I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this week’s episode of the Toy Photographers Podcast!
A few weeks ago, I messaged the Twitter account for the new Netflix documentary series The Toys That Made Us. I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to see if anyone affiliated with the show would be interested in being interviewed. To my surprise, I quickly got a response saying that the show’s creator, Brian Volk-Weiss, said yes!
About Brian
A quick Google search will tell you that Brian is a very busy guy. He runs Comedy Dynamics, the largest producer and distributor of comedy specials in the United States. Right now they’re working with Netflix, and have produced specials for comics like Aziz Ansari, Jim Gaffigan, Craig Ferguson, Bill Burr, Dennis Miller, and Ali Wong.
Brian has a whopping 229 credits on his IMDb page. In addition to his work for Netflix, he’s produced comedy specials for HBO, Comedy Central, and Showtime. His work has been nominated for several Grammy awards (winning one in 2016), and he’s even produced a handful of Hollywood movies.
I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous to talk to Brian, but that all went away once he called me on the phone and we began recording. He was enthusiastic to talk about The Toys That Made Us, a passion project that he’d been trying to develop for nearly ten years. We chatted about toys, collecting, “Weird Al” Yankovic, how he got TTTMU greenlit at Netflix, when we can expect the next batch of episodes, and more!
The episode is live now wherever you get your podcasts (including iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play) or you can listen to it here:
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Brian as much as I did! After you listen, leave your thoughts in the comments below, or shoot us an email at toyphotographypod@gmail.com.
-James
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I loved what he said about this being a tight community. He’s got that right! Also Im glad Im not the only one who missed out on HeMan!
Another awesome interview James!
Thanks Shelly! Yes he’s absolutely right about this community. It’s a shame any photography stuff got cut from the show, I’d love to see whatever footage they had on Kim Simmons! I’m going to try to see if I can get Kim on the pod, he’d be such a cool guest!
Such a great interview James.
Top job snagging such an interesting guest!
Thanks, Brett! I’ve set my sights on even more big guests so fingers crossed they’re as eager to talk as Brian was!
Excellent show – it was shorter than the previous episodes tho – I hope thats just due to the guest’s availability, and not a trend.
This makes me want to rewatch the current Netlflix episodes again:)
Thanks Dave! And don’t worry, the shorter time was only because of Brian’s busy schedule. He only had 30 minutes to talk at the end of his workday. Would have loved to talk to him longer, but was happy that he set aside the time!