Men At Work Podcast - You Work With Furries and Don’t Even Know It!

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Did you know it's a 60% chance you work with a furry??? Fine that's made up, but Kyle Pagan and Matt Peoples went to a Furry Convention in Philadelphia to find out how furries afford their $10,000 fur suits. We talk to a Retired Army Colonel who faced the wrath of Fox News and ended up in a joke on Shane Gillis' new comedy special, we meet a dog named NIIC who dropped some bars for us and tells us about what happens at room parties. We then meet a Coider a payroll specialist who won't tell anyone at his work what he does. Grunger Fox who is a sous chef with dreams of being a meteorologist who tells us why Furry conventions have become so popular. Finally we meet a firefighter/EMT Australian Cattle Dog named River who tells us about the rivalry with the Bronies and keeping a secret in a blue collar industry. 00:00 - Pup Ravage (Military Colonel) 12:28 - NIIC (Rapper) 26:40 - Coider (Payroll Specialist) 39:55 - Grunger Fox (Sous Chef/Meteorologist) 47:40 - River (Firefighter/EMT) #furry #convention #podcast Check out our sponsor Thrive Flower! Thrive sells real cannabis products outside of the medical system. They have 9 strains of flower, 6 strains of pre rolled joints, 4 strains of vapes, gummies, and lemonades. They are the first and only company offering same day cannabis delivery within Philly. Order your cannabis at https://thriveflower.com/ and it will be delivered in about an hour. Use code menatwork15 for 15% off orders. Simply choose “same day delivery” during checkout. This applies for Philly residents ONLY. About Us: The Men At Work Podcast asks one question: What do you do for work? After that the conversation flows from there. We’ve met substitute teachers, Bangladeshi t-shirt moguls, a real estate broker tight with LeBron James, and more. And we’ll record anywhere. Random sidewalks during an eclipse, a baseball game, a bar crawl, casino, and more. We like to find out what people do for a living. If you want us to come to your event email us at: [e-mail] Watch the podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nFkPehBzTwo If you want more bonus interviews from the convention check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/menatworkpod Follow Us: The Pod: https://www.tiktok.com/@menatpodcast https://www.instagram.com/menatpod/ Follow Matt: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattpeoplescomedy https://www.instagram.com/mattpeoplescomedy/ Follow Kyle: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylepagancb/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylepagancb Follow Vito: https://www.instagram.com/vito_visuals/?hl=en

Three, two, one. Welcome back to another episode of Men at Work podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Pagan. And as always, I'm joined by Matt Peoples. Matt, where are we right now? Kyle, you better believe we're at Furadelphia 2024 at the Sheraton Hotel in beautiful Center City, Philadelphia. It's one of the biggest, I think it might be the biggest furry convention in the country And we're here amongst our furry friends and our Air Force impersonators And we're getting in the weeds, dude

We're trying to figure out what this looks like And we're trying to learn a little bit more about the fur dogs Yeah, so if this is the first time you're ever watching this podcast Basically, we just go around different places and ask people what they do for a living So we went to a furry convention because we wanted to figure out what, you know, furries do Furries actually have jobs Furries have jobs Furries jobs. Furries have jobs. Furries have jobs.

Furries have jobs, right? Furries with jobs. Eh. As Fox is saying sometimes. You're retired? Wow. Oh my God, you have like animatronics. His mouth moves.

That one's pretty sick. Dude, that's crazy. You just want to come on the pod? Just totally ruin our intro? Just come on. We'd love to have you on. The animatronics is very exciting to see. Here, go take a seat.

Yeah. Oh, it's a trap. I promise you it's... Yeah. It's Trap by M. Night Shyamalan. Huh? I've already been on Fox News. You've been on Fox News?

Did you just bark at me? He is a fox, dude. He is Fox News. Here, talk into the mic. Rarf. Rarf, rarf, r Here, talk into the mic. Rarf. Rarf, rarf, rarf, rarf. Beautiful. Rarf, rarf, rarf, rarf.

So you've been on Fox News? Not intentionally, but yeah. Yeah, talk into the mic. Rarf. I like the ruffs at the end. The barking's great. Yes, by the way. What's your persona?

Google Pup Ravage, and it's all over the place. Pup Ravage? Pup Ravage. Rarf. That's your name? Yeah. Oh, sweet. Well, welcome to the Philadelphia, Pup Ravage? Pup Ravage. Rarf. That's your name? Yeah. Oh, sweet. Well, welcome to the Furadelphia, Pup Ravage.

Oh, thank you. We've got Furadelphia. What is this, though? This is a podcast called Men at Work. We ask people what they do for a living. Oh, but I'm retired. What did you used to do? Rarf.

I was in the Army for almost 30 years. Wow. Well, thank you for your service. Are you the guy who went viral, who retired from the military, and then said, by the way, I'm a furry, and all the Chinese and all the Russian bots were making fun of us because our military are furries. Is that you? Yeah. So we've got a new sponsor, Thrive Flower.

Thrive Flower sells real cannabis products outside of the medical system. They have nine strains of flour, six strains of pre-rolled joints, four strains of vapes, gummies and lemonades. Vito's smoking on one right now. They are the first and only company offering same-day cannabis delivery within Philly. Order your cannabis at thriveflower.com, and it will be delivered in about an hour. No one else is doing that. No way. Is that really you? Shane Gillis has an entire joke about it in his special.

I was on Twitter, and I saw a picture of this guy. He was retiring from the military, and when he retired, he posted a picture of himself, full military uniform, all of his medals But he was wearing a furry mask. Are you aware of this? Are you aware of this? Yes, oh my god, dude, we're meeting a little famous furry right here. This is so cool So we so you. So you were like droning motherfuckers

and then dressing up like a furry on the weekend. I was a colonel. I don't do drones. The comedian did that. In general. I was only a colonel. I'm not a general. That's a colonel. Oh my gosh. Dude, that's a high rank. I don't know.

This is... I can't get it over the mouth. The mouth is moving. I love it. The most famous person we've had on this podcast. Holy shit, dude. Right, right, right, right, right. So we have to ask. So you're somewhat semi-famous now.

So I imagine you've seen the Shane Gillis bit. He's a Philly guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was your reaction? What did you think when you first saw it? He's talking about... I mean, I didn't see it at first. But mean of course people like oh my god have you seen this and because he did that and then i guess some cartoon thing did it like a two months ago sure

no it's yeah i'm sorry that's awesome no we're turning up we want to make sure we can hear in the mic holy shit so wait so did the did the boys did the good old boys know that you were a furry when you were basically telling them to do push-ups and run miles and stuff? No, no, no, no. I mean, I've been obviously gay forever, and I've spent three-quarters of my life under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Yeah, that's true. So I had to hide all of my life yeah my private life shame my professional life sweet and so it was always even after don't ask tell was dropped it still was such a high

rank it's still like yeah i still if i want to advance in rank i need to keep this stuff quiet so yeah i did until the day after i retired and i posted that infamous picture and then all hell break loose. Oh my God. This is, I mean, we are, I'm like nervous. I'm around a real celebrity here,

but I mean, so did it, did it change your interactions? Did it change your interactions at the furry convention after you get a little more fame from it or? I mean,

I was, I've been a pup and stuff for a long time. Talking like, I know. Sorry, sorry. I've been a pup for stuff for a long time. Talking to Mike. I know. Sorry. I've been a pup for a long time. Yeah.

And that was what, you know, first. And I was interested in furry. But at the end, I was living in Hawaii for the past four years. And you don't wear this shit in Hawaii because you die. Sure. So I was going to, like, get into this after I retired. And, you know, pup and fur have some overlap. There's a Venn diagram there.

Pup and fur. So, yeah. And then it all broke down, and I had so much support from the fur community after all that shit went down with Fox News. Right. I'm like, well, I'm going to dive headfirst into this. And I started going to conventions. Gosh, it's only been like a year and a half now. Right. But, yeah, I'm all in,, I'm gonna dive headfirst into this and that's... I started going to conventions. Gosh, it's only been like a year and a half now.

Right. Uh, but yeah, I'm all in and it's... I'm having a great time. I'm surprised you don't have any security walking around with you. I mean, we're in the... we're in the presence of a star. Yeah. Rar, rar, rar. It's a small convention. It's all like... you know, small con. So how's your life changed since like all the like whole viral stuff?

Actually, I mean... A year and a half ago when this happened like this is is fucking i'm sorry no you're cursed it's fucking horrible because yeah i mean at the time i mean my twitter was open but my facebook was open and these people found out my name they went after myself and my siblings and my parents they're all getting like hateful messages yeah it's awful and so I just shut everything down but in hindsight

I've gotten so many new friends and and and just supporters and stuff that I mean I wouldn't wish it again

but I've just met so many good people through this experience that I'm not I'm not I wouldn't have wanted to do it again but I'm not sorry I'm not super...

