This week’s guest is David Wain, a writer, director, actor, comedian, talented musician and amateur magician, among other things. He and Brett talk about getting a show to Netflix, quarantine content production, and some great Top 3 Picks.

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Transcript

David

[00:00:00] Brett:This week’s guest is David Wayne. He’s a writer, director, actor, comedian, talented musician, and aspiring magician among other things. That’s great. We’ll have you back, David,

David:always great to be back, Brett, how are you

Brett:is it like your fourth time?

David:could be, you know, I was just, I was just talking to a friend of mine that said, because people do ask me a lot to be on random podcasts and I. Basically usually say no, but when it’s somebody sort of nerdy like you I’m like yeah, of course.

Brett:Wow. Thank you. Thank you. That is a that’s an honor. Why don’t you have a podcast?

David:I haven’t gotten around to it. I will. I’m sure

Brett:feel, I feel like if there’s one thing the world needs right now, it’s another white guy doing a podcast.

David:exactly. That’s sort of the problem.

Brett:So.

David:Sort of the problem with anything I want to do these days, but

Brett:I have to think, though, if you were going to do a podcast, you would [00:01:00] do something I’m going to say it would be a clever heartwarming and slightly uncomfortable,

David:Could be. I mean, although I’ve thought about doing podcasts about. Uh, topics that are completely outside of what people think of me as you know, like using a podcast as a, as an Avenue to talk about something totally different,

Brett:but

David:you know, or do it, or do a podcast just about like Rubik’s cubing or something.

Brett:Of actual interest you or just so out there, it throws everyone off.

David:no of interest to me, but just on different slice. But then again, maybe I’m not as widely. Uh, I don’t have as much breadth as I think I do. And so it would be pointless.

Brett:All right. Well, so last time we talked, uh, what had American summer first day of camp was I think just coming out,

David:Oh, my goodness. That must been like four years ago.

Brett:this was 2015.

David:Okay. Six years ago.

Brett:Um, so w since then you’ve had your IMD peep, [00:02:00] your IMDV page, uh, lists a lot of things. I know that, uh, you did a Netflix, Netflix, what do you want to call it? A pandemic comedy thriller

David:Well, well, I mean, after that, I actually did two other things on Netflix before that made a movie, which was a biopic about, um, Doug Kenney, the founder of national Lampoon. And the maker of animal house. And then I did the wet, hot American summer 10 years later. Mini-series um, and then not too long after that, we did this show that you’re talking about called medical police, which is sort of a spinoff of our other show from adult swim children’s hospital, but is, uh, Action comedy globe trotting, mission, impossible James Bond kind of show that we made for very little money about a worldwide pandemic and two doctors who are recruited to become CIA type agents to help figure out the conspiracy.

And they have to go all over the world with guns and, and, uh, and their medical smarts and it’s [00:03:00] called medical place. But it’s very silly and funny.

Brett:and you’re released, you released it just under the wire to not be current events.

David:Correct? Yes. It was about a worldwide pandemic and we, you know, it aired on Netflix in January of 2020. Um, so timing was not great on any level,

Brett:so I know that wa uh, March, April, uh, the number one movie on Netflix was contagion

David:right?

Brett:and it showed up at like top movies on iTunes. All of these pandemic movies did, did, uh, did the. Uh,

David:Medical police. I don’t think, I don’t think we received that sort of bump. I think people didn’t, weren’t aware that, uh, of the topic of our show. I mean, it really isn’t. Um, as much, it’s not really an exploration of what a pandemic is, like as much as it is just a dumb, funny comedy. Um, and it’s a very funny, very dumb comedy and I highly recommend everyone check it out

Brett:so [00:04:00] well, okay. What is your, what’s your kind of pitch?

David:to watch the show. Um,

Brett:I, I get what it’s about. I get the, I get the

David:I would say, well, I would give you two, I’ll give you two pitches. One is if you’re at Austin, no you with any of my previous work, whether it’s wet, hot American summer or role models or children’s hospital or the state or anything like that, then you will definitely, definitely love this show.

It’s a great. Addition to the Canon of very, of a very specific comedic sensibility that, uh, you will like if you liked any of those things. I just mentioned on the other hand, if you’re not familiar and also if you ever saw the show children’s hospital, this is a direct spin-off of that with the same characters.

Um, if you’re not familiar with any of that, I still recommended on this regard, which is to say, um, it’s a uniquely funny, very fast paced. Fun to watch 10 episode action comedy series with a one storyline that takes [00:05:00] you in a suspenseful way from beginning to end, um, where you’re kind of involved in the storyline as well as being, you know, entertained with comedy from beginning to end and, um, is also got an incredible all-star cast, including Henry Winkler.

And, um, I mean, there’s just a.

Brett:Chris pine was in her, right?

David:Chris pine is the wet hot

Brett:hot American summer. That’s right.

David:Um, but it’s, it’s a, it’s an incredible ensemble cast and it’s a Jason Schwartzman. Isn’t it. And it’s, it’s um, it’s fun for anybody who likes anything funny.

Brett:yeah, I binged it right after it came out and I thought. Oh, he doesn’t need to hear from some random podcasts or who, who enjoyed the show, but I did enjoy the show

David:I’m glad. I’m glad you checked it out. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It got great reviews. It did not do great in terms of people watching it, a lot of them, but you know, whatever.

