Mission To Zyxx - A Quick Aside

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

As we hurtle toward the grand finale of Mission to Zyxx, the seven creators sit down to answer listeners’ burning questions and talk about what the show has meant to us. Will we cry? Will you laugh when we cry? Will you cry WHILE you laugh at us crying? Only one way to find out, and that’s to hit that play button, baby.   STARRINGJeremy Bent as Jeremy BentAlden Ford as Alden FordAllie Kokesh as Allie KokeshSeth Lind as Seth LindShane O’Connell as Shane O’ConnellMoujan Zolfaghari as Moujan Zolfaghariand Winston Noel as AJ

Hey everybody, it's Alden Ford and the rest of the cast of Mission is X. Hello! Hello! We are here right in the homestretch, right between the last two episodes. And of course, as you now know, 520 was not, in fact, the series finale of the show, but rather the first part of a two-part series finale. And 521 is on its way, and we cannot wait for you to hear it. We're having a lot of feelings about the end of the show, but we also have some really exciting news, and we want to share it with you.

Shane, take it away. Yes, Shane here. Since 519, I've had, or how do you say it? I haven't had a baby but a baby has come into my life and it is related to me I'm now a father

I'm now a father that's right beautiful beautiful words very natural yeah oh man perfect just the most eloquent

I'm stitching that on a pillow a baby has come into my life and I'm related to it and again this is how you can tell that we do not write this ahead of time. It is all improvised.

That's right. Directly Bob Dylan lyrics. A new horse hat has entered the picture. And yes, it's caused a little bit of a slowdown as Shane has taken some very well-deserved paternity leave. But rest assured, we are working hard on 521. And it is a banger i'm excited they're gonna be playing this at the club years from now playing it specifically at the club tell you what the club meets for yeah no it's not not a dance club it's not the club you're thinking

it's a different in addition to that and in addition to that good news we're here because we wanted to do something we had not done before in the history of the show. Yeah, we've never done this before. An out-of-character mailbag episode. That's right. So before the show ends, we thought it might be fun for us to do a little discussion about the show. We're doing this out of character? And we're doing, yeah.

Winston, I know it hurts to peel back the mask. I didn't sign up for this. It feels like you're playing a character who's kind of an asshole, actually, Winston. But, you know, people ask a lot of questions about the show. And I feel like this could be a nice little compendium before we say goodbye. A couple of stories about the last five years of our lives as improvisers and podcasters. And who knows? Maybe we'll learn

something a little bit about ourselves also to make it spicy we're not gonna hold back everything we're gonna say it all the gloves are off Mooshan is gonna throw all of us under the bus I've had things to say for years so normally when we do mail

bags Nermit reads the mail and so I want to change that up and have Seth read the mail this time. Yeah. Oh, cool. What a different feel. What a different feeling. So then we'll get in character and we'll answer him in character. No, it's never in character.

Okay. Take your helmet off. Yeah. No. Whoa. Wow. He's just surrounded by crushed cans. Never.

Okay. So we're here with Jeremy, Alden, Mujan, Seth, Shane, Allie, and AJ. Method. Okay. Let's see. Just like Nerman, I lost the question I wanted to start with. Jesus Christ, Seth. Come on.

All right. So this had to be the first one. That's why I had to scroll for it. Just through a guess estimate. A guesstimate? No. Just how much shrimp was consumed throughout the making of this. That's true.

What you're starting with. Now that's a good, that's a solid cue. This is like the kind of question you'd get when you're, you know, getting hired at Google or something. This is like a thought experiment. Yes. Well, I think we can figure this out. Are we thinking pounds or pieces of? Oh, really good question.

We should have the unit. So people should know that usually before COVID, we would all get together at Shane's apartment. The famed puppy palace. The puppy palace. Mentioned in the credits. And we would have food. And a lot of times that food would include a shrimp dish of some sort.

Yeah. If we got sushi, there would be shrimp tempura. Yeah. And we'd get shrimp tacos a lot. I think in LA we got shrimp tacos when we recorded. That character I play where I say I love shrimp, that ain't a lie. That's true. Moonshine, you say character.

There's like four different characters with the same voice. It's been a while since we've visited Shrimp Island. I love shrimp! But there's Michelle. There's Michelle's enemy, Pierkin. I'm a criminal who loves shrimp. Pierkin. Let's call it 60 episodes we recorded together.

Throw in another 10 sessions for pickups. So 70. Let's say we ate shrimp at two-thirds of those. Yeah, so that's what, like 50-ish? 650 tons. I mean, we probably would get four to eight shrimp per session, so average of six. Average of six.

So what's six times 50? That's 300 shrimp. I think that's probably a pretty safe guesstimate. Yeah. All right, Google. Sorry, guest estimate. Just to be clear, when you say session, you're not referring to recording session.

That's what we call it when we eat shrimp, a shrimp session. Yeah. We may or may not record an episode during that time. You know how some people have like dad bods, beach bods. For a moment, we all had shrimp bods. We all had shrimp bods, yeah. That question sounds like it's answered. Well done.

Answered. Could there be a sound effect when we answer a question? Sound effect. Pretty good. Question number two. Question number two. All right, let's do a little bit of a lightning round here. Okay.

