Afternoon Pint
Afternoon Pint is a laid-back Canadian podcast hosted by Matt Conrad and Mike Tobin. Each episode, they invite a special guest to join them at a pub or microbrewery to get to know them a bit better. Conversations cover a wide range of topics, including Entrepreneurship, business, Arts, pop culture, music, science, society, Life stories, experiences, you get the idea...
Our aim is to create a show for everyone (even non-Canadians.) We create a welcoming atmosphere where guests can share their perspectives with transparency. Essentially, Afternoon Pint is like heading to the pub after work to catch up with some friends through your headphones or stereo. We are Nova Scotia's #2 podcast, but we pretend we are number 1!
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Afternoon Pint
Cat Green & PigMonkey - Geeks vs. Nerds Reunite, How a Debate Show Built Lasting Friendships
Andrew prefers the alias PigMonkey to his own name, and for good reason. Who would have thought a simple show he helped create would change the lives of people such as Cat Green, who is reviving the popular Geeks vs. Nerds s for a great cause. This episode covers, Superman, cancer survival, Klingons, autism, the history and challengers of Geeks vs. Nerds and much more.
The show brings together 18 previous cast members with a performance on April 4th at the McGinnis Room at Dalhousie. Tickets are available on Eventbrite with all proceeds supporting QE2 patient assistance programs.
Kimia Nejat of Kimia Nejat Realty
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Thank you All right Cheers, cheers, cheers.
Speaker 3:Cheers.
Speaker 2:Welcome to.
Speaker 3:Morning Coffee Afternoon Fight Morning Coffee edition. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Matt Conrad. I to Morning Coffee Afternoon Fight Morning Coffee edition. I'm Mike Tobin, I am Matt Conrad.
Speaker 4:I'm Kat Green.
Speaker 2:I'm Pig Muggy, Pig Muggy Kat Green. Who are you guys?
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, I am the organizer of the Geeks vs Nerds reunion show and we are fundraising for patient assistance at the QE2.
Speaker 1:Awesome show and we are fundraising for patient assistance at the qe2 awesome. I am the creator and host and chief cook and bottle washer. Cool, uh. Previous previous to cat doing the. Uh. The revival cat has has taken on a giant beast and tried to tame it. Myself and my other partner, john Roy, who we developed the show originally, sat there and said are you sure about this? You really know what you're doing here, because it's a task.
Speaker 2:And she said okay, okay, so I just heard the revival and, pardon me, I don't know a ton about this. So this is a show that you're bringing back from the past or kind of resurrecting, is that right?
Speaker 1:Geeks vs Nerds sort of developed in 2008 and 2009 and our first show was early 2010, I think, or late 2009, and we went to 2018 when we stopped. When we were doing it. We were doing it, uh, we were doing six months. So we do a show every month and do two tapings, so we would have an episode for every month of the year. But it was a live studio recorded show which I mean I loved it. I would do it. I enjoyed doing that bit, but it was.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of work to run one of those shows To put something like that together. You've got the performers, you've got the technical side, you've got to deal with the venues, and then I have to be on top of that stuff and I'm just not that organized.
Speaker 2:OK, was this like a nationwide show, like was it aired across Canada, or how could you watch it?
Speaker 1:Actually. Well, it was a podcast. I've been a. I've been a podcaster from the time that podcasts were called audio and I really enjoyed doing podcasts. And when I came up with this show in my head, it was an audio scripted show and I didn't really want to try and curtail my performers to a certain amount of time, so the only place that really fits that was audio drama. Also, nobody was going to teach me how to do any of that stuff, so I had to learn it myself and just do it so?
Speaker 2:so what's like a typical freaks versus geek show? Look like if there's someone that, oh my gosh, geeks versus nerds sorry there you go. Well, what's a typical show like this look like if there's someone that, oh my gosh, gigs first nerd. Sorry there you go. Well, what's the typical show like this?
Speaker 4:look like, uh, when you're watching it that, uh yeah, so it's a three-on-three debate style. Comedy is the main debate of the show, but leading into that we will have several one-on-one debates and these are quick topics. So, example, one of the ones that's going to be in our reunion show is Indiana Jones versus River Song, so Big Doctor who Indiana Jones fans will enjoy that. Or, a little bit more unique, we've got corporate speak versus 90s slang. So these will be the quick hits. And then our and then our main debate is three on three and it's Steve Rogers versus Jean-Luc Picard. So basically OG, captain America versus Captain Picard. Which captain gave most for their cause? So it within that framework, it's a comedy show and so we're there to make people laugh and have a good time.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. Actually, I uh mike knows this I kind of wanted to do something really similar before I even found out what this was. I want to do something really similar, have like a little bit of a fun debate show, like I didn't want to do anything too serious because you know, people get all crazy about that stuff sometimes, right, uh, but pick some fun topics about what to debate with uh, uh and I want to call it bar fights, just with the whole afternoon pint thing, kind of thing, right? So I just wanted to call it bar fights. Like we have a long-standing mike and another mutual friend of ours has a long-standing uh, argument, feud, whatever about who would win between godzilla, between Godzilla and King Kong. Mike's Team Godzilla.
Speaker 1:We solved that Godzilla.
Speaker 3:Hey there you go, Mike.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, thank you, sir. I respect you.
Speaker 1:Don't get me wrong King Kong, real monster, lacks range, lacks the ability to breathe underwater and lacks range, so so can be hit from a distance and can be drowned. Um, that is. That is. I mean those are two forms of attacks that that king kong has no response for, that godzilla can do just as a normal thing that they already do there you go, Mark, If Mark's listening we brought in the experts you lose, I guess.
Speaker 2:Who's again we?
