Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Nerdificent. I am Danny Fernandez, and
Speaker 1: today we are tackling costplay. Yeah, cosplay is that a
Speaker 1: thing we're always going to do? Her? Did I force that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if we'll actually ever
Speaker 1: get it at the same time, but cosplay something iffy
Speaker 1: that you and I know quite a bit about because
Speaker 1: our friends also do it. Oh yeah, we have Hello
Speaker 1: cosplay friends. It's pretty great. Yeah. So, for those of
Speaker 1: you that don't know, cosplay is actually just the two
Speaker 1: words costume and play, and it is a hobby. Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't say this. This is the definition. It says
Speaker 1: it's a hobby, but I bet most of my friends
Speaker 1: would take issue in that. It's it's a lifestyle. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a lifestyle. So for those of you that don't know,
Speaker 1: it's basically where participants, known as couse players, they dress
Speaker 1: up in costume to represent a specific character, so that
Speaker 1: character can be from a video game, from manga, anime, cartoon,
Speaker 1: basically anything like that. And we want to preface that
Speaker 1: it's so much more than just dressing up for Halloween
Speaker 1: or Marty Gras or whatever. It's not just having themed
Speaker 1: clothing necessarily or just wearing it for a holiday. It
Speaker 1: stems from a subculture of role playing. And actually I'd
Speaker 1: say it's less like dressing up for Halloween and more
Speaker 1: like wearing your favorite jersey for a sport. It's more
Speaker 1: to support the culture that you're a part of and
Speaker 1: less to dress up differently for fun, even though that
Speaker 1: is an element of it. That is an element of it.
Speaker 1: But I would say that cause players normally they take
Speaker 1: a lot of pride, so they normally make their own
Speaker 1: costumes as well as they actually embody the character. So
Speaker 1: these are people that grew up with these characters or
Speaker 1: they worship these characters. They know them really well, and
Speaker 1: they normally try and have their mannerisms down, their catchphrases,
Speaker 1: to sound like them and look like them as much
Speaker 1: as possible. So I will say that it is like
Speaker 1: if he was saying more of a lifestyle than just like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna dress up for Halloween. Yeah, totally. It is
Speaker 1: the highest form of I feel complimenting or imitation. Imitation yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it almost is like it comes from the idea of
Speaker 1: thinking a character is so cool, You're like, I want
Speaker 1: to be that character, and for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: You get to be that character for a day, and
Speaker 1: it's not only cool for the person wearing the costume
Speaker 1: or the cosplay. It's also cool for people to see
Speaker 1: these characters come to life with great cosplay. It's just
Speaker 1: fun all around. Yeah, it's like fully immersing yourself in
Speaker 1: that character. And if he and I actually we do
Speaker 1: know a lot of professional Cause players, which we will
Speaker 1: get into. Yes, there is professional causeplay, but one of them,
Speaker 1: just off the top of my head. If you remember
Speaker 1: our friend, he lives the lifestyle of future Trunks from
Speaker 1: Dragon Mozy. So this is a man. Yes, this is
Speaker 1: a man who not only dresses like him, but has
Speaker 1: made his word work out so that his body looks
Speaker 1: like him. He has dyed his hair so that he
Speaker 1: looks like him, and tries to live the lifestyle of
Speaker 1: this character. So, like if he was saying, you're trying
Speaker 1: to be as much as his character as possible. Now,
Speaker 1: that's not everyone. Sometimes people will just Cause plays something
Speaker 1: for a day at Comic conn or something like that,
Speaker 1: but again they're trying to make it as close to
Speaker 1: the character as possible most of the time. Definitely, And
Speaker 1: I feel like we're going to have such a fun
Speaker 1: deep dive into that because on this episode, uh, we'll
Speaker 1: have our first guest professional costplayer, Stella Che. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be interviewing her on the second half of this episode
Speaker 1: is probably gonna be the meat of the episode because
Speaker 1: we're going to get the information right from the genius's mouth.
Speaker 1: I'll say, I didn't want to call her a horse.
Speaker 1: I don't know if she would appreciate, although it's possible
Speaker 1: she may have dressed up like that very So let's
Speaker 1: let's deep dive. Let's do this is the deep dive.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're di dive. What is cosplay?
Speaker 1: What is cosplay? So, like we said, it is essentially
Speaker 1: the words costume and play, and it is where you
Speaker 1: are embodying this character with not only a costume, but mannerisms,
Speaker 1: body language. And it can be anything from a movie,
Speaker 1: TV series, book, comic book, video game, music, band, anime,
Speaker 1: or manga. Yeah, there's also a ton of mashups. So
Speaker 1: I've seen at comic Con myself. I've seen like Stormtrooper,
Speaker 1: Disney Princess. Have you seen that. What's cool about these
Speaker 1: mashups is they become legends, like the hip hop Stormtroopers, yes,
Speaker 1: they walk around. They have Adida's out Stormtrooper outfits, just
Speaker 1: the whole run dmc dally, and they do it every
Speaker 1: year and you become I feel like, just to take
Speaker 1: a step back and talk about professional cost play, there's
Speaker 1: two types of professional cost players. You have the professional
Speaker 1: cost players who are known for a cost playing multiple
Speaker 1: people like Stella Chu and Yah Yahan and those folks.
Speaker 1: Then you have like professional cost players that are known
Speaker 1: for one king character because it looks so much like them.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, outfit is just like like the hip hop Stormtroopers.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much all they do. And a Deep Pity
Speaker 1: who does Deadpool and he does all the comedy videos
Speaker 1: and he like embodies Deadpool. Everyone loves them, you know.
Speaker 1: And my friend Julian who is Future Trunks Future Trunks,
Speaker 1: So someone's gonna branch out. But I've only seen sometimes
Speaker 1: when they look so much like that character. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say it's easier, but they just embody that
Speaker 1: character so much. And so then what happens, and we'll
Speaker 1: get into this as well, is that they end up
Speaker 1: getting asked to be at these cons for that specific
Speaker 1: character because they look so much like them that they
Speaker 1: then make appearances, and they get paid to make appearances
Speaker 1: and beyond panels and be in sketches and representing this character.
Speaker 1: Um so iffy, Do you want to talk about the
Speaker 1: first ever cause plan? Yes? Yes, yes. So. One thing
Speaker 1: that's cool is I feel like women are trailblazers and
Speaker 1: a lot of fields, especially nerdy ones, like, for example,
Speaker 1: a woman was the first person to create science fiction.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny that there's this flip now where
Speaker 1: women are underrepresented in a lot of nerd groups. But
Speaker 1: the first cosplay ever was at the first World Science
Speaker 1: Fiction Convention in New York in nineteen thirty nine. A
Speaker 1: twenty two year old forced Jay Ackerman and his friend
Speaker 1: Myrtle are Jones appeared, And that is such we need
Speaker 1: that back, and I feel like we might have talked
Speaker 1: about the science fiction convention back when we first talked
Speaker 1: about convintions. Yeah, so, murder R Jones and Vorg j
Speaker 1: Ackerman appeared in their first San Francisco costumes among a
Speaker 1: hundred eighty five attendees. The future editor of the famous
Speaker 1: Monsters of Film Filmland was dressed as a rugged looking
Speaker 1: star pilot and his female companion was adorned in a
Speaker 1: gown recreated from the classic nineteen thirty three film Things
Speaker 1: to Come. Both of them created quite a stir among
Speaker 1: the somber gathering of writers, artists, and finn plural of fan.
