The Cake Eaters - 12. Interview with Mark Chavez (Terry from Game Changers)

Episode Date: August 17, 2021

Mark Chavez, Terry from Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, joins the show this week! We discuss his recent Golden Cakie Award win, his experience on set, what he would name his own hockey team, and then we talk about all of the other amazing projects he has going on. Follow Mark Chavez on Instagram & Twitter (@themarkchavez) and check out The Sunday Service Follow us at www.thecakeaterspod.com and on Twitter (@thecakeeaters) and Instagram (@thecakeeaterspod) Email us at [e-mail]

It's not worth winning if you can't win! Hello everybody, welcome back to the podcast. We have a real good one for you this week. My name is Brandon. I'm joined by my co-host Heath, and this is the Cake Eaters podcast. I'm beyond excited for you guys to hear this episode. This week, Heath and I got a chance to sit down with Mark Chavez, who plays MJ's dad, Terry, on the Mighty Ducks Game Changers season one. If you've been listening to the podcast, you know we are gigantic Terry fans

here. He's one of our favorite characters. And he won Best Parent for the Golden Cakeys last week. And so we got a chance to sit down with Mark, who not only plays Terry, but Mark is also an insanely talented writer and comedian. And so getting to pick his brain

and kind of talk about some of his other projects was such an honor go ahead and sit back relax and you're gonna love this episode before we kind of get into it with mark though i want to break down a couple housekeeping items for everybody first uh after this week's episode we're going to be moving to our new bi-weekly schedule uh for episodes So our episodes will come out every other Tuesday instead of every Tuesday. This next episode after this is going to drop on August 31st. And for that episode, we're going to start tackling the original Mighty Ducks movie D1. We'll be kind of discussing D1 through five different episodes.

We're going to break it up into like five parts. So each podcast episode is going to be roughly 20 minutes of the original movie and so that'll start on august 31st and go through those five parts and then we have a couple bonus episodes after that where we'll kind of drill down into specific situations and scenarios that happen in d1 um so go ahead and make sure you hit subscribe and follow so you can stay up to date with everything that we have going on over here. Head over to thecakeeaterspod.com where you can check out our merch store, find out all of our latest information, even send us an email, thecakeeaterspod at gmail.com. All right. I think that's pretty much it.

So let's go ahead and get this started with Mark. A quick message from our friends at Broken Forest Collective. Built on a passion for small batch and handcrafted products, Broken Forest provides high quality casual wear and lifestyle goods that are American made and built to outlast the fast fashion trends. They also plant a tree in Boulder, Colorado for every product sold. Visit brokenforestco.com and use the code CakeEaters15 for 15% off your order. Welcome everybody to the Cake Eaters podcast. I'm Brandon. I've got my co-host Heath with me. And on today's episode, I'm joined by a very special guest. Super excited to have him with us. He's an actor, a writer,

comedian. As of last week, he is an official Golden Cakey's award winner for Best Parent. We have, you guys all know him as Terry from Game Changers Season 1. We have Mark Chavez with us. How are you doing, Mark? Great. Okay. Oh, tell me everything about the Cakey's award. What is this? I was going to say, I don't know how familiar you are about the uh cakey's award what is this i was gonna say i don't know how familiar you are with the golden cakey's considering as of this recording it's an episode of the podcast that we haven't released yet so so not very yeah um but uh yeah last week uh we went and uh gave out awards for for season one of game changers as a little bit of a recap. And Terry received the best parent award for his amazing. Wow. That's fantastic.

I can't wait to find that out in real time. That's wonderful. Congratulations. You should be expecting your, your winner's gift package in the mail, probably any moment now. That's great because I never gave you my address. So how are you getting it to me?

We know it's we're's we're in with Disney. They know everything. You know, they got it. They got it. They got it on file. Well, I beat out a lot of great parents, too. The other people playing those parents were pretty good. You did very well deserve, though, because you put in the time you put in the work and the effort driving MJ to all those games to call them.

And she's not even playing. Oh my goodness. Like if that's not great parenting, I don't know what is exactly like I have a hockey kid and she doesn't even play hockey. Like, come on. Like that's, that's pretty spectacular parenting right there. Yeah. I think it is well-deserved. I'll, I'll accept it. I will take it. Thank you very much. It was, it was a close race though. You are right. Uh, you, you just edged out Nick's moms, Paula and Sherry. So they were a close number two. Yeah. Amy and Jane, I'm real life friends with them. They're great. Oh, nice. Now you can, you can rub your golden cakey award in their face now. I can't wait to tell Amy. That's the first thing I'm going do it was it was a close call though because you know nick's moms if you just want a pleasant and encouraging conversation they were there for

him so so positive so positive and encouraging you know and i'm just confused so yeah i don't know how i won i'm confused that i won how did this even happen definitely like like he said definitely the uh the the driving uh driving mj around uh to the podcast not even not even playing hockey and then you make the selfless move to know when nick goes to actually play hockey you hop in the booth you know as an accountant i'm sure you know tv announcing probably wasn't your forte wasn't your strong suit but you hopped in you know i hopped right in you know i'm there for my daughter i'm there to help uh i'll do anything for her bent over backwards co-host a show with her um she means the world to me and that's for that reason i accept this golden cakey's award

