Brooklyn Monk in Asia Podcast Voted a “Mover and Shaker” on Podomatic

Even being nominated for an Academy Award is a great honor. Antonio Graceffo was never nominated, but he did win something: not an Emmy, not a Tony, not even a Soapy, but his podcast, Brooklyn Monk in Asia just received the Mover and Shakers award.

It’s not an award exactly, it was a congratulatory email from Podomatic, the host of Brooklyn Monk in Asia podcast.

“I am overcome with emotion.” Said Antonio, “It was almost as exciting as the previous email, telling me that I had won the Spanish lottery.”

According to the prestigious email from Podomatic Brooklyn Mon in Asia Podcast has climbed more than 700 positions in a single day, earning it the designation of Movers and Shakers.

The BMA podcast is only in its third week, but has already climbed to the top 500 podcasts on podomatic. BMA podcast has now been submitted to iTunes, and will hopefully be viewed by an even wider audience.

BMA was the first podcast Antonio ever listened to. In fact, he only barely knew what a podcast was, but when he found out he wouldn’t have to watch his weight anymore, like he did on TV, he knew that he had found his medium of choice.

In his own words, Antonio says, “Podcasting is as much fun as writing, but my bad spelling is not an issue.”

The podcast is the work of Antonio Graceffo, an over-forty, over-educated, underpaid, cranky New Yorker, who has been living in Asia for too long. Antonio is more well-known for writing books, most recently, Warrior Odyssey, and magazine articles about Asia, which is serious, informative writing. He is also known for his web TV show, Martial Arts Odyssey, which often has a humorous slant to it. But in Brooklyn Monk in Asia podcast, Antonio cuts completely loose, making fun of himself, the Asian
world around him, and the western world that he left behind.

According to Antonio, the show was meant to be a joke, a bit of comedy to lighten the lives of people faced with a global economic depression and fear of the year 2012, when many believe the world will simply burst into flames and we will all die a horribly painful death, and life, as we know it, will come to end.

To keep people from dwelling on those facts, Antonio created his podcast. He did it especially for people worried about cancer or obesity or dying of Ebola or rabies, people who lose sleep thinking about anthrax and credit crunch, or being maimed in a freak microwave popcorn accident.

“Hopefully the show speaks to that segment of the population who isn’t as rich, as beautiful, or as famous at 30 or 40 or 50 as they thought they would be when they were 19.”

For everyone who never became a cowboy, an astronaut, a failed poet skulking around cafes in Paris, a fire engine, a failed painter skulking around the cafes of Paris, a sailor, or Miss Universe, you can tune in, and laugh at other people’s misfortunes.

A central theme to all of Antonio’s writing and filming is that we should be non-conformists. “Don’t be what THEY want you to be.”

At the end of every episode of Brooklyn Monk in Asia, Antonio reminds you to “Go out and do something stupid.”