineteen. Everyone was getting into podcasting and Twitter was a
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great place to meet other podcasters. It was a town square of ideas,
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a place where creatives and like minded people could connect over the projects they were
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making. I know a certain person bought that website and tried to turn it
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into a town square and failed. It was already a town square. You're
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madman. Anyway, this isn't a conversation with one of our future presidents.
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It's a conversation with Ben Robinson. So yeah, I'll be back at the
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end with more admin and stuff like that, but I think we'll just get
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straight into Oh. Actually, I did have some audio issues some of our
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classic Mike fuzz that I couldn't edit out of a few places and had to
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keep it in to keep the conversation there. I just want to give a
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special shout out to our patrons for their continued support. We are on the
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road to buying some new equipment that will not fuzz and not causes these problems.
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In such a way. So hopefully that creates a better listener experience in
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the future. But for now, we've got a little bit of fuzz.
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It's been a while since it's affected an episode. I'm I'm sure you don't
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mind, but yeah, apart from my technical gaffs, please enjoy this conversation
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I had at the weekend with Ben Robinson. Good morning, Ben, it's
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good to see you. Yeah, good morning, it is it is morning,
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it is. It's so I mean, I know these cast member interviews
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have been on mornings, but these are the first times I've been recording with
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everyone on a morning. It We're so used to gate leapers on evenings.
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Yeah, yeah, it's nice, nice, good at Betty ea'ts some breakfast,
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grabbed my coffee and a chat exactly. Yeah, yeah, like proper
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people of society, as though that still exists. So Ben, recently,
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you've you've been on some some vacations that have sounded brilliant because I'm a huge
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fan of hiking, of taking long walks in beautiful places, and I understand
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you've been doing some of that. Where did you go most recently, Well,
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we did a bunch of we did so with the boy Scouts and my
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son were kind of getting the trip back into backpacking, and so we did
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a few different prep hikes, but then the big one that we were prepping
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for was a ten day It ended up being about sixty four mile trek in
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New Mexican. Nice in northern New Mexico, near kind of near Taos,
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Okay, right up the order to Colorado. And it's at a place called
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Filmont Scout Ranch. So it's like a boy Scout program and you go from
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you know, you basically you know, hike every day, pick up camp,
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go to the next camp, you know, and just do that over
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and over. And some of the places you stop had some activities and things,
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and it was it was really freaking cool. It was a lot of
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fun. I did it when I was seventeen with my dad, and so
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it was cool to go do it with my son. Oh nice, that's
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awesome. Like recreated a couple of the pictures that I had me and my
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dad with me and him, which was, oh incredible. Yeah, it
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was. It's gonna be It's gonna be something you can do with ai where
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you can like layer them over each other and make it like a time lapse
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kind of Yeah, one of those like digital picture frames and can just like
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morph between the goo there you go through the general hiking through the generations.
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Yeah, but it was really cool the boys did. I was really impressed
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with all of them, Like they all kept in there. One of the
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kids had the largest blister I've ever seen in my life. It was like
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the entire back of his foot, like the size of like a tennis ball.
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Oh wow, I've find a couple of golf ball ones, but not
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tennis ball. Yeah, and he's still hiked faster than me. A little
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turd. Of course, these kids, they're always going to be faster,
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stronger, better. Yep. It was. Uh, it was good.
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I was. I was not in shape for it, and it beat me
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up, but it was. It was worth it. Nice. Nice was
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it was it quite hot? Was it a tasty walk? No, it
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wasn't too bad. It's up, it's it's up pretty high, like we
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the okay, so it was. It was in like the eighties most of
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the time, and then okay, that's not too bad. Yeah, once
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we got higher up an elevation, it was it was even cooler than that.
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Like the highest we got was twelve thousand, four hundred feet was the
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toll? Wow? Did so? Yes? Pretty pretty high, pretty high.
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It was nice and cool up there, Yes, in the mountain air.
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I say that from currently half that elevation. Yeah, we could see
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Colorado from there, like there it is. Yes. Yeah. Well I
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was so embarrassed when you sent that picture into the group chat and I was
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like, I was guessing every other state apart from New Mexico. Oh,
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we can see we can see Colorado from here. Oh you're in Wyoming right,
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No, okay, surely, surely you're in Utah. It can't be
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Kansas. Oh, yes, there's one to the south, Yeah, there
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is one more. It was a square, hit, a perfect square.
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And probably I know Wyoming's probably got some good high further north, but it's
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probably New Mexico's probably the best hiking out of Utah. In Kansas. Yeah,
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yeah, I've heard it was beautiful too, but like I've never been,
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so we went this year. It's it's very pretty. It's it's got
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some good spots, but also a lot of just open desert with nothing.
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Yeah. Yes, that's a lot of the American West. Yeah, and
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I like it. Yeah, it's a good place to be. Please don't
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deport me if you're listening. All right, Well, I thought I could
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possibly segue that beautiful story of you and your son, and especially as you
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even added on the sort of generational thing of you being a kid and hiking
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those same trails with your dad. I thought I'd be able to segue that
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into the first question here. But I can't. I can't possibly see a
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link between you as a child and the first question I've got in front of
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me. So I'm just going to ask it. What was the first pop
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culture media you were obsessed with as a kid. Oh wait, there's the
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link. Well, there we go. So I think I'm taking this question
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very literally. It would definitely be like the sixties seventies era Disney animated movies.
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Like when I was like super young, like sub four years old,
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I was absolutely obsessed with uh, like Robin Hood and the Jungle Book and
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Sword in the Stone those kind of movies, and like I had Jungle Book
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wallpaper in my room and I remember just wearing the wearing the VHS is out
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on the big the old puffy VHS cases. Sure, yeah, yeah,
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the yeah they were they were puffy, weren't they. Yeah? They were,
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Like so that kids could put them in their mouths and delicious treat Yeah,
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but no, I love those and I still to this day, like
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i'd like, you know, those nineties movies were all right, but uh
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oh, hang on, you're talking to a nineties boy. Yeah, for
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my money, like that, it doesn't get better than like The Jungle Book
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and Robin Hood you know that. That. Yeah, Aristocats, that kind
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of era, like those movies were those are my Those are my Disney movies
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love Yeah, yeeah oh that that classics. That's so good, Like those
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were mine in the sense that when we were waiting for a new nineties movies
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to come out one or two years at a time, those were the VHS's
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that we'd watch in the meantime of like, oh can we get can we
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get Fox in the Hound? Can we get Jungle Book? Can we get
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Robin Hood? Yeah? That's the gold It is the Golden era. I
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can't deny that the nineties is the revival era, but it's the Golden era
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for a reason. Yeah. And it's weird because it feels like they like
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it's kind of been like a bit of a forgotten era, Like there's like
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the the big Disney like as far as animated movies go, you know,
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the snow White's always going to be up there. But then there was like
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a little bit of the lull, and then you got into stuff like Alice
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in Wonderland and Dumbo in like the late forties and stuff like those are still
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you know, you still see those around quite a bit. Jungle Book a
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little bit more, but like robin Hood and Sword in the Stone, like
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no one ever talks about Sword in the Stone anymore. Yeah. I was
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about to say there was a lot of robin Hood and Sword in the Stone
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growing up for me, but like England, so it's just a lot.
