This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:31] Alex Stompoly: Hey, what's up, adventurers? Welcome back.

[0:34] Cassidy Sledge: Are we on?

[0:35] Conner Marx: Oh, we're in it.

[0:36] Alex Stompoly: Oh my god.

[0:37] Cassidy Sledge: Oh my god, we're live.

[0:38] Conner Marx: The world in which our podcast begins...

[0:39] Cassidy Sledge: They can't know about my complex pee schedule.

[0:42] Conner Marx: Yes, is full of people who now know too much about...

[0:46] Alex Stompoly: Well, I can edit out the thing about your pee.

[0:48] Cassidy Sledge: You can't edit this part out.

[0:49] Conner Marx: It's too late now.

[0:50] Alex Stompoly: It'll just be a mystery. They'll wonder, what was that complex pee schedule?

[0:53] Cassidy Sledge: They'll know it exists, but won't have any more details on it.

[0:55] Conner Marx: It runs very similar to the MTA, where it tells you what's going to happen in ten minutes, but then you're waiting for twenty, and then all of a sudden it's a surprise that you weren't expecting.

[1:03] Cassidy Sledge: And sometimes you're confused about which direction it's referring to.

[1:06] Conner Marx: Oh, yep.

[1:07] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, I thought I was going uptown. I was not.

[1:09] Conner Marx: Whoopsie daisy.

[1:12] Alex Stompoly: Oh, man. Yeah, well, we're here.

[1:14] Cassidy Sledge: Hey, as promised, it is the bar episode.

[1:17] Conner Marx: Welcome.

[1:18] Alex Stompoly: There are a lot of bodies in our podcast studio, I say, with all the finger quotes in the world.

[1:25] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah, it's our dungeon master, Conner, is here.

[1:31] Conner Marx: He was much more excited.

[1:33] Alex Stompoly: Now I want an appropriate woo from everybody.

[1:37] Cassidy Sledge: Our tavern keeper, Stomp.

[1:39] Alex Stompoly: Good day.

[1:41] Cassidy Sledge: Our bar swing, Cassidy.

[1:43] Conner Marx: You!

[1:44] Alex Stompoly: And it's me, Alex.

[1:47] Cassidy Sledge: Ha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha.

[1:49] Conner Marx: It's all the swings.

[1:51] Cassidy Sledge: I just want a sip from each of your cups.

[1:53] Conner Marx: Yes, yes, just a little.

[1:55] Cassidy Sledge: But then you'll have to go to the bathroom faster.

[1:57] Conner Marx: Yes, yes, yes.

[1:59] Alex Stompoly: Yeah, so we're here. We're here. We get to talk about bar stuff.

[2:02] Cassidy Sledge: It's like the four of us don't honestly get to sit around and do precisely this all that much, which is fun.

[2:09] Conner Marx: Have the four of us ever been in a room together before?

[2:12] Cassidy Sledge: Yes, the four of us have been.

[2:14] Conner Marx: Almost daily, Cassidy.

[2:15] Cassidy Sledge: Yes, routinely.

[2:16] Alex Stompoly: We share a dressing room.

[2:18] Conner Marx: By definition and the last of those two words, tis a room we share.

[2:23] Cassidy Sledge: I think at this point in the podcast, it would behoove us all to know that Cassidy's been up for a very long time.

[2:31] Conner Marx: How you doing, bud?

[2:33] Cassidy Sledge: I'm feeling fresh and fishy fine, baby.

[2:37] Conner Marx: Please don't ask for any follow-up questions on that.

[2:41] Cassidy Sledge: Okay, fishy fine it is.

[2:42] Alex Stompoly: Thank you.

[2:43] Conner Marx: Well, hell yeah. Thank you all for being here. This is just a chance, I guess, for us to talk about what it's like to work from behind the bar and goof around as well.

[2:53] Cassidy Sledge: But before we do that, you two have not been on the podcast before.

[2:57] Conner Marx: Both of us?

[2:58] Cassidy Sledge: No, this is our first time.

