# Meet the Artist Behind The Questlove Show Logo & Animations

An episode of [The Questlove Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1485250501), 5 Jun 2026, 24 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/86918ee4-4aa4-497b-995a-ae32006cd4b7/422d1f4d-992f-423c-95f0-b46000f5b9e4/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=ee132490-ba24-4965-b558-ae32006cd4c0

Nick Polowy is the Los Angeles–based artist behind The Questlove Show logo and many of the animations that have appeared throughout QLS episodes since 2022. While taping in Hollywood, Ahmir and Open Mike Eagle sat down with Nick for a special mini episode to talk about his creative process, the deep research that informs his work, and a career that spans everything from major television networks to haunted houses. Tune in to hear the story behind the visuals and the artist who brought them to life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio. All right,
[0:19] Speaker 1: So just came to my attension that not only do
[0:21] Speaker 1: we not have a kind of an umbrella title for
[0:26] Speaker 1: what this is, but I don't even know what these
[0:27] Speaker 1: quikies are called. Are these called quest Love quikies or
[0:31] Speaker 1: not Quest Love Quickies? Why we're all adults here?
[0:38] Speaker 2: Does everybody who listens to this show have a gutter mind?
[0:41] Speaker 1: Is that what you're afraid? Yeah? Pretty much, we do,
[0:43] Speaker 1: we do, all right? So, uh, of course I'm here
[0:46] Speaker 1: with new family member, opened my eagle. I am in
[0:49] Speaker 1: the family, our fearless leader, our silent leader. You know.
[0:52] Speaker 1: One of the things that people have given me a
[0:55] Speaker 1: lot of great feedback on are the kind of the
[0:59] Speaker 1: anime shorts that sort of advertise who comes here. And
[1:04] Speaker 1: it's kind of been like a long running tradition here
[1:08] Speaker 1: at q LS, and we thought, hey, why don't we
[1:13] Speaker 1: shed some light, give more flowers to the people behind
[1:16] Speaker 1: the scenes. And one of such one such person is
[1:21] Speaker 1: our animator of those great shorts to those audio clips
[1:26] Speaker 1: that we do. Nick Peloe, did I say it right?
[1:29] Speaker 3: You said it perfectly.
[1:31] Speaker 1: Literally When I said the name, I'd literally imagined me
[1:34] Speaker 1: like Crossing Cherriots of Fire, Nick Peloe, how are you?
[1:42] Speaker 3: I'm doing great. How are you guys doing?
[1:43] Speaker 1: We're great, great, we're great. Well, we're doing Yeah, we're great,
[1:46] Speaker 1: and we're well. Yeah, So let's not just jump into
[1:51] Speaker 1: the business all.
[1:52] Speaker 3: Where are you from? How am I from? That's a
[1:54] Speaker 3: that's a question.
[1:55] Speaker 4: I'm from a lot of places now because I've kind
[1:57] Speaker 4: of jumped around a lot. I'm initially from James Down,
[2:00] Speaker 4: New York area, Cassadega, New York, little tiny town of
[2:03] Speaker 4: like six hundred people. I'm not supposed to be here.
[2:05] Speaker 4: I'm supposed to be there like fishing or something. Whatever
[2:08] Speaker 4: they're doing there, shout out to them. But yeah, I've
[2:11] Speaker 4: been everywhere. I've jumped to Pittsburgh for like six years
[2:14] Speaker 4: through college and working in the news there. I worked
[2:18] Speaker 4: at a haunted house there. I went to New York,
[2:20] Speaker 4: did more news there, comedy and stuff.
[2:23] Speaker 1: Wait, since we have to Pittsburgh residents here? Oh yeah,
[2:27] Speaker 1: when is the actual proper time to use the word
[2:30] Speaker 1: Yin's because I've been trying to connect with people, but
[2:35] Speaker 1: I don't want to sound like people trying to say.
[2:38] Speaker 4: Join sure, So I say talk about high pressure as
[2:42] Speaker 4: a as a non resident there, I can give you
[2:44] Speaker 4: my best shot and Jake will give me a thumbs up.
[2:46] Speaker 1: What exact a use?
[2:48] Speaker 4: It's like a you ones is the source of it,
[2:52] Speaker 4: but it doesn't it I know what it sounds.
