Ultimate Home Theater Guide; Lil Jon, Dakota Fanning, Sarah Snook, Jason Clarke

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, I've got your
ultimate guide to home theaters with the great people from
Clips and Ankio and Little John and Sarah Snook and
so much more.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from iHeartRadio,
your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity interviews on
all the movies, TV, music, and pop culture u CRABE Weekly.
Here's Kyle McMahon.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Nick.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Nickana No, Hello, Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I of course am Kyle McMahon, and.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
This is pop Culture Weekly, the show where I talk
to your favorite actors and musicians and filmmakers and occasionally myself,
you know, because therapy is expensive.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Today's episode is stacked. And when I say.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Stacked, I mean the only thing with more levels than
today's guest lineup is the number of movies I have
on my watch list for work. But before we dive
into that, we're talking home theater. Yes, the religion, the lifestyle,
and the occasional money pit that has eaten my savings

(01:14):
one beautifully immersive upgrade at a time. So if you
know me by now, and of course you absolutely do,
because you've been with me for years. You know, my
home theater journey has been a saga like Lord of
the Rings Extended edition saga like should this man be stopped?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Saga?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's so overwhelming. And you know, I started with the
soundbar cute like it was fine. It made noises that
you know came from the movie. But then one day
I was like, Kyle, do you deserve better? And the
answer was obviously a resounding yes, because you know, self
care is important. So enter my friends at Clips and

(01:56):
on Kio, the dynamic duo of Holy app Why does
my living room sound like a freaking movie theater? Like
clip speakers literally legit for any budget. They have entry
level systems, high end systems. They even do like really
expensive giant movie theater chain system so like they've got

(02:20):
it all. You want something basic, They've got ya. You
want something that rattles your soul and your neighbor's dishes,
They've got that too. And on Kyo receivers like, look,
if you want your system to actually work the way
that Dolby intended instead of sounding like a microwave having
an identity crisis, on Kyo is where it's at. And

(02:42):
I've got a whole Ultimate Guide to Home Theater blog
post which is linked in the show notes, so make
sure you check out that for like your actual written
guide that you can go a print out or whatever.
But I'm talking like crystal clear audio, beefy power, an
intuitive setup, and more options than a freaking cheesecake factory menu.

(03:04):
And now, due to my friends at CLIPS and on
Kio and their amazing guidance and their wonderful help, my
current system is seven point two point four because I
believe in God and they'll be at most. And today
we've got someone who knows this stuff on an expert level.

(03:24):
So when you're like, what was he talking about seven
point two point four, I didn't know either until I
talked with Marcus. So we're gonna kick things off with
Marcus Buckler, who this guy understands CLIPS and on Kio
way better than like anybody in the business. This man

(03:44):
is a genius with home theater systems with you know,
uh audio and audio equipment.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
So let's talk with him. The training manager for the
Americas at clips and on Kio and Premium Audio. Do
you want to know only Marcus Buler So I am.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Really excited to talk to Marcus Buckler, training manager at
Premium Audio Company, and we're gonna be talking all about
home theaters and you know how that plays, how that
can play or does play into our lives. How are you, Marcus,
I'm doing well, awesome. Thank you so much for joining me.

(04:27):
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (04:29):
So give me a little bit problem happy to be here.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
So, first of all, you know, I've been exploring this
whole ultimate guye to home theaters, you know, the best
of the best and the different levels that there are.
As I started learning about this, you know, I have
a show about pop culture where I interview celebrities and
all about their movies or their albums or whatever. You know,

(04:55):
it struck me that I didn't realize how wide the
spectrum of home theaters are. Where you could be in
a apartment and have a home theater system, or you
could be in a mansion and have your own dedicated,
you know, home theater room. Tell me a little bit
about that and how well, first of all, how did
you get into this?

Speaker 6 (05:17):
Oh man, let's see. So I started out working for
a big box retailer just in the wintertime, right before holiday,
part time job. I didn't know anything about home theater.
My college roommate talked me into it, so I tried
it out. I learned about first like the different types

(05:38):
of TVs, and then I got in like this audio
room space where they sold like really high end audio stuff.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
And I remember the first demo I heard was.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
An Eric Clapton song on a big pair of Martin
Logan speakers, and I was like, WHOA, I.

Speaker 5 (05:56):
Had no idea.

Speaker 6 (05:56):
Like most people, it's if you've never heard your favorite
song or just a song that like emotionally moves you
on a big Hi Fi system. I mean, it's life changing.
It's just like the first time you drink a good
glass of red wine, right you can't go back because
that's it was amazing. Or a fast car you don't
You didn't know that you can get that pull in

(06:19):
your chest on a fast car until you experience it,
and then you're like, oh my gosh, and you chase
that forever. Hi Fi is no different. It's it's a
never ending rabbit hole where you can go from I
mean you can go from literally millions of dollars. I've
seen systems in the hundreds of thousands that shows. I

(06:39):
was at Munich this year, there's a million dollar system there.
But again for a listener, don't let it intimidate you.
One of my favorite things when I'm doing a training,
like as I grew through my journey and Hi Fi
and retail, I remember today's customer is different than like
we were.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
I'm gonna date.

Speaker 6 (06:59):
Myself, but wherehen we were kids, Like my dad gave
me a small two channel system, you know, like a
boombox from a pizza place we had.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
I put in my room.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
Yeah, and I hooked up the speakers. Sounded great, and
then I hunted around the house for more speakers. I
plugged it all in. It eventually blew up. But like
today's customer, they don't really get that right. Like most
of them, their first audio experience is these little white
pods that come with a cell phone from a fruit company, right,

(07:30):
that you put in your ear and if I want
to listen better, I get the pro version of those pods, right,
And that's that's awesome audio to me, and it is
very very good. But as you grow into like spatial audio,
which means like speakers in front of you a room
that sounds great and then you know your favorite you're

(07:51):
playing your video game, you're watching TV, a movie, or
listening to some vinyl. You know, like it's a it's
a life changing experience. Don't don't let it intimidate you,
because you can start small and grow into these things.
And so that's kind of like my journey as I
started small box or big box store, became a manager

(08:11):
that I was a brand manager for a company called
Magnolia Home Theater, which I trained, so I trained associates
across the southeast US. I'm out of Atlanta, and then
eventually my journey took me to a manufacturer, and I've
worked for I've actually worked for quite a few manufacturers
most of the time, because you work for one and

(08:32):
then they get bought by a bigger company and they
add more brands to you. And then a couple of
years ago I landed here at Premium Audio Company with
just it's a great place because we have the legendary
clips brand, and then they bought Ankio, so now we
have two. We have an amplifier brand and we've got
our passive speaker brand. Both have been around since the

(08:53):
same year. They both started in nineteen forty six. So
that's a little bit of my journey. But also a
little bit of my training history with people like, don't
be intimidated by this stuff. It's a it's a journey,
so start small, grow into it.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
There's a lot of options.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
So for somebody, you know, because we have listeners and
viewers and readers from all you know, walks of life,
all budgets. If I'm you know what, what is interesting
for me? How I got interested in this? Uh was
I bought a house and I've obviously always.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Been a huge movie buff.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
And my goal was when I bought a house, I
wanted a home theater, dedicated home theater room. So h So,
I finally got my first house three years ago or so,
and I started, you know, really thinking about it because
I was at a friend's house that had this awesome system,
and I was like, I'm hearing things that I didn't

(09:49):
even hear in the movie theater, you know, and it
really just envelops you in the sound, which then envelops
you in the movie, you know. And so for me,
somebody that's such a huge movie buff, I'm like, I
that's what I want. But then I started getting overwhelmed
with I'm like, oh my god, what is that? What

(10:11):
is that there's you know, five point there's seven point
there's seven point one, seven point two. Like you know,
I got ridiculously overwhelmed, and I'm like, Okay, I don't
even know where to start, you know, do I start
with the budget?

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Do I start with a the space I have? Where
would somebody start?

Speaker 6 (10:29):
So it's important to know, like how it all works,
because like movie theaters clips, we do movie theaters.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
I think we're in.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
You can find us in I think half the movie
theaters in the US and a quarter worldwide. Wow, that's
kind of a hard space. There's a lot of people,
a lot of speakers. When you're thinking about your home,
it's about you most of the time.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
That is a couch.

