Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey, Stewart here. As always, we're working really hard on new episodes, but in the meantime, we've got another one from the Archives. It's an episode of Three Clips that features a husband and wife team who made a hilarious podcast called Dirt Sheet. Seriously, this podcast is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. If you've ever thought about collaborating on a fun venture with your friends, or wanna legitimize an amateur podcast, this is a must listen. It's a good example of how adding just a touch of structure and professionalism could do wonders for a show. This episode was originally published on February 21st, 2022. It was hosted by Ivo Tara and was edited and produced by me. That's next. Speaking of professionalism, at Casto, we can help you make your show. Aside from our suite of creative tools, we also have a team of professionals who can help bring your show to life. You can contact
[email protected] or by clicking on the link in the show notes. All right, onto the three clips episode. It's called Serious Goofballs.
Speaker 2 00:01:07 I would say the analogy I would use would be like the two of us were piloting a giant robot that was built by neon hum.
Speaker 3 00:01:18 We learned a lot about like the, the sort of brass tack of putting together the be the beginnings and ends of a podcast, which we kind of, I, I don't think I fully considered. Anyway,
Speaker 4 00:01:35 Hey, it's Evo again, and this is Three Clips a Casto original. As always, our goal with three clips is to demystify the creative process behind great podcasts and to inspire greater creativity in your work to help with that. Today I'm chatting with Amanda Meadows and Jeffrey Golden about their podcast, dirt Cheap, A neon hum. Production Dirt Cheap is a comedy show where Jeffrey and Amanda explore dirt cheap paperback novels. Well Explorers might be generous, more subjects themselves to is on point. They find funny in the bad, and there's lots of funny to be found. Amanda works in publishing, hence her interest in books. She's the founder of the Devastator Press and works as a senior publisher at Ony Press. Jeffrey is the lead narrative designer at Pick Agon games and host another podcast with two comedian friends called Worst Movies Pod. So clearly he loves bad art, and this is some of the best bad art. I think you'll find Three Clips is a Casto original series. Casto helps podcasters like you host amazing shows and monetize premium content all within our easy to use podcast dashboard. If you're looking for a team to help get your next podcast project off the ground, look no further than Casto Productions. Hey, we make this show too. Email us
[email protected] with any questions or visit three clips podcast.com/casto for more information. And now here's my conversation with Amanda and Jeffrey about their podcast Dirt Cheap.
Speaker 4 00:03:23 So I wanna get this outta the way upfront. My podcasting career started a long, long time ago with a book focused podcast. I was interviewing science fiction authors in my case. And your show is book focused. So do you prefer the term geek or nerd when it comes to your obsessions? Ooh,
Speaker 2 00:03:44 Mantic.
Speaker 3 00:03:45 Oh, what you say? I feel like I'm a verse. I I do both. Like I I I do say geek more in sort of a broader like geek culture or like the geek industry kind of thing. And then nerd, I think I maybe use more personally. So like, I'm a book nerd, I'm a comedy nerd, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 00:04:10 I would say I'm exactly the same way, but, uh, and I'll also, but I'll add that I probably identify most as goofball. So that would be, I know that wasn't an option, but I wanted to throw that out there.
Speaker 3 00:04:24 It's important to represent us goofy Americans. I've been called Goofy since I was like four, so feel
Speaker 4 00:04:30 Feeling it. I appreciate the audible. We'll, we'll stick with Goofy, I think, I think that works more the vast majority. But you are, you are well at home here. Now, the conceit behind Dirt Cheap is that the two of you read from well, dirt cheap novels. Novels by the way that it's unlikely anybody else has ever stumbled across. When I listen, I hear a little bit Mystery Science Theater, 3000, maybe a little. My dad wrote a porno. Do you think that's a fair assumption? And is there any other major inspirations that I'm not picking up on?
Speaker 2 00:05:01 No, I think that's exactly right, especially, uh, MST three K. I mean, I think that that's, that's ob very influential. I mean, the for format of the show is, you know, I'll be reading sections in character, and of course we've got, uh, you know what you, we've got, uh, sound effects, editing and music and stuff. So it really, it does feel like until we sort of break it down and mandate erupts or, or, uh, you know, or I just break down laughing because I'm reading something so absurd and then we just talk about it.
