December 19, 2023 • 11 mins
Presenting Episode 3 of the Tea Kettle, hosted by Omar Najam & Sandeep Parikh!
When the kettle whistles and the tea is ready, it's time for the DesiQuest after-show—and what a show it is! Omar Najam and I, Sandeep Parikh, are all cozied up inside the teapot, steaming with excitement. After every episode of DesiQuest is launched, we'll release another episode of the Tea Kettle with me and Omar and a very special guest, or guest from either behind or in front of the camera.
In this episode, special guest Luis Carazo talks about creating his character Namir, and his strategy during game play: from not breaking character when he doesn't know how to respond to a question from a fellow player, to how to determine when - as a guest player - to sit back and when to take the reigns of the game. Lead Producer Ash Minnick also joins us to discuss the great lengths production went to to keep guest stars and other surprise elements secret from the cast, and the behind-the-scenes domino effect that takes place following curveballs that arise during session 0 and the filming of an actual play.
Website: https://www.desiquest.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DesiQuest
Wanna play D&D with the cast? Buy a seat at the table here: www.desiquest/playwiththepros
DesiQuest merch: www.desiquest.com/merch
Sponsors:
Darrington Press: https://darringtonpress.com/candela/
Gharana Foods: https://www.gharanafoods.com/desiquest.html
Die Hard Dice: https://DesiQuest.com/DHD
Hero Forge: https://www.heroforge.com
Misty Mountain Gaming: https://desiquest.com/misty
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sandeep Parikh (00:05):
Oh, oh, hello everybody, and welcome to the
Tea Kettle episode three.
It's the teen episode, teen.
Ah yes, and this is theDesiQuest after show podcast
exclusive to our Patreon backers.
We love them, so we love.
We love these Patreon backers,we love all of our backers.
(00:26):
This entire endeavor cannot bepossible without you, dear
listener, so thank you, thankyou so much.
I'm your host, Sandeep,executive producer and cast
member, who plays Ash, and myco-pilot is none other than the
supersonic Omar Najam, who playsMurkha.
Omar Najam (00:42):
Oh my gosh, thank you for that supersonic shout
out.
Sandeep Parikh (00:47):
Oh, thank you.
The shout out is equivalent toyou.
It's like they're the one andthe same.
Omar Najam (00:53):
They're both as supersonic as each other.
Wow, I wish I was a Christmasin my parents place so I could
turn to them and tell them whatyou just said about me.
That was very nice.
Sandeep Parikh (01:01):
Thank you, yeah you like, I broke the sound
barrier.
Mama, dad, I'm important, I'm afast little boy.
A fast little boy indeed.
After every episode ofDesiQuest is launched, we
release this, another episode ofthe tea kettle with me and Omar
and some special guests fromthe show, and this week we've
got super special guest,supersonic special guest, Luis
(01:23):
Carazo.
Hello everybody.
Is our actor and actual player?
Is that what we call ourselves?
Are you an actual player?
I will just let people call me,whatever they decide, a live
player a D&D maestro yeah, Idon't know what we call him and
he plays Namir.
You play Namir.
So welcome to the show, luis,so happy to have you.
(01:45):
Thank you for jumping in.
Thank you for jumping into ourshow like the actual DesiQuest
show.
And now jumping into thepodcast, so happy to have you.
And then, of course, we've gotAsh Minnick, captain, captain of
all logistics and madness, ourlead producer on the series Ash.
Ash Minnick (02:04):
Welcome to the Tea Kettle, that's me.
Sandeep Parikh (02:09):
Captain logistics.
Captain logistics Indeed.
Ash Minnick (02:11):
Did you say this before?
This is also teen.
Is that how it's said?
Sandeep Parikh (02:15):
Teen.
Ash Minnick (02:16):
So if you're speaking Hindi, it's the teen or
thrun if you're speaking.
.
Sandeep Parikh (02:19):
Three, yeah.
The teen kettle, yes, yeah.
Like you know, if this is amovie poster, you know how they
always try to like.
If it's a sequel or whatever,they try to incorporate the
number like somewhere, weirdlyto their thing.
Yeah, like this yeah that's,that's what this is.
Yeah, well done.
Well, before we dive in teamteam, team kettle, all right,
(02:41):
before we dive into ourdissection of episode three,
team, we ask that you pleasetake a moment.
You know, write in comments.
We love the comments, we loveto hear from you guys.
So go ahead and do that.
And if you haven't already,head over to the DesiQuest.
com to shop, to hop on ourmailing list and to shop shop to
your drop.
