Matt Mercer Spills His Secrets

[Music] good everybody rolling Wow movie magic let's make a content baby yeah let's do hi Matt hey what's up buddy how's it going good thanks for having me here for being here yeah inside the Actor's Studio yeah with our fine wine I mean what says finer than midday and a Wednesday with some warm wine I love it this is a Californian red it's uh a Malbec email better I think I been good it's been very busy but um you always know it's good when someone goes good you know i I've been called on that recently I'm like starting my response to that question with a large sign I don't mean to yeah I guess it's kind of where I am in life right now with the large sigh from its being very good but very busy it's it's missing a lot of video games that have also backed up that I have enabled to touch the early Monster Hunter mice porn just came out and I've had like power with it it's like to actually just play just play yeah I have to clarify it with you it's like are you in it or yeah are you yeah but actually really like the game - yeah but ya know I guess the sigh comes from being pleasantly busy with a lot of projects that I'm proud of yeah but it as you know when you're passionate about your work you work yourself to death yeah a very scary cycle because it's like I love this work so much I want to be in it completely I want to drown in this and then you realize oh man I'm getting burnt out you have to like pull away and figure out your limits and yeah what works cuz otherwise you're just gonna end up hating your job yeah you don't hate something that you were originally super passionate about exactly as weird balance to find I think think having the right people around he helps with that and I'm very fortunate that I have a wife who definitely keeps me sane yeah and will call me on my [ __ ] and tell me when to back away you starting to scare me a little pull you from the precipice oh she's awesome we hung out with Matt last year for the first time we went to two bit circus yeah - Christina V mm-hmm we all just kind of hung out and shot the [ __ ] but you guys were like a riot your wife's awesome so much fun oh she's a black she's so bubbly oh yeah she's also she'll cut a [ __ ] no she has I've said before she defends my honor yeah you know of the two of us I'm the diplomat she's the fighter so she's the one who's ready just like smash a bottle and [ __ ] gut someone and I'm like that's a good it's a good balance it works out well yeah because you guys work a lot together as well right yeah actually how does that does that ever get in the way not to delve into your personal relationship too much no no it's it's great um we we work on a lot of things together like through critical role and everything we do at that company she's the creative director of our twitch channel develops and produces all the content we do for the channel and she's just a she's a badass she was great at production she knows what she wants she's incredibly creative and she's another hard worker yeah so we work in a similar space but we also don't overlap so heavily yeah so it's not like we're stepping on each other's toes when we come home at the end of the day we both can talk about the adventures that we had even though we're in the same space so it's not too similar yeah what does a workday for you even look like hands on which day of the week I guess could you seem to be on all the time one of those things where you realize that you starting really self-conscious about like oh god my song all the time yeah I'm I'm very fortunate voice-over has been very very good I'm Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays usually they are filled with sessions mm-hmm four different you know cartoons and video games and stuff with little little breaks in between and then Tuesdays begin awesome been getting with a personal trainer again and try and get helpful is the older you get the harder it is to keep yourself functioning yeah and especially in this side like circle it's so easy to just let yourself go oh yeah because you work so much and then it's like [ __ ] I forgot to eat from 12 hours yeah and then you just end up eating [ __ ] and then you look like [ __ ] six months ago ya know six months if you're lucky I'm like three weeks yes like try and get up early and go to the gym for a bit from there waking up seeing what auditions are due that day go into my office and record those auditions send them off then go through my emails and see what sort of business responses need to be responded to a lot of its approvals right now with critical role yeah which those weren't familiar you know criticals are a DND twitch stream that i started with a bunch of the voice actor friends of mine about almost five years ago and now it we're doing a Dark Horse comic book series we're doing art books we're doing the animated series to be kick-started and it's just kind of blown up that in a way we never expected I think yeah I feel like I should brag about it for you because I feel like you're underselling it's like we got a kick started we only asked for 750 K and godly eleven yeah you gotta get pretty crazy to get to a point where you're like oh [ __ ] what do we do with all this money yeah the first day like we were like we ran out of stretch goals in the first 24 hours and we were in this weird number going like I don't know what's happening yeah we what do we do now oh god yeah so it's great it's great it's a wonderful problem to have yeah and it just means you get to make the series that much more amazing but yes like right now it's going through the email approvals of that I'm going through art designs and approvals for landscapes and character designs and objects and architecture of the different cities and because it's a world that I created that's a part of my job now it's giving notes to all these artists and approving everything and make sure that it's kind of in the space you want it to be you're like the creative director that basically is subtly yeah there is the one that overarching that over arches the entire project but I'm still you know the buck stops with me as far as design approvals that fit with my world yeah which is pretty cool so it's like going through those emails in the morning then like on a Tuesday we have our company meeting where all of us meet from the different departments and go over what's happened what we're planning to do you know like our upcoming charity initiative so upcoming projects that are being shot in films and any ideas you want to throw out then the rest of the afternoon usually is doing more meetings with the animated series or improving comic book stuff Dark Horse and then going home and me and my wife probably getting in our pajamas she probably pours a glass of wine and we are current this is kind of weird our current youtube ritual we do now as we get home we turn on Phil DeFranco to catch up on just general news and that's fear and then probably veg for about an hour on just silly YouTube videos and different people we follow yeah and I'm saying with our bird bird we have a bird mr. Birds name Birds names Dagon Dagon yeah partially she named it partially named enough of like the actual Cthulhu Mythos Dagon yeah and mehrunes dagon from skyrim right Lords that's cool what kind of bird is it she's a little green cheek conure which is like a hook build parrot about that big oh he's really adorable she says a few things she definitely loves my wife a lot more than she loves me you get attacked yeah we're like we're okay with each other you know but she like cuddles up on Marisha and it's like hey I love them I get close to kiss her and she like tries to wait between us and there's like mine dominance stir them I'll try that next time I'll you know how it goes from beneath my bloody nose bandage do you ever get time to switch off then yeah I am I will say I'm I'm thankful that all the stuff we're doing with critical role for the most part and I guess getting comfortable with just being myself on the internet yeah has allowed me a space where I don't have to be on as much yeah that's the secret to it cuz it's I feel like you probably just started off in the same way where it's like you're not like putting out like a fake version of yourself you're like you I I feel like you're very genuine you're very honest and humble and you put out yourself out there for people to see but it's the other thing that's like it's it's on the internet it's still performing in a way right it's me but you're seeing me I like my best and when I'm doing my thing and I'm in my zone and I'm performing for you to entertain for you but it's it's that secret that you kind of need to like turn off and be like okay that's that's one version of me yeah I need to go back and be the other version of me yeah it's been it's been nice in recent years to be a little more open with some of my challenges yeah you know like mental health stuff mhm you know the things that I've had a struggle with because then it gives me permission I feel to not always have to be at my best yes but it is still an element to feeling like you want to be your best for those people so I guess my turning off honestly is I'm at home with my wife when I get to go out with my friends and you know get a margarita and just catch up on life I love a good margarita oh that's the best thing la has taught me good margaritas in LA are pretty great and I've learned to be better my my wife is a connoisseur as if you couldn't tell I follow her lead in a lot of ways she's so much smarter than I am in a lot of ways um but uh yes so turning off is mainly just when I'm with friends and quietly playing a game there's those mice I'm a little more I'm not a big social like go out and party guy you know go dancing but yeah you you tweeted on something a while back that there's some time this year that I really related a lot to you said you were at like a party with all these other like high end people and they were all schmoozing and rubbing shoulders and everything and I feel like like I've been at that party I know what that's like or it's like I want to mingle with people but I just I don't align with you like mentally I can't get in that space for Emily I have to get up and I talk about business or anything I'd shoot the [ __ ] and have fun yeah I get it but I I think I tweeted back to you that that was like a good like bounce board for your personality I think that it shows that because you don't do that it's like you're just more of yourself and you're not you can't just flick it on to be a douche when you need to do yeah although it mean it doesn't necessarily make for the most successful career in entertainment sure I don't care you know I'd rather be moderately or hopefully it's some degree of successful and just be myself mm-hmm and have to turn into something I'm not yeah in order to make it happen yeah don't get me wrong I also can take to prove a point Oh chef but let's compare notes I'll show you various marks no what do you what do you think then cuz man doing that kind of stuff that's that's a lot of pressure cuz I have my own pressures doing what I do but I feel like Jim yeah I don't have an amount eleven million dollar type of pressure and like you guys think as I turn into such a