Wednesday, June 24, 2015

I Listen So You Don't Have to: Steve Austin Show Ep. 231

Austin has one of coworkers on this episode, not Mike Tyson
Photo Credit: WWE.com
If you're new, here's the rundown: I listen to a handful of wrestling podcasts each week. Too many, probably, though certainly not all of them. In the interest of saving you time — in case you have the restraint to skip certain episodes — the plan is to give the bare bones of a given show and let you decide if it’s worth investing the time to hear the whole thing. There are better wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but these are the ones in my regular rotation that I feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If I can save other folks some time, I'm happy to do so.

Show: Steve Austin Show
Episode: 231 (June 23, 2015)
Run Time: 1:20:24
Guest: Tom (14:47) (Ed. Note: Not me -- TH)

Summary: Austin is still on location filming Broken Skull Challenge, and after some issues with the power at his trailer, he pops a few cold ones to chat up Tom, a technician who has worked on several of Austin’s reality projects. They talk about technical aspects of Tom’s career and get into some of his life story, including his stint in the Navy, bond over music and their feelings about life in Mexico and Los Angeles and working in television. They talk a bit about their favorite television shows, Tom’s camera duties and how they spend their down time while on location.

Quote of the week: “I figured, ‘Dude, you ain’t got no material. You need to find someone that you could talk to.’ And it turns out Tom is out here. Now, you’re asking yourself, ‘Who is Tom?’ Lemme tell you who Tom is. I don’t even know his last name, but I’ve been working with him for about three or four years, I guess, ever since Redneck Island. And so, I always talk about the workin’ man, so now, I’m interviewing the working man here on The Steve Austin Show.”

Why you should listen: This episode is somewhat revealing about the nature of the real Steve Austin, as he’s clearly just a guy chatting up one of his coworkers, whom he treats as an equal. Austin may well be guilty of plenty of character flaws, but pretentiousness is not among them. There’s some interesting technical talk for people who are interested in TV production, especially so for those who follow Austin’s shows.

Why you should skip it: Tom seems like a great guy, and is actually a great speaker and seems unfazed to be talking with Austin, but he’s just not all that interesting. Since he and Austin have so much in common in terms of their interests and temperament, the best parts of the show are when Tom gets to talk shop. Austin would have done his guest a better service by getting him to go into more detail about the complexities of his work, but he seems more inclined to shut down when the jargon gets too complicated. Also, there are some pretty annoying microphone issues about halfway through, which perhaps is to be expected when recording outside.

Final thoughts: There are many better ways to spend your time, especially in the world of wrestler podcasts. But Tom is a likeable guy — definitely less sketchy than Ted Fowler, at least in this context. You’ll learn practically nothing, but if you love hearing Stone Cold shoot the bull about Stevie Ray Vaughan and raving about “Breaking Bad,” this one is on a silver platter.