Brett:Yeah. So how, what goes into, uh, okay, [00:06:00] so it wasn’t a smash hit. It didn’t make anyone millions of dollars,

David:Well, of course, on Netflix, they, you never really find out any specific numbers. Anyway. That you just sort of goes on and then that’s the end of it, even if it does well. Um, but they probably would’ve ordered another, another series if they loved it, if it did really well, which it did.

Brett:So how do you get a show from, from your laptop ideas sketches to a Netflix show? Like what’s the process there?

David:well, I’m sure for every show, it’s a very different answer. Um, I could certainly answer in the case of this one, we had, there’s four of us that created this show together. Um, and we created it as an idea of how can we. We had ended children’s hospital in 2013 and we wanted to find, figure out a way to, we missed it and we missed the cast and we missed the, the whole group of, of creative people that worked together on it.

[00:07:00] And we also missed the world that we had created, but we also felt like the show we had done for seven seasons on adult swim, which was a 15 minute. Hospital drama, hospital comedy in the form of a drama, um, had done it was done. And what could we do that was new and different, but kept what we loved. And so we just brainstormed for awhile, um, sitting in the backyard and ultimately landed on this idea of doing what I described this bigger palette action, half hour long comedy that has a.

Uh, a much wider scope to it. Um, and, and, and the children’s hospital as a joke kept mentioning, Oh, by the way, this is all takes place in Brazil. And then we decided in the medical police to open that up in a real way and actually make it feel like it really was in Brazil at least to start. And then it goes all over the world during the series.

Anyway. So to answer your question, [00:08:00] we brainstormed it and then we pitched it to the. Production company, which was Warner brothers that we had done children’s hospital with. They liked it. And then we wrote a script. I’m trying to remember now that was, um, that was passed on by another network. I can’t remember who he wrote it for.

Um, and then w w even though. Uh, that happened after that, we were able to make a deal. Warner brothers studio was able to make a deal with Netflix to, to make the show for, for a certain price. And so it doesn’t sound very glamorous or fun of a story, but that’s how, that’s how that came to be in terms of going from idea to Greenlight.

And it was everything I just said was like three years going, like it was not [00:09:00] a quick process by any stretch.

Brett:So once you, once Netflix picked it up, then you go straight into production. Like you, you are the producer on that show, right?

David:I’m the producer. I mean, basically the four of us that I mentioned, we were all producers and myself and Chris Johnson, Johnson and Rob Corddry. And, uh, we each did different. You know, we had different sort of specialties. John stern was also more than nuts and bolts production company that, that got the thing done in a certain way.

Um, but yeah, essentially once we got a green light, the four of us started to hire people, uh, look at, start figuring out casting and then start writing. We had, we had written the pilot, which was the first of the 10 episodes. And now we had to write the rest of the 10 episode long story, which we really didn’t have any clue of when we wrote the pilot really.

Um, and so we really had to, we got, uh, writers together in a room and put up a bunch of index cards and a ton of [00:10:00] Google docs and just started piece by piece, trying to, um, assemble what is essentially a five-hour long movie. Um, and then at the same time, trying to figure out how we’re going to shoot it because we didn’t have, we had the budget of essentially a public access show to shoot a big wide scale action story.

And so called on a lot of my experience and all of our experience too. Um, Find all the tricks in the book too, to make one location, look like 20 and to make our backyard look like Africa and on and on and on. And we ended up figuring out a way to shoot a quarter of it in, uh, Croatia, uh, for very little.

And that was an amazing experience. We were there for 10 days of shooting, um, and it gave the whole show a ton of production value to, to shoot there. And it was really fun.

Brett:so how many people, uh, [00:11:00] I guess how many writers were there?

David:well, it was really the four of us that did a lot of the writing. And then we had, um, this room of, I guess I think it was probably four other writers that were with us for a limited time. Um, and so they helped us brainstorm and they wrote some drafts and then we came and we did a lot of, we did the four of us did the work of figuring out everything before and after the writer’s room.

Um,

Brett:it were a huge budget show, how many writers would there be? Just for comparison.

David:Oh, I think on a show like this, probably at least 10, if not more and much more importantly, all of whom would be on for much longer. Um, and so we basically, yeah, we, we got everything we could out of these talented people we hired, but they were really only there for a relatively short time.

Brett:so did everyone get paid? Like, was this a good experience, whether it was a huge smash hit for downloads or not? What did everyone come out?

David:Well, I mean, everyone got [00:12:00] paid a salary to do the work. It was, nobody got paid. What you would think of is, I mean, you know, working in television is very, there’s great variance and it’s all relative. Uh, you certainly get paid better than doing a lot of real quote normal jobs. Um, uh, But compared to pretty much any other TV show, anything like this, we probably were right on the bottom scale of what everybody got paid, but it’s okay.

I mean, certainly no complaints from me or anybody on that. And a lot of people though, that we had worked with on other things like children’s hospital and other shows couldn’t do this because the pay was too low and we understood, you know, that’s just, this is just, this was one of those crazy shows where we’re like, We’re trying to shove a square peg of this show into this budget, which is not the best way to work.