Speaker 1: I guess they're trying to say finn is plural a
Speaker 1: fan even though people say fans. I don't. I don't.
Speaker 1: This might be a breakthrough that we just found about.
Speaker 1: But basically, what it seems like is they were like
Speaker 1: one of the only people who dressed up since everyone
Speaker 1: was kind of blown away, you know, Oh, okay, I see,
Speaker 1: But still would you consider this causeplay? It sounds like
Speaker 1: they just essentially dressed up. They were the only people
Speaker 1: that were dressed for the con essentially where now everybody
Speaker 1: is cause playing at cons. Well, I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they this was the This isn't the first group cosplay,
Speaker 1: but I feel like this is the first evidence of
Speaker 1: someone being like, I'm a dress up like these people,
Speaker 1: especially since they came, especially since Myrtle came specifically from
Speaker 1: the film Things to Come. It seems like our Man's
Speaker 1: force Jay Ackerman was just a rugged looking star pilot
Speaker 1: so and it seems like Myrtle was the one who
Speaker 1: was like, no, there is a specific thing. I'm cosplaying
Speaker 1: as I'm gonna give Myrtle the crown a rugged pilot.
Speaker 1: It sounds like someone that rhymes with fawn Colo. Don't
Speaker 1: edit that out. Okay, So that's in the States. But
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the first cosplay in Japan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And a very important reason we should talk about that
Speaker 1: is because the term cosplay was coined by someone in Japan,
Speaker 1: by Nobuyuki Takahashi of the Japanese studio Studio Hard while
Speaker 1: attending the Los Angeles Science Fiction World Cars. So he
Speaker 1: was impressed by the hall and costume fans and reported
Speaker 1: on both in the Japanese science fiction magazines. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: he reported back in Japan in the science fiction magazines
Speaker 1: and called it cosplay. And right before that, in ninety eight,
Speaker 1: we had a young woman portraying to Zuko Sawmos character
Speaker 1: Umino Trotan or Triton of the Sea. And again that
Speaker 1: was back in ninety A lot of people think that
Speaker 1: this took place at the comic market, but it actually
Speaker 1: took place at Ashi Con, which was another science fiction convention.
Speaker 1: So then the growth of cosplay also continued in Japan.
Speaker 1: In the ninety nineties, we saw cosplay cafes that started
Speaker 1: to pop up in Tokyo, which is normally seen as
Speaker 1: like it's called the Otaku center. If you do you
Speaker 1: want to tell people what otaku is, it's a general
Speaker 1: Japanese term for people with obsessive interest, even though it's
Speaker 1: more commonly used for anime fans. So otaku's I feel
Speaker 1: like it's not derogatorially used, but it's pretty much used
Speaker 1: for huge fans of anime, and web is the derogatory
Speaker 1: for bo for fans of anime, we bou is the
Speaker 1: ones that are It's a derogatory term for people that
Speaker 1: are obsessed with like Japanese culture and anime um. You
Speaker 1: think of people that have fetishes essentially, or people over
Speaker 1: here that like their level of anime love is borderline
Speaker 1: and appropriate. If you do you want to comment, basically
Speaker 1: is where you kind of go over the line and
Speaker 1: you almost obsessed about if it's your culture, fetishize Japanese women,
Speaker 1: I'd say fetish Japanese culture, and it's just this whole
Speaker 1: cool thing that you automatically assume you know more than
Speaker 1: anyone about. It's kind of a tricky line, but I
Speaker 1: feel like you would know, like if you met someone
Speaker 1: like that's otaku that just like they love it and
Speaker 1: appreciate it, as opposed to someone that fetishizes it, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. But not to be confused with we blow,
Speaker 1: which is the boy Scouts. We be loyal Scouts. Have
Speaker 1: you not heard that? If you know, okay, my brother
Speaker 1: was a wee blow and bow. If you could be
Speaker 1: both of those things, you could be a boy scout
Speaker 1: that I bet there are tons of boy Scouts that
Speaker 1: fetishized Japanese culture. So yes, Cosplay cafes were essentially themed
Speaker 1: cafes where servers were dressed in costumes um for example,
Speaker 1: like Made cafes where servers were dressed as maids and
Speaker 1: would serve customers like Made would. So yeah, so that
Speaker 1: was very popular in the ninety nineties, and then cause
Speaker 1: place slowly started with the increase in comic conventions, we
Speaker 1: saw more people coming out that would dress up and
Speaker 1: really take on this lifestyle of cause play. Sorry, I've
Speaker 1: really went into a deep dive of because we because
Speaker 1: I'm trying to see what the word comes from. But
Speaker 1: it seems like it just is a coined word, like
Speaker 1: a we a bow is just a coined where there's
Speaker 1: no real meaning of it. And then there was this
Speaker 1: like whole interesting crunchy roll forum post that was like
Speaker 1: the difference between otaku and a we a bow, and
Speaker 1: they basically said otaku basically means by its American definition,
Speaker 1: the Japanese one is drastically different and an insult there
Speaker 1: that someone is obsessed with manga, anime, Japanese video games.
Speaker 1: They often collect many versions of Japanese video games, manga,
Speaker 1: and anime. Many people like myself probably put this label
Speaker 1: on themselves. However, the other word we abo has been
Speaker 1: around it as long and isn't used as much as otaku.
Speaker 1: We Abo is basically just in a taku is taking
Speaker 1: their passion into something more drastic. Basically, they start replacing
Speaker 1: English words such as cat and cute let go in kawaii.
Speaker 1: They will use these words almost all the time online
Speaker 1: and offline and abuse them. Also, they curse how they
Speaker 1: aren't Japanese and don't dare touch stuff as American video
Speaker 1: games and watch any American media. We abow is an
Speaker 1: insult because of this. A brief desh venition is this
Speaker 1: picture and it's just stolen picture from now your man.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's someone who doesn't understand that it's
Speaker 1: also not their culture, because I've had to deal with weaves,
Speaker 1: that's what they're called, weaves who argue about anime as
Speaker 1: if it's like I don't know how to put it
Speaker 1: where they crap on certain things, and it's like that's
Speaker 1: not yours to decide. Who gets to enjoy this, Like
Speaker 1: you're kind of borrowing it. At least that's how I
Speaker 1: feel about it, And people will probably write us and
Speaker 1: argue about it, because when we talked about this on
Speaker 1: our other podcast, which was an anime one, we had
Speaker 1: people that would write us and be upset. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's like, that's not from your culture. Like, so just
Speaker 1: remember that you get to enjoy it and borrow it.