Okay. What is your favorite? This is hard because it's visual. Sorry. Seth, stretching the definition of lightning round. Okay, this is a good one. All right. What is each of your favorite side characters that you have voiced?

Ooh, now that's a cue. I think people would expect me to say the Jock My Nuts guy, but I greatly prefer the character who is sort of, he doesn't have a name, but he's just sort of baffled. The tourist? The tourist, yeah. Yeah. Where he's just like, hey, buddy, I didn't get involved.

Yeah, I do love that guy. You're telling me to bring my own funky guy? I love that guy. And I also love voicing Stiff Eye, the assistant to Fondo Parkwood. No, boss! But it is very rough on my throat to do that voice for longer than a minute. And of course, Zima Master Kiarando.

Okay, well, that doesn't sound like you answered which one character you answered. Triple, triple answer. I think you're just listing all your characters. That's a top three. Ching, ching, triple answer. Lightning round. Yeah, well, sorrying, triple answer. Lightning round. Well, sorry.

Winston? Okay. I think an underrated one that I thought was really fun was Governor of Milch was really fun. Hand to the Governor. Not cool. Yeah. I thought that was... Wait, give us more Hand to the Governor.

Well, it's very... Talk about how you were at a party. Oh, that was... Wait, give us more Hand of the Governor. Well, it's very... Talk about how you were at a party. Oh, I was at a party. I mean, everyone there was cool and... I don't know. I just think it was fun. It was a fun character. I gotta say, I am

always impressed. I mean, I'm impressed by everybody's ability to do this, but Winston and Mujan are constantly throwing in just random characters like just walk-on characters and you guys are always able to continue coming up with just new and and it's great because if a character ends up coming back 20 times it's worth it you know it's like it holds up but sometimes it's literally one line that we never hear again. And you guys are always so good at that. That's my favorite part of the show, I think, for me, is being able to play all those characters.

Although I would say my favorite one probably is just, I just fucking love Sisu. I think she's just a badass. Sisu is a great character. She just, like, has her shit together. But is she a side character at this point? Maybe. Yes. Now she is.

Well, now she is. She's in a whole other galaxy. Oh, yeah. She's, wow. Allie? Oh, obviously, Annabelle. No question. Abigail.

Abigail. I always say Annabelle, too. Yeah, Allie. Wait, you gotta say who that is. But that is so Abigail to say that. Abigail. You might even say, yeah. Abigail, you've done it again.

And where did she appear again? That's a 301. I will say, I think Abigail is our favorite character that I would guess almost not a single listener remembers. We talk about Abigail all the time. Seth, what about you? Oh. I mean, I think Dinkle Wakampe is up there.

Dinkle Wakampe. Dinkle Wakampe. Tiny person, long microphone. And Hasui Winko is pretty. Hastui Winko, celebrity judge. Let's pump that justice. I do love Hastui Winko. I feel like that's your id, Seth.

I just feel like Hastui Winko is just like. I loved playing that character because playing Nermit for so long he's such the opposite of Nermit Hastu and Winko is the anti-Nermit he's so confident and rash it's justice justice coming in hot coming in real Alden

I think my favorite side character I mean I'm really fond of Rangus oh yeah the wizard yeah that was of Rangus the wizard I just re-listened to 419 like a month ago and boy is it funny it's so good and Rangus is

really funny Rangus also is like the closest Justin Tyler and I have been improvising together for a long time and the derf voice that he does like what are you doing when we improvising together for a long time and the derf voice that he does like the sort of like what are you doing like when we improvise together

I would say two thirds of our scenes are two derfs just screaming at each other and uh so I think Rangus is the closest where I'm like well I don't know I don't know what's going on you're Petra though Petra Petra is fun

I would say Petra Squeegee and Natalie are all characters that were more fun because you guys kept teeing me up like Petra where are you Larry I love characters like that those characters just basically kind of serve as punctuation

right exactly sort of like but they're so nice punctuation character for you was that uh urchin bot in uh chimnation where you're like process of elimination that is like oh art dodger yeah that's right yeah honestly we all had good fun because i got to be see in the tiny tm frame yeah i think the only people that didn't have a good time in that episode were all of our British listeners. Oh, yeah.

We're terrible British listeners. Lightning round. That was our longest question. Yeah, that was very slow and horrid. And the bolt has reached Earth. Next question. Oh, I should be saying who these are from. Oh, wow. earth next question i should be saying who these are from oh wow you know seth you have done so many of these in character well the nerve it's so bad at it that i've it's like it's taken over

it's it's funny seth that that reminds me of two questions that were asked that i'd like to address very quickly right now. One is, which part of your characters reflect your own personality? And I think we can all say almost all of them. All of us. I think there's a reason we all chose the characters we did. Yes. Mine's definitely a reflection of my actual self.

A striving, needy, loving dad. I will say the most frequently lobbied criticism at me as a human being is that I am a know-it-all, and not one of those criticisms has been unfounded. Even Addy agrees. Yeah, Addy's like, Jesus Christ. Are you talking to Jeremy? I mean, certainly, Jeremy, none of us could play C-53. No, oh, no.

I say that in the absolute most complimentary way. You nail that character. I'd say Bargy, especially, so when we started recording the show, I was going through some emotional turmoil. Emotions. Powerful emotions. And I think in a good way, it helped kind of fuel Barji's point of view and like the things she was willing to talk about and like the anger and like the pain she had about people or the industry and like stuff like that. And so Barji was like a channel for me.

