Now that comic and entertainment conventions are back, Jeff and Bryan talk about "going the extra mile" to promote their podcast by attending the Fan EXPO convention in Philadelphia wearing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy themed cosplay.
This has been a Froods for Thought production.
Now that comic and entertainment conventions are back, Jeff and Bryan talk about "going the extra mile" to promote their podcast by attending the Fan EXPO convention in Philadelphia wearing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy themed cosplay.
This has been a Froods for Thought production.
Hey, Jeff, How are you I'm doing great Brian how are you I'm feeling validated the gold package tickets that we bought for the June 2020 Wizard World convention were converted into Fan Expo VIP tickets and were finally used in the April of 2022 wow a long time it was a long time the VIP experience gets you some free swag which included a couple of comic books a t-shirt a Disney shorts vinyl collectible a VIP lanyard for your special VIP badge and a large tote bag to carry it all in God also gave you access to the VIP Suite which aside from its was basically for your bags and usually empty a room with some tables yes when I when I went back a couple times I saw a couple of people in there you know resting their head on the table or even having a meal yeah taking a nap or something but you're right outside of the men so I'm not sure what the VIP tent was four there another not know what it is something they called a virtual concierge yes never figured that one out did we know no we didn't and it was part of the VIP package we have no idea what it was the big benefit of being a VIP though is that you could jump right to the front of the line for autographs which eliminated all the tedious chatting relaxing and making friends that people were previously voice to do while waiting for autographs yes absolutely but we did manage to do that as well so you know we have it all in because even though we were at the front of the line we still had to wait for a really long time for mr. Shatner that was the longest wait wasn't the first thing we did obviously but it won't the longest wait that we have over there Yeah Yeah Yeahs premium is $120 and is about what we paid for our gold package tickets to Wizard World the virtual concierge the lounge some extra swag bigger discount coupons at the fan store and the line jumping are the only upgrades over premium and I will say the line jumping is fantastic but that is a lot to pay for line jumping yeah it is and well at least especially from our experience we were never in a line except for Shatner which we'll talk about it like I'm sure but we were never in a line that seem to have more than 10 or 11 people in it at the time so it wasn't as if we couldn't find a time where we could have stood there for a few minutes I got in you know got our signatures but the line jumping did allow us to jump in front of those 10 or 11 people there was nobody that we were looking for autographs from that had any kind of a serious line there may have been some I didn't pay that much attention to the other lines for the other celebrities because I didn't have to stand in those lines right right you weren't even intending to stand in the shopping or line cuz you've already gotten a signature from Shatner so you were just standing there just to hang out with me so you know that so that other upgrade other than the line jumping is the VIP Suite which was not convenient in my opinion it was by all the panel homes it was not near the show floor and my thought was that if it was on the show floor near the food service area the VIPs could get their food and then have large uncrowded tables to go sit at and look at all the other people standing elbow-to-elbow at these little cafe table things it would also make the sweet more visible to the non VIPs who made as a benefit and sell more VIP tickets defense of the Fan Expo people I do want to say there might have been some constraints based on the physical space that they had to work with because if I think about it logically their panels were all downstairs in small rooms and the the general Hall upstairs was really like a giant open space now they did create a a mainstay Go space they had to work with because if I think about it logically their panels were all downstairs in small rooms and the the general Hall upstairs was really like a giant open space now they did create a a main stage up there with chairs and and curtain walls and they probably could have done that with the VIP space which to me as you say would have been a better better way to lay that out but they literally had the whole building and they were trying to utilize I think the whole building but so I do want to defend them in a tiny way it seemed like logistically that was the best space for them to use to create these VIP rooms the email the survey to me did you get their survey I don't recall but I may have just missed it we're just deleted it about filling out a survey so I decided to fill out a survey and in there they ask for different statements so I put about the inconvenience of the VIP lounge and I feel make any changes and filling out an online you know what do you think thing reminds me of my post office story I have told this story to many different people I don't know if I've ever told it to you but it's one of my favorite stories and I'm going to tell it here all right I've been with you and I've gone to the post office but I don't think I've got been with you when you've just told me this post office story all right header portrait we just stored all of our boxes my wife had ordered a package from somebody I don't remember what it was but that empty box was on the porch and it was about the size that I needed to ship whatever I was going to ship so I grabbed the box and when I looked at it the box was a plain brown paper box that was shipped UPS cut the inside of the box was the bright shiny printed US Post Office priority mail so with these people did was they went to the post office they grabbed all the free boxes because you could just grab these free boxes turn them inside-out and shipped UPS and I thought I'm paying a Whopper postage because these people want to steal boxes so I got on the US post office site and I was going to send them what I experienced and I found some sort of send comment type of thing here so I sat down and I told them this story and at the end I said you don't have to make it nice but if I'm the inside of the Box you would have Priority Mail printed everywhere then people would be discouraged from stealing boxes and turning them inside out cuz it would still say priority mail in but he would know where that box came from and I sent it off and I think immediately I got one of those we've received your comment thank you bubba Bob were very busy blah blah blah typing all right then I thought nothing of it a little while later I don't know how long it was I received an email back from the post office I did not save this email and I wish I had but I didn't but it was the single most condescending insulting email I have ever received that basically said leave the decision making to the adults that is the overall impression that I got from this email and I was like well heck with you that I mean I'm trying to help you guys and you're going to send me this this email so I'm light and I put it out of my head and that was the end of the story 6/8 months later I don't know how long it was I going to the post office cuz I needed a priority box and lo and behold the inside of the priority boxes are all printed with priority mail and I'm home did this guy just insult me and then tell somebody my idea and get some huge bonus for clever thinking I don't know