The Love Of The Art | Patti Knox & Steph Knox Interview | Voice Actor

 Hey there Masters, I mean Dweebs!! haha, In todays episode we have a very special guest ... TWO SPECIAL GUESTS IN THE CITYY!!! wooot woot!!! Today we yap with and about the Icons themselves, Patti and Steph Knox!!!! YAYY!!! we go all in details about the journey as voice actors, creativity, and of course D&D!!!! yippie!!! It was such a delight and honor to have these two on and im so excited and happy for their journey and where they will head to next!! THANK YOU GUYS!! We hope you enjoy watching as much as we did recording!!! :D 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, welcome and welcome back to another episode of Dweet City, where nerdism thrives and storytelling thrive with your host, Zar Jackson. In today's episode, we have a very special guest. Or special guest in the building. A married beautiful couple. Stephanie Knox and Patty Knox. Today we talk about their journey and voice acting. Um, their love for creativity, acting, and just expressing themselves. And also a couple of things in the store. We talk about more their trip to going to London, we talk about their their experience with theater, and also their undying love for DD and cosplaying. We hope you enjoy the episode as much as we did creating it. Now, without further ado, let's talk to Patty and Stephanie. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Dweep City. We have a very special episode, our first dual episode. Um, and we have the wifeies here um together. Uh, these two are voice actors, DD players, cosplayers, over 20 years of experience. Um, they're from Colorado, and uh none other than my friends Patty and Stephanie. Hi! Oh my gosh. I just have to say, love the outfits, so cute. Like, did you guys coordinate together? No. No.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Oh like we usually have mashing t-shirts though.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's that couple and we'll like get dressed and we'll be like, okay, we're wearing the same t-shirt today. Let's go. I love it. It's like you guys are like on the same wavelength.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

How was your day? Do we what did you guys do today?

SPEAKER_03 1:59

So, um, I I am one of the kind of student teachers for the school we went to. It's called Theater Gym. And once a month we do practice sessions where other students can come in and we we practice different things. This this month it was audiobooks, so we did audiobook practice with uh several of the actors in this from the students' roster.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

How did that go? Really good, really good.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Yeah, a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

It's a lot of fun. That is so cool. I love hearing like everyone's different uh like interpretations and the the way the different way that they read the books, and it's just a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the Indian, kinda, but uh of uh of like getting them like a step into it, kinda. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Yeah, I was just gonna say it's a lot of fun because we try to create a safe space for actors to get together and practice. Yeah. Because putting yourself out there is really, really terrifying, as you well know.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Anxiety. That's so cool. So, um, how long have you been doing that?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Um so I think the Discord got founded about a year, year and a half ago. Oh. And myself and um another person, her name is Millie Bow. She we both run that Discord for the school.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Oh, cool! That's so cool. And then, so how did you guys get into voice acting? I would love to hear all the lore.

SPEAKER_03 3:38

So, for me, when I was a kid, um, I was a singer uh middle school through college. Um, I was like a backup singer in a band when I was like 15. Oh. And um their agent wanted me and not them, which is wild. And my parents said, absolutely not. Oh yes. You're gonna go to school for something a little more practical.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

I know exactly what you mean.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Oh my god. So, but I've always had a love of the arts, like a cosplay. Um, we've been cosplaying forever. We run our own cosplay business. That's um what we do is our main gig.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

We ran that that performance troupe together. Performance troupe. That was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

And I've always had friends that were into either um amateur voice acting or things like that. They're like, Do you want to do this? I'm like, I mean, I want to, but I feel like I'd suck. And I've been kicking around for years. And then um Sean Mendem put out free classes basically where uh you could get an idea of what acting was about. About he still does it, but um, Sean Mendem is scratch from Baldur's Gate, by the way. Y'all, yeah, okay. And um I was like, alright, let me just take this class and see what I think. And I fell in love with it. I'm like, alright, I have to do this.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Awesome! So you you so you did some in like theater in high school or in school?

SPEAKER_03 5:10

No, just just just singing. I I've actually that was her middle.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Yeah, that was me. Yeah, yeah. She was mostly in choir. Um I I did choir in middle school and then I did theater in high school. Um, and I kind of had a similar story to Patty, where like I told my mom that I wanted to look into acting and maybe taking some more classes on acting and maybe start pursuing it a little more seriously, and under no uh circumstances, no. That was the frequent word in my house was no. So um the it came back around though, like you know, and we never really lost it. We like we still had the cosplay stuff, and like you said, we did a performance group together.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Yeah, so we never really traveled the country. Uh we we'd hold auditions, and we it was a Sailor Moon performance troupe. Yeah, and we did that for about six years, and we like we've been to KatsuCon and we've been to Anime Week in Atlanta, MetroCon down in Tampa.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

AWA, we had two back to back at AWA two years in a row. Yeah. Is that how you guys met? We met through some cosplay friends, actually. Oh cosplay is what brought us together. Oh, that was so cool! So it was like a big part of your lives.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, huge.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

And so um in a weird way, voice acting just sort of morphed in there, if that makes sense. It just it was like it was there the whole time, but we just never narrowed down on it, and we were like, oh, okay, okay, that's what this is. Alright.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

And I think we finally hit a point where like we're not getting any younger, and it is it okay to swear on your podcast? Yes, go ahead. Okay, I was gonna say, fuck it, life is too short. We need to do the thing, and that's what I tell people now. It's like I I started, I took my first acting class in my 40s, and it's just I was gonna talk to you about that.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah, like how did that how does that feel like um starting off like at a um a more mature age?

SPEAKER_03 7:28

It's rough, um, because a lot, especially on the animation side, a lot of the actors they're looking for have a younger voice print. And I I can do a younger voice print, but I really want to um be me and be authentic and bring my brand and my voice into things. And I've been working with a lot of coaches on doing that. So um sometimes that translates me into me being mom, sometimes that translates me being a villain. Um, but it it doesn't matter. I I I can I can do that now. It's just I there are opportunities and doors that will remain forever closed for me, and I just have to accept that.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

And I think don't look at it like that.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

It's true, and you just if you accept it and you run with your strengths, you'll be happy.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

And that's a lot of things we hear from coaches that we both uh work with is that because we're older, um we have a lot more experience just in life, like we have more life experiences um that we can bring to the acting. Um, and so in some ways it's sort of a gift that we're we're coming into it so late, but in some ways, you know, depending on what type of voice print they're looking for, it can be a hindrance.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

So it just what do you think like is the I well it kind of answered it for me, like the strength and weaknesses from that. Um I um what do you think, Patty, from that?

