The Reel Rejects - MULTICON REPLAY! Kevin Smith, Sean Gunn, Robert Kirkman, Rob Liefeld & MORE | Wildfire Relief

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

Join us LIVE from MultiCon at The PreserveLA as we rally together for Wildfire Recovery in Los Angeles, bringing fans an epic day of panels, guests, and community—all in support of United Way. This star-studded event features legendary creators, iconic voices, and fan-favorite actors, all uniting for a great cause! Get ready for exclusive moments with: Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay & Silent Bob, Dogma) – diving deep into comic book lore and fan culture. Robert Kirkman (Invincible Season 2, The Walking Dead) – on crafting two of the most influential franchises in TV and comics. Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man 2, Ben 10) – sharing behind-the-scenes insights on voicing one of gaming’s greatest heroes. Scott Gimple (The Walking Dead Universe), Khary Payton (The Walking Dead, Teen Titans Go!), & Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead, Southland) – breaking down the undead legacy. Rob Liefeld (Deadpool, X-Force) – the creator who revolutionized Marvel’s anti-heroes. Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Gilmore Girls), Daniel Logan (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones), & Vivien Lyra Blair (Obi-Wan Kenobi) – celebrating a galaxy of heroes. Straw Hat Goofy (TikTok’s Movie Expert) leading the Animation Nation panel with: Seth Green (Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Austin Powers) Tara Platt (Naruto, Fire Emblem) Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man 2 & Ben 10) Isaac Robinson-Smith (Transformers: EarthSpark) Jason Charles Miller (Critical Role), Jason Carl (Vampire: The Masquerade), & Amy Vorpahl (Dimension 20) – guiding the ultimate D&D workshop. The Reel Rejects – Greg Alba, Coy Jandreau, Aaron Alexander, Roxy Striar, Tara Erickson, Andrew Gordon, & John Humphrey – closing out the day with deep dives, hot takes, and plenty of laughs. From The Walking Dead and Spider-Man 2 to Star Wars, Invincible, and everything in between, MultiCon is your all-access pass to the fandoms you love—all while supporting a crucial cause. 0:00 - INTRO & PANEL 1: STORIES OF THE WALKING DEAD with Scott Gimple, Khary Payton, and Michael Cudlits - Moderated by Ben Watts 48:48 - PANEL 2: WONDER WOMEN with Jackie Tohn and Bitsie Tulloch - Moderated by Peri Nemiroff 1:26:22 - PANEL 3: KINGS OF COMICS with Kevin Smith, Rob Liefeld, and Robert Kirkman - Moderated by Coy Jandreau 2:11:06 - PANEL 4: A GALAXY OF GOOD with Sean Gunn, Daniel Logan, and Vivien Lyra Blair - Moderated by Greg Alba 2:51:50 - PANEL 5: VARIETY THROWBACK with Kel Mitchell, KayCee Stroh, Monique Coleman, and Shar Jackson - Moderated by Katcy Stephens 3:24:42 - MICHAEL TESSLER Q&A 3:44:57 - BRENT BUTLER 3:53:00 - PANEL 6: ANIMATION NATION with Seth Green, Tara Platt, Yuri Lowenthal, and Isaac Robinson-Smith - Moderated by Juju Green 4:31:45 - PANEL 7: HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE DUNGEON MASTER with Jason Charles Miller, Jason Carl, and Amy Vorpahl - Moderated by Travis Oates 5:09:00 - PANEL 8: THE REEL REJECTS with Greg Alba, Coy Jandreau, Aaron Alexander, Roxy Striar, Tara Erickson, Andrew Gordon, and John Humphrey - Moderated by Michael Tessler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rayban Meta Glasses, iconic style meets Meta-I. Multicon. How's everybody doing today? So my name is Michael Tesler. I am the CEO of Multi House. And about 30 days ago, we had the idea of could we take the amazing communities of fandom and rally together to help our Los Angeles community as we recover from the wildfires. And somehow, 30 days later, we are here doing Multicons. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, we're very lucky because we have an extraordinary organization who we've partnered with, the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and their Wildfire Recovery Fund.

Woo, indeed. They've been doing such extraordinary work as they have for years, and they've been an amazing, trusted partner, and they gave us the chance to put their logo all over everything, so we tried to do them proud. So thank you so much to the United Way for trusting us. And all proceeds for today's event are going directly to the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. So every autograph you get signed, every piece of merch is all going to help our community rebuild. And if I've learned anything about Los Angeles in the past eight years since I moved here, it's that we're pretty strong and we're pretty resilient. And I've never been more proud to be an Angelino, and I hope that

all the Angelinos in the audience are feeling the same way right now. And we're going to rebuild because of everybody here, because of people like you. So thank you all for taking your passion, give yourselves a round of applause, for taking your love of all things nerdy and using it for good. So we've got a pretty extraordinary lineup with every single name that came in. I had to promise myself I wasn't going to fan girl as I met each and every one of them. Whether it be some of our favorite celebrities from one of my favorite series, The Walking Dead, or from a galaxy far, far away in Star Wars, or for those of you that love the Marvel Cinematic Universe,

or the DCU for that matter. So we've got so many different representations of some of our favorite stories all here today. And on top of that, we also have some of our favorite cosplayers and content creators. We've got some of them right over there. I've been like a fan of these guys for so long.

That's Hawkeye. I got Scarlet Witch. We got Leia on Endor, Superman. Yeah, we got everybody. So we got the Ghostbusters out there in Venderville. be sure to say hello to them my favorite humans in the world the 501st legion are here vaders first they're here uh you're going to be seeing them a little bit later today so we've got all these amazing panels we've got so much fun but none of this would have happened if it weren't

for the chairman of bond companies and the fellow that had the crazy idea to create the largest urban forests in los angeles there is six thousand five hundred plants and trees right here And this historic site that was originally built by Paul Revere Williams, the first black architect and the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Larry Bond, saved this property, that historic property, the architect of the stars, and turned it into this extraordinary campus and generously donated the space for us to use and has been an amazing partner. Larry, I love you so much, and I love if you'd come and say a couple words. Give me a big round of applause for Larry Bond. So as you get to walk around our campus today, you'll see that crazy lives here. And Michael is one of those crazies also that works here every day. And so I've been thrilled to spend so much time with Michael creating ideas and saying,

there's no such thing as my wife always says, no is this a slow yes. So whenever we come up with these crazy ideas, we just figure out how do we make it happen? And that was what happened in this event today. We were heartbroken by so many people that have lost their homes or impacted by the fires. There's literally no person in L.A. that doesn't have a friend or family member that was impacted. So today is really a special event. It's about having fun. It's about supporting our community.

It's not about being depressed. It's just the opposite. And I'm going to do a secret jetty mind trick on all of you. you are all going to have a brilliant and fun time today. So when Michael and I started talking about this idea, we said, what is the kind of one nonprofit that we know does phenomenal work? And we both immediately said, that's the United Way of Los Angeles. And that's spearheaded by a very good friend of mine, Elise Buick,

who's the CEO of United Way. And she'll be up here in just a second. But the most important part is while everything is going to United Way, I wanted to make sure, and Michael wanted to make sure that this organization, which does great work, puts it in the right place to help others. And that's why I was so thrilled that she said yes to be our partner today in all this events. So the other thing I would say is Michael left out is he did talk about the 501st, but there may be a little bit of rebels they're going to be showing up today too. Rebel scum again. And so we'll see if the stormtroopers can handle it or whether the rebels are going to overtake the stormtroopers. I don't know. But if not, we have Superman here. Fat Hawkeye. We've got plenty of superheroes here today to take care of it. Anyway, with that in mind, Elise, please come up to the stage. And let me just say my thanks to Michael and Larry for having the vision to bring us all together to help our community heal. So let's give them a big round of applause.

This has been a very, and continues to be a very devastating time for our community. And the fact that you're all here today to support us means the world. So many people, I've been in L.A. a very long time. my accent, I'm originally from Georgia, but this is my home. And just to see the level of devastation of workers who've been displaced, people who've lost their small businesses, people who've lost their homes, whether they're renters or owners, entire communities and neighborhoods just gone overnight. I don't think any of us could have imagined what would take our communities away. But I I agree with Michael.

I think LA is at its best when we come together. And today is just the representation of that. And so the generosity of you buying tickets and buy lots of merchandise is going to allow us to help people rebuild their lives. It's going to allow us to give them hope. And it's going to allow us to rebuild differently, to make sure that there's equity in our rebuilding, to protect neighborhoods, to protect home ownership. and really come back from this even stronger.

So we couldn't be more grateful and honor to partner with Michael and Larry, a Multicon. But the real power of this is all of you, and I think we have people watching us online. And so the power of community together, that's what United Way stands for, is how we come together United for L.A. So let's have a great day,

and we can have fun and really help rebuild lives together. So thank you so much, Michael and Larry. Thank you both so much. Who's ready for our first panel? So, I'm not going to lie, there is not a single episode of this series or any of its spinoffs or any of its comics that I have not watched or read.

And the fact that this is happening right now now makes me want to cry. The fact that I'm looking at some of these guys right now who I've admired and loved for years and years is extraordinary. I'm so excited to welcome our very first panel, one of the greatest television series ever created, based on one of the greatest comic series ever created, our Walking Dead panel. Hello, there you go. Ladies and gentlemen, Executive Producer the Walking Dead, Scott Kempel. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Michael Cudlitz, the Abraham.

I will be, uh, is this on? Yeah, this is still on. Here, yeah, you get that one. Check, check. Hey, there we go. Check, check. And ladies and gentlemen, your moderator for today, Kerry Payton.

Hi, thank you very much. Nice to meet you. No, I'm the moderator for today. I'm Benjamin Watts. You will recognize me. I played a walker in every single episode of the Walking Dead. Awesome. So I'm going to be doing that for you today.

No, ladies and gentlemen, this is your wonderful, esteemed Walking Dead panel. That's right. Showrunner and Franchise Overseer, Extraordinary. Something like that. I love the confidence there, Scott Gimple, here we go. Now you know his voice for Black Sampson from Invincible, Cyborg from Teen Titans Go. And of course, you know him as the very royal.

King Ezekiel from the walking Dan. And you might know him as Officer John Cooper from Searle. Southland. Also, yes, we got Southland fans. Also, most recently, Lex Luthor in the Superman and Lois series. Yeah, we got Lex Luthor fans. But of course, the always lovable and hilarious. Abraham Ford from the Walking Dead, Mr. Michael Cudlitz. Thank you very much. Hey, guys. Did we miss anything? This is one time that I'm going to just tell you everything I've ever done so that if somebody you know walks a picture. picture and autograph, just, just look through all of the crap that I've done.

You know, I'm sure there's a kid who watched it. I was Rafiki on Disney, Disney Jr., so if you want me to talk. There's a Christmas present in there somewhere. Someone needs to talk to Rafiki and tell them to listen. You know, all of it, I'm going to be shameless about plugging all of these guys. Lex Luther, ladies and gentlemen. Might be the baddest Lex Luthor anybody's ever seen. I don't know if anybody's going to step to that Lex Luthor.

Don't get into that conversation. Yes, exactly, exactly. The Superman fan base eats its own. Yeah. They love Superman. It's good that you're such a big man, you know, because you still got some, you know, some thickness to you after being it. So, but Lex Luthor, ladies and gentlemen.

Fillmore, the executive producer and creator of Fillmore. Who's it? Who remembers? Come all. Give it up. Right down the front. Man, I've been doing it. Exactly. All right. That's all I've got. You're doing such a great job, Carrie. I'm happy for you to take it. I told you this was going to be the easiest job of your life. Yeah, I'll just set my mic down.

Yeah, yeah. Just take it out, man. Enjoy it. This is a beautiful facility. I had no idea that this was here. I'm going to get a cut and just pull up. The only thing, I don't think I'll ever know how to get out of here because there are no right angles. I just have to keep moving around the circle until I slowly make it out. I don't know if I'm ever going to get out of here. So let's get to know each other and be nice. That's right.

Now, we're going to kind of cover kind of the beginning, the middle, and the end. So, Scott, I want to start with you, especially, you know, I might have a problem. No, no, that's my voice. Okay. So, first off, now you started, you came aboard the series in season two kind of as a writer-producer. Eventually, you became the official show runner in season four. So what was that kind of journey early on for you getting introduced to the series and taking the reins? You know, we were, Cori and I had breakfast yesterday.

We were talking about this. We were talking about like beginnings and endings and middles. I was working on another show. It was kind of a hard show. And Sunday nights meant a lot to me. It was a power night. It was Boardwalk Empire. it was Luther

and then Walking Dead I might have the order wrong and Walking Dead I'd read the comic I'd come from comics it meant a lot to me and so I had heard that there was a lot of turnover after season one and my agent had called me up and said oh you have an opportunity to go meet on the Walking Dead and I told him yeah no I don't want to

because it meant so much to me because those Sunday nights were so enriching. They kind of powered me up for the week, and I didn't want to sully that by seeing how the sausage was made. And my agent's a pretty even guy, but he came down on me pretty hard. And so I took a meeting with AMC,

and then I found myself in Frank Deribon's office with just, you know, Roberts there, D.A.'s there, and Gailin Hurd is there, and they're all lined up in front of me and I'm in a sweater vest Argyle and a tie with foxes on it

and Frank is and Frank you know legend I mean so much amazing work but Shawshank Redemption you know like the Bible and he's smoking and Nat Sherman blowing it out his window I think of my friend

and they do frame You got to turn this up so I can do my... I can't do Morgan Freeman loud. You got to turn him up. There you go. Sometimes I think when I look out the window, I wonder, could this man fly in a higher? He crawled through 100 yards of shit that I don't even want to think about.

Yes, absolutely. This is how I put myself to sleep. Go ahead and finish your stuff. No, that was going through my head. So, this is coming to a close. Frank brought up a show. Frank brought up a show. I'm not going to say which show.

No, I'm not. Because I say something negative. He goes, this show, which I'm not naming, is the best show on television. And without a beat, and I did it just like this, I said, oh, I don't know so much. He turns and looks at me, a look that I would come to know, looks at me.

over his glasses, Robert kind of winces, and everybody's just silent, and I just say, I'll show myself out. And Frank said, no, I don't want everybody just to think like me on this show. I want a variety of viewpoints, and I was like, oh no, I really want to be on this show. And that's why I went on, or that's why I hope to get on

and then it worked out. So... There's agreement, man. Now, obviously, the series lasted 11th season. So you've got kind of eras that kind of broken up. You've got your early era. And then we introduce Abraham, Michael. In season four, you come along.

And you were just this fan favorite, lovable character. And in fact, during more research for this, there are multiple videos on YouTube just saying why Abraham Ford is the most underrated character on the Walking Dead. Like, the fandom is real. So did you feel that when you, like, came aboard in that first season that you were there?

Did I feel I was underrated? You can tell Scott. Still is. Still is. No, I don't think he was underrated, even though the Santa Ana's are still happening, that's why we're here. No, I, I, so what's the question?

I was just saying, what's the question behind the question? See, when the first season you came on? Were you automatically feeling that fan love? No. Oh, my God. You see, this is, I like being the first panel because you get out the kicks. He's going to shake it all out.

Just, Michael, be mindful of that. Yes, I am. It's soft. And I have a big hard head, so it will be all right. I'm taller than you guys, so I'll take the brunt of it. No, it was interesting coming onto the show. for me because when they hire this is sort of across the board

I think they did it all the way to the end when they would hire you you didn't know what you were being hired for specifically in direct relation to the comic book so I came in the audition material was all the elements of the character were there but the name wasn't there you know I was someone who was

definitely mission driven trying to get something done and I think it was a really wonderful convoluted situation they set up where I had to go to my neighbor's house that I hated and grab his range rover, which was brand new, and take it out to the desert and do something. And it was like, it's like, no, I'm not giving you my car. So, like, I had to get the car from him, you know, and this is sort of like the determination

of Abraham and the drive, and, you know, the mission wasn't more important than my neighbor. And so it was that type of thing. So when I was given the material, I didn't know what I was auditioning for. I'd just come off Southland. They wanted me to move to Georgia, possibly, to do this thing that they wouldn't tell me what it was. So I think in the beginning, a couple of times I just said, no. I didn't know what it was. They eventually came around, long story short, let me know what it was.

I knew what the character was in the comic and the sort of the projected lifespan kind of because Scott had said they really wanted to get back to the comic and the linear narrative of the comic and its sort of timeline which they had strayed from a little bit and some characters that are still alive

or were still allowed till the very end actually had been killed off early on they really wanted to get back to the comic with the core crew that they had and really tell that story in a parallel universe with the comics. So I knew that I would be on for a couple of years, but I also knew that the show is really coming into its popularity.

So there's kind of like a weird responsibility you have to sort of not screw it up because you don't want to be the guy who can, oh yeah, we came in with our group and we ruined the show. because the fans of the comic and the fans of the TV show at the time were sort of less mixed, I think, than they are now. There were sort of like the comic guys who were like, yeah, this is bullshit, I'm never watching this again.

Episode 15, this is bullshit, I'm still never going to watch this again. I don't care what you say, I'm never watching it. Like, they were all watching it, but some were hate watching it. And I think near the end, everybody sort of blended in and the people who didn't like the way the show went dropped off, and the people who did all sort of came together and coalesced, and we had a really, really strong fan base. That was, in my opinion, wonderfully critical of the show,

mostly for all the right reasons, because they wanted these stories to be protected, they wanted these characters to be represented properly, and they fell in love with these characters. So coming into that and not knowing how the fans were going to respond, knowing that you were going be on for a while and you are one of the sort of main comic book characters it's kind of terrifying at first because if the fan base turns on you you're dead and you still

have to do the job so you got to now show up every week knowing that everybody hates you so the fact that there was a very positive response to it obviously makes my job easier but it was nice knowing that the fans felt like we were representing you know my group with Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita, knowing that that trio, in the eyes of the people who were watching the show for the first time, but also those who had the comics, they all felt that we were doing justice to those characters.

So that is very satisfying. I will bring up one thing that Michael brought up and it's one of my favorite things is, you know, this was an era of secrecy. And so whenever we were auditioning someone, we wrote up like fake scenes, the scenes not from the comic. And I will say my dream is for the people who got the roles

to perform those scenes, like to get all of them to perform their scenes, because some of those scenes are crazy. Like Josh McDermott was at a high school reunion. And he ordered, like, puckered, neat. And gosh, the gentleman Andrew West, who played Gareth, he was like a spy in an office, like all these crazy scenes. So I just want to put it out there to the universe.

That's hilarious, because my audition, you just changed the name of the tiger to Nala and made her a lion. You tried, at that point, you're just giving up. Nobody will ever know. Yeah, you're like, yeah, I got him slow job this time. No, I have the Y on that one. Ezekiel has such a specific voice. Oh, yes.

Ezekiel has such a specific voice, there's no reason to try and hide the ball. Yeah, no, it helps so much, actually, because I was able to, when I auditioned, I went and read the comic and that audition came straight out of the comic book when he explains his whole relationship to how he became King and how he, you know, came to have a tiger in this, you know, odd situation. and so I and I read it and I and it said that he kind of slumps in his chair and he becomes a different person and and as I was reading it it never said anything about his voice changing and and I've done so much voice over at work over the years that that was the first thing that I went to is that you know this kind of you know Shakespeare in the park guy you know you know I talks like he's sitting down down with you at a barbecue. And I honestly think that that's, that might have been the thing that, that, that, that stuck me out out of, out of, you know, the hundreds of guys that, that I, that I, that I, they auditioned for Ezekiel. I, I, I remember I was, I had done like nine pilots over, over the, over the years since I've been in L.A. about 20 years. And, and, and, um, that, that haven't, didn't go anywhere or got canceled after a,

after an episode. The Hank Azaria show. Yeah, the Hank Azaria show. I did one episode of Hankazir. That was my first job, I think, when I got to town. But I was, I had gotten to 2016, and I was like, you know what, I don't think I need an audition, a pilot, because I'd always thought to myself, I'm going to go to L.A., I'm going to get a pilot, then you get on it, you know, and that's how it goes.

And so everybody does. Yeah, and, and, um. Just come to L.A., get a pilot. work for the rest of your life make a bunch of money and retire yeah yeah it's pretty straightforward i don't know what everybody's having such a problem with yeah and i was lucky to have been working and and making a living in l.A but i hadn't made that made that uh next step and i remember it was you just weren't trying hard enough i wasn't trying hard enough it's really it's pretty easy carrie yeah and and honestly honestly um thank you for calling me out in front of all of these good people

they need to know the truth. But I told my manager, I was like, I don't think I need a pilot. I think I need an introduction. And I got that audition, and I walked out of there, and I've been hiking these hills in Griffith Park, and I was like, I felt really good about the audition. And I said, I need to gain some weight. I got a feeling about this thing. So for the next month, I, like, shoved creatine down my gullet and, you know, ate a bunch of chicken breasts and all of this stuff.

And because I, because the next day they said they really like Carrey, but this is kind of an important character in the comic book. So we'll see you in a month. We're going to go audition every black man between the ages of 40 and 75. And I'm not sure if that's what we said. that was that was that was what was um what was telegraphed to me so so i was like i was like fine i'm gonna i'm gonna go and and and add a couple of pounds because uh because ezekiel in the comic book had more pizza uh experience than i had and so uh and i i just wanted to you know do my due diligence and um and so i and so when i when i finally uh got the part and um and and i and i

sat there on the throne next to this tiger, which was just a shiny spherical ball. I remember looking at him and thinking, God, I hope you look good, because if you don't, I'm going to look like an idiot. And it turned out she looked gorgeous. And was actually, we took the tiger, we took the tiger and bought the, the data from a movie, which happened to be my favorite book that I had ever read, I ever read, Life of Pie. Richard Parker from Life of Pie is the same tiger that is Shiva. And so, and so it's really kind of cool to me that Richard Parker is actually, you know, my co-star in this show. I love being on stage right now. I'm sorry I'm talking a lot, But I just want to say every time, because we're talking about beginnings, the first person that I met,

the first person I met when I walked into the makeup trailer was Cudlitz because Abraham had just been killed and he was trying to throw everybody off by hanging out for the next episode. So he was actually, he had just, he was starting his incredible career as a director and was shadowing Greg Nicotero. And so he was hanging out, but he was shadowing him in full costume. You know, getting his hair done and his facial hair and everything looked just like Abraham. I walk in and I see Abraham, and he gives me a big hug. He's just about the warmest man you ever want to meet.

Okay, it's a great way to be welcomed into a place. But he looked me in the eye and he said, man, well, Welcome, your life is about to change. I don't know if anybody's told you this yet, but your life is about to change. And he says, he said, you got kids? And I said, yeah, I've got kids. He's like, you remember before you had kids? You remember the moment you had a kid and you looked at that kid?

It's like that. Nobody's going to be able to explain it. But everything's about to change for it. I'm really excited about your journey. And it's one of the most accurate things anyone's ever told. me and I and I will appreciate you for many reasons but till the day I died because of that because of that it it weirdly didn't freak me out it calm me down maybe it was because it was coming from my coming from cutlets but but yeah

but I'll never forget I'll never forget that moment in the trailer walking into like the biggest job of my life and I and I and knowing that some some how everything was going to be all right And I'll just say that like beginnings on our show from an acting standpoint and from the success level that the show was at weren't easy because these guys would write wonderful monologues that we would come in that would take care of a lot of the exposition really delivered well so far as to get people who didn't follow the comics up to speed with this character with a lot of backstory and it would really be dumped really early on when you met

the characters. We saw it with Negan. I think he had something like 19 pages where it was just him talking. I could be off. And that was his first experience on set coming onto a show in season six, which is at the top, which at, you know, 15, 18 million people watching. Just incredibly successful so far as today's standards and the numbers of people that were watching. And that's, you know, within the first seven days, obviously over time, the numbers go up. When Kari came on, he had that big, long speech with Melissa McBride Carroll in the courtyard. And I just remember, like, just thinking being completely on the outside of it again, because I was shadowing Greg, just thinking, man, he's just friggin' nailing this.

And I think you had about nine or 11 pages that you had explaining the whole thing, where Melissa, you know, Kari would talk for like 35 minutes, and Melissa would be like, interesting. And then Kari would go on for another 15 minutes. No, but I think in total it was a good seven or eight minutes where you were, you know, it was just you. And that's your introduction.

And that's first day of school for us. So it's like coming into a job that not, I mean, obviously we've been very fortunate, we're actors, we've been doing this for a while, you're still coming into a completely new situation with a new crew, new people. You're still finding your character, what it's going to be.

How is it going to really exist in this world once I open my mouth? You're, in most cases, saying those words out loud for the first time opposite the person that is returning the serve to you. So it's an incredibly exciting and creatively charged atmosphere to be day one on the Walking Dead as a reoccurring or series regular.

Yeah, it feels good because it's like they give you the job, and then they're like, we gave you a job for a reason because we trust you, and we're going to hike the ball. Go. Sprint. We're throwing you to bomb. You know, it's like everybody else is at the line of scrimmage, and this one, this one's on you.

Don't drop it. And I love that feeling. I love that I actually didn't have time to get nervous because he had so much work to do. It wasn't like, you know, you've got a scene here, you've got a scene here, and a lot of time to think about it. It's like, no thinking. Go do your job. You know, don't talk to anybody.

You know, do what you came to do. It was an exhilarating feeling. And honestly, I was jealous every episode after that because I always, I loved that feeling of getting thrown the ball like that. And we've got such a huge cast with so much. many great characters. You know, everybody gets the ball. And I'm like that wide receiver goes back to the line of scrimmage. It's like, I'm open. Throw me the ball. I got this guy can't cover me. Give me the ball. You know, it was great. It's Eugene's Week. It's Eugene's Week. Many times it was Eugene's Week. I think it was fairly well. I'm sitting here being defensive.

You wrote them all. It's okay. Not alone. We understand. Yeah, yeah. Although getting a call from Scott while you're on the show, the first 30 seconds is the worst 30 seconds of your life. Because you're like, you're like, what, Scott, what do you want? And that's, wondering if you'd like some coffee. No, that is. Ask me first. Tell me I'm not going to die. Then we can have a conversation. I mean, that's it for years. I was just like, I got to call him to ask him something, but I really don't want to. Yeah. He's a grim reaper.

name and worry. Yeah, I should have had the cloak and the sickle and everything. Well, yeah, Scott, so tell me about obviously the show, nobody is safe. And so when you have to make those calls to your cast to say you're no longer going to be, your story comes to an end, what does that experience from your position? Oh, I mean, it's awful. I mean, because the Walking Dead was like the greatest summer camp on Earth. It's like we shot the same.

period of the year, every year. It's in rural Georgia. It's near Atlanta, but it's in rural Georgia. And everybody bonds real quick. And one of the worst things about the Walking Dead is for all the people that came through there. And a lot of people came through there, it was like the most functional set.

Everybody's like super welcoming and super supportive for the most part. I mean, especially proportionally with the shows. And it's like, oh, damn. like nobody's unhappy it's not nobody's like awesome I get to go so yeah and I I don't think I had been in a position yeah I wasn't in a position where I had to tell people they were dead before yeah it was really hard but it made you that much as a writer or or you know as a filmmaker

It made you very, very cognizant of how important it was to do it right and to treat it with a certain respect and to work really, really hard to do right by these people who are losing something. And a lot of times it was, you know, a lot of times it was hard when I talked to people and people got choked up. And it, but I never went into it thinking like it was for shock or it was some cheap solution to some problem, that there was a real story behind it. I will say it was so important, you know, if you watch, this isn't to rip on Star Trek in any way. Star Trek is a very... No, man, screw up Star Trek, man. Let's go hard on Star Trek. I'm talking the...

I don't want to rip on Star Trek, but I'm going to rip on Star Trek, but I'm going to rip on. Star Trek. Go ahead, Scott. I'm just saying... Just remember, this is going out to millions of people on the internet. I'm just saying on the original series, Kirk, McCoy, Spock, they were the stars, and they got stories. And after that, there was

not like a Chekhov episode. There wasn't. But on The Walking Dead, it was very, very important to me to democratize the story. And because these people, these characters, what was cool on the Walking Dead is everybody had their favorites.

You know, like, there were characters that spoke to all different people in the audience, and you wanted them to have whole stories, and you wanted when they die for it to mean something. And, you know, over the years, you know, the audience would get madder and matter about them, and I wasn't, like, happy about that, but I was like that was a signifier that they meant something to the audience. and, you know, if we had to take the hits over it, it just meant that we did our job right. He's such a sweet man.

And it's just, it's such a, you know what I mean? It's like, you go and go and sit next to him, you know, you know, your hand's shaking, you're trying to get the coffee up to you. You know, you're like, please, you know. He's such a sweet. He really is a sweet man. He took a lot of crap for killing off Abraham.

But mostly for Michael. Or chiefly for Michael. Michael? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I think I was, I loved being on the show. I had an amazing time on the show. I think I was probably one of your easiest phone calls. But also I will say, because he, well, because I didn't even get, hey, Scott saying, hey, I got an AD who called me up. I was in New York and said, hey, Scott wants to know if you're available next week for a meeting. I said, he's killing me. But no, no, no, no, I just wants I said, tell Scott to call me.

I know. Which, which AD was this? It was, uh, uh, what's his name? Mr. Goodwin? Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I can see.

So I said, no, I said, you know what? I'll call him. So I said, Scott call me. All the while, Scott's like putting that white makeup on his face with the dark eyes, you know, like the grim reaper from Bill and Ted. Just, he's like, huh? Here I go, yeah. So I called, I called Scott.

I leave a message. I said, hey, buddy, I'm in New York. Um, Matt called me, told me you want to have a meeting. I'm pretty sure you're going to kill me. I just don't, like, I'm going to be thinking about this. I said, I'm fine with it, but I'm going to be thinking about it my whole New York trip, and I just kind of don't want it to screw up my time. So give me a call.

Let me know what's going on. We're fine either way. Like, if I'm totally misreading this, that's on me, but call me back. So he calls me back, and he's like, well, yeah. I mean, okay, yeah. We are killing you, but I don't, we don't really know. And at this point, they didn't know if they were going to kill us at the end of six or the beginning of seven. That was the big thing.

Or they were going to split it up between the two of us to kill one and then kill the other. And they weren't sure if they could keep the secret and this and that. I go, okay, that's all stuff we can figure out later. But you're killing me, right? Yeah. Great. Okay. That's the quickest answer you ever going to give from Scott.

I say, we'll talk next week. You know, there's more to the story, which we can't go into. It's all good, but it's just, it's none of your business. And he said, so we'll meet on Tuesday. I said, great. I said, now I can go on with my trip and know, you know, kind of process it. I'm an adult. It's not the first show I've gotten killed off of.

It's certainly not going to be the last. And that's what's rough, and I think we've talked about this, is I worked on a show called Life, and I wrote the episode that. Blum my head off. Yeah, sorry. Back of a police car. Okay, that wasn't my call, though. Sure. That was me.

I have a pitch. But I will say, you know, at the beginning of the season, if it was possible, we would generally say, you know, at the beginning of the season, like, seasons say, like, oh, this might be the season. And generally that happened every time. There was one slip up for not one of the series. regulars that I always regret. It was a much smaller role, but the scripts went out before I could make the call, which I was not happy about. But luckily, that dude was a very awesome, very forgiving, very regularly working guy. But I guess, you know, we've taken a good 15 minutes on this.