Speaker 3 00:05:30 Yeah, there are a lot of moments where I maybe wouldn't have laughed, but you left while reading <laugh> a Passage, and that made me think, okay, this is about to be a crazy sentence. And it always ended up being that
Speaker 2 00:05:44 Both of us really just do enjoy the mystery genre. And so, you know, I I think this was a natural, this was a natural fit for us. Working on a, a reading a a dime store who done it, uh, was just like a perfect fit for us.
Speaker 3 00:05:59 Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, we, we were both indie publishers in, in our past life and, you know, we both grew up in houses where we were watching weird things, but it, it kind of combined all of those things in, in addition to Unsuspectedly, at least for me at first, our interest in complicated histories. And yeah, this book gives a lot of detail in a, in a weird <laugh> portrait of what LA looked like in 1945, which ended up being a huge hobby for me. The, the like months we were doing the podcast, I just, I just went to town, like researching what the city was like, and oh boy, he wasn't off base. <laugh>,
Speaker 4 00:06:49 I speak from experience when I say that people who are funny together oftentimes say, oh man, we should start a podcast. And sometimes it works, oftentimes it doesn't work, but dirt cheap works. And I wonder why is that? Because you're clearly, you're funny, you're funny together, but what do you think is special about the two of you that makes it work so well,
Speaker 2 00:07:12 But you're describing, which is very common, did not happen in this case at all? Uh, Amanda and I, uh, I mean, both of us enjoy performing on occasion, but I don't think either of us would describe ourselves necessarily as performers, as hosts, as actors, or what have you. I used to, I wasn't actors a kid. I, I do more of it than Amanda does, but, um, I enjoy doing it. But, but it, but it's not how we self-identify. Um, and so I'd say we're more writer editor types, the two of us. But what's interesting is, okay, so the way DCI came together had nothing to do with us, uh, being like, Hey, we're funny. Like, we should start a podcast. So we were working on a podcast. We, we had pitched a podcast idea to Stitcher and, uh, Stitcher produced it. Um, and it ended up, it was a, it didn't end up coming out on Stitcher. It, it was a show called Mystery Solver, which was a parody of a mystery show, Starley kinds show. Basically, we were doing it as a parody of all the different Gimlet shows through the perspective of, uh, how, how would you describe the lead character in mystery? Suer sort of a ba sort of a baffling protagonist.
Speaker 3 00:08:34 Yeah, I think that's right. She is a baffling protagonist. She, she walks into every room as the protagonist <laugh>, uh, like detective and everyone else has to kind of fall over themselves to catch up to whatever the hell reality she's in. But at the same time, uh, it's that, that like, that NPR style of curiosity where it's driven by, you know, kind of like cynical <laugh>, cynical needs or self-indulgent needs, uh, which I think was something a little bit of a criticism that Jeffrey and I maybe had for, uh, for a certain type of podcasting
Speaker 2 00:09:17 <laugh>. So, so we exact, so, so we produced this show, so the show ends up coming out on, uh, campfire Media, but the, um, the producer on that show, uh, was named Jonathan Hirsch and Jonathan's very talented, uh, podcast producer. And, and he became an executive. He became in charge of his own company called Neon Hum. And he really enjoyed the process of working with us. And he reached, we reached out to us one day and he said, I have this idea for a podcast wherein the host would read an old mystery novel and comment on it as they were reading it. And are you interested in being involved? And I thought he was like, oh, he wants us to like be producers, or he wants us to be writers, because he saw how well we worked behind the scenes on, uh, with him on Mystery Solver and, and ended up being that he wanted us to host it. He really liked our vibe. He thought the two of us were funny. And we were like, what?
Speaker 3 00:10:19 Yeah, we were surprised
Speaker 2 00:10:22 Us.
