Latest / Inside West Palm Beach / FanFest 2025: Get your "Fandom" on at Mandel Library!

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FanFest 2025: Get your "Fandom" on at Mandel Library! · Inside West Palm Beach

10:29:46
Welcome to the City Center podcast from
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West Palm Beach, Florida. I'm Jerry
10:29:50
Marcela. If you're a fan of fantasy,
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comic art or role-playing games, stand
10:29:55
by. Mandel Public Library has something
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special for you. It's coming up next on
10:30:00
the City Center podcast.
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[Music]
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And joining us today is Eric Marcus, in
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charge of the Technology and Innovation
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Center at the Mandel
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Public Library. Eric, welcome.
10:30:17
Thank you very much.
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Okay, before we get into talking about
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the FanFest, I find it fascinating. We've
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just been talking a few minutes
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off-camera about your background. Tell us
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a little bit about yourself.
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So, I went to art school, Kansas City Art
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Institute, private art school. And I
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graduated in 02, and then I moved from
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the Midwest there. I'm actually from El
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Paso, Texas. I went to school Midwest.
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And then I came here. My
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wife is from Florida, Miami.
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So we moved back here, and we have been
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freelancing since then as artists. That's
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where we met in art school. And we have
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our kids, our three kids, and
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we've been homeschooling them.
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We moved to West Palm Beach, and then a
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couple years later we started
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homeschooling. And we happened to come
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across, because we moved close to here.
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We've found the Mandel Library. And from
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all the cities we've lived in, all the
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travels and stuff, the
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Mandel Library was amazing.
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There are so many amazing libraries
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around the country, obviously. But the
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Mandel Library is just, it was amazing.
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So, the third floor is the kids' floor.
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As a freelancer, we would take our kids
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to the third floor, and they're reading,
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and they're playing, and
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they're doing their projects.
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And then I'm working on my stuff with my
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sketchbooks and all that, you know?
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You mentioned you're an
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artist. What sort of art do you do?
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Okay, so I studied. I graduated, ended up
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focusing on illustration, which is
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children's books, comic books, animation.
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And so I did my
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internship with DC Comics.
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Wow.
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So I got to work on, I mean, it was
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amazing. This was around the time, this
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was right before September 11th,
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actually, was my internship. And so I got
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to work on a lot of comic books at the
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time. That was when the Halle Berry
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Catwoman movie was coming out.
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I got to work on some of that stuff.
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There was a lot of stuff where Stan Lee
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was doing stuff with DC Comics, the guy,
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the big guy, the big name at Marvel. He
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was one of the creators. He was doing
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stuff with DC Comics. I got to work with
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some of that project.
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Wow.
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And it was great. The bat titles and the
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cartoon network. It was a lot of that. So
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my focus was a lot of that. And then
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after that, I went more of the
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independent route. So I did a lot of
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other independent books. I worked on
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William Shatner's, some of the, he wrote
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some of the sci-fi novels.
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And this was after Star Trek stuff, I
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think. And so I was part of the team
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where we kind of translated that into
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comic books and comic book format. It was
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great. William Shatner's
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stuff, Vincent Price's estate,
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the corner of Brian biography comic, the
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Taylor Swift one. It was
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a lot of different things.
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So you're perfectly positioned to really
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be at home in a fan fest art, comic art
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type of event, which really brings us to,
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okay, so what exactly
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is the Mandel Fan Fest?
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So the Mandel Fan Fest is going to be May
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24th, 12 to 4, a one day, just a very
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concentrated event. It's
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basically a mini comic con.
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What's a comic con?
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A comic convention, comic book
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convention. And we use the word comic
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con, but now it's expanded to all fandom,
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right? Even though it's still comic con.
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But we have people who are going to be
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script writers and people who are
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collecting toys and songs.
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So it's that whole general thing. But
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basically that's what that is. It's a day
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for fans of all kinds of genres to
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celebrate at that event with the vendors
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and the events and the
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panelists and stuff like that.
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That's really neat. Well, it's
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interesting to see how the conventions
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have morphed and changed over the years.
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I have the privilege of saying that I
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went to the first one of the very first
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comic cons in New York City back in 1975.
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Wow.
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Okay. And it was exactly the kind of
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thing where you went there and everyone
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was just into the comic art and the books
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and the idea of people walking around in
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costume and the vibe that you get at
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modern comic cons or conventions.
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That wasn't there. We were just into the
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magazine. You have a first issue of that.
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I got to have that. So we were sort of
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dealing in that. So it's really expanded
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and it's really for everybody.
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Yeah, I love that. I love that. I have
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seen pictures of some of the first comic
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cons and stuff. You're right. Like in New
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York, I remember seeing some photos of
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that. And I mean, you're right. Just the
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visuals you get from that. How much it's
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grown is amazing. It's a whole community.
