November 10, 2024 • 50 mins
A conversation with Charlie, 13.
Follow Charlie’s art on YouTube: IggyTheBlank.
To better visualize Sam Spiders, here’s how you make a Zero Eyed Bob:
- Make a fist with thumbs down and rest the tip of your thumb on a horizontal surface.
- Now hop it around and see how it interacts… just remember, don’t say the “c” word!
Here’s my contact…
Email averymedic@gmail.com
Instagram @thisisemotionart
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is emotion art.
(00:04):
This is a conversation I had with Charlie.
He's one of the younger people that live here at the Forge,
one of my boys.
Charlie sees himself as an artist.
As someone who knows him, it's pretty obvious why.
As he grows and matures in body and mind and emotions,
(00:25):
seeing what Charlie becomes is something I am looking
very much forward to.
This boy has a lot to offer the world,
and I'm so thankful that I have a seat in the stands.
If you like laughing and feeling things,
definitely follow his art.
I'll put a link in the notes.
(00:47):
Charlie is one of those kids that nicknames stick to.
He has a lot.
We named him Charlie.
At school, he goes by Bob.
I think I call him Riggs most.
That's a nickname that came out of one of his abstract
humor loops from when he was very young.
(01:09):
Here's a peek into the emotions and the art of Charlie,
AKA Riggs, AKA Iggy the Blank.
Enjoy.
I can hear the laundry.
Yeah, the laundry is pretty loud.
It's just gonna be what it is, bro.
Oh, Ange.
She left you.
(01:30):
No problem, I've got, I just need it with me.
On your drugs, is that a nicotine thing?
Yeah.
You freaking addict.
Hi, Charlie.
Hi, hello, hi.
I don't know you, and I just came here
because I was told that I would be receiving
four giant stuffed toy bears,
and I was not given that yet,
so I'm just waiting for the transaction to,
(01:52):
are you, can you hear me?
I can hear you.
Okay, so.
I thought you were gonna say,
you thought you were gonna receive guidance.
I was like, what?
Oh my goodness, that's how you see me?
Why would I receive guidance from a random person
that looks kinda like Jesus?
Well, I guess you look like off-brand Jesus.
Like, off of wish.com.
It's a good compliment.
I don't think it is.
(02:14):
It's like all the depictions of Jesus,
which are completely incorrect.
Didn't he like live in the Middle East?
Why is he white?
Yeah, he doesn't look anything like what
typical Judeo-Christian depictions of him look.
Ah.
I didn't like that.
You didn't like what?
Ah.
Bro, sometimes I just have to settle my energy down.
(02:35):
Sometimes my energy gets all, it feels like,
imagine an animation of a wire that's like halfway cut,
and there's electric sparks sparking out of it.
That is what the whole ball of energy inside me feels like.
All this energy sparking out,
and then I just have to like take a breath,
let everything go, relax all my muscles, and then.
And then.
(02:56):
All of the energy just goes where it's supposed to go.
All the loose ends just melt together
and form into like a whole.
I feel like that's like a hazard, the melted plastic.
Well, okay, Mr. Literalist.
All right, Mr. Frickin' Buddha.
Thank you.
Man, you are full of compliments today.
Okay.
Do you interpret everything you see
(03:18):
as literally exactly what you're seeing?
No.
You just play a literalist in the movies?
Yeah.
I mean, you kind of like have that persona sometimes.
How do you see yourself?
How about that?
That's what I wanna know.
What does Charlie look like from inside Charlie?
I look like a person that wants to help everyone else,
(03:40):
but doesn't want any help from anyone else,
or himself either.
And I take on the literalist persona
because I think that it's a funny contrast
to your situation.
That's interesting.
And you do that consciously.
Also, I don't know, I just find what you say weird.
I do too.
Mystery resolved.
(04:02):
Okay.
You're just weird.
That's the mystery.
Thank you.
Okay.
I mean, you're welcome.
So, tell me about your art.
That's what I'm super curious about.
Can you tell me about kind of where your art came from
in just your earliest memories?
Okay.
There's this content creator I like to watch on YouTube
named Daniel Thrasher,
(04:22):
and he just makes like little skits.
I don't know, I find them funny.
And I was like, hmm, I think I could do that.
And I started out making YouTube shorts,
and I just started doing copy paste content,
which I didn't really find satisfying.
I was just taking other people's jokes,
and I was like, posting was my own.
I didn't really like doing that.
So I started making my own jokes and skits,
(04:43):
and developing my own characters,
and developing my own like scenes
to get a laugh out of people.
Or sometimes I really like horror.
And so I tried my hand at it.
I mean, it wasn't great.
I planned to do more.
I will get it right.
So you have some horror little short movie scripts coming.
I think you've written a book of short horror stories
(05:07):
that you wrote, or are writing.
I finished them.
I want to publish them, but I don't really know how.
I wrote 17, I believe.
You have a book, a compilation of 17 short horror stories.
Yes.
We're gonna figure out how to get that published.
Okay.
I haven't read all of those.
I don't really like most of them,
because most of them were written
(05:27):
in sixth grade to seventh grade.
They're not like my best art, but I always get better.
So none of the things I write is my best.
That's true.
I still liked some of them, like the military private one.
It's just a list of journal entries
until one of them just gets cut off,
and it's implied that he dies.
Do you still write them?
No, I don't.
Right now, I'm working on a couple
(05:49):
of different stories with different friends.
With one of my friends, Declan,
we're actually kind of far into a little book we're making
about these people that get trapped on a farm
with some sort of experiment gone wrong
and parasite that infects people.
No one can be trusted, et cetera, et cetera.
Sci-fi.
Yeah, and then with Eamon,
I'm making kind of a murder mystery,
(06:09):
but it's set in the Renaissance time.
Think of like King Henry the Eighth, like that time.
The main character's like a person going to execution
for a crime he didn't commit.
And then I think the king's gonna get murdered,
and it's gonna be a whole clue situation.
And then I'm writing one more on my own
about a space journey.
Do you know the Voyager satellite?
It just goes out and records.
(06:29):
It's kind of like that,
but they send a person out to do that.
So he lives out the rest of his life in space,
because the Voyager went one way,
so he goes another way.
So he's never gonna come back.
He's never gonna experience Earth again.
He's just gonna go to space forever
and record everything that happens.
That would take a lot of commitment.
Yeah, I know.
I like the story.
I'm saying being that person would take a lot of commitment
(06:50):
simply to information gathering.
Basically, you're sacrificing your life.
That's all you can do for the rest of your life.
Yeah, but like the character really wanted to go to space,
and then he was accepted into NASA.
This was during the space race.
So initially what he was supposed to do
was go to the moon and back,
but they realized some sort of flaw in the rocket,
which meant going back to Earth.
They couldn't do that.
So they're like,
(07:10):
hey, do you still wanna go to outer space
while we build a new rocket?
And he's like, yeah, sure.
And then they sent Buzz Aldrin and Neil to the moon and back
to win the space race.
And this one is your project, your solo.
It sounds like you are doing a couple of co-creations.
It's kind of hard writing things with other people
because we have different writing styles.
(07:30):
So like one paragraph, you'll see my writing style
using bigger words and more sophisticated phrases.
And then another one will just be less intelligent.
I mean, it's still good.
I get the idea.
I love this comparison, this juxtaposition.
I get the idea.
And then I'll edit the paragraph to make it sound like mine.
Declan's okay with that.
(07:51):
He's like, yeah, please, please edit this
to make it look good.
And I do.
I have a question about that.
Okay.
What do you think Declan would say?
How does he see this?
Do you think that he would see it the same way that you do?
I feel like he would see it like,
I help produce ideas and he produces the writing.
Okay.
Oh really?
Oh, that's pretty functional.
Yeah.
How do you feel about that?
(08:12):
That works for you.
Yeah.
But sometimes I feel bad.
Like I'm just correcting things he does
and like changing it to what I like.
But like I incorporate his ideas into what I write.
Well, it's easier for you
if you're just working with your own content.
Yeah.
But do you feel like when you're working with somebody else,
it gives you ideas that you wouldn't have had otherwise?
The story goes places?
Yeah.
Or like I'll want the story to go one place
(08:33):
and then they change it to go a different way.
I'm like, actually that could work.
And then I'll just steer it back to how I wanted to go.
So I'm curious,
why do you do projects with other people
or is this kind of a new thing that you're just trying out?
This is fairly new.
It's mostly because I write a lot of things
(08:54):
and I like make a lot of stories.
And then they're like,
hey, do you want to write something with me?
And I'm like, of course, I would love to.
And then it just starts.
Have any of those stories that you've created
with somebody else come to completion?
No, they have not.
It started this year, so no.
Sweet, sweet.
So that might be some cool new directions that start coming.
Oh dude, I'm excited.
(09:14):
I only just recently started using social media.
Amateur.
I used to use it and I used it wrong.
I just sat there and scrolled and like,
I thought I was following
what my friends and family were doing,
but really I was just, I don't know,
subconsciously comparing my life to everyone else's.
That's what everyone does.
I finally just deleted everything
and I was that way for a long time.
(09:35):
I did on and off, on and off, on and off
because it's so hard to give up.
Finally, I gave it up a year and a half,
two years, three years, I don't know.
Then recently I realized for the first time
that actually I can do art.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
I can actually make things.
I can create something that hasn't existed before.
I mean, other than I think everything has existed before,
but.
(09:55):
Right, right, of course.
What, you mean, wow, dad,
you really took a long time to throw that in there.
Good thinking.
Good self-control.
Stellar.
No. Stellar.
Yeah, it's a fun journey to start.
Exciting one.
Yes.
I'm gonna just tell you,
you've been a huge inspiration to me.
Even when I didn't have social media,
I wasn't watching your content,
but I could see you starting to do it.
(10:16):
And number one, I had to learn how to be a dad
by stop trying to be the dad I thought I was supposed to be.
For all of you boys, I just,
I wanna see your eyes alight with excitement,
with curiosity, with whatever.
And so I'm like always trying to push.
And little did I know back then
that when you try to push somebody towards something,
you take away their ability to choose for themselves.
Right.
To some degree, everything is a balance,
(10:37):
but you put your foot down early with me
and was just like, no, I am not comfortable.
I don't wanna do that.
Ike didn't, he wanted to please so bad.
Like he has got so much of my personality in him.
I was like that?
I was like, no.
You were.
You've always wanted to please,
but when you started finding boundaries,
you found them quick.
Oh.
It was since we moved to this house,
(10:58):
I got that whole music board and stuff.
That was a big one because I was just like,
okay, I'm trying to show up for them.
What am I doing wrong here?
And I was like, oh, you're trying to make
what you think should happen happen for them.
What you actually want is to just make what they want happen.
So let go, just let it happen.
It'll happen.
I thought the music board would be good.
(11:19):
I thought-
I think it still will.
Yeah, it could, but I just don't feel the urge to use it.
I like playing things on the piano and then that's it.
And I'm really glad that you honored
that awareness inside you.
And I think that once we get it set up,
that's the tough part.
I don't know, there's so many programs.
It's very complicated.
It's so cool.
When I watch all the demo videos, the machine MK3,
(11:39):
and it's like, wow, there's so much you could do with this
and it's got a keyboard,
but I don't know how to get the software working.
So I'm waiting on somebody to step into my life.
I need a hero.
Thank you, exactly.
It's very confusing.
So these co-created projects are videos?
No, no.
Like-
Short stories.
I mean, not short, they're like chapter things.
(12:00):
I mean, that's cool that you guys
are even working on that stuff
and you're naturally driven towards it.
These brothers and friends that are sorta brothers
and whoever that is saying,
hey, let me create with you.
You're giving them a gift by saying yes to them
because it just helps spark a little bit more of that.
And even if it never completes.
It's fun.
There are like many things that I,
(12:21):
there are many types of art.
I wanna do like drawing art,
or I wanna do like digital art,
or I wanna do music, or I wanna write things,
or I wanna make movies.
And there's so many things I wanna do.
I jump from one to the other.
There'll be like a little phase of, whoa, mega drawing art.
And then you'll jump to like,
whoa, I just made a song on the piano.
And it'll jump to like,
whoa, I just made a little short movie.
I just keep doing that.
(12:42):
I don't know if that's good.
