Supernatural: Austin Basis (Kenny Spruce from Ghostfacers) | Interview

Austin Basis Ghostfacer interview 👻 Berly and LA take a break from recaps to talk with Austin Basis, who played Kenny Spruce in the beloved Supernatural episode Ghostfacers and the Ghostfacers web series, on Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural rewatch podcast.

After chatting with Austin on Instagram, we convinced him to sit down for a full interview, and it's an hour of behind-the-scenes stories, industry insights, and genuine love for the Supernatural universe. His bio took LA forever to read. Beauty and the Beast, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Life Unexpected... this guy has done EVERYTHING.

Interview Highlights:

• Ghostfacers was the first episode shot after the 2007 writers' strike
• The actors filmed most of it themselves on Sony HD cameras set to autofocus
• How Brittany Ishibashi's out-of-focus shot of Dustin Milligan's ghost made the final cut because it was PERFECT
• Phil Sgriccia's questionnaire that created the confessionals, including Spruce being 1/16th Cherokee and a shaman-ologist
• Shooting the web series in Phil's actual garage (Phil now directs and executive produces The Boys!)
• The UK Ghostfacers fans who organized their own convention in York, England, one of the most haunted places in the UK
• Austin's theory that Spruce's startup is either Shaman-ology.com or teaching Jewish cooking at community college
• Why Ghostfacers never got a full spinoff: the web series lived on the CW's website with zero promotion. In the TikTok era? It could've been huge.

Austin also talks about living with type 1 diabetes, his work with JDRF (now Breakthrough T1D), his diabetic horror short inspired by a terrifying hypoglycemic seizure he had at age 10, and why he still does student films and shorts: it's about the work and the community.

We kicked ourselves afterward for forgetting to ask about a few favorite scenes (turn the knob!), so we closed with one instead:

Spruce: "Can I ask you a question?"
Dean: "I'm not gonna whine about my bullshit problems to a bullshit reality show. I'm gonna do my fucking job."
Spruce: "Is it cancer?"

Your turn, hunters: What's your favorite Ghostfacers moment? And should Ghostfacers get a revival? Tell us in the Spotify comments, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts (it's how new hunters find us), or send us fan mail.

Transcript

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Berly: 0:01

Welcome to denim wrapped nightmares a Supernatural rewatch Podcast where we explore the TV series episode by episode.

LA: 0:10

over drinks, we'll discuss the lore of gore and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.

Berly: 0:17

I'm burly, and I'm a new fan of the series.

LA: 0:20

I'm LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Hello

Berly: 0:26

la Hello Burley. We had an interesting conversation in our Instagram chat with Mr. Austin basis, who provided us links to the mystery ghosts phasers Castile episode that I knew existed, but I we didn't see in the special features. And he also provided us the cute little ComiCon intro that they recorded for supernatural and as we were chatting with him, we just decided, hey, why don't we just chat it for real? And Austin was gracious enough to agree to a brief interview with us. So before we get into that, LA, how about you tell our listeners who is Mr. Austin basis?

LA: 1:09

Okay, well, hold tight. There's a lot and we thought about cutting some but we didn't want to do him dirty like that. Yeah, because there's like he's done so much. And it's impressive. So he was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is an actor, writer, producer and celebrity ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Shortly after graduating the Actors Studio drama school with an MFA in acting, he became a lifetime member of the Actors Studio. There he had the privilege of working with these are some big names. Al Pacino, Faye Dunaway, Estelle Parsons, and under the tutelage of Ellen Burstyn, Harvey Keitel, Martin Landau, Arthur Penn, Mark ryedale, Barbara Bain and Lou Antonio. He played at Ryder Alvin bank in the fifth season fifth and final season of the Emmy winning show the marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He is most known for his role as JT Forbes on the four time people's choice award winning series Beauty and the Beast. He was also a regular on the CW drama life unexpected and was a lead in the Warner Brothers web series Ghostface.

Berly: 2:24

Oh, we should have done that. When we say Oh.

LA: 2:29

He has been in a bunch of TV and films and he's been able to share the screen again. Here's some other big names Viola date, share the screen with I didn't say that right. Viola Davis, Larry David Claire Danes, Harvey Keitel, Sandra Oh, Vincent D'Onofrio, Christine Baranski, Rachel Brosnahan Hank Azaria, Michael Lerner, Barry Bostwick, an Austin Butler.

Berly: 2:57

Out of all that Barry Bostwick is the one that I chose to single out.

LA: 3:05

He has appeared in many TV shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm Grey's Anatomy NCIS homeland, How to Get Away with Murder Lucifer little fires everywhere supernatural Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, casual and Law and Order Criminal Intent. He can also be seen and winning time the rise of the Lakers dynasty on HBO, and reasonable doubt on Hulu. His film credits include J. Edgar, directed by Clint Eastwood, the other end of the line, My Sassy Girl, American zombie box borders recut dead and Dr. Dorian blues, and first Oscar in which he plays famed Hollywood producer David O. Selznick. his more recent films are kind of shimmy Daruma. I don't know what I'm saying those right. It's

Berly: 3:59

short. And it's just getting screened and hasn't been screened here. But I've seen that getting promoted online. It looks really good. I think it's won quite a few awards, if I'm remembering correctly.