big phenomena it's like the DND thing down unexpectedly yeah but you know Dean D was very importantly growing up is still very important to me like it got me out of my shell as a kid it got me into theater it went this really quiet artist kid too you know being able to function socially to a certain degree because I would play this game growing up and so to see it reom braced by society and flourishing in a way it really hasn't and a long time it's been really cool to be any part of that it's been huge but it is a lot of pressure yeah does ever make you anxious yeah yeah because there's expectations around it yeah plus whenever anyone is successful in a space a couple of things happen one a lot of people that normally wouldn't give a [ __ ] or really care about who you are beginning to come out of the woodwork to see how they can ingratiate themselves or find their way in and so it y'all get very defensive and kind of like you know circle the wagons and ya hold them off and you get people that get very verbally aggressive about trying to tear you down because one that's a way to get attention for themselves and it's also a way to whenever is whenever you're in the spotlight there's always a reaction socially to want to tear down whoever's in the spotlight yeah and some people for valid points and for valid feelings but it's also very hard when you're a so generally sensitive person mm-hmm to put yourself on a very public scale online and open yourself up to that type of negativity yeah it's it's full-on because it's that thing where I'm very involved as my community and I I love my community and they're super nice and very communicative and very involved in what I do and ninety percent of the time everything is great but it's it's that thing where I'm I'm a huge people pleaser mm-hmm and I really want everyone to be having a good time which is impossible not no one's ever gonna like I could say that I I said that like Jesus himself could probably come back today and some people would be like [ __ ] you man yeah like you could cure cancer and there'd be somebody out there being like no I don't I don't like it not to say that I'm gonna [ __ ] cure cancer or anything but we do the people will be waiting but if the thing is like when you want to be involved you can't shut out one side of it and just because well then you end up with an echo chamber but it's just so hard to like screen some stuff and then if you're not in the right headspace for a day and then you read nice things and then suddenly one person say man I didn't like that cuz it felt like XYZ is like how did you know yeah how did you figure it out what's their everything how did you get me yeah then it just ruins my whole day and then you have to get back up on the horse and go again the next day that's like yeah I think I don't even know how people how to verbalize that out to people unless you're in that position you can't really understand it it's strange and um I don't know I'm thankful for it in a lot of ways in a weird way um for having this this you know community around me it's taught me a lot I've learned from so many different perspectives and and tried to be a positive force as best as I can as well but like you said you can't please everybody and it's the person who has always put themself lowest on the priority list you know it's a hard reality to come to the point that anything you do is gonna piss somebody off yep and you just I'm learning I'm trying to learn to be better about that and just accept it let it wash over you you know listen to the to the positive criticism you know the people that are honestly trying to help you improve and be able to distinguish that from what is the toxic criticism I just move forward and I think the big big thing I'm learning it's not to necessarily and engage or try and defend or try and and verbalize anything like that and just kind of show with your actions you know if you really want to be a better person and be a bit a good example to just do better but ya know it's it's great your voice cuz that's something that I've always gotten into discussions with people about like well no I did this because of this and then they're like yeah but this other thing happened and then you try and expand them the more I've tried to explain sometimes the worse it gets yeah or I I can never get my thoughts across properly or my actions and there's just a lot of word politics that end up happening so I've definitely been learning more of that to just be like no people are gonna gonna say [ __ ] anyway in yeah who really cares life life's too short I have these moments where I'm like sitting down I heard it recently with with some friends back in Brighton Rose like sitting down we were like looking up the stairs I was like yeah yeah it really doesn't matter what that twelve-year-old said on the internet does it so I really mean nothing in the grand scheme of all this yeah it's an important perspective to have yeah really bring my my own ego down to the size anyway I have you ever had that moment where like sometimes you're out somebody comes up and they're like hey are you mad can I get a picture whatever and then sometimes somebody comes up and it's the same kind of cadence and everything's like hey and you turn around at you're like sure and then they're like you're in my spot I heard it was like in lighting and like two people came up and then two more people came up and got pictures and another third person was like hey do you mind if I and I like turn around I was like yeah and then they're like do you mind if I could have head because you kind of cut ahead of me and I was like there's reality hitting wet fish in the face so it's an important little little rung to be knocked down all yeah I think of how that happened like once or twice I'm still getting used to it you're you you're much more visual visually recognizable person I guess just because you're media presence um I've only in recent years been kind of in that space one of the things I liked about voiceover to begin with was that this was an anonymous thing yeah I can hide behind it nobody really knew much or wouldn't care who I was or what it looked like because it was just about the work that I put out there that was kind of a weird position to be in to transition to doing more online media and doing a show that ended up kind of in many ways in many ways eclipsing the stuff I did for voiceover yeah and now being recognized in public spaces and I gave and then just past weekend and in Sweden I had one day to actually go and see the city and I think at least 12 people recognized me out there in the middle of a foreign country damn for which were in the main like palace like the Royal Castle she does historical landmark and I'm like ah this is this is the museum no one's gonna before the employees and I was like this is crazy and it's wonderful you know and everyone's been very sweet I'm very thankful that it that our community tends to be very respectful yeah you know and now like that hey it's that guy from the day come over yeah Jimmy get your camera come over yeah we'll take a picture with my kid yeah go face to my kid like it's nothing like that it was been very very sweet um finishes very it's very surreal to now begin to realise that I gotta be careful about picking my nose you know or oh yeah scratching my ass in public cuz this might be somebody off it was weird because that not the picking nose thing but the dad with the kid literally happened at two bit circus recently you did it really me and my girlfriend were there we're like walking around and a bunch of people came up and got pictures and everything and it was great but then those long we sat down and like put money just into the machine to like do the game it was like five rounds of Sun it was like that spy game we have to find someone in the crowd and shooting and some cute guy came over right as you put it in he was like eh get a picture with my kid and I was like I just started the game I'm so sorry and I hate being that guy who's like I'm playing something I can't be that person even though it's well within my right to be like I just started eating yeah but I'm always a person who's like sure I like wipe my face and get up and be like I've crumbs on my face every time someone recognized me at a restaurant I'm always I'm like humans eat is it fortune or is it five how is how do I eat food and I'm always paranoid about it like act like a person yeah robot it's it's a weird a unique space to be in especially just being being a person who has you know anxiety and and in many ways a lot of self-esteem issues to be in the space like that mm-hmm but you know people's thoughts not faman you know how does intention to be the great thing and yeah it's not something I ever wanted mm-hmm I'm not sure it's something I particularly enjoy but I'm appreciative that I have a platform where hopefully I can make a difference yeah and that's where it's okay you know kind of endure it yeah I feel like I I think I think we kind of align with that because it's it's one of those things that some of the aspects that come with it are hard and difficult to overcome and it it really does if you let it we'll just change your DNA completely yeah that's why you some people turn out to be [ __ ] when Fame gets to them yeah that old adage Boyd if I always talk about it being like a prism as well I feel like if you're a good person before Fame hits you I feel like it'll just exemplify all your good traits because again now you have a platform to be able to do good things right right you can you were the awkward kid playing D&D and back back in those days D&D was not what it is now everything's like nerd culture is super cool all of a sudden in comic book movies are the biggest thing in the world would it's it's nice to be able to bring people into that circle and be like no I was just like you that's why I like doing these talks as well as because it really humanizes people it just rips down to facade and it's just like yeah we're just people who liked a thing and then we ended up doing it for a while and yeah people listened and now we're here doing this well it kind of helps dude this is kind of just a casual outdoor space - yeah you know like studio lights or you know microphones to your face yeah more producers in the back like pushing on the COG we take that again yeah different side makeup you know and bring it up on the screen right exactly so talking about your net worth that's the funniest thing is to look up net worth of different celebrities yeah like III think was it someone looked it up and it's like oh my god I'm so proud of you for for you know making this and I looked it up and it was like like millions of dollars like oh this is really wrong guys yeah I'm flattered but uh but none of those net worth calculators of all accurate I know you I always find it funny because there was one last year of like the top ten earning youtubers and I think I ranked eight or nine on it mm-hmm and then they were like he made 16 million dollars in 2018 and I was like I wish I made 16 million dollars in one year my lawyers on that funny you know audit some people you chase but they take it from Mike well he has this clothing company and then he also has his own