Event Recap | 2022 Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention

Hello and welcome to Not One Presents Daft Monks, the half talk show, half actual play podcast from the deepest depths of your worst nightmares. Welcome back, Nate. Oh hey Nate, how's it going? It's going pretty well, you know. Tried to play some DD earlier. My computer shot the bed. You know, classic internet connectivity issues.

These things happened. Did you get it all fixed up and everything?

I mean, I just waited till the Comcast outage went away. So if that counts for anything.

I think you did your part, you know, and your due diligence.

Yeah, I turned that router off and then on again. And that's about as much troubleshooting as I can do, Nate.

I think that's all we can do. Sometimes I do that with my life.

Yeah, sometimes you literally just turn off or check out right in the middle of our conversation. I see you do it all the time.

Oh, all the [expletive] time.

Anything new and exciting in your your world, Nate?

Well, we just got done at Wild West Con. That was a blast. Did you have fun?

I think I came out with less of an understanding of what steampunk is than said of more.

Oh, if we're gonna be honest, I came out with less of an understanding. Like I went in pretty rock solid. I read a lot of steampunk novels, and I thought I was pretty into the steampunk culture. But after that, con, I'm like, what the [expletive] am I doing here?

I get this vibe that this community is a group that like goes like they have these different conventions across the US or maybe beyond the US, who knows? And they all kind of know each other, and they're just [expletive] wild, fun, cool people expressing themselves in different ways, and and a lot of it's steampunk, but I think even like furry or whatever, like I think there was just a lot of different communities there.

I thought I was expecting people to roleplay the entire time they were there, I guess, but they were just people, and I was like, oh, this is boring, just normal people out here having a good time. I didn't sign up for that.

I I think we I think I had unusual expectations to say the least. I figure we can go just day by day and kind of talk about some of the different stuff we did because it was a good time and we met some, especially at the very end, we met some really cool people. I I think we can start with we only went Friday night and then Saturday during the day. We didn't so we didn't get to see Saturday evening, which I think was some of the best shows. There was also stuff Sunday, and we didn't get to miss because you had to drive back to your home state.

Right.

First off, let's talk about then Friday night, Nate.

Oh, okay. Friday night was a doozy.

You got in earlier than I expected. I honestly thought you were gonna get in super late. So I was like, hell's yeah, like, well, we got a three-day pass. Why don't we go to some stuff tonight? Like, I hadn't planned on it, but that was pretty cool that we could work some of that in. So we what? We went to two sessions.

Yes, yeah.

I think the the last that we were gonna go to a third, which was gonna be what it was like Victorian undergarments or something, yeah, or swimwear or something like that. Because the first two sessions we went to were not quite what we thought, we didn't end up going to that like Victorian swimwear, and it turns out that was just a burlesque show, basically.

Oh, we missed out.

Yeah, I think we actually would have super enjoyed it. We'll talk more about her later, but the like headliner burlesque dancer, Phoenix de la Rosa, was actually like the one who like led that session, and she ended up being real cool when we met her the next day. So I think we definitely missed out by not going to that session, Nate.

Well, you live and learn, you know, next time we know.

To be fair, skipping over the first session we went to, like that was kind of fun. Like, whatever is about like in the time period, how people scammed other people doing like seances, right? Like that was kind of the whole thing.

Yep, correct.

That one was pretty funny. Like, I felt like that kid could like have like an act in Vegas, minus the fact that he had a lot of like Spencer gift props, and there was a segment of a show where he it was pretty funny, by the way. He read reviews of what was it? Um the Ouija board. Yep. Yeah, he read Amazon reviews, and that was a pretty good time, but it he did it for what felt like an eternity, but I think was like 25 minutes of the hour session.

Right.

That for me was a little bit too long. I don't know. I don't know what your thoughts were there, and A. Like, I think that guy was like really good performer. Um, had some funny props. Like he had that skeleton, like the main seance person was just a skeleton, like frozen in like a weird position.

Right. No, no, I liked the seance, it it hit on some good points, you know, and for the most part, his props worked. That was cool. And then there was a little bit of audience interaction, but the the Amazon reviews did just keep going and going. And then, like, I don't even know if these reviews are real, you know, these could just be really [expletive] jokes that you wrote and then print it out. You might not even be reading these off of a piece of paper, as far as I know. Like, what are you really doing up there?

I don't know. What what got me was like he did it at first, and like, sure, it like the reviews of Ouija board are hilarious. There are products that just get review bombed on Amazon, and that's one of them. But he had these like two pages, and what freaked started to like make me panic was after what felt like forever, he finished the first front of the first page. I'm like, okay, thank God. And then he proceeded to read the back of the first page, which I thought was the second page, and then there was a whole nother second page after that. Yeah, I just remember every time he announced that there was more, I was like, Oh my god, this is maybe too long of a segment. Like, it just, I don't know.

So that part kind of distracted, like it went from like first segments where I was like, all right, this guy's funny, and like some interesting history there to like, okay, I'm kind of ready for the next session.

Right. And that next session, yes.

So that is primarily what I wanted to talk to you about, Nate, which was first things first, we met Madame Perry, who I didn't know who she was at first, or or afterwards, to be honest, either. But anyway, a fellow podcaster like ourselves. She has over 300 episodes of her podcasts, which I'll actually go ahead and name-drop it. Madame Perry Salon, which is just kind of like she just interviews all kinds of different people from different eras of the world, and she was a fun gal. Like when she got on stage nate, you're like, I like this chick.

