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How to live the art life with Sean Amsing
168 Plays2 years ago
This week on Friendless, your pal James chats with actor, musician, and trivia master Sean Amsing. They discuss the international geography of modern art, how to make it as an actor in Vancouver, the state of concept albums, and the wild tale of how we met at trivia night.
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Transcript
Welcome & Introduction
00:00:09
Speaker
Hey there, sweet peas. Welcome back to Friendless, the only show that tries to teach you how to be a better friend while I lose every friend I have. I'm your host, James Evermako, and this week I have on the show musician, actor, and trivia master, Sean Amsing.
Art, Acting, and Meeting Sean Amsing
00:00:22
Speaker
Sean and I discussed the international geography of modern art, how to make it as an actor in Vancouver, the state of concept albums, and the wild tale of how we met at trivia night. All this and so much more, so buckle up, get comfy, set your volume at a reasonable
Interview: Sean's Artistic Journey
00:00:36
Speaker
level,
00:00:36
Speaker
and enjoyed my interview with the one and only Sean Amsing here on Friendless.
00:00:53
Speaker
Who the hell are you and what do you do in this world? Wow, a lot. I've somehow found a way, super lucky in this world to try to make artwork. It doesn't work incredibly well, but I have found a way to, you know, monetize any kind of talent that I've ever exhibited.
Art vs Capitalism: Challenges & Individuality
00:01:15
Speaker
And that's not what it's about, but
00:01:19
Speaker
It allows me to not have to do anything else and I come from a background of always being in entertainment. I got my first acting gig when I was like 12 years old and I've kind of acted through a lot. It's weird because Vancouver doesn't really give you a lot of opportunities but when you're younger, they're
00:01:41
Speaker
are some, and of course, you know, I think someone invented BIPOC like maybe like three years ago. So the whole time before then was also when I was an artist. And of course, you know, I do a lot. I act. I sing. I've done stand up. I've been in sketch comedy. I rap. I produce music.
00:02:09
Speaker
I can play the piano. All right. I can play the guitar. All right. You know, yeah, I think that, you know, my whole thing is that I just. Through a lot of my life, like I thought
Emotional Outlet Through Art
00:02:24
Speaker
that it was about being cool or chasing women, but deep down inside what the reason why I do art and why I've always wanted to do it is because
00:02:34
Speaker
It's the only thing that makes me feel any kind of emotion. Like when you see a whole bunch of people singing their ass off on a stage or you watch a concert and they're at that point, music insights emotion and it's beautiful. And I just want to make the world more beautiful by putting more art out there as much as possible.
00:02:56
Speaker
Oh, I love that so much. Oh, my God. You've already said so many things that have made me like, I just want to grab that one. You know what I mean? So I'm going to have to unpack a few of those ones. But like, you know, that's a really interesting perspective that you have. And I think I share it with this idea of like what value art actually brings to the artist, you know. And I think one thing that I am constantly grappling with is this idea of
00:03:21
Speaker
We live in a capitalist game, so we have to find ways to pay our rent because unfortunately we can't be hunter-gatherers as much as we want to be, you know? And so that really limits somebody who wants to create, you know, beauty and peace and comfort and thought.
Artistic Expression in Capitalism
00:03:38
Speaker
and it's
00:03:58
Speaker
And I know it's a weird sort of long winded way of just saying that you have to make things exclusively you. However, art is controlled by non-artists and they try to put us in a box as many times as possible. So it's hard to really find your individuality.
00:04:16
Speaker
in everything that you do and that is the only thing that will that is good that's the only thing that people respond to so capitalism doesn't really promote individuality and so it blocks it at every stage but
00:04:32
Speaker
Sometimes you just have to kind of plug through and find your threshold of placating capitalism and coming up with as much of your individual self and as much as your vulnerable action and art as possible. Yeah.
00:04:51
Speaker
well you know and you see oh my god um it's that thing about like um how how i know for myself as a writer i feel stymied very often because i feel like i have stories i want to tell but i stop myself because they sound too similar to other stories that have been told but what i have to remember is that nobody's told
00:05:10
Speaker
my version of
Canadian Film Industry & Geographical Challenges
00:05:11
Speaker
that story and that's where the art comes from that's where your artist voice comes from is like yeah there's been a million songs about love but like if it hasn't been your love you know i always equate it to you know following sort of the the cheeseburger or the um the zombie thing i always talk about cheeseburgers like you know if if if mr wendy said oh fuck it uh there's already been a mcdonald's cheeseburger i don't need to make a cheeseburger you know it's like it's
00:05:35
Speaker
then we wouldn't have the best cheeseburger ever made, you know? I'm just going to stop you right there. I mean, you definitely went out of your way to say Mr. Wendy's when the name is Wendy's. Well, I'm trying to remember his name, Dave. I mean, why does Dave have to be the face of Wendy's? You know what I mean? That's just like saying Pharrell's the face of Missy Elliott, you know?
00:06:01
Speaker
You know what, I appreciate that clocking, I will take it, I'm noted for future, for future, you know? I've been trained really well, it's fine. I love it, I love it. But it is that, you know, it's that idea of like your individual voice still counts, even in this world that demands that you fall into place, right?
00:06:19
Speaker
100%. And it's not even just falling into place.
Social Media's Role for Artists
00:06:23
Speaker
It's about the fear of investment, especially in Canada. Canada is fucking notorious for this. And it is that if it has never existed before, then how do we have a scope of what people can respond to? And in a lot of ways, that is the beauty of social media.
00:06:42
Speaker
And that is why, like, you know, you got to kind of force grandpa onto TikTok and stuff like that, just so that there's an outside gain. And it sucks because it is a popularity contest. And, and, you know, I want to be if you have that political narrative, like if you.
