Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 72 Stampy Cat - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: June 5, 2015

Joseph Garrett, best known as the creator and voice of one of the most popular Minecraft avatars, Stampy Cat, joins Rhett & Link this week to discuss the meticulous creative process and hours of preparation that go into what some people perceive as “just playing video games,” why his investment in the education of his younger fans led to a partnership with Maker Studios and his new innovative show, Wonderquest, and how an online infatuation led to a real life romance. 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 Link. And I'm Rhett. Joining us today at the round table of dim lighting is Joseph Garrett, the creator and voice of one of the most popular Minecraft avatars on the interwebs, Stampy Cat. His Minecraft-focused YouTube channel

called Stampy Longhead boasts over 5.8 million subscribers and 3.5 billion views. His popularity- Can I say that again? 3.5 billion. Yeah, you can say it as much as you want. Billion with a B, y'all. I love that B stutter. Now, his popularity amongst children is unprecedented, so much so that Entertainment Weekly called him

the Mr. Rogers of Minecraft. He was not wearing a cardigan. No. Or talking to a trolley when he came in here though. But he, a legitimate publication has called him the Mr. Rogers of Minecraft and that does it for me. If you're in grade school or know someone in grade school, chances are you've heard of Stampy Cat.

His voice is an almost constant presence in my home. I'm not complaining. You know, I sat down with Lily and said, all right, I got to figure out this Minecraft Stampy Cat thing. And I was kind of sucked in. And I think from the conversation, you'll kind of hear that there's a level of fascination

that I have for what he's done because it's so much different than what I thought it was. I mean, he's got the voice very distinctive. Here's a montage. What's on the floor? Is this just, is this cake? It's just cake everywhere as far as the eye can see. Oh, look, it's Santa.

Look, Santa's eating my cake. Oh my God, he's eating my cake. Oh, he's on fire. Woo! No, I died! Go on, give a baby sheep. Give me a baby sheep. Oh, it's a purple sheep.

I got purple babies. Look at it. Look at it. How incredible is this? Check that out. How about that? We can go and light up the cruise ship in the night. That is epic. You know, but it's not just the voice. It's not just any one thing. I think we hit on a bunch of things that are the key to the culmination of his success coming together. Family friendly character based on Minecraft, 20 minute daily videos full of imagination and ingenuity. It's not your typical let's play. These are planned and executed much like a television show,

really storytelling, humor, friendly characters, villains, plot lines, mixed into ingenuitive Minecraft building projects. Yeah, we had a great time sitting down with Joseph and talking about this creative process, incredibly detailed, and why he insists on doing most of it himself. Also talked about his new show that is filmed

entirely within the world of Minecraft and how he gets cameras, I'm using air quotes, cameras into Minecraft, that was fascinating to me. Remarkably simple, but I never thought about it before. it's cameras, I'm using air quotes, cameras into Minecraft. That was fascinating to me. Remarkably simple, but I never thought about it before. And how spending so much time playing Minecraft actually led to him getting a girlfriend who, first time ever, makes an appearance. We have a girlfriend appearance on the podcast.

Yes. So be sure to stick around for that. But first, we wanna take a moment to tell you guys about our Song Biscuits Volume One album available on iTunes. If you haven't checked it out already, we got a whole season of the songs we wrote, oftentimes collaborating with guests on Ear Biscuits.

Like within an hour or so, we wrote the whole song. You remember, you guys tweeted us and told us what to write the songs about. Now it's all available on iTunes. All these were on Good Mythical Morning. You can go watch those. There were Saturday videos for 15 weeks in a row, but I think you'll enjoy it.

They were designed not just to be watched, but to go right into your ear holes. And so we have masterfully crafted those to go right into your ear holes by putting them on iTunes. That's pretty much how it works. I think they're also available on Amazon. Anyway, be helpful if you go over there and leave a rating and a review. And of course, buying it's always helpful too. Appreciate that. And now on to the biscuit with Stampy Cat. They said you had more views than Bieber.

Yes. And then everyone wanted to talk about but it's just the first article when whenever they state something everyone just picks up on it and so the first big article about me said more views than justin bieber like on youtube which is he's not a youtuber so what does it matter anyway but like yeah you know right he's he sold more songs than me you know about like now every time it's introduced it's like more views than justin bieber like that phrase has stuck with me for like two and a half years or something just because you know because one person mentioned it you know copy and paste it yeah yeah exactly oh that sounds good that sounds real good why write when you can copy and paste yeah so we

basically that was my philosophy in uh english class growing up this is probably a good time to tell you that we just took that bbc article BBC article and we're gonna go by the exact same format. Yeah, I saw you hardly deleting something as I was saying that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, gosh. Put that away. So we met, this is our second meeting in person.

First one was in France. Yeah. Backstage at the, whatever it was. I don't, you know, I's still fuzzy on what it was. We just knew it was a trip to France and so we went. You had a similar situation to me. So someone wants you to speak in France, in Cairns. Okay, okay, I'll speak.

We'll go. I can speak. I haven't never been to Europe. I had, you have, but I had never been to Europe. And never been to France. And meeting you was a highlight because then I was able to have, but I had never been to Europe. I had never been to France. And meeting you was a highlight because then I was able to have bragging rights with my kids and a little iPhone video from you to them.

That went a long, long way. Yeah, we remain, we're still dads to this day because of that iPhone video. I mean, it would have been over a few weeks ago. They would have disowned us. It probably would have been a a few weeks ago they would they would have disowned us it probably would have been a few weeks back right you know well luckily i kept your family life intact so you're welcome i don't know if you remember i told you when i made the video but going over there i was like you know stampy's gonna be at this thing i'm telling lincoln and

lily uh because they watch religiously lando now, who's five. So he's finally getting into it. He's finally getting it. And I said, you know, there's a chance we can meet Stampy, he's gonna be there. And they were like, oh, I was like, what do you want me to tell him? And Lincoln said, well, just tell Stampy, you're my biggest fan.

I was like, well, that's backwards, dude. But I'll tell him oh that's pretty i mean it's amazing when when you meet people that you know like other youtubers that you know that you respect and been watching for a while and you got to them you're like oh what am i gonna say to them i'm a bit nervous then they come up to you and they're like hey it's it's time for your hair like it's so great to see you just like you know like you know the fact that they've heard of you and you know not only because they've got kids that watch you with me, but that's always an exciting thing.

Well, you know, it's funny because, I mean, it's probably a little bit of a fickle thing, but I've told my wife this before, that it is helpful sometimes when your reputation precedes you, when you go into a group. Because a lot of times when you do what we do for a living, like I was at a birthday party a week ago with a bunch of people who are more friends

of my wife than me, and no one really knew what I did. And so then you kind of, like, I'll kind of start explaining what I do. There's that moment when you have to decide if you're going to really say what you do. Am I gonna do, like, I'm a video producer, let's just leave it at that, because you are in LA and you can understand what that is. Because if I say I make YouTube videos, then it just, there's all these questions that

come up and then it's just like, I don't want to be in that conversation. But when somebody has that like, oh no, no, I get it. I get it. And I like it. I mean, it's a little bit selfish, obviously. But do you deal with that? But yeah, I mean, imagine there's an extra level of explaining that the videos you do are playing video games. You could send them one of your videos or a podcast and they get, you know, that's close enough to something they can understand.

If I have to explain that, oh, I make videos on YouTube. Oh, what do you do? It's like, have you heard of Minecraft? You know, like if they say yes or no, then you know whether it's going to be a 10 minute or an hour conversation of explaining exactly what you do. Yeah, and then if you go there, if you say I'm going to do the long explanation so you will know exactly what it is I do,

you get to the end of this 15 minute explanation and they're kind of like, hmm. I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, have you ever just dropped a bomb on somebody? And by the way, I have 3 billion views. You know, it's like I think I have enough read on you to know that you would probably never say that. But maybe you would.

No, I mean, like it's- At some point, you've got to pull out the big gun and just bam. For us people generally, most people I meet kind of just know, you know, if I'm at like a family thing that people know or meeting friends, you know, people generally, they're either other YouTubers and so know or kind of have heard that I do something, you know, especially with kids because, you know, it will be someone whose child watches me or someone's auntie's kids watching me. So, kind of the connection gets through. So, they don't really understand what I do, but they know that, you know, little Billy loves me for some reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that kind of makes it easy. But I mean, what I've been told, and I've been given advice for when going through customs, when I have to say, is it work or pleasure? If I have

to say work, it's just to say I'm in advertising apparently that's the easiest way because then they're like okay whatever they're not interested at that point they just let you go that's good and the follow-up answer is just pre-roll ads yeah you know and i mean other integrations if you really want to talk about it you know but it's an internet thing right it's an internet thing three billion music wouldn't understand blah blah blah. You missed our scooter adventure in France. You know, the day after we met you. Yeah, I saw you speaking about it, though. I heard about it.