I wouldn't have wanted to do it again, but I'm not sorry it didn't happen at this point. He's not how you start, it's how you finish. Yeah. Can I boop you? Woof, woof, woof, woof. Oh my god. I have to ask,

we've seen a lot of incredible costumes so far today. Never with the mouth that moves along with somebody speaking. That's got to be high tech. It's Sarah Kett fursuits, and she's here. She has a booth downstairs. Nice. Yeah, because most of my stuff, I mean, pup hoods don't move,

and most furry fur hoods don't move, but she's got springs and stuff, and that's amazing. That is so... I really love this one, so, yeah. It looks great. It looks incredible. Like, looking at you, it feels like I'm talking to, like, an actual... This is incredible. I love the Fox, like, the dirt bike regalia, too.

Yeah, I have a motorcycle. I've got a... Are they a sponsor? It's an orange, you know, so I actually ride in this. Are they a sponsor? You've got to get some sponsorship dollars, dude. You're promoting this shit for free? You're famous, dude.

I'm not sure this is the right sponsorship they want, but yeah. Why not? Attack another demo. This is incredible. Dude, you're a colonel in the military. You can tell anybody anything. You're giving out demands, dude. Oh, it's been fun. Can you give us your best colonel voice?

Like what the voice you would use if you're like really trying to get something done? Because I know obviously colonels are dealing with some of the most higher stress things on the planet. No, I mean, you don't have to be an asshole. It's rank doesn't matter. It's your person. They're not going to follow you if they trust you. If they trust you as a leader,

not just because you're wearing something on your thing. Or something on your head. On your shoulders. And that's when I was doxxed, when they threw my name out, that's probably the most proud thing I was that a lot of people I didn't know, a lot of alt-right and religious people came after me,

but nobody I ever served with, nobody I ever led came, nobody I ever led, came out and said, yeah, he was a fucking asshole. I had him all the time. So the boys were cool? They had you back? I've never had anybody have that. Yeah. They came to my defense.

That's awesome. Good. Not knowing this part about me. That's awesome. I was happy about that. That's very cool to hear. That's very cool. Well, I mean, I guess before we let you run,

again, thank you for hanging out with us. I don't know if it's just beautiful timing. Shane Gillis is in Philadelphia this whole time. I swear to God. I think he's like doing shows at Helium. At some point, he'll be sitting in the crowd. You should go. I've got my brown pup hood with me.

Dude, maybe we set that up. Look, I'll tell you this. I've got that brown pup hood with me. I think he'll be at Helium maybe next Monday. If you're around, this could be in the cards. Oh, I'll tell you this. I've got that brand put with me. I think he'll be at Helium maybe next Monday. If you're around, this could be in the cards. That's awesome. Settle the score. Rough, rough, rough indeed.

Dude, Ravage, thank you so much. This was great. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. You've got a great mentality. Thank you so much. Ruff, ruff, ruff. Dude, awesome. That's sick.

That is so funny. Oh, my God. I mean... That dude literally... That dude... Well, we didn't win Afghanistan, but... It wasn't because of Ravage. I want to put that out there.

It wasn't because of Ravage. Ravage, thank you again for your service. Thank you for hanging out. He wasn't the one. He wasn't looking for the W that out there. It wasn't because of Ravage. Ravage, thank you again for your service. Thank you for hanging out. He wasn't the one. Yeah, he wasn't looking for the WMDs. He was just directed. Way to go. He is the WMD, dude.

He is the weapon of mass destruction. That was everything about it from the animatronic talking where, I don't know if you get this, dude. I am going to fuck a furry. I don't know what's happening. Did you get all this? I got one. I don't know if you get this, dude. I am going to fuck a furry. I don't know what's happening. Did you get all this? I got one. I don't know.

Whatever, dude. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and she can deal with the aftermath. They look at you like the eyes are beautiful and big and excited. And then when you get the mouth moving and also like something about a skater boy wearing like the fox body armor, like a little motorcycle type thing. That that gets me i'm excited as heck brings you back to the boyhood yeah man i have a penis erection i have yeah shelter and he's a fucking and he's a colonel in the military so like he's a good old boy who worked his way up and he's like respected individual a leader it is kind of funny to hear like people especially i think it's like a dude

thing like navigating a very tough conversation where he was like yeah my life was like really really bad for a couple months we can't even say like how bad it is because we're like i don't get made fun of so he's gotta be like yeah people were like threatening my family members but yeah it's fine it's whatever it's like i'm here aren't i i lived to tell the tale what is wrong with us as men i mean but also the timing dude shane gillis being here get him in tires if that furry shows up to Monday at Helium when Shane's doing his set, would be one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my

life. If we could make that work. I mean, one of your best qualities is being an organizer. If anybody can set it up, I think it's probably you. If we can get contact information and we can... Oh, for Ravage?

For the Ravdog? Yeah. Dude, he got doxxed. I know his entire history. His information is actually too easy to get. It's actually like a national security thing

that his... Another one with the mouth moves. Yeah, yeah, come on. Just watch out for the camera. Yeah. Dude, those are sick DCs. The DCs. Shout out, Rob Dyrdek.

I could never ollie. Can you ollie in that? What is that? What do you mean, like ollie? Like that thing? Yeah, like an ollie. If I have my snowboard, yeah. I see you're wearing DCs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that skater culture? Is that the official shoe of the furry? I'm trying to make it. They haven't properly endorsed me yet, but if I keep spamming them and they unblock me, I think I'll win. Get on that, DC.

I did the same thing with my ex-girlfriend. It works like a charm, dude. No shit. You'll get there at some point. You're going to start giving them one cent on Venmo to get your message across. No, you actually request one cent. Yeah.

What's your persona? I am nice. I am the singing dog. The singing dog? Did that right? Yes. Wow. Oh, two I's.

It's not a letter, so I always mess it up. N-I-I-C. N-I-I-C. Nice. And then do you do anything for work? Yes, I do this. I do music. I do music.

I perform. I'm a VTuber. I do all the things. What's a VTuber? Like, I don't know, like a virtual online YouTuber. Got it. Twitch stream.

What's that? Oh, so you're like on live streams? You do it in costume? Yes. In costume and with my digital avatar. Like on VRChat

and Resonate and stuff. So many personas, dude. How do you keep up with that? You got a digital avatar. You have your furry costume. So I'm super lazy about it about it's all the same avatar right it's all the same green guy we just had different versions got it okay so it's like i got this in like the physical format this thing that i'm gonna sweat in and hopefully not pass out and then i have like the

digital one online that i like put over my face with a webcam and hope that doesn't crash and pass out and die sure um a lot of what a lot of stress but you're gonna split personalities yeah i hope so i mean my my mom says i do so that always keeps me like bleeding we can't talk to her i get to hear anyone else say it and i think that just because they're too shy to tell me you're wearing a shiesty under there i'm wearing a what a shiesty what's a shiesty like those black uh baklava masks oh yeah oh yeah i'm dude i gotta wear two of these because however i got this hat this um this hat yeah this uh helmet i got on it doesn't fit me and i think that's probably because i wear it all the time and then the heat and it's

resin so i gotta put two of these guys on sure so damn you just see me pass out over there yeah don't worry don't worry i mean you mean, you just unplug and replug it. Okay. Y'all got to promote the shysties because the shysties in the city, they don't have the greatest... Reputation. Reputation. No, they don't. And that's why I'm here, guys. That's why I'm here to bring back a little culture into the city.

These are going to be a new rep, okay? We're taking out the old, the old way of thinking of things. Is that a kafia? I think that's a mog. Also kafia. Also kafia. Kafia. Kafia. Oh, kafia. Is that... old way of thinking of things is that a coffee i think there's a mug it's also kafai also fire kafai kafai oh kafai is that uh i think kafai from palestine middle eastern oh okay sure yeah yeah sweet holy shit and what do you do for a living again oh you're a singer yeah i'm a singer so johnny so johnny canine is a rapper are you a rapper yeah uh well okay so i have songs and the

song's like oh this would be cool to have a rap part in there Yeah, and I'm like I should hire a rapper and then I'm like I'm just gonna do it So it's like that. Can you give us a bar? Yeah, can I bark? Can you give us a bar? And can you bark? Well could you bark first and then give us a bar? Yeah, perhaps a bar bark. though it doesn't make sense this sense is sense we just were too sensitive on someone else's business princess we all moved away from the monarchs cause our telepathy and different rhythms and schisms

that you try to move between love religion lifestyle go wow it's way too many people in this world

for you to try box out it ain't gonna work you're gonna fall for your horse without a parachute but to drive you to the future

cause it's coming for you what do I care to stay in a place that's sincere my life's my life stay with you no one dare for this table

on this track they will see the people alive come on love you see you try that's fucking good I don't know I should really have gotten someone to do it but I was like I can do it People alive. Come on. Let me see you try

I can just have enough colt 45 I can rock this say wait I do that before I drive every time Cool 45 to zigzags Maybe that's all you need We go to the park After dark Smoke that tub of weed At the marijuana bar We can take our time Singing them dirty rap songs Stopping at the bar Like cha-cha-chang Take from here to Hong Kong So roll, roll, roll

Take out the Caesar Stills Getting high as hell With cheapo boo Skating on Caddy You bailed on me I forgot the last part. That's fine. And I.