00:06:58
Speaker
If you have something where you're like, oh, if only I was a 14 year old girl, then everybody would listen to my music. Well, then why don't you put a whole bunch of production costs and into a music video where that 14 year old girl is pretending to be you? It'll look hilarious. It'll be funny and make sure that, you know, but nobody wants to put that step in. They just want to complain about it.
00:07:20
Speaker
I mean, holy fuck, I love that. I love that so much. You know, I had a thought as you were saying, we need to force grandpa onto TikTok and I agree with it to the point where we need to force them how to use it, but we need to not teach them how to actually post. We just need to teach them how to like interact and they're like not actually share their thoughts. You know, we have too many thoughts already, but we need more viewers, right? I think it's OK. I mean, honestly, you know, it's the same thing as like
00:07:49
Speaker
We have to have individual freedom and I don't know.
00:07:54
Speaker
No Country for Old Men is a movie about how people just kind of lose themselves eventually because they don't really feel like they belong. And I don't know, nobody needs to fight for middle-aged men, but I'm just saying that we should all just kind of, we should expect what we can expect from each other.
00:08:21
Speaker
And I love that. It's true, though, you know, you know, I think I'm struggling right now because I've just started a brand new TikTok account for friendless. And I'm trying to grow an audience just from zero there. And because it's a brand new account, the for you page hasn't like adjusted to what I actually want. So I'm seeing so much like get Trudeau out and so much of this just like right wing. Oh, OK. OK. Yeah. Oh, no, stop. Please get out and stop, stop, stop, stop.
00:08:51
Speaker
No, you're right. Oh, man, I forgot about that guy. I guess my algorithm is just designed to like things that I want to see. So I think take tech talk is this, you know, a completely inclusive space of, you know, wonderful forward thinking minds. But that's because I searched it once and exactly the algorithm learned. And that's the thing. I'm trying to teach my fucking algorithm to stop showing me this shit. So be like, oh,
00:09:14
Speaker
Maybe try another one. Let's try this angle. You know, I'm like, no, I still don't give a shit, you know. Yeah, my former partner, I'm divorced and, you know, me and my ex are. Yeah, me and my ex are like we get along really, really great. And and she introduced me
Sean's Film Career & Vancouver's Limitations
00:09:33
Speaker
to the term. She's like, well, you know, your tiktok is not gay tiktok. And it's like, what do you mean?
00:09:37
Speaker
And I was like, well, gay TikTok is a lot more entertaining and it's an echo chamber of exactly what I want to hear. And I feel like, you know, I'm not quite gay TikTok, but I'm pretty close, you know? Your ally talk, you know?
00:09:57
Speaker
So, you know, I wanted to pick up on something. I had a question that I was going to ask much later, but you mentioned something about the Canadian art scene that I really wanted to pick up on and get your take on because, you know, in preparing for the interview, I was going through your IMDb and I was seeing you have this really, really
00:10:16
Speaker
lengthy film career and you've been working consistently since like 1996, you know? And I'm wondering your perspective on what it's like to work in Canadian film because I've dipped my toes in and out throughout the years and I've always become really disillusioned with it because it feels like there's this wall that you hit because of where you're auditioning from, you know? And I'm wondering what your experience is like with that.
00:10:44
Speaker
I mean, it's definitely there. I think, I'll put it to you this way. If your group of friends was trying to make a project and you had your funding, you had everybody like kind of around you.
00:10:59
Speaker
And all of those people are going to know people and all of those people have an understanding of unspoken communication. And let's say we get the opportunity and a huge tax cut to film a movie in Columbus, Ohio. And I don't know anybody in Columbus, Ohio.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't really trust that Columbus, Ohio's culture is going to really reflect what my art is going to reflect. Now here in Vancouver, we are completely like, I just wanted to only just say that one statement because on the other side of it is 80% of my feelings, which is like, we don't have any protection here. I'm a Vancouverite who probably, if I was born in LA or if I was born in New York, or if I operated out of there.
00:11:56
Speaker
I honestly think that I have the tools, the experience, and the ability to be on a very, very high level of executing characters on streamers, stand-up comedy on a wide level, anything. I picture myself on a table at SNL being like, yeah, what if he was a hamburger?
00:12:20
Speaker
And I honestly think that those types of, you know, belief systems get us away from the international world that we actually live in. And that world is going back on the grandpa using TikTok situation where if we're artists, and maybe I should say that, if we're artists, not artists.
00:12:40
Speaker
Storm the capitals if we're artists we should be able to create these characters and create these audiences create these concepts these funny ideas on our own and that creates an international appeal Because culture is not a situation or a place anymore. It's an idea and unfortunately It's on the phone
00:13:07
Speaker
No, you're so spot on. And that's something I think it is a really limiting belief. And I think hearing you explain it that way is really illuminating those blockages that
Seizing Artistic Opportunities
00:13:18
Speaker
I didn't even realize were necessarily there. They're sort of invisible, you know, but like, but realizing that thinking about geography as a limiting factor to your art is very archaic.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah, of course it is. I mean, that's the thing is we could go to Columbus and we could do our grade 12 there and then start our university there and we would have friends that thought, I mean, everybody thinks I'm fucking weird anyways, no matter where I go.
00:13:44
Speaker
But I feel like you could find your group and they're all the same everywhere. You know, I mean, super bad could have happened in anywhere America, but it was a story about kids in Vancouver. Yeah. So I mean, I don't know. It's weird because.
00:13:59
Speaker
Even though I have like these limiting beliefs and believe you me, like, man, I have been top three choices on so many different leads this year and last year. And there's a lot of actors in this city are like, man, that is a fucking victory. I'm I've never been that close. I don't know what it's like.
