Brian Plaideau: RetroCon Spotlight

The mics heat up with a New Orleans cadence and a grin, and we waste no time jumping from name quirks and Yat roots into the gritty, funny truth of Mardi Gras season. Bathroom strategy, king cake experiments, and parade math set the scene before we pivot into the bigger story: how a small show and two local creatives grew from early credits and live invites to landing a guest table at RetroCon. It’s part hometown diary, part creative playbook, and all heart.

Voiced by Brian Plaideau

Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999, specializing in personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously.  If you have been injured, Jana is offering a free consultation AND a reduced fee for fellow members of the Lousiana film industry, and she will handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at janamccaffery@gmail.com or 504-837-1234. Tell Her NOLA Film Scene sent you

Transcript

Live Opening And Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:07

And as always, I'm Play-Doh. We're live. We are live. Pinch myself. It's like a dream, but real.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Feels like we were just live recently. We've been live a lot. We were live last week with Christian Stokes. Yesterday was his birthday. Happy birthday, Christian. Happy birthday, Christian. I'm here with my co-host, Brian Play-Doh, or as we say in the South, Brian Play-Doh. Play-doh. You'd think it'd be pronounced funny because it it looks like it's.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Oh, it's seriously French. Um, but since I'm a Yat, and most of our fans and friends know New Orleans, we're Yat. Yat. And because growing up, everyone singing the jingles at me, Play-Doh, but French is Pleido. We had to learn that in Epcot. Went to the French restaurant, Pleido, Paddy of Three. Ooh, I'm fancy.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

They they they fancied it up. I wonder if your relatives from the north pronounce it the French way. I don't have many relatives.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah, you know, Play-Dohise. Oh, because you see what you mean.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Your dad's from down here, your mom was from up there.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

The Lawtons. Yeah. Okay. I'm keeping it. I was saying there's no Play-Doh's up north. There's a couple in France, of course. Sure. I think there's one in California. But it's nice to be unique. It wasn't growing up, but then especially on IMDB, it's nice to be unique.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah. I mean, I I had to to come up with the stage name because uh Thomas Smith just was not unique.

Name Origins And New Orleans Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:39

I I earned my stripes on that on that name, so I'm never giving it up. Don't yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Uh we just finished Mardi Gras season here in New Orleans. And even though TJ and I, I I didn't go to any parades, did you? No. And it's it's nothing against him, but look, I'm in my 50s. I want to be at somebody's house along the parade route. You gotta have a place to pee that's just yours. Because ain't no place to pee on Mardi Gras Day is a real thing. And then a nice place where you can step away from the parade, you know. But uh my wife and I did a king cake journey. So uh I don't know if we talked about it here. You talked about the Dr. Pepper one, yeah. It was all over Facebook and it's from a uh grocery store called Rouse's. And I like Dr. Pepper, I don't really don't drink it, and I was like, man, I'm gonna try this. And it was delicious. It was chocolate covered. There's a jelly, quote unquote, inside that's very strong Dr. Pepper taste. And I don't know if they infuse the bread with it too. Delicious. I don't know if I'll get it again. Yeah, and it's I think because that one stepped a little too far away from king cake for me. And I don't I love the cream cheese, especially strawberry cream cheese. I bought uh you could buy individual pieces, and I got ooh, strawberry, but it was like a jelly donut, didn't have my cream cheese, and I was gypped, you know. And we went to Frank's supermarket, and I think I talked, we talked about this on the podcast. Carrot cake, king, carrot cake, king cake. Bruh, and I love carrot cake, so that was really good too.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

No, I don't, I don't like, I mean, I don't like regular carrot cake. Velvet cake now, that's a different little bit.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

My wife wanted one and they were out. So they have Velvet Cake King cake. Franks and I'm gonna see if I pronounce right, Desalemans. Uh Desalman. You're gonna take my Louisiana card away from Hanno. I know. How about we share some prior Mardi Gras experiences since we didn't go to the parades? I'm gonna hit mute and I'm gonna share the link now while you talk.

