A Showquest To The Heart

Transcript

Speaker: People ask me if it was tough growing up with a cop for a dad.

Speaker: It really wasn't that bad.

Speaker: There were just a few things that bothered me.

Speaker: You know when you're eating dinner and you're trying to cut your food, but you can't get any motion with the knife because you're handcuffed to the table?

Speaker: Anyone else in here have a father who had an interesting job?

Speaker: It was a blast having a cop for a dad.

Speaker: It's real easy to get away with stuff

Speaker: A normal household, you're playing with your brother, you break a vase, you both just kind of back away.

Speaker: I didn't do it, I didn't do it.

Speaker: Nobody knows the difference.

Speaker: My dad's dusting for fingerprints.

Speaker: He's lining me and my brother up in the living room, asking the dog, hey boy, you recognize anybody, huh?

Speaker: I can't put all the blame for my troubled childhood on my dad.

Speaker: I have to take some of the blame and put it on my mom.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: My mom, she's really, don't get me wrong, I love her.

Speaker: She's just a little manipulative, you know?

Speaker: She kind of turned me into a mom's boy, you know?

Speaker: I figured I should probably get her a conductor's baton so she can better orchestrate my life, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Get a new job, move back home with me.

Speaker: I know what's best, break up with her, she's no good for you.

Speaker: Riley Green, tuck in your shirt, clean up your room.

Speaker: Do as I say, do as I say, do as I say, stay, stay, stay, your mama's little boy.

Speaker: Well, here we are.

Speaker: Man, it's been such a long time.

Speaker: It's really embarrassing, Kurgle.

Speaker: We've got, I think, three episodes.

Speaker: Is this our third episode of 2024?

Speaker: I feel like we should have recorded a lot more.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: It's been a long time.

Speaker: I have been sitting in here since the last episode waiting for you to come back on.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: And never see you.

Speaker: But I'm here.

Speaker: I am present.

Speaker: I'm ready.

Speaker: Yeah, and I'm kind of sweltering here as audio only.

Speaker: You can see nobody else can, but I'm wearing kind of a, what colour would you call this?

Speaker: Maybe it's not quite pink, but it's kind of a new trendy t-shirt.

Speaker: And my face is kind of the same colour as my t-shirt.

Speaker: I've been to the beach today, so I've got a very red forehead and nose and then white marks around my eyes where my sunglasses were.

Speaker: Yeah, you do look kind of like a tomato.

Speaker: It might, it might orange out a little bit.

Speaker: I'll get my Trump, my Trump vibe going.

Speaker: So what's the, what's the weather like, the temperature where you are?

Speaker: Uh, you're going to ask me what that is now in Fahrenheit.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: It's been in the sort of the, like we work in centigrade here.

Speaker: So it's been kind of late twenties, which I'm going to just Google this quickly.

Speaker: So it's about in the early eighties, something like that.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So I'm not sure what that's like for you guys, but for us, that's pretty nice.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We had earlier this week, we had two or three days.

Speaker: So we're right around a hundred, but yesterday and today it's been seventies.

Speaker: Monday, it's going to be 93.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So for Belgium, that's pretty hot.

Speaker: But I remember a couple of summers ago, I think it was, it might've actually been around the time of COVID.

Speaker: We had it about 104, something like that.

Speaker: That was really, really, really hot.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then you're grateful for the air conditioning, but we don't have air conditioning in our home.

Speaker: So I may melt away during the duration of this podcast, but I'll try my best to stay as active as possible.

Speaker: So yeah, let's catch up, Kirgel.

Speaker: How are things since we last spoke?

Speaker: So you've been sat there waiting for me since our last interview, which was with the fantastic Mr. Raichu, if memory serves correctly.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: And I didn't have anything to do because I just have to wait for all the work to be done in our new house.

Speaker: So there was nothing for me to do.

Speaker: So I just sat here.

Speaker: And waited and waited.

Speaker: But we are getting closer to moving.

Speaker: Hopefully the carpet is on its way now.

Speaker: So hopefully another week or so.

Speaker: A lot of the carpet in.

Speaker: It's already been painted.

Speaker: Kitchen's done.

Speaker: We just have a bathroom.

Speaker: We decided to go ahead and redo that too.

Speaker: So that's holding us up a little bit.

Speaker: But hopefully next time we have an episode, you'll get to see my new game room.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So is this like a woman cave?

Speaker: Yeah, but better because it'd be full of board games.

Speaker: Kyle Mann would be impressed.

Speaker: Yeah, I have had my board games stacked in the basement for years.

Speaker: I can't even get to some of them.

Speaker: So I'm really looking forward to organizing them all.

Speaker: So that'd be cool.

Speaker: And then I have about two weeks left before I allow Gizmo to start calling herself a senior.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: I don't know how we got to this point.

Speaker: You know, I treated all of her skinned knees.

Speaker: I made sure she had a roof over her head.

Speaker: I paid for her dance classes.

Speaker: I drove around to all of her activities, kept her teen laundry pile under control.

Speaker: And I probably fixed dinner for her over the years, probably like five or six times.

Speaker: And how does she repay me?

Speaker: She's talking about leaving.

Speaker: So she grew up.

Speaker: Yeah, that's what they do.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: My oldest turned 16 on Monday.

Speaker: By the time this podcast comes out, probably have already happened.

Speaker: Is 16 the driving age in Belgium?

Speaker: No, I think it's 18, which in the UK it's 17.

Speaker: I think when you're 16 or 17, you have to first take like a theory or theoretical exam.

Speaker: So the Belgians love their paperwork and red tape.

Speaker: So I think first you've got to kind of master the, yeah, the kind of the...

Speaker: behind the scenes and knowledge, which judging from a lot of the motorists over here, I think some people could benefit from retaking their theoretical exam because they just have no clue what they're doing.

Speaker: But yeah, so it'll be another year or two before she's on the road.

Speaker: So I've still got time just to prepare myself mentally for that challenge.

Speaker: But we typically pay for lessons over here.

Speaker: You can teach your kids as well, but then you have the professional driving schools as well that help you get behind the wheel.

Speaker: So we'll be probably looking at that as well.

Speaker: And then, yeah, so I don't know what it's like over there in terms of the age that kids go off to college, but we'll probably have another couple of years.

Speaker: And then our oldest will be wanting to head off to, well, we call it university.

Speaker: or higher school.

Speaker: So yeah, time goes quickly, hey?

Speaker: Yeah, so speaking of colleges, so now we're in the mode where we're starting to visit colleges, so we're out and about.

Speaker: So the one good thing about that is we were in the area.

Speaker: So we got to meet Dr. Conservative Prof in person.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: He messaged me to tell you that you'd met up.

Speaker: And he said, yeah, Kurgle's very small.

Speaker: And Mr. Kurgle is very tall.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: But I didn't see a photo of Mr. Kurgle.

Speaker: I saw a very nice one of the two of you together.

Speaker: Yeah, we should have t aken a picture of all of us, but yeah, he is quite tall.

Speaker: I still remember the photo of you with Austin, because Austin's quite tall, isn't he?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: I don't remember who's taller, but he and Mr. Kurgle are about the same.

Speaker: So size-wise, you can picture the same difference.

Speaker: So the next time we talk then, the background, because it is a real kitchen.

Speaker: It's not one of those kind of Zoom backgrounds that you can set up.

Speaker: Because I had wondered if you'd moved already and you're just using the same backgrounds of the kitchen.

Speaker: No, as much as I would like it to be fake, it is a real kitchen in my house.

Speaker: Testament to the fact that it's often climbed on by Glurk as we're recording our episodes.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yeah, I think she's sleeping somewhere now, so hopefully she won't bug us, at least until it gets to be time for food.

Speaker: I've experienced a major, major life change.

Speaker: I'm intrigued.

Speaker: I'm all ears.

Speaker: And this might come to a shock to some people in the forum.

Speaker: I have realized that the Princess Bride...

Speaker: has dropped to my number two favorite movie of all time.

Speaker: I'm shocked and I'm horrified.

Speaker: What has replaced one of the best movies of all time?

Speaker: Well, it should be the best movie of all time.

Speaker: Princess Bride has been my favorite.

Speaker: It came out, I think, in 87 and it's been my favorite since then.

Speaker: So the movie that has replaced that is Come Play.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't think a lot of people have heard about it.

Speaker: Come play.

Speaker: Yeah, it came out in 2020.

Speaker: It's very creepy.

Speaker: And yeah, Mr. Kurgle went to see a movie with some friends and he told me that he saw a preview for a movie, said it looks really creepy, but looks good.

Speaker: And I said, stop, don't tell me anymore.

Speaker: We'll go see it.

Speaker: Because, you know, I like to know as little about a movie.

Speaker: Oh man.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Just a word of warning to our listeners.

Speaker: If you don't like creepy movies, do not Google Come Play.

Speaker: That is pretty terrifying.

Speaker: It is, I would say, is probably the creepiest movie that I've ever seen.

Speaker: And it has done so well that I've seen it five or six times now.

Speaker: And it is still as creepy as the first time I saw it.

Speaker: But that's not the reason that I like it so much.

Speaker: The reason is my favorite is because of the story.

Speaker: I'm not going to tell you any more.

Speaker: But if you don't mind creepy movies, I would say be sure to see it.

Speaker: On the advice of some of the guys in the writer's room, I decided to watch Stranger Things.

Speaker: Have you seen that?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: I wish the language and the content was better, but for the show itself, we really, really enjoyed it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's good you mentioned the language.

Speaker: I'm perhaps a little, unfortunately I'm used to the bad language now and I don't, sometimes I don't even notice it anymore.

Speaker: But yeah, that, that did strike me to start with, cause it's like a coming of age series and the kids are kind of what the first season, maybe what, 10, 11, something like that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: They're kind of using vowel language, which I started, I was like, okay, but I kind of plowed through cause it was recommended by

Speaker: some people that I respect their opinions.

Speaker: And, um, it was amazing.

Speaker: I'm just on the fourth season now of just a couple of days ago, just watched episode one of season four.

Speaker: That seemed a little bit, well, it was a lot darker and more horror esque than the other ones.

Speaker: The other seasons, it's kind of explained away, even though it's got monsters and stuff, it's kind of like, well, you know why.

Speaker: And, um,

Speaker: it's not like demons.

Speaker: It's just another dimension and that sort of thing.

Speaker: But this one did seem kind of, it was a bit creepy.

Speaker: So I'm not sure.

Speaker: Well, I'll give their second episode a try, but if it continues like that, I might have to stop.

Speaker: But I did, I did really enjoy the first, the first three seasons.

Speaker: It was really, really enjoyable.

Speaker: Yeah, I did.

Speaker: And I've always just liked scary movies.

Speaker: I'm quite surprised.

Speaker: I thought you were, I thought you'd be more conservative, Kirgil, in your, in your movie viewing.

Speaker: I don't like it when there's a lot of bad language, but

Speaker: I love a good zombie flick.

Speaker: Well, I really enjoyed it.

Speaker: If you go back in the archives to the old B podcasts, you might remember they had, oh, what's his name?

Speaker: Brian Godawa.

Speaker: He's a Christian film critic.

Speaker: And, um, they had some really cool, uh, movie related podcasts.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: this guy was talking about how God can use horror.

Speaker: I was like, really?

Speaker: So I listened to what he had to say and it kind of made sense, actually.

Speaker: I think, you know, a lot of these movies, they do have a really good, you know, you've got the, and sometimes the evil is kind of over-focused, but there is a real good, good versus evil thing to these movies.

Speaker: And that's why, yeah.

Speaker: Although I wouldn't go out of my way to watch horror, to be honest.

Speaker: I think they can potentially have their place in highlighting real evil.

Speaker: Yeah, if they're done well, they make you think.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: But before anyone freaks out too much on me for dropping Princess Bride to number two, I would add that shortly before I saw this movie, I had something happen that really upset me that kind of paralleled part of the theme.

Speaker: So I had a hyper-emotional reaction to the movie.

Speaker: So I know that plays into me liking the movie so much.

Speaker: But I really like the story.

Speaker: And I will say that I think it is a great Mother's Day movie.

Speaker: Interesting.

Speaker: And I will say no more.

Speaker: So yeah, I think that's pretty much everything with me.

Speaker: Anything else you've been up to?

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: Not too much to report this end, really.

Speaker: It's been summer vacation now since, but then again, it has been a while since our last recording.

Speaker: So I think-

Speaker: Oh my goodness.

Speaker: It was May 11th was our last podcast with Alola Raichu.

Speaker: Oh, wow.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I had my exams at the very, very back end of May into early June and yeah, they went okay.

Speaker: I passed all but one.

Speaker: So I've got to retake one exam now.

Speaker: unfortunately on August 19th.

Speaker: So not particularly looking forward to that, but all the others I got through and passed.

Speaker: So I've just got one more year left starting around September 18th, I think.

Speaker: And then that's my very final year.

Speaker: So I'll be...

Speaker: busy doing assessed teaching, writing what we call a bachelor dissertation, and just completing a few more exams in January.