It was like therapy for me in some way, although definitely get real therapy too. But yeah, Bar bargy there's a lot of me and bargy so is there a lot of hacky sack guy in you shane oh yeah definitely it's essentially just me pitched up to semitones some casual listeners might not know how often you appear on the show yeah i started doing it, I think season three was the first time I actually got in there. You're like, somebody's got to be funny on this motherfucking thing. What's your favorite character you've injected into the show? More so than anybody I've voiced.

I guess my answer to this question would be, I like to also sneak in my friends and family into background stuff yeah so like how much money do we owe these people you know it'll just be like since i'm always working on this show and it's always like uh a struggle to get it out like we'll have friends over sometimes and i'm still like in and out of my room working on it so like one time my friend rachel was over and we were working on um jr's second keck episode and i was like oh hey do you want to like do an impression of the computer voice from alien and just do like the countdown because remember there's like a self-disclosure and my friend do that early on like there was a part where plec took a bunch of dust and then was like trying to snap out of it.

And my friend Daniel was over, and I just recorded him going like that, rubbing his face. I have little memories of like, oh, yeah. Or I had my mom and my sister have a conversation in the background of the Zima Prime episode as if they're like Zimas in the show. That's awesome. And your sister sang the Pump Up the Justice theme, did she not? She did, yeah. She's a great singer. I mean, that is one of my favorite Zix songs.

Yeah, mine too. The Justice would not have been pumped nearly half as much without her. No, I don't think anyone asked this, but I think it's a cool thing that maybe some of our listeners know, but we got Shane on accident, right? Yeah. I mean, yeah. our listeners know but we like we got shane on accident right like yeah i mean yeah alden and i had like origin met vaguely before because our friend in common eric brand who owns the studio where you all like had your first recording sessions and i was the engineer for most of season one yeah yeah yeah i have a question for the crew what no i want to hear more about you all becoming friends well this is part of it this is in that in that zone so yeah when we started working together it started becoming clear that i was like more than just mixing the first episode but

mixing more there was this period from my point of view where i was like all right so am i am i in the show now am i like part of the crew And I remember vividly like you all had a writer's meeting at the studio before we were going to record. Yeah. Well, writer's meeting in quotes, since we never write anything, but like a story planning meeting. Yeah. Yeah.

And I was there to set up and I was like thinking, can I jump in with something? And the first thing I suggested was I remember we were probably halfway through season one I remember Winston being like all right well what do we got to do because we talked about we wanted to like eventually get to the rebellion right and then I suggested like well what if season one was just the federated alliance then season two was rebels I remember being like really like oh god am I step am I going outside and we were silence! Yeah, yeah. And then I wasn't allowed to speak for a few seasons. But yeah, I was wondering, from you guys' perspective, what were you guys talking about?

What's up with this dude? Do we just let him talk? You actually are going to have that conversation now. I think from very early on, I was like, oh, this guy's part of the show because he's adding stuff that we wouldn't think to add yeah the second episode of the show shatana and it's like the wedding and there's one point where c claps for something and nobody else claps and i was like no one okay but you added this metallic clanking of C's hands clapping. And it makes that moment like three times as funny.

And I, as soon as I heard that, I was like, we gotta, we gotta keep this guy around. Cause he's, this is, this is the jam.

Yeah. It started being really fun from my perspective. When you all started using what you imagine the sound design to be like in the scenes. Anything to do with Bargy's like geography and anatomy was always really fun when you started really like playing with that. And then Winston's like helmet gag in the first old Durf episode where the Stroidminers like only have an accent when the helmet's on. I thought that was like. I was like, oh, that's such a good. Oh yeah, the yeah the destroyed miner actually might be my favorite minor character that's a fun one but also your openness to even let somebody who is generally perceived as a purely technical role

in our podcast space to be invited into the creative process which which I think is... Well, you had one of the best ideas of the entire show, second only to the creation of Beano by accident, was Dame Wiggles, the time loop back to Dar in the creation of Two Dars. Oh, that was Shane's pitch? That was Shane's pitch. I honestly feel like a lot of those are Shane's pitch. Yeah, most of them are.

But I mean, you guys are so cool to just like... Because when I do a pitch like that, they're usually, you know, they're very complicated, like the idea itself, but you guys are always willing to actually unpack it and make it work. Well, I want to say two things about that. One is that, you know, for those of you who aren't familiar

with how we make the show, we do do a little bit of big picture planning. What Shane was saying about this season's going to be Federated Alliance, next season's going to be Rebellion. Those are the kinds of things we like to plan out because we want the overall arc of the show to be satisfying. We try to let those mid-season episodes sort of put the balls up in the air and then we try to gather them all by the end of the season. So it's sort of put the balls up in the air and then we try to gather them all by the end of the season. But the other thing I want to say about Shane being a part of the team is that I think that Shane, Seth, Brendan, all of us as improvisers, there is an element that each of us have and

a philosophy we have about the show of taking it as far as we can possibly go. And it's not just like being ambitious or being funny or like getting great guests or whatever. It's like, if we're going to edit the show, it's not just cutting out the stuff that's not the funniest stuff. It's about how can we edit it so it sounds tighter and faster and more dense than anything that we could script. And like, if we're going to sound design it, we want to sound design the shit out of it. How can we make it sound more lush and more involving and more engaging than anything that would be on tv if we're going to stay in character are we all going to stay in character exactly but it's the same with the music

brendan was saying like he's like i really heard that first episode and i really realized you guys were going for it uh and shane was like when I heard the music that Brendan did, I realized the show was going for it. There's been kind of this feedback loop of like each of us doing stuff that inspires the rest of us to up our game and sort of go all the way. We all share the philosophy that anything worth doing is worth doing to the point of absurdity. I was gonna say, it's not just limited to the post-production either.