Oh, yeah. She was a Georgia gal, and my wife's from Georgia, and I was like, Ooh, yeah, this lady seems like she could be our friend.

Her session description was like, We're gonna play a bunch of improv games, which I thought, like, hey, like we do improv, like that's gonna be fun. Right. Why don't you tell me what we ended up playing, what that session was about, and what happened?

Okay, let me unfold the scene here. Now, the title of the panel was Victorian parlor games. So you figure late 1800s, games that they would play when like a group of friends would get together and they all been drinking a little bit. Now, the first game, it was uh involving drawing a sword of some kind, so they made two paper swords, and it was two ladies up there. Oh no, first they were blindfolded, roll up some paper and just start smacking each other in the face. And that was a great time. Except for the weirdo pirate that was sitting behind us was like, Yeah, this would be so much better if they were naked. Like, okay, whoa.

This was the weirdo pilot, right, who had uh skeleton skullhead cog piece, right? Cod piece, sorry.

Yes, cod piece. I glanced at that. I dig I gave him a once over. So if we're talking about this pirate guy, I look back, sweet hat, okay, he's got the goatee long hair, okay, drinking a beer. Okay, maybe he's just having a good time. And then he's got the big skull over his [expletive]. Like, man, this guy is here for something else. And then I keep looking down, and there are four empty beers by his feet, and I'm like, okay, this guy [expletive] came here to party. So he is the one who saw these two ladies up there fighting, and immediately in his mind was like, this would be so much better if they were naked.

I had to disagree with him in my mind that it would not be better if they were naked, that it would be a complete horror show. But we proceed. The one girl loses her sword and she says she's out. Well, this was not good with Madame Perry. She did not find this acceptable. This game must go on. This battle to the death shall continue. So a new volunteer is drawn up from the crowd, and this a younger looking gentleman hops up and he is excited, and now he gets blindfolded. And what happens next, Nate, is something that you would only see on late night uh cinemax. It was very intense, very heated, very sexual in nature, and the pirate loved it. So they start whacking each other with the paper swords.

A sword breaks, and then in an act of defense, the lady proceeds to do a 180 and place her buttocks into the pelvic region of the guy who I think doesn't know that this is sexual, and he proceeds to try to bop her in the face with the paper sword. So there is thrusting and bumping, and also still hitting with a paper sword, and all this is only the first of the three to four parlor games that we played.

That was pretty freaking wild, Nate. I don't know if it was just that night, but the sexual, like, not tension, I don't want to say it was tension, it was like the sexual desperation, maybe for lack of a better word. I don't know, Nate, but it was like it was wild. I just thought we were gonna play some fun improv games, you know, like heads up, sevens up or something.

Around the world or quiet ball or something.

Yeah.

And I mean, there was thrusting, there was like sexual uh [expletive] commentary from the pirate. It was just crazy, all right? So that was the first game. So that one is called Are You There, Moriarty. What I basically the impression I got was it was Marco Polo blindfolded, except instead of Marco Polo, you would say, Are you there, Mariochi? And then Mario Arti would say, I'm here. But then they were blindfolded and would try to hit each other. So it's like Marco Polo, but trying to hit each other, aka Marco Polo. Correct. Because that's pretty much what every game Marco Polo with me turns into in the pool is like us just trying to like drown each other. Right. Yeah.

Okay, that was the first game, and I'm like, that was weird and definitely went on too long. Something that became a theme of things in general, I would say, at Wild Wild WestCon was things going on too long. Right.

There was a part in my mind where I'm like, Madam Perry, you should stop this. And instead, she is standing there with her arms folded, watching, like, yeah, hit him. Yeah, [expletive] hit him.

Anywho, that was game one down, and we're like, okay, that was just like a blip, right? Like a weird the exception, and it got a little out of hand, and maybe her first session she didn't want to like cut it short. You know, maybe she's just nervous or whatever. Right, right. But then game two comes, and good [expletive] god, this is where the like the discomfort truly began setting in, mate. Can you go ahead and set the scene again for this one? This one was called Squeak Piggy Squeak.

Okay. Now, for this game, remind you that this is supposed to be set in Victorian time. The idea is that again a blindfold is involved. I guess a lot of Victorian games involved losing one's eyesight, and that made it more erotic, I guess you could say.

Because you weren't allowed to literally like touch each other or make physical contact, I wonder if, like, well, if the blindfolds are on, it's okay then because you don't know what's happening, right? So it was like kind of them get working around the like maybe like societal constraints at the time. I don't know. Maybe I'm just [expletive] [expletive] it, but that's kind of the vibe I get.

No, you could be right, because I kid you not, if you wanted to send a lady flowers in Victorian era time, you needed to get permission to send that [expletive] flowers. You couldn't just be going around willy-nilly whacking her with a paper sword and then pelvic thrusting her out on the dance floor. It just didn't work like that. So I don't know how accurate these games were. But now the squeal piggy game, again, the lady is blindfolded, and usually you'd be in a ring, maybe a circle around you in the room. They are spun around and they are given a pillow. And with this pillow, they have to place it on a person's lap, but not feel who that person is.

