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Penny Arcade: The Series - First Hire

245

Posts

  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I really hope that they make another season. This has become a real favorite of mine.

    Langly on
  • Robert KhooRobert Khoo Registered User, ClubPA staff
    edited June 2010
    1. Mike Fehlauer is indeed most-excellent!
    2. Right before i started at PA, an idea I had was to start a company that just planned ultra-crazy bachelor parties. Who knows, i guess it's still a possibility.
    3. And yes, only... 3 more eps left? I think?

    Robert Khoo on
    Some guy.
  • That Dave FellaThat Dave Fella Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    got any stories from your previous 8?

    That Dave Fella on
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  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    1. Mike Fehlauer is indeed most-excellent!
    2. Right before i started at PA, an idea I had was to start a company that just planned ultra-crazy bachelor parties. Who knows, i guess it's still a possibility.
    3. And yes, only... 3 more eps left? I think?

    ROBERT DITCH PENNY ARCADE

    JUST THROW AWESOME BACHELOR PARTIES ALL THE TIME


    ALSO WHERE IS THE ROBERT KHOO EPISODE YOU PROMISED

    Brolo on
  • Robert KhooRobert Khoo Registered User, ClubPA staff
    edited June 2010
    I never promised a robert khoo episode! You must be confusing me with a 5'6" hipster looking guy with glasses that works for a production company i know of.

    stories from previous bachelor parties? Hmm.

    well..


    no that wouldn't be right.

    Robert Khoo on
    Some guy.
  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    That's what makes it right, Robert

    Mr. G on
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  • IoloIolo iolo Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Are you kidding, Rolo? Every episode is a Robert Khoo episode.

    Iolo on
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  • LorahaloLorahalo Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    But we need an episode with more Khoo in it.

    Lorahalo on
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  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Iolo wrote: »
    Are you kidding, Rolo? Every episode is a Robert Khoo episode.

    8.5 straight minutes of Robert Khoo

    typing on his laptop
    on the phone, talking quietly
    underlining key learnings
    counting piles of money
    stroking his beard

    Brolo on
  • Mr. GMr. G Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    If Robert gets an episode, then Kiko is going to start kidnapping the crew to ensure he gets a longer episode than him.

    Mr. G on
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  • jaziekjaziek Bad at everything And mad about it.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Kurtz cameo caused me to laugh uncontrollably. Great episode.

    jaziek on
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  • CorehealerCorehealer The Apothecary The softer edge of the universe.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Wimble wrote: »
    Oh, PATV. You never fail to put a smile on my day

    Gabe gets to go to a real cool medieval fair, Other Mike's getting married, Khoo's throwing a kickass bachelor party, and Kurtz makes an excellent cameo.

    Every episode, it's like a blender mix of all the things about Penny Arcade that makes it awesome. I love it. :)

    Corehealer on
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  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Rolo wrote: »
    Iolo wrote: »
    Are you kidding, Rolo? Every episode is a Robert Khoo episode.

    8.5 straight minutes of Robert Khoo

    typing on his laptop
    on the phone, talking quietly
    underlining key learnings
    counting piles of money
    stroking his beard

    Holding strokey-beard meetings.

    "We've sold but two cans of Mr. Dog dog food!"

    KalTorak on
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Hey Khoo, could you do me a huge favor and ask Mike what sort of place he learned to fence like that, what with the off-hand dagger and everything? Let us say that my interest has been piqued.

    Inquisitor on
  • SquallSquall hap cloud Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    KalTorak wrote: »
    Rolo wrote: »
    Iolo wrote: »
    Are you kidding, Rolo? Every episode is a Robert Khoo episode.

    8.5 straight minutes of Robert Khoo

    typing on his laptop
    on the phone, talking quietly
    underlining key learnings
    counting piles of money
    stroking his beard

    Holding strokey-beard meetings.

    "We've sold but two cans of Mr. Dog dog food!"

    :^: gonna go watch that tonight

    Squall on
  • AbracadanielAbracadaniel Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    fucking great ep

    It really is neat to see how PA works and plays, beyond Mike and Jerry.

    Abracadaniel on
  • The InfraThe Infra Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I love the first time Lil' Game comes up, notices the camera and shies away into hiding behind his daddy

    Also, +1 requesting of Khoo-planned bachelor party stories.

