Transcriber: Rowan (unikirin#7961) [0:00:00~0:12:00] & Bri (@oldfashionedcyborg) [0:12:00~0:44:00] Nell#1270 [0:44:00~1:25:45] mo#3373 [1:25:45 - 2:52:46]
[00:00:00] AUSTIN: Welcome to Friends at the Table. An actual play podcast focused on critical world building smart characterization and fun interaction between good friends. I actually meant to say, Live at the Table, but that's okay. We're just gonna roll with it. I'm your host, Austin Walker. Find me on Twitter @austin_walker. Where can people find you, Keith?
KEITH: Uh, you can find me on Twitter @keithjcarberry. You can find the let's plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton. And you should mark in your calendars. April 28th, uh, 24 hour run button marathon on YouTube, starting at 7:00 PM.
AUSTIN: Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
KEITH: Last, last Saturday in April.
AUSTIN: Celebrate.
KEITH: Celebrate.
AUSTIN: What about you, Sylvia?
SYLVIA: Hey, I'm Sylvia. You can find me on Twitter @sylvissurfer. Uh, and you can also find me over videogamechoochoo.com or you can hear me review different emojis on the podcast, Emojidrome.
AUSTIN: What is today's emoji?
SYLVIA: So the most recent episode is the alien face.
AUSTIN: That's right. The next one is that one face that looks like pooping.
SYLVIA: Yeah, it is the pooping face,
AUSTIN: That's what I'm -- that's what I'm saying.
SYLVIA: Which --
KEITH: What's, what's your least favorite emoji so far?
SYLVIA: Um...
KEITH: And the brand associated with it.
SYLVIA: Okay. You're not getting the brand cause that's part of the show. You gotta listen to that.
KEITH: Oh, I gotta listen to that.
AUSTIN: Nice, nice.
ART: That's part of the, we pick our favorites at the end and we pick our least favorites. Part of the show. Um, I didn't like the spaghetti.
KEITH: Are these like of all time?
SYLVIA: I mean, I like the spaghetti episode, but I didn't like the spaghetti emoji we were given.
AUSTIN: Okay, let's see. You check across types of emoji?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Oh man. This fucking show.
SYLVIA: The whole thing of comparing the different types.
KEITH: That's the -- Yeah, yeah. That's cause like, cause some of them are garbage. Like some of those ghosts are bad. What are some of those ghosts that they're giving us?
SYLVIA: Um, there's one particular company that sometimes just does like weird, like incredibly detailed concept art for the emoji.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I love emoji and I love the differences of emoji. I'm a big fan. So I'm going to start listening to Emojidrome. Where can people find that again?
SYLVIA: It's on iTunes. Uh, and it's also on shout engine, which is available on like a bunch of different Android stuff.
AUSTIN: Gotcha. Is it on --
SYLVIA: If you just search Emojidrome on your podcast app, you should hopefully find it. That's D R O M E at the end.
KEITH: Is it on Google play music?
SYLVIA: I don't think so, because I don't know how that works yet.
KEITH: You can just submit it.
SYLVIA: Okay. Hopefully --
AUSTIN: Not for Spotify, unfortunately, which
KEITH: Yeah, I know I know.
AUSTIN: Because I've tried to get us on Spotify a bunch. Also, well, speaking of other podcasts.
KEITH: That's why friends at the table can't get on Spotify.
AUSTIN: It's so much, uh, Art, where can we find you on the internet?
ART: Hey, you can find me on Twitter @atebbel and you can also check out the new podcast.
AUSTIN: What's good? What's good? Hyping what?
ART: Launched today, One Song Only a journey through a, uh, a bracket full of Kanye West songs with me, Austin and Ali, um, teaser episodes up now first real episode will be up on Monday and then on a biweekly that's every other week, not twice a week basis from --
KEITH: So, semi weekly.
ART: Semi-weekly doesn't feel good in the mouth.
KEITH: No, you're right. I'm just how -- I'm just wanting to clarify.
AUSTIN: Uh, the, the, the intro song is so good that I'm, I'm playing it in the background now while I talk, uh, I really love if y'all would go check out One Song Only, you can go to onesongonly.com. You can follow it -- Again, it's on iTunes already. It's a, where else is it?
It's @onesongpod on, on Twitter. I'm going to try to get us one song only on Twitter, but I need to like the person who has @onesongonly has never used it ever, ever, ever. And so I need to call Twitter, be like, "Yo give us onesongonly. We're a podcast now."
KEITH: I, uh, I'm really excited to listen to it. Cause I basically don't have any thoughts about Kanye West at all.
AUSTIN: It is a really fun thing to do to be like, Oh, I'm going to just listen to these. Like so, we're doing four matchups at a time, right? So that's eight songs. That's how math works. And so we can just go in and like listen to those eight songs and you'll come out having heard us talk about them for an hour. It's really, it's really, really fun.
KEITH: If, if I understand that there is an arc to Kanye West.
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: But I don't know what that arc is. Will this podcast help me understand that arc?
AUSTIN: I believe so. Art, would you say so?
ART: I mean, not --
KEITH: That's what I want.
ART: For this episode it won't, but I think by the end.
KEITH: Well, you gotta have an arc.
AUSTIN: We'll get there.
KEITH: To describe an arc.
AUSTIN: Right.
Um, awesome. So there were a couple of other things before we kick off, uh, one, I want to let people know that the next set of postcards will be being sent out tomorrow. Um, there was a holdup on like every possible side on those. Uh, but, but those are going out and also the, the, um, the next one is already being made.
So like, we should be able to start catching up a little bit, a little bit faster, which is, which is good. Um, I think that, yeah, I'm just double checking right now shipped tomorrow on air. It says, it says Ali, Oh, no, sorry. She's saying, can I say that on air? Which is what we're on.
ART: Yeah, you're on air.
AUSTIN: I'm on air. I'm on. I know. No, you know, um, you know --
ART: You, you know.
AUSTIN: You know. On air being shipped tomorrow. And then the next one should follow up pretty soon after that, I hope. Uh, and I also want to apologize for the Bluff City delay. There's supposed to be a Bluff City by now and, and instead, there will be two next month. Just like last month, there were two, um, the, the hold up there is on my part, largely. It's a thing I wrote about on Waypoint, but I've not actually mentioned on a microphone here.
Uh, I lost someone pretty close to me this month, uh, to a really shitty thing. Uh, there was some gun violence involved, uh, A dark with the worst darkly, ironic scheduling of being the same week that Waypoint was doing its week on guns and games. Um, and so that, that kind of threw my schedule entirely off this, this month.
Um, and so a lot of it's on top of people having travel and like the scheduling was already. We came into this month with a very tight window for when we could record stuff. And it all just kind of fell apart when that happened. Uh, and so we're back in catch up mode a little bit, but we should be able to get back in place, uh, within the next couple of weeks.
Uh, the same thing goes for mapmaker and pusher updates. I'm just waiting on a few more things for the first of those two pusher updates. And then the other mapmaker update, the March mapmaker update should go up tomorrow. I was just waiting for this Twilight Mirage episode from. From last night slash today to go up.
Uh, and so now that that's up, I can do the other mapmaker update and then two more pusher updates will go up soon after that. Um, and then we will, again, continue doing the next month's Bluffs are, I'm very excited for them. We haven't recorded them yet, but I'm super excited. It's Worldwide Wrestling RPG, which we kind of teased a couple of times.
Um, and so look forward to those. I'm stoked.
KEITH: That was the original Bluff City, right?
AUSTIN: That was one of the two things for original Bluff City. We didn't have a game for the, we didn't have like a, a game set up,
KEITH: No, no, but it was like the, the, the thing you're doing with that.
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: Like, that was the idea was wrestling.
AUSTIN: Bruce Springsteen was the Bruce Springsteen Bluff City pitch.
KEITH: Bruce Springsteen wrestling club.
AUSTIN: The season four quote unquote pitch from the COUNTER/Weight. Uh, um, uh, post-mortem was sad wrestler, not sad wrestlers necessarily, but like. Bruce Springsteen driven like a Americana melancholy Americana city on the rocks. People who don't know whether they should stay and help the place out and stick with their families and friends, or try to make a break for it on their own and go to the big city and escape the town that's falling apart.
Uh, and that is, that is definitely was the heart of one half of the Bluff City game. The other half was going to be very. There's gonna be a mystery. It was already a murder mystery. Um, and it, it still kind of, isn't a sense, right? We've already got the Hector Who part of that, um, a couple of episodes ago and that sort of supernatural Twin Peaks-y slightly, X-Files-y slightly, you know, like Norrish stuff is definitely what I would consider the other major half of what originally was Bluff City.
Um, and now is still, those are still going to be the two major themes. I think if you look through the, the. Like even going back to fiasco, um, that if you take like fiasco, uh, sorry, uh, whatever, what was the name of that, A Bird, A Boxer, and A Bowling Alley? Um, uh, and then if you look at, uh, No Greater Love, those are the two like vibes of the show, for sure.
Um, and so I'm very excited to finally be getting to Worldwide Wrestling, RPG, um, and everything else that comes after it still, also very exciting. So, uh,
KEITH: I'm really tempted to be in the second arc of Bluff.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: Would you say that people trying to get to the wrestling show should leave plenty of time because the highway is jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive?
AUSTIN: I would say that, yes. I would say that.
ART: Okay. Great.
AUSTIN: Uh, all right. Let's actually get into this today. We are playing finally.
KEITH: Get into what? Wait, we're doing something?
AUSTIN: Oh yeah. We're also going to do this. Primetime adventure is a game of television drama by Matt Wilson. Uh, we set up the, the characters and the show. Like a month and a half ago. Now let's say six weeks ago.
Uh, we are going to be continuing our game. Uh, we're gonna make sure that the. Yeah. Okay, good. We're seeing the right thing on the screen. Uh, we are continuing our game. Uh, we're actually kicking it off with our pilot episode today. Uh, the name of the show that we created is, uh, Aliens in the Outfield. It is a game about, um, I guess like the, the basic premise as we, as we kind of finalized it.
Is, uh, y'all are aliens who have been sent to earth to evaluate whether or not it should be destroyed. Um, the you've been sent along with another group, uh, who was here to prove that it should be destroyed. You're here to prove that it shouldn't be destroyed. And you're undercover as a members of a baseball team, or two of you are anyway, the group of aliens is undercover as a baseball team or as part of a baseball team.
Um, did we decide if it was from Bluff City?
SYLVIA: I thought we did.
AUSTIN: Or if it was just pretty good, we decided it was like we're in Bluff City. The show was popular.
KEITH: The most popular show in Bluff City
ART: I don't think, I don't think that the team, the team, I don't think he did it. I don't think the team is in Bluff City. I think the team is somewhere else.
AUSTIN: Okay. Uh, we'll have to figure that out shortly. Um,
KEITH: I go into this -- I'm voicing my support for that it takes place in Bluff City, or at least a Bluff City inspired town.
AUSTIN: I would not mind it being in Bluff City. Like it feels if my minor league baseball team in Bluff City is I think we've wanted to do for a while and we're pretty close to it. So I feel like we should just Commit to the bit, um, uh, the alternative is to have the other team be from Bluff City, but that doesn't make sense for why people in Bluff City like the rival team. I feel like it's, if it's, if it's a big deal in Bluff City, it should be because these people like seeing that it's their own thing. Um, Uh, in any case y'all are playing a combination of the coach of that team and two other members of the team, uh, on top of being a baseball team, that team has also, uh, landed a deal with like a local news or maybe not a local news.
I kind of imagine it'd be like Comcast or, or, you know, um, spectrum or one of the other big. Um, networks with other big networks, but, uh, what do you call it? Providers like, like cable companies to do like shitty programming almost even for their, um, like for their guide, they're like TV guide. Did you know you get like the little picture in picture thing when you're looking at the TV guides?
KEITH: Like the TV guide channel?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Like the TV guide channel of just like. Weird things around the country. And so you are a documentarians who are, you are literally alien documentarians making documentaries about earth to send back to your aliens, uh, to decide whether or not to blow up earth. But also the baseball team has taken a deal to make a documentary about weird stuff, or like to make reality TV program or whatever you want to call it. Uh,
KEITH: Do we sell the stuff? Is this like QVC?
AUSTIN: No, I don't think it is. I think it's just like in this segment, we're taking a look at the Liberty bell or the, whatever it is. Do you know what I mean? Um, and --
KEITH: Okay. Cause there was definitely like a salvage aspect.
AUSTIN: There is, I think there was like an stuff.
ART: Yes. Antiquing.
AUSTIN: Antiquing for sure is one of the things I've written down here. Can we go over your characters before we kick things off? Let's start with Sylvia.
KEITH: Help me remember that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, please I'll start with Sylvia because Sylvia you're on the left here.
SYLVIA: All right. Um, so my character is named Lou-Ellen Llewellyn, both spelled different ways. Um, the whole idea behind them is that they are, uh, they're an alien.
They are Mothman. They are a mothman, um, disguised as the team's mascot and they are also producing the television show that we've been sent here to make
AUSTIN: Right, good.
SYLVIA: Um, do you want me to just go through what I have written down here?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Totally, totally.
SYLVIA: Uh, for their appearance, I've kind of tweaked this since we last recorded.
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: I originally just had them sorta like classic, like it's a big white moth. Um, but I looked up different types of moths. So I found one called the garden tiger moth. That's got this kind of like, speckled pattern on it.
AUSTIN: Ooh, this is nice. Look at this moth.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Good moth.
SYLVIA: So I kind of was thinking like that for the color scheme. Uh, uh, Lou-Ellen's very fuzzy, um, as a moth and they're kind of like, they have like weird gangly limbs because they are also a cryptid.
AUSTIN: Right, of course.
SYLVIA: Which, means you know, they've got to look kind of cryptidey.
AUSTIN: Right. Um, and you're, are you, you're the team -- you're playing the team mascot, right?
SYLVIA: Yes.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, and what is your issue?
SYLVIA: Um, My, Oh, I don't know if I wrote that down. I think my issue was that like, I am in charge of making sure this show is good
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: And that the planet doesn't get destroyed.
AUSTIN: You've written down pressure here and I think we should, we should make it clear that
SYLVIA: it's like --
Yeah, I think I wrote that down quickly. Cause it was like, we'll come back to this next week.
AUSTIN: Yeah so, pressure that the show is good. That's good. And then your impulse is, uh,
SYLVIA: Uh, they're very high strung and very like perfectionist with the show.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: Which is a problem.
AUSTIN: Cool.
SYLVIA: So they're like very like. A little overbearing when it comes to it and a bit of a workaholic.
AUSTIN: Right. Uh, what is your personal set?
SYLVIA: Uh, Oh yeah. I have a video editing desk in the half finished basement of the coach's house.
AUSTIN: Right. Good.
SYLVIA: Where I do all my work, which means I basically am living in the coach's basement, I think.
AUSTIN: No, cause no, remember you're all living in an apartment.
SYLVIA: Oh no, for sure. I feel like there's definitely going to be episodes where it's like fixing the morning. Oh, man.
AUSTIN: Gotta, to stay over tonight.
SYLVIA: Yeah. Lou-Ellen's in the basement again. Cause there's another pot of coffee on and also we've gotten weird alien stuff in it.
AUSTIN: Does. So the coach obviously knows that you're all aliens, right coach?
ART: Yes.
AUSTIN: Okay. But does the family know that you're a mothman?
KEITH: Ah, I thought that the terrible uncle didn't.
AUSTIN: Terrible uncle definitely doesn't.
ART: But terrible uncle is the team owner's terrible uncle, not my character's terrible uncle.
AUSTIN: I thought he was your brother.
ART: Chez?
AUSTIN: Yeah. I thought Chez was your brother.
KEITH: I thought Chez was your brother.
ART: Oh, Okay yeah. Chez is my brother, yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: There's also the team owner [00:15:00] is a separate character.
ART: I lost my name. I had my name up here.
AUSTIN: Did you? Did you fill it in?
ART: I did. And then it was --
AUSTIN: Wait. Well, let me just check the other stuff. Oh, I got it. I got it. I got it.
KEITH: Is is the one that's gandolfini-esque?
AUSTIN: I got it. I got it. So I had to copy this over and move it over. So there we go. You got it back. Okay. It's a good name. It's a good name. We'll get there.
ART: I also have a team owner name to pitch that I might want to do in the, in the chat. I might not want to say this out loud.
AUSTIN: Go ahead and pitch it in the chat. Um, we've a few more things to get through with Lou--, with Lou-Ellen Llewellyn, uh, Sylvia's character. What is your edge?
SYLVIA: Uh, so my edge is that Lou-Ellen's a giant nerd, basically.
AUSTIN: Yep. Good.
SYLVIA: Um, I think the way I mentioned this in the last episode is both like, they're a nerd for what they're doing, but they're also kind of a nerd about humans.
AUSTIN: Mmm-hmm.
SYLVIA: Um, so they're just very like enthusiastic about learning stuff.
AUSTIN: Um, yeah, I'm into that. Uh, totally still still into that. And then you have two connections. Who are your connections?
SYLVIA: So we don't have a name for this character, but the whatever alien is sort of like bankrolling the show, I guess, or producing our show. Uh, my boss basically.
AUSTIN: Right. Any idea -- we've no idea for that alien boss name do we? No,
SYLVIA: I didn't. I, no, I don't have anything. Cause I'm bad with alien names. That's why I just repeated the name twice.
AUSTIN: Uh let's I still think, Lou-Ellen Llywellen, it's pretty good. Honestly.
KEITH: Yeah I like Lou-Ellen Llywellen a lot.
AUSTIN: He's -- Art. Do you have a showrunner showrunner Boss Alien name by any chance?
KEITH: Hmm, Show runner, boss alien name.
ART: Oh -- Show runner, boss alien.
KEITH: Um.
AUSTIN: Let's think about it. We'll wrap back around.
KEITH: Is it -- I, um,
AUSTIN: Mmmhmm?
KEITH: Is it, is it possible that it's like, Like, there's just like a team, like it's like a team, like this is the station managers, like some like,
AUSTIN: Oh, that's good.
SYLVIA: Oh, I do like that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So like, yeah. Yeah. The station, the station managers, or is there like a, um, there's was just like shadowy figures who show up on the TV every now and then, or like on your communicator?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Your communicator basically.
KEITH: Yeah and they do, they have some like low dark rumble and we're like, Oh, we're sorry guys. Like, we understand, we understand your low dark rumbles.
AUSTIN: It's like the senior partners from, um, Angel, basically the, uh, whatever the fuck that well from a heart, uh, it's like, you know No one actually ever see them, but you know, they are bad news.
Uh, who's your other connection?
SYLVIA: My other connection is our ringer. Uh, Jack D'hell the incredibly buff alien. Who's very good at getting home runs.
AUSTIN: Perfect. Um, great.
ART: Because he's jacked to hell.
AUSTIN: Cause he's jacked to hell. Does he just go by that name? Except like. Does he just do like Jack, Jack To Hell?
ART: Maybe like Jack T. Hall?
AUSTIN: Jack T. Hall. Yeah, that's good. It's his fake human name.
ART: Yeah, he's very clever. He's not.
AUSTIN: He's not, he's not at all. Alright. Uh, so speaking of clever people, tell me about your character Art,
ART: uh, Frankie bean ball. Bianchi
AUSTIN: Alright. Uh --
ART: You can convince me that's supposed to be pronounced Bianchi, but I don't think the ch is a k--
AUSTIN: It's Bianchi.
KEITH: I read it as Bianchi, but I like Bianchi so.
AUSTIN: I, it has to be
ART: Alright. He's kind of like a washed up Over the Hill baseball player. He's a pitcher and he's the player manager of this team.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Uh, I put his appearance as James Gandolfini-esque right, because I think everyone in New Jersey is played by James Gandolfini and the TV or movie adaptation
AUSTIN: fair he's explicitly played in the show by the, by the Bluff City character, Blake blossom , who was also playing the bad guy, the corrupt chief in, in, uh, the 86.
That was our action movie world game.
ART: Can this be like a catch 22 thing where James Gandolfini is the James Gandolfini-esque character is played by James Gandolfini?
AUSTIN: It can't be, we already announced it because I already have Blake blossom as the James Gandolfini established in, in, uh, in this. But you know, who plays Blake Blossom, but who plays Blake Blossom? James Gandolfini.
So when we eventually do the episode, that's just about acting than it were someone plays Blake Blossom. There is where we will say that is just James Gandolfini, playing Blake Blossom.
KEITH: Okay, I got it.
AUSTIN: Yeah, seriously, seriously. Not happy about this Sopranos prequel movie. I don't, I'm not ready for it. Anyway.
ART: It's a terrible idea.
AUSTIN: It's a bad idea.
ART: There are so many -- they could just do a different.
AUSTIN: There's a lot of stories. There's lots of stories you could tell, uh, IP, I guess. Anyway, talk to me more about your issues and your impulses.
ART: His issue is doubt is doubt in his declining physical abilities, his doubts in his ability to lead this team and his doubts about the whole alien thing. Honestly.
AUSTIN: Fair, fair.
ART: It's a lot, you know?
AUSTIN: Um, when things go bad, what is his impulse?
ART: His impulse is be unsupportive.
AUSTIN: Great.
ART: And I think of that as like, um, you we've seen that character a hundred times.
AUSTIN: Yep, mmmhmm. I'd love to have an unsupportive coach. You, what is your personal set?
ART: Um, the coach's office.
AUSTIN: Cool.
ART: Um, it's probably real small, but it's got a nice desk.
AUSTIN: Uh, the personal sets are important because they're, they're ways for you to get resources back by having scenes inside of them. It's worth, worth knowing about that. Um, alright. So tell me about your traits, your edges and your connections.
ART: Um, My edge is veteran ballplayer.
AUSTIN: Okay. So you've been around the block, you know how to play baseball. You can kind of call on that whenever it makes sense to say like, Oh, well I know this from my time as a ballplayer.
ART: Yeah. I think that's good. I hope that comes up a lot in a show about being a baseball team.
AUSTIN: We'll see.
ART: Yeah, here we go. Here's here's hoping.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ART: Now, my connections.
KEITH: Do you help with the antiquing? What do you do when we're antiquing?
AUSTIN: We'll find out.
KEITH: We'll figure it out.
AUSTIN: Yeah. He'll have to be in some of those scenes. Probably it'll be great.
ART: My connections are my brother Chez, who is the scumbag owner of the apartment complex that the aliens live in.
AUSTIN: It's like a converted motel.
KEITH: He's like a slum lord. Like a motel owner slum lord.
AUSTIN: Right -- did you say it's called Chez Chez?