Yes, that is very good.
And it's something that people don't usually access
until they're in their, at least their 30s, I would say.
Speaking for myself, 40s,
I'm just starting to access that.
Boomer.
You're calling me wise, I appreciate that.
That's not what I said.
Thank you, thank you.
Well, reality is as I perceive it.
So thank you.
(13:03):
I am the creator of what's real.
Also true, dang it.
The thing on Melissa's bathroom.
Have you seen that?
Yes, I have.
It's so good.
I just memorized it.
Did you seriously?
Through the eyes of which we see, we create our world.
These eyes of which what sees creates what's real.
I am the creator of what's real.
Through the eyes of which I see, I see.
If you put that into your own words, what would that say?
(13:25):
That would say, what I perceive as real is real.
I can make anything real through my conscience.
Maybe something along the lines of that.
I've never really tried to put it in my own words.
How do you feel about that?
Do you believe that that's true or does that just sound like?
I feel like it's true to some extent.
Humans can accomplish so much.
(13:46):
They can do so many things that we just don't do.
We've come from cave people, just like,
to make fire.
No other being on planet Earth can do that.
We have the most intelligent brains.
In what we know about the entire universe,
we're the most intelligent beings,
which is probably not true, because-
(14:06):
What, that humans are the most intelligent beings
humans have ever found?
I would say that's very true.
Yeah, no, but I feel like it's not true
that we're the most intelligent beings in the universe.
Yeah, that feels true to me, that we're not.
We can do crazy things.
We've built things that can fly,
things that can just fly in the sky.
We build that.
They're almost 100% safe.
(14:28):
You're just completely safe in the air.
We used to freakin' feed people to rats.
I don't know what we did back in the old days,
but there's some very bad aspects to people,
like power, equal greed.
Not always, but a lot of the time,
it just makes people hungry for more power,
and then they're a little voice in their head saying,
hey, maybe you shouldn't do this.
They kill that.
(14:48):
They silence it.
I wouldn't know, because I'm not powerful.
You don't see yourself as powerful?
13-year-old boy.
13?
Yes.
For some reason, I thought you were 14.
Nope, wrong child.
Wow.
I will be 14 in March, though, which is 98 years later.
How does it make you feel that I am so bad
at keeping track of any birthdays
or even names sometimes?
That's what I'm here for.
I do that.
(15:09):
So that doesn't bother you?
A lot of people.
Actually, no, you're kind of the only one
I know that does that.
I used to be so embarrassed at how horrible I am
at remembering the technical data.
I remember emotional things.
Surprise, surprise.
Surprise, surprise.
I remember the age of all my brothers and their birthdays,
but I am kind of bad with names of people
I don't know very well.
(15:31):
One of the things I was thinking about
when you were talking about the story that you were writing,
do you feel like that story is about you?
Or how do you feel like that story relates to you
in what you're going through and how you feel?
It relates to me in the sense that what I do,
the character's never gonna come back,
so you can't go back.
Okay, here, let me go off into a little ramble.
(15:53):
When I was younger, a little younger,
I used to always, when I was a wee lad,
I used to always.
Can you ramble with an accent?
No, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stop.
I wanna hear this.
I used to always want to be able to just like,
oh, I wish I could just go back in time and just fix that.
I felt that every day.
(16:13):
And then a year ago, in seventh grade,
there's something, I was like, oh, I wish I could do that.
And then I was like, well, I can't.
And so, guess I'll just try my best to do better next time.
That was like a revelation in my brain.
I was like, oh, I can just do that.
And then I wasn't really caught up on my mistakes
in the past anymore.
I was just like, okay, well, I freaked out there,
but I might not next time.
(16:35):
And then in eighth grade, during the beginning of the year,
I was like, oh, you know what'd be cool?
If I wrote a story, there's a character that leaves Earth
and then never comes back.
He just goes.
And originally, I wasn't thinking that my revelation
came into play there, but I feel like it does, looking back.
I feel like it definitely plays a part in that.
(16:55):
I just subconsciously made the connection of those.
Because through art is how I express myself.
Through emotions, I don't.
Also, I wanted to practice my writing skills.
I was like, I feel like that's a cool story
and I'm gonna do it.
And I'm working on it very slowly,
which I'm kind of angry about, but you live and learn.
Sure, and every day is just a different day
to do whatever the heck you want in that day.
(17:17):
But there's so much to do sometimes.
How do you make the time for everything you wanna do?
That's usually what ends up happening.
There's just so much I wanna do
that I just get nothing done.
I just don't do anything.
I just sit down and I'm like, what do I wanna do?
What do I, I want to, I wanna make a video,
but it's getting kinda late.
It's like two o'clock.
I like to post between 12 and three.
(17:40):
Maybe I should write and then I just lose motivation.
Open the computer and I'm like, I just don't do it.
But then someday they'll be like, I wanna make a video.
And it's funny to the four people that watch it.
And then I'm like, wow, I actually did it.
And that balance between doing and not doing
exists solely inside of you.
Nobody can tell you what that balance is.
You just have to pendulate and then pendulate back
(18:02):
and then pendulate back and then eventually you find,
oh, here it is.
And then you're just breathing.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
I really like to say that, so.
Do you say that in every podcast you do?
Probably.
I don't doubt that.
I'm gonna make a drinking game out of it.
Please don't.
Charlie, you're too young to be talking about drinking games.
That was you.
I didn't do that.
However you wanna see it.
You're encouraging your son to drink alcohol, aren't you?
(18:25):
At a young age, how irresponsible.
Hopefully I don't turn into an alcoholic when I grow up.
Hopefully not.
But, but I've seen you walk through all kinds
of difficult things and I believe that no matter what happens
to you as you grow up, you're going to face it
and you're gonna find a way through it.
I believe that.
And you're always gonna have a really freaking good community
around you because you like to be there for people.
(18:48):
I see that.
Although a lot of people don't.
Go ahead, diss on other people.
Throw shade.
No, no, that's not what I'm trying to do.
I'm trying to figure out how to say this.
And I have to think about what I say before I say it.
Perfect.
Take your time.
I don't think that people recognize
that that's what I'm doing.
They just see me as like a nice person sometimes.
(19:10):
Although recently, a lot of people have been saying
that I'm snappy at them or like quick to anger.
I haven't felt any shift in my emotions, but.
So what do you think is happening?
I feel like it's because I don't get mad easily at all.
I'm like very patient with others.
And so on the times that I do break,
I like yell or raise my voice.
(19:31):
And then they're just like, whoa, you're just suddenly mean.
You're just a mean person now.
And I'm not, I'm not a mean person.
It's like, you haven't done that before.
Like, oh, what the heck, this is new.
Okay, what that makes me think of is when somebody
who is finding their boundaries for the first time,
where it's like, okay, I'm gonna start asking myself
what I want to do.
(19:52):
Instead of just thinking about what does everybody else want,
I'm gonna say, what do I want?
And if I don't want it, I'm not gonna do it.
And then as you get better and better and better at that,
the people who are not used to that have to go
through an adjustment period where they feel
like you're being an asshole.
How does that sound compared to what you're experiencing?
I feel like that's kind of accurate.
Makes sense.
Yeah, it makes sense.
(20:12):
And sometimes the answer is I don't know or I don't care.
I like that answer a lot because I have to use it sometimes.
I do care though.
There are a lot of things I don't care about
but I still like pretend that I do.
When my friends are like arguing, they go to me,
they're like, please help me give you advice.
I really don't care, but like, oh yeah, of course, sure.
Do maybe say this, do that.
And then they'll be like, okay.
And then it helps.
(20:32):
When I say I don't care, people are like,
whoa, he doesn't like me.
Wow.
Because I usually do care.
But I still care about them.
It's just, I don't care about that.
That sounds so familiar.
Yeah, a lot of people don't.
That is something I've been working on
for the past like six months
is trying to change my words from I don't care.
(20:54):
Because I say I don't care,
used to say I don't care often,
because to me it means I feel equally supportive of either
or either way is equally fine for me
or nothing's gonna bother me.
It just, it means acquiescence to me.
But when people hear the words, I don't care,
it doesn't matter what you're talking about.
What they hear is, I don't care about you.
(21:17):
Okay, somehow we rabbit trailed the hell out of everywhere.
Yeah, I don't know what happened.
What I was thinking about was how everything
that you're doing, the earliest thing I can trace it back
to is Sam Spiders.
That's like the first thing where I really feel
like I could see that originality,
that creation of something out of nothing,
just really starting to just push out of the ground
(21:38):
in these little green shoots.
And that stuff started when you guys were little.
No, yeah.
That started with Ike when he was just learning
to talk, I think.
Yeah, the caterpillar.
That was so fun.
But like when Ike-
The one fun thing I did with you guys.
Oh, there I just exposed my insecurities.
Geez, okay, go on.
We were like kind of young, like middle young.
(21:59):
Middle young?
No, that makes sense.
We were super into like, oh, we should make
like a little detective film.
And then we did, or like we made like stop motions
or I don't know.
I remember those.
Dude, some of those were good.
They were kind of bad.
Think about how old you were.
Yeah, yeah.
(22:20):
Some of those were good.
Claimation and stuff.
Sorry, go on.
And actually, hold on, before we lose that,
before we lose that, I have this house one time,
we made this like Lego stop motion,
which I thought was so good.
It was the best stop motion on planet Earth.
And then I was super proud.
And then in that same sleepover, I believe,
(22:40):
we made another one attack of the triangles,
where it was like little polygon triangles
that like attacked clay people.
And then that was even better.
And I'm like, whoa.
And then we made this thing called the ends,
the ends comics.
We started making a bunch of comics.
You know the blank book Ike-
I do.
We took one of those and then we filled it
(23:02):
with little comics that we made.
And I still have it actually, I think.
It was like in third grade,
we would just sit on the bus
and just make the mean teacher.
I feel that's what really sparked my storytelling,
was comics with Evan.
But you guys did make out of the Sam Spiders,
which were just different hand positions.
(23:22):
What Sam Spiders can you remember off top of your head?
There's normal Sam Spider, there's Zero-Eyed Bob,
there's a Shump Flump.
What is the Shump?
Every one of them has a characteristic or something?
The Shump Flump is indestructible.
Cannot be harmed, can shape shift into any of them
and take any characteristics and has magic.
And the opposite for Zero-Eyed Bob,
if he jumps at all, he'll just collapse and die.
(23:45):
But he can eat anything.
So the Shump Flump is the only one
that can eat cheese or say cheese?
No, he'll still die.
That's the only thing that kills him.
Oh, because you said when he falls off a cliff.
But that cliff's like bottomless, you just die.
And that was kind of the original start of it
was just little simple hand things.
Little things that would walk around.
Would walk around and then they started
(24:06):
having conversations and as soon as they started
having conversations, somehow.
The word of the day.
There was a word.
I think you made that.
You were like, the word of the day is cheese
and every time you say that, you'll fall off this cliff.
Cheese, ah.
Okay, can you just tell us one of the simple
little Sam Spider stories, like kind of for the OG ones?
Okay, hey, do you want some mac and cheese, ah?
(24:27):
Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you just said cheese, ah.
Ooh, what a bowl of mac and cheese, ah.
Like, those dumb people saying this C word
and they'll like take the bowl and then go into like a field.
Now I can say mac and cheese, meteor.
Whoop.
You'll just die if you say cheese.
They were just these endless repeating stories
that new problems would arise, would be solved
(24:50):
and then the new thing would just obliterate everybody.
Yes.
Oh, why were they so violent?
Or like, they were like the dancing twins
which were secretly evil, I believe.
Conjoined twins and they just danced.
And then came the Slam Spiders, which are these guys.
They're a whole bunch of them.
This has Ike written all over it.
Like, whoop, whoop.
And like, the Slam Spiders and the Sam Spiders
initially were like in a war against each other,
(25:12):
but then they teamed up once humans arrived.
So the humans and the Sam Spiders began a whole war
and that's kind of what the current state
of the Sam Spiders are right now.
Humans will like take them and go like this, okay.
And then they'll take them back to their planet
and then observe them.
And then humans can always summon more humans.
And then the Sam Spiders just like,
I mean, they can like shoot out of their heads
(25:34):
so they're pretty powerful against the humans.