Speaker: So January is the last bout of exams, and then that's that that's done.

Speaker: And then it's, I'm hoping, because after the Easter break here, I don't have much academic work left to do.

Speaker: It's really just doing teacher experience.

Speaker: So I may

Speaker: try and get a job already as a teacher and combine it with gaining the experience that way.

Speaker: We'll see if that's possible.

Speaker: That'll be here soon.

Speaker: Oh yeah, I know.

Speaker: It's gone so quickly.

Speaker: And I was looking back at some photos recently from 2020 and I had this nice, fully dark beard and now it's just completely gray.

Speaker: So I think all the last three or four years have just made me go gray.

Speaker: But yeah, then again, and it's my birthday soon as well.

Speaker: Oh, yep.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: This is your birthday month.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I'm going to be 44.

Speaker: So yeah, the big 5-0 is getting steadily closer with every passing year.

Speaker: And the way it's going, it won't be long before it's here.

Speaker: That's going to be very weird.

Speaker: You know, I'm a little closer to that than you are.

Speaker: But yeah, it's going to be strange.

Speaker: I mean, it was strange getting to 40 because 40 is old, you know, that's old people.

Speaker: And now when you're in your 40s, it's not that old.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know, I guess it's like that when you get into your 50s as well.

Speaker: And, you know, I know quite a few people in their 50s and,

Speaker: They look good.

Speaker: They don't really look that old.

Speaker: And yeah, it's just a number, isn't it?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, then I forget which event it was, but someone in the Olympics yesterday said they were 30.

Speaker: And Gizmo said, wow, they're 30?

Speaker: That's so old.

Speaker: Well, you know, I remember I may have told this before, but in the years ago, my wife and I were just married.

Speaker: So I was what, probably 24.

Speaker: And we were hanging out with a good friend of ours who was in his late thirties at the time.

Speaker: And he was living together with a, sharing a place with another guy.

Speaker: So they rented rooms or something like that.

Speaker: And I think the guy, unfortunately, had just been through a divorce and was just staying somewhere temporarily.

Speaker: So our friend said to us, oh, do you want to come out to mine and hang out with myself and this other guy?

Speaker: And yeah, I found out that he was 40.

Speaker: And I just remember saying to my wife, like, that's really old.

Speaker: He's like, that's really old guy.

Speaker: It's going to be really boring.

Speaker: And we ended up becoming the best of friends.

Speaker: And I really learned my lesson then that age isn't...

Speaker: It's just a number.

Speaker: And yeah, I think the older you get, the more you appreciate that as well.

Speaker: You know what was really, really weird?

Speaker: When Trump announced J.D.

Speaker: Vance as his running mate, and they said how old Vance is, it was so weird that the VP nomination, he is younger than I am now.

Speaker: Is he younger than me?

Speaker: How old is he?

Speaker: I think they said he's 39.

Speaker: Really?

Speaker: Yeah, if I remember correctly.

Speaker: Hang on, I'm going to Google this, JD.

Speaker: He's 40.

Speaker: Wow, so he's just turned 40.

Speaker: August 2nd is his birthday.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So he's pretty much four years younger than me.

Speaker: So, wow.

Speaker: Yeah, that's, well, you know, 40 is not that...

Speaker: Not that young, is it, for a politician?

Speaker: But it kind of reminds me of a headline I had a while ago.

Speaker: It's like something like, man considers paradox where old people are younger than him.

Speaker: Something like that.

Speaker: Just trying to put into words this feeling I have of when, oh, this person's old, but he's actually not, you know.

Speaker: I'm 37.

Speaker: What?

Speaker: I'm 37.

Speaker: I'm not old.

Speaker: But yeah, otherwise, so yeah, the whole university work is very all-consuming.

Speaker: And so I've been on summer break since July 1st.

Speaker: But there's so much to do here.

Speaker: It's...

Speaker: And I enjoy it, you know, lots of projects around the house, which I've been desperately trying to get around to doing for many months.

Speaker: So I'm not sitting here twiddling my thumbs, keeping busy really, just maintaining the house, trying to get our bathroom painted upstairs.

Speaker: I was just telling you, Kirgel, before we hit record, I've just finished painting in this room that I use to record in.

Speaker: So

Speaker: Everything's not quite in the place it should be yet, but we're getting there.

Speaker: But yeah, we haven't been on vacation this year.

Speaker: My parents are going to come over next week for a few days to see us.

Speaker: That'll be nice.

Speaker: But we nearly went away.

Speaker: But yeah, if I'm honest, finances are a little tight with me studying.

Speaker: So we decided...

Speaker: The wise thing to do is probably just hang out at home this year.

Speaker: And then we'll look to do something a bit bigger next year when I'm qualified to celebrate.

Speaker: One thing we are looking forward to, and I know I've talked about this a lot on Not The Bee.

Speaker: I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on the podcast before, but I think I have.

Speaker: I'm a huge dog lover.

Speaker: I love, in particular, Labradors.

Speaker: I've always loved them ever since I was a teenager.

Speaker: And, um, I, I think maybe about 10 years ago, I had the thought of, um, oh, maybe we could have a dog.

Speaker: And my wife was like, no, absolutely not.

Speaker: No way.

Speaker: So I was like, okay, fine.

Speaker: So, you know, I left it, um, brought it up every once in a blue moon just to test the waters and, you know, dip the toe in.

Speaker: Nope.

Speaker: So back out.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Still a no.

Speaker: And, um, yeah, we were, we were chatting recently, um, at the beginning of the summer break and I said, Hey, look, you know, I,

Speaker: If it's still a no, that's fine.

Speaker: But I just wondered how you felt about it.

Speaker: You know, I've been thinking about a dog and I think it'd be a real nice addition to our family.

Speaker: And it's my amazement.

Speaker: My wife said, yeah, actually, so have I. And I was like, woohoo.

Speaker: So my wife is on board.

Speaker: So we are actively looking for a dog, really trying to find a Labrador.

Speaker: And we actually came across a beautiful black Labrador tree.

Speaker: We thought about a puppy, but they cost a lot of money over here.

Speaker: And then you've got the time of training them and it's quite intensive.

Speaker: So we thought about adopting, which you can do.

Speaker: A lot of animal shelters have dogs that people have unfortunately changed their minds about or through circumstances, maybe they're divorcing or moving house.

Speaker: They can't have the dog anymore.

Speaker: So they give it to the shelter.

Speaker: So it's applied for a few dogs.

Speaker: Haven't heard anything back.

Speaker: We did go to see one dog, which everyone loved.

Speaker: And then they said, oh, sorry, we're choosing another family for the dog.

Speaker: So that was a bit devastating for my youngest.

Speaker: So been kind of praying that wouldn't happen again, that the next dog we go and look at would be the dog.

Speaker: But we, yeah, we came across a beautiful black lab who he's, I think he's two, two and a half.

Speaker: And he belongs to an organization that have guide dogs or some sort of assistance dogs.

Speaker: And he's basically gone through the training, but he's just, for whatever reason, not quite suitable as that particular kind of guide dog or assistance dog for people with a disability or whatever.

Speaker: So the organization has said, well, we'll look for a new home for him, a family that wants to take him on.

Speaker: So we've applied for that.

Speaker: We're waiting to hear and hopefully all being well, praying that we'll go ahead.

Speaker: If not, there's one or two others we've seen.

Speaker: So yeah, watch this space.

Speaker: No doubt I'll spam not the bee and I'll probably post a headline about it as well once, as in when we get a dog, but really, really excited about that.

Speaker: Yeah, hopefully next episode, you'll have a really good update.

Speaker: Let's hope it's not going to be another three months or so, but yeah, probably I'd like to think so by then, but I'm a very impatient person.

Speaker: I really do need to work on it.

Speaker: And, uh, you know, the, the moment my wife said, yes, I was immediately looking at dogs and applying and, you know, and I was like, uh, come on, I want to find a dog and it just takes so long.

Speaker: Uh, but yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: You learn in these, you learn in these moments, don't you?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Labs are the, the dogs that I'm most familiar with and they're pretty good dogs.

Speaker: Yeah, labs can be very, very hectic, very busy, very kind of time intensive and active.

Speaker: And it's really sad to see because people often advertise there.

Speaker: I'm on a group on Facebook for people who want to rehome Labradors.

Speaker: And you often see the same thing over and over again that people buy a cute puppy regularly.

Speaker: And then it hits puberty and it just becomes unmanageable and it bites everything.

Speaker: And then they're like, oh, we didn't know this was going to happen and we can't cope anymore.

Speaker: And come on, you know, do your research beforehand.

Speaker: But yeah, so yeah, hopefully next episode I'll have something to tell, but I'll definitely be spamming the forum and not the bee as and when it happens.

Speaker: Looking forward to it.

Speaker: So yeah, lots going on.

Speaker: And then it'll be all hands on deck as we say schools go back here September, the first Monday of September.

Speaker: So I think over there, some schools are back already.

Speaker: Is that right?

Speaker: Or when do they go back where you are?

Speaker: Yeah, I think some have either started or about to.

Speaker: Ours starts August 19th.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Now that's the day of my exam.

Speaker: Busy day.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I'm always excited when the holidays come and then when the holidays are here and the kids are moaning the board, I'm just like, okay, school soon.

Speaker: It's kind of this pressure to do stuff all the time.

Speaker: I just, I quite enjoy just being at home and chilling and just being together.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So obviously Kurgle, you know, we're talking about our updates and as we said already, there is an obvious person

Speaker: Missing from our conversation today, we miss him dearly.

Speaker: And we've had a bit of an update from the dearly beloved Dr. Conservative Prof. So what can you share with us at this stage, Kirgel, on his whereabouts and why he can't join us today?

Speaker: Well, unfortunately, he is not here with us, but the good thing is he got a first-class ticket over to Paris to watch the Olympics, and he's been texting us updates, and we are going to share them with the forum.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: Very excited, and I'm not sure if this is Prof's first time in Europe, but hopefully he can come and visit me.

Speaker: He's not that far away, actually.

Speaker: Paris is about three hours from here.

Speaker: But yeah, so one of the first messages we had from him, Kirgel, and you got this as well.

Speaker: Unfortunately, he missed the first bunch of competitions.

Speaker: And the reason for that is because he had a front row seat at the opening ceremony.

Speaker: He saw that very interesting depiction of the Last Supper with the blue guy and all those various strange looking people.

Speaker: Unfortunately, because he witnessed all that, he had to spend about three days at an emergency eyewash station.

Speaker: Yeah, that sounds rough.

Speaker: You know, I don't really feel bad for him, though, because do you remember before he left, he was going on and on, just constantly bragging.

Speaker: I got a front row ticket.

Speaker: I got a front row ticket.

Speaker: And yeah, so I was just really tired of hearing about his bragging.

Speaker: So yeah, he gets to spend three days washing his eyes out.

Speaker: Pride comes before a fall, you know.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But, you know, after that experience, seeing the whole opening ceremony, he texted us once he was kind of back to normal.

Speaker: He was really surprised with France because he thought after that opening ceremony –

Speaker: that the front should be really, really open-minded.

Speaker: But he said as he's walking around, he's still getting a lot of people just pointing at him and laughing and snickering and just talking behind his back.

Speaker: And he doesn't know what it is.

Speaker: He said he's kind of afraid that his socks don't quite match his Crocs.

Speaker: But yeah, he's getting a lot of weird looks.

Speaker: Yeah, that's kind of the American fashion over, well, who knows, but yeah, that's one of those things, isn't it?

Speaker: And then we had a third message from him as well.

Speaker: We know that he likes his things American, doesn't he?

Speaker: You know, we always hear about Ron Swanson.

Speaker: So he was understandably nervous about trying French cuisine, but he found a restaurant just right around the corner from his hotel called Burger King.

Speaker: And he said it was the best food he's ever tasted.

Speaker: So I guess French food isn't that bad after all.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And yeah, I was surprised, you know, I guess he was happy.

Speaker: He said he's been eating their breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day at Burger King.

Speaker: So, so I guess if anyone ever goes to France, look for Burger King.

Speaker: Hmm.

Speaker: Okay, so we have one more update.

Speaker: This is the latest thing that he's texted to us.

Speaker: And there's been so much going on in the news reporting about the Olympics.

Speaker: And probably the biggest thing has been that Algerian boxer in the women's competition.

Speaker: And Prof, he just wanted to kind of set the record straight because, yeah, all that happened.

Speaker: But he said, Iman Khalif, if I'm saying their name correctly,

Speaker: He said that he thinks that they really, really felt bad about the whole situation because after the boxing match, Prof was in the Olympic cafeteria and he saw them both.

Speaker: And Iman Khalif went over to Angela Carini, the Italian boxer, and offered to open her pickle jar for her.

Speaker: So hopefully they made up and everything's okay.

Speaker: No, that's a good deed, isn't it?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, so it sounds like he's having a really good time.

Speaker: I don't know how much he's really seeing, though, of the competitions because he's probably trying to find out all the budget information and details from the teams.

