IFH 800: Behind the Scenes of Sharknado: Turning Sci-Fi Madness into Storytelling Gold with Andrew Shaffer

Alex Ferrari 1:49
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Dave Bullis 1:53
This is a very important podcast, because we're going to teach you in this episode to how to survive a Sharknado. Now, Sharknado three is going to air on the Sci Fi Channel on July the 22nd this is going up the day before, but if you're a subscriber, it's going up about one to two days early, so you can get even even quicker preparation for battling this Sharknado. I know you're all very interested, so I'm gonna get right into it. And without further ado, here's the interview with Andrew Schaefer, author of How to Survive a Sharknado. Joining me today is Andrew Shaffer. Andrew is a humorist and New York Times best selling author who works include the great philosophers who failed at love the Goodreads choice semi finalists, 50 shames of Earl Grey's, oh, great tea. And sci fi is how to survive a sharknado and other natural, unnatural disasters. Uh, Andrew, how are you doing today, sir?

Andrew Shaffer 2:51
I'm awake. It's about 3pm here on the west coast.

Dave Bullis 2:58
So, very cool. Um, so could you just give us a little bit about your background, and you know how you got started as an author?

Andrew Shaffer 3:05
How I got started as an author? I've always sort of been, I was always into reading as a child, and I sort of thought that the natural thing then was to start writing, and I didn't, I don't think I realized early on that not everybody who, who reads books, you know, gets the inclination to also write them. It just felt like a very natural progression to me. But early on, as a child, I was very much into horror and science fiction, any type of mystery, any type of genre fiction, was really what I sort of devoured at the time. Then I took a little detour in terms of I went to college, where I studied at at the University of Iowa with with writers workshop students there, which is a very it's much more of a literary fiction sort of training. And I got into that for a little bit a while, but I found myself sort of gravitating more back towards genre fiction, young adult, just stuff that that that was sort of more entertaining, I thought. And that's kind of where I find myself right now. Is going from maybe sort of more of a literary non fiction books, moving more into genre, stuff like the How to Survive a Sharkndo,

Dave Bullis 4:37
Yeah, very cool. And that's a very important book, because we all know sharknados can happen. So I wanted to ask you, how did you actually pitch this book? I mean, did you actually pitch it to sci fi as as like you? Because I know in the book, you cover other of their movies too,

Andrew Shaffer 4:58
Yeah. I mean, the great thing about this play. So I watched Sharknado, the first movie, and I let my agent know I was like, if you know, if there's, like, a novelization or something, I'd love to do that. Of course, there wasn't with the first movie, but then she heard that Random House and the Sci Fi Channel were looking to do something with the second movie, some type of tie in. And they had the idea to do a survival guide, sort of like the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. And it was something that I did a so I don't think, I don't think originally, you know, they thought, really thought of me, because I wasn't writing any type of genre stuff at the time. I just had parody come out, though, 50 shames of Earl gray. So they kind of said, well, you kind of do the humor writing. And I did a sample for it. They ended up liking it, and asked me to write the book then. So it came together pretty fast. I had to watch about, I don't know it was like 30 or 40 different sci fi movies to to actually write the book and sort of ties them all together, sort of in one universe.

Dave Bullis 6:10
Okay, excellent. So you know when, when you did actually pitch to sci fi? Were they really open to using all their other movies as well?

Andrew Shaffer 6:18
We had a list to go off of. I mean, I had some that I wanted to use that we weren't able to but they had a list of, you know, somewhere, probably about 50 or 60, that they had licensing that we could work with. And then there was just so much that we're off limits. So it was basically I had to go with what they gave me, and then sort of narrow it down from there. And then we actually ended up creating a bunch for the for the guidebook. So there's about 10 or 12 in there. I think that that are actually unique and original to the book.

Dave Bullis 6:51
And what's cool is because if you haven't seen all the sci fi movies, you can actually go through and try to figure out which ones are created and which ones are actually real movies?