    The Infra on
  • Grey GhostGrey Ghost Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Man, I wish my university fencing club had taught rapier-and-dagger. But since it's not a style used in modern competitions I can see why it wasn't a priority.

    Grey Ghost on
  • Something SimpleSomething Simple Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I like this episode a lot. Anything that shows the Ren Faire/SCA isn't full of crazy people but actually neat individuals is okay in my book.

    Not that there aren't crazy people, but it isn't FULL of crazy people.

    Something Simple on
  • The Last GentThe Last Gent Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ok, between the mention of The Hangover before, and the tone of the series so far, there is something I know would never exist because it blurs the line between reality and fantasy too much, but I would pay a billion dollars to see.

    The entire PA: The Series group in a "The Hagover" scenario. Maybe switch the setting to some place geeky instead of Vegas, but the principle is the same. This will never exist because they are not fictional characters, this is real life. But I'm still getting my mind blown thinking what everyone would say or do in that scenario.

    The Last Gent on
  • BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Ok, between the mention of The Hangover before, and the tone of the series so far, there is something I know would never exist because it blurs the line between reality and fantasy too much, but I would pay a billion dollars to see.

    The entire PA: The Series group in a "The Hagover" scenario. Maybe switch the setting to some place geeky instead of Vegas, but the principle is the same. This will never exist because they are not fictional characters, this is real life. But I'm still getting my mind blown thinking what everyone would say or do in that scenario.

    Yeah, I'd love to see a PA CREW: Roadtrip special

    Brolo on
  • A Dabble Of TheloniusA Dabble Of Thelonius It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Oh man. Khoo just looking around his office searching in vain for some personal item that would humanize him to the camera crew.

    A Dabble Of Thelonius on
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  • Vargas PrimeVargas Prime King of Nothing Just a ShowRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Didn't Khoo say he was going to be in NY at some point this summer?

    Is that still happening?

    Vargas Prime on
  • Vargas PrimeVargas Prime King of Nothing Just a ShowRegistered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Oh man. Khoo just looking around his office searching in vain for some personal item that would humanize him to the camera crew.

    Haha, I thought for a second he was going to say something about his huge countdown clock, but then he just looked back at the camera like "errrrr... moving on..."

    Vargas Prime on
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Hey, he had pictures back there. I assume they were of people who could conceivably be in his family.

    Also a Black Mage.

    KalTorak on
  • FramlingFramling FaceHead Geebs has bad ideas.Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Two things:
    1. Holy shit, fencing at the Park and Ride I wait for my bus at every other day or so.
    2. That mic on Khoo's desk makes me think he needs a Letterman-style old-timey microphone instead.

    Framling on
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  • Robert KhooRobert Khoo Registered User, ClubPA staff
    edited June 2010
    Didn't Khoo say he was going to be in NY at some point this summer?

    Is that still happening?

    http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=121051

    Robert Khoo on
    Some guy.
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Khoo, you gotta come to Wichita some time. We can...
    umm...


    Go look at corn?

    Tofystedeth on
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  • AbracadanielAbracadaniel Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Khoo

    come to Orlando

    we got wizards

    Abracadaniel on
  • LorahaloLorahalo Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    KalTorak wrote: »
    Hey, he had pictures back there. I assume they were of people who could conceivably be in his family.

    Also a Black Mage.

    Looks like he has a fair few FFIX things up there, not just the Vivi. Also a charlie brown something is there too.

    Lorahalo on
    I have a podcast about Digimon called the Digital Moncast, on Audio Entropy.
  • GyralGyral Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    They need to record the Bachelor Party and post it so that those of us with upcoming Weddings can watch it and pretend it was OUR awesome Bachelor Party. Don't worry, you have until October of next year to do it. :)

    Gyral on
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  • Mike FehlauerMike Fehlauer Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Hey Khoo, could you do me a huge favor and ask Mike what sort of place he learned to fence like that, what with the off-hand dagger and everything? Let us say that my interest has been piqued.

    tldr: Playing D&D, watching movies, and fighting--a lot--with dagger and sword.
    I'm only half joking. It started with D&D--by the time of the photo of me in the orange shirt fighting my older brother with plastic swords, I'd already had one D&D character die and had progressed to 3rd level (the level cap at the time) with another character. Imagining those D&D fights (in child-like 1s person POV, of course) was the start.