Speaker: And he's probably just keeping track of the scores and not even paying attention to the competitions.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: If there's any athletes there who are struggling to get to sleep, you know, they've got sleep issues, then maybe Prof could spend a bit of bedtime reading.

Speaker: He can read them his reports and findings of budgetary reports and findings from the Olympics, and that might just knock them straight out.

Speaker: Yeah, because if you're going to run one of those races, it's very important to have a good night's sleep the night before.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: But not recommended to try and run in Crocs.

Speaker: No, probably not.

Speaker: Yeah, so Kurgle, really excited with our guest.

Speaker: Obviously, from the title of this podcast, I think everyone will already know who it is.

Speaker: But we're very excited to speak to him.

Speaker: It's somebody who, you know, if I'm honest, I kind of was wondering if this was a sock puppet account for Mr. Kyle Mann.

Speaker: Because let's be honest, every time I log into the Bee, it seems, and I click on the forum,

Speaker: At the top, there's always a pinned headline from this particular guest and with a featured or a published, he's just taken a headline for him by storm.

Speaker: So there's a lot we can talk about with this guy and learn a lot from him, I'm sure as well.

Speaker: So I'm really excited.

Speaker: Yeah, I've been waiting to talk to our next guest for quite a while.

Speaker: But yeah, he is on fire right now.

Speaker: And like you said, every time I go to the forum, like, oh, there's another publish.

Speaker: Oh, there's another feature.

Speaker: So yeah, it's high time we had him on the show.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: And yeah, we'll get into that with him in a moment, but I think it will become clear why he's such a success.

Speaker: I was looking at his profile here on The Bee, and I just said to him before we hit record, his profile picture reminds me a little bit of JD Vance.

Speaker: I'm 37.

Speaker: I'm not old.

Speaker: We have the privilege of seeing each other face to face.

Speaker: And yeah, I can kind of see a little bit of a likeness.

Speaker: It is, of course, the one and only ShowQuest.

Speaker: Welcome to We the Beeple, sir.

Speaker: It's great to have you here.

Speaker: Thank you, Teej, and thank you, Curval.

Speaker: It's an honor to be here.

Speaker: As I told you before, I've been a big fan of the Babylon Bee for many years since they started in 2016.

Speaker: And I've been a big fan of both of you for the year or so that I've been in the hive.

Speaker: So it's really quite a thrill and an honor to meet both of you.

Speaker: I'm very excited.

Speaker: When I heard you were going to be the guest, I really have been waiting to meet you.

Speaker: And I think your username is perfect because right now you are like the great showman of the forum.

Speaker: So I have just one question for you.

Speaker: Are you tired of getting published yet?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I don't think that's possible.

Speaker: As you guys know, getting published is such a thrill.

Speaker: So no, there have been times where I've felt a little bit awkward when I've had some back-to-back stuff.

Speaker: Like I feel like, oh no, everyone's going to get sick of me.

Speaker: But no, it's such a thrill and an honor.

Speaker: I don't think I could ever get sick of it.

Speaker: How about you?

Speaker: You've been published a lot.

Speaker: Are you sick of it?

Speaker: No, it's a thrill every time.

Speaker: And yeah, I don't think you have to worry about feeling awkward if you have, you know, if you publish real, real close together, because I think everybody on the forum is just very excited for you and are really enjoying watching all of your success.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Plus, plus you are giving us some really good entertainment because your headlines are great.

Speaker: And your Photoshop's.

Speaker: Well, that's a fun part of it.

Speaker: And a little known secret is that I have no Photoshop skills.

Speaker: I have never opened the Photoshop application.

Speaker: Oh, really?

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: But what I have is I have art direction skills because that's part of what I do for a living.

Speaker: I'm a creative director in marketing and advertising.

Speaker: So, excuse me, I have a fairly well-evolved set of sensibilities for what goes into a successful image.

Speaker: And that's really the most important part.

Speaker: The mechanics of creating the image I'm able to do on my iPhone.

Speaker: It's all done with Keynote on the iPhone, which is just like a PowerPoint type of application.

Speaker: And, you know, an iPhone photos let you cut out images, you know, and cut out backgrounds.

Speaker: So I really I call myself a hack.

Speaker: You know, I just kind of hack it together and I cheat.

Speaker: You know, I'll use the right photo that's easy for me to work with.

Speaker: But thank you for the compliment.

Speaker: It's a fun part of it.

Speaker: The images are a really fun part of it.

Speaker: And nobody was doing it when I joined.

Speaker: And I remember thinking, what the heck?

Speaker: The image is half the fun.

Speaker: And I think I saw Y Antelope.

Speaker: do something.

Speaker: And so I asked him, how did you put an image in there?

Speaker: And he gave me this complicated explanation of HTML.

Speaker: And I worked with him and Little Jedi, and they helped me figure it out.

Speaker: And well, now it's a free for all.

Speaker: But I'm very surprised.

Speaker: I thought that with all your Photoshop skills, I pictured you having all this big software and everything because they're so good.

Speaker: The very few times I've tried to do anything, I kind of crop pictures and mess with them in Microsoft Word.

Speaker: So yeah, I always figured you had some really big program you were using.

Speaker: You know, if you get crafty with these apps, they can do more than you think.

Speaker: And like I said, there's ways to be creative with what kind of images you're choosing and what you're choosing to portray.

Speaker: There's ways to make it easier on yourself.

Speaker: And that's part of the challenge, too, because sometimes I'll want to do something and I can't do it because I don't have Photoshop skills.

Speaker: And then I lament my lack of, you know,

Speaker: knowledge in that area.

Speaker: Um, and then I have to find a different way.

Speaker: Like, okay, well maybe I don't show AOC, you know, being shot from a rocket.

Speaker: Maybe I just show her, you know, close up and the rockets in the background or something, you know, and it's, there's always ways to kind of finagle something, but thank you for the compliment.

Speaker: I love making the images.

Speaker: It's, it's really fun.

Speaker: But it has become a lot easier to upload images now.

Speaker: I think the development team added a feature, I don't know when it was, three, four months ago, perhaps, whereby you can just click to upload an image.

Speaker: Whereas before, I know Little Jedi had this huge explanation, very helpful, telling people line by line how to put an image into their headline.

Speaker: Yes, it is way, way easier now.

Speaker: The only drawback is that now you cannot change your image after you upload it.

Speaker: That's true.

Speaker: And I am a notorious, I fiddle with my thing, you know, with my headlines and my images.

Speaker: And I notoriously like to keep improving things.

Speaker: And I often use that full six-hour window.

Speaker: Because I will be doing something else and it'll pop in my head like, oh, wait, that's the word you should have used, you know, and I'll go back in.

Speaker: And the same thing with images, but now, you know, now you can't change them.

Speaker: So if the dev team is listening, please let us change the images once again.

Speaker: I have to confess I'm the same as you, ShowQuest.

Speaker: I don't use PowerPoint either.

Speaker: I've used Pages on my Mac.

Speaker: So very rudimentary, very basic, but it just allows you to crop, move things around.

Speaker: And I literally just screen grab what I've done and save it as a JPEG and upload it to the... But typically what I... I mean, I haven't been as active in that regard over the last few months, but I do take full advantage of ChatGPT's image creation now.

Speaker: So I've got a...

Speaker: I've got the kind of the paid version of ChatGPT and it's pretty, pretty good, actually.

Speaker: It's pretty, pretty cool what you can generate.

Speaker: And I think we talked about that last time with Alola Wright, didn't we?

Speaker: And some of the ways that AI pictures.

Speaker: And I see, because you mentioned a while ago, a moment ago that nobody else seemed to be doing it.

Speaker: But I think now a lot of people are making, I know, is it Don't Slow the Earth?

Speaker: He's often posting pictures and one or two others as well.

Speaker: Yeah, he has.

Speaker: He has quite a few.

Speaker: Yeah, it's fun, you know, and the AI images are fun.

Speaker: I get it.

Speaker: And it's a little easier for people.

Speaker: But for me personally, you know, I see what we do in the forum and what the Babylon Bee does is, you know,

Speaker: The joy and the humor of the Babylon Bee is that they are pretending to be a real news article, right?

Speaker: And that's the whole premise of the humor.

Speaker: And...

Speaker: The headlines are posing as real news headlines, but they're not real.

Speaker: And the images are posing as real images, but of course they're not real.

Speaker: So for me personally, number one, I would say is what's most important in the forum is that people have fun.

Speaker: And we're all there to support the Babylon Bee and we're all there to support each other.

Speaker: And that's the number one most important.

Speaker: However, for me personally, just from my perspective,

Speaker: I don't want to break that wall.

Speaker: I want to always, to me, like the joy and the magic is in pretending to be real when it's not real.

Speaker: And for me, the AI images kind of break that wall, right?

Speaker: Because you would never see an AI image in a news story.

Speaker: Again, it doesn't matter.

Speaker: If people have fun with it, that's great.

Speaker: And I applaud it.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: But that's part of the joy for me is that you'll see an image on the bee that's like...

Speaker: It's funny because it's so like they're trying to make it look real, but it's obviously not real.

Speaker: Obviously, Trump is not riding on the back of a bear drinking vodka.

Speaker: So but they try to make it look real.

Speaker: So to me, that's kind of part of what's the magic is, is that, oh, you're trying to convince me that this is real, but it's obviously not real.

Speaker: Yeah, the AI pictures are fun to play around with for those of us who don't have those big Photoshopping skills.

Speaker: Yeah, they're fun, like you say, in the forum, and you can do a lot with them.

Speaker: I would not want to see them on the B's front page, though.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: A good Photoshop is always better.

Speaker: Because to me, it's like when they first started putting CG effects in movies,

Speaker: I did not like it at all.

Speaker: Right, right.

Speaker: And even now, even though you can make it look better in a lot of movies with the CGI, but I still like having a physical puppet there.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: It might not look quite as realistic, but it feels real.

Speaker: It feels like there's actually something there.

Speaker: Right, right.

Speaker: And it cracks me up, you know, when there's some ludicrous situation, you know, and it's like, oh, right, you know, that's not happening.

Speaker: But it's almost this sort of obstinate, defiant persona of the bee, of what the bee is.

Speaker: You know, I picture the bee as this person who's sort of defiant and they have their chest out and it's like,

Speaker: And they know that they're being silly, but they refuse to break down and admit it.

Speaker: So, yeah, that's all part of the magic.

Speaker: But like I said, everybody, have fun.

Speaker: Do what you want.

Speaker: What matters is that we're all supporting the bee and each other.

Speaker: It's true what you said.

Speaker: And if you actually go over to NotTheBee, I think it's still up there on their homepage.

Speaker: Yeah, it is.

Speaker: It says on their homepage, the time has come to bee-based.

Speaker: And that's actually a quote from, if I'm not mistaken, internally when Twitter were threatening the bee and telling them basically to take down that tweet about Rachel Levine.

Speaker: Man of the year.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: I wasn't on staff at the time, but I believe Seth Dillon sent an internal message to the team and said, the time has come to be based today.

Speaker: And it's like, you know, we're going to stand up to this and we're not going to bow and give in.

Speaker: And so, yeah, you're absolutely right to show question what you're saying.

Speaker: I think it is a weapon that they wield well and bringing many of us through difficult and hard times with smiles and laughter.

Speaker: Well, the B is, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm going to ramble here.

Speaker: Go ahead.

Speaker: I ramble all the time on this podcast, so go ahead.

Speaker: You provoked a thought in me, and that is that I hope this doesn't come off as butt kissing to the bee, but maybe it is, but it's truly coming from my heart.

Speaker: The bee is much more than joked.

Speaker: In my opinion, the B is a vehicle for truth in a climate where it's very hard to get your message through.

Speaker: There's a lot of people shouting.

Speaker: There's a lot of people pontificating.

Speaker: There's a lot of pundits.

Speaker: Everybody is throwing their opinion out there.

Speaker: And you start to get a little deaf to it after a while, right?

Speaker: And you can only lecture somebody so many times before they shut down.

Speaker: However, there is a secret entrance into a person's heart and mind that gets you in behind the defenses.

Speaker: And that secret weapon is humor.

Speaker: If you can make someone laugh, you...

Speaker: You get past their barriers and you get into their heart.

Speaker: And sometimes they'll even be surprised by it because they'll laugh at something and then go, oh, wait, there's some truth in here.

Speaker: And the B plays an important role, in my opinion.

Speaker: Before the B, there was really not much in the way of conservative humor.

Speaker: And I remember the first time I saw a B article, and I don't remember what it was, but I remember thinking, oh, thank goodness.

Speaker: There's a funny conservative comedy source out there.

Speaker: Finally.

Speaker: And I was a big fan of The Onion.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: The Onion in the old days was brilliant.

Speaker: And they kind of led the way.

Speaker: And then they took a left turn to my chagrin.

Speaker: And that was around the time when I started noticing The B.

Speaker: And I remember seeing their article and thinking, oh, finally, there's a conservative version of the onion.

Speaker: But who are these guys?

Speaker: I've never heard of them.

Speaker: They're not going to amount to anything.

