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An Unconventional Convention Conversation · Large Nerdron Collider

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Large ner Droun Collider podcast,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the world around us, what we can talk about, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: how excited we are to talk about it. I'm Ariel Caston,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and with me, as always, is the ever handsome Jonathan Strickland.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I can see you.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: You can't see me. I'm sorry. If I had known
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: we were going to keep our cameras on, I would
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: have made myself look presentable.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Oh you look fine.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, first of all, welcome everybody to the Large
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Nerdron Collider.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: But yeah, we typically when we record this, we.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Often were using an online web studio called riverside to
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: do it. We're not obviously, we're not in the same space,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: which is unfortunate because I think that would make the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: conversations a lot more lively.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: If we could do that.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: It's just geography is a pain in the butt. But riverside,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: let's you use your video camera, your webcam so that
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: you can stay in visual contact with the person you're
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: talking with. But over the last several recordings, we were
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: having issues or not even the last several, but way
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: back we were having issues with lots of lag, and
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I would finish talking and then there'd be like two
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: seconds of silence, and then Ariel would say something because
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: there was this lag, and we figured that the cameras
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: were contributing to that. And today, as a lark, I
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: just said, let's just keep the cameras on and see
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: if it works.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we'll see if that works. How much lag
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: was there then, Shonathan.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: About two seconds? Okay, so.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: We're gonna see how it goes. But this is gonna
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: be more conversational. As you're all aware, the strikes both
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: sag AFTRA and WGA are continuing, and as such, we
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: are going to continue our moratorium on talking about Struck material.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, however, Warner Brothers did just come out with the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: fact that they are losing money because they're not putting
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: out new material. So you know, that's something hopefully that
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: will encourage producers to Yeah.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: It's Warner Brothers. Of course, they're losing money. Like I mean,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: they were losing money. They were losing money before the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: merger would Discovery. They're continuing to lose money. Now. I
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: got a lot of opinions on that that I will
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: just keep to myself.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Look, I can be hopeful that some of it is
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the fact that they don't have writers or actors producing anything.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: So yeah, well I'm sure.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I mean that's a major contributing factor, right, Like the
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: stuff that they are releasing hasn't been knocks out of
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the park. We won't talk about specific ones, although Ariel,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I understand you saw one of them recently, one of
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: the ones that was released a couple months ago, very
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: a very speedy movie, long but speedy, if that's any indication.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: But yeah, like those those movies haven't been getting a
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: whole lot of positive reactions, and that's obviously part of it.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: But that also means that they don't have any anything
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: in the chamber where they've got like the next amazing
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: picture lined up, because these strikes have been going on
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: for a while, and that's really gonna hurt not just
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Warner Brothers Discovery obviously, but all the major studios that
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: are you know, looking now at a pretty big gap
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: in their production schedules and thus their release schedules, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: that's gonna have some massive hits to those quarterly returns,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: and shareholders are going to be very unhappy. There's gonna
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: be more and more pressure on the studios to do
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: something about this.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And like so fran Tresher the other day said,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: producers don't like people are these streaming services are losing money.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: We've talked about it before, and I knew that was
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: going to be an argument. We don't want to pay
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a bunch more money when we aren't when we're trying
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to figure out how to cut our budget. Right. But
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: at the same time, franchisious like you're making seventy eight
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a day. You can't cry for it, me
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: just do the right thing.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Well, and to that end, like the companies are still
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: making lots of money through other avenues, right, It's not
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: like streaming is the one and only outlet, and so
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: you still have all the people who are creating the stuff,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: and they're like, well, yeah, but we're.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: The ones.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: A lot of us are living paycheck to paycheck and
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: scrambling between gigs so that we can continue to cover
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the bills. We're in a much more precarious position than
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: any studio is.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think the studios expected people to like
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: break by labor day, but writers and actors, again, they've
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: struggled to pay their bills for years now. They're used
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: to it, right, Yeah.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Which is terrible, But at the same time, it means
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: that they are prepared to continue the fight and not
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: just capitulate and give in.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: And the like. The sad thing for me is it
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: means that we are going to lose wonderful people in
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the industry who write good things and who do great
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: work in like AYATSI because they're not working because nobody
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: else is working, you know. And we've had that happen
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: in the past, because they're going to they're going to
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: find other jobs during the strike and then they're going
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to stay out of the business. We have mutual friends
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: who have done that in the past. Yeah, uh, And
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: so that's sad. I do know that there is the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: hope that once the strikes are over, like the floodgates
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: are going to open, because there was a bunch of
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: stuff in the works that just got put on pause.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I had like two auditions the week the strike,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: right the week the strike happened. Before the strike, I
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: didn't I didn't break strike rules. But you know, some
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of those things will get canceled because people are losing money.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: But even the stuff that does pick up all the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: stuff that they want to get back roll again. It's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: going to take a little bit to gather the people,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: gather the resources and get that going again.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: So yeah, and also like.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but there's also going to be independent productions that
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: are not that are going to be allowed to go on.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: We've heard about some of those, like a twenty four
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I think was a twenty four or am I getting
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that wrong? It might have been a different studio, but
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: there was like Oh, it's just like there was like
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: a smaller studio that's that's not being struck because they
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: are actually making.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: The attempt to.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Meet the criteria that the WGA and sag AFTRA are
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: asking for. And so there are some projects that are
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: allowed to continue because they're actually independent of these big
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: studio systems. So part of what I hope, and you know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: we've already started seeing some of this play out with
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: some of the smaller studios, But part of what I
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: hope is that we also get some truly incre credible
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: independent films. They get more attention than they normally would
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: because there's no real competition out there, and it means
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: that they'll get far more support. Like there are there
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: are some movies that came out that were incredible but
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: didn't really get very wide distribution or much notice because
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: they were from these smaller studios. But you know, there's
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: going to be a time where that's essentially all that's
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: going to be out, and maybe that means that we'll
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: actually start to see perhaps a move toward these smaller
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: to medium budget movies that are not as grandiose and scope.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: They're not as big and spectacle, but they're still very
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: high quality and really good stories. And I, again, as
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: a child of like the seventies and eighties, I would
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: love to see that because I don't need every movie
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: to be like a Michael Bay explosion on.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's actually been really interesting to fall because
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I know that this is a couple of weeks ago now,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: But the SAG after said that they were going to
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: stop giving interim agreements to projects that had WGA written