absolutely you know that happened well actually I am confused For the post office to make any type of change how to expand your network name you're right you're right 6 or 8 months it's going to happen that fast but didn't not upset me any less because I know that it was all they had to say was an email that said we'll pass it on that would have been fine break okay great and then I saw 6 months later and I have been proud of myself or we've already have this in the works or discussing it or we are aware of this problem but it wasn't I I wish I saved the email because I couldn't believe what they were telling me when all I was trying to do was help them but now about the convention experience no longer about the post office oh there you go everybody loves your about the post office. First day Friday we decided to wear our podcast t-shirts so we had t-shirts made up to advertise our podcast so hopefully they catch people's eyes and we could pass out business cards and get more listeners the floor opens at 10 p.m. however Opening Ceremonies is at 1:30 put the premium and VIP ticket holders are able to access the show floor early at 2 p.m. basically the dealer guest stars are celebrities or anything but it's a great way to quickly run through the whole floor and see everything without fighting a crowd right so we were walking into the show and like immediately somebody's like pointing at us and going a cool shirts by one of the staff members that was sitting there and you always attributed that to you having of course if you're graphic shirts well yeah I'm sure I haven't told him about you know the story cuz you've actually witnessed it but and then people don't believe me when I tell the story because they haven't been there or seen it but my wife will trip it's true and I know that you've had it happen. I've had it happen to be in your presence but for some particular reason if I happen to be wearing a graphic t-shirt and say it's got guitars on it or a motorcycle on it or whatever people will stop and start talking to me about my t-shirt and just start a conversation right in the middle of go I've got a Gibson guitar is like that nobody actually believes that people don't do that but they do that people will do that so I frequently will try to avoid any graphic t-shirt because I know that it has that effect on the general public of course I also consider that there are people in the world that have what has been colloquially referred to as a resting Beach face I'm not talking about female or male here I'm talking about the fact that that they have a face that people look at and then immediately want to avoid so I am blessed with the opposite I have a face or my eyes smile whatever that I invite people in and it's it's it's very comment it and you've seen yes correct and and I have the opposite face I don't know if I have resting Beach face but I have a keep away from me face yes yes which is which is odd cuz it doesn't seem like it's in your nature but I do know that that's the way people react so what will that's what the funny that means we're not talking about the costumes or get to that for the next day but at that point we're just wearing graphic t-shirts and I've had that experience before that was our first experience at the at the convention so I marked that up as a success right away I thought that was fantastic because people got the shirt somebody did anyway and they commented about it has began panel started and some but not all actually very few with a celebrity started arriving for their autographs and photo-ops are we decided to get the autographs we could on Friday the first day to get that out of the way but since they were call Vera at the strike of 4 we decided to check out a panel 1st and 1st panel we went to was called best of the worst and that's where they discussed what a bad movie really was right but not just a bad movie but but an enjoyable Copy exactly it was hosted by the gentleman artist who is most famous for his depiction of Charlie the tuna and his name is Joe Joe Wast fascinating character we interacted with him a number of times during the convention which we'll talk about it was funny we sat down and he started talking about what makes a bad movie being a movie that you can watch and enjoy because of its Badness and what makes just a regular movie I Didn't I wish I had taken down his actual list what do you remember the list one of them was it had to be a musical yes that's the funny thing is that's what I remember the most He also mentioned it has to have known actors not necessarily stars but people people know that was another one and bad acting I remember he did say that but I can't remember there's almost a list of like 10 different things that for him qualified a bad movie as a bad movie do you remember any of the others any of the other qualities that make 2 because it was pretty funny when he was taking them off it was so like obvious like yep yep I think there was also really are trying to make this great iconic piece of film but they just make it confusing and it's understandable. Yes he did mention that that that was the other one trip that the plot was in decipherable yes feeling that they think this is Academy award-nominated gold absolutely so now we can get you a couple of the movies that he put on the list the room is the quintessential bad movie I've got the return of Captain invisible I've never seen it I haven't seen ever seen tiptoes the Apple I've not seen the Apple zardoz I've seen the last movie ever made by May well have not seen it the only movie that he mentioned that I actually had seen was Plan 9 from Outer Space Plan 9 from Outer Space yes one of those will be right in the only reason I seen that one is cuz a friend of mine is real big fan of Svengoolie and so he recommended that I started watching that and I'd seen that particular film on Svengoolie film I promised my friend the other day that I would seek out a sextet and then he and I would be able to sit down and watch a couple of really bad movies together hope you find it let me know where you found it because I've been looking for that one as well after the first panel we hit the autograph area and I got autographs from John de Lancie who plays on Star Trek next Generation and Jonathan Frakes who is number one also from the Next Generation and Jonathan asked if he was curious about the shirt and I don't remember his first comment we then started talking about the origin of the shirt he did know the reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy what I thought was funny as with the badge lanyards and your bag shoulder strap and shirt folds reading the whole shirt can be difficult and so he was reading like very plainly and he just said that and then you select any pause and you look and then goes are a pretty name like if you got that far and it didn't click in you're not that familiar with the reference but after we told him what it was mentioned hitchhikers then it all came back and he gave us a reason he didn't remember right so he only mentioned to him that it was from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and then he said oh I remember the book I was in college at the time and then I said to him well when word what years were those and he said 1970 for 1978 the round there and he said I was back in Penn State doing LSD at the time clearly a joke clear least one hundred percent he was just kidding oh yeah I think it just kidding was the way I were in for that Oh yeah I think it just kidding was the way I were in for that but it was really funny after getting those autographs from the to John's I cast Jonathan Frakes and bring down an aisle and those were wandering down there to gentleman behind one of the vendors tables and he said I'll of your shirts and he said