Show #136: Shrunken-head Fashion Accessory

This week’s episode: bookshelf mores; P&S recommend Browsers; hipster-curmudgeon herb gardens; the Pokemon dividing line; was Star Wars the Beatles of movies?; Paul and Storm’s massively cross-platform video game; and horehound, forced perspective, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Walt Disney.

This week’s very foodie episode: the many meanings of Panama; fancy kitchen appliances new and old, and Avery Schreiber; cheese making and cheese mongering; the beer-cheese connection; pretzel making; and some of the best pizza we’ve ever had.

Show #134: The Paul Bunyan of Dairy Farmers

This week’s episode: Paul has too many computers, and too many details about same; the glamor of cows and plush laptops; Star Trek and flip phone design; we recommend Strip Search and My Drunk Kitchen; an aside about the “Shadow War!” debacle and charities; and John Hodgman and the lost art of the humorists.

Show #133: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

UPDATE 4/4/13: In addition to being available on this site, the Shadow War! songs are now available on iTunes, Amazon.com and various other online media outlets. Remember: all proceeds in April go to charity!

————

No sense denying it at this point, so here is the unvarnished truth about the situation: yes, we were brought in to help John Scalzi develop a broadway musical based on his Shadow War of the Night Dragons book. Yes, we wrote a good deal of music for it and recorded some demos (with the generous help of our friend Mike Phirman) Yes, it was a complete debacle that ended ugly. No, it was not our fault.

Thank you, Tor.com, for ignoring all prior agreements (and common decency) and sweeping all the dirt out from under the rug. No amount of damage control, however, can put the genie back in the bottle, or prevent it from defecating all over the netterwebs, though Scalzi himself has tried. And thank you, certain so-called “friends,” for greedily picking up our table scraps as soon as we’d left the metaphorical table.

To be clear:  Tor had the temerity to release private recordings of a Skype conference call between Scalzi and ourselves. (We were reviewing the first round of demo recordings, which we had just sent to John) And seeing as Scalzi was the ONLY person with that recording, we have to believe that he was complicit, despite any protestations to the contrary, in the release of the audio. Here is the Skype recording in question:

Well, two can play at the “spiteful leaking” game, Messrs. Scalzi and Tor…

In thanks to Scalzi for wasting our time and to Tor for spilling the beans and making us look like fools—but mostly because we STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED OUR CHECK YET—we are releasing our Shadow War! demos for public purchase.

But to show that we are truly the bigger men here, we’re donating all proceeds from the sale of the songs during the month of April to the following charities:

• The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which donates instruments to under-funded school music programs
• First Book, which distributes books and education materials to schools serving children from low-income families

So, John Scalzi and Tor, we triple-dog dare you to try and prevent us from selling these demos (which we rightfully own). Show everyone just how much you hate music and education and children!

We are sorry that things ended this way—though, in hindsight, we probably should not have been surprised. But we hope at least some good can come out of this terrible situation.

A final word for Scalzi and Tor: for the eventual musical we write based on Pat Rothfuss’ Kingkiller series—a project that we are not saying exists, but are not denying exists either—if you hear some familiar melodies, you can comfort yourself in the knowledge that they could have been yours, if only you weren’t such a paranoid, controlling douchebag. So consider that as you tuck into your turkey pot pie.

This week’s episode: time travel and TARDIS skulls; recapping the past few months and secret projects; meeting podcast fans at PAX East and getting back on the podcast pot; discovering Magic the Gathering later than most, plus Minecraft and Game of Thrones; gunning for Game of Thrones HBO swank; man stank; root beer, Chipotle burritos, and other rewards; having your own personal Chipotle as a measure of personal success; supplanting “swag” with “swank”, and never EVER using “schwag”; Storm’s hillside dugout; whetstones, knives, being stabbed, and stropping; eternally sharp bargain knives; theories of serration; Paul’s mom’s recipes; and ice cream, donuts, and coal-fired pizza ovens.

Show #132: Brisk and Crisp and Smellin’ Good

Photo by Alexa Hann

The wait is over: Episode 1 of LearningTown is here!  All the blood, sweat, tears, puppets, potato chips, funny costumes, and countless hours* of prep, filming, and music production come down to two things: WATCH IT and SHARE IT! (Same goes for the other 9 episodes when they come out, every Tuesday.) You can also visit this post on the Geek and Sundry blog for some of the behind-the-scenes story (WARNING: somewhat warm and fuzzy)

Oh, and WATCH IT and SHARE IT!…and Like it, and Comment on it, and everything else one can do on YouTube. It all helps. A lot. Not sure how all that stuff on YouTube works?

