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#37 Depressed Darth Vader Tells All

Join me and Depressed Darth Vader (John Sullivan) for a hilarious and insightful deep dive into the world of Star Wars parody, where we discuss monetization, legal risks, and John’s approach to creating hilarious content on Twitter and Instagram.

My guest, Depressed Darth Vader (John Sullivan), and I discuss:

  • Depressed Darth Vader (John Sullivan) joins the podcast to talk about his Dark Side parody
  • Reflecting on shared experiences at Pinewood Studios in London
  • Insight into John’s approach to creating hilarious Star Wars content
  • Deep dive into using Twitter and Instagram effectively
  • How to monetize content creation
  • Discussion of legal risks associated with parody content
  • Importance of staying true to the Depressed Darth Vader character
  • Highlights of John’s success in the world of Star Wars parody

You’re going to love my conversation with Depressed Darth Vader (John Sullivan)

 

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Hashtag Fun: Jeff dives into recent trends and reads some of his favorite tweets from trending hashtags. The hashtag featured in this episode is #FatherlyAdviceFromDarthVader

Social Media Tip: Jeff goes on and on about Twitter polls and is joyous about the return of Twitter retweet normalcy. 

Featured on the show:

Hashtag Game:
#FatherlyAdviceFromDarthVader

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Announcer 0:00

Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world pop culture, social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff. Well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve. But the podcast we all need with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:15

All right. Ben, thank you very much for that amazing introduction. You get this show going each and every week, and this was no exception. Welcome, everyone to live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. I'm Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you here for Episode 37. Got a great guest for you today. Super fun guy, john Sullivan. You may know him on the Twitter and Instagram as depressed, Darth. So we're going to the dark side today for some fun Star Wars parody. And that's going to come up and just a little bit. I'm excited because we've covered Star Wars a couple times on this podcast with my good friend Dan zere, who's the host of coffee with Kenobi one of the premier Star Wars podcasts. He's amazing. And you should check that out coffee with Kenobi. Oh my god, who's that calling?

Scott Curtis 1:07

Jeff. Hey, it's Scott Curtis, thanks for picking up. Can I talk to you about my new podcast?

Jeff Dwoskin 1:11

Absolutely. Scott. What's it called?

Scott Curtis 1:13

It's called I hate Star Wars.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:15

You hate Star Wars? who hate Star Wars.

Scott Curtis 1:17

No, that's not what it's called. I do hate Star Wars was called do I hate Star Wars? Because I'm starting to second guess everything in my life.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:24

You don't know, like Star Wars or not? Well, here's

Scott Curtis 1:26

the deal. I watched the last episode of third season two of Cobra Kai, and I figured if that's okay, then maybe I can go back and check out Star Wars. So you got to know Jeff, you got to know but I'm 56 years old. I saw the original Star Wars, whatever you want to call it. The episode 85 or whatever it is. I watched it. And I hated it when I was 13 years old. And I never watched another one. And I've been dissing Star Wars ever since. And I just want to I want to make it right if it is right, so they may still suck and they may not. But I don't know what's 13 year old boy hate Star Wars is a weird one. Everybody else love that they saw it 20 times or whatever. And I'm like, This is bad. The acting is bad. Why do Han Solo and chewy communicate? But neither one talks in each other's language? Why did the stormtroopers have all this armor that doesn't protect him against anything? Every laser bullet that goes through them kills them? It bothered me. I didn't like it.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:26

So it sounds like you're putting yourself through some Star Wars, self therapy. And that's good. And I think you're gonna be a better person because of it.

Scott Curtis 2:34

Well, you know, I'm getting closer to my death and I don't want to go to the grave not knowing if I like Star Wars or not. And Cobra Kai gave me some self doubt because, you know, it's it's a pretty terrible series. And yet I still like it. Maybe Star Wars is that it's a terrible series, but I still like it. Kind of like Dawson's Creek, you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 2:54

exactly like Dawson's Creek. What's the name of your podcast again?

