Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 94: Creating Your Own Success ft Olan Rogers | Ear Biscuits Ep. 94

Episode Date: May 15, 2017

A BIG announcement from Rhett & Link, taking risks, & the dirty side of business on this week's episode of Ear Biscuits. Support Jake's fight against Lyme Disease here: https://www.gofundme.com/jakesidwell SUBSCRIBE to This Is Mythical: https://goo.gl/UMXvuW Listen & subscribe at: Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/29PTWTM Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2oIaAwp Art19: https://art19.com/shows/ear-biscuits SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/earbiscuits Follow This Is Mythical: Facebook: http://facebook.com/ThisIsMythical Instagram: http://instagram.com/ThisIsMythical Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThisIsMythical Other Mythical Channels: Good Mythical Morning: https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettand... Good Mythical MORE: https://youtube.com/user/rhettandlink3 Rhett & Link: https://youtube.com/rhettandlink Credits: Hosted By: Rhett & Link Executive Producer: Stevie Wynne Levine Managing Producer: Cody D'Ambrosio Editor: Meggie Malloy Graphics: Matthew Dwyer Set Design/Construction: Cassie Cobb Content Manager: Becca Canote Logo Design: Carra Sykes To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we have YouTuber, writer, director, visionary, soda shop owner. Nashvillian. Nashvillian, currently in LA.

Olin Rogers, this has been a long time coming. A lot of you guys have been asking to get him on an Ear Biscuits for years. And today, it finally happens. I'm super pumped. We are fans. The dude. He's done quite a bit.

He's an amazing, I mean the headline is he's an amazing storyteller, I mean if you look at his YouTube videos, anything that's labeled with story, click on that and listen to it, watch the guy, I mean it's a vlog, it's edited like a vlog. A video log. But it's not, you know why? Because.

It's all that and more. I mean, we analyze it and we get his take on what it is and but it's just, it's the ancient art of storytelling which is dying, man. The ancient art of storytelling. Yes, seriously, man. What are you like? I just got a little dramatic.

I mean, it's great, it is really great. Listen, people used to sit around on porches or fires or dirt around. They sat on fires? Dirt around. And they would. That'll make you tell a story of facts. And you know what they would do? They wouldn't watch TV or look at a screen in their palm.

They would tell stories. It's oral tradition, Rhett. It's the ancient art of storytelling that we're losing. But this guy, single-handedly, see now I'm getting overdramatic. Single-handedly? Is keeping the tradition alive when it comes to YouTube. He's doing a great job and he actually undersells himself.

Olin does. Oh, big time. We had a great conversation, talked about all the stuff that he's got going on on YouTube and off. Just got married, got into that. Lots of exciting stuff, so stay tuned for that. There's exciting stuff for us too.

Oh yeah, we got something very exciting. We got some exciting stuff. Something that we have never done before, lots of people have asked for it, but it just hasn't worked out, it's finally working out, and that is we are going on tour. We are physically showing up at venues across America. Yes, this is a US tour only,

this is not an international tour, that'll have to come later, so I apologize, International Mythical Beasts, but to focus on the positive, we are going to venues and meeting you Mythical Beasts in person while we do a show from a stage. It's called the Tour of Mythicality and this is not your typical book tour.

Well it's not a, it's in conjunction with the release of the book. But we're not going to like. October, November, December. Libraries and bookstores and doing book signings. No we're putting on a show in theater venues around the US and there's gonna be music, there's going to be us bringing aspects of the book

to life in a way that you can only enjoy on stage. Well some of you may get on stage, but we're gonna be on stage. Yeah, there might be some audience participation. You'll be in a seat or standing or something. You'll be comfortably watching. But we think it's gonna be very different from anything that we've ever done

and we love doing this kind of thing. We love putting on a show and we just haven't been able to do anything like this in years. Definitely not since we started YouTube except for the occasional VidCon performance or that kind of thing. But this is gonna be something very special. And Link, tell them where we're going to be.

We're gonna be in Huntington, New York, which is Long Island. And New York City, New York, which is Long Island. New York City, New York. Austin, Texas, Dallas, Texas, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, all in California. Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, nope, that's not how you say that. Minneapolis.

Minneapolis. Indianapolis and Minneapolis. But we're not gonna be in Indianapolis. I think I've been saying Minneapolis my entire life. It's just Minneapolis. Minneapolis. Minnesota. There's so many of them. Or they're small. It's one smallapolis, I don't know.

Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, and finally a homecoming in December in Durham, North Carolina. Now you can go to tourofmythicality.com to see where we're gonna be and when we're gonna be there and you can buy tickets starting this Friday at tourofmythicality.com but, but, this is a big but, a big old booty. Two cheeks.

If you subscribe to our newsletter at mythicalmonthly.com, you can get early access to tickets this week. You can get to scoop scoop. We don't exactly know when that alert is going to come but the only way you can get it is if you are signed up for our newsletter at mythicalmonthly.com. We're trying to give perks for being newsletter subscribers. I mean you get all the recommendations

of the stuff that we're into. But early announcements is something that we said we were gonna do and so that's a special group of people who get that email. And you should be one of them. You're gonna continue to be rewarded for that. So if you wanna get some of the first tickets available

for this, this is a limited tour, there's limited seating available. It's gonna be very special. We're gonna put on a show that you're gonna love and we hope to be proud of. So that's mythicalmonthly.com. And tourofmythicality.com. We should tell them about what we're working on

with Buddy System. I think that's the big thing that we're focused on all summer is crafting Buddy System season two for you guys and we wanna make a point to keep you guys in the loop as we're working on the creative process. I mean it's, I love working on it because there's, we've got our hands in every aspect of the process and it's so different than what we do the rest of the year

because it's long form narrative. Of course there's still a song in every episode. Every episode's gonna be longer this time around. Are the songs gonna be longer? I don't know because we've gotta write them. We're starting to write them. No I don't think the songs are gonna be long. The songs don't need to be longer.

Yeah and so that's what we're kind of focusing on right now and we actually. Like tonight when we're done recording. When we're done with this we're kind of focusing on right now. And we actually. Like tonight, when we're done recording. When we're done with this, we're gonna focus on it. We gotta keep writing songs. But we've been focusing on it. Recording demos. And many of you may know,

Link doesn't do the social media thing quite as much as me and he hasn't done the Instagram thing in a couple years. So you may not know that he also went to Mexico recently when I was there and I did a little social media from there. But we went to different parts of Mexico. Yes, different places so I was with my wife and he was with his wife. We decided to do it that way this time.

And we were in completely different parts of Mexico. Anyway, it was just a long weekend. It was like a get there on Thursday, stay through Sunday. And it was, as I called it to my wife, Jessie, it was the calm before the storm trip. It was, this is gonna be a crazy summer, just like all our summers have become crazy now that we do Good Mythical Morning almost year round

and we do Buddy System or something like it during the summer and there's always something else going on, our families don't get a lot of the traditional things, like there's not like a summer vacation anymore. We have to take vacation over Thanksgiving or over Christmas or whatever. So it was like, baby, we just need some time alone and without having to worry about any of the stressors

in our lives and so. And I need to be writing songs the whole time. Yeah, well specifically what I told her, I said, all I wanna do is sit by the pool, I don't wanna do any excursions but I was like, the thing that would be the most stress relieving for me personally and also the most helpful for what I need to be doing is if I could just sit next

to the pool and write songs. And she was totally fine with that because she's just gonna sit next to the pool and read a book or work on whatever she has to be working on with her design stuff. And so I actually felt like I got more work done poolside in Mexico than I ever get done around here.

I think we might need to move our office to just a poolside in Mexico. Really? Yeah! How could I oppose that? I mean just sitting there and just waiting for a waiter to ask me what I wanted next. Hey there was a guy at the pool I was beside

and he came up and he took my sunglasses and he washed them. Did he ask first or did he take them right off? He ripped them off my face and washed them. No he didn't. He slammed it back on my face. He washed your sunglasses? Yeah. And he didn't charge me.