[2:53] Speaker 1: Like, yeah, yeah, but wait, that's the origin. I did
[2:59] Speaker 1: not know.
[3:00] Speaker 4: That's at least where like the fanatics I think come from.
[3:02] Speaker 4: But it's a it's a y'all. It's so it's our
[3:04] Speaker 4: uns going downtown to see the stillers or you know whatever.
[3:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, so it has to start with you. I didn't
[3:11] Speaker 1: know I was using yen's almost as a yeo instead of.
[3:15] Speaker 4: I mean, you could use it as like a y'all,
[3:18] Speaker 4: but I think that's so. I think you wouldn't be
[3:19] Speaker 4: incorrect and that it's.
[3:20] Speaker 3: Just uhn yeah.
[3:24] Speaker 4: Usually it's like a question that sounds like a statements
[3:28] Speaker 4: went to Walmart kind of a thing.
[3:30] Speaker 3: But like, I don't know that's about.
[3:31] Speaker 1: Okay, because we're both from Pennsylvania. I want to know, Okay,
[3:36] Speaker 1: so what is inside of this control?
[3:40] Speaker 4: The word won't catch the double D from me, butter
[3:42] Speaker 4: is that where we're are we going to?
[3:44] Speaker 3: I don't say water, but like I know Woter. I'm
[3:46] Speaker 3: a water.
[3:47] Speaker 1: Guy, Okay, I think I say water water. Do I
[3:51] Speaker 1: sound like a Philadelphian's is it? Yeah? Okay, so yeah,
[3:57] Speaker 1: because because whatater I s? Yeah? Water? Got it?
[4:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a water guy.
[4:01] Speaker 4: But we also grew up in like a very enunsative
[4:04] Speaker 4: family that famously, if we were baby talked, were precocious children.
[4:08] Speaker 4: Like my older brother had a famous line of an
[4:10] Speaker 4: uncle was like you want some wal wine, as a
[4:12] Speaker 4: baby was like water, I want water. And that's how
[4:14] Speaker 4: we were. We were all raised like super enunciate and
[4:18] Speaker 4: then like.
[4:18] Speaker 1: Yeah, I do not talk baby talk to kids. Yeah,
[4:21] Speaker 1: I talked them as adults.
[4:23] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the best way to talk to just about anybody.
[4:25] Speaker 4: I'm a new dog dad, and I can't be really okay,
[4:28] Speaker 4: how old you? This dog just turned five, but I
[4:31] Speaker 4: came in around two years old as the dad. So
[4:35] Speaker 4: I'm getting used to us sometimes doing a little bit
[4:38] Speaker 4: of like hey, boody, but I'm just kind of a hey,
[4:41] Speaker 4: what's up guy? No matter who it is, I talk.
[4:43] Speaker 2: To your dog like a like a guy, like a person.
[4:45] Speaker 4: I'd say like seventy five percent of the time, and
[4:47] Speaker 4: then I like I'm softening.
[4:48] Speaker 3: Up to the rest.
[4:50] Speaker 1: I was told I was very mean spirited.
[4:52] Speaker 3: Oh no, just to make a cold or straight up.
[4:54] Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because you know he's in sort of territorial
[4:58] Speaker 1: marking mood a right, And I'm coming from motherfucker that
[5:02] Speaker 1: said sheep's getting rugg You just did that.
[5:03] Speaker 2: On okay, so that makes sense. Dollars when they ship
[5:09] Speaker 2: places they're not supposed to.
[5:10] Speaker 1: Ah. Yeah, you know, this dog knows what he's doing.
[5:14] Speaker 1: And that's the thing like his territorials situation, very very
[5:18] Speaker 1: jealous of, you know, the closeness of you know, me
[5:21] Speaker 1: and his mom's Okay.
[5:22] Speaker 4: See, I've actually taken over as like the source of attention.
[5:26] Speaker 4: But I'm like a reluctant leader. So I get a
[5:28] Speaker 4: lot of like dog laying on my chest trying to
[5:30] Speaker 4: get in my face, and I'm like, go do this
[5:32] Speaker 4: with your mom.
[5:32] Speaker 1: She wants this. He did? You used it with snacks?
[5:35] Speaker 3: A couple snacks, yea too many?
[5:37] Speaker 1: Yeah. I get his respect now because he knows that
[5:39] Speaker 1: I will sneak him snacks too.
