Storytelling Breakdown

Many movies are endlessly quotable. You can hear one quote, like the title of this episode, and images from the movie immediately appear inside your head. But they don’t all spawn from Saturday Night Live. They don’t all set a record for the most cars wrecked in a single film production. They don’t all feature cameos and performances from music icons. They don’t all feature bands assembled from diverse pockets of American music. They don’t all feature a musically inclined duo willing to break speed laws, take it to the nazies, and organize a sold out show just to save an orphanage.

They aren’t The Blues Brothers.

Caleb Meyer and Ben Clemmer dig into a classic comedy and musical that has lived, thrived, and survived in the public consciousness for over forty years. An SNL skit inspired a three hundred page script, edited down and directed by John Landis, that featured so many stars, talents, and weird stories, we couldn’t think of a better way to begin Storytelling Breakdown’s second season!

The beginning of Baby Driver is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Lucas Gerke.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions. Special thanks to John for recording the majority of this episode in his studio space.

You find yourself in a frozen wasteland. You shield your face as chilled winds pull at your cloak. Your feet are numb in your worn boots that are no longer holding up in the elements you’ve been trudging through for... hours? Days? Against the whiteout surrounding you, you can barely perceive a structure ahead along with two, possibly three others approaching you. Are they friend or foe? Will the small holdfast on the horizon bring warmth or even greater danger? There’s only one way to find out.

There’s nothing quite like the storytelling of Role Playing Games, or RPGs. Caleb and Ben are both fans of Dungeons & Dragons, Fate Core, and other games that you can play with family and friends for… hours… days… They are also perhaps more mainstream than ever before. Look no further than Marisha Ray and Matthew Mercer from “Critical Role” being interviewed on NPR this week. RPGs have helped to keep our team sane during the pandemic and they offer endless opportunities to explore worlds beyond our own.

This episode marks our first community update. When we wrapped production on our first season, many parts of our community and identity were just getting started. We’ll tell you more about those and then go through games we’ve played, sessions we’ve organized, and all the places we still want to travel.

The beginning of Phone Booth is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Lucas Gerke.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon. You can contact us via email at [email protected] or using the Storytelling Breakdown Facebook or Instagram.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer, writer, and editor. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott (you can find her podcast, Coffee & Cryptids, here). Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins (you can find his podcast, Oh Shoot... REBOOT, here) and Wayneshout Productions.

Road Trip. 

Caleb Meyer and Ben Clemmer journeyed to Elkhart, Indiana to experience the Hall of Heroes Superhero Museum. The largest collection of superhero memorabilia in the world is also home to over 65,000 comic books, including first appearances, alongside props, toys, costumes, and so many other permutations of super heroic history.

Be dwarfed a lifesize statue of the Incredible Hulk. The Hall has many statues of iconic heroes. Be awed by the unusual legacies of superhero lore. The Incredible Hulk was also almost purple. Yeah, seriously. And place your buttocks where Nicolas Cage once placed his. Ghost Rider’s bike has found a home in the Hall of Heroes. If you haven’t been to the Hall of Heroes, put it on the calendar or the bucket list, and go.

And thank you for listening to the season one finale of Storytelling Breakdown.

The Center For Puppetry Arts is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from John Dawkins.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer and writer. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

If you were creating a Mount Rushmore of Batman comic book writers, Denny O’Neil’s face would be carved in stone. He’d arguably earn a spot in the pantheon of comic book writers in general. Writer and editor Dennis O’Neil passed away on June 11, 2020. He was 81 years old.

Join us for an episode Caleb and Ben wrote to remember the writer who brought us Green Lantern John Stewart, Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul, Azrael, Bane, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, Lady Deathstrike, and so many more.

Inside is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Kurt Roembke.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer and writer. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” 

Multiple generations have now had their lives impacted by the Star Wars saga. The cultural resonance of the franchise feels like a modern mythology and the characters and worlds have been explored in so many different mediums like toys, games, and other merchandise. For this episode, we’ll take a trip back to 1999 with John Kaufeld. The master gains two apprentices as Caleb and Ben are taught to play Young Jedi.

Star Wars: Battlefront II (the 2005 version) is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Stephen Stachofsky.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer and writer. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

With great power, comes great responsibility. Yep, this is a Spider-Man episode. The big screen version of the character has gotten a lot of mileage with three lead actors taking on the role for ten films from Sony and Marvel so far, but it might be Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, a 2018 animated feature, that stands out as the most groundbreaking take on the character(s). 

There’s a lot of reasons for that. Many of them are because of the animation, so we invited Autumn Schultz, an animation expert and good friend, to help with the breakdown. You can check out her artwork on her website and on Instagram.

This episode’s Spotlight portion is an interview with Melissa Thomas. Melissa is an artist from South Bend who has had her work put on licenced Star Trek and Star Wars merchandise. You can find her artwork on her website and Instagram.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer and writer. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Welcome to Storytelling Breakdown, a pop culture deep dive podcast leaving no story untold. Our lives are defined by the stories that are poured into us. That can be (comic) books we read, shows we binge, games we can spend hours playing, or movies we can’t stop talking about. There’s so much to storytelling in so many mediums and our exploration continues.

Motion capture. Just those two words might cause a series of images to appear in your head. An actor, maybe a British one, wearing a skintight suit and standing up (or crawling around pretending to be a dragon. I see you, Cumberbatch) backed by a green screen as cameras and computers capture every movement and even facial expressions thanks to a series of markers on the face. This technology has rapidly increased in capability and we’ll discuss how it can impact an audience in our second episode.

The season one premier of Boardwalk Empire is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Ben Clemmer.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer and writer. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Welcome to the first episode of Storytelling Breakdown. Without any further delay, our team would like to welcome you to our pop culture deep dive podcast leaving no story untold. Our lives are defined by the stories that are poured into us. That can be (comic) books we read, shows we binge, games we can spend hours playing, and movies we can’t stop talking about. There’s so much to storytelling in so many mediums and our exploration starts now.

We’ll begin with one of fiction’s greatest villains, who often speaks to an audience like he’s the star of his own show. The white face, colorful suit, and terrifying grin of the Joker have stood up to eighty years of interpretation and our deep dive serves as a belated happy birthday.

The Banner Saga is the subject of this episode’s Spotlight portion and we’ll hear more from Caleb Meyer.

Subscribe to Storytelling Breakdown wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about this show at storytellingbreakdown.com. There you can also find our blog community and support us through Patreon.

Storytelling Breakdown is hosted by co-founders Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer. Our theme music is by Kurt Roembke. Our logo is by Daniel Church. Stephen Stachofsky joins us as a producer and writer. Our social media coordinator is Ella Abbott. Our podcast is hosted by John Dawkins and Wayneshout Productions.

Here's what the world can expect from season 1 of Storytelling Breakdown, Ben Clemmer and Caleb Meyer's pop culture deep dive into their favorite movies, comics, gaming and books. Ben and Caleb take on the best of nerd culture and even invite special guests into their studio. Storytelling Breakdown is recorded in Fort Wayne Indiana in association with Wayneshout Productions.