Oh, yes. That makes me so happy. Damn, that's awesome, dude. I've been around for a while. Sure. Just sipping on Gold 45. I love that. Don't tell anyone my secret.

Oh, I'm on a podcast. Of course. So what's the drink of choice while you're hitting the furry convention? This is whiskey. Straight whiskey? Absolutely whiskey. What is this? Because if you drink beer, you get bloated. Got it. And like doing this Straight whiskey. Absolutely whiskey. What is this?

Because if you drink beer, you get bloated. Got it. And like doing this and sweating. Is it tight in there? Yeah. Really? I mean, you get used to it. But like in the beginning, like panic attacks every time.

Yeah, you do get into it. You got panic attacks? No, I mean like, so like, you know, like when you have Under Armour on, it's like your first time at the gym and stuff, and you're like sweating through yourself, and you're like, it's like that gross, you just want to like rip off your, it's like that. It's like that kind of at the gym and stuff, and you're like sweating through yourself, and you're like, it's like that gross, you just want to like rip off your, it's like

that. It's like that kind of feeling. You get over it. You grow up, you put on your big boy pants, but. Yeah, but I kind of feel, I don't know if you get this, I kind of feel sexy when I'm sweating. For whatever it is, when I feel sexy, I'm like, what's different about me? Look at my sheen.

It's just still pale. From the perspiration. I'm just thinking I'm sweaty and sexy. It's just really pale and skinny fat, but I mean, I make them. You you're gonna make them synonyms one day i can't wait thanks so like do you do any other work outside of musician no never no uh so i used to be i used to work in a lab do sciencey stuff wow what kind of sciencey shit um whatever the market needs so like we we were really on there for covid so when all that shit happened um so a lot of researchers like uclna and everyone they need um you're developing the vax do we do what would you develop in the vax no no no no don't talk about it we'll put this to the back of it so

we did the hand sanitizer hot mess we couldn't get hand sanitizer forever yeah we were in all that stuff that was wild shit I kind of want my furry. I want my dude working on the Vax to be a furry. Yeah. Why not? I was thinking because I had a green thing. I was like, I could be like Aloe Vera, hand sanitizer dog for COVID.

And you are green. Yeah, dude, you could have been the mascot for the Vax. You could have been the mascot for Madera. I don't know if that was like insensitive though. And like everyone was like, you know, just don't go to our time. Stephen Colbert was dancing with needles at the 1030 spot on like CBS. Yeah, that is

true. It was kind of weird. I have so much respect for him. The balls on that guy. You hate this talk. I've been holding in the term Vaxxed the entire time. Well, that's exciting. So we're trying to find out more. We haven't really talked about it much. These like room parties, we're hearing more and more about.

Tell us about the room parties. You guys aren't furries. You're diving into the world of furries we're just here we kind of came to figure that is amazing yeah we're dabbling fantastic yeah so there are room parties and stuff you can think about it in any weird way you want but honestly it's a bunch of people just drinking and vibing and like listening to music or they just don't want to come back down because they're all are pulling out their fursuitsuits. Or they screamed like that all day and now they're tired. And the room party is in costume, I'm assuming? People do.

I see a room as I'm taking this shit off because I need to like sit down and vibe. Yeah. I use a room party just to sit in a quarter and drink and sob. And sob? It's just like, I'm so tired. But is there fucking? I don't really know. So the ones I've been to, people like, well, shut the door and shit like that.

I don't think it gets weird like people think. And if it has, I haven't been invited to any of them. Dang. Well, invite our friend here for the love of God. Invite Nice. He's a nice dog. Nice is the best. Just saying.

Nothing better. How do you go to the bathroom? Well, I mean, so I think you got to talk to someone in a full suit. So there's partials, a.k.a. moi, and then there's like a full suitor. I didn't realize you were in a partial. I think they just like they suck it up. They just like they wait until like I guess the day ends. I don't know, like file save and turn off NES.

Okay. Yeah. I'm good. I'm good. I only got arm sleeves, a tail, hands. Are psychedelics popular at a furry convention? Because I can imagine that'd be kind of scary if you're on a bad trip. Yeah, I'm sure everything's here.

Okay. But I don't think it is. Dude, could you imagine those psychedelics and going to a furry convention? That sounds like the worst thing. I'd be so scared. Just historically speaking from my perspective, like drinking is enough. I can't do anything else. Yeah. Anything else, I just i don't even know like edibles i don't know what i would do oh god an edible would be i mean if i just if it catches you in the wrong way and

you're like in the lobby like vines trying to strangle me yeah dude i would i'd be in the fetal position in the corner and there would just be like a bunch of furries trying to check on me and i'd be like get yes get away from me yeah please yeah don't touch me it's five nights at freddy's yeah yeah see true yeah and then you talk and you start barking at me and I'd be like, get away from me. Yeah. Please don't touch me. It's Five Nights at Freddy's. Yeah. Yeah. See? True. And then you start barking at me and the mouse moving and everything.

I'm done. Oh, my God. Yeah. This thing. Yeah. This thing. Hi. No, thank you.

Yeah. No, thank you. Is there any animosity towards the Five Nights at Freddy's? Do you guys want to take those fools down? No, no. We actually have a lot of musicians and performers that have a lot of their sets and their content based around stuff like that. We have a lot of people into shit like Five Nights at Freddy's, Hell of a Boss. A lot of people do their content around these things.

We celebrate all that shit, too. So Kyle's not familiar with Five Nights at Freddy's. Is your name Kyle? You'd probably be the best one. My name's Kyle, too. Hell yeah. Yes. Oh, no.

He's pulling down the mask. No, it's fine. This is Cameron Diaz and Tobey Maguire kissing upside down. If you search me online, I'm Kyle McCarthy. Cameron Diaz. It's not a secret. Oh, no. He's pulling down the mask. No, it's fine. This is Cameron Diaz and Tobey Maguire kissing upside down. If you search me online, I'm Connor McFarty. Cameron Diaz. It's not a secret. Oh, no. Kirsten Dunst.

Jesus Christ, man. Kirsten Dunst, yes! What's Five Nights at Freddy's, by the way? Yeah, if you could explain that to Kyle, it would be from your perspective. This is now designated the Kyle corner. Yeah. Just so we're all clear. Yeah.

Watch yourself. We're not afraid to kick our little boys out. Is this corner with a K or a C? Don't worry about it. Who is Kyle with a C? Are you Kyle with a C? No, I'm Kyle with a K. Are you C-H-Y-L-E?

I just don't think we can introduce any more K to the corner. Oh, yes. I see. No special K allowed in the corner. That took me way too long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Try to keep up there nice. Your flight has now arrived.

Do we get five flights of Freddy or am I never going to never know? Five nights of Freddy, if you could explain from a furry's perspective to Kyle who's not familiar with it at all. Oh, for real?

Yeah. It's a survive the night game. Do you want me to explain the game to you? Just like the whole culture of it. Or its impact on our furry culture? Both. I want the impact on the furry culture, yeah. Oh, wow. You want the you? Just like the whole culture of it. Or its impact on our furry culture? Both. I want the impact on the furry culture, yeah.

Oh, wow. You want the whole package. Okay. Well, okay. Well, the impact on the furry culture, obviously, it's a game on, is it on Steam? But it's Survive the Night, Survive Five Days, Five Nights at Freddy's. Okay. The animatronics that come to life.

It's like fucked up Chuck E. Cheese. That being said, if you haven't seen that, you have to see the Nicolas Cage version. I know they put Five five minutes of Freddy's, but there's Willy's Wonderland that came out like three years before. It's fantastic. It's Nicolas Cage beating the shit out of Amatrox. He doesn't say a word the whole time. It is.

I swear to God. Please watch it. Willy's Wonderland. Willy's Wonderland. It is gold. Like a Nicolas Cage movie. Oh, my God. Nicolas Cage doesn't say a word.

Are you attracted to certain furries, like their costumes? If someone has a really good costume, does that give you a physical attraction? I think to some people it does. For me, I do this more as a fun project thing. I'm not going to say there isn't any completely sexual attraction. I'm thinking about sports mascots. There are totally people that I simp on. Sports mascots are furries, right?

Yeah. That's crazy. Is a fully fanatic hot? No. There's so many better options to pick from. Who was the Sixers mascot back in the day? Hip Hop. He was the bunny.

