Pascal Beauboeuf

In this episode of The Rundown, Rene Knott sits down with Pascal, Executive Producer and Host of The Pascal Show. At the center of the conversation is one word: authenticity.

Whether he’s live streaming for hours or hosting on air, Pascal doesn’t perform—he shows up as himself. And that realness is exactly what connects with audiences around the world. From directing music videos in St. Louis to building his own platform, his journey is defined by growth, risk, and staying true to his purpose.

He opens up about fatherhood, navigating global events, and the responsibility of seeking truth in today’s media landscape—where perspective matters more than ever.

His message is simple: be yourself and don’t let outside noise define who you are.

 Powered by I Got Dan & Midwest BankCentre 

therundownstl.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

For the kids out there who want to be themselves but are afraid to be themselves for not being liked or whatever, what would be your advice to them? Because you are yourself and look at what it's done.

SPEAKER_05 0:12

I mean being yourself will all always set you free. Um and forget what other people think. Uh because you're better off just being yourself. Yeah. Why lie? I think, you know, all through my life, I've gone through many ups, ups, and downs, a lot of people, you know, side-eyeing me for who I am.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

But that's one of my strongest attributes, welcome to this episode of the Rundown with 39.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Today we've got somebody who basically goes by one name. And when you have a name like this, it's so poetic that why not just go with one name? People are probably gonna get his last name wrong anyway, namely me. So I'll just say, welcome, Pascal, to the show. What's going on? Good to see you.

SPEAKER_05 1:18

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:19

Good to give everybody the last name real quick, just so people can understand what I just said.

SPEAKER_05 1:23

Oh, it's uh it's Pascal Beauboff.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

There you go. So now just go with Pascal. Um, when you have a name like this, do people do people stop and go, what's it what a what? Pascal. Wow, how'd you get that?

SPEAKER_05 1:36

Uh not not as much as it used to. Yeah, I mean, back in the day it would be like, ooh, that's a nice name. Or they're reading it and they can't spell it, they can't like pronounce it properly. So then I'm always correcting them, and then you know, the the instant like reaction of getting corrected, they'll be like, oh, that's a beautiful, unique name. But now everything's so integrated, I guess they're more used to a name like Pascal. Okay. It's it's interesting, okay. But uh, there aren't many guys out here named Pascal.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

No, because you know, when I think about it, I think of it being a a name that you don't really hear that much, but maybe a hundred years ago you maybe heard it more, and they don't hear it as much now. And so when you do hear it, it's like, oh, that is a beautiful name.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

So now do you know the origin of it? The parents would go, he's a Pascal.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Yeah, they didn't, they didn't, you know, Simba means like, you know, Machu win and be like, you are not named. No, they didn't do that. But uh that would have been kind of tough. But uh no, uh, so uh it means uh uh the Passover and uh Lamb of God. Uh no reason. My mom is just a very unique individual and just wanted to give me a good name and so henceforth.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

Yeah, there you go. Do you feel do you feel like the name has done you well when you think about the fact that once somebody knows that that's your name, that it sticks with them? It's not a name like a John or a Fred or Frank, but something that people oh, that's Pascal. Especially what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

Good question, actually. Uh I'd like to think that I have a lasting impression on people, right? Uh so yeah, I feel like it would be a thing where they go, that's Pascal. But then sometimes though, I'll get a Preston, I'll get a Prescott, I'll get a Pastel. And I'm like, I'm not a crayon, bro. I like Pastel, though. That's I'm not a crayon. So no. But sometimes, yeah, you know, they'll have it like ingrained in their head, like, you know, you're the only Pascal I know, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

So here's here's a story about Pascal that I didn't even know. We're walking, we're walking in here. Hold on. Oh, so when did you sprout? Yeah. You didn't sprout till you were in college. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:55

Freshman year. Take me back to the freshman year, five nine. So what camera? Can I look at any camera? Because I need to give hope, hope, and dreams to uh all you short men out there. I'm one of them. Because I know some of y'all are so short that even when you sit down to you the same height. Oh man, that's cold. I'm just telling you right now, there's still hope. There's still hope. Uh I was 5'9 in my senior year of high school. Uh, and then when I went to freshman year of college, uh, I shot up to about 6'3, 6'4. Wow. So uh the the epitome of a uh a late bloomer.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

For lack of a better term. Uh but yeah, I literally shot up out of nowhere. It was very weird. I came back home. My mom was like, what is going on here? Didn't recognize you. Yeah. She was like, Wow, are you wearing stilts? Uh and uh yeah, so it can't happen, guys.

