Latest / The Kink Consultant / Ep 07 - Spooky, Sexy, Spectacular: Bringing 'Abandon' to Life with Jana Wimer & Robert Bullwinkel
Transcript
- 0:08It's the King Consultant podcast where we're turning up the heat
- 0:11on all things kink and dating, relationships and top culture.
- 0:14So close the door, plug in your headphones, and let's get down
- 0:17to it. Hello and welcome to this week's
- 0:24episode of The King Consultant. I am so lucky to have Jana
- 0:28Weimar, the director, and Bob Bullwinkle, the producer of
- 0:32Abandoned. Thank you so much for both being
- 0:34here. I was lucky enough to see this
- 0:36amazing theatre production earlier this year and you guys
- 0:39are bringing it back for the month of October in Vegas,
- 0:42right? It's the spooky season, baby,
- 0:43and we're back with a vengeance. More blood, more kink, more
- 0:47horror. All the time.
- 0:48All the things I love and all of the things I was excited about
- 0:51to see in the show. So let's just set the stage.
- 0:54Can you tell me what the show is about?
- 0:56Because obviously it's the Marquis de Sod Presents
- 0:59abandoned. And I've seen the show, there's
- 1:01a lot of Marquis de Sod in it. So what's the premise of the
- 1:04show like? Where did it all start?
- 1:06Yeah, well, it's sort of a long, long time ago.
- 1:09We'll get into that more later. But this show, we wanted a
- 1:12historical figure actually to base the show around the.
- 1:15Strangely enough, because of censorship, which we were
- 1:17talking a little bit before the podcast started, it's a lot
- 1:19easier to defend your First Amendment rights if you're
- 1:22dealing with a historical subject.
- 1:23I mean, our show is artistic in nature.
- 1:26It's not pornography. It's a show about this very
- 1:29legitimate French author who's in the French National Hall of
- 1:33Fame. And so it, we felt like that
- 1:36would give us a lot more credibility with people who
- 1:38might want to shut our showdown. Knock on wood.
- 1:41We've not we've not had any of that so far.
- 1:44And so the show is basically the Marquis de Sade's time spent
- 1:48incarcerated in mental institutions.
- 1:50He wasn't insane. He was just being persecuted for
- 1:53his kind of avant-garde sexual beliefs.
- 1:56And it was easier to lock him up than it was to deal with him out
- 1:59in society. And so in that incarceration, he
- 2:03wrote a lot. I mean, that's what kept him in
- 2:05his years in the asylum was writing, writing, writing.
- 2:07And he would actually put on little plays with the other
- 2:11inmates. I call them inmates because, you
- 2:12know, being in an asylum is a matter of race and place.
- 2:15It's not, you know what I mean? It's not like.
- 2:18And that persists to this day, which is another one of our
- 2:20themes in the shows, that mental health really hasn't changed all
- 2:22that much. So he would write little plays
- 2:24and the other, the inmates would act out his plays.
- 2:27And that was like the genesis of this idea of him being our
- 2:30central figure. And he was allowed to have
- 2:32these, right? These plays they allowed to be
- 2:35acted out in the asylum. I have very little historical
- 2:38knowledge, but I've seen the movie Quills and I don't know if
- 2:40you've seen that too, but that's I know it's loosely based on
- 2:44him, but and they'd have these themes in them, would they?
- 2:49Yeah. I mean his, his writing was all
- 2:51very kink oriented, very scatological, very graphic.
- 2:54And so I'm assuming that I don't know that any of those plays
- 2:57written for the inmates are actually existing still.
- 3:00I don't think so. I don't think so either.
- 3:01But you have to imagine based on his other writings, yes, that's
- 3:04what they were about. Yeah.
- 3:06OK, So the Marquis Desada is polarizing figure, I think, in
- 3:10the world of BDSM because he's considered what is he, the
- 3:12father or godfather, whatever it is, he is a figurehead.
- 3:15And where it started, I guess sadism is from.
- 3:19That's where it came from. His name, there are a lot of
- 3:21rumors about him and how bad he was.
- 3:24Like he was polarizing for a reason.
- 3:26Did any of that come into when you were writing the show?
