(funky music) – Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I’m Rhett. – And I’m Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we have YouTuber, writer, director, visionary, soda shop owner. – Nashvillian. – Nashvillian currently in LA, Olan Rogers, this has been a long time coming, a lot of you guys have been asking to get him on an Ear Biscuits for years. And today, it finally happens, I’m super pumped. We are fans. The dude. – He’s done quite a bit. – The headline is he’s an amazing storyteller. I mean, if you look at his YouTube videos, anything that’s labeled with story, click on that and listen to it, watch the guy, I mean, it’s a vlog, it’s edited like a vlog. – A video log. – But it’s not. You know why? – It’s all that and more. – I mean, we analyze it and we get his take on what it is it’s the ancient art of storytelling which is dying, man. – The ancient art of storytelling. – Yes! Seriously, man. What are you? – You just got a little dramatic, I mean, it’s great, it is really great. – Listen, people used to sit around on porches or fires. – They sat on fires? – Dirt and, around. – That’ll make you tell a story fast. – You know what they would do? They wouldn’t watch TV or look at a screen in their palm, they would tell stories. It’s oral tradition, Rhett. It’s the ancient art of storytelling that we’re losing, but this guy single-handedly, see, now I’m getting over-dramatic, is– – Single-handedly? – Is keeping the tradition alive when it comes to YouTube. – He’s doing a great job and he actually undersells himself, Olan does. – Oh, big time. – We had a great conversation, talked about all the stuff that he’s got going on on YouTube and off. – Just got married. – Lots of exciting stuff. So, stay tuned for that. – But there’s exciting stuff for us too. – Oh, yeah, we’ve got something very exciting! Something that we have never done before, lots of people have asked for it but it just hasn’t worked out, it’s finally working out and that is we are going on tour. – We are physically showing up at venues across America. Yes, this is a US tour only, this is not an international tour, that’ll have to come later. So, I apologize, international mythical beasts, but to focus on the positive, we are going to venues and meeting you mythical beasts in person while we do a show from a stage. – It’s called the Tour of Mythicality and this is not your typical book tour. – No, it’s not, it’s in conjunction with the release of a book. – But we’re not going to like, – October, November, December. – libraries and bookstores and doing book signings, no, we’re putting on a show in theater venues around the US and there’s gonna be music, there’s going to be us bringing aspects of the book to life in a way that you can only enjoy on stage. Well, some of you may get on stage but we’re gonna be on stage. – Yeah, there might be some audience participation. – But you’ll be in a seat or standing or something, you’ll be comfortably watching. But we think it’s gonna be very different from anything that we’ve ever done and we love doing this kind of thing, we love putting on a show, and we just haven’t been able to do anything like this in years, definitely not since we started YouTube except for the occasional vidcon performance or that kind of thing but this is gonna be something very special and Link, tell ’em where we’re going to be. – We’re gonna be in Huntington, New York which is Long Island. New York City, New York, Austin, Texas, Dallas, Texas, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, all in California, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, Minneanapolis, nope, that’s not how you say that. – Minneapolis. – Minneapolis. – Indianapolis and Minneapolis. But we’re not gonna be in Indianapolis. – I think I’ve been saying Minneanapolis my entire life. – It’s just Minneapolis. – Minneapolis. – Minnesota. – There’s so many of them or they’re small. It’s one small apolis, I don’t know. Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta, and finally a homecoming in December in Durham, North Carolina. – Now, you can go to tourofmythicality.com to see where we’re gonna be and when we’re gonna be there and you can buy tickets starting this Friday at tourofmythicality.com but, this is a big but, a big ol’ booty. – Mm-hmm, two cheeks. – If you subscribe to our newsletter at MythicalMonthly.com, you can get early access to tickets this week. – You can get the scoop, scoop! – We don’t exactly know when that alert is going to come, but the only way you can get it is if you’re signed up for our newsletter at MythicalMonthly.com. – We’re trying to give perks for being newsletter subscribers, I mean, you get all the recommendations of like, the stuff that we’re into. – But early announcements is something that we said we were gonna do, and so, that’s a special group of people who get that email. – And you should be one of them. – They’re gonna continue to be rewarded for that. So, if you wanna get some of the first tickets available for this, this is a limited tour, there’s limited seating available, it’s gonna be very special, we’re gonna put on a show that you’re gonna love and we hope to be proud of. – So, that’s MythicalMonthly.com. – And tourofmythicality.com. – We should tell them about what we’re working on with Buddy System, I think that’s the big thing that, you know, we’re focused on all summer is crafting Buddy System season two for you guys and we wanna make a point to keep you guys in the loop as we’re working on the creative process. I mean, I love working on it because there’s, we’ve got our hands in every aspect of the process and it’s so different than what we do the rest of the year ’cause it’s, you know, long-form narrative, of course there’s still a song in every episode, every episode’s gonna be longer this time around. Are the songs gonna be longer? I don’t know ’cause we’ve gotta write ’em. We’re starting to write them. – No, I don’t think the songs are gonna be longer. – The songs don’t need to be longer. – Yep. But yeah, and so, that’s what we’re kind of focusing on right now and we actually– – Like, like, tonight. When we’re done with this. – When we’re done with this, we’re gonna focus on it. – We gotta keep writing songs. – But we’ve been focusing on ’em and many of you may know Link doesn’t do the social media thing quite as much as me and he hasn’t done the Instagram thing in a couple of years, so you may not know that he also went to Mexico recently when I was there and I did a little social media for that. – But we went to different parts of Mexico. – Different places. Yes, different places, so I was with my wife and he was with his wife. We decided to do it that way this time. (both laugh) – What? – And we were in completely different parts of Mexico, anyway, it was just a long weekend, it was like, okay, get there on Thursday, stay through Sunday, and it was, as I called it to my wife, Jessie, it was the calm before the storm trip. It was this is gonna be a crazy summer just like all our summers have become crazy now that we do Good Mythical Morning almost year round and we do Buddy System or something like it during the summer and there’s always something else going on. Our families don’t get a lot of the traditional things like, there’s not like a summer vacation anymore, we have to take a vacation over Thanksgiving or over Christmas or whatever. So, it was like, “Baby, we just need some time alone “and without having to worry about any of the stressors “in our lives,” and so– – And I need to be writing songs the whole time. – Yeah, well, specifically what I told her, I said, “All I wanna do is sit by the pool, “I don’t wanna do any excursions.” But I was like, the thing would be the most stress relieving for me, personally, and also the most healthful for what I need to be doing, is if I could just sit next to the pool and write songs. And she was totally fine with that because she’s just gonna sit next to the pool and read a book or work on whatever she happens to be working on with her design stuff. So, I actually felt like I got more work done, poolside, in Mexico, than I ever get done around here. I think we might need to move our office to just a poolside in Mexico. – Really? – (laughs) Yeah! – How could I oppose that? – I mean, just sitting there and just waiting for a waiter to ask me what I wanted next. – You know, there was a guy at the pool I was beside and he came up and he took my sunglasses and he washed ’em. – Did he ask first or did he take ’em right off? – He ripped ’em off my face and washed ’em. – No, he didn’t. – He slammed ’em back on my face. – He washed your sunglasses. – Yeah. Mm-hmm. And he didn’t charge me. – Were you the only one he was doing that for? – Yeah, then he went back to his family. (laughs) – He was just another guest. – Just a guest. No, that’s what he did, super nice guy, taught me some Spanish. – Oh, really? – I’ve forgotten it. It went