Jay and Craig are your average dynamic duo, that is until a disturbance in the Van Allen Belt causes the dead to rise. When they hear the news on the television, it’s too late. Most of the town has been over run by the undead. Their first struggle with the living dead is with their next door neighbor who is hungrily entreating entrance through the window. They act fast as the creature claws her way into their home. At that very moment, Craig receives a call from his girlfriend, Layla, who is accompanied by her sister Faith<3. Jay takes it upon himself to dispatch their zombified neighbor. Armed with nothing but an assortment of books Jay moves in for the kill. A few moments later the zombie is dispatched as Craig ends his call with Layla. The journey has been set. The two must venture through the town in order to reach their girlfriends.
Their journey through the town is met by an assortment of characters both living and undead. Lucky for them they have armed themselves with a more suitable, yet epic, weapon - the shovel. They dodge and duck and crash their car as they try to fight off the undead. With their car totaled Jay and Craig must walk, shovel in hand, the rest of their voyage to Layla and Faith’s<3.
Jay and his sidekick Craig come to a bridge that they must go under in order to continue their epic expedition. They find themselves in a bit of undead trouble when out of the darkness shots are fired, neutralizing the threat. A man by the name of Audy emerges from the shadows. Instantly our heroes are taken by him and view Audy as the supreme undead killer. Audy is immediately annoyed by the two but he decides to take them along for the ride. The undead killing machine aka Audy, is well armed both mentally (The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks) and physically (a katana / shovel combination.) Amazed by Audy’s choice in weaponry our heroes begin bickering as to what to name his creation. Their constant arguing and whining causes Audy to leave the pair and wishes them nothing but the worst.
As Jay and Craig continue forward to Layla and Faith’s<3 their journey takes more unexpected twists. The ten minute drive to their destination turns into an over night mission. Will our heroes ever reach Layla and Faith’s<3? Will they once again pair up with Audy, the master killer of the undead? As the story progresses all of our questions will be answered.
You’ve Got Dead on You is by far one of my favorite radio dramas. I will have to place it a little under We’re Alive but not by much. Like I said before I started listening to the podcast from the start and I usually hate doing that. I don’t like the waiting time between episodes but I’m doing it with You’ve Got Dead on You.
Let me point out that in the first episode it’s very noticeable that the microphone volumes are not paired correctly. The feedback is easily heard when one microphone turns off and when the other one turns on. The problem is corrected very quickly, and in the second episode it is cleared up. The sound quality does get better with every new episode.
This review is written between episodes 8 and 9 so I can only comment on what I’ve heard so far. The story line is coming together nicely, and the flow is wonderful. The plot does not jump around rapidly. The writers take their time, which is good because I don’t want them to feel rushed and hustle to reach the next dilemma. Along with flowing well the story is very comical. Yeah some of the jokes are childish but that’s the character image. For example (Spoiler, the scene where they crash the car was hilarious. Jay was driving and he notices a zombie. Instead of trying to drive around he detours in order to run down the infected. When Craig asks what he is doing, Jay replies that he’s going to run over the zombie. Craig warns him that it’s not a bright idea and Jay comes back to say that it’s already too late to stop, then guns the car. END) I died with laughter, I’m on the road when I listen to podcasts and when I heard that bit it almost made me crash.
I really enjoy this radio drama, It’s hilarious and brilliantly written. The main male leads are very unique and full of life. The voice actors do a fantastic job bringing the characters of Jay and Craig to life. It almost makes me wonder if they are even acting. I will have to give You’ve Got Dead on You a very epic 5 Undead Heads out of 5.
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Interview with Craig and Jay
(From left to right: Jay, Faith<3, Layla & Craig)
Jay and Craig are the voice actors and creators of the podcast/radio drama, You’ve Got Dead on You! The podcast is quickly become a major hit. I believe it is due to the fact that the two lovely ladies, Layla & Faith<3 (Shown above) have finally made an appearance. Jay and Craig continue to bring new episodes every week that are filled with laughter and horror. If you have not listen to You’ve Got Dead on You!, then please do so and show these guys some support. Enjoy the interview.
Lyle
Why zombies?
Jay: Craig and I have been huge zombie fans for years. For me, it all started with the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead. I think we may have bonded over a discussion about George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead vs. the 2004 Remake when we first met. Zombies are great because their presence makes people band together, and they all must be dealt with. They are the Humanity's collective disposable nemesis.
Craig: Yes, after Jay and I realized that we both preferred slow zombies to fast zombies, we knew there was a zombie connection. For me, I became interested in zombies after watching the original Dawn of the Dead. It was such a great movie and it really got me onto watching zombie movies. There is just something about zombies. They are slow, easy to kill but they outnumber everyone so much that they are a great movie monster, not to mention nothing but a head-shot takes them down.
Lyle
Who came up the idea for Dead on You?
Jay: Well, Craig and I have been discussing some sort of Zombie comedy idea for what may have been a couple of years. Craig recently began listening to podcasts, and it was his suggestion that we could release it in that format. The old radio show style was just something we both seemed to have in mind when planning it, so that was pretty easy to figure out.
Craig: I thought it would be a lot easier to put together a zombie podcast than a zombie movie, and it allows us to do this once a week rather than once per month.
Lyle
How did the approaching do? Were both of you on the same page when it started?
Jay: I believe we were. We both brought ideas to the table when it began, and it definitely did not take long to get the ball rolling. I believe it was less than a week before the release of the first episode that we actually began planning this, so I would say we got along pretty well.
