Eli

Today on the pod, we got Adam Faze today on the intro, Eli and Clara no Trey, although maybe not, sadly for him, necessarily.

Clara

No, he's on vacation. Much missed.

Eli

Yeah looks very beautiful, you know, Apple screen saver, esque location.

Clara

Getting four hours of screen time in front of the beautiful place.

Eli

Exactly.

Clara

I'm sure, not. I hope he's logging off.

Eli

Exactly, well speaking of screen time. So Adam is the head coach at gymnasium, which is a also, I suppose, another way of saying, founder, co-founder, producer, etc. So, gymnasium is a social first production studio, you know, reimagining or making TV for the platforms that you're actually on, TikTok, Instagram, etc, you know them from hit series' or franchises such as boyroom, Bodega run clockwork dynasty is Another one that they did as well. And super fascinating conversation. I know we've spoken with Adam before, chatted with him at Cannes as well, on the Riviera, but yeah, he he does love his screen time as we as we found out. Nothing wrong with that, folks.

Clara

I know. Stay tuned till the end, because we're we did a new segment.

Eli

That you're very excited about your eyes. You know, I got very wide.

Clara

Yeah, I think it was a hit. And I think Adam was a really good—all of his responses are really fun, and the whole conversation as well, obviously.

Eli

All right. Well, that sounds like a great segue. Thank you, Clara, let's bring Adam on. Alright. Cool. Adam Faze, welcome to the pod. Thanks for stopping by.

Adam Faze

It's a real honor and a pleasure to not see you guys in Cannes.

Eli

Oh God, but we're drinking.

Adam Faze

We are drinking. We're keeping up our tradition.

Eli

Yeah, I'm sorry that gymnasium got passed up for the NATO promo video.

Adam Faze

I was really hoping. I'm actually pretty shocked that they didn't have Rachel Coster instead of Tony P

Eli

Oh, my God, I would. I would have tuned in. I would have tuned in what Gen Z needs to know about the security alliance. But anyway, let's get right to it. Lot to cover today. So you have a hefty background, I suppose, in film production, TV, most notably now at gymnasium. Tell us a little bit about it. What's good with it? How'd it start? Is it true you got a cease and assist from Faze world?

Adam Faze

Yeah I can't use my own name, guys. How crazy is that. I grew up in LA as, like, the most obsessed with movies and TV shows, kid you could possibly find family didn't come from the industry. So I think it made me want it even more. I did, like, a semester of community college and dropped out and just started working for producers at a really young age. The full circle moment on podcast is, like, the only way I ever got a job in Hollywood was I had a podcast where I would interview people about how they got ahead in Hollywood. And it was around the time that Sony had gotten hacked for the interview, and so everyone was on WikiLeaks, and I could just type in anyone I wanted to meet, and I'd be like, Hey, I'm 17. I have a podcast. Can I come interview you? And that's why I'm here right now. Actually, I emailed you guys, but I, you know, got everyone from Jay Leno to John this producer, John Lesher produced Birdman and the Duploss brothers, and I would just ask them if I could work for them afterwards. So...

Trey

Like, secretly?

Adam Faze

Like, can I intern you and get you water and coffee? Like, I'll do whatever. I just like, I need to be in the room. So that started, like, a few years of being in the industry at my own production companies, I ended up going back to working in like traditional Hollywood at a studio. And 2021 I'm sitting in the room, and I'm just like, I don't know if I watch movies or TV shows anymore, at least not the way that I used to. And I am spending four or five hours a day on TikTok, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, and if that's me who's, like, the obsessed with movies and TV shows, kid, anyone younger than me is probably doing exactly this, and they probably never even grew up with television. And so as soon as I, like, had that thought, it was really hard to go back to work, because I'm just sort of like, what are we doing here, guys? I moved to New York. I joined this like web3 startup. Don't ask me why. And when I was there...

Eli

Does it still exist?

Adam Faze

You know, it does exist. Does exist. And I will say, like, I give them credit, they're the reason I moved to New York, and I had a full sandbox to really experiment with digital content. And I made three shows when I was there, one of which was with Kareem Rama called keep the meter running, where he would like, hail a cab in the streets of New York and tell the driver, take me to your favorite place and keep the meter running. The way that those shows exploded on the internet proved to me that short form content was a future of television, and I was shocked that no one had built an actual television studio and. Making these exact times of shows. So that is how gymnasium came to be wait.

Trey

Wait so you said a future of television not like the future.

Adam Faze

I don't, I'm not a person that says like movies and TV won't exist. I think the ways that we will watch it will change. I think we will watch far less of it, but I do think that means that the times that we do watch it makes it that much more important. But I do think your daily consumption of media has probably switched to being in your phone.

Clara

I'm curious, like, because I know it can you were talking a bit about, like, the typical which, I guess no series is typical to each other, but, you know, the production process, from the initial ideation to finding the talent to it actually going live and sort of making tweaks as it goes. I was curious if you could walk through the process for bringing to life one of your shows.