adios. – But I, (laughs) but I got so much work done, but one of the things that happened was is I’m at this pool and, I’ve talked about this on GMM or somewhere before, I don’t know how I’m using this app, you know, traditionally I write songs on the guitar or piano, which I don’t really actually play the piano but I can’t play it well enough to write something very slowly, but I’ve got this app that’s like, playing out the chords, I can like, select different chords and just hit buttons to play chords just to create song structure without having to have a piano in front of you. – What’s it called? – Suggester. – Suggester. – Suggester. – Yeah. – And I think there’s multiple programs but that’s a really good one. – You suggested it to me which – Yeah. – it’s called, it’s Suggester, there’s no, it’s not suggest, but anyway. – You can suggest something. – Suggest. – I think you suggest something. – I don’t think you ingest something if you eat it. – I suggest that you listen to me right now. Suggest. – I suggest. – I suggest? – Yeah. – I suggest it. It’s got two Gs in it. – It does. – I sug and I gest. You gotta sug a little bit and then you gotta gest a little bit. (chuckles) Anyway, I use Suggester. But I’m using it poolside and there’s– – That was a good promo for someone that’s not a sponsor. – Not even a sponsor. – Come on, Suggester. – Yeah. – Help us out. – I suggest that you become a sponsor. Now, they’re playing music poolside and then there’s another person playing their own music poolside and it’s different beats happening. – Off like, an iPhone? – Well, they have like a big JBL Bluetooth speaker that was very loud, actually a lot like the one I have at home. – Why would you do that if there’s already music playing? – And they’re equally as loud. – And you’re writing a song? – And I’ve got my headphones on and I’m suggesting things to myself. – Dink, dink, dink. – You know, different little piano chords. – Uh-huh. – That got old very quickly, so we moved. We moved to the other side of the pool where they were like, this side of the pool is quieter, this is where there’s the salt water area. We didn’t make it all the way to that, this is a place you’ve already been before. – Yeah, you didn’t swim in the salt water pool? – I never did. I didn’t. I stayed at the main pool. – You’re just more buoyant. – Most of the time. But anyway, I actually got in the pool one time. – Dang, must not have been, it was hotter where I was, I got in a pool a lot but I was on the beach and I could still hear music playing and I was writing the song for episode two, which I’m so tempted to tell you what it’s about but I would say, here’s my hint: it’s a very revealing song. – Or actually, (simultaneously) not revealing, at all. – Yes. But I decided to make it a reggae song. – Mmm, and I wonder why. – Because this music they were playing was reggae and I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I just started like, I was writing down lyrics but you starting them to the rhythm of like, I’m sure the song that we finalize is going to be the same tempo and it’s certainly gonna be reggae. – Mine’s gonna be two tempos. – Oh, you got two, yeah, you got two different tempos. – It’s gonna be two competing tempos the whole time, all the songs. – So, you know, when you hear that song in episode two, you guys got the scoop on it and you can picture me on a beach in Mexico, writing it, alright? – I’m super excited about it, I know we talked a little bit about Buddy System season two but, you know. – It’s so crazy. – It’s just so weird. It’s so weird in a wonderful way, I mean, it’s just, Buddy System is the thing that we can, Buddy System is our outlet for the weirdest ideas that we have. You know, GMM is a place where we do weird things, but Buddy System is a place where we can conceptualize and execute and bring to life weird ideas that are kind of like an alternate world and this season two’s even weirder and in a better way than season one was. – I’m starting to be, you were relieved when you started writing things down, I don’t get relieved until we get, maybe when we send a demo to Mark, who’s our music producer, but then when he sends back like a more produced track and it’s like it’s all clicked into place, then I start to feel relieved. It’s like, it’s interesting how we feel relief at different parts in the creative process. – I feel relieved, I feel relieved when I know that the song is going to be funny and I know that the song is going to sound good. – Like, I’ve written a verse for that song and the other song and like, and so it’s like, the template’s there but the second verse is not there yet. It’s like, I think you feel great because you’re like, oh, I can bang out the second verse and I’m like, do I have a second verse in me? And of course, we have the benefit of each other, so like, you can also take that and say, oh, yeah, I see what you did here in this first verse, now blammity-blam-blam-blam, here’s a second one, like, you could fart that out. – I plan on farting it out. – Maybe I can, maybe you hand me something and I’m like, oh, that little thing, that melody there, that was the start of something, what if we blabbity-blah, da-woop, and then I farted that out and then it’s like, man, this smells funky. (laughs) Let’s see, guys, I can’t wait to share it with you. – You really set the bar pretty high in expectations. – We fart these songs out like beans, man, refried beans, Mexico. – Mmm. Okay, that’s one way see it, I tend to think of my songs as coming from my head, not from my butt. (laughs) With my heart and my head. – It’s your problem. – And if yours come from your butt, that’s great, that explains a lot. (both laugh) – I’ll take that, I’m fine with that. – Okay, so we’re gonna get to our conversation with Olan in just one second. But first, we’re gonna let you know about them pocket tees that we got! Oh, actually, I got a pocket tee right here. – Yeah, the official Ear Biscuits pocket tee. – Ear Biscuits pocket tee. – Look at that, you can fit four of your five fingers in the pocket. – And Link, you have a non pocket tee. You got a wax paper dog shirt. – This is the retro wax paper dog shirt, available for a limited time. rhettandlink.com/store. – Yes, that’s where all our stuff is available. – All types of pocket tees and all types of things to drink beverages out of. – Yes. – When you’re on vacation. – And now, on to the biscuit with Olan Rogers. – Mm-hmm. (funky music) – Okay, so, LaCroix used to be trash? – Yeah. I think it was like, they used it in like, the ’70s or something for airplanes. – What do you mean trash? – It’s like trash water, it’s like really bad quality water. – Like, to what, wash planes? – No, like to serve on planes, man. – To serve on planes. – Yeah. – Just the crappiest water. – Crappiest water you could get. – Well, you know, we talked about this on a GMM, it was made in the midwest, I think it was the ’80s. – That’s when, yeah, the ’80s, yeah. – Yeah, and it’s been around just kind of like, flying under the, well, literally flying over the radar in planes, I don’t know how radar goes. – If what he’s saying’s true. – And then– – It’s true. – I don’t think it’s changed at all. I think it’s just, its perception has changed. It’s just the story of perception, that’s what LaCroix is. Story of altered perceptions. (laughs) – It’s marketing. You know, it’s marketing because it’s just, as my kid calls it, spicy water. – Spicy water? – Spicy water. – LaCroix spicy water? – Spicy water which, to him, he’s seven, it just means– – It’s got the carbs. – It’s got carbonation. (laughs) – Those are carbs, right? – No. – Is it different? Is carbs and carbonation different? – See, you don’t understand the market which is it has no carbs. – Ah. – It has nothing, it’s zero calories. – Yeah, Shepherd says that toothpaste is spicy. Adult toothpaste is spicy. – Well, that makes sense ’cause it could be. I mean, pepperminty. – Are they doing the LaCroix thing in Nashville? – It’s everywhere. – Yeah, okay. – People are obsessed with this now. – Okay. So, you didn’t just adopt it? – No. – It’s just coming out here. – It’s all over. All over the place. – I was gonna ask my mom if it was in North Carolina but our friends back in Carrie, North Carolina, they have it. – They’re doing it? – Yeah. – They’re gonna actually start replacing it, they’re gonna put it in the public works. That’s what I’ve heard. Everybody wants it. – Congratulations on frickin’ so much stuff! – Yeah. – You’ve got this, and you know, we should talk about all this. But you’ve got, – Yeah, yeah. – you’ve got the cartoon on TBS is happening. – Yeah. – Shall we call it an animated series? – Yes, you can. – Can I call it a cartoon? – You can call it a cartoon. – Can you call it manga? – Manga. – You probably shouldn’t. – It’s not manga. – I don’t think it’s manga, is it? (laughs) – I don’t know how to say it. Is it may-nga? – It’s mah-nga. Anime. – Is