MrBiffo

BUBBLEGUN EXTRA: SUPERMAN REVIEWED

Here's our spoiler-stuffed review of the new Superman film. Also, a furious discussion about review scores. And a bit of talking shop-style waffle about the new YouTube channel.

EARLY ACCESS: BYAMPOD Ep 141

Well... turns out there are more BYAMtches still on here than we thought or could've hoped for. The least we can do is give you early access to the NEXT episode! Yes: we're keeping it going, if we can. It'll be out on Friday for everyone else.

In this one... I find out what it's like to listen to Marillion for the first time in over a year. Also, we discuss which superheroes the various band members would be. Goes about as well as you'd expect.

And tomorrow, keeping the superhero theme... Bubblegun Extra. We review Superman. Sort of.

DROP THE BIFFO

Hello, gang. Happy Monday.

Firstly: new Bubblegun up now! Typically ridiculous, and worth it for the discussion around Hairdolph Hitler and Sanja's confusion about blowholes.

So! A few things. The biggest one is… we didn’t film over this weekend. Long story short – two of my kids have birthdays this week, so we were meant to be seeing them and doing filming along the way. But for assorted reasons they couldn’t do it, and we had to reschedule.

However… we’d already decided that the video we had planned to launch the new channel with perhaps wasn’t right. We get one chance at this, and we don’t want to risk confusing YouTube unnecessarily. So, we’ve done a slight rejig to ensure sure we launch with the strongest possible statement of intent.

It’s not because we expect the first video to be some viral sensation – we’re new, it’ll be fewer views inevitably at least for a while – but we want to train the algorithm right, and ensure we set out our stall so that everyone who has subscribed knows what to expect, and that everyone who is there wants to be there.

We’ll experiment with slightly different formats occasionally - which may include Britain's Most Boring City - but we want to remain consistent. Anything outside our niche will go on the Digitiser channel, which is already a hodge-podge of everything anyway.

I mean, when you look at Digi now we're folding into one place all our content over the past almost-a-decade … it’s insane. I mean, it’s SO all-over-the-shop, so little wonder that the YouTube algorithm doesn’t know what the hell to do with us.

Digi Level 2 will continue to be re-uploaded once a week, which should take us up to the launch of Drong.

We need to get this new channel right and start out as we mean to go on. We’re hopefully still filming this week, moving one of the videos we were doing in Wales to a new location.

So, thanks for bearing with us as we work to nail it. We'll have some bonus stuff this week, including new Bubblegun Extra, and a Biffo's Brain - which will be on Wednesday for a change. You won't be short-changed.

POD

You would’ve seen we did a new BYAMPOD on Friday, and... I’d really missed it. We'll be doing more.

Not so much the talking about Marillion part, but the being me part, and that has also factored into why we want to get the new channel right. More than that, we got lovely feedback - people had missed us, and we needed to hear that, because.... out of everything we do, BYAMPOD was always just us being us.

When we started BYAMPOD, there were no preconceived notions. Nobody expected anything from me. I wasn’t “Mr Biffo”, but just Paul. As a result, I was far more myself, far more congruent and open, than I’ve ever been on anything I’ve done under the Digi umbrella.

BYAMPOD was frequently funny and silly, but it also gave us space to discuss whatever we wanted. It often got emotional, philosophical… I was so proud of its authenticity and honesty. It felt fully rounded, and a place where I could be me without people ever going "Where's Gannon? Where's Beanus?". People who just wanted to hear what Sanja and I had to say.

When we started doing our bigger documentaries, our intention was to bring some of that BYAMPOD spirit into them, but… we had a big problem. They were appearing on Digitiser, I was calling myself Mr Biffo… and that brought with it an expectation. And I was all too aware of that expectation, and played up to it.

I felt I had to Biffo-it-up, rather than just fully relaxing and being myself. I tried so hard to avoid it, but it would inevitably creep in. There has been a lot of pressure, and it came at a time when I’ve been going through a lot of self-reflection, and feeling I’d been losing sight of who I am.

We want that pressure lifted. We want to be free to make stuff as us and not hide behind Digi’s long shadow, or the character of Mr Biffo. So with that in mind... we’ve changed the name of the new channel - dropping the Biffo.

It’s now Paul And Sanja’s Big Fat Quest. Which we bloody love. YouTube won't let us change the channel name officially until tomorrow, but that's what it'll be: just @PaulAndSanja for the purposes of your bookmarks.

As we’ve said before, it’s going to be the same sort of stuff. We're not dramatically changing what we do. We’ve got four videos properly planned out, a few more in the early stages, and our intention is still to roll them out as quickly as possible - but not rush them.

Again, thanks for your patience this month; it’s probably just as well I got walloped with Covid this month, as we’d have probably filmed by now… and potentially launched the channel in the wrong way. Being ill bought us some vital thinking time.

