Uncanny X-Cast

Uncanny X-Cast
Presentation
Hosted by	Brian Perillo Rob Briscoe
Genre	Audio Podcast
Language	English
Length	1.5 - 2.5 hrs
Production
Audio format	MP3
Publication
Original release	August 2006 – present
Website	http://www.uncannyxcast.com

The Uncanny X-Cast is a niche Comic book audio podcast that features Marvel Comics' Mighty Mutants, the X-Men. Started in 2006, the X-Cast reunited two X-fans, Brian Perillo and 2014 Emmy Award Winning Rob Briscoe.^[1] Perillo had been reading X-Men and other comics consistently for over 25 years. Bringing a unique gift of a nearly eidetic memory, Perillo is able to cite off-hand specific issue numbers, writers, and artists to major story lines and events in X-Men history. Briscoe, however, returned to regular comic reading after a long hiatus and continues to refine his knowledge on the intricate workings of the X-Men universe. Perillo brings wisdom with a rich knowledge of comics history, and Briscoe continues to bring a sense of freshness and vitality to the comics-podcast industry. Due to their individual histories, these two professional podcast journalists are able to draw in listeners and readers, both long-time and newly acquainted to the X-Universe.

The Uncanny X-Cast has featured interviews of various comic professionals; writers such as Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, Chris Yost, Mike Carey, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells; colorist Brian Reber, podcasting legend Peter Rios; and editor Andy Schmidt.^[2] Adding to their rich depth of entertainment, Briscoe and Perillo also coordinated appearances with characters such as Colossus, Rogue, and Captain Britain. By far, their most popular, highly demanded and frequent visitor is Count Nefaria. (Note: these characters are the real life voice work of Rob Briscoe, Brian Perillo, and Amanda Briscoe. However, for the sake of entertainment, the podcast and this article will hereby presume that these are real characters and personas.)

Format

Every episode of the Uncanny X-Cast is different. With over 160 episodes, Briscoe and Perillo have experimented with the show's format. Some shows, such as Comic Geek Speak, have borrowed the system of "Buy, Borrow, Pass" to rate current issues. Others have used similar approaches to their "Retro Reviews" segment. The format of the show usually follows this pattern:

The Opening

The show opens with introductions by Bumper Girl (Amanda, Rob's wife). Each host's introduction is followed by a notable quotation, usually spoken at some point later in the same episode. On occasion, the show will first begin with a called-in introduction done by a listener.

DCBS Sponsorship

Through the show, Briscoe and Perillo have partnered with Discount Comic Book Services (DCBS). DCBS is a direct-to-door comics delivery service.

Letters / Voicemails

Near the beginning of every episode, Brian and Rob answer fan letters and respond to voicemails. Generally these voicemails and letters provide for debates between the two hosts regarding the overall comics industry. During this segment, the hosts may talk about current news of upcoming comics, movies, and TV shows. Some topics may venture away from the X-Men, as Rob and Brian also give respected advice on hard topics such as dating, raising children, and sports. To contact the show, you can email them or call (765)-NEFARIA.

On Shelves Now

Generally taking up the majority of the show's run-time, the On Shelves Now segment features reviews and commentary of current issues. The hosts give opinions on the writing, dialogue, and art. The rating systems follows and approach called "Buy, Borrow, Pass".

Middle Segment

See more information followed below.

KAPOW! News

Briscoe highlights breaking X-Men and other comics-related news and addresses rumors.

Retro Review

Since episode #1, the hosts have undertaken the monumental task of reading and reviewing the entire run of Uncanny X-Men and X-Men related comics since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Uncanny X-Men #1, released in 1963. Never skipping an issue, Brian and Rob have reviewed Uncanny X-Men through the decades of its history and have also branched out to New Mutants, X-Factor, and Excalibur, but have since dropped Excalibur.

Closing Original Song

The Uncanny X-Cast has released an album of their 50th episode musical special. At the closing of every episode, the show features one of their iconic original X-Men parody songs.