Are you the only one he was doing that for? Yeah, then he went back to his family and started hanging out. It was just another guest. Another guest. No, that's what he did, super nice guy, taught me some Spanish. Oh really?

I've forgotten it. It went adios. But I got so much work done, but one of the things that happened was is I'm at this pool and I've talked about this on GMM or somewhere before, I don't know, how I'm using this app. You know, traditionally I'll write songs on a guitar

or piano, which I don't actually play the piano, but I can play it well enough to write something very slowly, but I've got this app that's like playing out the chords. I can select different chords and just hit buttons to play chords just to create song structure without having to have a piano in front of you. What's it called? Suggester.

Suggester. Suggester. Yeah. And I think there's multiple programs, but that's a really good one. You suggested it to me. Yeah. It's called Suggester. There's no sug, it's not Suggest, but anyway.

You can suggest something. Suggest. I think you suggest something. I don't think you ingest something if you eat it. I suggest that you listen to me right now. Suggest. I suggest. I suggest?

Yeah. I suggest it, it's got two Gs in it. It does. I sug and I jest. You gotta sug a little bit and you gotta jest a little bit. Anyway, I use Suggester. But I'm using it poolside and there's- That was a good promo for someone that's not a sponsor. Not even a sponsor.

Come on, Suggester. Yeah. Help us out. I suggest that you become a sponsor. Now, they're playing music poolside and then there's another person playing their own music poolside and then there's another person playing their own music poolside. And it's different beats happening.

Off like a iPhone. Well they had like a big JBL Bluetooth speaker that was very loud, actually a lot like the one that I have at home. And. Why would you do that if there's already music playing? And they're equally as loud. And you're writing a song?

And I've got my headphones on and I'm suggesting things to myself. Dink, dink, dink. You know, different little piano chords. That got old very quickly so we moved. We moved to the other side of the pool where they were like, this side of the pool is quieter. This is where there's the saltwater area.

We didn't make it all the way to that. This is a place you've been before. Yeah, you didn't swim in the salt water pool? I never did, I didn't. I stayed at the main pool. You're just more buoyant. Most of the time. But anyway, I accidentally got in the pool one time

in four days. Dang, must not have been, it was hotter where I was. I got in the pool a lot but I was on the beach and I could still hear music playing and I was writing the song for episode two, which I'm so tempted to tell you what it's about. But I would say, here's my hint, it's a very revealing song.

Or actually not revealing at all. Yes. But I decided to make it a reggae song. Hmm, and I wonder why. Because the music they were playing was reggae and I couldn't get it out of my head. Yeah, well. So I just started, like I was writing down lyrics,

but you start writing down to the rhythm of, like I'm sure it's this song that we, that we finalize is going to be the same tempo and it's certainly gonna be reggae. Mine's gonna be two tempos. Oh, you got two, yeah, you got two different tempos. It's gonna be two competing tempos the whole time. Simultaneous. All the songs. So, you know, when you hear that song in episode two,

you guys got the scoop on it and you can picture me on a beach in Mexico riding it. I'm super excited about it. I know we talked a little bit about Buddy System season two but you know. It's so crazy. It's just so weird. It's so weird in a wonderful way.

I mean it's just, Buddy System is the thing that we can, Buddy System is our outlet for the weirdest ideas that we have. You know, GMM is a place where we do weird things. Yeah. But buddy system is a place where we conceptualize and execute and bring to life weird ideas that are kind of like an alternate world.

And the season two is even weirder in a better way than season one was. I'm starting to be, you were relieved when you started writing things down. I don't get relieved until we get, maybe when we send a demo to Mark, who's our music producer, but then when he sends back a more produced track and it's all clicked into place,

then I start to feel relieved. It's interesting how we feel relief at different parts in the creative process, which I think is nice. I feel relief when I know that the song is going to be funny and I know that the song is gonna sound good. Like I've written a verse for that song and the other song and like this,

and so it's like the template's there but the second verse is not there yet. It's like I think you'd feel great because you're like oh I can bang out the second verse and I'm like do I have a second verse in me? And of course we have the benefit of each other so like you can also take that and say, oh yeah, I see what you did here in this first verse,

now blam-ba-di-blam-ba-di-blam, here's a second one. You could fart that out. I plan on farting it out. Maybe you hand me something and I'm like, oh, that little thing of that melody there, that was the start of something, what if we da-blah-ba-da-blah-ya, boop, and then I farted that out, and then it's like,

man, this smells funky. Let's see, guys, I can't wait to share it with you. You've really set the bar pretty high, the expectations were farting these songs out. Like, beans, man, refried beans, Mexico. Okay, that's one way to see it. I tend to think of my songs as coming from my head, not from my butt.

My heart and my head. It's your problem. But if yours come from your butt, that's great. That explains a lot. I'll take that, I'm fine with that. Okay, so we're gonna get to our conversation with Olin in just one second. But first, we wanna show a little love to our sponsor.

Now the last time we talked about parachute sheets, Rhett, you raved about these things. Oh yeah. And I hadn't slapped them on my bed yet. Right. You know what? I wanna thank you for raving. I mean, you can get into stuff,

and you then get me into stuff. It's a common pattern in our friendship. But this is a good one. I mean, my bed is my haven. And when I get in the haven. You have your own bed or you share it with a wife? Is that pertinent to this conversation? I would usually say our bed.

You know, I think of it. Our bed, yeah. When I think about my wife. Well, it's my bed I let my wife get in. Oh, really?? I usually say our bed. You know, I think of it. Our bed, yeah. When I think about my wife. Well, it's my bed, I let my wife get in it. Oh, really? It's our bed. And it's our haven. You know, I wanna be able to, you know, when you're a kid, what do you do?

You get scared, where do you go? You go into the bed haven. I still do that. And I want it to be the most comfortable place ever and the parachute sheets have made that possible. You were right. Now let me ask you, as you were sleeping on the sheets, did you feel any harmful chemicals or synthetics?

No! Did you feel any formaldehyde to keep the sheets from wrinkling? No, you know what, I was specifically feeling for formaldehyde, and I felt none. The reason you felt none of that stuff is because they don't use any of that stuff. I knew you were gonna say that. This is a natural product. They don't have the chemicals. They don't have the synthetics. They don't have the formaldehyde, which is used in a lot of sheets to keep it from wrinkling.

They don't use that. It's disturbing that you, mythical listener, might be sleeping on formaldehyde. Did you feel the fact that the people who made the sheets, you had to really feel for this, work at factories in Europe where they work on a living wage, a comfortable wage, and they get an hour and a half lunches? Yes, actually I did. You did feel that. I felt, I was like, why am I feeling like

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That is parachutehome.com slash ear, free shipping and returns. You get a 60-night trial. If you don't love it, you just send it back, no questions asked. You know what I love? I love getting stuff in the mail. It just feels like I'm getting a present all the time. Christmas. You know something else I love? Shaving my face.

Oh yeah. Because to me it is a ritual of masculinity that helps me center myself. Whoa, like yoga. But here's the problem I have. I will use one razor into the ground. Oh yeah, that sounds like yoga. But here's the problem I have. I will use one razor into the ground. Oh yeah, that sounds like you. I just don't, I don't know when to move on.

Yeah, you're like a cow at a trough, just eating until it explodes. Yeah. But you're a man shaving. Well, so yeah. A little different. Not exactly. So the thing is, that's a bad habit, that's bad for my face, that's bad for my centering

of my masculinity. Wow. But you know what? This is deep. Those two things that I've mentioned come together perfectly in Dollar Shave Club. And what I'm talking about is stuff being delivered that feels like a present and me getting a fresh razor, so being prompted to get rid of that old razor

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that will ship automatically at their regular price. Again, you don't even have to think about it. Yeah, it's the perfect prompt to move on to a more perfect razor every month. And you can cancel anytime you like and you only get this offer exclusively at dollarshaveclub.com slash biscuits. That's dollarshaveclub.com slash biscuits. And now, on to the biscuit with Olin Rogers.