But the humans will like take them and be like,
how does this feel?
That's what it started out doing, cracking their neck.
Okay, who was the Country Bumpkin?
The Country Bumpkin, oh my gosh.
I know what you're talking about.
He was like the Country Bumpkin doctor or something.
I don't remember, you'd have to ask Ike.
I think he'd remember.
Because it was Ike's character
(25:54):
and the Country Bumpkin was Ike.
Like he was like, oh, I'm the Country Bumpkin.
And then he would just hit everyone on the head and stuff.
I think maybe it was a character that was meant to
take out some of his frustration
on his annoying little brothers.
Is that possible?
So was the Baloo Gorge, was the Baloo.
And if it got near someone, we'd go like Gorge.
And then he'll like grab us so hard.
(26:16):
There was Heavy Guy, which I believe Lucas made.
He goes like this and he has this little mat he stands on.
It's actually secretly like a weird little creature
that attacks you.
So if he steps off the mat for a second,
the creature will like attack you
and you'll be like.
And that's the only thing that moves him
because he's like super heavy.
So he'll go like this.
So nothing can like pick him up except for the mat.
(26:37):
And he'll be like, ooh, candy.
He'll be like, no, no, no.
And then he'll be like.
And he like doesn't know about the mat.
He just thinks it's a mat that flies around.
That's hilarious.
That sounds like something Lucas would come up with.
You guys had a whole bunch of cards.
You like made a game out of it.
You mean like magic the gathering out of it.
(26:57):
That was a weird thing.
So I think you said that I just want to take a video.
Oh, I'm gonna post a video.
Oh, that was exciting.
Okay, so where'd I, oh, I want him to do a song.
Like that's kind of how it started and grown.
Yeah, that's how it feels.
Seven months ago, I was like,
I feel like this would be easy to do and fun to do
and something I want to do.
And then I just started doing it.
That was after we moved.
Oh, yes.
(27:17):
The new house in the woods.
One day I was like, I want to make a YouTube channel.
It was initially called Iggy.
And then my profile picture was just a picture of Bluey
because I love Bluey.
And then I changed it to my own original thing.
Now it's a picture of me.
And then it was Iggy the blank.
Perfect.
It's evolving.
I just liked the name Iggy.
Okay.
And what about the blank?
Any significance there?
(27:38):
Yes.
I first made the channel Iggy
and not a lot of YouTube channels were named Iggy,
but there's this one big one, Iggy Azalea.
She's like a music maker.
And so I was like, maybe I should add something more
to make it kind of like a trademark.
And so I was like, what could it be?
Iggy's just too blank.
Ooh, Iggy the blank.
And then, and no other channels have called that.
(27:59):
There's nothing else named that.
It's a completely new thing.
So I haven't called that now.
Okay. That makes sense.
What?
You know what?
Every once in a while I noticed that there's a world outside
of this one little room.
You forced me to do this.
Yeah, clearly.
I don't know.
As a matter of fact, where's your straight jacket?
You're supposed to have a straight jacket on.
(28:20):
You called me to take me away, huh?
Do you feel like moving from in town to out here
and everything that went along with that has played a role
in how your art has shaped?
To some extent, not really a lot,
but I did take some inspiration
from the scenery of where we are.
And I filmed some scenes outside
(28:43):
because I just really like where we live.
But I feel like, yeah, my content would be different
if I lived more locally in town.
Like there would be a lot more videos with like my friends
or, but my content's not really influenced by it.
What do you want to do?
Where do you want to go with what you're doing artistically?
I do want to keep making skits.
(29:03):
Maybe I'll make a separate channel for my short films.
I don't really know yet.
I'm a little baby, a little baby channel.
If YouTube works out, I would want that to be like a job
because you can get paid and that would be such a fun thing.
But then I'd have to like put more dedication into it.
And there are some people I've just started hearing
the term freelancer used kind of to talk about people
(29:24):
who generate income.
They just basically hustle through connections
and like connecting people with what they need.
And it's kind of like this whole economy
that's growing out of the content creators
and it's a direction you can go.
But then there's also people that make a fantastic amount
of money creating these specific content videos.
And the thing I like about it is
you can do anything you want.
But there is a problem with getting big online.
(29:47):
The bigger you are, the more people will dislike you.
Right now, no one really hates me because I'm very small,
but like super big ones,
they just have whole communities of haters
because they just have more attention
and some people are against them,
which I know that if I get big, I know I'll come across that.
I don't know how I'd approach that.
I remember some pretty mean comments you've had already
(30:08):
and I've talked to you about them.
They're pretty stupid.
I mean, I know they-
Aren't they always gonna be?
Well, yeah.
I found them more funny than insulting.
The hate that people send you, the messages,
the comments that are just mean,
they are always gonna feel funny to you
because you know who you are.
So you know how ridiculous it is.
Also, they're not gonna like change what I do.
(30:29):
How's your right nipple gonna be halfway off your peck?
That was an actual comment on that.
I don't know what they intended to accomplish there,
but actually, no, a lot of comments on that video,
it was a super popular video, but I just found them stupid.
Isn't that called trolling?
And isn't that what trolls do?
They just say rude stuff just-
No, that's not what,
I don't think you're using the right term.
(30:50):
That's just being mean.
What is trolling then?
Trolling is like tricking or pranking
to a very big extent.
It's a prank that just like you can't do anything about.
It's like someone says or does something
that you're just like, you don't know how to respond to it.
Or like saying something mean and disappearing.
That's just, again, that's just saying something mean.
I don't know- That's true, that's true.
(31:10):
Like- Good point.
How would you feel about giving us a little taste
of some of your humor that you've developed?
It's very depending on the situation.
Someone will say something or do something
and it'll make a joke about that.
Like I feel like I would be good at standup comedy
because of like things that hecklers will say.
Do you have any plans to ever try it out?
I want to, but like not right now.
(31:31):
Because you're a little boy?
But I have seen like children doing it.
Yeah, why would that make you think it's not time?
I don't know, I feel like I just need more practice
being comfortable on stage, which I already am.
I like act a lot on stage in plays.
Just out of curiosity, where do you think the best place
to get practice like that is?
Practice of being on stage,
is the best way to get that practice.
Okay, I see what you mean.
(31:52):
You won't be ready until you do it.
It is my job to try to pressure you into doing something
so there's less chance that you'll do it.
Oh, I'm so glad you're there for me.
Seriously though, what you could do
that would be a pretty pain-free thing
is when we have like an Avery family reunion or something,
something like that.
Or it doesn't have to be Avery family and we have parties.
There's all kinds of things we could set up
where you could try it on a small scale
(32:14):
or would that be worse?
Okay, the thing about the Avery family one,
that's a good idea, but the age group is so,
it's such a huge variety.
There's like a bunch of little kids and a bunch of adults.
I do more adult humor.
Like I can do both, but like I enjoy
making adult humor more.
And so a lot of the kids just wouldn't understand jokes.
(32:35):
And then the jokes I make for the kids,
the adults won't find funny.
So it's just-
Oh, that's so interesting.
I don't know how I'd find a balance.
Dude, I love that you're aware of that.
I feel like a comedy club would be like a little bit
of a narrower humor range.
Can I ask you a question?
Yeah.
I just did.
Okay, you can ask me another one.
Oh, sweet, sweet, sweet.
Oh, this is a lucky day.
From what I understand, the Old World Deli, AKA JD.
(32:59):
He's the Old World Deli?
No, but he works there.
And the Old World Deli has open mics.
I think I've heard of them doing an open mic
specifically for kids,
cause Johnny does some art and stuff.
I don't know that that's true.
I could be completely making that up in my head.
If I asked JD and he's like,
oh, heck yeah, dude, that'd be great.
I'll set that up.
Would you be interested?
(33:20):
Yeah.
You would jump on that.
I would jump on that.
Okay, great.
Yes.
Cause you kind of said that you're not sure you're ready.
So I'm just saying, would you feel ready
if the opportunity presented itself?
Yeah.
Okay, you have some incredible accents.
You have an ability to-
I guess, kinda.
I can do like two.
What do you feel like your best ones are?
And can we hear Sam?
(33:41):
The Bumble Dumple Show, the food reviewer.
Right, ladies and gents.
I like that one.
That's a fun one I do.
You reviewed a plate of mashed potatoes.
No, it was like-
It was so funny.
It was a dinner that mom made.
A whole dinner.
Right.
Right.
Another date, another cheeky food review.
Are you gonna start doing reviews like that
(34:01):
or that was just a one-off?
I'll start doing more things like that.
I've been kind of doing like a little two or three video,
little spurts of different types of things.
I kind of wanna like do,
you know the one that's like the friend that's deaf.
I watched that.
Yeah, I go and do more like those and the-
Ah!
What?
Ah.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me?
Again?
Baking powder?
(34:21):
Oh, that's an old thing.
I literally just use it.
It's not old anymore.
I just brought it back.
Baking powder?
Are you literally eating your clothes right now?
I do it a lot, okay?
I'm a moth.
I'm a moth.
I'm an auto cannibalist moth.
That's hilarious.
I used to think of myself as a goat
for the same reason.
I eat like-
Auto cannibalist moth.
(34:42):
That sounds like the name of like a rock album maybe.
Help.
Well, you did just try to eat like clothes, so.
Well, uh-
Not even cotton.
That stuff's nylon. Paper.
I feel like if I combined all the paper
I've eaten in my life,
it would be like four or five pages,
like whole pages of paper.
Actually recently,
(35:03):
in one of the social studies classes I've had,
I ate one fourth of an entire page.
Okay, I'm gonna ask you a question then
on behalf of all paper eaters out there.
Okay.
Have you eaten some of the shiny like newspaper ad paper?
It's like the ads you get in the mailers,
the ink is all shiny and it's glossy.
No, I try not to eat inked paper.
Oh, just uninked paper?
Yeah. Okay.
(35:24):
You're much smarter than I have been.
You did that?
Plastic, paper.
I constantly had to be chewing on something.
So I would have like seven bookmarks in my books as a kid.
And by the time I was done with one reading session,
I would have one left.
So I would be constantly tearing pieces out of my books
to use bookmarks for my books and then I would eat those.
I'm surprised I didn't end up not being able to finish a book
(35:46):
because of the damage I'd done to it
with my nervous chewing.
Wow, I just got way into that.
And it's not even just paper I eat.
I guess I haven't matured at all in that range
because I will just put things in my mouth
that I probably shouldn't,
like small plastic things.
Chewy or pieces of duct tape?
No.
Oh, dang it.
(36:07):
Exposing myself again.
Legos or like coins.
Yeah, oh.
Or like coins are like electric.
I'll like chew on this part of my shirt like this.
And then I'll just like have like a big old.
Don't grow a beard.
It's so bad.
It's so hard to not chew on it.
Your beard?
Oh my gosh.
Your beard.
You chew on your beard.
Because I chew on my nails.
(36:27):
Like it's just that I still have that need
that does not want to just chew something.
And the hair is just always getting in there.
It's like, no, I don't want to do that.
Cause it's stupid.
And it's just, it's all short around here.
Like what?
No, I'm kicking it.
I don't, that's not.
Bro, okay, I know, I know.
Okay, great.
You're, you are better after all.
(36:49):
I'm better than you.
Most people for sure.
Continue you.
Okay.
Better than boy.
BTB, better than boy.
So I think I was asking you,
where do you want to go with this?
What plans do you have?
And I don't know if you've already answered that, but.
With my.
With your art, yeah.
Okay, I answered for my YouTube channel.
(37:09):
For other things I do want to make and publish music.
I just sounds like something I want to do.
I wrote a song fairly recently that I,
maybe I'd like play at the talent show.
It's like a piano song.
And I'm working on another actually,
that I started working on yesterday,
but then I forgot the melody.
So I was like, dang.
And then I deleted all the lyrics.
(37:29):
And then today I was like, I remember the melody is like,
and then I had to rewrite all the lyrics.
So that was a fun thing to do.
And I'm not good at like editing music.
Live music is easier for me.
One time I played a song during a choir concert for a piano,
like a Spanish song, but it was just so fun to do.
I'm just better at live, I would say.
I think I can relate to what you're saying.
