The Perfect Show is Back! Welcome to the first episode of Season 3. This episode is all about looking back at every episode of the podcast so far, and looking forward at where the show will go from here.
To do that we take a sound-design journey down to the Perfectorium itself, the Index of Perfect Things. Join me as I gives you a full tour during the episode. It’s more fun than a simple clip show should probably be, but it’s been a long while and I just couldn’t wait to jump back in with both feet.
This is my chance to get back on mic and boy do I go wild with sound effects and some silly bits. It’s almost like I’ve been just itching to get back to publishing so I would have this outlet to be both silly and sincere again.
Music from this episode by:
Shawn Korkie – https://www.fiverr.com/shawnkorkie
Fernando Darder – https://www.fiverr.com/fernandodarder
Gelyan – https://www.fiverr.com/gelyanov
Komiku – https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Komiku
Aandy Valentine – https://www.fiverr.com/aandyvalentine
The Perfect Show Episode 16 – Oops, All Updates – Production Transcript:
- Hi, and welcome to The Perfect Show. I’m your host, Scot Maupin. I’m what you might call a perfection prospector, sifting through life looking for little things or experiences that could be considered ‘perfect.’ Join me each episode as I examine one topic that I’m presenting as a little nugget of perfection.
Hello again, It’s Scot. Long time no talk. it’s been over 2 years since the last episode, and I just sort of disappeared with no real explanation.
Which I guess sets me up perfectly again for my all time favorite drop:
[HEY HEY I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT]
That’s right. I’m back, with a new season of The Perfect Show,
So yeah, I’ll talk a little about what happened during my time away, and also thought this would be a great excuse to go back through the old episodes and add any updates or developments that have happened since they came out.
So first, about me, I’ve had a lot of things change, both personally and professionally. I’ll dive into some things here, and I’ll save some things for later episodes.
I still have been making podcasts during my hiatus. Just of a different variety than this one, I made about 100 episodes of a weekly show called Solutions From the Multiverse with my cohost Adam Braus,
I also, during the break spent a year teaching high school, like as a real teacher teacher, which was fun, I got to do a little podcasting with the kids after school, introduce them to the process, and then I also got a second job with a podcasting company making podcasts with professors and producing episodes for them. A second job which has since become my main job. Hooray!
Let’s see, what else? Well, I have two new cats, who I’m sure will barge their way onto the mic and I’ll have to introduce them at some point or another, I had a car stolen via a tik-tok trend, I illustrated a book with my Dad and he’s so excited about it that’s he’s already plotted out the next 25 books in the series (no lie). It’s great.
But back to my task of updating you on old episodes of the podcast…and, well, what better way to do that than by heading down and taking a stroll through the Perfectorium, itself. That’s right, the real Perfectorium, The index of Perfect Things.
So in previous episodes, I always end by saying that that item or experience is now entered into the Perfectorium, the index of perfect things. And there is a page on the podcast’s website cataloging these items, which you can find at perfectshowpodcast.com/perfectorium, spelled like it sounds, of course.
But that’s just an online catalog of the contents of a physical location. Where I keep the physical assets for the web pages. The brick-and-mortar Perfectorium. It’s actually a real place where I can go to visit each exhibit from the show. A fortress of perfectude, if you will. Oh what’s that? You won’t? Okay, I guess that’s fair.
Okay so the perfectorium is pretty important. As the world’s only catalog of perfect things, it holds a certain place in the effort to preserve the best of humanity for the future. Like most-MOST important is the human seed vault thing in Norway, but the Perfectorium ranks a close second, is my understanding, so it’s located a classified distance beneath the earth’s surface.
That’s why it’s down here at the bottom of so many steps (and sci-fi elevators).
Ah, and now the one and only Pefectorium, safely tucked away on the other side of this hermetic seal.
So we’ll go through the episodes, one by one, and talk about the show a little bit in the process.
