Looking Back at 200 Episodes of Weekly Spooky

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I low my Spookies, and welcome
to a very special show. Of course,

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every show is special, just like
everyone else. But but I wanted

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to do something cool to follow up
the big two hundredth episode. In some

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ways, I feel like I'm like, I'm kind of managing my trauma because

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I've spent I've never spent thirty hours
on a podcast, thirty hours of recording

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and editing of just a radio of
audio, and it was it was just

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such a massive undertaking. When it
was over, I was like, Ah,

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does life have meaning? I don't
know. So I wanted to kind

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of place everything and talk about two
hundred episodes of Weekly Spooky and what that

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means. So I invited my good
buddy Andrew Shearer, and he is a

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many things. He's a dear friend
of mine. He's also a filmmaker.

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He's also a podcast and he's also
a journalist with the Athens Banner Harold in

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Georgia. And he's the most the
most delightfully curious person I know. Hey,

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so I thought he'd be you would
be the first perfect person. Hey,

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thanks man. Well, you know
Hendrick um Weekly Spooky and we'll get

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into that. I got an interesting
relationship with this show. I'm not going

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to give all the things away,
but first let me just say it is

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a congratulations on two hundred episodes,
man, thank you. Yeah. You

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know, most people they start a
podcast and they get that first one out

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and they're like, you know,
it turns out I didn't want to share

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this much personal things online and then
they go erase it. Well, and

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I've I've noticed a lot of people
just get discouraged because the numbers aren't what

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they want. After like five episodes. Yeah, Weekly Spooky didn't have a

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substantial listener growth for the first two
years. I remember, I remember so,

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but I didn't care because when I
started it, I said I was

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going to go to one hundred episodes
no matter what, and that I think

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that's why it makes the two hundredth
feel even more surreal, because it's like,

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because I remember I even because I
started talking to the writers and everything.

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When we did the hundredth episode special
where we had everybody right a short,

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a small story, and we did
like an anthology, a two party

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anthology because there was so much content
and when that was done, that was

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an exhausting thing. But my producer
Dan, most of it was writing.

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So producer Dan handled you know,
corralling the writers and editing their stories and

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putting them together for me. So
I really just sat down and it was

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just like a really long episode for
me, as opposed to doing an audio

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drama, which was super fun but
just so exhausting. Yeah. All right,

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well we're talking about a lot of
things here. I want to go

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back to those two years ago,
to what made you want to start disdain

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because you have a long history of
podcast, you have a long history of

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doing a lot of multimedia. Yeah, and so when I saw that you

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were doing this, though, I
was like, all right, that fits

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because Henrick loves short spooky stories.
I know he's a fan of tales from

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the Crypt things like that. But
I was like, all right, let's

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see what's going on with this thing. Because you do so many other things.

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I'm like, he's not gonna be
able to do this too. I

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mean, there's just he's gonna give
himself a stroke. So tell me about

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like what made you want to do
it and how you went about organizing it,

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because I think over time I have
seen this thing just kind of sprawl

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out, and see how you handled
it to where you got help and a

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very talented help at that. So, yeah, just anything you want to

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tell me about, like the aha
moment. Absolutely well, the biggest aha

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moment of my life when it comes
to podcasting was Weekly Spooky because and I've

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talked about this a little bit on
the feed before, I've actually played people

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like little excerpts of the Freak Forum. I did like a behind the Spooky.

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I found a few, like a
few choice like gags and skits,

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and I played them. Then people
seem to think they were pretty funny,

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but you know, it was very
different from what I'm doing. Well,

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after I did over, I did
about one hundred and twenty episodes of The

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Freak Forum, and I loved doing
it. But eventually I lost I lost

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the passion, you know, it
just kind of I got tired of it.

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The audience was kind of, you
know, stagnant, and I was

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really ahead of the curve. Yeah, I was. I was like about

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three years before I was live streaming
the episodes while we recorded them, about

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four or five years before that was
a thing that everybody was doing and you

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could make money doing it six right, six seven. Yeah, So,

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so like I was doing this and
I was doing a podcast back when you

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had to copy the thing into your
iTunes and paste it in to subscribe.

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And it wasn't like now where you
now you just say, you know,

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put the title in wherever you get
your podcasts. But back then it was

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it was a lot of work to
get people to subscribe, and more people

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would would listen via the an audio
player on my Space then would listen on

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the podcast feed because that was so
much easier for them at that time,

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you know, I know it was. It was nuts. So but so

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I would dabble in podcasts here and
there, especially like being on your podcast

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or you know, just doing whatever
um my friends were doing. And I

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always thought like, man, I
want to do a podcast. But I

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had learned, you know, very
directly, what it was like, pumping

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out a podcast all by yourself,
all by yourself, week after week after

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week after week. And I was
a young guy. I'm happy that I

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did it because I learned a lot
about just just habitual creation, you know,

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just it's because every week I didn't
always have a plan. Every week

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though, I was like, well, the my cast to turn on,

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and I have to talk about something, right, and you know, I

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don't even know what I talked about
half the time, like because it just

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like my brain is like I just
went for it, and I'm sure I

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rambled and and you know, it
was weird, but it was fun.

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So I had done a few years
earlier. I had done those scary stories

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or those uh what was it called. I think it was called Don't Listen

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in the Dark, That's what it
was called. Yeah. The CDs.

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Yeah, man, we're like ancient. They were CD discs that had four

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scary stories that were like ten minutes
each and a song in the middle.

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The first one had monster mash in. The second one had a song called

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Paranoid that I wrote for Halloween.
Yeah that man whoever did Dracula on that

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sound he sounded like, Hugh might
be a problem. What have happened?

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What happened? All right? But
I remember that so yeah, And and

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that was the beginning of me getting
really into the idea of telling more scary

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stories because I used to read scary
story books and listen to scary story audio

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books and stuff like that. And
I love I love when you boil things

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down, you know, Like I
love making movies, and that's one of

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my biggest passions in the world.
So I love the idea of like a

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bear naked storytelling where it's like,
okay, so all of that's great,

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you know, merging music and picture
and sound and performances, that's great,

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But what about when it's just the
story and a person, you know,

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like we're going back to ancient times
sitting in front of a fireplace or a

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campfire, um, wherever they're sitting. It was definitely racist, that's all

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we need to know, because it
was a long time ago. But in

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the cave or outside the cave,
so you know, if it was in

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the cave, it was able there. But so I had done that and

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really enjoyed it. And those short
stories I wrote myself, and I don't

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consider myself like a very skilled prose
writer, but they were only like ten

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minute stories, so it was like
a page and a half of like writing,

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and I just kind of wrote like
stuff that I felt like would be

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tales from the Crypt episodes and and
things like that. In fact, one

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of the stories became a segment in
Scare Waves, my horror anthology. All

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right, yeah, yeah. I
literally gave John Ocdalton the audio drama,

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let him hear it, and then
he wrote a script for it based on

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the audio drama Wow Yeah, and
it turned out nice. So as times

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going on and times going on,
I became good buddies with you know.

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I call him producer Dan Dan Wilder, and he's a writing partner and a

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producing partner in tons and tons of
movies and TV shows I've done. You

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know. He wrote four out of
the six episodes of Boggy Creek, the

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series he wrote Wigi Room. He's
just a really good dude and we collaborate

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phenomenally together. And his beginnings were
in pros so I would know. Yeah,

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I didn't mean to cut you off. I didn't know Dan. Dan

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wasn't a name that I knew.
Where did you find Dan? How'd you'all

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meet? You'll love this because it's
a it's such a classic story. Dan

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obtained a screener of one of my
films, I want to say, amity

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Ville No Escape. He watched it
and he wrote a really awesome review of

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it and sent me a Facebook message
just saying like, hey, man,

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I really loved your movie. So
my response was, well, if you

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want to review anymore, just let
me know, and he's like, oh,

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yeah, then I'd love to review
some stuff. So I sent him

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like eight screeners other features he hadn't
seen of mine, Wow, and he

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watched them all and reviewed them all
dad, And so then we've just got

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to talk in and you know,
he's very We just had such an amica

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amicableness between us. Okay, i'll
make it a word. I'm gonna make

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it happen like fetch but uh but
no. So we just started talking and

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eventually I he sent me some of
his short fiction, which I really liked,

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and that turned into him writing a
screenplay for me, which I made

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into the Moviewiji room. And that
was the beginning of us just like working

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together a ton. You know,
y'all didn't meet him in person, No,

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we actually the first time we met
in person was two years after we

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started working together. Two years.
Yeah. I went to the Chiller Theater

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convention and he lives in upstate New
York, so it's like an hour forty

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five minute drive. So he made
the drive literally just to meet me,

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you know, and walk around the
convention for an hour with me, and

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it was really cool. Well,
Dan's an awesome dude. He's a stay

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at home dad, so he's got
you know, he loves his hobbies,

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and you know, when the kids
go to bed, he's writing constantly,

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writing horror movie reviews and constantly writing
different things. So one day I went

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to Dan and I was like,
what do you think about a podcast that's

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a scary story every week? And
he was like, dude, that'd be

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really cool because I think the way
I pitched it was I was like Tales

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from the Crypt but it's an audiobook. And he got really amped. And

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then he was like, dude,
I have all these writer friends because and

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they're all like, not just friends, they're like childhood friends of his,

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like people he trusts implicitly. Guys
like Joe Salmo and Shane Migliovaca who have

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their names are all over Weekly Spooky. Yeah. And they had this blog

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called penned in Blood dot com,
which is still around, and for the

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first I would say first year of
Weekly Spooky, I would say eighty percent

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of the stories came from Pendinblood dot
com. Eighty percent because Joe super nice

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dude. Joe was like, hey, any story on that website that is

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written by me or Shane or I
think was Jeff Carpenter, and there was

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one other person. It was like, any story that's written by those people,

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like they've all given their blessing,
so just you know, do it,

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credit us and send us a link. We want to hear it.