merch and that makes XYZ and I was like but I don't make any money off my merch cuz it all goes to charity and they're like just throws the whole thing out of whack yeah it's like you're just playing off weird but then I I find it funny because there's some people who will do that who are like we didn't and then the others who were like yes yes I did like I got four hundred million dollars that is kind of kind of showing too I guess you know yeah put your cards on the table depending on how you react to that sort of a prison thing yeah so go to somebody you mean like you made ten million dollars last year be like thank you oh man but not this I keep every time I talk about this stuff it makes it me sound like an ungrateful for because I always talk about the weird parts of it right right but for the most part it's fantastic like we get to do these things I get to meet awesome people like you ya know at no point do I want anyone ever think that I'm not grateful for any of this yes I'm I'm still dumbfounded by it to be perfectly honest you know to stumble into this weird career path but it but I'm very thankful I'm just also also very aware of my mental health through the process yeah whirlwind yeah and anybody who's out there who's starting off doing anything like this who ends up getting any sort of like foothold in like mental health is first yeah cuz it's so easy to just get absorbed by it and then what I realize is that for years when I was doing it everything's going great everything's booming everything is growing but then like three or four years in you realize that all of that stuff has kind of changed you without your realizing it's changed you yeah and then you react to certain things different ways and you don't know you don't get used to a certain level of like when I go out I'm expecting people to know who I am you don't it turn into that guy yeah or let it get to a point where you just don't know who you are anymore but I don't think you you have to worry about that I think you're you're very grounded and very humble we'll see all the ears take on me but uh I'll tell you one thing me and my wife should definitely try not to go out and you know a 10:00 p.m. to pick up Boston Market in our pajamas cuz that's every time we do that that's when we run into people that want to get Herbie we're just like Gracie just like a home you know homebody monstrosity they're just like just trying to go out there and pick up some chicken you know and someone's like look at a picture yeah okay sure I don't I don't person well sometime I always like asking people cuz everyone you always get the questions was like how did you start voice acting and it's always like the same of me is like everyone to know how you started YouTube cuz they're hoping that one time you say it they'll there'll be something in there that you add extras like that's what it was instead of being like no I just like doing it and I did it a lot and then I got better at it and I worked my ass off like a little bit lucky doing it Boyd for what I like asking people it's like what's what keeps you going while you do it and what what's the fun in it for you and like what's the what's the goal and the objective and wait what keeps you taking part of it reveal for me is that I grew up loving video games and cartoons and that form of kind of storytelling to me just had a huge impact on me mm-hmm and to be a part of that engine to be just a part of that tapestry for these stories ISM it's very exciting for me mm-hmm the idea and in some cases franchises I grew up with you know games that defined me you know to be to be even a small part in that it's a really really cool honor and kind of like a nerd full circle for myself yeah so that's part of it a second is just I really enjoy stepping into the shoes if somebody has not sometimes I don't know if it's out of like a discomfort for myself or because there's an excitement and interest in other people maybe a little too calm a little bit of convey but yeah there's something about putting yourself in a mindset of somebody that's very different from you and living in that space that you learn something about yourself hmm and also hopefully have other people learn a little bit about that person's perspective villain or hero or anywhere in between yeah you know even the most archetypal games that you know have the most you know defined a black-and-white good versus evil scenario there's still an option or an ability to empathize with a certain part of the story and kind of learn about the person you want to be and I know growing up there were numerous video games and video game characters that I looked up to where I wanted to be more like and subconsciously modeled my own morality and sense himself off of mm-hmm you know now I get to go to these conventions and get to meet all these young kids who are playing these games and are going you know I love this character you know I I really appreciate them I imagine myself wanting to be like them and so getting to be kind of the next wave of that cycle yeah is really cool and I think I think that's what gets me going more than anything I love the artistry of it I love the but I also love the fact that I get to to bring these stories to life for those kids those gamers for those people that might take the same importance from it that I did growing yeah do you do you have a favorite character well maybe it's a different answer for both but do you have a favorite character that you've done and do you have a character who's most like you sometimes it's not always the same answer no definitely not the same answer the cure to this most like me I would say I meet Leon Kennedy Resident Evil just cuz both kind of boy Scouty and like you know yeah good always wanted to do the right thing even who's not the smartest thing he's a lot cooler than I am but as far as just like that that need to to do what it takes to help others yeah I very much resonate with mm-hm and you know get that protagonist type very often these days people like to wander more in the the antihero dark he seems that way occasionally you get a couple of good guys out there like true good guys yeah um my favorite character that's a you're gonna break a lot of people's hurts I know I know it's tough it's a diplomatic I'm gonna go oh man there are so many game characters that I appreciate and like there are games like overwatch that were just so huge and McCrea was so so great but like for me personally their their narrative story and where they went there's an anime added years ago called fade zero no that's based on the fate the fate state series and my character in that could eat so um yeah it's just a phenomenally strange and morally ruined individual in a lot of ways he's this assassin character who was the protagonist the series though he's not a good guy of any means yeah very much an ends justify the means type for the best of humanity from his perspective but then learns through his story that maybe even that's not the right way to do things yeah and he's just he's cutthroat he's calculating he seems to have a heart and he acts seemingly from that position but then you question it often throughout and just being able to to work through that narrative and work through his personal journey and having everything fall apart around him and how that affects him and how he tries to salvage his impact in the world through it yeah just I don't know that show left an impact on me as a performer yeah and to this day I'm still super proud of it that's awesome do you think you learned a lot from doing that kind of character about yourself I think I did I I think I learned a lot about what it means to be a hero which nest not does not necessarily mean being like him hmm you know a lot of times I enjoy these roles as a contrast as well you know that's why I love playing villains yeah and a lot of projects it's not always an interesting and delicious and different but also for the cements my ability to feel good about not being that yeah you know you're like man yep you know I finished a session and feel icky yeah definitely take a shower afterward and be like I'm glad I feel uncomfortable in that skin yeah and I think I mean I if I I've done very tiny voice acting kind of stuff but it's always the like the stuff that you you're not that's always the most fun for me to do yeah yeah cuz like you said it's like stepping into someone else's skin and being like I can just be care to knee with this and I can go home and I can just be ridiculous whereas other stuff that's more like me I'm I get self-conscious because I'm like am I really like this say that that's if I could just howl at the moon and and let it go and that was the same like doing the Deadpool thing at PAX it's like it's just putting on a mask but I still like walk the same I'm still me underneath everything but it's still just an excuse to go around and be like hey [ __ ] it's like because Deadpool would say that yeah I called a group of guys versions and they all loved it and I was like man that's fun I'm gonna do more of that my wife actually co-wrote a show that talked about dental as a character and kind of what he means in web media and the the analysis think they came to was the Deadpool the reason it's such an interesting carrot and a popular one is it's a lens that much like you said Fame does really accentuates who you are you know where you can still be playful and still be kind of a weird dick but people that love Deadpool because he's an [ __ ] oh yeah he wasn't like him because he's strange breaks the fourth wall and kind of you know Ben's the medium and you know look looks for the other alternative means of him that are fun they're a little more that way as well yeah and it's it's an interesting it's one of those characters that the reason that somebody really enjoys it sometimes can be a reflection of who they are yeah on the inside so like that it's fun because you get to explore an aspect of yourself that you don't get to normally but in a way that's still fun and you know in his face of people that can appreciate it yeah yeah cuz talking about that like relatability factor and everything I think that's why spider-man's my favorite because he's he's always been the superhero that I could most relate to and I think a lot of people can cuz no one knows what it's like to be a billionaire detective who lost their parents or from a different planet and you're allergic to green or anything like that but spider minds like now he's just a kid who got powers then you have to deal with it he lost someone and yeah it's almost fascinating to me and I I think Deadpool like that is what I was like cuz it's all it's like cancer destroying his brain or rebuilding and he's gone slightly crazy and mad and whatnot but it's still that like mental health struggle where you're like battling your own mind all the time and he just lashes out and he makes fun of things because he's uncomfortable and I think everyone can kind of relate to that aspect yeah themselves now and then let's that spider-man's active talking thing for people debate like yeah sir mine's a bully and kind of like the second set of so many spider-man films I didn't appreciate so much because spider-man without sugar fueled aren't you Garfield