[2:59] Conner Marx: This is it. This is everybody.

[3:01] Alex Stompoly: We've had all nine cast members now.

[3:03] Cassidy Sledge: The listening public.

[3:05] Conner Marx: Oh, my God, guys. Stop making out.

[3:07] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, wow. Wow. It's a lot.

[3:09] Alex Stompoly: We're looking at it.

[3:11] Cassidy Sledge: It was but a gentle touch of the fingertips, filled with camaraderie and affection.

[3:16] Conner Marx: Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

[3:18] Cassidy Sledge: I don't know what the kids are calling anything these days.

[3:20] Conner Marx: Camaraderie. I mean, camaraderie. I mean, what?

[3:24] Cassidy Sledge: Amazing. Well, let me just say, I'm a fan of your podcast.

[3:28] Conner Marx: Oh, hey, thanks. It's not mine.

[3:29] Cassidy Sledge: I've been listening to it on my bike ride home.

[3:32] Alex Stompoly: Hey, great.

[3:33] Cassidy Sledge: And it's been a delight.

[3:34] Conner Marx: I think that says something.

[3:36] Cassidy Sledge: If you're willing to listen to your co-workers, continue to yammer at each other like maniacs on your way home.

[3:43] Conner Marx: That speaks to the general camaraderie and gentle touching of this show, I think.

[3:50] Cassidy Sledge: But before we get into like bar stuff.

[3:52] Conner Marx: Gentle touching.

[3:53] Cassidy Sledge: Before we really start the heavy petting here.

[3:57] Conner Marx: Let's just, could you maybe take a second to like introduce yourself to this part of our audience? Like how did you, when did you get into Dungeons and Dragons? How do you find yourself at the like, at the tavern?

[4:08] Conner Marx: Sure. I'm Conner. I'm a DM here. I joined with a tavern a little later than these other two adjacent to me, Cassidy and Stomp.

[4:20] Cassidy Sledge: And certainly much later than you.

[4:23] Conner Marx: I watched Cassidy DM this show over and over and over and over as I was in rehearsals.

[4:29] Cassidy Sledge: I'm so excited.

[4:30] Conner Marx: Their every move took extensive notes. Stole is just shamelessly from them.

[4:38] Conner Marx: I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 4th edition.

[4:42] Cassidy Sledge: There was a, your eyes widened.

[4:45] Conner Marx: I just, everyone talks so much shit about 4th edition.

[4:48] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah, I don't necessarily understand why.

[4:52] Conner Marx: I do, I do appreciate the streamlining of 5th edition, but maybe it's because I didn't have the storied history with either Pathfinder or 3.5 or anything like that.

[5:04] Cassidy Sledge: It's 3.5 that like everybody's mad at.

[5:06] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[5:07] Cassidy Sledge: You hear people like complain about 3.5.

[5:09] Conner Marx: But you also have people who loved it.

[5:11] Cassidy Sledge: Died by it.

[5:12] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[5:13] Cassidy Sledge: I think it's the best one.

[5:14] Conner Marx: Yeah, because it's crunchy as shit.

[5:15] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah. People who really love Long Division.

[5:17] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[5:19] Cassidy Sledge: I want to meet those people.

[5:21] Conner Marx: I know we're talking about you right now, like an intro, but just like the specific like sect of the human population.

[5:26] Cassidy Sledge: It's like big Long Division fan.

[5:27] Conner Marx: I respect them.

[5:28] Cassidy Sledge: Huge Long Division fan over here.

[5:29] Conner Marx: It's super real. We could also just call them Warhammer people.

[5:33] Cassidy Sledge: Like, yeah, I mean like, yeah, it's super duper crunchy. The people that like love the like war game mechanics of tabletop RPGs.

[5:42] Conner Marx: Can I share that I think I would love to be a Warhammer dude.

[5:47] Cassidy Sledge: Dude, I think you would too.

[5:48] Conner Marx: I think you'd like it a lot. Like Kill Team is like you have a ruler out.

