Joel Ward is hilarious. I am not quite sure when I fully realized this, but I was far too late to that knowledge. I have been following him on Twitter for a long time and he posts some great dry tweets there, but for some reason I had been giving his blog a short shrift, until recently.
A month or so back, while traveling with Ayngelina in Colombia for a few days, we were talking about tweeps and bloggers that we both liked. She went on and on about this “Joel” guy. Since I only knew him as @magicant on Twitter, I just dumbly nodded along and pretended to know what she was talking about.
Men do this often in conversations with women. I am fairly sure this is breaking news to most of my female readers.
His series of posts called “Brain Drops” are some of the funniest tidbits anywhere on the web today. Since I talked him into grouping them into one place on his blog, I feel obliged to give ya’ll a bonus link, so you can get right to them. I cannot wait to meet and travel with him, and since I am being so overwrought in my praise and linking, I think he’s going to have to buy the beers. Balance must be restored somehow.
Joel’s blog is Freedonia Post and he tweets as @magicant. Go check him out on his blog and start following him on twitter — you shall not regret it.
1. Most overrated country to visit?
Jeez, this is like asking which of my children I like the least. “Oh, they’re all special in their own way.” But if I have to pick, I’d say Japan is the one I’d suspect is the result of a dalliance with the milkman. I found it interesting, but not my cup of tea. To be fair, I never got out of the cities but it was claustrophobic, expensive and I constantly felt like I was on the verge of total sensory overload.
2. If you could travel with one person for one week, then never see or hear from them again in your lifetime, who would you choose?
That’s already happened with some past girlfriends, but let’s not dwell. I would love to travel with Karl Pilkington for a while. As scary as it may be, my thought processes are not dissimilar to his in An Idiot Abroad.
but Joel, look at these acting skills
3. Worst current actor or actress?
Will Ferrell. He’s good in niche roles (Elf) or small parts. How in the hell did he get to be a leading man?
4. Book I should go out and buy tomorrow?
The Stand – a good old fashioned “end-of-the-world-good-vs-evil” yarn with fantastic characters and a darkly humorous bent to it. In the aftermath of 99.9% of the population being taken out by a super-virus, another bunch get taken care of by Darwin. Genius.
5. Your favorite foreign word or phrase?
As a diehard fan of Firefly, I love the fact that the show got away with cursing on television by using Chinese. I now refer to bad beer as “Xiong Mao Niao.” (Interviewer’s interjection – here is “The Firefly Dictionary,” for translation purpose).
6. Fill in the blank: the world would be a much better place without ____________.
Religious zealots of all flavors.
7. Most annoying trait of fellow travel bloggers.
Poor grammar and spelling always bother me. There’s a difference between being colloquial or conversational in your blog and just being careless. When I hit a spelling mistake in a blog it stops me in my tracks and I have trouble focusing on the content.
Nice... perks, Joel
8. Aside from anything to do with writing or travel, what is your dream job?
Lingerie model. I wouldn’t be any good at it, but the perks are amazing.
9. Fill in the blank: I have no idea how __________ got so rich and/or famous with no appreciable talent at all.
Everyone on every reality show ever. And I have started to count CNN as a reality show.
10. You are stranded on a desert island, with supplies and your ever-charged iPod. You can only have five bands/performers on it. Who are your five?
excuse for gratuitous Katy Perry photo
Garfunkel and Oates – two sweet faced young women who sing hysterically funny, off-color songs. Green Day. The Cure. Eminem. Katy Perry, but only if the videos are included.
11. Your favorite alcoholic drink?
Beer has always been my vice of choice. When I drink booze, I get too girly with fruit-based selections. While working as a bartender I did like making Brain Hemorrhage shots (peach schnapps, Bailey’s and grenadine), but only because they looked disgusting. The Bailey’s curdles in the schnapps, taking on the appearance of a brain, with a touch of blood provided by the grenadine.