It's in the production itself. Like a big example is how Allie, you know, went to extremes just to make the show happen when you moved to Europe. Yeah. So there was a period- A dark time in our timeline, yeah. The Europe age.

All of season three was- Jamie promised her we wouldn't talk about it. Yeah, you were up at like two in the morning, right? Yeah. I usually go to bed at like five. We would start recording at 1 a.m. your time. I used to make like a pot of coffee that I would just like leave on the desk

while we were recording. Yeah. Can I be really... Edit this out because this is the nerdiest thing that we'll say on this sci-fi podcast. None of this is going in. We actually haven't started the episode. I do feel like a lot because this is the nerdiest thing that we'll say on this sci-fi podcast none of this is going and we actually haven't started i do feel like a lot of this is following like the principles that we all learned as improvisers of like yes anding also just the idea of heightening right like if we're gonna do it let's keep doing it let's like build off of one another and then

it's been really interesting to see kind of those principles that, you know, take or leave improv, but the principles are still so great and can power so much. I think you're right, though, Winston, that like, none of us went into this with an idea of what it was going to be. We all just wanted it to be good. And I think that sort of improv spirit of like, not going in with a written script or with a written plan allowed us to be like well what if we did do that all right so what do we have three questions so uh next question were there any important plot points that were improv that you were like i guess we're stuck with that i think this this is... We all have the same thought.

Big hot bean. Yeah. Michael Caine invented the concept of this ancient relic being a hot bean as sort of I think a personal fuck you to each and every one of us. But we really tried to lean

into it and we sort of asked ourselves what would be the funniest way to deal with this? And obviously the funniest way was to make that true, that it was both a hot bean and that it really was the most important thing that the Federated Alliance was trying to find. And I think that that set the whole show into motion. Somebody asked, like, when did you realize that this show was something more than just a fuck around? And I think, I'm paraphrasing, but I think that was sort of the moment for me where I was like, oh, I knew the show was awesome and funny and special. But that was when I was like, oh, this has legs. Like, we could follow this.

Like, how far can we follow this thread i love that it's like every episode too that there's just smaller things where it's like that's true now for the rest of the show and there's there's something i won't spoil it but there's something in 521 what will be our final episode that's just like such a funny stupid reveal that would have always been true earlier and we're just discovering i'll say it to all of you but that like oh yeah yeah uh uh shane did you want to talk about the dove dove oh yes yes when two comes back and doesn't have his powers and he releases a dove on the ship like midway through the episode yeah i just kept the noise of the dove in the background in that episode

like just nesting on top of a shelf or something and since then i've just put it in every episode as if the dove just is just part of the dove that lives on the bargerian jade like an airport bird along with the stowings yeah yeah like a port authority pigeon i mean that's in some ways that's like it's not the only reason but it is sort of like one of the reasons that we know that the show has to end because like if you say that everything is real, like it just kind of starts to, we were starting to feel, and this is not a negative,

but it's like, we have spoken so many things into being, not being, but being that like, it's become really massive. And so it's hard to keep everything true and keep all the plates spinning. We could, but I think that's what's kept us honest though. massive and so it's hard to keep everything true and keep all the plates spinning we could but i think that's what i think that's what's kept us honest though i think that's the thing that has

kept us from bailing on a lot of our bigger plot points is that we're like if what we've established is true there's only so many times we can pull the rug like yeah we can only keep plec from his destiny for so long this is a sci-fi franchise. Plek has a destiny. We have to fulfill it on some level. Another character who kind of got a life of their own is Zalkatron, who is just a refrigerator. And then became like the refrigerator around town.

Truly just a hot take machine. A total throwaway line that I did once and then became kind of a major character in season five. Yeah. And ends up defeating Corbett. Don't spoil it. Alright. This will be a

true lightning round. Every time you say it he says that so slowly while he's scrolling let's set the bar low and then we'll beat it okay body swap episode who would you be desperate to play and what makes you love that character

I'll start when I have thought about a body swap episode I immediately wanted to play Bargy I'll start. When I have thought about a Body Swap episode, I immediately wanted to play Bargy. Oh. I think because like Nermit and Bargy are so different. And Bargy is such a chaos agent in group improv scenes.

