#Ian McQuown

[mischaetc]

IT’S HERE!!

Check out the first episodes of The Wandering Path TODAY, wherever you get podcasts! That’s our worldbuilding 2-parter AND our first story episode, “Time To Wake Up, Little One!”

I’m so proud of this show. My players Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, Ian McQuown & Mayanna Berrin are all crushing it both individually and together, and y’know for my first time as on-mic talent I think I’m doing a pretty good job too! It’s got resonant story themes, immersive sound design, and an EXCELLENT soundtrack. I think we’ve cooked up something really special here, and I’m so excited to finally be putting it out into the world.

Come wander with us!

[slyandthefamilybook]

g-d Andrew Nowak's delivery is pitch perfect every time

"This is dangerous, Mark!"

"I'm aWARE, AssHole"

[imgonnagetkilledbynutstink]

I would kill for Ian McQuown to play a character in a queer romance in a podcast cause his voice is so sweet and I'm certain it would absolutely hit different if his character was in love with a man

[danboman]

Podcasts 3

At the end of ars Paradoxica there’s a long conversation with members of the cast and crew.  It’s worth a listen.  But at one point, when talking about their next projects, staff writer Julian Mundy mentioned his comedy scifi show: StarTripper!!.  So as soon as I finished The Bright Sessions, I had that queued up and ready.

StarTripper!! is the first podcast I listened to that’s still ongoing, which is great because I get to hear the story unfold live and I get to actually support it!  I’m still bummed I never got to throw any money at ars, but I signed up to the StarTripper!! Patreon after the first episode.

The creators have never explicitly said so, but in my head StarTripper!! exists in the same narrative universe as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  That’s the feel and the tone I get from this show.  The lead character is a cubicle farm escapee with a burning wanderlust and more luck than sense.  He stumbles from adventure to adventure with good humor and a helpful mien, and it’s simply impossible not to smile as you listen.  The show also has a strong found family theme, with the cast growing from just Feston to include an entire crew of misfits, and I love them all dearly.

The show is produced and sound designed by Mischa Stanton, which explains why the sound quality is so good.  There’s a good bit of action in StarTripper!!!, and the audio always makes me feel like I’m right there at Feston’s side - for better or worse.

I could heap praise on the entire cast, but I definitely want to single out Ian McQuown, who plays the lead character.  He brings such a delightful charm to the role.  Feston has never been described in great detail, but he’s almost a cartoon character in my head, just from the way Ian brings him to life.

If you’re a fan of Douglas Adams, listen to this show.  Period.

5 stars, two thumbs

[thebrightsessions]

Entertainment Spotlight: Ian McQuown

Ian is an LA based actor and producer known for the YouTube comedy group, Extremely Decent, as well as a voice actor in the popular audio dramas: The Bright Sessions, The AM Archives, StarTripper!! & Deck The Halls! His credits inclue American Housewife, Trial & Error, Better Things, and For All Mankind. Ian took the time to answer some questions for us. Check it out:

You’ve worked on multiple podcasts -- what drew you to the medium?

Well, to be honest, Lauren drew me to it because TBS was my first narrative podcast. We met at a Rocky Horror Picture Show show. Anna Lore is our mutual friend and I think Anna is just talented as all get out, so anything she’s involved I want to be in. And, I don’t know, it was just one of those lucky breaks you get where a door opens and takes you to all these cool places you never anticipated.

On podcasting though, I really appreciate how much more possible it is to tell engaging stories without the boundaries of having to afford a set and a camera and insurance and etc etc etc. Like, I grew up with Star Wars, The Matrix, Cowboy Bebop— so when I imagine the stories I like, I’m usually picturing other worlds, space ships, people with super powers and those types of stories used to have a lot higher barrier to entry to make than they do now, which is just awesome.

If you could give a character from The Bright Sessions a spinoff series, who would you choose and what would the series be called?