Adam Faze

I would say, like, the reason I'm so grateful for having worked in Hollywood for eight years is, I would say that we run this company very traditionally. It's very much a traditional television studio. And so really looking for the best ideas, the best talent, regardless of the size of their following. And so like to take boy room as an example. Our biggest show right now where this comedian, Rachel Koster, investigates how disgusting men's bedrooms are in New York City and then gives advice on how to make them better. I was at a comedy club one night. Was seeing a mutual friend of me and Rachel's I'd never met Rachel before. Rachel came out and opened for her. I was obsessed with her, that she's one of the funniest people I'd ever seen. She actually came into my office to interview to be my assistant. I ended up, I'm not looking for an assistant, but she's like, can I come pitch you some ideas? I was like, please absolutely. Pitched four ideas, the fourth of which said, like, Boy Room needs a better name. I'm obsessed with guys bedrooms and, like, all I want to do is investigate them and maybe make them better. And I was like, that's a home run idea. Yeah, it's a home run.

Eli

And a great name. And sometimes the name is all you need.

Adam Faze

I that was like a working title, that's the greatest name I've ever heard. And so I it's funny, because I bounced the idea off of one of my best friends. Is kid Peter McIndoe. I like, told him the idea was like, What do you think? And he was like, You should totally do the show. And I was like, if I showed up your place at some point to do this show, would you be upset with me? And he was like, absolutely, I will kill you. The next day, we showed up at his house with cameras, and he knew exactly what the show was at that point, he I've never been more concerned that our friendship might not have lasted that moment, but that episode, which has never come out, was all I needed to see to be like, this is a hit show, and a lot of that credit goes to also Sexy Damien, my creative director, who actually goes and directs and edits these shows. And so again, it's like, all up into what I'm saying right now. We had never tested the show publicly. We didn't know if it was actually gonna work. It's just like that gut instinct of we love it, we wanna send it to our friends. And so dropped it organically on Instagram, and TikTok. First episode gets like 200,000 views on Instagram. Gets 200 views on Tiktok. We're like, maybe it's just a new account, whatever. Second episode post on Instagram. It's another 200,000 views. Tiktok gets like 173 views. We're like, What the fuck is going on? Because at this point, most of the shows we've launched have been pretty viral from the get go. But we were like, This is an amazing show. It's gonna work. There's something weird here. And we figured, why don't we just drop the intro that says, Welcome to boys room, the show where we investigate boys rooms, and just get straight into it. And that one change got us 30,000 followers overnight and, like, 4 million views across those first three episodes. So it's like, thankfully, it still only took a week to get to that outcome of like, okay, this is a hit show, but all along, we had the confidence of believing in it.

Eli

Outside of like, the numbers and the views, which obviously are important to kind of illustrate the success and the fact that people are tuning in. Are there any other ways that you're like, we we have a hit on our hands, or, like, yeah, because I feel like people will rely on views and engagement statistics, when, in reality, like a lot of people have never actually seen it in their life, like, what, what I guess is like a success for you and gymnasium at large.

Adam Faze

I mean, a big thing for me is, like consistency in viewership. I actually am, like, trying not to talk about views less only because I think we will never have the most views of any company that ends up being in the space. Like, that's just not our game. Like, Mr. Beast is gonna be Mr. Beast for as long as he is Mr. Beast. Like, we're not competing in that territory. I think for me, it's like, can we create shows that, like, actually exist in the real world? Where, when I go talk to someone that's under the age of 30 and I'm like, hey, I make this show called boy room, and their response to like, oh my god, I seen every episode. It's my favorite show. It's like, that's the response. If we're getting that response from a show, let's keep making that show.

Eli

Yeah, because I feel like one of the things that we spoke about at Cannes is, like, there are all these shows or publications like this is catered to like, a Gen Z audience, and we're meeting, we're meeting the audience where they are with content that kind of like, meets their, I don't know, creative acumen, or whatever. And it's like, well, actually, your audience is, like, marketer, millennial marketers and above, yeah, which is frustrating.

Trey

So I have a question. I have an interesting question for you. Why did Quibi fail?

Adam Faze

A few things, and by the way, one of my favorite things to give them shit for is whatever publicist they hired when they were closing, the company decided to make this argument that the only reason it didn't work is because of covid, because their whole thing was about people being on short commutes and they had less time to watch things, and all of a sudden, covid happens, and no one wants short form content. I'm like, that sounds really great and a press release, until you realize that's also when TikTok started, and so clearly, short form content was the winner, putting it behind an $8 a month paywall to watch A-list talent that Gen Z has never heard about, and paying premium dollars for those shows, I think, is one of the dumbest ideas for our entire life.

Eli

Sounds like the Biden admin.

Adam Faze

Like you wouldn't pay to watch any of that content. Like in What world do you want to watch any one of those shows? And I will say, I do think even at a time than in my belief, platforms like Tiktok are going to start looking more like television and get more premium. I also think the fact that it has an unlimited amount of UGC really helps it, because I would still argue that even in the world where TikTok is television, probably 50% of that will always be UGC, because you can't beat those memes. You can't beat the tea and the stories that you see like that. You just can't write that.