- 3:29Were there concerns around that? I mean, like, I think that some
- 3:32people referred him even as a pedophile who had sex with
- 3:36children. Yeah.
- 3:37And I don't know how much of it is true or not because there are
- 3:39so many rumors around him as well.
- 3:40Right. And I don't even think we know
- 3:42how much. I mean, like, historically
- 3:44there's, yes, he was arrested for certain things, but I think
- 3:48for the most part it was just his imagination.
- 3:50But yes, that was a concern. I mean, I've had people or I've
- 3:55heard of people like looking at looking him up and just being
- 3:58like, can't believe you. Like I have a friend who who had
- 4:02a friend who was like, I can't be associated with somebody who
- 4:05would support a show that's about such a horrible person.
- 4:08It's like, yeah, not our target audience anyway.
- 4:10So weed yourself out. Yeah, but I mean, it was a
- 4:14consideration, but I mean, I ultimately don't give a fuck.
- 4:18Yeah. True story, we were turned down
- 4:21by at least one PR firm because they wouldn't handle anything
- 4:24that had the Marquis de Sod in the title.
- 4:26Wow, yeah. And it's important to remember
- 4:28he's an author. People wake up.
- 4:30Yeah. These are works of fiction.
- 4:32They're not like a diary of things that he actually did.
- 4:35And he was arrested a few times. But none of it was for for
- 4:38pedophilia. I mean, it was for a lot of
- 4:40things that now we would call. Well, that's edge play.
- 4:42That's, you know, that's some, that's some pretty serious
- 4:44impact play there. But in general, he paid
- 4:48prostitutes to do these things with him, and so is that
- 4:52consent? I don't know.
- 4:53I think that's the area where we.
- 4:55Need to do a little bit. Of a great because obviously
- 4:57we're all fans of consent here. It's just there are so many
- 5:00rumors around him as well. And I think that's the point.
- 5:02That's what makes him a larger than life figure.
- 5:06And we did not make this a historical fiction.
- 5:08It's not like we went through any of his writings and said,
- 5:10oh, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, we're
- 5:11going to. It was he was really more like
- 5:13this iconic figure that we could tell lots of other stories
- 5:16around because it's not just his stories, right?
- 5:18Right, yeah, I mean, the, the the shows about the asylum and
- 5:23other patients in the asylum and the other the people running the
- 5:25asylum and yeah, and the stuff going on in their world and
- 5:30their head and and his imagination.
- 5:33So I mean, it's about a lot of things and and it's it
- 5:37transcends horror and sexual kink and and what's frustrating
- 5:42with these people were like, Oh no, no, it's just like you
- 5:45actually came to see the show. You would see that it's so much
- 5:48more, it's about so much more than.
- 5:50It really is. It elicits a lot of feelings and
- 5:52emotions. And when I went, one of the
- 5:54things I was prepared for, all the kinky walk in and there's
- 5:57like the trigger warnings of everything you're going to see.
- 6:00But I actually have a fear of the dark and I was not prepared
- 6:04for. How?
- 6:06Actually dark the theater was going to be and it's a mind fuck
- 6:10the fact that you were able to make it that dark.
- 6:12How are the cast even hitting their marks?
- 6:15I truly want to. Know lots of rehearsals.
- 6:18It's like one Step 2 step. Blind luck, you know?
- 6:22It's all choreographed like the real show is backstage.
- 6:26Then I would love to see that. Actually, like when they're on
- 6:29stage, it's almost like a break. They can relax a little bit, but
- 6:32you know, glow tape and choreography.
- 6:34Yeah, I mean, I was sitting there and I was like, and then
- 6:37the light, something would light up and I'd be like, how are they
- 6:39there? I didn't even see them coming
- 6:40out. That is how dark the theater is.
- 6:42And I was not ready. Pitch black.
- 6:44Yeah. We did our job, I know.
- 6:46It's really difficult to achieve pitch black.
- 6:49I don't think people realize how hard it is to get a space pitch
- 6:53black. I wouldn't know how hard it was,
- 6:55but I'll tell you that it is. That's why it is such a
- 6:57mindfuck, because you're never in total darkness.
- 7:00Yeah, and Jenna really is a is just like so persistent about
- 7:04every source of life and every tiny little reflection.
