Hello, friends, Benders and non benders alike. Welcome to Braving the Elements, Nickelodeon's brand new podcast about all things Avatar Verse. I'm Janet Varney and I'm Dante Bosco. Now, Friends, if you've been with us for our recaps and discussions of episodes one through three of Avatar The Last Airbender, or even if you just know the show and love the show, you know that we all love fan favorite character Soccer. So we're very very excited to be joined this episode. It's fabulous, fabulous. Jack just said hello, just got here, so excited to have just walked in. Very curious how we intros go on this show. I'm gonna the illustrious Water Tribe member himself, not a Bender, but up there in the higher echelon of Water Tribe legends. Icons got to be. He's got to have statues all over Water Tribe land that important. He's well traveled. Yeah, absolutely, he's well traveled. He was very important part of the Great War and he did things. He did things no other person Bender or not was able to do during this whole thing. Learns all the local fighting styles as we traveled. No no, no, wait before you say too much more. We're trying really hard not to do too many spoilers, even though we feel like everyone who's listening probably has watched the entire series multiple times. So instead of doing spoiler alerts, we do something called the foreshadow report. Great, so foreshadow report. We have to have you back on for possibly my favorite moment, kind of comedic moment in the tire series, which involves Soccer telling Zuko what happened to his girlfriend. And we're not going to say any more than that, but that exchange is so good. I mean, there's a lot of foreshadowing there. We could not do that exchange without foreshadowing so much. But yeah, thank you, I agree, Dante, So we don't. We can't do it, but we got to bring you back because I could listen to that on a loop and I would never stop laughing. It's so funny and so good. Dante could say his line pretty free and clear. Right, Oh, that's what we should do. Let's just say a few things, and then Dante will have to respond with that line no matter what we say, like it could just be great, great, great. Like I I twisted my ankle and it was rough because I didn't get to go on that hike. I really wanted to go on. That's rough, buddy. I think I'm having a sleep apnea, and then I've been waking up with headaches, and I talked to my doctor. I did at home sleep study, and they're gonna maybe looking at getting me a c PAP machine. It's really blowing my mind, making me feel really old. Hmmm, that's rough, buddy. So I'm just starting to come to terms with the fact that I can't eat cereal all day, every day, for every meal, and that is extremely upsetting to me. What advice do you have for me? That's rough, buddy, Dante, this is an igneous rock. That's rough, buddy. Oh yes, anything in the pun family I am so on board for. I love that you guys are both improv geniuses and just jump into improv like without there's no you guys, there's no hand signals, there was no like winks of the eye. They just jumped into improv. Did you feel like you were unprepared? I wasn't prepared because I'm not that kind of actor. Dude. You had your line, man, I think you were well taken care of in this exercise. And now I was gonna say, if I'm a you felt like you were unprepared, that's rough, buddy. There we go, thank you, thank you, and then and that and today in our that's rough buddy segment. Thank you so much. Seeing Jack. This is probably something that you get asked all the time. I know it's something that we get asked with respect to the Legend of Cora. And I think it's also probably fair to say that the Bowland character is sort of the air apparent to Soccer's brilliance, and PJ was kind of the only one who really got away with improvising on the Legend of Cora. What was your relationship, if any, to improv with last Airbender because it was so new and so undeveloped, as like, did you feel like you could? Did they ask you to what was going on there? I think I maybe did a bit more like as the seasons went on, perhaps I feel like in like runs, you know, we'd we'd isolate a line and try a couple of things, and occasionally I would I would feel encouraged to throw some stuff around, but I don't remember like doing a lot of it. Dante tells me I did, and then sometimes it makes me feel embarrassed. I'm like, was I just like, did I just start saying stuff? I don't. I was doing all my lines exactly the way they are written, precisely, word for word, just period for period, and Jack was seemed like much more freer and what he was doing. I was like, he's having fun. I'm here in the room by myself just reading lines. Part of it, though, it's the benefit of not being very good on the first take, is then they'll just let you go for a while, and then you just start saying whatever you want. By the end because no one's listening anymore, you know, they'll let him get good technique. Yeah, follow up question, did p J still any of your stuff? Wait? Did he steal my personal belongings? Or did he still any of Jack's still any of Jack still? Okay? Okay, that makes a lot more sense to me. I don't think so. I think I think there they stand alone. Have you guys met, Yes, you get on like a house on fire, whatever that means. We have not actually hung out. We met once in the lobby at Nick Animation, introduced by Mike and Brian, who, like I think they were, they were in a record. I was there for an audition and we were pulled together and Mike and Brian were very excited to have, you know, the comedic character that's going to happen on this podcast. I see it happening. I could see it as if I'm looking into the future. Yeah, that's like the spinoff. That's like a spinoff show. Yeah, Peter and I just met that once. But we are starting a rival podcast. Very unpleasant news to get, very unpleasant news. Yeah, we'll be we'll be starting a rival podcast. You will win. You will win, You absolutely will win. We were full of foreshadowing on that one. We don't care. We just let it fly foreshadowing. You lucky ducks. I wish people said lucky duck more often. That's just not something to get said. Any lucky duck. That's the bene great, bring it back, we can bring it back. Or what kind of ducks do we have in this show? Lucky lucky turtle ducks, Lucky turtle ducks. Way to turn it back around. You're so right, that's what we have on our show, a lucky turtle duck. The turtle ducks are awfully cute. There are there turtles. I don't remember that. I'm not good. I don't have a good recall for the hybrid animals. When do turtle ducks pop up, they're all over the place, Jack, is it rude that whenever they describe a hybrid animal, I think about if it would be delicious or not, and a turtle duck sounds delicious. I'm glad you brought that up because I was going to ask you, is it possible that the worst bad act you would have to overcome in the fandom in terms of like people being mad at soccer, was it that you wanted to eat Momo before Momo was Momo? Yeah, and that's this episode, right, Yeah, we just we just talked about episode three, and it's true you you kept