You get a special discount onsome sweet, sweet merch if you
jump into our mailing list.
(03:01):
So do that.
And we've had a handful ofsponsors, as Ash well knows.
That really took a big chanceon us to make this show possible
, and so and each one of thesewant to shout out one of them.
So for today, the honor isgoing to go to Hero Forge.
Hero Forge I think it makessense, right?
We're doing this because thisepisode is like super minis
(03:21):
heavy.
So this is the episode whereyou really get an up close look
at at our minis.
Hero Forge sponsored all themain cast minis, which allowed
us to put even more funds ontothe screen.
So thank you so much to HeroForge.
I personally had such a blastbuilding my character, ash, on
their site.
Like I don't do this.
(03:42):
This is one of my first timesever building a character like
this, and so it was so easy, sofun Really customizable tabletop
miniatures with dozens of likefantasy species and thousands of
parts to choose from.
Like I get to create my theBurana like monkey, half monkey
kind of creature, using alltheir stuff, and it was.
It was just so easy and fun.
(04:02):
I mean, guys, I was able tohold a giant pretzel.
Luis Carazo (04:06):
Like.
Sandeep Parikh (04:08):
I did not think I was able to find a pretzel and
be able to hold it, so hugeshout out to them.
Thank you so much, omar, yourturn.
Omar Najam (04:15):
And hey, if, if you like our banter, you know what,
check out the ABCD podcast thatSandeep and I host on EffinFunny
, which had about all thingsbeing American born, chatty
creatives and you know I wouldalso say chaat in general.
Sandeep Parikh (04:31):
I mean chaat.
Yeah, it's a chaat chat.
Omar Najam (04:35):
It's a little spicy, it's a little fun.
It's a little bit of a snack.
It's also nutritious.
It's very crunchy.
Luis Carazo (04:41):
I'm enjoying this so much.
This is really great.
Sandeep Parikh (04:46):
We're gonna get to you, luis, okay we're gonna
get to you.
We have to pay some bills.
Luis Carazo (04:49):
I love this so much , it's making me hungry.
Omar Najam (04:55):
We also talk about stuff that's in the news, that
we're confused, about somecultural identity stuff that
we're working on, and we Everyepisode play a ridiculous game
as well as choose a Desi of theweek so you can find over 30
Episodes of the show over on theEffin Funny YouTube or wherever
Podcasts are found as well.
Sandeep Parikh (05:14):
Yes, now we've paused that show, released that
show for a bit, so we can dothis show, but we're gonna be
back in action soon withoutfurther ado.
The tea kettle is a whistling,so let's spill some chai.
Ash Minnick (05:23):
About episode number Three.
Does music play now is thatlike no actually what plays it?
Sandeep Parikh (05:32):
That's it what plays.
Is you guys making music?
Yeah, that's what plays,perfect.
So this is a huge episode.
You guys, this is a bit pivotalepisode Emotionally.
It's the first time we get intoTo combat.
I mean there's just like a lot.
This.
Finally, shit hits the fan forthis episode.
(05:53):
But I want to ask you, Luis,what is it like guesting on a
show like this, to come in sortof media res and just like
Fitting in.
You weren't there at sessionzero, you weren't there for all.
You're just like.
You just like jumped in and youdid so beautifully.
How does that like?
What's it like from yourperspective?
Luis Carazo (06:12):
Wow, that's a really great question.
I was a little I wouldn't say Iwas nervous.
I was definitely excited, butthere was an awareness that I
had where I was coming into aworld that I didn't Personally
have a connection to in terms ofthe lore, and so I just wanted
to make sure that I wasabsorbing it as a character.
(06:35):
The character that I was playingwas a bit removed from the
world that we were in as well,so I get to discover a lot of
the lore through him, because hewas inhabiting a certain area
but also was searching for someof his own roots and, with yep,
(06:57):
what Jasmine had explained to meyou just sort of a bit of an
explanation of the world and andbeing able to understand, based
on that, how the character thatI was creating can fit in it
and and the mysteries that heWanted to solve for himself and
how that might pertain to theother characters.
It made it a lot easier for meto just sort of jump in and
(07:21):
respond to what you all weredoing and Kind of fly by to the
seat of my pants along with youall to see how it all kind of
comes together with a greaternarrative.
And yeah, I mean, I guess I'vealso kind of been doing this for
a little while and and at somepoint I knew well we're gonna,
we're gonna get into combat andthat's gonna take up a lot of
(07:41):
stuff, so I definitely know howto do that.
So that helps, that helps alittle bit.