Mm-hmm. LaCroix used to be trash? Yeah. I think it was like, they used it in the 70s or something for airplanes. What do you mean trash? It's like trash water. It's like really bad quality water.

Like to what, wash planes? No, like to serve on planes, man. To serve on planes. To serve on, yeah. Just the crappiest water. Crappiest water that you could get. Well, you know, we talked about this on a GMM, it was made in the Midwest, I think it was the 80s.

That's when, yeah, the 80s, yeah. Yeah, and it's been around just kinda like flying under the, literally flying over the radar in planes. I don't know how high radar goes. If what he's saying is true. And then, and then. It's true, I don't think it's changed at all. I think it's just, it's perception has changed.

It's just a story of perception, that's what LaCroix is. Story of altered perceptions. It's marketing. You know it's marketing because it's just, it's just, as my kid calls it, spicy water. Spicy water? Spicy water. La Croix's spicy water?

Spicy water, which to him, he's seven. It just means. It's got the carbs. It's got carbonation. Those are carbs, right? No, it doesn't. Is it different? Is carbs and carbonation different?

See, you don't understand the marketing, which is it has no carbs. It has nothing, it's zero calories. Yeah, Shepherd says that toothpaste is spicy. Adult toothpaste is spicy. Well that makes sense, because it could be. I mean, Peppermini. Are they doing the La Croix thing in Nashville?

Or did you? It's everywhere. Yeah, okay, so you didn't just. People are obsessed with this now. Okay, so you didn't just adopt it. No. It's coming out here. It's all over.

Yeah, I was gonna ask my mom if it was in North Carolina. In Sanford. Our friends back in Cary, North Carolina, they have it. They're doing it? Yeah. They're gonna start actually replacing it. They're gonna put it in the public works. That's what I've heard.

Everybody wants it. You're going to Trader Joe's is everywhere. Yeah. Congratulations on freaking so much stuff. works. That's what I've heard. Everybody wants it. You're going to Trader Joe's everywhere. Yeah. Congratulations on freaking so much stuff. Yeah. You've got this, and we should talk about all this, but you've got the cartoon on TBS. It's happening.

Yeah. Shall we call it an animated series? Yes, you can. Can I call it a cartoon? You can call it a cartoon. Can you call it manga? Manga? No, you probably shouldn't. It it a cartoon? You can call it a cartoon. Can you call it manga? Manga? No, you probably shouldn't. It's not manga. I don't think it's manga. I don't know

how to say it. Is it manga? It's manga. But anime. Is it manga? That's like the comic version of anime, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just wanted to say manga. You don't know either. Manga is the one you do the comic version, but anime would be. Is it anime? No, it's not anime. I knew that already. And you got married? Yes. You don't know either. Manga is the one you did the comic version, but anime would be, is it anime? No, it's not anime.

I knew that already. And you got married? Yes. You eloped, that's how you put it. Yeah. So we'll have to unpack a little bit of that. And you moved out here. Unpack it.

At least temporarily. For like a year. Oh, so how long have you been here in LA? Since November. Oh okay. Okay. Yeah. So through the holidays. Yeah.

But you did like a tour. So you weren't like here over the holidays. Well just for like three weeks I was gone. But then I was back here. What's your assessment of here? Are you staying in the Oakwood Apartments? No no no. They don't call them that anymore.

Do you know what that is? I have no idea what that is. They call it like Toluca something. That's gotten a little fancier. Again, it's all about perception. But the Oakwood Apartments are furnished apartments that for maybe decades, people get a job, come into town to do their thing and then it, you know, it'll probably fizzle out so I'm not gonna bring furniture. And you stay there.

It's where a lot of the child stars who came out early, like back in the day, like a Corey Haim. And Corey Feldman. Corey Feldman. Lots of Corys. They're like skateboarding around, but we stayed there when we moved here for six months to make Commercial Kinks, we stayed in the Oakwood Apartments, and they gave us the spiel. Well, not Oakwood.

You didn't stay there for six months? How much did it cost? No, we stayed there for a couple of weeks. No, you're right. I'm sorry. How much does that cost? We stayed in a furnished apartment for six months, and that was really, in Los Feliz, that was way expensive. Before that.

But with the pilot for our show on IFC, we stayed in the Oakwood Apartments for like two or three weeks to edit the pilot for our show on IFC, we stayed in the Oakwood apartments for like two or three weeks to edit the pilot and all that stuff. What was rent? At the Oakwood? Yeah. At that time? I don't remember that.

It was still probably like $2,500 a month or something like that. But like furnished. Fully furnished. Like couches, bed, everything? Really crappy though. Okay. $2,500 a month. Well, that's awful then. Why did you do that? Because you didn't know any better. Fully furnished. Like couches, bed, everything? Really crappy, though. Okay. $2,500.

Well, that's awful, then. Why did you do that? Because you didn't know any better. That's so bad. Well, we didn't. The production company actually paid for it. They put us up for the couple of weeks. It wasn't that bad. Because when we moved out here.

It wasn't unsafe. For the six months, we stayed in another place, which was too expensive, too, but that was furnished. But you're not living there. That was the question. Short answer, yes, I'm not living there, yeah. Because you know it's a year. You're going to be here for at least a year.

What is the physical address of the place you're staying? It's just West Hollywood. I'm not going to, yeah, yeah. Why are you only saying a year? We did that saying, that was what we told our families, but we knew we were never going back. And they're not listening, so tell us.

No, no. Is the hope to stay, or you're like playing it by ear? I'm playing it safe. Yeah. Just because I don't know what that future looks like, because right now I only have like a season one, a final space. They really, really, really freaking like it right now. But to move everything across the country to L.A., which everything's like twice the price, if not quadruple.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a way different environment. Plus, I just really like Nashville. Like it's just such a nicer place I think. Nicer. Well give this place a chance. I'm trying to man, I'm trying to. Nashville's cool though. I've heard it's really cool in Nashville.

Yeah, it is. It's a really cool like soda shop that you can hang out in. Yeah, there's one of those. Get some nice merch in there too. Okay so. And you're, I mean you're just freshly married. Yeah, about two weeks, two weeks.

Oh my goodness. Two weeks, yeah. Okay so you talked about this in your vlog a little bit. Yeah. About the decision to elope. Yeah. This was a long time coming. Yeah, yeah, I mean we've been Yeah. This was a long time coming. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've been thinking about it for a while.

Yeah. How long you were dating? Like 10 years. So by a while, you mean a decade. What in the world, man? 10 whole years, yeah. So, I mean, I always kind of imagined getting married when I was a little bit more mature. I was a very immature 20-year-old.

But then you realized it would never happen, so you just got married anyway. Well, I think it was something that me and my now wife discussed, and she didn't really want to get married. Um, just because our parents wanted us to get married and our family wanted us to get married. And that was the big, biggest pressure. Um, especially coming from a lot of, uh, religious people where they're just like, you got to get married at 18. The moment, moment attraction starts, you got to get married. Um, so yeah yeah that was more of a thing where i was like i was gonna wait until i was 30 because that's like that's that's the guy i'm

going to be for the rest of my life oh this is a long-term plan yeah well then just that part everything else i don't have it planned well if it you know if it's tough in the first year, don't worry about it. I mean, I don't know, we got married young, both of us, and I tell everybody who gets married, it's like, if the first year sucks, just wait until the second year. But if you've been together for 10 years,

that advice doesn't apply. So then, yeah, so then that's a good test, is that if it sucks for you, then your plan is backfired. It's basically what you're saying. I had to weather a lot of years of me not being a great husband. A lot, including last year. I had to weather that. Christy had to weather that.