Speaker 1: You don't get to tell people what's wrong or they're
Speaker 1: not allowed to enjoy it. Yeah, you don't get to
Speaker 1: gate keep something. You don't get to gate keep, thank you.
Speaker 1: That's the word I was looking for. You don't get
Speaker 1: to gate keep something that comes from a culture that's
Speaker 1: not yours and or correct people from that culture. Because
Speaker 1: that's also what we'd see a lot as well, is
Speaker 1: weaves would correct Japanese people about their own culture or
Speaker 1: how it was represented in anime, and I know some
Speaker 1: of our friends that our Japanese would have an issue
Speaker 1: with that. So going back to this, going back to causplay, No,
Speaker 1: I think there it's important. I did want to say so.
Speaker 1: Pablo bay Ran, he's the president of Cosplay dot pH.
Speaker 1: Uh So he created this website, so Cosplay dot pH
Speaker 1: he started in two thousand and six and it was
Speaker 1: essentially a website where Cause players could go and check
Speaker 1: the schedules of convention so that they could be up.
Speaker 1: So this was in the Philippines. He said. In the
Speaker 1: early days of cosplay, the movement was kind of like
Speaker 1: they were treated like zoo animals. That's literally his quote.
Speaker 1: He said before cosplay was more of a side event
Speaker 1: in comic and toy conventions. During that time, they were
Speaker 1: sort of a side show. So usually Cause players are
Speaker 1: stuck in a small space like mascots, but we're treated
Speaker 1: a little worse because we were like zoo animals. So
Speaker 1: I don't think they were as appreciated or respected the
Speaker 1: way they are now, where people are literally lining up
Speaker 1: and pain sometimes to take pictures with them. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: always I feel like the drama that comes with being
Speaker 1: the first of something even within our lifetimes. I remember
Speaker 1: cosplay wasn't as cool as it is now, Like it
Speaker 1: always like, oh man, like these people dressing up and
Speaker 1: you know, if you were in the culture, it was good.
Speaker 1: But I feel like at this point, cosplay is generally
Speaker 1: understood to the mainstream. I remember one of the first
Speaker 1: Long Beach City comic cons, people would be out what
Speaker 1: people are, like, what's going on? What? What? What is this?
Speaker 1: And last time we went, it seemed like the general
Speaker 1: city of Long Beach was pre in it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, but I still think my classmates
Speaker 1: from Frisco High School in Dallas, Texas, if I was
Speaker 1: a professional cause player, which they do. Dallas has professional
Speaker 1: cause players. But I'm just thinking of like my specific town. Um,
Speaker 1: I think they would think it was weird. I still
Speaker 1: think that a lot of suburban like people that maybe
Speaker 1: or maybe even that aren't in major cities, which Frisco
Speaker 1: is now. Please don't write me, I know that, but
Speaker 1: I still feel like if you're an adult that dresses
Speaker 1: up every weekend, I feel like you're still going to
Speaker 1: be treated like you're weird, just not an our group.
Speaker 1: We're really lucky because we live in this nerd bubble
Speaker 1: essentially where we get to go to cons all the
Speaker 1: time and this is a regular thing. But I do
Speaker 1: feel like there are probably people in other areas and
Speaker 1: or rural areas where if you dressed up every weekend,
Speaker 1: you would be seen as weird. So oh flee. That changes, though,
Speaker 1: because people should be allowed to let their freak flag fly.
Speaker 1: Not saying that this is a freak thing, but I mean,
Speaker 1: if you some of the cause play which we're going
Speaker 1: to get into, is a little freaky, though, And the
Speaker 1: debate of whether it should be allowed to is one
Speaker 1: of my favorites because I do feel like cousplay is sexy.
Speaker 1: It can't be very sexy. You're you're often caused playing
Speaker 1: video game girls or something like that that have major
Speaker 1: you know, cleavage, not as much close I respected. I
Speaker 1: respect you got to show the goods. If you got
Speaker 1: the goods, show them. But there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: debate of you know, a lot of these cons have
Speaker 1: young kids, and sometimes a cause play can be b
Speaker 1: d s m ish um. I think that's fair to say,
Speaker 1: and so how much should be allowed is a conversation
Speaker 1: that we're actually going to be having with Stella. Right
Speaker 1: after the break, Welcome back to Nottificent. We are here
Speaker 1: joined with professional cause player Stella Chew. Thanks for coming on. Hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going? Yeah? So, I think before the break
Speaker 1: we were talking about sex and cause play, which we're
Speaker 1: going to get into, um, but still I wanted to
Speaker 1: know how did you first get started? UM. So, I've
Speaker 1: been cost playing for um probably like seven or eight
Speaker 1: years now, doing it like seriously because prior to that,
Speaker 1: putting on a Halloween costume kind of called class playing.
Speaker 1: But after I graduated from college, I started to teach
Speaker 1: myself how to make my own costumes and um, traveling
Speaker 1: to a bunch of different conventions, and I think I've
Speaker 1: been doing it like actually professionally for the last three
Speaker 1: to four years. Day. It's crazy because it kind of
Speaker 1: happened like out of nowhere. There wasn't like just one
Speaker 1: day in which somebody was like, now you're a rail
Speaker 1: profession quit your job, right. It's just like kind of
Speaker 1: happened over time slowly. I knew people standing for you
Speaker 1: at least two or three years before I'm at you,
Speaker 1: because I my my ex was real into like yeah
Speaker 1: yahan and then so I would go on those like
Speaker 1: cosplay deep dives and I found you, so you know
Speaker 1: you were you were like the underground king. You know
Speaker 1: you g K before the rise to professional man. Thanks.
Speaker 1: So as far as like your suits, because you make everything,
Speaker 1: you make your car and you also stream it a
Speaker 1: lot of the times, like live so people can watch
Speaker 1: you making your cosplay. How much of that sewing and
Speaker 1: talent and like stuff did you already have or did
Speaker 1: you pick up? And how long does it take? Um?
Speaker 1: So I went to school for like fine arts, like
Speaker 1: graphic design, like drawing on the computer, but that did
Speaker 1: not prepare me like at all where cosplaying because cosling
Speaker 1: is all about working with your hands and like working
Speaker 1: materials you've never heard of before, working with like really
Speaker 1: cheap material because no one's gonna want to work with
Speaker 1: like metal and wood. Instead you want to work with
Speaker 1: like ava, foam and like fabrics and stuff. Um. And
Speaker 1: so all of this is I stuff I taught myself,
Speaker 1: and I've learned kind of with the community because we
Speaker 1: all learned from each other. Like everyone figured out how
Speaker 1: to paint armor the right way together at the exact
Speaker 1: same time. Everyone started using war blood at the same time.
Speaker 1: It's all skills I've developed over time. And I wish that,
Speaker 1: like I could have gone to a school or had
Speaker 1: some kind of like sense a they like come to
Speaker 1: teach me on how to do all this stuff, because
Speaker 1: I probably would have like saved a ton of money.