SPEAKER_03 9:07

So for me, 100%, I can I have a lot of experience in life. I I've had a lot of things happen and I am able to bring that authenticity into my storytelling. In the end, um, and I think this is important to uh point out. So one of the deals I made with her in the beginning is as long as I'm having fun, I can continue to be an actor. As soon as this stops being fun, I need to re-evaluate.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Sorry, very true, so true. That's like feel like that's the most important part is like to have fun and and and grow. And if it's not fun, then why are we doing it? Life is too short.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Because it's really easy as as you know, to really buckle down and get serious and the audition after audition and rejection after rejection, and how to um like since I am older, like one of the things we were taught is if you're not good at something, then you just work harder and make yourself better. And in this business, it's not about being better, it's more along the lines of it's not rejection, it's selection. Okay, you did a fantastic job, and I get tons of emails like that. I really, really, really loved your take on this. You are not the voice print we are looking for, but we're putting you on our roster, and we'll get back to you when we have something that fits. And that's still a win, and you have to take that as a win.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah. And like um, just giving it your all any anytime like you see it, like just throw your all into it, like sit in and forget. And then in I feel like they'll always remember you, and it almost all all the time I get um messages like maybe even years after, it's like, oh, I remember your audition. So it's like, whoa! Was not expecting that.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yeah. And they do, and they do, they really do. Um, because then like you're you a lot of actors tell me they get too much in their own head, and I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yes. I feel like uh the the that's the biggest um obstacle is us ourselves. Cause we're like we criticize and like overanalyze everything, and we just need to like I feel like we find we try to pick like the we I feel like it's such a strength to know who you are and what you bring and then expand on it and like be like it's like really like a big self-discovery type thing too with voice acting too. Like like you learn so much about like yourself and you're like get to be more open with other people and it's very it's very vulnerable. So yeah, I could agree. It's so amazing.

unknown 12:09

It really is.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And then so um with uh I noticed uh Patty, like you love updating us on all um throughout your your journey. And I love I absolutely love that. I love like seeing you grow, and it's been such an honor like meeting you um and seeing that. And um I wanted to see like um what you expire to like um uh to just post how you feel and when you feel and be true to yourself. And I I absolutely love that about you. You're always grinding and you're always showing that you're grinding, and you're really like I love when you how take pictures and show flowers, like, oh, I had a rough day today, but it's okay, we're gonna get it through. Like, you really are encouraging and inspiring. So I really wanted to like um uh go through that.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Well, well, thank you. Okay, so I kind of unfortunately treat Twitter like Facebook. So one of the things that backtracking to the cosplay things, we've made friends in the past 20 years, we've been doing cosplay and like lifelong friends, and um I I the people I have on my Facebook are people I've known for decades, literally, and we we still all update each other on what's going on, and I have a habit of bringing that onto the Twitter space because a lot of my friends are like, You're doing this now, tell me what this is, tell me what this is like. So I kind of want to show my journey as I go because like if you're I'm first I'm a firm believer if you're more your most authentic self, your tribe will find you. So put that out there, and the people will come that to make those genuine connections. But for me, like you never know, like if somebody could be having a similar experience, and if you try and put that positive image out there that okay, I I didn't win this one today, but maybe tomorrow will be a better day, maybe that'll help somebody else too. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

We just have to talk about this venture camp with with my friend Patty. Um, I just wanted to get like a little rundown of your character Eevee, and um what was the process of of seeing that you got her, you got the role for her, and um how did it feel and all that good stuff, and how was it recording for her? I just love your voice for her.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Oh my gosh. So I auditioned for season four on Casting Call Club and Send and Forget. I didn't get them. I got shortlisted though, which was really cool. I got shortlisted for two people. I um I forget who it was. I I wrote it down somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Was it one of them? Natalia?

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yeah, one of them was Natalia. Oh, I'm so glad I didn't get it though, because the the the actor for Natalia is divine. Divine. But um, and next thing I know is I get a message from Jace last year going, hey, you audition for this. Um, we have uh somebody we'd like you to uh take a stab at. And um, and it was Evie, and they they they specifically said they wanted Jennifer Coolidge from White Lotus. They had a voice friend in mind, that's what they wanted.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

And I auditioned for Eevee and immediately came back, Jace came back and said, so we're doing Tom Jake season two. You're not auditioning for this, we would like you to be Darlene.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

And I'm like, okay. And it was wild because I was still auditioning for Eevee. There was a possibility I wasn't going to get her. They gave me some notes. I I went with their notes and I did some changes up for that, and they like what I did, and they brought me in for Eevee. But I gotta do this raspy voice, and I've gotta pull her out of my chest and keep her in my throat and keep her happy and sh. I love Eevee, but she's so fucking dumb.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

I love when she falls, and then like they show her like her butt cheek and print, and then she's like, She is so hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

And there, there, I just some of the stuff that they've had me say for her. There's there's some lines coming up. I cannot wait for them to come out because she's just not all there. And uh, but I she has been a hoot and a half, and I tried to encapsulate myself so I didn't spoil myself. So like I know what each scene is and what each scene is about, but I try not to read further because I don't want to know.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

I was the same way with Dunya. Same way. I was like, don't tell me. I'm just gonna like look around.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

I just I want to see it unfold, and so when each episode comes out, I get to watch with everybody else and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

And it's so freaking funny. Oh my gosh. I love it, I love it. Um she's like a little bit of a cougar.

unknown 17:32

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

She's like, oh my box. Oh, wait, I just started talking.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

She is just not there. She is absolutely checked out, and it it's it's a fun character to play. And my big thing I is I have to remember to not read the comment section because there are people that are very unhappy with the way things are going. I'm like, nope.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Yes, want to tell the story and enjoy the character.

unknown 18:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yes, do not really like I had to find that out the hard way as well. Like, and everybody tells you not to do it, but sometimes you just want to take a peek and then you regret it. And you're like, you know what? I shouldn't have done that. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

I did it once. I'm like, nope, never again. I'm good. Um I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Well, you're doing a fantastic job with her, I just have to say, like, uh hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 18:35

I'm just really grateful to be able to work with people. I don't Were you there for the big table read? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

The first one that we did, I think and the only one, um, but um Yeah, that was just the one, but it was it was like everybody, and it was just awesome and beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I remember when you did that.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

And I j I I love stuff like that. Like there was um Tom Jake, I got to do a few reads with people. I got to read with um Jace and Rytix for some of the emotional scenes. Uh and it was really, really neat to be able to do that in real time.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And it was a live session. I love live sessions. I feel like you could really get in there with them instead of like recording by yourself.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

Yeah, that that is my the one thing, the downside of doing this is um a lot of times we're just in our booths by ourselves, and I get the logistics of it. You can't get everybody in. Yeah, right. Being able to read opposite another actor is just the best.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

That is so awesome. Well, I just wanted to uh to talk about that too, because I I had to yes, it was it's been such an honor. Like, um this is I think believe I'm I think it's actually our second project together. I think there was one that we were in before that I found out later on that we were actually like uh voice together in. Um, but uh like the it's it's been amazing.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Like, no until they drop.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

No problems until then. It's like, oh, I got to work with this person. Oh and then I saw you um and the Discord server, your name. I was like I was so excited to see you. I was like, uh I text I was like doing like that. I was texting so fast, like you're in here it's so it's one of the most exciting things is when you're in a project with a friend, and then like it's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

It's like oh my god, like and then you have to be quiet, you can't say anything until you know everything drops and oh, we're in that together!

