Speaker 1: Hello, friends, and welcome to Theme Party the Podcast. I'm
your party host, Merita Mose In case this is your
first time listening to a TPTP episode, here is what
we're doing. Every season, I pick a theme and our
team comes up with their own ideas for an audio
drama that somehow fits that theme, even if it only
fits if you have to say, oh, let me switch
this right past you. Once they have made their episode,
I invite them to talk about it. I am thrilled
to be here with my party guest, Tyler Hrchuk. Tyler
is a voice actor, voiceover instructor and coach, a copywriter, improviser,
and the person that brings Shrimpy the Shrimp to LFE
for the Disney Zombies series. Tyler, please say hello.
Speaker 2: Hello Marie. Thank you so much for having own you.
Speaker 1: No, not the Marite. Oh god, okay, Well for this series,
what I'm doing at the top of every episode is
I am telling everybody what kind of party I think
they would be, And for you, I think you would
be a sports party, get together watching a big game,
celebrating an event. I specifically think for you of a
mayor and football. I don't know if that would be
your sportive choice. But that is when I think of
a bunch of people sitting around watching the game talking
about sports, just because I know how athletic you are,
how much you enjoy being at a crowd of people
and having a common thing to experience together while also
having casual side conversations and not having to focus too
much on the main event. Does that sound like an
accurate description?
Speaker 2: First off, I brought an onion dip. Can I go
on the fridge or yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of room just on the bottom shelf.
Speaker 2: Awesome, thank you. It depends on who you'd ask. I
think I think I could see sports party for sure.
I'm not as athletic these days, more so just because
that's what happens as you get older, you find less
time for stuff. I would say I'm probably more of like, oh,
I've become more of a theater kill in my older age.
Speaker 1: Oh no. Switching to the other side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like more board game party of some kind,
as cringey, as like let's do some improv at this party?
Seems like that also seems fun to me. But I
also will say I was at We'll get to this,
I guess later but I was at a party this
weekend and there was a sports themed game and I
gravitated to it very quickly. All right, So ultimately a
party where there's activities, and I find it insane for
people who are like I just I hate being involved
in activities and games and things like that. I'm like,
you're not fun.
Speaker 1: I agree, even like when my family gets together and
we're all just sitting around doing our own thing. Maybe
it's because I'm like on the cusp of extra version,
but just having a common thing that people can do
rather than just waiting for conversation to come up organically
after you've kind of worked through all the casual chit
chat and small talk and stuff, having like hey, let's
play cards, let's build a lego set or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it depends on like the crowd too.
That's what I loved about parties in college and in
my early twenties, where there was beer pong, Oh yeah,
go stand by the table, watch you interact. Oh, there's
flip cup, Oh there's this, there's games to be there. Now,
it's like you show up, everyone's just kind of standing around.
Maybe there's music, and you're like I don't know anybody here. Oh,
I know one person in the corner. I'm going to
stick to them like a barnacle on a ship.
Speaker 1: And then it's not really a party anymore. It's kind
of a casual hangout with other people around.
Speaker 2: Yes, And it takes a very adept and deft host
to be like, oh, Tyler Moretta, like you two have
this thing in common. My so they're at least like
trying to encourage like conversation.
Speaker 1: Yep, you mentioned improv parties. What is what is your
favorite improv game to pull out at a party, maybe
with not other people who are familiar with improv.
Speaker 2: One that I did over the weekend in a class
and then last night over zoom Voo. Unfortunately you weren't
weren't able to make it, but I got it off
of There's a podcast called Bad Friends with Andrew Santino
and Bobby Lee, and I don't normally watch it, but
I see YouTube shorts and stuff all the time, and
Santino was like, oh, I ran into You'll never guess
who I saw. I saw Patrick Mahomes and Bobby is
notoriously bad. I don't know if this is a bit
or he's just genuinely dumb. He was like, oh the
basketball player, Oh god, and Andrew immediately went, yeah, he
plays for the Dallas Mavericks. And then they went back
and forth a couple times, and then Bobby's like, wow,
that's right, and he's like, no, he's a quarterback for
the Kansas City Chiefs. So I kind of co opted
that into a game, getting people to like claim that
they saw a famous person and then the person they're
talking to to misrepresent them, like immediately wow. And it
was interesting because some of the students were like they
had trouble agreeing to something they knew was blatantly false.