Yeah. I think, I mean, since we've been dating for so long that we are very comfortable in who we are right now. And it's something that we know our goals and our strengths and weaknesses and we know each other. So, I mean, even with this kind of situation where she's in Nashville right now because we have a house there and I'm up here kind of trying he's still back there yeah yeah it sucks but I mean it's like we have a bunch of dogs and it's like it's a house a business I mean it's there's a lot to move in that decision from Nashville to LA mm-hmm and even still it's it's I mean how do you move away from your home? You know, like I've

stayed in Tennessee for the past, over a decade, you know, since sixth grade, you know, so it's like, it's a big decision. And I don't know if it's something, especially coming to a place where everything is way more expensive. And I just don't know this area. And it's very alienating. And even just right now, it's kind of lonely. I will say that. It's pretty lonely. Just because I go into work and I work on the show and then it's just that nonstop.

I don't know if you guys have done a show. It's like it's unrelenting. It's just nonstop. Right. I don't know if you, you, you guys have done a show. It's like, it's, it's unrelenting. It's just nonstop. And you want it to be the best thing that you can possibly make. And if you, you know, at the same time, you can't like, especially doing YouTube, you can't neglect that. So I devote my week to doing final space and my weekends to doing YouTube and I don't get any break. So it's like. There's no other time. Now, and what's your wife's name? Rachel. Rachel.

In the pictures I saw, they were like, she was cleverly obscured in a couple of the pictures I saw which made me think maybe, like I couldn't see her face. Yeah. In the wedding photo. So I wanted to respect, you know, if some boundary was set up that I didn't know about,

that is that something that you guys have done that like she doesn't appear. Does she not have a face? Does she not appear in your videos? If she doesn't have a face. She's a faceless monster, man. No, no, no, she's, yeah, of course she has a face, yeah. Is she behind the scenes?

Is there a delineation here or is she in your videos? No, yeah, yeah. She's been in multiple sketches that I've done. She's been in tons of videos. So I'm just making this up in my brain then. Yeah, it's just all in your brain. We don't put our wives in videos, so I was like, oh, maybe he doesn't do that. Occasionally. Because the wedding photo, she's giving you a kiss, but I couldn't see her face. That's just the cool thing that you do now, man. It's called the silhouette, Link.

I wasn't the photographer. It's a great picture. Yeah, I'm... But I see your face. I don't see her face. I'm just saying. There are plenty of pictures... Of her face? Of her face. She has a face and there are pictures of her.

I'm not the one who said she didn't have a face. I never, that was never my question, Rhett. But what about this? I had a more intelligent question which was? Well I have an intelligent question. Well I'm not satisfied with the answer. And that question is how do you, how are you with somebody for a decade? You got a lot of time to plan the wedding.

You got a lot of time to get all the details right. Usually you elope with somebody that you just met, right? So the combination of time together before marriage and quickness of marriage once decision to get married, like you're on the opposite end of the spectrum. So what went into that? Yeah, I mean, I think it was just both of us didn't want to have a big wedding. And a lot of that, I think, stemmed from her sister getting married. And I just remember after the wedding, she called up Rachel, who I guess was the, I guess, bridesmaid. Is that the- Maid of Honor?

Maid of Honor? Yeah. Bridesmaid. Yeah, Maid of Honor. Maid of Honor. I'm sorry. You can tell how much I know about weddings. Right. You didn't have to worry about that. So she called her after the wedding and was like asking about these cupcakes that was at the wedding. It's like, hey, we didn't get any cupcakes. We're wondering if there's just any cupcakes.

And this was like the day after the wedding, right? At her own wedding? No, after the wedding, she called her sister. Asking about? Cupcakes. she no after the wedding she called her sister asking about cupcakes that were at the wedding because she took them okay and so i was like what the hell are you asking for these this your guys just got married and you're asking about cupcakes what's the answer i don't know the answer to that what she gave them to uh we had an event at the soda parlor and she gave them to all the the people that came to that. Well, she gave them to, we had an event at the soda parlor, and she gave them to all the people that came to this event. But she wanted them.

She wanted these cupcakes. And she couldn't have them because you gave them away. But they're cupcakes. Go to the grocery store and get a cupcake. They're supposed to be given away. And so that led you to- You didn't want to get into that. There's a bigger story here.

Oh, there's cupcakes? I'm out. To preface it, to get into that. There's a bigger story. There's a bigger story here. Oh, there's cupcakes. I'm out. The preface it. The preface it. Give us the whole story. I love your stories. Look.

You tell great stories. Thank you. So these cupcakes, when she asked about them, put my now wife into tears. Okay. Because there was this, all this stress, all this like built up, like pressure to make the perfect day. Perfect. Yeah. And it's always a disappointment. And basically to kind of worry about the most insignificant thing.

The day after. The day after you marry your now spouse, you worry about cupcakes. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. But did she want to eat one? Or did she want to know that they were good? Because that's what I thought you were saying. She didn't get one. She didn't get one.

She didn't get one. Because she's busy glad-handing everybody. I glad-handed everybody at my wedding. Is that the word? Isn't that what it's called? I shook hands with everyone. You glad-handed everyone. I greeted everyone with a glad hand.

You know what I'm talking about, Owen? Yes, yes. No, I don't, actually, because I didn't have a wedding. No, but by saying glad hand. You shouldn't say glad hand again. That's also something that's happening in your own brain. When you're glad-handing people, it's when you're greeting people and you're being a host.

And you forget to eat all the food at your wedding. Yeah, and you don't remember what happened. But we had people create a little pack for us, like a picnic basket that we took to the hotel room. And it had a cupcake. Now see, that's smart. That's smart. I didn't make a phone call the next day. Screw that. The day after, you shouldn't be asking about the cupcakes. Exactly. For any reason. And I don't still understand what her reason is, but it couldn't be asking about the cupcakes for any reason.

And I don't still understand what a reason is, but it couldn't be a good one is what you're saying. It couldn't be a good one. And you shouldn't be worrying about that. You should just be worrying about, you know, having fun on a honeymoon or also just, I don't know. It just seemed kind of insane to be like literally putting somebody to tears over something that insignificant and causing all this pressure and you got to plan a wedding and then who's planning this you got to do a bride shower you got to do you know bachelor party it's all these like traditions that it's just built up and now it's this whole production it's a whole product and i've done wedding

photography as well and once you do wedding photography, holy crap. I used to love photography. I can't shoot photography anymore. We did one wedding. Yeah. That was it. It's awful. It's awful. It's awful. It was bad to be on the fringe of it. You don't want to be in the middle of that donut. I mean, it's brilliant what you did.

Brilliant. It's like your stories, man. You did it right. Thanks, thank you. You waited 10 years and then you just ripped the Band-Aid off. But who was disappointed? Who was more disappointed, your family, her family? Nobody.

Nobody, because you made it clear. The cupcake maker. It wasn't a surprise. It was like, we're not going to do this big thing. Exactly, yeah. We're eloping. Was there any sort of? I mean, we did it, I think...

A little party? A very respectful way. Like, you know, I totally... I mean, they got dressed up. They had a photo. Didn't see her face, but they did have a photo. Yeah, they did the silhouette thing. I don't know what photos you're even looking at.

That's... Do I have to pull up the photo? Pull it up. I want to see. It's your wedding photo. I want to see. And then on the thumbnail, I can't see her face either. Are you just talking about the thumbnail of the video?

I'm talking about the thumbnail where you said, we eloped. Don't see her face. And then there's a picture. But you know that that picture, that thumbnail, was the exact moment that we became, you know, married. Husband and wife. Yes. I see it. Oh, really?

Like, I can't just, like, move the position. Oh, that's you kissing in your wedding ceremony? Yeah, it's not a separate. Oh. I noticed that her face was obscured. And then on your Instagram, that's what I was looking at. Oh. Yeah, go to that.

Instagram. Let's see that. No pictures of her face on your entire Instagram. Let's see that. Yeah, let's see it. What is it? What, my Instagram? Olin Rogers?

Olin Rogers? I guess so. Yeah, that's it. All right, I'm scrolling. All right, there's one girl's face, but there's probably not a lot. No, look, there she is, facing away. She is facing totally away, dude. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I can see your full face. You may not realize that this is what you've been doing all along. Look at that. Look, can't see her face. No, no, no, no, go back, go back what you've been doing all along. Look at that. Look, can't see your face. No, no, no, go back. Go back. No, no. There's multiple pictures in that.