[5:42] Speaker 2: I'm curious. You said you worked at a haunted house.
[5:45] Speaker 2: You said real fast.
[5:48] Speaker 4: So I was at the place called the Scarehouse in
[5:50] Speaker 4: Pittsburgh for like all six years. I was in Pittsburgh,
[5:54] Speaker 4: and I was like, through my college job wasn't building
[5:57] Speaker 4: sets and stuff.
[5:58] Speaker 3: And this actually leads.
[5:59] Speaker 4: Well into kind of what we want to talk about
[6:01] Speaker 4: with animation stuff, because this is like i'd say, big
[6:04] Speaker 4: budget place, like you think of like a big hunted
[6:07] Speaker 4: house with lines around the blocks and stuff. But we
[6:09] Speaker 4: worked on it all year, even though we're only opened
[6:11] Speaker 4: for two years.
[6:12] Speaker 3: It's since closed down.
[6:13] Speaker 4: But it was in Etna, Pennsylvania, and I was a
[6:17] Speaker 4: line actor as like a silent scary rabbit, and I
[6:19] Speaker 4: would just like, boy.
[6:20] Speaker 1: Let me know about this. So what is the process
[6:24] Speaker 1: of how does one choreograph working at a hornet house?
[6:29] Speaker 4: So it was largely in an improvised situation. I would say,
[6:33] Speaker 4: like as far as being an actor there, I was
[6:36] Speaker 4: in my places there because I was someone who could
[6:39] Speaker 4: wing it. Like I started as scary and then eventually
[6:42] Speaker 4: when you can't talk for long enough in front of
[6:43] Speaker 4: the same people, you're not scary anymore. So then you
[6:46] Speaker 4: just default to dancing because you're in a mascot costume.
[6:49] Speaker 4: So there was like a dance off with Chris Brown
[6:52] Speaker 4: at one point when he rolled through with this tour bus.
[6:54] Speaker 4: There was a dance off with him that I did.
[6:56] Speaker 1: Not win, But how's that happening? Don't know? For me?
[7:01] Speaker 4: That was you know, there's I found that my career,
[7:04] Speaker 4: as many are. You're you're in like a maybe relatively
[7:08] Speaker 4: small situation, something awesome happens. You go, this is the
[7:10] Speaker 4: best it's gonna get right, and you go, great, that's
[7:13] Speaker 4: that's crazy that that happened to me. And when you
[7:15] Speaker 4: don't expect anything to happen to you, you don't expect
[7:18] Speaker 4: it to keep swinging up and be bigger spikes.
[7:21] Speaker 3: But that to me was like the first like, what
[7:23] Speaker 3: the hell?
[7:23] Speaker 4: I guess I did something interesting.
[7:26] Speaker 1: What's the other side of that coin? Because my experiences
[7:31] Speaker 1: with hornet houses, okay, usually some form of pugilism is
[7:36] Speaker 1: going to go down where somebody might get hit, well
[7:41] Speaker 1: at least out of shot, sure shot, you know that
[7:43] Speaker 1: sort of thing.
[7:44] Speaker 4: I think, uh, And it's uh, for good reason, a
[7:48] Speaker 4: fairly common question for haunted house actors, because I think
[7:52] Speaker 4: that there is some press around the idea that not press,
[7:54] Speaker 4: but people when they're scared do do that, and it
[7:58] Speaker 4: has happened.
[7:58] Speaker 1: I think, Uh, how many punches do you go through
[8:00] Speaker 1: a whek?
[8:01] Speaker 3: I think I only got hit once. Oh no.
[8:04] Speaker 4: The only physicality I ran into was like usually the
[8:06] Speaker 4: younger the person and the like. But honestly, like security
[8:11] Speaker 4: and stuff like, they pull those people who are going
[8:14] Speaker 4: to do that out way before they get anywhere inside.
[8:17] Speaker 4: If you have like a two hour line and you're
[8:19] Speaker 4: wasted and you're already gonna get physical with an actor, yeah,
[8:24] Speaker 4: you're gonna do that to me in the lines instead
[8:26] Speaker 4: of somebody inside. Because like, there's people who grab, there's
[8:29] Speaker 4: people who like, especially when you're dressed like a mascot,
[8:32] Speaker 4: are like, hey, let's take a photo and I'm gonna
[8:34] Speaker 4: do whatever I want to because you're not a person,
[8:36] Speaker 4: You're a rabbit.