Speaker 1:actually did the debate Godzilla versus Cthulhu.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's right, I heard that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Godzilla came out on top of that one. I don't think I agree with it. I don't necessarily agree with it, but Godzilla did come out on top for that one.
Speaker 4:The winners are determined by audience. So basically, at the end of the debate, pig Monkey turns it around to them and asks what they think, and it's usually by round of applause cheering by volume of noise.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay.
Speaker 3:So I got to ask Pig monkey Either you grab this for a particular reason or your parents, like you know, thought of something really not nice about you as a baby. So what's going on here?
Speaker 1:You would be surprised how often I get asked that question. No, I probably wouldn't. There are okay. Well, first of all, why do one thing when you can do a bunch of things? So Pig Monkey is my stage name. It's also a. I am a person with autism. It makes it very hard to gauge how people feel at any one point in time. When I introduced myself as Pig Monkey, I got a clear read on how that person was responding to me and generally there are only like four or five responses. My favorite one is immediately almost pretty common is I'll shake their hand and call myself Pig Monkey and they'll say I can't call you that. I'm like that's fine, I'm cool with that. My name is andrew, you could call me andrew, but uh, I'm very comfortable with pig monkey. And they say, well, why would you call yourself pig monkey? And I said, well, reasons, uh, one of them is, uh, just being who I am. Uh, I got called a lot of names growing up and I still do to a certain degree.
Speaker 1:Uh and uh, pig monkey takes their power you cannot make you cannot make fun of somebody who can sit confidently and comfortably in a name like Pig Monkey. Right, how are you going to do? What are you going to do? Cool, I like it. It's. That was one of them. It's funny, I like to like. Sometimes I get to see people laugh right away. I get to see a smile. I get to people who can't handle it will go away and I won't cause them any issues Like. One of one of the very common reactions is laughter and then an exit, right.
Speaker 2:They can't.
Speaker 1:They can't do it, they go. I'm like, okay, well, it's nice meeting you, right, it helps me. It helped me gauge people, and that came from a time before I actually knew I had autism. Right, like I've had a lifetime. I found out very, very like two years ago that I had autism. Two years ago, so I had a lifetime of building my own strategies in order to make my way through a world that is I got to ask you, Big Monkey, what was like so only two years ago.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm guessing you're around, You're just in your 40s. If you don't want me to say just 52, 52. Ok, so what? Like? How did you learn you had autism at that age? Where were the signs? Did you just? We just see something on YouTube and just say, gee, I really connect with that. Or what happened?
Speaker 1:OK, one of our performers who is going to be on stage for the reunion show, Christy Lee, said to me one day you know what, for the reunion show, Christy Lee said to me one day you know what I think you've got autism. Because I read the issues and I went autism. That's the dumbest fucking thing I've heard in my life. You are. That is so stupid. My mother, my mother, has worked with people with autism my whole life growing up. Oh, wow, yeah, I understand people with autism. People with autism were brought into my house. My mother would care for them on a rotating basis. I've been a tutor, I've been friends. I'm a professional dungeon master. I've run professional D&D games for people with autism. The idea that I have autism was ridiculous. Yeah, I got tested and they said yeah, yeah, yeah, you definitely have autism. Um, it's hard to tell when you have people who've gotten into their, into their late age because they've developed so many coping mechanisms to to make their way through life. But I mean, everybody's got their own struggles.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying Does it make you feel a little bit better, though, Just knowing saying like okay, I identify now that I have a couple challenges that I know are in my life that make sense of why I had certain challenges growing up or whatever.
Speaker 1:I grew up with these. I was very aware that I had them, like it wasn't something that surprised me or anything. Um, I think, if anything, it was okay, there's a reason. That's good, we know. We know there's a reason for why I'm doing the things we're doing, but the honest issue with it is that I can't stop doing it. It's wound into my head, right. I say the wrong thing, I make the wrong face. These are I respond to people's emotions in a non-standard way. I find discomfort very funny.
Speaker 2:Right, and that is. I find other people's discomfort incredibly funny, so I have to remove myself or I have to know who I am. Awkward situations and people going too far, like that's the skit, and it's just that kind of scenario in a million different ways in a million different environments.
Speaker 3:I find it to see that that's my life so I'm told with moms this he's made a show of all time like I love I and, and they've actually connected the show to adhd.
Speaker 2:People with adhd love the obvious of this show and I have that too. And how weird and offsetting the humor is. Like there's a guy sitting at the table that one is afraid that the steering wheel in a vehicle is going to fly out of a window. It makes no sense, but it's hilarious. Uh just keeps doubling down on on this fear of bizarre I'm being bizarre. I, I love bizarre comedy and uh and you would like geeks versus nerds my friend, you should go and listen to some of our podcasts yeah, probably I'll check back to back to geeks versus nerds, like yeah, how did this kind of first get conceived?
Speaker 3:like how are you guys just sitting around sitting there, going like, hey, we like to sit around in our room and argue about who's better and what and all this stuff we should just record. This Is like that really what it came down to.
Speaker 1:Sort of I'm sorry. I feel like I'm stealing a lot of Kat's time here.
Speaker 2:We'll get to Kat after this answer. I got some questions for Kat. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, no stress Sort of.
Speaker 1:So do you guys remember Spike TV? Yeah. Do you remember the show Greatest Warrior?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1:I was watching Greatest Warrior one day and I was sitting back in my chair and I'm watching this and I go. You know this is cool, but I don't really give a shit who wins a fight between a ninja and a pirate. I give a shit who wins a fight between a ninja and a pirate. I give a shit who wins a fight between batman and boba fett. And then I went oh my god, I know lots of people. We've had these stupid arguments before. I could just put it on stage and record it. People would love it, because everybody already has their own opinion. We could call it geekseks vs Nerds. Oh my god. And that was it Two in a row. And I'm like okay, that's, uh, that's, this has gotta happen.