12. You can be transported to one specific day and location in history — what would it be?
To November 12, 1955, the night of the Enchantment Under The Sea dance so I could seduce Lorraine Baines and prevent Marty from being born. Cuz I’m a jerk.
13. More blanks: My Mom and Dad are never going to read this, so I can now admit I lied to them in a huge way about _______________.
My age.
Joel is one of my favourite travel bloggers and definitely one of the funniest. Great interview! #13 is classic!
made me laugh out loud when he originally emailed the answers back to me
haha great interview – i also LOVE Karl in An Idiot Abroad, have watched it since it was released in September – really hope they do a 2nd season!!!
I have enjoyed it a lot also. Someone, before Joel, got me to download it. Still rationing the few episodes out, but the Mexico episode is fabulous.
Karl Pilkington is comedy genius without realising it! I think I could see you as a lingerie model and i am pretty sure you can make it as the first location independent one!?!?
Another great interview in a great series. Nice one guys!
Both of you are SO funny. And Joel, I never knew you were such a grammar dork. Swoon. I want to say in writing that now I’m extra mad that when I met Joel, he hid from me at the other side of the room!! Hmmph. This group needs a reunion! You know, whenever we’re all on the same continent again…
Vegas. January!
Any day that a Lucky 13 Questions is posted is a good day in my book. Hilarious.
This was hillarious. I loved all the answers especially about being a lingerie model. I never really thought about that but hell yeah the perks are amazing.
Thanks so much for featuring my silliness, Michael! I appreciate it.
By the way, I guess I should have provided the translation for Xiang Mao Niao. It means “panda piss.”
did you check out that link I posted with all the Firefly translations? Great stuff. And great show. Fricking annoying it only got one season.
The last answer is priceless. (But I’m going to have to disagree with you on Will Ferrell. He’s made some crappy movies. But he was awesome in “Stranger Than Fiction.”).
Brilliant, as always Michael.
Love #13 LOL’ed!
many thanks — and yes, that was a great, great answer. Then again, maybe Joel is adopted…
Thank you. I haven’t laughed out loud at something I’ve read in awhile. I don’t “tweet” so do Joel have a travel blog? I agree with him about Will Ferrell, he gives me the creeps…
Xiang Mao Niao — Panda Piss!! Hilarious! I’m going to start using that to refer to certain local beer here…
Hahaha, nice interview guys!
Have to agree, Joel is one seriously funny guy. After a certain drunken night in Valencia, the phrase ‘bi-curious George’ will forever be ingrained in my brain. You can guess who to thank for that one…
I fear that I now am going to insist that you write a guest post about that phrase for me!
Oh dear god, I can’t stop laughing with that pic of Joel!!! That just totally made my night! However, I must say Will Ferrell rocks my world, be nice to him!
I too would love to travel with Karl (thanks for turning me on to that show Joel). This interview was great. Would have enjoyed it even if it was only question+answer #13.
B well, Phil
I caught up with Joel in London and I have to say it was a lot of fun, definitely a guy you want to have buy you a beer.
FINALLY. I don’t feel so alone in the world about not liking Will Farrell. The guy drives me up the wall. Love the interview! <3
Panda piss! Bonus points to Joel for referencing Firefly. I, too, had no idea that Magicant was the same as Freedonia’s Joel but I am all the wiser now. Great interview!
He inspired me to DL the entire Firefly season (again) and watch them straight through. Bummer that series got cancelled.
We are now Joel fans (it was the lingerie picture and the anti-religious zealots thing).
YES Joel! Hahaha best interview EVER!
His humor just overwhelms me, but then again, I really like that dry sense of humor that he’s come close to perfecting in print.
Whoah, did I miss the boat on this interview. In my defense, I was volunteering at the time.
I know Joel from wayy back, before he even started his hilarious blog. We often supported each other to realize our dreams of traveling.
So ladies, he’s not only funny, but a softie. Get this guy on a celebrity reality show like The Bachelor! Joel would love that. 🙂