saying that that was gonna be a meal first of all. So it's not like great taste by soccer. I don't think like he's a stringy, little jumping thing. I don't think he looks that delicious. But it's a desperate time, right. They've been out there flying around, you're eating. You've been eating rocks and stuff, wishing it was nuts and whatnot. So I'm ready. Yeah, and if you barbecue my little dude years are probab gonna be nice and crispy, nice and crispy ears. Pig style. We would call that. Filipinos or Latinos would call it chitch your own. Please, no one come after me. I want everyone to know I do not think that Malmo's Ears would make good your own. I am very very upset by this. This is rough, buddy. Yeah, that's rough, buddy, that's real rough. I do think that probably is Soccer's biggest well at that end, at the beginning, he's like just straight up a misogynists, like just very sexist. Foreshadow report, Foreshadowing Report, episode four, some of that gets beaten out of him. I'd say that's probably his biggest flaw at the beginning. Right, quick question backshadow report. Yeah, who's older soccer Guitara by how much? How many months? Like two years? Maybe? Isn't he like sixteen and fourteen something like that? Yeah, he's older, I don't know. Seems very mature. I think that's a key part of this. You never call her like my little sister. You'll never be like my little sis. Um do I not? I feel like, but this is Qatara, my flying younger sister by two years? Are they twins? Are they twins. No no, no, no, no, are they twins? Dante? How dare you? They're not twins? He's definitely older. It's true that because even when they bicker, I don't feel like he pulls the little sister card. It's more just like you're annoying because you're my sister. It's less about her being little sister. I know. And you know, big brothers pull that card all the damn. That's a good point. But he does have the attitude of like, I'm supposed to be in charge, like he thinks of himself as that. And I think Qatara's maturity is just so far beyond his in so many aspects that like, yeah, the dynamic is not full big brother, little sister, but I think he feels it. Socca believes that he's the you know, responsible, chieftain, older brother type. I mean, I'm glad that you brought it up, because you know, that is something that people talk about in in the context of talking about Avatar, because so many of the characters that have great qualities and are so admirable, and then we kind of are tough on and rightfully so we're tough on the characters lesser qualities. Like wanting to eat momo, for example, or being a misogynist. Um, he grows out of both of those. He he grows out of both of them. And I think that's that's a kind of a question, and I would love to hear your guys thoughts on. You know, it's so important how things are reflected in media, especially in shows for young people. I think that there's a conversation that happens, especially with something that was made sixteen years ago versus stuff that might be made for the first time today. You know, what role models are we showing kids, and what kind of qualities do we want these these main characters, these lovable protagonists to have. And if we were doing this a new would we make Socca different? Would he not have those qualities? But at the same time, as like, but isn't it kind of good to show someone get the one upmanship of having those qualities and then getting beaten down kind of like do you know what I mean? I love I think I think how quick the journey is tells me that was something that they were planning with that character from the beginning. I would have to assume, like in the pilot, he definitely like has a pretty bossy, condescending attitude towards Qatar in a lot of ways, and some of it is big brother stuff, but some of it clearly is that he does have this, you know, from the beginning, this like cooked in sexist, like I'm the guy, I'm the leader, I come from this, like your tribe and yeah, and so he thinks he's supposed to be this. Probably his dad was, and he's got probably spoiled. Probably everyone's catering to the only man in town. He's the only man in town, yea. Literally Yeah, but also feels a tremendous pressure because of that and frustration, you know, like trying to train these tiny kids. But I think like giving him that thing to overcome at the beginning, I think is helpful and does shape his journey and it makes him. It is a attribute that I think carries with Socca through out the show that he is often good at, like not underestimating people. I think it's maybe a fair thing, and I think that's a lesson that he learns here. So I don't know if if this show was being made today, would they have started him from that unlikable point. Maybe maybe not, I'm not sure. Yeah, I think it's great. I think when you watch a lot of shows, movies, television shows, you have to watch it in the context of the time it's made. But this particular shot, the timelessness of this show and why it was again so popular today is maybe it was before it's time, or maybe it's a timelessness of of how it was made that I think all these issues resonate and still are are being talked about today. And I think it kind of works out perfectly with soccer because I don't think you dismiss those attributes in in in any characters, because then where's the growth of any of the characters. But to see the growth of soccer, I think it's really so. I don't know if we were before our time or I like to think we're timeless, timeless soccore soccer. I called you Socca Jack Socco time. That's what It's fine, that's what everyone is thinking anyway. It's like the blend when you're hearing two characters from the same show that is so beloved talk. I mean, of course you're going to call and our voices are yeah, very The great thing about the show is, you know, I mean I talked about this Jacket. Like I didn't go back and watch a lot of this when it was coming out and whatnot. It was it was the gig we were doing, and we were super into it and we would talk about what we were reading in the scripts between me, Jack and May. But even today, until watching it now, it's like May and Jack are Qatar and soccer and like in my mind because when I first read, when I first received this story and experienced the story, it was literally Jack and May and me. Zach was in New York, so we just heard his voice over the loudspeaking, so he really was sing in the sense that you had no physical position. Really was this mythical like the avatar? Like I don't know that that's a kid that's saving the world. The rest of us are just playing our part in this hole the theatrical event. But really Jack and May were we're guitar and soccer and still are in my mind and we want I'm watching it, I'm like, that's Jack and right there, it's definitely yeah, Like, uh, my relationship to like Dante's storyline for a lot of Season one is you know, cordoned off and whatever, and so I would just be sitting watching Dante do it as a little play and I just could kick back and listen, and that is my That same thing that's Zuko to me is I'm seeing Dante looking real cool, being pretty cool, unless he's doing what I did and throwing arrant punches as if he needs to actually be punching something when he's doing a fight scene. He's doing an on camera actor and doesn't know how to not use your problem. Did you do that too? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would. Whatever, Like we got to combat stuff. It's like, all right, I'm taking off my hoodie because I got too many zippers. I'm gonna be very jangly as I need a sleep bro pudgets all around. I didn't say it's amazing you guys out there to understand that voice over actors become kung fu masters in a matter of seconds. We know all the kicks, all the punches. We can we can dodge bullets, we can do anything. Just tell us what we're doing. We can fall off buildings and roll down and get hit. We do all that stuff. We're like stuntman with our voices. But you guys had to do sincere action like most of my combat noises, and I had moments of like very sincere combat noises that had to feel really dropped in and whatever. But I got away with being very broad in a lot of moments where my like action sounds are just like uh, but yeah, like how do you Yeah, I find like the ability to actually like calmly channel those sounds in an authentic, you know, combat way. I'm not good at it. Jack. We're benders, solos. It flows through you like me and Varney on this side. We're benders on this side. Oh that's that's cool. It's cool. Smart. You have a boomerang. Yeah, you do things, but we're benders, so leave the bending. You know, we do our thing on this side. Yeah. Sorry, that's rough, buddy. Hey Jack, two questions, One how much video had you done when you got soccer? And two had you done action e kind of vo stuff before where you did? Have you had already had some experience with the sort of awkwardness of making the sound of falling onto the ground when you were standing up. No, very little. I had done one Disney movie called The Wild, which is not No one remembers it for a good reason. It came out at the same time as Madagascar and had the same plot as Madagascar. Were you an animal? I was an animal? I was a hippo. I was a hippo. Fun psychic hippo, psychic. It was. It was one of those situations where clearly like two people were pitching the same idea at the same time or even I think I heard the story. I don't know if this is true, but I heard it as a writing duo was developing a thing together and had a falling out and separately sold it one to DreamWorks in one to Disney. I don't want to see that inside Baseball movie. I want to see like that. I that I probably just made up this. I'm starting, but we'll shoot a movie of right now. I feel like I can't sell anything, and two guys are selling exact same thing. Get this their animals they talk got it? Sidekick hippo, side kick hippo. I thought you said psychic hippo, and I was no, you would have heard of this movie if I played a psychic hippo, that would have been a memorable. Me and Jack are going out to all the places separately, pitching the psychic hippo separately, but we're gonna get them both made from different studios. So I had just done that. Yeah, and so the hippo did not have any fight sequences. No, the hippo had no psychic powers for action action star powers, Varney. One thing I think we did know when we started working on on the show was Jack came from like the Nickelodeon Family. I was on a live action nick show. Oh, here we go, tell us about that. I was on All That, which is a sketch show that was back on the air. Now. They wrote it. They wrote the lines ahead of time. It's like I grew up watching it. It was like kenyan Kel and Amanda and Lori Beth. There was like, you know, it's a beloved show of my childhood. And then I was on it for four years, like all through high school. It was like my summer job. And then Avatar happened maybe three years into that. We did the pilot, right because you were going back and forth. We did the pilot I think when I was like sixteen or seventeen, so I was still I was on All That at the time. I don't know if that was part of me being cast. It might have been, but we all knew you were kind of part of the Nickelodeon Family Coming. Yeah, whereas you and May were at the time on a Disney show together, right, and was May also still on an ABC family show? Was May? It was probably doing eighteen things at once during that time. Oh my gosh. Just hearing you guys talk about how young you were when I'm like thinking about being a six Like my summer job Dante was thirties thirty eight, Marty, I wasn't that young. Oh please, you were a child actor. Please, you were a break day. You were a professional breakday. I was a child actor, but not during this During this time, it feels like I watched Jack and May grow up. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, May and I were like fifteen and sixteen. I remember when May started driving by herself to the to the booth and I was like, yo, May, like, you're driving by your dad's now with you? Are you good? Are you all right? And every and you guys all seem so together and collected and like grounded, great people, And I think that's great. It's it's not always like that. We largely made it out. Okay, I'm impressed by this, Yeah, we are impressed. My memory of Jack was, oh, this is that kid? Because I've senior show in Nickelodeon. I was like, oh, it's that kid from the Sketch Show. And he had long hair, long curly hair. I still have just got it all back right now, check it out. And he was super funny, and he was super funny from from day one. Oh thank you. And he was always late because he was coming from uh inn Empire. Yeah, I was. I was coming from I was okay. Yes. So when you were saying like, oh, we had our stuff together, my immediate thought was like, no, I was pretty I was pretty unprofessional. I was like because I I started college during like we we I think we had recorded, so we did the pilot and then you know, it takes a very long time, so it took probably a year and a half before we then started recording the show. Uh and so I think we had done like maybe one season, and then by the time we were doing the second season, I was at college. I was at u c l A. So I was like living on my own off at school, having to commute to Burbank all on myself, and I was frequently late. And it's a deep, like retroactive source of shame. It was a lot of shame at the time. But it's a lot of shame, right, I carry a lot of shame as like what an unprofessional eighteen year old I was. They had to but he was running late, okay, and they had to make up times. They had to tell me fake times as to win the records in hopes that he did. Yeah, I had to give you a time that was earlier than it actually was. Yeah, yeah, kid actress, kid actors at the same time. But I got better, I got bet you got better. And also that's kind of the irony, right, is that people think that, you know, like it sounds so fun and that there there are aspects of all of that, but also you do have to do you have to be responsible in a way that just a college student showing up for class. It's a different kind of Oh, I just didn't show up for class than