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Why Everyone Knows Mr. Weatherall—Even If They Don’t Know His Name · Tigs Bits Podcast

• 0:00
  So I was in Church Point, LA, and I was shooting a video of
• 0:04
  the parade before the parade started.
• 0:06
  And I was at a gas station called Voltros.
• 0:08
  And I walked to the gas station and the DJ told me, hey, some of
• 0:13
  the girls were doing the Mr. Weatherall dance.
• 0:15
  And I said, oh, OK, well, can you play the song again?
• 0:18
  I'm here. This is that's the song that
• 0:19
  they dedicated to me. I can get them on video and post
• 0:22
  it on social media. So the DJ played it again.
• 0:25
  He played the song and that's how I got the video of those
• 0:28
  girls dancing at the gas station.
• 0:30
  How did you get that many girls to do all of that?
• 0:32
  That's unbelievable that that many people can do one dance #1.
• 0:37
  So at that gas station, they usually have like a DJ set up
• 0:40
  every year. So a lot of people migrate
• 0:42
  there. And that that's also where the
• 0:43
  parade starts in that area. So, yeah, so it's, it's a basic,
• 0:48
  a big gas station party, you can say.
• 0:57
  This one's special. Whether you're from Louisiana or
• 1:00
  you just wish you were, chances are you've seen this man's work.
• 1:05
  He's the guy behind the camera capturing second lines, zydeco
• 1:10
  dances, and some of the most iconic Mardi Gras parade footage
• 1:14
  to ever hit the Internet. That is a fact.
• 1:18
  Mr. Weatherall has become one of the most recognizable
• 1:22
  storytelling in Louisiana. He's got a viral presence, he
• 1:27
  has a hit song named after him and a gift for filming Culture
• 1:31
  in Motion. He's also been rolling with KLFY
• 1:35
  News 10 for years now, working alongside Gerald Grunig, which
• 1:41
  God bless him for that. He's the guy behind the camera.
• 1:45
  So he showcased everything from boudin to bounce and everything
• 1:50
  in between. And today, we're going to get
• 1:52
  into his journey, the gear, the song, and of course, we're going
• 1:57
  to close it out with some rapid fire.
• 1:59
  Louisiana takes crawfish with or without dust King cake flavors.
• 2:05
  Jambalaya versus pastelaya. What's bumping in Mr.
• 2:09
  Weatherall's playlist these days?
• 2:11
  You already know this is going to be good, so let's get into
• 2:14
  it. Mr. Weatherall is in the
• 2:16
  building. Y'all, John?
• 2:18
  What's up my man? Nothing much, everything is
• 2:21
  great. Enjoyed my Sunday so I'm excited
• 2:24
  that we finally had a chance to link up so I'm definitely
• 2:27
  looking forward to. This man, I am too.
• 2:30
  I am too. It's, it's one I've been looking
• 2:33
  forward to for, for a while, since we first started saying, I
• 2:37
  think I even put a video out there like, Hey, Mr. Weatherall
• 2:40
  is going to come on. And I was like, we're going to
• 2:43
  let Mardi Gras settle and all of that.
• 2:46
  And we'll, we'll do this in early summer, late late spring,
• 2:50
  do something like that so you could catch, catch your breath,
• 2:54
  man. Well.
• 2:56
  Thank. You yes, for sure, for sure,
• 2:59
  man. Well, look like I kind of like I
• 3:02
  said, you have been one of the faces of Louisiana on social
• 3:08
  media. Did you, did you ever see, did
• 3:11
  you ever see that happening, first of all?
• 3:15
  No, I have not at all. It just took a life of his own,
• 3:19
  honestly. Like I was just, you know, for
• 3:21
  years I would always just post my work on Facebook and
• 3:24
  Instagram, you know, just not thinking much of it.
• 3:27
  I just want to share, just share my work, you know, But yes, but
• 3:31
  once I got on TikTok and I shared that one video that went
• 3:34
  viral, it's been nonstop since. So it's a blessing for sure.
• 3:40
  It's just it's been a lot for sure.
• 3:43
  Yes, I can only, I can only imagine.
• 3:46
  We're going to dive into all of that stuff.
• 3:48
  But before we do, let's rewind it back for a second.
• 3:52
  I think this is probably a good place to start.
• 3:55
  You and I actually have a mutual friend, Mr. Terry Wayne Foster
• 4:00
  and Terry. Terry and I go way back.
• 4:03
  We went to high school together and, and still to this day, he's
• 4:07
  like my tech guru guy. Like if I need the tech question
• 4:10
  answered, I'm calling Terry. I got to get into some stories.
• 4:14
  There you go. I mean, dude, he, he is, he's
• 4:18
  incredible. I mean, I'm talking back when I
• 4:20
  was in high school, John, like he went when we were using basic
• 4:25
  Dos and basic, he knew how to do all of that stuff.
• 4:30
  And, and we were really fortunate at Florine High School
• 4:33
  where where both of us are from, We had access to high speed
• 4:37
  Internet in the mid 90s and early 90s and that was unheard
• 4:42
  of, especially in a rural area. But Ross Williams was our
• 4:46
  teacher. And then later on he, he did
• 4:49
  technology and stuff at Northwestern as well.
• 4:52
  And, and his son still does Ron Williams and all of them.
• 4:56
  So there was just this little click of you call us nerds,
• 5:00
  whatever you want to say, you know, everybody had them.
• 5:04
  But we had this cool room where we had four or five at the time,
• 5:09
  very high speed Internet, high speed Internet computers, back
• 5:13
  when Netscape was still like the main browser and stuff.
• 5:17
  Probably before you were even born.
• 5:19
  Mr. Weather. No.
• 5:20
  I remember, I only remember Netscape because it came with my
• 5:23
  Windows 98, because that was my first.
• 5:25
  There you go, that's how I was. There you go.
• 5:28
  Yeah, Exactly. Exactly.
• 5:30
  Man, 98 was such a huge deal. 95 was Windows 95 is what set it
• 5:35
  out. And then 98, three years later
• 5:37
  was supposed to be. Oh, yeah, The thing that was.
• 5:39
  Yeah. When I got that that was I got a
• 5:41
  compact presario. That was my first.
• 5:43
  OK. And I was look since.
• 5:46
  Oh yeah. So yeah, I'm familiar with that,
• 5:48
  you know, and I love computers even since I was a kid, you
• 5:51
  know? So yeah, I guess that was always
• 5:53
  something I enjoyed, you know, growing up, but I didn't know it
• 5:55
  would lead to what I'm doing now.
• 5:57
  Right, Right. Man, that's what Terry, of
• 6:01
  course, Terry and Ron and all those guys, they were on a whole
• 6:04
  other level than me. I was just kind of like the
• 6:06
  hobbyist guy. And then if I couldn't figure it
• 6:09
  out, I had a crutch. I had them.
• 6:12
  If it didn't take me long for me to be like, I can't do this, I
• 6:16
  can't figure it out, let me call Terry so, you know, get it
• 6:19
  fixed. So yeah, that's what you had to
• 6:22
  do. So tell, tell everybody how did
• 6:24
  you and Terry meet? And I think that people out
• 6:27
  there listening like, who the Hell's this?
• 6:28
  Terry Guy explained explained how y'all's paths crossed.
• 6:33
  So, yeah, so my last, towards the end of my junior year of
• 6:37
  high school, they had a summer program that they were offering
• 6:41
  students to go to the to work at the school board in Lafayette.
• 6:46
  And I'm I enrolled in that. That was the end of my junior
• 6:51
  year in 2008 and Terry was already working at the school
• 6:56
  board. So that's how I got in.
• 6:57
  That's How I Met him. So after that summer was over
• 7:01
  with, they let certain students go, but they asked if I wanted
• 7:05
  to stay and work there part time.
• 7:06
  So from there, I just stayed at the school board for the past
• 7:10
  six years from O 8 to 2014, you know, working with Terry and a
• 7:13
  few other employees that were there at the time.
• 7:16
  But that's how we connected. So he's still a good friend of
• 7:19
  mine all these years later. You know, like I, like you said,
• 7:22
  I still go to Terry sometimes whenever I need help.
• 7:24
  I had an issue with my computer recently and I went to his
• 7:28
  office and have him help me with that.
• 7:30
  So there's still a lot of stuff that I'm, I'm still learning
• 7:33
  with computers. But he's like the guru with all
• 7:35
  that. So I let him you know, he's.
• 7:38
  Like you've ever seen. Oh yeah, Oh yeah.
• 7:42
  But that's how we connected though whenever I was a student.
• 7:44
  Work at the school board in Lafayette.
• 7:47
  OK, there you go. Yeah.
• 7:48
  He, he, I think he, he recently retired finally from the school
• 7:53
  board. Yes.
• 7:54
  And yeah. So I know that he's been
• 7:56
  traveling and doing some other stuff too.
• 7:59
  I. Yeah, I'm like he's always, he's
• 8:01
  always on the road. Like I like when I get older,
• 8:04
  I'm hoping that I can be more on the road, like just being able
• 8:06
  to enjoy not working, not shooting anything, just enjoying
• 8:10
  it so. Enjoying life?