For both of us it feels like we’ve made absolutely the right call – from putting the old videos back up, from re-launching Digi Level 2, to making Digi the home of Drong’s Challenge… to starting a new channel for the things we’re really passionate about. We just need to separate ourselves from the noise and baggage of Biffo and Digi on there as much as possible. This is big for us, and big for me personally, so thank you for hanging in there while I figured things out.

Onwards!

Hairdolph

We decided to do an episode all about hair, and along the way we discuss everything from hairdresser social anxiety and dolphin hair to whether Stiltskin is a good name for a band.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaulAndSanja

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/MrBiffo

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BYAMPOD: EPISODE 140 - SO HERE WE ARE ONCE MORE...

It wasn't planned. It's a bit of a ramble. But... there's a brand new episode of BYAMPOD out now, explaining just where it has been for the last year or so. Most of you will know from my posts on here why the podcast went on hiatus, but this explains for the listeners. Too soon to say when we'll do another... but I don't think this is the end.

SUPER QUIZ THREE TRILLION - THE REPLAY

Well, this was a lot of fun, and for a first attempt... it went pretty well . Hope you enjoy watching this replay. Thanks to everyone who joined in - we're definitely going to do this again. We'll be doing the regular Biffo's Brain next week, but we'll aim to do one of these broader Zoom quizzes every few months or so. Thanks, everyone!

QUIZ-ME-DO: SOON!

Your reminder that the quiz kicks off at 7.30! See you then. Link in the earlier post.

PRESENTING... SUPER QUIZ THREE TRILLION!

Morning! So, tonight... it's open doors to Patrons on our Zoom call. We're looking forward to it... not least because we're going to attempt something we've not done before - and host a quiz! Turns out that Zoom has an actual quiz hosting option that we didn't know about. If nothing else, come along and enjoy watching us fail to get it working.

There's no pressure to take part, switch on your camera, or interact with us. But we thought it might be a laugh. Digi - going back to its Teletext days - has a bit of a history with quizzes, so it'll be in that spirit. It's just a matter of selecting your answer, so you won't have to shout out if you don't want to.

Here's the link. Kicks off at 7.30pm and I'll send a reminder about half an hour before.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85262176900?pwd=6ibS8posdTskxApOpEbXxFOZVVBJJR.1

See you then!

DIGI LEVEL 2... NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS SHOULD'VE BEEN

Hola!

In case you missed it… Digi Level 2 is starting to roll out on the main channel. We’ve uploaded the criminally under-watched prequel and the first episode today. Slightly cringe at the picture quality – mixture of old cameras and too much smoke - but more than watchable. Especially Resident Prequel.

https://www.youtube.com/@Digitiser

For paying Patrons, tomorrow at 7.30pm we’re doing our big Zoom thing. It’ll be a laid-back chat, no real agenda, but you’re all welcome. The link will plop about an hour or so beforehand, so watch your inboxes or check on here. Hope to see lots of you there.

I’ve cleared the decks with the day job for a bit, so I’m back on Digi duties. First order of business is the couple of vids for the new channel. We’re filming on Sunday, and possibly again next week, so they can both drop in relatively quick succession. Lots of you have already subscribed to Biffo and Sanja, which is lovely to see. Thank you! We needed to see that.

Lastly, I’m horribly behind with messages as a result of Covid, which – break out the tiny violins – I didn’t take a single day off work during. Little wonder I went back downhill after leaving the house at the weekend, but I’m feeling a lot better.

Those of you who won a postcard should’ve been notified now. We’ll pick up another batch in the next couple of places we visit, and hopefully make the giveaways a regular thing.

That’s it for now. Talk to some of you tomorrow!

Paul

CLASSIC DIGI RETURNS TO YOUTUBE

Okay, kids. In case you missed it, all the old Digi vids are back up now on the main channel, so you can go gorge yourself on all the classics.

https://www.youtube.com/@Digitiser

This is going to confuse the hell out of more recent subscribers!

As we said, there will be new stuff appearing on Digitiser in a month or two, with Digi Level 2 moving over there as well, but we're working on properly launching the new channel - https://www.youtube.com/@MrBiffoAndSanja - with a bunch of brand new videos. Please subscribe if you want to see that sort of thing.

So, as it stands, here's how things are going to be going forwards:

Biffo and Sanja - brand new channel for our trips around the UK and longer-form, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, documentaries on topics that interest us.

Digitiser - for everything classic Digi, Digitiser The Show, Digi Level 2, Found Footage, Supernatural World, Golden Bean, the brand new Drong's Challenge, and anything else that's a bit weird and experimental that I feel like doing.

Bubblegun - a chaotic podcast with me and Sanja waffling on about whatever wanders into our brains.

As always, we can only do this with your support. So, thank you.

NEW BUBBLEGUN, OLD VIDEOS

Belated Happy Monday, gang.

Firstly... most of the OLD Digi videos should be back up on the new channel as the were before. Indoor fireworks! The one with the dry ice! Bloody all of it. Most of it. There are still a couple of episodes I don't want up, because, well, I didn't like some of the humour in them. Soz.