And then once they place the pillow on their lap, they then proceed to sit on that pillow and ask the person to squeal like a pig. After this person squeals like an actual pig, like a real like sue, like really give it a good scream, you know, then you need to guess who that person is. Now, where this really got uncomfortable, what if there was one lonely lady and she got picked, so this one was a second one, and she's like, Oh, I'll volunteer.

And Madame Perry, I think, acted as a matchmaker of sorts because she wheeled this poor girl to the only aisle with one person in it, and that one person just so happened to be the [expletive] pirate guy, and he saw it coming, and I saw the look in his eyes just glow and brighten up when he's like, This [expletive] is gonna sit on my lap. He moved his skull [expletive] piece over, you know, to adjust it, moved a couple of his beers, his empties down on the floor so she wouldn't trip on him. Very gentleman thing to do. And she proceeded to walk sheepishly down the aisleway, trying to feel around. Oh, don't worry, lady, there's no one else there except for [expletive] pirate guy.

She feels his lap, puts the pillow on his lap, is very uncomfortable because I think at this point she knows whose lap it is. It could have been that she accidentally grazed the large metal skull that was over the top of his [expletive]. I don't know. But she sat on the pillow, and this dude let out the most mmm, I don't even know how to explain it to you, Nate. It was the loudest pig squeal I've probably ever heard in my life, and I've actually heard a real pig squeal. Yes. And he was better than an actual squealing pig. I don't know if it was just all the blood flow that wasn't anywhere in his head anymore, it was somewhere else. But this guy was [expletive] excited.

I think he knocked over some of his empties, maybe made a mess. I'm sure she knew who it was just from the alcohol on his breath. But he squeals and then she plays it off like, oh, I don't know who it is. And then Madame Perry's like, Look, it's the pirate. And then this [expletive] gets up, gives Madame Perry the blindfold, and immediately walks over to her chair afterwards, embarrassed. Like I felt so bad, but the pirate did not feel bad.

So, Nate, I gotta, I gotta get in here and share. We're not just gonna laugh at everybody else, we're gonna laugh at ourselves here. So, Nate, there was a moment where she did walk by you. And honestly, it [expletive] reminded me like a scene out of Jurassic Park because Nate, like, you know, you're vaping the whole time. Like you're you're not being like silent or anything. You know, you're being comfortable, like you're you're cracking jokes with me, you're you're vaping, you're enjoying the show. But when she walked by you, Nate, you suddenly stopped moving your hands, put your vape down, and like straight up held your [expletive] breath. It reminded me of that scene in Jurassic Park with the T-Rex, right? Where they're like, don't move, it can't see you.

It only can only tell when you're moving.

Their vision is based on movement.

And I swear to God, I think that was your same strategy as this chick walked by because you did not want her sitting on your lap. If you're a married man, I get that. But yeah, you straight up acted like if you didn't move, she wouldn't see you, even though she was blindfolded. And it was the [expletive] funniest thing I had seen all night by far.

Well, I think that's my go-to strategy for a lot of things. Just pretend I'm invisible. Don't move, don't breathe. Whatever is bothering you will eventually leave you alone.

It's really awkward because when you do that and we're talking, I can like make eye contact with you and you just go silent, and I'm just like not sure what to do.

When like a dog gets in trouble and won't look you in the eyes, I kind of do that and like look off to the side and just hold my breath.

I've seen you do it in DD too. It's hilarious. Oh, yeah.

I don't want to be involved in that.

It's just so funny because I didn't see it coming. She was just walking down, and as she walked by you, all of a sudden, dude, your [expletive] [expletive] clenched up and you just froze until she like [expletive] walked away. And then I was hoping, I was hoping, Nate, that she would just spin around and surprise you and throw the cushion down.

I'm so glad she didn't because honestly, Nate, I would have tried to make some kind of maneuver to hastily retreat out of said situation. I would have tried to dodge that, and I probably would have knocked over Pirate Guy to get out of that situation. I did not want to be involved in any floozy sitting on my lap, Victorian era or not. I don't think she was a flozy.

Okay. So there was a couple other games to play, but the last one to note was, and I don't remember what it was called, Nate. It was something like Deer Hunter, Hunter Deer.

Uh stalker or something like that.

Yeah, deer stalker, I think actually is what it was called.

Because I remember thinking, like, is there a deer that we're going to stalk? Is it like a corn stalk? Like, where are you taking this, Madam Perry? Like, what's what's your agenda?

Yeah. At this point, the trust in Madame Perry, who, by the way, very nice, came to our session the next day. We'll talk more about that. But at this point, as an improv game facilitator, I had my concerns, Nate. Okay.

My trust left with my breath when that chick walked by. That's when I lost all trust for Madame Perry.

But nonetheless, Nate, we were there and I wanted to I wanted to get in on the fun. And of course, I wanted to get to know that. Like, I felt like because this community was so tight-knit that, like, alright, like I have to participate. Like, I want to get to know these people. And since I'm not in steampunk, get up because we didn't really have time to prepare costumes. I was like, let me volunteer for one of these games. Like, against my better judgment. Right. So, Nate. Well, one last time. Can you can you set the scene for Deer Stalker?