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It's yeah, right, yeah, So it's like I think we attached to
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those a lot more so, right, Yeah, robin Hood was a was
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a huge thing. I mean, Nope, it's too early and I'm too
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hungover to bring up the sexy foxes in robin Hood. I'm not going to.
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It's not that kind of conversation. Well, I love how Jungle Book
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and robin Hood had like that overlap of characters, like they both have blue
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and you know CarH Yeah, essentially that's a good point. Was it cheaper
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maybe to reuse some of the probably almost certainly, just like draw a hat
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on blue and be like, all right, he's little John. Now,
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yeah, oh that's that's good stuff. I mean, it's like it's a
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it's a classic answer because I feel like every child of the twentieth century up
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with Disney movies, just the different era of them, but especially us in
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the whole entertainment era of being able to have them on VHS, DVD and
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just wear those things down. Yeah, Like I was trying to think of
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something more interesting than a Disney movie when I was a kid. But it's
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like, oh, they said first that was Yeah, that's the perfect perfect
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answer the question we're looking for right at the start. I mean, is
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there anything else from like a little bit a little bit later on in your
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childhood maybe also potential for like maybe when you're more starting to like read and
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stuff, like a book series that you kept reading, or maybe toys that
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you were just obsessed with with having. Being a child of the eighties,
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cartoons and toys went together really well. You know, there was you know,
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Ninja Turtles and Transformers, but the one that that really spoke to me
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was Dino Writers because it was it was basically it was a cartoon where there
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was like these dudes, like these space dudes that like accidentally traveled back in
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time and they crashed on prehistoric Earth, and then the decided you know,
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of course there I don't even remember who the bad guy was. It was
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probably other space dudes or so, yeah, at this point, but the
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crux of it which really got me was, you know, their decided mode
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of battle was to strap giant lasers and seats onto dinosaurs of called each other.
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And I was like, yeah, that's fucking red. That's exactly what
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I want. I want dinosaurs with guns and dudes riding them and fighting like
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that's that's everything I want out of life at seven years old. Yeah,
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I was about to say it sounds like a focus group has just come up
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with the prophecy for a seven year old boy. Probably probably was how the
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late eighties worked with toy tie ins and stuff. It was very much a
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giant The cartoon was a giant commercial for the toys. And yes, it's
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fucking great. It's not yeah, stick a laser on them? Why not?
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It's the kids will love it, all right, still thinking about like
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childhood right now, although you know, maybe a bit later on, depending
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on when we found friends. I never liked to assume what was the first
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fandom you remember being a part of. And I guess at this point what
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I mean by that is like the first time you remembered making friends and connections
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and sort of sharing in media or experiences around fandom. So thinking about these
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things, the weird thing is, like, especially since I do a podcast
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about this sort of thing, like I've never been There's very few things where
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I've really been, you know, into a fandom necessarily, but like as
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a kid, Like I mean obviously we'd run around and play Ninja Turtle or
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you know that accounts Power Rangers or any of that kind of stuff. But
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I think it was well later than being a child, but like the first
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like fandom, fandom where I would like or I you know, went to
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conventions and and like found people on the internet to like trade stuff with,
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and like really like you know, got into was was actually collecting Pez dispensers.
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Oh incredible. I wasn't expecting that at all. But I'm so glad
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you've said it. Okay, talk to me about Pez dispenses because I was
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just behind the Pez dispenser craze. I remember people with older siblings being obsessed
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with Pez dispenses and stuff. How big was your collection? I still have
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mentions, like it's still up in the in the attic right now. I
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probably have I have no idea easily A thousand pet dispensers was incredible, Yeah,
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but but no, I like when I was a kid, I liked
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collecting things, and like one of one of my first collections was business cards
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because I realized I could just get them for free everywhere. And so after
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a while, I had like thousands of business cards and you know that one
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I was just like, why do I have all this trash? Like it
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was when I was walking around town. I was like I ended up getting
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rid of that one. Yeah. Pez dispensers were the one that like,
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I don't know what it was like. I mean they had you know,
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I liked the candy. It's good, but like the cool little like tube
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of candy with a character head on top, and they had a you know
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a lot of my favorite you know. They had like you know, like
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I said, like Ninja turtles, and they had all kinds of various different
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things that you could put on top of them. And like I just got
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into like the history of them and and like I just got really interested in
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them. And then when I was sixteen, my parents, like we were
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living in Sacramento, you know fullsome you know, up near Sacramento in California.
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I was super into pet dispensers. And there's the uh a thing called
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the Pezanthon was like the the the big pez convention where you know, a
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bunch of pez heads show up and like incredible, and I'm more impressed with
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pez heads than I am. Pezothon peads is great and they show up there
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and you know, and you can buy stuff. It's, you know,
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a standard convention, except it's all about pez and and I was like,
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I really want to go. I really want to go. And my parents,
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you know, weren't sure about letting me go, and they had zero
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interest in going. So I was able to save up some money and I
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talked somehow, we talked them into Me and my girlfriend. We flew down
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there and stayed in a hotel, stayed in the hotel where the pezandon was
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just the two of us. Oh wow, that's that's big talking to talking
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parents into that at that age. Yeah, sixteen, and went to the
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PEES convention and uh and it was amazing. Like I ended up buying like,
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like, I've got an old like it was it's a it's a pez
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pipe. It's like a plastic pipe that's shaped like an Indian head that you
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would put uh like granulated pez stuff into and then add some water to it
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and you could like suck on it. That's wild. In the forties,
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I was like, I got like a pez gun that shoots that shoots pez
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out of it, and that's yeah, that makes sense. You They always
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had the vibe of like you should be able to fire these yeah. Yeah,
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and a bunch of other cool little like you know, spent way too
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much money, it was, but it was it was a lot of fun.
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Yeah. I mean, what's the what's the prize Pez dispenser of your
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collection? What's the what's the piece the well the uh that pipe is pretty
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freaking cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite, honestly, my
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favorite one is what I've got one of the old, like original classic dispensers.
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It doesn't have any character head on it or anything. It's just it's
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just a straight up They still make them now, but I got like one
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of the ones from like the thirties. Oh wow, that's just it's just
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an old ass. It's just like a little tube looks like almost like a
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cigarette lighter, and you just you just yeah, pop the top open like
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that. One's pretty rad. Yeah, I didn't know they went back to
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the thirties, that's uh yeah, in the Second World War. Yeah,
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they go way back. Like the original flavors were like peppermint and chlorophyll was
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one of the flavors, which what that was kind of weird. But we
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originally thought our consumer base would be plants, That's what we originally thought.
