#397: How To Know If You’re A Schmoe w/ Kristian Harloff
Kristian Harloff is a stand up comedian, digital creator, and host of The Big Thing on the Kristian Harloff channel. Reviews+ Reactions, pop culture and nonsense expert.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheKristianHarloff
Fcebook: https://www.facebook.com/harloff
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristianharloff
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kristianharloff
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Law Smith 0:00
sweat equity podcast is streaming show the number one comedy business podcast in the world and we're the number one business comedy podcast in the world. Okay? No drop. Alright if you say we I don't know anybody else in the genre that means we're number one by default, full but for far we we have Kristian Harloff on the show Christian with a que Harloff. Man, that guy to get a lot we could we could have done about five years straight again I could. It's hard to weave in. We were standing comedians back in the day in LA. And I have a little history so it's good, good to reminisce. But he he built a YouTube Empire so it's worth listening to get some good advice at the end. Listen to us on Apple, Apple podcast, Spotify. What else are we on Google podcasts, Amazon music, I hate to say the word. And if you're listening to this on any app right now, why don't you go subscribe rate review will be your BFFs we promise. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Hit the link in this episode description to start creating your online customizable website or your online store. You probably need a website if you're listening to this and you go I don't have my own personal website. What your name is Bark, bark, bark Bunco Fang calm no website but you should have your own site called Baraka think.com So you're a merge this is Bart on it not born Bart. You can make your own domain you can get your own email through it you can start your own merch store. Within the website you don't have to know programming. You don't have to know you don't have to code if you don't want to. But if you want to, you can choose a website template and start your free trial by hitting that promo code link in the episode description. You want to get the party started you want to talk a little industry oh hey Kristian Harloff cold sweat
sweating sweat equity sweat sweat equity you are listening to the sweat equity podcast. We're good to go but we just can't. We do live on tape. We try to keep it as efficient as possible. Yeah, sure. Kristian Harloff my old buddy haven't talked to in over a decade.
Kristian Harloff 2:36
Really? Yeah, it's been close to that. It's been That's fucking crazy.
Law Smith 2:40
I it's weird because I feel like I was in LA not too long ago. I believe, technically 2010. But I was always coming back for work every six to eight weeks. So a lot of people didn't know I left until I 2012. Basically, I worked for a company an air purifier company in Pasadena that would fly
Kristian Harloff 2:58
Okay. Were you in Tampa now? Yeah, man. I was there in August. Damn.
Law Smith 3:05
I wish I want to know man. Why don't you do this? Because because we're so professional. We let the guests do their plugs at the top of the way easier.
Kristian Harloff 3:13
Oh, sure. The plug in I mean, look, I've been working on a lot of shit for over the last couple of years. But I got to I launched my own YouTube channels working with Skype entertainment for a while who you know, famous for The Walking Dead and invincible and then I was with them for about three years as VP of content development and and I during that time, I had created my own YouTube channel that I got a hold of I got I got it's my channel now it's and I've been doing it for the last year and a half we just crossed around 65,000 subscribers you know, the socials are doing pretty good. So just my name is Kristian Harloff and we cover like we think okay, yes with a guy and we cover we cover like pop culture news with the comedy twist and we we actually have a bunch of different interviews we had Diego Luna on from Andorra we had we just had Andrea Riseborough on who was nominated for an Oscar this morning, which is pretty awesome. And then we're having Katie sack off from the Mandalorian on next week.
Law Smith 4:08
Yeah, I feel like every time I see your feed you're with a new famous person of some sort. And we so we met during the the scene in LA you were already kind of established when I got there at about Oh 607 And I was kind of budget going around were you were you know, you were you were crushing it from my from my point of view like your class ahead of me, right. You've been doing it a while. You started in Tallahassee I want to say FSU.