What do you mean there's multiple pictures? There's multiple pictures! Oh, oh, oh, no, click into that again. Click on the date. There's multiple pictures. And now click that and go through it. Nope, see that's a flower. That's not a face. Keep going. Keep going. Is that broccoli?

Keep going. Is that broccoli? Keep going. Can you just tell me if that's broccoli? It's not broccoli. Why would it be broccoli? Keep going. Okay. Click the thing, Link. Oh, there she is.

Boom! She has a face. Third picture in! I never ask if she had a face. I just ask if you had a policy of not posting her face. Her face was on there! And your policy is you just bury it. Oh, okay.

You bury it three deep. That's okay. I'm not trying to come in between the two of you guys. Yeah. Oh. You bury it three deep. That's okay. I'm not trying to come in between the two of you guys. You're creating all kinds of problems. There's her face again, dang. I don't know how to use Instagram. I guess that's evident. Who knew you could post multiple pictures in a post?

Okay, so nobody was disappointed. No. No regrets, which, listen man, I don't blame you. I mean, we had a good time, It was a good party. I was a wreck. I didn't have to pay for it.

I was a wreck. Christy was a wreck. I could have easily done without it. Was it stressful when you had yours? Yeah. What were you stressed out about? You know me. I feel like I'm doing it for everybody else. Exactly. I want everybody else to be happy. That's it.

Did you like the cupcakes? It's about everybody else. That's it right there. It's a production for everybody else. And then half the people that you glad hand, you don't even know. You don't even know them. Thank you. It's pretty much like I put it in the video, a pop-up restaurant that you're just feeding a bunch of people that you have no idea who they are.

Yeah. But you can't feed a pizza. You can't feed them Doritos. It's got to be a good restaurant. You've got to feed them Flamin' Yawn and little croissant seafood lobsters. I don't know. Things that no one ever orders when they go places. Yeah, right.

If it's a thing you wouldn't even order, why are you gonna give it to them for free? Like it's better. The thing that you would never order is better. That's yes. Yeah, suddenly everybody likes some sort of shrimp thing at their wedding and I would never order shrimp. The catering menu. This is everything what people don't order right here. You want this? It sounds great. You're gonna love it.

But you're in a challenging place because now it's a long distance relationship and you're newlyweds and you're figuring out dual coast and are you going back? Well, Nashville's not on the coast. Tennessee is a land-like state. There is a river. There's so much little land once you get to Nashville relative to the rest of the thing that if you zoom out far enough, Nashville looks like it's on the coast. You count the Mississippi River, you're dual coasting.

Yeah, I mean it's – Are you going back on a rhythm? No, I mean we kind of visit each other back and forth. As much as I can get out there, she'll come up here for a couple weeks. I'll go out there. And then we're pretty used to the whole long-distance stuff. I mean she did a huge internship in London London and that was like for a year. And so she went to college in Mississippi.

I went to college in Memphis. That was a year. I mean, so we're pretty used to it. And yeah, I mean, it's nothing new. It's nothing new. Okay. So yeah, 10 years. I mean, that's what I'm saying. It's like you've been through it. yeah, 10 years, I mean, that's what I'm saying.

You've been through it. I've been through it, so. Well that's good, I'm glad to hear that. And so, let's skip to the cartoon, Final Space. Yeah. When it was Gary's Space. Yeah. That was like, just a video, I mean,

when you made that video, it was, was it just a one-off? Was like okay I'm calling this a pilot I want to try to sell this because it's you know fast forward seven years it's finally getting made yeah I mean it was just amazing it was just yeah it was just something in 2010 where I was like I just really want to make a cartoon um and I had no money, no, no real way to make it. So I just decided just to just to do it. It's very crude. It's just images moving across the screen. And I did an After Effects. And it was fun. It was just that was just meant to be kind of fun because I just I love cartoons. I've watched pretty much anything that you can probably say I've watched it.

I've watched pretty much anything that you can probably say I've watched it. But, yeah, after it kind of got picked up, I was ecstatic. I mean, this is something that I've, you know, dreamt of. I used to draw comics and all that. So when I was a kid, so this is something that is, yeah, something I've really wanted for a while. So you did Gary Space. Yeah. But then when you, last year, like the middle of 2016, when you uploaded, which basically was Final Space.

Yes. What was the status of the project at that point? Because it seems like you were, because you made it, and then months later you made your vlog about it getting picked up. because you made it and then months later you you made your vlog about it getting picked up so yeah it was um such a fast process um but but new form funded the the proof of concept yeah okay new form funded it okay got it yeah the proof of concept yeah and so then what happened after after um put that up yeah i, I started getting messages kind of immediately from lots of different places, Adult Swim, Conoco, Lionsgate, all these other people that just really gravitated towards it

for one reason or next. And then, yeah, after that, it was just a whirlwind where I just got sucked out to L.A., started preparing a pitch, pitched it to a bunch of places. They all wanted it and went with TVS. Do you meet with Conan himself? Yeah. Because it's usually one of those things, it's like, okay, this is Conan's company.

Or it's like, this is, like, we had a lot of meetings and it's like, well, you're gonna meet with Jack Black. Or you're gonna meet with Ben Stiller. And then it's like, you get meetings and it's like, well, you're gonna meet with Jack Black. Or you're gonna meet with Ben Stiller. And then it's like, you get there and you're like, well you're not, I mean Ben Stiller's company. I meant Jack Black's company. You're meeting with his guy or his girl who does that stuff.

The development person. And there's a little bit of a let down. It's like, well I'm looking around for Ben Stiller. Oh there's a picture on the wall. In that one meeting, I think I asked, has Ben around? Oh, no, no, he's in Iceland. We didn't get to meet him. But you got to meet Conan. Yeah, but I mean, not the first time. It was just their executives, you know? So you glad-handed Conan after you had gone with him? Or did he have to seal the deal? Did he have to come in?

No, he's not even really involved in that much of the process. I just went to one of his shows and he just said he really loved what we were doing and I shook his hand. He's super funny, super tall. Yeah. But yeah, I was just excited just to talk to anybody

because at that time, I didn't even know what the heck I was going to be doing for the next year, you know. So, I mean, I was just like, if it's Conan, great. But if it's an executive that just wants to do something with it, then, yeah, I'm excited either way. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. The thing that I hear, like under the surface, or sometimes I think you just say it outright

when you talk about, in a lot of your videos, being like the underdog, or like the one counted out, or the one who's not making it, who's like giving it all he's got, and it just kinda fizzles out. Yeah, yeah. Like, you describe yourself that way, the underdog. I mean, you don't call yourself a loser, but it seems that way.

But then it's, you know, for me and everybody that watches, I think it's quite the opposite. You're like the hero that, like, actually tries stuff. Yeah. You actually make stuff. You do stuff. Yeah. And it seems like it does work. So it's

like, it's like, it's like a soda, like the, I'm going to start a soda shop in Nashville. I'm going to have a merch company. Well, you have these things, but I think it's, it's what you're seeing is the, the end result, you know, like the process from starting, you know, from nothing all the way up to that, how many freaking times I failed to try to get that thing off the ground. Like the struggle to open up that first soda parlor. I mean, we about like went broke a couple times. Had to take loans out, had to, you know, scrap and just scavenge

anything that we could to open those doors. And that was like, I mean, probably one of the hardest things till this day that I have ever done. And it still sounds like a crazy idea. It's a crazy idea. It's working. It's doing great.

We opened up in a bigger spot. Which by the way is the beauty of it. I'm not like saying that like a crazy idea. It's a crazy idea. It's working. It's doing great. We opened up in a bigger spot. Which, by the way, is the beauty of it. I'm not saying that's a negative thing. It's like, this is a big, crazy idea. Yeah. I mean, so. You've said that like four times every time we meet. You're like, that's such a crazy idea.

