Those Aren't Muskets and early writings Swaim attended the
University of California, San Diego, where he majored in theatre with a minor in creative writing. Before beginning his career in comedy, he contributed short stories to
science fiction magazines. While attending UCSD, he served as an editor of the university's satirical publication, the
Muir Quarterly, commonly known as "the MQ". Around this time, he also contributed articles to
''McSweeney's and Yankee Pot Roast.'' In September 2007, "The Specious" ceased publication. Swaim's columns for Cracked were later published as part of a separate blog called "S.W.A.I.M.". Fellow MQ editor Abe Epperson befriended Swaim when they were both UCSD sophomores, and the two have remained frequent collaborators throughout their careers. Swaim continued during this time to be involved with UCSD's theatre program, producing his own original comedy play, Olympus Inc, from which cast members occasionally crossed over into Those Aren't Muskets videos. Within months, the troupe's content had attained over 100,000 views. Videos produced by the troupe were posted to websites like
YouTube,
Revver, Cracked,
CollegeHumor, and
Funny or Die, in addition to the now-defunct thosearentmuskets.com. Gaining media attention, it was identified by
The San Diego Union-Tribune as Swaim and Epperson's "first bona fide hit". According to Swaim, a "symbiosis" quickly developed between Those Aren't Muskets and Cracked, By 2008, Those Aren't Muskets had grown to an official membership of six. That same year, Those Aren't Muskets was featured during the "Kings of Dot Comedy" segment on
G4's series
Attack of the Show. Over the summer of 2008, Swaim and Epperson moved to
Los Angeles together. The series began airing in November 2009 and ran for three seasons. Its first season won the "Audience choice award for best web series" at the
Second Annual Streamy Awards. By 2011, the series had been viewed online over seven million times. Those Aren't Muskets remained active for a few more years, producing the web series
8-Bits for Cracked, and joining in 2009 with several other internet sketch troupes for a two-week collaboration known as Genius Camp. One of the sketches resulting from this collaboration was featured on
Comedy Central's series
Tosh.0. Swaim had a cameo role that year in the
BriTANicK video "Epic Phone Fail". He had a cameo role a year later in the MagicHugs video "Cover Me". By 2010, Swaim had become Head of Video at Cracked. He continued starring in original video series produced by the website, among them
After Hours, which won Best Writing at the
18th Annual Webby Awards. According to
The Huffington Post, Swaim and his frequent co-star, O'Brien, came to be known as the collective "face of Cracked". Swaim's work for GuySpeak was occasionally featured in
Glamour. Offering humor-based relationship advice, Swaim contributed to GuySpeak for about a year, starting in late 2009. In 2010, Swaim told
The Huffington Post that he hoped his tenure at Cracked would be a step towards eventually making feature films. Swaim, who had a starring role in the film, wrote the screenplay and received a
producer credit, while Long directed, and Epperson performed the
cinematography.
Kill Me Now premiered in Los Angeles on December 5, 2012. It then had a limited theatrical release through
Tugg, a service that allows people to bring screenings of films to their local city when enough tickets are pre-ordered. Throughout his tenure at Cracked, he often appeared on - and occasionally co-hosted - the
Cracked podcast. He also co-hosted the Cracked-produced
podcast Kurt Vonneguys with Alex Schmidt.
Kurt Vonneguys was hailed by
The A.V. Club as "a must, both for those deeply familiar with Vonnegut’s work and those seeking an entry point." After the release of
Kill Me Now, Swaim hoped to quickly continue on to more feature films and grew dissatisfied with his position at Cracked, once it became apparent to him that the company's corporate owners were unwilling to fund any large-scale projects. A lack of creative fulfillment eventually prompted Swaim to relinquish his role as the head of Cracked's video department. Swaim later recounted that his depression, which he had suffered from since childhood, gradually worsened during this stage of his life, and over time, he continued to reduce his role at Cracked. A few weeks later, Cracked laid off much of its remaining staff. Speaking to the company's struggles, Swaim expressed his view that Cracked had squandered its "potential to become an
SNL or a
National Lampoon-type brand with feature films and so forth." Several other former members of Cracked have since come to join Small Beans or have contributed to Small Beans content. Small Beans was first announced by Swaim on December 4, 2017. The following day, Swaim posted a video online, explaining his decision to resign from Cracked and offering further details about Small Beans. The formal launch date for Small Beans was on December 11, although the first Small Beans content debuted a week in advance. Small Beans launched with four podcast series:
Frame Rate, a movie review series hosted by Swaim and Epperson;
1Upsmanship, a video game review series hosted by Swaim and Ganser;
Extree! Extree!, a news-themed series that provides both Small Beans-related updates and comedic takes on current events; As Small Beans has grown, more podcast series have been added. Additional content released through Small Beans includes Q&A podcast episodes, original rap songs written and performed by Swaim, access to various writings by Swaim (including screenplays and pitches for cancelled projects), behind-the-scenes
livestreams, and
Twitch streams. Small Beans collaborates with
Showing Up for Racial Justice on the podcast
Bold (sometimes referred to as
Bold: Conversations About Race), which focuses on
racial justice issues and is produced by White People 4 Black Lives. In December 2020, Small Beans began co-producing the podcast series
Bewilderments & Scientifics with the Some More News media network. The following year, Small Beans began collaborating with the Gamefully Unemployed media network on two different podcast series:
Star Trek: The Next Futurama, which began airing in April 2021, and
Spielboys!, which began airing in October of that year. On March 7, 2020, Small Beans released a sketch comedy
radio play titled
Bean Town, which was written by Swaim, Epperson, and Greg Burke. A sequel,
Bean Town II, was released on August 6, 2021. Swaim and Epperson both returned to write the script for
Bean Town II. while
Bean Town II features additional voice acting from David Christopher Bell, Adam Tod Brown, Adam Ganser, Sarah Griffith, Nick Kocher, Mark Little, Jeff May, Jacquis Neal, Teresa Lee, and Tom Reimann. Both recurring video series and stand-alone videos have been produced by Small Beans. In February 2018, Small Beans premiered its first video series,
LifeHax; each episode is a zero-budget improvised spoof of
do-it-yourself YouTube tutorials.
