Feature Category: Article

William Shick is VP of Creative Development & Strategy for Atomic Mass Games

What are your favourite Marvel and Star Wars moments?

Starting off with the impossible questions!

My favorite Star Wars moment is the Death Star battle over Yavin 4 from A New Hope. I loved that part so much I eventually wore out the VHS tape from so many repeated viewings.

For Marvel, it’s a lot tougher purely because there are so many different pieces of media all with their own great moments. Like for comics, I think my favorite all time moment is probably the Maximum Carnage run, for the MCU it’s probably the moment in Infinity War where Proxima and Corvus have Vision and Wanda cornered in the train station and Steve Rogers, Falcon, and Black Widow show up. The swelling of the incredible Avengers theme and the fight sequence still gives me chills. And animated wise it’s hard not to point to the 90’s X-Men and Spider-Man animated series. Two just fantastic interpretations of the comics into serialized media.

 

Where do you start with a game – the models, the setting, the rules or is it something else? Why?

AMG has a strong philosophy of always starting from the theme and story of any game we are trying to make first. Because we primarily work on creating games within well established and beloved settings, the most important element for success is that when players sit down to play the game, they feel like they are playing within the Star Wars Galaxy or Marvel Universe. Even for a non-licensed game, if the narrative or theme feels tacked on or simply painted over the mechanics, the experience won’t be as compelling or immersive. One of the best things about great miniatures games especially is that they can draw you completely into the world that is being represented in tiny form on your tabletop. But in order to do that, the way the game plays, from core rules to character abilities all must feel like accurate translations of those things from the wider media to the table.

What none AMG game do you love to play?

Ooo, another tough question, there are so many great games, and they all hit a different vibe. Really there isn’t a game I don’t enjoy sitting down to play, but there are ones I love based on the mood of the day. Our household is big on deck builders with Marvel Legendary, Dominion, and the Blood Bowl Card Game being at the top of the pile. I really enjoy racing games like Dungeon Kart and Heat, Pedal to the Metal for their mix of strategy and spatial awareness skill ask. I’m also of course a huge fan of tabletop miniatures games such as Flames of War, Halo: Flashpoint, and my all time favorite miniatures game Confrontation. And TCG wise I’ve been very much enjoying exploring the Gundam and Dragon Ball Super Fusion World card games.

How much cross over in terms of design is there between Shatterpoint and Crisis Protocol?

Honestly, not much beyond the very typical core DNA of all miniatures games. Most of the reason that they are so different goes back to the earlier question about where we start when designing a game. The themes and feel of Marvel and Star Wars are dramatically different. Crisis Protocol was designed to replicate fast and furious superpowered battles. One of its biggest inspirations was iconic arcade fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom and blending that experience into a wider battle miniatures game.

With Shatterpoint we were really focused on trying to bring the feeling of those iconic cinematic Star Wars duels to the tabletop. It’s why the combat system for Shatterpoint is so heavily weighted in terms of the gameplay. What’s more, the way characters fight in Star Wars is very different both tonally and physically than it is in Marvel. There’s a weight to their battles and a personal back and forth, a narrative within the fight itself, that we really wanted to try our best to capture and translate in a way that would make players feel the story they were telling as they performed their in game actions. Obi-Wan needed to feel like Obi-Wan, Vader like Vader, and the fights like they had jumped right off the screen and onto your tabletop.

This all meant that while we used our experiences of working on miniatures games over the last decade to help make the rules concept and game mechanics the best we could, the approach and decisions we made between the two were often starkly different because they both attempt to do extraordinarily different things in terms of the players’ experience.

Which other type of games would you like to add to AMG’s roster?

Oh there are too many to count! As someone who just loves tabletop games, there really isn’t a type of game that I haven’t thought about making or would jump at the chance to try my hand at. Currently though, Legion, Crisis Protocol, and Shatterpoint are plenty to keep everyone at AMG engaged, excited, and working full time and we’ve barely scratched the surface on where we want to take each of them with new releases and rules expansions.

What’s the stickiest moment in creating a game?
The moment you release it to the players! The thing that I love so much about getting to work on games like we do is that no matter how well you think you understand your game and rules systems the player base will also surprise you with how they approach and build on the game you created.