- 7:07And she's like, we'll crawl back behind things up onto I know
- 7:10it's coming from somewhere. There's like a little glimmer of
- 7:14and but you're right. It is like being in the deepest,
- 7:16darkest cave, right? There's no light.
- 7:19And you're aware that people are around you, and you're aware
- 7:22that people are going to be on stage.
- 7:23But at the same time, the feeling of isolation in the
- 7:26darkness is beautiful and it's an experience unto itself.
- 7:31So I was impressed with that, and I want to call that out for
- 7:33anyone else who might be afraid of the dark as well.
- 7:36It's real. And for those of you who are in
- 7:37Las Vegas and haven't seen the show, we should tell you a
- 7:40little bit about what it actually looks like.
- 7:41It's it's a series of rapid fire vignettes.
- 7:44Each one of them last anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute,
- 7:49maybe a minute and a half. And we pack about 57 of them
- 7:53into about an hour long show. So it's like every minute
- 7:57something new is coming on, which is wonderful because if
- 7:59something scares the shit out of you, then Oh my goodness,
- 8:02there's something funny right after it to kind of cleanse your
- 8:04palate and prepare you for the next scary thing or the next
- 8:06sexy thing. It is this this series of
- 8:09wordless vignettes that are designed to evoke the emotions
- 8:12that you were talking about and to take you on this roller
- 8:14coaster ride of experiences. It's like it's like being on an
- 8:17acid trip kind of or it almost like puts you into a feud state.
- 8:20The black and then the action and the black and then the
- 8:22action. It just this fuck with your.
- 8:24Mind, it does, yeah. And but that's the other thing
- 8:26that I really liked about it. You will not be bored like that
- 8:30is one thing I can say, hands down, I guarantee no one's going
- 8:33to show up to that show and be bored.
- 8:34They might be scared, maybe slightly sick and did things or
- 8:38exhilarated by it, but there's no way anyone's going to be
- 8:41bored. And it is that quick pace of
- 8:42everything and the acting. You guys put together an amazing
- 8:45cast and are they all coming back for October?
- 8:49Most of them, Yeah, almost all of them.
- 8:51Are they Vegas based? Yes, this, this run.
- 8:53Then I have some LA actors coming in to cover some of our
- 8:56Vegas people that are have prior commitments.
- 8:59Yeah, missing some performances, but yeah, amazing Vegas actors.
- 9:03All right. And what do they do in their
- 9:05other jobs? Jenna our.
- 9:06Actors. One of them are Joshua Berg, Our
- 9:10Marquis Disod is He's a Blue Man.
- 9:13Amazing. Wow.
- 9:14OK. Julia Piolanti.
- 9:17She is a Cirque performer. Wow.
- 9:20Amazing Cirque performer. Jonas Wolverton, I think, yeah,
- 9:25I think he was in Zumanity for years and years.
- 9:27Yeah, in a way. Wow.
- 9:29So there, I mean, that's an amazing talent base here in
- 9:31Vegas. Yeah, there really is.
- 9:33I mean, there are so many shows, but then also in your
- 9:35production, I mean the music and you've got a star-studded group
- 9:40have put together this show. Yeah, our composer is Joseph
- 9:42Peshara. He did the music for The
- 9:44Conjuring, Insidious, a lot of those James Wan movies.
- 9:49A lot of. I mean, more than I can name,
- 9:51really. A lot of mind fucking music,
- 9:53yeah. Of stuff, yeah, he's, he's
- 9:55great. He's he, he was a big fan of my
- 9:57other show. So he was, you know, he came in
- 9:59and was more than happy to compose this incredible music
- 10:02for us. Amazing.
- 10:03And that show was it was in San Francisco.
- 10:06No, it's a show before it's in LA.
- 10:07It's called Urban Death. Urban death?
- 10:09Is that still running? Yeah, yeah.
- 10:10In fact, in LA right now, there's Urban Death Tour Terror,
- 10:13which is our haunt version of the show.
- 10:15Cool. OK.
- 10:15And it's we were voted number the number 2 scariest haunt in
- 10:19the country by Yelp. Whoa, that's a huge freaking OK.
