Terin Gary: From Travel Blogger to Actor

A travel itch turned into a life shift. We sit down with Terin from Traveling with Terin to trace how a family plan to tent-camp through lockdown became a mission to spotlight Louisiana’s culture, hidden eats, and small-town stories—then veered into indie filmmaking.

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

Meet Taryn And NOLA Film Roots

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, I'm Taryn with Traveling with Taryn, and I am super excited to be on the NOLA film scene. And I do not have the floor, but I have been in it.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I'm TJ. And as always, I'm Play-Doh.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

That still sounded funny, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Excellent. Taryn, welcome. Good to see you again. We met at Cajun Con. You were there walking around doing your thing, and we got to chat a little bit. Tell us a little bit more about you.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Um, well, I do a travel food blog. That's my main thing. Um, I travel around, I used to travel a lot around the country, but lately I've just been focusing on Louisiana. We have so much culture, so much stuff here that I want to show people, you know, because a lot of people don't have any idea what really Louisiana is like. You know, so I've been trying to really focus on that and showing them our food. I mean, we have some of the best food in the country, you know, right here, especially in my little area. I'm gonna say it might be content, it might cause a little uh stir, but the 337, I mean, we have we have some really good food. So I like to show that off. But yeah, that's pretty much what I do. Um, I work with local. I'm the director of content creators for that. And I've just kind of started getting into acting. And my first little thing was the foie.

First Steps On Set And Extra Work

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Nice showing off the shirt. You can buy their merch, you can buy our merch. We'll have links when we drop the podcast. Bye, bye, bye. Tell us please about your experience with the foie, the film, not the real foie.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yeah, I don't know how to put that like on my resume. Okay, now I have experience with the foie. I don't know how they're gonna take that, but it was it was a fun experience. Um, I started out actually, uh, Hick Jeremy. I was interviewing him for uh much Bible with Taryn, and he said, Look, you have to come on the Senate because you really get a feel for what I did. So I did that and I was like, Man, this is awesome! I love it. So uh I contacted uh David and he was like, Well, you know what? You want to be an extra? I loved it. So I started being an extra and then just kind of went from there. Then I was uh a swamp witch, and I actually did sound one too. Like I'm like all over in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Oh nice! Yeah, it was a great experience. And you got the best experience being an extra because when you go on, like you know, the the movie set or the TV set, you're gonna sit there for 12 hours. You might get the set a few times, you might spend all your day, you just don't know. So you were used a lot more efficiently than you would in a big production. So that that definitely helps. Although I love doing those. Um, you play a swamp witch. I kind of play a swamp wizard in a movie by you as well. You know, when they come out.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

And that and that was very interesting because so um I had never really, you know, ran lines before or anything like that. And when I was studying them, it didn't make sense. Like I'm trying to learn everybody else's lines to get to my line, and I'm like, I'm gonna ever do this, you know? And then uh when we actually got on set and you're with other people, then it's like a conversation. So I'm like, oh, this makes sense. This is so much easier, you know, it flows like that. So I felt so much better. And funny story about that, um, one of the scenes is a blood ritual that we had to do, which is really funny. But um, we couldn't get the blood off of us. So my hair had blood in it. I was covered in blood, stained on my face. I tried to wash it, it wasn't coming off. So we were going eat after filming, and I'm the first one to walk into this Mexican restaurant. And the the hostess looks at me and she's like, Hi. Promise I didn't commit a crime in the parking lot or coming from a movie. So everybody would walk in, the waitress, just any anybody who walked by our table would do like that as they walk by. So I think that's like a memory that's always gonna last from that movie.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Definitely. I was filming in Atlanta. The first first lead role I had, I was playing a mentally ill, homeless guy, and they use this special alcohol makeup that doesn't come off very easily to make me look dirty and so it stays on so it doesn't get smudged if I touch my face. My hair was all nappy. I didn't wash it for a few days so it would look, you know, not well kept. My beard was all mangly and I had a stained undershirt. I didn't I didn't wear my costume back to the hotel, but the undershirt was stained. Anyway, I walk into the hotel and I always try to shave my chest when I have to wear a lavalier when they tape the lavalier on so it doesn't stick. And I always forget to do that. And it was kind of a higher end hotel. I walk in and people are staring, and it was late too. It was like 11 o'clock at night, and I'm sure they used to homeless people trying to walk in to go to the bathroom or whatever, and they're all like staring at me. And I go up to the front desk like I'm supposed to be there. I'm like, hey, could I get a could I get a razor? And the guy looked at me like I'm crazy, like, you're gonna shave? And I didn't even explain. And people are just staring, and he's looking at me. I said, I'm in room whatever. He's like, and then he said my last name. I'm like, Yeah, and people were staring at me as I walked through the hotel. So I get it. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