it mah-nga? That’s like the comic version of anime, right? – Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just wanted to say manga. – So, you don’t know either. – Manga is when you do the comic version, but anime would be, is it anime? – No, it’s not anime. – I knew that already. – And you got married? – Yes. – You eloped, that’s how you put it. – Yeah. – So, we’ll have to unpack a little bit of that. – And you moved out here. At least temporarily. – For like a year. A year. – Oh. – So, how long have you been here in LA? – Since November. – Oh, okay. – Okay. – Yeah. – So, through the holidays. – Yeah. – But you did like, a tour, so you weren’t like here over the holidays. – Well, just for like three weeks I was gone. – Okay. – But then I was back here. – What’s your assessment of here? Are you staying in the Oakwood Apartments? – [Olan] No, no. – They don’t call ’em that anymore. – Do you know what that is? – I have no idea what that is. – They call it like, Talupa something, that’s kinda a little fancier, again, it’s all about perception. – But the Oakwood Apartments are furnished apartments that for maybe decades, – Yeah, at least. – people, you know, people get a job and come into town to do their thing and then, you know, it’ll probably fizzle out, so I’m not gonna bring furniture and you stay there. – It’s where a lot of the child stars who came out early, like back in the day, like a Corey Haim. – Corey Feldman. – Corey Feldman, lots of Coreys. – But we stayed there when we moved here for six months to make Commercial Kings. We stayed in the Oakwood Apartments and they gave us the spiel, well, not– – We didn’t stay there for six months. – How much did it cost? – No, we stayed there for a couple of weeks. – Oh, no, you’re right, I’m sorry. – How much does that cost? – We stayed in a furnished apartment for six months and that was really, in Los Feliz, that was way expensive. – But before that. – But when the pilot for our show on IFC, we stayed in the Oakwood Apartments for like, three, two or three weeks. – Yeah. – To like, edit the pilot and all that stuff. – What was rent? – At the Oakwood? – Yeah. – At that time it was… – I don’t remember that. – It was still probably like, 2,500 a month or something like that. – But like, furnished? Fully furnished. Like, couches and everything? – Really crappy, though. – Okay. – $2,500. – Well, that’s awful, then. Why did you do that? – We didn’t know any better. – (laughs) That’s so bad. Why’d you even? – Well, we didn’t, the production company actually paid for it. They put us up for a couple of weeks. – It wasn’t that bad. – ‘Cause when we moved out here, for the six months, we stayed at another place which was too expensive too but that was furnished. – But you’re not living there. (laughs) – Short answer, yes, I’m not, you know, I’m not living there, yeah. – Because you know it’s a year, you’re gonna be here for at least a year. – What is the physical address of the place you’re staying? (laughs) – It’s just west Hollywood, I’m not gonna, yeah, yeah. – Why are you only staying a year? Because– – We did that same, that was what we told our families but we knew we were never going back. – And they’re not listening, so tell us do you hope to stay or are you like, playing it by ear or–? – I’m playing it safe. – Yeah. – Just because I don’t know what that future looks like ’cause right now, I only have like, a season one of Final Space. – Mm-hmm. – They really, really, really frickin’ like it right now but to move everything across the country to LA which everything’s like, twice the price, if not quadruple. – [Link] Yeah, oh, yeah. – Yeah, it’s just, it’s a way different environment, plus it’s just really like, natural. – [Rhett] Yes. – Like, it’s just such a nicer place, I think. – Well, give this place a chance. – I’m trying to, man, I’m trying to. – But Nashville’s cool, though. – Yeah, I’ve heard it’s really cool in Nashville. – Yeah, it is. – It’s really cool, like, soda shop that you can hang out in. – Yeah. – Get some nice merch in there too. (laughs) – Okay, so– – And you’re, I mean, you’re just freshly married. – Yeah. About two weeks? Two weeks? Two weeks. – Oh, my goodness. – You talked about this in your vlog a little bit. – Yeah. – About the decision to elope. – Yeah. – This is a long time coming. – Yeah, yeah, I mean, we’d been thinking about it for a while, yeah. – How long were you dating? – Like, 10 years. – So, by a while you mean a decade. – What in the world, man? – 10 whole years, yeah. I mean, I always kind of imagined getting married when I was a little bit more mature. I was a very immature 20 year old. – But then you realized it would never happen, so you just got married anyway. – Well, I think it was something that me and my now wife discussed and she didn’t really wanna get married just because our parents wanted us to get married and our family wanted us to get married and that was the biggest pressure. Especially coming from a lot of religious people, where they’re just like, you gotta get married at 18. The moment attraction starts, you gotta get married. So, yeah, that was more of a thing where I was like, I was gonna wait until I was 30, ’cause that’s the guy I’m gonna be for the rest of my life. – Oh, so, this is a long-term plan. – Yeah. Well, just that part, everything else I don’t have planned. – Well, if it, you know, if it’s tough in the first year, don’t worry about it. I mean, we got married young, both of us, and like, I tell everybody who gets married, it’s like, if the first year sucks, just wait until the second year. – But like, if you’ve been together for 10 years, that advice doesn’t apply. – So then, yeah, so then that’s a good test, is that if it sucks for you, then your plan has backfired, is basically what you’re saying. I had to weather a lot of years of me not being a great husband. – A lot. – I had to weather that and Christy had to weather that. – Yeah. – I think, I mean, since we’ve been dating for so long that we are very comfortable in who we are right now and it’s something that we know our goals and our strengths and weaknesses and we know each other. So, I mean, even with this kind of situation where she’s in Nashville right now ’cause we have a house there and I’m up here kind of trying– – [Link] Oh, she’s still back there. – Yeah, yeah. (laughs) It sucks but I mean, it’s like, we have a bunch of dogs and it’s like, a house, a business, I mean, there’s a lot to move in that decision from Nashville to LA. And even still, it’s, I mean, how do you move away from your home, you know? – [Link] Yeah. – It’s like, I’ve stayed in Tennessee for the past over a decade, you know? Since sixth grade, you know, so it’s like, it’s a big decision and I don’t know if it’s something, especially coming to a place where everything is way more expensive and I just don’t know this area and it’s very alienating and even just right now, it’s kind of lonely, I will say that, it’s pretty lonely. Just because I go into work and I work on the show and then it’s just that nonstop. – [Rhett] Right. – I don’t know if you, you guys have done a show, it’s like, it’s unrelenting, it’s just nonstop, and you want it to be the best thing that you can possibly make and if you, you know, at the same time, you can’t like, especially doing YouTube, you can’t neglect that, so I devote to my week to doing Final Space and my weekends to doing YouTube and I don’t get any breaks. – There’s no other time. – Yeah. – No. What’s your wife’s name? – Rachel. – Rachel. In the pictures I saw, they were like, clever, she was cleverly obscured in a couple of the pictures I saw, which made me think, maybe, like I couldn’t see her face. – Yeah. – In the wedding photos. So, I wanted to respect the, you know, if some boundary was set up that I didn’t know about that is that something that you guys have done? Like does she not appear–? – Does she not have a face? She doesn’t have a face. – She’s a faceless monster, man. No, no, no, she’s, yeah, she’s, of course she has a face, yeah! – Is she behind the scenes, is there a delineation here or is she in your videos? I haven’t seen her. – No, yeah, yeah, she’s been in multiple sketches that I’ve done, she’s been in tons of videos. – So, I’m just making this up in my brain, then. – Yeah, it’s just all in your head. – We don’t put our wives in videos, so I was like, maybe he doesn’t do that. – Occasionally. – Because the wedding photo, she’s like, giving you a kiss but I couldn’t see her face. – Because that’s just a cool thing that you do now, man. It’s called the silhouette, Link. – I don’t, I wasn’t the photographer, I– – It’s a great picture. – Yeah, I’m– – But I see your face, I don’t see her face. I’m just saying. – There are plenty of pictures – Of her face? – of her face. – She has a face. – I’m not the one, I’m not the one who said she didn’t have a face, I never, that was never my question, Rhett. – Well, but