Trey

So I think, like, you're obviously incredible at finding these, you know, things that you have, like as a colonel here, there's a funny person, there's an interesting story, but to what degree is it, like, meticulously planned out? And by that, I mean, like, the launch of it, like the marketing around it, like, how deep does this go essentially?

Adam Faze

Like, literally, so, not at all. I mean, a big thing is, like, we want to know quickly if a show works or not, because if it doesn't, we don't want to keep paying for it. And we do want to, like, move on to something else. And so we've yet to spend a dollar in marketing. We've never spent a dollar in publicity. You know, we got the most press we've ever gotten our entire lives in boy room that was all inbound, literally, through our DM's, like people reaching out.

Trey

Like asking because the content was good. Okay.

Adam Faze

And so as long as we can get away with that, we're gonna keep doing that. I will say, like, as our shows get bigger, we're gonna do more like IRL events and activations and stuff like that, just to prove that these are real audiences. But that's probably the fullest extent of where we'll go with that.

Trey

So you're almost like, AB testing content, in a sense, where you're like, if this hits by video three or something, then we have a winner. But if not scrap it, we're done?

Adam Faze

Exactly. And I would say most that AB testing happens before we even put it on the platform. And so our hope is that we've like, stopped any of those shows. We throw a lot of pilots out every single month.

Eli

And is that tough, or does it feel good?

Adam Faze

It's only tough when you have high expectations of a project and then you, like, see it on camera, and you're like, oh, it just sucks. Like we're doing this right now, and I'm just like, I had really high hopes for this show, but, what I can say is like, you know, one of our biggest shows ever was a show called clockwork dynasty, where we had these two watch dealers from the diamond district, buy, sell, trade, expensive watches, Vookum, Tyler Mikorski and Tuscany rose, John Buckley, who are two of my favorite people on Earth. And it was so fun to make I loved working with them. I would love to find something else to do with them. And it had honestly some of the craziest viewership we've ever had. The only issue was no one wanting to sponsor the show, because we were in the watch world, and our audience was predominantly 18 to 24 year old boys who don't really have the money to speak to expensive watch brands, right? And so it's like we were just paying for that show to exist, and at a certain point we had to pull the plug because there just wasn't a business there anymore.

Clara

Something else you brought up at Cannes was that, you know, boy room, Bodega run, they're all sort of very New York centric, and there's kind of this, like, very committed, very vocal, like, local audience that, like, recognizes Rachel in the streets and all of that. Like, I'm curious how much is it sort of intentionally local, like local by design. And do you plan to sort of scale that city by city, or is that just sort of like the way it started?

Adam Faze

Part of it is, I think New York is like the greatest set of all time, and so it just instantly makes a show better by having it in the backdrop. I do think we will want to start doing other cities. I also am really excited to do, like, local language versions of our shows. Like, what does it look like to go do boy room in Mexico or do Bodega run in Japan? Like, I think that is like the goal here. But yeah, I think, like, the cities that you probably won't see us race to as quickly as, like my hometown, LA, which I still defend, I just think it's like the least interesting place right now. And also, if we were to build this company there today, I think we would be running an influencer marketing company. Oh lord, that would be tough. But yeah talk to me a little bit about live, because you talked about, like, coming from a traditional TV and film background, and I feel like we've, you know, one of the things we've talked about, too, is like, there's no longer a collective tune in I feel like SNL late night no longer really has, like the legs that it used to. Is that something you're hoping to kind of like rekindle again, whether it's a variety show, cable news, anything around that? I think it's the dream, and I think we won't touch it until the name Gymnasium actually means something to people. So I do think, like we're gonna try to create more brand value around gymnasium in the coming months, but I think once we figure that out, of course, my dream is to make TRL or to make MTV Unplugged, or make any of these shows that I grew up watching, and find a way to have an audience tune in and like, have appointment based viewing. I definitely won't try it yet. But also, like, the first show I ever worked on in my entire life. I was 16. I worked at Real Time with Bill Maher, and that was like when the show was still live on TV, and hearing the HBO logo come on at 7pm and being like, holy fuck, we're on live television right now. Like, that's an insane feeling, and I don't think that's easily recreated. Filibuster was the word I was looking at four and a half minutes.

Clara

Well, to the point about live TV, and also Trey's earlier, about Quibi, with the success of boy room and gymnasium getting bigger and bigger. Have you had any sort of, like, more traditional studios or networks reaching out to you to either, like, consult with them or to partner with gymnasium on doing their own kind of, like, social first series?

Adam Faze

Yeah. I mean, I think the conversation that's happening, that's starting to happen that I did not expect to happen this early, but I did expect it to happen at some point. Is massive studios who have libraries of IP that are losing their value every year. They don't have a movie come out about them. And they look at the market and they're like, Okay, the earliest we can have a movie come out with this IP is 2029, at best, and it might still be a flop, and when that point, we've wasted another $150 million in this project. What does it look like for you to take our characters, animated makes the most sense, but I think it applies to a lot of different territories. And what if you guys were to go create original short form content with our characters and get a whole new generation of people to fall in love with them, for then us to make new movies and TV shows with and I'm like, yeah. When you consider the fact that studios spend hundreds of 100s of dollars, millions of dollars, doing pilots to see if they should do a show, why wouldn't you find a way to do 24 episodes for the same price, put it out for everyone to see, build the value so that you can a much bigger exit.