• 8:12
  Yes, exactly. Exactly.
• 8:14
  So what happened once you left the school board then then what?
• 8:19
  What did I'm sure that opened up some doors for you and, and all
• 8:22
  that. So then, then what?
• 8:25
  Did you go to work for the TV station at that point or?
• 8:28
  Right. So I graduated.
• 8:30
  What? Yeah.
• 8:31
  My last day at the school board was a Friday, and my grad, my
• 8:36
  graduation from U of Lafayette was that Saturday.
• 8:38
  And then I started KLFY News 10 that Monday, so.
• 8:42
  And I've been working there since 2014.
• 8:45
  I graduated and on mass communications at ulf yet?
• 8:49
  Okay, so yeah. That's awesome.
• 8:52
  That's awesome. Yeah, I took, I took several
• 8:55
  courses in college very close to like I could, I could probably
• 9:00
  go back in, in a couple of semesters, have a mass
• 9:03
  communications degree. Those were my favorite classes
• 9:07
  that I took in college period, learning some of the stuff, just
• 9:11
  all of that. But then we actually they
• 9:14
  probably have it at UL to where they have like a little studio,
• 9:18
  I'm sure. I know they do these days, but
• 9:21
  but early 2000s that was kind of cutting edge.
• 9:24
  They had like an actual TV studio and you had to read the
• 9:28
  teleprompter and the all of the, you know, all of that stuff just
• 9:32
  like you, like you, you see every day, but.
• 9:35
  Yeah, so I know, like in my my communication classes, we had
• 9:39
  the they had an old studio set, I believe it was from the new
• 9:43
  station that I currently work at now.
• 9:45
  They donated the set to the students.
• 9:46
  And I remember we had to come up with our own shows, produce it
• 9:50
  and have someone run the teleprompter and everything.
• 9:52
  So that was pretty cool, you know, at the time.
• 9:55
  Yeah, those are fun. I remember people would be so
• 9:58
  nervous on those days and I would just be hamming up.
• 10:02
  I was like, Oh no, this is what I'm here for.
• 10:05
  This is so much better than having to learn stuff about math
• 10:09
  and all that. Like, let's roll.
• 10:11
  There's just not going anywhere, you know?
• 10:13
  Yeah, that reminds me too. Like my, that reminds me, like
• 10:17
  when I first started at UL, I went for computer science.
• 10:20
  That was my original major. But I changed my major this
• 10:23
  first day of UL, my first day of college.
• 10:26
  I changed my my major that same day to mass communications.
• 10:30
  I was like, I do not want to take all this Matt.
• 10:32
  So Matt is like my worst subject.
• 10:34
  Yes, but no. I think you've made the right
• 10:38
  decision. It looks like it's working out
• 10:40
  pretty well for you. Yeah, thankfully, yes.
• 10:42
  It's been amazing during it for sure.
• 10:47
  So I guess you working there at the station in those early days,
• 10:51
  when did you and when did you and Gerald start to kind of
• 10:54
  click and work together? How long has he been there?
• 10:58
  Have y'all been kind of tied at the hip the whole time?
• 11:01
  Yeah, pretty much. We both actually started I think
• 11:05
  with a month apart from each other because we all graduated
• 11:08
  around the same time. So I started in May of 2014 and
• 11:11
  I believe he started in June of 2014.
• 11:14
  And my first live shot actually was with Gerald and another
• 11:20
  reporter, George Files. It was for a sports live shot at
• 11:24
  a baseball field in Lafayette. And I was freaking out 'cause
• 11:27
  they just threw me out there. I didn't know what to to do to
• 11:31
  go live. It was one of those backpacks
• 11:33
  and I had to go live for the first time with Gerald.
• 11:36
  So that was interesting right there.
• 11:38
  And then a year later, in 2015, is whenever Gerald came up with
• 11:42
  the idea for Katie and the Eeks, and he asked me if I wanted to
• 11:46
  be involved with it, he stopped me in the hallway.
• 11:49
  I still remember he asked if I wanted to be the camera guy for
• 11:51
  a Kitty and the eats. That's for them.
• 11:53
  Yeah. So we started in August, I
• 11:56
  believe it was of 2015, and we just went from there.
• 12:01
  And it's a it's an incredible page and all the stuff that all
• 12:05
  the videos and everything. It's one of my favorite things
• 12:07
  to see is anytime y'all have something that drops, it's just,
• 12:12
  it's the, it's the way that y'all presented.
• 12:14
  I don't know if you're editing it or who it is.
• 12:16
  I know that you have good equipment.
• 12:18
  We're going to get into all of that stuff because I am going to
• 12:20
  nerd out, but I'll save it for the back end of the show.
• 12:24
  But. I do want to nerd out a little
• 12:27
  bit, but it's just so impressive how y'all can just it pops and
• 12:33
  of course, he's a probably I would say is a pretty easy
• 12:36
  subject to film as long as you can keep him in frame.
• 12:40
  I would think that his he's he's loud.
• 12:42
  He's got a lot of he's you know he's got he's I mean in a good
• 12:45
  way. This is in a in a good way,
• 12:47
  totally I'm loud. I can't help it.
• 12:51
  It's just he's a people person. He is, yeah.
• 12:54
  And that's the thing too. A lot of people always like, if
• 12:56
  you see how we normally shoot, everyone always asks me like,
• 12:59
  why do I hold the light in my hand whenever I'm filming
• 13:02
  Gerald? I'm like, if I put a light on
• 13:04
  the tripod and film Gerald, we're going to be having to move
• 13:08
  this tripod over and over. I'm like, this is the easiest
• 13:10
  way to do it. I can just follow Gerald, you
• 13:12
  know, let him do his thing and we can be in and out because
• 13:15
  that's the way that we do it. Now we got to a point where we
• 13:19
  we figure out like our method and with our workflow, so
• 13:22
  everything is like in and out so we can be able to move on and go
• 13:25
  to the next location and stuff like that.
• 13:27
  So well, and I. That, that that's probably good
• 13:31
  for the businesses too, you know, because when you're coming
• 13:34
  in not to slow down there, you know, you're not disrupting as
• 13:38
  much. You just come in, do your thing
• 13:40
  and out. And I mean, you've been doing it
• 13:42
  for almost 10 years at this point.
• 13:44
  So you you know what you're going to say and do and and
• 13:48
  what's going to work on social media, what to say, what not to
• 13:52
  say and just roll on you efficient.
• 13:55
  You become very efficient with it.
• 13:57
  That shows. Lord, I saw one the other day he
• 13:59
  had and you filmed it the shrimp.
• 14:03
  It was like a shrimp po boy shrimping fish po boy.
• 14:06
  This is like in the last week or so and I've never seen that.
• 14:11
  That was just like there was bread there, but it was mainly
• 14:15
  shrimp and fish. She looked incredible.
• 14:19
  Yeah, but I like, man, I get a kick out of watching all of that
• 14:22
  stuff. Just all I mean, I love the
• 14:25
  cooking stuff. So that's right up my alley.
• 14:28
  And y'all capture some of the best in the in the state.
• 14:31
  No doubt. No doubt about it, man.
• 14:33
  Yeah, we, yeah, we met some amazing people, a lot of
• 14:37
  restaurants, some restaurants that's not even open anymore,
• 14:40
  but we just grew so many, you know, connections along the way
• 14:44
  over the years. Cuz it's been, it's actually
• 14:46
  gonna be 10 years since the catering in the E 1st air this
• 14:49
  year. So that's crazy to think about,
• 14:52
  you know, but it's definitely been a, a journey.
• 14:55
  Yeah, well, it's just a, it's a great.
• 14:57
  It's a great, it's a great little segment, I guess you
• 15:00
  would say is I guess it see, I only see clips and stuff, social
• 15:05
  media clips that are out there. But it's a segment on TV though,
• 15:11
  right? Right.
• 15:12
  Yeah, so in a weekly. Segment.
• 15:14
  Yeah. So it airs every Thursday.
• 15:17
  So Katie and the East is every Thursday on KLFY.
• 15:20
  And then what we post on our social media pages, we started
• 15:23
  that in 2021. So that's what we do on outside
• 15:27
  of work hours. So there's times whenever we can
• 15:30
  be shooting, doing our stuff at KLFY, and then later in the day
• 15:34
  we'll go out to a restaurant and do something for social media as
• 15:37
  well. So try to shoot something a
• 15:38
  little differently than what we do on TV.
• 15:41
  Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
• 15:43
  So I, I know you've probably seen just about every kind of
• 15:47
  food, food and festival in this state.
• 15:52
  I'm going to put you on the spot.
• 15:53
  We're not even to rapid fire a lot of questions yet.
• 15:57
  Do you have a favorite? Do you have a favorite?
• 16:01
  That's a tough I'm. Not trying to get you in
• 16:02
  trouble, Mr. Weatherall right, well, I just want to say I do
• 16:05
  love. I appreciate and love everyone
• 16:07
  First off. But I'll be honest, I've been
• 16:11
  going to Twins. It's a bakery and sweets place
• 16:14
  in Lafayette. I've been going to them a lot.
