The Debris Show: Two Becomes Three

The show plowed on through its first few months, and our numbers were growing. We'd established a regular following of viewers (people we could count on), and had started to make a name for ourselves. We started doing broadcasts 15 minutes early, to play music and get the crowd pumped up for the show. A regular gathering in the spotterchat room paralleled our broadcasts, and added an extra element. Bridget came up with the idea of using Skype to allow viewers to phone in with questions or comments, and while at first we struggled mightily with technical issues, it eventually became a wonderful tool that further enhanced the show.

One of the chatroom regulars, a young nerdy fellow named David Reimer, came to us one night before a show to ask if he could assist with the Skype thing. Bridget and I figured why not, so he did a remote help session with us during a show one night. It went fairly well, and he was beginning to grow on us, so we invited him to help out each week with calls. After a few weeks, we invited him to be on the show, as tech support and to add another personality. However, I made it clear that if David joined, Bridget (who, up to this point, wanted nothing to do with being a part of the actual audio/video show) would have to step into the spotlight as well. She agreed, so we became a trio.

David brought with him a lot of nerdy techno knowledge, which served the show well. He created a multiple webcam system, which allowed him to change angles between various cameras. Now that we had three personalities actually talking on the show, it made perfect sense. Bridget and I went out and spent a decent amount of money on various types of microphones, trying to enhance our sound. While the built-in laptop mic worked well enough to do the show, it was lacking in overall quality. Because I felt audio was the most important part of the show, we went through an extensive phase of trying every kind of mic we could find at WAL-MART or Fry's within our budget. We settled on a mix of headphone mics and a stick mic; Bridget and I used the headsets while David had the stick. However, David somehow cut the cord on the stick mic the same day we purchased it (the first sign of what was to come with him) so he ended up joining us with the headsets. The Debris Show had made a dramatic transformation; we went from one guy on a garbled mic and one generic camera angle, to three people with three camera angles, all talking on crisp microphones. To say the least, it was a vast improvement.

While Bridget was still rather gun-shy about being on camera and speaking much at all, David and I found instant chemistry; his nerdy, youthful demeanor chock full of smartass meshed brilliantly with my raw, more-experienced, "fuck you" attitude. We were at each other constantly, and the audience loved it. Over the next few shows, Bridget slowly started to get more involved in the show itself, taking on a kind of "mother" role to David, which created even more back-and-forths of constant jabbing that the viewers lapped up. By the time another month had gone by, we had all developed into our roles nicely. On the surface, everything seemed to be clicking. But internal issues were slowly starting to rise, which would eventually cause real problems.

Bridget, who had been running the show until David came along, began to feel as if her role in the show had been given to David by me. She didn't mince words when she brought it up to me, more than a few times, about how she felt she was no longer important to the show, or even needed. My view on the situation was, I had always wanted her to be on-camera with me, as a co-host. In my mind, once we made the decision to bring David on, that signaled the end of the "Shane solo crazy rant" era, and started the "Shane & Bridget" show. I don't think she had a problem with that vision, so much as David was simply beginning to take the show over tech-wise. Even I felt his role growing while ours wasn't; he was running everything from his machine, and whatever bells and whistles he created week to week came and went with him. I'll be the first to admit that while I sensed it was happening, I never said anything or did anything to rock the boat. I'm lazy and technically-retarded, so all I wanted to do was come up with topics and talk on camera. I ignored what was going to become a major issue down the road.