They make the trek out to Burning Man for a week and a day. After a lot of work, there's a lot of play. Party party drama drama drama. b****, b****, b****. Year after year, they come back to scratch that itch. They all say their lives have been changed. After many years, lives have have been rearranged. That changes what this show is all about. You'll see the impact of Burning Man up and out. So sit back, relax, and cancel all your plans. These are the stories about the shadow of the man.
Hello and welcome to the Shadow of the Man Show. I am your host that Andy. This is a Shadow Shorts episode recorded at Unscrews 2026. That's the Santa Cruz regional burn for those of you who might not know it. I learned quite a lot from recording out in the play in 2025. And uh over the year, I've gotten a lot more familiar with the equipment. So, the audio quality should be clearer and a lot less variable. The only variable I couldn't remove was the loud sound camera. That was It wasn't that close, but it was quite loud. The guests do come out quite clear, and the music just helps to set the scene. Please enjoy.
Hey there, my name is Steve at Burning Man. I go by Razer Beck. That's Beck because I work with a camp that's called the Sky Pig Pirates. And Razerback is a pig. So, I'm Razer Beck.
And I'm from Gilroy, California. I've been burning now for 15 years and I use it as an opportunity to reconnect with all of my longtime volleyball team. We started playing volleyball 45 years ago and we're all getting kind of old, but we hang together and we love to burn together and we reconnect every chance we get.
What came first, the volleyball or Burning Man?
Uh volleyball was definitely 30 years before one of our team members went to Burning Man in in 2005 and said to all of us, "You guys got to go. It's so much fun." So in 2009, he got the whole team to go out to Black Rock City and we had so much fun. We try to get together every year, once a year, and now we're doing the uh the Unscrews event. And I like that one better because I come out and burn and we provide a lot of of booze and things for the group, but I go home every night spend the night in my own bed, shower in the morning, and then
Oh, you're not actually camping here?
I don't camp here, which I'm I'm one of the rare ones, but as a camp lead, I go home and bring more supplies in on a daily basis.
And I feed the animals when I go home, cuz you're not supposed to have animals here. I I think the best impact that Burning Man has had on my life is to be a little bit more open and more acceptant to all of the different personalities and characters. that come out here. It's it's just so funny to see the the large range of people that come out here. Last year in our camp, I did what we called the Unscrews wedding chapel and I did nine weddings last year in the wedding chapel and connected with some amazing people who've all come back to see me this year and tell me about their experiences during the year. And I think it's really really lovely to connect with everybody.
Wow. So, you're doing weddings uh this year?
Um I didn't advertise it this year, but the chapel is available if people remember and if people saw it on Facebook, I definitely am available for wedding ceremonies, uh commitment ceremonies, renewal of vows, and uh
reception.
Reception. Well, no, reception means you got to come into our camp and have a margarita. And we're doing margaritas every day. So, Lots of chances to uh party and connect.
Oh, okay. No conscious uncouplings you do there or
Hey, hey, hey. No, that ain't my that ain't my gig. That's somebody else.
So, the the one end of the uh the factory assembly line.
Yeah. What what happens after I'm done is is I don't take responsibility for it. They're they're on their own the minute they walk out of my chapel.
Do you have a special like Sky Pigs disclaimer?
Uh no, but we have beautiful song uh that starts out with yo ho yo ho a pirates's life for me shiver me timbers and bite me crank a pirates's life for me I wash it I wax it until I come over me so there's about eight verses to that and and we have a lot of fun singing that for anybody who's patient enough to listen
wow so you think you'll be uh coming back to unscrews year after year
uh I think I'm a lifer until either I can't truck all this stuff out here anymore. Or my wife puts her foot down and says, "That's it. You can't go no more." But I did the right thing. Last year, I convinced my wife to come with me. And now she's hooked.
Uhhuh.
And that just means I'm supervised. And I don't know if that's the right way to do it. It's better to be unsupervised.
Well, she might be giving you some points like you're just here having fun. Be like, "You know what? You could be doing that differently or better."
Yeah. Every day I come here, there's uh more projects to do. That ugly guy just walked into your camp and he happens to be my identical twin brother.
Oh, perhaps we'll have to capture him for an interview as well.
I I think uh
he's eyeing his dubious.
Yeah. He wants to know what's going on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll make him jealous. He's like, "What do you got? My twin brother's got something to
Right. Well, he kind of follows me around like a puppy dog."
All right. Well, it's been almost five minutes. Thank you very much.
Very nice. Thank you very much. It's been fun. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this show, please subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. The more reviews the show has, the more likely it will even appear in search results. Also, please tell a friend and share this show with anyone that you think might like it. Word of mouth reaches quite far, especially in the Burning Man community. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to Shadow of the Manodcast. atgmail.com. You can also follow Shadow of the Man on social media at Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky X, and YouTube. The links for all of these are available at shadowoftheman.com. Feel free to use any of these social media accounts to provide any feedback you might have. Your thoughts on the show are greatly appreciated. Thank you and see you soon for a new episode of The Shadow of the Man. Thank you for listening to this latest show. We have to make another one so next month we already have one in the very soon of the man.
