Zaboo & Bladezz take on Omar Najam's Text Based RPG ~ Brahma(s), BJP, Whales - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep6
Jun 27, 2024Season 2Episode 6
EffinFunny
🛠️ *WARNING* Sandeep's video is choppy at points of the episode from technical issues during the recording.🚨
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/effinfunny Email List: https://mailchi.mp/effinfunnyproductions/abcd Join the conversation on Discord: https://discord.gg/effinfunny-783006672439345154 Email Feedback: abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com
SUBSCRIBE TO @effinfunny FOR MORE EPISODES!
MERCH: https://effinfunny.myshopify.com
Sandeep Parikh and Omar Najam are back, and this episode's got more bugs than your first attempt at coding! Join us as they reflect on cultural identities, U.S. political updates, and the art of DMing with the multi-talented Vince Caso.
🔧 In this glitchy episode:
-Auntie vs Auntie Watch: 2024 - Can the file get any more corrupted?
-Vince Caso reboots 'Omar's Fantastical Text-Based Gauntlet of a Thousand Nightmares' (Our spellcheck just rage-quit)
🇮🇳 India's election results: Democracy's biggest data dump!
🐳 ERROR 404: Whale language not found. Scientists improvise for 20 minutes!
🎰 Dave&Busters.app: Turning your phone into a pocket casino
⌨️ Type your response: If you could install a universal translator for any animal, which would it be and why? Wrong answers only!
🔄 Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell! Or is your finger buffering?
Show Notes for the 38th Episode of ABCD: Sandeep Parikh Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sandeepparikh Omar Najam: https://twitter.com/OmarNajam Omar Najam: https://www.instagram.com/omarnajamfilm/ DesiQuest: https://www.desiquest.com/ Vince Caso: https://linktr.ee/vincecaso Monarch's Factory: @MonarchsFactory
What's Got Us Confused #1: https://www.google.com/search?q=india+elections&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS788US789&oq=india+elections&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE4MzU3ajBqNKgCALACAQ
What's Got Us Confused #2: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240409-the-scientists-learning-to-speak-whale
What's Got Us Confused #3: https://kotaku.com/dave-and-busters-gambling-bet-arcade-games-real-money-1851446421
Auntie vs. Auntie Watch: 2024 Nikki Haley: https://deadline.com/2024/05/nikki-haley-voting-for-trump-1235927734/ https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0
Desi of the Week: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/27/style/payal-kapadia-india-cannes-grand-prix-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/g-s1-2050/scripps-national-spelling-bee-winner
Producer: Anand Shah & Kaylin Mahoney Technical Director & Sound Designer: Delvan Neville Executive Producers: Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah Editors: Kaylin Mahoney & Anand Shah
🛠️ *WARNING* Sandeep's video is choppy at points of the episode from technical issues during the recording.🚨
Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/effinfunny Email List: https://mailchi.mp/effinfunnyproductions/abcd Join the conversation on Discord: https://discord.gg/effinfunny-783006672439345154 Email Feedback: abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com
SUBSCRIBE TO @effinfunny FOR MORE EPISODES!
MERCH: https://effinfunny.myshopify.com
Sandeep Parikh and Omar Najam are back, and this episode's got more bugs than your first attempt at coding! Join us as they reflect on cultural identities, U.S. political updates, and the art of DMing with the multi-talented Vince Caso.
🔧 In this glitchy episode:
-Auntie vs Auntie Watch: 2024 - Can the file get any more corrupted?
-Vince Caso reboots 'Omar's Fantastical Text-Based Gauntlet of a Thousand Nightmares' (Our spellcheck just rage-quit)
🇮🇳 India's election results: Democracy's biggest data dump!
🐳 ERROR 404: Whale language not found. Scientists improvise for 20 minutes!
🎰 Dave&Busters.app: Turning your phone into a pocket casino
⌨️ Type your response: If you could install a universal translator for any animal, which would it be and why? Wrong answers only!
🔄 Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell! Or is your finger buffering?
Show Notes for the 38th Episode of ABCD: Sandeep Parikh Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sandeepparikh Omar Najam: https://twitter.com/OmarNajam Omar Najam: https://www.instagram.com/omarnajamfilm/ DesiQuest: https://www.desiquest.com/ Vince Caso: https://linktr.ee/vincecaso Monarch's Factory: @MonarchsFactory
What's Got Us Confused #1: https://www.google.com/search?q=india+elections&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS788US789&oq=india+elections&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE4MzU3ajBqNKgCALACAQ
What's Got Us Confused #2: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240409-the-scientists-learning-to-speak-whale
What's Got Us Confused #3: https://kotaku.com/dave-and-busters-gambling-bet-arcade-games-real-money-1851446421
Auntie vs. Auntie Watch: 2024 Nikki Haley: https://deadline.com/2024/05/nikki-haley-voting-for-trump-1235927734/ https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0
Desi of the Week: https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/27/style/payal-kapadia-india-cannes-grand-prix-intl-hnk/index.html https://www.npr.org/2024/05/31/g-s1-2050/scripps-national-spelling-bee-winner
Producer: Anand Shah & Kaylin Mahoney Technical Director & Sound Designer: Delvan Neville Executive Producers: Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah Editors: Kaylin Mahoney & Anand Shah
Thank you. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Thank you. Thank you, Omar. Thank you, Sandeep. Thanks for filling this audience. Thanks for getting out there on the street and just barking to get this audience in the room, man. I really appreciate you taking that time.
Omar Najam:
I've just been woof woofing it. You know what I mean? Yeah,
Sandeep Parikh:
I don't. These dogs are barking. Actually,
Omar Najam:
in the last episode, the dog was barking, That's true. The dog was barking.
Sandeep Parikh:
No
Omar Najam:
dog
Sandeep Parikh:
today?
Omar Najam:
No, the dog's downstairs. People are gonna be
Sandeep Parikh:
confused. Dog's downstairs. So there's a potential for a dog to show. So, you know, keep an ear out, keep an ear out. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce my co host formally and officially. He is the, 13th juror from Trump's recent, indictment and guilty verdict. Ladies and gentlemen, Omar Najam. Welcome. Oh,
Omar Najam:
thank you. It's, I can say it now. That I was on the jury at the time. It was a little spicy to say.
Sandeep Parikh:
Oh, I can't wait for your book.
Omar Najam:
Oh, It's unrelated. It's an Animorphs fanfic that I wrote. Uh, folks, I would like to introduce your host for this week, but actually let's take a second. I want to talk about Pride real quick because it's, we're in the month of June right now. A very happy Pride. I've got my little ace, card right here like I'm Gambit. Ooh! And, of course, this upcoming weekend we got Ricky Martin singing at, the Pride picnic, which is very exciting. and one of my favorite songs of his is Livin La Vida Loca. Fun fact, that song is actually about our host, Sandeep Parikh!
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 determined as co host and host is by based upon who wins the game every week. And of course I took it down. I don't know if we have an overall tally. We're gonna need someone to go through and tally that But I feel like we're pretty neck and neck. Yeah. But who cares cuz the point is I'm host right now. And that means I get to tell you guys our listeners that this show ABCD, American Born Chatty Desi's is a podcast within a live stream within our two lives as American Born Desi's. This is for anyone out there who like us are navigating our cultural identities and just want to chat it out.
Omar Najam:
Yes, and we are so excited because folks we have such a good show ready for today All right. Do you want to know what's on tap for today? Sandeep? Do you wanna know we're gonna talk about? I'm
Sandeep Parikh:
Begging
Omar Najam:
you to tell me. Okay. So first of all, We're gonna kick it off with Auntie vs Auntie Watch 2024. We might have some updates. Yeah
Everyone:
There's an update or two.