Craig: Ya we came up with the idea for it while talking and within a few days we were recording. I think we released about a week after we originally came up with the idea. Both of us were very much on the same page as we both wanted to do something along the lines of Shaun of the Dead.
Lyle
What’s the process like when creating a new episode?
Jay: Well, we have an outline for the entire season already. Just one-sentence summaries, and then from there, Craig will write an entire episode around it. During the writing period, Craig and I will discuss different things that should happen, and dialogue that should take place between characters, and we keep them all in a folder, for use either in the upcoming episodes, or a future episode.
Craig: Yes, everyone including Layla, Faith and Audy will send me ideas for scenes and lines and I will put those into a document on my computer. Then when I am writing an episode I go back to that and take out things that may be useful. It is definitely a collaborative process among everyone but certainly Jay and I talking and throwing out lines helps create the bulk of episodes. We try to write episodes that include all our voice actors, specifically Clint and Audy now, but that doesn’t always happen. However both actors have some big episodes coming up.
Lyle
I’ve seen pictures of the both of you and I have to say that your voices don’t match your face. Jay’s voice matches with Craig’s face and vise versa. Is that some kind of trick you guys are playing? Is the character of Jay being played by Craig and the other way around?
Jay: I can officially confirm right now that Jay is Jay, and Craig is Craig. To prove this, Craig I would be more than happy to come over to your house, and act out all of the episodes, thus far.
Craig: Yes, I am the one with the hat, Jay is the one with the glasses. We actually reference this in a future episode because people commonly mix us up.
Lyle
Where and how do you guys record a new episode?
Jay: The process is as follows. We start a webcam conversation, and we are each recording on our own end. We record together so that we can get the delivery of our lines to sound more realistic, and to get the character chemistry just right. When finished, I send my recording to Craig, and he splices it with his recording into one file. That way, we sound like we are in the same place, rather than have it sound like he is carrying around a cell phone that has me on speaker.
Craig: Exactly, usually Layla and Faith will record with us at the same time. Sometimes we will need to redo lines but not often. Clint and Audy will receive the script and then send me their recorded lines as well. Usually it takes me about two hours every morning from Thursday to Sunday and an hour or two at night to get the podcast fixed up, spliced in with sound effects and ready to air. It’s a lot of fun though, so it really doesn’t feel like it takes that long.
Lyle
What are your favorite zombie books, movies, and games?
Jay: Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 is definitely my favorite zombie game. I have sunk many, many hours into it, and it is just good wholesome undead fun. I am also a big fan of the Resident Evil series of games, right back to exploring that bloody mansion in the first one. They always have great characters, even with some bad voice acting in the earlier days. For movies, I am a huge fan of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy, starring the amazing Bruce Campbell. Those were some of the most entertaining films I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, and Ash is just an epic character. Another favorite would have to be George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. That was just such an extremely well done film, and one that I could watch many times.
Craig: My favorite zombie video game is certainly Dead Rising, even if it is horribly frustrating at times. As for books, World War Z by far is my favorite, although I just read The Walking Dead: Book One and it was phenomenal. As for movies, well Shaun of the Dead is head and shoulders my favorite zombie movie and one of my favorite movies regardless of genre. I also like Dawn of the Dead (original) as well as the remake. I don’t watch all the zombie movies that come out because there are just so many bad ones. I think there was a Chris Kattan cowboy zombie movie that I left on the shelf because it looked atrocious. I’m obviously a big fan of the Dead Series. I would say that Dawn and Land are my favorites from that. I also like the 28 Days/Weeks Later movies, even if they are not truly zombies.
Lyle
In a real zombie apocalypse would you two pair up like you do in the show?
Jay: Absolutely! However, it may turn out to be a bit more difficult, seeing as Craig and I actually live a few Provinces away from each other. I would like to think that we would experience the same sort of antics, though, once we unite. If/when a real zombie apocalypse starts, we will try to stick to the script as much as we can, for nostalgia purposes.
Craig: I think so. We are a bit of a distance away from each other, but that just means a lot of zombies to kill on the way until we team up.
Lyle
What do you do for a living?
Jay: I am currently employed as a Warranty Administrator at a Vehicle Dealership. Basically, I input Warranty claims for repairs that have been performed, so the Customer does not have to pay for them. I like to think that I am a Hero in that sense. However, some day I would like to answer this question with "I am a professional Voice Actor, and I get paid to do what I love. You probably know me best from my work on You've Got Dead On You, which I co-created with my very good friend Craig "Free-" Baird!"
Craig: I am a newspaper editor in northern Alberta and I own a ghostwriting business with my wife that we both work at in our spare time from home.
Lyle
What are your ultimate goals for Dead on You?
Jay: Our ultimate goal with our podcast would pretty much be for it to continue to be well received by fans, and continue to entertain people. We've met some great people because of this show, and we've experienced great things. The experience of writing, and acting together with Craig, and our entire cast has been alot of fun, and I hope we can keep doing this for a very long time.
Craig: Well, we have come really far with Dead on You in just 10 episodes. The number of listens continues to grow. I think we had more listens in the first 36 hours of June than we did in all of April, so I would like to see it continue to grow and gain thousands of fans around the world. Maybe one day having it on Satellite radio would be nice but really it is just fun to do and we enjoy it so that is all that matters.
Lyle
Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. I look forward to more shows.
Craig & Jay: We just wanted to thank you for interviewing us and listening to the zomcast. Anything that helps get us more viewers is greatly appreciated