Speaker 6 (10:50):
So in that listening position, what I want to make
sure I have is if I'm listening to music, all
music is recorded in at least two chances, So you
want a left and right speaker, and you want to
invest some money into those speakers because you're probably going
to have them for a really long time. And then
the most important speaker when it comes to watching video

(11:12):
content like a movie or a TV show, is your
center channel. It's all of your dialogue. And that dialogue
was recorded to come out of a center channel speaker.
So it's important to make sure you have a good
amount of money, depending on your budget, for a left
and right and then a matching center and then when
it comes to surround sounds one you can add those later.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
You can have a.

Speaker 6 (11:33):
Three channel system upfront and then add surrounds as your
budget goes. But only about twenty percent of the audio
is going to come from the surrounds, right, because it's
only firing when something has happened in the background, that
helicopter flies overhead or the car crash. You know, it's
it's not all of the audioce So they don't have
to have four giant towers and a center channel or

(11:55):
you know, six giant towers around you. You can get
away with smaller speakers for your surrounds.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
And there are different price points for these, right, Like,
I don't need to save fifty thousand dollars for those
three you know, the left and right and center. I
can invest in a decent system. And this is more
of a question. Can I invest in a decent system
with a smaller budget.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
One hundred percent?

Speaker 6 (12:23):
One hundred percent And I'll tell you this when you
start on that let's just just for argument high five.
So I'm listening to music and I'm trying to get
high resolution. I'm trying it the most detail I can.
And you go to shows or stores and you experience
these products you're going to you just get blown away

(12:43):
by how good it gets as you go up and
if you've been doing it for a long time. What
impresses me these days is playing those entry level price
point systems and just being wowed by how much how
much value you get out of these products, Like they
can play loud, there's good detail, you know, and you
can spend You can spend one thousand dollars or a

(13:05):
couple thousand dollars and still get a really good experience.
So any budget can give you home theater. Not to mention,
there are sound bars, and we make some sound bars
these days that do Dolby at most right. They have
upward firing drivers. The subuffers are built in. They decode
anything you throw at it and virtualize the sound so

(13:26):
you can get away with We've got a sound bar
for three hundred and fifty bucks that'll knock your socks
off and it takes up no real estate. Really, it's
like two feet and you can add wireless surrounds to it.
You can add you can add a couple of wireless
subs for I like to say, a couple more ugga dugas,
like people love base. Yeah, so sublifers are definitely going

(13:46):
to make an impact.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
But yeah you can.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
You can have a system for one thousand bucks.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
You can have a system for two thousand and as
you grow, you know that that curve is that rate
of diminishing returns, right like you can spend fifty thousand dollars,
you know, at that end of your audio journey and
be like, yeah, you know that speaker wire gave me
just that little nuance, you know, like I just didn't
hear that before and now you know it brought it

(14:12):
to life for me. Or that that cartridge on my turntable.
You know, the amplifier, the receiver, especially you're a movie buff,
the receiver processor makes a huge difference because it's it's
it's the brain. It's decoding all of that information and
sending it to your speakers so you can get away
with a decent budget. One of my trails of thought,

(14:33):
and this has just been my opinion. So the listeners
can tell me I'm wrong. But if you build a budget,
let's say five thousand dollars, I'm going to spend a
good amount of money again on that front stage left
right center, and whatever I spend on that front left
right center, about half of that money I want to

(14:54):
spend on my receiver, my AVR, because then I'm going
to make sure I have plenty of power. Right, we
have this there's this idea that I can overpower a speaker. Well,
you can play the speaker too loud, like louder than
it's supposed to play. But speakers love power, all of them.
And the more power you have, the more effortlessly you're

(15:17):
gonna get that sound at a lower volume that you
normally would listen to. And it's I always use fast cars.
I'm a car guy. But like if you put a
four cylinder engine in a semi truck, you know you're
gonna blow up that engine.

Speaker 5 (15:29):
It's just not gonna it's not gonna do what you
want it to do.

Speaker 6 (15:32):
But if you put a big engine in a small car,
barely touch the gas, it is just gonna effortlessly move.
And that's what you want your system to do. You
want it to be in that sweet spot, that happy
place where it's got the right amount of power for
that speaker and it gives me the volume that I
want to listen to most of the time when speakers

(15:54):
get damaged if they try to play into too loud
and it didn't have enough power, and that's the problem.

Speaker 7 (15:59):
Okay, So, so are a lot at you there to
go back on sound bars for a minute, because then
I want to get into the processors or the receivers
for sound bars.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So and you guys offer a wide range of them.
A sound bar and again I'm asking, but from what
I from what I understand, it kind of has.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
I don't want to say, uh.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Home theater in a box, but it kind of is
that right, it's like a one and done sort of
thing and it goes under your TV or above your
TV or whatever. And does that does that give you surround?

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Like? What is that considered?

Speaker 6 (16:42):
Yeah, so if you start with just a sound bar,
you're gonna want to have a sound bar. Again I'm biased,
but whatever brand you're shopping for, make sure it comes
from an audio company like that's what they do because
the internals are going to be different. You know, there's
a lot of a lot of companies make soundbars. They're everywhere,

(17:03):
and they're all over the place with price points, and
if you read the box, you know the box is
going to tell you it's going to have a great experience.
No matter what the brand, it's their job to sell
it to you. But if you go to a sound
bar with a company that that's all they do is audio,
the internals are going to be better, So the virtualization
of that sound.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
You know, I'm listening.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
I watched top Gun Maverick last night on the clips
our flexus Core two hundred sound bar, and it has
upward firing at most drivers, and when the planes go over,
it's just a sound bar, no surrounds. You know, it
sounds like they're above me. And then that sound bar
has built in subwifers, so I don't have a subwulfer
in the room, and I still get that full, like

(17:43):
that thick, thick base that I need from a jet
when it's taken off. If you go with sound bars
that use a lot of plastic, really simple drivers and
cheap internal components, it's just not going to do that.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
It's not going to play as loud for as long.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
It's not gonna last as long and the fidelity is
not gonna it's just not gonna be there. Right, It's
gonna be better than the TV sound probably, but it's
not gonna be You're not getting your money's worth, really yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, And and by the way, that's why I want
it to come to you guys, because you guys are
the best of the best. So that's what I'm like,
if I'm going to dive into this, and I want
to bring you, know, the audience with me on this journey,
Like we're going with the best. So and I love
that you guys have different price points for different budgets

(18:32):
and different needs.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
So is a.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Soundbar like is that what somebody in an apartment should
be using? Or can somebody in an apartment do a
home theater?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Like? What is this soundbar? Who is that best for soundbar?

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Really?

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Is best for budget?

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (18:48):
You know, if I'm trying to I'm trying to stay
under that thousand dollars threshold. A good sound bar system
that's maxed out, you will just be incredibly impressed with it.
I mentioned are our Flexus system. That's something we did
that is very unique. So that is a soundbar that
is the first time that we used our on Kyo
brand to build the internals, so it's got the same

(19:11):
internals or same internal ish as our AVRs in a soundbar,
so it's heavy and it decodes it really well. One
of the things about soundbars to remember is a really
good audio company or even a TV manufacturer that does audio,
they can make a great audio system that plays loud,

(19:32):
but it doesn't mean all the components work that well.
I've seen some amazing big brands, big audio brands come
out with soundbars and then the HDMI switching doesn't work
that well, or you know something some third party piece
they purchased didn't do what you wanted to do. So
again I'm biased here, but our new soundbars with the

(19:54):
Onchyo stuff inside is incredible, and you stay at that
price point of six hundred dollars on the bar. If
you want to add a sub, knock yourself out. Now
you got a sub and a soundbar, you're at a
thousand bucks for an apartment. That is a great solution.
But I do a lot of trainings around a little
bit globally, but mostly here in the US, and one

(20:16):
of my favorite places to train is New York City,
so I have an account in New York City. They
do amazing stuff big foot traffic, and when I go
there for a training, I bring smaller speakers that are
not a soundbar. Remember if you were to take a bookshelf, So,
for example, you've got reference bookshelves, right, so take your

(20:36):
reference bookshelves, turn them on their side next to the
center channel, but the other one on side. It is
the same footprint as a really big sound bar, but
all your drivers are bigger, so you're going to have
way better fidelity when it comes to music. Better for movies,
more effortless volume, right, three channel, left, right center. You're

(20:59):
gonna want to add a sou to balance it out,
but then you run it into an audio video receiver,
and that is removing all of the electronics away from
the speaker. So one of the downsides to a soundbar
is all the electronics are very close to the driver
of the speaker, and electronics make sound. It we call

(21:19):
it noise and distortion. That's a phrase. It's overused in
this industry. Everything is noise. We're going to remove the noise,
but electronics make electronics sounds. So if it's kind of
like that electricity hissing sound, and you can get filters
on a power center. You can go down that.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
Rabbit hole forever.