They'd be like, well, no, actually, and I'm like, no,
that person that that's correct, it's yes and yes. One
of my favorite ones was, oh, you never guess who
I saw at the coffee shop Brad Pitt. Oh, Brad Pitt,
the famous pope. He's my favorite pope. And then that
led to like it did say it sort of back
and forth.
Speaker 1: Not only Brad Pitt, the my favorite pope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then there was Robert Downey Junior and someone
was like, oh, he runs the kissing booth at the
fair or something, and I was like it's so fun.
And then that led to so much humor because everyone
was like, that's not right.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that especially it's not just over and
over again like this sportsball person from this other team
that they're not Actually that's yeah. Improv is great. That's
so impressive, And what a skill to build for acting
and improvisation and just life in general. To be able
to be silly and yeah, let's go down this crazy
path of what if.
Speaker 2: And it's a super pretentious thing I think to say,
but like improvisers give themselves the permission to be silly
and have fun. Not enough people do that in their
day to day life.
Speaker 1: So exactly. I appreciate that about you for sure. Well,
moving on, I guess the theme for this season is
family traditions. Tyler. Did your story fit the theme?
Speaker 2: I would say yes, yeah, so I would yeah, give
myself a check mark. It was a bit of a shoehorn,
but I'm in it one look, there's.
Speaker 1: A family in it. I assume by now people listening
to this interview have listened to the episode. I don't
think there's if answer butts about it. I think it
fits for sure. Your episode title was light Bulbs, would
you care to read us your log line and your tagline.
Speaker 2: Shine bright for what you believe in Hugh, a young
incandescent light bulb balances his hopes and dreams with his
mother's expectations.
Speaker 1: Oh beautiful. I love the announcer voice for it. Very nice.
Tyler's roles in making this episode include co founder of
Lengthy Tangent, a voice actor, producer, writer, sound engineer and designer,
and the director. Let's listen to a sample of your episode.
Other bulbs just saw him as entertainment.
Speaker 2: And you don't want to be entertainment.
Speaker 1: I want to be illuminary, a guiding light for all bulbs. Well,
I think you're pretty luminous, Hugh. It's only a matter
of time before a gang of those protest to steak
up behind me.
Speaker 2: And you don't know where choreo? Who needs huge leotard
when I've got my own? And who says I don't
know your choreo? I wouldn't be much of a fan
if I didn't.
Speaker 1: Well please wait.
Speaker 2: Wow, the sound design and writing and that was really good? Eh?
Speaker 1: Oh incredible? And I the acting also Chef's kiss so great? Tyler.
In creating your episode, did you learn anything new and
interesting since you've already done so much for the other
theme party podcasts.
Speaker 2: Yes, I learned more about light bulbs what just likes, Yeah,
sourcing sound effects, trying to co opt other sounds for
the sounds of light bulb related things, and even in
the writing of it, I created this sort of structures
hierarchy of light bulbs based on how long they burn.
And I didn't realize LED's friggin burn for a while. Yeah,
and they just don't take up much energy, which I
find fascinating, whereas incandescence or you know, shine bright and
get out of here, lefast die young.
Speaker 1: Did you happen to find out if all LEDs are
pretty much created equal or is there a hierarchy within
the hierarchy?
Speaker 2: That's a good question. There probably is that like the
point one percent of the one percent, but I don't
know exactly, and I think part of it is also
the century bulb. I want to say, it's an incandescent
and it's been burning for over one hundred years. Wow,
There's only been I think two or three like short outages,
but that was out of the control. But they just
like replace stuff in it while it continues to burn.
To my understanding, and that's not an led Yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's not like a true like this one bulb,
like a bulb in your house has been going on
for that long like that kind of it sounds like
they're kind of cheated a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I also don't want to. You know, I'm
really bad at pulling stuff out of my ass in
terms of like facts and whatnot. So whoever knows more
about light bulbs will be listening to this being like,
this isn't about real light bulb facts. Sorry, guys, that's okay.
Speaker 1: That's what improvisation is for. We've established that you can
pull things out of your ass that are not necessarily true,
and that's okay. Yes, did you learn anything interesting about
podcasting at all from your roles?
Speaker 2: Not necessarily?
Speaker 1: And if not, that's vital I'll cut this out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I mean I've been involved in a number
of podcasts in the past. I had my own podcasts
for a short period.
Speaker 1: You did.
Speaker 2: I had two. I had one where it was it
may still be on Spotify somewhere.
Speaker 1: Oh am, I just learning this.
Speaker 2: I think I called it six degrees or six degrees
of separation. It was a fun concept, but it was
just time consuming and.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna find this.