ART: Yes.
AUSTIN: Perfect.
KEITH: Just real quick. I am at, I was echoing just real quick on someone else's headphones. I don't know who it was and it might be Austin.
AUSTIN: Probably me. I'll turn myself down in a second, uh, right down here, owner of Chez Chez. Perfect.
ART: And the owner of the baseball team as the other connection. And, uh, we've, we've worked out his name in the chat. It's Pauly Patio.
AUSTIN: Perfect.
(Keith Laughter)
AUSTIN: No one will see through it.
KEITH: I missed that. When you said chat, I thought it was the,
AUSTIN: The Live, the YouTube chat no. All right.
KEITH: Ah, no, no. The, uh, the third chat, the Roll20 chat.
AUSTIN: Oh, the Roll20 chat. You know, we have a lot of chats.
KEITH: Yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: All right, Keith, tell me about your alien.
KEITH: Okay. So I have written here. It says may -- alien name, Keith No Alias.
(Art Laughter)
AUSTIN: Goddammit.
ART: Real names. Don't gimmick.
AUSTIN: That's right. Uh, so, okay. Your name and your age, You're Keith. You're playing an alien, whose name is Keith and the alien does not have a fake name to hide that they're an alien.
KEITH: It turns out that it was an Earth name too!
AUSTIN: It just worked out that way.
ART: That's a coincidence.
KEITH: Just worked out that way. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Love it. Tell me what you're able to tell me what Keith. Hey Keith. Oh, wait. This is -- Is Nathan not involved in this one?
KEITH: We can keep it. Uh, they, uh, I legally have not, sorry.
(Laughter)
AUSTIN: Alright, what, uh, tell me about what Keith looks like.
KEITH: Um, Oh, so, uh, Keith is really small, um, and, uh, like very, very small, like gingerbread man size.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Um, and, uh, uses a suit, a suit to stretch him out to like, you know, average height.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, what is your issue and what is your impulse?
KEITH: Uh, my issue not contributing enough to the team.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Uh, my small size and then stretchy suit makes being an athlete a really difficult cause I, I'm not used to being in a body this big and I don't have body this big muscles.
AUSTIN: Gotcha.
KEITH: Um, and my impulse is that I'm closed off the frustration of not of wanting to be good at doing the baseball part. Um, Wanting to be good at that is frustrating and, uh, closed myself off.
AUSTIN: Um, is, uh, what, what is your personal set?
KEITH: Uh, I live inside one of the lockers in the locker room and that's my personal set.
AUSTIN: Gotcha. And,
ART: Is this the end of Men In Black?
KEITH: It -- That's what we talked about. Yeah. I literally cited the end of Men In Black in the worldbuilding episode. Yes. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, Uh, what are your, what are your traits, your edges and your connections?
KEITH: So my edge is I'm most seeded, most suited to antiquing in both body and attitude.
AUSTIN: Hmm.
KEITH: And I --
ART: Um, why does a small body make you more suited to antiquing?
KEITH: I can dig through piles.
AUSTIN: True.
ART: Alright.
AUSTIN: True. He's got you.
ART: I just wanted to know I wasn't doubting.
KEITH: Yeah, no, no, it's fine. I mean, you're, you're a James Gandolfini-esque ex baseball player, player manager of a minor league team. You don't know about antiquing alien.
AUSTIN: True.
ART: I don't. I really don't.
AUSTIN: Got you there.
ART: Also also Art the person doesn't know a lot about antiquing alien.
AUSTIN: Hopefully you'll learn, you know, this is --
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: This is like a whole learning experience for all of us.
KEITH: Uh, my connections, uh, uh, Art's son.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Who loves who loves aliens at baseball and needs. Mentorship. Why?
AUSTIN: Do we need a name for that? Because, because the coach is unsupportive.
KEITH: Oh! (laughter)
AUSTIN: Because, because Frankie bean ball Bianchi is not the most supportive.
KEITH: Not a good dad.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah.
ART: He's nicknamed bean ball.
AUSTIN: Did I say bean bag? Alright, well I gotta go. Okay. We're good. Let, just put that one in my back pocket.
KEITH: There's a, there's a local sports call in show.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I got it already. Don't worry. I got the names. You'll find them out very shortly.
KEITH: Okay, great. So I'm friends with the host of the call in show.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Um, the, you know, you know, the show that people call --
AUSTIN: I -- a hundred percent. I don't even want to talk about it cause we're going to start there. I'm very excited.
ART: Hey, there Austin we got a lot of baseball to be talking about today.
AUSTIN: We do. All right. Ready to, um, does that, I think that's kind of it right now. So we're going to kick it off. Uh, some important starting things here. Let me, let me just walk us through how this all works. So, uh, the first thing I do is I calculate my budget. Um, my budget is how I kind of influence scenes. Uh, my budget is that I have everybody's current screen presence. It's two for each of you. Cause it's the pilot episode. I multiplied that number by three. I did the budget wrong cause I just, cause I counted myself as a player. That's what happened here. This budget is just completely wrong, which is fine, which is fine. It's good to be wrong. Sometimes.
ART: This is why we had to get retooled.
KEITH: Wait, this, these Xs that we have here, that's what we're talking about?
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you see how, like you have the one that's like --
KEITH: Your screen presence stuff?
AUSTIN: Everyone's -- all your screen presences are two right? For this first episode? Yes.
ART: For this episode.
AUSTIN: For this episode.
KEITH: Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Sorry, my mouse is fucked. Yeah. So your screen presences are two. Screen presence is like, how important are you to this specific episode?
Because like most TV shows that changes from episode to episode. Each thing, sometimes you get a character who's like the spotlight character. Um, so it is, uh, what was it? I had two times three. No, it's it's two plus two plus two times three. So six times three is 18 plus then I add another three. So my starting budget is 21.
Nope. Yes, 21, math is good. Love to math. Um, then we set up the audience pool. When you start an episode, place a pole or bowl, rather in the middle and put a token in there for every protagonist. After that, whenever the producer spends budget, that many tokens go into the bowl, those tokens are the audience pool.
This is all gonna make a little bit more sense once we really kick things off I'm gonna make these smaller, that's what I'm going to do. Cause we're going to get more, um, And you're going to spend audience pool in a, in, in some scenes, which we'll get to again momentarily. Um, anytime during the episode, any player, except for the producer can take a token from the audience pool and award it to another player as fan mail, award it for whatever it makes the game more fun, snappy dialogue, great use of traits, exciting narration, or advancement of the plot.
When you do this, you're effectively telling someone that was great. And I hope you do more of it. Each player can award at most one point of fan mail per scene. At the end of the episode, if there are any tokens left in the audience pool they are discarded. So make sure to award those, but remember you can only award one per scene.
Um, uh, all your screen presences are two. All right. So here is the, here's the, the basic structure. I'm going to give us the order of play so that it makes sense. Um, uh, we start off with a teaser or was it kind of a teaser scene that I'll start, that'll set up whatever the big picture, um, uh, stress is wherever the big picture issue is.
Um, we'll play through that, then we're going to create a scene. Uh, then we're going to go through four acts of play. We might not get through all four today, but we're going to do our best to do it. We'll see. Um, each. Per each act, every player will create a scene. Those scenes don't have to be very long, but.
Each of them will have some sort of conflict in it that we'll work through. Um, the four act structure is act one. You introduce the problem. Act two, you add complication, act three, you add more complications, act four, you resolve the problem. Uh, the book is really good about digging into what those acts are and kind of like what each step looks like.
So if you ever have any questions about that, you can always refer to the book and kind of get a little bit more clarity. Um, so, and then after that, I'll, I'll put together a denouement because none of you are the spotlight character. If you had, if you had the sole level three, um, screen presence, you could kind of wrap the, the, the episode up in that way.
But since everyone's level two, uh, I'm going to do the wrap up there. Uh, any questions about that overall structure? Everything else should kind of start to make sense as we play.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: All right.
KEITH: What do you see? Do you have the budget? Sorry. I thought you meant that we did the screen presence calculation.
AUSTIN: That was fine. No, thank God. That was fine. Yeah. I just have this budget. This is like how many points I have to spend to make things go my way. Basically, or to influence things so that they go a little bit more, not my way, but just to make them more challenging or to add more doubt or, or, or a chance to things.
So this is --
KEITH: Very glad at my symmetrical screen presence
AUSTIN: it's very, yeah, wait. Yeah, you have like an entire. Yeah. [00:30:00] So you kind of go dip, dip, dip, dip. Yeah. That's good. That's a good screen presence for people to know that that's the sounds that the screen presence of two, one, three, one, two sounds like
KEITH: Dip dip dip dip.
AUSTIN: Dip dip dip dip. Yeah. Wow. You can do a back the other way.
KEITH: Wow. Yeah, it's a it's palendromic.
AUSTIN: Wow.
KEITH: It's a palendromic scene presence.
AUSTIN: Oh, I was just saying, no, you could make, you can do me doing you doing any sound, which is unbelievable, honestly.
KEITH: Uh, well, it's part of any sound.
AUSTIN: Um, all right. So the first scene of every episode is a teaser, a situation set up by the producer that will usually introduce a plot level problem, and set up a situation for the spotlight protagonist if there is one.
The producer has a choice with the teaser, either a, we just use it to provide a short bit of narration and exposition or b, play it out like a regular scene. If the latter, then the producer decides whether it's a character or a plot scene and then chooses the scene ingredients. So. There are two types of scenes and you'll be picking those throughout the, the game.
Uh, you'll be able to tell me, Oh, this is a character scene, or this is a plot scene. In character scenes or the thing at play. I mean, this is true for both. The, the, the division here is, is kind of strategic or kind of like technical. There is overlap here. There is, these are porous categories, but in character scenes, the focus is how does the protagonist deal with the issue at hand and does their impulse come into play?
Does their, can they resist their impulse? Um, and so those are seeds of mainly about characterization. Obviously plot might advance, um, uh, there's something up for grabs that they want or don't want, but it's not the focus. The focus is how do they handle things. Then there are also plot scenes and in plot scenes, the focus is, does the protagonist get what they want?
Obviously again, impulses will come into play. If you fail, there's a chance that things that your impulse could fuck you over or not even if you fail, but there's kind of a yes and yes, but no, and no, but, uh, set up, uh, in terms of results where like, Hey, good things and bad things can happen at once. A lot of that revolves around issues and impulses.
So. For this first scene, it is a character scene. This is going to be an opening scene. That's about introducing everybody to your characters and it begins in the local radio station. Um, does anybody remember what the Bluff City radio stations call signs were? God it's been so long.
KEITH: It's been a really long time.
ART: Is there a Bluff City Wiki yet?
AUSTIN: No? Oh, WBRK the break.
KEITH: Right. Oh, man.
AUSTIN: Great name, good name.
KEITH: Yeah, that was really good.
AUSTIN: Uh, WBRK so, uh, I think we get like the way I'm imagining the show being shot is, you know,
KEITH: Can someone, do like the, the call sign commercial song, like the, where they sing the letters
AUSTIN: [singing]WBRK the break!
Or whatever it is.
KEITH: Yes. Oh, I, at first I thought it was going to be edgier, but then that makes sense.
AUSTIN: Oh no, I think it's yeah. I, I, my touchstone for --
KEITH: Maybe some shows, maybe like the morning show guys.
AUSTIN: Yes. Definitely, definitely. Um, the, um, the, the way I'm imagining the show being shot. Well, we kind of compared it to the office at one point, because we can imagine there being kind of confessionals on this show because of the double documentary faux documentary layers going on here.
Um, but I also imagine a lot of the production element stuff being shot the way, um, Sorkin sports night is the one Sorkin show that I still have a deep fondness for my heart. Um, uh, and I kind of really liked the idea. Of the siren stopping outside my window. Um, I really liked the idea of kind of opening here.
I'm just gonna let the siren pass before we continue. Sorry. All right. I think it's actually quieter now. We kind of opened with, I imagine there's some music in the background, you know, some, some like really plucky bass and like synthy stuff. That's like very, um, uh, it's just very like scene setting. It's very like, It's easy to ignore to some degree, it's just kind of providing an audio bed of like action and you see people.
Um, I think we, we get a shot of, uh, Lou-Ellen Llywellen with a camera and like, uh, a, are you holding a camera and also doing like a boom mic at the same time? How do you deal with recording audio and visuals at the same time?
KEITH: Shotgun mic on the end of the --
SYLVIA: We're going to probably say like for this would probably be a shotgun mic.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: They definitely do have like a lot of that more cumbersome equipment.
AUSTIN: Yes. Okay. Um, uh, so you're holding that and filming them in. Are you decked out in gear or you decked out in, in Bluff City? Whatever. Oh, we need a name for the team still. Um, so start brainstorming about, we need a name for that right away. actually. Don't we?
KEITH: Bluff City --
ART: The gamblers.
KEITH: Bruisers.
AUSTIN: Alright Gamblers. Wait, was that what -- cruisers?
KEITH: I said, Bluff City Bruisers
AUSTIN: Bruisers. That's not bad.
KEITH: I had to, I wanted a B something.
AUSTIN: Yeah. You wanted a B name? Um, B-word--
KEITH: Bluff City Bandits, Bluff City ball games.
AUSTIN: That's not it. That, ain't it.
(Laughter)
KEITH: You can tell this is not an MLB team.
SYLVIE: The Bluff City Ballplayers, and the mascot is just a guy playing baseball.
AUSTIN: Bluff City Um, a bar. Bluff City Bank, Bluff City Bets. I'm going to get a gambling terminology here. Um, uh, Betters. That's not great.
ART: Bluffs City Bosses for like pit bosses.
AUSTIN: Oh, bosses isn't bad. Oh, well it's bad for another reason we can't, I can't tell you why yet. So it can't be bosses. Um,
ART: you're really limiting me by the secrets. I can’t tell --
KEITH: Bluff City Blasters. That's an alien one.
AUSTIN: Um, Bluff City bingos is not bad. Um,
SYLVIE: Am I dressed up as a giant bingo card in my mascot suit?
AUSTIN: Maybe Bluff City Bluffs. That's not, it can't be that. Hmm,
ART: There someone, someone in the chat has Blackjacks and we could also be black jackets.
AUSTIN: That's wait, what is, what are black jackets?
KEITH: Well, this jacket is the, the uniform --
ART: Columbia. The Columbus of -- Columbus’s NHL team is the blue jackets. I don't think that's anything.
AUSTIN: Oh, I see what you're saying. You're saying like, wait, aren't the blue jackets, like some sort of like revolutionary like war thing. Isn't that the idea?
ART: Do they fight alot of revolutionary war in Ohio?
AUSTIN: Probably. Yeah. Ohio. No, no, no, Nope. Civil war, blue jackets, civil war.
ART: Well, who knows what kind of Wars we fought in Bluff City --
AUSTIN: Good call!
ART: And what kind of jackets people wore
.
AUSTIN: I kind of like the black jackets! I kinda like it. Um, minor league baseball team --
ART: And they’re going to be called the black jacks. Of course.
AUSTIN: Right. I get you. Like, you get both of them, uh, like real fans do like, ah, the Blackjacks, you know.Alright, cool. Um, Maybe we know what the Bluff City black jackets are already and we maybe they have to do with the, the, not yet having happened, a weird revolution that came from, um, uh, no greater love that somehow is like in the ether. And people know that the black jackets are like a thing, even though they're like the black slacks, but for Bluff City. Um, all right.
ART: So it's like the team is named after those soldiers who fought a fight in the war, in the future?
AUSTIN: The war, in the future. But no one really, they just know the black jackets -- they’re yeah. They're great. They're heroes. Of course everybody remembers. Um, all right. Is 21, a lot in baseball?
21 is very much a lot in baseball.
KEITH: Baseball is a fun game.
AUSTIN: Yes. All right. Um, So, uh, so you're filming it. Uh, and then we get three, we get the shot of, of the, the remainder three more people, uh, at a, on one side of a radio booth. Uh, it is Jack T. Hall who someone will have to describe momentarily. It is Frankie bean ball Bianchi uh, and it is a Keith. It is Keith, no alias. Keith what's the back of your Jersey say? Does it just say Keith?
KEITH: It's says Carberry.
AUSTIN: Okay. Okay. It's the whole name? It's the whole fucking name.
SYLVIE: Fuck -- the whole name.
AUSTIN: Don't worry about it. Um, so it's the three of you. And then on the other side, are people you know, and recognize Keith. It is Ross and the boss, uh, Ross Rossi the WBRK radio show hosts and boss man Burke Bridges, Ross, and the boss are the, the, uh, WBRK sports, uh, show.
ART: Springsteen has sued them so many times. So many lawyers,
AUSTIN: They got great lawyers, like fantastic lawyers. Uh, so, uh, I think --
KEITH: I think they’re those Bluff City, crime lawyers.
AUSTIN: That's true. Ross Rossi is very much the guy who's going to, who's going to tell it to you straight. He's. He's been a fan of the game since the time he was a little kid.The first time he stepped out and his daddy held him and handed him a wiffle ball bat, he knew that baseball was America's sport. And that, uh, it was, uh, uh, the, the great metaphor for life. Uh, and boss man, the boss man's back here and he, uh, he, he calls it like he sees it, Kim, uh, Kim is their producer, uh, or was years ago, but he still refers to Kim regardless of who the producer is currently.
Uh, and, uh, they have you, uh, talk -- they're talking to you about your rivalry with the, um, the Bloomington blooms. Uh, they are a, uh, the team from Bloomington, Indiana, uh, who the
KEITH: The other BLAUMS?
AUSTIN: excuse me.
ART: Like Judy Blume?
AUSTIN: No, I think it's B-L-O-O-M-S like a bloom, like a, like a flower bloom. Uh,
KEITH: there's a lot of people that would think it’s the Bloomington Blums.
AUSTIN: Yes. They want to be very careful about that one. Uh, and, um, they are taking calls. You've been on the show already. I think we get a shot of the clock ticking for the segment, and it's already been 18 minutes. Uh, and you can see that that, uh, Jack d'Hell is kind of sweating a little bit. Uh, and I think he what's Jack d'Hell look like?
ART: He's jacked to hell.
KEITH: He's real big. Oh boy.
AUSTIN: Okay. He leans forward and he's-
KEITH: He looks like Bardach.
AUSTIN: and he's just like, not wait, not Brolly? Bardach?
KEITH: Bardach. well, they're all big. They're all --
AUSTIN: Brolly is way bigger than Bardach though.
SYLVIE: He's Bardach with Brolly's arms.
AUSTIN: Got you. Okay. He leans forward. Just, we catch him going like six, seven home runs, six, seven, somewhere in there. And he just leans back away from the microphone. Um, and, uh, we get, uh, Ross Rossi going like, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're going to go to the phones and see what Bluff City has to say about their favorite Blackjacks. Uh, and he gets --
KEITH: Who’s on the mic right now? Are we all on the mic?
AUSTIN: Everyone. The three of you are on the mic. Uh, and, uh, Sylvia, you are, uh, sorry, Lou-Ellen, you are filming, but you're all in the scene. So that is everyone is here right now. No one has to spend fan mail to join the scene. Everyone is just already here. Um, and then you go to call, the call, the caller comes through,
AUSTIN: (as caller) Uh, Hey Ross. Hey boss. This is Mike Millville.
Uh, listen, uh, I understand the team couldn't, uh, couldn't afford to stay in the league without the special reality TV show thing, but, uh, antiquing, whatever, whatever you wanna call it, uh, I don't care about money. What I care about is ah -- pennants. I care about winning the pennants. You gotta win. You gotta win. We gotta get the championship.
Uh, how are we supposed to win? How are we supposed to win when you got these knuckleheads paying more attention to the world's biggest fork or whatever, instead of trying to score runs? Huh?
AUSTIN: And Ross Rossi looks at the three of you actually looks right to you, Frankie and says, “How about it coach?”
ART: (as Frankie) Uh, what's the question is, uh, uh, how can I look at a fork and play baseball? I think I've been looking at forks my whole life and I've played baseball just fine.
AUSTIN:(as Ross Rossi) Anything, anything from you Jack d'Hell, sorry. J-Jack T. Hall.
They don't know his real name.
“Uh, Mr. Hall?”
And Jack is, is sweating pretty bad. Uh, and just says “Six, seven home runs.” each time.
ART: (as Frankie) And another thing. If our so called fair-weather fans could put down their own forks once in a while, maybe we wouldn't have to be renovating the ballpark.
AUSTIN: (as Rossi) Oh…
ART: I'm just saying. Our bathrooms are a disaster at the end of these games, a disaster.
AUSTIN: (Rossi) Ya heard it from Frankie “Beanbag” Bianchi, folks. He thinks --
ART: (Frankie) That’s not my nickname.
AUSTIN: (Rossi) He thinks you should be careful in the bathrooms.
SYLVIE: During this, There's a very slow zoom in, especially when it's like crash zooms in when he says beanbag just so they can get the closest shot of --
AUSTIN: God.
SYLVIE: Frankie going, “That’s not -- that’s not my nickname.”
AUSTIN: All right. We should do, we should do cards and see actually how the rest of this, this goes, but we basically just get kind of call after call people, grilling you on this. Um, this is the first game of the year.
KEITH: On the reality TV show thing?
AUSTIN: On the, no, on the car, on the, the, um, on the radio show people are calling in. Yeah. On the reality TV show thing.
KEITH: Right, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is the first time. Up against the blooms. They are your, your nemesis, they are your rivals. And so they really, uh, this is the first time people are like, alright, this fucking reality TV show thing has gone too long. It's time to, it's time to know what's really happening here. Um, and whether or not they can actually come through.
So, uh, at this point we need to deal cards. Um, so. The way this works, the crisis is basically, do you have Bluff City behind you? That is the question at hand is where the kind of core conflict of this opening scene is, does Bluff City believe in, in, in their black jackets? Um, so the way this works is we get a, uh, uh, cards. I need to look at the card section.
KEITH: Oh my god, So this whole time there is like a symbol on my. On my page. And I was like, what does that symbol mean? What is that? It's my little guy that I drew in your draw your protagonist spot.
AUSTIN: Yes. I did see that.
KEITH: I forgot that that's what that was. I was trying to figure out what it was.
AUSTIN: That's your little guy.
KEITH: My guy! That’s Keith Carberry.
AUSTIN: That is -- hmm. Is that what Keith Carberry looks like? It's good to know, finally. I'll zoom in on that so people can really see...there he is. There's the boy. Um, alright. So crisis time, um, “Deal the cards shuffle and draw the cards for the producer. Start by assigning someone to shuffle the deck” - that's just, I'll just do that right now. Let's recall everything. Let's make sure everything's here; should probably actually go through and get rid of those jokers. Um, uh, one second. How do I do that? How do I get rid of those jokers? Let's see. I think it's over here somewhere..?