Speaker 1: I have like fifty dollars in student loan. So now
Speaker 1: I don't know if you need to go to school.
Speaker 1: You didn't, your boys skipped that. Your boy was like, yo,
Speaker 1: this comedy thing. There's no degree for that. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just drop out. And it worked out fine for me.
Speaker 1: But you know, for the listeners who may not know,
Speaker 1: because this is a nerdy deep dive for everyone. So
Speaker 1: we'd like to fill in everyone. What is av a
Speaker 1: foam and war blood? Because I know about war Blow
Speaker 1: Like when I was like, you know, confident and thought
Speaker 1: I could get into a cosplay like war Blow was king,
Speaker 1: And now it's all about av a phone. It's it's
Speaker 1: still about war blood though, um, so let's talk about
Speaker 1: some like materials. War Blaw is this material that was
Speaker 1: and I want to say developed in Germany and like
Speaker 1: it's being sold out of Germany and it's a like
Speaker 1: thermal plastic. And when I say thermoplastic. It's basically just
Speaker 1: a sheet of plastic that you can heat up with
Speaker 1: like a hair dryer or a heat gun or even
Speaker 1: in your oven, and you can shape it into, you know,
Speaker 1: the way you want it to look. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of like sheet clay. So imagine you're a little Plato
Speaker 1: that you have at home, but instead it's it's in
Speaker 1: cheat form and you can shape it however you want,
Speaker 1: and when it cools, you have an epic set of armor.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't take much technical know how, which is
Speaker 1: fantastic for a lot of people who are just jumping
Speaker 1: into it, and the like curve to like learn how
Speaker 1: to use it is like it's so simple, it's so easy,
Speaker 1: and once you get good at it, you get real
Speaker 1: good at it, like super good. People have been making
Speaker 1: the coolest looking things that will just blow your mind.
Speaker 1: You're like, what that's made out of a thermoplastic? I
Speaker 1: thought that was like real metal or something. Oh totally,
Speaker 1: because in my head, when I started deep diving, my
Speaker 1: idea of what war Blow was was, I thought they
Speaker 1: were just shapes you would buy with the material. And
Speaker 1: then when I went and looked it up and I
Speaker 1: was like Oh, it's just a sheet and I have
Speaker 1: to shape. But oh, I'm a just nope out because
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll be good at it. But you're
Speaker 1: saying it's easy. It's pretty easy. I feel like if
Speaker 1: somebody just like sat down with you for like twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: you'd like get it right away, versus like, you know,
Speaker 1: spending five years as a metal spitting of systant and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Um. And then the other thing I
Speaker 1: talked about was ava foam. So ava foam is children's
Speaker 1: floor mats that you find in kindergarten. Letters on it.
Speaker 1: You can paint that, you can shape it and it'll
Speaker 1: look like really cool armor. Like I want to think
Speaker 1: that some teacher like at KinderCare like figured that, you know,
Speaker 1: and like they're off weekend or something. Was like putting
Speaker 1: together their cause play for Comic Con. They're like, let
Speaker 1: me just borrow this from my classroom. Hey, they have
Speaker 1: all the arts and crafts, they're yeah, well, actually it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Like most of the things I work with is like
Speaker 1: crap kids, Yeah yeah, glitter Google like faux fur. So
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy. What the difference between I guess, like
Speaker 1: a cause player and like an actual costume designers. Like
Speaker 1: costume designers use materials are really traditional and like someone
Speaker 1: who started working in the film industry a hundred years
Speaker 1: ago like taught you how to do this and stuff,
Speaker 1: whereas cosse players are like I'm fourteen and I watch
Speaker 1: YouTube and I guess I'm just gonna like work with
Speaker 1: what I found at Michael's and what my mom has
Speaker 1: in her sewing kit. But those I think looks so cool.
Speaker 1: I love when people do low cost cause play, which
Speaker 1: is kind of like just putting together something with stuff
Speaker 1: that they had around their house, and I just think
Speaker 1: it's so creative. I love it. It's awesome because you know,
Speaker 1: we're presented with these like problems that we have absolutely
Speaker 1: no idea what the solution is going to be, Like
Speaker 1: we don't have a plastics factory that we can go
Speaker 1: and buy all that. Instead, I have to like cut
Speaker 1: open a bottle of water and then use like the
Speaker 1: lid and like the end and then like that becomes
Speaker 1: part of my gun and spray painting it and stuff.
Speaker 1: So it becomes super creative and you start like really
Speaker 1: be able to understand like how to dissect something to like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can take this thing that's over here, and then
Speaker 1: I'll take this thing that's over here and I'll glue
Speaker 1: it together and it'll turn into something really cool. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's why at a professional level though, Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that a little bit. So you know,
Speaker 1: before you at the professional level, you're doing it for
Speaker 1: just the fun of it, to go to con and
Speaker 1: show off your cool, you know, cosplay. How's the pressure
Speaker 1: of now having an expectation set for you to have
Speaker 1: maybe even the best costplay? Does it? Does it make
Speaker 1: it harder? Doesn't make it? Does it take anything out
Speaker 1: of it from you? I'd say, like back in the
Speaker 1: day when I first started, was when the like rat
Speaker 1: race of like online social media, like becoming famous having
Speaker 1: the most amount of fans, like that was starting. Because
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, two thousand ten was right when like
Speaker 1: Instagram came out, like Facebook had just added pages, and
Speaker 1: like Twitter was already pretty big, and like YouTube is
Speaker 1: already pretty big, and so there's all this potential and
Speaker 1: everyone knew that, like the more likes you had, the
Speaker 1: more potential you had. And actually even people thought that
Speaker 1: the more likes you have, the more money you got,
Speaker 1: Like they still think that, they still think that like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you have like twenty followers, you must
Speaker 1: make millions. I'm like what they say that, give that
Speaker 1: to me, It'll be like you l a writers and
Speaker 1: your mansions, not at all. So how do you feel
Speaker 1: cosplay has changed from when you were just starting out
Speaker 1: as a humble, young crab bright eyed cosplayer to like now,
Speaker 1: because not only has cosplay changed, but even the convention
Speaker 1: going experience has grown in all that time. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: changed so much. I'd say it's changed in over three stages.
Speaker 1: So the first stage was everyone go to conventions, get
Speaker 1: as many goddamn photos as you can, and then post
Speaker 1: them as quickly as you can to the internet, no
Speaker 1: matter if it's a good picture or a bad picture,
Speaker 1: and you'll get like, you'll get follows, kids, you'll become famous.