• 16:17
  I love going to a place called Uncle T's in Scott, LA and BBQ
• 16:23
  wise I love Blanche's Barbecue. So those are the three that I've
• 16:27
  been frequenting the most. There's some plugs.
• 16:30
  There you go. I love it.
• 16:34
  No, they're all great. Well, that's the problem in
• 16:37
  Louisiana there is, I mean, it's it would probably be easier to
• 16:42
  find bad food or heart. It would be easier to yeah, it
• 16:46
  would definitely be easier to find bad food than it would to
• 16:49
  be go to all these places and say it was bad because it's all
• 16:52
  good. You're not going to find there.
• 16:55
  It's rare to find bad food here. Let's just be honest.
• 16:59
  Everything, everything's up there.
• 17:02
  Yeah. And there's so many places that
• 17:03
  we still haven't even visited, even in the Lafayette area, you
• 17:07
  know, there's so many different restaurants to try that we
• 17:09
  haven't had a chance to go to. So it's yeah, it's just so much.
• 17:14
  It's all good. Ever, ever evolving and
• 17:18
  evolving. And that makes, I mean, it's
• 17:20
  perfect for content creators. It's just, it is you.
• 17:24
  Know it's endless it's endless stuff just what do you want to
• 17:28
  talk about today that's really really what you got to do and
• 17:32
  it. Sprains it like the past 10
• 17:34
  years, like just doing our TV segment, you know, there's still
• 17:37
  places that we haven't even tapped that's not in the
• 17:40
  Lafayette area. So it's like it's just so much
• 17:43
  and I'm just we enjoy it for sure.
• 17:45
  They are definitely feed us well, very well, very well for
• 17:48
  sure. Well that that leads me to
• 17:50
  something. How do y'all both y'all are both
• 17:53
  in good shape, lean, you know, how do y'all, how do y'all stay
• 17:56
  this way? Eating all of this food, I mean.
• 18:00
  Well, I know Gerald. He he works out a lot at Ray
• 18:04
  Laurel's gym in Lafayette. And I started going there back
• 18:08
  in August of last year because I had some issues with my blood
• 18:11
  pressure. So I had a little healthcare
• 18:14
  back in August of last year. So I started going out to the
• 18:17
  gym. So that's been helping me out a
• 18:20
  bit. But yeah, but that's, that's
• 18:24
  pretty much it. Gerald goes to Ray Laurel's
• 18:26
  every day. If it's not, there you go.
• 18:29
  Yeah, and I mean, I'm sure on those days when you're going to
• 18:32
  film something, obviously I've done some stuff like that too.
• 18:35
  You're not going to eat the whole thing right there.
• 18:37
  You'll take it together. You can eat on it later, but.
• 18:41
  Yeah, like normally we'll take like, well, he'll take like a
• 18:44
  little bit of like missing pieces of the foods and then
• 18:47
  he'll just, you know, we'll either give it away or we'll
• 18:50
  bring it to our news station if they want to eat it.
• 18:52
  But for the most part, we don't like indulge in it like we used
• 18:55
  to. I know.
• 18:58
  Yeah. So that's that's kind of been
• 19:00
  helping as well. Yeah, I've had the Cajun critic,
• 19:04
  Caleb Bryan. He does promotions and some
• 19:07
  festivals and stuff. He was on.
• 19:09
  He was a guest last Thursday. Well, the first time I had him
• 19:12
  on, he was still mainly doing get going around and critiquing
• 19:17
  places. And I'm like that, that was my
• 19:19
  first question because I'm a big boy over here and I love to eat
• 19:23
  and I'd love to go out and start doing that.
• 19:25
  But I'm telling you right now, there's no doubt that a bowl of
• 19:29
  gumbo and pastelaya and jambalaya, all this stuff, it's
• 19:33
  just going to stick. It doesn't want to go anywhere
• 19:36
  no matter. And I go to the gym every day,
• 19:38
  but I would just start to gain weight.
• 19:40
  So that's why I always let's like my question, if you're out
• 19:43
  there doing it, you're skinny, how are you doing this?
• 19:45
  You know, So yeah, he, he finally, I think he, he's kind
• 19:50
  of slacked off on that a little bit because he's doing a, doing
• 19:55
  more like a, a, a paleo or kind of keto like lifestyle and he's
• 20:00
  dead serious on it. And he's lost like 50 lbs.
• 20:02
  And yeah, he doesn't, he doesn't budget.
• 20:05
  Like he even did the burger cook off.
• 20:07
  He only ate patties. He didn't like.
• 20:09
  Dude, that's hardcore. Because I would have waited.
• 20:13
  Weeks to just to eat. I'm going to have a smash burger
• 20:17
  if I'm having a burger event, period, right?
• 20:21
  You know? Yeah, but, you know, I mean, The
• 20:23
  thing is too like they feed us really well, which we're
• 20:26
  grateful for is just sometimes it can be a little overwhelming.
• 20:29
  We're like, look, can that there's just a little too much
• 20:31
  food for us, but. Exactly Well, they know that
• 20:35
  they're going to get that. The main thing is that you're
• 20:38
  going to get that shot of that beautiful, completed, delicious
• 20:42
  dish and you know, if it goes to waste, they don't care.
• 20:45
  They want that shot too, just like you don't want to eat it
• 20:48
  just like you want it. So I mean, it work.
• 20:50
  It works both ways. But Lord, y'all, there's some
• 20:53
  food. Y'all go check them out.
• 20:55
  If you're listening to this, go look, look up at Katie, Anna
• 20:59
  Eats. You will see some of the best
• 21:01
  stuff that you will ever see in your entire life because it's
• 21:05
  just a fact. The best food in the world is
• 21:07
  here in Louisiana, the whole world.
• 21:10
  It's here. And we're like, we're so lucky
• 21:13
  to be around it. We really, really are.
• 21:16
  Yeah, I think, I think sometimes a lot of people take it for
• 21:18
  granted too, you know? I think we all do.
• 21:21
  Yeah. It's easy to because it's just,
• 21:25
  it's just another day and like, Oh well, you're just having
• 21:28
  this, which is a five star meal at anybody else's house
• 21:33
  restaurant establishment in the country.
• 21:36
  And we do kind of just take it for granted.
• 21:39
  We get mad because this place is gumbo.
• 21:43
  Their roo's a little, not quite as dark as this other place, but
• 21:46
  they're both just fine. Just fine.
• 21:49
  But it's like, hell no, I don't like going there.
• 21:52
  I like my I like my Roo darker. They don't do it dark enough.
• 21:55
  It's just not like. Come on, man.
• 21:57
  Yeah, isn't it? Yes, it is.
• 22:02
  It totally is. Well, going back to you and
• 22:05
  Gerald working together. I know that that's kind of where
• 22:09
  y'all started to get some viral attention a little bit and and
• 22:15
  tell us a little bit about some of those first videos that
• 22:19
  happened where they started to go viral, where you started to
• 22:23
  to see a little virality for lack of a better.
• 22:25
  Word Yeah, yeah. So I know that really started to
• 22:30
  happen once we got on TikTok because we both, you know, we
• 22:34
  were on a shoot actually, this was back in October 2021 and I
• 22:39
  was already shooting on TikTok for a haunted attraction I was
• 22:42
  working for in Lafayette. And I was telling Gerald like,
• 22:46
  hey, you should get on TikTok and just, you know, post videos
• 22:49
  of you trying food on there. So we stopped at a boudin place
• 22:55
  and after that I can already tell from just like, yeah, he
• 22:59
  got, he got the bug already. So he was like hooked after
• 23:01
  that, which is great, you know, because it's like, it's been a
• 23:04
  real blessing. For him, you know.
• 23:06
  Oh yeah, it's fun. Exactly.
• 23:08
  It's fun, you know, and I think a lot of times we talk about we
• 23:11
  wish that we got on social media before the pandemic, but we
• 23:15
  we're glad that we got on what we did, which is great.
• 23:18
  But I think the first video we were at a place in Broussard,
• 23:23
  LA, it was a, a crackling video, I believe.
• 23:27
  And that was his first video that went viral.
• 23:29
  That was back in December of 2021.
• 23:31
  And then from there it's just been, you know, non-stop.
• 23:34
  And the good thing is that we had this audience from people
• 23:37
  that watched our TV segment on KLFY, so a lot of them were
• 23:41
  watching on TikTok, and then it just opened our audience to more
• 23:45
  people, you know? Right.
• 23:46
  Yeah, yeah. Is that, is that his
• 23:49
  personality? What you see on camera is what
• 23:51
  you get. I've never met him, but I kind
• 23:53
  of got a feeling it is. It is.
• 23:55
  Yeah, it is definitely is. That's Gerald 24/7.
• 23:59
  A lot of people always ask me like, how do I deal with that?
• 24:03
  It's like it's just, you know, I enjoy working with you, you
• 24:07
  know, It's normal to me, you know, I don't feel like it's,
• 24:10
  I'm annoying or anything. It's just, that's just how it
• 24:12
  is. You know, I'm very introverted,
• 24:15
  laid back, quiet, and he's the complete opposite.