[5:52] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[5:53] Conner Marx: Like you're like there's a little play ruler that it comes with that you're like, you know, you can miss.

[5:59] Cassidy Sledge: Forget a hex.

[6:00] Conner Marx: You can be like a millimeter too far out to like hit a guy.

[6:04] Cassidy Sledge: Wow.

[6:05] Conner Marx: There are parts of my brain that really light up at that.

[6:07] Cassidy Sledge: And anytime I go into a game store or a comic store and they have the big sort of effectively the nerd version of your grandfather's attic train set.

[6:16] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[6:17] Cassidy Sledge: It's just takes up an entire back room.

[6:19] Conner Marx: I get very.

[6:21] Cassidy Sledge: But I always.

[6:22] Conner Marx: I.

[6:23] Cassidy Sledge: So.

[6:24] Conner Marx: Just like our grandfather would get at Christmas when he took out the drains.

[6:27] Cassidy Sledge: I am clearly a card carrying nerd with, you know, a great deal of comfort in that environment. But I have been so intimidated and I have not been able to go up to someone and be like, hey, I'm trying to play this game.

[6:40] Conner Marx: I'm trying to. Where. How do I like. There's like a monetary investment in there, too.

[6:46] Cassidy Sledge: Right.

[6:47] Conner Marx: You got to get the set and all that.

[6:48] Cassidy Sledge: You have to also not be living in an apartment in Brooklyn.

[6:50] Conner Marx: It helps.

[6:51] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[6:52] Conner Marx: One of the main requirements.

[6:53] Cassidy Sledge: It says it right there in the instruction.

[6:54] Conner Marx: Oh, yeah.

[6:55] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[6:56] Conner Marx: I got a Queens, Staten Island or Boston.

[7:00] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, yeah.

[7:03] Conner Marx: I think that's fascinating.

[7:04] Cassidy Sledge: So I know nothing about the Warhammer. You know, I know people. I know the mini painting is about as close as I get because I love watching people just be that passionate about it.

[7:12] Conner Marx: But the way you're describing it, it's like for me, I keep flashing to like it's a war film is what's in my head. And there's just a general with a long stick pushing the troops forward. We're going to attack this range. Everybody's got. And I just I love that idea.

[7:25] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah. I think I would style myself in the vein of like animated film starring dogs. And this dog is the bookie. And he's got the green kind of see through visor. I love all of our company. You know what I'm saying?

[7:38] Conner Marx: Yeah, exactly. We, you know, like have the cigarette dangling out of the cigarette holder as I'm pushing.

[7:44] Cassidy Sledge: As you are prone to do.

[7:45] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[7:46] Cassidy Sledge: He puts it out on my arm every night before we start the show.

[7:48] Conner Marx: Yes.

[7:49] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[7:50] Conner Marx: That's a weird virtual effect.

[7:51] Cassidy Sledge: He never tips the ash.

[7:52] Conner Marx: Do you ever watch that?

[7:53] Cassidy Sledge: No.

[7:54] Conner Marx: He just lights it. It goes all the way to the filter before he just puts it right out in my arm.

[7:56] Cassidy Sledge: Like Winston Churchill.

[7:57] Conner Marx: He's in there back there putting safety pins in them.

[8:01] Cassidy Sledge: Safety pins.

[8:02] Conner Marx: Paperclips.

[8:03] Cassidy Sledge: That's what I want.

[8:04] Conner Marx: You know, thank you. I have been channeling Winston Churchill in this show for months.

[8:09] Cassidy Sledge: No one has acknowledged my character work.

[8:11] Conner Marx: I've just been wheeling myself around, waiting for the compliments.

[8:15] Cassidy Sledge: I just really thought you really liked the crown.

[8:17] Conner Marx: Winston Churchill, you've been wheeling yourself around?

[8:20] Cassidy Sledge: Are you kidding me?

[8:22] Conner Marx: FDR cross-reference here.

[8:24] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[8:25] Conner Marx: It's okay.