Speaker 1: And then the second stage, um was, Okay, you're getting
Speaker 1: hired by companies, and companies are are putting you at
Speaker 1: their booths to represent their brand, and like, um, maybe
Speaker 1: you're becoming a for media influencer. And then like the
Speaker 1: third stage that we are at right now is um,
Speaker 1: the money has run dry from these companies because everyone's
Speaker 1: a social media influencer. But with the advent of things
Speaker 1: like Patreon in other ways to monetize, we've actually taken
Speaker 1: control of our own path and not relying on these
Speaker 1: like companies or bigger people to write our future for us. Instead,
Speaker 1: we're getting stuff directly from the fans and figuring out
Speaker 1: what content that we want to make for ourselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the whole after the break, I want to go
Speaker 1: deep into Patreon and that's a whole fun subject. But
Speaker 1: for right now, when was the first time you were
Speaker 1: approached by a company and what was that like as
Speaker 1: a costplayer? Um? Wow, okay, let me see if I
Speaker 1: can remember. Yeah, we gotta go down memory lane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't remember maybe the first time I was approached
Speaker 1: by company, but I do remember the first time I
Speaker 1: was invited to a convention, and I had to play
Speaker 1: it real cool and be like, oh, yes, I've done
Speaker 1: this before. Uh so, yeah, I had no experience, you know,
Speaker 1: being a guest at con like booting at a on
Speaker 1: and um traveling internationally even it was in the same year,
Speaker 1: it was too conventions. So one convention was in UM
Speaker 1: Houston called Anna Matsuri and they had invited me, and
Speaker 1: then another convention in um Chile, in South America. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like they like fly you out for it. Oh yeah, everything,
Speaker 1: Like they put me up in the really nice hotel
Speaker 1: that was really like it wasn't like one of those
Speaker 1: five star hotels. It was like one of those boutique
Speaker 1: hotels where like everything is it's almost like a better
Speaker 1: breakfast but also a hotel. So that was really nice.
Speaker 1: And they took me to like this beachside town and
Speaker 1: like hung out with all these other cost players and
Speaker 1: took a photo on the beach with all these beautiful rocks,
Speaker 1: and I was like, what is going on in my life?
Speaker 1: I'm like traveling internationally like by myself, dressed in cosplay
Speaker 1: like my life now. So that was super awesome. And
Speaker 1: then like you know, Anniama Matsuri. I have been there
Speaker 1: for the last like five years, like going every single year, um,
Speaker 1: being their guests there. It's been super awesome and they've
Speaker 1: been so great to me, and they've really kind of
Speaker 1: followed me throughout my career. Um, so it's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like crazy. Now I'm here like going to conventions like
Speaker 1: almost twice a month at least. Yeah, flying all over
Speaker 1: the world. How many suits and stuff do you think
Speaker 1: that you have made. You could guess I wish I
Speaker 1: took a picture of taking apart and use them for
Speaker 1: other things. Are want to suit is complete? What do
Speaker 1: you do with it? Man? So I used to live
Speaker 1: in New York City in a five squarefoot apartment, and
Speaker 1: so I could not keep the costumes that I built,
Speaker 1: and so I had to sell some of them, throw
Speaker 1: some of them away. I would probably I've only ever
Speaker 1: repurposed costumes maybe like a handful of times, but usually
Speaker 1: I just like straight up like put them in a
Speaker 1: box and if I know where for like two years,
Speaker 1: and I will say, Okay, it's time for me to
Speaker 1: divorce you. I'll sell you off or I'll throw you away. Um.
Speaker 1: I actually this morning, UM put up my Generos cosplay
Speaker 1: from One Punch. Man. I know, I'm sorry, I know
Speaker 1: you like. Um, So, I how much is it going for? Well,
Speaker 1: it's just the armor pieces, so I had to like.
Speaker 1: So it's a character called Genos and he is a
Speaker 1: bionic boy. Both of his arms are bionic, and so
Speaker 1: I had built the armor for that and I had
Speaker 1: a wig and everything. But I haven't warned him at
Speaker 1: all in two years. And I figured, like, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna like that's your time. Yeah, I put it up
Speaker 1: on my store and be today. We'll see if anyone
Speaker 1: wants it. But I mean I am really tiny's and
Speaker 1: he's a boy, so I the only other person who
Speaker 1: could wear this is a tiny girl, just like a
Speaker 1: small child. Small child, they could they could put a
Speaker 1: ten year old boy in it. That's fine. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it is the industry at this point, and there's other
Speaker 1: cost players. You know, you've got big dogs. The one
Speaker 1: that we keep saying because that's the one that stuck
Speaker 1: in my head is like, yeah, yeah, han, Like that's
Speaker 1: like I think probably one of the top known cost players.
Speaker 1: What is that like is it competitive or is it
Speaker 1: more collaborative? So back in the day, it was very
Speaker 1: collaborative because we all did not know what we were doing.
Speaker 1: It was like, um, is this a business or are
Speaker 1: we just like here having fun? Like we can't quite
Speaker 1: our day jobs. We're not making any money. But also
Speaker 1: I'm really petty and like catty because this is a
Speaker 1: bunch of girls who are very narcissistic, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're all fighting for numbers and the numbers game. So
Speaker 1: like that was the environment. It was like we were
Speaker 1: all friends, but we're also like very competitive, but like
Speaker 1: we also collaborated, you know, like we're very professional with
Speaker 1: each other. There wasn't a lot of drama in terms
Speaker 1: of like the overarching like groundbreaking everyone divorcing from each
Speaker 1: other type of drama. It was more like just like,
Speaker 1: well she said that, and then I said that, and
Speaker 1: then like there was what if someone dressed what if
Speaker 1: you guys dress up at the same thing? To never
Speaker 1: seemed to be a problem, but because the Internet is
Speaker 1: full of idiots, it was their problem. Like it would compare,
Speaker 1: you feel like, and then I'd be like, and then
Speaker 1: it's a competition to see what you mean, Like, it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter to me if I like look like
Speaker 1: somebody or if they look like me, or if my
Speaker 1: costoms better their costoms better, like that, I don't care
Speaker 1: about that. What I care about is the respect of
Speaker 1: my peers. And if my peers think that what I
Speaker 1: did was wrong, then I will feel like I did
Speaker 1: something wrong. But the general audience is like me, then
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't care. You're not the people I'm
Speaker 1: trying to impress. I'm trying to impress like my peers
Speaker 1: who I respect and are also talented and would actually
Speaker 1: make me feel like I don't belong in this community
Speaker 1: if I actually did something terribly wrong. Well, that's actually
Speaker 1: a good time to like segue into like, yeah, the
Speaker 1: audience versus the cost player and the things, because Cosplay
Speaker 1: has been in a weird roller coaster because you know,
Speaker 1: Cosplay can be like Genos this like badass, kick ass guy,
Speaker 1: but and no fault of the cost player. It's really
Speaker 1: just the men who draw women this way an anime,
Speaker 1: it can be very sexy. So then you have these
Speaker 1: weird rules that con set up in like how much
Speaker 1: you can show or how much you can and then
Speaker 1: like the flip of like you know dudes who are
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna be the schoolgirl and be scantily clad
Speaker 1: because you know for low Yeah yeah, but like I
Speaker 1: feel like sometimes the dudes who do that get away
Speaker 1: with doing that, and then if a female is wearing
Speaker 1: the same outfit, it's like it's against rules. So how
Speaker 1: do you feel about all of that? I think that
Speaker 1: the situations you're talking about are like not as common
Speaker 1: because like when there's like somebody not dressed appropriately, like
Speaker 1: the con will like tell them to please stop. And
Speaker 1: when there are people dressed inappropriately inappropriate? Well okay, so
Speaker 1: at a con Okay, So the things that I consider inappropriate,
Speaker 1: um are things that it's really contextual for me, because
Speaker 1: it's like I wouldn't wear this in front of like
Speaker 1: families and stuff like that's not fair to them. Um,
Speaker 1: They're at an event that's public, regardless of it's a
Speaker 1: family event, like or if it's like an adult event
Speaker 1: like Dragon Con is for adults to get drunk at.
