Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to What Future. I'm your host, Joshua Topolski,
Speaker 1: and I gotta say, you know, I had a long
Speaker 1: intro where I was going to talk about my feelings
Speaker 1: on the Barbie trailer and how I feel about what
Speaker 1: Gretti Gerway has done with the Barbie character and the
Speaker 1: Internet's reaction to Barbie and Ken and all of the memes.
Speaker 1: There were so many memes. But I ended up having
Speaker 1: an amazing conversation with the actor Bex Taylor Klaus, who
Speaker 1: you may have seen in things like Thirteen Reasons Why
Speaker 1: or the Scream TV series, and we had this sprawling,
Speaker 1: super fascinating conversation that ended in a very interesting discussion
Speaker 1: of gaming and men any forms. And so I don't
Speaker 1: want to waste any time, you know, talking about the
Speaker 1: Barbie trailer or any other trailers. Frankly, I just want
Speaker 1: to get into this conversation, so let's not waste one
Speaker 1: more minute. And so your last name is pronounced. I
Speaker 1: don't want to say it right, Claus Taylor Klaus, wrong
Speaker 1: us clouds. You don't want to say it right. You
Speaker 1: want to say get up right off the perfect I
Speaker 1: want to say it Laus Klauses. But that's more. That
Speaker 1: sounds like I like a German villain and a not you.
Speaker 1: But I'm if I say it like that, I have
Speaker 1: to put myself in the mindspace of a person with
Speaker 1: a German accent. Oh yeah, it's great. Is it a
Speaker 1: German name? It is. Purportedly we changed it from something
Speaker 1: super Jewish to try to sound a little bit more
Speaker 1: assimilated and under the radar when we came over here.
Speaker 1: I wish my family had done that. Look, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna keep it to Pulsky. That should be fine. No
Speaker 1: one will have any problems with that spelling or pronunciation. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: your family was like, just cut it down, we need
Speaker 1: like a single syllable something that is kind of a
Speaker 1: little bit. Klaus could be anything. And then the other
Speaker 1: side had Grossman, so they were very short, so it
Speaker 1: didn't make any sense. Yeah, that's a tough one. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's funny. My wife is a huge genealogy
Speaker 1: I mean, I think she's actually a professional technically speaking,
Speaker 1: but she does it as a hobby. So she knows
Speaker 1: everything about my family and everything about people who who
Speaker 1: have come to this country, and all of has all
Speaker 1: these crazy records of people coming from Eastern Europe and
Speaker 1: all over the world, and oh my god, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: And there is this persistent rumor that, oh, my family
Speaker 1: got to Ellis Island and they couldn't spell their name,
Speaker 1: or they misheard it, or they didn't understand. But a
Speaker 1: lot moten have a favorite joke about that. Right now,
Speaker 1: do you wait? Are you to tell me? Oh? Absolutely
Speaker 1: if you want to hear it when you're done. But
Speaker 1: the only timey thing is that, apparently, in most cases,
Speaker 1: the real story is that people were like, oh, I
Speaker 1: got to America. I can now change my name from
Speaker 1: something that will not be easy to assimilate to something
Speaker 1: that will be easier for people to like say, or
Speaker 1: you know here, or just and just be like, okay,
Speaker 1: you're an American or whatever. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people changing their own names. But anyhow, let me hear it.
Speaker 1: Let me hear your joke. A rabbi said this, and
Speaker 1: I've been obsessed with it ever since. Two guys coming
Speaker 1: over on Ellis Island. They're in the line and one
Speaker 1: of them goes, so have you chosen your name yet?
Speaker 1: And the other guys go, what come again? Now, the
Speaker 1: guy explains, it's like you want to change your name
Speaker 1: so it sounds less conspicuous. Let's jewish all these things.
Speaker 1: So what's your name, Jacob Gottlieb. Okay, let's come up
Speaker 1: with something, maybe Jake Shaw. Sure. The guy in front
Speaker 1: of him goes it was his name that gets up
Speaker 1: to his time and he goes hoop shinea Ferguson, which
Speaker 1: in Yiddish means I've already forgotten. And the guy goes,
Speaker 1: all right, welcome to America, Sean Ferguson. That's good, that's good.
Speaker 1: That's a real Jewish joke. That's a real like classic.
Speaker 1: Not only a rabbi could tell that, Joe, only a
Speaker 1: rabbi in you could tell that. And of course the
Speaker 1: rabbi manages to make this entire speech about how have
Speaker 1: we already forgotten? How we were treated, how we treat others? Beautiful,
Speaker 1: beautiful sermon starts with the most the most Jewish jew
Speaker 1: joke I've ever heard. Oh that's the opening, that's the
Speaker 1: opening to that. That's so interesting. I actually wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you about this. You're Jewish, you were raised Jewish?
Speaker 1: I was raised Jewish. Are you are you a practicing Jew?
Speaker 1: I am? I'm the kind of jew that gets anxious
Speaker 1: when I'm not doing the satyr and my family is
Speaker 1: not doing the Sator. But if my family's doing the sata,
Speaker 1: it's fine for me not to be doing the sata
Speaker 1: because I just get to say amen from the other
Speaker 1: side of the country. Right. We had to bail on
Speaker 1: our stata because my wife is very sick and basically
Speaker 1: nobody eats meat, but for Passover we'll get brisket because
Speaker 1: you know it's Passover, it's a requirement. I usually am like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll eat sonka if I have to, I'll eat some brisket,
Speaker 1: I guess. And we got five pounds of brisket we
Speaker 1: ordered from this place around here. That's so it's so good, amazing,
Speaker 1: And then we had to cancel the satyr. So I've
Speaker 1: just been working my way through five pounds of brisket personally,
Speaker 1: like literally nobody else in the family eats it. So
Speaker 1: so I think out what I've been doing with our
Speaker 1: three pounds of brisket. Yeah, it's like it's like we're
Speaker 1: like a weekend. I'm like, I'm not sure this is
Speaker 1: even like I can still eat this, but it's safe,
Speaker 1: don't care. Yeah, no, I mean it tastes okay, So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna roll with it until something seems funny.
Speaker 1: But you're from Atlanta, you were raised in Atlanta? Is
Speaker 1: that correct? Born and raised in Atlanta. So I don't
Speaker 1: meet a lot of Southern Jews, like I don't meet
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are both like from the
Speaker 1: southern region. We can safely consider Atlanta southern, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's definitely it's of all the southern, of many of
Speaker 1: the southern places. It feels like it's pretty fucking progressive,
Speaker 1: comparatively little blue gem on the buckle of the Bible belt. Right.