• 24:17
  But it works. You know, for.
• 24:19
  That's what makes it work probably, you know, that having
• 24:22
  that dynamic, you're not fighting for airtime, you know
• 24:26
  what I mean? Like you're just you're both
• 24:28
  both in your own lanes. That's that's awesome.
• 24:31
  That's awesome. Yeah.
• 24:31
  That's my impression of him, is that he's loud and in your face
• 24:36
  in a good way, and it's just fun to work with.
• 24:39
  I mean, I have some. I do believe I probably have a
• 24:41
  couple of similar traits to Gerald, so I get it.
• 24:46
  Oh yeah. But no, I like I said, I enjoyed
• 24:48
  doing it. And that's before even social
• 24:50
  media, you know, like we've been knowing each other since 2014.
• 24:54
  So I've definitely, we have a lot of memories and things that
• 24:58
  we've, you know, shared with each other over the years, but
• 25:01
  it's just, it just meshes and works with us, you know, because
• 25:04
  not too many people last that long in this kind of situation
• 25:07
  with social media competition and stuff like that.
• 25:09
  So I'm just grateful that we're still, you know, friends and
• 25:13
  still working well together and, you know, never know what the
• 25:16
  future holds. That's right.
• 25:18
  That's right. Well said.
• 25:20
  Well said. Well, then that kind of leads us
• 25:23
  into more now where we're at the more the modern day where it
• 25:29
  kind of started. We're got we've gotten to there
• 25:31
  to to where I started seeing you all the time was was the Mr.
• 25:38
  Weatherall Channel and the videos and the dance and all of
• 25:42
  that the song and all of that stuff.
• 25:46
  I don't even know where to begin on how did that happen.
• 25:49
  So if y'all aren't aware of anybody out there, there's a
• 25:53
  there is a song you can go on apple, Spotify, YouTube,
• 25:56
  wherever the Mr. Weatherall song.
• 25:58
  It is an awesome ass song period.
• 26:01
  Like it it is it's Louisiana. It's awesome and then it turned
• 26:06
  into TikTok dances and all kinds of stuff.
• 26:10
  I mean, it's got its own dance and it to say it went viral,
• 26:13
  that's an understatement. Like it was on my feed for
• 26:17
  months and still it still pops up.
• 26:20
  There's still stuff that pops up.
• 26:21
  Really from? Yes, there are every now and
• 26:24
  then, I guess because I've just seen it and I love it every time
• 26:27
  I see the videos because I'm always like, how'd they do that
• 26:30
  with the camera and stuff? Like how'd you make that?
• 26:32
  And they like, how'd you do that?
• 26:34
  That So I I watch it over and over again.
• 26:36
  But yeah, when did that? When did you transition with
• 26:40
  Acadiana Eats? It's rocking and rolling until
• 26:42
  this Mardi Gras madness that takes over every year.
• 26:47
  I guess that's a better way to frame it.
• 26:49
  Yeah, definitely. So, so going back to when we
• 26:54
  first got on TikTok, once Gerald started posting videos on social
• 26:58
  media for what he does with the food videos, he pushed me to
• 27:02
  start posting my Mardi Gras content because I was like, what
• 27:05
  can I put on social media? Because I was running a TikTok
• 27:08
  page for a haunted attraction back in Lafayette.
• 27:10
  And I was like, what can I do to build up my TikTok page?
• 27:13
  I mean, you know, I'm helping build up the haunted attractions
• 27:16
  page and I helped that page grow to like 600,000 followers in two
• 27:20
  weeks. And I'm like, I want to get that
• 27:21
  from my page, you know? So I was like, well, I have all
• 27:25
  this Mardi Gras content. And he just told me, just start
• 27:28
  posting that. So I had videos from before the
• 27:30
  pandemic that I started sharing on TikTok.
• 27:33
  Didn't think nothing of it. And then I had a video of a guy
• 27:35
  from Church Point, LA. He's not from there, But yeah,
• 27:40
  but I had a bit. Thinking with my guy, that guy,
• 27:44
  Not not. Him.
• 27:45
  No, not him. Yeah, it was before him.
• 27:47
  My first viral video on TikTok on my page was it was an officer
• 27:52
  and he was dancing to a song and that went viral.
• 27:55
  It was just like 6 seconds and I was like OK, OK, we got
• 27:59
  something gone. Now the Mardi Gras season for
• 28:02
  2022 started and then on Fat Tuesday I shot the video of the
• 28:06
  guy rapping to Kevin Gates song and then I posted it like I
• 28:11
  think the next day I just posted just not thinking much of it.
• 28:14
  I just made a post saying hey guys, I'm going to be sharing a
• 28:17
  lot of content soon. Stay on the lookout.
• 28:19
  And then after I posted that video, like within one to two
• 28:23
  hours, my notifications just started to go crazy.
• 28:26
  And I was like what is going on? You know, I didn't know, you
• 28:30
  know, I son told me just to go check and see what post it was.
• 28:33
  And then I noticed it was his post and it was kept growing and
• 28:36
  growing and growing. It was just like crazy.
• 28:40
  It's like wildfire basically. But.
• 28:42
  That's where I that started. How many combined views did that
• 28:46
  video get over everything roughly?
• 28:51
  That's a good one. That's a good one, I know the
• 28:56
  last I checked it was over 100 + 1,000,000 views.
• 29:00
  Wow, that's that's the only ones that I I counted.
• 29:04
  That, yeah, that, yeah, that's probably now it guy.
• 29:07
  I guarantee you it's probably more than 100 million, yeah, but
• 29:11
  that's incredible. Think about that 100 million
• 29:14
  people for just turning on a phone.
• 29:16
  I don't know what camera. You were using when you did
• 29:18
  that. Yeah, you actually, I think
• 29:21
  you're right because on my page I think it went up to 72 million
• 29:25
  on my TikTok page. Yeah.
• 29:27
  So yeah, it's probably, I'm, I think I'm well off, but I know
• 29:31
  there's a lot of views for sure. Yeah, a lot, a lot of views.
• 29:35
  So we get to that. That's really kind of where
• 29:38
  everything then I just about every damn video you posted
• 29:41
  after that pretty much going viral.
• 29:45
  It's just all dancers and stuff. Yeah, which is a, you know,
• 29:48
  blessing for sure, because I mean, most people, they had that
• 29:51
  one viral video and then everything else just falls flat.
• 29:55
  But thankfully, you know, I'm, I'm a great, I feel like I'm a
• 29:58
  great shooter, you know, and normally I try to stay humble,
• 30:00
  which I which is great, but I, I have to, you know, pat myself in
• 30:04
  the back too. I do know how to have fun and
• 30:06
  shooter, you know, and I always, you know, but I have fun what I
• 30:09
  do too as well. So that helps as well.
• 30:12
  But it was like back-to-back since as like so many videos
• 30:15
  that went viral. I love getting the reactions
• 30:18
  from people in public. They say, hey, thank you for
• 30:20
  making me go viral. My job, everybody at my job
• 30:24
  recognized me. They all have, like, little
• 30:26
  jokes here and there, but I have people stopping me in the street
• 30:29
  saying, hey, I saw you in that video of Mr. Weatherall posted.
• 30:32
  So I think that's what makes it, you know, enjoyable.
• 30:34
  It's like seeing the excitement and everything.
• 30:37
  Yeah, totally. That's got it.
• 30:39
  I mean, that has to be to to get that.
• 30:42
  I mean, it's feedback, yes, it's almost a little pat on the back.
• 30:45
  But I mean, I know what you put into this.
• 30:47
  I know what it takes to get edit videos and to put stuff out.
• 30:51
  And it's so it's it's crazy. We were talking before we
• 30:55
  started to record. It's crazy how some videos you
• 30:59
  just literally turn your phone on your camera, press record and
• 31:02
  it records for a minute or whatever and then it go, that's
• 31:05
  that. Had that happen yesterday.
• 31:07
  I've had a video that's blown up and had 100 + 1000 views and
• 31:11
  probably going to get more than that.
• 31:13
  It was just very simple. Just turned it on and I almost
• 31:16
  didn't even post it. Like I almost didn't even post
• 31:19
  video. Yeah, but that goes to show.
• 31:23
  Just post it, right? Wouldn't you say that to anybody
• 31:25
  out there that wants to be a content creator?
• 31:28
  Yeah, So I I definitely would say that, but I know I'll be
• 31:32
  honest, Joe has been like pushing me to start posting a
• 31:35
  little more because I haven't posted in a month.
• 31:37
  But if you're just starting out, definitely because that's what I
• 31:40
  had to do for the past couple of months, like December up until
• 31:44
  March of 2022, I was posting like constantly all of my old
• 31:47
  videos. I just repurposed a lot of
• 31:49
  content, you know, So hopefully boasting like all the like every
• 31:53
  week, like maybe once a week day or something like that helps.