We’ve also prepared a short LearningTown FAQ, which will be informative whether you’re a YouTube addict, or if you didn’t know before now that it wasn’t spelled “YOOTOOB”.

And if after viewing Episode 1 you just can’t get enough of LearningTown, here are a few other tidbits to tide you over until Episode 2 arrives (next Tuesday!)

UPDATE (Tues. Jan 22): Episode 2 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. Jan 29): Episode 3 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. Feb 5): Episode 4 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. Feb 12): Episode 5 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. Feb 19): Episode 6 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. Feb 26): Episode 7 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. March 5) Episode 8 is here!

UPDATE (Tues. March 12) Episode 9 is here!

LAST EPISODE! Episode 10 is here!

• Our post on the Geek and Sundry blog talking about what it was like making LearningTown (“We’d like to thank the Academy…”
• A bunch of our author/musician/creative friends sharing their memories of Learning Larry and “LearningTown”
• LearningTown Tumblr
• LT on DailyDot
• LT on Wired – Geek Mom
• LT at Geeky Pleasures
• LT with Marie Erving
• LT on Nerd Titan
• LT at Shiny Potato

p.s. – WATCH IT AND SHARE IT!

*the hours are in fact countable, but it’s tiring to think of how many it actually has been

Photo by Alexa Hann

This FAQ is geared primarily towards people who haven’t spent much (or any) time on YouTube, but there’s lots of good info here for video-hardened vets as well. And we recommend that EVERYONE interested in helping us get a Season 2 read the section on Things You Can Do to Help Us Get a Season 2.

If you have other questions about “LearningTown”, feel free to contact us.

What exactly is “LearningTown”?

What’s “LearningTown” about?

Is it a kid’s show?

Is it safe to watch at work?

How do I watch it?

What is the Geek and Sundry Channel?

Things You Can Do to Help Us Get a Season 2

How to get a YouTube account if you already have a Gmail account

How to get a YouTube account if you don’t have a Gmail account

I love the songs! Where can I buy them? And will there be a soundtrack recording?

Will there be a DVD?

What exactly is “LearningTown”?
“LearningTown” is our (Paul and Storm’s) music-comedy web series that you can watch for free on YouTube’s Geek and Sundry Channel (more on that further below). There will be ten episodes in Season 1, each between 7-9 minutes each in length. There may also be some shorter bonus videos. New episodes will be released every Tuesday starting on January 15, 2013.

To watch the first episode now, no other questions asked, just click here [link]. If you’re discovering LearningTown after the first week, we’ll be putting up a link for you to watch them all in order.

Got it. But what’s LearningTown about? [Spoiler alert!]
“LearningTown” follows a fictional Paul and Storm as they try to keep an old-style kid’s show (in the spirit of Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers, etc.) going after its original host dies. They hire a producer (“Cookie Tuesdays”) away from a rival show to help them; and they also enlist the help of a superfan (“Teddy”) to handle the puppets. But the challenge is steep, not only because they have no idea what they’re doing, but because they have radically different ideas about how to run the show, and there are lots of other characters who help and/or hinder their cause along the way. Oh…and puppets sometimes catch fire.

So it’s not actually a kid’s show?
Nope, it’s definitely for adults, and not intended to be watched by kids.

Right. But is it safe to watch at work?
Depends on your boss? By and large there’s not much in “LearningTown” (if anything at all) that couldn’t be aired on, say, network TV at night. The few curse words in Season 1 are bleeped, and there’s very little “blue” humor (with one or two notable exceptions).

Okay, sounds fun. How do I watch it?
As mentioned above, the simplest way to watch Episode 1 is to click this link [link]. If you’re discovering “LearningTown” after the first week, we’ll be putting up a link so that you can watch them all in order. You could also go to LearningTown on the Geek and Sundry website, and you’ll see the newest episode at the top of the page. You’ll also see links to the previous episodes, and any bonus videos, just underneath.

