"Having that mentality where failure is the first step to success helps" GrandPooBear on speedrunning, Mario Maker, PooStomp, and more [Exclusive]

Red Bull’s GrandPooBear is without a doubt one of my favorite speedrunners — from his vibe, to the style of games he plays, and for his unabashed love of professional wrestling. In general, just an incredibly chill person. I had a chance to sit down and chat with the professional speedrunner about his career, about the dreaded “PooStomp” emote, wrestling, and much more.

It felt like I was talking to someone I’ve known my whole life, which only made it a more relaxing and enjoyable conversation.

While the Kaizo Mario — Mario Romhacks in essence, typically known for being more on the difficult side — is a bit of a niche within a niche, I find them to be entertaining to watch. They require a different level of skill and practice from just casually playing Super Mario Bros.

It was my distinct pleasure to chat with GrandPooBear about these topics, and hopefully you’ll come away with a greater appreciation for the fine art of speedrunning.

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GrandPooBear on his Pro Wrestling Mount Rushmore, Speedrunning, what Mario Maker needs, and more

Q. First, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. For those who might not know who you are, would you introduce yourself, please?

GrandPooBear: Yeah, I’m GrandPooBear, I'm a gamer. A lot of people say they're a content creator and influencer. I’m a gamer. I play video games. I've been doing this full-time now for about 10 years and I'm mostly known for speed running, going fast or like retro video games, but I love any really, really hard video game or any real challenge in general. It's always fun doing new things and challenging yourself. So that's me. That's my vibe.

Q. You're one of the few speedrunners I can think of that are signed by an org — you and the amazing Skybilz — though that's more for MTG Arena. How did you get signed, and would you say it improved your ability to create content?

GrandPooBear: Oh man, I mean like being, I think being signed to Red Bull is a turning point. I mean, whether you're a snowboarder or a skateboarder, whether, I mean, you could play chess, like no matter what you do. And Red Bull gets into all sorts of different sports and creative endeavors, which is like the coolest thing about them.

But I think that every, probably every single person that's been able to wear the hat would say that that's been a major turning point in their life and their career. I know for me, like for me, it very much legitimized me. It made what I do legitimate.

All of a sudden, a lot of people knew my name who didn't, you know, wouldn't pay attention to speed running or Kaizo Mario. Cause like not only is speed running so niche on Twitch, but like Kaizo Mario is also very small and niche on there. And you know what I mean? Like the more you break it down, the smaller your audience gets.

So it was really cool. Cause they like it, it just exposes you to so many people. And it also gave me this huge extra world that I love and I'm interested in. I was a snowboarder before I started streaming. I got hit, I was in an accident. I got hit by an out of control skier. I was in the hospital for three, four months. I was in an ICU for a month, almost died, the whole nine, lots of surgeries, like five, six surgeries.

And then I came out of it and I was really bored the next winter. I was still going through rehab. I wasn't like fully back walking yet. That's how I started streaming, you know? So it was really cool for me too, personally, because as a snowboarder, like I was trying to be a professional snowboarder. That's what I wanted to do with my life. I was working hard, beating my ass up, getting, getting beat up every day, trying to do that.

And then, to get signed to Red Bull was like, they're very much for me, this is like a very full circle, like crazy, “whoa, I made it”, but just like in a very different way than I thought I was going to make it. Because like, I mean, especially as like coming from the snowboard world, like Red Bull's like the end all like, that's like, you're with Red Bull, you get to do whatever, you know, you get to go in the best helicopters and ride the coolest mountains in the world, you know?

So it's really cool that like, now, really, I could probably do that. I could probably ask them to put me in those helicopters and they probably would.

But I'm, I'm scared now. So, but it's, yeah, it's just, it's a really cool kind of roundabout way to get to where I wanted to be. And I probably would have never, honestly, I probably would have never been a good enough snowboarder to get there.

So like, thank God life worked out the way it did. Thank God that guy hit me or I wouldn't be here. And ironically, ironically, I almost wouldn't be here because he hit me, ironically, but I wouldn't be here cause he hit me!

Jason: And now you’ve got three video games named after you!

GrandPooBear: I have three video games named after me, the GrandPooWorld Series, and I'm releasing my own video game, Curiosity. Actually, the demo's on Steam NextFest right now. We just released the demo on Monday.

Jason: Oh, that’s a great plug.