Speaker 1: But I mean, what was that like growing up in
Speaker 1: the South as a Jew Because, like my experience is
Speaker 1: I grew up in Pittsburgh, which is a huge Jewish population,
Speaker 1: so I was like around Jewish people all the time,
Speaker 1: even though I rejected God ultimately. But um, that's my
Speaker 1: favorite thing about Judaism is you get to be an
Speaker 1: agnostic or an atheist jew and it's you're still like,
Speaker 1: there's no escape me. It's like, yeah, that's social Jewish
Speaker 1: part of it just gets like seeped in and then
Speaker 1: you're yeah, and it's almost like a religious requirement to
Speaker 1: question the very existence of God at a base level,
Speaker 1: so like, yeah, it's chill. Yeah, no, you're definitely like
Speaker 1: a real Like I remember talking to my mom about God,
Speaker 1: you know, because I started when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I started to go like, this doesn't making a lot
Speaker 1: of sense to me. People are talking a lot about God,
Speaker 1: but I kind of don't believe it. And I was like,
Speaker 1: what's what it is? God? What is Who's God? And
Speaker 1: my Mom's like, God is everything, God is the trees,
Speaker 1: God is there. I'm like, okay, so you don't really
Speaker 1: buy it either, like you're kind of like God exactly.
Speaker 1: She wasn't like, oh, well, the God is in heaven
Speaker 1: and does you know gave the commandments and anyhow, it's nebulous.
Speaker 1: It's weird. It's a bush that is on fire and
Speaker 1: continues to be on fire. It's weird. It's it's so weird.
Speaker 1: But so what was that like in the South, Because, um,
Speaker 1: you know, especially if you're like if you're you know,
Speaker 1: practice practicing jew and you've had a Jewish family, I'm
Speaker 1: just so curious And maybe it's a stupid question. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's like there are a million Jews in the South,
Speaker 1: and I'm just I haven't met any of them. There
Speaker 1: are no stupid question. Well, I don't know. I bet
Speaker 1: I could come up with it. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: I could come up with a few stupid questions. But like,
Speaker 1: was that was that weird? Were you ostracized as as
Speaker 1: a as a Jew in um what would be considered
Speaker 1: a very Christian area, Yes, and no. I grew up
Speaker 1: with a thriving, bustling Jewish community. The resurgence of the
Speaker 1: KKK and the American South happened in I think the
Speaker 1: sixties with the lynching of a Jewish man named Leo Frank. So,
Speaker 1: to be fair, it's scary there. My cousin's synagogue, a
Speaker 1: very established synagogue, has at least one bomb threat a week,
Speaker 1: and they just continue because that's the norm. And at
Speaker 1: the same time I did. I grew up with a
Speaker 1: thriving and bustling Jewish community sprawling across Atlanta. See, as
Speaker 1: long as you're inside the perimeter, it's called IP inside
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and OTP is outside the perimeter. Atlanta is
Speaker 1: surrounded by highway and that's called the perimeter. Right once
Speaker 1: you're outside the perimeter, it's Scaryville, USA is outside the perimeter,
Speaker 1: like very rural, is it very country? Some parts? It's
Speaker 1: also like there's areas outside the perimeter that are just fancy,
Speaker 1: rich white town, and then there's also a town that's
Speaker 1: just all country, all acreage, all run down gas stations.
Speaker 1: It's right, once you get outside the perimeter, it's it's
Speaker 1: the eclectic nature of Georgia again, Like you went from
Speaker 1: scary to eclectic, which I think is a real look,
Speaker 1: very very savvay charming depending on what you look like.
Speaker 1: You're like suddenly it could be charming and beautiful depending
Speaker 1: on how much privilege you have, right, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's always interesting because I'm for me like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm a white guy, right, that's I'm a white guy. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like people And this is true because like
Speaker 1: in New York, you know, there's there will be Jewish
Speaker 1: guys that come up to me and are like, do
Speaker 1: you want to dove in with us? Do you want
Speaker 1: to you know, it's like during the holidays, they'll just
Speaker 1: walk up to you and be like, well you're Jewish, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, first off, that's and I'm like that's
Speaker 1: anti Semitic, and yes I am Jewish. Actually both correct
Speaker 1: and defensive. I both resemble and resent that totally. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean I think so I have a
Speaker 1: my bar for you know, when things get scary, it's
Speaker 1: probably different. Right. But so you were inside and you
Speaker 1: were in a community of other Jewish people. Did you
Speaker 1: ever firsthand experience anti Semitism? There was there ever any like?
Speaker 1: Could you feel it? Could you see it? Absolutely? The
Speaker 1: KKK was alive and well outside the perimeter. I would
Speaker 1: travel for rural softball games and you know, pass not
Speaker 1: just Confederate flags, but like blatant Nazism out there. It's
Speaker 1: it's yeah, I guess this. I sound so naive, but
Speaker 1: I you know, grew up in a place where I mean,
Speaker 1: I can tell you in my life I've never don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever been in the same room or on
Speaker 1: the same street with somebody who was like a clan member,
Speaker 1: like as far as I know, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't know, have you you saw people like
Speaker 1: in the road. I didn't grow up on the same
Speaker 1: street as like a clan member, but I did grow
Speaker 1: up on the same neighborhood as a guy who had
Speaker 1: a Confederate flag lanyard and black family that didn't hang
Speaker 1: out with us once they found out we were Jewish
Speaker 1: and not Christian. Oh really, it's a very strange reality
Speaker 1: in Atlanta to get bought insane tolerance and insane just
Speaker 1: like cognitive dissonance. Yeah, that's wild. I mean it is interesting.
Speaker 1: I will say this, like I was talking to somebody,
Speaker 1: a non Jew recently. I was explaining how Jews people
Speaker 1: love Seltzer, and I don't know if this is I
Speaker 1: believe that this is true in my life experience. Everybody
Speaker 1: in my family was like not just like I enjoy
Speaker 1: sparkling water, but like obsessed with Seltzer and and he
Speaker 1: was surprised to hear that this was the thing amongst Jews.
Speaker 1: Are you Are you a Seltzer fan? Was your family
Speaker 1: into Seltzer out of curiosity? Oh yeah yeah big time,
Speaker 1: like soda streams and as well as like favorite brands
Speaker 1: for like when we're too lazy, and then like a
Speaker 1: system for the soda streams to have cool water ready
Speaker 1: to put it. I get the cold water you have.
