When I was young and knee deep in the remains of the locust horde, I only had one thought coursing through my brain and it was how cool Gears of War was. My brothers and I had this love for the game to the point where we would grab any merchandise we could, building makeshift alters within our respective rooms. Never in our thoughts did we think we would ever find ourselves in front of the man who made this universe. Better yet, I never thought I would ever learn more about the man, his ventures, and his urge to create. Once Cliff backed away from game development, I thought his days of creating were over. That was until my friend Brian reached out to me about this wild new entertainment journey and how Cliff was his copilot.
I had a moment to chat with both Cliff and Brian about their latest project, the F13 podcast. We discussed what it is like being a creative in two spaces, how similar emotions and situations cross over with each other, and how your history will always seem to precede you.
Building Blocks
It was October 2018 when I found myself standing on the second level of the Javits Center during New York Comic Con. My brother and I were shaking with anticipation as a friend wanted us to all meet her friend. My wife turned to us and addressed our collective giddiness by whispering, “be cool.” We tried, oh did we try. A few moments later, a person responsible for my youthful years of gaming was standing before me, Cliff Bleszinski. With his wife by his side, and now a crew of followers, we ventured through the convention where I got to ask him every question I could think of, but one that came to my mind was, “So, do you play games at all these days?”
“No,” he said with a sense of melancholy. “All I see is numbers.”
That day, I learned about a man who gave everything to an industry that took way more in return. When we talked about games, it was during the height of lootboxes and other nefarious means to derive reoccurring user spending. If I was in his shoes, I would also feel beaten and destroyed. I can’t even think about how ideas could come out of his head only to be abused by monetization over the necessity to create art for the sake of it. I understand the hurt.
If I Had a Nickel
January of 2017 I was standing on a cold street with my wife waiting for entry into the special Nintendo Switch event where select people could get their hands on the console. Behind me, a very tall man was speaking about his comedy set a few nights prior.
“You can just go up to anyone on the street and say, ‘nice set man’ and they’ll say thanks.”
The comedian in me felt the urge to tag this joke, I turned around and said, “Thanks man!”
His name is Brian McGuiness, comedian and podcast host of various shows including the hit show The Playable Characters Podcast, a program where Brian interviews characters from our favorite games played by other famous comedians. Major characters like Bowser were portrayed by CL Cauvin who added his own twist to the beloved antagonist. Other background characters also had their time to shine like the skeleton from Castlevania (played by Mike Drucker) and Roach from The Witcher (played by Christian Finnegan). There are also other character concepts that we haven’t really thought about. Usama Siddiquee took a stance as an anti-power-up lobbyist.
Full disclosure, I was in two episodes myself, playing a Stormwind auctioneer from World of Warcraft and a gang member from Cyberpunk 2077. Doing this gave me a really great view of how Brian operates Playable Characters Podcast. His ability to improv with comedians and go with the flow is unprecedented. It takes an immense amount of skill and wit to chiming off different concepts and giving answers to questions you never thought you had to answer before.
Blending comedy and video games have always been tough to manage due to the wide breadth of humor that each person may have. It can be tough to get a broad audience invested in your show because of it. Somehow, Brian managed to find a niche where games became the gateway for humor.
After several years of living in New York, Brian moved away in a move that would not only change his life in a drastic way, but put him on a path that intersected with none other than Cliff Bleszinski. This would become the second person that I knew that became friends with the beloved game developer.
Stage Lights
The story goes that Brian was performing one night in a new, local bar where Cliff was a regular at. Brian ran into Cliff and had a brief conversation.
“He (Cliff) wanted to do stand-up. A mutual comic had a comedy game show thing, and we wanted to have someone else who wasn’t a comic to be on the show between games, and I pointed to Cliff and went ‘how about that guy over there!”
That was the moment that Cliff decided to give stand-up comedy a shot. Like all those who start, there are moments where the craft doesn’t quite land. Speaking of my own experiences, you are never going to be the next George Carlin right out the gate. It takes time and effort, but as you get up there with the mic in hand, you begin to find this groove. Every time you tell a joke and get laughter, it builds up into this completely euphoric feeling of belonging and purpose. Cliff instantly felt that stating, “When Brain talks about that bug it premiates your life. It is a lot like game design, where I walked around a Home Depot and saw tools to use in my games.”
I assume that is what birthed the infamous Lancer from Gears of War, but I digress. Inspiration can strike from anywhere, but a successful game doesn’t happen overnight just like how successful comedians require that time and effort to become better at the craft.
Cliff spoke to this, marrying the world of comedy and game development, “No one realizes the sweat equity that goes into being a creative. Gears was the result of ten years (plus) of building a team after Unreal. It is the same thing with comedy, acting and music.”
After many attempts at trying to get into the world of stand-up comedy, and Brain acting as his sherpa, Cliff decided to back off a little. In our interview, Cliff gave me a brief history of his time as a theater kid, naming various roles he took in school plays and how it leads to his appearance on a variety of podcasts and shows including an appearance on Jimmy Fallon. Moments where he was able to roll with the punches. Comedy though, was something that shattered his persona. The real-world pressure of trying to make people laugh is ultimately what made him take a step back from that particular limelight. But that wouldn’t be the end of Cliff’s return to creativity.