thank you well deserved that's a beautiful speech uh and so uh with with the mighty ducks so uh going through your kind of like audition process and getting this with with the mighty ducks so uh going through your kind of like audition process and getting this role was the mighty ducks like was did you have a special connection with the mighty ducks did you have like a bond did you do you remember watching the movies or was it kind of like a uh did you come in kind of blind to the whole mighty ducks thing uh more more the second part but um they're they're they're so huge that like i definitely for sure knew i knew that there was three movies like i knew enough about it and i when i got the part i can take you tell you about the audition but when i got the part

um i told my wife i was like we should watch the mighty ducks i don't because i don't know if i've seen it and the thing is like i'm a huge amelia west of as fan like i grew up watching all the brat pack movies and he you know so i was like it was funny that i hadn't seen it and i and i and i thought maybe i had i was like i'll just watch it because it was like kind of on enough that it was just one of those things and like definitely recognize some parts and other parts i was like i don't remember this at all like so i did my research uh we watched the uh the the first movie and yeah that that's that's where i was you know and here i live at you know i'm american but i live in canada hockey capital of the world and i've only been to a couple games

not a huge hockey fan uh but i think that all uh plays well into my character so it's kind of all fine you know for yeah for sure because i doubt terry's you know i doubt he's lacing up skates well maybe he he's in minnesota so maybe he's uh maybe he has a couple times but you know he's he's an accountant he's too busy crunching numbers to to go watch minnesota games, you know? Yeah. I bet embarrassingly, I bet Terry does probably is more hockey aware than I am. Like, even though he's like totally clueless, I bet he knows more than I do. I love that. Well, speaking of our favorite character, Terry from the show, one of our favorite parts is the great banter that went back and forth between you and you and mj

but it felt like there might have been a little bit more interaction there uh during the scenes and so i was just curious if if anything did end up on the cutting room floor and if so if you happen to remember any yeah they're definitely uh there's an episode where all of my lines are cut um and it's uh and i think it's to fine effect in the show like it's like i rarely was adding that much i guess with my words um but the um the creator producer spiller he he when he would come and do our scenes uh he we would go through the scene and then he would let me improvise which was so much fun and and i think a few of my improv lines got in maybe i'm trying to remember um maybe one got in because they're all like it was all pretty much as written that

you know when we uh especially the first episode that i was in but there's only one episode i think it's number it's whatever one i don't speak like it's and i'm like just sitting there just watching and i was like wait i was always watching the episodes okay here i go here's my big line here it comes and then credits roll what happened what happened to my line like at least got one in there because i know i recorded like four or five different things i said but yeah we he would he would just be like um uh he would like say okay do these do these do your lines and then leah who played mj would she would knock it out of the park she was so good she would re she don't think she ever flubbed like we and there was one day where um they so there's a

there's a term called pumpkinkining when you work with kids and that's the time that they cannot work anymore. It's like they're off and then it's illegal for them to keep working. So it's called the pumpkin. And she was pumpkining at six, I guess, some time. And it was 20 minutes until, and we hadn't done our scene yet.

We were sitting in our place like waiting, they were getting all the coverage around it and we were, and we hadn't done our scene yet we were sitting in our place like waiting they were getting all the coverage around it and we were and we've been sitting there all day and they're like okay bang we gotta do this we gotta go go go go and she had so many things to get through and they're like go bang next thing bang bang bang bang and she was just on it on it on it then i would just do my little my stuff was so easy i would just do my little reaction and be done um and then six o'clock hit and they got everything and we were out and i was like kind of sad because it meant that i wasn't going to be brought back the next day another day's work but uh but it was uh it was pretty spectacular to watch yeah a real pro

that's awesome a personal favorite for mine is when you mentioned that it does feel like tax season, you know, when, when they're in the arena, I was like, Hey, I've been there those last few days at H&R Block. There's, there's kind of a weird tension and excitement in the air to get it they they had this funny little round where they they went to us and they sent out the the sides and we did i basically did like every line from every scene that i appeared in and just recorded those and sent them back and then they um like i didn't hear anything a few weeks later they sent back every to everyone that auditioned they were like everybody do it again you've all done it wrong um uh not meanly they were just like we didn't want it more we just want it more straight um because i think and i was like definitely not playing it very straight when i first auditioned i was like kind of wacky with it like i was like you know like being just kind of pulling too much focus i guess and they were like no we want it super like straight still like

soulless like very like just there kind of like you know you don't want to pull too much so did it again and uh thankfully it worked but um uh and it was funny because like there was no more to it it was like i did they could have just taken my audition tape and thrown it on the show because it was i recorded every line that i said that's awesome yeah that that dry like straight thing i think definitely definitely plays with uh with terry um and your delivery with them is just fantastic because like like you mentioned it's only a few lines here and there but they're they're done so well that and you and mj you can tell there's like such a good little chemistry that they they stick out and they're done so well that, and you and MJ, you can tell there's like such a good little chemistry that they, they stick out and they're like pretty memorable throughout those episodes.