I'll just say it wasn't fun. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, obviously, Michael, when Abraham departs the show, it is such a dramatic transition to kind of this new era. And obviously, then you're in the very next episode, Carrie. But then you kind of come back to the show in a directing capacity. What's that like to then now the work with these people that you've acted alongside? And I'm watching this.

I feel like the spirits are talking. It was wonderful. When Scott and I first met, he had talked to me about it and said, what are your sort of like your career goals? Like what do you just wanted to know more about me? And I said, I'm really actually looking to move into directing. I said, which I know we've just met, but if we realize our storytelling sensibilities are similar and we kind of get along and we're on the same page, I'd love to talk to you in the future about directing. He said, absolutely. We could certainly talk about that and address that later.

When I was going to leave the show, they wanted to keep the season. secret. So there were some contract things that had to be addressed, which we addressed. And Scott said, do you want to put into the contract, the directing thing? And I said, no. I said, I don't ever want to be in a directing situation where I'm forced on a crew and you're giving me a job out of contractual obligation. I go, that's the worst, that's the shittiest job you could ever get in your life. I said, if you want me to come back and direct, we'll talk about that some other time, but now, no. What I didn't know is that Scott was in the middle of transitioning over into running the what AMC is calling and Scott calls the

the Walking Dead universe which is sort of all the shows he was going to supervise all the shows that were going on and Angela Kang was going to take over his showrunner Scott intended for me to direct but he couldn't tell me until he spoke to Angela until her deal was done and she took over because he didn't want to force a director on her so once her deal was done which took really long time, unfortunately, just because of the nature of in-between seasons. Again, I was walking in the streets of New York, which I literally just put together just now, where I found out I was getting killed, and I got a call from Scott and Angela on conference call

and said, hey, we want to talk to you. We'd love to have you come back and direct next season. What Michael doesn't realize is that we would have shived any other director in the back to make sure that Michael got on and able to direct. One of the most lovely experiences you can have as an actor is to have someone who's thinking about the big picture and also somehow thinking specifically about you and where you're going at the same time. And Michael has an ease about it

and also a giddiness about getting it right. Because it's amazing that anything works out well in television or film. so many elements that have to be gotten right. And the cool thing about watching Michael work is that he's choreographed to dance. You know, and by the end of the choreography and the cameras coming up, it's funny to see a big man doing this. But that's when you know, he's like, oh, it's happening. The dance is happening.

And it's exciting and it's exciting and wonderful. thing to see and be a part of all right go back no no that's great thank you appreciate that i like i love it i love i love being on set and i love working with these people um when i was in the street of new york getting this information from angelo and scott um you know they said that uh basically we want you to direct um but also there's another reason we feel like we're we're so deep into this the crew has fatigue the cast has fatigue we think this would be a great and and you know sort of morale booster as well because they would love to see you know one of their own come back and do that so it's they were very upfront they said it's

all part of that and when I came back in it was it was amazing I mean the crew rallied the cast rallied it was I had never done this before now granted at the time I think it's you know and I just say this because I think of the the ridiculousness of it when you really step back and think about it. I've never directed in my life at this point, ever. How much was each episode at that time, do you think? Between, give me like a window. Is it between six and eight? Between six and eight? Between six and eight, billion dollars? Between six and eight million dollars. Hi, ma'am. How are you? Have you ever directed before? Cool. Here's eight million.

dollars here's a crew go do something how dumb is that on its face i mean i love you but i would come home i would talk to my wife and i would be that what the like when you step back back back and you look and you're like what the hell are they thinking here's eight million bucks to a guy who's never done this before and there's meanwhile there's a dGA which has a ton of people that have done this and and are probably hoping to do it or busting down his email every week to hey can i get a chance or an interview now look i understand i i've been doing this a while i've been very very fortunate but still i am incredibly grateful for the opportunity and for the faith that they showed in me and the fact that they put themselves on the line because i'm guarantee you there wasn't just like

oh hey we're going to do this and amc was like oh sure I'm sure someone had to be reassured at some level because those are the guys given the $8 million. And honestly, it's changed my career. Well, the one thing that's evident more than anything is that clearly you had a family in front of the camera and behind the scenes. And Kerry, you were right about one thing. You made my part of this panel the easiest job in the world. Now, I want you all to thank the wonderful panel for being here. Multi-Con.

Thank you so much. Now, please stick around, everybody. In the next panel is Wonder Women with Jackie Tone and Bitsy Tollick, so stick around. And you guys... And let's just give one more big round of applause. The one, the only sergeant, Abraham Ford, King Ezekiel, and an extraordinary showrunner, Scott M. Kempel. Come by, guys, come by and visit us at our tables, even if it's just to say hi. Obviously, everything's going to a great cause.

So we'd love for you to purchase something, but you don't have to. Please come up and talk to us. There's some amazing auction items that you can get donated from Scott M. Gimple, including original Walker Mask from the original series. They're so awesome. You can check out one of them over in the gift shop and scan any of the QR codes, and you can find the auction. Thanks, everybody.

With PayPal, I can pay now or paying for, no interest and no fees. Now feature your ears on this prime cut musical meat. You can pay your own way. Don't just pay PayPal. Subject to approval, eligibility, fairs. Learn more at PayPal.com. for. Sorry, I didn't hear you guys. How we doing multi-con? All right. How was that first panel, everybody? That was something else. So we are having a crazy day today. So if you haven't had

the chance, we have our amazing autograph central over there in the original Paul Williams Oval Room. We have our cosplay courtyard. I think I saw some of the 501st guys walking out there. We've got some amazing food at the cafe. We also have some amazing vegan options and some other options outside in Vendor Village. We've got Dungeons and Dragons, Tabletop, we've got all different sorts of fun activations going on. But those of you who are lucky enough to be right here are in for an absolute treat. Two extraordinary, extraordinary actors, we just had the call the panel Wonder Women because there's really no other way to describe them.

And one of them, I just have to point out, point out actually kicked Neil deGrasse Tyson's ass in Jeopardy. And I have to say, I have never cheered louder at my television at any moment in history than when you pulled that amazing thing off. So let's give it up for our Wonder Women panel. I'll let our wonderful moderator Perry to the intros and let's get to it. Come on up. Hi everyone. I'm going to I'm so much smarter than Neil deGrasse it up a little. I'm so much smarter than Neil deGrasse and so exhausting yeah I'm an astrophysicist now it's crazy you just beat them once and

then you just do whatever you want after just because I'm curious bitty how would you fare on on jeopardy are you confident in your jeopardy skills um I you know it's funny I was raised overseas and so whenever I don't know the answer to something I blame it on Spanish being my first language smart but I did double major at Harvard so I'm not a dummy however I'm not I'm not good at you know little factoids so I don't know that I would be that great I dropped out of the University of Delaware yeah and beat Neil degrass Tyson so you would slaughter me on Jeopardy my situation was just like a series of accidents like I just wanted to not look other children no I just wanted to not to go on TV and not look like a total dick that was my

only goal was like people really celebrity Jeopardy especially look it's gonna be so embarrassing So I just wanted to, like, not fail that bad. And by the end, they each had, like, 12,000 points. I had 8,000. I was like, so what was the question that you beat him on? They, first of all, Final Jeopardy topic, Muppets. Your girl was like, oh, well, I guess I'm just betting it all, then, am I not? But I bet, like, you know, 75% of my pot.

And then the question was in Muppets, in the Great Muppet caper, the box marked frog had Kermit in it the box marked bear had Fazi in it the box marked whatever had who in it and Miss obviously Gonzo and I put Gonzo and Neil put snuffaloophagus and Melissa Peterman put animal

and I fucking won Jeopardy I love it you can't did you come to our studio when we did the movie Trivia Shmodown thing for Glow I think I did I think you did. Now this is all making so much sense. I think I did.

I've come to a lot of things. Trivia gives me anxiety. That's why I belong on Wheel of Fortune. Yes. Really good puzzle solver. Buy an N after some, I mean, guess an N after someone already guessed it, your worst nightmare. I'll do it. Honestly, that would be my worst nightmare on that show.

I spend money on an E. Oh, if someone did that already, the worst. I can talk about game shows all day long. We're here to celebrate your work as female forces in this industry that everybody needs. needs to know and that are going to continue to soar from here on out. And I get the great opportunity to go back to the very, very beginning for both of you. It's one of my favorite questions to ask, because there's so many people out there who are like, how do I break into this business and how do I do as well as folks like you?

When you first decided you wanted to be an actor, what did you think was step one to making that happen? And now having done it, would you recommend that step to another aspiring actor? Would you find something more effective along the way? Okay, so I have a funny story. And I do Comic-Conns fairly regularly between Grimm and Superman and Lois. I so did not want to be an actor that I was in Australia with a bestie who was working on Star Wars Clone Wars, and I bonded a lot with George Lucas. And he asked me half a dozen times to put me in the movie, and I kept saying no.

I was like, absolutely not. I am not an actor. I'm an academic. You know, I'm at Harvard. I'm studying the, you know, blah, blah, blah. And we would just hang out on set and I was doing stuff with the documentary team, but that's how little I wanted to be an actor.

And then I graduated from college and I was gonna go to Cambridge and get my MFA and I took a year off and I fell into it because a girlfriend of mine, I was in LA, I was dating some musician and a girlfriend wanted to audit acting classes and she was nervous to go alone. I'm like, I'll go with you. And I, at first, we went to a few and I'm like,

this is so dumb. This is so lame. And then we went to an acting class, and this teacher, I think, just saw right through me, and she gave me something so difficult to do. And I was, honestly, it was intoxicating and terrifying, and I fell in love, and I started studying theater. So whenever anyone asked me how to get in,

I'm like, get in a class, for sure, make sure this is something you really want to do because it's so hard, and it's so much rejection. And so you have to just assume, every audition I assume I'm not getting the job and you just have to go in and do your best but you stay up big thick skin take classes but yeah so I had a sort of unusual trajectory because I was not one of those people like popped out of the womb doing jazz hands I'm so glad you brought I was gonna say well that just such a great segue to me popping out of the womb doing jazz hands but anyway finish your question no I was I was looking I was looking at IMDB and it's it says attack of the clones and I think like location researcher or something thing. Yeah, because I was down there with a friend and I'm like, I'm not just going to sit on my ass, so give me something to do. So they just gave you a job? Yes. And then actually, so this is the other thing. I'm like, so I just go with friends to shit and help me do stuff? This is the other

story. So I did actually technically end up doing my first acting thing because at the time, Lucas was producing this mockumentary called R2D2 Beneath the Dome. And I was really good friends with the director of it. It was like 45 minute long mockumentary where R2D2 is this drug addled movie star and my friend Spencer Susser was directing and he's he's like will you please just play Artu's girlfriend it's in this style you know I don't know if the British office had been done yet but I was like yeah fine sure whatever so I played Artu's girlfriend and my name was Bitsy Tollick as the girlfriend and he's cheating on me and all this stuff and it was funny and it was silly and two things happened after we aired it like on the Fox lot in Sydney

Robin Gerland who was the main casting director of Star Wars ran up to me and she was like you are so funny you have to do this professionally and I was like yeah okay thanks and then you and McGregor like a week later was like hey I saw the macumentary that was so fucking funny and I was then I was like huh interesting still no but you know and that must have planted a little seed somewhere in the back of my head but it was still you know five years after that before I actually start doing it professionally yeah never has there been a more opposite story than the one you're about to hear. I'll let you lead the way.

I still have to get an answer from the first question. This is going to be the answer to the first question. What did you think was step one to making the dream a reality and then ultimately what wound up being the step that got your foot in the door the way you wanted? so the thing that I did to make the dream of reality I was a kid actor and so I started when I was nine literally out of the womb jazz hands like you can't imagine and by the time I was nine I'd been begging to be an actor for so long that my mother was like I'm gonna bash my head into the wall and so I have this I'll have to let

this kid do this my parents are both gym teachers neither one of them was like oh we're raising a star and I was like blah blah blah hear me out And then my mom had a friend named Aggie Gold, a fresh faces agency at a Baldwin, Long Island. She's still in business, the greatest. She was my first agent. I went and I took classes to get rid of my New York accent. Didn't work, obviously.

I'm in my 40s, and I still talk like this. I just now realize what parts I should be playing. I didn't always know I didn't know I was specific until recently. Isn't that funny? I didn't know. I thought I could just be anything. And it was like, no, no, you're that, very much that. You sound mad.

So I was a kid actor. So I took the steps you'd take if you were a kid actor. I got an agent. I took the classes to make my accent a little more palatable. I went on commercial auditions. I did background work. I was on PBS show called Ghost Writer, which is how I got my SAG card, which I had to rack my brain for because my boyfriend and I yesterday were like, ooh, if we got to stand up at

the beginning of the SAG Awards and say like, I'm an actor and I got my SAG card doing that what? I had to figure out what? was and it was ghostwriter as a background actor so yeah I just did all the things like the textbook things that you would do I just was very very lucky because my mom was best friends with a woman who was a kid agent and then she represented me all through my teens into my early 20s when I moved to LA and it no longer made sense to have an agent in Long Island I want to follow up on something that

you just said I forget the specific word you use but it essentially boils down to I guess having like a specialty or something that oh being specific being specific because like I I've watched a lot of your work in particular I'm obsessed with glow which I'm sure a lot of people are out there I I think you have endless range and can do whatever you want is that's really specific something that you want to embrace no or is it's something you want to fight back again that's really nice that question makes me feel vulnerable and kind of want to cry thanks for saying that I no I don't want to be specific I want to be able to do everything

But I also realize that when someone needs to hire a bitch, they call me. And I'm like, I swear to God, I'm never in a bad. All I want to do is, like, joke and I have friends and hug everyone. So it's like, so funny that my television persona is like, what are you wearing? It's like, what, I don't know why that.

Is my face just really easy at asking you, like, why you look dumb? Because I don't, that is not ever, ever. But I appreciate that. Because I guess on Glow, she wasn't, she was kind of mean. She was a little bit, but also you had great, and fun and moments of great warm 100 I appreciate that and I think so too then I was like oh I'm on the boys in GenVee she's a giant C2 so that's the only reason I say um just because you know I think that's um but I've done like a lot of fun indie movies where I'm absolutely playing

like the girl at the in the small town who rings people up and falls in love with the guy that moves to the town there's but it's just not the stuff that you know gets gets huge and as actors I'm sure you could speak to this two bits, but like, it's so crazy to be in a thing that people like. Because we do so many things that no one ever sees, indie movies are passionate about, projects we think, you know, and then you do something and people like it, and it's very cool. I have so many follow-up questions, and I don't want to forget them all. This kind of builds on what you were just saying in terms of having something specific and kind of wanting to break out of that for both of you.

Do you each remember the very first time you felt the power of your own voice on a set where you could speak up, you would get heard, and you could change something either on screen or behind the scenes for yourself for the better? Well, yeah, my first job, I was the series lead on, I was 25 and I booked the, it was honestly one of my first jobs, which also indicated, okay, maybe you should be doing this, but it was a series called Quarter Life for Edswick and Marshall Herskovitz. And all I remember was I need to show up on time. I need to set the tone for the cast and be tremendously respectful, obviously, to the crew

because they work longer hours than you do. And on every job since then, and on Grimm, you know, David Gentoli, who's my husband, who was the Grim, we shot 123 episodes of that show. We shot 10 months straight a year, six seasons. And he did not even have a day off until halfway through season three. He never complained once. He was so exhausted. And when I booked Lois on Superman and Lois as a series, you know, title lead,

I remember sitting down with Tyler Hecklin before we started filming. And I remember saying, you know, we have to set the tone of professionalism because we had heard a lot of stories about some other shows where some of the cast were not treating crew respectfully. we're not you know weren't showing up on time didn't know their lines I had worked with some of them who didn't know their lines and I was like that's not going to be us and I and I was saying to him I'm like that's not going to be me and and so you know just leading you know it means something when you're number one on a call sheet because there is a trickle-down effect and you know if somebody's misbehaving then other people start mistreating other

people and so I think you know it's a little bit depends on your number on the call who your lead is but you know no matter what your number on the call sheet you obviously always treat people with respect but when you are in a position of leadership I think it's really really important no matter how hard of a day you're having no matter how how tired you are to to always just acknowledge your position of privilege especially as an actor very well said okay I was gonna ask you to say the question again even though I remember it, but I think it's mostly because I'm more commenting on what you said

than what the actual question was. So do say the question again. Just watching that backdrop, just to make sure. Just to make sure. Well, I don't, I think enough of it's down. Cut my eye for a quick second, better. You know, very retaining wall moment where like if enough of it's below the thing. Probably look like I just got really excited to ask my question again, but no, it didn't cut my eye. It was the opposite actually. I was like, she okay? You just went, I'm looking out. I'm looking out. That's my job right now. The question is about the first time on a set that you realize the power of your own voice your ability to speak up and change something great so I just remembered I didn't even answer part B of the other question but I think

we're going to live um definitely I've felt very lucky because I have not been number one on the call sheet ever oh no on a movie once all right that was my ego just letting everybody know I'm here okay relax ego we're you're fine Jackie you're an actor and you work sometimes um so i know my leg that's a smart that's a smart idea we're just getting closer to the danger farther and farther away from you guys we love you but not personally get away we just get away and we're getting closer to this hazard okay um but um i've been very lucky to work with women and you guys are great guys are great so good um honestly so i know you guys

need help because the man is under our thumb now I'm being impressed but you're gonna be okay but I think I definitely was not in a position before glow to say shit ever ever ever and I was in more situations on more sets or I was like yike this is how this goes huh and just like some dude being too mad about some yelling and some shit but just insane stuff and I was young too so it was just like okay this is weird but this is what this business is you just like bite your tongue and you do your job and you show up but then on glow it was just everybody was women and so we had more meetings on that show of like you good like just a check-in you're like unheard

of like a you good meeting that is nuts but it was always like we'd sit down with genji and Tara Herman and Liz and Carley our showrunners and like girls would air their grievances and we one time in the beginning says the show was so revolutionary obviously first of all putting 15 funny women in one place except for orange I can't think of a time it ever happened orange is a new like it's normally very competitive with women you're the one person doing the funny thing the one woman on the show that's allowed to like make a joke or you're a sex symbol those are the only two women that would be on the show um and the woman who was funny was also often was never the sex symbol so it was like this very confusing wait a minute

hot funny this is crazy um but on that show we all felt so her and so just listen to in so many ways. I think something that was really powerful for me on Glow is there's a Melrose is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and I'm the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors in real life, me, Jackie. And so when the writers wrote this episode, I was like, oh, can I say my family member's name to like immortalize my Aunt Pessel.

And they were like, oh, we love that. I just got chills. And it's like, what in what universe? It's a very heavy example. We're trying to have a nice time. But the height of being listened to, the height of being seen. Our character, Jenny, who was Ellen Wong, our writers, they had her sort of, they didn't know what denomination of Asian the character was going to be.

And Ellen is Cambodian. And she's like, it's important to me that Jenny be Cambodian. And they were like, we are obsessed, we love that. And so they just wanted to make sure that everybody was sort of like taken care of and that when they felt that way that they would do a better job and a more authentic job. So that was the first time I ever felt listened to. And nobody wants this. It's amazing too.

It's so collaborative over there from like, you know, just being able to, I mean, the writing is incredible, but being able to pop stuff in and improvise a little and make your suggestions. And I don't think she'd wear this. And I think I'm in a starting to get to the place where I feel comfy advocating for myself. It's so important. I'm also a big believer that when people treat each other like that on a set, it shines through in the finished product. So I love hearing stories like that. Bitsy, I'll come back your way to ask a Superman and Lois question.

And I guess before them, because you were playing the character before that series. So every single TV show, every single movie comes with great pressure, high expectations. When you join a franchise like that, especially playing an iconic character, the pressure is just like through the roof. For you, when you took that role, what was the key to respecting the pressure and why it exists, but also making sure, you know, you felt free enough to do what you needed to do with the role as an artist. You know, Tyler and I get that question at almost every con. It's a great question. Neither of us really felt pressure.

I think we both trusted that we'd been cast for a reason, trusted the process. what we did feel was a tremendous honored and we had a lot of respect for the characters I think when I you know when I first started playing I remember it was before we had our you know our own show it was the night before I was filming as Lois I was appearing on the flash in else worlds which was one of the crossover events in 2018 I was six months pregnant and I remember and I remember tweeting out you know is there any Anything you guys want to see specifically about Lois? Because I had done some research, but I had pointedly avoided any previous iterations of the character once I booked the role. The only thing I'd ever seen was the first Richard Donner movie with Margot Kidder. And somebody, and I remember someone said, you know, purple's Lois is color. And I had recalled in the fitting, there had been one purple sweater that we had tried on.

And so I texted the wardrobe designer and I said, hey, when we're at the Kent Farm, can we please make sure that we wear that at some point over the next few days while we're filming can we incorporate that purple sweater i just found out purple's her color and so a lot of especially when superman and lois happened was just reaching out to fans and trying to have a sort of collaborative interaction with them to what are what are the qualities about lois lane that make her so iconic you know she was introduced in 1938 and action comics number one along with superman and and she was this woman who was you know she was a workhorse and dogged and determined at a at a time in history when a lot of portrayals of women were more as sort of meek

or demure yeah and and and she has always been this I kind of character for those reasons so I wanted to make sure that I had that and then and then of course you know my portrayal was different because it's the first time as a live action Lois Lane that we saw her as a as a mother and especially as a mother to two teenage boys and so for me I have a young very young daughter but you know once once children enter the equation the the stakes are raised but again it wasn't so much feeling like feeling of pressure or intimidation more just like hey we we really want to honor why these characters are so beloved and have been for so long beautiful way to jump

into something like that I think it's almost going to be time to take some audience questions I can't tell if that stand is for a mic or if we just want to shout them out which we can. We're all nice and close here. Amazing. I'm going to ask one more question, and then we'll start to work yours in. So I guess if you have a question, either line up, whatever this wonderful gentleman says is the way to do it. That's how we'll do it. Just raise your hand and I'll come to you. All right. Wait, wait, wait, wait, my turn first. My turn first. Because you said something else before that was like a high priority for me to ask about. You said you were, you've also done

indie movies and you're working with one person who I adore and I think that more people out there need to know her name it's Kestrin Pentara I think she is one of the absolute coolest seriously what an absolute bad huh what is what is something about her that makes her a one-of-a-kind director something you appreciate and would be excited for even more actors to get to experience on her future films I think what's cool about Kestrin I mean all the things but she does the most important thing, and this sounds crazy, she gets it done. Everybody has an idea, everybody talks about stuff,

everybody lolly gags. When I say everybody, I am guilty of every single one of those things I said. I have an idea, but it's not perfect, and I try and perfect it, and I don't want to bring it to my friend. If that's my only, I don't want to, I just saw all those cameras,

and I was going to say something dirty, which is I don't want to blow my load on a favor, of like just asking, I saw the cameras, I said, yeah, now I'm going to say it. I'm going to dig in my heels. But I, she just gets it done, unlike anyone ever. She sent us this idea for Science Fair. I don't know if I'm a lot.

Anyway, it's coming out at some point. But, and she just sends it to everyone. She's like, oh, you know who's popping by today is Tiffany Haddish and this person. And I'm like, you want to you just call everyone and Tia Carrero was in it. We were all doing it as favors. and people just want to be around her. They want to work on our projects. She's incredibly creative.

She's incredibly well-connected. She's an incredibly hard worker. And I think she doesn't focus on perfection. She's just like, we're going to make it, and we're going to figure it out, and we're going to shoot enough, and then we're going to edit it, and we're going to make something cool. With all the people that I've just brought together here, something dope is going to happen.

And it happens every time. And so I think I can learn a lot from her, because before I send anything to anyone, I think about it for seven years. And Castro's like, I have an idea. I'm just going to like send it up to every single person I ever met. And let's see if we can get something going.

And then Tiffany Haddish shows up and you're like, I don't know who I am. I love the idea of filmmaking families in general. Hers in particular, and the circle she is built and keeps expanding is one of the coolest thing. She's amazing. It's like David Wayne and Ken Marino and the Scalar brothers and Tia Carrera and me

and everyone's just like everyone just laughing, having a good time. more and more friends just keep showing up. You're like, you're doing this? Kestrian's magical. Really, like, special person. You are all special people, too. So let's hear from you.

Not as special as Kestrian, sucker. That's fine. We're all fine. All right. Raise your hand if you have a question. We'll go front row first. Our legs just keep fucking, go behind the thing.

Somebody's got to do it. Do audio. Yeah. This is for Rachel. My favorite interpretation of the character of Lois is from a little show called My Adventures with Superman. One of the things that I loved about that interpretation was that she was an older sister to Jimmy and Clark throughout the show and trying to keep them in check with all this crazy stuff they have to deal with on a daily basis. And my question is for you. What is it like having to inhabit that similar role being a mother figure on that show with Clark?

Clark and your two kids. Well, first of all, I'm not Rachel Brosnahan, although I'm sure she's wonderful, and I'm sure she's going to be great in the movie. That's okay. Sorry, can you kind of just clarify the question? What was it like bringing qualities of being a mom to, and also a very young wife?

Well, I mean, I knew that Lois, there had been iterations of comics where Lois had been a mother to one son. And from my point of view, you know, when Greg Burlanti and Todd Helping, who was our showrunner, came to me and Tyler with the idea for Superman and Lois. They really pitched it. You know, we weren't actually, and I don't even quite understand, we were not a part of the Aeroverse. We were kind of doing our own thing. And they had said it was going to be really grounded. And I think the fact that they were parents was a large part of that. And they pitched it as, you know, Friday night lights. And this is

us with elements of superhero. But they're like, at the end of the day, this is really going to be a family drama. And then you see that through the course of the seasons and particularly in season four where the focus is, you know, you realize at the end of the day. And I think that's also why so many of the fans connected to the characters is that the writing and, you know, the acting and the way it was shot and, you know, was so grounded. Like I said, I will forever be grateful that I got to play Lois as a mother just because the amount of vulnerability I was able to tap into like I said previously because the stakes are just higher when your kids are in danger so it was it was awesome

yeah all right we had the next one in the front row here all right so my question is for Bitsy because I'm gonna answer the next question for Bitsy okay it just feels right well because you were just talking about how inventing invested you were into Lois' character, even interacting with fans. And sadly, now you're going to be the last Lois Lane that we see on television. What do you want your legacy to be after playing her for four seasons? Well, four seasons specifically on Superman and Lois, but just in general from when you first started to the end. I mean, I think as far as my legacy, I just, and you know, the fans obviously know this,

but I did take it really seriously. and I was trying to interact as much as possible out of respect for you guys and out of respect for the character, I would say one of the most lasting legacies and we talked about this at the table was the cancer storyline that had not only a tremendous effect on the fans,

but it had a lot of real world effects. The CDC had published, you know, Lois had a very aggressive breast cancer. It was the main storyline for season three of Superman and Lois, and the CDC had published a bunch of statistics. about how much Google searches for breast cancer, you know, cancer support groups. You know, cancer dot, the main cancer websites have an increase in something like 23% visits.

And, you know, Google had published something about just, you know, the increases of breast cancer searches online. I've always been very vocally, very vocal about the fact that, in my opinion, because I spoke to, I want to say 11 women when I would preparing for this storyline it took it very seriously the first the first question I had when Todd and Brent Fletcher told me they wanted to do the cancer storyline was I want to shave my head and I don't want this to be pretty I want it to be ugly I know enough my I lost my grandfather who I'm nicknamed after to cancer and it's not it's not a pretty or clamorous process and they're like you can't shave your head and and so then the my my alternative was all right

then at the very beginning of season three I wanted just loads of extensions like my head weighed 15 pounds and then as she's going through chemo we would start taking the the extensions out and then by the time she's starting radiation no extensions stringy hair baggy clothing I wanted the cold cap on because I'm like how else do explain that she's having aggressive radiation and chemotherapy without losing all over hair and so again it was it was not only that they went there and I also just think again speaking of how grounded the story was it really humanized Clark and Superman, because this is a man who can save anyone and save the world,

but we had sort of had a discussion where it's like, you're not allowed to use any special technology or whatever to save me, because that wouldn't be fair to everybody else in the world. And so it was really, you know, you see this, the most powerful super hero ever, and he's powerless, and he can't do anything to save her. And so, you know, that storyline, I feel, was extremely moving, and every Comic-Con I go to. I mean, I went to MegaConnor Orlando with Tyler and with David a week and a half ago.

And there were so many people who, there was somebody who had just been diagnosed. By the way, men get breast cancer too, little known fact. But there were three people who said, my wife died of breast cancer six years ago. You know, and there were probably 35, 40 people who came up to me who, you know, there was a little girl who came up who was sobbing, whose father had just died. I mean, I was nervous when they pitched the story. because I'm like, guys, this is a superhero show after all, but it really, really resonated. And so as far as legacy, like I'm hosting the fuck cancer event that Greg Berlanti always does in May,

and I think they, you know, we won, the show won a Sentinel Award for the Cancer storyline. And so that's definitely one of the legacies that I feel like the cast and crew and the writer should be the proudest of. Yeah. A beautiful answer. Just well represents the fact that I know some people look at movies. movies and TV and go like oh it's entertainment it's good fun matters matters to a lot of people out there oh yeah it all matters even the trivial and trite so that extra really really matters but you know without a doubt me none of your business so none of your bit this gal in the front road

just said she feels like I was I was I was and now I'm acting out and I'm mad at her for hauling me out now I'm acting out and I'm misbehaving and it's being recorded on those Yeah, I already said blow your load. So how can I make this weirder? Let's find out. Let's see if we can get two more questions. One more question? They're going to be for Bitsy.

All right. I saw two fingers. Two more questions. Who wants the last two? Right there first. I have a question for Bitsy. Yeah, we know. I actually have a question for Jackie.

Bitsy's the shit. Copy. For me? Dattoon! Dannoon! Well, you know, when I was a kid, this is crazy. It's going to blow your mind.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. What is it? I'm super curious if Google is correct, but according to Google, it says you're a Virgo. That's correct. That's my whole fucking question.

Bitsy just talked about changing the world. You have a Virgo. Wait, wait. I haven't finished. The worst day ever. I'm kidding. I love it. Go on.

Sorry. Go ahead. So I want to know, like, working on set, how is it with the different personalities? How do you, like, handle that? What's the most fun that you've had on a set with the shows you've done? I don't know. It's not changing the world. That's great. Well, wait till you hear my answer. I've saved 150 lives. I, that's your stop.

I, and I'm saying this with love, I don't understand what it has to do with being a Virgo. Nothing and just, that's too. Oh. Yeah, no, I'm sad beyond, obviously, a nightmare. Try living inside here if you think it's annoying. Believe me, I'm tortured. So, okay. It's so fun.

So fun. Again, this is kind of the same answer as the glow thing before, but I've just been so lucky, and it sounds like you feel similarly. Like, I'm, I know this business is filled with people that, like, in theory, you want to just stay as far away for, like, you wouldn't touch with the 10-foot pole. And it's like, but I've been so lucky. Like, with Glow, we are sisters. Like, my buddy in the front row at Richard, right? Robert, who I just met, was telling me that he came to a book signing of one of the girls from Glow. And we were all there, because this is what we do. anytime anyone from Glow does anything, we all go to it. We're like little flies, little mosquitoes to a light, moths to a flame, your mom. So I've been really lucky, and I'm very sassy, obviously, but I also feel because of Glow and nobody wants this, I found a place in my current age, in this place I'm in my life where I used to just feel too much. That was, and I am objectively too much, but I used to feel it and not like it about myself, and then be in situations and be like, why do I say that or why do I do this?

