Zaboo & Bladezz take on Omar Najam's Text Based RPG ~ Brahma(s), BJP, Whales - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep6 - American Born Chatty Desis (A·B·C·D)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sandeep Parikh (00:01):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh my gosh.
Thank you.
Thank you, Omar.
Thank you, Sandeep.
Thanks for fillingthis audience.
Thanks for getting outthere on the street and
just barking to get thisaudience in the room, man.
I really appreciateyou taking that time.

Omar Najam (00:16):
I've just been woof woofing it.
You know what I mean?
Yeah,

I don't.
These dogs are barking.
Actually,

Omar Najam (00:22):
in the last episode, the dog was
barking, That's true.
The dog was barking.

No

Omar Najam (00:27):
dog

today?

Omar Najam (00:28):
No, the dog's downstairs.
People are gonna be

confused.
Dog's downstairs.
So there's a potentialfor a dog to show.
So, you know, keep anear out, keep an ear out.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'dlike to introduce my co host
formally and officially.
He is the, 13th juror fromTrump's recent, indictment
and guilty verdict.
Ladies and gentlemen,Omar Najam.

(00:52):
Welcome.
Oh,

Omar Najam (00:53):
thank you.
It's, I can say it now.
That I was on thejury at the time.
It was a little spicy to say.

Oh, I can't wait for your book.

Omar Najam (01:00):
Oh, It's unrelated.
It's an Animorphsfanfic that I wrote.
Uh, folks, I would liketo introduce your host for
this week, but actuallylet's take a second.
I want to talk about Pride realquick because it's, we're in
the month of June right now.
A very happy Pride.

(01:20):
I've got my little ace, cardright here like I'm Gambit.
Ooh!And, of course, this upcoming
weekend we got Ricky Martinsinging at, the Pride picnic,
which is very exciting.
and one of my favorite songsof his is Livin La Vida Loca.
Fun fact, that song is actuallyabout our host, Sandeep Parikh!

Who doesn't, who doesn't like a nice
long walk intro, you know?
Who does, who doesn't?
Who doesn't?
As always, who is determinedas co host and host is
by based upon who winsthe game every week.
And of course I took it down.
I don't know if wehave an overall tally.
We're gonna need someoneto go through and tally

(02:01):
that But I feel like we'repretty neck and neck.
Yeah.
But who cares cuz the pointis I'm host right now.
And that means I get to tellyou guys our listeners that this
show ABCD, American Born ChattyDesi's is a podcast within
a live stream within our twolives as American Born Desi's.
This is for anyone out therewho like us are navigating
our cultural identities andjust want to chat it out.

Omar Najam (02:22):
Yes, and we are so excited because folks
we have such a good showready for today All right.
Do you want to knowwhat's on tap for today?
Sandeep?
Do you wanna knowwe're gonna talk about?
I'm

Begging

Omar Najam (02:32):
you to tell me.
Okay.
So first of all, We'regonna kick it off with
Auntie vs Auntie Watch 2024.
We might have some updates.
Yeah

Everyone (02:40):
There's an update or two.

Omar Najam (02:42):
We might have a couple of updates, then
we're going to chat about"What's Got Us Confused".
Things from the news thatwe're reading about, tidbits,
information that we want tojust hash out and know how
we feel about then we've gota beautiful interview set
up with a beautiful guest.
We of course have oursegment, "Not a Doctor!?!"
Featuring this week.
Mr.
Vince Caso.

(03:02):
Yes, "not a doctor" Vince Caso.
if you are a fan of watching himon the show, fortunately he's
doing double duty because he'llbe joining us for our game.
That's right, this is gonnabe called Omar's Fantastical
Text Based Gauntlet ofa Thousand Nightmares.
Okay, great.

Everyone (03:19):
You all have no idea how much work Delvan's
put into this week's game.
It is so good.

Omar Najam (03:25):
in our run of the show, it says about 10 minutes.
It's going to take longer.
buckle in.
finally, we'll wrap up withour "Desi of the Week".
But first, before we hop in,can I talk about our sponsors?
Would that be okay?
First and foremost,I want to talk about.
Our first sponsor, DesiQuest.
It's a Dungeons Dragons 5ecampaign that stars me, and a

(03:46):
little gentleman by the nameof Sandeep Parikh, as well as
Rekha Shankar, Anjali Bhimani,and a collection of amazing
guests, all set in the originalSouth Asian mythology inspired
world from the Brilliantmind of star GM Jasmine
"thatbronzegirl" Bhullar.
All the episodesare out right now.
Which means you can watchthe whole dang thing
over at DesiQuest.com.

(04:07):
And if you become a citizen ofthe DesiQuest world by signing
up at patreon.com/DesiQuestyou can watch the whole thing
ad free as well as everyepisode of our after show
podcast, streams with ourcharacter artist VoodooVal
I might have hopped on maybeone or two of those as well.
And so much more.
So check that out atpatreon.com/desiquest.

And just to editorialize, Yeah.
Those after a showpodcasts were.
fantastic.
Phenomenal.
Yes.
If you like really want to diveinto what it takes to create an
actual play from like the brainsof Jasmine if you're into the
show or you're into actual playsor D&D in general, this is such
a cool, you can learn a lot.
Alright, speaking of thingsto check out, we want

(04:49):
to shout out our friend.
Johnny Stanton, who recentlylaunched his, podcast called
the Athletics Check Podcast.
and that's withJohnny Stanton IV.
Where Johnny sits downwith nerds and athletes to
discuss their passions andhobbies beyond those domains
that they're known for.
for episode two on AthleticsCheck, Johnny interviews,
Reid Sinnett, who plays fora team called the Brahmas.

(05:11):
Oh, he's a pro football,but he used to played for
like the Bengals and awhole bunch of other in the
Patriots and stuff like that.
He was a backup QB for alot of these NFL teams.
Now he plays for theSan Antonio Brahmas.
this is how it's appropriate toour show, ABCD, They took one
of our main gods and turned it

Vince Caso (05:26):
into a mascot.

And the team is owned and operated by none other
than Dwayne the Rock Johnson.
now, I guess what you'rethinking, another egregious
example of culturalappropriation by a sports
franchise with no regard tosensitivities of cultural
heritage behind it.
only there's one problem,no, they didn't name the
team after Lord Brahma,referred to as the creator.
from Hinduism.
no, Omar.
They named theteam after chicken.

(05:50):
Oh, that's right.
They're named after theirmascot, the Brahma chicken.

Everyone (05:54):
Okay.
So

the Brahma is an American breed of chicken.
It was bred in the UnitedStates from birds imported
from the Chinese port ofShanghai and was the principal
American meat breed fromthe 1850s until about 1930.
So they're named afterthe chicken Brahma.

Omar Najam (06:10):
I need to know what happened in 1930.
Where we changedchickens mid stream.

We sure did.
My god.
So those are oursponsors for this.
Why don't we jumpright in to Auntie vs.
Auntie Watch 2024.

Omar Najam (06:26):
Let's go.

We Normally we don't lead off with this,
so you know this is big.
We got some big news, right?
this is our segment thoughwhere we track The 2024 U.
S.
presidential election to seehow close we are to achieving
our dream, Omar and my dreamof a presidential race between
two aunties, Democraticauntie Kamala Harris and

(06:52):
Republican auntie Nikki Haley.
Reminder that they areboth part Indian, hence
they are in fact aunties.
And that's like an actualpotential reality, right?

Omar Najam (07:01):
Yeah.
Especially maybe this week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I will say, in terms ofNikki Haley on that end,
but, Nikki Haley said thatshe'd be voting for Trump.
she announced that she willvote for Donald Trump in
November during an event at theHudson Institute, which means
that kind of puts us back.
So we're probably atHonestly, probably like 0%.
No, we're

Sandeep Parik (07:21):
at 18%, but sure.

Omar Najam (07:22):
Yeah.
But like emotionally,we're at 0%.
Nikki Haley said she'sgoing to vote for Trump.
That's kind of it.
end of story.
You know what though?
There is an update I do havehere, which is that a jury
found Donald Trump guilty onall 34 charges of the felony
crimes related to a 2016election interference scheme.
do you think that changesour number a little bit?

I think so.
I think it does.
I think it does.
He's a 34 time felon, right?
This is a pretty, pretty wild.
Of course, he, Trump expresseda bunch of anger and claimed
that the trial was riggedbecause that's his thing.
the sentencing is set for July11th, just before the RNC, the
Republican National Convention.

(08:03):
This is honestly, this couldnot get any more reality show.
His conviction exposesTrump to potential actual.
Prison time.

