Nobody Panic - How to Host a Zoom Party

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

Want to party while stuck indoors? Stevie and Tessa discuss how best to throw a party over zoom, FaceTime, Whatsapp video call or any of those new communication softwares with which we’ve all become incredibly well acquainted. Also Tessa learns you can’t put cardboard in the oven and provides a truly genius zoom/FaceTime tip involving a post-it note. Recorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive Productions.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Follow Nobody Panic on Twitter @NobodyPanicPodSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Oh, and welcome to Nobody Pannock. Oh, yes.

Hooray, another quarantine edition coming to you from two separate bunkers and bringing you prime isolation content. Will we ever be in the same room again? Do you know. Stressful, isn't it, Stephen? It's not not stressful. Today we are filming this episode, and so I'm going to upload it to my Instagram at Stevie M

and you can listen to us and watch us. and you can see just how much effort we've put in. It's kicking off, essentially. But this episode we decided to, or no, we didn't decide to do. This episode I suggested, and it was another one where I go, oh, how about this? And I say it goes, no, because I hate it. And I'm like, well, there's tension, there's gold.

Sure. So we decided to do how to host a Zoom party because it feels like unless you, I mean, you can substitute the word Zoom for any of the other apps that are available, House Party. Others also available. People have got in touch asking about how we can socialise more when we can't see each other. And then a couple of people did ask about like, how do you do like a fun thing over Zoom, like a birthday party or something? So, and I think I've partaken in like two and fine.

Obviously would prefer to be in the room. Of course we would. But wouldn't we all prefer to be in the room all the time? All the time. I saw this great tweet the other day that was like, after this I'm never showing up late to a party ever again. The party starts at 10. I'll be there at 8.30 to help you set up.

And I was like, yes, I would be so the intense, like, Jane Austen feelings of just like walking from room to room, just desperate to go to a ball. And the idea that like one ball would be enough to sustain you for a year, like just the thought of there was going to be a ball and like some human contact and like, who will be there. And the fact that you could talk about that. I'm like, I get it. I absolutely. I get it.

100%. I think, yeah, we've all now become people that say, essentially, I'm going to now take a turn around the grounds. Yes. Our only joy every day is to take one turn around the far. That's it. And we hope there's like a letter or something's come. And then we sort of say anything to report today to each other.

Letters are quite, I think, taking a whole new meaning. I mean, I'm saying that having only sent one and I was like to my grandma, but I feel like I'm approaching the time when I'm going to start like sending letters to people because it's so much nicer than a more like, because I know like in normal life, WhatsApp and I don't know, you don't really ever FaceTime friends in normal life. Well, I don't know anyway. But what's up and stuff is sort of like a substitute. But then when you meet up with someone, it feels like a real like, yes, we are friends and I've put some effort in.

And like, so now that's not really an. equivalent really because FaceTime and Zoom doesn't really do that. But a letter feels like the equivalent of like, I've spent time, I care, I put my flag in the ground of this friendship. The only sadness, not sadness, but the difficulty I have with writing letters is that you have to like, what's up the person? Like, what's your address? It's quite.

Yeah. It's very stressful. I think a really great app would be any time that you see anyone's address, it just automatically saves it into your address book for you, because otherwise you're sort of scrolling back to a party from 2007 on Facebook and trying to see if they put up their address. And it ruins the magic. It really does.

And people may presume, because the only time anyone asks me, what's your address is when they're sending me a wedding invitation. Yes. I don't want that as my confusion in these difficult and unprecedented time. Oh, God, of course. I didn't even think that. Of course.

Everyone will be like, ah, Stevie. And you'll be like, it's a handwritten letter I've made with a quill. Don't assume I'm engaged. I mean, we couldn't be in more Jane Austen times if we tried. The letter arrived from Stevie and everyone thinks are finally an engagement. Before we get into Zooming, what's your most adult thing that you've done this week? Well, I've just moved rooms, but I was going to show you my house plant,

which I have been keeping alive now for six months. Oh, my God, you've kept that quiet. Thank you. I know. It's a succulent. The man in the shop was like, you're really, really struggled to kill this. And I was like, oh, a challenge accepted.