Clara

So it is something you'd be interested in, or, like?

Adam Faze

1000% I mean, that's the thing. It's like, at the end of the day, like, I'm, you know, a kid obsessed with Hollywood, like, of course, I want to make movies and TV shows or short form shows with the characters I grew up watching.

Trey

How much of gymnasium is like, built upon finding new talent in terms of, like, incubating maybe the next generation of these, like short form creators or even directors of, you know, feature films that you can kind of help develop or give a platform to better like you 10 years ago.

Adam Faze

I definitely feel a huge responsibility to try and develop a new generation of talent. I think I feel really bad for this generation of comedians, where there is no Comedy Central, there's no funny or dies, no College Humor, and so it's like, the reality is, you better hope your crowd work clip goes viral, because if you don't like you just dont have a career.

Trey

You better be Matt Rife with that jaw.

Adam Faze

And that's the thing, it's like. And yet, they're very talented. A lot of type comedians maybe just aren't the best at stand up or are better as writers than talent. But most of these people need a show to have their careers start anyway. And so unfortunately, we've never had fewer shows made in Hollywood ever. And I think that's where I find a huge opportunity for us, like, hey, we get to work with some of the most talented people on earth that just maybe haven't been discovered yet, and get to really develop amazing ideas with them, because it costs us so little that we can afford to try things.

Eli

What do you think about untalented people who are discovered inside. Because I'm thinking of like the guy...

Adam Faze

Hawk Tuah.

Eli

Yes, exactly. You get that. Or you get like the Harry kid who, like, goes up to celebrities and sings.

Adam Faze

He's a friend. He's a nice guy.

Eli

He's very talented, sorry. I didn't know this was not prevetted, or the looking for a man in finance, like, do you think that there's a premature, I don't know, like hype around, let's just say, though.

Adam Faze

Let's say Tony P too. I do think there's a few things here. One is traditional executives don't understand ironic celebrities where, like, we all sort of hate watch someone or sharing them because we like making fun of them. So I think that's why, think that's one thing I don't understand. The other side, come on. Love you, Tony. The other side is, I think their definition of like it's viral right now. They don't realize that, like, there is a viral moment happening every five minutes today, and virality equates to almost nothing now. And so it's like as much as, yes, probably 300 million people watch the hawk tuah girl. Do I think that that's equate to a massive reality show? Absolutely not.

Eli

Yeah.

Clara

Well, I actually, I did read, I hate myself doing this too. There was a write up in the Washington Post about the hawk tuah girl and her base, like her recruitment essentially into it.

Trey

Can we explain who she is?

Clara

No, don't make me do it.

Trey

Sorry. But...

Clara

She was, whatever it was, like a man on the street interview style thing. They asked her something of, should I actually explain what it is?

Eli

You don't, you can skirt around the details.

Clara

They asked her something like, sort of like a version of a sexual innuendo, and I bet you can guess what it was, because. She said hawk tuah, like, spit.

Eli

All right, okay, anyway come on.

Clara

So in any case, the Washington Post write up was kind of like, she's gone viral. Now, what? And was talking about a she didn't end up getting signed by UTA. She got signed by this, like, sort of smaller Nashville music management company. And she also built, she started her own LLC, which is called 16 minutes, aptly, like whatever, 15 minutes of fame. But 16 minutes, and she's starting to try to license basically, her likeness on at a rapid level, because she went on this podcast and was essentially saying, like, all of this merch has come out in the last few days, that's like, quickly created by users online, but she doesn't make any money off of that, so, which I thought was, I mean, slightly more pragmatic than maybe my expectation of her had been like, she was like, I don't know how long this is going to last, but I want to make as much money off of this as I possibly can right now. Because right now I'm not making any money off of it. But I feel like, because I agree with you, I feel like viral is so fleeting, but I think what is potentially interesting down the line is these sort of viral non personalities are smart enough to realize, like, this fire will not burn forever type of thing, and you have to be a little bit more realistic.

Adam Faze

I will give one of my one of the ideas that I would love to do at some point. I would love to bring back a TikTok house from 2020 in the form of a dating show. Because I'm like a lot of these influencers don't really exist anymore, but they've all hooked up with each other.

Clara

Like a love Island.

Adam Faze

And let's do love island with all these influencers that aren't really big anymore.

Eli

Did you pitch this to Josh Richards after Cannes?

Adam Faze

Look, I think, he could be a good producer for it. He's like, still, you know, big, but I think there's a lot from... Do you know him? Yeah, yeah.

Eli

He actually seemed like, a pretty nice guy.

