Recent ASU graduate Chris Price combined his love of sports and all things geeky into his rapidly growing podcast “The Geek Jock,” in hopes it will propel him into the entertainment industry.
Price began the podcast in September 2009, and guests on his show vary from local band members to former ASU classmates.
“It’s a fun, interesting way for me to get myself out there and for people to become interested in it,” he said.
Two former classmates, brothers Mike and Shawn Hennessey, were the featured guests on his most recent show, recorded Friday and appropriately titled, “The Hennessey Bros.”
Price, who graduated in December from ASU’s film school, plans to follow his dream of working in the entertainment industry and filmmaking to Hollywood, and move there in September. Price describes Los Angeles as his ideal “real world.”
“Everybody talks about the ‘real world’ … and L.A. to me is the real world,” he said.
It’s uncomfortable to do something very competitive and high stress, but extraordinarily exciting, Price said. Ultimately, with any dream, “you gotta go,” he said.
At ASU’s film school, Price said he was able to mature and make the mistakes that would be unacceptable in a working situation.
“Without me going to ASU and doing those things, I may have made those same mistakes that I’ve made over the last 4 years when I was in L.A., and when you make the mistakes in L.A., you’re done,” he said.
Currently the Geek Jock Podcast has more than 800 subscribers, a number Price says is growing steadily. He recently recorded a show at restaurant Alice Cooperstown during a concert featuring local bands.
To get attendees involved, he held a “stump the geek” challenge, which invited guests to ask questions about film or sports, and if Price was unable to answer the audience member was given a prize.
“Obviously, people came up with obscenely difficult questions,” he said, but the event generates listeners and was a lot of fun, Price said.
The podcast is part of Price’s plan to embody an entertainment machine with talents in many areas of the business.
“I look at my future and my career as a dart board … the dart board is entertainment and I’m a dart. The bulls-eye is directing in Hollywood films … but if I land on the board, I’m happy,” he said.
Price, who currently works as a valet at an upscale country club, is upbeat about his future because he has chosen a path he genuinely enjoys, something too often overlooked in favor of high-paying careers.
“My suggestion to other people is just do what you want, … stick with it and never give up,” he said. “I love to do film, and that’s what I really want to do … so everything I’m doing is trying to help me go in that direction.”
Reach the reporter at anatawood@asu.edu