Omar Najam (08:11):
Yes.

and of course he's expected to appeal.
and despite the conviction,Trump plans to continue
campaigning and he's alreadyfundraising off of this.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
So it's, getting wild.

Omar Najam (08:22):
I want to remind all of you where this started, okay?
Yes, there are many legalwarriors out in the world who
are trying to ensure that thelaw of the land is implemented.
But Auntie vs Auntie Watch2024, that was right here.
We were the first ones totrack this particular race.
that's a very interesting thing.
I think that when, at theend of this segment, we're

(08:42):
going to update our standing.
but a pretty huge update forAuntie vs Auntie Watch 24.

What is crazy though, is that Republicans are
continuing to support Trump.
They just dismissed the trialas politically motivated.
But this is crazy, guys.
This is a historic moment.
The first criminal trial ofa former American president.
Yeah.
And I believe the first time aconvicted felon is one of the
two main parties, nominees.

(09:09):
we are in the upside down fully.
On the Harris side, I won'tspend too much time on
this, but, she, to sort of.
see how, it might happen.
It might shake out forHarris becoming a nominee.
she's taking on morepresidential duties.
she's going to representthe U S at the Swiss
peace summit for Ukraine.
And so she's going and not

Omar Najam (09:28):
President Biden, is that correct?
That

is correct.
That is correct.
okay.
her mission is tounderscore the Biden Harris
administration's commitmentto supporting Ukraine's
quest for peace, sovereignty,and territorial integrity.
Yeah.
Say that.
Five times fast.
Say five times fast,five times fast.
I couldn't even do it once.
Yeah, the White House isdefending Biden's absence here,
emphasizing his strong supportfor Ukraine globally, President

(09:52):
Joe Biden he's going to attendthe campaign fundraiser in
Los Angeles instead becauseit's hosted by George
Clooney and Julia Roberts.
So look, he wants someface time with these
really hot celebrities.
can you blame the guy?

Omar Najam (10:03):
hold on, before you get too excited, Mr.
Hollywood hotshotivory tower over here.
I've seen a couplemovies, alright?
If we're talking about thelikelihood of someone running
and someone being trapped inthe vault of a casino, I think
going to a fundraising eventhosted by George Clooney and
Julia Roberts smacks a littlebit of an Ocean's Eleven reboot,

(10:27):
if I'm being completely honest.

Oh, amazing.
anyway, I think it's time.
Let's update our number.
Last time we were at 18%I'm gonna throw this out
there omar What if we justgo jump straight up to 34%?

Omar Najam (10:42):
I was gonna say 30%.
I was gonna lowballyou let's go to 34%.
I love it

34%.
Oceans 34.
I love it.
So we're jumping to 34%.
Now, I don't know.
There's a lot of people ofcourse saying That this trial
is going to help Trump, whichmaybe could be the case.
I'm still holding out hopethat some people out there
believe that the, beingjudged by a jury of your
peers is still a thing thatwe hold to be somewhat sacred.

(11:10):
as an American.
system of, of, yeah.
Blah, blah, blah.
It was all

Omar Najam (11:16):
34 counts, right?
that's, it was all 34.

Yeah.
All 34.
Yeah.
yeah, look, I think, I wantto believe, I want to believe
that there are people outthere that go you know what?
He's a convicted felon.
I can't do it.
So 34 percent we'reupgrading our number.
Let's go.

Omar Najam (11:30):
Let's go folks.
And let's go over to ournext segment, which is
"What's Got Us Confused"All right, Sandeep, let's
blast through a couple ofthese because a lot of news
happened since the lastepisode One big thing is
that the election closed outin India Yeah, this is the
biggest democratic election.

(11:52):
640 million votes were castin the marathon election.
Two, two America, aspan of six weeks.
Two full Americas votedYeah, so the, elections are
still being tallied, butthere's been some early calls.
The win, being claimed,of course, is by Modi
himself, and the BJP interms of that top seat.

(12:16):
that said, the BJP did actuallylose a bunch of seats showing a
weakness in the, confidence inthe party itself, and they're
going to have to rely on, someof their allies in order to
get things passed and done.
So while Modi did win, it wasn'tthis like landslide sweeping
situation where, they, willnot have to work with anyone in

(12:37):
terms of passing legislation.
What are youthinking about that?
I'm

thinking, I guess I, listen, I think
checks and balances, that'sa good thing in general, I
would say, considering, theBJP's, stances, as it relates
to minorities, so probablya good thing for more people
to, be in the conversation.
was interesting that640 million was actually
a low voter turnout.
Yeah.
which, was raising thehopes of the opposition.

(13:03):
But, yeah, exit polls doshow that, it's probably
going to go Modi's way.
Yeah.
look, I know my dad's happybecause, he's hardcore Modi.
yeah.
I guess what's confusingabout this, is that,
Modi's popularity, around,infrastructure projects and
Hindu majority appeals andalliances contributed to
their success in the South.
there's a lot of placesthat they thought he'd

(13:26):
have more, vulnerabilitiesthat, that didn't, that
didn't quite work out.
in that regard.
yeah, this, I don't know whatit means for India's future.
it's, I think what's confusingabout the whole thing, and
I wish I was more honestlyinformed about India's politics,
but, listen, I am just, I justwant things to to work out well,

(13:49):
yeah, and I hope that maybe withopposition having gained some
of these seats that they'll havea bigger seat at the table in
terms of Having policies thatare friendlier to everyone there
You know because there's a lotof infrastructure things that
Modi did do that really alsoseemed to help the country.

(14:11):
I don't know it's confusingI wish I knew all about it.
I don't.
What are you thinking Omar?
You got any hot takes?

Omar Najam (14:16):
pretty similar.
I think that if this was a,what the BJP was predicting to
be the landslide vote, I thinkI'd probably have less to say
where it's the shrug of okay,I see where this is going.
But since it's mixed, I thinkthis might be an ongoing
conversation for the show tofigure out and get a little
pulse of, what's going onin India and how people
are feeling about this.

(14:36):
Maybe they like the promisesof the leader, but not the
individual politicians, whichoften happens in, in political
parties that are centered aroundone individual and not a greater
philosophical sort of, thesis.
it'll be very interesting.
I'm confused, and, and curiousby, by these election results.
Okay, so that's your,that's where you're gonna
land on rating the story?
Confused,

but curious?
Yeah, I would I like it.

Omar Najam (14:58):
Confused, but curious.
I like it.

But

Omar Najam (15:00):
speaking of the election, our producer Anand
sent us some pics from hisfamily after voting and want
to share these with all of you.
so if you didn't knowthe election commission
uses indelible ink orvoter ink to prevent
fraud or duplicate votes.
Once a voter casts their ballotand has their ID verified, the
ink is painted across the topof their left index finger,

(15:21):
leaving a stain that can takeup to two weeks to wash off.
This method has been in placefor more than seven decades.
Everyone took atemporary tattoo.
It's a tattoo.
Everyone gets this.
Everyone gets the voting tattoo.
Everyone gets inked up.
and the thing about this,because we in the U.
S.
have stickers that youcan, voluntarily put onto

(15:43):
your person if you so wish.
but this kind of creates a peerpressure because people can see
if you voted and if you didn't.

Yeah.
we like our, like thehenna tattoos, we like them
to last a little while.
Yeah, it's the vibe there.
Yeah, so it doesencourage people to vote.
It's pretty cool.
I like it.
I dig it.
Maybe we should, checkout my temporary tattoo.
This is from my that for

Omar Najam (16:06):
voting?
What is that, aStratocaster with

a rose?

Omar Najam (16:08):
Yeah.

It's a dragon, with a Stratocaster, and I
did get it for voting in themost rockin section of India.
Vote for the coolestmythical Gibson creature.
Yeah, exactly.
Vote for your cryptid,your favorite cryptid.
All right, let's jumpto story number two.
Yeah.
You guys, as always, welove to have, we love to

(16:31):
have us an animal story.
Scientists are learningto speak whale.
Hell yes.
Hell yes.

Omar Najam (16:37):
That's right.
A little bit behindfinding Nemo, but okay.

Yeah.
scientists have hada conversation with a
whale in a world's first.
A humpback whale approacheda research vessel after
hearing a throp noise froman underwater speaker.
The whale circled the boat,surfaced, and then dived
again, echoing the call back.
yeah, in 2021, a team of sixscientists played a recording of

(17:01):
the humpback greeting call offthe coast of southeast Alaska.
They were stunned when ahumpback whale named Twain,
as in Mark Twain, respondedin a conversational manner.
Okay, Josie Hubbard, an animalbehaviorist studying for
her PhD at the University ofCalifornia, Davis, describes
experiencing another world whenencountering humpback whales.