SPEAKER_01 20:58

So cool. Yes, and Stephanie, I did see that um one of your dream roles was to um really connect with other people through um through the art of voice acting. Is there like a specific role in particular that you want, or you just want to just just act? No, I think that the role will show itself when it's time.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Um because for me, uh Patty's you know doing this to be it like a positive force, and I um I'm a big nerd and I love archaeology and history, and so for me, I found this weird philosophical root of why do I love acting, and it is because I feel like I am connecting with what makes us human. Right. Um, I'm finding our emotion and our creativity and our our drive and our ingenuity through acting. Um because As I would say, you know, we started out in caves drawing on walls. Right. Because we saw the world around us and we we drew on walls, and that has morphed over time through the arts. Um, and what makes us human is that creativity and that desire to tell stories. Um, and so that connection that I'm looking for like in a role is the the role that reaches out to someone and connects with them.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Oh yes. That is so cool. So you're an archaeologist? Did I say that one?

SPEAKER_02 22:42

I wish I was an archaeologist.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I just love it.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

I just love all she's a nerd and a huge nerd.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

I love all of these. What is one topic that like uh in that that you really you really like are passionate about?

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Wow, you could probably have uh about like a three-month-long conversation about ancient Egypt with me, and it would just go on forever and ever and ever.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Yes! Like the Sphinx. I have like a Spink um on my arm. Oh, they're so cool, cool like concept. And the pyramids? Oh, do you actually know like how long it took like them to make the pyramids?

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Um, I think that that's something that's been up for debate a lot. Um, because I mean they have archaeological evidence and carbon dating and everything, and they can tell when things roundabout-ish were built. Um, but they go back and forth on how long it took to make um the pyramids. Wow. I'm sure it took years. I'm sure. Um, even with the the labor force that they had, um, which was paid in beer and bread. Um so hey it was it was a good day for those workers. They got their beer and their bread. They were all set.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Um, I can only imagine lunchtime.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Like shearing beer and bread, like give me drink right back to work. Oh, yeah, just go right back to carting these like two-ton heavy granite stones of a ramp for the eight. Um so I I would think logically, years. And one pyramid would be years because death was a part of life for the Egyptians. You you prepared for death the moment you were born.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Um because death was just the continuation of another story for them. Um it was part two. Right. And they prepared for the afterlife as soon as they could. Um so a Pharaoh with a lot of money on his hands would have organized that really far in advance.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

So Yeah, didn't it like the mummifications and stuff, right? I've I've always thought that was so interesting. Like, I sometimes I would be like, Do I? I kind of want to get mummified. Like, I wouldn't want to be in a little tomb, have like gold all over me. But it's like, um, it's for I think it was like to when they go to the afterlife, like everything will be like put together, right? Or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Yeah, they wanted to preserve the body because they believed the soul would reinhabit it when they died, and they needed that body in order to go to the afterlife. Right. The the worst thing you could do is um take to take away someone's afterlife was to either take away their body or to take away their name and their face. Um so if you were forgotten in Egypt, that was kind of like the final death. Um it's um their whole philosophy is really cool. It is really, it really is cool.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

I didn't even know that. So that's why maybe that's why they have like their their name on the tomb, and like, you know, like making sure you see their name and like a little bio of like who they were and stuff like that. Oh, that is so interesting.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

And if I actually one of my shows I watched this beautiful ceremony where they actually found um someone's name had been like chipped out of a tomb and to kill basically kill them, and they found the piece that had been chipped away, and they had an entire ceremony for the person where they were giving them their afterlife back again, and they put it back. It was really cool. They reinstated it back into the tomb, and I'm just like sitting here crying. I'm like, oh my god, like that is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

I'm so glad they did that. Like, yeah, like like it literally reinstated it. Oh wow, that is so cool. Oh my gosh. Um, and then um, so do you guys have any hobbies that you do? Well, I wouldn't get actually let's get into cosplay because I would um so when you do cosplay, do you guys like how do you pick what what cosplay you want to do for like uh you just go for it and do you make your own cosplays or do you buy them offline? Yeah. Yeah. We're we're nerds. Yeah, we nerds, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Okay sometimes it's what we what we see and what we're inspired by, and sometimes it's um just we have a group of friends that just were like, hey, we want to do the thing, and we're like, okay, let's do the thing. So um, but like a great example would be one of our bucket list costumes were the vampire rides from Van Helsing.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Van Helsing.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Oh, yeah. And we finally were able to make them. It took years and years and years, but we were able to make them.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Um hand beading, dip dyeing. Uh it was it was oh my gosh!

SPEAKER_02 27:56

There was so much, and I still want to actually hand bead more often.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Well, I want to take the the cheap plastic beads off and put on like Swarovski crystals to make it more screen accurate. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

So you guys would like like so how does the hand beading work? Like you sew it or like you're is it like glued on? Yeah, every hand sew it on.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Yeah. Yep. That's so cool. So I do a lot of embroidery work work, so at least I was able to go into my programs and make an embroidery program, like a a file and embroider on there what the pattern was supposed to look like. So I at least had something to follow.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Right. So you have like. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. So that so that how long did that one take you guys to do?