Speaker 2: I would press the random button on Wikipedia six different
times to get six pages, and then I would connect
each topic WHOA, and so it would be ridiculous and
crazy and silly, but also, I mean kind of makes sense.
And I did that in my parents' basemen. This would
have been like maybe six ish years ago. And then
I did a podcast with a roommate during COVID called
I Know Nothing, and we interviewed different folks to talk
about an interesting thing that they might have done. We
spoke to a comedian, we spoke to somebody who does
acro and silks and stuff. We spoke to a professional
karaoke singer. But this is all people in our network there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a professional karaoke singer. Yeah, how does one make
money as a karaoke singer?
Speaker 2: So it's a fine line. Whereas if you make X
amount of your income singing, you can't be involved in
the karaoke process because like you're seeing as like a
ringer kind of thing. So it's people who don't sing professionally.
That's part of it, okay, And then you get judged
based on the song you pick based on the performance,
like do you pick a song that's gonna play well
in the room or do you pick like a popular
radio song. You get judged based on like how you
dress as well. Maybe there's a fun costume element too.
And what was insane? My buddy, uh medium docs him Chris.
He's also a voice actor, a very good voice actor.
And we had to record the podcast I think three times.
The first time his computer crashed. No, I think it
was only two times. The first time his computer crashed
and then the second time. He didn't wear headphones, so
his mic picked up us talking through his computer speakers.
Oh no, And I'm like, dude, your voice actor, come.
Speaker 1: On, Chris, get it together.
Speaker 2: So we made it work. He was the only one
who had a professional setup and has sounded the worst
of everybody else else. I love you, Chris Well.
Speaker 1: Lessons learned, Oh my gosh. Yeah, if you were to
continue that podcast, would there be a dream career to
represent to interview somebody for.
Speaker 2: I would just kind of go down the occupational list
of stuff that truly in me, stuff that I never
would have thought, or preferably jobs that I had never
heard of. Yeah, I feel like the default. Oh you know, doctor,
you know, cop, teacher, whatever, But what makes a phlebotomis tick?
Speaker 1: You know, just that raw vampire urge to be around
blood all the time. I guess apparently, Yeah makes sense
to me for our listeners that might be interested in
making their own podcast. Do you have a software or
a workshop that you attended, or some equipment that you
find to be the most useful.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, I like my DOV choice is Reaper. I
very much enjoy that. And then in terms of sound
effects and stuff, that was an interesting experience. I have
a connection in my network Jeff Bremner. I want to
say Bremner. I got in touch with him about something
VEO related. I think he was involved in a podcast
that I was interviewed on, and then he was impressed
with my mic. Of course I'm not using the mic,
but the nick's for sixteen. It's on my other set up.
But he's like, oh, you have a four sixteen.
Speaker 1: Sennheiser four sixteen Gang, Yes.
Speaker 2: For sixteen t t for Tyler. But Jeff was like, oh,
it's a great mic, and I said, yeah, I know
a guy from Japan, you know, kind of sort of
fell off the truck, sort of situation, He's like, can
you get me one? So I hooked him up. He
felt like he owed me, so he gave me a
link to like his I want to say, it's freeesound
dot org account, and he's like, I put sound effects
on there all the time, Like, you're more than welcome
to use any of those. Wow, I used some of those,
I think in this somewhere. And then having cool friends
who do stuff, so all of the music is from
one of my best friends, Matt Ryman, who does just
kind of music hobby music on the side, and he
was more than happy to throw down some stuff based
on what I described. And then I think, I all, wow, right, yeah, that.
Speaker 1: Is so cool. Yeah, that is. That's one thing about
voiceover and making podcasts that the people that you meet
in these industries and the way that you can incorporate
the relationships you have outside of it really make the
experience so much more rich. And I don't know where
I would be personally without all of the people that
I know through doing this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I agree. It's very much a found community
and everyone loves getting involved, however much or however little
they're able to based on their bandwidth and their life
and having an outlet like this, I think is really awesome.
It's a bit different, I find for me because trying
to find the time during the day to work on this,
because after hours, I'm like, I've been doing this sort
of thing all day, so that is a bit harder
for me. But then I hear stories of Lindsay being like,
I'm breastfeeding and you know, sound engineering, and I'm like,
I guess, so, I guess I should probably trive it.
Speaker 1: More anything for the job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Relatable. Oh boy, Lindsay, if you're listening, we appreciate you
and all the work and time you put into making
podcasts come to life. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Was there a podcast production role that you took on
for the first time for this episode, and if so,
how did it go?
