S4E14: Rob Cima SkyWars

This week, Rob Cima joins Donnie and David to recap SkyWars 2025 and eagerly anticipate SkyWars 2026. Rob shares some of the most memorable moments from previous SkyWars events. Get a sneak peek of what Rob predicts will be the largest SkyWars to date.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

Yeah, that's it. I don't I don't know. I mean I don't know what the topic is at the moment, but uh yeah, I mean I thought we were talking about AI tonight. AI we we've we've had those conversations, we've had those conversations quite a few conversations on AI. I mean we had we had we had uh all the Sky Wars competitors begging to come on tonight because they wanted Grilla. They did.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Oh yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 0:26

They all like, hey, we want to invite this to this uh interview because we want we got questions. We got questions.

SPEAKER_06 0:34

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Hello and welcome to another episode of Pyro Unleashed. Tune in weekly as Donnie and David discuss all things Pyro from the business aspect of the industry to technical tips and memorizing pyro design. On pyro unleaked, we invite cutting-in experts to the podcast to discuss their role in making this industry a success.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

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SPEAKER_04 2:45

They're pretty good. Yeah, can't complain. We're good. You know, we're off and running. We're sold out early this year, which always makes it's kind of weird. When you get sold out early, it feels like there should be more to do. I mean, there's always stuff to do, but you know, in years past, this time of year is particularly busy figuring out how we can get more people to the event, and and now it you know that sort of goes away. It comes with its own set of problems with all these people who can't believe what it's really already sold out. I'm like, yeah, sorry, get go to Tixel, I guess, and put your name on the list. There's like 300 people on the waiting list on Tixel. So by the way, if you're trying to get rid of tickets, they will sell immediately if you put them on Tixel.

SPEAKER_06 3:25

All right.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

But you're going the wrong way, too. You should be keeping your tickets, not selling them. Should be quite great.

SPEAKER_07 3:32

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, lots of pirates out there looking.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_07 3:37

So I guess so. I guess I know we're gonna talk about Skywards, obviously, but uh we kind of rewind back a little bit to last year's. Yeah, sure. We haven't really talked since last year. I mean, um, I should we saw some pretty good shows last year.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

We did. We did see some great shows. I've gone back and watched them all a few times. I mean, yeah, really, really good stuff. Um yeah, I thought um you know, there's a couple couple of moments to stand out, but both of both of our shows that won. I mean, all the shows are always great. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, at any other event, any other any one of those shows is a winner. It's just uh unfortunately we have to pick one. And and uh, you know, um on the pro side, what Mikrit did with those uh smoke shells, that that scene, I'm convinced that won it for him. I mean, my my wife, who's always one of my, you know, uh, she gives me the scoop from what's happening in the audience, and she's like, Rob, you don't understand. People were crying during that scene. I'm like, I don't blame him. It was amazing. It was a beautiful, beautiful scene. And uh, you know, the video of that and like the drone video of it, it's just it's just great. And then I don't know what to say about the the uh the finale work that Sean did in the Pro Am. But I mean, I don't know how many comments that was in the last 30 seconds, it was a lot. And uh the wheels, he did a great job with the wheels, and I mean they were I mean, as I said, all the shows were great, but uh but just a couple of standout moments from those uh those winning shows for me anyway.

SPEAKER_06 5:06

Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. Um yeah, I I will say uh watching watching those two shows, you know, I th I thought it was a pretty clear winner uh as to who won those. And um, you know, Hodder always does something pretty epic. I know he's he's got something pretty crazy lined up for for PGI's uh opening night show for the closing night. Um so yeah, and then obviously uh um you know Mickrit's display was was just absolutely you know mind-blowing. The uh the smoke scene, obviously, like you said. The rest of the show was was pretty good too, obviously. Um you know at one, right? So uh yeah, I mean, like you said, that smoke scene, and you know, Donnie and I have had some conversations on that. Like, you know, do you think it was the smoke scene itself, or do you think like the halo in the sky, like for whatever reason it was there?

SPEAKER_04 6:03

I mean, it was the the combination of that plus the you know the uh the fact that you use the way it was outlined in in white, you know, and you can see the light on it. I mean, it was really the combination of those two things was yeah was great. Yeah. And that's how it usually is. I mean, most people, if you say, you know, tell me about that show, you don't remember all of it. You just like usually a couple scenes that you're like, that was awesome. And that's uh and I'm sure the judges, I mean, it it's hard to I've I've been to judge once or twice, not at Skywars, obviously, but uh it it's hard. And you know, I really do think you have to stand out uh just a couple of ways so somebody remembers something. Often it's the finale, you know. If you miss the finale, you're you're sort of sunk. But every now and then there's a few other moments where you're like, wow, that was that's really cool what they did.

SPEAKER_06 6:53

It's it is funny you say that, like as I'm sitting here scripting a show, like you always try and make the beginning really good and then the end really good, and then you create captivating moments like blips, I feel like, throughout the show, and you try and create something fairly epic in each one of the songs to make it stand out in its own way, like right. You know, you it's the same designer, right? But you want each song to be its own pyromusical of sorts, and then the end to have just this hurrah of of excellence.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

So you get a little bit of that, you know, the you a good finale and a few scenes like that will forgive a lot of sins elsewhere in the show, that's for sure. People won't remember the uh the four charcoal comets and the one orange comet going the other way.

SPEAKER_06 7:43

Yeah. Yeah. So all right. Well, I guess let's get into this year. Uh uh man, I can't believe the amount of people that have contacted us going, when is Rob coming on? So I've been really excited to have you on. And um, yeah, I guess let's just get right into it. What's the date this year?

SPEAKER_07 8:03

Yeah, we're down to down to five months here now, right?

SPEAKER_04 8:06

That was the thing like holy cow, or it's it's uh closing in on us all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_06 8:11

Yeah. So it's uh the last last Friday or last Saturday in September, correct?

SPEAKER_04 8:16

September 26th.

SPEAKER_06 8:17

26th, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Although these crews come out earlier and earlier. It's like I heard like Thursdays a week. Can we go out yet? Well, there's no stripes on it yet, guys.