Speaker: What is the Babylon Bee?

Speaker: I thought, good for them, but it's not going to become much of anything.

Speaker: But then as I noticed them gaining prominence, it really turned into kind of a port in the storm for me to feel like, yes, there are other people out there who think the way I do and who are able to use humor to get that truth across.

Speaker: But anyways, the point I was trying to make is that the B has forged itself into an important voice in American political discourse and American culture.

Speaker: And

Speaker: In my opinion, a Babylon Bee article has the potential to make a bigger impact than almost any great pundit out there.

Speaker: As much as I love Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro and Thomas Sowell, they're all geniuses.

Speaker: But if you make someone laugh, you take a shortcut into their heart.

Speaker: And you get through to them in a way, it resonates in a way that just a straight lecture cannot do.

Speaker: And I think the B is an important player in the landscape of politics and in the midst of this civil war that's going on in our country.

Speaker: I think the Babylon B is one of the greatest players ever.

Speaker: I think, you know, you articulated that very well.

Speaker: And that's that kind of, and I'm sure most people, I think everyone listening to this would agree with you.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree with everything you said there.

Speaker: Yeah, I'm listening to you and I'm like nodding along.

Speaker: I'm like, yep, absolutely.

Speaker: That's a very eloquent way and a very right way of putting it as well.

Speaker: And yeah, I can definitely testify to that.

Speaker: It does get things inside pasture defenses as well.

Speaker: Well, and making someone laugh, humor is just a form of surprise.

Speaker: If you stop and think about it, it's just a form of surprise because it's making some kind of statement and then taking a left turn when everyone expected a right turn or going to an extreme that was unexpected.

Speaker: But either way, the only reason you ever laugh at anything is because it surprised you.

Speaker: You weren't expecting that.

Speaker: And you know that's true because if you hear a joke that you already know, you've heard that joke before, you're not going to crack up at it.

Speaker: Or if a joke is too predictable, you're not going to laugh at it.

Speaker: So that's how, in my opinion, the bee can get the truth out there.

Speaker: um, into society because you're catching people off guard, you're making them laugh, but surprise in the middle of this Tootsie Pop is a little kernel of truth and you just ate it and now you've got it and we got it in you.

Speaker: And, and so come on over to our side and vote for Trump.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: Go ahead.

Speaker: That was great.

Speaker: Yeah, I'd agree with you.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: It's very well put.

Speaker: So as we heard earlier in the episode, there was a bit of audio, a bit of someone talking, people laughing and a few jokes being made.

Speaker: And that was your good self doing something which you're apparently very good at and kind of explains why, one of the reasons I imagine, why you're so successful on the headline forum.

Speaker: So maybe you can talk about that a little bit.

Speaker: Yes, I did do stand-up comedy for a while, a number of years ago.

Speaker: We'll just make every time reference a number of years.

Speaker: That was an interesting time in my life, and it ties into why I love the B so much.

Speaker: I started my career in doing entertainment and celebrity PR in Las Vegas.

Speaker: And I have lots of fun stories.

Speaker: I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger at a private party, um, uh, fart on his friend, his best friend, and then, and then turn to me and laugh.

Speaker: Um, I spent new year's Eve with tiger woods and Andre Agassi.

Speaker: Ken Griffey jr. Used to play practical jokes on me.

Speaker: Um, I know Kyle likes baseball, so I wanted to weasel that one in.

Speaker: I hung out with Yogi Berra.

Speaker: Um, I had a lot of fun.

Speaker: Uh, and, uh,

Speaker: And then I realized something was missing in my life.

Speaker: I love to write.

Speaker: And my favorite part of PR was writing.

Speaker: So I changed careers and became a copywriter for advertising and marketing.

Speaker: But before I did, when I was at that crossroads of what do I do now, I started pursuing stand-up comedy.

Speaker: And...

Speaker: And I did okay.

Speaker: I was never making a living at it, but I did evolve to the point of performing in paid shows.

Speaker: They say there's three different levels to comedy.

Speaker: There's making your friends laugh.

Speaker: There's making strangers laugh.

Speaker: And then there's getting paid to make strangers laugh.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: So I guess I made it to level 2.5 or something.

Speaker: But it was going pretty well.

Speaker: And I was kind of at a crossroads.

Speaker: I knew I didn't want to do PR anymore.

Speaker: And I thought I'm either going to do comedy or I'm going to become a writer.

Speaker: And the comedy was going well.

Speaker: And then I noticed in the clubs where I was performing, there were other comedians who were fantastic.

Speaker: They were amazing.

Speaker: Just absolutely brilliant geniuses, polished.

Speaker: You could see them doing a TV special.

Speaker: And they were going nowhere.

Speaker: They were stuck in these little clubs.

Speaker: They had been playing in these little clubs for a decade or more.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: And that really kind of shook me up.

Speaker: And I realized, wow, you can be a supreme talent and still not go anywhere.

Speaker: And at that point, I made a decision to instead pursue the stability of a career in writing.

Speaker: I enjoyed that career.

Speaker: I've written radio, television, you know, print ads.

Speaker: I've written, you know, hundreds and hundreds of headlines, which has helped me, you know, with the Babylon Bee, of course.

Speaker: But I always had something inside me that said, you know, comedy is really where your heart was at.

Speaker: And for all these years, it's always kind of been a kind of an itch, you know, deep down inside, like to be working in comedy.

Speaker: And I've always kind of wondered, you know, what if I had stuck with standup comedy?

Speaker: And so...

Speaker: Last year, when I joined the B, that was kind of what drove me, part of what drove me to the B. I had a difficult year last year.

Speaker: I'll get into my origin story later.

Speaker: I know you're going to ask me about that.

Speaker: But I was kind of at a point where, you know, where you stop and look around and assess your life.

Speaker: I thought, you know, I'm going to get back into stand-up comedy.

Speaker: And I started writing and I wrote a bunch of bits.

Speaker: And then I noticed I saw an ad for the Babylon B forum and I had been aware of it before.

Speaker: And I thought, you know, I do like writing these headlines.

Speaker: Let's take a stab at it.

Speaker: So,

Speaker: The Babylon Bee for me represents a kind of fulfillment of a kind of bucket list type of life dream to work in comedy.

Speaker: And by the way, being in the forum is work.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: No mistake.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's a joyful labor of love, but it is work.

Speaker: And so my point is that I do consider that to be fulfilled.

Speaker: The joy I've gotten in the forum, the camaraderie with the fellow bees, I've been lucky enough to get some recognition.

Speaker: It's really fulfilled a deep longing in me putting my talents to work.

Speaker: And I think that's something, you know, I think that's what God wants from us is to use the gifts that he's given us, not to waste them.

Speaker: And that's really a deeply fulfilling thing for me.

Speaker: And it's made me perhaps a little too passionate about it at certain times, as Teej knows.

Speaker: So anyways, the B form is kind of fulfilling a deep longing within me to let my comedy live again.

Speaker: And so I'm really grateful for it.

Speaker: Sounds like you're where you're meant to be.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: No pun intended.

Speaker: Well, it's interesting what you say because, you know, going back to using our gifts and talents, you know, I think, uh,

Speaker: When I was growing up in church circles, those gifts and talents were seen as serving in the church and preaching or being in the music team or doing something in quotes spiritual on a Sunday or with the church.

Speaker: But there's so many talents and gifts which...

Speaker: if I dare say are more important because you're actually doing them out, out in the big wide world, outside of the four walls of the church.

Speaker: And, um, like you said earlier, so eloquently, I think, you know, comedy is so, um,

Speaker: You know, I've really been dwelling on this over the last couple of years.

Speaker: You know, comedy is a gift.

Speaker: I really believe it's given to us by God.

Speaker: God uses comedy.

Speaker: Like you were saying earlier, ShowQuest, you know, it is a way to really get inside behind people's defences.

Speaker: So I do believe that that is one of the talents and gifts that God gives to people that we should use.

Speaker: um, in, in a way that, um, can, can be a blessing to other people.

Speaker: Because, um, as I've said many times on this podcast, you know, I've gone through some difficult times and then you, you open up the bee and you see a stupid headline and it just makes you laugh and it brightens up your day.

Speaker: And I think, uh, you know, what's a, what better gift is there than to be able to smile, uh, when, when things aren't always going the way that you'd hoped.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And, you know, in that time period I described after I stopped doing comedy and I was just working as a writer, in that same time, I did find another way to put my comedy to work.

Speaker: And that was becoming a volunteer with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Speaker: So I've been a volunteer wish grantor for the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a number of years, we'll say.

Speaker: And one of the things I pride myself on is the ability to go into a tough situation, perhaps some of the toughest situations in the world with a child who may not survive.

Speaker: you know, the year and make them laugh and jump around like a monkey with a, you know, putting my shoe on my head or pretending to fall over, you know, acting like a goofball.

Speaker: And, uh, I was always really good at that, you know?

Speaker: And, and so I feel like in some way I did utilize my comedic skills all these years.

Speaker: Um, and I'm proud of that.

Speaker: And it's important to,

Speaker: But there is something differently fulfilling about the bee and using it in this way.

Speaker: It's partly spreading the truth.

Speaker: It's partly fulfillment inside oneself, but it's also feeling like you're making a difference in the world.

Speaker: And if one of my headlines can get through to somebody and change their mind about something, then, you know, that's probably the greatest reward in the world.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, it's definitely gaining traction.

Speaker: And, you know, I think as most of us probably know, uh, the majority of the, let's say that the, the publishers, uh, in quotes that, that the subscribers, uh,

Speaker: get on the forum is when their headline is extremely similar to an existing one.

Speaker: And that in itself is so exciting because you know, hey, I'm coming up with the same sort of joke and the same sort of things that's happening in the writer's room.

Speaker: But then occasionally a writer does actually get an original headline featured and or published.

Speaker: And I know that happened to

Speaker: you sent me a message.

Speaker: You were very excited because you had a word for word publish, uh, that hadn't come out of the writer's room.

Speaker: Uh, and, uh, so I think that's testament to, to your style, your voice.

Speaker: And, uh, certainly when, when, uh, SDH posted that internally, uh, it was a very enthusiastic response.

Speaker: So, uh, congratulations on that one.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: That was so exciting to have a verbatim, uh,

Speaker: It's such a thrill.

Speaker: I mean, because the B staff, I mean, they're so brilliant.

Speaker: And, you know, every time I get frustrated about maybe a headline not getting the attention I want, all I have to do is look at the Babylon B and I go, okay, okay.

Speaker: That's fine.

Speaker: I get it.

Speaker: You guys are brilliant.

Speaker: Okay, no problem.

Speaker: So what you're talking about, Teej, that publish was so thrilling to me because it just felt like, wow, every word, not a letter was changed.

Speaker: What an honor.

Speaker: And I guess I lucked into that one.

Speaker: Well, hopefully it'll happen again someday.

Speaker: And which one was that?

Speaker: Well, I'm not sure if I remember it.

Speaker: Oh, yes, I do.

Speaker: Of course.

Speaker: Not that I've memorized it and told a thousand people.

Speaker: Uh, it was as Kamala campaigns nation starting to miss the clarity and coherence of Joe Biden.

Speaker: Ah, yes, that, that is a good one.

Speaker: That's, um, I saw that was performing very well on X or Twitter and Facebook as well.

Speaker: That's, uh,

Speaker: Just checking now, it's had 25,000 likes on X. So that's not bad going.

Speaker: So it's a fantastic headline.

Speaker: And it's true too.

Speaker: This isn't satire.

Speaker: So can I tell people I have 25,000 fans?

Speaker: Is that a legitimate conclusion?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But it's one of those headlines, and we've said this before on this podcast, often when you see a bee headline, you're like, ah, why didn't I think of that?

Speaker: And it was one of those headlines.

Speaker: It's like, well, of course, it's so obvious, but when you read it like that, it's so well-worded.

Speaker: And yeah, it was very funny.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: That happens to me all the time with the bee.

Speaker: I'll look at a headline and go, oh, I could have thought of that.

Speaker: That's probably the greatest type of headline is I call them the yep headlines where you read it and you go, yep.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You got my note.

Speaker: Well, I got a note.

Speaker: Okay, so now it's time to answer everybody's questions or at least as many as we can because there are a lot of questions for ShowQuest.

Speaker: So I will start it off with a question from Strike Engineer.

Speaker: Okay, so ShowQuest, which would you rather have, Kamala's laugh or Biden's memory?

Speaker: Ooh.

Speaker: That's a tough one.

Speaker: If I have the laugh, I'm not going to be very welcome in social situations.

Speaker: If I have the memory lapse, I'm going to forget about the social situations.

Speaker: I guess I would take the laugh because maybe I could learn to control it and rein it in or muzzle myself.

Speaker: But if I have Biden's memory, there's just no shot at functioning in society.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I'll take the cackle.

Speaker: Well, as you know, ShowQuest, one of our regular co-hosts can't be with us today, unfortunately.

Speaker: He's busy.

Speaker: But I've got a question here from the wonderful Dr. Conservative Prof.

