Somewhere in the Skies - Rhys Darby: Aliens Like Us

Episode Date: September 13, 2020

On episode 178 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan sits down with one of his personal heroes, Rhys Darby! Many probably know him from his roles in film and television, such as Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows, the Jumanji reboots, and of course... The X-Files! But what some may not know is that Darby is also a huge UFO enthusiast, even hosting a podcast all about UFOs and aliens! On the heels of exciting news about the potential for microbial life on Venus, Ryan and Rhys discuss all-things UFOs, some of the amazing guests he's had on the Aliens Like Us podcast, his time in the New Zealand Army, and then he answers your listener questions. And of course we talk all about his guest-starring role on the X-Files. This and so much more in a jam-packed episode of cosmic proportions! Full video interview available by CLICKING HERE Follow Rhys Darby on Twitter: @RhysieDarby Subscribe to Aliens Like Us on Spotify by CLICKING HERE Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Episode edited by Jane Palomera Moore Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Book direct at Choiceotails.com. See you on the roof. This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan's Bread. What's up, Sasserheads? Ryan dropping in with a little prologue to this week's epic conversation with Reese Starby. First off, this was a total fanboy interview with one of my all-time favorite actors, so just preparing you for that. Otherwise, it was just an awesome conversation that I know you're going to enjoy.

But first, I have a whole new batch of Patreon subscribers that I'd like to thank. So here it goes. Emery J. Deb FM. Wendy T. Charlie M., William R., Peter D. David B. Terence A. M. Osley, David P., Andy M., Jim F, Cheryl O., Azad H., Mason, M.C., Lauren C., Jake H., Paul Jay, and Jason J. Thank you to each and every one of you. I hope you enjoy the early edition of the main shows, the bonus episodes, and all the other rewards over on Patreon. If you'd like to help support the show and to learn more, please visit Patreon. dot com slash somewhere skies.

Now back to today's guest, many of you know him from his television appearances and movies, such as Flight of the Concordes, what we do in the shadows, the new Jumanji movies, and of course, the X-Files. We go deep into his X-Files episode, his thoughts and theories on UFOs, his awesome UFO-related podcast, aliens like us, and so, so much more. Also, he served in the New Zealand Army, so we obviously had to talk about that, too. What I thought would be maybe 30 minutes or so turned into almost two hours of one of the funnest interviews I've ever conducted, but we get pretty serious as well, as the UFO topic

rightfully deserves. Speaking to which, this entire interview is also available in video format over on the Rhynspread YouTube channel. So be sure to head on over there, subscribe, and turn on notifications. for more video interviews and content. Lastly, speaking of content, if you're a $5 and above patron, there is a special bonus mini episode right now

where Reese recalls a paranormal experience he had during a live one-man show that stopped him in his tracks and caused him to cancel the show that night. It's a crazy story, and it's waiting for you right now. Patreon.com slash some more skies. Okay, that's enough shameless promotion.

enjoy our cosmic conversation with Reese Darby. Reese, thank you so much for joining me today for the very first time on Summer in the Skies. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan, for having me. I'm a big fan of your show, avid listener. So, yeah, very pleased to be here. Thanks, man. Well, I really appreciate that. I mean, hey, we were supposed to meet up at contact in the desert, which was supposed to be this summer. But such as life, the world has kind of fallen apart. But hey, man, hopefully next year we'll be able to chat in the desert. Yeah, that would be great.

Here's hoping. Yeah, here's hoping. I know. I know. It's almost over. I hope. I hope. But, hey, we're here to talk UFOs.

And before we even get to that, you know, I want to talk about the podcast, everything you've done for, for uphology and the paranormal. But I have to ask you, I just learned this recently. I did not know this. about you, you served in the New Zealand Army. Is this something you're willing to talk to us about? What got you into that? And how did he transition from that to acting? Yeah, sure.

It's an interesting one. See, I was very dedicated, and still are to a certain degree, but certainly in my youth, to the ways of the military. Now, I was a air training corps cadet. Now, the Air Training Corps, or ATC, as we call it, in New Zealand and I believe it's a Commonwealth thing is basically a unit for kids from the age of about 10 through to 15, 16, that has an emphasis on the Air Force and the ways of the, of flight, but also basically takes kids who want to do something like scouts, but it isn't scouts.

And when I discovered that, I signed up immediately because as a kid, I used to watch a lot of war films. And I was just into that kind of stuff, the sense of order. By the way, I answer questions usually sort of like it takes me 20 minutes. And then I'll spin off into some tangent. Just to give you a warning, you know, this is my improv styles. And about 15 minutes in, we'll be talking about something really weird. And we'll go, what was that question again? Why are we here?

We're already there. We're already there. But just long story short, then I joined the Army cadets and I, it was a once a week thing that my mum would take me to after school. And you had a sense of order. You would iron your uniform and you learnt discipline. You would march. And sometimes you'd gone these camps and do some really good military training with the actual army. You'd do some weapons training.

you'd get some adventure. It was a lot of fun. And then I joined the regular force. I went to the regular force cadet school. The last year, it was in existence in New Zealand. It then closed down, not due to lack of interest, but I think it was a cost issue. It was a million New Zealand dollars to train each soldier. Yeah, so that was me.

I was fully trained. I was like one of the elite, went into the actual army, from that point. And it was a signaler for four years in the Royal New Zealand Signals course. So as a communications electronics operator, I was also one of the last of the Morse coders. So I learned Morse code and I used to be able to do it at 40 words per minute, which is essentially that kind of speed. And I would be writing down in my tent, you know, what these codes were that were coming through

and then giving the results to the officer that was waiting. I used to drive Landrovers, put up massive antennas, loved it. But then in that same time, also then started getting interested in girls. I was a late bloomer, if you will, which is a great thing to have, I think, for a boy. But then I started going, oh, gosh, I'd like to have a girlfriend. And then I started going, oh, am I going to be a soldier for the rest of my life? And then I got into trouble a lot because I've got a wicked sense of humor, as you know. and it's not ideal for the military.

So they said to me, my commanding officer said, you know, you should, you should try something else, maybe go to university. And I always thought, yeah, I always wanted to be a journalist. I always wanted to, one of my, one of the few skills I have was writing and creative writing. And you know all about that. And so I thought, I'd give that a bash. So I left at that point. but I've never left the love of what it did for me, self-discipline-wise.

I still have friends that were in the army with me during those times. And yeah, it's something that will always stick with me for the rest of my days. Wow. See, it's amazing the different lives we can lead in one lifetime, Reese. I mean, we've all been there. I was an athlete growing up. I thought I was going to be a pro baseball player. And then UFOs and the theater world took over, man.

and the rest. I don't know if my dad is proud of, you know, the transitions I've made or not. That's yet to be seen. But, hey, man, I can chat with him over a beer about UFOs for hours. So I think I've done my job. Yeah. But, okay, so that's amazing. And now it's kind of come full circle.

So now you're, like, interviewing former Navy pilots and stuff like that. So, again, it's all connected somehow. But let's talk about the origins. story, you know, the Peter Parker getting bit by the spider. How did you, how'd you get interested in the UFO topic? And I'm sure you've answered this a million times. But for our listeners who might not know, yeah, how'd you get interested in all this stuff that you ever had an experience? Yeah, give it to us. Okay. So for me, those people that know me know that I'm definitely a hundred percent creative. And with creatives, we have an imagination. We like to think outside the box.

We don't run by the mill nine to five mindset. We wake up in the middle of night and have ideas and write them down. Still do, always will, whether they are alien downloads or not. I'm not sure. But as a kid, I, and if you really want to go to the roots of it all, and some people might like this, because they might feel they're the same way, I was a mistake. So my family, there was four kids, and then nine years later, I arrived at the wrong end. My parents split up. I really wasn't supposed to exist. And I've always felt that kind of love of the other and the unknown.

And why are we here? Why am I here? And what else is here? What do we not know? and I kind of searched for anything that wasn't supposed to be here as well. And that's where cryptids came in and that's where UFOs and aliens came in. So for me, they kind of made sense to me because I felt like that. I've always felt like that.

And so as a kid, I would look through these books on monsters and things, the unknown, and I would get excited about it. And for me, it offered an excuse for me being here. It seems weird, but I think some people may be able to relate to that. And I've always had that in my heart going through life. And I've always had an interest in what else is out there that isn't run of the mill. And will we ever solve it? I'll solve why I'm here because it was obviously a night of passion at some point where, you know.

But still, I kind of, I love that. the fact that I'm a mistake because I'm always searching for something bigger. And that's led in a lot of ways to my success because I'm not going to take anything for granted and sit back and relax. I'm always on the adventure. So yeah, in terms of my own personal experiences, I would love to say, I have seen cryptids, but I haven't, but I have had a feeling of them. Ghosts, unfortunately, which are my least favorite of the paranormal things.

I have had kind of experiences with, and I can go into that a bit later. Uphology, I've seen UFOs twice, possibly three times, but unfortunately only, as I call them, astronomical ones, which are up in space. And that's through looking through night vision goggles and seeing anomalies, that are moving in a really weird direction at contact in the desert and prior to that I've also seen them at Loch Ness which was a cool place to see them

I've been there three times looking for Nessie and once I was with my wife and I and my kids were staying with some hippies next to the lock and they invited us out to the backyard after this very raw what was that raw not raw meat raw food diet dinner.