Andrew Shaffer 7:02
Yeah, that's, that's the funny thing. I've had some people pick up the book and go, How did you come up with some of this crap? I'm like, I didn't. It's just, you know, you can actually go. They're like, there should be a movie about this. And I'm like, well, guess what? You know, you you can go see a Corona conda movie. And it's pretty amazing.

Dave Bullis 7:24
So could you elaborate, you know, on some of the monsters that you wanted to use, but you couldn't?

Andrew Shaffer 7:32
I don't, I don't even really remember exactly which ones we couldn't use offside my head, but I know that, you know, there were, we had to sort of narrow it down to, to what, what was sort of, we didn't want to have, like, like 30 different shark based ones, you know. So there were some, but we used use most of the, the big Sci Fi Channel movies that that they've done that were kind of hits, like shark to pus and coronaconda and stuff, even stone eight. Oh, so it was, so it was, it there wasn't really a lot that was left on the cutting room floor I'd say,

Dave Bullis 8:16
Okay, interesting. So, you know, so when you're you're writing this book, and you're piecing this all together. Did you actually watch each individual movie and sort of make a list and make a lot of notes on each

Andrew Shaffer 8:27
Oh my gosh, yeah, I had to watch every, every movie that we included 3,4,5, times to really pick up everything that was going on and kind of look at different angles and stuff so, so it was, really, I approached it sort of like I did my non fiction books, which was just a lot of research, and then I had to try to figure out scientific explanations for how some of this stuff happened in the real world. And, you know, they're that's not something they're thinking about really. When they're making the movie, they're thinking, make something entertaining, but to write it down in a book, I was like, I need to come up with reasons why, you know, sharks can survive when flying around inside of a tornado. You know, how, what? How do I make that sort of believable? And so I, like, talked to like a marine biologist for that. And I was like, How did you know, is this, you know, not, could this happen, but, but what's a logical way to make this, you know, happen?

Dave Bullis 9:30
So when you, when you interviewed that marine biologist, did he or she know what Sharknado was before you talked to them?

Andrew Shaffer 9:37
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. The biologist spoke to she was a, she was a huge fan of these sci fi movies, actually, and and was, you know, really thrilled to answer my questions and stuff. She's like, she's like, we really love them. They're, you know, they're, I don't want to say, use the word terrible. I forget what. Word she used. But I mean, they're just, they're just entertaining. You can turn your mind off while watching them. And you don't have to worry about the scientific stuff behind it. They said this just, just for pure, you know, entertainment value,

Dave Bullis 10:22
You know, I was just, you know, when you brought that up, I was actually wondering, you know, if, if she hadn't heard of that, and you just went, you know, you know, could a shark and a tornado come together, and she would have been like, could you get this crazy man out of my office, please?

Andrew Shaffer 10:36
I know. I know. Yeah, so, yeah. So, some of that stuff we you know, was, was a lot of fun to sort of research, you know. And then there's other stuff. I mean, I think there was one movie that I watched that I watched it probably 10 times, and I couldn't figure out anyway, not only to make the science work in real life, but I couldn't figure out how the science worked in the movie. I was like, this movie doesn't really make much sense. And I was like, probably gonna cut this one out of the pocket.

Dave Bullis 11:07
So, you know, you know, you, you know, you wrote this book during the and it coincided with the release of Sharknado two. So, you know. So now, with Sharknado three coming out, you know, I wanted to ask you, what are some of your expectations about Sharknado three?

Andrew Shaffer 11:26
You know, I really didn't have any expectations even for the second Sharknado, because I hadn't, hadn't seen it at a time, or read the script or anything. So the second one itself was kind of a surprise. I kind of, you know, had an idea of that it would kind of be a little bit more meta than the first one, and it was. And so the third one I, you know, I was, I'm kind of hoping it goes a little bit back to basics, but which is, you know, really taking the concept as seriously as possible. I think it's something that, once it gets to meta, it becomes, if everybody's in on the joke, you know, then then the joke itself isn't that funny anymore. So I kind of like see a little more serious but, but I don't really know what direction they're going to take it. Yeah, I want to say a more personal Sharknado film. Maybe that's where you have to reboot the franchise.

Dave Bullis 12:31
Yeah, I really want to see a more like David Lynch a Sharknado film, you know. But, but yeah, you know. I completely agree with you on that point. I, you know, I also noticed that in the second one there was a lot more celebrity cameos. Like, pretty much, you know what I mean. Like, every time they went somewhere, there's a new celebrity. I hear now, there's, like, even more celebrities in Sharknado three.

Andrew Shaffer 12:57
Oh yeah, it's everybody wants it wants to, you know, be in on it, be in on the joke. And I think, you know, I don't know if it's a situation where the celebrities are just contacting them and say, I'll work for no money or something, and they're like, how can we refuse that? You know, they really can't say, you know, if David Hasselhoff wants to be in your movie or something, they for no money. It really can't say no to that. It's not like they're courting these celebrities. I don't think so. I mean, yeah, I think it's just gonna have, it's definitely gonna have more celebrity cameos. If you tried to play a celebrity cameo with drinking game or something with Sharknado two, you would have died. I mean, there were so many that are coming so fast, you didn't even know, you know, you couldn't even tell who was an actor, who was a celebrity. You know, it was, it was it came pretty fast and furious.

Dave Bullis 13:52
It did. And I think you're right too. I think there might have been called people who who attempted to do a drinking game, and the results probably weren't so well for them. So you're jumping back to your book, you know, in the chapter, you have an entire, you know, chapter, obviously, just to Sharknado. So, you know, I have to ask the question is, you know, how do you survive a sharknado?

Andrew Shaffer 14:18
How do you survive a sharknado, a lot of people said, just don't watch it. But I mean, I mean, the simple answer of, you know, how do you survive a Sharknado is, as some people think, Oh, well, I survived. I survived by, you know, going to the basement, same way I'd survive a tornado, which really doesn't work because a lot of times during a sharknado, you also have associated flooding with that. The only way to really escape it is to just drive as fast as possible out of town, which, if you're in LA or someplace else where there's going to be a bunch of traffic jams or something, that's just not going to be part. Possible. So, yeah, there's, there's really no good answer that you know. The answer in the book is, you know, Stand and fight. You know, grab a chainsaw, grab whatever you can instead, you know, and and fight back when these things fly at you. So, you know, but I, but personally, I'm, I'm not, like, a survivalist or anything. I mean, I had to research survival stuff for the book. But I don't, you know, I'm so bad about falling in real life, you know, I'm like, I don't have, like, a natural disaster kit. I don't have, you know, three pallets of bald water stored up here, which I probably should, after reading that New Yorker article on earthquakes on the Pacific Northwest this week. So,

Dave Bullis 15:51
Yeah, I read that same article. Apparently, in 50 years, Seattle is just going to be nothing.

Andrew Shaffer 15:57
Yeah, yeah, Seattle is going to get the worst of it. I think Portland, where I'm at is, you know, it's, there's gonna be some, some stuff fall off the wall or something. I don't know. It's not that. It's not gonna be too bad in Portland. I don't think,

Dave Bullis 16:12
Yeah, and just case anybody doesn't know what Andrew and I are talking about, I'll link to that in the show notes so you can read up on that. And then, you know, get scared to death. Be like, Oh my god. So, you know, Andrew, I've had some some fan questions come in, if you don't mind answering a few Sure. So the first question I received was, Andrew, what was the most unstoppable monster that you researched for the book?

Andrew Shaffer 16:39
The most unstoppable monster was the ghost shark, because there's just really no good way to stop a ghost like, like, there was actually a movie too, with, with the guy from bowl, from Night Court. I was in this movie, and it this shark appeared, manifested anywhere there was water. So it was in a swimming pool. One came out of a toilet, another came out of a bottle of water, and there was no way to get away from it anywhere you went. I was just like and it never got full of eating people. So it just went around and around us, eating people and stuff. And I'm like, how do you stop this thing? And I'm trying to think of, you know, there you basically, it's, you have to do some elaborate ghost trapping or something. But, but really it was like, it was like, on, on, on, you know, on a one to one level, you know, an individual level. There was nothing you could do to stop it besides find the, the whatever talisman it was in the movie. So, yeah, it goes straight, pretty frightening stuff.

Dave Bullis 17:59
Now, see, I'll check that movie out because I had no, no idea that was actually a real movie.

Andrew Shaffer 18:04
Oh, my God, it is amazing. Just, just the number of number. There's, there's this amazing bikini Car Wash scene where, where the ghost shark materializes out of a bucket of water. It's, it's just crazy.

Dave Bullis 18:26
So, you know, a follow up question is, Andrew, are you playing on writing a sequel to the book?

Andrew Shaffer 18:34
No, no. And basically, I think, you know, I don't know what else I could say about sharknados, or actually, about most paranormal threats or supernatural stuff like that, but, but I am working on another book that will hopefully be sort of along the similar lines as far as horror goes.

Dave Bullis 19:01
Oh, very cool. Could you tell us a little bit about it, or you want to keep it hush hush?

Andrew Shaffer 19:06
It's like super hush hush, right now.

Dave Bullis 19:08
Okay, so All right, then our on to the next question. We had come in from Michelle the trainer, who was a big fan of the show. Is Andrew a scuba diver, conservationist? Or so? I'm sorry, that was the first part of the question. Sorry, I was just reading a reading, reading. So are you a scuba diver? Andrew?

Andrew Shaffer 19:30
No, I'm not. No, no, I've never gone scuba diving.

Dave Bullis 19:33
And the second part of that was any plans for sharktopus?

Andrew Shaffer 19:40
Well, like survival for the sharktopus. Yeah. So the shark to pus is in the book, but in terms of this year's new movie coming out, Sharktopus versus Whale Wolf, which is the third sharktopus movie, And which are which? Again, if you haven't seen the Sharktopus movies, those are phenomenally entertaining as well, but in terms of how to survive a Sharktopus again, it was like, I started to write some some of these, and I was like, the best thing you can do is just to to move as far away from the coast as possible. Because a lot of these threats in the book that I wrote about were all like, sort of water based threats. And I'm like, unless you like, live in Florida or LA or something, or along the coast, you're fine, but then you get inland, and then I said, then you find yourself in Nebraska. And I mean, I don't you, I don't know. So,

Dave Bullis 20:55
So the next question that came in was, if Andrew was going to create his own sci fi monster. What kind of monster would he create?

Andrew Shaffer 21:05
Well, I think that what kind of monster I would create. I had an idea for one that was not used in the book, and it was called a wolf Blizzard, which was a pun on the CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, and it was just a blizzard of wolves. And that actually got rejected for the book, because they were like, it's, it's the pun is too far. Like it's, they're like, there's like an there's like a line that we would never go past, and you just passed it. And I was like, oh my god, I can't believe I found the line where you will not cross so, but I would still like to I was like. I was like, I'm gonna go write this script.

Dave Bullis 21:55
So for all the aspiring writers listening to this, Andrew has just shown you the line in the sand that Sci Fi Channel will not cross.

Andrew Shaffer 22:04
Yes, yes.

Dave Bullis 22:08
So Andrew, I wanted to ask right now, you know, what are your future plans on publishing? I know there's a project that's very hush hush, but is there any other projects you're working on, or anything else you could tell us about right now?

Andrew Shaffer 22:20
Yeah, I'm also working on a on a young adult novel that that's something I've been working on for a while. I've got a few things that are like in the pipeline, but it's just like, you get a fun, you know, find the right sort of place for them, at a publisher, or either self publish it or whatever, and just got to wait for sort of the stars to align. And until that happens, I don't have any good news to announce. It's kind of boring, like it's something my mom calls me all the time and says, Oh, when's your next book coming out? And I'm like, I don't know. You'll be the first one to know. Don't worry.

Dave Bullis 23:01
So Andrew, I wanted to ask you too, you know, your book, Sharknado, was on sale. Is it still on sale right now?

Andrew Shaffer 23:09
Yeah, as of today, it is for us for like, $1.90 book. I don't know how long the sale is going to last, though.

Dave Bullis 23:15
Okay, so when this is up, you know, hopefully I will link to Andrews book in the show notes, hopefully it'll, if it's not on sale, it's still a relatively good buy. And I guarantee you it's, it is, you know, it's entertaining. It's hilarious. And, like, Look at me. I've learned a lot about the Sci Fi Channel movies because I'm, you know, I've known about ghost shark today.

Andrew Shaffer 23:36
Yeah, it's a value at any price, you know. And the book is like 40 megabytes because it has a bunch of drawings in it. So, you know, that's about 20 times the size of another file, download for a regular prose book. So, I mean, you know, that's what a deal, right? Yeah?

Dave Bullis 23:56
Because when I was flipping through it, I went to, obviously, I went to the Sharknado chapter. And greeting me is a, you know, a black and white hand drawn picture of a shark. Nano, right,

Andrew Shaffer 24:07
Right, right. I mean, and the book's got recipes, you know, excerpts from classic literature that I have completely trashed, such as Moby Dick. So, yeah, it's got a lot of stuff in there.

Dave Bullis 24:24
It's got something for everybody. So, you know, in Andrew, in closing, you know, is there anything that we didn't talk about today that you wanted to mention, or any, any, you know, closing thoughts or final thoughts?

Andrew Shaffer 24:38
No, my mind is, my mind is completely blank I do in like this meditation class right now. So I'm learning to sort of wipe away all thoughts in my mind. You know, normally I would have 100 things to talk about right now, but right now it's just like it's, I'm I'm learning to zone out and go blank.

Dave Bullis 24:59
All right. Andrew, where do you find you at online?

Andrew Shaffer 25:03
Oh, my goodness, anywhere. Twitter, Facebook, Google, you know, all someone has to do is Google my name. Andrew Shaffer, S, H, A, F, F, E, R, as long as they spell it right, they can find me, you know, which is, you know, kind of disturbing, but I'm all over the place,

Dave Bullis 25:25
And I'll make sure to to link to all that in the show notes too. I'll link to your website and your Twitter.

Andrew Shaffer 25:31
You don't you don't have to just make them work for it. Work for it. Okay?

Dave Bullis 25:35
I will not link to Andrew's info in the show notes, so you will have to work for it, then it'll be the first time. But I will not, I promise you, I will not link to that in the show notes. But Andrew, want to say thank you very much for coming on again everyone. It's how to survive a sharknado and other unnatural disasters that it's I will link to the, I will link to this and the show notes, but it's right to the Kindle version. And is there a physical version of this book too Andrew?

Andrew Shaffer 26:03
There is. There is because, you know, once, once a sharknado or some other type of disaster hits, you need the physical version. You know, you can be able to charge your phone or whatnot. So, you know, I always advise people to get the e book and the physical version and just being on the safe side.

Dave Bullis 26:22
See, that's why you're the publisher, because that's that. That is forethought, my friend, yes, yes, you won't have That's right. So, you know, the physical the the ebook I have, you know, if it does, the power goes out, I won't be able to find it. So honestly, look into the physical version now too. Yeah. So Andrew, I want to say thank you so much for coming on everyone. The book is how to survive a sharknado. Andrew, thanks again for coming on and again. Feel free to, you know, drop me an email anytime, and I'd love to have you back sometime.

Andrew Shaffer 26:52
Yeah, great time chatting with you, Dave.

Dave Bullis 26:54
Oh, you too, my friend. Take care everyone.