Acting: Unpredictability & Success
00:14:17
Speaker
I'm glad that people are giving you a look. And I think it's just because they see that there's something real there. But then I watch it and I'm like, oh, that's the guy from that 70s show, you know, like, exactly.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I'll be like, oh, there's no way that I even had a chance. Those guys had lunch in LA at Eataly and they were like talking about this project seven months ago. I didn't even have a, you know, a spitting chance, but I think that, I think that when you get your opportunities, if you just, you just have to kind of play with it. I stopped thinking that acting was a career, um, uh,
00:14:53
Speaker
when I was 12 years old. Not really, I just mean that acting as a career that you can count on, it's not something that you can count on. It's something, it's like winning the lottery. It's like, you know. It's a vocation almost, right? It's that thing of like, I think even hearing you say it, it's like career to me feels like it implies stability and there's no art career ever that has ever implied stability. So you kind of can't call it that, right?
Music in Film: Contributions & Projects
00:15:23
Speaker
And it's the same with everything. If it wasn't for my opportunities of getting songs of mine on Letterkenny and being a part of their Spotify and Apple Music Playlist, I wouldn't have as many plays as I do, which is like 100k and I'm happy with it.
00:15:38
Speaker
so it's like when it gets to that kind of situation it's like i know that i'm nobody but i know that some people have actually heard something or they'll watch me in a show and they'll be like that guy was funny you know when i did always be my maybe i was among really really funny awesome people and ally wong was behind the lens like giving me alts and stuff like that and then when i watch it i'm like well i know that this this whole part of this movie is about
00:16:05
Speaker
Russell and him being cheap. But man, I'm holding my own. I'm just having a conversation. And so when it comes down to it, I know what I facilitate in as a Vancouver actor. I'm a story mover. I don't have an arc in Vancouver. And sometimes I might have an arc, but I mean, come on, we're all just like pushing the.
00:16:27
Speaker
be movie actor through their journey. And even though that's racist, I'm I'm I guess I'm down to do it. Yeah. Yeah. We got to pay our rent somehow, I suppose. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking hell.
Definitely Not Aliens: Music Project
00:16:44
Speaker
So so I want to ask you in to this is the thing. The next part I want to ask you about is I can't decide which to put first, but I think I'll go with the music because I think trivia will save for because we've got much more to talk about about that. So yeah, I have an end.
00:16:57
Speaker
for that too so I'll let you know beautiful beautiful I love that good good we're planting the seeds you know keep the audience you know hooked in right you know speaking of other variations of your artistic expression you have at least at least two musical acts that you have up on Spotify you've got Kaboom Atomic and then also a new project called Definitely Not Aliens and you know as I was saying before
00:17:21
Speaker
we started recording that I've been listening to this the at least the first few hits of the Definitely Not Aliens all morning and I'm absolutely loving it and thanks I'm wondering like what's the what what are the origins of these musical projects and and what's the what's the what's the concept behind it
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, well definitely Not Aliens is Ralph and Joel Sneddon, who's from Nanaimo originally. We kind of grew up doing a lot of music together. We were in Run With the Heard.
00:17:55
Speaker
He knew who I was through the underground rap scene when he was like 16 17 18 years old Because I was rapping around like, you know 18 19 20 I mean I was rapping in high school, but people started to know who I was and I was going public and doing it. Yeah
00:18:12
Speaker
And there was a Vancouver Underground that was actually kind of, you know, it was a really cool scene. It's not like that anymore, but the world has changed. And it was really interesting. We had like a really like a good hip hop hub called Fuck What You Heard, which was a store on Beatty Street owned by Martini and who owns Dipped now. And that was like a back in the day sort of like a record store that, you know, DJs and
00:18:39
Speaker
rappers would go into and we could buy like a whole bunch of things. And that's kind of started a culture around rap. And I started, you know, singing on my own, just like playing singer songwriter kind of stuff. And through another producer, his name is Zach, who's not with us anymore. I met Joel and we decided to like kind of have a super group. And, you know, we started rapping a little bit together. We
00:19:07
Speaker
Kind of formed a bond and we just wanted to make music together and grow and suddenly when we came up with our concept we had these songs and we came up with the concept definitely not aliens, which is basically aliens that are trying to be human. So we're humans that are trying to be aliens that are trying to be human.
00:19:31
Speaker
And we're trying to convince the world that we're not aliens. And the whole, you know, the whole reasoning behind it is not the music. I mean, it's more just like, you know, we keep going back and forth between either global takeover, but also the concept in general is about
00:19:53
Speaker
they're in tourism. So these aliens have come to Earth and they're trying to send video and concepts of emotion back to their planet to be like, oh, come visit Earth. You can assimilate, become a human for a while and like really experience what these people experience. And
00:20:12
Speaker
what happens is we find these pockets of sadness that don't exist anywhere else in the world and my character wants to destroy these pockets of sadness with music and my producer who also raps and sings as well he wants to harness it as a weapon and so
00:20:35
Speaker
And this concept is only revealed through a cartoon that we have in our five-year plan that's just going to be little tiny vignettes. The music is the music. We're just making songs about emotion and love and all sorts of different things, the pressure that you have on you, like mental health.
00:20:56
Speaker
the human experience basically, but we kind of have this underlying filter and our beats get a little weird sometimes, play some stuff like out of tune on purpose and we have little, you know, we have like,
00:21:11
Speaker
We have such a good understanding of each other's art and such a good picky combination of, you know, when we clash, we're just like, okay, well, explore your idea. Let's see where we're at. Explore your idea. But, you know, we both have to like it and it creates a really good balance.