Speaker 2: The closest thing might be directorial, But I think I've
done everything in every facet of the podcast that I
was involved in. I'd done a version of that prior.
I equate the directorial sort of role to what I've
been doing for years in our discord, facilitating voiceover workouts
and giving feedback and whatnot. So maybe formally directing, but yeah,
that's all I can think of I've written for years
and years. That was my original job and voiceovers copywriter
for in radio broadcasting, so that's not new. The sound
design isn't new for me. Maybe more on this scale
is a bit newer, But for the most part, yeah,
it's all. I've done it, most of it before.
Speaker 1: Very cool. As far as how did it go, did
you find anything with directing through Zoom to be Since
you also do the improv stuff in person and you're
around other actors in person unlike some of us, do
you find it more challenging to do direction and acting
through Zoom versus in person or is it just different
and easier in other ways.
Speaker 2: I like the convenience of Zoom, and I like the
fact that you know it can connect people all over
and I don't think any of us really were in
the same city, let alone state, let alone province for
recording this stuff. Actually that's we have a bunch of
New Yorkers. But yeah, so I prefer convenience from Zoom
for that fact. But a couple of weeks ago, I
did an in person podcast, well more of an audio play,
and that was really cool getting to perform in the
room with people and kind of pick up the vibes,
you know, Oh it's feeling tense in here, or it's
feeling really fun and silly. I'm gonna play more. So
I think they each have their own, you know, strengths
and merits. But yeah, I will say too that one
thing that I struggled with a little bit was because
I wrote it and I directed it. This is something
that I feel like I'm not alone with other creators
who do the same sort of thing, writing something and
being like, well, duh, it means this, yeah, and then
the actor being like so.
Speaker 1: I thought or that line should sound like this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or the actor being like, well I didn't get that,
and I'm like, oh crap. I guess they don't know
that this is happening unless an actor explicitly says it
or the scene direction is very clear, so writing you know,
so it's very very clear what's going on in the scene,
or letting the sound design kind of play that out
so then if it wasn't picked up during the recording,
trying to sound design something that makes it clear what's happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And as I said with Lindsay, just doing
that with sound design without having a picture to go
along with it, or a video to go along with it,
or something. Finding the very specific sound that sounds not
only like the thing you're trying to make it sound like,
but also like it's in the space that you're trying
to recreate is so tedious pirst of all to comb
through the hours and hours and hours of sound library
that are out there. I'm basically saying the same thing
that you just said.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but no, no need to apologize. I will
say one thing that surprised me, and I'm sure we
could put like an I will say counter in the
corner of this video or podcast. I've said that at
least half a dozen times now, and I'm no, I'm
refraining from saying it for this next part. Finding out
how many sound effects of the actual thing doing the
thing doesn't sound like the thing doing the thing. Mm hmm,
Like I'm like, oh, I'll just get, you know, two
pieces of wood and I'll muck them together, like that's
the sound of two pieces of No it's not yep, right,
Or oh, this door doesn't sound like a door, or yeah,
this piece of metal sounds not like a piece of metal.
So that was interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're specifically looking for different ways to come up
with sound of fabric interacting with an object. And there
are so many different ways that fabric can sound. And
if you have a specific object that they need to
interact with, like say like a cup or something, what's
a cup made out of? Does a cup have any
resonance to it? Once? Yeah, it's lots of layers and
trying to get it sound just right. You can waste
so much time trying to find the exact sound and
still never find it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that doesn't sound like volue or sound that sounds
like a polybleb.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how rude. While moving on to party questions, Tyler,
could you briefly describe a party that you've been to
that relates to the season's theme.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was recently at a diaper party for a
friend and improv buddy fifty percent of two guys with Fitbits.
We perform as a duo from time to time and
will be performing in the Toronto World's Biggest Improv tournament
in early twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent, Everybody check them out. Tyler is very funny.
I don't know his other half, but Tyler is very funny.
So you should go and seek out their content wherever
you can.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, of course. And so he's expecting
a child with his partner, and so it was a
diaper party, which I think is a new er thing
because it used to be, you know, baby showers, maybe
the husband or the dad would get taken out for
a couple of beers. So a diaper party is more
inclusive for everybody can come and hang out. And I
think it connects to the family tradition section because of
the fact that we were celebrating family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and literally making a family exactly.
Speaker 2: There was a diaper hole game, which sounds wrong, but
it was cornhole with like rolled up diapers as bean bags.
