Peter Serafinowicz's essential geek guide
From the game you need to play to the app you should have downloaded by now
Spaced. Guardians of the Galaxy. Dark Souls II. Shaun of the Dead. Star Wars.
So diverse is the scope of Peter Serafinowicz's CV, that the approach of a selfie-requesting fan presents him with something of a roulette wheel potential references.
"Someone came up to me the other day the day after The Tick had premiered on Amazon Prime and said "Congratulations! I watched it last night and it was great", to which I said thanks. But then I thought 'God that is weird - imagine explaining that to myself even ten years ago - I'd be making shows with Amazon."
Serafinowicz has had a busy 2016: in addition to Amazon's superhero spoof, his familiar bass tones can be heard booming through August's sci-fi video game hit Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Given the geek-courting nature of much of Serafinowicz's work, we felt it right to ask the man himself for a guide on all things nerd: from gadgets to games to the future of VR, here's Serafinowicz's essential guide to geekdom.
The greatest game you ever played as a kid?
"I used to like text adventures, the Infocom Text Adventures - the guys who made the Zork games.
"There was this one in particular called Enchanter. I got so into it one day, I think it was like a weekend or half term or something, my friend came round and was with me in my room for most of the day and left. At the end of the day I didn't even realise he'd been around because I'd been so engrossed in solving these weird puzzles. It had quite a sophisticated text parser, so you could write reasonably complex sentences and it would understand them - and it was really witty."
Are games getting better?
"I suppose yes, mainly because more people are making them. As a medium or as an art form - you can't really categorise it, but whatever it is - it's still in its... not its infancy, but its teenage years I suppose. Maybe kind of in its twenties; it thinks it's all grown up but it's got a lot to learn.
"I love the whole Indie game scene, little teams, even one person studios making these things thanks to the resources they have now. They make these really impressive games.
"When I was a kid Indie games would be the sort of experiences that would have you type in a load of basic code from a magazine. That was quite an exciting thing for me as a kid. God I haven't thought about that for ages. The games would be nowhere near as cool as the ones you would buy an actually cassette, but now people can make something that looks incredible and has its own unique weirdness to it. "
The comic everyone should read?
"Anything by Michael Kupperman, either Snake'n'Bacon or Tales designed to Thrizzle.
"He's a New York cartoonist who is just hilarious and unique. He's just got such a particular weird kind of sense of humour. He's amazing."
Your favourite 'cult' film?
"I've got to say the original Star Wars for me - I know it's hardly a cult thing, but I think in a sense it's underappreciated as a film. I think I could watch that every day easily, every single day and never tire of it. I think it's perfect."
Your favourite anime?
"I'm a big studio Ghibly fan, with my favourite being Spirited Away. It's gorgeous and deserves a lot of attention."
Your favourite app?
"My favourite for noodling around on is a photo app called Enlight that lets you edit pictures.
"I know there are thousands of those things but that thing, just to change the levels of an image and highlights and tweak it a little - for me it's a nice way just to waste a bit of time."
What gadget can't you exist without?
"My MacBook. I've got a couple of them now and as a creative tool, Apple stuff has just enabled me to do so many things. I just did an audition actually, where I filmed myself and edited the footage down. It's not particularly sophisticated but... You can do stuff on even the lowest spec little thin MacBook, edit video, make music, I can do all my little weird things. I sometimes I have to stop and think 'God this is staggering what this little thing can do now.'
"The Donald Trump videos I've been doing, I do all that in Logic on my Mac."
So you're a big Apple fan?
"Well, the only thing that drives me nuts is iTunes. Why can't they sort that out? It's like having a very unreliable friend who keeps borrowing all your records and CDs and doesn't give them back. He owes you money, you know, he breaks your stereo. God. iTunes."
What will you do if Trump wins?
"What I'm going to do is move to America so I can then move to Canada.
"The Sassy Trump videos came from watching him with the volume down and realising how incredibly camp he is - how at odds with his tough guy image this prissy, giant camp old woman is. It's the thing that makes me laugh about him the most.
"I'm just dying for him to see them because he's quite armoured; a lot of things don't get to him but one thing that acts as his Achilles heel - more like an Achilles leg - is his vanity. That's the way to get under his skin I think."
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is out now