Even at the weekend I had a Tweet from someone telling me they’d found a ‘hack’ to watch the old vids by finding them in a “secret” playlist. Clearly, we never did a good enough job of getting the message out that they were still up there.

Secondly, there's a new Bubblegun out now.

Here's the blurb: In our celebratory 10th anniversary special, the non-award-winning Bubblegun presents our most tangent-laden episode yet. Sanja offers up a new episode idea, and we stay on that for approximately five seconds before Biffo stars self-indulgently name-dropping celebrities!

PICKERNICK

We drove down to the coast on Saturday – a visit to see my daughter for her birthday. Heavy traffic, inevitably, due to the warm weather, but we had a lovely picnic. Lots of delicious beige food, as is the way.

We were intending to head to Seven Sisters cliffs, but all the nearby carparks were full. We lucked out though, because there was overflow parking in a nearby forest, with a nice picnic area, and… hardly anybody about. Heck, they even had toilets.

We eventually did drive to the cliffs and bought an ABSURDLY expensive ice cream - six quid fifty, for pity's sake! - but didn’t stay long. People everywhere and it stunk of old seaweed.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite as well as I thought I was, and went back downhill yesterday. The way that Covid lingers sucks monkey ass (hear my oughingon the new podcast)! I’m going to take it easy the next few days, because we’re still intending to film this weekend. Well, as much as I can. I'm clearing the decks with the day job for filming.

Sorry things have been a tad delayed this month vid-wise due to my wretched health, but we’re going full-steam ahead imminently.

The first few videos on the new channel will be along the lines of the Lincoln one, with a few tweaks. Feels like a good kick-off, and a decent way to re-introduce Sanja and I. Also, we can get them out relatively quickly and start building up the new channel.

After that we’ll head into our first epic, which is still due to be filmed in Wales. Yesterday I started researching another video idea that we can film while we’re there.

In other news, the first three eps of Drong’s Challenge now exist in assembled form! We need to film some greenscreen stuff, and I need to do my edit pass on them, but we’re hopefully going to launch in September on the main Digitiser channel.

Also: let’s do the mass Zoom on Thursday at 7.30pm. Every paying Patreon member is invited. I’ll send a link and reminder nearer the time.

Paul

Is Lenny Henry Half-Rats?

In our celebratory 10th anniversary special, the non-award-winning Bubblegun presents our most tangential episode yet. Sanja presents a new episode idea, and we stay on that for approximately five seconds before veering off to discuss the various famous people Biffo has worked with... and reminisce about Friends Reunited.

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaulAndSanja

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/MrBiffo

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PUCKER UP!

THANK YOU and moist inappropriate kisses to everyone who has subscribed already to the new channel. We honestly didn’t see that coming. We’ve already reached the subscriber milestone to get monetised – we just now need to make some actual content!

We’ll put up a short welcome video next week – once I stop the coughing – and get on with filming our first proper video.

And on top of that – we’ve had a few new Patreon sign-ups! Thank you, everyone. Welcome! Pull up a chair. Help yourself to a special sausage.

We’ll pencil in a Zoom call for Thursday evening next week – the one we’ve talked about for a while, where every tier’s invited - by way of a thank you. I should be better by then.

Doing this, changing the channel to OUR names, seeing so many of you – far more than we anticipated before actually getting any videos up on there – signing up in spite of knowing exactly the sort of content you’ll be getting - it finally, for the first time in close to 8 years, feels like we’ve reclaimed ownership of what we do.

We at last know that we've got a YouTube channel where people are there for us, rather than enduring us, or waiting for other people, or other sorts of content, to return.

Since Digitiser The Show, through the early Digi Minis, and then Sanja joining the channel properly, we’ve been unable to escape the sense that people were never really there to watch us. It always kind of felt we were being endured.

Case in point: a comment on Instagram literally yesterday from someone saying he misses Gannon! That sort of thing has been the background noise for ages now. Yet there were dozens more supportive comments from other people. I can't tell you how much we needed it.

Weirdly, and no promises, but I think it’s going to make it more likely we’ll do more of that sort of old-style stuff again on the main channel, because we’re no longer trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole.

But… there’s a bigger reason this is important for us. I’m going to talk about mental health and some heavy topics here, so check in with yourself before reading on. If that sort of thing isn’t for you… stop here.

SO…

I’ve alluded to having been struggling a bit these past few months. I often work through things in blog posts – usually more for the upper tiers – but I’ve been unusually vulnerable and wobbly this year. Aside from making our videos, it has been hard to feel motivated to do anything.

To the point that I haven’t really felt prepared to talk about it. I wanted to at least understand what I was going through before I spoke about it.

Plus, I never want to feel like I’m kind of “selling” my mental health, if that makes sense, or to talk about it to the degree that it becomes my identity. I’d rather try and hack away at the root causes, so I can at least discuss things with some degree of hindsight and reflection rather than while I’m still in the middle of it all.

One of those root causes has been this feeling that I simply didn’t matter anymore. Over the past five years so much as happened to me. You know some of it, and I think I knew at the time that when I got onto more even ground that I was going to have to deal with the fallout.

