TikTok Star Misha Brown Loves 'Big Flops' And Wants to Share Them on Podcast

"Every big moment starts with a big dream," imparts Misha Brown in a voiceover trailer showcases his theater-trained timbre. "But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop?" he asks. If you're lucky, you laugh about it and it ends up fodder for "The Big Flop" – the new part-pop culture and part-history podcast that is as hilarious as it is informative, with Brown as host.

An actor, singer, and influencer, audiences may know Misha best from his viral TikTok series "Lessons in Not Crossing a Gay Man." The video diaries have racked up nearly 20 million on the social media platform, but Misha assures that there have been plenty of less viral career moves along the way. "If you can't laugh about it, who will?" he says.

@dontcrossagayman this took MONTHS to fix 😭🤣 #dontcrossagayman #petty #hairsalon #badhairday ♬ original sound - Misha

In an exclusive interview with EDGE Media, Misha talks about success, his speaking voice versus his singing voice, and why talking about failures can be fun if you learn not to take yourself too seriously. Click on the link above to watch the full interview, but here's a preview of our conversation below. Watch the full interview in the video.

EDGE: What attracted you to this particular podcast project about cultural flops?

Misha Brown: So, Wondery and Atwell Media, who is also co-producing, reached out to do a mic test. I've always loved the hilarity and absurdity of cultural flops, so I was really excited for this opportunity, and obviously Wondery is like the mega lord of podcasts. I loved the idea of just doing my first podcast. That's just fun. It's really fun.

EDGE: Of course, I wonder if you have a personal connection to the topic of the podcast? Tell me about your biggest flop.

Misha Brown: Ohh! My biggest flop would probably be my entire theater career. I moved to New York City in 2008, and all the way up until the pandemic, I was pursuing musical theater. And I think, to go back ... I think my voice, my speaking voice was something holding me back. My little gay voice, people weren't casting me in these leading man roles when my singing voice is that. And so now to do something where my voice is my power, where people recognize my voice is actually really exciting, and it feels like I kind of took my power back a little bit.

EDGE: From flop to not. And what I like about the podcast is that it isn't all jokes. You really get the full story on some of these companies and products that have disappeared.

Misha Brown: One of my favorite things about this podcast is it's not just a gossip podcast. There is a lot of research that's gone into it. The Atwell Media and the Wondery teams have been vital to that. They have researched these flops to no end and given me the tools necessary to understand them and to fully be able to talk about them. And they also did that with the guests.

We've had guests like Sasheer Zamata, Guy Branum, and Matthew Beasley, and people that I've looked up to for a very long time. Some of them have personal relationships with the flops, and others actually have no idea. Those have been the people more exciting to watch them get to know the flop in real time, and just their minds are blown.

EDGE: The podcast covers the failure of the water park Action Park, the drink Four Loko, the streaming service Quibi, and the musical version of "Spider-Man". Do you find that you are more equipped to not flop based on what you've learned about these companies?

Misha Brown: If I were ever given an insane amount of money, millions or billions of dollars, I feel like I would definitely know what not to do based on what some of these people have done.

EDGE: Continuing down that path of thinking, give us some advice on how to flop less.

Misha Brown: I think the biggest piece of advice, or the biggest thing I've learned, is to have the ability to listen. If people just took a moment to listen to the advice they were getting from people around them, experts, people who worked at the ground level and understood the process better than the people on top with the ideas, a lot of these flops could have been avoided.

I think ego gets in the way. I think that a lot of people try to get things done too quickly. So just listen to the people around you because I feel most of the time, if you surround yourself with people who are trying to build you up, they are going to give you pretty sound advice.

Listen to "The Big Flop" now at Wondery.com. The show is also available on all major podcast streaming platforms with new episodes available every week.