Pre-emptively Answered Questions
This is the part of the site usually reserved for Frequently Asked Questions, but since the JRT Show is in its infancy we barely have any readers at all, let alone persistently inquisitive ones.
Instead, I’ll be breaking tradition and using my psychic abilities to Pre-emptively Answer your most common Questions, future readers. Aren’t you impressed? Don’t bother hiding it, I know you are.
If you have a question not covered here, feel free to contact me.
Q: Who are you?
Q: What is JRT?
A: The JRT Show is pretty much me giving in to peer pressure and turning my text reviews into videos. People like being shown silly things exponentially more than reading diatribes about them and I live to entertain.
Of course, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to try my hand at this video review thing that’s all the rage with the kids these days. It also gives me a chance to throw in the phrase “Complete Creative Control” when talking about my work and that’s always a plus.
Q: Who guest-stars on the show?
A: Until Summer Glau, Felicia Day and David Boreanaz get back to me, I am giving my friends and family a chance to shine.
For recurring cast members, ask and ye shall receive detailed biographies.
Q: What’s with the accent?
A: It’s not a gimmick, nor is it the studio lights & cameras making me nervous. As any one of my friends can attest, I really talk extremely fast and in a low voice. In addition, my hearing is well below par, so you can imagine I make a rather frustrating company when it comes to clubs, discos, war-zones and other high-noise places.
At least, if you want to talk. If you want to dance, I bring it like it’s personal.
Believe it or not, I am actually making an effort to talk more like a normal human being during the videos, but it’s over 20 years of talking like a Dragonlance Gnome I am up against. I am hoping for improvement as I get more comfortable with the filming process.
Q: Are you ripping-off [insert name here]?
A: I’ve been thinking about doing video reviews since before my piece on Metal Gear Solid 4, but it’s during that game that I first put serious effort into it, envisioning the sketches I’d do just as I was writing down my normal piece. All that time idling through those cut-scenes had my imagination running wild I guess.
The general idea was this:I love being extremely detailed on my reviews and explaining things as if I am talking to the most casual of potential buyers, but the oxymoron there is that if you are, say, a casual strategy gamer, you are unlikely to read one bazillion words on a Total War title. Sprinkled with footage & sketches, however, that analysis might actually prove to be as entertaining as it is informative.
I eventually caught wind of the Nostalgia Critic and immediately loved his “YouTube-generation” take on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Through him I found out about the Angry Video Game Nerd and that was the icing on the cake: Someone had to do a show like that about contemporary pop-culture and that someone was going to be me.
So I sat down, storyboarded the whole thing and started scoping for a video camera.
Then came the ruinous day when TheSpoonyOne joined Nostalgia Critic‘s posse at ThatGuyWithTheGlasses. Don’t get me wrong, Spoony is hilarious and I gleefully devoured his body of work, but, as a result, I had to throw half of my script away! We apparently often have a similar train of thought and a lot of my ideas had Already Been Done by him, and done better at that. I even had a “playing with dolls” segment, something that’s all but trademarked by Spoony. Who knew?
So I rebuilt the script, clearing out anything that resembled The Spoony Experiment and decided to never check-out any other game reviewers whatsoever. The Internet is limitless and if I had to clear every bit that has Already Been Done, I’d be hard-pressed to end up with 5 Second Reviews.
Which, of course, has Already Been Done as well.
Anyway, the bottom-line is that if you think I am ripping-off the Nostalgia Critic/AVGN/Spoony, I assure you that I am doing my best to be original, I never consciously use jokes I’ve seen somewhere else, but we’re all a bunch of nerds that love video-games, campy movies and MST3K: the nature of the format guarantees some similarities. Besides, this has already worked both ways, even though these household names clearly don’t know who I am so can’t have possibly copied me on purpose.
If you think I’m ripping off anyone else, you’re outright wrong. I’m sure the guy/girl you are mentioning is awesome but I’ve never seen his/her work. And even if I did, they assured me they were over 18 and I have an alibi for the hours between 10 to 4 anyway.
My lawyer advises me we should wrap this up quick.
Q: Do you always have to answer simple questions in the most long-winded way possible?
A: No.
…
Actually, yes. You see, I have this disorder that [answer goes on for ten pages]