Omar Najam:
We might have a couple of updates, then we're going to chat about"What's Got Us Confused". Things from the news that we're reading about, tidbits, information that we want to just hash out and know how we feel about then we've got a beautiful interview set up with a beautiful guest. We of course have our segment, "Not a Doctor!?!" Featuring this week. Mr. Vince Caso. Yes, "not a doctor" Vince Caso. if you are a fan of watching him on the show, fortunately he's doing double duty because he'll be joining us for our game. That's right, this is gonna be called Omar's Fantastical Text Based Gauntlet of a Thousand Nightmares. Okay, great.
Everyone:
You all have no idea how much work Delvan's put into this week's game. It is so good.
Omar Najam:
in our run of the show, it says about 10 minutes. It's going to take longer. buckle in. finally, we'll wrap up with our "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 5e campaign that stars me, and a little gentleman by the name of Sandeep Parikh, as well as Rekha Shankar, Anjali Bhimani, and a collection of amazing guests, all set in the original South Asian mythology inspired world from the Brilliant mind of star GM Jasmine"thatbronzegirl" Bhullar. All the episodes are out right now. Which means you can watch the whole dang thing over at DesiQuest.com. And if you become a citizen of the DesiQuest world by signing up at patreon.com/DesiQuest you can watch the whole thing ad free as well as every episode of our after show podcast, streams with our character artist VoodooVal I might have hopped on maybe one or two of those as well. And so much more. So check that out at patreon.com/desiquest.
Sandeep Parikh:
And just to editorialize, Yeah. Those after a show podcasts were. fantastic. Phenomenal. Yes. If you like really want to dive into what it takes to create an actual play from like the brains of Jasmine if you're into the show or you're into actual plays or D&D in general, this is such a cool, you can learn a lot. Alright, speaking of things to check out, we want to shout out our friend. Johnny Stanton, who recently launched his, podcast called the Athletics Check Podcast. and that's with Johnny Stanton IV. Where Johnny sits down with nerds and athletes to discuss their passions and hobbies beyond those domains that they're known for. for episode two on Athletics Check, Johnny interviews, Reid Sinnett, who plays for a team called the Brahmas. Oh, he's a pro football, but he used to played for like the Bengals and a whole bunch of other in the Patriots and stuff like that. He was a backup QB for a lot of these NFL teams. Now he plays for the San Antonio Brahmas. this is how it's appropriate to our show, ABCD, They took one of our main gods and turned it
Vince Caso:
into a mascot.
Sandeep Parikh:
And the team is owned and operated by none other than Dwayne the Rock Johnson. now, I guess what you're thinking, another egregious example of cultural appropriation by a sports franchise with no regard to sensitivities 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 the team after chicken. Oh, that's right. They're named after their mascot, the Brahma chicken.
Everyone:
Okay. So
Sandeep Parikh:
the Brahma is an American breed of chicken. It was bred in the United States from birds imported from the Chinese port of Shanghai and was the principal American meat breed from the 1850s until about 1930. So they're named after the chicken Brahma.
Omar Najam:
I need to know what happened in 1930. Where we changed chickens mid stream.
Sandeep Parikh:
We sure did. My god. So those are our sponsors for this. Why don't we jump right in to Auntie vs. Auntie Watch 2024.
Omar Najam:
Let's go.
Sandeep Parikh:
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 though where we track The 2024 U. S. presidential election to see how close we are to achieving our dream, Omar and my dream of a presidential race between two aunties, Democratic auntie Kamala Harris and Republican auntie Nikki Haley. Reminder that they are both part Indian, hence they are in fact aunties. And that's like an actual potential reality, right?
Omar Najam:
Yeah. Especially maybe this week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will say, in terms of Nikki Haley on that end, but, Nikki Haley said that she'd be voting for Trump. she announced that she will vote for Donald Trump in November during an event at the Hudson Institute, which means that kind of puts us back. So we're probably at Honestly, probably like 0%. No, we're
Sandeep Parikh:
at 18%, but sure.
Omar Najam:
Yeah. But like emotionally, we're at 0%. Nikki Haley said she's going to vote for Trump. That's kind of it. end of story. You know what though? There is an update I do have here, which is that a jury found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 charges of the felony crimes related to a 2016 election interference scheme. do you think that changes our number a little bit?
Sandeep Parikh:
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 expressed a bunch of anger and claimed that the trial was rigged because that's his thing. the sentencing is set for July 11th, just before the RNC, the Republican National Convention. This is honestly, this could not get any more reality show. His conviction exposes Trump to potential actual. Prison time.
Omar Najam:
Yes.
Sandeep Parikh:
and of course he's expected to appeal. and despite the conviction, Trump plans to continue campaigning and he's already fundraising off of this. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So it's, getting wild.
Omar Najam:
I want to remind all of you where this started, okay? Yes, there are many legal warriors out in the world who are trying to ensure that the law of the land is implemented. But Auntie vs Auntie Watch 2024, that was right here. We were the first ones to track this particular race. that's a very interesting thing. I think that when, at the end of this segment, we're going to update our standing. but a pretty huge update for Auntie vs Auntie Watch 24.
Sandeep Parikh:
What is crazy though, is that Republicans are continuing to support Trump. They just dismissed the trial as politically motivated. But this is crazy, guys. This is a historic moment. The first criminal trial of a former American president. Yeah. And I believe the first time a convicted felon is one of the two main parties, nominees. we are in the upside down fully. On the Harris side, I won't spend too much time on this, but, she, to sort of. see how, it might happen. It might shake out for Harris becoming a nominee. she's taking on more presidential duties. she's going to represent the U S at the Swiss peace summit for Ukraine. And so she's going and not
Omar Najam:
President Biden, is that correct? That
Sandeep Parikh:
is correct. That is correct. okay. her mission is to underscore the Biden Harris administration's commitment to 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 is defending Biden's absence here, emphasizing his strong support for Ukraine globally, President Joe Biden he's going to attend the campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles instead because it's hosted by George Clooney and Julia Roberts. So look, he wants some face time with these really hot celebrities. can you blame the guy?
Omar Najam:
hold on, before you get too excited, Mr. Hollywood hotshot ivory tower over here. I've seen a couple movies, alright? If we're talking about the likelihood of someone running and someone being trapped in the vault of a casino, I think going to a fundraising event hosted by George Clooney and Julia Roberts smacks a little bit of an Ocean's Eleven reboot, if I'm being completely honest.
Sandeep Parikh:
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 just go jump straight up to 34%?
Omar Najam:
I was gonna say 30%. I was gonna lowball you let's go to 34%. I love it
Sandeep Parikh:
34%. Oceans 34. I love it. So we're jumping to 34%. Now, I don't know. There's a lot of people of course saying That this trial is going to help Trump, which maybe could be the case. I'm still holding out hope that some people out there believe that the, being judged by a jury of your peers is still a thing that we hold to be somewhat sacred. as an American. system of, of, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. It was all
Omar Najam:
34 counts, right? that's, it was all 34.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah. All 34. Yeah. yeah, look, I think, I want to believe, I want to believe that there are people out there that go you know what? He's a convicted felon. I can't do it. So 34 percent we're upgrading our number. Let's go.
