Behind the Whiskers

Episode 28 - Through the Looking Glass

• Twisted Whisker FX

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Step right up to a very special episode of Behind the Whiskers! This week, the workshop is a little more crowded and a lot more glamorous as we introduce two vital new members of the Twisted Whisker family.

Mitch and Harley are joined by our new project photographer, Kaylee, and the mesmerizing burlesque character, Tommie. We’re pulling back the curtain on our most recent collaborative photoshoot to discuss what happens when the gritty world of the sideshow meets the polished lens of high-concept photography.

📲 Follow us for more behind the scenes:

Instagram: @twistedwhiskersideshow

Facebook: @twistedwhiskerfx

📲 Follow our guests on Instagram to stay up to date on their projects:

Tommie: @tommie_foolery

Kaylee: @kayleemccammantphotography

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review our podcast on your favorite streaming app. Your support helps Mitch and Harley keep the show on the road!

#Podcast #BehindTheWhiskers #SideshowPhotography #Burlesque #TwistedWhiskerFX #MeetTheTeam #BehindTheScenes #StayTwisted

Until next time—keep your feet on the sawdust and your mind in the marvels. Stay twisted.
SPEAKER_02

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to another episode of Behind the Whiskers, the podcast where we dive into all of the weird and wonderful art endeavors and their inspiration that lead us to the preeminent version of the Twisted Whiskers Sideshow. I'm one of your hosts, Michel Fink.

SPEAKER_03

And I'm Harley Clinton, and we are joined by two different guests. A little bit of a slip-up there. We're joined by Tommy, a prominent member within our sideshow, has helped us on a lot of uh projects, very talented artist, as well as her friend, a photographer who is now the official photographer of the Twisted Whisker Sideshow. Say hello, guys.

SPEAKER_06

Hello, I'm Kaylee. Hi, I'm Tommy.

SPEAKER_02

So to expound on that a little bit, uh, we all recently did a really, really cool photo shoot together. Not inherently for the purposes of um promoting the sideshow. That wasn't inherently our aim. Uh we'll get into that in a little bit. But we were uh just a couple of folks, like artists that had the stuff, and uh Tommy approached me with the idea, and we had it like a 2 a.m. phone call, get into that too, to shoot some some sideshow related content. Uh and Kaylee was looking for some interesting things to shoot and came out, and you guys can see the results of that um on Kaylee's Instagram, which will be tagged down below. And uh, of course, all over the Twisted Whisker Sideshow page, look for those photos to slowly get leaked out over the next couple of months because they were tremendous. So I'd appreciate that so much. I I I do not give dishonest art compliments. I believe that. I don't have the time. Um genuinely really pulled the vision forward. So I think uh uh kind of you know, and Tommy has helped us out on so many of our projects. Um you'll see Tommy commonly performing as the burlesque character, Valentine Bordeaux. Uh and then uh she does a little bit of um putting strange things up her nostrils as well as escaping from street packets and some other goofiness therein, ever-expanding list of talents. Uh and I guess really I'm gonna terrifyingly open-end it for uh Tommy, you, and you, Kaylee, to walk our uh studio audience through uh how this photo shoot came together.

SPEAKER_04

Well, um Tommy and I we met was it Instagram?

unknown

I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_06

Uh yeah, I think I think you did like uh an open model call in like January and you were like, hey, does anyone want to shoot something? And I was like, Me.

SPEAKER_04

Pick me. Exactly. And then um we just kind of really headed off since. I love Tommy so much. Um you're like my favorite person ever. So um, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_06

Wait, don't say that on air, other people might jealous.

SPEAKER_04

Right, right. Oops, sorry. Um but no, um I've always loved Tommy's vibe, and I think that we kind of we we talked about some clown stuff that we were gonna do, and she kind of knew the vibe that I was going for, looking for like collaborations and uh stuff like that. And then she introduced me to you guys, and she was like, hey, so I have a whole group of sideshow performers that I think you would really love to to do some kind of collaboration with. And I don't know, it just kind of went from there. Um we usually we talk over Instagram a lot, and I'm just glad the the plans came through and we actually did it.

SPEAKER_06

So yeah, I remember um so we we had done I think two shoots together, and then we started like sharing back and forth inspiration for like what we want to do together in 2026, as you do when you're collaborating with other artists uh consistently enough. Um and there was like there was always an idea I had in the back of my head since I started modeling where I was like, I want to bring my friends in on this because it just makes it more fun, I guess. Um and I'm very blessed to have some of the coolest friends with the coolest hobbies. Um, and so when I was thinking about, you know, how do I want to bring circus into my other creative endeavors uh being modeling? It just it made sense to ask Kaylee first because our our energy and like our our aesthetics meshed so well. And I I'm so happy that it turned out how it did, dude. You you guys have to go check out those photos.

SPEAKER_04

I'm so honored.

SPEAKER_03

They really were tremendous photos. I was very impressed by everything I saw.

unknown

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I mean we couldn't have done it without Mitch either. Um I think that the the set design was amazing. It I always like I walked in and I was like, okay, this is so much better than I ever thought that could have been.