I've got a special bottle opener coaster thingy I wanted to show you and he have a lot of different wooden crafted coasters in the end and then plakson and things of that nature and we look down and you and we see you see the way all right a wooden coaster with a bowl of Petunias and the whale and the words oh no not again on it and it's kind of cool cuz the coaster of course you can flip over and it's got a bottle opener on the back and Jeff was like well that's a cool idea you know and we spoke with him for a few minutes about that I did think it was funny cuz you actually say oh look the whale and then he said and I said what he said the bowl of Petunias and here we are supposed to be the experts and we can't even get the reference cuz even though we know the spoilers but the anyway so we spent some time talking with him and in the end we were able to I think we gave him a card and he scanned the QR code a picture take a picture of the shirts and asked us whether or not we have them available and jef explain that they were available on our website or his website and then he took a picture of the QR code and then went out there and link to our podcast site we've accomplished everything we've ever set out to do is draw attention to ourselves and to ask to have someone ask us about our podcast and that well that's not the only store perhaps he'll today but it certainly felt like one of the best interactions that we were going to have because we engage with an individual and we got the results of any on information about our podcast yes in a in a nice non forceful way that's right that's right and that was that was just wearing our our podcast t-shirts since we're on that subject I meant can I go ahead and jump ahead and then we can jump back okay so the week after you left here I attended was called the Geeks Fest here in South Jersey when we were in the Philadelphia Convention Center we took a picture I had to take a picture of me in my podcast t-shirts standing in front of background and I posted that on Facebook and immediately after posting that on Facebook I got a couple of comments and one of them was from a high school friend who does woodwork actually scroll work woodcarving I'll say and he asked where we were and explain to her where we were and he said that he was going to be attending or actually a vendor at this Geeks Fest and so don't don't lie resume bring this up is cuz there was only one interaction that related to my shirt because I wore the same shirt to that convention if you keep fresh air podcast right now for my podcaster to geekfest and I walked around the whole place they probably had I don't know there were two rooms full of vendors quite a number of them are actually also in attendance at the next bullet Fest so there were a couple of repeat people near the end of my perusing and going around telling behind the table tournament I have that watch all guys ever since we started this I thought it was a little weird crazy people so why why we I mean we know why we chose the joke that we chose and why we chose what we did about the title of our podcast but I don't know that we could have made it any more complicated so I'm holding up my shirt and you can see me on the video here I'm old enough for you and I said well it's real So I'm holding up my shirt and you can see me on the video here I'm old enough for you and I said well it's really not about to watch all though I have digital watch similar to this and I explained to him that it was about Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and 42 + and then he tried to cheat in and got it that was my other shirt at a convention story my reasoning for acceptance of our podcast and our logo is that anybody who this podcast might be entertaining 2 would get the joke and underneath and it immediately and then you might enjoy cuz we were kind of idiots on the L word like a badass movie coming out but I'm trying to think of that was the first day I don't have any more notes about that they do you yes I do have originally I passed up the coaster bottle opener when he was talking about it he said that at first he just made coast and they were real thin brand when you put wet bottles on wooden coasters they tend to work so he said he was tired of giving refunds and he wanted to make them thicker as long as I'm going to make them this stick was born but I did go back and bought the whale and a great gag on the bottle opener coaster and he said that it was a log and you didn't have time to apply the protective coating so he's going to mail it to me and I said will you sign it and he's like you sure and he signed it and then I saw him numbering it and I asked him if he already had a predetermined number of how many he was going to make it so we turned it so I could see what he was writing and it said 1 /? I thought that was that was perfect yes yes so the second panel that we went to that day was called schedules and that is where three different artists all set up on the dais and sketched ideas from the audience so it was kind of like seeing an improv troupe act out a scene except instead of acting out a scene they would make a sketch paste on suggestions the artist word microphone Jason battler and Ariel Diaz the two different or they're actually three different themes one had to do with fairies and there might have been a setting for the fairies but I don't remember what it was and then there were dragons in the water or something like that because somebody had said that they don't like drawing water and so somebody of course through that out and then one was based on the art of George Perez who is a retired American comic book artist who suffering some serious health problems right now he's most known for The Avengers for Marvel Comics and the new Teen Titans 4 DC right so we so enjoyed this first one that we did at end two more but this was the first of the three that we attended and what we really liked is at the end they raffled off all the original drawing select that was exciting we kept calculating the odds of whether or not we were going to win based on the number of people who were hidden in the number of tickets that's right that's right I mean I really enjoyed mine it was I got the one from Ariel correct yes you got the second drawing from Ariel about the third one you got the third one with the art of George Perez and there's a picture of I want to hear I want to see his characters yes and I got the last one from Mike maccon who drew a portrait of George curette right which I think is really cool so I've got that one frame now and it's going to go up in my office I haven't bought my friend in yet I still have to get out there and buy some but that's where all these images are destined to go to another person that we I haven't bought my frames yet I still have to get out there and buy some but that's where all these images are destined to go to another person on Friday was this artist who had a lot of great black and white sketch drawings all over them flipping through the book and they've got all these characters from all of these properties and anything from Firefly and that's something that I've been working on I'll just tell him my wife I've got to start getting these Firefly things and so I kind of passed it up and reason I asked him about that is I've got a couple of 4 had a couple of blank trading card size White Blank cards that I wanted to have commissioned into custom cards to add to my card collection and I've not known what property that I would want to have done so there's a lot of different things that I collect but they're not necessarily familiar to the current artists but Firefly by pretty-much is so I thought I'm going to ask about Firefly and he didn't have anything to show me so I walked away and as I'm walking