They got the snake now. They got Swoop. They got Franklin the dog. Mascots are getting pretty good. Gritty? I don't know about the whole gritty thing. They got Swoop. They got Franklin the dog. Mascots are getting pretty good. Gritty? Yeah. I don't know about the whole Gritty thing. Oh, are you anti-Gritty? I am not.

No. As Kyle, speaking as Kyle, I am not pro-Gritty. I don't get him. I don't get all that. There's nothing to get. Yeah. I know. And that's what bothers me.

You can't do John and you can't do Gritty. Yeah. Like, I lived in this city for eight years. I'm just saying. I just, I get it. I get the thing. But I just, we don't need one more thing here. So Gritty shows up to the furry convention, you guys like throwing hands? Are you just staring a little bit?

Oh my God. Yo, if you go upstairs, they have a giant inflatable Gritty. Oh, really? They're in full support here. Yeah, I've personally, I'm not. I say they very strongly. They are in full support here. Does that bother you?

My therapist will talk to me about it later. How many furries would you say have therapists? Should there be more therapists? Well, you have to think of furries as people. So however many number of people have therapists, it's going to be about therapists. To answer your question, which I think is the question you're asking me, I don't think there's a higher proportion of furries compared to,

we'll call them muggles, that have a therapist. I don't think there's any difference in the need, if that's the question you're asking. I like it. Though I will say, though, that I have seen so many fucking people change by being a part of this fandom. Really? How so? I don't want to use it so loosely as the phrase

identity crisis but people trying to find themselves trying to trying to see themselves in this world with all the shit online and all the shit from from previous generations influenced from family members like inside the household and then extended family it's really hard to dictate who you are and especially like like as you grow up, that shit gets more pressured and harder and more intense. And being here, we can literally be whoever you want. We can be whatever we want. It's fantastic. And this goes for us seeing ourselves as animals,

which is more of a faring thing, or us just really vibing, me vibing being a green dog or someone trying to find out their sexual orientation or sexual identity or none at all it's this is the place where you can you can try all that you can figure out all that and you can embrace all that so i will say that um how great is that that's like one of the coolest things about this fan can i get a boop yeah please wait wait so i can't see shit in this i'm trying oh you want to go look at this yeah oh yeah Oh yeah yeah! I can't see. Is that a boop? Is that a boop?

Yeah that is. That's technically a boop. It would be like that. Like boop. Yeah like that. Yeah exactly. Good boy. Thank you. Sweet. Well nice. Thanks so much for sitting down. This was awesome. Yeah thank you so much. It was a lot of fun. Can you talk into the mic for a second? Can you talk into the mic? Uh, I might have to shove it in my mouth. Is this good?

No that's good. That's actually great. We can hear you. That's awesome. Yeah, you sound great. Can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you completely fine. Really? Perfect. Yeah. Wow.

So what's your first name? Or what's your persona name? My persona name is Coiter. Coyote, spider, hybrid. Coyote, spider, hybrid, Coiter. Uh-huh. Okay. I like that.

Yeah. So we're Men at Work podcast. We just ask people what they do for a living. Oh, me? I actually work as a payroll specialist. Nice. A payroll specialist. Yeah, I make sure.

Like, say, if you're working, I make sure you get your money. I love you, Carter. Oh, we love you very much. Thank you. Yeah. We loved you already. We love you even more now. Thank you for this job, to be honest.

I can imagine so. I can imagine so. So how did we land on the persona name? How did that come to be? Is it like you sit and thought about it for a while? What's that look like? It started when, back in my teenage years, when I was a i was a young pup not realizing oh i kind of like this stuff i found on fur affinity actually are you familiar with that website no it is a major website where a lot

of furry art is posted okay they have amazing artists on it so i was on that site and i found this character called wasp he was a wolf hybrid. And then there was also art with a spidox, which is a spider fox hybrid. And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to complete this trinity and make a coyote spider hybrid. That is how my young teenage mind works. I enjoy the coyote. Yeah, it's very nice. Okay, so the name comes

up and then is there a persona that you adopt that the name has to fit now or are you trying to fit the name of the persona? Do you come up with how you're acting and how things go or is it just pretty natural when you act it can get pretty natural there's sometimes you put in a lot of thought while other times you're like oh i know exactly what i'm going to do right now yeah it's it's a fun thing to do it's meant to be like an acting hobby where you just get in character and it's just fun yeah yeah yeah so you obviously have a job like you said do people at

your work know you are going to furry conventions no they're not gonna find out no no uh-uh i feel like furries like people would actually like if someone came to me is like dude i'd spend you know a weekend at the sheraton hotel doing a furry convention well i feel like that would be like cool shit yeah it depends on what field you're in okay what fields are good for threes payroll specialist that's more on the business side sure on the business side i work with some very nice sweet elderly ladies okay yeah they are amazing individuals but i would not let them know for the fair yeah i could see that point but like say if you're one of the er folks or ones in the health care or the sciences there's like a whole community actually i've known some people who have known other furries

that have actually gotten jobs in those fields because they are furries. Really? So what is it about healthcare that lends itself more to an openness to the furry community? Furry tolerant. I'm not sure, but I believe it mainly pertains to safety. That when you're in these suits, you want to make sure you do it in a safe manner. So have you heard of a company called Under Armour? Yes, of course. So all fursuiters know this company by name because they create heat gear and cold gear.

When you're wearing these things, you need air. You need to keep as cool as possible because you can overheat. And when I was at Anthrocon this year, I suffered heat stroke for the first time. No way. What happened? Heat exhaustion. They're two different things. Very, very different No way. What happened? Heat exhaustion. They're two different things. Very, very different. Sure.

What happened? I overheated. Yeah. I quickly rushed to the room and I got a shower. Cold shower? Regular shower? Regular shower. Really?

Which, yes, somehow water just calms me down. But the problem was I already was suffering some of the symptoms. Sure. If I stayed in air conditioning, I would have been fine. But my friend, he actually proposed on the roof at last anthrocon oh i was there i in costume or not in costume in costume wow it was an amazing proposal that's so cool so my one friend he was in fursuit he's like a blue uh noodle dragon well i was on the one side they were on the roof they were just going to do photos because my one friend just made the fursuit for his girlfriend.

Yeah. They were standing back to back. And then the photographer's like, okay, we're going to get ready for the next shot. He pulls out the ring. He's like, okay, you can turn around. She's right there. Yeah. And she's like, you can't see the expression, but you feel it.

Well, where do you store the ring in the costumes? Is there pockets? Well, he was wearing a partial. And many fursuits, like I have a little pocket right here where I keep my wallet and cell phone, so I know it's with me at all times. And a ring if you have to propose at any point. Well, if I was him. He was wearing a partial, but oh my gosh.

It was such an adorable proposal. That's so cool. Oh my God, I love that. Dude, that's so cool. What's nicer than that? So I guess I worry that if you, as somebody from the outside world, we came here just to kind of learn and understand the culture a little bit better. Like from the outside world, if I saw you passed out having a heat stroke, if you're

in costume, I might just think you're like doing kind of one of your bits. You could. But usually you can tell. Like if they're lying on the floor, not moving, there's a problem. Okay. Fair. That's a furry in trouble. That's fair.

Especially if there's no other ones around. Because normally some furries may just lay on the ground and do a silly pose. Sure. But. That's a furry in trouble. That's fair. Especially if there's no other ones around because normally some furries may just lay on the ground and do a silly pose. Sure. But then they get right up. Yeah. Like, you kind of know.

Okay. There's like a time, like 15 seconds, it's like, okay, maybe we'll... There's a lot of danger involved when you do this type of performance art. Right. I like that.

Like, you think at Disney, it's all fun and dandy with like all those costume characters, but things can happen. Yeah. Actually, that was actually one of my early dreams before I even learned about the furry fandom.