SILVIE: Should probably get rid of those jokers when the call drops and we're all gone.
AUSTIN: What? No, I don't.
SYLVIE: They’re jokers…
AUSTIN: I feel like I've missed something. What's the bit? I'm missing the bit.
ART: Like you call people a joke. It...nevermind.
AUSTIN: Oh I see, like you’re the joker. Yeah, I get ya. How do I get rid of this? How do I- help?
KEITH: One day we'll need cards for a roll 20 game and it will work good.
[00:45:00]
AUSTIN: Yeah. I know how to get rid of cards. Um...
KEITH: But you don't know how to not have drawn one.
AUSTIN: Well, I know how to put one back in. I know how to...sorry. I know how to add cards, what I don't know off the top of my head is how to...oh, here we go. Remove. Save changes and then- ah, fuck. Oh, there we go, there it is! Delete card. Boom. Got rid of that one. I've got to get rid of one more here. And I'll shuffle again. In real life, we would just rip this card up. Delete card. There we go. Boom. Save changes, hitting shuffle, hitting the ol’ shuffle button, shuffle that deck. All right. So ‘Start by assigning someone to shuffle the deck’ - did it. ‘Deal one card to the Producer, face down. Deal one card to me, Austin, face down.’ Boop, there it is. It's down here. Um, ‘The Producer can get additional cards also face down by spending Budget. At one point per card, the Producer can spend up to five points of Budget to get additional cards. Scenes where the Producer spends five Budget, are quote unquote “Whoa Moments” for everyone at the table. I'm going to spend three on this opening thing. I want it to feel, feel real. So I'm going to drop my budget from 21 back down to 18. It's a big spend, I'm not going to lie. And then I'm going to deal myself three more cards.
KEITH: Has the first episode of the reality show come out?
AUSTIN: Yeah. It's been running at this point.
KEITH: It’s been running? Okay.
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
KEITH: So these callers, they don’t like the show? Or maybe they don’t care that they like it?
AUSTIN: They care about baseball. You know? That’s what they care about, is baseball.
KEITH: Right. But they don’t care whether or not - they don’t care about...they don’t care, even if they like the show.
AUSTIN: Right. Exactly. And maybe even some of the callers, I think that they're calling in and saying, like-
AUSTIN: (Caller) Ey, what are you even going to find in Bloomington? Bloomington doesn't have anything. There's nothing interesting in Bloomington.
KEITH: We are diehard minor league fans!
AUSTIN: (laughs) Right. Exactly. All right. So, uh, ‘Draw cards for the protagonists. Once the Producer has drawn cards, the participating players draw, uh, decide how many cards they get for their protagonist. First, you each will get cards equal to your current Screen Presence, which is two. Second, if you have any traits that might apply, you can use them for an extra card each. You can only use traits once each, per episode, for each point of Screen Presence.’ So, if this is a scenario where you'd like to say, ‘Oh, actually as a veteran baseball player, I should be able to ease their concerns,’ uh, Art, for instance, you could spend that, you would use that one time to add another card to your kinda hand here.
ART: Sure that does sound right, but I don't know if I want to- I only get two of these?
AUSTIN: So, you get two of those per thing. So you can invoke your “Team Owner” connection twice, your Chez card, or your “Chez” connection, twice. And your “Veteran Ballplayer” card twice. Um-
KEITH: What do you mean, per “thing”? Per episode?
AUSTIN: Per episode. Yeah.
ART: Per episode, per trait
AUSTIN: Per trait. Yes. And then, for each - but then, when you do a scene in your personal set, you can reset your...your uh, that...that, um...you can reset your uses, so you can actually get back. Alright, so you're going to use
ART: Okay, then I’m sold.
AUSTIN: So then you’re going to use-
KEITH: I also, by the way, I have “Friends with the Host.”
AUSTIN: Yes, you totally do. So that's another great one. Do you wanna use that one here?
KEITH: Yeah. I want to use that.
AUSTIN: Okay. So I'm actually gonna mark here with an X that you're each using that one time. So you're using “Friends with the Call-In Show Hosts”, uh, you're using your, uh, your “Veteran Ballplayer” thing. Um, so I think that the part of the question here for me is, not the question, but the, uh...question for the scene, for Frankie, I think that it's mostly about- this is a character scene, right? So this is about whether or not...um, I'm sorry, I have to look at a thing here - whether or not you come across as impulsive? Or sorry, not impulsive. Unsupportive. If your impulse kind of overrides and you kind of let your players hang themselves, do you know what I mean?
Or if you back them up. If you let them kind of like, get themselves in trouble. Um, for, for Keith, the situation is whether or not you, um, you're able to actually speak up, right? Or if you just get so closed off.
KEITH: Oh no, I'm actually, I'm uh...one of my other things is that I'm really loud.
AUSTIN: That should be...then that should probably be your impulse. The thing, the thing you-
KEITH: Well, I'm emotionally closed off, not about - to my team, it was to my team that I’m closed off
AUSTIN: Okay. Well, the thing that's going to be at stake should be that impulse. So that means that you, again maybe...then maybe the impulse there is that you start blaming them? Like, the possible downside has to be tied to your impulse for this scene. Do you see what I'm saying? So like, if you fuck up here and if the cards don't go your way, the thing that happens is that you give into your impulse, so you should be thinking about that.
KEITH: Ok, no, that makes sense. I can still, I can work that into that I'm loud
AUSTIN: Okay, cool. Totally. As long as it's about being closed off. Um, and then, and then I think for, for the, Lou-Ellen Llywellen, um, your, your high-strungness, this could just interfere maybe if things go bad.
KEITH: Um, by the way that's something that I didn't read when we went over characters, it says you're used to speaking up from a small body, is now pretty loud
AUSTIN: Is now pretty loud. Totally. That's your manner of speech. Yes. Um, uh, so, so, um, Lou-Ellen Llewellyn, are you spending any of your traits? Are you good? Just going to roll with the two?
SYLVIA: I think I'm just gonna roll with two.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: Um, Hmm. No, I think I'm gonna roll with the two for now.
AUSTIN: Okay. So that means-
SYLVIA: Cause I don't wanna lock that off for the entire episode, yeah
AUSTIN: Totally. So I'm going to give you two cards. Don't look at these yet if possible. Um, it goes for all of you. Uh, so you get two cards. Uh, and then, uh, Keith, you get three and then Art, you get three. Again, don't look at these if possible.
Um, alright. Uh, so. You get, you get all these traits once. The third thing you could do is spend fan mail for additional cards. One point for card, as many as you want to play, but right now, none of you have fan mail. Uh, again you get fan mail from somebody else saying, one of the other players saying 'that was cool, take this fan mail' and you can each do that once per turn.
And you can do that up to as many points in the audience pool there are. Um, I believe you don't get, let me make sure that's true. Yeah. The, the cards that I'm spending go become audience pool tokens, I think after this scene. So three, um,
KEITH: So what's the current audience pool. Does it start at-
AUSTIN: It starts at three.
It starts at one token per each of you, but that's not, you don't have that fan mail yet, but you can give people that fan mail. Does that make sense where you can turn that into fan mail?
KEITH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, the other thing you can do with fan mail or is influenced something for somebody else, if you aren't in the scene, or if you aren't facing a crisis, but you are all facing a crisis, you can influence the outcome for other protagonists by spending fan mail, to gain cards.
And then you can give those cards either to somebody or against them. Um, so, so that doesn't come up this scene, but it might in the future scene. So it is time to read the cards. Once all the cards have been dealt to participating players. Everyone flips their cards over to show the results. If your protagonist is in the scene, you compare your cards to the producer.
If you're influencing from the outside, you apply, apply your card for, for, or against one of the protagonists. Everyone here is in the scene. So what we're going to do is just drag them into your slots, uh, like out into the, into the world up here. Do you see what I'm talking about? Uh, I don't know why-
KEITH: All three or just one at a time?
AUSTIN: All of them, all of them, also, we got to shrink these down a little bit, these are big, um, Wait, where'd you put the- oh not drag them up top, up top, uh, like the third slot over, basically up top. Oh, there's like this thing that says Sylvia's cards, Art's cards and Keith's cards.
ART: I'm very slowly getting them there.
AUSTIN: Just drag them up there for now. And we'll flip them.
SYLVIA: I don't know how to get them to drag.
AUSTIN: You're dragging them.
SYLVIA: Am I?
AUSTIN: Yeah, they're all up there. I think you're just moved them all.
ART: Oh those are mine, they're all below my name, oops.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I think they're-
AUSTIN: Oh, just click them, click on the little icon, Sylvia.
KEITH: Yeah, you click and then you- yeah.
SYLVIA: And I wasn't sure if this like reveals them face up or not.
AUSTIN: No, it does not.
ART: Keith, move your shit down
AUSTIN: Just shrink them, ideally. Here I'll shrink all these cards.
I wonder if I can change what their size looks like here. The important thing too is to try to keep them separate from any fan mail cards, but you don't have any of those yet so it's not that big of a deal. All right. Um, I'm gonna have to remake this for the next game, so that there's a little more space. I just got draw the cards.
All right. So let's see. Can I just like quick flip these? Yes, I can. In fact, can I just do this? Flip those cards! That flipped one card. That's not what I wanted. Flip- everyone just flip their cards if possible.
SYLVIA: Flip card.
AUSTIN: Flip card. There we go. All right. So count up all of your red cards, red cards: your hearts and diamonds. Uh, Keith, you have two, Art you have one, Sylvia, you have none. I have two.
SYLVIA: Look at that blackjack though.
AUSTIN: You did get blackjack. That's good! That's a good, that's, yeah.
SYLVIA: Yeah. It fits!
AUSTIN: Um, (chuckle) uh, look at the highest card you have. aces are high. High cards trump in alphabetical order: clubs, diamonds, hearts then spades. So what is your, Sylvia you have the highest card, so that's good.
SYLVIA: Yeah!
AUSTIN: You have uh, ace of clubs. Uh, then I have the ace of, or no, then, uh, Keith has the ace of hearts-
ART: Yeah that's the second.
AUSTIN: which is the second one, then I have the ace of spades. And then it goes down from there. Art you'll have the lowest of those, I think, right? Um, not the lowest, but of the high cards.
If you have more red cards than the producer, in fact I can just do this, ready? Boom. Zoomed over here. Uh, if you have more red cards than the producer and your highest card is higher than the producer, the answer is yes, and. If you have more red cards in the producer, uh than the producer, but the producer's highest card beats yours, the answer is yes, but. If you have as many or fewer red cards than the producer, but your highest card beats the producer's, the answer is no, but.
Uh, and if you have as many or fewer red cards as the producer and the producer's highest card beats yours, the answer is no, and. This is bad.
KEITH: This is no, but. This is no, but.
AUSTIN: No, it isn't because you have less than- you have equal to me. You have equal red to me.
KEITH: So it's if you have as many or fewer red cards than the producer but your highest-
AUSTIN: Oh, yes, you're right. But your highest, yes. So you get no, but- you're right. You get no, but, everybody else gets no, and right?
KEITH: Okay.
ART: No everyone gets no, but.
KEITH: No, I get-
ART: No Keith's highest card- yeah ok.
AUSTIN: Yeah for Keith. Not for you.
SYLVIA: I get no, but at least.
ART: But the, the high card thing is confusing.
AUSTIN: What do you mean your-
ART: The alphabet, the alphabetical soup thing is weird. I had trouble parsing the-
AUSTIN: Okay. But I mean, for, for us, it doesn't even really, even without the suit thing, it's, it's, I have high, I have an ace. You don't have anything over an ace, right? You don't have an ace or higher. Or you don't have an ace to compare it to my ace.
KEITH: The real fucking problem is you got this ace and those two reds.
AUSTIN: That is the real problem. Yes.
KEITH: That's the real fucking problem.
AUSTIN: Uh, Art, if you had, if you had the ace of hearts, then I would still have more red than you, but you would have, you would be your ace would trump my ace. But because you don't have an ace, you don't have, I think maybe you're the only one who's a no, and then? Right because clubs does beat-
ART: Yeah I'm the only one who's a no.
AUSTIN: Okay. So Sylvia and Keith are both no, but, and Art you are no, and. So the way that that actually works is, uh, in a character scene, you all are going to give into your impulses. Um, and for-
KEITH: This is gonna be a mess of a show, this is gonna make great radio.
AUSTIN: Uh huh for! And for Keith Carberry, the character, no, you give in to your impulses, but there's a silver lining. Uh, and for, for the same thing for, uh, Lou-Ellen Llewellyn, no, you give it to your impulses, but there's a silver lining.
And for Frankie, no, you give in to your impulses, uh, no, you give in to your impulses and there are consequences. So talk to me about what happens here. Finish the scene based on the outcome of your cards.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: So what's what starts to happen here?
KEITH: Can we get a caller calling in?
AUSTIN: Oh, absolutely. Um, um, uh, I think what you get in is, uh, you get in this, this very old man calls in, and he says:
AUSTIN (as caller): I've had season tickets for the ol' black Blackjacks, my whole life, my whole life.
I bought lifetime season tickets that's a fortune. And now I gotta deal with them. I take my kids. I take my grandkids to the ball game, but now they're making them a reality TV show. And I got to tell my kids, they don't care about baseball anymore. Boss Ross, Boss Ross, what am I supposed to tell my grandkids? They care more about TV than baseball? You see this is why they don’t come by my house. You see?
(KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN (as caller): You see it's 'cause of this. It's 'cause of this. I'm just an old man, you know? Uh, and I just care about baseball and America. Those are the two things I love.
ART: Did he say he cares about baseball and his mirror?
AUSTIN (as caller): (slurred) America.
AUSTIN: Was that in character? Did, is that what, is that what Frankie said, did he say-
ART (as Frankie): Did he say baseball and his mirror?
AUSTIN (as caller): America. You don't care about it anymore. It's just like everybody else.
ART (as Frankie): Sir. I still don't know what you're saying.
AUSTIN (as caller): Said baseball.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): I, he said baseball and the miracle? I think he's holding out for some sort of, some sort of divine intervention.
AUSTIN (as caller): I said America.
KEITH (as character Keith): He says, he said Americ- I think he says he, I think he's saying America. I think he's saying that no one in America cares about baseball, but him.
AUSTIN (as caller): That's not- you. I'm saying you don't care about it.
KEITH (as character Keith):Oh we, none of us care about baseball.
AUSTIN (as caller): None of you.
KEITH (as character Keith): none of us care about baseball, including Boss Ross?
AUSTIN (as caller): Boss Ross care.
KEITH (as character Keith): Boss Ross cares baseball.
AUSTIN (as Boss): That's right, listen! listen, no one cares more about baseball and America than me, the boss man.
KEITH: Who's the other guy? Who's the other one?
AUSTIN (as Ross): It's me, Ross Rossi. I'm from Bluff City originally, uh, which is the most American town. There is, from coast to coast.
KEITH: Wait, are you saying it's Ross Rossi, and Boss Ross.
AUSTIN: It's Ross- no. That's me, Ross Rossi. And it's my good, good friend. Uh, bossman Burke Bagwell. That's not his last name. Bossman Burke, uh, Bridges of course. That's right, Ross. Ross and the boss.
ART: Oh my god. I don't care about any of this.
KEITH: Oh it's Ross and Boss not Boss Ross.
SYLVIA: Oh, yeah I was under the impression we were meeting someone named Boss Ross today.
AUSTIN: No it's Ross and the boss in the morning.
KEITH: Ross and the boss in the morning. I knew that cause we're friends
AUSTIN: Of course.
KEITH (as character Keith): And because we're friends, you know that I care about baseball. You've seen me caring about baseball.
AUSTIN (as the Boss): It's true! It's true Ross. [01:00:00]
KEITH (as character Keith):It's true!
AUSTIN (as the boss): We, he, uh, the day he came here, he said, let's, let's take you out to the old ball game!
KEITH (as character Keith): What do you mean wait what do you mean.
AUSTIN (as the boss): The way, the first time that you came to the uh Bluff City blackjack,
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh, right, came to the blackjack. It's- okay. Nevermind.
AUSTIN (as the boss): What, what are you, what are you, what are you talking about, Keith?
KEITH (as character Keith): I just wasn't sure what you meant by came here.
AUSTIN (as the boss): Bluff City. Greatest- greatest city in the nation.
KEITH (as character Keith): Yeah now it makes total sense, I'm sorry. I thought I misheard I thought it was something.
AUSTIN (as Ross): I don't remember bossman. I mean, he came here.
He showed us around the, the, the, the stadium. It was strange because we of course have been to the stadium, many times, big fans, black jackets, biggest supporters-
KEITH (as character Keith): Well, different people give different tours.
AUSTIN (as Ross): It turned out true. Uh, you know what, here's what I'm going to say. Uh, caller. Uh, I think that we can confirm that Keith Carberry loves America, loves baseball.
KEITH (as character Keith): Love baseball!
AUSTIN (as the boss): He loves America. He loves baseball. I know those two things I don't know about the rest of these people. Uh, Jack d'Hell is-
KEITH: No they all love baseball.
AUSTIN: Jack d'Hell's knuckles are white and he's like, they're, he they're in fists.
KEITH: Listen, we have off time.
ART (as Bianchi): You know what? I don't love baseball. I love the living baseball's provided with me. Forget this, forget all of you.
ART: He rips off his mic, throws it down. It makes that big screechy feedback-y noise. He's like "I'm going to be in the bus" and walks to the bus.
KEITH: Bean- beanbag's hangry he hasn't had lunch.
ART: You know what my nickname is.
SYLVIA: Sorry. I think this is where the high strung part comes in, where Lou-Ellen kind of like runs over to a mic and is like,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Ah, there was, uh, sorry about that. Everyone. Our coach misspoke, um, love- what he meant, what he meant to say is that he loves baseball and living in America. Uh, but he said something about the baseball and his living and caring, not about- Listen, it's fine-
ART (as Bianchi): (as if yelling from a distance) I don't mean that!
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Loves baseball and loves living in the U S of A! That's how you guys like to say that right?
AUSTIN: And then the music hits and we, we like move into our title sequence, uh, and, uh, the music plays and we get, we get the great shots of everyone out in the field, making the making, doing the various antiquing, you know, pulling stuff from old sunken ships, digging through, uh, uh, storage containers, all that stuff.
KEITH: And it's, it's interspersed with quick scenes of, um, us playing baseball. And like you hear like hearing, seeing us connect and hearing like the cork back, balling in the back like-
AUSTIN: Yes. I think that's it opens with-
ART: Look, a weird thing. And then it's like (pop)-
AUSTIN: I think it opens with like a beat made of those cork, like the bait, the bat, hitting the ball as like the drums basically.
And then like the very twee song comes in. Um, so I think. That my, my three audience pool, my budget goes into the audience pool here. I think. Uh, does anyone want to give fan mail for that scene?
KEITH: I want to give one to Art.
AUSTIN: Okay. I'm going to put this over here, Art, over in your fan mail card section for now.
Um, oop, I made that a weird shape. Uh, anybody else want to give any fan mail for that sequence? Okay. Um, so we have five more tokens in the audience pool. Uh, and I think the, the, um, ooh, here's a question. Do we reshuffle? Do we reshuffle after each turn or does it just go to a discard pile?
KEITH: We've got to, right?
AUSTIN: Oh, I forgot an important thing and I forgot an important thing. Oh, wait. No, I didn't because you just were using traits, right? You weren't spending fan mail. Yes. Okay. You're good. So yeah, I think that all just gets discarded. It must, right?
KEITH: You don't think it gets reshuffled? So that there's always an even chance for everything?
AUSTIN: I don't know. I didn't see anything, Um, I'm going to double check.
If anyone in the chat has played this and knows off the top of their hand, their head, uh, that would be great.
KEITH: Or hand!
AUSTIN: Or hand, top of their hand or the bottom of their hand, either way.
KEITH: Any part, or if you have it written on any part of your hand, or if you just remember.
AUSTIN: Yeah, or if you recall. Um, flips their cards. Okay, did that. Uh, drawing cards play out the scene who has authority,
KEITH: Uh, Tim in the chat says "What are Keith and Art's character names?" mine- my character's name is Keith Carberry.
AUSTIN: And Art's name is Frankie 'Bean Ball' Bianchi cause he picked a name for his character.
KEITH: I also picked a name for my character.
AUSTIN: You picked. You picked. It's fair. It's fair that you picked. You're not, you're not wrong.
SYLVIA: You sure did make a decision.
AUSTIN: All right. I think that that, yeah, so that's that first scene. Okay. I, it doesn't say anything about what to do with these cards.
KEITH: And I do, I do, by the way, I do want to remind everybody that the decision that I made was made over a month ago and I can't be blamed for it now.
(SYLVIA laughs)
AUSTIN: That's true. That's true. That's past Keith's problem. Past Keith the player, not past Keith character.
KEITH: Past Keith the player decided that that's what was going to happen.
AUSTIN: Mm hm. Mm hm.
Oh, you know where this is probably is, it's probably the top of this, which is like, shuffle, if it starts with shuffle the deck then yes, we'd, we recall and shuffle everything, right? Uh, yes. Shuffle the deck and deal the cards. So that tells me yes, you're gonna, I'm going to recall all the cards. Uh, recall and then reshuffle.
All right, cool. Got it.
KEITH: So that means we're going to be, had to be careful if we have like fan mail cards out, right? Cause those won't get recalled and shuffled?
AUSTIN: They do get recalled and shuffled, but before they, so the way fan mail cards are going to work, so like for instance, in the next scene if Art wants to spend that fan mail point, um, that he has, uh, he is able to, if it turns out to be a red card, I get it back as budget.
So that's why there's this little slot for like, marking what the, which cards are fan mail cards. Only with fan mail cards, but like that's, you know, does that make sense?
KEITH: Yeah, yeah I get it.
AUSTIN: So if he spends the fan mail point on that. Alright, so we are done with that first sequence we're done with the first scene, and now we're going to move on to the next scene.
We're moving into act one, act one is setting up the crisis. Um, I think the crisis is clearly an extension of what already happened here.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah. What was my silver lining by the way?
AUSTIN: Uh, people like you. People are, people are going to show up in droves wearing Keith Carberry jerseys, uh, not droves, but the 13 people who show up to the game against the Bloomington blooms, which is in Bloomington.
KEITH: There's gotta be more- oh right ok, it's an away game.