SPEAKER_03 28:52

Well, when we actually start to finish, it took us about a year and a half.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Yeah. Oh wow. But there was I mean, that's not including all the years of planning and collecting materials that had photo references. Photo references that happened before then. Um but yeah, if you were counting when we actually we've got all the materials, we're gonna get cracking on it, I'd say for about a year and a half of working on it.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yeah. So when you guys wore it, where did you go any did you have like a specific place you wanted to go to take pictures? Or did you go did you go to a con? We did both. We went to Denver Comic-Con. Yeah, like you've worked on it for a year, so uh yes, everybody see.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Yeah, one of our our best friends, her name is Coi. She did the third bride with us, and uh, we went to Denver Comic-Con and wore them there.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

And then how was that? Oh my god, it was a lot of fun. It was so much fun. We did compete with them, but we didn't know that year they were getting rid of craftsmanship judging, so it was kind of more just like a walk-on and the audience voted on stuff. Wasn't quite what we were going for, but we we had fun, and uh then we went to we sort of organized a thing in it's there's this little tiny town out in um southern Colorado called Alt, where this guy built something called Bishop's Castle. He built it for his wife. It's a crazy, crazy location. Um, and we went there and we took pictures um at Bishop's Castle.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

It's got like stained glass windows, and really, really, really cool place.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

He built it, yeah. It's a really neat place.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yeah, oh wow. Oh and the oh the glass window. I'm just like imagining it in my mind, like, and him building it for his wife. That is so cute. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is super cool. And then on what yeah. Oh, that's cool. And um, what other uh hobbies are you guys into?

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Um gaming a lot. Uh tonight we've got uh uh tabletop and like and and video games and video games.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

What is tabletop?

SPEAKER_03 31:16

So that is D, Starfinder, Pathfinder, all of those.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yep. Oh like I'm still learning DD. I I've I hear about it a lot from my sister. I'm still like trying to learn like the basis of it. And you've been doing that for a while, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Yeah. Um, so I had this guy I was dating um in high school, and his friends let me play with them, and I got absolutely hooked.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Yeah, and so uh I've been playing ever since often on then. I started DMing. Um, I want to say like after I got out of college. And uh I'm on I haven't had time to run anything, but I I've managed to fall into we managed to fall into a group.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yeah, tell me to see you find a good group.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

I am trying to eventually put together a thing. I really want to do an actual play with actors. Uh basically like critical role, that kind of thing, where um I would write a story and get actors together and talk about like what your character is and have like a an uh a driven narrative and everybody would get into character to do their character because I think that would be a lot of fun and really entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Yeah, it sounds so so enticing. I would love to see that. It's so much fun. And then like the dungeon masters and stuff. Are you what what typically is your you guys' role when you do that? It's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 32:43

I'm usually the DM. Yeah. So I'm usually the dungeon master. Um I like I'm I'm a very narrative-driven dungeon master. Like um growing uh growing up, the people I played with, they just it was kind of like playing a video game with words. They, you know, you take a step forward, you kill something, you take a step forward, you kill something. And if that makes them happy, that's fantastic. I like making puzzles and and stories. And so I set out kind of a buffet for my players to pick from, and whatever they choose, I try and elaborate on and let them walk through. That's why when people create characters in my games, I try and have it set up so they can basically, you know, create a backstory and I work with them on it, and I write down plot beats so I can revisit them. So each and each chapter of the story would focus on a different player's character. Sometimes they get interwoven, sometimes they don't. Um, like our last the last thing I ran ran about five years. It was a waterdeep campaign.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Yeah. Yeah, we were at the party. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

But everybody just got busy with life and we couldn't keep doing it.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

So oh wow. That is really so you like go into really good detail, and it's is it all improv?

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Oh my gosh, yes. You want to brush up on your improv skills? Like D.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

D is the way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

A buffet for them to choose from, like, all from like what? Just oh, yeah. Wait, wait, wait. Can you do an example?

SPEAKER_03 34:25

Okay, so let's say um let's say you're running a character that's a rogue, and Steffi's running a character that's a mage, and what I would do is I come up with a plot, uh, a plot beat for you. Alright, so your guild might be in need of an item. You need to procure an item. So um if you choose to, you can learn more about that, or or Steph, or to even tie it in. Steph is looking for an ingredient to make it a potion. So, and maybe that's an item that you need to steal. So there's all sorts of things, there's all sorts of ways to set this up.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Tenderle it through.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

Right, exactly. If people are interested in like politics, I can get them involved in like city government and um, you know, maybe somebody's gonna get assassinated or you need to protect someone if you're more interested in just being a loot goblin, which most of us are, you know, uh send you out on a treasure hunt. Try and set up different things for people to to do and make it interesting.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Yeah. How do you remember uh what they choose from that to another topic? Like if they choose like uh is it a goblin? And then they call it.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

A loot a loot goblin road.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

What if they like I I would have such a hard time like remembering and like wow.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

I have notebooks, lots and lots of notebooks.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah, you write stuff down. And a typical game, you said like one was like five years.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

That was for one game, or well, in multiple chapters of it. So it started out like um her character um came into the city and she was looking for her cousin, and so she had to hire people to help her find her cousin, and that's how everybody met, and then it evolved from there. So once that storyline resolved, there was some information that came in about other people's characters, and I wove that in, and they would move on to the next part of the story, and each each plot beat would get woven together, and things would get revisited because there was care there would be characters that they had interacted with in chapter three that I'd bring back in chapter eight, you know. So it it ultimately storytelling, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

It's kind of like reading a series of books that has a whole bunch of like sections, and then you guys do it like um because I know my sister, she like goes and has like a night, like a DD night. So it's like, and then you could you will stop at a certain point and then go back to it. Oh, okay. Yeah, that is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Yeah, basically right now it's just we we all collaborate whenever we can make our schedules align.

unknown 37:23

Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Right tonight, like um, we've got a game that we're doing with some friends. Uh, somebody else is running a campaign, and uh Steph is running this uh really interesting character that she's laughing because it's it's um it's a dream character she's been wanting to run. It is and um the DM said okay!

SPEAKER_02 37:48

We're gonna do this.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

I'm excited for you. So, and um I'm actually playing in this game, and that's the kender I keep posting. It's basically a small, a small character that is basically like a child on crack.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Yeah, you're you're like a child of morning pixie sticks, basically. Yes, it's a whole bunch of sugar. Woo.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

And I try and keep it toned down because if I don't, uh I I will just mow over everybody in chat because this is online.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Oh, okay. So you're not in person, it's online.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

There are different um websites you can use. Roll 20 is what we use.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

It's um you can put pardon me, maps up and um and like your little character tokens and stuff, like you know, stuff you can still interact with. Right, as if it was like an um an in-person game with like the map and the the little miniatures and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

So what does the um because I see the dice. What does the dice usually like determine?