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Oh, it's a great feeling now.
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So this is going to be for everyone who's
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involved in the fantasy science fiction
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genres. Well, I don't want to jump
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forward. Science fiction. Is
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it a part of what we're doing?
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Definitely. Oh, definitely. So yeah. And
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movies. Movies. Anything that's going to
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be any kind of that you can have some
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kind of fan following to, it's going to
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be there. And that's the people we're
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welcoming. Anybody who has any kind of
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love of any fandom to show up there.
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So once you show up there, what kind of
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things can people expect to see? So we'll
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have a bunch of photo ops for sure. I
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know the 501st is going to be there,
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which is basically for those who don't
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know. The 501st is
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the Star Wars community.
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They're a nonprofit. They're amazing.
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They're at all these big events. Then
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being a nonprofit, they do all this for
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free. They show up in the costume and all
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the Star Wars garb. And they do their
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photo shoot their photo ops with people.
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And they're walking around making the
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event exciting. I mean, they have a huge
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following. They're really friendly
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people. They're awesome. So they're going
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to be there. We have photo opportunities.
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Aside from that, we'll have the different
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panelists. We'll have artists, local
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artists. And it's a good amount of stuff.
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It's not just like you said, it's not
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just like somebody who does comic books.
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It's somebody who does comic books. It's
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other people who are going to be doing
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different kinds of sculptures and
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writers. And it's a variety of things.
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Because I want it to be a variety of
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things. I don't want somebody to feel
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excluded. I want the idea to be that
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everybody's going to go in there for
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that. That they get to
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celebrate what they love doing.
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And even if it's not like maybe I don't
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have somebody, a panelist or an artist
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that's specifying to the thing I love,
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you're going to meet people. And you're
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going to find somebody who does Dungeons
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and Dragons stuff more and this and that.
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So that's the idea. I
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want it to be inviting.
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Now you've mentioned panelists. What sort
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of panelists are you
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going to have for this?
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So we have five panelists lined up. And
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again, I really love that variety of it.
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It's going to be... So Nicki's going to
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be doing the Disney talk.
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So she's called "Diz Nicki".
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So she does like... I mean she knows the
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ins and outs of the parks. She knows the
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ins and outs of how to do things. How to
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kind of help yourself and make it a
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smoother day. A lot of marketing stuff. A
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lot of pin trading. Just really specific
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Disney details. She's
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really cool with that.
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So people are always like... That's
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really super useful. I mean how many
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times you would really wish you had
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somebody you had that really down on how
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to get around Disney World.
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Yeah I know. And this is like a guided
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tour. Wow. Definitely. And then I have
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Freddy who's going to be doing the
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sculptures. He's a local artist who does
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a bunch of like
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different little characters.
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And so he sells them. You'll see him at
10:37:06
different events. So he does a bunch of
10:37:08
different characters. Like he's going to
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be premiering some little snails that
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he's created. Very sci-fi-esque. Right?
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And he'll do a lot of sci-fi stuff for
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like steampunk characters. So like robots
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and snails. Some rabbits. Different
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things like that. So it's really
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colorful. Very textural.
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It's like an art exhibit then. Yeah.
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Yeah. Yeah. It can be. But with that idea
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of leaning towards the fandom stuff.
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Right? Exactly. Another panelist would be
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Sarah. She would be doing supernatural
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building. Like world building kind of a
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thing. It sounds really exciting. That's
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the one that I'm really super curious
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about too. Because just like the whole
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supernatural realm.
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You know? It's awesome.
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So is there a big video game sort of vibe
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or like a sim game playing kind of thing
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going on? So we won't have too much video
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game. I don't think I have a vendor or
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anything that's specific to that. Yeah.
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But like we will have a lot of well there
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will be a lot of like the board games.
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You know like you mentioned D&D. Right.
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As far as video game in this year it's
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not as big. But that's not because I
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don't want it to be. That's just kind of
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like we didn't get as many yet. But
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there's always that potential for next
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year. I would love that. Sure. I would
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love that. So there's that. And then
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Derek is going to be another writer. I
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think he's doing a screenwriting 101.
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Which is very important because there are
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a lot of us creative people. And this is
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my constant mission is to have people
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outside of just even fan fest in the TIC.
10:38:34
The idea is that we're sitting there with
10:38:36
projects that we probably should have
10:38:38
already been building on. And as a
10:38:40
creative person you know you put your
10:38:41
projects on the side and life takes over.