GrandPooBear: Yes, we just released the demo this Monday and also the game's coming out this summer, hopefully May, June-ish, right around that, like, late May, early June time is what we're looking at.

And it's a really, really cool game. I've been inspired by climbing games and stuff, the Rage Games, as they call them. You know, like, so, I mean, of course, I loved Only Up, but like Only Up's not a video game.

It was just like this crap slot put together. So I was like, well, what if we did that, but like make it a video game? And we really honored kind of like the Fadian idea, but we have a story and features and things that people who hate the Rage Games are going to kind of enjoy and make it a little bit easier for them. And people who love the Rage Games are still going to have that challenge.

Q: Speedrunning, like streaming (or most things in life), can be quite the grind at times. How do you keep your desire to keep going, even when progress in a particular game feels stagnant?

GrandPooBear: Well, I kind of, this is really weird, but I approach speedrunning and like gaming in general, the same way that I approached snowboarding. And I think that's what really got me into speedrunning so much is it felt so much like snowboarding where it's like so much failure, failure, failure, failure, failure. And then you have this one moment of success that's just beautiful and amazing and makes everything awesome.

I think having that mentality that failure is the first step to success really helps in speedrunning because there's nowhere to go but up, I guess. And like 98% of your speed runs are going to end in failure. But when you have that moment, it just feels incredible and good.

I think the other thing that I do is I like to switch it up. I like to play a lot of different things and challenge myself in things that I'm quite frankly not good enough at. Like I did the Elden Ring bingo season.

I had never speed ran Elden Ring before at all. And I'm going up against guys that have been doing Souls games for a decade now. I got mollywhopped in it, but by the end of it, I had so much improvement that like if I get in next season, I'm not going to get mollywhopped.

I'm going to be there. So it's just things like that, just constantly always looking for a new challenge. But I think that's just kind of like, some people are kind of wired like that.

Some people are wired to do the same thing forever and ever. And some people are wired where they want to learn something and get as good as they can, as quickly as they can. And then they want to get another thing and get as good as they can and as quick as they can.

So yeah, I don't know. That's just me. Just kind of like always gotta switch it up. I guess like the same way as snowboarding, like you do park, you do powder, you do pipe. You know, you always have something different to do.

Jason: It is an amazing feeling to finally get that breakthrough.

GrandPooBear: Yeah. I mean, it's just like, and that's the other thing. I think the longer you work at something, the better the relief feels when you get it.

Jason: Yeah, I get it. Because I play a lot of randomizers and I stream a lot of randomizers. And so, like I'm always practicing something like Super Metroid speed tech. Like Wave Beam Skip, Mockball, this or that. Then, once I finally started getting consistent, it was such an amazing feeling.

GrandPooBear: Yeah. It’s the best. It’s wonderful.

Q: Do you feel like speedrunning a game for as long as you have, like Mario 3 for example, has changed your perception of it or ability to play it casually? Do you ever fire up a Mario game and just take your time with it, or does muscle memory take over?

GrandPooBear: No, I mean, I think there is a certain amount of like, once you go fast, you can't not go fast. You know, the way that you tend to drive faster on the roads closest to your house. I think that also might apply to speedrunning a little bit. Once you know it, it's in there, there's some things that are just going to be in there.

It's like a kickflip, you know, like anyone, any skater, like they can go away from a board for five, six years, but they come back and the kickflip pops out after four or five tries, you know? I hate to keep making all these like board references, but they really apply to me, to what I do.

Yeah. I mean it is hard to play casually. I think it's also hard to not necessarily like when I do play games, like your first run is always going to be casual, but there is a difficulty in not noticing things that you might be able to use. “Oh, that's going to be cool speed tech” or, “Oh, that's a glitch. Let me explore it.”

Or, “Oh, I got inside this wall. Can I do that in other places? Is that possible?” So all those things. I definitely still really enjoy video games casually. And there's some games I play that I don't speed run, but not Mario.

Q. You're more known for running retro games, but how are you feeling about the upcoming Switch 2? If we get another 2D Mario, what are the odds of you picking it up to running?

GrandPooBear: Oh yeah. A hundred percent. I mean, 2D, 3D, no matter what, I'm probably gonna run Mario. I mean the real thing for speedrunning for me is I don't just speed run Mario. It's just that a lot of the games I happen to speedrun are Mario and it's because Mario controls perfectly. It is the perfect run and jump game.

Jason: A hundred percent.