(17:21):
She heard them come tothe surface, saw their big
breath, and observed themas a group, which she found
absolutely incredible.
yeah, in rare instances, whalesmay approach, in this case,
a 38 year old humpback whalemoved to the boat, circled it
for 20 minutes, and yeah, itstarted their haunting songs,
which, flow across the ocean,as we know, and they, this is
what whales do, they can talk,and this actually happened with

(17:43):
these scientists, pretty fuckingcrazy, they had a conversation.
what do you thinkthey talked about?

Omar Najam (17:50):
just like stuff, probably the election.
Yeah.

It was those like 3 a.
m.
college chats, where you'rejust like if you think
about what does it all

Omar Najam (17:59):
mean How big it is?
What if we're allin a cardboard box?
what's beyond the cardboard box?
Like I had mushroomsand I became a mushroom.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I was readingthe Economist

That's it.
Yeah.
Yeah someone dumped a Bunch ofeconomists in the trash and it
made it to the ocean and thehumpback whale wet read it I
think that's what I Love it.
Vince is in chat saying let'ssink another fucking yacht.
Yeah, maybeLike let's eat this boat

(18:36):
this is so out of left field,but, I'm reading this book, homo
Deus, and I literally read achapter about, like how we as
humans don't quite, we don'tknow what it feels like to be in
the reality of another animal.
And so we have our ownperception of the world and
we think we're so dominant andall this stuff, we've obviously
dissected these animals and havediscovered things in a whale.

(18:57):
There's a whole section ofthe limbic system of the
brain that, that we don'teven know what it does.
So we have no idea how itwould feel to be a whale.
But it is a huge section witha whole bundle of neurons that
does something, but we justhave zero idea what, yeah.
It could be a betterreality to be a whale.

(19:18):
I don't

Omar Najam (19:19):
know.
That's what I want tobe in my next life.

Yeah, so I guess researchers are trying
to find out still what whalesare trying to actually say
So I just realized there's awhole other section down here
that I'm supposed to read, soI'm looking it over right now.
But yeah, they don'tknow what they said.
All they know is that thehumpback whale said something,
and they responded, andthey did like callbacks,

(19:43):
and that's pretty crazy.
Yeah.

Omar Najam (19:46):
I

think this is the conversation
lasted 20 minutes, dude!20 minutes!

Omar Najam (19:52):
Yeah.

This

Omar Najam (19:52):
is so sick.
I absolutely love this.

Researchers say that their encounter
could be the first steptowards communication with
non-human intelligence.

Delvan Neville (20:01):
They're the SETI folks with this, right?
Because it's the same approachof like they have a language.
It's completely unlike ours.

Yes.
The SETI folks, for thoseof you who don't know,
is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
yes, so they are,a part of that.
SETI research team hopingto understand communicative
complexity and intelligenceof humpback whales.
I guess it might've been 20minutes because the whales
just speak really slowly andit was just like one sentence.

Omar Najam (20:26):
What's up?

Everyone (20:29):
That's it.
What's up?

Omar Najam (20:30):
I would say for this, I'm informed and curious.
I learned some stuff as manyof you know, I, I had a double
major with marine biologyfor a hot second in college.
This is great.
I'm making jokes, butthis is genuinely.
A dream come true.
It's so cool to be alivewhile this is happening.

Of all the scientific achievements that
are happening right now thatare freaking me the fuck out.
This one actually givesme a little bit of

Omar Najam (20:54):
hope.
Yeah, this is great.

Yeah.

Omar Najam (20:56):
Let's do more of this.

can we just celebrate this for a second?
Because I've just been, it'sall been all doom and gloom.
So This is weirdly nice.
But guess what?
Now the whales aregoing to take our jobs.

Omar Najam (21:10):
Yes, I feel informed.
Great.
Informed.
Great.
very good.
very good.
I got one last storyfor you here, Sandeep.
Okay.
you want to bet that I can, Ican impress you with this story?

I bet you one humpback whale.

Omar Najam (21:24):
Okay, I'll settle for five dollars, because soon
You can make a friendly $5wager on arcade games at, you
guessed it, Dave and Buster's.

Okay.
Oh, great.
Yeah.
More.
Yeah.
Just what the world needs.
More gambling.

Omar Najam (21:42):
Yeah.
uh, Dave investors will startusing, the gamification software
company Lucra, to help themplace bets, on games that you'll
be playing at Dave and Buster's.
Is that sounds like somethingyou would want to take part in?
Absolutely not.

I don't know, man, this whole
like, legalization ofbetting thing is okay.
I don't think it's good.
It doesn't call me an oldfashioned guy, but I you
know I remember a time whenyou went to vegas to go
you went to a place to go.
Explore your sins now your sinsare in your pocket And they

(22:22):
go around with you everywhereand you could just sin sin
sin sin I just feel is thishelping us is this good?
I don't know.

Omar Najam (22:29):
let's devil's advocate for a
quick second about this.
By all means.
You're having a boring time atDave & Buster's but you want
to do a little pick me up.
And you go, let'sput five on it.
But you can't agree exactlyon how to balance it out or
who can you know, navigatethat gambling you do.
Now you have a dave andbusters app that you'd
be able to log in and beteach other the money on it.

But couldn't you just bet with your friends
there anyway on your own?
So is this like connectingpeople across other
dave and busters?
Is that what's happening?
Like?

Omar Najam (22:58):
that's a really good question.
let me go ahead and readyou, a quotation from Lucra
CEO Dylan Robbins, thatwas, expressed on CNN.
And maybe this willclear things up.
Friendly competition reallyis a big fuel for our economy.
Whether you're playing golf onSunday with your buddies, which
I do a lot, or you're going toplay pickleball, or video games,
or even cornhole at a tailgate.

(23:19):
Don't you bring my love of

pickleball

Omar Najam (23:20):
into this.
There's so many ways that youcan compete with friends and
family, and I think gamifyingthat and digitizing all this
offline stuff that's happeningis a massive opportunity.

We gotta gamify games, it's the games
have been just un gamifiedfor too long It's time to
finally fucking gamify them.
I think we need

Omar Najam (23:37):
to gamify games.
can I read you anotherquotation Sandeep?
So this is from this isfrom the company subreddit.
I don't get it Hey, manBet you $5 I can beat
you at shooting hoops.
Okay, but put it in theapps of Dave and Buster's
so it can take a cut.

I Just really feel like David Buster's
deserves a little bit of this.
Yeah, it's like insteadof tipping you just
give a table rake.
Yeah, that's what we're doing.
Exactly.

Omar Najam (24:05):
How you feeling about this?
Pro or con?
You've been a little unclear.
Is

there a sad for the world rating?
I don't know.
It's fine.
I think it's bad for the world.
That's what I think.
That's where I'm at.
So baffled, Okay.
Baffled?
All right.
That's fair.
Yeah.
That's fair.
I wish I had more to say.
What you where you'reat with the story

Omar Najam (24:28):
where I'm at?
Yeah me a Majorityshareholder in lucra?
Sandeep.
I'm bringing this app to ABCD.
I'm bringing thisapp to WikipeD&D.
I'm bringing back the among usstreams that y'all were chatting
about before we went live.
And I'm Having usplace bets on among us.
It is going to bedigital betting Empire.

(24:48):
From this I will build my templeand I'm so excited for you to
live in my future, My friend.
And you will see the lightsoon of placing little $5 bets.
Just by hitting a little button.
And when we do that bubblegame where it's the two
alligators that have to dolike the dill bubbles to the
colors, it's going to makethat game so exciting for you.
I gotta tell you

that when you said bet on the among us, that
actually gave me a little tickleof that actually would be fun.

Everyone (25:13):
My JSA training is being too powerful.

You weirdly did a little bit sell me on that.
Oh no.
Yeah.
No, that you were too good.
Alright, speaking of that,speaking of Among Us streams,
it is time to get to ourspecial interview segment,
"Not a Doctor!?!", where wesearch out far and wide to
find somebody out there whowe love, who has a cool job
or career that, yeah, that'sright, is "Not a Doctor!?!".
So ladies and gentlemen,it's time to bring out

(25:41):
the love of our collectivelives, Vince Caso.

Vince Caso (25:46):
Hi, everyone! Whoa! Vince, there he is.
I love the fanfare.
There

Omar Najam (25:51):
he is.
There he is.