Oftentimes that surprise is good, it shows you a depth to the game that you may not have realized was there, or more commonly that you hoped was there but you just didn’t quite know exactly how it was there.

I’ve described game design and development as a dance where both partners lead. The key to success is to find that rhythm where you can both take players where you want them to go and that excites them, while also being able to follow them when they discover something you might not have planned or thought of that makes the game more enjoyable. It’s exceptionally challenging work, but there’s a joy to the challenge that is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere else.

Simpsons or Futurama?
Futurama, I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic so I love the Fry and Leela arc and the beautiful way the show originally wrapped up with them doing it all again.

Dungeons or Dragons?
DRAGONS!

Truth or Beauty?
I would say there is the most beauty in truth, so Truth.

Writer-director John Patton Ford first made his mark with the tense, character-driven thriller Emily the Criminal (2022), a film that explored economic precarity and moral compromise in contemporary America. His latest feature, How to Make a Killing, expands those themes into darker, more satirical territory, blending black comedy, crime thriller elements and class commentary into a story about ambition, resentment and the pursuit of status.

Starring Glen Powell alongside Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick and Ed Harris, the film follows Becket Redfellow, a working-class outsider disowned by his obscenely wealthy family before he was even born. When he discovers that a vast family fortune may technically still belong to him, Becket decides to remove the relatives standing between him and the inheritance, setting off a string of murders that are equal parts calculated and absurd.

Loosely inspired by the classic Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Ford’s film updates that aristocratic murder-comedy premise for a modern, American context shaped by widening wealth inequality and fascination with the ultra-rich.

How to Make a Killing continues Ford’s interest in characters navigating a ruthless economic hierarchy, and the compromises people make in pursuit of the lives they believe they deserve. In conversation with Starburst, Ford discusses the film’s long development journey, its inspirations, and why he wanted its murderous anti-hero to feel both sympathetic and troubling.

The screenplay originally appeared on the 2014 Black List under the title Rothschild, and you weren’t initially attached to direct it. How does it feel more than a decade later seeing it realised, and how has your perspective on the material changed?

John Patton Ford: The first draft was much sillier and a lot more bombastic. It was kind of crazy in places. As we developed the newer version, we had to bring it back down to earth. I also needed to make it a little more sophisticated and thoughtful, to update it and make it feel like something I could do with integrity.

Part of that was practical; the original script was just too big, and needed to be scaled back. There were huge, expensive set pieces that we would never realistically be able to shoot. So, we had to scale it down and make something that felt cohesive and achievable.

What was the most bombastic set piece that you couldn’t make happen?

John Patton Ford: In the early version, Beckett goes to Hong Kong and recruits people to come back to the U.S. to help him kill someone. At one point he even goes off and fights in the Iraq War. It had this huge, Forrest Gump-like, globe-trotting arc. We had to compact the story and make it more focused.

The film draws inspiration from the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. At what stage did you decide you wanted to reinterpret the concept rather than remake the film?

John Patton Ford: Right out the gate. I didn’t have any desire to remake Kind Hearts and Coronets. It’s a perfect movie and very much of its time. It’s so British, so specific to that era.

What interested me was the structure and the central concept. I wanted to use that as a jumping-off point for something contemporary and distinctly American, something that could speak in a slightly different cultural language.

You’ve said before that you didn’t want the film to fall into a simplistic “rich people are bad” narrative. Why did that feel too easy?

John Patton Ford: We’ve seen a lot of movies lately that indict the wealthy and allow the audience some wish-fulfilment in seeing rich people get what’s coming to them. And that can be fun.

But I wanted to take it a step further. There’s this contradiction where we resent the wealthy while also wanting to be them. Most of us are trying to make more money, fantasising about what we’d do with it, while hating the people who already have it.

I wanted to explore that tension and try to reconcile those ideas. How does someone who has killed people for money deal with a relationship where the other person doesn’t believe in wealth as the means to happiness?

Do you think resentment toward the rich is mainly driven by envy?