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Yeah, but no, it turns out people like them too. Oh that's
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awesome. That's great. And I imagine looking back on it as an adult,
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your parents were probably okay with you and your girlfriend going because it's like,
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well, it's a PEZ convention. What kind of trouble are they going
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to get into? Really, these nerds don't get laid. I mean it's
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okay. I ended up marrying her anyway, So oh nice, So you
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did get laid. Yay. If you ever do a pez Gate Labors episode,
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oh yeah, I mean, honestly, we'll get to it eventually.
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Yeah, let's let's stick with these the teenage pez yas. Let's stick with
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those. What were some other apart from PEZ teen brain obsessions? I say
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this because like I feel like teens feels that they need to know everything and
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get on top of everything and be the like an absolute fountain of knowledge.
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And I don't know, it's it's why while you're trying to figure out your
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identity, right, so it's like, yeah, oh this could be me
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onto something and exactly So is there anything like that for you other than other
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than PEZ? Yeah, probably a couple of things. But I think the
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big one that I think did more to actually kind of define you know,
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that did more to kind of shape me than some of the other ones would
18:07
be British comedy shows from the seventies. Oh nice, Yeah, so you
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know Monty Python premiere of them. But like I mean, Comedy Central used
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to air a bunch, so I used to watch, you know, like
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the young ones, nice Manny Hill and absolutely fabulous, oh great stuff,
18:26
keeping up appearances, just like the whole slew of those shows. Money Python
18:32
was definitely the king of that, yeah, anthe on. It was nothing
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else like it, Like now, there's lots of things that have been inspired
18:41
by Monty Python, but back then, nothing else like it at all.
18:45
Well, yeah, and like it. It kind of made me realize that
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comedy could be, you know, silly and absurd. Like I remember when
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I was geez, probably junior high, maybe junior high, maybe early high
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school. Somewhere around that time period, Comedy Central did think a thing called
19:03
the Monty python Athon, where they aired all of the episodes of Flying Circus
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in a row and it was hosted by Mark Merrin. I remember that.
19:12
Oh wow. I basically took every available VHS tape in the house, and
19:18
some that were not as available, like I recorded over some of my sisters,
19:22
like softball practices and shit, I think whatever some of those some of
19:26
those Disney tapes into soft casing as well. It's like time and move on.
19:29
Yeah, put a little piece of tape over the over the little broken
19:32
off tabs, record over it again. And but I remember I recorded the
19:36
whole thing so that I could rewatch Monty Python whenever I wanted. Oh that's
19:41
that's I mean, that's very smart. That's that's good thinking ahead of the
19:45
sort of a box set era where where you can just acquire that to have
19:49
your own Flying Circus box set that you can just binge perfect comedy influence.
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I don't think I have any of them anymore, because I did end up
19:56
getting a box set later on, so I didn't really them anymore, but
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I kind of wish I did, because it's probably got all kinds of old
20:02
commercials and coming. Yeah, that it would be nostalgic to watch if nothing
20:07
else. Definitely, definitely those those old tapes are always like a time capsule
20:11
for the for the commercials of the time. Yeah, and you also kind
20:15
of go, how did people fall for these commercials? And then you fall
20:18
for a commercial as in twenty twenty four and you go, okay, yeah,
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they just update it and get better. We're just stupid. Yeah,
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we're just stupid and they figured that out. But no, Monty Python went
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a long way to kind of shaping my my sense of humor and my you
20:37
know, I remember just running around speaking in a terrible British accent and yeah,
20:42
you know, mimicking money Python like in Boy Scouts, going up and
20:45
doing you know, money Python sketches, you know, for skits at campfires
20:49
and stuff. Yeah, that's that's adorable, but also good taste. Yeah,
20:56
I bet you were showing good humor to a to a lot of America
21:00
for the first time. Not all Americans into Monty Python. It's not a
21:04
wide thing. Yeah, that's that's that's like a lot of them can get
21:08
behind like the Holy Grail because it's it's kind of got a narrative kind of
21:14
yeah, yeah, the samething to hang on to. Yeah. I think
21:17
my favorite movie is probably The Meaning of Life, which is a little less
21:21
but it's it's just solid gold all the way through. Life of Bride's really
21:25
good too, but yeah, they're also good. I mean, yeah,
21:29
The Meaning of Life is like the sketch more sketch one, isn't it,
21:32
where it's like transitioning between the sketches a bit more. Yeah, you have
21:36
like different stages of life and yeah, time and stuff like that. Yeah.
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But the I went to I remember I went to Europe on my senior
21:44
year high school with my German class, and when we were in London,
21:48
I saw a box set for the Young Ones and I was like, oh
21:51
shit, yeah, I'm gonna buy that, and I bought it and I
21:52
was super excited and I got home and then I discovered the difference between NTSC
21:56
and PAL. Yes, Reagins actually watched these videos anywhere I was so bummed.
22:04
I have to just look at this image of Rick Mail on the front
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of this box. I can't actually play it. Oh, I guess I'll
22:12
have to act out all the scenes. Then. Yeah, it was.
22:17
It was very much a bummer. But now I can get whatever I want
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to do to the glory of the Internet and no one can stop me.
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Exactly exactly I actually got to. I went in twenty fourteen when Monty Python
22:33
did their farewell thing at the O two. Oh yeah, I was like
22:37
fuck it, I'm going. And so my wife and I, you know,
22:41
flew to London and went went and saw one of the finale shows and
22:45
then did like a little tour through like Budapest and Czech Republican stuff after that.
22:49
But it was the culmination of a life of loving Monty Python. To
22:53
go and see those old guys getting through some of the old that's incredible.
23:00
Yeah, Like you had to have a lifelong fandom like that and sort of
23:03
realize that this is like the last moment, that the last chance you'd get
23:07
to experience this, that they're not going to be around for forever. So
23:11
to just take that leap and be like, yep, I'm doing it.
23:14
Yeah, it was. It was one hundred percent worth and it was it
23:15
was like the first vacation my wife and had I had had like without our
23:19
kids, m because they were like a you know five, you five and
23:23
three at that point, and so it was nice to have adult time too.
23:26
So yes, it was a very very good experience. I enjoyed it
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a lot. Yeah, it's like we've got no kids. We're not just
23:33
doing Monty Python. We will be going to Budapest as well. We will
23:38
be really relishing this time. Yeah. I had to give my wife a
23:42
reason to go because she's not a huge python fan. Sure. Sure,
23:47
but that's lovely that you you took that trip together. That's awesome. I
23:49
mean, is there is there something from this time that is maybe a little
23:53
bit like cringe inducing that you were obsessed obsessed with, like something that you
23:59
look back on and go, why was why was I obsessed with that?