SPEAKER_07 8:34

Big show's a set, man. We we we we we had all that time we can get.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

That's right. That well, that's true. Yeah. Yeah, that's that is true.

SPEAKER_07 8:41

Yeah, shows shows shows get bigger and bigger, and I think this year is gonna be it's gonna be even bigger.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

I mean, it's I mean, they're just I mean, there's no such thing as a show, any show that's less than three thousand cues anymore. Yeah. I mean, they are just you know, even just watch them over the last few years, it was like if you go back five or six years, you know, thousand twelve hundred and then, you know, two thousand. I think Scott Smith, the year that he won in twenty was it twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty, I guess, was he was like shy of two thousand cues, I think. Uh and now, yeah, you can't you can't touch it for that.

SPEAKER_06 9:22

I'm sitting here trying to pull up, see if I can find the show that I did.

SPEAKER_07 9:26

Uh so for this year, so obviously obviously they kind of do that. So we did a similar format this year, three proams, three, three pro shows.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

Three pro ams, three pros. Uh we are not gonna have our unlimited show this year.

SPEAKER_06 9:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

Well, uh part of it is we're trying to find extra space for these pro shows that have gotten they've ballooned a little bit. You know, we now we've in fairness, we're giving them more, more, more budget, and you know, everybody wants to win, so I'm sure that you know, just like in the past, there's gonna be extra stuff thrown in. There's lifts, galore. I think my lift count, my current lift count is 10. So I don't know where we're gonna put them all, but we're gonna put them out there. It's gonna be great. We'll figure it out. I just keep telling, hey, tell us what you tell us what you want to do. We're gonna do our best to figure out how to Jenga it in out onto the field out there. We'll just make it happen.

SPEAKER_06 10:21

Yeah.

unknown 10:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

So we got that.

SPEAKER_04 10:23

We're not gonna do the pro uh the unlimited this year. We'll probably bring it back, but just for the for this particular year. Like, we're you know, let's just try without. Um and uh mass launch, of course. Um try and go a little bigger. Uh Brian's, you know, hit that's Brian Tieman's little pet project, and it's the 250th anniversary. That's for 150 cases. He's like, 250, we should have 250 cases. So that's his.

SPEAKER_06 10:48

I don't know what he's gonna do yet.

SPEAKER_04 10:49

He said something about red, white, and blue. I'm like, I don't I don't know. So we'll we'll see what he puts up.

SPEAKER_06 10:54

That that might have come up in a conversation he him and I had uh right before last year, I think. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

The problem with crackle is let's face it, it's the best for Manslaw. It makes the most noise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's hard to beat it. For we did and we've done a bunch of stuff over the years, but uh crackle's the best. I don't know if you were you were you guys there for the whiteout one where it was all white strobe? This is going way back. This is probably 2010, 2011, something like that. And the soundtrack was brilliant. I don't remember who did it, but it was the National Weather Service has issued a severe storm warning of lizard, and then it was I don't know how many cases of uh you know white strobe cakes. So it was pretty it was pretty good too.

SPEAKER_07 11:40

I I will say uh the the mass crackle last year was was pretty it was pretty nice. I mean it was it was yeah, insane. It was very, very well done for uh for that for all the crackle. Yeah, it was perfect.

SPEAKER_06 11:49

Because I think the last time that crackle happened was in 16.

SPEAKER_04 11:53

Has it been that long?

SPEAKER_06 11:55

I think so.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

We tried we did red one year, we did we tried salutes, that wasn't that wasn't good. There we just weren't enough salutes. Uh and uh that was before like nowadays I feel like you can get it's easier to get your hands on salutes, but it has it, but at the time it was you know, like we're getting a bunch of one three, like it just was tough to do. Uh so in retrospect, a bad idea. We've uh yeah, there have been a bunch of things, but crackles crackle's the best.

SPEAKER_06 12:22

It stands out. And this last one was great.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

Yeah, just when you thought it couldn't get more intense, it just kept getting more intense.

SPEAKER_06 12:28

It was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

James Howard special. So uh he's on tap to shoot it again this year. We'll see what he uh what he comes up with. We'll see first of all, we'll see what product we have, and then we'll see what he comes up with.

SPEAKER_06 12:41

So who's doing the national anthem this year? Are we we releasing that yet?

SPEAKER_04 12:45

We've got uh I can't uh we uh who do we haven't doing the national anthem this year?

SPEAKER_03 12:50

Um I can't think of it.

SPEAKER_04 12:54

Mo Pyro member. He's gonna be really pissed when he sees this and goes, find it out and then I'll re-ask. I apologize now.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

I can't remember who's shooting the national anthem. It'll be good though.

SPEAKER_07 13:06

Okay. It's always good. I mean, National Anthony seems to know this. It's always very well done.

SPEAKER_04 13:11

It's a collaborative club thing typically, so uh yeah, it'll be great.

SPEAKER_07 13:16

And then um our three program competitors.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Uh yeah, our three program competitors. So we've got uh yeah, Nathan uh Dexter uh from Carmel, Illinois, and we've got uh Chad Flanders from Hickman, Nebraska, and then Jacob Pierce from Parker, Texas. So um yeah, I mean Nathan uh I mean they all great you know, all great shooters. Nathan did a show. One of the things that he submitted was a show that uh it was a cancer uh uh show that he did, a tribute. And uh I mean, really, if you get a chance to see it, I don't know if you guys have seen that online, but really well done. I mean, really well done. Um and of course, Jacob was at uh was down in Texas last year. And uh so he shot that and um that was a good that was a good one. And then Chad had some just nice stuff, and you know, every year, I mean he doesn't have I I think those, you know, those big shows like some of these other guys have, but um, you know, you see that he's got the capability and we're like ah, this is you know, every every now and then we see a guy that we're like, I think this guy's got it. And the last example of that is Mike Allen. I mean, if you look at the stuff that he submitted, just nothing, nothing at that at that large scale, but you just you get little glimpses of like, oh, I think he gets how to how to layer and how to time and you know use of color, and you just get the sense that they've they've got it. So I think we've got a great the lineup's just spectacular this year.

SPEAKER_07 14:48

Do you you do you know about how many entries you had?