SPEAKER_04 4:45

Yeah, it can't happen. It happened for me, but in the other direction. So where you are right now with that height, how much did I give you confidence as far as moving forward? Because when you're five, nine, you're sort of like you're fitting in with the crowd, so to speak. But all of a sudden now you're six plus. Yeah, you're looking over the tops of people. Did it give you this bravado as you move through the room?

SPEAKER_05 5:06

No, because I'm still the same person. Okay, just taller. You know what I'm saying? Like it was like it just didn't change anything. The only thing that changed is I have to duck a lot. I'm just being real. Especially those those basements. Oh, yeah. You gotta do this all the time. It's terrible. So uh yeah, uh, long story short, nothing really changed. Okay, no. Nowadays, everyone's so hell-bent on like the six-pack and the six figures and being six foot plus, right? Back then it wasn't like that, you know? Um, so I was just still me, okay, just taller.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Okay. I wouldn't know anything about hitting my head on the ceiling. Just to let you know. I've never experienced, never experienced that a day in my life.

SPEAKER_05 5:51

It's a terrible, terrible feeling. And then you get the the tall man or the tall person slouch. Yeah. Because you're trying to hear everybody like that are as tall as you, going like, what did you say? What did you say, Renny? I'm sorry. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Remember that word we talked about before we got started? It was a certain cuss word, and I still I wasn't gonna use it.

SPEAKER_05 6:10

We can we could we could do abbreviations too.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

I'm not no, no, I'm I still want to be, you know, the nice polite old man that I could be from time to time. That's what I'm thinking about. Um, your show now.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

How did that even begin? What gave you the courage to say, you know what? I'm gonna step out on my own and be my guy. Oh my lord.

SPEAKER_05 6:29

Uh it's a long, long story, but I'll try to abbreviate it as best as I can. So I started a video production company. Um, I was shooting a lot of music videos for everybody in St. Louis. I was one of the first people in town holding the camera and uh directing music videos, anything I could get my hands on, I was I was shooting it and directing it. Um and then after some time, I was like, I was getting really tired of saying shooting the same stuff all the time. Uh, you know, back then it wasn't there wasn't what we have now. Like you're doing this here, and it it's an amazing thing. You know, it was different. The internet was different, uh, social media was completely different and all that. So um I was shooting a lot of stuff, but I wasn't really getting my fill. Okay. Uh, because the whole purpose of me getting the camera in the first place was to start uh shooting short films and uh do skits and stuff like that. Um but there was a calling for it, there was a need for my skill. So I started shooting a lot, but I wasn't creatively getting satiated. So uh one of my good friends, uh also fantastic videographer, fantastic director, was like, Hey, you know, have you ever thought about shooting interviews and interviewing friends and just having some fun? Because you're you're entertaining. Um, so I was like, you know what, I'll I'll give it a shot. Why not? So I started just calling up friends of mine. We'd sit down, talk about what things are going on in the world, and uh apparently I had a pretty decent knack for it. So that same friend and another very, very good friend of mine as well were like, Have you ever thought about because I was also putting together skits and doing parodies and you know, some comedy things and stuff like that. And they're like, Have you ever thought about just smashing everything into one show and just put it out there? So I was like, you know what, that's actually a good idea, you know. Um and uh actually I got the vote of confidence by my now wife because I turned to her and I was like, Okay, I'm thinking about doing this thing. What do you think? And she's like you should already bend on that. Really? And so I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

So she saw you before you saw you.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. She always sees me before I see myself. That's cool. Uh I'm very lucky. Yeah. So um so yeah. So after that, I was like, Bet. Say less I'm doing this. So then I created uh a talk show, late night talk show called Late Night with Pascal. Uh it was on ABC uh 30 for a w a while. Um and then it goes from there. He's going. And then it just keeps morphing.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

He's going.

SPEAKER_05 9:07

I mean, you know, COVID and lockdowns and all the crap that we've done. I lived. I don't know. I don't know. You we just, you know, you gotta maneuver. You gotta bob and weave.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

What does it mean to you to be able to control your environment? Because I think that's one of the things about social media and about YouTube and things like that, is that you could become your own man without really needing to answer to other people. So in the news business, I'm constantly uh answering to a news director, a news format, or whatever. But when it's yours, you do it the way you want to do it. Right. And you've got total ownership of it. And I think that's the world that we're in now. There's more opportunities to own yourself. When you look at it that way, has it given you the creative leeway that you want? It's given you the opportunities to do the things just whatever you feel like doing.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