LA: 4:11

Good. Well, yeah, he's got that one. The last take, and that one, I guess these like you said they're making rounds in this year's festival circuit. He co created and performed in an improv and sketch comedy show in New York City called comedy. He has continued to write and develop ideas with his production company behind the bag productions. And he has executive produced the short film the fear we share on Prime Video, a film he also wrote and starred in he's currently in pre production on his next project seizure, a horror story about diabetes. In addition to his acting work, Austin released his first podcast in 2021, called actor speak. It's available on Apple podcast and Spotify. And he also wrote and published a superhero comic book series in 2018. With his writing partner, Dave Maul back, and Josh tab. It's an epic tale called the kinetics about kids with disabilities and chronic illnesses who turn their perceived weaknesses into their greatest strengths. I love that. The story has been adapted into a full length graphic novel and will be coming to a bookstore near you soon. Nice. He's also an avid poet. He's published a book of poetry in 2011 called an actor without an audience poetry for artists, lovers and every men. He also wasted a lot he wrote a children's book called zoos on first co written with his brother Jeremy basis and illustrated by Dave Maul back and you can get that on Amazon baby book and Barnes and Noble. He's also a teacher. He was on the faculty at New York Film Academy in LA and we'll be teaching an on camera masterclass with his wife Colleen basis at the row center School for the Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois this March. He's also a guest lecturer at Southeast Missouri State Mizzou, Arizona after Academy and with coaching by Camille. He was honored as a distinguished alumnus of Mark Twain Intermediate School for the gifted and talented in Brooklyn, New York and inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2023.

Berly: 6:27

Nice the long bio white accomplish I know I was told them I was like, I found your bio on IMDb. And he's like, that's actually outdated. Here's here's an updated one. I was like, holy shit. Damn right. It's outdated. Right?

LA: 6:40

And that's why I didn't want to cut any of it down. Like, that's all really impressive. Good for him.

Berly: 6:44

I love the variety of work to film in front of the camera behind the camera books, graphic novels. I mean, what a creative guy like touching on everything. Yeah. And he's so sweet. Oh my god, he was so nice. It was so fun talking with him. I wish that I frickin paid for the video services. So we didn't get cut off after an hour. I know. We could have kept going. We definitely could have kept going. So here is our interview with Mr. Austin phasis.

Austin Basis: 7:14

Happy Hour.

Berly: 7:15

Yes. Well, you have we are

Austin Basis: 7:19

going to be discussed in the podcast.

LA: 7:21

I have a vodka tonic

Berly: 7:23

we've been asked to but the way we do it is we actually watch the episode of Supernatural first. And so we start drinking then. And so by the time and the week, then then we come upstairs and we record immediately after we watch the episode. We take whatever notes we need to take. And then we went upstairs so our listeners have asked us to tell them what we're drinking but it often slips our mind. Yeah.

Austin Basis: 7:51

Yeah, well, I just because I was like, it's kind of still the afternoon and I hadn't had my second cup of coffee. I did a decaf on top of my like, whatever was left of my morning coffee. And I added a little vodka and Kahlua for kind of like a like a you know, White Russian with coffee. Nice.

Berly: 8:15

I'm doing Vitamin Water zero, the rice, rice flavor. Because you know with with my Tito's vodka, I'm getting electrolytes as well.

Austin Basis: 8:27

Same thing goes vodka. I once at the end of Beauty and the Beast, I had nothing left because we were like, almost moved out. And the last weekend, I was alone, my wife had kind of already gone back to LA. I literally we had vodka round. And then I had like a green drink. Right? A sweet green smoothie. But like liquid not like thick, like with bananas. And I basically was mixing a lot of green drink smoothies in my apartment, which was, which was fun. I got there wasn't like Tiktok or any of that. Oh my God really out there by then because we would have been in trouble. I'm so

Berly: 9:12

grateful that that didn't exist when we were growing up. All right. Well, we don't want to take up too much of your time. So do you want us to dig into the questions? Yeah, let's do it. Just so you know. We did just do our like we did a bonus episode because we got through the first five seasons. Wow, our listeners asked us to pick our three favorite episodes out of all five seasons and ghost phasers was one of LA's over there she loved Ghostface love

LA: 9:39

you guys know correct me.

Austin Basis: 9:42

Thank you.

Berly: 9:43

It was such a good episode. Yeah, we loved it. So starting with that. What is your favorite memory from recording that Ghostbusters episode where you guys had to go into the house that was haunted. It's

