HGC Radio - Episode 37: Whatever Happened To Kimbo Slice?

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It's a huge day on the HANDSOME GENIUS CLUB as host ANTHONY KINGDOM JAMES brings us not one but TWO feature interviews and helps co-host TJ HABIBI celebrate his birthday. First, KEVIN KLEINROCK, the co-creator of MTV's Wrestling Society X and former vice-president of XPW joins the show. Kevin will describe how WSX got on the air and why it didn't survive, the life and death of XPW and the upcoming XPW 10th anniversary/reunion show. Kevin will also tell us which two former world champions he will never work with again and why! Then, MMA commentator PAUL LAZENBY will talk about some recent and upcoming UFC fights, his own days as a professional wrestler and mma fighter, his acting career and his part in the fight to get MMA sanctioned in the city of Vancouver. Plus, Paul and Kingdom talk about the "greatest pro wrestling gimmick that can never actually be done".

All this plus a "WHERE'S BILL COSBY?" update, a visit from NOAH PANICO and all the week's NERD NEWS! Listen to the show now in streaming audio or right click the link to download the show as an mp3.

For photos, links, music info and more, click this link to



Kingdom bought TJ a birthday cake...


This week's handsome links...
~Paul Lazenby writes an excellent blog on his official website.
~Kevin Kleinrock is the vice-president of Big Vision Entertainment. (Hopefully we'll get some free dvd's for making this plug! *hint hint*)
~For info on XPW's tenth anniversary show, check out their official website
~Birthday boy TJ Habibi fronts a kick-ass band called Secret Suburbia.
~Noah Panico is a co-host on the Counting The Lights podcast.


This week's music...
First Break: "Summertime" by Dan-e-o
Second Break: "???" by Secret Suburbia

Big Al's Trailer Park: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Nicolas Cage goes wild in Werner Herzog's new psycho cop drama.

YouTube Gold: My Favourite Sci-fi Movie

I just figured out why I liked JJ Abrams' Star Trek so much. Because I saw it 32 years ago! Apparently, "Fernanda Gollo" has a great eye for this stuff.

HGC Radio - Episode 36: A Bunch of Good Fellas

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Three dozen episodes of the HANDSOME GENIUS CLUB RADIO SHOW and counting, kids! Today, ANTHONY KINGDOM JAMES talks about his Mom giving him grief over the phone, the person he hates most on the planet and the legendary comedian he is determined to have guest on the show. TJ HABIBI berates Kingdom for not drinking. RON LARMONDIN updates us on his current vacation and why he can't support a series of political protests currently happening in Toronto. And NOAH PANICO reviews TERMINATOR: SALVATION and ANGELS AND DEMONS. All this plus NERD NEWS and a challenge has been issued to YOSHI THE DOG!

Listen to the show now in streaming audio or right click the link to download the show as an mp3.

For photos, links, music info and more, click this link to

This week's handsome links...
HUGE thanks to Dan-e-o for the new "Where Is Bill Cosby?" theme music.
TJ Habibi fronts a kick-ass band called Secret Suburbia.
Noah Panico is a co-host on the Counting The Lights podcast.
Big Ron Larmondin doesn't have a website. He's practically a Luddite.

This week's music...
First Break: "Cold Black Days" by Atrocity
Second Break: "Elvis Is Everywhere" by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper

Big Al's Trailer Park presents V

Here it comes, kids! The remake of 80's sci-fi/action series V. This actually looks interesting.

HGC Radio - Episode 35: Where No Genius Has Gone Before

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Episode 35 of THE HANDSOME GENIUS CLUB RADIO SHOW hits the airwaves like a motherf***er! ANTHONY KINGDOM JAMES is your host and TJ HABIBI is behind the soundboard as they welcome an array of the usual suspects for some comedy and conversation. WORDBURGLAR returns to the show to discuss the season finale of LOST. NOAH PANICO reviews the home video release of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and issues a warning to the people of Washington DC about what happens when you get in the way of his late night snack. BIG RON LARMONDIN introduces us to his son AUSTIN. CHRIS MAVERICK discusses the recently leaked nude photos of RIHANNA. Plus, there's NERD NEWS, a new edition of THE PITCH and your Uncle Kingdom starts the show with an apology.

Listen to the show now in streaming audio or right click the link to download the show as an mp3.

For photos, links, music info and more, click this link to


A view of the main space at last Saturday's Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Bonus points if you can spot Stuart Immonen.


Toronto squirrels are some crazy kick-your-ass home-invading bastards!