I mean, no surprises here, but I’d love to see Damien’s early years. And I’d be super clever and call it something like... Damien: The Early Years. I'm dying for that content a little bit actually: Damien, before he became such a bad guy. Maybe a love story that doesn’t work out and leaves him really scarred? Villains so bad they created a villain instead of a victim—  that moment where we see the two roads Damien has to choose between and it totally shreds us when he makes the choice we all know he’s going to make, I mean, come ON you can see that, right? It’d be like the Star Wars prequels but without all the youngling killing and “NOOOOOOOO”’s and I want it.

Can you share a fun story or anecdote from the making of The Bright Sessions?

Haha, ok well it’s not really anything of note BUT: I remember Lauren had this area rug in her room, which as you probably know is where we would record, and it was this really nice, I think, red sort of floral rug that took up pretty much all the floor space because it was covering up the older apartment rug-floor underneath it. And it was, as I said, really cool, except it wasn’t a rug on a wood floor, right? It was a rug on a rug so it was a bit taller than the people who designed the room had planned for— the result of which was that you’d walk in and the room had this really awesome little vibe with this cute rug, and it was all very cozy, unless you looked directly behind you at the corner where the door had just spent ages scraping the surface of it, catching the corner, tearing little pieces out. And I may be getting apocryphal at this point, but I feel like by the time I had started coming around Lauren had straight up duct taped it to the floor, which really didn’t help the problem. And, I don’t know—again it’s not really anything momentous—but I just remember giving Lauren a particular amount of shit about it one day and us all having a really good laugh. And I really love that— there are jobs where you show up, keep your head down, do your work and leave, but then there are jobs like The Bright Sessions where you all get to become friends, and even if you don’t see each other for a while you sort of just get to pick up where you left off. And then those jobs turn into other jobs and you get to keep hanging out with your friends and peers and just making stuff you like— I’m a big fan of that.

If your life was a choose your own adventure, what decisions would viewers have to make on an average day?

OKAY, you wake up...

Water your garden before it gets to be 110 today, you cannot skip this step. You may however:

A) Stay out in the garden for longer if you get inspired and check if the tomatoes and peppers are ripe for picking.

Great! Now let’s make breakfast:

A) Make eggs, toast, fried tomatoes, and hash browns? 

B) Make (A) But also with Bacon? 

C) Make a smoothie?

D) There’s no time today, run to Whole Foods and get their incredibly priced $6 Egg, Bacon Cheese Breakfast burrito.

Awesome! You’ve eaten and now you can think. What work do you have to do?

A) Prep your audition, dummy! It’s due this afternoon, go fix your hair. 

B) You have a zoom meeting with actor friends at 11 to play around with some new material, put on a hat.

C) There is nothing you have to work on so stare at your computer and wonder if there’s new project you could be working on. Try to find that project, leave your hair as it.

Wow! You really had a great (insert previous choice here), let’s get you a coffee and take a TV break. What should we watch?!

A) That new show you haven’t seen yet because you need to watch everything so you know how to work on it should you get an audition for it.

B) Harley Quinn (your favorite new cartoon).

C) Teenage Bounty Hunters.

D) Farscape.

E) Nope, you just got an audition for tomorrow, everything is off the table, start working on it (Level Complete).

Lunch Time!!!

A) Turkey sandwich with pickles from the garden?

B) Trader Joe’s Margherita Pizza with basil and peppers from the garden?

C) Are we going to start another loaf of sourdough you basic mf?

D) Yes we probably are, but also (A) and (B).

Cool! I’ve eaten lunch. Now what?

A) You haven’t finished that work from this morning. Riiiight.

B)…More Harley Quinn…?

C) Let’s make pasta from scratch!

D) Let’s make ribs! From…ribs!

F) You just got an audition for tomorrow, everything is off the table, start working on it. (Level Complete).

Bangarang! You probably chose to start cooking dinner immediately after eating lunch. You ate it (and it rocked), what now?

A) You just got an audition for tomorrow, everything is off the table, start working on it. (Level Complete)

B) DnD with squad.