yeah because they I mean the spider-ham was okay but like it sometimes it felt a little bullish yeah to me if you read the comics heat Spider Man talks out of nervousness mmm-hmm you know it's almost like the more tense something is the more he begins to jabber because it's just his reaction to that nervous energy yeah that's why I think Tom Holland really gets well in the more recent films yeah yeah those spider-man movies really rubbed me the wrong way because there's no relatability to it then when he's like he's just a dick kind of just for the sake of being a dick and and I can't regard Hill as a fine actor but his Peter Parker was too cool yeah you know I think there's nothing really to lose there's no yeah I wasn't cool when I was a teenager I like I like being goofy and that's why the the spider-man game was Yuri doing the voice oh yeah and that it was like there's like a scene where Tech's MJ but he says the wrong thing or something he's like oh no and he's like stop web-swinging to correct his next that's to a girl and I was like man that's the most relatable a superhero has yeah I've been to me I remember being a teenager and sending the wrong text Munich I'm never gonna get to kiss that girl now yeah there's something like that other mine's pretty relatable I I think the one that I related to most was a Nightcrawler that cost a good one he was my he was my favorite I think because he was somebody who looked so different from everyone around him and everyone immediately judged him based on that one immediately ostracized or yelled at or was aggressive with him because he looked like a demon yeah and in spite of that he was still a very very good person mhm you know he could have let them to find him he couldn't have that experience turn him into you have him embrace what he looks like yeah instead he was just a very just a good dude you know he he stuck to his faith and he you know what's was there for his friends and he was happy-go-lucky and it's fun but he was kind of one of the stronger moral compasses of the x-men - yeah and while I myself don't you know ascribe to you know a religious faith I really respected kind of him being such a faith-based figure and what religion meant to him in the series to me helped me understand better what what the importance is between faith in religion and that difference there you know I see faith is such a very important thing for a lot of people and a wonderful thing a religion as a structure as a societal structure is consecrates a lot of social problems yeah but uh hey Nightcrawler was I don't know who'sa cared that always spoke to me to that degree and I think we're the hardest times I've cried in recent years was discovering that they had killed him in the comics like years ago he's back in cuz it's Marvel and they never what I feel like a character forever but um I remember finding that out and for whatever reason I don't know if I was just feeling raw that day mm-hmm or I don't know but like as soon as I found out I wouldn't grab the comic and read the pages and then just like broke down grown man just like sobbing over a fictional comic character but you know David that's who I am ya know I play video games on my channel I cried over a giant feathered chicken dog in Last Guardian and uh I cried over Lee at the walking dead at the first scene yeah I think man but that's that's the beauty of it that's why you shouted with the Colossus yeah yeah my favorite game of all time because it was the first game that made me cry the ending of that was like the ambiguity of it and the moral like questioning I was like was was I a dick was I a the battery every boss kill yeah there's something deep inside you something that was very primal II human going why am i doing yeah I was like it's a video game I supposed to climb it and kill it that's what I'm supposed to do it's a level I got a I got a defeat it and then halfway through you're like Oh feel good mr. stark I need to I need to sit down and I was like fifty sixteen years old cuz I did it in my live show as well like people got up and played it with me yeah just to have that thing and we we named the Colossus after because I talked about let's talk about my show or anything but the middle of the whole show was talking about like childhood teenagehood and adulthood and the different phases and childhood was all about Pokemon because I was the first game on my gameboy that I had and people got up and played that and they fought Garry and hit like six Pokemon that we call like laziness and boredom and here you to overcome those but then my teenage years are my darkest time because I I just know who I was I was trying to figure [ __ ] out and then that game came to me and I had no idea what it was I found that in Game Stop and I just played it I was like I like giant monsters I'll play this game mm-hmm and I brought it home and it floored me and I didn't even realize because it's that thing where you hold him up to that is like this video game you have a level you beat it you're done you move on but then this time I played it there was a holy [ __ ] I'm sad this made me feel terrible I cried playing this game and I don't know what the ending was and what it all meant and just fascinated me and that's whenever people are like no video games or earn Ayrton which thankfully is going away now but yeah it's those types of things are like video games cause violence and [ __ ] I'm like maybe cry in my bedroom as a sick year-old yes Claus filing for parenting causes by those yeah but uh parenting and behavioral patterns and accessibility to certain things that's what's [ __ ] things up but if that was the thing were like completely changed my concept of what games were and I think that that's where I think that's the linchpin of why I do what I do now and do games and wanted to reach out see if other people liked games as much as I did because back then everyone's like yeah I'll play a game for a week and then I won't play games for a year kind of thing but that just sucked me in and never let go oh yeah it's always been my favorite game ever since and so good it's a good choice in that one that one that one hasn't still with me the fear of any game that gives me an animal huh yeah like I'm like okay okay you're you're gonna shout of the Colossus me on this yeah circa minutes a cliff no no yeah you see a horse in the game now say I remember yeah it's true though but but to that point - um I'm a big proponent for storytelling in the power of storytelling yeah regardless of medium but but video games interactive medium is so important and why it's I think it's so popular has continued to grow is it it's as opposed to a story that's presented that you get to experience it's one that you get to to help that it becomes your own experience and that in two different degrees depending on the genre yeah but I think the video games that strive to be art the ones that can ask you questions like that like are you the good guy last oh you know I you know just breaking the genre and going maybe you need to reconsider what it means to be a hero in a world yeah I mean even if you should be a hero in general if there even is a hero even is a hero yeah you know or in the cases of Kojima's sometimes just copy everywhere yes you just gotta bring a baby somewhere yeah all over the place but like but but to that degree I as it becomes more respected as an art form as people begin to realize that not every successful game has to be a triple a blockbuster a hundred million dollar budget plus P yeah you know and I think a lot of indie games have really proven that you can tell evocative important stories and profoundly affect people yeah any success I think we're gonna start seeing more and more people that push the boundaries of what games can do is for our storytelling and involve people and that excites me to no end I'm so stoked to see this this new generation of kids that grew up with like undertale you know as their inspiration points who then go into school for game development and story writing and come out of here and start really telling [ __ ] great unique new stories yeah yeah cuz what you were saying that like Celeste came to mind mm-hmm because that's it's not only a mechanically flawless game it might not be for everybody might not be your cup of tea but like you can't fault the game for what it is but it also tells a great story about mental health and struggles and overcoming your obstacles and things like that and that's that's an indie game and it was made by a very small - yeah and then they want awards out of it and then here's something like battlefield 5 which is like liquid [ __ ] that has a huge budget and no one likes you know and I go and talk some [ __ ] because occasionally I make a paycheck off games like that but but those are making a paycheck number of those those extended multi sequel over the years you know I've screamed my way raw and many a Call of Duty game yeah and some of them are great some of them are another Call of Duty game yeah you know and yeah I hope I hope that as we start seeing more indie games succeed and win awards and be successful - one one part of me is like well I hope the bigger publishers will begin to notice that they've heard me is like I like the idea that we're moving away from a model where we don't even big publishers yeah they can keep making their giant Triple A games and that's great yeah but uh the more and more that we continue and realize that model doesn't work for most of the really good stories to make their way to the market mm-hmm we have you know steam has been supporting any developers for a long time epic game studio for all the you know conversations there are about it is another platform people look to publish without having to go through the large publishers yeah and um I've had the opportunity to work with and meet and talk to many young game developers that are fresh out of school and are like you I have a team of my friends that we all went to college together and you know we're just we're hope to get that that's small loan out and we're all gonna go into super debt for a year but make something special in a yeah that it's ballsy but that's what this industry is also made of mm-hmm that's how that's all of us lowly kid actors that you know came out to LA or grew up here and decided to move into a tiny ones you know studio bedroom apartment in Los Angeles and yeah if off Top Ramen for a few years and they thought of enough yeah yeah take odd jobs off Craigslist and you know try and make it make a passion happen well there's the thing is anyone who's successful didn't get there without taking risks cuz it's easy to look at this stuff and be like well let's Matt Mercer he's always been a voice actor he's always been successful and don't you critical role it's like oh you go through the [ __ ] to get the good stuff because do you like doing it you want to do it and you you grind it out and even when you get anxious and nervous and scared like you still just do it because you want to do it yeah I think it my first voiceover agent until I was 20 I say 27 damn really yeah it took me a lot of years of well I also before that I worked in the game industry doing like game testing I started bottom rung at a high