Speaker 1: When I see a five year old kid there, I'm like,
Speaker 1: why what your parents are probably getting drunk into that
Speaker 1: right now. So, but like San Diego Comic Con very
Speaker 1: family friendly, but like I'm just like, okay, then don't
Speaker 1: wear you know, a thong outdoors, Like in no context
Speaker 1: would it be okay to wear a thong outdoors in
Speaker 1: your bedroom taking photos? Like for Patreon, Totally fine to
Speaker 1: do that, right, Like if it's cannon to like a
Speaker 1: specific character, hell yeah, totally to do that. I've totally done,
Speaker 1: like scantily Cloud costumes, Like every month I do scantily
Speaker 1: Cloud Costumes page that people can find on Stella's patreo. So,
Speaker 1: but like it's all about context and about like I
Speaker 1: don't understand why people even have to argue about it
Speaker 1: in a way, because to me, it just makes sense. Okay,
Speaker 1: you do not cross the line, right, you do not
Speaker 1: wear something that is like very obviously not for the art,
Speaker 1: it's like very obviously for the sexual attention or slash lulls.
Speaker 1: Like it's it's just people just need to learn to differentiate.
Speaker 1: But for the people who can't differentiate, let's just write
Speaker 1: that down a little bit. Yeah, it's okay to wear
Speaker 1: what you would wear to a beach, But if you're
Speaker 1: just wearing a bikini at a convention in which people
Speaker 1: who are attending are wearing a full outfit of clothes,
Speaker 1: and you're probably not being appropriate because like that's not
Speaker 1: an appropriate situation to where But if like everyone at
Speaker 1: the con was all about wearing the bikini, such as
Speaker 1: Colossal Con, which is in Ohio, which I'm going to
Speaker 1: this Year's such a great con, so like we call
Speaker 1: it bikini Con because it's at a water park and
Speaker 1: everyone makes a bikini version of of a character. Um,
Speaker 1: But if you're wearing that at like Anime Expo in
Speaker 1: the middle of like the Anime Expo hall, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like you're in a convention center that is indoors.
Speaker 1: There's no context in which like a bikini would make
Speaker 1: sense and stuff like that. And then when people just
Speaker 1: like wear joke costumes for the lulls that are like
Speaker 1: very inappropriate for people to see. Then they told me
Speaker 1: one that someone like didn't have anything covering their ass. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when I was seventeen years old going o decon,
Speaker 1: I saw this woman wearing this costume where it was
Speaker 1: basically a piece of craft foam, like really crappy craft
Speaker 1: foam that you can buy at like a craft store
Speaker 1: glued to her crotch, no underwear, and then like two
Speaker 1: pieces of craft room glued to her nipples so as pasties.
Speaker 1: And then she was wearing a cape and she had
Speaker 1: a hat on and a wig, but that was all
Speaker 1: she had on, so she didn't have any hear, who
Speaker 1: are she supposed to be waiting for? Maybe enough information?
Speaker 1: And then I have no idea of what even reference
Speaker 1: it is like, but her maybe it was a girl
Speaker 1: if you get her own character. But what you were
Speaker 1: telling me is like if her cape blue, you would
Speaker 1: see the back of her maybe and also part of
Speaker 1: her front. Uh. And we were discussing before this, like
Speaker 1: you know if that were a dude around young children, yeah,
Speaker 1: it'd be so yeah yeah, So like it's all about
Speaker 1: I guess these people aren't just getting like not saying
Speaker 1: that it's not for a woman. I want to say that.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying the way that society views it is
Speaker 1: that society would be harsher on the man for having
Speaker 1: his growth and women are beautiful. It's like, there's okay,
Speaker 1: so there's just too many situations in which not enough
Speaker 1: people are asserting the rules, and then there's too like
Speaker 1: many situations in which the opposite is happening. So it's
Speaker 1: like we see all these extremes. Were like Cosplayer gets
Speaker 1: banned from con for wearing like like something that shows
Speaker 1: her underbut but then like Cosplayer doesn't get banned for
Speaker 1: just wearing pasties two trucks. You know, it's like there's
Speaker 1: there's not like a centralized list of rules because not
Speaker 1: everyone has this same kind of frame guiding them, right,
Speaker 1: and not every con is in the same place, like
Speaker 1: not every like you were saying, you know, some of
Speaker 1: them are more adult oriented, um and have a lot
Speaker 1: of drinking happening, and like where some cons where body
Speaker 1: painting is totally fine. And then some cons were like
Speaker 1: being nude is totally fine. It just depends what kind
Speaker 1: is that. Well they're not they're not anime cons, but
Speaker 1: they are Okay, okay, talk after but like you're saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems like it's just the time the place. Understand
Speaker 1: the context because you know, some cons you want to
Speaker 1: keep a family family, and some it's cool and on
Speaker 1: the Patreon yeah, Well, the thing is like I'm a
Speaker 1: person who follows the rules, and like when there are
Speaker 1: no rules in place, then I will do what I want, right,
Speaker 1: and so I never want to offend anyone I don't
Speaker 1: want to, Like, I follow societal rules and I follow
Speaker 1: actual rules, right, so I won't wear something super ultrasexual
Speaker 1: to a con. If it's in appropriate, I will do
Speaker 1: it behind doors. But I would certainly post that photo
Speaker 1: online where it's appropriate, right for for the people who
Speaker 1: are you know, of appropriate agency, and if a kid
Speaker 1: sees it, like not my fault, the parents didn't um,
Speaker 1: So yeah, for Patreon, Like that's what Patreon has kind
Speaker 1: of created, this place in which people can be lud
Speaker 1: and do badour and do whatever their interpretation of their careers,
Speaker 1: and like this is a place where like sex cells,
Speaker 1: like you can finally feel comfortable doing the thing that
Speaker 1: you want to do for like expressing your sexuality, and
Speaker 1: like being able to make money from costplain characters that
Speaker 1: would otherwise be not okay to a costplay in real
Speaker 1: life because you know, anime and video games are very
Speaker 1: Have you seen the new costume for Ivy Valentine from
Speaker 1: Soul Caliber. Those pieces are basically glued onto her, So
Speaker 1: it's just and people want to be accurate. So that's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. That's that's what I'm saying. That's the
Speaker 1: beauty of Patre. You can finally see these and we'll
Speaker 1: get like deep in the Patreon and ludes and that's
Speaker 1: all about. I'll talk right after that break and we're
Speaker 1: back here with stell It. You as always your boy
Speaker 1: if you and Ryan across from him, I'm Danny Fernandez.