That's a funny feeling.

Learning Lines And On-Camera Comfort

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I mean, they're they're just as security goes, him mentioning your name and you not mentioning your own name doesn't really count. You could have actually been a homeless person. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Especially my I mean, my real name is my lab, my I use a stage name, my real last name is Smith, and it's very, very common. But I mean, when I said the name and the room number, it's pretty easy to verify.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

I'm checking in as Mr. Smith, and I need a razor. Smith Smith is not a name people use to do bad things under.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

My dad was Thomas Smith in in the 70s when he was traveling for work. They back then some states' driver's license didn't have a picture on it. And he would go to check into these hotels and he would say his name, and they'd be like, Sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Sure, that's your name. Right, buddy. Mrs. Smith will be here in an hour and only stay for an hour. We know, we know. So after being bit by the acting bug, I don't know if you you're not like us, like you're not on the site struggling to get it. But what would you like to play? Is there anything you're like, mm-hmm I did this, now I want to do that?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I don't know. I mean, I gotta show my range.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I I had a tip for her about the run in line things, but give give him the answer on that and then I'll circle back and give you that tip.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

I don't know. Uh when I was talking to Hick about it, he's like, hmm, I could see you like maybe as like a soccer mom or like what playing something in a um like a from like a time piece. Uh I don't know. I yeah, I mean I got the anxiety-ridden soccer mom down, you know. I think I could do that. Typecasting.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

When when I was going through with one of my teachers, we they were she was looking for types. And you're not limited to types at all. And just kind of putting your best foot forward. So I come across as the the warm dad, the one people go to, you know, with my age and my look. But then the nice guy look can get twisted to be the mob boss down the street. You don't suspect it. He's barbecuing. And the guy messes with the daughter, and just with the look like, take him out. So think about that. And then, you know, don't ever limit yourself to trying. Yeah. Except for things like race and accent. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

I think I would like to play like a mom going through something with her child, you know, like a serious role like that. Like Eye for an Eye, Sally Field is one of the my best performances. That was amazing. I mean, it's just gut-wrenching, you know, something like that would be really cool.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

That would be. And TJ, you had some had advice for the young lady?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah. So when you were talking about running the lines and the the opposing lines, it can get overwhelming when you're reading through, especially a very dialogue-heavy script. So what I do when I'm learning my lines, I don't read the other person's lines at all. I've I have found that if I know too much what they're gonna say, I start anticipating it, and it makes it harder to have a natural reaction in the moment versus a conversation. You don't really know what the other person is gonna say. So when I'm learning them, I just look at the last maybe two or three words in their sentence or sentences for my cues, so I know when my lines are coming, but I don't read theirs at at all. Maybe the first time I read the script, I'll read it. But as I'm learning the lines, for me it's repetition and and I'll also write it out. I I don't read theirs just so I don't have one that's more stuff that's getting stuck in your head, and two because of the anticipation thing. Yeah, I mean, everybody's got different different tips and stuff, but uh that's just something that I found helps me.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, that's good advice. And I was lucky too, because on the floor I got to work with my friends, so that helped out too, you know. Um actually Rachel from Louisiana Girls is the one she was supposed to be a single swamp witch, but she wanted me and Casey to be swamp witches also. So she talked to David and they rewrote the whole scene to include all of us, which out it really worked too. Yeah, David's amazing. Like he's he's great.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Yeah, he is. Uh, I didn't meet him until we interviewed him, was the first time I met him. He seems like a really nice guy.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

He is.

