VERBAL TAP (Episode 75) with Stuart Cooper

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Raf's Recollection | What do you do when your co-host is unavailable during a week when you have an interview with Stuart Cooper and need to review what took place at this year's Worlds?

Well, naturally you carry on without the guy and replace him.

J/Ks everyone.

Don't worry, Kev isn't going anywhere.  He just was out of town for the week (and will be back with us next week).

In the meantime: We landed a whale of an interview with Stu (We've been truly anxious to hear about his legendary filmmaking process for some time now).

If for some reason you're unfamiliar with Stuart Cooper, you would be well served to check out the documentary about him below.

And if that's not enough to help you understand the the man behind the camera, why not take a look at a few samples of his work.

We've had the pleasure of being in contact with Stuart Cooper for some time now, but we've long been fans of his work.

His documentaries do a superb job of filling in the metaphorical and narrative ellipses for the avid BJJ enthusiast.  The stories behind many of our favorite BJJ athletes often extend further than what we see on the mats during tournaments. When you watch a Stuart Cooper film, you get more than just why a match or a tournament is important.  We get a rare insight into the philosophy, the psyche, and even the small nuances of the fighter's personal lives (try telling me any two Stuart Cooper documentaries are alike).

For me, his films aren't just comparable to quality found on the big budget, fight countdown shows (similar to the ones produced for the UFC and Bellator), the creativity exhibited in many of these vignettes stand up against a number of documentaries period.  They strive for uniqueness in an industry where narratives are often uniform and bland.

On the podcast, we talk about his filmmaking process, some of the crazier experiences he's faced, and his new Indiegogo campaign he's mounted (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stuart-cooper-films) to help off-set the costs of making these films.

While the notion of traveling around the world, training BJJ, and making films sounds like a dream, the cost of making multiple, high quality videos on a regular basis basis is anything but glamorous.  As a man who's portfolio has been a free and open book for the past several years (and who's films have often showcased the sport in an entirely different light), we highly implore you to donate to his Indiegogo.

Believe us, we know no one likes taking out their wallet when they don't have to.  But the breakdown of his production costs is a mere fraction of what other places would charge for a comparable product-- and a loss of films like his would be a huge setback for a sport we all love.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stuart-cooper-films

Verbal Tap Goes to Worlds

This was my first time attending a Worlds competition.  While I've been a number of tournaments over the past year and a half, I learned a lot from my experience down in Long Beach last week.

For example, Worlds is loud (http://instagram.com/p/oorT9Wj6rD/).

And there's a lot of matches that happen all at once.

(#TwoEyesTwelveMats was a personal favorite hashtag to use).

And it's a lot to take in all at once.

But it was a great experience and I got to see a ton of great matches and friends.

(I didn't get the chance to mention it on the podcast, but I really do believe this: Much in the same way they have warm up mats for the competitors, they should also have mats designated just for spectators who want to start drilling something they learned and thought was cool during the competition.

Hell, I should get some perk for my spectator fee, right?).

But, I did go at it alone.  I had back up at the event to help me better understand all of the action taking place.

Yep, that's right.  Our good pal, BJJ Breakdown's John Evans (seen in the accompanying picture looking more bad ass than ever thanks to me, #streetcred) was there to help explain all of the moves that blew my mind.

John not only covered the event with me, but he also shows up on this podcast to walk us through some of the highlights.

All this plus we get in a One Minute Review of The Ultimate Fighter (!!!).

What are you waiting for, listen in now!

VERBAL TAP (Episode 72) with Kit Dale

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Raf's Recollection | When we heard that Kit Dale was going to start a podcast, we wasted no time in bringing him on our show to ask him directly why he hates us so much.

Because, as someone who wins the BJJ internet on a regular basis, he has absolutely no reason to make the rest of us look so bad in podcast form as well (I know, dick move, right?).

Nonetheless, despite our plead for him to do otherwise, it looks like we will soon be privy to a podcast by the man the the undisputed best beard in jiu-jitsu.

On our show this week, Kit gives us a rough outline of what we can expect on his own show and assures us there is plenty of room for people who tell dumb jokes in the sport (we'll see about that).