What exactly is the Geek and Sundry Channel?
Geek and Sundry is to YouTube what HBO or Discovery are to cable TV: a branded “premium” channel that creates, packages, and promotes content under its own banner. Geek and Sundry has its own Channel Page on YouTube where you can find all of their programs and videos, including LearningTown. They also have a website with links to those same programs and videos.

Most importantly, Geek and Sundry worked with us to produce “LearningTown”, from the initial story generation to hiring the director, cast, and crew, to marketing it to the world. “LearningTown” might have existed without Geek and Sundry; but it probably would just have been us in a garage with sock puppets, filmed on a smartphone camera, and not the top-quality Hollywood production that the actual “LearningTown” is. So please also check out Geek and Sundry’s other shows!

What’s all that other stuff surrounding the video? (i.e. Things You Can Do to Help Us Get a Season 2)
We’re glad you asked! Just like with TV shows, the most important gauge of how a show is doing is the total number of people who watch it (and how many times). But if you enjoy LearningTown and want there to be a Season 2, there are a few other things you can do that would help A LOT:

• Watch each video all the way through to the end of the credits!…because YouTube tracks the total number of minutes watched. Watching ads that appear before the video starts all the way through helps, too (though they always give you the option to skip it).
• Subscribe to the Geek and Sundry Channel! It’s totally free, so if you already have a YouTube account, when you’re on the Episode 1 video page just click where it says “Subscribe” (info on signing up for a YouTube account—totally free—is further below. But if you already have a Gmail account, it’s SUPER easy.) fyi when you Subscribe, YouTube will keep you informed when your Channels upload new videos (and you’re given control of how they inform you); and we’ll win all kinds of brownie points from our Geek and Sundry overlords.
• “Like” each video! That’s the little “thumbs up” symbol. You’ll need to be signed in to a YouTube account, but then all you have to do is click on the symbol. It may seem like a small thing, but it makes a BIG impact.
• Share the videos! If you hit the “share” button, you’ll be given every option under the sun to bring it to everyone you know, with just one or two clicks: email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Or just do it the old-fashioned way and make it the only thing you to talk to people about for a month.

I do in fact have a Gmail account. How do I get a YouTube account?
Click on the “Sign In” button in the upper-right-hand corner. Enter your Gmail name and password and hit “Sign In”. Done!

I don’t have a Gmail account. How do I get a YouTube account?
Click on the “Sign In” button in the upper-right-hand corner. Then click the red “Create an Account” button. This will take you to a page where you’ll enter information to create a Google account (YouTube is owned by Google.) It’ll take a minute or two, but it’s completely free and you only need to do it once (just be sure to write down your new account name and password.)

If you have a Gmail account but can’t remember it, you can either click the “Can’t Access Your Account?” link on the sign-in page, or just create a new one.

Can I buy the music, and will there be a soundtrack recording?

Most definitely. On the day each show goes online, the songs will be available for purchase from iTunes and Amazon and from our website (as well as numerous other online sources). Once the entire season is out, we’ll compile them all into a single downloadable CD that we will probably get physically manufactured as well.

Will there be a DVD?

If there’s enough demand for it, we would LOVE to put Season 1 on DVD. Mostly because we shot so much awesome, funny footage that we just couldn’t include in the episodes for time reasons.

UPDATE: watch our new sneak peek video, “Sausage Party”. And Like and Share that bad boy! (And oh, it’s a bad, bad boy.)

“LearningTown” debuts Tuesday, January 15th on YouTube’s Geek & Sundry channel.

Photo courtesy of the Thrilling Adventure Hour / photographer Maarten deBoer

The short version is we’re a music/comedy duo, and have been writing and performing music together for nearly two decades, starting in the professional a cappella band Da Vinci’s Notebook. A lot of our music is kinda nerdy, much like we are kinda nerdy. This nerdy bent led us to found a variety show called w00tstock, along with Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage. We’ve also toured extensively with geek favorite Jonathan Coulton, and we co-produce an annual fan cruise with him called JoCo Cruise Crazy.

We’re also the stars and co-creators of LearningTown, a ten-episode musical web series on Felicia Day’s Geek & Sundry YouTube Channel (Jan 15, 2013 debut). It’s about a music/comedy duo named “Paul and Storm” (played by us—what a stretch!) who take over an old-style kids show, and follows their efforts to keep it alive while battling the machinations of a rival show, repeatedly-flammable puppets, and (most of all) their own incompetence.