[8:37] Speaker 3: So you get a lot of that.
[8:38] Speaker 4: But I was the person to weed those people out
[8:40] Speaker 4: and say, hey, security before they get in, like, no,
[8:43] Speaker 4: go Like.
[8:44] Speaker 1: Are you guys as a cast allowed to have physical
[8:47] Speaker 1: interaction with us? We just can't touch you guys.
[8:50] Speaker 4: So what's interesting is no in the upstairs, But at
[8:52] Speaker 4: least at that place at the time, we had another
[8:55] Speaker 4: We had basically two different things you'd go to. There
[8:57] Speaker 4: was the scarehouse upstairs, and then there was the basement
[8:59] Speaker 4: down stairs, and there you could sign a release to
[9:02] Speaker 4: be touched. And I did work down there a bit,
[9:04] Speaker 4: and you run into a lot of people where you're like,
[9:06] Speaker 4: I'm gonna put my hand near your throat and they
[9:08] Speaker 4: like sort of like sign permission, they sign away, where you're, oh,
[9:12] Speaker 4: you're not here to get scared.
[9:14] Speaker 1: This is more.
[9:18] Speaker 4: That's the thing is working in there for just a set,
[9:20] Speaker 4: Like I only did a little bit down there, and
[9:22] Speaker 4: you could tell it's a very different demographic of people
[9:24] Speaker 4: who were looking for that. And then upstairs nobody wants that,
[9:28] Speaker 4: so we all agree it's not going to happen. It's
[9:30] Speaker 4: sort of the unwritten contract of the haunted House.
[9:33] Speaker 1: See. I didn't even think about this part only because
[9:37] Speaker 1: do you know what Sleep No More? Is? From New York? Yeah,
[9:40] Speaker 1: at one point, you know, and they'll do like different
[9:41] Speaker 1: iterations of it, but at one point they would literally
[9:45] Speaker 1: take your date hostage. Like there's one time where I
[9:47] Speaker 1: had to literally look for my date again because they
[9:50] Speaker 1: took it. Do you know what Sleep No More? Yeah,
[9:52] Speaker 1: it's like an abandoned hotel with five floors, and it's
[9:58] Speaker 1: really a play because they're a playbook that comes with it, playbill,
[10:02] Speaker 1: but it's you don't know it yet. But you're figuring
[10:07] Speaker 1: out what it is. The first time I did it,
[10:10] Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I was on the set of Hamlet.
[10:13] Speaker 1: And what you're doing is you walk into this sort
[10:16] Speaker 1: of what was the film who directed the Shining Kubrick's
[10:21] Speaker 1: last movie with as Well Shut Yeah, Like, so you
[10:24] Speaker 1: put a mask on, and anyone without a mask is
[10:27] Speaker 1: in the play. So you just followed them and you
[10:30] Speaker 1: look at their action and then this is a two
[10:34] Speaker 1: hour thing and sometimes they might take you hostage. Yeah.
[10:38] Speaker 4: I got kidnapped twice. When I went one. There was
[10:40] Speaker 4: this woman who brought me into a room and wrapped
[10:43] Speaker 4: me in a blanket and started coughing up screws onto
[10:45] Speaker 4: my chest.
[10:46] Speaker 2: Wait, coughing up what screws? Like?
[10:48] Speaker 1: Metal?
[10:49] Speaker 3: Metal screws.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Screws.
[10:50] Speaker 3: I started coughing up screws and sting on my chest.
[10:52] Speaker 1: Dude, you pay for this wait fun time. See, I
[10:59] Speaker 1: would have rather had that experience twice. When I got caught,
[11:04] Speaker 1: I got taken to a room, locked, and I think
[11:09] Speaker 1: to this day this person went rogue. She decided she
[11:14] Speaker 1: was going to sing to me one of the songs
[11:19] Speaker 1: off of her new record. Oh yeah, there was like
[11:21] Speaker 1: a piano in there, but you know, she didn't character
[11:24] Speaker 1: and now I will serenate you with the you know,
[11:28] Speaker 1: I will summon the demons of the sonic sound. And
[11:32] Speaker 1: then like I was like, this sounds like Alusia keys
[11:35] Speaker 1: want to be like it sounds like a contemporary song.