Speaker 6 (21:35):
But if you just remove that box away from the speaker,
now you're not putting more noise and distortion into the system.
And that piece is it's dedicated to do one thing.
Receive the signals, process it, and then kick it out
and you're gonna get a lot more power and different

(21:56):
types of power. So that's the other thing about soundbars
is most of them that I can think of all
Class D amplifiers, which are great. They've come a really
long way. Class D is what's in your cell phone,
you know, your tablet. They're really small and efficient. They
don't put off a lot of heat. But if you
want really good power, you've got to have something that
stores a little bit of the energy. And when you

(22:18):
do that, it's ready to go faster, and again it
has less noise in it, so you get.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
A better sound.

Speaker 6 (22:24):
And that's why you'd want like an apartment. I would
tell anyone if your budget's a soundbar, great, but for
not a whole lot more money I can get you,
for example, like yours, your reference bookshelves, then I'm gonna
get you a center. We're gonna get you a small
ten inche sub and you know, we've got a AVR.
You've got the sixty one hundred from MONKEYO. The fifty

(22:46):
one hundred is on sale. I was just at a
best Buy yesterday and a customer bought it and it's
five hundred and twenty five dollars.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (22:55):
And that's a that's a really good, you know, network
receiver with airplay and chrome cast and does atmost and
you can plug six devices into it, whereas most sound
bars only have one maybe two HDMI inputs. Yeah, so
all your devices are going into this thing and you're
going to have a way better experience for sure.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
And so the receiver itself is basically, I think from
what you're saying, is handling all of that away from
the speakers themselves and basically delivering saying, Okay, this sound
you go to that speaker, This sound you go to
that speaker along with power.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Is that how it works?

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Yep?

Speaker 6 (23:36):
Okay, So you're all your HDMI inputs, your processor, digital
to analog converters. Not all of those are created equal.
There's so many, right, and that makes a big difference.
Because we live in a digital age. Well, all speakers
are analog, all of them. So if you send a
digital signal to it, it has to convert it to analog.

(23:58):
And it's just like a computer if you have a
If I'm a big gamer, I don't. I don't want
a basic computer. I need a gaming laptop because I
need that processing power. It's the same when I'm sending
a digital signal with music. I need to make sure
my inputs are good, that i've I can handle the signal,
and then it can put out the fidelity that I
want it to.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Okay, that clears that up for me. I love that.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
All Right, we're gonna take a quick break. Don't go anywhere,
grab a snack, pet your dog, or just sit in
silence while you reflect on just how cool Marcus is.
I won't judge ye, all right, see it in sixty.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
All right, welcome back.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Thanks for supporting our sponsors and help paying the bills.
You know, so you said our mains essentially are the
right and left and center. And then as we start
adding things and quickly I'm going back for a second,
you said, typically you would keep those around for a
long time. And I have noticed that because as I
was doing research, I've seen people on you know, Facebook, Marketplace.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
And on Reddit talking about uh oh.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
I picked up a pair of these speakers, and the
speakers are like ten years old, and I had always
wondered like, well, why are they like so excited about
something ten years old or five years old? And then
I guess from what I'm understanding now from you, is
that a speaker, especially since they're analog and will always
be that speaker is always going to you know, if

(25:24):
it's a great speaker, it's going to be a great
speaker today or ten years from now.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Is that right?

Speaker 6 (25:29):
Yeah, But it's it's like buying a nice antique car, right,
you buy a vintage car that wasn't taken care of.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
You've got problems. You have to redo it.

Speaker 6 (25:38):
Speakers still have drivers, you know, there's a rubber surround
and if they're not taken care of, you'll get dry rot.
And if that seal breaks it doesn't sound good. You
got to replace it. But crossover technology, I don't want
to get too technical, but yes, there is a piece
inside of a speaker that is called a crossover and

(25:59):
that is the easiest way to explain it. That is
the traffic cop so if I've got a high frequency, right,
I send that to the tweeter. Mid frequency, I send
it my mid range driver base to the woofer or subwoffer,
depending on your system. But that technology has come a
long way as well. So I'm not a big vintage

(26:19):
speaker person unless it is like you really really took
care of it, you know, the gentleman. It's a great
story from just yesterday. But the guy that bought the
Honkey receiver, he has a pair of clips heresies from
nineteen seventy five. Wow, and yeah, he's like, I was
gonna put him on Facebook marketplace, but then my son
was like, I got you have to give those to me, Dad,
And he's like, all right, I guess we'll keep them

(26:40):
in the family. But he stored them well, kept them
in great condition. You know, you can buy other parts
for speakers if you want to keep them forever. But
I tell a lot of people, get if you can
buy the new stuff, you'll be so impressed with the
level of performance you can get. Right if you pick
up you pick premium audio company. Yeah, you start at

(27:00):
that entry level price point with a premium company and
you're going to have a great experience and then you
know where that speaker's been. There's no scratches on. It's
brand new, that is yours, you know, by the biggest,
baddest speaker you can for your budget for that front stage.
And you're not gonna you're not gonna regret.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
That well, and it seems like what you're saying is
that you know, since I want to invest in those
three in particular, those are going to be a part
of my system in five years and say it's not
something you know, I think a lot of us are
used to just kind of disposable electronics, you know, where
oh my buds that go in my ear in a

(27:37):
couple of years, the battery is going to be crappy.
I spent three hundred bucks on them. I'll just buy
a new one. These like, if you invest well now,
they are going to serve you throughout your kind of
home theater journey.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
From from my understanding, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (27:51):
And as long as you stay with the same brand
and style of speaker, you can add to it and
you're gonna have the same type of sound. It's called
timber matching. It's making sure that like if you've got
the reference speakers that's an aluminum tweeter. I want to
make sure that the next set I buy, if I
buy the reference, you know, next generation, get the ones

(28:14):
with the aluminum tweeter, and all have the same style
of sound all the way around, and it sounds the same,
so that you don't have that bright sound in the
back and then a warm sound up front.

Speaker 5 (28:23):
Everything matches and you can build onto that.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Again.

Speaker 6 (28:26):
You build that front stage and you have an AVR,
you know, the the sixty one fifty one hundred. You've
got plenty of channels you can add to it. So
you're building onto the system without ever growing out of it.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Gotcha.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Okay, So so now we've covered sound bars and the
center stage receivers. So what is the five point the
seven point?

Speaker 2 (28:53):
You know, are those just adding additional.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Sound sounds, I don't want to say sounds, but speakers,
I guess yeah.

Speaker 6 (29:02):
It Well, when the movie was recorded, you know, someone
listened to the whole movie with their board and they said,
this is going to go over here. And a lot
of movies the content is edited, you know, it's added in.
It wasn't recorded right there, so they add it in.
And you can get an incredible experience today by making
sure you experience that, which is if I have a

(29:22):
let's start with five dot one, so I've got five
speakers right left, right, center, two surrounds, and then the
dot one is always your.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
Sub will fer level.

Speaker 6 (29:31):
That's a low frequency goes straight to the sub and
that that also helps the speaker not try to play
lower than it can. You're giving that to the sub
will for to take over. And the sub will fers
today are incredible. They effortlessly give you lots of base.
But a five dot one is a really simple system.

(29:53):
When you go to seven dot one, then you're just
adding two more speakers, which are your immediate right and
mediate left, and then you've got two behind you, so
you've got four surrounds and then your front stage one suboffer.
When you go to at posts, you're adding that that
dot system. So at most well that's where you see
like a seven dot two dot one.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Okay, so the high channels are they're the ones that
are on the ceiling and point down is that right.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
To two schools of thought. So you've got a couple
flavors here. You can either have toppers on your speaker
that reflect off the ceiling.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
So if you have an apartment.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
Again, I don't want to cut holes in an apartment
I'm renting, not going to be a good not gonna
do what I leave. Let's reflect it off the ceiling
with the atmost topper that sits on top of your speaker,
it's about a forty five degree angle, and then it
just reflects down to your listing position. You can get
an incredible atmost experience that way, and you can do
uh most systems can do four of those, So you

(30:57):
can do four at most toppers and then have a
five channel surround sound and have an awesome experience.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
And what's the second school of thought?