Normally I’m usually try to get the budget. You need to properly make the show. Um, but [00:13:00] often it’s the opposite. They’re like, here’s the number, make it work. And so that’s what we did. And a lot of peoples were like, you know what? This just doesn’t work for me, money wise. And we’re like, we get it and then find somebody else.

But, um, at the end of the day, everyone who worked on it did it. Largely, you know, at least in part, because they just enjoyed this experience and this group of people. And, um, so it was, it was a joy.

Brett:can you give me one example of a trick that you dug deep and pulled out to, uh, uh, to, to make something look bigger budget than it was?

David:Sure. Well, um, there’s so many, but for example, the show takes place in part in the sense that it begins and ends in Brazil at the home based hospital. Um, And then there’s one episode that takes place in China. Um, and so we’ve, we [00:14:00] realized that. You know, when you’re making a TV show, when you’re moving locations from one to another, that costs money and time that we didn’t have for the most part.

Um, and so we had to limit the number of different locations you could shoot in LA a lot. We couldn’t. In fact, I think we only did four total. Um, and so we found a hospital that was in Chinatown. In LA so that we, and in fact, literally right out the back parking, lot of the hospital was the edge of the touristy Chinatown district.

And so that was a way that we were able to, without even moving one vehicle. Be able to shoot China and stuff and hospital stuff all at once. Um, and then we would, we did all the tricks in the book. We redressed rooms in the hospital to be different scenes from every episode we w we also shoot bits and pieces of every episode every day, um, in order to amortized [00:15:00] costs and, you know, keep everything together.

So we never have to go return to a location. Um, And we just faked every which way we would shoot. Sometimes many times we’d have a scene where we had an actor talking to another actor, but the one actor was in LA and the other actor was in Croatia. So we didn’t have to fly anybody one, one direction or the other.

Um, and we did a ton of things with VFX and where, you know, we, we were, for example, I mean on most shows, do this now more and more, but every time anyone got in a car, uh, we just put up a screen behind them. So we didn’t have to do any green screen or anything. And you would just see the, the background moving and get it all done, you know, in one day.

Uh, and, and, and just basically, we, we, we wouldn’t find a location unless we could shoot, shoot it to look like 10 different locations.

Brett:sure. It sounds like a [00:16:00] lot of planning, like in the, in the writer’s room, once you have the script, do you end up then like dissecting it to try to figure out the most effective way to shoot everything?

David:Yeah, well, that’s that’s me. And in this case, there was another director, bill Benz, um, working with, um, our first day D Doug, who, and first assistant director. And that’s his job too. Take the material, break it into pieces and then start the puzzle. And the puzzle involves not just locations, but, uh, actor availabilities, which is huge when you’re not paying people, because then you’re not their first priority.

And so you have to take actors whenever they’re available. Um, and also working with, you know, a million different factors and. Moving it around like a jigsaw puzzle until you’ve got a board that makes sense. And then of course, in a show like this, then when you’re done, you’re like, okay, but then when are we going to shoot the rest of it?

And you’re like, well, fit that in there too. Somehow in the, in the very [00:17:00] short shoot schedule, a typical show like this on a sort of in the real way to do it. W each of these episodes would probably be, I don’t know, eight to 10 days shoot. And we did each of these in four days.

Brett:so with a show like this for a service like Netflix, do you get a deadline or is it you just turn it over when it’s ready?

David:No, we had a deadline. We had, I mean, we had a deadline, both for just what we agreed on with Netflix. And also if we went any over schedule, we also ran out of money.

Brett:Uh, yeah, that makes

David:So yeah, we definitely were racing the whole time, but we knew it, you know, it was. I think with all these things, I learned this on my first movie.

If you look at these things, literally like a puzzle, like a game or like a video game, instead of something that gets stressed out about then that’s how you’d get through it. And, um, that, so that’s, that’s, that’s what, we’re what I try to do mentally.

Brett:so was it fun?

[00:18:00] David:It was mostly really fun. I mean, you know, sometimes.

Obviously, I, you know, I would get stressed just like in any job. Um, but I also got very sick during parts of it. Weirdly. I, I, there were a couple of days that I had to leave early and somebody else had to fill in while we, uh, it was, it was a grueling amount of work, but, um, for the most part, it was super fun.

It was playing, you know, making comedy with friends and running around and coming up with funny ideas and. And, uh, and also, as I said, the travel to Croatia was just a really cool experience.

Brett:awesome. So aside from a movie and a TV show and all of the things that you’ve published, kind of in the, we’ll say commercial world. Since lockdown, you’ve been doing a crazy amount of content creation on Tik TOK. I think I saw your stuff on YouTube, but I think it was maybe from Vimeo.

David:Well, I [00:19:00] would say it’s the original content, right? Tend to put out as on Instagram or tick top on. And I guess it’s on my YouTube too. It’s all sort of doubled on YouTube and Instagram, but then Tik TOK kind of has its own set of things. But I mean, I’m not nearly just to be clear, like not even close to as, uh, productive in terms of making stuff as so many people are.

Um, I don’t have a YouTube channel that I’m pumping out stuff all the time or every day, but I have, I have been just keeping busy.