Speaker 3 00:10:24 Oh, we did a lot of just comical. Ugh. Yeah, there were a lot of shrugging and, and you know, we, we, we were a little like, are we prepared to do that? But then, uh, we took a look at the book and Jeffrey got to read it, uh, in its entirety. Before we started the podcast, I came in completely cold. So all I I heard vague, this is a lot, this is wild <laugh>, this is very weird. Um, but not knowing exactly <laugh> what to expect, uh, which I think, uh, set us up perfectly for Jeffrey and i's sort of, I guess, natural style of conversation. Uh, we're, we, we do a lot of back and forth. We talk throughout the day, uh, about literally everything. So nothing, nothing feels like scary or off limits to talk to Jeffrey about. And I think because we trust each other so implicitly, it makes it really easy to talk about even the dumbest or most heinous stuff.
Speaker 2 00:11:28 Oh, I, I should, uh, listers at home may have already figured this out, but in addition to being partners on creative projects, Bandon, I are partner partners in the married sense. Um, so we
Speaker 3 00:11:42 Partners in the Game of Life, <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:11:46 So we, so, so yeah, we, we, we know each other pretty well at this point. I would say after, uh, over a decade, decade of being together, it's, uh, you get to know
Speaker 3 00:11:56 Person. Yeah. It's like 13 years
Speaker 2 00:11:58 You get to know a person.
Speaker 4 00:12:00 So you, you brought up Neon hum, and I wanna talk about that. I'm curious when the, when does the Amanda and Jeffrey show end and when do Neon hums people take over?
Speaker 3 00:12:11 Sure. Yeah. I'd say the premise of the podcast and research and fact checking, all of that sort of early production and development work, uh, we had the help of the Neon hum staff, namely our main producer Carla. Um, and, uh, and our editor and co-producer Vikram, who, you know, really set us up. We knew what we were going into, uh, for each chapter when we were recording. We were recording weekly, um, at the Neon Home offices during the middle of the like 2020, uh, style pandemic classic <laugh>. And, uh, the offices were completely empty, so we would just kind of, uh, pretend that we owned the place for a couple of hours and recorded, uh, <laugh> recorded, uh, by ourselves. And, uh, you know, the editing, um, and sound design, all neon hum, of course, uh, the Vicram along with Scott Summerville, I believe. But when it comes to what we were saying, uh, it's pretty clear when Jeffrey's reading from the book and when he's talking, but in terms of like, everything I'm saying is just truly off the dome, uh, <laugh>, and some of it is every so often when I, uh, listen, uh, to a clip, uh, I'm, I'm reminded of how surprised I was in the moment.
Speaker 2 00:13:35 <laugh> the, I would say the analogy I would use would be like the two of us were piloting a giant robot that was built by neon hum. Like it was us in the pilot, like we were piloting the thing, but like all the mechanics like around us we're expertly crafted and engineered by the neon hum team. So it was, it was, it was really fun.
Speaker 3 00:14:00 It was a really seamless and fun process. Um, they made it really easy for us to just like, jump in to, you know, show notes and discussing what we, what we need to, uh, record for. We learned a lot about like the, the sort of brass ack of putting together the begin the beginnings and ends of a podcast, which we kind of, I, I don't think I fully considered anyway. It's like when you need a set up, an unusual premise and introduce people you've never met before, and also some transition moments throughout the season of reading Murder in the Glass Room, that stuff is like all just priceless production brain stuff from Carla. Just, uh, yeah, just really set us up for success.
Speaker 4 00:14:49 How big of a part of your life is dirt
Speaker 2 00:14:53 Cheap? I mean, when we, when Amanda and I decide to do something, we invest in it. I mean, to our credit, you know, we may be go, we may be goofballs, but we are serious goofballs. Like we, we take the, we
Speaker 5 00:15:07 Commit to, we
Speaker 2 00:15:08 Commit the go. I mean, we, we ran a, a humor press together for eight years. You know, we, we where we went around the country to, uh, you know, from ComicCon to ComicCon, lugging heavy boxes of books, uh, to, you know, various locales. Uh, you know, when when we commit to doing something, we, we do it. And so we, we, we really wanted to do, uh, dirt cheap to the best of our abilities. You know, for me, you know, I I, you know, I was reading the chapters beforehand and rereading them, um, coming up with Charact, you know, figuring out like potential character voices and like doing some research on like, who could I, who might this be? Kind of like, who is this character maybe kind of sound like, you know, for Amanda. I mean, it's, she, as you she's pointed out earlier, you know, she does did a ton of research on the time period and stuff, and she had the fa you know, she had a lot of facts at her fingertips, uh, for when they came up. So yeah, we, we wanted to be, uh, funny and, uh, we wanted to do a good job with the performance. We also wanted to be as knowledgeable about the time period as we could.