Middle Segments

At least once an episode, the hosts will choose one middle segment. These include:

Fastball Special

With a target duration of 5 minutes, the hosts respond in a quick-firing format to fan questions taken directly from their forum and Facebook page.^[3]

The X-Phone

The formal interview segment of the show has hosted writers, artists, and editors. On occasion, the hosts interview local comic book shop owners and employees. During Episode 25, the hosts aired "live" calls of their listeners, one of which was Rick, who claimed to work at Rob's local comic shop. This escalated to a verbal fight between Rick and Brian, who he had confronted about ordering through DCBS.^[4]

Top 5

Top 5's have included favorite characters, issue covers, mutant powers, characters who should turn evil, and character theme songs, among many others.

Inside the Mansion

Set up as a way to re-familiarize Rob into the characters of the X-Men, Brian gives an in-depth history and biography of major X-Men characters. Since the show's inception, Rob has also contributed the bio of one of his favorite characters, Mammomax. Count Nefaria has also given his own rendition of his autobiography.

X-Roleplay

During this segment, Brian and Rob interview each other, with the interviewee pretending to be either a current X-Men writer or character.

Chances Are

Featuring predictions of upcoming events and story lines, the hosts rate the likelihood of each other's predictions.

Casting Call

The hosts give their opinions of who they would imagine portraying certain characters. The first Casting Call was for if there was a movie of X-Factor.^[5]

Password

Bringing in comics podcasting legend Peter Rios, inker Brian Reber, and super-fan Tony G, the hosts have borrowed the format of the popular television game show of the same name. Currently, the undefeated champion is Peters Rios.

Solve For X

A newer segment to the show, clues are given to a secret character and the hosts try to determine who the character is.

Year End Awards

Every January or so, the hosts give awards, praises, and commentary to the last year as a whole. Awards include best ongoing series, best writer, best character, best break-out character, best villain, worst character, and more.

History of the Podcast

Brian and Rob met at Hanover Park High School in East Hanover, New Jersey. Having eaten lunch many times together in high school, Brian and Rob learned that they shared many similarities and interests with each other. First sharing an interest in baseball simulation games, they also grew a bond with each other due to their love for cartoons and comic books. At that time, Rob was not as into comics as Brian was, so Brian fostered a deep appreciation for comics in Rob and both made numerous visits to their local mall's comic shop, Fat Moose Comics & Games. Very quickly becoming close friends, Brian and Rob frequented the mall's arcade, candy shop, and comic store. Eventually, the two went their separate ways as Brian graduated and went off to college in Massachusetts. A year later, Rob graduated and started attending college in Alabama. Drifting apart, although keeping somewhat in touch via email and instant messaging, Brian and Rob eventually restrengthened their connection and friendship after college. Still keeping up with the X-Men, and knowing that Rob had liked them, Brian suggested that they attempt to make a podcast that talked about current and old X-Men comics. Right before the show's inception, the Brian and Rob had researched another show called the X-Cast, which featured two 15-year-olds babbling about the movies. Clearly having no experience or depth of knowledge about the X-Verse, they had only released a few episodes and faded away. This put Brian and Rob's fears to ease since, really, no one else had successfully released an X-Men podcast, so the pathway was wide open. The first episode was released in 2006. At that time, podcasting was pretty young, and not many shows were over an hour. Brian and Rob vitalized podcasting format, and their show serves as a true template for excellent podcasting. The format of the Uncanny X-Cast worked because Brian has a near encyclopedic memory of X-Men comics, having read most X-books and have stuck with them, while Rob has read some, left the habit, and wanted to get back into reading X-Men. Therefore, one host (Rob) had the newcomer mentality and asked many questions, while the other host (Brian) would answer the questions. Having been the first podcast in this niche market of X-Men, the hosts did not expect such an immediate success and high number of downloads. The show continues to be a power house of the world of podcasts and has released over 130 episodes.