C) Go on a run, dude— you’re getting a Jaba chin….

D) Bring on the chin! Let’s watch TV until 2am! Here are your options:

A) Harley Quinn (your new favorite cartoon)

B) Teenage Bounty Hunters

C) Farscape

D) Put The Office on in the background and clean your house.

Level Complete.

As you can see I’m a very food-focused person. Also, I’m going to be real, that is truly what most of my days look like and I’m low-key a little mortified that ’taking a shower’ wasn’t a game option... 

Can you share your favorite piece of Bright Sessions / AM Archives fan art?

I love all the fan art that people make for my characters but this one from Franartz has always been really special to me. It’s so GQ, I just love it — and some of my favorite early AG moments are with Damien, who looks a little like he stepped out of a Gorrilaz album here— big fan. I’m a little obsessed with fan art actually, I save everything I come across— there’s a freckled red-headed series of Owen by TheFigureInTheCorner that makes me really happy. Seeing that my work has inspired someone else to make something of their own is really what’s up, you know? It makes me think about all the art and entertainment that has touched me over the years and I get a lot of joy from being a part of that cycle.

Thanks for taking the time, Ian! Give I Can Die When I'm Done a relisten right here.

[i-see-7-cats]

..... guess who just realized that agent owen green and feston pyxis are the same person

[arofili]

podcast posters ★ STARTRIPPER!! @startripperhq​

“Where would you like to go?” “Everywhere!”

[blog-of-frontiers]

Reblog if you knew Ian McQuown was talented af from the START

[startripperhq]

Showing You Something You Can’t See

[[This is cross-posted on the public feed on our Patreon!!]]

Hello travelers!! Julian here.

Maybe the most common question that podcast writers get is: "How is writing a podcast different than writing for film, or for TV?"The phrasing will change, but this is often what people who are interested in storytelling want to know. It's not a poorly considered question, either, and fans should never be afraid to ask it. But I thought I would write up a little something on the subject, as I understand it, because I have written dead-ended projects in several different media. I've written comic scripts; plays; a feature-length screenplay in college, in lieu of a senior thesis; and now, scripts for several podcast projects. Podcasting has been a fantastic, challenging medium to tackle, and relies on different things to be effective in communicating drama.

In theory, writing audiodrama should feel like writing for the screen; you're creating scenes that play out in real(ish) time, for actors to bring to life. A director has to steer how the actors interpret the script, and then the actors have to make the roles feel genuine.

(The Room - w. & d. Tommy Wiseau, 2003)

In practice, audiodrama writing feels the most like writing a comic, albeit one intended for dramatic fan readings. Comic writers exist in a close partnership with their artist(s), most likely a team of 2-6 others who render pencils, inks, colors, and lettering. The interpretation is deliberately stylistic, to establish tone and texture. However, when actually writing an episode of an audiodrama, my moment-to-moment process is quite similar to how I write for the screen: imagine myself in the setting, with the characters, trying to catch a whiff of what they really feel and report it accurately. 

The primary difference is: if what I've written even partly relies on a visual element for the scene's impact to land, I go back into the scene and try something else.

(Pretty Deadly - w. Kelly Sue Deconnick, a. Emma Rios)

Audiodrama is amazing, because in the hands of an audio designer with a strong style and design sense -- a sorcerer of sound synthesis i.e. Mischa Stanton -- creating the world you hear in your mind makes it that much easier to internalize. What's more, what you see in your mind is never limited by something as mundane as a budget. By and large, audiodrama fans are amazing, sensitive people who understand the value of accepting one's experiences as a part of them. They are often wise, and hungry for freedom but open to guidance.

Film is celebrated as a "transportive" medium; you can see and hear a world potentially nothing like our own, the tech being what it is now. I would argue it is no more "transportive" than the best books, but we are extremely visual beings. "Seeing is believing" and so on.Listening to an audiodrama is not limited by venue, or time of day. The times you spend with us - listening to StarTripper!! - are yours,  selected by you. A lot of those times are private ones you carve out around the rest of a busy day, and I know how valuable those times are. We can age as much as we like, but do we ever let go of the instinct to pretend? The instinct to imagine?