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And that was an amazing boon.
I credit Weekly Spooky getting off the ground

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almost entirely dependent Blood dot com and
Joe Salmo and and they were they were

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awesome. And then before you knew
it, they were enjoying hearing me read

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the story so much that they were
like, what if we uh, what

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if you're write one, you know, just for the you know, just

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for the podcast. And that turned
into like very regularly getting emails from them

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with like, here's news story.
And my favorite thing was they asked me

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like, well, what do you
want? I was. I gave them

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a number count our word count,
like to two thousand and three thousand words,

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but nothing else. And they'd be
like, well, this one might

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be pretty messed up, and I
was like, send it, and so

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they were. And I love that
about the show is that it like my

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attitude is if you didn't enjoy the
story, that's totally fine, just go

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to the next one. And like, and that was one that I had

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that attitude when we only had twenty
I'd be like, what, there's twenty

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other ones. Now it's like there's
two hundred of them. You'll find one

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you dig, like, you know, and we tag most of them are

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explicit, but we tag them explicit, so you know if you're gonna hear

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one you could listen to with your
kid in the car or not. So

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yeah, and that was the big
beginning. But I think that the moment

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and this was all about answering that
that painful question of I know how to

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make a podcast, I know how
to record. I know that I have

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a great speaking voice. Um,
you know, people like to listen to

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me talk. How can I generate
the content every week? So then it

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when it became oh, I'm reading
short stories every week, then it was

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like, well, there's the content. You know, I just have to

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make sure I have threes I'm three
stories ahead at all times. Yeah,

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you know, so that I'm But
there were times in those early days of

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Weekly Spooky where I chose the story
or was sent the story like the morning

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before it published, and I would
just crank that bad boy out and publish

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it. And that was it,
like we just had to move. So

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it's not quite that way now.
I probably have like fifteen stories we haven't

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read yet. What Yeah, and
that falls into another thing. So as

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we're publishing, it became very clear
who my nerdy literature friends were, and

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one of them is a guy named
Rob Fields. Rob is a has been

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a friend of mine since I was
sixteen years old. He's been a friend

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of mine as long as you and
I have been friends. Fields is a

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name that I am familiar with.
Yeah, well Rob. I met him

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at send him a Wasteland and I
was sitting there. I'm a sixteen,

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fifteen year old teenage filmmaker. And
he bought the whole table, bought every

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movie I had, and every wastelande. I'd see him and we talk and

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then he would email me. And
one time he emailed me and said,

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hey, I wrote a like a
little novella and I self published it.

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Do you want one? I said
yeah. So he sent it to me

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and I read it was called The
April Fool. Really liked it. It

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was like it was like R.
L. Stein Ish, but like more

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adult it was. I loved it
so as like things are happening. I

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remember that I hadn't heard much about
Rob writing ever since. So we ended

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up talking. I can't remember if
I brought it up or he brought it

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up, but one of us kind
of was like, hey, if I

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wrote if it was either like me
saying if you wrote something, or him

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saying if I wrote something, would
you consider it? And I was like

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hell yeah. So Rob wrote a
story just for Weekly Spooky. It turned

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out awesome, really fun. He
has a great sense of humor. And

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one thing I like about Rob's stories, He's not afraid to go for lack

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of veteran in a term, in
a sleazy direction. He's not afraid to

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you know, to have some sex
and have some stuff. And it's funny

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because like Weekly Spooky's audience is over
seventy percent women. That's good. Yeah,

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no, well, and it makes
perfect sense. Women are more into

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literature, women are more into audio
books. It just makes perfect sense.

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But it's funny because then I'll hear
people and usually say it like, you

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know, it, isn't that story
a little rough? You know whatever?

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And I'm like, well, not
for the massively female audience that we have.

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They're grown up and they they like
a little spice with their you know,

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with their meal. So Rob starts
writing stories and Robs a machine of

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those fifteen stories waiting to be published, at least seven or eight of them

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are his. He will pump out
two or three stories a month. Man.

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Sometimes it's wild. And he's written
novella length stories, mini series length

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stories. And he did something that, to be completely honest, I wasn't

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certain was a good idea, which
was he wanted to set. He started

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setting all of his stories in a
world called Strickfield. It was a town.

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All the stories took place in and
around Strickfield. And I was of

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the attitude like, no, no, no. All the stories seemed to

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be completely standalone, because we have
no idea how many times how many people

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are going to listen to more than
one? Right, So he worked really

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hard to make sure that they stood
on their own. But they still referenced

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each other and had like little arcs
that you could follow. And after you

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know, one hundred and ten episodes, all of a sudden, I was

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getting emails and people were so invested
in Strickfield. Cool and it. Strickfield

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in a lot of ways is like
Rob and I's baby. Rob writes the

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stories, but he'll text me and
be like, I was thinking about,

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you know, a vampire thing,
and this and this and this and this,

249
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and then I'll go, what if
it ended like this? And it'd

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be like I like that, and
then you know, two weeks later,

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boom, there's a story. And
we have a lot of fun with those.

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And anytime he writes anything a little
bit like longer, like a novella

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episode which you're like fourteen or fourteen
thousand words, or a mini series which

254
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is basically four or five episodes worth
of content, we'll sit down and work

255
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the beats out together, you know, to try to try to get the

256
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because I remember the only thing that
I had to really teach him was I

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was like, we need maximum audience
retention, so you need to like end

258
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every mini series episode has to end
on a cliffhanger until we end it,

259
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until it's over. And he did
a really great job that He's gotten so

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good at it too. He's actually
written two novellas for Halloween time already,

261
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so we're gonna have two episodes of
Weekly Spooky. They are like an hour

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and forty minutes in October that are
that are his novellas. So that was

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the big one and honestly, one
of the greatest feelings in my life was

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Rob, you know, telling me
like I gave him an outlet, and

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that's something I'm really learning about people
who love to write. There aren't a

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lot of outlets for short stories anymore. The old days it was magazines.

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Yeah, and they don't do that
anymore. They don't buy they don't buy

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short stories anymore. I'm like,
you don't pick up Fangoria even though they

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have tons of pages, there's no
like two thousand words scary stories in there

270
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anything, and there should be.
Honestly, I think that'd be really cool,

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but they don't do that. So
Weekly Spooky became a place where it's

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like, look, we don't make
a lot of money. It's not really

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a you know, a business.
At that point, especially, there was

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like no business to be had.
The show didn't start stop losing money until

275
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like episode one hundred and sixty or
something like. Yeah, I mean it's

276
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it's all right, Like that was
the but I was loving it. That

277
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was the thing, you know.
I was, Oh, I can't tell

278
00:17:57.759 --> 00:18:00.960
you how fun it is that every
week, no matter what I'm doing,

279
00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.000
it's like, all right, thirty
year old man, it's time to sit

280
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down in a dark room and read
a scary story and I'm like, Okay,

281
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:11.359
I'll go do my adult responsibilities.
I'll read about these vampires at a

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beach party or you know, like
it's just the best. So it made

283
00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:18.240
me feel really good to have a
lot of people who've written short stories tell

284
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me that they've just were thrilled they
got feedback and they were thrilled that they

285
00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:27.039
realized people were hearing their stories.
And a lot of the authors have developed

286
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:32.440
fan bases from this, especially Rob. Rob has people who are obsessed with

287
00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:37.039
Strickfield, obsessed with the characters he
creates, and I couldn't be more proud

288
00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:38.519
of that. In particular, the
fact that I'm working with all these people

289
00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:44.400
I just really like is awesome.
Now, this has been more of a

290
00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:48.680
question for one of the authors,
but I know that you have written a

291
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weekly spook here. Yeah, I
wrote one regular episode and I wrote the

292
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two hundredth Yeah. Yeah, So
hearing it said spoken aloud versus it just

293
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something that people read. Is that
something thing where those old magazines where you'd

294
00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:07.359
sent in a story there's no audio
component to them. Yeah, And has

295
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the fact that they can hear them
read aloud does that change anything for them?

296
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Um? Does it have they have, have they mentioned what if that

297
00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.559
affects it at all. I've had
a few writers, because we've had people

298
00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:26.880
fans send in stories. Oh and
pretty much every story that's been sent in,

299
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aside from maybe one or two which
we're just not formatted writer or whatever

300
00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:33.519
or just didn't fit at all.
Um, we've gotten stories sent in by

301
00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:36.119
people and I could tell they've never
listened to the show because like the stories

302
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doesn't fit our format in any way, shape or form beyond editing. It

303
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just can't do it. Yeah,
but most of them, I've read them

304
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and they've been good, you know, They've been at least fun. And

305
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my attitude is I read every episode
as if I'm sitting in a room with

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just you and I'm trying to scare
you. Yeah, I know that I've

307
00:19:56.240 --> 00:19:57.680
not gotten to that part yet,
but we need to talk about that.