00:21:30
Speaker
I mean it's it's it is really an interesting synthesis because the the sounds really hit you really differently throughout even just throughout any single song and there's there's I don't know you probably know the the terms for it a lot a lot obviously I don't know them at all
Experimental Music & Influences
00:21:48
Speaker
But there's this really interesting synthesis of there's these melodies, and then this really ethereal stuff, and then these really hard lyrics, and it really hits in these interesting cross sections. And I feel like you can really hear really, really disparate influences on any single song. And is that intentional, or is that you just sort of
00:22:11
Speaker
kind of following the impulse and letting whatever comes out flow out. Yeah. I mean, let's just take a rub hands together, which is are you familiar with that one? So that one song is pretty Pharrell in a lot of ways. You know, like I feel like the hook for sure. It's like on that kind of like Pharrell Williams tip. And that kind of like funkiness with that like kind of weird sort of baseline and concept just came from wanting to make like a
00:22:41
Speaker
you know, that kind of dancey club like a hip-hop song, but make it weird and campy and a little bit fun and have sound effects in it and explore that avenue so we never have to go back there in any other song.
00:22:59
Speaker
You really run the risk though because you clearly have musical talent and so you really run the risk of people kind of missing the joke in a way. I remember that happening with, were they called LMFAO? Where they started as a joke group and then people were like, no, this is a club banger. And then they were like, oh no, we're done. We're not going to do any of that.
00:23:21
Speaker
I mean, I understand that, though, and they don't need to. And honestly, like, if if they have a publisher or if they fucking need one, I would come out and and, you know, make something so melodramatic. So Tyler, the creator, if I was LMFAO right now, so apologetic.
00:23:46
Speaker
Um, and actually take like a story from a girl who like got assaulted during one of their parties and like, I dunno, make some sort of like remorseful, like, I have to deal with the fallout of this because I started dating this person and they're traumatized from this event.
00:24:03
Speaker
make songs about that and just see what happens. I mean, maybe that sadly in our capitalist world, that is a manipulative ploy to sell records on a different type of concept. I mean, it's like, it's interesting because it's like, you know, the idea of the concept album isn't new, but the way that it is.
High-Concept Albums & Storytelling
00:24:26
Speaker
I don't know if I want to say marketed but the way you consume it is differently even right because like yeah I mean the only reason liner notes you have to leave you right you just have all those things that you kind of totally totally right yeah and the gorillas I guess are the closest to like a high concept sort of like album thing but that's still vague it's like what's the story where did these guys come from
00:24:45
Speaker
I never, I always get my back oddly up about gorillas and I don't know why. I just could never get it. I never, I was always like, okay, great. But hey, you know what? You know what a good example is? It's fucking Mario, like the Mario brothers. Okay. Like they're now just starting to give a story and they're like, yeah, and then like DK and like, you know, and
00:25:08
Speaker
and Mario they have like a little thing they're trying to make a story out of like a Japanese mushroom filled idea you know what I mean which which is hilarious to me in so many different ways but also it's just like you know it's like you can just picture it's just you and your friends and you're like I can't fucking plumber he's like oh he's going through pipes and shit like that he's gotta save a princess and they're like how do they fucking make something like shut up man just make the thing we got
00:25:29
Speaker
We only have one, we only have two colors. The princess, she's pink. You know what I mean? That guy's green. He's a frog or a dinosaur or a turtle. I don't know. Hey, yeah, is this a turtle or a duck? It's kind of both. It's a Bowser. It's a Koopa. I don't fucking know. It's a turtle dove.
00:25:45
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I mean, I think when it comes down to, uh, to, to like high concept stuff and then explaining it later, I actually really liked that as just like brainstorming ideas, because if you make something vague, then people can kind of really connect with.
00:26:02
Speaker
trying to figure out what that story means. And this is why, you know, calling yourself definitely not aliens and just making regular music is where we're at.
Beauty in Art & Funding Challenges
00:26:12
Speaker
But if we ever have the call to like make something deeper, we're actually prepared for that. You know, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, everything is can be finite if it wants to be. We're just trying to like make art that's that's pretty. And and if we get funded for something, then we'll make it.
00:26:32
Speaker
I love that. The Canadian artist mantra, right? I'd love to make it. Could someone help me out first? Well, luckily, you know, honestly, if I just went when in my like post-secondary or even secondary school, if they just taught us how to write grants, I'd be a millionaire right now. Oh, my God.
00:26:52
Speaker
Have you ever had any success with Canada Council? I don't think I've ever gotten a personal grant. I know I've got a few for my organizations I've worked for, but I've never ever gotten one for personal.
00:27:03
Speaker
Well, I mean, especially if anybody on Canada Council is listening, I haven't yet, but I really do blame myself. I think that if you budget something that makes sense and you're nice and clear and concise and you have a really clear idea, I think that the board should be able to understand where you're coming from now.
00:27:26
Speaker
What's great for me in the timing of this is I can check boxes that never existed before. I can call myself a person of color and that means something. It's not special treatment. It's just they're finally looking at these to make their art more inclusive, to make Canada more inclusive. They want to start funding more of these projects.
00:27:53
Speaker
I think that's nice. I think it's a good thing. And I want to take advantage of it before I just end up going back into the background. Well, I mean, it is. It's that sad thing, too,
Cultural Inclusion & Systemic Issues
00:28:05
Speaker
right? Because it's like there's so much fucking petulant pushback, you know, like, you know, we're recording the episode will be out in March, but like.