But as I've gotten older, and I've been diagnosed, actually, but I've ADHD and I, like, realize that I don't think the way other people think, and I think it was hard for me a lot of the time because I thought people thought I was, like, trying to do something. God, she's always on. She's always, I'm like, oh, fucking I know. Believe me, this is what it looks like in the morning when I'm brushing my teeth, baby. Like, it's, and so once I've realized who I am, I think it's helped so much more, especially with my interpersonal relationships on sets.

We had an interesting thing season one of Glow because women are so used to being the only woman present at a thing. I certainly was for most of my jobs before Glow that we all were like, no one really speaks to this except me, but I know a bunch of us have felt this way where it's like we were like a little bit competitive. I was like, oh, you have a, that's dope.

You have like a huge thing in this episode. And we were always happy for each other, but definitely noticing like when we didn't. Like when it wasn't our time to shine, which when you're in a cast of 15, it's most often not your time to shine. But by the end of season one, start of season two, it was like, dude, your storyline is sick, and I'm so happy for you. And everybody was getting, I just got chills. Everybody was getting their little flowers, and everybody was able to shine, and we just loved each other. We were just able to support each other. And nobody wants this. It's beyond. I just get to watch a bunch of literal geniuses at the top of their game, make jokes and deliver lines vulnerably and be the best. may or may not have answered the question

leaning toward probably didn't. Good. All right. I think you did. Virgo, good vibes. Yeah. People are always trying to tell me. They're like, what's your moon in? What's your Virgo?

I'm like, I don't know what you were saying. I think it sounds fun as hell, but I don't know what you're talking about. We've been given the sad sign that we have to wrap. But you guys still, yay! You still have a whole wonderful day at Multicon ahead of you. So thank you to everyone out there for being here and listening to this conversation and to the two. of you. I love saying this. Congratulations on everything you accomplished on what you're

celebrating right now and everything that I know is coming your way in the future. It was such a treat to talk to you. Hey, what a delight. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. I have the hottest fides. My size. Hawaii starts with extra space to spread out and relax so you can get a head start on getting into vacation mode. Hawaii starts with more room to reconnect and enjoy a taste of what's waiting for you when you land. Hawaii starts here with Hawaiian Airlines. Visit Hawaiian Airlines.com to book your next dream vacation today. About 30 days ago, for those that weren't here earlier, we had the crazy idea.

of putting on an amazing fandom convention to benefit the wildfire recovery efforts. I don't know how, but we are here right now, and the folks that are about to come to the stage are some of the most extraordinary, extraordinary creators in their fields. I mean, these guys are legends and the fact that I'm opening up for the guy

that's opening up for them, it's something else. So our amazing moderator for this one is a very dear friend of mine. You might recognize him. We sometimes have some fun on the Real Rejects. It's the one, the only, Coy Genro. How's it going, everybody? I always start my shows with Internet, and it's so nice to not do that here.

It is so lovely to see each and every one of you in 3D. I am so honored to be part of this panel, but before he leaves the stage, I got to give credit to this man right here. This is so largely thanks to him and bringing the internet together in real life is thanks to this man. So all the love to Michael Tesler for doing this. I've been courted. This is the nicest man on the internet, just so you know. Except on Twitter.

Don't go on Twitter. They had it coming, court. And I would love to bring up three of my favorite people, three of my favorite creators, three of the people that helped me discover why comics are, in my opinion, the greatest medium of art on the planet. First up, the one and only, Kevin Smith. If this man right here hadn't started doing Evening with Kevin Smiths, I would not be right here, and if Mallrats didn't exist,

I wouldn't know other people talked about comics. This man right here is my absolute hero, Kevin Smith, everybody. And then I hope they were. in earshot because I don't see them yet. We've got the man who created one of my favorite characters of all time, a movie trilogy that has made so much money. It's absurd. And a character that I think actually represents the internet at large in itself, among so many other characters, bring it to the table. Mr. Rob Leveld, creator of Deadpool, cable, so much other glory. And then a man who also needs no introduction, but it's my whole job, so I better introduce him.

You might be enjoying Invincible. Invincible! I see it Invincible! You might have heard of this show The Walking Dead. You might read Skybound Comics. Robert Kirkman himself! It's like a Hall H walk to get up here, though. It's like a long moment. All right, how's it going, guys?

It's going great. Hey, thanks for being here, everybody. Thank you so much. Yeah, every single dollar you guys put to get here is actually helping. And I always say cons are the opposite of the internet because it's just kindness to meet people and celebrate fandom. You guys went the next level and are actually helping people in this magical city. So thank you.

We're just three guys who didn't check the weather before we came here today. No fucking shit, man. Although Kevin's legs did. Like, I'm sitting here the whole time, Corey, was talking. I was like and I had to wear a vest as well like there's three layers man I should I was like it's outside I'm gonna be freezing my ass off I better bring a sweater I better bring a hoodie yeah I even know it's gonna be outside so we're four guys known for loving comic books and definitely known for our brevity um very short winded gentleman on this

stage but I don't think any of us have ever sat down as like a round table conversation so I went through my usual, like, 27 hours of prepping and James Liptoning this, and then I was like, wait, I'm so much more curious to have an actual roundtable dynamic of what's going on in the world, because this is such a one-of-one thing. The robs are like best friends, and that always makes me happy.

Kevin is best friend to all. This is like a team of Capi Bara's up here. Oh, Kevin, Kevin's my buddy. I wasn't causing rivalries. I was showing unity. So I would love to kick this off with the great unifier for all of us is the medium of comic books and we and especially you guys have all seen the great evolution of what comics have

changed and become and you're also formative to the 90s 2000s in today what's your favorite elements about how comics have evolved to where they are right now what is the best thing that's changed for the good for me the fact that like so many not so many that's unfair I saw a bunch of people online bitch about captain America the recent captain America and to me I was like man And we, and I'm sure the boys will attest to it as well, grew up in an era where it was like, we were never going to get a Captain American movie where he fought a Hulk, where the leader was it, spoilers. Like, there's so much in it to enjoy. And I know, like, you know, we've had so many comic book movies now that you get to judge them against one another if that's your thing and stuff. And I saw a lot of people get mad at me online because I wouldn't rage against a movie of all things.

but I go negative Kevin I know they want it so bad and I'm like they've got that everyone on the internet like you don't need that from me so I like at the end when the credits rolled and whatnot you know I talked to people before the movie and they were like ugh but I was like we were never

had that growing up so I'm 54 I'm still delighted and I'm a filmmaker but I'm not a good one so I don't like go to movies and sit back and and fucking judge them right like generally I go to a movie and just become an audience member man I came from the audience and I'll return to the audience again one day and I still do it all throughout my career so as an audience

member and as a comic book fan or as a director I never go in with anything but like I'm slobberingly grateful they're doing I couldn't believe they made a fucking Craven movie man I didn't see it but I couldn't fucking believe they made it like that's that's that's the crazy thing we live at a time where There's a Craven movie, and we didn't go see it. I know. We were like, we were like, so true.

So I appreciate that. You know, I wish it was easier for comic book retailers. I'm one. You're one as well, right? Don't you have a story? I do not. You don't have a story? With all your fucking money.

Roberts is like the richest person I know. I only make good investments. In dead things. is the answer to who's the richest person in comics it's him don't let anyone tell you anything different i hear people say other people's names and i go are you high yeah only a rich man would wear a sweater and weather like this this is this is not what i signed up for sure it is i'm not going to get out of here alive i don't want alarm i don't want to alarm anybody security for mr kirkman yes yes oh rob how about you what are you loving the most i echo what

Kevin is saying, but you know, with my three kids as they grew up and my boys, watching the ease with which they interacted with superheroes and how much they love superheroes. And you haven't lived until you worked in comics. I guess I was, I've been in comics 40 years. I think I was around 30 years old when my son, my oldest son, Luke, turned to me and said, hey, dad, I'm an MCU fan, okay? I'm not a comic book fan, all right? I'm an MCU fan.

And you go, well, the studio part really loves that, you know, but he, He loves it. He loves the... It was like, Dad, that's my thing. It's how it was said to me. Well, you like, hold my beer, man. No, but it's cool. And look, like, for his 16th birthday,

the entire varsity basketball team, we took them to see Civil War, and we all, you know, we got them the front row, the IMAX seats, and I just told my wife, I'm like, this was not happening in 1984. Like, the outward love of comic books,

and it's so awesome, I may or may not have hid some of my comics in my peachy folder growing up because I didn't want to be harassed and called the nerd because I'm trying to I was trying to too hard to fit in but now comic books are everywhere they're on all your shirts and they're just commonplace so that's my shorter answer bunch of nerds yeah that us the biff collars really just bringing out this energy how about you Robert what are you enjoying most other than like the abundance of funco pops you and I get to throw at people at cons

Oh, that's fun. I'm getting in trouble for that. But so, yeah, we did a panel with Funko and I threw a prototype into the audience and they about lost their minds. Oh, one of one. And I had to host and go like, can we have that back? You know what that's worth? Oh, no. I was so mad, though, because they were standing off to the side of the panel.

No one wants to hear this story. And I looked over with it and I was like, and they all stood there like this. And so I was like, all right. And then they came alive. I'm sure they were like, why is Kirkman want to jerk us off? Do you need a reason? But I don't know. I mean, everybody in our generation remembers having that time where you had a girlfriend

and you were like, well, it's about that time where I've got it revealed to her that I read comics. Let's see how this goes. But yeah, now it's like, you know, you can't go to a theme park without seeing the most obscure comic book shirts. You know, like, oh, the Beyonder on a shirt. all right where'd you get that target and i definitely want to narrow down specifically and come back this way i love that invincible season three feels like a sporting event i love that every week there are literally people that have watch parties there are people that do react like we're at the point of nerddom where there are people gathering around an independent comic that i was trying

to get people to understand why i couldn't put down growing up and now it's the zeitgeist and i love that even things like making a suit darker mirroring like the symbiate suit is like yeah of course like people know the stuff that i would hide from others growing up as someone that made this art what's it like to see your children out there specifically knowing that people are celebrating it to a scale that couldn't have happened 20 years ago it's it's crazy and and and it's this climate where there's a fourth captain american movie that has harrison four playing the hulk that makes invincible work because invincible as a comic 20 years ago was made for the most savviest comic book reader that had been reading 30 years of DC comics and 30 years of

Marvel comics and knew all the ins and outs of that stuff so that we could kind of, you know, play to what people expected a superhero comic to do and then do something different and try to shake things up. And now we're able to do that in the show because everybody's so familiar with all the movies and TV shows and stuff. It's really crazy that it works, that the general audience has been primed with this stuff so well that they're like, oh, yeah, that that guy's, you know, the thing's kind of making fun of superheroes or like doing like the complete opposite

of what you would expect it to do. So yeah. And Rob, you just had Deadpool team up number five come out last week and that was your big farewell to the Merck with the mouth from your own pencil, your goodbye to the character. And I'm, I mean, obviously a huge fan of Deadpool, but I really love how much you care about your work.

I love that you have maintained a passion throughout time. It's not been something like, I made it. And now it's out there. You've had this commitment in love, and I, and spoilers for the end of a comic that came out last week. I'm sorry, it's a window of time I'm going to accept. You're in the thing. And I love that you even are like, well, now I'm canon too. This is my experience.

What's it been like for you to see not just Deadpool rise, but also to have Deadpool 2 reference you, to have Deadpool 3, have a trailer with your name and it as a joke, but also to then put yourself back in to complete the auriboris. So I appreciate that. That's very kind. What I would tell you is, and I've often thought you get older. and Kevin said he was 54. I'm 57. I'm not a young guy anymore, and I give less of a shit every day. And I look back at my 19, 20-year-old self, and look, I went to all the conventions, and every time, you know, I'm born and raised in Southern California, and when Chris Claremont or George Perez would come out here, I would go to the store, I would stand at the side of the table, I would listen to the stories. and Chris, to his, you know, it's a positive, I can't use the word I was going to use

because it doesn't apply. But Chris would boast about his accomplishments. He was fun to listen to. Like, if you ever wonder where, like, I said this on my podcast recently, where Todd McFarland and I got our boisterousness, we were taught by the generation before. John Byrne could not stop telling you how awesome he was,

and Chris Kremont would be, well, I am also awesome, and these great things coming up, and he would start talking at the table about how well I can. get a piece of this character and I get a piece of this character I'm like hot damn if I get to the X-Men I'm planting some trees and I'm going to see if those trees grow into big trees and you know not everything grows so it's like where's the agreements here okay cable sign deadpool sign sign sign sign sign sign shadow star sign I'm doing I'm doing it one of these will

stick so I want to go back in time if it was my back to the future I just go back and give 1989 rob a hug and go the whole family says thank you oh my gosh you're going to have three kids and you're going to put them all through comics I mean you're going to put their all through college via comics you're also going to do that's what will say on your fucking epitat rob luffelt he put everyone through comics so no coy it's just it's um it's and look it's it's it's last year when the x-men cartoon came back x-men uh 97 i mean i kept i knew when cable was coming and every week got to be like where's freaking cable oh he's finally here for four episodes and he i think maybe the best version of cable ever was that and so i get

I get to see these toys, take on these different lives. They're on the shelves in Target. They're, you know, movies. I love it all. I love it all. And I love that Chris Claremont put that, you know, competitive spirit in me as a kid to go, oh, I can do that. And so I just, you know, my love for comics will never die.

I love them more every day because they're kind of my therapy. Yeah. But at this point, I'm going to hand off so that Kevin can get a word in. The word that I would get in. Like a Stanley E. Ian Slip is putting my family through comics. The, uh, the thing I would. would say, if given the mic, as you've given the mic, is thank you for the work, man.

As a guy with a retail establishment, you put asses in seats. Thank you, sir. You know, and that's what pays the fucking, no, not really. Like, I don't do anything for you. But I do benefit from your work, and not in a parasitic way, but, like, I've had that comic book store 28 years, and I've sold a lot of your stuff, a lot of your stuff, and the stuff that you then grow up into other media chases them right back so you know as a fan naturally

I've enjoyed both of you dudes for years and whatnot but as a fellow creative we always have our own heads up our own asses that's why it's impressive when somebody makes an impact like when somebody creates something that pulls you away from your own shit like that's how you know something's big but aside from just being a creative and being able to share a stage two wonderful creatives like you as a guy who brick and mortar has to sell books man thank you like your work

helps me pay to Brent and it's the lab to keep that shit open for nearly 30 years I was first in line to hit your green arrow in 2005 2004 I don't even remember it was I'm like Kevin Smith right in green arrow you did green arrow and Phil Hester it was really cool Matt Wagner covers

Introduced the Automatopoeia guy That was pretty cool and that clerks man that prequel to clerks you just put out is some of the most depraved pivots I've seen in comics Those books would end and you'd feel like you needed a bath I respected that Yeah, there's, I just finished, I was, it's actually been a, like, a comic book a few months for me, and I've got most of my stuff coming out from the middle of the year on. I got, like, a big company crossover coming up.

I don't want to announce it because they want to announce it, but it's one that I never saw coming, but I wrote it, like, in two nights. I loved it so much. Then I went back to work for one of the big two. I can't say what it is, but it's a big project, and they asked me to do a thing, a small thing in it, and I was delighted to be back, and it might lead to a, another thing. But then I've got four issues of volume three of quick stops that I do for Dark Horse that come out at the end of the year.

So from Comic-Con on, man, I'm like deeply entrenched in the world of comics. Awesome. I wish I could draw. All I could do is right, kids. So I always team up with talented people who can draw on a show like that. I love that I hear Darth Vader over a comic movie. I heard that, yeah.

That's why I cut it off. I was like, I was being choked from a bar. I guess that's it. Shut the fuck on. Let Leifeld speak. That's Feigy in the suit going like, do not talk about the big two. There's lasers.

Actually, I have a movie question for you, though, because as much as I love all things, fandom, mallrats was the thing that legitimately told me there were others. I had never heard someone talk like Brody. I literally felt, I hid my Spider-Man shirts under Abercrombie because I thought that was okay. But as I grew up, Brody was my beacon of light

and hearing those characters. But then Dogma came out, and there was this really insane moment. of like I'm actually connecting to I didn't grow up Catholic but now I feel like Catholics get me because they get my rent so it's this unifying thing and I know dogma two is finally a cooking I would love to know if there is any up because I know the internet misquotes you I want to actually quote you what's going on with dogma two man before there's a dogma two we have to deal with dogma one

which happily we get to do this year so it's they haven't announced they haven't announced that yet either but they're going to announce it soon because it's coming up we're we in February yeah bless you they've got it COVID it's an outdoor video good point good point um so i haven't they haven't said but we've something is something very exciting is coming if i fucking just tell us just tell us i can't no one's listening jason muses wife runs our company and anytime i talk out a turn she's like you ruin everything shut the fuck out so she said specifically before i came here she was like don't talk about dogma and i was like i was like i

I won't, so that's as much as I can say. I'm just going to text her now. Yeah, he'll fucking tell you, no problem. But in terms of Brody, man, and Mallrats, in terms of like, hey, he was the voice, like a voice that you heard where you're like, oh, shit, kind of like me. There was a time where Brody was scarce. Now the world is full of Brody. Oh, the internet, too.

We talked about this, like, one of the first conversations we had was, like, Brody being my guiding light, and you were so sweet to go, like, no, no, but you're nice. And, like, it really stuck with me that that is kind of what the Internet's become, is the guy that goes, gatekeeper. this is mine and this is the opposite like that's what i love about this community and i do want to talk about in that same vein we're all actually fans of this stuff as well and again this is a rare opportunity i'm so excited for fantastic four in superman and this is kind of a one of one moment

where this is right before we're coming up on a zeit guy shift for the big two we in oh eight there wasn't the conversation of like i bet that downy junior joint's going to do things like this is actually the first time we can see a universe shift in real time uh with fantastic force trailer and then I want to talk about Superman. As people who have worked in these universes, what do you guys feel from that? And was there any moment of nerddom where you're like, oh, I haven't felt that in a while.

Starting with Rob down the end. No. Done with it. No, I mean, it's cool to see Galactus, you know? Like, stole my answer. Yeah. What else were you going to say? No, that's it.

That's it. I hear, I'll give it up to them. Like, there's so much excitement. At least they produce to me. It seems to be in the folks on the Internet as well. over the idea of a fantastic movie, a Fantastic Four movie that they've generated the idea

that it's the first. Like, oh my God, it's the first time it's going to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But we've had, there've been 19 fucking Fantastic Four movies, but they're marketing and the excitement that they're building around it and how, like, the look of it in terms of like, you know, the kind of

retro futurist, quasi-futuristic look. And, like, I don't know if this starts a new phase or whatever to fuck, but like, they are really making it feel like we've never seen this before. And like when they show, you know, a lot of time in the trailer showing off the thing, like at first

I was like, that's mind bending. And I was like, I've seen things before. Really what we should appreciate is fucking Herbie, man. Like, because that was we've reached a world where they're like, throw Herbie in for the 12 people who remember and shit. And to open the trailer

with it. When it's open with Herbie? Kevin and I are pulling rank on you here because there's no way you're alive. We are the age where they announced a Fantastic Four cartoon on NBC Saturday mornings and you're like, okay Reed, Sue, a robot where's human torch?

And there was a fan revolt. Herbie was like synonymous with what the hell is this? And now you're like that's super cool. Herbie's in the movie like our generation. Herbie is our generation is Jar Jar. Exactly. He's about to have his moments, man.

I'll buy that toy. That toy will be on my shelf. It's also funny because, correct me if I'm wrong, but Herbie was in the cartoon because they were worried kids were going to set themselves on fire. No, actually, not true. I read that. I believed it for the longest time. That's what I thought as well.

I just read up, but again, this is online, so take it with a grin of sight. I believe it. Exactly. 100%. They said that Human Torch was already sold off to a different project so they couldn't include them. That's why Herbie. It feels like spin to me. But I like the other one, which was like, we can't put a human torch on TV.

Kids will light themselves on fire. Can I just do this really quick? I've got to tell this to a live audience. Okay, I've told this on my podcast. This is not a new story, but you're probably going to hear this for the first time, and my wife would be mortified. She doesn't listen.

She would never hear this on my podcast. When I was a kid, Gene Simmons, Kiss was the guy. Okay, Kiss is a rock band for all of you who just said, what is that? Okay, and he was the demon, and my dad was a Baptist minister, and my sister was allowed to hide Kiss records, and I would look at him in her room,

but he would breathe fire on stage, and I read in one of the rock and roll magazines how he did it with kerosene. Well, we had a giant sandbox in my backyard, and I love the human torch. And don't do this at home. But the way this story ends is with my mom screaming through the kitchen. Robin, no! I'm nine years old.

I go, I'll stand. My friend across the street showed me how to do it. He did it with his hand, and I said, I can do my whole arm. Cerosene liquid that you do on the barbecue from forearm to hand with it. Holy shit, my hand is on fire. I am flipping out. and my mom screamed and I dropped to the sandbox because I knew I could put it out.

But I don't know why they were concerned about kids lighting them. I was already lighting myself on fire. Thank you, Gene Simmons, and Kiss. You showed me the way. I told Gene that story. And I think he was like, you're fucking crazy. I was nine.

I had a guy in my, like, 10th grade art class that did that with rubber cement. You had to go to the hospital because it doesn't burn as quick as carousy. I also lost whatever hair I had on my arm. I did not understand. This explains so many Deadpool moments. Aren't you glad you brought up

the Fantastic Four movies? 80s and 90s everybody was setting themselves on fire. So just for the record Galactus, Herbie, Herbie, set yourself on fire. These are the log line. That's what this is right. Now, pivoting to Superman, we have had also likewise

Superman movies, but in the same vein this does feel like a first. This does feel unprecedented. This trailer felt different to me in a way. I mean, I was a kid for Superman returns and it was referencing a film from before I was alive. Right. So this Superman film feels like a big actual

first and it's launching a universe. I'm wondering with you guys having worked with these characters also in that universe, your experience of the trailer. I love the trailer but, you know, I'm 54. I've been through a few Superman movies. Amen. And I love them all because the character will

last forever for that reason of odd a hope. The idea that when everyone's running from the worst thing in the world, one person is going right at it. So that story will never grow tired. But we've seen this before. And it's not even the beginning of a new universe because

they told us that Blue Beetle was the beginning of the new universe and then the cartoon series. So without all that baggage, it just looks like a strong fucking flick. And not like it looks better than this version of Superman or that. Somebody else, you know, as comic book readers

and fans and whatnot, you're used to many different creatives handling the same character. or title. So for me, I'm, you know, it's like, all right, now we get to see what James Gunn's issue of Superman looks like. And I'm excited as fuck for that, but it doesn't feel like, oh my God, they've fucking reinvented sliced bread. Like, it's still the dude. Like, the one thing I will say is, holy shit, they put underwear back on him. And that does feel new. This is good rapping on this slice bread. I hate that we had a period of time where the underwear was embarrassing.

Yeah. It's like, it's not embarrassing if we say, this is cool, look how cool this is. And then everyone goes, oh, I guess it's cool. Yeah. The X-Men in Black Leather, it took so long to get out of. I think when we started making comic movies for everyone, we lost the way. Who was the, I think it was Dave, was the guy's name who plays Corninsweet? David Cornswet.

Corns. Really? Cornswet, yep. Cornswet. Cornswet. He's British, man. They got weird last names. I know.

It's crazy. I read a thing where, I think it was, was he? the one that said this costume should have frivolity to it he basically said that i'm playing an alien that has powers it would terrify children i need to be the one to make sure they're not scared i thought that was beautiful he the way he expressed it i'm pretty sure he used the word frivolity maybe somebody else used it in place for him but it should and his rationale like was you know i've been reading this character watching this character for years never occurred to me and that's beautiful the idea of like I have to make myself seem more friendly or you know not as frightening to

whoever's going to encounter me so the idea of like trunks like the way a wrestler would wear him and I think that was the parallel they made I bought that 100% and I was not one of those people that was like take the underwear off and shit but I hope that appeases everybody that didn't like the look of the underwear it should be silly all of this shit should be silly like no Please, never listen to me. Obviously, I don't know what I'm talking about, and I'm not very successful at what I do. But they keep making these Batman movies,

and every time they're like, this one's the realest one yet. Oh, my God, this is what it would be like if it happened in a real world. And the closer you get to reality, the more of that concept falls apart. Like, I watched The Batman in theaters, like the same night that I finished watching

Season 1 of Reacher. And I was, like, the whole time, I was like, why doesn't he just reach her all these people? Why is he holding back? Why is he wearing a mask? Grow up, like all this shit. And I'm into this stuff. The more realistic you make it, for me, it falls apart.

I like it to have an air of fantasy about it and frivolity. And the idea of those underwear up front tells you right up, like, this ain't fucking real. And it never will be. And that's why we go, that's why, like, you don't see a bunch of people. and this is sad, but a bunch of people don't go like, I'm reading Policeman Comics. You know what I'm saying? And policemen do the same fucking job ostensibly as a

hero, we hope, and shit. But they'll read about somebody else who like puts on a different color and does kind of a similar job and whatnot. That's the fantasy element. We all want to be rescued. I don't give a shit what gender you are, man. We want to believe that in our

darkest hour, someone will fucking drop from the sky and be like, stand back. and blow whoever we need blown man so with the funco pop yes I love the shorts man I know this is not you know I'm not selling a crowd everyone here is convinced as well but that's why I think it totally works

and that's why I like seeing that element that's why again with Fantastic Four there's a throwback element to it that's exciting because there's been such a drive to the future and to like make things as realistic as possible because we have effects

that can make it do so but I like throwing in crypto works for me in such a big way because I'm like that's a comic book yeah you know like Man of Steel will make you believe

that that shit could happen in real life because Zach Snyder posits it like a serious film this version they throw in the dog and you're like all right this is definitely a comic book this is definitely like going to be a story that I grew up kind of readings like opening with herbie it sets the tone in the opening there

ain't nothing wrong with any version of that like i loved what zack snider did i love what everybody does when they step up to it man because it's watching any artist take their self-expression to a character that means as much to them as it means to me the reader like any number of creators who step up james gun can make a movie about anything he don't need Superman but he wanted his shot at that title at that particular and when i say title i don't mean like the boxing title title superman that character because he's like that character appeals to me james a hopeful guy and that's a hopeful character so i like that we're in the age now where it feels like they're gonna let them be a little more comic booky uh the comic book movies i think we've chipped away and earned it i think

now that it's societal we've gotten to the point where we can just accept a man in tights and that's wonderful because we can have wolverine in the yellow we can have these big moments and swings and speaking of a dogma two s question that might get someone in trouble uh i would love to hear about Evangeline, if you can speak. So, yeah, I can't say anything about that. I can't. Evangeline is a really great title that I did in the 90s. I've revisited it several times, and it's about an angel.

It's about a fallen angel who falls to Earth, and she's definitely a fish out of water, and doesn't understand why she's here, what she's doing here, and who she can trust, because there's so many fallen demons down here as well, and they could be sitting right next to you. They look like people in positions of power who may be making giant cuts in our industries and federal agencies. So I was fortunate enough that my buddy, Simon Kinberg, who produced the Deadpool films and produced Days of Future Past and The Martian. He's fantastic and credible. Long story short, very quick. He just said, hey, Rob Margo Robbie would like to do this. I say, get the fuck. That's not true. And then he said, hey, Olivia Wilde's going to direct it for

what did the what and then right before Thanksgiving a couple years ago I'm like Luke you can't stand there I you can't be in my room because I'm going to be on a call with Olivia Wilde and Margo Robbie and my son's like can I just kind of stand off camera and I'm like you need to leave my room okay so look it's it's fantastic we hired an Oscar nominee we bullshit Margo hired an Oscar nominated writer and he is handing the draft in I think in the next two weeks and then it's going to be good I just started riding today and I think I'm going to bring something to it as a male with the male perspective and you know something's wrong when you go are you are you sure you want to do this

and she's like I love it and I'm like okay I'm going to stop undermining myself that's all I can say coy thank you very much let's let's let's hear from the beard of wonder again the hype and passion for your characters man always love and what you're doing right now I say anything I think coy, Kevin, Rob. You can see him, too, right? I was so alarmed when my periphery caught it, and I was like, you should do a horror movie where he shows up and kills everyone in the show.

I feel like we're living it. Yeah. The worst time to have an acid flashback of my life on stage. Like, what is happening? I looked up and saw it, and then I was like, no, I'm not going to just, I'm not going to just ignore that and go back to the panel. I was wondering if the, any and my Audi were fracturing. He wants you to dance.

Oh, we'll dance. By the way, that's the one person here that's hotter than we are. I know, yes. For sure. I'd love to talk about your Energon universe because what's happening there is so fascinating, blending these two iconic properties and the way it's going to scale. I was at the event you guys did for the G.I. Joe launch that actually played the original G.I. Joe movies in theaters.

So a movie that never went to theaters, we all got to experience that acid trip like this. And it was such a great way to kick off the comic world, but it's also finding new fans. So I'd love to know what your experience has been, meeting people that are new to Transformers, G.I. Joe, and, like, kind of shepherding in a new generation to these icons. Yeah, it's been great because, I mean, these characters were born in the 80s. I mean, their original G.I. Joe, much older, but we're focusing on the aspects that came in the 80s.

And they've been largely separate. IDW's done some things that have combined them. But what we're kind of doing is we're, like, building a cohesive, shared universe around them akin to what Marvel does or what DC does. And it's great because there's thousands of characters at our disposal and they all have these amazing connections that have been built by tons of writers and artists over many comic book lines and animated series and movies and things like that. And it's a lot of fun to just kind of, I mean, it's really like playing with toys in a

different way. So it's like I'm now 46 years old like playing with Transformers and G.I. Joe and getting together with a bunch of writers and artists and being like, what have we had this guy? to this guy and then this happened and if this guy's arm got ripped off and he put this other guy's arm on him that'd be pretty cool and it's just it's it's like the most stupid fun yeah it's it's so it's so great so we're almost at a time but i want to do a quick run through two things that mean a lot to me and that is the current books right now because i feel like comic books are adapted but actually going to the comic store is still weirdly a lost art i'm reading like 50 to 70 comics a week and

everyone freaks out when i say those numbers there's so much out there so i'd love to hear what your favorite things doesn't need to be present but like anything you're reading right now that you're really loving they just love to get some flowers to and also this being the first of this type of con i've ever done i do this for a living but i've never done a charity con especially in a place that i host a talk show this is so strange but i feel like you guys are in my house it's so on but uh i'd love to know welcome home it's beautiful here but i'd love to know some of your favorite con experiences because you guys are all actual seasoned vets to a world that i feel like we just started letting other people into

like twilight brought in studios but i feel like this whole new wave is we're kind of kind of going back to the 90s. Cons are starting to feel like ours again, and I'm really loving that. This feels like, I don't know, I feel like I can talk about this stuff without being like, Spider-Man's in the sky that got bit by you.

Get out of here, movies and TV. Please, please, please, watch Invincible. It pays for the other stuff. I know it does. It was number one this morning on my Amazon. Was it really? Come on. Did we beat Richard?