school like it was right about to going to college and then decided nevere left and not go because I didn't I was really gonna go for animation illustration and it was like I wanna do this yeah I ducked out of the way and then didn't know what to do but I don't wanted to work in some way with games so I began doing game testing which by the way if anyone ever tells you like playing video games for 40 plus hours a week this ends like a great job man there's no faster way to lose lose your love of video games didn't become a game tester not always but in some games like for instance might my first the first games I had a test were was a Casper friends around the world for the PlayStation 1 and Jays Lamba for time Great Valley racing adventure photo station so yeah about three or four months on each of those games that'll really try your interest yeah look for the broken things so we can fix them yeah geez but yeah like it was all of that time still trying and pushing and doing whatever and took the survive and look for an opportunity mm-hmm and sometimes it just it takes time you know a lot of young kids out of high school it like I want I can feel it I'm like okay you can feel it but may have to feel it for a while yeah for a long while you know I'm a big proponent of the adage you know luck is when preparation meets opportunity it's like as long as you're constantly being the best to you you can be in constantly preparing doing your research and just being ready for when the opportunity comes you can seize it yeah you're doing the right thing yeah some people look into it some people's nepotism but it's more often than not it's just working hard for little or no pay and just being ready for when the opportunity comes because if you're doing it because you're like doing it and it's your passion thing and you're doing it for the right reasons and you don't really lose anything if it doesn't work out yeah like if this YouTube thing never worked out for me I was like I got better at I got more comfortable on camera with myself and my voice and I'm not nervous anymore looking at myself and I learned how to edit and make a mini project every day it's like something worthwhile and I don't if it never worked out am i cool I got a nice set of skills and I'm more prepared for what comes next thankfully it did work out but it was just because I really enjoyed doing it and I did it for like almost two years before anything even caught on I had like 100 subscribers and yeah I was watching you're just yelling at a wall all the time you know literally there's a camera there but there's a wall right behind it that wall still feels like yeah that wall could talk I probably still be doing theater you know the same reason theater Anneli does not pay by the way or it was Broadway in LA our Broadway in New York like out there an off-broadway they can find some gigs here and then they don't pay well but they pay limit just not a lot of paying theater in Los Angeles so you really have to love it to do don't review a theater town is a nope there is some good theater to find here mm-hmm so for the years I didn't eat her out here it was same thing I had no aspirations for it I didn't think I'd make a career as an actor I wanted to yeah but uh I was just happy doing good work on stage for an audience that occasionally cared and the family like connections you made with the rest of the cast yeah do you do you think you'd ever go back into that or like stage acting or movie acting TV acting TV I've done on camera don't know if it's my jam hmm it's a lot of hurry up and wait yeah I I haven't even done it but I know a lot of plenty of people who have who say the exact same thing yeah I don't mind doing occasional things here and there if I'm asked to I never I don't audition for it the whole if you want to know what when the harshest rigmarole of the entertainment industry it's being part of the auditioning cycle in Los Angeles like the cattle calls the you know agent calling you alright we've got for auditions look linked up for you you know today maybe order these different locations and a lot of traffic yeah then going to each one and walking into a room of like 15 other people don't look kind of like you they're all like slightly more handsome you're like yeah you're having this like this whole weird crisis of a person in self accidential crisis that's what I was looking for yeah and into just like a constant treadmill if like cool thank you next cool think next never hearing anything yeah it can crush any sense of self I can imagine yeah I it's like I on camera was harsh for me it's only so many times gonna be cast as the drug dealer the IT guy before I'm like good yeah well that's the beauty of doing this kind of thing Dame because it's it's on camera it's not acting but you still like even the critical role stuff which is on camera everything's ya know you're the master yeah you're the captain of your own ship known it's not not watching like 20 people all around you being like is lying again yeah the way doing that part's not too bad in theater I would go back to the theater I enjoyed that because there is a relationship between the audience and the performer same age there's an energy like as you know when doing your tour it's very similar kind of way yeah like you know you're engaging with them directly but even as you're performing on stage you can still feel them they're with you and there's kind of a I don't know a togetherness that comes yeah a synergy going on yeah and it just feels good it feels electrifying especially when a show goes really well man there's nothing quite like it I never everyone at a show is just there to have a good time anyway it's like I paid money even if it's even if it's like a mediocre kind of show people will still be like well I'm in the environment and I'm in the scenario because even when I do panels at like packs or something and it's it's a great energy while we're there and then people watch it back afterwards and they're like man this is cringy I'm like well you weren't they weren't there you don't know what the energy is like you could you can't hear the crowd I'm the one with the mic in the video so you can't hear them laughing yeah it's just weird but yeah it's it's a it's an addicting energy to get used to and then going back after that that's why everyone talks about like post con blues and post tor blues or yeah because you kind of get used to hearing like you say a joke and everyone laughs you're like yeah that felt great very validating so ending you home then and there's no one there and summary it's very quiet it's like why so many musicians and people who tour a lot then or like depressed when they go home and a lot of them turn to like drink and drugs and everything because it's just like coping mechanisms cuz it yeah it's hard stuff to get used to when you're on especially cuz let's get to deep about it but I feel like a lot of people who perform are doing it because a lot a lot of people especially like social media everything like you're trying to get away from something sometimes and they get out onstage and say no I'm the best I can be when I'm out here and you all love me and I'm doing it and I'm successful but then they go back and they just get miserable because it's not there anymore and they need that validation and they need that energy to keep them going I can see that being a very dangerous cycle yeah depending on the personality which again like you said earlier it depends on the people around you yeah if you surround yourself with good people then you don't really have to worry about that exactly that's hard to do in this town though especially if prison successful yeah I've were thankful II very guarded and we're very small comparative ly but I know people that have been around people years ago that ascended rapidly into this industry and watching them just spiral out of control and it's just it's depressing and it's a it's a good point of reference to think back to like I'd never be that person yeah never ever be that person well that self awareness is already like a good step yeah yourself aware of when you're spiraling out or you can see it in other people than I think you'd be fine yeah well I think what I'm also enjoying too is especially after so many years of entertainment being cultivated and carefully packaged to be what they want you to perceive people as well actors or personalities and what the Internet has allowed and while not always some people it's still very much a constructed persona and especially began that way for a lot of people yeah but now we're seeing audiences and communities build up around people being honest and being genuine mm-hmm there's been a I think a subconscious and unconscious hunger for people to not put on a persona and not put on a facade yeah a constructed ideal version of themselves you know to a degree that's unavoidable when you're on you know when you're like seven earlier when you're on but I think it's heartening to know that people are beginning to to build or maintain communities and online spaces by being open and by being themselves yeah and kind of retraining the medium to be okay with with being just a person for all the messes that comes with it mm-hmm it says it's the relatability factor of it so I think that's why YouTube has become so successful in youtubers yeah come big things because you see the person who started in their bedroom who did a thing they liked and you can get a follow their journey and live vicariously through them and the cool things are happening is I'm it feels like it's happening to you and that's because I started off watching youtubers and I loved it I love following their journeys in their lives and learning more about them and being part of it and I'd still advise not sharing everything because you need something for yourself at the end of the day to hold on to and if you share everything then your entire personality in your entire life becomes marketable and a brand yeah and you don't really want that because then you end up seeing yourself that way but I just I've always liked just connecting with the audience and being like oh I'm doing this cool thing and you get to come along I know you can't be here in person but like even sir these cameras like hopefully you feel like you're sitting down with us and chatting and just having fun and realizing like oh yeah life's whatever input everyone's going through it we're all just floating around together and we're all trying to figure it out yeah I think that that's kind of one of the cooler aspects of of that whole new space that kanta creators are generating with this genuine connection and being able to be open is showing that that we're all just bubbling our way through life in our own ways you know that grass is greener type scenario also works on this degree too there are times where I'm like man I look back to how much free time I had years ago how often I could see friends and go off and do things and not be bothered in a public space and you know you it's hard to not you know at times to be like I am kind of missed that yeah but the most very thankful for the things that we get to do now and yeah impact we having some people spot yeah I I had that recently for Borderlands 