Yeah. I mean, okay. I've never been tethered, right? I've never been hooked up to the matrix. I've always been the creative, crazy person who uh that I am. Um and I've always just kind of gone after what I felt and what I feel is right, what I want to create, what I want to express, how I want to express it. I've never been tethered to um, you know, a higher entity that's like signing my checks. Uh it's very freeing. But I don't know what it feels like to not be free. Okay. Because I've always been free. Does that make sense? Oh yeah. Um so when it comes to that, yeah, it's it's it's dope.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:40

But it's frightening as well. Because at the end of the day, if you're not there's no safety net. There's no guarantee on tomorrow, which some people would love and get very excited about. And some might be, you know, uh biting their nails about it. Oh, yeah. But one thing I will say though, when I first started doing this stuff, you know, I was live streaming before anybody was live streaming. I was uh at least locally. Um I was doing a lot of the stuff that people are now doing uh uh before anybody even thought about doing it. Uh it is a scary, scary experience. Um, but it is really exciting to see other people get on top and be on board now on things I was doing like five, six years ago. Um but that's the thing. I'm seeing more and more media starting to like traditional good old fashioned media, all right. Um they're now more and more of those particular reporters, those particular individuals, they're doing what I'm doing now. Right. And they're finding more success. And they get to tell the stories the way that they want to tell the stories, um, without some sort of financial bias stopping them from actually talking about those things. Um so I'm seeing right now what I was predicting, what I felt was coming a few years ago, and now we're seeing it in in real life. Independent media, independent journalism actually being in the forefront of the news. Um, it's very exciting. Uh just nice to see other people on the other side with me, you know, in the trenches.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

I guess I'm on the other side with you. Yes, you are. In the trenches.

SPEAKER_05 12:20

But I'm wearing my kicks on it, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 12:26

I had to throw the shoes up every once in a while. We're gonna take a quick break, we'll come back, we'll talk some shoes, we'll talk some freedoms, but most of all, we'll talk about where all this is going because you're still very young. Very young. Hold on to that thought. We'll be right back.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

The first question is where did you go to high school? But we like to ask.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

And welcome back to the rundown. Pascal is in the house, and I was just calling you a young man. I'm 61, so I gotta look at you as a young man. Is that is that all right? Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, don't want to get offended by being. No, no, no, no, I'm not offended. Because I do see some of the some of this. Oh, yeah. That's called kids.

SPEAKER_05 13:27

Is that what it's called? Uh two. How old? Uh two years old and uh now 10 months. Wow. 10 months.

SPEAKER_04 13:38

Yeah. And a two. Yeah. God bless you. Yeah. God bless you. How much is sleeping? How much has that changed your life to have the responsibility of two kids? To have, you know, little ones running around and interacting with them and going, we'll be interacting for at least 18 years.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

Yep. If not more. Yeah, probably more, most likely. That's how it is. Uh uh, no, it's a it's a beautiful, rewarding experience. I I I gotta be honest, I mean, it's definitely what I'd rather be doing with my free time. Yeah, but it is the free time is very limited because I'm doing whatever I can to, you know, support my kids and support my family and everything. Um, so I am honored to have the job that I have. Yeah. You know, it's my job to be the dad, it's my job to be the father, my job to take care of these beautiful kids. And uh and I wouldn't want anything, anything different.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Yeah. The reason why I said 18 because you know, they become an adult and they go off on their own.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

They never go off on their own. So mine are 35 and 30. My wife treats them like they're five and zero because they're always her her babies. And then dads kind of want, go on on, go on your own. No, moms, they they want a hug. Can you even and obviously they're so young now, imagine that first day of school where they're not gonna be in your company that they go off to kindergarten and like, okay, how did that first day of school go?

SPEAKER_05 15:07

Because you know how school was as as a kid. It was crazy. Yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, for me, I guess I want my kids to be able to get out there and flourish. You know? Uh but yeah, there there are some things that go in the back of the mind. Yeah, it's a different world now. And and my main concern really is the the evils that are out there. There's a lot of bad things. I mean, you know, what what I do on my show, I cover so much of these mass shootings and these mass tragedies that happen all the time, and sometimes they're happening in in kindergartens and daycares and stuff like that. So those things kind of play in the back of my mind more than are they going to get be socially accepted wherever they, you know, whatever school or daycare they go to. Um, but my my main concern is the is the safety of my kids when you love them.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

You you talk about how you talk about the world and what's happening in real time right now. How crazy is it for you to see so much change in such a tight spiral? In other words, you go back ten years, things are happening, but it seems like it's happening more and more and more and more. Each day I wake up, you know, turn the TV on, it's like all that happened overnight. And in many ways it's it's scary and it's frightening, but we are raising another generation to come up and we want to give them this world. But when you talk about it on your show, how real is real to you when it comes to telling the story?