I went to Disney World and they said I'd make a good Pluto. Oh, yeah, really? The dog, right? That would have been fun. Like, that was actually one of my teenage dreams that never became a reality. Yeah. Is there any beef between, like, the Disney characters

and the furry community? Kind of like a Nickelodeon Disney Channel type thing? Well, I did hear a thing that a group of furry hackers actually hacked disney because they were mad at their ai art or you know consumerism and stuff so there are act they're called hacktivists there's a group of furry hackers out there they'll take down companies corporate disney so there's the artistic disney side where you've got the artists and secretly you don't announce this but there are disney artists that are furries but they can't really publicly admit it disney looks at it and is like okay you see all this um other stuff let's uh distance ourselves here yeah but there are

definitely furries in disney and it was more of the ai yeah because ai for an artist's perspective, it feels like it takes out the humanity or it takes out the creativity. And I've seen AI art and there can be problems with it. Like, yeah, it's getting better. But if you notice in AI art, when you look at the eyes and when they're generated, they just can't do them right. Because you've heard of the eyes being the window to the soul? Sure. AI art just can't, that has no soul because the eyes never look right i'm looking in the windows of your soul right now those are beautiful baby blues

right now yeah those are nice yep i do like the eyes they're very nice yeah it's it's just a great fandom in regarding to artistic expression and creativity and it just brings people together got it so do you think like with the issues that disney has is are they too focused on maybe some of the more not i want to say deviant but other aspects that people might know and that's why they kind of steered clear is it something that people don't fully understand it that's why they don't people don't fully understand it yeah and i will say due to certain elements it actually keeps it a little more as weird as this sounds pure got it because it's decorporatized if i should say that okay and it just feels much more personal too like if you're working like say if you want to commission your character you're not going to like some big corporation you're working with

just like one individual saying i want xyz on this art and they're like you know what let's do it with this you give them the funds and then sometimes you develop some real personal relationships with these artists wow yeah it Yeah. It's amazing. That's kind of nice. It sounds like keeping it a little nasty kind of keeps the big wigs out of it. Exactly. I like to keep it nasty. Keep the big wigs out. Many people just don't realize that.

Sometimes if you keep things weird, some corporate things don't want to touch it. How weird do these conventions get? It depends. Okay. And there is the public side and then there are the room parties. Room parties, it all depends. While public side, they tend to keep it clean.

What goes on in the room parties? I plead the fifth. Well, what you've heard from fellow furries. You don't have to give anything specific. Maybe like an anecdotal thing that you usually say when you get this question. It's... It's just just i still plead the fifth okay that's actually it sounds like the room parties are pretty sick though i like it okay

what's your room number no i'm just kidding um i do not hold room parties because all right there was one room party i was at and it was the first time that you won't believe this but i didn't start drinking alcohol until i was 30 wow really and it wasn't actually at a convention my friends actually dragged me to a wine tasting after my mom passed last year oh sorry and then i yeah it was complicated but after that a friend at one of the fur cons introduced me to something called hypnotic and i drank hypnotic the drink hypnotic yeah many times so sweet. Yeah.

I made the mistake in having, you know what? This stuff's good. It won't hurt me by just having a shot. That's how it starts, brother. Yeah, we've all been there. And then I didn't eat anything. And bad things happen. That'll do.

Yeah. And then after that, I'm like, okay, I'm going to drink a lot more responsibly. Okay. But this led to the room party? It did not lead to the room party, but due to the room party as I had it the night, and then I just made the dumb decision of having it in the morning. Okay, got it. Yep. That makes

sense. That adds up. You're a bit of a partier there, Gorder. Yeah, man. No, there's a lot of more people that are way more partiers than I am. Yeah? Furries get after it on the party scene? Huh? Furries get after it on the party scene? I'm sorry. I didn't quite hear that. Furries get after it on the party scene? They could., I didn't quite hear that. Furries get after it on the party scene? They could.

Yep, it all depends because furries are people too. Sure. Everyone has their own thoughts. That's nice. Well, it's cool that you all get to come together and do this every, I guess it was an annual thing for the most part in Philly? You read an article from Vice about this. Yes, and we were kind of excited because, like I said, we came here to kind of understand the culture a little bit more and just find out, like, get in the weeds and see what people think. So there was an article on Vox, I believe it was.

And it says the questions you're too nervous to ask at a furry convention. Let's see here. We're going to hit you with one. So hold on. I deleted the article by accident. That was a furry culture explainer. Boom, boom, boom. Nine questions. You were too embarrassed to ask a furry. So let's do.

We already kind of asked this one. So explain it. Just give us the general, what is a furry? What does it take? Is there a spectrum of furry? What does this entire thing look like? In general, furries are those that enjoy anthropomorphic art where animals are given human characteristics.

It could either be more feral, think Lion King. I'm going to bring Disney back into it. It's very easy to explain. Even though we hate them. Well, we don't hate it. Remember, I said we don't like corporate Disney, but we do like the artists and what they bring to the table. Fair. Okay, gotcha.

Lion King is a sample of many furries liking that. Or, you know, the other side would like Zootopia and Robin Hood. And I actually did a panel for this con called The Art of the Furry Visual Novel, which I love visual novels. They're fantastic stories. One of the most in-depth stories that visual novel artists have created was a series called Echo. Okay. It is very psychologically messed up in a sense of psychological horror. It's still a fantastic series.

Yeah. And those that are a fan of that work would just generate stories and characters of that nature. Sure. Yep. All right. That seems pretty – before we let you go, if you could pin us for what type of at least animal as a furry we may be just off the brief meeting us, what do you got to say? All right. Just real quick, just some questions for you.

Yeah. Do you like water? I do like water, yes. Do youam a lot i actually more recently yeah i've been swimming quite a bit possibly an otter you do have otter face i do have otter face like an otter all right now for you you got the beer a little bit too yeah that's fair all right do you like meat i do love meat okay tiger nice i like that that is amazing i am the tiger in this podcast relationship. I am the alpha.

Yeah. King of the jungle. Maybe not your best work, but that was close. I came up with a name. I like Asteroid Thunder. I love it. That's pretty sick, yeah. Yeah.

What's your name, Matt? What's that? What's your name? Small Tundra. Small Tundra. Yeah. Okay, that works. All right.

Hey, Porter. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you so much for hanging out. We really appreciate it. This was awesome. Go enjoy the conference. Have fun. Thank you very much. Have you so much for hanging out. We really appreciate it. This was awesome. Go enjoy the, go enjoy the conference. Thank you very much. Have you ever had a first two hugs?

A first two hugs? No, I would love to. All right. You know what? That's, this is hot. Oh,

big hugging community. Do you do boops? Oh yeah, I do boops. Can I boop you? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I do boops. Can I boop you? Oh!

I want to get at least, like, five boops today. All right. I wish you luck in your boopies. Thank you. Thank you so much. Wow, that was amazing. How was that hug? I mean, it's, like, it's so nice because, first of all, it's like a nice, strong hug. It's fur, yeah.

But when you're getting that, when they rock you, you're like, I'd love to rock with you. And then you kind of rub the back and it's nice and soft. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty goddamn nice, dude. It's a great hug. It's like, for all those guys that I guess have never met their dads, I imagine like if you finally met your dad later in life, this is kind of what it feels like. Yeah. Hey, how are you?

What's up? Would you like to sit down and talk to us for a little bit? Hang out. Do you guys have any questions for me? That's all we have. That's all we do have. Are you doing a podcast? Yeah, just pick up the mic.

Hi. How are you? Let me turn that on. Pretty good. I was just in a... Are we live? Yes. Yes. You're good. You Pretty good. I was just in a... Are we live? Yes. Yes.

You're good. You're good. Well, not live live, but we're live in terms of the camera. Am I on my mic? Yes. You're perfect. You're great. One, two.

One, two. All right. Honestly, you sound great. Hello. Hi. This is me, Grunger Fox, live from Center City in Philadelphia at the Anthrocon. Or Anthrocon. Jesus.

Not Anthrocon. Somebody had a heat stroke there last time. I know. I was pretty much... That's probably what I'm having right now. I've been in suit for like five hours. We're at Philadelphia. And it's been an adventure.

It's been very fun. Did the fursuit photo. And that was fun. Yeah. Yeah. Getting ready for tonight's festivities. I was up till 4 a.m. last night. Really?

Catching up with friends. Room parties? I didn't go to any, actually. I mean, I was out hanging out with friends and walking around town, going to eateries. It's been fun.

Just eateries? Do you go to eateries in the fur suit? What? No, no. Not typically. I don't want to get cheese whiz on my fur suit.

I don't blame you. How much do these go for? Well, today, they're a lot more. My suit's over five years old. Yeah. Oh, really. How much do these go for? Well, today they're a lot more. My suit's over five years old. Yeah. Oh, really? How much did you pay back in the day?

A little over 4K. Now they're probably over 10. No shit. Yeah, they've gone up a lot in price because the fandom's getting a lot bigger, so prices have been going up. Oh, we were shocked. It's a lot.

There's many, like, every con I go to, I see new fursuits. I've been doing these cons for a while. Yeah. So inflation. The fandom's getting bigger. Feridalfia as a con's getting bigger. Anthrocon this year, I think had over 17,000 attendees. Yeah, I was talking to the people in the...

This year, we might get like three or four here. Nice. I was talking to the people in the staff ops room, and they said they just broke their most attendance of all time. So they're doing pretty good. It's a con i mean drain that runs the con and everybody else that helps and staff like i know a lot of them because we all live in this area i live next to the city here um northwest of the city and uh a lot of good people help out here and you know the attendees make it in the staff help and make it too what's your uh what's your first owner

i'm a fox you're talking all fox i love it so what's your fursona? I'm a fox. You're a fox. You're talking all fox. I love it. Straight fox. No hybrid? All fox. Because we just had somebody who was a coyote spider. Yeah,

there's a lot of different fursonas you could have here. Like, you know, characters you make, you know, mixed of animals and whatnot. Sure.