SPEAKER_04 14:51

Or uh we I think there were 12, 12 or 13.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

So it's yeah, it it varies. When we've we've had, you know, I mean these days we usually get, you know, at least 10 or 12. Um in the old days we got you know, there were years where we were, you know, all right, we're we're out looking somebody. Then we do it. And it was funny because what used to happen as this as the cue counts got bigger, people got it was harder to find for a while because people thought, God, it's just a lot of work, and like I don't know. And uh, but I think as the event has continued to elevate and as people see uh the kind of things it shows that people are putting up and get excited, and they're like, we can do this. And so lately it just seems like even though the cue counts keep going up, there's still interest. So yeah, so that's good.

SPEAKER_07 15:46

No, it's I mean, I I think I think I'll part too. I mean, yeah, you can you actually can see that you know teams are able to put up those those cue counts and not have very big teams out there, and I think it gives you more confidence that you can you can pull together uh enough of a squad to to put up a show, yeah. And so it's it's kind of it's kind of good to kind of see that there's some interest out there and people are are wanting to step up and make that make that thing because I feel like Skywars can be an intimidating sight. I mean it's oh yeah, I mean it's big. It can be big.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

It's a big, it's a big site, it's a big, you know, the the big audience and big energy, and when you're sitting down there at the shooter's table, I mean it's kind of electric sitting down there for sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

And uh, you know, I think guys are just there there's starting to be more people with more experience though, too. I'm you know, a lot more people working with finale, a lot more people working with the firing systems to do pyromusicals, and enough enough information out there about how to do a more technical show and you know, not just you know, slap some uh igniters on cakes and you know, a couple single shots, but you know, more and more people trying to trying to figure out how to do things. And then I think people just have better pipelines. They they understand the work pipeline better. Yeah, yeah. How do you label what's the best way to get organized? How should you sort what comes out of finale so you're not you know running all over and trying to figure out you're not looking, you don't have like this jumble of comments going, I can't figure out where's the label for this? I can't find it. You know, so it's just people are getting more sophisticated with how they're doing that, and I think it makes it easier to uh easier to do it for sure.

SPEAKER_06 17:23

Yeah, yeah. Well, I guess uh let's get into some rules. What is it what any rule changes for the for the let's go pro am. Let's start pro-am.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

We haven't even talked about the pros yet.

SPEAKER_06 17:35

I mean, we got well okay, well, all right. Let's we don't have to talk about them yet.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

We got some good, there's a couple jokers on there. I mean, some of these guys, I don't even know. Yeah, I know this guy from Kansas City something. I wouldn't yeah. I wouldn't trust him. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_07 17:49

Okay, no one wouldn't trust any of the any of those people on that pro show.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Yeah, they're gonna be it's funny because you know Tyler uh from IPC, you know, 2022. I wouldn't he's he was like 22 at the time. He's an old man now. He's like so uh yeah, that that'll be good. And then have John coming back. I mean I can't imagine uh you know two years in a row, but uh that's what these guys sign up for when they when they do it.

SPEAKER_06 18:16

Yeah. Yeah, they're gonna be three incredible shows. I I will say I think it's gonna be one of the best Skywars events uh to date by far. Um to see just the names out there this year, um the quality of shows that I know these three guys can bring, and um it's yeah, it's gonna be a great, great event. So right.

unknown 18:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 18:39

I mean, as far as putting money towards shows, is this the most money that you guys have put towards shows for Skywars?

SPEAKER_04 18:44

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. You know, we're we're that's always it. You know, our our philosophy on the event is we there's I would say there's like three things. Number one, um, how do you make the event better for the shooters? Like, what can we do? What are the ideas? How do we provide them more time? Do can we um provide more support? Can you in the old days we wouldn't shoot with you know it was like the product you would couldn't get it in advance, and now it's like, well, look, how do we get it to them so they can start working with it? How do we get more more um uh more budget in their hands? You know, that that's that's all you know, that's a lot of it. Um and then I think uh it's it's working with the sponsors and and how do we do a better job for the uh for them. And then you know, the last thing is just um how do we um take the lessons learned from 2025 and apply them to 2026? It's like it's actually pretty easy. It's like you know, which what can we do different or let's do that and try it? And if it doesn't work, then what can we do different and let's do that and try it. So um, you know, from from the early days, it's been how can we just get more budget in the hands of the of these uh these crews? And I think we've done a pretty good good job with it. You know, the um if you go back to 2019, even I mean if you go back to twelve to the last uh before the last site, so you go back to Brookdale, so uh 2016 through 2018, yeah, um no budget, you know, like it was on you. So if you want to come shoot, great, bring a show, thanks. Uh so uh and that's changed a lot. I mean, we got you know, we'll we'll put up a hundred and uh what $130,000,000 in one night. So that's that's a pretty good and that's at hard costs. So uh, you know, no uh where else are you gonna get a show where you've got uh you know at this at this size, everything's at wholesale, no labor costs. Um you know, you just couldn't I don't even know what it would cost to put this show on if you tried to pay somebody to do it. Yeah, all the people in that field and for and for months in advance, and you just couldn't, it would be really difficult to do it.

SPEAKER_06 21:01

Yeah. Yes, it would. Yeah, I remember like I said, I you know, my first year there was in 2016. Um and you know, I was with uh with the closing show that year, and yeah, it was it was a lot of fun. It was it was the first part of musical um that I had ever shot or seen. You know, the whole event was brand new and yeah, it was it was mind-blowing. And then to look at it from you know what it was then to now, it's like it's a completely different. I mean, it is a different event, but it is a completely different event. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

So well, even I shot, you know, I shot in 2013, 2014.