Yeah, something like it was all put through a blender and we had to eat it. Anyway. And then, but it was obviously very good for you. And then sort of way after that, they talked about, oh yeah, because I was obviously asking about Nessie. And this couple said, by the way, the wife, I could do a bit more research on it right now, but we haven't got time. But I remember using my memory abilities.

that she was an ex-supermodel or something like that, or she was an ex-Miss universe-type lady, a quite interesting past. The guy, I'm not, can't remember what his deal was, but then, you know, you can figure me there. If she was an ex-Miss universe, you know, I probably had my mind more on what she was talking about. But the next thing I know, we're in the backyard,

and we're looking up at the stars. You said, like, the cushions were already there. This is something we do all the time. she said. And we're looking up with the binoculars. My son was there too, my, my eldest, and he would have been, gosh, he must have been about six or six or seven then. The little one, I don't think was, I think he would have been cuddled up with mum somewhere inside. But we looked up and with the binoculars and we're just looking at the stars. And then she said, just keep an eye, just keep looking. And you'll see some lights that move

in a weird pattern. And I'm thinking, oh, this could be satellites or anything like that. just kept looking, we kept looking, and then all of a sudden into the binoculars came a light that moved in a squiggly fashion and then shot off in a weird direction. And there was no other excuse for that other than I said to her, oh, I think I've seen one. And she said, did it move like this? And I said, yes. And she's, yep, that's them. We see them all the time. And then when I saw them again at that same fashion in contact in the desert last year and the year before, because I've been twice now, you know, it made sense to me. And the most exciting one was last year when I put the night vision goggles up. If you ever get to go to contact in the desert listeners, there's usually some

dudes hanging around, either selling or at least just giving people a go with these amazing, very expensive tech, night vision binocular systems that are really an absolute must if you want to be a UFO spotter because these things are fantastic. And as soon as I put them up, almost like I willed it to happen, this thing just came straight into my field of view, did it like, almost like if it was a hot rod, a donut. It was like, did a little circle and then did a squiggle and then darted out. and I was like, okay, so that that was not a satellite. That was, and it happened immediately.

And that kind of spooked me out a little bit. But unfortunately, that has been my only, I haven't seen anything close. I haven't seen, you know, and I'm very envious of that driving along and the power of your car running out and all of a sudden there's a light. So, but yeah,

a believer, of course. You're great of protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft. I thought it was safe. If that happens, LifeLock gives you a U.S.-based restoration agent who will stick by your side from start to finish. Phone calls, filing documentation, preparing insurance claims, your agent handles it all.

In fact, we're so confident restoration is guaranteed, pour your money back. Isn't it nice to have someone like that on your side? Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash Spotify. Terms apply. Well, hey, I mean, look, for every close encounter, there's incredible things going on just beyond our atmosphere that we just can't explain it. Sometimes for me, that's just as exciting as if it were alien or something like that. You know, it's science we haven't discovered yet.

It's anomalies out there that we just don't know. So, I mean, the fact that you saw anything is huge. And like you said, you know, I want to get your opinions on this later, like willing these things to happen. That's kind of a big part of, I think, where a lot of this UFO stuff is heading. but we'll talk about that. All right. So my next question for you is the X-Files. I'm a huge fan.

So I'm sure you knew this is going to come up at some point in the interview. How did it happen? It's by far my favorite episode of all, what, 11, 12 seasons that they've done. Oh, God, man. It was brilliantly written and performed by everyone involved. But this was one of the biggest listener questions I got. What was it like working on the X-Files? How did it come to be?

And yeah, give us maybe the rundown of all that and how you got to wear the cold jack, the night stalker. Oh, yeah. Hat, yeah. So I guess we can start off by saying, I willed it to happen. There was an alien download in the middle of the night. And I went, I mean, I don't know. I just think, I mean, obviously I have a good agent to get through this one real quick,

but also give as many details as I can. You know, I have a good agent. And so I do get good auditions. And I don't get many, but I get interesting ones. And for some reason, this came up and it kind of made sense to me. So in I go. Now, you know, another interesting thing is that when the X-Files was in its most, oh, God, I hate it when I can't come up with the words,

popular stance in the world in the 90s. I was in the Army, so I didn't see a lot of it. I had to catch up with it in later years. Now, what I did see with it was mainly a drama show. So here's me now getting an audition for this, for this, the new, the comeback season. I think 20 years later, something like that. And I'm thinking, oh, here we go.

Okay, here's a chance. for me to to act dramatically because if anyone who knows me, I'm a comedic, improvised actor and that those are my skill sets, although I like to think I could do a good job in a drama, but now maybe I'm getting my chance. So I go along to the audition. Now, the sides were very minimal. So when I say that, I mean the little bit of script they give you to do your audition with because they didn't want a very top secret at the stage. It was a really a big secret that this, well, it wasn't so big. I think as soon as it leaked out that this phenomenal show was coming back, everyone started

talking about it. But yet the ideas for the episodes and of course, you know, they were very, very top secret. So I got these like half a piece of paper to look at when I went in there. And I delivered these lines. And by the way, the lines in this audition, it was certainly not comedic at all. I think I had to give a little part of the monologue about the fact that I was a human for the first time. It didn't make much sense to me.

And I just did the job I thought I could as if I was delivering a dramatic performance. And it was very brief and I walked away and I was called back before I got to the car, the runner, came through and he said, hey, listen, can you, are you available for these dates? Just checking, you know, and when you get the old, are you available for these dates as an actor? Your ears prick up and you think, oh, here we go. I've got a good chance here. And then, and then I got a call on my way home about the moustache. I had a moustache at that point. And can you, can you, are you willing to lose the moustache? And, you know, for a split second, you think to yourself, oh, no, There's no way I'm going to lose that.

Sorry, we were so close, guys. But of course, yes, what mustache? I'm already shaving it as we're driving. But I said, yeah, of course, that's not a problem. And then when I got home, I got another call. This is where I'm already driving home thinking, oh, I've got this. I must have this part. This is amazing.

Got another call when I got home saying, hey, listen, I've just had a chat to Darren Morgan, Chris Carter. who, by the way, when I did the audition, we're both in the room, though they were only two guys and this, you know, assistant. And they said, you don't need to lose the mustache. And I'm thinking, well, hang on, are you telling me I've got this? And I think, I don't even, can't remember then. I was so excited with what was going on in my head getting this massive role, possibly,

that I can't remember whether, I think that phone call finished. And then I had to, you had to get the official one from the agent, from my manager saying that it's yours. But I already knew at that point. I mean, they're checking the dates and they're shaving my moe and then bringing it back. So, yeah, I got it. Now, I later found out that, of course, of course I've got that because the role was for someone who was a human for the first time, someone who is sort of naive to the ways of being a human, someone who comes across with empathy,

but also you could imagine is possibly from another world or inhuman in some ways. And that pretty much sums me up. That's how I've always felt about myself. So, long story even longer. I do the show on the day, right up to this point of the first day of acting. By the way, having seen the show, you know that my character has a really long monologue in the graveyard with Docoffney. and I was very nervous about that. I normally, with my roles as a comic, as a comedy actor,

you know, the script is, there's less writing involved and you can play around with it. Now, this writing was so great, obviously, that I couldn't play with it. And I was too scared to even ask if I could. So I just had to really learn it. So I remember, I think it was Vancouver and I was walking around for hours getting it all into my head. A lot of people who haven't been involved in acting always. think, how do these actors remember all of these lines? And I often think that as well, because you know, I'm not, I'm not a great memory guy, in one ear, out the other, as my mother always used

to say. So, but for this very, very big role, this is the most, and I've done a few, you know, big roles in my life, emphasis on the few, but they have been rather big some of them. But this, for me, personally, was, was the biggest because I love the subject matter, obviously. and to be part of this phenomenon, to be part of the X-Files, meant more to me than anything. It's my jam, baby, as my mother always used to say. So it's nice having you on the screen,

because I can see you laughing. At the moment, when I'm just looking at me, I'm like, what am I doing? Yeah, what am I talking to? But I'm also used to just talking to myself, so it's not too bad. I get to the graveyard, and we start doing the scene, and I'm dramatying it out.

I'm like, wow, this, look, watch Darby act. Look at this guy. And then Darren goes, Reese, you know, just, just be yourself. Be, you know, you don't need to. Because sometimes if you're acting like you can tell with some people are acting, oh, that guy's acting. Look at the way. Oh, what an actor. But if you, but you got to lose all that to actually be a good actor. And so, but I didn't think, because by the way, the scene was about me wanting to kill myself. You know, it was a pretty, pretty horrific kind of idea. And, um, and the,

the viewers at the time aren't sure what this guy's about. Why is he trying? You know, it's so brilliantly written this episode that it unfathoms, unfails. And you help me out, Ryan. It's, uh, unfurls. Unfurled. There we go. Unravel.

Unravel. I'll take that one. It unravels throughout the episode that, uh, you know, why he is the way he is. And in fact, he, you know, he's, he's, he wasn't human first. He was lizard first and then, or reptilian, I should say, and then became something he didn't want to be. So when I got the note from Darren to have more fun with it, old Recy came out and then the personality came out. And then Docoffney, you know, was reminded of flight of the concords and was he was a little bit starstruck. I'm starstruck by him, obviously.

He's a little starstruck by me. We're getting that both stars are striking. And magic is made. Wow, man. Well, that sort of existential question in the episode is what really resonated with me. And it kind of followed you throughout your work. I mean, you have this podcast called Aliens Like Us. And that kind of dips into, you know, these questions in this X-Files episode of, who are we?

Why are we here? what makes us human and what you know we've all asked these questions in our life you know why do I wake up every morning and go to work what could I be doing what should I be doing to make the world better and you know especially right now I think a lot of us are having a lot of time to self reflect in our lives you know because we we have the time to do it so I mean there's no better time to go back and kind of ask these questions. And with your podcast, first of all, I got to ask, like, where the title come from? The different meanings you can give to the title of your show is what really struck me. So I guess let's kind of dive into that. Yeah, you know, moving away from the X-Files,

what made you want to do this podcast? You know, I'm into the subject matter. And just even though we're moving away from the X-Files, I'll say one more thing about it because you brought it up there when you're talking about the existentialism of the episode and how it kind of makes sense and it's like a it's very relevant right now for our lives and how we're thinking. An interesting, I guess, part of that, the show that was happening for me at the time was that I was questioning, my character was questioning his life, questioning what it means to be a human and he did not like it. He didn't understand why he had to go to work. He bought the dog, Daegu,

uh, because he felt that that's what you're supposed to do. And that gave him happiness, which, which is why people get pets. And it's it really, but here's the weird thing, uh,

the synchronicity part that freaks me out is that my character, if you remember, his job, he, he worked at a, um, a cell phone store. Okay.