308
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When, for instance, we had
somebody submit a scary story and it was

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00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:04.640
the first one they'd ever written outside
of like college or high school. Right,

310
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they send it in. It's pretty
good, But I had one of

311
00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:12.799
the other authors edit it for me
and he was like, I like this

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00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:15.640
story, but I worry that there's
not enough tension, you know, I

313
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:18.880
worry that maybe it's a little loose
on tension, but I don't want to

314
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:21.400
change the guy's writing so much.
And I told him, I was like,

315
00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:23.480
listen, like, here, let
me read the back of this lens

316
00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:30.880
wipe. Gentle and thorough cleaning,
high quality lenses, quick and easy to

317
00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:34.240
see, lightly brush away dust and
dirt. Yeah. I was like,

318
00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:38.599
I'll make sure it's got tension,
like, I'll help the story along with

319
00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:45.559
pleasure backup package I ever heard.
Yeah, this is just a lens wipe

320
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.119
I use on my eyeglasses, but
it's the nearest thing that had words on

321
00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:53.039
it, and you scare somebody use
it for wiping something else. I think

322
00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:59.839
that would tingle, but it might
feel very very clean, weakly spooky.

323
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Will be right back after these quick
messages. All right. So while we're

324
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talking about you reading, I want
to hear about your kind of your approach

325
00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:12.119
to doing that. Is this something
that you were like, oh, I

326
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got it because I've just read a
lot of scary stories a lot of people,

327
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or this is something that I really
like doing. What was did you

328
00:21:19.559 --> 00:21:23.480
have to go through anything like as
far as over two hundred episodes, it's

329
00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:27.480
as far as developing the style of
how you read a scary story to somebody.

330
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It's definitely developed a lot, and
I'm not even fully aware. I

331
00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:37.079
know that. The biggest thing is
I talked really fast when we were starting

332
00:21:37.079 --> 00:21:41.920
out, and I'm a notorious fast
talker in life. So I try to

333
00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:47.240
slow down a little bit, you
know, and let the words come out

334
00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:52.319
one by one by one. And
that's been a big one. Some people's

335
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.279
writing is harder to read out loud
than others because some people have really long

336
00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:00.519
sentences, some people have short sentences. I learned I got to really get

337
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:04.799
good at picking where was good to
stop and breathe when there's no break in

338
00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:08.359
the in the in the sentence.
But the thing that blows every fan's mind

339
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:12.839
when they ask me about how I
record the show is with very few exceptions

340
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:18.240
Dan. One of the reasons Dan
is the producer man is he reads the

341
00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:22.119
stories before they go on the air
and make sure that they're yeah, and

342
00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:25.640
he's ready to make sure they're ready
if they need a little shibbty shank,

343
00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:26.759
you know, he'll make sure that
they're like, you know, no typos

344
00:22:26.839 --> 00:22:30.359
or whatever. And there are some
people that I don't do that with anymore.

345
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Like, once you've you know,
submitted ten stories, you just send

346
00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:36.640
them to me and I read them
and that's it, Like we don't worry

347
00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:41.119
anymore. But he reads most of
the stories. I most of the time,

348
00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:42.440
I'm reading the story for the first
time. When you hear it on

349
00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:47.480
the show, I was going to
ask you both, Yeah, and it

350
00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.920
works pretty well. It's it makes
it more fun for me because I'm getting

351
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:55.000
the story as I read it.
Yeah, And I can't tell you how

352
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:56.400
many times I was having a rotten
day and then the story was just a

353
00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:00.400
banger and I had a great time, and then when the show was scheduled

354
00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:03.480
to publish, I'm like, all
right, today's pretty good. So that's

355
00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:07.599
definitely been a big part of it. And obviously, like the biggest problem

356
00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:11.519
will be like you'll end a sentence
and then realize that the next sentence negates

357
00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:15.519
the tone of voice you had,
so then you know, go back a

358
00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.119
little bit and keep it recorded over. But that's the only negative is every

359
00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:19.480
now and then, like I'll be
like, oh, crap, that was

360
00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:22.240
foreshadowing something and I didn't know it
was coming, So then I'll go back

361
00:23:22.279 --> 00:23:26.240
and read it differently. But for
the most part. That's how I've been

362
00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:30.759
able to sustain the show because I
work a very intense schedule in my business.

363
00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:36.200
So being able to sit down and
just read a story once and now

364
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:41.279
it's a show has really helped keep
Weekly Spooky going without a doubt. That's

365
00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:45.319
cool, man, I didn't realize. I figured that you would have read

366
00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:48.640
through it at least once, you
know, That's what a lot of people

367
00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:53.119
say. I'm also a notoriously bad
reader. I fidget and struggle to stay

368
00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:56.319
still, but when I'm reading it
out loud, oh, I just like,

369
00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:00.160
it's just all focus. So it's
made me a better reader. Like

370
00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:06.160
I like to read books a lot
more after doing two hundred scary stories allowed

371
00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:11.039
right, Um, So before I
before we talk about individual episodes, because

372
00:24:11.079 --> 00:24:15.119
I do want to ask you a
couple of questions related to that. Um,

373
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a scary story read to you?
Though. I'm curious, because you

374
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:22.920
and I have shared a couple over
the years of being friends. Do you

375
00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:27.279
have one that you're like, is
like a gold standard for you that someone

376
00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:32.680
maybe told you, Yes, I
do, They're well, they're ironically one

377
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:36.200
of the gold standards, is my
mother telling me golden arm the lady with

378
00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:41.319
the Golden Arm, which was which
was a Southern slave tale that Mark Twain

379
00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:45.920
made famous. And then my mother's
Grammy that's what they called her, told

380
00:24:45.960 --> 00:24:48.000
it to her when she was a
little girl, and she would tell it

381
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.039
to me. Okay, So I
had that one. And the one that

382
00:24:52.119 --> 00:24:56.519
scared me the most was when my
stepdad would tell me lah, yeah um,

383
00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:00.839
because he would I've told I've actually, like on Spooky the Shell,

384
00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:03.559
I've told it as he told it
to me. And the best part is

385
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:06.799
I would read other people's versions and
realize, like, wow, a lot

386
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:08.400
of that was all him, Like
a lot of that is not in the

387
00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:12.720
other versions. And for those who
don't know, I mean, La Yarrona

388
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.559
is just the story of this as
a tragic story of a woman who ends

389
00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:18.119
up drowning her own children and then
realizing what did I do? So she

390
00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:22.480
drowns herself and now she's a weeping
woman that weeps by ponds and lakes and

391
00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:26.880
creeks, And if little children are
up late at night when they shouldn't be

392
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:32.000
well, they might hear the singing
of La Yarona and then realize it's weeping,

393
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:33.480
and then it's too late. She
drowns you because she thinks you're her

394
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:37.720
children. Ye so, and that
scared me. I would I would literally

395
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.359
lay in bed as like five or
six years old and debate just peeing the

396
00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:44.640
bed because I was so afraid to
get out of bed and go to the

397
00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:48.079
bathroom because I was told, like, you know, that's when you hear

398
00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:52.279
that's when you hear the voice,
that's when you hear the singing under the

399
00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:56.400
wind. Oh and because you're because
you're near the toilet, she would go

400
00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:00.839
to the toilet and drown her kids. Actually, he used to say,

401
00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:06.359
like the the creek behind the apartment, and it took me years to realize

402
00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:11.559
there was no creek. Hey,
that's the power though. Oh it's so

403
00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.319
good. It's so good. I
love it. I often joke with my

404
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:15.519
friends who have kids when their kids
misbehaving, I'm like, I'll go up

405
00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:18.160
there right now and tell them about
Laurona right now. They'll straighten up in

406
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:22.039
like eight seconds. Yeah, you
know, because they're like that sounds fair.

407
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:29.279
I'll grab by the shows like do
you want to drowned? Um?

408
00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:33.240
But I think I think that that
is definitely where a lot of this love

409
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:34.480
for it came from. Also,
my mother would read me a lot of

410
00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:38.839
Doctor Seuss. Yeah, my favorite
was Fox and Socks. She could read

411
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:42.599
that so fast. And all I
would do is be like faster, faster,

412
00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:51.079
faster, faster, be like bone
thugs and harmony. Yeah, pretty

413
00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:53.599
much. He got to that's the
tone twister, I'd oh yeah. And

414
00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:56.839
my mom would, I mean,
she would go for it man. And

415
00:26:56.839 --> 00:27:00.720
and so those were some of my
fondest memories, um aside from when I

416
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:03.839
got a television in my bedroom.
And then my fondest memories became like you

417
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:07.920
know, kung fu or kickboxing movies
on Cinemax and stuff. Right, all

418
00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.599
right, so, um, as
far as and I'm sure you've been asked

419
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:18.400
this before, what's the line as
far as like, is there no line

420
00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:22.839
in terms of content submitted story?
Like you know, just like all right,

421
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:26.960
well weekly Spooky will not do such
and such subject matter. We won't

422
00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:32.079
touch it, or you know,
is there any is there a line anywhere?

423
00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:36.400
I don't know because nobody, nobody. Every time I felt like maybe

424
00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:40.480
there was a line. A good
example would be Rob Fields did a story

425
00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:42.599
called Aids Mary, based on the
urban legend of Aids Mary. Right,

426
00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:48.079
and that's a story that is massively
full of sexual assault. Yeah, it's

427
00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:56.039
it's a very rough story, but
it doesn't glorify the sexual assault, right.