Episode 1 was the animated short film Billy’s Balloon by Don Hertzfeldt, No updates for this film, but he has a new one that came out just this past May of 2024 titled ‘ME’ and it’s touring different cities and theaters now, so you can find the schedule and all that stuff at bitterfilms.com
Episode 2 was my year with Moviepass. I made this when it was a dead thing and I was reminiscing about it, but it’s since come back. I actually got a moviepass membership again, briefly. It was a point system and way more complicated to me and less generous so I ended up stopping my membership again, I have joined the AMC one though, AMC A-List, and have been super happy with it for the past year plus. It might honestly be my favorite subscription of all the streaming services and subscriptions that I pay for.
Just recently however, like last month, the founder of MoviePass, Ted Farnsworth, has formally pled guilty of defrauding investors, so I guess things are starting to catch up for some of the people.
Episode 3 was Baseball on the Radio, and the only update I wanted to put here was that I saw that in 2022 Vin Scully, the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, passed away, and there was an enormous outpouring of touching messages about how much his voice meant to people, and it was really cool to hear other people express similar feelings about hearing games called over the radio.
Episode 4 was the Perfect Road – and no real update here as I’ve not been back to Kansas since I made it. So that means there’s a perfect stretch of road just sitting there, patiently waiting for lucky drivers to discover for themselves.
Episode 5 was my Haunted House song, which I regret to inform you, and you will be surprised to learn, has NOT become a modern Halloween classic QUITE yet, still in the hundred of views, but that’s okay. I know it’ll catch fire one of these years and blow up big. I just gotta be patient.
Okay, Episode 6 was my Princess Mononoke and Miyazaki episode and I’ve since seen his most recent film The Boy and the Heron, but Mononoke is still my favorite. – uhh, Hot take at the risk of opening up a whole can of worms? I may not be a total Miyazaki guy I realize as I get older. Like the more I see, the more I am like – meeehhh. I dont know. There are a few of his that are top tier for me, – Those are Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro, but most of the others I’m realizing rate for me much lower, overall. Okay, uh, send hatemail to me too, but you’ll have to find the contact info yourself, I’m not plugging it again here just so you can get into a Miyazaki-off with me.
Episode 7 was the tiny tents episode, and after I made this episode, I got connected with a company called Cat Camp that also makes miniature sized tents, but ones specifically for cats. So now I have two tiny tents. The original yellow one, and this new red Cat Camp tent. I gotta say they are both cool, but the cat camp one has a bigger doorway, a fuzzy floor inside and just seems like it’s made more for cats to enjoy…which is because it is. But it’s absolutely excellent. Both tents currently reside in the catio I made for my cats last year, which is a big outdoor enclosure I built out of wood and wire fencing and then put in a bunch of shelves and platforms for them to climb all around on.
Episode 8 was the Ten Yen Arcade, and if you liked this topic-space, we will be heading back to spend some more time in the world of Japanese Arcades next episode.
I’d also retroactively designate this as the first episode of Season 2, where I feel like I really leveled up the complexity of the episodes both technically and thematically.
Episode 9 was my exploration of multi-language songs, and singers who sing their songs in more than one language. Even after this episode came out it sent me down a rabbit hole of K-pop that I still haven’t fully climbed out of yet. I discovered that BoA, who I talked about a lot on that episode, is part of a K-Pop supergroup called Girls on Top and then I went down a whole search spiral of the different bands from the various members like Aespa and Red Velvet and Girl’s Generation, and learned about all sorts of things like how the bands BlackPink and Red Velvet actually do put out their songs and albums, at least sometimes, in Japanese and also English versions. And guess what, I like a lot of them. If you’re in my car and ask to listen to K-pop on the drive, I got you, i might be a little dated though – that K-pop world moves very fast, and I’m discovering it’s easy to fall behind.
Episode 10 was the compliment call in, nothing new there other than I think there isn’t a need for a call-in message line anymore. I mean, at this point I think most people could figure out how to record a voice memo and email it the next time I put a call out for audio.
So, I let the call-in Google number go, if you have something to send to me, just contact me like a normal person using standard 2025 methods.
Episode 11 was Morena, still a very special episode to me, and no new updates for it, as far as I know.