Oh, man. It was one of the highlights of our lives. And we're not joking. Like, I mean, we each had our own scooter, but we each had our wife on the back of the scooter. And that was what a great experience going up to what what's what's it called monaco monaco yeah oh next time man you get your scooter you come with us i also remember you being fascinated by the toilets as well was that was that another highlight yes yes i'm a fan of bidets and uh fancy toilets yeah yeah fancy toilets in London?

You know, if you're in a nice restaurant is good. If you're in a train station, then not so hot. No. But the bidet is not so much an English thing, all right? I mean, you have them, but it's not like in every bathroom. No, I mean, Europe and, you know, let's go and say Europe and England is very similar. Europe's in England. England's in Europe the other Europe and, you know, let's go and say Europe and England is very similar. Europe's in England. England's in Europe the other way around, you know, but, you know, it's very similar. You do have a bidet at your house, in your apartment.

Yeah, you get sent one by the queen, you know, at a certain age. It's how it works. No, but they are around? Yeah, no, yeah, yeah. When you turn 13. Okay, when they're a London thing too. Oh, okay. All right, maybe I'll visit now.

Now that I know that. There's a lot that I wanna talk about. I think kind of one of the first places I wanted to go was, I mean, just in the videos that I've watched with Lily, I mean, she's the most religious viewer in our house. I quickly find out it's not a typical, just watch me play Minecraft. I mean, there's a lot that goes into

the various different types of videos that you play. But I just want you to walk us through a typical episode within your lovely world. What are those called? Just the lovely world? Yeah, yeah. There's not really a name of the series. The video is in your lovely world. What are those called? Just the lovely world? Yeah, yeah. There's not really a name of the series. The video is in my lovely world.

So this is my, that's my main series. And that's what I put most time into. And they're my most planned videos. So as you've deducted, I'm not just pressing record. Like I know kind of the beginning, middle and end of what the episode is going to be. So walk us through it for someone who hasn't watched yet. Okay.

So a typical episode is I'll be building either a new shop or a mini game or something. But before I even think about building it, I'll come up with the, like say if I'm doing a mini game, I come up with the idea of the game. I have to come up with a theme. And then I then entirely build it in a separate world to practice it, have people come in and test playing it with me. And then I'll kind of go into the world and then work out, well, if I built this much in one episode, then we could kind of test playing it and it'll be a fun ending. And then in the next episode, we can do this part. And then, you know, I work out three episodes, which we spent building

and then playing this game. Right. So the pre-production, I mean, I could just tell watching one 20-minute video. There's a lot that goes into this. But from an audience's perspective, walk us through from that perspective. I mean, right from the go, there's a few things that I can count on as a viewer, right? Yeah. More than a few things. First of all, the first word is out of your mouth.

Hello, this is Stampy, and welcome to a Minecraft Let's Play video. That's how it always starts, and that's not a planned intro, but people love that familiarity. I always start in the same place, and the beginning routine is always the same. You're in your house.

Yeah. So you're in your house. You're kind of talking to the audience, but the character is looking at the camera, so to speak. Yeah. So you've got that viewpoint. I always talk directly to the viewer.

I never say like, oh, would all of you like this? I always say, you know, would you like this? Like I'm always speaking- To an individual. Yeah, to an individual. But the camera is looking at Stampy,

the character. Yeah, well, the majority of the camera is looking at Stampy, the character. Yeah, well, the majority of the time, it's just the first person perspective. So they're just seeing what Stampy would be seeing if he was in that world. So Stampy leaves his house. There's usually like a, there's a pet bit and then there's a garden bit.

I mean, walk me through all of that. Okay, so always start in my room. That has kind of changed a bit over the years. I always have a cake for breakfast is a must because otherwise I'm not happy for the rest of the video. And then I go to the love garden, which is basically a place where anyone who sent me a fan art or a great video or just done anything cool, then I put their name down in a sign and say, thank you. So, say someone has decorated an amazing wall in like stampy cat colors or something. In real life.

Yeah, yeah. Then I'll put a picture of that up and say, thanks for doing that. That's really awesome. Welcome to my love garden. And that's a sign in my world, which will stay there forever. So every video when I go to the love garden,

they can kind of see their sign, which is a cool thing. And the garden is pretty huge because you make a video every single day. Yeah, not in that series. I do two videos a week in that series. And originally there was a sign each. They now have to share signs. There's no full person.

It's kind of like burying people in a cemetery. At a certain point, you've got to start stacking people. Well, it's kind of like the round table of dim lighting here, you know, eventually. Signatures on top of each other. I don't wanna be the first person to have to write the underneath of the table. That's not a glorious moment. Yeah, there is one under there.

But just to clarify, the fans in your love garden, they're not deceased. So I just want for anyone listening, let's just clarify that. Being deceased is not required. At some point you bring a pet along. So there's like, you know, you've got pets. You've got dogs in the Minecraft world that have names

that you're choosing one to be your companion. Yeah, like people like animals a lot. And I find having animals is good. I mean, having animals in Minecraft is great because like the thing that I do is it's so planned, like most of of it but the commentary is unscripted and things can happen in the video which i didn't plan and you just go with it like the dog can suddenly jump off something or set off some tnt or something and having animals with kind of crazy ai running around is an amazing thing to add humor to a video yeah and you just to pretend like you you know, I speak to them as if they understand me.

I say, oh, you're looking happy today. Oh, you're going off to explore this. You know, it's like I'm always making up most of the story as I go along. And it's the same with other characters in the videos. I have other people that join me who are real people controlling characters, but they don't speak.

They can hear me, but they don't speak. So I could look at a character called Lee Bear, who's a big bear. And I go, oh no, you look upset today. You know, you know he's just standing there and then so he'll then react to me and then i'll make up oh did you lose your thing you know so i can make up a kind of a story on the fly and you don't and this is never i mean as far as i've seen it's never montaged it this is a this is a single 20 something minute long episode. Yeah.

So 20 minutes straight commentary, just me speaking, you know, sometimes it will go wrong and I'd be like, there's a lot of the time I'll get close to the end and I'm like, nothing happened. Like this is boring. Like, and I'll just go and start again.

Like that happens a lot or like a lot. Um, so yeah, you're at that 18 minutes in and you're like, this isn't, I'm going to start over. I've been editing a video and been watching it back and being like, no, this isn't i'm gonna start i've got to the i've been editing a video and been watching it back and being like no this isn't like i'm not like this isn't

entertaining there's no there's nothing everything just went as it was supposed to that's boring like it went too well it was it was just fine so instead of having an edit trick like i'm gonna splice in then i'm gonna create an alternate ending you start over it's just because it's live yeah it's live and it's real. It's, you know, if I'm building something, I'm actually, you know, I'm doing it all there. But anything you built, you'd have to tear down and then rebuild. You can kind of just quit without saving and then go back,

which is what I do a lot. Okay, that's good. But they're typical episodes. I then have special episodes, which take the planning goes even further to, you know, I'll do an episode where I go to space and I build a rocket ship. I want to talk about that one. Yeah. But before we just continue walking me through, though, and I like the details of it because you'll pick your dog. Sometimes you'll take it.

You know, you'll have your the other person who's playing with you and then you'll go and you'll build a game but then you won't, usually you won't finish it but then you'll go and you'll, okay, that'll be the first half, you're actually doing like construction and creation of a, I liken it to kind of like on Survivor where like everyone's doing a physical challenge, it's kind of like a really fun Minecraft version of a game, a physical challenge game like that within the game.