Sandeep Parikh (07:48):
But yeah, you know, just following you guys,
yeah, but but it's interestingbecause, like our characters
were had Kind of almost similarjourneys, in the sense that
we're, like, you know, trying totry coming back to this land to
Discover something about ourroots or something about
ourselves you know, being notnatives of of Vehaar, so like
(08:08):
but in a way your position islike the like more of the expert
.
You've been there longer, solike was it nerve-wracking to be
like, because, like that, I waslike, oh, I could ask this guy
questions, and now you've got tolike be able to, you know, yeah
, well, if I ever, if it evercame down to it, I knew that I
(08:29):
can turn a jams to Jasmine andand basically say so, yeah, what
do I know about this?
Luis Carazo (08:35):
But part of what I think was making sense to me was
, I Think, the questions thatyou could have and would have
asked, I would have respondedwith yeah, I remember having
those questions and nevergetting the answer to that.
Sandeep Parikh (08:50):
My answer to you right, that's what you said,
yeah.
Luis Carazo (08:52):
My answer to you is the questions that you've come
here thinking you would findanswers to are very often never
going to be answered.
Sandeep Parikh (09:02):
Right, mm-hmm, yeah, and just like accepting
that discomfort.
Yeah, now you had this likevery Yoda kind of wise, sage
vibe for my character, which isreally great.
Luis Carazo (09:14):
That's awesome, because those characters are fun
.
Lots of pressure because yougot to at least believe that you
know where you're doing thatGot me wise.
Sandeep Parikh (09:24):
Yes, he's super wise on that side, like okay, I
got to drop a new like likeadage.
Ash Minnick (09:31):
I have kind of a related question for you, Luis,
kind of on that note, because sosimilarly, Luis and I have both
been NPCs in the world ofdarkness and that show is insane
because you never breakcharacter and you know you go
into it and I have on multipleoccasions gone into it where
Jason Carl handed me like threepages of information and was
(09:53):
just like at some point talk tothem about the geography of the
valley and I'm like how are youthat?
Sandeep Parikh (09:58):
So you can't like in those shows you can't go
like.
Hey GM, can you help me withthis thing?
I don't know.
Right, you can't do that Really.
Ash Minnick (10:03):
You can.
It's just it's like nobodybreaks character at any point
and we" in costume and it's so.
It's like this feeling like youhave found a bond and I found
it helpful to very similar,similar to what Luis just said
like find character aspects thatmake you very vague.
So when people were likevampires always lie.
(10:24):
Some people ask me questionsthat I as a person didn't know
the answer to.
I would just either lie andmake it obvious I was lying or
I'd be like I'm not telling youthat, I'm not giving that info
away, you know, yeah.
Sandeep Parikh (10:38):
Hey, so sorry to interrupt, but the rest of this
episode is for our Patreonsubscribers only.
So if you'd like to hear therest of this juicy conversation,
let me tell you it gets juicy.
There's another 15 minutes 5050of this conversation over at
patreoncom.
Thank you so much forsupporting the show.
Oh, oh, hello everybody, and welcome to the
Tea Kettle episode three.
It's the teen episode, teen.
Ah yes, and this is theDesiQuest after show podcast
exclusive to our Patreon backers.
We love them, so we love.
We love these Patreon backers,we love all of our backers.
(00:26):
This entire endeavor cannot bepossible without you, dear
listener, so thank you, thankyou so much.
I'm your host, Sandeep,executive producer and cast
member, who plays Ash, and myco-pilot is none other than the
supersonic Omar Najam, who playsMurkha.
Omar Najam (00:42):
Oh my gosh, thank you for that supersonic shout
out.
Sandeep Parikh (00:47):
Oh, thank you.
The shout out is equivalent toyou.
It's like they're the one andthe same.
Omar Najam (00:53):
They're both as supersonic as each other.
Wow, I wish I was a Christmasin my parents place so I could
turn to them and tell them whatyou just said about me.
That was very nice.
Sandeep Parikh (01:01):
Thank you, yeah you like, I broke the sound
barrier.
Mama, dad, I'm important, I'm afast little boy.
A fast little boy indeed.
After every episode ofDesiQuest is launched, we
release this, another episode ofthe tea kettle with me and Omar
and some special guests fromthe show, and this week we've
got super special guest,supersonic special guest, Luis
(01:23):
Carazo.
Hello everybody.
Is our actor and actual player?
Is that what we call ourselves?
Are you an actual player?
I will just let people call me,whatever they decide, a live
player a D&D maestro yeah, Idon't know what we call him and
he plays Namir.