24:02
I say cringe injuicing. It could be a positive spin on that as like
24:06
growth reflecting where it's like I'd never get into that now, but oh,
24:10
I mean largely my sense of style was a bit cringe inducing. That's growing
24:15
up at that, you know, in the like high school years. In
24:18
the nineties, it was very much a you were very much divided by the
24:25
type of music you listened to. Sure, yeah, you know like which
24:29
which with my kids, I don't see it all now it's like, I
24:30
don't know if streaming has changed that, where like you can stream music and
24:33
like cause they like. I mean, there was very much like there's rockers,
24:37
there's rappers, there's like the country kids, and you had to pick
24:41
a fucking lane. Absolutely. I think it's because subcultures have shifted to more
24:47
like ideological things a lot more so. That's where we stamp our identity,
24:52
whereas like music because largely because of streaming, it's much more like personal algorithm
24:57
based instead of like forming subcultures quite as much, and then people just make
25:03
connections with other people of a oh I listened to that band, I listened
25:06
to that artist. We're all enjoying this pop song, and it's it's much
25:08
more I think music is a lot more unifying now compared to twenty thirty years
25:15
ago. But that's just because the kids are fighting over different things now.
25:21
Yeah, I guess. I guess we always say we just have something,
25:22
we have to have something to wedge us apart, yes, exactly, otherwise
25:26
this society wouldn't work. Yeah, but for us, it was definitely music.
25:30
And I was, you know, in like my group, we were
25:33
the you know, the classic rock fucking metal heads and uh, like I
25:38
remember we had a like a rolling feud with the rollerblading kids who listen yeah,
25:45
you know pop punk. You know, there's lots of like, you
25:48
know, it was just like a feud of us butting heads. And I
25:51
remember I'd made a T shirt that said like butt rocker and proud like wrote
25:55
all my favorite bands all over nice the white T shirt. Well, I
26:02
mean, what were some of those bands that you were a T shirt?
26:04
You know they're like Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, lots of thrash metal bands,
26:12
led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. You know, like it was that like
26:15
I listened to more stuff in general than I enjoyed. You know, Guar
26:21
was on there, real big love, nice, Faith No More, mister
26:25
Bungle, like, you know, good stuff nice. I've never heard of
26:29
mister Bungleso I've never heard does not surprise me. Uh you know Faith No
26:34
More? Yes, yeah, Mike, Mike Patton, the main guy that
26:37
is also the main vocalist for mister Ah Okay, okay, ye, mister
26:41
B and Gar probably my two favorite bands. It's nice nice, that's uh,
26:48
that's that's good. Yeah, Yeah, that's that's good. That's good.
26:51
Yeah. I didn't have anything to add to that because I'm not I'm
26:56
not a full expert on mid nineties experimental rock. But but yeah, like
27:02
and so, I mean, you know, we were kind of like the
27:03
weird kids for sure, but there was more of us than there were cool
27:07
kids. So that was that kind of changed the dynamics slightly. Yeah,
27:11
Prince, it was definitely my wardrobe. Like I've shopped exclusively at at thrift
27:15
stores, and I liked wearing clothes with lots of holes in them, very
27:18
grungy. Look my mom's back. Yeah, my mom repeatedly tried to throw
27:22
a stock. Like I had a pair of pants. I still have them
27:25
somewhere that like where I'd cut them up the side of the pants on the
27:29
outside, okay, so that they were like big and floppy on the bottom
27:33
and they had like a big hole in the crotch that I had safety pinned
27:34
like a tiight eyed chunk of shirt on and over and had holes on them.
27:38
And I looked like a fucking homeless person. It sounds like style to
27:44
me. I don't know what you're talking about. I had hair down to
27:47
my ass that I never combed, so it was just a fucking mess,
27:52
like I look like a hobo. But uh, you know, I had
27:55
my own style and I was fine with it. Yeah, you hopo.
27:59
He's part of a of a thriving subculture at the time. Yeah, no,
28:03
that's good. I mean, yeah, music is Oh, I mean,
28:06
I know we just said the thing about music bringing people together now not
28:10
so much back then, but it's still brought people together back then, just
28:12
within your specific subculture at Yeah, yeah, which is good. Every everything
28:18
needs like subcultures. I mean without subcultures, where would we be. Where
28:22
would we be just one monoculture exactly? That might be where we are.
28:26
Ah well, we'll cover that on a different We'll cover that at a different
28:33
time. That's that's for something else. We'll move on to a different question.
28:34
I could talk about that for a long time. I mean, not
28:37
to get not to get too serious, but what's a what's a media text
28:41
or a fandom that has been a source of comfort in difficult times? Thinking
28:47
more like this, has just been a terrible day or a terrible week.
28:49
I just need to to binge something or I need to escape into something.
28:53
For me, that's definitely been video games my whole life. Nice I've I
28:57
got my first like when I was I think six, I got an Atari
29:02
twenty six hundred at a garage sale and just fell in love with video games
29:06
and arcades. Urcides were huge when I was a kid, and they were
29:08
a blast. But you know, just up through the nes and then computer
29:14
games, you know, and like even now, like my escape is going
29:17
to play video games. Like I'm not really a big TV guy, Like
29:19
I'll watch some TV, but I can't sit and watch you know, I
29:22
can't binge a show. My wife can sit there and watch, you know,
29:25
eight episodes of a show in her own By like three, I'm like,
29:26
okay, I'm ready to do something else. Yeah, I get I
29:30
get that completely. Yeah, but I can sit down in front of Balder's
29:33
Gate three twelve hours later, the sun's coming up, and I'm like,
29:37
oh my god, I'm forty. I can't do this. No, you
29:42
can. It's allowed to, but I'm going to be fucking worthless for three
29:47
days. That's say Yeah, that's that's true. Yeah, the sleep I'll
29:52
tell you what, play for the twelve hours of daylight next time instead of
29:55
all through the night right. So it's but like the video game definitely my
30:02
my escape and my my kind of like comfort zone out Let the World,
30:07
melt Away Zone. Yeah, they're so good for that. I mean you
30:12
give a shout out to bold as Gate three as a as a current contemporary
30:18
escape in video games. So there are any sort of classic titles throughout the
30:21
throughout the years that have really done it for you, like Boldess Gate has
30:23
Yeah, I had. I had to stop playing MMOs because of Final Fantasy
30:29
eleven and fourteen. Sure, because I put about so Final Fantasy eleven.
30:37
I when I moved over to fourteen, I had like forty something days of
30:41
playtime. Oh wow, yeah that's big, and I think I had like
30:45
twenty something days in fourteen. I was like, I you know, and
30:48
then I had kids and it's like I cannot sink this much time into something.