428
00:27:56.279 --> 00:28:00.440
The story is about how the sexual
assault is so all full and that

429
00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:04.799
she decides to get her vengeance on
these people, and it's meant to be

430
00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:07.640
horrific. So I remember when I
was first reading, I was like,

431
00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:10.440
oh my god, this is so
much rape in it, Like I'm getting

432
00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:11.079
nervous, and then by the end
of it, I was like, it

433
00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:15.279
was a part. It was,
it mattered. It wasn't just there because

434
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:18.599
Rob likes writing about that kind of
stuff, because he doesn't. He just

435
00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:23.839
likes telling stories that make him feel
an emotional connection. So there was that

436
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:29.359
one. There was one. Joe
Salmo wrote that as I was reading it,

437
00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:34.119
I was worried it was becoming political
because it was about a man who

438
00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:40.680
who ends up being hunted by the
by his fetus, and at first it

439
00:28:40.759 --> 00:28:41.799
kind of sounded like it was going
to go all political, but then it

440
00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:45.400
didn't. It was just a really
good story and really scary. And he

441
00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:49.440
actually wrote it. He actually wrote
it while he was like in the delivery,

442
00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:53.920
like in the hospital with his wife. Like it was called hyster hysteria.

443
00:28:56.200 --> 00:28:59.039
Yeah, there was an old Shun
Hudson book I remember I read as

444
00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:02.640
a kid. It was out a
deformed man who worked at a hospital.

445
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:08.440
His job was to empty the medical
waste, and he decided that he was

446
00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:15.200
going to start saving all the aborted
fetuses and he was able to use electricity

447
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:18.599
to turn them all alive, and
the rest of the book was them running

448
00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:21.240
them up in the hospital. Of
course. Yeah. Yeah, And I

449
00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.119
was like even then, I'm like, yo, yeah, that's quite a

450
00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:26.559
bit. Yeah, and you should
read that when you're a kid, because

451
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:30.200
they've grown up and be like,
kid'd be like, yeah, but yes,

452
00:29:30.359 --> 00:29:33.880
We've never had anything where I was
like, this is too far,

453
00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.559
because the stories are good, and
I don't think that, you know,

454
00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:45.000
the only time I think that terrible
things are offensive in art is when they're

455
00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:48.240
not. They don't matter, when
it's like you could take it or leave

456
00:29:48.279 --> 00:29:52.079
it. You know, if there's
sexual assault, murder, the abuse of

457
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:55.759
children, all that stuff, if
it has something to do with the story,

458
00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:00.559
and then it matters, and then
it's not u the word I'm looking

459
00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:03.279
for. You know, it's not
gratuitous, I guess, yeah, yeah,

460
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:06.599
it's got to be like there's a
reason for it need to be in

461
00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:10.240
there. Yeah. Yeah, So
because I I'm not I wasn't the biggest

462
00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:14.799
reader. I didn't realize how personal
writing gets, like as far as like

463
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.039
the care if it's first person,
the character will talk about, you know,

464
00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:22.599
their genitals, how they feel,
they'll talk about like all those things

465
00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:26.920
male or female doesn't matter. And
that was something that I also like had

466
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:26.920
to get used to. I was
like, no, no, no,

467
00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:30.799
this is normal, Like I gotta
remember when I read books that they're like

468
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:33.400
that because I'm used to do in
movies where you just kind of don't you

469
00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:38.079
don't quite get that up close and
personal with the you can't you know your

470
00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:42.519
show don't tell. But uh,
with stories, it's all about to tell.

471
00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:48.759
Yeah. So in terms of this
catalog that you now have a weekly

472
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:52.799
spooky I'm gonna go ahead and say
this, and Hen knows this because if

473
00:30:52.839 --> 00:30:56.319
it's a horror script, if it's
a screener of a movie, if it's

474
00:30:56.359 --> 00:31:00.920
anything, I got a really good
imagination and I get the creeps. I'm

475
00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:03.039
just a guy that gets the treat
and so I have to be like cool,

476
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:08.400
I'll read it in the morning.
Yep. Were there any episodes that

477
00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:12.839
stand out for you in terms of
Man, that one got me. The

478
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:18.400
one that got me the hardest actually
was our first episode. Yeah yeah,

479
00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:21.920
because it was so good. Now, I don't feel like that sounds like

480
00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:25.359
I'm not gonna be able to handle
these Gosh, that one scared the crap

481
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:27.640
out of me because it was about
you know, abuse and trauma and it

482
00:31:27.759 --> 00:31:33.200
ends with the main character being locked
away in a hospital and it that one

483
00:31:33.240 --> 00:31:37.720
really got to me. And it
was the first one I read, and

484
00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:41.039
I just remember going like, man, this is this is awesome. It's

485
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:44.720
really hefty. Um I remember because
there was a part where one of the

486
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:48.640
criminals cuts a little child's face with
a with a knife to show that he's

487
00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:52.359
serious. And I was just like, man, this is intense, and

488
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:56.039
like I'm getting creeped out. And
then I'm like, good leaning, you

489
00:31:56.119 --> 00:32:00.039
know, because I definitely like being
scared. That's that's definitely goes with the

490
00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:06.960
territory. Yeah, okay, And
I know that when it comes to horror,

491
00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:09.759
a lot of people are like,
there's there's a gray area in terms

492
00:32:09.799 --> 00:32:15.960
of what constitutes horror as a genre. You know, all of your authors

493
00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:22.640
are pretty much you know, experts
in it. Are there things you look

494
00:32:22.680 --> 00:32:27.440
for just even as just a consumer
of horror. It doesn't have to necessarily

495
00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.200
mean in terms of weekly spooky,
but are there things there? Are there

496
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:34.839
certain things you feel like a weekly
spooky must do. I think that it

497
00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:37.480
has to come. It has to
tell a complete story. That's super important

498
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:40.240
to me. It has to have
some semblance of a beginning, in a

499
00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:45.319
middle, and an end, because
that's how you get stuck in it,

500
00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:47.359
you know, like, because it
goes to the next, to the next,

501
00:32:47.400 --> 00:32:50.279
to the next. I actually listen
to a lot of shows in the

502
00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:54.279
same genre as ours. I listen
to Scary Stories, which is I mean,

503
00:32:54.279 --> 00:32:58.240
that's all it's called, but it's
on a podcast. It's super good.

504
00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:00.279
That guy. I don't know how
he does it because he writes every

505
00:33:00.279 --> 00:33:02.759
story, but that he keeps him
on the short side, which I think

506
00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:07.519
is smart. He doesn't repeat himself
a ton. I listened to Weird Darkness,

507
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:10.559
which is like some of its fiction, some of its true crime,

508
00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:15.359
some of it's like deep dive horror
stuff. I love that show. I

509
00:33:15.480 --> 00:33:21.359
listened to. There's another one that
that is just escape. Oh Maniac on

510
00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:23.240
the Loose. That's a really good
one. Actually I discovered his show,

511
00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:27.640
which I listened to almost every week. I discovered his show because he bought

512
00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:31.319
ad space on weekly Spooky to you
know, find an audience, and I,

513
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:34.640
you know me, I was like, well, if you're doing something

514
00:33:34.680 --> 00:33:36.599
like what I'm doing, I want
to hear it. And so I listened,

515
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:38.680
especially when I'm on long road trips, like my audio book will run

516
00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:40.920
out and I'll be like, oh
crap, what's going on in Maniac on

517
00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:44.960
the Loose? You know. And
that's another guy who he reads all his

518
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.240
own stories, but he was an
author like years before the podcast, so

519
00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:52.519
he has like a glut of short
stories that he's written over the years,

520
00:33:52.599 --> 00:33:54.960
years and years and years and years, and they're really good. So yeah,

521
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.519
when it comes to me, I
just want The reason I like using

522
00:33:59.559 --> 00:34:05.039
the words spooky is because I think
spooky connotates that feeling of being scared and

523
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:07.880
then laughing it off. Yeah,
And that's my favorite thing in the world,

524
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:10.920
is is you know, getting the
spookies, you know, like hearing

525
00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:15.800
a spooky story because a scary story, you know, scares you. A

526
00:34:15.880 --> 00:34:19.519
spooky story scares you when you want
to hear another one, Yeah, you

527
00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:22.199
need so I like a little.
I like a little playfulness, but mostly

528
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:25.440
I just want it to be engrossing. I want a person when it's over,

529
00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:29.480
I want them to feel like they
experienced a full story. I don't

530
00:34:29.519 --> 00:34:31.440
want them to feel like they like
something was missing. I don't want them

531
00:34:31.480 --> 00:34:35.239
to feel like it was overly long
or overly short, no matter how long

532
00:34:35.320 --> 00:34:38.079
or short it is. Right,
I wanted to just like stick the landing

533
00:34:38.199 --> 00:34:43.000
and end on a good note that
you know, so that I can play

534
00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:45.480
the jump scare at the end and
hopefully get you one last time. God,

535
00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:51.199
I do not like that at all. So in terms of we've talked

536
00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:54.480
a little bit about what you didn't
want or what things didn't quite work,

537
00:34:55.159 --> 00:35:00.239
and we also know that one of
the don'ts as far as submitting to police

538
00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:05.519
Spooky is don't not listen to the
freaking show. Yeah, Um, what

539
00:35:05.639 --> 00:35:08.880
would you say? Um? If
you you know, assuming you've got the

540
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:14.039
ear of some author that's wanting to
write a story that they hope to send

541
00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:17.559
to you, where are some things
they should not do? Um? Don't

542
00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:22.239
disregard my word count viciously. That's
the big one. And when I say

543
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:24.719
viciously, I mean if I tell
you because especially if you're new, I'm

544
00:35:24.719 --> 00:35:28.880
going to tell you I'd like a
two thousand to three thousand words story.