Sorry to interrupt. It's like Bargy's entrance line in maybe like 25 episodes. So that's who I would want to be in a body swap out. I would say Lek because in most improv teams I've been on, I'm like a straight man character, like, wait a minute, kind of the audience surrogate, the person who's usually acting normal or real in the scene grounded. It'd be interesting to get back into that because i had i haven't played that in a while so i think it would be really fun to have a c aj like a cj like a really smart death machine or a really dumb robot or a really dumb robot

i think the simplest body swap that would have made sense for dar is with nermit and they would have just been like really into the reverse role play yeah i mean that's comedy gold oh my god oh yeah i think a body swap uh that would have been fun to have done is bargy sc53 because if bargy is an agent of chaos it would just be fun to make all these facts chaotic facts that you guys have to justify and accept in the world that is true i mean the thing is i just don't think i could ever play any of your characters the way that you guys do you guys are such singular voices as those characters i just don't think i could do it i think you would actually be a great core balvor oh wow because you you have this side to your side characters where you have a lot of

power especially in doing voices that truly don't sound like plec and like you can change your energy so much i feel like you could do a good version of like an evil I did like playing Kaj Iniquitous which only appeared in some ads but I really liked him I do think I do think I could sort of channel my early season 1 and season 2 plec idiocy

to do a body swap with AJ I'd have fun playing AJ the great thing about AJ and I think the mark of a great character and I feel this about everybody and I think the mark of a great character, and I feel this about everybody, but I think the mark of a great improv character is that the character always knows the answer to every question. Anything you pitch to a great character, like, you know already what the answer is going to be. And the improviser fills in the specifics. But like, we know AJ's point of view so strongly that we know what his point of view on anything could be. And it might be the

opposite of what we think, like, just because it's funny to do that. But like, I think AJ's point of view so strongly that we know what his point of view on anything can be and it might be the opposite of what we think like just because it's funny to do that but like I think AJ's AJ's point of view is so clear I just I think that's such a I don't know such a treat to listen to and it must be fun to play Winston yeah I'd really like to be

playing it right now as opposed to being my fucking self time and relative nerd in space asks what's a favorite episode be playing it right now. As opposed to being my fucking self. Time and Relative Nerd in Space asks, what's a favorite episode to record and or listen back to? Oh, wait. A favorite episode to record will always be, for me,

the David Bluff Band episode. Oh, man. That one was serious. You love that. I think you broke more in that episode than any other episode. I break a lot, let's be honest I break more I have such a vivid memory of recording that in Amsterdam

at whatever time in the morning and I was just like sobbing crying at him playing the characters PD and Dean because also it was like so unlike any of the episodes we had ever done yeah that one's so weird but it's it's so really fun weird one of my favorite episodes was the the paul f tompkins episode just because i thought it like just to record it just because he was so gracious I don't know I just had a lot

of respect for for him to kind of just jump in and I don't know I found it kind of weirdly uh inspiring I was like I should do you know like I should do the same thing just be game and like it was just inspiring to me I guess so yeah I remember having a lot of fun recording the new norm 202 oh yeah for some reason i can't the studio wasn't available in my apartment we couldn't record at but at the last minute i had a friend who has a loft in bushwick that he had just he lives in but mostly converted to like a recording studio oh i remember that because uh there was like a book of tarot on the bookshelf and that's why i was like oh yes tarot kastebi almost like allergy eye drops that was right in front of me

allergy eye drops i don't sell yourself short. That's an inspired. That is such a good character name. It's so hard for me to pick like a favorite episode because it's like we've had so many funny people on our show. Such funny guests. Sebastian Cannelli is amazing. Yoni was amazing. Tim Dunn is amazing.

Anything Leslie was in is amazing. But all of them are amazing. But I think the most fun I ever have is always the live shows. Joni was amazing. Tim Dunn is amazing. Anything Leslie was in is amazing, but all of them are amazing. But I think the most fun I ever have is always the live shows. Yeah, the live shows are very fun. Because it's just, you know, even we never really know what we're going to expect and we just have that energy from the crowd

and it just, we're all kind of a little silly and weird and it's just the energy we feed off of it. Who did I spit water at during a live show? Okay, yeah, that tracks. Before COVID, before COVID. Pre--covid very pre-covid uh i think my favorites to record are always the like 19s oh yeah oh yeah we get to do something a little weird the council of seven episode tiny tooth adventures pump up the justice fellowship of the fellowship of legume those are so fun and captain cameron which is captain cameron which was that was that one was

slightly less fun for me because i didn't get to play a new character no no all right right just because like it's so much fun to go from playing c to playing like Quariel or Parka and Anorak or Quaid Blismo. Like those are such fun, like different characters. Yeah. And to just be like, we're going to be in a totally different world for one episode. It's so funny because there's always some fan who's like, boo, hated that episode. Yeah. I know.

It's like, sorry, dude. I think they've come around to the 19s but I think for the first three seasons people are like what the fuck are you doing what is this I think 419 may be my favorite six episode of all time 419 is so good

nothing I like more than like nope this one's for us yeah like this one's for daddy well the thing about 419 was that I think it actually works really well

not only as a standalone episode but it also folds into the story so nicely yeah I think it's so fun yeah one that I remember loving to record really well, not only as a standalone episode, but it also folds into the story so nicely. Yeah. I think it's so fun. Yeah. One that I remember loving to record was the first Zach Cherry episode.

Oh, man. Was that the one where we all sat around in a circle in the white void? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Like, our regular studio at that point wasn't available, so we were, like, downstairs in this photo or video studio, and we were all sitting on, like, tall bar stool height chairs in a circle. Yes.