it is, you know, because I slept in than it is like I had to, you know, I didn't go to class. And also I was late to my voice of recording for this network that I want to be happy and staying good, you know, I mean, that's that's it's it's a deeply weird aspect of being a child actor. Is that you are a professional in a professional setting, in an adult professional setting, you're working adult business hours around adults, and you have to like learn how to be professional and responsible. You know. Sometimes I was good at that, kind of like Avatar, the last Arab kids being forced to deal with adult world and adult responsibilities when they also still want to be kids. That was good. Y'all should have a podcast about that, because on PJ and I podcast, we never bring back the themes. We just kind of get up. I don't even I'm so angry with you and PJ right now, I can't even. I can barely stomach it. I'm so enraged and jealous. I mean, yeah, we never make these connections. We just do bits. Okay, So you were What I've gotten so far is that Dante was wildly intimidated by Jack because Jack was a big shot Nickelodeon sketch artist, star star who made up all of my line, made up all of all of his lines, made up all his lines. So funny, he's having such a great time. I'm pouting in the corner. You were in character, You were method Dante. You were as resentful of Zuko he was literally by the way he was always in the side isolation booth and me and May and whoever else was there for the episode. Yeah, we were always getting to hang out in the middle, all next to each other, and Dante was stuck in the booth in the fire Nation booth. Just go stand over there until we're ready for you. And the isolation booth is where all the pranks take place to like when the sound engineers put like fake spiders and stuff somewhere in the booths, They're going to put it in the io booth and I'm going to be the one that shrieks and is not avatar like at all, and it's just like, okay, let's record, I'm feeling tough and cool and like I can tell that's by the way you did perfect soccer a d R right there. That's all of my combat sounds. If you ever need me to step in. I don't know where, why or how, but it's a big part of PJ and podcast we do. We do mixed up table reads where we have everybody swap rolls. It's funny. Makes me so I'm gonna I want to hang up, hang up, like I'm hanging up on the phone. But then there had to be another commercial, because all of that just came flooding back in a rush. There hadn't be another commercial that you did in massage. I did a I did a hood milk radio commercial. That can't be a real thing. What that means. Oh, that's a very East Coast thing, but it's a very The whole is a hood of of milk. Have you never had a hoodsie? No? I don't. I've ad Okay, I'm getting we need full blank stairs here, but everybody at home listen to this podcast is cracking it up, going. I love hoodsie's. They're like, you know, like a little ice cream cups, you know, the what's the you know, the one with like a swirl a chocolate syrup vanilla ice cream cup like a carnation, like a carnation, like a like a Yeah, a hoodsie is one of those little things. And it's half chocolate, half vanilla, and you eat it with the cardboard top and it's a huge part of childhood. And I use the commercial your hoodsie kid. Yeah. I don't think I was cast. I think I just started emailing people saying I love hoodsies. Let me talk about it. I wrote a commercial for you. I wrote one, I just talked about the hoodsies, So I did those. Um, yeah, I think that was That was the bulk of it, because I wasn't like at Nope, Like I wasn't hard after the acting thing when I was in Massachusetts, and then when I moved to Orange County. It wasn't like, Okay, we're in California, now let's like go forcent. It was also it wasn't that you didn't move to California because of that. No, we moved just for my dad's job and specifically had the conversation like, oh, you can think about that when you're older. You can try it in a little bit if you want. But like we didn't move there in a meet like start going to l A for auditions. But my mom saw an open call for all that and knew it was my favorite show and it was my dream. So it was like try this one. You can go to this open call. So they did. You know, it was like eight rounds of it. It was like a big nationwide search and we did like eight rounds of auditions and stuff, and so especially you booked your first audition in Hollywood. What he's saying, Yeah, I think it legitimately, I think it legitimately was. But I think great, well, great, that's a good message for everybody out there, and just come to l A and just booked the first for But that's a question, you know, I feel like I get asked the question about auditioning for the Legend of Cora with the same kind of question that you could be asked about all that, which is, you know, when you guys auditioned for Avatar, you didn't know what it was going to become. But when I auditioned for Cora, I did know the legacy of this thing that I loved and that people loved. And likewise, is jack for you to to watch a show and then suddenly have it be possible to become a part of that cast. Um, I'm delighted that you got the part, because that does seem like a perfect opportunity to sort of get in your own way, because it would be so scary and intimidating. Yeah, it was a legitimate dream come true thing where Like I had been watching the show the original all that opening credits were like all the casts like jumping on trampolines, and I would like watch the show and like jump along on my parents. But I have like very vivid memories of like it was like straight up like in in a in a way, in a way that like a child dreams that I have never since dreamed of, like I want to be on that uh So being able to make that happen was like yeah, truly straight up dream come true. And then and it was really fun. It was like I did it for four years. It was you know, it was a crash course in professionalism and being on a set and all of that stuff, but it was also like summer job and it's a big like it was a big show with you know, a bunch of peers. It was all we were all like the same age and making sketch comedy and it was incredibly fun. Okay, I'm loving this conversation. Let's pick it back up after a quick break. The special thing about this show, and I think with Jack and me, when we started this show, this is like before the world changed, you know, this before digital media happened and social media happened. And we did the whole nearly the complete show before any of us even got Facebook accounts or let alone Twitter wasn't even invented yet or so we had no clue. You know, now you do a show and you can instantly see the millions of people watching it being in the retweets and the conversations going on on Twitter and Facebook, Instagram, whatever. But back in those days, no clue. Like we did the show, we were enjoying what we were doing. We would geek out on the storylines. We would come I remember coming to the to the to the booths with like did you read like me made Jacklie? Did you read what happened to speak? Like