Featured Blogger: Noah Antwiler of The Spoony Experiment
The Spoony Experiment shares Noah Antwiler’s entertaining video reviews of movies, comics and video games with a multitude of loyal fans. In addition to becoming one of the many fans of his site, join his nearly 14,000 Facebook fans and more than 20,000 Twitter followers for Antwiler’s latest updates!
Spoony Experiment Blogger Noah Antwiler
A: I started writing and making videos in 2004 primarily to make my friends online laugh. I never expected that it would catch on as widely as it has, let alone that I’d be able to make a living doing it! The whole purpose of the site and the reviews is to exorcise the demons (and by demons, I mean bad movies and videogames) from my childhood. People really enjoy watching me lose my mind and reviewing all the stuff that drove me nuts as a kid.
A: It’s all about personality and style, and my friendship with many of the other critics who often show up in my reviews. I think a lot of people identify with me and trust that I’m being honest with them. Well, honest and hyperbolic. People really appreciate the work I put into the reviews and enjoy the nostalgia trips I take them on.
A: Oh, they’re supportive of the fact that I’m self-employed and working as a comedian, although “bewildered” is probably a more fitting term. They always figured I’d go into software development after college, not dressing in funny costumes and playing horrible video games for the enjoyment of others. I can hardly believe it myself!
Q: How much time daily do you spend blogging?
A: It’s my full-time job, although how much exactly is a little hard to quantify. I keep my own schedule and work from home, which is great. But with the entire video-creation process, I tend to work around 60-70 hours a week.
Q: How many times have you redesigned your blog since it started?
A: The site’s probably seen four complete redesigns, with the most recent coming about 5 months ago.
Q: How much do you correspond one-on-one with readers?
A: I tend to bicker back and forth with fans on Twitter (@TheSpoonyOne) quite often, and I’m a frequent at conventions, where I love to meet fans in person. In fact, I’ve been invited to an anime convention in Vienna next month!
Q: What joys did you not expect when you started blogging? What pains?
A: It’s all been great! I’m doing what I love to do and people love to watch it. I get a lot of fan mail who tell me that I’ve improved their day, made their work day tolerable, and even helped them through some very dark times. I never expected that I’d actually help people by entertaining them, and it’s a real pleasure and honor to do so. It’s come at the cost of my free-time, though. I spend virtually all day, every day working on videos and writing. I’ve recently had to force myself to take one day off a week just to maintain my sanity.
Q: What’s something your readers don’t know about you?
A: I’m a pretty open book, if you’ve seen my vlogs and movie reviews. Let’s see…I’m just about the best player of the arcade game Rampart you’ll ever see in your life.
Q: What’s your personal favorite blog post?
A: This might be cheating, since it’s not one post, but I think my retrospective on the Ultima game series is representative of the best stuff I’ve done. If I had to pick one, however, it’d probably be my review of Wing Commander. Not the games; those are awesome. The horrible, horrible movie.
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