I love it. I love it when somebody has a crazy idea and they do it. How did that come about? Well, I did a free pizza party meetup tour back in like 2013. Pizza party meetup tour. So this is for like your YouTube audience. Yeah. Yeah. Because I got asked to go to Playlist and I was pretty pissed that whoever it was went through Mitchell Davis just to ask me and couldn't ask me just in person. And I was like,

that's so shady. And then at the time that they decided to ask me, it was like the maximum amount that like ticket price. So it was like over a hundred dollars to get a ticket to go to playlist. So if I went, people would have had to pay that price. I was like, this is, that's insane. Like, I'm not going to ask somebody to pay a hundred bucks to come to playlist. It's like, I'm not doing that. Um, so I decided to do my own thing and just do it for free. And we spent like over 10,000 bucks in pizza, um, and just sold merch to basically fund the next stop.

And we did eight stops around the U.S. and like over 8,000 people came to it, like 13-hour meetups. 13-hour meetups? Yeah. What year was that? It was 2013, I think. Okay.

Yeah. What is a 13-hour, what are you doing for 13 hours? Meeting people. Like people lining. Glad handing. You Meeting people. Like people lining up. Glad-handing. You're glad-handing. People lining up. No, it was meeting people.

It wasn't glad-handing. It was like meeting, talking, doing whatever they wanted me to do for a picture, dancing. I mean it was a lot of fun. dancing I mean it was it was a lot of fun and um from that experience I realized wow if I could if I could connect to these people and actually know these people's names you know like create a a place where people could come and I kind of it's like a shorthand to where they don't even they don't even want to take a picture with me anymore um I was really intrigued by that and and we started thinking about trying to do, open up something that essentially could do that, a place where we could do these events

and host a game night or a pizza party or something like that. And that's kind of where the soda parlor got birthed. I mean, we would do a coffee shop, but I know nothing about coffee and it would probably be really terrible coffee. So, so we just did soda cause it was easy and, and, and floats. And, um, yeah, I mean, it was, we could have done more, but our first, uh, business, our next door neighbor, um, basically was very threatening to us and would, uh, basically said that he was right when we opened our doors he was like I'm the I'm the king of beverages in this building and you can't do anything and so basically he he saw you as

competition he owned a restaurant or a bar or something coffee shop coffee and so basically of coffee basically yeah all beverages when i met with them me and my business partner met with them and i mean this guy was sitting up like you know five feet higher than us on a throne on like a throne okay yeah the beverage king throne yeah and he had like all these monitors of stocks next to him and we're sitting there completely low like looking up to this guy. And he was like, come in and I'll give you some advice on how to open up a business, you know, and run it.

We're like, oh, sure. You know, and we sat there and he starts like leaning in his chair, freaking the thing snaps and he eats it. No, no, he eats it. And Rhonda's like, oh my gosh. Like, I'm looking at Coulter, and he's about to break. And finally, I'm talking, it wasn't like a fall. It was the chair spine snapped in half.

Oh my gosh. Did he die? And he ate it. He got up. His face was red. And he was like, so. And he stands there, and he's like, so. And he stands there and he's like, what else do you got?

He didn't say, I meant to do that. He acted like it didn't happen. That's the worst. And so I was like, oh man, thanks for all the help and stuff. But after that he basically ended up putting a soda thing in his coffee shop. Oh no. He thought you

booby trapped his chair, man. Yeah. Did you? No. So he started selling soda? Yeah, started selling soda and doing floats. No. Yeah.

And so how long- Before we opened, essentially. Before you opened? Yeah. But this was the old location. Yeah, he did it. He met with us essentially to steal our idea, essentially. And so you did it

for how long at that location a year a year and a half but it was a struggle because of him and i mean we we were doing very well i mean he he was just a douchebag but i mean he didn't really affect us at all but it was just the fact that there's this guy that – anything that we did, he would tell the landlord. The landlord wouldn't fix anything. Basically, there was termite problems. I mean, the list can go on about that location. But it was a struggle, but that guy was a douchebag, man. And these are all things that you are talking to your viewers about.

You're like letting them in on your experience as it's happening. Yeah, because I don't want to make it seem like it was sunshine and rainbows, man. It was dirty. And it's a very dirty process to run a business, which I'm sure you guys know. It's hard. It's not an easy thing to do. And in that time, you know, when you're trying to open up a business, you got to worry about other people and their families and they're depending on you to make this thing happen. And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of stress. And, um, after I ended up opening that, I even had like health problems, man. It was just, it's a mess, man. It's a mess. But, uh, I'm glad what it's doing now. It's, it's,

it's a success. I would say it's a success. It's, we're still paying off loans and stuff, but it's, it's something that we did without any investors and we just did it with the idea of let's just go out and do something cool. And has it transitioned? I mean, if the whole thing kind of started as almost like let's take what we created on the road and bring it into one place, that seems like something that would be difficult to maintain for a long period of time, even. Even now, especially when you're out here. Yeah.

So is the focus changing? No, no. I think it's – and that's one thing that my wife does now. She's the general manager of that thing. Okay. And it would not run without her. She designed it, actually. She's an interior designer and does a lot of architecture stuff.

But you kind of structured it where it's it's not all about you so when you step out of it exactly or you know you're not in all the merch photos it's not your merch it's not your soda yeah so to speak it's something that you gave to people is what it's exactly and that was a big thing of trying to make happen which essentially was it for it to be a real business it needed to function without me being there all the time essentially but I mean anytime that I'm there you know I try to do like a fan appreciation night as much as I can get up there which is we just give out free floats and free pizza. And I mean, we'll go through at least like $3,000 in ice cream. I mean, alone, man, it's fun though.

But I mean, the thing is like, it's always a way just to kind of give back to the people that have supported me. And that thing wouldn't be running without the people that come in there and support it. So it's just a way to kind of do something fun for them. So, right. Before that, what was the first thing that worked? Like, like I can trace back like the first story and it's kind of hard to tell now, like the stories

get so many views. Yeah. And so it's kind of hard to tell going back to the beginning, how many of those are like views of people going back versus which one really popped first. Yeah. And so it's kind of hard to tell going back to the beginning how many of those are like views of people going back versus which one really popped first. Yeah. And I know you had a sketch channel with a friend of yours that was before that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I kind of look at that and say,

okay, he was doing just weird sketches. Some of those have millions of views too. So did something pop there first or was it, and then you switched to the stories? I mean, I kind of basically, once I left Balloon Shop. Which was the sketch thing with your friend. We kind of all went our separate ways and I had to restart a channel from nothing essentially.

And I started doing the stories and stuff. It wasn't until, man, I don't even know. I think it was definitely after I got done with a tour, the dial-up tour, and I posted Ghost in the Stalls. And that was probably the one that, I mean, in terms of what viral is now, it didn't really go viral, but it got a ton of views. I mean, that was like my first million views, like in a day, essentially. And then after that one, it's just I've always been kind of like a slow burn where it's like it's just a very slow process.

I mean, you look at me i i you know i've been on youtube for man like 11 12 years and i still haven't cracked that a million code yet but oh and subscribers yeah yeah but it's not a big deal i'm proving that doesn't matter yeah exactly yeah because i think that there's a um it's just it's yeah it's a very just i I think there's a different quality to the community that you're building. Exactly, yes. Than maybe somebody with more subscribers. Yeah. Because in the way that you think about the fans and the way that you thought about Playlist and the way that that led to the Soda Shop, it's a different kind of community that you're cultivating

exactly yes yes that's even more personal than i mean first of all it's already very personal when it's on youtube yeah it's always it's already very much more personal than it is with a traditional celebrity but you're kind of like yeah rationing it up yeah, it's, I mean, coming from somebody that, I mean, just to preface that, you know, I haven't, you know, I consider myself an underdog. Because, I mean, I literally have not won really anything besides like pitching that show and people, all these people wanting it. That was the first time in my life that people were like, oh, my gosh, this could actually work. time in my life that people were like, oh my gosh, this could actually work. Because usually stuff just deteriorates or it doesn't happen or I get last place or I'll do a video contest and somebody swoops in and gets all pro skaters to vote for them. And it's just like- Sounds like that actually happened. It did happen. That sounds very specific. Yes. What contest was that, by the way?