    Then movies. Princess Bride I mentioned, but before that there was Star Wars and Conan. I'd act out the fight choreography. If flipcams and Youtube had been around in the mid 80's, there's a high percentage chance that I'd have been Star Wars Kid.

    Middle school coincided with the release of the Drizzt books, and also my descent into fanboyism. My brother (in college at the time) rescued me by describing formulaic genre fiction: "It's a story about a young male who is ostracized by a corrupt society, who has special powers revealed by a mysterious and soon-dead father figure, and who goes on to kill all his enemies and escape to a better world. You're a nerdy 8th grader. Of *course* you like these books." The damage was already done, though, and this is when I first started fighting with two weapons. By larping. In highschool, somewhere on the BBS network (the pre-Internet of the time) I dialed in to a board that contained instructions on how to build swords out of PVC, pipe insulation, and duct tape. I got a bunch of buddies together, made a bunch of weapons, and fought. A lot. Over time I got in touch with other groups in other neighborhoods. One day I loaded up the car (a totally sweet Crown Vic station wagon with fake wood paneling) and drove all over SE Michigan to all the weekend battles, and beat every fighter in each town. Typing that up, it feels silly to say, but at the time I thought it was pretty cool.

    During college I again found some fellow nerds and the duct-tape weapons soon swung again. But this time my boffer pals were martial arts instructors. I taught them how to swordfight, they taught me karate (building on some casual aikido I'd learned in high school). With the addition of actual body mechanics, footwork, and form, my homebrew technique started to settle into something akin to an actual fighting style. We took the show on the road during a study abroad semester in London , the highlight of which was a 4-day camping event/war on a hill in Nottingham ([URL="(http://www.curiouspastimes.co.uk/)"]http://www.curiouspastimes.co.uk/[/URL]).

    The event itself was crazy cool. Sculpted latex weapons that looked real, amazing costumes, mass combat, and of course killer accents. I still recall the fear of walking through the drow encampment with three pals, on the way to the tavern. For whatever reason all the drow were French; they wore black makeup, white wigs, and spoke a foreign language. As we walked through, they all whispered together and pointed. The only sound was the creaking of their Ballista emplacement as it tracked us from one end of their encampment to the other.

    At the end of the event, after much politicking, adventuring, and skirmishing, there was a huge war where all five factions--comprised of over 1,000 people total--duked it out in a mass battle. That's when I experienced the incomparable thrill of fighting side-by-side with your best friend--and 500 other allies. This? I've done that. I've experienced that. And there's nothing like it.

    After living through that quality of LARP--the weapons, the costumes, the planning/management/execution--I just couldn't tolerate American-style LARP. I couldn't deal with "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!" All this time I'd been aware of and casually interested in the SCA. So when I graduated and moved to Seattle, I looked them up.

    There's a scene in the PATV episode that takes place under a bridge. That's the local SCA fighter practice. I looked it up online, showed up, and started talking to people. Everyone was friendly and welcoming, and answered my questions. The next week I showed up again, talked to the same people, and eventually found my way into some loaner gear, fighting at 1/4 speed. As I detail in the spoiler block, I wasn't new to swordfighting, so after seeing that I was safe at 1/4 speed, the next week I was able to show up and actually fight.

    In the SCA there are two types of fighting: heavy (plate armor, wood swords) and light (no armor, steel swords). My body type, and personal style, best fits with light fighting. Plus, you get to fight with a sweet-looking rapier, and after a tournament you're not completely drenched in sweat and reeking of leather and armor oil. I was single at the time, so that last bit was key--the romanticized image of the dashing swordsman is real, and effective.

    Anyway: among heavy fighters there exists a knight-squire relationship, where knights are experienced and accomplished fighters who have been raised to knighthood by invitation by the other knights. Knights are encouraged to take on squires, and pass on what they've learned (both in terms of fighting, and grace/manners/culture). Squires are selected from among the most promising new fighters.