Host Biographies

Brian Perillo

A native of New Jersey, Brian Perillo grew up with a fascination of superheroes. Whether it be the old 1960's cartoons, Super Friends, or Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Brian was enthralled in this fantasy world of superheroes. Brian's mother Joy recounts that Brian grew up watching episodes of Batman with his father, and even had superhero-inspired themes for his birthdays. At such a young age, Brian had difficulty getting into comics because of the convoluted history and continuity of many of the popular characters. However, at around 9–10 years old he stumbled across Power Pack, which featured tales about kids about his age at that time with super powers. There was not a lot of confusing continuity with Power Pack, so this became his first foray into comics reading. X-Men comics followed behind very quickly. After getting into X-Men and New Mutants, he was hooked. Throughout his early teenage years, Brian would do chores around the house, and as payment, his dad would buy him comics from the local comic store, Fat Moose Comics & Games at the Morris County Mall in Ceder Knolls, New Jersey. He started reading the X-Men because of the desire to read stories about Angel and Iceman, two characters he loved from some of the Saturday morning cartoons that he would watch. A quickly passionate hobby, Brian aimed to grow his comics collection. Brian met Rob at Hanover Park High School in East Hanover, New Jersey. Brian is a year older than Rob. Brian graduated high school in 1992 and started college in Massachusetts. Another of Brian's favorite local comic shop in New Jersey (Dewey's Comic City) held months worth of comics for Brian while he was away, so Brian would have tons of comics to return to when he visited home during holiday breaks. During senior year of college, Brian met his wife Laura. After college, Brian got back into reading comics regularly. Working in Boston right out of college and having a stable enough income, Brian started to branch out to other comics besides the X-Men. Having kept in touch with Rob via email and instant messaging, he suggested starting up the podcast. Brian is currently married and has three sons.

Rob Briscoe, Emmy Award Winner

Similarly with Brian, at a young age Rob was also intrigued with super heroes and other sci-fi related stories. He would venture into comic shops with his cousins, and Rob first became hooked with G.I. Joe comics. His cousins eventually introduced him to the world of the X-Men. Unlike Brian though, Rob did not ever intend to be an avid collector. He simply enjoyed the stories during the convenient times he was able to read them. Rob became attached to the X-Men because they were outsiders and characters that he could easily identify with. Rob's brother Woody, an occasional guest to the show, frequently gives Rob a hard time because of his love for the X-Men. To quote Woody Briscoe from Episode 100, "Rob and the X-Men were a perfect match because they were freaks, just like Rob". Becoming fast friends with Brian in high school, they two frequented the local mall's arcade, candy shop, and comics store. With Brian having graduated in 1992, and Rob still being a senior in high school, he continued comics reading although felt more isolated because his friend had left for college. Rob graduated in 1993, and enrolled at the University of Alabama. While Rob was out of state, Dewey's Comic City in Madison, NJ shipped comics to him at cost, although Rob felt like he could not break the pattern and relationship with Dewey. Eventually, Rob's mother made the breakup for him since it was her credit card paying for the comics. Thus, Rob's long-time reading habit had nearly diminished. Long after college had ended, and having kept in touch with Brian throughout the years, Brian had suggested starting up an X-Men podcast because of Rob's former love for the mutants. Rob agreed and also provides a technical role for the show as editor. By the start of the podcast, Rob was then engaged to his now-wife Amanda, a.k.a. Bumper Girl. They have a son and daughter.

Rob Briscoe is an Emmy Award Winning producer and director for the University of Alabama.

Frequent Visitors and Contributors

Count Luchino Nefaria

Count Nefaria is a frequent visitor to the X-Cast. This version of the count is the vampiric leader of the Maggia and speaks with a highly aristocratic, pompous, Italian accent. However, the accent, on occasion, has been misheard and confused as sounding very similar to the voice of Colossus. The Count stopped by during Episode 57 to give his own Inside the Mansion.^[6] Count Nefaria served as one-time cohost during Episode 94, and during the episode, killed and ate Peter Rios.^[7]

Peter Rios

Podcasting legend of Comic Geek Speak, Peter Rios is a Puerto Rican native of the "beautiful" city of Philadelphia (see Inside Jokes below). Peter is two-time reigning champion of Password and has served as cohost twice, once during Episode 94 and a second time during Episode 133. Peter was killed and eaten by Count Nefaria in Episode 94. He contributed to the history of the X-Cast during Episode 100, speaking from heaven. Since, he has mysteriously returned from the beyond and served as cohost during the show's first Three's Company during Episode 133.