Brett:know it’s not polite, but you are 50 years old. And I don’t think anyone, I think the amount of content you put out is, um, very respectable for someone who is even older than I am.

David:Well, let me.

Brett:Tik TOK. Okay.

David:I guess it’s all just where you put your emphasis. I mean, I, I have two kids at home who don’t go to school, you know, they have on zoom school. Um, and you know, the lockdown has its mental [00:20:00] toll as to the election. Um, and I went through some other personal things this year. And so, yeah, it was, uh, juggling all that with trying to figure out how to make a living.

Uh, and in many ways the making little videos. Wow. Was a little bit of a respite for me, an outlet or something fun to do that, um, gave me some pleasure, uh, during these challenging times and, and, uh, uh, which has kind of always been the case. That’s, that’s how I had to fund when I was 11. And it still is when I’m 51.

Um, so one of the things that happened during the, when the lockdown first began, I saw all this. Kind of unstructured time in front of me. And for the, I said, I’m going to just start making coverup songs on like playing the drums and getting my friends to do different parts and with absolutely no thought as to whether there [00:21:00] would be any reason to do.

I mean, I, to this day I ended up making 17 of these covers so far and they’re gone Instagram people like them, but that’s it, you know, there’s no, um, There’s no financial backend for me doing this in any way. And it’s not really what I do, but I have a blast and people seem to like them and that’s the end of it, you know?

And that seems to be a lot of what social media is these days. It’s just, it’s just for its own sake here. I did this. Here you go. Okay. Next.

Brett:the cover songs are great. There’s a lot of, uh, there’s a lot of energy and love in those, the, the, the series that was most, um, I guess, most intriguing to me in a, in a very kind of weird way was the, if they sucked kind of series that you

David:what if they sucked? Yeah. I bet you want me to say what that

Brett:yeah, I’ll let you explain.

David:Uh, basically, uh, it just says there, I think I made like [00:22:00] six of them. I take a band that I love from the old days, and I say, I love this band, but what if they sucked? And then I have a video of one of their famous songs, but I’ve taken apart all the pieces of the video and shifted them around.

I mean of the S the music and I’ve shifted them around just enough. So it sounds awful, like, so it makes you want to kill yourself when you listen to it.

Brett:right. But like the ACDC want, especially some of, some of the, like the, the lyrics will start in. On a beat, but it’ll be two beats early

David:Right, right.

Brett:you won’t immediately be like, Oh, well that’s off. It’ll just feel like the Joan Jett one was way more. Yes, no worries. And

David:Yeah. They’re they, they vary in levels of obviousness, but yeah, it just, it’s just taking and sometimes if you, but the subtle ones will bug you even more, sometimes in a funny, in a fun way. Yeah. If you just take like the vocal track and move it a quarter of a second [00:23:00] early on any song, and it’s just like, Oh God, I can’t do this.

And it’s, it’s really fun.

Brett:so are, while you’re doing that, are you, I’m trying to imagine what your face is like, are you very serious? Like trying to perfect the imperfection or are you laughing the whole time?

David:Both. I mean, I always, you know, I have very, uh, selective ability to focus depending on what I’m doing, but when I’m sort of dicking around with that kind of thing, video editing on the computer, I can just. Twiddle with it for hours and hours without ever even remembering to go to the bathroom or anything.

Um, so many other things that I have to do, it takes a lot for me to sit down and focus. Um, but I love doing those little weird experiments. So like, what if I could do this? You know, I just started a new thing on Tik TOK where I’m. Playing on the piano songs from the nineties that I never [00:24:00] heard of that most people have.

And just looking at the lyrics and chords and seeing what comes out, because I do that for my kids. Sometimes at night, they’re like play this song and I’m like, I don’t know the song. And I’m like, well, they just played, played anyway. And then what comes out is so disastrous. And so try to

Brett:I would have enjoyed those videos more if I had ever heard the original original songs,

David:right there. Definitely. That’s why, that’s why they’re on Tik TOK.

Brett:I would have to go look up the original, listen to that, and then go back and hear your version of it to

David:Yeah. Not, not, not worth it.

Brett:So you’ve also, uh, you’ve been getting into magic. How long has that been going on?

David:Magic has been always since I’m five years old or younger even, um, definitely been sort of an ongoing, uh, obsession that comes and goes and how completely dominant is in my life. But. It’s been now maybe 15 years that I really stepped it up. I just started really studying [00:25:00] cards and wanting to, wanting to get good and understand it again, just really for my own enjoyment.

I, I don’t have any particular professional outlet for it, but I, uh, I practice all the time. I just am learning moves and effects and, and. Subtleties and just studying and reading. It’s just a hobby. It’s something I enjoy.

Brett:what’s your favorite trick

David:Oh my well, um, I don’t know. I’m just I’m I, I just, I just actually bought a trick that you can like buy offline that I really have been having fun with called a killer in Manila.

Um, where you, uh, give somebody a deck of cards and they can pick anyone they want and they sign the card. And then very clearly put it back in the deck, shuffle the deck, spread it out. And the whole time they are holding this envelope that you have, [00:26:00] and then you open up the envelope and inside is a smaller envelope.

And inside the smaller envelope is the card that they just signed. That’s pretty cool.