away I'm thinking about it and I'm like I like all of his stuff he wants to include it in future sketches that he's coming up with so I said I'm going to go back and see if he's interested in doing it so I brought the cards back yet I showed him the cards I asked him if he'd be interested in doing a couple of gift cards for me from Firefly and he's like all that's kind of funny because I I did those long time ago for a card set so when a firefly Trading Card Set came out or Serenity I do remember which one it was he had done some of the cards for it so I'm like right then I was right you are the perfect guy to do this and so on Friday I gave him the three blanks and I said I want mail and I want a Nara and I want River and he's like all right I'll be here all weekend here is my phone number text me when they're ready so off I went in set play I get this is Ted words your cards are done and I went back and they're beautiful and I am so happy I got them and now I need to get more this is what I wanted so hopefully I'll be able to do another show find another artist and get 3 more Skitch cards from from different artists in to have all right bill out my set but I was very happy with him he did a great job especially if you have more experience a different conventions and I have even but The Fan Expo group seems you've done an excellent job with their artists most all of those artists were willing to do emission work after table and in fact of one of the things we did Nick take advantage of it which I kind of regret at this point when we were talking with Joe the artist does Charlie the tuna we did that on Sunday we talked to him at some length he was offering the opportunity to draw an animal or your favorite animal or something right right and he says that normally travels with his daughter who is also an artist they do commission work there as well so almost every one of the artists that were in Residence at the convention would have been willing to do that as you say the trick was to find an artist in a style and a method that you really like and he did a fantastic job of cars are gorgeous I mean they're very well done it was in the type of drawing style that I was looking for it which is the hardest part right like you said there's no shortage of artists who will do commissions sketch for you but to find and that will do it and admit what you have in your head that's the hardest part right he's certainly did an excellent job so after that we wanted to see if we could learn anything so we caught the end of a Life podcast that was going on there call The Best Little Whorehouse in Philly where they have a guest on and they ask the guests what they say is the best horror movie ever the host automatically agrees and then they discuss why it's the best horror movie ever and then they talked about the Army of Darkness they literally I think talk all the way through the movie every single scene every single purple Pizza And then they talked about the Army of Darkness they literally I think talk all the way through the movie every single scene every single verbal be pretty much and then one of the things that we learned is that doing a podcast live and doing 1 like we are now just over the Internet is quite a different presentation like here we're just having a conversation and and things happen and lots of editing that you can do but when you're doing it live it becomes more of a performance and it was kind of watching a performance versus a conversation and then the after party was in the Marriott in what they call the circle bar I think it was that's when we told her what we were told that it was and was to be an event they are sponsored by The Fan Expo people and of course it was just across the street and we had it over or just across the street and we asked around we found the bar was just through the main set of doors and we looked around and realized where are the people what was the name of the event yeah right to drink & draw and we expected that there would be people there with handing out papers or talking about drawing or something like that but that isn't what happened but what happened next was what happened next was looking for the drinking straw and just decided to drink so we're standing at the bar and a guy walks up and sees my shirt and he asks do you have a podcast and then he tells me that he has a podcast and he's a guy named Sean from a podcast called seen Invaders new stand-up comedy apparently his podcast is pretty successful cuz he starts quoting me statistics about the second most popular independent podcast and then I zoned out because that all means nothing to me there's a commercial that I see that has a character spoofing a ticktocker doing a challenge on the street saying that he has tens of tens of listeners that's what we have so I want to personally thank each and everyone of you who are listening and have listened before and who will continue to listen because you're one of our tens of tens well I have faith in us to be on this podcast as guests and I'm not contacted him but if I ever do I expect him to have no idea who I am I was curious so I just sent it two episodes of his podcast he's not on every episode to find one that he was on and that there was about a subject I was familiar with the first one was about the latest Spider-Man movie and in it I swear he said this or one of them said this they said they wish they'd found someone hotter than Zendaya to play MJ and I was waiting for a laugh like it was a joke but it never came and I'm like hotter than Zendaya that's all that's a tall order but apparently they're not then die a fan the podcast started out like a morning Zoo radio show and I was expecting an owl bells and noisemakers and sound effects but there wasn't any of that and the tone columns way down to just normal conversation very quickly so that whole energy fake stuff that that ended right away so I was happy about that because I don't have that much energy and we ever get invited to that podcast therapy no way I could keep up that level and the second one that I listen to head none of the morning Zoo feeling however, and joke that ran through both episodes had to do with them sticking things up there so I bring that up as a Segway to talk about our Valentine's episode I know that was a conversation that we wanted to have with this particular gentleman he was actually a volunteer with the group that was hosting the Expo right is memory of the event in our own anyway about our Valentine's Day special not-safe-for-work episode I don't want to go into too much detail here Good ideas that I interpreted that we upset or offended somebody so I immediately edit the episode and changed out the episode and I reached out to this person about it it's been 2 months and I've never gotten a response everybody I have talked to including Sean from the bar says to put back the original episode so I have a few listened if you listen to the Valentine's Day episode and do not remember anything about Pop Tarts and you'd remember or anyting extremely offensive you heard the edited version of the original is back up if anyone wants to hear how we offended somebody with Pop-Tarts and that statements a little misleading know we wouldn't do anything this leading finally found the Drawing Group yes we did as you were about to leave us we were on our way out and lo and behold there's a whole group drawing in a side help because the hotel forgot using air quotes to reserve space for that right in there again was our friend from the previous interaction posting the drink & draw Joe was there and he was the main host and there was a couple of other coordinator standing there all very nice people that we interacted with and spoke with Dad and he explained how there was a group of nurses who