Omar Najam:
Let's go folks. And let's go over to our next segment, which is"What's Got Us Confused" All right, Sandeep, let's blast through a couple of these because a lot of news happened since the last episode One big thing is that the election closed out in India Yeah, this is the biggest democratic election. 640 million votes were cast in the marathon election. Two, two America, a span of six weeks. Two full Americas voted Yeah, so the, elections are still being tallied, but there's been some early calls. The win, being claimed, of course, is by Modi himself, and the BJP in terms of that top seat. that said, the BJP did actually lose a bunch of seats showing a weakness in the, confidence in the party itself, and they're going to have to rely on, some of their allies in order to get things passed and done. So while Modi did win, it wasn't this like landslide sweeping situation where, they, will not have to work with anyone in terms of passing legislation. What are you thinking about that? I'm
Sandeep Parikh:
thinking, I guess I, listen, I think checks and balances, that's a good thing in general, I would say, considering, the BJP's, stances, as it relates to minorities, so probably a good thing for more people to, be in the conversation. was interesting that 640 million was actually a low voter turnout. Yeah. which, was raising the hopes of the opposition. But, yeah, exit polls do show that, it's probably going to go Modi's way. Yeah. look, I know my dad's happy because, he's hardcore Modi. yeah. I guess what's confusing about this, is that, Modi's popularity, around, infrastructure projects and Hindu majority appeals and alliances contributed to their success in the South. there's a lot of places that they thought he'd have more, vulnerabilities that, that didn't, that didn't quite work out. in that regard. yeah, this, I don't know what it means for India's future. it's, I think what's confusing about the whole thing, and I wish I was more honestly informed about India's politics, but, listen, I am just, I just want things to to work out well, yeah, and I hope that maybe with opposition having gained some of these seats that they'll have a bigger seat at the table in terms of Having policies that are friendlier to everyone there You know because there's a lot of infrastructure things that Modi did do that really also seemed to help the country. I don't know it's confusing I wish I knew all about it. I don't. What are you thinking Omar? You got any hot takes?
Omar Najam:
pretty similar. I think that if this was a, what the BJP was predicting to be the landslide vote, I think I'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 think this might be an ongoing conversation for the show to figure out and get a little pulse of, what's going on in India and how people are feeling about this. Maybe they like the promises of the leader, but not the individual politicians, which often happens in, in political parties that are centered around one individual and not a greater philosophical sort of, thesis. it'll be very interesting. I'm confused, and, and curious by, by these election results. Okay, so that's your, that's where you're gonna land on rating the story? Confused,
Sandeep Parikh:
but curious? Yeah, I would I like it.
Omar Najam:
Confused, but curious. I like it.
Sandeep Parikh:
But
Omar Najam:
speaking of the election, our producer Anand sent us some pics from his family after voting and want to share these with all of you. so if you didn't know the election commission uses indelible ink or voter ink to prevent fraud or duplicate votes. Once a voter casts their ballot and has their ID verified, the ink is painted across the top of their left index finger, leaving a stain that can take up to two weeks to wash off. This method has been in place for more than seven decades. Everyone took a temporary 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 you can, voluntarily put onto your person if you so wish. but this kind of creates a peer pressure because people can see if you voted and if you didn't.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah. we like our, like the henna tattoos, we like them to last a little while. Yeah, it's the vibe there. Yeah, so it does encourage people to vote. It's pretty cool. I like it. I dig it. Maybe we should, check out my temporary tattoo. This is from my that for
Omar Najam:
voting? What is that, a Stratocaster with
Sandeep Parikh:
a rose?
Omar Najam:
Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
It's a dragon, with a Stratocaster, and I did get it for voting in the most rockin section of India. Vote for the coolest mythical Gibson creature. Yeah, exactly. Vote for your cryptid, your favorite cryptid. All right, let's jump to story number two. Yeah. You guys, as always, we love to have, we love to have us an animal story. Scientists are learning to speak whale. Hell yes. Hell yes.
Omar Najam:
That's right. A little bit behind finding Nemo, but okay.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah. scientists have had a conversation with a whale in a world's first. A humpback whale approached a research vessel after hearing a throp noise from an underwater speaker. The whale circled the boat, surfaced, and then dived again, echoing the call back. yeah, in 2021, a team of six scientists played a recording of the humpback greeting call off the coast of southeast Alaska. They were stunned when a humpback whale named Twain, as in Mark Twain, responded in a conversational manner. Okay, Josie Hubbard, an animal behaviorist studying for her PhD at the University of California, Davis, describes experiencing another world when encountering humpback whales. She heard them come to the surface, saw their big breath, and observed them as a group, which she found absolutely incredible. yeah, in rare instances, whales may approach, in this case, a 38 year old humpback whale moved to the boat, circled it for 20 minutes, and yeah, it started 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 these scientists, pretty fucking crazy, they had a conversation. what do you think they talked about?
Omar Najam:
just like stuff, probably the election. Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
It was those like 3 a. m. college chats, where you're just like if you think about what does it all
Omar Najam:
mean How big it is? What if we're all in a cardboard box? what's beyond the cardboard box? Like I had mushrooms and I became a mushroom. You know what I mean? Yeah, I was reading the Economist
Sandeep Parikh:
That's it. Yeah. Yeah someone dumped a Bunch of economists in the trash and it made it to the ocean and the humpback whale wet read it I think that's what I Love it. Vince is in chat saying let's sink another fucking yacht. Yeah, maybe Like let's eat this boat this is so out of left field, but, I'm reading this book, homo Deus, and I literally read a chapter about, like how we as humans don't quite, we don't know what it feels like to be in the reality of another animal. And so we have our own perception of the world and we think we're so dominant and all this stuff, we've obviously dissected these animals and have discovered things in a whale. There's a whole section of the limbic system of the brain that, that we don't even know what it does. So we have no idea how it would feel to be a whale. But it is a huge section with a whole bundle of neurons that does something, but we just have zero idea what, yeah. It could be a better reality to be a whale. I don't
Omar Najam:
know. That's what I want to be in my next life.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, so I guess researchers are trying to find out still what whales are trying to actually say So I just realized there's a whole other section down here that I'm supposed to read, so I'm looking it over right now. But yeah, they don't know what they said. All they know is that the humpback whale said something, and they responded, and they did like callbacks, and that's pretty crazy. Yeah.
Omar Najam:
I
Sandeep Parikh:
think this is the conversation lasted 20 minutes, dude! 20 minutes!
Omar Najam:
Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
This
Omar Najam:
is so sick. I absolutely love this.
Sandeep Parikh:
Researchers say that their encounter could be the first step towards communication with non-human intelligence.
Delvan Neville:
They're the SETI folks with this, right? Because it's the same approach of like they have a language. It's completely unlike ours.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yes. The SETI folks, for those of you who don't know, is the search for extra terrestrial intelligence. yes, so they are, a part of that. SETI research team hoping to understand communicative complexity and intelligence of humpback whales. I guess it might've been 20 minutes because the whales just speak really slowly and it was just like one sentence.
Omar Najam:
What's up?
Everyone:
That's it. What's up?
Omar Najam:
I would say for this, I'm informed and curious. I learned some stuff as many of you know, I, I had a double major with marine biology for a hot second in college. This is great. I'm making jokes, but this is genuinely. A dream come true. It's so cool to be alive while this is happening.
Sandeep Parikh:
Of all the scientific achievements that are happening right now that are freaking me the fuck out. This one actually gives me a little bit of
Omar Najam:
hope. Yeah, this is great.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah.
Omar Najam:
Let's do more of this.
Sandeep Parikh:
can we just celebrate this for a second? Because I've just been, it's all been all doom and gloom. So This is weirdly nice. But guess what? Now the whales are going to take our jobs.
Omar Najam:
Yes, I feel informed. Great. Informed. Great. very good. very good. I got one last story for you here, Sandeep. Okay. you want to bet that I can, I can impress you with this story?
Sandeep Parikh:
I bet you one humpback whale.
Omar Najam:
Okay, I'll settle for five dollars, because soon You can make a friendly $5 wager on arcade games at, you guessed it, Dave and Buster's.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. Oh, great. Yeah. More. Yeah. Just what the world needs. More gambling.
Omar Najam:
Yeah. uh, Dave investors will start using, the gamification software company Lucra, to help them place bets, on games that you'll be playing at Dave and Buster's. Is that sounds like something you would want to take part in? Absolutely not.
Sandeep Parikh:
I don't know, man, this whole like, legalization of betting thing is okay. I don't think it's good. It doesn't call me an old fashioned guy, but I you know I remember a time when you went to vegas to go you went to a place to go. Explore your sins now your sins are in your pocket And they go around with you everywhere and you could just sin sin sin sin I just feel is this helping us is this good? I don't know.