Speaker 1: So we were talking about ludes. Do you want to
Speaker 1: tell people what those are? So ludes is the new
Speaker 1: Internet term for like sexy photos and doing things like
Speaker 1: really sexy, and they're not pornographic, they're just nudes. There'll
Speaker 1: be news and they will be literal porn right, So
Speaker 1: like dudes are like that line, that big old glass
Speaker 1: door right on the other side. You know, you can't
Speaker 1: cross over it, but you can see it. So it's
Speaker 1: the new word we're using because it really does describe
Speaker 1: like everything that fits under there, so things that it
Speaker 1: could be just making a sexuy face. There's like that
Speaker 1: whole a hagal face, which is the organs orgasm like
Speaker 1: entie and stuff like, which is Japanese porn. I gotta yeah,
Speaker 1: so Japanese and made it porn. Yes, thank you, yes
Speaker 1: for clarifying that. Um. So there's a you know, like
Speaker 1: making like orgasm face to like legit like implied nudes, um,
Speaker 1: but without actually showing any body parts and stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: always dressing up as a character of some kind. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't always have to because people can just do
Speaker 1: ludes that have nothing to do with cosplay. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: those are ludes and people can find those on your Patreon.
Speaker 1: So my patreon is a wide spectrum, like I have
Speaker 1: something for everyone. They're not just my ludes and my
Speaker 1: sexy stuff. But um, Patreon is an opportunity for me
Speaker 1: to be able to make a living off of my cosplay. Um.
Speaker 1: It's a site where people can literally donate to you
Speaker 1: every month, and they have different tiers, so depending on
Speaker 1: your donation, they get different things. Yeah, and so like
Speaker 1: at the lower tiers, you're getting patterns, you get how
Speaker 1: to tutorials, get vlogs, you get photo sets of like
Speaker 1: costumes that I've done, such as like my Ferra cosplay
Speaker 1: from Overwatch, which is a bionic robot woman covered fully
Speaker 1: head to toe in armor. You know, I've done customs
Speaker 1: from Legal Legends in which I was holding a glowing
Speaker 1: sword that I made myself and stuff. Um, so I
Speaker 1: do do those like very epic builds that take a
Speaker 1: lot of different kinds of skills and like special effects
Speaker 1: and stuff. But as you climb higher in the tears,
Speaker 1: like that's when I start like dishing out like more
Speaker 1: ludes and stuff like that. Because if I'm going to
Speaker 1: create sexual content things for you know, like that, then
Speaker 1: why not you should be getting paid. Should be getting paid.
Speaker 1: I've seen them and they are worth money. But quick question,
Speaker 1: because I was curious about this when I noticed this,
Speaker 1: But you recently separated your Instagram to having like just
Speaker 1: your Stella Chew Instagram and Stella ludes. Was there just
Speaker 1: like a request for them? There's so many reasons why
Speaker 1: I did that, Like Facebook has been killing Instagram like
Speaker 1: share ability, and it's been killing me, and like I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out, like to figure out all
Speaker 1: their algorithms and stuff. But basically, um, I had somebody
Speaker 1: say to me that, like, hey, why don't you try
Speaker 1: starting a new Instagram. You might see like your shadow
Speaker 1: band and see all these like new things happening. Like
Speaker 1: maybe you're not affected by this like bad algorithm and
Speaker 1: you think, and you know what, they're right, I'm getting
Speaker 1: like the same amount of engagement on my brand new
Speaker 1: Instagram account that only has five thousand followers. Yeah, can
Speaker 1: you tell everyone what shadow banning is? Basically, it means
Speaker 1: that Instagram does not care to show your content followers
Speaker 1: anymore at all, and it sucks and nothing I'm doing
Speaker 1: is actually fixing it. Like I'll post to like something
Speaker 1: that's very, very engaging, and I know why it's engaging.
Speaker 1: It's because it shows a little bit of sexy stuff.
Speaker 1: But then I'll post like something that's you know, fully
Speaker 1: armored costume and like no one cares. My heart just
Speaker 1: like shatters into a million pieces. Well it's weird, because yeah,
Speaker 1: Instagram has been very dra cony and recently because I
Speaker 1: posted a progress photo of just me shirtless three and
Speaker 1: showing you know, my new type body. I will say
Speaker 1: that was a little imprint, but like nothing, God, there
Speaker 1: wasn't anything crazy. It got deleted. It got deleted. What Yeah,
Speaker 1: Instagram deleted it said it was against community. Got but wait,
Speaker 1: that means that someone had to report it, right, No,
Speaker 1: because if it was reported, it'll like you'll get a
Speaker 1: notification that says someone reported it. But this one was
Speaker 1: like Instagram has found your post. There's no way some
Speaker 1: like Instagram intern it like sees the little bump that
Speaker 1: you big bump that you have. There's no way that
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that. I mean, I haven't been targeted yet,
Speaker 1: but like, let's not tell the whole world that I
Speaker 1: haven't been targeted yet, and I don't tell them, so
Speaker 1: if I know you had some questions for Stella about
Speaker 1: how Patreon has affected cosplay. Yeah, so, like I noticed
Speaker 1: in a kind of funny way, how Patreon has kind
Speaker 1: of changed the game for cosplay because like I think
Speaker 1: a year or two ago, I found like one cost
Speaker 1: players like lewd Patreon and I subscribed and I thought
Speaker 1: it was just this one off thing. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is a cool thing she's doing. Like then I noticed, like, no,
Speaker 1: a lot of cosplayers are doing it, and a lot
Speaker 1: of cost players have the lewd model. There was a
Speaker 1: subway that now got shut down because they're being assholes
Speaker 1: in there. So when one person does something right, the
Speaker 1: entire cosmic community is just all of a sudden, like
Speaker 1: a wave, like a tsunami wave. We all just do
Speaker 1: it at the exact same time. And it's because we're
Speaker 1: all friends with each other on Facebook, we all like
Speaker 1: our messaging groups together, We're all in like these like
Speaker 1: brainstorming groups together. Yeah, so when one person joins a
Speaker 1: new social media thing, everyone does it. When one person
Speaker 1: does a thing on Patreon that's really successful, everyone does it.
Speaker 1: And so that's why you're seeing an explosion of like
Speaker 1: lewd models for cosplay on Patreon is because everyone has
Speaker 1: figured out that this is the model, this is where
Speaker 1: the money is, this is what the fans want, and
Speaker 1: it gives us the ability to continue to do cosplay
Speaker 1: because without doing luds, we do not have the money
Speaker 1: to continue to We are the dudes also, But I
Speaker 1: feel like, yeah, yeah, I know, guys, dude ludes. But
Speaker 1: I'm saying, are the majority of the dude cause players
Speaker 1: that I know, like once I'm thinking of are like
Speaker 1: I think living Ichi Go and like Leo Camacho and
Speaker 1: like are they doing No, I don't think Leo is.