Speaker 1: Oh that's funny, super ingenius.
Speaker 2: And then there were nine pictures. Gareth has a brother,
and then the mom, Bessie, has four sisters, so there
were nine total baby pictures on the table and it's
like you had to identify who was who, and they
threw in a couple of randos, and of course Gareth
was like the one with the ridiculous combover that nobody
thought it was him.
Speaker 1: Really, Oh, that's so funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then they also they asked you to fill
in a thing, what do you think the birth date
will be because they had like an estimate, and then
what do you think the weight would be of the baby?
So if you guess right, you went a prize.
Speaker 1: So exciting. Do they have like a name and everything
picked out? I guess we don't have to docks the
baby on the podcast, but.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they have a name. Okay, I
was pushing really hard for Tyler, but probably not.
Speaker 1: I'll probably cut this out of the podcast. But I
recently had my debit card information used. Somebody was spending
my money and I had to deal with a banker
named Tyler, and I first of all thought of you,
but then I was also like a banker named Tyler.
That just feels straight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like I'm on that, like the top
end age wise of Tyler's. I feel like I've never
met a Tyler older than me. All the Tylers are younger.
But that's just my thought. Interesting now I have to
think it's a bunch of gen Z Tyler's going around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, huh, I guess I can't think if I know
any Tyler's my age or older.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you are quite older than me, so
that's possible.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Keep it.
Speaker 1: That's okay. I'm not as shamed of my age. That's fine.
Did anybody at the party discuss traditional baby shower games?
Because my understanding is diaper parties are popping up as
more popular because they are generally accepted to be co ed,
and then they're moving away from kind of the we're
going to sit and have cucumber sandwiches and drink tea
and sniff chocolates in a diaper as if it's poop.
Speaker 2: Whoa, you get into some weird stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're supposed to identify the chocolate bar, the melted
chocolate bar inside of a diaper, and it's supposed to
be really funny, like you're figuring out what the poop is.
Speaker 2: So I am, I'm so somewhat curious about that. But yeah,
so like traditional baby shower stuff, is that your question?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess at the party where people talking
about traditional baby showers and how how glad or not
glad they are of people moving away from them.
Speaker 2: No, but I almost wonder if it's because just as
a society, we're having kids at older ages now. So
I don't know that they're a couple of years older.
I think their early forties, okay, and so maybe a
decade older or so. But of the people that I
knew that were there, I was probably one of the
younger ones, but they It also didn't seem to be
a group of people that went to a lot of
baby showers or diaper party.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting.
Speaker 2: So yeah, when I think baby shower, I think, yeah,
like maybe tiara and a veil and a sash, and
it's in somebody's very pristine living room and it's not
the living room of the mom. And then yeah, you
just dote on the person and maybe there's some yeah,
inappropriate stuff with diapers and chocolate and whatever else.
Speaker 1: What is the most memorable party that you've been too?
Speaker 2: So I lived in you can cut this down for
time too if you want. I lived in Australia for
two years and I moved to Melbourne, Australia, and there
was a Facebook group this is ten ish years ago,
that connected backpackers who are looking for places to stay
and you know, find sharehouses whatever. There was a post
from this Japanese woman and she was like, hey, like
I'm new to the city, blah blah blah, And so
I liked it and I commented on it for visibility.
I'm like, I'm just going through and being friendly and
she DMS me and she's like, Hi, you seem nice.
I would be happy to share a space with. And
I'm like stranger danger dude, Like I just liked your post.
What are you doing? And that was foreshadowing because she
had she's like a quaka, just like walking up to predators,
just being like, oh, friends, you'll find Shane's friends. So anyways,
this is not going to work out because she went
to a sharehouse h and then she's like, oh, Tyler,
this place is great, Like come check it out with me.
It's awesome, like super friendly. There's free food, and I
was like okay. So we go there and it's this
older guy. He insists on hugging us, and I'm like,
this is a weird start. He's showing us around. There's
the bedrooms are pretty big, but they're also divided by
curtains to make more space for more people. I'm like,
I don't love that there was one inside bathroom. In Australia,
it's very common to have an outside bathroom like an outhouse,
just for space wise. Okay, so he's saying that there
were six or seven people there. They had chickens and
ducks outside. He was contemplating making a hot tub and
like having people help out, and then I think at
one point something ran across the floor. He insisted that
we drink this like very fresh water that he had
in a jug that was sparkling mineral water, but it
was also from a mountain stream. I'm like, that's fishy,
you know.