Yes, I will. But it turns out with a succulent, it's those ones that we talked about on our famous How to Keep Your Houseplants Alive episode, where you always think that you're like, oh, I'll give it a little bit of water. Oh, I'll give it a little water. It turns out it's drowning and it's like, please,

don't forgive me anymore. And so you, once every three weeks, You put him in the sink, you absolutely submerge him, and then you put him back on the thing, and you don't talk to him again for another three weeks. That's thrilling. And at the end of his three weeks, who starts to curl up a bit and look really not very well,

and you're like, oh, this is the end. Submerge. The following morning you wake up, he's just, he's bloomed. It's the greatest will of my heart. Oh, I'm so happy. Okay, I'm going to have to ask you, because I've got two succulents. So at another point, I'll just ask you about. Well, write to me and ask about it.

tell me about your plants can I can I add a polar opposite my adder the other double edge of my adult thing which is that I made a banana bread because I got so jealous of everybody on Instagram and Twitter making banana bread and I was like I want to make banana bread um so I made a banana bread turned out it didn't I didn't have a bread pan so I made one myself out of foil and cardboard and I was feeling so smart and I remember putting it in the thing and being like and there's a little of flour on my cheek and I was like and it goes like like so thrilled. And then about you minutes later, I was like, what the fuck is that smell?

And it had set on fire in the oven. I had to, I had to, like, launch it the whole thing, like out the window. Wait, so he just dive bomb to pass a by with all the fire room.

Yeah, well, luckily it goes onto a sort of little, like, ledge, so, like, it didn't hit anybody. And then I, when it stopped flaming, I got it back off

off the ledge again. Yeah. It sounds out. Carboard in an oven, you can't do that. My adult thing is I delivered some wine to myself. Oh yeah. Look, you've got your Shiraz, you've got your cab souvenir. I've learned from how to understand wine episodes, what wine I like. And I went for a Merlo, and they arrived, and there was like two options. And I should have known that they weren't going to be obviously excellent.

But like, there's two options. One was 20 pounds that was called like, had the country in it. And then one was just called Red. And I was like, well, that's £10 for just red. Okay, well, I'll just go for the red. And then I bought three bottles and it arrived. and it tasted like someone who diluted it with vinegar. I've never experienced...

Well, the bottle called red didn't taste nice. No, apparently not. So, and now I'm desperate to find somewhere that will deliver wine. There's like a place called Borough wines that keep sending me emails. And I went in, and it's like a case of six is like 75 pounds. I just want like, we're talking mid-range. Like I don't want high range. I just want some wine to put in my face every night, you know?

Oh, oh, I hear. you. I hear you. What is the, what app were you using just deliveroo? I've just been using deliveroo, yeah. And I think if you've got, it's like called village food and wines and I think it's somewhere near where I live and it just has so happens that they're on delivery. But I think quite a lot of like food and wine shops are now jumping on. A good thing you can do is if you know that you like the shop, call them, try and call them directly and see if you can like pay them directly over the phone just to get them more money. Oh yes. Someone said the other day about how bars and pubs and stuff have obviously a massive excess of stock but then when I was like how do I get it

they were like I don't know like go in and I don't know how to do that yeah but I think if you can try and call the pub or you know see if they've got a note on the door anything like that and see if you can ring up and be like hello I'll buy your industrial size gin off you if it's going I'll take the lot imagine having one of those taps in your house and you could like have wine in it and then you just got like a beer tap with wine I'd love that that feels very um richly rich, hey? It does. Great reference. Thank you. I think it was a very defining film for a lot of us to be like, that's what money is. Yes, this is the McCauley Culkin film from, let's say, the 90s. So let's get into Zoom, Zoom and FaceTime and having parties over those situations. You, why was, what do you hate about it,

Well, I'm not shitting on it because it's obviously all we've got and, you know, who am I to, you know, but I do find it as soon quite difficult. Firstly, I can't take my eyes off myself. Understood. Absolutely. Captivated by my own face. Just so I'd say, you know, the other day Tessa did a work call and messaged me because she had to turn her camera off because her side ponytail she'd done looked so good. That's true, yeah. And it did look good. I understand. I don't see it. But it was very funny.