SPEAKER_02 38:57

So D D is collaborative storytelling, but with random chance. You have to make random things happen. So the the dice add a bit of um randomness because you can't just say, well, you know, I want to do, you know, three flips. Okay, well, you're gonna do three flips, but you gotta make that athletic check first. So the dice is what Because even Olympians fall on their butt. Yeah, the dice giveth and the dice taketh away.

unknown 39:32

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

And different dice do different things. The d20 is mainly used for skill checks. Um, like, can I make that jump? Can I hit somebody with that sword? Can I um can I make my charisma check? Right. Can I persuade this person to do something they don't want to do? So D20s are usually skill checks. The rest of the dice are usually for calculating how the outcome went. Damage dice, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Oh. Sorry, I'm just remembering me breaking that game. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

We played, we played uh DD for couples. For couples for Valentine's Day, and she came up with a really ingenious idea how to solve a problem, but it was a pre-written game. It was not my game. And um I broke it. She broke it. Like it didn't account for what she wanted to do.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

I'm like, and we're done. And I made my charisma roll and I convinced this person to go with my idea. And Patty's like, well, game over. And I was like, what do you mean, game over? She's like, this is that there's nothing written for this part, and I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Yeah, that's the problem with running with running prefabricated games, uh, because sometimes they don't allow for all of the creative things that you can do. And that's really what I love about DD is as a player character, if you can dream it, you it's up to the DM to try and figure out how to work with you on it and bring it into that reality.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

So, like what she wanted to do was this person was potentially gonna get attacked. So she convinced the person to change clothes with her and she was gonna disguise herself as that person. Yeah. The game hadn't accounted for that, didn't think anyone's gonna do anything like that. And the rest of what they had set up for the game had nothing. It was not gonna work out. Nope. They thought you were gonna talk to the pert person when people attack them, you would protect them, and that was all they set up for. It's very spontaneous. Okay. That's why I like coming up with games when you run it yourself and you come up with that idea. It is my job to figure out how to facilitate that and how the world would change accordingly with your decision.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Mm-hmm. And make it work. Yeah. And make it fun for you. Yeah. That's so cool. I can see how it lasts for hours.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Most of it is uh we're either like you there's the breaks where we're all getting we're all ADHD, so we're all getting off topic and we all talk about something else. And then we actually start playing. And then there's like the long breaks where we're all just trying to figure out how to do one thing. We're just sitting there for like 20 minutes talking about how we're gonna open a door.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

And the door is unlocked and not trapped. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

So should we go under? Should we fly through?

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Because these are people that have played the game before and they're terrified. If they open that door, it's gonna explode on them or something horrible. The door is a mimic and it's going to be booby trap.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Yeah, booby trap.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

It's a door, guys. Just go shoo. I definitely gotta play with you guys one day. That was that would be so fun.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

A lot of fun. But we we also play a lot of video games. Our our current um obsession is Valheim. It's uh Yeah, it's it's been out for several years now, and they're still putting out different sections to it. I guess what what do they call that with video games? Uh early access, thank you. Yes, and um basically the premise is you are a Viking that has died, and rather than going to the afterlife, Odin basically sends you on a quest, and your quest is to go to Valheim and beat these uh bad guys that he's set in Valheim because he didn't know what to do with them, so he just kind of sent them there. And you're basically cleaning up Odin's mess, and it's it's a survival crafting game. So you have to build a house, you have to make food, you have to Like your resources, but it's really beautiful and it's a lot of fun, and you can take as long as you want to play the game.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Oh wow. So it's kind of like it kind of reminds me of um oh my gosh, I can't think of it. Like not Animal Crossing, but it's like somewhere similar, but like more darker. Yeah, like Stardew Valley. That's that's the one. But darker.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Like um if Skyrim, like Skyrim and Stardew Valley sort of kind of made this weird Viking baby.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Viking baby, yes. And you get to build your own stuff, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

And then um the um do you stream I saw you stream sometimes too. How did you get into that?

SPEAKER_03 44:45

Um, we used to stream our cosplay stuff on our cosplay side, and um we've been doing that uh since I want to say COVID? Pre-COVID.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

I think barely seven-ish years or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

Yeah, and so we would we would um make things on stream, and every once in a while we need a night off and we do games, but especially with with Twitch, it's really important to pigeonhole yourself.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

Like stay with like one thing that you do and then stay with it.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

So, what I decided to do is when I got into acting, uh, I decided to start streaming games. I really want to stream games I'm in, and something I'm gonna be doing, and I've talked about this, is I want to stream games you've been in. So have you on my stream talk about what you've done as an actor, this kind of thing, what you're doing right now, but at the same time playing a game you've been in.

SPEAKER_02 45:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:47

To get eyes on your work and show people what you've done.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

And people talk about your work too.

SPEAKER_03 45:53

I I because you know, there's so many of us that are out there doing this work, and a lot of it's indie stuff, and it doesn't get the eyes that it should because it seems how hard these devs work games. It is incredible, and they love what they do, and they're not doing it because it they want tons of money. Sure, if they get tons of money for it, great. But that's not why they're doing it, they're doing it because they have a story to tell and they have a passion for what they're doing. And so I want to play all these indie games on stream, get eyes on them, and show people there's some really great work out there. Yeah, and don't get me wrong, I love the big name game. Yeah, I mean, Baldur's Gate 3 was fantastic, but there's some indie stuff out there that is just ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

Yeah, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

So that's what I want to do with my stream.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Yes. Have you done any, yeah? Have you played anything that you've been in? Because I know you've been in like the a lot of video games, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:55

She's laughing. I've played one so far. Um, it was called uh Yuri Love Dungeon. And I made the mistake of putting it on spicy because there's different levels you could have. Oh and that's why I'm laughing. And that's why she's laughing. I didn't know what to expect.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

Level spicy. Level spicy. I was this is the first time I've been the playable character, so I was really excited. Um they you could pick from different voices, and I was really shocked to see who I get to who else was in this game because there were people that I I've looked up to that are in the game. I'm like, oh, okay, this is cool. Um but um yeah, uh I played Rowan the Ranger in that one, and I got to play that one on stream. I need I have a list of stuff I need to play and have a underroom.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

That is so that is so awesome. Uh how does it feel like listening to your voice while you're playing? Weird.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

I was like, wait.

unknown 47:59

It is weird.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

Do you do you usually complete the whole game or do you like um just like this like small the segments that you're in or that one? That one was really short.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

It was a game jam. So and so I was able to do that on stream. Um, I know like I wanna do guards versus goats next, because there's a lot uh it's like like nine chapters, and I um I am a small cog in the big wheel on that one, and the looks really, really funny. And so that one's gonna take multiple playthroughs.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

Yeah. Cool. Is there a game in particular?

