‘DEAD DIALECT’ LIVES ON

Julian Lara has never settled for the mundane. From the time he dyed his hair red at his prom, to holding court doing a podcast that interviews comedy superstars and mixed martial arts legends, he’s not one to be content with the no-frills life.

It’s one of the reasons he’s co-hosting “Dead Dialect” a Houston-based podcast that is garnering some attention.

“We just want to talk to people we think of as our heroes,” Lara says of the podcast he co-hosts with Brandon Clements.

The show, which has been around since 2014, has made him a notable Houston podcaster, even if he says his family, which emigrated from northern Mexico a couple of generations ago, couldn’t really make sense of what he was talking about when he said he was a “podcaster.”

“I wasn’t really groomed to start my own thing and be creative, luckily I have family that’s pretty accepting,” he says, noting that his father grew up playing in heavy metal bands.

The first “Dead Dialect” guest was Jake Lloyd, the actor who played the young Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.” They interviewed him over the internet after an attempt to reach him through social media proved successful.

Since that start, the “Dead Dialect” guys have talked to musicians local (Kam Franklin) and national (The Dandy Warhols), MMA fighters and other “Star Wars” personalities, like Alex Damon, a guy who has become notable for explaining the space-faring franchise.

By keeping the commitment of the show local — though they interview people from all over — Lara and Clements have scored some heavy hits with the kind of podcasting guests you’d expect to hear on a more established show.

For instance, they landed a prime interview with comedian T.J. Miller, star of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” while he was in town.

Now, after some 70-plus episodes, the duo has switched to video. It’s a way of expanding the “Dead Dialect” brand, Lara says. They want to go into writing content and artist interviews. “It’s going to be about comedy and anime. I’m going to try to get together a team of writers. We want to be able to cover some more about Houston,” he says, noting that not everyone they choose to cover lends well to the podcast format.

And although they’ve dialed back on the regular podcasts to help create their blog space and to record and edit video, they want fans to know they haven’t abandoned their first love.

“Were just using the brand that we’ve built for newer ways to cover the scene and Houston in general,” Lara says

This weekend they’ll also be joined by a few of their podcasting brethren at the Come and Take It Comedy festival. The DD duo will have a featured slot to talk about their show and video work in a festival that features comic stars like Colin Quinn, Eugene Mirman and Alice Wetterland.