Oh, that's really nice for you to say. Yeah. We, we got along really well. She and I got to know her dad too, cause she would have her, her dad on set. They but because of COVID there was very little interaction with everyone. So I like, she was like my pal, like i would sit there with her and we would we would chat and we would she would open up that laptop which was a working laptop and she would like take photos with it and play games and i remember like the last day uh she was so bored and i just like gave her my phone she was like playing games on my phone like it was very funny um but uh yeah because we were all kind of like sectioned up no one could really

eat together we had to eat in our um our little trailer and like uh so um it was nice to be able to have somebody sit in that cold cold booth because you get this was you guys were kind of filming right at the like the height of covid right this was did you was was there any did you guys have to like shut down during any of that or was it did it kind of start right at the like the height of covey right this was did you was was there any did you guys have to like shut down during any of that or was it did it kind of start up a little bit after it no there was um so they they were learning like it was yeah i was in in the height and it was like when things were first kind of opening back up um at the end of the summer they were like okay we're trying to figure this out and they they put everybody into a testing pool um at great expense to the production company i imagine um that uh everybody need to be needed to be tested two times a week

so i would just have to like go on to set and just get a nasal swab and it was very quick and no painless and fine but like um so everybody was like in the testing pool and like and there was never at least when i that i was over there might have been stuff i wasn't aware of obviously but there's they never like had to postpone or do anything like they were really stringent and um um you know as a close said nobody was allowed on there didn't you know that wasn't tested like it was all very very kept you know very very safe um and uh yeah it was um it was kind of like like i was a bit anxious about it at first but then once i was kind of dealing with it i was like really grateful that because i was

tested every week that my wife was kind of co-tested just because of you know being in like it just gave us this like peace of mind during this like height of the pandemic that we were like you know having having so it was a really nice bonus like to be to be in that testing bowl was great yeah that's really interesting you were so you mentioned you were kind of sectioned off did you did you get to meet emilio now since you were no big fan now emilio no it was my big it was my biggest um regret i he was on set a couple times when i was there and everyone's like super busy and like he was he was near my trailer at one point he was talking to somebody else and i was like i'm not gonna i have to go do my thing and he's who knows what he's got on his plate like he's so i didn't go and and it's weird it was

very weird energy just because of covid like because you can't go up and just be like hey what's up like you'd have to stand six feet away with your mask on and be like and he you know it just felt too awkward and um he like waved at me at one point when i walked by him because we were all we were all kind of shuttling not shuttling just kind of like walking past his little area where he was and he just kind of like gave a friendly little wave to all of us who are walking by and it was like, I'm Emilio. That was, that was, uh,

that was it. Yeah. I didn't meet Lauren Graham either. Um, I was on set with her quite a bit, but she, we were sectioned off. Like I met a lot of the kids and talked to them. Um,

that was kind of fun. Like, uh, uh, but, and then the parents, when the parents were on set, that was great because we were all kind of being shot at the same time so we would be just kind of hanging out in the trailer area like

joking around and then or we would all be called in to to shoot so i liked those days a lot because i had pals on set there was other days where i was just like alone in the trailer um and then because sometimes i would sit with leah's double too because she had um because of the like so i would there's shots of me up there with like some other woman in a wig just sitting next to me that happened a lot yeah that's so that's so interesting especially because it was such a unique environment was there like a particular favorite moment that really like jumps out and stands out whether it's from the end production of the show or while you were in it yeah i mean there there was a few fun times like that the like a funny like oh you know

what was really nice was when um kub sang the national anthem um okay we all um we all watched like we all got to be in there while he did that and it like even though like i was not in the shot like everybody just kind of like came into the to the stadium we watched that um and it's great like it's like live singing especially during that time where no like we weren't able to really go to any theater or any kind of like so it's this big like great live performance um and it was wonderful and it was really great to watch all that everybody do so like like just play hockey really well in front of me they're all you know these little stunts were being performed and i just gotta watch it all you know um that's cool yeah and then you know there was days like where

all of us parent parents would just like be cutting up and running around and hanging out in there like we're there uh the locker room and that that was kind of our like we would sit there in that holding area um during some of the times and just kind of like you know chat do whatever make jokes but uh yeah i think that's there's it was a ton. It was really, you know, it was a, it was a fun time. Yeah. Coob singing is also one of my, like when he went after Les Mis in the show, that was breathtaking. Yeah. I didn't get to see this because I wasn't in the episode, but when they did the, they all did a table read of that episode and they, they did it while I was on set.

So they were all in another room like doing the table read for the following episode i think that was episode four or maybe three where he does four four yeah yeah and um uh so i was on set for episode three i was shooting and uh they everyone came out of that read and they're like blown away because half of them didn't know that he was this like incredible talent aside from his like acting chops they're like what people just didn't know yeah that's that's how i don't know about you heath that's how i was too because i hadn't done any like prior look up to coob and when he started belting that out i was like oh my god what where did this come from and then i started looking up and he's like was it america's got talent he was on or something like that yeah just think crazy yeah that's that's not an easy song to sing you know i think i joked in the

episode we broke down i was like you know he's up there with the likes of ann hathaway getting after that song you know like that was no small feat so that's that's awesome yeah it's like it's really like humbling to be around these like super talented children too you know like just all got they're just firing on all cylinders and just like doing so many great things it's like yep i'm an old man just watching watching these kids do their great work you know yeah yeah i i have that with like like my friends have like little little like like toddlers now and stuff and even watching them like do like simple like mundane toddler stuff it's just like oh that's amazing so like being around like like no offense to my my

