Podcast of Dreams

“If you build it…”

It’s no secret that Tim and I consider ourselves to be almost unbelievably lucky in the interviews we’re been able to do for our podcast in the months it’s been since we started this whole journey to adventure.  What started out as just us, sitting down as friends and chatting about the things we enjoy, quickly turned into something far more the moment director Jeremy LaLonde agreed to meet with us.  To say we were nervous but excited would be an understatement on both counts.  He ended up being as supportive of our little venture as we have become about his career, and Tim and I are both honoured and pleased to count him now as more of a friend than simply a (now) recurring podcast guest.

Since that first night, it’s been our surprised joy to have had the opportunity to speak with such an amazing variety of incredible and talented guests – people we never could have dreamed would actually agree to talk to us.  Seriously, there have been some weeks where it’s been just ridiculous, and I’ve wondered how I’m ever going to get through all of things we’ve managed to line up, AND work my full time day job at the same time!  But somehow it all keeps coming together, and every time we think we’re about to hit a lull, something else awesome comes up and we’re right back into it again!

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve both been overwhelmed and thrilled with how well each interview has gone, too.  Tim and I both strive to foster a more casual environment for ourselves and our guests, and we try to make our time together more like a conversation than an interview, really.  I personally have loved speaking with everyone we’ve been able to wrangle thus far, and even when I haven’t been feeling my best, it’s always been really fun.  I’ve been learning a lot, too – about the film/TV industry, about the people themselves, and – occasionally – about myself.  Those are the podcasts that tend to stand out most for me, I think.  Sometimes I find myself so engaged by our guests that I forget about everything else and just exist in that period of time.  That’s when the experience stays with me long after we part ways or hang up the phone.  It’s like sometimes I actually feel that something really special is happening, long before I can begin to articulate it.

“…people will come.” 

Field of Dreams is one of my favourite movies of all time.  No matter how many times I see it, I never fail to revisit all of the feelings I had watching it the first time.  I’ve even been to the actual field in Iowa where it was shot.  One theme of the film is that you should do what you love, and it’s possible that there really is something to that.  Turns out our Little Blog That Could is taking off, too – steadily growing from week to week and from month to month – even as Tim and I work to expand our own wings to encompass more and more of the things we are passionate about.  The idea that anyone – strangers especially – would want to read about or listen to us prattle on about the things we love seemed absolutely silly back in October when we first started this project.  But we were fuelled by a need that wasn’t being met by any other sites we were familiar with, so we decided to just do it ourselves and see how it went.  In these few short months, we’ve FAR exceeded any expectations we may have had going in.  I don’t think either of us imagined that we’d be talking to the people responsible for creating our favourite shows and movies, nor that the world could actually be so small.  And we’re still just getting started.

I believe it was after having the rare honour to speak with Meg Tilly (I was on an emotional mess of a rollercoaster for a bit from that one!) that a friend asked me who would be my ultimate interview.  I could choose only one male and one female, but other than that, the sky was the limit.  In my wildest dreams, who would I most like to have as a guest on our podcast?  No criteria for the choice, either – just that there could be only one of each.  Like The Highlander, only not.

My guy was pretty easy, actually.  No one saw it coming, either, but probably because I based my criteria largely on the fact that I’ve had a schoolgirl crush on him since I was five years old, and I know that even now, the idea of meeting him in person – let alone getting to talk to him – sort of reduces me to a giddy mess.

Rick Schroder has always been my boy, it seems.  The blond hair, big blue eyes, freckles and dimples – I was in sandbox-love from the first moment I saw him in some Disney holiday special on TV after he’d been in The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark.  After that, his picture literally covered my bedrooms walls while I was growing up.  When I got a little older, I realized he and I would make some pretty beautiful babies, too.  He went on to marry a beautiful girl (Canadian, too – so close!), and they’ve had a brood of beautiful kiddos of their own, so I can’t fault him for any of that, really!  😉

And really, I think that – once I got over my initial ridiculousness (and remembered that I’m gay) – we’d end up having a really good conversation for our interview.  I think we’d get along really well, and I’d end up feeling pretty casual and comfortable with him.  So that’s why I chose him.  I’ve followed his career, his personal life, and we’re so close in age that, even though our lives are completely different, I believe we’d connect on some basic common ground.  I think it’d be really fun.  After I was done being a grade school fool about it, of course.

My girl – choosing her is not so easy.  At all.  Most of the people I would love to interview – Madonna, Carol Burnett, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Emma Thompson – the list goes on and on, yet I have a feeling most of them would either hate me, or at the very least, not enjoy any of my contributions to the interview at all.  Maybe I just feel insecure because I admire them so much, and I’d really want them to like me.  Or not be annoyed by me, at least.  I’m not sure I’d be able to generate as casual an atmosphere in an interview with anyone like that, because I would be expecting far too much of myself going in.  The people who have really been easily wonderful and open and fun to interview thus far have almost caught me off-guard with how genuine they are, and I’ve found myself sharing in the conversation more than I would usually, even with actual friends.  Jeremy LaLonde, Meg Tilly, Kate Hewlett and the delightful duo Anthony Grani/Mary Krohnert have all been very charming and disarming in their ways, and I feel like I could talk to all of them pretty much forever.  With bathroom breaks and such, naturally.

So, really, I am not sure who my ultimate female interviewee would be.  If I could go back in time, I would love the chance to sit down with Marilyn Monroe for awhile.  I’d love to whisk her away from prying eyes, and hopefully make both of us so comfortable that I’d end up getting to talk to the Norma Jeane part of her, instead of the public icon she’d created.  I’ve felt connected to her for most of my life, really.  I’ve even been to her crypt to pay my respects, and to tell her I was here.

She died almost exactly a decade before I was born, but a huge part of me truly believes we’d be able to connect on a lot of things, if some DeLorean-flux-capacitorized, time-warp, wormhole-like event would just give us the chance.

Hey, could I still record that on my iPhone?