what about this– – I had a more intelligent question which was– – Well, I have an intelligent question, alright. – Well, I’m not satisfied with the answer. – And that question is how do you, how are you with somebody for a decade? You’ve got a lot of time to plan the wedding, you got a lot of time to get the details right. Usually you elope with somebody that you just met, right, so the combination of time together before marriage and quickness of marriage, once the decision to get married, like you’re here on the opposite end of the spectrum. So, how did, what went into that? – Yeah, I mean, I think it was just both of us didn’t want to have a big wedding and a lot of that, I think, stems from her sister getting married and I just remember after the wedding, she called up Rachel, who I guess was the, I guess, bridesmaid? Is that the– – Maid of honor? – Maid of honor. – Yeah. – Bridesmaid, yeah, maid of honor, maid of honor, I’m sorry. You know how much I know about weddings, so. – You didn’t have to worry about that. (all laugh) – So, she called her after the wedding and was like, asking about these cupcakes that was at the wedding, just like hey, yeah, it’s like, hey, we didn’t get any cupcakes, we were wondering if there’s just any cupcakes, and this was like, the day after the wedding, right? – At her own wedding, she–? – No, after the wedding, she called her sister, – Asking about– – cupcakes. That were at the wedding because she took them, okay? (Link laughs) And so, I was like, what the hell are you asking for? You guys just got married and you’re asking about cupcakes? – What’s the answer? I don’t know the answer to that. – Well, she gave them to, (laughs) we had an event at the soda parlor and she gave them to all the people that came to this event. – But she wanted them. – She wanted these cupcakes. – And she couldn’t have them because you gave ’em away. – But that, they’re cupcakes, you could go to the store and get cupcakes! – They’re supposed to be given away. – And so, that led you to– (both talking at once) (laughs) – There’s a bigger story, there’s a bigger story here. – Oh, there’s cupcakes? I’m out. (laughs) – To preface it, to preface it. – Give us the whole story. I love your stories. You tell great stories. – Thank you. So, these cupcakes, when she asked about them, put my now-wife into tears, okay, because there was just all this stress, all this like, built up like pressure to make the perfect day perfect. – [Link] Yeah. – It’s always a disappointment. – And basically, to kind of worry about the most insignificant thing. – The day after. – The day after you marry your now, you know, spouse. – Yeah. – You worry about cupcakes! (laughs) That is just the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life. – But did she wanna eat one? Or did she wanna know that they were good? ‘Cause that’s what I thought you were saying. – She didn’t get one. – She didn’t get one. – She didn’t get one. – ‘Cause she’s busy like, glad-handing everybody. – Yeah, I glad-handed everybody at my wedding. (both laugh) – Isn’t that what it’s called? – Shake hands with everyone. – You glad-hand with everybody. – I greeted everyone with a glad hand. – You know what I’m talking about? – Yes, yes, no, I don’t, actually, ’cause I didn’t have a wedding, so. – Well, no, but by saying glad-hand. – You shouldn’t say glad-hand again. (laughs) That’s also something that’s happening in your own mind. – When you’re glad-handing people, it’s when you’re greeting people and you’re being a host. – And you forget to eat all the food. – Yeah, you don’t eat and you don’t remember what happened. – We had people create a little pack for us, like a picnic basket that we took to the hotel room. And it had a cupcake in it. – Now, see, that’s smart, that’s smart. – I didn’t get a phone call the next day. – ‘Cause the day after– – Screw that. – The day after, you shouldn’t be asking about the cupcakes. – Yeah, exactly. – For any reason and I don’t still understand what her reason is but it couldn’t be a good one, is what you’re saying. – It couldn’t be a good one and it, you shouldn’t be worrying about that. You should just be worrying about, you know, having a fun on a honeymoon or also just, I don’t know, it just seems kind of insane to be like, literally putting somebody to tears over something that insignificant and causing all this pressure and you gotta plan the wedding, and then who’s planning this? You gotta do a bride shower, you gotta do, you know, a bachelor party, it’s all these like, traditions that it’s just built up and now it’s this whole production. And I’ve done wedding photography as well and once you do wedding photography, holy crap, I used to love photography, I can’t shoot photography anymore. – We did one wedding. – Yeah. – Oh, yeah. – That was it. – It’s awful. It’s awful, it’s awful. – It’s bad. It’s bad to be on the fringe of it. I mean, you don’t wanna be in the middle of that donut. – Yeah. – I mean, it’s brilliant what you did. – Brilliant. – Just like your stories, man. You did it right. – Thanks, thank you. – You waited 10 years and then you just, you just ripped the bandaid off. – But who was disappointed? Who was more disappointed, your family, her family? – Nobody. – Nobody. ‘Cause they, ’cause you made it clear that– – The cupcake maker. – It wasn’t a surprise, it was like, we’re not gonna do this big thing. – Exactly. – We’re eloping. Was there any sort of… – I mean, we did it, I think– – [Rhett] A little party? – A very respectful way, like, you know, I told you– – I mean, you got dressed up, they had a photo. Didn’t see her face but they do have a photo. – Yeah, they did the silhouette thing. – I don’t know what photos you’re even looking at. – Do I have to pull up the photo? – Pull it out, I wanna see. – It’s your wedding photo and then on the thumbnail, I can’t see her face either. – Are you just talking about the thumbnail of the video? – I’m talking about the thumbnail where you said, “We eloped!” don’t see her face. And then there’s a picture… – But you know that that picture, that thumbnail was the exact moment that we became, you know, married. – Husband and wife – Yes, I mean, it’s like… – Oh, really? – Like, I can’t just like, move the position of the– – Oh, that’s you kissing in your wedding ceremony? – [Rhett] Yeah, that’s a nice photo. – “I noticed that her face was obscured.” – And then on your Instagram, that’s what I was looking at. – Yeah, go to that. – Instagram. – Let’s see that. – [Link] No pictures of her face on here. – Let’s see that, yeah, let’s see it. – What is it? – What, my Instagram? – Olan Rogers? – Is it Olan Rogers? – I guess so. – [Link] Yeah, that’s it. Alright, I’m scrolling. Okay, there’s one girl’s face, but it’s probably– – [Rhett] No, that’s her, she is facing away. – [Link] She’s facing totally away, dude. – [Rhett] Oh, yeah, yeah. – I can see your full face. – Click to next picture. – [Rhett] You may not realize that this has what you’ve been doing all along. Look at that. – Look, can’t see her face. – No, no, no, go back, go back, there’s multiple pictures in that. – What do you mean there’s multiple pictures? – There’s multiple pictures. – Click into that again. – There’s multiple pictures. – Click that and go through it. No, see that’s the flowers, that’s not her face. – Keep going, keep going! – Is that broccoli? – Keep going! – Is that broccoli? – Keep going! – Can you just tell me if that’s broccoli. – It’s not broccoli, why would we have broccoli? Keep going. – [Link] Okay. – [Rhett] Click the thing, Link. Oh, there she is. – Boom! – She has a face. – Third picture in! – I never asked if she had a face. I just asked if you had a policy of not posting her face. – Her face is on there! – And your policy is you just bury it. – Oh. – You bury it three deep. That’s okay, I’m not trying to come in between the two of you guys. – You’re creating all kinds of problems. – There’s her face again, dang. I don’t know how to use Instagram. – I guess that’s evident. – Who knew you could post multiple pictures in a post? – Okay, so nobody was disappointed. – No. – No regrets, which listen, man, I don’t blame you. We had a good time, it was a good party. – I was a wreck. – I didn’t have to pay for it. – I was a wreck, Christy was a wreck, it was not– – We could have easily done without it. – Was it stressful? – Oh! – When you had yours? – Yeah. – But like– – What were you stressed out about? – You know me. I feel like I’m doing it for everybody else. – Exactly. – And I want everybody else to be happy. – That’s it! – “Did you like the cupcakes?” It’s about everybody else. – That’s it right there. It’s a production for everybody else, and then half the people that you glad-hand, you don’t even know! You don’t even know ’em! – Thank you. – It’s pretty much like I put it in the video, a pop-up restaurant, that you’re just feeding a bunch of people that you have no idea who they