Death By Cliché, the Bob Defendi Podcast
Posted November 24th, 2008 by Howard Tayler
My friend Bob Defendi, who is known professionally as “Robert J. Defendi,” wrote a hilarious novel that leverages gamer clichés for effect. Now Bob has done the funniest possible thing with it — he has recorded himself reading it to you.
Bob has a great voice. I role-play with him weekly, playtesting his Echoes of Heaven game setting, and Bob’s mellifluous baritone becomes incalculably imposing in person. The man is quite literally twice my size. You don’t need to imagine that when you hear him read, though. Just sit back, relax, and listen.
The first installment of Death By Cliché is a double-header, which means you’re getting seventy-eight minutes of audio-book. Thereafter Bob will be releasing a new episode each week. I loved the book when I read it. I’m looking forward to listening to it and loving it again.
Bob is also our guest this week and next week over at Writing Excuses, but don’t take that mix as any indication of what his voice can do. Poor Jordo had to fade Bob waaaay down so he didn’t drown us all out, and I think he overdid it. Bob is so loud in person that Jordo couldn’t tell what was coming through the headphones, and what was just rattling his skull from across the table.
Enough of me prattling on about the wonders of Bob’s Voice. You go listen to it, then come back here and try to tell me I’m wrong.
UPDATE: Okay, it looks like Bob’s server caved under the load. We’re not sure if this is a configuration issue, or the weight of a good Schlocking. For the time being, I’m mirroring the first episode of Death By Cliché right here.
Explore posts in the same categories: Reviews, Humor, Random Linkage, Podcasts
November 24th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Wow!
The second thing I noticed was how cool the story is. But that’s only because the first thing I noticed is that your friend’s recorded voice sounds enough like _my_ recorded voice that it could easily fool me… you know… if he somehow hijacked my answering machine!
November 24th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I listened, and frankly, you are w– Hm. Lemme try that again. You’re wr– wr– w– … Dang it! Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr–… I sound like an outboard motor… One last try!
YOU ARE WrrrrrrRIGHT!
*sigh*
Well, I tried to tell you that you were wrong, Howard. I just couldn’t do it. (Seriously, even with the fade, you can tell he’s got an amazing voice. How long are his vocal chords? Five feet?)
November 24th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
off topic, but Schlock has (sort of) made a cameo on Girl Genius… on the back of the scroll…
November 25th, 2008 at 12:06 am
ollie: The thread for pointing that out is here.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Your link appears to have rather pwnt their server. I was able to access it about half an hour ago, but I’m getting a Cannot Connect error now.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Hmm…it appears playtesting.net is down right now.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:04 am
You know what you’ve brought upon yourself now, right? Now you need to record yourself reading Schlock Mercenary strips. :)
November 25th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Josh: I’m not half the reader that Bob is. Maybe we could get Bob to read them, but I doubt it would be worthwhile.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Ummm, Howard? Not for nuthin’, but - *I* am twice your size. *wry grin*
Minus the Boots, of course.
November 25th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Well, it looks like Schlockers can take down a server just like the big boys from Digg.
PS: Love the holiday postcard, quite a nice surprise in the mail yesterday.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Rather than hammer everyone’s server, why not publish it as a torrent? I’d do it myself, but it’s better to leave that up to Bob.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I can’t stop chuckling. This is now my new love!
November 25th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
That’s odd… The Blógünder Schlock RSS feed says the file is 42.3 MB, but the one I downloaded from playtesting.net is 53.6 MB. Does the feed show the wrong size, or have you got a different file?
November 25th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
The file on the server is the right size. Not sure where the feed is getting its info from.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Howard, the new “Give Props” button looks good! Schlockers, that button is an easy way to support Howard via microdonations. Check it out (hit the button and then “what’s this?”) to see how it works. I’ve been reading his site for years now, but I never gave him anything for it before because I hate Paypal and I didn’t have much to give anyway. So, I invented a system to fix that called Propits. Check it out - I think you’ll like it.