So that was his now in real life, uh, back in New Zealand for many years. And I've recently, uh, um, done it again, I was the face of a cell phone campaign in real life. So this kind of reality meets fiction blur was happening in front of my eyes.

I'd of course also in my early years watched the X-Files and had imagined meeting Molder and Scully. And there I am meeting them, you know, in a porta-potty. you know and so for me with the imagination I have and and I cross between what is real and what isn't all the time in my head particularly when I do my stand-up and we can go more into that if there's any questions about that but I've done stand-up for you know over over a over 20 years now and with the stories I tell on stage they're a mixture of reality plus my imagination extending into unreality to make things funnier than they really are. And I confuse the audience quite often on, you know, did this really happen?

How much of this is true? They always walk away and sometimes question me. Did that really happen? I mean, that's a thing with a usual thing with stand-ups. But for me, it can be way more mystical because I'll be talking about mermaids or jetpacks. And there's like, I think, you know, knowing Reese, maybe that did happen. And so, and some of it to a certain degree has, you know, and these kind of occurrences.

But here I go again with this 20 minute going off in a different direction thing. Love it. But to pull it back, to pull it back, I will say that, yeah, the synchronicity, the universe making these decisions for me, putting me in that character position, putting me in that show, and for that show to be a fantastic episode, which, you know, They are hit and miss. And for me to be, luckily, in one that was historically, you know, is going to stand up, was just out of this world, which is a cool thing to say on your show.

And I knew we'd make it in there so much. There's your sound bite. Well, I have to, first, I have to agree with you. I mean, I think, you know, people love or hate the reboot of the X-Files. But I think that episode, you guys did, it probably saved that entire season. And I think the same could be said for the following season with their Darren Morgan episode in that season. Those are what people like. That's what they crave.

Yeah. Monster of the week. Exactly. Literal monster of the week. So, no, I think it's amazing. I love how it kind of leads into different parts of your life.

And it kind of reminds me there's a quote I used to always go back to with John Keel. And it's something. I don't know it verbatim, but he says, if you stare far enough out into the sky, you'll eventually see the back of your own head. And I always like- Yeah, I know that one, yeah. That always blew my mind because I think it's right. The more we search for answers and get involved with this UFO thing or the paranormal,

the more we're looking for our own importance, our own answers in all this. I mean, I told people, you know, there's that altruistic. sense of yeah, I want answers for the public on what UFOs are and whatnot. But honestly, I want those answers for myself, first and foremost. I want to know what happened to me or why I saw this or what it all means. And I think that's what it always comes back to us, like you said. I like that. Putting that mirror back on us.

Yeah, it is. And the answers that you seek and hopefully you find are the answers that are personable to you. And so, you know, will you, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, Will we ever solve this mystery? Well, maybe not as a, as humanity, but individually we might be able to solve it for ourselves in our own head, what we think they are. And I, you know, I've been reading your book, Ryan, I've got it here with me, obviously.

Great book. And it's thought-provoking because of the personal touches that you deal with in here. Because rather than the nuts and bolts kind of, what is this thing? was the speed, what was the height. It's, it's our own personal thoughts, these eyewitnesses, what it means to them. And it gets you thinking, because what do we have if we don't have the answers already inside our own brains? And we just need those doors to open up. And that's where we feel that the mysteries can possibly be solved. Absolutely, man. Well, I appreciate you saying that. And I have to agree. I mean, that's why I wrote the book. Of course, I care about what

they saw in detail because, you know, we want to figure out what it was. But at the day, like, how did it impact them? How did it change them? And we'll talk later about, you know, that capital D disclosure. But I think, you know, every person who sees something or experiences something, that's a personal disclosure for them. So, yeah, I appreciate your outlook on that. And kind of tying it back to the podcast. Can you tell us how. Yes. Yeah, how it was. be good man we will get there baby stuff i yeah yeah i knew there was something there's something there's a reason more here i guess uh yeah um aliens like us how did who who did you do this with um yeah guess the origin of that okay so cool so i have this previous to that i have a podcast

called the cryptid factor right and i've been doing that since 2008 with my friend leon uh who was known as buttons on the show because he pushes all the buttons because he's the, he's the tech, he's the, uh, the producer on, on,

uh, on the day pulling cables, uh, setting the levels and of course, editing the whole thing. So he's kind of the brains of the network. And we started off with David Farrier. Uh,

and then in later years, we have, uh, the, the band has changed. Uh, we've got Dan Schreiber. Now that,

that, that podcast, uh, you know, that always has and always will be, um, until we actually get some cash, coming to us, a hobby. And we love it. Now, we've got, you know, busy careers. So it was really just an

excuse as we started off to get away from the wives for an hour on a Saturday. Now, I can tell you the whole crazy history of the cryptid factor, but we probably don't have time, but to transition forward in time to now recently Spotify coming to me and saying, hey, would you like to do a podcast? We need a comedy podcast, but also I hear you're into weird stuff. I said, yeah, sure. I mean, I can do, I haven't done one on, particularly on aliens or euophology. I've done stuff on cryptids, but I could, I'm very interested in, and I'm sort of, I was sort of mid, not transitioning more into that field, but certainly opening my own paranormal field up to include uophology more than I had in the past. So I was excited about that idea.

And I said to, I said to Spotify, I won't put any, I won't give any, I won't give any, specific names. I'll just call the people Spotify. I said to Spotify, I said, listen, spots. I've got a friend that I work with that I really need to bounce off. I've got to have buttons. And so Spotify is like, all right, I suppose so. And then they connected me up with another chap at American, Ethan. And so next thing you know, we've got our team. And I came up with the name. It was up to me. It was my show, so I thought about it for a long time. One of my favorite movies was Spies Like Us.

You remember that? Absolutely. I needed a catchy name. And of course, I love wordplay. So aliens like us just made total sense to me. When it came, I thought, oh, that's it. Because not only do aliens actually like us, hopefully, aliens are like us. And also, of course, Buttons and I were.

aliens in America, aliens by proxy of our position in the country. So it just made total sense. And then it came down to, yeah, getting it done, 10 episodes, getting, now Spotify came on board very hands-on with regards to needing templates, needing almost not so much scripts, but certainly a lot of paperwork of what we were doing. Now, in the past, as I've already told you today, I'm very lucy-goosey. The most I've ever done with buttons in terms of organizing things by writing things down was he would do a pie graph in his book and he would go, right. So we've got 80% of the show will do this, then we'll do this.

And then the only other stuff we really concentrated on was recording funny stings to cut in between the segments. So I wanted to maintain that we did that in the show. And Ethan's good with music and has some friends that can do a bit of, have got some gnarly keyboard skills. So we thought we could throw a bit of that in there. And really, the difficult thing was to make a podcast that has comedy, is silly, but also deals with a subject matter that is important. But regardless, some people still think is kooky and,

and you know and and ridiculous and yet i wanted to pull in my my audience and also through comedy and get them to open their mind up and also believe that there are stuff out there that is happening and it just so happened that you know in the last few years uh the world was transitioning from it being a subject that people didn't really bother to take seriously to now uh thanks to all the you know the major news articles and the proof that's coming out about the existence of UFOs to be something that is real and that we actually do have to go, oh, okay, oh, oh, oh, heck. All right. Yeah, the joke's over. So, so kind of, yeah, exactly. So it was good timing on all those,

with all those elements. And but the other important thing that would I, in which I will be forever thankful for Spotify for, for ensuring is that we, you know, we got. some good quality guests, some of the top people in the field to, who, by the way, you know, have a sense of humor and who are, who may, may know me, they didn't all know of my, what I've been up to. But a lot of them, you know, were fans of a certain degree. And they were willing to, um, to come on board and, and say their stuff. Um, and so that, that's how the show came into being.

Yeah. And I mean, that's a really good thing to bring up, Reese, is that balance. I think, you know, at the end of the day, we're talking about the weirdest shit in the world. Like, if we can't have fun with that, what's the point? I mean, I'm, and I know I'm drawing back to my own personal experiences, but I did a panel discussion with Kumal Nangiani, who was in your episode of X-File. Out in L.A., I did a panel with him all about. UFOs and I'm going in thinking like this is they're going to be bashing me the whole time like this is just going to be like but but I was ready I was ready to like do it and dude I mean I got there and

they could not have been more serious about it which I super appreciated you know that um like you said this is a topic that deserves a legitimate study and it now is by the government and governments around the world but at the same time like come on when you're talking to and I do want to ask you about the contact email box in a minute. But we're dealing with some crazy-ass stuff. And if you can't laugh about it, what's the point? And a lot of these experiencers, they fully recognize how crazy their story sound.

So I think that's a big part of it too. It helps if they have a sense of humor, because it's got a few bad reputations in the past from people being so super serious about it and that they're, yet they're talking about things that are so weird that it almost became a little inhuman not to question yourself and have a little joke about the fact that I saw this crazy thing and it didn't make any sense. And so I feel, as an aside, that humor in general connects us together.

And I've traveled around the world and done gigs and been in countries where I cannot speak the language, and that's pretty much all of them that don't speak English. And yet I've been able to connect through humor. And so that's really important. Absolutely. I think that humor and comedy brings us closer together than pretty much anything in the world. And these profound questions we ask with UFOs too.

So I want to talk about a couple of these guests you've had on. Now, this one really surprised me when I first heard the episode. Paco Cherichi, the first guy to go public about the Tick-Tac UFO event. How did you get this interview? And what did you make of his story? It's incredible. Well, he was super cool. You know, he was a U.S. Navy fighter pilot, X, I believe.