So, yeah. Now, when you're not a, you could be a fox and a wolf and be called a fulph, you know. True.

I know people that have that kind of character. gotta branch out more you guys have so much opportunity in front of you i think it'd be so exciting to like really hit some wild i got a question what's your guys channel on youtube so it's called men at work podcast we just ask you what they do for a living we go to a bunch of different places this is the time we ever been to a furry convention do you work somewhere outside of the city yeah yeah well i'm a sous chef right now, but I'm going back to school for meteorology. Whoa! So, yeah. So one day you could be on NBC10.

Well, I want to be a forecaster and predict weather. And, you know, I was looking at some stuff during the con because a tornado touched down in Delaware. But I know somebody that works in staff that was a storm chaser. So I was just giving them updates on, like, the weather because of the tropical storm and the depression post-tropical that moved through um that debbie storm uh i was letting them know what was going on just in case if there was any issues in our area but you know i gotta say dude there a lot of times they talk about we have eight billion people on the planet there's somebody else on the planet that's like you i know some other furries that are meteorologists but now there's no way you know a furry

meteorologist sous chef you have to be the first maybe of all time i've had a lot of jobs in my life i'm 32 now okay all right fair you know i was a carpenter for six years like doing ceilings drywall framing and many places what do you there's a lot of people in this fandom that do many things i mean everyone's unique there's people that are software engineers work for nasa all that you know fandom's huge it goes all over the world i mean i know people in argentina australia england you know in the u.s from cali to massachusetts wisconsin to texas i mean what's the big appeal what's like making it more popular now that it's ever been i think once covid hit and cons kind of got seized because of you know you know we had to like all isolate all that you know and um that, we had to, like, all isolate, all that, you know.

And that caused a lot of people to talk more online, and more people discovered the fandom. I think that kind of helped get the cons bigger, too. And then people were desperate to get out again. Does anyone know that you do furry conventions at your job? Yeah, yeah. My boss

knows I'm here. That's sweet. That's cool, because we talked to a person before before and they said they don't tell anyone. Yeah, I guess it depends on your situation and your job. Are they cool with it? Well, some people, yeah, where I'm at, it's not a big deal. But if you have a security job of some sort or a cybersecurity job or whatever, you got to keep things more discreet for whatever reason. You got to keep things separate. Why so? Especially with professional jobs got it so so i wonder like when you do tell

people that you work with that you do this i wonder if they feel like oh they shared something personal with me what's the craziest story back you've gotten when you've said that you're a furry has anybody said like oh cool i've done xyz and it's something totally fucking crazy uh i mean most people i've talked to about furry in general haven't really you know gotten too like outrageous about it because nowadays i think it's a lot more uh mainstream it seems like this stuff like conventions in general because there's you know comic-con conventions and other types of conventions yeah Yeah. Renaissance fairs. So people are aware of this kind of stuff. It's nerd culture stuff.

It's sick. Yeah. But I would love to keep talking, but I got to get upstairs. I got to take care of stuff for tonight. But it was great talking to you guys. Yeah, thanks for hanging out. It was a lot of fun. We really appreciate it.

What was your name again? Grunger Fox. Grunger Fox. Grunger Fox. Can I get a boop? Yeah. You can boop me. Yeah.

Not an enthusiastic boop, but a boop ball nonetheless. Yeah. On the microphone. It was cool talking to you guys. This was awesome. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Great talking to you.

Maybe some other people will talk to you. But yeah, I've been going to these cons for a while. Anthrocon 2017 was my first convention. Now here we are at Philadelphia 2024. Sweet. I've made a lot of friends. There's been good times, bad times, but overall it's a fun experience, I think.

That's awesome. Life's not perfect, but you got to keep having fun as much as you can. I love that. I'll see you guys. That's great perspective. Thank you. Have fun tonight. Be safe.

We'll see you. Shout out to Grunger Fox. Shout out to Grunger Fox. The boop, dude, the less receptive boop is the funnier boop. Like, I get a boop and it's like, I mean. Yeah, it's hard to say no. Dude, I left the shore for this and I fucking love it. This is the greatest thing.

I just love people doing stuff, dude. Yeah, dude. I like try not to hate on anything because like people, you know, what they like, what they like. And I was like, kind of like, you know, coming here, trying to keep it up in mind. And I was like, a little worried. I was like, I'm going to hate these people, but I don't hate these people. They're like really freaking nice. That's a great. I'm not going to hate these people, but I don't hate these people. They're like really freaking nice. That's great.

I'm not going to lie to you, Kyle. I think you go into every situation of all time, no matter what, with that exact mindset of like, I know I'm not going to like this. Listen,

the peaceful tyrant allegations are not going to stick with me. All right. They're sticking like goddamn adhesive, brother. You are the peaceful tyrant. You're Kyle Jung-un, but you wear it well, dude.

Oh my God. I love this place. There's just so many different walks of life. But you wear it well, dude. Oh, my God. I love this place. There's just so many different walks of life. This guy looks like Buzz Lightyear. I do like that. I like how some of them have handlers. Wait, where do they have to go again? Yeah, where do they have to go?

Why are you gritting, dude? Just hang out. Dude, he's getting crushed by furries. Very interesting. I've never seen a guy just not be able to's getting crushed by furries. Very interesting. I've never seen a guy just not be able to handle a bunch of furries. Dude, the furries are winning. No, you can go. You can walk.

They're on your side, dude. There's nothing to fear. Dude, they're people too. You're safe, right? Oops. Whoopsie-daisy. Holy crud. The furries are winning right now.

Let them win, dude. Vito versus the furries are winning right now you know versus the furries oh oh please come hang out with us yo will you sit down and talk to us you smell good what smell oh that's like a nice yeah what's that is that oh yeah oh yeah if you have to stand you can stand whatever's comfortable yeah that was comfortable let's hear it test the mic out Whatever's comfortable. Let's hear it. Test the mic out. How's that audio? That's great. That's the greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. How are you?

I'm doing good. I'm hot and sweaty. Good. I love it. That's exactly the pronouns I want for a furry convention. Very nice. That's the down and dirty of it right now. What's your fursona?

This is River. He is an Australian cattle dog, or otherwise known as a blue heeler. Dude, I love Australian cattle dogs. I love an Australian cattle dog. I've never seen a blue one Dude, I love Australian cattle dogs. I love an Australian cattle dog. Never seen a blue one, but I love Australian cattle dogs. Well, they call them blue healers. And Australian shepherds, too, are sick dogs, too. So we're the MinuteWear podcast.

We ask people what they do for a living. Do you have a full-time job outside the furry convention? I do. What is it typically? We met a payroll specialist and we met a sous chef. I'm a firefighter paramedic. Firefighter paramedic? No shit.

Dude, you're a hero under that costume. Oh, shoot, man. Thanks for everything you do, dude. Dude, does the engine know you do furry conventions? They do not. Yeah, I guess that one would probably be one where I probably would not tell anyone. Yeah, they might be bastards about it. They're not the most progressive of folk, I would say.

Shout out to you. I'm glad you follow your truth. So the day when you guys put on the firefighting gear and they were like, man, this is so heavy and uncomfortable, were you kind of like, oh, yeah, I think so so too. I'm not used to wearing heavy costumes at all It's kind of funny because this kind of this kind of came after the whole firefighting thing So I was a firefighter first and then kind of developed the interest in the furry fandom. Okay, what made you get into it? What's that? How'd you get into it? Actually for Adelphia was my first uh furry

convention uh in 2023 uh one of my friends uh one of my best friends uh was like hey uh you know we knew each other for a while online and i was like you should come down to phil uh new jersey uh we got a fur con here and uh the band ghost is playing actually the same week so oh is that a fur con and a uh first concert out of it too sweet no shit did you go in to the concert in the costume i did not i was not you know i was not gonna risk that dude that's crazy well we're trying to figure Furcon and a first concert out of it, too. Sweet. No shit. Did you go to the concert in the costume? I did not. I was not going to risk that. Dude, that's crazy.

Well, we're trying to figure out just everything that we can about these. Is there ever any beef where, like, people have come to Fisticuffs in costume? Have you ever seen anybody, like, kind of throw down and get a little aggressive with them? Or, for the most part, pretty cool? You know, not that I've seen yet in fursuit or anything like that. There has been, like, you know, maybe some, been maybe some instances where people got kind of into it, maybe a little too drunk or whatever like that, but I haven't seen it personally yet.