• 31:57
  But I know like as I grew my page, I just like cut back a
• 32:01
  little bit because I want to make sure I put quality stuff,
• 32:03
  you know? So I think that's just the
• 32:06
  videographer side of me, because at the end of the day, I still
• 32:08
  love shooting video. A lot of people don't feel like
• 32:11
  I'm a videographer. They just say, Oh yeah, the
• 32:13
  content creator. But I still know how to shoot,
• 32:15
  you know, professionally as well.
• 32:17
  It's just, it's so much easier on that phone, you know, I just
• 32:20
  love using the phone. I.
• 32:21
  Know it's it is, it really is. It's just, I mean, I've wanted
• 32:26
  to go and buy some other cameras and some other equipment and
• 32:29
  stuff to do what I'm doing. I'm like, it's point and shoot
• 32:33
  with my phone and that camera's pretty Dang good.
• 32:35
  You know what I mean? It is, it is.
• 32:37
  It's tough to beat So that you do primarily use your phone for
• 32:41
  a lot of the content that you get.
• 32:43
  Yeah, most of it even with Gerald.
• 32:46
  Yeah, so I switched over in 2021, October 21 when we first
• 32:50
  started TikTok. I switched over and I haven't
• 32:53
  looked back since. So I have like I have a black
• 32:55
  magic cinema camera, my Sony 873 that's just sitting at home.
• 33:01
  I just, it's just collecting dust.
• 33:04
  I don't want to give them away, you know, just in case.
• 33:06
  You never know, but I just. This case, yeah.
• 33:08
  Yeah, but I strictly shoot on my iPhone.
• 33:12
  OK, yeah, I'm pretty much have gotten to that point too.
• 33:15
  Like there's no reason to. I have a GoPro and stuff like
• 33:18
  that, but then I have to take it out and then load it into the
• 33:22
  computer and do all of that stuff where it just goes to my
• 33:26
  iCloud and then I can just, I use Premiere Pro to edit a lot
• 33:29
  of stuff. That's what I use cap.
• 33:31
  Cut if it's in my phone, I can just use cap cut too.
• 33:34
  If it's something short and I don't want to like really dial
• 33:37
  it in, you know, it's, it's just so much easier with everything
• 33:41
  staying in one place. So it.
• 33:43
  Is it is yeah. I've been using Premiere Pro for
• 33:47
  years me and Gerald both because Gerald that's what I forgot to
• 33:50
  mention. Also Gerald edits all his videos
• 33:53
  as well, so I just. Shoot, does he?
• 33:55
  Yeah. So he edits.
• 33:56
  Yeah. Yeah, he's a slick editor and.
• 33:59
  He's Oh yeah, cuz he like whenever cuz that's what he did
• 34:02
  when he first started at KLF while I was sports.
• 34:04
  So he's still with like that editing stuff.
• 34:07
  So he he knows how to edit and shoot, Yeah.
• 34:10
  You, yeah. And shoot, if you're doing
• 34:12
  sports, yeah, you've got to, you've got to go out in the
• 34:14
  field, take, shoot it with talking to a coach or whatever,
• 34:18
  then clip it, get your best bites or sound bits or whatever
• 34:22
  out of it. Then put on the news.
• 34:24
  You get good. You you do that every day for a
• 34:27
  while, you're going to get pretty damn good at it, so.
• 34:30
  That makes. That makes sense.
• 34:32
  Totally makes sense. So then that leads us into the
• 34:37
  Mr. Weatherall song. Like how?
• 34:41
  How did that all come about? You've gained all this traction.
• 34:45
  You're blowing up on social media.
• 34:47
  I'm assuming people are seeing you putting out people dancing
• 34:51
  and stuff like that. How the hell did the song come?
• 34:54
  About Yeah. So the song came about the
• 34:57
  following year, so in 2023. So I got sent a sample of it
• 35:04
  back in December of 2022 from a group called Young Cub City and
• 35:08
  the producer, DJ Sal and his brother Boogie, they sent me the
• 35:12
  track. They just sent me an
• 35:13
  instrumental of the song. They say, can you let us know
• 35:16
  what you think about this? It's something that we're
• 35:17
  working on. And I I listened to it.
• 35:20
  It was pretty cool. And then a couple of weeks, a
• 35:24
  couple of weeks later, they sent me the actual track with the
• 35:27
  artist recording. So it was Young Cub City and Big
• 35:30
  Zoe, and they sent me the actual track of it.
• 35:33
  And I was like, they we wanted to dedicate the song to me
• 35:36
  because of all of the work that I do in the Acadiana area, you
• 35:39
  know, over the years. So yeah, so that's how that guy
• 35:42
  started. They just wanted to dedicate the
• 35:43
  song to me. So I listened to it.
• 35:46
  How nice. Yeah.
• 35:49
  Which they definitely didn't have to, for sure, but I'm
• 35:51
  definitely, you know, it's like my theme song, you know, So
• 35:53
  that's the good thing about it. Like, yeah, so they they sent
• 35:57
  that to me. We just made a couple of edits
• 36:00
  because there was some parts of it that we had to change only
• 36:02
  because I was thinking about like the lyrics, but.
• 36:05
  It's probably I could see where I could see where you could
• 36:08
  definitely could say some other things in there.
• 36:11
  For sure. So probably.
• 36:12
  What it was originally. Yeah, I still have the original
• 36:16
  track that has those that that part of the lyrics.
• 36:19
  But one, maybe one day, like, we would do like a behind the
• 36:22
  scenes or something, we'll probably use it or whatever.
• 36:24
  But, yeah, but that's how that started.
• 36:28
  And then like that Mardi Gras season, I mean, it did well.
• 36:33
  We had a video of a little kid, his name is Ryland.
• 36:36
  He was dancing to the song at the Lafayette parade.
• 36:39
  It did well on social media, but the song didn't pick up.
• 36:42
  It took a whole year later for the song to actually gain
• 36:46
  traction. So I was in Church Point, LA,
• 36:48
  and I was shooting a video of the parade before the parade
• 36:52
  started. And I was at a gas station
• 36:53
  called Voltros and I walked to the gas station and the DJ told
• 36:58
  me, hey, some of the girls were doing the Mr. Weather all dance.
• 37:02
  And I said, okay, what can you play the song again?
• 37:04
  I'm here. This is that's the song that
• 37:06
  they dedicated to me. I can get them on video and post
• 37:09
  it on social media. So the DJ played it again.
• 37:12
  He played the song and that's how I got the video of those
• 37:15
  girls dancing at the gas station.
• 37:16
  How did you get that many girls to do all of that?
• 37:19
  That's unbelievable that that many people can do one dance #1.
• 37:23
  So at that gas station, they usually have like a DJ set up
• 37:26
  every year. So a lot of people migrate
• 37:29
  there. And that's that's also where the
• 37:30
  parade starts in that area. So yeah.
• 37:33
  So it's it's a basic, a big gas station party, you can say.
• 37:37
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
• 37:39
  And a lot of them were already there.
• 37:40
  And then he got on the mic and told him that I was there.
• 37:43
  So a lot of them came back and did the dance.
• 37:46
  And then I like a couple of days later, I believe it was.
• 37:50
  I posted it the day before my birthday on February 24th.
• 37:54
  And whenever I posted it on TikTok, the first video didn't
• 37:58
  do as well. It got a little traction but it
• 38:02
  was when I posted the full video like the beginning to end and
• 38:05
  that's the one that like completely blew over and they
• 38:08
  went by on Twitter first before they changed to X and after that
• 38:13
  it was just a trend on TikTok for like 2 months.
• 38:15
  Yep. Yeah, yeah, it was.
• 38:18
  Everybody was doing it all kind. I mean, just anybody and
• 38:21
  everybody all across America, not just here.
• 38:26
  It was everywhere. It's been incredible.
• 38:29
  I mean, it's crazy. It does every when you hear the
• 38:31
  song because I still I they play that song and I hear it just
• 38:36
  around occasionally time to time I'm out.
• 38:39
  So I mean they'll play it. Have you ever just been out
• 38:43
  somewhere or any and then just heard that song without them
• 38:47
  knowing you were there or anything?
• 38:49
  Yeah, actually this past weekend, well, this past
• 38:52
  weekend, yesterday I was with a friend, my friend Zach.
• 38:56
  He's actually another guy that went viral in my videos.
• 38:58
  He has the chicken suit and he's always.
• 39:00
  Jigging, OK, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 39:03
  So he invited me to go to his niece's baseball game, well,
• 39:07
  softball game. And they were playing the song.
• 39:10
  Another team was playing. And I was like, oh, OK.
• 39:12
  I didn't want to surprise them, you know?
• 39:14
  But a lot of them, I still hear it being played, you know, on
• 39:17
  the radio sometimes. They still playing it.
• 39:19
  I remember I was coming from Walmart and they had some people
• 39:23
  playing it in the, so I was trying to pull up close to them
• 39:26
  to tell them hello or something. But I still hear to play it all
• 39:29
  the time, which is great, you know, And I feel like it's one
• 39:32
  of those things. Yeah, it would.
• 39:34
  That that would never get old. That to me, yeah.