John Patton Ford: Historically, people have felt very resentful towards the upper classes and the rich. But I think now, it’s more than jealousy.

There’s a growing sense that the scale of wealth inequality itself is ethically wrong. In the U.S., you have 700 people who control half the wealth. They accumulate all this money into overseas account, on which they don’t even pay taxes, and never put that money back into the U.S. system. They’re literally syphoning off money, and it’s more money than anyone could conceivably spend.

So, there’s a real… hatred isn’t even the word. People ethically disagree that these people should even be allowed to exist. The resentment isn’t just envy anymore; it’s a moral argument about whether that level of wealth concentration should exist at all.

Beckett is sympathetic but far from heroic, given he’s very much out for himself. How do you see him: as a hero, a victim of circumstance, or something else?

John Patton Ford: I see him as a tragic hero. He’s convinced there’s this one thing he needs in order to be happy — wealth, success, security — and he pursues it relentlessly.

And really, it’s only after he’s killed that he begins to realise that perhaps he could have been content without crossing those moral lines. But of course, by that point, it’s too late to go back. He has to deal with the repercussions of his decisions.

I see him as a hero, yes, but a tragic one who learns his lesson too late.

Have audiences interpreted that tragedy in different ways?

John Patton Ford: Definitely. Some people see the ending as tragic, while others see it as a kind of victory. There’s an irony there that doesn’t always register for everyone.

As you’ve mentioned, many recent films have leaned into “eat the rich” satire. How did you want your film’s critique to stand apart?

John Patton Ford: I wanted the central character to be someone the audience could also indict. Beckett is just as complicit in the system as the people he’s targeting, even if he doesn’t see himself that way in the very beginning. That’s more interesting to me than a film where the central character is totally redeemable, and the rich are all bad, and they get what’s coming to them.

The problem with wealth inequality isn’t just that billionaires exist, it’s also that our whole culture is obsessed with wealth and success. We’re all participating in that system in some way. So in a way, we all need to be held accountable. You can only indict the rich so much when half the country votes for an administration that creates tax loopholes for corporations. When I pay taxes in California, all I’m doing is subsidising billionaires. I don’t get back any kind of benefits at all. What I’m saying is that I wanted the film to acknowledge that broader complicity through its central character.

And while Beckett is undoubtedly the film’s central character, like you said, Jessica Henwick’s character Ruth often feels like the emotional and moral centre. How did you design their dynamic?

John Patton Ford: Beckett is chasing what he believes success looks like — money, status, achievement — then Ruth represents the opposite. She’s someone who has gradually realised she’s happier wanting less and has learned not to feel ashamed of that.

In a culture that constantly pushes ambition and accomplishment, simply saying “I’m content with a modest life” and “my small dreams are perfectly fine” can be a rebellious act. It’s a subversive, brave thing to do.

Her worldview challenges Beckett emotionally and philosophically. At first the film seems like it’s about the logistics of killing people, but eventually the real conflict becomes whether he can keep doing this after meeting someone whose entire worldview completely upends his own? That’s the bigger challenge.

Some critics have criticised the satire as lacking bite and consider the film more of a black comedy. Was that lean into tonal ambiguity intentional?  

John Patton Ford: I think the film ultimately becomes more of a character study than anything else. People might expect a very biting satire because that’s what a lot of recent films in this space have done.

But this story is really about someone coming of age, in a strange way, within this high-concept situation. It moves across different tones and genres, which might surprise some audiences, but hopefully in a good way.

How To Make A Killing releases in cinemas from March 11^th. Watch the trailer here.

Shannon Eric Denton is a renowned comics/games/animation writer-artist and the founder of Monster Forge Productions. They are the writer and co-creator of Monster Forge’s newest title SPECTORS published by Titan Comics. We caught up with them to find out more.

How would you pitch Spectors to someone who likes Hell Boy?

First off, I think you should know that I too love Hellboy. I was there at the San Diego Comic-Con where Dark Horse gave out the ashcan debuting the character so I’ve been on board the Mignola train for a while! I feel like Spectors is adjacent to the world that BPRD, Hellboy and Lobster Johnson reside in!

And how would you pitch to a fan of super hero movies?