545
00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:31.440
You know, Rob Fields writes mostly
to three thousand and four thousand word stories,

546
00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:35.639
and now we've started to branch out
into longer and longer stories with more

547
00:35:35.679 --> 00:35:38.199
experienced authors. But like, if
I say two to three thousand words story

548
00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:44.239
and you send me a five thousand
words story, it's more work for me

549
00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:49.320
to confirm that it's that it's right
for the show to then read it,

550
00:35:49.360 --> 00:35:52.800
which is more work to read it
out loud as well. So it's like

551
00:35:52.880 --> 00:35:57.199
that's that's the best way to get
on the wrong foot is if you ask

552
00:35:57.320 --> 00:36:00.000
to submit. Now, it's different
if you're like I've had a few people

553
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:02.239
which next the next couple weeks are
going to have them. I've had a

554
00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:07.199
couple of people give me stories from
their books and they're like, all I

555
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:08.760
ask is that you say it's available
on Amazon, and I'm like, you

556
00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:13.719
got it, homie w Yeah,
yeah, Like I'm more than happy too,

557
00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:15.679
And they're thrilled because you know they'll
get to share it with their friends

558
00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:20.960
too and be like, here's a
free audio story from my book. Those

559
00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:24.559
people I'm not as worried about because
it's like they're usually pretty established or they're

560
00:36:24.639 --> 00:36:29.079
vouched for by other authors. That's
usually I find me is you know they're

561
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:30.800
vouched for, so with them,
like if they're like, here, this

562
00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:34.440
is from my book, then I'm
not like, why is this so long?

563
00:36:34.480 --> 00:36:37.199
Because he didn't write it for me. But when somebody says like,

564
00:36:37.239 --> 00:36:39.599
how long can this emission be?
And I tell them twenty five words and

565
00:36:39.599 --> 00:36:44.719
then it's four thousand words, it
better be awesome, right because otherwise I'm

566
00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:49.119
going to have trouble getting through it
because I am I really am an undisciplined

567
00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:52.639
reader. I cannot overstate that.
I can't believe I make movies. I'm

568
00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:55.719
I will put off reading a script
as long as I possibly can. Yeah,

569
00:36:55.800 --> 00:37:00.679
it's a horrible habit with brevity whenever
you're working in the show form.

570
00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:02.920
I mean, that's what it's all
about. And if you don't understand that,

571
00:37:04.039 --> 00:37:07.320
you didn't watch enough Twilight Zone.
Well, and we have authors like

572
00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:10.480
we have a guy named Douglas Waltz. He can nail a fifteen hundred word

573
00:37:10.559 --> 00:37:15.719
story and it works and you feel
something at the end, like he's one

574
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:20.519
of the few guys who can nail
one that short. A lot of the

575
00:37:20.519 --> 00:37:22.760
other writers struggled when we were trying
to keep it towards two thousand words.

576
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:25.760
They would say like, is there
anybody can get three thousand? And yeah?

577
00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:29.000
Why not? You know, like, you're doing this for You're doing

578
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:30.920
this for the love of it,
so why not? I ask you a

579
00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:37.000
lot though, from coming from the
standpoint of people who want to get where

580
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:39.280
you are with things, because I
always find the your advice is solid.

581
00:37:39.719 --> 00:37:43.840
Whether or not people want to listen
to you or not, that's on them.

582
00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:50.039
But if you are someone who is
recording spooky stories for your own thing

583
00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:51.960
and you're like, well, how
do I get this in front of the

584
00:37:52.039 --> 00:37:57.599
right people to keep coming back?
What is some of the recipe for that?

585
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:00.960
Well, the first one, of
course, is in acity, is

586
00:38:00.039 --> 00:38:05.039
just don't quit, don't get discouraged, just you know, you know,

587
00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:07.639
it's a water on a duck's back. So when you when you're it's not

588
00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:13.119
uncommon for your first thirty or forty
podcast episodes to be downloaded by like nine

589
00:38:13.199 --> 00:38:17.880
people total. Whoa it can be
that low. We Weekly Spooky didn't break

590
00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:22.360
into like a hundred listeners a show
until we were more than a year old.

591
00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:25.360
We did. We did months upon
months of like fifty sixty people tops,

592
00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:30.719
and that's just the way it is. But I was into it,

593
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:32.679
you know, I was in it
to win it. As far as getting

594
00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:40.239
people to find you, the big
secret is SEO search engine optimization. When

595
00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:46.119
Halloween came along, I changed the
title of Weekly Spooky from Weekly Spooky to

596
00:38:46.239 --> 00:38:52.559
Weekly Spooky Scary Stories for Halloween,
and every Halloween I do that, and

597
00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:59.079
every Halloween we get this influx of
literally thousands of listeners who will usually stick

598
00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:01.480
around till about Chris Miss and then
they usually drop off by about eight percent,

599
00:39:02.679 --> 00:39:07.440
which is actually really good retention.
Yeah, so um yeah, but

600
00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:10.320
people seem to be really into us
and through October and through December. Um.

601
00:39:10.440 --> 00:39:15.039
We also it doesn't hurt that we
do tons of bonus content in October

602
00:39:15.239 --> 00:39:19.639
and then we do tons of bonus
content in December because I love Christmas themed

603
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:23.079
anything, so Christmas themed horror,
I love it, and we try to

604
00:39:23.079 --> 00:39:27.639
do only Christmas themed horror stories.
So it's like, hey, get your

605
00:39:27.639 --> 00:39:30.079
spooky on. But also you can
be festive. You know, we're festive

606
00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:34.559
too. We just just because we're
holly and jolly doesn't mean there isn't a

607
00:39:34.599 --> 00:39:37.000
decapitation around here. I mean,
I don't know what you mean. I

608
00:39:37.079 --> 00:39:40.559
never wrote I never wrote a script
called Sleigh Rode. No, you didn't.

609
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:44.920
I definitely didn't direct it. No, that wasn't even a thing at

610
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:52.360
all. Don't go away weekly,
Spooky will be right back. So uh.

611
00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:57.519
In terms of expanding the show,
I mean a lot of people will

612
00:39:57.559 --> 00:40:00.800
say, look, man, it's
it's working. Uh, don't change what

613
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:07.039
works because obviously this is like a
it sounds like you've got to well organize

614
00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:09.559
and you're happy with it. But
are the things that you would like if

615
00:40:09.800 --> 00:40:14.840
and even if it's like budget is
no option or no object? I'm sorry,

616
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:17.079
Um, are there things that you
would like that you can talk about

617
00:40:17.159 --> 00:40:22.159
that you would like to see maybe
in terms of just not changing the format,

618
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:27.719
but maybe um like stooping up the
content, guest readers, things like

619
00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:30.039
that, anything you've thought of that
you can share with everybody. Oh,

620
00:40:30.039 --> 00:40:32.760
sure, definitely. I mean I
would love I would love to do more

621
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:37.440
audio drama, but it's just an
immense amount of work and I have the

622
00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:40.480
person who has to do it,
and that's I mean, it just is,

623
00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:44.760
that just is how it is you
know, I I edit the stories.

624
00:40:44.840 --> 00:40:49.400
I edit the audio as I'm recording. So when I when I say

625
00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:52.360
you know the end and then I
put in the jump scare, like,

626
00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:57.400
then I hit export, like that's
that's it. Yeah, And some show

627
00:40:57.519 --> 00:40:59.519
sometimes I'm as I'm reading the story, I'll be like, oh, I'm

628
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:02.079
gonna see my find a scary scary
song for under this, And other times

629
00:41:02.079 --> 00:41:04.920
I'll be now, this is perfect, or I'll be like, oh it

630
00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:08.239
says it's raining, let me find
rain sounds and I'll put them more work

631
00:41:08.280 --> 00:41:12.840
for yourself. But they're just little
touches and you don't know when you're going

632
00:41:12.880 --> 00:41:15.480
to get them. You never know
when the story is going to be really

633
00:41:15.519 --> 00:41:19.400
engrossing with sound effects or when it's
just going to be me trying to scare

634
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:21.880
the hell out of you alone.
But I would love to do a little

635
00:41:21.880 --> 00:41:23.639
bit more audio drama, but like
I said, I would need to be

636
00:41:23.719 --> 00:41:28.199
able to hire somebody to edit it, or at least to do some of

637
00:41:28.239 --> 00:41:32.119
the heavy lifting, because yeah,
it's it's so tedious. Um And and

638
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:37.480
the organization of all the audio clips, especially when like most of the performers

639
00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:38.679
are all over the country and they're
sending them in, and then you gotta

640
00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:43.480
conform all the audio and you gotta
do all that stuff. Sound too much

641
00:41:43.559 --> 00:41:46.280
like making a movie. Now it
does sound, except there's no visual component

642
00:41:46.360 --> 00:41:51.000
to keep me keep me at fixed. You know, I'm trying to memorize

643
00:41:51.039 --> 00:41:53.960
the way the waveforms look and just
wishing I had listened to you know my

644
00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:58.679
Mother and became a lawyer or something. But but no, But those are

645
00:41:58.679 --> 00:42:00.880
really fun. I'd like to do
more of those, and I'm sure I

646
00:42:00.880 --> 00:42:05.760
will eventually do another one. But
I really wanted to dip my toe in

647
00:42:05.800 --> 00:42:08.639
it with episode two hundred and try
something different. And also I had been

648
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:15.639
saying for forever, I just want
to do like a like a fake old

649
00:42:15.840 --> 00:42:20.079
radio broadcast, because I've loved making
found footage movies and I felt like this

650
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:23.679
was like the found footage equivalent of
a podcast. So I loved it.

651
00:42:23.719 --> 00:42:27.239
In fact, I'll tell you right
now something I would like to do.