[11:38] Speaker 3: So took you right out.
[11:40] Speaker 1: This is when I realized, like, oh, they're going rogue now,
[11:43] Speaker 1: just like she's my chance to get him. Yeah, when
[11:48] Speaker 1: it happened a second time, and then I just stopped going. So,
[12:04] Speaker 1: so how do graphics enter the picture? Like? What did you? So?
[12:08] Speaker 4: Art was always the thing. My mother was very supportive
[12:11] Speaker 4: because she drew in high school and stuff and never
[12:13] Speaker 4: really did anything with it, had kids right away and
[12:15] Speaker 4: just sort of there was never a big what if
[12:17] Speaker 4: for her, but it was for her. She was happy
[12:20] Speaker 4: with the kids, and my what if was like I
[12:22] Speaker 4: wish she would have pushed further. And so we lost
[12:25] Speaker 4: her a year ago and said a big theme to
[12:29] Speaker 4: my entire career has been sort of like, look, ma,
[12:31] Speaker 4: we did it. So every single step is like a
[12:34] Speaker 4: look mam, we did it.
[12:34] Speaker 3: We did it.
[12:35] Speaker 4: And so I leaned into the validation of the drawing
[12:41] Speaker 4: on the fridge, and then through college went to a
[12:44] Speaker 4: graphic design and then ended up at Pittsburgh News station,
[12:49] Speaker 4: the NBC station there, which was actually I was there.
[12:53] Speaker 4: It would have been during the Tonight Show transition, so
[12:55] Speaker 4: we were working with like a lot of marketing materials
[12:58] Speaker 4: for that launch and stuff, and I was already animating
[13:02] Speaker 4: there and then I was like, hard gonna quit. And
[13:05] Speaker 4: I was like, I gotta try comedy because it's what
[13:07] Speaker 4: I wanted to do on the other side of everything.
[13:10] Speaker 4: And then yeah, and since you can't do everything, you
[13:13] Speaker 4: gotta pick one thing. I was like, all right, I'm
[13:15] Speaker 4: gonna quit this and I'm going to New York and ye, well,
[13:19] Speaker 4: we're at.
[13:19] Speaker 2: The table where people do all the stuff challenge excepted.
[13:23] Speaker 4: So when I moved to New York, I was like,
[13:25] Speaker 4: I'm done with the news. I'm done not necessarily with
[13:27] Speaker 4: like art in general, but like the commercial side of marketing.
[13:30] Speaker 3: I'm good on.
[13:32] Speaker 4: I wasn't gonna do advertising. And then I needed a
[13:35] Speaker 4: job in New York and couldn't find one, and I
[13:37] Speaker 4: went back to those golden handcuffs and I got a
[13:39] Speaker 4: job at CBS News at the network level there, and
[13:42] Speaker 4: I was there for several years and we're still doing
[13:45] Speaker 4: news there back then, so that was like interesting, but
[13:48] Speaker 4: like it was a lot of looking at people on
[13:51] Speaker 4: the cameras and going, I'm too.
[13:52] Speaker 3: Close to this.
[13:52] Speaker 4: It's upsetting me. I gotta try stuff. So I finally
[13:55] Speaker 4: did some stand up in improv in New York at
[13:57] Speaker 4: EUCB and did some interesting shows that way. But like,
[14:02] Speaker 4: ultimately I found that I was sort of chasing a
[14:06] Speaker 4: little bit of Oh, if I'm good at it, I
[14:08] Speaker 4: should do it, because it feels good to be good
[14:09] Speaker 4: at stuff. And only once I freed myself from the
[14:13] Speaker 4: news there was I like, Okay, I'm going to take
[14:16] Speaker 4: a real swing at figuring out who I am creatively.
[14:19] Speaker 4: And that was the LA move is like I had
[14:22] Speaker 4: to get away from New York to get away from
[14:24] Speaker 4: the job that kept calling and I, you know, overnight shifts.
[14:28] Speaker 3: Hey it's two am.
[14:29] Speaker 4: Can you come in? And I'm like, I need the money, Okay,
[14:32] Speaker 4: I had I moved away. I just moved away from it.
[14:34] Speaker 4: And then I came here in September twenty nineteen, right
[14:38] Speaker 4: before the pandemic, and I was just kind of sitting
[14:42] Speaker 4: around figuring out what the world's going to be like.