I didn't have to be particularly vocal on this call. I was just listening in. There was many, many people on the call. And so I was sort of just not really paying attention. I happened to be in the most exquisite shaft of light. My hair, unbelievable. I hadn't basically got dressed for about five days. So in my mind, I was like, what, I look the best I'd ever look, you know?

I spent the entire call just looking at myself. Terrible. I did do a similar thing where I had to do like a self-tape, like an audition that you tape. basically and I had to put makeup on for the first time in three weeks and I was like I am absolutely beautiful honestly all I done was put on a bit of mascara and I was just walking around being like I'm radiant I'm absolutely radiant there's nothing for yourself esteem like looking like a thumb for three weeks with not a strap of makeup on and suddenly

being like oh my god it really opens up the eyes this mascara it is it's like this I'm doing makeup for the first time. It's really something. I really, if your self-esteem is low and it will be before, you look dog shit for saying this to everyone. You look terrible. I really cannot recommend really putting some time into your effort. Time into your effort, please.

Time into your outfit and brushing your hair for the first time and putting makeup on it, suddenly being like, oh my God. I'm amazing. And then remembering that feeling and being like, that's how I used to look most days, you know? Yeah. And you're like, see, you're so lovely. You've been giving this gift of being.

being like, oh, I am nice. The message here is a problematic one, which is that without makeup on, no, with makeup on, yeah. It is problematic, but I mean, look, take what you can get at this point. A hundred percent, yes, yes, yes. Don't you always just think, like, how did anyone have sex in, like, the medieval times?

Because everyone wants to smell disgusting, and there was no makeup of something lead. You just put a bit of lead on. That's, yes, and that's why I don't understand when people would watch, like, of Thrones to be like, oh, so and so it's really hot and like the sex scene's really hot. I mean, no, I actually said those words, but that is like the vibe. I found it like actually disgusting because it's just like they're all sweaty and they haven't

had a bath all year. And imagine how bad like a warrior would smell. Right? Something to discuss another time. That's tip number one of how to host a Zoom party in their double time. Yeah, open with your best, best anecdotes. Yes. But I read some things about, um,

the different apps because I remember like there was recently a big thing about how people were hacking as a hack scare on house party which is an app that a lot of people use and also there's lots of talk about how invasive zoom is and so I read like so many articles and there's not I couldn't get a clear picture but from what I could gather the hack was a scam was a scam know what like a house party is fairly safe for a video app. And Zoom is a little bit more problematic in terms of its privacy things. But Zoom is like, annoyingly one of the most efficient ways to have a house party. So you just got to be like, it's one of those things that we were talking about the other

week. Like, do you want to have a party? Give them your data. Yeah. Yeah. And ultimately I'd be like, yes, all right, I'll trade you this free. And to an extent, even though I'm shooting on it, like, the technology is mind-blowing, like, that what we're able to do here, you know, like, knowing you watch James Bond movies from like 10 years

ago and the stuff that was like the fictional, you know, cool stuff that James Bond could do, you're like, well, that's WhatsApp. Like, that's just a tracking thing. Like, that's fine my friends. That's, you know, talking on a computer screen to another human being is the stuff that look completely fictional in the movies in our lifetimes. And now here we are talking it totally franted and being like, oh, another business. you know yeah it is yeah it's absolutely mad but we were talking earlier about how and someone sent me a link

about how after a zoom or a face time um interaction like a chat a work thing I think is different because you are just like going to be annoyed and exhausted after a work call on him because work zooms are the worst but when you're trying to like have a face wine should I say as in face time with wine um after like an hour very good stuff thank you I really wanted to show on that in um you start to get your brain, it's called like cognitive dissonance, where your brain gets really confused and is consistently all the time a bit confused because you seem to be with people, but you are alone. And so constantly your brain is kind of in this flux, which means that when you get off the call, you may feel a lot more exhausted than if you just like nipped around the

corner to the pub, all gone further afield to a pub, because then at least your brain knows exactly what it's doing and what's going on. And it isn't constantly going, But hangar. Yeah, it's constantly having to think, like, are they real? It seems like they are, but not. Like, it's, it's when we get travel sick in the back of the car. It's because your body is sending all the signals to your brain that's like, we can confirm that we are definitely sat down.