(37:51):
If I try to go and start doing something,
once I have a live recording to edit it,
it's a lot easier, but to try to create art
that's not playing off of somebody else.
For me, that's what that makes me feel like.
I like to play off of something or somebody.
So when you're live, you're playing off
of other people's energies and emotions.
Yeah.
Or I'll be at the youth group on the piano
(38:14):
and be like, hey, say like an emotion or state,
and then I'll play something off that.
Really?
And of course I asked at the wrong time,
there was a big old drama cloud.
So the first thing he did was like,
do like, frustrate, and then do like a,
do a little, do a little, do a little, do a little.
Or I don't know, like, okay, do another one.
(38:34):
He's like, do like slightly annoyed.
I'm like, that's the same thing.
He's like, okay, sorry, sorry.
Try to like play the essence of depression.
And so I tried to do that.
And then another friend came and I was like, okay.
The first thing that said was try doing depression.
What the heck?
Like do like happy or, I don't know.
Is that what you're looking for?
I mean, like I was fine with the emotion.
No, of course.
Because it's fun, but they were all
just steered negatively.
And I was like, yeah.
(38:56):
How's it going on making this little soundtrack
for this podcast?
The song, this is gonna be a song?
Or, no, I don't know.
I just remember one time I was just like,
hey, if you ever wanna try to make something
that I can just use for like an intro and stuff.
And you were just like, actually,
I might be able to do that.
Oh.
Have you had any ideas?
(39:16):
I have not gotten to that.
I have had ideas.
I have this one idea that's kind of sticking with me.
So it's a simple like chord.
And then like I could probably do something with that.
Sweet.
Now, we'll see.
I know.
So.
Shit, by the time we do this one.
I'm just kidding, I probably won't.
I'm weak.
What else?
What else is going on in your world?
(39:36):
Anything notable?
Anything you wanna talk about?
Anything big in your thoughts or emotions?
Not really.
No, none that we haven't talked about.
Or none that I wanna share publicly.
Yeah, yeah.
We don't want that on here.
It sounds to me from everything you've said
that you feel like you're finding some balance
in your life.
Yeah.
I have found balance.
And it's always a process.
(39:57):
And I am just,
I don't say little boy again.
Little boy.
Your perception of yourself is changing so fast.
From day to day, it's probably shifted enough
to even be noticeable.
But I mean, I see that even in the conversation
this morning about the way you see yourself
versus the way you're used to.
It's incredible to watch from a non-kid perspective.
(40:18):
And I appreciate that you're willing to think about it
and talk about it so that I can see a little bit.
What do you feel like is the biggest thing
hindering you right now?
Okay, you know the saying,
you're your own worst critic?
I feel like that's kind of the best way to put it.
I criticize what I do so much.
Not like in video mostly.
(40:40):
In film, I don't care that much.
But like a lot of things I do, I'm like,
you can do so much better.
And I know I can,
but like I don't think I give myself enough credit
for things that I do.
But seeing it means it's changing already.
And I see that confidence building in you so fast
and so intensely.
And I'm gonna have that conversation with Old World Daily
just to see, to start at least.
(41:01):
Because I'll tell you something, dude.
I believe that you have something to offer the world
with your humor, with so much more too.
But I believe your wit is so fast and so sharp
when you're in flow,
when you have something to riff off of.
And I wanna set something like that up
because I wanna see it.
I think it's gonna be so funny.
And it might not be.
And that'll be perfect.
(41:22):
Because sometimes the first time,
you just have to figure out what you don't know.
Absolutely, bomb it.
I hope so.
Because then it can still be funny
because I can laugh at you.
And you can get like more.
I should probably write down like little points
on some things I should touch on.
Like I remember in fifth grade,
I made like a super hilarious joke at my teacher.
And I told you guys, and then you guys were like,
(41:42):
you should be like a comedian, that's so funny.
And then I like wrote that one down.
Looking back, it's like a super stupid joke, but.
Do you remember what it was?
Yeah, yeah.
It's, we were like in like a classroom debate, I think.
And my teacher was like, all right,
everyone with white shoelaces stand up.
And I'm like, that's lasist.
And.
Ha ha ha ha.
(42:03):
I remember that.
Oh, that took me off guard though.
I waited a second.
I was like, oh, Miss Olson?
She's like, yeah.
I'm like, that's lasist.
And then she was like, oh, ha ha ha ha, get out.
And she didn't actually do that.
But she thought it was funny.
And none of my other classmates did, I don't think.
How old were you?
11.
I've just heard you riff around the dinner table
and you get going.
It's so funny.
Everybody is, they're crying.
(42:23):
They can't, it's just, and it just comes out of you
and actually when you try, it doesn't work.
And I've just watched you shift from that,
always trying, always trying, always trying,
always trying, so frustrated to just being yourself.
And I almost feel like, and this is my story,
my imagination's like, could be making things up.
But I feel like when you're in that flow state
at the dinner table, out on the porch,
wherever it is, just around this family,
(42:45):
I'm watching you and you look around you
with this intelligence, this knowing in your eyes
that you achieved something intentionally.
Oh yeah.
It's so cool.
When I make a bunch of people laugh uncontrollably,
that's my favorite feeling.
And when you don't think about it,
then you just watch that energy, that laughter,
and you just start tweaking, shifting here and there,
and it just builds on itself.
It's so cool to watch.
(43:06):
That would be fun to do.
I would wanna do that.
Because you're drawing on that energy.
So if you have more energy to draw on,
think about what more you could do.
I feel like the hardest part
would be starting the whole thing.
Yes.
Like I just don't know what I would do to start.
That's exactly what I deal with with this.
How do I start?
I don't know how to start.
And I'm not gonna do a welcome to emotion art.
(43:26):
Thank you for coming, Charlie.
Son.
Twain.
Charlie.
Oh, we still need to talk about your name.
You got a lot of names.
Riggs.
Tony.
Ah.
How?
That was me.
I know.
I'm really the only one that calls you that.
Chip.
Chuck.
That was one.
I didn't like that.
Rigatoni.
Isn't that like a pasta?
It's all your mom.
(43:47):
Yeah.
But she got it from you.
You guys have such like self looping inside abstract humor.
It is incredible to watch sometimes.
You guys go into these torrents of unintelligible sounds
and syllables and gales of laughter.
Yeah.
We got out of pool one time.
All my brothers were wet and like in the kitchen.
(44:08):
I was like, bro, get out.
You guys are like wet.
And there's like, and then you're dry as a weasel.
And then it would like hit me.
I don't know why weasel, dry as a weasel.
That doesn't like make sense.
Because it doesn't make sense.
It was just so funny.
And now, if you say it to any of the brothers,
they'll know what you mean.
I'm gonna do that.
Just say dry as a weasel.
And then they'll be like lab.
(44:28):
Again, I don't know what lab is.
Something Lucas would say.
Excuse me.
James would say.
I can't keep track of y'all's names.
Bob.
What do you remember as being the most difficult part
of your life looking back?
The most difficult part of my life?
Does anything jump out of you?
Just all been truly terrible.
Yeah, my whole life.
I feel like, I guess my self deprecation.
(44:50):
Is that how you say it?
Sure.
Talking yourself down.
But I mean, I don't wanna be like the,
oh, my life's horrible person.
That's interesting that your answer to that is
when your perspective was that you were somehow less.
Not great.
But now I'm more confident in myself.
I know myself better.
I've watched that journey happen.
What do you feel like you're most afraid of right now?
(45:10):
I'm most afraid of not being accepted socially.
I used to be super afraid of the dark.
Actually, no.
Actually, no.
My biggest fear is spiders.
Okay.
That's my worst fear.
Okay.
You're doing pretty good.
Being afraid of spiders.
If you're more afraid of spiders
than you are of not being accepted,
that's a pretty good sign.
Well, spiders are horrifying.
(45:32):
That's a sign of self confidence.
And spiders are horrifying in some situations, I agree.
One time I had this dream that the whole house
was super broken down and there were holes everywhere
and spiders were everywhere.
My dream, I guess, drew inspiration
from that scene in Harry Potter.
It was just such a freaky dream.
And then I woke up that morning
and then I got ready for school.
And I put my shoe on and I was like,
(45:53):
oh, what's blocking?
I dropped and two spiders fell out.
Oh.
And then I was just terrified of spiders.
Then you woke up.
And then I still am.
Nope, that was real.
Oh boy.
And I just hate spiders.
If I search up spiders on YouTube
and then the whole time I'll be like,
I'll feel like there's a spider on me
or near my foot.
There's like a spider in my room.
I won't sleep there that night.
Now that I'm thinking about it,
(46:13):
I don't have any fear of spiders.
I used to though.
Now I just see them as benign.
They take care of us.
They kill bugs.
But that's a pretty common fear.
And the fear of not being accepted.
And it sounds like you're pretty aware
of that fear inside you.
And you're practicing not living in it.
I love hearing that.
Cause that's joy.
That's the way to get to joy.
What do you most want to offer the world?
(46:35):
I just want to provide entertainment.
Just make people smile or whatever emotion
I'm trying to influence.
I just want to do that.
Do you know why?
I feel like not a lot of people get to experience joy
or entertainment.
And I don't know.
I do my best to provide it.
Why do you want to provide joy specifically?
Because I like people and I like entertaining people.
(46:57):
I don't know why I like to.
I wonder if you see so much benefit to yourself
and you want other people to experience the joy
and the harmony you feel inside.
Is that possible?
Yeah, I guess.
I'm putting words in your mouth so no is fine.
No, you're kind of right.
Help me.
Okay.
The way that I am a source for entertainment
is the way that I find things funny.
(47:19):
The jokes that I'll say will be things that make me laugh.
I'm not going to say jokes that I don't find funny.
Do you feel like one of the things you're trying to do
is to show the people around you
what the world looks like through your eyes?
Not really.
You're just trying to make people laugh.
Simple.
What do you think is going on here?
I don't know.
Sorry.
Yes.
What?
What is going on here?
What is going on?
(47:40):
And by here I mean everything, anything, I don't know.
Existence.
What is existence?
Who are we?
I'm just saying, in your perspective.
I know this is not what a lot of people agree with.
I believe that we are here by coincidence.
We happen to develop intelligence over strength
and we made traditions through stories.
(48:03):
We made the foundation of what life is today
through primal things,
like just basic things that like us cave people used to do.
I'm not a super religious person.
I don't think that God made the world in seven days.
I don't even know if there's a creator.
Maybe we're just a little speck
floating in a big old bunch of specks.
(48:23):
Maybe.
Maybe there's a big celestial being.
Who knows?
No, I appreciate that.
Why do you think we're here?
What's the purpose?
Or do we have one?
I don't know.
I think the purpose is to be curious and act on hunches.
If you want to explore,
explore, live your life to the fullest.
I'm not the first one to say that,
but that's a statement I agree with.
(48:44):
What do you think it means?
Is that the same statement?
If you want to explore, explore,
and live your life to the fullest?
Like if you want to do something, do it.
You're just going to regret it if you don't.
That reminds me of a mantra that I still use,
but it's very formative in my shift in worldviews.
It goes, do not prolong the past.
Leave the past where it is.
(49:04):
Do not hasten the future.
You don't even know what it's going to be.
Do not be afraid of appearances.
Don't be afraid of what people think what you're doing.
That's all there is.
That's the saying.
It feels like that's what you're saying a little bit.
It's not don't worry about the future.
It's like-
Or don't be afraid of it.
Yeah, don't be afraid of it, but think about it.
(49:25):
I don't think you should just like,
just dive headfirst into everything that's-
How do you know what you should just do
and what you should not?
Well, I mean, I feel like you should do some
form of research.
For example, the comedy thing,
I would like study like other comedians and be like,
oh, what do they do?
What do they do that's good?
What do they do that I don't agree with?
Maybe I hear you saying say yes,
(49:45):
but know what you're saying yes to.
Yes.
I like that.
Can I go now?
Can I ask you one more question?
Just cause I want, I just want to try this question.
Of course, of course.
If you were to die right now,
what would you want to leave people that care about you?
What is the thing that you would want them to know?
If I were to die right now,
and I could just leave any message,
(50:07):
I would say, I don't know what is going to happen next,
but I'm ready.
That's beautiful.
I don't know why I emphasize ready.
Thanks Char.