Kristian Harloff 4:36
I did start in Tallahassee, it was it was kind of it was something I always wanted to do it might I watched all the specialist so fun that you that you bring that up because I was right before I started doing the show I finally I might on my phone as I was driving home an old interview from like 93 with both Howard Stern and Bill Hicks came on and I anytime it shows up in my shuffle. I listened to it because it's just such a great feeling. It was so ahead of his time, but I watching specials and watching comedians like Bill Hicks and George Carlin and stuff with my dad when I was younger, was wanting to do it. I never really had the I never really did it anywhere. And then I remember it was so bizarre how that happened in Tallahassee, I was at Florida State. I saw some, some notice for the I was went to theater school, and some guy was posting up a thing. And he's like, hey, it's people who want to try stand up comedy. We're doing this we have this group and like, I'll try it. And he's like, do you have do you have 15 minutes of material like 15 minutes? I'm like, Dude, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing on 15 minutes. I'm like, Nah, I never called the guy back. So I let it sit for like a month. And then he called me. And he's like, he's like, Hey, man, you never you never did your material like you want to do you want to do you want to be part of this group? And I'm like, I don't know, man. I don't really have an established 15 minutes. I've never done stand up comedy before. So he's like, once you once you come by and come by my place and this could have went really wrong. Yeah, it was it was legit. But he but yeah, I just told him some of the ideas I had is like I have been working this guy's name is Mike shader. And he's really using really, you know, he's a good guy, nice guy. And, and he started this group. And I just started doing comedy around around Tallahassee. And it's funny because I was doing 15 to 20 minutes. It wasn't good. But it was still I was still doing it. And it was like that time. And then I started doing stand up in New York. And then I went to Los Angeles and when I was in LA I didn't even go there for stand up. But I went up one night at the at the Improv my friend during when I was for my birthday. And there's this story that I've told a million times over but like, Rick, do you guys remember Rick Overton?
Law Smith 6:36
Yeah, yeah, I heard he's opening his opening for Cruzi opening for now who right here?
Kristian Harloff 6:42
Probably everybody. The guys. I mean, he was just watching. I see Willow for the first time he's pops up in Willow he pops up in every picture this guy
Law Smith 6:50
I remember he will he was one of the intimidating to me intimidating when I went to the store when I saw him.
Kristian Harloff 6:57
Right? Because do you ever stop for Willow? Did you ever use
Law Smith 7:00
the original? The original? Yeah, sure.
Kristian Harloff 7:02
Sure. He's, he's one he's the other he's he's the little guy that's not Kevin Pollak.
Law Smith 7:08
Okay, I'm gonna rewatch that cheese because
Kristian Harloff 7:11
it's recovering. But But So Rick was on stage with and it was my birthday and I was here my buddy took me the improv when we were out to the I was sitting there and was packed house and, and, and I was working for this company called Intermediate. And I wasn't really happy with what I was doing and and recovered and had this crew is improv crew up was like, the end of the night and they were crushing it like, look, this is the point of the night where we invite people to come up on stage in the crowd and see if they can hang with us. But normally never, no one ever does not like pocket. And I jumped up there. And I just I just had one of those nights that I got lucky because it was just my timing was on things were working. And I did really well so and Rick comes up to me and he's like, You got brass balls me and every time I see him so at the comments for everything. He remembers it, but that night, the biggest thing I mentioned, my wife doesn't tells me to shut the fuck up about it. Because I got off stage. And I remember I'm fresh into LA. I don't know
Law Smith 8:06
what you're talking
Kristian Harloff 8:08
like. 99 Okay, so um, um, so here I am. Get off stage. Rick is me big congrats. And I'm on. I'm on cloud nine. Because remember, I'm just coming up. I'm, I'm in I'm just fresh off the boat from Florida State. I didn't know you know, if I my first famous person I saw was fucking AC Slater. And I thought it was like seeing you know, Harrison Ford.
Eric Readinger 8:32
To this day, I'd be like, holy shit. That's easy, Slater.
Law Smith 8:35
Lopez. I sit back. Well, you could also have, right.
Kristian Harloff 8:42
So I get offstage. And then I feel this hand on my shoulder. And I hear you we're back morning. Close. damn close.