You're building that. But then at some point you go to another game that you finished and you play that. And it's like a competition with stakes. Yeah. So usually like I don't want, I never want videos to be just building for 20 minutes. So normally, you know, the ending I'll go and like, oh, we'll play just a game I've already built just as a fun ending. And so, but when I'm actually building, I'm really being very conscious to kind of teach what I'm building. Because a lot of the time,

people copy what I've built and build it in their own world. So I'm being very particular about, you know, place 10 blocks along this way. Or then if I'm doing, there's something called redstone in the game, which is kind of like wirings. You can do like mechanical things, have pistons and buttons and things. And so if i'm doing there's something called redstone in the game which is kind of like wiring so you can do like mechanical things have pistons and buttons and things and so if i'm doing anything like that i'm very particular in terms of like this is how you know then it becomes slightly more you know it's always entertainment first but then it's a bit more of a guide or you know giving people ideas at least so what percentage of your time now is devoted to planning versus the execution in in the world it's pretty much like the recording is 20 minutes it's the recording is the length of the video the

planning can take for a lovely world episode you know i generally it'd only be at least a full day planning the the episode and then i normally record it the next day but even coming up with those games that they're the intricate nature of these things there's a mechanical nature and it's just whimsical but it's i mean it's something all these things you're talking about are things that like a top-notch television producer would hire a team of 20 people half of the people in the room would just be writers to devise this type of stuff. But that's where I think the value is. My commentary, I think I'm fine. I'm getting better. I think a lot of people attribute most success of mine to the commentary. Right.

I think my commentary is fine. It does what it needs to do, but it's the planning and being able to come up with a new idea each week. And it's not even an idea of building something that looks cool or plays well. It's got to play well in my format of video. I can't come up with a game where the other person needs to speak. So it needs to be easy to understand. And even building it, I don't want to build something too big because that'd be boring if i'm building like a skyscraper like i'm just placing rows of blocks like the building process has to be fun as well yeah yeah i would agree i mean the commentary the person every it's a total package but the ingenuity associated with and you only have to watch as a producer you only have to watch one to really appreciate kind of the genius of the amount of ingenuity that goes into it. And with each one, you're building another game. It's amazing, it really is.

And kind of what I hear you saying in that answer though is that you haven't necessarily found someone yet that you can get to do those things for you because you know you're still doing all of it i i haven't i haven't looked for someone like that's that i mean that's what i enjoy most is when i'm in minecraft and i'm just planning or like just scribbling on a whiteboard and working out dimensions that's like that that's the fun part i mean i mean i love recording as well but that's what i really enjoy and there's some of the i got an editor so a lot of, the, that side of thing is,

you know, things that I don't need to be as involved in because, you know, there's generally little editing because, you know, as you said, it's 20 minutes straight, no, no cut. So there's, there's not a huge amount that needs to be done, but like that's- You do all the hard parts. You've got an editor and nothing needs to be edited. You've got an editor. Nothing needs to be edited. Did you invent the format? I mean, were you emulating or inspired by someone else who was taking the world of Minecraft and then bending it to be pre-produced as a show in this way?

Or did you just invent it over time? Like, yeah, it was. I mean, if you look at an early episode compared to now, like that wasn't the initial format. I mean, The Lovely World, I'm almost on, well, I probably just about hit 300 episodes now. So, and if you look at episode one, it's in no way similar to any later episodes. I kind of just kept adding on aspects and- But no one else was doing it. So, you are saying that you invented it over time, this format that you've arrived at. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I was kind of naturally doing it. So you are saying that you invented it over time, this format that you've arrived at. Yeah, yeah. I guess I was kind of naturally doing it. There weren't many people doing

family-friendly content on Minecraft when I began. When I started, it was when Minecraft first came out for consoles. And that is when a lot of children, and on phones as well and tablets, that's when a lot of children started playing. Because before that, Minecraft was like a hardcore gamer's game. It was a weird game you can only get online. And a lot of the elements of it, you kind of had to know some basic coding to do some things. And it was not a kid-friendly game. And it was only when it came to consoles did kids start playing and I started playing. And so I think my timing was just so lucky. The fact that I started doing videos as kids started playing. And I think that

is kind of a big reason why it was successful. But the fact that you developed, again, the format of, okay, they're going to be 20 minutes. You know, why 20 minutes? Was that how long a television show is? Is that why? I think it just seemed that that's a good length to have a beginning, middle and an end, which is, I guess, why, you know, 22 minutes became the time that TV did it as well. You know, like it's, you know, there's enough time for you to start, explain what you're doing, start the idea. Then you've got a good middle where you're creating it.

And then you have, you know, three or four minutes at the end for a fun ending. But, you know, I never, there was not once when I sat down and thought like, okay, I should start in the room and then I should go to the love garden. And like, I never once thought about that. It was instinct. It just kind of happened. And then people picked up on it. People were like, like I

did one episode where I didn't start in my room. People were like, oh, why didn't you start in your room? And I was like, oh, that's a thing now. Like that just- I guess I will now. Yeah. Like, okay, that's how I start my videos now. It's interesting that, you know, Entertainment Weekly called you the Mr. Rogers of Minecraft. And it's that repetition and it's that pattern. And it's, I mean, it's also the target audience, I guess, but it's so powerful.

You know, I even found myself, like once I watched it literally, I was like, I get it, I get it, I can come back to this. You know, he was, one of his dogs, ran off and he doesn't know where it is. I bet he did that on purpose. I bet I'm going to find out next time that that dog's coming back. This guy's a genius. I want to know what happened to the dog.

Well, the dog's fine. I just want to rest assured of that straight away. The dog's fine. Don't lie. A lot of your dogs have died. I know. Don't be like the dog is fine. I just want to rest assured of that straight away. The dog is fine. Don't lie. A lot of your dogs have died. I know. Don't be like the dog is fine. How many dogs have died? And where do you bury them? I bury them where they die. I mean, that's actually kind of, it's not a nice thing, but that is a nice way to kind of add a bit of a message in because there's always, if a dog died, you know, they're always buried. And, you know know i can always say a little thing about like you know them being remembered and things so

that's kind of that's something that i've not shied away from there are certain dogs that i feel that if they died people would be too upset that couldn't happen but especially in the the early days you wouldn't save that one like oh so if that dies, it's just start over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Has that happened? Yeah, it has. But once you quit out the game, it's back to school. It hasn't happened again. It's gone. Time travel.

Exactly. Which dog are we talking about here? Like, you know, I don't know any specific examples off the top of my head. But you know that these dogs are meaningful to the audience so you gotta i know that i've diverted destiny for a few a few favorite characters wow you're playing god in minecraft i love it well i mean you talk about the audience and kind of changing making your content more age appropriate yeah Yeah. And it's not like every YouTuber doesn't, knows that kids are watching their stuff. What made you make a decision?

Cause you made a strategic decision early on that, okay, you know, you weren't gonna use foul language. You were gonna keep it kid friendly. Yeah. But you didn't have to, and most people don't. And it's just, it's a choice. It was a moral decision rather than a strategic one. yeah but you didn't have to and and most people don't and it's just it's a choice it was it was a moral decision rather than a strategic one because you know that was still at a point where

youtube wasn't in the even in the back of my head an idea for a career like that was you know that was pure hobby like i mean there was a you know for years i did non-child friendly content on youtube just as a hobby you know no one was watching but i didn't care and then when minecraft came out i noticed kids were watching and so you know i thought okay i can't if kids are watching i can't be swearing like like i i was happy to to change and i'm so glad i did now because i think that was you know the the big reason why more kids started watching and you know parents you know trusted me at that point you know well and yeah and i and we can say from the perspective of parents who have kids who are fans of yours, that yeah, I mean, we definitely appreciate that.

And that's, I think that's something that we think about because we are parents. So it kind of came, like we started YouTube as parents. So, you know, I've always just kind of thought, oh yeah, most of these single people, they just don't know, they're not thinking beyond just the immediate experience that they're having. So, they're not thinking like, oh, like 75% of my audience is like really young kids.