But he was willing to come in. He had a book. He was promoting as well, which always helps. And then it comes down to that's another good. thing about being attached to Spotify was that you've got people in the in the admin realm who are pulling strings for you and organizing things, which is something once again that buttons and I, especially me, it's not our, it's not my area of expertise. I'm not going to get on the phone to people and go, hey man, can you get on my show? I'm sure you do, Ryan, but, you know,

it's not my, I don't want to say I've got people to do that for me, but, you know, I've got people to do that for me. So we got him. And it's really, there's nothing beats the horse's mouth. And when you hear someone who's, first of all, that as boys on this podcast, we're in awe with because the guy was a fighter pilot, he's flowing Tomcats and things like that. And by the way, I told you at the start, I was in the air training corps as a 12 year old. My dream was to be a fighter pilot. So I'm already sitting here fizzing going, wow, you're what I wanted to be. I couldn't be it because I was no good at physics. I'm an idiot. I can't, I can barely do maths. So why you have to be great at that kind of stuff to be a fighter pilot? I don't know, but you know, you do, and I'm glad you do because these guys

are super smart. You know, they're not just, they're not me. They're not, they're not leaving school and jumping in a jet plane and traveling at those speeds. And they have super lightning, fast reactions and their brains work really super fast. So I think to, and us regulars can't quite even fathom that, that just pilots in general have got to be really onto it. But these ones that fire these supersonic things up in the sky and they, when they see these things and they talk about these things that they see, you know, they're not making that up.

And so we have to respect that. And I respected what he was saying. and the fact, but also being ex-military myself, I could connect with the idea that it's definitely a bit of a boys club, and we rib each other. And, you know, there's obviously it's men and women, but as in general, and the women are the same, they're tough, we're tough, tough customers.

And we like to mock each other and stuff in the military. And we kind of, this competitive nature. And so if you were to say something like, like I saw a UFO, you know, people are going to laugh and they're going to, yeah, there's that sort of, it's, they're, they're tough characters. And so for that to then become truth and to be an accepted truth, uh, in that institution to begin with is, is a real solid, um, advancement. Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. I think the, the, we have to stress that point too, that these are trained observers. And like you said, that ridicule factor has been in the military for a long time. You don't report these things. Same with commercial pilots. I mean, I go back to, you know, the Japan Airlines case where the pilot reported the UFO when he got to the ground. And then he was put on desk duty for the rest of his career.

Like, that's so sad, man. He reports one UFO. They think he's nuts and he never flies again. So, I mean, I totally get why a top gun pilot would not report a UFO because, Because like you said, all the other pilots are going to be like, oh, wow, you couldn't outmaneuver that or you couldn't think quick enough. It was a glare in your, you know, the dome of your plane. Or worse, you're looking for attention. Right, right, right.

You know what I mean? Yeah. In fact, you know what? I just had an idea there. I would love for this to happen. I don't think it will. But you know, the new top gun that's coming out, which I think I'm excited about. Wouldn't it be great if there was a UAP in there?

that Maverick catches out the corner of his eye or something, or there's a, there's a tick-tech. Oh, it was such an amazing reference. I don't think they would do it, but that would be great. I remember, I think it was my English class in, like, middle school, where I wrote a sequel to Top Gun. And it was like, it was Maverick going to hunt down Saddam Hussein in a, what do you call those, the stealth fighter.

Oh, yeah. So when I saw that this new one was coming out, I'm like, oh, there goes my plan of writing this. Well, you don't know. That could be the plot. I hope you didn't leave that script lying anywhere. I know. My teacher probably gave it to him, man. But hey, no, that's a good point. I mean, you know, the fact that this could be making its way more into the mainstream.

I mean, every time I turn on the TV, someone's talking about like the TikTok UFO or this or that. And it's not a world I ever thought we'd live in where, you know, the U.S. government would be seriously investigating. this, which we'll get to. But the next guest I want to talk to you about is, okay, so this book, the book cover is just burned into my memory, terrified me as a kid. And that's communion. So I got to ask you, what was it like interviewing probably the most famous UFO alien abductee of all time, Whitley Streber? And what do you make of his whole story? I mean, it's, it continues even up until this day. So, yeah, what do you think?

It was, it was fascinating. So that one was hands-on, buttons and I in contact in the desert in a small room, you know, actually sitting right at a table with Whitley. And he, you know, as you, as you know, from the interview, we got to feel the back of his ear where this bump was, where he had this implant, which I believe is, yeah, like it's still in there. and he freaked us out with the point of where it moved. And what I found fascinating with his story was that he was not saying that they were aliens in a sense, that he didn't know what they were, but that it was ongoing. And that there's that whole point of, and people will argue against this with the will of wanting it to happen.

His wife had passed away, if I remember correctly. And then the idea that he'd written science fiction books up until that point. And so you've got that thing whereby people are like, oh, come on, this is just the next level of his imagination. But so that plays in the back of your mind when you're talking to the guy. But I've spoken to a lot of people, as you have as well. And there's nothing better than actually. being face to face.

Over the phone, you know, you can't tell. But when you're there, and I read people for a living as a comic because I'm on stage and I have to read audiences and I have to fathom how they're feeling and whether my stuff's going to come across. And when the room is different, when there's too many drunks or when there's, the lights aren't good enough and the mic's not quite right, I have to adjust my performance. And I have to be able to, and I take a little bit of pride in the fact that I'm a good judge of character in terms of that.

I think performers have to be in a way because otherwise you misjudge what you're doing and you're going to bomb or you're, you know, that essentially is my job is to, is to be great and to be able to do that as an entertainer. I have to, I have to read. And so I'm sitting here reading this guy and, you know, it's, it's genuine to me. And Buttons is always, he's full of joy and very. We're both a couple are kind of young, well, young, I say young. You're getting on a bit now, but young in the head, which I think is a very healthy thing.

You know, always open, open for fantastic tales, want to be astonished. But we're not so loopy that we're not grounded. You know, Buttons is a CEO of a huge company and, you know, well, you know what I do. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian, so that's not really grounding. But I, yeah, so I really, I believed what he was saying. And it was spooky. And by the way, communion, yeah, the book and the movie,

really, really spooky stuff, like that kind of stuff. It gets you the hairs on the back of your neck standing up because there's a sense of evilness to it. That's the worry, and we don't want that, but that is part of alien law, is that we're not sure how much of it, first of all, is true, but secondly, if it is, how much of it has bad intent

and what they're actually doing to us and manipulating us in certain ways. And so all of that was coming into play when we spoke to this guy and feeling the thing behind his ear dude, it was like next level. I've done some pretty cool things in my life, but that was one of feeling someone's implant. I mean, I highly recommend it. Like I said, I gave it a little tickle.

Yeah, you had to. See how it reacts. I completely agree with you. You know, for the book, I interviewed hundreds of people. And maybe there's like 40 in there. I don't know how many. But there's nothing like being face to face with. these people. And like you said, I always get asked a question, well, do you believe everyone that you

write about? And my, I guess, safe answer is I believe these people believe what happened. Yeah. And some might find that passive. But at the end of the day, like, I wasn't there. I wasn't there when Whitley Streeper had these experiences. I can't say if that happened or not. But look, I mean, these are supposedly mentally stable individuals as, you know, someone like John Mack, the Harvard psychiatrist who looked into alien abductions, he did a huge study and he said these people were not, you know, this wasn't abuse as a child, this is not a fantasy prone individual. Like, these are stable individuals who have never had an interest in UFOs or aliens or any of that, and they're reporting these things. So I have to agree with you. Yeah, like the judgment of character

is a big thing. The other thing I'll say is that, you know, nobody wants to be ridiculed. You don't set yourself up in life to go, I can't wait to get ridiculed from this. So, and it's not about selling books because, yeah, yeah, he's already a successful bookseller. And you're not going to, you know, there are other things you can do, putting yourself out there to have people poke fun of you. And I've been, I've been ridiculed many times as a, as a, as a, you know, a little bit of bullying or, you know, I was the class clown.

But I've been made fun of. and it's not fun. You don't want to set yourself up for that. But when there's something inside of you that is true, that is burning inside of you that you need to get out, and you're helping other people who have experiences as well, then you've got to do it. And I take my head off to any one of these experiences,

contactees that have gone on the table and have spoken about their experience, That's an outstanding thing to do. And you've got to respect that. Yeah. The first thing I learned when I got into this crazy world of UFOs is to have empathy, for sure. Like you don't know this person's life. You don't know their history. You can't come in with these preconceived notions because, like you said, you know,

just being face-to-face changes everything. I remember, you know, watching a woman break down in tears. with her husband when she was retelling me her story of a quote-unquote abduction experience. And I'm like, I'm sitting there like, man, like, what the hell am I doing? I'm like sitting here hoping I'm going to hear a really cool alien abduction story. But this event traumatized this woman. Wow. Yeah, that's a good one because that makes you.

Yeah, opens it up for you and you realize. So, you know, it's not just for my and other people's entertainment. this is fully affecting some people. And so that, you know, it's cool to that end that I still managed to get those contactee mailboxes into what is essentially a show that has a lot of comedy in it. So I think the roller coastersness, if that's a term, the roller coastersness of listening to that show, speaks volumes because you're like, you're shocked, you're laughing. you're upset and then that's the credits.

Yeah, right, man. Good point. I mean, and it is a whiplash, you know, which I appreciate about your show. Like you mentioned, the contact email bag is where people can submit their stories. Am I correct on your show? Yeah, yeah. So an interesting thing there was my wife dealt with all of those. So, and that was basically they left a message.