friends toddlers but being around like actually talented kids i feel like would just be mind you know it really is there there it's yeah it's a lot to kind of take in um and you know and then like you know the show is about the the kids too so it's very much like you know we just want to kind of blend in make sure that we're not doing you know so it yeah it's just it's a it's an interesting thing to be involved in another uh another one of our our favorite things of the show was um once we get to episode 10 where they're in states and they they list out all of the like the team names that the the ducks and the the don't bothers are playing right some of the team names are i don't know if you got to look at any of those but some of the team names are absolutely

ridiculous like what are they i don't know if i've seen all of them so there's one named nova stars there's the rockets blade rockets the ice broncos the ice otters the arctic devils maroon marauders blade rockets is amazing that's great yeah so i was wondering um if you had known uh them what was your kind of favorite team name and then if uh follow-up question if you were in charge of your own peewee hockey team what do you think you would name it oh that's a great question oh geez okay well first of all i'm sorry that i can't do uh blade rockets because that's amazing um if i was in charge okay if terry was in charge of uh his own peewee league uh it would be like the you know the little the little calculators or

or the the the flying the flying uh decimal points um or i would and then if i did one i first there would be no reason that i ever had a peewee hockey it would be very confusing that i was coaching uh so i would um i would probably just name them uh you know just like something yeah i do not want to play ice death yeah like you're asking for trouble right there all right something like that so people wouldn't even like get on the ice with us so they would so we wouldn't have to show that i have no coaching skills you just win win by forfeit every time yeah Yeah. We can't do it. Who's scary? Their uniforms are way too scary. It's covered in blood.

What are they doing? The fine decimal points, though, is pretty, that's top notch. That might be good. Yeah. That's evocative. People, you know, that shows a knowledge of the sport. Well, that's the key with with with hockey hockey team names especially like minor league or like peewee is you just throw an adjective in front of a noun

and then you're good to go yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah i played soccer growing up and all my little in my soccer team names were all there was either the cobras because everyone never just called cobras for some reason i was on a team called the ghostbusters that's pretty amazing and i was on a team called the vampires so there you go that's we weren't very creative as uh eight-year-old soccer players i was just a blue devil my whole life and here i could have been a ghostbuster yeah yeah they let us name our own teams in this in this little soccer uh whatever it was that's epic we there was only one time where in peewee sports where we got to name our team and i think it i think it ended up being timber wolves for some reason which is like not a bad name but you know when you're naming it yourself i feel like that's a that's a bit of a cop-out to go with timberwolves you know it could have been right could have been blade rockets or something yeah

yeah yeah seriously i mean know the stars yeah it's like you're given too much rope it's like it's like you can name it anything you have to like so you try to do it right well you have to name it like it sounds normal timberwolves yeah yeah i love it um and so you were a part, well, Terry was a part of the second best youth sports podcast in Southeast Minnesota, which is pretty big deal. And so, you know, with that kind of clout comes a lot of responsibility, but I just wanted to you know it in in thinking like of terry's favorite moments what do you think his would have been on the podcast as you and mj are traveling through minnesota i think when he starts cluing in like to what's going on in the game like i think there's a clicking moment in you know later in the season where he legitimately

gets excited and i think that has to be like when i don't remember if it's they when they were going to finals or when they won that game i don't remember what but there's this moment where i was just cheering i did shots where i hugged leah and we were like high-fiving like i think like that that was like that was you know his moment where he was like i get it they score points and i like that like it was probably his biggest moment right there where he and he felt like he connected to mj you know like they were they they finally had something to talk about yeah get some nice father-daughter bonding. Yeah, yeah. Leah and I would sit, and she would pitch season ideas for the next season to me.

Okay, I love that. She was very generous and would always make me the star, which was so great. She'd be like, Terry, okay, here's what happens i my character starts playing hockey and then terry starts running his own show and he does his own podcast and then there's a spin-off show where it's just the terry show and he does his own show you're like yeah that's what they're gonna do and i love it and i really appreciate it. Me and Leah are probably kindred spirits there because there's a lot of times on the podcast where I'll be talking with Heath and I'll pitch, you know, spin off and season ideas. And 90% of the time they're centered around Winnie, Winnie, the snack bar girl.

Yeah. They're like focused on her because she was my one of my favorite characters and yeah we we came up with her heath came up with this this conspiracy theory about winnie that she is um like a descendant of uh han and yan the the old guys from the the original trilogy oh okay right yeah yeah so uh give the sage wisdom to bombay yeah right yeah yeah yeah yeah of course that makes sense yeah that's our that's my spinoff show is is winnie winnie being the the wise old man giving everybody hockey and life advice yeah it would probably do really well you know i think so i think so i'm actually surprised that i wasn't cast as mustard guy like mustard tim yeah mustard tim like i like those are the parts i go out for

so i'm really i'm shocked that they wouldn't they didn't hand me well i think the the the the knock against you for mustard tim was that you didn't look enough like like nick because the the guy they cast looked exactly like nick just 20 years older it's so true yeah yeah they did a really good job of that. That's absolutely true. Okay, we can kind of shift away from Mighty Ducks now. I want to talk to you about some of your other projects you got going on. The first one I want to bring up is your comedy duo, Pajama Man, that you've been doing for years.