It will not come as a shock to listeners of this show that I spent a lot of time as a kid reading Calvin & Hobbes. I still remember the angle of the sun through my bedroom windows on the day I first read Something Under The Bed Is Drooling. I was probably reading it to avoid doing something I actually should have been doing, but it was my first C&H book. I couldn't tear myself away. 

I hold those times close, because they are part of the genesis myself as a creator. I saw imagination and creative process visualized in black and white, reflected through a kid who really didn't have it all together just yet. 

Sound familiar?

As ever, thank you for flying with us

.>>: J

[kkorny]

After listening to Ep 50 of The Bright Sessions: I now want an inner snarky Agent Green to tell me when I messed up and burst into song about my bad decisions 

[narwhalmessengerbag]

Who gave Agent Green the right to have such an amazing singing voice???

[mischaetc]

🎙️🎙️ - Is this thing still on?

I’m still out here, making podcasts. It’s been a while since I launched a new indie show, and the entire social media landscape has changed since then. So forgive a bit of self-promo.

I’m working on a new actual-play podcast, called The Wandering Path. I’m producing, sound-designing, & GMing the first story. My players are Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, Ian McQuown, & Mayanna Berrin. (Hopefully you’ll recognize one or two of those names, but even if you don’t, prepare to fall in love. They are all really crushing it!!)

We’re cooking up something really special, and I’m excited to share more soon!

[thelaurenshippen]

Our first stream timed out but we’re keeping the party going! We’ve already raised 20 THOUSAND DOLLARS and we’re going to 30k!!

Tune in right now to see the voice actors for Chloe and Agent Green dancing to Lady Gaga. Trust me, it’s great. 

[imgonnagetkilledbynutstink]

Insperation struck the podcast autism wizard twice last night so here's the second product of that

[oots-digitalmedia]

Queer Rep in The Bright Sessions

Title: The Bright Sessions

    Status: Complete, with spinoffs The AM Archives (ongoing) and The College Tapes (complete) continuing in their feed.

    Creator: Lauren Shippen

Cast: Julia Morizawa, Lauren Shippen, Briggon Snow, Anna Lore, Charlie Ian, Ian Mcquown, Alex Gallner, Andrew Nowak, Alex Marshall-Brown, Phillip Jordan, Alanna Fox, Reyn Beeler, Elizabeth Laird, 

    Queer Producers: Yes

    Accessibility: Content warnings in episode description, transcripts available on their website here.

Summary: Start with episode 101. The Bright Sessions is a science fiction podcast that follows a group of therapy patients. But these are not your typical patients - each has a unique supernatural ability. The show documents their struggles and discoveries as well as the motivations of their mysterious therapist, Dr. Bright.

Tags: asexual, panromantic polyamorous character, bisexual man, lesbian, gay man, questioning man, wlw character

More details and/or spoilers under the break.

Check out our other queer podcast recommendations here. 

ID tags: Caleb Michaels: mlm, Chloe Turner: asexual, panromantic and polyamorous, Damien Gorham: mlm, Adam Hayes: gay, Mark Bryant: bisexual, Rose Atkinson: lesbian, Emily Rodreiguez: wlw,

Details and/or Spoilers: Caleb Michaels and Adam Hayes are dating, Rose is romantically interested in Emily Rodriguez, Agent Green is the only canonically straight character

[thebrightsessions]

Tonight at 5pm PT, @thelaurenshippen, Andrew Nowak (voice of Mark), and Ian McQuown (Agent Green), will be doing a livestream Q&A for our patrons on Patreon! We’ll be talking about the season four premiere, what’s next for the atypicals, and taking questions from our patrons. 

If you were on the fence about becoming a patron, now is the perfect time! We do these livestreams every month, with different participants each time. And we talk about what you guys want to talk about!