Did I Do That?
When I think of what it means to be a creative, I think of someone who knows how to harness a bit of themselves to present to others, regardless of how others may perceive them. Tons of creatives put out art, music, comedy bits, and even games much to the chagrin of others. There is an element where you must disregard those and chase the dreams you have. I see this same level of ambition within Cliff as he discussed his history as a game developer. While he is known for games like Jazz Jackrabbit, there is always a gear-shaped cloud that looms over him no matter where he goes.
Cliff goes back to the days of Family Matters and the beloved actor Jaleel White. While Jaleel White has been in a ton of films and TV shows that span almost three decades, he is best known for Steve Urkel from the hit sitcom, Family Matters. “While I would like to be known for games like Jazz Jackrabbit, I know that people will always ask me about Gears of War.”
When I think of Brian, I think of his unbridled creativity. His ability to think of jokes out of anything on the fly is a skill that has flowed through him for what must be decades now. Spending endless nights in dirty underground NYC clubs, rubbing elbows with a few other working comedians. From those performances to his live recordings to podcasts, short form video reviews on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, Brian always seems to have something cooking.
Something interesting happens when you place two people together, one who is endlessly bursting out the seams with creativity and another who wants to express himself but doesn’t exactly know how to make it work.
But This Goes to F13
After dropping the stand-up comedy routine for a bit, but still yearning to harness the creative part of his persona, Cliff and Brian both started the podcast, Crunch Time. But due to a million other podcasts having the same name as well as being a reminder of how brutal game development could be, the name was changed.
“F13 is sort of a play on the Spinal Tap amp joke,” Cliff told me. “We thought about F13 like some sort of missing function key on a keyboard.”
Funny enough, that is exactly what came to my mind.
F13 is the culmination of game development and comedy, a perfect balance of two life experiences. It is a reminder of how tough things can be in these two worlds, and how the pure human element of it all could bring us together in a way. This is mostly told to us through the various guests of the show.
Through Cliff’s connections there are tons of game developers who appeared on the show. Folks like Stephanie “Briledozer” Briles, Alex Brandon, Chris Morris, and Mike Wilson, all gave their professional insight on what it means to be within the game development space. Meanwhile comedians like Mike Drucker, Myq Kaplan, Mark Brady, and others also jump on a few episodes to talk about their own experiences with stand-up comedy and being creative.
I find F13 to be a neat podcast that gives me some interesting insight into how games are made and how comedians stay sane. It is an interesting look at the lives of those who create something for our enjoyment, and a little behind the scenes at how this happens is something I find to be interesting. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing about it.
Creation or Stagnation
What does it mean to be creative? This is a question I tend to ask myself. There are times where I feel like I am just a little short of something. I hate taking leaps without knowing what is going to catch my fall, if there is even anything there. Both Brian and Cliff are two individuals who are creative, taking the time to put themselves out there in various ways to grab the attention and admiration of an audience. But there is always a lingering feeling in the form of rejection. There is a necessity to overcome rejection and the fear it creates, especially if you are looking to turn the pictures in your head into something tangible for others to enjoy.
I left the Javits Center with a sense of curiosity and hope. Year after year, I waited to see when Cliff’s book would drop. Waiting to see whatever it was that would come out of that brain of his. For a while, I gave up that thought. I looked back on it and thought that he would never return to this space, and while Cliff hasn’t made an official attempt to return to the industry, he did release a comic book called “Scrapper” which I have a first edition signed by the man himself.
Going through the pages, it proved to me that Scrapper was a push to do something, for Cliff to put himself out there amongst the sea of media once again. It wasn’t put out there for the urge to make something financially successful, but to display his own love and admiration for animals.
A House of Windows
Over the last few weeks of working on this article, I have wondered what it takes to motivate yourself to do something. While I am creative, I feel like I am a lazy creative. Someone who takes their sweet time saying they will do something, plan it, but never pull the trigger and commit to the act of producing that thing stuck in my head.
That is where I commend folks like Brian and Cliff. There is certainly a ton of fear in putting oneself out there. There is the potential of rejection that looms over us any time we even think about something. But we must fight that urge to do nothing. We must succumb to the innate need to connect with others through music, art, comedy, games, and whatever else creates the semblance of a community.
At one point during our meandering throughout the Javits Center so many years ago, did we see a full-scale cosplay of a Locust Horde unit. This incredibly accurate costume stood out so much, we just had to point it out to Cliff who then promptly sauntered up and took several pictures with the cosplayer. I can’t imagine the surreal moment for the cosplayer, but it must have been euphoric. It was the perfect final moment I got to experience that day.
After talking for an hour and a half with Brian and Cliff, it was clear that everyone has a bit of that creativity within them. If it is yearning to get out, find a friend. Be curious and go outside the box occasionally. It might be scary, but when you realize that there is something inside you trying to break out, you can harness it and do something wonderful. Sometimes, all it takes is a friendly face to help.