Mardi Gras Season And King Cake Experiments

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Uh so I mean, I kind of got Mardi Grad out riding in parades as a Shriner. I think I've mentioned it on here before. I rode in a bunch of parades with the motorcycle escort unit, the green and yellow bikes that escort the parades. I don't even know if they're still escorting them because I haven't been active in a while. I got rid of my bike about 10 years ago. But it was at the time, and I was, you know, obviously a good bit younger, it was fun riding in a big group of guys. You know, you'd have to get there way early and line up, and we'd escort the parade. Sometimes we'd do two or three in a day, and you'd have to go from one place to another. I just got tired of the crowds, you know, especially the night parades after we'd been out riding for a while. People drinking, getting belligerent, they'd get mad if you weren't throwing beads. Some of the guys would throw them, most of us didn't, at least when I was riding. I didn't think we should be. I felt like we needed to be focused on riding and not doing that. I mean, when you stop and wait for the parade to catch up, that's one thing. But I mean, we shouldn't be throwing while we're riding. There was a big difference between riding the downtown New Orleans routes and the metary routes. I I preferred the metary routes because they'd have porta potties along the way. You know, when you get there two hours before the parade starts to be ready to line up and go, a lot of times you're lining up in a parking lot somewhere and there's there's no restrooms. And then you're on the parade route for you know two or three hours. Right. And then I lived an hour away. You know, the metary routes, you had porta potties, you could stop. You could ride up ahead and pull over and go. Downtown New Orleans, you were out of luck. If you were riding at night, people who were drinking could ride up ahead. Hey man, can I use your bathroom? Yeah, come on in. You want to you want a decorate? You want you want a hurricane? No, no, riding motorcycle, but thank you.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

First time marching in the band with Roma High School, and we stepped out of Clearview's parking lot, which was where it started, and then I called it the stomach gurgle. And I had to go. Number two. But we were first band, and so there was no stopping. We were marching, marching, marching, and when we did have to stop, that is the thing, as you know, in the military, parade rest where you kick your leg out, man. And I was a much younger man and I had a lot of control, so there's no problems. But I was watching for those porta potties, and you go, you know, down the main, it's Veterans Highway, then you go down the side street, that's uh uh Severn, and then Bonnable. And I'm like, okay, I know there's a porta-potty here, there's a Burger King here. I'm in full band regalia with the tails, hat, gloves. It was it was a chore to get out of it. Yeah, and the one time we stop near Porta Potty, they stopped for two seconds and said, Okay, let's go. I'm dying. It was a two, three hour parade. We get at the end, I'm like, oh thank God. Straight on the bus. Oh crap, don't talk to me. We get back to the the band room at Rummel, and all the chapellettes, which is girls from Archbishop Chappelle, our sister school, and they're changing to go out. So the line to the bathroom was god awful. Then my dad showed up to pick me up. I said, fine. Like a three, let's say a 20-minute ride to get home. But I made it, no problems. I was so proud of myself, I would never take that chance. I'd never make it.

Parade Life On Motorcycles

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah. Well, let's shift gears. We've got an event coming up. We do. And this is where we're we're gonna shift, and I'm gonna ask you some questions for a change. We've gone through some changes. You know, when we first started this show, we talked a lot about imposter syndrome and you not feeling like a real actor when you were still just a student until you had a couple of credits with some speaking lines under your belt, and then you finally there there was one where you finally felt like you were an actor at that point. Wheel of Heaven. Wheel of Heaven, yep. But when we first started, I've watched kind of from a distance as the audience has grown and how the show has grown, where you and I have grown from the different types of films and things that we've done over the years. And a little over a year ago, we got invited to be guests on a podcast that was recording live at one of the conventions, Fan Expo, New Orleans. Yep. I thought that was really cool. That was a big honor. Cat Bus Russ. Cat Bus Russ. Yeah. It wasn't it wasn't like we were invited to be celebrity panelists or anything, but it was still an incredible honor for me to get invited to do a podcast by someone else at an event like that. Fast forward to this past year, we had the opportunity to sponsor CajunCon, and we appeared there, we had a table, and it felt a natural progression, you know, the career growing. Fast forward to now, we got invited to appear as guests at RetroCon. Unfortunately, I have a conflict and I'm not able to go. So now you're going and you're appearing at RetroCon as a celebrity guest. You're gonna have a table. And what is it like to go from the common feeling of imposter syndrome to being a celebrity guest at one of these conventions that we enjoy going to?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Well, uh, thank you for calling me celebrity, even though they say I don't I'll go with guests. Celebrity is is famous, you know. I mean, so maybe that's a little imposter syndrome, but it's I never want to put on airs. If they want to call me that, I got no problem with that. And you also know that I you go, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