Appreciate it.
Or Bob.
What do you like to be called?
By you Charlie or Tony or anything.
It feels weird when you call me Bob.
Thanks Frigs.
I appreciate you.
Of course.
(50:28):
Signing off.
This is emotion art.
(00:04):
This is a conversation I had with Charlie.
He's one of the younger people that live here at the Forge,
one of my boys.
Charlie sees himself as an artist.
As someone who knows him, it's pretty obvious why.
As he grows and matures in body and mind and emotions,
(00:25):
seeing what Charlie becomes is something I am looking
very much forward to.
This boy has a lot to offer the world,
and I'm so thankful that I have a seat in the stands.
If you like laughing and feeling things,
definitely follow his art.
I'll put a link in the notes.
(00:47):
Charlie is one of those kids that nicknames stick to.
He has a lot.
We named him Charlie.
At school, he goes by Bob.
I think I call him Riggs most.
That's a nickname that came out of one of his abstract
humor loops from when he was very young.
(01:09):
Here's a peek into the emotions and the art of Charlie,
AKA Riggs, AKA Iggy the Blank.
Enjoy.
I can hear the laundry.
Yeah, the laundry is pretty loud.
It's just gonna be what it is, bro.
Oh, Ange.
She left you.
(01:30):
No problem, I've got, I just need it with me.
On your drugs, is that a nicotine thing?
Yeah.
You freaking addict.
Hi, Charlie.
Hi, hello, hi.
I don't know you, and I just came here
because I was told that I would be receiving
four giant stuffed toy bears,
and I was not given that yet,
so I'm just waiting for the transaction to,
(01:52):
are you, can you hear me?
I can hear you.
Okay, so.
I thought you were gonna say,
you thought you were gonna receive guidance.
I was like, what?
Oh my goodness, that's how you see me?
Why would I receive guidance from a random person
that looks kinda like Jesus?
Well, I guess you look like off-brand Jesus.
Like, off of wish.com.
It's a good compliment.
I don't think it is.
(02:14):
It's like all the depictions of Jesus,
which are completely incorrect.
Didn't he like live in the Middle East?
Why is he white?
Yeah, he doesn't look anything like what
typical Judeo-Christian depictions of him look.
Ah.
I didn't like that.
You didn't like what?
Ah.
Bro, sometimes I just have to settle my energy down.
(02:35):
Sometimes my energy gets all, it feels like,
imagine an animation of a wire that's like halfway cut,
and there's electric sparks sparking out of it.
That is what the whole ball of energy inside me feels like.
All this energy sparking out,
and then I just have to like take a breath,
let everything go, relax all my muscles, and then.
And then.
(02:56):
All of the energy just goes where it's supposed to go.
All the loose ends just melt together
and form into like a whole.
I feel like that's like a hazard, the melted plastic.
Well, okay, Mr. Literalist.
All right, Mr. Frickin' Buddha.
Thank you.
Man, you are full of compliments today.
Okay.
Do you interpret everything you see
(03:18):
as literally exactly what you're seeing?
No.
You just play a literalist in the movies?
Yeah.
I mean, you kind of like have that persona sometimes.
How do you see yourself?
How about that?
That's what I wanna know.
What does Charlie look like from inside Charlie?
I look like a person that wants to help everyone else,
(03:40):
but doesn't want any help from anyone else,
or himself either.
And I take on the literalist persona
because I think that it's a funny contrast
to your situation.
That's interesting.
And you do that consciously.
Also, I don't know, I just find what you say weird.
I do too.
Mystery resolved.
(04:02):
Okay.
You're just weird.
That's the mystery.
Thank you.
Okay.
I mean, you're welcome.
So, tell me about your art.
That's what I'm super curious about.
Can you tell me about kind of where your art came from
in just your earliest memories?
Okay.
There's this content creator I like to watch on YouTube
named Daniel Thrasher,
(04:22):
and he just makes like little skits.
I don't know, I find them funny.
And I was like, hmm, I think I could do that.
And I started out making YouTube shorts,
and I just started doing copy paste content,
which I didn't really find satisfying.
I was just taking other people's jokes,
and I was like, posting was my own.
I didn't really like doing that.
So I started making my own jokes and skits,
(04:43):
and developing my own characters,
and developing my own like scenes
to get a laugh out of people.
Or sometimes I really like horror.
And so I tried my hand at it.
I mean, it wasn't great.
I planned to do more.
I will get it right.
So you have some horror little short movie scripts coming.
I think you've written a book of short horror stories
(05:07):
that you wrote, or are writing.
I finished them.
I want to publish them, but I don't really know how.
I wrote 17, I believe.
You have a book, a compilation of 17 short horror stories.
Yes.
We're gonna figure out how to get that published.
Okay.
I haven't read all of those.
I don't really like most of them,
because most of them were written
(05:27):
in sixth grade to seventh grade.
They're not like my best art, but I always get better.
So none of the things I write is my best.
That's true.
I still liked some of them, like the military private one.
It's just a list of journal entries
until one of them just gets cut off,
and it's implied that he dies.
Do you still write them?
No, I don't.
Right now, I'm working on a couple
(05:49):
of different stories with different friends.
With one of my friends, Declan,
we're actually kind of far into a little book we're making
about these people that get trapped on a farm
with some sort of experiment gone wrong
and parasite that infects people.
No one can be trusted, et cetera, et cetera.
Sci-fi.
Yeah, and then with Eamon,
I'm making kind of a murder mystery,
(06:09):
but it's set in the Renaissance time.
Think of like King Henry the Eighth, like that time.
The main character's like a person going to execution
for a crime he didn't commit.
And then I think the king's gonna get murdered,
and it's gonna be a whole clue situation.
And then I'm writing one more on my own
about a space journey.
Do you know the Voyager satellite?
It just goes out and records.
(06:29):
It's kind of like that,
but they send a person out to do that.
So he lives out the rest of his life in space,
because the Voyager went one way,
so he goes another way.
So he's never gonna come back.
He's never gonna experience Earth again.
He's just gonna go to space forever
and record everything that happens.
That would take a lot of commitment.
Yeah, I know.
I like the story.
I'm saying being that person would take a lot of commitment
(06:50):
simply to information gathering.
Basically, you're sacrificing your life.
That's all you can do for the rest of your life.
Yeah, but like the character really wanted to go to space,
and then he was accepted into NASA.
This was during the space race.
So initially what he was supposed to do
was go to the moon and back,
but they realized some sort of flaw in the rocket,
which meant going back to Earth.
They couldn't do that.
So they're like,
(07:10):
hey, do you still wanna go to outer space
while we build a new rocket?
And he's like, yeah, sure.
And then they sent Buzz Aldrin and Neil to the moon and back
to win the space race.
And this one is your project, your solo.
It sounds like you are doing a couple of co-creations.
It's kind of hard writing things with other people
because we have different writing styles.
(07:30):
So like one paragraph, you'll see my writing style
using bigger words and more sophisticated phrases.
And then another one will just be less intelligent.
I mean, it's still good.
I get the idea.
I love this comparison, this juxtaposition.
I get the idea.
And then I'll edit the paragraph to make it sound like mine.
Declan's okay with that.
(07:51):
He's like, yeah, please, please edit this
to make it look good.
And I do.
I have a question about that.
Okay.
What do you think Declan would say?
How does he see this?
Do you think that he would see it the same way that you do?
I feel like he would see it like,
I help produce ideas and he produces the writing.
Okay.
Oh really?
Oh, that's pretty functional.
Yeah.
How do you feel about that?
(08:12):
That works for you.
Yeah.
But sometimes I feel bad.
Like I'm just correcting things he does
and like changing it to what I like.
But like I incorporate his ideas into what I write.
Well, it's easier for you
if you're just working with your own content.
Yeah.
But do you feel like when you're working with somebody else,
it gives you ideas that you wouldn't have had otherwise?
The story goes places?
Yeah.
Or like I'll want the story to go one place
(08:33):
and then they change it to go a different way.
I'm like, actually that could work.
And then I'll just steer it back to how I wanted to go.
So I'm curious,
why do you do projects with other people
or is this kind of a new thing that you're just trying out?
This is fairly new.
It's mostly because I write a lot of things
(08:54):
and I like make a lot of stories.
And then they're like,
hey, do you want to write something with me?
And I'm like, of course, I would love to.
And then it just starts.
Have any of those stories that you've created
with somebody else come to completion?
No, they have not.
It started this year, so no.
Sweet, sweet.
So that might be some cool new directions that start coming.
Oh dude, I'm excited.
(09:14):
I only just recently started using social media.
Amateur.
I used to use it and I used it wrong.
I just sat there and scrolled and like,
I thought I was following
what my friends and family were doing,
but really I was just, I don't know,
subconsciously comparing my life to everyone else's.
That's what everyone does.
I finally just deleted everything
and I was that way for a long time.
(09:35):
I did on and off, on and off, on and off
because it's so hard to give up.
Finally, I gave it up a year and a half,
two years, three years, I don't know.
Then recently I realized for the first time
that actually I can do art.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
I can actually make things.
I can create something that hasn't existed before.
I mean, other than I think everything has existed before,
but.
(09:55):
Right, right, of course.
What, you mean, wow, dad,
you really took a long time to throw that in there.
Good thinking.
Good self-control.
Stellar.
No. Stellar.
Yeah, it's a fun journey to start.
Exciting one.
Yes.
I'm gonna just tell you,
you've been a huge inspiration to me.
Even when I didn't have social media,
I wasn't watching your content,
but I could see you starting to do it.
(10:16):
And number one, I had to learn how to be a dad
by stop trying to be the dad I thought I was supposed to be.
For all of you boys, I just,
I wanna see your eyes alight with excitement,
with curiosity, with whatever.
And so I'm like always trying to push.
And little did I know back then
that when you try to push somebody towards something,
you take away their ability to choose for themselves.
Right.
To some degree, everything is a balance,
(10:37):
but you put your foot down early with me
and was just like, no, I am not comfortable.
I don't wanna do that.
Ike didn't, he wanted to please so bad.
Like he has got so much of my personality in him.
I was like that?
I was like, no.
You were.
You've always wanted to please,
but when you started finding boundaries,
you found them quick.
Oh.
It was since we moved to this house,
(10:58):
I got that whole music board and stuff.
That was a big one because I was just like,
okay, I'm trying to show up for them.
What am I doing wrong here?
And I was like, oh, you're trying to make
what you think should happen happen for them.
What you actually want is to just make what they want happen.
So let go, just let it happen.
It'll happen.
I thought the music board would be good.
(11:19):
I thought-
I think it still will.
Yeah, it could, but I just don't feel the urge to use it.
I like playing things on the piano and then that's it.
And I'm really glad that you honored
that awareness inside you.
And I think that once we get it set up,
that's the tough part.
I don't know, there's so many programs.
It's very complicated.
It's so cool.
When I watch all the demo videos, the machine MK3,
(11:39):
and it's like, wow, there's so much you could do with this
and it's got a keyboard,
but I don't know how to get the software working.
So I'm waiting on somebody to step into my life.
I need a hero.
Thank you, exactly.
It's very confusing.
So these co-created projects are videos?
No, no.
Like-
Short stories.
I mean, not short, they're like chapter things.
(12:00):
I mean, that's cool that you guys
are even working on that stuff
and you're naturally driven towards it.
These brothers and friends that are sorta brothers
and whoever that is saying,
hey, let me create with you.
You're giving them a gift by saying yes to them
because it just helps spark a little bit more of that.
And even if it never completes.
It's fun.
There are like many things that I,
(12:21):
there are many types of art.
I wanna do like drawing art,
or I wanna do like digital art,
or I wanna do music, or I wanna write things,
or I wanna make movies.
And there's so many things I wanna do.
I jump from one to the other.
There'll be like a little phase of, whoa, mega drawing art.
And then you'll jump to like,
whoa, I just made a song on the piano.
And it'll jump to like,
whoa, I just made a little short movie.
I just keep doing that.
(12:42):
I don't know if that's good.
Yes, that is very good.
And it's something that people don't usually access
until they're in their, at least their 30s, I would say.
Speaking for myself, 40s,
I'm just starting to access that.
Boomer.
You're calling me wise, I appreciate that.
That's not what I said.