Brett:nice. Um, my friend Victor Gretta Jr. Uh, does, uh, uh, Instagram, I think it did it on Instagram. Where he would like a demo, some of the famous tricks you could buy and kind of explain, uh, explain the trick, not how it’s done. He wasn’t like giving away magician secrets or anything, but like kind of demoing classic magic tricks.

It was fun to watch.

David:Well, the magic review, uh, space on social media has exploded in the last few years. There’s many, many magic trick review channels, and it’s a fun little subculture to pay attention to. Okay.

Brett:Oh, well, uh, I’ll have to look that up for the show notes. What else has kept you sane aside from content creation and, and missing your shooting schedule and having kids at home?

What’s your, what’s your go-to [00:27:00] uh, Saturday measure.

David:I mean, I’ve just been doing kind of the classic stuff. I’ve tried to meditate. I’ve been playing tennis. I, uh, tried to do get some yoga here and there. I tried to turn off my screens and spend time with human beings and animals as much as I can. I know you’re into animals. Um, but, uh, you know, it’s just been, um, I try to really connect with my friends, uh, in ways that I can.

Um, but it’s challenging. It’s been a tough year, I think for everybody in different ways everyone’s been dealt different versions of horror this year.

Brett:I assume you played tennis in person with people. Do you do yoga over zoom?

David:Uh, yes. Or just by myself. Yes. Um,

Brett:You’re your own personal practice.

David:Well, I mean, or I just like go do a YouTube like this morning, I did a YouTube yoga for 10 minutes, you know, don’t get too impressed when I was in my I’m I’m, as we mentioned more than once 51 years [00:28:00] old, but in, uh, in my twenties, uh, I was into Ashtanga yoga in my mid twenties for a very short time.

But for that period, I was going six days a week for 90 minutes session. Um, Yeah, unguided yoga, insanity. And I was in great shape, but it kind of was the only thing in my life.

Brett:sick, 90 minutes, six days a week. Wow.

David:it was. And then, you know, and then going and coming back, you know, I was unemployed at the time, um, as I am now, but I couldn’t do that again.

Brett:Wow. Yeah. I love yoga. I’ve been doing yoga for years and I could never, I could never imagine even I don’t eat. I do one hour, three to five times a week.

David:That’s massive. Yeah. But that’s great. I mean that, that’s all you need. That’s wonderful. You must be in great shape.

Brett:I, I have gained weight over the last year.

David:Yeah.

Brett:I’m not super sect about, but I’m also [00:29:00] kinda, it is what it is. This is what my body is society to be. I’ve maintained my flexibility. I, I feel good. So yeah, I’m

David:Yeah, that’s feeling good is definitely better than looking good.

Brett:Yup.

David:Despite what Fernando used to say on Saturday night, live.

Marker

Brett: What’s the first thing you’re going to do once, uh, once things get back to a semi-open state, like what’s what got put on hold that you can’t wait to get back to you.

David:Um, there’s so many things, uh, and of course the, the road back is going to be so gradual and slow. I don’t think there’s, you know, we all know it’s not going to be like, everything’s open now. Um, but I would say going to the movies, going to the theater are big ones, both for me also, um, going to live music, going dancing.

I mean, not that I do these things that often, but I would say [00:30:00] also just like freely congregating with my friends is probably number one, just to like hang out friends, you know? And then. Um, also just other things I like to do that I haven’t been able to do or this whole time play squash, for example. Um, we have a, we’re a weekly Frisbee game we do with, with, uh, families.

They’re like an ultimate Frisbee game. That’s been on hold for a long time and, um, yeah, just normal life and end. Just the, I mean the biggest one in my life by far is having my children be able to go to school. Um, which will affect them and me very enormously.

Brett:I, I will say that. I don’t know you well, but I did not expect your answer to be sports and partying.

David:Well, I guess maybe that’s twit since that’s the first thing that came to mind. Maybe that’s where my true art is.

Brett:Oh, very revealing. All right.

David:It’s not sports, it’s not watching sports. [00:31:00] Certainly.

Brett:okay. Here’s a random question for you. What would you say your sense of humor was in middle school or junior high, depending on your school curriculum?

David:identical.

Brett:Yeah.

David:I mean, I know it is because people who knew me back then, who I still talk to will tell me that. And I just know, I mean, I’ve sort of in many ways, I I’ve, I’ve largely spent my professional career and just my adulthood just honing the sense of humor I had when I was 12.

Brett:what, uh, what TV shows, where, what, what comedic TV shows were, uh, kind of top of. Top of list for you? Middle school, high school age.

David:It was really Woody Allen movies and Steve Martin specials from NBC that I watched on beta max over and over and over. Um, and I mean, I [00:32:00] also watched Saturday night live reruns a lot and, uh, SCTV, but, um, It was, it was those twin poles of Woody Allen and Steve Martin that just sort of got in my craw, I think

Brett:all right. All right. Yeah. I asked, cause I was at that age, I was watching. Like the state and kids in the hall and, uh, yeah, I’m 10 years younger than you. Um, so I was just wondering what you were watching

David:Yeah. I mean, SCTV was the one that I watched and was like, that was the most direct mirror of like, I want to do that and then ended up trying to do that. And I think when we arrived at this, doing the state in our early twenties, I felt like we all came to it with a certain. Idea of what kind of thing we wanted to emulate.