initially refused to give up their spot in that Alcove and so they were just going to do it around them so he played some loud annoying music and apparently that did the trick because this left cuz I couldn't take it anymore but the drink and drive he would throw out a theme and people would drink & draw and a prize went to what he felt was the winner based on his mood because it didn't have to be no no that was the point it I think he he he referred to as the individual creators creativity not their style or technique is mood I thought our guys so he held the best of the worst panel earlier in the day about the best work movies and Ryan and I had a disagreement and so I asked Joe to be the mediator still do yes we still do so Brian thinks that dish tar is the worst movie ever made and I said it's actually a pretty good movie and Joe didn't totally agree but he cited more in my direction then Brian's so we still disagree but I'm going to watch her again just to make sure it's what I remember it being it's been many many years and I did describe to him that started to Jeff anyway not to go but that I was eager to get my 2 hours back and then I don't think I could possibly force myself to go through it again but I also remember and this is the odd part cuz it's been a long time since I've seen that movie that there was a moment in the movie where the movie jump the shark and for me and we talked about this too cuz it it's happened to you it's happened to everyone we're all the sudden the credulity is just out the window you're like okay I'm done and it just at that moment you have no compassion left for the actors actresses or anything in the film it just it just over and you're sitting there wishing you could go home talk about this then and we didn't bring it up with Joe but the jump the shark moment that kind of tops the the worst movie experience that I remember on a movie that a lot of people say is a great movie is the movie Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock and when that bus jump the Gap I was done no we didn't talk about that no we didn't there were so many things in this movie with us it's t bus doing 90 degree turns and never dropping below 50 miles an hour because the way you would go running 90 degree term would be to slam on the brakes and skidded around the corner not your well I don't know maybe it was you know speed citybus Tokyo Drift in the tires Right around the corner not your well I don't know maybe it was you know speed city bus Tokyo Drift speak it up at 50 Mi longer that movie went on the more I hated and this is the controversy that'll probably haunt me here but I'm going to say it I mean come on it's this an actor or a puppet now tell me you love Keanu Reeves well by saying that you've never seen John Wick or any of the John Wick John Wick you like the John Wick I loved John Wick I would have never expected that he could pull off John Wick but he does the problem is I'll give you a John Wick 3 the fight scenes become a bit repetitive there's only so many super creative ways to break a guy's arm or kill a guy so they they reuse a bunch of them and so I totally like in his Lane he can do what he does but whenever he tries to go outside that box and act like a human being I just can't see it you know I will John Wick is not a human being the way you would expect a human being right right he doesn't have the emotional capacity well you know I'm going to get in trouble there's going to be a hundred people that will say what the heck are you talking about of course tens of tens will be hundred promised well you know what that's what he even sean said that he said that the there a podcast didn't become popular until after their 200th episode and he has a high range you know we may never get 2 episode 200 but it's some point somebody might think I was funny every week I kind of watch the metrics and I'm always surprised when all of a sudden somebody has listen to the first three episodes like after so long of it we are being discovered little by little if you like the show tell a friend if you don't tell an enemy and make them listen the date to Saturday this is the day that we are going to go the extra mile & Go in Cosplay I was the gold a pension captain and Brian was a telephone sanitizer s class I will compare the attendees understanding of my costume to what I heard Bruce Campbell say in an interview when asked if he could just walk down the street it was something like 999 people will walk right past me but the Thousand person will fall down and pee himself so very very few people had any idea what my costume was and some didn't know wanted to know if I was Captain stubing from The Love Boat yeah yeah he's drive yourself to the time as a crazy old man you know carrying a rubber duck one of the things that I thought was the funniest about this whole thing is is as we were discussing earlier I have the open face and you have the more closed if you will so it's in our nature to be the opposite of the way we were dressed that day you were in the costume that was quite open you know it was it was like wide open kind of noticeable my costume I went into the bathroom before we even got to the convention and I saw a guy with you're a liar. I'm a guy in a hoodie with it with a pair of sweatpants on so I mean I wish I mean now that we've the convention is over we had an opportunity to rethink the the the costume and I think that the next iteration of my costume is going to be much better and because it's going to be better I think will be much more recognizable rice okay to give a little bit of a spoiler my intention is to change my costume from up go yoga frensham cell phone sanitizer second-class 2 number two so that that I will be dressed more appropriately A much better and because it's going to be better I think will be much more recognizable to give a little bit of a spoiler my intention is to change my costume from my scroll girlfriend show cell phone sanitizer second-class 2 number two so that that I will be dressed more appropriately for as a he looks more like a ship's Captain definitely like a waiter or if you know someone like that on the ship I'll be wearing the captain ehat in the double-breasted jacket and that kind of thing so it'll look far more like a costume yes and you'll have your Killers am definitely going to play better together because as I was looking up and re-experiencing things I was thinking to myself that the beautiful logo that you designed on the back of my hoodie was really the chief each remove my jacket tomorrow if I costume I should say and if I have been walking around with you back words it might get it exactly so people would come up and asked us to explain cuz they had to they had to figure out what this bathrobe in rubber duck in captain's hat had to do in gin and tonic had to do with anything and some people they knew The Hitchhiker's Guide but they only know the first book and they're not aware of the TV series or the radio show or the second book where that goes characters come from there were a few who figure it out on their own and those were the ones that were most impressed right so if we started off on end this not necessarily in the order that we met them one of the individuals that was like immediately turn. To what the characters were and who they were was a gentleman by the name of Alex he worked locally at the Pennsylvania hospital he's a member of their medical staff I don't recall exactly what he did he was dressed very very well as a Halle Halle Gray medical doctor from the Star Trek series with the H on his forehead which will I thought was brilliant because of course later in the series that they did do that we spoke with him at length he had some insight as to what he thought whether he thought the Wizard Con approach was