Speaker 4 00:16:25 All right, well, we're gonna jump in to start playing some clips right now on all the clips are taken from the very first season of season one in this chapter, or this episode is called Meet Phil to, again, to restate what's going on here. You, Jeffrey, are reading from a noir novel set in the late 1940s Los Angeles. And in this clip you are reading the cast of characters. Let's hear that.
Speaker 6 00:16:50 I don't know if this was common for books of this era, but it, here it is, a cast of characters. Phil Norris was a bookie, a straight guy, but tough as they come. Edna Norris was his wife.dot dot until he found her dead in the glass room. <laugh>.
Speaker 7 00:17:11 Okay, well that's that slam dunk sales copy like I am. They got me on that
Speaker 6 00:17:16 One. They got the murder in the glass room, like even before, technically the book starts. Jerry Sterns was Phil's partner for years, but not a man to throw money away when he didn't have to. Murdoch was a smart cop. He had reasons for liking Phil
Speaker 7 00:17:37 Murdoch.
Speaker 6 00:17:38 Uh, Shelly Callahan was a newspaper gal, smart, beautiful, she'd been around. Professor Stanley was the head of Veterans United and other assorted rackets. Oh, I love it. Rosa Martinez had her own notions about morality. Oh god. And she lived by them. Carlos was Rosa's boss. Oliver Martin was a shriveled up old man, but he lived at an important address, <laugh>. Why would you say that? The wife, he lived at the White House, <laugh>, he was the president, and finally Willie had a grudge against Norris. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:18:29 By the way, Willy is an amazing character, and I don't wanna spoil it for, for, but Willy's an amazing, I've seen Stewart Willy has an amazing arc is the, and the last scene that Willy is in is maybe the best scene in the whole, is the best scene in the whole book.
Speaker 4 00:18:47 You know what, when Stuart, who's the producer of three clips, when he keyed in on this episode right away, um, with this clip, he, he talked about to me about structure. And it's because it's a funny bit, right? That mean the whole, the whole premise is funny. Once again, that's a comedy show, right? But this particular clip show is the importance in his mind of structure and about how really any format can work as long as it has some good and intentional structure, uh, behind it, books included as podcasting, right? And, and you're establishing it right off by creating some structure and the structure's kind of subtle here, right? There's some, some bed music which is appropriate to the piece you're reading from, and that really sets off. The Jeffrey is reading the book now portion, and there's also, uh, you make room for commentary. And I think that structure of just having that bed music under so people know when it is you are reading and when it is you are not reading, I think that really helps make the podcast work. I see podcasts try to do that a lot, but oftentimes in a very chaotic way, uh, with a little, a little structure keeps people on track. So, so my question is, is that structure baked in from the beginning of the episode, or is it something that you find after you get the raw tracks into the recorder?
Speaker 2 00:20:00 Correct me if I'm wrong, Amanda did, did they or did they? Well, they, okay. So there was a, there was a demo that, that they had recorded of this format ahead of time before we actually were, were in it. They, they, it was, uh,
Speaker 3 00:20:18 Yeah, it was a test with just the producers and Jonathan, right?
Speaker 2 00:20:22 Yeah. And they knew, they knew that they were going to do a high, they were gonna do like a production values. They were gonna do music, and they were gonna do that in the, in the show. Like they had decided that, so for the reading parts that were gonna, they were gonna feel like an audio book basically. Um, my my idea was that they could take this content, they could take all the commentary out. I read most of the book. They, you know, throughout the show, they could take all the commentary out and just doing a put up in a bridged version of this book. So I'm pretty sure it's a public domain at this point, you know, if they wanted to. So I think it was sort of baked into the, into the format.