And for some, it was more specifically money Python and more specifically SNL or something. For me, it was [00:33:00] SCTV I’m like those guys look like they were just like in the middle of, you know, out, outside the mainstream of anything, just dicking around and having a blast and being so funny. And I was just like, that’s, that sounds great to me.

Marker

Brett:All right. So since the last time you were here, I have stopped doing my own top three picks. We only talk about your top three

David:Cause you ran out.

Brett:I did, I did a few years of a few years of three picks a week. Uh, I, I did. I think I picked everything.

David:I feel like that’s very that’s. I don’t know. I think you’re being lazy.

Brett:here’s the thing is I keep a few in my back pocket,

David:Yeah.

Brett:so I’ll, I’ll slip them in where, but I don’t have an official, these are my three.

David:I mean, Tim Ferriss figures that out every week. No offense.

Brett:I never claimed not to be lazy.

David:Um, by the way, I’m reading off my list, uh, in [00:34:00] envy, ultra.

Brett:You want to say anything nice about NBA ultra.

David:Yeah, that’s going to be my bonus. I’m going to say it right now, which is that, um, I waited for, what was it like 14, 15 years for you to finally get this stupid thing out and then now, but now that it’s here, I love it. It’s uh, it is my daily everything.

Brett:that the beta is here. It’s still not commercially available

David:And how long has it been in beta?

Brett:a year, at least now

David:Might say more? I’d say too.

Brett:is that, is that, yeah, it’s not my fault at this point. Like the guy Fletcher, penny, who I am partnered up with on this project, he’s also an ER, doctor. And yeah, he, he’s an ER doctor and he’s in the middle of adopting a child.

And, uh, while he loves NBA ultra, and we have like, we’re absolutely going to finish it. His schedule tends to be, um, a little more hit and miss [00:35:00] than mine does.

David:And there’s no one to delegate to.

Brett:Uh, no, there are there. Each of us have parts of it that can’t go on without us. And

David:I get it.

Brett:if he were to die, if something were horrible were to happen to him, I would be in trouble

David:God forbid.

Brett:NBA ultra would be in trouble.

So thoughts and prayers let’s keep it going.

David:Um, well I’m honored to be among the beta testers then. And, uh, I honestly would not be happy without it. I would figure something out, but, uh,

Brett:to hear. I, I w I w I would hate to you, I would hate to be so indispensable that you risked losing anything if I failed.

David:Well, that’s part of the design of NBA ultra is that it’s not a Roach motel. Um, anyway, good job. Uh, all right. Do you want to hear some other things?

Brett:Yeah, let’s hear your first pick.

David:First pick is five years late, but. [00:36:00] None, none the wiser, the TV show, the leftovers. Um, I just watched the entire three seasons in the last couple of weeks. Um, and what can I say?

It’s it shot up to my top five favorite shows of all time. I would say

Brett:What is it about? I don’t think I’ve seen this.

David:it’s it was an HBO show starring Justin Thoreau. Um, about a moment in 2000, in 2012, 2%. Of the entire world’s population disappeared without explanation. And the show is literally about the aftermath of that event and how this well, the main character is the, is a local sheriff in a town in New Jersey, but then it goes from there into the most unexpected, unpredictable places.

But it’s. An amazing, amazing TV show that does everything you wanted it to be showing. It keeps you on your toes the entire [00:37:00] time. It’s always surprising. It’s always interesting. It’s always thought provoking. It’s always fun to watch

Brett:I think when I saw the original trailers for this, I was worried that it was a left behind situation.

David:in terms of what

Brett:you ever see left behind or read those books? I grew up in a very fundamentalist home where this series called left behind about like the rapture. It’s this like fictional fictionalized idea of like half of the world disappears one day because they got called back into heaven.

David:right, right.

Brett:like the life of the poor sinners left behind. It was, uh, it, yeah, I have, I have scarring from, from that

David:there are people, there are characters in this show that think that’s what this is or what, or what it might’ve been. Um, or that it’s discussed by some in the show. But one of the things that’s so interesting about it is they never say what happened or why. Um, and they never quite, it’s [00:38:00] never quite a lot of people.

Are exploring or trying to figure out, or there’s people who feel like they’ve gone into some other side or, but, but it’s entirely grounded story. There’s nothing in it that indicates anything magic or supernatural happened, except for this one thing that has no explanation.

Brett:is the series over now.

David:okay. Yeah. It was only three years on, um, HBO and it was one of those shows sorta like the Americans that just didn’t get the, the kudos it was supposed to, it was just so.

Under scene. Um, but it was for anyone who discovered it, they’re like, yeah, this is like, are you kidding me? This should win every award. There is.

Brett:so just asking as someone who is likely to binge it, does it have a satisfying ending?

David:Yes. It’s got a great ending. Did you see the Americans?

Brett:I didn’t

David:Oh, another SIM similar in that it’s one of those shows that not enough people saw and it’s just so satisfying. And the Americans after seven seasons, I think [00:39:00] has one of the greatest, last episodes of any show I’ve ever seen.

Brett:duly noted.