Scott Curtis 2:57

So it's called do I hate Star Wars with Scott Curtis with Scott Curtis and Zach Wiseman. He's so he's a big star wars dude. And he likes the Star Wars. He's gonna either say, See, I told you so. Or, hey, what's wrong with you? Depending on whether I like it or not. Okay, well, I

Jeff Dwoskin 3:15

look forward to having you back and finding out if you do or don't love Star Wars. For the record. I love Star Wars. I think you're gonna love it. Okay, we'll talk again.

Scott Curtis 3:24

Thanks a lot. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And thanks for talking to me, Jeff. Thanks for calling in the middle of my show. Bye bye.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:32

All right, everyone. Check out Scott's journey of Star Wars self discovery. Also, if you can't get enough Star Wars, check out episodes five and 19 of live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show with Dan's air. We talk about Empire Strikes Back. We talked about the Mandalorian tons of great Star Wars goodness mixed in there. Also this past Saturday was James Earl Jones birthday. So Happy Birthday to him. The original Darth Vader not the parody Darth Vader we'll be talking to in just a little bit. So Happy birthday, James Earl Jones. If you can't get enough Jeff Dwoskin in your life, check me out on cabaret cafe, a great podcast. I just guessed it on. Thanks for having me there. Also, I just guessed it on within the head of Fred podcast with my friend Fred, good friend. And so when I was on within the head of Fred, apparently I kept mentioning people that were on my show. I guess name dropping is a politically correct term for it. So Fred created this sound effect. And then he sent it to my wife. And now my wife keeps baiting me. She's like, Hey, who is that guy from lab rats. It was on your show. And I'll be like, hell sparks.

And then she plays that sound effect, which was brilliantly made by Fred but now will torment me the rest of my life. So thank you, Fred. for that.

Yeah. I'd also like to thank Figg and Associates our sponsor for the week. So great to have sponsors week after week began associates of course the makers of carbon freezing technology only the best Carbonite freezing in the galaxy state of the art gas technology, hibernation sickness, a thing of the past need to get your mother in law from one place to another at lightspeed. Well, guess what? Molten Carbonite flash freezing has never been easier. Keep your mother in law safe and quiet the whole journey using only the purest anti Bane matter. That's right, Fagan associates, your premier partner for carbon freezing when you need it most. All right. Well, everyone, definitely check out the sponsor. It's important for you to support them. That's what keeps them supporting me keeps the lights on week after week after week.

Speaking of week after week after week, can you believe it's week 37 of live from Detroit that Jeff Dwoskin show. If you haven't subscribed to the podcast on your favorite podcast app, go to the website. Jeff has funny.com You can find links to subscribe there as well. fill out our mailing list so I can send you emails and make sure you never miss any special events. And also, most importantly, tell your friends That's right. Tell your friends live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show is so great. You got to listen, you got to listen. Also, don't forget we do a special live show every Wednesday at 9:30pm. Eastern time called crossing the streams. You can follow that and watch it live and engage. It's an interactive show. You can watch on YouTube, search the Jeff Dwoskin show on YouTube and subscribe and you'll get alerted when we go live there. tons of great TV show streaming suggestions week after week. So so much great entertainment to choose from. I can't thank you enough for tuning in. And being a fan. I love hearing from you.

Follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show or Instagram at Jeff Dwoskin show comments. I'll comment back love hearing from you. Thanks again for everything. much appreciate it. Alright, we're about to get to the interview. But Jeff, you didn't do a social media tip. No, not this week. Why? Why Jeff? Why? Well, because john Sullivan depressed, Darth. It's all about social media. It's all about him on Twitter and everything he's done. So let's just say this week, it's a giant use case for you to take in. So ladies and gentlemen, very funny. My friend, john Sullivan, depress Darth. All right. Hey, everybody, I am here with john Sullivan. You may know him better as depressed, Darth. He's one of the biggest parody accounts on Twitter and Instagram. Welcome to the show.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 7:42

It's great to be here. Happy to be on your show. And this is you. How many of these have you done now? This is fairly new, right?