3 came out I was like I'm not the biggest Borderlands fan bros like I couldn't want to sit around and play it for a while Z well I can't cuz I gotta go to court video games and then I have to go off and have to do this thing I'm like yeah cool [ __ ] that you get to do thank you it's kind of a nice complaint to have true that I guess do come and do cool things we got five stars in GTA yeah someone went into an airport somewhere in we're gonna get shot I wanted to ask is we can it bounce off the topic but I wanted to ask do you have a favorite game it's tough because for me favorite game encompasses a lot of things it's not the best game I ever played yeah a favorite game mm-hmm net aleene's to burner trigger I wasn't into no yeah partially because of the time that I played it growing up it had such such a great colorful world the characters were beautiful I love the care throughout my character designs I've just gotten Dragon Ball at the time my life is a middle school but like Dragon Ball games right it was a great RPG the combat system was fun by the the team-up modes the world building was fun the whole kingdom of zeal aspect Magus is such a cool character that I dressed up for Halloween twice because and the variations of endings based on time travel there's just such a very clever game and I loved it and it really kind of opened my eyes to how unique you can tell a story and having these different threads of where would end and how it would change the ending based on at which point it would finish historian you know in that same category be like fantasy 6 6 haven't had each impact on me but I think Chrono Trigger is the one that reverberates still to this day as the one game that I I think I know I think because it's the game that I had to sit there at certain points and be like okay I know I really had to be now I'm gonna risk it yeah many times yeah I think that's that's a good game yeah that's um speaking of final fantasy because 459 was the first one I played oh yeah I didn't play Chrono Trigger until I was like a doped base right right because I didn't have a system played on Final Fantasy 9 was the first one I played cuz everyone talks about 7 being like the big one but 9 for me was like revolutionary because I had never played a game like that and I was I was I was like 10 to 12 years old when I played that oh yeah and it um to this day like VV in that game is still my favorite character ever it he's so great he's sad he's such a cool character Erica's like I don't know who I am am i bad everybody else who looks like me as bad should I be like them then he is such a journey and he overcomes it at the end he's the best of that game he's so awesome I love it I've been playing it again recently on my on my switch and seven and eight all at the same time which is terrible yeah don't do that that's like goodbye my material before we go after all tamesha oh what's happening Zidane get in here what do you have a gun blade just played a city at that point he checks it all in merge them all together yeah there's a baby crying in the distance because it knows that that's a terrible idea to do there you go it's okay baby I'll stop I'll pick one of them okay it's those types of games that like Oh characters world building is like it's so long he had four disks there's just one happening just two yeah and then this tree is always [ __ ] cuz it's gonna work out that lip filler one and then yes I call it [ __ ] we're all dead so I see so good and then I put eight and eight gets a bad rap because it's just such a weird one it's a weird one it's not a bad game though no at all my only my biggest complaint eight is that the world felt underpopulated weirdly for like the designs of it mmm like any city you'd go to it is gargantuan city with large building designs and there's like four people yeah they're like what what apocalypse is nobody talking about what a Holocaust is just like wiped out most population and no one talks about it yeah that's a little weird and and some of the plot devices are a little convenient like though oh it turns out we were all at the same orphanage just like that but like overall wasn't bad no no I think the the junction system also kind of missed the people's heads yeah even now I like the remastered version came out I've been putting on the switch I'm like hastening speed and he's ruin everything yeah well now you can click it now you can get three times speed in the game so it's great oh that that changes everything yeah oh man BAM through everything it's the same with nine I'm like oh man slowest one of all is like now just power through that's pretty great it's wonderful okay listen played through seven like nine times partially because partially because there was at the time on the internet backing me back in the old days there was a lot of the rumors about you know the way that you can resurrect eras yeah and the way you had to do is do a perfect playthrough where you get like you know the the Barrett date at the gold sauce room if you do all these things go place the right time it if you just missed one thing it wouldn't work and so I get all the way up at that point in the game and be like ah it must have missed something yeah cuz it didn't work and so I'd go and play through it again and just over and over again but also I just liked the game a lot yeah I've never played seven oh man well then I'm playing it now but I'm very early on but I've never gotten gum built up so much for you now that the whole game seemed like that wasn't bad yeah it's just like because there's so much like historical game weight behind like I will say six is by far the better story in my opinion I've heard that yeah but seven is it really sparked the whole like cinematic RPG scenario and it came out when I was like 14 yeah 15 so that was like just the perfect age for to like define me is it's a very nice 14 year old game oh yeah 14 year olds game oh yeah I got a little cyberpunk in my fantasy with like the bad corporation and you got a Red Dog with like fire tail and there's a dude guy with spiky hair in joints or exactly it's great it's it's so absurd I played the demo for seven in packs just gone it's so for that the remaining half three masters so good cuz I played 15 and I I didn't like it I don't like the combat and like ya story feels a little thin but I played Kingdom Hearts 3 and I was like I don't like the combat in its story and characters are fun but 7 is like oh you got it you did it you got it right you figured it out thank God I cannot wait I haven't had to tried it yet but everything I've seen every trailer and video I'm just absorbing basically I cannot comment on games I am Rama not in because that way I can keep it nice and vague if I am NOT damn I just ask cause you're in everything I've under a lot of NDA's that is true yeah but I think you're supposed to confirming I've learned to stop saying if I'm not in a game if not in it because then when I say like I can't come I can't comment they know obviously I'm in the game yeah so I just across the board to say I can't comment much easier that way yeah I'd love to be in it I mean it does it looks really good but talking about like voice stuff and everything yeah I I'm fascinated by that that's like when I wanted to make games and then realize okay I need to go to college and study programming or whatever would be an artist and that kind of fell apart voice acting was like the thing that I was going to get into because I love everyone looks cartoons when they were kid and yeah voices in them and it's like oh my god that's a person who did that and I remember watching a documentary for like God of War 3 I think when I was a teenager and it had like TC Carson behind said he was like doing the voice in everything and not the greatest most dynamic voice in the world for that character or the greatest character in the world but I was like holy [ __ ] people doing these voices and I won't do that [ __ ] I was like I can do some forces and they do like him my first video on my channel is a Metal Gear Solid Snake impression of Old Snake Eliot war has changed hmm okay people love to throw it in my face all the time boy hey man you gotta start somewhere yeah but it's ii assume i'm always fascinated by it and now that i I do YouTube and I've been looking oh if the people are like hey yeah you want to be in our game like I don't even f like audition for some of the things I've been in because people like you you've an Irish accent we're looking for an Irish person in the game right that works out great but I just have such a hard time figuring out how to like I can hear characters I know what good voice acting is but I can't do it I'm so hard of myself whenever I hear my voice back I'm like doesn't fit because River River City girls came out recently yes yeah awesome and I it was like a tiny little character in that there are other people I know is in it I was like yeah but for that one I heard my voice Messick nope that lasts a while though even even starting my career even like getting in and starting to put these projects you go back and play these games and listen very critically yeah I'd be like excited it's coming up and I'd hear it like oh I can be better I didn't quite fit or like I wish I had this direction in this context for it you know that one means you have to get over hearing yourself in a game is its own thing beyond just hearing yourself talk it's it's in performance and hearing a performance you're like that isn't how I talk normally that sounds alien and weird yes have a kind of grip reading yeah yeah you have to get over that I just see a lot of it is acting like I'm it's voice acting people emphasis on the voice and I mean people at conventions that are like I can do great impressions a great character voice like that's great that's that's a phenomenal thing to have in your toolbox but at the basis of it it's still at its core active yeah you know whether your past is on camera or theatre or specifically vo it's you being able to put yourself into somebody else's shoes being able to believably put yourself in that space and emotionally be available to react to the world around them and the voice-over in particular you don't have the crutches of I was like crutches of a costume or a set piece yeah or a stage that set up for you you're sitting there in a room by yourself looking at a microphone with a glass window between you and you know seven or eight people that are going you know all right page one go yeah you just have to go and so it's it's a whole different skill set to learn how to be that comfortable jumping into an imaginary space and putting yourself you know in that moment with very little tools at your disposal and often a script you didn't get until the day of yeah you can adjust sight-reading it as you go yeah a lot of it is it's almost like Orchestra you're just like here's the music play it kinda yeah and some part of the training is getting used to that process of both cold reading and just learning to be more comfortable as a performer yeah and that comes with practice training and learning to just knock it in your head because when you have that type immediacy that's required of you when the client is saying okay here's some context you know give me a