what this is crazy? And we were like we'd have these conversations amongst ourselves, but zero connecting, zero engagement with anyone outside of the people doing the show about what's happened with the show, let alone when the show came out and how it started turning into this phenomenal hit before social media, so there was like nobody, nobody was telling us how popular show is. The first thing changed for me was like sometime after I think season two had already year, I was at college and someone someone at a party in college pulled me aside and was like, hey, listen, I know it's a kid show and whatever, and like, you know, don't tell other people that I watch it, but I think your show is like really really good. Um, and like that thing of like, oh, this is like gaining popularity and sort of like crossing over, breaking out, transcending kids kid Nickelodeon Watt viewing, which like it made sense as it was happening, like like Dante was saying, of like reading all these scripts and just becoming a fan of what we were reading, Like it was an incredibly cool revelation as we started making this show, Like we made the pilot and it was like, oh, cool, cool, fun pilot, and I didn't know. I didn't get it entirely what this show was. And then we saw the when then we watched the pilot and I was like, oh, this is very very cool. And then we started seeing the scripts and those first couple you guys just recapped episode three, that's like, you know, in episode three of a kid show, we've got like heavily serialized stuff where he's learning about a genocide that was committed on his people, and it's like, WHOA, this is a show. This is like a really big feeling show, a really narratively ambitious show. And like realizing that as we were getting the scripts and seeing what this piece and what this art was becoming was really exciting and felt like, Oh, this is gonna catch on, This is gonna be bigger than what it feels like right now in this small room as we're recording it. Was there a situation when you were still doing the show in which you walked into a room and a bunch of people freaked out Or was it like you sort of know because the press is great and your people are buzzing about it and you're meeting people like at a party like that here and there, Or did you ever have that wall of fandom that exists now for the show that you experienced firsthand? Dante, you can help me with memory here. I think the first like comic con big panel that we all went to was while we were still like was during the run of the show, right, I think like during season three or was it afterwards at the end of it, maybe the end of the end. I think in hype for season three there was a big San Diego comic Con panel with Mike and Bryan and me and Dante in May. I think ComCom was fairly new, I mean, not not new in the world of comic cons, but new in the world of pop culture of like how we think of it now? Something to do that was you know, it was it was still comic con in those days was like a very particular community, whereas now that community is broadened obviously over the last decade or so. It was small enough so I was able to be They were like, they were like, hey, do you want uh, we'll we'll get your room and like if you want to like bring friends or whatever. I was like, cool, can I bring uh seven of my friends? And there was like eight of us, and they all it was just a bunch of my friends. It was like anyone who I thought like would be genuinely excited to be at a comic con. Uh, And they just like piled into my Explorer and all stayed on the floor of the hotel room that comic Con gave me, and and like and then and then like so small enough that like they were accommodating eight of us and and had like runners to get me into any like panel I wanted to see, which is like, yeah, the level you gotta be to have the pull for that now, I don't think I don't know if that even exists because it's just so big. I took the train down to that comic con. I wrote, my motorcycle to the train station downtown, the Amtrak. This is how cool he was. This is what I'm saying. What a cool I mean, what a cool Zuko, classic Zuko? I know. But then I spent the night down there and just bike to the train. I came and my my motorcycle got got towed. That's what I remember. Part the wrong place. Oh not cool, not cool at all. Story, What a lame guy his motorcycle gets towed. I had to take a taxi to a place to get my motorcycle. Wasn't even Uber's back then. I had to find an actual real taxi. That's a rough buddy. Let's ask some good soccer questions, and these are soccer slash jack questions. So you established early on in our conversation that soccer does love food and has a really hard time getting enough of it. Never sayd this boy. That's true of all the characters in on Team Avatar for the most part. Um. But yeah, like he there's just never enough to eat, especially when you're a teenage boy. Come on, of course you're hungry all the time. So what are some good jack go twos that you could just like eat forever and be so happy. Oh I jack um eat, I'm I'm I'm more the hippo. I mean listen if you don't feel comfortable, I'd like to answer the rest of this podcast as ease the beloved psychic Hippo from two thousands two's the Wild, which you have not seen. I mean, I'm I love I love a burger. I love uh I I suvie a lot is my sort of like go to kitchen, Like I can be kind of fancy a little fancy, but it's actually easier than any other kind of cooking. So I'm suvian some steaks, some pork shoulders, some whatever you gotta teach me. I gotta suvie for Christmas. Jack and I and I suck at it. It's never lets go. It's never cooked enough. It's never cooked enough. You're suing two vied. You have a weird idea then about what it's cooked exactly what you said it as so just it's wrong. The app is wrong. You might you might be so accustomed to brutally overcooking your food that getting it actually the right temperature is so unfamiliar. You know what I'm saying, well, this sounds like a real dig Dante even to take that it's possible. I need, I need, I need, I need to sear it afterwards. I like the little crispy you should. I like the crisp you should. That's part of why I love it is that I can. So I'll Suvie some steak and then I'll you know, crank a grill or a cast iron whatever on the on the stovetop, and then I can real hard see it, real fast, get it super super hot, and just hard seear it and not overcook the inside because I you know, I mean, come on, it sounds so Socca right now, super soccer right now with the suving and like, yeah, soccer technique is sort of water bending in a way. Suvie trying to be a bender. I'm you need a machine. That's okay, It's all right. I'm just burning steaks left and right. Um, and ice cream is my real answer. I'm an ice cream. I love ice cream. I'm come on and make some ice cream sometimes. I love it. You do, Yeah, he's soccer. He makes his own damn ice cream. Of course he does. Of course he he probably invented ice cream. You invented ice cream. Let's face it, I mean foreshadowing report, but yeah, Soccer invented submarines on the show, and and Jack invented ice