What exactly is Geekscape?“Geekscape is a podcast that turned into a podcast community. As a filmmaker, I said I would start putting out content that’s regular. The podcast seemed like the easiest thing to do week-in and week-out. From there, we built a community, and from there, we built more podcasts. People in the community started wanting to do podcasts, and now we are a podcast network and a geek community. We use that sometimes to do things like produce movies, publish content, put on events. |
What inspired Geekscape to be geek-centered?
“My first job was at a comic book store and I’ve always been a comic book fan. I grew up with all those characters in movies, video games, and comics, so that’s what I covered. But when you listen to the show now, I’m talking to a lot of people who make that stuff and we’re talking about making it. We’re talking about the internal pieces that lead them to do it, not so much,“What do you think of ____.” I don’t think that’s very interesting. |
"A million people have asked him what his favorite Mega Man character is. It’s not interesting." |
How do you differentiate your content from the content of your “competitors”?
“You have to just stick to the thing that nobody can steal, which is your own sincerity. The closer you get to your truth, the more likely you’re going to make something that connects to another human being and something that somebody else can’t copy. It just can’t be repeated. |
Even though you’re making something for yourself, it’s your greatest chance at someone else relating to it, which doesn’t feel like it makes a lot of sense. It feels like the equation should be to cast as wide a net as you can to catch as many people as possible, but that’s not really how art works. Art is more like a spear because it goes deeper than that. A net’s not really going to work. That’s a great way to become generic and insincere. I try not to worry about the form, I just worry about the function and the function should have some level of expression so that other people are touched by it.
I also bounce the ideas off of a lot of people. I like to go running with my friends and I tell them my stories, and at the end I see where they got bored, and where they got excited, and what they responded to, and I write it all down. I do test the stuff out with my stories a lot. With Geekscape, it’s a test of whether I can stay connected to somebody else.
I did an episode about two months ago with a complete stranger who I had only heard about, but he’s pretty shy. He’s a musician named MC Chris and he keeps to himself. I had to talk to him through his assistant. Any correspondence had to go through his assistant. So, when I finally met him for the first time and we pressed record, for about ten minutes, you hear it in the podcast, we’re just feeling each other out. By the end of it, he’s admitting things that a lot of people said that he never admitted to before. I just had sincere interest in what this person had been through and what lead him to create music. Not only music but if you go to any of his concerts, it’s like a big celebration. He has these giant parties that happen to have music in them. Why create that atmosphere? Why have that level of altruism for other people? I was very interested because it’s something that I see for Geekscape and something that I see for myself.
The scariest thing you can do is be yourself and that’s the thing that’s going to work. And no one can copy it…”
Be honest. Be painfully open and honest. |
"Just because you’re passionate about something, and you ultimately become an authority on something, doesn't make it yours." |
The three most important things are to educate, entertain, and inspire. Entertaining is great, it’s fun, it’s pretty easy to do. Educating? Know your stuff, research it. Inspiring? That means being vulnerable and sincere. Telling a story means being honest, and letting other people know it’s ok to be themselves too and celebrating other people. And if we’re geeks and we’re not doing that, then we’re really bad geeks. And there are some bad geeks out there. There are geeks who don’t think women should be playing video games, that think comics are for boys, there are geeks who are against transgender people in Star Wars, there are geeks who say, “I was different, and I found a place a comfort in these stories, but you’re different and you’re not allowed.” So, they’re probably the most anti-geek thing.
I know that I was pretty alone going through middle school and high school, and I only had video games and comics and my small group of friends to get me through. They were pretty important to me. But if I grow up, and I don’t allow someone else to enjoy those things, then I’m just an asshole. So, don’t be a jerk. Just because you’re passionate about something, and you ultimately become an authority on something, doesn't make it yours. It’s ok for other people to enjoy that thing.
We have a saying at Geekscape: "Don’t hate, create.’" All the energy that we see online, and in society right now, that’s telling people what they’re doing and what they’re thinking is wrong can really be pointed towards making something. Take all that energy, don’t be a jerk, don’t be a coward, and go make something.”
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