This week's handsome links...
Wordburglar's official website is right here.
Chris Maverick's official website can be found right here.
Secret Suburbia's official website
The HGC has naked pictures of Rihanna.

This week's music...
First Break: "Common People" by William Shatner w/ Ben Folds
Second Break: "So She's Leaving" by The Trews

HGC Comic Rack Review: The Unwritten #1

What would happen if the characters from the Harry Potter novels came to life but Harry himself didn't learned this essential truth until he forced to start battling evil magical forces in the real world? With that question rattling around in your head, you're ready for Vertigo's new comic series "THE UNWRITTEN".


In the first issue of The Unwritten, we meet Tom Taylor, the model for the magical boy adventurer in his father's globally popular series of "Tommy Taylor" novels. In titles like "Tommy Taylor and The Rain of Salt" and "Tommy Taylor and the Golden Trumpet", young Tommy and his companions fought the evil vampire Count Ambrosio. In real life, Tom Taylor is a thirty-something fed up with being the typecast centre of attention for Tommy's fans. But, with no financial prospects other than pandering to the masses and signing his father's books (Tom is apparently so talentless a human being that he auditioned to play himself in a movie and couldn't get the part...) Tom continues attending fantasy conventions to press the flesh, always careful to reign in that Shatner-on-Saturday-Night-Live style outburst that would actually free him of his chains.

The snippets of the novels we see in this first issue are an astute parody of the writing of Potter-style writing. They are every bit as self-referential and overblown as an actual Potter novel and Tommy's fans are portrayed as the nutcases and poorly socialized fools obsessed with the minutae of their favorite character's adventures that Potter's fans are thought of as being.

So obsessed are Tommy's fans, in fact, that when rumours surface calling into question whether or not Tom Taylor is really the son of author Wilson Taylor, the world at large loses its collective minds. A "Tom Taylor Is A Fraud" witch hunt begins only to be followed by a nearly religious "Tom IS Tommy" campaign when he... well, I don't want to give too much away here.

No less a writer than Brian K Vaughn is quoted on the first issue's cover as calling The Unwritten a "wish-I'd-thought-of-it premise". High praise indeed and I would tend to agree. Creators Mike Carey and Peter Gross have given us a well-crafted introductory tale with an easy-to-get-a-handle-on central character who's involved in what looks to be some rather complex goings-on.

Where did these rumours come from? Is Tom being manipulated towards some destiny he's only now to become aware of? Is he about to live the 14th book of the Tommy Taylor saga? Why and to where did his father disappear to almost a decade before?

It's a thumbs-up from the HGC for The Unwritten #1. Besides, at the throwback cover price of $1 for the first issue, how can you really go wrong?

Driving Toons #3: Swine Flu To Scare You

Hey kids! Our friend ALAN PARK is back with another of his "Driving Toons" animated commentaries. This time around, Alan discusses the hysteria surrounding the Swine Flu epidemic.

The Hot Mess: Oprah, Star Trek, & Guitar Hero TV

Today is all about Oprah with Dr. Oz's last appearance and Simon Cowell's announcement of Adam Lambert winning American Idol. Star Trek is the REAL start to the Summer movie season (sorry, Wolvie).

Then there's battles for the future you'd thought you'd never see: Guitar Hero TV vs. The Avengers, Family Guy vs. Addams Family, & Terminator Salvation vs. Transformers Return of the Fallen. Oh yeah and a real life superhero called "Shadowhare".



World Super Hero Registry: http://worldsuperheroregistry.com

Vote for this Ep on CurrentTV: http://current.com/items/90040974_the-hot-mess-oprah-star-trek-guitar-hero-tv.htm

YouTube Gold: Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat

I don't know where Keyboard Cat came from and frankly, I don't want to know. But I hope this cat keeps the hits coming!



More videos after the cut...







One last one...

Do Superheroes Control the World?

(Editor's note: Hey kids! It's your Uncle Kingdom, here. I'd like to officially welcome DJB - Douglas J Batchler - to the Handsome Genius Club's contributing staff. Give his article a read and leave him some feedback.)

As a nerd, dork or whatever you want to call it I've seen my fair share of superhero movies, both live action and animated. Some are great, some are horrible. They fall everywhere in between. You have Catwoman which is almost at the bottom of the list. You have The Dark Knight which sits at the top of the list. That's only considering live action. As far as animated goes it's really hard to narrow down because there are so many.

Personally Justice League: The New Frontier is my personal favorite. Superman: Doomsday is also sitting at the top of the list. As a Batman fan from day one I hate to say this but so far Batman: Gotham Knight is the worst. It was scripted by great writers, it was supposed to be a companion to Begins and TDK, and sure it falls in between them, but it was just horribly done. It was animanga/sketch. I can't even describe it. If you were a fan please weigh in.


Superheroes: a word that gets a reaction no matter who you say it to. Superheroes altogether are incredibly polarizing. You love it or you hate it. You have a few in between who are in the middle. There are the fanatics who have thirty comics on their pull list at their local shop, the same guys that hit Target, Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us to get the newest figures. They have hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of action figures in their houses somewhere.

Contrary to popular belief these aren't only guys who live in their parent's basement, attic or over the garage apartment. These are guys who run million dollar to multi-million dollar companies. There is a rather large Toyata Dealership in the Carolina's and the president of that company has more memorabilia in his home than most people even know exists.

With limited resources my memorabilia collection is DVD's, comics both old and news, drawings, sketches, graphic novels, and the Marvel & DC Vaults. Sure I'd love to have first additions and props from sets, first drafts, first sketches and all that, but I have what I have and I like what I have. Some look at that collection and scoff only because they think collectors in any form are retards, morons, dorks, nerds or whatever.

We're supposedly a "niche" community, though "our" movies seem to top nearly everything else in the box office. Sure it's somewhat cyclical, but now with the special effects, CGI and all other resources available to Warner, Fox and all the other companies out there Superhero movies may be here to stay. We run the risk of oversaturation with spin-off after spin-off after spin-off.

With the confirmation of a Deadpool spin-off the risk of oversaturation is very, very real. Ryan Reynolds warrants a spin-off but Liev Schreiber doesn't? Are you serious? The observation has been made that Liev was the only guy to bring something to his character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and I tend to agree. A Sabretooth spin-off would be intriguing as hell.

Marvel is running a risky deal right now. The next two spinoffs other than the confirmed Wolverine follow-up are villain spin-offs. X-Men Origins: Magneto and the yet to be titled Deadpool spin-off. Magneto warrants a spin-off no doubt, and unless they plan on having Ryan Reynolds break fourth-wall in a multi-million dollar movie I just don't see the Deadpool movie being all that great.

I think the prospect of villain movies is something that should be explored. I think that villains could produce great numbers at the box-office and on DVD. There will most likely never be another Dark Knight at the box office unless the next Batman movie is as highly anticipated, which it may be, but it most likely won't surpass TDK. However 100's of millions stand to be made at the hands of superheroes and supervillains.

Magneto is a villain I'd pay to see the movie about, Deadpool isn't. Apocalypse would be interesting but I don't know if that would be doable. The villains that I think would bring in the biggest return on investment would have to be The Joker, and Lex Luthor. Sure there are others, but those two are a select few to have their own graphic novel that sold relatively well.

These two aren't the completely unrealistic villains that would take an insane amount of special effects, and two villains who you could produce a movie mid-life or an origin story that would either reboot it or re-tell it and people would see. If Star-Trek can make 76 million you're telling me that these two villains couldn't?

The superhero movies need to be kept to a minimum, Marvel is apparently bringing in writers to write screenplays for some of their lesser characters. A move that could be a shot in the head to comic movies, but in the make money now market they could be hurting themselves in the long run. If they start popping out two or three a year people will stop caring. With Iron Man II forthcoming, as well as Spider-Man 4, The First Avenger: Captain America and Thor announced for 2011 and The Avengers announced for 2012 Marvel Comics runs the risk of burning people out on their product before they reach their potential.

DC Comics isn't going as ape-shit as it's rival, with the only announced and forthcoming movies being Jonah Hex with Josh Brolin reportedly playing the titular character for 2010. Green Lantern has also been announced for 2010, but I honestly don't see that happening. I don't know if it's only the fans or the studio's trying to figure out if Hal Jordan or Jon Stewart is going to be GL. In 2011 an untitled Batman project and untitled Superman reboot are announced, but other than that the slate appears to be empty for DC. DC may control the market that is if Marvel doesn't burn it out completely.

DJB

YouTube Gold: Beam Me Up, Hottie!

Nude Photos of Rihanna (NSFW: 18+ only)

R&B singer Rihanna, a frequent topic on the Handsome Genius Club Radio Show, has yet another reason to be embarrassed tonight... or should we say em-BARE-ASSed? (Ugh... puns really ARE the lowest form of comedy and we apologize for that one.) Photographer and reknowned Rihanna expert Chris Maverick (The "Mav" in our "Mav Loves Rihanna" campaign) has verified the photos as being real. "Uh, it def looks like her", he said.

Want to see the pics?

Shocking and thoroughly scientific confirmation, indeed. Mav added, "Clearly she's lonely and just dying for my attention. Someone to take care of her. For god's sake, someone give her my number." Oh, and we would be complete bastards if we didn't give credit for these photos to our heroes at The Superficial. And we ain't bastards!

HGC Radio - Episode 34: Jackpot!

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Episode 34 of THE HANDSOME GENIUS CLUB RADIO SHOW is alive and kickin' with a ridiculous amount of testosterone today. First, your loveable but surly host, ANTHONY KINGDOM JAMES, tells us why he was ready to hand out an ass-kicking this week and what made him decide not to do it. Then, "The Most Opinionated Man On The Planet" BIG RON LARMONDIN returns to the show to tell us about three generations of his family's hooliganism. Then it's THE PANIC ATTACK with NOAH PANICO, NERD NEWS (including another edition of "The Luckiest F**ker On Earth") and this week's edition of THINGS TO DO. All this, plus TJ and YOSHI are here to share a ton of the pop culture conversation you've been waiting all week to hear!

For photos, links, music info and more, click this link to


Ron Larmondin Sr and Jr. - 700 pounds of cantankerous!

This week's handsome links...
Secret Suburbia's official website

This week's music...
First Break: "C'Mon C'Mon" by The Von Bondies
Second Break: "Hockey Monkey" by The Zambonis

"The Tarantino Mixtape" by Eclectic Method

The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

We totally jacked this from Kevin Church's website. Thanks Kev.

The Hot Mess: Swine Flu, American Idol & What the Buck

Yes, the swine flu is everywhere, even The Hot Mess. What about the good in the world, like lottery winners, people finding Dr. Pepper history, and a the most AWESOME episode of Dorm Life (http://dorm-life.com) EVER!

It's NBC vs. Wolverine, with a touch of Dominic Monaghan from The Soup (http://youtube.com/watch?v=fy5M7AgD1F4) ! What about awkwardness between TMZ.com not wanting to ask Adam Lambert from American Idol to his face if he is gay and Brittany Spear's "Crazy" fan Kyle King?

Oh and what's up with Michael Buckley from What the Buck?! CONGRATS TO TWO YEARS ON http://youtube.com/whatthebuckshow.



The Ultimate Showdown @ http://youtube.com/watch?v=k3Nqguav6nE
Vote for this Episode on CurrentTV @ The Ultimate Showdown @ http://youtube.com/watch?v=k3Nqguav6nE

HGC Radio - Episode 33: Judo Chop-Chop-Chop!

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If you only listen to one brand new episode of the Handsome Genius Club Radio Show this week, make sure it's this one! ANTHONY KINGDOM JAMES and TJ HABIBI are back with more pop culture fun and frivolity and they have some great guests this week. First, Colorado Avalanche broadcaster PETER RUTTGAIZER returns to the show to analyze the on-going Stanley Cup Playoffs. Then, ZACK ZELDIN and BILLY LEVY come aboard to discuss their new website WorldGaming.com, where online gamers can play real opponents and wager real money on the outcome of their XBox360 and PS3 battles. Next, it's time for NOAH PANICO and his movie review. This week, Noah actually reviews a movie! And it's a big one, as our man in the Steel City will discuss director JJ Abrams' brand new film STAR TREK.

Plus, there's all your weekly NERD NEWS, THINGS TO DO and much, much more. So push the pink button and enjoy the show!


For photos, links, music info and more, click this link to


Former HGC Radio guest (Episode 15) Doug Stanhope on stage in Toronto. (25 April 2009)

This week's handsome links...
The Handsome Genius Club on MySpace
The Handsome Genius Club on Facebook
The Handsome Genius Club on Twitter

Secret Suburbia's official website
Tha O Show's official website
Peter Ruttgaizer is the studio host for the Colorado Avalanche
on Altitude Sports and Entertainment.
Set up a free account at WorldGaming.com and start competing online for cold hard cash.

This week's music...
First Break: "Ain't That A Kick In The Head" by Dean Martin
Second Break: "To The Liar" by Secret Suburbia

Saturday May 2nd is Free Comic Book Day!!!

Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book specialty shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their shops. Each year, a variety of different publishers provide comic books, specially produced for the day, to retailers, who in turn give them away for free. Different shops have policies on how many free comics you can receive, but you will receive at least one free comic if you enter a participating shop location. Tell your friends, your family, your classmates - anyone you think might enjoy comics for the first time - or should start reading them again.

For more information and a list of comic book specialty shops in your area, go to FreeComicBookDay.com.