Austin Basis: 9:55

funny that you should ask that and just times out pretty coincidentally A that it was right after the writers strike, the last strike that there was that shut down, basically the industry. So I had done a film in November and then they went on strike at the end of November. And ours was the first episode back after the writer's strike, I believe it was in February or March, because I feel like there was like, an Easter break or some Canadian holiday in that in that timeframe where we were there for, like, you know, two and a half weeks, usually there for like, eight days, or, you know, that's the max for a guest star. And what was weird about it was like, it was a different episode. It wasn't like they were getting back to normal. It was like, we were filming it, right we the Ghostface is we're actually filming the episode, and taking basically the work away from the cameraman and all the cinematographers and stuff. So that was the weird, really cool part of it. And so kind of on that line of kinds of thought, it's, it's amazing what practiced cameramen and and, and technicians could do. And they took over, when we had to do like a special effects shot, they had to use a different camera. So like when there was some of the apparitions that we saw, right, you know, the, the loops that were stuck in the loop, they would bring in the big camera that was like, I guess more high def and able to work with whatever post special effects, they were going to do digital effects. And other than that, we would just do it, and they would just mimic us. And I think with every shot set up with everything, they got, like a coverage one coverage shot of that shot, right, just for safety, they always call it like a safety. One of them. One of those shots was I wasn't even a part of, but because it was like this communal thing. And they were, you know, it was like they had created these four dimensional sets meaning like there wasn't an open wall like they were all you walked in. And once you're inside you were in and you would walk down the hallway. So you didn't have to worry about filming. Like the cameraman or the background, those lights, the only thing you couldn't do is like shoot up into the sky. Because those were actual like, you know, the you see the top of the studio and the lights. So this one shot and La you'll probably remember it, I'm sure. But it's Corbett you know we they finally realized what they need to do to get someone out of this, like kind of death spiral loop where it's like they're caught in their moment of death and they can't escape it. And so in the prot you know, the the episode, he gets killed, right, our PA gets killed. He shows up to Ed and Harry who have covered who had made a circle of assault kind of to protect themselves. Ed goes out to talk him out of the loop, right. The way that was done was Brittany Ishibashi was filming, you know, and they did the way we shot. It was like the actors filmed. We did rehearsals, we did, you know, blocking rehearsals, and then it was kind of like, you know, we stuck to the script. And then there was occasionally ad lib stuff that we're allowed to throw in there. We always did a run where it was the exact script, and then we would throw in our own ad libs and all the confessional stuff was all us. We just made it up. And so that was really fun. But when we did that shot, we weren't focused pulling, we were just like using Sony HD cameras that were on autofocus. So a lot of the like, the blurry focus shots, you know, like sometimes if you whip it too quickly, it goes out of focus, and then it comes into focus, you know, when it kind of the keys in on a subject. So in this scene, what kept happening is, you know, Dustin Milligan was actually there, so it wasn't an apparition it was he was there, but they made him look like an apparition afterwards in post, but he was there and she would kind of go back and forth between Adam and Corbett. AJ and Dustin, and back and forth. And there's a moment in this like death spiral that you could see it register on Corbett or, you know, Dustin playing this moment that he hears he hears the voice and it's like, he actually breaks him out. He listens and then all of a sudden he kind of like goes into his disappearing at thing and he's broken out of the loop. The one they used in the in the episode was Britney shot, right? Because there was this moment where it was out of focus and she kept going back and forth and there's extra light on Dustin because he's a ghost so they you know shot him with a lot of light and there was this blurry moment that came into focus like kind of magically white as he realized any any connected once they got that you know they brought in like the cameraman like the you know, I've no offense to the guy that was the A camera operator, but he kept trying to do that. Like he kept trying to like, redo it, and it just in this loop and like both. AJ is emotional. Dustin's emotional, it's like an emotional scene. It's like, the most emotional scene of the episode minus one they like, you know, destroy our, you know, Pirate but the footage, so yeah, like, I loved how that freedom that fill screen Egea he was the director, he's the one that kind of provided that, that environment for us to like be the parts be in the moments and like, kind of live through the camera for me and Brittany like Maggie and and spruce was, you see a lot of it through our perspective, you see a lot of it to our perspective. So I kind of thought of it I actually wrote like a little thing then because I kept on being cast and playing these characters that were the guys that film stuff, you know, because it was like, right at the cusp of like web series. And, you know, you know, kind of before you had cameras on your phones, in another situation, another film. I didn't film any of it, it was only the you know, the DP it was an independent film. So it was a DP doing the camerawork, and he was making choices that my character would not make, like, I wouldn't make those choices. He was anticipating moments so we can get it on film, versus you hear a sound and you whip pan to look at what what it is, and then the scare happens. So like different things like that, where it's like, You're making my character look illogical or kinda bad if you're not doing it properly. And Phil had at least the foresight to allow us to shoot it first. Sometimes the guy wouldn't even you know, go in, he's like, I think we got it. Do we have enough footage that works? He would watch all of it, you know, while we were doing it. And again, a lot of times we had like four or five cameras working. So everyone had a camera. Corbin had his head, his, you know, GoPro, or like early GoPro. For me that was the best part of it is like contributing and being able to like, have that moment that is unplanned. That happened because the director and the writers at Ben Edlund had created this environment and this, you know, template for us to succeed and do that stuff. And I really commend them for having to trust in guest stars, not their series regulars, because we we really were the stars of that episode. They came in, and we're on our show, and it was like weird for them to to come back and be like, yeah, we're working like four days this episode, you know, like, like, what's up, we had a dinner before we started, I think we had done like a table read or some sort of, you know, kind of first meeting. And I remember it because when I lived in Vancouver for another show, I used to go to this place called Earl's close to the Sutton Place hotel where all the actors stay in Vancouver. And actually, I think someone lived I don't know if it was Jensen or Jared. I think it was Jensen lived for a while in the extended stay part of someplace for you know, and then he lived in like Gerald's basement because Jared bought a house up there. Like crazy. You know, this is like early supernatural before double digits, you know, double digits, sir, you know, seasons. But Earl's, we, you know, had a little, like, nice table in this area. And he's like, he just gave us like a questionnaire. And he said, you know, he's like, we're gonna find time throughout the week, we've been getting so ahead of schedule, you know, we'd be finished at like, you know, four or five in the afternoon and like, be done with the day. And he's like, why waste the time and like, let's get some more footage. So he basically would assign a camera guy to go with us to a part of the set or, you know, I think with with me, at least I wouldn't when he call free. Yes. So when. So when he was like, we're like to think of where you would want to be interviewed, and we'll try to make it happen. I was like, I just feel like spruce would be the guy that drives the golf cart that collects balls. Golf raid. Genius. Let's do it. He's like, we're gonna find one we're gonna fight. I was like, I didn't know Vancouver had one. But yeah, that was like that whole, you know, it was one of the better professional experiences I've had. Definitely up until that point, it was one of the best. And then even since then it's you know, it was it was just I mean, we continue doing webisodes on our own. And then the web series, like, you know, for most of that stuff, except the web series. We didn't get paid. We just did it because we loved it. And we wanted to we love those characters. And we wanted it to be a show. We wanted it to be a web series. Is are a spin off or whatever. And we were, you know, we did as much as we could to make that happen. But it just never amounted to more than one season of 10 episodes on a web series of I don't know how many minutes the episodes were three to five minutes or something. I think so. Yeah. So like we did it also in the idea with 10 episodes, about 30 minutes. It's about a half hour show. So if you wanted to do a spin off, we could have done a half hour spin off with the whole season of the, you know, that was just one episode one ghost, you know, just the same way supernatural was doing it until the world started ending. You've got you've gotten to that part, right?