Speaker: Who's your favorite We the Beeple host and why is it me?

Speaker: However, you did say earlier at the beginning of this interview that it was an honor to meet Kurgle and I, but you didn't mention Prof. So I don't think it's going to be Prof, is it?

Speaker: Well, if Prof were here, I would have.

Speaker: I'm joking.

Speaker: The reason Prof is my favorite is because I get all his Gen X references.

Speaker: And Prof and I both, we both write our headlines with coal on the back of a shovel.

Speaker: So I can really relate to him.

Speaker: How dare you?

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Here is one from Bat Night about the forum.

Speaker: He wants to know, what is your favorite subscriber headline trope?

Speaker: The teen laundry pile.

Speaker: I love the teen laundry pile.

Speaker: I know you do.

Speaker: You're the master of the teen laundry pile.

Speaker: So, okay.

Speaker: I guess I'll amend that.

Speaker: I wouldn't say I love the teen laundry pile, but I love the teen laundry pile.

Speaker: You know, I don't dabble in those tropes too much, so I'll admit I'm not fully tuned into all of them.

Speaker: I do see them flying around, but I'm so maniacally focused on wanting to get published that I tend to not...

Speaker: you know, dance in those circles.

Speaker: Um, even though I think it's great and I think it's great, people are enjoying it and it's, and it's fun as heck.

Speaker: I did do one teen laundry pile headline once just to try it out.

Speaker: And I Photoshop job of the hut onto the teen laundry pile.

Speaker: And I think it was something like teen laundry pile comes to life and tells mother, you will learn to appreciate me.

Speaker: Um, so yeah,

Speaker: And I do have my own middle-aged laundry piles around my house, so I can relate to it.

Speaker: Good question, Bat Knight.

Speaker: By the way, I love Bat Knight.

Speaker: Go ahead.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: He's very funny.

Speaker: But yeah, that's such a good thing about the forum is that everybody can have fun in lots of different ways.

Speaker: But you're correct.

Speaker: If your goal is to be published, you're not going to be making a bunch of inside jokes.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I think the people with teenagers have an advantage with the teen laundry pile joke.

Speaker: I would say you are correct.

Speaker: Okay, so just going through the many questions here.

Speaker: And we have to, I can't go an episode without mentioning the wonderful Murph.

Speaker: So I've got a question here from Murph.

Speaker: Well, she's actually asked two questions.

Speaker: I'm not quite sure what she means with the first one.

Speaker: Well, that's the second one.

Speaker: She says, please have ShowQuest explain the cool stained glass motif with his avatar.

Speaker: Does he actually live in a church?

Speaker: Is that okay?

Speaker: First of all, Murph, I love Murph.

Speaker: I was listening to some past people episodes and I listened to the Murph episode.

Speaker: And I just want to say, I was shocked to learn that Murph has been mega duty other people's headlines besides mine.

Speaker: And I'm really upset about it.

Speaker: And I want to know if this is something we can discuss with the staff.

Speaker: I'm just kidding.

Speaker: I love Murph.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: The stained glass window.

Speaker: So the origin of that is I was playing around with, and I'm going to admit it.

Speaker: I was playing around with an AI image generator long ago.

Speaker: And I was, and that image had been created among many others.

Speaker: And I, when I was thinking about the B and I was thinking, you know, they're,

Speaker: a heavily Christian website.

Speaker: And, and I thought, well, I was raised Catholic.

Speaker: So I thought, well, I just think it'll be funny and it'll, it'll make me stand out in some way.

Speaker: You have to understand my brain is in marketing and branding.

Speaker: Like I said, it's what I do for a living.

Speaker: So I'm always thinking of ways to establish a brand and make it noticeable and make it stand out from the crowd.

Speaker: And I noticed nobody had a mostly blue avatar.

Speaker: And so I thought, okay, a mostly blue avatar might stand out.

Speaker: And also the avatar gave me more hair than I have currently.

Speaker: So that's where that came from.

Speaker: I just thought it would be kind of quirky and fun.

Speaker: And I don't know.

Speaker: I thought it would fit into the culture a little bit.

Speaker: And you're right.

Speaker: It does stand out.

Speaker: It's a cool one.

Speaker: I like it.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, your answer to this next question will determine if we continue this interview or not.

Speaker: This one is from Ed Terry 7788.

Speaker: Would you rather be stuck in an elevator between floors with just you and Kamala Harris or be interviewed on We the People?

Speaker: I would rather be interviewed on We the People.

Speaker: Geez, there could be some interesting.

Speaker: I could give Kamala a piece of my mind.

Speaker: Oh, think of all the headline material you would have.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And if you could break through the cackling, you know, and get a word in edgewise.

Speaker: Oh, man.

Speaker: The horror, the thought.

Speaker: Well, I've got another question here from SDH.

Speaker: And she asks, ShowQuest, very important.

Speaker: Are you unburdened by what has been?

Speaker: What is your opinion of yellow school buses?

Speaker: I believe I am unburdened by what has been.

Speaker: And I think I explained that in my long rambling explanation of my background.

Speaker: Um, the B has been, you know, a redemptive process for me.

Speaker: Uh, so yes, I am.

Speaker: I am unburdened.

Speaker: Uh, and my thoughts on yellow school buses.

Speaker: I love yellow school buses.

Speaker: Are there a lot of other colors?

Speaker: Are they different colors in where you guys are?

Speaker: Anyways, yellow school buses are a little bit of a microcosm for society in that the bad boys sit in the back and the goody two-shoes sit in the front, right?

Speaker: And where you sit is sort of a measure of your...

Speaker: behavioral, you know, how well you behave and how much of a rebel you are.

Speaker: So I've always thought that, uh, school buses were an interesting kind of ecosystem, you know, within themselves and surviving the ride home and, you know, surviving the bullies or, and all that.

Speaker: So, um, I, I think yellow school buses are interesting.

Speaker: They're an important, you know,

Speaker: measure of who we are.

Speaker: And I'm probably going too deep with this.

Speaker: So go ahead.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So I have this next question.

Speaker: I'm really interested because I don't know really much about this other than what I see in the news.

Speaker: And I'm very sorry if I don't say this user's name correctly, because I really like her.

Speaker: I always picture it as Priel.

Speaker: Pryon, yes.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Am I pronouncing it correctly?

Speaker: That's how I've always seen it.

Speaker: Probably.

Speaker: So anyway.

Speaker: I call her P-Real.

Speaker: Oh, that's good.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So anyway, she wants to know, what is your favorite part about living on top of a border crossing zone?

Speaker: Oh, right.

Speaker: So yes, I am in San Diego.

Speaker: And yeah, there's a border a few minutes from my house.

Speaker: I guess, you know,

Speaker: There used to be some advantages in that you could go the other way and cross into Mexico and enjoy yourself at some of the Rosarito or Ensenada.

Speaker: Although I'm not too keen on going in that direction nowadays.

Speaker: It's a little bit crazy down there.

Speaker: But yeah, well, I guess the positive aspect would be that we...

Speaker: are constantly getting an influx of new visitors and it keeps things interesting.

Speaker: Thanks to, uh, thanks to Joe and Kamala.

Speaker: We, we have a never ending supply of new visitors.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Wait, are you calling her borders are wannabe?

Speaker: I want to be borders are not anymore.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: She removed that from her LinkedIn profile amongst other things.

Speaker: Well, I want to give a quick shout out to user Knight Rider.

Speaker: He asks a question, which I think we've already covered nicely, but I just want to mention his question anyway.

Speaker: Are you a comedy writer?

Speaker: So I think we've, you know, we've, we've talked that we've talked around that one already, haven't we?

Speaker: So, but I just wanted to give that a shout out.

Speaker: Moving on.

Speaker: I've also got a question from a dissidente Redactico and he says, how do you keep all this fame from going to your head?

Speaker: Oh, I don't.

Speaker: I'm an egomaniac.

Speaker: I'm insufferable.

Speaker: I mean, I just, nobody can stand to be around me in these days.

Speaker: That's a fun, I love this.

Speaker: I was going to ask him the same thing.

Speaker: How does he handle all the, all the fame?

Speaker: And, but, you know, I really, this camaraderie and this recognition, you know, that I've found in the forum has just been,

Speaker: such an important part of my life.

Speaker: Um, I, you know, it's, it's really, as I already talked about, it's just, it taps into a deep part of me that was kind of unfulfilled.

Speaker: And, um,

Speaker: when I came into the forum, I kind of had the feeling of just, I just want to get published.

Speaker: You know, don't bother me with this other stuff.

Speaker: Like not, not in an angry way, but just like, eh, I don't need the other stuff.

Speaker: And within a week or two, I mean, it didn't take long, you know, within a week or two, I, I could sense the, the love really, you know, people were just so loving and supportive and, uh, I opened up to it immediately.

Speaker: And so, um,

Speaker: So for me, the fame, so to speak, whatever level there is, it exists in this

Speaker: Again, I'll use the word ecosystem.

Speaker: It exists in this ecosystem of the forum.

Speaker: So it feels very safe to me and very warm.

Speaker: And nobody's looking to tear you down.

Speaker: I think when you get famous in real life, people are looking to tear you down also.

Speaker: But in the Bee Forum, it's just like a family.

Speaker: So for me, how do I handle it?

Speaker: I just bask in it because I know that it's like my brothers and sisters.

Speaker: And it feels very...

Speaker: Like very low risk and non-threatening.

Speaker: It feels very warm and comfortable.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Good answer.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: I have one from Vasquez.

Speaker: I know you talked about your avatar picture not long ago.

Speaker: How did you come up with your username?

Speaker: I was waiting for this one.

Speaker: I knew this was coming.

Speaker: And by the way, Vasquez is just such a sweetheart.

Speaker: I love Vasquez made me my own Photoshop award to post in people's comments.

Speaker: So God bless her.

Speaker: Vasquez is her, right?

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I think so.

Speaker: um my name i'm always very careful with uh misgendering people because i've never with some users i'm never sure i'm not sure but i feel like if i'm going to misgender anywhere in life this is probably the safest place to do it probably so you know i do webinars and stuff on on teaching you know how to write for marketing and and

Speaker: right for conversion rate optimization, which is just about increasing sales on a website.

Speaker: And one of the things I preach is that every letter is precious and every word should be, you shouldn't waste a word.

Speaker: You shouldn't waste a letter.

Speaker: You shouldn't waste a pixel on the screen.

Speaker: So I think very deeply about words and what they mean.

Speaker: And so ShowQuest is a deliberately ambiguous word.

Speaker: pair of words, I guess.

Speaker: It deliberately has connotations that can be interpreted in different ways.

Speaker: Where it originally started was, it was my stage name when I did stand-up comedy.

Speaker: It was my stage last name.

Speaker: It is a rough, phonetic approximation of my actual name.

Speaker: which my actual name is incredibly complicated and no one on earth has ever pronounced it right.

Speaker: So when I started doing comedy, I thought, okay, well, you're going to need a name that's a little easier and more memorable and that has some kind of meaning.

Speaker: And I originally was going to use joke quest because it's like you're on a quest for a joke.

Speaker: It's a joke quest.

Speaker: But then I thought show quest is, it has a little more of a ambiguous connotation that you can interpret in different ways.

Speaker: You're, you're on a quest, you know, for entertainment, you're on a quest for, I think I even wrote something once about like, are you seeking out laughs?

Speaker: Are you searching for entertainment?

Speaker: Well, you can end your show quest.

Speaker: Here it is.

Speaker: You know, you've,

Speaker: So there's lots of ways to interpret it.

Speaker: But yeah, it's just deliberately kind of something you can take in different ways.

Speaker: And it's close enough to my name to where I feel like I'm still getting my real name kind of out there.

Speaker: So that's the explanation there.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah, I've always really liked your username.

Speaker: It's a good one.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: And part of branding too, right, is having a name that's easy to say and easy to remember and easy to pronounce.

Speaker: So I'm going to have to talk to Priil about that.

Speaker: We're going to have to work on hers.

Speaker: I've got a question here from Afnar.

Speaker: Are you in the inner circle of some sort of conspiratorial Babylon Bee cabal?

Speaker: If I were, do you think I could admit it publicly?

Speaker: So the answer is no, with a wink.

Speaker: On a serious note, it sounds exciting.

Speaker: I would like to be, but unfortunately I'm not.

Speaker: But if anybody has one they'd like to invite me to, I would like to be in on it.

Speaker: So basically, we can't believe anything you just said.

Speaker: Maybe.

Speaker: But if there's a cabal out there, invite me to the cabal.

Speaker: I'll show up.

Speaker: There is some sort of a, on Not The Bee, as many of our listeners will know, there's lots of groups and there is some sort of a Illuminati-esque group where they organize all sorts of shenanigans behind the scenes, which is sometimes good fun.

Speaker: But I'll have to go and check on that.

Speaker: I haven't seen that in a while.

Speaker: Since you are such a comedy expert, Mr. Huggs would like to know which is funnier, corned beef or pastrami?

Speaker: Interesting.

Speaker: I think corned beef is more of the intellectual humor that can be read deeply into, whereas pastrami is the slapstick, right?