B C on this first line go home and you just have to jump in and go with it you have to trust your instinct and know that even if you didn't get it right they're not waiting for you to mess up they want you to do well yeah and if you missed the mark they're like all right cool again this tweak to it and you throw it's a collaboration yeah you know a lot of people especially performers and a lot of people in general are instinctually gonna think that people are waiting for them to fail there's a lot of the world tells you you know yeah everyone's everyone's waiting for you to mess ups they can climb over you you know you got to get past that idea and believe that everyone's there with you and wanting to make this the best they can and that's a really really positive hurdle to get over for this industry it really helped me to get over that point that's interesting because when I I did like there's some voices in Monster prom and Christina was there like in the booth that's the first time I ever done anything in a booth where they're doing that thing where it's like okay give us this line thankfully it's a lot more of a friendly environment because I I know the people there but it was that thing where it was I was sitting there and I ran now that you say it I realized that I was waiting for that moment I was waiting for them to be like no that was wrong but do it this way I was waiting for them to give me the direction of what to do properly after hearing what I had done wrong right because I'm a good parrot I'm good at listening to instruction and then tweaking it and then doing that but going in and doing it cold I was like I don't know what to do but yeah it was it was such a cool learning experience going in and they're like like it was a robot with a just a face that he molded and it was like eight equals D to look like a penis and they were like just do that emoticon and I was like I literally just said eight equals D and they're like they burst out laughing in the studio and I was like okay I think I got it it was like this happy face and I was like do I sound happy and I said like whoo whoo and they like fun ok that's great yeah keep those weird experiences every other I did one game years ago he was called a key bus trip it was a Japanese RPG big you like fighting vampires in Tokyo but you beat them by knocking their clothes off very Japanese it was like my friend talisman was directing he's like you wanna do some some voices for this night sure I go in and one of the voice prints is the foreigner voice which in Japanese is just an American dude but for the English version I say but what kind of accent do you wanted to pick what I would that's Scottish why not that's fun so they know that all the character voice print for this is occasional NPCs with all the six thick brogue the whole tain and you're like you know I come this way what are you doing it you know Jedi hope yeah yeah you want to buy something you know like NPCs but apparently you can set the voice tones in this to uh to choose them so apparently can have like these little mo a anime girls then set them with this like big brick robe tight voice to it which is a lot of gray a lot of fun but as part of that game I think it was one of the series I think something the directions in the script were like like sad cat punch with a mute you know and like okay oh like how do you supposed to do that weird and so they get these strange strange directions in the script that just get weirder and weirder and eventually you just kind of have to be like re I don't know what this is but I hope it works for what's necessary yeah doesn't go with it I hope I didn't make anything that ruins my career yeah exactly the context comes out God look we done I had my process yeah don't judge me don't you be thinking what was his relationship with his dad like a child puncher I think that was Dwayne Johnson movie I think that's a child puncher the sequel to the the pacifier yeah that was a movie how was that a movie I don't know I got to meet the guy he was very really I ran a game a D&D for him as as part of his promotion for the diesel yeah the Dean diesel thing yeah and he was it was actually very sweet you only got like 30 they told me like you got two hours so like prepared to our store and like that's kind of short for a D&D game and I'll see what I can do than the day before they're like hey this agent has to kind of just an hour can you condense it to an hour likes okay so have to cut the story in half okay we can do that I'll try make it work the dander like you have 20 minutes okay for introducing four of their characters and him to play through let's give it a shot yeah but I got to talk with him it's like 20 minutes before the game we nerd about tokine and like melkor which was the character his first indie kid was named off of he was very nice um who stoned out of his gourd just tell and I was like Yemen all right get it see he was very nice very cordial uh I've heard differing stories about him being various degrees of a nicer not nice person in the industry and hard to work with in some cases and I'm like I don't know he was thrown and I got to run a game of D&D for him for twenty minutes so that's as my experience yeah I mean everyone has a story it all depends on who who catches you on what day somebody's met me when I'm like something's happened and I'm like I'm just not in the mood I'm sorry and then that's their impression of me and they they tell everybody done yeah but like you say or post actions they'll they'll speak louder than what anything I think that's that's something to about general empathy that I try and do and try and like promote as to is you'll have bad interactions to people like in gas stations and grocery stores or whatever there'll be people that are just raging [ __ ] sometimes and you're like ah like man why are people so terrible but then I remember those days that I was having a terrible day like a death in the family or just got broken up with or you know was laid off a job and and in those moments sometimes people will approach you or people will will catch you off guard in that emotional state and you'll lash out without meeting - yeah and so keeping that in mind I try and give people the benefit of the doubt maybe they're just having a bad day I don't know what's going on in their life yeah you know unless it's a repeated behavior to where you're like oh no you're just an [ __ ] I get it yeah I get it like you know if it's one off one experience you know I try and you know how people give me the benefit of the doubt give both of us a yeah because I have those moments where if you're a person online and a lot of people are just saying their opinions at you have either good bad indifferent what you should be doing what's working for you what's great everything you're getting a lot of personality thrown at you all the time yeah and sometimes it's like you hear the same complaints over and over again and I I found myself getting to a point where sometimes somebody will say it just honestly being like worried or concerned something but they'll say it and I'll I want to lash out just because I've seen it a hundred other times and then I always I rarely ever interact with that or like lash out at people but it's it's that thing where it's like that one person can just cross into the firing line when you're just ready to pull a trigger and I'm like man I don't I I try not to get into that state or at least be aware of it I'm like I'm just hearing the same thing over and over again and then one person's just like hey but what about the thing and they're like okay I guess I'm choosing you so it's tricky that's why I always try to like explain things to people and dehumanize myself because then people would be like oh if you're a human to someone then they understand more whereas if you're just an entertainment entity then it's it's a lot harder to get your point across yeah and again why it's important to do this because you get conversation out of it instead of just being like like a one-sided thing or just yelling things back and forth of each other or having prepared questions cuz it is very formulaic and it doesn't really work out yeah I like this better yeah great what's part of the good thing about facilitating community too is you get to build a space not only are people kind of get to know you being a little more open and who you are mm-hmm so they understand when you're having an off day you know people that are usually there elisany bike and been kind of a dick today but like it's probably seven a rough day yeah yeah they get to know you every time which is nice yeah though there is the challenge to of understanding community I'm learning the challenges of having a community meaning discourse can be difficult when people want a rally to protect you as well mm-hmm if someone has a very viable you know and a very important piece of constructive criticism yeah or even if they just say they don't like you mm-hmm and that's totally valid yeah but every now and then if you having a rat bad day and you respond with like alright fine you can you know like me that's your thing bye yeah and all of a sudden hundreds of people come out the defendant no no I didn't mean to put a bullet on them you know a bull's-eye on their face this is discourse is getting ya more more difficult yeah it's like it's the things like I'm gonna duel man I can take care of myself if someone says something bad to me I appreciate you wanting to defend me and like lashing out but if it's something worth lashing out at or something worth addressing I'll do it myself I don't I don't like other people speaking for me because then things get conflated and then other people who don't know you see that and like man his audiences are [ __ ] all did you like lash out at that person that's the last thing I want and it's it's so hard sometimes you kind of to like bite your tongue and just hunker down and be like okay hopefully this passes and people are at the end of it civil and then we can address it cuz yeah heated emotional states or never really the way you get proper civil discourse oh yeah I can't tell you how many tweets have fully written like long like this said this is my opinion I very well thought out you know response to this thing and that's bothering me that somebody said that I think would be like very much clarify exactly why I felt this was a completely an appropriate thing to have said there delete yeah you know if before I even tweeted no I've been there as well and sometimes it's cathartic to like get it out because it feels like you've said it and then you don't need somebody else to actually hear just like okay that's that's you parse the information yeah it's why like it's almost like meditative things it's like I'm anxious I'm nervous I'm just gonna sit for 10 minutes with my thoughts let them happen okay don't yeah rest of the day let's go yeah and once again let your actions speak for you yeah it's tricky it's tricky it's a tricky lifestyle to be in yeah for all the wonderful things that social media can do and communities can do on social media yeah there's there's a lot of challenges we're figuring out we're all stumbling babes blind in the night trying to [ __ ] because sometimes