SPEAKER_06 21:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

Uh and in 2013, it was the very first paramusical I'd ever shot. I had a brand new Cobra system, I'd never used it. And I walked out on it onto the field to set it up. And luckily, I've told this story before, I don't know if you guys have heard it, but yeah, Scott Smith from Cobra was there and And you know, I'm like, hey man, I haven't ever used this before. Can you take a look at it? I looked at my script, he's like, yeah, this is gonna work. I was running like uh I was running the a really old version of of uh the cobra software that would only do tenth of a second resolution, it wouldn't do hundredth of a second. So it might have been 2.0 or 2 something. I mean, it was old. Uh and he's like, Yeah, uh your script, it's just I'm like, what's gonna happen? He goes, I'm not sure if it's gonna shoot these at the wrong time or just not shoot these cues. And I was like, Well, that's not good. And so he in the field, while everything is matched and landed, he was he field upgraded all my units in the field while they were connected to to the uh to the show. So anyway, it went off great. Oh wow, that's cool, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 22:50

What a story though, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Yeah, that's the fun that's the stuff you remember. That's when I had uh uh I think it was Ron Swartz had one of the first wheels I'd seen. He had a 60-foot lift out there and had we had a wheel. And I remember looking up at it, and I'm like, hey Ron, I I'm pretty sure that that is gonna shoot straight down into my tubes. Uh so he was one of the program guys. I had this, I had a 1-3 show out there, and I'm like, I'm right under it. They're literally just gonna shoot straight into the tubes. And finally I got him to move to adjust it a little bit. So it wouldn't do that. And at 60 feet, it was pounding into the ground, too. So it would have really hit hard.

SPEAKER_07 23:30

Yeah. Yeah. So at what what point in time did you guys really start to like sell out Skywars and it became as big of a tendency as it is today?

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Like, I mean, it was after 2020. It was after the uh after we moved to the Innsbruck site for sure, and we branded with the Skywars name. Yeah. Um that first year was pretty good. Uh so 2020, and then in 2021 was good. Was it 22, David? That was that the year you were there. You had firing system. Everybody had firing systems.

SPEAKER_06 24:04

I was 21.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

21. Everybody so 2020 was great. 21, we sold, we we sold out, and we were, you know, about we were at capacity. Um, and then that was the year everybody had firing system problems.

SPEAKER_06 24:18

So many firing system problems.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

We had like every single person had firing system problems. I don't know what it was, like the we it was haunted or something. I'm not sure what happened. Yeah, yeah. David had them. We had that was when one of the the unlimited guy, Steve. Uh his show was a scratch. Um and uh Casa had had problems, they had a trunk line issue, and yeah, they were on the older Apex version that didn't tolerate that very well, like there was some other you know, problem. And it was oh, and I think is that the year that Scott uh Shu had uh problems we had we had the module set to test, yeah. And um and the next year we sold like two-thirds as many tickets, like it had a major impact on on sales. Um and then we came back uh in the next year and just went crazy. So we had a that was that was a great show, and then it it uh since then it's it has sold out, and then now it just sells out early and earlier. This year in particular, I mean it was 5,000 tickets in the first quick in the it it was uh I tigs went on a sale at 10. I had a I was at the office, you know, this Sky Wars thing doesn't pay the bills, obviously. So and uh had a meeting, it got over at 10 o'clock, and I thought I said, Well, tickets are gonna go on sale. I said I'm just gonna run out of the bathroom real quick, come back, and I'll sit down and just make sure that everything's going well. And I sat down and we'd sold 4,000 tickets in five minutes.

SPEAKER_06 25:52

Holy shot.

SPEAKER_04 25:53

Like, uh, holy cow. So um yeah, it's a great problem to have, but yeah, um, yeah, it is interesting.

SPEAKER_07 26:02

So wow. I mean, it is are there any opportunities at all at the current site to go to expand that, or are we just kind of like maxed out as far as space goes?

SPEAKER_04 26:11

Kind of maxed out. I mean, I think maybe last year when we talked a little bit about the site, and we had plant big plans to try and expand it and got a bill back from the contractor for 1.5 million to do the grading and tree removal we wanted to do, and that pretty much you know, that's like a lot of stuff. Certainly not on a site that we think we're gonna be on through probably 2030, and after 2030, we'll be looking for uh something new. I mean, obviously we're kind of looking now, but yeah, yeah, uh you know, I'll call it casually looking. So for now, you know, as as we keep saying like it's not broken, like we would love for it to be uh enjoyed by more people, that would be great. Um, but we have the you know, we have enough people and we have the budgets to put on you know world-class shows, and and I think if we just keep doing what we're doing, it's not you know, it's probably okay. Um and so we're looking for other opportunities to try and improve the event. And uh for now, we'll probably just keep it the same size. But I mean, certainly if we go to a new site, we'd like it to be twice as wide as it is now, just to give people, you know, we're we're having to, you know, we're always we're we get that tree line down the sides, we're trying to get people to not pound that with their single shots. And uh you know that was my problem. I think that's a good idea. And it but it would be nice to have you know, I want you to be able to hit that 75 degree angle outside on the edge if you want. I don't care uh so anything would look awesome, but yeah, we need a little more width to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah, fire tech firing system. Come on, people letting it go. This is fire technology.

SPEAKER_07 28:05

And I know David kind of brought up a little video for you just about some of the rules and some of the guidelines. And so, I mean, as far as the program crew looks like, like what's what are what are they kind of working with this year?

SPEAKER_04 28:17

Uh I mean similar similar rules to to the past, so you know, products gotta be uh 1.4, 1.4 Pro, um no, no fireballs, no uh you know, nothing like that, no DMX for those guys. And it um I mean I will say it's it's you know either either one 14G uh professional use only UNO336 uh or UNO431 is pretty much what you've you've got to be working with. So um and in in some cases, you know, we've had we've had cases in the past, there are some suppliers out there that will not sell to someone without a uh you know ATF license display operators license, even though it's not it's professional use only product, but it's you know it's not it's not regulated. That's just one of their rules. So our you know, if you if if that's what you want and you can get your hands on it, great. If you need our help getting your hands on it, that's fine too. But it, you know, this is not uh this is not regulated product as far as ETF is concerned. So that that would make it uh you know eligible for use in this in the uh in the Pro Am division. Um then obviously on the Pro Division it's it's uh a little more wide open. Although this year, you know, we've had a lot we've had a lot of DMX in the past, we're kind of going away from it. So um it's technically allowed, although we are disc we're officially discouraging it because it is a fireworks competition after all. So and I have just my personal opinion, I've I've yet to see a really great use of it. You know, it could be it can be fine, it's there's there's some things, but the you know the bar for great DMX lights if you've ever been to a really big concert is really high, and it's just hard to do a great hard to great hard to great job with it. So um we're not saying that you can't, but we're you know um and then of course the usual you know girondola's rockets are are not uh for for Skywars. And then uh we always we always look a little if you have a long hanging item, a windbell, something like that, we're we're always looking at it a little carefully. If it gets windy, we might uh we might ask you to pull that out. But other than that, you know, the products are you know you pretty pretty use whatever you want. And we're good up to 16 inch at uh at Skywars, although these days it's hard to get your hands on large diameter stuff that's uh worth a damn. Not easy, that's for sure. Yep.