Travel Blogging Origin During COVID

SPEAKER_01 9:31

So, what I wanted to ask you was how did you get into the travel blogging? That seems really cool. Like I watched some YouTube channels that that talk about different things in Louisiana. There's a guy that goes to old abandoned buildings and you know, looks through them and talks about the history of that building and why it shut down and stuff like that. So I think stuff like that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, it's actually uh COVID started. I mean, I'm I'm sure a lot of people's stories start with that during COVID. I mean, we were uh we're aboard and our whole family was together. And my husband, um, he works offshore, so they wouldn't let him on rigs during that time. So I mean, he's usually gone. So this was a big thing for him to be home. And I think he was home for like six months at that time. So he was, you know, he's like, Well, what do y'all want to do? And we were thinking, like, let's travel. I mean, let's go, we can be with each other and not be around other people if we go to parks, like state parks, you know, camp, tent camp. So my husband's like, Do you think you can do that? I was like, let's test it out. So we tested it at home and I did not make it through the night. And he's like, hmm, I don't know, Terry. I was like, look, if we're in the woods, what choice do I have? Like, if I have a bed in the house right there, of course I'm gonna go back to it, but I won't have that. So we did it and we hit the road and we did like the Grand Canyon, you know, places we had always wanted to see, uh, Zion National Park, all these places. And people were following our journey. And I didn't realize that many people would be interested in it. And you know, they were asking me, like, how are you doing this? Like, how much does this cost? Because people didn't know that tank camping's cheap. If you can rough it, you can do it for cheap. You know, my kids to the still to this day, they don't want to look at a sandwich, but it worked for us then. You know, I mean, we did, we did. I had that was the first time I'd eaten spaghettios and since I was a kid, but we did it. We're trying to do it cheap because you know, he wasn't working. So, I mean, as cheap as possible when we want to see as much as possible. And then every time we'd get to like a state line, I'd be like, We're only like two hours away from this. And my husband's like, You just said that. That's how we are well, how we got in this state, you know, and it just kept going. So then people really wanted to know, like, how are you doing this? How'd you find this local, you know, hidden gym? I don't go to tourist traps, you know. I try not to. So, you know, I I'll ask like locals at the gas station, hey, where's your swimming hole that y'all go to? You know, stuff like that. And then people were interested, and yeah, like, how did you find this place? So it all just kind of launched from there, and then food. I'd go eat somewhere as they had never heard of this restaurant. I feel like people are kind of stuck on doing the same thing, you know, like they're like, This works, so this is just what I'm gonna do. And they're scared to venture out. So it's like I kind of do that for them, and then then they kind of go from there. So yeah, that's how it all started.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Cool. In your travels, because you wanted to focus on South and Southeast Louisiana. How far how far of the state have you gone through, and how much of the country have you gone through, if any?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Well, I've traveled to 30 states so far. Um, and that's including Alaska and Hawaii. So those are like big on my list. I was really happy when I got to do those.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Really hard to drive. I understand.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yes, exactly. I had like I put a s of uh a raft actually in my backpack in case the plane would go down. Because Hawaii, you travel like when you're flying over water forever. So it's like I have my raft in my backpack just in case. But we did it. So um, yeah, that um at the state, I've pretty much been almost everywhere, you know. Um, I go to a lot of different places and just try to focus on unique things around the area, you know, show them the food, Cajun food. People don't have any idea how to make a gumbo, you know. We don't put no tomatoes in it. I mean, that's another controversial thing. But that's a sin.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