652
00:42:27.639 --> 00:42:32.280
The response to over the Scare has
been so strong. I've already talked to

653
00:42:32.320 --> 00:42:36.800
a couple of the writers I work
with about potentially writing more episodes with those

654
00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:42.199
characters and doing like like Insidious did
with Lyncha, where we just do them

655
00:42:42.239 --> 00:42:46.719
taking place before the horrible end.
Yeah, and because I because I was

656
00:42:46.760 --> 00:42:49.960
talking to a couple of the writers
about I was like, man, we

657
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:52.159
could do one where like they're doing
their goofy shock jock show and then like

658
00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:55.559
we pull a psycho four and like
a serial killer calls in they have to

659
00:42:55.559 --> 00:42:59.599
talk him out of murdering someone.
We could like, we could do all

660
00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:04.440
kinds of fun things every so often, right, And it wasn't that hard

661
00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:08.039
to produce, aside from the fake
commercials were a bit of work, and

662
00:43:08.079 --> 00:43:12.480
all the callers were a lot of
work because most of the callers were writers

663
00:43:12.519 --> 00:43:15.760
of Weekly Spooky Yeah, so that
was really fun. I couldn't believe that

664
00:43:15.800 --> 00:43:20.920
I have two buddies, Andrew Heaton
and George Robb. They have incredible podcasts,

665
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:24.360
very popular podcasts, and I can't
believe that they're friendly enough with me

666
00:43:24.440 --> 00:43:28.800
that I could write them and just
be like, hey, if you have

667
00:43:28.840 --> 00:43:30.199
time, could you do this?
And they just literally within twenty minutes the

668
00:43:30.199 --> 00:43:32.599
email, they were like, how's
this, like they'd already done it.

669
00:43:32.639 --> 00:43:37.280
I was like, oh yes,
yeah, yeah, so and then that

670
00:43:37.400 --> 00:43:38.760
was just like a joy for me
to hear their voices pop up on the

671
00:43:38.800 --> 00:43:43.320
show. So you know, I'd
like to do something like that. Ever

672
00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:46.960
since I obtained such good audio equipment, I've been like, man like,

673
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:52.519
we did that entire show, that
entire episode two hundred in my studio room,

674
00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:55.440
which I don't usually do Weekly Spooky
in there because it's not like whisper

675
00:43:55.519 --> 00:44:00.440
Quiet. My office is whisper quiet. So I do that more like talk

676
00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:02.199
show like the Fredday's Nightmares podcast and
stuff, we do that in there.

677
00:44:02.480 --> 00:44:05.960
But we did that in there like
a live radio show. We just all

678
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:08.400
had scripts, you know, so
I would literally I had the faders and

679
00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:12.559
everything and hey, everybody, welcome
back to one to one point nine.

680
00:44:12.679 --> 00:44:16.519
W gab. You know you're the
Nation's your nation, your voice or whatever

681
00:44:16.519 --> 00:44:20.440
that the saying was. And uh, it was fun. We were like

682
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:22.639
playing radio. So I went full
circle to when I was like nine years

683
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:27.760
old playing with a tape recorder.
Yeah, I did it too. That's

684
00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:30.480
how Matt comma jeez, and I
started, Oh that's awesome, very similar.

685
00:44:30.639 --> 00:44:38.360
Yeah you're not safe yet Weekly Spooky. We'll be right back. I

686
00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:40.880
do want to know, I have
two last things and then we can talk

687
00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:45.119
about whatever that we that I didn't
touch, that you wanted to talk about

688
00:44:45.679 --> 00:44:53.559
um. One of them is the
consistency keeping things going. What people don't

689
00:44:53.639 --> 00:44:58.519
realize through that, I think is
it also keeps you creatively sharp. Yes,

690
00:44:59.519 --> 00:45:01.199
can you tell a little bit about
just how you know? Because people

691
00:45:01.199 --> 00:45:07.239
are like, oh, weekly God
would have grind well, but that keeps

692
00:45:07.280 --> 00:45:09.800
you like it keeps you like kind
of frost. He doesn't, it keeps

693
00:45:09.800 --> 00:45:14.360
me. Sure it does. And
we're not even weekly anymore. We published

694
00:45:14.360 --> 00:45:21.119
two and often three shows a week
now. So basically what happened is I

695
00:45:21.159 --> 00:45:27.440
made I signed a partnership agreement with
iHeartMedia. They found us and they said

696
00:45:27.480 --> 00:45:30.920
they saw an immense amount of potential
in the show. They're the people who

697
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:36.039
handle ad sales for Weird Darkness,
which is a massively popular show. And

698
00:45:36.119 --> 00:45:38.159
Darren's the nicest guy in the world. Darren Marler who runs Weird Darkness,

699
00:45:38.440 --> 00:45:44.000
he has a show with easily seventy
times or eighty times the audience I have,

700
00:45:44.079 --> 00:45:47.400
maybe even more. And I wrote
him a fan letter because I just

701
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:51.480
love a show, and he asked
me about my show, and then he

702
00:45:51.519 --> 00:45:52.880
was thrilled that I liked his show, because he was like, it's nice

703
00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:54.960
to hear a podcaster or say,
like your podcast. I don't know,

704
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:58.920
it just feels good. And then
he was like, do you what do

705
00:45:58.960 --> 00:46:01.440
you think about a feed drop?
Fimil feed drops? No, I don't

706
00:46:01.480 --> 00:46:06.360
know what this is. So a
feed drop is actually a really brilliant way

707
00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:10.599
to advertise other people's podcasts. Instead
of like plugging it or playing an excerpt,

708
00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:15.079
you just drop a whole episode on
the feed with an interesting Hey,

709
00:46:15.159 --> 00:46:16.719
this is my buddy show. I
think you'll really like it, and if

710
00:46:16.719 --> 00:46:21.719
you do, check them out again
on their own. Fay so he traded

711
00:46:21.760 --> 00:46:24.360
me a feed swamp. I put
an episode of his show on my channel.

712
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:28.679
Weird Darkness publishes seven days a week. It's insane. He is such

713
00:46:28.719 --> 00:46:31.960
a workhorse. He actually worked in
regular radio and then when he got his

714
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:35.280
deal with iHeartMedia, he saw the
money that was coming in. He was

715
00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:37.199
like, all right, never mind, I don't do any of the boring

716
00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:42.039
reading the news anymore. I just
talked about spooky stuff. And he's just

717
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:44.519
the sweetest but no, he knew. He asked me, you know,

718
00:46:44.519 --> 00:46:46.840
what is your listenership? And I
told him and then he was like,

719
00:46:47.079 --> 00:46:49.920
all right, you did you well. First of all, he was so

720
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:52.840
nice. He praised my listenership when
I know his is immensely bigger. And

721
00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:55.559
then he played an episode of my
show. The only request he had his

722
00:46:55.599 --> 00:47:00.320
show was clean, So I gave
him an episode of one of the family

723
00:47:00.320 --> 00:47:01.760
friendly stories because we do. I
mean, it's not a lot, but

724
00:47:01.800 --> 00:47:05.679
like i'd say, three or four
percent of the stories we publish our family

725
00:47:05.719 --> 00:47:07.960
friendly. Yeah. So I just
found my favorite one and it was one

726
00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:12.280
of the Halloween stories Rob Fields did, and I sent it to him and

727
00:47:12.320 --> 00:47:15.199
he played it and we saw like
three hundred listeners pop up out of nowhere

728
00:47:15.199 --> 00:47:19.360
that like, we're checking us out. And he did that just because he's

729
00:47:19.400 --> 00:47:22.159
like super nice. And I aired
his show on mine too, and I

730
00:47:22.239 --> 00:47:23.639
don't know if there was a bump
there, but I hope if any of

731
00:47:23.679 --> 00:47:28.519
my listeners enjoyed it that they checked
him out because he's got a great show,

732
00:47:28.679 --> 00:47:32.760
incredible show. Yeah, it sounds
like to me, being a consumer

733
00:47:34.079 --> 00:47:37.400
of the type of material that you
are trying to generate interest in isn't a

734
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:42.280
bad idea. I think being a
fan is never a bad idea. Yeah,

735
00:47:42.400 --> 00:47:45.719
Fandom is what makes us all show
up in the first place. It

736
00:47:45.800 --> 00:47:50.199
should fans. At one point where
people who liked things a lot. Yeah,

737
00:47:50.400 --> 00:47:52.760
I loved that period of time.
Okay. The last question that I

738
00:47:52.840 --> 00:48:00.480
have is that, well you were
talking about how you and Dan uh came

739
00:48:00.519 --> 00:48:06.679
to actually meet in person. Um. I just kept thinking that, Okay,

740
00:48:07.079 --> 00:48:10.079
this, if Weekly Speak, if
Weekly Spook it were to have been

741
00:48:10.119 --> 00:48:15.559
made into a film, would it
not be taking a sinister turn in that

742
00:48:15.639 --> 00:48:20.960
story? Oh yeah, But meeting
the guy who's writing the scary stories,

743
00:48:21.199 --> 00:48:22.519
what do you think? Oh?
Yeah? And then he would he would

744
00:48:22.559 --> 00:48:25.280
like, he would get me alone
and be like, you want to know

745
00:48:25.360 --> 00:48:36.960
something really scary, terrifying. I'd
be like help, help, No,

746
00:48:37.159 --> 00:48:40.880
that would be where it would turn
without a doubt. The funny thing is

747
00:48:40.960 --> 00:48:45.280
Dan is insanely wholesome. Of course
he is, because that's how it always

748
00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:47.199
goes with people who love dark things. That's how they get you, and

749
00:48:47.199 --> 00:48:50.480
that is how they get you.
You know. No, that's not dogs,

750
00:48:51.440 --> 00:48:52.599
blood dogs. That's how he knew. I was gonna say, oh

751
00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:54.880
I knew it. No, you
know now that you mentioned it. Uh,

752
00:48:55.239 --> 00:48:59.360
Dan's no, He's just like a
nice person, keeps to himself,

753
00:48:59.400 --> 00:49:05.320
seems completely normal. Collection of little
shoes in the attic. I just love

754
00:49:05.360 --> 00:49:07.400
that that's always what they say,
when ye, when the neighbor turns out

755
00:49:07.440 --> 00:49:10.159
to be a killer, it's always
he was just normal, nice. I

756
00:49:10.159 --> 00:49:14.199
mean, he seemed like a normal
person. I never gave him a second

757
00:49:14.239 --> 00:49:16.400
thought. Yeah, there's this weird
apparatus sticking from the seat of his riding

758
00:49:16.440 --> 00:49:20.880
landlower. But other than that,
I just assumed that, you know,

759
00:49:20.960 --> 00:49:23.880
his medical history is his business.
And the screams, I thought he just

760
00:49:23.960 --> 00:49:29.280
liked death metal. I don't know, I thought he had a bunch of

761
00:49:29.320 --> 00:49:36.400
goats as it turned murder. I'm
just I'm just throwing that out there.