Jeff Dwoskin 7:49

It's fairly new. I'd give a number of I don't know what I'm gonna release this one. So I don't

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 7:55

talk about any news. So

Jeff Dwoskin 7:58

john has one of the biggest parody accounts on Twitter already did and like, and we'll talk about that a little bit because the evil Twitter made their way in to take down the Empire which is, I guess, in a way ironic. JOHN and I met a few years ago now in London, we were both pulled in by Gillette to go to a rogue one opening at Pinewood Studios in London.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 8:25

Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:26

So that's how we met. I was a blogger for the Huffington Post. You were a big famous depress Darth parody account. That

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 8:33

was fun. That was a lot of fun. It was just so fast. I like flew in. We I think we went out like we like toward London briefly during the day. And then we went out. And we I remember we were at Pinewood remember how much food there was. It was like, they kept bringing out food. And it was like, literally, it could have fed 700 people, but there was like, 30 people there. And it was like food after food was coming out. And I was like, I can't eat anymore. I'm sorry. And it was like, that was fun.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:00

It was glorious. But I like did. There's nothing better than free food and even better, delicious free food.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 9:07

Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:08

So tell me tell everyone what depressed darth is what that that account is the whole concept behind it.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 9:14

If you kind of look at Darth Vader, and you kind of watch him in the movies now like he's just so mean and angry that it's almost comical, like his voice and everything like in some of those original movies. Like there's never a bright moment with him. He's just like, just furious all the time. So like, I don't know, years ago, I was starting trying to shoot some videos on YouTube because I was like what me my friend did to kind of mess around and have fun. I just had this idea for like a really depressed Darth Vader who like the Empire had fallen. He was kind of down on his luck. And then I thought it'd be funny to get a suit and shoot those videos. I mean, looking back, it'd be kind of hard to do like to buy the suit and everything. So anyways, I just had an idea to start a Twitter page so I could get like a few 1000 followers releasable. Video and hopefully it'll go viral on YouTube. Who knows it gets seen by a lot of people. I just thought it was cool. So then I started writing jokes kind of as this character of like depressed art. I mean, his wife died, his kids are leading a rebellion against. He's been at the helm of to Death Stars that got destroyed. And it was just like the jokes kind of came. He's such a downtrodden character. And then parody accounts were kind of like early on a thing at twitter. So I think originally it was down and out Vader and then depressed, Darth just sounded so much better. And actually, I'm wearing a T shirt here. You can see it says Jedi in the streets sit in the sheets.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:35

Yeah, baby.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 10:36

Original depressed Darth joke there on a T shirt.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:40

You started around 2010. Yeah. How many followers Did you have before your issues with Twitter Corp. So

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 10:48

I the most I ever had was like, I think 860,000 but then a lot of weird stuff started happening on Twitter. Like I started losing followers, but it wasn't like I was doing anything different or in like, I would lose like 100 200 a day. And I was like, it was just weird. But I think Twitter was cleaning out like lots of bots and everything. So yeah, I had like 800,000 I was pushing a million and then I got suspended for copyright issues. I just I used a song in some videos with me and the Darth Vader suit dancing. And I use some popular songs that were copyrighted and the management companies got upset and flagged me a few times. I think I will get it back internet. You wait, I'll be back with the best jokes you've ever seen.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:31

Because you also have you're also pushing it on Instagram, right? Yeah.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 11:35

So Instagram is fun, because like Instagram is just like pure videos. And I actually started a new page to press Darth with two R's. So I'll take you know, the memes I do on there and put them on Instagram. Oh, Instagram. I don't know. It's it's like there's just a lot on there. And I feel like there's like just a lot of, I don't know, celebrities, hockin products and girls in bikinis and I don't know, it's becoming very heavily influencer base.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:07

Yes, yes. But when you have like over 40,000 followers?