Law Smith 8:50
Dustin tiglin Touch me on the back.
Kristian Harloff 8:52
And I haven't washed my shirts. No, it was it was Sarah Silverman. Wow. And she so yeah, at the time, you would think for a comedian who's who's up and coming or trying to do something. You should say hey, I knew her from the Boston Comedy Club and from those things, and I said I want I should have said in that moment was thank you so much. Listen, I'm going to try to get up around town Can I buy you a drink at the bar just to pick your brain about you know certain places to go up and everything's up because I can tell from the way that she was enthusiastic. She she would have said yes. About you know how to at least give me some advice or something. Instead, I looked at her and I go you are some you're great. Something About Mary. She's in it for like three minutes. She looks to me like I had a dick on my head. I was like, I'm being boiled out. And then I made I made a right hand turn like thanks. And like and it was to this day, the stupidest thing but anyway, that's kind of what it did jumpstart me to start going up I quit the job afterwards and I just started going up and doing and doing sets.
Law Smith 9:50
We also had another weird connection because you were with Joel Silver right at some point. And my buddy Paul McCloskey, another FSU guy from kind of front Yeah, but he kind of lived here in Georgia growing up, but just randomly you guys knew each other. I was friends with that group of FSU people out in LA. It was just another kind of serendipitous connection we had. We didn't know that I don't think until way later on doing standup around each other.
Kristian Harloff 10:18
No, I think Paul came to one of my shows one day and then you were and you were you were on the bill or something. That's how we figured it out or something like that. Right? Yeah. Cuz I, I worked with Paul for a while. So pitches Paul, Paul, and Paul and I hadn't had any drinks, as I'm sure Paul has had many drinks with a lot of people, but but I just Yeah, I liked hanging out with Paul. I mean, Paul was always a good Paul is a good dude.
Law Smith 10:39
Yeah, he'll corner you and in the middle of a party and tell you a business idea. If you catch my drift. He does a lot of good. Okay, I didn't say that. That's just LA. You know, that's how it is. Business Ideas. Now. He's sweet. He's sweet guy. He wasn't that. Well. We're still buddies. It's one of those things. He's got a product company. We'll have to get him on the show. But I want to make sure I don't skip over this. We ask every guest the first time they come on this question. What advice would you give your 13 year old self?
Kristian Harloff 11:14
Oh shit.
Law Smith 11:15
Yeah, we go deep. You just thought were tank tops and muscles, right?
Kristian Harloff 11:19
This is 100%. I guess. Don't say what you want to say. Say what you want to say and don't don't try to impress people.
Law Smith 11:27
Say what you need to say. Say what you need to say, ah to present. So. Okay, so that kind of always sets the ground ground like the foundation like, what are you a kid that talked a lot? It was told to shut up a lot. I'm guessing
Eric Readinger 11:42
I guess you were probably quiet and didn't speak or Yeah. Or you feel like you should have?