better than the Fan Expo thing and and all that kind of chatter about the convention but he was impressed with the costumes and we got out our gin and tonics and he took a couple pictures and that was a really fun interaction yeah that was how we talked with a couple of other people who else do you remember how well shortly after that you were going around the corner and I was a little bit behind you with that been you you told me that there was a gentleman standing there with his partner wife weed weeder want to know which buttons and he yells out all go go Friendship Park I get it but I think they just knew immediately get a picture right before cuz obviously I don't think this is the first this is the first time I've gone to a convention wearing a costume right that we gave them a card and we spoke with them for a few minutes and he was very interested in the entire idea of the podcast so hopefully we'll pick up a a listener from from that interaction we also were in the aisle and a vendor stop this and he spoke with us about the costumes he was really impressed go over and ask her picture we had a picture take we took a picture with him my favorite interaction was with the folks that were in the Shatner line September that was Saturday right Saturday afternoon Shatner was at the main stage and both Jeff and I had seen or were aware of the fact that he was supposed to be in Chicago on Sunday Big Star Trek convention in Chicago and I think we spoke about this before that's that's my thing this the Star Trek people are the ones that I enjoy seeing and if it hadn't been for the fact that this convention was scheduled that same weekend or would have more than likely gone to Chicago to be with Jeff there and we would have ended this convention Far without one I did get that but as we were standing in line we met a couple from Mays Landing Mays Landing New Jersey if you're not familiar Store Town they have a Collectibles and museum in Mays Landing called farpoint Toys rows who know the story of the Next Generation all starts with 5.2 that are so they were fans of Shatner and the entire Star Trek right now and they were there in line to get very odd Captain Kirk figurine signed for their collection very bizarre figurine that came out with Captain Kirk into some sort of bike battle armor or something right right so they had sold many of these particular character pieces because they come up quite often because people don't know what they are or why they exist so they decided for their collection their own museum collection they wanted an autographed version so they have mint in box and they were having fun we had a quite an enjoyable conversation with them about hitchhiker's guide and Star Trek then after the signatures which unfortunately for us we have to stand in line for what an hour-and-a-half was it or closer to 2 hours so yeah closer to 2 hours by the time he came back and he did in fact come back and because of our VIP tickets by was first in line and the interaction was very short but Pleasant down from there so we're wandering around the convention and it's getting later in the evening and we're going back and forth and all the sudden we run into the same couple again they came up to us and said you know we've been all over this convention we've seen all these different people in all these different cosplay outfits and we believe that you two are the best I asked if they could if they could get selfies with us in the thinking are you know they could take our pictures and we were so delighted for what they said and they spent with us that we enjoyed having a So they have mint in box and they were having a signed and we had we had a quite an enjoyable conversation with them about hitchhiker's guide and Star Trek then after the signatures which unfortunately for us we had to stand in line for what an hour-and-a-half was it or closer to 2 hours so yeah closer to 2 hours by the time he came back and he did in fact come back because of our VIP tickets by was first in line and the interaction was very short but plug and we moved on from there so we're wandering around the convention and it's getting later in the evening and we're going back and forth and all the sudden we run into the same couple again they came up to us and said you know we've been all over this convention we seen all these different people in all these different cosplay outfits and we believe that you two are the best they asked if they could if they could get selfies with us and if they could are you know they could take our pictures and we were so delighted for what they said and they spent with us that we enjoyed having our pictures taken and I look forward because being a New Jersey South Jersey guy I I will probably have an opportunity just go to their shop and visit them at the shop and pick up some more Star Trek item yes you definitely need to set this they were wondering why as for iconic as a series as hitchhiker's is that it doesn't get more cosplayers and we kind of treated the question is rhetorical back then but my answer would be that it's not current enough and that there are not enough young people reading it for the first time and there are not enough old farts like us interested in dressing up in play because they have a podcast to shamelessly promote shamelessly right in the end even though you were dressed as to The Goldfinch of Captain you wouldn't have agreed to go as the go go French of Captain if you had to wear what he was wearing it that would be either naked or no wearing pair of swim trunks in the bath yeah I wasn't going to carry around a a bath which would have been pretty damn funny just by wearing a bathrobe I think one or two people recognize the bathrobe but we're thinking more along the lines of Arthur because of course that's what he's wearing during TV series you know and it and its colorful and you were wearing this plain white or off-white I did not want it to be confused with Arthur at all and I made sure I got the whitest fluffiest bathrobe that I could as opposed to just like a darker plaid or something dressing out like Arthur would be wearing right and of course you related story to me and we may have talked about it before but where you wore shorts the first time you have the costume on and you felt that that was kind of awkward it was a horribly uncomfortable because of course your world would fall open and I was just trying to enjoy up a panel and I keep having to pull my rope closed because it just following open and if I find needed to get my wallet I didn't want to just whip up with microphone oh gosh oh that reminds me of when I was in high school at some point when you get old enough that you you're too old to trick-or-treat but you still want all the candy as I remember it was a particular time so I decided to go as a flasher so I wore this long trench coat and a pair of like swimsuit underneath it and thought you know we'd go up to the thing and I flash people you know and everybody had normal reaction but remember this one particular out of his old lady was there and she just jumped out of her skin when I flip my dick see I wasn't naked underneath but she just so I got the trick and the treat yes flashers and striking that that was a big thing back in the seventies it was it was that I can so I can appreciate the way you felt in the shorts but their course a long pants they're just they were just fine they got the job done I can try to enjoy our panel and I keep having to pull my robe closed because it just following open and if I find needed to get my wallet I didn't want to just whip up with my own gosh oh that reminds me of when I was in high school right be an 8th grade I think about it at some point when you get old enough that you you're too old to trick-or-treat but you still want