Berly: 20:40

Yes, yes. We finished season five. Okay, so we saw the apocalypse. That was ended with the big fight that wasn't really a fight. Yes. But yeah. And Lucifer is in the cage. So we've gotten that far. Yes. And we've watched the web series as well. So we watched all 10 of those episodes, and then the episode with Castile that you sent us. So we've got, we got to see that as well. And honestly, I think I think I've told you, Austin that I I used to be really into ghost hunters are those ghosts. So I'm surprised. I 100% got what you guys are doing right off the bat. And I thought it was hilarious that this team of Ghost Hunters is existing in this world where this stuff is real. And they're just going off of the pseudoscience that these ghost hunters think is real. And they think they know what they're doing. And I thought it was fucking hilarious. So I was I'm surprised it didn't take off because that was all the rage back then. Right? Yeah.

Austin Basis: 21:43

Always like, I think, I don't know, if it was a timing thing. Maybe it would work better. If there was like, if it was like, Oh, we're live on Facebook right now. Or we're doing, you know, a story in Instagram, like Instagram Live or whatever. Like we have an apparition we see an applet like it's here. You know, like, that kind of thing where it would be it was all about celebrity, it was all about like, capitalizing on ghosts on the show, we just like basically fell into all these things. And the joke, we're like, if there's a series, we would go to the places that were supposedly haunted, and get stuff on tape, but it would never like something would always go wrong with the, the, you know, the visual was out of focus, whatever it is. And then we would have like, a way of like, kind of incorporating guest stars, we would just have a new pa every episode that would be killed. That was my idea. Because I thought that was funny to have like a like, like, we just killed every ba we ever had just we didn't know what we're doing. That

Berly: 22:52

is hilarious. I think you're right. I think that timing because yeah, I grew up around that time. And I don't remember ever going and watching a web series. I remember hearing about them, but it hadn't really taken off yet. But if it were to do like, tick tock, you can do 10 minute videos on Tiktok. Now, yeah, if they did a revival, yeah, it would probably be a completely different story.

Austin Basis: 23:12

I mean, the CW did like some sort of ghost hunting show. But it was more. It wasn't the same. It wasn't as kind of well written. And the setup was just perfect the way they did it. Way, the way Ben and Eric, you know, crypkey wrote the episode and there was fun to kind of do that. We there was a day we're on Supernatural. Well, there was a day where they did a supernatural reunion on the strike line at Warner Brothers because Warner Brothers was the studio that produced it. And so it was great to see everyone like it was all the cast and I don't know if I saw Jensen or Jared but it was like pretty much all the recurring guest star characters. Britney and I went and anyone that was in town, and Eric was there Ben was there. I didn't wind up seeing Phil but I know Phil works with Eric on the boys now. So he he's an EP and director on you know, this past season. He directed a few episodes. I don't know if you watch the boys too, but I love the boys as well.

LA: 24:10

We do we do.

Berly: 24:13

Us as well.

LA: 24:14

What was uh, you said that he gave up Phil gave out a questionnaire. Yeah,

Austin Basis: 24:17

the questionnaire was all the questions we got for the I think the only person that actually so

Berly: 24:25

I should like the confessional scene. Yeah. So,

Austin Basis: 24:27

confessional. So the question the confessionals were like, think about, you know, how you're, you know, it wasn't so improv versus like, think about how your character would answer these questions. And we'll do confessionals and you could answer them you can make up stuff and Okay, okay, so yeah, we like that's how the golf cart thing came along. And yeah, which was interesting because it was just setting up like a GoPro camera in the golf cart with me. And I would just be riding back and forth. And there was a certain angle that they needed for the best shots so I knew that there was a certain window that I had to answer the questions and then one time when I stopped short that was like the wide and that I must stepped over I mean, you met him like when we had the website what happened when we did the episode? They did a real ghost faces website because we set it in I think in one of the one of this side things that we did we actually had an out a website with those confessionals all on it. It was just all on it. Oh fun. I have it on my my website now. So if you go to my website and look up the like video clips of the goats phasers, it's literally just my whole run of all the questions I answered, including the ones that were used in the show, which is I'm you know 160 And Cherokee 1560s Jew. And you know, obviously,

Berly: 25:53

Shaman ology, yeah. Oh, yeah. What

Austin Basis: 25:55

it was so yeah, that was in the like, in the breakdown. He was shaman ology and 116 Cherokee, and everything else I made up. But it was fun. Yeah, it made me

Berly: 26:07

think of my mom. She's like, 1/16 Jewish, and it's very proud of that. Yeah. Like, she'll bite a menorah at Christmas. And I'm like, it's not even Hanukkah. Mom, what do you do? And she'll be like, we have 116 church. And we did the Ancestry DNA thing. And when I pulled it up and showed it to her, she was like, I'm more Jewish than you. I'm like, you weren't? You're my mother. I think that would be expected. Yeah, but it's a little more diluted with me. So whenever I saw your character 100% reminded me of my mother. Yeah. Just so proud. Proud of it. Right.

Austin Basis: 26:40

Exactly. You hold on to that. It's like, you know, they, they make fun of like, you know, people in politics that ascribe to different, you know, Elizabeth Warren Yes, the scratches are different, like, you know, native and, you know, sometimes, like, in my, I think my, my wife's family at some point, one of the, her uncle's or something, he thought he was like, part Native American. And so they did the thing. And it really, it turned out someone had been mistaken or lied, or, like, it was just a mis communication through the generations. And so for all these years, they thought they were part you know, and probably personality wise investigated that like, you know, connected on a certain level with, you know, different native causes and stuff. And then all of a sudden, you're like, not really blood relative of, you know, any First Nation people, you know. But anyway, it's

Berly: 27:42

heartbreaking. Yeah, it's heartbreaking. Yeah. Oh, how fun so fake speaking of bills, a Grecia. The web series so you said that the house in the Ghostbusters episode from season three was a set build? Was it also a set build for the web series? Because I sincerely believed you guys were in an abandoned theory theater, or where you are on location? Yeah. So

Austin Basis: 28:04

um, everything we did for the episode was shot in Vancouver. I believe there was one episode. I don't know. Maybe it's called It's A Wonderful Life. Or it's like,

Berly: 28:16

it's a terrible life. Terrible. Building. Yeah.