As a longtime fan of Blade/SwampThing/ManThing/WerewolfByNight/GhostRider/TheDemon and all the superhero books on the monstrous side of the superhero universe, our trio of monster hunters fit right in. “In a shadow-soaked world of secret cults and nightmare creatures, monster hunters Reginald, Debby, and their newest ally—Ollie, a supernatural enforcer with the heart of a child—unravel a decades-old conspiracy born in the haunted 1930s and rekindled in the modern day. Armed with a mystical blade, a weaponized prosthetic, and Ollie’s otherworldly strength, they confront twisted science, cursed asylums, and an ancient evil rising once more, racing to stop a cult’s apocalyptic scheme before their deadliest case becomes humanity’s final reckoning.”

What’s your personal favourite thing about this genre?

The things that lurk in the dark allow us to confront fears in a cathartic way. Horror and action, when done right go together so well.

If you could have coffee with any one character from Spectors who would it be and why?

Our Filipina monster-hunter Debby.  I’d ask her to take me out for her favorite lumpia! Plus she’s the charm of the team and despite having her arm town off by the forces of evil, her innate goodness always shines through.

And which character really needs to calm down?

Definitely, Reginald.  He’s the mastermind but that means he’s even more aware of what is going on in terms of the dark forces conspiring to end humanity.

How long does it take you to get to a first draft?

As a professional writer I feel obligated to say it matches the deadline assigned.  However, on stuff like Spectors where I’m having a blast it’s usually a very fast process.  I’m a “share early, share often” writer from my film and gaming career so the sooner I can get a version to folks I trust to give me honest feedback I can incorporate, the better.

What’s your favourite funny thing about the genre?

These days I think it’s how over the top and preposterous some villains seemed only to see so many real world counterparts popping up all around us. So it’s a sad funny.

What does the first day working on a book like this look like compared to the last day?

Both are moments of excitement. The beginning is the excitement of the creation. The end is the excitement of getting to share it out with everyone!

Wolfman or Frankenstein?

That’s a hard one as I love both but I’m gonna go Frankenstein. I have a large Frankenstein collection so I’ll let my buying habits be the deciding factor on this excellent question.

Dr-acula or Dr Who?

Surprisingly I’m gonna go Dr. WHO because if I pick him/her I know I’ll eventually get some Dracula!

Truth or Beauty?

Ooo, I’ve never gotten this one before.  Gotta go truth.  There’s beauty in the truth and the world needs truth now more than ever….and monster comics.

Spectors is available to pre-order now.

 

 

 

Ally Beardsley and Siobhan Thompson are core cast members, aka the Intrepid Heroes,  of hit comedy show Dimension20.  We caught up with them to find out more about the pulp-action adventure story, Cloudward Ho!

So, this Dimension20 campaign is steampunk! How did that come about?

Siobhan: It’s something that we’ve joked about for a long time, and we’re calling it steampunk, which is more of an aesthetic.  Really, though, it’s a pulp action adventure on The Seven Seas, sort of an Indiana Jones-type adventure.

What’s the loudest laugh or the biggest chortle that you’ve had with Cloudward Ho!

Ally: The biggest chortle. I love that.

Siobhan:  I mean, in this season, or just in general, I think anytime anybody goes fully off the rails and then commits to it as hard as they can. I think for us and probably all comedians, the funniest thing is always somebody doing the stupidest thing as seriously as possible. None of us go in to a day going, you know what? Today I’m going to go crazy.

Ally: So Zach is such a mild mannered player, but there was a NPC that he really hated this season, and there was just kind of like a fire in his eyes for how much he hated this NPC and that that was very funny, that was constantly making me laugh, was Zach saying, like, I’m gonna kill you, to an NPC quietly.

Which system are you using this time?

Siobhan:  We’re using 5e (Dungeons and Dragons). We did look into some other systems and play-tested some stuff, but ultimately we just felt that 5e was the best fit for the story we were telling this time around. But we do have a lot of homebrewed stuff in it, including a couple of people who have fully home-brewed sub-classes.

We have also, just like a bunch of other little mechanics that we came up with over the course of the game, that are created by Brennan in conjunction with multiple different game designers.