- 10:24It's a it's a cool show and it's affordable.
- 10:27So if you're in LA or you're gonna be in LA for the haunt
- 10:29season, check out Urban Death Story Terror.
- 10:31All right, I might have to just go to LA for this.
- 10:33I love a good haunt. I love to be scared.
- 10:36Yeah, LA is the the Mecca of haunts.
- 10:39There's a lot of really good haunts there.
- 10:41Amazing. And Abandoned was actually named
- 10:42one of the top haunts in Las Vegas by haunts.com.
- 10:46So we're proud of that. We're we're gunning for the
- 10:48national stage. All right, easy to believe, too,
- 10:51because it's an eerie sort of feeling.
- 10:53Yeah, and just to be clear, it's not a traditional walkthrough
- 10:56hunt, but if you like a walkthrough hunt, you're gonna
- 10:58love this. Absolutely.
- 10:59Yeah, better. It's better than a walkthrough
- 11:01hunt. I think a lot of walkthrough
- 11:03hunts are not that interesting, but don't get me started on that
- 11:09brain. No, but let's put a bit.
- 11:12Let's come back to that one, actually.
- 11:15And, and going back to the to the the soundscape, because I
- 11:18mean, obviously with no words in the show, the sound is like
- 11:21critically important to set the mood to tell the story.
- 11:24And so the sound designer for this show is Katie Halliday, who
- 11:28won an Emmy for Stranger Things. Oh amazing.
- 11:31Yeah, so all of the non musical elements are all Katie.
- 11:34That's that's really great. That's another thing I walked
- 11:37in. I like to go into shows blind.
- 11:38I don't like watching movie trailers.
- 11:40I just want to get like, give me the quick gist and I'm going to
- 11:43go experience it so I get to experience something totally
- 11:45new. I think I was like 3/4 of the
- 11:49way through that show before I realized no one was talking
- 11:55because you really, you don't need words when they act like
- 11:59that. And there's just so many visual
- 12:01cues and it's done so well and you really think you're looking
- 12:05at things that, you know, that's the trick of theater.
- 12:08So yeah, I it took me a while to catch on to the fact no one has
- 12:11spoken. It's it's really ruined
- 12:13traditional theater for me. It's like blah, blah, blah,
- 12:16blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, oh God, stop talking.
- 12:20We'll see it through over almost as soon as they begin sometime.
- 12:23So yeah. Exactly.
- 12:25I can't sit through a show that's like more than an hour
- 12:27and a half. That's my absolute limit.
- 12:29Hour and a half. Me too.
- 12:30Even movies. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 12:32Yeah, I know too. So.
- 12:33Many good stories are ruined by saying too much, right?
- 12:36Leave us wanting more. I mean Chanel said it like take
- 12:39one piece off before you leave your house.
- 12:41Like, cut out 3/4 of your show before you put it on stage, all
- 12:45right? Is this the first show?
- 12:47So obviously you've worked on other shows that are still
- 12:49running. Is this the first show you both
- 12:51worked on together? I mean, technically no.
- 12:54Technically, no. OK, all right, so let's paint
- 12:57the picture. Sure.
- 12:58How did you 2 meet? Well.
- 13:00I was a little band geek in high school in Fresno, CA and my
- 13:05friends were in a show. There was a new band drama
- 13:08teacher called Bob Bullwinkle, Robert Bullwinkle and I had some
- 13:11friends in the show and I went to the first show he directed as
- 13:14my freshman year and it was a little show called Voices from
- 13:17the High School and it literally changed my life seeing that
- 13:22show. And then I started doing
- 13:23theater. So he was my high school drama
- 13:25teacher. Yes, I was.
- 13:28What was the first show you were in?
- 13:29Was it the Crucible? It was Greece.
- 13:31Greece was the. 1st No way, yeah.
- 13:33Wow, first of all was the first time I had lines.
- 13:35OK, all right. Well, that's that's an important
- 13:37one as well then. Yeah.
- 13:38Wow. OK, so when did the student
- 13:42become the master? About I don't know how many
- 13:46years ago, probably like 10 years ago now, Bob and his wife
- 13:49Kim Moran, who was also one of my theatre professors in
- 13:53college. Small.