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Yeah. Screenwriting 101 is a good one
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because you get to kind of if you have
10:38:47
already started something but you put it
10:38:49
on pause show up to the 101 anyway. Warm
10:38:52
up again. If you've never but you've
10:38:53
always had that idea in your head and
10:38:55
needs to grow then show up to that for
10:38:58
that reason. Get the ball rolling. So
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he's going to be
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doing a screenwriting 101.
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So can you say that part of the goal or
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the vibe of the entire event is to be
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inspirational to get people creative.
10:39:10
Without a doubt for sure on the audience
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side on the patron side on the community
10:39:15
side I want them to show up and just have
10:39:17
a great day of this. But on the other
10:39:20
side which is where I always am mentally
10:39:23
is the creating side. I'm always
10:39:25
producing creating something.
10:39:28
And there are a lot of us and that's like
10:39:30
I said that's my personal mission is to
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have people realize with these kinds of
10:39:34
events with the room we have in the
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library with all these resources people
10:39:38
who want to create maybe so I mean how
10:39:41
many conversations I've had I can't tell
10:39:43
you where somebody says I want to go to
10:39:44
art school but I can afford it.
10:39:44
I actually had this kid come in a little
10:39:47
while ago a week ago and he was like
10:39:50
saying how he's trying to you know their
10:39:51
family business to try to get out of
10:39:52
debt. He says I'm trying to get out of
10:39:54
family debt so that I can get into my
10:39:56
student debt. That's not the right
10:39:59
mentality. No no no. There are so many
10:40:02
resources. I mean the T.I.C. is free.
10:40:05
Everything that I everything that I ever
10:40:06
used in the art school
10:40:08
which our school is not cheap.
10:40:09
No everything there is in the T.I.C. for
10:40:13
free for people to use. Not only do I
10:40:15
mean hardware but the software to have
10:40:17
creative suite I have toon boom I have
10:40:19
Maya with blender. Yeah let's let's talk
10:40:23
about that. Let's let's paint a picture.
10:40:25
Tell us about the T.I.C. and what's
10:40:26
available for folks in the room. So
10:40:29
anything that's digital arts is that
10:40:32
room. Anybody that's in any in other
10:40:34
words the arts you just put a digital
10:40:36
spin. So if you're a painter you can
10:40:38
digital paint. If you're a sculpture you can three-dimensional.
10:40:38
If you're a sculptor you can 3D sculpt.
10:40:40
If you're an animator 2D traditional we
10:40:43
can do that there digitally and we can 3D
10:40:45
animate as well. If you're a sound
10:40:47
recorder if you're a singer we go in
10:40:49
there and record you. If you need a mix
10:40:51
engineer we have Ableton Audacity. I mean
10:40:54
I have the MIDI the beat maker. You can
10:40:56
you can mix in my room. This is for all
10:40:58
the audio artists. You can mix all the
10:41:00
way to the point of mastering. I don't
10:41:01
have the acoustics for mastering. But I
10:41:03
mean to get to that point alone for free.
10:41:06
Yeah. You know studios are expensive.
10:41:07
I have a 3D printer there so somebody can
10:41:11
essentially 3D sculpt their own character
10:41:14
or we could 3D scan what they've sculpted
10:41:17
and then we 3D print. We can do a
10:41:20
maquette of something.
10:41:22
So essentially the room is almost like a
10:41:24
nursery for creative people. Yes. If
10:41:27
you're if you're a musician if you're a
10:41:29
singer you can give them a start. Yes.
10:41:31
You have the equipment and the know and
10:41:33
the know how to do that.
10:41:33
If they're artists if they are you know
10:41:36
of any sort of creative you know
10:41:39
environment you can give them tools to at
10:41:41
least get started and to explore that.
10:41:43
Yes. Every single tool is in there. It's
10:41:45
I show up there every day and it is the
10:41:47
whole it's what I took for granted as an
10:41:50
artist during art school. I mean I had my
10:41:52
studio there. I can show up at 2 in the
10:41:53
morning and I would I'd work 2 in the
10:41:54
morning and go to bed and I'd wait.
10:41:55
I took it for granted. You just there you
10:41:57
show up whatever. Now that I graduated
10:41:59
and I no longer had that access you miss
10:42:02
it. And then I find that room in the
10:42:04
library and then they
10:42:05
say hey come work here.
10:42:06
So I can't tell you every day I wake up.
10:42:09
I'm just like I love it. I love being in
10:42:11
work. I love it. It's not. It's just me
10:42:13
playing. It's a great deal. I love it.
10:42:14
And and so it's not like I just want to
10:42:17
keep that for myself. I want other local
10:42:20
artists and I am I'm in the art scene and
10:42:21
we have all these local artists that we
10:42:23
talked to etc. And I love that feeling. I
10:42:25
want all of them and even the ones who
10:42:26
aren't local practicing artists people
10:42:29
who have just been sitting there thinking
10:42:30
they're not an artist. That's not true.