I I I was just saying, yeah, yeah. I I wouldn't, I, I, I wouldn't refer to that for myself either, but I get I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

It's kind of like when people say, Hey, you're friends with Kevin Smith. I'm friendly. He knows my name, he'll give me a hug at cons when I see him, but I can't pick up the phone and call him like I can call you. So, and not that that's a bad thing, it's just that there's the definition. So I'm not an asshole going, Yes, I'm friends with this guy, and I'm friends with this guy. Right, right. Cherie complains enough when I go, Oh, you know this movie? Well, there's that person they were in this movie. Oh, and I'm Facebook friends with this star. So she's like, Okay, Brian. So I bug the hell out of her.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

I get it, you know people.

Marching Band Mishaps And Survival

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah. We where I live, I'm near the airport, and you can kind of hear the trains. Not from the airport, of course. It's just kind of near us, and they lay on that horn. And so we were watching something, and I just go, We get it, you're a train. So she applies that to me too. The other part before I'll answer your question is I've been going to conventions. Someone and I were talking this week in the 90s, New Orleans had uh Star Trek conventions. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I think it was crew K-R-E-W-E, like a modig reparate, of Enterprise or something like that. And I saw John DeLancey, Denise Crosby, but it wasn't as frequent as Wizard World. And that started in 2010, and they're a touring or were a touring uh convention, who has now become Fan Expo or Fan Expo turn took them over. Right, right. So since 2010, I go every every January. I've never been big on buying autographs. I got the Stanley VIP, so it was included, but I'd rather do a photo op as people know who know me. And I do the crazy pictures like the you know, Twilight Zone Gremlin with the Star Trek curtains to meet William Shatner, yada yada yada. All that preface, it is the beginnings of a dream come true. And I say beginnings again, I think I'm holding myself back. Someone asked me, Do you think you're gonna sell autographs there? I don't know, but I'm gonna be prepared. I've got some pictures made. I took a picture, Jim Vess and I, with some Stranger Things cast. And in that, I was walking around in the Hellfire shirt, a faux leather jacket, and a giant 20-sided dice from DD. And I'm holding it up to the camera. And I will, I like my stare in that picture. It just came out good. So I put that in the middle of my banner, and then I made my own, because we had the one for CajunCon that was all Nola film scene, which was great. Me holding that dice, and then next to me is from Wheel of Heaven, Death, when I'm blowing out the match, and I had a little coffin matchbox in my hand. And then uh the one you don't like is my clown character from Death Trip. Yeah, you should take that off of there. If you don't know, folks, TJ hates clowns. I just like clowns hate me, so I mean it's mutual. Mutual. My clown trying to kill me when I'm not looking. There's nothing funny about him. My clown had Justin Bieber red hair. I don't know if you noticed that in the picture. I'm pretty sure you had sharp teeth too, but no, no, no. That's just a guess. That's Tim Curry. No, if they want to they wanna uh hire me to do it, I will. And on one end was uh Sheriff Jack from a man from Bandera, my favorite pose where I'm scared of shooting at hick. And on the other side is Captain Crescent City, which was my it started out as a character to meet Anthony Mackey and Chris Evans, you know, when they came to town. And then I upgraded it uh in 2019 when I had lost a lot of weight, and people said I should get to the games. And I went to the Pep Rally, and that's where I was asked to be in a Drew Breeze birthday video with Choppa Style, and I was like, I'll do that.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