GrandPooBear: It really is. I wish that there was a game that was better than Mario at running and jumping, but in the 2D and 3D space, there really isn't anything that touches it outside of maybe Celeste. And that's it. It's so hard to find anything that even compares.

I mean, Mario Odyssey is just so fun to just go and just jump around in all the time. You don't even need to collect moons. You can just enjoy doing random jumps. I mean, that's fun. There's a whole league based on skill jumps, like just trying to get from point A to point B in Mario Odyssey, like not collecting Moons, not playing the game, not speedrunning, just literally just doing skill jumps. That's fun.

You know what I mean? And that type of movement is what really gets me addicted to speed running games and why I kind of stay away from maybe like the Elden Rings or Souls games, games that I really love, but I don't want to speedrun them because that's not the movement that makes me so addicted the way that Mario does.

Yeah. So a hundred percent, but I'm predicting a 3D Mario launch title. I can see that on the Switch 2. I think we're getting a 3D Mario first launch title right away. A hundred percent.

Jason: I want a Wonder 2, myself. I adored Wonder. It was so good.

GrandPooBear: I liked Wonder a lot as well. I wish it had fewer cutscenes in it. It's a little like once you get running it, you're like, oh man, there's a lot of not doing anything in this. There's a lot of dialogue in that 2D game.

But overall, I really hope they continue with Wonder. I thought Wonder was awesome. And the Wonder modding community, like shout outs to what the Wonder modding community is doing. Cause there's some like really, really cool stuff going on there.

Q. On the topic of modern games, you're also well known for doing amazing things in Mario Maker levels — whether on your stream or being a member of the very successful One Tile Men at GDQ. It's been a few years since we've had a Mario Maker release, but if one should appear, what do you think it would need to improve on Mario Maker 2?

GrandPooBear: I think definitely the number one thing that I feel — like we've had Smash Ultimate. We just got Mario Kart 8, which is like, you know, all the Mario Karting you could ever have. We need that for 2D Mario. Honestly, I think if they're not going to do that, they shouldn't even bother making a Mario Maker 3.

This is going to be a little controversial, I guess, for Nintendo fans, but I'd also really like to see Mario Maker take on the Fortnite model of a very free to play game that you never need to pay for if you want your default things. And every Switch out there has Mario Maker on it. Every Switch 2, I guess, in this situation would have Mario Maker on it and can play any level that's ever existed.

But the players that really, really are addicted to it, like me, that are putting thousands and thousands of hours in it — I don't mind paying extra for some new skins or some great backgrounds for levels I'm making or new music for the level that it's going to be in. You know what I mean?

Jason: Nah, I dig that! I don’t think that’s controversial.

GrandPooBear: I think that is the way to go to expand the player base to just a much, much larger thing. That's where I would love to see Mario Maker end up and be. And I know that's a little controversial, but I think that's the only way we get a Mario Maker that's constantly updated. And the only way Mario Maker needs to be a live service game needs to be alive.

Q. Speedrunning often feels "impossible" to the casual viewer — maybe not impossible, but a truly challenging undertaking. As someone who has the experience in Mario that you do, are there any ROMs/software that you recommend for someone trying to practice important Mario speedrunning tricks?

GrandPooBear: Oh, Quickie World, Quickie World 1 and 2, absolutely. Learn to Kaizo. That one, like 100% loved it. You got to do that. Kaizo Kindergarten by Panga is another great one. I think those are all really great. And then you just kind of work your way up from there. Like, which one do you want to play after that? And I actually have a YouTube video about this too — Top 5 beginner ROM hacks.

Q: It's well known by your fans and friends that you're passionate about Pro Wrestling. If you were stranded on an island with a TV and the ability to watch one match as many times as you wanted, what match would it be?

GrandPooBear: Young Bucks vs. Golden Lovers at Long Beach back in like 2018, 2019. Either that or Adam Cole vs. Ricochet where Adam Cole super kicked him out of the Moonsault, cause that's my favorite spot ever.

So if I had to watch one spot ever, that would be it. But for one match, Ibushi and Kenny Omega versus the Young Bucks. Kenny Omega doing the “I'm sorry” when he's doing the One Winged Angel.

Jason: Oh, that match was so great.

GrandPooBear: It was cool that it happened in America. I didn't have to stay up real late to watch it. At the time I got to watch like two or three Kenny Omega matches a year, you know what I mean?

Jason: And now you can watch them all the time.