• 39:37
  Never get old. That's what I was getting at
• 39:39
  because, you know, it's my name. So I feel like that's going to
• 39:42
  be something that always pops off every year, especially
• 39:44
  during Mardi Gras. Every year, yeah.
• 39:46
  I mean, I think it's just going to be it's going to become one
• 39:50
  of those Mardi Gras theme songs that you always hear.
• 39:53
  Like it's going to go down with with your classic Mardi Gras
• 39:58
  songs. I think Mr. Weatherall is now
• 40:00
  one one of those songs. We'll see.
• 40:03
  Time will tell. But yeah, we'll.
• 40:05
  See, it's, it is so Louisiana sounding.
• 40:09
  It sounds like stuff that used to come out of New Orleans in
• 40:12
  the early 2000s, you know, all of that.
• 40:14
  It's just has the Louisiana vibe.
• 40:18
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:19
  And then and then the dance. How did the dance, though,
• 40:22
  actually come? I know there was a I've seen a
• 40:26
  video that you have the lady. What?
• 40:28
  What's her name? Chantelle, yeah.
• 40:31
  So Chantelle she yeah. So me and Chantelle went to
• 40:35
  Narsad High School together. We graduated in 12,000 and nine.
• 40:38
  Yeah. So that's how I I went to her to
• 40:41
  actually she would like to make a dance for me.
• 40:44
  And she got it in the I think she got in the studio, she came
• 40:48
  up with the dance and then heard her niece did the dance and sent
• 40:51
  me a video. And I was like, yeah, this is
• 40:52
  cool. And then from there I posted the
• 40:55
  video to let everybody know this is the official Mr. Weather All
• 40:57
  dance. Learn it, tag me.
• 41:00
  New videos and just go from there.
• 41:02
  But Chantelle is a great dancer and she's an author too.
• 41:06
  So she's very, you know, that she I felt like she was like the
• 41:09
  perfect person to do this. You know, this is just right up
• 41:11
  her alley and it's definitely open a lot of doors for her.
• 41:15
  She did something for artist named Rob 49 out of New Orleans.
• 41:20
  So it's been a blessing for her as well, you know.
• 41:24
  That's awesome. That's the way that's those are
• 41:26
  the stories you love to hear that how it how it works out and
• 41:30
  it there's a lot of good people involved in your story.
• 41:33
  It's not like this is just some kind of fly by night set up to
• 41:38
  go viral. And then, you know, y'all are
• 41:40
  all bad people. Like what you see is what you
• 41:42
  get, which I think is what resonates with people too.
• 41:46
  People people can recognize that when it's authentic, you know,
• 41:50
  and that's what y'all are providing.
• 41:52
  Everything that y'all provide is authentic.
• 41:54
  Louisiana baby. Like just period, point blank.
• 41:58
  Period. It is and that's and that's the
• 41:59
  thing too, like with me and Gerald do like we try not to be
• 42:04
  unauthentically ourselves. Like he's that's just Gerald.
• 42:07
  Like when you see his videos, that's him.
• 42:09
  Anytime you'll see him outside of those videos, you know,
• 42:11
  that's just who he is, you know, and people can see that in the
• 42:14
  video. They can recognize that that's
• 42:16
  why people relate to him and they love him as well as like
• 42:19
  with my videos, like I don't if I, if I don't ever go viral
• 42:22
  again, I'm still going to be a videographer at the end of the
• 42:25
  day. I'm still going to do what I do
• 42:26
  and I still, I'm going to enjoy, you know, because before I even
• 42:29
  got on TikTok, I was at that point, I was doing it for like
• 42:32
  10 years, you know, and I was just doing it for fun.
• 42:35
  So. Right.
• 42:36
  You know, yeah, yeah. So I mean.
• 42:38
  You're in the game, you're not leaving it.
• 42:41
  Yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 42:42
  It's just social media changed everything, which is great, you
• 42:44
  know, but I was doing this for so long, you know, it was just
• 42:47
  something that I always did with the crew that I ride with.
• 42:49
  CUDA Krunk. Shout out to Lance Ruffins,
• 42:52
  that's who I ride with for Mardi Gras.
• 42:55
  And he's definitely the part in the success that I've had as
• 42:59
  well with my videos because I'm always on his float when I'm
• 43:02
  recording those parades as well. So it's.
• 43:05
  You've got a good vantage point. Oh yeah, yes, I love it.
• 43:10
  Yeah, I was going to ask, how does that happen?
• 43:12
  So you had that because you have all this footage.
• 43:14
  It's obviously from a from a standpoint of, you know, the
• 43:17
  focal points being on a float. I was that answered that.
• 43:21
  I was, I was wondering how you did that or if you just had a a
• 43:25
  lot of fleet of people that you knew that you could just hop
• 43:28
  from float to float, which at this point probably is the
• 43:32
  truth. You probably can do that.
• 43:35
  Yeah, yeah, in the beginning days, probably not too much, but
• 43:38
  with Lance, I've been riding with him since 2013.
• 43:42
  So that started. A friend recommended him to me
• 43:46
  and then we I started riding with him.
• 43:48
  I said, let me just take some pictures and video for your
• 43:50
  float and in exchange without, without having me to pay a fee
• 43:54
  to get on the float. And he said, OK, that's fine.
• 43:57
  And then we just stay connected all those years later, you know,
• 44:00
  still to this day. So most of the time I'm usually
• 44:03
  in the front of the float at the bottom, or I'm in the back of
• 44:07
  the truck that's pulling the float.
• 44:09
  That makes sense to get, yeah, getting that good.
• 44:13
  Yeah, I love getting like the eye level content, you know, I
• 44:16
  don't want to get too high on the float, I want to get eye
• 44:18
  level. Well, I think that's why one of
• 44:20
  the things that makes your videos pop so much as you are
• 44:23
  kind of your, your eye level and it's you're not looking down,
• 44:27
  you're looking. That totally makes sense.
• 44:30
  I see exactly what you're doing now.
• 44:32
  I get it. That makes makes total sense.
• 44:35
  Well, let's, I want to, I want to ask one last question, then
• 44:39
  we'll jump into the the final little segment.
• 44:42
  What advice would you give to someone that was going to try to
• 44:45
  start getting into the content game right now in 2025?
• 44:52
  Right now, I was just telling like what we did, we that helped
• 44:56
  us, you know, just post consistently on, on social
• 44:59
  media. You know, it's, it's a lot of
• 45:01
  work, but it's definitely going to be worth it.
• 45:04
  You know, repurpose any video. You know, I know a lot of people
• 45:07
  shoot content all the time on their phone and they don't do
• 45:10
  anything with it. So that's what I did.
• 45:12
  I just shared a lot of content that I never put out on social
• 45:15
  media before. And that's what helped, you
• 45:17
  know, build up my TikTok page. So definitely staying
• 45:20
  consistent, repurposing content and engaging with other
• 45:25
  platforms, collaborations, you know, that helps too as well.
• 45:28
  So just that's the main thing still just staying consistent
• 45:32
  with posting and just don't feel like you need to give up because
• 45:35
  I need to tell myself that sometimes too.
• 45:37
  You know, there's times whenever I post something and it doesn't
• 45:40
  do well and then I delete it and I get discouraged.
• 45:42
  But I'm like Gerald tells me, you know, John, you have to keep
• 45:45
  posting. Don't delete it.
• 45:46
  Just keep posting. Don't worry about.
• 45:48
  It. Yeah, so that's that's really
• 45:50
  where it is. I know they they have a lot of
• 45:52
  videos that pop up on TikTok still to this day on my feed
• 45:55
  that tells me, you know, keep posting the content, just post,
• 45:58
  just post. But it does help.
• 46:01
  Yeah, Yeah, it does. And I'm sure.
• 46:03
  I mean, you said it's been a month since you posted
• 46:06
  something. And I guarantee you every day
• 46:08
  you still have thousands and thousands of views on the videos
• 46:12
  that you've already put out on your page.
• 46:15
  Yeah, not even doing anything. Right.
• 46:17
  Yeah, The last video I posted I believe was May 18 or May 12th.
• 46:21
  It's one of those dates, but there's sometimes when I'm just
• 46:25
  like, I just don't want to post anything, you know, right?
• 46:27
  Yeah, I get it. And I guess that's just a
• 46:30
  creative side in me because I just don't want to, at the end
• 46:33
  of the day, I still feel like I'm a videographer creative, so
• 46:37
  I don't want to just put out anything, you know?
• 46:39
  I just want to put out my best work.
• 46:40
  But I know some people just want to post content, which is great
• 46:43
  too. But that's just a creative side
• 46:45
  in me, you know? Totally.
• 46:47
  I get that. That's kind of what we've done
• 46:49
  over here on the show as I've slowed down doing as many shows,
• 46:53
  more quality over quantity. And yeah, I've been having to
• 46:58
  rewire the habits that I've gotten and of like just in my
• 47:03
  own mentally, I'm like, I have to post something every day.