I think she spoke to them. but it was it was set aside from the three of us guys who were who were functioning as hosts and we would then and grab it and so often when we listened to the contact email box the first time was when it was put into the show and so that that made it it helps with these types of shows if we can and i learned that from the cryptid factor is that if we can spook each other out it's great because we're all like we're we're kind of on the same level as the listeners. And we're like, whoa, okay. UFOs seem to be invading both our skies and our news outlets like never before. And more people are starting to look up and are wondering who or what might be out there. In 2016, Ryan Sprague introduced the world to countless UFO encounters that had never been made public before. And now, in the second edition of his book, he revisits these events and introduces brand-new UFO cases.

in somewhere in the skies, a human approach to the UFO phenomenon. How have these events changed the lives of those involved? And what might it tell us about the phenomenon? With in-depth follow-ups, brand new chapters, and detailed testimony from credible witnesses and insight from those in the psychological, academic, and scientific fields, somewhere in the skies, a human approach to the UFO phenomenon weaves together a story of stories,

attempting to get to the heart of these mysteries, experience at a time. Available now on Amazon in both paperback and ebook. To learn more, visit somewhere in the skies.com. So sort of the last episode I really want to cover with you, Reese, of your podcast is your interview with Dr. Michael Masters. Now, I know this is kind of a running, a running gag in your show with your co-host about aliens being us from the future. And this is This concept blew my mind when I first heard about it. I think one of the dudes from the Rendell Schumphorris incident might have talked about this. But what do you make of what this doctor's brought forward that aliens could be us in the future.

Yeah. So this has really grown on me. Now, when I first heard this, and to be honest, Buttons was the first one who brought this theory to my attention a few years ago. And I always mock him. we're best buddies so we're laughing at each other and I'm thinking yeah right it's us from the future come on and you know he he would say that uh millions of years so we've evolved to this point that's why we look the way we do and you know there was some it was started to uh make sense in some in some ways but the real issue i had with it was if time travel um became a thing

then uh we would have it now it's it's that whole dichotomy of of, you know, when, when does it happen? And if it does happen, then surely it's going to happen constantly. Look, I'm no scientist. I've watched back to the future a few times, but that's about my, that's about my experience in it. Now, fast forward to Dr. Michael P. Masters, and he really has some good things to say about it. He delivers a great interview. He does lectures on this. buttons and him have been talking many times. They're both big fans of the concept. And I've got to say, you know, they swayed me towards it because this concept has been brought up.

And certainly in recent years, and it's becoming more and more believable. And so, yeah, I kind of, I don't want to, I'm not 100% in on it, but I'm kind of, I'm swayed towards it. Because let's be honest, we're running. out of, of answers, and we've been trying to answer this, this big mystery since the, since the 40s. And who knows, even before then, when people didn't know what to call these things, whether they be called angels or goblins or fairies, it's the other. It's where they're coming from. And so, yeah, I think it's got some, it's got some truth.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. I mean, again, like, and who's to say we're dealing with one thing? It could be interdimensional. It could be, you know. There isn't one answer. There is not one answer. And I think my answer would be is that there is so many different concepts that could be the answer and that there's definitely more answers than one.

And I was thinking today about the things, the orbs, the things that the lights, just the simple lights that people are seeing, they're not seeing anything behind the light, you know, maybe because it's too far away or there's a series of lights, there's got to be more than one answer. And one of those answers is, it could be us from the future, it could be us traveling in different timelines. Interdimensional is a big one for me. I'm really a believer in that. But I'm also a believer in the fact that some of these objects could just be organic themselves. They could be spirits. They could be returning from another dimension that it's not an actual physical object. It's just, it's an energy and it's watching

you. The fact that people have recurring experiences that they see one and then a few months later or years later, they'll see one again or they'll see and it keeps following them throughout their life. It means it could be connect, it's got to be connected to that person. So it's got to be maybe in the family line. It's got to be a spirit from another dimension that is coming back and messaging you or keeping an eye on you. so and you talk about so that the spiritual nature of that and as I say I'm not into ghosts but there's got to be a connection there and and yet that so that has a strong um uh kind of weight behind it and then you've got the metallic craft which is a completely different scenario but yet

those things are real as well so and then and then you throw tic tacks in the mix and you think what what the hell is that shape what does that signify is and there can't be anything inside it because Well, if there is, it's certainly not human at those speeds and those velocities and what they're doing. So if there is, have we advanced this far in the millions and millions of years in the future that we can withstand that? Or is there some sort of energy within the tick-tac that enables us not to feel it? But think about it. We've already started not flying in things because we've got the drones. We're now going to have the next few battles are going to be drone versus drone.

that a dog fight recently with I think it was the F-16 versus the drone F-16 and the drone kicked its ass. So that's now. It's 2020. And, you know, I'm talking about jet fighter pilots and how I would love to be one. That job's going to be running out. I think so when you think about it that way, there is, if it is future us, we're not in those things. We've just sent those back and maybe that particular shape. is something that goes through the rift in the time space continuum.

Who knows? And the fact that they're squiggly. They move these squiggly things. And when I saw one up in the space through the binoculars, it did the squiggly moves. Like I said to you, like a hot rod doing a donut spinning around and then squiggly out. I was like, what's with the squiggles? That's your number one question, yeah.

But when you get something in your eye, and I, I, was shot as a kid, where they, my mate had one of these little, we used to make guns, we used to use the rubber fingers from a rubber glove and we'd attach it to, you know,

a little plastic canister, like a tube and we'd put little, little monkey apples in there and we'd, or bits of chalk and I got shot by a bit of chalk. We were crazy, you know, young boys are like. And we'd run around, and this is before I joined the army, but I was heading towards that way.

We'd run around in the forest and would shoot each other. I got shot in the eye with this little tiny bit of chalk. And to this day, there's still a thing that's in my eyeball that moves around. And when I'm looking, it sort of squiggles about a bit. And very similar movements to the UFOs that people sometimes see. And I'm thinking to myself, maybe that's what it. Maybe the earth is just one big giant eyeball. and there's a few squiggles.

There's a few things that are being shot at it, and they're just sort of floating there, and then they disappear. I don't know. That's pretty out there. But I think, hey, it's just as plausible as any other theory out there when it comes to this topic, trust me.

Yeah. Well, you did mention, you know, 40s, the 1940s. And I want to get your opinion on this. Let's take, for instance, the famous Roswell UFO incident, We're now hearing from the New York Times that the Pentagon has been briefed on off-world vehicles. Yeah, right. Yeah. What do you make of this, man?

Our own government's saying there's possibly materials out there from something, not from this Earth. And do you think these things have actually crashed on our planet and that we have, I don't know, Bob Lazard them, have we reverse engineered these things? Or, yeah, have these craft actually crashed, is my question, I guess. Yeah, I think so. I think we kind of, I believe the Roswell crash. I think something of that nature, something so huge in our human folklore, has got to come from a truth base because it's still there. We still talk about it and it hasn't been debunked. And, you know, and of course, it's also very difficult to debunk. It's 9047. And the debates will go on and on until the cows come home, as my mother used to say. But so I think if you're going to be in this subject matter, you know, you can't, can't be in this realm of our belief that we, and the things we chat about without saying that you believe in that. I mean, we can't, we can't have UFO podcasts and go, but you know what, Roswell was a step

too far. So we, so from the very base level, you know, that, that is, that is a definite happening. And then if you believe that, then, of course, you've got to believe reverse engineering. you've got to believe. And I'm in the, and I know you are too in the Bob Lazar camp because it just, I just,

part of it is because I want to believe, X-Files. And also, and also because I think it's, and I'll be honest with you, it's just exciting for me. And I think I love the unknown and I love that,

and I trust knowing that I was in the military myself and that, you know, there are secrets that are kept in governments. I had top secret. vetting when I was a signaler. So I was privy to, you know, things that weren't allowed, that were beyond classified.

It was top secret. And there was, by the way, before you ask, there was nothing too exciting to reveal there. This is New Zealand. But, you know, I had to sign a lot of stuff, and they did a lot of background searching on me and stuff. And it probably did freak them out when they realized, hang on, you were a mistake.

You weren't even supposed to be born. But. That's on the record, right? On your birth certificate. Yeah, maybe that's why they led me in. I'm like, I'm like, but what was I saying? You know, me, Ryan. Yeah, what were we saying?

Oh, UFO crashes. Oh, yeah. Or reverse engineering. Like, we have that hunger to continue believing it because that's what keeps us going. It's taken this long for them to kind of admit it now. And with the off-world vehicles, that's, there's your admission right there. and this disclosure that we're currently in with the small D, as Richard Dolan likes to say, big Richard Dolan fan, by the way,

I think if you're going to be in Uphology, you know, to have someone of his taking the history of it and taking the complete knowledge of all the cases and stuff like that he does, it's so important in our field. And I know there's a few dudes like that. But I like that guy. It gives so much legitimacy to this thing. And I think I'm excited about next year.

I hate this year because everyone does. It's 2020 and it's shit. But the things that have come out of it from us sitting on our asses trapped in our houses has been positive in some ways for the mind because to that degree. there's been a lot of negativity in conspiracy theories and people spending way too much time on the internet and getting really unhealthy. And I feel sorry for those people. I don't know about you, but like we've all lost or know someone who's lost a friend because of their beliefs over this year. And we go, what? I didn't know you. Okay. You're into, and so we go, oh, I can't talk to them so much

anymore. And that's been happening because of the goddamn internet. And you've got to be. be really careful what you what rabbit holes you fall down and and i even felt that i know i'm spinning off into more tangents now but that i think the listeners are getting used to it is that is that that that's one of the things with with uphology is that there are dark rabbit holes there that you can fall into and and even when you go to conferences like contact in the desert that there's some people that you know aren't legit or they're or they're springing forth cultish type references and storylines and

for one of a better word bullshit that are suckering people in people like me who want the unknown who feel they don't belong who are looking for weirdness and so you've really got to have your head together and you've also got to have friends and keep your people close and so and springboard each other with

what do you think about that and like that's why I have buttons and I have like guys that and Dan Schreiber and Ferry and Ferry and that we kind of, if I might be thinking about something and I'll spring it to them and I'll go, oh, now that's, I don't know about that. And you've got to, and then do a bit more research. But when things start to go dark, that's a good sign that you should pull out a bit. And as a comic and as an entertainer, I love to keep things light because I think we need to talk about this,

but we need to, we need to be happy, especially in these times. So I'll just say that kind of stuff. I think it's important. It's very important, and I'm so happy you brought it up. I mean, I get emails every day from people's, you know, whether it's anti-vaxxers or Q and non, or all this complete and utter bullshit, and I'm not afraid to say that. It's dangerous. You know, these are the type of people who shoot up pizza shops and drink bleach and, you know, to cure viruses.

