The Leap – Our 1st Show
Sunday breaks cool and cloudy. For me, a good sign since I hate the heat and relish a cooler clime. I’m soooo ready for this to start. It’s taken a few weeks of intense work to get to this point and I want to dive into that pool and swim around.
I live literally ten minutes away from where we’re doing the podcast. As Toby says, all you really need is a room and some mikes. We’ve got so much more than that in this location but that’s basically it. A room and mikes. Or so I think.
Ten minutes took me forty. Don’cha just love SoCal? I neglected to account for the OC Marathon that would be blocking off streets for miles. A simple right turn becomes a nightmare of being trapped behind a barrier of orange cones and OCTA barriers. No matter where I turn, it’s basically “you can’t get there from here.” Had I gone south I might have gotten to the podcast in a reasonable amount of time. As it stands now, I’m driving in ever-dense circles or stalled vehicles while fleet-footed people demand the right-of-way enforced by what seems the entire cadre of law enforcement in Orange County. I swear there’s even Boy Scouts helping direct me away from my destination.
ShitShitSHIT!
I arrived thirty minutes late for a ten o’clock start so I was already a stress monkey when I walked in. I brought a laptop and webcam to record the podcast for, uh, well, us I guess. I thought it would be nice to have a video record of the moments Now I had to rush the setup and get centered for the show. (P.S. camera didn’t work.)
By the time I got there, Toby and MC had everything ready. I quickly took my seat behind these really cool looking mics and pop screens. I was a musician in another life (hence the desire to write the show’s music) so sound systems and mics were familiar but these were like real radio mics – and that’s actually what it feels like initially – radio. Talking into a mike (doing sound levels) in a room with your co-host and engineer – I’ve seen that scene before. Since I’ve never actually done radio, I’m guessing. But I imagine it’s like that and we’ll see how that all shakes out.
The show starts finally. Our guest is still on the road to us so we’re going to do a segment on – wait – he’s here. Sequential show it is.
Larry, my buddy, is funny, charming and extensive in scope. His segment is like sliding on ice – friction-less and fun. He does about an hour (of which we’ll use 20 minutes probably) and then leaves.
We do the various segments. Honestly, they are the most fun I’ve had in awhile. We fall together well because we know each other. And also, and this is important, we’re all fairly knowledgeable on film. MC probably has the least experience at any professional level (actually none) but she’s encyclopedic with pop culture, film and can talk at length on anything to do with animation. Plus she’s whip-smart and can flow with any conversation. But her greatest quality is she knows how to be let the conversation flow around her when appropriate – a great co-host.
Toby looks just perfect behind his equipment. He’s got the headsets on, twiddling audio levels, glaring at me when I click my pen. Looking at him calms me because I think – he’s got this. All I have to do is talk – something I do a lot of – too much most likely.
Toby’s a quiet force and although he’s mostly silently doing the engineering thing, he has a mike and jumps in on our “What are we watching” segment. That’s between telling me to quit tapping the table – I wasn’t. I swear. Pen, yes – that’s me click-clicking nervously. No table tapping. But something was making noise in his headphones and he had to deal with it so it wouldn’t transfer to the recording.
Having worked at a worked at the pro level as an editor for many and various companies, Toby is also quite an aficionado on TV and film and is able to put forth on many topics – a great resource. All in all, we’re working well.
So it seems. Hard to be objective and I”m hoping for the best.
Even though the time is adding up (we’re about six hours in) and you can see the fatigue, we’re all still thrilled to be doing this. It’s a happy fatigue, so to speak.
We wrap it up, take a few photos, hug and go home.
Now Toby has the hard job of taking all that talk and shaping it to a show.
I do not envy him.