We talked about that at Cajun Con. Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Although no tomatoes, but like a Cajun cooking with hosts. He he doesn't like okra. I like okra in mine as long as you cook off the it's kind of slimy. I don't like okra. Uh but that's the only place. Yeah, exactly. So that's the one I'll disagree with him on. But you put the old bay anywhere near anything of mine, and we're gonna fight.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Though, um, and for me too, like, okay, so like I used to not eat anything, actually. And when I had met my husband, he's like, This is this, we cannot do this. So for his birthday every year, he would pick a place that I would never go and stuff I would never eat. And he'd say, This is what we're doing. Now I realize, man, there's so much good food out there that I would just didn't want to try. So that, you know, I started doing that. So now when I go to a restaurant, I ask them, like, what would you recommend? You know, what do you think I should try instead of sticking to just what I would want off their menu? Because when I look at something, it's like everybody else, you kind of stick with what you know. Right. So I've tried a lot of food that way also.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

All right. I got a question for each of you. I'm gonna ask Brian first, and then I'm gonna ask you, and then I'll tell you what mine is. Brian, what is the wildest thing you've ever eaten? Like you would never like the craziest thing that you've had. Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Because I grew up on things like escargot, you would think it might be something like that. So I like escargot when it's cooked with it. I do too.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Escargo and goat cheese pizzas. Love goat cheese. I'm gonna say what I don't like. And then to the see, my craziest isn't like the weirdest food. Well, that's what I'm asking. What's the weirdest food you've had? That's hard to say. Because there are things like I don't like raw shrimp and octopus, it's too rubbery. I I mm-I've I would never eat raw shrimp. When I lived in San Antonio, they fed me menudo, which is a soup which has intestines in it, and that's rubbery. So but the first thing that came to mind, I I just don't I don't think it's weird, but it might be is shark, shark steak. Shark, yeah, and that was great.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Yeah, I like shark. So not weird. Yeah, different.

Louisiana Food Rules And Debates

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah. What about you, Taryn?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Probably bugs, like uh we were somewhere and they had, you know, like the chocolate-covered bugs. I mean, there's some grasshoppers, yeah. Maybe uh yeah, stuff like that. Because that's also like when I'm going to wherever I'm at, if they have something weird on the menu, like or just as a like I think that it was at the science museum, is where I ate the bugs.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Right. Yeah, I've had chocolate covered, chocolate-covered grasshoppers. For me, snake. I've had snake and I've had emu. Oh, wow. And I actually killed I killed the emu myself. We had a uh my mom had a neighbor uh over in Mississippi. They had an emu farm and they sold emu eggs. And they were, I mean, they were selling them for like four or five hundred bucks a piece. But then it wow, I guess the economy hit and they were the business was struggling. It was costing them more than it was making, so they decided to get rid of them and they gave a couple of them to my brother, but we had to harvest them ourselves. So I I harvested an emu. We had a freezer full of, you know, we ground it like sausage and made burgers and it's actually pretty good. A little bit different texture than you would think for for like chicken or other birds. Yeah. But I mean it was good.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Well, I'm gonna hit you with a Louisiana food question. We'll start with TJ. How do you like your alligator?

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Um uh fried, I think. Fried, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Terran?

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Smells peacolk. So good in a small spicole. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

I like mine as is grilled, just the meat. Fried fried's good too. Yeah, grilled is good. Yeah. So I just want it there and I want it snappy. I said it okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

We get it. I mean, we get it pretty regular. Have you ever had alligator gar? I have not. Yes, I have. We used to, I mean, we used to go jugging. You you put jug lines out and you catch it and you use like a like a melon baller to to ball them. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah, make the balls and fry them. We actually live like I actually live kind of like on a small lake pond or I don't know what you want to call it, but um, during COVID, we'd go in the boat every night and we'd go jugging and night fishing and we'd catch stuff like that, and then we'd cook it. I don't know. Like one of my big things I've always wanted to do is make it in a freight. So, like alligator, snake, and stuff like that. Like, I wanna I wanna kill a snake and then cook it over the fire and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