- 13:54World, this is OK. They came to see urban death in
- 13:57LA. OK.
- 13:58My other show and you want. To take over from.
- 14:00There, Yeah, OK. Please, like struck by
- 14:02lightning. This is like the most
- 14:03innovative, fresh, unique approach to theatre that I have
- 14:07seen in a long time. I think theatre is dead, to be
- 14:09honest. And this kind of show is maybe
- 14:12the hope for that to be resurrected a little bit.
- 14:15I was just stunned that you could actually do that on stage
- 14:17and really, really get all those emotions and all of that
- 14:21nonverbal communication. I just, it just blew me away.
- 14:23I was and I after the show, I think I said you and I have to
- 14:26do something together because I've not not been this excited
- 14:28about going to see a piece of theater in 20 years.
- 14:32Wow. And that was the that was the
- 14:34beginning. So Urban Death is is like
- 14:37abandoned in the sense that it's a vignette shown and there's
- 14:40pitch blackout on this short scenes between pitch blackouts.
- 14:43But it's totally random, OK. There's no through line, there's
- 14:47no story, there's no, it's just completely random.
- 14:50So you have no idea what you're gonna see.
- 14:51All from the mind of Jana, then if.
- 14:53That was created by Zombie Joe and.
- 14:55OK, cool. And it's collaborative show, so
- 14:58like the cast will come up with pieces, but I think we have like
- 15:01over 800 pieces in Urban Death that we've done.
- 15:03Over the years. Wow.
- 15:05Yeah. So we wanted to do something new
- 15:06with this show, right? So then it does have a narrative
- 15:09arc. It has, you know, characters
- 15:11that show some character development.
- 15:12And that makes like, that really does come out in the show, but I
- 15:15don't want to give too much away.
- 15:16But there are characters and you see a growth or an expansion of
- 15:19their experiences in front of you over time.
- 15:22Yeah. Which is actually, I think
- 15:25really reflective of what an actual kink journey is like to
- 15:28because you start with that curiosity that's sort of like,
- 15:30let me just get closer to this and witness.
- 15:33And then it sort of becomes like, let me just try a little
- 15:35bit. Then you go through an extreme
- 15:37version of it. And I think that we sometimes
- 15:38see the characters go through similar aspects or sides of
- 15:42themselves as they discover their own kinks.
- 15:44Yeah, you definitely catch these characters like in extreme
- 15:47moments, yes, there's there's nothing mundane about it.
- 15:51Or if it's mundane, it's not that way for long.
- 15:53Like before something really incredible happens.
- 15:55And I think that's what I like about it, is that it's, it's
- 15:58there's no, it's all killer, no filler, you know?
- 16:00Yeah. Catch them in these moments that
- 16:02are just unique and one-of-a-kind.
- 16:04That's really true. So I want to know what, for each
- 16:08of you, what were your experiences with kink before
- 16:10doing this show? That's a dangerous laugh.
- 16:15No. No.
- 16:16None. No.
- 16:18No way. No, I mean, really just like
- 16:22basic, really basic stuff. I mean, not very interesting at
- 16:27all. It's not really my world.
- 16:29I'm a hedonist. OK, I'm a hedonist, but the kink
- 16:33thing is not my world. And so when we started doing the
- 16:35show I was like all right, I gotta in the world.
- 16:37So I signed up on like field cuz I'm single.
- 16:42All right, maybe we can fix that.
- 16:43We're gonna go through the list of.
- 16:45Things single, yeah. So I went on field and that was
- 16:49but I felt like such a poser. But everyone's like beginning in
- 16:54their king journey somewhere. It's just not everyone's
- 16:56beginning in their King journey and putting on a show about the
- 16:59father of BDSM or like the origin so.
- 17:02Right. Yeah, yeah.
- 17:04You really go for it. You go balls to the wall when
- 17:06you go. Really do.
- 17:07Because you are a hedonist, all right.
- 17:10Really lean in. I'm like a.
- 17:11Vanilla hedonist, I mean. I love that though.
- 17:14We love a self aware vanilla hedonist.
- 17:16OK. And Bob?
- 17:18I dove into it more deeply than Janet did.