We are not moving. And then the eyes are like, seems like we're moving. It seems like we're moving. Because your eyes are watching out of the car. We're 100% moving and we're moving quite fast. And then the body's like, no, not moving. And then your brain is like, okay. okay, here's two polar opposite opinions.

The only conclusion I can come to is that we've been poisoned, let's make myself sick. And that's why you get sick. So people who are travel sick are like, because it's often a thing like, oh, God, I'm travel sick. You know, I'm at fault here. They're the clever ones. Yeah, you're doing it best.

You're not faulty. Your brain is responding to exactly what it's being told. And it's like, oh, there's something gone wrong here. There's a glitch in the matrix. Let's be sick because we must have been poisoned. That's crazy, hey? That's blown my mind. very quickly, the maximum number for each, if you're trying to host a party, the maximum number for each, obviously Zoom is like a thousand, but you have to be on Zoom Pro to be able to do over four without it stopping every 40 minutes, which is incredibly annoying. But so if you want to host a party and you want to do it over Zoom because you want to have like loads and loads people, see if someone that you're friends with has a Zoom pro account because quite a lot of people have it for work. And then you can use theirs, but you can still be the host. You know,

You can still that they're the host, but you're like the one true host. There's something very nice, especially for a work one. And also, say, for social to be like, there's only 40 minutes here, so let's back on. I've got a friend who's consistently, just constantly doing quizzes and FaceTimes and things. And she's saying, an hour, an hour, that is your cap. And so if it goes over, like, I had to wine with two friends last night, and it was really lovely. And we did maybe like two hours. But that's like a little bonus, because in my head, it's an hour.

And then you start being like, oh, right. Well, I've got to go and put the old mac and cheese in the, well, it's old, so probably the bin. But I, that's the thing. There's literally, there's nowhere to go. So you can't end these calls because you can't be like, oh, going underground, which is what you might say when you're walking along. Even if you're not, you know, actually going underground or, oh, got to get back into work. You've got nowhere to be. Tessa, you just do as I'm going to do now.

just freeze you just freeze and then you hang up and then you just leave the meeting well it's probably converse to start with how you end but I think the best way to do it is to literally just be like

to comment on that be like well I suppose you know there's no way of ending this but like I've got to go and put some dinner on do you know what I think as we discussed in one of our dating episodes we talked about like go on the date with the instruction that like oh yeah let's meet for a drink I've got to go to a party at nine and then if it turns up to a great date you can be like fuck it let's not go the party was fictional by the way

but if it is it's like oh well this was fun but I've got to go and then you don't have that panic feeling of being like will there's only end if one of us dies like how will I get out of this date and so being like this is great I've got another zoom call at nine or whatever and that zoom pool can be fictional just beginning the thing by being like oh I've got to go to that thing I said I was going to go to you know give yourself a nice out. Let's meet your top tips for how I can make this party better. Okay, so you can make the party better. So I've spoken to my friend E.J., hello EJ, who is so good at, well, I mean, I presume

she's good at these Zoom parties because she's consistently having them. And I'll go through her tips and then we've got some good tweet tips. And I just got some like little practical tips from little old me. Okay, so the key EJ says is to have a common goal. Then this is not for everything. It's not just for having a wine with your friends. We're talking party. So this is where, because it can get very rowdy and tricky

if there's lots and lots of people. And then you have to become a psychic because as me and Tessa are discovering, even with the podcast, if you interrupt each other, which, I mean, when we started doing this, I interrupt you all the time. It's something that I've been like, oh, okay,

and it's really helped me. So thank you Zoom. But when you interrupt somebody or speak over them or do like what I do, which is not interrupting, sorry. It's like constantly going, yeah okay cool like it takes the audio from the other person so then they can't like continue their story because you've gone ha ha that's good like so unhelpful so it's really really annoying and i've really

tried to stop and but um it can obviously with two people that if that's tricky with like 30 people or even 10 people or look nay five it's hard so um and also if everybody's everybody's in like different situations. Some people are quite drunk. Some people aren't like, you know, you've got to basically have a sort of thing that you're doing. So that's why like a quiz or a murder mystery party, which we did the other day,