Austin Basis: 28:19

Yeah. Cuz I get confused. Because in Beauty and the Beast, there was an episode called, it's a wonderful beast, as if it was, it was as if cat and Vincent had not met. And, you know, like, this whole, like, alternate storyline went on, kind of like sliding doors. So all that stuff was shot. And then in that episode, I think there was ghost martial arts, I think it was called J. They called the GMA, and they did this demonstration that interrupted the episode in the middle. And it was just, you know, they just hired Travis and AJ, to do this demonstration of ghosts martial arts, that, you know, kind of would be a promotion for the web series, right? So it'd be like interruption. And then here's a trailer for the web series and like, how to how'd that happen? You know, but so everything we shot for the episode is in Vancouver, everything we shot for the web series was in LA. And part of that was explained, I think it was like we went to LA to become big stars. And there is a theater that had just kind of clothes that was, you know, now putting itself up for rental. So it was an actual theater, and we dress that theater, it was you know, kind of an old theater and it wasn't so abandoned, but it was recently abandoned. And then even for the stuff we did for free, which is I think part of what makes Phil such an awesome guy and also such an enthusiastic go spacer supporter. Phaser phaser for life is every time other than the episode we appeared in our headquarters in the garage. It was actually Phil's garage So we went to his house and he would bring out all the costumes, you get the costumes from production, like he had them shipped down from, from Vancouver to for us to wear. For the most part, a lot of times we wore our actual wardrobe or at least some of it from the, you know, the original show, because they didn't, you know, they were able to reuse it and didn't have to buy anything. So it was free. All the gear, all the props, all the, you know, different things we put around the garage look the same because they were just the garage was different. Yeah,

Berly: 30:36

I thought it looked like it was a different garage from the actual episode because one of my favorite moments is when you all are in there, and it's dad shows up. The garage door starts opening. Yeah, exactly. I died. I was cracking up at that. And the actor who they had play the dad just his expression was to me, little Oops, I'm sorry, dad expression. Yeah. So I thought the garage looked a little bit different in the web series episode. Yeah, that's that's funny to hear. That was actually gracious garage. Yeah.

Austin Basis: 31:11

Phil's garage. I don't I mean, I assume he still has the house is a beautiful house.

Berly: 31:15

Very nice. Do you have any other favorite memories, maybe from the web series, because I thought that theater looked really freakin cool. I was like a little playground, I thought it looked really cool. So anything about the location or anything that may have happened,

Austin Basis: 31:29

I think what I loved about this web series is that they kind of took the premise of what we did with the episode. And part of it was to like, not interfere with the mythology that was being created by supernatural was to kind of have a parallel story go on, so that we didn't really, it was just like a tangent, you know, like, you know, that could potentially fall back in right. So that was part of like the writing, I think, AJ Travis, I think it was in the middle of doing life unexpected at the time. So I had to come down from Vancouver. Ironically, I was in Vancouver, I had to go down to LA. And I did Patrick duty and Chris Valenciano. They all wrote they all wrote and directed the episode. So Patrick, I mean, AJ and Travis were doing you know, producing it, writing it and being a part of it, of course, freedom to ad lib and stuff like that. And they wrote it, particularly and specifically for all of our characters, and what we had created in those like confessionals. So that was a lot of the backstory that happened that fed the main story of him being jealous, his sister adopted sister that, you know, this was hooking up as best friend and, of course, I was a shaman. ologists, but I only really took it at the community college. And you know, I was 116 Cherokee, but mainly Jewish, like, that was all included. And they like created a story that allowed all those parts of the characters to be used, like I did a cleansing ceremony in the, in the web series behind concession, you know, that type of stuff that kind of contributed our own voice and, and real collaboration with the characters was the was the best thing, honestly, the kickoff party that they had, where we watched all the app, every episode, I was like, wow, you know, it felt good, it felt like, you know, normal stuff, but we had done a web series that, you know, kind of look like a web series, like a video camera, but this with the effects and the songs, and they kind of had permission from Warner Brothers. So everything was on the level. And so it was like a real like, attempt at, you know, creating a show a series a web series and, and hopefully, for having its continue. The only issue again, timing is at that point, the only platform it really played on was called the web.com. So it was like Warner Brothers viewing platform that was just a website. And it was basically were random, kind of old episodes, and reruns went to die. And so there was no promotion, which is obviously key. So if you don't promote it more than once, in the middle of an episode that which is what it did, like promoted at once cut me like check it out for like a minute and a half or two minute trailer. It I don't think anything was gonna really, really come from that if they didn't put money behind marketing. I used to look at there was a website, I don't think it's around anymore called Box Office mojo.com Where you could find out how much money how many what the budget was for movies, how much it made domestically, internationally, week to week. So like when I was in a film or something were independent film, I would check out like how it was doing, you know, and then there was a part for marketing and at that time, nope, Polian dynamite had been one of those sleeper hits, that was like, a ultra low budget film of like, less than $300,000. And it made millions of dollars at the box office. Hence, you know, all the people that came out of that. And so when that you looked at the marketing budget, honestly, it was like a three, three to $500,000 film, which was not a lot, right? For what for what it the the marketing budget was in the millions, like it was, like, multimillion dollar campaign after after Sundance or wherever it premiered at. And it was like, it just made me realize that how much marketing I mean, with social media, it makes it easier and cheaper. But you still have to, it's the targeting that you have to get right with the social media. Because I've tried that before. It's like, it's really hard to get views. If you don't know who the audience is, or you don't have a, you know, a select slice of the population that you're like, Oh, we want to target, you know, women 30 to 50. In, you know, the US, right? I remember like for Beauty and the Beast. Like for some reason, Brazil was like a huge, was a huge supporter. Right? And helped us win, like the People's Choice Award. And I don't know that I would have known to be like, oh, like, if we're gonna get renewed, we got to, we got to really hit the heavy Mark hit the market heavy and in South America. Yeah. And Brazil. Yeah, that's

Berly: 36:37

definitely true. Like I definitely with marketing, consistency is key, because there's a lot of other people out there who were trying to get people's attention. So you got to be consistent for sure. Yeah. Okay, so this is just kind of a fun little question. We haven't seen the episode. Yeah. Okay. But I did see that later on. In the supernatural series, Harry and Edie apparently make another appearance they do and say that spruce had left the ghost phasers to have a normal life and start a startup. What do you think, is Bruce's startup business?