- 17:20I mean, I really wanted to know what this was all about.
- 17:22And so I joined Fetlife and, and I started going to different
- 17:25kink events here in Las Vegas and also in San Francisco where
- 17:28I'm from and started experiencing that.
- 17:31And one thing I wanted to say about that is how wonderful the
- 17:33community here is in Las Vegas and San Francisco for that
- 17:36matter. But I'm more familiar with the
- 17:38community here and the people are just so welcoming and kind
- 17:42and loving and concerned and have been so helpful.
- 17:46I mean, we put out a call for rigorous to do some a shibari
- 17:49demo before the show begins in our pre show.
- 17:52And I had no trouble finding people who are like, you know,
- 17:55we pay them a little bit, but they would do it for free.
- 17:57I think just because they want to educate, they want to get the
- 17:59word out, they're going to show people that this is safe and
- 18:02sane and consensual, that it's not something that's hidden in a
- 18:04dark corner somewhere. This is really part of our human
- 18:07experience and we can embrace it and we're not just some crazy
- 18:10weirdos that should be shoved into an asylum.
- 18:12No, we're not. And it's funny that so little
- 18:15has changed in the acceptance of kink over time.
- 18:18I think that I know as much as people are angry about 50 Shades
- 18:21of Grey, it did a lot to bring it out in the forefront.
- 18:24But I think as all of us have experienced, at least on TikTok
- 18:27and Instagram and wherever we're trying to promote what we do, we
- 18:30are crucified for just even putting out safe, sane,
- 18:35consensual, clean versions of what kink is.
- 18:39And it's still being hidden away.
- 18:42And that's like, it's something that's really hard to deal with.
- 18:44Even when I made a post about abandoned earlier this year when
- 18:47I went in June because I was so excited to be there.
- 18:49As soon as you walk in the door, it's an experience and you're
- 18:53part of a show and you were interacting with characters in a
- 18:56way that I wasn't expecting to. I was so excited.
- 18:58I made the video and I was excited to share, share it with
- 19:00everyone and immediately I think Instagram like flagged it and
- 19:03said for review. Luckily when it was reviewed,
- 19:05people, the whoever, the powers that be that watched it were
- 19:08like, OK, we'll let it be. But then over time again, it
- 19:10just kept being flagged for review and there was nothing in
- 19:13it that was truly anything bad. People were clothed, nothing was
- 19:17non consensual. And it's really hard to get the
- 19:19word out then about anything. Kink.
- 19:21Did you have trouble when you did Urban Death?
- 19:22Well, I mean, just the name alone is problematic on social
- 19:25mania. That death.
- 19:26They don't. So, so yes, urban death has been
- 19:30really, it's mostly been just word of mouth.
- 19:33I mean, we've been the show's almost 20 years old, running off
- 19:36and on for 20 years. So we've just slowly have
- 19:38developed word of mouth and getting it going.
- 19:42But we're we, even though I would say urban death is
- 19:46actually more extreme with the sexuality and the nudity and
- 19:49the, it's not marketed as a kink shows.
- 19:52So it's a little bit and and there's so much in urban death
- 19:55that we can focus on other other than the.
- 19:58Kink side, yeah. So.
- 20:00Just to be clear, Las Vegas, you don't have 20 years to come and
- 20:03see abandoned. No, it's October 2024.
- 20:07This is your chance. Don't assume it's ever going to
- 20:09be coming back. What site is it that they should
- 20:11go to? Because it's not on every night
- 20:13in October. There are specific dates.
- 20:15So where should people go to find out?
- 20:17Yeah. It's being performed at Vegas
- 20:18Theatre Company, first of all in the beautiful, vibrant arts
- 20:21district in downtown Las Vegas. But if you go to our website,
- 20:25abandonedvegas.com, you can find all the dates and times listed
- 20:28there. If you want to buy a ticket, you
- 20:30can go to Theater dot Vegas slash abandoned, Theater dot
- 20:35Vegas forward slash abandoned and all of that.
- 20:37There's a calendar there with all the dates and times.
- 20:39People who do show up should definitely show up early because
- 20:42as soon as you walk in the doors of the theater, there is a
- 20:46spectacle. There are things to be seen,
- 20:48interactions to be had before the show you're also doing.