[14:46] Speaker 4: And then I was already doing animation for like general
[14:49] Speaker 4: advertising stuff just.
[14:51] Speaker 3: Out of necessity.
[14:52] Speaker 4: And I got a call from somebody years back who
[14:56] Speaker 4: was looking for a fill in for this show, the
[14:59] Speaker 4: old show. They just needed like a one off person
[15:02] Speaker 4: to animate something. It was a very basic clip and
[15:05] Speaker 4: I got sort of integrated here through there. That's a
[15:08] Speaker 4: short long version.
[15:09] Speaker 3: But when you.
[15:10] Speaker 2: Animate a clip for this show, do you just get
[15:15] Speaker 2: a clip? Do you listen to the entire interview?
[15:18] Speaker 1: Like?
[15:18] Speaker 3: How does that party?
[15:19] Speaker 1: A process? For sure?
[15:20] Speaker 4: So I think every single episode for me is entirely
[15:24] Speaker 4: different process. Even like at his core, I do the
[15:27] Speaker 4: same thing on the final day, which is put it
[15:29] Speaker 4: all together. But depending on timelines of like when you
[15:32] Speaker 4: guys record versus when stuff is edited, when there's a
[15:35] Speaker 4: clip selected, I usually have a q of these, where
[15:39] Speaker 4: like my process starts with research. It's a whole day
[15:42] Speaker 4: of just absorbing that person, whether I know them or not.
[15:45] Speaker 4: I go into every nook and cranny I can listening
[15:47] Speaker 4: to albums, watching movies, going through eBay to find weird photos,
[15:53] Speaker 4: and those deep dives for me are sort of how
[15:57] Speaker 4: I if you're familiar with Mega Man the video game,
[15:59] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, uh, I like to think of it sort
[16:02] Speaker 4: of like I'm collecting pieces from every project I do.
[16:06] Speaker 4: Like so some of the things I could talk about.
[16:08] Speaker 4: We even did day La Soul Animations together a couple
[16:11] Speaker 4: of years ago.
[16:12] Speaker 1: Oh for the tribute. Yeah that was you, that was me. Wow.
[16:15] Speaker 4: So we've been at this longer than it feels like,
[16:18] Speaker 4: even because this new iteration is, like I think, a
[16:21] Speaker 4: pretty exciting, like there's some momentum behind like what we're
[16:24] Speaker 4: doing creatively with it, so it's like a little different.
[16:27] Speaker 4: But even back then, like dal La Soul, I was
[16:29] Speaker 4: working only black and white as an artist because I
[16:31] Speaker 4: was going through a broody thing and then there was
[16:33] Speaker 4: all this day glow color in my life and I'm
[16:35] Speaker 4: back to designing with color. That's what I got from
[16:38] Speaker 4: that project. So like I'm absorbing as much as I
[16:41] Speaker 4: can from every single person that I sometimes listen to
[16:44] Speaker 4: the person that trained somebody that I'm talking about, and
[16:47] Speaker 4: it I just want to know who influences them. So
[16:50] Speaker 4: my drawings are influenced by all the people they're influenced by.
[16:54] Speaker 4: So it goes really deep for some people. And if
[16:57] Speaker 4: it's a clip that's meant to be kind of easy,
[16:59] Speaker 4: breezy and not get too deep, sometimes it's a little
[17:01] Speaker 4: more illustrative and storytelling, But the trick is to get
[17:06] Speaker 4: the assignment figure out. Am I making the guests look good?
[17:09] Speaker 4: Am I making the show look like a cool place
[17:12] Speaker 4: to be. Am I making am I reinforcing the brand
[17:16] Speaker 4: that this is a place where a magical new thing
[17:18] Speaker 4: can come out for somebody we already know everything about.
[17:21] Speaker 4: I don't have to deep dive everybody. If we already
[17:23] Speaker 4: know everything about that person.