Episode 12 was about seeing the Taj Mahal at sunrise, and for my present day counterpart I visited a houseboat in Sausalito, CA, designed to look like a floating Taj Mahal. Well, two winters back, some months after I had made the episode, there was a stretch hard weather in Sausalito and in March of 2023, a bomb cyclone blew through the area where the floating Taj was docked, knocked out some key windows and kicked up big enough waves to cause the the whole vessel to take on enough water to sink. There was a bit of a hubbub about what to do next, but what I was reading said that they determined it would have been more expensive to demolish and remove the taj than to refloat it and restore it, so in April 2023 they got the Sausalito Taj back up and floating, but no word yet on what’s going on inside damage-wise or what it’s ultimate fate will be.
I also visited it again since this, and it IS much more boarded up. it has a different sort of feel, not quite the same, or maybe I’m imagining that because I know what happened, But regardless, I’m glad I got to see it before all of that. I just didn’t know how good my timing truly was.
Episode 13 was my 3 am cruise ship excursion that turned into witnessing a huge brawl. No new updates, no new cruises for ME, but a friend did go on a cruise later and happened to recognize that it was the same ship I was on due to my description of the giant Frankenstein in the Frankenstein-themed nightclub. So he sent me a picture and also reported no fights on his cruise. Guess I just got lucky with that one. hoo.
Episode 14 was for Park Golf, the Japanese sport that I love, and got to play again on a golf course here. Since that episode, I’ve found another local course that let me play, so I got to Park Golf that year with my dad when he came out to visit, and I also got contacted by a man named Gary Livesay, who owns USA Park Golf and USA Grass Golf, where they make and sell beautiful clubs, balls, and other Park Golf gear here in the US. We connected over our love for the game, and Gary even sent me one of his new clubs and balls to try out this season once it’s spring and I can get out on the course again. Seriously gorgeous gear, I really can’t wait to play some rounds with it
And then Episode 15 was the Pink Shoes/Punk Shows episode, where I talked about compliments, and also found myself at my first ever punk show for a band called Rival Squad – who I connected with and interviewed on the episode. They’re still out there rocking, too. Go see them if you get a chance. And I’m now retroactively counting this episode as the end of season 2. This was also the most listened to episode of the show, so thank you to all the new listeners.
And that’s it. Whew, That catches us up to now. I haven’t put out anything on THIS feed for over two years, and I’m nervous about how this will go, but I was always thinking about it, because honestly this is what I love creating the most right now. That means I’m ready to bring you a season 3, starting with this episode, part of what is currently 6 episodes that I have planned.
I also have to think about the show format. I like making these super crafted episodes with tape and narration and custom music and sound effects and things, but I also think I want to find a way to connect with you all more regularly than that allows, and maybe find a middle-ground where, i dont know, between full episodes I can release smaller less produced things checking in or just connecting more regularly.
I’m happy to be back, I’m thrilled to be making The Perfect Show show again, and I’m excited for you to hear what I’ve got planned.
So with that, I guess we can close the seal on the old perfectorium once more and head back up to the surface. No new entry from this episode, but visiting and updating the old entries felt like a nice bridge-episode after a long hiatus, and a good way to start publishing again after the break.
The show’s website is PerfectShowPodcast.com. You can still catch me on twitter, at scotmaupin, or send an email to perfectshowshow@gmail.com, or find me any number of places online, really. Just look a little bit, I’m very findable.
I’m gonna try to put these out about once a month, but I’m doing it around a full-time job, so like always the schedule is more of a general guide, and things are finished when they’re finished.
That leads me to this point where I can present you with my freshly finished trailer for season 3, which dropped right before this episode to mark the beginning of the new season.
So here’s the trailer for the upcoming season 3 of The Perfect Show. And while you listen I’ll make my way back up to surface level.
Enjoy!
—-
Hi, I’m Scot Maupin, and welcome to The Perfect Show – where in a series of very much unperfect episodes, I bring you the story of one thing I’ve flagged as a perfect object or experience from my life. I tell you about it, we explore what makes it so special, and then I try to recreate it in some way in the present, and hopefully fall down some weird rabbit holes along the way.
On season 3 of the Perfect Show, first up: I’ll be covering a Japanese arcade game I played obsessively, the best 4th of July of my life, and we’ll try to figure out if you can still find any good treasures for $5.