SPEAKER_02

I I am greatly uh complimented by that. Thank you. Um it helps to have I I've been building real feeling environments for a very long time. Uh listeners to the podcast who have been with us since the beginning have talked about my kind of start in doing living history and taking that super seriously and building very real environments. And that's kind of where that comes from, where the sideshow's instincts artistically are sometimes less about like college-bred scenic design, and they're more about what are the real things these people would have had, with some theatrical exceptions for magic and werewolves and ghosts, and you know, but if you start with a really real pile of stuff, it's very, very easy. Whereas if I had none of this and you guys were like, Oh yeah, can we do a creepy carnival environment? I would have like been like, I have a hundred bucks. I think I can afford some drop cloth and some paint guys that'll have stripes. Hey, my mom's got some bistro lights on the porch we can borrow. And there is some really, really fun art you can do with that, but then you would have been forced to go super close up, right? We'd be like moving the lights every shot to make it look like it was somewhere else. And so, while I appreciate the compliment, uh it's less about the set design and a lot about having stuff. Because one of the things I was taught is that real environments are lived in. Even if you're not shooting, and God, you got some tremendous shots of the stuff. Those are some of my favorite photos. Uh, because it captures that work with like all the makeup brushes piled in a corner and the little things that are just blurred out background. But there's like real stuff in the space, which increases the mind. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. Um I think that's a huge part of it. And to see a photographer that appreciates that and wants to capture it really, really excited us. Um far beyond just the character stuff. Which I assume that you deal with the character element of that in most of your shoots. What do you what kind of talk to us about your background and what you like to shoot and what you have shot?

SPEAKER_04

Um well, I've shot a little bit of everything. Um like yesterday, I I just did a wedding, which is drastically different than what my usual stuff is. I do a lot of creative portraits, um, just a lot of different collaborations with brands and um different set designs like your own, which um just because I feel like being around people who maybe aren't in the same environment as me, and like you guys are doing sideshows and stuff, something I have never really been around before. Um I you would bring that to life better than I ever could, because I wouldn't know what exactly to put in the background. Um I mean I could study it and I could sit there forever and you know it would take me so long to try to come up with something that that cool and that brilliant. So, um for me, just yeah, like a little little of everything. Um I try to focus solely on creative portraits. I like being around other creatives, um people who are more out there, you know.

SPEAKER_02

What are some of your favorite projects you've ever shot? And why?

SPEAKER_04

I mean, the easy answer is obviously the one we just did, um, and I can give you a really good solid reason why, and that's because um I think that everyone in the group was just so creative and willing to be creative and your lifestyles are different. Um you want to do these kinds of things, and I think a lot of times you'll be with models, and this is why I love Tommy so much, um, you'll you'll have a model who they want it because they want to look pretty in a shot, you know. Um, and I feel like everyone in this group really wanted to bring to life what they are interested in, what they love and what they love to do, and what they work so hard to get to. Um and so that's the kind of environment I like to be in. So that for one is like one of my favorite ones I've ever done. Um and then I would say when I first got started, I did work with uh three different professional mermaids, and I thought that was super fun. Um it was a great experience, and I don't live in Oklahoma anymore, but when I did, um I was around them a lot, and I think that just seeing other people's worlds is really really fun. Um and they were so willing to also take these pictures because this is something they love to do and they're so invested in, and I feel like the pictures always come out better that way.

SPEAKER_03

So it's more of taking a portrait of what builds that character versus the person themselves.

SPEAKER_04

And you can tell the difference because if I did the exact same shoot with some people who had probably never been in the sideshow business before, um that maybe I just like, hey, put this outfit on and let's pose, I don't think they would have turned out as authentic and beautiful than you know just being with somebody who who is in this realm all the time.

SPEAKER_02

So a part of it uh like can you talk to me about this is something that's been a personal mystery, and I know that we're just kind of like putting you up um on interrogation here. Though the the single bob lamp is swinging above your head and you're ducked into a chair right now. So I really do appreciate you putting up with this. But uh, when you're talking about photography, it seems like you're leading towards like the comfortability of the person shooting. I ironically had a really inverse experience because uh to tattle on myself a little bit here, I hate, hate having photographs of myself taken because I feel like my face is always doing something stupid. And so if I'm playing a character like a monster, um, like in our show, the sideshow's presentation changes sometimes from like normal people to ghosts. And at that point they're whiteface, black shadows. You saw a little bit of that eke into this, but like Morpheus went almost no makeup, you know, beauty shading and some eye makeup, uh, a very human version for this shoot because I figured it'd be easier, it's less challenging on the performer, you know, feeling it out. I didn't want to walk too far away from your guys' art premise, which if I recall was um a bunch of carnies getting drunk after a show. Tremendous. Um that's also that real to life thing. Hell yeah, we are! So you you know you put us in an environment that's comfortable, but I found that you were really comforting to the subjects of your portraiture. And I think that that, like, that was how I felt was just like, wow, she really knows what she's doing. I'm not gonna look bad in any of these angles. And and the amount of photographs you returned, whoa! You know, and my face didn't look stupid in any of those. So I think it says a lot about you. Tell us about your process as a photographer and what you've found. You know, give give me some horror stories, maybe omit names. Um the audience loves to see how the uh how the sausage is made, if you will.