Kristian Harloff 11:47
No. So I think that the thing is, it was a little bit of a mix of both. I relied on I was I was definitely class clown. And then once like I was I was I thought about this, because I have a daughter that was in fifth grade. And I was thinking to ship I have a fifth grader and a t care. And, and so what I was thinking of my how I was in fifth grade, I remember being I was a decent student. And then after my parents got divorced, I just was like, went off. I was like, No, I'm not doing I was I was a terrible student. But I relied on. I relied on my jokes relied on, you know, making people laugh. And I would talk and be talkative inside of my crew and stuff too. But like, I was kind of an awkward kid and I so for me, I was what I wasn't certain times when I should have spoke. It didn't. And certain has maybe when I shouldn't have I did, if that makes sense, like, so that's kind of how it was. When
Law Smith 12:41
you've got it seems like you're a ball of energy. And it's I'm guessing it was even more energy when you're younger? Oh, yeah. Because you're, you're not only a good, like stand up writer, like have jokes, because I kind of always break down writing and performance, right? Like, what are the jokes you wrote? And then you do act out. I remember looking at you and thinking about like you Dane Cook these real performer type comics. I'm like, that has to be so exhausting. It actually made me go the other way. Because I'm like, I'm not that. Because when I tried to do that, I could do it. But I'd be eight minutes. I'd be definitely do it. No, it's just like always do the work. You. I think you have to have that personality innately. Because if you really know that's not you. Yeah, well, it definitely isn't now, but like, once I settled down, I kept the mic in the stand and just follow like Ron White almost. And like, just just try to emote. But without having to move I would pace back and forth like add wise like, you know, you want to do the Chris Rock, you want to preach you want to you want to hit everybody in the audience. But I had to realize like, I'm not I don't have that I haven't asked myself out like
Kristian Harloff 13:49
so. So I don't know. I mean, like I said, like you said and beginners. We haven't talked in a long time I stopped. I mean, because I once I got into doing what I was doing with ls on with movie reviews, and all that kind of stuff. And then we built out these live events. We created this trivia show called the movie trivia schmoedown that ran for like nine seasons. And we did
Law Smith 14:09
one ask about
Kristian Harloff 14:10
that. Yeah, I have a question. We were doing live. Well, yeah, that's cool. We're doing live shows like all over the country. Right. And so that and basically what Mark and I had done was grown this channel to about 300,000 subscribers. And we were we put up our live show that we put out every week the schmoes know movie show when it was running, was doing like anywhere between 100 and 150,000 views in a week. So in my head, which I now unfortunately, years later have discovered in my head back then I'm like, Well, I'm performing in front of more people now than I ever did on stage and I and I stopped doing stand up for a long time. And I had I think it was like 2010 or 2011 was like my last show. And and then in 2018 Ellis asked me to do a set at his show. Oh, and it was a lot of our fans that were there from the smoker show. So I kind of did it pop in. I had done it, and I woke up the beast again, you know. So I did a few. And then obviously, I was planning on doing a whole bunch of other ones and with COVID and everything, but I started writing a lot during the lockdown. And I went up going up a few times at flappers. And it was funny because I hadn't ever done flappers before. And I don't know if you've done it long,
Law Smith 15:23
no, it came, it started like 2014 or something like that. So I was at it
Kristian Harloff 15:28
later. And I had never I was out I had never done it. So I started doing it. And then I had this this guy, Jake Lewis, who I'm actually doing his show on February 13. But like I started, I had a few good sets. And I found that it's funny, you mentioned that the energy thing to like my, it, I had to I have to do it in waves now because I'm not that kid, you know. So like, I have to do it in ways because I did a bit that had a lot of high energy. And in my head, I'm gone, I'm thirsty, and I'm tired. And my stuff kind of goes a little bit more towards my family and my kids now and all these things. And but yeah, like, but it's like, I felt, I don't know, I mean, cuz you've been doing it consistently, I felt at one point because it's like this time capsule is I remember going up at like the room that we used to do together all the time in room five. And we were performing to our peers or people who are older than us. And so at the time, so I was up on this is probably like five months ago, and I went up in this room is packed, and I go Alright, so who's married, and not a fucking P? And I was like, Well, alright, well, how long have you been dating? Because like two months, the bunch of like, 22 year olds? Yeah, I had to. I had to shift. I felt but it was it was I went through this thing at the time. That was was great. Because it was one I'm like, I'm not that guy anymore. You can. That's not me. I'm a lot. I'm a lot older than that. I had to realize that plus, it also said Yeah, but I remember being on stage and something would go either wrong or not the right way. And I'm like, Okay, well, what do I do now? Go Go shift shift. Now. I'm just, I'm so used to talking on this thing. Now even more so than I was back then because of podcasting and everything to that. I was like, What can I shifted to it? One particular thing didn't go well. And I just maneuvered around it. And I just wish that I had the time to pursue it back then. I was going up seven when I knew you I was going up seven nights. A week and two shows a night I would go to church go to five and then I would drive to the Comedy Store.