You play Namir.
So welcome to the show, luis,so happy to have you.
(01:45):
Thank you for jumping in.
Thank you for jumping into ourshow like the actual DesiQuest
show.
And now jumping into thepodcast, so happy to have you.
And then, of course, we've gotAsh Minnick, captain, captain of
all logistics and madness, ourlead producer on the series Ash.
Ash Minnick (02:04):
Welcome to the Tea Kettle, that's me.
Sandeep Parikh (02:09):
Captain logistics.
Captain logistics Indeed.
Ash Minnick (02:11):
Did you say this before?
This is also teen.
Is that how it's said?
Sandeep Parikh (02:15):
Teen.
Ash Minnick (02:16):
So if you're speaking Hindi, it's the teen or
thrun if you're speaking.
.
Sandeep Parikh (02:19):
Three, yeah.
The teen kettle, yes, yeah.
Like you know, if this is amovie poster, you know how they
always try to like.
If it's a sequel or whatever,they try to incorporate the
number like somewhere, weirdlyto their thing.
Yeah, like this yeah that's,that's what this is.
Yeah, well done.
Well, before we dive in teamteam, team kettle, all right,
(02:41):
before we dive into ourdissection of episode three,
team, we ask that you pleasetake a moment.
You know, write in comments.
We love the comments, we loveto hear from you guys.
So go ahead and do that.
And if you haven't already,head over to the DesiQuest.
com to shop, to hop on ourmailing list and to shop shop to
your drop.
You get a special discount onsome sweet, sweet merch if you
jump into our mailing list.
(03:01):
So do that.
And we've had a handful ofsponsors, as Ash well knows.
That really took a big chanceon us to make this show possible
, and so and each one of thesewant to shout out one of them.
So for today, the honor isgoing to go to Hero Forge.
Hero Forge I think it makessense, right?
We're doing this because thisepisode is like super minis
(03:21):
heavy.
So this is the episode whereyou really get an up close look
at at our minis.
Hero Forge sponsored all themain cast minis, which allowed
us to put even more funds ontothe screen.
So thank you so much to HeroForge.
I personally had such a blastbuilding my character, ash, on
their site.
Like I don't do this.
(03:42):
This is one of my first timesever building a character like
this, and so it was so easy, sofun Really customizable tabletop
miniatures with dozens of likefantasy species and thousands of
parts to choose from.
Like I get to create my theBurana like monkey, half monkey
kind of creature, using alltheir stuff, and it was.
It was just so easy and fun.
(04:02):
I mean, guys, I was able tohold a giant pretzel.
Luis Carazo (04:06):
Like.
Sandeep Parikh (04:08):
I did not think I was able to find a pretzel and
be able to hold it, so hugeshout out to them.
Thank you so much, omar, yourturn.
Omar Najam (04:15):
And hey, if, if you like our banter, you know what,
check out the ABCD podcast thatSandeep and I host on EffinFunny
, which had about all thingsbeing American born, chatty
creatives and you know I wouldalso say chaat in general.
Sandeep Parikh (04:31):
I mean chaat.
Yeah, it's a chaat chat.
Omar Najam (04:35):
It's a little spicy, it's a little fun.
It's a little bit of a snack.
It's also nutritious.
It's very crunchy.
Luis Carazo (04:41):
I'm enjoying this so much.
This is really great.
Sandeep Parikh (04:46):
We're gonna get to you, luis, okay we're gonna
get to you.
We have to pay some bills.
Luis Carazo (04:49):
I love this so much , it's making me hungry.
Omar Najam (04:55):
We also talk about stuff that's in the news, that
we're confused, about somecultural identity stuff that
we're working on, and we Everyepisode play a ridiculous game
as well as choose a Desi of theweek so you can find over 30
Episodes of the show over on theEffin Funny YouTube or wherever
Podcasts are found as well.
Sandeep Parikh (05:14):
Yes, now we've paused that show, released that
show for a bit, so we can dothis show, but we're gonna be
back in action soon withoutfurther ado.
The tea kettle is a whistling,so let's spill some chai.
Ash Minnick (05:23):
About episode number Three.
Does music play now is thatlike no actually what plays it?
Sandeep Parikh (05:32):
That's it what plays.
Is you guys making music?
Yeah, that's what plays,perfect.
So this is a huge episode.
You guys, this is a bit pivotalepisode Emotionally.
It's the first time we get intoTo combat.
I mean there's just like a lot.
This.
Finally, shit hits the fan forthis episode.