which was to be honest, like absolute carnage, but it was really, really fun because we all had a thing to do. And then we could have wine breaks and chat in between and stuff. But it was good to kind of, it feels like with that many people, you do have to all be feeling like you're doing something

rather than just all just sat there like, oh no, you talk. Oh, hi, like, terrible. So she's suggested, like, if you've never hosted a Zoom or a FaceTime party before, or even, like, you've never been on it. Don't start by doing, like, a 30-strong birthday party. Go baby steps. It's like a quiz, like a pub quiz thing, a murder mystery, or like a low-pressure thing, like start off doing maybe like a joint online class together. Or you can, like, have dinner together, just, like, cook something nice.

Because what I've found is quite nice is when you are, if you start, you start, you. you get used to speaking to like one person on those and then it's three people and then four people and then you're like fuck it let's have a have a party and then also she said as if you're quite socially anxious and you feel like you need to fill gaps which is me it's important to remember you don't have to be super vocal because people on these calls and in these parties zoom parties feel like a real pressure to be like incredibly entertaining and like you know you're bringing in all sort of items from your house and like doing things with the camera and like it's like oh just you can you don't you don't you don't there's no pressure on you you're putting that pressure on yourself so you can just act

exactly like you would if you were talking to the person. You wouldn't be running around the pub, like showing them things in the pub, would you? So you don't have to do it here. This is a good practical tip. If you're quizzing or doing a game, ensure that everyone mutes their microphones during the rounds. Otherwise, there'll just be feedback and then people will still your answers and also you won't be able to focus. So those are the tips from her. We're very, very good. Now, some of the tips that people have written in with some of them were so bizarre. Mel Mackey, tweeted just saying, have everyone make a homemade hat

using stuff around the house? As a little like gimmick and fun thing, like we're saying, to have just like something that is you're doing. If you're having a birthday party, why not be like, okay, the theme is that everyone just makes a hat from around the house. That's really fun.

Lovely theme. Thank you, Mel. Yeah, and also like dressing up is like a fun, another way to kind of like boost it a little bit. I've seen lots of people doing like black tie, Zoom, FaceTimes. And initially, as with most things, because I'm lazy, my thought is like, ugh, can't bother it. Like, nah. But actually, it is, like, what else do we have to do in terms of socialise?

You know, like, obviously, some of us have got a lot on in this quarantine period. But I mean, in terms of, like, socialising. Like, you've not worn anything for so long. You haven't got any pants on, mate, for God's sake, like, you know, put some effort in. If it's a special occasion or I think what's happening quite a lot now, is somebody, for example, like, are we supposed to have an engagement party and isn't, or a baby shower and isn't single and looking Miami?

Tregia does. So, firstly, sure. Secondly, there's it to share a whiteboard and then you ask everyone who attends to sign the virtual card and you save it as a memory. And then you can share with everyone after. That is lovely. Isn't that nice?

If you're in position, when you know some of these big fingers coming up, maybe take the reins to be like, okay, I'm going to organize this for you. And you can sort of throw yourself into socially organizing someone's, the baby shower, the head, do the wedding, the birthday, the thing that didn't get to happen and just do a sort of a side step into a technological version of it. I know Easter's coming up for a lot of people. It will happen for everyone.

For Jesus. It will happen for Jesus. A lot of people are not going to be with all the people they would normally spend Easter with. My grandma takes Easter extremely seriously. There are three separate treasure hunts that take place in the garden. Nobody enjoys them anymore. Everybody is very aggressive and takes place in it. In the past, I have done this, a very elaborate,

a sort of escape-the-room game called Who Murdered the Bunny? And the bunny was, like, dead, and there was, like, bits of gold foil, like, leading up, and he'd be stabbed in the night. It's quite intense. That's great. Yeah. Anyway, I've been planning how to get my 90-year-old grandparents onto the Zoom call, plus all my cousins, and try and get everybody together.

And so I think it's, you know, and why, I mean, you know, I think it's something that's going to be very challenging. Yeah. But I'm going to give it a bloody go, because my instinct is to be like, oh, forget it, let's just not. But I'm like, nope, come on, here we go. Let's all try and be together. and, you know, they see each other.