Thank you, thank you.
Well, reality is as I perceive it.
So thank you.
(13:03):
I am the creator of what's real.
Also true, dang it.
The thing on Melissa's bathroom.
Have you seen that?
Yes, I have.
It's so good.
I just memorized it.
Did you seriously?
Through the eyes of which we see, we create our world.
These eyes of which what sees creates what's real.
I am the creator of what's real.
Through the eyes of which I see, I see.
If you put that into your own words, what would that say?
(13:25):
That would say, what I perceive as real is real.
I can make anything real through my conscience.
Maybe something along the lines of that.
I've never really tried to put it in my own words.
How do you feel about that?
Do you believe that that's true or does that just sound like?
I feel like it's true to some extent.
Humans can accomplish so much.
(13:46):
They can do so many things that we just don't do.
We've come from cave people, just like,
to make fire.
No other being on planet Earth can do that.
We have the most intelligent brains.
In what we know about the entire universe,
we're the most intelligent beings,
which is probably not true, because-
(14:06):
What, that humans are the most intelligent beings
humans have ever found?
I would say that's very true.
Yeah, no, but I feel like it's not true
that we're the most intelligent beings in the universe.
Yeah, that feels true to me, that we're not.
We can do crazy things.
We've built things that can fly,
things that can just fly in the sky.
We build that.
They're almost 100% safe.
(14:28):
You're just completely safe in the air.
We used to freakin' feed people to rats.
I don't know what we did back in the old days,
but there's some very bad aspects to people,
like power, equal greed.
Not always, but a lot of the time,
it just makes people hungry for more power,
and then they're a little voice in their head saying,
hey, maybe you shouldn't do this.
They kill that.
(14:48):
They silence it.
I wouldn't know, because I'm not powerful.
You don't see yourself as powerful?
13-year-old boy.
13?
Yes.
For some reason, I thought you were 14.
Nope, wrong child.
Wow.
I will be 14 in March, though, which is 98 years later.
How does it make you feel that I am so bad
at keeping track of any birthdays
or even names sometimes?
That's what I'm here for.
I do that.
(15:09):
So that doesn't bother you?
A lot of people.
Actually, no, you're kind of the only one
I know that does that.
I used to be so embarrassed at how horrible I am
at remembering the technical data.
I remember emotional things.
Surprise, surprise.
Surprise, surprise.
I remember the age of all my brothers and their birthdays,
but I am kind of bad with names of people
I don't know very well.
(15:31):
One of the things I was thinking about
when you were talking about the story that you were writing,
do you feel like that story is about you?
Or how do you feel like that story relates to you
in what you're going through and how you feel?
It relates to me in the sense that what I do,
the character's never gonna come back,
so you can't go back.
Okay, here, let me go off into a little ramble.
(15:53):
When I was younger, a little younger,
I used to always, when I was a wee lad,
I used to always.
Can you ramble with an accent?
No, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stop.
I wanna hear this.
I used to always want to be able to just like,
oh, I wish I could just go back in time and just fix that.
I felt that every day.
(16:13):
And then a year ago, in seventh grade,
there's something, I was like, oh, I wish I could do that.
And then I was like, well, I can't.
And so, guess I'll just try my best to do better next time.
That was like a revelation in my brain.
I was like, oh, I can just do that.
And then I wasn't really caught up on my mistakes
in the past anymore.
I was just like, okay, well, I freaked out there,
but I might not next time.
(16:35):
And then in eighth grade, during the beginning of the year,
I was like, oh, you know what'd be cool?
If I wrote a story, there's a character that leaves Earth
and then never comes back.
He just goes.
And originally, I wasn't thinking that my revelation
came into play there, but I feel like it does, looking back.
I feel like it definitely plays a part in that.
(16:55):
I just subconsciously made the connection of those.
Because through art is how I express myself.
Through emotions, I don't.
Also, I wanted to practice my writing skills.
I was like, I feel like that's a cool story
and I'm gonna do it.
And I'm working on it very slowly,
which I'm kind of angry about, but you live and learn.
Sure, and every day is just a different day
to do whatever the heck you want in that day.
(17:17):
But there's so much to do sometimes.
How do you make the time for everything you wanna do?
That's usually what ends up happening.
There's just so much I wanna do
that I just get nothing done.
I just don't do anything.
I just sit down and I'm like, what do I wanna do?
What do I, I want to, I wanna make a video,
but it's getting kinda late.
It's like two o'clock.
I like to post between 12 and three.
(17:40):
Maybe I should write and then I just lose motivation.
Open the computer and I'm like, I just don't do it.
But then someday they'll be like, I wanna make a video.
And it's funny to the four people that watch it.
And then I'm like, wow, I actually did it.
And that balance between doing and not doing
exists solely inside of you.
Nobody can tell you what that balance is.
You just have to pendulate and then pendulate back
(18:02):
and then pendulate back and then eventually you find,
oh, here it is.
And then you're just breathing.
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
I really like to say that, so.
Do you say that in every podcast you do?
Probably.
I don't doubt that.
I'm gonna make a drinking game out of it.
Please don't.
Charlie, you're too young to be talking about drinking games.
That was you.
I didn't do that.
However you wanna see it.
You're encouraging your son to drink alcohol, aren't you?
(18:25):
At a young age, how irresponsible.
Hopefully I don't turn into an alcoholic when I grow up.
Hopefully not.
But, but I've seen you walk through all kinds
of difficult things and I believe that no matter what happens
to you as you grow up, you're going to face it
and you're gonna find a way through it.
I believe that.
And you're always gonna have a really freaking good community
around you because you like to be there for people.
(18:48):
I see that.
Although a lot of people don't.
Go ahead, diss on other people.
Throw shade.
No, no, that's not what I'm trying to do.
I'm trying to figure out how to say this.
And I have to think about what I say before I say it.
Perfect.
Take your time.
I don't think that people recognize
that that's what I'm doing.
They just see me as like a nice person sometimes.
(19:10):
Although recently, a lot of people have been saying
that I'm snappy at them or like quick to anger.
I haven't felt any shift in my emotions, but.
So what do you think is happening?
I feel like it's because I don't get mad easily at all.
I'm like very patient with others.
And so on the times that I do break,
I like yell or raise my voice.
(19:31):
And then they're just like, whoa, you're just suddenly mean.
You're just a mean person now.
And I'm not, I'm not a mean person.
It's like, you haven't done that before.
Like, oh, what the heck, this is new.
Okay, what that makes me think of is when somebody
who is finding their boundaries for the first time,
where it's like, okay, I'm gonna start asking myself
what I want to do.
(19:52):
Instead of just thinking about what does everybody else want,
I'm gonna say, what do I want?
And if I don't want it, I'm not gonna do it.
And then as you get better and better and better at that,
the people who are not used to that have to go
through an adjustment period where they feel
like you're being an asshole.
How does that sound compared to what you're experiencing?
I feel like that's kind of accurate.
Makes sense.
Yeah, it makes sense.
(20:12):
And sometimes the answer is I don't know or I don't care.
I like that answer a lot because I have to use it sometimes.
I do care though.
There are a lot of things I don't care about
but I still like pretend that I do.
When my friends are like arguing, they go to me,
they're like, please help me give you advice.
I really don't care, but like, oh yeah, of course, sure.
Do maybe say this, do that.
And then they'll be like, okay.
And then it helps.
(20:32):
When I say I don't care, people are like,
whoa, he doesn't like me.
Wow.
Because I usually do care.
But I still care about them.
It's just, I don't care about that.
That sounds so familiar.
Yeah, a lot of people don't.
That is something I've been working on
for the past like six months
is trying to change my words from I don't care.
(20:54):
Because I say I don't care,
used to say I don't care often,
because to me it means I feel equally supportive of either
or either way is equally fine for me
or nothing's gonna bother me.
It just, it means acquiescence to me.
But when people hear the words, I don't care,
it doesn't matter what you're talking about.
What they hear is, I don't care about you.
(21:17):
Okay, somehow we rabbit trailed the hell out of everywhere.
Yeah, I don't know what happened.
What I was thinking about was how everything
that you're doing, the earliest thing I can trace it back
to is Sam Spiders.
That's like the first thing where I really feel
like I could see that originality,
that creation of something out of nothing,
just really starting to just push out of the ground
(21:38):
in these little green shoots.
And that stuff started when you guys were little.
No, yeah.
That started with Ike when he was just learning
to talk, I think.
Yeah, the caterpillar.
That was so fun.
But like when Ike-
The one fun thing I did with you guys.
Oh, there I just exposed my insecurities.
Geez, okay, go on.
We were like kind of young, like middle young.
(21:59):
Middle young?
No, that makes sense.
We were super into like, oh, we should make
like a little detective film.
And then we did, or like we made like stop motions
or I don't know.
I remember those.
Dude, some of those were good.
They were kind of bad.
Think about how old you were.
Yeah, yeah.
(22:20):
Some of those were good.
Claimation and stuff.
Sorry, go on.
And actually, hold on, before we lose that,
before we lose that, I have this house one time,
we made this like Lego stop motion,
which I thought was so good.
It was the best stop motion on planet Earth.
And then I was super proud.
And then in that same sleepover, I believe,
(22:40):
we made another one attack of the triangles,
where it was like little polygon triangles
that like attacked clay people.
And then that was even better.
And I'm like, whoa.
And then we made this thing called the ends,
the ends comics.
We started making a bunch of comics.
You know the blank book Ike-
I do.
We took one of those and then we filled it
(23:02):
with little comics that we made.
And I still have it actually, I think.
It was like in third grade,
we would just sit on the bus
and just make the mean teacher.
I feel that's what really sparked my storytelling,
was comics with Evan.
But you guys did make out of the Sam Spiders,
which were just different hand positions.
(23:22):
What Sam Spiders can you remember off top of your head?
There's normal Sam Spider, there's Zero-Eyed Bob,
there's a Shump Flump.
What is the Shump?
Every one of them has a characteristic or something?
The Shump Flump is indestructible.
Cannot be harmed, can shape shift into any of them
and take any characteristics and has magic.
And the opposite for Zero-Eyed Bob,
if he jumps at all, he'll just collapse and die.
(23:45):
But he can eat anything.
So the Shump Flump is the only one
that can eat cheese or say cheese?
No, he'll still die.
That's the only thing that kills him.
Oh, because you said when he falls off a cliff.
But that cliff's like bottomless, you just die.
And that was kind of the original start of it
was just little simple hand things.
Little things that would walk around.
Would walk around and then they started
(24:06):
having conversations and as soon as they started
having conversations, somehow.
The word of the day.
There was a word.
I think you made that.
You were like, the word of the day is cheese
and every time you say that, you'll fall off this cliff.
Cheese, ah.
Okay, can you just tell us one of the simple
little Sam Spider stories, like kind of for the OG ones?
Okay, hey, do you want some mac and cheese, ah?
(24:27):
Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you just said cheese, ah.
Ooh, what a bowl of mac and cheese, ah.
Like, those dumb people saying this C word
and they'll like take the bowl and then go into like a field.
Now I can say mac and cheese, meteor.
Whoop.
You'll just die if you say cheese.
They were just these endless repeating stories
that new problems would arise, would be solved
(24:50):
and then the new thing would just obliterate everybody.
Yes.
Oh, why were they so violent?
Or like, they were like the dancing twins
which were secretly evil, I believe.
Conjoined twins and they just danced.
And then came the Slam Spiders, which are these guys.
They're a whole bunch of them.
This has Ike written all over it.
Like, whoop, whoop.
And like, the Slam Spiders and the Sam Spiders
initially were like in a war against each other,
(25:12):
but then they teamed up once humans arrived.
So the humans and the Sam Spiders began a whole war
and that's kind of what the current state
of the Sam Spiders are right now.
Humans will like take them and go like this, okay.
And then they'll take them back to their planet
and then observe them.
And then humans can always summon more humans.
And then the Sam Spiders just like,
I mean, they can like shoot out of their heads
(25:34):
so they're pretty powerful against the humans.
But the humans will like take them and be like,
how does this feel?
That's what it started out doing, cracking their neck.
Okay, who was the Country Bumpkin?
The Country Bumpkin, oh my gosh.
I know what you're talking about.
He was like the Country Bumpkin doctor or something.