Is commitment to the bit king?

Siobhan: I think that the two of us are probably the furthest poles of that in the six of us.

Ally: I mean, Murph is definitely a North Star for keeping things on the rails. But, yeah, totally.

Siobhan: I feel like I tend to keep the bit going by pretending to want to get back to the story. That’s great, but I don’t know, I think that we’re all following what gives us the most joy in the moment, knowing that we’ll get there eventually.

Ally:  I also am doing some math, because I’m like, you only get one blimey  every few seasons. So this season, I was, I was definitely playing like a little bit more of an on-rails character this season, which I love to do, I really liked playing Margaret Encino, that was like the kind of the end of the spectrum that I can get to that’s like most on the rails. And this character is still crazy, like she’s the youngest one in the group, so she is also just kind of like less mature, but not as crazy as Christina Applebees or K2.

Will we get a sequel to Cloudward Ho?

Ally: I hope we go back

Siobhan: I loved playing in this world. It really depends at this point, we have so many fun worlds to play in, and also it’s so fun to make a new thing.  I feel a little spoiled for choice on it.

What is your quick pitch for the show?

Siobhan: It’s such a romp. It really doesn’t slow down. There’s so much fun stuff, there’s so much world building, there’s so many fun characters it playing. It really felt like what it felt like to watch Indiana Jones for the first time, or watch the Goonies for the first time. And I hope that we’ve sort of captured that energy and that essence within the show, because that’s really what it felt like to be there.

Ally:  We’re doing steampunk. That’s the pitch. It’s steampunk with a matriarch as the kind of like storyline. I think it’s like a really fun version of legacy through a feminine lens, which it was one of my favorite parts. It was cool, cool.

You can catch the entire season now Dropout.TV and their shows here. And there’s a link to a sample of the show below. (We’ve updated this article to let you know that you can also join Dropout as Superfan, details are here.)

 

 

Abby Trott is an actor/singer who is best known for for their work voicing Momo in the English dub of Dan Da Dan, Nezuko in the English dub of Demon Slayer, Magik in Marvel Rivals, and singing the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate theme, “Lifelight.” We caught up with them to find out more.

How did you end up working on Demon Slayer?
I auditioned! I believe they were casting the main four characters first, which is why I only auditioned for Nezuko, even though I really wanted to try out for Inosuke. There were two scenes: the moment before Tanjiro heads off to the village and the struggle between Nezuko and Tanjiro as she wakes up as a demon and attacks him. Half of my audition was growling.

How different is the role of Nezuko from Dan Da Dan‘s Momo?
Nezuko and Momo are similar in many ways. Including their desire to protect and fight for those they love. Nezuko, however, has more of a maternal quality, whereas Momo has a similar “auntie” energy to her grandmother, Seiko. Momo can be pretty goofy, too.

What’s the most challenging part of your day-to-day voice acting work?
Maintaining your vocal health can be difficult. Personally, I deal with allergies, and they can really make things challenging. It’s also important to make sure you have adequate vocal rest when overextending your voice, which isn’t always possible when scheduling and trying to meet deadlines. 

How do you ‘get into’ the role? How does that work with video game work?
I always try to learn as much about the character and the project as I can from whatever materials I’m provided (or that I can glean from the internet). That being said, sometimes video games can be extremely secretive, and we’re not always provided a lot of info. I’ll try to fill in the gaps and have a general worldview going into the session. For example, are they an optimist or pessimist? Are they confident? Anxious? Are they masking their true feelings about someone or something, etc. From there, the director will steer the ship to make sure we’re honoring the writers’ intentions.

How do you describe your job to someone who has never heard of the word ‘anime’?
I first ask them how in the world they’ve never heard of anime. Seriously though, it seems that anime has become so mainstream—it has come a long way since I was a kid. Most people have probably seen anime even if they don’t know what it’s called. I’d describe dubbing anime as “providing English voiceover for Japanese cartoons—you know, the ones where they have big beautiful eyes and perfect geometric hair.”