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: scripts in support to the WGA, because if the WGA
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: is striking but their work is still getting done, then
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: that hurts their position. So there's that, But if you're
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: an independent company, like you said, not connected to the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: AMPTP and not using and not WGA, or you've written
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: your own script or whatnot, then you can still proceed.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: If you're using SAG actors, then you have to abide
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: by the SAG, the SAG contract that they're trying to
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: get past, and it is very tactical because if you
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: are if you're a small company with not a lot
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: of money, and you're able to successfully make and distribute
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a movie using their new standards, then there's no excuse
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: for the big producers. Right. But non union has also
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: been going on, like because the union actors can't work
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: in non union stuff without special permissions. Commercials are still
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: going on, so there's some stuff, but it's been very interesting.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: It's been like this huge educational, like deep dive for
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: me this year.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, for a lot of people who are
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: just getting their careers started in the industry, I think
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: it's been like that, and I mean it's a valuable one.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I think there's obviously an allure to show business. There
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: always has been, and there's this desire to be part
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: of it, and I think events like this are important
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: because it resets your expectations so that you have a
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: more realistic understanding of what's going on, so that way
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you can actually make those calls, right, you can make
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: an educated call about the direction of your career. Is
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: this something you want to For a lot of people,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: I think they might end up saying, you know what,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: maybe this isn't the right one for me. It's too
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: high risk and it's not there's not enough stability, which
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: is that's a totally legit decision for people to make,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: and then they can go and do whatever it is
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: they would rather do. And then some people would say,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: all right, I understand that there is a very high
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: level of risk and there's very low stability, but this
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: is my passion and I'm going to continue to pursue it,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: And that's also totally legit. But I think it's good
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: to have that realistic understanding so that you have your
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: expectations set properly and you're not setting yourself up for failure.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I think if you have inflated expectations, then every time
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: you run into a hurdle or an obstacle or a challenge,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: you're going to have that kind of disappointment that could
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: be really devastating.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, which reminds me I need to send some
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: love to my representation because they've been working their butts
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: off to get everything they can during the strike, and
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I love them.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: So yeah, this is this is why I no longer
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: audition for shows because I got asked to do shows
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: too much, Like I was asked to be in a show,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: and by too much, I mean it. It made it
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: very easy for me to be in stage shows, so
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: that when I would go to auditions and not land something,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I'd be like, oh right, that's how it's supposed to work.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I've just been coddled and maybe this isn't the right
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: approach for me because I don't take rejection.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Well well, and that's that's why you create your own content.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, you're I mean it sounds like a burn,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: but it's the truth.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which, like I'm gonna be real honest. I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: talked to Jonathan. I don't know if we told you
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: all this, but I talked with him briefly before the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: strike happened about I miss doing our videos and I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: want to figure out how to do them. Maybe there's
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a way, Like even if we can't because we don't
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: have a camera guy right now, uh, and nor do
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: we have an amazing budget for a camera guy, we
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: could probably eat something out if we want it, but uh,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: you know, to pro do some sort of video content,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: maybe a hybrid of our mashups so that it was
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: more like talking hints, but get together and do some
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: stuff again because I missed that. We obviously can't do
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: that right now because of the strike. But yeah, like
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: this is everybody, everybody. I don't care where you are,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: either in the entertainment industry, if you're in the entertainment
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: or created industry. It's all about creating your own content,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: That's what everybody says. Because then you can cast who
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: you want, you can have it the way you want mostly, Yeah,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and you get your you get to enter, you get
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to entertain people and bring people joy, and that's the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: whole point.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: So yeah, and you have a lot more control, I
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: mean over things like how you distribute your content that
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff. And I mean that's that's really what
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: what the strikes come down to, right, is that these
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: big production companies they have the they have the first
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: of all, they have the pockets to fund productions, and
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: two they have the channels to distribute work.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: And for people who just want to.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Tell stories, those are big hurdles and it puts a
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: lot of power into these companies, and that's really what
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: it boils down to, is that when you've got the
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: power consolidated in a few really big studios, you get
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: to the point where the individual has very little leverage
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: and very little control over their careers and over the
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: way they can earn money, which is why it's important
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: to unionize. So anyway, we've had that discussion many times.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: What we're going to do now, I think is we're
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: going to have a conversation about conventions, specific specifically fan conventions,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: not industry conventions. For multiple reasons, industry conventions are less
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: interesting and two that would be treading on st material too.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: But yeah, both Ariel and I have been going to
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: conventions for many years. I've been going longer than Ariel
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: has because I started going to conventions when she was
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: a bebe.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: But she's been.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Going probably two more events because I kind of stopped
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: going about five years ago. So we're going to talk
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: a bit about about our experiences convention wise, and I
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: guess to get started, Ariel, do you remember, like what
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: your first convention was.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, it was I don't even know if it could
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: be called a convention. I think it was. It was
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the Festival of Dreams. It was like the place where
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I first larped, too. It was a bunch of different
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: LARPs running one shot, so you could figure out what
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: LARPs you wanted to go to. It was tiny. A
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: lot of conventions, so like dragon Con and Comic Con
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and all these others, they get really a lot of press, right,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: But there are a lot of tiny, tiny conventions. I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: learned how many, and probably you did too, between going
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and author panels and dragon Artsy and stuff like that
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the Atlanta Reader Theater Company. But yeah, the first one
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was a little arp one because I wanted to larp.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: That was my first yours.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: It's an excellent question. I'd like to say it's Fantasy Fair,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: which is sort of Fantasy Fair was kind of the
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: predecessor to dragon Con in many ways. It was a
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: very It was one of the larger science fiction fantasy
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: themed conventions in the Southeast, but it hasn't existed for
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: decades at this point. But I think that might have
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: been my first one. But it's hard for me to say,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: because the reason I started going to conventions is that
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: both of my parents, but primarily my father, are authors,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: and Dad had published his first novel and I want
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: to say it was nineteen eighty four when it came out.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: It's called to Stand Beneath the Sun's Long Sense out
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: of print. But being an author meant that you would
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: often get invitations to participate in conventions, because conventions needed guests,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: and the guests would sit on panels and talk about
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: their work and their process and interact with fans of
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: the genre, sometimes fans of the actual guest, because you know,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: keep in mind, these are smaller conventions. So we're talking
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: about authors who are local but not necessarily really well
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: known at this point, A few of them were. They
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: would usually get one or two very notable guests to
