Frogpants Creator Showcase: Patrick Beja

There’s something in the air on the Frogpants Network. The smell of awesome! Welcome to the new Frogpants Creator showcase, where you get a deeper look at the personalities of your favorite shows. We kick off this new feature with a conversation with Patrick Beja, host of The Movielicious, The Phileas Club, and curator of FrenchSpin.com. Many of you remember Patrick from years of contributions to The Instance, and more recently, to AppSlappy. But there is always more to learn about this French whirlwind of podcastery. Let’s get started.

FPS: What brought Patrick into podcasting? Was there a specific moment you can point to? If so, what was it?

Patrick: I guess there were two factors: my first iPod, which made me discover the medium when I looked for things other than music to feed it, and the wonderful shows that I discovered, one of which was of course “The Instance”.

I found a lot of shows about World of Warcraft and listened to all of them, but when I tried to look for a French language one, there was none to be found… And since I’ve always loved talking to people who can’t tell me how wrong I am, I figured I might as well do a French show myself. I really enjoyed the experience, and have been doing more and more shows ever since.

FPS: You are clearly a very socially minded person, interested in world events, culture, and political issues. The Phileas Club is a great example of how a show can bring disparate people from all over the world with differing views to a central place, and talk about these issues. What are you hoping people come away with when they listen to that show?

Patrick: My hope is that those who listen to this show will come away with a different view on people and cultures that they thought were completely separate from themselves. It’s easy to see the Arab world as something completely alien, the EU as an old lady or Americans as an arrogant pricks… But I have lived in different countries and experienced different cultures, and I strongly believe that most people that are fearful or mistrustful of others are actually a lot closer to them than they would think. Hearing someone from the other side of the world talking about a sensitive topic in a constructive manner might help bridge a tiny bit of our cultural divides. Maybe we can’t all be friends, but we can at least talk to one another, instead of judging by preconceived ideas…

I guess this show is my very humble contribution to world peace and understanding!

FPS: On the other hand, The Movielicous is much less concerned with the future of humanity, and takes a fun look at recent movies, and film in general. Does patrick have a top 5 list of films? What are they?

Patrick: Ok, first of all I take offence to the idea that The Movielicious is not concerned with the future of humanity. We save the world with every single episode we record, in ways that I can’t even begin to describe. But ok, to your question.

In no particular order, here are my top 5 best films of all times, at the moment:

- The Usual Suspects. Still an incredible masterpiece, in so many ways…
- Watchmen. By far the best told “pseudo super hero” story of all time. Most visually engaging, too.
- 500 Days of Summer. Listeners of the show won’t be surprised if I say that this movie connected with me in a way very few others have.
- Fight Club. There are many reasons why this movie should be on everyone’s list. But I can’t really talk about it. First rule of Fight Club and all…
- Donnie Darko. That is as brilliant as it is strange. Mixing so many genres so successfully has to be celebrated.

I’d have more but you told me five, so there you go.

FPS: Tell us a bit more about what makes Patrick Beja tick. When you’re not surrounded by technology, how do you roll? Walks in the park? Secret nightlife as a Mime?

Patrick: Well, my nightlife as a mime is only secret because it doubles as a federal agency Hitman. But as you said, it’s secret and I can’t talk too much about this. Apart from that, I have to say that I don’t have a lot of hidden passions, simply because I usually turn my passions into podcasts…

I live on tech, so I do “Le Rendez-vous Tech”, a French tech news show.

I love movies, so I do The Movielicious (even though it means I have to talk with Turpster several times a month, blegh. This is how much I love movies).

I love debating about life and politics, I do The Phileas Club.

I event started a show called AppLoad recently, to talk about iPhone and iPad apps (again, that one is in French).

I guess there are a couple more topics I’d love to talk about in podcasts, like video games for example. But I can only do so many things at once… Video games are difficult to talk about for me for professional reasons, but I’m not saying I won’t do other things. I just need to organize my life a little bit better. And aside from that, I love the online communities that have formed around the shows we all do and I try to interact with everyone as much as I can, be it through live recordings or Twitter and Facebook. This might sound like I’m circling around, but it’s only because I really do all of this because I love it, this is what I do with my free time.

Of course I also go to restaurants, see friends and have nice strolls in the parks, but don’t think that would be defining enough to talk about. Any hobby I care about enough naturally turns into a new show. Yeah I know, I think it’s a sickness… but I don’t want a cure!

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HUGE thanks to Patrick for taking some time to chat, and giving us a closer look at what makes him tick. (Follow Patrick on twitter!)