Speaker 1: But see, it's interesting. That's like one of those things
Speaker 1: that like you can meet a kind of a Jew anywhere,
Speaker 1: and that it's just one of those things that's just like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, the Seltzer thing or whatever. You know, It's
Speaker 1: it's weird because there's so few Jews. It's not like
Speaker 1: there's none of us, but they're actually on the planet.
Speaker 1: Are not very many Jews if you just look at
Speaker 1: the numbers, the raw numbers, and people got wiped out
Speaker 1: and the population just never recovered. Yeah, and it's a
Speaker 1: really really small number. But like I do feel like,
Speaker 1: I mean, you see this, like you know, the ship
Speaker 1: with like Kanye or whatever, and it's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: there's this persistent idea that Jews are like really super
Speaker 1: duper important and that has just like never stopped being
Speaker 1: a thing amongst like a you know, certain people for
Speaker 1: certain people who already are inclined not to like us.
Speaker 1: But but it's funny because it does feel like there's
Speaker 1: these things that are the very cultural and knowable even
Speaker 1: if you're not religious, like like I am like a
Speaker 1: very you know, very atheistic Jew. Like I feel like
Speaker 1: you and I have things that some basis for our
Speaker 1: relationship here that we don't even need to have to establish.
Speaker 1: But I was fascinating when I heard that because I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't think I know a single Jew
Speaker 1: from the South. I think that's you. Maybe the first
Speaker 1: Jew from the South that I'm I'm getting to know,
Speaker 1: which seems weird, but I don't know, it does, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: In classic Jewish fashion? My uncle is the guy who
Speaker 1: ran the Kansas City JCC when it got shut up.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, during the Obama administration. That's crazy. So like classics,
Speaker 1: small world? Yeah, whose especially you know in that sort
Speaker 1: of zone of what feels to be claimed, Yeah by
Speaker 1: a different religion. How long have you been acting? When
Speaker 1: did you start? You were young, fresh out the womb.
Speaker 1: I decided that I wanted to be Dorothy from the
Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz and decided that everyone in my family
Speaker 1: was just in this with me. They were just so
Speaker 1: long for the ride. They were just along for the ride.
Speaker 1: And you couldn't call me anything but Dorothy. Really. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how young were you? I was too? Oh wow, I
Speaker 1: was too. And that lasted for like a year and
Speaker 1: a half or something ridiculous like that. I truly I
Speaker 1: saw the Wizard of Oz, I decided I was Dorothy,
Speaker 1: and everybody else had to deal with that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I completely understand that I have a daughter named Zelda.
Speaker 1: I love that name. Thank you. She's been obsessed with
Speaker 1: Annie since I mean my wife and I showed it
Speaker 1: to her when she was two probably or three or something,
Speaker 1: and just basically he's been obsessed with it. And now
Speaker 1: as like a theater kid is like, yeah, does all
Speaker 1: these musicals and is into things that I never thought
Speaker 1: I would I would learn about, Like are you familiar
Speaker 1: with the franchise the Zombies, Franchi? I am now official,
Speaker 1: I have nieces and nephews. I love it so like,
Speaker 1: not only do I know all the songs from Annie
Speaker 1: and like the Matilda musical and oh my god, I
Speaker 1: love the Matilda musical. Oh my god, so it's so good,
Speaker 1: so insane and uh and just all this like like
Speaker 1: Wicked and whatever. But then also now because they basically
Speaker 1: was like, oh yeah, kids love musicals, so we should
Speaker 1: just make those zombies incredible. I've learned so much about
Speaker 1: the zombie universe thanks to her. But there's something some people,
Speaker 1: I am the parent of one, something just clicks in
Speaker 1: a way that is like overwhelming. Did you feel that way,
Speaker 1: like like obviously when you were a little kid, it's
Speaker 1: like hard to gauge, but like you kept doing it right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: my parents figured that in the long run, just starting
Speaker 1: to put me in acting classes and camps might be
Speaker 1: cheaper than therapy. It wasn't, because I still needed therapy.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I don't know if that's those
Speaker 1: are no equivalent. It didn't work. They just spent more money,
Speaker 1: and now I'm trying to make money off of it, right, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: and you've done it. You're making money off you're in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're in a ton of stuff. But maybe there was
Speaker 1: never a question. But was there a moment for you
Speaker 1: where you're like, Okay, I can make this like a life.
Speaker 1: Well I'd I'd done you know, camps and stuff and
Speaker 1: absolutely loved it. But I was a jock and I
Speaker 1: thought I was going to be doing softball. And then
Speaker 1: there was this sort of casting call thing, an ad
Speaker 1: for It was like, here, come for a free audition
Speaker 1: for Adrian Armante and Phil Lewis from Disney Channel to
Speaker 1: teach you if you have any interest in learning how
Speaker 1: to be like them, and my brain, not knowing that
Speaker 1: auditions are always supposed to be free, went oh, free,
Speaker 1: let's do that. Like what a deal, right? What a steel?
Speaker 1: I got me? I'm sold? And so we went and
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's no cost to the us, and they
Speaker 1: were like, well, if if we like you and your audition,
Speaker 1: then you got to pay us to train you. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that makes more sense. But at that point we just
Speaker 1: we did our little auditions and Phil Lewis pulled my
Speaker 1: parents to the side and said, don't let this kid
Speaker 1: skip school, but also don't let this kid stop doing this.
Speaker 1: And that was sort of the first time that for
Speaker 1: any of us we were like, we're are you for real?
Speaker 1: No shit? Okay? Yeah, And even then I was still
Speaker 1: kind of not taking it completely seriously, even during this
Speaker 1: training process, until Giovanni Samuel's of Disney Channel of Fame.
Speaker 1: We were goofing off in her class and she kind
Speaker 1: of snapped us to reality and read us the Riot Act.
Speaker 1: It was like, people are paying money for you to
Speaker 1: do this, and you have a chance to make a
Speaker 1: return on that as long as you don't keep dicking around. Right.