SPEAKER_05 16:37

I mean, I feel everything visually viscerally because everything feels like it's right there in my backyard. Um and it also feels like it could be, could very well be in our backyard. A lot of things I see with you know, like the the stuff that's going on in the Middle East, for example. Uh you know, yeah, there's certain privileges that we do have right now as Americans, given the fact that it's not in our backyard. We're not sheltering in place, we're not hunkering down and worried about missiles coming down and taking out our families and our loved ones. Um so I feel it because there's some dad over there, you know, dropping off their kid to daycare or elementary school and possibly not going there, you know, not surviving the rest of the day to go pick up their kid or their kid getting hit by a missile, you know, just because of the the conflicts that are going on in the Middle East. So those things I feel I feel tremendously. And uh that's why I'm that's why I'm covering those things right now, for example.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

What gives you the strength to think that there can be a better day? What gives you the strength to believe that this is now, but next year, two years, three years, four years, we have the opportunities to be a lot better.

SPEAKER_05 17:58

I'd rather it be tomorrow or in the next five minutes for everybody to be better. But I do think that people are innately good. I think that that's the one thing. I I when it comes to human beings, yes, there's a lot of evil in the world, but I truly believe that the glass is half full, and I think that everyone just wants to live their life and be happy and the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of success, uh, and want to bring their children out into the world to a better place. And I truly believe that there are a lot of good in the world. It just sucks that right now, it's unfortunate right now that we live in a world where all we see in the news is bad. Yeah. But there is a lot of bad. Yeah. Um but I do think good definitely defeats evil every day. It just sometimes takes a tiny bit of time for it to come through.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

So true. So true. And one of the hard things now about the realism of the world is depending on who you follow, it seems to be a different tilt on what the world is. Looking through a different lens. I know exactly where you're going there with that. But go ahead. But uh what what I mean by it is is that you have to take in different outlets of news to kind of summise your own ideas about what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Um because there's some that lean more negative, some that lean more positive, some that just act like nothing ever happened at all. And that's why I asked you about the realness of it and why that is so important to you, because I think it's it's paramount to people have understanding is to know exactly what is happening. The truth be told, and not to slant it in any one way or the other. And I think that's been one of the hardest things to comprehend in today's world is well, who do I believe?

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

Who who's really, really telling me the truth and all of the truth, not just what they decide to filter out.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

And but that's the problem right now. Because a lot of the things that we're hearing from places that we should be getting unfiltered truth and nothing but facts, even that is faulty.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

Even that is not completely the truth. So that's the problem that I see every day too. My thing is that uh, and one of the things that I have a hard time, you know, dealing with too is you know, I'm getting as much information, as much data, facts, etc., coming from both sides of the political aisle, at least in the media political aisle. And it's clearly split down the middle. Yes. Um, so I try my best to gather information from one side and the other side and try to, you know, filter it in a way so that my listeners, the my viewers, etc., can actually come up with their own conclusion. I do have my personal opinions. I do. You know, I I will throw in my little uh, you know, what my my opinions are about that particular uh uh situation is, but I also feel like I could surprise some of my views viewers because there are some times where they might think I'm going this way, and I'm like, no, but here's this. Right. And uh so I try to keep it as balanced as I can, but it's hard not to not have an opinion about things that are going on in the world, especially when things are literally dismantling and falling apart right in your face, or when there's lies being told right in your face in real time. I mean, it would be irresponsible for me not to call that out. It would be absolutely insane. Then I'm a robot, you know? True.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

Then I'm gonna be like you. Tethered because you're not a robot and you're not but it's important in this world for people to be able to voice who they are, yeah, what they believe, and feel as if I walk away at the end of the day knowing that I made a difference in the truth that I told.

SPEAKER_05 21:55

Right.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

Not like I am, I made it through another day because I read the script. This is what I feel inside. This is what's happening.

SPEAKER_05 22:02

So and don't get me wrong, there's plenty of people out here that do exactly that. And I by every by all means, if you find that person and that keeps you happy in your own brains, go ahead and get it. Go ahead and do it. But if you want truth, if you want facts, if you want questions for yourself, you want to have a good discussion, then yeah, hop on over to my show. Yeah. Oh, and comedy too. Because I try to keep it light. You're funny? No, I'm not funny at all.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

You know, I want to I wanted to lighten things up just a little bit. Oh, yeah, sure. Give me funny touch on the humorous side of it. And you know, when you think about being funny, do you think about being funny? Are you just because there's some people who work on being funny, there's others who are just funny.