Did we mention that we write music? Indeed we do! We’ve recorded four full albums, as well as a number of smaller projects and individual songs. You can see (and purchase!) all of them here, but we’ve collected up a few fan favorites for you to listen to in one place to get you started:

Write Like the Wind – our ode/plea to George R. R. Martin
Opening Band – the pain of life on the road; it’s our “Turn the Page”, but happier
Nun Fight  - inspired by the true story of a convent in Italy that had to close after a fist-fight broke out between its two remaining nuns
Frogger! The Frogger Musical - Frogger. In musical form. There you have it!
Thanksgiving – our ode/plea to George Lucas
Nugget Man – a touching tribute to Dr. Robert C. Baker, inventor of the chicken nugget
Mother’s Day Song – Mom will love it!
I Will Sing a Lullabye – that special lady in your life will love it!
A Better Version of You – if you’re a second child, you’ll love it!
The Captain’s Wife’s Lament (Live) – a glimpse of a live Paul and Storm show; you’ll love it!

Intrigued? Want to know more?
Join our mailing list! Roughly once a month we’ll let you know the latest, in entertaining fashion.
Bio/Press Kit – more detailed info, plus clippings, photos, and the like
FAQ – frequently asked questions
Twitter Facebook G+

Contact

That time of year when we all exclaim, “Are you f***ing KIDDING me, retail stores?!?”

Sadly, the decorations actually started weeks ago. But here’s a freebie from the back catalog to ease your pain. Download it, share it with friends, buy it, whatever; just do your part to help us all tolerate the next 52 (!!!) days.

The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song (Right-click and choose “Save file as…” or however the heck you do it on your computer)

Way-Too-Early Christmas Monster art by Len Peralta.

YOU HEARD US RIGHT: six (6!) spooky songs—Live; Cruel, Cruel Moon; Jim Darkmagic; Lame Monster Party; Here Come the Dinosaurs; and The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song—for the MANIACALLY low price of $2. (NOTE: Yes, The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song isn’t really “spooky,” per se; but it’s Halloween-themed, so shut up.)

FUN FACT: people who don’t pick up the Halloween Super-Fun Pack may be swept away by a zombie apocalypse. Why take that chance?

This week’s episode: first day of filming for LearningTown, our awesome and fun crew, crazy costumes, and Non-Disclosure Agreements; jumping right in and eating invertebrates; resist the urge to be a douchebag, and Hollywood Douchebags revisited; concurrent bonus material; Getting Excited About Space: meeting Bobak Ferdowsi, discovering planets, and terraforming; losing sleep to Civ 5 and Atari Adventure; Roderick on the Line; Clean Giant, Dirty Giant, and the entitled mobs shopping at Whole Foods; and here we come, Hal-Con!

Show #131: Sushi Dragon Boat

As usual, we’re rolling out our pirate-themed songs in honor of the day. (We have TWO of them now!) Listen to them, download them (by right-clicking or whatever on the links below), play them for your friends, BUY THEM, whatever your heart tells you is best..

The Captain’s Wife’s Lament

The Pirate’s Feast (as heard in Season Four of The Guild)

This week’s episode: Paul and Storm are in the SAME ROOM AS EACH OTHER, as they contemplate crapping randomly; their current LearningTown progress; dogs appear and disappear; their mutual procrastinatory tendencies, and possible Kickstarters to overcome them (and to take your money from you); their evolution from being Novelty T-shirt Guys; PAX Prime and the “rock star treatment;” mutual ignorance of most things Swedish; RyanAir complaints; and JoCo Cruise Crazy 3 excitement and site inspection cruise bragging.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION ALERT: If we were to take your money in a Kickstarter, what would you want us to do?

Show #130: Herring and Blondes

Somerville, MA – August 22
Johnny D’s, 8 pm
with Chris Collingwood
Tickets: http://bit.ly/PSBoston

New York, NY – August 24
Le Poisson Rouge, 7:30 pm
with Mike Phirman
Tickets:  http://bit.ly/PSNYC

Alexandria, VA – August 25
The Birchmere, 7:30 pm
with Mike Phirman
Tickets:  http://bit.ly/PSBirchmere

We’ll also be at PAX all weekend long August 31 – September 2; tickets are all sold out for that, but if you have tickets, come by the merch table and bump elbows with us*.