Speaker 1: I heard it, I listened, and she kind of brought
Speaker 1: me back to brought me to reality, a reality I
Speaker 1: had never sort of considered. And then from there it
Speaker 1: was sort of that moment of like, I mean, still
Speaker 1: a maybe, but worth the trying sort of thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, listen, I know there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who do lots of fearless things, but I
Speaker 1: am like kind of in awe of the capability of
Speaker 1: someone with your talent to be able to inhabit a role,
Speaker 1: even if it's very serious, or if it can be
Speaker 1: very kind of fun and silly or whatever. Just like
Speaker 1: that ability too. I feel like I'm I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm a very self conscious person exactly, but I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a certain level of I don't know, my
Speaker 1: brain would prevent me from letting go completely. And I think,
Speaker 1: I don't know what is that. Is there a moment
Speaker 1: where you are able to just inhabit this other space
Speaker 1: where you're not thinking about who you are and what
Speaker 1: people are thinking and how that could be perceived, and
Speaker 1: you're just in that thing or is it like, how
Speaker 1: do you get there? I think I spent my whole
Speaker 1: life sort of trying to figure out how to respond
Speaker 1: to every situation the way that other people did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sort of you know, neurodivergent masking thing or a divergent seeing, copying, adapting,
Speaker 1: and imitating. And I think that I just seemed to
Speaker 1: have figured out a way to use it for good
Speaker 1: because I'm always slightly aware of how I'm coming across,
Speaker 1: because when I was a kid, I couldn't always come across.
Speaker 1: I couldn't always express what I was feeling and trying
Speaker 1: to express unless I took somebody else's words or facial
Speaker 1: expressions to convey it, and then people would understand it better. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's really interesting, And so I think that I found
Speaker 1: the magic of infusing what I was feeling with what
Speaker 1: other people could comprehend could read. Right. Well, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1: You have ADHD, Is that correct? Yeah? I also have that.
Speaker 1: So I'm always a big fan. And you said you're
Speaker 1: a divergent, but it's anything else fall for you into
Speaker 1: that bucket. Well, see, here's the thing. Apparently my parents
Speaker 1: recently told me that back in the day, back when
Speaker 1: I was getting diagnosed with everything I was getting diagnosed
Speaker 1: with when I was a kid assigned female at birth
Speaker 1: didn't get diagnosed autism spectrum quite as much. And purportedly
Speaker 1: my mother was told when giving me the diagnosis, you
Speaker 1: have to choose between autism spectrum or ADHD. Your child
Speaker 1: falls squarely into both categories. Oh, it cannot be both,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. This comes with this set of challenges. This
Speaker 1: diagnosis come extra challenges, right you Wow, choose one and
Speaker 1: we didn't know anything at the time. I was like, yeah, seven,
Speaker 1: there's something like this. This is way before everything. So
Speaker 1: here I am on the other side. My mom is
Speaker 1: doing more and more work in autism spectrum spaces and realizing,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, becks where do you lie? Where exactly
Speaker 1: on the spectrum do you lie? And I'm like, I
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've spent so long learning how to
Speaker 1: do what I do and how I present to the world.
Speaker 1: Now I don't know if anyone could diagnose me. Is
Speaker 1: anything other than a chaos Gramlin is fine in time?
Speaker 1: A chaos Gramlin. I don't know if that's an actual diagnosis,
Speaker 1: is it not? In the DSM five, I'm waiting for
Speaker 1: the six. Am I hearing a lot about the chaos
Speaker 1: Grablin diagnosis out there or any treatments for it, but
Speaker 1: it sounds fun. No treatments terminal? Well, I know of
Speaker 1: both chaos and gramlins. Is like, that's a recipe for
Speaker 1: a good time, or at least a mixture of good
Speaker 1: times and bad times, but probably not a lot in
Speaker 1: between definitely an eclectic time. It's so interesting to hear about,
Speaker 1: like how much that diagnosis matters. Now. When I was
Speaker 1: a kid and I got diagnosed, they put me on
Speaker 1: a ton of drugs, and I was immediately like fight,
Speaker 1: we're talking about zombies. But I was like, oh zombie.
Speaker 1: Like I was like a oh yeah. Like I suddenly
Speaker 1: became so good at like being in school, you know,
Speaker 1: but like my personality was like zeroed out. I never
Speaker 1: got there. No, you were never good in school. No.
Speaker 1: I was on so many different drug cocktails. We finally
Speaker 1: we finally found one that worked for me for a
Speaker 1: long time, but I had I was on so many
Speaker 1: of the little drug cocktails, but they all made me
Speaker 1: so emotionally unstable, yeah, that it wasn't worth me getting
Speaker 1: my homework done on time, right, So we had to
Speaker 1: find different ones. No, eventually we stopped. I mean eventually
Speaker 1: we stopped because it was like so extreme and later
Speaker 1: in life, I was like, oh, like this is speed,
Speaker 1: Like okay, this is what being on speed is. Like
Speaker 1: I understand now that's actually yeah, a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I mean the generation before me, they self medicated with
Speaker 1: cocaine to get their homework done. In college. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: So it's interesting that the diagnosis, like what you're saying
Speaker 1: about your parents had to make this choice or you
Speaker 1: had to kind of you know, be one or the other,
Speaker 1: but not both because like probably at that point you
Speaker 1: were seven or something. That was back when they were
Speaker 1: still using the out of date term of Asperger's, which
Speaker 1: was coined by like a Nazi, So like it was
Speaker 1: back in the day when we're still learning about autism
Speaker 1: spectrum disorder, we're still making strides. This was way before that, right, No,
Speaker 1: it's like just the fact that a doctor would have
Speaker 1: been like, well, choose one. It's like, you know, roll
Speaker 1: the dice. It could be a little of this, a
Speaker 1: little of that, but you got to pick a side.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting to see how much I diagnosis
Speaker 1: can just blow up your whole existence, like getting the
Speaker 1: wrong the wrong medication, the wrong therapy, the wrong truth.
Speaker 1: And for many I definitely do have ADHD, and I
Speaker 1: feel like that doesn't preclude me from having autism spectrum.
Speaker 1: And a lot of responses now is like, well, you
Speaker 1: interact so well, you make eye contact, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: those are not the only really, yeah, this is not
Speaker 1: the only thing I mean, it's funny because like it
Speaker 1: is a spectrum, like it is like not one or
Speaker 1: the other, right name, Yeah, it's right there, it's right there. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're a kid, you have ADHD, you are on
Speaker 1: the spectrum most likely. Okay, you're gay, right, but I
Speaker 1: know when did you come out like definitely confused and
Speaker 1: queer and like I was just a gender nonconforming kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand why I had to wear a different
Speaker 1: bathing suit than all the boys on the street that
Speaker 1: I grew up with. Well, it doesn't make a lot
Speaker 1: of fucking sense. Actually, if you'd ask any kid our
Speaker 1: daughter at that point, our bodies still looked the same. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's from that point up, like it's a little insane actually,
Speaker 1: Like especially like I've experienced this because I'm a dude, right,
Speaker 1: so I went through life just being a dude and
Speaker 1: not thinking too much about it. Having a daughter and
Speaker 1: going like oh yeah, well of course, she's like, how
Speaker 1: come I can't just why do the girls get these
Speaker 1: weird suits and boys are just wearing shorts or whatever.
