The Nerdologues Present: MBSing

On the third anniversary of the release of the first episode of MBSing, MBS holed up in a studio and took 35 calls from past guests of the show. The topics ranged from specific episode updates to current concerns to catching up. Here's the second installment of nine calls from friends:

Stephen Kropa, who caught me up on all things Harmon and Wright since our first chat.

Jessie Stegner, who started a podcast of her own recently and was looking forward to Little Mermaid at the Hollywood Bowl.

Becca Taubel, who completed The Tanners trio and talked time.

Tim Swindle, who went on morning radio to judge players of his game Utter Nonsense and teased an upcoming expansion.

Tim Dunn, of Talking Games, who spoke of being less busy and comparing notes on living with a SO.

Alex Trepka, who reminisced our times on Squall and compared the turnover in the wrestling world to the improv world we are a part of.

Nate Bechtel, who honors his dad's time with the State Dept that caused a lot of their travel and reflects on travel he's done since our chat.

Meg Johns, who asked about my dad being in Cats and let me pour some stories at her.

Brendan Dowling, who enjoyed the mystery of The Whites (and doesn't know it yet but is waiting for me to catch up on UnReal for a chat about that).

Thanks to Emporium Arcade Bar, The Chicago Podcast Cooperative, and Lizzo.

On the third anniversary of the release of the first episode of MBSing, MBS holed up in a studio and took 35 calls from past guests of the show. The topics ranged from specific episode updates to current concerns to catching up. Here are the first eight sandwiched between some sweet voicemails:

Sarah Shockey, whose new show Marty and Sarah Love Wrestling you should give a listen.

Mike Gifford, who laments the passing of Shake, Rattle, and Read in Uptown

Stephanie Corkery, who has nowhere near enough time to describe our colonic experience

Andy Herren, who edits his love of lying to include always lying to Big Brother fans and not being mean to people

Mike Migdall, who called from the eye of a chill storm

Wyn Evans, who beautifully spoke on human connectedness and empathy

Adam Levin, who thinks our conversation about failure helped him move on and values uninterrupted conversation

Jon Pernisek, who has his own How Rude podcast and chatted with me about NBC's The Wiz and upcoming Emerald City

Steve Nelson, who applied to grad school poetry programs since his ep.

Jimmy Pennington, who is now thinking he should've spent his ep talking about Harry Potter.

Thanks to Cards Against Humanity, The Chicago Podcast Cooperative, and Lizzo.

In a world of drugs and sex, a straight edge hardcore punk fan arose in Virginia and continued to maintain his abstinence for a number of years as a part of the Chicago comedy scene. Chris and I discuss his turn to the Dark Side, how even with the best of tenets and intentions, most movements have negative extremists, and how it feels to align oneself with a lifestyle choice to be a part of a bigger community. We even get into the history of the subculture and the current state of punk and sXe.

Thanks to Cards Against Humanity for sponsoring and the Chicago Podcast Cooperative for continued support and excellent company.

Grab a D20 and roll up a character sheet because we are gonna go on a softly-guided journey, listeners. Bennett and Brendan have both had a love for tabletop RPGs since being looped into campaigns as teenagers. After years of different game groups and editions of Dungeons and Dragons, they've joined forces with other members of their theatre company, Otherworld, to create a staged version of their beloved pastime, Fight Quest, that recruits an audience member at the top of the show to be their hero. Lots of talk about other fun RPGs (Fiasco, Lasers and Feelings, Vampire: The Masquerade, etc) and the life lessons gleaned from dealing with all types of gaming personalities.

Check out the other members of Otherworld Theatre Company who've joined me for MBSing, too!

Thanks to Jackbox Games for sponsoring and the Chicago Podcast Cooperative for coordinating sponsors and putting us all under one warm podcast roof. Check out One Shot and Campaign for RPG podcasting fun.

Eric Schinzer is no musical sheep waiting around for the sounds he loves to pop up in the lame stream. He knew he loved the sweet sound of synth from a young age (citing Dire Straights's Walk of Life as an early intro) and became a fan of midi, 80s sounds (and styles) from then on. A recent resurgence of synth came with a heavy dose of love of 80s-style scoring and turned into this specific Synthwave genre. It's mostly taking off in France and the UK, driven by soundtracks like Drive and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and makes Eric tingle like an ASMR fan. He even enjoys creating his own music and using his favorite synthwave bands, including Perterbator, Power Glove, Dynatron, and Gunship, to score his trudges through a city he feels determined to prepare in and spring off from.

