MrBeast and James Patterson discuss new co-authored thriller book | FOX 10 Talks

Well coming up, Mr. Beast. Do you know who Mr. Beast is? Beast. Beast. I clearly don't. It's Mr. Beast. He has... He's a YouTuber, right? Yeah, he's huge on YouTube, but he has teamed up with James Patterson. So if you don't know who Mr. Beast is, maybe you know James Patterson. Huge author. They've written a book together. So before Anita went on vacation, she sat down with both of them via Zoom to talk about this collaboration. Take a look. Hey, how's it going? How are you? I want you to know we have a small... We're doing good. Good, good. We have a small studio in here, but we have a live audience and everyone has their phones out and is so absolutely excited for this interview as am I. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having us and shout out to everyone in the crowd. Yeah. I'm really excited. I've got a copy of the book and you better believe I'm going to be reading it cover to cover because I love thrillers. And I have so many questions for both of you. But I think, number one, how did this partnership come to be? Because we have almost opposite ends of the spectrum, right? Different generations, different genres. We have a famous YouTuber and a famous author. Mr. Patterson, you've written over 300 books since 1976. 50 years of success. Jimmy, you have been on YouTube since you were 13, which is so incredible. How is it that you guys said, let's co-write a book together? Yeah. I can take this one. Honestly, it's a lot more organic than you might think. I was just interested in talking to him because he's the most successful living author there is. And I would assume he was interested in talking to me because I'm the biggest YouTuber. And so I just invited him down to my studio, not with the goal of doing a book, but just to learn from him. And we spent a couple hours in my conference room. We went for a walk around my studio. And I was like, wow, he's actually fun to be around. And he's not pretentious and annoying. He's just that chill guy. And so then just one thing led to another. And it's like, okay, well, I guess if we were to do a book, what would it look like? How do we merge our two skill sets? That's the key thing, merging the two. And what Jimmy does, and just the excitement he brings to the videos. You've got to keep watching for the 20 minutes or whatever. And then with mine, same thing. You just don't want to stop reading. And putting the two together, to me, creates this book that's not like any other book that I think has been written. It's really propulsive. And you really care about the characters. And that's irresistible to me. Oh, gosh, I love it when I read a book and then I'm done reading a book. And weeks later, I'm still thinking about the characters. I want more, right? And that's what, to me, because I am an avid reader, especially thrillers, I love when a book comes together in that way. Mm-hmm, yep. Well, I think one of the cool things, and I think it's going to happen with this book, is some people, you've got to read the whole thing in a day or two days. And some people, I don't want it to end. So I'm only going to allow myself to read 40 pages today, or whatever the heck it is. And I think this book, no matter how you like to read, and whether you're 12 years old or 80 years old, I think it will fulfill that for you. It's a very rewarding book, I think. Okay, how I like to read sometimes, and don't get mad at me, Mr. Patterson, please, is if I really need to know what's happening, I will skip ahead a little bit, like a couple chapters, and just make sure that someone survived or someone made it out of the cave, or, you know, so on. Okay, yeah, you did, baby. Every once in a while, I need a little peep. But you brought up a good point right there, when you're talking about different generations. And Jimmy, obviously known as Mr. Beast, right? You, I was watching one of your YouTube videos with The Last to Leave the Mansion. A couple of things about that, but you have a younger generation of viewers who maybe don't pick up the book because they're used to the tablets and the electronics, whereas Mr. Patterson is writing, again, over 300 books. You are bringing together generations who maybe would never read the same book. Yeah, that is, I'm glad you said that because while, you know, we were working on this, we would give the book to some families or people we know. And it's an interesting thing because you'll see like a mom and a dad, you know, like the mom would be like, oh, I love James Patterson thrillers and so she'll want to read it. But then the kid's like, wait, Mr. Beast? Well, I want to read it. I like his videos a bit similar. And it's like, I've never seen that effect before. Who gets to read it first? Exactly, where like a kid and their parent both actually want to read the same book. Like when's the last time you've heard something like that happen? That's very rare. Yeah, and so that was a cool effect that I didn't realize until we started giving the book out to some friends. So I hope that can be a thing that brings families closer together and maybe something, you know, parents can bond with the kid over because I really do believe that both of them will deeply enjoy it. It's like, James likes to use the word unputdownable that I'd never heard before today but it really has that. And like, you just like, once you read the first chapter you're like, what happens? And it just hooks you in. I think that's such an exciting aspect is how you mentioned different generations will be coming together. I was watching The Last to Leave the Mansion and I couldn't tell you exactly which episode. But one of the things that you had talked about, Jimmy, was you picked the contestants for a specific reason. Because they were basically saying, oh, his challenges are too easy, everybody's whining and crying. And then I was watching the trailer you guys have out for the book and you're inviting people in this book, you are inviting people to participate in this most dangerous game. So it's very similar aspects there. Yes. There are some similarities to my videos but for the most part, the book is honestly on a whole different level. And the beauty is, I can't tell a crazy movie-like story in just a 20-minute YouTube video, whereas this, there's so much more latitude to get to know all the people and the depth of the characters and everything is way better than my videos. And so, yes. Basically, what I will say is if you've ever enjoyed a Mr. Beast video, you will 100% enjoy this book. And I think it's going to be something you'll struggle to put down. And one thing for the adults here, the parents and grandparents, ask your kids if they want a Mr. Beast book. And they will tell you loudly. I love that. Really quickly, because I'm probably going to get the wrap soon, how does the co-writing process work? Do you each write a chapter at home? Are you sharing? Are you working together? Yeah. All of the above, I think. It goes back and forth a lot. And sometimes it'll be different of one of us writing a particular chapter, and sometimes we just go back and forth. And you know, the thing of it is, when you do a book, it's not one draft. It's three or four drafts, and sometimes depending on the draft, some of you will get very involved. I think the last draft, in particular, I think Jimmy was really, really involved in terms of making sure that he felt that the book would be as good as it could be. 100%. And obviously, having someone with as much experience as James, I leaned on him a lot. And sometimes I would say stuff, and I'd be like, I don't know if I should be giving him feedback, because sometimes I feel bad, because he's obviously the expert. But it was nice working with him, because sometimes he would tell me, yeah, you're just stupid. You don't know what you're talking about. And other times, he'd be like, yeah, no, that makes sense. And I agree. In a playful way. He didn't call me stupid. I'm joking. It's just funny, because I would feel bad. You know, he's sold more books than I believe anyone alive right now. So it's funny to give him feedback. It feels weird. I've even sold more books than some dead people, I'm believing. You guys are amazing. And I really love the energy between the two of you. I love the dynamic. You can tell just how organic and real it is. You are true friends, true authors. This is out, I think, 449 pages of this just absolutely amazing thriller, The Most Dangerous Game. September 1st, available to everyone. I'm taking this one on vacation with me, you guys. I'm going to leg it all the way to Europe. Awesome. Let us know what you think, and thanks for having us on. And when you're in Europe, I have version in another language. Oh, good idea. Thank you. Thank you guys so much. Appreciate it. Bye. That was pretty cool that she got to talk to those guys, huh? Really cool.