Speaker 3 00:21:02 Yeah. They had sort of, uh, troubleshooted that before we jumped in. Another part of that, when we're reading, uh, the book is, um, you know, switching sides for dialogue. Those like subtle things like that, that helped me <laugh> follow a conversation,
Speaker 2 00:21:20 You know, manage, you're saying that reminded me there was something that was not decided, that wasn't baked in when we started, which was, uh, the cast in the original, in the original demo. So speaking of all this cast, in the original demo, they had multiple actors portraying the parts. And what, what I think we discovered in the process of doing the first episode is that it made the, it, it, it, it, it sort of disconnected us, I think from the story of me reading a book to Amanda, that's sort of the a that's sort of the, a story of the podcast, right? And so it disconnected us from that story. So when, when there were multiple voices and stuff. So it ended up being that I, I did all the, I did the full reading.
Speaker 4 00:22:12 Yeah, I think it works better that way. And I agree. I, I think the, that primary notion of Jeffrey's going to read a book to Amanda and we're going to get Amanda's amazing commentary afterward, really works, is if not, you're just, listen, you're listening to somebody else read an audio book and then breaking in, uh, all the time to have conversations.
Speaker 2 00:22:30 I think that would've made more sense if it truly was like MST three K where this was like a found, like this was like a found audio. Like this was like, oh, we unearthed some like ancient audio book that was like ridiculous. And then we're just gonna cut it and just edit, splice our commentary in. But we didn't have, there was no audio book for this. So, you know, it would've been weird to like, make one and then cut into the thing ourselves, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 00:23:17 Well, let's drill into this idea of, of structure a little bit more, and also the, the, the two of you with your bantering. Uh, when we, when we play this second clip, and Stuart, let's, let's play that this one. Now
Speaker 6 00:23:27 Everybody has this racket and even a doorman has to live second profession that he hates doorman. Even
Speaker 3 00:23:36 A doorman has
Speaker 6 00:23:37 To live the doorman racket. What a scheme it is to take take does he think from your, from your tenants all day day and ah, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:23:46 Yeah. That's your racket. Buckle
Speaker 6 00:23:47 Your rack. My rack. I got a rack. You got racket. He whistled for the garage. Boy, I turned to go inside, but I found the entrance blocked by a little man in a weedy tweed suit. He was standing there tense and angry. When I got close to him, he almost exploded. It's about time he s fluttered. I thought to myself, here it starts again. And nudged him gently inside the door, lousy bastard, the little guy yelped making me stand out here in the rain and get my only good suits soaked. Look Willie, I said, what is it now Willie hopped up like a mad grasshopper. What is it now? He said, you know, God, well what it is, when the hell are you going to settle up?
Speaker 4 00:24:41 I love Mad Grasshopper because if the only grasshopper, anybody new at this time was Jim Cricket, and he was not a mad gra, it was a very happy grasshopper. I think
Speaker 3 00:24:49 All descriptors in this book are baffling. Like you just, why did you choose the word choice? I would just put word choice as an editor on like every sentence. <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:25:00 Anyhow, I, I wanna talk more about structure with that bit as well, but with a couple of key points here. One of the things I like is what, when you went deeper into the aside, the conversation between the two of you on the doorman racket, whatever that was, um, I noticed that the producer at the time, they, they took the bed music totally out because there's several seconds where you're having a conversation about that. And I think that's very smart because it lets the audience know that it's not book reading time now it's commentary time. Also some very well placed sound effects with sound of cars and like there was a whistle that was in there. All that works. But what I really wanna key on is the banter. How much banter would you guess is or was left on the proverbial cutting room floor?
Speaker 3 00:25:46 Hmm, <affirmative>. Oh, that's a, i I think for the, especially for the first couple episodes, probably a lot cuz there were, there were some where I, I definitely just went off the deep end was like, but, but if this happened in 1632, then what <laugh>, you know, just like really like going, uh, off the map in, in my, in my responses to things. And I think those things have probably got cut out in the early parts of the show. But yeah, I think as we went on more and more of the, we, we started to get a better sense of like how long is too long to talk before we get back into the book. Cuz we didn't want to like completely derail what the reason for the season, but it was still, um, you know, just enough to, so that we could still get a couple points and jokes in
Speaker 2 00:26:38 The, I know that they cut, they definitely cut, um, sections of the book itself. So they were definitely a bridging the book itselfs. One thing that happens is as you, because we were listening to the show, to the edits and stuff, and we were listening to the final episodes as we were still recording. So, so, and what happens is when you do that is you get like a really good sense of like, what's staying in and why. And then I think you start to, you start to sort of play to, to the edit, you start to understand like, oh, okay, like when I, it's really funny when we do this. And so it's then, so then you sort of, your brain subconsciously kind of creates opportunities for that or starts to think in terms of those kinds of questions. I, I mean, I definitely knew going in, having read the chapter, you know, then going into the record, like I had a really good sense of like what Amanda was going to react to.