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 12:11

I do. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 12:13

that's not too shabby.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 12:14

No, it's nice. I wish I could grow more. It's just hard because I have other Twitter pages. So I'm like the only person running it. So to do the other Twitter pages, put content up there and then go to Instagram put content up there. So it gets tough and I want to shoot new dark videos, but it's like,

Jeff Dwoskin 12:32

what was your your big breakout for Darth? Like, how did you know when this was gonna be a thing that you you really could make some money off of

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 12:40

it started early on because like early like in 2010, and stuff like that, like brands started coming around and being like, oh, there's these people on the internet, who we can kind of get for cheap. Instead of going to like a network and being like, we want to put a commercial on your page, we can have this guy put a commercial up and hit like you can give them 50 bucks. So that was early on like it started making darts started making money early on. And then you could also like do things like the link to articles like the 10 best Star Wars characters, and then you'd click through a slideshow. So there was ways to make money, but at the same time with Darth when it is like you're playing a character and it's a comedy page. Like, after a while, it was tough to like, do sort of like product placement, where it's like, hey, buy this product. I'm a fake, depressed. I'm a fake Darth Vader character. And then like other people came to the internet, like everybody became an influencer. So they'd go to someone like a real celebrity. But then when I hit 100,000 followers, that happened pretty fast. The stuff started really taking off during the 2016 election. That was just such a crazy time. And like Trump was on Twitter. Everybody was like at each other's throats. And every like everybody was watching even the primary debates. So I would live tweet those the primary debates, and then the presidential debates. It was a time at Twitter where like, literally, you could do a tweet, like I did a lot of talk about like because jobs jobs jobs was a big thing. Like I'm going to create jobs. So I kept doing this versions of this joke, which was like I'm gonna create hundreds of 1000s of jobs by building a new desktop vote for me for president and you literally do that in the middle of the bay with like, everyone's on Twitter, everyone's watching it would just blow up so like the presidential debates held because I didn't take aside in that, like on who was right or wrong or who I was voting for. I was a candidate, not I Darth was a candidate. So that's what it like, really blew up. Like, there were some tweets in there that I did that would just explode because it was such a crazy environment. That's kind of when it got like, tweets were everywhere. And then it was always like, you know, like live moments and like Super Bowls and stuff like that. And World Cup back in those days. You could put a tweet out during a time and it was like, people were like, it was like a frenzy. Everybody would retweet it like especially during the World Cup. It was crazy because it was so new. It's not so much that anymore. Like there's not a crazy Twitter like Twitter doesn't go crazy now. Like, you know the Democratic primaries happen it's it's different now,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:04

I found the same thing because I was really into live tweeting at one point from my personal account and I there was nothing I would miss I would never miss an Oscars or debating I would you know, you just dropped something and like 100 you get 100 retweets. Yeah, it was just like, but then all of a sudden it stopped. I mean, it was like I'd be I'd be doing the Emmys or whatever. And there's nobody could figure out the same hashtag. And even when the Emmys would put up their hashtag or the Oscars, and they put it on the screen, and everyone would use 15 different versions of it. Yeah, no one understands the concept of using the same hash tag so that everyone is feeding into the same conversation and that you can see each other and help with that lift. But yeah, I saw it. I remember I would drop stuff. And then I would get I would like get so giddy The next day, I was like, Oh my god, I can't you know how many things would happen? It would

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 15:55

it would show up on websites, too. It'd be like, it'd be like, oh, from the Emmys last night. And like you'd be reading this article, and then your tweet would be right there. And you're like, Oh, look at that. That's pretty cool. But I don't know. It's like it that you're right. It's It's different now.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:09

Yeah. See? threepio keeping it Star Wars focused, walked on one of the award shows he had the red arm. So it was probably a force awakens time or something like that. And yeah, and I did a tweet and ended up in BuzzFeed. Yeah, they there was a time where like this that was a normal occurrence. It was so normal people wouldn't even tell me when they saw them. Because they like, like, oh, is another one of your tweets. Why didn't you mention it? Oh, well, I always see one here. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but still, it's no big deal. Yeah, tell me,