Vince.
It's wonderful tohave you here, man.

Omar Najam (25:56):
Vince, how are you doing man?
Thank

Vince Caso (25:57):
you for

Omar Najam (25:57):
joining

Vince Caso (25:57):
us.
Man, I'm doing good.

Omar Najam (26:00):
Alright, so for those of

you unaware of the great Vince Caso,
I have a good history withthis man, we both starred
in "The Guild" together.
"The Guild", of course, isFelicia Day's web series that
went crazy viral and, had,Vince and I and the rest of
the cast touring the world,has, I think we're getting
close to a billion views on theshow, I believe, is the thing.

(26:24):
Oh God, probably.
I might be makingthat up and lying.

Vince Caso (26:26):
We're in the Smithsonian.,

We're in the Smithsonian.
That's crazy.
Wait, really?
It's so weird.
Take a second.
It's so weird.
Yeah.
We are in the Smithsonian.
There's a guild exhibitin the Smithsonian.
It is in the AmericanHistory Museum.
It is, right Dude,this is, crazy.
It's, in the Hollywood section,or, movies and cinema section.
Yeah.
Right next to the ruby slippers.
Is the, outfit that Felicia,wore, during the date my avatar

(26:53):
video, her avatar's outfit.

Vince Caso (26:54):
It's more than a little bit of
an existential mind.
Fuck to be in a museumwhile you still live.
See, it's a bizarre feeling.
Oh, I see.
Thing.
I see Vince, you

don't, you don't have to spend all that
time live in the museum.
You realize that,

Omar Najam (27:08):
right?
It's, you don't have to.
It's all I have goingfor me case, man.
It took us so long to getVince on the show because
he's not allowed to come tolife until this nighttime when

Everyone (27:15):
all the patrons leave

Oh man.
I love it.
Have you, did youactually go Vince?
Oh yeah, we all wentto the open, right?
Of it?

Vince Caso (27:26):
No, I haven't seen it.

You haven't seen it?
No.
Where the fuck were you whenwe all went to the open?

Everyone (27:33):
I didn't even hear about that.
I don't know.
You weren't invited.
Oh shit.
What an awkward interviewthis has become.
I should update my email onthat, whatever list that was.

I don't remember anymore.
I remember getting a text

Vince Caso (27:47):
after.
That it happened.

Omar Najam (27:51):
Oh, I remember

what it was.
We just happened to havea convention in DC that me
and Jeff were invited to.
What convention was this?
Vince, it was AwesomeCon?
AwesomeCon?

Vince Caso (28:01):
I believe.
AwesomeCon's great.
I've been to that one as well.
We did the whole thing asa cast as well one time.

That's what I'm saying!
I thought you were there!Listen guys, I had a
kid, there's a pandemic,I don't remember shit.
But I thought you were there.
Okay, "The Guild" has been to

Vince Caso (28:14):
AwesomeCon more than once.
Once it was justa couple of you.
Once it was the whole cast.

It was, I will say this.
The first time I everhad, Weed gummies was
'cause of Jeff Lewis.
at Awesome Con.
Fuck.

Vince Caso (28:27):
Okay.
I was there for that one.
, this is what I'm saying.
I remember themkicking in at dinner
. So you're telling me,

Omar Najam (28:36):
You were there and they're like, we're
gonna go to our unveilingat the Smithsonian.
And Vince, you'relike, "nah, I'm good.
The cherry blossoms."Here's the problem.
I have

Vince Caso (28:42):
no memory of that, so I have to assume I was
invited and either, didn'thear or ignored the invitation.
That's fair.

That's awful.
I don't think it waslike a big unveiling.
I think it was justlike, you could go to
the museum and see it.
I'm sure Felicia wasinvited to some cool thing.
That we were not.
It was just, yeah,I went to go see it.
Take a picture of yourselfat the fucking Smithsonian.

Omar Najam (29:05):
okay, we're doing a lot of bits, but it is wild.
How does it feel toknow that Brown kids
visiting, Washington D.
C., going to the Smithsonian,will go see a picture of
"The Guild" and point to itand go, Parents, I want to
grow up to be like him, whenthey're pointing at Vince Caso.
How do you thinkthat makes you feel?

that's pretty fucked up.
I honestly, I want to be that.
Yeah, I want to be that preteenVince Caso is what I want.

Vince Caso (29:38):
Dude, nobody wants to be that guy.
I've known him since

you were, how old were you when we met?
14?
You were 14?
Oh, 14

Vince Caso (29:46):
or 15, yeah, Wow.

yeah.
it was wild.
What a wild experience that was.
I'm so glad I

Vince Caso (29:51):
got that part because in the
beginning I was not good.
I'm so glad I got that.

I don't think that's true.
I think you were always quitegood, at playing a little shit.
You were just like thislittle f freakish, one
of those like trolls.
You're playing anabsolute online troll.
I'm just glad that like thevery, you nailed that role.

Vince Caso (30:09):
Smarminess worked so well for the character
in the first couple seasons.
Yeah,

who, I don't think any of us
knew what the hell wewere doing, you were fine.
We were getting paidin bagels at first.

Omar Najam (30:20):
Nice!

But Vince, you also are a magician.
It's

Vince Caso (30:24):
true.

Vince can do some sick magic tricks.
I remember you impressingNeil Patrick Harris.
No!

Omar Najam (30:33):
Oscar hosting Neil Patrick Harris?

Vince Caso (30:35):
At one of our first SDCCs, we attended
a screening of Dr.
Horrible's sing along blogwith Joss Whedon, NPH, Nathan
Fillion was there as well, andwe all went to a bar afterwards.
And we're doing, Neil and Iwere like tag teaming doing
magic for an exceptionallydrunk Joss Whedon.

Sandeep Par (30:52):
Yeah, that's right.
You guys were likegoing back and forth.
I, and now you're like,we're dueling wizards.
Basically it was likeVince Caso and Neil Patrick

Omar Najam (30:59):
Harris.
A lot of you watchingare like, oh, is it like
closeup magic where it'soh, is this your card?
no.
Folks, this was, theywere both like trapped
on the top of a tower.
Vince had to whisper to a mothand had to wait for his escape.
. .

Oh yeah.
It was pretty wild man.
and Neil Patrick Harris isVoldemort man, he just really.
No, I'm kidding.
It was wonderful.
It was wonderful.
Why don't we get into alittle bit of your kind
of creative journey?
that's part of what we tryto do in this segment is what
would you call yourself now?
I feel like you've been amagician, you're a TTRPG er,

(31:33):
I've, you've been a streamer,you've been, obviously, an
actor, a writer, take usthrough what, like, why did
you jump into this career?
like what's motivated you?

Vince Caso (31:43):
in brief, I'd say in my soul, I am
a creative in whatever,capacity that comes out in.
And I think that's true for alot of people as well as most of
us are not just a single thing.
but for me, it's fromchildhood, I was always
an absolute fucking ham.
And willing to do whatever I hadto do to, soak up the attention

(32:04):
of the moment, whenever I could.
From school plays to otherlittle bits to playing pretend
with my friends and designingthe fictional worlds myself
for all of our little games.
that's been my lifethis whole time.
When I found out you cando that, to some degree,
professionally, I dove headfirstinto acting, auditioning,
and, getting, My first couplefilms, first couple shows,

(32:25):
"The Guild" and all that.
and since then, Lord knows,yeah, my life's had some funky
ups and downs, wearing a lot ofhats, doing a lot of random ass
shit, a lot of weird careers.
Yeah.
Oh, those of you listening,

just FYI, he's wearing a hat right now.
He's got it on right now.

Vince Caso (32:42):
to sum up, you know obviously a lot of us
who are in like the improveror Entertainment space have
also dipped a toe or doveheadfirst into the TTRPG space
because it's yeah It's a wayfor us to perform and it's a
very has a very low barrier toentry, low cost of entry, and
allows us to ham it up, havefun, put out content, and work
with other people who we love.

(33:03):
So naturally I did tendtoward that, especially
when the pandemic started.
We, we started an onlineseries, a streaming series
called Failed Safe, didthat for several years, but
these days I do love TTRPGs.
I'm still doing them.
I do write, contentfor that field.
actually a game that Iwrote for just came out
called ""Adventure Party"".
But you basically play asingle round of combat or a

(33:24):
single round of actions inthis hypothetical scenario.
And it's, that's all it isthat one round and then the
resolution, but then it'sgamified in the sense of
you also are placing bets onBut you're essentially betting
on the outcomes of otherpeople's roles based on how
they narrate their action.