So in Nate's eagerness to volunteer, we don't quite know what the game is, but Nate volunteers nonetheless. And then no volunteers. No volunteers. No volunteers. Like, what's going on? Nobody else wants to volunteer for this. And then Madame Perry explains the game a little bit to where you would be blindfolded and then you just catch somebody. And like, okay, so then one elderly gentleman that looks like he has a pacemaker and probably something else going on with him, maybe a titanium rod in his leg or a bad hip volunteers. Now, this game, the Deerstalker, is that there is a table placed on a stage. Mind you, this stage is four feet off of the ground. And the two individuals, Nate being one of them, are blindfolded and placed on opposite ends of the table.

The object of the game, which I'm still unclear of, was that the hunter must catch the deer. Now, Nate is blindfolded, the other fellow is blindfolded, and they are told to chase each other around this table on top of this four-foot-tall stage with no handrail or any kind of safety devices whatsoever. And just run in circles, and it'll be great.

But it wasn't even that. Like he could go counterclockwise or clockwise, and like the audience was yelling directions, but like I couldn't see, so I didn't know if I was gonna run in the table, trip over chairs, walk off the stage. People are yelling multiple different directions, some to him, some to me. And so I really couldn't tell what was going on. And like, frankly, uh again, a theme through all of these games was like, I'm going to injure myself for this, right? I don't really want to do that. But go ahead, as you were, you were saying, so the goal, I was the deer and he was a hunter. So correct.

Of course, I basically had like a middle-aged man chasing me on stage around a table, which was not what I realized I had volunteered for.

Right. And you made it a long time because you it felt like I know you were up there, but me watching, it felt like you were up there for 20 minutes outrunning this guy. This dude is sweating, he's grabbing his chest. I don't know what's going on. Everybody else is yelling directions, and I think I'm the only one in the crowd who's yelling, Madam Perry, please stop this. This is madness, please put an end to this. And eventually, I think from how I saw it, is Nate gave up and just stood there.

It was a point, Nate, where in the beginning I was kind of fearful of my life. So I actually, as I was running, I felt a chair and I just pulled it behind me on the block. But then I got nervous and was like realizing how unsafe I felt, I'm like, this guy who also might have a pacemaker or something might trip over this [expletive] chair. Um, so then I felt bad and I didn't try to like escape as hard. And then mostly to kind of bring it back to Jurassic Park, I couldn't really hear the different directions. People were yelling because they were all yelling at the same time. Were they telling me to go left, right? I don't know. They were all doing doing all directions and and at all times.

So what finally I realized I could do was basically Jurassic Park and like with the water cup and the vibrations. So when the T-Rex was walking, was I could feel this gentleman's vibrations on the stage. Very, very tall earthbender, and I would just go the opposite direction while holding onto the table. It was it was a pretty terrifying the game was maybe I would say four minutes in actual time, but what felt like 40 minutes to an eternity while playing. And I was just terrified the entire time. But eventually, like you said, I gave up because I was like, the only way out of this nightmare is to get caught, is to have this older man hopefully not tackle me on the [expletive] stage.

Right. And then again, Madame Perry, obviously drunk with power, allowed this game to continue well past what it should have. And then when she was asked, How does the deer win? No answer. Nothing. We got no resolve from this game. I think you were put in an unwinnable situation, Nate.

But but not only did she not answer Nate, what was hilarious was when she was asked that question, she opened her mouth as if to answer and then paused. And it occurred to me that it had never occurred to her that this there was no end condition for the deer. Right. And she just stared off for a sec and then just said, I don't know, and started the next game. Right. Now, lastly, Nate, I'm not one to usually be bitter and hold grudges. I think you can attest to that, right? Yeah, you're fine.

I'm the grudge holder.

Yes, you're definitely more the grudge holder for sure. But Nate, what got me was that everybody who went up to play games, the game you played, the game other people played, got these like gift bags. Actually, today, Nate, I found your gift bag while cleaning the house and it had like lint chocolates in it, and I went ahead and ate those and some other stuff. You deserved it. But Nate, do you recall what me and the gentleman who played the the hunt the deerstalker game got after our after our foray on stage?

I recall vividly what you won as a prize, Nate. Now, Madame Perry has an entire assortment, it looks like, of prizes up on her bag staging area to give out. And then it seems like the group before you and the group before that both got nice little uh ditty bags, if you will, filled with an assortment of goodies. But you and this gentleman both received a box, a nice, colorful box, mind you, but still a singular box. And inside of this box were band-aids.

Now the the from the coloring and the it they were peeps band-aids. Yeah. And I think my only thought is that maybe she thought they were actual like a box of actual peeps, and that's what she was handing out. Right. But for me, when I walked off stage, I sat down for a sec, didn't even look at it for a minute or two because the whole experience was so traumatic made that I was just trying to get my bearing after that. But after I sat down, after a minute or two, I'm like, uh, well, at least I got some snacks, and like, I was getting kind of hungry. It's like 10 o'clock at night. And I reach into the box and just feel these slits of paper, and I'm like, what the hell?

And I look down and I'm like, did this chick really give me a box of band-aids for playing this improv game? [expletive] got him. Holy [expletive]. Was this intentional? Was this to this day and date? Like, I'm gonna I've laid in bed at least three different nights thinking, why did she give me a box of band-aids?

I've been thinking about it as well, also laying up at night, and I've come to one conclusion, knowing how Madame Perry operates, that obviously those band-aids have hits of acid on them. Now, you're supposed to open that up and drop it on your tongue, and it's probably acid. I'm not gonna lie to you.