Speaker 1:So I had a lot of the skills that were required to do the stage show. I have the technical expertise. I've done editing and Foley and live shows, uh, for radio plays. I had, uh, most of the equipment. I had a member. I had a membership at afcoop and for that first year all we did was go to afcoop and rent uh the gear that we needed to do to do the show for, like it was 20 bucks or something like that 30 bucks, not I mean that first year, pretty rough recording, especially in 2010. But uh, there we started doing it at a time when it was the beginning of the age of the geek. We hit, we hit, we hit the uh start time, perfectly for uh, for the audience. And then we stopped in 2018 because I felt that was definitely the age of the geek was ending, people were tired were you able to monetize the show.
Speaker 1:That was my kind of my last, uh, no no, no, I, I, I lost my ass on that show. Yeah, um, we tried to get advertisers, we tried to see who would do stuff. Um, no, like, when we did get money, it went right back into the show. Myself and John Roy, we put a lot of our own money into keeping that show going and when we got to 2018, we both said, well, we can't keep doing this. And we were both pretty burned out. It was. It's a lot of work to do that, year after year, creating the arguments and having enough people who want to argue that that was a real issue later in the seasons too, because we were doing stuff that wasn't necessarily in the mainstream.
Speaker 1:We were definitely sliding into geek knowledge in very small casks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very niche.
Speaker 1:Very niche arguments in the later seasons which did very well. We had somebody who came to. So you asked earlier if we were across Canada. We actually had some recorded shows on Eastlink for a while that went across Canada. Well, one of our performers who was with us in the first three seasons was moving to Vancouver and asked to take the show with them to Vancouver. So there was Geeks vs Nerds Halifax and Geeks vs Nerds Vancouver, for I think they went to 2019 and then they they ended as well. So we had two franchises and they actually made money. They had because they were in Vancouver. They're not in Halifax. Halifax has a very small population, a very enthusiastic and supportive population, but not enough to turn this into a uh, into an ongoing show, right?
Speaker 2:so so I gotta move this over to cat now hearing what I just heard. What in the world made you decide to bring this thing back?
Speaker 4:well, I think that pig monkey has, like he's talking about the breadth of of the experience, but from my perspective, I started. I saw my first geeks versus nerd show at hal con in 2011. It was the second con ever and I was like, who are these people on stage like arguing in such a funny way about these things? And and I was I was attracted to it. I had done improv in high school, but throughout university that kind of thing was not my life. I'd very quietly be like, oh yeah, I kind of like Star Trek, whatever. Who's Iron man? He's cool.
Speaker 4:But when I got to go to Halcon, I started meeting more people with these kinds of pop culture interests. I was really drawn to what Geeks vs Nerds was doing and after about a year of just going to see the show where people would line up outside the bar 45 minutes an hour early, where you would have over 100 people, you know, cramming into smaller spaces to see the show, it was very popular. I found the I don't know boldness somewhere to be like, hey, can I try and got involved and I was involved until the end and so from my perspective, it was very popular. We did basically all of the maritime provinces. Is Newfoundland considered maritime?
Speaker 3:No, they're not, they're Atlantic.
Speaker 4:So we did all the conventions at all the maritime provinces like performing multiple times, and went together and yeah, we weren't a moneymaker but we got paid to go perform at these conventions. And then also personally, it was a big part of my personal growth, becoming more comfortable with myself as a queer person, making a ton of friends. You know, pig mentioned, uh christy. Uh, I met her working on the, my first show with gvn. She stood in my wedding a couple of years ago like we're very close friends and and so I had cancer in uh, early 2020. Uh, that sucked, um and and what kind of got me through dealing with surgery and um I was just thinking yeah, time to have cancer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I was yeah.
Speaker 4:I was diagnosed in january 2020 with cervical cancer which my lost my mother to in 2011.
Speaker 4:Um, so it was. It was heavy. I had just moved in with my then boyfriend, now husband, and so we were on lockdown as I went in for a hysterectomy, so with six weeks of recovery time, right, we were there in a one bedroom. We had said let's get a one bedroom together because we'll be out all the time doing cool things and we'll be like North End hipsters, because we'll be out all the time doing cool things and we'll be like north on hipsters. And so this happened. But I was never really alone either, like I mean, he and I weren't really alone either because of the friends that would reach out, drop off packages, you know, come say hi while I was on my balcony and they were down on the on the lawn right, and most of those folks I met either directly or indirectly because of geeks versus nerds amazing and yeah, and so, as I, that was a really rough I would say year and a half after that mental health it was.
Speaker 4:it was really really rough. And what helped me pull out of it was starting to think how I might celebrate afterwards. And, um, I come from a family of like I had a religious upbringing that I don't follow now, but there was a lot of that love thy neighbor kind of version of Christianity, and so it was like, okay, I'm going to celebrate, like I thought I could just throw a big party, but it felt right to give back. And I found out about patient assistance programs at the QE2 and thought what a great way to help people out, because it's stuff like gift cards, you know, for gas or food. It's helping people who you know illness has made their life financially difficult. It's helping them out and I'm so grateful that that wasn't a concern for us. You know, we we were fine, um, all through the, the lockdowns and everything. So it just started to grow as this idea to combine the two and what got me through life, what helped me become, uh, you know, a version of myself that I'm really proud of today, was Geeks vs Nerds.
Speaker 1:He has a Geeks vs Nerds tattoo, which is something that I have not succumbed to yes he did not support it either.