30:53
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's like like I love it, like the
30:57
the like the constant dopamine hit of like let's do this thing, and they're
31:00
like, oh well, I just got if I'll just finish this next thing,
31:03
and then I'll go to bed, and it's like you get close to
31:04
that, You're like, well, you know, now I've got to go
31:07
craft that armor that I've got the stuff, and it's like I the armor,
31:10
like, let's go try it out and yeah yeah, and next thing,
31:15
you know, you're killing a thousand goblins and yeah yeah, that shit
31:18
hooks me hard. And uh so I was like, all right, I
31:22
got to stay away from MMOs, but uh fucking loved those games. They're
31:26
great. Yeah, but like I've always been big into RPGs and uh,
31:30
you know, but then like the class you know, you know, Contra
31:32
MegaMan, Castlevania. I've always been a fan. Symphony of the Night's probably
31:36
one of my favorite favorite games ever. Love Metroid Venas in general. And
31:41
now it's a lot of indie games because a lot of the big games aren't
31:44
that great, you know. And so I finally built like I got a
31:48
PC. So I'm back to PC gaming after years of console gaming, and
31:53
uh my Steam Library's got more games than I could possibly ever play in it.
31:57
Sure that that always seems to be the case. I'm on max or
32:01
I can only play so many games, so I've got the right amount.
32:06
Yeah, it's cool. Like one of the big ones when I was a
32:07
kid was Ultimate seven. It was one of the first RPGs. I really
32:12
got into it. Like it was cool because you kind of like had the
32:14
freedom to go around and like it. It gave me, you know,
32:17
the feeling that I think Balder's Gate was chasing. You know, like,
32:22
here's your world. You can go anywhere you want in it. You know,
32:25
there's not a mission path necessarily, your your conversations and actions with people
32:30
have some consequences. It was very rudimentary back in nineteen ninety two or whenever
32:35
that game came out, but there was the taste of that kind of freedom
32:38
in a video game. Yeah, but I think they've been working towards for
32:43
decades. No, yeah, I can. I can definitely see that with
32:46
balders Gate. So many of the beautiful things about Baldersgate three have been in
32:52
games for like thirty years, but it's just now. The graphics are insane,
32:57
and the choice is a multitude, and it's it's almost infinite, and
33:00
it's really the I think one of my favorite things about that game was anytime
33:06
I talked to someone about their experience with it, it's like, wait,
33:08
hold on, what do you mean? Yes, like yeah, like you
33:12
didn't do that or like you like like I played through the whole game without
33:16
ever encountering las l What oh because right at the beginning. Yeah, if
33:22
you just don't. Yeah, I miss her somewhere. I don't know where
33:23
she was, and I never saw I never saw her again. Yeah,
33:25
that's that's fair enough. Like what do you means it's like the main like
33:29
one of the main plot people like what was what the fuck was the story
33:31
about? Yeah? Yeah, it's weird that you can have such varied different
33:37
experiences with the with the same game. And definitely no, and I I
33:44
feel like if there's another I mean fingers crossed not but if there's another pandemic,
33:46
we need to get like a gate Leaper's game of boulders Gate three going
33:51
with four of us. I think that'd be a lot of fun. That's
33:53
that's worth the gain of function research. Yeah, let's do it. Absolutely,
34:00
that could be the content. Okay, we can bring things to the
34:04
present day. Now, we don't have to think so much throughout throughout your
34:07
full life. But what is your current favorite fandom or community to be a
34:13
part of it. And it doesn't have to be like, oh, I'm
34:15
regularly attending events and I'm constantly being social. It could be just something you
34:20
keep keeping the loop of in sort of like social websites or news websites and
34:24
stuff like that. Yeah. I think my current like fandom focus these days
34:30
is tabletop gaming. Nice, Like I got into that back about twelve thirteen
34:38
years ago something like that. I started playing, like I always wanted to
34:40
play when I was a kid. Hm. I remember I bought like a
34:44
Palladium book and was like trying to get a game set up with my friends,
34:46
but like just never never happened. Yeah, but as an adult,
34:51
you've got that because tabletop gaming is something I've dipped in and out over my
34:55
life, and it's got quite a high cost sometimes. So when I dipped
35:00
into it this time round, it was like, oh there's adult money.
35:04
This is fun. I can just buy an amie and build anomie. This
35:06
is great. Yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, well we'll touch on that
35:08
again later. But the uh the you know, but like I got into
35:14
it and I really enjoyed it. I started with Pathfinder and then moved fifth
35:16
Edition and then kind of branched out to all kinds of different games, Like
35:21
I like, you know, I like following what's going on, but like
35:22
the broader tabletop community outside of Dungeons and Dragons has got some really great stuff.
35:27
I really got into, like single page RPGs, Oh nice, where
35:30
you've just got you know, things like uh like Lasers and Feelings or Honey
35:35
Heist or yes, Everyone is John? Heard of that one. Oh well,
35:40
we should play some Everyone Is John. It's a lot of it sounds
35:44
that on the on the backpacking trip, I taught it to the boys and
35:47
they had a blast. Oh sweet, because it's cool. You know,
35:50
you know, there's no prep involved. All you need is a single D
35:53
six and your imagination. You can and you you know, have have fun
35:58
for an hour. And I see, I assume be some kind of John.
36:01
Yes, yeah, well yeah, you're all basically your all voices in
36:05
John's head. And John is bad at everything. Oh nice, And so
36:08
you try and convince him to do things, and then you're all the diet
36:12
to see if he succeeds. It's and you have secret goals and stuff.
36:15
It's fun. Yeah, it sounds it definitely, But just in the community
36:19
in general, the kind of creativity and you know, like on the D
36:22
and D subreddits and stuff like all the just the amount of collaboration and thought
36:28
that people put in. Like you're like, you're trying to figure out a
36:30
rule. You can go online and you know, you go to stage advice,
36:31
but then you got everyone else's opinions underneath it, and as a DM
36:35
you can go and be like, okay, yeah, I'll go with that.
36:37
Yeah, there's the acceptance that you know, it is, it's a
36:42
game that's there for you to have fun with. And then all the you
36:45
know, I you know, actual play podcasts and stuff that that have come
36:50
out that there's some really good compelling content out there. Oh definitely. Yeah.
36:54
I mean are you do you d M yourself? You mentioned making decisions?
36:58
Yeah, nice, I'm running my kids through the kids and their friends
37:01
through cursive straw right now. Oh lovely. So hopefully we actually finish it.
37:07
I've DMed it twice and you know TPK on one and the game fell
37:12
apart on the other one, so still stra but yeah, no ID.