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 16:37

although I see. Um, so when I got I follow a lot of people from depressed start, you were one of them. So I would always see the hashtag games. But some of those hashtags will like the next day, they'll be like, people talked about this. And it's like your hashtag right there. I don't know if they always credit you though. And it's literally like 20 different tweets off the hashtag. And like, that's someone's whole article is literally the hashtag plus

Jeff Dwoskin 17:00

cherry pick the best tweets. I can't tell you. How many people take our content, use it as their own, give zero attribution. Yeah. And even if we reach out to them, they don't care. It's like, Oh, it's just, you know, it's like, you know, somebody created that. Yeah, we worked with someone who created that and put that out, and you're just acting like it just magically happened. It did not magically happen. Yeah. But yeah, well, you know, that's it is what it is, in terms of the parody account in terms of making money. And I don't you don't tell me how much I'm trying to get to that. But like, Is there like just affiliate networks you tapped into or how much of it was like people paying you to push stuff versus

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 17:38

early on, it was more people paying to push stuff. But like, I don't know, I may be different if you're like an actual celebrity, like a Kardashian. And you're like, I like this lipstick by it. So I don't think that necessarily works for me. But from Darth I created all these other kind of random Twitter pages that don't have my face on it, or my name on it. They're just sort of generic things like movie lines, TV quotes, music lyrics, so I have all those. And then from there, you can promote articles. There's also there's pages that have like on Twitter now, there's these video ads that come before actual videos. So you'll see some of these bigger pages, you know, networks, and then there's like a Nike ad before or whatever Pepsi ad. So I've partnered with some of those companies who have access to that ad revenue, but they have a small following. But let's say you know, you have 5000 followers, but you can get video ads. So I have a network of all these other pages that I can retweet, and kind of engage with these videos. And that's, that's how you kind of make money. But it's hard now with those affiliate programs to direct traffic to websites. Early on, it was like good because people are sort of new at the Internet. So they click on a lot of links and be like, what's this I like this I click on everything the internet is so new, I feel like the consumer now the internet consumer has gotten like much smarter, and it's like, I'm not gonna click on that link. I know what that link is. And now you ever click on a link and they're like, and you start scrolling. That's like, I always look up like recipes for stuff and like just tell me the exact ingredients and what I need to do and you'll start reading down it's like when I was five my grandmother used to cook me this meal and I would walk down to the summer breeze Bay day and as you're going out it's AD AD AD AD AD you can still make money off that like it's still there but it's harder and I you know these influencers now, like Tick Tock influencers are making all this money now it's like we'll pay you $10,000 you know, company x, if you mention us in like your 15 second video, and I don't know I feel like a lot of these companies literally just throw money at whatever platforms they're whoever's there and just hope it sticks. You know, I remember a vine there was there was guys on Vine and seven second videos. I remember that guy, King Bach. I was to do an interview with him. He's like a he's on Instagram now and other places, but he was getting like 30 Go ahead for an ad in a seven second video. And it's like, I wonder about those companies now, if they look back and they're like, do we get a good return on investment? Spending 30 grand on an influencer? You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:10

I mean, it's, it's hard to measure exactly what it's getting. But yeah, some of these people can make 30,000 plus and get 30,000 50,000 views in literally three minutes. And then yeah, then it skyrockets to millions, you know, within 24 hours. I know. And so if you compare that to like, a paid impression versus Okay, these are people that are fans that listen to this person is that is their 2 million views better than 10 million paid, you know, I mean, so yeah, it's I think it's still out there. But yeah, it's not going away anytime soon. But yeah, the TIC Tock people are making it hand over fist. So they will probably sweat and pretty good when Trump I

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 20:54

know this is a customer's like videos that make fun of him on there like Why does he hate Tick Tock so much