Dan Da Dan and Demon Slayer are both huge.  How have you found the surge in interest?
It’s been pretty surreal to watch the Demon Slayer fandom grow worldwide over the past 6+ years. Dan Da Dan has been even more shocking, as it seemed to explode almost overnight. (I think the killer opening theme helped). It has been so much fun to meet fans at conventions and share the excitement and passion for these projects. We are in the golden age of anime!

 A lot of voice actors seem to be doing podcasts and actual play TTRPGs like Critical Role these days, does that appeal to you at all? Why?
I love playing games with friends off-camera, but that isn’t to say I’m not open to streaming or recording gameplay…with the right crowd. In fact, I recently did a one-shot TTRPG for Little Nightmares, and you can watch it on YouTube! It was super fun.

What’s your favourite thing about meeting fans?
I love hearing stories of how certain shows, games, or characters have impacted their lives. Demon Slayer was hugely impactful during the pandemic as it deals with themes of family, loss, and overcoming seemingly impossible odds. So many people relate to these themes, and they were living through them at that time. Lots of fans have told me how certain games and shows helped them get through tough times. It feels good to be part of something that has such an impact. 

What non-voice acting media roles would you do? What would your dream project be?
I love hearing stories of how certain shows, games, or characters have impacted their lives. Demon Slayer was hugely impactful during the pandemic as it deals with themes of family, loss, and overcoming seemingly impossible odds. So many people relate to these themes, and they were living through them at that time. A lot of fans have told me how certain games and shows helped them get through tough times. It feels good to be part of something that has such an impact. 

 What’s next?
More video games! More anime! More cartoons! More… singing?  Stay tuned!

Ghosts or Aliens?
Aliens. You listening, E.T.’s? Take me to your planet, pleeeaase!

 Vampires or Werewolves?
Vampires, but only if I get to be one. 

Truth or Beauty?
Truth. The truth is beautiful.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba is available on CrunchyRoll as is Dan Da Dan. You can learn more about Abby Trott via their website, www.abbytrott.com .

 

Photo Credits - 

Photographer: Lindsey Ruth Photography @lindsphoto 

Hair: Mika Fowler @mikahairstylist

Makeup: Anton Khachaturian @antonmakeup

Stylist: Alex Clough @alexcloughstyle

 

 

Zoe Flint is a performer and director specialising in immersive theatre, as well as the artistic director of Parabolic Theatre. She is the Associate Artist for Parabolic Theatre and a Creative Associate at Bridge Command, the critically acclaimed sci-fi immersive experience which allows you to be part of the bridge crew of a classic science fiction style starship and go on missions. We caught up with Zoe to find out more.

How did you end up working for Bridge Command?
I was one of the original team who co-created the initial R&D low-budget, version of Bridge Command in 2019 and I have been with the project ever since.

How does it compare to previous work you’ve done?
Bridge Command is certainly the most technically complex show I have ever worked on. What is particularly wonderful about this project is how it manages to achieve excellent artistry in a sci-fi setting.

And how would you describe Bridge Command to someone who has ‘opinions’ on how Starships work?
Bridge Command is an experience that allows its audience to step into our original sci-fi universe and take their place within the bridge crew of one of our Starships, giving them the opportunity to be the best version of themselves in a familiar feeling sci-fi setting.

How do you prepare for a role like this?
The expectations and demands on any performer working on this project are extremely high. Bridge Command’s performers portray many different characters, each of whom must be complex, compelling, and able to adapt to the needs of the audience seamlessly and quickly. We spend a lot of time investing and training our performers to be able to do this.

What’s your favourite way to warm up for this role?
A few stretches and a quick vocal warm up is usually all we have time for. A big coffee is definitely essential too.

What key thing does every performer need to know for Bridge Command?
That your role is to serve the story and the world of the show. That and which ship you’re supposed to be on.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Seeing the wonderful community of players that Bridge Command has organically created. Dozens of unlikely friendships between people who would have otherwise never met.

Is this the future of entertainment?
I believe so. Immersive experiences have often been called ‘theatre for a video game generation’ which I think is true, but Bridge Command goes one step further. Bridge Command has created a space where we invite the audience to be more than a spectator, rather an active participant who meaningfully contributes to the experience.