are. – Yeah. – But you can’t feed ’em pizza, you can’t feed ’em like, Doritos. You gotta feed ’em like, filet mignon, and like, little croissant, you know, seafood lobsters, I don’t know. – Things that no one ever orders when they go places. – Yeah, right. – Like, I mean, if it’s a thing you wouldn’t even order, why are you gonna give it to ’em for free? Like it’s better. The thing that you would never order is better. – That’s, yes. (laughs) – Yeah, suddenly everybody likes some sort of shrimp thing at their wedding and they, I wouldn’t, you know, never would have ordered shrimp. – The catering menu, this is everything that people don’t order right here. You want this? Yeah, sounds great. – [Rhett] You’re gonna love it. – But you’re in a challenging place because now it’s a long-distance relationship and you’re newly weds and, you know, and you’re figuring out dual-coast and are you going back? – Nashville’s not on the coast. Tennessee’s a land-locked state. There is a river. – There’s so much little land once you get to Nashville relative to the rest of the thing that, you know, if you zoom out far enough, Nashville looks like it’s on the coast. – You count the Mississippi River, you’re dual-coasting. – Yeah, I mean, it’s– – Are you going back on a rhythm? – No, I mean, we kind of visit each other back and forth. As much as I can get out there, she’ll come up here for a couple weeks, I’ll go out there. And then we’re pretty used to the whole long-distance stuff, I mean, she just a did huge internship in London and that was like, for a year, and so, she went to college in Mississippi, I went to college in Memphis, that was a year. I mean, so, we’re pretty used to it and yeah, I mean, it’s nothing new. It’s nothing new. – Okay. – So, yeah, 10 years, I mean, that’s what I’m saying is like, – You’ve been through it. – I’ve been through it, so. – Well, that’s good, I’m glad to hear that. And so, let’s skip to the cartoon, Final Space. When it was Gary’s Space. That was like, I mean, when you made that video, ws it just a one-off, was it like, okay, I’m calling this a pilot, I wanna try to sell this, ’cause, you know, fast forward seven years, it’s finally getting made. – Yeah, I mean– – Which is amazing. – It was just, yeah, it was just something in 2010 where I was like, I just really wanna make a cartoon. And I had no money, (laughs) no real way to make it, so I just decided to just to do it. It’s very crude, it’s images moving across the screen and I did an aftereffects, and it was fun, it was just, that was just meant to be kind of fun because I just, I loved cartoons, I watched pretty much anything that you could probably say, I’ve watched it. But yeah, after it kind of got picked up, I was ecstatic, I mean, this was something that I’ve, you know, dreamt of, I used to draw comics and all that, so, when I was kid, so this is something that is, yeah, something that I’ve really wanted for a while. – So, you did the, you did Gary’s Space. – [Olan] Yeah. – But then, when you, last year, like the middle of 2016, when you uploaded, which basically was Final Space, which is much– – [Olan] Yes. – What was the status of the project at that point? Because it seems like you were, ’cause you made it and then months later, you made your vlog about it getting picked up. – Yeah, it was such a fast process. – But New Form funded the– – The proof of concept, yeah. – The pilot, right? – New Form funded it, okay, got it. – Yeah. Yeah, the proof of concept, yeah. – And so, what happened after they put that out? – Yeah, I mean, I started getting messages kind of immediately from lots of different places, Adult Swim, Conoco, Lion’s Gate, all these other people that just really gravitated towards it for one reason or the next. And then, yeah, after that, it was just a whirlwind where I just got sucked out to LA, started preparing a pitch, pitched it to a bunch of places, they all wanted it, and went with TBS, so. – Did you meet with Conan, himself? – Yeah. – ‘Cause it’s usually one of those things like, okay, this is Conan’s company, where it’s like, this is like, we had a lot of meetings, it’s like, well, you’re gonna meet with Jack Black or you’re gonna meet with Ben Stiller and then it’s like, you get there and you’re like, well, you’re not, I mean, Ben Stiller’s company. – Yeah. – I meant Jack Black’s company, you’re meeting with his guy or his girl, who does that stuff. – [Olan] Yeah. – The development person. – Yep. – And there’s a little bit of a letdown, it’s like, well, I’m looking around for Ben Stiller. – Oh, there’s a picture of him on the wall. – In that one meeting, I think I asked, “Is Ben around?” “Oh, no, he’s in Iceland.” We didn’t get to meet him. – Yeah, of course. – But you got to meet Conan. – Yeah, but I mean, not the first time, it was just their executives, you know? – So, you glad-handed Conan after you had gone with him. Or did he have to seal the deal? Did he have to come in–? – No, no, he wasn’t even, he’s not even really involved in that much of the process. I just went to one of the shows and he just said he really loved what we were doing and I shook his hand, he’s super funny, super tall. – [Link] Yeah. – But yeah, I was just excited just to talk to anybody ’cause at that time, I didn’t even know what the heck I was gonna be doing for the next year, you know? So, I mean, I was just like, if it’s Conan, great, but if it’s an executive that just wants to do something with it, then yeah, I’m excited either way. Yeah, yeah, I don’t know. – The thing that I hear like under the surface, or sometimes I think you just say it outright when you talk about, in a lot of your videos, being like, the underdog, or like, the one counted out or the one who’s, who’s not making it, who’s like, giving it all he’s got and it just kind of fizzles out. – [Olan] Yeah, yeah, yep. – You describe yourself that way, the underdog, I mean, you don’t call yourself a loser but it seems that way but then it’s, you know, for me and everybody that watches, I think it’s quite the opposite, that you’re like the hero that like, actually tries stuff! – Yeah. – You actually make stuff, you do stuff, and it seems like it does work. – No, it doesn’t. – So, it’s like, just like a soda, I’m gonna start a soda shop. – Yeah. – In Nashville, I’m gonna have a merch company, well, you have these things but– – But I think it’s what you’re seeing is the end result, you know? – Uh-huh. – Like, the process from starting, you know, from nothing all the way up to that. How many freakin’ times I failed to try to get that thing off the ground. Like, the struggle to open up that first soda parlor, I mean, (laughs) we about like, went broke a couple times, had to take loans out, had to, you know, scrap and just savage anything that we could to open those doors. And that was like, I mean, probably one of the hardest things til this day that I have ever done. – And it still sounds like a crazy idea. – It’s a crazy idea, it’s working, it’s doing great, we opened up in a bigger spot. – Which, by the way, is the beauty of it, I’m not like, saying that’s a negative thing, it’s like this is a big, crazy idea. – Yeah. You said like, four times, every time we meet, you’re like, “That’s such a crazy idea.” – I love it! (laughs) I love it when somebody has a crazy idea and they do it. – So, I mean, what, how did that come about? – Well, I did a free pizza party meet up tour back in like, 2013? – Pizza party meet up tour, so this is for like, your YouTube audience. – Yeah, yeah, ’cause I got asked to go to Playlist and I was pretty pissed that he, whoever it was went through Mitchell Davis just to ask me and couldn’t ask me just in person. And I was like, that’s so shady. And then, at the time that they decided to ask me, it was like, the maximum amount that like, ticket price. So it was like, over $100 to get a ticket to go to Playlist. So if I went, people would have had to pay that price, I was like, that’s insane! Like, I’m not gonna ask somebody to pay $100 to come to Playlist, it’s like, I’m not doing that. So, I decided to do my own thing and just do it for free and we spent like, over $10,000 on pizza and just sold merch to basically fund the next stop. You know, we did eight stops around the US and like, over 8,000 people came to it, like 13 hour meet ups. – 13 hour meet ups. – Yeah. – What year was that? – It was 2013, I think. – Okay. – Yeah. – What does a 13 hour, what are you doing for 13 hours? – Meeting people. – Glad-handing. – You’re glad-handing. Do you like, people lining up–? – No, it was meeting people. Like, it wasn’t glad-handing, it was like, meeting, talking, you know, doing whatever they wanted me to do for ’em, a picture, dancing, I mean, it was a lot of fun and from that experience, I realized, wow, if I could connect to these people and actually know these people’s names, you know, like create a place where people could come and I kind of, it’s like a shorthand to