And look, we talk about UFOs. Of course, we believe there are conspiracies. But when it gets to the point where people are dying because of these unsubstantiated claims and disinformation, that's a problem. So I'm glad to hear you say that. I always promote critical thinking on my show, which a lot of this conspiracy theory lacks nowadays. When once it was a way to like, you know, exercise your thinking skills and your common sense and your critical thinking. And now it's become the complete opposite of what it wants. was and look I understand people are scared you know we live in uncertain times and uh there are people

who will take advantage of that and tell you believe and yeah you will pay them for that information so i agree with you know i i always struggle with these UFO conferences that i go to where you've got a military pilot up there talking about a tic-tac UFO that's documented and then you have someone who says i've met 183 races of aliens yeah and they're you know this And I struggle, you know. And don't get me wrong, because there's a fun part to that. And as an actor and as a guy who loves Mork for Mork, you know, I'm excited about that kind of thing. But you've got to take a strong bag of salt with you, not just a grain.

And you've got to flick it over your shoulder every five minutes. Yeah. Yeah, that's such a good point, man. Well, I'm happy to hear you say that because it is something I think that has drastically affected the United States in particular when it comes to politics and how we're dealing with things going on in the world. But that's a whole other rabbit hole. We won't go down. But I do want to get to some listener questions here if you're game for that. Yeah, sure. Awesome. Awesome. And it's up to you how in depth you want to get with these, brother. I know you're a busy man. But let's start with

this one. It kind of ties into what we were just talking about about cultish figures and whatnot. Tor from Patreon asks me, the narratives people go by in uphology very greatly, like we talked about. You know, we've got Tom DeLong and everything this guy's doing, talking about UFOs are a potential threat. And then on the other side, you've got these individuals like Stephen Greer. I know you're going to say. Yep, yep. Saying the antithesis, you know, aliens are peaceful. Then they're here for good reasons.

So how do we decipher between these two narratives? And is the answer somewhere in between? Or what do you think personally about these extremely drastic extremes that we see in the UFO field? I think the answer definitely is somewhere in between. And it's important to have both ends of the spectrum. And you've got to remember that the United States is formally, and right up until recently, I believe, you know, I mean, this is an argumentative position. but, you know, being the biggest superpower in the world always is on the front foot with defence

and they have to, they've got to keep their big walls of Rome protected so it doesn't implode. And, you know, lately, you know, it has been. And I think that's why they're on the front foot, rightfully so, defense-wise, on what are these things and are they a threat? And, of course, that makes total sense. Now, if this was New Zealand and it helps having me, I'm from the Shire. I'm from a little island in the South Pacific set of islands, I should say. But we wouldn't be, you know, as worried defense-wise about these things.

Because, you know, what are we protecting? A lot of sheep and cows and some great visual effects artists in Wellington. But so I can understand that. threat part of it. And that, that, that's good because, but here's, here's my, here's my other thoughts on that. If it was, if they were truly a threat, we'd all be dead by now. Or they would have already taken over. Come on. Let's be honest. 1947 was the first crash landing. Uh, you know, it's not going to take them. How much recon are they doing? You know, and this comes back to my old military days. I know what it's like to go on a recon. You do one. You get your, you, you get all the, um, the stuff

you need and then you return that night in the dead of the night and you invade and you win. So the fact that that hasn't happened makes me believe that we can shift things slightly more towards the Stephen Greer idea, that it's a consciousness, that these things,

we just need to, and I love this idea that we can all connect through meditation and that we are all one. Now that, it could have been, what's the James Kemp? Amaran movie avatar. It could be that I'm a big avatar fan, but that they talk

about that there. And it makes total sense because all living things, you know, the old adage of, you know what your pets are thinking. You, you, when you come home, your dog's excited to see you. We connect with other sentient beings

without, you know, communication. And that's through, through the mind and through the head. And the more we advance ourselves, the more we're going to open up those extra parts of our brain that are going to enable us to mind-read each other. Now, you know, we can then go into technology trying to help with that, i.e. Musk, you know, chuck a, chuck a thing on a pig, and next thing you know, you're fast-forwarding your memories. I mean, that's people, I know people are freaking out about that,

but there is something to be said about not needing that. And look, I'm not a big Greer follower. I'm I mean, I know what he's, I know what he does. And look, I've barely meditated in my life because it's just not who I am. But I'm willing to understand it. And I know, I know about the DMT stuff. And I mean, look, I've done magic mushrooms. It was an accident. No, it wasn't.

But I nearly ate my shoe. I thought it was made of chocolate. Oh, that's another story. So, yeah, just to answer the question to round things up, I think it's definitely in the middle there. but I can understand both ends of the spectrum, and I think we should be more concentrating on the thought processes of our brain and what and how we can connect to these things via things like telepathy

and extreme meditation and things like that. But at the same time, haven't done it, too scared to do it, I'd rather just write jokes and act in. You know what I mean? I'm interesting. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, totally. I'm terrified of taking anything to alter my perception.

A, because I don't think personally, physically I could handle it and be, like, I'm, there's always that fear of, like, what if I can't come back? Yeah. What if I can't come back? Exactly. So, no, I think you're right, though. I think, you know, remaining open to the possibility. I mean, I had a woman on a couple of weeks ago who talked all about the consciousness aspect of all this. And the U.S. government using remote viewers to get hostage. How did I ran. Yeah, man. I believe it's real. Yeah. And I think, again, like, it's stuff I'm willing to entertain, the more I realize how not set in stone the world is in front of me. So, yeah, we'll see. I do agree. I think the answer is somewhere in between both of those. But we don't know what it is. So, of course, our military is always going to look at it as a potential threat. So I think that's important to, you know, it'll always be there. But hopefully they're going to come save us soon, if anything. But, all right, here's our next one. Bigfoot Society. This is another really popular podcast in the Sasquatch Realm. He asks on Twitter, what's the one guest you want to interview if aliens like us gets a second season? We'll get to that.

Who would you want to interview? And who's like your dream person? Well, I wanted to get, I mean, I've tomed along, definitely. And my kid was one, you know, but from... other than, other than his perspective, which is not, he's just, you know, really, he's in deep, and he's got so many contacts. And to the stars, they've got, made such a great institution with gaining so much intelligence and putting it out there, you know, unidentified as a show that's, it's opening people's minds up.

And it's advancing us through into disclosure, which is, which is exciting. And so anyone involved in that show any of those gentlemen I see on TV that seem to be connected with a bit more knowledge, a bit more classified stuff. But of course, you know, will they reveal it? You know, what are they willing to say? And a lot of these guys that are retired, the other thing that comes to my mind is eyewitnesses who are really getting on a bit, who are ex-military, who have retired and who can reveal truths. testimonials that I've read and I think was unacknowledged that that that that book. Yeah. Some of those, some of those, some of those testimonials are fascinating and are from retired

generals and high ranking, high ranking people that just give so much legitimacy to the field that I would, I would love to talk. And I like talking to older people. I just think I've always respected older generations. as we really, really should, being ex-military as well because of the people who have fought in wars and things like that. So as young minds, I think we need to hear the wisdom of older folk. So I would go down that direction for sure if we did go get another season. Awesome, man. Yeah, I totally agree.

I mean, the first person I interviewed when I was 13 years old was, a Vietnam vet, you know, he, uh, he had a UFO sighting over the Pacific and, uh, he didn't talk about it ever to anyone. Yeah. Um, I got in touch with him and like, talk to him for three hours, maybe five minutes was about the UFO sighting. But the stories this guy had to tell, I agree with you. Like, what a, what an amazing life that a lot of these people have led. And like, let's respect that. Let's, uh, let's build off of it and let's ask new questions. So yeah, totally. I think that's an awesome, awesome way to go about it. And I can't wait, hopefully, to hear some of those. Awesome. Violetta on Patreon. She asks, all right, we're going back to

the X-Files, Reese. Did you ever get into any in-depth discussions about UFOs with DuCovny or anyone on set? Did that ever happen? Good question. No, but Docoffney was reading that book, I think it's called Humanoids or Humanoid or Hugh. Yeah. you know it's it's uh i'll have to check on what is but it was i it was about uh humanity uh and and so he he's into the into the subject matter so he's just not acting he is you know he's a he's a believer um and so i found that really cool um but yeah um short answer is we yeah we there wasn't a lot of standing around the fire um yarning it was more like me and my trailer going over those difficult lines.

Dude, you had some heavy material there. Heavy material, man. Not only then, I had to get like someone really iconic to try and stab me to death with this glass bottle. And, you know, it was one of those, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, a theater glass. So it was like, it wasn't proper glass. But we, he, I got him to sort of poke me.

And then he actually made me bleed. I got a little scar. in my fingers because even if it was like it's like candy glass it's like glass that you use in TV that when you smash it it's not a real glass but it's kind of like made of candy but it still it still managed to make me bleed and so I'll always have that memory a permanent souvenir from the X file yeah yeah that's awesome man well hey you know I mean we've heard in the past that X-files had people on set from intelligence communities and uh actual FBI investigators who looked into weird stuff.