Stan Lee

X-Men father Stan Lee has appeared numerous times on the show. Stan occasionally stops by to give words of advice to the youthful Rob and Brian. Rob sang a beautiful musical parody of the Hanukkah Song with the help of Stan during episode 79, one of the show's many holiday specials.^[8] Stan was featured heavily as narrator of Episode 100: Rise and Fall of the Uncanny X-Cast.

Linguini

An original creation of the show, Linguini is an unofficial and forgotten member of the Giant Size X-Men team. Linguini has a very heavy Italian accent and popularized the phrase "What, you no like?"

Captain Britain

This version of Captain Britain is a pompous jerk who lives in seclusion with his elf-mutant wife Meggan. Rob and Brian have ranked Captain Britain as having one of the worst costumes in X-history. In the alternate future during Episode 100, Captain Britain and Banshee started the "Adjectiveless X-Cast" which featured segments called On Sale Now, Top 7, and Rewind Review.

Drunken Warren Worthington

Initially appearing in a parody of the film "It's a Wonderful Life", a drunken Warren Worthington III, otherwise known as Angel, showed Brian what would have happened if he and Rob had never met.^[9]

Gay Bobby "Iceman" Drake

Recently outed as a homosexual, Robert "Bobby" "Iceman" Drake publicly confirmed his homosexuality through the help of his "Friends With Benefits" Drunken "Angel" Warren Worthington in Episode 167.

Bumper Girl

Amanda, Rob's wife, provides the voice and role of Bumper Girl. She sings her laments about her husband's role with the podcast during the 50th Episode Musical song that parodied "On My Own". It is highly implied that Count Nefaria has intense romantic feelings for Bumper Girl.

Tony G

Long-time fan of the show Tony G (a.k.a. Mobile Home) has participated in many moments of the show's history. In the alternate timeline during the "It's a Wonderful Life" parody in Episode 54, Tony was cohost of the Uncanny X-Cast with Rob. Tony was defeated by Peter Rios in the first Password game.

Your Boy Eddie

Your Boy Eddie is a frequent voice mailer and All-Around Stud, who has earned this title by leaving messages for the hosts usually either during or leading up to sexual intercourse. Eddie's calls usually also feature a female accomplice.

Rob from Katy

Frequent voicemailer, Rob from Katy is a schoolteacher by day. In order to conceal his identity, he uses a disguised voice when he calls, sounding very similar to famous movie trailer narrator Don LaFontaine. Rob did the bumpers for Episode 100.

Inside jokes

Obligatory Cypher reference

Until Cypher's reappearance and "rebirth" into the X-Universe, Brian was known to somehow bring up the character of Cypher in many of the show's discussions. By the hands of Louise "Wheezy" Simonson, Cypher was killed by the Ani-Mator when he jumped in front of a bullet to save his love Rahne Sinclaire, otherwise known as Wolfsbane. His death happened during New Mutants #60, released in 1988.^[10] During this time, Brian gave up reading comics for three months and wrote writer Louise Simonson a nasty letter.^[11] Brian relived reading this moment during the Retro Review of this issue in episode 88, which also included a tribute song to the character, sung by Cypher's New Mutants teammates.^[12] The moment of Cypher's death had emotionally impacted Brian at a young age and this event led to his years of therapy to help deal with the loss of his most beloved character. Through his grieving process, Brian give spirit to the legend of Cypher, which inevitably helped lead to the return of his character to mainstream comics. Zeb Wells brought Cypher back to life during the X-Necrosha storyline as a tough, emotionless hero. Even with Brian now reunited with his favorite character, Cypher continues to be a controversial topic of the X-Cast since he has since suffered miserably under the writing of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