37:17
I used to have a weekly game, but it kind of fell apart because
37:21
you know, adults had to go adult other places. Oh yeah, I
37:24
had. I had an in person game that fell apart during COVID and then
37:28
never kind of got that put back together. But even when I can't play,
37:30
I can put on a podcast and listen to somebody else play and it's
37:35
still a lot of fun. Like I do that a lot while I'm working,
37:37
Like I'll listen to how We Roll or Authors and Dragons or you know
37:42
a few nice Yeah, there's a there's so much out there, so much
37:45
quality actual play content, and I I feel like it might be the most
37:51
common thing amongst the gate leapers cast, maybe on average, in terms of
37:54
just like I feel like most people have had a thing of like, oh
37:57
and then I'll just throw an actual play on while on working and stuff like
38:00
that, and that's a that's a good source of comfort and just yeah,
38:02
I've thought it'd be fun to do to do one. But like like when
38:06
like I the game I was playing weekly was with a bunch of other podcasters
38:09
mhm, and like at the beginning we're like do we want to record this
38:13
and try and put it out? It's like, now let's just have fun.
38:15
Yeah. Yeah, there is always that thing, especially in podcasting,
38:20
where it's like, okay, should this be socializing or should this be content?
38:23
Yeah, exactly, And we were like, oh, let's let's keep
38:25
it content. It'll be more fun that way. But like everyone had recording
38:30
equipment and we were you know, we were it was online like, I
38:32
mean, we had you know, folks across the all time zones on the
38:36
in the game. So yeah, it was it was a little difficult to
38:39
coordinate, but it was like, you know, this is just this is
38:42
just a fun time for us to you know, get to know each other
38:44
and play a game together. And that went on for geez, like almost
38:49
three years. Oh nice, the long campaign. We kind of trade off
38:52
dming like, so it was, it was it was a lot of fun.
38:55
Hell yeah. I mean, if at any point you fancy you an
39:00
a one shot for content, I'm sure that's something we could do here on
39:02
gate Leapers, get a little grouped together into a couple of episodes as a
39:07
one off special or something that'd be I'm pretty fair. Well, let me
39:09
know, I would one hundred percent be down to run it or play it
39:13
or whatever. Hell yeah, hell yeah. I feel like we just we're
39:16
just now using this content creation time to create more content ideas instead of socializing.
39:22
We should grab a drink sometime. Yeah. The only time that the
39:25
actual play thing I did was for that podcast Secret Santa thing back in the
39:30
Drink. Yes, yes, that was so good. So that was so
39:32
much fun, and like I was kind of bummed because, like the I
39:35
went into that with a character that I was like I was playing in my
39:37
real life game that I was playing, but I only got to play two
39:40
sessions with before the game fell apart, and I was like, oh,
39:43
this will be cool, but it didn't. It was not a good fit
39:45
for that campaign because he was he was basically a revived rogue based on the
39:51
Doctor. Yes, it was kind of a pacifist and that game was that
39:55
that one shot was very much kill every Yeah. Yeah. It was just
39:58
like I was trying to play him like that and I was like, this
40:00
isn't working. I should have just come in with a murder machine. Yeah.
40:04
Yeah for those for those one shots slay slaying zombies in a mole or
40:07
something like that. Yeah, I had to fight Santa Claus and Rampers and
40:13
Noman and ship. Yeah. It was it was good fun, very festive,
40:15
all right, not to get not to get too negative, but obviously
40:19
fandoms can can be negative spaces sometimes. So what fandom or community are you
40:24
conflicted over being a part of but you can't quite quit? Or which fandom
40:30
have you quit because it just got too much too toxic? This is an
40:34
easy one, and it's not because it got too toxic, though it did.
40:37
Is Star Wars? Star Wars? Sure? Yeah, it's wash my
40:43
hands, I'm fucking done. Yeah, And it's mainly just because I was
40:46
a huge Star Wars fan. You know, my entire childhood. Loved Star
40:50
Wars, super into it. I just recently sold off. I had a
40:52
whole bunch of the old original action figures and you know, all that stuff.
40:58
But it was I mean, I loved Star Wars. I was deep
41:00
into the lore. I read a bunch of the extended universe. I remember
41:04
I skipped school to go see the reissue of a New Hope when it came
41:10
out, and when they when he did the remaster, and oh I did
41:14
a bunch of aliens in and stuff. Yeah, yeah, made Hans Solo's
41:17
head do that, Yeah, dodge Grido's new shot like he mucked around with
41:23
it a bunch. But I was still thrilled to go see it went and
41:28
saw it, you know, opening day, all three of those as they
41:30
came out, and saw The Phantom Menace when it first came out on opening
41:35
day, commiserations. Yeah, that was a that was a tough fun got
41:43
all the way through the prequels, still loved Star Wars. Was like,
41:45
okay, it was a little misdirected. I'm not really sure what was going
41:47
on here, but you know, I loved it. Was super excited.
41:52
When when the sequels started to come out, I was like, all right,
41:53
Disney's got it. They did great with Marvel, really hopeing you're gonna
41:57
shows. And then it was just a just a slow decline in to the
42:05
point where, like where I found I found myself spending most of my time
42:07
complaining about Star Wars, which I didn't want to be doing. Oh that's
42:12
just a waste of time. Yeah, we talked about it on the podcast
42:15
is always you know, it was just it became a negative subject and it
42:20
wasn't it wasn't as it just wasn't as fun anymore. And but you know
42:24
I kept up with it because you know, it's the Star Wars. Of
42:28
course I'm gonna watch it, right, sure, And then uh, the
42:31
straws that broke the camel's back. For me, it was the Book of
42:35
Bobafet, which was just bad and like I would have washed my hands and
42:38
been done with it after that, because it was just like, I don't
42:42
know what this is, I don't know why I'm watching it, and but
42:45
you were like, there's there's one more straw left for this camel. It
42:49
was oh, we want kenobis like, oh, we want Kenoby's coming out.
42:51
It's like, all right, help me, obi Wan, You're my
42:52
only hope. Uh. It was just so aggressively mediocre that that is a
43:00
great phrase to describe how I felt about most Star Wars stuff that I've watched
43:05
as an adult exactly. And it's like and I just kind of came to
43:08
the realization. It's like, you know what, I've got a lot of
43:10
stuff going on, and I've got a lot of options of things to watch,
43:15
things to play, things to do, and I don't need to waste
43:17
time like I I don't need to you know, I don't need to escape.
43:22
I don't need an outlet to get away. Like I like my life,
43:27
so like you have to compete with my life. Yeah, and you're
43:30
just not doing it anymore Disney, like this is I'm sorry, these laser
43:36
swords are not as good as my family and bold as Gate three, thank
43:38
you very much exactly. It's just it's not good enough for me to waste
43:42
my time on anymore. So, like it was last year, I was
43:44
like, my New Year's resolution was to watch nothing made by Disney. Oh
43:47
nice, how's it going? It went great? I did. I went
43:50
all through twenty three not watching anything my Disney and not even sure I've watched
43:55
anything by Disney this year, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
44:00
Yeah. I mean they've got new Doctor Who, which is the I think
44:04
this is the only thing I've watched on Disney because they've they've acquired Doctor Who.