So we know that a lot of inspiration from the show came from real life, which is really cool. So, hey, that's all we can ask for in a show, you know, covering this topic is go to the people who actually know about it. So yeah. Yeah. All right. Moving back to Hollywood. Jason on Facebook asks, what percentage of people in Hollywood in entertainment that you know have talked about these things? foes in stuff. I mean, you're very visible and out there on the topic, but do you ever get

shit from people in the entertainment industry about being into this stuff or anyone you can think of who you're willing to out on the show who's really interested in this stuff? Yeah, we're getting scandalous here. Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of thing you can't, you can't do unless they are out with it, you know, but in that degree, I, first of all, I don't get ridiculed within the community of Hollywood or anything like that with my beliefs. And I get away with it, obviously, because I'm a comedian, I'm weird, I talk about weird stuff, I do weird things. I predominantly play weird characters from other realms. So that's okay. And in this day and age, now that it's more and more acceptable, the stigma is not attached to it. It's, or at least it's slowly

getting released. It's still there in some ways. but for me, because of the field of entertainment I'm involved in, I'm not, yeah, no one points a finger or says anything behind my back. Not that I know of. If I was in politics, it would be a different story. If I was a lecturer of some sort, if I was dealing with way more serious subject matter about certain things, and then I had this as my hobby or had this belief, people would go,

oh, okay, well, because then you, they worry, about you and that that pisses me off because it doesn't matter what you do if you believe in this kind of stuff that's okay and that should be okay and you have to sometimes separate it from from your actual job particularly if you're in some sort of really serious kind of position but in my position which is not serious it runs hand in hand yeah so yeah now do I do it does it come up much in in green rooms or in trailers. Of course, now and again.

And it's actually, because people know I'm into it, they'll get the courage to bring it up or say, I'm into this or I've seen this. What do you think, Rees? And I'll have a discussion with them. And I think that's really cool. So that's one of the reasons I actually am quite open about it because it is the unknown.

No one's really got the answers, apart from some people who, like, contactees, who may, who strongly believe that they've seen, these certain things or have had these certain experiences. That's a different thing again. I'm not one of those. But all I can do is chat and hypothesize and theorize. And I think that's one really fun thing.

That's the coolest thing about this field is that it's just folk talking. It's like and it's getting our brains moving and it's opening the little doors in our brains and zapping each other with these ideas. and through that finding some sort of disclosure as well. Or not. I always think the journey is much more rewarding. I almost don't want the answers, I think we're going to be disappointed if we do figure out, you know.

And it's actually us. It's actually, and then it's out. Yeah, I know. But us from the future is still going to be exciting. Absolutely. When you see these. And one of the things that's got, lot in the way is pop culture in a major way. And I'm partly to blame of that, obviously,

but it's when you think back to the little green men and things like that, the movies of the 50s, the source of men from Mars, that kind of stuff, it's muddied it all up. And then people are picturing those things. And then when they think they see things, they're seeing those things as well. And so it's the, it's the, that mixed with the reality of the fact that maybe there are these beings with the almond-shaped eyes and stuff because they are so prevalent in people's visual memories and things. So it's a muddy old river, isn't it? Isn't it right? There's days I wake up and I'm like, why, why am I doing this? But hey, conversations like this where we can really stretch out and like you said, hypothesize. You know, anytime one of these

UFO people says they have the answers and they know what's right and what's wrong, that's what I run for the hell. I'm like, come on, man, or woman, let's be honest. And those are the ones you sometimes see at those conferences as well, they do stand in front of a massive crowd and I say, right, well, this is what's the story is. I've been in contact with these aliens. I've done this. I've worked on these products with them.

And that's, and Bob Lazar's not quite at that level. I put him slightly different to that because he's not admitting, working with aliens or things like that. He's technology-based. But, yeah, it's the grain assault thing. And there's such a thing as there's the want to believe, and then there's that personal want to be too strong. So you've got to pull your want back,

because if you start sprinting towards that finish line with that big want tattoo on your forehead, you know, you're going to hit some false finish line and fall over and start opening the champagne, and then people are going to be around you going, dude, you can be on the wrong track. That is the perfect analogy. There's interview over later.

There we go. Awesome. Just a couple more here, my man. Oh, this is bringing us to New Zealand. I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Amanda on Facebook says, do you know about the airline pilot Bruce Kathy and his theories on the world grid?

Yeah, is this guy? Have you heard about him in your neck of the woods? The world, it rings a bell, but no, I'm not sure. Yeah. Okay. I have to look it up. Yeah, yeah. He's got some, I've never heard of him either.

So like, you're not alone in this. Okay. But World Grid, okay. She gave some information here. His central thesis was that he could use mathematics to describe a grid-like pattern on earth that powers flying saucers and controls the dates and plays. places where nuclear bombs can function. That's interesting. We hear a lot about UFOs being cited over nuclear facilities and whatnot. So this dude in New Zealand apparently thinks

there is a grid that these UFOs are following when it comes to our nuclear capabilities. And maybe it's powering the flying saucers. Yeah, what do you think of that? That's a big one. That's interesting. I mean, when it comes to grids and the earth, I'm into the magnetic situation and negative magnetic anomalies throughout the planet where people see paranormal activity. And I think there's a big, there should be more focus on that situation, for example, things like Skin Walker Ranch where there's a lot of magnetic situations going on there. And then there's, you know, is a cesspool of paranormal activity and not just UFOs, but cryptids

and things like that, which gets me so excited because I, I, I love to involve multidimensional creatures and things like that, not just lights in the sky, because, A, it's more fun, and B, there's got to be a connection there. And being into cryptozoology,

you know, I like the idea of Sasquatches and various other creatures like Nessie and things that have been seen and why are they seen? And are they really there? Or are they just appearing from another dimension? because of a time shift or because of the magnetic anomaly in that area that at a certain time a day or a certain the way that the earth is placed at that particular time, a vision happens. And it could be not even of the now.

It could be of a different timeline, could be of the past. But because we're living in a multidimensional universe, it is here, but it's not here. And so there's that kind of, that kind of talk, which I think is fun. Yeah, so the gridline stuff, I'll look into that. I also really like the idea that the extraterrestrials always come in contact with us around the nuclear situation and that they are protecting us or, you know, and then there's the footage of the, of them zapping the nuclear missile that was up in space and things like that. And just the contact around bases. Rindlesham Forest falls into that one as well, I think, in some ways, although that's a,

another mystery again because what the hell was that craft just sitting in the forest for for no apparent reason. By the way, didn't have little dudes in it. So I'm still, as we're talking here, I'm still thinking more and more like there isn't little dudes in these things because why would they need to,

why would they need to be? Why would they need to be in there looking through the wind, looking through the windshield, looking down, going, okay, just checking on. Oh, we've been seeing, quick, get out of here. And I just don't, it just doesn't seem, it doesn't seem right, but it's still worth talking about because then people who have had experiences, you know, swear to their blue in the face that they have been taken up and have been and have talked to these beings through their, through their

mind and what have you. So, you know, get that bag of salt and join in on that discussion. Everywhere. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Salt me up, baby. Salt me up, make me salty. That's such a good point, though, the whole idea of, you know, maybe it's their version of drones.

We send unmanned things to other planets. Why would you risk one of your beings' lives or, you know, look at our fighter jets. These things cause millions of dollars. So we're not going to risk putting a pilot in there and crashing on another planet until we're sure that we're going to be safe. And look, if Roswell taught us anything, they're not safe. They're crashing. But I was just going to say, that's where when Roswell comes in. And then you think, well, okay, so there was creatures inside there.

If we go with the focus. Supposedly, yeah, yeah. But that kind of spins that out of a little bit of context, out of the focus on what we're trying to get to. So it's, once again, the river's muddy, you know. Yeah, it's frustrating. Yeah, for sure. Every time we think we've solved it. All right.

The Zignals on Twitter asks, Love your work, Reese. Can you tell us about your favorite UFO case of all time? Rindlesham, for sure. Is it? Okay. Yeah, Rendlesham Forest. Just because, you know, it's out of the states and there's so many in the states.

And I know there's ones in all over the world. But that one for me, it's got a, you know, heavy American involvement, obviously. those two American bases that were in the UK at the time. But I love it because there's so much going on with it. And the craft was right there. They actually went right up to it and they touched it. It had like hieroglyphic signs on it.

It's just got so much Steven Spielberg sort of George Lucas aspect to it. Yet I believe it. It is definitely real. and then there's the whole issue with the, if you read into this case, with one of the chaps getting the download, writing all those binary codes in his notebook, and then the translation of what that came out to be, which does feature forth the hypothesis of us from the future, things like that. It's just the mysteries that are, the unraveling of that one is really cool. because there are so many cases, and a lot of them are just sightings or being chased by something or a light in the sky or a, you know, the Phoenix lights is a really cool one

because it was just the amount of eyewitnesses and you've got those boomerang-shaped craft. And there is no kind of, I find not believing in that one to be hard. You know, it's not a bunch of flares. There was just, anything that's stacked with a lot of evidence, first of all, are the greatest cases. But anything that is more than just lights in the sky,

is that a tangible kind of physical effect on people? Really pricks my ears up and makes me even more excited. So, yeah, Rindleshams up there for me. I would have to agree. I mean, you even had Nick Pope on your show as well, the former MOD Molder, as it were. And physical effects, too, I mean, one of those guys had like heart failure that they discovered came from being around radiation at this UFO event.

And then the government paid his health bills and said it was directly connected to this UFO event. So that's insane to me, you know, that this guy's being covered by the VA and because of a UFO event. Like it just blows my mind. The danger that comes with the negative magnetic negative energy and stuff that we get from these things. things that's time and time again brought up is really scary. And you think that the effects that these things have on you. And I often think about that when I think, oh, I'd love to see one of these things up close to whatever.

And then you think, well, hang on, people who have done that have had really bad effects for the rest of their lives and stuff. So there's that. That's where the potential threat comes in, you know. Right, yeah. Yeah. And it might not even be their intention. They just don't know.