I don't remember, you'd have to ask Ike.
I think he'd remember.
Because it was Ike's character
(25:54):
and the Country Bumpkin was Ike.
Like he was like, oh, I'm the Country Bumpkin.
And then he would just hit everyone on the head and stuff.
I think maybe it was a character that was meant to
take out some of his frustration
on his annoying little brothers.
Is that possible?
So was the Baloo Gorge, was the Baloo.
And if it got near someone, we'd go like Gorge.
And then he'll like grab us so hard.
(26:16):
There was Heavy Guy, which I believe Lucas made.
He goes like this and he has this little mat he stands on.
It's actually secretly like a weird little creature
that attacks you.
So if he steps off the mat for a second,
the creature will like attack you
and you'll be like.
And that's the only thing that moves him
because he's like super heavy.
So he'll go like this.
So nothing can like pick him up except for the mat.
(26:37):
And he'll be like, ooh, candy.
He'll be like, no, no, no.
And then he'll be like.
And he like doesn't know about the mat.
He just thinks it's a mat that flies around.
That's hilarious.
That sounds like something Lucas would come up with.
You guys had a whole bunch of cards.
You like made a game out of it.
You mean like magic the gathering out of it.
(26:57):
That was a weird thing.
So I think you said that I just want to take a video.
Oh, I'm gonna post a video.
Oh, that was exciting.
Okay, so where'd I, oh, I want him to do a song.
Like that's kind of how it started and grown.
Yeah, that's how it feels.
Seven months ago, I was like,
I feel like this would be easy to do and fun to do
and something I want to do.
And then I just started doing it.
That was after we moved.
Oh, yes.
(27:17):
The new house in the woods.
One day I was like, I want to make a YouTube channel.
It was initially called Iggy.
And then my profile picture was just a picture of Bluey
because I love Bluey.
And then I changed it to my own original thing.
Now it's a picture of me.
And then it was Iggy the blank.
Perfect.
It's evolving.
I just liked the name Iggy.
Okay.
And what about the blank?
Any significance there?
(27:38):
Yes.
I first made the channel Iggy
and not a lot of YouTube channels were named Iggy,
but there's this one big one, Iggy Azalea.
She's like a music maker.
And so I was like, maybe I should add something more
to make it kind of like a trademark.
And so I was like, what could it be?
Iggy's just too blank.
Ooh, Iggy the blank.
And then, and no other channels have called that.
(27:59):
There's nothing else named that.
It's a completely new thing.
So I haven't called that now.
Okay. That makes sense.
What?
You know what?
Every once in a while I noticed that there's a world outside
of this one little room.
You forced me to do this.
Yeah, clearly.
I don't know.
As a matter of fact, where's your straight jacket?
You're supposed to have a straight jacket on.
(28:20):
You called me to take me away, huh?
Do you feel like moving from in town to out here
and everything that went along with that has played a role
in how your art has shaped?
To some extent, not really a lot,
but I did take some inspiration
from the scenery of where we are.
And I filmed some scenes outside
(28:43):
because I just really like where we live.
But I feel like, yeah, my content would be different
if I lived more locally in town.
Like there would be a lot more videos with like my friends
or, but my content's not really influenced by it.
What do you want to do?
Where do you want to go with what you're doing artistically?
I do want to keep making skits.
(29:03):
Maybe I'll make a separate channel for my short films.
I don't really know yet.
I'm a little baby, a little baby channel.
If YouTube works out, I would want that to be like a job
because you can get paid and that would be such a fun thing.
But then I'd have to like put more dedication into it.
And there are some people I've just started hearing
the term freelancer used kind of to talk about people
(29:24):
who generate income.
They just basically hustle through connections
and like connecting people with what they need.
And it's kind of like this whole economy
that's growing out of the content creators
and it's a direction you can go.
But then there's also people that make a fantastic amount
of money creating these specific content videos.
And the thing I like about it is
you can do anything you want.
But there is a problem with getting big online.
(29:47):
The bigger you are, the more people will dislike you.
Right now, no one really hates me because I'm very small,
but like super big ones,
they just have whole communities of haters
because they just have more attention
and some people are against them,
which I know that if I get big, I know I'll come across that.
I don't know how I'd approach that.
I remember some pretty mean comments you've had already
(30:08):
and I've talked to you about them.
They're pretty stupid.
I mean, I know they-
Aren't they always gonna be?
Well, yeah.
I found them more funny than insulting.
The hate that people send you, the messages,
the comments that are just mean,
they are always gonna feel funny to you
because you know who you are.
So you know how ridiculous it is.
Also, they're not gonna like change what I do.
(30:29):
How's your right nipple gonna be halfway off your peck?
That was an actual comment on that.
I don't know what they intended to accomplish there,
but actually, no, a lot of comments on that video,
it was a super popular video, but I just found them stupid.
Isn't that called trolling?
And isn't that what trolls do?
They just say rude stuff just-
No, that's not what,
I don't think you're using the right term.
(30:50):
That's just being mean.
What is trolling then?
Trolling is like tricking or pranking
to a very big extent.
It's a prank that just like you can't do anything about.
It's like someone says or does something
that you're just like, you don't know how to respond to it.
Or like saying something mean and disappearing.
That's just, again, that's just saying something mean.
I don't know- That's true, that's true.
(31:10):
Like- Good point.
How would you feel about giving us a little taste
of some of your humor that you've developed?
It's very depending on the situation.
Someone will say something or do something
and it'll make a joke about that.
Like I feel like I would be good at standup comedy
because of like things that hecklers will say.
Do you have any plans to ever try it out?
I want to, but like not right now.
(31:31):
Because you're a little boy?
But I have seen like children doing it.
Yeah, why would that make you think it's not time?
I don't know, I feel like I just need more practice
being comfortable on stage, which I already am.
I like act a lot on stage in plays.
Just out of curiosity, where do you think the best place
to get practice like that is?
Practice of being on stage,
is the best way to get that practice.
Okay, I see what you mean.
(31:52):
You won't be ready until you do it.
It is my job to try to pressure you into doing something
so there's less chance that you'll do it.
Oh, I'm so glad you're there for me.
Seriously though, what you could do
that would be a pretty pain-free thing
is when we have like an Avery family reunion or something,
something like that.
Or it doesn't have to be Avery family and we have parties.
There's all kinds of things we could set up
where you could try it on a small scale
(32:14):
or would that be worse?
Okay, the thing about the Avery family one,
that's a good idea, but the age group is so,
it's such a huge variety.
There's like a bunch of little kids and a bunch of adults.
I do more adult humor.
Like I can do both, but like I enjoy
making adult humor more.
And so a lot of the kids just wouldn't understand jokes.
(32:35):
And then the jokes I make for the kids,
the adults won't find funny.
So it's just-
Oh, that's so interesting.
I don't know how I'd find a balance.
Dude, I love that you're aware of that.
I feel like a comedy club would be like a little bit
of a narrower humor range.
Can I ask you a question?
Yeah.
I just did.
Okay, you can ask me another one.
Oh, sweet, sweet, sweet.
Oh, this is a lucky day.
From what I understand, the Old World Deli, AKA JD.
(32:59):
He's the Old World Deli?
No, but he works there.
And the Old World Deli has open mics.
I think I've heard of them doing an open mic
specifically for kids,
cause Johnny does some art and stuff.
I don't know that that's true.
I could be completely making that up in my head.
If I asked JD and he's like,
oh, heck yeah, dude, that'd be great.
I'll set that up.
Would you be interested?
(33:20):
Yeah.
You would jump on that.
I would jump on that.
Okay, great.
Yes.
Cause you kind of said that you're not sure you're ready.
So I'm just saying, would you feel ready
if the opportunity presented itself?
Yeah.
Okay, you have some incredible accents.
You have an ability to-
I guess, kinda.
I can do like two.
What do you feel like your best ones are?
And can we hear Sam?
(33:41):
The Bumble Dumple Show, the food reviewer.
Right, ladies and gents.
I like that one.
That's a fun one I do.
You reviewed a plate of mashed potatoes.
No, it was like-
It was so funny.
It was a dinner that mom made.
A whole dinner.
Right.
Right.
Another date, another cheeky food review.
Are you gonna start doing reviews like that
(34:01):
or that was just a one-off?
I'll start doing more things like that.
I've been kind of doing like a little two or three video,
little spurts of different types of things.
I kind of wanna like do,
you know the one that's like the friend that's deaf.
I watched that.
Yeah, I go and do more like those and the-
Ah!
What?
Ah.
I'm sorry.
Excuse me?
Again?
Baking powder?
(34:21):
Oh, that's an old thing.
I literally just use it.
It's not old anymore.
I just brought it back.
Baking powder?
Are you literally eating your clothes right now?
I do it a lot, okay?
I'm a moth.
I'm a moth.
I'm an auto cannibalist moth.
That's hilarious.
I used to think of myself as a goat
for the same reason.
I eat like-
Auto cannibalist moth.
(34:42):
That sounds like the name of like a rock album maybe.
Help.
Well, you did just try to eat like clothes, so.
Well, uh-
Not even cotton.
That stuff's nylon. Paper.
I feel like if I combined all the paper
I've eaten in my life,
it would be like four or five pages,
like whole pages of paper.
Actually recently,
(35:03):
in one of the social studies classes I've had,
I ate one fourth of an entire page.
Okay, I'm gonna ask you a question then
on behalf of all paper eaters out there.
Okay.
Have you eaten some of the shiny like newspaper ad paper?
It's like the ads you get in the mailers,
the ink is all shiny and it's glossy.
No, I try not to eat inked paper.
Oh, just uninked paper?
Yeah. Okay.
(35:24):
You're much smarter than I have been.
You did that?
Plastic, paper.
I constantly had to be chewing on something.
So I would have like seven bookmarks in my books as a kid.
And by the time I was done with one reading session,
I would have one left.
So I would be constantly tearing pieces out of my books
to use bookmarks for my books and then I would eat those.
I'm surprised I didn't end up not being able to finish a book
(35:46):
because of the damage I'd done to it
with my nervous chewing.
Wow, I just got way into that.
And it's not even just paper I eat.
I guess I haven't matured at all in that range
because I will just put things in my mouth
that I probably shouldn't,
like small plastic things.
Chewy or pieces of duct tape?
No.
Oh, dang it.
(36:07):
Exposing myself again.
Legos or like coins.
Yeah, oh.
Or like coins are like electric.
I'll like chew on this part of my shirt like this.
And then I'll just like have like a big old.
Don't grow a beard.
It's so bad.
It's so hard to not chew on it.
Your beard?
Oh my gosh.
Your beard.
You chew on your beard.
Because I chew on my nails.
(36:27):
Like it's just that I still have that need
that does not want to just chew something.
And the hair is just always getting in there.
It's like, no, I don't want to do that.
Cause it's stupid.
And it's just, it's all short around here.
Like what?
No, I'm kicking it.
I don't, that's not.
Bro, okay, I know, I know.
Okay, great.
You're, you are better after all.
(36:49):
I'm better than you.
Most people for sure.
Continue you.
Okay.
Better than boy.
BTB, better than boy.
So I think I was asking you,
where do you want to go with this?
What plans do you have?
And I don't know if you've already answered that, but.
With my.
With your art, yeah.
Okay, I answered for my YouTube channel.
(37:09):
For other things I do want to make and publish music.
I just sounds like something I want to do.
I wrote a song fairly recently that I,
maybe I'd like play at the talent show.
It's like a piano song.
And I'm working on another actually,
that I started working on yesterday,
but then I forgot the melody.
So I was like, dang.
And then I deleted all the lyrics.
(37:29):
And then today I was like, I remember the melody is like,
and then I had to rewrite all the lyrics.
So that was a fun thing to do.
And I'm not good at like editing music.
Live music is easier for me.
One time I played a song during a choir concert for a piano,
like a Spanish song, but it was just so fun to do.
I'm just better at live, I would say.
I think I can relate to what you're saying.
(37:51):
If I try to go and start doing something,
once I have a live recording to edit it,
it's a lot easier, but to try to create art
that's not playing off of somebody else.
For me, that's what that makes me feel like.
I like to play off of something or somebody.
So when you're live, you're playing off
of other people's energies and emotions.