Speaker 4:When I told him I was thinking about it, he said no, and I showed up a month later with the. I'm not going to flash you on a camera, but I've got the Geeks vs Nerds logo on the right side of my chest. Because, it meant that much to me your life, though right and I did.
Speaker 2:I love hearing like I mean matt and I did halcon last year and yeah, for the first time we went, yeah yeah, one of our takeaways from it was like, I mean, it's so nice.
Speaker 2:I mean we all get kind of feel very lost and alone, even when we like something sometimes and we're like, okay, I like this. But like you know, I mean my partner at 10 years god love her, she won't watch a marvel movie or it's gonna save her life, right, I'm on my way to those and that's okay. I have friends, thankfully, like marvel movies. But as you get more intricate into geekism or whatever you want to call it or something that you're truly passionate about, it's so great to see, um, that there's so many people right in your city with those exact same loves and deep passions for something and a place where you can all go. And again, this, this show you guys are doing, I love the concept of it. I feel like I don't fit in anywhere, even in your, probably even in on your show. If I was on your show, I'm like oh, I'm not. I'm not geeky enough for these geeks.
Speaker 3:Right I used to say like I'd say to my wife and when we were watched because my wife will watch marvel movies with me, but you know she didn't read the. She read archie comics growing up, I read marvel and dc and stuff. So when I get into it like sometimes she'll she'll get into it and she'll be like, oh, is this how it goes in the comics? Is this, whatever right, and she'll get into it a little bit. And I, honestly, I was like I was like, yeah, you know, even though I grew up, you know, still liking sports and playing sports, I had this geeky side to me, right, that liked Marvel and things like that and I'd know a lot about the details of it. And then I went to Halcon last year and I was like I am an idiot, I know nothing.
Speaker 4:That's how I felt too. I was like I just met my new I I I want to politely push back on that, partially because since that, since geeks versus nerds, has has, uh, you know, since we ended the show, I actually got involved with halcon. Now yeah, um there's something for everyone, and the idea is that we appreciate each other's passions. My husband, uh, I mean, yeah, I married a nerd and it's the best thing ever, but he loves anime. I don't get it.
Speaker 4:But, I love when he gets rolling and tells me all about what he's enjoying, because I get to see what he's excited about, and then I do the same to him with some of the things I'm into, and then we're also into non-geeky things. I think that everyone has has something. There's been some geeks versus nerd debates that I signed up for, but I didn't know what I was signing up for and just did a little research. I once signed up for a debate relating to avatar and I thought cool, you know, I never actually watched that movie. I'm finally going to sit down and watch it. Then I looked closely at what I signed up for. It was avatar korra spinoff from avatar last airbender, and I was like oh, what is this?
Speaker 3:I ended up watching a few episodes like this is really neat.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was not the blue guys. I have still not watched the blue guys um, yeah, you know what you have.
Speaker 3:It was probably just called pocahontas ah, yes yes, what was, uh?
Speaker 1:what was that debate? What, what? What was Cora versus?
Speaker 4:That's a great question. I don't remember I my love for geeks versus nerds. It's, it's so funny. I don't remember most of the debates that I did in any great detail. For me it's the community of people. Like the the reunion show, we have 18 cast members and then we've got five or six people there's some crossover also doing some behind the scenes work on the show. Um, you know, there's the friend that's handling social media. Uh, john roy, that that pig monkey mentioned is is doing our technical side. Got a couple of friends from the show working the door, working the silent auction booth. Um, you know, there's a lot of fans coming back to see the show as well as some friends that are being supportive because they know about my my journey through cancer and the mental health struggles there and and so, yeah, I don't remember a lot of the debates, but I remember the passion and the laughter and that's why I want it so badly to do this show.
Speaker 2:Is this going to be just one show or are you guys going to work on like a series?
Speaker 4:That's what I was wondering is also like are you going to do it at halcon? This is a one-time live only reunion.
Speaker 2:Uh, you're not the first people to ask, but it's a lot of work and, uh, I have big monkeys laughing in the corner.
Speaker 4:I've yeah, I've said a lot of I've yeah, I've sent a lot of oh, I'm so sorry, I had no idea messages to Pig, monkey and John, because the group working on this with us are enthusiastic and funny and have great ideas, and it's about 25 people and it's like herding cats, so I personally don't have-.
Speaker 1:They all have different ideas.
Speaker 4:We all have different ideas. They all have different ideas, and all have different ideas. They all have different ideas.
Speaker 1:And you've got to take those ideas, filter through them. Let some of the ones that you don't I'm not going to say they're bad ideas, I'm just going to say that they don't fit right now. And then you have to let those people down, nicely.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:And at the same time, swing around and say we're going to take your idea, and so there's a lot of, and they're all our friends, yeah yes. They're great people and we want to go. Oh, that's a great idea. I want to use your idea, but just can't. It doesn't fit. So when we did the original show, we ended up quite often moving those ideas to next shows. But since we've only got the one.
Speaker 3:So what I'm hearing is you, if halcon came knocking, you, wouldn't do this once a year just for halcon oh, that, that wouldn't be up to me, uh, and in fact I would have to take my I would.
Speaker 4:I would have to come knocking first, yeah and I would have to take myself out of that conversation because of my involvement with halcon.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, but halcon would have to come knocking first. Like I, I'm not opposed, but I'm also not in any rush to do that to myself again. I was exhausted by the end.
Speaker 4:You have to understand. This is the closest I've heard Pigmonkey to even saying a yes.
Speaker 3:We'll squeeze it out of him.