That's got to be nice, though. If you do black out and make a fool of yourself, you can just wake up the next morning, put on the costume and be like, I don't even know who that guy was. Yeah, that's pretty sick. That was the Australian catalog. That wasn't me. That was me. I would never do that. The craziest thing, officer, there was this blue dog just walking around. Yeah.

So do you love Paw Patrol? I like Bluey. You like Bluey? Yeah, Bluey's a pretty cool show. You guys should have some beef. You should have beef with Bluey. He's kind of copywriting you. He's kind of fighting your style a little bit.

Yeah. Honestly. That's probably the number one question. I'd follow you in no fire before I follow Bluey in no fire. I'll tell you that. 100%. No, don't follow this into the fire. This is a fire hazard.

That thing's catching pretty quick. Oh, yeah, it is. Absolutely. The fire igniter, yeah. Oh, man. So, like, do you ever live in fear that someone will catch that you do, like, furry conventions? I mean, I'm going back to your job because it's just like I would never expect a firefighter or a paramedic to be a furry enthusiast, but I love it. Well, you know, I probably never go out of my way to tell them that, but if it's something that gets found out, then it's like, you know what?

Whatever, man. Good. It's a hobby. Yeah. Like, it's not hurting anybody. Exactly. It's a way to deal with stress of the job and just kind of relax. Absolutely.

I love that perspective. Yeah. I love that perspective. Absolutely. But, like, when the guys, like, get in the car, if you're giving the guy a ride, you're like, oh, fuck, my tail's in the back. Like, has that ever happened? No. Do what?

If like you're ever giving your buddy a ride to the engine and your tails in the back, you'd be like, oh, shit. No, I never let that happen. I like that. Are you married or anything? No, I'm recently single. Recently single. I'm sorry to hear.

Well, maybe this is a good thing. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Have partners been able to be OK with the furry thing, or are you not really? I had a very opening partner that was very, hey, I'll try anything once. But it's like, hey, maybe this ain't working out. I can't see this for the long run, which was very nice.

No, yeah. Because they just were like, hey, let's just cut it off because I know it's not going to work out. So you cut it off, or they cut it off? She cut it off. She cut it off. Okay. But at least she was honest. At know it's not going to work out. So you cut it off or they cut it off? She cut it off. She cut it off. Okay. But at least she was honest. It's a nice dynamic.

It's a very healthy relationship. Yeah. So I was introduced to furries through Entourage. Have you watched Entourage? I don't think it's familiar to me, no. No, so it's one episode where Turtle wants to have sex, but the woman says that he has to dress up in a furry suit to do it and everything.

How were you introduced to the furry culture uh it was that friend i mentioned earlier he uh said that met him through uh online discord video games and stuff and uh you know i always kind of was like oh you know furries you know yeah you know i was kind of like the middle school kid where it's like furries are gross you know furry haters that turn into furries is that a lot of them? oh yeah it's kind of a cliche of the fandom oh really? oh yeah people that end up you know started out oh furries are weird furries are gross

it feels like a little while ago and I don't know if this is going to resonate at all but a while ago I don't know if this was like the exact competing culture but I don't know if you remember there was like people that would dress up in like clown costumes and be creepy as shit in different areas of like New Jersey and Philly. That seems like the total antithesis of what you

guys are doing. You come here, you hang out, everybody's having a good time. Other people go and spook them. Now my question is, if somebody's bothered you, you do have an advantage of you could stand in their backyard in that costume in the dark of the night and absolutely horrify them. What's your dimension?

You're like 6'2", 6'3"? I think on my rep sheet it said 6'5", I think. Holy shit, dude. It depends if we're counting the ears or not. I think the Sixers need a power forward if you need a 6'5 Australian cattle dog just standing in the dusk on your porch. Dude, I'd love to see Bluey here. We'll kick his ass.

I'm so sick of his shit, dude. I love that. That's so cool, man. Quick way to get shot, though, if you're in Texas. I'm from Texas, too. Oh, you're from Texas? Texas firefighter who is a furry. That seems like the most beautiful thing.

Me, personally, I've met a wide range of people that come from all over the place. It's crazy to think about what... This is a hobby that brings so many people together which is pretty amazing is there is there a certain job um that you see most furries uh have like in a certain industry i think uh it's either like software engineering um really i think that was probably the one that i hear the most. Something software engineering or just web design, arts. Sweet. So mostly technology stuff. Why do you think that?

I'm not sure. Yeah, we got to open it up to more of our blue-collar babies that are fighting the engines and fighting fires. We got to get the blue-collar babies. I know plenty of doctors. I know LPNs, RNs. Damn, dude. I come from all over the place.

Big spectrum. Doctors. My doctor can do anything if he's saving my life. You want to dress up on furry conventions, but I don't give a shit. I actually would prefer it.

I think it would put me at ease. I'm usually terrified at the doctors. If he came in in a very nice, comforting furry costume, I would be like, oh, this is perfect.

I'll tell you what, one of your best friends you need to get in with is a paramedic at a furry con. Really? Because when you're sitting there dehydrated

and your feelings are like shit. Are you trying to tell us something you're all right dude i mean i'm not saying anything but if you need some help liquid iv i'm talking about liquid iv totally i love that i love that hey you have that uh article by vox let's ask him a question we have an article we read one on vox before we came out, and it's basically the title is all the questions you were too nervous to ask somebody at a furry convention or ask a furry person. So let's see. We have another one.

Oh, okay. This is actually. So are furries the same thing as bronies? I think there's a little overlap between them, but not necessarily. I'd say it's the same kind of premise where uh it's a group of people coming together over a um certain topic you know bronies being you know my little pony and stuff like that but uh furries have kind of like a much more uh diverse sense because it's not only just like you know dogs cats or anything it's all these different kind of species characters

like i mean you look you look around anywhere like you even see cosplayers uh cosplaying as their favorite character so um you know this really is a kind of a get together of just sort of everybody like we're very accepting like you know everybody's down here to have a good time show off their costumes and just party yeah uh you you and the bronies in an alleyway sharks versus jet versus Jets style. Is there a rivalry there? Yeah. How's this look? It's got to be you guys. Yeah, probably us. I mean, 6'5", cattle dog.

6'5", cattle dog. What do the bronies look like? Are they kind of bigger themselves or is it kind of another range? I don't know. I saw one brony walking around here. He has actually a suit that's a pony. It's also got to be tough, too, because either they have two people in their suit or they have just a couple different appendages in the back on their legs and stuff.

So it's got to be hard to maneuver that. You just you're you're all full anamorphic right now. Yeah, I got two legs. I mean, they might have a better sense of balance because they have four. But I mean, look, I could tell your opinion. I could tell your opinion right away when you were like the bro, you know, the bronies, they're like my little pony. We're much more divorced and more thoughtful and more. I was like, OK, I understand where your allegiance lies on. I don't want to start shit, though, between us. No, of course not. The bronies, we don't want any beef.

If we go to any brony conventions, I don't want them to see this and be like, these guys are frauds. But I will say for right now, we're team furry by a landslide. So if the bronies do have a problem, we can love the bronies. They're the best. We love the bronies. I did not expect a Trump impression at the first shot. Do furry do furries have opinions? It's an election year Everybody has opinions

I'm just wondering if they have opinions Do you guys ever have thoughts? Do you care about policy? I don't know When you kind of just chill at a furry convention I feel like you have a way better life than me and Matt Who are just slumming it through life Trying to just find the next furry convention to record a podcast that like, yeah, like you shouldn't have a thought

in the world. You should have a care in the world. You're at the furry convention. You're six foot five Australian cattle dog. What the hell do you care about? What's the world like? Big dog being goofy in a costume. I love it.

That does sound like if we get before we let you go, if I could get a little more of that Trump impression, if you could just talk about how you would unite the furries and the bronies as Donald Trump, that would be... I'm going to have some bewares after this one. Sure. You know, the bronies, they're the best. I love the show. I've been watching it for many years.

But, you know, there's something about them. You got to get together with the furries. You know, we just... The door is unlocked for the potential. The furries aren't gay. The bronies are gay. They're the gay ones. The furries, you know, we just, we, the door is unlocked for the potential. The furries aren't gay. The bronies are gay. They're the gay ones.

The furries are very nice. The bronies, not so much. The bronies are coming for your jobs. They have some jobs. They're brony jobs. This was not on my bingo card for the furry convention, but God, am I excited we got it. I love the way he talks. Everything is super funny.

It's also describing yourself as a 6'5 Australian cattle dog. I bet you Trump said the same exact thing about himself. I'm a 6'5 Australian cattle dog. Joe Biden, he's a shih tzu. He's a shih tzu. He's more of a poodle. He's a poodle. He's a dead dog.

That's what he is, dude. Oh, my God. What do we know, though? Dude, can I get a boop before you leave? Yeah. Let's go. Thank you so much. Thanks.