where they don’t even wanna take a picture with me anymore. I was really intrigued by that and we started thinking about trying to do, open up something that, essentially, could do that, a place where we could do these events and, you know, host a game night or a pizza party or something like that and that’s kind of where the soda parlor got birthed, I mean, we would do a coffee shop but I know nothing about coffee and it would probably be really terrible coffee. (laughs) So, we just did soda ’cause it was easy and floats and I mean, yeah, we could have done more but our first business, our next door neighbor basically was very threatening to us and would, basically said that he was, right when we open our doors, he’s like, I’m the king of beverages in this building and you can’t do anything. And so, basically, he– – He saw you as competition? He owned a restaurant, or a bar or something? – A coffee shop, coffee shop. – Oh, coffee shop. – And so, basically– – All he serves is coffee. – Basically, yeah. (laughs) – All beverages. – When I met with him, me and my business partner met with him, and I mean, this guy was sitting up like, you know, five feet higher than us, okay? – On a throne? – On like, a throne, okay? – Yeah, the beverage king throne. – And he had like, all these monitors of stocks next to him and we’re sitting there completely low, like looking at this guy, and he’s like, “Come in “and I’ll give you some advice o”n how to open up a business,” you know, to run it. I’m like, sure, you know, and we sat there and he starts like, leaning in his chair, frickin’ the thing snaps and he eats it. – No! (laughs) No. – He eats it and Ron just like, oh, my gosh, like I’m looking at Coulter and he’s about to break and finally– It wasn’t like, a fall, it was the chair spine snapped in half. – Oh, my gosh, did he die? – And he ate it. He got up, his face was red, and he was just like, so, (coughs) and he stands here and he’s like, “What else do you got?” – He didn’t say, “I meant to do that,” or anything. – No, he acted like it didn’t happen. – That’s the worst. – And so, I was like, man, thanks for all the help and stuff but after that, he basically ended up putting a soda thing in his coffee shop. – He thought you booby-trapped his chair, man. Did you? – No. (laughs) – That was when he started selling soda. – Yeah, he started selling soda and doing floats. – No. – Yeah. Before we opened, essentially. – Before you opened. – Yeah. – But this was the old location. – Yeah, he did it, he met with us essentially to steal our idea, essentially. – And so, you did it for how long at that location? – A year, year and a half. – But it was a struggle because of him and– – I mean, we were doing very well, I mean, he was just a douchebag but I mean, he didn’t really affect us at all but it was just the fact that there’s this guy that just anything that we did, he would tell the landlord, you know, the landlord wouldn’t fix anything, our, basically, there’s termite problems, I mean, it just, the list can go on about that location but it was a struggle, but that guy was a douchebag, man. – And these are all things that you are talking to your viewers about. You’re like, letting them in on– – [Olan] Well, yeah, ’cause, yeah. – On your experience as it’s happening. – Yeah, because I don’t want to make it seem like it was sunshine and rainbows, man, it was dirty and it’s a very dirty process to run a business, which I’m sure you guys know. It’s hard, it’s not an easy thing to do and in that time, you know, when you’re trying to open up a business, you gotta worry about other people and their families and they’re depending on you to make this thing happen and it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of pressure and it’s a lot of stress and after I ended up opening that, I even had like, health problems, man, it’s just a mess, man, it’s a mess. But I’m glad what it’s doing now, it’s a success, I would say it’s a success. We’re still paying off loans and stuff but it’s something that we did without any investors and we just did it with, you know, of the idea of like, let’s just go out and do something cool. – And as it transitioned, I mean, if the whole thing kind of started as almost like let’s take what we created on the road and bring it in to one place. – [Olan] Yeah. – That seems like something that would be difficult to maintain for a long period of time. Even now, especially when you’re out here. – [Olan] Yeah. – So, is it kinda, is the focus changing? – No, no, I think it’s, and that’s one thing that my wife does now, she’s, you know, she’s the general manager of that thing and it would not run without her, she designed it, actually. She’s an interior designer and, you know, does a lot of architecture stuff and– – But you kinda structured it where it’s not all about you, so when you step out of it– – Exactly. – Or, you know, you’re not in all the merch photos, it’s not your merch, it’s not your soda, so to speak, it’s something that you gave to people. – Exactly. And that was a big thing I was trying to make happen which, essentially, was it, for it to be a real business, it needed to function without me. Being there all the time, essentially. But anytime that I’m there, you know, I try to do like, a fan appreciation night as much as I can get up there, which is we just give out free floats and free pizza. And I mean, we’ll go through at least like, $3000 in ice cream, I mean, alone, man, it’s fun, though. But I mean, the thing is, it’s like, it’s always a way just to kind of get back to the people who have supported me and that thing wouldn’t be running without the people that come in there and support it, so it’s just a way to kind of do something fun for them, so. – [Rhett] Right. – Before that, what was the first thing that worked? Like, I can trace back like, the first story, and it’s kind of hard to tell now like, the stories get so many views and so, it’s kind of hard to tell going back to the beginning, how many of those are like, views of people going back versus which one really popped first. And I know you had a sketch channel with a friend of yours that was before that. – Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. – And I kind of look at that and say, okay, he was doing just weird sketches, some of those have millions of views too. So, did something pop there first or was it, and then you switch to the stories? – I mean, I kind of, basically, once I left Balloon Shop– – Which was the sketch thing with a friend. – We kind of all went our separate ways and I had to restart a channel from nothing, essentially. And I started doing the stories and stuff. It wasn’t until, man, I don’t even know, I think it was definitely after I got done with a tour, the Dial-Up Tour, and I posted Ghost in the Stalls and that was probably the one that, I mean, in terms of what viral is now, it didn’t really go viral but it got a ton of views, I mean, it like, that was my first like, million views, like back in the day, essentially. And then, after that one, I’ve always been kind of like a slow burn where it’s like, it’s just a very slow process. I mean, you look at me now, you know, I’ve been on YouTube for, man, like 11, 12 years and I still haven’t cracked that million code yet but– – Oh, and subscribers. – Yeah, yeah. (laughs) But it’s not a big deal. – I mean, you’re proving that doesn’t matter. – Yeah, exactly. – Yeah, ’cause I think that there’s a, I think there’s a different quality to the community that you’re building. – Exactly, yes, yes. – There may be somebody with more subscribers. – Yeah. – Because even in the way that you think about the fans and the way that you thought about Playlist and the way that led to the soda shop, it’s a different kind of community that you cultivate. – Exactly, yes, yes. – It’s even more personal. I mean, first of all, it’s already very personal when it’s on YouTube. – Yeah. – It’s always already very much more personal than it is with the traditional celebrity but you’re kind of like, ratcheting it up. – Yeah, well, it’s, I mean, coming from somebody that, I mean, just to preface that, you know, I haven’t, you know, I consider myself an underdog ’cause, I mean, I literally have not won really anything besides like, pitching that show and people, all these people wanting it, that was the first time in my life that people were like, oh, my gosh, this could actually work. Because usually stuff just deteriorates or it doesn’t happen or I get last place or, you know, I’ll do a video contest and somebody swoops in and gets all pro-skaters to vote for them and it’s just like– – (laughs) Sounds like that actually happened. – It did happen. – That sounds very specific, yes. – What contest was that, by the way? Or was it a skateboarding video? – No, no, it wasn’t, actually, it was just, it’s in the past, I don’t even wanna talk about it. I was so frustrated with that one. – What brand was it