SPEAKER_04

I have a few, but I really want to touch base on one thing before that. And that's um how you said, like how I make you guys feel comfortable. And I think that for the past five years of me doing this, that has been the one thing I found that has helped me is by that, you know, surrounding myself with people who are creative and people I know that um I can get along with and feel like I I fit in a little bit better. Um just sometimes it's you know false confidence coming in and acting like I know exactly what I'm doing and I go in and I I don't want you guys to feel like I am going to just butcher this because I'm so um I'm usually very shy and anxious and I've kind of kind of grow out of that a little bit because if I'm that way, how are you guys going to feel? Um and so I always really do try to to read people and see what I can do to make them a little bit more comfortable throughout the session. And it's all just the individual, and then sometimes that doesn't work out. Sometimes the vibes just aren't it there with the person that I'm shooting with, which kind of goes into the the horror stories of things. Um I've had a few. Uh I think that there are people that maybe I haven't connected with and maybe their vision of the shoot that I have i they're just not it's not clicking. Um and for example, not to say that this is a problem in any way, but uh people who are a little bit more on the um like swimsuits and bikinis and wanting to just really put themselves out there in a way that maybe I'm looking for a more creative side of things, um, I don't know how to shoot it. Like I start feeling like maybe I'm gonna make them uncomfortable, maybe um I'm just I don't know, it's just not if it's not my vibe, it it's just for me, that's kind of where I butcher things. That's where where I'm like, okay, maybe this isn't my realm. Sometimes I'll do it with a wedding. Um if the couple is maybe we don't um click very well. I'm a little bit more on the alternative side of people. Um and I think that if maybe the couple is looking for something super bright and airy and very, you know, maybe Macy's photos, you know, something very posed, something very um bright and airy, as you know, the editing style will be called. Those are the, you know, the kind of sessions that I don't do well with, and I think that everyone has their faults, and I'm just kind of finding that, and that's why I stick towards the the creative side of things.

SPEAKER_03

I I do really like how even though it was a serious shoot, you managed to capture all the goofy sides of everybody. Because we have some just absolute characters, but there's no other word for it. And you captured perfectly their personalities without having to describe anything to anyone.

SPEAKER_04

That that's what I'm aiming for, really. Um I I genuinely think that everyone there was just such a breath of fresh air from, you know, doing a lot of more uh corporate-esque shoots, um, being to be around people who are just so like out there and fun, and you guys made me comfortable, um, which ultimately made the set just perfect.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I think it was like a great bouncing of energy back and forth because um like when we first came in, you know, we were running around trying to get ready, trying to set everything up. I I hadn't seen you in a while. And then as we started shooting, like you were having ideas, and we were having ideas, and we were like pulling up reference poses and stuff, and like um I don't know, I feel like it does go back to the comfortability of like the photographer and the model and the performers because I know in the beginning we were a little bit awkward, um but like yeah, but you were you were so excited and you were so nice that like we kinda we kinda got a little bit more hyped. We kinda got a got a we kinda got a little bit more excited, and I think that from that you'll see in the photos a lot of like laughing and smiling that like usually when when we like as characters and as people try to take photos, we try to be very serious because you know we're circus people and we need to take ourselves seriously. Ironically enough. Um but yeah, yeah, right, right. Um but like sorry, I lost my train of thought with with Harley's um sarcastic laugh. Anyways.

SPEAKER_03

Sarcasm? Maybe I couldn't.

SPEAKER_06

Anyways, um, but yeah, and it was just like the way that you captured the energy, like like Harley said, I looked back at those photos and I felt like I was reliving like all the all the jokes and all the the bloopers of that night all over again. I look at those photos five times a day, probably. It's my favorite shoot ever.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, that makes my heart so happy. Ugh. I I think that we do that a lot, Tommy. That um especially like our first shoot, I remember um we met, it was a it was a little awkward at first, we were both kind of shy, feeling each other out a little bit. Um, and then by the end of that you were in the water, completely drenched. It was like 20 degrees outside. So I think that that's the same way with a cupid session and everything like that. Everything we do is always like that. We start out a little shy, a little like, oh I haven't seen you in a while. We'll break out of that though. We'll break out of that.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Like, do you remember me? Are we still are we still friends? Yeah. But that that first shoot, I remember you were the second photographer I had worked with since starting modeling. And um I showed up and it was 20 degrees outside, and I was wearing like a slip dress and a giant fur coat, and I pulled up at the same time as no, you pulled up two minutes before me, and you watched me drive my car directly past where we were supposed to meet. And I was so nervous, but like when you when you find artists to collaborate with and like it's when it's like a perfect meeting and like you guys see each other and like each other and like you just click, you know, like the the art clicks. I feel like I've said clicks so many times. Um you just kinda I don't know, it's it's a really special experience, especially as someone who spent so many years making art alone to find people like that who kind of share your energies, share your ideas.

unknown

Share your ideas.

SPEAKER_06

It gets you energized, it makes you want to make more art. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I think that's the great thing about this project. It's brought so many different realms of artists together. I mean, we've got leather workers, we've got painters, we've got carpenters, metal workers, uh hat makers, now a photographer, models, and people that just want to make cool stuff happen and have fun doing it.

SPEAKER_04

I think that's a really important thing to have right now, too, especially in this day and age where you know art is not dying, 'cause I mean there are a lot of people who still really love art, obviously, but um we keep it alive. We're the people that that keep that going, and that's why I just love doing this so much, and it's not something I ever plan on not doing.