That was after you were doing the costume thing, the fan, the the super fan thing? No, well, that started it. Okay, so you had the they saw you in costume and invited you.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um the first ones with Anthony Mackey, it's just the shield, which I'll talk about in a little bit, and I had a shirt that had that emblem, which had inspired me. And for Christmas one year, you remember the old leather helmets from the beginning of football? Someone had given me, I think my sister, a knit version of that. So then I put on a domino mask, I had these gloves. It was a very uh low budget costume. You know, I always say you got the people like the 5-0 first, and they have a perfect stormtrooper outfit. Time, energy, and money, and I didn't have any one of those to make it happen. The Captain Crescent City version. But I made the shield, which again we'll talk about in a little bit. So at 2019, when I lost a lot of weight, I upgraded the costume, and that's when people they wanted to take pictures with me. Like people, oh, we gotta take a picture. And I'm like, what? Which was really cool. And so then they said you should go out to the uh tailgating parties, which led me that year we were on 2009, 2019, we were in the playoffs, and that's the year the Saints had the past interference from the Rams. So that's when it started for me. And from that point, I met the super fans, joined their groups, invited to parades. And the picture on my banner is one of those parades. I'm kind of hanging the shield on the side, handicapped proms, handicapped pep rallies. Did a lot of work with special needs, which was it's so wonderful. I I get a little choked up just thinking about it now. And then uh I missed doing it, but like when the pandemic hit, I sat around, uh, kind of expanded past the costume. But my dream is still to make that a cartoon one day, you know, even with all the super fans, that would be a very cool New Orleans thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah.

Career Growth And Convention Invitations

SPEAKER_00 15:48

So I'm running out of air. You got me so verclimped. Um, so the shield, I took a Captain America shield and just painted it, and I put a Saints logo on it. And I'm gonna bring this with me to RetroCon because I I'm not gonna charge an arm and a leg for photos. I'm basically I'm thinking, hey, you want to take a picture of me? I could use to, you know, help me defer the costs. I could use a donation. I don't, I don't know how strict I'll be. I'm gonna try. I'm working on my autograph signature. Remember, I bought the calligraphy thing. I'm finally practicing to get my loops good, but then give them a little bonus. Hey, even if they want to take a picture without me with the shield, like five bucks. You know, I don't, I don't, it's exciting to not for the money, maybe for the attention, but to be on that side, I guess because I see photo ops, and you know me, I always plus it. I try to make it fun. And so that the possibility that people be like, hey, I want to take a picture with you. I don't feel like it's imposter syndrome, you know what I mean, anymore. But I don't think that's associated with acting to me. More like mascot or clown work. I get it. Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. Morgan City next weekend. I think it's 11 to 6 on Saturday or 10 to 6, 11 to 5. Come by and see us, say hi. There's so many of our friends that are there.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, there's a lot of people that's gonna be there. We had Davy Luzco, the founder of it, on a couple weeks ago in a live stream to talk about the event. His episode just dropped a few days ago. So go listen to that if you haven't listened to it. Go check out the YouTube video, give us a like, give us a subscribe. But it's a really interesting event that he put together. We're seeing more and more creatives start these conventions. You know, Scott started CajunCon because he wanted to see, I mean, he's been promoting rock concerts and shows and stuff like that for years. So he had a lot of experience doing promotions already. And he wanted to do an event right from experience from you know things that could be done better at other events. And Davey's doing the same thing, retrocon, it's heavily game focused, but I mean, there's also going to be actors and other, you know, other genres there as well. Most of the conventions have multiple genres. It's not just film and television or just gaming or whatever. There's a pretty good mix. I really I hate that I'm not able to make this one. I was looking forward to it, but something just came up. I will be at the next one, the one in August.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Louisiana RetroCon. Same place Cajun Con was in uh Lamar Dixon and Gonzalez, Louisiana. This one is the uh I almost said Mobile, and that's Alabama. Morgan City RetroCon, because it's in Morgan City, Louisiana, which isn't far. And it's just a little bit past where I got that uh carrot cake king cake. So you can always stop on the way from the treats from Frank's Grocery.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Frank's Grocery, huh? All right. And that's Saturday and Sunday.