Speaker 1: Adults are the ones going like there's a difference, but
Speaker 1: to them it doesn't fucking matter, And they would never
Speaker 1: even think of it, you know, yeah, exactly. So okay,
Speaker 1: so you're a kid, you're feeling use the word confused, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just my reality was confusion for a lot
Speaker 1: of things and a lot of reasons. I was confused
Speaker 1: by what was happening inside my brain was happening outside
Speaker 1: my body. I was also gluten free, not until I
Speaker 1: turned ten, and it was heavily affecting my neurology. My
Speaker 1: entire body, like my eyesight started tripling for the worse
Speaker 1: within like a month when I was in when I
Speaker 1: was nine. Oh wow, my body was I would break things.
Speaker 1: I would break my wrists just falling off a bed
Speaker 1: or at the back of a couch. I broke my
Speaker 1: foot walking and we couldn't figure out what was wrong
Speaker 1: with my body. And also medicine wasn't really was only
Speaker 1: doing half the trick. My brain was still like everything
Speaker 1: felt foggy, everything felt awful, and I always felt angry
Speaker 1: and confused. Yeah, and it wasn't until a couple of
Speaker 1: months off gluten that I started to clear up. It
Speaker 1: had that big of an impact. Oh big time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're you must have a pretty severe I mean,
Speaker 1: it must be pretty severe your reaction to it, Like
Speaker 1: I got gluten the other day and I've just been
Speaker 1: fatigued and cranky and my body's cramping. It's just not fun. Jesus,
Speaker 1: it sucked. That's crazy. That's crazy. So so okay, So
Speaker 1: a ten you get diagnosed with that, At what point
Speaker 1: do you actually say, all right, you know what, instead
Speaker 1: of being confused or instead of kind of like pushing
Speaker 1: against this or trying to work with like what other
Speaker 1: people are telling you, what point are you like, Okay,
Speaker 1: here's what I need to do? Like, was there a
Speaker 1: moment for you? I feel like there's a moment for everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, at least I remember a moment for myself
Speaker 1: where I was like, okay, I have autonomy to sort
Speaker 1: of like say what I want. Do you remember a
Speaker 1: moment like that for you? I remember several times trying
Speaker 1: and for various reasons being shot down. Really and so
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I was in my twenties. Oh wow, really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You say shot down? How like shot down like by
Speaker 1: adults and stuff like shot down by friends, by adults
Speaker 1: with the best intentions. I didn't really have, you know,
Speaker 1: friends outside of family, friends and family until I was
Speaker 1: in junior high, and that was also when I started
Speaker 1: sort of vocalizing that I felt queer. Yeah, and very
Speaker 1: well meaning people in my life, including lesbian guidance counselor,
Speaker 1: told me not to risk my first friend group. Huh
Speaker 1: by coming out seem like a good guidance. Yeah. That
Speaker 1: generation all they knew was pain, right, that generation of queer,
Speaker 1: that generation of gay, all they knew was pain and
Speaker 1: heartbreak and rejection. So I understand why her life experience
Speaker 1: made her say that. Yeah, and it still fucked me up. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: I mean you're like, hey, I feel like I need
Speaker 1: to be this person, especially having a queer adult telling
Speaker 1: you your queerness is going to make people reject you. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's um. I get what you're saying about like sort
Speaker 1: of best intentions or the where they were coming from,
Speaker 1: but the effect is still the same. Yeah they still Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's heavy. I mean that's really heavy. Like I
Speaker 1: look at social media and I look at the TikTok,
Speaker 1: which is like excus so young, and it's like, I
Speaker 1: want to believe that things are really different now, you
Speaker 1: know that, Like that advice wouldn't be given. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously not every place is like this, right, not every
Speaker 1: I mean for the South is probably a good example
Speaker 1: of places where you're not gonna get Maybe you're gonna
Speaker 1: get great advice if you're queer and you wanted to
Speaker 1: like figure out what you do right, like how you
Speaker 1: kind of become who you need to be. And there
Speaker 1: was also that of like the awareness that I lived
Speaker 1: in the South, regardless of how accepting my immediate circle was,
Speaker 1: I had a unique awareness. Then then I was in danger. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I traveled outside of the perimeter for softball games,
Speaker 1: and there was one softball game where one girl got
Speaker 1: suspended from the game for threatening to hit me in
Speaker 1: the head with a bat. I was the catcher. Yikes,
Speaker 1: made a joke swinging at my head, and the umpire
Speaker 1: immediately called time. Was like, this is you can't do that. God.
Speaker 1: And I'll never know if it was because I was
Speaker 1: gay or like collockably queer looking, or if it's because
Speaker 1: I was like identifiably Jewish, or she just had a problem,
Speaker 1: like a competitive problem, right, or if I was like
Speaker 1: a specific target. I'll never know, and I don't really
Speaker 1: want to It could have been all of those things.
Speaker 1: You can't rule out that it was a combination, but
Speaker 1: I can't I can't separate the fact that that that
Speaker 1: same game started with them praying for God to grant
Speaker 1: them the ability to accept defeat and not get angry
Speaker 1: if they don't win. And I got uncomfortable at that immediately.
Speaker 1: I'm like, if if, if you have to ask a
Speaker 1: higher power to keep you from beating up someone else,
Speaker 1: you're not a good person. Yeah, that's crazy. No, that's
Speaker 1: so interesting. I mean to think about, like, God, I
Speaker 1: hope I can handle being defeated at a sporting event
Speaker 1: or whatever. God, I hope you let me handle losing
Speaker 1: at a sporting event. Yea, not even God, I hope
Speaker 1: I can handle it. God, I hope you allow me
Speaker 1: to handle it like full on hands off of their
Speaker 1: own responsibility. No, this is it's so funny because we
Speaker 1: were talking about like the Jewish sort of and I'm
Speaker 1: not comparing religions, but there is like that feeling of
Speaker 1: when I was raised that like it was all on me,
Speaker 1: Like it always felt like it was on me to
Speaker 1: deal with my shit, and that there was not no
Speaker 1: one was going to help. And if I asked anybody,
Speaker 1: like I'm like, well, well, God intervene people are like, now,
Speaker 1: God doesn't do that. That's not our thing. We have
Speaker 1: this whole holiday where it's like you weigh your sins
Speaker 1: and your mistakes and your successes for the year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's you weigh that and you rectify it, not God. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like kind of crazy to think about wild to
Speaker 1: think about somebody putting any of that responsibility on somebody else.