- 20:51Are you going to do like the demos, like you did this time
- 20:54around? OK.
- 20:55We're kind of reimagining this as even more of a kinky, creepy,
- 20:59these spooky cabaret. So there'll be an MC, there'll
- 21:02be apps, there'll be all the same kinds of interaction you
- 21:05were referring to, but even more.
- 21:08Amazing. Yeah.
- 21:09All right, so what's next for Abandoned?
- 21:11Yes. People might not have 20 years
- 21:13to see it, but hopefully this won't be everyone's last chance.
- 21:16Because if people come and see it and have an experience like
- 21:18me, we're gonna want to see it again.
- 21:20So what's next? Well, I think we're trying to
- 21:23get it run in San Francisco going, OK, We would love to
- 21:26tour, you know, because because there is no dialogue.
- 21:29It could dope, you know, anywhere.
- 21:31In the International, absolutely.
- 21:32So I mean, we would love to see it in another country somewhere,
- 21:36OK, or even in our dreams of dreams.
- 21:39It would be like Blue Man Group or you know, like where there's
- 21:43productions playing all over the world.
- 21:45Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. I mean, I think that is what I
- 21:48would hope for it as well, because I think it's a really
- 21:50great representation of kink, even if it is under such a
- 21:54polarizing character like the Marquis Desad, Right?
- 21:56Yeah. Yeah, so any of you Deep Pocket
- 21:59pod cast watchers, if you'd like to invest in a show to become a
- 22:03Las Vegas icon, just let us know.
- 22:05I. Don't want to get any other
- 22:06shows in trouble. There is a show going now and it
- 22:08calls itself the sexiest show in Las Vegas, but I think it's at
- 22:12What's the Tall Hotel this. The stratosphere.
- 22:15The Strat yeah. I would argue that Abandoned is
- 22:18the sexiest show in Las Vegas. It is definitely the kinkiest,
- 22:21yeah. And that's what makes me a huge
- 22:24fan of it, yeah. We were just talking about what
- 22:26a good looking cast this is. I don't know how we let you out,
- 22:28but there. This is a good looking cast.
- 22:30There's some. Cool people.
- 22:32Very, very attractive people. There are really attractive
- 22:35people. I was on Instagram after being
- 22:36like follow follow follow. Especially since I too.
- 22:42I'm now single so if. There's any single?
- 22:44Cast members, we should hang. Let me help you navigate field,
- 22:49Jenna. But if you're in, you're, are
- 22:53you based in LA most of the year?
- 22:55No, no, I live here now. I actually do.
- 22:57Yeah, yeah, I was forced out of my rent controlled apartment of
- 23:0022 years in LA and. Oh, I'm sorry.
- 23:03Looking at rent I was like, oh I could get rid of half my stuff
- 23:06and pay twice as much. So with the show here, I was
- 23:10like and being able to afford to actually buy a house here.
- 23:13Oh, yeah? Well, congratulations.
- 23:14Welcome to Vegas. You might even live here longer
- 23:16than I have lived here. Moved here last year.
- 23:18When did you move? Here like a year and a half ago.
- 23:21About the same. Yeah.
- 23:22OK, we definitely need to hang out learning all of these fun
- 23:25facts about you both today. So for anyone on the fence about
- 23:30coming to see Abandoned, I want you guys to give me the elevator
- 23:33pitch because obviously I loved it and will be telling everyone
- 23:35to come and see it in October. Well, first of all, if you're
- 23:38listening to this podcast, you should already see in the show.
- 23:41So what's wrong with you? And, and don't let the fact that
- 23:45you're not in Las Vegas stop you.
- 23:46We have folks flying in from the East Coast to see the show.
- 23:48Some people have come from Minneapolis.
- 23:50I think they'll, they'll be coming for their third time to
- 23:52see the show. And local folks have seen it
- 23:544567 times. I mean, it's, it really is
- 23:57developing that kind of cult following.
- 23:59And so the really, I would suggest you step outside your
- 24:03comfort zone a little bit and give it a shot because I think
- 24:06you'll be glad you didn't. And if you're not, it's only an
- 24:08hour long. Yeah, and it'll fly by and.