And the main first question I have is, where on earth did the idea for wearing pajamas on stage come from? Yeah, so that, for your listeners, I was part of a, and still part of it, a comedy duo called The Pajama Men since like from my early 20s. Like we grew up in Albuquerque. His name is chenoa chenoa and i did

and we basically like kind of out of high school we created this duo and he wanted to do we would just do sketchy kind of comedy and um put it up at late night shows and then he wanted a uniform like a kind of to and he suggested i remember he suggested like skin tight like spandex and i was way too self-conscious i was like no no and he so he i think it was him again he was like well what if we like put pajamas on we were called sabotage at the time we weren't even called the pajama and like so we put these pajamas on and then we just started being called like the pajama guys or whatever so we eventually just like went with it and changed our name um but uh that was like um that like i took a major kind of career shift because we that was my big thing for years like we would we would tour the world and um

um spent a lot of time out in the uk lived in london for a long time and like we would we would uh uh tour these these hour- long shows we would make, we would perform, like we'd kind of got on this cycle where we'd perform them in Edinburgh and then the big festival there. And then we would kind of from there go, you know, do other, other, uh, comedy, um, festivals and theater festivals and, uh, little runs at theaters and places all over the world. And then it got to be like a lot of travel we we kind of took a break and that break is still going but uh it was uh yeah it was a big big part of my life yeah that's awesome that it's hilarious that the pajamas started um because i feel like to be called to wear pajamas and not have that like

in in the name in the theme at all is pretty hilarious like yeah it was very uniform it was yeah it was kind of because we were all over the place we played a lot of different characters but we didn't want to wear costumes like because we wanted to travel really lightly and we wanted the imagination to kind of take over of the audience and then so then the audience would be like you're wearing pajamas because you are in a dream or you're wearing pajamas because you're in some sort of like, you're in a hospital and you're trying to figure things, you know, they had all these like these little fan theories that would come up and be like, yeah, sure.

Great. You know what? Like, it's fine. And then it became like this, this kind of big, like, like problem, like not, not a problem, but like we, we, we would, we grew to kind of resent the pajamas because we would go and do these like little gigs places and we'd be like well we gotta put on our freaking pajamas now and like walk out and do our little dumb little jokes and like so we would get a little so we stopped wearing them and then uh we did this breakfast television show one day

and we didn't bring our pajamas and the producers were like what are you doing not bringing your pajamas you're the pajama man what are you doing and there was this wrestler guy i don't remember from where i don't like he's probably famous but he was like this wrestler and he looked at us you guys guys never forget your gimmick don't forget your gimmick if i can tell you one thing don't forget your gimmick we're like all right we won't forget our gimmick from now on we'll always bring our dumb pajamas everywhere we go and uh we did it was our curse but it worked i could definitely see that because you know it's a it's a uniform at that point it becomes you know a work uniform you're like yeah you know it's like putting on like a mcdonald's polo i don't want to wear this yeah exactly it really was and like you know we would have to iron them like before we got on stage a lot because they they wrinkle really easily we got a sponsorship

for pajamas for a while we had these expensive beautiful pajamas that we would wear that i would never have bought yeah yeah there's this blunt this boutique in london where the the sponsor were like why don't you come down to our showroom and just pick your pajamas we were like we've made it like we have this is this is the pinnacle of just pajamas yeah like are they they were not tailored we actually tried to get tailored ones and it became way more confusing than we were like never mind never mind we don't stop it because pajamas are cut to fit bad like they're they're so we were trying to get them we looked. Because pajamas are cut to fit bad. So we were trying to get them, we looked into getting them cut to fit good. And people were like, that doesn't happen, they're pajamas. They're supposed to be terrible.

But we were just stuck with looking bad all the time. But yeah, no, it was a place called Bonsoir London. They do nightwear and pajamas. Yeah, I don't, yeah. Maybe they do more, but they were very kind to us. Mark, I have to ask, since you spent so much time in London, just because my partner Kelly here in the other room has gotten me super into it.

Did you ever get into Love Island from the UK? No, that sounds great. Is that where they drop people on an island and they're naked? Close. No, they take a whole bunch of, well, now it's just Instagram influencers, basically. And they put them in a house with bikinis and throw all kinds of curve balls at them and they try to you know they try to couple up and um you know they're they're kind of going through and then they'll like bring in exes like this team just coupled up so then they'll bring in his ex-girlfriend to the island and start yeah throwing in all the all the chaos and and so it's like if the real world met a dating show and then they like smoke crack together. That is like the best way to describe Love Island, I guess.

I've definitely heard of it. I'm going to check it out for sure then. Yeah. You know, you just don't know who you might crack on with during the show. It just, no, I just had to ask because it's just like the worst kind of reality television. But once you start watching, you're just like, ah, shit. Okay. That stuff is insidious.

It really does. It pulls you in like kicking and screaming. And then you're just like, well, 40 episodes. Okay, let's do this. I can do this. They come out daily. Okay, cool. Yeah. I once did.

I was a guest on a survivor fan podcast and I had never watched the show but that was their thing they're like it's okay you just have to watch this one episode and then give us your thoughts like and i watched it i was like oh this is great i had camp and it's like survivor i don't know if it's still going this is like two years ago but it was like a show still like i didn't even know it like i didn't know that it was still a thing i think it's still going it's it's still kicking for sure oh yeah that's amazing yeah love island uk though that i was not prepared for that um well that was the sidebar you're right though those uk especially for me the uk like reality shows like sucker me in because i'm uh like just the the god awful like like the cockney accents and like the, the Geordie Shore accents. I just love listening to people talk in those accents.