In short… I stopped mattering in the TV industry - so I didn’t feel I mattered as a writer - my kids all grew up and moved away - so it didn’t feel I mattered as a dad anymore - I pretty much existed to just kind of be there to help my parents – and my own needs didn’t really matter. Heck, even that fact I no longer earn much money kind of made it feel like I don’t matter as much to society.

And on top of all that… I was repeatedly receiving the message that I didn’t matter on my own YouTube channel – the thing I loved doing more than anything else – and that the kind of videos we wanted to make, that mattered to me, didn’t matter to our anyone else. Heck, even with BYAMPOD – another absolute labour of love – we got a very direct message from another podcast that our views on Marillion didn’t matter...!

And it all just compounded, with an extra sprinkling of delayed grief on top of that. I’ve reached the age where people around I grew up with are dying. I don’t just mean my dad and my mum’s dementia, but I’ve repeatedly received the message in recent years that our reward for all this struggle is… more struggle, then misery, then a full stop. Lots of people who were significant to one degree or another, have gone – often too soon, in pretty tragic ways.

Even before he’d died, my dad was very, very unhappy in his final years; I’d never seen him like that before, so brought low by life. Before she went bonkers, my mum was struggling. Then going and visiting her nursing home, and seeing how all these people – the other residents – are spending the final days of their lives in less-than-happy circumstances… it all built up in me.  

Obviously, it’s easy to counter all of the above on an intellectual level; my kids still love me even if most of them are living far away, I have a wonderful wife, I’ve changed how and who I work for, but I still matter to those clients, people still miss BYAMPOD, and I have a core of supporters on here who have been so, so, so brilliant, and stuck by us.

And, of course, you find your own reward in the journey, blah blah.

But it’s not how things are so much as about how they feel. Like I say, it’s been a rough old time, far more so than I’ve spoken about, and none of us are untouchable.

And that’s why this move with the new channel – though it’s a scary leap for us – is an important step in reclaiming myself.

It’s not really about growing our audience, it’s just about making sure that we’re okay, and that we're not doing anything that makes either of us feel worse. Even if our audience ends up being tiny compared to before, as I said on yesterday’s Bubblegun Extra for the upper tiers, I’d rather have a small channel that had a passionate audience and chance of growth than a medium-sized one that had stagnated with an apathetic audience.

And just to say, in case you’re worried, I think I’m coming out of the other side of how I’ve been feeling. I’m still having moments where everything feels like a struggle – it doesn’t take much to knock me off-kilter – but I’m getting there.

This is going to help. So thank you – from both of us – for supporting it.

And sorry for writing too many posts this week. Bye!

Paul

BUBBLEGUN EXTRA: THE NEW <COUGH> CHANNEL

With everything that's been going on this week, we thought we'd give you a bit more insight into why we've made the decision to start a new YouTube channel. Of course... what we hadn't reckoned on is the fact I'm still getting over Covid, and thus... much coughing happens. Sorry.

PLEASE READ!

Not completely. We won’t ever die!!!!!

Some of you will have read this on social media, and paid Patrons will know this already, but we're just checking all bases.

However… Big changes are coming to all things Digitiser, and all things I do that are not-Digitiser. This is kind of huge for Sanja and I, and we’ve been wrestling with it to one degree or another for over a year now.

Firstly, and I know this will make many of you happy, at some point in the next few weeks all the older videos – the desk nonsense, the stuff with Gannon et al – will be getting put back on the channel as they were before. We’ve had them unlisted in a playlist for a while now, but there’ll all be public again.

Why did we do that in the first place?

Well, because our newer vids were only really getting recommended to the Cheapshow channel, and nobody who saw them on there ever clicked on them. That’s basically it. We thought we’d see if making them unlisted would help, but even now we’re still mostly only getting recommended to Cheapshow, and it’s continuing to limit our reach.

So… y’know. It wasn’t because we were ashamed of that stuff, or wanted to erase our own history… just that it was stopping videos that we’re really, really, really proud of from getting seen by a wider audience.  

So, that’s that.

Secondly, we’re going to be moving Digi Level 2 over to the Digitiser channel, and after the summer we’ll be launching a brand new series presented by myself and Paul Gannon, featuring a host of guest stars and characters - Drong’s Challenge.

In the future, Digitiser will be a kind of experimental space for anything that’s kind of that ‘classic’ Digi vibe. If, say, we want to do some more Mr Biffo’s Found Footage, Digi Deluxe, or Golden Bean… that’s where it’ll appear.

But the big thing that we’d love your support on is the launch of our new channel – Biffo And Sanja. From now on, when we do one of our out-and-about videos, or one of the bigger, more epic, docs, this is where they’ll appear.

Aside from the utter nonsense of our newly-launched Bubblegun podcast, Biffo And Sanja is going to be our main focus and where our regular videos appear.

Starting from scratch is a big risk for us – frankly, we’re scared – but we’ve not rushed into this. After a lot of thinking, and consulting our Patrons and channel members, we’ve decided it’s the best thing for everyone to separate what we’re doing now from what we used to do then.