Speaker 6 (31:06):
Second school of thought is I put speakers in the ceiling,
so that and that's that's the best way to do
it because you can control it more. You're sending that
that driver directly to the listening position, and it's just
way more immersive, at least in my experience. There's there's
some great examples of upward firing drivers and reflection, but
if your ceiling's too high or you have like a

(31:28):
vault to it, it's just going to change the experience
a little bit. Whereas if you have in ceiling speakers,
fire them down and then run. You know, you have
built in room calibration with all of our AVRs. You
calibrate it for the seating position.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
It is.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
It's a life changing experience, especially for a movie buff
like yourself.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah, yeah, I'm My project, you know over the next
couple of weeks is to really fine tune everything, put
it all together. And you know, because I'm just so
excited now talking to you about just all the different options.
And you know, I was confused about the what is
it dot one dot two or whatever?

Speaker 6 (32:08):
So that's yeah, so five dot two, dot one dot
two that yep, you've got. Your first number is your speakers.
Second number is your utmost channels. Next is your subs,
which you can add more than one sub because they're
all getting the same signal, so you could split it off,
have a sub in the back of the room, in
front of the room, and sometimes they balance each other out.

(32:31):
Sometimes they just add a lot more base.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Okay, so what do you think bottom line for somebody
you know that wants to jump into this, because it
can get I mean, now I'm much more educated than
I was a half hour ago. But where's the best
place for them to start? So, like, if I go
to premium audio company's website. Will that direct me into

(32:57):
building a system? Do you guys already have recommended systems?

Speaker 6 (33:00):
We do, so we have. You can go to images
that's like an all in one type package. Also, you
can get packages online. So if we love to go
to our dealers, you know, you can go to clips
dot com. But if you go to any dealer, local dealer,
you know, go take a listen to what you like
to hear. Hopefully it's a clip speaker. We have a

(33:22):
pretty big following a lot of people. A lot of
people listen to clips absolutely, But again, really think about
your budget and then what I want you to do
is if if you have a spouse, talk to them
about that budget. First you're on the same page because
if you show up with a ton of speakers and
you didn't talk about it, they're going right back. But no,

(33:44):
look at that budget and then do some research and
then go back to your budget. One of the things
I tell people all the time that are like, hey,
here's my budget. How did you get to that number?
Is that just all you have to spend? Because when
you start doing research, you know you're gonna see, oh,
you know, I need that I'd like to start with
that at least, and that budget grows all the time.

(34:06):
So take a look at your budget, do some research,
then go back to the budget. If I go to
clips dot com and I'm looking at the reference line,
you know we build that for that entry level price point.
You don't have to buy the biggest ones we have,
like you've got the the R eight hundreds. Those are
that's a big speaker. But you can go to the smaller,

(34:28):
the smaller UH speakers that have like a six inch driver.
You have eight inch and we even make one called
the six oh five and that's got a at most
speaker built into it. Oh wow, So you can't even
see it. It's built in and it plays through a
grill off your ceiling. That that is one of the
best pound for pound speakers you can get because you

(34:49):
will get every penny that you spend on a speaker,
You're gonna get a great experience from it.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
You will not regret it.

Speaker 6 (34:55):
And then the center channel, UH, you've got a front
ported center from in the reference line, which means you
can put it flat against a wall and not take
up a lot of real estate and you'll still have
four drivers and a tweeter. So that dialogue, if there's
one thing crip clips does incredibly well vocal presence. I mean,

(35:15):
you're watching TV movies, you know again, I've watched Top
Gun Maverick last night, and no matter what's happening in
the background, that dialogue is right there. And that's a
big part in movies because if you only have a
left and a right and you're blending that information, whenever
there's a whisper, you got to turn it up. Yeah,
and then action scene happens out it's too loud.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
I got turned out.

Speaker 6 (35:36):
So you want to make sure that you spend a
good chunk of that budget on let's say thirty percent
on the left, right, center, plant thirty percent on your
power and then look at the rest. You still got
to buy some wire. You got to make sure you
have the right cables, and then however many speakers you
want to do behind you goes off your budget, and

(35:58):
then next year that bonus go back to it.

Speaker 5 (36:01):
Build onto the system.

Speaker 6 (36:03):
You know, it's it's it's a great experience. And if
you are on a budget where it's a soundbar, do
not think of that as a negative. You have zero
audio and now you have one hundred percent more audio. Yeah,
so soundbars are a great solution for an entry level
price point. You buy that Flexus Core one hundred, three
hundred and fifty bucks two built in subs so you

(36:25):
don't have to have a sub right away. It decodes
Dolby at most now it virtualizes it again. But let's
say next year you want to add surrounds. You can
add surrounds, you can add a wireless sub. You get
that big bonus. Guess what you do at that soundbar.
That sound bar is now going in the bedroom and
in the living room. I'm gonna buy an AVR and
I'm gonna buy a big center channel and a couple speakers.

(36:47):
So it is a journey that the customer is going
to go on, and do not be don't be shy
about buying something at that lower price point and getting
started right. It's there for a reason and a lot
of customers love it. So you can always save good
audio products. They're gonna sound great for a very long time.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Awesome, Marcus, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
I think this is going to be so helpful and
it was so helpful to me and I can't thank
you enough for you know, breaking it down for us,
you know, so we know where to go now and
have a great basis to jump in. And of course
I would hope they do it with Clips, sure on
Kio or Teig. I mean again, if you're going to

(37:31):
do it, why not go to the best of the best,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (37:34):
We do it and we make something for everybody. We
have gaming systems, we have sound bars, and we've been
doing it longer than most audio companies. On Q and
Clips were both founded in nineteen forty six, and we
have a phrase at the office we've been pissing the
neighbors off since nineteen forty six and that's what we

(37:54):
do and that's what we want our listeners to do.
The other thing about Clips to remember too, this will
be my last part, is if you haven't heard a
Clip speaker before, you probably haven't.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Didn't know it?

Speaker 6 (38:04):
Yeah, because they're in businesses all over the place because
we're known for efficiency. So as a customer, I would
not be doing my job if I didn't. Let you know,
the main thing behind a Clips product is they don't
require a lot of power.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
Paul W.

Speaker 6 (38:19):
Clips wanted the most efficient speakers so that the least
amount of power was needed to give you fidelity, so
you don't have to spend a lot of money on
the AVR. It really helps out to have an efficient speaker.
I'm going to get a lot of volume for very
little power. And then on the flip side of that,
we talked about that distortion piece. The less power I have,

(38:40):
the less distortion I'm going to send to the speaker.
So for a budget customer, I mean, you cannot go
wrong with the entry level stuff we have, and then
again we have something for everybody sound bars, desktop systems,
So knock yourself out, do your research, check your budget,
and then do more research.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Marcus, thank you so much. I can't thank you enough
for speaking with me.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Awesome.

Speaker 6 (39:04):
Well, it was my pleasure to be here. Hopefully I
answered some questions. I know every now and then we
can get a little technical, but keep it simple.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Awesome, isn't Marcus amazing?

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Like, dudes, a legit genius couldn't have made it any
easier for me to understand home theater setups and systems
and all the different options, because you know, for me
and I'm a junkie, like, it was overwhelming looking into
all this stuff. You know, I'm like, what is good
for my space? What do I deal with this budget?

(39:41):
Like where do I start if I have three hundred dollars?
Or where do I start if I have three thousand dollars?
Like where do I go? And Marcus just broke it
all down for me and us. And again, I have
that Ultimate Guide to the Home Theater on the website
and it's in the show notes. So just click on
that link and you'll get all the good stuff and

(40:03):
links to get the systems that we're talking about and more.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
So check that out.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
And now we are jumping from the Ultimate Home Theater
Guide and the wonderful people at CLIPS and a Kio
two and this is real Lil John who's gonna be
talking with us about his brand new collaboration with Hyundai. Listen, Like,
if you told younger Kyle that one day he'd be
chatting with Little John about cars, I would have said

(40:38):
what and he would have said yeah, and then we
both would have screamed okay, because that's how conversations with
Little John go.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
In my head. Here he is the one and only
Lil John.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
Man.

Speaker 8 (40:54):
What's that truck in the background? What kind of truck
is that?

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Where Oh, that's that this side, you're right.

Speaker 8 (41:02):
Side with that?

Speaker 1 (41:03):
That's I had no idea, to be honest, I'm.

Speaker 8 (41:08):
I know.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
I'm outside of my studio. I'm on location at a
place called freight Land, which is this haunted attraction in Delaware.
They've got all kinds of crazy stuff here. So I'm
working with them on something.

Speaker 8 (41:20):
And what you say, like a Halloween vine?