We’ll head back to southern Japan for a surprising haircut, venture inside for once to examine memories of memories, and then I’ll recruit some help to try and build the perfect version of the best superhero.
Listen in as I chase these perfect things, and chew on what that perfection even means, trying to find out something new and interesting each time about the world and also myself.
—
I know I should have some cool clips from these upcoming episodes, but this is a one person operation, and the truth is I make them as I go so I can’t play you clips because they simply do not exist yet.
The show is me. It’s my attempt to shine a light on positive things and putting good things out there to help balance the bad stuff in the world, but it’s very much just my brain translated through a microphone. I hope you’ll give it a listen.
Season 3 of the perfect show – six new episodes, made one at a time, wherever you get your podcasts, in 2025.
And as always, thank you for listening to The Perfect Show.
[50 Eggs]
So, then, check back here in a few weeks time for the next proper episode, which will be about the Japanese Arcade Drumming Game – Taiko no Tatsujin.
Or you could also just susbcribe, that way you will know for sure when it comes out and be able to hear it before all your friends and coworkers spoil it for you because they just can’t stop talking about it all day at the water cooler.
This episode was recorded at the undisclosed location of the Perfectorium, and mixed at Milky Way Studios in Oakland, California.
And also, I know I usually do the whole rate/review/subscribe thing each episode, and that’s a real request. I make this show by myself for the most part, and so if I had to pick one that I’d prefer you do, it’d be leave a review. When you take the time to leave a review on Apple or give it a rating, I’m the one who sees that, and it’s been pretty nice, but for this episode, and I’m going to try to do this for each episode this season, I want to just record myself doing the thing I’m asking you to do, and the process involved.
And, it’s for sure not cool to leave a review on your own show, so you get to hear me leave a review for another show.
And this time I’m going to review a show called The Sheist Podcast, which is a movie podcast by Nick Sheist.
Okay, so to leave an apple podcast review, which is where a review probably does the most good, I have to look the show up on an apple device. Either in Itunes on a computer or the podcasts app on a phone or tablet. Since my phone is an android, I’ll be using my daughter’s iPad.
Nick, the host, actually puts out a few different movie podcasts and other cool content. He’s also made a twitter group with some other friendly film folk where I enjoy talking about movies. I was on an episode of his podcast Bad Movies We Love talking about Meet Joe Black – which I love. But this time I am leaving a message for his show The Sheist Podcast.
Okay, so I open up the apple podcasts app on the ipad, I type the title into the search bar here at the (bottom? top?), There it is, I recognize the purple cover art. scroll down it lets me either drop just a star rating or write a review, i’m taking the write a review option, and now it lets me give 5 stars, and the title is
Great Way to Keep Up with The Movies
Nick and Christen do an excellent job covering what films are coming up and coming out each week. They clearly love movies and know them well and it’s great to hear them share their analysis on both the films they’ve seen and also the industry as well. Thanks, guys!
Also if you want to do that and leave a review for this show, it doesn’t have to be earnest. I mean it can be, but you can also just give me a good rating and write something funny, too. I mean, I’m sensitive, so don’t get too crazy, but yeah. Why not? Let’s see if this helps get any new reviews. I’ll be checking.
I also would love you to share the show with someone, of course.
I’m trying to build the audience – really Rebuild an audience – and what I’ve learned podcasting professionally now is that it really does happen best with word of mouth, still, and I’ll do my part, okay?
I mean this is the one episode, since it’s all updates, that may not be a good entry point, but if you will share the trailer for season 3 with someone you think might get it, and enjoy what I’m doing here, I’ll keep making each episode the best I possibly can. I know, it’s a hollow threat, I’m doing that anyway, but what I’m trying to say is I got your back, if you do this for me, I won’t leave you hanging, I’m gonna deliver solid episodes with humor and heart and the person you recommended it to will be all like – ‘aw yeah, whoever sent this my way is rad’
Oops, the chopper’s here. The multi-national coalition that controls this land only opens up the airspace for really short windows so I gotta go now or we’ll get blown up by the podcast missile defense system. Anyway. As always, I really appreciate you spending your time with me, I’m Scot Maupin, and thank you for listening to The Perfect Show!