44:08
No, did they really? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, So I
44:12
which the new series is so good because it's like the Russell T. Davies
44:16
who originally brought it back in two thousand and five. It's him, he's
44:20
back again. So for me, it's very nostalgic looking back twenty years ago.
44:24
So it's like it's it's like my style of Doctor Who is happening all
44:28
over again. And Disney don't seem to have put their hands in it too
44:30
much, So all right, I mean I might check it out. I
44:34
fell off during what's his name, the old Scottish guy, Yes, Peter
44:37
Cupaldi. Yeah, yeah, I fell off way through Peter. I was
44:40
almost the exact I think I fell off his first season. I like him
44:45
as an actor, I love him in so many things, but it just
44:46
wasn't clicking with me as much. Yeah, and then I jumped in briefly
44:51
just to see with the doctor after that, and it didn't. It didn't.
44:55
It didn't draw me in again. So I well, if you if
44:59
you liked the Christopher Eckleston and David Tennant years, then I'd say this,
45:05
this, this is that again, I think, Yeah, David Tennant's my
45:07
doctor for sure. But but yeah, with Star Wars, I've gone like
45:13
I think I've like I haven't become part of the toxicity. Oh yeah,
45:16
because because I'm I'm not on Like I don't get any great joy out of,
45:22
you know, complaining and fighting with people online. Yeah, oh I
45:24
just don't do that. But I love bathing in it. Like I think
45:28
I've gone full sith sure, because like like the only Disney related kind like
45:31
Star Wars related content that I'll consume at this point is like, Oh,
45:35
here's somebody ripping the ass out of the acolyte your anger. Exactly. I've
45:46
gone full sith on Disney, and I just I want to watch them crumble
45:50
and burn. Yeah. No, I mean, of all of the media
45:52
company's, Disney sort of kind of deserves it. This is my favorite fact
45:59
that I learned during Pride Month this year was that Disney donated one hundred and
46:02
fifty thousand dollars to the Rond DeSantis presidential campaign, the person that they're supposed
46:07
to hate. But it's because they like to keep their enemy alive because it
46:10
gives them publicity, which means they don't actually care about any of the people
46:15
that Ron DeSantis hates. None of the corporations carried out they don't care about
46:19
us, and that's it doesn't make any corporation. Yeah, and that's exactly
46:27
why I fully support your decision to quit Star Wars and Disney. Let's let's
46:32
look to the future here. We've we've talked about your life through fandom,
46:37
but let's let's imagine a world where a future exists. It's getting harder and
46:39
harder to what's a what's a fandom? Or maybe even a media property that
46:45
you want to get into but you haven't yet for for any number of reasons.
46:51
Could be gatekeeping, could be just time, could be anything. Oh
46:54
no, gates are going to keep me out. Well, it's definitely Warhammer
46:59
for nice. It's not such a good like the the the lore is fascinating.
47:05
It looks like a like like a really interesting that they got that show
47:07
coming out with. Oh yes, Superman. I can't remember anybody's name today,
47:13
Henry Cavill. Yeah, yes, yeah, thank you, And like
47:16
I've always wanted, like like I know I will fucking love forty K,
47:22
but I also know that I do not have the time nor wallet, yep,
47:28
to devote to painting minis, building armies, buying minis, especially you
47:32
know games workshop. Shit's expense it is, Yeah, even though I've got
47:37
a three D printer and I can print minis, even with that, like
47:40
setting it up model you know, getting the models set up and right down,
47:44
you know, you know, printing them out, tuning everything, painting
47:46
it all. Like I just it's a giant time sink that I would love
47:51
every fucking second of, but I don't think i'd get other stuff done.
47:54
Yeah, I don't think I can fit that into my life right now.
47:59
It's point I'll retire. Like for a little bit. I've played a little
48:01
bit online. Oh yeah, on pop Simulator with someboddies that played forty K.
48:07
So they were kind of teaching me how to do it and you could
48:08
just you know, download an army and play it all virtually, which was
48:13
pretty fun and I did enjoy it, but nothing's quite like like I go
48:16
to the comic shop and you see the guys out there with their armies on
48:20
the big table, the buildings and everything's like, oh, that looks so
48:22
fucking cool. It looks so good. I yeah, I got into it
48:25
as a kid a little bit. I think I only got like a couple
48:29
of forty K sets. I was mainly playing the Lord of the Rings strategy
48:32
battle game. And Audrey and I got into it during COVID because we were
48:37
like adult money and so we got loads of sets and painted loads of like
48:40
urakai and stuff like that, and it was it was so much fun.
48:45
And then we played about three games and then we were like, Okay,
48:47
I think we've done it now. But the models are there, they look
48:52
nice. Forty K is such a perfect answer, because the law seems so
48:55
interesting, like it's so deep, like like I watch YouTube videos on it
49:00
occasionally where they're talking about how like you know, here's how the I can't
49:02
even remember like the weird mutilated people inside of power Armor. Yes, not
49:07
the Space Marines, but like the bigger like Dreadnought look and Douce. Yeah,
49:10
I can picture them. Yeah, how they you know, form them
49:15
and train them in like it's so grim dark. I fucking love it.
49:16
Yes, yes, it's yeah, it's it's so good. Yeah, that's
49:21
a. That's a great answer because it because the main thing with Games Workshop
49:24
is that that price tag. So there's money in town. Yeah, two
49:29
things you know I have. I have them both, but boy they're at
49:32
a premium. Yeah, absolutely precious resources. Yeah that's that's a. That's
49:37
a great answer. And it's been a it's been a great conversation as well.
49:38
It's been great creating this content instead of socializing but at the same time
49:45
learning it. Yeah, but at the same time learning a lot about about
49:51
your life through fandom. But if we could sort of like undermine the last
49:54
hour of conversation we've had and you could sum up your life through fans them
50:00
in a simple flow chart sort of going from childhood, teens, twenties,
50:06
thirties, and now what would you what would you say for those? Well,
50:09
it would have nice bookends at least, because it would be you know,
50:13
Disney Python pays video games kind of all the way through there, you
50:20
know, D and D tabletop games. M fucked, fuck this, fuck
50:23
Disney. Nice bookends. There's I've got I've got a narrative arc in there.
50:29
Sure sure that? Yeah? That that that is an arc, and
50:31
it's a narrative arc more thought out than any Disney property in the last decade.