Which was actually kind of great for like eye lines and interacting and seeing each other. And also we had to like, we couldn't really like slump. So I think we were like a little more. Yeah, you had to sanitize. Yeah. And it was just like one of the first episodes where I feel like the promise of the show was fully realized. Like it was a parody of sci-fi, but such an original character. And Zach is so funny in such a specific way.

And like everyone was so funny. I'll say there's like a few episodes that feel. I remember the most recent one. And this might surprise some of you was the Dame Wiggles episode. Oh, well, well, well. Luis Morales. That's out of character, though. That's out of character.

I know. A couple of minutes of audio of you hating it in the moment. I know. I hated the concept, but I liked doing it. I felt like there was that and the Torto Trooper. Oh, yeah. Torto Trooper. Some of those episodes that felt the most

like being in a group game yeah where we just kept moving around and like playing and playing and playing and it was like you could feel like you know the snowball rolling down the hill and it getting bigger and bigger yeah the dame wiggles episode for me was the episode where i think more than maybe any episode we've ever recorded we were like fuck it let's just see where this goes like there was no discussion about whether we were going to paint ourselves into a corner or whether we were going to contradict shit that already been established we just were fucking let let's go back in time again and we'll fucking make all these time loops and stuff and then shane was like what if the final travel is to go back and do something in our own timeline that changes

everything yeah i i can't believe that that episode worked out it was a miracle and it's so funny and it wasn't even that long of a recording it was just like we barely edited it it was insane one of my favorite episodes to work on do the sound design for that if i had to pick like which one i would want to go back into just to not necessarily make it better but just to be in that world again is the trace to graham episode trace so fun and like it also happened right before we made the switch to releasing every two weeks and i still think like damn I wish I had two weeks for that one because it was so fun to do that cheesy music I can't believe you used to do this every week

I can't believe you used to do this I mean like especially those like early season four or late season three episodes how did I even I don't know how you did that it messed up my body well Seth has gone missing so i'll ask another question

yeah hit us all here's a good question from tom noble in case you want to follow him on twitter it's at nom tobel what will you miss most about portraying your main characters on a regular basis or put another way what have you learned about yourself by portraying your main characters this is a very thoughtful question i is all right if i go first yeah sure no i have enjoyed the joys of idiocy uh with aj like i think like i would never really play a character like him in an improv scene i think on my my team that I used to perform with on UCB, it was like, well, I'm not going to play the idiot character. I'm going to be like the put-upon bank teller. You know what I mean?

Not while Drew Johnston's around. Yeah, Drew will be the idiot, you know? That's a good point. And he'll do it better than I will. But it's been really fun, and thank you guys for, I mean, letting me kind of join full time halfway through and also to kind of bring, yeah, it's a character I wouldn't have normally pursued. And it's been like really fun and really pushed me as an improviser. And also like, oh, right. This is kind of a vibe that is like available to me that I don't normally tap

into in my own comedy and my own thoughts yeah that kind of bombastic idiocy it's like oh that's really fun and i'll miss that c53 is like exactly the sort of character i love to play but if you listen to c season one and c season five like i'm so buttoned up in season one, which is like, that's the character. He's got the restraining bolt and he like, he's specifically there because Plek especially has no idea what he's doing. Whereas in season five, I'm so much looser and I care so much less about so many things. And I think that for me has been like, I am sort of a know-it-all in real life, but my wife can also be a bit of a know-it-all. And unsurprisingly, that can cause problems sometimes.

But we read like a book before we got married that had a really great chapter that we quote a lot, which is, you can be right or you can be married and it's like i know it's like grim the the well it's true it's like the value of being right you may have put on a pedestal your whole life but does not lead to long-term satisfaction in a relationship so like i sort of envision c53 getting less precious about being correct as him sort of realizing he has value beyond like an informational node you know i like that that's awesome i think uh one of the fun things about playing nermid is when he's just like delusional to an extreme degree and keeps doubling down on something. Like I think the first example was when he was convinced he was getting the promotion in 118 and just like, I love the improv challenge of like any piece of information

that comes at you, you can justify it as evidence of this thing. That's not true. And I think the thing that's going on and i think the thing that's going on in like late season five of him being obsessed with the idea that he's gonna jam with the other other nurmit yeah like it's just so dumb and so that's fun when nurmit is otherwise like a pretty cerebral rational we gotta get the job done guy but he i like that he also can completely is just delusional like wildly self-destructive and irresponsible one of my absolute favorite dynamics on the show is that nermid is the like platonic bureaucrat and also is a weird bird like he is also completely

at the mercy of his own weird bird instincts sometimes, like where he has to nest, and he has to scratch Gloyde T-Beam to death because they... Oh, Gloyde T-Beam. He's drawn to be inside the belly of a tornado. Yeah, he has to be on a heat rock or else he'll like... He has to eat some gurp. Yeah, I just love it. It's such a dumb duality for him to have to navigate all the time that works every time.

Well, what I love about the Bajarian Jane is she is a big character who just doesn't give a jack, but at the same time is affected by everyone's feelings. But I think why I really enjoy playing her is that she's just truly a larger-than-life character. And I can just say it's just fun to cause chaos in scenes and to kind of because I trust everyone at Zyx to take my like zaniness and to do something magical with it so I'll just miss like you guys taking something from Bargy and making something out of that that's like even better beyond that I think uh what I also love about playing Bargy and many of the other characters is that I am a petite person with this voice. And I feel sometimes people only think I can do petite things with this voice.