I get sucked in real quick. I have a friend from the UK. And so I, I pay very close attention to, he, he identifies the different dialects and like where they're from. He's like, it's like, oh, this guy's West country. And so he's a farm boy, you know, it's incredible the amount of accents. That country is not big. And you drive like four miles and you're like, you sound so different.

Like, how did that happen? Yeah. I mean, it happened through like tons of history there, but it's incredible. Cool. And so I didn't mean to sidebar us. I'm so sorry about that. But let me kind of dig back in here. So as we were kind of like, you know, doing just a little bit of research, we came across Camp Bonkers, which is just such a really cool concept, especially during COVID, right? Right.

And so just if you wouldn't mind, could you just kind of run down a quick high level for our listeners and just just like what it is and and like what it entails yeah yeah it it was uh it was a really i had worked for this i had done a little test for this company where they were they were like before the pandemic they're like can you come in and draw pictures and um voice this cat and i was like yeah they were like because they were they were just they just wanted me to like try some things out i think they were just kind of doing some in-house stuff and uh i did that i kind of forgot about it and then the pandemic hit and they uh the company when sun sky uh called me and they were like we want to give you a show essentially uh where you do it all in your apartment and um uh we'll just what do you think and i was like what a 100 yes b what and they uh so how it worked and i at the time i've since moved but

in um i lived in the west end in vancouver which is a very densely populated neighborhood right next to downtown and it's like the most densely populated neighborhood in Canada. It's like buildings on buildings, you know? And my partner and I, my wife and I live like a studio apartment. So just a room and a kitchen and a closet. And I would twice a week pull out a green screen

and put a whole bunch of lights up and then record myself and then basically improvise a little, like host a little show. They would have videos they'd want me to throw to. And I would just do this little like, I played a character named Arlo that I just made up. He's this British guy, speaking of UK. He's like, hello, I'm Arlo Nose Whistle. Welcome. So happy to be here. What do we have on tap today and i would just like make up this thing and then i started playing a whole bunch of other characters who had just you had

this brother who was the producer who was kind of like he was always like put upon and kind of mad he was like super busy that was his catchphrase his name was jacob and he'd be like i'm busy arlo i'm busy come on go back to work and then his dad would come on and his his name was jacob and he'd be like i'm busy arlo i'm busy come on go back to work and then his dad would come on and his his dad was always just proud of arlo and that was his catchphrase we'd be like i am so proud of you for doing your show just just this like fantasy job that was very dumb and they just let me kind of take it anywhere there was a whole um storyline where arlo has an announcer that would announce him on named bernard and arlo was the he was the av club president so

that's why he got to have a show but the announcer decided to run for av club president and usurp arlo's job and they announced be like i'm bernard vote for me av like so there's this whole world that we that we just kind of like ended up building um and it was all because of the pandemic they were just trying to find something to do like well like i don't really know what the whole business model was but we just go up on youtube and i think they're i think unfortunately i think they're all down right now i think they're kind of like trying to figure out you know what's happening next but it um i got a nomination for it which was wild it was it was just it's a bc you know what's happening next but it um i got a nomination for it which was wild it was it was just it's a bc you know here in canada an acting um nomination for an award

and it which is very strange to be to be uh nominated for this type of thing so i was very like very pleased i was like well you know it's great didn't win but that's fine it's all about being nominated the person who won i'm sure deserved it and i wish them nothing but happiness and fun with their cool statue listen you know they can they can keep that award you got a golden cake i got a golden cake way mark i mean i don't know I don't even know what the Oscars are anymore. Yeah. And I'm going to be getting that in the mail because you sent it to me. Right.

Because you got my address. And so I can't wait to get any, any moment. Can't wait. So a couple other things I wanted to talk to you about, because you mentioned your, your big podcast guy. And specifically, what I wanted to bring up is This Sounds Serious, which is the podcast that you're a part of. And that's like, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like a comedy take on true crime, right? Yeah.

So there's three seasons, and they're all follow different storylines and there are yeah it's a mockumentary you know it's fake fake true crime um when the first season went out though they there were and like it's playing they're not trying to punk anyone this is you know this is a comedy show but it there was a lot of feedback of like this is such a wild story i can't believe it really happened like no it did this is a it's a comedy you know um but it's it's done in a really uh i mean if i do say so myself i it's it's very nicely done i act in all three seasons and i wrote i co-wrote the second season of it and they can all be found um wherever you find your podcast it's just this sounds serious uh and I really recommend it it's like

it's it's a lot of great people in it um um Amy who plays one of the moms is in it like there's there's a there's a yeah that's a it's a really it's a real who's who of vancouver acting uh and comedy which is nice um yeah recommend nice yeah i listened to a couple episodes um on youtube and yeah it's crazy good and like you said i was like looking at some of the comments uh for the youtube thing and like every other one's like oh my god this is i can't believe this is real and then like people like freaking out getting mad when they realize that it's not real yeah which i would totally get like if i went into something thinking it was real and then it was like no this is all like it changes the the dynamic you know yeah it turns into a big lie and it's not that's never that was never the uh idea you know it's just