Speaker 4:Geeks vs Nerds was an amazing time, and sometimes things belong where they belong In their time. In their. But you know we're doing this reunion show because there's still an appetite for the show, for this type of show. We've we've sold well, well over 100 tickets now. Um, we have auction supporters. We've had enough raffle prizes donated to do two what's the show?
Speaker 4:sorry sorry, the show is friday, april 4th it's in the mcginnis room at the doll student union nice um, and tickets are on eventbrite we actually yeah, it's a friday night, so it's going to be a great friday night show, which is the other reason why I think it's great that we're doing it. Just live right. You have to be there to enjoy it, experience it and support the QE2 patient assistance programs.
Speaker 2:I think it's great.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, so that's why we're doing it that way.
Speaker 2:Are you guys going to film it or no?
Speaker 4:We've been talking about filming it. Tech-wise it's not really feasible, because the more well, the more too the air. Feasible, because the more well, the more too that we do, the more we have to pay for. The more we have to pay for, the less we're able to support the charitable organization when we originally did geeks versus nerds, uh, we used all of our own equipment.
Speaker 1:So part of bringing our show was using our equipment. But because we're like, I mean I still have all the equipment. But the venues generally like you to use their equipment of putting on the show, which means that you have to recover more from the ticket booth, which means the more tech you have, the greater the cost. And if we could put somebody in there with our own camera and record it, yeah, maybe. Or even audio, yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe, but it becomes at a certain point financially unwieldy the bigger the show gets, without any kind of financing or backing or anything so we could pay people. Geeks vs Nerds was entirely run by volunteers and people who put their own money into making the show work.
Speaker 4:And time, but it was also. That's it.
Speaker 1:We couldn't pay anyone, which was actually a real Bummer. I mean, there were great people on stage and we just never had enough that we could give people. Like like we could have paid everybody on stage 20 bucks for the, for the shows that we were paid for and the shows that we were paid for that money went so often. If we paid everybody on stage 20 bucks, that would have been 120 bucks, because I'm not paying myself and that would have been coming out of mine and John Roy's pocket because bringing the show there was either tickets sold or flat rate for everybody to come in and that usually covered travel or other expenses right, because we're we're moving like uh, what about 12 people?
Speaker 4:it was about 12 people when we, when we did an away show. Yeah, yes, yeah it's so
Speaker 4:interesting. You guys are getting in real time, like a perspective that I never considered as a cast member, because sure it would have been nice, but I just saw it as a wonderful hobby with my friends, and getting to go to fredericton on canada day weekend to make people laugh and hit a couple bars I'd never been to was a great time. It was a great way for me. I was in my, I was in my late 20s and, uh, it was a great time.
Speaker 3:I loved it and.
Speaker 4:I never considered awesome the idea of getting paid. It was just a passion project and I and I really feel that most, for most of the, if not all of the cast, it it was that same thing and and it was a roving cast too it wasn't the same folks every time. So I remember we did a photo at our last monthly show where we I think we had about 40 people in the photo and that wasn't everyone you know there was. There was a large group to draw on for this reunion show and I reached out to folks that I particularly wanted to celebrate with. But any number of of cast members could, could do this today and would be witty and smart and funny and a little strange in the best way possible, can you give me a bit of an idea of maybe any of the debates that might be coming up?
Speaker 2:maybe at least one or the yes, yes, so so the ones I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 4:The main debate will be, uh, john Luke Picard.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Sorry, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's okay, no, no, no.
Speaker 4:You might not have known I was referring to this show. Uh, yeah, so John Luke Picard, uh, versus Steve Rogers. Which captain has given more for their cause? I haven't had my coffee yet this morning, or a pint. And some of the two-minute debates. I'm doing one, I'm doing 90s slang versus corporate speak.
Speaker 3:I'm on the side of 90s slang. I love that. That's a great.
Speaker 4:A couple of friends are doing Indiana Jones versus River Song. We've got Lego versus Minecraft, minecraft, yeah, and there's a few more. I'll leave it for the night. Um, yeah, and then intermixed in there. Uh, I should mention the door prizes for the night um are two weekend passes to halcon. Those always sell out early, so I really appreciate my friends at halcon for for those.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, we've got two raffle prizes, so the first raffle prize is a pair of weekend passes to the great outdoor comedy festival along, along, yeah yeah, along with a night free at the lord nelson oh cool uh, and then the other raffle prize is two west jet vouchers, wherever west jet normally flies really appreciative of those of those companies. Yeah and and one thing that we were able to secure uh, if I could be a little proud for a moment is we do have a show sponsor, which is arbora vide counseling um, because as you can tell, mental health is all wrapped up into this. Um everyone that does. Jvn is a little nuts, he's a little screwy, little screwy, little screwy.
Speaker 4:They're one of our supporters through sponsorship, and then we have loads of silent auction prizes too. Those are the main ways that we're fundraising for the patient assistance programs at the QE2. Amazing.
Speaker 2:I think this is beautiful, it's great, awesome, this is all packed. I think this is beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great, awesome. This is all, pat. I want to stress that Pat has been at the front of this. She has been the prow that is cutting the waves, because I've given a bit of help and John Roy's given a bit of help. But when Kat said she wanted to do this, both John Roy and I kind of looked at each other and went okay.
Speaker 4:Look, a little naive optimism can go a long way. And also I mean, yeah, I'll own it that this was a passion for me. I really, really wanted to do this and I really want it to do. Well, uh, and I couldn't do it without the 25 or so people behind me, you know, working on social media, working on design and posts and slides, the folks that are giving auction items, um the like. I said, we have a sponsor for this show and all of the raffle prizes, like, from my perspective, I'm trying to just keep it all together in one beautiful spreadsheet oh yeah well all right, so yeah before I was gonna say we, uh, we, we do have a rapid fire kind of question how we end this show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I don't know if you want to move into that mike yeah, we do, I did want to ask one final question related to the show, and that is what is the difference between a nerd and a geek?
