Unknown Studio no more

The Unknown Studio is dead. Long live whatever other stuff Adam and Scott do.

I wanted to get something done quickly for the Unknown Studio’s final podcast. Having been a guest several times, I have a respect for both Adam and Scott’s work. Plus, we’ve started a professional mini-putt team called Putt It In Me and are training for the World’s in August*.

So, I sent both Adam and Scott the same questions and here are their…ANSWERS!

Who was your favourite interview?

ADAM: For me, it was David Gerrold science fiction author, from last year’s Pure Spec (2014). David is, for me, the ink-stained wretch archetype. He clearly loves what he does, doesn’t suffer fools lightly and has opinions about everything. He’s written teleplays and novels for Star Trek, which is near and dear to me, and he wasn’t afraid to call out the BS he’s seen throughout his career.

Scott and I spent maybe an hour total of prep before the interview trying to learn about him before we interviewed him. I went in thinking we were going to make complete asses of ourselves. After the interview, David told us we were among the best journalists he’d ever spoken to — that we were really prepared and engaging. For me, it was recognition that after 5 years (at the time) of doing this, we’re actually really good at it.

SCOTT: As much fun as it is to talk with exciting people and entrepreneurs and creative types, I honestly always loved bringing our friends on the show. Whether it be our significant others (Anita and Rachel), or people near and dear to us, there’s nothing quite as enjoyable as being able to use your soapbox to elevate those you care about, and draw attention to the amazing things they’re up to. In particular, two of our season 1 episodes, Peter Daly (Edmonton Entomologist) and Jeremy Lye (Foreign Journalism) were both super popular when they first landed, and were great interviews with friends we had an easy rapport with. Right out the gate, it demonstrated we had the chops to make a great show, and we only got better.

What was your favourite episode?

ADAM: This is a really difficult question to answer. I’m so proud of everything we’ve done. Perhaps the icing on the cake for me was the last live show we did, at the end of the last season. We had some stand-up, we brought in Apocalypse Kow as our musical guest, we did an interview with Karen Unland, who’d just left Postmedia Labs to start her own venture, and we got to spend about 20 minutes talking about Star Trek (are you noticing a theme here?).

SCOTT: Wow, that’s a tough one to narrow down. The live shows, of course, were a lot of fun, and the show was always great to do LIVE! in front of an audience. Oh, and the Breakfast Television episodes! Hanging with Ryan Jespersen on set all morning, while live-blogging and podcasting, was an absolute treat.

What was your least favourite episode?

ADAM: My least favourite episode was one we recorded very early on in our first season. We spoke with two Fringers who were staging a play they’d written. Scott and I were still pretty green, and for that reason and probably others I can’t articulate, we couldn’t really sustain an interview. That episode clocked in at about 37 minutes — we cut it short because it wasn’t working. That might actually be the shortest episode in the entire catalog of our work, actually.

SCOTT: Well, early on we kept the soundscape going in the background all episode, and our second episode nearly killed a friend a mine because the droning background caused him to start dozing off on a trip to Saskatchewan. We were still figuring out how we were going to format the show, and listening back to the first few episodes is pretty cringe-worthy. Fortunately, we quickly stepped up our game.

Most embarrassing moment?

ADAM: I don’t embarrass easily, and thinking back, there isn’t anything on the Unknown Studio that makes me quake with embarrassment shivers. I’m really proud of what we’ve created here, and what we’re leaving behind.

SCOTT: You know, I don’t regret any of it. I’m very proud of what we accomplished over the years.

What’s next?

ADAM: Personally, I’m working on other projects. The Yeggies will return for a 4th year in 2016, my new podcast the Expats is ticking along nicely, and other have expressed interest in bringing me in to guest-host other shows.

And, perhaps most importantly, Scott and I are planning other potential collaborations in the future. So as we close this chapter, I think we can see many more in our near futures.

SCOTT: Well, I’m going to start churning out more episodes of my award winning podcast “Numenera: The Signal” in the new year, and maybe start working out some new ideas. There are some local folks I’d love to collaborate with on some projects going forward, and we’ll see where that all goes.

And, like Adam mentioned, we have plans. You haven’t heard the last of us.

END TRANSMISSION 

The finale will be posted on Wednesday, Dec. 23 somewhere around 9A.M. and can be found HERE.

*Nope.

Find me on Twitter @thetrentwilkie