AUSTIN: No, that's the thing, right? It's an away game. Um, are, are, uh, are definitely going to be supporting Keith Carberry. Um,
KEITH: And, you know what the sweetest victory is, all, all the Bloomington turncoat fans, they're- all, their favorite Bluff City player is also Keith.
AUSTIN: Right. Totally. Um, and then the, the for, for Lou-Ellen, um, and maybe this can go into your scene, Lou-Ellen, but-
KEITH: Keith is like the Cowboys Jersey of minor league baseball.
AUSTIN: Oh, yes. A hundred percent. Um, even though you're not that good at baseball. People love you um-
KEITH: No, yeah, it's literally a one to one comparison.
AUSTIN: Uh huh! Um, Lou-Ellen Llewellyn, you have, uh, I think the ratings were really good on that episode of the show that you were shooting! Silver lining.
KEITH: Actually that's like our main. Thing. Right? So that's pretty good.
AUSTIN: That's, it ain't bad. Alright, so-
KEITH: That's like it's good, it's better. I mean, if we had to totally fail at baseball, but the show was a huge success? That's probably better for the Earth, which is, I don't know if we've mentioned, in danger of being destroyed if people in the alien Federation don't like it enough right?
AUSTIN: If they don't like it enough. Yeah. So I think-
KEITH: I don't know if we mentioned that.
AUSTIN: -the ratings on both sides of both human people watching the faux documentary, or the documentary about the team and traveling the country and stuff that you were shooting love the sequence that feels authentic.
And so do the aliens, the aliens also like, "Oh, people are very, um, dynamic"
KEITH: 'These Earth people-'
AUSTIN: 'These Earthlings, emotional-'
KEITH: 'These guys really are people!'
AUSTIN: 'They truly are real people.' Um, so that is the, the opening scene. Next we need each of you to put together a scene for each act. So again, the first act is about, is about, uh, kind of setting the stage for what this, what this, this crisis is in a bigger way.
Um, and then, and then the next few scenes, the next few, uh, acts will be about complications and, and stuff like that. So who wants to set a scene first? Who, who has it in their mind?
ART: What if there's like a protest at our practice facility?
AUSTIN: That's good. We can jump right into it.
KEITH: Yeah, love it.
AUSTIN: Do you want to, do you want to do that Art?
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: All right. So, so who is in the scene? That's actually just, I'll just walk through this a little bit, a little bit slower.
KEITH: How does that get decided? I think I missed that.
AUSTIN: So each of you gets a scene for each act, so you're gonna have three scenes per act. Um, whoever's scene is- whoever's setting the scene decides first, which character will be in the scene when and where it's taking place and what's going on.
Um, uh, it's up to that person to decide who would, which characters are there. Um, and then I'll be playing characters who aren't the three of you. Um, uh, and be trying to push towards that, that crisis. You at any point, anybody who was not invited to the scene can at any point spend fan mail to enter the scene which isn't going to-
KEITH: Which is impossible.
AUSTIN: Is impossible in this current moment, um, but will become more possible as the show continues.
Uh, especially because fan mail carries from episode to episode. Um, my job again is to, is to build a crisis, to play supporting characters, to apply pressure. And then eventually there's a crisis moment and we deal the cards. So tell me who is in the scene, Frankie and, uh, and where it is and what's happening.
ART: Alright. Uh, this is at the practice facility.
AUSTIN: Yup.
ART: I guess we probably don't have a practice facility. It's probably just the stadium, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
ART: Just it's closed.
AUSTIN: Patio stadium, The Patio, they just call it The Patio.
ART: Yeah. Everyone go down and have a, have a drink and watch a ball game with The Patio.
Um, Pauly Patio is probably there. He's probably upset about the protest.
AUSTIN: How old is Pauly patio.
KEITH: Or hot dog sales.
ART: Sure. Could be both. It's a long meeting. Um, Pauly Patio is 57.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Birthday's in October.
AUSTIN: Good to know. That could come up! Listen, I don't know.
ART: Birthday's in October, he's never gotten what he really wants: a pennant.
KEITH: Is there a pennant for minor league baseball?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ART: Yeah. I'm sure. The real- the real thing is prove that there isn't.
AUSTIN: Right. All right. So Pauly's there.
ART: Uh, Pauly is there, um, I guess-
KEITH: All of the, all of the pennants I'm seeing for minor league baseball are, are pins that you can buy, little pins.
AUSTIN: Okay. Well, listen-
ART: mean, you don't get a physical pendant for winning the, the, if you win the national league, you get an actual pennant. I mean, I think it's a, it's a symbolic thing anyway.
AUSTIN: Okay. Let's continue. Who else is there? Is it just the coach and Pauly?
ART: No, I think it's probably like, there's a practice going on. So I think, um, a lot of the team is there.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Certainly these two and a, as many, uh, you know, throw Jack, Jack in there too.
AUSTIN: Alright. So Jack, is there, uh, uh, Keith, is there, are you fr-
ART: Protesters are there, there's some protesters of course.
AUSTIN: Do they get in? Or are they just outside the stadium.
ART: No, they're like outside. But I mean-
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: They could get in.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah. We'll see what happens. Um, is this- so this is being done on the field or like in the stands or in the dugout, like where where's the camera at?
ART: Yeah I think we're in the dugout, I think we're like, we are trying to practice that on the field and the distraction, the noise get everyone to come in and the owner's come down cause he's trying to work in his office in his completely legitimate business he has here,
AUSTIN: He comes down and he's wearing a, he is wearing basically a bathrobe and he's wearing like a smoking jacket, but like well not a smoking- what's the, what's the long smoking jacket called. Like a bathrobe. Do you know what I mean? Maybe it is just a smoking jacket. It's a bathrobe. I've decided it's a bathrobe. It's like a monogrammed bathrobe and he has pajamas on underneath and he has a cigar in his hands. Uh, he's kind of like a silver fox. His hair is like stark white. Um, he has really, really, um, not baggy eyes. He has like a-
KEITH: He looks, like tired, you mean?
AUSTIN: No, they're like deep in his deep, in his sockets. Do you know what I mean?
KEITH: That's what I meant, he's just like dark rims, but he's not, he's not like baggy, they're just dark.
AUSTIN: Correct. Uh, and he comes down, his cigar is not lit. He's just holding it.
KEITH: In his teeth, is he clenching?
AUSTIN: No, he's holding it in his hands. He's holding it between his fingers. Um, and he's got a copy of a copy of the paper and the, the, god, we had a, we had a name for the Bluff City paper at one point. Uh, and I've since forgotten the name of it. It's somewhere in here. Um, uh, there it is the bluff city current, the current, the current, um,
KEITH: Like the, C-U-R-R-A-N-T?
AUSTIN: No, like the current, like the current of a wave.
KEITH: Okay, got it.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Uh, no, not like the berry or the fruit. Um, and he's, he comes over to you. Uh, and he goes,
AUSTIN (as Pauly): Bianchi.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Pauly): What the hell happened over at the, uh, the radio station? We've got people yellin' outside. Now I'm trying to read the morning paper.
ART (as Bianchi): Some guy's called and he's talking about mirrors and miracles. I don't know. It went on too long. That segment was too long. Who spends 20 minutes talking to a radio station.
AUSTIN (as Pauly): Well that's Bluff City, not much going on. People just want to know they can trust their Blackjacks.
KEITH (as character Keith): People love baseball coach.
AUSTIN (as Pauly): He's right, people love baseball.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): And mirrors.
ART (as Bianchi): I know people love baseball.
AUSTIN: He takes a seat on like the, on the dugout. He pats the bench and he says:
AUSTIN (as Pauly): There's a big game coming up. The Blooms.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Pauly): It's symbolic. You don't win this game, these protesters, they're going to keep coming. And, uh, sometimes a manager has to step aside and let someone new come in.
ART (as Bianchi): Hey, now.
AUSTIN (as Pauly): I'm just putting out the stakes. You know, I'm a Bluff City man [01:15:00] through and through. My family built this city. And the way that the Patio family has always operated is we let you know the stakes and then we let you decide if you want to make the bet.
AUSTIN: And he like, pokes you in the chest. With the cigar, the unlit cigar.
KEITH: Is it cut? Is it snipped at the end?
AUSTIN: It is not even snipped at the end.
ART: He hasn't smoked a cigar in like ten years, he just carries them.
KEITH: He just carries it, yeah.
AUSTIN: You don't light it, its for the look, yeah
KEITH: Yeah, he doesn't, he doesn't smoke, but he still has, like yellow fingers.
AUSTIN: Oh, definitely. Um,
ART (as Bianchi): I hear you.
KEITH (as character Keith): At least you can still be a player, coach.
ART (as Bianchi): I don't think that's true.
KEITH (as character Keith): No?
AUSTIN (as Pauly): You take, you do whatever it takes to win Bianchi.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah, I hear you.
AUSTIN (as Pauly): You do whatever it takes to win.
ART: I look him straight in the eye and square in the eye kind of like probably a disarming way for someone like him.
ART (as Bianchi): I hear you.
AUSTIN: Um, we should have decided before if this was a character scene or a plot scene, but it feels like it's a character scene.
ART: It doesn't feel like a plot scene here? Cause we're like setting up the stakes for the episode?
AUSTIN: Oh, maybe. So, so what do you want then, what's the thing you want from this scene?
ART: I don't um, hm.
AUSTIN: So plot scenes are about what characters want, character scenes are about whether or not you resist your impulse. Basically.
ART: I want to, I want a vote of confidence.
AUSTIN: Okay. So, so let's maybe I think it might be card time. Um, I don't think that, uh, Keith or Lou Ellen are in crisis here. I think it is just about you.
Um, so, uh, by default again, you have a two, you have two cards. I get one by default and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna add one to this. This is a, this is a low stakes scene. So I'm gonna deal myself two cards. I'm only gonna spend one budget here. Um, what about you?
ART: I think I'm, I think I'm good to let it ride.
AUSTIN: So you're just gonna do the two.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. 17. Uh, so you're not going to call on your team owner thing here.
ART: Oh yeah. I should do that, huh.
AUSTIN: I was just gonna say that that's a pretty-
ART: Yeah. That's- this is, this is pretty useful here.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: Pauly Patio. We go way back.
AUSTIN: You do.
KEITH: Real quick, is it you get two or you get two per thing?
AUSTIN: You get two per thing. So, so Art can use the team-
KEITH: Two per connections and two per edges or two per literally each individual-
AUSTIN: Literally each individual trait.
KEITH: Got it. That's great.
AUSTIN: Yes, yeah. So you, you have, you can call on them a lot and then do a reset scene inside of your setting, your personal set to get those back. So you should be looking to spend them, you know?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, uh, so yeah. Um, there's no fan mail here, so I don't think anybody else has the ability to influence this. And then none of the rest of you have fan mail here. Um, and this isn't your crisis. So it's not that you don't have to actually- you're not at risk in any way. Uh, so you're going to just do two, Art? or-
ART: No I'll, I'll take the-
AUSTIN: You are gonna, you are gonna use it. All right. So I'll give you the third, um, boop, deal. All right. Let's put those out there. Same place as before. Um, it's okay if they're a little bit big, it's a little bit, it's an easier scene to deal with here.
ART: This is much easier.
AUSTIN: Oh, uh, make sure you put the, oh no, you're not spending your fan mail. Right?
ART: Right.
AUSTIN: Okay. Uh, go ahead and flip those once you get a second. Mine were not great. Red. I have one red and I have a black nine. Art has one red and has a black ten.
ART: Ten.
AUSTIN: So in this case, uh, we have-
KEITH: No, but?
AUSTIN: It's no, but. No, you don't get what you want, but you keep it together. So I think so what's your case? What's the case that you make?
KEITH: Man, we're really biffin' it.
AUSTIN: Ah, you know, TV.
ART: Yeah, it's a, that's a slow burn.
Um, I mean, my case is that like, I have a history here.
AUSTIN: Right.
ART: We perform on the field. We don't, we don't play our games in the radio station.
AUSTIN: Mmm.
ART: We play them on the field.
AUSTIN: He shakes his head and like stands up. Um, and he, uh, he like walks over to the trash can and tosses the whole unlit cigar away. And he says, uh,
AUSTIN (as Pauly): That's the problem with you Bianchi, you don't recognize that this field is only a part of the stadium. We gotta win the whole thing.
AUSTIN: And then he walks away.
I think that's, I think that that's a scene. So, Sylvia, Keith, what is your scene idea? Do either one of you have a, uh, an idea for a scene?
SYLVIA: Trying to think of like, important shit that happens in a baseball game, but before it other than like warm up? That’s what I’m trying to think about.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think like the general, the general arc of this one will be set, like practice time, the time we're at now, then we have to go to Bloomington. Then we have to like, maybe this is the thing to think about. This could be the moment for you to set up your plot. So obviously the plot for, for, um, uh, Bianchi here is winning the baseball game, right? So maybe this is a time for you to set up the, like, figuring out what the fuck we're shooting in Bloomington scene.
SYLVIA: Oh, I do have an idea.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: I could be trying to do damage control for what Bianchi said on the radio?
AUSTIN: Also good.
SYLVIA: So it's like, 'No, we're really, really into everything you guys like.'
AUSTIN: So is this a plot scene or character, this sounds like a plot scene to me.
SYLVIA: Um, yeah, probably a plot scene.
AUSTIN: Because you wanted to do damage control here for sure.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Who, where is it? Who's in it and what are you doing? What is the action?
SYLVIA: Um, I was thinking it's either in Bloomington or on the way to Bloomington.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: If we're okay jumping ahead that much? If we want to do something before then, I can put the scene in after.
AUSTIN: Yeah, Keith, do you have a Bluff City scene still?
KEITH: Yeah. So my, um, uh, what is it called crisis? What's the thing? What's the-
AUSTIN: Well, so the first thing is just, do you want a character scene or a plot scene? Then it's where is it, uh-
KEITH: I want a character scene.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: So, no. So what is my, what is it.
AUSTIN: Oh your issue, yes, yes.
KEITH: My issue. Yeah. So I want to set up my issue, um-
AUSTIN: Of not contributing enough to the team.
KEITH: Of not contributing, yeah. I want like, and now we've got the added pressure of, uh, I'm the one where like the angry fans are like 'well, at least there's Keith.' And then it's like, ugh, no, I can't be the one that they think actually cares about baseball and then also be the worst player.
AUSTIN: (Laughs) Right. Um, uh, so where is it?
KEITH: I have to practice? It's some- it's on the field.
AUSTIN: Is this basically a continuation of that last scene? Like-
KEITH: Or maybe I could be, I might be practicing. I might be like having an a- like a, uh, uh. No, uh, like a, like a private practice, like, uh, you can't, maybe I'm out somewhere away from where people will see me practicing.
AUSTIN: Where, yeah where is that? What is the, what is the place that you could be to do that?
KEITH: Maybe I'm prac- like I'm I'm-
AUSTIN: I have a really good idea, but you tell me what yours is first. Or maybe it's the same one.
KEITH: I was going to be, um, hitting balls against the side of uh, what is Chez's?
AUSTIN: Chez, Chet, Chez Chez.
KEITH: Chez Chez. I'm hitting balls against the side of Chez Chez.
AUSTIN: Ok that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Um,
KEITH: What was yours?
AUSTIN: What if you were little tiny you, but like you had a whole batting setup with, to scale balls and like a batting cage, but that was like the size of like a living room table.
KEITH: Or, slightly more slightly- cause the problem is like my little muscles aren't used to doing big muscle stuff.
AUSTIN: Right. I got you.
KEITH: So I still, it's still gotta be, if, if it's that, I still gotta be like exerting more than usual.
AUSTIN: Right but I like, I like the wall better because it's-
KEITH: Ok, wall, yeah.
AUSTIN: Because it's good and I can get Chet, uh, Chez in here.
Um, yeah. So those characters, are you, Chez.
KEITH: Yeah. And Frankie.
AUSTIN: And Frankie. Okay. What's Frank- what's the action? Besides you hitting balls against the side of this building.
KEITH: I'm being coached. I'm being coached. I'm like, I'm like being actively coached.
AUSTIN: Alright, give me let's let's set the scene in motion. Um, also wait any, any fan mail on that last scene? It was a pretty short one.
ART: No, I think it's probably fine.
AUSTIN: All right. Set the scene in motion.
KEITH: Art, you got really quiet.
AUSTIN: You did get really quiet. I have you up to 200%.
ART: Uh, is that better?
AUSTIN: That is better.
ART: All right. The problem was, I just wasn't close enough to the microphone.
AUSTIN: Okay. Got it. Were you eating?
ART: No, I think I just never properly reset after my back away to yell at the mic.
AUSTIN: Gotcha. Fair.
ART: From the radio end.
AUSTIN: Yes. All right
KEITH: On the couch, by the way, I have all this radius now to move away from the microphone.
AUSTIN: That's fantastic. That's what you want to hear.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So, uh, paint me the picture. What's this place look like?
What's the action look like?
KEITH: Um,
AUSTIN: What time of day is it, all that?
KEITH: Alright. It, it is, um, it's, it's morning. It's like daybreak, uh, and I'm, and, uh, Frankie's got like a pitching machine and there, and it's like a full, like load of balls in there. And it's me alternating between big swings and bunts, uh, and each, each thing Frankie's saying like what's wrong about my form and how to capitalize on like you don't like, you don't have to swing hard to hit far is the-
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Like is like the,
ART (as Bianchi): Square your shoulders on the bunt, stop squaring your shoulders on the swing.
KEITH (as character Keith): I'm not squaring my shoulders!
ART (as Bianchi): It looks like you're squaring your shoulders. I've seen a lot of hits in my life.
KEITH (as character Keith): Okay. All right. Okay.
KEITH: Uh, and then each time, each time I connect, there's the, there's the cork sound. And then the (thud sound) like against the side of the (laughing) of the building. (AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN: Ah, so you just happened for the, we get just like the wide shot of it and, and the like kind of muffled conversation of this back and forth. And then finally, Chez comes down the, comes down the, uh, the stairs. The rickety metal stairs that go to the second floor of his converted motel.
KEITH: Each step is the creakiest fucking wooden steps.
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.
KEITH: Each one’s like a, if you've ever stayed over at, uh, like an older relative’s house and all of their stairs are like, I'm just trying to get some water, not wake the entire world up just by stepping on the stairs.
AUSTIN: Mmhm. Ah, man, who, what's the character actor playing Chez?
ART: (Crosstalk) Alright, let me give you. Let me give you a pitch.
KEITH: (Crosstalk) Uhh, Jason Mantzoukas? (SYLVIA laughs)
ART: Jason Alexander.
AUSTIN: Could be Jason Alexander. (Laughs) I liked him. I–
KEITH: They’re both Jasons, we don’t know which one!
AUSTIN: (laughing) I don't think Jason–
ART: Jason from Home Movies?
AUSTIN: Jason–Yeah. Okay. That's all Jason. (KEITH laughs) Um, heavy set is what we're guessing. It doesn't have to be cause, cause, cause you're heavy set and–
ART: He could be like a squirrely little, uh…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, he could be.
KEITH: Yeah, that’s the, he’s like–
ART: Little scumbag. You ever seen the TV show Grounded For Life?
AUSTIN: No.
ART: Ah, well, the uncle on that show.
KEITH: Yes, yeah. Oh, that's exactly what I was thinking of when I said Jason Mantzoukas was the not, I mean, I wasn't confusing the two, but at the same vibe.
AUSTIN: What is it? What's his, what's the character's name?
ART: I don't know.
KEITH: I think it's Jason.
AUSTIN: Oh, okay. Jason. Got it. Is he an uncle? You said he's an uncle.
ART: He’s an uncle. He's the main character’s brother.
AUSTIN: Oh, I see. Uh, Brother Eddie. Uh, so the character actor you're talking about here is Kevin Corrigan.
ART: Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah.
ART: Take a look at him.
AUSTIN: Oh my God!
KEITH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s a real slimebag.
AUSTIN: What do I know him from?
KEITH: He was in a, what was he in? I can't remember.
ART: He was in Grounded for Life.
AUSTIN: Oh, Grounded For Life. Of course. What the fuck was he in that I’ve seen?
ART: Um, he works a lot.
KEITH: He’s in Goodfellas. Um…
ART: He was in The Departed.
KEITH: He was in Superbad.
AUSTIN: He looks, I don't like what he looks like.
KEITH: Yeah, no, that's his whole thing.
ART: He's trying his best.
AUSTIN: Is he, or is he trying his worst?
ART: Well, he's trying to be what you feel when you see him, I think.
AUSTIN: Right. Okay.
ART: Yeah. He knows how to get work. It’s this way.
AUSTIN: Oh, he was the cousin in The Departed.
He was the shitty drug dealer in The Departed.
ART: Uh huh.
AUSTIN: Got it.
KEITH: He's a very classic lowlife.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Okay. So like, a hair slicked back but like slicked back three days ago.
ART: (Crosstalk) Yeah, kind of talks like this a bit.
KEITH: (Crosstalk) Yeah, yeah. It’s slicked back by his own like bed head grease.
AUSTIN: Right, exactly. What were you saying, Art?
ART: (in a New York accent, kind of) He talks like–He talks like this a little bit, you know.
KEITH: He's got a little bit of like a,
ART: He’s like a, he’s like a, I was gonna say like a scumbag Woody Allen. That’s just Woody Allen.
AUSTIN: That’s just Woody Allen.
ART: But like, Woody Allen down an octave, I guess is what I really meant. (KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN: Okay, let me, down an octave. Okay. (lowers octave) He's down here.
AUSTIN (as Chez): Bailey, what–(sighs) the hell are you doin’?
KEITH (as character Keith): Practicing. We got practice. We got a game.
AUSTIN (as Chez): Frankie. Frankie, Frankie, Frankie, Frankie, Frankie, Frankie.
KEITH (as character Keith): Frankie, answer your brother.
AUSTIN (as Chez): You know I painted these walls 12 years ago. 15 year paint. 15 year paint.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah, I know. It's 15 year paint. I–I–
AUSTIN (as Chez): You're hitting the baseball against the wall.
ART (as Bianchi): The kid can’t hit!
KEITH (as character Keith): I can hit! I hit, I hit! He heard me hit! That’s why he’s here.
ART (as Bianchi): The kid can’t hit. I mean he can’t really hit.
AUSTIN (as Chez): I'm doing you, I'm doing you a favor. Frankie! I'm doing you a favor. You’re my big brother.
ART (as Bianchi): I know you do, but these kids pay rent!
AUSTIN (as Chez): Barely. What are you paying them?
KEITH (as character Keith): That's what you asked!