Adam Faze

But I mean, those are just the things I don't really touch, because it's like, I can't make that right now. And that would require millions of dollars to go make but I think it would be huge, because I think we all would hate watch it.

Trey

The natural follow up, I think, is like, virality is meaningless. All of these people have these, like, 15 minutes of fame moments, short form, content is king. You are making it. How do you make sure that it lasts longer than this moment, like, is boy room gone tomorrow? And like, what do you do? Then how do you make this last long?

Eli

Boy house.

Adam Faze

I mean, I think that's a challenge for us. Like, how do we consistently make our things better? I think any TV show ends eventually, and then maybe you can find a new way of rebooting it and bringing it back to life. But I do think of our shows in the form of seasons. We're ending season one right now. We're getting ready to do a much bigger season two, where we're actually driving the country and actually renovating guys' rooms. Boy mansion. And so I think it's a challenge for us. I also think it's challenging if you're doing something built around someone portraying a character, especially if they also are making their own content, because I think people can get sick of characters really quickly, and so, I mean, I think another thing is like, we really limit the amount of content that we post, whereas most other people in this space are, like, three episodes a day, and it's just like, yeah. And also, I'm sick of you now and want to scroll past every single one of these videos, I feel like we've almost trained people with boy room that, because episodes come out, like once every 10 days, when we do the first 200 comments on the video are like, wake up mom, a new boy room episode just dropped.

Trey

Yeah, I feel like, at the I don't know, I can't say peak, but like, during the covid era of TikTok, there were so many influencers that I created this, like, intense parasocial relationship with and then suddenly they either, like, disappeared or stopped posting, or just, like, a couple years passed and they were like, peace out, I'm done.

Adam Faze

And now there's Jason Nash just live on Tiktok 24 hours a day.

Trey

Yeah? But then, like, it's weird, I'm experiencing this, in my opinion, for the first time, where it's like people that I watched for a long time have decided to either move on or whatever, and like, there's this weird sense of, like, a void in my life. And it's not because the season was canceled. It was because, like, Bro walked away from the camera.

Eli

We got to get you a hobby.

Trey

I mean, truly, no, I just, I don't know, I don't know if there's like, a question there.

Adam Faze

But I was just saying that's one of the fascinating things about TikTok, because I feel like we've never known more about how so many people live. And I think there's something really strange with that, that like we almost aren't supposed to know. And I think the really interesting thing about TikTok is like, because so democratized, you know, who would have thought that a crab fisherman would be one of the biggest tiktokers? Or who would have thought that, you know, someone who's an accountant or a publicist or whatever. It's just like, we are fascinated with people's day jobs that we don't have access to ourselves. And so I always say, like, if you have a unique job and you start making content about what you do for a living, like you might be the face of that job for most of the world.

Trey

Yeah or just like, if you're old, suddenly people realized old people have a life, and it's like.

Eli

Many years of it, yeah.

Clara

Well, Iguess I'm curious, too, from the talent standpoint. And I'm not trying to put words in your mouth or tell you what to do...

Trey

But here goes my pitch.

Clara

Here goes my pitch/question, like, I guess, because you're talking about Rachel, and, you know, finding her developing the show with her to the point about, you know, sort of like talent burnout and influencers falling in and out is part of this. Sort of long term, I guess, operation too, that, you know, you start to build up this group of, sort of rising comedians or rising writers who then eventually might go on to, like Rachel, could be producing a show or writing a show that she's not necessarily starring in, but that you're building up more of a rank. Because I think part of the issue too, with the way that, and I mean, I love Tiktok, UGC, but it's also fragmented, that everyone is sort of like their own island. Basically, they're their own producer. They're coming up with their own concepts, or coming up with their own editing and like that itself is like super burnout inducing, I would imagine. So like basically providing, sort of like a halfway point between I am doing everything myself and I am, you know, potentially also working with other like minded people who are also kind of trying to go on this, journey.

Adam Faze

I mean, I really think, like, I want us to be everyone's favorite place to work with. And my hope is that as we keep making the best stuff, that we can grow with our audience as well. So my hope is that, like, as we keep working with Rachel, that she has such a great time working with us, so, like, maybe we do make a movie with her, or TV show with her, as long as, like, fits in our universe. And I do think that it's what you said. It's like everyone is competing with each other to have their own fame and virality. Everyone knows that what makes actually great art is collaboration, and it sucks that there is zero sort of institution. There's zero infrastructure for creators to work with each other right now. It just is like fend for yourself.

Clara

And I think it's sad slash interesting too, because we're coming at it from a brand standpoint. And I think it is unfortunate. I mean I say unfortunately, fortunately, neutrally, we're coming at it from a brand standpoint. And I think it's, I've always found it interesting, because I feel like it seems like such a massive opportunity, I guess, for brands to, like, sort of shore up smaller creatives in a more long term way, but it just for whatever reason, doesn't seem to happen. So it's interesting from that side too.