Omar Najam:
let's devil's advocate for a quick second about this. By all means. You're having a boring time at Dave & Buster's but you want to do a little pick me up. And you go, let's put five on it. But you can't agree exactly on how to balance it out or who can you know, navigate that gambling you do. Now you have a dave and busters app that you'd be able to log in and bet each other the money on it.
Sandeep Parikh:
But couldn't you just bet with your friends there anyway on your own? So is this like connecting people across other dave and busters? Is that what's happening? Like?
Omar Najam:
that's a really good question. let me go ahead and read you, a quotation from Lucra CEO Dylan Robbins, that was, expressed on CNN. And maybe this will clear things up. Friendly competition really is a big fuel for our economy. Whether you're playing golf on Sunday with your buddies, which I do a lot, or you're going to play pickleball, or video games, or even cornhole at a tailgate. Don't you bring my love of
Sandeep Parikh:
pickleball
Omar Najam:
into this. There's so many ways that you can compete with friends and family, and I think gamifying that and digitizing all this offline stuff that's happening is a massive opportunity.
Sandeep Parikh:
We gotta gamify games, it's the games have been just un gamified for too long It's time to finally fucking gamify them. I think we need
Omar Najam:
to gamify games. can I read you another quotation Sandeep? So this is from this is from the company subreddit. I don't get it Hey, man Bet you $5 I can beat you at shooting hoops. Okay, but put it in the apps of Dave and Buster's so it can take a cut.
Sandeep Parikh:
I Just really feel like David Buster's deserves a little bit of this. Yeah, it's like instead of tipping you just give a table rake. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Exactly.
Omar Najam:
How you feeling about this? Pro or con? You've been a little unclear. Is
Sandeep Parikh:
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're at with the story
Omar Najam:
where I'm at? Yeah me a Majority shareholder in lucra? Sandeep. I'm bringing this app to ABCD. I'm bringing this app to WikipeD&D. I'm bringing back the among us streams that y'all were chatting about before we went live. And I'm Having us place bets on among us. It is going to be digital betting Empire. From this I will build my temple and I'm so excited for you to live in my future, My friend. And you will see the light soon of placing little $5 bets. Just by hitting a little button. And when we do that bubble game where it's the two alligators that have to do like the dill bubbles to the colors, it's going to make that game so exciting for you. I gotta tell you
Sandeep Parikh:
that when you said bet on the among us, that actually gave me a little tickle of that actually would be fun.
Everyone:
My JSA training is being too powerful.
Sandeep Parikh:
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 our special interview segment,"Not a Doctor!?!", where we search out far and wide to find somebody out there who we love, who has a cool job or career that, yeah, that's right, is "Not a Doctor!?!". So ladies and gentlemen, it's time to bring out the love of our collective lives, Vince Caso.
Vince Caso:
Hi, everyone! Whoa! Vince, there he is. I love the fanfare. There
Omar Najam:
he is. There he is.
Sandeep Parikh:
Vince. It's wonderful to have you here, man.
Omar Najam:
Vince, how are you doing man? Thank
Vince Caso:
you for
Omar Najam:
joining
Vince Caso:
us. Man, I'm doing good.
Omar Najam:
Alright, so for those of
Sandeep Parikh:
you unaware of the great Vince Caso, I have a good history with this man, we both starred in "The Guild" together."The Guild", of course, is Felicia 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 the show, I believe, is the thing. Oh God, probably. I might be making that up and lying.
Vince Caso:
We're in the Smithsonian.,
Sandeep Parikh:
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 exhibit in the Smithsonian. It is in the American History 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 video, her avatar's outfit.
Vince Caso:
It's more than a little bit of an existential mind. Fuck to be in a museum while you still live. See, it's a bizarre feeling. Oh, I see. Thing. I see Vince, you
Sandeep Parikh:
don't, you don't have to spend all that time live in the museum. You realize that,
Omar Najam:
right? It's, you don't have to. It's all I have going for me case, man. It took us so long to get Vince on the show because he's not allowed to come to life until this nighttime when
Everyone:
all the patrons leave
Sandeep Parikh:
Oh man. I love it. Have you, did you actually go Vince? Oh yeah, we all went to the open, right? Of it?
Vince Caso:
No, I haven't seen it.
Sandeep Parikh:
You haven't seen it? No. Where the fuck were you when we all went to the open?
Everyone:
I didn't even hear about that. I don't know. You weren't invited. Oh shit. What an awkward interview this has become. I should update my email on that, whatever list that was.
Sandeep Parikh:
I don't remember anymore. I remember getting a text
Vince Caso:
after. That it happened.
Omar Najam:
Oh, I remember
Sandeep Parikh:
what it was. We just happened to have a convention in DC that me and Jeff were invited to. What convention was this? Vince, it was AwesomeCon? AwesomeCon?
Vince Caso:
I believe. AwesomeCon's great. I've been to that one as well. We did the whole thing as a cast as well one time.
Sandeep Parikh:
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:
AwesomeCon more than once. Once it was just a couple of you. Once it was the whole cast.
Sandeep Parikh:
It was, I will say this. The first time I ever had, Weed gummies was'cause of Jeff Lewis. at Awesome Con. Fuck.
Vince Caso:
Okay. I was there for that one., this is what I'm saying. I remember them kicking in at dinner. So you're telling me,
Omar Najam:
You were there and they're like, we're gonna go to our unveiling at the Smithsonian. And Vince, you're like, "nah, I'm good. The cherry blossoms." Here's the problem. I have
Vince Caso:
no memory of that, so I have to assume I was invited and either, didn't hear or ignored the invitation. That's fair.
Sandeep Parikh:
That's awful. I don't think it was like a big unveiling. I think it was just like, you could go to the museum and see it. I'm sure Felicia was invited to some cool thing. That we were not. It was just, yeah, I went to go see it. Take a picture of yourself at the fucking Smithsonian.
Omar Najam:
okay, we're doing a lot of bits, but it is wild. How does it feel to know that Brown kids visiting, Washington D. C., going to the Smithsonian, will go see a picture of"The Guild" and point to it and go, Parents, I want to grow up to be like him, when they're pointing at Vince Caso. How do you think that makes you feel?
Sandeep Parikh:
that's pretty fucked up. I honestly, I want to be that. Yeah, I want to be that preteen Vince Caso is what I want.
Vince Caso:
Dude, nobody wants to be that guy. I've known him since
Sandeep Parikh:
you were, how old were you when we met? 14? You were 14? Oh, 14
Vince Caso:
or 15, yeah, Wow.
Sandeep Parikh:
yeah. it was wild. What a wild experience that was. I'm so glad I
Vince Caso:
got that part because in the beginning I was not good. I'm so glad I got that.
Sandeep Parikh:
I don't think that's true. I think you were always quite good, at playing a little shit. You were just like this little f freakish, one of those like trolls. You're playing an absolute online troll. I'm just glad that like the very, you nailed that role.
Vince Caso:
Smarminess worked so well for the character in the first couple seasons. Yeah,
Sandeep Parikh:
who, I don't think any of us knew what the hell we were doing, you were fine. We were getting paid in bagels at first.
Omar Najam:
Nice!
Sandeep Parikh:
But Vince, you also are a magician. It's
Vince Caso:
true.
Sandeep Parikh:
Vince can do some sick magic tricks. I remember you impressing Neil Patrick Harris. No!
Omar Najam:
Oscar hosting Neil Patrick Harris?
Vince Caso:
At one of our first SDCCs, we attended a screening of Dr. Horrible's sing along blog with Joss Whedon, NPH, Nathan Fillion was there as well, and we all went to a bar afterwards. And we're doing, Neil and I were like tag teaming doing magic for an exceptionally drunk Joss Whedon.