    Among lights, the relationship is don-cadet. Different name, same process. At my fourth practice two dons asked to take me on as a cadet, and I joined up with a guy named John. He was a master swordsman, black belt judoka, and a clever/funny/smart dude. His two other cadets influenced my decision. One was a huge star wars fan, and the other was a smoking hot brunette.

    John's style was heavily influenced by Miyamoto Musashi, both in terms of actual technique (Miyamoto emphasized two-sword combat) as well as philosophy on and off the field. We'd train two or three times a week, 3-4 hours per session. This went on for a few years, and we had some very good times as fighters and as friends. One highlight was a kingdom championship tournament where John and I both progressed through the brackets, and made it all the way to the final four. I was worried we'd have to fight each other, but we both lost our semifinal bouts and thus tied for third. Later that day all the dons got together and, as is customary, selected one fighter for the chivalry prize--which the queen, at the evening court, presented to me. It was a good day.

    Eventually John had progressed as far as he thought rapier could go, and dropped out of the SCA. He's now a kendo instructor and champion. The two other cadets likewise dropped out. I kept on fighting for a few years, won a tournament or two, and then took a five-year break starting about two years after partnering up with Mike, Jerry, and Robert. So, I'm just now getting back into it. I gotta say, it's really good to be fighting again.

    Anyway, to directly answer the implied question: if you'd like to learn to fight with a sword and dagger, go to http://www.sca.org/, find your local kingdom, download their book of combat, read the rules for rapier fighting, and show up to the local fighter practice. Introduce yourself, be friendly and inquisitive and respectful, show up consistently, and express interest. You'll be fighting, sword (and dagger) in hand, soon enough. There are other, non-SCA sources of instruction and practice--"Western Martial Arts" are a growing trend--but you'd miss out on the fun subculture and camaraderie of the SCA. And, seeing as how sword-and-dagger is not really practical for modern self-defense, fun is what it's all about.

    Mike Fehlauer on
  • TenTen Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I kept seeing the word 'Forums' on the whiteboard behind Khoo but couldn't make out what it meant in relation to the rest of the diagram

    Why are we relevant?

    Ten on
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Grey Ghost wrote: »
    Man, I wish my university fencing club had taught rapier-and-dagger. But since it's not a style used in modern competitions I can see why it wasn't a priority.

    You probably want to find someone who teaches 'historical fencing'.

    The scoring rules tend to be different from modern fencing. From the video, based on equipment and stuff in the background -- looks like Mike is learning fencing in the SCA.

    If he's not into SCA, he's probably a regular with another sort of re-enactment group that .

    edit: dangit mike, you beat me to it before i even had a chance.


    (are you going to the an-tir / west event by any chance?)

    Horseshoe on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    That was a far more thorough and detailed answer that I could have ever hoped for Mike! Thank you very much.

    Inquisitor on
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    whether your thing is making clothes and artwork (or furniture, or wrought iron stuff... anything as it was done back then), general medeival history interest, or putting on armor and hitting other dudes with stick (or in Mike's case, looking a lot cooler by fighting light list with a rapier)

    the SCA can be a lot of fun

    Horseshoe on
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  • AbracadanielAbracadaniel Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    I went to an SCA meeting one time at a local library but it was mostly middle-age ladies.

    Also I could not even imagine swordfighting in Florida weather.

    Used to do the home-made foam sword stuff with my friends back in the day, though.

    Abracadaniel on
  • HorseshoeHorseshoe Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    SCA meetings are boring... and yeah, that's probably why it was the middle-age ladies, they are often the ones who keep things organized and running.

    Fighter Practices on the other hand... well, it's a bunch of guys smacking each other with weapons, improving their technique, and generally having a good time.

    I think the second of the two is much more interesting :P

    Horseshoe on
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  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Khoo I have a question for you, I keep forgetting to ask so I'll ask now.

    Back in 2003, you had an... interesting experience while staying with a family for the holidays.

    But... just whose family were they? The newspost doesn't specify.
    If this is a question you don't want to answer that's cool, but it's just one of those little mysteries.

    DarkPrimus on
  • LanglyLangly Registered User regular
    edited June 2010
    Robert is there a chance that the production crew will do another season?

    Langly on
This discussion has been closed.