Trey

Yeah, I was gonna say, I want to go on, like, an informed limb and say that brand, big brands, want to venture into this space and have an ownable I'm doing air quotes, an ownable social series or short form series that they can use to advertise their loyalty program or their like products or whatever. But there's always this sort of feeling. And again, paraphrasing, that a social series or a short form content series is not big enough. So, like you mentioned a couple things earlier, and again, don't want to lead you into any direction here, but how do you make a social series or a short form content series feel bigger than it is.

Adam Faze

I mean, my first thing is, I would say, like, I really do believe that TikTok is probably the most powerfully culturally important tool on Earth. I think that's why we're debating if we should ban it or not. And so, you know, my favorite thing is having worked in Hollywood for eight years, I could tell you every product I've ever worked on at a bar, and you'd be like, huh? I think I know that one and my favorite thing today is being able to say the shows that I've worked on, and everyone, a lot of people that I talk to, having seen most, if not all of them. And so I think that's something that brands will learn in the coming months and years. Is like, oh, it's it is television, even though they might spend four hours a day watching it like they do, really remember the things that they watch. And for me, I'm trying to find integrations into our show that actually makes sense for the brand and for our viewer, where it's not just man on the street and they're holding a microphone that has a logo on it, and you're asking questions about gay son or thot daughter. I don't really think that that's like helping anyone. But with boy room, it's like, that's a home renovation show, like we are going to need to renovate their rooms with something and so, like mine is a partner with an E commerce furniture company or with Bodega run. You know, contestants have 60 seconds to find three items and check out for a chance to $100 and the first episode, for instance, one of the items the girl had to find was a box of Cheerios. She said the word Cheerios 20 times in 68 seconds, and that video is 4.2 million views. It's like we created a viral moment around a product. And so in our mind, it's like, well, let's go work with a massive CPG conglomerate and have them buy the next 100 episodes where the only way that you get a product on the show is by owning the content. And so I think we're just trying to find ways where I can look at a brand with a straight face and say, this is worth your money, and by the way, it's why it costs as much as it does, versus like we're viral, and you should sponsor us.

Trey

Right. And I also just want to go back to you mentioning, like, connecting with fans IRL and creating these moments that are like, we are taking this outside of the small screen and into a real space where you can literally see people who are like super fans of our content. And what might that look like, and how I don't I don't know how much of you like brainstormed about that.

Adam Faze

I think with Bodega run in particular, I want to start having a crowd of 50-100 people outside every time we start filming episodes. And you might be a contestant on the show if you're there. I think with boy room, it's. Like, let's throw a massive Season Two premiere party where we build out an actual boys room as, like, the boiler room where we have the party. So I think it's just like, it depends on the show. Again, I'm really excited to build the gymnasium brand more. I think as we start having more of a foundation there, it's like, I want us to throw homecoming and prom and really build, like, the high school world as sort of our brand, and so I don't know. I think the physical world is going to become a hugely important part to prove to these brands that it's real.

Eli

Presidential Fitness Test.

Clara

Oh I did the Presidential Fitness Test, yeah.

Eli

Terrible. Not good for those with asthma. Tough to climb a rope.

Adam Faze

How fast is everyone's mile?

Eli

Probably atrocious. I do have a question, because if...

Clara

Branded in flip flops.

Eli

Yeah, not naturally predisposed to the court or the field. I do have a question around audience because it sounds like boy room. Kind of people in your orbit, you know, skew on the younger side. And I feel like brands tend to make shows that are they say explicitly, like this is for our young Gen Z audience, whereas boy room, for example, or Bodega run is just like, naturally imbued with the fountain of youth or whatever like it just naturally is like for a younger Gen Z audience. What do you think that brands or like production studios get wrong when they I guess, try and like, over produce or over rev on a show that is, like, catered to a younger audience.

Adam Faze

I mean, it's like, besides just the age old, like, Hey, kids like, don't you want to watch a show about sustainability? It's like, you know, I think it's really overthinking what these kids want. I also think that, again, older executives don't really understand, you know, this person has 5 million followers, so that's why they're hosting this thing. It's like, okay, first of all, they got 5 million followers in 2020 and now their average viewership is like, 5000 views of video. So, like, don't pay as much to your paying. But I think they're just very out of touch with, like, what is, I think the people that are green lighting these shows don't spend enough time on Tiktok.

Clara

Yeah. I guess another sort of related thing is, and this comes up a lot, is sort of like the social first, like, production style, and it needs to look native to the platform. And I'm sure, sure it varies, like, show to show. But I wouldn't necessarily say, like, Boy room is, like, super Lo Fi or a super high Pro, but like, kind of, or same with Bodega run. But like, how do you kind of balance those things? Or is that something you're even thinking about, or is it more just like we're gonna shoot this in a way that feels natural?

Adam Faze

I mean, one is, look, it's a cost thing. Like, as soon as you bring an Ari Alexa out, now I knew do need a grip and a gaffer and a lighting team and all these extra things that, like, really will not move the needle on this platform. I think the other thing is, kids are accustomed to seeing high quality means ad means you're selling me something. And so like trying to find that happy medium where, like, we do not shoot on iPhones. I do want people to look at our stuff and immediately feel like, Oh, it's a TV show, but at the same time, it is pretty lo fi that we shoot on DSLRs, and it's a three, four person crew, which is the smallest that I've ever worked with. But again, it's like, all those things end up being such a benefit, because it does mean we can try more shows, because the cost is so low.