00:28:12
Speaker
you know, we're recording in February, which is, you know, in the States, I believe in Canada, too, is Black History Month. And, you know, and it's like, how many fucking times do you see on Twitter, you see online somewhere, some fucking dipshit mouth be there being like, where's the White History Month? And it's like, it's like, there's no, you know, I don't understand this concept. It's like, it's zero sum thinking, right? Of like, if one person has something, then it's taking away from me when what it's actually doing, and which is what I think these programs are doing, is it's
00:28:41
Speaker
widening the scope of who can do these things. And that's only ever going to benefit culture and thought and creativity and push programs. The only thing that people can't colonize is oppression.
00:29:01
Speaker
Jesus. I don't even know. I don't even know. You need to say more on that because that's a beautiful fucking statement and you have just like struck me dumb and I love it. Well, I mean, I guess it's it's all a part of the belief that
00:29:19
Speaker
that if people are starting to get attention for systemic racism, that is something that a lot of people,
00:29:32
Speaker
privilege is a scale. It's just like Kyle Rittenhouse is a murderer, you know? And so you look at that and you're like, okay, well, if anybody else did that, they wouldn't be able to make him a poster boy for the KKK. Um, but also like.
00:29:56
Speaker
Oppression isn't something that anybody wanted. And so when when people start like speak, I'm South African, so like apartheid was like basically, I don't know, light slavery on the most recent. So when it. But even when I say this, like this is a side and a side in South Africa, there's so much microaggressions there. Like our country was better when white people were running it because when they skipped, when they like
00:30:24
Speaker
Suddenly we're like, okay, you know what you guys take care of it They've already created so much systemic pain and so much, you know, so many different like wheels are turning Corporations diamonds and all that kind of stuff so many different structures and payment You know payment processing Regulations and all that that by the time the Africans got back ahold of it it was a mess and none of them were educated enough to take care of it properly and
00:30:54
Speaker
So, I mean, that's not white people being better at taking care of a country than black people. It's systematically keeping them unable to do it. And simple people don't see systemic prejudice. They don't see anything like that. They might feel it sometimes because that system has also put them in situations like I'm just I'm trying to talk to that like
00:31:20
Speaker
you know, blue collar fucking guy who's who's like, Oh, yeah, but like, this is a world for women and fucking black people now. And like, all the black people in my school were like way cooler and everybody wanted to be them. And they got all the chicks and like, you know, now I sit alone and I fucking have a drinking problem. And it's like that you brought that on yourself. And like, you know, and no one did that. Yeah.
00:31:45
Speaker
And so when I say that the only thing you can't colonize is oppression is now that people are making these statements that are about their own pain or systemic problems and fighting for the underdog and recognizing what redlining is in America, places where you're not allowed to buy mortgages or banks are instructed not to give black people mortgages in certain areas.
00:32:14
Speaker
That type of ideology is cool now. And so now white people are like, oh, they keep saying white people and that's not me because no one just gave me a check for being white.
00:32:32
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, all my Jewish friends have like been dealing with the same shit. It'd be like, yeah, where's my, where's my Jewish check then? Huh? Yeah. Yeah. So God, I mean, it's such a mess, right? It's such a mess. And it's like, and I think one of the things that, that really becomes such a overwhelming problem for it is that it's like, we, we can see all the problems.
Generational Changes & Social Action
00:32:54
Speaker
you know going back to like you're talking about the transfer power in South Africa is that it's like you know we can see all the problems but we're not in a place where we can actually take them over and actually fundamentally change them for the better as fast as we want or need them to be and yeah that's a really that's immediately really frustrating in in an era of internet with instant gratification and instantaneous communication where we
00:33:16
Speaker
We see the problem and we want it dealt with, but what we what we are grappling with is that it's going to take like generational incremental incremental changes and it doesn't feel like we have that time anymore. Yeah, that's extremely apt. And you're you're right. And, you know, I think it's part of the conversation, too. It's so funny because this is this is the thing that I run into with some people that are like on that fence there, you know, centrist that
00:33:44
Speaker
You know, they're kind of on that fence. They're always like, you know, I think the important part is that, you know, we can like talk about these things. And it's like, it's not like, yeah, sure. Like you're right. But like everything, like if I make sense on my side, you're just going to be like, well, I disagree. And then you just get to say the thing that you want to say. And then I tell you that that's like a part of systemic oppression. And you're like, well, I disagree. And then nothing changes.
00:34:11
Speaker
that that
00:34:23
Speaker
So, you know, yeah, yeah. Well, and that, I think that's honestly, that's one of the big sticking points for me is that it doesn't feel it's like, it's like, we're at this funny impasse where it's like, if we know it's actions that need to be taken, but every action feels like it's like on the razor's edge of like, you know, because
00:34:47
Speaker
to go really extreme, to want to incite some kind of revolution. As a student in history, every violent overthrow of any government, no matter how bad, has almost inevitably always led to, first, a power vacuum and then worse leadership. And so it's not really the path we want, but it feels like the way we're going because the conversation is too stagnant and it's too slow.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the world's been bought and sold so many times all the way. Anyways, you know, it's not there's no borders. There's only just percentages of who's buying what, you know. What is that? Is that network? He talks about that in network. It's from the fuck. You know, I'm bad as hell. I'm right. You know, he talks about that in that scene where he's like, it's just IBM and Enron or whatever. Yeah, 100 percent. And it is. Let's let's.
00:35:42
Speaker
Let's take a spin to something a little bit different. Let's let's let's try and let's try and lighten the mood just a little bit. I can talk about this shit all day. I'm like, I'm like, oh, yeah, what is talking about it doing? So what else? I think I think that's my problem is that I think I was hearing myself be like, but James, you're just sitting here talking like, you know.
00:36:02
Speaker
I love that. So many of my guests have some kind of connection to me, whether they're old friendships on Facebook, things like that. Yeah. And you and I have a very, very tenuous connection. We've only really actually hung out technically once, but one other time when we met. And it all revolves around the fact that you are
00:36:24
Speaker
sort of a trivia master in the city of Vancouver.