Mammomax

Maximus "Mammomax" Jensen is one of Rob's favorite characters, mainly in part of his fascination with the bipedal elephant-shaped mutant. Rob grieved the loss of Mammomax during Episode 16, which featured the review of the death of this short-lived mutant.^[13]

Paradox

With the hopes of branching out into the comics-writing business, Brian wrote a fan-fiction story called Paradox, which featured the New Mutants. Paradox can be found in its unfinished entirety here.^[14]

Price is Right Song

From time to time, Rob will play the theme song to the hit game show Price is Right. This is usually during dead-air time when one of the hosts is looking up a factoid or perhaps to conceal private information not safe for public release. Only one listener, The Masked Hero, has been "Price is Right'd" (Epi 102) in the show's history so far.

"Put It On the Board"

A frequent phrase uttered by the hosts in regards to disagreements of predictions of the future of the X-Universe. Each host takes a different stance on predictions relating to character returns, how major arcs will end, predicted character deaths, and more.

Show "Contests"

The show has been known to host contest to further enhance the relationship with their fan community. Contests have included fan submissions of X-Men related recipes and photos of fans listening to their show with their children. The most common negative criticism regarding these contests is due to certain winners never receiving their prizes.

UncannyX-Men.net Ban

Early in X-Cast history, Brian posted a link to the podcast's website and iTunes page on UncannyX-Men.net's forum. Posted in the "Miscellaneous" section of the forum, Brian believed that he had not violated any of the X-Men fan site's rules and regulations. However, his post was removed and he was received a ban from the site. Brian then apologized and appealed to get the ban removed. However, he never received a reply. Thus, UncannyX-Men.net was thereby considered an "Enemy of the Show". Tens of episodes later, UncannyX-Men.net moderator Douglas Mangum finally responded and revealed that Brian had sent his emails to a defunct address and that they were never received. The site was then promoted to "Not Enemies of the Show".

Is it a Sunset or a Nuclear Explosion?

This debate between the two hosts is in reference to the cover of Uncanny X-Men #413, one of Rob's Top 5 Uncanny X-Men Covers in the segment they did in Episode 3.^[15]

"Rick"

When the hosts aired "live" calls to their listeners during Episode 25, they called a fan by the name of "Rick" who claimed to work at Rob's local comic book store, Kingdom Comics in Birmingham, AL. Rick said that he was responsible for putting comics into Rob's pull box, which had frequently missed many X-related comics, leading to negative criticisms of the problems that many comic shops are guilty of. Consequently, Brian's praise of DCBS led Rick to verbally assault the hosts, however Brian and Rob successfully defended their stances that the local comic shop business is a declining industry and needs major improvements if it hopes to stick around. Feeling defeated, Rick hung up. If it unsure still to this day whether Rick was an actual employee of Kingdom Comics. Rick appeared in the alternate future "Rise & Fall of the Uncanny X-Cast" that occurred in Episode 100 saying that he had lost his job, his position he held as a Stormtrooper cos-player in the 501st Legion, and had his wife and kids leave him.

"Philly is a Dump"

Sometime during Episode 43, Rob made the quote, "Philly is a dump", much to the chagrin of his cohost Brian, due to the potential backlash received form Philly listeners. A shocked and offended Peter Rios continues to defend his position that Philadelphia is a beautiful city.

Peter David

One would think that the mistaken "hatred" the boys share for current X-Factor writer Peter David would be because of his inconsistent writing quality and for the abysmal futuristic story arc of Cortex, an evil duplicate of Multiple Man. However, no. Because Mr. David has subjected his readers to the details of the life of his daughter through the recap page of X-Factor, Brian and Rob have grown to share a distaste for the man in general. Rob and Brian have also criticized the writer for the overinflation of his belief of the impacts he has had on the comics community. They have yet to interview him for the show.