GrandPooBear: Yeah, it was pre AEW at the time. So, just seeing Kenny was like such a legendary thing at the time. Cause you, you mostly just heard about them on the internet. It was a much different time back then. I think that would be the match that I would watch over and over and over again. I know that's such a deep cut too. That might not be like, it's a good one.

Q. Who would you say is on your Pro Wrestling Mount Rushmore?

GrandPooBear: This is personal. I mean, Shawn Michaels is the greatest pro wrestler of all time. I'll just put that out there. He's the best character. He got millions and millions of middle school kids in trouble with a crotch shop. He did it all.

He was the first tiny guy that, you know, went above and beyond the big guys. So I always loved Shawn Michaels. He'll always be on my Mount Rushmore, my personal Mount Rushmore. This is going to be a little controversial, but I would split a face, like split one face with Stone Cold and The Rock. They would have to share.

I think they're both equally important to that era, especially. And I don't think you can ignore that era. And to be quite honest, they're probably still like, if they wrestled, you know, when, when they wrestle, there's still probably the two biggest draws in wrestling today.

Like honestly, like if, if they wrestled, if they're wrestling on the card, it's going to be probably the biggest card of the year. So you got to give them credit on that.

Ric Flair, a hundred percent. And then the fourth one, I think you can go a lot of ways. Like, you know, you're going to have people that say John Cena. I would love to say my good friend, Adam Cole, because I'm a Homer baby, bay-bay.

Jason: I can respect that.

GrandPooBear: But I'm actually going to go with [Jushin Thunder] Liger.

Jason: Liger's amazing.

GrandPooBear: He was, he just did it for so long at such a high level. He had evolving character work that was incredible. He's one of the few wrestlers that I've gone back and watched his history, and just like seeing all the things he did. Like if he did it in America, it just would have been, I don't know. Every kid would talk about it.

Kids would talk about it the way we talk about DX. So it's just really, really cool. Yeah, it's really, I definitely, I think he would probably be my, my fourth, but I think there's a lot of people you can put for it, like The Undertaker. You know, like there's so many people you could just put there and you're not going to be wrong.

Jason: So mine's almost all Canadian wrestlers, I think. I’d have to split a face too, with Bret and Owen Hart, but Owen Hart is my favorite of all time. He was amazing at everything. Probably Bryan Danielson, definitely Bryan Danielson.

GrandPooBear: That’s fair, that's probably one I missed. I love Bryan Danielson, I actually have the Wood Belt from WWE.

Jason: I loved that belt! [Laughs] I loved that run. Also, Kenny Omega, and honestly, I’d also pick Kevin Owens/Steen.

GrandPooBear: You know what? I like that pick. I think that’s a great pick, and he’s doing such good work right now.

Jason: Oh yeah, I can’t wait for his match against Sammy Zayn.

GrandPooBear: Oh it’s going to be brutal. It’s going to be so good. When you have two people that like each other and respect each other that way, it’s going to be great.

Q. Streaming is equal measures hard work and fun, I'd say anyway, but for someone considering streaming as a hobby or even as a full-time undertaking, what advice would you give them?

GrandPooBear: I think the number one thing in streaming is like being on Twitch is just not enough anymore. You have to get found in a lot of ways. So be everywhere that you can and really milk the platforms that are giving you exposure.

If you're getting YouTube, milk that YouTube, if you're getting TikToks, milk those, you know what I mean? And convert them to the platform that you think you're going to be the most successful at in the long term, which I, in my experience, Twitch is the one that people probably make the most money on.

So I think that's the number one thing you've got to just diversify yourself, be all over the place. Try to get it all out there as best you can. That's very hard to do — that's very, very, very hard to do because it's very, very time consuming. But you're going to get out of it what you put into it.

Second thing, join a community. I don't mean join a streamers community. But you're a gamer, join that games community, get involved in that games community, be involved in it, you know, like be in the, like, if you're a Mario player, make levels, have fun, share things, be in chats, just be inside other chats and just talk.

Don't promote yourself. Just be in there. Those things really, really help you be involved in the community beyond what you do.

And that helps because people know you're going to be a positive, nice person to talk to and people will recognize you then. And when they're scrolling through the browse page, looking for someone to watch, they probably would pick a name they recognize over some random name that might have a random title. Just get involved is the best you can.