So, maybe I should think about what I'm saying. So, as a parent, we appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, it was never seeing, like I didn't see a gap in the mark. You know, I didn't say, oh, here's this big untapped audience. It audience it was you know that audience was there and i saw they're on my channel and i was like okay i better you know tailor my content to the people that want to say i mean i mean i say i didn't make child-friendly stuff like i was never vulgar like it was just you know it was more it just wasn't intended yeah my commentary was like i am in this conversation i wasn't hello this is

you know i was speaking as i'm speaking now which is you know it's just fine but it's you know it's not gonna grab anyone's attention right and you're not gonna like just drop an expletive when you when you feel angry you're gonna you're gonna hold back a little bit yeah and even more so than that i'm gonna i'm not gonna get angry i'm gonna understand the situation and you know like you're never gonna see stampy you know getting like say if he loses in a you know having a big tournament and i lost by loads i'm never gonna be angry you know it's like oh well but we all had fun you know it's it's saying those messages it's it's you know it's it's not my emotions at that point it's you know it's stampy's and it's not like it's different to being fake as

well because you know if i'm laughing like that's you know that's like that's laughing like if something if i turn a corner and there's a zombie and it makes me jump like that's all real but then there's other things where i can tailor things to make it a little bit better than real life like a little bit happier as an entertainer i mean um what's the, what's the largest scale project that you've done? Is it the rocket launch that you were mentioning earlier? adventure style video. So where it started off as an Easter egg hunt where there would be a riddle left by the Easter bunny and I've got to work out where the egg is. And then eventually I'm attacked by a villain and then it becomes like, do you attack the villain or do you try and talk to him? And then, you know, so that was a good 20 plus episode, short videos. And those were clickable annotations to different videos?

Yeah, yeah. And iCards as well. So it worked on phones. So it was- Ah, yes. Yeah. choose your own event so that was quite a big one uh the flying to the moon one was a big one because in minecraft there isn't a moon you can go to so i have to build the moon yeah give us the concept i watched the behind the scenes video okay you know i want you to explain it because it was just kind of taking Minecraft from being a game and turning it into a cinematic tool. Yeah. It became video editing software, effects software, and it blew my mind when I watched the behind the scenes.

So what did you want to do? What was the first idea? Yeah, so this is actually a really controversial video, if you can believe it for really weird reasons so what i love to do is to to take the game and do things that you couldn't normally do in the game but make it like like it's never like oh i've added in a flying dragon which obviously doesn't fit in it always is supposed to always look like it is just the game and i just kind of never acknowledge it and it's just you know that's what it is whether it's flying to the moon or traveling back in time or going around in a submarine.

Like I like to do these bigger videos and they're, you know, they're always more popular. So I did a video where I made it look like I was flying to the moon and I met aliens and the moon was powered by lunar cheese, which I gave it up from the moon. You know, there's this big video. And that's when I knew you were fake,

when it was powered by the moon, not powered by lunar cheese no no no no that that was all real it's powered by naughty children turning cogs right no yeah so so the process of making that that video was you know i had to build the moon which was you know a month long project i had help building it but you know we're placing block by block building the surface of the moon and which was a month long project. I had help building it, but we're placing block by block building the surface of the moon and then- A sphere of lunar scape. Well, I was able to, I pretended we couldn't see beyond the horizon. So I didn't have to build, I was able to build a flat plane and assume that the rest wouldn't be seen. So I mean, that was a big thing in itself. And then I had a re a recreation of a huge rocket ship that i built in

my world and then you know i had to then get the transition perfect from me flying up into the the sky and then you know loading up a brand new world and then editing it as if i land and trying to make it look seamless right so you get it you you build you build the rocket like the audience is along for the ride watching you construct the rocket on your planet, in your world, the lovely world. Yeah, yeah. You get in the rocket and it's like, all right, launch sequence initiate.

And then you see the rocket take off. This cannot happen in Minecraft. It's going up. And you see the skyline disappear and the rockets, it's in orbit, well, it's in orbit. Well, it's out of orbit. And then you see it just come down on the moon, kind of like the SpaceX rocket. Like it came down butt first, right?

Yeah, for video logistical reasons. Yeah. It landed exactly as possible. It's well and exactly as possible. Yeah, and the thing with that is it's those mean the rocket one was i mean some people might have guessed that something would have happened but it always just happens within what would seem like a normal episode so they would never know when that things like that are going to happen like i love to surprise the audience and so i'll be having a totally normal episode i'm building a bakery and then suddenly, you know, a UFO comes down.

Suddenly something big happens and then there's this quick adventure and they have no idea, you know, when it's coming. You know, sometimes I do like a build up to it that I leave clues in a few episodes leading up to it. And how are you, I would say, physically editing these things? You're like exporting uh capture footage from Minecraft into like Final Cut yeah yeah I was I was at that point so I did um and is that why it was controversial because it was you were using editing tricks at that moment yeah the worry

yeah the controversy was the fact that I got accused of like faking a video and like you know and how did you find out about that like was it just a bunch of comments well it was actually the i uploaded a i knew that after because that the moon one was the first big video like that you know so that kind of broke the rules yeah yeah and so i i knew i was going to get comments saying how did you do that but i thought they're all going to be how did you edit that i didn't realize they were going to be how did you fly the moon in minecraft yeah they're like all racking their brains how do we do this in the game so so i uploaded a i i made at the same time i made a behind the scenes where every i recorded every process and i made a video how stampy flew to the moon because i knew people were gonna you

know want to to know how i did it thinking the editing tricks assuming they would know but then what they would find this video and be like oh so you faked it you didn't actually fly to the you you made it out as if you flew to the moon you were tricking us and i was like no i was entertaining you hopefully you know like i was you know like i didn't you know i was a bit short-sighted on my side like i was didn't realize that people would assume that i was actually doing this thing you know i thought i was making you know a cool entertaining video but i got you know i mean it's it's just the minority you know but it was how did learning that that people had an expectation or at least some people had an expectation for this to be an authentic minecraft experience how did that

impact you moving forward um i i often now in videos like that at the very end, say something along the lines of like, you know, like say like, I hope you enjoyed this, you know, this special video and kind of try and word it to make it obvious that, you know, like it, you know, like this wasn't fake. I hope you just enjoyed this special thing I made for you. You know, I try and leave something like that, but it hasn't really changed too much like i keep trying to step up to beat the the previous thing and you know and there are a lot of people that aren't thinking about the behind the scenes and whether they think it's in minecraft or not i just really enjoying these videos you know they always end up being more popular and you know they're they're

kind of the the people are mainly making the the the videos for like it hasn't hasn't put me off make you know kind of doing that kind of thing. Right. Because that's how you're, that's one of the ways that you're kind of pushing the boundaries of the space. Yeah. It's just something a little bit different. And I've done, you know, quite a few videos in that style now where, you know, it's probably about once every two or three months, there's just this video that kind of comes out of nowhere, which always seems like a normal video. And then, you know, something extraordinary happens.

What's the next thing? What's in the works? Give us a hint. Well, after the Easter video, the villain has escaped and will be coming back soon. I'm not holding back from you guys. I'll tell you anything, but I don't know exactly yet what it's going to be. Okay, you got to figure it out. The villain is going to come back.

You got to spend a month building something. Whatever it is, it'll be great. Tell us about the pre-Stampy Joe, like growing up. So I'd always wanted to, my two obsessions were playing video games

and making videos. But where'd you grow up? I grew up in the south of England, about 15 minutes away from where I live now. It's a small town called Emsworth. It's like a fishing village. It's very- On the coast. Yeah. Yeah. Right next to the sea. I had a very happy childhood. I had a-

Is your dad or mom a fisherman or fisherwoman? No, sadly not. But my dad is actually a graphics designer and did all of the stampy artwork for merchandise and things. He actually did all of that. So and then my mom is, you know, number one fan and now like YouTube expert from looking at, you know, from me going watching everyone else. And she's number one on my stampy Facebook page, moderating it to see you wouldn't believe what this woman was saying on the stampy Facebook page. So, you know, it's kind of become a bit of a family project now which i love what was she saying i can never remember they'll tell you what they think on facebook yeah i'll tell you that so uh you got any siblings yeah i got two sisters uh two older sisters uh one of which

is uh now works with my dad doing a design work and another one which has just started a youtube career as well so really yeah well we ended up i wanted to do um a video where i was getting my mom to play minecraft for the first time and she would be playing and i would be kind of guiding her and she's you know never touched a controller in her life she wouldn't do it and then i asked my sister who was in the same she wouldn't do it and then uh i asked my sister who was in the same situation to to do it and she did it and loved it and then like a few weeks later started up a youtube channel doing minecraft videos so i was able to to get my my sister into it as well did you guys get along uh growing up yeah yeah we always had a yeah we were always a really really

close family i mean was it like having three moms when you have two older sisters no because because mom's kind of you know like i i kind of felt like it was a bit different for for i guess playing like i had very close friends and you know like i wasn't particularly interested in in girls toys so we were kind of close in a way but you know we didn't we played together a lot when we were when we were very young but kind of as you get older like i i was super obsessive into video games and you know they weren't so like from the from a young age yeah well i never actually had games consoles as a child but all my friends did which like which is fine but like and why was your family just like we're not gonna you should be playing those video games i don't think i've already asked for one

like i i don't know why but i i don't know why, but I just never considered the fact that I could have one too. I'm talking about when I was very young. But I actually like it now because it made video games really special to me. Because I'd be going around my friend's house and I'd get to play it. And I'd be like, oh yeah, I'm going to go around Liam's house. I get to play the Sega. I get to play the Nintendo. Oh, Liam had the Sega.