all the candy timer it was a particular time so I decided to go as a flasher so I wore this long trench coat and a pair of like swimsuit underneath it and so you know we've go up to the thing and I flash people you know and everybody had normal reaction but remember this one particular out of its old lady was there and she just jumped out of her skin when I flip my dick wasn't naked underneath but she just so I got the trick and the treat yes flashers and striking that that was a big thing back in the seventies it was it was that I can so I can appreciate the way you felt in the shorts but took her so long pants they're just they were just fine they got the job done so I have to say that this their overall experience was just phenomenal I'm excited about a bunch of things that happened I think we have a little more time for a few more so shall we go on the last day was Sunday and Sunday was not a Cosplay Day it was basically a walk around the dealer room day you had your podcast shirt back on again I do not wear my podcaster I can't remember what teacher I wore it wasn't that one I have no notes of Sunday Sunday was a real eventful day so if you got anything to talk about on Sunday that would be great well yeah it is kind of funny because obviously you were getting on the plane so you didn't necessarily want to wear your podcast shirt but you borrow a shirt for me you are the fruit station of A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy shirt and you might want to describe that when I was designing the shirt I was trying to come up with a font that had the right look and feel to what I I wanted I wanted to have an artistic font I didn't want to just to be a normal font so I'm scrolling down different fonts that I can find and I found one called ranching Mouse and I'm like mice here we go this is it don't panic shirt with branching Mouse font a normal 42 on the back and that's what we wore first time we saw the movie in the theater in back in 2005 and I still have that original shirt in that I actually had to buy two copies of that particular shirt and you wore that because you were getting on a plane later that afternoon and it kind of made sense but during that during Sunday you did some comic book diving and I walked around quite a bit and I had the opportunity to speak with a couple of different people I spoke with a gentleman who does some some work with wood makes custom dice boxes and I had a pleasant conversation with him about my my attempt to make a dice-box many of you people probably already know what did Ice boxes but you drop the. Dyson the top and it comes out the bottom and into at REI and I wanted to design one for my son that folded into itself so that you could collapse it that order actually feed it into itself I mean there's a couple of different ways to do that but I wanted it to be do you have to tear it down and put it back together again I would literally wanted to be able to fold it together or slide it together and I had some success but not what I expected to have I made three different prototypes all of which failed on some small level and then in the end I created a box Just 4 dice which looks like a leather-bound book right to use real leather and real rope to create the binding and nice piece of spalted maple that I had for the cover and anyway I made that for them and I shared pictures with with Daniel from all true to you custom woodworking very very great guy and an interesting conversation another conversation with the couple from New York Is piece of spalted maple that I have for the cover and anyway I made that for him and I shared pictures with with Daniel from all true to you custom woodworking very very great guy and an interesting conversation another conversation with the couple from New York City I want to ask you a question about her voice box that you were building yes how many dice boxes did you plan on building while I planned on making one what's the difference between the one you were going to make and prototypes that but you're only going to make soap the first prototype worked out well yes and or know okay and in this particular case if you know you know more than most about me and my woodworking and stuff but the the thing that I always try to appreciate the most about my style woodworking is the concept that you make stories with your art if you will despite what you say about your your drawing skills and that kind of thing I consider you a very good artist so you understand that the process of Art in the process of creation I had already determined that I was going to use a specific piece of wood or pieces of wood in play final piece your prototype could be a finished one but it's going to be made with garbage would not 2 final finish would that you would make it with because that's expensive word but you can get a bunch of cheap Pine and create and so it'll work and then you can just recreate it with your final would that that's a hundred percent I had I had spalted Maple which is very expensive I didn't actually pay for it believe it or not because I got it from a tree that I had cut down and saw it in two slabs so I own these huge slabs of spalted maple wood which originally intended to make into just a simple workbench but due to the figured Maple and the spalting in the Ambrosia the wood is way more pricey I mean I can sell this stuff for a ton of money but I already own it and I knew I was going to use a piece of this to create this box so I was plywood thin plywood to come up with the design and I thought I'd have to show it to you but it never panned out the way I'd hoped it would I wanted to be able to look like slide it apart and put it together and it just didn't ever attempt I made I came into a situation where I was like stop because every time I put it together and this piece of would be blocking that piece of wood and I had to just didn't didn't quite work so yes the Prototype which is pretty nice and does function is a pretty interesting little thing but it wasn't what I ended up with us I said anyway as ever saying I up I spoke with the husband and wife from New York City at least they recently been in New York City they moved out a New York City there now in Pennsylvania they owned a company called Spitfire labs they you and I spoke with them too they make plaques with beautiful car cherry and they did an inlay on top of a couple of them one who has a car Blazer image of the Enterprise and over top of that are outside of that they have resin that made it look like a star-filled with blue and black resume and I spoke with her at some length cuz she is A Hitchhiker's fan I gave her our card and she said that she'd like to do an image for hitchhikers even though there are fans At some length cuz she is A Hitchhiker's fam I gave her our card and she said that she'd like to do an image for hitchhikers but again we have that same conversation even though there are fans out there of the series what would people consider an iconic image for hitchhikers well you get the whale in the petunias do well in the petunia seem to be the one thing that's consistent throughout the throughout the thing and the words don't panic and Tristan conversation and every once in a while you'll see the Laughing Planet right right exactly that was part of our conversation and really enjoyable I think it's funny cuz I was looking at their card and I'm not sure what I think their names are Andy and Brandi well it is funny cuz it's not on there go to actually is on their card but if you go to their website and that kind of thing that's not their the Spitfire labs they don't they don't mention their names I always think that's interesting cuz I would have thought that that would be a part of their identity but in this particular case is not so one of my favorite