Don't be surprised if I try that tomorrow, because even though I know you're joking, Nate, like I'm looking, it's almost like how like people want meaning in life. Like, I'm just looking for there to be a reason she gave me bandages. It doesn't make any sense, and I'll leave it at that. So, anyway, uh, Madam Perry, thank you for your very fun, very terrifying uh improv section. Of course, we're mostly kidding, guys. She was really cool. She actually we'll talk more about how she came to our podcast session the next day. We traded business cards. You can actually follow her on Instagram at madam underscore perry. Really cool gal. She's got 300 episodes with all kinds of wild guests and celebrities. It was a great time. Thank you, Madam Perry.

And it it was a bizarre night just because of the sexual tension. I'm like, this next panel or session or whatever, people might just start [expletive], Nate. Like shh hardcore. There might just be sex on this stage if we don't leave now. And that's why I was like, let's call it a night, and tomorrow's gonna be a hell of a time. Let's just get an early start. So that was just Friday night, Nate. All that excitement, and we have not even got to the main [expletive] event, the main day that we were there, and the like eight plus hours we were at the convention. So let's just dive right in, Nate. First things first, we got there. I don't know, I want to say like 8 30, 9, 9 a.m.

And we had a panel at 10 a.m. and we went straight, our room was already unlocked, and we started setting up for the panel.

Yep, correct.

I was so nervous, folks, up until literally like two minutes before our panel start time. So, like at 9 58, there was nobody in our panel room. And I was worried about this being the first block of sessions on a Saturday morning. Like, you know, that pirate stayed up late all night, drank like crazy, and then, like many other like attendees, was probably gonna just roll out of bed super late from the resort and then just come downstairs and go to panels like by mid-afternoon or something, you know, or by late after late morning. Already I know the first session is not the best time for attendance, but at 9 58 for a 10 a.m. panel, we had nobody, Nate.

And I said to you, I was so depressed at that point that I said, if nobody comes to this panel, I just want to leave. Because I would have been so [expletive] like my ego and pride was super, super hurt at that point. Right. Like, do you remember how you were feeling at that point, Nate?

Oh, I was feeling like, what the [expletive] is going on? Like, shouldn't people be here by now? And looking at the last two panels that we went to, no offense to anybody, but I believe ours was the one you made, excuse me. I never do anything, but the panel that you made was so well put together and actually held information. I'm like, how are people not showing up to this? It was just blowing my mind. And then I was like, I needed to eat my candy bar, was the last thing on my mind before a panel, if we're being honest.

Thank goodness, Nate. Right before we got on, like literally one person walked in, and that was enough for me. Nate, honestly, I just didn't want nobody to show. But thankfully, right before our panel started, one person walked in. I'm like, all right, cool. I started talking with that person. I was oh, have you podcasted before? Because our session was on how to start your own podcast. And I even mentioned like how you could do so with a steampunk perspective. And so I talked to him a little bit. I'm like, hey, you might be getting like a private session today.

Um, and then I said, we're just gonna wait a couple minutes to start because it is the first session of the day and want to give people a chance if they're running late to come on in. And in my head, I'm like, no one else is coming, Nate.

Right. This is it. This is our guy, this is it.

But thank goodness, Nate, we did have some people come, right?

Oh, yeah. I was extremely happy more people came because when this first guy came in, he was like, Well, really, I'm more interested in starting a YouTube channel. And in my head, I'm like, Well, [expletive] you then. Get the [expletive] out of here. Like, can't you [expletive] read? Like, it's a podcast.

This is why Nate doesn't get to do any PR, any social media. Like he just immediately jumps to the worst. Like, I'm over here, like, oh, thank God we have a person. And Nate's over here, like, YouTube, get the [expletive] out of here.

Like, take your bags, get the [expletive] out. Like, you have no reason to be here.

Nate Nate, real quick, are you like a bridge burner type person? Like, are you you you kind of strike me as like, hey, if this isn't going well, I'm going to cut all ties, like, remove you as a friend on Facebook, stop talking to you, delete your number, block your number, and basically like cut you out of my life. Like, is that the kind of person you are, Nate? Because that's kind of the vibe I get.

And my life is so much better for it, Nate.

Fair enough. Anywho, thankfully, Nate. So what I would say we had like a baker's dozen, like a 12 to 13 people uh in our session. Yeah. And honestly, all of them came from like 10.01 to 10.06. Everybody is when everybody showed up. So thank goodness we did have, I don't want to say a half full room, but close to like a half full room. I did take a photo. I think there was about 13 people. Madam Perry came, she was late, but I forgive you, Madam Perry. Uh she came.

And that was great too, because we she we at one point I even like we had we had a lot of really great questions about, you know, a lot of people were understanding like an RSS feed for a podcast versus showing off in Apple Podcasts. Like, what's the difference? You know, like we don't host our podcast in Spotify or Apple Podcasts, it all goes to one place and that feeds to different directories. So I was explaining that. People asked, like, how often do you have to, you know, like create content on your podcast, or how often do you have to publish content or episodes? And so Madame Perry was able to kind of with 300 episodes, you know, far more experience than we have ultimately.