You're good. You're good. So any comics... I got a check. Well, Rob checks. Any comics you're digging right now or anything you're reading right now you want to give some love to or in the last couple years? Batman 1989 it's been really enjoyable for somebody that loved that movie that movie

was a seminal flick in my development and growth and so I thought it's cool what they're doing and I'm jealous I'm like why didn't I pitch that I wish I would have done it and I like all the choices that they're making Billy D Williams two-face like it's doing the sequel to the and they did a Superman 78 it's great I'm gonna go with there's a book called Bug Wars that came out from Image Comics and it's a Jason era, Aaron, and how do you, it's, uh, say the, Mahmoud, Aswar.

He's, he's done, I met him at a show a couple years ago. He was doing Conan for Marvel, long and short of it is. It's a brand new independent comic that has got production values and, and, and, and, and, and story that is as good as anything that you're going to get from the majors. It's, it's the best of what independent comics should be, and I'm excited for both of them. It's, uh, it's really wild. It's like fantasy. It's like Game of Thrones in your backyard.

between the blades of grass, bug wars, grab it, I don't get a piece of it, I have nothing to do with it, it's awesome. There's a new book called Seasons, it's by Rick Remender and Paul as a Seda. I worked with Paul on a book called Outcast. Very jealous of Rick getting to work with him. He's doing like the work of his career on this book.

It's really awesome. I highly recommend it. This guy right here is doing a thing called Last Blood that he's selling direct on whatnot. It's like an exploration of all his 90s characters. You got your profit in there, some blood strike, brigade. It's just super awesome and very nostalgic for me. I really enjoy it. But yeah, there's a lot of

good stuff coming out right now. And the last question for me will be con experiences because it is summer camp for me. I never got to go to summer camp and this always feels like that, but meeting my favorite people and then creators, do you guys have any specific con memories that keep bringing you back? I know the lines get long and hands cramped, but are there any things that make it all worth it every time? I watched George Romero go to the bathroom one time. like from afar i saw i'm walked through the door and i went god damn it's fucking george romero then i left but it's stuff like that happens all the time it feels like a like at a dream but for real like you'll look left and right and it'll be a different reality yeah

you go no you go okay so uh you know here's a deal when you get to these comic conventions and comic book creators of which Kevin is and has done so many comic comic books in addition to all these great movies and do we need more Red State that's my favorite thing you've ever done Red State I've told them that too the night they came out on video deal

I was like bye bye dude more and tell us flip me out theater opening night midnight screening okay stop with the self deprecating man you're a fucking legend when we get together we as comic book people view comic book people maybe more

than like the reason I'm saying this is in 19 when X-Force number one came out in 1991 there was a show in LA in LA right here in at the LA Convention Center and they put myself and Mike Minnola of Hellboy on stage with Jack Kirby and we didn't say anything because we were on either side of him going what the it's Jack and I had met Jack and known Jack and eventually would end up at Jack's house which is awesome but we just hung on his every word and I have never met anybody and I have been I've had the good fortune of breaking bread meeting with Mr. Steven Spielberg I don't put him anywhere close to Jack Kirby Jack Kirby was magic incarnate he was miracles rainbows unicorns and that is

like just watching him and that's why I get my famous line he told everyone I I have an unlimited budget on my paper it's my pencil and my imagination and I can make anything for any budget and i'm like whoa and that has inspired me my whole career i'm done a contemporary of jacks mr stan lee man he made an appearance in a movie we did many 30 years ago called mallrats and so every con i went to after that i would see stan and mallrats like aged well but didn't work out when it came out, flopped at the box office. And when a movie flops, it's kind of like, you know, when Jesus

gets arrested, and all the apostles are, like, go scattering, and people like, hey, you knew that guy. Like, I don't know that guy at all, man. And then a cock crows and shit like that. So, in that world, like, when a movie doesn't work, people just, like,

scatter. Stan was the opposite. Stan would always come up to me, be like, Kevin, when are we doing another movie? And I'm like, the last one didn't work and shit. So, I mean, years later at one point, he came over and he was like, Kevin, I just read an article online where they compared all the box office grosses of movies I've been in with Will Smiths, and I've made more money. And I was like, congratulations. And he goes, the really funny thing is, though, you look at all the movies I've done, and they're all movies that made a lot of money. And then there's one that's way down to the bottom.

And it jumps back up. So Stan was at the con. This was, let me see, we did, I want to say 97, 97 or 98. And we had done enough shit where they started, like, giving us a booth, me and Jay, to sign things. So we had an N-CAP at San Diego where we had a scheduled signing. And it was three steps, like maybe a little bit higher than this, to get up to where we were. People hand you their shit. You sign it like a fucking, here, plebe, and then hand it down to them and shit.

so Stan came to say hi and he came up the stairs and stood there talking to us for a few minutes it was just mind-bending because Stan Lee I mean yes we'd worked to them in mall rats but the fact that he was treating us like contemporaries that he was still copping to knowing us and shit like that was really sweet so after he was all done he was like all right boys good seeing you he turns around forgets he's on a riser and completely fucking face-plan at San Diego Comic Con and if you've you know you've ever been in a movie

like in fucking end game where like you know they see a hand reaching for moling here and everyone's like and you hear a collective gasp but that's of joy I heard a collective gasp that day all of San Diego Comic Con froze and was like

because like an 85 year old man had fallen and fucking immediately like who pushed him and looked in it was me and Jay and shit. And that's how he died. Yes. We were both pointing at each other. Stan was used

to this sort of thing. Pop straight back up, man. Like almost like fucking, like when you see gymnasts do that shit where they pop lock up onto their feet. And he was just like, watch that last step. It's a doozy. My spider friends. And fucking took off,

man. I'll never forget that. The definition of Excelsior. Ever upwarded? I couldn't stop that guy, except once. Do you think he walked out the door and then went to his handler and was like, get me to a hospital now? It was like the old

George Carlin bit where George Carlin's like, a cat will fucking like smash into a wall and be like, I meant to do that. And then get behind the couch and be like, fucking meow. I guarantee as soon as he got into the car, he was like, oh, spider fuck! With great power

comes all this shit, too. Fucking mall rats guy. silent bill well this has been the kings of comics i do want to wrap with one thing i asked about the con experience because each of these kings of comics has affected me personally without skybound i wouldn't have survived between different cons we did schmodeown that is how i stayed alive out here which i appreciate rob i met at a wonder con 10 years ago and was the first person that i literally didn't know how to talk to and totally freaked out because he made deadpool and like rob and i knowing each other now is so surreal to me and kevin is literally

the only person that I've never known how to be like, but he wrote Brody, that means he is a Wattu to me. And he was the first person to give me advice for Hall H, which is like one of the craziest things I've gotten to do. So to me, you guys are the Kings of Comics, and it's so means the world to me that you came to this and we did this and thank you

for everything you do. Thank you. But there can only be one king, so now we fight. That's what the last five minutes are for. Let's give it up. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Give it up for Corey, man. Tires matter. They're the only part of your vehicle that touches the road. Tread confidently with new tires from Tire Rack.

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Hello, multi-con, okay. Guys, I'm so excited for this. A long time ago, at a jamba juice, not so far away, I met an extraordinary guy who happened to create a well-known. YouTube channel media conglomerate known as the Real Rejects. And that guy's name's Greg. And we sat at Jamba Juice, and it took all of 30 minutes for me to realize that he was going to be one of my best friends for the rest of my life.

And he lets me moonlight, don't tell the wife and kids, as a Star Wars content creator on the Real Rejects, but I'm so excited to have Greg be hosting our Galaxy of Good Panel. We're not just going to a galaxy far, far away. We're also going to a Marvel Cinematic Universe and going to some wonderful, wonderful talent. This is such a cool lineup that, like, in no other universe, would you ever get something as neat and cool as this? So without further ado, I'd like to introduce Greg Alba of the Real Rejects. Wow, it's been forever since I actually hosted one of these. This is really, really exciting.

I met so many of you guys earlier. You guys are so nice. And on top of that, too, everything is going to benefit the Los Angeles Community Wildfire Recovery. So thank you guys so very much for being here. Let's just kick this off. We've got to get our introductions going because we've got a lot to dive into. And I appreciate it. I like how last panel is more spread up.

And everyone's like, we've got to get in the freaking shade right now. Because everyone's like hibernated to this one side. The first person I want to introduce, he plays. and he was, I made my notes last night. Excuse me. This is my first time in a long time. Talent. Thank you for married with me.

Appreciate you guys. He stepped into the Star Wars Galaxy at the age of just 13 years old, taken on the role of young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones. He, of course, came back to continue voicing Boba Fett. He is deeply rooted in the Star Wars fandom. He's constantly attending and constantly engaging. Please welcome Daniel Logan. Our second guest, I just met backstage about an hour ago.

I surprisingly have a lot in common with her. You might have seen her play Princess Leia in the Obi-1 Kenobi series. She's also in the show. We can be superheroes, and she's also been in Birdbox. She's a multi-talent. Please welcome Vivian Myra Blair. And of course, our last guest here.

You might have seen him play Craiglin and Guardians of the Galaxy. He is in one of my all-time favorite DC adaptations, the Suicide Squad as Weasel. He is also the mocha for Rocket Raccoon. He might be in a Superman movie. Apparently, please welcome, of course, on gun. So I immediately wanted to kick it off with this.

And so much of this is about fandom and community and coming together. And oftentimes I see here we got Marvel Star Wars in DC. And sometimes they put in a bit of a versus match. And I want to do away with all of that today. I want to hear just to hear from your guys' fandom sides, what upcoming projects in Marvel, DC, or Star Wars, could be whichever one, are you most looking forward to this year. And Sean, you can't just say Superman.

You know, you got to go with something else. So let's start with Vivian. Well, I mean, I haven't done much in the Star Wars universe like filming wise since Obi-1. But I was really excited for when skeleton crew came out. That was a really fun one, because I actually already knew Robert, who plays Neil, before. because I'd met him at R2, L.A., which is a droid event held in L.A.

And he was a really sweet kid, so I really enjoyed that. We got to do the premiere at Disneyland, and it was a super fun premiere, but I was really happy to have some other kids my age in Star Wars that I was able to kind of welcome into the Phantom a little bit, and that was really fun to do. So I think the show turned out really good. I really enjoyed Skeleton Crew. I kind of felt like it was almost like the Star Wars version of Stranger Things,

things, which I think was just really amazing, and it was kind of exactly for the audience it was catered to, and I loved it. I loved the show, so I think definitely that one. I really good at reviewing. I saw, like, a lot of people, like, going, she's right. Yeah, she's our voice of the people right now. I love seeing that. And Daniel, what about yourself?

Anything upcoming that you're like, I cannot wait to watch this. Well, back to Vivian's comment. I think it was more like Goonies, but I guess it's a different generation, right? I thought it was more of a Star Wars Goonies. And like Vivian, I didn't have very many kids that I got to play with on Star Wars, so I was kind of on my own, and I just kind of became an adult really quickly.

With Star Wars, you know, they're constantly bringing out new stories and new arcs and new developments on different characters and stuff like that. We just did the Bad Batch, where they allowed me to voice mocks, and then that was the end of the season. So you never know,

where they will create from or bring forward and you never know when you'll see me reprise Boba hopefully not in their future hopefully in the near future and Sean what about yourself yeah let's see what am I excited about besides the NBA playoffs I am I am you know as far as Marvel goes I I used to have a guy on the inside who would tell me what was going on with Marvel, but now I don't know as much. I'm a lot more curious to hear what you guys are excited about, about what's coming out. But certainly with DC

it's super, super cool, as you mentioned, Superman. I know that I'm really excited to see the lanterns television series. I had a blast doing Creature Commandos. It's one of my favorite things that I've worked on in my career. I know there's a Peacemaker season two

coming out. There's more a series, and so, like, you know, from talking to my brother James about that stuff and knowing sort of what the overall vision is for the world building, I think is really, really exciting. Yeah, absolutely. That Weasel episode of Creature Commandos. That was one of the craziest things we saw at the end of last year.

That was awesome. Thank you. So I wanted to ask, Vivian, you played such an iconic character as Leia, known for leadership, strength, and her rebellious spirit. But stepping into her younger years, it opens up new layers we haven't seen before. was there a moment during the process where you found yourself discovering traits about Leah that you hadn't considered before booking the role and did you discover and any of those discoveries that they shape how you approached her performance?

Yeah, I mean, I think I really, really loved that we got to explore Leah as a person a little bit more in Obi-1 and getting to see kind of what she was like younger because we got that a little bit with Luke already of understanding how he grew up on Tatooine. And like, the only thing we really got about Leah was that she grew up as a princess on Alderon. And, like, we didn't get much else originally. So having that expanded on was just really special and really amazing.

And, you know, I've said in probably every panel I've been in, but please, Lucasfilm, I really want to explore like a teenage Leah show. I think it would be so fun to do something like that. Because I think it would really open up new, new parts of this character that we've known for so long but we haven't really known

and I really really want to explore that more so I really hope I can play her again someday and expand more of those special traits that we hopefully will get to see someday. Yeah, absolutely. I think we'd all love to see that. That's dang good PR right there. That was really impressive. Hustling for work, that's smart I need to do more of that.

You know they're creating in Star Wars right now. Daniel, So I wanted to ask, Boba Fett, he's often seen as like the ultimate bounty hunter, but that larger-than-life image can sometimes overshadow the more subtle layers of who he is. From your perspective, what inner traits or complexities do you think fans might overlook? And which aspects of Boba's character do you wish people would highlight a little bit more? That's a good question. That's all I needed today. It was pretty to say that one time.

That's it, yeah. Pass. No, you know, the thing about Boba Fett is that he had such a small role in the original three or two, I should say, because he was only in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But I think people were attracted to him because he was this, you know, not very out there, withdrawn guy who had this military-esque with all these different gadgets and weapons and stuff like that. And, you know, it's funny when they hired me, I wouldn't shut up. So we couldn't be more further than each other.

But I forgot your question. It just shocked me. Just which traits of Boba Fett do you feel like you wish fans would highlight a little bit extra that maybe perhaps might be a little overlooked as opposed to just like stoic, ruthless, and all about survival? I mean, you know, we got to, again, we got to go backwards when they came back to me We got to see some of the founding and beginnings of Boba Fett and why he became the bounty hunter he did. And it wasn't necessary that he hated every bounty hunter.

He just especially hated one bounty hunter, which ended up becoming a job. And then being able to learn that Boba Fett had a father that ended up becoming, a clone donor that ended up becoming his father and all these different backstories that gave more death to the character. I'm a huge Star Wars fan. because you read some of the original books and they go to where BobaFed was a human. Now they have to kind of scratch that all out and rewrite BobaFed as a clone.

So I think every day we're just learning more stuff about BobaFed and some of the fan, you know, stories and fictions that people come up with. I'm like, yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, and I think the fans have a better concept of who this character really is because they're the ones you create and built him and made him, you know, the iconic character that he is today. Well, while you might think the fans have this, and they do, they have a really good understanding of the character. I know the fans love the hell out of your portrayal of Boba Fett, so thank you for your contribution. Well, I grew up in the original series, right? When episode 1, 2, 3, 3, 4 and 5, 6. I didn't graduate, as you guys can tell. I made my, off my, this beauty, no. But

now I forgot what I was saying again. Yeah, it didn't even really matter. Well, Sean, it was entertaining regardless. Sean, what do you think about Boeufet? A lot of the characters. You got any insights on both of that? Well, when I was a child playing with my action figures in the basement, I got a lot of insights. I didn't really go on. A lot of the characters that you play, like a Craglin, Rocket, Weasel, they're outsiders,

misfits, or perhaps underdogs. Is there something about these kind of characters that personally resonates with you? Or is it more just about the creative challenge of bringing them to life. Yeah, I think that my, you know, as an actor, my career has been very much defined on a willing, by a willingness to kind of do anything, you know, and I end up playing a lot of weirdos and oddballs and things like that. I love, I love the idea of taking, of taking a character that from the outside is going to

seem very, it's going to seem funny or silly or strange and, and tackling it in exactly the same way as, as I would tackle any other role in a kitchen sink trauma or in a Shakespeare play or anything like that and really try to find the truth. I mean, that's what we do, right? We try to find the truth of whatever the character is. So I think, I love the challenge of doing that for a character like Weasel, who, who, you know, and he's a good one to bring up because people would see the suicide squad and then I have fans coming up and saying, yeah, you know, wait, Weasel's hilarious. He's so crazy and weird. And I'm like, just wait until you see him in Creature Commandos. It is not as funny as you think it is. And then, and then kind of, you know,

trying to you know weasel have a different toolkit than other characters do he only grunts and and and you know and growls and weezes and and and and howls and moans and chirps and all those things and but i'm still trying to portray the truth of who who he is and what what he experienced and um and i love doing that i hope i get to do that my whole career and keep playing these these character is kind of from from left field you know um that said i like playing adult 50-year-old males which is what i am as well like i don't mind playing normal guys also but like i'll take all of it i think is how i feel you know that's awesome any gilmore girls fans here yeah i had a lot of people bring up talk about gilmore girls talk about gilmore i was like i'll make sure to shout out

Gilmore Girls in space, sadly. Not yet. Not yet. Vivian, we were talking about how you're a taekwondo black belt, which takes a ton of discipline, a ton of focus, and precision, qualities that I would imagine you naturally carry over into acting, especially in action-heavy roles. How is your martial arts training shaped the way you approach physical performances, like and we can be heroes or Obi-1 Canobi?

Well, it's interesting because I think it goes a little bit both ways. I think there were definitely things that I did that were inspired by stunts that I've done and stunts that I've done that's been inspired by like things that I do. So, yeah, I got my first degree black belt. It took me, I think, five years, I'm going to say. I think five years I got my black belt. and when I did we can be heroes that was in 2019 I was a green belt I believe and that was really fun because originally Guppy didn't have the importance in the story that she had had she was kind of just this like oh this cute little character for people would be like oh she's so cute and like she didn't have much else but once Robert like found out that I had done martial arts we were doing like the first two weeks I want to say was stunt training because there was so much stunts for the kids to have to do

so it was all on a green screen and when they figured out that I could do that stuff they did a few tests and then Robert like rewrote the script in a way where Guppy would have more fight scenes and more importance to the actual story which I really liked and then I ended up being a really fun role to play I got to do a lot of really fun stunts on that and then I think for layup again I did a lot of my own stunts on that but there was definitely stuff like when I was falling off the building I had to do a lot of like core strength and stuff to get there and I even worked with a woman who was I believe a ballet teacher to get me to that strength level and then I think that kind of inspired me to do aerial sulks which is my new kind of active activity that I do now and I think so that was kind of

an example where the acting stunt kind of inspired me to figure out that I could do something else as well. And I think that worked both ways. Wow. You sound like a very lazy person. Unproductive. Wow, that's great. I'm not getting exhausted hearing. You talk about all this physical exertion that you're doing.

Well, Daniel. I'm a third-degree black belt couch sitter. Yes. Will you fight Vivian? on stage. I am not getting beat up by a 13 year old kid on stage today. That wasn't in my bingo cost for 2025. She wins. She wins. She wins. Yes. Boba Fett, he's known as the symbol of survival and grit, but as a kid, you played him at one of the most vulnerable points in his life, watching his father die. As an adult looking back, is there a layer to Boba that you

understand now that you didn't as a kid? I just wanted the super introspection questions with you today. You know, I don't think anyone really knew Boba Fett before we came back and he reprised in Attack of the Clone. So I think we all got to find new layers and stuff like that about him. I mean, now Django Fet is now the clone template for the whole entire clone army, you know, and they just take a bucket off and it looks like my dad, which as we discovered in the Clone Wars, it got very confusing for Boba Fett. And I think one of his most famous lines was like, you're not my brother, you know.

And I think that established that relationship where Boba Fett had to start to disconnect himself from the clones so that he was able to become the bounty hunter that he is today without any sympathy. But, I mean, he's a very lairful character. I mean, now we've gone full circle and he came out of the Sarlac Pit getting to see him and then becoming, you know, the BobaFit that we now have today, it's kind of different. I like the story. I got a lot of people who were like, ah, it wasn't the best.

But, I mean, I really truly liked it. And they brought me back as a flashbacks as a 13-year-old kid again. That's really cool. Yeah, it was nice to get a check again. Lucasfilm written on it. Thank you. Thank you, Lucasfilm for all the money. Yeah, thank you.

And Sean, portraying both Cragglin and, of course, the onset reference for Rocket, it requires a unique blend of physicality and emotional nuance. I think the general assumption is that you probably spend a little bit more time doing character development homework for the live action performance more than the mocap rolls for like a Rocket or a Weasel.

And we were talking about that a little bit earlier with Weasel. Is there a part of the preparation process of doing a mocap role for like a weasel, the process in terms of internal character development that people might not actually expect or be aware of that you'd like to share care? You know, I, really the most important piece of it is that it's not that different for the performer. You know, there's technical things that are different in terms of how the

performance is being captured, but in terms of my preparation and how I approach, how I go from script to set, I don't really look at the characters as being incredibly different. It's just a different, you know, like I was saying with Weasel, it's a different set of, it's a different toolbox I, I have to use, use in order to portray the character. And with Rocket, Rocket's a little different too, because I'm only doing a piece of Rocket. You know, it's like it takes, it takes a bunch of people to create Rocket. And a lot of my job is, is really interacting with the other actors and being available for them. But, you know, I think that the important thing to take away is that when you're doing these characters,

because increasingly there's more and more characters that are on green screen or on, that are, you know, CGI or CGI or CGI adjacent, you know, and as technology gets better, if you're an actor, there's just more and more work in that field. And I think that that's why it's important to always go back to the story, the character. what is this you know just the basics of acting what is this character's motivations what are they what makes them tick what makes them who they are and and then you and then it's really not that different you can maybe heighten some of that stuff when you know that the when you know the camera is picking up everything physically but for the most part it's more similar than it is different

I love to hear that because I know there's a big conversation over the last few years about like mocap and its role in acting and to hear that it is pretty much like this same level of dedication and homework and preparation is refreshing to hear definitely like it should be recognized more so thank you for sharing that Vivian you've already worked with some pretty legendary actors obviously like even McGregor for example Sandra Bullock what's been one of the best pieces of advice you picked up from them about staying grounded or your craft oh um oh no what advice have you given them. That's what we should be asking. It's just difficult because I mean I've worked as an actor for almost nine years and so remembering everything everybody's ever said to me is difficult

because I've received a lot of good advice over the years from people I've worked with and I think I've had a lot of people who are inspirational to me and this is is a question I would have to do later for homework, so wait, okay, I will figure this out, but I think there were definitely a few things that I heard that I really liked. I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a big inspiration for me. I worked with him on Mr. Corman, which was his show, and I think he was just such an inspiration to me because he told me like that nothing nothing in your life ever has to be limited unless it's by yourself because that was because he wrote directed starred in that movie and like produced and edited

he did it like all and I think he was really that kind of inspiration of you don't have to choose to just be a writer or just be an actor that you can do all of it and I think I received a lot of practical advice as well like Sandy taught me to jump before like a big adrenaline rushing scene because it kind of got your blood flowing and it got you to that point and then I think some of the best advice that I've received was from a woman named Sammy who worked with me on Obi-1 she was like kind of like my acting coach but she was like like less of us she went over the lines with me and more helped me understand how to get into character and she taught me to choose a color for my characters and choose a color for myself and then try and imagine myself like with that color as my aura it was it was kind of confusing but like um it's hard to explain but it really helped me kind of separate myself from my characters in a way that if a character got hurt it wouldn't hurt me personally and it's made me able to really personally feel those characters without having to feel the emotional trauma that might be inflicted on them.

That was actually a very beautiful answer. That was a great answer. Took me a minute, but I got there. Wow. Daniel, I'm not going to ask you a question about deconstructing Boba Fett's past again, I promise. Thank you. I wanted to, I was watching last night, I was watching the Star Wars Celebration video where you brought your son out on stage. And it got me curious about something, because you were speaking to about Tamara Morrison

of how he really looked after you on set and how you two have stayed friends over the years. And totally stole my role. To they stole your role. That's son of us. But since he played your father on screen, has that bond ever influenced how you think about fatherhood or mentorship in your own life? Is there anything that you took away from that relationship that stuck with you beyond Star Wars? Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, I grew up without a father.

So, I mean, as a young man, you know, you don't realize until you get older and you have your own son how important it is to have a male role model in the household. And my son just turned seven like four days ago. And thanks. Yeah, give that to his mom. She deserves it more than I. But, you know, Tim, as soon as I walked in, he was a huge actor in New Zealand. And I didn't have a clue who George Lucas was. Greger, Natalie Pullman, although she was gorgeous.

But Tim Woodhamarson, I knew who he was, because I'm from New Zealand. He's from New Zealand. He made a name of himself and became this iconic actor all over the world that most of us New Zealanders who wanted to be an actor inspired to become. And once he walked through the door, I just got starstruck. And he walked right up to me and he goes, well, I guess I'm going to be playing your dad, you're going to be my son. You call me dead, and I'll call you son.

So I was like, oh, okay, Dad. And he just looked back down on me, he goes, okay, son. So I spent a lot of time with him. So from that moment, we really became father and son, and all through filming Star Wars with him. I'm like, hey, Dad, where are you going? Oh, I'm just going to my trailer, son. You want to come with me, boy? I'm going to, yes, yes, I'll come with you, Dad.

So we kind of followed each other around. I got a funny story actually because I didn't grow up with a father. When I finally got a father, Django Fet, he called my house. And my sister picked up the phone and she's like, we were always taught to ask who's speaking. It was kind of a polite thing we were all taught. Like, oh, can I ask who speaking? She's like, oh, this is dead. Yeah, you could imagine that, right?

My sister said, what? goes this is dead and she goes oh click and hanged up the phone well she thought well now he's famous you start to call right like now you want to have a son so he had to call back and he's like

oh dude this is his dead Timowena Morrison she's like oh I'm so sorry sir you know and she came running around the house looking for me and I kind of felt a little resentment after that from the rest of my siblings like you think you're better than us because now you've got a dad kind of thing But, no, he's told me a lot.

You know, he told me a lot about being humble, about our culture, and, you know, making sure we keep the culture alive and how important it is to be a native, Māori, you know, kid in person. And just about being there, you know, like he always calls, he always check on me. When we're at conventions, you know, we're still stuck to each other like glue, me more than me more to him than him more to me. But yeah, I just try to show up, you know. I was telling someone earlier, you know, my favorite job today is being able to have

the opportunity of taking my son to school and then picking him up after school, you know, and just those simple things like seeing him come out of school and, Dad, throw his school at me, you know, when he goes and runs and plays with the other kids. It's one of the most fulfilling things I've had in my life. So just try to show up, you know, and do your best. As a father, you don't know what you're doing, but you just hope that you being there and being present is the most important thing.

So, yeah. Wow, so he sounds more like Aquaman's dad than Boba Fett. Oh, I got a funny story about that one, too. It's got some bad language from my side. But I try to take a picture with me, Jason, and him. And Tim was okay with it, and Jason, I don't think he really liked to Star Wars brother very much. I'm like, we're kind of brothers.

She had the same dad. Can we take a picture together? Yeah, Sean. Oh my God, that's hilarious. I didn't think there'd be so many funny Tamora Morrison stories. We were talking about siblings, and Sean, you and your brother, James, you've obviously worked together on so many projects, but sibling dynamics, especially in creative spaces,

can be a little complicated for some people. What do you think has been the key to maintaining that collaborative energy over the years and has there ever been a moment where you two didn't see eye to eye creatively or how do you guys come to solutions if you're not seeing eye to eye? Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things So James and I are

There are six in my family and I'm the youngest and James is the oldest so it already helps that we have the dynamic of him being the boss on set like I think if our roles were reversed it might actually be trickier in a lot of ways if I was his boss but you know

which kind of helps but we've been working together when we can for pretty much our whole lives and so we have a we have a short hand for communicating with one another that is

that you I couldn't match it in any other job you know we can we can talk about something and get to the heart of what the issue is creatively talking about like working on a scene or something we can do it very quickly and i can look over at the monitor we can be shooting a scene and i can look at his face on the monitor and know whether he's he's digging what's going on or if he wants to if he wants to adjust it um and yeah we there are plenty of times when we

when we have disagreements about something creatively but um i think that we we don't we never fight about it. It's like we, here's what I think, here's what, you know, we respect one another's opinion. And I think it helps that we both are very, we're both very focused and we like to have fun. But I always say, I always say, when people say, you know, what's it like working with your brother? I always say it's, you know, fortunately, he's very good at his job. Otherwise, I think it would be a lot harder. And I think he would say the same about me. So I think that, I think just the the fact that we we carry that mutual respect for one another

and we work things out. And the other thing that's important, I think this is important whether you're working with friends or family or your, you know, boyfriend or girlfriend or girlfriend or spouse or whatever, that like you have to be able to separate

creative differences from your real life. You have to know that like, that you can say to somebody, like, I don't like that idea or I think that's all wrong. and it's not personal. You're saying that the way that collaborators talk

and not the way that like, you know, siblings fight, you know? And I think it's good to always keep those things separate. But, you know, we get along really well. We don't fight a lot in my family. We're not competitive with one another. So I think that is really kind of the key. I appreciate all the answers from all three of you on that. You guys gave a lot of great wisdom to all that.

Thank you guys so much. I actually have one more thing to talk about with that. So I'm actually an only child, so I'm the only one here that doesn't have siblings. But there was a time that, like, some of the Internet made up a brother for me. So, like, it's so weird because I know where this came from, but it's still so funny to me that still some, like, celebrity pages say that I have a brother. I do not have a brother. I am an only child. But what happens is...

DNA. That DNA.com or whatever it is. They're like, well, you actually do. But what happened was I grew up with cats. So I have five cats. And my cats have always been kind of like my siblings, especially Zalvador. He is my mom's cat, so he's always been kind of like my baby brother. And so in one interview, when I was like six years old, somebody asked me, do you have any siblings?

And I said, no, but I have furry siblings. I have a furry baby brother. And I guess people took that as just a weird way to describe a baby brother. So people started putting online that, oh, she has a brother, but her parents like to keep her brother out of the public eyes, so he's never on her Instagram,

and she never talks about him. And it was just so funny to me that it kept showing up on these websites and she has a brother that she doesn't like to talk about, a baby brother. I'm like, that's not the case I talk about him all the time you just don't realize that you don't realize that I'm talking about a cat he does show up on my Instagram but I just thought it was so funny that like if you if you look it up

I'm definitely sure that there are still some sites that will say and she has an unnamed brother and I'm like nope I've told you his name and also he's a cat that's funny because my question was going to be can you tell us about your furry brother So I appreciate you answering that for us in advance. Sean, do you mind, would you be willing to tell the audience your cat's names? Oh, yeah. My boy's names are Tommy and the business. And they are my pride and joy.

Like you have siblings, they are my children. So they're great. They're getting older, and they've been with us a long time. Yeah, they're 15. You know, they're like, they're, and, uh, and, uh, they're the best. They're the best. I have, uh, my wife and I have four cats ourselves. So we're, I love that there's a big cat crowd except for Daniel for some reason.

Well, well, no, no, I got to tell you my cat story. So I love cats. Let's go. Let's go. I love cats. But one of my, my wife's cousin was affected by the fire, so they came to our house for like a week and a bit and birthed a cat. And they said, this cat is lovely.