10:42:32
You are come here and look at the tools.
10:42:34
Are there any fees or costs involved with
10:42:36
all free as long as you have a library
10:42:37
card there for the
10:42:38
Mandel library. It's free.
10:42:41
Fantastic. Okay. So let's jump back to
10:42:44
talking about fanfests. No. No. It was
10:42:46
really important to talk about that. What
10:42:48
a great resource. Yes. That's available
10:42:50
to really nurture creativity and budding
10:42:53
artists can can actually go in practice.
10:42:56
Their first real steps there and that's
10:42:58
that's a fantastic service. It's a
10:42:59
fantastic thing to do. But at at at
10:43:02
Fanfest. You know we've talked a little
10:43:04
bit about you know some of the things
10:43:07
that are going to be there. I know there
10:43:08
are parents going is this going to be a kid's job?
10:43:10
It's a friendly sort of environment.
10:43:12
Definitely it is. Oh it is. Before I do
10:43:14
that let me mention the fifth panelist.
10:43:16
Oh yes please. Mayo Mallie. Mayo Mallie
10:43:19
is coming to us through art
10:43:20
life through Sibelay's projects.
10:43:23
I love art life. Just again talking about
10:43:25
the arts and the city and stuff. The
10:43:27
stuff that comes out of there is amazing.
10:43:29
Anyway so Mayo Mallie is one of the five
10:43:30
artists. And May's going to be doing. May
10:43:32
actually did the the all the decals that
10:43:35
we have in the elevator in the library
10:43:36
that they did all the illustrations and
10:43:38
stuff. That's May's work.
10:43:38
So May's going to have a table there and
10:43:41
one of the panelists basically on the on
10:43:43
the creation of their characters and the
10:43:45
process of that. So that's going to be a
10:43:47
really cool talk in the sense of again if
10:43:49
I'm an artist that's kind
10:43:50
of getting that ball rolling.
10:43:52
I get to hear this other artist May
10:43:53
talking about that process and the
10:43:54
struggles and how to kind of get over
10:43:56
those slums and stuff. So that's going to
10:43:58
relate to a lot of people. So definitely
10:43:59
that'd be a good one to come to it.
10:44:00
And so anyway jumping back to like you
10:44:04
said is definitely going to be a family
10:44:05
friendly event. We want to
10:44:08
keep it open to everybody.
10:44:11
I just yeah it's it's for everyone. You
10:44:13
can have kids in there. They're going to
10:44:15
be things for for for children to see and
10:44:18
enjoy and maybe even spark their own
10:44:20
creativity. Yes definitely. I want that
10:44:22
to happen. Yeah that's fantastic. So OK.
10:44:25
So our dates again are May 24th.
10:44:27
The event is open to the public from 12
10:44:30
to 4 Saturday May 24th. OK. So come on
10:44:33
down Mandel Public Library. You can get
10:44:35
get that. And where can we find more
10:44:37
information about it.
10:44:38
So the link is going to be it's just
10:44:41
W.P.B. dot org slash Mandel Fan Fest. And
10:44:45
that has all the information. We have
10:44:46
pictures from last year's kind of trial
10:44:48
run event which was fun. Yeah.
10:44:50
And a lot of people was really good. And
10:44:52
then all the information is there. We'll
10:44:54
have all the artists up there and the
10:44:55
vendors and the panelists and stuff.
10:44:57
And we haven't covered yet. No. No I
10:45:01
think I mean I'm sure there is a lot.
10:45:03
Yeah. Can I think of any at the moment.
10:45:05
Maybe not. The most important thing is to
10:45:07
have people come on down. See what's
10:45:08
going on there. Enjoy the library. Enjoy
10:45:11
what's happening at Mandel Public Library
10:45:13
and enjoy the
10:45:14
creativity that is available.
10:45:16
And it's a free event for the public.
10:45:19
Free event for the public. OK. So we'll
10:45:21
get that all covered. Eric Marquez. Thank
10:45:23
you so much for your time. We appreciate
10:45:25
you being here and everything you're
10:45:26
doing for the library and for the people
10:45:28
of West Palm Beach. Thank you
10:45:29
very much. I love being here.
10:45:31
And thank you for joining us today. If
10:45:33
you're interested in learning more about
10:45:34
the Mandel Fan Fest 2025 just check out
10:45:37
the library pages on the city website at
10:45:39
W.P.B. dot org. The city center podcast
10:45:43
is a production of the city of West Palm
10:45:44
Beach Communications Department.
10:45:46
I'm Jerry Marcello.
10:45:48
We'll see you next time.