Cherry Poptart

Cherry Poptart is an adult comic book title featuring a young female character of the same name. Revealed in Episode 48, delving in Rob's past, Cherry helped Rob effectively deal with the urges and tendencies young boys experience while going through puberty. The series taught Rob what not to do, such as not participating in a brutal gang bang. The hosts interviewed writer and creator Larry Welz in Episode 80.^[16]

X-Men First Class Song

As suggested by listeners of the podcast, Rob read and reviewed several issues of the comic series X-Men First Class by Jeff Parker. Clearly sporting a negative opinion, Rob reviewed First Class through song. Lyrics and song can be found here.^[17] Jeff Parker responds: "I don't care if it does roast our book horribly, I have to give it to the Uncanny X-Cast for getting out their feelings on X-Men First Class in song. Standing O!"^[18] Positive feedback from listeners led Rob and Brian to produce the 50th Episode Musical Special.

KAPOW!

KAPOW! is a catchphrase that Brian uses for Rob's misinformation of comics news and speculation. In a more recent episode, Rob gave misleading information regarding DC Comics' decision to make one of the Green Lanterns homosexual. He originally thought it was a character by the name of Kapow that would be the one to be revealed as gay. However, how he was confused was that the news of this character change was revealed at the Kapow Comics Convention.

Memorable Episodes

Episode 31 - Clip Show

During this episode, Rob and Brian have given their best moments from their first 25 episodes. Highlights include the reenactment of the Jean Grey orgasm, Psylocke's theme song Turning Japanese, the introduction of Count Nefaria, and the debate on whether the cover to Uncanny X-Men #413 was a sunset or a nuclear explosion.^[19]

Episode 50 - the Musical Episode

Due to Rob's highly popular X-Men First Class Song, by recreating the words to a variety of popular songs, the boys featured the various segments of their podcast through the use of song parodies. One of the most memorable was the "Inside the Mansion" segment on Cyclops through the parody of the song Bust a Move (song) through the lyrics "Blast a Dude". The entire album can be downloaded on their site here.^[20]

Episode 75 - Inside the Panel

The hosts brought in three comic podcasters to debate controversial topics of recent comic trends with host Brian Perillo. Their answers were judged by Rob. The guests included Lene Taylor of "I Read Comics", Ron Richards of iFanboy, and Louis Kwok of KwokTalk.^[21]

Episode 100 - The Rise and Fall of the Uncanny X-Cast

Giving a history of their lives and the conception of their podcast, the hosts also ventured off midway to an alternate timeline, similar to the approach of the story arc Days of Future Past. In this timeline, Brian's New Mutants fan-fiction story Paradox was green-lit as a major television series. Rob, on the other hand, experienced heartache through the loss of his wife Bumper Girl to his acquaintance Count Nefaria. The boys in this alternate future were reunited on Stan Lee's 100th birthday for their final podcast.^[22]

Miscellaneous

Three's Company

Since Episode 133, the hosts have said that every episode ending in 3 will feature a 3rd cohost. The first cohost was Peter Rios.^[23]

X-Tra Credit

Earlier in the show's run, this segment was introduced as a roundtable discussion of story arcs of popular titles that were far into the future of X-Cast reading at that time. The first X-Tra Credit, hosted by Brian, included commentary on the first arc of New Mutants.^[24] Rob hosted the 2nd X-Tra Credit with discussions on the first Ultimate X-Men trade.^[25]

X-Rap

Forum contributor Worthington (aka Aaron) wrote, produced and performed a rap dedicated to the podcast. Serving as outro for the show for many episodes, it is now in the rotation of closing songs at the end of every episode. Full song and lyrics found here.^[26] Worthington also contributed another song for the show's 50th Episode Musical Special called "Top 5 Reasons to Listen to the Uncanny X-Cast".

Cafe Press site

Fans can purchase memorabilia of the show through Cafe Press.

iTunes App

Developed by Rob, the podcast released an app that can download and store locally any episode of the show. It can also allow for direct links to their website, Facebook, and Twitter, one-tap connection to emailing to the show, and automatic dialing to their voicemail. Download here.^[27]

Notes