Trivia Nights: Sean's Journey
00:36:27
Speaker
And before we kind of get into the to the story, because I think it's a really funny story about that the night we met, I'd love to hear about sort of like your history with trivia and how you got involved in that. And what brought you to that night at Heroes Welcome? Yeah, so, you know, I'm a comic or I was a lot more active. I mean, now I just kind of go where the money is, which is sad. But
00:36:53
Speaker
Yeah, and the only days I have free are Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and no one's doing comedy on those days unless you're a pro. But yeah, there was this bar, it was called the Manchester and they were they had a comedy night. I'm sorry, they had a trivia night and the trivia host was just like really boring. And so the GM had a meeting with somebody that knew me and was like, I should really try Sean out at this. And they're like, OK.
00:37:23
Speaker
And so, you know, he, he came in and I was like, Oh man, I don't even know what I'm doing. And we started, they were like, yeah, we're buying packages from these guys. Nice guy's trivia. And I was like, okay, cool. And so I came in, I took their package, I read their questions. And then as time went by, just started getting more bold. And we went from having like maybe two, three teams in there.
00:37:44
Speaker
Uh, to a consistently packed room full of people that was, you know, that just needed to come every week and see what kind of antics I had. And, you know, I, I got to a pace and I got to a place and I was, I was basically doing trivia once a week and then bartending, um, acting every once in a while and, and, uh,
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah. And then I, another one of the venues that was in the same company was like, oh, you should do trivia here on Wednesdays. Then I had two and I'm consistently like, you know, juggling four or five a week now with my own company, making my own packages, which, you know, I just wanted to get paid more. So I was like, well, cut those guys out and I'll just do this myself.
00:38:29
Speaker
And now I have a stage and I have a pretty good audience. I mean, you know, I'm probably in front of a hundred people a night on each of my venues. You know, on Monday I'm at Bayside and that is a riot because I do trivia and then I DJ until 12.
00:38:47
Speaker
My trivia there is just it's just such a good group of like you know actual adults I say because they're like 30s and 40s and you know They love my nastiness. They want me to like sing I I do this round called
00:39:04
Speaker
called karaoke remixes, where basically I'll take a karaoke song and I'll rewrite all of the lyrics to the songs.
Trivia Culture & Personal Stories
00:39:11
Speaker
Yeah. And people like, they asked me to do that every single week and I can I do it like maybe once a month.
00:39:20
Speaker
Right. Right. But those types of bells and whistles, I think, really keep people involved. Yeah. You know, there's such a there's such a culture, there's such a trivia culture that I wasn't even really aware of until, you know, until kind of dipping my toes. Funny enough, they kind of they they talk about it a little bit in the rehearsal. I don't know if you saw that. Yeah. Yeah. There's like there's this there's this really deep culture around trivia and it's fascinating. And I'm like, I found myself really questioning why I'm not more involved in it because I had a
00:39:49
Speaker
fucking blast the night. Yeah. And you're so good at it. Oh, well, you had so many, like, you know, the different round styles, the different types of questions. Well, I'm different. Honestly, a lot of those trivia lifers, they don't like my night and, you know, or they're just like, hey, man, like we went to a trivia and it was so boring and we hated it. And I was like, yeah. And they're like, we have never won your trivia. We're here. We're getting fucking eighth. We're last like.
00:40:16
Speaker
We don't care, man. We just like your shit, you know? And, you know, I just put a little bit of effort in and at least it's kind of like me just taking a workshop and all of the things that I do, you know? And the reason why I mentioned doing karaoke remixes is because I get to actually practice singing.
00:40:31
Speaker
So that's there. And then I have all these other rounds. I mean, another thing is like I'm doing some voice work and just reading the questions has kind of retrained my brain to be very fast in in the.
00:40:48
Speaker
within the path of comprehension. So like even like making sure that the things that I say are registering in people's minds, creating those pictures is such a relationship as old as time. But when you're reading it on a piece of paper, you're not really connecting. So you have to kind of manipulate those. And the more that I do it, the better an artist and communicator I become anyway. So
00:41:12
Speaker
There's so many benefits and it's not a fallback career in a lot of ways, but it does. This is another way that I've monetized art. You know, I get to use my degree, if you will, in a very roundabout, weird way.
00:41:27
Speaker
And do you have like, I'll make sure in the show notes for this show, if you have like resources for people to find your trivia nights or like, you know, like what days to go to or anything like that, do you have links that they can check out for that kind of thing? Yeah, you can just connect with me on Instagram. All of my stuff is just kaboom atomic. I mean, if you're really interested in trivia nights, there is a Vancouver trivia blog that you can go to and you can just see where all of them are.
00:41:52
Speaker
, and
00:42:13
Speaker
And, you know, my price is higher than that. And they know what they got with me, but they're a nice pack now. So like, they're fine. They just needed a transition. And because the culture, people just love doing fucking trivia. And, you know, I, uh, I feel like I'm kind of just doing entertainment and asking questions at the same time.
00:42:37
Speaker
So to come to the night, this was last, I guess March now, it's almost been a year now. We were talking before we hit recording about, I really wanted to get your perspective on it, but then I realized you probably wouldn't even have known what was going on for me. So the reason I ended up at Heroes Welcome that night
00:42:58
Speaker
literally that morning. I've talked about this in various details on the show before, but literally that morning was the day I got an email from the wife of the man who my now ex-wife had been sleeping with for at least last year. And lots and lots and lots of gory details and lots of things that I had just no idea was going on. And she was writing to me to be like, how are you processing all this? How are you feeling about it? And I was like, well, ma'am, I'm only now discovering it.