Speaker: Pastrami just sounds funny.

Speaker: And it rhymes with a lot of things.

Speaker: Corned beef has lots of interesting implications if you stop and think about it.

Speaker: So I'm going to say corned beef is funnier when you're in a thoughtful mood.

Speaker: Pastrami is funnier when you're in a slapstick mood.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: A silly answer for a silly question.

Speaker: Okay, I'll make a note of that.

Speaker: Well, we've had lots of funny questions and some serious ones here as well.

Speaker: So I think this is a really good one.

Speaker: And maybe this has been answered a little bit already in our backwards and forwards in here.

Speaker: But son of a bee asks, what's your best advice for writing headlines?

Speaker: Oh, I love this question.

Speaker: Thank you, son of a bee.

Speaker: Okay, my lessons.

Speaker: Don't let me ramble too long, Tish.

Speaker: I love this question.

Speaker: So number one is, you know, when I was growing up, my dad was very, very strict about education and pushing me to always apply myself beyond what was required.

Speaker: And he taught me that the best way to improve your writing is by reading.

Speaker: So number one, my answer would be the best way to improve your headlines is by reading the bee.

Speaker: Read the bee, study the bee, understand the bee's voice, understand the cadence of their topics, and

Speaker: understand how far they reach back with their callback jokes, how they tie things in and learn their voices, right?

Speaker: The B can be whimsical.

Speaker: The B can be scathing, right?

Speaker: The B can be those YEP headlines, right?

Speaker: Where it's just like the one we, you know, what was it?

Speaker: Trump is the greatest threat to democracy, says man overseeing border invasion, right?

Speaker: Just there's all these different voices that the B has.

Speaker: And so reading the B is my number one piece of advice.

Speaker: My second piece.

Speaker: piece of advice is I'm going to steal from Sam Greer.

Speaker: I listened to the episode where you interviewed Sam a while back and Sam gave some really profound, I think he was just mentioning it casually.

Speaker: But he made a very profound point.

Speaker: And you guys were talking to him about how he came to get involved with the bee.

Speaker: And he talked about how he pitched some headlines to Kyle.

Speaker: And Sam talked about the iceberg and the tip of the iceberg and the fact that you only see 10% of the iceberg, but 90% of the iceberg is below the water.

Speaker: So this is an important concept to understand when you see a good headline, chances are, and if it's in, if it's one of mine, which I'm not saying my headlines are, are, are good, but if you think one of my headlines is good, chances are there's about 10 or more that I wrote in my journey to get to that headline.

Speaker: So to put it succinctly, um,

Speaker: You don't just come up with one idea.

Speaker: You come up with as many, you know, 10, 20, 30 ideas, and you get one good idea out of that.

Speaker: And that's another thing I preach to, you know, my writers when we're working.

Speaker: When I have a new writer who's learning how to write for marketing, I tell them, never, ever sit down and try to think of a good idea.

Speaker: Always sit down and think of five ideas.

Speaker: And by the way, they don't have to be good.

Speaker: We tend to get ourselves into this state of paralysis when we're brainstorming, where we're trying to get the perfect idea and it's just not coming and there's nothing on the paper and you're struggling with it and you just can't get anywhere with it.

Speaker: The way you release yourself from that prison is by stop trying to think of a good idea.

Speaker: Just try to think of five ideas.

Speaker: And by the way, set that as a requirement that in the next half hour, I have to come up with five ideas.

Speaker: And they can stink.

Speaker: They can be terrible.

Speaker: But there has to be five ideas.

Speaker: And what you'll find is when you start putting ideas down on paper and getting them out of your head, they start to...

Speaker: kind of live separately from your brain and you're able to see them with some perspective.

Speaker: When everything's in your head, sometimes it's too close to you.

Speaker: When you get it down on the page, you can look at it, you can play with it, you can tie things together.

Speaker: So that's my other piece of advice is do that work and come up with a lot of ideas and then

Speaker: take the cream off the top, right?

Speaker: You can't just make cream, right?

Speaker: You have to make a gallon of milk in order for the cream to rise to the top.

Speaker: You can't just make the cream.

Speaker: So keep it simple.

Speaker: Study the bee.

Speaker: Remember the iceberg.

Speaker: The other parts are train your brain.

Speaker: Another thing we teach in brainstorming ideas is to get your brain into a state of where it's always working in the background.

Speaker: So if you're at the store and something silly happens, your brain is ready to connect that and go, oh, wait, there's an idea for a headline.

Speaker: Or if you're at the dinner or if you're hanging out with some friends.

Speaker: Always be looking for those little things because we know that's when the best ideas come, right?

Speaker: Is when you're out in the wilderness and you're jumping around and you see something rather than sitting in a room and just trying to concoct things out of nothing.

Speaker: The last thing I'll add to that, I'm sorry if I'm going too long, is stop thinking of brainstorming as creating ideas and instead think of it as finding ideas.

Speaker: The truth is you're not creating anything.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Everything that's been, everything that can be thought of has been thought of and it's out there and it's floating around.

Speaker: And I remember one of my first creative directors I worked for told me this and it made a huge impact on me.

Speaker: He said, take the pressure off yourself.

Speaker: Stop trying to create, stop trying to be a demigod and create things.

Speaker: You know, it's a lot of pressure.

Speaker: Think of the ideas as out there floating around in the ether.

Speaker: And you are just trying to snatch them out of the sky, snatch them out of the air.

Speaker: You're trying to discover them instead of creating them.

Speaker: And when you think of it that way, your mindset shifts a little bit.

Speaker: It takes a little bit of pressure off you.

Speaker: And you also look at it differently as far as trying to see things in the world around you rather than use the magic wand to create something out of nothing.

Speaker: So those are my, that's my advice for writing headlines.

Speaker: And the most important thing is to have fun and think of a good joke.

Speaker: And even if you're not a good writer, look, the Bee publishes stuff all the time from the forum that's not particularly well-written because what they, what really matters is the core essence of the joke.

Speaker: So that's another thing too, is take some pressure off yourself.

Speaker: Don't worry about writing a super well-polished headline, although it's nice if you can.

Speaker: But the concept of the joke is really what's going to propel you in the forum.

Speaker: I was nodding and agreeing with you enthusiastically, ShowQuest, and it was encouraging for me because you're obviously doing this for a living and you're giving people advice and stuff.

Speaker: So it's good to hear that

Speaker: a lot of the things you're talking about, I can connect with and think, yeah, that's absolutely right.

Speaker: And, you know, often when I sit here now as a writer with the B and I'm like, okay, I've got to think of some jokes.

Speaker: I can sit here twiddling, twiddling my thumbs for ages and nothing comes to me.

Speaker: I then get out and go, like you just said, go to the supermarket, spend some time with my kids, even just be in the garden or something.

Speaker: And, um,

Speaker: Like you said, I'm always thinking something happens, is that a headline?

Speaker: And is this just always something going on in my brain?

Speaker: I don't know whether that's healthy and whether I should try and switch it off from time to time.

Speaker: It's definitely there.

Speaker: So it's good to hear you say that.

Speaker: It also helps build up a repository of ideas, right?

Speaker: I mean, I've got, I've got draft folders with dozens and dozens of ideas that when I'm, when I'm coming up blank, I'll look through that and go, Oh wait, Oh, there's something I can work with.

Speaker: So building up that, that reserve is also a good idea.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: No, for, for a while I had like no ideas in my draft folder.

Speaker: And I,

Speaker: I was just trying to come up with a new one each day, but yeah, all those ideas that are just kind of half formulated, I'd stick them in my folder.

Speaker: And now again, I have probably 30, 40 things in there that someday I might polish them up, but yeah.

Speaker: So it was a lot of very, very good advice.

Speaker: I was, I was trying to find a, I can't remember where it is now, but there's a really nice quote from CS Lewis about, and you mentioned it there show quest about how, uh,

Speaker: I mean, the Bible says it as well.

Speaker: There's nothing new under the sun, but there's a really nice quote.

Speaker: And I think it was either GK Chesterton or CS Lewis that essentially said, all we're doing as creatives is repackaging something that already exists.

Speaker: And you hit the nail on the head.

Speaker: That's exactly right.

Speaker: And I'm not ashamed to admit that some of the publishers I've had

Speaker: when I've just resubmitted an old headline, sometimes multiple times, but I just reword it slightly.

Speaker: Sometimes it doesn't go anywhere.

Speaker: And then you submit it again with slightly different wording and it just hits and everyone loves it.

Speaker: And it's just the way it works sometimes.

Speaker: So I think, and I sometimes go back over old headlines as well.

Speaker: And I think, okay, what was I thinking six months, a year ago, even two years ago?

Speaker: And some aren't relevant these days, but sometimes you come across a good headline and it just sparks an idea and you think, how can I repackage that with the current political landscape?

Speaker: And then you've got the evergreen jokes, as Kyle calls them, which doesn't matter what's going on out there.

Speaker: You can tell it at any time.

Speaker: So those are always good ones.

Speaker: One of my folders is named evergreen.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Ah, there we go.

Speaker: That's a good lesson, though, is that timing is a big part of it.

Speaker: And some of my publishers have been headlines that were not loved too much.

Speaker: And then 10 months later, it comes back around full circle.

Speaker: So that's another thing to keep in mind is don't get discouraged.

Speaker: Timing is a huge part of it.

Speaker: And yeah,

Speaker: So, you know, keep the faith and keep trying.

Speaker: And as you said, Teej, sometimes just a little tweak at the right time can work wonders.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: I have one from Skoll.

Speaker: Did you watch any Olympics this year?

Speaker: And if so, what events are your favorite to watch?

Speaker: Track and field.

Speaker: I love the Olympics.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I love anything that demonstrates the peak of human potential.

Speaker: Whatever is the best people who do a certain thing, I think it's so impressive.

Speaker: These people dedicate their lives to their sport.

Speaker: And, you know, there's a lot of talk about boycotting the Olympics because of that horrible opening ceremony.

Speaker: I say nonsense.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: The athletes have nothing to do with that.

Speaker: The athletes are dedicating their lives to this and they deserve for us to appreciate them.

Speaker: My favorite Olympic sport to watch is track and field.

Speaker: And here's why.

Speaker: Track and field is one of the most primal, pure forms of human performance.

Speaker: There are no points.

Speaker: There is no real equipment.

Speaker: There's no rules of a game.

Speaker: It's just how fast can you run?

Speaker: And this is something that has been an important lesson.

Speaker: attribute of humans as far back as we can possibly imagine.

Speaker: But I just love the purity of it.

Speaker: I love that it's just showing what the human body can do in its purest form, just running.

Speaker: It's beautiful to watch.

Speaker: They're amazing athletes.

Speaker: And the strategy is different, right?

Speaker: From the 100-yard dash,

Speaker: to the mid 1500 races to the 10,000 meter, the strategies are all different.

Speaker: Um, so I love track and field, uh, also love swimming and, um, I'll just keep rambling.

Speaker: So I'll stop.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We, we, we watch a lot of the races too.

Speaker: And yeah, I think our, our highlight of the Olympics, at least for, for me and gizmo is always the rhythmic gymnastics.

Speaker: And I'm looking forward to the breakdancing.

Speaker: I know that people make fun of that, but I'm really interested to see that that starts another day or two.

Speaker: Interesting.

Speaker: Well, there's so many questions here, and unfortunately, we're not going to get through all of them, but we'll just ask one more each.

Speaker: And then we'll move on to our five questions.

Speaker: So I've got a question.

Speaker: Well, it's not really a question.

Speaker: It's more of a statement, I think.

Speaker: And it echoes what we were saying at the beginning of this interview from Gen X Ambassador.

Speaker: Babylon Bee conspiracy unveiled.

Speaker: ShowQuest is actually Kyle Mann in disguise.

Speaker: And he says underneath, if he's not Kyle, he's another famous comedian.

Speaker: He's certainly good enough at this to be a professional.

Speaker: Well, thank you very much.

Speaker: The truth is that's so flattering.

Speaker: I honestly feel this.

Speaker: Kyle Mann is one of the great geniuses of our time.

Speaker: I mean, he has shaped the voice of the bee.

Speaker: He has turned the bee from something...

Speaker: into something important.

Speaker: And rather than just a silly humor website, he has turned the bee into an important force.

Speaker: Look, politicians don't want to get torched on the bee.

Speaker: I mean, you saw what happened with Carrie Lake.

Speaker: And politicians love to be

Speaker: You know, delightfully teased in the B, Ted Cruz, you know, shared the B article about the mutton chop sideburns, you know, for the Civil War.

Speaker: Donald Trump has shared a couple B articles lately.

Speaker: So saying you think I'm Kyle, man, there's no greater compliment in the world.

Speaker: My gosh.

Speaker: You know, but I will humbly say, no, I hope one day I can have 1% of his genius in

Speaker: I don't know how he did it.

Speaker: He figured out a way to turn this into something

Speaker: important and in my, in my opinion, historic.