Speaker 2 00:27:40 Um, a because I know her very well, but b because after a couple chapters it's like, oh, okay, like this character's back. A band is going to be thrilled to see this character again. I better play this up and like let's, you know, let's, let's talk about how great it is that this character is back. You know, mystery is an interesting form of fiction because it, it is semi interactive. There's an anticipation that the reader is, is reading to figure something out, right? Like a player would in a game. And so part of me wanting to keep it as secret as possible is just because I wanted to get it managed reactions to the twists and turns and the clues and all of the mystery elements so that it would be, it would be more fun. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that, uh, the mystery elements are completely lacking. And boy, uh, do I get furious as the book goes on, uh, the lack of craft in this, uh, so-called mystery,
Speaker 3 00:28:43 You were so mad at a certain point it was very funny. Mr Writes an Excel spreadsheet.
Speaker 2 00:28:50 I do. Well,
Speaker 3 00:28:51 You know, cuz you're all about those branching
Speaker 2 00:28:53 Game writing. Game writing, we exactly, we use, uh, we use spreadsheets, the nerdiest way to potentially write something. So not only are we writing, but we are, you know, we are writing in like the geekiest format. So yeah, I get upset. I I got upset with the book, but, but, but yeah, I always wanted to keep it a secret from Amanda, get those reactions, uh, as fresh as possible. And, uh, yeah, and it's, as you can hear in the, the edit, it's, it works, uh, it works out great cuz Amanda's incredible off the cuff.
Speaker 4 00:29:39 I'm wanna get to our last clip and we're gonna focus in on the, on the star of the show here, Amanda once again. But I wanna give our audience a little bit of direction before we, before we play this, uh, pay specific attention to the role that Amanda plays here, dear listener. And I'm gonna come back and talk about it. Stuart,
Speaker 6 00:29:56 One wall of the room was something I'd always dreamed of. There was a red brick fireplace entirely surrounded by bookshelves except for a large area just over the mantle piece, which was set back, especially for a picture the kid painter had got me to buy. It was a big painting of a couple of horses prancing around in an open sunny courtyard against a background of ruined walls. This is something that Phil had always imagined. Phil had always imagined a bookshelf horse painting <laugh> wall, like since he was a kid, like, but
Speaker 7 00:30:39 I'm, but the kid painter told him, convinced him to buy the painting.
Speaker 6 00:30:44 Yeah, so he like,
Speaker 7 00:30:45 So this kid is also like, this kid is also an interior designer who is like brokering painting
Speaker 6 00:30:51 Sales. Yes. But also read his mind to know his like childhood desires of like what kind of room he wanted, I
Speaker 7 00:30:59 Think. Is this a sixth sense situation?
Speaker 6 00:31:01 Yeah, this he's professor example. I,
Speaker 7 00:31:03 I think he's the boy.
Speaker 4 00:31:05 So now the role that I heard you play there, Amanda was really us stuck in this the hell am I listening to you? You were really the proxy for us offering that whole up moment because, you know, at least some listeners of not every single listener certainly had in their mind. So my question, and in case you haven't figured it out yet, I I love long lead-ins to questions here. Um, how intentional are you when you are playing that role, Amanda, as proxy for us, the audience?
Speaker 3 00:31:34 Ooh, I, I think I'm of two minds in that role as proxy because I have like a double, triple, quadruple consciousness as someone with like many intersecting identities. I, I tend to already be thinking about how I'm going to be received. So some of that already kind of came naturally, like being able to transmute my own thoughts and feelings in a way that other people could still find legible while still sounding like myself. You know, that's a, that's a tricky balance, uh, for everyone, particularly queer black women. So, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a tightrope, but, um, because of that sort of training, it made it a little bit easier to sort of think of myself in that role as a proxy for everybody else. Even though I personally do not <laugh> don't think a a lot of people are, are necessarily coming to the same conclusions that I am to some things.