00:43:28
Speaker
I don't know how I'm processing it just yet. So I got ahold of my friend and he said, maybe it here is welcome in 20 minutes, we're getting drunk. And so we get there and it's basically dead at that point.
00:43:45
Speaker
Um, and we're drinking and I'm telling the story and my other friend shows up and then, and then you show up and you hand us a scorecard. It was so funny because when I came up to your table to your friend was like, Hey, you know, don't kind of like
00:44:00
Speaker
like, don't give me a little don't. And I was like, hey, you know, I was like, fuck it. I'm just going to push through. I'm going to be here fast. Do you guys want to play trivia? Just leave it here. If you want to play, you play. If you don't, don't fucking don't worry about it. And I think you actually looked at me and there was just something there and you were just like, yeah, fuck it. Let's just do it. And I didn't know what was going on. The entire trivia, obviously. Yeah.
00:44:25
Speaker
Um, but I think, I think your friend may have told me when you went to the bathroom. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Like he didn't say like, you know, he didn't give me the gory details, but he was just like, yeah, no, he's going through some relationship shit right now.
00:44:40
Speaker
Because I, in reflection, I've always, whatever I've told people this story, I've always said of any night of my life, I've always wished I could watch that night back from someone else's perspective. Because I went through every fucking emotion you could have at some point. And I got thinking about like, I got thinking about you and I got thinking about how like one minute you'd look over and I would be like,
00:45:07
Speaker
balls out bawling just like racked with sobs and then like another question would come and then you'd look back and we'd be like laughing and getting the question and then you'd look back and i'd be like screaming and raging you know
00:45:22
Speaker
To read the tell hold on to read the back of the book here for a second for our audience You guys ended up winning I've been drinking since like 2 p.m I've been doing and like doubles like we were doing like every time we got a beer we'd get a shot of tequila So it was just like I was blind Oh, yeah drunk and then we won your crushing
00:45:47
Speaker
I think it was one of those times where it was just like all the songs that I was playing was like right in your guys' wheelhouse. Yeah, it was perfect. Do you remember your team name?
00:45:56
Speaker
I don't, I don't. It was something funny. I remember we made a point to not be like, we made a point to not be like, like mean-spirited or bitter or anything like that. It was something really good and funny, but for the life we cannot. It might've been like, it might've been something to do with Space Jam, because those two, my two buddies were like big, they're both big Space Jam boys, so. Yeah, I remember thinking it was pretty cool. Oh, maybe, yeah, I don't know.
00:46:21
Speaker
But it was magic, and it was really so funny. So one of the things we won was a t-shirt that I've never been able to bring myself to wear. But we also won a six-pack, and we drank a bunch of them on the walk to the train. But I saved one, and I still have it. I was going to drink it on the anniversary. That's a little celebration. I don't know if beer goes bad. I don't think it ages like wine.
00:46:48
Speaker
It's funny, because like, you know, even though I remember that like so distinctly, like that's another day at the office for me. Right. Yeah. You know, like it's so many weird fucking things happen at my trivia is to, you know, like, you know, people get kicked out, people start bawling, people never see each other again after arguing about one of my questions. I don't know, man. It's just a lot of crazy stuff happens. But I did see you again. Yes.
00:47:16
Speaker
Where was that? I know we ran into each other. So we have a mutual friend, Katie Armstrong. Oh, yeah. And she was in town randomly. That's right. One night. And and we were having like a picnic and you showed up and I went, oh, fuck, it's you. That's so great. I love that.
00:47:38
Speaker
Yeah. And it was like, I mean, that was probably like May or something like that. And we've been trying to get this podcast going ever since then. I've had I've had multiple, you know, minor nervous breakdowns in the interim and I'm finally back on track. So, yeah, I know. You know, those those just come with the territory of being a creative and a capitalist world. Right. Fuck.
00:47:57
Speaker
So I only really have the universal questions that I ask to wrap up the show.
00:48:09
Speaker
A lot of what this show explores is this concept of friendship and what it means to be a friend.
Friendship: Cultivation & Growth
00:48:16
Speaker
I've been working with this new idea I got out of a CPTS debug about the idea of good enough. It stems from the idea of good enough parenting. You don't want to be a perfect parent, you want to be good enough.
00:48:30
Speaker
And I'm sort of extrapolating it to the rest of my behaviors. It's like dismantling perfectionism and all those kinds of things. So I'm curious in your estimation, what does it take to be a good enough friend? To be perfect. I'm just joking.
00:48:49
Speaker
Honestly, I think it comes from the other side. I think that it's the person who's receiving your friendship that really just needs to put everything into perspective. That if you sit with something long enough, it'll mold.
00:49:08
Speaker
I honestly think that any interaction with any human being is, it's food. And if things sit out or if you, you know, if you don't treat it properly, it is, it's not going to be good for you. But if you cultivate it and you know, you spice it up or you, you know, you cook it properly and you set yourself up with success, you know,
00:49:32
Speaker
I think there are different types of relationships, too, because, you know, I work with perfectionists and I'm, I'm fast, you know, I'm a flow person. So basically I'm just, I'm in this little boat on the ocean and art is floating by and I just grab it and I put it in.
00:49:54
Speaker
And suddenly I have this song that's a metaphor for painting a house and I am the one who gets it the most. And, um, you know, I work with a perfectionist who I'm like, Hey, you know, I think, I think you're kind of getting fixated on this. Um, and it's a, it becomes a balance, you know, it becomes this really good balance where it's like, Hey, you know,
00:50:21
Speaker
I think, yeah, I don't know. I think good enough is a weird, it has a negative connotation in its tradition, I think. That's what I'm trying to sort of explore, you know what I mean? That's one of the elements I'm trying to take away, is that it's good to be good enough, right?