Speaker: And that's why getting published is such a thrill because, you know, it's like being a part of history, you know, and I look at the B articles, it's like, those will live on forever and they make an important point and they will live on forever.

Speaker: And if I can have my, myself associated with that in some small way, what a huge honor.

Speaker: So,

Speaker: That's probably enough brown nosing, but that's how I feel.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Kyle certainly has an awful lot to be proud of.

Speaker: It's a great, great, great site.

Speaker: He's done wonders with it.

Speaker: So we are coming down to our last subscriber headline.

Speaker: This one is from 2plus2isChicken.

Speaker: What is your favorite restaurant and why is it Red Lobster?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Hmm.

Speaker: Well, I would think that he would have said, why is it Chick-fil-A?

Speaker: My favorite restaurant is cooking at home.

Speaker: I'm a good cook.

Speaker: I love to cook at home.

Speaker: Now that I'm in my early 20s, I realized that restaurant food is super overly salted and I learned to cook and I'm good at it.

Speaker: And I would rather have one of my homemade meals than red lobster.

Speaker: That's for sure.

Speaker: Well, you must be a pretty good cook then.

Speaker: I'm really good.

Speaker: Better than red lobster.

Speaker: I would say red lobster is my favorite because of their shrimp scampi.

Speaker: I got to eat there twice in the last month.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: We don't have any of these things over here.

Speaker: You don't even have home cooking?

Speaker: Well, we have home cooking, but we don't have these other red lobster.

Speaker: But I must say the wonderful strike engineer is on his way, making his way through Europe as we speak.

Speaker: And he may have some Chick-fil-A sauce that he may be dropping off at my home at some stage this month.

Speaker: So that will be my yearly supply from him.

Speaker: So he's starting to come on a regular basis now.

Speaker: He better bring it then because otherwise now is going to be a disappointment if he doesn't.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: He will.

Speaker: He will.

Speaker: He sees me.

Speaker: He's got my back.

Speaker: By the way, I also love El Pollo Loco.

Speaker: I'll just throw that in there.

Speaker: Do you have those?

Speaker: No, I don't know of that.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I assume it's a Mexican restaurant?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Remember in Breaking Bad, Pollo Sarmanos?

Speaker: I've never watched Breaking Bad, so I don't know.

Speaker: I have, but I'm blanking.

Speaker: I can't remember.

Speaker: Well, it's just like a grilled chicken.

Speaker: In between fast food and a restaurant.

Speaker: Oh, OK.

Speaker: It's good stuff, good stuff.

Speaker: OK.

Speaker: And they have salads instead of French fries, so.

Speaker: That's too healthy.

Speaker: I can try to pretend that I'm being healthy.

Speaker: Stop!

Speaker: Who would cross the Beeple Bridge?

Speaker: Must answer nigh these questions fine.

Speaker: Air into the golden bathtub he dives.

Speaker: Well, all good things come to an end, unfortunately.

Speaker: But, not yet.

Speaker: We have the five questions as we...

Speaker: start coming to the end of this podcast, perhaps.

Speaker: We'll see.

Speaker: But we have these five questions that we ask to all of our guests, kind of similar to what the Babylon Bee do on their podcast with their guests.

Speaker: But we have five instead of 10.

Speaker: So the first one for you, ShowQuest, you probably know these already.

Speaker: When did you receive the Babylon Bee into your heart?

Speaker: And it's your bee origin story, as it were.

Speaker: So as I said, I've been aware of the B since 2016.

Speaker: I've been sharing their stuff, sometimes to make a point, sometimes to tick off my liberal friends.

Speaker: But always loved the B. And then last year...

Speaker: Um, I had a difficult year.

Speaker: Uh, I lost my father at the beginning of the year.

Speaker: And I think, you know, we've all been through these kinds of difficult things where it makes you kind of stop and look around and assess your life.

Speaker: And I had that moment of looking around going, you know, life is short and what am I doing with my life?

Speaker: And so that's when I latched on, uh, you know, to the forum and, uh,

Speaker: To be honest, it's turned into much more than I thought it would be.

Speaker: I thought it would just be an outlet for some creativity.

Speaker: But it has kind of filled in a little bit of the void.

Speaker: My dad and I would talk politics for hours.

Speaker: He was an old school Reagan Republican.

Speaker: He was a military and a high-ranking police officer.

Speaker: a very serious man, but we were very close and we would discuss politics to no end.

Speaker: And when I lost him, I felt a little bit of a void.

Speaker: I don't have anyone to kind of bounce that stuff around with.

Speaker: And so the B community has served a profound role

Speaker: purpose in my life.

Speaker: That's how I came to be here.

Speaker: And that's, again, as I said before, that's probably why I was maybe a little bit overly passionate in my first months here in the forum.

Speaker: I so desperately wanted it to work out.

Speaker: I so desperately wanted to have at least some success that I was probably a little bit emotional.

Speaker: But

Speaker: Thanks to fellow bees like G. Fanson, who really showed me a lot of kindness and compassion when I had some difficult moments.

Speaker: And SDH, and I'll end with this, SDH, who said something to me that stuck in my head and changed the way I feel about the bee in the forum forever with one simple phrase.

Speaker: She said, I was having kind of a difficult time with something.

Speaker: And she said to me, remember, we're all in this together.

Speaker: And that really stuck in my head.

Speaker: And I thought, you know what?

Speaker: She's right.

Speaker: There is a larger, higher purpose here.

Speaker: And I'm excited to be a part of it.

Speaker: And so that's what the bee means to me.

Speaker: And that's how I came to be part of the bee.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Our second question is, you know, you have obviously had a lot of good headlines.

Speaker: What is your favorite headline that you've submitted?

Speaker: I would say, you know, in a weird way, it was a headline that maybe didn't get that much attention, but Biden to finish out term and inflatable bubble ball.

Speaker: So that I got it.

Speaker: I got a like minds credit for that recently.

Speaker: And the reason that's one of my favorites is because it taught me a lesson because I submitted that headline about 10 or 11 months prior to the B running their article.

Speaker: And it taught me a lesson about patience and timing.

Speaker: And I remember when I submitted that headline, I was really fired up.

Speaker: I thought it was great.

Speaker: And it got no attention.

Speaker: And I was very frustrated.

Speaker: And I was frustrated with the Babylon Bee.

Speaker: And I thought, what's wrong with these guys?

Speaker: And when I got the publishing credit, it kind of illuminated me to the notion that...

Speaker: There's much more at play here than I thought.

Speaker: And for people out there listening, you know, when you get frustrated about headlines, you have to remember there's a lot going on in this landscape.

Speaker: It's not just about the quality of your headline.

Speaker: It's about timing.

Speaker: It's about, you know, what is the B already done before.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: That headline was an important lesson for me in patience and grace and keeping perspective.

Speaker: And so we'll call that one my favorite.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, the third question, ShowQuest, what fast food menu item is the result of the fall?

Speaker: So in other words, what fast food menu item do you detest?

Speaker: Starbucks coffees with all the whipped cream and the flavors and stuff.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: This stuff is insidious because it's a dessert posing as a coffee.

Speaker: So people feel good about ordering a coffee.

Speaker: No big deal.

Speaker: I'm just having a coffee, but it's like putting an ice cream sundae on top of a rice cake and calling it a rice cake.

Speaker: Okay, now there's nothing wrong with an ice cream sundae, but don't tell me it's a rice cake and don't tell the public it's a rice cake.

Speaker: So I would say Starbucks Frappuccinos with all the flavorings and the whipped cream, it's the end of the world as we know it.

Speaker: I would agree with you because of the coffee.

Speaker: Oh, you don't like the coffee part?

Speaker: No.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: But let's just be honest, right?

Speaker: It's a dessert sundae, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So call it like it is.

Speaker: You were really ready to go with that answer, weren't you?

Speaker: I thought about it.

Speaker: Question number four.

Speaker: What is your favorite denomination and why is it Baptist?

Speaker: Because when you go out partying with a Baptist, you always have a designated driver.

Speaker: Very true.

Speaker: I would say truly the answer is Catholic because, well, because I was raised Catholic and I loved it.

Speaker: I'm going to try not to venture into blasphemy here, but I'm just joking around here, everybody.

Speaker: So here's why Catholics are the best.

Speaker: Catholic is the cinematic version of Christianity.

Speaker: When you've got a girl who's possessed by the devil and her head is spinning around, who do you call?

Speaker: You call a Catholic priest to exercise the demon, right?

Speaker: You don't call the guy with the acoustic guitar, right?

Speaker: You call the Catholic the scary-looking Catholic priest.

Speaker: We've got the priest.

Speaker: We've got the nuns that I was terrified of.

Speaker: We've got the saints for everything.

Speaker: They're like little concierges.

Speaker: My mom always had me pray to St.

Speaker: Anthony when I lost something.

Speaker: And by the way, his batting average is so-so.

Speaker: There's still a lot of stuff I haven't found.

Speaker: Um, we've got the confessional booths, right?

Speaker: That's like, you're going into a chamber to talk directly to God.

Speaker: And I remember my first confession.

Speaker: It was terrifying.

Speaker: Um, I admitted to yelling at my brother, but I didn't admit to hitting him.

Speaker: And, uh, I don't think I fooled anybody.

Speaker: Um, so anyways, yeah, I, I think,

Speaker: Look, when movies need to have a religious element, right?

Speaker: They go to the Catholic.

Speaker: So there's my answer, the Catholic.

Speaker: Yeah, I remember learning that.

Speaker: I don't remember what class it was, but some class in school.

Speaker: Because, yeah, I always wondered, well, whenever there's something with religion in a TV show or movie, it's always Catholic.

Speaker: And the teacher said, well, that's because it's so visual.

Speaker: It's a good storytelling tool because you can convey a lot.

Speaker: If you see a priest,

Speaker: Compared to a pastor who is just in a suit, you see a priest walking, you automatically know that there's going to be some religious thing there.

Speaker: Or the end of the world is coming, or there's a demon around.

Speaker: You can usually tell when the writer of a show has absolutely no idea.

Speaker: They just say, oh, we need some religious elements in here.

Speaker: And it's kind of like in a Baptist church, but then you've got the Roman Catholic priest, and it's like, what's going on here?

Speaker: There's just such a mishmash of terminology and...

Speaker: You can just tell it's been put together by someone who's got no idea what they're doing.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's easy to see.

Speaker: We need something religious.

Speaker: We'll just throw, throw a few things in there and it'll work.

Speaker: And also we have the superpower Christian, the Pope.

Speaker: He's got superpowers.

Speaker: He's got the hat and the staff.

Speaker: I mean, come on, this is exciting stuff.

Speaker: Martin Luther.

Speaker: Anyway, moving on.

Speaker: So, ShowQuest, the final question of the five questions.

Speaker: If the FBI raided your house, how many MyPillows would they find?

Speaker: Well, they did, and they found none.

Speaker: But I will say this.

Speaker: My dad had a bunch.

Speaker: My dad bought everything that was advertised on Fox News.

Speaker: So I got all the reviews from him about what worked and what didn't and what was good.

Speaker: So did he have a Trumpy bear?

Speaker: I believe so.

Speaker: He, all the, and like the nature pills, the veg, what is it?

Speaker: The fruit and vegetable pills.

Speaker: And yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And he, and he, he was a staunch supporter, whatever they advertised, he'd buy into it.

Speaker: And then he would complain to me and go, Oh, that didn't work.

Speaker: That thing's a bunch of, you know what?

Speaker: I'd be like, dad,

Speaker: You got to, you can't just buy everything.

Speaker: So no, no pillows, no, my pillows for me, but in my family, there were many.

Speaker: In my father's house, there are many, my pillows.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Okay, well, I would like to turn the tables on you guys.

Speaker: I have some questions for you because I am here representing the common subscriber, and you guys are of legendary status, and I think all of us would be curious to know some things about you.

Speaker: I would like to know what is your work style?

Speaker: How do you come up with your headlines?

Speaker: In other words, are you sitting at a computer?

Speaker: Do you do it on your phone on the beach?

Speaker: Do you have a notepad?

Speaker: Where do you work?

Speaker: How do you work?

Speaker: What's your setup like?

Speaker: Yeah, I'm just constantly thinking of things throughout the day.

Speaker: When I'm doing things, something will pop into my head.

Speaker: A lot of times it has to do with what I'm doing or it might be, you know, if I have watched the news, I'll just kind of ponder that for a while.

Speaker: I think up a lot of headlines while I'm doing laundry.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, sometimes I have a pen and paper.

Speaker: Sometimes I have a notepad on my phone or if I'm on my computer, I just put on the notepad there.

Speaker: So I have at any time I have three or four different folders going with headline ideas.

Speaker: But yeah, just throughout the day, I have an idea.

Speaker: I'll jot it down.

Speaker: And then a lot of times it's in the evening or just when I have a little bit of time, I'll go over what I jotted down and start to kind of refine them.

Speaker: you know, make them more clear, find, find better words.

Speaker: And you're working in different mediums, the notepad, your computer.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I think for me, I mentioned earlier, you know, my, my brain's always going and I'm, I'm, I'm usually quite disorganized and scatty.

