Earlier this week, we spoke with Pimp of the Internet Tony Mast about his short story anthology Toasted Ravioli and his movie review podcast Back Seat Producers. Today we wrap up our BSP conversation and chat about that other podcast of his, Tony’s Losing It.
ARON: After two years and more than 100 episodes of Back Seat Producers, what’s the secret?
TONY: It’s an unspoken rule: We don’t just dis something. We don’t just out of hand say that something sucks. Even if something’s bad, we try to find the audience for it. The one thing that annoys the living piss out of me is when a reviewer can do nothing but say something negative about something just because they don’t like the genre, or an actor, or the director. That’s not what a review is about. A review is not about who can make the snarkiest comment.
ARON: Back Seat Producers is big and loud. It’s a party with a bunch of guys sitting around jawing about movies whereas your other podcast is a lot more quietly intimate. Tell me about, Tony’s Losing It.
TONY: It’s my weight loss podcast.
I’m not unhappy with the personI am. I’m kind of pleased with where I am in my life in general, but the one thing I’d like to change about myself is my health. I want to be more healthy.
The easiest way for me – right now – to be more healthy is to lose weight. I’m a big guy. If you were to look at me and I told you my weight, you’d say no. But yeah.
At my biggest, I teeter around 400. I have no problem saying it. I say it on Tony’s Losing It. That’s one of things I do.
One of the most notable differences between Tony’s Losing It and Back Seat Producers is that I will not edit Tony’s Losing It. That podcast is about honesty and accountability. That includes everything I say and everything I feel while I’m saying it. The only preparation I do for Tony’s Losing It is I’ll jump on the scale before I start recording. That’s it.
I sit down and do it cold.
I feel really good after I do one of those episodes. Even if it’s a bad day, even if it’s admitting that I’ve come up short, it’s really cathartic.
It’s my journey through weight loss.
This will be a two or three year process for me to get to the point I want to get to. I’m cool with that. I know it’s going to be a long process. I’ve been working on this body for 38 years! It’s taken some time to craft this. It’s going to take some time to get where I want to be.
Just being aware of it and talking about it… When I’m doing TLI, I’m just more conscience of what I’m eating, what I’m drinking, what I’m putting into my body, what exercise I do or don’t get. I become much more aware of it and that becomes helpful. You can’t not make a difference when you do that.
ARON: Are you a Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper man?
TONY: I’m a Diet Pepsi man, actually.
ARON: Oh. Really? Wow. Okay. Wow. (audible loss of respect followed by awkward pause…)
TONY: The one thing about TLI is that it’s not about changing anyone’s ideas. I’m not doing it for anyone but me. TLI is probably one of the most selfish things that I do. I get a lot more downloads on it than Back Seat Producers, which is kind of funny. It gets two to three times the downloads.
Tony’s Losing it is released whenever the hell Tony feels like recording it. He’s currently recording his efforts working through the 30 Day Challenge on EA Sports Active for WII. Check it out!
Tomorrow, the fourth and final part of our interview with the Pimp of the Internet. We’ll be chatting about The Storm Cloud and Built for Speed. Plus, a special IoM edition of ASK A PIMP!