Zadi Diaz won a Streamy Award for her hosting duties on the web series Epic Fu. On the red carpet and backstage at the Streamys, we got to talk to have some epic fu of our own with Zadi and husband/producer Steve Woolfe.
Crave Online: Is this your first Streamy?
Zadi Diaz: This is actually a second. Last year it was for Best Web Series. This year it’s for the host.
Crave Online: Where do you keep them?
Zadi Diaz: I keep them on the bookshelf. Reminds me that I should read more books, not spend so much time online.
Crave Online: I was wondering if you would have to do double duty and cover the Streamys as part of Epic Fu.
Zadi Diaz: That’s a good question. I think everybody’s kind of asking us. Right now I think we’re kind of taking it all in. We do have our little camera so we’ll have little behind the scenes takes of probably what people aren’t expecting to see.
Crave Online: Do you know all the secrets of the Streamys?
Steve Woolf: We know a little bit because we also talk to the guys who set it up an awful lot. We do a little podcast (New Mediacracy). Recently we talked all about the Streamys.
Crave Online: Did you always expect Epic Fu to get this big when you started?
Zadi Diaz: You know, you never do. You just kind of work out what you love and people either tell you they hate it or they think it’s all right so then you work more towards people loving it.
Crave Online: How about the Streamy Awards with this massive red carpet?
Steve Woolf: I mean, this is amazing this year. It’s both more under control and more chaotic this year which is great. When I think back to two or three years ago, what we were doing at that time and what the meetups look like now, it’s an incredible change. It’s very glamorous.
Crave Online: What are some of the upcoming episodes going to cover?
Zadi Diaz: We have one about the Los Angeles hackers coming out. There is a place called Crash Space LA and they kind of tinker around, break things apart, put them back together and teach people why they should know about the things that work around their house, their household items. That’s kind of cool. We just finished Patti Smith which is up right now, so we’re going to continue to try balancing between really, really tech centric culture and then bringing in the more mainstream and how technology affects the mainstream.
Crave Online: Speaking of hackers, why are people still sitting around creating viruses to mess with us?
Zadi Diaz: Because they can.
Crave Online: Epic Fu is edited so fast. How much do you actually shoot?
Zadi Diaz: We shoot about maybe half an hour or so and then we edit that down to about five to seven minutes. When we first began though, we shot literally two hours.
Crave Online: Has hosting the show for several years changed the way you look at everything?
Zadi Diaz: You know, I live online, I breathe online. We’ve been doing the show since 2006 and it covers web culture and how the web and technology affects our culture, music, film. We feature bands that use technology in different ways so it does. It just kind of keeps us on track and makes us realize what the web is all about.
Crave Online: I follow you on Twitter. What is a good way to get more followers?
Zadi Diaz: A good way to get more followers is just to have a conversation online. If people are asking something, put questions out there, find out what people are talking about. Link to things that are interesting. I think those are the things that people want to hear. It’s cool to mix it up with “I had coffee today” or whatever, but it’s also great to give people resources.
Crave Online: If I tweet this interview at you, will you retweet me?
Zadi Diaz: I will retweet you.
Crave Online: What’s going on with Fanboy Funhouse?
Steve Woolf: As you probably know, I’m directing the next bunch of episodes. I think we’ve got a lot of good stuff coming up. We just had the South by Southwest episode come out. There’s going to be all kinds of crazy sketches, making fun of Street Fighter and a lot of awesome stuff.
Crave Online: Amazing how Street Fighter stays current so you can keep ripping it, huh?
Steve Woolf: Well, I mean, Street Fighter IV: Hyper Fighting, coming out soon.
Crave Online: As your popularity grows, would you want to do a TV format, half hour or hour show?
Zadi Diaz: Well, I think media is media, depending on where it is, what the web allows us to do is have community which is important I think. Community is very important online so that’s what we tried to do when we were creating the show but I think television definitely feeds into that. So it’s all converged. I see it all coming together.
Crave Online: What has it done for your profile to have web followers?
Zadi Diaz: I think it’s a new way to communicate with your audience. It’s not just putting a show out there and letting it live. It’s really figuring out who your audience is, communicating with them, figuring out what they like. They actually have their hands in the show as well. So while we’re creating it, they’re producing videos for us that we incorporate and they feel like they have a sense of ownership which is very important for us.
Crave Online: Do you get recognized on the street because you’re a celebrity?
Zadi Diaz: At Apple stores.
Crave Online: What do you think of the iPad?
Zadi Diaz: The iPad, I’m actually going to hold out just because it’s more of a consumer tool than a creator tool for me at least. I edit the show, so for me I need an editing tool and iPad doesn’t let me. You know, having an iPad and your laptop, it’s just either/or. I’ll stick with my laptop for now.
Photos by TheBuiBrothers.com