I think that's how it's what about frog legs, Brian? Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

I I was thinking I've had frog legs twice, once at Emeralds with turtle soup, which was really good. But the first time I had it was from Ralph and Kakus. Okay. So it was a bigger frog, and as I bit into its thigh, all I could picture was Kermit, and I couldn't finish.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

I would say I love frog legs. I used to love going frogging. I love frog legs. Middendorf's kind of close to me over here. They they make probably the best frog legs I've had at a restaurant in the area. They have just incredible seafood. But yeah, we used to go frogging, fishing, jugging. All used to do all that.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

I kind of have a cool story about frog legs because the first time I tried it, Jason and Josh were there.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

The British boys.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yes, they it's the first time they tried it too. We're at the uh rain frog festival. So uh both of them were looking at me and they were like trying to hold it in. Josh was uh he could not do it. He looked he looked horrible, his poor little face. But yeah, so that I'll always remember that. And I held a big frog right before that. So I was like, you like I'm like, oh, this is cousin, like this is horrible, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

It's hard to do. Jason Josh, they are back from Britain, they're in America as we record, they're up in Minnesota in the real cold. One hurt his back, he pulled the ligament, and the other got sick. So that they're still trudging on, and and we wish him luck. We're gonna name drop them there. Maybe we could cross-promote one day. But also, when they went home, somebody sent them Tony Saturied. So the flavor explosion of United States and especially Louisiana versus their food, which I believe you could say is bland, it blew their minds and they were never the same again. So best wishes, Josh and Jace.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yes, they they they had actually uh shared my post about them when I had uh video, I had a video of Jace and Josh trying the frog legs and everything, and they had talked to me for a little while. So uh they actually shared my posts, and I got tons of followers from that. It was crazy. It was it was definitely an experience for sure.

Wild Bites And Frog Festival Tales

SPEAKER_01 20:35

So when I was in undergrad, I took a college trip to Quebec. So Quebec is the only French speaking province in Canada. So French cuisine was everywhere, and that was the first time I tried escargot. So you could get escargot and goat cheese pizzas and uh everywhere but one place it was really good. There was one that I I don't know if they just didn't fix it right. It seemed like it had some shells in it. Oh, okay, poutine. So, in at least in Quebec, I don't know about the rest of of Canada. I I've only been to uh another province in Canada once, but uh poutine is French fries and gravy with curdled like goat cheese or another type of curdled cheese in it. It's really good. So you can get poutine at McDonald's, french fries and gravy with that cheese in it at McDonald's. I I'm pretty sure I gained about 10 pounds on that trip. Yeah. Because I was eating really clean before I went on that trip. And the another thing that's crazy about up there, at least in Quebec, they don't put if they if it's not they're not putting gravy on it, they don't put ketchup on their fries. They put mayonnaise. And I didn't think that I would like that. Yikes. Yikes. I came back, I came back. If I would go to McDonald's at work, I would get mayonnaise packets and I was putting mayonnaise on my fries. I'm a bit reported. And then I realized uh yeah, I'm getting a little bit too uh too thick around the middle there. I had to back off on my French fries and mayonnaise.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

I got a lot of mayo in here.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

I got a mayo in my side too. I understand.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yes. I've been working out, y'all, like six days a week because I've been trying so much king cake. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

We my wife and I just had the Dr. Pepper King cake from Rouse's Dr. Pepper King Cake. Yep. And it was good. What is that? So picture a king cake. Uh it might be a little bit different, dough. It might be a little bit thicker. You know how the king cake's kind of airy. And so then it's got a uh I hate to say gel, but a jelly filling that's heavily. Taste of Dr. Pepper. A chocolate sauce on top, which I think you can take the Dr. Pepper to. I just don't know if it's in the bread. It's delicious. Will I get it again? Maybe. But we are also going. There's this little shop in uh New Iberia, and you have to order it before you go. They have Budan king cake, which I love, crawfish king cake, which I've never had, and carrot cake king cake.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

What? I haven't tried either.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

I love carrot cake, so I don't like carrot cake. You don't like carrot cake. This has been the end of the film scene. We can't be friends anymore.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

You can't be trusted.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Why can't you eat king cake, brother?