From Imposter Feelings To Guest Table

SPEAKER_00 19:05

I don't like at for CajunCon, we were able to set up on I don't even think he has that day. You know what I mean? Just to keep his so I no, I could be wrong, but save the money. Now we might get in there at 5 a.m. But we got Billy Slaughter. Uh from Five Nights at Freddy's, we have Joseph Polyguin. I'm I don't want to butcher it. I did, and so we'll have to have him on the podcast till he can chastise me about it. Johnny Garcia. I've worked many times and background, and Johnny's a great guy.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

So I've never worked with him, but I did meet him at Cajun Con and I have seen him on social media and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Caleb Nockin, former guest.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yep, Caleb. He's gonna be there. And I know there's a couple of others, and I'm just blanking. I should have probably had a list ready. But what you can do, folks, is just show up and find out and see who's there and go have fun and talk with them. Oh, you're gonna pull it up so I'm not embarrassing myself? Thank you. Yeah, I'll pull it up. Doo doo doo. Is it gonna be there? Yeah, Hick's gonna be there. I'm I don't know why I was thinking he wasn't. He did Davey's crafticon last year, and so my brain was telling me that he wasn't gonna be there.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

I thought you I thought I lost you. I thought you froze. No, I'm I was just making sure we didn't have anybody in the chat.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Sometimes people sneak in there. We're we're gonna get to I want a producer. I want a person who can sit there and concentrate on it.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Well, so I was planning to have that, but Riverside and their infinite wisdom changed it to where it's an upsale to have a producer. And it's one of those things where you have to have a you have to talk to their sales rep and they negotiate the price. And oh, it's not even city retrocon 26. Say that again, I'll cut you off. Morgan City RetroCon 2026, Roger Ivans, Joseph Ortega, Scott Ennis is gonna be there. We forgot Scott, Scott, Joseph, Billy Slaughter, Hick Sheremy, Jeremy Leonard, Caleb Nokan, Brian Play-Doh, Joe Mexican, uh Greg Peters.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

The last one, say again. Greg Peters. Greg Peters. John Snout is running the uh cosplay repair booth, and he's the one who had the giant nightmare before Christmas Mayor. It's not even a costume anymore, it's a float he walks around with, you know. He and he did Davey's uh uh Mario Fett. Yeah, yeah. So John is cosplay story. My buddy Nick Foreman, Toad Sage Cosplay on Instagram. He's gonna be one of the cosplay guests. Carnage Nola wrestler. There's another wrestler, I don't know if I've met him, and the second cosplay guest, she I think she's one of the Louisiana Ghostbusters, and I just blanked on her name. So that's a that's an interesting lineup. And no panels at this con, which for some people they don't like it, some people do. You have to get autographed from me. I don't know if I can afford it.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

He's famous. I'll send you uh a screen grab from a man from Bandare.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

I am I don't want to just print out pictures because I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I I kind of need a new printer. So when I'm looking at some of them, maybe if there's some that can print postcard size, and so saving money for me and something easier for people. And like having it there, like have a few ready. Mm hmm. And then if it takes off, you know, if there are more people who want it, I could be able to adapt on the spot. Yeah. You know. And then I'd have a new printer at home so I could, you know, print my own headshots if I need it. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah. So it seems shifting gears a little bit, kind of out of left field. I I don't know, maybe other people can speak to this, but the last couple of in-person ones I've gone to, they did not want the headshot. Um the last one I asked him, and uh, he said, no, we we've got it electronically now, digitally. So the the last couple times they just told me to hold on to it. I took it just in case they they've not I I guess it's a good idea to keep it and have it. It used to be the standard to take it with you and have your resume on the back side of it. I even got one of those fancy paper cutters so I could cut the the resume to the the right size for the headshot and put it on there, but they didn't they didn't want it.