I mean, Airbnb to the house in New Zealand, this cat was the best thing ever, like, I loved it. That's a good cat impression, by the Yeah, I mean, I got the videos to prove it. And I was going to get a bangle cat, but I've got this huge Star Wars collection that I knew that it wouldn't last very long if I got a bangle.

So I'm like, I'll wait until I'm no longer addicted to Star Wars to become addicted to cats. But then my wife's cousin brings this cat along. It was the most vicious evil thing I could even imagine. Like, I'm taking their food to feed this thing. As soon as I opened the bedroom doors, like, I'm like, oh, easy.

I'm just trying to give you food. And then, like, I felt like I was a prisoner in my own house because of this cat. What had you done to deserve that? Nothing. I rescued this cat from the fires. I'm like, you could have a little appreciation. I don't know. That's accurate.

You want to say my baby brother. I have the scratches on my head right now, and then I have a pretty, just, puncture wound on my foot. And he's my baby brother, and we love each other very much, but that's his way of love. We would send pictures back to my wife's cousin and be like, oh, here's a picture of a cat. It's like, isn't she just so cute? Isn't she lovely? I'm like, no, no, it's the opposite. I haven't been out of going to go in that room since the cat left.

And I left like a couple weeks ago. And I'm still traumatized. I still'm like, no, I just leave the door shut now in case the cat's still in there. So then she's like, oh, can you give it to my wife's mother to bring to L.A.? I'm like, how am I going to get the cat back into that cat bag with the little bubble on it? Third, that's another story for another convention, but man, I'm telling you, for one of the only times I've been afraid of my life for a very long time, this guy was evil.

I did nothing. I promise, I love all animals, but this cat... You've always done something, whether you realize it's right. That's what everyone always said, like, Dan, you must have done something. Like, don't I have that face? Like, no, you have that, you've done something face. No, I swear, I just wanted to pat the cat. I've got to show you guys a video now.

Have you like look this is me and by the other cat the New Zealand cat the nice one Have you guys ever heard of the series my cat from hell? Yes No but I'm watching it now My wife and I were on the last episode of that show So I know what it's like to deal with when you have to work on a relationship with a cat That you feel like oh my God I'm a little bit scared of this cat I'm going to get attacked so I know what it's like

We have five cats from hell We went to peck home bought all these toys all these treats and everything I could not bribe this cat to like me if I just ride you want a cat I don't have it I'm gonna say the thing about cats is you can't can we get back to

whookies and how do we get on to cats the thing about cats is you can't buy them things it just makes them hate you more some no for my wife the thing is like cats are so weird because we will buy

them like a $300 cat tower and they'll be like and then we'll pick up like a leaf from outside and they'll just be like This is the best toy. This is the best toy in the entire world that's ever existed. I'm telling you, I don't know if it's just like the natural thing of like natural instincts,

but if you could find specifically pine needles, their favorite thing. It will get any cat to like just roll over. And also those little fuzzy worms that you drag with an invisible string, I mean, works every time. It works every time. Speaking of cats, I just want to remind everybody that the Pasadena Humane Society is, is out here as well as part of our event today. Yeah. And I think Greg has one more question.

I have one last question. I know I would get a little bit annihilated, Sean, if I didn't ask about a rumor here. A little rumor. I'm going to be very careful here. Are you going to rent a cat? Are you going to buy another cat? There's a rumor about a character you might be playing in this Superman movie.

A little maximum lord, a little Maxwell Lord. I can neither confirm nor deny those others. But they are out there, and they have not been denied. So I'll ask, theoretically, if you were to play this guy. How would you balance respecting a character's history with bringing in your own creative instincts? You know, when I work with James on characters like that, he's very good about being clear about the relevant source material. So it's not like I It's not like you necessarily need to go back

And research every single iteration of Of a character that's been around for a long time He you know we sort of talk about the character Like fortunately I don't have that he have the rich knowledge of Of comic books that he has so he he he already knows all that stuff But I don't I'm not a I'm not a deep diver into comics And and so he'll bring some he'll we'll talk about the character first

and then he'll point me in the direction of hey for a little more reference look at this maybe look at this and we kind of keep it on on board with what the film is and what his vision is for the movie and for the character okay well I can't wait to see if this is all true or not this rumor

well that's it for our time today please give another round of applause Vivian Daniel and Sean thank you guys so so much thank you guys so much thank you guys for this too. Hi, I'm Trisha, your friend and jeweler at Shane Company, where we're all about you, your style, your budget, your dream engagement ring.

Are you looking for a style that's classic, modern, vintage, or something in between? Not sure? At Shane Company, we're here to help. We have so much style under one roof because a friend knows, you like options. Drop by or visit us at shanko.com. Shane Company, your friend and jeweler. Nearly home.

Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the pro's number one most trusted app. A dream home isn't a dream home if it comes with a nightmare commute. That's why realter.com has real commute, so you can search by drive time. Download the realtor.com app today because you're nearly home. Make it real with Realtor.com. Pro's number one most trusted app based on August 2024 proprietary survey. How are we doing multi-cons?

I got to say, that last panel was something else. What an amazing, I was like, what's going to happen with these three fascinating human beings on this stage with Greg Alba, who's just so wonderful. He did a pretty good job, huh? Not too bad, not too bad. Got to represent that Reject Nation. Well, guys, I'm not going to lie, this next panel, every time I'm like, how can it get better? It keeps getting better.

We have some extraordinary, extraordinary talent coming up. I'm a, who's a fan of the 90s? Wouldn't it be nice if we just woke up and it was 98 Saturday morning, just watching some reruns of our favorite anime. shows, you know, maybe one of those great variety sketch shows like all that, or Keenan and Kell, you know, or maybe flash forward just a couple years later to, you know, a little Wildcat Pride, Wildcat!

Wildcat! So for those that don't know who haven't met me, I know it's been a long day, but I'm Michael, I'm the owner of Multi house and we put together multi-con here. It has been a crazy 30 days trying to assemble a convention and just so grateful, especially for all the talent, the content creators, all the individuals who have volunteered their time and they're just, they're all so brilliant that they come and do this and be with us all here today. It's just been genuinely nothing short of miraculous. this. And when I first got started in LA, my very first project that I helped produce was the great global cleanup with Zach Efron. And I had one note for myself, which was I'm not allowed to sing

because I was kicked off my middle school football team. This is a true story. Because my coach you got to stop missing practice for drama club rehearsal. And I said, coach, I got to sing. And obviously, Troy Bolton right here. So, you know, I picked my lane. But I am, I am, excited we have like such a cool moderator we've got such a cool panel so I'm just gonna let's let's throw it back guys who's ready all right come on up everybody oh don't worry you get the real good intro I'm just the warm-up can you hear me oh there it is hi everybody my name is Kathy Steph and I'm a film reporter for Variety and I am so excited

to be here for today's throwback panel. So we're going to talk about some of my favorite items of all time, High School Musical, Good Burger, Moesha. Are you kidding me? I don't think it gets better than this. So without further ado, I will introduce the folks that you're really here to see. So up first, she can pop and lock and jam and break.

It's Casey Stroh for High School Musical. Up next, she is East High's most stylish and smartest and ambitious Wildcat. Give it up for Monique Coleman. I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, and we're all dudes today. Give it up for Kel Mitchell. She is Goodberger's best employee and Moisha's bestie. Let's hear it for Char Jackson. Oh my god, we've got all that music playing in the background.

Come on. Oh my gosh. First off, thank you all so much for being here today for this amazing cause. I can't wait to dive into some of my favorite movies and TV shows from the 90s and 2000s. I'm a 90s baby myself. baby myself. I think Sharr, I want to start with you, because I am a Moisha Stan.

I wish we were also playing the Moesha theme song. Um, to the, oh, to the... Which season? It changed every season. Now, your character is so much fun. She brings so much humor. But I heard that she was actually only going to be in the pilot

and she had a different name. Dude. Okay, so her name was Gail. Oh, no. Okay, Gail. Not Gail. Um, is it Oprah and? Who knows? But no, her name was Gail. She was only supposed to be there for the pilot.

She was just their friend. And funny enough, the way that I, um, even came into the series, they were already filming. They had already started filming the pilot. And they were like two days in, whomever they had, um, as the character at first, I guess it just didn't work out. So I got a phone call like, hey, can you be on set tomorrow? Okay.

Um, uh, went in and thought it was just going to be for that, you know, one little week and it turned into seven years later now do you have a favorite of Niecy's one-liners because I'm partial to the the Taibo tapes when she says those are too expensive this is Taipo no I don't have I don't have a favorite because Nisi a lot of Nisi's lines were like right off of my head just whatever I was feeling at the moment so I pretty much liked everything she said yeah yeah I think we would all agree you know No, Cal, I told you earlier, Anshar, I broke the Good Burger VHS tape in my parents' house. I watched it so many times.

I could not resist, of course, singing, I'm a dude, he's a dude. My dad never wants to hear it again with the number of times that I sang it as a child. But I understand that came from sort of an ad lib that you did on all that? How did that turn into a full-fledged song? So we had a huge, like, camera pan that would come down, And it was just like this dead space. So I just started drumming on the register. And I was just like, ah, I'm a dude.

He's a dude. And it just took off to the point where, like, everybody started singing it. You know what I mean? And then they were like, yo, we need a real song for that. And I wrote a song, full out song with Lesson Jake, did it. And now to this day, people are still singing it, which is cool, which is awesome. I love it. I love it.

Yeah. How did you come up with Ed's sort of deep voice that we get to hear? because I feel like you really distinguished the character. I don't think it sounds like him. Well, I grew up on the south side of Chicago. Shatown, anybody, okay. But yeah, I grew up on the South Side of Shot, and we watched, like, Save by the Bell,

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, all those. And so we would do, like, Chicago slang as them, so how would that sound? And we were like, yeah, I didn't want to get on an L? Like, what are you going to do that? So we would talk like that. And it was just a voice that I did with my homies and my cousins, and I did it in the audition. And I was just, you know, they were like, what characters do you have? And I just did people that I know in Chicago.

And then I also did that voice. And I was like, yeah, I did, well, yeah, I did it. And it's to this day, it is just still taking over, which is awesome. How often do people come up to either of you saying, welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger? Is it just a daily occurrence? All the time. Two minutes ago on the way here. At a red night.

I think somebody's doing it right there. It's just, yeah. Matter of fact, let's just do it right now. Welcome to Get Burger home. She got her phone. She's like, she said, I'm not missing this moment. How are you? Yeah.

Welcome to Get Burger home and a good burger. Can I take your order? Huh, dude. Yeah. See, that's why I do it. To see the giggles and the smiles, they put a giggle in the smile. Wait, but people get bad that I don't do it like you.

I was like, Monique never did it like him. Like, oh, no. Monique didn't have the same lust for life that Ed did necessarily. Ed was just excited to be anywhere he could do. Now, I think we need to talk about some high school musical too. Let's go. Let's go. Now, I was, you know, I watched every single decomm growing up, but there was something

when high school musical came out that it was the zeit guy shifted. Like I said, oh my God, this is my entire personality from now on. Did both of you know when you were in the room, when you were in the halls of East High that it was going to turn into the phenomenon that it did? When did it hit you? Okay. Oh, am I off? My check.

She's going to? Nope. All right. We're going to wing this. Thank you. Oh, yeah. All right. So absolutely not.

None of us knew that it would go on to be this like worldwide phenomenon. But I do feel like when we were filming, we're all in this together. Kenny Ortega stopped after one of the takes and he said, hold on. Did you all just feel that? Like something's different. Something's special. And it was a project that was so special to so many of us. So of course we're like, yeah, yeah, great, we're doing something.

But none of us could have imagined the way it blew up afterwards and the fans that just kept pouring in. I think it was, there was a, okay, thank you. There was a moment where we knew we were part of something special, though. You just can't ever predict what that means. You know, I think it's such a privilege in your career. in your career to get to ever have a moment that is iconic or to have a legacy, you know? And I think at that time, I was a little bit older than everyone,

maybe a lot. But because of that, I did have a little bit of perspective. And I just remember for me, it was actually watching stick to the status quo and seeing just how talented everyone was and being like, this is unnatural. Like we're acting like this is okay. but children are standing on their heads. Like, what is happening?

Like, they are jumping off of tables. She is popping, locking, and spinning. Like, what is happening here? So I do, there's no way to know that it was going to continue as long as it did, but I do think that there was inside of me. I knew that we were stepping into something that was going to be bigger than us. You both referenced, of course, stick to the status quo, and we're all in this together. I'm curious, do you each have a favorite music?

number, either that you were in or just that you loved being a part of and getting to see. I'm personally a bet on it, girl. Lives changed. People died when I saw Zach Efron looking into reflection of himself. Understood. Yes. So I'm curious. Did you have

that moment? For me, it was oh my gosh, a night to remember. Right? It was just one of those moments where I just didn't want it to end. Typically, you're sweating, you're tired, you're like, I'm done, it's over, this was like, can we just do one more?

No, I think I messed up. No, I really think, because I think it was also because it was the third movie, knowing, without a doubt, that this was it, every single moment felt like a curtain call. Wow. I have to agree with that. I feel like a night to remember was really something special, and we could all feel it,

and there was so much blood, sweat, and tears. Do you remember that they changed our heels, like right before? So we had practiced in these, like, dance heels, and then the, like, main cast are like, actually, we decided we just don't like those. So we're going to give you these brand-new dance shoes, like, the day of. So we were, like, blistered in between takes, bleeding, and, but the drive was in us. We wanted this to be so special and so magical for the fans. I remember, like, taking off our heels and then, like, putting them back on and, like,

come on, let's go again. We've got this. Yeah, it was a really, really. unique and special, special number. Well, something that excites me about everyone on this panel is that within the last few years, you've all gotten the chance to return to these franchises in some way or the other. So, first off, let's dive into Good Burger 2 a little bit. Now, I was sad to see that Monique was not back in full, but we did see a cameo.

I hope all of you have seen Good Burger, too. But if you haven't, there's this incredible moment when they're trying to save Good Burger. If you remember the Imagine video from the beginning of the pandemic, that's what we get to see Sharr doing, singing to support Good Burger. You know, I just wanted to save Good Burger, that's all. You know, as Shar. It just was necessary. What were you channeling in that moment?

Were you giving Gal Gadot? A little bit, a little We Are the World, you know. I was definitely in my Michael Jackson. Yeah. So, yeah. You had to save Good Burger. No, Kell, you got to return to the character of Ed after many years, and it was so fun to get to see him

not as a teenager anymore, but still with that same sort of teenage optimism for the world. Did you have a different perspective on the character of Ed coming back as an adult and getting to step into those shoes? Yeah, I mean, we talked a lot before we decided to finally shoot part two because we wanted the story to be exactly right. But Ed, you know, he didn't really change much. He still had that mindset.

I mean, he got kids, though. You know what I mean? He had five kids, you know, mustard, pickles, onions, ketchup. That's what he named him after condiments. So that was pretty cool. And my own kids got to play a part in that, too. So that was a fun moment for me. But, yeah, Ed was just Ed.

And we brought all that back in 2019. So it wasn't too hard to, like, kind of, like, jump back in and, you know, play Ed again. Yeah. He's part of me. Now, high school musical, of course, has this just enduring legacy of, you know, it came out when I was in that era of in my own high school. I played Mr. Fulton, the Lava Springs Club Manager, in my own high school production of

High School Musical, too. I know I'm really depressed. Yes, you did. But it has this quality that I think has endured because when you're in high school, everyone has this moment of figuring out who they are, what they want to be. is the person I was in eighth grade, the same person I am when I'm a freshman. And, of course, we got to see that continue for a new generation with high school musical, the musical, the series, the easiest name to say.

It's a mouthful. But you both got to come back, but not as technically your characters. You were playing yourselves, but fictionalized versions of yourselves. How did you wrap your mind around? How am I going to craft being myself on this panel? We have one, Mike, so we're going to adapt. We're going to adapt and overcome. So how did you approach those versions of yourselves that were portrayed in the show?

That is a great question. Well, first of all, can we just talk about the nostalgia of walking back into East High? Like the smells were the same, the sounds were the same. Even when we just pulled up to school, I literally felt like I was going to my actual reunion. Like my heart dropped, and I was like, oh, my gosh. because it wasn't just 15 years of time that passed historically in the story. It was 15 years of our lives that have also passed. So when we were pulling up, seeing and remembering who we were 15 years ago, it was so special.

Absolutely. And then, you know, coming back and playing yourself, but like not completely yourself. So it was interesting to like, okay, I'm going to put some of Casey in there, but I've still got to make this, you know, silly and comical. So I'm going to add a little bit of, like, diva to it, like, oh, I'm this big deal, which for me was like, oh, this is uncomfortable. Except that she is a big deal. Have you guys seen her TikTok? Like, come on, you're a huge deal. Thank you, Mama. Now, what did it feel like seeing the new generation of stars for high school musical, the musical this series, getting to see we have Joshua Bassett, Olivia Rodriguez, all of these massive stars kind of taking on this new iteration?

of high school musical. Was it nostalgic getting to watch them take on those reins? Absolutely. I mean, they are so unbelievably talented. And also the world is so different than what it was at the time when we were there. And so for me, specifically, like seeing Dara Renee and her role and how she's able to present herself in a way that I wasn't at that time 15 years ago, it's really special just to see the ways that the torch has been passed and doors have been opened that,

we got to kind of come full circle and walk back through. I feel that, yeah, Mo nailed it. Just truly an honor to see, you know, what they could do with this little machine of high school musical when it started as such, I mean, an untitled Disney Channel movie. You guys know that wasn't like the real title, right? Like on the script, it was like, high school musical, because we don't know what to name it.

It is a musical. Was it called Gail? Yeah. You were just like a high school musical. Oh, so that's why it's called high school. Yeah. And so then when it like launched on Disney Channel, I remember seeing it flashed across the screen and being like,

oh, oh, we went with that. Oh, we said, that stuck. Okay. Okay, we'll go with it. Well, it stuck. You know, I think it contributed to that quality that I'm talking about. Of every high schooler could relate to it. They could just insert the name of their high school and musical.

So it worked. now I think we need to mash up these universes a little bit so I am curious like a smash burger Disney and Nickelode that would be a good bird That would be a good mother

So I'm Dignorous They don't let me out the house much Now I'm curious How Monique and Ed would fare at East High What clicks do you think

think they would be a part of and would they be sticking to the status quo? You guys would tell us. You know what I'm saying? Put us up in there. I feel like this is like the Harry Potter sorting hat. I mean, like, what is this? Oh my gosh, what do you think? They're not sticking to the status.

No, they're not going to go with the flow at all. No. I know Monique's not. No, Monique is definitely not. Do you think would she be like a skater, maybe one of the skater girls? I could be a skater. You could be like one of like the skater girls,

like a little bit of rebellion. in there? I don't know, right? Yeah. I don't know. Okay. I might recruit you, though, for the decathlon. I'm mad at that. I'm not at that. Okay, we need more girls in STEM. Okay. Yeah. And what about Ed? I feel like Ed would have his own click, right? We're all in this together.

There it is. Well, well, well, I don't know the other word. Okay, what do we say? Very that. You really, yeah. Oh, I could be with the skaters? You could, yeah. Yeah.

I think you're your own universe. It's play ball, dude. He had to pooch. There it. Fun fact, I had to hear that song over and over again. When I did Dancing with the Stars, I danced to that. All in this together. Yeah, all in this together.

And it was crazy because it was like a Nickelodeon guy doing Disney. And it was like, it was super cool. I loved it. It was one. Yeah. Yeah. So now when I hear the song. Love. That's love. It's love. It's love. We mashed up. You know what I mean? Because in the 90s, you know, Disney and Nickelodeon was Bloods and Crips. I'm just letting you know.

Hashtack facts. Those are not lies. Did you guys feel a rivalry? And do you feel one right now? Are you guys like to fight? No, it's love. This is love. All love. Family. We all suffered through the same. trauma bonded through child acting no it's great it's great child actors unite yeah exactly but yeah no in the height of it there was definitely like a nickelurian disney thing going on now if i asked where ed and monique would be in high school musical i feel like it's only fair if i ask oh yeah where martha and taylor would be if they found themselves working at good burger as long as you're working at good burger and not that other place across the street Not Mondo Burger. Yeah, don't go over to Mando Burger.

Yeah, I feel like I might try to be, like, a regional manager. I see that. I don't know. I feel like I just want to, like, I don't know, change things. Yeah. That feels very Taylor-esque, for sure. Well, I mean, and all I did at the country club was chopped vegetables. So maybe I'm back popping and locking and chopping.

I don't know. Popping and locking. Chopping? I need that. Pop-lock and chop it. Pop-lock and chop it. Pop-lock and chop it. I do think you should trademark that.

Right? Pop-lock and chop it. Go ahead, girl. Put that mind. Where's the papers. I need to sign some papers right now. Now, we got to see exactly where Ed ended up in the present day, but we don't know where the rest of these characters did.

And I feel like we have to start with. Taylor McKessie had a dream of becoming president one day. one day. She didn't. She didn't. That didn't happen, but I do think that she would still be in a political sphere currently, like an AOC type, young. Yes. Organizing the people. Organizing. Progressive. That's very tailor-coded. Fighting for the people. Absolutely. What would Martha be up to? All right, so I don't know if you guys caught it, but in high school musical, the series, I actually did have a little bit of a hand. Lucas, referenced what Martha was up to and in the script it was originally something else and I just

my heart couldn't handle it and I actually went to the producers and I said no I feel like Martha would would be doing something more than that and so Martha in my opinion went on to become a world famous choreographer so that's that's where I projected her yes I love that that makes sense with my fantasy for her 100% No, Sharr, okay, I will say I was sad that I didn't get to see Monique end up with Keenan in the sequel. Were you sad? You were sad? Tell me more.

I mean, you know, as long as he got his stuff together, you know, as long as he stayed that path, then, you know, you don't know. You are so funny. Is it she the best? I think where Monique is, she might be the silent partner and owner of Goodberger, and she's out franchising. Part three. Part three, y'all, part three. Sounds like a Monique thing to me.

Oh, my God, we've got a power move. Now, you all mentioned before, I love what you call it the trauma bond of being child actors grown up. Have you found a sense of community amongst each other sort of discussing? this crazy like effed up world of starting your career? CMB, we all we got. I'm screaming.

Yes, yes. But also there is something really special when you see people that you know get something very specific. You know, Corbyn's wife, Sasha, has said before that we have such a unique relationship because we've been through things that only we have been

through and there's I think at the time yes you know we're making jokes about it being a trauma bond but it's also yeah it wasn't yeah it was amazing and we're also kids with dreams you know and no matter how it turned out no matter where where we ended up no matter what has happened since we're still able to look back and say as a child I had a dream I had a vision I had something I wanted to do and I actually got to do that in this lifetime and that's just a blessing yeah and that we get to each other's biggest cheerleaders in life like I love that like these people are these are my friends and I love them and I root for them and when I see their successes I am genuinely happy for them and I know when I have success I get a text message or a phone call and that is just something that

is truly special and just not it's irreplaceable yeah it's a it's a cool little carpool or caravan on this journey you know what I mean and um I wouldn't change it. You know. Family. Stop. Together is one. No, but it is.

It's love. It's love up here. It's love up here. It's been a lot of hugs back there. It's real. It is. Come on. Come on.

Well, speaking of love, I know that we've all sort of come together today because we all love love this city of LA. It's all it's so important and I'm so happy that we get to be a part of this rebuilding effort and coming together for our community. None of you much like myself are from L.A. originally correct? So I'm curious what your first L.A. memory was when you first got here and what drew you to L.A. in the first place, this beautiful city. I've been here since I was three, so I don't remember. Okay. So I'm, I'm the most native-ish. Yeah. So I'm, so I, I, I mean, I just always loved it. I want to shout out Lamarck Park, Crenshaw.

I'm sorry, that was the Moesha. That's how I feel. That's what, you know, that was my first memory of L.A., you know, just traveling over there and seeing the community over there. And that's been beautiful. And I still do a lot of work over there with different charities and things like that. So, yeah, it was awesome, you know, for me and Keenan to, you know, roll through there and hang out. and we went to church over there. Yeah, that's cool.

And then running down sunset and seeing, like, the billboard on sunset for all that. That was cool, too. My first memory was leaving. I came here after going to school in Chicago, and I had to take the 405 and Laurel Canyon on the same day. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. I'm scared. Have you recovered?

No. It's been 20 years. I was so scared And I just remember thinking And I never thought that L.A. was going to be in the cards for me I always thought that I was going to go to New York And do theater And that that was going to be the path that I took

And life led me here And I just remember being on Laurel Canyon Taking those turns thinking Oh my God, this is so dumb I don't know why I'm here But I'm still here Wait, you from Chicago? I went to school there

Okay I'm in Chicago so I was like Yeah I went to DePaul Yeah Thank you Thank you. We're getting to know each other right now. There are people here.

I know, we just talked. Yeah, yeah. I was in Lika Park and stuff. Yeah, it's well. I graduated in 02. Yeah. Hi, I love you. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry.

First memory. Okay, okay, so I remember visiting L.A. When I was a part of Vocal Ensemble from Salt Lake City, Utah. And I remember walking down the Walk of Fame and looking at the stars. And I had this overwhelming feeling that someday I was going to come back here and it was going to be different. And I was going to chase this dream. And then I remember I had been here like a week and we didn't even have a premiere for high school musical, by the way.

It wasn't like even a thing. And so they decided with after all the success to do a DVD launch. Yay. Yay. Yeah. Yeah, so my first red carpet of all time, I have the town car pick me up, and they're like, it's at the El Capitan. I don't know what that means.

I have no idea what that means, you know. So I remember it came around the corner, and the door opened, and I stepped out, and I looked down, and I was walking. Don't have you all teary out over here too long, girl. Come on. I'm like walking on the Hall of Fame and walking up to do the red carpet. And I just remember, yeah, like having this beautiful, for. full circle moment where I was like you did it and you did it against all odds and you did it breaking the molding you sure did it you know come on that was kind of special that is so beautiful

thanks when you think about it we really are all in this together well funny you start singing that because I actually think we have a special surprise I think we need to do some dancing if we are here to talk about high school musical. Are you guys ready? Um, oh. Oh, what? I'm going to learn. Are you ready to learn?

We're iconic. I know a lot of it. So if you would like to get on up out of your seats. Okay. And learn this. I'm serious, come on. I know you all have inner wild cat hearts and you've just been dying to do this.

We're all in there. To get. Hey. Okay. Are you guys ready? Now, this is very controversial. Uh-oh. and all over the internet, right, where everyone's like, is it a push or is it a pull?

Thank you, Monique. It's a pole. So you're going to pull up your rain boots, all right? That's how I think of it. So we're going, pull, pull, step, clap, pull, pull, pull, what up? That, yeah, what up. Okay, okay, from the top. Can we do it again?

Focus sharp, focus. Okay, so we're going to go. Pull, pull, step, clap. Pull, pull, pull. What up. And then we're going to throw it backwards. Such intensity, right? We're very intense here.

You're right, you're right, Disney, Disney. Sorry, I should. Amen, Monique, amen. You're right, Char. Bad word choice. We're going to go this way. We're stars, because it couldn't be any cheesier than this in life. Stars.

We're all stars, and we see that. A, D.H.D. Schar. Zero judgment. train here we go six seven eight we go pump pump step clap pump pump pump pump pump what up throw it back we're all stars and we see that are we ready are we ready for music can we do it oh yes oh yeah we're bringing it look at that even cute my man it's his moment it's his moment it's his moment it's his moment he has been waiting for them

You have all this together When we reach, we'll find your side We have made all my griefs come through. I want to thank everyone for joining us for our throwback panel. Thank you to our panelists. The best. You are playing.

You said what? You say. I know the pause. I should have said the pause. This episode is brought to you by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. The Grateful Dead and Dogfish Head have gotten the band back together with the release of Grateful Dead juicy pale ale. A light-bodied pale ale brewed with sustainable kerns of grains, granola, and heaps of good karma

for a refreshing brew that's music to your taste buds. Available nationwide, visit Dogfish.com to find Grateful Dead juicy pale ale in your neck of the woods. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is located in Milton, Delaware. Please drink responsibly. Who's been here since the start of the day? Wow, that's awesome, guys. Are you also exhausted? Because I am exhausted.

No, it's been an amazing day so far. And I just want to, you know, on behalf of our entire team and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles where all of our proceeds are going, Just say thank you. I realize that we're having fun, we're doing fun things, but we're also doing something that is so absolutely essential. I'm from New York originally, so I say this with a I say this with a bit of pause, but I truly think that Los Angeles is the greatest city in the world. Yeah, I know, that was scary for me to say. My mom's raising her fists somewhere being like I'm getting rid of you but I've never been more proud to be in Angelino you know in

the past gosh it's it's really only been a month and a half since the fires we have seen the absolute best of our city and I'm happy to say that I'm actually looking at the best of our city right now you all being here we also have some first responders who are here and families who are directly affected and to all the folks that donated tickets on their behalf. You're awesome. You know, I think the most gratifying part of today is that, you know, some of the young people here lost their school. And today's really the first day that they've been able to come together, have fun, be kids, and get to enjoy what being a kid is all about. And, you know, we're rebuilding our city, but we're doing it

a way that brings everybody up. You know, it's uplifting, not uprooting, has been our philosophy. And, you know, actually, a year ago this week, just to give you guys some history of this property, so this property was originally built by Paul Revere Williams. Does anybody know who he is? First African American architect and the American Institute of Architects. And he was known as the Architect of the Stars. He actually built homes for Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball. But he loved his community.

And even though he worked at... a time when he wasn't even allowed to sit on the same side of a desk as a white man, he still believed in the best of people and knew the potential of what this city could be. And so he actually built this site originally as the headquarters for the Assistance League of Los Angeles, which serves underserved children to this day here in Los Angeles. Now that was back in 1963. Flash forward many, many years later and the property, the Assistance League

has moved over to Sunset Boulevard, the property was falling apart, but it has this original, beautiful Paul William's staircase, has so much history. A man, Larry Bond, comes into the picture. We're going to give Larry Bond a big round of applause. And has a crazy idea.

What if we don't just save this historic property, but We take some of the additional campus that is really not able to be used, and we make it the largest urban forest in all of California. There is 6,500 plants and trees right here in the heart of Hollywood. And the best of the Paul Williams building was preserved and then transformed into what you've all seen here today, now known as the preserve. And none of this event would have happened had it not been for the generosity of Larry Bond, the preserve, and bond companies. So let's give them a huge round of applause. So one of our talent is experiencing a little bit of traffic.

So our panel's going to start at exactly 355. So in the meantime, I know everyone's really excited for this one. a nice turnout for this panel. We have some drinks, beverages, and snacks. Feel free to get some concessions while we wait. If you want, I'll do my best to do some stand-up, but I think you'd probably prefer snacks over it. No, that was a joke. That was a joke. I'm more of a sit-down comedian. So, no, again, I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, you know, 30 days ago, at 5 a.m. when we started today, it occurred to me that 30 days ago, this event did not exist. The idea of this event was nothing more than like, wow, we really would love to maybe do a

convention one day. And Nate, who's a member of our team, his children both lost their school and fire. And he walked in to our office, and I'm with the multi-house team. I started multi-house for that MH over there on the multi-in-the-multi and the multi-con. But he, he's He looked at me and I looked at him and it was just like, okay, I guess we're doing it. And by the rest, by the time the rest of the team figured it out, it was too late. We had already gotten all the pieces moving. I also just want to say a huge thank you, pal public relations who they're just doing their thing, working like crazy. All of the extraordinary talent that you've seen, they're the ones that help connect all the dot.