(33:44):
So it has a fun, slightly,slightly, playing off
of each other, playingagainst each other.
But also is great for playersnew to D& D because it
teaches you how to narrateor describe your action in
a way that is very accurateto the role that you got.
and, it's very fun,the games out now.
But yeah, these days it'sfocusing more on acting,
writing and production,traditional media.
That's where I have always foundmyself the happiest, voiceover,

(34:07):
live action and writing.
and so these daysI'm working on.
multiple short films, I'vegot seven TV pilots I'm trying
to, pitch and get out there.
and auditioning, onvoiceover, and live action,
and I'm working on a novel.

I feel so lazy

Omar Najam (34:19):
now.
Yeah, I started making a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich today.

so you're spinning lots of plates.
Let me ask about the TTRPG thingbecause Vince, I think, you
I really saw, for a while youwere just this punk ass kid.
Oh, wow.
this 14 year old, yourparents were nice, your
sister was cooler than you.
and Still is.
His sister Tara was also on"The Guild", which was great.
And, I just really from myperspective, seeing you run

(34:45):
these games and DMing isyou're like, that's our boy,
it's just, it's incredible.
I really think you'rean unbelievable DM.
I just was absolutely floored.
You were this kid who like.
Kept ruining takes becauseyou kept laughing At all
the improv that jeff andI were doing or whatever.
And we're like, "I love VinceBut if he could like not ruin
this take it'd be really great."to this guy who like is a

(35:05):
weaver of worlds and I saidthis before and I truly mean it.
I was like, "Dude, you got likeBrennan Lee Mulligan vibes" like
true like a really incrediblegift at, building a universe.
You do it in sucha fun, funny way.
Cause now I've playeda few games with you.

(35:26):
So good at taking everyone'slittle crazy, dumb ideas
and then actually pushing itthrough the narrative and having
it like, almost like those,Play-Doh factories come out the
other side as oh, wow, we madea whole feast out of this thing.
it's really?
it's an art form.
and I've just seenyou absolutely own it.
I love, playing games with you.

(35:47):
Tell me from your perspective,like what's the trick?
what are, gimmesome secret sauce.
To DMing and doing this stuff,being a weaver of worlds.

Vince Caso (35:59):
You're so kind.
Thank you so much.
People talk about impostersyndrome, which I, I'm
thankfully not as, not asaffected by an idea that,
success or adulation isundeserved, but that there is
always so much more credit duethan just given to one person.
And for me, I always feel likeI'm clinging by my fingertips

(36:21):
off the shoulders of giants.
when it comes to improv, forexample, like I, you know me,
I didn't know when I was doing"The Guild" and so much of my
character and my personality asan improv came from absorbing
what you and Jeff Lewis weredoing and how you guys did that.
and as a DM, as a role playerstarted out once again, pretty
shit and then really took thetime to absorb what great people

(36:44):
were doing and how they played.
And having enough of a lackof ego to realize you always
can get better and you shouldnever endeavor to be the
smartest person in the room.
and Omar as well has beena massive inspiration
for me as a role player.
I think he's one of the bestactual play role players
around right now in thebusiness, which is why I
was so desperate to havehim on any show that I make.

(37:05):
and at all the live performancesthat we were doing as well.

Everyone (37:09):
great speech, Vince.

Omar Najam (37:10):
what would you say is your least favorite class?

Vince Caso (37:15):
my least favorite D and D class because it
should be one of my favorites.
and that is the beast masterRanger, where the idea of
having animal companions beingable to build like this cadre
of of friends around you thatyou can manipulate and not
manipulate, but like usingcombat and for very actions
That should be such a wonderfulexperience for a player, but

(37:35):
as written in raw, they'reso underpowered and so just
difficult and clunky to use.
Hopefully, the next editionis going to be handling that,
but, ah, ugh, it's not fun.
Friend of the show,

Omar Najam (37:45):
Dale Kingsmill has a whole thing about that.
I would highly recommend,Messaging your giant,
by the way, your friend,

Vince Caso (37:51):
Dale Kingsville also, yeah, my God, her
videos were absolutelypivotal to me in the
beginning of my DMing career.
like even if I didn't uselike every single little
technique and developmentthat she pioneered in those,
in that content, it's justher perspective on DMing as
an art form and how technicaland precise that she gets with
it made me Realize the waythat I should be approaching

(38:13):
that craft and I'm eternallygrateful to her for that.

Omar Najam (38:18):
It is if you if folks if you don't know, Head
over to monarchs factory,over on youtube Dale has
just some of the best.
It's not even like,here's how you play kind
of stuff, which it is.
But it's also here's how you cantake the core concept of it and
just go and go off to the raceswith it, different ways to play
different ways to like, createhorror or comedy or terrain.

(38:41):
Um,

just one viewer submitted question
for you there, Vince,to close this thing out.
Oh, sure.
How does it feel to havethe middle name Elizabeth?
I

Vince Caso (38:52):
don't even remember when this fucking started.
I think it was AnthonyCarboni who kicked that off.
Just calling me VincentElizabeth Queso.
it's a great, it'sa great middle name.
I wouldn't tradeit for the world.
And I appreciate AnthonyCarboni for naming me.

Can you settle this once and for all?
Is it Queso or Q?

Vince Caso (39:10):
I hate that you don't know.
I

know this is

Vince Caso (39:15):
for the viewers at home.

Everyone (39:19):
I know what it is.
I know it's the cheese.

Vince Caso (39:23):
everyone always mispronounces my name, Queso,
and it's just, it's not cheese.
It's traditionally here inAmerica, we say Caso, but
if you're saying it morecorrectly, it'd be the Roman
vowel, so Caso, but all theactual family says Caso.

I'd just like you to go back to the
beginning of this interview.
play the tape on that, if anyof this actually recorded.

Vince Caso (39:48):
None of it got through, man.

You will find that I said, Caso.
So I did say it with the fuckin

Vince Caso (39:55):
Roman!

And by the way, as a guy who's
constantly called Sandeep,even though it's Sandeep,
even by my friends, Oh, man.
I get it.
I feel your pain.
Listen, this, the Ais a tricky letter.
It's a tricky ass letter.
And at least for,in, in Hindi, right?
Like we have 56 lettersas opposed to the
American 26, right?

(40:17):
So there's a lot of mappingthat has to occur when we
anglicize people's names.
and it's not closeto one, right?
so for those of you out there,if you meet a South Asian.
person, likely, and theyhave an A in their name,
likely, even though that'snot really true for Omar
now, I just realized, right?
It's not Omar.
Is it Omar?
is it a correct pronunciation?

(40:38):
Oh my god, here

Omar Najam (40:39):
we go again.
This is Hindi class 101.
Listen, I started writing myname in Hindi 101, which was
an 8am class, by the way.
Four days a week,thank you very much.
I took that at UCSB.
I party hard, but I work harder.
and I was writing it, and myteacher was like, I think you're
pronouncing your name wrong.
And I went, oh.

And I forgot what it was.

Listen, I'll tell you this.
The way that you shouldpronounce your name is the way
that you do pronounce your name.
congratulations.
Honest to God, though,

Vince Caso (41:09):
and this is not even a bit.
I really feel like Kidsshould be taught at least
a basic understanding ofIPA, of the International
Phonetic Alphabet in school.

Everyone (41:19):
Oh, I thought you meant the beer.

Vince Caso (41:21):
Just

learn to speak Hindi, dude.
Hindi is a syllabic language.
You cannot mispronounce aword because every actual
character is one single sound.

Vince Caso (41:32):
I like Japanese for the same reason.
It's very easy topronounce once you just
know what the sounds are.
They really don't vary much.

Omar Najam (41:42):
Okay, I would like to speak on
behalf of everyone else.
Y'all, those languagesare hard as hell to learn.
I understand that youthree geniuses can just
flip open a book a laDoctor Who and absorb this.
But

I can't obviously because I don't
speak either of thoselanguages that well.
But I did do well inHindi in my in college.
I got an A in both semesters.
Amazing.
That's what really matters.

Omar Najam (42:07):
Speaking of languages, dialects, different
cultural, regional, innotations,I would like to say, just
really quickly, I want toembarrass him to high hell.
Vince is one of thegreatest living GMs.
It needs to be said, Igenuinely, this is not a
bit, this is not a bit.
I feel like you don't getyour flowers nearly enough.