SPEAKER_06 30:44

Well and they're their supplier then get you tens and twelves from the US. And they're obviously more expensive than they were a few years ago.

SPEAKER_05 30:51

So that is true. That is true.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

So take a take a really good eight over uh a meh 16 anytime, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_07 31:00

Well, yeah, it is so far back. I mean 16 is just so it's so far away. It's it's hard to get that impact. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 31:07

Yeah, I thought the one that the uh the K cap uh shell that uh the Memorial one that we had was uh beautiful shell. That was pretty nice. Yeah. And that was FNF. Whose shell was that?

SPEAKER_07 31:17

That was FNF, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:19

I've seen uh I've seen an FNF 16 that I was fantastic, and then I've seen one that looked like a six. Yeah, so it's just hard to and I don't know if it was it was just the shell selection or if it was uh you know difference in manufacturing. I'm just not clear. And you hate to find out the hard way. There's only one way to find out, that's the problem.

SPEAKER_07 31:39

Yep. Yeah, and I know if I like the pro show is the same as usual, like we've got to bury like sevens, eights, tens, twelves, all that kind of stuff still.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

Yeah, um well, yeah, so anything anything over uh six is uh you know buried. So eights, tens, twelves, six scenes would be uh would be buried. Anything else can be racked. Gotcha. And the usual stuff. I mean, uh you know, the I feel like we've got a great relationship with the uh with Fire Marshal. You know, he he knows what he wants, we know what he wants. Um, I think we all know how to put a safe show up uh there. And you know, that those inspections are although they're still the longest inspections of your life, but like fireworks should be two and a half hours to inspect. But uh I feel like we got it down to almost two hours now, which is which which is nice.

SPEAKER_07 32:28

Yeah, he he enjoys talking. That's that's that's part of that's part of it. He that's it's the experience. It's the experience. He enjoys talking the whole entire time and makes it.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

Well, it's just yeah, and uh you know now it's like a lot of guys, especially if you've shot before, it's a you know you you know there's enough people that have been around and you know they recognize him and he recognizes them. Hey, what's going on? You so it's uh yeah, it's nice.

SPEAKER_07 32:49

And then I know we have we haven't mentioned yet. I'm assuming um Bill Corbett's gonna be out there.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Bill will be there, the fireball dudes will be there in in force per per usual.

SPEAKER_07 32:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:59

I'm not sure what he's gonna do yet. I'm not sure he knows what he's gonna do yet. It'll be big and it'll be hot, is what we know.

SPEAKER_06 33:09

And uh lasers for intermission again this year. And yep, lasers for intermission.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

I'm sure what the drones will be back. Good. Um, so that's always uh always a nice one.

SPEAKER_07 33:19

My question is can I can I use the drone guys in my show also?

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Um, you know, we we are a fireworks show, not a drone show.

SPEAKER_06 33:30

So he's not saying no, he's just saying you have to have fireworks on the drones.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

We may or may not have had other people ask that question already, and we told them no. Part of the reason, and of course, I'm always open to anything, but part of the reason is all right, where are you gonna take where are you gonna stage them? You're gonna they gotta take off from from somewhere. Um so that's a that's a challenge. And then you know, like where are they gonna fly that is not gonna be interrupt, you know, unlike when they when they actually fly and they're over the fireworks, it's like where are you gonna where are you gonna have them?

SPEAKER_07 34:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

So it does add some it adds some some complication for sure.

SPEAKER_07 34:07

Yeah, because obviously then the pro charge you got fireworks across the entire field, so it's not really there's not a great spot for them to fly.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

It's not a place for them to fly. That was the thing, it was like, oh like where are you gonna fly them? Well, it's maybe for just that part we're only gonna fly drones. I'm like, uh, I don't yeah. We're a fireworks show. So yeah, we're a fireworks show. It's good.

SPEAKER_07 34:29

Yeah. And then I know that obviously on Friday night we have pyro activities on Friday night still, and on Friday.

SPEAKER_04 34:36

Pyro activities Friday night. Um, and you know, uh we'll have the uh the blind pyro competition. We'll have uh demos it per usual.

SPEAKER_05 34:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

And um and then Thursday night meet and greet. Although we are we're we're kind of I'm not ready to make an any announcement yet. We're playing around with a little something on Thursday night. We will see when we make a change there, try to do something a little different, a little fun.

SPEAKER_07 35:03

All right.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

And then uh we're still working out the details.

SPEAKER_07 35:07

Yeah. Okay. And then anywhere on Blind Pyro teams? Do we are we in that selection process? You looking for teams? Or you have teams?

SPEAKER_04 35:15

I believe we have three slots that are um that are filled, or we've got interest, and I think I still have one that is open as of right now. I need to I need to check my list, but I'm pretty sure that's where we're at. Not completely full, but close.

SPEAKER_07 35:33

Okay, if you get the applications from KCAP, they're automatically denied. So they can no no no no cake. No KCAP line pirate. Yeah, yeah, I have to automatically deny those. So this is not my year, right? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, this is not your year, Dave. You're busy, you're busy too. I don't think so. You had your chance last year and you you you bailed on us. That's right. You did bail on it.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

You bailed on me at the last minute. We were scrambling too.

SPEAKER_07 35:56

Yeah. Uh you could have been the one that ended up with the with the cake. You could be the one that ended up with a cake that went five minutes to the one-minute cake. I mean, yeah, that could have been you.