Jeff Dwoskin 21:02

Tick Tock actually banded together. That was they took credit for the Tulsa. Oh, so he's insulted by that. So he's trying to shut it down. tanking the Tulsa rally, making it seem like they'll be millions and 6000 people showed up. Yeah. And then yeah, well, that then leveraging, I mean, his PR what he says then as well, it's tied to China and China's stealing all our data. Yeah, so we're gonna do that. You know, it's not he's not playing the hurt my feeling card. But yeah, his skin is so thin that yes, that's what it is. And the China angle. Well, true or not true. I don't know is the legitimate angle to make it something that's gonna happen.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 21:46

Yeah. I don't know. I worry about some of those apps. So I feel like every week there's a new app and it's like, I have to get on it with the press star and I went to get on tik tok and it's like depressed stars has been taken already. And I'm like, Who's taking depressed our Instagrams been taken to so I'm depressed underscore dark. I got like depressed stars underscore six on Tick Tock. And then what if people get sick of Tick Tock in like, a year? I mean,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:13

I bet your videos would do good on on Tick tock, and I don't know that the username is is that employee?

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 22:18

I don't think it is as is as it used to be. I think people used to really sweat it.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:22

I think as long as you're being consistent with that information that you're putting out there on Tick tock, that's everything I've seen. Are you able to talk about? I am I could brag that one of mine got 300 views.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 22:34

Excuse me.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:36

I know. It's no it's I am not very successful on tik tok, but I do enjoy it tic tocs interesting because the way their algorithms work, every single person sees very different things. So tic tic Tock is to me is not the same thing that it is to my kids. Yeah. Yeah. My youngest daughter is he she kind of had one that went viral had millions of views and got like 55,000 some failings. Yeah. Your daughter? Yeah, maybe she can tell you her account.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 23:08

Maybe she can point some people

Jeff Dwoskin 23:10

my way. But yeah, you know, it's it's it's interesting. So let me ask you about so Darth Vader obviously. Well, now it's owned by Disney has any as that been an issue? I mean, when it was just George Lucas wasn't an issue now that Disney Disney is known to be very litigious.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 23:27

Yeah, I know. And no one's ever reached out for me from Disney or Lucasfilm. I've always written not affiliated with Disney or Lucasfilm on the Twitter page. I never say stuff that's like, I don't think I've ever sworn undepressed Darth my material is never like super offensive or anything. And I never really do anything to hurt the brand. If anything, I'd say like, you know, I was tweeting from the press star before Disney bought them in 2012. So I almost bring awareness to the brand where it's like you have someone on social media constantly tweeting as Darth Vader. It's sort of like I don't know, I would argue it's like good for Disney. I mean, who knows if they agree with that.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:06

If they're not making money, I'm sure they don't agree with you could be elevating them anywhere you they're not making money. I think

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 24:15

free marketing, it's free marketing. They could pay me for the marketing I'm doing for them. They should be paying me

Jeff Dwoskin 24:21

do you connect with you hang out with you part of like any, like Star Wars fandom, you know, either via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Do you like you do leverage any of those things that exist to kind of just help push your Star Wars material?

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 24:37

Not really. There's a few pages that I there was like other parody pages coming up that we sort of would work out like desktop PR was a guy I think he's out of Australia. There was some other smaller Twitter pages but like, I don't know, I'm not like fandom or anything like that. I kind of would just go straightforward content every day, down the line. Like I was getting Like a big guy on Twitter for like networking, where it's like, Hey, you retweet me that I'll retweet you. And we'll grow together. Like I was always more like, you know, growing it in the way that you do where it's like there's a live event, you retweet it, you get, you know, 5000 retweets, you get 300 400 500 followers. And then like, the next day, you're bringing content and 500 new people, then they're sharing it. Hopefully you get more that way. I will say, Star Wars kind of consumes you when you do this, because like, everybody's like, Oh, he's depressed, Darth. He's a Star Wars guy. So like, everything people give me as in gifts and stuff like that is Star Wars related. And it's like, anytime the new movies would come out, people would see me like, cousins and stuff, and like family, or whatever it is family parties and stuff that like, oh, would you think of the new Star Wars and I'd have to like, give my expert opinion on it. So like, I'm like, always Star Wars out. And like, that's why like having this account suspended has been kind of nice, because I haven't had to, like, deep dive into Star Wars every day. And like related to the news, and like, find some sort of joke is like, relatable and good for the day. But yeah, I, I swear, Jeff, I have so much Star Wars stuff in my house that have been like gifts, like literally the other day in the mail, I got these three, nice, like, paintings. And it was like a new hope Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi these like sort of artistic paintings of them and their frame. And it literally, there's no address on it. They just came to me and I'm like, Okay, I have nowhere to hang in there really nice. I'll hopefully hang up somewhere. Like if I ever have an office or something. But they're like from my friend in London, who like we had both. He was like, originally with me when we were making the videos and had the idea for the press start. And then he kind of, you know, got like a real job and how to go about his life. But yeah, it's just like almost our stuff. It's everywhere.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:48