We also chat a little bit about what exactly went down at Pans (ya know, that time where he was in the states to compete but "forgot to register"), we give him time explain what hell his thing is against drilling, and allow him the opportunity to address his internet beef with #HeSoHotRightNow, Keenan Cornelius (if you ask me, their internet beef takes me back to the days of the East Coast/West Coast rap wars... ya know, just minus the massive drive by shootings and whatnot).

Additionally, Kit Dale talks about his new school, how his silly videos come together, and he tries to convince us that he's trying to pave a new way for the lazy jiu-jitsu practitioner (again, not buying it, if you listen to him, you'll find he's not that lazy).

What I've always liked about Kit is this: When you're around comics or people who are funny on a regular basis, you find they don't tend to laugh at other comedians' jokes.  Be it insecurity or competitiveness, there's often a game of one-up's-manship that prevents some funny people from laughing at other people's stuff.  When you're around Kit, not only does he know how to tell a mean joke, but he's also the first to laugh at someone else's.  You see it on the internet when he interacts with people on threads (or even when he heartily laughs at whatever photoshopped creations his fans have left at his virtual doorstep), the guy's got a great sense of humor and has contributed some much needed comic relief to the jiu-jitsu community.

And, as advertised, what you see is what you get: Kit's more than happy to talk nonsense, but he's also not afraid to get serious when it comes to talking about jiu-jitsu.  Hearing a long-form explanation of his take on drilling and hearing what a class of his feels like sounds like a cool alternative.  I, for one, would definitely be interested to take one of his classes just to see what it's like in action.

So yeah, we'd love to get your feedback on this episode, gang.  And be sure to let us know what you think of the enigma that is Kit Dale.

But Wait, There's More

On this episode, we've also got another installment of our One Minute Review of The Ultimate Fighter.  AND we did something we've never done before.

As a means of celebrating our 200th Facebook like, we invited "Mr. 200" himself, our pal Zac Calhoun, to have 200 seconds of uninterrupted airtime.

That's right, thems the kinds of perks we offer to our major milestones, kids.  And we think we might be doing it again.

So be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram (@VerbalTapCast, for all of them) for your chance to get some airtime on our show.

And what did Mr. Calhoun use his 200 seconds to speak about?  Well, I don't want to give anything away, but the photo above might be a good hint.

All we got for now.  Smoke 'em, if you got 'em, folks.

VERBAL TAP (Episode 38) with Joe Williams

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Raf's Recollection |Have you, like I, been counting down the days until the return of The Ultimate Fighter? I know it's only been five months, but it's felt like an eternity.

For those new to our program (welcome), we here at Verbal Tap live for making fun of The Ultimate Fighter.  We even have a signature portion of our podcast where we review each episode of the telecast in one minute's time (coincidentally named our World Famous "One Minute Review").

What's that?  It's impossible to make fun of all things Ultimate Fighter related in just one minute's time?  Well, I'd invite you to listen to our podcast and try and tell me differently ;-)

Now before any of you TUF purists who are new to the show start trying to troll our comment boards, allow me to say this: Kev and I love the show.  We're huge fight fans and we're rooting for new talent to work it's way through the ranks (one need only to look at the roster of guests we've had come on the show to know how much we support it).

Nonetheless, it's probably important to mention we're going to tell a lot of jokes at the show's expense.  We're gonna make fun of the fighters.  And we're gonna have a blast doing it, so don't take it too seriously folks. So sit back and check out our first Ultimate Fighter review, we're gonna make it a blast for you all this season.

But that's not all we've got for you this week.  In addition to discussing last week's UFC Fight Night 28, we also talk to Fight Master's Joe Williams.

What you may know about Joe "Mongo" Williams from the show is that he's a strong competitor with a fantastic wrestling background.  What you might not know is that he is secretly a comic at heart.

You read that right.

Additionally, we talk about Joe's next fight, some pranks that happened between Team Shamrock and Team Warren that never made it to air, and we even get Joe to play a game of Rep that Tweet with us.

So download the podcast and let us know what you think, folks!