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: come in, but that would be it like Dragon Con.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: You would look at the who's attending list, you know,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: like two months out, you'd be like, it would just
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: be a who's who in science fiction, fantasy and horror
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: and comics and that kind of thing. But these smaller
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: conventions would be much more modest in size and scope,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: so you might get like George ta Kay might be
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: like the guest of honor, right, or sometimes it might
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: be an author who is pretty well known. And Dad
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: would often be invited to these. So I went to
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: things like Fantasy Fair Phoenix Con, which was another smaller
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: convention here in Atlanta. There was one that would kind
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: of move around in the Southeast. I seem to recall
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: it being in Tennessee, but it was called Dixie Trek,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: and then there were a few others later on, after
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Fantasy Fair went away and dragon Con started to become
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a thing. My dad was the first master of ceremonies
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: of the very first dragon Con. We also got a
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: convention called magnum Opus Cohn, which for a while was
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: competing with dragon Con. It became like this rivalry between
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: the two conventions.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: So that was kind of my.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Wheelhouse as I was growing up. I was going to
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: conventions a lot as a kid, so my experience was
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: different from the average congoers experience because I was always
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: a guest, because my dad was a guest, like as
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: in I would have a little ribbon on my badge
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: that would give you like access to everything, and as
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: a kid, I didn't understand that everybody else didn't have that.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I am. I have a similar remembrance about
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: like my first theater. I think my mom listens so
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: she'll correct me if I'm wrong, But I think like
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the first play that I had any sort of like
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: contact with was Pippen because my parents were working on it.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: This could be a fever dream, but I feel like
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: when I was very very young, my parents worked on
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Pippin and then on Golden Pond, and I couldn't tell
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you anything about the shows from that time because they're
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: not really you know, little kid shows. But that's like
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: my remembrance, So I feel like that's I can almost
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: vaguely relate to you here. I'm not sure which was my
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: first con entirely? Yeah, but yeah, my second con was
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: dragon Con.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, Yeah, dragon CON's a big, a big second one.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, was it a was it already a pretty
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: big convention at that point?
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, you tell me it was when you guys
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: did Guards Guards with John hys Davies.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: It was that was a fairly yeah, by then it
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: was a fairly large convention. So the first dragon Con
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: had just a couple of thousand attendees, like maybe maybe
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: as many as three thousand total.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: And to give you some perspective, more recent dragon cons
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: are in like the sixty thousand range something like that,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: so you know, twenty times larger, but yeah, the so
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I was going to dragon Con when it was a
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: much smaller convention. I was also obviously going because I
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: was in guards guards for that one when you when
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: you were at that convention. So it's interesting because like
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: by the time dragon Con was growing up, the these
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: smaller to medium size cons were starting to die out.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: They there were still were a few, but some of
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: them were just there just wasn't enough support anymore, and
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: they kind of like it was like all the energy
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: was getting sapped into dragon Con, and that dragon Con
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: kept getting bigger and bigger, and these smaller to medium
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: size conventions, which happened, you know, throughout the year, just
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: weren't able to get the traction because more and more
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: people were like, well, I'm just gonna do the one.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I'll do dragon Con. But what's interesting to me is that,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: like when I was growing up and I was going
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: to these conventions, they served a very particular purpose because
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: you have to remember that when I was going to
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: these conventions as a kid, it was before the World
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Wide Web, Like there was no easy way to connect
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: with fellow fans of the stuff you loved. Because if
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: you were from a small town like I was, there
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: was a good chance that no one else in that
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: small town gave a crap about the stuff you loved,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: and so you'd just be like, well, I love this thing,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: and I wish I could talk about it, but there
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: ain't no one here who wants to talk about it.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: But a convention was a place where you could do that.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: And that's where things like panels and even just panels
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: that were run by fans that had no celebrities whatsoever
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: in them. Those became really lively because it was people
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: who were passionate about something and they had the opportunity
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: to come into a real physical space and have conversations
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: about the stuff they loved with other people who also
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: love that stuff. And obviously that would change with the
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: introduction of the World Wide Web, and you suddenly started
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: having like message groups and fan pages and subreddits and
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: all this kind of stuff that would grow up around
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: the web and allow people to have those conversations no
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: matter where you were. Like it broad in that dramatically,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: But when I was a kid, the way you had
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: these conversations was that you would to a convention and
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: you got into lively discussions with other fans of the
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: stuff you loved. And that's what made those conventions really
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: really special, and that still happens today, but it feels
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: a little different because there's so many other ways you
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: can also have those conversations.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess before I did conventions, I did have
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: a couple of meetups. So I used to be a
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: part of BBS's because, like my parents were at computers
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: since I was very very little, you know, my grandpa
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: worked for IBM back like towards the inception, So I
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: had been on like BBS's bulletin board systems for those
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: who don't know, which are like message centers, like chat forms.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: We would occasionally have meetups. It's not really a convention,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: that's more just the social gathering. I will say. My
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: first Dragon Con I went. I bought a one day
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: ticket because I just want to see what it is,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: and then I really enjoyed it, so I bought a
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: second day ticket, and then I bought the third day ticket,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and that was way more money than buying a full
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: weekend pass. But I also realized at the end of
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: that I spent most of the time talking to people
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I knew from LARPing and the Renaissance Festival and all
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: these other venues in theater, and I attended very few panels.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And so the next year I worked it, and I
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: worked it for many many years, and then I stopped
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: working it and now I really only go if I'm performing.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, it's interesting because you've had a very
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: different kind of journey than I did. Like you, you
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: volunteered and would work staff at the con so you
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: would do all sorts of different duties. Can you talk
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: a bit about some of the roles you performed as
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: you worked at Dragon Gon.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so the first year, I actually after the first year,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the second year, I was offered a position in information services,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: which is, you know, you sit at the desk, can
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: you tell in one of the hotels and you tell
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: people where they can go? And I worked that and
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: how to get to the places they want to get to.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Where I can go.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, truth and and so I did that for
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a couple of years, and I usually tried to frontload
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: my convention. I believe I want to work all of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the hours in like one and a half days and
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: then be done. But I quickly lost that desire to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: be done working because I found out that's what I
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed. So I worked information services. That's how I
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: got a voice actor. Oh my god, I can't remember
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: his name and I can't say what he's from. Oh gosh,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's George.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: Low Okay, oh oh okay, yeah, yeah, yah yeah.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I was working information amuson like cartoon network type stuff.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. George Lowe came up to the information booth one
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: day and brought us donuts and was like, who's your daddy?