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, that's right. You guys were like going back and forth. I, and now you're like, we're dueling wizards. Basically it was like Vince Caso and Neil Patrick
Omar Najam:
Harris. A lot of you watching are like, oh, is it like closeup magic where it's oh, is this your card? no. Folks, this was, they were both like trapped on the top of a tower. Vince had to whisper to a moth and had to wait for his escape.. . Sandeep Parikh: Oh yeah. It was pretty wild man. and Neil Patrick Harris is Voldemort man, he just really. No, I'm kidding. It was wonderful. It was wonderful. Why don't we get into a little bit of your kind of creative journey? that's part of what we try to do in this segment is what would you call yourself now? I feel like you've been a magician, you're a TTRPG er, I've, you've been a streamer, you've been, obviously, an actor, a writer, take us through what, like, why did you jump into this career? like what's motivated you?
Vince Caso:
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 a lot of people as well as most of us are not just a single thing. but for me, it's from childhood, I was always an absolute fucking ham. And willing to do whatever I had to do to, soak up the attention of the moment, whenever I could. From school plays to other little bits to playing pretend with my friends and designing the fictional worlds myself for all of our little games. that's been my life this whole time. When I found out you can do that, to some degree, professionally, I dove headfirst into acting, auditioning, and, getting, My first couple films, first couple shows,"The Guild" and all that. and since then, Lord knows, yeah, my life's had some funky ups and downs, wearing a lot of hats, doing a lot of random ass shit, a lot of weird careers. Yeah. Oh, those of you listening,
Sandeep Parikh:
just FYI, he's wearing a hat right now. He's got it on right now.
Vince Caso:
to sum up, you know obviously a lot of us who are in like the improver or Entertainment space have also dipped a toe or dove headfirst into the TTRPG space because it's yeah It's a way for us to perform and it's a very has a very low barrier to entry, low cost of entry, and allows us to ham it up, have fun, put out content, and work with other people who we love. So naturally I did tend toward that, especially when the pandemic started. We, we started an online series, a streaming series called Failed Safe, did that for several years, but these days I do love TTRPGs. I'm still doing them. I do write, content for that field. actually a game that I wrote for just came out called ""Adventure Party"". But you basically play a single round of combat or a single round of actions in this hypothetical scenario. And it's, that's all it is that one round and then the resolution, but then it's gamified in the sense of you also are placing bets on But you're essentially betting on the outcomes of other people's roles based on how they narrate their action. So it has a fun, slightly, slightly, playing off of each other, playing against each other. But also is great for players new to D& D because it teaches you how to narrate or describe your action in a way that is very accurate to the role that you got. and, it's very fun, the games out now. But yeah, these days it's focusing more on acting, writing and production, traditional media. That's where I have always found myself the happiest, voiceover, live action and writing. and so these days I'm working on. multiple short films, I've got seven TV pilots I'm trying to, pitch and get out there. and auditioning, on voiceover, and live action, and I'm working on a novel.
Sandeep Parikh:
I feel so lazy
Omar Najam:
now. Yeah, I started making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich today.
Sandeep Parikh:
so you're spinning lots of plates. Let me ask about the TTRPG thing because Vince, I think, you I really saw, for a while you were just this punk ass kid. Oh, wow. this 14 year old, your parents 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 my perspective, seeing you run these games and DMing is you're like, that's our boy, it's just, it's incredible. I really think you're an unbelievable DM. I just was absolutely floored. You were this kid who like. Kept ruining takes because you kept laughing At all the improv that jeff and I were doing or whatever. And we're like, "I love Vince But if he could like not ruin this take it'd be really great." to this guy who like is a weaver of worlds and I said this before and I truly mean it. I was like, "Dude, you got like Brennan Lee Mulligan vibes" like true like a really incredible gift at, building a universe. You do it in such a fun, funny way. Cause now I've played a few games with you. So good at taking everyone's little crazy, dumb ideas and then actually pushing it through the narrative and having it like, almost like those, Play-Doh factories come out the other side as oh, wow, we made a whole feast out of this thing. it's really? it's an art form. and I've just seen you absolutely own it. I love, playing games with you. Tell me from your perspective, like what's the trick? what are, gimme some secret sauce. To DMing and doing this stuff, being a weaver of worlds.
Vince Caso:
You're so kind. Thank you so much. People talk about imposter syndrome, which I, I'm thankfully not as, not as affected by an idea that, success or adulation is undeserved, but that there is always so much more credit due than just given to one person. And for me, I always feel like I'm clinging by my fingertips off the shoulders of giants. when it comes to improv, for example, like I, you know me, I didn't know when I was doing"The Guild" and so much of my character and my personality as an improv came from absorbing what you and Jeff Lewis were doing and how you guys did that. and as a DM, as a role player started out once again, pretty shit and then really took the time to absorb what great people were doing and how they played. And having enough of a lack of ego to realize you always can get better and you should never endeavor to be the smartest person in the room. and Omar as well has been a massive inspiration for me as a role player. I think he's one of the best actual play role players around right now in the business, which is why I was so desperate to have him on any show that I make. and at all the live performances that we were doing as well.
Everyone:
great speech, Vince.
Omar Najam:
what would you say is your least favorite class?
Vince Caso:
my least favorite D and D class because it should be one of my favorites. and that is the beast master Ranger, where the idea of having animal companions being able to build like this cadre of of friends around you that you can manipulate and not manipulate, but like using combat and for very actions That should be such a wonderful experience for a player, but as written in raw, they're so underpowered and so just difficult and clunky to use. Hopefully, the next edition is going to be handling that, but, ah, ugh, it's not fun. Friend of the show,
Omar Najam:
Dale Kingsmill has a whole thing about that. I would highly recommend, Messaging your giant, by the way, your friend,
Vince Caso:
Dale Kingsville also, yeah, my God, her videos were absolutely pivotal to me in the beginning of my DMing career. like even if I didn't use like every single little technique and development that she pioneered in those, in that content, it's just her perspective on DMing as an art form and how technical and precise that she gets with it made me Realize the way that I should be approaching that craft and I'm eternally grateful to her for that.
Omar Najam:
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 can take the core concept of it and just go and go off to the races with it, different ways to play different ways to like, create horror or comedy or terrain. Um,
Sandeep Parikh:
just one viewer submitted question for you there, Vince, to close this thing out. Oh, sure. How does it feel to have the middle name Elizabeth? I
Vince Caso:
don't even remember when this fucking started. I think it was Anthony Carboni who kicked that off. Just calling me Vincent Elizabeth Queso. it's a great, it's a great middle name. I wouldn't trade it for the world. And I appreciate Anthony Carboni for naming me.
Sandeep Parikh:
Can you settle this once and for all? Is it Queso or Q?
Vince Caso:
I hate that you don't know. I
Sandeep Parikh:
know this is
Vince Caso:
for the viewers at home.
Everyone:
I know what it is. I know it's the cheese.
Vince Caso:
everyone always mispronounces my name, Queso, and it's just, it's not cheese. It's traditionally here in America, we say Caso, but if you're saying it more correctly, it'd be the Roman vowel, so Caso, but all the actual family says Caso.
Sandeep Parikh:
I'd just like you to go back to the beginning of this interview. play the tape on that, if any of this actually recorded.
Vince Caso:
None of it got through, man.
Sandeep Parikh:
You will find that I said, Caso. So I did say it with the fuckin
Vince Caso:
Roman!
Sandeep Parikh:
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 A is a tricky letter. It's a tricky ass letter. And at least for, in, in Hindi, right? Like we have 56 letters as opposed to the American 26, right? So there's a lot of mapping that has to occur when we anglicize people's names. and it's not close to one, right? so for those of you out there, if you meet a South Asian. person, likely, and they have an A in their name, likely, even though that's not really true for Omar now, I just realized, right? It's not Omar. Is it Omar? is it a correct pronunciation? Oh my god, here
Omar Najam:
we go again. This is Hindi class 101. Listen, I started writing my name 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 my teacher was like, I think you're pronouncing your name wrong. And I went, oh.