What’s the silliest thing you’ve done to get this show running?
I’m no stranger to an all-nighter with a 5am Deliveroo order.

What is your favourite moment in the show?
My favourite moment is watching audience step onto the bridge for the first time, that’s always magic.

What’s next?
Bridge Command has got a lot of stories left to tell, I can’t wait to share in them.

Daleks or Death Stars?
Can both franchises please consider me for future projects?

Orville or Enterprise?
Enterprise, specifically under Captain Pike.

Truth or Beauty?
To tell the truth is beautiful.

Bridge Command can be found at Vauxhall in London, England. Book now to avoid disappointment. 

Jordan Myrick is a comedian, actor, writer, and content creator who is best known for their food related content. We caught up with them to talk about Gastronauts (now in it’s second season), a geeky food-inspired game show in which comedians challenge top chefs to make some very peculiar dishes. We caught up with Jordan to learn more.

How did Gastronauts come about?
I was brought on when they already had a name and they knew they wanted to do a cooking show.  Sam (Reich) had brought it up, k what I thought was jokingly a couple of times;  “We got to do a food show. We got to do a food show.” And I was “okay, sure, this is never gonna happen, but that sounds great.” And then one day, I finally just got an email that was like, let’s do a food show! They wanted to bring me on as the host, and then also as a creative producer.

So what does that mean as creative producer? What are the things that you’re responsible for, apart from just presenting the show?
I was in all of the meetings where we talked about creative vision, what the set might look like, what the casting might look like, kind of anything that like you see in that final product. I was in meetings for discussing what was going to happen with that.

We’re pretty familiar with  the rotating cast of DropOut’s comedians. How did you select the chefs, because they’re new to the channel.
So what was really important to us is obviously having people who are incredible at cooking, but we also needed people that really enjoyed being on camera, and maybe some people that even fancied themselves as funny or personable. And so we were looking for people that kind of fit that bill, and because of that, we ended up getting a lot of people who had people who had done other television cooking shows, which was great, so they had had experience in the space.

What was the vibe you were going for?
I think two things that were really important to us were keeping the challenges extremely fun and creative, and then also making sure that everything we did was kind of fed through a positive light, a positive energy, because we wanted to watch creative people cooking and doing a good job. Does that mean everything’s perfect? No, but I think it feels good to watch people do something well, rather than watch people do something poorly. And we really wanted to lean into that.

What cooking show do you say this is the least like?
I mean, my impulse is to say Bake Off, because I find Bake Off to be very kind of slow and calm and relaxing. And I don’t know if I would describe the energy of anyone at DropOut as slow or calm or relaxing. So I’d probably have to say that one, yeah,

You’re part of the Upright Citizens Brigade. You have a strong background in improv. Cooking itself can be very precise. Sometimes it’s spur of the moment.  Was there a sense that you could get improv comedy and cooking to collide?
Absolutely. I think that’s kind of the basis of the whole show, right? Because it’s these professional chefs that are truly at the top of their game that are having to come into our comedy space and really say yes and to these ridiculous challenges we’re giving them, which it means you end up drinking butter. And that’s not something I thought about going into it, but that is ultimately what happened.

How many calories are in the show?

Simply no way to know, did I feel like I was going to die by the end of it? Yes, but you know, you suffer for your art sometimes.

What was the most delicious moment
I would say one of the most delicious moments is Lily Du, who hosts Dirty Laundry, who also happens to be my best friend in real life for many, many years. She just has absolutely horrible, well, I can’t even call it culinary skill. I don’t know what it is, whatever the absence of culinary skill is, that’s what Lily has. She doesn’t have a particularly refined palette.  I was dreading her disgusting challenge, and the food that came out of her challenge ended up being some of the best food that I had the entire season of the show.

Will we see a cookbook?
You know, hadn’t even crossed my mind, but now it’s all I’ll think about until Sam lets me do it. So fingers crossed.

Truth or Beauty?
God, this is so hard, because it’s hard to even know what it means. I I’m like, the truth is beautiful, but sometimes I don’t want the truth. Um, maybe. But I also don’t care about beauty that much. Neither.

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