Canton Man Embraces Nerd Culture with New Podcast

After losing his Marketing and Public Relations job earlier this year, Brian Titus decided he wasn't going to sit around at home while conducting a job hunt.

The Canton man wanted to keep busy, so he decided to start a podcast revolving around nerd culture. Titus, a self-proclaimed nerd, gathered up four friends to help him as co-hosts. 

"They all have their own niche of nerdiness," Titus said about his co-hosts. "I kind of round out the cast, if you will, as a complete nerd all around. I read graphic novels. I have unusual hobbies, I collect Pez dispensers. I send geeky fan mail to people that I think are awesome, and I've had some replies back, which is really cool."

Kelcie Banas is the cult and horror film expert; Kat Ruff plays the children's card game, Pokemon as well as other fantasy card games; Brent Brozek collects DC Superhero action figures while Michael Lomas is the comic book expert.

"We call ourselves the Not So Cool Kids because, you know, there was that table at high school that all the not so cool kids sat at, and that's kind of what we do every Thursday or Friday," Titus said.

The Not So Cool Kids have produced nine episodes so far, all of which are free to watch or listen to the audio. 

Check out Titus' blogs on Plymouth-Canton Patch.

The episodes contain segments called 'Cinefile,' or a movie review, 'Collectors Corner' where the hosts or guests share something they collect and something called 'Versus.'

"Versus is where we take two random people from fiction or the nonfiction universe - Abraham Lincoln versus Captain America, then we just talk about who would win," Titus said. "This is what nerds talk about. It's normal conversation - then we're like 'why are we not recording this?'"

The highlight of the episodes are interviews with guests. The Not So Cool Kids have had guests like Matt Busch, an illustrator for the Star Wars franchise and Ric Viers, the largest independent producer of sound effects. Both men are from Michigan. 

"I'm actually booked through August with guests," Titus said. "We just had Jeremy Telford who was featured in Maxim magazine for building a Lord of the Rings hobbit house in his living room out of balloons. He's a balloon twister for a living. I just thought it was so cool and wondered if I could get a hold of him for the show. So most of the people I reach out to are through email and FAcebook, and nine times out of 10, I get them on the show.

"There's a lot of other nerd culture podcasts out there right now - and they kind of do the big stuff," he said. "I want to get the underground nitty gritty nerd things, like fan film directors and web stuff like Jeremy Telford. It's there, but not enough people know about it."

Titus and his co-hosts use Google Plus Hangout to produce the podcast, so each of them and the guest can sign on from home.

"The audience gets the behind-the-scenes view, if they want it," Titus said. "Because sometimes, what was really cool is that Jeremy Telford actually made balloon art for the podcast. He made a giant-sized Gollum out of balloons and he had it right behind him during the show. It was kind of creepy - he was making it move and stuff." 

For more information on the Not So Cool Kids Podcast, find them online at http://notsocoolkidspodcast.wix.com/notsocoolkids or watch the episodes here.