Yeah, yeah. He had all of them and I didn't have any of them. But you know, so maybe- Liam was spoiled, wasn't he? Well, he was an only child. There were kids like that that had all the systems. Now, but a huge part of who you are and what you do now is your imagination, right?

And so, as somebody who has a brain that can create a story and create a world, I always picture them as a kid kind of lost in thought or, you know, wandering around, exploring and stuff like that. Like, how did that imagination manifest itself when you were a kid? So when I was really young, it was writing. I used to write my own stories and like I used to get just A4 paper and like kind of fold it together and staple it to make books and like draw the the front guy so that when i was really young like that was my obsession and then you know like mom read my new book and her you know looking at my squiggles

trying to understand it and then you know and then so like so like we're talking like adventure novels about fantastical bands of creatures? What genre? No, nothing that good. It was often slightly based on video games. Liam's video games. Yeah, yeah. You know, there was a long-running series called The Cat and the Dog,

which me and my friend, Liam's real, by the way. I'm sure he is. Who me and, you know, we would write kind of back and forth together and sort of as the only other person that would read each other's books. You had a writing partner. Yeah.

That's, you know, you were committed. I should have gotten Link involved at this stage because what I did is I began writing one book when I was about 10 years old and it was about this group of people who were in this really weird world that had like cows with really short legs and like perfectly manicured grass. Well, you let me read it and I guess my reaction didn't encourage you to continue.

No, but what happened is my band of friends who were like going out across this land, they came to a huge chasm and then like I ran out. I couldn't figure out what they should do when they got to the chasm, so the book just ended with them standing at the edge of a chasm and then like I ran out. I couldn't figure out what they should do when they got to the chasm so the book just ended with them standing at the edge of a chasm. That's why they call it writer's chasm. Mm, exactly.

A literal cliffhanger, it's amazing. Oh, that's what I was looking for. A literal cliffhanger, much better. But yeah, and I'll let you read it and as a poet, now in our relationship now, Link would be like, I've got a suggestion for how to get across the chasm, but he was just like, okay, let's eat some oatmeal pies.

I like the oatmeal pies. Yeah, now, if the me now was then, what I would have done was I would have given you 20 notes. Four of them would have been really good and would have helped you get over the chasm, but then the other 18, you would have just gotten really mad and frustrated. Yeah, I would have been really good and would have helped you get over the chasm. But then the other 18, you just got really mad at it. Yeah, it would have been very, very frustrated.

Why do the cows have short legs? That doesn't make any sense. I don't like that. We get in a lot of arguments. So you had a writing partner. We weren't like you and Liam. Yeah. But that didn't continue.

No, I mean, this is very, you know, this is very young. But then as soon as technology caught up to where like I could make videos, then that was the, it used to be animations was my obsession. I got, I didn't have a video camera, but I would take my mom's digital camera. It's like stills camera. And I'd make stop motions. And that is actually where I got the stampy name from.

Stampy long head was a character in one of these animations. With a long head? He had a long head and big feet. And then, and also on the computer, the way I'd animate, one of these animations. With a long head? He had a long head and big feet. And also on the computer, the way I'd animate, because I didn't have Flash or anything and if I did, I wouldn't know how to use it. I'd use Photoshop and I'd save pictures. So I'd

have all my separate layers and I'd move the eyes and then the mouths and then I'd save a picture and then I'd just shove them all in a timeline and then I'd make animations that way. And that was... I'm one of the people that I could sit there for you know seven hours just just doing that this is like high school or middle school this is this is kind of that's towards the the end of what would be the lowest sorry primary school in england like this would be towards the end of the this is looking

at about uh 9 10 11 12 you know that's when i was getting obsessed with that and then as soon as i got a video camera and you know i found picked a group of friends that would be interested enough to jump around in front of it while I'm trying to make something, then that's what I was doing. And this is before YouTube and then to the start of YouTube. And then so as soon as YouTube came along, then that was like, okay, I got a place to put all of these early videos. So you never went back to actually writing anything no i mean i was it was writing for for video at that point i never went back to just just literature i mean literally this is these are kids books you know i mean these are the cat and the dog yeah there's a cat that's literature yeah so as soon as video making like came around

you know from then until now then that was then that was what I was going to do from through school. And then I did college for two years doing TV and film and then did video productions in university. I knew I was wanting to make videos, but my obsession was never with film. I didn't watch loads of films. I didn't watch loads of TV. My obsession was always still playing video games. I loved the process of making video, but then playing games. So what specifically did you think the career was going to be? I wasn't sure. I always liked editing. Editing was a big thing I liked. That's what I tried to specialize in. I actually, before going full-time in YouTube, I was doing freelance

vision mixing, like live vision mixing at events, like corporate events and things. I was doing that because that was one of the few professional things I could do where people would pay me to do it. That was never the- Like live camera switching. Yeah, yeah. Live switching. We found your LinkedIn profile online, which still says, Which still says, quote, freelance video producer and features that you were bar staff at the railway inn. Well, that's the only work experience. That's your one. That LinkedIn was made as a university? Like they just said like, do you have a LinkedIn to everyone?

And I was like, I don't have one. He's like, if you don't have a LinkedIn, like make one now. Yes, got to have one of those. Yeah. And it still sits there. Yeah, yeah. Like, I could take it down, but it's not hurting anyone. But you were a barkeep.

Yeah, yeah. Were you a bartender or were you like? Yeah, I was all through university and for a while afterwards, I was a bartender. At the railway inn. Yeah. What was that place like? It was a local English pub. It was down the road from where I lived. They build pubs on top of pubs over there, inn. Yeah. What was that place like? It was a local English pub. It was down the road from where I lived.

They build pubs on top of pubs over there, right? Yeah. It's like you walk in a pub to get to another pub, right? It's like one of eight pubs in the town square of this tiny town. It's like every other building's a small pub. And I was a bartender in one of them. It's like churches in the south. It's like where you walk through a church to get to a church.

Right, right. Yeah, and it is something like that. But, but i mean that was a great job for me what i loved at university because i'd love the contrast of the conversations you're having with people at university and then going to the pub it was each one was a nice break from the the other right and also i had you know i didn't have great social skills or confidence before then like and that was a great way you know to to be able to you to meet new people each day and just be able to hold conversations with people. That's something that I wasn't great at. And what was the clientele in the railway inn? Are we talking middle-aged men watching football?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Middle to later-aged men who are in there for a lot of their day. There was a really nice people there, though. It was a sport pub. It had a in there for a lot of their day. You know, there's a lot of really nice people there, though. You know, it was a sport pub. It had a pool table and a dartboard and stuff. So it was a pretty good mix, actually. Right. Seen any wicked dart accidents?

No, no. And almost course, I mean, when the pub was shut, we would do crazy darts and we'd play darts in, you know, just difficult positions to throw darts so you know no one was there we were fine but that was that was one of the the things to look forward to at the end of the shift crazy darts did you ever have to do that very stereotypical thing that a bartender does in movies where they have to cut some old man off like late at night like you can't nope you can't have another one is that like is that part of the bartender's code? Yeah. You've got to deal – arguing with drunk people is one of the skills you pick up early on

and how to ignore knowledge, like ignore logic and just sort of – It's just like dealing with just really big kids at that point. Yes. The way you've got to speak to them. Right. That's where you developed your voice for Stampy. No. Talking to drunk men who needed to be told to walk home.

Oh, just go ahead and walk home now. Oh, don't do that to him. That sounded nothing like Stampy. It didn't. That was the very poor Rhett interpretation of the very beginning of the video. What's your day-to-day like now? I mean, let's talk social life. So, I mean, you know how hard it is.