Next, we form up the ol’ Acoustic Voltron with Jonathan Coulton for our return visit to England (plus Sweden):

Stockholm, Sweden – September 17
Södra Teatern, 7:30 pm
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/JCPSStockholm

London, UK – September 20
Union Chapel, 7 pm
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/JCPSLondon

Birmingham, UK – September 21
MAC Theater, 7:30 pm
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/JCPSBham

Bristol, UK – September 22
Colston Hall, 8 pm
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/JCPSBristol

Manchester, UK – September 23
Manchester Academy 2, 7 pm
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/JCPSManchester

See you out there!

*We’re bumping elbows rather than shaking hands, to avoid the dreaded “Con SARS.”

Have a safe and happy 4th!

Ten-Finger Johnny

(click to download, right-click then “Save As…” or however you do it on your particular machine; you should know how to do this by now!)

This week’s episode: not paying attention to themes; leveling up through the power of video; the power of collaboration; why some of Prince’s music sucks; a challenge to Freddie Wong to make a fart video; Air Kicks and SwishAdidases; “doy” vs. “duh;” a reiteration of Paul’s Frat Boy Theory; EAT ME, the (mostly) completely edible restaurant; serrated matzoh and Doy Jews; ice cups and drinking troughs; freakishly sweet Orange Juliuses, fortnightly; Paul looooves hot dogs; Storm is a centipede; Freedom vs. Liberty; motorcycle repair and nuclear detonations; Dr. Higgs and Dr. Boson; getting excited about space; Freedom Liberty Spacewagon; a tour of our very own; the Kings of Con; and Hal-Con.

Show #129: SwishAdidases

Wanna buy the song? You totes can!

Buy “Write Like the Wind”:  on our website  |  on Bandcamp  |  on iTunes

All proceeds go towards allowing us to monkey around like this more in the near future.

Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont were kind enough to give the video its world premiere on today’s episode of Sword and Laser on the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel—an episode, we’d like to mention, that also has a great interview with GRRM himself! (Our video is at the end of the episode, but the whole episode is worth watching)

Special thanks to Geek & Sundry for producing the video, in particular ÜberProducer/ShePriestess Kim Evey, line producer Lindey Koens, and director Chris Darnell. Mondo-thanks to Jeff Lewis for lending his hysterical self to the video.

SuperThanks to Shawn Strider and his Labyrinth Masquerade Ball for the schmancy duds and wicked arms. Mega-thanks to Veronica and Tom for debuting the song in such style. Extra thanks to Chris Dillon for helping this baby gestate.

Eternal perturbedness to Jonathan Coulton, whose Game of Thrones proselytizing got us hooked in the first place.

Guest Artists:

Eddie Hartness – bodhrán
Mike Phirman - accordion
Aubrey Webber – cello
Kevin Murphy - additional Drowned Men Chorus vocals

(complete video credits are on the video’s YouTube page)

George R. R. Martin – not your bitch

This week’s episode: lying in front of an enthusiastic audience of 500 at NerdMelt; doing lots of work in Los Angeles; Mexican food and wall yogurt; franchising Yogurt Gloryhole; Kim Evey and Amy Berg join us for chatskies and it gets all sexy; the one TV in Los Angeles; Berg’s TV career synopsis, and announcement that she’s leaving Person of Interest; putting words and things in Michael Emerson’s mouth; Kim’s goings-on as web show creator and producer; making Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day kiss; how to be secret in show biz; the path to becoming a Hollywood writer; meeting Joss Whedon for reals; keeping shit straight when producing multiple shows; what the heck *is* a producer; doing things differently, craft series, and Hawaiian shave ice; is there a nerd cuisine, and is it cupcakes? Or bacon?; chocolate = nazis; valuing cultures by their cuisines; gastronauts and commissioning Alton Brown; Wil Wheaton is Jerry Lewis; Wil vs. Felicia (surviving a zombie apocalypse); Wil’s weak ankles; the Yamato vs. the Enterprise (surviving Adam Savage); starting a wikipedia page for Kim and enhancing Amy’s; filming a video for Write Like the Wind (GRRM song); hooray for Lindsey; more craft service; the Fruit Borg; working on Leverage and Eureka; Queen Elizabeth II’s panties; the juggernaut that is TableTop; apologizing on the part of cats; “puppies are assholes”; cat and dog zombies; and impending awesomeness with Written by a Kid.