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

Is there a game in particular that you would like to play uh next or in general or in something that you voice?

SPEAKER_03 48:53

Um so there's a few games that are in um that that are currently being made. I and I'm I'm waiting for them to come out. Uh one I can talk about. It's called Scarlet Sonority, and um I play an elf princess in that one. Kind of Zelda-esque.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

Ooh!

SPEAKER_03 49:14

And it's I'm this just watching these people. So the dev on this one is doing a lot of the hard labor, but she is bringing in like musicians and artists and paying for all of this out of her own pocket. She's in Australia and she got a grant from the Australian government to be able to do this. It is crazy. The demo is hopefully gonna be out, I wanna say sometime in Q2. Um and it was really funny because they were asking, uh, you know, do is anybody we need some small people, uh, some people to do some small roles for the for the opening of the demo. I'm like, so about my wife. So hey, I have a wife.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

Well Steph is gonna be in the demo.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

So yeah, I'm I play uh like a very small part in the prologue. Um that they asked me to do a character there, and I was like, okay, cool. Project together? Uh it wasn't our first project together, but it was our first video game. Oh officially. Yeah. Um so that was that was a lot of fun because I basically just went, so what like here's my demo reel? What voice print are you looking for? And they just they just told me what they were looking for, and there it was. Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

So I love that tag team together.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

I really want to play the game though. It reminds me of the old 2-bit games, like the old 2-bit Zeldas where you would run around.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

Or um Square Eddie's like final, like the old originals um Final Fantasy games, like because it's the 2-bit like JRPG style. Um that was gonna be so cute. It's super cute.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Oh my gosh. And then I saw you guys recently got married.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Um that's like the third time. That is a long involved story.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

You made a deeds. I would love to hear how was the how was the day?

SPEAKER_02 51:25

So we um we've been together for quite a while. We never really thought it was ever gonna be like legal to do it. So we actually for the first the very first time we did a hand fasting when we were still in Florida in 2008.

SPEAKER_03 51:44

That sounds right.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

2008. Um, and we considered that our marriage.

unknown 51:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:50

And then we took all of our friends and went to Disney World. So, you know, take care of the colour. We're the more the merrier kind of people. It was great. Um then as time went on and we moved to Colorado, um, Colorado started changing its laws, and I found out that we could apply for what's called a common law marriage where we had been together long enough, we had a you know, joint bank account, yada yada yada. We had enough data basically to prove that we were married, and we filed our taxes together. And in the eyes of Colorado law, that I think that was like 2014, 2015, we were married then.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

Oh, we filed taxes, but finally last year Colorado did did away with the last law because there was no point in getting like married, married here, because if uh with the current environment, and I'll leave it there, someone could come behind us and go, no, you guys aren't married anymore. So why why bother spending the money on that? Exactly. Because it does cost money to do that. So, well, Colorado would did away with the last law making because it was technically illegal to still do it here for same-sex couples. They they finally got that law off the books, and we're like, all right, considering everything that's going on right now, let's just go ahead and that way we have the piece of paper and we can say, for one brief shining moment, we were married.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

So we actually now have more than just the common law, we have the official marriage certificate and everything, and we're like, woohoo!

SPEAKER_01 53:24

Thanks, Colorado. How um and did you guys have like a ceremony or just something simple?

SPEAKER_03 53:33

No, it it was pretty simple. Um we took Coy and her husband down to the courthouse, and they were our witnesses, and then we went out and had a very fancy meal afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

Yeah, we went out and had nice, nice food at uh there's a uh French restaurant near us in um an area called Old Town that uh is actually owned by a French guy. I don't know what made him want to settle in northern Colorado and open a restaurant, but he has some excellent food. And so we actually went and celebrated with like mimosas and uh like French food. It was great. You can't go wrong with that.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

We live in a college town, so it's like super, super tiny. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

Yep, yep. Aw, congratulations, guys. That's so awesome. Thank you. Um and then um, so I was gonna um touch on a couple more things before we get out of here. Um, I also want to do something for fun. Um if you had to be a superhero, uh, which one would you like which superpower would you have and why? Have you ever ever thought about having a superpower? I used to think about it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

Now that I'm older, probably teleporting because let me tell you, having to to to travel is kind of a pain in the butt.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

Yeah, instantly. Yes. Um I think in the past. Or flight, yeah. Um I think in the past I've said um telekinesis would be really interesting to be able to lift things you can't normally lift and just use like the power of your mind.

SPEAKER_03 55:16

Um I could see me getting angry with that person that just cut me off and put them in timeout on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_02 55:22

That's the only thing that holds me back on that. And I was like, yeah, but if you know I'm having a bad day, maybe that wouldn't be a good power. Right. Everyone get away. And then like Yep, just take my mind spatula to that car and just there you go. Like, yep. But otherwise I'm bored with the teleporting idea.

SPEAKER_03 55:48

That's uh teleporting or flight would be a lot of money. Would be cathartic.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

Save a lot of money, and it would be nice to be able to like see all of our friends, and then I'm not stuck on an airplane for how many hours and can't move, and travel is stressful, and it sure is.

SPEAKER_01 56:07

Like going through TSA and like and like having the mental capacity to go through TSA and and wondering where your gate is, and like oh, this is the wrong gate, and then sometimes when it changes, oh, that is the worst feeling ever.

SPEAKER_03 56:22

Like you have five minutes to get on the other side of the airport. Yes. Run.

SPEAKER_01 56:28

I had to do that one day. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

The anxiety is insane. It is, it's it's a lot, and like it seems like at least right now, too, every time we travel, we get sick.

SPEAKER_03 56:42

So we came back from London and someone had given us the gift of COVID.

SPEAKER_02 56:47

Someone had given us a COVID strain and we were like, gee, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Was London at least fun? How like going there? Did you did you guys have to go through because now I'm just learning about this now because I want to go to Japan later this year, but I know you have to go through like um I don't know, like some like an immigration type thing. They have to like ask you questions and stuff when you leave and then when you come back, and and I didn't even know that was there there was a process in that. I thought you just take your passport and then you just go and fly, and that was it.

SPEAKER_02 57:24

I think it was because we were going to London, to the UK, there wasn't a lot of fanfare about it. We just applied for our passports, we told them when we were going and when we were coming back, and everything was fine.

SPEAKER_03 57:39

But um a lot of people don't like Americans right now. I wonder why. So travel overseas is about to get a lot more rough, and we're we're trying to go back. We actually want to move overseas briefly. I because a lot of I have a lot of opportunities I could get if we could get over there. Because a lot of gaming studios move to the to the UK and in Europe. So if I can get my butt over there, I could get representation, hopefully. And um they want in person.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

Yeah, they well they have a lot of recording studios out of London, out of London. So um they'll I in fact I think there's even like London has like rental studios where like you can rent a studio out for a day and record out of it and then that is such a good idea, right? I'm like, yeah. Sounds so cool.