I mean, the good thing... I mean, you're putting out how many videos a day, how many days a week? So, I do Minecraft daily, and then there's other games I play as well, which are sort of on top of that how many days a week so i do minecraft daily and then there's other other games i play as well which are sort of on top of that so seven days a week yeah it's probably about 11 or 12 videos i do a week um i do so i do a minecraft one every day but you know we were speaking earlier about the preparation that goes into videos that's not all of them that that's very specific to to my lovely world my main series there's other videos where you know you could be sent a map which is kind of like a story and you kind of just play through it

and you know you could do three four five episodes in a row you know kind of along as long as you've still got energy and got your voice like you know so i could you know do one day recording them and then that's that covered for two weeks and so then i have the time to you know spend you know a day or two like working hard on one particular video so time to, you know, spend, you know, a day or two, like working hard on one particular video. So that's the way you can kind of fit it in. So you actually have time to do it all. And I want to come back to that day to day. And I think this kind of intersects with it too, knowing that, you know, when you look at the amount of viewers that you're getting on this content and imagining, you know,

especially if you're still doing so much of it yourself, I mean, your overhead is low, views are incredible, you're obviously doing well financially. So at what point did you start thinking like, okay, you know, at one point you're a bartender and a guy who's studying at university and the next moment you're like, well, hold on, this is a real thing. This isn't just making a living.

Like this is building something that is a pretty big deal. Like I'm going to have opportunities based on how this is going. Like do you remember when that started happening? Yeah. Well, I mean, the very specific day-to-day for producing videos for my channel has hardly changed like i've got you know i'm not doing it from you know my bedroom now which is not you know still in my house but i'm not doing it from a bedroom anymore but you know the process of making videos like hasn't changed because there's nothing there's nothing you can really change because

because i don't want to bring help in for that because I want it to stay so true to me that hasn't changed it's just other opportunities around there has changed you know for things that I could do you know going forth like it's just opened a lot of doors for me and so so that's that's the the big thing that has changed but do you anticipate you know because I mean at some point, you're going to be like, well, I want to start a family or I want to try this or I've got this project that if I want to do this thing, I'm going to have to let some of that go. Is there this, is it a,

well, I just hope I'll find somebody I trust because I totally get it that you're saying I enjoy that. Like, I don't want to let go of that I don't want it to become just this enterprise or this business that I'm just managing because the heart of it of you developing and executing your creativity is something you want to maintain but if you decide you want to you know like one like your new project wonder quest things like that if they start pulling away at that is it just a matter of finding somebody you trust to do it for you or is it pulling back i think is it would have to be pulling back like the the planning of the lovely world episodes and the the commentary are the the two things i could

never give away there's probably a few you know like literally you know if i was going to do a video now of flying to the moon you know there's probably someone i could get to to build the moon for me or you know to build that map but the the commentary and then the the preparation for the actual video the coming up with ideas that i'm going to always retain as me so it would have to be a case of you know you know three or four maybe minecraft videos a week rather than rather than seven you know if that did happen you know as you said like i wouldn't have an option to start a family now like the you know my schedule wouldn't permit for that you know it'd be unfair to the the other people you know in in my life to you know it's you know it's it's 10 hours a day you know if if not more just uh you know and that's just getting just getting by and then there's everything other opportunities that go on top

of that you know which take up more time so you know yeah like how do you handle how do you handle a week in la like this um so i always just stockpile like i i do have opportunities to to record when i'm going away but i'm so i don't know i'm so particular about kind of where i record and like kind of my my setup like you know just the yeah so you just end up having a stockpile uh like if you if you're here for a week, the previous week you had to do double. Yeah, yeah. The previous two weeks. Yeah, and then when I get – I'm always quite far ahead in terms of recording. I always have safety room.

It's normally – depending on what series, it's normally at least a month safety room I have. So, you know, because if I'm sick, if I lose my voice, then, you know, I don't ever miss days. You know, like I've – Can't miss days. Yeah, I've never – you know, like kind of ever miss days. You know, like I've... Can't miss days. Yeah, I've never, you know, like, kind of out of just tradition, I'd hate just to miss one day.

You've never missed a day? Well, like, since doing, I don't know from when it started, but since I started doing daily Minecraft videos, I've not missed a day yet. So, it kind of just... Oh, wow.

It kind of just sucked just to miss one because I had a soft row and couldn't... I'd probably end up using, like, Siri to do a commentary or something. You know, know like to text a voice to do us like you know people might be disappointed but what about you gotta have time for romance man i mean and i'm not just talking like like some like let's just say there was a girl that you could play some Minecraft videos with and then that could also be popular and

like help meet your quota I'm actually talking about like in real life an actual girl yeah so what's the question do you have time for romance um yeah I mean like my schedule isn't to the point where I can't do it like i can go out i can do things i can meet people i mean like it's hard for me like a duck to it's it's hard for me to meet people outside of the the youtube space which is lucky for me that you know i i have met someone and it's just we've not kept a secret. I'm with Squashy, who's a duck in Minecraft, and we met through Minecraft, as I meet most people these days. And she may or may not be in the room right now.

She may or may not be to my left. Squirming in the corner. I was like, you can stay in here. We typically say, nobody can stay in here, but I just wanted to see her squirm in the corner when I kind of made you squirm. But I asked Lily, I was like, you think, does Stampy have a girlfriend? No, she was watching the video,

like Stampy and Squishy playing, and I was like, okay, I hear a girl's voice. That doesn't sound like Ballistic Squid, and unless he's changed a lot since the last time I listened over your shoulder. And she's like, no, that's Squishy. I was like, oh, is that Stampy's girlfriend? She was like, well, he doesn't say so,

but it's pretty obvious, right? Which is kind of what you're saying. I mean, in videos, I never talk about personal life. It's just like I never even, I'm not even talking about my life like i never referenced real life things like i'll never mention like you know as specifically i'll never mention what i had for breakfast it's always because you know like if i'm talking about eating something it's what i'm eating in minecraft

not real life so but you've got your but you've got your vlog channel too though that people can that you yeah yeah so there's another channel Animal Club, which is kind of there's a few of us. It's a bit of a joint channel. So whenever we do want to do something that is kind of outside of that, outside of the character, you know, that's kind of a place where we can put that. And the only reason we do that is because people like, you know, demand it. People are really interested. They've got to know. It's just like we had to know right here we had to talk about it so the answer is yes there is time for uh for a girlfriend yeah and

but then you guys have made a decision okay we're gonna do the vlog thing you're gonna see us at disneyland you can you know we're going to... What went into that decision? Like we, I mean, we always just, we never feel the need to like announce anything. Like with anything in our personal life, we never feel, you know, we're not vloggers. Like we've done a few vlogs, but they're always like, we're doing a big thing. Like you want to see this cool thing we're doing. Like I've never done a vlog from home just saying like, hey, you woke up this morning. You know, I've never done just a general, you know, vlog. You know, I think I'd be really boring at that. But, you know, if I'm doing a really cool thing and I think, you know, people would love to see us doing this,

this is cool. You know, that's when we vlog. And, you know, if I happen to be with Squashy or whoever, you know, they're going to be in the vlog. You know, we're going to do it, you know, together. But I never feel like, you know, I need to announce anything in my personal life. I kind of, you know, it's kind of nice to have that, you know, that boundary like you know i need to announce anything in in my personal life i kind of you know it's kind of nice to to have that you know that boundary like like you guys have you know a bit of that that separation right um one of the things we were talking about today i i was i was trying to picture like surely um you know the fact that you guys are making videos together is it makes it a little bit less of a loner thing.

I mean, like you could easily just sort of dive into this world and just be doing everything by yourself, which is kind of what you were doing at one point. So how has that, how has it been managing a relationship like that? And the logistical question, are you guys in the same room when you're talking to each other in the game?

We're in the same house but in a different room just for it's easier just for sound isolation yeah yeah yeah so that makes it easy like that and we were recording that's just how your relationship works like we're best in separate rooms there's a line down the middle of the house

this is my side this is your side that's what we do yes yes I mean we were recording before we met together. Like it was, you know, it was that way around. And, you know, I've done videos with other people before. Like you mentioned earlier, Ballistic Squid, you know, like who I met when I had a thousand subscribers when I met him. And we have been, you know, kind of unofficial partners for a while. You're not to the level that you two are in the fact that we we're never planning stuff together like he has series on his channel which i'm kind of a guest in and i'll jump

in and be comic relief and then vice versa i'll have a series which you know like i'm very controlling like i'll kind of plan you know i'll plan what the series is and i invite him in because he really makes me laugh and so he's great but you can't talk. No, no, no. He does talk. He does talk. Yeah, he does talk. Yeah, yeah. So it's really only been Ballistic Squid and now Squashy that I've done videos talking to people, which is always awkward for me because- Are you a control freak?