SPEAKER_04 36:05

The longest, the longest cake. We did uh one we did on the uh you know, we've had some sound problems on on uh Friday nights. Um sometimes caused by you know uh somebody used a bad USB thumb drive in their uh in their audio box, which happens. I've been the victim of that particular little thing in years past. Um but uh but last year we were having some kind of weird generator thing. So um this year we just uh we contracted with the sound guys who do Saturday night and said, Would you also do Friday night? Oh, nice. Oh, great.

SPEAKER_07 36:42

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

So so Arch, the guys from uh will be we'll have professional sound, professional sound men and all that. So like let's just take one more thing off the table. Yeah. In the vein of let's just what did we learn last year and we're gonna make better this year. It's all we that's all we do. It's actually a simple recipe.

SPEAKER_07 36:58

Yeah. And then do we have an another like closing display show on a Friday night this year?

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Or not yet, but that's our intention. I thought that worked out great last year. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_06 37:08

It really helped keep the people there, I think. Yep. Uh through the demos and such.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

Yeah. And you never, you know, that's that's always one of the challenges. I mean, the the challenge with the competition is the last show could not be the best one. You know, it it could be the worst one, and then or it might not go at all. And and then, you know, it's nice to have something at the end of the night. I mean, one of the ways we get around that at during the actual event is we put Corbett's big fireball at the end. So that's something to stick around for, even if that last show is not what you hoped it might be, although they're all they're always great, but yeah, you just never know. Um so I thought it was a great, it was really nice. It was a nice show. Uh, we combined it with um uh some learning events during the day with uh you know finale and and with spirit, and I just think it turned out good. So we're we're hoping to do that again. Obviously, we need somebody to take the lead on it, and hopefully there's a sponsor that's interested in it, but that's uh that's kind of we're thinking about right now.

SPEAKER_07 38:05

And then um, I know obviously no spectator passes are sold out, um, but you guys do have pyropasses where are we at on availability for pyropasses? We've got quite a few left.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

I think we're we are two-thirds sold out. I think there's three hundred and a little bit less than that. There's th over three hundred tickets left.

SPEAKER_07 38:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

So a good good idea.

SPEAKER_07 38:25

I need I I need to send my order of like 50 into you then.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

Well, if you're if you're yeah, you probably I am holding some back for crews, but if you're gonna if you need 50, uh we probably need to keep that movie.

SPEAKER_06 38:38

What about holding back extra for sponsors?

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Yes, we I have we've already taken out for sponsors and for uh crews, you know, a uh a reasonable number of tickets.

SPEAKER_06 38:50

But if you need more than that, that's there was only 50 tickets, Donnie. You took them all. I took them all.

SPEAKER_07 38:55

I took everybody's tickets, they're all mine. Sorry, sorry guys.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

And then you know, one of the other things, you know, just thinking about that, you know, how do we help the crews? One of the things that's you know, and this is true at every fireworks event. I mean, it's true at PGI. The seating is a free-for-all up front. And um, you know, we don't um it's hard to police. I actually I had I had two guys that did nothing for two but for three days, they just sat there and argued with people over moving chairs and taking up too much space and roping off too much and putting down a 50 by 50 foot uh tarp and you know just all the stuff that happened. So um now one thing that's different, you know, if you if you look at at some of the uh the maps, uh you know you look at like an aerial view of where people sit, everybody's clustered in the middle, and even on the front row out to the sides, there is nobody. It is completely green space. So uh in talking with Innsbruck this year, they're like, hey, uh we're just gonna not rope that area off for pyros anymore. Is that okay? You don't sit there anyway. And I'm like, yeah, I mean I don't I don't blame you. It's yeah, it's empty space. Somebody could be sitting there. So um, but I think that you know, one of the things that's uh that's occurred to us is you know, the crews that are out there that are working all week, we want to make sure they've got good seats. And you know, we've definitely had cases where they you know are are uh not able to sit where they want to sit because they were busy working in the field and somebody else showed up and plopped their chairs down. And so it's like maybe that maybe our number one should be all right, let's make sure you've got your area, and then everybody else can fill in around around uh you guys. So I think we'll have a little less field. And a lot of people want to sit on they want to sit on center somewhere and they're happy to move back. And so we're gonna have a smaller pyro area and people can sit where they want.

SPEAKER_06 40:48

Yeah. Yeah, somebody who's shot shows, yeah. I I appreciate being able to sit front and center um and and watch. I mean, even to the point of like, you know, not complaining, but you know, sitting at the shooter table watching a show, it's like everything's off kilter. I'm like, press the button, and I just want to run to the center and be like just watch the show, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

But yeah, just can't, you know, I mean I guess we could you know let everybody look at the back of our heads right on center, just put there right down the middle, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 41:19

That's horrible. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:22

I mean, of course, the best place to watch the whole thing. Now it's not the best for sound because you get the you get a delay, but I mean you sit all the way at the back, the shows are beautiful back there.

SPEAKER_06 41:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:31

Yeah, you get you can see everything, you really see the layers, you it's just nice. And uh, but you know, I get it. People want to sit up front. Yeah, feel it a lot. That's where the energy, all the pyro energy is right on the back.

SPEAKER_07 41:45

Yeah. Yeah, cuz I know it's like I've a lot especially I in the field. Um you have your chairs with you, like you don't have the luxury to bring like extra chairs sometimes. And you have one chair at the pirate scene, you got one chair you're using all week while you're out there working. So it's good to have we'll have those dedicated spots for our career to build at least, you know. Know they've got a spot where we can go in afterwards and and watch from.

SPEAKER_04 42:08

Let's get that roped off early and you just can't sit there. And then people can fill in around. I do like that argument. That it's always just well, why do they get to sit there? And I'm like, Well, you mean the person that's been here for the last five days working? Why do they get to sit there? Just got here? I don't know. Just seems fair.

SPEAKER_07 42:34

Yeah. And then fly for like the like the crews, pirate crews showing up. I mean, like, you know, like what's our time frame for you know how early we're we're gonna we're gonna be out to build together on the site to start kind of work and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 42:45

I mean we do we keep moving our security up earlier and earlier because we'll be able to start putting the product down. So um, I mean, I'd like to get you guys in the field on Monday if you want to. I mean last last unless unless there's you know weather issues, we've we've pretty much been uh done with uh field striping and all the measurement and that stuff by by Sunday would be our goal. So I mean I think this I think this year a little little bit earlier, try and get you guys out there on Monday.