Squeak the nose. It's the best thing of all time. Dude, I love this. Holy moly. I love this. Now, let's see if the mic's still intact when you pull it out. Yeah. That was awesome.

Perfect. Clean off the bone, dude. Dude, I love that. Thank you so much this was a lot of fun man what was your name again River River

you're probably the easiest one to remember and I forgot it so thanks so much man real appreciate it y'all have gotten a lot of people interviews we've got like two so far and we've only been here for less than an hour

it's great oh heck yeah man oh the people are great they're very responsive to it everybody's podcast is great and you know I mean it's gotta help

you know when you have a when you have a suit on, too, that you don't really have to worry about too much. That's the truth. Let it rip, yeah. We're always open to, like, open conversation. You know, people always give us a bad rap. It's like, ooh, the furries, the weird. But it's like, I mean, you ask questions, I'm glad.

He was going back into Trump there. I did hear a little bit of Trump there. You're going back into Trump. Yeah, I like it. That's why we came here to make sure people understand what this actually looks like what's one thing that like they should that people should like know about furries that they might you know judge when they first see it you know the bad is always going to get like the most attention you can just look at the news it's always

bad stuff that if it bleeds it leads right so Right. So, you know, everybody's going to, you know, pull out all the bad stuff that like furries are. But, you know, it's like an example. I don't know. You know, people say like, oh, it's a fetish or whatever like that. But here's the thing. Like you go in. I love this quote.

It's like you go any walk of life. You're going to find extremes. You know, everything that happens at a furry con is behind closed doors with consenting adults. Got it. And it's none of their business. Got it. What this is, this is about getting together

and sharing an art with the community. Got it. I love it. It's an art form, people. It really is, yeah. It absolutely is. Look at my boy River. River, man.

It's an art form. Thank you. And listen, the guy who saves your life and keeps your house from burning down? Yeah. Could have been River. Or the guy who's running life and keeps your house from burning down yeah could have been River or the guy who's running late and your house does burn down

that wasn't River that was somebody else that was me no no no that was that was A-Shift A-Shift

yeah that was the bronies that was the bronies of course absolutely those were the bronies yeah awesome man

River thank you so much yeah no problem appreciate you yeah holy shit River's got kind of a fat ass awesome man thank you so much appreciate you totally shit River's got kind of a fat ass

firefighter paramedic I did not think we were going to meet a firefighter paramedic I actually kind of was expecting I think it's just

the dudes who are too hyper masculine it's like you got to let your guard down and just kind of ball out and hang my lone comparison to being a furry which I think I've come close to in the past two years i became a hat

guy after my entire life and i think this is something that happens for dudes like either you look good in hats or you think you don't look good in hats i'm the one who doesn't wear hats i'm telling you find a hat that fits your goddamn hugely square block-shaped head, and it'll change your life. Dude, look, I have a screwed up head, too. It's coming from a guy with a Cro-Magnum brow. Yeah, it doesn't feel like it. Yeah. But no, I mean, I think that's, when he explained all that, like the community you feel, and

you meet people, and you feel at ease with yourself. The first time I found a hat that fit my head okay, I was like, oh my God. Wow. I feel okay. Yeah. Powerful. I don't know why I thought that would work. I head okay, I was like, oh my God. Wow. Powerful. Yeah. Powerful. I don't know why I thought that would work. I'm like, I'm going to be media for a second. It was powerful, dude. I'm glad you found your hat. Find your hat out there, folks.

And Vito, lose that hat, dude. It's pissing me off. Yeah, that is true. He looks like every porn director ever with that hat on. When's the first time you ever shot that? What'd you shoot, One Night in Paris today? Vito, you do have a very porn director aura to you right now.

And even like having the lanyard on, it makes me even less comfortable. Look at him, dude. He's a glory hound now. What do you got, dude? Here comes daddy long legs. Yeah.

Buddy, just put them on. What'd you think of the furry convention? Pornhub.com. What did you think of the furry convention? It was great. No, it's actually great. High energy people. It's not your typical event, so people are excited to be here, and I think we had a good turnout, and I think it's going really well.

The furries were dominating you in the beginning. Yeah, you're going to see behind the camera, but I was getting bombarded by a bunch of furries. I almost became a furry today. No choice. Did you almost wave the white flag? Nah, I had to pull out the big guns. I don't give you enough compliments all the time. You did a great job.

I was not having this pod go down that way. I started blocking off traffic and everything, and you guys got to enjoy this great podcast today. All because of me, though. Yeah, what's up? All because of you. All because of me. of me so you know the magic happens behind the camera right yeah these guys these guys kill it but the who killed it is the furry guy the guy who was barking yeah so you guys didn't see it i met him in his human form back there he was talking to me like what are you guys doing he was wearing like a muzzle like a dog like he was actually

wearing a muzzle in his human form in his human form. He was working. He's part of this event staff Yeah, yeah, and he kept telling me what time you guys gonna be here till and I told him seven six Whatever and he said, um, all right, like I'll be there at six and I didn't blame him, but he came on I didn't know it was him until I heard him bark. Wait, are we don't I was like a like a greyhound dog like muzzle He was wearing a muzzle but like like it was like a camo like it was He was a current he was, but it was like a camo. It was decorative. He was a colonel in the military. But like any event staff here, he was an event staff

working, but wearing a muzzle while working. And he was barking just like he was earlier in his human form while I was talking to him. Talk to us, dude. Talk to us. Absolute glory hound. Absolute glory hound. It's unbelievable, dude.

It's stunning. You guys Have a conversation with my hand. It's stunning. You guys are used to being in the camera. He had a muzzle. He had a muzzle. Yeah, he had a muzzle, and then he was barking, though, in his human form. I was like, this is fucking weird. And then when he came on, I heard him barking.

I'm like, that's the guy. That's the guy? Yeah. Oh, you knew him by the bark? He was showing me about the Fox News and all that. Dude, you are like, you're like a furry whisperer. You could tell by the guy's... Because you got bombarded. That was like your D-Day today.

No, I was put... The furries were on the beaches of Normandy. I was meant to be there, and I kind of flourished. You were the French battalion getting just crushed by the furries. Running on the sand. I got to say, dude, as a background or whatever it's called, inside baseball, if you can watch these two absolute catty girls fight behind the scenes, that moment right there of Kyle saying you did a great job. Vito, there was a twinkle in your eye that was gorgeous to see.

And obviously the camera can see it because you stared at the fucking camera the whole time. But that was a nice moment that I think I want to remember that for as long as I can. Yeah, it doesn't happen often. What are some of the takeaways you're going to take away from this? Well, like this in's in my life. Yeah. Badasses can dress up as furry animals, too. That guy, I don't know

what he said he did, but I'm sure he's killed people. Right? I don't want to put bodies on his name. What was his position again? He was a colonel in the military. I don't think he killed anyone. He probably ordered some thoughts. He's still blood in his hands, in my opinion. Yeah, he was like that. Again, I don't want to put anyone he probably ordered some thoughts he's still blood in his hands in my opinion yeah he was like that

he was like that again I don't want to put so many blood on anyone's hands look he was the famous that famous paradox dude where it's like if you can control the railroads

the one way it goes it's going to kill one person but you can change it to kill five people something like that he's that dude I love that yeah

but basically I like how you just don't know who could be here and like all you know basically whoever comes to our podcast that's what's great about you just don't know who could be here and like all you know Peace whoever comes to our podcast is what that's what's great about you just don't know where you get I love it I would like to see like at one point like Vito walks away to go to the bathroom and then like a new furry comes

By and they come up and they're like you should pay your producer more You're the furry, dude. It's you. Yeah, this is you in the situation, dude. I'll go dress up real quick on home back. Yeah, you guys got paid this motherfucker more. He's killing it.

I want him in my head for a second. Sure? Yeah. Oh, my God. All right. Well, hey, that's the podcast. Thanks, Vito, for coming on.

I really appreciate you. Ending segment. It helped out. We needed an extra five minutes. Thanks for the five minutes, bro. Yeah, man. That's all you get. Look at the camera

one more time. Oh. That's the end. That's the glory shot. That's the glory shot. All right, bro. Yeah, man. That's all you get. Look at the camera one more time. Oh, that's the end. That's the glory shot. That's the glory shot. All right, everybody. We'll talk to you. If you like this content, you want some sweet,

sweet bonus content, go to patreon.com slash man at work podcast. Invite us to your convention. We've already gone to two conventions back to back in episodes. So come invite us.

Me and Matt will show up. We'll hang out with anybody. We've obviously already proven that we could. You got any dates or anything? Yeah, check the Instagram. I have a lot of stuff in August coming up. It's overly busy. But yeah, we have a lot of fun shows. Come see me live and in person. Usually

Philadelphia, so I'll post that up. Come check it out, dude. Awesome. All right, everybody. Thank you for tuning in. Peace.