Speaker 9 (41:24):
You like this?

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Oh, it's my favorite. I'm a huge horror fan.

Speaker 8 (41:29):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 10 (41:30):
Okay, are you not?

Speaker 8 (41:32):
I don't. I don't do the hind Houdes and all
of that. Note good, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
But what you do do is you do? You are
working with Hyundai on You just did a commercial with
them for an exciting new vehicle that they have. Tell
me about that. How did you get involved with them?

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Uh?

Speaker 11 (41:53):
It's the palis Ad and it's the luxury suv. They
had an idea because they've done a campaign before way
it was like called like okay Hyndai and I am
synonymous with the words okay because of Dave Chappelle and
my music, So they reached out to me and I

(42:17):
thought it was a great idea. I loved it, and
that's how we made it happen, and it was it
was like easily rolling off the tongue. Once I saw
the car for the first time and I got in
the car, I was literally like.

Speaker 12 (42:30):
Okay, Honda, like y'all doing it, Like this is nice,
Like that really means, it really means, like this is nice.

Speaker 11 (42:41):
Like I wasn't expecting that Hyindai, but okay, y'all do
and that's what and that's what I got, the vibe
I got when I got in the car, so I
was really shocked and impressed at how luxurious the car was.
Even the way the car looks, the grill on the car,

(43:01):
it's impressive. It's a fly suv. I wait to get
one so I can just whip around the city, go
to the gym, and do what I gotta do in
my Hyundai.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
And it's a hybrid too, which is amazing, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 11 (43:18):
And that's it's crazy because I've been looking at you know,
electric versus you know, I mean, yeah, electric, fully electric
versus just a regular gas and then hybrid and I
was like, and then Hondai came with this, and it
was like perfect because I wanted to move for a
hybrid I didn't want to go fully electric, so I

(43:40):
think the hybrid is the best way to go because
you get gas and you can get electric. I think
it gets like six hundred miles on the charge, you know,
plus you got gas, like I mean, so it was
it's crazy how this all came about, and it was
actually what I was looking for.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
And how was the shoot you know, that was the
production of that, you know, for shooting the campaign? Like
where you.

Speaker 8 (44:04):
Know, were you were you.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Enjoying all this time in this car like you know,
I mean it's brand new. It's it's I don't it
hasn't even hit yet right.

Speaker 11 (44:15):
In the streets exactly when it hits on the streets.
But yeah, it was my first time getting in the car,
and I you know, I had to like of course
sit in the car and enjoy the car like and
it was it was it wraps around you. It's like
it's really luxurious, and it's like I enjoyed I could

(44:39):
relax in the car, you know, I just they like
cut and you can go back to your trailer. And
I think I was just chilling in the car because
the car was just that comfy, you know what I mean. Yeah,
And it's comfy. I shot in one of the social videos.
I shot all throughout the car, so I was in
the driver's seat, I was in the passenger seat, I
was in the backseat, and it was comfortable in all

(45:02):
of the seats too. So it's not this one person's
getting the most comfort. It's the full vehicles. It's luxury throughout.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
That's dope.

Speaker 8 (45:13):
Yeah, it's a it's a really nice car. I was
really impressed.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
So you and I were heading out to the gym
in a twenty twenty six Hyundai Palisades Palisades Hybrid. What
are you playing? What's what's the playlist there?

Speaker 11 (45:30):
I mean some people need certain music to get pumped up.
I'm pumped up because I come. I'm coming to get working.
We can be in the hotel gym. We could be
outside on a playground, we could be in my.

Speaker 8 (45:46):
Living room if we ready to work out.

Speaker 10 (45:49):
I'm in a zone.

Speaker 8 (45:50):
I'm coming to work.

Speaker 11 (45:52):
Some people gotta go to the trendy gym and this
and that. I don't care if they got weights, they
got machine, or if it ain't nothing but a pull.

Speaker 8 (46:03):
Up bar, and we're gonna get it in.

Speaker 11 (46:05):
We gonna get because that's where I'm dialed in like that.

Speaker 8 (46:10):
I come to work, I don't come to play it.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
All right, So how about you know we're in that
Hyundai Palisade hybrid chilling, just going on a you know,
chill ride. What what are you switching to?

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Then?

Speaker 11 (46:25):
I like a lot of Uh. I've been listening to
the John Baptiste album where he did over the Beethoven.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Mm hm, he's amazing.

Speaker 8 (46:35):
I went and saw him in Vegas amazing live too.

Speaker 11 (46:37):
Yeah, he looked his team looked out on for me
and my woman on some tickets, my partner and we
had a great time. But I would listen to I
think it's Beethoven Blues.

Speaker 8 (46:49):
I think that's the name of the album.

Speaker 11 (46:52):
We'll We'll, We'll be popping out because I like I
listened to a lot. I listened to old school hip hop.
I listened to some new stuff. I listen to a
lot of jazz. I listened to some blues. I listened
to like Edna James, I.

Speaker 8 (47:04):
Listen to.

Speaker 11 (47:07):
So like Yeah, but that's one that kind of plays
a lot in my house, and that skot of like
new age piano.

Speaker 8 (47:16):
Like music.

Speaker 11 (47:17):
I listened to a lot even in classical too. Listen,
we played classical for my daughter. So all kind of
music get played in the house, Salsa, every nice.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
So you know, streaking of chilling, you have a meditation
album coming out, you know what. It's not that I
would think somebody, you know, if I was like, yo,
did you get that new Little John, I don't think
they would immediately think like, you know, now a say
type of you know, meditation album. What what has led.

Speaker 10 (47:54):
You to this?

Speaker 4 (47:56):
Well?

Speaker 11 (47:56):
This is my third project.

Speaker 13 (47:58):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (47:59):
The the first one was we did what's the name?
I can't even remember the name of the freaking album.

Speaker 11 (48:06):
This is the third. Total Meditation was the first album,
and then Manifest Abundance Affirmations for Personal Growth was the
second album. And this album is remixed meditation. So I
recorded this album kind of about two three years ago.
When I recorded the other stuff and we this one,

(48:29):
me and my partners were like, oh, this is amazing,
but I was I was like, this cannot come first
because basically this album is I took a bunch of
songs that I produced are that were my songs that
I was on artist on and I turned those into meditations.
So like we're we're putting the first single out as yeah,

(48:49):
and it's like say yeah to life.

Speaker 8 (48:52):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 11 (48:52):
So it's like, so we flipped it and like it's
the music is totally different. Shout out to Kabar Sego.
He produced all of this, the music and the album
and it's like meditation music. But so imagine, yeah, the
music flipped to you know, meditation like we did Lovers

(49:14):
and Friends and Lovers and Friends just like a jazz
jazz but it's like jazz meditation music. You know, It's
just it's awesome. It's something different, and I think it's
something that's going to really connect with people. And it's
probably gonna go crazy on TikTok because people love the
crack jokes.

Speaker 8 (49:35):
So they had some jokes about it.

Speaker 11 (49:38):
But and that's why I didn't want to put that
album out first, because I want.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
To take this serious yeast.

Speaker 11 (49:46):
When they heard Total Meditation, they were like, okay, this
They didn't know what to expect, but they were like, okay,
this is actually it actually is calming and soothing. And
you know, I had so many people who come to
me and say, I never meditated before, but you know,
you brought this to me, and I was able to
I was actually able to meditate or help me sleep.

(50:09):
Someone even came to me and said it helped them
get through some grief that they were going through. So
I'm just happy to be out here and inspire with
not just the meditation, with the weight loss, because so
many people, even in the weightlifting, so many people say, ah,
I can't do it. I can't go to the gym,
I can't do this, I can't do that. I'm fifty
three years old, i got a ten month old daughter.

(50:32):
I'm in the studio, and I'm on the road doing shows,
and I was able to compete, So it's no excuse
for anybody else. And you know, chef on the road
with me. I have a trainer, but I'm you know,
I saw some people like say, oh, he can do
it because he got this, that, this and that. No, still,

(50:53):
I gotta do the work. Yeah, dedicated, I got to
eat right, you know, And it's hard. All of that
is extremely hard on the road and especially also trying
to work out on the road because something traveling. I'm tired,
I'm exhausted. And if you work out when you're exhausted,

(51:13):
you defeat the purpose because you can't have growth and
you can you can potentially hurt yourself, you could potentially
get sick. So it's a balance. It's a struggle. It's hard,
but it's a lifestyle change for me, you know. So
it's you know, help with now for me is everything,
you know. I have my daughter's here, she's ten months old,

(51:34):
and I look at it like I got to be
there for her first day of school. Yeah, college graduation.
I gotta be there to walk her down. So I
can only do that if I take care of myself,
you know. So I hope, I hope I can inspire
other people to do the same. Stop eating the fast foods,

(51:56):
stop eating the processed foods, watch what you're putting into
your body, and you know, take the proper supplements and
you can live along, healthy.