Doesn't sound like too much of a burden or a curse. But I could see. I can see it. Yeah, it's like, I remember owning we owned a business back in the 90s. And, and so if people were to get us holiday gifts, they would get us something like Israel related because we were Jewish. Here, he said, Oh, you know, here's something and I'm like, Oh, thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. But yeah, people connect you to that, because you're so so well known. Let me ask you, did you ever do I don't have a finance background? And yes, you do social media in general. But do we ever stand up comic? Did you ever do any professional writing? I mean, you write lots of jokes?

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 27:40

Yeah, no, I'm a killer guy, like wedding speeches. Like I can really knock the house out of wedding speeches, I think I could have done stand up comedy. And then I also have like, various emails I send out to like, major lists, which is like a lot of comedy writing. But that's all just kind of for fun. I run like a hockey skate. And the email for it is legendary. It's well known throughout the hockey community, because it's just straight comedy, like down the middle. I play like this character in the email every week, it comes out the idea of getting up on a stage to me, and it just seems so hard. And like I'm old now. So I would have had to start so much earlier. But like getting up on the stage and making people laugh, and bombing and trying to get somewhere that it's just seems so hard to me that it's like I don't know, I'd rather like write jokes on the internet and kind of you should try it as depressed Darth usually the one day you should actually get up there. And just I don't know, I don't know how much the mic in here through that

Jeff Dwoskin 28:38

the thing but if you could pull that off, that'd be kind of funny, I think

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 28:41

so I thought of like doing a recorded thing. Where if I could put it over like the PA system in the actual comedy club, and I come out. Like, why did Anakin Skywalker cross the road? And the whole crowd is like sitting there

Jeff Dwoskin 28:56

to get to the dog. So

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 28:59

But seriously, your love the audience? And then the whole show is just me doing straight Star Wars jokes. I don't know. I You're so you're a comedian, right? Have you been able to get out there? Is everything closed?

Jeff Dwoskin 29:13

I haven't done stage work in quite some time. Well, not this year lease. And so I've ended up starting this podcast is sort of just be a little bit of an outlet. Yeah. I do a little silly stuff of fronds and little stuff at the end. And then within an interview in between so this has been my outlet. I don't know that I will go back on stage just because maybe occasionally, but it just wasn't necessarily going anywhere. Yeah, I wasn't. This allows me to take time away from the family. But I'm still here and it's not that much time. Yeah. So there we are. And this is this is enjoyable. So what was what was your biggest video you ever did? Do you have any any specific one? Yes. Super viral.