Yeah, and I think part of the throwing a Zoom called party is to be like realizing that everyone is aware that this isn't the ideal situation. Yeah. Expecting it to be just as good as if you'd all gone to a really cool bar or a really cool restaurant or around to which other's houses to do, grandma's quite challenging treasure hunts. Makes no sense.

The other things very quickly I was going to say about the party things is that doing a small party on-house party is good because if you get bored they've got the games so you can play like quick draw so you can just like this little thing of dice in the corner and then so if if you feel that if you uh if you're like sweating a lot because of anxiety you can be like let's all play a game and then there's like quizzes and like things that you can like sort of do for a bit and then be like okay now now now we can all chat again you know yeah you can draw on the screen so you can do a pictureary thing. That's really good. I haven't done the draw one yet, but I think that'll be my next

one. I'm very excited about that. Also, really simple things I've discovered. One party that I've been to on like, I was sat on the floor and by like, I couldn't feel my entire lower body by the end of it. So like you have to put some thought before five minutes before where you're going to sit and how are you going to, because I just don't think about it until it's happening. And I'm like, oh, no, if you're going to be, if you're hosting a party, you're in it for the long call, even though technically you hope it will be like one to two hours. But if it's not, you can't become paralyzed halfway through. No, that's very profound. I think, may I return to my thing about not being able to stop looking at yourself? Yes, please. That's a massive thing.

I think, I've just been dwelling on it. And I think, you know, know, if you went to a bar where you would directly opposite a mirror, it was like your friend and then a mirror, you'd be like, can we, can we edge slightly around? Because that's so distracting having this mirror right there. And I think we, we, in normal life, we go through so much of the day without really having to look at ourselves, also especially to look at ourselves interacting and how we're talking and how we, you know, you don't, not how you, so I think if you can cover yourself up either, I don't think it has the option to do that on Zoom to like, so you can't see your own screen. So I think, I suspect that a post-it note might be the future.

No, that's a great idea. Just cover yourself up on the screen. And then you think, it might be the future. Yeah. And it's not a vanity thing. It's, it's just that you, that's not something you have to deal with in your day-to-day life as trying to interact with another person while also being a, it makes you so self-aware and you're, you're not like really in the conversation because you're just constantly like, ah, how does my house, how does my plants, how does my, like, you're saying, you know, you're so, you, you so want to do a funny thing or, like, show people things in your home. It's because we're suddenly being forced to literally see yourself through somebody else's eyes. And it's a really

discomforting, um, weird new sensation. So if you, you know, you know, check it, you look nice and and then cover yourself up so that you can, um, fully feel in it yourself rather than this weird, uh, cinematic thing of looking at yourself. I think it's very, not, uh, natural. and it'll do us no service, I think. And I think that adds to the cognitive dissonance thing. Your brain is now not only just focusing on what I'm not focusing on what Tess is saying. I'm like, focusing on what Tess is like, but I can see my hand doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's you. That's you again. That's you.

Exhausting. Yeah, completely exhausting. Completely exhausting. I remember doing once this thing at the Science Museum on a school trip where you, it was to help you be an astronaut. it was too. I'm sure you saw it like that. I was like understood.

My training begins. You had these big, big gloves on that were in a box. So you couldn't actually pick up the thing. You had to like put a cube into another cube or whatever, something simple. But you were watching it on a delayed screen that was like only one or two seconds behind. And that's what it's like the astronauts trying to like do something on a live feed when we can't actually physically be there. and it was the most, I wasn't very old, and I remember it so visibly,

it felt so physically sick-making to be moving your hand and know that was your hand, but it wasn't doing the thing it was supposed to be doing at the right time. So I think for all the amazing technology does, we shouldn't, we shouldn't not be aware of the effect

that it's having on us and how it makes us be like, oh, this does feel weird. And so, you know, to give yourself, you know, to give yourself some slap on that. Yeah, I think it's what you need to balance out. if you do like host a massive Zoom party and you look and you're like oh and also the next day

I'm supposed to be zooming my friend and the next time you might have to give yourself a bit of a break after you've done something because it's like you have to treat it like it's an actual you have just hosted an actual party and on top of that you've hosted a party that your brain doesn't quite understand so you might be quite like sort of zoomed out

like that is a thing yeah and of course the main thing which Natalie Keeler thank you very much for tweeting us said, she said, have some fun with the background filters, like myself and my friends. In the moment, they are the funniest thing on the fucking planet. And they are.