Like, if it's a point where- Squashy is nodding her head. Like, if I'm doing a video on my channel, you know, then like, I feel like I am in control and I want it the way I want it. But if I was a guest in, you know, squids or squashes videos, like I wouldn't try and take control. Like I let them take control and I'll, you know, let them, you know, I'll abide by their rules and go in the direction they want. So, but like in real life, like, okay, it's, we got to get from point A to point B and we're going to go my way. Um, I don't think so. can we have a nod or a shake

am i controlling we've got a sigh i don't like i don't i don't think so like for work stuff and video stuff like that that's my obsession and that's when i'm gonna really care you know if it's about like what we're gonna have for dinner like i generally i'm not interested i don't i don't care you know we can have what you want i'm not worried you know you're not like a personality type are you laid back or like more tightly wound you know is there is does it carry over from the meticulous planning that goes into your videos i think uh i mean there's things that like you know that would stress me out but i think i'm generally laid back about about most things. Has the, so did the relationship start before? Yeah.

How did that happen? So we, the way we met was she, Squashy sent me a map in Minecraft. And I will say, we don't have, Oh, that's the way to a Minecraft man's heart. Send him a map. We would just bring her over, but we don't have a fourth mic.

And it's just, it's also more entertaining for me personally to watch her just react to you speaking. so it's not like we're trying to keep the woman silent it's just sort of logistically working out that way right now well we met in a traditional way she sent me a minecraft map no she sent me out to her heart perhaps she said she sent me a video like because you know people send me maps all the time to you know hoping that i'm going to play through them and do a video of them so she sent me a stampy themed map that she made but she made a video of her playing through it and kind of talking about it and you know and i thought the the map the map was okay like the map was pretty cool but like i thought her commentary was really funny like i thought

she was really good and she had um i don't know how many subscribers she had at the time but i remember i was her 11th so she she'd only been doing youtube she'd been doing for a few months and so i went and watched some of her videos i was like she's really funny like this is someone who you know really child-friendly bright happy like this is someone who i'd like to do videos with and then you looked out your window and she was standing wearing a t-shirt with my face on yes right you've been there yeah so i i reached out to her and you know and you know i wanted to meet her for a bit and chat you know before saying about you know doing i'll never go let's do a video together so i talked about you know the possibility of doing a

series together and kind of worked out what that would be and then we started recording and so you know when you're recording with someone you're speaking to them a lot and so yeah we met we met through minecraft so she she was kind of an uh a collaborator first or yeah yeah definitely we we did videos to together before before you know before this before we met in person right and and then when you the first time you incorporated i know you'd incorporated ballistic squid already into videos but when you incorporated her into videos what was the fan reaction and how do your fans react to changes and stuff in it's generally there's a there's a lot of negativity like any change like any like i did a one-off series with um with uh martin nilwood

from the yorks cast and you know and i think it was a great series but like up until then all of that type of video had been with squid and And so people generally react negatively to change. And so I think when I started with Squishy, there was a bit of that. I mean, it's always the minority. It's always a very loud minority. But that was when we started. We've been doing videos for quite a while now, and people love her. And she's got a strong channel as well and you know her her own set of fans and you know bitch she's just kind of accepted as you know as part of the you know the the group

of of friends now did you start dating before you met in person uh no like we kind of you know we were kind of talking and getting along and then you know and then we we met we won't keep grilling you about that we should talk about uh the new stuff that you're working on because there's like huge stuff a wonder quest wonder quest wonder crazy yes so wonder quest is so this is off my channel this is a new channel uh called wonder quest which is uh it's a joint channel i'm doing with maker studios we're kind of going into this together and i had the idea from as soon as i realized kids were watching i knew that i wanted to do educational videos and so and this was you know

this is what that that is and so it's a new channel where it's it's a it's a brand new format to where unlike my videos which are completely unscripted these are completely scripted you know there we have producers of the show we you know it's shot like a show you know we have producers of the show. We, you know, it's shot like a show. You know, we have multiple cameras, you know, and we have overlays and music and sound effects. But it's set within a Minecraft universe. It's Minecraft. Yeah, it's all. Minecraft characters. Yeah, it's all.

Minecraft worlds. Yeah, there is also a side show called I wonder and that is an animated show right and so that that's shorter content each episode is about three or four minute uh four minutes and that goes even more uh in depth to the educational side whereas the main show i mean it's got to be entertainment first because otherwise no one's going to watch it you know but you know what's the story like in general so it's it's kind of kind of like a saturday morning cartoon there's a there's an evil villain uh villain called heinous who's played by sheik al and um you know and then he's got his his two henchmen and there's the wonder cube which has

been shattered and it's basically stopped everyone from wandering like no one's thinking like everyone's just kind of turned dumb and and so we're trying to piece it back together so each episode we're like we're following clues to try and find a piece of the wonderment and then there's certain obstacles we have to try and get past on our way to doing that. And we're inevitably having to learn something to get past those obstacles.

And what was the motivation for kind of branching out? I just knew it was something that I wanted to do. I just knew it was something that would work so well in Minecraft. minecraft has been used for education for a while now like it's used in schools quite a lot there's a an edu version of minecraft which is an educational version of minecraft which is you know officially released so it's not you know it's not

breaking like any doors down in in that way but that type of entertaining video content is something that you don't see see much of and it just seemed like such an obvious thing because it's not just a show that they can watch because we're also releasing the the world you know the sets or the games that we're playing in so with each episode we release a world so people can kind of do what we did and you know kind of carry on playing and learning, you know, beyond just watching the video. But how is it shot? It's shot like a show. It's not like a live action show, right? Because you've got a real world, a virtual world of Minecraft, but then you have to shoot, like, I'm talking camera angles and characters and blocking, no pun intended. It's not like an animation, which you just draw whatever you want. You have to a you have to build it

then you have to insert the characters and then see you have to Shoot it. Yeah, how does that work? How do you work camera angles in Minecraft? So yes, so the first thing building the sets is a big thing like when I get that there's Minecraft. Yeah Yeah, that's easy. But then even, I won't go into that stuff. So the filming, so we're in the game and then we have characters

that are invisible. So they're the cameras and there are settings you can do to have a smoother camera and make it so you don't see any of the menus.

You just see, you know, what you'll see in a show. So it's the first person perspective of invisible characters edited together to make. Yes, becomes a cameraman. Yeah, you know, what, you know, what you'll see. So it's the first person perspective of invisible characters edited together. Yes, becomes a cameraman. Yeah, but I think how, you know, the amazing, you know,

like if you have to do a crane shot in real life, you know, you've got to get a crane. You know, with us, you've got to press a button, you can fly. Fly the invisible cameraman. Yeah, so there's lots of opportunities to do cool things. Are people doing this or is this the first of its kind? There's been things that I've done on my channel or is this the first of its kind there there's been there's been things that i've done on my channel which are kind of that in in that style yeah yeah

you know and and people you know before me doing that kind of thing i mean this is i mean this is long form content though you know these are you know i mean it's all internet based so it's not strict but they're all about 20 minutes or so so this is long form content and the you know the you know the overlays or the music and then the simplest, say if I'm throwing an item on the ground, they don't just rely on the Minecraft sound, they're at a whoosh, whoosh.

But let me ask you this, when you're playing Stampy in this world, are you controlling the character and voicing it simultaneously? Yeah. So we're- And then you're doing, there's a director. Are you all in the same room?

Are you in London and Shay Carl's in like the middle of Idaho? So it's, there's a couple of us, there's myself and then Adam Clark, who plays Wizard Keen, who's kind of, he's kind of like my mentor. He's the kind of guy teaching me. I'm kind of the pupil. We're in the UK. And then there's the team at Maker and they're in LA. So I got a bad sleep pattern for recording late at night.