Speaker 1: Can we pause for a second. You said something ran
across the floor. Are we talking like a small mammal
or an insect or what do we? A snake?
Speaker 2: What do we? I guess they don't think it was
a small mammal. It might have been like a mouse
or a rat. I'm not sure. Yeah, And I'm like
I'm looking over my friend and she's like like thumbs
up and I'm smiling, and I'm like, are you dumb?
Like this is terrible? And then it was coming to
an end, and he was like any other questions. I'm like, oh,
oh yeah. In my head, I'm like, there's no way
I'm living here. But also I was like, so moy
said something about free food and he goes, oh, yeah,
I'm a freagan. I packedic freaganism and I'm like, what
is that and he says, you know, once every few days,
once every week, me and a couple of housemates go
behind like the Woolworths down the street and we just
see what we can find in the dumpster.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: And I was like, thank you so much, goodbye, listen
so and pivoting. So this is this is the person
that I'm dealing with. Somebody who thought this was an
okay situation prior to me coming to kind of see.
She messages me a couple days later and she goes,
I met this guy on Tinder. He invited me to
his house party and I was like, huh. She's like
I want to go, and I'm like, have fun. I
fear for your safety, like I will come along. And
so this was like an hour north of Melbourne. This
was like in the sticks kind of. She picked me up,
like in the city. We drove up there and we
go to this house and it's like kind of white,
trashy sort of vibes, and he's so excited to see her,
and I'm like, this is really weird. I find a
beer pong table, so I'm chat with the people there.
She's chatting off with him and they're talking about Pakistan's
nuclear arsenal, and I'm like, this is not party conversation.
Speaker 1: What kind of party is it?
Speaker 2: And I'm also like looking at the house, I'm like this,
I wasn't expecting to talk about geopolitical stuff here.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: At one point, apparently she accidentally walked into the quote
unquote sex room because there are people just like sorry, yeah,
there are people just like going. And then they were like, oh,
so sorry about that, like close the door on your
way out. And then she had, you know, smoked some
weed with them and stuff, and I was like, look,
the trains are stopping soon. I need to hop on
a train to get home. Are you okay to stay here?
And she's like yeah, it's fine, I'm fine. I'm totally fine.
I'm like, you're sure. She's a grown woman, right, huh?
And I met her a week and a half ago,
so I'm like, huh, okay, I'm leaving, this is your
life and she's like yeah, if I'm staying here. Fast
forward now she's married with a kid so to an
Australian guy. So I guess she figured something out, but
it wasn't the same guy.
Speaker 1: Lots to unpack here but yeah, that.
Speaker 2: Was an interesting party.
Speaker 1: Lots to unpack here. Yeah, why did you continue talking
to her?
Speaker 2: The entertainment factor?
Speaker 1: I guess how would we have these stories if you
had not continued to answer her. Yeah, I don't even
know what to say, to be honest with you, because
there's a lot that happened in that one night, let
alone the entire situation. So you are still in touch
with her.
Speaker 2: I mean, I see stuff. I don't know that I've
spoken to her in years, but like the pictures of
her and her kid like pop up from time to time.
After I left Australia. There was the odd hey, how's
it going, But just the cultural differences coming from Japan
in your like early mid thirties to Australia, it's like
a wild place. And she's just like, oh, you're offering
me drugs for free? What a bargain? Like that's the
sort of vibe that I was getting. I'm like, lady,
have some sort of discernment. Yeah, be wary.
Speaker 1: She's still alive though, that is the important takeaway I think,
and clearly doing it.
Speaker 2: And she's responsible for the growth and nourishment of a child.
Speaker 1: Imagine having her as a mother in law someday, just
like piecing out bits and pieces of her life from
stories that she shares. I wonder if she talks about
any of that stuff, or if she's even aware that
it is worth being talked about. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's what it comes down to. She's
just like, well that was Saturday. Yeah, what's gonna happen Sunday.
Speaker 1: I'm so boring and compared to some people, I'd rather
be boring.
Speaker 2: And alive than fun and death.
Speaker 1: That is very true, man. I want to hear more
about your travels and your experiences with your parties. Are
there any other parties from your travels to other countries
that are good story fodder for the podcast.
Speaker 2: When I lived in Thailand, I lived in like semi rural,
rural Thailand, And there was one time where I was
walking to like it was like a community and there
were small houses and whatnot. And I lived in a
house and I was taking my laundry to the laundry
mat down the street and it was like ten in
the morning maybe, and these guys were all outside drinking
and I'm like cool, and they're like, come drink, come drink.