That sounds very specific, yes. What contest was that, by the way? Was it a skateboarding video? No, it wasn't actually. It's in the past. I don't even want to talk about it. I was so frustrated at that one. What brand was it for?

Nikon. Okay, all right. We can move on then. Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know. I think it's always been something where I've just lost, man. I lose at everything. I hate to say it, but I haven't ever succeeded in regards of what people can consider traditional success, if that makes sense. But it hasn't stopped you from trying a lot of different things.

I mean like, you haven't even gotten to the fact that you wrote a book. Yeah, yeah, well that's not even out yet, but I'm still working on it, yeah. You're writing it. You're writing a book. Yeah, like a science fiction. Under a different name.

Yeah, under a different name. Which is? R.S. Hammersnow. Yeah, under a different name. Which is? R.S. Hammersnow. Okay, before we get into the details of that. But it's me and my friend Jake. It's me and my friend Jake.

You're both R.S. Hammersnow? Yeah. Okay. But what, like I think something people would be interested in is, because you do so many different things, you start so many different things. Yeah.

Somebody's out there listening who's like, well I've got all these things I wanna do, but he's actually done all these things. You say you're an underdog, and I'm not saying that those things haven't been difficult and everything hasn't been a huge success, but you've done so many different things and you're doing so many different things well.'re doing so many different things. Well, like, what do you say

to somebody who's like, how do I, how do I start something? You just got to do it, man. Um, a lot of those things like that book, I don't have any book deal. Nobody, I mean, somebody did ask me to kind of do like a buyer fee on myself. And I was like, nah, I'm not interested. I'd rather just do fiction. Um, if I was going to do anything and I mean, yeah, there's nothing lined up for that. You know, I'm not, I just wanted to do it, you know, for the soda parlor. Nobody was like, hey, here's, here's half a million dollars. Go open yourself a soda parlor. We just did it. We took out loans and we got ourselves in debt just to open that up and to do something cool and it's paying itself off and it's actually pretty cool to watch.

Even with my videos and stuff like that, I mean, a lot of that stuff, I just kind of went out and did it and a lot of them have supported it. But from the beginning of that channel, I started from zero. And it's just been constantly doing it. You just gotta go out and do it, essentially. To me, it's like being willing to take a risk

and another risk and another risk. Exactly. Every creative endeavor, I think, there's an element of risk associated with it if it's legitimately something that, from an artist's heart, he or she wants to create. Exactly. And then I think you just add

just a level of vulnerability to it that becomes part of your art as well, that you're sharing yourself, and it's not just, okay, I might have a great story today, but then tomorrow I've got, I've just got myself. Like, what's your philosophy on crying on camera? Like you had the sunglasses bit for the, for like the tears of joy when you were announcing the final space

being ordered as a series. But that's not the first time that you've cried on camera. No way. I'm just a very emotional person to begin with, man. I'm that kind of person as a kid that watched Titanic and bawling his eyes out, you know, or Braveheart. When he says freedom, I was like weeping. You know, my dad was like, it's okay to cry. And I'm like, what? But he's not crying, of course. Oh, no.

He's just saying it's okay for you to cry. Yeah, yeah. Not for me to cry. Yeah. I've just been that person, man. I don't know. I can't describe it any other way when it comes to crying in camera.

It's not like I go into it thinking, I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna weep, I'm gonna weep in this. I like physically try not to cry. It seems like you were trying not to. But then on the back end, who's editing these videos? Me. So at that point, you got a decision to cry. It seems like you were trying not to. But then on the back end, who's editing these videos? Me. So at that point, you got a decision to make.

It's like you could scrap the whole thing, you could put only the crying in, you could put a teaser of just crying, like boom, right off the bat. He's like weeping, look at his face. Why would I wanna put a teaser of crying? I'm saying, I'm presenting the extremes of your choice as the editor. Yeah. You could start with crying or you could cut it out entirely. So that's an interesting

thing. If I cut it out, and here's the thing, I actually cut out a lot of the crying. Okay. A lot of the stuff that it's in there, it's like, it's real, you know? And if I take that out, It's like it's real, you know, and if I take that out, am I literally taking out something that was a real moment during my recording of that video? So a lot of the times when it comes to that crying stuff, I just let it be its thing and then I'll move on to the next thing. But I mean, if I feel something genuinely like I'm sitting there and I'm talking and I'm literally happy to the point I'm crying in tears, that's a beautiful thing. You know, it's like I'm going to – that needs to be seen. That needs to be shown.

That's me. And I want to look back on that and be like, wow, you know, I remember that moment. That was a really special moment where I was so excited that I literally could not contain myself. I was so excited that I literally could not contain myself. And even with the soda parlor in, you know, the Eat a Slice little documentaries that I made, I look back on that and I watch it and I'll still cry because it's like I remember that moment and I remember what I was going through in that moment. But to cut it out entirely, I mean, you should see how much of it I did cut out. Well, it's interesting because there's another element to with there's obviously a whole lot of authenticity in that. Yeah. And you share what you're actually thinking, what you're feeling. You show what you're feeling by actually showing that you cry.

At the same time, you have this kind of character that you go into in your vlogs. So, like, how did that develop? you have this kind of character that you go into in your vlogs. So how did that develop? I mean, the thing with doing stories, there's definitely two sides of me. I love to entertain people and I love to have fun. But there's a lot of times that I'm like the most chill person that you could probably even meet you know there's times that I just I just need to switch it off and just just play video games or just you know not talk to anybody um but doing those those you know video logs that's me you know that's that's not a character it's it's that is me yeah essence, you know, and that's just like my energetic, crazy side.

The next slide, you know, when I'm when I'm very concentrating the business side, the the guy that's like, you know, doing final space. I have to kind of reserve that because nobody is going to give a show to an insane person, you know. nobody's gonna give a show to an insane person, you know? And I've even seen that, you know? You just kind of gotta kind of have both sides of the coin, essentially. Right. But it is interesting as a, I don't know, maybe not as a viewer, but as a producer,

I think this is what's behind your question, is that the dynamic of, I understand as a performer that, and you know, I tap into the things that, the aspects of my personality that are more amped up and that are more performance oriented, you know, to entertain and connect with our audience on Good Mythical Morning. But you, it's, I think it's fascinating to us how you can, it's, it is, it's, I think that's what we describe as like a character, characterization of ourselves on Good Mythical Morning that then feels separate from what we do here on Ear Biscuits, like a moment of honesty. But, so I think we're fascinated how those things,

you switch in and out of it. It feels like both those things happen. Like it'll happen with, you know, if I can tell that you said something that came out in a way that you found funny that you didn't anticipate you were gonna say, so then you crack up and there's a little, you leave a little bit of that in the edit,

which is a great moment of authenticity, but to me that's breaking character, right? And then in another moment, you might be moved to tears. You're telling the story in like, in your story persona, that's just what I'm gonna call it, or character, persona that's just what i'm gonna call it or character um and then you'll you'll have an emotional moment which i feel like is the other side that you're talking about but you'll skip back and forth is that something that i mean how do you interact with that how do you how do you explain it um yeah i i honestly that's not, I don't even analyze it, man.

I just, I just do it. I mean, that's just me, you know, like, like I can't really describe it because it's, it's something that, um, when I do those, those stories, when I crack up, it's genuine, you know, cause it's, it's something that I'm remembering back as a kid and it catches me off guard. And I'm like, you know, that's funny. You know, that's that's I'm laughing at the ridiculousness of this. I don't know. I don't know. I can't I can't really describe it because it's not something that I sit down and plan or think I'm just gonna do this.