interactions for Sunday was I was wandering around the convention hall and for some reason I walk down and I'll that I hadn't been down before and they're at the end of the aisle I met a group calling themselves the roddenberry's and they are a local and I mean local to the Philadelphia area Star Trek themed party Band honestly was surprised that I'd never heard of them before but they do parties all throughout the tri-state area and I just was beaming from ear-to-ear as I was talking to these guys and the young lady that was there as well just enjoying the concept that they come to your party dressed in Star Trek uniforms and sing different songs indent songs from Dido songs that relate to the show and it was just a really great fun interaction if you happen to be in the Philadelphia area and you hire the roddenberry's for their musical Talent than please invite me to your party because I'm going to call it by myself as one of their super fans from now on without hearing and don't you move out here even though it doesn't matter what it sounds like she asked me if they had a theremin do I did not but I should have that would have been perfect those are some of my Recollections for Sunday until you little bit of my story for the following weekend when I went to Geeks Fest when we were at the convention in Philadelphia got the comment on my Facebook and so I decided that I would in fact like to go see my friend from high school I've seen some of his work online before cuz obviously he would post it in like a new thing so I did I went to the convention there in it turns out that it wasn't very far from my home and there were quite a number of vendors there some interesting companies that were involved there and then went over to his Booth then we had a great chat and talked back anything up but while I was there I did buy a couple pieces of his and what's interesting to me is that he does most of his I don't even know what you call them carvings I guess using a scroll saw unlike the much more popular much more available laser cup approach he's actually using hand work and a scroll saw and he was talking to me about the meditative feeling that that gives him that the row law allows him to And he was talking to me about the meditative feeling that that gives him that the row law allows him to destress after work where he can sit down at the scroll saw and works at image so I purchased while I was there a portrait if you will of Spock yes and I did I showed it to you earlier yes and that's the thing cuz you have to appreciate atleast I appreciate it in a woodworking style the use of a scroll size it's it's tedious work when it's done with such expertise like I'm really impressed with the with what he was able to do with the piece that I got also got a a badge that he created for our sweet for Star Trek Star Trek badge and then one of my favorite little pieces he created a signpost now this one actually is laser cut but it's a signpost that has all the little cities towns in areas associated with The Princess Bride movie. Florin and killed her and the Cliffs of insanity the fire swamp pits of Despair the thieves forest and Miracle Max's I'll point it out so you would know where to go if you happen to be in that area to add to the weekend I got one more piece and we haven't even talked about this more things you want to talk about you came over to my house you got there on Thursday and I don't exactly remember what we were discussing but we were talking about television shows and things that we had watched or things that you would like to see her and you mentioned that you had not seen squid games and I had no idea what he was talking about of course I haven't seen or heard anything at all about it but because I have the right to streaming service I'm like oh let's do it and Squid games is a serialized show with what 8 episodes 9 episode 9 episode 9 episodes and so we started off watching squid games and if you haven't seen it I'm hesitant to recommend it I mean I'd like to recommend it because it's it's a fantastically unique show and I don't want to spoil anything that could spoil the show for you but you have to have the kind of glad to know how would you what what what personality would it be that would really enjoy squid games I don't know if you could if you could just find that but it's definitely not for everybody it's not a straightforward show there is violence there are some horrific scenes so if you don't like violence shows it's not all violence but there are very brief moments of very intense violence and as my wife described she actually watch it with us and she was satisfied but she got through to the end because it is a satisfying show in that respect but she kind of liking to the little bit to Kill Bill and that kind of I won't even call this gratuitous violence cuz you kind of steps over the edge of that because at least in Kill Bill you know you're like seeing streams of blood flying all over the screen and you you almost laughed because it's hysterical hysterical but you know you almost laughed because it's improbable physics or whatever yes, go horror that would be a good way of saying it but as I was going through the geekfest I was talking with a gentleman Speak fast I was talking with a gentleman from Delaware fascinating young man but to me it all of the young who was telling us telling me a story about how he laid back for the last three years and that this was his first convention back out he was artist in Delaware is not very far away from me so I can see through my local artists chatting along with him about inspiration and the the process of creation of Art and I happened to look down at his table and I saw this image which of course is a visual thing so I'm sure nobody knows what I'm looking at at the moment but will how would you describe this image Jeff let's see a person in a pink hooded onesie with a fencing mask with a square on it holding a machine gun so that is a description of a series of characters in Squid games they are the board director types the square of the squares if I remember correctly are they security like a boss like a security boss a triangle a square and a triangle that you got it so when I saw that image in my cup got to take this home is representative of The Weeknd right and for me it it'll be hanging on the wall with the other images that I collected during our time in the convention I have to say I do want a remark that each and every person that I met and that we met every one of them seemed excited to be out and about and I know what the I can't say we're post covid but the covid world that we've been living in they really seem to enjoy the opportunity to be with other people Brian just had a great time I know that the vendors are there to make money but they seemed more than willing to interact with anyone who would speak with them it was just a joy for me to be able to talk with a whole bunch of people and I know that they maybe we're looking to make more money they spoke they it was a great opportunity for us to be out there I'm out and about again and I just wish I could tell them all thank you once again so absolutely the end of our weekend I also had an absolutely wonderful time and I am so glad that conventions are back in full swing I do want to mention that our next episode is going to be about the book Restaurant at the End of the Universe because when we recorded our last episode about the game we had no idea where that was going to fall in the order so I couldn't tell you what it's going to be so I'm letting you know now that the book Restaurant at the End of the Universe will be the first Thursday in May all righty Jeff I think we reached that point where it's time to say goodbye so say goodbye Jeff goodbye everybody enjoy your gin and tonics