Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Bill Geradts: Armageddon Expo Organiser on this year's Auckland event

Transcript

Bill Geradts: Armageddon Expo Organiser on this year's Auckland event · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you didn't know, this weekend is Christmas for nerds,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the cool nerds. Armageddon Expo is returning to the Auckland showgrounds.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: They've got multiple members from the cast of the TV
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: show Supernatural, plus stars from the Alien franchise and even
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: High School Musical. Bill Gerartz is the founder of Armageddon
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and joins me now. Good morning, Bill. Morning. What are
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you most excited about this weekend?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Um, I mean, to be honest, I'm, I'm an absolutist. I,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the whole thing, the whole thing, if, um, because I've
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: been living with this for over a year, I mean,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: this is a year of our life of planning. I mean,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: we're well underway for next year's show already. So it's,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: we get the excitement of knowing who's coming early and
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: then making sure it happens and then seeing this thing
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: become reality. And yesterday just walking on the floor, um,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: The displays and the exhibitors that are there, it's just...
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It's an incredible feeling for me to be able to
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: just see the whole thing come together. So I know
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: for a lot of other people, it'll be a specific
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: celebrity that they'll want to do or there'll be a
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: gaming thing they want to do or just the event
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: itself or just a fun day out. But there's... What
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: we try with the event is to be a bit
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of everything so that there's not... while there's generally one
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: thing people want to do, there's a lot of things
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: they end up doing.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: 31 years into these events. Do you still get nervous though?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I said to somebody the other day is that I've
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: been doing this. I'm 55, so I've been doing this
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: for three-fifths of my life, and I still feel like
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: a week out that, like, is this actually going to happen?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Are we still going to be able to do this?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Is it not going to fall to something's going to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: happen and we just won't be able to do the
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: show at all? And I get that feeling every show.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: There's a level of uncertainty, and it always does. It
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: always happens. It always goes through.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It always works out in the end, doesn't it, Bill?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Festivals and retail are feeling the pinch of the cost
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of living crisis. Does that make its way to you
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: guys as well?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: You know, I would have thought so, but honestly, not
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: at all. Not at all. We've had the best year
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: we've ever had, and I couldn't really tell you why.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, when we did our Wellington show earlier this year,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I thought– okay, we'll get good numbers. People will turn up,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: but the people won't spend anything. They won't really be,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: you know, it's Wellington feels like the government's been squeezing
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: it to death. So I thought, oh, okay, this is
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: not going to be the resources there. And it was
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a cracker of a show. Every show we've done has
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: been one of our best shows. And that's, I'm saying,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: when I say best shows, I'm talking in our history.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Last year's October show was our one of our biggest
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: show and this year's tracking to be about the same.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: So I, I, I couldn't tell you why though, beyond, um,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I heard a thing and I don't want to be political,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: but I'm going to drag it into it. Look, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: heard a thing from one of the X guys and
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: he was bagging a, um, uh, a beneficiary who was
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: getting a tattoo. And the, it was like, oh, they
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: can afford to get a tattoo. They shouldn't be on
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a benefit, something like that. And that's a whole separate thing.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: But for me, when I listened to that, I was like,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: you know, you've probably got somebody who's just getting by
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and needed something to enjoy, needed something that was theirs,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: that they were like, I want this tattoo because it's
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: going to make me feel good about myself. And I
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: think that Armageddon falls into that kind of thing where
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: even when your money joy life. You still need to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: go to a movie. You still need to eat out.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: You might be a bit more particular about what you do,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: but you're still going to get out there and live. Otherwise,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: what's the point of doing anything? And I think the
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: show is such a celebration of mixed events and entertainment
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: and just unique things that you cannot do anywhere else.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: that people just will go, I'm going to this. This
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: is going to be the thing we're going to. We're
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: going to plan for this. I'm going to save for
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: it and we're really going to have a blast.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Get the costumes organised and good to go.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Or if you're not in the costume, you're there to
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: see people in the costume. I mean, that's the thing.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: It's that whole experience.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Bill, really nice to talk to you this morning. Best
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of luck.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:38
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• 4:41
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