SPEAKER_03 58:30

So like I know a lot of people say LA and and it's true, especially if you want the AAA games, but if you want indie games like I wanna do, yeah. London.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

London? Oh, and any specific put part of London or um Well, we're gonna live outside of London.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

We we'll just take the uh tube in. Yeah, we'll just take the train. That's the their their version of the train, so we'll just we'll just tube in.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

Um because London is expensive and the funny thing was is everyone warned us how expensive it was, but then when we got there, we were like, I don't know what you guys are talking about. This is not that bad. Really? Oh, okay, okay. Um weird northern Colorado American inflation, but I just Yeah, but they're c the they get paid less than we do too. So that might be they were getting paid less, but like the food there was really affordable. Um basically we were just we were there on a budget anyways, so we would just go to the corner store and just like pick up a few things and just make our food at the Airbnb we were at.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

We were like, it's fine. We we ended up out a few times and it wasn't too bad. Yeah, so cool.

SPEAKER_02 59:43

I mean it wasn't bad at all. Oh but I do know we've we have a lot of friends out there, they keep telling us it's more affordable outside of London, so we're like, okay, I mean, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Did you guys visit any places out there, like any um historical artifacts or anything like that? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Patty had us booked solid, like the entire Yeah, so one thing about Patty, you gotta have everything organized. She had used and I was just like, okay. Um there was we had one because we were also going out there to see some friends. Um we got to meet with her mentor, Sean Mendem. So we got that was also really fun. I got to meet Sean in person. It was amazing. Oh my god, we went to a convention there as well. We were all over. Um, and we had one, I think one specific day that we had to literally see all of London. And I think we put in what was it like 20,000, 22,000 steps that day.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:46

Well, no, the whole time we were there, we put in about 22,000 steps. That was fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:50

It was ridiculous, but we saw I got I got really excited because I got to see the London Wall, which was the original Roman wall for Londonium. And um, we went to the tower. Um how was that process like? Uh it was pretty easy. I mean, navigating I found navigating London actually really simple. Once I figured out their subway system, I found it really easy to get around. Um, and once we got like their little oyster card and we could just tap ourselves in the card. Tap yourself onto the tube, tap yourself off to the tube, yeah. Because beforehand we thought we had to like go to their little kiosks and buy tickets. Right. And that's when our mentor sean was like, What are you doing? Just get an oyster card. And we were like, Oh, oh, oh, this is way easier. Okay, thank you. Um, so yeah, that and all of everything's color coded, all of their lines are color-coded, and it was pretty easy once we got that navigated, and then after that, you just like go on foot.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

We did take a train down to Canterbury.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:57

We did, we went down to Canterbury. So the trains are very useful there, huh? Oh my gosh, yes. They are amazingly useful. Um, but and we also took a boat trip where they took us on the Thames and we got to see some more stuff from the Thames itself, which was really cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:15

It was I that year was the 28th year we'd been together.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

Oh, what a way to spend the anniversary. Yup.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:24

So I signed us up for like high tea on the Thames.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:29

So we got we we got on the boat, we got this really nice high tea served to us, and they they would talk about the different things.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

It was it was a lot of fun. They yeah, yeah. So we got to float by, you know, like um Westminster Abbey and the the palace and the the London Eye and Big Ben and all that, and they told us about all the information, and then we just went back to the the Tower Bridge um uh spot where we took off from and got back off.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:01

Coolest thing about London that I don't know if they do here in the US. Um, museums, most of them are free. Yes. Museums are free.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

We got to go to the London Museum for free, we got to go to the uh the British the so we went to the British Museum and we also got to go to the Tate. Tate there it is. Uh uh the like the premier London Art Museum. Modern art, yeah. We also right next door was Shake the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Um, and we also got to go to that too. For free. For free. You just like there's some stuff that's like notes. Right? Right? There's some stuff like in the British Museum, they had like brand new exhibits or touring exhibits, those you had to buy tickets for. But otherwise, you could just 90% of it was free. Yeah, you could just walk around the museum and just enjoy yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:52

You had to cue, yeah. Cue is everything in in the UK, standing in line, queuing is everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:57

Oh okay. They stand in line for everything. Yep, that's that's what they call it. The lines were long, or they were long and steady, or no? No, it was uh they all went pretty quick.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:12

About 15 minutes to get in, and then once you're in, you're in, and you just do what you want to do. Yeah. They were all pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

I didn't notice anything obscenely long. So it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

So where do you guys see yourself five years from now? What and what goals do you think you want to accomplish anything in I I I would assume moving would probably be one of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:36

But um, I actually signed up to go potentially go to school in the UK. That was something big I did this week. Um which is terrifying because I would I would like to because they have apparently night and evening classes at the Giles Foreman School of Acting. And if I can get over there, hopefully that means that both of us can go and do that. We would work during the day and then go to school at night and take acting classes. I wouldn't mind doing theater as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

That'd be so much fun. Right. And then you can finally do theater like um um while you went, you always wanted as a kid.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

It's it's stressful, but it is fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:23

It's yeah, that is very true. No, I it's uh I remember doing it um like a little bit, like when starting voice acting, and um it's a lot of of physical and mental uh work that goes into it. You have to spend a lot of time into it too. You wouldn't like think that because of you know, when you do the shows, it's fun to watch, but the behind the scenes, like everything, oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:51

Oh yeah. And we both of us work part-time at our local theater too. Um, so we actually help out a lot with with the behind the scenes. Stuff. Um, so we know what goes into all of that. It's insane. The things people don't see that has to go into all of that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:12

It would be really cool though.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:14

Be so much fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:16

But um, and you've actually inspired me because I see you working your butt off, and to be able to do what I want to do, I really, really, really need to be in better shape than what I am right now. So um, we're back to walking, doing yoga, and that kind of thing, and I want to start strength training this year. Um I uh I've kind of unfortunately let my depression and some physical injuries kind of waylay that. And I I don't want to let that hinder me. So I I I'm trying really hard to get mobile again.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