SPEAKER_02

I think the idea for me, I've said this to a lot of people, I have a couple of like tenets of art that are really, really important to me um as my career has kind of grown and shaped itself. And the first one that I say a lot that I mention every time this moment comes up is that good art is intentional. I think that art does exist, and where it it lives is when somebody literally smears poo on a canvas and sells it for half a million dollars because they were. Van Gogh's, you know, left nuts great grandson, uh, and you're like, alright, dude, sure. Um, glad you're shit up for auction. But do I sound bitter? I'm a little bitter. The point is that like good art is intentional. So like if you steer into the skid, or even if you have to like course correct your art, um let's say it's not going the intentional way you initially approached the project, as long as you are an artist who has faith in a process and you knew where you were trying to get to, you can like create the intentional in the background after the fact, right? Um you can make it look like you plan to, uh which it's funny you said Macy's photos because you did Macy's photos. They were so good. So again, the intentionality behind it, everybody was really intentional in what they were doing and had been practicing it so long, you as a photographer, us as the models, myself as the environment creator, um, Tommy and the people she picked and the idea that she pulled, like there was intentionality for it through it, or uh intentionality for it that felt was felt to the shoot. I think it's the first thing. The second thing I have to say about like art as it exists is that I think people forget in this world of options that sometimes it's okay, and Tommy's really, really good at reminding me of this, that it is okay and in fact noble and worthy of your time as an artist to just get together with some friends and make something. Like I had nothing hinging on the results of this coming together, which probably lent itself to that effortlessness that you're talking about. Because I wasn't super worried. There wasn't like a deadline for us to hit. There wasn't some sort of like primordial, you know, Cthulhuan-sized amount of money behind it.

SPEAKER_03

It just wasn't barking down his neck for uh content.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. No, uh we hadn't had decent content in months. Harley gave up. And so then all of the blue time is like, hey, let's try this. This is with within your wheelhouse, let's just do something fun. Um, and that was the point. But it was still like intentionality, I think, is a weird, weird animal because people like presume intentionality means I have to produce a Broadway show for$2.5 million. That seems very intentional, and it and it very well might be. But I think that you intentionally taking photos and us intentionally playing characters that were thoughtfully assembled in an environment that was intentionally put together. Like you can put the intentions in a bucket and mix them up. And as long as everybody's focused to some degree or practiced, it can be a fun time and produce really good art. That being said, you said that in today's world, um, you know, art is kind of diminished some. And it's nuance, I certainly agree. So, now to absolutely put you on the spot to a question that nope, no, I can't even frame it. Uh, what do you think about AI's effect on artists like yourself?

SPEAKER_04

Don't even get me started.

SPEAKER_02

Let us have it. Come on, the audience is rabbit through stuff like this.

SPEAKER_04

I am the biggest AI hater you will ever meet. I I think that um it is stolen art in in any way and form, whether that be music, whether that be photos, whether that be some some art, album art, whatever it you may be using AI for, you are not using your brain. You are you are letting yourself submit to a machine that is killing the environment. So I I I am very against AI and I will um I'll stand by that forever. But um and I I hope that everyone would feel the same.

SPEAKER_03

I'm very against AI in an artistic standpoint. Um I understand that everything that we do uh uses some form of AI these days. Our phones, our computers, our vehicles, our radio stations. But uh when it comes to something creative, I completely agree. It's stolen art. It's uh it shouldn't be posted or able to generate any sort of revenue uh in the media's and it's very it's very harmful um um to other people as well.

SPEAKER_04

Um there's so many horrible things that people can do with AI, it's not regulated in any way. Um it's you know, like I s it takes so much water and we we all know about that, everyone's heard. Um but I just think that I I guess my biggest fear with it is that eventually everyone, you know, if people will call like Chat GPT, they call it chat, and it's like the most annoying thing in the world to me to sit there and hear someone say they have a thought. They can't afford a thought. Like it's yeah. I'm like okay, you're you're using Chat GPT every single day for every every thought that you have everything that you want to make a decision on. I don't know what's gonna happen to everyone that is now going to rely on that for writing all of their essays, for for writing their Instagram posts, for no I mean nothing will be authentic, and that is terrifying. Along with um you said for my career specifically, um, there's a lot of times you'll have photographers who are posting content that you can't tell if that's real or not, and I feel like that's that's a shady thing to do to other people as well. And it I don't know uh how many um platforms have required things to be labeled as AI, but not enough.

SPEAKER_02

Well, right, but then there's also like the the aspect of whether or not they will label it. What I find is fascinating about it, so in in full transparency, I use AI for a couple of things. I use AI I know, I know. I use AI uh to take notes on video calls. I think it does that in a mediocre way enough that I can find my way back through it if I have to, if it's a really intense call, like business meeting. I use AI to calculate budgets that I input the numbers to because I think it's a fancy spaceship of a um spreadsheeting software. Yep. Uh I use AI to dump very, very, very complicated math problems into. So I think it has a place in the world, sort of, as a supercomputer.

SPEAKER_04

And that that's better than like generative AI where it's you know. Right.

SPEAKER_02

That's where I feel like the moment you've let it touch your art in the smallest possible way, you have taken away, like, even if you don't tell anybody, you have completely obliterated your ability to declare that art yours and your own. I don't like it for writing. I don't like it for essays. I I hear a lot of really good things from the school teachers I've talked to about the subject, and there's been there's been a good handful of them that I've stayed friends with over the years, and like, hey, how are you guys handling this? And they're like, uh AI. We're not really interested. We make our students jump through hoops to prove they're not using AI, which isn't perfect. I mean, lots of people were cheating on Quizlet tests before, it just took one human being posting the answers. I think what I'm hoping for is I'm hoping that the AI mess blows up in all the billionaire's faces.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