AUSTIN (as Chez): I mean, I, I'm saying it barely comes in. Comes in in bits and pieces. Here's a $15 check today. Here's a $72 check tomorrow. Rent is $300.
ART (as Bianchi): Are you getting $300 over the course of a month?
AUSTIN (as Chez): Over the course! But I can't go, I can't take a $15 check to the old to the, the, the menagerie and turn it into chips! You know, they got a $25 minimum.
ART (as Bianchi): Don't cash your checks to casinos! Cash your checks at the bank. Take the money to the casino.
KEITH (as character Keith): Cash checks at the post office.
AUSTIN (as Chez): That's a waste of time. I'm going to the casino!
KEITH (as character Keith): The post office is next to the casino.
AUSTIN (as Chez): Time is money!
ART (as Bianchi): You're not a good gambler!
AUSTIN (as Chez): I'm a great gambler. How do you think I bought this place?
KEITH (as Character Keith): Chez, listen.
[01:30:00]
ART (as Bianchi): This place is a dump!
KEITH (as character Keith): This is some family shit. (SYLVIA laughs) Listen, Chez, we're gonna be big. We're gonna be big. We're gonna be big names in your…really nice place.
AUSTIN (as Chez): (sighs) I just–
KEITH (as character Keith): It’s gonna bring in business!
AUSTIN (as Chez): Listen here, KC. I think I need to take your security deposit. Now, I know that's supposed to be about what's happening inside.
AUSTIN: Inside, and he's doing like a hand motion. That's like a curved hand motion. Like he's like turning a, a bowling ball in his hand.
AUSTIN (as Chez): Inside the apartment, but 15 year paint job. I'm not made of money.
KEITH (as character Keith): Well, first of all, 15 year paint job, that means that there's a, there's a warranty for three more years!
AUSTIN (as Chez): Not once they see the stitch marks.
KEITH (as character Keith): They don't know that that’s what that is.
AUSTIN (as Chez): that they're going to see that and they’re gonna go, “That’s a baseball.”
KEITH (as character Keith): Okay, how about this? I’ll–You can take us–We’ll, we’ll make a bet. I win, you double our security deposit. You win, you take it.
AUSTIN (as Chez): What do you mean I double your security deposit?
KEITH (as character Keith): You give us back that money you get right now. And then we get it back again once we leave. We get twice the security deposit.
AUSTIN (as Chez): But if you…Okay but.
AUSTIN: Well, actually. Give me, this is the crisis. If he takes the deal, I think this is your crisis. Will he take that deal or does he demand that security deposit from you now? So, card time.
KEITH: I’m pro–I’m, yeah. My, my hope is that if I win is that he goes like, “Oh it’s a game. Like oh I want to do a gamble.”
AUSTIN: “Yeah, I want to do a gamble.” Yeah. Yeah, yeah, totally. That's the crisis for you, for sure. Um, um, do you think you have a crisis here, Frankie?
ART: I don't. I think that's just, that's just brothers arguing.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Okay. I'm again going to spend one card or one budget on this to give me two cards total. Keeeith, what are you gonna spend?
KEITH: Um, I don’t know if I have–
AUSTIN: You start with two.
KEITH: I don't know if I can spend anything actually.
AUSTIN: Umm. Yeah, I don't think you have anything here quite that really…Quite. Yeah.
KEITH: I mean, closest thing that I can think of is that my edge that suits me in attitude to antiquing also suits me to striking a deal.
AUSTIN: (sighs) Ooh.
KEITH: Oh, that's my close thing that I have.
AUSTIN: That’s close. (pauses) I'll give it to you. I'm a fan of the show.
KEITH: Okay. Then, I got three.
AUSTIN: Okay, one second. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, this is the third scene. Uh, all right, so you got three. Put that there. Boop. Um, all right. I'll deal those cards.
Uh, and you’re not getting cards, Art, because you're not, you're not in a, a situation here.
ART: Understood.
AUSTIN: Okay. Oh, you know what, did I miss a, I need to put another audience pool token in.
KEITH: (laughing) Oh boy.
AUSTIN: There we go. Sounds good. Let's pull them out there. Oh, these ain't great. For me.
KEITH: Oh well, same. So.
AUSTIN: Okay, let's put them out and flip them. I clicked too–Hey, Hey, let me. Hey, let me flip these cards. There we go. Oh boy, you got worse than me, huh?
KEITH: Yeah, this is rough.
AUSTIN: Well, this is rough stuff.
ART: Oh that’s a, that’s a ‘no, and’.
KEITH: This is a ‘no, and.’
AUSTIN: I got two, two of spades, a seven of diamonds, and I get my one red in the diamond, which is what gives me the, it gives Keith the no. But then, that the highest card you have is a seven of spades, which is trumped by my seven of diamonds. Yikes! Yikes!
KEITH: Yeah, this is really bad. I mean, you couldn’t have–You could barely have pulled worse.
AUSTIN: I, yeah. (laughs) Exactly. Um, uh, all right. So no, uh, and there are–No, this is plot, right? Your impulse is provoked. What is your impulse again?
KEITH: Uhh…Uh…Closed off.
AUSTIN: Closed off. Closed off is interesting here. Um, so I think the way he, he kind of pokes you at your impulse is he says,
AUSTIN (as Chez): (laughs) Ah, what a joke. I know a good bet when I see one. You’re not a good better, and you know what? It's a funny thing. I bet if I took that bet, I'd win because, uh, my brother ain’t a great coach and I can tell you're not a good learner. You don't know how to take advice from anybody.
AUSTIN: What's Keith do?
KEITH: Is there something, what, what are my options mechanically right now?
AUSTIN: You play closed off is what–
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Your impulse fires, right? So like.
KEITH: yeah. Okay. I, I have a, um. You know, when you're putting your, you know, you're playing baseball and you, the self, you know, you self-pitch. When you self-pitch?
AUSTIN: (Crosstalk) Yeah, no I don’t. What’s self-pitching?
KEITH: (Crosstalk) I do that and I fucking try to–You throw the ball in the air.
ART: (Crosstalk) You throw the ball in the air.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
KEITH: Yeah. Um, I do that and I try to hit Eddie with a ball.
AUSTIN: Wait, Who's Eddie?
ART: Uh, Eddie's the char–The actor that plays, uh, in Grounded for Life that's playing Chez.
AUSTIN: Oh. (laughs)
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
AUSTIN: Okay, great.
KEITH: Oh, you so embodied the character.
AUSTIN: Right, totally. Um, and I think that you miss, right? Because the whole thing is, the thing you wanted was to get better.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But it goes over his head and it smashes into like a lamp or something and he's like,
(KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN (as Chez): That's it. I'm taking your security deposit!
AUSTIN: And he stomps away. Any final thoughts?
ART (as Bianchi): You know, I'm an average coach. (AUSTIN and KEITH laugh)
AUSTIN: And–
KEITH (as character Keith): You're an above average coach.
AUSTIN: Aw.
ART (as Bianchi): Don’t butter me up, kid.
AUSTIN: Uh, (laughs) any fan mail from that scene? As a reminder, I can't give–
ART: Yeah, I’ll give Keith some fanmail.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: Can I–Oh, sorry Art. What–Did you give Keith some, cause I was going to give Keith some.
ART: Yeah, I did give some.
KEITH: You both can give me some!
AUSTIN: You can both give some. Yeah yeah yeah.
SYLVIA: Oh yeah, why not!
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally. Yeah, totally. I can't give fan mail.
SYLVIA: I like the idea of hitting a guy with a baseball.
AUSTIN: I am not–To be clear, I'm not holding off on fan mail. Fan mail is a Friends, is a, is a, is a party thing. Not a thing that I can deal with. So.
SYLVIA: Okay.
ART: It’s a friends thing. Austin’s not our friend anymore.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s what I'm saying. I'm the GM, yeah! We're not friends. GM, I'm trying to win.
KEITH: Friends at the table. We’re the table, Austin’s at a different table standing over to us.
AUSTIN: Exactly. Alright. You know what, let’s do Sylvi’s scene and then we’ll take a five minute break.
ART: Great.
SYLVI: Okay.
AUSTIN: So what's– So talk to me about your scene. Are you on your way to Bloomington or are you…?
SYLVIA: I think the way I like this is they’re either in like their crappy bus or a crappy van.
AUSTIN: Yeah, agreed.
SYLVIA: Going to Bloomington and, uh…
AUSTIN: Has to be a bus. There's a whole baseball team, right?
SYLVIA: Yeah, true.
ART: Yeah, baseball team is 25 people.
SYLVIA: Well, I wasn't sure if they drive themselves or not. I don't know how minor this minor league is.
AUSTIN: Oh, that’s pretty true.
ART: It's actually super fucked up. Minor league players often have to pay for their own travel.
AUSTIN: Is this true?
ART: Yeah, it's a whole thing.
AUSTIN: So there isn’t a bus then. It does sound like maybe the aliens and the coach have a van. I like that a lot actually.
ART: Maybe the PBS people provide a bus.
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay. That’s what it is. That's totally it. Um, and it just has, it has your–
KEITH: What kind of bus though? Like a Greyhound or is it like an overnight bus or a school bus.
AUSTIN: It’s a converted school bus.
KEITH: Yeah, okay. It’s a converted or it’s a jitney. It’s a jitney. We've already established the jitney is in the setting. The kind of like, shorter buses that do like transit. Just, they're meant to just do transit inside of like a city.
ART: Oh, I don’t want to be in a jitney with 25 people.
AUSTIN: 25 person jitney, completely stuffed, and on the outside are like the…It is like, the mascot. What is the–What is the Black Jackets mascot look like?
SYLVIA: I think that the Black Jackets mascot is like, it's a human man. Which is weird, so it’s like a mascot suit of a human man.
AUSTIN: Of a human man, yep.
SYLVIA: Dressed like, I think that in the–When they were making the costume, they assumed Black Jackets was an older timier things.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: So it's kinda got like a cowboy look going on with like a big fake mustache and a big cowboy hat.
AUSTIN: Good.
SYLVIA: But is wearing like the team uniform.
AUSTIN: Oh my God. Okay, great. Um, so there's a picture of you. There's a picture of Jack T. Hall AKA Jack d’Hell. Uh, there's a picture of coach Frankie and there's a picture of everyone's favorite, Keith Carberry like caricature sketched alongside the–or on the bottom side of one of the sides of the jitney. And then above those, like lined up perfectly, are each of you making the, whatever the opposite face is–maybe not the opposite, but like the, the caricature sketches of you all are like grinning from ear to ear. And it's like, you can always bet on Black Jack! The black jacks on the bottom, then it like pans up from that to reveal your faces.
SYLVIA: Can I suggest something?
AUSTIN: Please. It’s your scene.
SYLVIA: Where it’s like, it pans up, it pans up to show like that they've all got different faces and then it just ends on a closeup of the mascot face, which is identical.
AUSTIN: (Laughs) Right, cause it's just a mascot face.
SYLVIA: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Alright. So is this a character scene or a plot scene?
SYLVIA: Um…I, I'm not entirely sure. Can I like–
AUSTIN: Yeah, we’ll talk through it.
SYLVIA: My idea is that Lou-Ellen has it in their head that they need to do really heavy damage control after the radio interview.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: So I think that could lean more character. Um…
AUSTIN: Mmhm. What is the–
SYLVIA: Do you want me to just start and we can tell what it feels like?
AUSTIN: So character’s location, or we know the location is inside the jitney.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Characters are just you and the whole team, presumably?
SYLVIA: Pretty much, yeah.
AUSTIN: And so what is the action? What’s happening in this moment? How are you trying to recover the credibility of the team or whatever?
SYLVIA: So, I want to give a bit of a pep talk to the team and also I've done some research.
AUSTIN: Okay. Uh, so, so yeah, so yeah. What is the thing you do? This is about, is this about you dealing with your impulse and your issue, or is this about getting something you want?
SYLVIA: Um, I definitely think that impulse has led into this.
AUSTIN: Okay. So–
SYLVIA: Um, so we could have it be that. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Right. So the issue here is the–and, and the impulse is that you’re high strung. The issue is that you want to make sure the show is good, right?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So I like that. That makes sense to me. Um, so you were worried about whether or not your impulse will fire off here. Alright, so, so what do you do and say–Who's here at the, the, both. Both…
SYLVIA: Yeah. Um.
AUSTIN: Keith…and Frankie?
SYLVIA: –And Frankie are here.
AUSTIN: Jack is here.
SYLVIA: Jack is probably here too.
AUSTIN: The owner is not, uh. Is the coach's kid here? Is the coach coming on this road trip?
SYLVIA: Art, did you bring your kid on the road trip? (Laughs)
ART: No, right? That sounds like a bad idea.
SYLVIA: I don’t know, That could be fun though.
AUSTIN: (skeptical) Get in this 25 person jitney and drive to Bloomington?
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) You know what Art, I don’t know why your kid wouldn’t want to be there.
KEITH: (crosstalk) I mean, this is exactly why your kid needs a mentor. Like, Trix! Trips isn’t fun for kids.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Kids hate trips!
KEITH: What kind of kid wants to hang out with a bunch of baseball players on a road trip?
AUSTIN: Keith, did you bring the kids separately?
KEITH: Did I smuggle the kid in?
AUSTIN: That's why I'm asking.
(pause)
KEITH: Yeah, that'll be fun! Yeah.
AUSTIN: Or not even smuggle, but the kid was like, “I wish I could go.” And you're just like, yeah. Of course.
KEITH: “Yeah, you can go!”
AUSTIN: “You can go. Come on, sit with me.”
KEITH: “No one ever said you couldn't go.”
AUSTIN: Right. Okay. All right.
SYLVIA: (Laughing) “Who said you couldn’t go?” “My dad did.” “Ah, I never listen to him anyway.”
KEITH: “I never even heard of your dad.”
AUSTIN: “Who’s that?” (SYLVIA laughs) Okay, so Lou-Ellen, tell me what happens.
SYLVIA: Okay, so. This is in-character now. Lou-Ellen’s pacing and has a clipboard, but they are also still in full costume, so they cannot read it very well.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Okay. So, here's the thing. Um, obviously we had a lot of fan response after our, uh, after our radio interview. Not all of it positive.
KEITH (as character Keith): Very positive. Oh.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Some of it. Listen, you know, they taught me in school that all press is good press. Quickly learning not to believe everything you hear in school. That being said, I've–So we had some of those very passionate individuals have signed the–
SYLVIA: Talking about the protestors–
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): –And I decided, you know, what will be better than maybe a survey? Um. So, I did some talking and, um…okay. I can't talk about that one, too much profanity there.
SYLVIA: And they're just like flipping through pages. (AUSTIN laughs)
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Okay! This one. Um…They didn't like that you didn't say good things about America on the radio. So!
SYLVIA: And then Lou-Ellen pulls in the bag and pulls out little American flags that you can like–like the decorative ones and give them to each of them.
AUSTIN: Ohh, yeah.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): We're going to hold on to these now when we don't need to hold onto the bats, so they know how much we like the country.
KEITH (as character Keith): That sounds…Can we get, can we get little like, pins? Can we get pins, So we don't have to hold it?
ART (as Bianchi): (crosstalk) You can’t, uniform code.
KEITH: (as character Keith): (crosstalk) That's what they do on the TV, when they're…
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): That's a good idea. Oh, hold on.
ART (as Bianchi): I’m telling you, uniform code.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): How do you spell that? Pins?
KEITH (as character Keith): Pins. P-I-N-S.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Thank you.
KEITH (as character Keith): S is the one that’s like a 5.
AUSTIN (as Jackie): Where’d you go to school?
AUSTIN: Says Jackie. Jackie Johanson, who is the star player, the star human player, the old star human player, who is not as good as Jack is. And he like, hates all of you, basically. Doesn't hate all of you, but does not like that you’ve all just come onto this team like this out of nowhere.
KEITH: (Laughing) And started our own show that none of them are a part of.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Also, it’s Jackie and Jack is a thing I didn’t–No, what did I say? Did I say Jackie? Jackie Johanson.
SYLVIA: Yeah, you said Jackie.
AUSTIN: Yep, Jackie Johanson.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I’m gonna commit to it. So Jackie Johanson is like,
AUSTIN (as Jackie): Where'd you go to school anyway?
SYLVIA: Lou-Ellen gives a very enthusiastic point and just says,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Out of town!
(AUSTIN and KEITH laugh)
AUSTIN: Um, and then, and then I think the other players start asking questions.
AUSTIN (as a player): Man, I wasn't on that radio shit. Why do I gotta wear a flag?
KEITH (as character Keith): Well, it’s a uniform. It’s a team uniform.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): We have, we have to be united.
SYLVIA: And then Lou-Ellen puts both their hands together to show together to show united. It's very like, very like giving a talk to like, people who in middle–Like you’re in middle management and you're talking to people who don't want to talk to you, so you’re doing all the hand motions.
AUSTIN: Uh, do you have an assistant coach, Frankie?
ART: I'm sure. We probably got like, some locals. Probably got like a pitching coach, a hitting coach and a…
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: The kid is the assistant coach.
ART: Strength coach.
AUSTIN: (Laughs) The little kid. I mean, actually I like the little kid being the one who says this.
AUSTIN (as Bianchi’s kid): Um, excuse me. Excuse me, Mr. Mascot!
KEITH: What's the kid's name?
AUSTIN (as Bianchi’s kid): Excuse me!
AUSTIN: Yeah, what's the kid's name, Frankie?
KEITH: We just call the kid, kid.
AUSTIN: Also sorry, is Lou-Ellen Llewellyn he/him? Or are they they/them?
ART: (crosstalk) It’s Keith’s connection.
SYLVIA: Uh, I’ve been, Lou-Ellen Llewellyn is like non-gendered.
AUSTIN: Okay, because they’re a ball person?
SYLVIA: But their mascot is a man.
AUSTIN: Okay. Okay.
SYLVIA: So I don’t think that’s like, the worst if they’re occasionally referred to with that just because people have–They think they’re referring to the mascot character not to Lou-Ellen.
AUSTIN: Okay, I think this kid knows you’re a person though.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So I'll say, I'll just have them say, I'll have like the, the kid say…Ah, we should have a name.
KEITH: Kid, kid!
ART: Uh…
AUSTIN: Okay, here we go. Jackie is also the name of the mascot? Um, Jackie and then like Jack and also Jackie Johanson turn. And then the kid's like,
AUSTIN (as Bianchi’s kid): No, no, the mascot. Uh, wearing flags is prohibited against the rules of, of uniform dress. I have them right here.
[01:45:00]
AUSTIN: And like holds up the thing.
KEITH (as character Keith): Kid, kid. Kid. Don’t be a nerd.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Okay, two things. First of all, people love children. Great idea, Keith. Thank you. Second, I didn't know that. There are rules?
(KEITH and SYLVIA laugh)
SYLVIA: Lou-Ellen sort of walks over and is like,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): You have the, do you have the rules?
AUSTIN (as Bianchi’s son): I have a book. I have a book! I like, I like studying. My dad doesn't like it when I study, but–
KEITH (as character Keith): I know how we can get some good press.
ART (as Bianchi): Studying’s for nerds.
(AUSTIN laughs)
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Hey!
KEITH (as character Keith): I figured it out. I figured it out.
KEITH: What's the kid's name again?
ART: Uh, Sal. (AUSTIN laughs)
KEITH: Sal.
SYLVIA: Okay, yeah Keith.
KEITH (as character Keith): Sal…Okay, Sal figured it out. We’ve–Alright.
ART: Little kid named Sal is great.
KEITH (as character Keith): Sal, I think, just got us some good press. We get our good press by wearing the pins and having them force us to remove them.
AUSTIN: Oh my god. I think this is a crisis because the crisis is, are people willing to wear the pins?
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
AUSTIN: Or the crisis has actually, given all of this extra stress, is actually again, this is a character scene. Do you resist your high strung impulse and keep it cool, Lou-Ellen Llewellyn?
SYLVIA: Oh boy. I mean, let's, let's find out.
AUSTIN: Uh, and, and.
KEITH: People love the flag. They're going to be pissed off when we wear them and then are told that we're not allowed to wear them.
AUSTIN: Totally. Um, I kind of want this to also, I want this to, I think this is another big scene. I think this is like, all of you should be involved here, because if all of you go behind it, you know, it makes sense that things can follow through, you know? Um…But like, you know, you can't be unsupportive about this, Frankie, and Keith, you need to support it loudly. You can't be closed off, you know?
KEITH: Mmhm.
AUSTIN: So, uh, I'm gonna deal myself cards. I'm gonna take–I'll top off my normal one. I'm gonna take…I'm gonna take two again. So give myself three cards total. Bop. Let me drop my budget to 14. Blowing through this budget.
ART: Alright, I would like to use my second call on Veteran Ballplayer as I'm a clubhouse leader.
AUSTIN: Good call. I like it.
ART: And I'll use my fan mail because this feels important.
AUSTIN: Good call! So that is four cards total, right?
ART: Yes.
AUSTIN: Okay. Uh, anybody else?
KEITH: Yes.
SYLVIA: Um…
KEITH: I'm going to use my connection to the coach’s kid as one
AUSTIN: Mm, good call.
ART: And then I'm gonna use my other two fanmails. So five. Can I do that? Can I do two fanmail?
AUSTIN: Yeah, you can use as much fan mail as you want. Wait. Oh yeah, totally.
KEITH: Yeah, great.
AUSTIN: So that’s five total.
KEITH: Five.
AUSTIN: Deal to Keith, five.
KEITH: I am not, I’m not fucking on this one.
ART: How are you separating out, which of the fan mail cards?
AUSTIN: So the last two that you pull out should be the–Whatever the last two you draw are, should go all the way to the right. Does that make sense?
ART: So for me, it's the last one.
AUSTIN: Correct. And it should go–Try to put it in the little gray fanmail card part. And so just keep those there for now. I'm gonna keep these over here for now also. Uh…
SYLVIA: I think I…
AUSTIN: Oh fuck, wait. Wait, wait, wait. This is mine. I have to pull that up. Oh, wait, is that mine?
ART: No, it’s mine.
AUSTIN: Oh, that's yours. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I thought I was drawing my card and it didn't work. Alright.
ART: Oh, I put mine too far up again. Whoops.
AUSTIN: Alright, so you should have two in your fan mail slot. Wait, where did Sylvia's cards go?
SYLVIA: Those were–I didn’t have my cards yet.
AUSTIN: Oh, how many are you getting? Sorry.
SYLVIA: Um, so I'm gonna take my, obviously my standard two. I think I wanna use my connection with Jack to–
AUSTIN: Oh, interesting.