- 24:10Still do something fun afterwards.
- 24:13And let's see. Wait, wait, Teller as in Penn
- 24:15and Teller came to the show and said, oh, if only Sirk were this
- 24:19good. Oh, I could agree with that.
- 24:23Yeah, no. I was there.
- 24:25Yeah, amazing. I would agree with that because
- 24:27I know I had to fly out and couldn't come see it a second
- 24:30time and was so disappointed because going through it once is
- 24:33not enough. You you just know you're going
- 24:36to catch more the second or third time around.
- 24:37So super excited to go see it again.
- 24:39Hoping to see it a couple of times this round.
- 24:41Awesome. So abandoned happening at Vegas
- 24:44Theatre Company in the Las Vegas Arts District, right?
- 24:47And is Vegas Theatre Company someone you guys have worked
- 24:50with before? Is this your first time?
- 24:51Well, this is our third time because that's the third
- 24:53iteration of OF, but I just wanted to put a shout out to
- 24:57them because this was a real risk on their part to take the
- 25:00show on. We walked into their artistic
- 25:02director's office, Daz Weller, who's an awesome guy, We just
- 25:06had a pitch deck and an idea, and he bought it and said, yeah,
- 25:09let's do that. And so they really, really got
- 25:11on a limb to promote original, groundbreaking theatre.
- 25:15And Speaking of which, they're doing another like, world
- 25:18premiere right now. Yeah, it's a show called House
- 25:20on Watch Hill, and it's by the same people who wrote Tony
- 25:23Award-winning show Band. And it's takes place in like
- 25:271984. It's about these kids who put on
- 25:29a neighborhood haunted house. Cool.
- 25:31And I saw they they opened this last weekend and I saw the
- 25:35previews and it's it's a great show.
- 25:37The kids are super talented. The music is great if you're in
- 25:40the area because I think we're going up after.
- 25:43OK. So that way it's.
- 25:45Catching a Late Show, so come and see both.
- 25:48To. Be clear on Thursdays and
- 25:50Sundays we're a quote normal time like 7:00 on Thursdays and
- 25:548:00 on Sundays, but on Fridays and Saturdays, house and watch
- 25:57Hill is that starts at 7:00. We start at 10 immediately
- 26:00afterwards. So it's really cool because it's
- 26:02theirs is more of a family friendly show and so you know,
- 26:05you could put. Kids in the Uber home and.
- 26:08Kids home and stay and watch our show.
- 26:10Don't bring the kids. Yeah, definitely not.
- 26:13I was like, no, no, no, no. OK, great.
- 26:16All right. Amazing.
- 26:17That does sound really cool. Double feature night out.
- 26:20And there's a discount too. If you see one show, you can get
- 26:22money off on seeing the other. Show good to know and would you
- 26:25still be able to go get tickets through?
- 26:27Yes, they're at Theater dot Vegas.
- 26:29That's their The Vegas Theater Company's website.
- 26:31Amazing. All right, so if you're getting
- 26:33all dolled up and I would recommend dressing up for this.
- 26:36I don't know. Does it happen every show?
- 26:38Last time I was there, there were some prizes for Yeah
- 26:42dressing up. No, exactly.
- 26:43We're going to be promoting costume contest for each night.
- 26:47They'll be Once you buy your ticket online, you'll get an
- 26:49e-mail telling you what's happening at that show, what the
- 26:51theme is, and if you want to enter the costume contest, you
- 26:54may. All right, I was not prepared
- 26:56last time, but you better believe I'm showing up dressed
- 26:58up to every show I come to this time.
- 27:00Well, thank you both Jana and Bob, really appreciate you
- 27:04coming on today and hopefully you guys have a great run of the
- 27:07show this month. Thank you.
- 27:08Thanks for having. US absolutely was excited to
- 27:10have you both. Thanks so much.
- 27:13If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave
- 27:15a review, and share it with anyone who might find it
- 27:18interesting. And if you have any questions or
- 27:20topics you'd like me to cover in future episodes, feel free to
- 27:22reach out e-mail info@thekingconsultant.com.
- 27:27Until next time, keep on Kinkin on.