Speaker 3 00:32:34 Like it's, I I'm also pretty clear about my opinions and my politics in some parts of the, of the series depending on, you know, what comes up, especially near the end. Uh, no spoilers, but it was, uh, it was on, on one side kind of natural and on the other side a little bit of a negotiation of like, how far do I wanna go with my anger or bafflement or whatever kind of reaction I had. Um, and still kind of using language that is like, just understandable and, uh, and relatable. There, there were a lot of whats <laugh>, um, and, uh, you know, I I try to imagine the things that, uh, Jeffrey's reading to me and so that gives me some, some ideas for wild questions to ask that I don't know that the listeners are necessarily asking, but some of them probably are. So I, and, uh, that's entertaining enough. So, uh, yeah, it's, uh, kind of part, natural part kind of a negotiation, remembering that I'm speaking to a greater audience than like just, uh, say Jeffrey and our friends.
Speaker 4 00:33:48 The show works great. I I it's a lot of fun. It's, it's a great premise. You guys clearly have amazing chemistry together and that certainly shines through, uh, during the episodes. Were there any other topics you wanted to bring up that we didn't ask?
Speaker 3 00:34:03 You know, uh, I just wanna shout out our team again. Uh, Carla Green, uh, Vicram Patel and Scott Summerville and the whole neon hum team. Yeah, Jonathan Hirsch especially shout out to you. Uh, things that like maybe we didn't talk about that might be fun. We kind of had like a little ongoing online conversation throughout the series, um, when it was still airings. Like who do we think did it? And I was always kind of curious how, how much it was gonna matter to people to kind of have thought about who'd done it since. As Jeffrey said, the the mystery elements of the book are, are really slacking. So, uh, uh, it was fun. It was fun to kind of have those guessing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:34:47 People were, yeah, people were speculating. There was definitely, uh, there was definitely conversation around it, which was really cool to see people guessing. It was, uh, it was like a very small who shot Mr. Burns, uh, kind of experience <laugh>, um, the, that was cool. Yeah, the interaction was fun. We, we did, we did some interesting events leading, promoting the, the book, the promoting the series leading up to it. We did that. I mean, this was all during the pandemic, so it was very strange. It was all very strange. We did a virtual event on Facebook Live, which was a lot of fun. It was like a comedy show with some other folks from The Moth and from some other podcast to, to, you know, sort of a cross promotion and
Speaker 3 00:35:28 Yeah, the by the book, uh, hosts and yeah, there were some really great, uh, podcasters there. That was really fun. But yeah, doing, doing that kind of thing during, uh, the, the demi kind of made it hard to, you know, we weren't doing like podcasting festivals or anything like that, but we
Speaker 2 00:35:46 Did the virtual, we did a virtual
Speaker 3 00:35:47 One, but we did the virtual
Speaker 2 00:35:50 Was there, they was a, it was avir, I guess it was Sony music doing the pan, putting the panel together or whatever, and we, it was like, yes, it was like us and like Nick Offman were like bundled toge were like bundled together. It was like, wow, okay. Like, I, I'm not sure. Alright, cool. Thanks. That's, that is the interest. That is interesting. I don't know, I listen. Yeah, it was funny. It was funny. It's like, oh yeah, Nick Offman. That's incredible. I'm a big fan. And also like, what, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 00:36:26 Yeah, just a little gob smack diss all. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:36:40 A big thanks to Amanda and Jeffrey for sharing their collaborative creative process behind Dirt Cheap With me today. Podcasting is great for creative explorations just like this. Sometimes podcasters attach some high concept, esoteric meaning behind their podcast. There's clearly a lot of thought and effort put into this podcast, but at the end of the day, dirt Cheap is just about being funny and that works great because it is funny. And that's my kind of racket. You can get all the episodes of the first season of Dirt Cheap at neon hums website neon hum.com, or just follow the link in the episode details. I have been and shall be your host for this season, Evo Tara, thank you so much for listening. You can find all the episodes of three clips on our website, three clips podcast.com, and you can support the show by telling a few dozen of your closest friends. Again, that's three clips podcast.com. This episode was produced and edited by Stewart Barefoot. Theme music was created by Tyler Litwin. Matt Madeiras is the executive producer of Three Clips. If you can't get enough of me, follow me on Twitter where I'm at, Evo Tara. And if you're a serious podcaster with an interest in making podcasting better, please check out my daily short form podcast called Podcast Pontifications, which you can
[email protected]. Three clips is a Casto original series. You can learn
[email protected]. All of these links are in the episode details.