She was able to say, like, oh, well, once a week is kind of which we agreed with your best case scenario because you just keep people engaged. So it was good. I I felt like our audience was our audience was engaged. People took notes, people asked questions, people talked to me after the session about monetization, basically advertising and whatnot. And I I thought it was pretty good. I was pretty happy with the turnout.

I was happy because you were happy.

Sure was. So at that point, okay, boom, we got our panel out of the way, Nate. And now it's like, all right, we got the rest of the day to to network, to enjoy ourselves and to do other stuff. And honestly, we bounced around. My kind of biggest disappointment for me was there was what I thought was an open mic. Well, there was an open mic on the schedule, but it seems like it got canceled or nobody showed or something. So we got there, stuck around for a little bit, and then ultimately decided it was kind of just people brainstorming at that point. People just use that time as like a like a kind of like a meeting of like event planning.

So I was at first I like stood, you know, we we stayed for a little bit, but ultimately didn't make sense for us.

Right. We felt obligated to stay because they came to our panel. And then I sat there for five minutes before I realized that this is a room full of dreamers and not doers. And I'm like, do I need any more dreamers in my life? No, because I am the dreamer in my life.

There was a lot of cool basically, they were brainstorming like what other events we could have. Basically, one guy was like, I want to have an event on a train up a mountain in steampunk cosplay. I love that idea. It was a cool idea. I kind of got the vibe, maybe, you know, didn't know a lot about event planning, you know, what kind of like venues like that are looking for. And then ultimately we just had another session coming up, so we we kind of took our leave at a certain point. But the rest of the day we just hopped in now. I don't remember any of the other sessions. Honestly, just a lot of like fun stuff.

Like if it was like teapot racers at one point, there was, I don't know, all kinds of stuff, a lot of paid stuff ultimately. Right. Like uh what else did we go to, Nate? Do you remember?

Uh we hung out at the game store for quite some time.

Yeah. And that was that was cool. We met yeah, Isle of Games was a vendor there. They basically were teaching us all about what was it, Savage Lands or what was the do you remember the game?

Yeah, so it's just like a it's kind of like a DD, but set in like a Wild West period, and it seemed super interesting. And I asked Corbin about it, and we might actually pick it up. Was it Deadlands or Savage Lands or something like that? But huge huge shout out to them for being so knowledgeable about games.

It was something like Deadlands or something. Basically, he was telling us about how there's like this tabletop role-playing like set of games that are all under they're all called Savage Something, Savage Lands or whatever. And they're basically they're all games that use the same mechanics and system. But then there was what you were looking at, which was like what wastelands or deadlands or something.

Yeah, yeah.

And that was so that was like there's different themes. There's like there was one where like villains survived the superheroes after an alien invasion, there was a uh Wild Wild West one, there was some zombies, so there was all there's all these other sessions, but they all use kind of the same mechanics, which was kind of cool. Like the guy was pitching us on it. Basically, if you just know this one rule set, you can play and you can even have your characters like warp through a portal into another world and now play in this new like setting. So that was pretty cool. We almost bought it, but he only had the deluxe rulebook uh versions and not the like the just the standard.

So I didn't really want I didn't need a leather-bound hundred dollar deluxe version, unfortunately. But we came pretty damn close, Nate, to buying that. Oh, I wanted it. There was a 20% off coupon, and I could see it in your eyes, Nate. Like you were ready to make a purchase. But thankfully, I was like, well, we're here all day, let's come back, you know, that kind of old shtick.

And thank God we didn't go back because I probably would have bought it and then instantly regretted it. Just like the vacuum. Oh god, don't get me started.

I do think you will get that game and you probably will enjoy it. But basically, what you what he reminded us of, and he was he was very honest salesman, that was the nice part, was that hey, I only have the deluxe rule set, and then I have the game, but there's actually box sets that will sell the rule set and the game together, and you'll save a bit of money, and you won't be buying the deluxe uh deluxe set. And I think ultimately that's why we kind of held off of like, yes, I do want to play this game, but right now you're saying I can only get a deluxe rule set, and then not with the game. It's just like not the best, you know, combo.

So so we held off, but that was a lot of fun. The the game Mario was a blast. And then Nate, the highlight for me was the absinthe tasting we did.

Oh, for sure.

So, do you want to talk a little bit? I I guess like I'll give a quick intro. I mean, I think we all know like many people know what absinthe is, but like not the details and the specifics. So I'll just give you some quick like textbook definition stuff, just uh so everybody's on the same page. And then Nate, I think you can just go into like kind of what we did, what we experienced. We talk more about who we met. So absinthe, and I'm saying that right, right? Absinthe?

Yes, correct.

Okay. As a person who occasionally has a lisp, that is a hard word to say, my friend. That is not an easy word to get out of your mouth when you're struggling sometimes, not sounding like you have a major lips. But uh absinthe is a spirit derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absintheum. So grand wormwood is kind of what's generally referred to. The wormwood is what we talked a lot about in our session, uh, absinthe tasting. And it's sometimes mistakenly referred to as liquor, but since it's not traditionally bottled with added sugar, which you know you can talk later about the process of how you go about drinking it, it's it's technically classified as a spirit.

The big thing with absinthe and why it's like so cool right now and still feels so fresh is because it's often been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen because of the chemical compound. Do you remember how to say this, Nate? It was like Thuzone.

Yeah, I think that's correct. I think that's how you say it.