We never intended to pivot with the sort of content we made – it kind of happened organically for us. During a tough few years, going on adventures, getting out of the house, was exactly what we needed, and during that I rediscovered my love of research.

But…! We know some of it has been a far cry from what we were doing, and thus not to everyone’s taste. Generally the videos get better views now than before, but we also know it has been at the expense of some goodwill.

Completely by accident we stumbled upon a format that we’re absolutely passionate about, where I get to stretch every creative muscle, and we want to keep doing it. We continue to punch above our weight with full-blown productions where we travel the country – and that’s not going to change.

There’s nothing on the channel yet, but there will be very soon, and we hope plenty of you will come to watch. We may also be moving a few of the more recent videos over there as well, providing YouTube doesn’t hate us for it. It’s going to take us a while to grow, but we feel like we’ve stagnated – which is a shame, because we also believe we absolutely deserve a bigger audience for what we’re doing. At some point we’ll be setting up a new website where everything we do can be in one place – all the videos, podcasts, etc. – but for now, Patreon is kind of the hub for all things Biffo.

We aren’t the biggest brand (or whatever) going, so we absolutely rely on our community. They’ve helped us through challenges, had our backs, and – yes – without them pledging every month we simply couldn’t afford to keep going. And, because we’re stupid, we’ve committed to making videos that cost money.

Times are tough for us all, but if you’re able to offer your support you can do so for a mere £1 a month – barely anything – you also get access to years’ worth of bonus videos, blog posts, and other assorted bits and bobs. You’ll also be part of a very special community, get to interact with us, and even – at the higher tiers – have Zoom chats.

Thanks for reading, you lot. Go subscribe and hit the bell to be notified when the first Biffo And Sanja video goes live.

https://www.youtube.com/@MrBiffoAndSanja

INTRODUCING...

New channel: established. You can go and subscribe now if you want. Annoyingly, it wouldn't let me have BiffoAndSanja for some reason (even though that channel name doesn't exist elsewhere), so... the link is MrBiffoAndSanja: https://www.youtube.com/@MrBiffoAndSanja

There's nothing on there yet. Hoping I'll be well enough for us to film next week, and we'll launch properly then.

We'll do a video on the existing channel announcing what's going on, at which point everything that's currently unlisted will become public again. We'll gradually migrate Digi Level 2 over as well, and Drong's Challenge will launch on there in the autumn. We'll possibly move some of our more recent Digi favourite videos - the ones that fit into the format - onto Biffo And Sanja too.

Just to reiterate, we're not changing what we do with this move, but it allows the full breadth of all our output to breathe, and gives the new stuff - be it the travel docs or Drong's Challenge - a better chance. We're going to be doing loads more Britain's Most Boring City, as they're not as time-consuming, so we can get more to you more quickly.

Weirdly, we made the connection yesterday that the channel has only been struggling since Cheapshow started doing regular videos - which coincides with noticing that our videos being pushed out mainly to Cheapshow, and thus not being seen by a wider audience! We really, really hope that the same thing doesn't happen with the new channel. Love Paul and Eli, but man alive...!

Oddly, we had a weird guy comment a couple of times on the Lincoln video that we were "typical" Southerners being patronising to the North, twice calling London "dirty and smelly" like that was some sort of epic pwn.

For the absence of doubt - and though I hate explaining the joke, and sure you all understand anyway - we're (probably) never going to find Britain's Most Boring City, because the whole idea is that we're going to find fun stuff to do in each one. It's us turning the idea of finding Britain's Best City on its head.

Anyway. Just think it's more evidence of the increasingly tribal and fractured nature of the world, rather than anything we did. Londoners = woke, lefty, liberal elites and all that, so a fair bit of projection going on. Same thing happened on the riots video last year.

Covid update: no longer light-headed and dizzy, but still rough.

THE NEW FRONTRUNNER

Thanks for all the feedback. It has been really helpful, and based upon everything... the above is the current frontrunner as a name for the new channel. Again, this is just a mock-up. But it's simple, gets to the point, makes a clear statement of intent going forwards.

Although I do really like this, but it might be a tad impersonal:

Something we might need help with is a website. I'd love to somehow set up a front page that kind of works/looks a bit like a Netflix, as a central hub where we can list shows by series - with the newest things at the top. We'd have everything on there, including the podcast. I never liked Weebly as a platform, so if any of you are whizzes on that front, please drop us a line.

In other news... not that you're bothered... I'm sort of on the mend, kind of. The frustrating thing about Covid is that it doesn't seem to play by the rules we're used to with colds and flu. Every single bout of it has been different. The snottiness, sore throat and cough have pretty much passed, but I've got zero energy, woke up with a fever - which I hadn't previously had - and have painful sinuses. I fell back to sleep until about 11.30am, and thankfully felt slightly more human after that.

Anyhow... thanks again, gang. It's times like this that we really love having a community we can bat things around with, and hopefully you feel that you're a part of this.