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Because we were helpful to him. It was very nice.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: It wasn't for me, but I'd happened to be there
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and it was delightful. He seemed very nice. And then
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: after information.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: You're telling me, George low was literally a sugar.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Daddy kind of he was being he was being friendly. Again,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: could be a fever dream like eventually all these things
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: start melting together, but I'm pretty sure that happened, Okay.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: And then I started in my you know, normal boring
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: day life working for a mutual friend of ours who
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: also worked at the Renaissance Festival, and he also headed
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: up technical operations for some of the hotels, and so
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I switched over to tech ops to help him. And
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: that was like bringing different equipment to different rooms, setting
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: it up eventually I ran the small ballroom in the
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: marriotte A one o two five one five two, I
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: don't remember, it's been quite a few years. And I
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: would run tech for that, and then I would fill
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: in by like moving tech from rooms to room and
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: troubleshooting and all that. It was a really great community
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and lots of fun people, and I enjoyed doing it.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: But the thing that I enjoyed doing most with that
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: was that small ballroom had a lot of like older actors,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: so people who had been in things that maybe even
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: aired before I was born, or maybe they were still
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: doing things, but they had a longer history. They weren't
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: like the super new hit people that fill you know,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: ten thousand seats per se. And I really enjoyed listen
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: listening to them talk about industry and but I also
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: kind of proved that I could be around well known
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: people and beachill about it. And I also had this
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: immense wealth of knowledge of how dragon Con worked between
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: tech ops and information services and you know, kind of
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: helping out the people as they came in my ballroom
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: if they needed extra help, and knowing where to get
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: answers and how to get answers, so Eventually I moved
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to backstage security and access and I did that for
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: quite a few years, and you know, basically making sure
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: like the guests of the convention had the things they
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: needed before and after their panel, that people weren't coming
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: back and bugging them, that they knew how to get
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to the next place they wanted to go. It's all
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: part of a giant call. And most of the time
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I stood in a corner and was invisible and just
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: there if people needed me and to troubleshoot problems. But
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Ariel would do things like help coordinate pathways so
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: that you know, could find a fairly low traffic or
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: sometimes behind the scenes route that they could go so
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: that they could get to their next appointment, or be
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: able to retreat back to their VIP space or go
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: to their room without being mobbed by fans, which can
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: be a thing. Like we have had some very very
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: high profile guests at Dragon Con in literature and film
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: and music. I mean, you know, we've had incredible directors.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Terry Gilliam, one of the founding members of Monty Python,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: who has obviously directed many amazing films that I won't
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: mention by name, but are they're phenomenal?
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: He was a guest at Dragon Con and like he
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: was very like, very friendly and very willing to engage
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: with guests, to the point where he famously and his panel,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: got up from behind his table, walked over in front
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: of the table and sat down so that there wouldn't
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: be a barrier between him and the audience and he
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: could have his conversations with them. And that's amazing. But
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: obviously there are other guests who are less comfortable with that,
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: or who are just so in the spotlight at the
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: moment that they can't walk three feet without being stopped,
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: and if they stop, then a huge group will form
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: around them immediately because everyone wants to have their moment
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: with this person. So it's important for people in the
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: guest services and area like that they're able to be
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: they're able to help them navigate the con so that
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: their experience is just as positive as the fans experience
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: and that they will want to come back and that
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: they don't have like that really negative kind of connotation
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: with fan conventions that can happen if people get a
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: little too excited and forget to be courteous.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and what I will say is usually I worked
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: the backstage of a ballroom or multiple ballrooms. We kind
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: of switched around throughout the day. Dragon con does have
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a dedicated group that is transportation and then security detail
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: between appointments and also if you want to go out
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: into the convention, so we worked with them a lot.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Occasionally I would have to fill in if somebody if
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: like an emergency happened and someone wasn't able to get
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: there in time, but the person needed to leave or whatnot.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: You know, we had a large group of people who
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: were able to help basically put out fires, which is
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: what you want to do when you know a lot
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: of the workings of a convention. So yeah, so lots
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: of people, but it was lots of fun. There are
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: still guests who will like they are famous enough that
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised that they just walk around the convention by themselves.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: There was one that a mutual friend told us. So
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I went to Dragon this year only briefly, only for
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: my performances, which I'm glad because a bunch of people
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: have been catching COVID and you know, thankfully I am
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: not one of them. Uh you know, I tried to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: be really safe, and I tried to only be there
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: a limited amount of time. And now I feel better
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: about that decision because you know, when you're there, you're
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: you're kind of like, oh, man, do I want to
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: stay longer? Do I want to come on my day off?