SYLVIA: –have him be supportive of this ‘cause like, we're buddies.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Um, and I might…(sighs) So what else am I able to use? Am I able to use my issue and impulse as well for this?
AUSTIN: No, just the three. Just showrunner, BossAlien Jack, and nerd. Yeah.
SYLVIA: Okay, cool. Then I'll just use that connection.
AUSTIN: Okay. So you'll get another bonus one, right?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That's the three cards to Sylvia. Sorry about that. There you go.
SYLVIA: Yeah, no problem.
AUSTIN: Alright. Let me…(muffled sounds)
SYLVIA: This is, this is very clumsy sometimes.
AUSTIN: It's super clumsy. This is not the best way to play this for sure. Uhh, okay. Ready to flip?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
KEITH: Yup!
AUSTIN: Flipping. I got one red, but I have the ace of clubs, which is the highest possible card. Oh, But look at these reds popping!
KEITH: Yeah, I got three reds and an ace of spades.
AUSTIN: Alright.
ART: I’m having a bad episode!
AUSTIN: It ain't great right now. Um, all right. So important things, uh, Keith, your red. Real quick, your red fan mail becomes a budget for me. So I get another budget point. Um, everything else is just going to get discarded like normal. Including these, these, those.
KEITH: I believe I’m a yes but, right?
AUSTIN: Um, I think you're a yes but.
KEITH: That’s our first yes!
AUSTIN: Yes, you resist your impulse, but you, there are consequencess ‘cause you have three red cards to my only one red card.
KEITH: But you have a higher ace.
AUSTIN: I have a high, I have the highest possible card. The highest ace. Sylvia and Art, you both have one red to my one red, um, and the highest card I have is higher than your cards unfortunately.
ART: Yep.
KEITH: What sets a ‘yes but’ and two ‘no and’s?
AUSTIN: Uh huh. Not great. Not great. (KEITH whistles)
AUSTIN: Who wants to–Sylvi, it’s your scene.
KEITH: Listen, this is the first episode of the TV show, all of the conflict of this whole season comes from this episode.
AUSTIN: And it’s the first act, right?
KEITH: It's the first act, yeah.
AUSTIN: Look at my budget, my budget is getting blown through. I'm gonna run out of budget at some point, and you're going to start winning.
KEITH: Yeah. This is a fun game so far. I love this game!
AUSTIN: Says the person who just got the first yes!
(SYLVIA laughs)
KEITH: No, I have been thinking that the whole time.
AUSTIN: Okay, it is. Yeah, I like this a lot. This is a cool–
KEITH: I like this game a lot.
AUSTIN: As someone who likes TV, I like this a lot. Like I think this is doing an interesting thing.
KEITH: Yeah, I really like doing something where we know that it's a TV show.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: The characters in the show know that they're in a TV show.
AUSTIN: Right. Um, I think it's really interesting thinking about this–
ART: The characters don’t know!
KEITH: No, I mean.
AUSTIN: Well, they do also in our specific case. But.
KEITH: Yeah, no. Wait, no, I thought that the whole premise of the show is that we were playing actors doing a TV show.
ART: No.
AUSTIN: No.
KEITH: No? But it isn’t–
ART: We’re playing the characters in the TV show. We know, we know, we know.
AUSTIN: WE know. (Laughs)
KEITH: Wait, what do we know?
AUSTIN: We know.
ART: That it isn’t real.
SYLVIA: How are we doing “Who’s On First” without being at the baseball game yet? (AUSTIN and KEITH laugh)
ART: Hey, save something for sweeps.
AUSTIN: (Laughs) Alright, so Sylvia, it's your scene. Uh, where do you want this to–Where do you want this to play out first here? What’s–Talk to me about, maybe we'll start with you. How do you give into your impulse, and there are consequences.
SYLVIA: I think…
AUSTIN: We can also just play this. We can also just play this out. Do you know what I mean? Um.
SYLVIA: Yeah. So I think what happens is the majority of the team is like, this is a stupid idea, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah. I think everyone is like, everyone just starts throwing the pin–Or the flags back at you all at once.
AUSTIN (as player): Forget it, man. I'm not getting fined!
AUSTIN: And they all just fly back at the mascot.
KEITH: Wait, I don’t think that–
SYLVIA: I'll take like a very, very like slow, deep breath and then just picks them all up and puts them away back in their bag and just says,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): I will solve it myself.
SYLVIA: And they start writing something down on their clipboard again. And clearly, they’ve got a big idea.
AUSTIN: Through the mascot, like.
KEITH: My yes–
SYLVIA: Yeah, they have very–Their writing is terrible because they have very big gloves on.
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVIA: And also are writing it in some alien language, presumably.
KEITH: Yeah, they just learned these letters.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Your yes is about resisting your impulse. So that means you're not closed off.
KEITH: Ohh.
AUSTIN: You get to have this. This is about, this was a character scene, not a plot scene.
KEITH: Got it.
AUSTIN: Um, so yes, you do resist your impulse, but there are consequences. So what are the consequences to you resisting to your–You manage to resist it, but then also there are consequences. Um.
KEITH: Well, I guess if the rest of the team decided that they didn't want to do this plan, then the consequence is that we are further othered by the teammates that are not part of our secret alien antiquing clique.
AUSTIN: You don't think it's the opposite thing here, since you’ve resisted your closed off? Which is like, you're in with them but the consequences are like, you drive a little bit of a wedge between the aliens and you? Or it can go the other way.
ART: I resisted, I resisted my impulse by supporting Lou-Ellen.
AUSTIN: I got you. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That makes sense. Yes, I got you. Yeah, that adds up. And so yeah, we get Jackie I think saying to you,
AUSTIN (as Jackie): We don't need to listen to you, newbie.
AUSTIN: Or whatever, whatever baseball terms are for new–Rookie. (laughs)
KEITH: Rookie, yeah. That’s right, I’m a rookie.
AUSTIN: Uh….
KEITH (as character Keith): I’m a rookie. Hey listen, I might be a rookie and I might be the worst goddamn player on this team.
AUSTIN (as Jackie): He is!
ART (as Bianchi): Yep.
KEITH (as character Keith): He is! I am!
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): He is.
KEITH (as character Keith): It’s fine, but it’s fine! And we've got–We–How we we–We have to get people to like the rest of you!
(AUSTIN laughs)
ART (as Bianchi): You can’t even bunt.
KEITH (as character Keith): I CAN BUNT! You were there at the–If–We just had it a fucking–We just were practicing and you saw me bunt.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah, I did see you bunt.
KEITH (as character Keith): I called you an above average coach. You are a below average coach.
(pause)
AUSTIN (as driver): Rest stop in five minutes, everybody!
ART (as Bianchi): You’re never gonna make it to the show.
AUSTIN: Ohh. Alright, let’s cut to commercial. Let’s take a five minute break for real, actually.
KEITH: Are we doing fan mail?
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: I wanna give Sylvi fan mail.
AUSTIN: Hell yeah.
SYLVIA: Thank you!
ART: Yeah, that's a good idea.
AUSTIN: It is a good idea.
ART: I’m also giving fan mail.
KEITH: Can you give multiple fan mail or do you only pick one person?
AUSTIN: No, each person can only give one fan mail.
KEITH: Got it.
AUSTIN: Yep, all right. I'm going to shuffle these. I’m gonna recall these cards. I'm going to recall these cards and then shuffle them. Alright. It’s weird how much easier this would be with a real deck of cards. Alright, we’ll take a five minute break. We will be right back.
[1:55:24]
AUSTIN: We are back as long as everyone else is good. Everyone's good?
ART: Yep.
KEITH: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: Mmhm.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, so we're going into act two, the second act of this game. The first act again was largely about kind of setting up what the main crisis is and the main conflict for this scene or for this episode. The second scene or the second, uh, act. Not the second scene. The second act is about complicating that by introducing some new issues. So I'll read the section here just so that we can...We can kind of dig.
KEITH: Everyone hates us. We're not good at baseball. We're going up against a tougher team. Let's find a way to throw a wrench in that.
AUSTIN: (laughs) So like, yeah, I should be clear. I should–I probably should have read act one out loud first. So I'll just do that now.
“Act one has introduced the problem. Even though it's amazing heroes have ordinary days, but that's not why we watch TV. We watch to watch–We tune in to watch the good stuff and good for us usually means bad for them. We don't want to watch Sarah Connor on the Terminator on Terminator – The Sarah Kronner.” Hmm. We don't want to watch Sarah Conner on Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles buying stamps.” I'm going to amend that. “We don't want to watch Sarah Conner on Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles.”
We want to watch this period, the end. I don't want to watch that show. That show was bad.
“We want to watch her making hard choices. She fights to save her son. We don't want to watch Mary on Rain, sitting quietly with her friends, doing some needlepoint. We wanna watch–“
KEITH: You’re telling me Jack Bauer doesn't eat or go to the bathroom that whooole 24 hours?
AUSTIN: The whole time! The whole time he doesn't do it!
KEITH: The whole time he doesn’t eat or go to the bathroom?
AUSTIN: He doesn’t do it.
“We want to watch her struggling to protect the interest of her kingdom. When we watch TV, we watch the character–We want to watch the characters face problems. Your episode needs problems. If this episode features a spotlight protagonist, which it didn't or doesn't, I have to introduce a problem that resonates with the character.” Um, bababa, bababa. And it’s like, “Oh, it’s okay to be heavy handed in act one. The game can fumble around a bit in the beginning if the protagonists don't have something big to respond to. So get in their faces with an urgent problem.”
I think we've made that pretty urgent. You gotta win the game, for, to keep the job, Bianci. Obviously, Lou-Ellen, you really need to bring up the spirits here and make everything, make the ratings good across both shows. And Keith, you gotta, you gotta get out of your shell and you gotta get good at baseball or else things with Chaz are gonna keep going bad. Um, so that was act one.
Act two, complications and contrasts. “If resolving the problem were easy, it would make for a really boring and short episode. So even if it seems to be easy at first, it never is. Act two is all about what stands in the way of the protagonists achieving their goals. There are bad guys with big knives or there's an exam that keeps the character from skipping class or someone's friend or loved one is being uncooperative or inconsiderate.
No scene should be without its roadblocks. Act two ends on the halfway point and it usually culminates in a big reveal or shocking twist. Um, so who has the first…Oh, I should, I should read the rest of this thing really quick. “At least one player should consider taking the opportunity for character development in the second act. These subplots called B-story, C-story, etcetera in screenwriting should develop and protagonists and supporting roles should be doing things that put attention on the spotlight protagonist.”
We don't really have a spotlight because it's the pilot, but you can still kind of think about these as like, “Okay, how am I developing my B and C story? I think those are pretty well established at this point. Um. I kinda feel like the A-story here is the game with like who wins the game because that affects both, Keith and Frankie with the B plot being, what are you going to do for the TV show? But I think obviously there's overlap in terms of what characters are, are in which, which parts of that. So who has the first act two scene? We come back from commercial break. What do we see? What's happening?
(pause)
KEITH: I don't have an idea yet, straight up, so.
SYLVIA: Yeah, me either. Gotta think of something.
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay. Have we gotten to Bloomington yet? Are we on the road or have we arrived? Think about the TV show of it, like what’s the first thing we see? Do we see y'all checking into a different motel? Like the same type of motel as the one you live at home but like run by like an off brand Chez?
ART: I mean, is it, is it like the–I mean, the shot is–The shot bag, we’re merged with different, like driving past the “Welcome to Bloomington” sign and then yeah, we probably cut to…
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah. What do we cut to? You can take the lead if you have something.
KEITH: There’s definitely two different shots of the bus driving down just like a road. And then…
AUSTIN: Right, and pulling into a shitty, shitty motel. [02:00:00]
ART: It's definitely the same motel because it’s the pilot and we're not building another set.
AUSTIN: (Laughs) Right. It’s just shot from a different angle or whatever.
ART: Yeah, it’s shot from a different angle and it’s like a different sign, like signs are cheap.
AUSTIN: Right, they’ve layered over the sounds of like ravens or something cawing or like pigeons instead of seagulls, basically. It's like, see, it's like pigeons cooing instead of seagulls cawin, but it's very much still that same shot or that same building and set. Um…
KEITH: 25 Aliens in the Outfield facts you didn't know. Did you know, that the reason why you only see the East wall of Jay's manor and the West wall of this other motel is because it's the same building with two different signs on it?
AUSTIN: Oh wow.
KEITH: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Weird.
KEITH: I didn’t know that!
AUSTIN: No. Uh. So any ideas here? Maybe here's a different thing. Do we want to advance someone's character? Do we wanna like dig into more character stuff or is there a plot thing that you want to address right away?
KEITH: I think, do we wanna focus on, do we want to save the TV show stuff? The antiquing part? I feel like that's been under addressed so it’s maybe time to...
AUSTIN: I do agree that’s been under addressed. Yeah.
KEITH: I was thinking maybe we were, we were gonna–We were like by default, just going to do that last but I think that I want to set that up.
AUSTIN: No, I think we need to start setting that up.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, so yeah, maybe it's a sequence of the–Either Sylvia or Keith, one of you doing the like preliminary, what the fuck did we do in Bloomington? Like set up. I'm trying to find something to shoot that's like, here's an interesting thing in Bloomington. Here's the…
KEITH: Um.
AUSTIN: Do either one of you want to do that for your scene?
KEITH: Uh…I would, I think I would like to do it for my scene.
AUSTIN: Okay. So let's start there. You've all, you've all–We get–like we get you both maybe stepping out of the motel and then we can go anywhere else, but I just want the shot of the two of you coming out of the motel with your gear basically. So Keith, where is it? What are you doing? Um, and who is there?
KEITH: Um, so I think–I think what it is–I think. Okay. Here's–We contacted the guys that run the, like all the garbage trucks that collect from the rich part of town.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: We connected with the junk yard there.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: And like that's where like the nice garbage is. Um…
AUSTIN: So you're literally just going to a junkyard.
KEITH: Yeah, they would wanna do a junkyard. Yeah. There's cool shit at a junkyard, man.
AUSTIN: I get ya.
KEITH: Yeah. And I've got a backpack on with a bunch of equipment and then I've got in my pocket a really small backpack with smaller versions of all of the same equipment.
AUSTIN: Oh my God. Great. So who's there?
KEITH: Uh, it's me. It's Lou-Ellen. Um…
AUSTIN: It can just be, and then people at the salvage place or the junkyard or whatever.
KEITH: People at the salvage place. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. Yeah. I think Jack is there. Jack lifts, Jack moves like, there may be some cool shit under this big thing.
AUSTIN: Yeah, right right right.
ART: Can you lift this bus? Jack d’Hell is like, “Yeah, I can move the bus.”
(AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN: This sounds like a plot scene then?
KEITH: Yeah, it was a plot scene. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay, cool. Um, alright. Uh, so set the scene in motion. Let's talk about, uh, do you just like walk up to the reception or whatever, like to the front office basically?
KEITH: Um…Yeah, I think so. I don't know if the…I mean, I don't, I don't think it's a very nice front office. I think it's a junkyard’s front office.
AUSTIN: Oh no, yeah. Totally. Um. I think you see a, a kind of a middle-aged dude with a white beard. White.
KEITH: James Gandolfini-esque.
AUSTIN: Uh no, I don't think he's that round. I think he's like squared off in a real like…
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: He's heavy set also. Um, Black dude but with a stark white beard. Um, and he’s like…So he kinda looks like a Black Santa a little bit.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: You know what I mean? But Black Santa with his beard a little, a little more trimmed than that.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: And he's sitting behind the...
KEITH: It’s neat, it’s not like Santa’s wild beard.
AUSTIN: Right, exactly. Exactly. And he's like,
AUSTIN (as front office person): Oh God damn!
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh God damn.
AUSTIN (as front office person): I didn’t expect to see, I didn't expect to see the old Bluff City Blackjacks coming to my salvage Emporium.
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh yeah? You a fan?
AUSTIN (as front office person): I know that Keith Carberry face
everywhere, anywhere, anywhere I see it.
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh man, that's great. I’m glad. That’s nice.
AUSTIN (as front office person): These two, I don’t know.
KEITH (as character Keith): They're really, they're really better players.
AUSTIN (as front office person): I got to tell you, Mr. Hall, you're bigger than I ever imagined.
AUSTIN: And Jack just kind of like, flexes involuntarily. (KEITH laughs) Like he like, tightens up at his name being said, do you know what I mean? But like his whole, all of his muscles, like whoo! Goddamn!
SYLVIA: Lou-Ellen like pats Jack on the back and is just like,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): He’s a quiet boy.
AUSTIN: Jack like nods and is like,
AUSTIN (as Jack): Yeah, I'm just trying to…Can’t wait–
KEITH (as character Keith): He’s focused! He’s got his head, he’s got
his head in the game.
AUSTIN (as Jack): Yeah.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): It’s okay. Jack, don’t, don’t stress about it. You’re fine.
AUSTIN: I think Jack just hates being in this human body. Like, I really think Jack hates it. Um, but like, but like, is determined.
KEITH: Jack is like, I’m so small in this human body.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally!
KEITH: Like, I’m so tiny.
AUSTIN: Like feels constrained. Totally.
KEITH: I feel huge though. Me and Jack.
AUSTIN: Right? That’s like the opposite thing, right?
SYLVIA: I am stuck in a mascot costume. (KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN: Wait, are you in the mascot costume currently?
SYLVIA: I mean, I think we talked about–cause I have wings. I can’t hide those.
AUSTIN: You do have wings. Totally. Are you just wearing the bottom part of
the mascot body? What’s your head like?
SYLVIA: It’s a moth head!
AUSTIN: Okay.
(KEITH laughs)
SYLVIA: It’s like mothman!
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Almighty. (KEITH is still laughing) Ohhh!
SYLVIA: Like, that's one of the reasons why I was the mascot I think, when the character creation was like…Oh yeah, I can’t hide it any other way.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Whoops, didn’t mean that. Um, okay. So this guy, his name’s BJ. He’s like,
AUSTIN (as BJ): So uh, what are you, what are you looking for today?
KEITH (as character Keith): Uhhh. Any, you know. We're looking for anything that deserves a second look? Does that make sense?
AUSTIN (as BJ): We got it all here. Let me tell you what we got. We got antennas. We got old tube TVs. We got metals, both ferrous and non-ferrous. We got Ferris wheels. We got–
KEITH (as character Keith): You got–Wait. You got Ferris wheels?
AUSTIN (as BJ): The little ones.
KEITH (as character Keith): Little ones. How little?
AUSTIN (as BJ): They’re teeny. I don't even know if you can find them out there.
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh, we can find them. (SYLVIA laughs)
AUSTIN (as BJ): Oh, well. Thing is, we don’t have–Our open door hours are limited today, so you only have limited time out there.
KEITH (as character Keith): That’s fine. Work quick. How do you just for–Just so that we know, how do you have it laid out? Do you have it like, garbage, good stuff.
AUSTIN (as BJ): Yup.
KEITH (as character Keith): Or do you have it like, broken stuff, working stuff, or do you have like, everything’s all together?
AUSTIN (as BJ): That’s right!
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh is it broken stuff, working stuff?
AUSTIN (as BJ): And the first one you said too.
KEITH (as character Keith): And okay, so it’s garbage.
AUSTIN (as BJ): Yep.
KEITH (as character Keith): And then cool stuff.
AUSTIN (as BJ): No. I didn’t say anything about cool stuff.
KEITH (as character Keith): Okay. Garbage and then interesting stuff. And then…
AUSTIN (as BJ): Yep, also…
KEITH (as character Keith): Broken stuff, working stuff.
AUSTIN (as BJ): And then also, on top of that, we've got the color coding system.
KEITH (as character Keith): This is great. This is the best junkyard I’ve ever been to.
AUSTIN (as BJ): We've got the reds, we got the blues.
KEITH (as character Keith): Oh, don’t we all?
AUSTIN (as BJ): We got the oranges–Tell me about it, son. Uh, so we got color coded out there. Red, blue, orange, red blue, orange, crimson, uh, violet.
KEITH (as character KEITH): The color. Does that, does that
correspond to the color of the item or does that mean something else?
AUSTIN (as BJ): It is two things. First and foremost, most importantly, it takes about the year it’s from. Second, it has to do with the quality and color of the item.
KEITH (as character Keith): Wait, so all of the items of the same color are from the same year?
AUSTIN (as BJ): That's why we have red and crimson. You got to subdivide.
KEITH (as character Keith): That’s wild! That is so weird that you have that.
AUSTIN (as BJ): You know, it's a family business and we've been doing things a certain way.
(KEITH laughs)
KEITH (as character Keith): Everything that’s red, what year is all the red stuff from?
AUSTIN (as BJ): 1973.
KEITH (as character Keith): What do you do with something that’s red that’s from a different year?
AUSTIN (as BJ): Well, then, uh… (KEITH laughs louder) There are other junkyards here in Bloomington if that’s what you’re looking for.
KEITH (as character Keith): I guess, but this one’s top-rated.
AUSTIN (as BJ): That’s…I read my Yelp reviews. I take them very serious.
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen) So if someone throws out something that's red, you have to throw it out again somewhere else? (KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN (as BJ): Throw out is such a harsh word. We find a new, uh, home for…
KEITH (as character Keith): Rehome. You rehome it.
AUSTIN (as BJ): That’s what we say. We say, you’re a regular old man. That’s what you are. A regular old man. (KEITH laughs in background)
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): Yes, we are all incredibly regular.
KEITH (as character Keith): (still laughing) We’re also super old.
(AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN (as BJ): I can tell you got the old blood in you. Young souls, old blood. That's what I always say. It's a family motto. The BJ family motto. So–
KEITH (as character Keith): Is your last name BJ?
AUSTIN (as BJ): That’s right. That’s why it says outside, it says BJ Salvage.
KEITH (as character Keith): BJ just sounds like such a, and I don’t know a ton about names, it just sounds like such a first name.
AUSTIN (as BJ): Well, it’s been that too. Time and time and again.
KEITH (as character Keith): Yeah, time and again, BJ, it’s been a first name. Alright, let’s get in there, I guess.
AUSTIN: And he, like, he walks you over and he unlocks the junkyard gate and it just sliiides all the way open. Real quick, Bianchi, Frankie, what are you doing during all of this? Because I like the notion of like, we haven't gotten to the crisis point here yet. Or we’re about to, cause we're gonna get you guys digging through all this shit but I'm curious, like if the camera cut to a Frankie thing, what would be happening? Any ideas?
ART: Hmm. I would–
AUSTIN: Other than like, three of your key people not being around.
ART: I think like, Frankie's just like, not super…Like, he hasn't super jumped into this show part.