(42:29):
it is crazy to me as someonewho's had the absolute pleasure
of being at your table, it isbonkers to me, that people are
not constantly celebrating youand also using you as like a
studyable bar, at the levelthat I see some other folks,
there's no reason to get in ourheads about it, but I do just
want to say Vince is, if youhave the ability to watch any of

(42:49):
the shows, or any of the gamesthat Vince has run, or if Vince
is appearing at a conventionnear you and is doing a live
game, get it, get that ticket.

I was just going to say that you can
play with Vince through,"Play With the Pros".
You "Play With the Pros",

Omar Najam (43:02):
play with this pro, because Vince is the
kind of GM who has a fullybuilt out imagined universe.
Is able to improvise on thefly so that you can feel like
this universe is also cateredto you and you are an organic,
member of this environment.
Also, with all that serioushard work, just plays for
the goofs, and if there'sjust a real badonk behind

(43:23):
that is popping up as a joke,Vince can roll with that,
Vince can make that happen.
I cannot recommendhighly enough,
Vince truly is one of thegreatest GMs, which is why
we are going to force himto now play in our game,
which will be one of theworst run games you have ever
experienced in your entire life.
This is called Omar'sFantastical Tech Space, Gauntlet

(43:43):
of a Thousand Nightmares.

Vince Caso (43:45):
What a transition.

Everyone (43:46):
Let's go.

Vince Caso (43:47):
Oh, the graphic!

Omar Najam (43:49):
Oh, Delvan went all out.
Delvan all out.
Oh my god, there'sa whole thingy.
If you're

listening on the audio podcast, you're gonna
have to jump into the YouTubeand check these graphics out.
yeah.

Omar Najam (43:59):
I will be reading this out to you.
Don't worry.
This will be fully narrated.
Don't worry.
This will be fully narrated.
but for those listening, flashyintro, beautiful graphics,
beautiful 1987 graphics.
Delvan has gone all out on this.
In terms of people gettingtheir flowers, I 100
percent cannot sing thepraises of Delvan enough.
Did this today in a matter ofa couple hours before the show.

(44:19):
Sandeep, Vince, I'm gonnarun you through a game
that Delvan and I found.
This isn't ours.
We did a lot of deepdigging at, digital thrift
stores to find this game.
ignore the fact that thishappens to be called Omar's
Fantastical Text Based Gauntletof a Thousand Nightmares.
It has nothing to do with me.
Nothing to do with me.
You will be going through atext based adventure, I will be

(44:41):
reading out to you what's goingon, we can discuss a little bit.
I am stuck to a script, thisis a text based adventure.
There's only so much Ican do to help you, okay?
if you have any questions, I'lltry my best to answer them, but
keep in mind this isn't my game.
I didn't make thisup, I just found it.
Are you both ready to enterinto the world of Omar's
Fantastical Text Based Gauntletof a Thousand Nightmares?

Vince Caso (45:01):
I'm so fucking ready.

Oh, okay.
Alright.
I thought I didn't know ifthat was a trick question.
I didn't know if theywere already in the game.
I was.
Okay.
Whoa.

Omar Najam (45:08):
I'm ready.
Commit you.
Wake up in a tavern.
Actually, I can readthis right off of here.
you wake up in a tavern, theestablishment is dimly lit with
an assortment of patrons fromdifferent regions, speaking
languages you cannot comprehend.
The barkeep, Elkin asksyou in a gruff voice.
Greetings traveler.
My name is Elkin.

(45:29):
Perhaps you'll be wantinga beverage before you start
your adventure of seekingout the cursed diamond.
What be your order?
I'll have an IPA.
you order an IPA?
Yeah, extra coffee.
Okay, that's not in ourmenu, unfortunately.

Vince Caso (45:50):
Hold on, first of all, I love that it
screamed the response at you.
I'm sorry, I don'tknow how to order

Omar Najam (45:56):
IPA!

Vince Caso (45:58):
Can I get the cheese plate?

Omar Najam (46:01):
Cheese plate?
Okay, let's see if we canget you a cheese plate.
Scream.

Vince Caso (46:06):
So hold on, let me just clarify.
For this adventure, thereis a correct answer.

Okay, so you're typing in it, just for people
at home, you're typing it in,what we're saying, and then
it's giving us a response, andthose last two responses said,
I'm sorry, we don't have that.

Vince Caso (46:22):
Can I order a cursed diamond?
that's what I was gonna say!great.
Let's just wrap this sucker up.
Order a cursed

Everyone (46:28):
diamond.

Omar Najam (46:29):
Okay! Elkin responds, I will give
you the diamond in exchangefor the crystal sword.
Great.
I want to ask,

where is the crystal sword?
I had high hopes you weregoing to find that, Vince.

Vince Caso (46:47):
I think I'm going with Sandeep.
Would you say, whereis the crystal sword?
ask him?

Yeah.

Vince Caso (46:52):
Yeah, absolutely.
Where is that?

Omar Najam (46:56):
Okay.

Everyone (46:59):
We're typing in.
Where is the crystal sword?

Omar Najam (47:01):
You ask Elkin.
Where's the crystalsword . I'm sorry.
I don't know how towear a crystal sword.
How, okay.
Give crystal sword a crystal

Vince Caso (47:11):
sword.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think we have it.
This is the endof our adventure.
Yeah, we got this Now.

We, now is the test of whether or not
I put the logic to check tosee if you've got it or not.
I'm sorry.
I

dunno how to give crystal sword.
how about check inventory?

Omar Najam (47:26):
Oh,

Vince Caso (47:26):
I like

Omar Najam (47:26):
that.
Okay.
I will say, you both,check your inventory.
you currently do not haveany items in your inventory.
were you to leave the tavern,you might be able to find
items for your inventory.

Okay.
How about go north?
I just feel like it'sone of those, right?
I hope that's

Delvan Nevil (47:41):
where the door is.
Ready to go north?
Who cares?
Nope.
You cannot go that way.

Everyone (47:45):
Leave tavern?
Bye! You would try toleave the tavern.

Omar Najam (47:50):
You exit the establishment to find
yourself at the center ofthe meeting of four roads.
One road leads north, where youhear the sound of rushing river.
One road leads south.
first of all, Sandeep,first of all, I'm reading.
Second of all, when youtried to go north, you
ran into a wall, okay?
you were inside the tavern.
Now you're outside.
You exit the establishment tofind yourself at the center
of the meeting of four roads.

(48:10):
One road leads northwhere you hear the sound
of a rushing river.
One road leads southwhere you make out the
snowy peaks of mountains.
To your east is a simple plain.
To your west is a bog.
Which way do you travel?
What a diverse biome.
Can we

just, can we not go to the bog?
Like, when would youever choose the bog?
Don't choose the bog.
Sandeep

Vince Caso (48:28):
I want to go with your gut.
I think north is the ticket.

Okay, great.

Vince Caso (48:34):
Let's go to the rushing water.

Omar Najam (48:36):
Okay.
You travel north and arestopped by a raging river.
How do you attempt to cross?
I will, since we haven'tloaded it, I will tell you
what is in your inventory now.

Everyone (48:45):
Yeah.

Omar Najam (48:46):
One of you has We

Everyone (48:47):
all of a sudden got stuff.

Omar Najam (48:48):
Yeah, it loaded.
One of you has a largestone, the other has a boat.

Vince Caso (49:02):
Okay, I presume one of these will
come in more handy here.

Everyone (49:08):
I'm so tempted to skip the stone.
I'll cross the lake.

Vince Caso (49:14):
Does I want to try swimming.
Will it let me do that?
You can try swimming.
It's a raging river.
It's not a kind

Everyone (49:23):
Continue?
Nope.

Vince Caso (49:24):
Okay.
Use boat.
Let's just use boat.
We can't die.
Let's use the boat,yeah, absolutely.

Omar Najam (49:32):
You unleash a boat into the water.
The rapids send the boat intothe air, crashing into a river
nymph that curses you andstrikes you with a water bolt.
You turn to sparkle dust.
Oh my god! Fuck.
You wake up in a tavern.
The establishment is dimly litwith a sermon of patrons from
different regions speakinglanguages you cannot comprehend.
The barkeep, Elkin, asksyou in a gruff voice,

(49:53):
Greetings, traveler.
My name is Elkin.
Perhaps you'll be wantinga beverage before you start
your adventure seekingout the cursed diamond.
This has to be

Everyone (49:59):
bonus content, okay?
This can't be apart of the episode.
I can already hearAnand, our producer,
yelling at us that this

Sandeep Par (50:05):
episode's too long.
We got This is We cut the news.