Speaker 8 (52:07):
Happy life.

Speaker 14 (52:08):
Yes, sir, and physical I love that. I love that
so much, Little John, thank you so much. Come back
on the show Man, we'll talk about your album. I
can't wait to hear that, a mix of Deepak and
Oprah and John.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
And uh and that that comes out in October, the
October twenty.

Speaker 8 (52:31):
Ninth, yes sir, October twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
And then Awesome and then the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid that
campaign is out right now and you're on the road
with Mariah Carey. Thank you so much.

Speaker 8 (52:46):
Brother, Yes, sir, thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Get low, get Lo, get Lo, getting Lo.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
All right, Little John, love Little John, and love our
friends at Hyundai. So we're going to switch gears and
dive into The Last Frontier, the new Apple TV Plus
series that gives big I need to binge this in
one sitting vibes. I'm telling you it's really really good.
First up, we were joined by co creator, writer, and

(53:17):
executive producer John baching Camp to talk about how The
Last Frontier came together and how he went from creating
The Blacklist to now ep ing The Last Frontier.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Here he is, John backing Camp. Thank you so much
for speaking with me.

Speaker 15 (53:36):
John app for sure it yeah, thank you, Tom So.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
First of all, congrats on the Last Frontier. It is
really compelling. I am loving every second of it. What gig,
of course?

Speaker 8 (53:50):
What gave you?

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Why this project?

Speaker 1 (53:53):
You know, why were you drawn to this project?

Speaker 15 (53:57):
I think I was really drawn to the scope of it, right,
the idea something so remote and yet so beautiful, and
the problems that the rugged nature of Alaska would present
to a planeload of inmates who are incredibly ill equipped
to be in this landscape.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Right, that's part of it, you know.

Speaker 15 (54:19):
The The idea of trying to do something that's that's
action forward, that's very frenetic, that has an incredible pace
to it was also interesting to me. And yeah, I
think that's sort of the jumping off point probably.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
And you know, you're no stranger to prestigious fan loved
successful series with The Blacklist and all. Was this something
that was on your radar?

Speaker 2 (54:47):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (54:48):
The Blacklist was on for a long time. Was this
something kind of cooking up in the background, or.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
You know how that's funny.

Speaker 15 (54:55):
It's funny. I've written a bunch of things that have
some of them. Some are sitting in a on a
shelf in my closet. Some probably never should be made,
there's all. You know, there's always these ideas and you
never know what one's going to connect for whatever reason.
This is an idea that I had kicked around with
my dear friend Rich to video back in two thousand
and six. Right, this is forget. There was no Apple

(55:17):
TV plus, there were no iPhones. Everyone's on a flip phone.
It's a long time ago, right, and and so as
as I was leaving Blacklist and looking forward to what
else would be fun to do, this felt like a
series that also had just a little bit of a procedural.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
Feel to it.

Speaker 15 (55:33):
It felt it felt comforting in that way, and yet
the scope of it is so much bigger and sort
and how and it has also that sort of serialized
mystery at the heart of it that it just felt
like a natural next step. You know, it's a it's
it's comfort food. It's something that is definitely there's probably
a little DNA of the Blacklist in it, but it's

(55:55):
its own. It's its own series that lives and breathes
on its own.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
And do you, you know, as you're kind of cooking
this up, if you will, are you kind of thinking,
you know, Frank and the inmates and that.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Are you in the earlier stages, are you kind of
putting together I want this protagonists kind of as a
character not you know, not obviously fully fleshed out at
that point, But are you saying like, I need somebody
who's empathetic but strong for that, you know, or does
it kind of come organically over time?

Speaker 15 (56:32):
Well, nothing comes organically to me. It's always super painful,
but the you know, in this it was it was
sort of the concept first, But then I think very quickly,
when you sit down with other writers and you start
looking at, Okay, what's the story going to be, that
concept sort of falls away. It's a it's a an engine.

(56:52):
It's something that launches us and gets us going. But ultimately,
I think the people, the characters, what they're confronting that
because not only in the riding, but in the viewing
of the show, the thing that's more important and probably
the only thing people remember is these characters, right. And
so as much as it was a blast to sort
of come up with as big of a situation as

(57:13):
we could that would launch us into a sort of
heightened world, then I think you immediately try to ground
it and figure out who are the people that we're
going to go on this ride with, what is their
sort of point of view, what are they up against?

Speaker 2 (57:27):
And that's where all the that's where all the juice is.

Speaker 15 (57:29):
I think, had you been to Alaska before, Yeah, I'd
been once years ago. I went up there on a
family vacation. I was mesmerized by it. I flew on
one of these little float planes, you know, and mosquitoes,
the size of like seagulls and everything about it was
just larger than life. And I've been very romantic about

(57:52):
it since, but I haven't spent a ton of time there.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
And did you kind of you know, well, so this
was before like two thousand and six when you started
kind of thinking about that.

Speaker 15 (58:02):
Yeah, probably, yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
So as you're you know, putting this together, are you
kind of taking some of those things that you remembered,
you know, on your trip and being like, you know
that stuck out in my mind.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
I want that and very much, so very much.

Speaker 15 (58:19):
I remember vividly staying at this place where they had
I don't know what they technical called them, the dogs
that are part of the idea rod right, This family
had these dogs and they were all chained up to
these little huts and they're all barking when you go
out at night, and I thought, wow, what is that
like that.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Those sort of pieces, they're just to me.

Speaker 15 (58:35):
There's sort of little pieces that maybe go in an
email to myself or little pieces that stick in your mind.
But then that's what's almost therapeutic about going through writing
the series. You're grabbing little pieces of memories, of trips,
of things that stuck out or felt strange or dangerous
and trying to put them into this soup and make
sense of it all.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Do you I'm just curious about, you know, as you
are doing a project like this, do you start to
kind of you know, for instance, the characters themselves are obviously,
you know, integral, and they're so well written and fleshed out,
but Alaska, you know, the scene itself kind of becomes

(59:19):
a character in a lot of ways. You know, do
you know that kind of going in, like obviously it's
part of the premise, but it really is integral.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
To the entire story.

Speaker 15 (59:33):
I know, Look, I have a good point of reference
for that because I did not know that going in.
So many times people say, you know, oh, the location,
the landscape is a character in the story, and I
was nervous about that because I didn't really know.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
What that meant.

Speaker 15 (59:50):
I knew visually what that meant, but not necessarily what
it meant to the characters. And through working we had
a consultant from there who helped us with a lot
of sort of indigenous points of view on the show.
But he was talking about Sam Alexander started talking to
me one day about how you have to be the

(01:00:10):
community is very important. You might be stuck thirty miles
away from anything, and the only person that's going to
come by on the road is that neighbor who you
really don't get along with, but he's going to be
the one who's going to help you out, right, And
so there are problems in a place like this that
you can't buy your way out of, you can't pick
up the phone call your way out of, and you
have to depend on people, right, And so that community,

(01:00:33):
that's what I became really interested in it. And so
when we talk about the sort of the landscape being
a character in the show, it really is, but again
only through those people who are existing in this place.
And I thought that was a really interesting point of view.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
It is, and it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Comes across beautifully and a great way for everybody to
see The Last Frontier.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
John, It's really great.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Hey, thank you so much.

Speaker 15 (01:00:55):
I appreciate you taking the time to chat.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Thank you, and I hope to see you for more.
Cool care, Take care, John bukin Camp.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Awesome guy, awesome show, and you've got to watch The
Last Frontier. Gonna take a quick break, but when we
come back. We're staying in that Last Frontier with its
star and executive producer Jason Clark.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
I'll see you in sixty Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
We're continuing with The Last Frontier and we've got its
star and executive producer Jason Clark, who is one of
those actors who just disappears into every role. Meanwhile, I
can't disappear anywhere because I'm too loud and tan. You
know Jason from things like pat Cemetery, Terminator, Genesis, and
that little movie called Oppenheimer. Now he is going to

(01:01:51):
talk to us about Apple TV plus is the Last Frontier.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Here he is, Jason Clark. Thank you Jason for joining me.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
Good mate. How are you. It's a great setup you
got going on there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Oh, thank you, I appreciate it. Congratulations on the series.
I really really loved The Last Frontier.