Delvan Neville:
And I forgot what it was.
Sandeep Parikh:
Listen, I'll tell you this. The way that you should pronounce your name is the way that you do pronounce your name. congratulations. Honest to God, though,
Vince Caso:
and this is not even a bit. I really feel like Kids should be taught at least a basic understanding of IPA, of the International Phonetic Alphabet in school.
Everyone:
Oh, I thought you meant the beer.
Vince Caso:
Just
Sandeep Parikh:
learn to speak Hindi, dude. Hindi is a syllabic language. You cannot mispronounce a word because every actual character is one single sound.
Vince Caso:
I like Japanese for the same reason. It's very easy to pronounce once you just know what the sounds are. They really don't vary much.
Omar Najam:
Okay, I would like to speak on behalf of everyone else. Y'all, those languages are hard as hell to learn. I understand that you three geniuses can just flip open a book a la Doctor Who and absorb this. But
Sandeep Parikh:
I can't obviously because I don't speak either of those languages that well. But I did do well in Hindi in my in college. I got an A in both semesters. Amazing. That's what really matters.
Omar Najam:
Speaking of languages, dialects, different cultural, regional, innotations, I would like to say, just really quickly, I want to embarrass him to high hell. Vince is one of the greatest living GMs. It needs to be said, I genuinely, this is not a bit, this is not a bit. I feel like you don't get your flowers nearly enough. it is crazy to me as someone who's had the absolute pleasure of being at your table, it is bonkers to me, that people are not constantly celebrating you and also using you as like a studyable bar, at the level that I see some other folks, there's no reason to get in our heads about it, but I do just want to say Vince is, if you have the ability to watch any of the shows, or any of the games that Vince has run, or if Vince is appearing at a convention near you and is doing a live game, get it, get that ticket.
Sandeep Parikh:
I was just going to say that you can play with Vince through,"Play With the Pros". You "Play With the Pros",
Omar Najam:
play with this pro, because Vince is the kind of GM who has a fully built out imagined universe. Is able to improvise on the fly so that you can feel like this universe is also catered to you and you are an organic, member of this environment. Also, with all that serious hard work, just plays for the goofs, and if there's just a real badonk behind that is popping up as a joke, Vince can roll with that, Vince can make that happen. I cannot recommend highly enough, Vince truly is one of the greatest GMs, which is why we are going to force him to now play in our game, which will be one of the worst run games you have ever experienced in your entire life. This is called Omar's Fantastical Tech Space, Gauntlet of a Thousand Nightmares.
Vince Caso:
What a transition.
Everyone:
Let's go.
Vince Caso:
Oh, the graphic!
Omar Najam:
Oh, Delvan went all out. Delvan all out. Oh my god, there's a whole thingy. If you're
Sandeep Parikh:
listening on the audio podcast, you're gonna have to jump into the YouTube and check these graphics out. yeah.
Omar Najam:
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, flashy intro, beautiful graphics, beautiful 1987 graphics. Delvan has gone all out on this. In terms of people getting their flowers, I 100 percent cannot sing the praises of Delvan enough. Did this today in a matter of a couple hours before the show. Sandeep, Vince, I'm gonna run you through a game that Delvan and I found. This isn't ours. We did a lot of deep digging at, digital thrift stores to find this game. ignore the fact that this happens to be called Omar's Fantastical Text Based Gauntlet of a Thousand Nightmares. It has nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with me. You will be going through a text based adventure, I will be reading out to you what's going on, we can discuss a little bit. I am stuck to a script, this is a text based adventure. There's only so much I can do to help you, okay? if you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer them, but keep in mind this isn't my game. I didn't make this up, I just found it. Are you both ready to enter into the world of Omar's Fantastical Text Based Gauntlet of a Thousand Nightmares?
Vince Caso:
I'm so fucking ready.
Sandeep Parikh:
Oh, okay. Alright. I thought I didn't know if that was a trick question. I didn't know if they were already in the game. I was. Okay. Whoa.
Omar Najam:
I'm ready. Commit you. Wake up in a tavern. Actually, I can read this right off of here. you wake up in a tavern, the establishment is dimly lit with an assortment of patrons from different regions, speaking languages you cannot comprehend. The barkeep, Elkin asks you in a gruff voice. Greetings traveler. My name is Elkin. Perhaps you'll be wanting a beverage before you start your adventure of seeking out the cursed diamond. What be your order? I'll have an IPA. you order an IPA? Yeah, extra coffee. Okay, that's not in our menu, unfortunately.
Vince Caso:
Hold on, first of all, I love that it screamed the response at you. I'm sorry, I don't know how to order
Omar Najam:
IPA!
Vince Caso:
Can I get the cheese plate?
Omar Najam:
Cheese plate? Okay, let's see if we can get you a cheese plate. Scream.
Vince Caso:
So hold on, let me just clarify. For this adventure, there is a correct answer.
Sandeep Parikh:
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, and those last two responses said, I'm sorry, we don't have that.
Vince Caso:
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:
diamond.
Omar Najam:
Okay! Elkin responds, I will give you the diamond in exchange for the crystal sword. Great. I want to ask,
Delvan Neville:
where is the crystal sword? I had high hopes you were going to find that, Vince.
Vince Caso:
I think I'm going with Sandeep. Would you say, where is the crystal sword? ask him?
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah.
Vince Caso:
Yeah, absolutely. Where is that?
Omar Najam:
Okay.
Everyone:
We're typing in. Where is the crystal sword?
Omar Najam:
You ask Elkin. Where's the crystal sword . I'm sorry. I don't know how to wear a crystal sword. How, okay. Give crystal sword a crystal
Vince Caso:
sword. Yeah. Yeah. I think we have it. This is the end of our adventure. Yeah, we got this Now.
Delvan Neville:
We, now is the test of whether or not I put the logic to check to see if you've got it or not. I'm sorry. I
Sandeep Parikh:
dunno how to give crystal sword. how about check inventory?
Omar Najam:
Oh,
Vince Caso:
I like
Omar Najam:
that. Okay. I will say, you both, check your inventory. you currently do not have any items in your inventory. were you to leave the tavern, you might be able to find items for your inventory.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. How about go north? I just feel like it's one of those, right? I hope that's
Delvan Neville:
where the door is. Ready to go north? Who cares? Nope. You cannot go that way.
Everyone:
Leave tavern? Bye! You would try to leave the tavern.
Omar Najam:
You exit the establishment to find yourself at the center of the meeting of four roads. One road leads north, where you hear the sound of rushing river. One road leads south. first of all, Sandeep, first of all, I'm reading. Second of all, when you tried to go north, you ran into a wall, okay? you were inside the tavern. Now you're outside. You exit the establishment to find yourself at the center of the meeting of four roads. One road leads north where you hear the sound of a rushing river. One road leads south where 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
Sandeep Parikh:
just, can we not go to the bog? Like, when would you ever choose the bog? Don't choose the bog. Sandeep
Vince Caso:
I want to go with your gut. I think north is the ticket.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay, great.
Vince Caso:
Let's go to the rushing water.
Omar Najam:
Okay. You travel north and are stopped by a raging river. How do you attempt to cross? I will, since we haven't loaded it, I will tell you what is in your inventory now.
Everyone:
Yeah.
Omar Najam:
One of you has We
Everyone:
all of a sudden got stuff.
Omar Najam:
Yeah, it loaded. One of you has a large stone, the other has a boat.
Vince Caso:
Okay, I presume one of these will come in more handy here.
Everyone:
I'm so tempted to skip the stone. I'll cross the lake.
Vince Caso:
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:
Continue? Nope.