Q. One thing, for better or worse, you're known for is PooStomp, from GDQ. Are you tired of hearing about it, or is there perhaps a clip or moment you'd like to see take its place in the greater speedrunning canon?

GrandPooBear: I mean, I would love to have, you know, a perfect live run at a GDQ. But I mean, I don't know how many more GDQs I'll even get to do or how many GDQs I want to work for at this point.

Because GDQ, like going to Games Done Quick, is a lot of work. I've taken the last two off, and I’m not planning on doing it this summer. So that'll be three in a row. You know, the longer you go, the harder it is to do again. In a perfect world, of course, I would love for that race to just have been like one of the closest races ever.

I win. I beat, I beat my arch rival/best friend in Mario 3, you know? In a perfect world, that would have been awesome. But you saw the moment. It was a heartbreaking moment for me. It really was a heartbreaking moment for me. Because A, I take Games Done Quick really seriously. I take the charity really seriously.

I take the event really seriously. I take the preparation really seriously. I respect my opponents who I'm racing with. You know what I mean? I want to give them a good show, give them a fair time. I respect the art of gaming. I'm very proud of performing live in front of a crowd, improving my skills.

They’re real. And so to have what happened halfway through that, a f**king spectacular race happened like that — and it'd be my fault. It was devastating. With the value of hindsight and time now, it's also a magical moment that only happens on live TV. Those things don't happen in edited moments.

Those are the things that are the magic that happens in live TV. And I think you really see, you see a couple of things. One, you see both our respect for each other, our love for each other, which I think is the biggest thing.

And B, I think you really see how stupid, incredible Mitch is that he can just like work that on the fly and make it happen and come back. Yeah. And he's so good and just so talented. And then like, and then do a Wrong Warp right after it, which is just so incredible — and then still be friends with me after, you know?

I think that was just like one of those things where, now I think it's magical and I'm very, very happy that it's like one of those moments in GDQ lore that, you know, I think if like GDQ did it like a top 10 moments, I'd probably be in there somewhere, you know? And yeah. And, and so I think I'd rather, I'd rather have one of those than not, but I wish my, I mean, I've had 14 GDQ runs, races, solo runs.

I've done some of the hardest games of all time and nobody remembers anything but the stomp. So yeah, on one end, yes, I wish they remembered some of the good, good ones I've done. But on the other end, I think it's like, it's pretty awesome. And I'm glad I have a moment, you know, I'm glad I have it.

Jason: You’ve also done some amazing casting, like, play-by-play for runners like Oatsandgoats.

GrandPooBear: I've had some great moments. I've been funny, you know, like I've had some wonderful good times, but yeah.

Jason: But it always comes back to the stomp.

GrandPooBear: [Laughs] For sure. And always will. And that's okay.

Q. On that note, do you have any overarching goals for speedrunning in 2025? Any big targets or goals to achieve? Maybe more live speedrunning events?

GrandPooBear: Well, my number one goal is just be like a dope dad. Number two goal is to raise as much money for charity as I can. And my couple of charity events — I have Kaizo Coliseum this August and then, GrandPooBear and Friends Holiday Spectacular in December. And those two things are hugely important to me.

Jason: Oh I’m really looking forward to Kaizo Coliseum.

GrandPooBear: It's a good one. It's a good thing that one's so amazing. And this, this year is going to be bigger, better, bestest than we've ever done. So hopefully it just keeps going and growing. A big focus for me this year is getting Speedrun Sessions — I know it feels like I'm plugging all my s**t, but I just have a lot of s**t.

Jason: Nah, feel free! [Laughs]

GrandPooBear: A real big goal for me though, is to get my Speedrun Sessions — we haven't really gotten a groove with it in a, like a good system since the pandemic. That's something that I'm working really hard on behind the scenes, for sure. And then actually the thing I'm most excited about honestly, is watching people speedrun the game that we've made — Curiosity.

People are already faster than me in the demo, which is kind of like the coolest thing. Cause I've had a lot of extra time than they had to practice. That's the kind of thing that I'm most looking forward to.

And in my perfect world this year, my speedrun highlight would be commentating someone else's run of my game Curiosity at a GDQ. I think that would be amazing. That would be the coolest thing for me. I would really like that.

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You can find GrandPooBear on Twitch, YouTube, and X, putting out fantastic content. Though he won’t be at Games Done Quick this year, keep an eye out for Kaizo Coliseum, as well as his game Curiosity, which is currently in Steam NextFest and will be available later this year.