50:36
So that's that's something. No, that's great. Yeah, that's that's
50:39
fantastic. You've had a classic fandom life, if you don't mind me saying,
50:45
I think there's some really iconic properties there that any anyone who was a
50:49
kid in the eighties, who was a teenager in the nighties, and then
50:52
an adult in this wicked century would would understand as just like, yeah,
50:59
that is that is life through fandom. That's good stuff. Oh and Ben,
51:01
before you go, I mean we've got to talk space audities three,
51:05
because that is that is very close to happening, right, even if the
51:07
Kickstarter is starting scene. Yep, yeah, the kickstarter launches the plan right
51:12
now is August tenth. I should have the pre launch page up by the
51:16
time this goes out, so I'll send you the link to that. Perfect.
51:20
But yeah, it's the third issue of Space Audities. If you haven't
51:24
heard me talk about it on this show before, here's me talking about it
51:28
again. It's a comedy sci fi adventure about a crew of a ship that
51:35
gets in over their head, essentially kind of in the search for you know,
51:38
a mysterious mcguffin artifact. It's a good, solid adventure story with that's
51:45
mainly a vehicle for silly comedy. Yeah. Yeah, No, I'd say
51:49
it's a good adventure story with a you downgraded it from good to solid there,
51:52
but I'd take's a good adventure story with a good vehicle an excellent vehicle
51:55
for comedy. Yeah, and this one's gonna be fun because it's got like
51:59
a fourteen page like backstory adventure that ties into the veins. Oh nicely that
52:04
we're doing a kind of slightly different art style, different colors, kind of
52:07
more of an homage to like the sixties ec sci fi books. Oh hell
52:10
yeah, that's cool. So yeah, it introduces a new character named Ray
52:14
Gunderson. So I'm sorry about this one. That's going to be cool.
52:17
Nice. Yeah, I assume within that, with within the kickstyle, you'll
52:22
have like tea is where people will be able to pick up issues one and
52:24
two stuff like that. Yeah. Well, well the one and two are
52:28
available as add ons or as a bundle. And then also we we dropped
52:31
the price of issue one on Drive through Comics to a dollar. Cool,
52:36
So if you know anyone that's not sure whether or not they want to back
52:39
the project, you know, they could go on and for a buck go
52:43
buy you know, the forty page first issue, read it and see if
52:45
it's for them. Oh yeah, that's I mean, look, everyone listening
52:50
to this has a dollar, so I think that's absolutely Yeah, that's great
52:53
that you've done that. I'll put a link to that as well. Why
52:55
people can pick that up to see if that would be that kind of thing
52:59
is one buck. And I realized last night that it's been a little while
53:04
since two came out, so like we've been busy, life goes on,
53:07
Like this is kind of a passion project for us. It certainly isn't a
53:12
business, and I realized the last time when we when we were doing the
53:15
Kickstarter for two was back when I did that the space episode of Drinkipedia with
53:22
you guys. Oh wow, I was like, fuck, that was a
53:24
long time ago. Yeah, it was that. That kind of was a
53:29
long time ago, right, it was after gate Leaperson started, but yeah,
53:31
it was well, actually, actually I think yeah, we'd done one
53:36
We've done one year of gate leap is a like a half year of gate
53:37
Leapers, So that'll have being like right at the start of year two of
53:39
gate Leapers, so maybe about two two and a two and a half years
53:44
ago. Yeah, too long, and hopefully four four shouldn't be that long
53:47
away. It was just we had a lot, John got married, there
53:50
was surgeries and life life, life happens. Yeah, absolutely, And like
53:54
you say, it's a it's a passion project, but those are these are
53:58
honestly the best projects to support. You know, you're getting sort of genuine
54:01
creativity, genuine like passion. It's in the name. And yeah, you're
54:07
supporting artists doing their thing and that's that's always And for a dollar, I
54:12
mean, I'm not gonna say anyone listening to this, who then doesn't pick
54:15
up a copy of uh, Space Oddity's one from from Drive through Comics is
54:22
is some kind of sinner. But I'll say that, okay, you'll say
54:25
that, Okay, good stuff. Links links in the show notes. Thanks
54:31
for thanks for your time, Ben, Yeah, no, anytime, man,
54:34
there's always blast and there we go, Ben Robinson, A Life through
54:42
Fandom PEZ. Who knew? I didn't know Pez? I'm sure John you
54:46
about PEZ. I didn't know about PEZ. I now think we're going to
54:50
have to do something eventually about PEZ. Are you a PEZ head? Get
54:54
in touch Gatesleapers at gmail dot com. I'm gonna plug Space Oddities again because
55:00
Ben and John are doing such fantastic work with their independently produced comic. It's
55:05
great to support independent creatives, and you can do that for just a dollar.
55:08
As Ben said, I'll put the link in the show notes. You
55:12
can pick up the first issue of Space Oddities for a dollar, and I've
55:15
checked you can pick up issue two for two dollars. Does that mean issue
55:20
three will cost three dollars? I can't confirm that yet, but what I
55:22
can say, as soon as the link is available, the link to their
55:25
kickstarter will be in the show notes of this episode. If you're listening to
55:30
this in a few days time, maybe the link is already there and we'll
55:32
have Ben and John back on the podcast in August for a very thematic sci
55:37
fi comedy episode. I think I'm not gonna give away the fandom just yet.
55:42
But if I say sci fi and comedy and you think about the fact
55:45
we've already done Hitchhiker's Guide, I think you can piece these little pieces together.
55:50
Thank you so much for listening. I hope you've been enjoying this cast
55:52
interview series. It was a fantastic idea that Jen had at the beginning of
55:57
the year, and I feel like I've got to know the people I've met
56:00
through podcasting a lot more just through these conversations. I believe that the next
56:04
batch of cast interviews will be for Audra, Jason, and perhaps myself,
56:09
and they'll drop throughout the fall months. So so yeah, the real gate
56:14
Leapers ogs will be put through these these questions. I'm so excited to hear
56:17
what Audra and Jason have for these answers. I'm I'm less excited to be
56:22
interviewed myself, but that's because I like to hide behind my shiny games master
56:28
jacket and this voice that I do that I don't really use in real life.
56:31
But that's down the road. We've got another exciting game show for you.
56:35
Next week. We're doing our annual professional wrestling episode. We had some
56:38
fantastic guests for that one, all three hosts of the Tunnel Talk podcast.
56:45
So excited for you to hear that episode. And we've got some fun fandoms
56:47
left to round out our summer in August. And look, we're already planning
56:52
Septembers episodes. So yeah, we're on it. More games, more fandoms,
56:55
more trivia, more laughs, come in your way. Thanks for listening.
56:58
Leapfrogs. Pick up Space odds one, support Space, auditees three and
57:01
subscribe, rate review all that lovely podcast stuff. It really helps. Follow
57:07
us on Instagram at gateleapers pod, where you can see video clips from our
57:12
various audio episodes, and Patreon dot com forward slash Gatesleapers. If you feel
57:16
like you can support the content, we make no worries. If not,
57:21
just share it with a friend that's equally as good. Okay, signing off
57:24
now, Leep leap leap On, Leapfrogs. Yeah,