Our friend hosted a murder mystery party. And it was, he did an incredible job. And when people were revealing themselves, they had like the background of like France behind them because it was set in France. And it was so excellent. But then throughout the night, people started changing their background to be funny things that had happened within the party. So it became like great in-joke meme business. Like it is really, it will get. old, probably by the time this podcast episode has.

Yeah. At the time of recording, backgrounds are still really fun. Very, very quickly. My last thing was just that I think it's very easy when whoever you happen to be stuck with or if you're, this doesn't count if you're on your own, so sorry for this one, but whoever you're stuck with family, housemates, friends, partner, whoever, it's very easy to be like, oh, well, I'm with them all the time. So I don't need to really, it feels like I'm giving you plenty of attention, you know,

Whereas really you're just sort of going about your day in parallel or whatever rather than actually. And I only say this because our lovely producer Ben sent me this fantastic blue Yeti microphone, which makes me feel a million dollars. And when it arrived, I interviewed my housemate like we were on a podcast. And it was so nice to sit and like have a conversation and to feel like really connected with somebody. because I think we're in all of this like try to hold on to that as much as you possibly can yeah the first week I was like every night I facetamed another friend

and then suddenly I was like I've not spent any time with my boyfriend yeah it's really it's really easy to do because you're like well I'm spending time with you I'm with you 24-7 but like you're not actually really sitting and being with them to bounce out this dissonance thing that we're talking about about the technology that you never be not really there i can't wait to try myself a zoom party and i'm sorry for initially being reticent about them they're all we got and i'm gonna get jump in wholehearted thing yeah i mean by all means you don't have to host one but it's hopefully it might

make you feel a little bit less like oh god although all i can think about is it makes you travel sick so sorry if we've put you off zoom parties but they are what i've found as well is it's very very easy to isolate yourself. I don't know, like, it's very easy to not speak to friends at this period of time, because you sort of have, I don't know, like, you speak on FaceTime, you're like, ha ha, how's it going, how's it going? And then you leave. Like, it's actually quite hard to really, like, open your heart up sometimes on a video. A hundred percent, because you're not with them physically. It's really hard. So make sure that you are doing that and you are like pushing yourself to not isolate yourself mentally, even though you isolate yourself.

Yeah. I've got one tiny final thing. It was that I'm doing a film club with some people who used to do it. We used to do a physical film where you'd go around to someone's house and there would be a quiz in which you had to guess what the film was and then they showed the film. And then they are keeping that up over Zoom. So there is a reveal over Zoom. Then it has been something that's on Netflix. And everyone presses play at the exact same time. And then people come back to the Zoom after the film and discuss it. And initially I was like, that sounds rubbish. As we're just like, established a great Zoom cynic but actually it's been a real joy and a lovely thing to do every week and you know you can it's just watching the film together separately it feels very disconcobulating but actually going to talk about it afterwards that's the really lovely bit well done well done guys getting in on in on that if you are if you are listening and you like this please do share it about we're desperate for those little hits of dopamine so you know message tweet do it get in touch we'll take anything at this point please and if you have an episode that you'd like us to tackle

tweet us at nobody panic pod we are doing we've done all of our episodes have been suggestions so far we would love some more suggestions and thank you so much for listening so far yeah I'm so glad that we get to do this still it's a very much very much I don't know if you can tell by the sort of tightness in my throat but very much a lifeline truly truly it's a yeah it's all it's the only people we talk to stay with us we've got mad have a happy Zoom If you've got Zoom parties coming up, I hope it goes great. Cover yourself up with a book or a post-it note.

The Post-it note, I think, is the only solid tip that's come out of this. I'm so into that. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next week for another episode of Nobody Panic. I've never ended it like that before. Where will it stop? At the Nobody Panic quarantine stop. Okay, see you next week. Bye-bye.