I'll use the resource as a fancy search engine while it exists, but I'm not really interested uh in anything other than that because I think that it's disingenuous, and this is the point in like human history where like I don't think people understand. We've had opportunities to make dangerous choices before, like, for instance, and I'm really rambling on a tangent here, uh, so forgive me, but I'm I'm reading Oppenheimer's biography right now. So we're gonna bring the mood down for a minute. For those of you listeners that are too young or don't know um what Robert Oppenheimer did, is he was the scientist who in the middle of the desert built the atom bomb and then later was called like a crybaby pussy by Eisenhower, I think it was, after they blew up like hundreds of thousands of people in Japan. I'm not interested in debating necessarily whether that was right or wrong, that's very complicated. But by and large, and so anyway, he had to go back with this thing he created almost in the same way an artist would, a scientist, he was a theoretical scientist, who means that his head lives in the clouds just like our damn heads do. He was like just like instead of beautiful paintings and landscapes, he was like waffling through the things atoms do in a way that are like you can't they couldn't measure. He could only imagine and then like create tests to inform his imaginations. So, like an artist, he birthed this Frankenstein's monster, and then he spent the rest of his life trying to put it back in a box. Because dangerous choices were made. And then later we evaluated the consequences. And that is really spooky to me. Because I think that there's a world where, like, we're not sure. You know, like what are the actual consequences of this outside the concrete, like you're talking about for the human mind? What effect does this have? Like, we already see that social media is frying people's brains. Sometimes it fries my brain. I have to take breaks. Yeah. So a thing that can feed you the content it wants you to think and see? Or it thinks you want, and it's probably right. Oh, wait, that's already happening. It's called Instagram. You know, like that frightens me. And I don't think I don't think human beings left to their own devices are gonna make the right choice. Which I can't really state my opinions out loud on the air because I would probably be put on a list if I'm not already, um, about what we should do. Uh heads up, I like the guy that burned down the toilet paper warehouse. So, like, I you know, I just like I'm frightened. I I really am. What I think the immediate impacts, and this is the first time we've ever had a digital artist on the show. We've had lots of multimedia artists or mixed media artists. I mean, I do some digital art, but like my living isn't made. And I guess calling you a digital artist is kind of insulting, really, for a photographer. It's simply that your medium is presented, typically. In a digital format.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, absolutely. Um, and honestly, if I could do 10 type photography and figure that out, I mean I'd be right up there asking you guys to model for me.

SPEAKER_02

I'll tell you what, I actually know a guy who can teach you. Uh, it's one of my high school friends. Yep. Uh so like after the show, hit me up. There's uh type on his Instagram uh that he took of me when I was twenty, I think. Um and uh his uh his his page, shout out Graham, who doesn't listen to the show, there's no way. Uh but uh I think it's called Copeland, C-O-P-E L-A-N-D Collodion uh because that's one of the chemicals they use in it. But uh yeah, no, like he did that for years. He's in Asheville. I guess I've just gone ahead and told you so much for waiting after the show. Anyway, anybody else that's listening and wants to check out a really cool artist, he does a lot of like old school photography stuff. Um but like I think those old mediums are interesting. In theater, what they're arguing is that there's gonna be this renaissance of the tangible that people are going to desperately desire something that they can believe that's right in front of their eyes. So like think your Broadway shows, your regional theater, like all that kind of stuff, live music performance that people are gonna gravitate. And I I haven't seen strong evidence, but I haven't seen evidence against it either. Um that people at a certain point are are gonna want something tangible. And I think that like right there, you're talking about like your old school Polaroids, things like that. Like, you know, Tommy, Tommy, what's that camera you constantly take around with you?

SPEAKER_06

Oh, my uh my my gosh, it's gotta be like 15 years old now. It's a Canon Power Shot that my mom bought when I was a baby, um, and then she didn't use it for like however long I was a baby for. Um, and so I asked her for it, and you'll see actually on my Instagram, I carried it to I think every single show that I've done with a sideshow. And I'll take wonky little behind-the-scenes photos because I do love seeing I guess the the the tangible side of things, the side that we don't really drag to the stage, but is still very much there.

SPEAKER_02

100%. And I think what's neat about that camera is though it is a digital camera, it's not shooting on literal film, it does have I Kaylee, forgive me because I'm not a photography guy, thumb prints that are very obvious to anybody who's looking that that's not a digitally altered photograph.

SPEAKER_04

I actually I I love I love that. Um I love I have like a little camera um that I bought because I don't know if you guys have seen how expensive disposables are, how film is and everything. Right now it has gone up tremendously.

SPEAKER_02

Um maybe an indication of people wanting the tangible we won't.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, yes. It it's it's very expensive now, but I I found one and it's still technically digital, but um I wanted something to feel better when I take when I go out to like uh festivals and concerts and stuff like that, that I don't have to sit there and look at the picture on my phone to make sure I have the right shot. So it's just this little camera that um you can't you can see how many shots you have left on it, but you can't see the screen. So you there's no screen to see, you take the picture, um, and then you hook it up to your computer later, and then you have all of those photos, um, just similar to like um a disposable camera would have been. And when I used to was a kid and we'd get for like ten dollars and and now they're hitting forty, fifty bucks a piece, so Oh my gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

You get one, you you take it on your school field trip.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, and then yeah, exactly, and then um now even you know getting the prints off of it is just it's too expensive. Um and it's almost better to just go buy yourself a you know a mirrorless camera like I have um in a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02

What is a mirrorless camera if you illuminate the unilluminated here in the corner?