for? – Nikon. – Okay, alright, we can move on, then. – But yeah, I mean, I don’t know, I think it’s always been something where I’ve just lost, man, I lose at everything. (laughs) I just, I hate to say it but it’s like, I haven’t ever succeeded in regards of like what people consider traditional success, if that makes sense. – But has it stopped you from trying a lot of different things, I mean, like– – [Olan] No, no. – We haven’t even gotten to the fact that you wrote a book. – Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s not even out yet, but I’m still working on it, yeah. – You’re writing it. – You’re writing a book. – Yeah. Like a science fiction novel. – Under a different name? – Yeah, under a different name. – Which is? – R.S. Hammersnow. (laughs) – Okay, before we get into the details of that, like– – It’s me and my friend, Jake, it’s me and my friend, Jake. – Right, but– – You’re both R.S. Hammersnow? – Yeah. – Okay. – Like, I think something people would be interested in is because you do so many different things, I still have so many different things. – Yeah. – Somebody’s out there listening, who’s like, well, I’ve got all these things that I wanna do but he’s actually done all these things. You say you’re an underdog, and I’m not saying that those things haven’t been difficult and everything hasn’t been a huge success but you’ve done so many different things and you’re doing so many different things well, like, what do you say to somebody who’s like, how do I start something? – You just gotta do it, man. A lot of those things, like that book, I don’t have any book deal. Nobody, I mean, somebody did ask me to kind of do like, a biography on myself but I was like, nah, I’m not interested, I’d rather just do fiction, if I was gonna do anything. I mean, yeah, there’s nothing lined up for that. I just wanted to do it, you know, for the soda parlor. Nobody was like, “Hey, here’s half a million dollars. “Go open yourself a soda parlor.” We just did it. We took out loans and we got ourselves in debt just to open that up and to do something cool and it’s paying itself off. It’s actually pretty cool to watch. Even with my videos and stuff like that, I mean a lot of that stuff I just kind of went out and did it and a lot of them have supported it. But from the beginning of that channel it’s been I started from zero, you know? And it’s just been constantly doing it. You just gotta go out and do it essentially. – To me it’s like be willing to take a risk and another risk and another risk. I mean– – Exactly. – Every creative endeavor I think has, there’s an element of risk associated with it if it’s legitimately something that from an artist’s heart he or she wants to create. – [Olan] Exactly. – And then I think you just add just a level of vulnerability to it that, you know, that becomes part of your art as well that you’re sharing yourself and it’s not just, okay, I might have a great story today but then tomorrow I’ve got, I’ve just got myself. Like, what’s your philosophy on crying on camera? You had the sunglasses bit for like the tears of joy when you were announcing like the Final Space being ordered as a series? But that’s not the first time that you’ve cried on camera? – No way. I’m just a very emotional person to begin with, man. I’m that kind of person that as a kid that watched Titanic balling his eyes out, you know, or Braveheart. When he says “Freedom” I was like weeping. My dad was like, “It’s okay to cry.” And I’m like “What?” – But he’s not crying of course? He’s just saying it’s okay for you to cry? Not for me to cry. – Yeah. I’ve just been that person, man. I don’t know. I can’t describe it any other way when it comes to crying in camera. It’s not like I got into it thinking I’m gonna cry. I’m gonna cry, I’m gonna weep. I’m gonna weep in this. I like physically try not to cry. – It seems like you were trying not to, yeah. – But then on the backend who’s editing these videos? – Me. – So at that point you got a decision to make. It’s like you could scrap the whole thing. You could put only the crying in. You could put a teaser of just crying, like, boom right off the bat. He’s weeping. Look at his face. – Why would I wanna put a teaser of crying? – That’d be a horrible idea. – I’m presenting the extremes of your choice as the editor. – Yeah. – You could start with crying or you could cut it out entirely. That’s an interesting thing. – If I cut it out, and here’s the thing, I actually cut out a lot of the crying, okay? A lot of the stuff that is in there it’s like it’s real. And if I take that out am I literally taking out something that was a real moment during my recording of that video? So a lot of the times when it comes to that crying stuff I just let it be its thing and then I’ll move on to the next thing. But if I feel something generally like, I’m sitting there and I’m talking, I’m literally happy to the point I’m crying in tears, that’s a beautiful thing. You know, it’s like I’m gonna, that needs to be seen, that needs to be shown. That’s me and I wanna look back on it and then I’d be like, wow, I remember that moment. That was a really special moment where I was so excited that I literally could not contain myself. And even with the soda parlor and, you know, these sliced little documentaries that I made, I look back on that and I watch it and I’ll still cry because I remember that moment. I remember what I was going through in that moment. But to cut it out entirely, I mean, you should see how much of it I did cut out. – It’s interesting ’cause there’s another element too with, there’s obviously a whole lot of authenticity in that and you share what you’re actually thinking, what you’re feeling, and you show what you’re feeling by actually showing that you cry. At the same time you have this kind of character that you go into in your vlogs. So how did that develop? – I mean the thing with doing stories, there’s definitely two sides of me. I love to entertain people and I love to have fun but there’s a lot of times that I just I’m like the most chill person that you could probably even meet. There’s times that I just need to switch it off and just play video games or just, you know, not talk to anybody. But doing those video logs, that’s me. It’s not a character. That is me in an essence. That’s just like my energetic crazy side, the next side when I’m very concentrating the business side, the guy that’s like doing Final Space, I have to kind of reserve that because nobody is gonna give a show to an insane person, you know? And I’ve even seen that. You just kind of gotta kind of have both sides of the coin essentially. – Right. – But it is interesting as of, I don’t know, maybe not as a viewer but as a producer. I think this is what’s behind your question is that the dynamic of I understand as a performer that, and I tap into the things that, the aspects of my personality that are more amped up and that are more performance oriented to entertain and connect with our audience on Good Mythical Morning. I think it’s fascinating to us how you can, I think that’s what we describe as like a characterization of ourselves on Good Mythical Morning that then feels separate from what we do here on Ear Biscuits, like a moment of honesty. So I think we’re fascinated how those things, you switch in and out of it. It feels like both those things happen, like it’ll happen with, I can tell that you said something that came out in a way that you found funny, that you didn’t anticipate you were gonna say so then you crack up. And you leave a little bit of that in the edit which is a great moment of authenticity. But to me that’s breaking character, right? And then in another moment you might be moved to tears, you’re telling this story in like in your story persona, that’s just what I’m gonna call it, or character, and then you’ll have an emotional moment which I feel like is the other side that you’re talking about, but you’ll skip back and forth. It’s that something that, I mean, how do you interact with that. How do you explain it? – Yeah, honest that’s not even I don’t even analyze it, man, I just do it. I mean, that’s just me. Like I can’t really describe it because it’s something that when I do those stories, when I crack up it’s genuine ’cause it’s something that I’m remembering back as a kid and it catches me off guard. And I’m like, you know, that’s funny. I’m laughing at the ridiculousness of this. I don’t know, I don’t know. I can’t really describe it because it’s not something that I sit down and plan or think I’m just gonna do this, you know? Like I’m gonna be energetic here and then quiet here. It’s like I just– – You’re just trying the camera on. – It’s trying the camera on. – It’s fascinating because if you think like the, I don’t know, if we go to like grade school and we talk about like the class clown stereotype, well that’s all, you know, a lot of people would say, well, my first guess is that’s