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Because like this is this could be fun. But a
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: mutual uh, a mutual friend of ours told us told
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: me about a celebrity that had just like gone to
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: gaming in the dealer's room by themselves, and I was
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: surprised the level of that celebrity would be able to
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: do that without harassment, but apparently they have. They had
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: done it a couple.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Of times and enjoying it out of curiosity. Can you
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: name the celebrity because.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I mean the events over Ethan Peck.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not familiar with Ethan Peck, but then I
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: am I am old and out of touch and say
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: what they're from.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll tell you afterwards. Also, just you know, she
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: might have been with security detail I couldn't tell, but
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: just walking between the hotels Jewel State just walked by.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: So that's cool.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had some celebrity encounters at these conventions beyond
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: the fact, like I mean, I could go into the
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: like the the con suite for VIP. There's typically a
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: con suite for general attendees at a lot of these conventions,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: and that's a place where you can go and get
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: a drink or get some snacks and hang out and
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: chill and be out of the general like traffic area.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Not every convention has them, but a lot of them do,
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: especially when the ones I went to when I was
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: a kid. And then some conventions also have a separate
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: con suite that's just for the guests and stuff, so
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: that they have a place that they can go and
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: just like zone out or chat with you know, their peers,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: or get a snack or get a little bit of
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: rest and meditation time before they have to go and
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: inter face with the crowd again. Uh So I've had
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: experience with both, but yeah, I would run into folks occasionally.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: I try not to make it a big thing because
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: obviously if you make it a big thing, then lots
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: of other people could make it a big thing, and
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: then it just maybe some celebrities feed off that, but
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of them don't. So I was
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: just like, all right, just be cool, just be cool.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: So like I was gone an escalator and realized that
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: the guy in front of me was Billy West, a
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: voice actor whom I am very familiar with his work,
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: and I was just like, I'll just be cool. I'm
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: not gonna bring any attention to it, but it is neat,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: And there there have been other cases where you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I just look up and I think, oh.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's Lucy Lawless.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: She looks amazing, and so yeah, there's there's a I've
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: had a few of those experiences, but not nearly as
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: many because obviously, like like most of the stuff I
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: did when I was when I was a guest, later
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: on, once I got old enough where I no longer was
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: cute and so I couldn't fall under my dad's badge anymore.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: You're still oh you're sweet, but not like I was
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: when I was, you know, a preteen. So like when
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: I was attending Dragon Con as a guest in like
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: the you know, like twenty sixteen kind of range, it
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: was through my work as a writer and podcaster, and
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: so I was on the podcast track and I would
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: get either a guest badge or sometimes it was a
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: participant badge. The designation was essentially to say, guests are
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: people folks want to come to the convention to see
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: participants are people who are also there, so at least
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: that's how I always felt. But it was fine because
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I was like, I never had the illusion that people
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: are coming to any of the panels just for me,
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: except for when I would do a panel specifically as
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: a live text stuff recording, because there's no reason you
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: would go to that unless you knew who I was.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: So but yeah, it was a lot of fun. I
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: saw some great panels over the years. I didn't go
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: to tons either, because again, and I think a lot
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: of people don't. I think they might go to one
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: or two, and then the rest of the time they're
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: spending socializing looking at costumes or being in costumes, or
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: going maybe to an event like the Masquerade, which is
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: the big costume contest, or they're going to parties and
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: dances and that kind of stuff. So the panels I
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: remember distinctly. I saw one of a group of people
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: who would.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Test folklore.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: They were folklore testers, and they would tell you at
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: the end of their experiment whether the folklore was possible
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: or not.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: One of them was a dry on this year, and
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the yeah, before they shaved it was made them unrecognizable.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they look like they could have been one of
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Gandalf's drinking buddies. Yes, you're talking about Adam Adam Savage.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Adam Savage, But Adam Savage also he's famous for coming
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: up with like costumes that let him hide his identity
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: to a certain extent so that he can wander the
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: floor because he loves to do that. He loves to
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: see all the creations and all the creativity, and he's
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: got a long history of doing that where he would
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: create a costume. I mean, the dude's a master prop maker,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: so he would make it a phenomenal costume that would
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: comfortably hide his identity and then just wander the floor
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: and see everybody out there, and no one would know
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: that this was a celebrity who was walking by. He's
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: not the only one who's done that either. There are
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: other celebrities who have done similar things, which I just
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: think is cool because to me, that tells me that
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: it's someone who still has a foot in the fan
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: part of the experience. They're not just you know, the
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: object of fan adoration. They themselves have some of that
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: fandom in them as well.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, and I mean that's what it's what it's
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: really all about. You know. It's one of my favorite
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: things to do. I don't cause play really anymore, but
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: not saying I wouldn't, but I just generally am like,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I want to spend my money and time on other things.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: But I love watching other people's cause plays because they're
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: just it comes from a place of love for the
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: for the thing that they're portraying so much that they
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: put all this time and energy and care into it,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: and it's just really amazing to watch and see and
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: the creativity and the mashups. I just love it.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Well yeah, yeah, Like the mashups are the costume equivalent
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: of what we would do in our mashups, right, Like
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: we would take two or more properties and combine them
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: and say, what would happen if you if these two
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: were to collide and all the script pages got mixed up?
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: This is what I think would happen. Well, there a
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: lot of the cosplays out there take that same concept,
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: but they put it into physical form with those costumes,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: and some of them, some of them I look at
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, that was really creative and really clever,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: and I love how you pulled it off. Some of
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: them I look at and think, I know there's connective
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: tissue in your mind between these two properties, but I
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: don't see it, and I don't understand. I mean, I
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: understand where where the ideas came from, I don't understand
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: how they combined. And of course some people will just
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: create like frame perfect costumes based off of stuff that
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: they've seen in film or television or anime. I always
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: love it when I get a chance to chat with
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: folks who actually work in costume in the industry, because
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: they'll talk about how, yeah, the stuff you see on
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: the floor is better than the costumes you would see
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: on a production floor because they only have to be
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: so good, right like the camera, especially if you're talking
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: about like classic science fiction and fantasy films, like you
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: would be shocked at how low quality some of that
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: stuff can appear when you're really up close to it.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: And meanwhile, you would go to dragon Con and see
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: someone who has created a replica of that costume. But
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: because you're actually going to be in that physical space,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: they have made it to look the way it looked
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: on screen, not the way it looks in real life.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: And that is phenomenal.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: I mean that is super phenomenal. It's crazy impressive. I'm
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: always jealous because I want to be able to do that.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: I also appreciate the people who are not great craftsman's
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: but still really try.
