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My name is Chris Hardwick.
I run a thing called "The Nerdist." I have shows, and I
do stand-up comedy.
Podcasting did start as a hobby for me.
I mean, a hobby, I guess, it was just a fun thing that I
wanted to do that a bunch of my stand-up friends were doing
at the time.
There aren't really a lot of outlets for stand-ups on
television anymore.
And during the comedy boom in the '80s, there were 15
stand-up shows on every channel.
And so it was a much easier way for a comedian to get his
voice in the world.
And as a comic your job is to figure out how you can get
people to come out to see you perform.
And so I started a podcast, which the other side of it was
having worked in entertainment business for so long and
feeling subjected to the whims of network executives trying
to decide whether or not I was famous enough to put on
television-- which is how a lot of television works.
They'll just, that guy's famous, put him on, whether or
not the person is qualified for the job.
I had been working in television for a long time.
And then I wasn't working as much and just decided, well,
I'm going to just do something that I love, that I can
completely control, then no one can tell me how to do.
Well, there are no excuses anymore for anyone who's like,
I don't know how to break into this business.
How do to start?
I mean, technology is cheaper than it's ever been to produce
any kind of content.
And getting it out into the world, we have these global
delivery systems in our homes.
So there's really no excuse anymore.
And it's really leveled the playing field.
I mean, as much as it used to be a top-down industry,
entertainment, where it was just the big companies would
tell you, here's what you should like.
Here's what you're going to see.
And now it's totally bottom-up.
All you have to be is just to have a good idea
and execute it well.
Or sometimes the internet, if you execute it really badly,
that actually makes it more popular.
But the idea being that the content creators have all the
control now because you make a thing and then a couple
million people see that thing.
All a sudden, people are going to take notice.
Yeah, I still have my original D&D books.
And I played in a D&D group.
We were all stand-up comedians, and everyone in the
group got busy.
The hard thing about a D&D group is
that it's like a band.
If one person doesn't show up, then it just [BLEEP]
everyone.
So our DM, who is now on Machinima is a guy named Sark,
he had a girlfriend and she was like, you really need to
focus and pick a career and do something
productive with your life.
And so he was like, I'm sorry, guys.
I can't do this anymore.
I love RPGs.
I love RPGs, and I love the SimCity-type games, as well.
Well, my favorite RPG character--
I guess the reason I still think about him is because
that his quest line, there was no closure.
Our game just ended.
I never got to go back.
He's just floating out in this other realm.
On lonely nights, I sing to the sky like "An American
Tail" with Fievel, like "Somewhere Out There." And
then he's like, "Where are you to guide me?"
He was a wizard.
His name was Blavadaine.
I named him because David Blaine was doing some
ridiculous "I'm going to bury myself in the ice" stunt that
I guess people were supposed to care about.
So that was my way of poking fun at that guy.
So I have this wizard named Blavadaine.
And he's still out there.
As far as I'm concerned, he's still out there, just waiting
to get some sort of closure, or a quest, or a date, or
something, or a sandwich.
I don't know.
He's probably very hungry.
It's been like seven years.
Gaming is toast.