And so it's been fun to surprise people. Yeah, even five years in, people are like, that's what Bargy looks like? It's so good. It's like, oh, yeah, we actually did have like a 75-year-old, like old actress play Bargy. You know, what's been fun with this project, I think for all of us, is that we've been able to create our own characters and show what we can do without, you know, and I think Bargy would say something like this as well, without the industry making us do something. We're just playing to the best of our ability and doing what we think is fun. We're just playing to the best of our ability and doing what we think is fun. And for me specifically, playing these big characters that other people wouldn't expect me to play is just so much fun because I can.

Yeah, for sure. Alec? Well, you know, Dara's not too different from who I am, I think, as a person. Certainly meaner in the first seasons, but then truly I just lost the thread and I was like, well, you know, I'll just improvise as myself. I think that happened with C as well. He just became more like me.

Yeah, I think we all did that a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Not me. I'm in character. Take the helmet. Yeah. I mean, I think all of us have done that a little bit you know I think it's natural but I also think like Plek has gotten less

dumb because Plek has learned stuff and AJ's there to be the dumb one now and I think Dar has gotten nicer because they love us now one of the reasons we started making the show is that when you do live improv you don't get to play the same character from episode to episode. You don't get to have a personality that maintains itself over multiple shows.

There's something that's so comforting to me as an improviser and as an actor that is like the history of the character that I feel like I have created and that I can embody when I start recording. And there's something that's so great about being not only a community with you six, but also our listener community where I know that anything that I do, there's a context to it that listeners and you guys will all be like, well, this is coming from Plex history of being Plex. That's a really cool thing that I enjoy. That's true.

There aren't many improv groups out there that play the same characters for like five years. Yeah. Okay. So here's a question from a listener. What surprised you about how Mission to Zix has affected your life? Everyone named their baby horse hat, which is strange. Yeah, I named my child horse hat. Winston?

Well, I was about to get really mushy, so I don't know if anybody wants to mush it up, baby. I have to grab something. I'll be right back in order to be real mushy. Props. We love props. Speaking of props, within arm's reach, I have

a plush cube that a fan made. What? A official Ronka Cybernetics cube for C53, which I just keep on my desk because I look over there and I'm like, oh, there I am. And there's the Shane puppet. Shane puppet. When we started doing this, I feel like when we kind of selected everything, I'm like, I'm happy to be like kind of on the periphery of like playing all the characters. Right. When we all chose what characters we wanted to play, you decided initially to play only side characters. Yeah. And I feel like the more I did it, I was like, I really want to, I felt like part of it was a little bit of a

cop out. I mean, there's like a couple episodes I'm not even in, right? In the first season. Just one. Just one. And so I feel like that was all me doing what I used to do a lot, which is kind of keep things at arm's length and like whatever. But the more I started doing this show and spending time with you guys and enjoying the show and building it, you know, I had been doing improv for a long time and trying to do television writing and it's obviously a tough business. And I kind of stopped doing the television writing. And as you guys know, with this business, you're always kind of constantly like questioning, like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? Is this satisfying?

And I started thinking, like, why do I really want to do this entertainment stuff? And I'm like, because I have so many entertainment properties that make me feel so good. And when I'm feeling bad, I will retreat into them. And, and so that's why I want to make stuff, you know? And so what Zyx kind of became for me was that, like, I started to realize, like, I can keep going after these other goals, but I'm already doing exactly what I want with this show. And I got this thank you card that somebody wrote after our last live show. This guy, Zachary Koziel, thank you, Zachary. He said, the hours of humor you've provided helped my boring days at work speed by.

As I work towards a brighter future, know that you've contributed in a significant way to my endurance. Couldn't have gotten this far without you. And like to me, I was that person in a desk doing a job I didn't want to do listening to stuff. And it just was like such a full circle moment for me. So like this show has like filled so many gaps and provided me with a lot of perspective on my life and like what's important to me. And it's in really good ways taught me to stop reaching for like the brass ring or the next thing or the acclaim and just being like, no, do the thing that really satisfies you and lights you up. And that actually will give you the thing that you want. I love that. up and that actually will give you the thing that you want i love that winston you totally reminded me too of like we started meeting on tuesdays i think because i had just quit my team at the ucb because it was making me so unhappy i like hated doing improv yeah and i remember it didn't tell us that going in yeah uh but i hated it i hated being on

a team at the theater because it was like mix-ups again it was like oh yeah we're mixing up the teams like we're cutting people and it was so stressful because everyone i was on a team it was suddenly just like we're all gonna get cut or like like the whole thing about improv like totally lost its flavor because it was just about like oh but i hope you get cut but i don't get cut or you know all this stuff and i just like i quit my team like three months before all this happened and then i just would be like i'm never gonna do improv again and then it was one of those really funny things where when you reached out to me to do this we all agreed to meet on i forget it must have been like a tuesday or wednesday it was either herald night or whenever i usually rehearsed with my team or something and i was like oh i

would have never been able to do this right had i kept doing improv at the theater yeah then i got to do this with all of you and then i also got to like rediscover improv in amsterdam too and i was like oh i can love this and it not it doesn't have to be about this weird contrived... What I think I should be doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been like the most satisfying creative project I've done maybe ever.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, same. I mean, the way you guys are talking about your relationship with the show is like very much mirrors what mine was. Coming into the show, I was at a period where I had been supporting myself through music for a number of years, which was something that I on the surface was like proud of. I was touring, but also just like working in a studio.