Austin Basis: 37:11

Well, obviously@chanology.com You know, I haven't gotten that domain name. But I do feel like it's either a delivery service for, you know, shot, you know, you know, on call shaman ologists. Or, it's a resource for, you know, conspiracy theories, like, whether it's Sasquatch, or like, you know, or, you know, all this other stuff. It's, you know, I would say it's like, the, the Diet Coke or the tab, you know, like, Are you old enough to know what tab is? Yeah, okay.

Berly: 37:56

Yes. So I've never had it but I'm old enough. So

Austin Basis: 38:00

it's like the tabbed version of like 4chan or like It's like one of those crazy websites but it's it's it's not on the you know, Dark Web or anything. And yeah, so I just feel like Shaman ology.com would be would be it or he he teaches it at the local community college community college now that and like that and Jewish like baking or something like like had a big you know, he teaches a cooking class he's the cooking teacher with a local high school that that teaches them how to make Kala and rogol off and how many Tasha and and all the, you know, Jewish delicacies for every holiday?

Berly: 38:42

I love it. Versus startup could be its own little web series. That's

LA: 38:48

That's good. I like

Berly: 38:50

alright, so we mentioned earlier, the whole supernatural revival is already bidding, getting like talked about regularly across social media. Something LA and I have talked about as we've gone through the series, is that we get it the supernatural centers on the Winchester brothers, but there have been so many fun characters that we wish we could have gotten more backstory on or that we could have seen more of their journey and I don't know if you watch American Horror Story.

Austin Basis: 39:20

I do. Okay, worries, right. Yeah,

Berly: 39:25

so we were saying we wish supernatural would do its version of American horror stories, where we got these self enclosed episodes that let us get a little bit more of these characters they've introduced and we love and we want to see more. So what would be your ideal American horror stories? Episode for the ghost hunters or just for spruce? If you if you could do well,

Austin Basis: 39:49

I think because one of my friends who just won an Emmy for editing edited the I don't know if you saw all the episodes from this season of a man Oregon horror story is the one with Reed Scott where he's talking to like an Alexa. So she edited that one it was just basically him and Gwyneth Paltrow is voice. But in in the, you know, the idea that you have that freedom to kind of like, do anything you want. I've always like, the one of the answers I had in the, as Bruce, in the questionnaire was about my, how I became 116 Cherokee, it would be this like period piece, because during the past from for the last five years, I played, almost every decade, I've been in a show or a movie that has taken place in almost every decade of the 20th century. It just I just have been lucky enough to be cast in all these different time periods. I think for this one, it would probably be the 1800s or, you know, earlier, but it would be at a, you know, he was a there was like a degenerate gambler, right? That married, married someone from the Anytus squawk tribe that is, uh, you know, I think a part of the Cherokee Nation. And so I feel like that would be a really interesting story, and how it folds in, you know, to kind of like, create a new version of how it folds into the long line have kind of ghost hunters. Oh, that would be that would be really cool. Or, you know, kind of conversing with the dead that have has has existed in, in, you know, Kenneth Warren spruce. I may I think I made up. I don't, I don't know if I made. I don't know if I made up Warren they just called him spruce. I think it was, Kenny was, you know, already there. But it was like such a weird name. I'm like, I feel like he would go by Kenneth. So, and then Warren, I was like, I gotta add some more Jewishness to it because spruce is not quite your Jewish name. Unless it was like Brustein. You know. Bruce Springsteen, Bruce brings Brustein I don't know. Anyway, yeah. So I would do a period piece like a flashback or like an origin story of the, you know, Bruce being part of Cherokee Nation, 116 Cherokee,

Berly: 42:26

that would have been off that would have been really cool. I completely know

Austin Basis: 42:29

could be just go back in time.

Berly: 42:32

I'm telling you, they have so many characters that I feel like would have so many good stories, goats faces

Austin Basis: 42:36

are like the one of the only characters that are still alive, actually, you know, like, yeah, most of the characters have gotten killed off. Yeah, we've

Berly: 42:44

no yes.

Austin Basis: 42:46

Right. Yeah, you'll you'll see more.

Berly: 42:49

There was there was a character earlier on and like season two, that at first, when he was introduced, he wasn't particularly likable. And then there was an episode where he became likable. And we call it we were like, Oh, he's about to get killed. Can't have him be unlikable. It's still still alive on the series.

Austin Basis: 43:10

Yeah, that's always that's always been my my my kind of like, double edged sword of like, don't be too likable. Right. Stay alive in you live throughout the episode. Maybe you can come back. So they usually bring back people that are that have a little you know, maybe 5% asshole or, you know, are idiots but anyway,

Berly: 43:35

I mean, all of them are still alive. Yeah. So I would love for them to do the whole American horror stories. Yeah, I

LA: 43:41

would. I would love it.

Berly: 43:43

So is there anything else about supernatural that we should be asking but we haven't yet Hmm.

Austin Basis: 43:51

Ah, yeah. Why? Why when they've done spin offs, have they not done the ghost phasers?