I'm gonna be energetic here and then quiet here. It's like I just. You just turn the camera on. I just turn the camera on. I can't really describe it. It's fascinating because if you think of the, I don't know, if we go to grade school and we talk about the class clown stereotype. Well, that's all, you know, a lot of

people would say, well, my first guess is that's a defense mechanism or that's a way to hide how you really feel or maybe from being bullied or something like that. Now, I'm not saying that for you or for us, but I'm just saying, I think that's what makes it fascinating that when I watch your videos that there's the performer that's saying something hilarious, but then you're not, it's very clear that you're not hiding anything. So I think that's. Because I don't have anything to hide, you know?

Like what's. Right, you're not. Yeah. In your subject matter, you're putting everything out there. But I think that that's what, that's what's so fascinating, I think that's what people are drawn to. You didn't ask me to try to explain it.

Yeah. And I may be totally off, but I don't know. I think that's what draws me to your content. Well, I think a way to say what you're saying is it. Say what I'm saying. Is that your content is driven by things that are actually happening in your life. Like this live event precipitates this piece of content. Where what we do with the Good Mythical Morning,

it's this is a daily show that's going to come out five times a week. It's going to come out most of the year. And you've got to have something that kind of fits a certain tone every single day. out most of the year and you've gotta have something that kind of fits a certain tone every single day so we're not waiting for a moment or for something to happen that then we respond to but we're trying to get ahead and plan the show. Which kind of leads to my next question which is

have you ever thought about, like when you see all these people doing these daily videos and these daily vlogs, was there ever a time, what's the highest frequency that you've ever gotten to with your videos and like what's kept you from going to like a daily video? Well, daily videos, something that genuinely does not interest me at all. I think it's a lot about there's only so much you can do in a day. There's, if, if it was, if I did daily vlogs, it'd be very boring stuff. I mean, I'm not like, I, I, I think that, uh, if you have an awesome life, like, you

know, look at a Casey Nasdaq, it was just like, wow. I mean, I'm not that cool. You know, like at the end of the day, it's like he does like everything. I'm just not that cool. So it's something that, A, I would have to like fake it in order to like go off and do crazy stuff every day, which I don't want to do because it's not me. Or two, I film a lot of just boring stuff of me, you know, writing or, um, just doing normal everyday stuff, like every other human in the world, you know, um, which none of those interest me. So it's, it's just something that if I'm going to do something, I'm, I tend to do it. I try to do the

best I can. And I don't think I can do daily vlogs very well right of course that there's there's a I see what you're saying like there's there could be something there essentially with that but I don't know I don't know if I could keep that up I don't you and you wouldn't be able to do the other stuff that you're doing yeah we couldn't we meant we have a daily show but we could never do daily vlogs, like not in a million years. Yeah,

and there's a lot of stuff that you just want to keep private, man. Yeah. I can't show my whole life because I don't want to, you know, like,

there's stuff, you know, even with my relationship that it's like, you know, maybe I just want to watch a scary movie with my wife and not film it

and, you know, try to make that an entertaining thing for people to watch. I just want to hang out. Which is why you don't show her face. You've made a good choice with that. Even though she has one.

I think, yeah, she's got a great face. I guarantee you, look at Instagram. There's plenty of pictures of her face. Okay, yeah, you're right. I saw some of them. I do remember that from earlier in our conversation. So with Final Space, it's taking up your weeks now. Yeah.

You're doing your channel on the weekend, you're fitting it in. I mean, what else is in the works? Well, the book. What are you excited about? Yeah, well the book is on the back burner just because my co-writer and best friend has Lyme disease. Oh, really? Yeah, right now he's going through some pretty serious treatment in Kansas City,

so I didn't want to go forward with it until he got better. And what's the prognosis? I mean, it's pretty serious. I mean, basically, he has depersonalization. It's affecting his mind. It's went past the brain blood barrier. So I think recently, like the symptoms kind of change and he gets new ones. Like he went partially deaf.

And basically, I mean, it's pretty nuts. like the symptoms kind of change and he gets new ones like uh he went partially deaf and basically i mean it's it's it's pretty nuts i mean he if you see the video if you go to his channel i mean it's affecting his speech like what's his channel it's just jake sidwell okay um so i tried to set up a um i set up a little gofundme for him and he's he's seeking treatment and in kansas but yeah the the book is going to wait until that man gets better because I don't want to do anything without him. So, okay. And we'll, you know, we'll put the link out there too and to the video for the GoFundMe.

Yeah, that'd be awesome. I mean, he's a great guy and I just really hope he gets better. I mean, it's been going on for like over a year started with like bell's palsy his half of his face was paralyzed and it's it's a it's a crazy disease man i i didn't know much about it but after so it didn't come from a tick it did with him yeah it had to have i mean that's that's yeah yeah so um other stuff though it, it's just, you know, potentially working on stuff just for like a feature and other animations. And I did another project with a new form in animation called Lines Blaze. And they kind of they're kind of holding on to it right now.

It's under wraps, so you can't see it. It's not on the channel. holding on to it right now. It's under wraps, so you can't see it. It's not on the channel. It should be coming up in August, hopefully, because it's been done for about a year now. And then Final Space is coming in 2018. 2018, yeah.

Do you know what? Is it the first part of 2018? I think like first quarter. How many episodes? Ten. Okay. Yeah, and it's a serialized, really epic animation. Half-hour episodes? Ten. Okay. Yeah, and it's a serialized, you know, really epic animation. Half-hour episodes?

Yeah. Yeah. And how far along are you in the process right now? We just started, I think, we have two more scripts to finish, and then we just started records on 5. And then the animatics have started on 1 and 2. So, I mean, it's full production right now. And it's a lot of work, man. How naive I was about doing a TV show.

But it's a ton of work yeah because you're voicing how many characters are you voicing right now I'm voicing three because I can only voice three and then you're you've written these right or co-written them which ones the episodes

pretty that's where it gets kind of interesting with the whole credit stuff a lot of the scripts were heavily heavily rewritten to where there were no words from the previous draft by me and the showrunner

got it and you're a producer so you're just wearing a lot of hats well man we wish you the best we're thankful that you took a break to come in here and hang out with us. Yeah. Yeah, we're fans, so keep it up, man.

Dude, thanks man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Any notes for us? No, I got no notes for you. That's it, man, that's all. There you have it, our Ear Biscuit with Olin Rogers. Definitely a fan of his. I don't watch a lot of YouTube videos, but. Really? I've watched some of his.

That's a big disclosure. And I'm like, I really like this guy. YouTube videos but I've watched some of his. That's a big disclosure. And I'm like, I really like this guy. And it was really cool to hang out with him. I think he's got a way of connecting magically through that camera that it's a gift. Well if you start giving people sweets though, I mean it is cheating a little bit.

You give people ice cream and pizza. Oh yeah. Maybe we should start doing that. He knows what people like, man. And a good story. Check out his YouTube channel. Listen to all of his stories if you haven't. YouTube.com slash Olin Rogers.

That's also his Instagram handle which he posts pictures of he and his wife's face. He's got some that are probably just his wife's face. Who knew? Who knew? Well, I think most people did know. I didn't mean to make such a big deal out of it. Now tell me.

We kept going back to it. Now tell me, you're really trying to keep her on the down low, aren't you? It's like, what? Weird. Well you didn't know. You were acting like my question was weird, but we don't do it.

So it was a normal question for us. But as soon as I looked at, as soon as I saw his response, I was like, Link's got the wrong idea here. Barking up the wrong tree. Let's see how long Link keeps going up this tree. Hey, but the first two pictures I showed the guy, did you see her face?

Yeah, it took five minutes, but I knew it wouldn't. It took five minutes to get to her face. Yeah right. Okay well and you can, we don't really have any pizza or ice cream available currently. What we do have is we have the option for you to go over to wherever you're enjoying this podcast and however you respond in that place,

if it's iTunes, write a review or give a rating, whatever you do. Just show some love to the Ear Biscuits. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. Do it, we'll see you next week. Yes. Talkie-toesie-hears.