A Podcast

So.

I've always been weird. Well, there's weird - the type of weird that everyone is around people - and then there's weird, the weird that people avoid because they don't understand. Although I had weird hobbies and perspectives and stuff, I also couldn't talk well. It's not that I had any mental things or whatever, I just... didn't fully understand when to talk and when not to talk, what to say and what to think, that sort of thing. I'd been informed that I should be myself, and the art of speech that I've come to revere and respect so much over the past couple of years didn't come naturally.

I watched Abridged Series' for years, from when I was about 14 or so. I watched hundreds of episodes and learnt entire episodes by heart just through the sheer number of times I saw them. I thought I would love to make a Blood+ abridged series. I could probably manage to write scripts, and voice some characters, but I didn't have a microphone or the episodes, or the patience to continue the series for 50 episodes. Abridged Series' gave me wit and a sense of humour.

I watch panels of anime voice actors on YouTube pretty incessantly. My favourites to listen to are J. Michael Tatum, Vic Mignogna, Travis Willingham, Aaron Dismuke, Laura Bailey, and the list goes on... Just listening to these people talk for hours, tell a funny story and repeat that same funny story to fifty different audiences over the years, sometimes with fifty variations. I must really have listened to and watched at least 600 hours of panels, probably more. I always wish I could go to panels and would love to have that opportunity all the time. Panels have given me not only an understanding of humour, storytelling, and incorporating facial expressions, moving and speaking into my speech, but also a great idea of how people react to different reactions from other people, friends, fans and audiences - and although I don't think learning reactions of audiences and what sets them off could ever really come in handy, it's great to know because a good number of people must think something for an 'audience' response, so I can get to know the minds of listeners.

I listen to ThatAnimeShow, the podcast of J. Michael Tatum and Terri Doty (two wonderful voice actors/directors/writers for anime at FUNimation) and a different guest each episode. Roughly calculating, I must have listened to about 250 hours or so of these people. They have done 26 episodes now with a different voice actor on for most episodes. From these people, I have learned fun new words, new personalities, new reactions, and the art of profanity and how to make it contribute to a tale.

I am so much more comfortable with speaking now. I can confidently tell stories - my own or other peoples' - and get laughs from everyone listening most of the time. I have a lot to be grateful for from these sources.

So now I'm wondering - could I pull off a podcast? Terri and Tatum from ThatAnimeShow say that a lot of people don't listen to their podcast because it's just them, and their friends and co-workers see and hear them every day, so there's really no point in listening to the podcast. My friend Trisha and I often have hilarious and fascinating conversations, and we could easily record an hour or so every so often to stick out on the world wide web.

ThatAnimeShow has probably been mostly successful because it has big anime names. A tremendous number of anime fans would tune in to a podcast hosted by names like Terri Doty and J. Michael Tatum, featuring Aaron Dismuke or Brina Palencia or Maxey Whitehead or Eric Vale or Monica freaking Rial. Trisha and I are nobodies. I wonder - could I make people care what we have to say? I know I'd be interested to hear a couple of different, funny people just randomly talking about stuff. ThatAnimeShow has guests in and also fan questions to keep conversation running smoothly for two hours. Are we going to be able to ramble for long enough in a both interesting and consistent way to keep randomers tune in? Where would we put it up? How long could we go?

Trisha and I are hoping to have weekly sleepovers every Friday this coming school year, swapping houses each week. We could easily record on our schmancy school laptops (Maaacs~). I just can't help but wonder if people would care enough to tune in, if we could keep conversation running without being too repetitive, if it would just be an extended bitching session, if we might have listeners one day...

I suppose there's only one way to see.

I suppose I'd better ask Trisha if she's at all interested before I get too carried away.