Speaker 1: I don't think Sarah. I feel like Leo. Oh I
Speaker 1: didn't know. Oh yeah, never mind, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: getting there with a pretty face. Yeah, I'm saying, once
Speaker 1: I get the nb J bottom really going to get
Speaker 1: this doom fist lud going. You know, any cosplayer welcome
Speaker 1: to have me. Yeah yeah, any cosplayers. Look, you can
Speaker 1: use my body because I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do another Patreon because I think it's real cute when
Speaker 1: cost players. Do you like the duo thing? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: when we collaborate with that's I guess that's the way
Speaker 1: you say collaborate, not the duo thing. There are guys
Speaker 1: who are very successful in Patreon. Yeah, so you probably
Speaker 1: go check them out. They're great. And the more guys
Speaker 1: that you support who doom, it's the more guys who
Speaker 1: will do loose movement. Yeah. So, um, I mean people
Speaker 1: think that Okay, then the only thing that's on patreon
Speaker 1: is lutes, and it's not. It's not actually um. In fact,
Speaker 1: like some of the most successful patreons don't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with lutes. Like Kimpotsu is a costplayer from
Speaker 1: South Africa and her patreon is very successful, like hundreds
Speaker 1: and hundreds of supporters for her, and she produces costumes
Speaker 1: Like I thought I was a fast costplayer. No, she
Speaker 1: can pump out beautiful, immaculate costumes faster than I can. UM.
Speaker 1: And yeah, she's like South Africa, Like how would you
Speaker 1: think that it would be at least someone here in
Speaker 1: l A America, where like all the cosplay economy is
Speaker 1: But no, she's over there by herself, like she's building
Speaker 1: her own community there. She's a powerhouse. She's amazing. UM.
Speaker 1: There's like so many other very very successful costplayers that
Speaker 1: aren't using the LUDE model in order to become successful,
Speaker 1: and that's because they have like this amazing talent and
Speaker 1: skill that a lot of the rest of us don't
Speaker 1: have or haven't figured out how to channel it. UM.
Speaker 1: And so that's our own fault and it's not anyone
Speaker 1: else's fault, because these amazing cost players have proven that
Speaker 1: they can make this model work. They can make the
Speaker 1: non lewd model work, and it's our own faults for
Speaker 1: perpetuating the lewd model even though we want to do it.
Speaker 1: But it is a problem. It is legitimately problem because
Speaker 1: it's of what's out there and that's not fair. It
Speaker 1: should be a balance. Um. So that's why I try
Speaker 1: so hard to continue to build the craftsmanship of my
Speaker 1: work and give that out to everyone, Like I sell
Speaker 1: patterns on my store, Like I give out patterns to
Speaker 1: my patrons, and I make sure that people know that,
Speaker 1: Like you know, I'm a lot about what I make,
Speaker 1: but I'm also about like the sexy stuff too, because
Speaker 1: you should be Yeah, I me myself as a person,
Speaker 1: I try and balance both sides, right. I haven't trying
Speaker 1: to be fifty fifty. I just want the community to
Speaker 1: as well. This is an interesting thing and it's something
Speaker 1: I brought up, and I feel like it's just a weird,
Speaker 1: toxic thing. And the nerd can be you because I
Speaker 1: feel like if you wanted to lose because that makes
Speaker 1: you happy, you should be fine. But I feel like
Speaker 1: nerds have this weird way of being like, no, you
Speaker 1: have to be the full package, where like a lot
Speaker 1: of times I'll see a lot of lude cost players
Speaker 1: post things on Twitter where it's like like genuine like
Speaker 1: hot photo of themselves and then they're doing like an
Speaker 1: ugly face, and I feel like there's almost like a
Speaker 1: need because like weird nerd men are like, you can't
Speaker 1: just be sexy because then I disrespect you. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the thing that you're pointing out right now is something
Speaker 1: that I completely noticed. I noticed that the first time
Speaker 1: I saw someone do a dirt face, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's because the threatened. Do you remember the iffy that
Speaker 1: picture that I did where I was like in full
Speaker 1: pin up sexy makeup, but I was picking my nose
Speaker 1: and so many no one's could have bothered so many people.
Speaker 1: But the reason why it's because at that time I
Speaker 1: was doing stand up. I'm like, well, I can't just
Speaker 1: be a hot sexy girl and pin up, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pick my nose. So it's like, oh, I'm also
Speaker 1: funny though, like, remember it's a weird thing. Where's like
Speaker 1: me when I post my THIRSDT trap, it's full action mine.
Speaker 1: I got rid of that thirsted out. But it is
Speaker 1: funny because it is like if you look at like
Speaker 1: people who and I think in general over comedy that's
Speaker 1: been a weird thing because when I started doing fitness stuff,
Speaker 1: I split, like, I still have Iffy lifts versus Iffy,
Speaker 1: But then you have guys like Reggie wats are like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm in the gym right now. Because it's a weird
Speaker 1: balance where I feel like both a nerd them and
Speaker 1: in comedy it's like you can't take anything too seriously
Speaker 1: because then you, I mean, you will believe that. I
Speaker 1: do want to say that I do feel like if
Speaker 1: the nerd guys that you and I know, if he
Speaker 1: had Stella's body, that they would easily be posting it constantly. Look,
Speaker 1: the nerd guys we know who are fit like me
Speaker 1: have shirtless pictures up. I'm looking at you. Paris. Yes,
Speaker 1: oh god, Paris has like a six pack. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know. That's so mad. I was like, so mad.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the buffets and then he pulled
Speaker 1: out that six packs. Still, I did want to thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on. Where can people catch your Patreon?
Speaker 1: Yeah so patreon dot com, slash tell you. You can
Speaker 1: also find me on twitch dot tv slash tell you,
Speaker 1: because I stream five days a week it's basically a
Speaker 1: job now it's pretty cool. Um. And that's also where
Speaker 1: I build all my costumes, so you can come watch
Speaker 1: me make stuff and sew my fingers together. Dope, you
Speaker 1: know me. It's your boy. If you y I F
Speaker 1: Y n W A d I E on Twitter and Instagram,
Speaker 1: follow Nerdificent. It's Nerdificent on Twitter. It's near deficent on Instagram,
Speaker 1: and there's a nerdifficent Facebook, and I'm at ms Danny Fernandez.
Speaker 1: It's M S D A n I F E r
Speaker 1: n A n d e z on all the social media's. Yeah,
Speaker 1: rate us and review us on iTunes because that helps
Speaker 1: us out. And maybe you'll get a lude. I don't know.
Speaker 1: We can send you one. We'll work it out. It'll
Speaker 1: be if that band. Oh my gosh, I'm so mad.
Speaker 1: I want to repost it out of just anger, but
Speaker 1: on my like main Facebook. All right, we'll get you
Speaker 1: guys next week. Yeah. By the tap of local