They come through with energy that we can't suss out. That's not good for us. Maybe that's why they're not coming to us more readily. Because they know that they will have a diverse, adverse, I should say, effect on us as humans. Yeah. I think, again, I think it comes back to us having more to do with it than we think. It's the same with our pilots. You know, if these UFOs may not.

potentially be malevolent, but how our pilots react to them or how they deal with the situation in the moment could be a threat. Like, you know, they could set off a world war if, you know, they shot at one of these things that was just there to be like, hey, we're just checking out. Like, we've got the cure for cancer if you want it, but or you could just blow us up. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. It's interesting. So here's our last listener question, Reese. I think you'll like this one. If you could visit the location. of any UFO flap, citing, landing,

what would it be? What's your dream case other than Rendell Shum? I know we just covered it. If it's Rendell Shum, like that's your answer. But yeah, any other dream cases

you wish you could be personally involved with? I would love to, and I know there's an expedition that's underway in the planning stages, and that's off the coast, Catalina Island, where there is supposedly

a USO base under the I believe there could be something there, the amount of sightings that we have off the coast, California here, that seems to be centered around that area. And I think they're going out with a research ship. I'm a big fan of research ships from Jacques Cousteau and the Life Aquatic. I want to be on one of these things. And so I think that's something I'd like to do, is to go out to sea. and because I think some of the big answers that we haven't grasped yet are under the oceans

because what a place to hide. There's more down there, I think. That's a mystery than up in our skies for sure. I think so. And things are coming out of the sea. And when you were out at sea to any extent away from land, you can see the absolute vastness of the ocean. and to see a little bloop come out,

no one would notice it. A little, these tiny things that might come out to survey to these, these orbs, these craft, whatever they are, a perfect place to hide. And so I wish a lot of money went into creating some sort of Nemo-type submarine, submersible research craft that could go on top and underneath, or both, and search our oceans for not only Atlantis, but the USO bases that might be underneath the seas.

That would be super cool. Well, hey, full disclosure, man. I am one of the media reps for that expedition you're talking about. So I will put you in touch with those people, and hopefully we can get you out to Catalina Island. I mean, you're not that far away, if I'm mistaken. Well, I've got the binoculars, man. So, uh, dude, you are ready to go. I'm ready to go.

I'll grab my scuba gear. I get my scuba gear and my drink bottle and, uh, my flippers. And I am there, my man. Oh, love it, love it. We're going to make it happen for sure. Well, wrapping things up here, Reese. Man, thank you so much for all your time. We've been almost going for two hours.

I really appreciate this. Tell us a little about you've spoken. about it throughout the interview, but the cryptid factor. I know you're going to be having some exciting stuff going on with that soon. What is the cryptid factor? Who do you do that with? And yeah, give us a little rundown of that. So that is my podcast with Buttons and Dan Schreiber. And it is about cryptozoology first and foremost. But because the stories, eyewitness reports and news relating to that subject matter isn't coming in thick and fast every five minutes. We also deal with weekly world weird news, which is one of our big segments.

So we talk about anything weird or paranormal that is happening on the earth on a weekly basis. And we don't discuss things before we get together. The three of us are in different continents presently. And so like Dan's in the UK, Buttons is in New Zealand. I'm here in LA at the moment. And we get our stories and then we surprise each other with the headlines. And then we kind of outdo each other with the spookiness. And then we chat about where we think these stories are going.

And first and foremost, you know, we have a great laugh. And it's entertainment, but we do what we have done on the aliens like us. and that is hypothesized and, yeah, just try and answer the mysteries of the world. So that podcast has been going since 2008. It actually started on the actual radio in New Zealand. We were on a dance station called George, and we were on Saturday mornings. So people would be coming off a high listening to Unst-Unst Music all night, and then all of a sudden our theme tune would come on and would be discussing Sasquatch

in theories. And we'd get a lot of people texting us saying, stop encouraging this bullshit. And that kind of became our motto. So we've been encouraging BS since then. And it went to different radio station. We got fired from George. We moved to another radio station, a student one. And then we moved from that to another station that was in the middle of a shopping mall. and we were the three of us, this is when Farrier was on the show, would be in this shopping mall with these microphones, people would be walking past with their bags and stuff and ice creams.

And we'd be have our headphones on, you know, talking about UFOs and things. It was just, we just love the bizarness. We have matching berets and t-shirts that we wear. And it's kind of like the Ghostbusters on heat. And so it's just a lot of, fun, but also, yeah, it's a passion. And so that podcast, which in itself was encrypted because we would only be able to do it

when we could get to do it. Sometimes it would be once every third week and we'd put it up online and people would go, oh, we've discovered another one of your show. But as of lately, we've got back together and it is now weekly. And so this is the best we've ever done with it. And I think it's because the world's a bit screwed and we're all kind of, well, we're out of work, let's be honest. And so that's one positive that's come out of 2020. And so it's on all the networks.

It's on Spotify and it's on SoundCloud and iTunes, I think. And we're trying to, and by the way, it's not monetized with a complete hobby. So, yeah, that's where we're at. We've actually tried to turn into a TV show a couple of times. I think it would be great. But one were the ones we did, we did it for discovery. And they were like, someone really loved us. And then the upper management when they saw the pilot,

they just went, you guys are just mad. No one's going to watch this. And so we kind of took that as a badge of honor as well. Because, okay, I guess your audience is not for us. But it's, you know, it really is the choo-choo train that never stops. So that's the cryptid factor. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place.

Pluto TV. Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free. The truth is ours. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary.

Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. Awesome, man. Hey, encouraging BS since 2008. There's the T-shirt right there. I'm in. Let me know when it's available. But no, I've recently started listening to that one as well. I love it.

Here's another project I'd love to throw to our audience, especially our New Zealand audience. Big in Japan. Can you tell us a little about this? Oh, yeah. Yeah. What brought this project about? And what was your experience like going over to Japan?

My girlfriend lived there twice now. Speaks pretty good Japanese, but I am terrified, man. Culture shock is not my thing. So what was it like? Yeah. Total culture shock. Yeah. So basically that was a really awesome experience.

It came about because of the supposed 2020 Olympics being held in Japan. So the idea was to make a show for the Australasians, the South Pacific, where I'm from Down Under, to give them a little bit of a culture woo-hoo about what Japan's like. And so I was sent over there on assignment, if you will. And there I was. I'd never been there, always on the top list of places I want to go. And it usually is for people because it is so different and so interesting. and so many cool pop culture things come out of Japan

that encourage and construct really cool things in the Western world that we end up, you know, the original ideas are from Japan. Also, I'm a big robot fiend, so it just made sense for me to be part of this. The other thing I'll say is that it was possibly the last travel show created because I did it this year, and I was in Japan in January through, to mid-February for five weeks.

Right before the world. COVID struck while I was there. So the last week and a half, my wife was like, you better get out of there, you know, because there's a close part of the world to where things were really kicking off. And so I finished up with it, wore a mask heavily in the last week or so, and then got out, you know. But what a time.

My kid, my eldest boy, Finn, takes Japanese school. He's getting real good with the language, loves the culture. It was very jealous I was over there. So I was thinking of him a lot and I was getting to do some good groundwork so that I could return there with the family because I know he really wants to go. Of course, then the world turned upside down. And then the Olympics didn't even happen. But we managed to get the show out.

So it was called Reese Darby, big in Japan. hit the New Zealand television screens and I believe it's going to Australia next where it's just called Restarby in Japan. They've dropped their big. Turns out I wasn't so big. Not so big. Yeah, it was great. You know, I got a couple of recognises there.

I was in a very geeky part where all these figurines and comics and stuff like that. I'd go to those places quite a bit. I forget the Japanese word for it. but I got recognized from the X-Files when I was in this figurine and comic bookstore. And so that was really cool. These Japanese fans were very excited. I saw this rock band that the audience was, this can't be right, but I'm thinking it was like 10,000 people in this audience. It was called, it was called Baby Rock or Baby,

Anyway, some of the listeners will know the name of this rock band. And yeah, that was just a couple of these great things. I also trained to be a summary. And I created this mascot and walked around and went to a snow festival, a fire festival. I really almost clocked Japan in five weeks. It was a fantastic trip. That's awesome, man. Yeah, they're big on their mascots there, I've noticed.

got Hikonyan, which is the samurai cat all over our apartment back in New York City, because that was the, every small prefecture has, like, their own mascot. It's so cool. Yeah, they call it the Yurikara. And it's a really cool thing because Japanese people are kind of shy, and to their credit, they're not touchy-feely, which is great in this era. But they do like, they do really connect with inanimate objects. of characters and things.

And so I think that was really cool. And a lot of other countries, they would more likely to mock the idea of a mascot or, you know, what we can tend to be like, you'll push it or something like that. I've been a mascot in New Zealand in a parade where someone just kicked me. You know, that stuff would not happen in Japan. It's all hugs and photographs.

And there's a really good, really good energy to the people over there and a very disciplined culture. So I really loved it. It sounds like it was an amazing experience. And hey, look, the day will come when we're all able to travel again. And I know if everyone pulls their weight. But man, this has been amazing. Again, while the world kind of falls apart, there are things to look forward to.

And the fact that I got to get you on here today, huge honor. I'm a huge fan of everything you do. Yes, I'm going to fan boy out right now. Sorry, but the fact that you have these interests only makes you that much cooler in my eyes. And I'm sure many other people are. So I got to thank you for coming on. Is there anywhere that our listeners can find you on your social media to ask you some more questions? Yeah, I'm on Twitter.

I don't do it much at the moment. The last few things I've been doing on it is just I've discovered what I want to do with it. And that's just put out little poems every now and again just to make people smile or whatever. because I don't like to have opinions on things or whatever. There's enough of that going on, and a lot of Twitter is negative. I'm also on Facebook. I have a fan site on that. You can just find me there and Instagram as well.

So it's normally either it's R-H-Y-S-I-E-D-A-R-B-Y. Recy Darby is one of the one of the hooks I go with other than that you know Google me find me and uh if I'm if I'm if I'm if I'm not working out on the peloton or writing jokes I'll uh I'll answer you brother you got to keep fit man hey look there's the crypto factor symbol at the back there see oh love it that's so cool I can't do oh there it is so yeah we'll have to get you in aliens like us one made next but um dude again thank you so much for coming on Somewhere in the Skies today.

And we'll talk soon. Yeah, man. And thank you. Keep up the good work. A great show. And keep fighting the good fight. I'm with you all the way. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions in association with

the Entertainment One podcast network.