Yeah.
Or I'll be at the youth group on the piano
(38:14):
and be like, hey, say like an emotion or state,
and then I'll play something off that.
Really?
And of course I asked at the wrong time,
there was a big old drama cloud.
So the first thing he did was like,
do like, frustrate, and then do like a,
do a little, do a little, do a little, do a little.
Or I don't know, like, okay, do another one.
(38:34):
He's like, do like slightly annoyed.
I'm like, that's the same thing.
He's like, okay, sorry, sorry.
Try to like play the essence of depression.
And so I tried to do that.
And then another friend came and I was like, okay.
The first thing that said was try doing depression.
What the heck?
Like do like happy or, I don't know.
Is that what you're looking for?
I mean, like I was fine with the emotion.
No, of course.
Because it's fun, but they were all
just steered negatively.
And I was like, yeah.
(38:56):
How's it going on making this little soundtrack
for this podcast?
The song, this is gonna be a song?
Or, no, I don't know.
I just remember one time I was just like,
hey, if you ever wanna try to make something
that I can just use for like an intro and stuff.
And you were just like, actually,
I might be able to do that.
Oh.
Have you had any ideas?
(39:16):
I have not gotten to that.
I have had ideas.
I have this one idea that's kind of sticking with me.
So it's a simple like chord.
And then like I could probably do something with that.
Sweet.
Now, we'll see.
I know.
So.
Shit, by the time we do this one.
I'm just kidding, I probably won't.
I'm weak.
What else?
What else is going on in your world?
(39:36):
Anything notable?
Anything you wanna talk about?
Anything big in your thoughts or emotions?
Not really.
No, none that we haven't talked about.
Or none that I wanna share publicly.
Yeah, yeah.
We don't want that on here.
It sounds to me from everything you've said
that you feel like you're finding some balance
in your life.
Yeah.
I have found balance.
And it's always a process.
(39:57):
And I am just,
I don't say little boy again.
Little boy.
Your perception of yourself is changing so fast.
From day to day, it's probably shifted enough
to even be noticeable.
But I mean, I see that even in the conversation
this morning about the way you see yourself
versus the way you're used to.
It's incredible to watch from a non-kid perspective.
(40:18):
And I appreciate that you're willing to think about it
and talk about it so that I can see a little bit.
What do you feel like is the biggest thing
hindering you right now?
Okay, you know the saying,
you're your own worst critic?
I feel like that's kind of the best way to put it.
I criticize what I do so much.
Not like in video mostly.
(40:40):
In film, I don't care that much.
But like a lot of things I do, I'm like,
you can do so much better.
And I know I can,
but like I don't think I give myself enough credit
for things that I do.
But seeing it means it's changing already.
And I see that confidence building in you so fast
and so intensely.
And I'm gonna have that conversation with Old World Daily
just to see, to start at least.
(41:01):
Because I'll tell you something, dude.
I believe that you have something to offer the world
with your humor, with so much more too.
But I believe your wit is so fast and so sharp
when you're in flow,
when you have something to riff off of.
And I wanna set something like that up
because I wanna see it.
I think it's gonna be so funny.
And it might not be.
And that'll be perfect.
(41:22):
Because sometimes the first time,
you just have to figure out what you don't know.
Absolutely, bomb it.
I hope so.
Because then it can still be funny
because I can laugh at you.
And you can get like more.
I should probably write down like little points
on some things I should touch on.
Like I remember in fifth grade,
I made like a super hilarious joke at my teacher.
And I told you guys, and then you guys were like,
(41:42):
you should be like a comedian, that's so funny.
And then I like wrote that one down.
Looking back, it's like a super stupid joke, but.
Do you remember what it was?
Yeah, yeah.
It's, we were like in like a classroom debate, I think.
And my teacher was like, all right,
everyone with white shoelaces stand up.
And I'm like, that's lasist.
And.
Ha ha ha ha.
(42:03):
I remember that.
Oh, that took me off guard though.
I waited a second.
I was like, oh, Miss Olson?
She's like, yeah.
I'm like, that's lasist.
And then she was like, oh, ha ha ha ha, get out.
And she didn't actually do that.
But she thought it was funny.
And none of my other classmates did, I don't think.
How old were you?
11.
I've just heard you riff around the dinner table
and you get going.
It's so funny.
Everybody is, they're crying.
(42:23):
They can't, it's just, and it just comes out of you
and actually when you try, it doesn't work.
And I've just watched you shift from that,
always trying, always trying, always trying,
always trying, so frustrated to just being yourself.
And I almost feel like, and this is my story,
my imagination's like, could be making things up.
But I feel like when you're in that flow state
at the dinner table, out on the porch,
wherever it is, just around this family,
(42:45):
I'm watching you and you look around you
with this intelligence, this knowing in your eyes
that you achieved something intentionally.
Oh yeah.
It's so cool.
When I make a bunch of people laugh uncontrollably,
that's my favorite feeling.
And when you don't think about it,
then you just watch that energy, that laughter,
and you just start tweaking, shifting here and there,
and it just builds on itself.
It's so cool to watch.
(43:06):
That would be fun to do.
I would wanna do that.
Because you're drawing on that energy.
So if you have more energy to draw on,
think about what more you could do.
I feel like the hardest part
would be starting the whole thing.
Yes.
Like I just don't know what I would do to start.
That's exactly what I deal with with this.
How do I start?
I don't know how to start.
And I'm not gonna do a welcome to emotion art.
(43:26):
Thank you for coming, Charlie.
Son.
Twain.
Charlie.
Oh, we still need to talk about your name.
You got a lot of names.
Riggs.
Tony.
Ah.
How?
That was me.
I know.
I'm really the only one that calls you that.
Chip.
Chuck.
That was one.
I didn't like that.
Rigatoni.
Isn't that like a pasta?
It's all your mom.
(43:47):
Yeah.
But she got it from you.
You guys have such like self looping inside abstract humor.
It is incredible to watch sometimes.
You guys go into these torrents of unintelligible sounds
and syllables and gales of laughter.
Yeah.
We got out of pool one time.
All my brothers were wet and like in the kitchen.
(44:08):
I was like, bro, get out.
You guys are like wet.
And there's like, and then you're dry as a weasel.
And then it would like hit me.
I don't know why weasel, dry as a weasel.
That doesn't like make sense.
Because it doesn't make sense.
It was just so funny.
And now, if you say it to any of the brothers,
they'll know what you mean.
I'm gonna do that.
Just say dry as a weasel.
And then they'll be like lab.
(44:28):
Again, I don't know what lab is.
Something Lucas would say.
Excuse me.
James would say.
I can't keep track of y'all's names.
Bob.
What do you remember as being the most difficult part
of your life looking back?
The most difficult part of my life?
Does anything jump out of you?
Just all been truly terrible.
Yeah, my whole life.
I feel like, I guess my self deprecation.
(44:50):
Is that how you say it?
Sure.
Talking yourself down.
But I mean, I don't wanna be like the,
oh, my life's horrible person.
That's interesting that your answer to that is
when your perspective was that you were somehow less.
Not great.
But now I'm more confident in myself.
I know myself better.
I've watched that journey happen.
What do you feel like you're most afraid of right now?
(45:10):
I'm most afraid of not being accepted socially.
I used to be super afraid of the dark.
Actually, no.
Actually, no.
My biggest fear is spiders.
Okay.
That's my worst fear.
Okay.
You're doing pretty good.
Being afraid of spiders.
If you're more afraid of spiders
than you are of not being accepted,
that's a pretty good sign.
Well, spiders are horrifying.
(45:32):
That's a sign of self confidence.
And spiders are horrifying in some situations, I agree.
One time I had this dream that the whole house
was super broken down and there were holes everywhere
and spiders were everywhere.
My dream, I guess, drew inspiration
from that scene in Harry Potter.
It was just such a freaky dream.
And then I woke up that morning
and then I got ready for school.
And I put my shoe on and I was like,
(45:53):
oh, what's blocking?
I dropped and two spiders fell out.
Oh.
And then I was just terrified of spiders.
Then you woke up.
And then I still am.
Nope, that was real.
Oh boy.
And I just hate spiders.
If I search up spiders on YouTube
and then the whole time I'll be like,
I'll feel like there's a spider on me
or near my foot.
There's like a spider in my room.
I won't sleep there that night.
Now that I'm thinking about it,
(46:13):
I don't have any fear of spiders.
I used to though.
Now I just see them as benign.
They take care of us.
They kill bugs.
But that's a pretty common fear.
And the fear of not being accepted.
And it sounds like you're pretty aware
of that fear inside you.
And you're practicing not living in it.
I love hearing that.
Cause that's joy.
That's the way to get to joy.
What do you most want to offer the world?
(46:35):
I just want to provide entertainment.
Just make people smile or whatever emotion
I'm trying to influence.
I just want to do that.
Do you know why?
I feel like not a lot of people get to experience joy
or entertainment.
And I don't know.
I do my best to provide it.
Why do you want to provide joy specifically?
Because I like people and I like entertaining people.
(46:57):
I don't know why I like to.
I wonder if you see so much benefit to yourself
and you want other people to experience the joy
and the harmony you feel inside.
Is that possible?
Yeah, I guess.
I'm putting words in your mouth so no is fine.
No, you're kind of right.
Help me.
Okay.
The way that I am a source for entertainment
is the way that I find things funny.
(47:19):
The jokes that I'll say will be things that make me laugh.
I'm not going to say jokes that I don't find funny.
Do you feel like one of the things you're trying to do
is to show the people around you
what the world looks like through your eyes?
Not really.
You're just trying to make people laugh.
Simple.
What do you think is going on here?
I don't know.
Sorry.
Yes.
What?
What is going on here?
What is going on?
(47:40):
And by here I mean everything, anything, I don't know.
Existence.
What is existence?
Who are we?
I'm just saying, in your perspective.
I know this is not what a lot of people agree with.
I believe that we are here by coincidence.
We happen to develop intelligence over strength
and we made traditions through stories.
(48:03):
We made the foundation of what life is today
through primal things,
like just basic things that like us cave people used to do.
I'm not a super religious person.
I don't think that God made the world in seven days.
I don't even know if there's a creator.
Maybe we're just a little speck
floating in a big old bunch of specks.
(48:23):
Maybe.
Maybe there's a big celestial being.
Who knows?
No, I appreciate that.
Why do you think we're here?
What's the purpose?
Or do we have one?
I don't know.
I think the purpose is to be curious and act on hunches.
If you want to explore,
explore, live your life to the fullest.
I'm not the first one to say that,
but that's a statement I agree with.
(48:44):
What do you think it means?
Is that the same statement?
If you want to explore, explore,
and live your life to the fullest?
Like if you want to do something, do it.
You're just going to regret it if you don't.
That reminds me of a mantra that I still use,
but it's very formative in my shift in worldviews.
It goes, do not prolong the past.
Leave the past where it is.
(49:04):
Do not hasten the future.
You don't even know what it's going to be.
Do not be afraid of appearances.
Don't be afraid of what people think what you're doing.
That's all there is.
That's the saying.
It feels like that's what you're saying a little bit.
It's not don't worry about the future.
It's like-
Or don't be afraid of it.
Yeah, don't be afraid of it, but think about it.
(49:25):
I don't think you should just like,
just dive headfirst into everything that's-
How do you know what you should just do
and what you should not?
Well, I mean, I feel like you should do some
form of research.
For example, the comedy thing,
I would like study like other comedians and be like,
oh, what do they do?
What do they do that's good?
What do they do that I don't agree with?
Maybe I hear you saying say yes,
(49:45):
but know what you're saying yes to.
Yes.
I like that.
Can I go now?
Can I ask you one more question?
Just cause I want, I just want to try this question.
Of course, of course.
If you were to die right now,
what would you want to leave people that care about you?
What is the thing that you would want them to know?
If I were to die right now,
and I could just leave any message,
(50:07):
I would say, I don't know what is going to happen next,
but I'm ready.
That's beautiful.
I don't know why I emphasize ready.
Thanks Char.
Appreciate it.
Or Bob.
What do you like to be called?
By you Charlie or Tony or anything.
It feels weird when you call me Bob.
Thanks Frigs.
I appreciate you.
Of course.
(50:28):
Signing off.
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