Thanks to Cards Against Humanity for sponsoring. MBSing is a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative, so you should check out more of those shows if you like this one. Here's a Soundcloud of Eric's that has funny stuff on it.

Honduran hunk Vernon Mina has been living a Hispanic family life his whole life... because... it's... his family. But there's way more to it than that! From entertaining his uncles as a young boy with bits borrowed from his Latino entertainment heroes (Don Francisco anyone?) to meeting his wonderful Mexican wife in high school and accidentally enrolling in a military school to follow her out of state to starting a family of his own and choosing to speak Spanish at home with his son, so much of Vernon's life on stage and off is influenced by his background. Heck, he wouldn't have even found comedy if it weren't for his siblings signing him up for classes and helping pay his way. This was a lovely, world-broadening chat, and I encourage everyone to enjoy Vernon's warm outlook on bringing his culture into his characters as a reflection on his life and the importance of representation.

Thanks to Basecamp for sponsoring and the Chicago Podcast Cooperative for sponsorship coordination and community-building. Check out fellow CPC member Open Ended and the rest of the Postloudness lineup for more POC, female, and queer-identified voices in podcasting.

Want to hear how Saturday Night Live played a hand in Mary Catherine Curran's journey to Chicago? Of course you do. She's a total badass. It starts with falling for Phill Hartman as a cast member thanks to her first and biggest comedy love, The Simpsons. There's a time in there where impersonating Mary Catherine Gallagher got her through middle school. It continued with having the opportunity to meet cast members and attend show tapings while working with Sketch Up at University of Maryland. It culminates in her time in Chicago where she continues to learn about herself and what it means to be a performer you can be proud of. Lots of love for the women of the aughts (Tina F, Amy P, Rachel D, Maya R, et al) because how could there not be? We also cover how the era of SNL you were in late middle school to early college for will always be your favorite because you are the target audience. SNL is always catering to that window. They'll always have good stuff regardless of whether it's for you. And don't forget: You're only remembering the good sketches. The episode must go on.

Thanks to the Chicago Podcast Cooperative for coordinating sponsorships and giving this project a modicum of legitimacy and to Cards Against Humanity for being the mother of that brainchild as well as sponsoring this ep.

Along with likely being the first person to ever tell me I should host my own podcast, Nathan Brewer is also the first person I've ever met who would defend Home Alone 3 as the best film of the Home Alone series. He champions the follow up to the first two [similar] films as a successful spy movie with a child protagonist, calling it both the Tootsie of Home Alone films (for it's tight, three-act structure) and the John Wick of Home Alone films (for getting each individual aspect of the genre right and thus working well as a unit). He's watched the movie at least once a year with his family since its 1997 release and even got a girlfriend out of his devotion to defending its honor.

Check out Nathan's group, Legends in the Game.

Thanks to Emporium Arcade Bar for sponsoring and The Chicago Podcast Cooperative for coordinating sponsorships and community.

Hooli beers me times two as we chat about his favorite brand of beverage, beer. From sours to stouts and malts to hops, Hooli knows his brews as a Cicerone-certified beer server. He's basically the beer equivalent of a base-level sommelier. On top of learning a ton, enjoy hearing about his endeavors in home brewing and his finely-honed service industry skills. 

Check out Sports Retorts with Hooli and The Joe for more Hooli and MBS on-mic endeavors. 

Thanks to Field Notes Brand for sponsoring and the Chicago Podcast Cooperative for coordinating sponsorships and creating a community where there wasn't one.

It's easy to think there's some sort of god complex going on with Jules, but it seems more like a genuinely joyous and creative person genuinely interested in the goings-on of the people around her. What better way to entertain that than playing in a Sims world? From Sims Tumblrs to How Addicted to The Sims Are You BuzzFeed lists to stealing away in a Boston coffee shop to download Sims 3 to refusing to playing on her iPhone because there's not enough room to interact with the world, Jules is just obsessed with the simulated families and situations the game brings. Listen in to find out how many different ways Sims can die, what their sex lives are like, and the tragic/odd otherworldly things that can befall them whether brought on my a game glitch or a particularly evil overlord. Plus, some hot tips on the best music options within The Sims.

Thanks to Basecamp and The Chicago Podcast Cooperative for their sponsorship and support.