David:And that I remember watching.

The last episode of the Americans on my laptop under the blankets. Cause I was in a hotel room with my kids while they were sleeping in some ranch in Colorado and crying my eyes out.

Brett:Wow. All right. All right. That’s two shows I have to binge now.

David:okay. The next one, you ready for? The next one?

Brett:sir.

David:It’s a band, uh, called hello forever. Um, And a friend of mine found, sort of discovered this somewhere. And we just started listening to all of their music and they have some videos and stuff, but it’s the music to me. That’s just so they’re from Topanga, California, and they have this sort of, um, hard to describe, uh, [00:40:00] sensibility where it feels sort of it’s so gloriously happy in a certain way.

Uh, in a way that you feel very needful of these days. Um, it has a very optimistic flavor to it, but it’s also not simple music. It’s, it’s complex and it’s very kitchen sinky. Anyway, it’s got a lot of stuff going on. Um, and I think there’s a ton of people in the band, um, and I’m just really enjoying watching them.

They, I think they’re relatively new on the scene. Uh, and I think they just have one album out and they’re great. Okay,

Brett:came out in 20, 20

David:there you go.

Brett:rough time to rough, rough time to tour after an album release.

David:Yeah. I think, you know, I have a lot of friends who make their living entirely by being actors on stage and on Broadway, you know, that’s just, there’s still no real roadmap as to how that comes back or when [00:41:00] among many I’m among a million other things that can happen right now.

Brett:Okay. What’s your third pick?

David:The VR game 11, um, which is why I have it on the Oculus quest. And it is as close to an actual replication of a real life game as I’ve ever seen. And it’s a, it’s a table tennis game, um, and the physics and the movement and the whole way it works. You.

I just don’t know that there’s that much difference between that and really playing table tennis. And except for that, you can play anytime 24 seven with anyone in the world. And, um, You can also practice on, you know, it’s just, it’s really fun. And I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had it on my Oculus quest for, since I’ve had the Atlas quest for almost a year, but I have just recently started to become [00:42:00] truly obsessed with it.

And I even bought on Etsy a little handle so that it makes my VR controller feel exactly like a, uh, a ping pong paddle, um, and, uh, It’s really fun. You just go on any time and there’s always someone there who will play with you and you can say hello, and then you can just try your hardest. And I’m pretty much not.

I’m usually lose. And so I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, which is fun.

Brett:this is you are the third guest in the last three months in the second guest in a row to talk about the Oculus quest. And every time I hear about it, I’m a little more inclined to try one out.

David:Um, ch I can’t believe you, you you’re waiting.

Brett:I’m not, I’m not, uh, I don’t play a lot of video games.

David:I don’t either. I’ve never been, I don’t, I’m not a gamer. In fact, my kids broke me down and we finally got a PS five in this house, and I’m not even interested in, I’m not going to turn it on, but [00:43:00] the quest is kind of a different world.

Brett:yep. That’s one, one more, one more straw.

David:I also enjoy the another thing I really like on quest is that I get connected to friends that I otherwise can’t see even, you know, whether it’s geographical or quarantine reasons. Um, I’ll I get a text from somebody like, Hey, you wanna play around a mini golf? And then yeah, let’s go. And then we just get to chat for 20 minutes and play a game and then we’re done, you know?

Brett:Yeah, that’s actually really nice.

David:Yeah.

Brett:Cause it’s a pain to like, just, Hey, do you want to have a zoom call and just sit and look at each other and talk

David:Right. Exactly. Well, there’s a, um, there’s two very distinct genres. I think of things on the, on VR games in general, there’s this super noisy like, um, you know, uh, electric, Daisy, carnival inspired. Insane in your face games, which are most of them. And then there’s a [00:44:00] big growing slice of just like relaxing games, um, like mini golf and table tennis.

And they’re really fun.

Brett:awesome. Yeah, I really I’ll wait until my next paycheck, but I’m going to have to check this out. Cause I’ve heard about it. I’ve heard about it from multiple people who aren’t real, who are in no way, like gamers.

David:Right. It’s definitely the game system for the rest of us. Um, and I think that for me, when we shut down and I saw that my kids aren’t going to leave the house for very long stretches of time. That’s when I was like, screw it. This is happening. And, uh, you know, there are there also. There’s movies and other three 60 experiences that you can have on the quest where you get us feeling like you’re somewhere else, which is kind of nice,

Brett:So where should people look for you?

David:I mean, the best [00:45:00] sort of central thing is David wayne.com w a I N. Um, and then from there you can find my Instagram and Tik TOK and whatever the hell else I’m trying to do these days,

Brett:all the things. Awesome.

David:things, um, always great to check in with you. Yeah. Um,

Brett:me posted on, uh, on how things go with NBA ultra. Your feedback is important to us.

David:I do, I do post feedback all the time.

Brett:Yeah, you’re awesome.

Marker

David:Um, but what any other new software stuff coming?

Brett:Oh, well, I, I P I w I went down this rabbit hole. I wrote this app called bunch.

David:Yeah.

Brett:is like, uh, like batch automation for Macs. Uh, like you can, you can write a text file and just. Write out the names of five different apps. And when you click the bunch, it’ll launch those five apps, but it can also quit apps or launch apps in groups at delays, run commands, like turn on, do [00:46:00] not disturb or switch to dark mode.