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, We've got a friend who has his own convention
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: called Cardboard Con, and the whole gimmick behind it is
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: all the costumes and props are made out of cardboard boxes.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: And even with that, the creativity is phenomenal.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this this friend is amazing at creating things. It's
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: one of our friends who jumped out of the industry
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: during the last strike, but is a professional property like
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: props maker, So really phenomenal, you know. And then I
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: always feel bad for the people who have obviously put
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of effort into their costume and I have
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: no idea what it is, and they're hanging out in
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: like again, this is largely DragonCon, but I guess it
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: happens at smaller cons too. They're kind of hanging out
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: in the public area hoping people will take pictures of them,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: and no one's really I'm sure they have people take
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: pictures of them. But there was an entire thread this
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: year on Facebook of did you have a cause play
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: costume that no one got except for like one person
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: post it here because we want to celebrate it.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: You know, I think it all.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: I think it all falls on what you're hoping to
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: get out of the cosplay experience, right, Like, if you
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: are hoping to get a lot of attention and a
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: lot of compliments on your your craft or your your
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: clever approach to the costume, you're taking a risk, right
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: because there is the chance that no one's going to
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: really understand it, or get it or appreciate it. If
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: you're doing it because you have this genuine love for
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: this thing and you're expressing your love, then obviously that's
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: a lower risk. I mean, it's always nice to get
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: recognition and acknowledgment. That's always going to be nice. But
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: if you're if your main purpose is because no, I
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: love this thing and that's why I needed to do it,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: then you're going to get some satisfaction no matter what.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: But I mean I always feel that way too, Like
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I see people who you know. It's also it also
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: can be frustrated when you see someone who's in a
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: costume that you know you don't even know how much
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: time they put into it, Like some costumes. You might
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: sit there and just assume, oh, they went thrifting and
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: they found, you know, a few different pieces and through
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: it all together, and you don't realize, no, they hand
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: sewed every element of that costume. And sometimes the effort
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: isn't isn't obvious right in the costume, but that doesn't
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: mean that the person didn't pour countless hours into it. Meanwhile,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: you might have someone else who has an off the
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: rack costume and maybe they are really attractive, right, They
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: could be a really attractive person who's wearing a bought
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: off the rack costume piece and they're getting lots of attention,
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: which definitely happens. And I'm not being gender specific, because
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: I've seen dudes and I've seen women, and I've seen
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: people who do not identify with either gender get tons
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: of attention because they happen to be smoking hot. But
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: they're wearing a costume that obviously wasn't like a handmade
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: kind of cosplay thing, and they're getting a lot of attention.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: So I mean, like it could be really disheartening then too,
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: if you've poured a lot of work into something and
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: haven't received that same kind of attention.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I had another point I was going to make,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: and it's completely slipped my mind. I do like, so
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Dragon Con kind of is this way, but I think
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: it's almost gotten too big. It was really nice in
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one when they capped attendance and it wasn't
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: crowded again. You could actually move around and breathe again.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: I was only there for my performance, but it was
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: it was everybody was kind of like, this is really chill.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: But like the smaller conventions that happened, I love them
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: because they are just there's that community energy there. I
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: haven't been to an industry convention yet, but yeah, the
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: community is what you know with like like the people
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: who we talk with who listen to our show. The
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: community is what makes it right.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Yeah, there's when it gets too big, not too big.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: When it gets at a certain size, you start to
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: lose that community because you've got it's just it's too
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: large to be able to have that communal feeling. You know,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: you are all you are all gathered there because of
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: your love of the thing. In some cases with Dragon Con,
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: now it's the love of the con. It's not the
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: love of something else that the con taps into. It's
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: the con itself, like it's become meta. But in other cases,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: like you have sub communities within dragon Con where you know,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: you like the filters filk Filk singing is like folks singing,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: but all the songs typically tie into geek properties, so
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: you'll have like a song that is a parody of
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: an actual song, but the lyrics have all changed, and
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: now it's about like some you know, famous science fiction
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: or fantasy show or or movie or something, but that
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: would have its own community. The gamers would have their
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: own community. And there are a lot of jokes about
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: the gaming community because there are a lot of jokes
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: about if you're going to go into the gaming room,
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: do it early in the con because they won't leave
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: that room and it will get a little rank. I
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: don't think that's a fair thing to say, but sometimes
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: it's accurate.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Also, I think gaming has moved to the America's mark
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: now for dragon Con, which is a convention center kind
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: of so you can't just spend twenty four hours a
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: day there.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Well, and you know a lot of conventions also have
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: dealer's rooms. Dragon Con is no exception. And dragon Con
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: has reached the size where I was reading about people
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: being in line to get into the dealer's room because
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: you know, obviously the capacity is capped because otherwise it
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: would be a fire hazard, and they would be They'd say, yeah,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I had to wait for like two or three hours
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: before I was able to go into the dealer's room.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: At the smaller conventions, that was never an issue. The
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: nice thing about the dealer's rooms again from my childhood,
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: because again the Internet was not a thing yet, at
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: least not a thing that was publicly accessible. It meant
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: that that's how I got introduced to a lot of stuff,
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: like a lot of like gaming systems, for example, I had.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: I grew up in a town that didn't have a
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: hobby store that had like role playing game systems and stuff.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: The closest comic book store to me was a forty
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: five minute drive away, so it wasn't something that I
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: could easily visit, And conventions were places where I found
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: out about things like the Paranoia RPG or other RPGs
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: that like the Call of Cthulhu RPG, stuff that I
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: had heard of Dragon Dragon con Dungeons and Dragons, but
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: I hadn't heard about any of these. And it's also
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: places where you could do things like discover that yes
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: you two have and a session with collecting dice. My
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: name is Jonathan Strickland. I've been sober for about fifteen
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: years now, but I've had a real hard time with
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: dice in the past. But yeah, like like that's that
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: to me was another one of those magical things.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna start an RPG soon, so hopefully you
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: can stay sober. I'll help you.
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: I've got I've got two bags of dice in front
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: of me, so I think I should be good. So
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: because even though I haven't I haven't set pencil to
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: paper in an RPG in so long, but I kept
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: my dice. So yeah, like so many little special things
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: about these conventions that the smaller ones, I think it's
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: easier to discover a lot of those magical things the
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: larger ones, I mean, the scope and spectacle are off
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: the chain, like It's Dragon con is like nothing else
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: I've ever experienced. But I think there's value in both
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: the smaller conventions and the really really like big celebrations too.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I think so too. And this is a little bit
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: hypocritical because like the smaller conventions, usually I only go
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: to if I'm performing again. It's just a time and
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: money management thing. But I almost get sad when they
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: get bigger, because they lose something the bigger they get.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: But I'm also very happy that they're successful and people
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: are that excited about what they're covering.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: When they're smaller, you can do more right like you
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: can you can go to more things at the con,
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: like you don't have to worry about, well, I'm gonna
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: have to get in line two hours before this panel
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: or I'm not going to make it into the room
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: because it'll be too full, which means for those two
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: hours I don't get to do anything else, and probably
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: for the next two hours I won't get to do
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: anything either because I would have had to have already
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: been in line to see the next big panel. And
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: dragon Con does something that some other conventions. Some do
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: and some don't, And I honestly I don't know if
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: they did it this past year, but they had been
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: doing room clears where at the end of a panel
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: you had to leave the room so that way you
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: couldn't just scope out a spot in a ballroom, for example,
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: sit down and park it for five hours so that
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: you could see the one panel you were interested in
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: and then just sit through everything else that was in
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: that room. That was not something you were able to do.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: You would have to leave the room at the end
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: of the panel, and the whole purpose of that was
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: to prevent that kind of camping.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I think they still do that, but I'm not sure
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: because I I, for instance, our Guards Guards performance with
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: the Atlanta Radio Theater Company hint capacity Every seat was full,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: which is fantastic, but they cleared the room. But there
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: also wasn't an anything in that room for quite a while,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't the same rush as you'd get in
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: like a giant ballroom of like everybody needs to be
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: out in the next ten minutes. But yeah, So I
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: have a question for you, and you may not have
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: an answer because I don't even know if I have
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: an answer, but I'm going to ask it anyhow. Is
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: there a topic that you wish there were a convention
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: on that you have not seen a convention on yet,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: or if you were going to start a convention.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting, an interesting question because a lot of
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: the things I would be into, obviously there are already
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: cons that cover it. Right, Like if you say video games,
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: then you're talking about, like Packs is like the con
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: to go to, or really just any games in general,
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: not just video games, board games, tabletop games. Packs is
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: the place you want to be. If I were to say,
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: like just specifically fantasy or science fiction literature, then that
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: would obviously be something like World Con, which really focuses
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: on the literature side and less so on the media side.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's really interesting.