SPEAKER_06 43:15

Yeah. Good food vendors and everything lined up, ready to rock and roll, and Fector is gonna be back doing our doing the food.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

Our great caterer, he does such a great job. So yeah, he'll be back and and uh yeah, we'll we'll have good eats. We eat we eat pretty good out there, uh I feel like the old days, the pre-Caleb days, when I think one year we had like you know, Olive Garden or something. Yeah, so that was uh that was not awesome. It's all kinds of little logistics you don't think about. Like, you know, it's like we keep going more porta potties and now it's like, yeah, that's we don't want we're done. We now we have to have them serviced, so we're gonna have people back there, bring them in. It's little just all the little stuff like that that you don't you don't think about.

SPEAKER_07 44:00

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is there is there anything like really big that stands out that you guys still need to figure out for this year that you're still like an unknown still for this year?

SPEAKER_04 44:09

I mean, beyond the beyond what we're gonna do for the mass launch, still beyond that, I think we've got a pretty good pretty good handle on it. You know, we're we're we're planning to expand the last year we uh was the first experiment with uh having like the vendor area and having the tables and stuff. Yeah, it worked really well. People liked it. There was gave people something to do during the day, and um we'll probably we'll expand that this year a little bit. You know, that that'll just be a change. We'll planning to have some more uh just signage there, trying to be a little trying to be a little more organized about uh deliveries if people want to order from vendors. We usually are behind the eight ball on that, so we're trying to get ahead of it. Um trying to think of other new things this year. The shirts, you know, usually apparel. We're ahead of the game on apparel. Have like a the most of a design uh done. We're gonna have those online earlier. And this year we've got we partner with a new vendor and they're gonna ship. So you'll put it on the website, and if you want to you can pick it up there, or you can, you know, for if you pay a fee, you can they'll ship it to your house and you can have a couple of things. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 45:20

Oh, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:21

So that's really cool. Um what else is new? Oh, the uh elevated uh trophies this year, so that's uh that'll be something new. The uh the champion of champions uh trophy is a WWE style $2,000 weight belt. Oh custom custom uh made metal. I mean, it is it's gonna be hot.

SPEAKER_06 45:47

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 45:48

That'll be that'll be a good one. And then we're looking at the um just on the regular trophies as well. This custom glass makers working with us to come up with something there. So, you know, we're we're going away from the you know, the tall uh you know standard trophy and trying to make it something that's that's just nicer. And and uh I think it's gonna turn out good. We'll see. We'll try it. If it doesn't work, we'll do something different.

SPEAKER_07 46:11

Yeah, yeah. I mean, for champion champions, we gotta yeah, we gotta have a better. It seems appropriate. Yeah, yeah. We've got something, yeah, something, something there, something there to win. That's what we thought. That's what we thought.

SPEAKER_04 46:21

So I we haven't the design's not done yet, but I think as soon as we get something that's uh we'll probably post a picture of it online or something. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_07 46:28

Cool. Look looking looking forward to that, yeah. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_06 46:35

This has been fun. I think this has been real fun. Yeah, we appreciate you coming on, Rod.

SPEAKER_04 46:39

It's good to catch up. Yeah, you bet.

SPEAKER_06 46:41

Yeah, you bet. I am looking forward to Skywars, I will tell you that.

SPEAKER_07 46:45

Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure all the comparisons are still gonna have questions for you. I don't think they do. I don't think I don't think we answered anybody's questions tonight for them. I I no, I didn't. I mean, I don't I don't want to I don't want to answer questions for them. I don't want to answer their questions. I'll have questions before we get done recording, but I don't want to answer.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

That was it.

SPEAKER_05 47:06

That that's also uh let's hop into our final five here with uh with Rob.

SPEAKER_07 47:16

See how Rob does on these on these final five questions?

SPEAKER_03 47:18

I didn't know there was gonna be a speed round. Yeah, yeah, speed round.

SPEAKER_07 47:21

Yeah, five five questions. Uh they're all they're all pretty easy for you. I think you got this.

SPEAKER_05 47:26

We'll see if I can if I can do it.

SPEAKER_07 47:28

Question one a bucket list event that you have not yet attended. Probably Sky Wars, right? Sky Wars 20.

SPEAKER_04 47:36

Well, I've wanted to go to Pyrene Alley in Berlin. Uh-huh. Yeah, that's been on my and then and I'd like, and it's actually it's right at the beginning of September, and then I thought afterwards I could just head down to Oktoberfest. That's been on my list for a little while. I'm having a hard having some problems selling that at home, but uh I think that I think maybe I could get her. I maybe I could get her to go.

SPEAKER_07 48:03

You guys gotta incorporate some other some other little piece in there that that uh you know that she'll like a part of it.

SPEAKER_04 48:08

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_07 48:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:09

Yeah, that has been I mean, there's obviously a lot of great events, but that's one that uh that that's one I just it I saw it early when I was trying to figure out how to make Skywars bigger and better, and it was one of the events I looked at. I did go to I had the opportunity to go to Montreal a few years ago, that was awesome. And actually I went on a week when I by it there was a Wednesday and the Saturday, so by just staying for one week I actually got to see two shows, which was really cool. But Pyro Nowley's a little bit more like Sky Wars where you have it all, it's all closer together. So um not all on one night, I think it's on two nights, but uh would like to see see that one day.

SPEAKER_07 48:45

All right. Question two favorite firework show that you have shot or you've been a part of?