Vince Caso (50:09):
This part has to go in.
I assure

Omar Najam (50:10):
you

Vince Caso (50:11):
this is gold.
Okay, I have an idea.
I have an idea.
Let's leave thetavern first of all.
And second, Sandeep You exit the

Omar Najam (50:17):
establishment to find yourself at the center
of And you can skip dialogue

Vince Caso (50:20):
if you want.
I think, Sandeep butI think I was wrong.
I think the oppositeof your gut is correct.

Everyone (50:25):
Yeah.
Go bog.
Whatever you want to do,we should do the opposite.
Go west.
Go west.
Let's go to the bog.
Okay.
To the bog.

Omar Najam (50:32):
You travel west and arrive at the
mouth of, a skull cave.
The entrance is blockedby a tree and a stone in a
language you cannot comprehend.
What do you do?

open Duolingo.

Omar Najam (50:43):
Move

tree?

Vince Caso (50:45):
Can we shift the, move the tree?

Use tree?
Yeah, use that tree.
Okay,

Omar Najam (50:50):
you use tree?
I'm sorry, I don'tknow how to use tree.
Yeah,

stop fucking yelling at me in all caps.
Okay, how about, Entrance block,

Vince Caso (50:58):
smash stone?
we have a big rock inour inventory, right?
Oh yeah, do we

Omar Najam (51:01):
still have, do we still have the stone?
Yeah, you still have thelarge stone in your inventory.
Okay.
Alright.
Okay, let's use the stone.
Yeah, let's do it, yeah.
Okay.
The tree is insulted byyour gift and curses you.
You are hit by a tree boltand you turn to sparkle dust.

Everyone (51:13):
What's with all these bolts?!
You wake up in a tavern,the establishment is
dimly lit with this.

Sandeep Pa (51:19):
Okay, skip cutscene.
Leave tavern.

Everyone (51:23):
yourself in the center.

Omar Najam (51:25):
We're gonna get stardust.
You travel south andface an uphill journey.
Traversing the mountains,you get to a large canyon.
Breaking your path, howdo you attempt to cross?
your inventory, as areminder, you have a
large stone and a bridge.
Okay.

Vince Caso (51:39):
Um.

Omar Najam (51:41):
We're gonna fucking die again.

we're gonna, yeah, we're gonna die again.
Use the bridge! Okay.
Use bridge.
Because we went

Vince Caso (51:49):
the direction where we need that.

Okay.
Oh, I see.

Omar Najam (51:52):
You send out the bridge to connect one side
of the canyon to the other.
The bridge is not longenough and falls onto
the head of a giant.
The giant curses you and strikesyou with a mountain bolt.

Everyone (52:03):
You wake up in the tavern.
The establishmentis dimly lit with a

Leave.

Everyone (52:08):
yourself at the centerof the meeting of worlds.
Go east.
Is east?
Yeah, it's the last one, right?

It's the last one, and I wonder if Okay,
let's see what we get now.

Omar Najam (52:19):
You travel east and arrive at the Eternal Bog.
You cannot easily traversethe expansive wetland.

Okay, let's use the opposite of, the
thing we think we should use.
Okay, you have a blimp

Omar Najam (52:29):
and a large stone.
We have what?
We have a what in a stone?
A blimp and a large stone.

Use large stone.

Vince Caso (52:34):
Yes, use stone.
The blimp will kill us.
Okay.

Omar Najam (52:37):
A little odd.
You drop the largestone into the bog.
A bog witch rises fromthe still water and
says I accept your gift.
The waters part and you makeyour way across the expanse.

Now I want to know if we could do
that in the other ones.

Omar Najam (52:49):
Probably.
You arrive at the blood dungeon.
A "wereknight", a wolf thatturns into a knight under the
full moon, leaps at you andshrieks, where is my locket?
How do you respond?

Vince Caso (52:57):
Give

Omar Najam (52:58):
locket!

Do we have, what's in our inventory,
do we get a locket?
In your

Omar Najam (53:02):
inventory you currently only have a blimp.
Use blimp.
The wereknight, a wolf thatturns into a knight under the
full moon, Leaps at you andshrieks, where's my locket?
And curses you.
You're hit by the wolf bolt,And turn into sparkle dust.

At least this is a wolf bolt this time.

Omar Najam (53:19):
Wolf bolts are pretty dope.
You wake up in a tavern,the establishment is dimly

lit.
Leave, You exitthe establishment

Omar Najam (53:24):
to find yourself in the center of four roads.
I wanna try this,

go north.

Omar Najam (53:27):
Go north.
Use stone.
Our first instinct.
You travel north and arestopped by a raging river.
Use large stone!You drop the large stone
into raging waters.
A river nymph rises fromthe channel and says,
I accept your gift.
The river parts andyou are granted access
to the other bank.
I

Vince Caso (53:41):
like it.
I like it.

Omar Najam (53:43):
You arrive at the house of the fabled wizard.
She emerges from theestate and asks, What
do you seek, travelers?
A crystal sword?
A key?
Knowledge?
Oh,

Everyone (53:52):
hold on.
Let's not just jump in.
Let's not be hasty.
Let's not be hasty.
We know what we want.
Should we seek knowledge?
We don't want her toknow what we want.

no, I love that.
Let's get some knowledge.
You seek knowledge.
old people love to justgive you knowledge.
Yes.
they love to speak wisdom,so let's get knowledge.
Give me a knowledge bolt.

Omar Najam (54:14):
The wizard gives you what you wish, but in
doing so curses you andstrikes you with a magic dart.
You wake up in a tavern.
The establishment is dealingwith an assortment of patrons
from different regionsspeaking languages, all of
which you can comprehend.
The barkeep Elkin asks you in agruff voice, Greetings traveler,
my name is Elkin, perhaps you'llbe wanting a beverage before

(54:36):
you start your adventure ofseeking out the cursed diamond.
This bitch is Undertale!

Holy shit.

Omar Najam (54:42):
Okay.

Vince Caso (54:43):
Okay.
Okay.
This is Edge ofTomorrow, motherfucker.
Let's do this.
Let's just try

to So now we can understand what they're saying.
So let's go back to thatplace where we didn't
know the language.
The tree and the stone.
On the stone, yeah!Okay, but first Should
we order a beer?
Oh,

Vince Caso (54:58):
yeah.

We've never ordered any Let's
try to order one Okay.
You order one beer.
Do you want to justorder a beer or one beer?
Order

Omar Najam (55:09):
a beer.
I'm sorry, I don't knowhow to order one beer.
I think we're gonna go west.

Sandeep Pari (55:13):
Leave, just leave.
Yeah, leave, and then go west.
You exit the establishmentto find yourself in the

Omar Najam (55:18):
center of the You travel west and arrive at
the mouth of the Skull Cave.
The entrance is blockedby a tree and a stone that
reads, Place upon me agift and speak politely.
The entrance will be revealed.
What do you do?
so can we give it thegift of the stone?

Yeah, use stone.
Use large stone orwhatever it is that we're
supposed to we have here.

Omar Najam (55:37):
The tree is insulted by your gift and curses you.
You are hit by a tree boltand turned to sparkle dust.
Motherfucker.

I do feel like I need to point out
that's what you did thelast time you were there.
Oh, we did?
I thought now Before youeven read the thing, you
used the stone there.
Okay, let's be clear.

Vince Caso (55:51):
But I thought now with the knowledge, we would
know to give the gift and thenalso speak politely this time.
What if we try and get othergifts from the wizard?

yeah, like a key or some shit.

Omar Najam (56:03):
Okay.
Wait.
Let's go.
Go north.
Now I want to solve this.
Use large

rock.

Omar Najam (56:15):
Yeah.
I feel like,

Vince Caso (56:23):
Okay, look, I just want to know, It's
probably gonna kill us, I justwant to ask for the crystal
sword and see what happens.

Omar Najam (56:28):
Ask for the crystal sword, let's go.
The wizard gives you whatyou wish, but in doing
so, He curses you andstrikes you with a magical.
Great, we

go back to the tavern?
You

Omar Najam (56:39):
wake up in a tavern.
The establishment is dimly litwith an assortment of patrons
from different regions, allspeaking languages, all of
which you can comprehend.
Elkin accepts your gift.
I accept your gift.
And I give you this information.
Check your inventory.
You retrieve the large stone.
It is in this light that yourealize that the large stone you
have been carrying has been thecursed diamond the entire time.
Wow!

Vince Caso (57:02):
Wow.
And you know what?
Just like Baldur's Gate 3, Ifeel like there are so many
hidden depths to this gamewe simply never plumbed.

I just want to play again, and again,
as different characters.
The sheer replayability.
And try to order different

Vince Caso (57:16):
types of beer.
And different types of beer.