done so sincerely that i think you know there's there's not really a wink in it you know it's just done so sincerely that i think you know there's there's not really a wink in it you know it's just kind of like yeah i think that speaks to the yeah the the great production value of it yeah you're you're unintentionally fooling people a little bit yeah yeah that's how you know it landed it is right it's so convincing that people are now walking out there like you guys gotta hear this this is nuts i don't know what happened where this took place at probably iowa no yeah yeah nebraska we only speak kind things about the huskers oh absolutely there's not a lot of kind things to say though

that list runs pretty short we'll get into this later Brandon another thing I wanted to bring up as well is the Sunday service the improv group you do especially since with COVID and everything you guys have been doing that over Zoom for a while now

how I went on a real deep dive with COVID and everything. You guys have been doing that over zoom for, for a while now. How, and I, I, I went on a real deep dive of, of the Sunday service. Yeah. So I've watched it tons of times. It's hilarious.

Highly recommend it to all the listeners. It's fantastic. But I want to like, how do you, how do you even go about Trent? Like transitioning from like stage to zoom on like improv like yeah that seems like such a such a tall task oh gosh it was uh so yeah so we are an improv group it's been around i haven't been a part of it for this long but it's been

around for 15 years um and it's uh a show that we do every sunday at a venue here called the fox that um nine o'clock at night you know fill it up do a fun two half two half you know do a 45 minutes take a little intermission maybe have a stand-up comedian then do another little shorter second half and that was that um and then uh covet happened we're like all right we've never missed a show in 15 years so we not you know we're not starting now so let's figure this out and it was so hard and so it felt so bad at first i mean it and in a way it always kind of does like improv is about you know the audience is definitely like a third or a second character you need you need the feedback and you you definitely want um uh you

know you want laughter just you know the most basic of things but there's this other thing that happens where you know you kind of follow your nose and you follow the audience when you're making when you get on runs of jokes or you you do a little, like things that'll hit, then you kind of know what to do, you kind of know what to follow. And then we, so we end up doing this kind of like, what they call in comedy, like kind of the back of the room jokes,

which is like, you have all the comedians in the background, you're making them laugh, and you're not making the audience laugh. That's good in a way, because you're making, you know, jaded comedians, like, they're like, that's funny, you know? So you're kind of, but what you end up doing is like, it just gets kind of insular,'re making you know jaded comedians like they're like that's funny you know so you're kind of but what you end up doing is like it just gets kind of insular like so you know you're not really so there's that that kind of danger would kind of crop up but i think we figured out a little bit how to do it like we we decided to leave our mics on when we weren't on

we weren't doing a scene so we could at least hear each other kind of like laughing and responding um but it felt so awful the first month or two like we would get there we would do this show into the void and be like okay we improvised over zoom bye like you know we finished with that that's that see you later you know and we're not doing what we're doing right now which is you know we're on zoom but we're like we're having a conversation or you know and we're not doing what we're doing right now which is you know we're on Zoom but we're like we're having a conversation or you know like we're like creating a world and you know yeah and some of it just it just falls apart because we're just we can see each other's kitchens you know like if there's so um the key I think was like we just kind of had to realize that it's a different thing. Like we're doing a different show.

Like it's not the live thing on stage. Like we just kind of, and so we just kind of found the rhythm in that and just kind of find out that, but it's a lot of fun. I really appreciate you watching it and kind of shouting it out because it's, it's the most consistent thing in my life and I love it.

And I love all the people that I do it with. So yeah, check's a, it's the most consistent thing in my life and I love it. And I love all the people that, that I do it with. So yeah, check it out. Sunday service. Yeah. It's fantastic. And I feel like with, with, with improv, I feel like it's, it's one of those things where like, I kind of liken it to like golf in a way to where let's hear this. I can't wait to where it's, it's one of those things that's like so

incredibly hard to do but the people that are really good at it make it look so goddamn easy that like everybody thinks they can do it you know like i'll sit down and i'll watch golf on like sunday and i'm like i could make that shot i could do that easy and then i go on the golf course and it's in the water every time and so i i can't i bet you get just so many people you know uh i i bet it's one of those those art forms where people just come up and they you know they they think they can they can just hop in and do it and they they don't understand like the the discipline and stuff that goes into it yeah i mean it is like but it also is easy and i and i'm not being i'm not really being facetious like like the thing about it is that so there's like stand-up sketch and improv those are the three horsemen of live comedy and those are the descending order of difficulty stand up you are alone and it you

are so alone i've done stand-up a little bit and it is so hard like you just have nowhere to go like you're and people who are good at stand-up like good stand-up comedians are great like sketch you are saying we got together and we decided that this was funny and now we're going to present it to you so if it's not we clearly thought it was and now we're wrong and so you're just kind of like well and then especially if it starts bad you're like well this is gonna not go um and then improv you always have this little like thing of like yeah we're just making it up so so you know forgive us and you just have that little bit of uh of leeway or a lot of leeway um but the but to your point yeah it's