(05:53):
But I want to ask you, Luis,what is it like guesting on a
show like this, to come in sortof media res and just like
Fitting in.
You weren't there at sessionzero, you weren't there for all.
You're just like.
You just like jumped in and youdid so beautifully.
How does that like?
What's it like from yourperspective?
Luis Carazo (06:12):
Wow, that's a really great question.
I was a little I wouldn't say Iwas nervous.
I was definitely excited, butthere was an awareness that I
had where I was coming into aworld that I didn't Personally
have a connection to in terms ofthe lore, and so I just wanted
to make sure that I wasabsorbing it as a character.
(06:35):
The character that I was playingwas a bit removed from the
world that we were in as well,so I get to discover a lot of
the lore through him, because hewas inhabiting a certain area
but also was searching for someof his own roots and, with yep,
(06:57):
what Jasmine had explained to meyou just sort of a bit of an
explanation of the world and andbeing able to understand, based
on that, how the character thatI was creating can fit in it
and and the mysteries that heWanted to solve for himself and
how that might pertain to theother characters.
It made it a lot easier for meto just sort of jump in and
(07:21):
respond to what you all weredoing and Kind of fly by to the
seat of my pants along with youall to see how it all kind of
comes together with a greaternarrative.
And yeah, I mean, I guess I'vealso kind of been doing this for
a little while and and at somepoint I knew well we're gonna,
we're gonna get into combat andthat's gonna take up a lot of
(07:41):
stuff, so I definitely know howto do that.
So that helps, that helps alittle bit.
Sandeep Parikh (07:48):
But yeah, you know, just following you guys,
yeah, but but it's interestingbecause, like our characters
were had Kind of almost similarjourneys, in the sense that
we're, like, you know, trying totry coming back to this land to
Discover something about ourroots or something about
ourselves you know, being notnatives of of Vehaar, so like
(08:08):
but in a way your position islike the like more of the expert
.
You've been there longer, solike was it nerve-wracking to be
like, because, like that, I waslike, oh, I could ask this guy
questions, and now you've got tolike be able to, you know, yeah
, well, if I ever, if it evercame down to it, I knew that I
(08:29):
can turn a jams to Jasmine andand basically say so, yeah, what
do I know about this?
Luis Carazo (08:35):
But part of what I think was making sense to me was
, I Think, the questions thatyou could have and would have
asked, I would have respondedwith yeah, I remember having
those questions and nevergetting the answer to that.
Sandeep Parikh (08:50):
My answer to you right, that's what you said,
yeah.
Luis Carazo (08:52):
My answer to you is the questions that you've come
here thinking you would findanswers to are very often never
going to be answered.
Sandeep Parikh (09:02):
Right, mm-hmm, yeah, and just like accepting
that discomfort.
Yeah, now you had this likevery Yoda kind of wise, sage
vibe for my character, which isreally great.
Luis Carazo (09:14):
That's awesome, because those characters are fun
.
Lots of pressure because yougot to at least believe that you
know where you're doing thatGot me wise.
Sandeep Parikh (09:24):
Yes, he's super wise on that side, like okay, I
got to drop a new like likeadage.
Ash Minnick (09:31):
I have kind of a related question for you, Luis,
kind of on that note, because sosimilarly, Luis and I have both
been NPCs in the world ofdarkness and that show is insane
because you never breakcharacter and you know you go
into it and I have on multipleoccasions gone into it where
Jason Carl handed me like threepages of information and was
(09:53):
just like at some point talk tothem about the geography of the
valley and I'm like how are youthat?
Sandeep Parikh (09:58):
So you can't like in those shows you can't go
like.
Hey GM, can you help me withthis thing?
I don't know.
Right, you can't do that Really.
Ash Minnick (10:03):
You can.
It's just it's like nobodybreaks character at any point
and we" in costume and it's so.
It's like this feeling like youhave found a bond and I found
it helpful to very similar,similar to what Luis just said
like find character aspects thatmake you very vague.
So when people were likevampires always lie.
(10:24):
Some people ask me questionsthat I as a person didn't know
the answer to.
I would just either lie andmake it obvious I was lying or
I'd be like I'm not telling youthat, I'm not giving that info
away, you know, yeah.
Sandeep Parikh (10:38):
Hey, so sorry to interrupt, but the rest of this
episode is for our Patreonsubscribers only.
So if you'd like to hear therest of this juicy conversation,
let me tell you it gets juicy.
There's another 15 minutes 5050of this conversation over at
patreoncom.
Thank you so much forsupporting the show.
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