762
00:49:36.440 --> 00:49:38.159
I just thought, you know,
since you're a person that makes movies,

763
00:49:38.559 --> 00:49:42.719
um, what weekly spooky the movie
would be? And I think I think

764
00:49:42.760 --> 00:49:45.599
that's what i'd like to see.
I think that's fair and actually have someone

765
00:49:45.639 --> 00:49:50.719
play you though. Oh of course, John o'dalton and I are actually talking

766
00:49:50.760 --> 00:49:54.800
about adapting Over the Scare into a
film because we both liked the script so

767
00:49:54.920 --> 00:49:59.360
much. Yeah, I mean that's
natural then that that would be just given

768
00:49:59.400 --> 00:50:01.119
the format of the that particular one. Oh yeah, we were talking about

769
00:50:01.119 --> 00:50:04.760
it. It was like we both
immediately he was like, Okay, we'll

770
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:08.400
add a station manager, you know, one more character, and then you

771
00:50:08.440 --> 00:50:13.119
know when the possession starts happening,
he could like go off and kill the

772
00:50:13.159 --> 00:50:15.559
station manager that way. Like in
the third act, they're in the room

773
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:19.679
together and he's killed someone and the
other guy doesn't even know that there's like

774
00:50:19.679 --> 00:50:22.840
a murderer guy, like so the
audience knows and the guy has no idea

775
00:50:22.880 --> 00:50:28.519
that like death has already come to
your town, sheriff. And I think

776
00:50:28.559 --> 00:50:30.320
and John and I were like completely
on the same track. And I actually

777
00:50:31.039 --> 00:50:36.800
just potentially came into a studio space
that I could access for free that I

778
00:50:36.840 --> 00:50:40.800
could totally build a basic radio station
and for the cost of renting one for

779
00:50:40.840 --> 00:50:44.679
four days, so and then you
get to keep all of it, So

780
00:50:44.760 --> 00:50:47.719
why not? Or like Oliver Stone's
Talk Radio except for Barry is shot in

781
00:50:47.760 --> 00:50:53.079
the beginning of it and the rest
is in hell. I love that movie.

782
00:50:53.199 --> 00:50:58.400
And that was actually the character I
played in over the Scare was actually

783
00:50:58.679 --> 00:51:04.239
heavily based on that on that radio
host whose name is escaping me right now,

784
00:51:04.239 --> 00:51:07.719
but the radio host champlain, yes, yeah, yeah, I know.

785
00:51:07.800 --> 00:51:12.920
It's a terrifying movie. Oh yeah, And and I watched like a

786
00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:15.920
dozen big thing was I didn't want
to sound like Stern. I wanted to

787
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.159
sound like all those regional shock jocks
that were around at the same time,

788
00:51:19.400 --> 00:51:22.559
so I didn't even look at Stern
or Imis. I was like, okay,

789
00:51:22.679 --> 00:51:24.639
so we got like the guy from
Cleveland, we got like the guy

790
00:51:24.679 --> 00:51:30.320
from Indianapolis, we got like the
guy from from Aspen, Colorado. And

791
00:51:30.360 --> 00:51:32.920
I listened to those dudes, and
I gotta tell you, man, shock

792
00:51:34.039 --> 00:51:37.920
jockery was better than I remembered it. Like this one dude depends on where,

793
00:51:38.159 --> 00:51:40.920
oh for sure. Yeah, Like
the Grease Man was one of the

794
00:51:40.960 --> 00:51:45.039
worst. Oh god, the grease
I've heard him. Okay, yeah,

795
00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:49.159
don't base anything on the ground.
Well I did. I did watch one

796
00:51:49.159 --> 00:51:52.119
of his video doing research. But
like, there was this one guy I

797
00:51:52.119 --> 00:51:54.880
cannot remember his name in Cleveland,
but he was on the air until like

798
00:51:55.079 --> 00:51:59.960
ninety two or ninety three. But
I would literally watch excerpts and he would

799
00:52:00.119 --> 00:52:05.639
be on the phone with a guy
who was like super Republican, and he'd

800
00:52:05.639 --> 00:52:07.880
be like, oh, whatever,
you're just you just want to screw over

801
00:52:07.880 --> 00:52:09.679
the world and you don't even care
about the kids and the trees and the

802
00:52:09.679 --> 00:52:12.760
blah blah blah. He would just
like rip into him and be like why

803
00:52:12.800 --> 00:52:15.840
don't you go back to your fascistic
lifestyle and go beat your wife. And

804
00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:17.639
he'd hang up on him and he'd
be like whoa, And then the phone

805
00:52:17.719 --> 00:52:20.960
rings somebody who called in who was
super liberal, and he'd be like,

806
00:52:20.960 --> 00:52:22.039
Oh, get off them, get
out of my face. Commie pinko.

807
00:52:22.119 --> 00:52:25.519
You're annoying and stupid. You don't
even understand things work. You think the

808
00:52:25.559 --> 00:52:28.599
world will be better without money.
You're an idiot, and you hang up

809
00:52:28.599 --> 00:52:31.480
and I'd be like, those were
back to back. He was just like

810
00:52:32.519 --> 00:52:35.519
it was too bad. He had
a stroke when he was forty two.

811
00:52:35.800 --> 00:52:39.079
Um, he basically did, I
was making a joke. You were making

812
00:52:39.119 --> 00:52:43.639
a joke. But that was like, uh, you know me, I'm

813
00:52:43.679 --> 00:52:46.800
like very caffeine averse. And when
we did that podcast, when we did

814
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:51.800
the recording over the scare, I
drank like a whole ice coffee from McDonald's

815
00:52:52.440 --> 00:52:53.280
and I sat down and I was
like, all right, we're ready to

816
00:52:53.280 --> 00:52:57.079
talk about all this stuff. Because
because it was all scripted with a very

817
00:52:57.119 --> 00:53:00.199
little ad libbing, so all of
those like sudden jokes and the rapid fire

818
00:53:00.199 --> 00:53:02.480
stuff that was all written, you
know, so it was easy to keep

819
00:53:02.559 --> 00:53:07.039
up with. And but it was
like, my god. When I was

820
00:53:07.039 --> 00:53:09.599
done, I was like, who
I remember was explaining to everybody before we

821
00:53:09.639 --> 00:53:14.880
started, especially to Dan York,
who was playing my co host, and

822
00:53:14.960 --> 00:53:17.880
that was his first real acting gig. He did an amazing job. I

823
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:21.840
met him at Horror around weekend and
he was just a nice dude. So

824
00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:24.000
we became friends and then he was
like, I'd love to act, and

825
00:53:24.039 --> 00:53:27.239
I was like, well the moment
I see something to fit you. And

826
00:53:27.239 --> 00:53:29.519
then when I listened to this,
I was like, hey, record your

827
00:53:29.599 --> 00:53:31.079
voice like you're on the radio.
So he recorded on his phone and send

828
00:53:31.119 --> 00:53:35.239
to me. I was like,
you're in. But I had to tell

829
00:53:35.320 --> 00:53:37.920
him. I was like, you
got to remember that in the in the

830
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:45.280
height of radio, the average listener
would tune in for seven minutes. So

831
00:53:45.519 --> 00:53:49.599
you have to pack those eight to
ten minute, you know, pieces before

832
00:53:49.639 --> 00:53:53.400
commercials. You have to pack them
with just non stop chatter, non stop

833
00:53:53.800 --> 00:53:59.920
incendiary comments. It just had to
be non stop. And so I wore

834
00:54:00.079 --> 00:54:01.599
him. I was like, that's
why this script is so chaotic. It

835
00:54:01.679 --> 00:54:06.360
felt like it felt like I was
writing uncut gems too, the gem ing,

836
00:54:06.679 --> 00:54:14.480
you know, the gem ing Jacob's
wooler. Did you really just combine

837
00:54:14.559 --> 00:54:17.639
uncut gems with lawnmower man. Yeah, I love you, I love you

838
00:54:17.719 --> 00:54:24.440
so much. Likewise, oh my
god, no, but no, it's

839
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:28.679
like so that was like the really
fun thing though, was I got to

840
00:54:28.760 --> 00:54:30.880
kind of be that character because I
feel like all of us my age who

841
00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:35.840
do podcasts, we want to be
on the radio, like like because it's

842
00:54:35.840 --> 00:54:38.639
just what we knew, Like no
matter how hard we try to just make

843
00:54:38.639 --> 00:54:42.960
it, make podcasting its own thing, we all kind of fantasize about being

844
00:54:43.000 --> 00:54:45.679
on the radio. Sure, so
it was fun to pretend I was on

845
00:54:45.719 --> 00:54:51.719
the radio. Damn. Also,
I followed the FCC guidelines on station tags,

846
00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:55.039
so it felt like every other word
was the station name. Oh my

847
00:54:55.480 --> 00:54:59.320
gosh, it was nuts. You
have to say station name like every four

848
00:54:59.320 --> 00:55:02.559
minutes or last yea like a man. So it was that was the other

849
00:55:02.639 --> 00:55:06.320
thing that was really weird was just
constantly one on one point nine w gab.