AUSTIN: Right, right.
ART: So he's like, I dunno. He’s like looking at a pile like…
AUSTIN: Oh, no no no. I, sorry. I met elsewhere in Bloom– Like, I don't think you're here at all.
ART: Oh, right. I’m not in this scene, yeah. Uh…
AUSTIN: Is he at a bar? Is he at a, is he at the, is he like scouting the other team? What's he doing?
KEITH: I'll tell you what hasn't come up yet. He's not with his kid.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Fuck.
ART: I mean…
AUSTIN: He could be!
ART: He could be.
SYLVIA: (laughs) Like, your kid came along but the first suggestion was, eh, just go hang out at the bar. (AUSTIN and ART laugh)
ART: I mean I sort of think that is it. I think it’s like they’re at the TGI Fridays.
AUSTIN: Ough.
ART: And like, they're like, both like looking at like, the scouting reports are out on the table and they're both kind of like perusing it but they’re also just kinda looking past each other at the TV.
AUSTIN: So this is a character scene then?
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Sal): Dad. Um, it says here that, um, Smith likes to hit high and outside. He always hits high and outside.
ART (as Bianchi): Wow. Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's good scouting. You gotta…
AUSTIN (as Sal): What's high and outside?
ART (as Bianchi): What’d you say?
AUSTIN (as Sal): What’s high and outside? Is that what Uncle Chez gets?
KEITH: It’s cold but fun. (SYLVIA laughs)
ART (as Bianchi): Um, yeah kind of. You know, you know, so you bat right-handed.
AUSTIN (as Sal): That’s, yeah.
ART (as Bianchi): So you’re at the plate–
AUSTIN: Actually no, he goes like,
AUSTIN (as Sal): No Dad, I’m a lefty.
ART (as Bianchi): Oh. Alright. So you’re at the plate, you’re on the right side of the plate. You know, you’re at the right batter’s box.
AUSTIN (as Sal): Yeah.
ART (as Bianchi): Alright. So, uh, so high and outside for you would be on the opposite end of the plate on the, on the corner there. The black on the other side.
AUSTIN (as Sal): Uh huh.
ART (as Bianchi): And it would be you know, a letter higher better.
AUSTIN (as Sal): What’s a letter high?
ART (as Bianchi): Uh, you’re wearing, you’re wearing an uniform, right?
AUSTIN (as Sal): You never got me one. You said you were going to get me one but you said they didn't come in kid sizes.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah, they don't. It's a bad, it's a bad organization.
(KEITH and AUSTIN laugh)
AUSTIN: Cut back at that to back in the junkyard. Oh, fuck. Drag Tim House in the chat. Hey, at least he hasn’t sold this kid to a wizard nobody trusts.
ART: Sold is not the right verb.
SYLVIA: Oh my God!
AUSTIN: Owned! That’s true. Alright.
ART: I think we disagree on how much we all trusted that wizard.
AUSTIN: That’s true, we did.
KEITH: We did, yeah.
AUSTIN: How are things going in the junkyard? What do we look at?
KEITH: Hold on. I'm chewing General's chicken.
AUSTIN: Okay. Ouugh.
(pause)
KEITH: Ugh. Okay, I’m back. Have you guys seen Charlotte’s Web cartoon?
AUSTIN: I–What?
SYLVIA: What?
KEITH: Have you guys seen the Charlotte’s web cartoon?
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVIA: Oh.
KEITH: Do you remember the Templeton the rat scene where he goes to get the food at the circus?
AUSTIN: No, it's been so long. I've seen this movie.
KEITH: It's Templeton the rat is singing a song about how much he likes trash and how much he likes food and he’s diving and swimming like Scrooge McDuck through a pile of garbage.
AUSTIN: And this is what’s happening with Keith Carberry?
KEITH: That’s what I’m doing.
AUSTIN: Oh my god. Okay. What color is the trash?
KEITH: And it’s not by the way, it’s not like–Again, it’s not trash. It’s very interesting stuff.
AUSTIN: Right, so what color pile are you in?
KEITH: Uh, we start with blue. Uh, blue is, I think, um…
AUSTIN: Yeah, what year is blue?
KEITH: Uh, uh. If your trash is blue, it’s 1982.
AUSTIN: Got it. Yeah. Okay. Um, and we also, here's the other thing. (KEITH laughs) The thing that he didn't say is that it's also–
KEITH: I’m laughing at my own joke, hold on.
AUSTIN: It's also, yeah I hear you.
KEITH: Good, it’s okay.
AUSTIN: It’s also arranged by size. And so, there's like a huge blue truck, just a whole truck and we get just Jack like lifting the whole, like looking left and right very anxiously. I imagine Jack looks a little bit like Bautista in Guardians of the Galaxy. [02:15:00] What's that character's name?
SYLVIA: Drax, I think.
AUSTIN: Cracks. Cracks?
ART: Drax.
SYLVIA: Drax.
KEITH: I don’t know.
AUSTIN: Drax.
SYLVIA: Sorry, I was a little far away from my microphone.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah. It’s high and outside.
AUSTIN: Drax in terms of like build and like, you know, bald and all that, and like lifts–Yeah, high and outside. Lifts the truck or it’s just like a big blue column. There’s a big blue like, 1982–What year, 82? 1982 Charlie Tuna, like giant Charlie tuna metal like, roadside sign. That’s like, or not even a sign, like a full statue of Charlie from the Tuna, you know the Tuna company?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And he's like lifting it, like looking under,
AUSTIN (as Jack): Nothing under here.
AUSTIN: Um, what are you doing, Lou-Ellen?
SYLVIA: Um, I kind of want to rummage around some of the smaller stuff?
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: And like…Okay. I guess I'm going to show my hand a little bit here. What is the Bloomington Bloom's mascot?
AUSTIN: Oh, it's just a big person who looks like a, who–Not a flower, like a bouquet of flowers.
SYLVIA: Okay. So they are looking for material to make something that looks like that.
AUSTIN: Okay, good. I think it's crisis time. We need to figure out if you all find some things. Um, so cards. What do I have left? I have 15. I'm gonna spend two for myself, which raises me up to three. Boop. And spend two, which turns out into a 13 budget. Uh, Sylvi. Start with two.
SYLVIA: Uh, okay. Yes. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything that I could use here that would make sense.
AUSTIN: Uh, you have nerd.
SYLVIA: Yeah, nerd might be able to work. Um, but I might just end up spending some of my fan mail here.
AUSTIN: Okay. As a note, you can also spend fan mail in other people's scenes or for other people also, is an interesting thing.
SYLVIA: Oh, I didn’t know that.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Umm…Okay, I'll just use one for myself for now and take my usual two.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: I feel like this is particularly high stakes cause it's like the baseball thing is the thing that's supposed to be hard for us and like, the antiquing thing is the thing that like we were sent because we know how to do it.
AUSTIN: Right. Are you using your other ant–Are you using your other antiquing thing?
KEITH: Me? Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. So you also are going to do three.
KEITH: I'm gonna do three, yeah.
AUSTIN: So you both get three. We all have three. We all getting three.
KEITH: Alright. Sounds like it's definitely even and we’re all getting ones, so.
AUSTIN: Definitely not gonna get screwed. Yeah, that should, that should
even it out, right?
KEITH: Should even it out!
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) Can it even it out to a red card?
AUSTIN: Oh my fucking God. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
KEITH: Wait, what happened?
AUSTIN: Just deal your cards.
KEITH: Oh, okay. Alright. Okay.
AUSTIN: Whoa.
SYLVIA: Gonna have like, somehow have 3 red aces.
KEITH: I feel, I feel. Okay, Austin’s tone makes him sound unbeatable here.
AUSTIN: I–I’m beatable! Well, unbeatable is true but we’ll see. Ready? Flip.
SYLVIA: Oh yeah, goddamnit.
ART: Whoa!
AUSTIN: I got a seven of hearts red, queen of hearts red, king of hearts red,
King of hearts. Oh, not the high card. Oh, yeah no.
KEITH: I got the high card.
AUSTIN: You got the high card with an ace. Oh, this is bad. This is bad.
Alright. So, this is a plot scene, not a character scene.
KEITH: I’m a no but.
AUSTIN: You’re a no but, and Sylvia is a no and.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Which means, Lou-Ellen–
KEITH: This has gotta be, what is going on with these cards? This is–This is–
AUSTIN: This is luck, luck goes like this sometimes.
KEITH: But luck–but that means luck is going the exact opposite way for you.
AUSTIN: It just, I’m having a good night. Uh, so no, Lou-Ellen, you don't get what you want and your impulse of being high strung is provoked again. And, um, Keith, you know, you don't get what you want, but you do keep it together. You just kind of have a nice secret you're able to remain unclosed off. Um and, oh wait. Also, was that a fanmail? That last one was a fanmail, right? Sylvia?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
ART: Yes, so it gets back to budget.
AUSTIN: So that goes back to me. So that was a good turn for me.
SYLVIA: Great.
AUSTIN: Um, let me recall these cards. Well, I go up to 14. Oh! Hey, there we go. Uh. Boom. And you spent one of these tokens, right?
SYLVIA: I spent one, yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay, cool, and I spent two, so there should be–
KEITH: Eventually, these odds are going to come crashing down–I mean, I know that’s not how statistics works, but eventually these odds are going to come crashing down on Austin’s head.
ART: That’s not how that works.
AUSTIN: The thing that is going to happen is–That’s not how it works, but the budget is going to run out, right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So, we’ll see.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright. So we–
SYLVIA: Unless what I just did happens a bunch more.
AUSTIN: That's true. So what we need–Yeah, exactly. We need to know what happens here. So who, what's the camera show for, for Keith and for Lou-Ellen and for Jack?
KEITH: Um, I think. Okay, so for Jack, I think it–I think Jack is tired.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Like there's, there's nothing, but also Jack is like, I'm tired from lifting all of this stuff.
AUSTIN: Ohh, right. Is just actually worn out. Yeah, totally.
KEITH: Umm.
AUSTIN: What about for you, Keith?
KEITH: For me, I think I'm just like,
KEITH (as character Keith): Yeah, you know what they say: first run’s a dry run! That’s what they say. (AUSTIN laughs) We come from a whole other planet, you don’t know what our sayings are.
AUSTIN (as Jack): I’m from the same world.
KEITH (as character Keith): I’m talking to the audience.
AUSTIN: Oh, are you? Do you break fourth wall in this moment? Is this a confessional or is this a–?
KEITH: No–(breaks off laughing)
SYLVIA: I mean, I’m filming for the alien TV show.
AUSTIN: Oh, right. You are. That's true. Yeah.
KEITH: But then that still wouldn't…
AUSTIN: (Laughs) No, That still wouldn’t work.
KEITH: It still wouldn't work. I mean, I guess it would work as like a, the alien TV show watchers know that we're also cutting a version of the episode for humans, so they–
SYLVIA: You know, it could be the, in the alien version, you're saying, “that's just some Earth slang.” And then in the Earth version it's, “Oh, I'm from another planet. You guys wouldn’t know what we say.” (SYLVIA and KEITH laugh)
AUSTIN: This is the bit that you're aliens on this show.
KEITH: Hiding, hiding in plain sight.
AUSTIN: God.
KEITH: We’re like, “Ah, Keith’s strange, he’s like, what–what a–He’s like from another world!”
AUSTIN: Ugh. Lou-Ellen. What's this look like for you? What's it look like when your impulses are provoked?
SYLVIA: Uh. I think what it is is–’cause we’ve talked about how Lou-Ellen shoots a lot of this too.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: ‘Cause it’s like first person at first, of Lou-Ellen just like filming Keith’s big improve for antiquing and then the camera just kind of like, they just like,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): I'm just going to step away for a sec.
SYLVIA: And they set the camera down and you see just like the, the head of the mascot gets taken off and put like, just out of frame of the camera and then you just see like a mothman fly over to like where the biggest amount of junk is and they just start tearing through it, trying to find anything, but they can’t.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: Uh, and that's like the sort of high impulse thing.
AUSTIN: God.
SYLVIA: And then like, maybe someone sees them could be the consequence here?
AUSTIN: Ooh, who sees them?
SYLVIA: I mean BJ, maybe? Or another player, like an enemy, like a player from the other team.
AUSTIN: Yeah, remember because the other team has the other aliens on it.
SYLVIA: Oh yeah.
AUSTIN: Who are here to try to make it–to make it so that the earth does blow up. Um, God. (sighs) What's their name and what do they look like? Oh, it's the other team mascot.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: (pained) It has to be. Just a giant bouquet of flowers. Just–
KEITH: It’s the same ploy. It’s the same plot.
AUSTIN: It’s the same ploy, except what they managed to do is they pull–You just see, first you see a cowboy hat. And it starts to–Like a giant cowboy hat, and it raises up from behind a pile of old–you know what it is? It's behind the ferris wheel the dude told you about. There’s like seven of them and they're really densely interconnected and this cowboy hat just pokes up above and then underneath it is just a fake bouquet of flowers with big cartoon eyes wearing the cowboy hat and holding like a duplicate copy of your head, of your mascot head. And you can–it like raises–
ART: This is horrible. I want to just disclaim this. (AUSTIN laughs) This is awful!
AUSTIN: Raises, like this looks like a Power Rangers villain. Raises like a limb, like a hand to their head–to their face and like does like a “Ohh-ho-ho-ho” laugh. Um, also here's a note about this alien. This is just what they look like. They are not in a costume. Their body is that of a, like a mascot.
ART: Thanks, I hate it. (AUSTIN laughs) Sorry to say that.
KEITH: Is–Are they–Are the flowers actually flowers or did they have to disguise?
AUSTIN: No, they're all like silk flowers. Do you know what I mean? They're all–They were always.
KEITH: Oh, sorry. I'm–I–Yeah, so I mean, you answered my question, but what I was saying was, are they actually flower-shaped or did they have to do something? The thing that they are look like flowers.
ART: Yes. No, they are already flower-shaped and that’s why they decided to infiltrate the Blooms.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: I bring my own costume.
KEITH: So they don’t have like 16 Hydras that they glued petals on. They have petals.
AUSTIN: They move like Hydra heads. They move independently. Thank you. Thank you for this detail. (KEITH laughs)
KEITH: No problem.
AUSTIN: And yeah, they can set you up now. That is the consequence.
KEITH: They hiss too. They're like–They–They're flowers, but they're still–They like…
AUSTIN: They–Can they hiss?
ART: Why are you still doing this? (AUSTIN and KEITH laugh) What’s happening right now?
KEITH: No, there’s never, there has never anywhere in the known universe been a flower that scary.
AUSTIN: Virginia Pane says, “A hydrangea Hydra.” Thank you. (KEITH laughs)
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
AUSTIN: All right, so cut. Let's go back to TGI Fridays. Um, how's it going in there, buddy?
ART: I think I finally explained where the letters are and maybe like, there's a game in the background. (laughs)
AUSTIN: Right, and you’re like standing up, pointing at the screen.
KEITH: Yeah.
ART (as Bianchi): There. Those are the letters.
AUSTIN: And the waiter,
AUSTIN (as waiter): Sir. Sir, could you please sit down–sir?
ART (as Bianchi): No, I cannot. I'm teaching my son about baseball.
AUSTIN (as waiter): Sir. We all love baseball here in Bloomington, but we really need you to take a seat. Other customers are saying you're disturbing the TGI Fridays. It's very important.
ART (as Bianchi): Well I mean, I bought three appetizers. I think I can stand up on a chair for a minute.
KEITH: Appe-teasers.
AUSTIN (as waiter): Please sir, they’re called Appe-teasers.
ART (as Bianchi): I'm not saying that.
AUSTIN (as waiter): ™.
ART (as Bianchi): Mm.
AUSTIN (as Sal): Dad, they’re called appe-teasers.
KEITH: Actually, they’re called happy-tizers! I don’t know what they’re called.
(AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN (as waiter): Sir, take a seat.
ART (as Bianchi): Fine.
AUSTIN (as waiter): Sit down with your beautiful child and–
ART (as Bianchi): I'm doing it.
AUSTIN (as waiter): Thank you, sir.
ART (as Bianchi): God.
AUSTIN (as waiter): Go blooms. Anyway, I'll be right out with your entrees.
ART (as Bianchi): Yeah. You love baseball so much. Why are you so bad at it?
(AUSTIN and KEITH laugh)
AUSTIN: Oh, um, I think we decided this was a character scene more than a plot scene, right?
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, what is the–I think we're at the crisis point for sure. It's just like, can you have a decent meal with your child?
ART: I contend that I can but I don't have anything to call on to help me for this. (ART, AUSTIN, and KEITH laugh)
AUSTIN: Um, someone else could spend–
KEITH: Hey listen, maybe you get lucky.
AUSTIN: You could spend fanmail. Oh also, yeah. Any fanmail for that last scene?
KEITH: Um.
ART: Oh, I thought they were both really good.
AUSTIN: Do you want to give one?
KEITH: If I give one to Lou-Ellen, can I also give one to Frankie? Is that two separate scenes?
AUSTIN: No, these are two separate scenes. The Frankie scene is ongoing now. You can give him the–
ART: Yeah, this scene hasn’t ended yet.
AUSTIN: We just cut to this scene in the middle.
KEITH: Okay. Yeah. Okay.
AUSTIN: So yeah, you want to give one to Lou-Ellen?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright, cool.
SYLVIA: I’ll give one to Keith.
ART: I'll give one to Keith Carberry.
AUSTIN: Okay. And what were you saying, Sylvia?
SYLVIA: I was also gonna give one to Keith, but.
AUSTIN: All right, cool. So the thing–You're right. You currently cannot. You don't have anything to call on, Art. Uh, right?
ART: Uh, no.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah, there's no like connection or anything that applies to any character in the scene here.
AUSTIN: No. Uh, your poly patio or your Chez or your veteran ballplayer thing.
KEITH: If only it was someone other than your son that you were with. (AUSTIN laugh)
ART: Well, I mean, veteran ballplayers is tapped out. I think I could have made a case for that because I was explaining baseball, but.
AUSTIN: Yeah, probably. Probably. Um, so the thing is, if you're not in a scene, you can spend one point of fanmail to draw one card for or against one protagonist in the scene, spend as much fanmail as you want to get additional cards. Any cards bought with fan mail, they count as points. That is, those who come up hearts or diamonds earn the producer point of budgets. It's the same thing as spending fanmails in regular time. Um, if so either of you want to give poor Frankie a fan mail, now is the time to tell me.
KEITH: No.
AUSTIN: Jesus Christ.
ART: Man, y'all a bunch of dicks!
KEITH: This is your fault that you can't talk to your son!
SYLVIA: Oh wait, we can give people fanmail from our…?
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVIA: Oh, I’ll give Frankie one.
KEITH: Yeah. Including, you could give–I mean, you could also, you could give one to…I mean, I don't know who you'd give it to other than…There's not really–
SYLVIA: You’re trying to get me to give you one when you’re in the scene.
KEITH: No, no, no. Cause you, you–Uh, Austin, you said like, if this was, if there was like an antagonist in the scene…
AUSTIN: You could just give me one, you could just give me one.
KEITH: Oh you could, yeah okay. You can give Austin one.
AUSTIN: If you think it's more interesting that he lose here, you could totally do that.
KEITH: I do, but I feel like we're–I'm gonna need this fanmail.
AUSTIN: I spent two budget on this, so I have three cards. Art, by default has to–
SYLVIA: I’ll give Art one so it’s even.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Thank you. Thank you for being decent.
AUSTIN: As always, Art–
SYLVIA: First time’s anyone's ever said that about me. (AUSTIN laughs)
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Make sure to slide the third one over to the right.
ART: That's just the one that's the furthest right on my…
AUSTIN: Yes, your current furthest right one. Just honor system here. I could check, but I'd rather be honor system. Okay.
ART: This is gonna be bad.
AUSTIN: You ready?
KEITH: My policy is to not give dads breaks, so.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That is true. Fuckdads.com is definitely a…
KEITH: Yeah, fuckdads.com represented.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Ready? Flip them. Red, black, black. Not…
SYLVIA: Ogh!
ART: But I won the high card.
AUSTIN: Right. So you, you give into your impulse, but there is a silver lining. Um, and I don't get any budget out of this. That fanmail card was black. I had two reds, I had a red, I had a jack of hearts and an eight of diamonds. Art only had the two of hearts, one of the lowest cards possible. Um. Uh, so I'm gonna have to get rid of–
ART: Well that doesn’t matter, it’s my highest card overall.
AUSTIN: Right. True.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: True. Um, okay. Um,
KEITH: Sorry. So that was a ‘no, and,’ right?
AUSTIN: That was a ‘no, and’. So tell me, so what's this look like?
ART: It’s a ‘no, but’.
AUSTIN: It’s a ‘no, but’. Yeah, sorry, there is a…
KEITH: Sorry, that’s what I meant.
AUSTIN: Yeah, ‘no, but’. There is a silver lining. So you do give into your impulse and your impulse again is to be unsupportive.
ART: Yeah. (KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN: But what’s that look like and what’s the silver lining?
KEITH: We all know what it looks like.
AUSTIN: Yeah, we sure fucking do.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
ART (as Bianchi): Look, I don't know. Just, just eat your mozzarella sticks.
AUSTIN (as Sal): They're not really made with mozzarella.
ART (as Bianchi): Your…
ART: I need like a funny word. A fake mozzarella word. Can someone help me? Like what would…
SYLVIA: You’re not-zzarella. It’s fake mozzarella. (KEITH laughs)
ART (as Bianchi): Your not-zzarella sticks.
KEITH: It’s N-A-U-G-H-T because there’s zero mozzarella. (AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN: There’s zero mozzarella. (SYLVIA and KEITH laugh)
AUSTIN (as Sal): Dad, they’re not really mozza–Yeah, they’re not-zzarella, thank you.
AUSTIN: You know what? I think here's the bright side. Here's the silver lining.
AUSTIN (as Sal): Thanks for letting me know about what high and outside is. What I was saying–What I was saying is, that three of their best hitters, they always swing when it's high and outside.
ART (as Bianchi): All right. That's–that's–that's real good. I–that's real good information. Thank you. We're going to use that to win.
AUSTIN: Ohhhh!
ART: We gotta win this fucking game. We need to win this fucking game.
AUSTIN (as Sal): Mom says not to cuss.
ART: Oh, that was, that was not.
AUSTIN: Oh.
ART: That was me.
AUSTIN: Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Ohh, all right. We have one more scene this act. It’s Lou-Ellen Llewelyn’s scene.
ART: I would like to publicly solicit fanmail.
