The Misfit Faction Is Here!
How we got here is another story.
By Rob LoAlbo
A cop, a Taekwondo master, and a sporting good manager walk into a bar.
It sounds like a setup for a bad joke involving misjudgment, subverted expectations, and mistaken identity, but it’s more about a gathering of misfits.
5 years ago, those three (Paul, Ronnie, and Sean, respectively) did walk into a bar, if you want to call the bar their shared apartment. Work-friends and childhood pals, the three set up shop in a tiny 3-bedroom that might not have been very bar-like, but at least the beer fridge was well-stocked.
Once they got their home up and running, the conversation started immediately. Movies, television, sports, entertainment - it ran the gamut. Conversations would go deep into the night, until one of them suggested it: “We should record this.” From there was born the Multiverse Fancast.
With nothing more than drive, a dream, and a passion for pop culture, the trio put their podcast out there with no expectations other than a desire to promote their shared love of these things.
That’s when the English teacher walked into the establishment and distinguished it (or at least Rob thinks he did).
It was a good fit, and they chugged along for a couple of years, but as boys tend to, they grew up into man-children who refused to grow out of their passions. That’s when the TA dance team instructor entered, and Paul fell in love with Mel.
Now, most stories would head into a Yoko-like direction at this point, breaking up the four from Liverpool, but rather than separate, she blended them. Some would say it was because she was the best looking of the group, others that it was her love of books, but mostly it’s because like the other four, she was also misfit, and like the man-children, she knew that misfits stick together. Thus was born a shared Universe.
Listening to them in a podcast and reading their articles, you can hear that they’ve all got an easygoing rapport with each other and the audience, a passionate approach, and strong opinions that don’t always agree, but at the end of the day, they really care about each other and the Faction they represent. Together, they make sense.
They’re a rag-tag bunch, but combined, like the Justice League or the Avengers (pick your poison), they’re the perfect team of culture crime fighters ready to take on whatever giant blue laser beam is shooting into the sky that day.
As they begin this new adventure, unsure of where it’s going or what will become of it, they’ve got no expectations for success, but that’s the point. They love these things so much so that it’s not about the money (clearly), the fame (absolutely), or the beer (well…). It’s about the love. It’s about the passion. It’s about the pursuit of all things entertainment. And most importantly, it’s about being different and loving those differences no matter what the rest of the world says.
Apart, they’ve each got their misfit specialties, but together they are the perfect combined force of entertainment nature, the perfect human being rolled into five bodies. They’re all there: the reader, the writer, the moviegoer, the comic book geek, the tv lover, the dreamer.
There’s just one thing missing from the group: you.
Welcome to the Misfit Faction.