Trey

I was gonna bring up first we feast and the hot one series only because there's, like, a really interesting newsletter I received called charter that's done by Sherwood news, and they essentially just, like, have

Eli

Not a sponsor.

Trey

Not a sponsor, but give us a call.

Clara

We're open.

Trey

But, like, they are trying to find a buyer willing to pay 70 million for First we feast, which I guess, for more or less, is like a similar venture to kind of what gymnasium is. Obviously, they're like tentpole series as hot ones, where, you know, guests come on and eat hot wings and stuff like that. But I wonder if that is like what you envision as your future. Like, are you kind of in it to create this, like, tentpole property or something, and then maybe, like, cash out for 70 million, or...

Adam Faze

Hopefully a lot more than that.

Eli

Wrong number.

Adam Faze

I really see gymnasium as, like, this next generation incubator of shows and talent. Like, I think we're creating stars from scratch. I think we're creating shows that you will want to watch for years on end, I will say, in terms of how we're thinking about monetizing things, like, as we're closing our first big monetization deal on a show, and seeing what that deal looks like, it feels amazing. But at the same time, I think you look at that and you go, there's definitely a ceiling on what brand partnerships can get you. I do think if we were to really grow this company, that growth would probably come from like product and merch, and so thinking about shows that can lend themselves more naturally to that space, I know hot ones has definitely tried a lot in the product space. I would argue, I think it was too little too late, and I think now it's like they kind of missed their boat on when it was peak to really get into the product zone. And so I also think it's like they built a brand around the hottest possible hot sauce. And it's like, that's a bit that's like a gag gift that, like, maybe you'll get your nephew for Christmas. Like, I don't really think that that's like the ML at the end of the day. And so I'm excited. We're launching a few shows before the end of the year that like naturally lend themselves to an eventual product, and we won't make that product until we see that people actually want it, and even then, we won't make it in house. It'll just probably be more of like a licensing deal. But I do think it's like we can grow this company into being 5x off of brand partnerships. And I think if we do it right, it's like we can grow it 100x because of product merch.

Clara

Relatedly, to Trey's hot ones. Question reminded me, Is there, like, what are you feeling about YouTube and kind of, like, more medium form stuff, like, in the 10 to 15 range? Is that something you're interested in, or more, keeping it shorter?

Adam Faze

So I always say it's like, I think TikTok is television. That much is true. When I look at YouTube, I actually think it's legitimate television because over, you know, more than one in two people that watch YouTube watch it on their TVs. And so I think I...

Trey

Did you say one and two?

Adam Faze

It's over 50%.

Clara

That's crazy.

Trey

That's crazy. You watch YouTube on your TV?

Clara

It's like, luxurious.

Trey

How do you search things?

Adam Faze

I mean, I think the feed is amazing. The discovery is pretty cool. Yeah, they know way too much about you.

Eli

There's also a voice search feature if you have Apple TV.

Trey

Just wow.

Clara

Also not a sponsor, but sorry, go on.

Adam Faze

Google, YouTube TV. I do think I have enough respect for the medium that like, I don't want to do it until we can do it right. And I think right now, we are the best at making short form content. I would like for us to continue to be the best at that thing before we touch anything else, and maybe bring in another team that's even better than us at long form content, I will say we have one show that we're premiering next month that we will start recording a horizontal version that we still won't launch until we there's a reason to even after the short form release. So we're inching our way there, and that is a massive, you know, opportunity for growth at a certain point. It's just as of right now, it's not where we're spending our time.

Eli

All right we're gonna do this now. Sorry. I know you guys are gonna get tight at me, but we have a series of one off questions to ask you.

Adam Faze

Are these ones you put in the...

Eli

Yes, okay.

Adam Faze

I just took notes because I'm gonna forget everything.

Eli

Okay I'll give you some time.

Adam Faze

I'm good.

Eli

All right, social niche or account we should all tap into?

Adam Faze

Okay, there's two that I thought of for this. One is a new one that I just found. It's called Anthony's Arcade Repair, and it's a guy, presumably, in the Midwest, who just repairs arcade games. I'm a sucker for arcade games. I love an arcade and I've, like, kind of always wanted one. I will say it's a little like, I almost don't want to know the magic of these things, because you realize it's just, like, it actually is just arcade but it's amazing, that show, that account, is amazing. And there's this woman named Molly McPherson, who's a publicist that I've watched forever on TikTok, but I just think, first of all, I could listen to her talk for days. I love the way that she speaks, and...

Eli

Is she British?

Adam Faze

No, she's totally American, but like, speaks so eloquently and knows exactly what she's talking about, about PR issues, and like, how she would respond.

Eli

Like Boeing PR or like?

Adam Faze

Sort of but also like, oh, like, you know, what would she do for Joe Biden right now? That would be the kind of...