MINION TASK: Create a wikipedia page for Kim Evey, and beef up Amy Berg’s.

Show #128: Fruit Borg and Zombie Cat (LIVE from NerdMelt)

Click here to download (do the whole “right click/”Save as…” or whatever the hell)

This week’s episode: Tuesdays sucks; knowledge for knowledge’s sake; is Storm a sophist? is Sarah Palin?; our grudges against the Cub Scouts; Mensa Scouts; talking about music; a long speculative discourse about why songs classified as “Standards” are called “Standards”; why later-career pop artists sing “Standards”; the sheet music barons of the early 20th century; the one gigantic textile mill where everyone in Pittsburgh worked; Potatochipsburgh, where potatoes were invented; the no-mouth, bark-licking mummers of yore; Paul is vindicated in his naked-drying ways; and more smoochies for Geek and Sundry.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION ALERT:What would a Sophistry Merit Badge look like?

Show #127: A Sophist in Memphis

This week’s episode: the machine is chugging; that scraping teeth feeling that oogs you out; LearningTown, our new comedy musical on the new Geek and Sundry YouTube channel; Wil Wheaton’s TableTop; smoochies for PAX; perfect songs; cockeyed theories involving music and brains and stuff; music that sucks but that you respect anyway; a technical boo-boo; and GET EXCITED ABOUT SPACE.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION ALERT: What song or songs do you believe are “perfect”, and why? AND…

Show #126: Carthago Delenda Est

We hear you shouting out: so what’s it about? Who else is in it? Well…we’re not allowed to talk about it yet. LOL—no…from the Geek & Sundry LearningTown press release:

“Nerd music duo Paul and Storm bring their harmonies and smartly offbeat humor to this new comedy musical. The learning curve is steep when the two are tasked with reviving the flagging educational show of their childhoods in the face of villainous hipsters, ghosts who give bad advice, and flammable puppets—lots and lots of flammable puppets.”

Us? Taking over a children’s show? You’re right: it practically writes itself! But we’ve gotta look like we’re earning our paychecks, so we’ve been busy over the past few months “working” with our head writer Josh A. Cagan to put it together, under the watchful eye of producer Kim Evey.

We’re not allowed to tell you much beyond that, but we CAN tell you the following two facts:

• LearningTown won’t debut until late 2012. Boooooo!
• The show will co-star Maurissa Tancharoen (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, The Guild). Yaaaaaay!

We promise to tell you LOTS more about it between now and the end of the year. (We’re certain you’ll be totally sick of hearing us talk about it soon enough) In the meantime, you can enjoy Geek & Sundry’s nerdtastic slate of shows that includes The Guild (Season 5), Felicia’s The Flog, Wil Wheaton’s TableTop, Sword and Laser with Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt, motion comics from Dark Horse, and the hysterical Written By a Kid. Thusly:

We are as excited about this as two little children who are particularly excited, and we can’t wait for you all to (eventually) see it! For now, the best thing you can do is to subscribe to the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel and enjoy their awesome lineup. And then wait. Patiently.

This week’s episode: A special, extra-size LIVE recording of the podcast! Recorded during JoCo Cruise Crazy 2, with a whole slew of special guests: webcomic creators Rob DenBleycker, David Willis and Joel Watson; professional podcast guest and funnyman Paul F. Tompkins; Joseph Scrimshaw as Ed McMahon; and special musical guests Molly Lewis, Marian Call and Vi Hart (with some nerd named Wil dropping in for some reason).

Action-packed topics include living off of t-shirt monies; why is Rob so lazy?; comics artists as rock stars; the joys of a teenage fanbase; becoming a web comic drawing-person; success through internet; explaining what MySpace was; Watterson vs. Larson in a Safety Instruction Card battle; other awesome web comics; drawing dicks; building a fort out of cake…or pie?; the proper way to burn; a strained snake/stream of consciousness comedy metaphor; the comedy uniform; grumpy cruisers; boater or skimmer?; wrecking people with hubris; cake fort supremacy; the Thrilling Adventure Hour; and the King of Coffee vs. Cake Boss in a wedding catering showdown.

Show #125: Paul Lynde as Grand Moff Tarkin (LIVE!)