they even get like worried about my own opinions cuz I have an opinion on something and I feel like I feel like I know what I'm talking about and I can I can talk through things but because other people and sometimes don't want to talk through something I'll say it and then a certain thing will happen backwards either good or bad and then I I always like have to question myself don't be like wait do I know what I'm talking and then write that's the kind of thing that I want to avoid because then I end up I end up becoming someone for other people's like their opinion ends up being me yeah what they want me to be ends up becoming Who I am and I always want to try and avoid them that's something that I'm learning to try and get past and do like I grew my hair out and my beard out and everything and some people are just like shave you look gross and part of me was like I do don't I but I'm almost like no that's something that I wanted to do this is me whatever am I trying to get rid of that mentality and just live for myself more than just living for other people's satisfaction yeah so what what's the goal what's the the objective what do you what are you working towards if anything what do you hope to get out of life I never had lofty goals of world domination yeah and my meager goals of weirdly already met you know it's like I wanna be a voice actor voice actor yeah I'm here I've been called to do some characters from some stuff that I grew up with and I did that like okay Shep any better goals ya know like I was like oh Deenie show my cool it be cool people cared about this and now we're doing an animated series of it I'm like okay we're weirdly like I don't at this point I'm just writing it I mean I just want I want to do good work well maybe make its many people happy as I can and and and still have enough time through all that to like be with the people I care about spend enough time my wife and hopefully maybe see the world as time goes on I think travel travels the big thing no I'm not a big fan of material things don't buy a lot of stuff yeah like travels I think a big thing for me yeah I think well I've always been paired the philosophy it was like don't just climb one mountain everyone talks about like climbed the mountain but it's like yeah if you end up reaching the top of that mountain say where do you go like go down climb another mountain do something else do as many things as you want to do but traveling is something that I've I've been putting off for a while but I just like people and doing this kind of thing you meet so many different types of people so many different mentality and races religions faiths orientations and different things like that it's just cool to go out and see the world I think it it makes you more empathetic to see more parts of the world yeah I think anyone who's travelled and seen parts of the world and actually like seen it and I've just been there for like I'm gonna drink my ass off you actually see the people there and how they live then it's gonna hurt be narrow-minded I think yeah we learn that one the differences of all these different places and cultures are so beautiful in their uniqueness and at the same time everybody is so similar yeah everywhere in the world there's very little difference beyond just the you know the small cultural differences and yeah and that like everyone's so we're just trying to be happy yeah we're just trying to live and be happy that's really all it is and so yeah so for that same reason not to I guess I guess the other answer would be charity like charity initiatives trying to use whatever whatever good graces have come to me over the years and give it back and try and try and give platforms to people that don't get the attention to try and and help use this community as a force of good to make the world a better place and what we as we can and I don't know what else I could ask for really yeah that's that's what we've been trying to do so like every month we do a different charity stream yeah yeah trying to give back as much as we can because it's that thing again it's like I'm here I'm living the dream I'm doing better than I ever thought possible it's like I need to give something back yeah I feel like I'm taking too much from the world that yeah I shouldn't be this lucky doing what I do so trying to like shed light on things and you're like no this part of the world exists that you probably don't even know about and it's worth paying attention to and just trying to bring us all together if I can make people feel more human I feel like we're all part of something together then but I've done something good yeah and that's that's the right kind of legacy I think I thought about that I mean harshly because I just became obsessed with Hamilton when it came out in his law talk about legacy and musical yeah but like you know but what kind of what kind of impact do you want to leave in this world you know that's keepin calm but there'll be a day where I'm then yeah and when you know you won't Matt Mercer you live forever I mean if I can the single area plug that's a whole different ballgame but if that doesn't happen you know I any life is also signed it's fragile and fleeting it could be sooner than later yeah so it's like well you have the time here to make a difference in a positive difference and hopefully you know have a few people that remember you remember you in a positive light yeah I think that's great I think that's a great place I think it's brave enough I agree everybody I know let's get white-girl wasted do this come on guys don't get me at my worst but you get us out your best this is what happens when I had just flew in from Sweden last night and haven't slept in hours many Swedish uh no because everyone speaks really perfect English they really do yeah so it was not necessary like just that part of the world from like the Netherlands through Denmark Sweden Norway it's like yeah I don't need to learn your language I did go to this really cool place called ifer that's like a subterranean Viking restaurant bar that feels like you're just walking into Skyrim oh like you just go down there you're like oh we're shieldmaiden you know the Talos be worshipped you know and and they announce you when you get like a horn blow and then like you presenting histor tables then you go sit down and David musician is playing an Old Norse instrument that kind of sounds like The Witcher 3 soundtrack and you're just like what is this place and the food was really good and it was like it was slightly kitschy in the way you'd expect but largely not kitschy in the way that you expected as well it's kind of just a cool experience and like that I think the key is there were a lot of actual Swedish and Norse people there that's when you know it's not too kitschy if it's all tourists yeah they're like oh this is the place that embarrasses this is the city you're in it was like do you have an F all right if you ever in the area again and you have time now where do we go to that yeah go be a Viking I would look at a [ __ ] boat so cool that sank and now it's here and now so am i I could have been here been presented I also found out recently that your name's Matt Miller it's my legal name yeah we're Mercer come from Marisa is my family name a few generations back better than Miller well that when I do want to join well never goes out and smooth it does it does but when I joined sag AFTRA the my first time like getting actually like to join the Union for a voice over there was like they ask you like well anyway your name to be matthew Miller anyway alright uh what a middle initial do you want we have like fourteen Matt Miller's in the system and I was like nope I'll go with that one what are something that stood out and there's a little you know white bread kind of yeah I feel like I know I'm Matt Miller I think everyone does to some degree and he's kind of forgettable yeah yeah he played sports in college but never went any further yeah that was good there he's a wife of three kids and he hates himself on Facebook it's so great to go to go and check in on those people and I was gonna like how they doing poor kids really that's a choice that was me I get to take 21 I'm treating nine now but I got the 21 I look back and I was like all these people in my class all have kids yeah like you should not have a kid start with a dog ruin its life before you ruin like it's always the people that shouldn't have kids that already have like three yes we like you shouldn't be a father but you have this many yeah this is this is a problem well at least they're keeping therapists in business that's true industry oh my god amber going back to my old high school town Agora and running into an old friend in high school who never escaped and there's a few of them that just there's still net and they're like hey how's it going what's going on what's so great they had that kind of like desperation tone like we're waiting for like the the get out type moment of like good you don't know you know work for you yeah exactly get out you need to escape you don't know what it's like here yeah we had that on tour because I have a lot of stories about where I grew up really small town but even then we went back and shot some stuff there of like the stuff that was in the show there's still people there who had to live next to and I was like what are you doing man there's 600 people in this town but some some people love just existing like I'll Drive through big desert towns you know like doing the full like California Drive and you'll it'll be like a stretch of road for 120 miles with only one town in between and it's like a population of 25 and a gas station and a subway you like these people chose to live here yeah what's their daily eco studies do with that and like I'm fascinated by I wouldn't I'm not like you know like a stupid paper like I would love their something so simple about that lifestyle as well like where you you've you've kind of pruned down your responsibilities and your scope of the world where everything is so much more simple and personal hmm you know your entire world is this this little town and the cars to try it by yeah and you have your house and you have your family and that's it that would drive me absolutely [ __ ] nuts but brother we stopped at the right time yeah because some sound engineer nearby is like oh yeah I got the whole sorry sound effects library once Jesus just somebody with a megaphone yeah playing up the Foley library I guess that's it thank you it's best b-roll over business everywhere there's no such thing as privacy anymore we're living the public eye I know where will he hide jacksepticeye is confused

Channel: jacksepticeye

Views: 1,318,537

Keywords: jacksepticeye, matt mercer, matthew mercer, matt mercer interview, matt mercer jacksepticeye, matt mercer dnd, matt mercer voices, matt mercer mccree, mccree overwatch, d&d, critical role, matt mercer critical role, voices, voice over, voice actor, matt mercer dm, matt mercer dm tips, matt mercer effect, funny, funny interview, levi ackerman, attack on titan, levi ackerman english voice, critical role dm, critical role dnd, dnd

Id: 1-EXz4Uhhdo

Length: 85min 44sec (5144 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 04 2019