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 29:53

Yeah. So I was I do also I work so part time for this job. My brother and his friend have this business card. They like go into these houses. And they basically people, let's say they have a relative die and they're like, we don't want to deal with this, we're gonna we want everything out of the house. And my brother's friend is like an antiques dealer. So he'll go and do it at a discounted price. And he will sell off a lot of the stuff that he finds in there. So it's like his business. Anyways, we're at this house, it was an absolute dump, and I was helping them out. I was like, the third guy, and we were moving all the stuff from a house and it was like completely broken down, but stuffed with material. It was like a hoarders house. It was like having this nice part of Cape Cod. So I there was this trampoline outside. And I always would bring the Darth Vader costume because it's like the locations were so perfect because it was like a lot of dilapidated places and like perfect for the press start. So my brother, I was like, Hey, get a video of me jumping up and down on this trampoline. So I'm jumping up and down on the trampoline, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, Wait, let me drive by and take the video. So there's this video I have an 18 second version of it or a six second version of it. Of Me jumping up and down in this trampoline and the car kind of just drives by and it's just the most random weirdest video ever because it's like literally the house behind it looks like it's like gonna fall down and it's me jumping in the air like excited dancing on this trampoline. And if you go by saw that on Instagram, like this is going back maybe a year now that you up on Instagram. It was like on every page on Instagram like Star Wars page on Instagram like Darth Vader, blah, blah, blah. That's awesome. Yeah, it was crazy. So it videos on Twitter don't really blow up. I think people have such a short attention span on Twitter that they're not going to sit there and look at a video. You know, anything that's longer than like 10 seconds. Honestly, I doesn't really go well. So it's gotta be like quick and hit them hard. So this video was I mean, it was like the perfect conditions to shoot the press stars video.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:55

That's awesome. That's okay. So how can people catch up with you now so you're you're depressed? underscore Darth on Instagram? Yes. And then what's your new Twitter handle? And everyone follows We can build you back up

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 32:07

depressed start with two hours at the end so depressed doors like a pirate. I should be back with depressed Darth I'm gonna have a triumphant return the internet is gonna celebrate when depressed dark gets on suspended.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:18

We will have a glorious celebration. Yeah,

Depressed Darth Vader (john sullivan) 32:20

you and I you and I will do an internet high five. How

Jeff Dwoskin 32:23

about that? We will do that. We'll do that. I will. I appreciate you taking some time out and hanging out with me. This was fun catching up. Everyone followed depressed, Darth. I'll put all the links in the show notes and all that kind of stuff. JOHN, thank you very much. All right. Well, that was fine. You guys got to check out depressed stars. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Good news. Since the interview was done, Twitter gave him back his account. So he's in full, depressed dark mode. Check the show notes for all the links to his accounts. They'll be there. All right. You know what time it is. It's time for the hashtag roundup trend of the week. That's right. This is where we pick a hashtag and then read tweets from tweeters from all over the world. This week's hashtag keeping with the Darth Vader theme is hashtag fatherly advice from Darth Vader Darth Vader is renowned to be one of the most famous fathers in all the galaxy, so why wouldn't diabolical 13 in a guest game from hashtag ground up? challenge the world to hashtag fatherly advice from Darth Vader? As always, all the tweeters I'm about to read will be at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter, retweet them, show them some love. All of them will also be listed in the show notes. All right, here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, settle down for hashtag fatherly advice from Darth Vader. If you're with someone who doesn't love Star Wars puns, then you're looking in all the wrong places. Thank you Darth Vader for that great fatherly advice. Here's some more advice from Darth Vader. Black is slimming. Call me if you ever need a hand forced choke first, ask questions later. Always wear a mask. Don't forget to ask for the two for one discount on robotic limbs. More fatherly advice from Darth Vader. Sometimes you have to stand up to your boss. That's true. Especially if you want to save your son so always keep a spare Admiral around. Not all of us go through admirals as much as Darth Vader but still good advice. wheezing wheeze out. Solid advice. Never vacation on mustafar right? Yes, the lava planet. And finally do invest in the elder on stock markets. Wait a minute, cuz he knows something we don't know. All right. Well, that was some great hashtag fatherly advice from Darth Vader. Hope you enjoyed that. Download the hashtag roundup app play along and one day one of your tweets may show up on the Jeff Dwoskin show. Thanks. fortune awaits you. All right. Well, you know, I can't believe it. We're at the end of yet another Episode Episode 37 has come and gone. Thank you all for sharing this time with me. Don't forget to subscribe and tell your friends about live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. I know they'd love to hear from you. And I know I'd appreciate it. Thank you all and we'll see you next week.

Announcer 35:23

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

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