I was like, I'm doing the laundry. I waited for it.
On the way back, they're like, come drink. I'm like,
let me put the laundry away first. And these guys
have been drinking since the night before. Guys were already
passed out at like ten thirty in the morning.
Speaker 1: Oh you're not gonna start drinking at ten o'clock in
the morning, obviously, Tyler.
Speaker 2: That's true. And then my friend came who was like
my neighbor also from Canada. It just so happened that
we got placed in the same town. So we're drinking
with them, and then one guy's like, you guys like karaoke, Like,
we'll go to this place that I know that has karaoke,
and we're like okay. We get in the car, and
that was an interesting experience. He had like a ball
of sticky rice on the dashboard. That sounds like a
racist stereotype. It actually like he had a ball of
sticky rice on the dashboard. That's not a euphemism for anything.
Just rolling around and he was like passing people's kind
of country roads. We get to this place and it's
like a pretty nice big house on like some property,
and my friend and I were looking at each other like,
there's no karaoke here. What happened? There's no carryo And
they brought food out and in that corner of the world,
it's like, oh, you're white. This is cool. I'll have
a story to tell my friends if I hang out
with a white person. That was the vibes. That was
a wild party. But that leads to one of my
co teachers. After I left, got married, and so I
went back for the wedding and I was in the
wedding party. So I was in like an authentic tie
wedding experience and that was cool.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And so being in the wedding party, you know, you're
part of the festivities. They walked down the street, they
went to the bride's parents' house and the groom was like,
I'm coming in to get your honey in Thai and
he has to stop at each of the bridesmaids and say,
you know, what can I do for you to be
allowed to pass to go to the next person to
get into the house to get my bride. And someone's like,
you know, do ten push ups or give me two
hundred butt or whatever. And then we went inside and
then people were giving the groomsman money nat one older
Thaie woman was like super friendly, like oh, like a
like smiling and holding my arm and stuff saying something.
And a friend was like, she's offering her granddaughter and
I'm like no, And so that was a cool experience,
just being a part of the wedding. And then of
course there was carryoak yet the reception. And I was
also invited to another wedding that I didn't go to
because I didn't know the person. They were just a
teacher and they invited all the teachers at the school.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: And in Tai they have Thai names and they have
Anglicized names, but they usually pick their anglicized names. So
I have, I think, on my court board outside, I
have the wedding invitation and it says the name of
the couple, the bride and groom. Their names were Nut
and top Oh because they chose those names.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you at I'll ask them why they chose
those names or did they just.
Speaker 2: Like I never spoke to them because we didn't end
up going to the wedding because we didn't have rides
and it was like a early on a Saturday morning
and we were just too knackered from the week.
Speaker 1: Sure, Wow. Well, it was a long journey to get here,
but we're at the end of the episode. Tyler, it's
been a pleasure chatting with you before we go. Could
you please tell the people what you're promoting or celebrating
right now.
Speaker 2: I'm promoting work life balance.
Speaker 1: I'd love that for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sometimes I take too much advantage of the work
life balance and the life part versus the work part.
But yeah, it takes some time to enjoy things that
you like in life. Not everything's work work work. Don't
live to work, work to live. I think that's the
right order of operations for that. And then yeah, listen
to Theme Party, listen to the Collection of Wire Graves,
listen to the first season at Peculiar Radio. Because we're
working on season two. I've just dated this episode as
well by saying that that's okay, and follow me on
Instagram at Tyler hirtschuk Vo. Watch the Disney Zombie movies
only Zombies two and Zombies three. Those are the only
ones I'm in. They did not fly me to New
Zealand to be in Zombies four. I don't think Shrimpy
was in Zombies one. Also a Shrimpy connection here Moretta
is the wonderful creator of my shrimpy plush that is
on my bookcase outside exquisitely made.
Speaker 1: Yes, I needle felt it as shrimpy for Tyler did.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was beautiful. So I'm going to be on
this podcast. We already recorded it, but I voice a
prisoner with two other improvisers interviewing me, and it gets
very silly and fun, and it's called Ravantha's Most Dangerous Prisoners.
Speaker 1: Most Dangerous Prisoners.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I don't know when the episode's coming out,
but they were very interested to see me playing a
inanimate object turned animate. Uh. I think I said I
was a bar rag and I was bitten by like
an alcohol like somebody with alcoholics. What?
Speaker 1: Okay? First of all, what led to making that choice?