I hated that.

Vince Caso (57:25):
Okay, as someone who grew up playing and was
raised by text RPGs, likeI was a homeschool kid for
a lot of my teenage years,I played text based RPGs,
fucking ard mud, fucking allthose greats for so long.
I love that genre.

I did too.
so we had the TI 85 calculator,like that's how I learned how
to program in those things, Imade those text based games,
based upon my brother, myolder brother, he used to
have an Apple IIc, and himand his nerdy friend Colin,
they would just make theselike awesome text based games,
where you always, in allof their games, you woke up
hungover and threw up to start.

(58:04):
didn't matter where this placeis, you wake up hungover on
a pirate ship, you throw up.
What do you want to do next?
How old were all of y'all?
Well, they were ten yearsolder than me, Oh, okay.
I was, like, probably seven, andthey were, I guess, seventeen.
Write what you know.

Vince Caso (58:22):
That was exceptional.
The twist of the stone,I'm still reeling.

Vince, thank you so much for
joining us and running thatinsane dungeon with me.
Vince, where canpeople find you?

Vince Caso (58:38):
you can find me all over the place.
threads, Twitter, everywhere.
It's all just Vince Caso.
I am on Twitch,twitch.tv/vinceCaso.
I don't stream much.

Omar Najam (58:46):
Listen, if you need a game to play on
Twitch, we got one for ya.

Vince Caso (58:50):
I think I might specialize, it's
just that text RPG.
See if you can speedrun it, I

Omar Najam (58:55):
dare ya.

Vince Caso (58:57):
Uh, but yeah, that's me.

Omar Najam (58:58):
Vince, we've had quite enough tonight.
Vince, we cannotthank you enough.
Thank you for joining us,thank you for chatting
about your life, and thankyou for playing that game.
Buddy, we will see youin the near future.
We got manyconventions coming up.
And, and some shows, andthere might be one coming up
that I might have a littlecreative hand in that I

(59:19):
might be bothering you about.
Something to do with,two GMs, two players, but
only two people, so we'resimultaneously the GM and
the players at the same time.
Oh, fun! Hell yeah, I'm down.
Amazing.
Vince, we'll talk toyou in a little bit,
bud have a great night.

Vince Caso (59:34):
Thank you all for having me.

Omar Najam (59:35):
That was so great.
Sandeep, what do you say we headover to our Desi of the Week?

Let's do that.
Hey, our Desi of the Weekis Payal Kapadia winner of
the Grand Prix Award at the2024 Cannes Film Festival for
"All We Imagine As Light".
The filmmaker Payal Kapadiamade history by becoming the
first person from India to winthe prestigious Grand Prix.

(59:58):
The second highest prizeafter the Palme d'Or.
Pretty cool.

Omar Najam (01:00:02):
That's right.
this is a drama centered ontwo nurses navigating life,
love, and sisterhood in Mumbai.
It's the first Indian moviein three decades to compete
in Cannes main competition.
Payal Kapadia is a Mumbaibased filmmaker who studied
film directing at the Film andTelevision Institute of India.
Her

Sandeep Parikh (01:00:22):
acceptance speech included a plea,
and here's a quote, "Pleasedon't wait another 30 years
to have an Indian film."I think that's reasonable.
I think it's areasonable request.
the win has been, hugelycelebrated across India with
many on social media andtop politicians remarking on
its significance, includingthe prime minister, Narendra
Modi praising Kapadia'shistoric feat and her talent.

(01:00:45):
And then, Rahul Gandhi, theleader of the main opposition
political party, congratulatingher, Kapadia and, Anasuya
Sengupta, the first Indian actorto win Best Actress at Cannes.
Let's

go! Let's absolutely go.
Congratulations on beingthe Desi of the Week.
Absolutely amazing.
we have a runner upfor Desi of the Week.
Bruhat Soma, who is 12 yearsold and won the Scripps National
Spelling Bee in a spell off.
Yeah.

it's like penalty kicks, but for spelling.
Yeah,

Everyone (01:01:18):
I didn't know they did that.

A 12 year old from Tampa, Florida bested
competition Thursday with thisspelling of abseal, a word
used to describe descendinga vertical surface area with
a rope attached to one's body.
Soma spelled 29 out of 30 wordscorrectly in the spell off.
This is Scripps second everspell off in which competitors
have 90 seconds to spell as manywords given to them as possible.

Wow.
That's crazy.
Okay.
So they just geta bunch of words.
We just got to spell like crazy.
I got to see that.
Okay.
This was Soma's third yearin the national spelling bee.
I also didn't know that.
I didn't know that youcan keep competing.
I'm learning so much.
He, last year tiedfor 74th place.
The first year tiedfor 163rd place.
So that's quite aleap up to number one.

(01:02:05):
Pretty incredible.
yeah, this is huge.
someone's goingto receive 50 G's.
Oh my God.
In cash.
It's just it comesin a briefcase.
I love it.
from Scripps, a medaland a trophy among
several other prizes.
I wonder what theseseveral other prizes are.
It's and here's a slinky.

Soma congratulations.
Absolutely incredible.
Congrats.
Huge.
That is so rad.
Bruhat Soma, congratulationson being the runner up
of "Desi of the Week".

Alrighty, and that's the show.
As always, Our one big ask foryou, dear listener, is just
find one person in your lifewho you think would love this
show and share it with them.
Okay?
We're not asking for comments,we're not asking for anything,
that's just share the love.
Just

share the love and share the love
with us because we want tofeature you in the show.
Send us a question that youwant some culturally specific
advice on and we'll answer it.
We'll answer it poorly.
Yeah, but we'llanswer it on the show.
You can write in or evensend us a quick audio
file of the question.
Tell us your name and whereyou're from and send it to
abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com

Alright, now it's our time to shout out to
our Patreons and listeners.
Let's go.
Okay, what's our genre?
Do we have a genre from chat?

Delvan Neville (01:03:17):
yes, the genre that was suggested from
chat comes from, some of ourguests, community, and you
are to read them as if you aresussing them out in Among Us.

Oh.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Alright.
Alright, let me just, firstof all, let me tell you
about Joshua O'Ryan, okay?
I'm pretty sure when Talby M.
Carlo and Benjamin Lowe weremurdered in the library, I'm
pretty sure Joshua O'Ryanwas the last one there.
That's interesting.

I saw Miranda Hollinger and Michael Long
playing with the wires, butRaelynn Fox was just staring
at the window while Selena B.
was by the transporter.
Yeah, no, and

I'm pretty sure Nervous Rex, there's gotta be
at least two baddies here, andI'm pretty sure Nervous Rex,
I don't know, could be Serage.
also Varun Moldyvort was doingthis thing where he was just
like pretending to do the task.
And then Philip dieson, I just never

trust, I'll never trust him.
I did watch Kathleen Schlegel,Ducati, and Reverend Coutinho
go into the vent severaltimes and then appear, where
bodies were, so I thoughtthat was interesting.

Oh, that's weird because Brandon Pace
told me that Monroe Maxwelltold them that Jeremy Schwartz
told them that APD told themthat Chris Simms told them
that Dan Walley was definitely

Interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I'm willing to vote out JeremyO'Brien and Astra just on the
simple basis of possibly puttingsome heat on Brendan Bradley.
For sure.

And just to shout out our gods, I
just want to make sure thateveryone knows that these
people are definitely innocent.
Okay.
Because they've beenwith me the entire time.
Yeah.
And they could have killed me.
Mark Tucker, Hannah Lehman,James Gaffney, Scribbles
and Flapjacks invaded.
And they didn't kill me,but they totally could
have, but they didn't.
Okay.

Okay.
Yeah, I can hard clear them.
I can hard clear them.
Okay, great.
In that case, it'stime to vote, folks.
I think it's Sandeep.

No, it is me.
Yeah, actually, it'sbeen me the whole time.
ha!

Everyone (01:05:03):
ha! Yiddy bee, sons of bitches!

Alright.
folks, this show is producedand edited by Anand Shah.
This show's technicaldirector and sound
designer is Delvan Neville.
This show's executive producersare Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah.
This has been anEffinFunny production.

ha! On behalf of our Lowly co host.
Omar Najam, I've been Sandeep.
May your chakras be aligned,and smothered in sweet,
sweet, delicious chutney.

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Zaboo & Bladezz take on Omar Najam's Text Based RPG ~ Brahma(s), BJP, Whales - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep6

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Zaboo & Bladezz take on Omar Najam's Text Based RPG ~ Brahma(s), BJP, Whales - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep6