LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Jimmy Wong, co-host of the popular Command Zone podcast gave a tell-all interview today. In it, he opens up about life behind the camera, working with Josh Lee Kwai, and the string of ears he’s gathered from defeated guests.
“Whenever we have a new guest on Game Knights, we always “knight” them as a sort of ceremonial investiture using a sword. You’ve probably seen it in movies or television. A monarch stands over a kneeling knight and taps both sides of his shoulders with a ceremonial blade. We do this as a fun way to introduce new players while staying on theme. What many of our viewers don’t know is that we didn’t always use props.”
Wong goes on to detail the incident which started his collection.
“Now, obviously this didn’t air, but one time we ‘knighted’ a guest player and accidently lopped off their ear. A horrific accident to be sure. But when I saw the ear laying on an Ultra Pro playmat, which you can buy now at ultrapro.com, something inside me … stirred. Without thinking I asked the bleeding guest writhing in pain if I could have it. They said ‘What?!’ I wasn’t sure if they were surprised at the question, or if they literally couldn’t hear me on account of the missing ear. I grabbed the severed ear under the guise that we’d be putting it on ice to reattach as they left for the hospital. However, I couldn’t bring myself to part with it.
“I love collecting. It’s part of the reason I love Magic: The Gathering. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy with just one ear. This isn’t public knowledge, but for a good long while now, guests on Game Knights have been playing for a lot more than clout. Part of the deal is that if you lose, I get your ear. Part of the game of Commander has playgroups making their own rules and their own fun. Putting up a body part as ante makes games really intense. If you haven’t tried it yet, consider it. Ears are a bit much, but honestly no one really needs a pinkie toe.
“People might be thinking, who in their right mind would agree to such a thing? I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure either. Maybe it’s because Command Zone and Game Knights, brought to you by Card Kingdom where you can buy the latest MTG products, have become popular enough to where the exposure is worth it. I think it’s weird that people never suspected anything was off since we use new playmats for each episode. It’s a win-win since after blood gets everywhere they’re way too hard to clean, so we just get new ones from Ultrapro.com where you can get deck boxes, sleeves, and playmats in case yours get bloody too.”
During an unaired portion of the interview, Wong told the story about a defeated guest who tried to kill him to save his ear. Though Wong defeated the mystery guest and buried the body directly under the Game Knight’s table, its rumored the spirit began haunting his deck box, which was immediately sold on eBay.