Building A Con Booth And Banner

SPEAKER_00 23:28

I have one of those cutters, I don't know where it is, I may need to grab another one. Even if you don't need it for auditions, if you're doing especially the casting director workshops, those have been consistently bring a headshot. Yeah. Ryan Glorioso, I believe Matthew Morgan asked for it, you know. Yeah, that's a good good point. I forgot about that. And I'd rather have it in a folder with me than at home sitting on a you know computer when somebody's like and even if you don't print the resume on behind it, you can staple it, a piece of paper, like you were saying, to make it the same size. Just good to have an impressive. I think it shows a level of professionalism and that it's you're not slacking off. You know what I mean? Yeah, it uh to me it feels prepared. So who and you know I'm I didn't say it yet, but I am I'm gonna miss you at this con. I'm gonna have a lot of fun, but it's I appreciate that. I I started thinking, let's say you could all of a sudden make it. It'd be fun if we had two booths and then had the NOLA film scene sign in between. Yeah, you know what I mean? We'll take up more space and we'll each have our own identity. Yeah. Merch will be coming in the future. Not only no Nola film scene, but you know, I'm I'm gonna put it out in the universe because I have a couple ideas for like Captain Crescent City Frisbee or Little Disc. I've always had that one. Or I I I showed you the picture, the guy rolling the dice, me. We make a great t-shirt. And I put the words roll with me. You know what I mean? So uh that could definitely I can see that being a fun purchase at the con. Maybe TSR, DD wants to get involved in more. I'm going a little crazy, I think.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Or maybe a spin on let's say the Bonton Roulet. Yeah. Do roll with me in French. Ooh, juices are flowing.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Thinking, thinking. Like roll with me to the con. Yeah, yeah. Come by my booth. Come make my roux. Come be my boo. Rue? Nah. There'll be more. There'll be more weird things coming.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

So next weekend, March 28th and no. February 2th. March 28th and February 1st.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Wait, that's not that doesn't sound right. February 28th and March 1st. Saturday and Sunday. There we go. But don't feel bad. Hick Sheremy, like telling somebody about it. I saw his Facebook post, he goes, February 28th and 29th. But the next leap year, 2028, February 29th is Mardi Gras Day. How trippy is that? Interesting. Yeah. It's probably gonna snow on that day.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

I certainly rode in some parades when it was cold. And you know, when you're on a bike, they say about 30 degrees when you're when you're at speed, it's about 30 degrees colder. And I remember wearing long johns and leather chaps to, and it still wasn't enough to block that wind. Oh feeling for you. Oh, the good old days.

Captain Crescent City Origin Story

SPEAKER_00 26:22

I forgot to tell my uh marching band, Mardi Gros story we were talking about. So let's end with this story. We are I'm in Rummel's band and I played Slide Drumbone. So the body of the band, we're first, so we're not popping people in the back of the head. And in front of us. They were thinking. In front of us is the percussion, and it's the endemium parade. You what? Some thought went into putting trombones on the front. It's the endemium parade in New Orleans. It's nine miles in no 11 miles instead of the Metary Nine. And I think we're halfway through and I was exhausted. Now we had white shoes, this blue and black pants, a old style, it's blue and black, you know. Picture the band, almost looking like a major at wood or a major, and the the hat. So I'm marching and I hear the crowd yelling, look out, oh no, look out. And the bass drumist drummer could not see what was in front of him, but I big drum. Yeah. And they were like, No, no. And he stepped into what a Clydesdale left on the parade route. Mm-hmm. Past his ankle. Mm-hmm. And I'm directly behind him. And the crowd went, oh, and I did this, like one step, and like curved around it, and the whole line went behind me. So you uh you gotta pay attention when you marching a parade by the left flank march and shift.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Man, what did y'all do to prepare for that? Yeah, I'm still wrapping my head around 11 miles marching. I mean, I've done some forced humps in the military, but that's 11 miles, that's a lot. I mean, I I know y'all practice marching and practice with your instruments and all that, but uh I mean, what did y'all did they just have y'all out there marching laps at band practice to get you conditioned to be able to walk for that? Because I mean, you're not walking for 11 miles constant, you're stopping and taking breaks and waiting for the the floats to catch up because they have to turn corners and sometimes it slows down and stuff. I mean, what did they do to condition y'all for that?