And also what powers does a drunk imbue into a
bar rag when they when they bite the bar rag?
Speaker 2: Just life, it seems, okay, I have an affinity for
inanimate objects, hence writing a whole episode about light bulbs. Sure, yeah,
I think I think I was just a bar rag
and I spoke like this. I didn't have any powers. Oh,
I could just I just sopped stuff up, you know,
you spell something. I just sopped it up. Wow, and
I rang it. Oh. And so what happened was I
was in jail because I got caught a bootlegging because
I was purposefully causing patrons to drop their alcohol and
I would stop it up and I would ring it up,
ring it out over a barrel, and then I would
sell just the dregs to make money.
Speaker 1: At the very least, it is very ingenious.
Speaker 2: It was wild.
Speaker 1: Speaking of yes, Anding, holy cow, good job. I really
like your promoting of work life balance. Is there a
reason in particular that you recently have been focusing more
on working to live rather than living to work.
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of more cause and effect the
work that I've been getting in. Earlier in my career
as a voiceover artist and voice actor, I was auditioning
a ton, you know, fifteen hundred times a year. Maybe
I've cut that in half now. And because I'm very
fortunate and that I have repeat clients and I have
work coming to me, I'm not as focused on bringing
in more clients. And because that's so much of being
a voice actor is auditioning and you know, marketing and
finding leads and stuff. Yeah, I've just kind of reassessed
what I need to do to continue to make money,
and the fact that I'm teaching, you know, a few
times a week as well as helpful. I'm narrating more
audiobooks now so and we just recently moved at the
beginning of the summer, so there's more stuff to do
around the house as well.
Speaker 1: I will add on to your promo that Tyler is
the t in LTM. So if you happen to stumble
across LTM and you're interested in participating in Tyler's a
voiceover workout, or if workshops come up, or if you
have any questions about voiceover or setting up a booth
or equipment or software, that Discord server is the place
to go. I would say yes.
Speaker 2: And if you have any VO questions that you want answered,
I mean the discord is place one. I'm happy to
also chat about that too. I usually give everybody at
least fifteen minutes on a zoom call to talk about voiceover.
I find people on Reddit all the time, and some
of those have turned into students that I've been coaching
on a semi regular basis. And so if you're looking
to find out more about VO you want to get coached.
You want to chat and whatever, hit me up.
Speaker 1: Yay yay. I will also add this podcast is not
sponsored by Zoom. Use whatever video chat service you prefer.
That That is just common parlance. I feel so just
wanted to point that out anyway.
Speaker 2: Recording in progress.
Speaker 1: Oh no, Tyler, where can people find.
Speaker 2: You outside of Toronto? So Tyler Hurtchuck vo on Instagram?
H y r c Chuk at my website, Tyler Hurchuck
dot ca on Reddit. I will not dox myself, but
it's pretty easy to figure out who I am if
you go through the voice acting subroughdit for a little bit, you'll, yeah,
you'll figure it out. Outside of that, I don't really
oh on LinkedIn, Tyler Hurtchuk. But outside of that, I
don't really do any other social media's IMDb, but that's
pretty pretty bland.
Speaker 1: Also, you're not really responding to people through IMDb.
Speaker 2: So no, But if you want to hire me for something,
go right a.
Speaker 1: Hey, hire Tyler.
Speaker 2: Just don't scam me.
Speaker 1: Don't oh no, podcast, don't get scammed everybody. It's sad.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well that just leads me to thank Tyler for coming
to my theme party. Thank you also to bad Machine
for making our show's music, and to Alica Esteband for
our show art and for story development. Another huge thank
you to Tyler and everyone else involved in making light Bulbs.
If you want to learn more about the episode and
all of our shows, you can visit our website Lengthy
tangent dot com. We've also got a Patreon page for
everything from Lengthy Tangent, so pop on over there and
see what we've got to offer. Be sure to follow
us on social media, subscribe you don't miss an episode,
and rate and review if you've enjoyed the show. Our
next episode will be Monster by Jada Mendoza. It's a
story set in a fantasy world with complicated family dynamics.
Once again, our theme for this season has been family traditions.
I've been Meretimo's and this has been an interview episode
of Theme Party, the podcast Celebrate Creativity.
Speaker 2: Since we didn't eat the onion dip, can I take
that with me?
Speaker 1: Can I keep like a serving of it to have
with chips later?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I just need to talk.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah of course, Okay, yeah, thank you, great
Speaker 2: Thank you, butts, butts, butts, We'll just edit that part
out like the Dangent