Speaker 4 (01:02:14):
Oh I love him that, I really do.

Speaker 13 (01:02:15):
You guys watch a lot of stuff and it's just
you know, it's I really respect it because you've been
watching it, you've gone through it, you're inundated all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
So thank you very much. I enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Too, And that's what I was going to ask you
what you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Obviously it's it's a drama, thriller, action, But was it fun.

Speaker 13 (01:02:35):
To to had a ball man? I rode horses, cadoos, planes,
you know, thunderbuggies.

Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
You know.

Speaker 13 (01:02:43):
It was you know, six and a half minute action
sequences with Sam Hargray's one of the legends of you know,
of action and stunt work. It was, you know, we
shot in mountains and dogs, sledding, and it was it was,
you know, there were very rarely a day that I
didn't come home. I'm feeling good, like feeling like I'd
put in a lot of hard work. You know, there

(01:03:05):
was sweat on the brow, I'd rolled up my sleeves.
I had a great bunch of cast and crew and
riders and directors around me, a great crew in Montreal,
and I felt like we'd done something. And then when
I watched it, I watched all ten and I very
rarely watch a lot of stuff that I do.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
I wait usually quite a while to do it. So
that's well in.

Speaker 13 (01:03:22):
The distance, and I was there was an ease to it,
do you know what I mean? And I don't mean
that in a shallow way. I mean there was just
an ease to man. I really enjoyed that episode.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
I asked my you know, my son, my ten yure
and say, what do you think of that? He said, baas,
watch the next.

Speaker 13 (01:03:37):
One and you go. And there was something in the
same way that we shot it. There was a lot
of confronting things. It was very difficult shooting something this
ambitious for this long. But you know, I mean, holy moly, dude,
it's some days you just go, I'm on a this
is you know man?

Speaker 4 (01:03:53):
Anyone? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Did you was it there any difficult?

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Is? I mean, you know, it's it's cold, it's dark,
it's you know, did you did that affect you or
your performance?

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
Or how did you deal with that for your performance?

Speaker 13 (01:04:10):
Of course, there's a lot of things to you know,
the big I'll give you. I'll give you a small story.
But you remember that scene where we get out of
the helicopter with a big fight, right, yeah, memory, my
go to load my gun and my gun's jammed and
there's well there's nothing on a reload.

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
Okay, that was all one you know what I mean?

Speaker 13 (01:04:25):
So yeah, I had to get up and do after
emptying on the ground, get up and it was slippery,
it was flat, hard ice.

Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
And the guy that ran at me and Gator rolled me.

Speaker 13 (01:04:36):
He's he was the heavyweight jiu jitsu champion of the world,
Lee Villeneuve, a wonderful man, the strongest man I have
ever felt in my life, by none.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
And we'd rehearsed it a couple of times, you know,
in carpeted places on it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
But he rolled me.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
We did the role.

Speaker 13 (01:04:52):
That was all great, because that was the important but
I well, he picks me up to roll me. I
gotta let it go as I'll do my knee very
dangerous and once again this this is three minutes, three
enough minutes into the sequence, so shit's breaking loose already.
But when he go, when he's hit me in all that,
before he gets shot, he picked me up, and for
whatever reason, I thought, holy shit, I'm further off the

(01:05:16):
ground than I should be, you know that, for whatever
it is, because I knew he was gonna slam me down,
and he slammed me, and you can see it my
head bang and the whole tent were just like, you know,
I didn't enough. They thought, oh my god, you know,
Jason's knocked out, and I was dude, and I thought,
and he grabbed me again. I thought that was off script.
You shouldn't be up, so I hope he's I did, Lord,

(01:05:39):
do not pick me up again, Man, do a d
But then Dom comes out of nowhere and shoots him,
you know what I mean. And it's on but you
can see me. There's then getting up and I really
was seeing stars. But like at that point, there's something
about the old doctor theater. You can't stop because we're
pulling this off, so you have, you know, get my
beanie down on my head because I can't leave that down.

(01:06:00):
So there was things like that, you know, that were
you know, there was just things that would happen, and
you kept going because of the start and you had
to and you wanted to. The other part was just
you know, eight months eight months in front of a
camera gets pretty weird, you know what I mean. It's
like in your business, it's just you have a strange relationship.
Then after a while, you know, like you're always on camera,

(01:06:24):
you know, you're always and it's the relationship with yourself
as well, because it's like, you know, you to kind
of forget the reality of this tunnel you're in, you know,
and that was hard, you know, and then just you know,
and then just just just sticking to it, man, you know,
I mean making sure they didn't get seek, making sure
I didn't get any injuries, making sure I knew my lines,

(01:06:44):
making sure that everyone else was okay, you know, and
that everyone was happy, you know, because it was it
was a you know, it was a massive circus that troubled,
you know, everywhere, and worked for long hours and had
a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
Well, it really shows.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
I can't wait for everybody to see The Last Frontier.
You are a gem in it and everything you do.
So thank you, Jason, I thank you, Mike d I
appreciate it. Have a great day.

Speaker 16 (01:07:07):
Enjoy you too, Jason Clark, love him love the Last
Frontier and it is available right now on Apple TV.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
I highly suggest you watch it, and then of course
let me know when you do. If you're on the
iHeartRadio app, you can use the talkback button and send
a voice memo to me. If you're not, you can
go to podcast dot popculturewekly dot com and hit that
microphone button to leave me a voice memo and you

(01:07:40):
might just hear it right here on Pop Culture Weekly.
All right, we go from one thriller to another as
I chat next with Abby Elliott and Jake Lacy about
their new project, All Her Fault, which is a limited
series on Peacock based on the book All Her Fault
Andrea Amara, which basically is where a mom goes to

(01:08:05):
pick up her son from like his first play date
with a new friend, but the woman who answers the
door has never heard of her son.

Speaker 2 (01:08:15):
It's really crazy, really good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
The vibes are like suspense, drama, mystery, and the occasional
I can't trust anybody, you know, just like family holidays.
In any event, let's kick off All Her Faults with
Abby Elliott and Jake Lucy. Thank you Jake and Abby
for joining me.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 17 (01:08:38):
Thanks for having me so much.

Speaker 10 (01:08:40):
Thanks of course.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
So first of all, congratulations on the project. It is
captivating and I can't wait to talk about it with people.

Speaker 18 (01:08:51):
How did you both, you know, were you familiar with
the source material with the book beforehand, and if so,
did you read it and did that play into your
you know, doing your characters?

Speaker 19 (01:09:05):
I I did not. I didn't read it, but I
love this genre of story, whether it's you know, on
TV or reading a book or audiobook. I listened to
a lot of audiobooks. But uh, but this is the
kind of thing that I love. But I am glad
that I didn't read it because apparently my character Leah

(01:09:26):
is very different in the book, and you know, there
aren't too many similarities.

Speaker 17 (01:09:32):
So well, I mean there are, but like with Leah later, but.

Speaker 19 (01:09:41):
Yeah, I just, uh, I was excited to dive into
something new and different for me coming from comedy, this
is like, you know, something I've never done before, and and.

Speaker 17 (01:09:54):
Yeah, I I was. I was thrilled to work with
these amazing actors.

Speaker 20 (01:09:59):
How about for you, I read the book, but but this,
you know, the script is just like the the thing
you're going off of.

Speaker 10 (01:10:07):
At no point of you, like, you know, Megan in
the book, it says.

Speaker 17 (01:10:10):
Like, you know, but it weren't similarities, that's right.

Speaker 20 (01:10:13):
Yes, there's discrepancies between the material, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
But not to know that.

Speaker 20 (01:10:22):
But but there's like there will be Like a good
example is in the book, Peter is like fifteen years
older than Marissa, and so then there's this kind of
like paternal aspect and this kind of generational difference between

(01:10:42):
Marissa and Leah and Colin, and then Peter is sort
of removed from that in a way, and his really
his point of view on Colin is very clear in
the book that Peter is like, why is this dead
weight hanging around my family? And that wasn't as clear

(01:11:07):
early on in the scripts, but it was nice to
have that information because it does come out later that
Peter's point of view on Colin is like, you're a loser,
Like why are you involved with anyone in my circle?

Speaker 10 (01:11:22):
You're dragging them down. And so to have that.

Speaker 20 (01:11:24):
Little piece to even if it's just a look or
in the back of my mind and doesn't wind up
in the edit like that vibe will affect something where
the dominoes kind of make sense as they fall later.