And like, I just been at this point where I just was, I just didn't like music anymore. Do you know what I mean? Where like when you get to that point where like, I just felt creatively drained, just didn't like music anymore do you know what i mean where like when you get to that point where like i just felt creatively drained i didn't have good collaborations good relationships anymore and that in that space it just didn't give me any kind of buzz so part of the reason why i offered to like mix the first episode is i had just been in this thing where i was like i just gotta fucking do something just for fun. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. And it, it was so rewarding. I remember like working on that first episode in that period. Like I remember going out to a show with some friends and my friends were like, Oh, what have you been up to?

And I was like, Oh man, I feel like, I feel like Spider-Man. And I just discovered my powers. I was just like, diary of the mouth talking about like, it's so crazy. Like I can just discovered my powers. I was just like, diary of the mouth talking about like,

it's so crazy. Like I can just make these sounds and it's like, there's this whole new creative world that's opened up to me. It felt like I was on Molly or something. You know what I mean? Like it just, it felt so good and so creatively rewarding. And I've always like maintained that relationship with the show where I just keep it small. I don't participate a lot in the social media stuff, and that's not because of privacy.

It's about, I want to keep it just a purely creative endeavor because it's so rare to have a project where it is purely creative from your perspective and it works do you know what i mean like that never happens yeah i can't imagine anything like this coming around again but one thing that i've learned from it i've just recently been able to like do some music jobs again. And the fact that I've been like working so hard just on like making sounds for the last four years has really translated. Like now I've re-surprised myself working on music where I'm like, oh, wow, I do everything totally different now. And it's fun again.

You know what I mean? So it's been a great sort of... You're welcome. Happy to help. What was the question, Seth? What surprised you about how Mission to Zix has affected your life? It's ruined it.

I was surprised at how much it fucking ruined it. I think we have made something that is about as good as I could hope to make pretty much anything. I think the thing that surprised me is I think we're ending the show and I think we have a body of work that we can all be really proud of. I didn't think we were going to do that because I didn't have faith in us. I'm just surprised. It's cool. Also, I feel like Zix is the first thing I ever worked on that was just like,

let's do this because it's fun and let's do it well. Whereas I feel like everything at that time also I was working on, I was like, okay, this is going to be an ingenious pilot that lands me a manager. It was like, like all bad, all bad intention projects that failed rightfully.

Yeah. Yeah. I've been there. Yeah. I remember after one of the live shows, I think it was after our Littlefield live show. And I was talking to a fan. She was saying like, how do you think you can get the word out to more people? Like, we love this show so much. I just don't understand, like more people need to hear it. Like, and it has show so much. I just don't understand. Like, more people need to hear it. Like, and it has to become a TV show. And what are you hoping for it to be? And I just said, like, I'm standing in a room full of people who love this thing that we

make after performing a sold out show that was really fun. I was like, we're doing it. I said, like, i don't want anything else from this this is the best if it's something that got bigger this would be the moment we'd look back on and be like oh that was great before like glory days yeah it was just like this is doing it there's nothing that that to me is the key because i was like trying to do this and this and this i'm like i'm we're doing it yeah to answer the question i feel like the thing that has surprised me is the key because I was like trying to do this and this and this. I'm like, we're doing it. Yeah. To answer the question, I feel like the thing that has surprised me is that it's affected

so many other people. I remember early on, like we heard from a fan who said this was the first thing that made me laugh after my wife died. And I was just like, OK, this is truly reaching people. And it's still surprising to see tweets from people we'll never meet who are like, hey, love the show. Yeah. And it's just so wonderful to see the reception from the people on Discord,

the people on social media, the people that we meet all over the United States and in London. That's been so fun. That's been so crazy. That's been very crazy and wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for listening to the crazy and wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for listening to the show, everyone. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And to a lesser extent, this episode. Hal Lapland here with breaking news on a revolutionary form of entertainment, professional wrestling. For more, we go to our correspondent, Danielle Radford. Breaking news on a revolutionary form of entertainment, professional wrestling. For more, we go to our correspondent, Danielle Ranford. Professional wrestling is the craze that's sweeping the nation, featuring fisticuffs and colorful costumes. But who can help us make sense of this world of body slams?

Lindsay Kelk has the answer. Sources tell us of an amazing podcast called Tights and Fights, filled with discussions of the absurdity of professional wrestling, plus all the sincerity and hilarity that you could shake a stick at. Listen to the Tights and Fights podcast every week. Find it on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. And your old-timey radio. Radio. Hey there, I'm Ellen Weatherford. And I'm Christian Weatherford. And we've got big feelings about animals that we just gotta share.

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Jeremy bent is now recording. Ali. Jeremy Bent is now recording. Ali Kokash is now recording. Ransden Owley is now recording. Lucien Zolfagari is recording. I'm Oliver and I am now recording, recording, recording, recording.

Hey everyone, it's Seth. Thanks so much for having me on. Not that kind of podcast, Seth. Really glad we could make the old shedges line up and finally do this thing.