Speaker 4 00:38:18 And now our bonus segment. Each episode we ask our guests for a podcast they'd recommend that isn't at the top of the charts, a show they'd like to show some love too. We call this segment, play It Forward.
Speaker 3 00:38:32 I'll put a shine on a couple that are kind of newish or haven't really been talked about. Um, one is White People Won't Save You, uh, which is a really, really funny new podcast, uh, from two, uh, comic book creators of color who've also written in other mediums. And each episode they're kind of, uh, talking about a different movie in which there is a white savior element. So we're talking the help, we're talking the blind side. We're talking lilies of the field. We're talking like all of the classics, um, in addition to weird dumb movies like Save Save the Last Dance, or, um, stuff like that. And they have on like a, a really funny cultural critic. They've had folks from Vulture and, and the AV Club on, and, uh, they just kind of break down the movie and the reasons why It's, you know, being dissected and also kind of showing a lot of like funny and conflicting viewpoints about how some of these tropes play out in movies.
Speaker 2 00:39:38 I'll, I'll start off by shouting out, uh, a show I listened to regularly called There Are No Girls on the Internet. Um, it's, uh, with host Bridget Todd. And, uh, she's talking about one of the most important conversations we're having right now, which is, uh, the internet and the culture of, uh, you know, ex ex, you know, extreme misinformation and uh, and violent rhetoric and, uh, all kinds of problems that particularly marginalized, uh, creators and voices are having on the internet right now. And, uh, nobody, uh, has this, is having this conversation, uh, as well as her as entertainingly, as Brit, Todd, as, uh, sophisticatedly as, as her, uh, I learned something every time I listen to her show. Um, it's really, uh, it's really just top notch, uh, top notch pod. She got great interviews. She does deep dive, she does rant. Sometimes she'll just like rant about a subject for like 10 minutes and that's the whole show, but it's like, oh, wow.
Speaker 2 00:40:38 But she gives you perspective. So anyway, there are no girls on the internet, I believe that's on iHeartRadio, wherever you get your podcasts. And I'm on a, I'm on a show, uh, called Worst Movies Ever Played, and, uh, it is an actual play RPG podcast. So for those who don't know what that is, uh, maybe if you haven't heard of Critical Role or something like that, um, actual plays, it's where you play a, a d and D type game, a role playing type game, uh, and then, and you record it as a podcaster or as a Twitch stream or something like that. Um, but we went in a very different direction with ours. Most of them take place in like a fantasy duns and dragon setting. That's what they're playing d and t Um, worst movies ever played. Were basically improvising bad movies from the 1980s that you would get on a VHS tape at like a Blockbuster video.
Speaker 2 00:41:32 Um, so these are like cult weird cult films that, uh, we are improvising with the help of, uh, of an RPG game system. And we, we've done some absolutely wild episodes. Uh, I, we did one where, uh, I played like a Chuck Norris analog whose best friend's brain was transplanted into Air Force One, and I'm riding my best friend who is of this plane and then terrorist attack. So the plane and I have to team up to defeat the terrorists and the, the movie's called Air Force Fun. Anyway, these are, these are example of the kind of like strange and bizarre. I play with two of my, uh, two of my good friends that both all of us are comedians, comedy folk, and, uh, you can find that on, uh, worst movies ever played on, uh, Starburns Audio Network, uh, home of, uh, Dan Harmon's, uh, shows and, uh, Gilbert Godfried and others. That's where I will, that's where I will play it or I will send it forward into.
Speaker 4 00:42:46 And that wraps up another episode of Three Clips, a Casto original hosted by Mevo Tara. I truly believe that one of the best ways we can make podcasting better is by understanding what goes on inside the heads of our fellow podcasters. Thanks for joining me this season.
Speaker 5 00:43:04 Cheers.