• 47:06
  I've got to put a video out every day or something to try to
• 47:09
  gain traction. And then I have moments like I'm
• 47:11
  having now you know, where I'm like, you know what 1 video will
• 47:16
  do what 25 crappy videos? I don't.
• 47:21
  I don't think anything I ever put out is crappy.
• 47:23
  It's just not. It's just not something that's
• 47:27
  going to go viral. Just most videos will not go
• 47:30
  viral. Like pretty much every video you
• 47:32
  post is not going to go viral. So if you just don't know when
• 47:37
  it will, like I had one that had over 1,000,000 views, I think is
• 47:41
  the most I've ever had. And it was just a freaking time
• 47:44
  lapse of the snowstorm. I put a GoPro out.
• 47:48
  Oh yeah. And I'm, yeah, I've never even
• 47:50
  done a time lapse. I just was testing it.
• 47:53
  It turned out fantastic because I got the whole snow, all of it
• 47:56
  from when it started to the thickest of it to it all.
• 48:00
  I decided to keep it going for three days so I could get it all
• 48:04
  melting too. But that video, you know, yeah,
• 48:09
  go check. You may like it.
• 48:11
  It's it's still up there. But that was just press record,
• 48:17
  you know, I mean, I just press record and and post it.
• 48:21
  Don't be afraid to post it. I mean, what's the worst thing
• 48:23
  that somebody can do? Anybody who says anything bad or
• 48:27
  negative towards you, that's just a projection of what they
• 48:30
  feel inside. Don't let it bother you.
• 48:33
  I've I got to wear that. I don't even, that doesn't even
• 48:36
  bother me. You know, I get taught all the
• 48:39
  time, people with my accent and all.
• 48:42
  Well, you're not really from Louisiana.
• 48:44
  Like, no, I am. I'm just from north Louisiana.
• 48:46
  I live in Baton Rouge. You should have heard the way I
• 48:49
  talked 20 years ago. You know, so how you talk about
• 48:53
  I talk fast compared to what I used to do.
• 48:57
  So yeah, that's the, I'm glad you.
• 49:00
  Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up too.
• 49:01
  Because that's another thing anyone that's trying to get on
• 49:04
  social media as well in 2025, like just don't let those
• 49:07
  comments get to you because there's a lot of times I would
• 49:11
  let, I used to let it get to me really bad and I would just go
• 49:13
  through each comment section. But I just post and just forget
• 49:17
  about it, you know? I feel like that's the best way
• 49:20
  to do it, you know, but definitely don't let those
• 49:23
  comments or negative feedback get to you because I've had that
• 49:26
  many times, even before TikTok, you know, because I, my first
• 49:30
  viral video was like 2013. So I've been, you know,
• 49:33
  thankfully I've been having those moments where I can go
• 49:35
  viral for years, But it's just, I just try to, you know, push
• 49:40
  that out, you know, that all that negativity is just not
• 49:42
  good. Yeah, no doubt.
• 49:45
  No doubt. I lost your video.
• 49:48
  Oh. OK.
• 49:50
  There you go, now you're back. Should I say that apart again or
• 49:53
  we're good? I think we're good.
• 49:56
  I think we're good. OK.
• 49:57
  Yeah. I don't know.
• 49:58
  Say it again. OK.
• 49:59
  Yeah, I'll say it. Say it again.
• 50:01
  If you could say it again. I can't.
• 50:04
  I got you. So yeah, like you mentioned
• 50:06
  earlier about what people should, you know, think about if
• 50:09
  they want to get on social media in 2025.
• 50:12
  Just don't let negative comments and feedback and messages that
• 50:15
  you receive dictate like the type of content that you want to
• 50:18
  put out just to dictate what kind of person you are.
• 50:21
  Because they're going to get that as as as much as you're
• 50:24
  going to elevate on social media.
• 50:26
  They're going to get so much negative feedback from people
• 50:28
  that's just, you know, basically miserable, you know?
• 50:31
  So just don't let stuff like that get to you because I know
• 50:34
  it used to get to me a lot, but I just have to black it out.
• 50:37
  So I just post my content and if I do respond it'll be to
• 50:42
  positive content, I mean positive feedback or whatever,
• 50:45
  but I just try not to let that dictate the type of person I am
• 50:49
  or what kind of content I want to put out.
• 50:51
  Yeah, like Coach O says, block out the noise, block it out,
• 50:55
  block out the noise. Exactly.
• 50:58
  For sure. Well, Speaking of Coach O, let's
• 51:01
  transition over. This is one of my favorite parts
• 51:04
  of the show that we've started to do with all of these
• 51:07
  interviews. It's Louisiana rapid fire.
• 51:11
  So I'm just going to give you a question.
• 51:14
  You just give me your answer. I'm going to shut up and not
• 51:18
  talk through this, but nothing crazy, nothing.
• 51:22
  No putting you on the spot, but just maybe a little Louisiana
• 51:27
  putting you on the spot. We'll see.
• 51:28
  All right, best king cake flavor go.
• 51:33
  I'm a I'm a plain guy. Plain all the way, yeah.
• 51:38
  Plain, totally just cream or any any icing.
• 51:41
  Just the basic. Just a basic king cake
• 51:44
  basically. Basically not cream.
• 51:46
  Filled or any of that. No, not at all.
• 51:49
  No. And you have had a King Cake
• 51:53
  festival, right? Yes.
• 51:55
  You have the festival like in February or whenever March
• 51:58
  somewhere in there, yes. I wanted to.
• 51:59
  Come, but I wasn't able to tell us.
• 52:02
  About that real quick. Yeah.
• 52:04
  So coming next time. Yes, please do, please do.
• 52:07
  But no, that was the first annual King Cake Party.
• 52:10
  It was February 28, a couple of days after my birthday, so it
• 52:13
  was like my birthday celebration also.
• 52:15
  OK, so the good big shout out to my sponsor, the Apothecary Shop
• 52:21
  and Blair of a Dream and Social Entertainment.
• 52:24
  They held the the King Cake Party for me and it was a great
• 52:28
  turn out. I will be honest, I was kind of
• 52:29
  nervous because I wasn't sure who's going to show up, you
• 52:32
  know, because I mean, again, I'm not in front of the camera.
• 52:34
  A lot of people don't know me personally on that personal
• 52:36
  level because I know that plays a part of social media too, if
• 52:39
  you have like that connection with people.
• 52:42
  But thankfully a lot of people did show up, which is great, you
• 52:45
  know, So it was it was a great success.
• 52:48
  And I believe they're going to want to do it bigger for next
• 52:51
  year. So we'll have more details when
• 52:54
  that comes comes about. I can't wait and I can't wait.
• 52:57
  We'll help. We will definitely help you
• 52:59
  promote that over here on our stuff too.
• 53:02
  So because we have a lot of a lot of my audience is not from
• 53:06
  Louisiana, which is what makes this show fun and interesting.
• 53:09
  So it's it's, you know, it's getting outsiders points of view
• 53:14
  and some, hey, some of these folks that are fans of our show,
• 53:17
  they may come down here and come to it.
• 53:20
  I mean they, you know, that would be fun.
• 53:24
  Yeah, and that's the biggest thing, too.
• 53:25
  Like what I do, I always wanted to make sure that I put my
• 53:29
  hometown, Lafayette and the surrounding areas in the
• 53:32
  spotlight because it's always, you know, New Orleans in the
• 53:35
  spotlight, which is great. You know, Orleans is amazing.
• 53:38
  But it's just I always felt Lafayette got overshadowed
• 53:42
  because I was, I used to watch the Travel Channel growing up
• 53:44
  and I would always see New Orleans on there.
• 53:47
  And I'm like, where's Lafayette? Where's Lafayette?
• 53:49
  So that's why I do it so much for this area.
• 53:52
  So yeah, anybody that's watching definitely come out to
• 53:55
  Lafayette. We have a lot of festivals in
• 53:57
  this area. Of course, Mardi Gras is an
• 53:59
  experience in itself, so it's cool.
• 54:03
  I mean this, this isn't on my little list of questions and I
• 54:06
  think I know the answer to this. OK, Best Food City in the state
• 54:11
  of Louisiana. Oh, Lafayette.
• 54:14
  It ain't even close. I agree 100%.
• 54:17
  Yes, I really do, man. I mean, it's two different
• 54:20
  things. Fine dining if you're in New
• 54:22
  Orleans, for sure. If you're going to that level,
• 54:27
  New Orleans gets the nod. But just food, period.
• 54:30
  Anything that you eat, Yeah. Lafayette, hands down.
• 54:34
  Lafayette area for sure. The 337 base is pretty much the
• 54:38
  whole. 337. Yeah, I agree.
• 54:39
  Yeah. I totally.
• 54:41
  That's the there's a lot of people that feel that don't feel
• 54:44
  the same way, but that's. Well, they're wrong.
• 54:47
  They're just wrong. Oh yeah.
• 54:49
  For sure. All right, Dust or no dust on
• 54:54
  your crawfish. I'm dust.
• 54:57
  You're a duster. OK, I love it.
• 54:59
  I find that there are more dusters in the Lafayette area
• 55:02
  than there are in other places around the state.