Right. That is so good. Oh, thank you so much, by the way. That that uh you're kicking butt, it's amazing to watch. Thank you so much. I was saying the same thing about you. Like, I love seeing um both of your journeys, like it's just amazing, and um, yeah, like I uh completely agree with you with that. It's so hard to like um with fitness. That is um, along with voice acting, two of the hardest things ever for me. And like, because like it's so easy to like throw something uh in your mouth and not really like pay attention to it, but having to like um monitor nutrition along with um nutrition has always been my thing. Um, and um getting the the hunger pains or wanting cravings and like thinking about it over and over. It's so it's so much self-control, but then um you realize like I I remember my goals that I want to get to get in that summer body and stuff like that. And um I would do like like you said, like I have I have knee problems as well, and then sometimes like I would like try to use that as an excuse to try to get out of doing like maybe something else, and and then like I'm just like you know what? I can always work around it. Like if I really want it, I can I can work do what I can get a personal trainer if I have to, you know. So like I completely agree with you there, and then yoga. I've uh I love yoga, it's so fun stretching, it's so needed too. Like, we don't really realize how like how much it's needed to like especially mentally too. Like, who can like do like meditation with it too? So like I remember like sometimes um in the mor early in the morning, me and my sister would just sit down and um do our like stretches and just in silence listening to everything, and it's just it's like um a really like um peaceful, relaxing experience. Um anything physical training, anything is so needed in life, honestly. It and it like you said, it really does help with depression. Like anytime I feel like um I'm not feeling so well, I go for a run. Like it I'm I'm like it's you think it wouldn't be like so simple, but as simple as going for a run can really help. It helped it doesn't like cure everything, but it really does help like get release endorphins and like get get your body going and and moving. So that's so awesome, and I'm so happy and and I I can't wait to see um everything, like the progress with you, and um, I'm rooting for you. I know you're gonna achieve all your goals and more. You're gonna be in London with wifey, and it's gonna be amazing. You're gonna go to school, go to that theater school, go acting, and I'm gonna see you on TV, and I'm gonna be like, I know you guys! I know you! I know them.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:58

But it's so awesome. Do you have any other five-year goals? No, I think it's just, you know, trying to little by little take the steps we need to get to where we want to go. That's you know, where we wanna get to London, and you know, I need to get some business stuff sort of organized and squared away, basically, and just get to that point.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:26

Right. The baby steps, the baby steps are really are really essential to get to the big steps, and I had I realized that uh like we don't have to rush everything in one day, you know. So it and and your brain wants to be like, oh, you gotta do this, this, and that, and get there. But yeah, like that is so true. Like the baby steps will lead to the bigger one. And oh my gosh, I'm I I'm excited for you guys. It makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

Tying back into something we said earlier, though. Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:57

She said it makes sense. Oh no, no, I didn't thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:03

But um, tying into what we said earlier, I I do feel a bit of pressure because I am older. You know, you said what do I see in five years down the road? And I'm like, as long as I'm still here.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:13

Stop it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

Yes, you will know. It's just it it it's just there's um a lot. I I'm trying not to put that pressure on myself, but like where younger actors are going to have 30, 40, 50 years to go into this, um, I'm not gonna have that. And I have to accept that.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

Um, so I but I also want to enjoy the ride. So, like, um, because if I'm too busy focused on where I am 10 years down the road, I'm not enjoying what I'm doing now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:52

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

And I've I've been super fortunate to be involved with a lot of really cool projects, and I don't want to lose sight of that. Right. Because the creation process is so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:12

It really is. And honestly, like, I feel like as long as you're trying and you're trying your hardest and putting a thousand percent in everything you do, there's go you are going to you there's it's inevitable to get to where you wanna go. Like, and and then even if somebody is younger than you, it that doesn't mean like they like they could they could be like younger and then still like just be chillin' and wanna just you know just be there when and in comparison to somebody else who you know is a little bit older and is putting in all that effort and pushing through and you know it's working and being productive. So I feel like it just a little I feel like it all depends. And I honestly feel like yeah, enjoy the ride and and and keep pushing forward, and you are bound to make like to get to all your goals and aspirations, no matter like what what age you're at, to be honest. And um don't be too hard on yourself, Patty. You're doing you're doing amazing in uh every single project you're in, you give it a 100,000 percent and the future ones that you're gonna be in. And it's in um you should definitely be proud of yourself. You too, Stephanie, um, and you guys are uh an inspiration um to all us out there, especially ones who are joining um and at a um um later on. Um it really does like show like literally anyone can do this. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:48

As long as you as long as you got the love and the passion for it, that's that's it. That's what you need. Find your joy. Find your find your journey. Find your joy, find what you love and hold on to it and take that with you through acting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:05

Yes, thank you. Thank you guys so much for joining. Like this has been so fun hanging out with you guys. And um, and it and can you guys put your um ads, your and uh usernames, or anywhere where we can find you at for anybody who hasn't heard of you guys uh yet and want to follow you on your journeys?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:28

Yeah, I'm I'm Patty Knox. Um I swiped her last name. Yep. Um so I'm Patty Knox everywhere. I usually Patty Knox or Patty Knox VA. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:40

Um I have an old high school handle that I use, and it's Murano Shinigami. I love that. It's just as that's everywhere I go, that's what it is. Um she is the purple shinigami. It yeah, it was um in purple. You're taking my Spanish classes at the time. Yep, I love purple. It's it's one of my favorite colors, and I just loved the Spanish word for purple. I don't know what it is, but I it's it's a really fun word, morato. It is. And of course, at the time, you know, this is gonna really date me, but um Gundam Wing was really big on Toonami. And uh yeah, that's where Shinigami came from. So there you go. That's the story.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:27

Thank you guys so much for joining, and thank you guys for listening and watching. Um, don't forget to uh subscribe to Dweep City, that's with two wise on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and the podcast wherever you're listening now and wherever you get your podcast, um, share with your friends, like, and we will welcome you into the city. Thank you guys so much for um coming in, and I will see you in the next one. Bye. Thank you so much for listening, and we really hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast. If you'd like, please go ahead and give us a five-star rating. It really helps the podcast out a lot. And if you would like to see the podcast full an HG video, go ahead and go to our YouTube and on any of our socials that we have, like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, you name it. We got it. And that's Dream City with two eyes. It has been such an honor so far to be and hear all the wonderful stories about how these creators got the the drive, the the spark, and to continue the passion. And it really brings so much heart love and and filledness in my heart. And I'm so excited to be able to continue these talks and and and share their stories and even have the talks in the first place. I feel very honored, very blessed, and very privileged. I'm not trying to get emotional. But I just wanted to give you guys a shout out and to thank you to already over a hundred downloads in the podcast. Thank you guys so much for watching, and your support means the world. And I hope you have a really good, awesome day. Stay sparkling, and we will see you in the next one.