Paul

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

So! We're not really any closer to finding a name, but I think we most likely will be going ahead with a new channel.

As many of you have said, we've clearly confused the hell out of many of our more casual viewers, we've probably lost a ton of goodwill, and although we never planned to pivot and to us it felt organic... that's nevertheless what we've done. But we have found the format now that we love doing, and we're sticking with it.

So, I think the most likely plan is as follows:

We'll put the current main Digitiser channel back to how it was. All the old content will be made public again. In addition, we'll put Digi Level 2 on there, and it'll also be where Drong's Challenge will go later this year. We'll also use it as a place for me to experiment, and do limited runs of things IF we get the urge.

And then we'll set up a new channel. We'll move some of the longer-form documentaries over to there, and most of our new stuff will appear on that, including Britain's Most Boring City. It's going to take some time for us to get monetised, so we'll be asking for your help on that front by subscribing etc.

Then there's the issue of the name.

Sanja's suggestion is to just call it Paul Rose. Her argument is that the videos are generally my vision. I choose the topics, do the research, the graphics, the music etc.

However... I think that's downplaying her involvement. I see any new channel as us going on adventures together. I think our chemistry is really our USP.

Finding a simple umbrella name could help get around that. I was leaning towards Digitiser Adventures, I toyed with Mr Biffo.

However, Sanja's counter to that is that part of our struggle has been that I've felt beholden to what we used to do.

There's always that pressure to satisfy the past, to live up to "Digitiser". If we call the channel Digitiser-something or Mr Biffo then she thinks I'm still going to continue to feel that pressure, and it comes with a certain expectation/baggage rather than offering a cleaner differentiation that would really allow me to stretch my legs. She's encouraging me to see what I can do without the weight of the past bearing down on me.

Obviously, we don't want a clean break from you lot - we're still us doing what we have been doing and Patreon's going nowhere - but I get where she's coming from.

At the same time, those names are useful for brand recognition, so... y'know.

Bubblegun is out, because the podcast of the same name is ongoing, and very much catering to the sillier side of things. Thus, it also brings a certain expectation.

Whatever we call it, I'm going to relaunch the website so that everything is together in one place - podcasts and vids - under a sort of 'Digitiser Studios' banner.

Anyway. I mocked up a bunch of channel banners - these really are just mock-ups, not final - to see how the various names make me feel. Feedback welcome. It's helping us make sense of all this.

WIN! WIN!

Hello, non-paying members! We're doing a signed postcard giveaway from our recent adventures. For a chance to win one - complete with a bespoke ORIGINAL joke by me! - become a paid member of one of our £5-and-up Patreon tiers and leave a comment on the relevant post. It's a one-of-a-kind piece! Be the talk of your friends and family! Wave it at passers-by! Use YOUR joke at parties! Use YOUR joke at naughty parties!

Biffo

Postcards?

Hi folks, Sanja here!

I've just found that we still have all these postcards from Creswell Crags, Scarborough and Lincoln, that we forgot to tell you about!

If you would like a chance to win one, comment below, and we'll put your name into a hat.

We've decided that each postcard will come with a bespoke joke written just for you (we can't guarantee that it will be a good joke though).

Good luck! 😅

Edit: We'll draw the winners next Monday (July 14th)

PLEASE TELL US WHAT TO DO

Blehhhhhh. Had enough of this stinking ‘vid now. My nose is at least slightly less runny today, and my throat feels slightly less like I’ve tried to swallow a mirror, but I feel foggier than yesterday weirdly. I’m writing this so I can try to kickstart my brain into action and get some actual work done. I have deadlines alas. No wallowing for the wicked.

Anyway.

Thanks for all the responses about us switching the newer videos over to a brand new channel.

We agree with those of you who suggested losing the Digi name altogether. The issue we have is… we’d want to move some of the existing videos over, but they still have the Digitiser branding in the videos to give them the chance they deserve.

Does that matter? What do y’all think?

We’ve been batting around ideas about what we could name it. Sanja suggested just the simple “Paul Rose” – but there’s already a guitarist with that name on YT. Plus, for me, if it was to feature any names I’d want Sanja’s in there too. That’s important, because I think the two of us together is kind of our USP. I like the thought of a one-word name – like Digitiser, Bubblegun – but it’s tough.

PLUS… frustratingly, and making matters a touch more confusing, we’ve kind of started putting on subscribers again.

It’s slower than before, but they’re creeping up in a somewhat faltering way. Basically, for the past year we’d put on hundreds every month… and that all stopped when we did our Poland/Russia border video. That was the one which an idiot reported us for, and it has been ever since then that the channel has struggled. In the big picture, it has only been a couple of months that our views and subs have been down, so maybe we’re worrying unduly – but it has obviously been reflected on Patreon too.

We made the decision yesterday to make that border video unlisted, along with the one I did last year about the riots/protests. It’s frustrating that I can’t express my opinions – or even mention politics - without there being some comeback, but it is what it is. Such is the post-debate, post-nuance, world in which we're living.