And Paul Christensen has just been an absolute miracle worker. to, you know what it's like trying to get this many celebrities into one place with less than 30 days of planning? It's pretty extraordinary. It also means that you have the nicest celebrities in the entire world here because these are all really great human beings who have all donated their time and 100% of their autographs proceeds. Which last I checked, I think we were getting close to $20,000 worth of autographs. Yeah. Whoa, indeed. Somebody got a lot of Kevin Smith signed Funko Pops. Oh, sure. Tell us about MultiHouse.

Oh. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, I was not expecting a Q&A, but as anyone that has known me for my entire life would know, put a microphone in my hand, and I'm ready to go. Yeah, so Multi House, I started here, moved to L.A. eight years ago, and it took me about five minutes to realize that none of us really know what we're doing, right?

And if all the big greats don't know what they're doing, surely I can also not know what I'm doing as well. And so we started a company. It has had many iterations. It started as a production company in film and TV. But what dawned on me very early on is that I was doing all these cool things, working with all these cool people. But when you're having those experiences, right, it feels good. And then you're like, well, what did I do today that was actually positive for the world? And so we started connecting dots with social impact, which is something I've always been really passionate about.

And we have evolved into a social impact storytelling company that works with some amazing organizations, including the Impact Collaborative. We actually have the CEO of the Impact Collaborative, who flew all the way out from New York to be here. The Impact Collaborative has over 200 nonprofit members, and they are changing the game and providing real estate-of-the-art resources to nonprofits to help them operate more efficiently. because now more than ever the organizations out there, they're doing the work, and they need the support. And so Tracy has been an extraordinary leader in this field and has connected so many interesting dots,

bringing everything from AI innovation to the mental health space, making it easier for clinicians. And I'm so excited to say that we've actually brought the Impact Collaborative, which is based in New York, right here to the preserve, and they're opening up, and we're going to start working with L.A.-based nonprofits to make sure that our city can get. those amazing resources too. So that's just one of the things that we do. We're working on a

documentary, we're working on, we're going to the 2026 Milan Paralympic Games, which I'm so excited. Ben is somewhere out here, a director of the film. But we've got a lot of amazing social impact projects. So to answer your question, we do a whole lot of things. And multi-con, I think, is sort of the culmination of all of those collective interest coming together, um, You know, and they say it takes a village. In this case, it takes a heck of a lot of celebrities and, you know, a lot of publicists and, you know, and of course all of you to come together to try to put something like this together. I mean, it really, really is remarkable, especially when you see a con that you've never heard of before.

My favorite was my mom sent me a Reddit post, and my brother can confirm this is true, which is crazy that my mom sent me a Reddit post. The sentence stresses me out. that was like is is multi-con legit can anyone confirm that this is a real thing you know she told me to respond i didn't but you know um no but it's uh it's been an amazing an amazing amazing time um and i know she's probably off actually doing her job but i just need to say a huge thank you to haley kinsler who is our director of events and experiences i periodically will call call Haley 30 days before some giant event, I'll pitch it and I'll say you can do that, right?

And she'll cry a little and then go, yeah, let's go for it. Haley flew out from Chicago to be here to pull this off, which I think is just incredible. Also shout out to her husband, Joe, who had a Lord of the Rings-themed wedding in New Zealand, which is just the most nerdy thing that you can possibly imagine. you know but it's it really is an extraordinary thing to to see all different sorts of folks come together we also the permit was saved by the bell from our dear friends at council district 13 we have some of those folks over there so thank you so much the council member ugo soda Martinez and that cosplay is extraordinary my gosh i was that is shagadelic baby

Any other questions? At 355 on the... Oh, do you guys want another multi-con? Wait, I think Larry might need to hear that one. Do you guys want another multi-con? You guys just bought me four more months. Heli Kinsler, everybody. We already talked about you, don't worry.

She's doing actual work right now. No, so we're actually, we're hoping to continue this series of events. The idea, though, that right now the immediate need, of course, is wildfire recovery. But the reality is that there is no shortage of needs here in Los Angeles. And so the idea is that Multicon will continue, but every time that we continue, we'll pick a different non-profit that we're going to support all for good causes.

Oh, you got real excited. Oh, that's so... Is there any children around? Can I say badass? Exceptional Minds is the name of the program. I love that. No, and that's the sort of thing that we're really, really excited to do.

You know, I think fandoms, You know, I'm a Star Wars guy, if that's not self-evident. How many rookie Jedi's that are canon? No, no, I'm good. Okay, well, if we're talking about the High Republic era, which, you know, so canonically in the High Republic era, I think I can count probably three And then if you had Gungy from Clone Wars, any Gungy fans out there? Also, the Bad Batch, yeah.

So that puts us around four, five. I still got it. I still got it. That's a great question. But my favorite thing is Gungi's lightsaber. So every Jedi is unique, right? So Gungi's Lightsaber. So he was born on, what's the Wookie Home World, everybody?

I love this crowd. These are my people. So it was born on Kashik, of course, and so his lightsaber hilt is actually made from wood from the forest of Kashik, which I think is something extraordinary. So if you didn't know, now you know. So great question. Anybody else want to challenge me to Star Wars trivia? This is... What was that?

You want me to do a Chewbacca accent? Gr... Gr... I'm... Gr... Gr... I feel bad, I am, yes.

Yeah. I really have been waiting for this moment my whole life. So... So I feel bad because we're doing a live stream right now. All you guys are like, wait, I could have just watched this on my couch? We didn't want to publicize it until it was 100%. But our friends over at the rest of it, But our friends over at the Real Rejects.

Any Real Rejects fans out here? Nice. Nice. You're a Real Rejects fan? Sick. You know, I'm a Real Reject. Yeah. Yeah, they let me do the Star Wars videos,

and that's just about it, which is great. But I got to do The Walking Dead. I got to do The Walking Dead. And if you keep commenting in the comment section, Hey, why don't you let Michael do movies? We know he talks a lot and says, um, between his thoughts, but we should really, you know. no that's what was that let him do more projects no no it's uh it's great that's that's sort of the

wonderful thing is you know we exist now in a time where ordinary folks can just start making things and some of our cosplayers here i think about the audience that they have and and the communities that they've built i think about the real rejects think about our next moderators draw hat goofy and i think about all these different folks and they just had a passion and love and they communicated about it in a wonderful and authentic way. And, you know, I did a panel at WonderCon. Anybody was at WonderCon this past year? Nice. So I got through my first panel. It was really scary. You know, but something really beautiful happened during that panel. A young man who actually drove all the way out from Salt Lake City to come to Anaheim, which is a drive. I like,

if I have to get on the 101, that's, that might be. yet for me, you know. And, you know, he, he came up to me and said, thank you. And I asked him, why do you, why do you like reaction videos? Why do you, what do you like watching us? What is enjoyable about me watching Badbatch doing like, hey, I'm Omega, you know, or like, oh, I'm wrecker, or whatever different voices are. And, uh, I heard an Omega impression. I heard Omega's voice somewhere. But I'll bring the mic to you. But it was really extraordinary because he said when I'm watching, when I'm watching your videos, I feel like I'm sitting on the couch with you and Greg. And it's like I'm watching a show with one of my best friends. And realize that part of why

conventions are so wonderful and why it was such an easy thing for us to decide to do a convention as a benefit event is because at its heart, we're taking these amazing digital communities, these amazing fandoms, these passions that we all have, whether it be for a galaxy far, far away, or superheroes, or going boldly where no one has gone before. And we all see a version of ourselves that we know maybe we can achieve. And coming here together and being in the same place with all of you is just such a wonderful reminder of how rich and beautiful and extraordinary this community really is. So I'm running out of time to, to, you know, run down the clock here while we wait for one of our talent to beat the 101 traffic. But still have five

minutes? Oh, I'm killing it right now. That's great. That's great. One more time? What about him. Where's he at? Can't say, but, you know, no, oh boy. Where to find. What a wonderful day for pie. Oh, boy. Did that get an applause? I did it? I did it. I did it. Mom. I finally did it. Are you FaceTiming her? Oh, check my phone. Seth Green's probably over there like, what is happening right now? Oh, so far. No, I'm good. No, that was a good oh. Oh. Sorry. Sorry. I really didn't give you in suspense. Ever since I turned 30, It's really hard to read screens. I got Lysick.

Guys, I just received the text message with an update on how much we have raised so far from just the autograph room alone. So not including tickets, not including auctions, not including any of that. We are officially... Can I get a drum roll? Over $23,000. going directly 100% to the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, specifically earmarked for their Wildfire Recovery Fund. And part of what I love about what they're doing with the Wildfire Recovery Fund

is that it isn't just about the short-term rebuilding. We understand that the impact of these fires are something that our communities are going to feel for years. You have families that have lived in homes for generations. And so we've got this really wonderful opportunity to ensure that those families, and the legacy and the history that they have, get to stay where they've always been

while also making sure that some of the infrastructure is built in a way that we can all be really proud of as we move forward. You guys did that though, that's all you. That's $23,000. That's a lot of Funko Pops. Also, have you guys, do you guys know you're getting free thrill joys?

Did you guys not know that? Yeah, they're insane, they're so cool. I was like, can I have one of each? But I realized I have to pay for those. But yeah, well, guys, I think we're getting started here in just a few minutes. So thank you all. One more time? Oh, can we play some music?

Hey. Hey. Can we give a round of applause for Demi, our amazing DJ? Guys, the nicest content creator. you're ever going to meet your entire life. Thanks, everybody. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. what is up everybody what's going on multi-con i know you're waiting eagerly for

seth green and the rest of this beautiful panel i am not him allow me to introduce myself i am local nobody brent butler here to help stall for time precious sweet time so let's see here today anybody from out of town oh yeah Where are you from? Near Fresno. Okay, no. What about you? What was that?

Dallas? No. Yeah. Okay, I'm looking for somebody to say something like Indonesia. And then I can say, Indonesia? Oh, he's making it up. Brazil, still no. But if you said Indonesia, then I can say, Indonesia, well, I'm going to need you.

to quiet down so I can do my setup here. That's good comedy. No, that was good comedy. Nerd comedy, you're right, all right. I am excited. This is a very diverse crowd, though. A lot of people, from all that, I was a little scared to be like a gang

here to make Star Wars white again or something, but this is a cool, this is a very cool crowd. Anybody from the East Coast? Yeah? We're from on the East Coast. Now live in Boston. All right. Yeah, no, I moved here a couple years ago from New York,

and it's taken me a few years, but I think I've finally figured out why people from New York talk so much trash and people from L.A. Does anybody know what that is? The reason? Here's what it is, is people that live out here are actually happy, and that is infuriating.

It is February right now. Look at this weather. It is exhausting. See, the thing is, in New York City, nobody's happy. They might seem like it. They are not. They are exhausted.

You are underground or in the shadows all day, every day. All right? People here, you might think that you're depressed. You're not. You're bummed out. All right. You're having a weird week because Mercury is in Gatorade or whatever. Okay?

It's not like that in New York. And people, before I moved out here, it's so funny, they told me not to. And I would ask them, okay, why? And they're like, well, everybody's fake. And I'm like, what do you mean fake? And they're like, bro. Out there, they'll be nice to you, even if they don't know you. And I'm like, ooh, I was like, for real, dude?

That sounded scary at the time. And they're like, no, but they're like fake, like physically too, right? They're always getting surgeries. They're trying to look beautiful and young forever, which seems a little weird, right? But then you move out here and you're like, oh, they want to feel youth forever because they're enjoying being alive. That's a pretty cool thing. We don't have that in New York. That city, you cannot stay young.

It ages you. I am 15 years old. So that's my New York and LA bit. What else we got going on? What's been your favorite part of the convention so far today? Kevin Smith. Is he still here? I want to meet him.

Is he still here? Let's get him up here. Oh, yeah, the autograph room. I don't know. I didn't see him. But I did just get an autograph from Sean Gunn. And hey, we're raising money for good stuff. Here's the thing is my girlfriend's a huge Gilmore Girls fan.

So she was going to be very angry if I did not get the Sean Gunn autograph. Anybody Gilmore heads? You're going to get Gilmore heads in the crowd? All right, great. They talk very fast on that show. I cannot keep up. The dialogue is very well written, though. Speaking of well written, how about all these great writers here today, right?

Ooh, fun fact. Lifefield, right? That's how you pronounce it? Good. All right. I actually had, I work at a restaurant during the day. You know, I know you're thinking I'm this big star, but no, I work at a restaurant, and I actually had his table a couple weeks ago, and he was super nice. So for all of you that have been talking trash about him, I'll have you know he is a great guy,

actually. I work at a Mexican restaurant, which seems like a clerical error on their part does not seem right. I am, I'm not, it's going pretty bad. I'm not good at any of it. I don't really know what's on the menu, you know? People are like, hey, how's the Chilikile's? I'm like, I'm doing well.

How are you? Could I start you with water? And then I just kind of disappear for a little while. They're like, how would you describe this entree? I'm like, well, it was come with homemade Vigitas, flour corn that you can have. Not good at it. I go up to a table.

I'm like, hi, my name's Brent. I'll be your server. They're like, no, we're fine. Okay, you can't do that. And, hey, how many of you guys are planning on sticking around for Multi-Con after hours at 6? Because that's when you have to hear from me again. And I'm going to be doing an actual set, not just winging it with you guys. And we've got some other really cool comedians, too.

We've got Kenzie Ray. We got a former state senator doing stand-up comedy. That's crazy. So, get ready for that. No, this is legit. She said, is this legit or a bit? No, I'm plugging my performance two and a half hours from now. So stick around, or I will be upset.

What else? What are you guys, what are you going to talk to Seth about? Let's come up with some questions for him as an audience. What was that? Well, I ask him about the movie Airborne. Mate? Sure. I won't be here. Well, I'll be in the crowd with you guys probably. But what do you want to know about the movie?

I will not be. There will be a much more competent person moderating it. It will not be me. I think you should be in the New Austin Powers movie. Look at that outfit. That is the last costume I expected to see here today. But that rocks. That is shagodelic. You look great.

Okay, so airborne, Austin Powers. Is there a new Austin Power? An alien? Oh, yeah, okay, okay. I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know, I know.

Okay, my stepmother's an alien. Airborne, Austin Powers. What else? We've got to grill this guy. What about robot chicken? Ooh, that's actually pretty interesting. I don't know, what's your favorite sketch? Recess?

Anybody else? We got some, sounds like we got robot chicken fans in the house, right? Okay, the one that traumatize you the most. I was wrong, right? I was walking robot chicken. Okay. So we got the most traumatic one, right? So we got the most traumatic one. We got to tell him about this. Is he in the room? All right. Okay. Hey. Do I say goodbye to anybody? Oh, goodbye everybody. I'll be back. Brent Butler everybody, let the record show that required a stupid amount of courage to come up here.

How's everybody feeling? My favorite robot chicken sketch since you asked is Lando, this deal's getting worse all the time. And he comes out and then he's juggling and it keeps coming back and forth as Darth Vader makes him do more and more ridiculous. things. I think that is peak storytelling. All right. I think we're ready, folks. So I'm so excited to introduce this next panel. And again, I just want to say thank you all so much for supporting the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. We've already had an amazing time. And now we're going to have an even better time because we have my dear friend, Straw Hat, Goofie, juju green who's going to be our moderator start you start yeah don't get some

some music demi yeah that's let's see it's the juju we're talking about all right let's give it up for juju green The greatest film ever made. Of course I do. You've got to for life. All right, everybody. This is the animation nation panel, hosted by Straw Hat Dupi. We've got some extraordinary talent.

I'm going to let Juji take it from here. Thank you for your patience, everybody. This is going to be fun. Thank you, thank you. What's up, everybody? I feel, do I get two mics today? This is cool. Okay.

I don't know if you were, I don't know if I was supposed to keep this, but you know what? This is how we're rocking the show today. Hello? Hello? This one doesn't it? Oh, it works. We're double fisting today. Did I just say that?

I did. I did. All right, everyone. We have a wonderful panel for you today. I'm really excited to be here, like doing it for a good cause for a city that I love. I'm an L.A. Native, Compton Native. It's really good to see a lot of you guys out here as well. But you guys have waited long enough.

It's time to get started with the Animation Nation Nation panel. So let me introduce the esteemed panelist. First up, you know her, you've heard her. I'm actually going to say that for everyone. Just switch a little bit of pronouns. Tara Platt! Yeah, let's go to the end. Why not?

Hi, everybody. Next up, we have Yuri Loewenbaum. Isaac Robinson Smith And he literally had like he hiked us up this whole time he looked like you little yaddy in that meme when he's like walking out in Coachella when he came in South Green everybody All right, all right. I'm so sorry to make everybody wait. No, you are the hero who shows up in the third act, and everyone like cheers your name.

So, you know, like, sweet. That's what it felt like, you know. What can I do for you? Everything, Seth. Everything. Okay, we better get started. So I feel like that was like a little threat. We better get started.

No, no. I meant if we're going to do everything, it's probably going to take quite some time. and the sooner you jump into it, right, gang? Yeah. Yeah. It's more like, we better get started. Well, we do have a lot to talk about. This panel is four hours long.

I hope everybody's still distracted. All right, so we do have a lot to talk about. So I'll just get started with some of the questions. And we're going to go off on like a lot of tangents. So y'all be prepared for that. Y'all be prepared for that. There's a lot, you know? I love tangents.

So when it comes to animation, I feel like for a long time, animation has always been seen as the genre. as the genre for kids, right? And over time, there's been kind of like a realization from a lot of people from the studios, from a lot of audiences, that it's much more than that. It's a medium to tell stories, right?

Can you guys talk to me as voice actors kind of like witnessing that from the beginning, whether it's watching or consuming these type of media, these films, these shows, and then kind of like coming in as a voice actor today. Do you guys have any thoughts on that? Oh, my gosh. So many thoughts.

I grew up without a television, so I didn't consume any of the content. So I never got Saturday morning cartoons. Child abuse. It was child abuse. It was complete, flat out. And so I got it into the industry as an adult, and that's when I started consuming the content.

But I do believe that animation has the ability to transcend stereotypes, like the fact that it's only for kids or that it's only about light, fluffy, butterfly content. Like you can tell really deep, really, evocative stories and you can animate it and let the characters really live in a vividly aesthetic, powerful world. And I think that's exciting because there can be something for everyone in that. And I also believe that it allows there to be really great representation. Because we're a big magical rainbow world. And there's a lot of people here with a lot of different experiences. And I think

that's really exciting, which is why I think those stories being told in that medium are able to be received by so many people. It's not just kid content. I love that. And Tara, I know that there probably is a little girl whose mother won't let them watch TV either, and therefore they can't watch you. If you could say something to that parent to convince them to watch your show, what would that be? Oh, man, I don't know if I'm up to giving parent advice. I'm a parent, and I'm barely holding on by my fingernails. I'm so you're doing great. But I don't know, because I think everybody parents the best way they can with what they can at that time do. So I don't know if it's about telling a parent how to do it, but if it's for that kid, I would say, look, if there's

something that excites you, now today it may not be the time that you get it, but you get a huge life ahead of you. And at some point during your experience, if something is tantalizing to you, follow it. Like, you know, like let that be what leads you because you never know what your journey through life is going to be. And it's twisty and turny. And if something is like gnawing at you, like you got to follow that. And it's like a little firefly. And you're like, oh, I didn't know what was over here. And oh, it's over this way now. And you don't have to be stuck in one thing. You don't have to be the you that you were at 10 or at 20 or at 30 or you get to keep reinventing yourself. So let it be the future. Let it be something to look forward to.

And I just use my kid, which is actually, which is our our kid. Yeah, we're married. For those of you who didn't know. That was going to be an interesting conversation on the way home. Yeah. Right. And I just, yeah, I just use our kid. I just use our kid as an excuse to watch more cartoons and play more video games now. That's true.

Now, I want to, like, as we're on the subject of kind of like looking at the state of animation going back in time, Seth, I've been watching you or listening to you. I've been watching you for a long time as well. Yeah. I got cameras in all your shit too. Oh, really? Yeah, buddy. Listen, man, I've been watching since Since Airborne, buddy.

Like, how many people know Airborne? Has anybody ever? That's like... Seven people. Seven people? Where one of the, like seven? It just means that they were either living on the Midwest or had cable.

What was that? Like, 92? It had to be like 90. 93 is probably when it came out. Oh, my gosh. And we shot it in 92. Look at this. See, that says a lot because I was only one when that came out,

but I still watched it. Like, later. You're no kidding. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. It had stang power, man. The movie is essentially the karate kid on rollerblades. I appreciate the DJ Coward is giving us this beat.

There's another one. Well, the wave is mine, my friend. The wave is mine. Only let seven people got that reference. We did it. In that decade, though, like, you know, you were in Family Guy, obviously. It's Chris. And, you know, you talked to me about being in.

something like that, which was kind of, you know, one of the, next to the Simpsons, one of the first adult-oriented on-cable animation shows and then kind of seeing how that it's still going and like how that evolved and how, like, being a part of that. What does that mean to you? There's a lot of things to cover there. The truth is that adult animation has existed as long as animation has existed. It's just become vogue in a kind of cyclical way. So there's, there's periods of time in the earliest of animation where it's just like, we. and filthy in the 20s and 30s where they're like oh camera you know if you put these pictures together check this sounds like a flipbook but on film dude so they got weirder and weirder and more experimental and as with any art form it's always the weirdos that push it forward because they're like I wonder if I yes everybody knows because you see something that exists and you're like oh I wonder if I could make this exist but this way and that you

usually promotes innovation. So you've seen it. I love, I got, when I grew up on animation, I got turned on to stuff like Ralph Bakshi. Yep. Weird movies like Heavy metal. Heavy metal, yeah. Heavy metal was a popular magazine when I was growing up.

And my parents, that plus National Lampoon, my parents didn't figure out how dirty any of those publications were. So my mom was like, yeah, yeah, you can buy this. It's intellectual humor. These guys that went to Harvard. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I don't know if you know this, with those naked, topless women

on, like, almost every page. Harvard, ladies and gentlemen. That's like that's Harvard. So I... Oh, gee, why are you announcing that? The CIA is crawling all around this place. We found her, guys! Listen, I don't know if it's like having a couple of drinks,

but I'm a dub you queen weirdo because when... Because you were the loudest one when it's for the weirdos. But you kind of got like a Soka vibes. You got that hunking guy to stop. Thank you. Amazing.

The new hunk is said, let her cook real quick. Let her cook. Well, Isaac, I want to put this back on to you because I never asked you your age, nor did I look it up because I'm bad at my God. But we seem like we're the same age. How old are you, my friend? Yeah, 35.

33. So, you know. Okay, yeah. So, child of the 90s. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we connected. We connect on a lot of things. We were both Disney cast members as well.

Yes, we got into voice. You know, it's great. Exactly, yeah. But talk to me about kind of like, you know, being in my age group and consuming, like, this type of media. And, like, what does that mean for you and how did you step in, was that a reason why you stepped into your career was because of the things that you watch? It is. And I like the way you say our age group, like, it was so esteemed. That was so great.

Yes, our age group in the 90s, yes. A wonderful generation, yeah. Don't even pretend. Yeah, well, I mean, it was because of cartoons that I watched growing up was why I was in this. And what's great about this is being a child of the 90s. I feel like we had some of the greatest cartoons ever to watch. 100%. Fight me.

I got very personal. And so, you know, I have to thank my mom for bearing through years of me imitating Baby Gonzo and, like, Disney movies, and Ursula from The Little Ramead and, like, running around the living room and my underwear and stuff. Just, like, saying, and, like, I never knew that it was a job until later on that I was, like, these things that I was doing and my love of music and singing. But it was because of being inspired by, these things that I was watching that were so magical and took me away to somewhere that was

really fun and really exciting to see. And what's great is being part of shows and things now that I was a fan of growing up is like the coolest full circle. And I talked to a father and son who were talking about the new X-Men 97 and saying, I watched the old show as a... Yeah, right. Yep. I watched the old... I think they said, the dad said, I watched the show in the 90s and I'm watching the new show with my son. And I'm like, that's it. That's what we're here to do, you know, so that's what it is for me. It's great. That's incredible, man. Listen, I, I need, oh shit, they found me. That one siren. I got it on, guys. Whoever's, they're going to need more than one car to drag you away. This is all part of the show, the honking, the sirens. It's all

time. Thank you so much. It's actually DJ Demi over there just doing the sounds. Thanks, man. Skills. I'll give him all the credit he deserves. So I have a big question for all of you. Are you fans of each other? right like I mean I can say yeah I love this stuff yeah that's kind of I don't know that's what drew me to it is I've always loved this stuff and there's people that I know who were at my first San Diego Comic-Con in 1994 back when there was only huh about 200 men it was 200 adult men there was there was zero security you were able to you were able to purchase your ticket on Saturday day you could walk up and say I would like one of these day passes and they would say we've got plenty and then you'd wander around your your quarter of the portion of the convention hall that was required for this absolutely embarrassing gathering of paper enthusiasts and then about 2007 it just completely changed they put up

Optimist Prime on the floor and they were like, Hollywood's at Comic-Con. Y'all want to buy some shit? And ever since then, that's what it's been. It's crazy now. It's crazy. Do you ever get like a little salty being like, I've been here in the dark ages with those 200 men? I absolutely understand that kind of bitterness.

And I saw it when guys who saw Green Day at Berkeley had the wait in line to... There we go to see. But it's like all the people that got to see Green Day. at Berkeley having to stand in line to see them at the stadium, we're like, fuck this shit. Man, I like these guys when I had to, like, fight a guy about it. And I was like, yeah, but your kids will never have to. So we solved that. My kids never going to get beat about the head and body with their own fantastic four metal lunchbox.

I used to have... Plus Pedro Pascal is here to save the day. Yeah, I used to... Like playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was in high school was something that you did not talk about. Just did it in the basement secret. Yeah.

Now that movie made $100 million. The story's a little different now. It changed everything. I used to be so, because I've been an actor since I'm a kid. And when you're on set with other actors, nobody thought this shit was cool. I'm like, y'all want to see my OG nine-back

straight-arm G.I. Joe's and they're like, no. now they come in here like hey can we see those nine bags the G. I'm still not but when they get cast as like they're like tell who is what does Oden's son mean exactly? I'm like it's sort of like a slang yeah that's a slang

you know what I mean? It's a different shape now but to what you were saying you know that us being fans of each other that's one of the thing you know I mean I came out here to be a movie star like everybody does and found voice acting and one of the things that I immediately keyed into and was so happy about was that the voice acting community is so supportive of each other

which was not the case when I you know when I was you know more on camera I know I got you on my shirt dude oh look at you no get that on camera show that show that right and it's it's and it's a Japanese Spideama that's it's that's the best that's the pita park Anime come as soon, folks. Yeah, but I mean, everybody's so supportive of each other in a way that in any other community, you know, it just seems to be unheard of out here. Yeah, it almost feels like in the voice acting community, because we're all actors,

and many of us do stage and television and film and voiceover, but it's like when you're behind the mic, there's this extra freedom to play, and I'm not saying that people on camera don't play and that people on stage don't play, but there's this freedom that I think that that group of people kind of are like, hey, check this out. I'm going to just try to see something. They're willing to play in a way that people on camera, when you're the lead of a movie,

is a little more like, oh, God, this is all on my shoulder, sort of a thing. And that play is exciting. And that's where you find these nuggets and these jewels. And of course, you can't help but admire the other people you're working with yours. They're like, oh, that's awesome. What you did, I would never have thought to do.

It would not be my instinct, and it was perfect, and it was brilliant, and it was right, and it was accurate. And of course, that's why the character does that like it's just it's fun it's like so like showing up to work if you're fortunate enough to get to do a group record you're just like do it go ahead oh i have to say a line now like you're like so excited it's just fun it feels a lot it's difficult to explain to people that don't do it but you can liken it to anything where the collaboration of people creates a perfection of the system right

so it's it's most similar to music where you've got a symphony or a band and everybody's got their You got to play this part exactly the right way. Everybody's got to do the thing in the song that hits just right. If you're a singer, you got find your harmony just right. And when you get it all together, it feels so good. It feels so right. Everybody can feel it. Not just you doing it, but anybody that listens to it or watches it.

You aim for that all the time. You don't always get it. But voiceover is a fun thing because you can kind of do whatever. like I'm not, y'all can't tell but I don't seem like the most imposing character physically standing up to even these gentlemen

you're probably not going to pick me to win the fight right I pick you so hey thanks man I am pretty scrappy yeah I'm going to say pretty scrappy scrappy dude is what I'm saying right but

on the microphone you really can become anything you can be anything it's a really exciting thing. And it's, it's most fun to get to do it together. Right, right, right. That's the magic. And we haven't been doing a lot

of that recently. Like, you know, group reads used to be the norm. Right. You'd go in with a bunch of, you know, fun people and play. And now it's like, oh, we're going to do it over Zoom, or we'll record you at home, or just one person at a time, and I miss, I miss the room full of idiots.

I miss John DiMaggio in the room and, you know, Kevin Michael Richardson. Did you see, Maurice the Mars is here? Yeah, Mo, where's Mo? Where's Mo? He's probably signed and shit. He's probably popular. Yeah, yeah, Maurice is here.

I mean, I miss those, I miss the stuff that happens in between the work, you know, and in between the moments that informs everything. Yeah. One of the things that gets me most excited and what's cool about this is that we get excited about each other. If there's something like, we know somebody else can do better than we can, like, I haven't seen any other community where, like, they need this for a specific project and you're like, oh, well, I can't do that.

Yeah, but I know somebody else that can do that really well. Get them on the phone. And, like, it's so cool to see that spread around and not like, like the ego just kind of goes away. It's like we want to get the best possible version of this. We call on people that we know and love. So I love that part of the business. See, it makes me think of, like, acting is acting, but different types of acting is different, right? Like, you know, movie acting is different than stage acting, like TV acting, and then there's voice acting, right?

But I want to know, like, because you guys talk about how you guys are so supportive of each other and it's a symphony and everything has to come together. when a lot of people come into LA think of acting is, oh, it's cutthroat, like you're trying to beat out the next person. Well, there is a disproportionate amount of opportunities to people, and everybody believes that they got it. And the thing I like the most about the first season of American Idol. Kelly Clarkson. I watched it live.

I love Kelly Clarkson. And Justin Garini. Nobody knows that. That name. He's all right. I love Kelly Clarkson. But the very first season of American Idol, Simon Cow reminded everybody,

hey, guys, we're not fucking around. We're trying to find the next American Idol. I understand that everybody is like, oh, that guy's so cute. I don't want to hurt his feelings. They're like, we're going to spend a million dollars to make a record with this person.

And then we're going to try to sell that record to you, the consumer. Are you going to buy Warren Hong's record? because if you will I'll produce it but if you're not the fucking go for him what are you doing

and so that's the hardest part about this business it's not that it's cutthroat it's just that you don't get anywhere unless you can do it you not only have to do it you got to do it great you got to do it so great

that they're like fuck I gotta put that on camera you know what I mean you got to do it so great that they're like Jesus Christ people will pay to hear that shit

or play that game or whatever version of it there is And so, look, everybody works as hard as they work. Everybody has whatever expectations they have. But by the time you get into a room with one of us, we know you're good at this shit. And we can just relax and all do our best job. Somebody needs to, I'm waiting to see the TikTok edits on that speech you just gave, man. I forgot people filmed this.