Law Smith 17:28
Yeah. And I would, I would probably ever be going to a lot of shows not on them. Back in the day. When you're just a jet and you're green. You're like, Oh, if I'm just hanging out, and I'm not a total asshole, I'll probably get on some shows.
Eric Readinger 17:42
I mean, do you guys feel like that you got to get up. Every night sort of mentality is the way to go? Or like every night, it seems like you don't have retrospection. Well,
Law Smith 17:55
you definitely don't have that you need a life we're talking about for sure. But like,
Kristian Harloff 17:59
right, that depends. It depends on what you want. Like for me, like I was I was going on the road a lot, I was doing stuff and I had a lot of material. And I just had things I wanted to say and I wanted to try stuff out. And I would and I would be home, you know, smoking a bowl on the couch with my dog and I get the fuck out here, I gotta go do it, I gotta go do something. So I'd go up unset. So it would be in a regular at the Comedy Store you have I had more opportunities to do sets and be able to pop into a belly room set, do an original room set doing main room set, and then, you know, be able to drive to and I was part of this crew that Laura and I were part of and the guy who ran the shows Mark Franco, he had like a bunch of different rooms. And he would have rooms at the Improv and had them say, Hey, I got a couple sets tonight with you. So he answer is have if you have the time and you have the time available to you, you should go up as much as possible.
Law Smith 18:49
Yeah, my thing was, I was in LA for kind of a purpose. It was to do stand up. And so I've worked at a mutual fund company during the day. And that'd be like, you know, 910 11 hour kind of thing. By the time you'd like, left your place, got back home. And then I literally, there was a time I was doing Groundlings classes on Monday for improv, because that would host and I'd suck at hosting. And so I was like, I gotta get better at this and I heard improv, it's going to help that muscle when like the thing that you're just talking about when you go like, do try to do crab work and y'all married and then you get flustered. And some people can't get over that. And I was like, when something went wrong. I was like, I would internally be like a little fuck. And so I asked to host as much as possible. And then I would take like improv classes three hours on a Monday, driving from Santa Monica to West Hollywood, which is only like seven miles, it would take me to an hour, two and a half hours, most days on a Monday. Yeah, to go do that for three hours with a bunch of psychos in your class that are improv people because they're not cool. And then like most of them are not cool. They're all actors and stuff so they're not in it really for the class. only a part of it, and then do that be exhausted, maybe try to do a mic that start at 1030 or 11 on a Monday, right? Wake up early as fuck, go to work. And then next, see what shows I can get on Drive, get tested, drive 90 miles down, to go, maybe do an open mic, maybe get up and then drive back. And I don't have that energy anymore. But when you're starting, you gotta get all the reps in because you suck, and you don't know how bad you suck. It's a lot like entrepreneurship, like, you're making mistakes, but you're like, it's okay. It's that. It's that cartoon meme of like, all the flames around that dog. And it's like, you're going well, and you don't know how bad it is? How bad Yeah,
Kristian Harloff 20:40
well, that's the whole thing is it's just a matter of like, there's, I think there's two sides of it. Right? It's like there's, if you have an opportunity to go up every night and people giving you spots, when you should take them. But if you but like law saying if you if you're at a certain point in your career, you're not going to be necessarily driving three hours to do a set that you're probably going to get paid $15 For you want to hope by a certain point that you don't you don't have to do that. Right. So that's, that's kind of that's where it is I just for people who are wanting to do it as a full time career, you should go up. If you have an opportunity to go to go up every night. You should. I mean, yeah, absolutely.