SPEAKER_04

I can I could go on all day about this. So um I would say roughly about ten years ago, maybe maybe a little bit longer now. Um it's a different type of sensor essentially inside of the the newer cameras that people are using. Um it makes the photos easier to edit. Um you can say it's a super low light situation um where you take a picture and you have I'm gonna be speaking crazy language right now, but your ISO is like really, really high and it makes your photo super bigger. ISO is light exposure. Yeah, yes, exactly. Um and you can put it higher and um go in and edit that photo with a a larger filed photo that um you can get all of that grain away and pull up your shadows and everything's fine. Um and just easier they're they're easier to shoot with. Um so becoming a photographer now is probably a lot easier than it would have been twenty years ago, um, just because of the advancements of technology. Um and now AI's kind of taken it too far, but um it is very very easy to get into if you want to put in the dedication to do so.

SPEAKER_02

We definitely see like I think that people have gotten so accustomed to how easy photographs are to get of things. And and that's an interesting thing because I can't like go back in time and feel that differently. And I wonder about that a lot, because we're constantly like most of my projects are me chasing some form of history or a foreign place or you know, something in the art that I do. And it makes me really, really ponder, like you know, back in the tent type era to have a photograph of your your significant other that you could take with you that's like real to life, how that would make you feel to be able to look at that. But in any case, I yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Sorry. Oh, I I admire Tintype for that reason, just because it's something that um th they'll never like a tent type is gonna last so much longer, my bad, than like anything digital. Um dig eventually all of those will probably get lost somewhere in in the cloud or something like that. And this ambiguous place they don't want to understand. Yes, exactly. And um something like Tent Type, that to me, physical stuff is so precious to me, that's why I want to kind of get into doing that eventually. Um but digital for me right now is just a way to kind of express myself and I can take, you know, forty photos digitally um of just one thing and pick out the one I want and the rest are deleted. You can't really do that with something like 10 type. It's just it's a much longer process, um, takes a lot more thought, and it's just something that lasts you much longer.

SPEAKER_02

Definitely interesting stuff. I'm trying to think of like other like like weird, wild questions to throw at you. Tommy, if I can, can you because neither Harley nor I model professionally. I mean we we act, but we don't like sit for photos. Sit for photos, such an old way to say that. Um back to the tin type, right?

SPEAKER_06

Uh gosh, I wish that modeling was just sitting down for photos. Kaylee, you put me in some like weird, twisty positions. Like, I I feel like I need to start stretching.

SPEAKER_04

I no, if yeah, if I'm going to ask anyone to do so though. I'm gonna I'm gonna be like Tom Eklum. I have some weird stuff for you to do.

SPEAKER_06

No, right, and like those photos I feel like always look the best, but um there was uh the the first photographer who I started working with, um, her name was Tana, and she told me like her favorite modeling trick was broken doll, and in air quotes, where basically you uh you just kind of like twist your body weird the way that like a broken doll lays on the floor. And there was the first time we ever shot together, there's a there's a photo that exists somewhere between our our social media platforms, um, where I'm like on a on a ramp on like a walkway and I'm doing the broken doll pose. And I think I think you got like one successful photo of that because every time you like picked up your camera to click, I was like, wait cramp, wait, wait, I can't read I still love those though, they turned out so well. Yeah. Sorry, I didn't let you finish your question.

SPEAKER_02

No, no, what you're saying was really interesting, which is the whole aim of the show, right? Is to is to let interesting people talk about their interesting art things. And to cut off Mitch. Cut off Mitch halfway through all of his thoughts. That's I'm I'm really easy to distract, that's totally fine. And if you guys don't do it, Harley will.

SPEAKER_03

Um that'll bully Mitch a little.

SPEAKER_02

Everybody sides with me in the end anyway. Um that's why I get the top hat. So I I guess my question to you, Tommy, would be like, like when you're modeling, what is it like on your end when someone gives you a project that's like out of your depth? Like something that you're not not out of your depth, but you know what I mean. Like not a vintage sideshowy. We were just talking about you like trying to narrow your focus in. Um what's it like when someone throws you a haymaker that's outside of your norm?

SPEAKER_06

Right, yeah. So um I am looking to to hone in my focus because a lot of like there was there was a little two-month period where I was trying to do all of the like everything I possibly could, and I was trying to like be dynamic and try everything. And um I mean I did it. I it was it was a lot more stressful a lot of the time. Like, if a photographer came to me with an idea, you know, I'd be super excited and I'd be super honored because like I always feel like when someone trusts me with a vision that they have that they want to bring to life, that's that's such a cool trust for someone to have in you. But um gosh, I was burning my hand with a hot glue gun at 5 a.m. trying to finish this before driving to a shoot at 7. Like it was it was very stressful, and I found that working with ideas that I personally didn't click with just they didn't excite me, and I started to burn out. I was like, I just wasn't thrilled to be doing something that I spent so long like trying to do.

SPEAKER_03

And so Excuse the racket in the background. Mitch forgot to mute his mic as he pulls cord through rafter boards.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, you can see that there are Yeah, for for our lovely sideshow listeners, um, I'm in the same warehouse as our lovely host Mitchell, um, and I'm watching him scale a wall right now.

SPEAKER_02

Um I mean I'm on stairs, sort of.

SPEAKER_06

You weren't a second ago.

SPEAKER_02

Sorry, folks. Um the podcast is often filmed from a fair number of odd locations. Um and this one in particular, we're pulling speaker wire uh for the shop speaker system for the Spoleto warehouse in Charleston.