[17:25] Speaker 1: It's almost like job training or HR. How can I
[17:29] Speaker 1: make your life easier? Let you see yourself for five years,
[17:34] Speaker 1: I mean, well when I okay, so especially like ten
[17:37] Speaker 1: years of doing this, I'm you know, absolutely aware when
[17:42] Speaker 1: I feel as though there's gonna be a highlight clip
[17:45] Speaker 1: story that they're telling, like they're you know, it's a
[17:48] Speaker 1: good beginning, good end. They're getting to the point in
[17:50] Speaker 1: less than a minute. And you know, previously I would
[17:54] Speaker 1: say like we were unaware of how we talked on
[17:57] Speaker 1: top of each other and those things and missing words
[17:59] Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But like generally, well, of course,
[18:03] Speaker 1: I guess you could say the less words the better,
[18:06] Speaker 1: or well, I because you're doing words and actions.
[18:09] Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, Well, because I try to think of them
[18:12] Speaker 4: as scenes. So sometimes not every word matters to me
[18:15] Speaker 4: in an animated capacity, Like I really like to hit
[18:19] Speaker 4: the core points to like, if you're listening to the story,
[18:21] Speaker 4: what's gonna like get you through that? So even talking
[18:25] Speaker 4: over like many people talking. Actually, at least early on
[18:28] Speaker 4: in my QLs, like before I really had a voice
[18:31] Speaker 4: and I was just sort.
[18:31] Speaker 3: Of a feeling guy.
[18:32] Speaker 4: I'm like that taught me how to animate more than
[18:35] Speaker 4: one person talking at the same time, which it sounds
[18:38] Speaker 4: free well, but it sounds like a bad challenge. But
[18:42] Speaker 4: for me, it taught me like, Okay, how do I
[18:43] Speaker 4: pick out these two different rhythms happening, find the words
[18:47] Speaker 4: that matter for each one of them, and then show
[18:49] Speaker 4: that they're coming from different people, And that could be
[18:51] Speaker 4: anything from one person's words or in one corner, one
[18:53] Speaker 4: person's words are white, an other it's in black. Like
[18:56] Speaker 4: there's a lot of ways to tackle that stuff, but
[18:58] Speaker 4: kind of when you reframe everything as an interesting puzzle
[19:01] Speaker 4: in your mind, there is no imperfect clip for me
[19:05] Speaker 4: in that every clip will be a different challenge. But
[19:08] Speaker 4: I guess if there's something that makes a good clip
[19:11] Speaker 4: in my mind, it's something that is actionably visible like
[19:15] Speaker 4: if somebody's talking super abstract. A good example is like
[19:19] Speaker 4: synaestigia is a common topic just because it's this sort
[19:23] Speaker 4: of mystical thing people don't understand but they feel and
[19:25] Speaker 4: then try to talk about it. Right, Synastigia is interesting
[19:29] Speaker 4: because how do you show somebody feeling a color while
[19:32] Speaker 4: listening to music? And for me, that's a puzzle I'm
[19:36] Speaker 4: working on right now on a clip. And the answer
[19:39] Speaker 4: to that is, don't go that deep with it. Instead,
[19:42] Speaker 4: put on a show with color, right Like, that is
[19:44] Speaker 4: the actionable thing here, is like if I can't show
[19:47] Speaker 4: you what they're feeling, I might try and show the
[19:50] Speaker 4: viewer what that might be like, right, like, how do
[19:53] Speaker 4: I illustrate using a lot of rich colors that like
[19:56] Speaker 4: are a motive but not literal to like.
[19:58] Speaker 3: Blue is jazz?
[20:00] Speaker 4: So I think anything that's actionable, like a good story
[20:05] Speaker 4: that's physical, like we did the Princes animation of him
[20:07] Speaker 4: getting like uh owned in basketball, owned in all sports.
[20:12] Speaker 4: A clip like that, I know exactly what to do
[20:14] Speaker 4: because it's a really easy directive and it's fun to see.
[20:18] Speaker 4: And then some things, if it's just somebody about their
[20:20] Speaker 4: life journey and it's an if the important thing about
[20:23] Speaker 4: that clip is the audio and not the visual, then
[20:25] Speaker 4: it's my job to back off and make sure that
[20:28] Speaker 4: that's what shines and not me the animator.
[20:30] Speaker 3: So there are.
[20:31] Speaker 4: Really cool, actionable things, but I also love a nice
[20:34] Speaker 4: heady like they didn't really say anything except for show
[20:37] Speaker 4: us who they are. That's a great clip to me too,
[20:39] Speaker 4: It's just a different way of animating.