Law Smith 21:17
I think a big lesson for anybody listening in a professional kind of scope is you were doing stand up and you didn't know what was going to come of it. But you knew you had something in the performing arts right. And that built a foundation that led you to like having the schmoes know empire in those things you were doing. You know, one story I think I told you, I may have told Ellis not you I can't remember but I remember I was telling Eric this before we got on like I was walking into my office. We had an Agency office down in Ybor if you ever went to the Ybor improv down in like the Bourbon Street area, Tampa. And so I'm walking up to the office and our video partner which had an office across the hall. He's he's listening on a speakerphone because he's Spanish. And he's listening. He doesn't do headphones, because that's what I don't know Spanish people just do that. And he's listening to shows now. And that guy, I heard your voice and I go, What are you listening to? And he goes, this is schmoes now, and I was like, Dude, that's a buddy of mine. That's so crazy. He's like, you're buddies with it. And he told me all the stats about y'all and how big you guys were and how many breakoff shows you had. Can you tell us about that? It sounds like you've shifted in the last couple of years. But I'm we were trying to do some research on you before we got on. And it's a little disjointed to find it kind of a linear timeline.
Eric Readinger 22:39
Well, I had looked up there's he said there was an IMDB page for schmoes. No, and I don't even know I said it at 30 episodes or three seasons and season says one two and says schmoedown
Kristian Harloff 22:49
Yeah, there's still a different things. Yeah, so there's throwdown schmoes know, it was like a whole so the easiest way to kind of break it down and you guys can interrupt me whenever you want. But um, so basically what happens Ellis and I met there, well, we met at a barbecue he came to a barbecue and I was this was when I was going up all the time at the Comedy Store everything too and he was trying to get into comedy and we had a mutual friend that brought him to the to the barbecue and I give him a couple ideas and places to go off and he did and and then I remember going back at the Comedy Store and he was working there and then he eventually got himself he's out Ellis is hilarious. He got himself become a regular there but we became buddies I shut up when I was working for silver one after I quit I I had started a I wrote a television pilot right before the writers strike brilliant. And it was it was called grasping at straws. And we actually shot it at that place. Room five and it was about standard medians. And we do and I and I had Ellis on set as one of the characters and he and I really hit it off during like cakes and stuff. And we were we were just talking about we we always did but we we found even more so we're just cracking each other up the whole time. So like 2007 Do you remember Martini Imperatore?
Law Smith 24:02
name sounds familiar,
Kristian Harloff 24:04
but she was her her dad late. Rage Imperatore ran like Telepictures, which is a big reality division and so I think he like CO started TMZ and shit too. But anyway, she was a comedian that I knew and her and like Eliza and all of us we're in this little group together and then she went to go to to work at Current TV which was Al Gore's network and like San Francisco and see and this is when nobody was doing the shit like to like okay, we've got a bunch of people who are going to be reviewing and a those little flip cams was bullshit flip cam. Yeah, yeah. And so she's like, we're gonna send you one of those where there's a whole bunch of new pilots come out and they're like, Big Bang Theory and Bionic Woman and all this stuff was was coming out and like we're gonna get a whole bunch of people to review and then just send your footage and we're gonna make like a montage of everything. So we did that they liked us the best and then we started doing stuff for about a year with current Movie was just Alison I did pass to go see movies, we review them and that was it. So we had this whole show that was potentially going to go with rotten tomatoes and that kind of went south. So she had she had left Current TV and she's like, Well, I'm gonna take off I don't know if you guys want to continue keep doing it and then go ahead do your thing. And, and Alison I like where we have fun doing this, shall we just take it again? 2008 YouTube's on the on the on for like three years at this point. So like, Well, what do we do? Should we do something? Well, yeah, so the end of 2008 We started a channel and we called it schmoes know, it was like to just to schmoes and what we wanted to do was like the way that you would talk to your friends when you go to see a movie outside because at the time it was still all print reviews and all that kind of
Law Smith 25:42
shit. Maybe Kevin Smith had his stuff going, maybe I don't
Kristian Harloff 25:45