Like you can do all of this with just a text file. And, and you just have a bunch of textiles in a directory and it gives you a menu up in your menu bar, you click it and you get a list of all the bunches that you have set up and you click one and it runs. And I got a little, a little insane with, with expanding on that. It’s it’s bordering on unhealthy right now. it was awesome for a, for a while. And I got a lot of, uh, I got a lot of users and a lot of people were offering me feedback and even sending donations cause I put it up for free. but then I, I don’t know. I, the last week I feel like I created more bugs than I have time to fix, but it’s become an obsession.

Like I lose sleep over these bugs I’ve created.

David:I get it. We all go down those rabbit holes. I don’t know that I, I don’t know that I’m itching for that [00:47:00] use case for that particular app, but I know that there are people that would probably

Brett:Yeah.

David:just like, I don’t do enough things regularly to have systems like that. Not for the same thing.

Brett:See, and now, now, like my instinct is how can I make this useful for David Wayne?

David:dope. Try just, I dare you to try.

Brett:my addiction

David:Did you, um, do you do sorted,

Brett:sorted.

David:I saw that you mentioned on your website once the, um,

Brett:Oh, the sorted cubed task manager. Um, I, no, I didn’t do that.

David:no. I mean, did you, have you tried it or do

Brett:Oh, I’ve I’ve, I’ve opened it and played with it enough to, to feel comfortable giving a recommendation for it.

David:I think I tried it and I think it doesn’t work for me.

Brett:No.

David:It’s too weird, but I do still think there’s a, there’s a, there’s still a hole or they could fix it maybe, but I think a good time blocking software that [00:48:00] is easier to use than sorted or more straightforward would be better. Okay.

Brett:define time-blocking. Uh,

David:For example, what I’ve been doing lately is I, I, you know, occasionally I like to. To look at tomorrow and say, okay, minute by minute. Here’s here’s the plan. And so, you know, I’m going to work on this thing for 20 minutes. I’m going to do this for 45 minutes and blah, blah, blah. Just so I feel like I have structure when I don’t actually have structure and sorted is exactly designed for that, but it’s, I don’t, I just don’t like the way it works in almost any way.

Um, and.

Brett:And this week sponsor.

David:Well, there you go. But then, and then fantastic. I’ll Cal is closer in terms of just being a simple calendar program where you can, what I like about the concept is you’re taking your tasks for the day and your calendar items, and they’re in one place in one [00:49:00] view, you know, cause your tasks, all tasks take time.

And so, but some, some tasks are tasks that are truly. You know, they have to get done, but if they don’t get done, when you’re planning on it, it’s fine. And others are like really calendar items that are like, it’s something’s happening or it’s not on that moment. So seeing it all in one place is so much better.

And so like, this is what’s missing from something like things, but works in just a calendar app, like Fantastica, where you can then see your reminders in there. Um, but it’s still not really designed for that kind of time-blocking and it’s still. It’s th th th somebody could make one that’s really works for this particular way of thinking, which I know a lot of people do and they would get my money.

Brett:right. If anyone listening has a suggestion or wants to take on the project, you know where to find us.

David:Thank you.

Brett:Yeah, I, I don’t like, I like [00:50:00] my task lists to be a little more abstract. I tried like, actually like writing out today’s tasks on a calendar and saying, I’m going to do this for an hour and this for an hour and this for an hour and this for an hour, even though they didn’t have due dates and they weren’t time-sensitive and it did not work for my brain at all.

David:You gotta do what works for your brain. That’s number one rule.

Brett:uh, that’s for me, that’s the only rule

David:Yeah, true.

Brett:I absolutely cannot. I cannot make my brain do things. It doesn’t want to do

David:Well, I realized after a while of proselytizing to a lot of people, about a lot of things that, you know, everyone is so different in the way their brains working. You cannot overlay your system on somebody else. And when I let go of that, it made my whole way of working with people and living with people much easier.

Brett:Did it make it harder for you to listen to other people sell like their, their, uh, like market. They S this idea that they can [00:51:00] fix people if you use their system.

David:well, to be honest, I was the biggest one who was doing that all the time in my world. So no one was ever as loud as me. And so when I shut up, I just, there was nice, quiet.

Brett:went silent. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, good talking to you.

David:Listen, always a pleasure and, uh, you know, try me again in, uh, 20, 26.

Brett:2026. We’ll we’ll get you your, uh, your fifth, fifth episode jacket.

David:I feel like we’ll be, we’ll be just grounding the end of COVID 19. And that’ll be a good time to talk about how we’re going to move on with life at that point.

Brett:okay. Are you ready for a COVID 20?

David:Yeah. Every so often though. I, yeah, every so often I just pull up your website cause I know there’s going to be something that’s going to be like, Oh, that’ll, that’s, that’s a rabbit hole. I’m going to go down.

Yeah.

[00:52:00] Brett:All right. Well, I will, uh, talk to you again soon.

David:I want, I want to say one thing to you, to your listeners directly to them, not to you. I hope that all of you have a great day. That’s it.

Brett:All right.

Exposure-suspicion Bias