And so what essentially I'm doing is the commentary is still done live with the action. We don't just do a voiceover session like after we've shot it. So I'm basically nodding. I'm nodding the character's head up and down yeah and and speaking and there are some elements where you know there is a lot of improvising that that goes into it and there are some parts where it is more of a you know there's oh there's a horde of zombies coming we need to get them and so you're setting up the scene is there like a director who's like you're you're hearing and he's like on skype or something and you're saying okay guys uh action it's it's yeah is it is this amazing how similar to a normal shoot

a lot of like the logistics are you know we have to face a live action shoot it's just i mean i didn't think it's like doing a play more than it's like filming yeah you know what i mean no it's still scene based i assume yeah and then you stop down and it's like well. Yeah. You know what I mean? No, it's still scene-based, I assume. Yeah, it's- And then you stop down and it's like, well, let's get that again. I didn't like your performance. Let's- Right, but you, there's,

if you're building something or, you know, the same thing applies where you're, you have to redo it, right? Yeah, but like it, yeah. I mean, if we're building something, we have to redo it, but there's very little Minecraft-ing. Yeah, you're not building anything. I mean, if we're building something, we have to redo it. But there's very little Minecraft in Minecraft. Yeah, you're not building anything.

It's more of a story within. Yeah, yeah. It is, you know, puppets I think is quite a nice thing to use. You know, we're kind of playing through. There are some times we might need to play something. We never. How many cameramen are there? It's usually two, you know, but we redo the scene a few times, you know, or get specific things.

There's sometimes, you know, there's some. But we'll redo the scene a few times. I'll get specific things. So you have two cam ops who are invisible men, and then you'll redo the scene and give them different assignments. And there's a director who's deciding all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. And sometimes if it's a bigger scene, sometimes we'll have a scene where we need a crowd and we need a bigger scene and we'll have more people helping. Sometimes Squishy might hop on and be an extra character in the background

because it's needed and how long i mean what's how many episodes of how late how long so there's 12 episodes we're doing uh three seasons uh the first season uh is out now and there's a 12 episodes of that and they're all they're all about 20 minutes some go down to about 15 i think some went a little bit longer and how are you releasing that because i know that when we're recording this, you're about to launch. Yeah. And then once it's launched, you're releasing them all 12 episodes at once? No, we're going to be doing them weekly. So there's the I Wonder, which is the animated show,

and then one of the main show, Wonder Quest, is going to be released each week. And so they're going to be spaced out in that way. And how do you i mean i guess this applies to your videos too but for some reason it just seems like more of an issue when you're creating like an original programming when you you're basically creating a show that is intellectual property but you're using minecraft Are there any copyright considerations for that kind of thing? Yeah. I mean, basically, it means there's no opportunity to bring it to TV,

for example, is a big thing. I mean, Minecraft's great in terms of their terms of use, the fact that they spell out very clearly. It says in the terms of use, you may put this content on YouTube and monetize it and you know which is obviously and they don't take a cut no no but they you know they have the best free advertising in the world you know that's it's way better than than any trailer so it's kind of you know a mutual benefit situation right so you know and for things i say if we wanted to

bring out you know merchandise or something you know we you can't use any anything minecraft so it does kind of limit kind of the the potential of what these things can be but for this kind of show like its home is youtube like this is the place where you know children are going to want to watch this this program so what now i mean it sounds like wonder quest is um you know there's two more seasons that you're committed to uh are you happy with with it so far and what else are you setting your sights on yeah i mean i'm i'm super happy with how wonder quest is has like turned up and i'm you know as i said as as we're recording this it's not public yet so i'm anticipating the the reaction and you know this is something i've spent you know the last year on.

So just waiting to see what people think. So hopefully as the time as I can listen to this, I'm reading nice comments. And I mean, the next, I mean, the big thing for me is obviously being so tied directly to Minecraft. The worry is that, you know, once Minecraft's popularity starts to go down, as it inevitably will, is to try and make it so you know the stampy cat character can kind of live on in in some other form and there's you know that there's nothing at at the moment but you know i'm heavily thinking about you know other either other mediums or other ways that stampy cat can you know live as a character outside of minecraft so that's

the the next big project well uh you you know, we're in awe of everything that you're doing and we think it's awesome and obviously our kids do. Yes. Sign the table, man. that will be something our kids can keep coming back to and say, yeah, it really did happen. It did, yes. Thank you so much for having me on. Thanks, man.

And Beth, you should come over to the mic and say something. Come on. I'm not going to make you, but I just said you should. Okay. Put on the headphones and everything. Just full treatment. Just so they can know that you were actually here.

I was actually here. That's her. That's Squishy Quack. What's your assessment? I mean, is there something that you need to correct that he said? Not really. I mean, yes, he is quite controlling. Oh, there we go.

Okay. Yes. And what else? Don't hold back. I don't really have any more. That's all you need to say. That's all you need to say.'s all you need to say listen you know what you just earned uh your own signature on this table yes yes to find a spot thanks for coming in guys and there you have it our conversation with Stampy Cat and Squashy.

We got her on that mic there at the end, so that's got her perspective. I mean, she was here the whole time, which I think we explained, so it was only appropriate to bring her on and give her a microphone. Tweet at Joseph. His Twitter handle is Stampy Long Nose. Stampy Long Nose, not Stampy Cat. Hashtag Ear Biscuits, let him know what you thought of the conversation, also give us a review on iTunes,

we appreciate that. One of the cool things that happened is right after we finished recording this podcast, we took him out of the Ear Biscuit studio here and walked out into the main part of the studio and to record the Good Mythical Morning appearance that he made, which has been up for a while, the Minecraft game, which I won, by the way.

And I thought that you would win because you've been watching. You really should feel a little shame about that. But- Questions were hard for us. Our kids were here because, not just because we wanted to use them in the game, but because they really, really, really, really,

really wanted to meet Stampy. This is probably- Oh yeah, this is like cool dad points. Maybe the number one celebrity that they would wanna meet, period. Oh yeah. You know? And so, and of course, once some of their friends found out

that they were meeting Stampy, they had to be here too. So we had all of our kids once some of their friends found out that they were meeting Stampy, they had to be here too. So we had all of our kids and some of their friends here. Well, we knew they were here. We just, yeah, we didn't know where they were. We didn't know where they were. So as soon as we get out into this, sort of the main open area of the studio, they're all like standing there and they begin clapping.

Like for his entrance. For Stampy as he comes out. And it was just, it was an amazing moment. Of course, he's like the most gracious guy. You can tell, you can totally tell he's not one of these guys that is annoyed by the fact that he's popular with children. He immediately started talking to each one of them

and you know, Lily had made some stuff for him. And anyway, it was pretty awesome. But they definitely got more out of that moment than they've ever gotten out of anything that we've provided as an actual father. Hey, if that's what it takes to be a cool dad or a good dad or whatever, I don't know, it's like, I'll pull out that stop.

You'll pull out that stop. You know how they say, pull out all the stops? Yeah, you'll pull out that stop. That Joseph Garrett coming into your studio is one of the stops. Oh, but I think say pull out all the stops? Yeah, you'll pull out that stop. That Joseph Garrett coming into your studio is one of the stops. I think you pull out the stops to make things go faster, right? I have no clue what a stop is.

I think you play a card. You know what? You're playing the stampy card as a father to become a cool dad. The funny thing is when you talk about pulling out the stops, you know what I picture? And I have no clue why. Maybe you can explain this. An organ.

Are there stops in an organ? I think there are. That could very well be what it, I'm sure it has some sort of word phrase origin thing and it could be, I don't know. I mean, it's not pulling out a doorstop, right? Cause it's multiple stops and you pull them out and then something happens.

You gonna look it up right now just to find out? I mean the music playing, they know that this is over. They can stick around if they want to to learn something. Assuming you're going to be able to figure it out by looking on the internet, which is a questionable source often. Pulling out all the stops. Origin, that's what I would Google if I was Googling it.

Find anything? An allusion to organ stops. There you go. How did you even know that? I don't know. I don't know. An illusion to organ stops, which control the loudness and tones of a pipe organ.

When all are pulled out, the organ can play- It's super loud. Well, it can play all tones simultaneously. I'm pulling out all the stops. To reserve or hold back nothing. They pulled out all the stops. To reserve or hold back nothing. They pulled out all the stops for that gala wedding. That's the Wikipedia link. You had some mystical insights.

I had knowledge. Empty the tank, give ones all, go all out. Either you're clairvoyant or you've heard that before. What's your choice? Let's say that I've heard it before. I have got a lot of organist friends that you don't know about. Next week we'll be back with another interesting tidbit

about word origins. No, probably not. That's probably the only time that's ever gonna happen. But rest assured, we'll pull out all the stop for you. That's right. Stop? Yeah. Just one stop.