AUSTIN: (Laughs) Yeah, does anyone want to give?
KEITH: Oh, no no. Yeah, I do want to give, I do want to give.
AUSTIN: Frankie some fanmail? Okay.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Boom done. One more–
KEITH: I mean Art did really good doing really bad.
AUSTIN: Oh, he did so good doing really bad. Oh, we've won–We only have one token left in this audience pool by the–oh, that's not true. That's not true, ‘cause I just spent two. So two more go in, that’s true. Boom, boom. Alright.
ART: Umm.
AUSTIN: Healthy audience pool.
SYLVIA: I'm not entirely sure what to do here if I'm being honest, umm.
AUSTIN: Yeah. This is the last scene of the second act, so this is definitely where like the twist should come. Um, don't think about things you want to do even. Think about things where your character is there and maybe this is the scene that follows on from seeing the Bloom get your mascot head.
SYLVIA: Yeah…
AUSTIN: How could they fuck with you with that?
SYLVIA: I mean, they show up to the game in my uniform.
AUSTIN: What about even before? I mean, we could, we could, we could cut to, yeah, I think that's a good place to end the second act and probably this recording is like, we cut from that night to I was at opening day–It’s not opening day, but to the stands or to the stadiums the next day. Everyone’s warming up. Who is there? And is this a character or is this a plot scene?
SYLVIA: Um, I think this is plot, ‘cause we're going to be addressing the conflict with the other team.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Uh, and I'm down for this to be another like ensemble one, since we all kind of need to be there for the game.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Totally.
SYLVIA: It'd be kind of a good way to end, especially if this is the last thing we're doing tonight for this recording.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Sounds good. All right. So, who's there? What's going on? Is everyone practicing? Is this the day of the game? I guess it would be, right?
You gotta do like a three day vacation before the game starts.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
ART: We’d probably get in the night–the day before.
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly. Um…(pause) So what's–what's–what is the conflict here? I guess. I think you're there. It's like an hour before the game starts. You guys are–Y'all are maybe even still in the–How about this? Y'all are still in the locker rooms. Um, and there's like a TV that shows the fields basically, and you know, people are taking the stands already and out on the field already is the Black Jack, the Black Jacket. You're already there, doing like basically giving the–The hands have been reformed to give the finger to the crowd. And they're just riling everybody up. There's definitely you like, trying to rip the American flag in half but you're not strong enough to. That is–
KEITH: Wait, sorry. Who’s trying to rip the American flag in half?
AUSTIN: The mascot, except the ma–Your mascot is in your locker room. So it's someone dressed up as the Black Jackets mascot.
KEITH: Oh, man. Base–Finally baseball heals.
AUSTIN: Yes.
(pause)
AUSTIN: That's what's happening on the TV.
SYLVIA: Do we have like a shitty back-up mascot costume that I’m in now?
AUSTIN: No, cause you're in your mascot costume.
SYLVIA: Oh, am I? Oh, okay. I thought they took my mascot costume.
AUSTIN: No, no, no, no, no, no. They found the–They found like a trashy one.
SYLVIA: Ohhh.
KEITH: They found a duplicate one. Yeah.
SYLVIA: Okay, I totally misinterpreted that.
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. They found a duplicate one.
SYLVIA: Okay. That makes–okay. Hmm.
KEITH: This is the…Nevermind.
(AUSTIN and SYLVIA laugh)
SYLVIA: I just run out and tackle this other mascot. (KEITH laughs)
KEITH: Oh, yeah, no, that's good.
AUSTIN: Jesus Christ. Do you?
ART: Yeah, a mascot fistfight is a great second act closer.
AUSTIN: Oh, it really is. Maybe that–So maybe it isn’t an ensemble thing, maybe it’s just a you thing.
SYLVIA: (laughing) Yeah, maybe.
KEITH: Is this the first–Well, hold on. Let's–Hold on. Is this the first ever baseball fight that happens before the game even starts? (AUSTIN laughs) Is this both, both–
ART: They’ve been playing baseball for like 150 years so probably not. (AUSTIN laughs)
KEITH: Okay, wow. It’s the first one I’ve ever seen is that both dugouts empty out before the game’s even started. Everyone faces off by pretending to face off.
ART: And then when it's over, they project the movie Face/Off on the jumbotron.
AUSTIN: Oh my god.
SYLVIA: I think–I think what happens Lou-Ellen sees this and their first reaction is,
SYLVIA (as Lou-Ellen): No, don’t do that to the flag! I polled them about this, they like that thing!
(AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN: And you just sprint out there.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, and uh, I want it to be shot like–It’s a weird show that we're crafting is that I'm just pulling from various shots I like from various directors and things, but I think it's almost like Spike Lee like, attached to you. You know, the kind of floating camera that’s like just a shot of your face.
ART: Ohh, I love it. That like the backward steady cam.
AUSTIN: The backward steady cam, yes.
ART: But like the person’s not actually walking, the person’s on like the dolly.
SYLVIA: The like dolly, yeah.
AUSTIN: The dolly shot, yeah yeah yeah. And you’re like going through the tunnels of the shitty minor league stadium and like, we'll be going past, you know, the maintenance staff and the field, you know, the field maintenance people, and like out into the–Your whole face brightens up when you step out into the sunlight, and then just like you just rage on your face. I think this is the crisis point. Let's do it.
SYLVIA: Wait, is it my face or is it just the mascot’s?
AUSTIN: The mascot. It's the mascot face, obviously. Right?
SYLVIA: Yeah, do I draw angry eyebrows on?
AUSTIN: No. I guess not, right? (laughs)
SYLVIA: Yeah, so it’s still smiling.
KEITH: Smiling, big smiling mascot face.
AUSTIN: Big Smiling face, but the music it's like something from Yeezus is playing for sure. Right? It's Black Skinhead. (SYLVIA laughs) It's something. It’s like, boom, boom, boom boom, boom.
KEITH: (crosstalk) Yeah, there’s just like a big hit. There’s a big slam on the first punch.
SYLVIA: It’s the um…Remember the mashup of, I think it was that and Personal Jesus that they used for the Atomic Blonde trailers?
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVIA: It’s that.
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVIA: For those like–That super like high concept action scene song playing in the background.
AUSTIN: 100%.
SYLVIA: The mascot fight.
KEITH: Just like blood on the smiling face of…
SYLVIA: I don’t think that far.
KEITH: No, you don’t think there’s any blood?
SYLVIA: I don’t know, I thought we were going for more of a CBS and not a HBO.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I don’t think we’re all the way–
KEITH: A little bit of blood.
AUSTIN: We'll see. We'll see what the roll is or what the cards say.
SYLVIA: True.
KEITH: It's–Here's the thing. It's not human blood, and that makes a difference in the ratings.
AUSTIN: It is. That is true. Can I just, wait, let me see. Is this the song?
[Black Skinhead/Personal Jesus mashup plays]
KEITH: Is the blood a different color? Is that…
SYLVIA: There’s like a mash-up of it on Youtube.
AUSTIN: It’s like somebody else’s mash-up. Yeah, but this is the mash-up.
SYLVIA: It’s not that one, but it’s good.
AUSTIN: This is pretty good.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright, I'm going to risk getting sued by Kanye West twice in one week.
ART: We’re all the way fair use on the other end.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, true. All right. Give me the…Give me, what do you want to–I think I'm going to spend, what's my budget at? 12? I'm going to spend three on this. Give me four cards.
KEITH: This is just you and Lou-Ellen, right?
AUSTIN: Correct.
KEITH: Got it.
SYLVIA: Okay, I’m obviously going to spend my fanmail for this.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: I think Art and I should each do one. That’s my…I’m definitely going to do it, I’m recommending.
ART: I think I want to hold onto fanmail right now. I’m a little worried about…
AUSTIN: Everything?
ART: Everything.
AUSTIN: Fair.
KEITH: If I spend one, I still have one. So I'm going to say, I'm gonna give one.
AUSTIN: I just realized, also you spent one last time, right Sylvia?
SYLVIA: Yeah. Can I not use it then?
AUSTIN: No, you did. You did. I just have to mark it on your sheets at the bottom.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I gave it to Art.
AUSTIN: To Art, yeah. One second, cause we’re actually wait–It was one, two, three. This is the third scene, right? In the second act.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Three, four, five, six. There we go.
SYLVIA: I'm trying to think of any other way I can get an extra card here. And I can’t leverage my beefy friend anymore. Um, Jack.
ART: That’s a shame, he would be real useful in this fight.
AUSTIN: Wait, yes you can! Yes you can.
SYLVIA: I can?
AUSTIN: You only used him once.
SYLVIA: Oh, I thought he got cashed out after I used him once.
AUSTIN: No, you use them twice.
KEITH: No, each one gets used twice.
AUSTIN: You have–up to whatever–It’s up to whatever your screen presence is inside the episode.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: So you want to do both of those?
SYLVIA: Hell yeah. I wanna–Jack, back me up!
AUSTIN: All right. So that's two more. So that’s four, anybody else helping here?
KEITH: Oh, I'm–Yeah, I'm giving one.
AUSTIN: And also you're giving one so that's five cards for you. All right. I mean, mark it.
KEITH: Five versus three. There’s no way this could also go wrong again.
AUSTIN: I really hope it goes right.
SYLVIA: Keith, why do you have to do that to me?
AUSTIN: Alright.
SYLVIA: (unintelligible crosstalk)
ART: (unintelligible crosstalk)
KEITH: (crosstalk) What? I’m giving you support. I’m giving you audible support.
AUSTIN: All right. And I spent–I spent, what did I say I spent? Three?
KEITH: You said three.
AUSTIN: So then I’m down to nine on my budget. Alright. Playing them. One. Again, make sure the right two are over to the fanmail side.
SYLVIA: Oh.
AUSTIN: Alright, ready?
SYLVIA: Uh, yeah.
AUSTIN: Flip card. Didn’t flip all my cards.
KEITH: Oh, Oh. Oh!
(AUSTIN gasps)
AUSTIN: That's a win! And a high card!
ART: That’s a win!
SYLVIA: What's up, motherfucker.
KEITH: Is that a yes, and?!
AUSTIN: It’s a yes, and. Our first yes, and. So I got a 10 of clubs black, 4 of diamonds red, queen of spades black, and eight of hearts red. Sylvia got two black cards, queen and king of clubs and then nine of diamonds, five of hearts, ace of hearts. That's a yes. You get what you–oh, this is a plot scene, I'm guessing?
SYLVIA: Uh huh. I think so, yeah?
AUSTIN: Yes. You get what you want and you keep it together. So what's this even look like?
SYLVIA: I don’t know how I’m able to keep it together, but I think what happened.
AUSTIN: You’re not high strung, right? So maybe that actually completely–
KEITH: Yeah, you fucking let loose.
AUSTIN: That changes what that dolly shot looks like, right? And so like maybe instead of this, like you come out. Okay. [MUSIC ends] So, so the Personal Jesus.
ART: You got the Inside Man Denzel Washington dolly shot.
AUSTIN: Yes. Exactly. Yes, we get, I think we get your own Personal Jesus, Black Skinhead mashup playing as you're inside the tunnels, but then you step outside into the light and everything just like goes quiet and it's just like, you're completely calm. You're totally calm. As you–
KEITH: Yeah, this is the–Oh, sorry. You can go.
AUSTIN: As you glide across the green to this other fucking mascot. What were you gonna say, Keith?
KEITH: I was going to say, this is the version of kicking someone's ass where it's not that you snap. It's where you fucking, just like, like everything was like, “Oh yeah, I got to do it. I'm going to do it.”
AUSTIN: Right. What's it look like, Lou-Ellen?
SYLVIA: I think the first move is that I bonk the mascot hat off of it.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: It's a very clumsy fight. We're both in mascot suits.
AUSTIN: You are both in–
KEITH: Yeah. That’s not like the most–
SYLVIA: This is the opposite of any Echo scene in Twilight Mirage.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: This is like the least graceful it can be.
KEITH: Bonk is not like a traditional fight word.
AUSTIN: It isn't.
SYLVIA: It’s not.
AUSTIN: So that, that reveals underneath is just the Bloom head. The hydra hydrangea.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, so what's the second move?
SYLVIA: Uh, the second move is I did leverage Jack's help.
AUSTIN: Oh, you did.
SYLVIA: And this is a not a typical way people would think Jack would help, ‘cause most people think, “Oh, big arms, big strong.” But no, you know, that thing you–
AUSTIN: That’s what the Jack t-shirts say. “Big arms, big strong.”
SYLVIA: “Big arms, big strong.” (KEITH laughs) And then there’s an arm under each one, like underlining it.
KEITH: Strongdor, like, something fucking weird. (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yep! Yep!
SYLVIA: And so what Jack does though, is. You know that mean thing kids do where you're at the pool and someone like crouches down behind someone so you can push them over and they fall in the pool.
AUSTIN: Uh huh.
SYLVIA: They do that,
AUSTIN: Oh my God,
SYLVIA: But they fall on the grass. So they're just like, embarrassed and then I pick up the American flag and hold it up and run around.
AUSTIN: Uh, perfect. You're riding with the flag and people are like cheering for you.
SYLVIA: Yeah. Yeah!
AUSTIN: Cause it's like, Oh wow. Like totally. They came across like a heel. You actually get to be the good guy for once. And we, before we cut to commercial, what we get is like the sports center coverage of this, where it's like, [02:45:00]
AUSTIN (as sports center host): And today in Bloomington, a head of a minor league scuffle between the Bloomington Blooms and the Bluff City Black Jackets. We had a second little scuffle of their own as the Bluff City's own mascot revealed a dastardly ploy from the Bloomington–From Indiana’s own favorite minor league team.
AUSTIN: Uh, and then the footage has shown and, and everyone is like laughing at the Bloom.
KEITH: The move that Jack did, that’s table topping, by the way.
AUSTIN: Oh, perfect.
SYLVIA: Thank you, perfect!
AUSTIN: You know what it is? It is the actual shot there. So we would get like the closeup of that, of that sports center coverage. And then it zooms out slowly to reveal that it's Poly Patio with a cigar in his hand watching. And then like when you push him over, we see him snip the end of the cigar and then it fades. I know it was only half of an episode but you give it the old, give it the old full episode closure for some reason. It’s a 30 minute–
SYLVIA: We resolved the B-plot.
KEITH: Well, there’s two…
AUSTIN: Well, we’re in the middle of resolving it, I’d say.
KEITH: Here’s the thing. The baseball is the dramatic–is the dramatic angle, but the show is like the plot.
AUSTIN: Right. And we still don't have the solution to that plot yet.
KEITH: No.
AUSTIN: We still haven’t shot something in Bloomington.
KEITH: Yeah, none of what just happened. It all feel great.
AUSTIN: It does.
KEITH: None of it helps the world not get blown up.
AUSTIN: Right. We'll get there. All right. I think it's going to do it for us. Uh, are we good with that for today?
KEITH: I’m good.
ART: Yeah, that’s great.
SYLVIA: Definitely great ending.
AUSTIN: This game's cool as hell.
KEITH: Yeah, I love this game. This is a great game.
SYLVIA: This game’s really fun.
AUSTIN: Oh, does anyone wanna give fanmail?
KEITH: Oh, yeah, I’m definitely giving Lou-Ellen fanmail.
ART: Yeah, absolutely.
AUSTIN: Alright. So both of you get it. And I'll also, I need to, uh.
KEITH: Is that, is that the last two in the pool?
AUSTIN: No, no no. Because I just spent three, remember? So one, two, three. So that means of those three, You're both giving one to Sylvia. So one.
KEITH: So you still get a net one in the pool.
AUSTIN: Oh, was one of those red? I totally missed it.
SYLVIA: Uh, yes, one of them was red. One was red.
AUSTIN: Okay, so I go back up to 10 in the budget and so yes, then–
SYLVIA: Also make sure you remove one of my fanmail cards, ‘cause I used one.
AUSTIN: Oh, okay. Good call.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Boom.
KEITH: Oh, also remove one of mine, cause I helped.
AUSTIN: Yes, you also used. Boom. All right. So yeah. I think that the economy here is really cool. I really like–I shouldn't be surprised. Again, this is–This game has been like, well-regarded/loved for 14 years now.
KEITH: This is great.
AUSTIN: And it’s from an era where lots of people are trying to figure out card economy, mechanics like this at some point. Like ‘With Great Power’ is probably just not playable on Roll20, Art.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, but we should talk about ‘With Great Power’ on a tips game or something, cause there's a lot of games trying to do the things that this game are doing and this game does super well, which is like actually structure something sort of like the feeling of another type of media. I love how this stuff is playing out. I'm really digging it.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, all right. We will be back.
ART: Send us a question about ‘With Great Power’
AUSTIN: Pleaaaaase do. Please do.
KEITH: Do we have like a timetable on when we're going to do another one of these?
AUSTIN: I would like to do it–I would love to do it early next month, so that we can keep the momentum going.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
KEITH: You mean April, like in a day? Two days.
AUSTIN: Two days, two days, I have PAX next weekend. So probably not PAX weekend.
KEITH: Yeah, I wasn’t sure if you were being loose with next month.
AUSTIN: No, I meant–Early April is what I meant.
KEITH: Got it.
AUSTIN: Um, so probably once I'm back from PAX. Like I'd love to sneak it in before that–Maybe, maybe if I'm going to some place, I could do it, but we'll look at scheduling.
KEITH: I have not secured PAX tickets, but I have secured that I'm not going to be working during PAX.
AUSTIN: So we should, we should hang out. We'll talk.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, if you're going to be at PAX, I'm going to be there doing a Waypoint panel on Saturday. Next Saturday. Um, From the Bumblebee theater. It's 2:30. That's all I'm going to say about that. Uhh.
ART: Named after the Transformer.
AUSTIN: Presumably, presumably.
SYLVIA: You guys couldn't even get to the Optimus theater? Or like?
AUSTIN: No.
SYLVIA: Auto Hot Rod! He’s cool.
AUSTIN: Definitely could not get the Hot Rod theater. We’ll probably fill out the Bumblebee theater. I'll be happy to do that, and then that's all I need.
KEITH: Uh, Run Button live show, April 28th. Last Saturday in April, that’s a hot media tip from Austin from last time I said this.
AUSTIN: That’s true. Wait, when was it?
KEITH: Last Saturday in April, 7:00 PM Eastern time.
AUSTIN: There it is. Last saturday. That’s it. Look forward to that. Add that to your, add that to your calendar.
KEITH: (Crosstalk) Put that in your calendar.
AUSTIN: Exactly.
KEITH: On your gcal.
AUSTIN: Where can people find you, Keith?
KEITH: You can find me on Twitter @KeithJCarberry. You can find the Let's Plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton. Maybe you've never seen Run Button. Maybe you don't know what you're getting into with this marathon that you’re gonna come watch. You should go watch some videos. Sign up to the Patreon contentburger.biz. Watch the Shenmue Let's Play. That's the best thing that we've ever done. Yeah. Watch–I mean, there's free too. Watch the free too.
AUSTIN: Uh, Sylvia, how about you?
SYLVIA: Hey, uh, so like I said, my Twitter's @captaintrash. Um, I'm also on videogamechoochoo.com, but the thing I've been really proud of lately outside of this show is Emojidrome, the other podcast that I've started with my friend, Ryan. We actually just did an alien themed episode that just dropped today at the time of recording. Um, so if you want to give us a listen, we're both on iTunes and available on the internet in many forms.
AUSTIN: And Art.
ART: Hey, you can find me on Twitter @atebbel. Also on Twitter, you can see this picture of the New Day, cosplaying as the Black Panther characters and it’s awesome.
AUSTIN: Oh shit. That sounds great.
SYLVIA: Yeah, it’s real good.
KEITH: Oh, I saw that. That was really good.
ART: Yeah, and uh, check out One Song Only at onesongonly.com and @onesongpod on Twitter, is that right? One song podcast…Onesongpod on twitter.
AUSTIN: Onesongpod on twitter, correct.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright, that's going to do it for us. Uh, again–
KEITH: It’s a time capsule where it plays one song, you go in and it lulls you to sleep with one song.
AUSTIN: Wait, Samantha says, “Wait, where?” I don’t know what they’re wait, whereing and I wish I could say. Uh, if you respond quick enough, we'll respond in chat, probably.
KEITH: youtube.com/runbutton. That’s where.
AUSTIN: That’s probably where.
KEITH: It is youtube.com/runbutton.
AUSTIN: As always, thank you for watching the show and for supporting us.
If you'd like to support us more, or if you want to check, catch up on things like Mapmaker. friendsatthetable.cash. Oh, New Day thing. Yes. Just where, where are those pictures at?
SYLVIA: It’s on Xavier Woods’ twitter.
ART: It’s Xavier Woods’ twitter.
AUSTIN: There you go.
SYLVIA: I tried to link it, but YouTube won't let me, cause we have links turned off obviously.
AUSTIN: Oh, I need to just–Say something else and I’ll mod you.
(pause)
SYLVIA: Hello.
ART: The weird thing is, I thought Kofi Kingston looked like he was doing Killmonger hair this week on SmackDown and then he's T’Challa.
AUSTIN: Oh. Huh.
SYLVIA: I tried sending it again and it didn't work.
AUSTIN: I got you. I just, I just modded you. I just modded you.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: Ah, all right. Everybody, that’s gonna do it for us.
SYLVIA: There we go.
AUSTIN: I’m gonna go eat more crab rangoon. Bye!
KEITH: Uh, wait, Austin, real quick. Can you also mod me?
AUSTIN: Oh, yes. Did it unmod you?
KEITH: Run Button is modded, I’m not.
AUSTIN: Okay, you’re modded. (laughs) Alright everybody, that’s gonna do it for us. We'll try to catch back up with this very soon. Peace!
ART: Don’t we usually clap at the end of a live?
AUSTON: Oh, we do clap at the end of a live. I’m tired y’all.
SYLVIA: Yeah, no same.
AUSTIN: Um.
KEITH: I’m feeling really good.
ART: 55?
AUSTIN: Yeah, 55. Yeah, yeah yeah, are you there, Sylvia?
SYLVIA: Yeah yeah, I’m good.
AUSTIN: Okay.
[FOUR CLAPS]
AUSTIN: Okay, that was alright.
KEITH: Yeah, it was good.
SYLVIA: I’m glad my voice decided to go out right at the end of recording.
AUSTIN: Seriously.
SYLVIA: Halfway through.
AUSTIN: I feel you. Alright, bye!
KEITH: Later, this game was really fun!
SYLVIA: Bye, see you guys later. Oh, what are we saving this as?
[EPISODE END - 2:52:46]