With all that in mind… is the idea of a new channel completely the wrong call? I mean, YouTube seems broken these days anyway, so perhaps it’s all for nothing.

I still think it’s a gesture of goodwill to put all the old videos back up as public, rather than keep them sequestered in a playlist. Clearly, that pissed off a lot of people. We could do that AND carry on as we have been, but we’re already mostly being pushed out to Cheapshow subscribers, so it’d likely only make matters worse in that regard.

Maaaaan. It’s tough knowing what to do.

Then there’s the issue of Drong’s Challenge. Sanja’s working through the assembly edit – and assures me that you’re all going to love it – so I want it to have the best chance of people seeing it. The main channel would be that, but it completely jars with the current videos…

Someone please make all decisions for us from now on. This is difficult.

Anyhoo, that didn't work as an exercise. My brain is no more awake than when I started.

Paul

My Mother's Weird Dogs

This episode was intended to be all about woodlice, but somehow it instead became a discussion about the various weird dogs Biffo's mother has owned over the years...

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaulAndSanja

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/MrBiffo

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MONDAY BLOG: BLEHH... and SAVE THE DATE

Barring a weird couple of days last month where I had a fever that disappeared as abruptly as it arrived, I’ve not been ill much this year. I was even thinking about this last week, which would seem to have been a matter of tempting fate, because I now have Covid.

Were it not for needing to keep my mum safe – not to mention the rest of her nursing home – I wouldn’t bother testing anymore. Plus, it’s just curiosity; this is clearly not a cold, and having a positive test also allows me to be believed when I say I feel wretched! You know: because men exaggerate apparently. Man flu and all that. We have a reputation.

I don’t actually know if this is my third or fourth bout. I know Sanja’s had it at least one time when I somehow didn’t get it. And I know that my first bout was absolute hell – right back in the early days of the pandemic – and that my second bout was pretty nothing. Just felt a tad under the weather that time. So, maybe this is only the third time.

Doesn’t really matter.

This one is somewhere between the others. It’s way worse than a cold, but not as bad as the utter ghastliness of original recipe Covid. Sore throat, snotty, sneezing, cough, no energy, brain fog, and – up until yesterday evening – someone was smashing bricks together inside my brain. That last part at least has passed today, and I’m back to feeling somewhat clear-headed.

Oh! And I had a chicken kiev for dinner last night and couldn’t taste it. ‘Tis a cruel virus.

Is there anyone left who hasn’t had it? I was listening to a podcast the other day, and they mentioned how we’re still in the pandemic. It hasn’t stopped or gone anywhere, we just all collectively decided to try and get back to normal.

I’m guessing I either picked it up when we were in Lincoln last weekend, or in Peterborough services - which is always too hot and too crowded. Or I got it from Sanja - who’s been under the weather for a week or so – but in a sort of nondescript kind of way.

TALKING SHOP

Talking of Lincoln… the last few videos haven’t done great in terms of views, compared to the 10k+ we had been getting. Ever since the channel got flagged by that unpleasant sort, we’ve struggled.

However, the sense we got from their reception was that both Lincoln and Doggerland were really well received by those who watched them. Lots of lovely comments. And ultimately, that’s kind of enough. It should be anyway.

But…

That said, we’ve been talking a lot about all this. We’ve mentioned before that we’ve been tossing around the possibility of putting the newer videos on a new channel, where only people who want to watch them can go. We’re thinking about it more seriously now.

Every video we get comments saying “do the old videos again”, and it’s not about wanting to grow a new audience so much as it is wanting to insulate ourselves from those kind of comments. What with everything, I’ve been feeling a bit down, lost and irrelevant the last few months, like I don’t matter, and I’d be lying if I said those kinds of comments hadn’t factored into it.

That’s not to say we don’t understand how people feel. We know we’ve disappointed the old audience because we pivoted, but it honestly was never a plan – it happened by accident, by sort of following the flow of energy. For us, it felt organic, but I understand how it might’ve seemed abrupt to others.

So one option – the most likely - is to move Digi Level 2 over to the main Digi Channel, put Drong up on there when it’s ready, and make all the old videos public again. Have all that side of Digi in one place.

And then migrate some of the more recent videos over to a new place - Digitiser Adventures, or something - to give them a second chomp of the cherry.

The knock-back of that is that we know we’ve had a lot of main channel subscribers in the past couple of years who ARE there for the new videos… and a new channel will be starting from scratch effectively. But looking at the analytics, the Lincoln video was mostly pushed out – once again – to Cheapshow. Yet only one Cheapshow viewer even clicked on it. That’s kind of killing us, view-wise, and completely stifling any hope of growth.

Doing this would also leave the main channel there for anything we fancied doing – the odd episode of Found Footage, for instance, or a Digi Deluxe or Golden Bean. A place to experiment. It’s quite an appealing idea.

We’re scared though. That’s what’s stopping us at the minute. It’s a big leap.