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Uh, because I had that bariatric surgery, so I can't eat stuff that's like bread that expands, bread, rice, pasta. Okay, we can still be friends. Pasta that's not like regular that's not like regular pasta, and there's some keto bread that I can eat. So I I mean I guess you could make uh like a keto bread king cake. It's not as expandy, but I just I I mean I can take a bite or two, but I have a hard time with it. Yeah. It's just not a pleasant experience. I don't dislike it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

I mean it's you'll have to be like a model and taste it like one kind of sort.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

So in Pickune where I lived at f uh high school, they have a a bakery there, and they claim to be the ones that started the filling, the you know, the pie filling in king cakes. I don't I don't like that. I don't like the the blueberry and strawberry pie filling and stuff in a king cake. I just I never really cared for that. Yeah. You're a purist with your king cake, you're like the original. Yeah. When you can have it. I mean, it seems like Dr. Pepper Kingcake would be pretty good. I don't know about crawfish king cake, but have you had boudin king cake? No, I've never I've never had any kind of savory type king cake.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Again, the dough is a little different. Yeah. And it it's it's not technically a king cake. It's shaped like a king cake. It's it's you know, pie with meat filling, and if you like boudin, and then they put a pepper jelly sauce on top.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Yeah, I know. We might need to change the topic, folks.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah, I'm getting hungry now.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Where as traveling with Taryn, haven't you gone that you is on your bucket list? Where do you really want to go that you have?

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Well, in the United States, I'd like to go to uh Michigan. I haven't been to Michigan. I want to go like to the Great Lakes. I haven't been anywhere as right there. Um, but out of the United States, um probably like Italy. I mean, it looks just gorgeous, you know. And then again, food over there. Yeah, that's a big thing for them.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

So it comes back to food. That would be awesome. Yes, it always wins when would you like to go to Michigan? Now in the winter or during the summer or summer, definitely summer.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

I've been looking at it and actually for my uh my daughter's senior trip, you know, you had these hopes and dreams, but I wanted um, we had I had planned a 14-day road trip and I was gonna go all the way up to the east coast and then we'd go like to Niagara Falls, come back down and talk about all kinds of stuff, Michigan. And she's like, Mom, we just travel too much. So for my senior trip, I want to go to Disney World and just stay at a resort. And I'm like, that's my worst nightmare. But okay, say so. I'm like, Do you really do you want to see this itinerary? It's like amazing. And she's like, No, I don't want to. I just want to go straight there, chill the resort, and relax. So I was, y'all, I did this for her. I went to Disney on 4th of July. Yes, 4th of July. All for her. You know, I love her. And then um, the fireworks are were amazing. That doesn't give them credit on that. And then we stayed at the resort and just kind of did stuff around there. And I just added my own little flair towards the end.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

We went to I had to go to the springs in Florida and we went uh humanities and stuff. Tatu something, you know, that was just kind of off the beating path.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

As a proponent of Disney and Disney World and Disney cruises, I fully approve of the trip. And I was the minute you said it, I thought it was coming to the future. I was like, I can help you plan. And while you were talking about Canada, too. I always love it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've been on two. Maybe we'll go on a third. Uh, I never thought I'd be a cruise person. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

It's but that's like top, top of the line. Disney does it right with the cruises.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yeah, that's what I heard. If you want more parties, you might want to go to Carnival or something. But yeah, the the loyalty program, as you build, you get more perks. So I have if I'm gonna do it again, I'm staying with Disney and you can't talk me out of it. Unless I hit it rich and I'm a millionaire, can go every week or something. But you know, if we gotta invest, I'm going Disney, especially if they hire me to do a voice on a cartoon.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