Speaker 1:oh, I get that one all the time yeah geeks sit on the right, nerds sit on the left yeah, there you go perfect it could be.
Speaker 4:It could be red versus blue, it could be shirts versus skins although it's not that kind of show.
Speaker 1:There's a it's. There's a good story to that one, because I got that question a lot in the first season. Uh, like, in the first three episodes of this we got what is a geek, what's the difference between a geek and a nerd? And what I learned was, if you answer those questions with a definitive, solid answer, you are inviting debate. But if you answer it with something completely subjective like nerds sit on the right, or geeks sit on the right, or geeks sit on the right, nerds sit on the left there's no room for debate there. So, uh, so that I've learned a lot about arguing, uh, and I knew quite a bit when I started because I'm a geek.
Speaker 3:Okay, you know what I have to make a comment here. Pig Monkey, do you know the comedian Louis Black? Yeah, of course you have the cadence and mannerism of him, but much calmer, not as angry.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because I'm suppressing my anger. It doesn't take a lot to set me off. I'm not a violent person, but I learned how to use my words real well when I was young, so thank you. I appreciate that. Ever since that, that's a new one. So thank you. Usually, I got a lot of John Candy when I was younger. Oh my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, matt, we're going to be hearing about this one now, like the next time all our friends are together, we're going to be hearing about this one now. The next time all our friends are together, we're going to be hearing about Louis Black.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool, great comedian.
Speaker 1:He's got a point. Whenever he's making his comedy he's got a point. I like that because people like I have a weird sense of humor in that. I like non-sequiturs. If you can throw a non-sequitur that I can follow afterwards like I see where you made that connection. That connection is very funny to me.
Speaker 3:Like oh, I get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have my favorite joke. I do some stand up. My favorite joke that I've recently written was I don't know if this stand up thing is right for me, because I used to tell dad jokes Then he left.
Speaker 2:I like it.
Speaker 4:Nice, that's good oh no, as I mentioned, we do have a therapist supporting the show.
Speaker 3:You guys are going to need a bigger team there isn't enough therapy in this world to fit me into a box and we would never try awesome all right, so let's go into our rapid fire kind of questions, like we generally do, like 10 questions, but because there's two of you and asking each of you 10 questions might be a lot kind of thing, so we have. We have five questions that I put together plus our one consistent one that we ask everybody. We'll save that for the very end.
Speaker 1:But um forward to find if we have time.
Speaker 2:I'm throwing in something too after.
Speaker 3:After the question sure, yeah, well, did you want to take it away with question one there, mike?
Speaker 2:sure? Um, okay, what do you think is one of the most like geek, lore worthy series on television of all time? Like you know, if you were like to go like any tv show, we'll just stay tv, we'll stay out of everything else. Like show that just has so much lore to it and so much content that like endless debates on what would be one of the best shows I I've a quick answer and a longer answer.
Speaker 4:My quick answer star trek, because of how many series there are, you know the breadth of it, the world building, uh, and it's, and it's my, it's my thing, it's where I originally, you know, aligned with geekdom. But I just finished the severance season two finale last night and that show has so many theories and what ifs, and we watched it too.
Speaker 2:Last night, my partner and I watched. It was amazing, right it. My partner and I watched it.
Speaker 4:It was amazing, it's incredible, and I also find a lot of people who don't subscribe to Geek love it too. So I'm somewhere between Star Trek, but right now it's Severance.
Speaker 2:Severance is amazing. I highly recommend that show, one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Speaker 1:Same Over to Pigmonkey. My question is for whom? Uh like, is it for geeks or for non-geeks? Because if you well, if you want, uh like my mom for all her for as much as I love her, thinks that, uh, big bang theory. That Big Bang Theory is one of the funniest things she's ever seen in her life. God love her.
Speaker 1:Whereas I feel like it's nails on a chalkboard. But if you literally know nothing about geekery, big Bang Theory is a good stepping stone, but as long as you realize that it is not geekery. It is geekery as written by Hollywood hacks.
Speaker 2:Give me a show with good geekery, then how about that? I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:Geekery done right.
Speaker 2:I always felt Silicon Valley did a good job.
Speaker 1:Am I wrong? Yeah, I'd see. I like the. The issue for me is any show that I'd pick confines your knowledge to that show. Which is why. Which is why big bang theory is such a great concept for people who aren't geeks.
Speaker 3:It's the gateway drug to geekery is what you're saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. It's a good way to find stuff out, as long as you're not going ha-ha. Those nerds are so stupid they don't understand anything, which is generally the overwhelming message in that show. For a real show, I don't think you could find anything on TV that would be a great jumping off point or knowledge. The thing about geeks is they get hyper-focused on the thing that's their geek right. Whatever your geek is, they get hyper-focused on the thing that's their geek right.
Speaker 2:Whatever your geek is, you become hyper-focused on it. So I want to apologize. Pig Monkey, you're not answering the question. So I know I'm going in tradition of our show If you don't answer the question, you just have to take a little sip of your drink, whatever you're drinking, right? So and we move on. Okay, there we go, I would say.
Speaker 1:I would say I've got an answer. I was. I was working my way to an answer.
Speaker 2:There was an answer there.
Speaker 1:These are quick hits, okay. Well, then cut everything else out and and just say youtube, that's where you go cool.
Speaker 2:All right, I love that answer. That's a great answer.