SPEAKER_04 48:52

Favorite fireworks show that I have shot. That's a good question. I mean those those uh those couple at at um at Skywars were pretty pretty cool, I have to say. Um there's always it's funny because the things that are the things that are memorable are the ones that go sideways. That's the funny thing. So I mean I would say I mean from a final result, not my favorite, from a most memorable, which I'll go with that, is a uh a club show. I had put I'd gone all out on the uh on the show, and it was one of our early in-the-year events, I think it was April, and I don't know, I had I had a thousand cues out there, you know, which is nothing now, but at the time it was like every Cobra in the club was built in this thing. And this is back when nobody had lipos yet, it was all double-A rival batteries, and uh the weather drops down to like 28 degrees at show time, and I'm I'm looking at the everything is running out of battery, so it's all sudden it's like you know, P0 over here, and I'm like, hey, run over to mod, run over to number 12 and put a new battery in it. And so he puts that in, and I'm like, oh, 14 is a zero now, and so go put one in there. So we put like seven or eight batteries in, and I'm just watching them all go down, it's like p5 because it's so cold, yeah. So we finally shoot the show, and I have probably 50% of the mods in the field are showing P0. Oh I'm like, uh we got we gotta go. This is also the same night that I was telling you I had uh used a non uh non-sanctioned thumb drive in the audio box, so I can't get the audio to go. And um, and then on top of that, I had a case of dominator uh six-inch shells. Every one of those things broke at about a hundred feet in the air. And there were, I mean, I'm not exaggerating, there's a hundred fires. There's a hundred fires, it's cold. Part of the some of the fires are across the creek. One of the our safety guy is like wading hip deep through the creek to get to the other side to put the fires out. And at one point, uh a club member comes up behind me and he goes, and he passed me in the back and he he goes, A lot of fires out there. I said, Yep. And he goes, You think about calling the fire department? I said, Yep, getting close. He goes, All right, well, I'm out of here. We did get the fires put out. Many thanks to Jack Lindsay for wading through the uh through the creek. I thought Jack's gonna have a heart attack afterwards. He's laying on the ground. I was like, is he okay? We may have to take him to the hospital, but we got him out. And even though the show there were the show actually mostly still looked great, although without music, and now it's it is one of my most memorable shows for sure.

SPEAKER_07 51:50

That's funny. All right, question three. If you can only have one, which would you choose? Hand fire or e-fire?

SPEAKER_04 51:58

Oh, e-fire, all day. Yeah, I want to stand I want to stand back and watch the show. I don't like to and you know that the uh the hand fire thing, one of the first I only shot a few hand fire shows, but one of them I was uh sitting in front of a bunch of five-inch shells, and uh again, the same guy, Jack Lindsay, was with me uh that day too, and I, you know, uh lit one, and when I pulled the leader off of it, I the one next to it must have fallen off and it and it caught the one next to it. So the one goes off and I turn around and a five-inch shell went off, you know, three inches from my face. And I was like, I finished the show, but I'm like, yeah, I don't like I don't love this. I'm gonna I'm gonna stand back and e-fire from now on.

SPEAKER_07 52:45

All right, question four. What is your favorite firework effect?

SPEAKER_04 52:50

My favorite firework effect. This is a good question. And I I would say one of my favorites, uh, just because it's on uh it's a little it's a little unusual. Maybe it's a tie. I would say I love a uh a shell full of crossettes when it breaks, and especially there was one I had years ago. I got it from Casabella. Couldn't tell you what it was, but it's like a it was like a crackling time rain cross set kind of shell, and it was just beautiful. Um the other one is it used to be this thing called Hundred Dragons Dance. I don't know if you were it was uh it was a windbell, but it was a it had I don't know eight or nine pieces under it, and they would all spin as it was really cool. And um another one I got from Casabella, and Jerry says he can't get anybody to make them anymore, which is too bad because they were they were really cool. They were really, really cool.

SPEAKER_07 53:46

All right, the most difficult question I have all night. Does pineapple belong on pizza? No, bad no. So we're ordering pineapple pizza for Skywars, and that's all we're gonna have to talk about. I'm gonna tell Caleb just to bring pineapple pizzas for for uh that's my story.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

They can't do it. Oh my goodness. That's Sunday night special or Saturday night special. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 54:12

That's a surprise for the beaten greet for Thursday night. That's a Thursday night surprise.

SPEAKER_04 54:17

You guys are pro pineapple pizzas? Is that what I mean? Oh, yeah. If I'd have known that, I would have been on the podcast.

SPEAKER_06 54:26

Oh yeah. Oh man. Tough crazy. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 54:32

Well, some good stuff tonight. Oh, it's good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 54:37

We covered some ground, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_07 54:39

Yeah, no, we had a little bit of challenges to get even getting to this point. So, I mean, some scheduling conflicts and work.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

Thanks for uh accommodating my my delay there, but we're we got it done.

SPEAKER_07 54:51

Yeah, it's always always worth the time and always enjoy talking with you and being able to sit down and just chat about Sky Wars and some stories. And it's always kind of cool to hear some of the old the old stories from from how things how things were before.

SPEAKER_06 55:06

Yeah. Well, want to say thank you to our sponsors. We have uh Bucksboard, obviously. CJ, thanks again for for your help and sponsorship. Um we have Fire Tech, uh, firing system of the uh of the season. Um probably gonna see that maybe out on a field this year at Skywar. Maybe actually might be a whole show of that. Yeah. Uh and then uh T Sky and Winda. Um huge shout out to them for sponsoring again this year or this season. Um yeah, without you guys, we couldn't make this possible. And um and obviously PGI uh that's coming up uh in August 8th to the 14th. Looking forward to that. And yeah, I think we have one more episode this season. Um still trying to work out the timing, I think, for a little bit. So still working on that, but on the scheduling? As long as we get this one on, it's gonna be one of the most epic, I think. It's gonna be fun. So it's gonna be a fun one.

SPEAKER_07 56:14

Get some schedules to line up, I think. Yeah, yeah. So but again, guys, I want to thank Rob and coming on. And um, unfortunately, if you're looking for tickets or uh sold out this year, so you have to try again next year.

SPEAKER_04 56:25

But uh pirate tickets, we got pirate tickets.

SPEAKER_07 56:28

Yeah, we got pirate tickets. If you're a pyro, if you're a pyro, yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna take them all, so sorry guys. I'm gonna be telling Rob after this. I need all three hundreds left. Anyway, guys, we'll get uh we've got one more episode again this season, guys. We'll get that out of here too, as soon as we get that scheduled up. But uh in the meantime, guys, go out there and unleash your inner pyro with us.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

This has been another episode of Pyro Unleashed. Come back each week for more industry insights, technical tips, and awesome pyro design. Have fun out there, be safe, and as always, remember to unleash your inner pyro with us.