[20:40] Speaker 2: Well, you haven't heard all of these interviews with all
[20:44] Speaker 2: of these amazing people. Sure of all of these years
[20:48] Speaker 2: and you being a creative person yourself and hear from
[20:51] Speaker 2: all these other brilliant creatives, what do you think has
[20:54] Speaker 2: been the most impactful takeaway for you?
[21:00] Speaker 3: It's a great question.
[21:01] Speaker 4: I think with these interviews, I'm not gonna say that
[21:05] Speaker 4: there's one line from any one interview where I was like, damn, well,
[21:09] Speaker 4: I've had that many times. But it's I'm also listening
[21:13] Speaker 4: to people who have a wealth of knowledge that I'm
[21:15] Speaker 4: so not disconnected from. But like, the institutional knowledge is
[21:19] Speaker 4: so rich that I can only pull small parallels out
[21:24] Speaker 4: of people's journeys where I go, oh, they did that too,
[21:27] Speaker 4: or oh okay, Like I guess if I'm going to
[21:30] Speaker 4: pull a recent one out of memory mono neon and
[21:33] Speaker 4: just self doubt as an artist, just being in your
[21:36] Speaker 4: own head and not getting in your own way right, Like, I.
[21:39] Speaker 1: Got admit for that one because I've never had a
[21:42] Speaker 1: conversation with them before. In my mind, I already knew,
[21:47] Speaker 1: like part of me was like, man, like his is
[21:50] Speaker 1: gonna be so triviy out. So it's kind of jarring
[21:53] Speaker 1: for me to see him in such a weird space
[21:57] Speaker 1: of sure, like oh there's there's a little person that's
[22:01] Speaker 1: behind the Wizard of Oz thing, which I mean actually
[22:04] Speaker 1: made it more endearing based on the comments. Sure, but yeah,
[22:08] Speaker 1: walking into that interview, I thought, man, the graphics on
[22:12] Speaker 1: this thing is just going to be like absolutely out
[22:15] Speaker 1: out of its mind.
[22:16] Speaker 4: Honestly, when I was told we were doing him, because
[22:18] Speaker 4: I'll do like a little preview. If I know who
[22:20] Speaker 4: the person is, I'll still do like a short preview.
[22:22] Speaker 4: If if I'm not so familiar, I'll do a bigger
[22:24] Speaker 4: deep dive, even before I hear in the audio or anything,
[22:26] Speaker 4: just to familiarize with him. Looking into his world, I went,
[22:30] Speaker 4: this is gonna be a fun place to play. And
[22:31] Speaker 4: then I got a clip with some self doubt and it.
[22:34] Speaker 4: I went, this isn't this isn't the bright thing. But
[22:37] Speaker 4: it ended up working great because no, no, no, it
[22:41] Speaker 4: worked great because as an artist, hearing that, I go, oh,
[22:44] Speaker 4: this dude that I'm looking at and going, oh, I
[22:46] Speaker 4: love his vibe. I wish his vibe was my vibe.
[22:49] Speaker 4: Like seeing that and it's an incredible Basi's funky, like
[22:55] Speaker 4: I just his by the way, I should just say,
[22:58] Speaker 4: like I've been listening to him NonStop since, like it
[23:00] Speaker 4: totally absorbed him into my world because I not just
[23:04] Speaker 4: but like just diving into like everything about him. So
[23:07] Speaker 4: seeing a guy like that that, I'm going like, oh,
[23:10] Speaker 4: this guy has it all. And then just hearing myself,
[23:14] Speaker 4: I don't know if I would be in this room
[23:16] Speaker 4: right now if without that interview of hearing you guys
[23:19] Speaker 4: say like, oh man, you gotta like show up for yourself,
[23:23] Speaker 4: Like I might have been afraid to come here and
[23:25] Speaker 4: talk to you guys in the same way. But I
[23:27] Speaker 4: did literally thought about Mono neon and going, don't get
[23:30] Speaker 4: in your own way, man, Like, if somebody's offering you
[23:33] Speaker 4: a place to talk, you should come and talk like
[23:35] Speaker 4: to me. That to me, maybe that's my biggest takeaway
[23:38] Speaker 4: is like that one was powerful for.
[23:40] Speaker 1: Me, us working with people from the inside. Thank you
[23:47] Speaker 1: Nick Polo. I feel like we did our due diligence man,
[23:51] Speaker 1: Thank you. Muslim shows a production of iHeartRadio

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