Speaker 3:Good answer, good answer. Here's question number two who would win in a fight, the Borg or the Kalon?
Speaker 4:Do you mean the Cylons, the?
Speaker 1:Borg. The Kalon were the first alien species from Voyager.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3:No, the Kalon is from the Orville, if you've ever watched it.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're living in.
Speaker 4:Vegas. I love the Orville. I'm embarrassed that.
Speaker 2:I thought you were talking about something else. Yeah, me too. I love the Orville. I like the Orville more than Star Trek actually. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's fun, the Borg.
Speaker 2:I'm on team Kalon man.
Speaker 4:The marrying of the biological with the technical. I think would be ultimately superior to Thank God, I'm married because I don't get laid when I say things like that.
Speaker 1:The moment the Borg assimilated a Kalon, all of the kalon's offense becomes, uh, pointless. They know everything that the kalon know. They have the kalon's technology. They just take the best part and leave the rest in a crap pile and vaporize the planet from orbit. Like it's not really hard, the kalon die with a flashlight. They don't even need weapons. All they need to do is drop a couple of spotlights on their city and I surrender you.
Speaker 2:that was a great answer, okay, how are you, mike? Yeah, okay, okay. This is a tough question to answer too, I think. So it's okay if you don't like the question, but what's one of the most scientifically accurate science fiction? We'll say movies. Just keep it in the movie realm.
Speaker 4:From what I understand, Interstellar is up there and it is one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time.
Speaker 2:One of my favorites too, but you have something to say. Pig Monkey, let's go.
Speaker 1:I almost walked out of Interstellar Because they told me it was. It was real science and I'm like you can't get that Fucking close to a black hole Without turning into a strip of spaghetti Like it. Just that fucking close to a black hole without turning into a strip of spaghetti Like it just frustrated the ever-loving hell out of me.
Speaker 4:Regardless, it's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:I would have to say. I mean, you can pick holes in all kinds of science, but I would say the Martian was probably the guy who wrote. The Martian did a bunch of scientific research. And it's not 100%, but he wrote it on the fear that Neil deGrasse Tyson was going to read it.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's my guy.
Speaker 3:He's my number one podcast. Get that I want to get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, he uh uh, andy Weir.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:With the thought in mind that, uh, neil deGrasse Tyson might read it, so he wanted to make it as accurate as possible, so I'm going to go with the Martian previous to any Hollywood adaptation.
Speaker 2:I'm definitely going with Wally on that one, Matt.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. What about?
Speaker 3:Terminator. That's turning out to be kind of accurate. We're getting there.
Speaker 2:We're getting there? I hope not.
Speaker 4:So is Handmaid's Tale but we don't want to talk about that, so is that one absolutely question number four of these four, who is the most powerful wizard?
Speaker 3:Gandalf, dumbledore, doctor Strange or Merlin?
Speaker 4:that's a lot oh boy, that is outside of most of my like interests. Like I, like Doctor Strange a lot but, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Gandalf is the soul of an angel, without any real. That's why he can die and come back. He's the soul of an angel, potent in the world but just not wielding the same kind of power as all the other wizards in story. Uh, dumbledore, I don't know a huge amount, I'm not really big into his lore, but he seems like more of an administrator than he he's. He's a forward thinker, not necessarily powerful in wielding combat and throwing fire, but he has everything set ahead. I'm going to skip Doctor Strange, because he's the most powerful. Merlin, who is the prototypical wizard. Everything that we base wizardry around is based off of Merlin. But you cannot really respect a wizard who gets trapped in a tree for 300 years.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:He told the woman how to trap him in a tree. So he's, I mean, I like it, but he didn't really. Again, he didn't do anything. He did illusions, he did glamour, he was a good planner and a good talker, and then he got trapped in a tree. Strange brought time into a dimension where it doesn't exist, which is pretty much altering reality, and none of them have that altering reality thing that Doctor Strange does. Also, none of them have the lore that Doctor Strange does. So it just makes more sense. I can break anything down like it I can break anything down like this Listen, I agree with that answer as well.
Speaker 3:Alright, over to you, Mike.
Speaker 2:For what? Oh the question.
Speaker 1:Oh no, kat, just don't ask the answer.
Speaker 4:No, I mean really I agree, but when I was thinking about Doctor Strange, it's just because I like him the most. That's really where it was for me, yeah.
Speaker 3:I just really enjoy his movies. Probably biased. For me too, All right.
Speaker 2:Matt, I'm throwing one in here now. All right, this is a debate. Okay, I'm going to split the groups, so I want to put Pig Monkey and Matt together and I'm going to be on Kat's team, okay? Who would you pick to go up against Superman from the Marvel Universe and win? Knowing everything about Superman, he's the almighty, powerful, unbeatable dude, with the kryptonite as his only weakness.
Speaker 1:Is this? It Is that all of the criteria? That's it.
Speaker 3:yeah, Leech with a 357 Magnum. Who's?
Speaker 1:Leech. He is an X-Man. I don't think he's even grown up in the comics. He was a child in the 90s when I was reading them. And his ability is to completely negate superpowers. Oh, OK. In fact, if you are within range of him, you lose all of your superpowers. But so Superman is now the man of flesh and then he's the man of a hole in his head.
Speaker 2:OK, I'm going to poke at that just a little bit, because I'm thinking like superpowers are kind of worldly. Superman's not really. He's from a planet Krypton. So he's not superpowers, he's just a regular human or a regular being from his own part of the world. So leeches, no, he's not, he's absorbing.
Speaker 1:He's absorbing yellow star radiation. Yep, if he absorbs red star radiation. He's just a normal dude. That's what.
Speaker 2:I was going to say so Artie, who's?