Speaker 10 (01:11:37):
But but yeah, it's just it's like those little things
he blew it. What I'm trying to do is nag you.

Speaker 17 (01:11:44):
And we could go back in time.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Let's just so I guess.

Speaker 10 (01:11:51):
I guess I wouldn't know because.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
I well, I was.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
Told not to.

Speaker 17 (01:11:56):
That's that's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 10 (01:11:58):
No, I got you, And it was clear that this
was a different thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
But project, and you know, one of the things I
was going to ask the both of you. Is uh
and I am you're kind of answering it now in
between your interaction, but it is, you know, a heavy project.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Did you have moments of a levity?

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
Which I think in the last five minutes you guys
have shown me there there may have been a time
or two that uh that you found did you did
you grasp on to those moments? You know, those funny
moments between each other, you know the cast, uh, because
it is heavy material, yeah, or is it like cut
and then you're like, you know, it's a party. No.

Speaker 19 (01:12:42):
I think that there were some days where we kind
of sat in it and you know, especially kind of
you know, in the beginning one of the first kind
of scenes, well, I guess it's yeah, we went chronologically,
and but but the stuff in the house we shot later.
So like all the kind of setting things up that

(01:13:06):
we shot first, and that was really great because we
got to know each other and got to know the cast,
and then like the stuff where we're all together in
the house that was shot later, and that those scenes
were a little more tense because that's when the revelations
start kind of unfolding. And and but you know, as parent,
like I'm a parent, Jake is a parent, and to

(01:13:31):
have like to cut and to be able to have
you know, that friendship kind of already formed, and you know,
to know when to joke around and to know when Okay,
Abby's like really in it right now she's like having
trouble with that scene or whatever.

Speaker 17 (01:13:45):
I'm not going to like bother her, and like.

Speaker 20 (01:13:48):
You know, like the that's like the primary thing I
think is like reading the room. Yeah, if somebody's got
you know, some of these scenes really are a small
piece in setting up this very heavy story, but the
actual scene itself is not particularly heavy or dramatic, and
so you handle that one way and then other days

(01:14:08):
it's like, oh, someone really has to like hit this thing.
It's very specific, it's emotional.

Speaker 10 (01:14:13):
It's all that you just want to like give people
their space to do their work and read the room
and kind of follow their lead.

Speaker 20 (01:14:20):
In that moment to go like do you want to
mess around in between or is that helpful to just
kind of raise off.

Speaker 10 (01:14:26):
A little or do you want to be left alone?
And you know, yeah, and also for me at least,
like I want to it's a lot of I just
keep saying this.

Speaker 20 (01:14:36):
I sound like I'm just whining about takes, but like
it's a lot of takes. It's a lot of coverage
to get like a wide, a three shot, a two shot,
a tight to a single an ECU. Like you're doing
a lot of takes and to stay like it's happening
the first time. For me, I want some like levity

(01:14:59):
and create activity and joking around in between because it
keeps my brain, it keeps my energy up.

Speaker 10 (01:15:06):
And you're trying to keep like.

Speaker 20 (01:15:07):
The emotional life alive but maybe not full, and then
also just be like responding organically so that you're.

Speaker 10 (01:15:15):
Not I don't know.

Speaker 20 (01:15:18):
Yeah, he takes where you're like, I don't know, you
think you've really hit something, but then you watch it
back and you go just looks like an actor who's
like really into their own crying, which that's pretty boring.
So you know, you want to like find this balance
of how to keep it full emotionally and alive at
the same time.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
Yeah, thank you both so much.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
I can't wait for everybody to see it, so, like
I said, I can finally talk about it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
I really appreciate you both.

Speaker 10 (01:15:46):
Dude, thank you so much.

Speaker 17 (01:15:48):
Nice talking to you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
You as well, have a good day. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:51):
Thanks Abby Elliott and Jake Lucy if that weren't We've
also got Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning to round out
this absolute marathon of an episode to powerhouses, to legends,
and two people who have their lives together way more

(01:16:12):
than I do.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
So let's dive right in. Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning,
thank you both for joining me. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
So the series, first of all, congratulations, it really is incredible,
and I wonder especially for you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
I'll start with you, Sarah, being a.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
Parent, did this you know, kind of have even heavier
weight than maybe another role did as you're filming.

Speaker 9 (01:16:45):
Yeah, it definitely gave me an insight track to what
it would feel like to lose your child, because.

Speaker 17 (01:16:51):
All of a sudden, I have one to lose.

Speaker 9 (01:16:54):
So yeah, I would say that definitely there's a there's
a there's a deep feeling and a ignition of what
it would be like to have your child disappear. But imaginatively,
I really had to separate her from my experience on
set because useful to draw on, but not useful to
have in the moment too much.

Speaker 20 (01:17:16):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
Yeah, And Dakota for you, you know, you are playing
this kind.

Speaker 2 (01:17:22):
Of support person, and.

Speaker 1 (01:17:27):
How do you draw from that for you know, as
you're preparing to dive into the character, you know, do
you do it as okay? You know, do you take
from your your close relationships like, oh, if this was
my best friend, this is what I would do, Like
how does that process work for you?

Speaker 21 (01:17:46):
Well, Kyle, I think you're describing out Yeah, you know,
I mean being in any any character, any story. You Yeah,
you draw from what's useful from your own experience. But

(01:18:06):
you know, sometimes you're you're playing someone who's at a
different stage in their life or a different kind of
personality or whatever. So yeah, you draw on, like Sarah said,
the things that are helpful from from your own experiences.
And then being an actor is really about just having
like a wild imagination and being able to just imagine
these scenarios however intense or crazy or otherworldly or paranormal

(01:18:34):
or you know, I mean all all kinds of different things,
and just yeah, being being really like immersed in the
script and the story and the and tracking all the relationships,
especially in something like this which just has kind of
a thriller or mystery element you're you're sort of always

(01:18:56):
orientating yourself about, like, Okay, who knows what I know
this yet? This hasn't been revealed yet, you know, so
it becomes a little technical in that way too.

Speaker 17 (01:19:05):
It's like, oh, I haven't been told that yet. Never mind,
like I shouldn't have said that line that way.

Speaker 20 (01:19:09):
You know.

Speaker 21 (01:19:09):
It's it's so you know, you're thinking about all kinds
of things, and yeah, using what's helpful from your own life,
and then also just you know, making stuff up too,
And do.

Speaker 18 (01:19:21):
You did you did either of you read the source
material first?

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
And if so, did you find that helpful or not?

Speaker 8 (01:19:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (01:19:31):
I read the book beforehand, and in sort of in
part of signing on to the project, I read the
book and it was great. It was useful actually because
it helped as a and Andrea was very keen to
let us elaborate and expand the world of the book.
And so the book exists in a in a as
its original form, obviously, but then we've taken it further.

(01:19:53):
We've we've explored a lot of the more social themes
in there. We've we've developed more characters, we've changed a
bunch of the care a little bit where Brian is
slightly different and Colin is slightly different, and that's that's
nice because you get to you.

Speaker 8 (01:20:07):
Have a real.

Speaker 9 (01:20:09):
Firm foundation and then you can leap off from it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
Thank you both so much. I can't wait for everybody
to see this. I really appreciate your time. Thanks Chyle,
thank you, and I've learned about acting.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
Take care. Thank you, Sarah Snook and Dakota Fannie.

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
All Her Faults is streaming right now in Peacock and
you have got to watch it, and again, let me know,
email me, hit me up on social or leave me
a voicemail at podcast dot popculture weekly dot com and
let me know what you think of All Her Faults
so we can discuss it. And I might just play
your voicemail on a future episode of Pop Culture Weekly.

(01:20:54):
That's our show for this episode. And congratulations, you have
earned a certificate and pop culture endurance with this wall
to wall pop culture goodness from the Ultimate Home Theater Guide,
Little John and everybody else. Hu's thanks to Marcus Buckler,
clips on Kyo, Lil John, John Bochancamp, Jason Clark, Abby Elliott,

(01:21:17):
Jake Lacy, Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning. What a freaking lineup.
Make sure you follow pop Culture Weekly on All the
Things YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, the Internet, and check out
my ultimate home theater guide in the show notes to
get everything you need to know on building your own
home theater from our friends at clips and on Kyo.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
All Right, I'm Kyle McMahon. I love you, I'll see
you next week.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
We thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. Here
all the latest at popcultureweekly dot com

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
The ultimate guid to the home be be your to
make gage to a poor beater

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