SPEAKER_05 22:50

Uh, okay, so I don't think about being funny because a lot of times I'm streaming live sometimes four, five, six, seven hours a day sometimes, um, depending on the situation. And a lot of it's just me shooting from the hip and just being me. Right. So I guess I'm naturally corny and naturally stupid, and so I just kind of roll with it, and people seem to really enjoy it. Um yeah, so I don't really think about being funny. Um, I know that there are a lot of people that think about being funny, yeah, but then it comes out convoluted and forced and fake, you know. Um, you get me genuinely uh 110% my full authentic self straight for however many hours I'm live.

SPEAKER_04 23:45

That guy you watch is this guy sitting right here. Yep. No dignity, no doubt. Love it. Love it. No dignity. That's because I'm old. That that I can bring these phrases out and then people let it slide. Yeah. Like you, let it slide. Okay, um, let me let me go ahead and be the old how many uh subscribers do you have now? Over 200,000. Over 200,000. Yeah. Obviously, one day you had zero. Yeah. So when you got the first hundred, what did it feel like? Like it was cool. When you got the first thousand, it was dope.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

It was cool. Okay. When you got 200,000. Oh, it's crazy. It's crazy because it's like, I mean, you know, at 100,000, it was well, you know what? I'll be honest. At 50,000, it was like, wow, I got that many people that actually like mess with what I'm doing and and really are coming back. Uh, and then, you know, you start to see as you start to put in the work, put in the time, and in ways, thank God for lockdown, because I wouldn't have found this without lockdown. Um you become a reliable source, a reliable voice for them to hear and watch every single day. And then instead of it being just two people watching from random places in the world, and you're only talking to those two people for say a few months, it suddenly now is 2,000. It's 15,000 people. It and it just keeps growing and growing and growing. Uh, it is a sobering moment. It is a wild it is a wild moment when you go, wow, there's literally people watching from all over the world what I'm talking about, what I'm doing. Yeah, and then also you feel the pressure because you want to make sure that you're getting reliable real reliable facts because the internet can be wild like that. There's a lot of AI flying around. Oh, yeah. Um, so you want to make sure that you're you know giving them a good show and providing nothing but facts. So it's it's a wild experience, man. It is wild. I couldn't imagine. And you got people like, yo, I'm watching from Australia. Like, Word? Australia? Kangaroos for real? Yeah, you know what I mean? It's it's pretty dope. It's pretty dope.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

Yeah, it's it's just mind-blowing to think that that's the way the world is now where you have that far of a reach. Yeah. And people don't even think twice about it. Like, yeah, I guess we do have the internet. You can watch anywhere you want in the world. Yeah. And one of the things you do on the show is you play a little music. Now, we have a guitar here, and you refuse to play the guitar, so I'm gonna let you off the hook. But tell me about your musical background.

SPEAKER_05 26:26

Oh man. Uh, I mean, I sang through all through my life. Um, so uh went to a music school up in in Boston, but then transferred to NYU after the first year. I just didn't like the school too much. And I wanted a little bit more variety, more different people surrounding my life. Um and uh so yeah, I've been singing all my life. Wow, pretty much. Can you give us a little uh uh that's it? That was terrible. Yeah, it was, it was. Yeah, I think mine sounded like it's here's the thing if you watch my show, I'm always breaking into the song. If you watch my show, I'm always breaking into the song. All the time. Yeah, all the time. Seriously. Like you said, no diggity, no doubt. You know, I'll be like, no diggity, you know what I mean? In this in the show, you know what I mean? So I try to have a lot of fun on my show. I appreciate you, man. I'm singing a lot. And then I also do like live performances. I have a band, we'll play on the show every once in a while, do a couple covers, you know, that kind of thing. Have some fun. Uh so yeah, that's what that's what I do.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

You know, I'll I'll finish with this one for you. Sure. For the kids out there who want to be themselves but are afraid to be themselves for not being liked or whatever. What would be your advice to them? Because you are yourself and look at what it's done.

SPEAKER_05 27:41

I mean, being yourself will all always set you free. Um and forget what other people think. Uh because you're better off just being yourself. Yeah. Why lie? I think you know, all through my life, I've gone through many ups, ups and downs, a lot of people, you know, side-eyeing me for who I am. But that's one of my strongest attributes is me being myself. Um it took me a long time to figure that out before I I picked up the camera or anything like that. But once I started doing more on camera live types of things, I realized that being true to yourself is key. Yeah. It's ultimate. It is. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with being your true authentic self. There you go. There you go. Nothing wrong with it. Well said, Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

I scaled everybody.