Speaker 1:he doesn't steal powers, he negates them. They just stop working in his presence, or not? Artie, leach, artie speaks in pictures, leachach. So Leach just negates powers in his uh, in his area, and if he, I I don't even think it takes touch. But okay, do you like honestly?
Speaker 4:no, I mean honestly, you picked a terrible teammate here. Um, pig monkey's gonna always overtake me in nerd knowledge. I mean, like using marvel as an example. I'm obsessed with the mcu movies. Never, never read the comic books, like my one comic book guy is wolverine. Um, but I did think about, uh, bruce banner and more so bruce banneranner than Hulk because I thought that there would probably be a scientific way to take Superman down, perhaps to create kryptonite within the Marvel universe if I have to talk to big characters rather than like a sneaky thing, I'd go with Doctor Strange, because Doctor strange can do magic and superman has absolutely no resistance to magic.
Speaker 1:He's vulnerable to it. Um, the reason why I picked leech is because he's a child and superman would not try to hurt him, even with super speed, before he got into range of being shot by a gun, whereas Superman could high speed and take out Dr Strange before it ever became an issue All right, that's a total.
Speaker 3:I see, I would just. I would have just picked, like infinity gauntlet Thanos, cause he could have just made kryptonite and then it would have been over.
Speaker 1:So yeah, okay, we'd have to know that Kryptonite exists and it doesn't exist in the Marvel Universe.
Speaker 4:Maybe that's why I would take it back to Banner, because I think that if he had the opportunity to, he'd be able to research, he'd be able to figure out what makes Superman tick.
Speaker 2:Like Richard Pryor did Matt.
Speaker 4:Like Richard.
Speaker 3:Pryor did Matt, Like Richard Pryor did? We were talking about this this week.
Speaker 2:We were talking about Superman. 3, like two days ago, yeah, or yesterday, yeah.
Speaker 1:Ah, skis and a baby, a pink baby blanket. That's all I remember about Superman 3.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not a big Superman fan. I actually I despise that character. To be honest with you, I like Doomsday solely because he killed Superman. He's too good.
Speaker 4:I like my character's little. I like the Punisher. I like those For me anyways, those more depressing anti-heroes.
Speaker 3:I don't like bright, shiny, perfect boy flying in to save the day I think for me I've talked to this before I like I like um heroes who have great villains, and I don't feel like superman has great villains, like his arch nemesis is a regular businessman. It's like it'd be like fighting jeff bezos. So that's the, that's his arch nemesis.
Speaker 1:I get it. I get it. However, I would say that his arch nemesis can't like okay. Originally he was a mad scientist, but in the eighties he became a businessman, and that's when Lex Luthor stepped ahead and became truly a vision beyond, like the dangerous ones, like Braini. He became the president of the United States. He beat Superman in a venue that Superman can't compete. That's what makes him, as a villain, brilliant, because he knows that Superman is a walking God and he can't touch a walking god, but you can influence his followers.
Speaker 2:This Andrew guy is hard to beat.
Speaker 3:I still don't like him. I still don't like him.
Speaker 1:The thing is, I think about this stuff the second amount. I think about this stuff the second amount. I think about Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing games the most, and I think about stuff like this after.
Speaker 4:And your partner's in there, somewhere around three or four oh no, I think about her a lot.
Speaker 1:I met her at a Geeks versus Nerds, so there you go yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool, all right, matt. Last question, my friend, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right. So last question would be the question that we ask everybody. So that would be what is one piece of advice that you were given, that you know really impacted you, that you would like to share with us?
Speaker 4:I. I have one, andrew, if you're a pig monkey first, I'm one of the people that took a long time coming around to calling him pig monkey. I'm gonna I'm gonna admit that, but I never walked away. Um, I was, uh, in university, feeling very overwhelmed, trying to figure out my next steps in life and trying to make some grand plan, which does not work. And a mentor said to me to do the next right thing. So don't think about some grand plan. Think about what's in front of you right now, and and how you can do the next right thing and I'm not saying I follow it 100% of the time now and and how you can do the next right thing and I'm not saying I follow it 100 of the time, but it was a really good way to pull me back into myself and what matters to me and to just keep moving forward that's smart I love that, yeah, I never heard it before, to be honest with you, it's really great buddy of mine from australia, so maybe maybe it's more common there.
Speaker 2:I like it. Yeah, big monkey, yeah.
Speaker 1:The fact that you don't know how to do something stop you from doing it.
Speaker 2:I like that too.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 1:Very true. Yeah yeah, life is a skill and the more that you practice that skill, the better you get at it. Now there are people who are talented, who that skill is easier for them to attain and they will attain probably a higher height of that skill than you will. But that skill is not cut, is not removed from you. You can get that. Just do it and fail, and when you fail, do it again and fail, and do it again and fail, and then third, fourth, fifth time you're going to succeed. Each time you do it, you do it again and you don't do the things that you did last time, and you will succeed. You might not succeed as much as you want to, but you will have success. It's a guarantee.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, man, this is a lot of fun. This is a very fun coffee, you know. Thank you so much, guys. Cheers, yeah, and that's it. That's the end of the show, so go out and check out. Maybe you can plug the show one last time for us, kat.
Speaker 4:Sure yeah. So the Geeks vs Nerds reunion show is on April 4th Tickets available on Eventbrite and it's going to be at the McGinnis Room at the Dow Student Union.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:We really hope to see people there. The show gets better the more people are there.
Speaker 4:And tickets are selling pretty quickly. We sold out of our VIP passes in the first 24 hours.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:They are going All right cool.
Speaker 1:Thanks again, guys, cheers, thank you, thank you. I'm so glad to be here.