They're going to go crazy right now. Man, I'm just talking. but in that same vein like you know this was the lead to my question was there a role where you went in and you gave it your all you felt like you auditioned you killed that shit and then you walk out and then you find out

oh this other person got it but they brought it even more can you like points there's only a role that happened yeah to love well I got to audition for night crawler in the X-Men movie and Alan Cumming got that job

and Alan though And then you see the movie you're like, yeah. People will often ask me that, they'll be like, is there a, you know, a part you didn't get that somebody did out there that you wish you could have done?

And it's hard because if I liked the way that was, it's because that person did it. Right. And I could not have done it that way. So it's, yeah, that's, but yeah, no, I always and, you know, I grew up, you know, reading comic books and watch movies and cartoons and, and like, I love all this stuff. Like, I want, you know,

Obviously, you want every audition. You go, I don't know, but there are certain ones, you know, like, every time I audition for Batman, and look, I'll never get cast as Batman. I'll get cast as Robin a million times. Listen to my voice. I'm never going to get cast as Batman. But, like, you know, those mean more, like, when I get to play a role that was a comic book I grew up on or, you know, something like that.

Or, you know, I thought my chances at Robotech were done when I came out here because I was like, that show was over. And then they did Robotech the Shadow Crow. Chronicles, and I just, and I got on that, and I was like, red checkmark, you know, like, the nerdy stuff always gets, like, special attention for me. I always want those more, you know, speaking to nerdy, like, I, I hear this in my dreams at night, you know, I played Spider-Man quite a few times, and I wake up to the sounds of my own brain going, you were everything I wanted to be!

Oh, and, you know, Bill Salliard, Bill Salliers, yeah, Bill Sallier, I had to, because it's seared into my brain, because Bill Salliars is so. good as Doc Ock. Yeah. You know, I mean, that scene is that scene because Bill is so good that, you know, and that's the benefit of being on a, on a PCAP stage for video games, which is kind of coming full circle for, you know, for all of us, you know, started in theater, you know, and doing video games and where it was just voice for a while, and now we're, you know, on the

PCAP stage and we're shooting like a movie or doing like a play. That scene is so good is because Bill and I were doing, like, we were right opposite to each other. We weren't in a booth separately recording it. Like, that was, yeah, we were together and we did it, and that's why it, that's why it is the way it is. That's very well. To quote you again, I just want to say, it's an off quote because, like, you know, the tenses are different, but you are my hero. Oh, man.

Thank you, Juj. So in that same vein, and I want to start with Tara here is, what was the craziest way you might have stumbled into a role, which could have been, you know, you didn't think you would get this, or maybe you didn't audition for this, or someone said, you would be great for this, and you ended up getting it. Did you stumble into anything like that? Do you have like a crazy story? I can't think of something specific like that, but I will say for Spider-Man. When I came in, when they were doing the auditions, I auditioned for MJ, I auditioned for Silver Sable, I auditioned for Black Cat. And I finished my auditions, and I was like, okay, I think it did really good because they kept asking me to read other characters. So, like, that's good because they wanted to hear more from me.

And I get home and sometime goes by, and the agent called. And he's like, okay, you booked Spider-Man. I was like, am I MJ? And he was like, nope. And I was like, oh, am I Silver Sable? he's like, nope. I'm like, am I black cat? He's like, nope. I was like, who am I? He was like, you're Yuri. And I was like, I'm Yuri, because I didn't know the story as well as my husband does. At least you're not Aunt May. It's true. I almost was Amy. You're going to remember Marissa

told May of the video game. That would have been cool. But I was very excited, but I didn't know anything about her. So I was like, Yuri, you have to tell me everything about Yuri because I don't know what this is. So it was sort of, I sort of stumbled into it, I guess. Because I didn't technically auditioned for her, but it works. The hats have been very weird. Like, oh, what did I get? Yuri. Stop fucking with me. I've already, I've had that guy for 23 years. Well, now, now 23 years, but yeah.

It was never not weird shouting my own name, and then it also understanding that that role was played by my wife. It was never not weird. And there was one time I showed up to the studio, because unfortunately, when you're doing just the voice part of it, not when you're on the PCAP stage, you do go in separately. So we weren't working together when we were recording. and I showed up to the recording session

and I walk into the booth and I said my highs to everyone and on the, this is back when before they had the screen on the screen your script was on the screen this is like we had like actual paper that we would turn on the music stand. The tech has got so good guys, so good.

It's true, but I was standing in front of it and I was looking and they're like, okay so we're ready with whatever the first line was and I was like, um, I don't think I, this isn't, I was like this is all of Yuri's script and they're like yeah. And I was like, no, no, this is

This is my husband, this is your, this is your, this is a Spider-Manure, you're like, The Abbotta Salamis and they didn't have my script, but somebody got confused in the booth and put the wrong one in, so that was funny. Who's on fifth? That's what that. Exactly. Exactly. All right, so now I got, like, I've always wanted to know this because I find, you know, when it comes to voice acting, I always have these moments, especially when you look at things like the Lego movie. If you look at the cast of the Lego movie and figure out who voice two, it's always a fun game. If you guys haven't done that, look at the cast of the Lego movie, look at who voice. There's a lot of what you're not considering, though, is when they're putting the Lego movie together, whoever directed the Lego movie, especially when they have, like, one line, there's a character with one line.

They're like, I'm going to call Charlie Day and see if he wants to be this banana. It is like that, though. And then Phil Lord was like, Charlie, we were thinking you would play this banana, and Charlie's like, I'll do it. You know what I mean? So you just, you have those moments.

Right. Chris McKay directed the Lego Batman. And he was like, hey, there's a King Kong role in the Batman movie. There's got three lines. I'm like, yeah, man. I think that's just how it happens, right? They don't, that's kind of the guy. Like, how do you get all of these crazy people?

They're just like, I just called him. Yeah. And like, I remember looking that up, I said, Seth's in this? Like, you know, it was just like a big mind-blow moment. And Chris was like, would you do it? I'm like, of course I do. Of course, to play King Kong in the Lego movie. It's only three lines.

It's like, so what? So, like, to get into my question, what, like, what has been the most surprising moment of notoriety that a line that you have said, something that has stuck with people, that you were like, you like that? Or, like, you're quoting that back in me? Yeah. Anytime somebody asked me to sign Howard the Duck stuff,

they want me to sign you're out of luck till you've gone duck. When I went to the record for that, God is like, I don't know. I don't know. We lip synced this. And I was like, do you want me to try to beat it? He's like, can you put something else in that lip sync? And I was like, I don't know. Let's mess around.

And we tried so with nothing. It's so clearly, you're out of luck till you've gone duck. And I was just like, anything I put in there is worse, really. So now it's a line And everybody's like You got decked dude I'm like I guess so I'll sign it on your pop

That's cool It is iconic Iconic Right This is how it happens Guys You're like I don't even think this is a good line

And then a couple years later People are like That's worse to live by That's my motto though I have that stitch on a pillow I might have said that on a first date it's a good way to start that didn't work

I'll let you figure that out I really want to know was there a second date surprisingly yes oh yeah because she's in the ducks she's in the ducks so that wasn't a red flag

are you in the ducks there was no third date because she realized I was in fact not a duck oh I got her she thought I was a duck when I said it

then the second day she said wait a minute this is like a deeper furry kind of conversation Isaac, say something first Get us out of here Get us out of this one Get us out of here, yeah

Yeah, no, I don't know if there's anything Super obscure that people like sit back to me But like there is like an obscure character experience That I had that I didn't think I would ever get But I, not for very many things Like just a couple of commercials But I did, I never thought that this would happen But I'm the voice currently of Jean LaFoot

Who's Captain Crunch's nemesis and has been And so I got this monologue of like this friend this monologue of this French guy for like a minute straight and it was only like three lines in the commercial but it was a lot of this for about a minute and a half and they were like yeah you got the gig cool and I was like wow but I was like this is the craziest

world like so this is something I would never expect it but that's like I'm so envious serial villain it's pretty cool like I went to the store the next day and turned over the boxes I was like that's me that's pretty cool if I do not see you create a short film on YouTube of you as the

nemesis getting like some cap crutch and bringing a hole to do the worst things to it possible I'll start tonight. Sir your basket is entirely filled with boxes of boxes of cups. Do you really need 50 boxes? Yes, I do. Yes. We! I do. Yes. I'll kill them all. You're going to tell what about you. You got some lines that you were like

wow, I didn't know you guys would gravitate towards that. I mean it's a I would say it's a video game one. Yeah, like the video game trees right? Yeah. Like it's all that little stuff you record all this stuff and there's you're like there's no way

that I don't even remember it and then all of a sudden it starts coming you know bubbling up there was a little character he's got one line over and over again in Dragon Age sandal and he just says enchantment you know and I was like nobody's gonna you know it was one of like

300 characters that I voiced there's one there's like one there's a pause and people would come up and they'd say it to me and I was like oh my god you know you just never know what's gonna what's gonna punch through and in the same way there have been times when i've gone in to record something and i'm and you know i get the script and i'm like who wrote like this is this is terrible you know or whatever and then it's like a big hit and it's just i just didn't get it you know and and that's why i say yes to everything now

because i yeah this this is great this great let's do it because i because sometimes i just don't get it the regular show on early early early early episode of the regular show show, early episodes of the regular show. I got that script that, you know, I played two small characters on or something, and I wrote, I'm like, who wrote this? Like two, you know, high college kids? Which, I mean, turns out, you know,

it's not that far from, but I'm like, I'm like, but you know, it's a job I'll go in. Like, I didn't, you know, I just didn't get it on paper. It's also, so much stuff is execution dependent and you just don't know, like you're really rolling the dice.

I tell people, Well, this is the truth. I got offered the first Austin Powers movie. I auditioned for it, by the way. Three separate auditions before they were like, all right, we'll offer it to you. But I got that offer the same day as the Carrotop movie, the chairman of the board. Wow. And now here's the thing. In 1995, I don't know, six, when did we make that six maybe? making that movie, 1996, Mike Myers, Caratop, kind of in the same

echelon at that moment, right? Like, Mike had made Wainsworld, but he'd also made Saw-Maritian Axe Murder, didn't have a lot of cashed Caratop tearing up. The touring circuit, people were like,

I can't get enough of this guy. It's a different time, guys. You know what I'm saying? They're both execution dependent. I'm like, I don't know. These could both really, really suck. This could absolutely be terrible. terrible. All right, so I was told we have like five minutes, probably four minutes now for the rest of this. So there's been something that's been burning into my mind. A huge portion of this panel has been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Marvel Universe, right? I feel like everyone here has been part of the Marvel Universe. Yes, everyone's been a part of the universe. But two of you haven't been part of an anime, right? Like, so Isaac, Seth, if you could be part of any anime, what would it be and what character would it be?

Actually, I am in Jojo's Bazaar Avengers Oh, it is! Yeah. You chose the anime that I did not watch! I thought I could do the pose for you if you want for penance. In Stone Ocean, Part 3, I think I'm Donatello Verses in that, and that was a really fun experience, so yeah, that was great. Well, look, and I watch Jojo's now.

Can I skip right to Part 6? You can if you want, but the whole thing's great. Like, watch the whole thing, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Well, Seth, you're the only one out, man. Yeah, well, I love, I mean, I grew up on Robotech. That was the Voltron. Those were the ones that really got me.

And, well, actually, probably Starblazers. And then in the U.S., there was a, there was a lot of stuff around the, like, Jumbo Machinder, the Super Mazinga. They made a Transor Z cartoon. I liked all that stuff. And then I got into Akira. But Robotech was probably the thing that hit. me the hardest. This is really embarrassing. It was on at like

7 a.m. and so I could get about a half hour of it before I had to run to school and the episode where Roy Fokker dies. I mean, spoiler alert if you haven't watched this. I was devastated. I was like seven years old.

I go to school. I'm just like, oh my God. They killed my favorite pilot. I don't think it's coming back. I was a wreck, and this is so hilarious. I vividly remember this in seven years old. One of my friends is like, hey man, are you all right? And I go, my friend died.

I can still feel the pain of that right now. I was going to say, it's deep. It's real too. I loved him. I couldn't even believe it. He comes home, all brave. He's like, that was a great battle, guys. Everything was awesome. Thanks, everybody. Whew, little unsteady. I feel kind of dizzy. Hey, what's up, honey? You made dinner? That's great.

I'll always love you. Sounds really good. That was the show that tricked me into watching essentially a soap opera. I was never a soap opera. I was never a soap operas, but I would watch, I would cut school. For me, it was right before, like, right before I would have to, like, literally bail on the last 15 minutes of class to run home to watch Robotech to catch the opening, you know, music, which I'd never wanted to miss.

And I didn't realize until years later that I was watching a soap opera, you know, a space soap opera. generational so popular they're like are you like this one watch their kids oh you want to see just check out their granddad well i'm sorry but there was only one right answer and that was one piece i would just wait i would just wait but i'm playing i'm playing i'm playing i'm playing but i would like to pitch you a character listen a lot of friends of i keep getting cast on the netflix version of it it's a real like i'm happy for them also i can hear that you want to be a part of that so bad that'd be really cool i mean my hero academia they're not still recording that right that'd be cool hey hey last season coming up I feel like I feel like you got a lot of common with this whole section here I just I would just love to see you is Frankie because I feel like it will be like very like out of step for what

you know right letters you know right now let's super a lot of makeup all right they're giving me the wrap up I saw they're gonna give me the Apollo crane but thank you so much everybody for the animation thank you so much thank you so much My life is to live. All right, who's ready for our next panel? Amazing. All right, so a reference during, I think, almost every single panel is one of the most extraordinary games ever created.

It is a game that requires an unending amount of imagination. I'm actually a dungeon master myself, and I find myself so excited. I actually have half my party right now here. That's a nice, he's a good Dorf. He has a Scottish accent, but nobody understands it, so he has to put on like a neverwinter accent. It's the whole thing. But so excited to welcome up our extraordinary Dungeons and Dragons panel on how to be a dungeon master.

Come on up, everybody. My name is Travis Oates. I have a channel called Above Board where we do, thank you, where we do a D&D live play amongst other things, swim with sharks and play games underwater. I'm also the voice of a few famous voices from Disney, such as Piglet and Kermit the Frog, occasionally. Now, I've got with me a couple amazing,

Dungeon Masters. I have Amy Vorpal, who's a writer and musical creator with two music albums, Song in the Key of D&D, and Behold Her Dreams. I get what you did there. I like it. She's written for official D&D books, Candle Keep Mysteries, and Fisbon's Treasury of Dragons, and recently is the DM for the actual pay saga of sundry goblin mode. I also have with us Jason Charles Miller, who's a critically acclaimed, thank you, and highly accomplished singer songwriter, an award-winning voice actor, a co-host Bardick Inspiration, a live songwriting show for Codename Entertainment, and has hosted the Geek and Sundry RPG show Starter Kit, and is the DM of the Gax Pack on Gary Con Live. And finally, we have Jason Carl, that's right,

two Jason's for the price of one. He was best known as the Game Master host of L.A. by night on YouTube, a Vampire the Masquerade streaming actual play. He's a guest dungeon master at D&D in a castle, and he's the brand marketing manager for World of Darkness. So, thank you. Thank you very much. So today we are going to be talking a little bit about how to be an effective dungeon master. And how many people out here play Dungeons and Dragons? Yeah?

It's okay. You can admit it. Let's go. Yeah, we're friends now. It's a safe space. How many have had ineffective dungeon masters in their past? Not necessarily the ones that they have right now, yes. So we're going to talk a little bit about what it takes to be an effective dungeon master,

and I think what I mean by that at least is somebody who can have a story that's moving, have a experience which is fulfilling for the players. That's a big part of it, and have a... the ability to have the players be as much part of the story as the DM is. I think that's a big part of at least for me. So let's start with you, Amy. What do you do to prepare as a DM that makes you an effective dungeon master? I prepare, that's so, it's so different depending on if I'm doing it at a con for

strangers at home with my friends for a produced show where they tell me what the episodes need to be but I guess because that's really hard I want to say generally what matters to me is prioritizing the player characters and knowing that they're the main characters so for a home game or a produced show I will go really deeply in to player characters' backstories, and I will make the story, no matter what world I've built, tailored to that backstories,

in ways that I can champion it and mess with it. And for cons, I guess, I will build that stuff in. Like, I will build in backstories for them. And that goes a long way to making them feel like they're the central characters. Yeah. Because a lot of the times, I think, you can feel in a game that you're just a cog in the wheel.

But if you're, if the story that they came up with for their characters are incorporated into your world, because most of us, to a certain extent, at least play some kind of a world that we've created, then that really makes them have ownership, I think, of the story, which is a big part of it. One of the things I've been doing for conventions or for games where it's just going to be a one shot is I will let the players choose where they're from

or choose one of three factions and I will give each faction different information that will change how they react and how they want to pursue different things so sometimes there will be infighting but it's also in favor of serving the story

and none of them know what's actually true which is fun sure and that's and that is a hard thing too you do want there to be conflict but you don't want the conflict between players to get out of hand, right? Have you, I mean, I don't know.

Right. Well, yeah. Have you dealt with that, Jason, about trying to make sure that the conflict within the story doesn't become the conflict between the characters and slow things down and make things unpleasant, I guess. Not so much as a DM, but as a player. I've been in several home campaigns where we had a really adversarial player. and like I knew that our DM had prepared for days for us to go into this, this labyrinth

and the other player was like, nah, I don't want to go in there, so the rest of us couldn't. But for me as a DM, like what I try to do is, obviously I want to give my player characters as much agency as possible. I want them to be able to make any choice that they want to make and just roll with it.

And preparation for the environment that I'm going to put them in, I think is really important so that they have those options and I can quickly improvise with them. And at the very least, give them the illusion that that's what's happening. Right, right.

Right? Because I sometimes will plan. Exactly. Well, this is for the DMs. But I will sometimes plan, this is what I think I'm going to do in the story, but how I get to that point in the story is how they bring me to that point.

you know so it does feel like organically they're making the decisions that leads to that even though that's the place where I felt that we were going and you know so it they they feel like they're the ones that got them there now you you play a very uh you you you run a very story driven emotionally driven game uh I don't know what giving you that idea Sure. I do run Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and dragons. Even in this economy, you get both. Dungeons and dragons. Like rock and roll, gin and tonic, both. I run a lot of Vampire the Raskerade, obviously, because that's been my passion for a long time. But regardless of what I'm running, I always try to bring emotion to the forefront. And that includes player emotion. I start by asking the players what they want from the experience,

whether I'm at a one-shot at a convention, whether I'm at a four-day D&D in a castle event, an actual play streaming on YouTube, we start by sitting down together and finding out what everybody is here for. We want to find out what kind of emotional experience they want to walk away with, what specific emotions do they want to feel?

Do they want to feel horror? Do they want to feel love? do they want to feel heroic? And I start building my story around their responses to try to deliver the emotional impact that they've asked for. That's a really, really good point. For those of you out there who have family or children that you DM4, that's a big thing to know

what are your players want? If I'm going to have my son playing a game, it's going to be very different than what I'm going to do with a bunch of adults. Well, think about if Jason is running a game for Amy and I, and we sit down, and Amy wants to play something that's, you know, epic 20th level, kill Smog, and I want to just sit in a corner and, you know, be Edgar Allan Poe weepy. It's a challenge for Jason, but he's still got to deliver the experience for both of us.

And so how do we deliver that experience? Jason, this is up to you. You're on spot. I can't wait for this. Well, I could either... You just share the spotlight. You just know that you're the director of the show. There's nothing to say that you couldn't be a level 20,

Edgar Allan Poe weeping in the corner. I look forward to this. This is great. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, and that brings... What do you do? This is perfect, because this will happen up with...

in almost any D&D campaign eventually. What do you do when you have somebody in a game who doesn't seem like they're enjoying themselves? Like, how do you combat that, especially within the game itself? Let's say they'd stop enjoying themselves at hour one of the four-hour game. Like, how do we combat that?

Jumpball. God, I haven't run into that himself. You haven't? No. Oh, you're lucky. Yeah, I know. I will say that when there is something missing from the table, I take full responsibility for it. So if there's fun missing from the table, I know that's because I'm not having as much fun as I could be.

So I just try to shift. I think a dungeon master is a leadership position as much as any other leadership position in like even corporate America or anything like that, middle management, whatever. it's like the stuff trickles down and so if someone I would if that were happening I don't know what I would do but I for sure would be I know that I would be responsible for it I would

clock it and deal with it but I nothing's coming to me at the moment yeah I mean taking a break to kind of break the tension and maybe having communication with each player I think is a good it's something I've done in the past to make sure that everyone is kind of on the right

path not too long ago I had a situation, actually in a game that you played in. I know, I wasn't having any fun. I'm kidding. But no, it was where all of a sudden, what was happening became like really serious. Like, one of those things where you planned as a DM, you thought that's one thing. But then it just became like a couple bad roles got made and some non-player characters died because they weren't able to save them.

and it started to become like really, really depressing almost. And that's where you have to, and I have an improv background, and I think improvisation is a huge part of what we do. And for me it was just, okay, can I subtly bring some, change the emotional drift of this, and have something either jubilant or humorous happen that pulls us out of that. And you've got to do it very gently because you can't do an abrupt shift.

Right. So a lot of the times for me it's controlling the flow emotionally of what's happening there. And being very sensitive to listening. One of the things I think that I tell a lot of people who are beginning DMs, we have a tendency because we're so much in our head and we plan so much to actually listen to what they're saying and how they're saying it because that will give you a really good idea of how they're feeling emotionally in the moment. What do you think back there?

I'm going to try to condense that down into a maxim for an effective DM. An effective DM reads the room. And I think that's implied in the good advice that Amy was giving is that the DM has the ability. And if you're a new DM, you'll develop this just through practice and experience. If you're an experienced DM, you already know what I mean. You'll read the room. You'll be able to scan the room, look at people's faces, hear the tone of their voice,

body language and understand, oh, three out of four people here are having a great time. One person isn't, and then you can start to think in your head very quickly, what do I need to do to shift the tempo, change this focus, move the spotlight, shorten the narrative, whatever it needs to be. The effective DM has a huge toolbox full of things they can do to address that situation, but you have to be able to know that it's happening and then make a good decision in the moment, usually in your head, how to address it. If you do you work well, nobody will even know that the transition happen. It'll just be fun again. If you didn't do you work well, well, then they'd flip over the table and probably, you know, kill you. But, I mean,

who has not faced that situation? You know, sometimes I keep an initiative order in my head when we're not in combat, because I want to, and I don't tell them that. Meaning, you're not a well man. what I'm saying is I want to make sure that everybody has a chance to speak because whether we're doing an actual play or we're at D&D in a castle or I'm playing with my friends we play this game because we love to interact and we love to act and we love to get enthusiastic about something and you might have a couple introverts at the table too

that if you're not careful haven't said anything in 45 minutes And that's completely true. And I have kept like a list of, because in my game, they're eight. And I have sometimes just a list of their character names and check off when I feel they've had a moment. Right? That person's had a moment. So that I, when I look down and I go, okay, who hasn't had a moment? I make sure I go to that player next so that someone's not feeling left out.

So shifting gears a little bit. story is such a huge part of what you're doing as a DM Amy where do you start We're going to start with Jason We're going to start with Jason? No, I'm going to go back on. See, I had checked off

And Jason had talked and Jason had talked So I was going to eat up and I just don't want to go first all the time No, no, no, you don't have to go first all the time He's keeping the initiative in his head Exactly, I'm keeping initiative in my head All right, I'll go to cowboy Jason first I have cowboy Jason and vampire Jason So where do you start on a story to make an effective story?

Like where do you start? It really depends. So if it's a long campaign that we're starting from the beginning, then everyone's story can start separately and I bring everyone together. But usually the party knows each other, I would think, for the most part. I like to start games. where everyone is not meeting each other for the first time, I'd like to them to at least have

a backstory that connects to each other. And we can do that in a session zero. We can do that before the actual game starts, but I think it's good for there to be a feeling of camaraderie amongst the players so that we're not having an evening of, oh hi, how are you, my name is kind of thing. Sure.

And one of the ways you can do that too though, It's like each player can go around the table and each player can sort of tell the rest of the group how they met the group and how that started. And they can either determine that before the game starts or right then and there. Vampire Jason? It's a good question, and I hope I have a good answer for you.

The reasons that we tell stories are inherent and intrinsic to who we are as people. as humans. Everybody came to Multicon today because they're a fan of stories. It came to meet people who were involved in creating your favorite stories. That's what we're here for. And the same is true in tabletop role-playing games. The big difference between watching a story or reading a story is that in tabletop role-playing games, you are creating the story together in the moment with your friends.

It's a collaborative narration. It's almost like writing an acting out of movie in real time with your buddies. And so what drives those kinds of stories forward and makes them fun is a little different than maybe what you see on a screen or in the pages of a book, although they are related, obviously. I like to start with a theme. I like to have something to say in stories. A lot of my stories deal with rebelling against oppressive systems. they deal with you I saw that

I don't know what you mean they deal with personal internal struggles you know human against beast that's very vampire the masquerade of course they deal with consequences of your actions

and they deal with people who are stuck in extraordinary situations that they didn't create and have to get out of once I know what the players want because I asked them, I start building the story around that. But I always try to weave in one of those themes

so that it feels like a cohesive narrative that we can create together. I know where the story starts. I have no idea where it's going to end because that's what we're playing to find out what happens. Sure. Did that make sense? Yeah.

Oh, thank God. Amy. Oh, my turn. Finally. No, by design. I will say, whether I play a one-shot or a big campaign, what I start with is just what's going on in the world. And then I also prep what's really going on.

And I tell the players what's going on, and they can fill out where they stand in that. So if there's a big famine or a big loss of knowledge or whatever, they can be like, oh, I'm seeking knowledge, or I'm the bookkeeper over here, or like the keeper of books or whatever and then I have my what's really going on that is cruel

what's really going on is always some level of cruel slash evil and for those reasons very secret too so it's always like they're only at the beginning getting the symptoms and then I've got control over the disease and I will say

usually I actually do if it's a if it's a show I actually do have an idea of how that might culminate. Again, it might not, but I need that for my brain to know, okay, we've got 20 episodes or 30 or six episodes. I do need to have that thing that we're driving towards, at least in my brain. But the act two of it is complete, I don't want to say it's completely a question mark, but it's very environment-based is what I can control. And for that, I just mean that I know

different cool places that would be fun to have set piece and cinematic based encounters. So yeah, I kind of know the beginning and they know the beginning and then what they don't know is what we'll find out. And sorry, last thing I'll say is I say that like every TTRP game, the genre of every TTRP game is mystery

because the dungeon master knows things that the players don't and if it's fun and juicy then the seeds will be laid. So it could be, you know, like fantasy mystery or sci-fi mystery. And it might not always be this like, oh, wow, it's this kind of mystery. It could be like, it's a mystery, like that genre too. But I do think if you approach it as everything is a mystery and the mystery is what's really going on, that's what's fun for me.

That's what I can wrap my head around. Yeah, for sure. And there, of course, there's a big difference between, like you said, planning a one shot, a six episode, or a 30 episode plus story, because they're... Or a 30-year campaign. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I don't think anyone ever plans for those.

I think those just happen. And I would say, too, the only thing I would add to that, I think there's some great answers, would be don't be afraid to change where you were going with the story as the DM. Don't get locked into something. you're like, oh, this is the path I was thinking that we were going to go down, especially if the characters do something unexpected or really brilliant. Or die.

Or can I or die? That would never happen. But you go with the flow and you go, you know what, this was the idea that I had. However, this is a really interesting idea that we're going down. I'm going to shift my focus over to here and let them go

the direction rather than try and force it down the other path. Does anybody have any questions that they want to ask or any... Yes. Hi. Hi. So the people in the streaming internet can hear me.

I'll yell. What ways have you punished players who are not cooperated during the campaign? Do you want to say your name? Do you want anyone to know who you are? We should tell the... Speaking of cruel. Yeah, for the streaming audience, he wanted to know what are some fun ways that you have punished players that have gotten out of hand or defied you in some fashion. I would like to say I've never done that, but I will say there was one, every once in a while as a dungeon master, you get, and I'm sure you guys have experienced this at some point, probably during a private game, doesn't happen so much when it's planned in front of a camera.

but when you get a group of people together and for some reason everyone has decided to be the jerk usually you got one jerk player or one really comedic player and whatever and that's fine if there's one but then you get a game where everyone has decided to be a jerk and those games they don't survive very long and I do remember running a session

this was a long, long time ago where everyone was a jerk and I was getting so tired of it and one of the players said, I did something, and one of the players said, you can't do that. And I said, and I went, I'm the dungeon master. I can do anything. And I said, in fact, all of you, you're teleported to a field.

There's a bunny rabbit there, and he kills you all. You're dead. The campaign's over. And they went, and they went, oh, ha ha. I said, no, not ha ha. You're dead. You're all dead. The bunny rabbit killed you.

Goodbye. I'll see you next week. And I didn't flip the table, but I ended the campaign. You get nothing, good day, sir. Yeah, shark pointy teeth. That's where it came from. And I did end that campaign that way, and that was after, like, 20 weeks. I had had it.

That's the closest I could think, because I'm, like, punishing somebody. Do I know anyone that was in that campaign? No, this was years and years and years ago. This was back when I was, like, a young man. The main thing is take away what they love. And that is normally the little guy NPC companion. Sure. And you just, yeah, well, you know, who's making the bed and who's lying in it, okay?

So they know what they did. And yeah, it's very cutthrow if you do that. But that'll calm them down usually. And then the other way, which isn't really, but it is fun, is to clock words that they say during their joke. and use them against them. So one character, I gave him a choice to be a lichenthrope of anything at all.

And he was like, oh, and I introduced that one character was a wear eagle. And he was like, that would be so cool. And I'm like, yeah, but, okay, but then you could fly at all this stuff. And he was like, yeah, okay, look, look, I just, I want, something like, I want to be a bird, period.

And then I was like, great, okay, great. And I made him a wear swallow. Because I made it so that the wear, eagle thought he was a wear eagle but he actually whatever it was like yeah and you'll never fly because you're the wings don't carry your weight ha ha ha ha so yeah use use words against though yeah i uh i was punished once as a player um i played a rogue and um long long campaign and i finally uh i was my my character for you know months of of of campaigning i was working towards this helmet, this like very powerful helmet that was going to make me the most powerful

rogue in the realm and the DM for whatever reason made it so that any time I put the helmet on a beam of light shot straight up for miles and I'm a rogue okay a thief just trying

to just trying to hide and everything good has taxes, and not all taxes are money. I'm still trying to figure out what I did to deserve that. So I have a lot of sleepless nights. I don't, but I tend to not, I don't really like to punish my players, honestly. Maybe because of that, maybe that I have.

I will say I have a warning system. Okay. Like, usually I don't punish people because usually they catch on, especially if you've played with me very long. Because I will say, are you sure you want to do that? that's like the warning system like that's one and then they'll say yeah i'm going to do that i'm like okay you're doing that right and they you know and they usually by that time if you played with me you go maybe i should second guess that uh because usually what that means is you're about to have something terrible happen to you or someone you love or an item that you treasure or something

like that you're about to do something that i think is stupid and you're gonna you're gonna end up with some kind of horrible loss But I will say, in those instances, don't players want that? Like, there's a certain level of, like, you gamble so you can lose so that when you win, it's all that sweeter, right? Like, don't people want to be punished? Are you sure you want to split the party right now? Yeah.