SPEAKER_06

Anyways, that was a side thought. Um so yeah, for then for the rest of like 2026, I do want to hone in on like what kind of shoots I model for, what I put my energy into, because um you're staring at me tauntingly. I'm gonna do the rest of this in my car.

SPEAKER_02

You were talking about honing in your focus to like for what purpose? Why don't you take all of the shoes?

SPEAKER_06

Honing in my focus while not being focused at all. Um yeah, because like sorry guys. But yeah, for the rest of 2026, I kind of want to hone in my focus on shoots that like follow my niche of interest, you know, like horror stuff and sideshow stuff and that kind of thing. Because while of course, like I said, I am always honored to help photographers bring their vision to life, there is such a thing as straying too far from what's authentic to you. Um and I found myself like looking back at shoots that I'd done, feeling kind of like weird, you know, like seeing my face but not seeing anything that I get excited about, you know. It's it's not it's nothing that I like disagree with. It wasn't like I was completely betraying my morals or anything. It just like wasn't stuff that I got excited about. And so looking back, I I I get confused sometimes why I spent so much energy on it. And I think that that's a true struggle for all artists, especially um when you're I guess in a kind of valley in in your work where you don't really know where to go or where to walk, or there's nothing you're running towards, where you just kind of start doing stuff, but then you let that stuff like sweep you up, and you start, I guess, taking the wrong things too seriously, and then you let them stress you out and you let them burn you out.

SPEAKER_04

Tommy, I um yeah, that resonates because it's the exact same thing that I go through um photography-wise. Like, um, I'll do a shoot with a model that maybe I wasn't as excited for, and this wasn't exactly what my vision was, and I feel like I get into a burnout immediately after that because I'm trying to edit and I'm looking at it like this isn't this isn't my art. I have shoots that I did months ago that I still that was we were all collaborations and were my ideas, but maybe it was directed in a way I didn't want it to be. And now it's just it you don't want to you don't like it anymore at that point. You're you're starting I don't want to hate my job. I don't want you to hate modeling.

SPEAKER_02

Um kind of like you maybe you've betrayed your own art on accident.

SPEAKER_04

Exactly. Yeah, so just do um do what resonates with you and what you think works for you best or that this is the the vision you're going for. Um and if any photographer is like, hey, I want to do this shoot or switches it up on you, don't you know, don't, don't do it. Um because you don't want that to ruin how your your look is on your outlook on every other shoot you do after.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you. Yeah, and I feel like that is true in really all aspects of the art world. I know. Um I I met our hosts at a haunted house that will remain unnamed. And um God rest Sullen Hell. Oh right, I forgot that part. Sorry. Um and for most of our time spent there, I think, unless they were building something that they had personally suggested that got picked up, there was a lot of there there were a lot of um cries, shrieks, and screams from the upstairs office that were not being recorded for for audio. It was like like Mitch said, stealing his words directly, betraying your own art is such a painful thing for an artist to have to do.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think it's also the painful balance where as artists the skill we work on the most is our art. Like we're down here for the Spoleto Festival to work as stage hands because Tommy and I both possess a plethora of technical skill that makes us useful to this world. So in this case, we're acting kind of as craftspeople who are here to support another artist's kind of work. Now, it happens to be that Spoleto Festival doesn't pull its punches, they book awesome, amazing, interesting pieces of work, and we love live theater. So, you know, we're here to support it in a different aspect rather than maybe writing or directing the show ourselves. But then there's also the element of, okay, I've got a hole in my calendar to fill for the summer financially, so it would incentivize me to take this job, but of course, I'd be far happier painting in a corner or building sets for the sideshow, etc. etc. And so sometimes I feel like you have to take those gigs that don't inherently you know, they're just work at that point. Um and it could be work that's joyful or work done with people that are really talented or you know good to work with, but at the same time it's not inherently what you'd love to do. So I think it's it's a matter of trying to find the thing that's the least betrayal sometimes. Um when it's not your own self-directed endeavors.

SPEAKER_03

I think it's also just part of the journey. You have to try a bunch of different things to figure out what isn't your style in the end, and then you can start to hone in on your niche and your character, your style, the direction you want to go.

SPEAKER_06

Okay, so as a longtime listener of the podcast, I suppose you usually ask this, and I feel very honored to be the one to get to ask it this time. Kaylee, what is next for you?

SPEAKER_04

Oh my gosh. So it's kind of it's kind of it's gonna be kind of a loaded question for me. So I um I'm about to have surgery, and it's about to be kind of uh I don't know. I mean, I don't know where it's gonna go. Uh it's a near knee surgery, so I won't be able to drive and I'll be out for a long time. And as much as I do love you know photography, I'm gonna keep doing that and keep editing. I'm um I'm gonna focus on other forms of artwork for the next six weeks after my surgery. So um I'll be able to do stuff some stuff and still do some some shoots, uh things people can drive me to. I'll be on crutches, probably still going at it. But um I think that really giving my time to giving myself time to come up with new shoot ideas, um, maybe designing some props. Um, I might be designing some masks pretty soon. Uh Tommy and I have talked about that one um previously. So I think you know which one it is, but I'm not gonna say what it is.

SPEAKER_06

Little, little, little Easter egg, little.