Vince Caso:
Okay. Use boat. Let's just use boat. We can't die. Let's use the boat, yeah, absolutely.
Omar Najam:
You unleash a boat into the water. The rapids send the boat into the air, crashing into a river nymph that curses you and strikes you with a water bolt. You turn to sparkle dust. Oh my god! Fuck. You wake up in a tavern. The establishment is dimly lit with a sermon of patrons from different regions speaking languages you cannot comprehend. The barkeep, Elkin, asks you in a gruff voice, Greetings, traveler. My name is Elkin. Perhaps you'll be wanting a beverage before you start your adventure seeking out the cursed diamond. This has to be
Everyone:
bonus content, okay? This can't be a part of the episode. I can already hear Anand, our producer, yelling at us that this
Sandeep Parikh:
episode's too long. We got This is We cut the news.
Vince Caso:
This part has to go in. I assure
Omar Najam:
you
Vince Caso:
this is gold. Okay, I have an idea. I have an idea. Let's leave the tavern first of all. And second, Sandeep You exit the
Omar Najam:
establishment to find yourself at the center of And you can skip dialogue
Vince Caso:
if you want. I think, Sandeep but I think I was wrong. I think the opposite of your gut is correct.
Everyone:
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:
You travel west and arrive at the mouth of, a skull cave. The entrance is blocked by a tree and a stone in a language you cannot comprehend. What do you do?
Sandeep Parikh:
open Duolingo.
Omar Najam:
Move
Delvan Neville:
tree?
Vince Caso:
Can we shift the, move the tree?
Sandeep Parikh:
Use tree? Yeah, use that tree. Okay,
Omar Najam:
you use tree? I'm sorry, I don't know how to use tree. Yeah,
Sandeep Parikh:
stop fucking yelling at me in all caps. Okay, how about, Entrance block,
Vince Caso:
smash stone? we have a big rock in our inventory, right? Oh yeah, do we
Omar Najam:
still have, do we still have the stone? Yeah, you still have the large stone in your inventory. Okay. Alright. Okay, let's use the stone. Yeah, let's do it, yeah. Okay. The tree is insulted by your gift and curses you. You are hit by a tree bolt and you turn to sparkle dust.
Everyone:
What's with all these bolts?! You wake up in a tavern, the establishment is dimly lit with this.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay, skip cutscene. Leave tavern.
Everyone:
You exit the establishment to find yourself in the center.
Omar Najam:
We're gonna get stardust. You travel south and face an uphill journey. Traversing the mountains, you get to a large canyon. Breaking your path, how do you attempt to cross? your inventory, as a reminder, you have a large stone and a bridge. Okay.
Vince Caso:
Um.
Omar Najam:
We're gonna fucking die again.
Sandeep Parikh:
we're gonna, yeah, we're gonna die again. Use the bridge! Okay. Use bridge. Because we went
Vince Caso:
the direction where we need that.
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay. Oh, I see.
Omar Najam:
You send out the bridge to connect one side of the canyon to the other. The bridge is not long enough and falls onto the head of a giant. The giant curses you and strikes you with a mountain bolt. You turn to sparkle dust.
Everyone:
You wake up in the tavern. The establishment is dimly lit with a
Sandeep Parikh:
Leave.
Everyone:
You exit the establishment to find yourself at the center of the meeting of worlds. Go east. Is east? Yeah, it's the last one, right?
Sandeep Parikh:
It's the last one, and I wonder if Okay, let's see what we get now.
Omar Najam:
You travel east and arrive at the Eternal Bog. You cannot easily traverse the expansive wetland. How do you attempt to cross?
Sandeep Parikh:
Okay, let's use the opposite of, the thing we think we should use. Okay, you have a blimp
Omar Najam:
and a large stone. We have what? We have a what in a stone? A blimp and a large stone.
Sandeep Parikh:
Use large stone.
Vince Caso:
Yes, use stone. The blimp will kill us. Okay.
Omar Najam:
A little odd. You drop the large stone into the bog. A bog witch rises from the still water and says I accept your gift. The waters part and you make your way across the expanse.
Sandeep Parikh:
Now I want to know if we could do that in the other ones.
Omar Najam:
Probably. You arrive at the blood dungeon. A "wereknight", a wolf that turns into a knight under the full moon, leaps at you and shrieks, where is my locket? How do you respond?
Vince Caso:
Give
Omar Najam:
locket!
Sandeep Parikh:
Do we have, what's in our inventory, do we get a locket? In your
Omar Najam:
inventory you currently only have a blimp. Use blimp. The wereknight, a wolf that turns into a knight under the full moon, Leaps at you and shrieks, where's my locket? And curses you. You're hit by the wolf bolt, And turn into sparkle dust.
Sandeep Parikh:
At least this is a wolf bolt this time.
Omar Najam:
Wolf bolts are pretty dope. You wake up in a tavern, the establishment is dimly
Sandeep Parikh:
lit. Leave, You exit the establishment
Omar Najam:
to find yourself in the center of four roads. I wanna try this,
Sandeep Parikh:
go north.
Omar Najam:
Go north. Use stone. Our first instinct. You travel north and are stopped by a raging river. How do you attempt to cross? Use large stone! You drop the large stone into raging waters. A river nymph rises from the channel and says, I accept your gift. The river parts and you are granted access to the other bank. I
Vince Caso:
like it. I like it.
Omar Najam:
You arrive at the house of the fabled wizard. She emerges from the estate and asks, What do you seek, travelers? A crystal sword? A key? Knowledge? Oh,
Everyone:
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 to know what we want.
Sandeep Parikh:
no, I love that. Let's get some knowledge. You seek knowledge. old people love to just give you knowledge. Yes. they love to speak wisdom, so let's get knowledge. Give me a knowledge bolt.
Omar Najam:
The wizard gives you what you wish, but in doing so curses you and strikes you with a magic dart. You turn to sparkle dust. You wake up in a tavern. The establishment is dealing with an assortment of patrons from different regions speaking languages, all of which you can comprehend. The barkeep Elkin asks you in a gruff voice, Greetings traveler, my name is Elkin, perhaps you'll be wanting a beverage before you start your adventure of seeking out the cursed diamond. This bitch is Undertale!
Sandeep Parikh:
Holy shit.
Omar Najam:
Okay.
Vince Caso:
Okay. Okay. This is Edge of Tomorrow, motherfucker. Let's do this. Let's just try
Sandeep Parikh:
to So now we can understand what they're saying. So let's go back to that place 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:
yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
We've never ordered any Let's try to order one Okay. You order one beer. Do you want to just order a beer or one beer? Order
Omar Najam:
a beer. I'm sorry, I don't know how to order one beer. I think we're gonna go west.
Sandeep Parikh:
Leave, just leave. Yeah, leave, and then go west. You exit the establishment to find yourself in the
Omar Najam:
center of the You travel west and arrive at the mouth of the Skull Cave. The entrance is blocked by a tree and a stone that reads, Place upon me a gift and speak politely. The entrance will be revealed. What do you do? so can we give it the gift of the stone?
Sandeep Parikh:
Yeah, use stone. Use large stone or whatever it is that we're supposed to we have here.
Omar Najam:
The tree is insulted by your gift and curses you. You are hit by a tree bolt and turned to sparkle dust. Motherfucker.
Delvan Neville:
I do feel like I need to point out that's what you did the last time you were there. Oh, we did? I thought now Before you even read the thing, you used the stone there. Okay, let's be clear.
Vince Caso:
But I thought now with the knowledge, we would know to give the gift and then also speak politely this time. What if we try and get other gifts from the wizard?
Sandeep Parikh:
yeah, like a key or some shit.
Omar Najam:
Okay. Wait. Let's go. Go north. Now I want to solve this. Use large
Delvan Neville:
rock.