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Well, as you know, Monte Gras is in February, so even my first year, if school started in August, Bandcamp was in July. Okay. One time at Bandcamp. And that's where you learn how to stand, don't lock your legs, you're starting to learn your songs, place them in the bottle, that sort of thing. One time at bandcamp. I don't want to say I went to an all-boys school, but there was a sister school with the so let's let's just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

We digress.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

I digress, you know. So we had the football games, you know. So it's not like we were marching 11 miles, but we were every week, you know, and you've got to do formations, you know how they do designs and stuff. So you've got to learn your left foot from your right, which you wouldn't believe how many times I got that wrong. Always step off on your left. Exactly. And heel toe it. You got to be smooth, you know, your upper body can't move like an Irish dancer. And then pop your instrument up, you play, yada yada. And so you've kind of that was my first year, so it conditioned you for that. I was bone-tired. And I think we did seven, maybe eight parades a year. I have to go back because you know, Metary used to have a parade every night, and we've lost so many. And I'm talking about, as you know, of course, I keep saying that, but two Fridays before the actual day of Mardi Gras, that's when parades were solid back in the day. Because Mardi Gras season starts January 6th on King's Night at midnight, which is also the 12th day of Christmas, which I found out a few years ago. So blew my mind, I'm blowing y'all's mind. So it's it's just a repetition. And we did marching band and then concert band. And when I uh gained the level, jazz band was in there too, and then parades and band trips. So it's it was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and surprisingly enough, you you kind of it didn't feel like athletics, but you're right. You were worn out by the end.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah, I can imagine. Plus, I mean, and some people are carrying, I don't know how much a bass drum weighs. To me, it doesn't look light, and the big the big tubas look heavy, and I mean, even carrying a snare drum, they've still got the the weight on their shoulders. No, none of I mean, I guess if you're carrying a flute, it's not very heavy, but it's just staying up in you don't even think about it, but even staying up in that position for that long is yeah, not comfortable.

Photos, Autographs, And Pricing Approach

SPEAKER_00 30:55

And we had our school fight song, and then it had a jazz version too. And then because we marked in the Disney World Parade every other year, we had the Mickey Mouse Club March, and it's a small world. And when you're on Veterans and you turn on the Bonnewal, that's where all the high schoolers would hang out when I was growing up. And every time the band director would call up the Disney songs as we turned in front of our friends, and we're like, Oh my god, we're so embarrassed. Nothing you can do. We played uh Say You Say Me studio from Phil Collins. So we had a couple of popular songs. Uh, I think we did Maniac from Flashdance. So it wasn't all that the other ones weren't crap, but it wasn't all rigid. Yeah, we had a lot of fun with it too.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

I wasn't a band guy, but I liked, you know, football games now. I like watching when they do the halftime shows. It's just impressive to me to watch that big of a group of people synchronized, moving as one whole unit. I mean, the same thing goes for military bands and uh groups that are marching, doing performances, doing anything at that scale synchronized is just really impressive to me. And to be playing music at the same time and doing it well, it that's it's a feat to behold for sure. Definitely. I'm worn out just thinking about it.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Well, with that, folks, we will see you next time. Thanks for joining us, and I'll see you next week at RetroCon. See you, folks.