Plug of the Week

I dunno. This one seems pretty nice:

Let’s Peek Behind the Curtain!

We haven’t really done much “behind the scenes” stuff here at Flop Secrets, so let’s take a tour of Flop House HQ. Sure, the money stuff happens at Elliott’s address, as our CFO, so arguably that’s HQ. Then again, consider this: (1) 2/3 of the podcast broadcasts from Brooklyn/we’re pretty sure we could take him in a fight, and (2) does ELLIOTT have a NEATO PLAQUE like this?!?

Let’s poke around! First: here’s “where the magic happens!”

We’ve come a long way from the days when the boys would huddle around a single video game karaoke mic, using Dan’s homemade rubber band shock mounts to record the podcast directly into GarageBand! Now we record into a digital recorder with semi-nice mics, and it’s helped a ton in the area of “not losing audio when the computer crashes,” and “not randomly picking up local radio signals that drown us out.”

The studio is decorated with a bunch of artwork — both official Flop House merch of yesteryear and stuff that listeners have sent to us! We love everyone’s creativity so much!

Here’s something the “unofficially official” Flop House artist Tony Ochre (of many wonderful FH animations) gave to Dan when we visited Toronto for a live show.

Speaking of Tony, let’s take a peek at the shelves — what’s that over there?

Why, it’s some ORIGINAL ARTWORK used in the opening “credits sequence” we use for our Flop House shows! Eagle-eyed viewers might also recognize a duckbill from a segment in the “Highlander 2: The Quickening” of season 2 of FlopTV. And speaking of ducks and art…

In the middle, that’s an original piece of duck art that Stuart commissioned from Tom Fowler (of the rad Rocket Crocodile poster and also a million great comics) as an EXTREMELY KIND gift to Dan. It’s flanked by blueprints to the money bin, by Don Rosa (heir apparent to Carl Barks “the good duck artist”) given to us by a listener at a live show years ago — thank you again! (Also visible, in part, below: a poster that Dan designed for a Garbage Pail Kids tribute art show.)

As long as we’re on ducks…

Let’s take a trip to duck corner, where you can also find a podcast-related New Yorker comic that Rusty, Dan’s best friend from his youth, sent him to bust his balls.

Of course, as long as we’ve visited duck corner, let’s stop by Gremlins corner!

Here we see Greta, Marla, and Kate (as painted by Dan) representing the holy trinity of feminine beauty. Gizmo’s hanging out too, as well as one of the movie theater gremlins, leaning on a trophy someone sent in for Hallie that I PROMISE I’ll actually get to her sometime, but it’s very fragile, and I’m afraid of sending it through the mail.

It’s not just Flop House, ducks, and Gremlins decorating the studio, though…

This framed slipcase for an old LP of naughty burlesque songs proves that Dan’s butt fixation isn’t just a bit! The record that came in this slipcase turned out to NOT be the correct album, so Dan looked up the songs online and he wished he hadn’t! They’re very distressing! So let’s move on…

Why is a DVD copy of the forgotten film The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag lying on the FH recording table? Well, the movie recently came up in the live chat for Dan’s Monday night bad movie pals, and Dan mentioned that there was a long Betty Lou digression in the Me You Madness episode. Lo and behold, the next day at movie trivia, a friend appeared to hand Dan a copy of the movie, UNBIDDEN. It manifested, like the world’s dumbest application of The Secret. There’s still magic in the world, people!

Anyway, that’s Flop House HQ. Thanks for listening so we can have a clubhouse like the overgrown kids we are.

Next on the Podcast

6/21 - Dan shares a birthday with Garfield the cat, so for this episode (released two days after his birthday) we discuss 2025’s The Garfield Movie, in an act of calendar synergy that means nothing to any listener who’s not an extreme die-hard. But no matter the inspiration, it’s a really funny episode!

6/28 - Dan takes the podcast on a tour of something that combines Elliott’s loves and hates — comics and fruit — as he has the gang assess the realism of old Marvel comics ads for Hostess Fruit Pies.

Plugging Away

Dan is attempting a new venture — an Etsy shop with card designs featuring some of his artwork. He’s pretty sure it’s all set up to work, but consider this the soft launch. If you want some non-corporate, hand-drawn (albeit machine-printed) greeting cards, check the store out! No one’s getting rich off greeting cards, but enough people suggested it that Dan’s toying with a side hustle to what was previously his side hustle!

Elliott’s new kids’ book Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House is out, and he’s still writing for Harley Quinn, and still hosting Smartless Presents: Clueless!

Stuart paints Warhammer models/chats with viewers on “Figure it Out, with Stuart,” most Fridays on his Twitch channel. The schedule changes to accommodate his other work, though, so follow @flophousecat on Instagram for updates!

You Made it to the End!

One more pic of the studio — a Muppet-style puppet wears an SF sketchfest lanyard and a Frankie Freako “FART Classic” hat, while an acrylic painting Dan did of Joni Mitchell looks on, disapprovingly, from the background.