I'd live on a cruise ship if I could. I love being too.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Oh, yeah. I love it too. And I love not having to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

There's no sleep like sleep at sea.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Oof. What thrills me the most is the 24-hour ice station, the drink station. You go get your ice, you know what I mean? Yes, pizza. I guess it's just simple, it's there. You don't have to think about it. You can, you know, you don't have to get soft drinks and stuff, but it's just convenient. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

And like you said, you gotta diet before you go, too. Yeah, yes. Well, I don't lose 10 pounds before you go. That's what I do too. That's life's about balance.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Yep, exactly. That's a pretty good travel tip. Balance on a ship. That's awesome. What's next for you acting wise?

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Um, well, actually, I just sent in, I don't know if you want to call it resume. So um, it's goodbye, girl. And filming in New Orleans Mandeville area, and they were looking for extras, waitresses, stuff like that. Hey, I waitressed in my 20s, I'm sure is figured out.

King Cake Experiments And Limits

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Right. And I know that one was posted on social media. You can go on mycastingfile.com and it's for free, or you can pay like a$20 a year fee. And that's how you can get background rules.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

You know, I actually filled that out more out of like two days ago. So hopefully you'll see me. I said, I'll I'll even play a tree if I have to.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Excellent. We like that attitude because we need a tree in our next row.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Exactly. I'd be the best tree around.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Fantastic. Taryn, could you share your socials with people so they can follow you?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Sure. Um, it's traveling with Taryn across all platforms. I have uh Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and then um you can also see me on local. So um on the local page and uh go local.com.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Sweet. Excellent. Yeah, we'll add that stuff in. I'm gonna take us out to you.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

So no more tips, no more acting tips for me.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

So have you done professional headshots yet?

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Um, I just had that done. Um, that's why I put it on my casting profile.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

So there's that, and then if you can get involved in as many shorts, different any any type of little film projects you can to start building up. It's the hardest part is getting footage for a demo reel. So do as much as you can for that. And then I would highly encourage you to take acting classes, you know, where you're living, I don't know in person what in-person options there are. If you can get into workshops, you know, if they have a workshop in New Orleans and you can make it over for the weekend, that's a good idea. My acting coach has a lot of on-demand content. I study with Dean West now, and he also has one-on-one in-person stuff every week. You can do self-tapes and he'll evaluate it, one-on-one tips and coaching.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

One-on-one online.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Online, yeah, it's online on a platform called School. It uh just a training platform. But yeah, and I'm not trying to steer you toward just him. If you can find a coach that does virtual classes, uh James Damont uh does a lot of virtual stuff as well. It's a good idea, especially to learn about how to do self-tapes because most of what what we're gonna submit for is through self-tapes. So you have to you get you get the script. If uh until you get an agent, you go on actors access. Backstage is another option. Casting networks, I think, is another one. And you can self-submit for a project that you like, and if they invite you to audition, then they'll send you the sides, and then you have a a window to tape that and turn it around. And if you don't have somebody that can read with you, you can find somebody to read with you virtually. You know, set up a phone and and do like a zoom call to do a virtual read. Uh Brian and I have done that for each other before. Uh I I'm fortunate. I get either my wife or my kids to read with me. So if you I mean, if you don't have somebody, you can find there's there's ways to find people to read with you. But that's that's the steps I would encourage.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Contact us, and if we can't do it, we'll give you somebody to help you. And also, Jim Gleason is great in New Orleans. If you can do the in person, you do his first workshop, which is called The Works, and he he goes over his whole, I don't want to say technique, but his whole system. I don't know. And then you move into weekly classes. But where you live, it might not be uh I don't want to say possible. It wouldn't be easy.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