cream. Foreshadowing report. Your interaction with with fans, do you get a lot of really positive feedback about being a non bender, about being somebody who is surrounded by these folks who can bend elements and yet you absolutely hold your own as as an inventor and as a character. What's what's that feedback? Like? What are those interactions like? It's the thing that I talked to fans about, uh frequently. It's something that a lot of people connected about the character, and it's one of my favorite aspects of the character is that that feeling of like, oh, all all of my you know, I related to like when you first go to college, when you step into any sort of new environment and you feel like all these people around me are are are more special than me in some way, right, they all have you know, magical bending abilities and I'm just the guy with the boomerang. Uh And to me, like I connect to and I think a lot of people connect to Soccer's ability to then, you know, find something else in himself and for Socca, you know, for Soka, it's creative thinking and being a problem solver. Uh. And also the thing that I love that I think soccer embodies is being willing to be part of a team with people who you view as more special than you in some way. Right, It's like seeking those people out and being part of a team and supporting those people and not for you raise each other up. Yeah, so we can stand on mountains. Let's Josh growing this um. But you're so right. I love that comparison, and I love the I love the specific soccer element of that because that is like when you do improv, you always want to be with people you think are more talented because they bring out the best in you and raise and make you get better at what you do. And the same with being on a set right or being with right, Like ideally you're in a support of enough environment that nobody's trying to smoosh you down because you're less talented or you know less or whatever, but you are always learning and feeling supported. And you know, in an ideal situation, we would have that soccer experience where he's not made to feel stupid or bad because he happens to not have this thing that he can't control whether he has or not, and still, you know, absolutely perseveres in his awesome His best friends just happened to be superheroes, all of them. There's an episode I won't describe what's happening, but where Socca is having you know a lot of self doubt about you know, how he belongs in this world of vendors and goes off to kind of find a sense of purpose through that. And while he's gone, all these people are talking about, you know, all the things he's contributing and everything they're missing while he's gone. And I think, like, yeah, it's a it's a beautiful thing, this idea that like you don't see in yourself, but other people see what makes you special. And I'm a I'm a big believer in like seeking out, like go to the rooms where you're the dumbest person in the room so that you can ask questions and and and learn stuff from these people from other people. Um So I think that's a really cool aspect of soccer and and I love I love that it's something that people connect to and I can talk to fans about it because it's so it was a big driving part of it. Isn't that isn't that great? And it's it's he's sort of the taste. He's the perfect character of you, Jack, even all the other animals, not just not just your friends, even the animals, they all compend all of them, all of them, every single world. Dude, I know, for crying out left you know what, No, we're not going to stand for this. We're not going to say, in fact, this is an opportunity that you could take or leave. But you know, we fairly recently recapt episode two of the show, and of course this is the first moment that that Soccer has with Zuko, is him smashing his ship into the village where Soccer has been so valiantly trying to teach these children how to be warriors. And here's Zuk which just blast through this big old throwaway ship that someone didn't want, that he took a crash course for these little warrior kids. Let him know, this is what this is what it feels like when the when the battleship comes like, how how did your great commander teach you what happens now? And then I think we can all admit because this did happen, and it is Cannon. You are soundly beaten, and you end up with your head in some snow and your feet where your head should be um in the air. This is your opportunity. Here we are. I probably just made some very dumb actually probably well, this is your opportunity to describe what you wish that you could have done in a fight sequence with Zuko, or you could just dress him down with words in place of what actually happened on the show, which was that he beat you up and you ended up in the snow. I want to say that was that was just me suckering him in. That was a long game. Soccer already sensed. Oh man, I was just gonna get so foreshadowy report. He boy, sorry, you're better at than we are. We just know we we have exposed everything, and you're being the responsible one who's actually like trying to be mindful of it. So half my instinct was to just summarize the entirety of the series. Uh, it's not of that. I'll just say, you know, I I SOCCA maybe underutilized the boomerang misdirect. You know, I think I would have I would have loved a throw right past him, looping back right towards his face. And then I do like a oh, man, is that something something's in the Sun's in my eyes? I don't know. And then he has to turn around boom right in his face. He still got him. You got some knocks. Yeah. I like that Soccer is the soccer gets the sun in his eyes, and that is that prompts who go to turn around and there is there such a thing as the sun? Let me check. And then and then boom right right in your face and there was the sun too, so double bad. Oh, that's fantastic. Also with the character of Soccer, there there is heavy talk about prejudice. He hates the Fire Nation, like from Jump Street, and rightfully so not not for wrong things, but be able to judge. I mean, foreshadow report how we see, you know, how he comes to terms with a relationship with Zuko and even a relationship with how he thinks about the Fire Nation. Um, you know, those are heavy issues for young viewers and old reviewers to watch the The The extent to which the show did not shy away from like interesting dynamic, really deep conversations is you know a huge part of why it resonates so much with people, A huge part of my love for it and my you know, pride of having been a part of the show. Um, it's cool, man. We had some really we had and sparked I think some very cool conversations for people. But also I ate a lot of meat. But you didn't eat a certainly m er No, thank goodness. What if that was? What? What if you were like, if I could go back and change anything? Oh yeah, and you and you definitely if I could go back, how do you go back? I would eat Momo? If if Momo because we don't find MOMENTTI episode three, so obviously if Momo had been there. In episode two, Zuko comes on shore. He's like, I'm ready for battle. I say, as an