T H U J O N E. Anyway, because of this compound in it, which is present in this spirit in Trace Amounts, it was blamed for alleged allegedly harmful effects. And then basically in 1915, it was banned in the US and much of Europe, and it took a while to come back. But basically, recent studies have shown this is basically in most liquor to some extent. And by the time you would get like poisoning from Thujone in absinthe, long before that had like died from alcohol poisoning. So it kind of just didn't make sense.

And what I found most interesting, Nate, was that we had a lot of historians there kind of telling us about the history of absinthe, and basically that the wine industry, because they had like limited stock of wine back then for some reason, and they had to charge more for it, and people didn't like this more affordable absinthe option. So the wine industry basically created this whole propaganda saying it was going to make you crazy and it was illegal. And it was like one of the first marketing propaganda campaigns trying to like ruin the product, you know? Yeah, it was big wine out to get the abs of the people. Big wine, you know? Who would have I never thought I'd even say that as a statement, but that that's bananas. It was great.

Could you tell us a little bit more about like how how we were like drinking it and whatnot? Like, because the whole process is really fascinating. Like it is pretty fun.

Oh, yeah. Let me break it, let me break it down to uh our audience on uh what exactly went down. So we got an email before we even went to the absinthe thing saying, hey, sorry, the absinthe tasting will no longer be in a big room with windows or anything. Yeah, they had like a hotel ballroom, and then that got that got nixed, and it said it's just gonna be going down in our bedroom. And I'm like, okay.

Big wine strikes again now.

Do we still go to this? Yeah, big wine is at it again. And then come to find out, it was because apparently, because of big wine spreading these rumors, the hotel was like, Well, how much is the Thujan content? And they were like, It doesn't matter. I guess the hotel was like, Well, fine, you can still do it, but it has to be in your room, thinking that would stop the wild, wild Westcon people. And lo and behold, that did not stop the wild, wild west con people.

If we've learned anything, Nate, is that nothing will [expletive] stop. Russia will be invading the United States, and we will be in the middle in the midst of World War III, and the Wild Wild West Con steampunk community, they will just be going at it, whatever they're into, whatever event they're at, they are going to be having the time of their [expletive] lives. It does not matter.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Margarita Con is still going down at the Wild Wild West Con.

We'll get to that more later.

Yeah.

Okay, so we show up and it's a very nice assortment of things all spread out. There are the testers in little thimble plastic uh cups. We each have our own glasses, and we all walked away with specialty absinthe spoons. Now, the process of this was there are some absinthe, most of which I assume from our class. I'm not a professional, but you pour the absinthe into your cup, you lay the spoon over the top, and then you use a sugar cube. And these were specialty sugar cubes, they said that they imported in. So it's not cane sugar, it was like beet sugar or something like that. Still white though, and it looks like a sugar cube.

And then we had little bottles of water, and then you drip the water over the top of the sugar cube that is now on top of this specialty spoon, and then that mixture falls into the absinthe. Now, because sugar will not mix in just alcohol, if you plopped it down, it would just sit there, and that's no good for anybody. So the water helps kind of mix up that sugar, and then after everything is settled, you get a decent amount, you remove the spoon and then bottoms up.

Yeah, it's it was pretty fun. Like it to me that almost sounds tedious over the air, but then while doing it, it was a lot of fun. You had these special spoons that like hooked on to oh, like held itself over the glass, and then you, you know, you kind of like put the sugar cube, dilated the water, and then you could kind of decide how sugary water delusion you wanted for the absinthe. At one point, we just took like a straight absinthe shot. That was [expletive] bananas. That was rough. It was it was rough name, but it was a good time. I actually enjoyed the taste. A lot of times you compared it, and I felt I agreed with you that it kind of compared to black licorice, right?

Yes, yep. And then there were some that were a little bit different from the absinthe-minded people that were there. They were the ones kind of helping put on the presentation and everything, and they were local to the Phoenix area. The one that they gave us that you weren't supposed to mix, that one actually smelt like chamomile tea. And I'm like, ooh, this smells delicious. I can't wait. And then as soon as I took a drink of it, I almost spit it in your face because I was not expecting it because everything else kind of had a very distinct flavor that I was okay with. And this one kind of just popped out of nowhere and gotcha.

It was it was pretty crazy. I I had a really great time, Nate. But what I really want to talk about was that just out of the pure happenstance or luck of the scenario, we basically ended up sitting with celebrities at our table.

Okay, so I remember we were kind of the first ones to show up and we're like, okay, let's get a table just off to the side. And now we sit down. Other people start filling in. Nobody's sitting next to us.

Me and Nate are thinking, I was getting really self-conscious. Right.

I'm like, what's what the [expletive]'s wrong with us? Is it because we didn't dress up? Because we're just wearing Nat 1 shirts, and everybody else is a little bit dressed up and stuff. But then that's when the party happened. So the first people that came in were uh I'm terrible with names. It was the burlesque dancer.

I got you. So it was Phoenix De La Rosa, who was literally kind of the headliner for the event. She was the she's kind of calls herself the burlesque babe. And she basically does burlesque at multiple events across the country. And it was her and her partner at the at the time, um, were just sitting across from us. And oh my god, she was so cool. She had this gorgeous, like Dorothy, steampunk Dorothy getup, which looked amazing. Um, makeup was on point, and she was [expletive] funny too. And so she was a good time. Her her partner had like a green beard going on, and he was super funny. And then this other person who I only knew by one name because everybody was talking about him before he arrived, was his name was Tobias.