Berly: 43:58

Well, from my understanding they haven't had a successful spin off yeah,

Austin Basis: 44:02

I think also it's I think it's been enough years since ghost hunters and I'm sure there are a couple of shows that are still on and they you know have a lot of those kinds of mystery shows were like even now have you watched that show the traders I

LA: 44:18

just started I have only seen the second season though. I haven't seen the first

Austin Basis: 44:24

so we watch the we watch the first season as well and then we're on the second season because it's in it's in the middle of the second season. So but it it's that's the reality version of it. But you know, ghosts faces are always up for a little like reality, any type of thing like that. Like for example, like I wasn't able to do it because I was shooting in Vancouver at the time, but there was a ghost phasers like only convention that happened in York, England. Oh, wow. So it's supposed to be like one of the more haunted areas of the UK Okay, when When MySpace was still around, we had a group of UK faces that were huge fans of the ghost faces. So, circa 2007 2008, I think we added in 2008. They were like very gung ho, they did their own videos. And they had contacts that knew the supernatural convention circuit. And Oregon, I helped organize this convention that everyone went to. And the way we treated it was going to be like for an episode of a web series like this, before we did the web series, like I did a video to send because I couldn't leave it was very, like I was working on a late Friday night, and it was a weekend convention, and I, my producer would not change the schedule. And that was frustrating. But the type of stuff that we could have, like done, where we kind of mixed real life documentary filmmaking by going to these like places with, you know, strangers really, and and kind of folding that into an episode. I think there's something because the supernatural family and the fan base is so widespread and dedicated, even post, you know, even after the show, that there's still an audience for that type of thing. And I mean, the question is more or less for the fans, but more for the network's and producers? How do you make the most of an audience that wants more, you know, you're not going to recreate? You know, even if it's with women, you're not going to recreate what Jared and Jensen had and what Eric Kripke and like all the writers, did, you know, for all those years, you know, Sarah, Sarah gamble,

Berly: 46:41

and the fact that the fan base is still so strong. Exactly.

Austin Basis: 46:44

Right. And it's like, you know, you're, you know, you're letting an opportunity slip by if you don't take like full advantage of, you know, people that want I mean, you talk about content, right? Even if it was shorter, you know, interstitial type stuff. Every show almost now has an online version or short version, whether it's a recap show, or like, you know, a side story Walking Dead, like all these like cult shows, it's a shame that they don't, they don't understand them. They don't like take advantage of it. Obviously, you're not going to get Jared and Jensen back, they're on to new things, but they'd come back for an episode of the ghost faces. Like, you know,

Berly: 47:25

there's definitely still an opportunity there. And part of why LA and I both liked go spacers is because Sam and Dean were allowed to cuss. Oh, yeah. And it kind of it wasn't so CW it was bleeped out. But she and I were both talking about imagine if this wasn't on the CW if this had been on HBO or something like that instead, and having those reins kind of let go. Yeah. And now that we've learned more about crypkey,

Austin Basis: 47:56

imagine if it was on prime, you know, exactly. And

Berly: 48:00

just how much he likes, you know, profanity and more things. I'm like, imagine how much more he could have done. Yeah, if he wasn't put in that little box.

Austin Basis: 48:09

Yeah, that bounced check about bounce between bagging. And Harry might have gone a little further than it did.

Berly: 48:19

The drama, the drama. All right. So we're almost out of time. So before we wrap up, I know that you have a fundraiser coming up or JDRF. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Austin Basis: 48:33

Yeah. So I have type one diabetes, I was diagnosed like right before my ninth birthday. So coming into this September, August, September, I've had it 39 years, since I've been in the public, I've raised money and kind of participated in fundraisers, but also raising awareness for research. Because, you know, after all those years of having it and doing fundraisers, both before I was an actor, and as an actor, and a public figure, all that research and funding is really coming to fruition right now. And, you know, it's it's getting money from the government, it's always like, has to be in the budget for a certain amount to kind of like match public funds to match private charity. And so like, there's all these innovations being made even now I'm wearing like a closed loop, insulin pump system that has a continuous glucose monitor and a pump, so I don't give myself injections anymore. You know, I barely even test my blood sugar anymore, because there are continuous glucose monitors that you put in once every week or once every two weeks. And your blood sugar is like you can see it on your phone. You can see it on your insulin pump. And so all this stuff is paying off. So coming in next month on actually St. Patrick's Day, just a new day that we're doing. We usually do it in October, but it's you JDRF one walk. So it's just a walk, they do a ride as well bike ride. We have a golf every year, but this time, I have a walk team. It's called Austin's beat the BTS walk team, where I just, you know, I if you want to join the team, go ahead, if you want to just donate money or donate time be a volunteer at the walk near you, you know, our walk is at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena in LA. So I'm sure there's a walk in Austin, Texas, or in Dallas Fort Worth, you know, I went to one from fans from Beauty and the Beast to beasties, they raised a lot of money they raised, you know, over 20 $25,000, for that, you know, JDRF. And so the JDRF was able to get me to a walk in North Carolina, in Durham, North Carolina. And so I walked with some of the fans, and so part of it is raising money, part of his awareness. And also, you know, kind of reaching out to, you know, kids with type one, because when I was a kid, I didn't really have anyone to look to that had type one that I could say, oh, you know, the only person that had it was that I knew that had it was my grandmother, that was type two. And, and then Mary Tyler Moore, who was an actress, but at that point, I wanted to be a baseball player. So it didn't really connect for me, you know, also, she, to me was an old woman, like an older woman, as I got older, I, you know, I looked up to her more because she's, she had done so many great things in her career in life. And so to be someone like that for the next generation, and to inspire them to kind of let them know that diabetes is not a life sentence, even though there's no cure, it's actually something that, you know, that has helped me become a better actor become a better person, and better at doing my job as an actor, it's just given me all these skills, and also just public service and, you know, raising money and, you know, philanthropy and stuff. So try to try to be that for the next generation and raise money and awareness at the same time and also, you know, form a community. So I didn't grow up with anyone with type one. So it's nice to have people that are my age, but also, you know, the next generation, especially

Berly: 52:25

at that age.