Speaker: Um, I used to use the notes notes app on my iPhone quite a lot to jot down ideas, uh, since joining the writer's room, uh, they have their own, um,

Speaker: technology that they use to communicate.

Speaker: Uh, and there's a, an option on there to make your own notes.

Speaker: So I'm, I'm often writing things down there as well.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: I'm also putting things directly into the, into the chat that we have, um, and making a list there.

Speaker: So I've kind of, I've got growing lists growing everywhere, which is kind of, if my wife doesn't force me to clean, you know, my desk would just be, uh, overrun with mess and paper everywhere.

Speaker: That's just kind of the way I work.

Speaker: Um, and somehow order emerges from chaos, I guess.

Speaker: But, um, yeah, I'm always thinking, uh, you know, my brain's always going, I'm always on the lookout for a headline.

Speaker: And like I said earlier, it's, it's,

Speaker: Yeah, sometimes I have those moments where I sit down and I think, okay, I've got this idea, let's think about it.

Speaker: And that's really hard work.

Speaker: It's just like Kurgle said, she's doing the laundry.

Speaker: I might just be doing something.

Speaker: This week I've been painting and decorating quite a bit, so something might come to me then.

Speaker: And my greatest fear, usually when I'm driving as well, I get a lot of ideas when I'm driving.

Speaker: My greatest fear is that I'll forget it.

Speaker: Yes, absolutely.

Speaker: And that's happened a few times.

Speaker: I'm like, no, I had this really good idea.

Speaker: I tend to take out my phone quite a lot and just use voice to text to speak in an idea or quickly type it in depending on where I am, what I'm doing.

Speaker: But yeah, it's kind of constant for me.

Speaker: I've even had it at times, you know, I'm in bed and I remember the other day my wife said something to me and I

Speaker: I instantly got out of bed and she's like, you're going to write down a headline idea, aren't you?

Speaker: I was like, I'll be back in a minute.

Speaker: I've done that multiple times.

Speaker: So, you know, it's, it's literally from, it is all consuming and, but I love it.

Speaker: You know, it's, it's, it's a big part of my life.

Speaker: It's from when I wake up to when I go to bed, I'm always, obviously I'm doing other things as well, but I'm always thinking about a possible headline.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I would say too, if you used to homeschool, so you have a big whiteboard hanging in your kitchen, that whiteboard is very handy for headline ideas too.

Speaker: We've seen your whiteboard.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, I spend all day on a computer in my home office doing my job, digital marketing.

Speaker: So when it comes time to work on the B stuff, I'm so sick of sitting at this computer that I don't want to be anywhere near it.

Speaker: So I do everything on my phone in a recliner, kicking back with my dog, licking my toes or whatever, trying to get attention.

Speaker: But yeah, for me, it's all casual on the phone.

Speaker: So yeah, I just think it's interesting how people set up their workspaces.

Speaker: find a way to function.

Speaker: Well, that was really the main question I had.

Speaker: I was also going to ask a silly question about your duding philosophy.

Speaker: Are you just a mass duder or do you do selectively?

Speaker: What's your philosophy?

Speaker: I probably updo more than average person does, but I don't updo everything.

Speaker: If it makes me stop,

Speaker: If it's interesting, if it's something I agree with, if it's funny, then I'll give it an update.

Speaker: A lot of times since the way I go through things is instead of looking at the new list of different people's headlines, I'm usually looking at one person's group of headlines.

Speaker: Which to me, I really like doing that because then you're stuck in that for a moment, stuck in the one person style because everybody has their different styles of headline writing.

Speaker: So you can compare that person's headlines with that person's headlines.

Speaker: So a lot of times when I'm updating, I won't base whether I think their headline is good compared to other people's.

Speaker: I will base their headlines on their own headlines.

Speaker: Hmm.

Speaker: For me, I think, I don't know if I mentioned this on or off air, but obviously my time on the forum has taken quite a drastic cut.

Speaker: Just obviously I'm in the writers group and it's very consuming, very enjoyable.

Speaker: But I do want to try and make the effort to get over to the forum on a daily basis and, um,

Speaker: Share some love.

Speaker: But I have to be, if I'm totally honest, the last season I've been quite restricted to my notifications.

Speaker: So by the time I've gone through the notifications and read those, so that's typically people I'm following.

Speaker: But sometimes I'll go through and I'll be like, oh, that's good.

Speaker: And I might just do a mass like strike.

Speaker: Other times I'll be more selective.

Speaker: And if I'm totally honest, there's always users, you're one of them, ShowQuest, where I'll see you in my notifications and I will stop and study the headline.

Speaker: uh, in detail.

Speaker: Uh, Dissidente is another one.

Speaker: Um, I love his headlines.

Speaker: Um, but a lot of, yeah, sometimes there's ones that really take you by surprise and make you stop and laugh.

Speaker: Um, and then you go into the headline and you read the comments.

Speaker: Other times it's just very quick, um, just to say, Hey, I'm still here.

Speaker: Post a headline and, and, and like a few.

Speaker: Um, I'd like it to be more than that, but, um, yeah, if I'm honest at this stage, it's, uh, it's just balancing time really.

Speaker: A lot of times it has to do with what mood I'm in.

Speaker: If I'm in a really good mood, I'll updo almost everything sometimes.

Speaker: And then there's been some times when I'm just not feeling good or I'm just grumpy and I'll go through and it's like, oh, I haven't, you know, in this last 20 minutes, I've gone through how many headlines and I haven't updoed very many of them.

Speaker: And then I feel bad.

Speaker: And then sometimes when I'm busier and I have to read through them quicker,

Speaker: I just won't updo as many because I can't stop and, you know, think about each one enough.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So a lot of different things go into play.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: When I'm in a good mood, everyone's getting duded.

Speaker: I'm a duding machine.

Speaker: But if I'm frustrated about a headliner, I'm in a bad mood.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I can relate to that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: There's been times when we're trying to push someone over a milestone.

Speaker: So I'll just go into their headlines and I don't even read them.

Speaker: I just updo everything I would have been up to before.

Speaker: Well, thanks you guys.

Speaker: I just figured that people would want a little insight into your brain.

Speaker: So thank you.

Speaker: Yeah, no worries.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Well, it's that time, unfortunately, where we have to draw things to a close.

Speaker: And it's always a very sad and emotional time of the podcast.

Speaker: But ShowQuest, it's been so much fun having you on.

Speaker: I really do wish we could talk for longer.

Speaker: I suspect this is going to be a very lengthy podcast, but no doubt one that people will enjoy listening to.

Speaker: And it won't seem as long as it is because it's been great listening to you and your insights and your wisdom.

Speaker: Because, I mean, let's be honest, you've been doing this for many years and both as a stand-up comedian, also as a writer, I think you've got a...

Speaker: When you joined the Bee, you came with a pretty impressive resume.

Speaker: So I think there's a lot people can learn from you.

Speaker: But unfortunately, time restraints do require us to stop at some stage.

Speaker: And I know for me, it's gone very, very quickly.

Speaker: I've really enjoyed hearing you and spending this time together.

Speaker: So I just wanted to say thanks very much again for coming on.

Speaker: Thank you guys.

Speaker: It's been an honor.

Speaker: And I'm just, I'm so happy to be a part of all this.

Speaker: And you guys just elevated my feelings even more.

Speaker: So thank you so much.

Speaker: It's such a joy.

Speaker: And thank you everyone listening.

Speaker: I love you guys.

Speaker: You guys are so supportive and nice to me.

Speaker: I just love the hive.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: I just want to say thank you to everyone and shout out to Ruthie, my home girl.

Speaker: So thank you guys.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I had such a nice time talking to you.

Speaker: It was so interesting and just fun.

Speaker: Um, and I think everyone who listens will really enjoy the episode too.

Speaker: So thank you for coming on and, and, and just chatting with us.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Thanks so much again, ShowQuest.

Speaker: It's been so much fun.

Speaker: And, um, I mean, I was looking over on your profile and I, I mean, you've only been on the headline forum for about a year now, I think.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: and you really hit the ground running.

Speaker: Like I said, you had a huge amount of weaponry in your satirical arsenal.

Speaker: And it's just been so much fun reading your headlines and celebrating with you as you get featured and published.

Speaker: And I'm sure it won't be much longer before we see another one of your headlines.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Being published again soon.

Speaker: So keep it up.

Speaker: Tomorrow morning.

Speaker: I'm so honored.

Speaker: Thank you guys.

Speaker: I'm really, it's very touching.

Speaker: It means a lot to me.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Well, this is a podcast where the hosts and the guests, we build each other up.

Speaker: You're great.

Speaker: And no, nobody does that better than the people.

Speaker: Nobody.

Speaker: It is a great place.

Speaker: We say, we say it's almost in every episode, but it is, I mean, I do miss it because obviously the writer's room takes up a lot of my time.

Speaker: So I do miss that, that back and forth.

Speaker: But it's, it's good just to take a moment like this to reconnect with, with, with Kurgle, with yourself, ShowQuest, and likewise with the community as well, and just be reminded of everything that everyone's doing and, uh,

Speaker: We hear a lot of the similar things from people we have on here who have found a lot of companionship and friendship and love in the Headline Forum community.

Speaker: So that's, yeah, who would have thought you join the Babylon Bee to try and get published, to get a great joke out there, and you end up making a huge amount of lifelong friends.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: It's an amazing ride.

Speaker: Seriously.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, we wish you all the very best.

Speaker: Obviously, we'll keep in touch through the forum.

Speaker: And yeah, wishing you every success with the coming weeks ahead and many more publishers to come.

Speaker: Thank you, my friend.

Speaker: So until we speak again, all the very best, ShowQuest.

Speaker: Take care.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Goodbye.

Speaker: Nice talking to you.

Speaker: Afnar wants to know, are you in the inner circle of some sort of cons... Hang on, I'm going to reread that because I need to get the wording on this right.

Speaker: Conspir... How do you pronounce that?

Speaker: Conspiratorial?

Speaker: Conspiratorial.

Speaker: That's it, yeah.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: Let me start again.

Speaker: Conspiratorial.

Speaker: Rewind.

Speaker: Yes, I've got another question here from Afnar.

Speaker: And Afnar asks, are you in the inner circle of some sort of consp... Can't say it.

Speaker: In my defense, it's like 11 o'clock at night here.

Speaker: So hang on.

Speaker: How do I pronounce that word again?

Speaker: Help me.

Speaker: Conspiratorial.

Speaker: What is wrong with me?

Speaker: Conspiratorial.

Speaker: Oh, dear.

Speaker: This is going in the end past the podcast, isn't it?

Speaker: Obviously.

Speaker: Put it in to embarrass me.

Speaker: Conspiratorial.

Speaker: Okay, let me try again.

Speaker: Third time, Lucky.

Speaker: Okay, shall we move on then to the five questions?

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Which I do not have in front of me.

Speaker: I have them right here.

Speaker: You're just going to hold them up.

Speaker: I think that's what I did last time, didn't I?

Speaker: You took a screenshot.

Speaker: Hang on.

Speaker: Let's be old-fashioned.

Speaker: Hold it up.

Speaker: Hang on.

Speaker: You can see it okay?

Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to do a screen grab.

Speaker: Hang on.

Speaker: Give me one second.

Speaker: Yeah, got it.

Speaker: I have questions for you two also, by the way.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Because I'm here representing the common man subscriber, okay?

Speaker: You guys are legends.

Speaker: There's things we want to know about you.

Speaker: I wouldn't quite say legend, but yeah.

Speaker: What's that famous quote?

Speaker: Never meet your heroes.

Speaker: I was going to say we could tell you, but then we have to kill you.

Speaker: Ah, that's true.

Speaker: And, um, the next one we did, I was editing it and I just heard so many ums and ahs and from myself, I was like trying to edit out every single um and it just took a, it took forever.

Speaker: So yeah, no ums, but yeah, they still come out.

Speaker: And I noticed I say so a lot as well.

Speaker: It's kind of like a stop word or something.

Speaker: So we all have our little fillers.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But, uh, one thing they teach you in Toastmasters is there's nothing wrong with a pause, you know?

Speaker: And in fact, a silent pause can even draw your audience in to pay attention to you even more.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I, and I used to hate that because, uh,

Speaker: If there was a pause in a conversation, I just instinctively had to fill it with something.

Speaker: And then you just end up saying something dumb or, yeah.

Speaker: It makes me think of Bob Newhart.

Speaker: Who's that?

Speaker: I should know who that is.

Speaker: Newhart.

Speaker: Bob Newhart?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Legendary comedian.

Speaker: He just passed away.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, is that the guy from, oh no.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: Of course.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: He was in the Big Bang Theory.

Speaker: I was waiting for that.

Speaker: I knew you probably would know him from that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, he always had his pauses.

Speaker: I didn't know him very well, actually, but I saw him in The Big Bang Theory.

Speaker: I loved his comedic delivery.

Speaker: It was hilarious.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: He made stammering into an art form.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, let's move to the five questions then.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: and stop