even think Kevin Smith was doing on YouTube on YouTube. I mean, I know he probably might have had a podcast, he was one of the first people to do a podcast but to do like these movie reviews out there. It was myself Ellis guide by name fury, the film fan Grace Randolph, double toasted at the time was called spill. And that was it at the time. Like the really big wigs, the big guys that do reviews now like Chris Stockman and Jeremy John's, they came afterwards. And so we started doing that we were like, Okay, let's just take it from the everyday point of view. And then we started that and started slow. And then we started to do and I think while you were still around when we did this at the we brought the we were at the time I think we're like three or 4000 subscribers and we we wanted to do a live show with stand up mixing stand up with, with like showing our videos in between. and we and we had I mean Eliza was on that show. I mean De Leus and Tino Renta ccre Like everybody was on that show, was it it was a it was it was a big show, we would do that show every week. Rick Ingram was on the show, we would do it every week, we would have it we would sell out the crowds. And we were doing that and then my buddy Naveen Mackel RG What did a SAT one nine is a producer guy worked with and the trades covered him like deadline and they were like, Oh, this guy does a thing and Adam Carolla was producer came out to watch it. And they booked him on the show. And I was like, son of a bitch and run the show for fucking how many weeks and this guy's getting on Corolla. And he's like, I'll talk to him. But I think he's, I think he's, he's gonna come into the show next week, too. So he did and he put Ellison ion on Corolla. So we started doing Corolla, with like, 5000 subscribers and like, you know, Doug Benson we started doing Benson's show and, and all of this and and that led to just more people find out about the show. And then we started collaborating with more so we went we started to get more notice on Youtube movie reviews, but then in like, 2011 we started our own podcast. And it just kind of grew from there. The thing that you're talking about the movie trivia schmoedown that started on the schmoes no live show that we did and we would do chosen a live show the idea was essentially like because again, I was a big Howard Stern fan growing up and I wanted to do Howard Stern for movies so do like the long two hour show with the with the we're talking movie topics. It's like it's the crew that is that people are getting invested in
Law Smith 28:03
Yes, yes, you develop you did a good job developing characters around you guys, which were guys that I love that you brought guys that I knew were stand up comics that you were nerd, you would talk nerd movie shit with, because I remember you guys are talking about Star Wars. I just like zone out. Because I don't know anything about Star Wars is not my bag. But you guys were so heavily invested in Star Wars trivia. I'd be like, Uh huh. It's cool.
Eric Readinger 28:30
You're I think you're the weird one. Most people No, no, I
Law Smith 28:32
know. Like, you get comics to talk about comic books or Star Wars. You're fucking out of your zone. Like it is like Asperger's meets autistic.
Kristian Harloff 28:42
It is it's it's intense. And it's crazy. How you would think you think that would be so so nice and chill. Dealing with Star Wars and and how many movies there's no difference between turning on Fox News and fucking CNN with DC and Marvel people. It's crazy. Oh, yeah.
Eric Readinger 29:00
We had a run with a pretty blew up with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and that whole thing? Yeah,
Law Smith 29:06
that'll be Yeah, that'll do. So
Kristian Harloff 29:08
it's not but yeah, we but we created that. But that thing though, that you guys come with a trivia that didn't come until it came out out of essentially, again, my love for that kind of morning radio. Stern feel it was that we wanted to do things that weren't just a typical movie show. So we would have we played these games, we would have these impressions we have the guests on. But then we were pitting like our two interns against each other and they were messing with each other. So I was like, Look, you know, what we should do is we should just do a trivia contest between the two of you. And they did and it was popular with the fans. They loved it. It was a live thing. And then Ellis and I went to VidCon at this pizza place in Anaheim. And we're sitting down with what if we did like a, like 15 week tournament of like movie trivia, but we made it like really big and then the fans could play along and we just call it like ultimate schmoedown. And then we did that and we had like, like so Uh, Katie sack off was was played Ken nap sock in the first round and like Bonnie Somerville friends came in and played and and we did and we had that went really well then we did it the following year. And then when I started working for collider and and AMC, we we turned it into like a weekly show, but we wanted to turn it basically into like WWE and we took like the big we took like storylines all the all the trivia itself was legit. And we had like chant like, if you see a when one of you guys are talking in a second, I'll grab one of the belts. But um, but we, but we,
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