LifeHax was followed in April of that year by the more expensive and high-concept video series
Disney Owns You, a sketch comedy series about
corporate takeovers conducted by the
Walt Disney Company. Another low-budget series,
Family Meeting, followed in August; it stars former-Cracked members
Cody Johnston and Katy Stoll, alongside Swaim, as siblings who reconnect over
webcam. In April 2019, Small Beans announced the web series,
Off Hours, a spiritual successor to
After Hours. To write
Off Hours, Swaim, Epperson, and Ganser were joined by David Christopher Bell and Tom Reimann; the group of five had all been writers on
After Hours. Swaim edited and Epperson directed each episode of
Off Hours, reoccupying roles that they had respectively filled on
After Hours. Veteran
After Hours artists Anthony Clark and Starline Hodge were hired to contribute illustrations for
Off Hours, as were Michael Vincent Bramley and Ben Shannon. Swaim is the only
After Hours star to return as a main cast member in
Off Hours. He is joined in each episode of
Off Hours by a rotating series of guest stars. Cast members announced for
Off Hours were Johnston, Stoll, Greg Burke, Maggie Mae Fish,
Daniel Vincent Gordh, Teresa Lee, and Damian Washington.
Off Hours premiered on June 3, 2019. It was placed on an indefinite hiatus in October 2019 when Swaim moved to San Francisco to begin a job with
IGN. In January 2020, Small Beans premiered a
video essay series on film criticism by Epperson called
Small Beautiful Things. On October 10, 2023, Small Beans premiered a comedic
film trailer recap video series hosted by Swaim, called ''Last Week's Trailers''. Small Beans has attracted positive attention from several publications. In 2019,
The A.V. Club, wrote that
1Upsmanship features "undeniable chemistry" between Swaim, Ganser, and their guests.
The A.V. Club later named Small Beans one of the best podcasting networks of 2019, singling out Small Beans for having "the most variety on a single feed" and writing, "What’s as impressive as the amount of podcasts Small Beans pumps out is the quality it maintains: each is insightful, fun, hilarious, and a breeze to listen to." Two years later,
Paste named
1Upsmanship one of the best gaming-themed podcasts of 2021
. In 2022,
Collider named Small Beans one of the best producers of pop-culture podcasts, praising Swaim's work for blending "silly quips and often childish humor" with "surprisingly profound introspection." In 2024,
American Prestige, a culture podcast by
The Nation, called
1Upsmanship "the best video game podcast today".
List of Small Beans podcast series IGN, iHeartMedia, and additional projects A few months after launching Small Beans, Swaim began a relationship with BunnyEars.com, a humor website founded by
Macaulay Culkin. Swaim has appeared on the Bunny Ears podcast and has occasionally written articles for the website. Culkin has been featured as a guest on the Small Beans podcast series
Frame Rate. As further side-work while operating Small Beans, Swaim wrote for a 2019 installment of
The Game Theorists and teamed with
Winston Rowntree in December 2021 to create a new video for Cracked, which Swaim described as a "one-off" project. In 2023, Swaim became a columnist for the comedy website
1-900-HOTDOG, began writing for the webseries
Some More News, and began performing voice-over work for
Weird History. In October 2019, Swaim moved to San Francisco for a position at
IGN, serving as Manager of Video Programming until 2022. In early 2022, he left his position at IGN for what he described as "a narrative design role" with a video game "dev team that's brand new and has not announced themselves." He described the game as multiplayer "by definition" and "based on a novel". A follow-up,
Sad & Important, was self-released by Swaim on January 2, 2022. Both collections feature original scores by Davey Francis. In May 2022,
1Upsmanship ended its run on the Small Beans network so that it could become a part of
iHeartMedia. The first episode of
1Upsmanship to be distributed by iHeartMedia premiered on June 6, 2022. After one season at iHeartMedia,
1Upsmanship returned to Small Beans. The 2021 video game,
Carve Snowboarding (released for the
Oculus Quest 2), and its 2023 sequel,
Carve Jr (released for
Playdate), feature vocal performances by Swaim in the role of Carv Edgerton. The character's likeness is based on Swaim. In August 2023, Swaim announced plans to release his first novel,
The Climb, and his first album,
Tools of the Tirade. A month later, he announced plans to publish his first comic book,
One Last Job.
The Climb was self-published and released digitally through the Small Beans Patreon shop on November 27, 2023. Physical copies were released on March 18, 2024. Swaim described the book as "a psychedelic magical realist sci-fi/fantasy epic self-help memoir." Elaborating on his description of the book, he said, "It talks frankly about my alcoholism, mental health struggles, and time at Cracked, but...there's also magic and robots."
One Last Job was self-released digitally through the Small Beans Patreon shop on February 16, 2024 and is illustrated by Garth von Ahnen.
Tools of the Tirade, a rap album, was self-released on November 20, 2024. An album of early raps by Swaim,
Less Good Than Ezra, was also self-released at that time. Throughout his time operating Small Beans, Swaim set a long-term goal of producing a short or feature film. In 2023, Swaim and Epperson successfully raised money through crowdfunding to begin production on a feature film,
Papa Bear. In November 2024, Swaim resumed creating video content for Cracked. ==Personal life==