a defense mechanism or that’s a way to hide how you really feel. Or maybe feeling bullied or something like that. Now I’m not saying that for you or for us, but I’m just saying I think that’s what makes it fascinating that when I watch your videos that there’s the performer that’s saying something hilarious. But it’s very clear that you’re not hiding anything. So I think that’s– – I don’t have anything to hide, you know? – Right. In your subject matter you’re putting everything out there. But I think that that’s what, that’s what so fascinating. I think that’s what people are drawn to. You didn’t ask me to try to explain it. – Yeah. – And I may be totally off, but I don’t know. I think that’s what draws me to your content. – I think the way to say what you’re saying is– – Say what I’m saying? – Is that your content is driven by things that are actually happening in your life. Like this life event precipitates this piece of content where what we do with the Good Mythical Morning it’s this is a daily show that’s gonna come out five times a week. It’s gonna come out most of the year and you’ve gotta have something that kind of fits a certain tone every single day, so we’re not waiting for a moment for something to happen that then we respond to, but we’re trying to get ahead and plan this show which kind of leads to my next question which is have you ever thought about, like when you see all these people doing these daily videos and these daily vlogs, what’s the highest frequency that you’ve ever gotten to with your videos? And what’s kept you from going to like a daily video? – Well daily videos, something that genuinely does not interest me at all. I think it’s a lot about, there’s only so much you can do in a day. If I did daily vlogs it’d be very boring stuff. I think that if you have an awesome life like a guy like Casey Neistat who is just like, wow, I mean, I’m not that cool, you know? At the end of the day it’s like he does like everything. I’m just not that cool. It’s something that, A, I would have to fake it in order to go off and do crazy stuff every day which I don’t wanna do ’cause it’s not me, or two I film a lot of just boring stuff of me writing or just doing normal everyday stuff like every other human in the world, you know, which none of those interest me. So it’s just something that if I’m gonna do something I try to do the best I can and I don’t think I can do daily vlogs very well. Of course I see what you’re saying like there could be something there essentially with that, but I don’t know. I don’t know if I could keep that up. – I mean you wouldn’t be able to do the other stuff that you’re doing. And we couldn’t, we have a daily show but we can never do daily vlogs like not in a million years. – Yeah, and there’s a lot of stuff that you just wanna keep private, man. I can’t show my whole life ’cause I don’t want to. There’s stuff even with my relationship that it’s like maybe I just wanna watch a scary movie with my wife and not film it and try to make that an entertaining thing for people to watch. Like I just wanna hang out. – Which is why you don’t show her face. You’ve made a good choice with that. – Even though she has one. – I think she’s got a great face. – I guarantee you look in Instagram, there’s plenty of pictures of her face. – Yeah, you’re right. I saw some of them. I do remember that from earlier conversation. So with Final Space it’s taking up your weeks now. – Yeah. – You’re doing your channel on the weekend, you’re fitting it in. I mean, what else is in the works? – Well the book. – What are you excited about? – The book is on the back burner just ’cause my co-writer and best friend has Lyme’s Disease. – Really? – Yeah, right now he’s going through some pretty serious treatment in Kansas City, so I didn’t wanna go forward with it until he got better. – And what’s the prognosis? Whatever the right word is. – It’s pretty serious. Basically his de-personalization. It’s affecting his mind. It’s went past the brain-blood barrier. So I think recently like the symptoms kind of change and he gets new ones. He went partially deaf and basically, I mean it’s pretty nuts. I mean if you see the video, if you go to his channel, I mean it’s affecting his speech. – What’s his channel? – It’s just Jade Sidwell. – Okay. – So I try to set up a little GoFundMe for him and he’s seeking treatment in Kansas but, yeah, the book is gonna wait until that man gets better ’cause I don’t wanna do anything without him, so. – Okay, we’ll put the link out there too into the video for the GoFundMe. – Yeah, that’d be awesome. I mean he’s a great guy and I just really hope he gets better. I mean it’s been going on for like over a year, started with like Bell’s Palsy, half his face was paralyzed. It’s a crazy disease, man. I didn’t know much about it but after talking– – So it didn’t come from a tick? – It did. – It did? – It had to have. – That’s the only way to get it. – Other stuff though it’s just potentially working on stuff for like a feature and other animations. And I did another project with a new form in animation called Lion’s Place. And they’re kind of holding on to it right now. – It’s under wraps so you can’t see it? It’s not on the channel? – It should be coming up in August hopefully ’cause it’s been done for about a year now. – And then Final Space is coming in 2018. – [Olan] 2018, yeah. – You know what, the first of 2018? – I think like first quarter. – How many episodes? – 10. – Okay. – Yeah, and it’s a serialized, you know, really epic animation. – Half hour episodes? – Yeah. – And how far along are you in the process right now? – We just started, I think, we have two more scripts to finish and then we just started records on five? And then the animatics have started on one and two. I mean it’s full production right now and it’s a lot of work, man. How naive I was about doing a TV show, but it’s ton of work. – Yeah, ’cause you’re voicing, how many characters are you voicing? – Right now I’m voicing three ’cause I can only voice three. – And then you’ve written these, right? Or co-written them? – Which ones? – The episodes. – That’s where it gets kind of interesting with the whole credit stuff. A lot of the scripts are heavily heavily re-written to where there were no words from the previous draft by me and the show writer. – You got it. – But I mean essentially it’s like– – And you’re a producer. – Yeah. – So you’re just wearing a lot of hats. – Yeah. – Man, we wish you the best. We’re thankful that you took a break to come in here and hang out with us. – Yeah. – Yeah, we’re fans so keep it up, man. – Thanks, man. – Yeah. (laughs) – Yeah. – Yeah. – Yeah. – Cool. – Any notes for us? – No, I got no notes for you. That’s it, man. That’s all. (funky music) – There you have it, our Ear Biscuit with Olan Rogers. – Definitely a fan of his. I don’t watch a lot of YouTube videos but I have watched some of his. – That’s a big disclosure. – And I’m like I really like this guy. And it was really cool to hang out with him. I think he’s got a way of connecting like magically through that camera, like it’s a gift. – Well if you start giving people sweets though, I mean it is cheating a little bit. You give people ice cream and pizza. Maybe we should start doing that. – He knows what people like, man. And a good story. Check out his YouTube channel. Listen to all of his stories if you haven’t. YouTube.com/olanrogers. That’s also his Instagram handle which he posts his pictures of he and his wife’s face. – Wife’s face. He’s got some that are probably just his wife’s face. – Who knew? Who knew? I know who didn’t know. – I think most people did know. – I didn’t mean to make such a big deal out of it. – Tell me– – We kept going back to it. – Tell me, you’re really trying to keep her on the down low, weren’t you? I’m like “What?” Weird. – Well you didn’t know. – No. – You were acting like my question was weird but we don’t do it. So it was a normal question for us. – But as soon as I saw his response, I was like, “Link’s got the wrong idea here. “Let’s see how long Link keeps going up this tree.” – Hey, but the first two pictures I showed the guy, did you see her face? – Yeah, it took five minutes but I knew– – Took five minutes to get to her face. – Yeah, right. Okay. We don’t really have any pizza or ice cream available currently. What we do have is we have the option for you to go over to wherever you’re enjoying this podcast and however you respond in that place if it’s iTunes write a review or give a rating, you know, whatever you do. – Give us your feedback. – Show us some love to Ear Biscuit. – #earbiscuits. Do it. We’ll see you next week. – Yes. – Talking to those ears. To watch more Ear Biscuits click the video on the left. – [Rhett] To watch more from This is Mythical click the video on the right. – [Link] And don’t forget to subscribe by clicking the circular icon. – [Rhett] Thanks for being your mythical best.