Support Off the Rack

Help me keep making Off the Rack.

I love this show. I love sitting down with people in this community and asking all the questions I've always wanted to ask, and finding out who someone is beyond their rating or their tournament record.

I want to keep doing it at this level, and that isn't cheap. If you've gotten something out of an episode, this is how you help me make more of them.

Support on Patreon

Every bit helps, and I mean that literally.

This is for our community

I'm not doing this because I think competitive Scrabble is some untapped media goldmine. I'm doing it because I fell in love with this community. I keep meeting people and thinking, "how does everybody not know this about you?"

There are decades of stories in this community. People who helped build it. People who've been playing together for thirty or forty years. Champions, directors, club players, brand new players, little bits of history that everybody in one room knows and nobody outside that room has ever heard.

I want to capture some of that. I want us to know each other better. I want someone who's never played tournament Scrabble to stumble onto an episode and think these people are fascinating. I want more women to see this world and imagine themselves in it. And I want someone ten years from now to be able to hear these people tell their own stories, in their own voices.

Why it costs what it costs

I shoot every interview with a three camera setup, and I travel to my guests because these conversations are better in person. That means flights, hotels, rental cars, and dragging production equipment through airports. Sometimes it means renting a professional studio.

Ryan Fischer edits the show. Scrabble people may already know him, he's a Division 1 player, and he's also a professional cinematographer and an incredibly talented editor. Three cameras means three angles to work through, plus audio, syncing, color, pacing, graphics, all the decisions I never see happening that turn hours of raw footage into an actual episode.

I want to pay him like the professional he is. I don't want this show to exist because someone talented in our community is quietly donating dozens of hours for free.

So far I've been funding most of this myself, and I'm glad I did. But I can't personally bankroll it forever, and honestly, I don't think that's what I want this to become anyway. I'd rather this be something the community helps keep alive because the community thinks it's worth having.

What your support actually pays for

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Paying Ryan fairly for editing and post production.

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Travel, so I can go to the people I want to interview instead of only interviewing whoever happens to live near me.

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Studio rentals when an episode needs one.

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Equipment, storage, and the pile of small production costs that come with a real three camera show.

Mostly, it helps make this sustainable.

You don't have to give a lot

Seriously. A few dollars a month matters. If enough people who enjoy the show kick in a little, that starts paying for an edit, a flight, a studio, another conversation that might not otherwise happen.

And if Patreon isn't something you can do right now, watching, subscribing, sharing an episode with someone who'd love it, or telling me who I should talk to next also helps, genuinely.

I have a very long list of people I want to sit down with.

Help me go meet them. 🤍