intimidation technique, will watch this first, And I bite the head off of Momo and the blood like runs down my face. Yeah, and Zuko is just like, no, I can't, I can't, I can't And he gets on the ship and he leaves. Right Okay. People would have loved that, Like those guys up in the water tribe are crazy. Don't sacrifice for your scare tactics thesive shadowing report. But SOCCA has a really intense reaction when he believes that Opa ate Momo, and we see that you know, by that point in his journey, he's deeply protective of Momo and does not believe in Momo being eaten at all. Just another part of the I thought I felt this way about something, and I don't, And that's that's That's something that we've said is sort of a recurring theme in Soccer's world, the amount of growth that a character that felt at the beginning like purely a comedic relief type of character, Like at the beginning, he's kind of a jerk, and he's there and I'm making a lot of jokes. I truly did not expect to have the level of just the depth of that journey written for that character, and so to see him grow in so many ways and be challenged on so many of his beliefs, and everything that happens with you A and everything that happens with Pando and all of these like you know, beautiful growth moments and story arcs. Uh. Having that come out of It's just not something I knew I was signing up for at the beginning, and it was such a pleasant surprise to get those grips and go like, whoa, we're doing some stuff. Um. I feel very lucky that they took the character in such interesting direction. I was a lucky duck, lucky turtled up and the lucky turtle that you were very lucky turtle duck. Dante, what will we do without you? Because people were screaming just now lucky turtle duck and you intuited that at the Psychic improv Master Dante. Yeah, not at all, not next to you, guys, because he does the sneak attack where you and I Jack are just yeah by back and then it's quiet for a second and then he just leans in and lays on like lucky turtle duck and everyone's like, yeah, you're m v P. You'r m v P. You filter out everything, Janet and Jackson, and you get like two percent good and the dot is a percent good because he doesn't yammer, right, and we could agree with that. I shouldn't throw you under the bus. Jack, That's just no, no, no, I shoot it. I'm shooting a high volume on this and if any of them going, I'm feeling great. Okay. I have to ask you because the fans need to know and I'm sure you have to answer this a lot, but just for this place where we are sort of having braving the elements, be a good hub for all of these conversations that have happened at various cons and whatnot. Do you have a ship when people ask is there a ship that you applaud on in either series? Yeah, And it doesn't have to be your ship too. It could be like you know you, oh, oh, if I'm allowed to go elsewhere, you could say Zutara. You know what I mean? Like you do feel like Tutara in a lot of ways. I do support to making people mad, making people mad. I'm enjoying the the growing presence of Zuka shipping. I've I've seen the Zuka shipping that uh shouts all the Zuka. I feel like soccer's formative relationship. I think, like the U a relationship is really important. But you don't like ship that right because it's like, what is that ship that can You kind of can't because that means you would be giving up something for shadow report for show, right right right. But it's a good ship. I love that. I love that ship. I mean that's you know, that's the one that got away literally, but it's always right there. You know. Wow, foreshadow report, so I read something. You know, that's the Fish that Got Away report. That's such a good foreshadow report because it means nothing. That's a good vague one because it just could mean anything. Sounds gotten the regular part to get to that point in the show. That's right, that's right, that's exactly right. And of course Suki I should I need to say Suki and porshe report for the next episode. But it you know, she changes Sokka in very many important ways. And I love the two of them and Sword and fan. Suki is great the Kyoshi Wars. When I see Suki costplay, I like, get down on one knee. I'm so crazy about Suki. I'm so crazy about the costplay. I love her. I did a con where like a dozen Kyoshi war is walking to the panel like all dress. It was like, it was kind of scary. I took a picture with the Match Wars because it was so good. It's fierce. I love group cosplay. Okay, let me ask this, Jack, do you have a favorite hybrid animal that you cannot eat? Oh? Well, the deep struggle of Socca to not eat Fufu cuddly poops, who's a savor tooth lion cubs. That's an inspired animal right there. That's in And then, by the way, some very scary hybrid animals on that show that I think there was there was something about there are some ones that even that Mike and Brian are like, I still have nightmares about those money. If I'm gonna ask your knowledge on the show, Jack, and I'm gonna say you probably don't know this because I didn't know this, But what hybrid animal is? Opa? He's a combination of a bison and a large sofa. He's a combination of a bison and two other legs of a bison. I don't know what what's the answer, I'm gonna tell you he is. He is uh combination of a bison? Yeah, and a manate Oh that makes sense. Oh that's beautiful. Did you not? I did not know this whole time. M hmm. What where did you just use? Like? Cannon? Is that cannon? Yes? I'm very I was raised so Catholic, so no, I I appreciated. I didn't a great word. I know you didn't know that because I U isn't it in the name? Why isn't he a flying bison tea. That's what's funny about some of the animals is that some just get called the primary thing that they are, and some get called wolf bats or you know, turtle ducks or whatever. I do kind of want to ask, like, why was there any kind of decision to why certain animals get pegged with the hybrid animal name versus like they just are called like a flying lemur or whatever. Mike Combine named named characters in the show after some of the talent that was involved in the obviously mock Marco named after Maco, I mean May, I don't know if May's name after Mate and cheese mate. And then they're like, what were you named after Bosk? Was Bosco the bear named after you? I'm like, I don't know. How did they get cool characters? And I'm a bear? It's a cool bear though. All Right, this is a little, very quick game we called choose wisely as a tip of the hat to the third installment of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But anyway, would you rather get sneezed on by Apa or brave the dangerous emotional current of the ice flow rapids? But what would you rather have to go through the dangers Coming of Age story if you brave the rapids, right, But I think like I Jack as a person, would would probably handle that poorly. I think I'd be very scared. So I'll go with sneezed on. I've been slimed before. I was a Nickelodeon kid. I've been slimed, you know, so it's gotta be so oh god, you actually got real, the real double slime. So many times I got dunk tank slimed, I got like