Austin Basis: 52:26

Oh, totally. Yeah.

Berly: 52:29

I love that. Yeah, that's amazing. We have made a donation to your walk. And we're going to put your link for more donations on our link tree and be promoting that. Thank

Austin Basis: 52:38

you. I appreciate that.

Berly: 52:40

So listeners, give what you can. And then before we wrap up, I know you were on marvelous Mrs. Maisel. And that that's just recently come to a conclusion. So what have you been working on since then?

Austin Basis: 52:54

Well, since the strike, you know, auditions are back to normal. I've been doing I did a couple of independent films. I did a voiceover on this show called resident alien that aired last night. I still, I still haven't seen the episode, but I actually play a Grey Alien. You know, I guess we're invading the earth or something. They don't really tell you much about the story. Just just give you your life. I've been doing a lot of short films, with friends and people I did a student film last year I'm doing another student film, because I feel like you know, a lot of it is about the work. I you know, a teacher kind of adjunct professor so I, I have money coming in. So it's not about and residuals coming into it. It's not about necessarily, you know, making a ton of money. It's about work putting my work out there. And one of the big projects I'm kind of working I was just working on storyboards before we got on but for my my own short that I wrote about diabetes that is like a diabetic horror film. Oh, I had a type hypoglycemic seizure. That means my blood sugar went almost to zero, which could have killed me when I was 10 years old. And so I had this crazy experience as a 10 year old that really like, has stuck with me all these years. And obviously, for my family, my parents and my brother and neighbors had this traumatic experience, you know, by virtue of me having the seizure, you know, this medical episode that I had, so I've crafted it into, you know, kind of a diabetic horror story where I, my character at 10 mice, like, Austin is his name, thinks he's being possessed by evil forces. And he doesn't he doesn't understand what's happening to him. And he can't communicate with you know, can't really voice his to ask for help or anything because that's what happens when you get low blood sugar. You just, you know, you fog out you did get disoriented. Did you don't necessarily hallucinate, but it's lack of oxygen to your brain, your blood sugar is not doing what it needs, your blood is not doing what it needs to to like get, keep your body working, keep your brain working. So basically, you start to, like, get confused, and you know, like, freak out. And so I would just remember it, and I wanted to tell my side of it, but I also wanted to tell my parents side of it and kind of show on camera like what that what that experience was like for me and my family, but frame it in the context of a scary horror film that would for an audience, make them understand how sometimes scary or life threatening disease is.

Berly: 55:44

I love that. Yeah, yeah, you'll definitely have to keep us updated on that. We'll keep following you on

Austin Basis: 55:50

stuff for update. Yeah, we're probably gonna do a crowdfunding campaigns, because it probably needs special effects. And I want to put, I want to put it in make it the best film that it could be. Because I think the better it is, the more people will see it. And the more people will like understand what it's like to sometimes have these low blood sugar attacks, where you are basically drunk to the outside world. But really, you're having this whole experience that no one really understands or knows about. It's very lonely, but also, that's why a community helps. And you know, hopefully the community can help bring something like this to light you know, everyone to Yeah.

Berly: 56:30

Well, thank you so much for your time, Austin. I really appreciate it.

Austin Basis: 56:34

Thank you for having me. I know we ran long, but I talk a lot now.

Berly: 56:38

Oh, no, they haven't fun. I loved it. Google me hasn't kicked me out yet. So I'm not too concerned about it. But yeah, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time.

Austin Basis: 56:48

Thanks for having me. And I look forward to what your reaction to the rest of this series will be.

Berly: 56:55

I could kick myself because he had such a good memory. And there were all these scenes that I would think of whenever he would be talking about something. And then I would stop thinking and be present and listen to what was being said. And then I would forget to bring it up.

LA: 57:10

gonna write it down.

Berly: 57:11

I know I do. I need to take notes like you do. Like he would he was talking about the improv stuff. How they got to improv. Yeah, one of my favorite scenes. There were a few actually. So some of my favorite spruce scenes. Were when in the Go spacers episode from season three when Harry's trying to like break down a door and spruce just goes turn the knob.

LA: 57:33

I will let you know how they do. Bloopers. Like they show bloopers on the DVDs sometimes or whatever. Yeah, I would love to see bloopers from that episode. Yeah. Because

Berly: 57:43

there had to have been some goals. Right. Maybe they didn't include because it wasn't incident Jared, you know, and then I loved anytime spruce was interacting with Diem. Yeah, there's a scene where Dean moves something and he's like, Well, you're strong. I'm just curious now because he said that they got to improv quite a bit. So I'm curious what was Ben Edlund and what was Austin basis being like? I feel like spruce would do this. I feel like spruce would be really impressed with Dean strength or whatever. So yeah, I was kind of kicking myself after we ended the call. Like it was like, Oh, shit, I forgot to ask him about this. Ask him about that. But what a great conversation. Oh, yeah, quote, close it out from the ghost phasers episode. Kenny spruce is looking at Dean and he goes, Can I ask you a question? And Dean says, Sure. Kenny says before when he when Sam were talking, he had said you have two months left. Dean

LA: 58:42

says it's complicated. A while ago, Sam, and then he stops himself and looks away. Oh, it's still me. And then he says, You know what? I'm not gonna whine about my bullshit. You know what? I'm not gonna whine about my bullshit problems to a bullshit reality show. I'm gonna do my fucking job. After a long pause Kenny goes, Is it cancer? And Dean says Shut up. Cheers.

Berly: 59:16

Thank you for listening to denim wrapped nightmares.

LA: 59:19

Follow us on Twitter or Instagram. leave a review and let us know how we can get involved in the fandom.

Berly: 59:25

This was fun. Sure.

LA: 59:28

It always is, bitch.