Speaker 1: But maybe that's maybe that's why it's so easy to
Speaker 1: be cruel, right, Like if it's someone else is judging,
Speaker 1: or there's some responsibility that you can pass off to
Speaker 1: somebody else, then like being shitty to other people becomes like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's easy to be callous because you are
Speaker 1: kind of like, well, you know, it's not in my hands.
Speaker 1: There's something so comforting about blanket forgiveness, right, No, I
Speaker 1: mean the idea that you can be like I'm terrible,
Speaker 1: but God forgives, Like you know what, I'm saved. God
Speaker 1: is like, well, I I murdered a few people, but
Speaker 1: I did repent, So see, I killed someone, but this
Speaker 1: dude died several centuries ago, so I'm chill with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like honestly, I get it. Like here, say it out loud,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like, oh, yeah, that's a good deal,
Speaker 1: Like let me be a part of a thing really
Speaker 1: really fucked up. But I am going to talk to
Speaker 1: God about this, and I'm gonna get straight with my Lord,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be all good. Okay. So look, so
Speaker 1: actually this brings me to something I want to talk about,
Speaker 1: which is, like, you know, we are living in some
Speaker 1: dark fucking times, right, Like yeah, especially if you're queer,
Speaker 1: especially if you're a neuro DII virgin. An entire political
Speaker 1: party here it seems geared towards truly like violent policy, right,
Speaker 1: And I would imagine like you feel that probably more
Speaker 1: acutely than I do, because again, like I walk out
Speaker 1: the door and I'm just like a white dude strolling
Speaker 1: down the street, but admittedly visibly Jewish. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's on a full break for me. But you know,
Speaker 1: like se off the hook, where do you find joy?
Speaker 1: Where do you find some sanity away from all that?
Speaker 1: Like it just seems like a dark time. I'm curious.
Speaker 1: It's a very dark time, and it's a very important question.
Speaker 1: Like I have my Sunday kickball in the park with
Speaker 1: just a whole bunch of queer people having fun. That
Speaker 1: helps a lot. I am creating things with queer people
Speaker 1: whom I love and respect, and that brings joy there.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a Bengo for Alzheimer's tonight at Hamburger Mary's,
Speaker 1: and I'm scared. Yeah, I'm scared that some lunatic could
Speaker 1: be deciding tonight's the night to shoot up right the
Speaker 1: place with all the all the people who are full
Speaker 1: of love and light. And it's scary, and I'm doing
Speaker 1: it anyway because it feels important, because it feels like
Speaker 1: something worth putting my safety at risk. Or you mentioned kickball,
Speaker 1: and you talked about softball before sports obviously, but games
Speaker 1: in general. You mentioned a bunch of times here, like
Speaker 1: are you a gamer? Video games? Tabletop role playing games? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're into role playing games very much, yes, tabletop tabletop?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, what is your game? What are your games?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm one of those. I'm a basic bitch.
Speaker 1: I'm super into Dungeons and Dragons right now. I know,
Speaker 1: we've got like Pathfinder and Quest and there's this really
Speaker 1: cool kickstarter I was part of for this game called
Speaker 1: Hidden Niles, and like all these different platforms and everything,
Speaker 1: but I I do find myself going back to five,
Speaker 1: especially because I think it's a Volka's it's this new
Speaker 1: addendum for five that's got witches and a mandrake race
Speaker 1: that's sort of like an n and it matches perfectly
Speaker 1: into this Fairytown campaign I've been doing with some of
Speaker 1: my favorite people. So I'm like, I've sucked back in.
Speaker 1: I love this. I actually I especially love it because
Speaker 1: I just bought the starter set for me and my
Speaker 1: daughter and we have these these friends who lived down
Speaker 1: the street when I was a kid. I haven't played
Speaker 1: in a long time, but when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: back in the old days when everything was in black
Speaker 1: and white, I played a D and D, which there
Speaker 1: used to be two. I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you know this, but there used to be two versions,
Speaker 1: and I like, oh wow. I talked about this down
Speaker 1: people are like, oh yeah, they did away with that.
Speaker 1: But there was D and D, which was like, okay,
Speaker 1: that's for like lightweights. And then there was a D
Speaker 1: and D Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which apparently they now
Speaker 1: took all of the advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and that's
Speaker 1: like what became like the regular Dungeons and Dragons at
Speaker 1: least that's my understanding. Yeah, but I bought the starter
Speaker 1: kid for me and Zelda and our friend Frank and
Speaker 1: his son Alistair, and I was like, we got to play,
Speaker 1: and I'm so excited to get started. I wish why
Speaker 1: didn't I talk about D and D earlier, because like,
Speaker 1: it's so it's so interesting to like here, okay, bring
Speaker 1: bade no, no, for sure, I mean actually yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that would be great because I need it, like
Speaker 1: once I re learn how to play, like, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's such a great escape. And so that's what's
Speaker 1: so interesting. Like you were talking about these kind of
Speaker 1: like joyful things that you're doing, and I love that
Speaker 1: you went to games as a place because I think,
Speaker 1: you know, because look, sports, at their very core, it's
Speaker 1: a game, right, and then when they're they're their best,
Speaker 1: it's like you're playing literally. I know, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's for money or it's to win or whatever, but
Speaker 1: the people who do it best are doing it because
Speaker 1: they love to do it, and it is like you're
Speaker 1: you are playing a game, and that's like I think
Speaker 1: that's such an interesting place to go because actually, during
Speaker 1: the pandemic and a lot of times when I'm reading
Speaker 1: the news and I get completely depressed and feel like hopeless.
Speaker 1: My retreat is into game universe is usually video games.