fully immersed slimmed. I've been slimmed a bunch. And they have different recipes for different slimes. That's great. Can you eat it? Can it? Has it ever gone to you? Yes? Some of them are like explicitly to be eaten. So some of them have like there are different recipes that it's like, oh, totally cool if you eat this one. It's like some of them are. I remember there being like apple sauce one and vanilla putting a one. I feel like there's oatmeal some some something had oatmeal when it really had to be like that kind of messy, sloppy paper mache slieah um. So I'd take being sneezed on. Yeah, Okay, I feel like that's the right answer for you and for me. I also would probably well, listen, I would love to brave the rapids. But it's just seems I I project too much. It's like like, you know, ang saying, let go of fear, and now, of course when they go into the ship that they triggered the movie trap anyway, So he was kind of wrong on that point. But I project my future surf like, oh, here's all the things that could go wrong with this with ice floes. Whereas if you're a person who is anxious, you just know you're gonna get sneezed on. The chances are it's gonna be really gross and messy. But the sort of the projection ends there. You don't like, think of all the different ways you could die. You know what, nobody's sneezing on you ever in public people you don't know sneezing on you know. I'm gonna take the rapids. I'm gonna take the rapids. Well, of course you are, but because you're you, and of course you would take the rapids, and you would just like I rode motorcycles, you would totally grave it and be great. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm not surprised, and I also applaud that answer. Then when those rapids get stolen and you've got to take your taxi back, sorry, that's when it's rough. But that's when it's that's okay. Last couple of quick questions. Is there another role in animation, something that's long gone or something that has never been made into animation? Anything? Any character that you would have loved to voice, even if it wasn't realistic in terms of like, well, I don't I don't sound like a hummingbird. But you know so the true not at all in my in my vocal wheelhouse is Batman. I would have loved to be able to be Batman. Uh you still got significantly mature. Uh well, me and Jack talked about and I told you I've always want to play Robin, and I've auditioned for Robin so many times on camera and on Mike. Yeah, I guess what. I lost it one time to guess who? Yeah, really, Dante and I are in a DVD. It's probably not on a DVD anymore, but Netflixlix Straight to Video t everything called j l A. It's Justice League Adventures Trapped in Time. It was directed by Joan Carlo Bobe. That's how Dante and I one of us came to be there, um and I got to play Robin, and that was like the true true dream come true. Like once I once I turned I don't know sixteen, and I was like, I don't think my voice is getting to Batman places, but Robin was possible. So I was Robbin and Dante was karate Kid. I was karate Kid was karate Kid. Because it's because your voices don't sound some I wouldn't think that you guys would be up for the same I mean, I doesn't. It doesn't work that way because there are obviously a lot of the time they just don't know what they want and they you know, they just sort of know when they hear it. But it's not a situation like there are certain people where I sort of go like Greg Gray Delile and I have similar vocal ranges, so I will never work in voice over, which is fine because he take a bullet for her. But that's you know what I'm saying, So that you could see like, oh, that's why you would both get called in. But you guys both have such distinct voices that we both because you still play young, you can still play you still play still Callum on Dragon Princes fourteen. Another thing I'm doing right now, I'm like fifteen sixteen. That's still largely when I'm getting cast as are we playing teenagers for the rest of I think. Listen, that's not the worst thing that his death. Just stop working in the world, never, never, no, listen. If you stop working, then you can just sort of shred your voice somehow because you've got nothing to lose, and then you get like down in the bed man. That's not how bad man sounds. Just whiskey and cigars every day. Please, let's never talk about what I thought Batman sound like. That was a good Batman. That was straight. Hey, I'm Batman. What's up? I sort of I sort of sound like beetle Juice. We come for your daughter, Chuck Like, that's the closest Batman, probably the best, Like Michael Keaton is my Batman? What another revelation. This has been a mind blowing conversation. So many things have been uncovered discovered. We got to ask you what kind of vendor you would be. I would say I say water largely out of loyal teck. But you go with the flow kind of guy. Is that not true? Dante fels he knows the true answer you're wearing right now. I think real talk water tribe Like, maybe swamp bender is kind of my vibes. I don't like to be a swamp bender. That's just like stepping away from it all type of water bender. Yeah, and maybe a healer can be lovely. I can heal all these animals I'm joking about. Yeah, you definitely that's redemption right there. Put that circle circle. Is there anything that you are working on that people should be checking out? Where can people follow you above and beyond anything you want to promote so that they when you can't say something, you will. Oh, you can follow me on Instagram and once every two or so years I'll put up like a picture of my baby. Uh so check that out. Um that's just at Jack descenta um. But and that's really one of the newest things you produce, is that baby, Baby that baby We pet that out year ago, still going strong at the box office. Thank you, Thank you very much. Watch the Dragon Prints which has some other avatar d n A so check that out. Check out my buddy Chris and I have a YouTube channel where we make a lot of sketch comedy. Dante is in a couple of those. Mikayla Murphy a k a. Jesse Flower aka the Voice of Top pops up in one. Uh so check that out. Chris and Jack on YouTube for some sketch comedy. Amazing, amazing sketch channel really really any stuff. And then uh last plug. PJ and I have a podcast called Oh No Afraid We all out of time. Did not have a chance to talk about the arrival guest, thank you for cutting me off. I didn't have a good name. I didn't have a good name, So thank you for sensing that I didn't have a good till the bend. Just around the bend was what I was kind of working something off bend because you guys, I don't know. I didn't have it. So good work, all right, everybody, Thanks for another great episode of Braving the Elements. And next week we are getting back into the Last Airbender. You know it, you love it. The Warriors of Kyoshi joining us will be the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors herself, Jenny Kwan. So excited. She's the best. She's the best. We'll see everybody next Tuesday on Apple Podcast, Spotify, the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast