At over 240 kilometers per hour, Professional Speed Skier Marc Amann is one of the fastest skiers on Earth. We talk getting started in Speed Skiing, the goal every Speed Skier is chasing and why stopping is really the hardest part. Then, we unveil a new Candle of the Month and countdown the Top 5 Movie Characters We’d Like to Hang Out With.
Marc Amann: 01:09
Pointless: 22:09
Candle of the Month: 34:52
Top 5 Movie Characters We’d Like to Hang Out With: 46:39
Interview with Speed Skier Marc Amann
Nick VinZant 0:00
Nick, welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant Coming up in this episode, speed skiing and movie characters we'd like to be friends with. When
Marc Amann 0:23
you go 200 for the first time, it's really something special. I would say it's like a rush. It's really challenging that you like you really need to go all in and in when you break to to stop in time the fastest, if you have the right track for it, and like a perfect snow, perfect run, it can be like 265
Nick VinZant 0:47
I would say I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance subscribe, leave us a rating or review. We really appreciate. It really helps us out. I want to get right to our first guest, because he's one of the fastest skiers in the fastest sport in the world. This is professional speed skier Mark Aman. So what's it like going 200 plus on skis? When
Marc Amann 1:13
you go 200 for the first time, it's really something special. I would say it's like a rush. And for me, it feels like, when you meet your first love, it's like you have these butterflies in the stomach and they just want to go out. And if you do a fast run, it actually, it actually feels like this,
Nick VinZant 1:35
can you make any kind of a mistake?
Marc Amann 1:38
Well, you shouldn't do too many, or the mistakes shouldn't be too big. You can, for example, at 200 it's like it feels like a training run right now. And you can, you can test something so you can really try something out. For example, narrower ski position, or different talk, you shouldn't if you go faster, because there's like, just this tiny, how do you say Marsh,
Nick VinZant 2:10
Marsh margin of error, like a very small margin of error. Yeah,
Marc Amann 2:14
you have to say within the small margin, and you shouldn't get out of it. I'm kind of a numbers
Nick VinZant 2:19
person. So to put this a little bit in perspective, let's say when we're talking about mistakes, one is the smallest mistake that you can make. 10 is a pretty big mistake. Yes, at those top speeds, like, where on that scale can you kind of make a mistake? Like, oh, you can make a mistake with five and you can still be good. Or, like, if you go above one, you're done. It's,
Marc Amann 2:42
like, I would say one, if you you have a really small margin,
Nick VinZant 2:47
kind of backing up to go forward. How did you get into this?
Marc Amann 2:52
It's, well, actually, crazy story. Um, I was never really a ski raiser before, but we my family and me, when we were younger, we always made ski holidays. And we went to Verba, it's also a Swiss ski resort, quite big, and they had a World Cup competition in speed skiing. We were watching it, and it was like quite, you know, interesting we did, or at least me, I didn't want to leave. I just want to watch them going down, because it's crazy when you see them like skiing 220 kilometers per hour, and they have these shiny red suits and these space helmets. It's, yeah, it's something which, which is not normal and quite interesting to see. And when I was 16, like the World Cup competition was already over, but the track was still prepared, so my dad and I, we went on the track, like half of the track with normal skis, with normal ski equipment. And put, yeah, we put a GPS,
Nick VinZant 4:07
measure speed, like, see how fast you're going, yeah,
Marc Amann 4:11
exactly, to see how fast we can go down there. And it was like, Yeah, with normal skis, this was like, 120 125 something like this. And it felt, it felt crazy. I was, honestly, I was scared, because the skis were shaking this fast, and it was like, Oh, I hope I can control it. But the feeling like the adrenaline rush afterwards, it was crazy. It was crazy. So,
Nick VinZant 4:36
I mean, looking at it from the outside, outside, it looks like a simple sport, right? Like you point the skis straight, and you tuck and you go, explain to me why it's like, is it that simple? Or is it? No, it's a lot more complicated than that. Well,
Marc Amann 4:52
in general, like, if you, if you see it, it is that simple? Yes, it's going straight. It's the first thing. Learn on skis. But if you want to, if you want to be one of the best, you need to, you need you can't just ski straight down. You need to have like routine. You need to have a specific tuck, specific equipment. It's not just skiing down.
Nick VinZant 5:21
So, like, when you get to the top level, right, and I know this is kind of difficult, but you're to go faster. What are you trying to work on? Like, you're trying to get a slightly better tuck, you're trying to get closer. Like, what are you trying to do to go faster and faster? You change
Marc Amann 5:38
the positions quite, quite many times, and you test your position. So for example, if you have a narrower stance or a wider stance on the skis, what's the difference, if you go lower with your upper body and a little bit higher with your butt? What? What's the real difference? Then you have to work on the equipment. Because, like every equipment change is also a change in your position. So you also have to do many changes there. And for me, it took quite long from 2018 till now to really be able to compete against the top guys. The
Nick VinZant 6:19
fastest that you've ever gone is what 242.5
Marc Amann 6:25
kilometers per hour, which is like a little bit more than 150 miles per hour.
Nick VinZant 6:32
But how long did it take you to go from being able to do, let's just say, like 235 to get to 245 before
Marc Amann 6:41
I made this record, which is the German record, my best speed was 220 kilometers per hour. But it's the whole setup so how your helmet fits on your over your shoulders, because, like you try to put the shoulders inside the helmet to have a better aerodynamic and also how the helmet goes over, for example, the back protector. So the whole setup is like, you need to work on the whole setup to be faster than others. Is
Nick VinZant 7:16
there a body type that seems to do better than others? Like, Oh, you need to be short and thick, or tall and skinny, or
Marc Amann 7:23
that's what I really thought, that it's like important to be heavy, because the heavier you are, you think, the faster you go. That's what everyone thinks. And I still think it is like this. But with last month, we had the first competition where a woman beat all man, so she was faster than all men, and she is not. She's not 90 kilograms. She's maybe maximum 60 kilograms and 160 centimeters high, or 170 Not, not more than 170 and she beat all men, even like the world record holder and everyone. So I'm not sure if, if you, you can say, Okay, this specific body type is best.
Nick VinZant 8:20
Like, can you just do this at any mountain? Or does it have to be a very kind of specific setup in order to do it? You can't
Marc Amann 8:29
do it on every mountain. And for us, it's also really hard to find a track where you are able to ski 200 and then you also need to have a run out that you have, like, the time and space to break, because it takes, like, quite a long time to get to normal speed again. So it's not possible in many places to, yeah, to ski this fast.
Nick VinZant 8:58
Does it have to be completely flat, like completely groomed. It should be for
Marc Amann 9:03
the high speeds above 200 it should be quite flat and groomed, and you should have a long run out. Are
Nick VinZant 9:12
you ready for some harder slash? Listener submitted questions, for sure, how much does all your equipment cost? A lot,
Marc Amann 9:19
a lot, but I've spent on my helmet, like 2000 if I say, if I can say in euros, it's 2000 euros.
Nick VinZant 9:29
Euros is kind of close to dollars, close enough. Yeah, yes, okay.
Marc Amann 9:34
The racing suit is also 800 euro. And the skis are i i don't have a price for the skis, but you have to buy quite a lot, because not every ski is fast, and you find out pretty quickly which skis are not fast, so you need to buy a few to find the perfect. Ski for you,
Nick VinZant 10:00
like, how many pairs of skis will you go through in a year? I
Marc Amann 10:04
have in total, I think seven, seven speed skis, and two of them are fast,
Nick VinZant 10:11
then two of them are fast. How long are the skis? Are they really long? They're really long.
Marc Amann 10:17
238 centimeters long. 238 centimeters long, two meter 38
Nick VinZant 10:24
so I mean this for the people in the audience, I snowboard. I'm five foot nine, which is about 177 centimeters maybe. And I use a 152 snowboard. So that's like twice as long as your normal kind of stuff for your height,
Marc Amann 10:42
when you see them the first time, it's like you, you really have to look up,
Nick VinZant 10:46
right? Like, those are huge skis, yeah, man, um, fastest you've been going and crashed. I,
Marc Amann 10:56
well, I never crashed in a speed ski, speed skiing competitions, fortunately, and I also want to keep it like this, but I crash in like a downhill race, probably around 120 130
Nick VinZant 11:13
kilometers power, but like, if you crashed at 200 Are you can you walk away from that? Or is it like, No, you're done.
Marc Amann 11:21
You can, you can, depending on the crash, like walking away. Usually, you always walk away with bruises or with, like, some some burnings, you know, because if you crash with this speed, on, on, like, a hard on a hard slope, and you Yeah, you just burn yourself, you
Nick VinZant 11:43
know, yeah, you get life friction, a knee,
Marc Amann 11:47
a knee injury is quite common as well. If you crash at higher speeds,
Nick VinZant 11:51
is, is it considered to be a dangerous sport? Hard
Marc Amann 11:55
to say, hard to say, like, my personal opinion, if I can say your opinion is that it's not as dangerous, for example, as downhill skiing, because you have a long run, like in speed skiing, you have a long run out. So if you crash, you slide mainly down, and that's it. If you crash, for example, in a Super G or downhill race, you you have the turns, and straight after the turn, there are nets, and if you, if you like, get over the net, and there are trees. So it's, it's not, I would say it's not as dangerous as as the normal alpine skiing, but it's can be, it can be quite dangerous, depending on the speeds you go.
Nick VinZant 12:43
That makes sense, right? Like, it's not the crashing, it's what you hit when you crash. That's the sense the big danger. What do you think the limit is? Like, what's the fastest that you think that somebody can go? I think,
Marc Amann 12:55
I think the fastest, if you have the right track for it, and like, a perfect snow, perfect run. It can be like 265 I would say 262 65
Nick VinZant 13:08
Yeah, some things, I think physics is science. Is science. Physics is physics at the end, like, you can't only go so fast. Yes, when you look at the the run that you compete on, that's how long
Marc Amann 13:21
the run like it's 800 meters long, so you get speed over 700 meters. And then you have a timing zone, which is 100 meters long, where you have, like, they measure the time during these 100 meters. So it's like, kind of the average speed of these 100 meters, and then you have a 400 meter out, run
Nick VinZant 13:46
out, break, yeah, so where you can kind of slowly, you can stop.
Marc Amann 13:49
And those 400 meters, if you start from the top, it's quite it's really challenging that you like, you really need to go all in and in when you break to to stop in time, so which is also quite limiting. Okay,
Nick VinZant 14:06
I was in the States. You're always taught pizza french fries. Like pizza french fries. So how are you stopping? Are you like pizza ing? Are you doing more of the hot that you just pizza stop? Huh? Well, well,
Marc Amann 14:17
it's a mix of both. But like in the you go through the timing zone, then you stand up, you try to catch the wind to that the wind slows you down. And while you catch the wind, you go in pizza, in snow plow. And we when you have a speed which is low enough, you can do the hockey stop like the parallel turns. Oh,
Nick VinZant 14:39
but you couldn't just stay. Start hockey, stop it.
Marc Amann 14:42
No, no, too, too dangerous. Too dangerous. If you do it too early, it's, yeah, you can catch an edge. It's really or you can even catch air if you lift your inside ski, because they're quite heavy and quite long, so you. Kind of lift the inside ski a bit. And if you catch air below it, when you're too fast, it's like, you don't have control anymore
Nick VinZant 15:07
stopping this seems to be the real problem, exactly, exactly. So if you're going 800 meters, though, how long does it take for you to kind of get up to your top speed where you're like, Oh, I'm going about as fast as I'm going to be going, like, where on that 800 meters, do you kind of hit that?
Marc Amann 15:24
It's like, it takes like 2022, seconds, and
Nick VinZant 15:31
the whole run would take, how long,
Marc Amann 15:34
like, the whole run, maybe, with the breaking it's like 3035, seconds.
Nick VinZant 15:42
Oh, so it's kind of close to the end when you really hit the top speed. Like, it's not
Marc Amann 15:47
exactly, exactly, yes, like, just before it gets flat. What's
Nick VinZant 15:52
kind of the biggest thing that somebody's watching out for? Like, when you're doing one of these races, like, Oh, you got to make sure you don't do that. I
Marc Amann 16:00
never say you shouldn't do that. I always say you should do that, if you
Nick VinZant 16:06
know what I mean, yeah, yeah, right, right, right. I always
Marc Amann 16:09
say ski flat. And if it gets too like, if it shakes too much, you can go on the inside edge. That's something, what everyone understands. And it's like you accelerate faster when the skis are flat, but it's also less stable. So you they shade more, and if you put them on the inside edge like this, when you ski down like this, you have more like stability, yeah, especially on high speeds. So at one point in a run, you have to change a bit on the inside edge to to have the stability again. So I always say ski flood. And when it's when it gets too unstable, you go on the inside edge to have the control and stability again, right?
Nick VinZant 17:01
Yeah? Like, I think we call them speed wobbles. Like, does the ski just start to shake that you're going so fast? Yeah? Dude, I said, um, that's all you do that. I'm not doing that. Can you kind of walk me through
Marc Amann 17:15
this? So this was the the record attempt, which was my first time starting from there. And yeah, was quite, how should I say? I was really, really motivated. I just wanted to go down. And yeah, straight into position, which worked really well. And then at one point you see, like, the skis get a bit wider and to get the better stability, and the feeling was crazy. And yeah, on the run, like, I just saw the timing and it the feeling was amazing, because I was just, just right over the German record. And it was my good, big goal of this week to reach the German record. And when everything works out in because you just have this one run to to reach the record, then it's like, yeah, you're so happy, so stoked. And yeah, that everything worked well, yeah, your legs
Nick VinZant 18:22
are wider apart than I would have like, oh, you can take a pretty wide stance then, huh? Yes,
Marc Amann 18:28
I but since this i They it got a bit
Nick VinZant 18:33
narrower. Yeah, you can see it as you kind of bring it in, yeah.
Marc Amann 18:37
Now I changed my tuck a bit, and now I'm a bit narrower, so which works for me personally, better. So it's a never ending process, actually.
Nick VinZant 18:52
Oh, man, so that's the top of the run you're dropping in.
Marc Amann 18:56
Yeah, exactly. This is like, if you don't start from the top, you you are like, if this is the slope you get in, like this, and that you, yeah, that you don't lose any meters. You jump straight into the four line to accelerate, to have a bit more meters of acceleration.
Nick VinZant 19:18
Oh, I can kind of, yeah, you know what? Like you're the skis are moving in and out more than I would have thought. Yes,
Marc Amann 19:26
they shake quite a bit. They shake quite a bit. And, yeah, but when you have, like, this is, this is a feeling I really want to have, so that they are shaking a bit, then you know what? They are flat and that you accelerate faster. Oh, so you're also, it shouldn't be too much.
Nick VinZant 19:48
Oh, man. Oh, you really do tuck in then, huh, yes, the skis look very narrow. Is that the GoPro kind of effect thing? Or is that. Down
Marc Amann 20:00
the GoPro. Like the I have a 360 camera instead 360 and it's like, yeah, it makes it looks quite narrow, but now my Tuck is even narrower again.
Nick VinZant 20:14
Are you like, would you say that most people who do this, like, Are they good skiers outside of it. Or, like, No, I'm good at speed skiing. Or most skiers like, Oh, they're pretty good all around skiers anyway,
Marc Amann 20:26
not all speed skiers are good skiers, but usually all top speed skiers are good skiers as well. That makes they have, like, you know, they, they have the feeling for the skis, which is really important. You you can't just be fast on on speed skis. You need to, I think it's like part of the game to ski also on different skis, like slalom skis, like GS skis, or whatever, to to get a better feeling, and, yeah, to be more sensitive with with the skis, that's pretty
Nick VinZant 21:08
much all the questions I got. Man, what's kind of coming up next for you? Anything we missed? Or,
Marc Amann 21:12
yeah, well, and now it's an exciting time. So we are now preparing, or I'm preparing for the world championships this year, which is also the world record attempt, which is in two and a half weeks, weeks in VARS. And yeah, I try to beat my record again. And yeah, to get my first podium, my international podium is like a really big goal, and to ski 250 kilometers per hour.
Nick VinZant 21:43
I want to thank Mark so much for joining us. If you want to connect with him, we have linked to him on our social media sites. We're Profoundly Pointless on tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And if you want to see more of this interview, see what it's really like to go 200 plus down the side of a mountain. The YouTube version will be live on March 6, at 12:30pm Pacific. Okay, now let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of the show. Do you feel the need for speed? Are you a person that likes to go fast? No,
John Shull 22:20
I am not. No,
Nick VinZant 22:22
I'm really not either. I don't really like to go very fast.
John Shull 22:25
I mean, I'm the kind of person on the highway that, if I'm, you know, if I'm going 8590, I say it every time, like, whoever I'm in the car with, you know, the commonplace phrase of, oh, I didn't realize I was going that fast. Like,
Nick VinZant 22:41
I like to get where I'm going, and I like to do things quickly and efficiently, but I don't really feel the need for speed in anything that I do. Like, I like to go snowboarding and the blues are about as high up as I really want to go. Like, No, I'm okay. If
John Shull 22:58
someone were to offer me an opportunity to be in an f1 car, or say, you know, one of those boats, like the racing boats, yeah, boats. I wouldn't turn it down, but I don't know, you know, like, I don't, I don't yearn for it, but I love watching other people do
Nick VinZant 23:13
it. No, I don't. I would like, certainly take it and see what the experience was like, but I wouldn't want to do it. I generally don't like to put myself in risky situations.
John Shull 23:25
Meanwhile, every time I do anything that involves even an end of of anything, I hurt myself. So no, in my luck, I would crash and die, or, you know, the boat would sink, something to that, to that. Yeah,
Nick VinZant 23:37
you are generally a catastrophe waiting to happen. But wait, okay, if you're going, if you're driving on the highway, how fast do you are you going before you're like, oh, going a little fast. Here probably should slow down. You're talking interstate, not rush hour, normal traffic conditions, like, oh, I might be going a little fast.
John Shull 24:00
I mean, I don't actually, because I drive, I'm the guy in the right tune lanes, so in Michigan, and I could be wrong, because I don't know the other speed laws across the country, but I think our, like, interstate speed limit is 10 miles an hour higher than others. So it's your speed limit. That's like, 70 or 70? Well, it's definitely 70, like, where I live in the metro area, but I think it's 75 once you get to the outskirts, which means people are doing 8085 just, just like, yeah,
Nick VinZant 24:30
I generally sit, I I generally sit about seven to eight miles an hour over the speed limit. But I've been in some parts of the country where the speed limit was 85 I think in parts of Texas, yeah. And I was like, I don't know if I need to be going like 94 that's a little that's fast enough. Yeah, I'm not gonna push it past. I'm not gonna push it into the 90s. I
John Shull 24:53
spent some time on the west side of Michigan when I was younger, you know, back country roads, and even then, where I. There was, there was nothing there. I still couldn't do it like I would still go 5060, even though there was no posted speed limit, like, I just, I don't know I have you ever hit a deer? Have you ever hit like an animal or a
Nick VinZant 25:13
person? No, no, I've never hit anything. I mean, I've gotten into a car crash three times, maybe twice. I can't quite remember twice, no, three times. Three times I've been in a car crash and but all pretty low speeds. Well,
John Shull 25:29
I can tell you from having hit three deers in my life, and anyone out there that's listening this can probably agree with me on this. It's probably one of the most scariest things. You know, besides getting in a super serious accident that you can go through because it's so fast, and a lot of times they can total your car blah, blah, blah, it's just yeah. So anyways, getting back to what we're talking about, that's why, that's another reason why I don't go crazy speeds is like I try to give myself, or at least I think I try to give myself enough time to react to what could happen. How
Nick VinZant 26:02
have you hit three deer? Like, I feel like that's the kind of thing that should only happen to you once. Maybe you're just unlucky, but I also feel like, if it's happened three times, we're starting to get into user error. Well, nobody
John Shull 26:15
wants to hear these stories. I'm not going to tell you what, but I will say two points to that one I hit two within three months of each other. Okay, it was always in all all of our hunting friends out there. Um, it was always during hunting season when they were moving around. So they're active, right? Like they're trying to they know where, they know where the safe zones are, so they're trying to get to them. And
Nick VinZant 26:39
how ironic that they got hit by a car trying to get to the safe zone. There was
John Shull 26:43
one there was one instance I feel like, now I feel like I have to spend it'll be 30 seconds, I swear, uh, was, I was dating a girl on the west side of Michigan. I had to drive three hours back to the to the Detroit area to work. It was probably 3am I was already late for work, and I kind of fell asleep, and the the impact woke me up.
Nick VinZant 27:03
Okay, now we're getting to it.
Unknown Speaker 27:05
And like,
John Shull 27:07
I'm pretty sure it was a deer, if it wasn't, I apologize whoever I killed out there. But all I saw was just like, you know, woke up, went to work. About two hours later, the news director comes up to me. She's like, John, now, what happened to your car? The the deer had taken off the complete front end of my truck. Like, there was, it was down to the radiator. Like, that's the first thing
Nick VinZant 27:32
that was showing work with a bloody deer front of your car. There
Unknown Speaker 27:37
was, it wasn't,
John Shull 27:39
I mean, it wasn't bloody there. I mean, there I mean, there was blood and hair in there. But, like, it was, I mean, I disintegrated it. I just, but, like, I don't really remember it, because I, like, like, I was nodding off, you know how, like, you're driving and you kind
Nick VinZant 27:52
of know, no, I don't know. No, I don't I'm not having an experience falling asleep while driving that often, like the thing that I do, God, you're irresponsible. You irresponsible person I
John Shull 28:08
was. And then that was the worst of them all. And then I hit two other deer, you know, after that. And yeah, so me, anyways, getting back to the speed limit thing, I just try to drive now safely. We have an EV. So I also try to, like, be mindful of that, you know, I try, because you don't want to you go too fast for too long. It'll burn the, you know, drain the battery, obviously, if you go post at speeds. So wow,
Nick VinZant 28:32
god, look what you've become. You went from a guy that was falling asleep on the road, running over deer and then go into work to a guy who's too afraid to keep his EV moving too fast because he doesn't want to hurt the battery like that's what you've become. Tell me about, trust me, I know from here to there, like you, you, you are a man physically, but you have grown other anatomy, right? Like you have turned look at you.
Unknown Speaker 29:05
I got nothing. How far? How far
Nick VinZant 29:06
are you falling? Okay, alright,
John Shull 29:09
let's give some shout outs here. We'll start with Nathan dim. Jeff Baird, Nathan,
Nick VinZant 29:17
it's tough. It's tough.
John Shull 29:21
Jason LeBlanc, Aaron quiz on Ash moroca, Jason Hebdo, uh, Mariah Nez lanich, Don satsop, Bryce Betts, Lauren Keckley, and we'll end on one of our favorite people who I see always pop up, uh, Tessa gruelli, see her? She likes a lot of her stuff. See it follows us. So wanted to thanks,
Nick VinZant 29:47
Tessa. Tessa, like a good Tesla, yeah, that's a good name. That's a good name. I like that name.
John Shull 29:54
Maybe not Tesla, but Tessa, anyways. Uh, alright, let's talk about gene hack. Him. I hope you're aware of that situation. Yes, he died. That's crazy. Like, oh, man, what? But I don't buy into any of these conspiracy theories. Like, so
Nick VinZant 30:10
either, life is much simpler, usually, most the time, yeah?
John Shull 30:13
Like, I mean, the internet has blown up, right? Because apparently they were dead for for days before one of the dogs was dead, but the other was two others outside that were okay or something. Like, maybe they just off themselves and took the nearest dog with them. Like, I don't know, but I don't think somebody see every some conspiracy theorists are saying that it's related to, like, the David Carradine. No, it's not that. It's like, you know that it's a part of the inner circle of Hollywood that takes out people. First off, no one's taking out Gene Hackman at 93 years old, or whatever he was,
Nick VinZant 30:46
right? Like, who's, you know, who we gotta get rid of this 93 year old man no one's heard from in 20 years. Like he's the real threat. And priorities like conspiracy theories are just never true. They're just ridiculous. When you think about them,
John Shull 30:59
it's just, yeah, it's, it's kind of like this whole comment thing, I don't know if you've been following that where, no, there's a comment that's apparently going to strike somewhere in the world. I think it's 2030 Yes, your asteroid in 2032 or something. And at first it was like a 1.4% chance to hit us. And now it's like a two, excuse me, 2.8% chance to hit us. And everyone's saying it's the end of the world. Like, just calm down. Like,
Nick VinZant 31:27
I mean, that's the kind of thing that I would like we should be concerned about that. Like, that's not quite the same as Gene hackman's death, but like a giant rock from outer space slamming into us at 10s of 1000s of miles an hour, like we should probably get working on that. Like we really need. If I was in charge of that program, I'd be like, we should really figure this one out. Guys, we really probably should figure this one out. I just don't, you know, start working on that,
John Shull 31:55
right? I mean, well, then I guess, God willing, we're still doing this podcast with that things, it strikes us we should go live on location wherever it's gonna hit from, no because we'll be dead, but we would. That's that. That's our golden ticket, that would be dead
Nick VinZant 32:13
this, this is the worst idea anyone has ever thought of like that. You put no thought into this actual idea. Let's go live on vacation from where the meteorite is going to hit? Yeah, we'll be dead. We'll really reap the rewards. You're going to be dead.
John Shull 32:26
Here's the question, would you rather be in the zone where you possibly could get hit and have to worry extensively about it, or would you rather be broadcasting live with me as it hits and our voices are the last thing anybody hears. You know, before it hits Earth,
Nick VinZant 32:45
I'd rather live. Generally, whenever I'm faced with a situation where I would rather be dead or alive, I would always rather be alive, yeah.
John Shull 32:52
I mean, yeah, money. I don't think I'd choose money over a lot unless it was life changing. Uh, anyway, all right. Uh, that's it. I was also going to talk with the Oscars. But I don't care about the Oscars. I don't really care. Well, I was looking at the and I'm not up on on a lot of the movies, but, like, I didn't know any. I knew one of the movies out of the 10 that are up for Best Picture. I
Nick VinZant 33:17
don't know. I cannot think of the last time that I probably actually saw a movie that was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. I don't, I don't know if it's, if it's ever, like, you'd have to go back to a pretty main unless it was like dune or Avengers, which, you know, like you'd have to be a pretty mainstream movie. I'm gonna
John Shull 33:38
say what's, what were the Avengers? They never got anything
Nick VinZant 33:42
power to the popular people, right? I think that, like these snobs over there, your avant garde and your excellent use of cinematography. No, dude, I watched the explosions.
John Shull 33:52
Why did your voices go? You went very like, oh, I don't know. I'm waking
Nick VinZant 33:56
up in the morning, and I got a lot more bass in my voice than I usually do.
John Shull 34:01
Well, I don't know what I'll say to that. So you ready for
Nick VinZant 34:05
Diane? I am, oh, it is, I forgot. I completely forgot.
John Shull 34:13
How do you forget? Yeah, what do you think the six people out there that tune in specifically for this are like, how did he forget?
Nick VinZant 34:20
Wait, okay, so for John is getting all upset. I'm not upset you. You're a little frustrated. You're a little frustrated. You're drinking iced coffee, okay
John Shull 34:30
with ice cubes in it, by the way. God,
Nick VinZant 34:34
you've gotta, you gotta break out of this, man. You need to go like start. You gotta go punch a wall. Oh, I got wasted last night and broke some of my drywall from my flooded basement. I was like, if somebody's gonna mess up my basement, it's gonna be me. Yeah, they're kicking holes in the wall. I don't felt pretty good. I'm not gonna lie to you. Okay, so before John gets more flustered, it's time. I love it. The Outlaw. Candle connoisseur Rides Again. I can never do the damn horse.
You're not ready. They're looking around like
John Shull 35:17
you don't know. I don't have champs like I'm not wearing a polo t shirt. You know,
Nick VinZant 35:21
you shouldn't own chaps. There's no reason for you to own I should
John Shull 35:25
have a nice a bolo right here, like you're not. You can't,
Nick VinZant 35:28
you can't, you can't pull off. Bola a bolo, you can't pull off. You can't wear any of that. All right, I could never wear a best I'm not a best guy. No,
John Shull 35:37
you could because I, last weekend, I was at a wedding where I got married, and some of the guys and ladies that were at my wedding brought you up about what you did at my wedding, where you left the dance floor and showed up and all you were wearing was a vest.
Nick VinZant 35:55
Well, I had pants on. Oh yeah, sorry you had pants on, pants on top. But I'm not a best guy. I couldn't just wear a vest. I couldn't just a vest outside
John Shull 36:04
you did that day, and you looked damn good. Thank you. Um, anyways, so can of the month. Uh, true story about this one. This is probably a top 10 candle for me. Oh,
Nick VinZant 36:15
top 10 of the year or top 10 lifetime. Ever, ever. Ever, wow,
John Shull 36:21
by old bold. And they the company, Yankee Candle. I know mainstream whatever. They stopped making this candle. They're actually they brought it back this year. It's seasonal, and, well, I might just get into it. So it's by Yankee Candle head over there. Now to get it, because it's going to go pretty fast. And obviously we know what season it is. We're out of the love season, but we're into the lucky season. Oh, okay, that's where you're going.
Nick VinZant 36:48
I thought you're going springtime, but you're being more specific. You're making candle of the month about the theme of the month, as opposed to whatever willy nilly plan you add that minute,
John Shull 36:56
yeah. I mean, what? What Irish days and what? A couple of weeks from now, so you still have time to get this.
Nick VinZant 37:02
So my birthday, my birthday is coming up, 3136
John Shull 37:08
looking great. I don't know where, where that was going. Uh, so anyway, so, so they brought it back. And Yankee Candle wants you to know they brought it back so much that even on the glass, or on the sticker on the glass, it says returning favorite. Oh, but if it was
Nick VinZant 37:25
a returning favorite, why'd you get rid of it in the first place? I feel a little fishy. This whole thing isn't adding up. I
John Shull 37:32
actually did try to do a Google search, and somebody said it, there's all theory conspiracy. I couldn't find an app handle conspiracy theory. I mean, believe it or not, there is a large candle community out there. Are
Nick VinZant 37:46
you on chat rooms about candles? I
John Shull 37:49
am, I am, I am, and I do participate on Reddit. As Nick said when we first started this episode, my masculinity, if I had any, when I was
Nick VinZant 38:08
dude, how do you going down to zero? You're just on your chat room like 2am. Talking about candles. This
John Shull 38:14
is your fault.
Nick VinZant 38:16
Can't believe this candle just back, guys, it's back.
John Shull 38:19
This is your fault, or I didn't have to show this side of me to anybody. I don't even remember how the hell we got doing this. Probably
Nick VinZant 38:27
should have kept it to yourself. Honestly, you're on chat rooms like talking about candles. What's your handle? What's your handle?
John Shull 38:35
It doesn't matter. I'm on Reddit. Big smells.com
Nick VinZant 38:38
Are you big smells? 1690 No,
John Shull 38:42
I'm not. Actually, I'm not sure. Just tell us what. Tell us what it is. Just, no, I'm not, because I don't want people going out there and spamming me. And next thing I know, there's like, you know, screen grabs of me saying things.
Nick VinZant 38:56
Last question about this, did you? Did you create a login simply to talk about the candles. Or did you have a login? And then you happen to cross the candle forms and you're like, okay, yeah, by candle, yeah, yes, no, I had. Do you post on other stuff? Or is it only candles,
John Shull 39:15
some other stuff? It's more to monitor and look at other things. But if you go to the the thread candles, you know, which has 70,000 followers, you can probably pick out who I am, just by process of elimination. Anyways. So the
Nick VinZant 39:30
candle, you have 70,000 followers talking about your candles. No,
John Shull 39:34
there's 70,000 people on the Reddit thread. It's a very interactive community, engaging community. That's the right thing. Engage anyways. So Yankee Candles returning favors called Lucky Shamrock, and I looked at it great before we came on, because they say, they say, in their description, limited qualities. They've sold already 600 And 50 as of today. So doesn't
Nick VinZant 40:02
really seem like very many, to be honest, for a nationwide company to sell 650 that doesn't really seem like very much,
John Shull 40:09
but it's, it's, it's what you would think, it's zesty, green, it's refreshing. It's, you know, it was either that or I was just gonna, I was just gonna say, you know, put some wax in an open Bud Light can and that it could be the candle
Nick VinZant 40:24
in the month. Oh, I see what you did there. Now, okay, can we go back to this candle forum? Not really. No. Is it? Does it get heated? Does it ever get is there controversial? Is there controversial discussion in the candle community
John Shull 40:38
only amongst like folks that I identify themselves, like industry representatives who there are some threads on there, and all my can of people back me up here. Hold on. I'm waiting for you some, some people will say, like, you know, this company stole, stole the fragrance that I had, or they stole, oh, man, but I obviously don't get involved in that, because I don't own a candle company, right? Man, not yet. Anyways, Jesus,
Nick VinZant 41:10
there's a whole candle debate, a lively candle debate happening on Reddit every time. And I don't all
John Shull 41:15
you have to do just, you know, go to the Reddit thread candles. How often
Nick VinZant 41:20
do you check? How often do you check? I'm going to go there and find you. I want to see how many, how many? Okay, how many, often do you check? And how many total comments do you think you've left in, let's say the last year.
John Shull 41:36
Well, this should tell you one thing, I'm not sure, on comments, probably less than 500 I mean, it's entire year. I don't understand why this is a thing that's a lot. I don't think I've
Nick VinZant 41:52
said 500 things to my children, like, I don't think I've just told them like, 500 things, like, just randomly, well,
John Shull 42:01
I mean, I mean, I know the, you know, Reddit. I mean, sometimes things can get lost and you get a little clunky. So I'll repost some things. You know, sometimes
Nick VinZant 42:10
Wait, are you making posts? Are you making posts too? I
John Shull 42:15
have made posts. I'm not going to tell you the couple that I've made because if I do, you will obviously be able to pinpoint who I am, and it doesn't matter where are
Nick VinZant 42:26
we going with this. This is fascinating. Okay, so you've commented 500 times in the last year. I don't think I've ever commented 500 times on any social media. If you probably added up all the comments I've done on social media, it's probably less than 500 I'm just saying you're very this sounds like you're very active. Sounds like you're very active. I mean, a moderator? Are you a moderator? No, I'm even asked to be a moderator. You think you can work your way up to Moderator?
John Shull 42:56
I mean, I've been asked to do some things, but, you know, but it would not that, what have you been asked to do? Well, I mean, you know, they're like, there's some local candle groups too, like that are specific to regions. I don't understand why this is so funny to you.
Nick VinZant 43:16
It's not, it's not, it's funny because it's you. I know if anybody else did this, do what you like, man, do exactly what you want. Like, like, I just can't imagine this. Like, you're just sitting in your dark basement, like, 2am commenting, raging about the candles. Like, no way that's the can't. Like, ooh. Have you ever posted your candle in the month stuff? Have you ever post? Have You Ever Have you ever done it? Do you have the Do you have the courage candle. Are you going to post your candle the month review? Do you think people would laugh at you? I
John Shull 43:46
don't think you know. I don't think I need to tell you about C O T H M, all right, don't, don't go red a thread candles, you know subject, C O T m, Profoundly Pointless. Maybe you'll find something. Who knows?
Nick VinZant 44:00
Oh, okay, I got some investigation to do, very good. But
John Shull 44:04
yes, I check it. How long times a day? Because it's, it's, right, it's Reddit, man, it's, it's one of my main sources of social media,
Nick VinZant 44:15
right? Yeah, I don't check my text message from my
John Shull 44:19
wife. Yeah, we all know you don't have local how local of
Nick VinZant 44:23
the group do you go? Right? Like, okay, so you go the nationwide group, and you're in some local groups. We talking state level, we talking city, we talking neighborhood. Like, how low, how localized do you go in the candle community? I mean, the
John Shull 44:37
Southeast Michigan candle lovers. I Good
Nick VinZant 44:47
for you, man, find the thing you like and do what you like, yeah,
John Shull 44:50
man, I love candles. All right, all right, dude, yeah, man, damn, there's all there's all kinds, you know, everyone has their thing, you know, yeah,
Nick VinZant 44:58
yeah. People. I'm press, I'm impressed by it.
John Shull 45:02
Can we just move on to a top five that, you know, hopefully I'll redeem myself. Yeah, we can.
Nick VinZant 45:07
We can move on. Alright, man, just to reiterate, John has had sex with a woman at least twice, at
John Shull 45:18
least, at least, you know, there could be some women out there that are like, man, he seems like he's really in touch. Wow.
Nick VinZant 45:23
What if you get, like, candle groupies? What if you get candle groupies?
John Shull 45:28
I was wondering that if, like, we had T shirts that said candle, like, I don't think that's a trademark, maybe I'll patent it the candle. Maybe you should, like,
Nick VinZant 45:37
right? Maybe you should spend a little bit less time listening to other people on the internet a little bit more activity, sounds like you're an in sounds like you're, quite frankly, a big wig in the candle community, and what are you doing with it, right? Like you were given gold, and you're not doing anything. You're just sitting around.
John Shull 45:51
You're absolutely right. I am a candle influencer. You're right, right? And you're
Nick VinZant 45:56
not doing anything with it.
Unknown Speaker 45:58
I don't want to be a candle
Nick VinZant 46:00
influencer. No one does. I hate
John Shull 46:02
that. You make me do
Nick VinZant 46:04
this. Just go for it. All right. You ready?
John Shull 46:06
Yeah, man, just get off the candles. And I never thought I'd say that. All right,
Nick VinZant 46:12
wow. Southeast Michigan, God, it went directional. It's not even just like it went you went directional. You didn't just go west, you didn't just go east. You did. You went south east, yeah, that's like, you went two directional, which is one direction too far. I see kind of what you did there, yeah, right. Like, you can be south, you can be north, but you can't be like, Southwest. You went too far. You went too far. Uh, okay, so our top five is top five movie characters we'd like to hang out with. I don't know why yours isn't I know what your number one is. Is probably the candle thing from Beauty and the Beast. The candelabra beauty of the beast. Luminaire. Is that? What his name is? Yeah, wow. Okay, that was pretty quick.
John Shull 46:59
What's your number five one is, I know your number one is already. No, you don't before, yeah, you, you know. Alright, my number five. And once again, this is a tough list, but I put Yoda as my number five. Oh,
Nick VinZant 47:15
I thought about Yoda a lot, but I actually went Darth Vader for my number five. Okay, yeah, I went Darth Vader for my number five because, like, if you were just buddies with him, I think it'd be a great time. You wouldn't want to be on his bad side, but it'd be a great time to, I think, to just like, hang around Darth Vader, the second most powerful person in the universe. I mean, I thought about the, you know, sis and Jedi, and I was like, Yoda wouldn't talk too much, and he would probably teach me something cool. And he would just be like, Hey, we're going over here. And he would teleport me to wherever we were going. It would be a lot more fun than, like, a Sith, like, you know, no, you did this wrong. The bad guy is always probably more fun. Like, first of all, force users can't just teleport. That's not how that works. Okay, no force power. Maybe there is a force power that allows teleportation, but not in canon, certainly not in movie cannons. We haven't seen it. Okay, let's not get into that. Star Wars, people. I'm not I'm out. We're out, right? Um, but, like, I would just the thumb of hanging out with Yoda, man, it's you'd always be talking in a way you didn't know exactly what he was talking about, right? And if you're hanging out with Darth Vader, there's going to be, if you're hanging out with Darth Vader, he's got a lot of power, he's got a lot of money, he's got a lot of influence, influence. There's going to be a lot of women around, and they're certainly not going to be looking at him like you're going to pick up a lot of residual
John Shull 48:41
hanging out with Yoda would kind of being like hanging out with a super intelligent child. And it would be awesome. I think it'd be a great time.
Nick VinZant 48:50
Okay. I mean, be nice. Probably fun. Grogu, be cool. All right, what's number four?
John Shull 48:54
Uh, Jeff the dude. Lebowski, oh,
Nick VinZant 48:59
that's a good one, man. But you the only thing with that is I would wonder like, Hey, man, can we actually just do something today? Can we accomplish something today? No,
John Shull 49:11
no. I mean, he kind of accomplished stuff in the movie by accident, but it's hilarious. It's good. It's good times.
Nick VinZant 49:18
I think I'd want to hang out with more with Donnie. Because Donnie, at least, like, he's part of that group, but he's got a little bit more ambition. You can see he's kind of doing more stuff, a little bit. That's like the dude and Walter, not really doing anything,
Speaker 1 49:35
wasting there Donnie, or what? What's the, what's you're out of your element. You're out here with Donnie. My number
Nick VinZant 49:41
four is Pikachu. Really, any of the Pokemon characters I would hang out with the Pokemon man, just have an animal friend. Cool powers. Do what you want. Okay,
John Shull 49:51
alright, rather have a dog or have Pikachu. Think about that. I never you brought it back. But at first I was like, got it back. Like this guy's gonna. Make fun of me for my candle love, and he's gonna say he wants to hang out with Pikachu.
Nick VinZant 50:04
I'd hang out with Pikachu. I mean, Pikachu,
John Shull 50:08
okay, uh, my number three is ash from the Evil Dead franchise,
Nick VinZant 50:15
okay, Bruce Kim, but you gotta be in like, That's too scary of a situation, man.
John Shull 50:21
Why it'd be fun as hell,
Nick VinZant 50:24
killing zombies or whatever. I've never actually seen that. I've only seen
John Shull 50:26
no just, I'm not like talking about actually, like just having beers with him, like hanging out on a day to day
Nick VinZant 50:31
basis, but you gotta break in that environment. Okay, all
John Shull 50:35
right. Well, kick the shit out of him, then. My number
Nick VinZant 50:37
three is Dumbledore. You don't want to hang out with Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard of his age, maybe one of the most powerful wizards of all time.
John Shull 50:48
No, I don't. I don't want to hang out with any wizards, because magic
Nick VinZant 50:52
Dumbledore, let's go to the Quidditch. All right, we'll be there in a second.
John Shull 50:58
Like I said, who knows what kind of effed up crap they're gonna, they're gonna get you into right,
Nick VinZant 51:03
but Dumbledore's already prepared for it, man, that's why you don't want to hang out with Harry, because Harry's gonna get you into a mess, but Dumbledore is gonna clean it up. Who
John Shull 51:10
do you think? Who do you think does better with the ladies? Dumb door? Well, I
Nick VinZant 51:16
mean, double doors gay, but,
John Shull 51:18
oh, he is, yeah, I didn't realize that good. I don't think that
Nick VinZant 51:24
that was one of those things that, like, I don't think anybody knew and nobody really cared. But yeah, are you
John Shull 51:30
sure? Is that like, a thing? No. Dumbledore
Nick VinZant 51:32
was, like, in love with Grindelwald,
Unknown Speaker 51:36
okay. Yeah.
Nick VinZant 51:37
I mean, do what you want. Dumbledore,
John Shull 51:41
yeah. I mean, sure do. Man, this episode's been all over the place, huh?
Nick VinZant 51:47
Yeah. Dumbledore likes what he likes. Have fun however you want. I'm
John Shull 51:51
not, I'm not hating on him. I'm you, you, do you? Man, my number two Batman,
Nick VinZant 51:57
don't they? Think that'd be, let's see, it'd be fun. I'd like to hang out with Bruce Wayne. Sorry, I don't think I want to hang out with Batman.
John Shull 52:05
Yeah, Bruce Wayne. I feel like Bruce Wayne is just the amount of cool to where, like, he won't annoy the shit out of you, but he has all the money. He has all the fun cars toys, yeah, all the chicks, you know, because I was trying to, I was trying to think of, like, really famous, like, movie characters that would be fun to hang out with. And, yeah, I think my number one's going to be pretty awesome. So
Nick VinZant 52:28
my number two is Totoro, from my neighbor, Totoro, hanging out with a big, magical, whatever that thing is, man, that looks awesome. Just having fun all day, sleeping around be great. Where
John Shull 52:42
did it not forest? If your number one is,
Nick VinZant 52:45
it's not you won't get it. You will have no idea what my number one is. I'm going to blow you out of
John Shull 52:50
water. Okay? I mean, maybe mine. So my number one is Jordan Belfort from a Wolf of Wall Street. Oh,
Nick VinZant 52:59
Caprio, that's a real person, though, and he went to prison.
John Shull 53:04
He did go to prison, but by characters in the movies, Leo's portrayal of him would be my that would be my dude to hang out with. Can you imagine? I mean, you're probably going to prison or dying, but you would have a great time doing it. I'm
Nick VinZant 53:19
going completely the opposite direction of that. And my number one is Peter Gibbons from office space. We would just hang out doing nothing, just having just like taking it easy. No, that's Peter Gibbons today, nothing. All right, sounds great. Let's do that together.
John Shull 53:38
He's on my he was on my list, like, my honorable mention, he would be, I don't know, like I if I was to now hang out with somebody. I would need, I would need, like, the the Leo factor, you know what I mean, like the craziness, like, drugs, alcohol, women, fast cars, although I'm going the speed limit, you know, all that other stuff. Okay, I could
Nick VinZant 54:01
see that in your 20s, but in your 30s, you just want to be hanging out with Peter Gibbons. Let's take this one easy. All right. Do you have anybody in your honorable
John Shull 54:11
mention? Yeah, but I feel like they're all cliche, like I have Han Solo, because I feel like he'd be cool to hang out with. Yeah, he's cool. And looking on some lists, like, I saw Indiana Jones on a lot of people's list, but, like, I probably wouldn't put Andy Indiana Jones on my list for whatever reason. Yeah, let's see. I've I thought about putting him as my one or two, but then I just left it off the list completely. And that's Jack Sparrow.
Nick VinZant 54:36
Oh, that would get annoying. You think so for like a day? Yeah, I'd like to take a shower at some point.
John Shull 54:47
Feel like he might be fun. I put any of the Ghostbusters because I feel like they'd be awesome.
Nick VinZant 54:53
Yeah? That'd be John. Too scary for me. That'd be fun time.
John Shull 54:56
Bill Murray from Caddy Shack. I.
Nick VinZant 55:00
Oh, I would. You're not gonna go with Al zervic. I would go with Ronnie Dangerfield character. I'd hang
John Shull 55:06
out with him. Rip Rodney, uh, yeah, that's kind of, I have some other ones, but they're not very good at all. Like Tony Montana, Tony Stark, you know, people like that? Tony
Nick VinZant 55:18
the Tiger, any other Tony's? No the only other one. So the other movie characters that I had, I went more kind of comic booky anime than John would go. But I had night crawler, because I'd want to be able to teleport around, like you could get a lot of places, somebody who could teleport pretty easily. And then I had Uncle Iroh from Avatar, because for some good wholesome life advice, I
Unknown Speaker 55:43
don't even
John Shull 55:44
know what that means. It's good wholesome life's advice, you don't I think we should end on some life advice from me. Okay, and that is, embrace your inner self, and if you want to join the threads for candles, head over to Reddit and do so. Oh,
Nick VinZant 55:59
okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, leave us a quick review. We really appreciate it. Really helps out the show and let us know who you think are some movie characters that you just want to be friends with. You just want to hang out. I don't really want to be doing that in any kind of dystopian world. That's why I go with Peter Gibbons, just just chilling. I.