Eli

Send me that after, all right, the next one offline or offlineish reco could be a restaurant, album, book.

Adam Faze

My favorite show right now is a show called couples therapy on Showtime.

Clara

You're kidding. I love that show. Oh okay, here we go. That's for discussion.

Adam Faze

That was like, that was an accidental find of like, I wonder what this is like, and I am obsessed.

Clara

It's like, the most insane thing I've ever seen, like...

Adam Faze

And it's real.

Clara

Yeah, you sit down to watch it, can't stop going through.

Adam Faze

It's heartbreaking, because I think it makes you look at your own relationships differently, because you want to shake these people sometimes be like, stop being a child. Like, look away. Like, it's fine. You're gonna figure it out. And they don't.

Eli

What was the pregnant divorce? The pregnant cheat?

Clara

Yeah, do you see it every season? You know the guy?

Adam Faze

The most recent one, I don't know if I've gone all the way through, but I've seen them.

Clara

So this was the season three season where that guy, he cheated on his wife while she was pregnant, and then she got an abortion, and then she cheated on him with, like, one of her yoga students. And I was like, you guys just have to divorce. And I like, I don't know how else to tell you. Like, there's no way.

Adam Faze

She does a great job of sort of saying that sometimes, I mean, and you see her talk to her, like, mentor, or whatever you recall, and she's like, I don't know how to tell these people that they should break up.

Eli

In couples therapy. It's like, chat, chat. What do you think?

Clara

It's like me screaming at my TV like, have some people watch sports, being like, please stop.

Eli

All right, screen time. Are you up there? What's the...

Adam Faze

Just like, as bad as it possibly can. I also think that this question is fake, because, no, your phone screen time doesn't include your laptop screen time. So, like your phone might say 10 hours your laptop is another eight.

Trey

Oh, yeah, are you, Are you TikTok scrolling on your laptop?

Adam Faze

No, God, I respect for myself.

Eli

A little gifhy capture here and there.

Adam Faze

The worst thing about TikTok for me is like, I will go on 11pm being like, let me just get a quick hour, and then I'll go to sleep and I'm on it till like, four in the morning. Oh, by the way, the video that's like, you've been on here for too long, like I'd see five of them in a session. I've watched the sun come up because I couldn't get off TikTok. Like I it is bad.

Eli

Do you ever venture to Reels?

Adam Faze

I do. There's a big difference. It's a different art form, for sure. I think Reels, there's a lot more memes. Yeah, it's a lot darker,

Trey

The comment section.

Adam Faze

The comment section. I think, honestly, make anything better. It really is part of the entertainment.

Trey

Have you seen that like, clips of that podcast and they just read comments that are, like the top comments on these reels that are like, just roasting people.

Adam Faze

No, my favorite is there's like, a bunch of podcasts from kids that are just like, literally, college students,

Eli

I got some British some British blokes.

Adam Faze

Bloke Talk is great.

Eli

It's coming home. Although when this comes out, we will have known.

Adam Faze

There's the Bosh guy, Big John. Yeah. Also, do you know they count dead pubs on Tiktok and Instagram?

Eli

Yes, I there's also this guy who has a really jarring dead tooth right down the middle, but he reviews Guinnesses, yeah. No, it's great. It's so endearing, you just kind of want to squeeze him little Pillsbury. All right. Hottest take that you've got? And I realize now reading this, it's a bit of a pull. But anyway...

Adam Faze

This is very connected to the screen time thing. You know, there's all these inventions of, like, you're gonna get this brick phone and it's not gonna have these apps on it. Or like, oh, like, we all love our phone time. I think our phone time is religious. I think we all love when we can do it. And I think like, catching up on your phone after being in a movie for two hours is like one of the greatest feelings that exist today. So that's my hot take. I think we love our phone time.

Eli

Don't talk to me until I've had my phone time. All right. Last one, Internet Crimes you'd prosecute, or gripes that you have?

Adam Faze

I actually don't think I went I got to this one. I was writing these, these answers while I was walking over here. Internet Crimes I would prosecute. I just think, oh, no, I have such a good the tiny microphone, enough, enough. It's not a thing that helps you in the algorithm. I know someone somewhere said that if you get a tiny microphone, it's gonna help you. It looks so ridiculous. Stop doing it.

Trey

What have bigger microphone?

Adam Faze

Just have, just have a lav mic. You have this little thing that you hold and you got it Urban Outfitters, like you're 40, it's fine.

Eli

You could not come into my apartment.

Clara

He's like, Oh, I don't know if I have an internet crime anyway, fuck tiny mics.

Eli

Drops down a huge folder. All right. Adam Faze, thank you so much. Last thing, where can our listeners find you/tune in. Learn more about gymnasium, boy room, etc.

Adam Faze

I'm @Adam Faze on everything. We are at it's gymnasium on everything, and it's at boardroom show on everything, and at Bodega run show on everything. So that's those are the answers.

Eli

Thanks so much, man, appreciate it.

Adam Faze

Thanks for having me.