SPEAKER_04

So I think I know that some masks are being made, um, some wings are being made, some some really cool stuff. Um, I'll be focusing on, you know, that way to use for shoots later on. Um, but really just you know, healing and kind of niching down, like we've been talking about a little bit. I think that I've been all over the place doing all kinds of different shoots, and I'm getting to that point almost six years into my career that I kind of know what I want to do. And I think the sideshow was a really big, big help with that um because it took kind of took me out of this um creative, just almost uh like a yeah, like a funk almost. Yeah, exactly. Just something I I was getting kind of discouraged from doing shoots that maybe weren't expressing myself um just like I wanted to. Um and so now I I really kind of want to walk in and just do the pleases you exactly. Um and so I'm I'm really looking forward to working with you guys more. I think that that's definitely on my to-do list as long as you have me.

SPEAKER_02

So we love to hear that. And we'll be in touch. I think I think for our dear listeners, if you're looking for that work, you might see it pop up pursuant to uh us putting Kaylee on the spot here and scheduling. Um maybe pop up sometime around August, September to kind of promote our other big announcement that we're only teasing. Um, but we have decided where the sideshow will be for October. So we're very, very excited to announce it. I'm so excited. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be really, really, really cool. And the show's gonna finally take the format that um a baby tiny drop-in-the-pan version of the format that the idea was initially conceived under. So we're excited to get this shit out with our audiences and very, very excited, Kaylee, to have you capture it. Um I'm so excited. It's gonna be cool. Oh, tremendous. I would not believe that for the world, honestly. Like the way you took to that. Yeah, the way you took to that. Like um, of course, Tommy has well broken you in uh with the people doing very strange things. Corner. Um well, with that being said, I think it's about time for us to wrap up. So thank you very much for being here, Kaylee. And Tommy, thank you for joining us on zero notice at all. Flick on the comfort of your accommodations here in Charleston.

SPEAKER_04

Of course, before we go. Yeah, thank you guys for having us.

SPEAKER_03

No worries. It was a pleasure having the both of you. But before we go, we have the official music segment. The song of the week or the song of the podcast this week is Coulter Wall's The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie. And we're gonna let Hayden go ahead and give us the rundown on this song and why it inspires him in his artistic journeys.

SPEAKER_01

I got something to admit.

SPEAKER_00

Hello people, welcome back to the music segment where you learn everything about music. Here's your host, Hayden Downs. The best person around. So the song that we got for today is The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie by Culture Ball. Now first and foremost, I'm not a big country guy. And I've been like a little little dabbled on in the country and whatnot. I was like, I've never been a big fan. Some people hate on me for it, and just honestly, some people don't care. And with the newer country, nah, I could care less. But then a couple years ago, I heard culture wall, the devil wears a suit and tie on Instagram. Like, whoa. Like I saw the guy, it's like he might have like a high, not kind of low voice. Like, nah, that man got a deep voice. Really deep voice, and man, he can sing and he can play that guitar at well. All sorts of blues in that song. And I don't know much about Carter Wall, but all I know he he does really good country. Some sort of outlaw country and kind of slow. I don't know, and honestly, I don't mind it. And how it kind of relates to the group is like when we're not doing a show, I just imagine around like a bonfire, all of us hanging out, cooking some food, and just talking, and that's like in the background of something that's like background music. That's a good example of that song. And with with some of the folklore of blues music, the devil comes back. Tries to get you. And he can change into anything. And the devil wears a suit and tie, he can be he can be doing that as well. And I don't mean to get all religious and whatnot, but that might happen. That's what the really song is about, is the folklore of the the devil will come back for your music. He might wear a suit and tie. I definitely did not learn that from sinners. Because they they said that as well. And but it's it's a really great song. And I love, love the guitar work in there. I tried learning it. I only know like the first opening of that song, and I can't do it anymore. It's all finger style. Finger style is way different than picking. He used all five of his hands for his picking hand. It's a very weird technique. I can do finger style, but not as good as other people. And I've been playing guitar for eight years. And I'm just not that good with the finger style stuff. Then there's like flamenco and all the crazy stuff. Like, yeah, nah. And I also don't like growing out my fingernails because that's what they do, is they grew out their fingernails just on their right hand so that you can hear the strings with the guitar, and that's what he did. And with that guitar tone that he had with his voice, he told a great story with that, with that guitar tone, with the finger style and all of that. And if you don't know the song, The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie, I totally recommend it. It's a great song, and it's very, very catchy. Might be stuck in your head for like probably a month or two weeks. That definitely happened to me. But this is the end of the music segment. I hope y'all like the music for today. Till next time.

SPEAKER_05

Well, folks, that was a real banger.

SPEAKER_02

Wow! Do you think they'll catch on that we don't record these as straight through moments? I certainly didn't just tell them. That was a great song here. Did I? Oh, shucks! This isn't a running joke in the making. I would never do anything so cliche. Um thanks. Shout out to Hayden for putting that together for us, buddy. Our musician extraordinaire. Um, but yeah, thanks for being on the show, guys. I uh look forward to creating more art with all of you.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. And everybody go ahead, follow the socials. I'll drop Kaylee's social in uh the bio and in the social media posts, as well as tagging Tommy. And again, we'd really love to see your art, so please share something with us. We love looking at it. It inspires us to continue our creative journey as well, to know there are other artists out there following their passions and doing real, not AI-generated art.

SPEAKER_02

Hell yes, death to AI. And on that note, ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for joining us for another episode of Behind the Whiskers, the podcast where we dive into the weird and the unusual and the photographable.

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Harley Clenton

Host
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Mitchell Fink

Host