freaking hard too it is a hard thing and there's days where like you know we'll go like i'll do a show and you know maybe it'll be a good show but i just wasn't on and it just feels so bad you know like you're like thankful that like people enjoyed themselves and they you know and like your you know little scene partners were doing good and whatever but it's like well you know maybe i'm just not a funny person i guess i should just quit i'm gonna quit you know and then you quit and then you start back the next week and you're fine like it it uh but and it also because of the perceived kind of um easiness like which i think is a good thing because i think it attracts like all walks of life to kind of try it um so and then classes are really fun because

suddenly you're doing classes and you're kind of just basically doing improv with people in a real safe environment and you're what you're doing in a improv class is you're just like pretending like you all are just like i want to go pretend like yeah let's go so you just you know so it's very childlike and i and i i love that about it and you know you can you know everyone kind of has permission just to kind of be silly and that's nice but yeah once you get on stage and you're up there pretending with your friends it's a different ball game yeah but you know you got you got to try to figure it out. So, Mark, we've got just a little bit of time left. So I do want to switch gears just a little bit one more time in more into the parenting sector. You play a parent on TV, new parent in real life.

And so my question is for you is, do you happen to have a favorite dad joke or dadism? My personal favorite is it's not the heat. It's the humidity that gets you. Yeah, it's a dry heat is a was a very good thing to say. I grew up in New Mexico and that was always like, well, it's a dry heat. You get in the shade and you're fine. It's like, oh, yeah, it's true. I had a baby and immediately started barbecuing. We a barber it never did it in my life like now we're just like i'm like well we

can just put it on the barbecue it's so weird it just happened um i uh one of my favorite jokes is kind of a dad joke maybe like there so there was a snail uh it rained really hard and this guy opens the door and there's a snail on a sidewalk. And he picks up the snail and he throws it out of his way. And he kind of carries on with his day. And then a year later, he gets a knock on the door. And he opens it up and it's a snail. And the snail says, what the hell was that all about?

Yes. I love that joke. It's a dad joke. in the sunday service speaking of which they would they got on this run this before like i knew i was gonna have a kid but they did it the audience chat started calling me daddy and mad daddy and like and like don't put like this weird daddy thing happened i guess i have this like dad energy. It all just happened. I don't know. People can tell. I think you just, yeah, it just starts dripping out of your face.

You were starting to glow. Yeah, that's what it is. You were basking so much in that pregnancy glow. It just cast upon you. You know what? I'll take it. That's what it is. I was glowing. Along those same lines, we kind of have a recurring segment i guess i'll call it in the podcast where i uh dissect the the

parenting skills of the the parents in the tv show uh from my zero experience remind you um and so in in that vein i was wondering since uh either you um since you're a newborn or a new father or terry with mj if you had uh any advice that you would like to ask from me um for parents oh you know yes yes so okay this is great so right now my child is really gassy it's dealing with a lot of gas and it's painful for him and this is kind of a normal thing for newborns it's like they stay they start they he gets really cranky it hurts him i think there's a lot of pain involved and he farts a lot you know and he's kind of like kind of once he does that he feels a lot better. So my question to you is what is your methods to soothe and relieve a two month old baby? So to relieve gas, I'll, I'll give you the, the advice that I use with,

um, not, not to be crass, but I use with my dog here. Okay. Um, so I find that, um, a little rice diet of rice helps and, and to oil chicken. Well, I don't, boiling chicken is like such a, such a, an effort that I, I don't, I don't go to those links. It's just some rice. That's an effort. Boiling rice. Yeah. Uh, but also I've noticed the, the sweets, the sweets are what do it for him.

So like, I got to cut out the peanut butter. I don't know how much peanut butter you're feeding your two-month-old, but I would cut it out on that. That's probably what's contributing to it. That's really helpful. I'll start feeding him rice. He's never had a food in his life, but I will start feeding him rice, and I'll stop giving him peanut butter. That's very helpful. Got to cut out the peanut butter.

Wow, these are real hacks. I really appreciate it. Two-months-old are excellent at chewing through rice that's a known fact yeah yeah yeah they can they can clown through a whole container of rice just like in no time yeah uh well yeah we're coming up uh to the time Mark. We don't want to hold you any longer. Before we let you go though, if you have any upcoming projects or throughout your socials, if you want to get some followers, just let the audience know where they can find you and they can connect with you. Yeah. So I'm TheMarkChavez on Instagram and you can get a post from me once every six months a little update

i do yeah i'm the same on twitter uh even rarer for me um to post on twitter uh but um uh in all seriousness i mean those are real but um yeah just the sunday service watch the sunday service it's on we're continuing through the next few weeks at least um uh until we start to go live again uh so and those can be on youtube and they're all of the shows are on youtube right now there's a year and a half worth or a year and some months worth of shows right there and that's where i did my deep dive nice we have we have fun guests on our show too um so there's like i don't know if there's any paul f tompkins fans but he's on every so often and he's a big draw fun to have him and so just check that out sunday service improv if you just google that or youtube that you'll find it awesome thank you so much for

joining the joining us my group we really appreciate it i really i really had a great time thanks so much for having me and extra thanks for the uh golden cakey yes you got it i can't wait well deserved thank you so much you put in the time you put in the effort you get rewarded for it that's us on instagram at the cake Thanks for listening, everyone. Please remember to follow and like us on Instagram at TheCakeEatersPod, on Twitter at TheCakeEaters. Also reach out to us via email, TheCakeEatersPod at gmail.com or visit our website, TheCakeEatersPod.com.