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe you know what.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: I saw a video about a big Halloween centered convention
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: in California where it was a bunch of haunts that
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: were throughout the state of California. They came together and
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: put out a sample of their haunts, and then they
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: had vendors who were selling you Halloween themed stuff, horror
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: themed stuff. They had horror guests, they showed horror movies.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: I would love to see something like that in the
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Southeast where it's not specifically a horror convention, but more
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: like a Halloween themed convention, so that you could get
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: that itch scratched and maybe get ideas for things like
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: whether you wanted to find a haunt that you wanted
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: to attend, Like, oh, I got to go to that
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: haunted house. I saw a sample. It was phenomenal. I
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: gotta see the big scale version, or if it's something like, hey,
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: you know, I was thinking about getting into this myself,
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: and now I can talk to professionals who do this
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: or amateurs who do this and understand some of the
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: pros and cons and tips and things to avoid. I
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: think that'd be really cool. But on a really late
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: a note of this, and I know this is a
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: very long answer, I would love to see the same
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: sort of thing for Renaissance festivals.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, truthfully, yes, so a Halloween slash Renaissance festival convention,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: which is awesome. Actually, I don't even know if there
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: are any Renaissance festival conventions. They're kind of like their
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: own similar sort of a creature.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would love to be able to go to
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: something that was like you get to see acts that
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: are local to specific festivals that don't necessarily travel the circuit.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, there could be circuit acts there too that
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: I would not want to deny that. But like I've
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: I've never been to the Maryland Festival, which great things about,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: but I've never been there and I don't even know
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: what their local acts are. Like I've been to Georgia Carolina, Pennsylvania,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: and one of the New York festivals, I think the
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Sterling one, and that's it. Like I haven't been to
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: any of the other ones, and I would love to
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: just kind of get a taste for some of the
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: other stuff. It's obviously a huge lift because these festivals
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: all have their seasons at different times of year, so
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: you would have to pick a time where you would
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: have the most participation, probably outside of their normal seasons.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: But then you'd also have to handle things like how
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: do I cover their travel costs and everything, because they're
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: scattered across the entire nation.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, February perfect timing for it. I actually don't know.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: I just I don't hear about a lot of festivals
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: happening in February, nor haunted houses. Most have wrapped up
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: by that time for me, and there might be something
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: like this already. But I would love a convention that's
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: all about like the cooking competition shows that you get
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: that's like half educational and half like challenge and fun,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: like you know, nailed it and is it cake and
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: things like that, so panels talking about it, workshops where
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: you can try your hand at it, you know, like
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: during the pandemic. I did a nailed It challenge at
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: home that was intense and very difficult. Like I'm a
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: good baker, not well on that challenge, you know, so
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: I don't. Maybe what I'm describing is more like community college,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: so I can learn how to cook better, but more fun.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's there's so much entertainment out there that
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: is centered around cooking and baking, right Like, whether it's
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: web series or actual like streaming series or TV series,
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: there's tons of it. So I think that's a legit thing. Yeah,
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: Like now for me, you win me over just by
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: it being about food, Like I've definitely gone to like
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: the Atlanta Food Festival, but that's not that's nothing like
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: what you're talking about, because that's really just more of
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like what I was talking about with
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: the Halloween stuff, except it's about Atlanta restaurants, right Like
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: you go there and all these different restaurants are there
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: with samples of some of the stuff that they make,
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: and for you know, a certain price, you get to
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: go in and try as much of the stuff as
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: you want to, or or it's like a limited amount,
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: like you've got a wristband that gives you like ten samples,
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: so you've got to pick where you're going.
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: To go or whatever.
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: But it's a great way to sample different restaurants in
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: Atlanta without you know, dedicating an entire night to trapesing
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: across the city and hoping that you like the place.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: And so I'm totally down with that. But what you're
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: talking about being more of an immersive, participatory, integrated experience,
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: I think that sounds incredible, like because that you could
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: still have that promotional element an event like that, but
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: you also have this inner active element that something like
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: the Food Festival doesn't have. It's it's more of a
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: glorified like food truck gathering than anything else. Yeah.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: Well, and like you can do like the Epcot Food
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: and Wine Festival. And I don't know about their other
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: food related festivals, but the Food and Wine Festival, I
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: do know that sometimes they will have like workshops on
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: food or mixology or whatever, and you can cook something,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: but it's so expensive and it's just a one off,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: like that's that's one extra cost for one thing.
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah with it, and you've already spent You've already spent
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: a good amount of money just to get into the park,
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: and so you always have that weighing on you where
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: you're thinking, I need to get the value out of
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: what I've spent or I'm going to regret this. And
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: then on top of that, you have to spend more
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: to take a class which is going to take up
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: time in the park and you and you're sitting there
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: thinking like I could have written test track.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and you have to pay for all the food,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: like your ticket doesn't include the food.