850
00:55:06.400 --> 00:55:07.599
That's why I haven't memorized, because
I just kept saying one on one

851
00:55:07.599 --> 00:55:12.159
point nine w g ab. Um. Also, those those bumpers that you

852
00:55:12.239 --> 00:55:15.559
heard, the ones that like feel
they make talking babe and art form,

853
00:55:16.119 --> 00:55:21.639
Yeah, you know those were actually
a husband and wife team on Fiver who

854
00:55:21.760 --> 00:55:27.199
make radio and podcast bumpers. Yeah, and that their secret weapon is that

855
00:55:27.239 --> 00:55:30.199
they're both there, so they do
the man voice, woman voice, man

856
00:55:30.280 --> 00:55:34.360
voice, woman voice because they do
it together. And they made me three

857
00:55:34.360 --> 00:55:37.719
bumpers for a very affordable price.
Their favorite thing was that I told them

858
00:55:37.719 --> 00:55:38.599
what it was. I told them
like, this is a fake radio station.

859
00:55:38.679 --> 00:55:40.480
It's for a thing. And they
were like, well, is there

860
00:55:40.519 --> 00:55:45.360
anything you're aiming for? And I
said, dated, be super dated,

861
00:55:45.559 --> 00:55:46.320
and they were like, oh my
god, that's amazing, because like the

862
00:55:46.360 --> 00:55:50.360
struggle is to not sound dated.
So they were like, you got it.

863
00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:52.280
So they made those things and I
was like, wow, they really

864
00:55:52.360 --> 00:55:59.280
are those sounded perfect? Yeah,
nineteen ninety nine baby. And also I

865
00:55:59.360 --> 00:56:02.880
nearly killed myself laughing at the psychic
saying you should definitely buy pets dot com

866
00:56:02.920 --> 00:56:07.199
stock. That was like that was
just for me. I was dying.

867
00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:08.519
People were people were like, why'd
you put that in there. I'm like,

868
00:56:08.559 --> 00:56:12.920
you don't remember pets dot com,
do you? It was not a

869
00:56:12.960 --> 00:56:20.199
good time. Yeah, Oh my
god. It's like the the over Ely

870
00:56:20.360 --> 00:56:23.000
theme when everybody in the Blackening did
you see I haven't gotten to see it

871
00:56:23.039 --> 00:56:25.039
yet. It came out of our
theater too quick. I'm gonna see it

872
00:56:25.079 --> 00:56:28.440
though. I'm gonna say that you're
gonna love that movie. Okay, I'm

873
00:56:28.519 --> 00:56:30.199
looking forward to it. Yeah.
So we're closing in on like the last

874
00:56:30.239 --> 00:56:34.199
few minutes. Energy. If there's
anything that we didn't talk about right and

875
00:56:34.239 --> 00:56:36.960
ask you about that you want to
make sure you include in this in this

876
00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:42.239
interview, please go for it,
because I have I didn't prepare anything.

877
00:56:42.280 --> 00:56:45.440
I'm just like having a conversation with
No. That's why I want to gin

878
00:56:45.559 --> 00:56:47.719
here. Yeah, absolutely no,
And and I'm so happy to have you

879
00:56:47.719 --> 00:56:50.599
here, Andrew, You're you know, one of my dearest friends. It's

880
00:56:50.599 --> 00:56:54.119
just anytime I can involve you in
something I want to. But No,

881
00:56:54.239 --> 00:56:59.679
the biggest thing I want to say
is humongous thank you to the people who

882
00:56:59.679 --> 00:57:05.679
listened the show all year long,
because we're almost a seasonal podcast. The

883
00:57:06.039 --> 00:57:08.480
you know, the listenership is so
massive for the last quarter of the year,

884
00:57:08.519 --> 00:57:12.920
and then it slowly dies down until
summer and then slowly builds up,

885
00:57:12.920 --> 00:57:15.840
and then October it shoots up again. And I that's why we do like

886
00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:20.559
the miniseries are in the middle of
the dead eras areas. It's because those

887
00:57:20.599 --> 00:57:23.360
are the rewards for the die Hearts. They love the show, so they

888
00:57:23.400 --> 00:57:27.320
get the miniseries, you know,
they get the stuff that's like for to

889
00:57:27.360 --> 00:57:30.519
reward the people who are always listening. I really appreciate that they listen.

890
00:57:30.599 --> 00:57:35.719
I really appreciate that they send an
emails. I appreciate like that some of

891
00:57:35.760 --> 00:57:38.440
them find me on like Instagram and
write me nice messages. It makes my

892
00:57:38.559 --> 00:57:42.360
day every time I get to read
that. Like one of my favorite messages

893
00:57:42.360 --> 00:57:45.320
I got of episode one hundred was
a guy wrote me in and said and

894
00:57:45.360 --> 00:57:46.559
said, oh my god, this
episode is so good. And then he

895
00:57:46.639 --> 00:57:50.679
was like I am. He was
like, I work at as a Walmart

896
00:57:50.760 --> 00:57:53.599
mechanic, and I keep like stopping
working because I'm just paying attention to that

897
00:57:53.679 --> 00:57:58.039
instead of, you know, changing
tires. And all I could think was

898
00:57:58.079 --> 00:58:02.199
like, how how lucky am I
that I get to make that guy's day

899
00:58:02.199 --> 00:58:06.280
a little better? Yeah, of
course he left it part off and the

900
00:58:06.320 --> 00:58:07.639
person died and oh yeah, but
that's I mean that. Then now it's

901
00:58:07.639 --> 00:58:13.119
a week in spooky story all atone. You know that? All right,

902
00:58:14.920 --> 00:58:16.440
So I want to say thank a
big thank you to them. I want

903
00:58:16.440 --> 00:58:20.559
to also say thank you for not
only liking the show so much, but

904
00:58:20.639 --> 00:58:24.480
for sticking out like we've been experimenting
a lot because thanks to iHeartMedia, we

905
00:58:24.559 --> 00:58:28.840
sell ads on the show, and
the ads really make the difference for the

906
00:58:28.840 --> 00:58:34.280
show. It allows the show to
not cost me money anymore. And when

907
00:58:34.360 --> 00:58:37.920
we do Terrifying and true and people
write in because they enjoy the true crime

908
00:58:37.960 --> 00:58:42.239
stuff, I love it. I'm
so happy they like Monthly Spooky. I

909
00:58:42.360 --> 00:58:45.159
was so excited to bring Michelle into
this world, but I was like,

910
00:58:45.199 --> 00:58:47.239
I don't know how people react because
like none of this content is talk content.

911
00:58:49.079 --> 00:58:51.519
And now all of a sudden,
I'm doing like I'm doing like cutting

912
00:58:51.519 --> 00:58:53.400
deep into horror, and I'm doing
Monthly Spooky, and we're doing like this

913
00:58:53.440 --> 00:58:58.840
little interview thing and people are digging
it. So I'm just so happy that

914
00:58:58.880 --> 00:59:04.519
we have this, this really cool
space to to kind of build a spooky

915
00:59:04.599 --> 00:59:07.519
universe, a place where where you
know, with no judgment, you can

916
00:59:07.519 --> 00:59:13.960
come and appreciate the scary side of
life, but also celebrate it and never

917
00:59:14.039 --> 00:59:16.719
be judged. Because this is a
place where if you like to be scared,

918
00:59:16.840 --> 00:59:22.000
we got you. We don't care
if you are a whaman or a

919
00:59:22.119 --> 00:59:25.760
douter or a As long as you're
not a child, we'd prefer you not

920
00:59:25.800 --> 00:59:30.360
listen to some of these stories.
But no, it's it's it's an amazing

921
00:59:30.480 --> 00:59:35.280
feeling to entertain people and make their
days brighter. So you absolutely do that,

922
00:59:35.559 --> 00:59:40.280
and you also do all of it
honestly, And I think people should

923
00:59:40.280 --> 00:59:46.119
also note that just because you are
listening to Hendrick's advice and you're gonna do

924
00:59:46.199 --> 00:59:52.239
your best, because you are not
Hendrick, you will fail. Geez No,

925
00:59:52.320 --> 00:59:58.079
I'm kidding. Being a good person
though it's underrated, but it's absolutely

926
00:59:58.199 --> 01:00:02.079
necessary because, um, those people
wouldn't want to work for you and do

927
01:00:02.159 --> 01:00:06.760
all this stuff for you if you
were an inspiring person in and encouraging and

928
01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:09.159
supporting person. Thank you, no, thank you from the bottom of my

929
01:00:09.199 --> 01:00:15.039
heart. Yeah well, um we're
gonna get out of here. Thank you

930
01:00:15.079 --> 01:00:38.679
so much Andrew for helping me celebrate
this milestone. I really appreciate it. H