Speaker 1: One of my things has been if I can find
Speaker 1: a world that's worse than the one that we're in
Speaker 1: right now, that's always like like the last of us.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, this is uh. I respect that I
Speaker 1: have a friend who's very much the same. We had
Speaker 1: a we had a campaign that we were doing during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, and it was very much the same for
Speaker 1: all of our players. They were looking for a world
Speaker 1: that was worse than the one we were currently living in,
Speaker 1: and I was just in the opposite boat. I needed
Speaker 1: something better, right, something that is uplifted, not like yeah, listen,
Speaker 1: I could talk about gaming forever. Yeah. It's the opposite
Speaker 1: of like the social media thing, right, Like social media
Speaker 1: is like you're getting like in most cases or reading
Speaker 1: the news, it's like you're getting full reality. And gaming
Speaker 1: is like in terms of game, tabletop or collaborative story,
Speaker 1: like you're going away from reality into something else. I mean,
Speaker 1: he is acting like that for you, Like you build
Speaker 1: a character in D and D. Are you building a
Speaker 1: character like that? When you're when you're in something, when
Speaker 1: you're when you're taking on a roll. Yeah. And the
Speaker 1: best part of both D and D and acting is
Speaker 1: that it's just reacting truthfully to imaginary circumstance, right, And
Speaker 1: in D and D more so than anything, it's it's
Speaker 1: imaginary circumstance, but it's it's really good practice and reminder
Speaker 1: for acting that it's just that, right, it's just how
Speaker 1: is this character that I've built and that I understand,
Speaker 1: how is this character reacting to this wacky situation that
Speaker 1: we find ourselves in? Right? What is your character like
Speaker 1: in DND Not to go back to it, but I'm curious,
Speaker 1: can you tell me a little bit about it? So
Speaker 1: the character I am most obsessed with right now is um.
Speaker 1: There's actually a race for him now that exists. In
Speaker 1: the newest addendum, we sort of just built our own
Speaker 1: version of an end from Lord of the Rings, but
Speaker 1: with extra lore, where it's like in our universe, trees
Speaker 1: from ages fifteen to two hundred go on what we
Speaker 1: call a walk about where they figure out where they
Speaker 1: want to put down their roots, and then after they
Speaker 1: turn two hundred, they start their grove, and then they
Speaker 1: have their roots for the rest of reality? Is this
Speaker 1: your lore? This is our Yeah, we made this lure up. Yeah. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's actually okay, you're going that deep. Oh yeah, we're
Speaker 1: going super deep with it. We're building a whole world here.
Speaker 1: And so Volka's addendum has a race called Mandrake. So
Speaker 1: we're just combining our created race and all our lore
Speaker 1: from that into the Mandrake. Wow, and using those stats
Speaker 1: and things. It's really a tree. The tree is a
Speaker 1: tree named alder. Wow. I mean that's kind of beautiful.
Speaker 1: I mean it's kind of amazing. Are you playing with
Speaker 1: other actors? Are you playing? Tell me about like, who's
Speaker 1: in the party, this particular party. Let's see. I think
Speaker 1: all of us are some sort of creative except for
Speaker 1: one of us is like a researcher at a media company.
Speaker 1: We're all in various states of the industry. I mean,
Speaker 1: we all live here, so we're all in various right,
Speaker 1: we're parts of the industry, but we do have to
Speaker 1: be part of the entertainment industry. Yeah, but we get
Speaker 1: together to not be part of the entertainment industry for
Speaker 1: a night and to just kind of goof around in fairytown. Right, God,
Speaker 1: that sounds amazing. I'm sorry, Like I'm so jealous right
Speaker 1: now just thinking about having a regular any kind of
Speaker 1: regular game going like that, because I mean, actually when
Speaker 1: I when I'm playing video games, I'm doing is very solitary,
Speaker 1: Like most of the time, I'm not a big like
Speaker 1: I'm not a Fortnite person, Like, do you play games
Speaker 1: like that? I play like Hades. Assassin's Creed is so good.
Speaker 1: Hades is like the first roguelike that I actually stick
Speaker 1: with and return to really so good. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I was full on playing Hades
Speaker 1: before I got on this. You were like, can we
Speaker 1: push thirty minutes? And I was like, perfect, I got there.
Speaker 1: I get crushed at Haities. I'm like, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know where I am. I definitely have played it
Speaker 1: multiple times, and I get to a point where I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can't keep going. It's just like I'm getting first
Speaker 1: Escape from the Realm was it Escape Attempt twenty nine?
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I was like, I think I might
Speaker 1: have found a game that I'm good at. I have
Speaker 1: played hundreds of games and like over and over again,
Speaker 1: just brutally just kind of torturing myself in a way
Speaker 1: and yet I'm not a person who's ever historically gotten
Speaker 1: good at video games, Like I don't consider myself a
Speaker 1: good video gamer. Like I don't like I have friends
Speaker 1: who are like I'm I can like, you know, kill
Speaker 1: shot you from wherever. I'm like, okay, cool, Like getting
Speaker 1: good at a game has never been appealing to me. Good, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. So I think of a healthy relationship, say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe, and this is just like maybe
Speaker 1: a philosophical thing about like being killed and then getting
Speaker 1: better from it. Maybe there is a life lesson here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it's kind of you know, what doesn't kill
Speaker 1: you make you stronger? Though in these games you definitely
Speaker 1: get killed pretty does kill you makes you stronger? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Something like that? Is there for you? A role that
Speaker 1: is a fantasy, either one that exists out there that
Speaker 1: you want to play, that you'd love to play, or
Speaker 1: is there something that you'd like to create. I'm just curious,
Speaker 1: like because you seem so creative, Like I feel like
Speaker 1: this conversation, the whole time we've been talking, I feel
Speaker 1: like there's so many moments of you. There's like a
Speaker 1: spark of like originality where you're just like like in
Speaker 1: on things. I'm like, oh wow, okay, I didn't I
Speaker 1: would never have thought of that or whatever. So is
Speaker 1: there a role for you, like you really want to
Speaker 1: play it because it exists out there, or one that
Speaker 1: you would like to create for yourself. I know it's
Speaker 1: been done a million times, but I want to do
Speaker 1: Peter Pan. But you know where the twist is. Peter
Speaker 1: Pan is the angel of death for children who are
Speaker 1: gone before their time. Oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1: First off, first off, hold on number one. You know,
Speaker 1: would you be Peter? Are you playing Peter? Okay? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Okay for starters. For starters, I think super good casting
Speaker 1: in my opinion. And this is like I'm not look,
Speaker 1: I'm not a film producer or anything, but or TV producer,
Speaker 1: but totally sick cast anybody pay. But also I know
Speaker 1: Peter Pan well because Zelda did a musical version of
Speaker 1: Peter Pan. I'm very intimately familiar with the story now
Speaker 1: I've seen multiple version of it. She actually obsessively watches
Speaker 1: like other people doing Peter Pan productions on YouTube, Like
Speaker 1: that idea is both so disturbing but also so great.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that that I don't know that
Speaker 1: that's a thing. I don't know if that's a thing
Speaker 1: or not, but it definitely like because Peter Pan's whole
Speaker 1: deal is like pretty fucking weird. Like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like unusual stuff happening with Peter Pan. That doesn't
Speaker 1: you're not totally like okay, this is normal. It's highly suspicious.