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: So I am totally cool just walking.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah me too, Me too. I I loved it a
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: couple of times that I've been able to do it.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Before I switched to my current job, I still could,
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: but now I'm a little bit more stingy. Uh frugal,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: but frugal, that's that's the right word. Yeah, yeah, not
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: that I have to be, but I choose to be.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a smart way to live. Uh, I
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: don't mind. I don't mind going around and paying for that.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: And a lot of like conventions that do have workshops
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: that are laid led by professionals you do pay extra for.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: But I I feel like you could find a better
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: balance if the entire convention was focused on that. You
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: could find a good way to do fan versus educational
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: versus interactive, workshop versus fun. Everybody bring your own ingredients
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: and we're just gonna have a blast with this kind
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: of a thing.
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, totally.
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that was a fun discussion about convention stuff.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: And you know, while I haven't been to Dragon Con
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: in the last several years, I'll never say never, like
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: there might. I think if I were to go back,
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: it would probably be for a day because it's just
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: so overwhelming that I would probably do a day and
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: just kind.
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: Of do the people watch.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Seeing folks that I don't see that frequently would be
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: nice that kind of thing, Although it does then you
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: start asking yourself the question, do I really need to
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: pay that much money to see people I know? But
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: sometimes the answer is yes, because sometimes they're traveling from
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: across the country. So but I think it would be
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: more for a day thing, unless I'm there as a guest,
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: you know, to do panels and stuff, in which case
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: that would be different. But I don't pursue that typically
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: because I think there are other people who probably make
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: better guests, and I would rather they take that slot
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: then I take the slot.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: I think you make an amazing guest, Jonathan. But you
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: know that's very generous of you.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: Well, and again, like I want to make sure being
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: the host of a solo podcast for my main job.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: I just I'm very hyper aware that there's a limited
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: utility for that in a live setting, Like if I
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: were part of a conversational podcast like this one, that
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: if that was my main thing, Like if I were
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: mostly known for that, then that would be different because
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: the two or three or however many of us could
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: go and be part of those panels, and that I
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: think would be far more entertaining than just a bald,
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: white dude talking about how he has a technology podcast.
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: I just don't think that that's like some people might
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: find that interesting. I just have a low expectation of that.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean I understand, I understand. Well, yeah,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: I do think this is I agree with you. I
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: think this has been a fun conversation, you know, not
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: super structured, kind of went all over the place, largely
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: my fault, but yeah, a lot of fun.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I guess we're wrapping up.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you want to share if you were at
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: any conventions recently, you want to share about your experiences
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: or have ideas for conventions that you would throw or
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: anything else you want to chat with us about, Jonathan,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: how can they get in touch with us?
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: So you're gonna at the end of August next year,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: you're gonna go to downtown Atlanta and you're gonna go
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: to the Sheraton Hotel downtown. Now you're gonna have to
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: try and find a door into the Sheraton.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: What'd you say, I said, good choice, that one's usually
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: a little less crowded.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, But the see, that's the problem is that the
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: Sheraton's where all the badges are gonna be this year
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: in that's August, this particular August. So you're gonna try
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: the first stoor you're gonna go into, You're gonna look
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: for where the registration is uh, and you've gotta probably
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: wander around for about forty five minutes before you finally
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: track down someone who explains that it's actually.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: Two floors below.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: But because of the way the building's designed, you can't
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: actually get there from the floor you're on. So you're
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: gonna have to leave the building and walk around to
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: a different door, and that's where you're gonna find stairs
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: that lead down. You're gonna go down those stairs until
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: you go down two floors, But then you're gonna find
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: that the door that goes into the sheridan there, that
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: one's actually locked. You can't open it from that side.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: You're gonna need to go back up those two stairs,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: walk around again, find another door. This is gonna take
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: you to like what looks like a freight elevator. It's
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: clearly the elevator where you know housekeeping wheels their big
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: carts on. It's gonna be the only one you can
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: find that actually goes down to that floor that you
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: need to go to. The doors are gonna open up,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: and you're gonna clearly be like in a maintenance hallway
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: type thing, a place where guests are not supposed to be.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: You're gonna wander around that for probably about twenty five
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: minutes until you can actually feel humidity, which is telling
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: you that something in this part of the hotel is
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: not working properly. Gonna turn back around. That's where you're
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: gonna actually see a door that you already passed. You're
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: gonna open that up and you're gonna peek your head out.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: You're gonna be looking right in the middle of a
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: long line right like you're opening the door and the
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: line is stretching from the right to the left immediately
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: in front of you, and people are gonna look at
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: you crazy like and say like, why are you coming
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: in this way? You don't have time for that. You
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: just gotta go and make your way to the end
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: of that line. You're gonna wait there, and you're going
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: to have to wait for another probably about hour fifteen minutes,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: and finally gonna be at the front of the line.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: You're gonna step forward at the desk. They're gonna inform
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: you that that's preregistration and what you actually wanted was registration,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: which unfortunately is in a totally different hotel. So you're
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: going to have to leave the Sheridan. You've gotta walk
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: south two blocks to the Hyatt Regency. You're gonna walk
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: in there, and then as you walk in there, you're
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: gonna see me. I'm gonna be there holding your badge
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: saying sorry for the inconvenience.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: What's your question?
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: And he won't really be sorry for the inconvenience. If
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: that just if that just is so many steps that
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: you've kind of glazed over. You can also reach us
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: on social media on Twitter where llenc Underscore podcast on Facebook,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Instagram threads which I've been really derelict about posting on
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: and discord. We're large Nerdron Collider. If you want to
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: shoot us an email, We're large Nerdron Pod at gmail
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: dot com. Yeah, and if you want to check out
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: show notes, I will eventually have them up on our website.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: I'm really bad about getting those up in time, you know,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: like last week we didn't have a show because Dragoncom,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: but also I didn't post our LARP conversation notes until today. Anyhow,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: you can reach us all those ways. We love hearing
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: from you. You know, if you've got suggestions for shows,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: we still have some suggestions that we want to get to.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: You know. We just we love goofing off with you,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, uh we appreciate you. So I'm
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: gonna stop, uh completely, just abloviating and sign off until
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: next time. I've been Ariel. I haven't had to pick
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: up my own badge in many, many years.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: Caston and I am Jonathan. I'm not kidding. That's how
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: registration works. Strickland The Large Nerdron Collider was created by
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: Ariel Caston and produced, edited, published deleted, undeleted, published again.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: Curse That by Jonathan Strickland, music by Kevin McLeod of
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: incomptech dot Com