That's it, just one name, like Cher or Madonna, Tobias. And he came in and the room like lit up, and this guy had a presence, let me say. He also had a blood alcohol level that had to be through the roof mate.

Oh, yeah, this guy was drunk already, and he was drinking a margarita while walking into the alcohol testing room, and I immediately thought in my head, legend, man, this guy's gonna be our friend.

Like, if this guy doesn't die from alcohol poisoning, then it's gonna be a good time, was kind of what my thought was. And I have to point out, Nate, like I have an eye for this stuff, and he was wearing at first, it just looked like a Hawaiian, pink Hawaiian shirt, right? With no sleeves, like, you know, whatever. Yeah. But later I analyzed his outfit, being the homosexual that I am, and Nate, the pattern on this fabric was like a mixture of a cog, flamingos. I'm like, this is a very like, no, you cannot go to any fabric store and find a combination of steampunk, alcohol, and homosexual agenda all in one piece of fabric. It's not possible, Nate. It's not. It's not.

And so I had to ask him, and they basically custom printed that fabric and created like a squad outfit that they were all wearing. This guy, and he referred to like the it was a game within a game. Like apparently, a steampunk convention was actually just Wawa WestCon was actually just inside of Margarita Con. And I just was my mind was blown man. Like this guy. Like, I don't even know what to say, name. I'm speechless. I'm [expletive] speechless.

Right? If ever you watch a movie where someone walks into a room and commands a presence, that is exactly what unfolded before our eyes this evening of the absinthe tasting. Your mind was blown away, and my mind was blown away. Because as soon as I saw the pink outfit, I was like, well, this guy's cooler than me, so maybe he'll sit next to us, you know?

It's funny because in the beginning they were sharing like the presenters of this. So it was a combination of the organizer of the con, the local Arizona Absinthe Company, which I'm gonna give another shout-out, absinthe minded. I didn't even know they [expletive] made this, could make this stuff in the United States or even in Arizona of all places. And here we are, basically, like a local company making absinthe, like high quality stuff. So they were, and there was like a doctor, there was a guy who made a special absinthe cup, which kind of like it like prevents the sugar from dropping into the actual absinthe, but then the water seeps through, and it was like a really clever invention there. What did you call it? Do you remember?

It was something like uh being with an S. Um Slipstream. It was called a slipstream. It was a cool ass cup name. And so anyway, makers of slipstream and then absinthe minded, and then the co like convention organizers were all presenting together. They gave tons of history, talked a lot about absinthe. One guy literally, every time he talked about this stuff, like this drink, talked about traveling the world, trying it. He like smiled like he was talking about his [expletive] child, but like it was like I want to like anything as much as this guy nate, like absinthe. It was it was bananas for sure. But in the beginning, it was like, wow, these guys are like so knowledgeable.

But a couple shots of absinthe in, and all I could focus on was how [expletive] amazing, like how good Phoenix De La Rosa looked and how funny she was. Is and like just like you could tell, like when you're sitting next to like a performer or an entertainer, and then of course she knew none other than Tobias. So the two of them were just, you know, I was just like, This is it. Like, we've made it at this table at Wa Wa West Con having absinthe.

Oh, I think the the biggest kicker of all was when she looked at us and we're like, Oh, we do a DD podcast. And she was like, Well, I play DD. And we're like, What?

You know it, right? Nate, like I totally forgot about that. Like, on top of all, like how like kind of like cool these people were, and they were kind of like big shots within this community, and then like at this event, they also were cool people. Like, right off the way, she's like, Yeah, I also DM DD. Like, I have it on a giant projector. I don't forgot how often she says she plays. And then I gave her a card. And Nate, like, you know, it could have just been a nice gesture of like, oh sure, I'll check out your show. And then she actually, after the show, like said she listened, said she like you will snort and laugh when you listen. She shared it on social media. So, like, what a cool gal.

Like, I have to say. So I'll go ahead, you know, give them a little bit of a shout out here. So if you're if you're interested in burlesque, definitely check out her account. So she's Phoenix underscore day D-E underscore La underscore rosa, Phoenix de la Rosa. You can follow her on Instagram, and then absinthe minded is absinthe minded az, one word for Arizona. And then Tobias, I don't know his Instagram. I [expletive] that guy is just an enigma to me. And one day is oh wait, no, actually, I did find him. But it has his actual name. It's more of a personal account, so I don't I don't wanna just in case he doesn't like he has stalkers, which a guy that cool probably has people like hunting him.

So I'm gonna go ahead and not probably give that away. But it was a wild time, Nate. It was so much fun. I'm glad we ended the like the con with the absinthe. I really wanted to go see Phoenix De La Rosa perform that night, but I had to get up at 4 a.m. the next day to go do uh military national guard duty, and you had to drive back to Nevada. So unfortunately, we just didn't get to see her show, but what a cool group of people. Ultimately, what a good time. Definitely a unique community.

Uh something where I'm like, next time I go, I'm gonna go to have fun and not try to push DD because I think this community was less about Dungeons and Dragons and more about just like authentic selves having a blast, being weird ass nerds. And it was pretty cool, Nate.

It was. I loved it. Can't wait to go back.