Speaker 1: So where does Tinkerbell fit into this? Like is Tinkerbell
Speaker 1: like the the cleaner or like, I mean, why why
Speaker 1: is Peter Pan killing the children? Do we know Peter
Speaker 1: Pan's not killing the children? Peter Pan's harvesting the children. Oh, harvesting.
Speaker 1: I hate to say harvesting, but yeah, Pan is is
Speaker 1: you know, like the angel of Death taking the children
Speaker 1: who die before their time. Oh I see, I could
Speaker 1: be something as dark as like the Darling's killing their
Speaker 1: children or something as simple as like a ghast like
Speaker 1: killing the children. But like the kids want to go
Speaker 1: home and the twist is that they cannot. So Neverland
Speaker 1: is actually like uh wimbo or right right, right, wow, dude,
Speaker 1: I think you need to make this. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how, but I will. I just gotta
Speaker 1: wait till it's public domain. So when is that? How
Speaker 1: long is that. I don't know. It's so expensive, is
Speaker 1: it not? Is it not public domain? I think it is.
Speaker 1: It's got to be. Winnie the Pooh just hit public domain.
Speaker 1: Wiz there, it has to be some There's so many
Speaker 1: derivative works that are made from Peter Pan, Like there
Speaker 1: are hook once Disney gets their hooks and no pen
Speaker 1: intended once Disney gets their hooks and things. It's true. Oh,
Speaker 1: they are making a new Peter Pan thing, aren't they.
Speaker 1: There's any one coming out? Okay, wow, weird interesting time
Speaker 1: stamping this episode so they can't steal it from us? Yeah,
Speaker 1: here is this is actually like you can. This is
Speaker 1: like trademark this, this is now out there in public.
Speaker 1: You've put Disney call me you put a one in
Speaker 1: the same. I think that's a amazing idea. But also
Speaker 1: the idea of just doing it dark like that, just
Speaker 1: doing it more like goth I think is really really good.
Speaker 1: All Right, we have to wrap up. Unfortunately, God, this
Speaker 1: has been such an interesting conversation and we went to
Speaker 1: so many places I did not expect to go, which
Speaker 1: I really like. Oh one more just because we're ending
Speaker 1: on Peter Pan. Yeah, I'm gonna just throw it out
Speaker 1: there a really great drag name for someone who has
Speaker 1: bladder issues is Peter Pants. It took me a second,
Speaker 1: like I was like, I don't get it, and then
Speaker 1: like in the middle of going I don't get it,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, that's fucking I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I think you've got something. Hey, maybe listen, have you
Speaker 1: considered maybe that's the character. It's not Peter Pan's death.
Speaker 1: You might be able to skirt the whole copyright issue
Speaker 1: or whatever by being like, no, you don't understand. This
Speaker 1: is not Peter Pan. This is Peter Pan. Peter Pants.
Speaker 1: That's a whole different it's a whole different thing. You
Speaker 1: have to come up with some fun names for Wendy
Speaker 1: and the rest of the kids. That was thank you
Speaker 1: for that. I needed that. No, that's Peter Pants. It's
Speaker 1: very good. Okay, I think that's fantastic. Well, listen, you
Speaker 1: gotta come back. We gotta let me. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: back into role to role playing. Then you gotta come back,
Speaker 1: and we gotta get into like we have like a
Speaker 1: whole RPG episode we should play. We should do an
Speaker 1: episode where we just get a party together and play
Speaker 1: so much fun. I would love that. Oh my gosh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you got me fired up. Now I'm so fired up
Speaker 1: to go and actually start playing again. I gotta get
Speaker 1: out to convinced because she you know, at the moment
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to pull her away from like
Speaker 1: musical theater and go. No, let's imagine a world of fantasy.
Speaker 1: We could do a musical theater fantasy. Oh no, that's
Speaker 1: that's the dream, isn't it? For her? That was really fun. Well,
Speaker 1: she could play a bard easily. Her character could have
Speaker 1: to sing everything. One of my favorite Bard spells is
Speaker 1: vicious mockery. Will you just make an insult that hurts
Speaker 1: so much it actually does physical damage? Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And like a Bard's magic can be done through spells,
Speaker 1: through music, through like poetry, through the ukulele, through singing,
Speaker 1: so she could absolutely sing all her spells. You have
Speaker 1: just given me a great convincing argument to actually get
Speaker 1: the set out, because I do think she would love it.
Speaker 1: But that's such a good way to get into it
Speaker 1: because I could be gosh, you could play Oops All
Speaker 1: Bards where it's just like a girl band, a girl
Speaker 1: all Bards, Oops All Bards be very dramatic, very dramatic, campaign,
Speaker 1: very dramatic party right there. Wow, I love this this show.
Speaker 1: I've got so many good ideas now, this is amazing.
Speaker 1: It's one of the blessings and the curses of ADHD. Truly,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm always having great ideas, but my
Speaker 1: execution levels are like lacking. Yeah, very lacking. Yep. Bet
Speaker 1: this has been so good and interesting, and I gotta
Speaker 1: say this last part here where just guided into fucking
Speaker 1: game conversation and crazy ideas, has been you know, I
Speaker 1: see it on the cake and I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: doing it, so thank you, my pleasure. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for having me. This was a blast. Well there
Speaker 1: you have it. So obviously we have to follow up
Speaker 1: with a full RPG, either episode or frankly into full campaign,
Speaker 1: which will either be recorded or not. But I'm excited.
Speaker 1: This has gotten me very excited about getting back into
Speaker 1: role playing. I can finally develop a character for myself
Speaker 1: that is everything that I hoped I would be as
Speaker 1: a as an adult and ended up not being. So
Speaker 1: that's really excited. I get to to feel what it's
Speaker 1: like to be happy, and I'm looking forward to that
Speaker 1: and fulfilled. Anyhow, that is our show for this week.
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week with more what future, and
Speaker 1: as always, I wish you and your family the very best.