Omar Najam:
Yeah. I feel like,
Vince Caso:
Okay, look, I just want to know, It's probably gonna kill us, I just want to ask for the crystal sword and see what happens.
Omar Najam:
Ask for the crystal sword, let's go. The wizard gives you what you wish, but in doing so, He curses you and strikes you with a magical. Great, we
Sandeep Parikh:
go back to the tavern? You
Omar Najam:
wake up in a tavern. The establishment is dimly lit with an assortment of patrons from different regions, all speaking 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 you realize that the large stone you have been carrying has been the cursed diamond the entire time. Wow!
Vince Caso:
Wow. And you know what? Just like Baldur's Gate 3, I feel like there are so many hidden depths to this game we simply never plumbed.
Sandeep Parikh:
I just want to play again, and again, as different characters. The sheer replayability. And try to order different
Vince Caso:
types of beer. And different types of beer.
Sandeep Parikh:
I hated that.
Vince Caso:
Okay, as someone who grew up playing and was raised by text RPGs, like I was a homeschool kid for a lot of my teenage years, I played text based RPGs, fucking ard mud, fucking all those greats for so long. I love that genre.
Sandeep Parikh:
I did too. so we had the TI 85 calculator, like that's how I learned how to program in those things, I made those text based games, based upon my brother, my older brother, he used to have an Apple IIc, and him and his nerdy friend Colin, they would just make these like awesome text based games, where you always, in all of their games, you woke up hungover and threw up to start. didn't matter where this place is, 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 years older than me, Oh, okay. I was, like, probably seven, and they were, I guess, seventeen. Write what you know. Write what you know. Write what you know.
Vince Caso:
That was exceptional. The twist of the stone, I'm still reeling.
Sandeep Parikh:
Vince, thank you so much for joining us and running that insane dungeon with me. Vince, where can people find you?
Vince Caso:
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:
Listen, if you need a game to play on Twitch, we got one for ya.
Vince Caso:
I think I might specialize, it's just that text RPG. See if you can speedrun it, I
Omar Najam:
dare ya.
Vince Caso:
Uh, but yeah, that's me.
Omar Najam:
Vince, we've had quite enough tonight. Vince, we cannot thank you enough. Thank you for joining us, thank you for chatting about your life, and thank you for playing that game. Buddy, we will see you in the near future. We got many conventions coming up. And, and some shows, and there might be one coming up that I might have a little creative hand in that I might be bothering you about. Something to do with, two GMs, two players, but only two people, so we're simultaneously the GM and the players at the same time. Oh, fun! Hell yeah, I'm down. Amazing. Vince, we'll talk to you in a little bit, bud have a great night.
Vince Caso:
Thank you all for having me.
Omar Najam:
That was so great. Sandeep, what do you say we head over to our Desi of the Week?
Sandeep Parikh:
Let's do that. Hey, our Desi of the Week is Payal Kapadia winner of the Grand Prix Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for"All We Imagine As Light". The filmmaker Payal Kapadia made history by becoming the first person from India to win the prestigious Grand Prix. The second highest prize after the Palme d'Or. Pretty cool.
Omar Najam:
That's right. this is a drama centered on two nurses navigating life, love, and sisterhood in Mumbai. It's the first Indian movie in three decades to compete in Cannes main competition. Payal Kapadia is a Mumbai based filmmaker who studied film directing at the Film and Television Institute of India. Her
Sandeep Parikh:
acceptance speech included a plea, and here's a quote, "Please don't wait another 30 years to have an Indian film." I think that's reasonable. I think it's a reasonable request. the win has been, hugely celebrated across India with many on social media and top politicians remarking on its significance, including the prime minister, Narendra Modi praising Kapadia's historic feat and her talent. And then, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the main opposition political party, congratulating her, Kapadia and, Anasuya Sengupta, the first Indian actor to win Best Actress at Cannes. Let's
Omar Najam:
go! Let's absolutely go. Congratulations on being the Desi of the Week. Absolutely amazing. we have a runner up for Desi of the Week. Bruhat Soma, who is 12 years old and won the Scripps National Spelling Bee in a spell off. Yeah.
Sandeep Parikh:
it's like penalty kicks, but for spelling. Yeah,
Everyone:
I didn't know they did that.
Omar Najam:
A 12 year old from Tampa, Florida bested competition Thursday with this spelling of abseal, a word used to describe descending a vertical surface area with a rope attached to one's body. Soma spelled 29 out of 30 words correctly in the spell off. This is Scripps second ever spell off in which competitors have 90 seconds to spell as many words given to them as possible.
Sandeep Parikh:
Wow. That's crazy. Okay. So they just get a bunch of words. We just got to spell like crazy. I got to see that. Okay. This was Soma's third year in the national spelling bee. I also didn't know that. I didn't know that you can keep competing. I'm learning so much. He, last year tied for 74th place. The first year tied for 163rd place. So that's quite a leap up to number one. Pretty incredible. yeah, this is huge. someone's going to receive 50 G's. Oh my God. In cash. It's just it comes in a briefcase. I love it. from Scripps, a medal and a trophy among several other prizes. I wonder what these several other prizes are. It's and here's a slinky.
Omar Najam:
Soma congratulations. Absolutely incredible. Congrats. Huge. That is so rad. Bruhat Soma, congratulations on being the runner up of "Desi of the Week".
Sandeep Parikh:
Alrighty, and that's the show. As always, Our one big ask for you, dear listener, is just find one person in your life who 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
Omar Najam:
share the love and share the love with us because we want to feature you in the show. Send us a question that you want some culturally specific advice on and we'll answer it. We'll answer it poorly. Yeah, but we'll answer it on the show. You can write in or even send us a quick audio file of the question. Tell us your name and where you're from and send it to abcdpodcastshow@gmail.com
Sandeep Parikh:
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:
yes, the genre that was suggested from chat comes from, some of our guests, community, and you are to read them as if you are sussing them out in Among Us.
Sandeep Parikh:
Oh. Okay. Okay. Okay. Alright. Alright, let me just, first of all, let me tell you about Joshua O'Ryan, okay? I'm pretty sure when Talby M. Carlo and Benjamin Lowe were murdered in the library, I'm pretty sure Joshua O'Ryan was the last one there. That's interesting.
Omar Najam:
I saw Miranda Hollinger and Michael Long playing with the wires, but Raelynn Fox was just staring at the window while Selena B. was by the transporter. Yeah, no, and
Sandeep Parikh:
I'm pretty sure Nervous Rex, there's gotta be at least two baddies here, and I'm pretty sure Nervous Rex, I don't know, could be Serage. also Varun Moldyvort was doing this thing where he was just like pretending to do the task. And then Philip dies on, I just never
Omar Najam:
trust, I'll never trust him. I did watch Kathleen Schlegel, Ducati, and Reverend Coutinho go into the vent several times and then appear, where bodies were, so I thought that was interesting.
Sandeep Parikh:
Oh, that's weird because Brandon Pace told me that Monroe Maxwell told them that Jeremy Schwartz told them that APD told them that Chris Simms told them that Dan Walley was definitely
Omar Najam:
Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. I'm willing to vote out Jeremy O'Brien and Astra just on the simple basis of possibly putting some heat on Brendan Bradley. For sure.
Sandeep Parikh:
And just to shout out our gods, I just want to make sure that everyone knows that these people are definitely innocent. Okay. Because they've been with 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.
Omar Najam:
Okay. Yeah, I can hard clear them. I can hard clear them. Okay, great. In that case, it's time to vote, folks. I think it's Sandeep.
Sandeep Parikh:
No, it is me. Yeah, actually, it's been me the whole time. ha!
Everyone:
ha! Yiddy bee, sons of bitches!
Omar Najam:
Alright. folks, this show is produced and edited by Anand Shah. This show's technical director and sound designer is Delvan Neville. This show's executive producers are Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah. This has been an EffinFunny production.
Sandeep Parikh:
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.