• 55:06
  I don't know why And. That's just the way.
• 55:08
  Yeah. And like, growing up as a kid,
• 55:10
  that's how I've always eaten the crawfish.
• 55:12
  You know, I would always see my family dust the crawfish and
• 55:15
  they would season the water too. So it's just, it just gives that
• 55:18
  extra flavor when it's a little. Extra kick.
• 55:21
  Yeah, for sure. I'm not a hater.
• 55:23
  I'm look, I'm not a hater. Either way, I prefer them not
• 55:26
  dusted. But if we got them dusted and
• 55:29
  they're good, and I've had plenty that were dusted and they
• 55:32
  were fantastic. So yeah, I don't think there's a
• 55:36
  wrong answer, but the Internet disagrees.
• 55:39
  Oh yeah, that's a whole another story.
• 55:41
  Yes, it is. Yes, it is, as is this one
• 55:45
  jambalaya or pastelaya? Oh, jambalaya.
• 55:50
  Same, I'm the same man. Give me the give me rice.
• 55:54
  We're state that produces rice, not pasta.
• 55:58
  Give me rice and every. Time I say Pastelaya, I think of
• 56:02
  my friend DJ Red. Yes, yes, yes.
• 56:07
  He is not a fan of the Pastelaya at all.
• 56:11
  No no. And our friend the Cajun Ninja?
• 56:14
  Huge fan of the Pastelaya. Really.
• 56:18
  OK, it's always fun. It's fun watching those 2GO at
• 56:21
  it on social media all the time. Pastelaya and jambalaya.
• 56:25
  It's a never ending debate. This will never be settled, but
• 56:28
  we'll talk about it forever like it's just something fun.
• 56:33
  I do. Another controversial Louisiana
• 56:36
  take gumbo, with or without potato salad.
• 56:44
  I'll have to go with potato salad, and that's only because
• 56:47
  Gerald put me on to that. Beforehand it was without potato
• 56:52
  salad, but now it's definitely with.
• 56:54
  Do you still, do you still use rice?
• 56:56
  Do you still put rice in there and then just add a blop of OK,
• 57:00
  me too. But I have also made gumbo to
• 57:03
  where, you know, we had to cook more rice or whatever, but we
• 57:07
  still have potato salad and I'm like, we don't need any more
• 57:10
  rice. I'll just eat gumbo and with
• 57:12
  potato salad it'd be just fine. Enough right there, yeah.
• 57:15
  It is. It is another good one for
• 57:20
  Louisiana and especially in Acadiana in the 337.
• 57:25
  What is the best gas station snack?
• 57:30
  Oh, that's the thing. Like when I go to gas station,
• 57:35
  I'm usually just getting crackling.
• 57:37
  That's that's my snack when I go to a gas station that has
• 57:40
  crackling. But I don't really go to the gas
• 57:42
  stations often, that's the thing.
• 57:45
  Well, it's probably best that you don't because it's just,
• 57:47
  it's just, you're just asking for it.
• 57:50
  Yeah, they. Well, what do you what do you
• 57:52
  prefer? Chicken cracklins or regular
• 57:54
  regular pork cracklins? Oh, regular pork cracklins for
• 57:57
  sure. Are you?
• 57:58
  Do you like chicken cracklins at all?
• 58:00
  Because sometimes don't. I love them.
• 58:03
  Oh yeah, I definitely do. Not everyone you know, does it
• 58:06
  the right way. No offense to anyone, but it's
• 58:09
  just I do. I do love chicken cracklins as
• 58:11
  well. They've turned, there's so many
• 58:14
  of these places that are making them now that it's almost like
• 58:17
  you're just getting a chicken tender.
• 58:19
  Like it, it used to just be the skin and it was crispy and it
• 58:24
  had the same stuff that was that was on the on the pork
• 58:27
  cracklins. But now it's almost like you're
• 58:30
  getting a little piece of chicken with it along with it,
• 58:33
  or like the end of a. It's weird.
• 58:37
  Yeah, I feel like the first time I had it was at a place called
• 58:41
  Kirk's You Need a Butcher in Lafayette.
• 58:43
  That was the my first experience with chicken crackling, and I
• 58:46
  don't know if he was the first one in the area that started
• 58:49
  that, but that's my favorite. Kirk's You Need a butcher's
• 58:53
  chicken crackling for sure. Yeah, there you go.
• 58:55
  I need to try those. Yeah, I need to try that.
• 58:59
  Couple more questions for you. One soundtrack for the day.
• 59:04
  What kind of music are you bumping?
• 59:07
  But 90s R&B, nice, yes, but I'm also surprisingly, I do listen
• 59:13
  to 90's pop too, so that's another, yeah, that's another
• 59:17
  genre I love to. I love that, I love that.
• 59:22
  What's the most random place that you have been recognized?
• 59:29
  Random place I've been recognized.
• 59:34
  Oh, I was going to the Beyoncé concert 2 years ago, the
• 59:40
  Renaissance concert in New Orleans, and a security guard
• 59:43
  recognized me. I was like, wow, OK, I mean, I
• 59:47
  know it's still in Louisiana, but it's just, it was just
• 59:49
  random. He just caught me off guard.
• 59:51
  Oh, that was gets me off guard too.
• 59:53
  That's why, yeah. So that was pretty.
• 59:55
  That was pretty cool, you know? Hell yeah I love that last one
• 1:00:01
  for you. If TikTok gets deleted tomorrow,
• 1:00:04
  what's your next move? YouTube, that's going to be the
• 1:00:08
  next yeah, YouTube. And that's what I started off
• 1:00:11
  with. Like back in my high school
• 1:00:13
  years, it was YouTube. That was the first social media
• 1:00:16
  platform I really started on. But I just never stuck with it.
• 1:00:21
  But definitely YouTube. I feel like that's the the way
• 1:00:24
  to go if anything were to happen to TikTok, you know?
• 1:00:27
  Yeah, it's just a lot slower to grow over there, isn't it?
• 1:00:31
  Oh yeah, I'm learning that now. It's like.
• 1:00:34
  Pulling teeth. It is like, I mean, I think I
• 1:00:38
  have I have like 2000 subscribers, but I haven't been
• 1:00:41
  posting on there as often either.
• 1:00:43
  But I mean, I hope that I can eventually, you know, build it
• 1:00:46
  up, but it's a different audience for sure and algorithm.
• 1:00:49
  So I just got to put. A little more.
• 1:00:51
  Work into the my content, but eventually I'm sure they'll get
• 1:00:54
  there. Oh, you'll get there.
• 1:00:56
  I have no doubt. I have no doubt.
• 1:00:59
  Well, man, I appreciate you making the time for us today and
• 1:01:03
  it means a lot. Really do appreciate you coming
• 1:01:06
  on you definitely you're you're definitely doing something
• 1:01:10
  special by putting putting a spotlight on Louisiana on the
• 1:01:14
  culture, on the people and the the energy.
• 1:01:18
  It's just cool to see that the see that the whole world's
• 1:01:21
  finally starting to kind of catch on to that too.
• 1:01:24
  But before we get out of here, tell folks where they can find
• 1:01:28
  you and anything big coming up that we should be on the lookout
• 1:01:33
  for. Yeah, so I'm on Instagram,
• 1:01:37
  Facebook and TikTok under Mr. Weatherall and YouTube as well
• 1:01:42
  under Mr. Weatherall. And also make sure y'all follow
• 1:01:45
  my friend Gerald is at Gerald Groenig on all social media
• 1:01:49
  platforms as well. And I think that's, yeah, I
• 1:01:54
  think that's everything that I have as far as like to where to
• 1:01:56
  follow me at. And then as far as big news,
• 1:02:01
  that's just people on the lookout for the like for the
• 1:02:04
  fall. There's some things that I'm
• 1:02:07
  going to be working on, especially for Mardi Gras 2022.
• 1:02:10
  I'm sorry, stumbling on my words.
• 1:02:12
  So Mardi Gras 2026, I might have some things that I'm like I've
• 1:02:16
  been wanting to put into action, like as far as like some ideas
• 1:02:19
  that I have in mind just to change up the way I shoot
• 1:02:21
  content. So I'm definitely looking
• 1:02:23
  forward to pushing that out for next year.
• 1:02:26
  Well, it sounds like we're going to have to have you come back on
• 1:02:29
  and tell us a little bit more later on this year about what's
• 1:02:33
  going to be happening. That would be fun.
• 1:02:36
  That'll be cool. Perfect.
• 1:02:37
  We will do that. We'll do that.
• 1:02:39
  We'll well that's going to do it for this one everybody again, a
• 1:02:42
  huge thanks to Mr. Weatherall. Y'all go follow him stream that
• 1:02:47
  song go dance to that song. Hey, make a video dance to it
• 1:02:51
  send it to us. Let's let's see what happened
• 1:02:53
  let's see what you got let's see what you got hit a replay on
• 1:02:56
  that King Cake Festival footage because that's good.
• 1:02:58
  You're going to want to see that.
• 1:03:00
  Until then, we'll we'll see y'all next time.