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah, I suppose so. You know, it's interesting how the universe works, I guess, because I was kind of talking about this with my ex that that is there are people that live entire lives being insignificantly happy.
00:50:58
Speaker
And there is so much glory and simplicity. And as long as you know yourself though, you know, like if you're like for some reason there's this guy that's born somewhere and he is the best lather in the world and he'll never get to lathe. Yes.
00:51:22
Speaker
So part of your life is exploration and part of your life is finding something that makes you happy and people, and you know, we're, we're mimickers. We mimic each other. And so if we can find a way to just be joyous, the world will be joyous. On that note about mimicking last question, what's something that listeners could try to do? What's an actionable thing they could try this week to be a better friend?
Enhancing Friendships: Tips & Goals
00:51:53
Speaker
Uh...
00:51:55
Speaker
Wow. Um, so much, uh, write journal. I think that you should journal and you should put a goal in there, um, to do something nice, to do something nice for somebody. I mean, when you look at your friends, they're not just a burden for you to like drop all of your emotional stuff. They should be that, but it should be balanced out with listening to them.
00:52:25
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, if there's one piece of advice about friendship that I have, it's that everybody has their own journey and you don't have to relate. You do not have to relate when someone is telling you about a problem that they have. You don't have to say, Oh yeah, I've had that problem.
00:52:48
Speaker
right you can just listen it's like the most important thing in the world like when you were going through your you know messy breakup if your friends at the table were just like oh i remember when someone cheated on me in high school you're like yeah it's a little bit fucking different brah a little different
00:53:10
Speaker
That's beautiful, though. I really, really value your perspective on both those questions. The idea of how you receive friendship is just as important as how you give friendship, you know, and then that the tip, you know, because so often the tips either I hear or that I give myself are often like much more proactive towards other people, whereas, you know, encouraging yourself to actually reflect within and
00:53:36
Speaker
make some personal commitments, I think is a beautiful, beautiful piece of advice. And I really, I really thank you for that perspective. Thank you. Sean, Sean, I am saying you are a fucking joy. You're absolutely incredible.
Conclusion & Upcoming Projects
00:53:49
Speaker
I've just, I've absolutely loved this conversation and I just like, I find myself like,
00:53:56
Speaker
I don't know what the word is. Like, I just find myself so inspired by you and just so, so like, I feel really lucky to have found this connection with you. And I really, you know, I love this time and I really look forward to hopefully, you know, chat it again soon. Well, yeah. Well, let's do that professionally. And on a chill thing, I have a podcast called That's Dumb. I love it. I love it. And I would
00:54:22
Speaker
It's dumb, though. I'd love to have you on it. It's basically just ideas that we would never be able to afford and ideas that like are just stupid that you just like to see in the world because the world's fucking dumb anyways. Yeah. And I have like prompt questions. It's a little bit more laborist than this was. But that's cool. That's cool. But I'd love to have you on that as well.
00:54:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing. You absolutely signed me up for that because I'm super into it. Before we sign off, do you have where can listeners find you? Where would you like to guide anyone to? Yeah, under Kaboom Atomic. Yeah, exactly. Under Kaboom Atomic or definitely not Aliens, you can find me on all streaming platforms. You can also find That's Dumb, I Love It, my podcast. We're going to be starting season two. Well, we already started, but we're going to be launching that in the summer.
00:55:13
Speaker
Trivia, I'm actually, I look at my trivia life as school and there is a graduation program and that is something that I'm gonna be starting in Vancouver called the Rent Money Game Show where people are gonna be doing a mix of trivia and like skill, skill shots and all sorts of weird sort of things on the stage at Ria Theatre every month and the winner's gonna have $2,000.
00:55:41
Speaker
Amazing. To pay their rent. A lot of people are asking me, like, why isn't it $10,000? And be like, well, because that's a vacation and rent. And $2,000 is barely your rent. For real, though. Yeah, I know. But so, yeah, we're working on that right now. There's a lot of things that we have to figure out, but we want to make it so silly. So you can check on that in Vancouver. It's coming at some point in 2023.
00:56:09
Speaker
And then, yeah, you can also, I have a movie coming out called Prom Pact on Disney Plus, where I play a principal. I'm funny. My trivia is, you know, I'm at Bayside on Mondays. On Tuesdays, I'm at London Pub. On Wednesdays, I'm in North Van at Deep Cove Distillery. And on Thursday, I'm in Castaway. But make reservations at these places because they're packed.
00:56:34
Speaker
Fucking A. Well, all that info is going to be in the show notes. One more time. Sean Amzing, you're the fucking best. Thank you so much. Likewise, man. This is great. Thank you so much.
00:56:57
Speaker
And that's it. Thanks once again to Sean for coming on the show. If you want to check out his work, be sure to follow him on all the social medias at Kaboom Atomic. The links will be in the show notes. And while you're there, why not follow a few of my links? I'm working on building up some new resources for the show and I've launched a bunch of new digital products. If you check me out on PennSight, you'll find ebook guides on how to be a better friend and how to create your own daily creative practice just like me.
00:57:22
Speaker
Also, don't forget to sign up for the friendless sub-stack. You'll get free access to a monthly roundup of books, movies, and music recommendations, writing prompts to try out, and tips on being a better friend to yourself and to others. All those links are in the show notes, so please do go check them out. It would help me out so much. But,
00:57:41
Speaker
That's it for me this week, so let's wrap it up. I hope to catch you back here soon. But hey, let's not worry about that, because that is then, and this is now. So for now, all I'll say is I love you, and I wish you well. Fun and safety, sweeties.
00:58:12
Speaker
you
00:58:33
Speaker
. .
00:59:03
Speaker
you