We know YouTube is a brutal place now. Anyone coming into it new is going to struggle to gain a foothold. Anyone who doesn’t just do cookie-cutter content is going to struggle.

However, I sort of feel now that we have found a niche we want to stick with,t we have a better chance than ever of actually succeeding. And we know the videos are good. They’re just struggling to find their audience.

Anyway. Sorry. Big brain dump. Just me thinking out loud. I’m not well.

Today’s Bubblegun – due to the fact I wasn’t well enough to record on Friday – will be the ‘slaters’ ep that we put up on Bubblegun Extra.

The ‘vid it might slow us down a tad. I’d wanted to film this week, and I wanted to do a Biffo’s Brain, but can’t guarantee either will happen. I’ll keep you posted! The Upper Tiers should be getting some Lincoln outtakes either today or tomorrow though. Some good ones in there.

SAVE THEM DATES

Lastly... 3rd and 4th October. Don't book anything yet, but there might be a chance to meet Sanja and I and have a little get together that weekend, down at Harrow Arts. Won't be a full Digi Live, but pencil it in. More news when I have it.

BRITAIN'S BIG CAT MAN

Well, I woke up with a cough and a cold this morning, so that's fun right before the weekend.

Anyway. Enough of my whining.

We're heading to Wales at some point this month, probably going to do a Most Boring City vid in Liverpool on the way... and then what do I read in the news this morning, which just happens to have occurred up that way?

This: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmvvy2d9p4o

They had me at "I felt more confused than scared."

Who wants us to go looking for it?!

STINKOLN

The new video is up now! If you can be kind enough to leave a comment on YouTube - preferably in the next day or two - it really helps push it out. We both really love this one. It's just pure nonsense.

We're filming again next week, and aiming to get you vids more regularly (and get them to supporters earlier). There are also a bunch of outtakes on the way for Patrons, once you've had a chance to watch - including an off-colour joke that I didn't dare leave in.

EARLY ACCESS: LINCOLN

Sorry I couldn't get this to you earlier. It took an age to upload for some reason and I had to leave it running overnight. Aaaaanyhow... here it is - the first in a new Digi series, as we go looking for Britain's Most Boring City! Brace for nonsense - and please leave a YT comment!

SOOOOON...

New video is edited and should be with you tonight, depending how long it takes to upload. I think you're going to like it. It's basically a bit of a throwback - a chance to hang out and watch us dicking around for the entire thing - but it was so relatively quick and easy to do that we're going to make more using this format. We were able to just forget we were making a video and mess about. This way we can get a bit more frequent again with our video output while still making the epics that stretch me. We're excited about it!

Stay tuned.

THE SEARCH FOR BRITAIN'S MOST BORING CITY - TRAILER!

Morning, all! Here's a quick trailer for the next video, which should be up for Patrons.... probably tonight. It's a lot of fun.

NEW DIGI MUSIC AVAILABLE: NOWWWW...

In typical form... Patron is down again this month - it's just going to be Sanja and I here at this rate - but I'm not going to complain that everyone hates us, like I usually do. Whatevs.

But! I've released a new collection of music I wrote for the Doggerland video - most of these tracks didn't even make it into the video, because they sort of took on a life of their own. Also... I've thrown in the extended version of the Bubblegun theme on account of it being a banger.

Any support you can give is appreciated, as always!

You can check it out here: https://mrbiffo.bandcamp.com/album/star-carr

WE IS BACK

Happy July, gang. Hope you’re all surviving the heat, if it’s warm where you are. Jealous right now, as I sit here with two fans blowing on me and doing little to alleviate the heat that’s building, that we’re not in Wales or Cumbria.

We feel like we’ve been away for a week, even though it was just one night and two days (one of which was spent with family).

We packed a lot into our one day of filming – and I have the WORST blisters of my life, on account of the fact we were walking on Lincoln’s cobbles, I was wearing sandals that are half a size too small for me, plus it was very, very hot.

The three-and-a-half hour drive home was hell, because the biggest ones are on my heels, and I obviously had to keep my feet resting on the blisters to use the pedals. Today, I shall be nil-by-feet.  

And if anyone has any recommendations for good trekking sandals, please let me know.

BUT! It was the most fun we’ve had filming in a long time. We deliberately went into this one with very little plan, barely any research, and just filmed our day – sort of ignoring that we were recording. No idea if it’ll fit with what we have been doing, but… well… we had a great British day out at least. And yes – we filmed me winning that sweeeet £10. It’s an exciting moment.

Should be with you soon, along with – I suspect – the usual wedge of outtakes and extras, for those who partake of such things.

Bubblegun was a tad late this week, alas. We realised while we were away that we hadn’t recorded one… but then I remembered belatedly that we’ve got several that we were saving as Bubblegun Extras. it should be up now for you all in the usual places. It’s typically chaotic, disgusting and candid. Oh well. There’ll be a proper Extra along later this week.

Alongside all this I’ve been jumping between putting Drong together and working on the next big video. We’ll have the Q&A vid before that comes out. And more Bubblegun, natch.

More sooooon!

Paul