It's a long drive, though.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

Right. I've had uh in class, I've had people drove in from Mississippi to do it, you know. So for for different people thing, but what you can do with Jim, once a month he has a thing called the circle exercise. And it's he doesn't like us to describe it to people, but what he says, it's what on-camera acting is all about without being on camera. One day workshop. I've taken it over 20 times, and you each time is like you build up some skill. So it's not just a one and done unless you want it to be. And I highly recommend it. And again, contact us, everybody here, most of the people watching knows Jim and what was done by Chris. That's how we got most of our guests.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah, yeah. That sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

It's a really, really good workshop. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Now I don't know about y'all that I because I'm on camera constantly blogging. So a big thing for me was the camera not looking at it. I'm so used to that's my audience, you know. So it was like it's constantly like I'm looking out of the corner of my eye, like, no, don't look at it. And then the more you think don't look at something, the more you want to look at it.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

It's like that moth to a flame kind of just the opposite for us, or for me at least, when we started doing this podcast, I'm watching them back and I'm I'm looking everywhere but at the at the camera. I'm using a national camera now. When we first started, I was using a little webcam, and I I just couldn't do it. I couldn't look at it because of all the don't look at the camera, find your eye lines and look around it. So I ended up getting a teleprompter, and what I do is I pop the guest out uh of the window and put the guest on the prompter, so I'm looking at you like we're having a conversation. Brian is just to the right of it, so I glance over at him when he's talking. But that was the only way I could do it. Uh otherwise, I'm everywhere but where I'm supposed to look. So I I I get it. I had just the just the opposite.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

And then the auditioning skill is not completely different from the acting on set skill, but it is different. It's so much easier on set because everything's there.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Yeah, you're not having to imagine it.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

And and your good co-stars, when it's your close-up, will stand behind the camera and give you something to feed off of. Like the aforementioned Hick Sheremy helped me a lot by pointing a fake gun at me and staring with his hick ceremony stare. Difficult for me to say, I guess it makes me nervous. But but but you feel it, you you live it. So growing both skills is important too.

Bucket Lists, Disney Detour, And Cruises

SPEAKER_00 33:49

And I I agree. Um, when we were filming for the uh the foie, the Nick Manning was there and he was behind the camera, and it was like I was talking to him. Like the other girls found it, they're kind of nervous with him there because he's you know, he's done things before and they were kind of intimidated, but to me it helped. Like it didn't make me nervous. It was like I was having a conversation with him. Him and Corey were good with that.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Yeah. Those girls were probably thinking about how good the scene's gonna be instead of just being in the scene. You find that's when I started with Jim Gleason's class, I was nervous and I want to be good, and you know, I'm fidgety, and you know, you're you're drilling, I want to get a good grade, and that's nothing what acting is about. And once I could put that out of my head and just chill, and it took me a long time, had kind of beat it out of my head, I advanced. I call it like steps, you know, and you can see at different points in your career and your growth. Oh, when I first did Wheel of Heaven, I felt like an actor instead of a student, you know, and so that changed something in inside of me when I when I started to relax, when I learned improv, when, you know, yada yada yada, you know, I got an agent. My resume is good. I got, you know, everything you start feeling more like an actor helps you relax and get into it, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Yeah, I th I I think uh my interviews, like doing interviews, have helped with that, like improving, because I've had to just kind of go with it, you know. I've already interviewed the wrong person. I thought they were someone else. But when I found out they weren't who I thought they were, I had to just go with it and come up with questions. And I guess that kind of helps. I kind of get in a zone. It's like even on the foie, I kind of forgot that they were there. It was just kind of doing my own little thing in my own little world.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

That's that's good when you can do that. Because that's a a a lot of what it is. Imagining it, seeing it before you say it. That's uh that's good that you have that instinct. That helps a lot. Taryn, great seeing you again. Had a good time meeting you at Cajun Con. Uh, thank you for coming on and sharing a little bit of your world with us.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Well, thank you all for having me. I was excited and I'm glad I met y'all had a good time at Cajun Con too, and on the show.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

It was good seeing you, huh? And none of us had the foie, so that's even better.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

That's right. Speak for yourself. And with that, see you folks. Good night, folks.