I think, and I think some people literally want to see what happens. That's a different channel on the internet. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, you could always, there are players that just love to hoard stuff. Sure. You know what I mean? Well, hey. You are a rogue?

You are a rogue? Maybe it was you? Yeah, yeah. But, you know, there are certain players that are very attached to every single thing that they have. And so that, I, you know, tread carefully with those kind of players if you're going to take something away from them because you don't know what might happen to you. And we are still in real life after all. How about you, Jason? Can you think of any time that you?

I don't think they dare, frankly. But that said. My favorite storytelling, my favorite game mastering Maxim is you can get what you said you wanted and still not be happy. Usually when I explain that, it solves pretty much all my problems at the table. Sure. I mean, I can't remember. I'm like 109 years old. I've been doing this for a long time, and I can't remember a situation where a player behaved like you did.

But if it did happen, I would assume it's a mismatch between the table and the player. Right. They're in the wrong game. yeah it does seem that like players among the table do self-police as well you know like they they there's normally a lot of rooting out that happens that I don't actually have to I've killed off players that I feel wanted to be killed off you know what I'm saying like I've seen people that are doing something where it feels like you just went out of the game like like you went out of the game I'll give you the out of the game and you don't have to come back next week because this is you've decided you're you're out like I'm like I I've had that happen before, especially in private games, where, you know, I just get that feeling. Any other questions? Yes. Sure.

I do have an answer to that. So I will repeat the question. question they were saying what is is is a circumstance in which a player has made a role that was so amazing that it like just the table went wilder so I played in a idea had a campaign and these these characters were probably fourth or fifth level somewhere in there and a dragon showed up now in the game I was playing fact it was on Lear which is the world that takes place in my live play and dragons in that world are like gods they're they're not something you battle they're not a creature you battle really and all the dragon was supposed to do was come in and

and blow this this this this huge gulf of fire and lead well oh do we lose the PA are you hearing me okay okay he turned me down maybe I'm all right I talk loud I'm allowed I'm allowed talker. So and I had given them this this ring to fix a different problem that I knew was going to come up that could stop time for a very short brief of time. And so the guy who was a fighter in the party used the ring and stopped time. He had this fairly magical sword for that campaign at least. He got up on the dragon. He says I'm going to attack the dragon and I'm going to, on his head, I'm going to wedge the sword in between the scales, and I'm going to kill this dragon.

And I said, good luck, buddy. I said, I mean, you can. It's roll, and he rolled a natural 20. And I said, okay, roll again. I said, if you roll another natural 20, you can kill this. You can do, this will work. And he rolled another natural 20. You shouldn't have said anything.

I know, but what are the odds? And so he killed a dragon, and I literally had the god that he worshipped come down and give him a new character class. Because I was like, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. So he became a dragon slayer class that didn't exist in my game. I gave him the stats later. But I was like, I've got to do something. I've never seen this before.

Yes, and he was a really nice guy, but everybody went completely. nuts over that I mine is that my they met the evil person they were supposed to fight her they decided instead I want to change her mind about humanity and I didn't know what to do with that information so I had them I like mathed out a difficult number to reach and I and I had them all roll all of their stats all their ability modifier and they didn't make it. And then they reminded me, they were like, wait, wait, what about this NPC

who's been with us this whole time that I forgot about? And they rolled her stats too, and that was the clincher. So they were able to change an entire deity's mind as opposed to fighting her, which was very satisfying for the story, but it had nothing to do with, yeah, like a D20. It was more like they remembered something that,

I'll always forget the NPCs, that are with them. Actually, one that comes to mind was I was running a one shot at GenCon a couple years ago. And Travis McElroy, who you might know from the Adventure Zone, he sort of joined the party at the last minute. Like he wasn't on the panel, but he's a good friend of mine. He's like, hey, can I jump on the game?

I'm like, sure. So the party battles their way. It was a very linear game because it was a game in front of a crowd. they had to the party had to retrieve a magical sphere that I called the psychedella sphere

I called the psychedella sphere. Yeah! But for the final battle, they were going to battle like these, a bunch of Guithiii guards and through either a performance, I think it was a performance role.

He rolled a natural 20 and basically convinced them all to just go home. That's how I felt. Yes. That's how I felt with it. It's like, oh, no more, no more combat. Yeah. He just, because it was just so, you know, he, he, he, it was just the perfect role and, and the perfect, the guys were like, you know what? Yeah, why are we even guarding this? Let's just leave. If anyone could charisma their way out of a situation, it would be Travis McElroy. I'm going to try to answer the question. I think you're asking. Two lovers, both down to one hit point each, one of them's going to die.

They know it, I know it, everybody at the table knows it. There is no way they are both getting out of this situation. And the vampire lord has to choose which one to take. They both decided that they would roll, and whoever got the lower roll would be the one to go. They both rolled ones. And they just looked at each other and nodded. And they decided to go together. Oh.

Wow. I think that's the question you're actually asking. We good? That's what I'm saying. That's why I was asking. We're not good. All right. Well, thank you everybody for coming by.

Thank you. That was a great story to end on, too. Yeah, that was a great story to end on. That made me tear up a little bit. Well, thank you very much. I'm Travis Oates. Let's real quick, just let them know where you can see you all. I'm Amy Vorpal.

You can find me at Vorpal Sword anywhere on the Internet. Yeah, I'm Jason Charles Miller. Just type that in. You'll find me. I'm Jason Carl, and I go by the handle Vampires and Vino everywhere, because, you know, vampires and veno. And I'm Travis Oates, and please come to Aboveboard TV on YouTube and see all the stuff that we're doing there

in our D&D Live Play with Jason Charles Miller. So, all right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you. Hello, Mobycon. Guys, we almost did it.

I got to say, 30 days pretty extraordinary what was pulled off here just want to give a big round of applause to all the amazing volunteers who've been working their butts off today and also thank you for the grace like everyone has been so nice I think I got like two complaints and that was it which I feel like for a con is pretty swell so everybody have a great day so far? Hell yeah. So excited. Some of you may have heard we have multi-con after dark. Oh, smoky. So right after our last panel here, we actually have three extraordinary comics who are here. It is not a family-friendly set, which is wanting it, there's multi-con after

dark. The way that stroller turned around, That was beautiful. But we have the incredibly talented Mackenzie Ray, who is both Internet Sensation, an incredible research producer as well in a previous life. We also have Brent Butler who saved us while we were waiting for Seth Green to arrive. His actual set, because his bit was good,

but his actual set is remarkable. And we also have retired, this is so cool. We have retired state senator Anthony Portentino, who is now broken into stand-up comedy. And I love that so much. He was already funny, but I've heard a little bit of his act, and I've got to say, guys, you are in for a treat. And, of course, he historically represented a lot of the communities that were directly affected and was so generous in donating a lot of tickets to make sure that those families will be able to attend here today.

So thank you to retired State Senator Portentino. Now, there is really only one government body that is more dysfunctional than Congress, and that is the Real Rejects. We have the Real Rejects here, guys. And, you know, for those who know, the Real Rejects was founded, I believe, in 1847, by Gregory Jebediah Alba, who was reacting to newspapers.

He's really evolved the business since. No, Greg is an extraordinary mind. He was a pioneer in the reaction space. And so long before people were watching things and expressing emotions while doing so, Greg was out there watching things and expressing themselves while doing so. Is that not what you do?

Sure. I have a direct quote of Greg saying that that I have on video. So Greg brought along, I really don't, it must be John, right? In the mask. Oh, I was like, who is that good at dancing? He brought along his dear childhood friend, Dad, John Humphrey. And John Humphrey, as we all know, is just the epitome, the epitome of, an empath. He is able to feel everything and make people watching feel everything with him.

And slowly and surely, like a conqueror, a colonizing monster, Greg began to grow his reject nation, adding the likes of Aaron, the poet, Andrew, Andrew, The Stoic. Tara, the magic and whimsy. Roxy, the wit. And coy. Now, for some reason that remains unclear to me, I was fortunate enough, it's almost two years.

That's weird. I was fortunate enough, Greg, somebody that could tell you where Ewaks are from. And he put me in a reaction video, and I became a member of the Reject Nation, and more importantly, the very dysfunctional reject family that you're looking at right here.

So without further ado, I would love to introduce the very real, real rejects. This music is what we need every day. All right, guys. We've assembled. All right, guys, I gave Greg the Star Wars. Greg the Star Wars panel. So this is mine now. Oh. Oh. All right. The Real Rejects. You spent a lot of time with them.

But do you really know them? So I'd like to start out by asking a couple questions. Very pointed, specific questions. You guys didn't realize that this was going to be this intense. We did not know this was coming. I had no idea what I was walking into today. Is this broken? It's like the most important person to give the microphone, too. You can't have that on, we're streaming. So vitamin C is important. I would love to know at what point did you first meet Greg and get introduced to the Real Rejects?

And when was the first moment that you really realized that you were stuck? And this was going to be your reality. And I'll open that up to whoever can answer it first. I love how this is like Greg and the Rejects panel. I haven't answered. I guess I'll go first. I realized when I actually started enjoying it

and that it wasn't the traditional internet slog I go through. I'm really fiercely independent. I don't like sharing. and so I really enjoy the way the internet allows you to be democratic with your opinion you can enjoy your own opinion and you can decide whether or not to read the comments or not

but that also means like it's in your control and I've been a part of so many team shows and I've loved so many people I've worked with like Roxy and I worked together almost a decade before we did Real Rejects and we I think I've worked with like so many people separately but this was something I looked forward to it wasn't a work thing it wasn't me going like

oh I'm excited to see Blank comma and then get paid. It was, I'm excited to go see these people and I'm excited to share in art and conversation. And then then I've evolved recently with me and Greg doing a show that is somewhat titled. And we

actually talk about the things that I would talk about off camera. And that's always the dream, right? Like the more we get into this, the more nuanced it gets, the more it's naturalized, the more it's a regular conversation. That's what we've always wanted to do with reactions is make it like you're watching with us on the couch. We talk about that in every video.

but it isn't the case in most networks and with most people and so to find a family to find a bunch of rejects and then to evolve that over the time has made it I'm stuck that was beautiful go ahead Aaron

so funny enough I guess my the way I met Greg is a little untraditional I actually started off as a fan of the channel I we met up or I met him at a screening of a Batman the killing joke many moons ago I met him and Andy at a screening and then we met and then departed fairly quickly.

And a couple of years later, I went to Greg and John's event called a film therapy. And we really got to connect there and then again, sparse off into our separate corners of the universe. And I used to host an open mic. One thing about me that maybe you guys don't know who watched the channel, I'm actually a poet. I perform poetry, live, spoken word across all of Los Angeles. and I used to host an open mic for four years. And I just randomly hit up Greg on DMs. I was like, hey, do you want to come to my mic?

And I think I invited him a couple of times. First time he wasn't able to come. The second time, he's like, yeah, sure, I'll come through. And he saw me host, and he saw all the different artists come through, and then he did something I never expected. He got up on stage himself, and he performed a poem, and I was like, I didn't know he did that. That's pretty cool.

And from there, we really got to connect connecting a genuine level beyond movies and television, but just as humans over art. And from there, we formed a very genuine friendship, and I can still consider one of my closest friends of this day when I need advice. In spite of the craziness that you guys don't see behind the scenes, he's a very hardworking

and passionate man, and he yet still has time to have close, cultivated, careful friendships. And I consider him someone who is very, very warm and very present and I'm grateful to be a part of this team, part of this family, and I'm happy that I met him because my life is forever changed because of it. All right. I love how much Greg is hating this right now. I'm so tense in the shoulders.

I'm not expressed. I'm going to help. Don't worry. First of all, you guys for being here right now, you're the real ones. Like, thank you so much for saying. We know this is running late and behind him or that's the last panel here. night so huge thank you like us clapping for you because thank you for being here and then I'll give my flowers to Greg but the truth about how I met Greg is that

every time I tell the story he tells me I'm wrong and that's not what happened so we we have revisionist history going on here he thinks he was a fan of me I think I was a fan of him the truth is probably somewhere in the middle I think that what's really funny about Greg is that he doesn't know that he has a channel with a million plus subscribers so he thinks that he's like you know just walking around like we're not all so crazy impressed with him because he is unbelievably impressive but very humble so i was dying to get on his channel dying to i love what the rejects do i'm the most recent member of the rejects um i'm the last one to be added and no one's allowed after me doors close

and so I really wanted to get on the channel and apparently he really wanted me on the channel but neither one of us said that for a while and then finally he asked me we did the black phone and I thought I blew it

I was really nervous but the people liked me enough that he brought me back and then I did an animated movie and I really blew it and everybody hated me and he brought me back anyway so I was like that's a real one thank you so much And then we did the thing, and then they didn't release it for a year.

Yeah, yeah, that happened too. I'm part of the two worst reviewed with the thing. To worry, let's go! On the channel. So, you know, Greg must like me somehow, because he's kept me around. But, yeah, that's kind of how I started here. Okay, I'll go. I was a nobody on YouTube.

I had like 800 subscribers, and Greg had, I think, 750. thousand at the time. He said, hey, you want to come on my channel? And I was like, is this a scam? And then I looked him up and I was like, it's legit, I will definitely drive to this guy's apartment, who I do not know. He has 750,000 subscribers. And I go, and he opens a door in this dark, like, dingy apartment. And with him, where him and John live. They don't live there anymore. And we didn't even get to filming right away. We literally just talked for like two hours, became friends, filmed a reaction. I was like, this guy is solid, legit, amazing.

We were friends after that, and I still went back to his apartment and would make him and John do improv after we did a video. I'd be like, but you guys have to do an improv video for my channel, though. I don't remember what it was. We would pick, like, an item out of the house, and I was like, you guys got to just, we got to make something fun about it. And I don't even know if it was funny, but they did it for me anyway. And so that's how he met nine years ago.

How do I turn this into a movie reference? So how I met Greg, we were at a pool party. And I don't even think I've told Greg this before. I actually recognized him when I saw him, but I didn't know how I knew him because I'd actually only seen him on one video. It was a Batman Arkham Night reaction. And I had watched everything Batman Arkham Night at the time because I was so anticipating that game and I wanted to play cool with him was like I don't want to let him

on to the fact that I know who he is so we engaged in conversation after an hour of trying to figure out how I'm going to talk to this human being I didn't want to let him know onto the fact that I give him status you know but anyways so we engage in conversation he's like you know a lot about movies and TV shows I was like a little bit And he's like, would you like to come on my channel sometime? I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. So we exchanged what was known as Twitter back then. And, yeah, he actually mistakenly called me by the name Aaron, which is funny because that's my roommate's name now.

Hi. Yes, great poet, by the way. But yeah, so then I started coming onto his channel. I was a little bit nervous going on because I'd never, I'd always engaged in movie conversations, which I love doing. and it's a passion of mine, but, yeah, I was a little bit nervous about it, never been spoken in front of a camera doing it, but Greg, you know, was really cool about it.

He made sure I, you know, calm me down, said, dude, just act natural, be yourself, have fun. And yeah, in regards to Michael's question, how did you know you were stuck with him? I'd say it was either one of two different ways. It was later that year on Christmas Day when he messaged me, and said, I need you to come over and do a Deadpool trailer reaction with me on Christmas Day.

You're Jewish. Yeah, but still, it's Christmas Day. That's how I saw him. I said, you're a Jew, right? I'm a lot one day off a year, okay? So it was either that day or it was either the day he asked me to officiate his wedding. One of those two days, I was like, I'm kind of stuck with this guy, but it's okay because he's one of the most genuine, kindest, empathetic human beings I've ever known.

and even more so than just a great friend. I love working with the guy, too. He just makes life so easy around there. Even when times get crazy around there, he's such a joy to work with. The whole team is a joy to work with. But, yeah, that's how we met, and that's when I knew I was stuck with him.

And this is... Can I say something really quick? Is it cool? And what about John? No. Well, I wanted to say something about John. Because John and I were talking about like, what was the last week?

We were trying to compartmentalize some chapters of Real Rejects history. And as kind as all you guys are on the stage right now and off stage too. John and I, this originally did start off with the plan of like, John and I were going to do this together.

And there were just things that happened in the middle of the trajectory where we weren't able to keep doing it as partners on it in the beginning. But to this day, I'm like, that shouldn't be discounted. We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for John and like John and I were like this is our John and I were like this we did the first album together that's that's how we put it we did the first album John I Paul yeah

then yeah and then I carried on and then eventually we came back again for like a third album and now here we are I don't know it's like our fourth album and this is the best album it's ever been yeah the band's only grown it's better ever since then so yeah who's Ringo probably you yeah well I'm still having a good time yeah That was beautiful. I met Greg. What? Did you see it?

That was beautiful. So I met Greg. I met Greg at a... You guys hear me okay? Yes. I just can't. I like the sound of my own voice. I made Greg get a jamba juice back in 2017.

I was introduced by Sally the Salamander, who some of you. who some of you might have seen and I really liked the conversation and I offered him 12 Bitcoin and I said Greg make me a star and you'll be my bestest boy Give it for Michael Give it a half for Michael Arranging so many of the things not yelling at us when we ask you questions that aren't your department I don't know the answers to the questions So, listen, guys, I think one of the more interesting things about all of you is that, like, Roxy's panicked faces, I said that.

Like, where is this going? Well, I've heard you sing multiple times tonight. I've heard multiple impressions of yours. I don't know where this could go from here. Who knows what? You have us on our toes, man. What could be more interesting? But you're sitting.

So everyone knows you as personalities. online everyone everyone but i think uh what's amazing is that somehow in real life you're even more funny hilarious interesting what is something that you wish the the reject nation and the general public knew about you that may not necessarily be conveyed in your reactions i was a dolphin trainer when i was 21 this is not a lie i lived in hawaii on the who are you I know. I know. I lived on the big island of Hawaii on the Kona side, and I worked at Dolphin Quest. And I was there, and I was an intern. And then they bumped me up to assistant trainer. And then I was like, I'm going to go to SeaWorld. And I passed the test at SeaWorld. And then I was like, I can't. I got to go back to L.A. I meant to be an actor. And then I moved back here. that's it I think we're good

none of us are going to top that I'm three kids in a trench coat I think people don't know like I talk about comics a lot and I talk about movies a lot now it took a long time for people to see me as anything about comics also shout out to Troy who brought me on a comic that's crazy dude thank you

I got to sign my face on a comic thank you Troy but I love music as much as almost as much as I love comics and movies. Like I'm such a music guy and I don't get to talk about it as much but music is like, I think the amount of time I spend reading or watching I also

spend listening. When did you, Koi, realize that Drake was really the pinnacle inspiration for you musically? Was that? So there's this show the Big Bang Theory. And I think the Big Bang Theory hurt my culture more than

anything else ever has. And I think that Drake is the equivalent for cultures that I can't speak on nearly as much, and as someone who doesn't appropriate, thanks, Drake. Say, Drake. I hear you like him dumb. Dolphins and Drake.

The beef continues. Damn. That's it. Nice, subtle Kendrick Lamar reference. That's good. Yeah. No one else has fun back. You're like, I am all I am. Andrew can do the whole Quint monologue from Job.

Oh, man. Okay, I'll go next. I said it in my previous thing, but I am a poet. I do poetry outside of doing television and movie reactions. There's a very different side of being an artist. I'm also an actor. But yeah, I hosted for four years, and I like to cultivate and nurture people's creative inclinations, whether it be poetry, music, dance, or just forms of expression. And that is, in addition to talking about movies and film, that is my path.

Yeah, that's it. I think this is probably relevant to everybody on the panel, but I kind of wish people knew how many hours this took. Just because so many people comment like, oh my God, you guys are, this is like the easiest thing of all time. This is the easiest gig. And I personally work 90-hour weeks minimum every week for the last 15 years. And that's not like a point of pride for me as much as a fact. You know, some of the people on the panel are in slightly different situations. But like I, this is my whole life, like doing movie reactions, being an actress, being an entertainment.

And it's a full-time job. So I do think that I wish kind of people understood that a little bit more. because it's frustrating when people think that you're it's not work and I am so lucky but I'm lucky at my job not not just you know like it's showing up and dicking around like we take we take it pretty seriously so how many hours it is it's almost as good as the dolphin story I know John is right I can't do the quint monologue but I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm I'm not going to put you guys through that torture right now. But I've mentioned it in a few videos, if not more.

I teach baseball when I'm not doing movie reactions. I played basically my whole life since I could walk. Baseball is such a passion of mine. Teaching younger generations, nurturing. I think that's why I gravitate towards the Karate Kid franchise so much. It's something that is like so endeavored into my blood. that franchise really speaks to me because it's what I do on a daily basis not karate obviously but baseball um secret alter ego but yes it is I'm Johnny Lawrence in disguise

no in but seriously I like making sure the next generation that they are properly attended to making sure they get proper life lessons and hopefully succeeding not only in baseball but in life in general it's a very big passion of mine I really and I love doing it like when i'm out there if i if i know i have three four five hours of lessons or if i'm you know doing this with uh this incredible team i have here if i know i have a four five six seven hour shoot day it's i'm not bothered by it because i love what i do and uh i'm very i'm very fortunate and i know that and i'm so grateful for that fact i would also say too i probably mentioned it in a few videos but uh i'll mention it again i love movie music so much because

as my fellow geek Jack mentioned, he loves music, which I do as well, but movie music is, like, so engraved in my blood. When I'm at the gym, that's all I will listen to. Even sometimes when I'm at home, I will just listen to straight up movie music. Because what it allows me to do when I hear that music, I can put myself vicariously through these characters and put myself in that scene.

So I think movie music is so damn important to films. I mean, I could top off some movies right now, Jaws and other films, would not be the same. I had a quick question for you. Yes, sir. What's your favorite color? My favorite color? Yeah.

What's yours? Oh. Today it's blue. Well, that's mine. No, seriously, blue. Luciano Pavarotti, do you know who he is? The opera singer? Is this your segue?

What's happening? Yeah. No, I was answering the question. Actually, I think I do know that is. He was one of the three tenors. He once wrote a letter that said I was the future of opera. That's a fun fact about me. That was my answer to the question.

Who would like to answer the question next? If you ever hear me in a video, say the words, I'm pretty good with the Bowstaff. That is based on real facts, because I did once win a gold medal for Bo staff at a taekwondo tournament. I've held on to it for all of my validation ever since. I love it.

That's so, yeah. Dolphins and post-ass. Am I the best moderator today? You are. And you're the future of opera. To be honest, though. I'm really impressed. Go ahead of for Michael, you guys.

Michael. Thank you. I will live off of that for two months. So we're running ahead. Out of time. No, we got so much. So I'm going to ask one more question. I'm going to ask one more question.

I'm going to stand up for this one. Oh, should we all stand up? I'm standing up. Yeah, do you remember WonderCon? Greg can't sit for that long. I think it's weird. I feel like we should be on the same. I feel like sitting above sitting above the people.

I don't know. I want to move to this chair. That's why Greg is like we all talk of his kindness. I enjoy sitting up. And Greg's like amongst people. And I'm like, I like, I like this. We're on stage. Shakespeare was like, this is right.

Really good that we're running out of time and we talk about where we're sitting. Should we keep doing that until we finish? How do you like sitting? Yeah, should we stand? Should we sit? It's actually a great segue because our next bitter stand-up comedians. Ah, waka, wak-wak-do. All right, so final question for my rejects.

Guys, this past year has been a big one for the real rejects in that you've tried a lot of new things. Who has seen some of the amazing social media sketches that Roxy's put together? My favorite people here. I like them best. They're so good. And also, now there's, like, certain theme things, and it's just a lot easier to find stuff, and there's all these cool new ideas. If Greg didn't give you any pushback whatsoever, what is one thing that you would love

for the real rejects to be doing, and then Greg, after they've all answered, you have to say yes no and we're going to go in order of we're going to get down to Greg so Aaron you're taking us away with me let's see

I would like to do one or two things one of two things one very intention and creative advertisements for our shirts because I think it'd be fun to just make commercials on social media that are funny and two do reenactments of movie scenes because I think that'd be hilarious I'm for that what he just said because I love doing impressions right Craig right I mean we hungry no mo so you want to reenactments and movie scenes yeah that should only take like a couple

minutes yeah we can go ahead and do that yeah that'd be fun uh i love the movie reenactment thing because that's how gregory found me i used to reenact movie trailers just me and toys in my house yeah that's a thing i did i'm not i'm not making a joke um i would like to watch every a 24 film whether it performs well or not that's just how we roll we stick to it Yeah, that sounds great. I think that Aaron and I both pitched this two years in a row, but I wanted to do all award show coverage watching every TV show that was Emmy nominated and then doing coverage of the Emmys.

And then same thing with the Oscars, it got shut down. But for a very good reason, right, Greg? Yes, Roxy. I likewise have two, like Aaron. One of them would be rewatching my favorite movies, but with someone that hasn't seen them. So John had never seen Fight Club, and I love Fight Club. Greg and I are both huge fans of The Matrix,

and I think that is actually cooking. But my first one would be to watch stuff we have seen and, like, to experience our personalities a bit more, not just reacting to something new, but reacting to something we know really well, and then with something that doesn't know it as well. And then the second thing would be music. music stuff. I want to talk about music. I like guys, I love music so much. So music and

rewatches. Yeah. I mean, I think the movie commentary thing we all talked about as a group doing is being able to like rewatch stuff would get a little bit harder on the commentary. So people are like, please shut up. You guys are talking too much while we're trying to watch this reaction. Yeah, what is that? Like it's the weirdest thing. Like, you could just pause our faces and watch it then. Like just, if you don't want us to talk, just like have a weird photo of us up or something. Re-Jewind, let's go. There you go.

That's a good name. He didn't acknowledge music, noted. I love the idea of doing music, so I'll just throw a secondary onto the music. We talk about it on every Patreon intro. If you want a music podcast featuring John and Coy, just sign up with Patreon. Or a live stream by Kendry. If it was me, I would pitch, we have a genre-based schedule that includes a wild card Wednesday. and what I would do is I would like throw all the weirdo cult movies at that

to make that like the truly experimental slot of the week which probably wouldn't garner like a whole lot of views up at the top but like that's where you put your samurai cop that's where you put your troll to or your like Tetsuo the Iron Man it doesn't even have to be like terrible so to speak just like weird off the beaten path stuff because that's what I love the most so that would be my pitch what are you going to pitch I would like to see Greg do react to major shakeups in the precious metal industry.

I'm concerned that we as a reject nation are not a gold-based... We need a fiat currency. No, uh... I want to watch paint dry. No, I would love to see video game reactions reactions being taken a little bit further. We did like a little bit of trailer reactions for the Jedi Survivor game, which was

extraordinary. Greg is like a super incredible gamer, and by that I mean he really likes the last of us. But, you know, especially as the threshold between film, television, and video games gets thinner and thinner and these stories just become more intricate and narrative-based. I feel like they do such a beautiful job at capturing so many

of the emotions that everyone here on this stage is so good at expressing in an authentic way. And it would be a non-Star Wars thing that Greg would probably let me do. That sounds like a lot of fun. I want Koi to cry on camera.

Now that I think about it, I'm like, so funny. I was just thinking, but what is Greg won? And this guy comes in. I'm pretty sure he's the only one here who's never cried on camera. The amount I want to be able to cry is rivaled only by the amount Greg wants me to cry for his prop.

I'm sure that when, I'm sure that when Koi starts to get there, he's like, oh, it's happening and he becomes so aware that it's about to happen that he doesn't end up crying. I almost cried during the abyss out of sheer bliss. Like, I loved the abyss. We did the abyss, and I was like, is this a five-star experience? And I was like, it's so. And then I was like, I'm on camera.

it wasn't the I'm scared of comments it was like this is weird it was so I want that for you Greg maybe we can do the director's cut and you'll have your chance full weeping I see straw ha goofy in the crowd I want him to come on the channel yeah we're going to react to too fast to curious we're going to just recite it um roxy had a roxy had a great idea to do more like we're doing a lot more black history month because black history month we're doing a lot more black centric movies and she pitched the idea like last year to do more genre or thematic things depending on like the time of the year and I really like that idea a lot almost cried boys left I pitched one of them days and I haven't heard

bad she looks at me because she sent it to me but I haven't pitched a degree yet because I've already looked at the schedule teams shambles I have the poet want to do poetic justice it's already done we did we did that we did that recently I know okay I just want to say a very special thank you to all the rejects. These guys, in addition to just being wildly funny and entertaining, are also just some of the nicest and most generous people that I know. And I'm so grateful to call you colleagues and so grateful to call, I think, all of you, friends. Yes.

I shared your article within 17 minutes of it dropping. I literally cried when Coy did that. But who are you questioning if they're your friend? You said, I think. Which one of us? Michael, I listened to that whole Atlanta story. I am your friend, okay? Which brings us to our next segment.

No. Can I say one last thing? Have you guys seen the movie? Who here has seen the movie funny people with Adam Sandler? Yes. And have, have, yeah. I'm only here to answer StrawHack Goofy's questions today. What do you want to know, Jujo?

What do you want to know? Also, only call them by a TikTok moniker? Yeah. So in that movie, one of the things that I realized at a certain point with working with everyone, I was like, oh, I'm a bit like Adam Sandler here where I've like paid people to be my friends in a weird way. But I think it's evolved so past that. And when it came to this point here today, I was, everyone who's asked about why have you been excited to do this? I mean, like, it's mainly because I just wanted to be up here with all of you guys.

I think everyone here has made this channel so much more special. and it has made my life better in so many ways and exciting. And I don't, it doesn't feel, it's like, it was like myself and then it was just myself and John and it was like a lot of grind and isolation. So to be at this point where a lot of people don't know is that there's a lot of like team building and there's a lot of camaraderie and that actually started here at Multi House when we all first met together and I was like, we got to take this into a different direction. So there's all of, a lot of you guys are like strangers with each other and now two of you

live together, you know, like, you're a part of this, I love the fact that it's involved in a real friendship. The rest of us, we all live together. We have a place. A creator. Hented the house next door. No, I love you. I love you guys, and

I'm just happy that we could all just be here together hanging out right now. And I love all you guys who decided to stick around after this thing started at 10 a.m. and it's after dark right now. And you guys, you are all here, so thank you guys for being here, and it means a lot, especially because it's all going to a good cause as well,

so thank you. We appreciate you. The real rejects, ladies and gentlemen, the real rejects. Thank you guys so much. Please stick around for Multicon after dark. These comics are great, and they got pushed even further into the dark. So, if you want to just give us

two minutes while we get set up, it's going to be a great time. You can grab a drink at the bar, maybe enjoy an IPA, whatever floats your fancy, floats your fancy do fancy stuff that was a pun that's it that's a good comedy right there also i'm going to speak for all of us real quick uh you guys being here in person it's the weirdest job in the world we talked about all the good stuff but the job is literally watching movies like in front of the camera and prepping and and discussing and all those things and like being

prepared to comment but like without you guys it is literally the only difference is we have a roof over our head the rest is like meandering homelessly muttering stuff so like you guys make it a real thing so thank you for allowing us to do this for you You're here, absolutely. Thank you guys. I love you guys. Thank you. And to Michael for putting this all together.

I'm Michael. Now we run. Get them.