Canned Geek Podcast

The Penny Arcade Expo represents almost every kind of gaming you can imagine. There’s tabletop, old school consoles, laser tag, card games, board games – they’re all there. But in June of 2013, something happened that caused some gamers to wonder whether they were welcome at PAX.

PAX Australia is a massive, three-day video game festival that covers almost every type of gaming and has a strong community vibe. To explore this, we ask people a single question: ‘what’s the most strange, unexpected and/or awesome thing that’s happened to you?’

We bring you our coverage of Supanova Melbourne. This episode has even more love and more production than usual – as well as appearances from Supanova special guests Scott Kurtz and Richard Horvitz – as well a few other surprising voices.

This is a panel that was presented as part of eclectic programming found at Continuum. Whether you care about cartoon animals or not, everyone can enjoy this collection of stories.Direct from the conbook: Are furries truly an alien culture? This collection of true stories aims to look beyond the cartoon animals and delve into the truth behind furry parties, conventions and minds. Listen as they weave wicked awesome tales of friendship, conflict and fandom.

On this show, we talk about Continuum; an event that casts a wide net and reels a fascinating haul of various niche interests. From crocheted cephalopods to detective literature, it is all welcome at Continuum. This episode simulates what this event was like, with the addition of some live clips and creative sound design. Also squids.

So Continuum is a pop culture and speculative fiction convention with a wall to wall schedule of varied and engaging discussion panels. After attending this unique and most excellent event,Logan, Kyle, Carnival and Kraden gather to share their stories and perspectives, from feminist witches to LEGO communities and beyond.

In this podcast we interview Kat Nicholson, the candidate for Croydon in the political party Gamers 4 Croydon, a party formed to tackle the issue of Australia’s lack of an R18 rating for video games – as well as other important topics including equal marriage rights and environmental conservation. As the candidate for Croydon, Kat is aiming directly for the seat of Michael Atkinson, who has drawn controversy amongst the gaming community for his immovable attitude against the R18 rating for video games. So who is this Kat person and how did this Gamers 4 Croydon things come about? More importantly, what are they doing? We talked to Kat herself to find out.

Rebecca Clements is Melbourne based illustrator and the creator of several charming comics over on Kinokofry. She also is someone who uses tea leaves instead of teabags, loves riding her bike, can be found picking up rubbish in the forest and prefers op shop clothes instead of buying new clothes. Simply put: Rebecca makes comics which can change your habits and way you think. Listeners are encouraged to check out Rebecca’s comics – but this podcast is also suitable for people who have yet to read any of her work.

Back in October 2010 the Canned Geeks attended the Armageddon pop culture expo in Melbourne. In the wake of the event Liam, Kyle, Jeneara and Will-Will sat down to discuss their (often conflicting) views on the celebrities, panels, artists and happenings at the convention.

Lloyd Kaufma is the co-creator of Troma Entertainment as well as a producer, director, writer and actor. He was also one of the many guests at Melbourne Armageddon where we sat down attempted to talk with him.

Here’s something different for the podcast feed: an interview with Bill Geradts who hails from New Zealand and is the creator of the Aramgeddon conventions – a series of popculture events which run in both New Zealand and Australia. Bill talks on several topics surrounding Armageddon, including it’s creation, how they deal with guest cancellations and the behind the scenes of running a convention.

Description of episode 2.

Description of episode 1.