[8:26] Cassidy Sledge: I've been Joseph Stalin referencing.

[8:30] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[8:31] Cassidy Sledge: No.

[8:32] Conner Marx: That's okay.

[8:33] Cassidy Sledge: Just in your everyday life?

[8:34] Conner Marx: I was trying to make a Joseph Stalin reference. I was like, what's the thing I could have been doing that would make me the third allied power? But I can't. I couldn't think of anything that wasn't really horrible.

[8:45] Cassidy Sledge: LGBTQIA ally.

[8:48] Conner Marx: And I think FDR Churchill is Stalin.

[8:51] Cassidy Sledge: That's funny.

[8:55] Conner Marx: Oh, it's so stupid.

[8:57] Cassidy Sledge: Ally.

[8:58] Conner Marx: Ally.

[8:59] Cassidy Sledge: You know what's a fun position that we four uniquely find ourselves in?

[9:02] Conner Marx: Yes.

[9:03] Cassidy Sledge: It's echoed by this moment. Being on stage and contending with facts.

[9:08] Conner Marx: What?

[9:09] Cassidy Sledge: Facts. Things that, you know, so rarely are we forced to reveal the things that we do and do not know in front of an audience of several hundred.

[9:20] Conner Marx: Absolutely.

[9:21] Cassidy Sledge: And it's kind of where, to an extent, the improv, I won't say has to die, but it's where you do have facts that you can't just pretend anymore.

[9:26] Conner Marx: Or, I mean, as some of us also were confronted with what a chalice is the other night.

[9:36] Cassidy Sledge: I mean, to just absolutely huck you under the bus.

[9:39] Conner Marx: Please.

[9:40] Cassidy Sledge: You just said that. You weren't even in this show.

[9:42] Conner Marx: No, I wasn't. I wasn't.

[9:44] Cassidy Sledge: The story's a far one.

[9:45] Conner Marx: The stage managers absolutely were sending pictures of it to the group chat.

[9:50] Cassidy Sledge: You got absolutely burned to the ground about a chalice.

[9:53] Conner Marx: It was amazing.

[9:54] Cassidy Sledge: I'll offer this story.

[9:57] Conner Marx: A tale as old as time.

[9:59] Cassidy Sledge: Sure.

[10:00] Conner Marx: Two words start with the same letter. The brain.

[10:02] Cassidy Sledge: Makes them smooch a little.

[10:05] Conner Marx: Sometimes make them smooch a little too much and they switch places.

[10:09] Cassidy Sledge: What two words are you referring to?

[10:10] Conner Marx: I won't explain myself to you.

[10:11] Cassidy Sledge: A chalice and candelabra.

[10:14] Conner Marx: Candelabra.

[10:15] Cassidy Sledge: So.

[10:16] Conner Marx: Okay.

[10:17] Cassidy Sledge: Interesting.

[10:18] Conner Marx: Because the photo, give it a menorah.

[10:20] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah, it was a menorah for sure.

[10:22] Conner Marx: A menorah is an ornamental candelabra.

[10:25] Cassidy Sledge: Beauty and the Beast would be horrifically different if Lumiere turned into a menorah.

[10:29] Conner Marx: It would be super different.

[10:30] Cassidy Sledge: It would be true.

[10:31] Conner Marx: The arrangement of the candle holders are all in a single parallel line.

[10:35] Cassidy Sledge: It's a two-dimensional.

[10:36] Conner Marx: I'm drawing with a sharpie.

[10:39] Cassidy Sledge: So this was the looted item. Someone said chalice. And I was like, great. And I saw the candelabra in my head. Awesome. Started to draw it. Got really into it. Wasn't listening to anything that was happening on stage.

[10:50] Conner Marx: Which would have clued me into the fact that I was drawing the wrong item.

[10:53] Cassidy Sledge: Because everyone was talking about drinking from this thing.

[10:56] Conner Marx: That Indiana Jones has to pick the right one of.

[10:58] Cassidy Sledge: Yes.

[10:59] Conner Marx: Right.

[11:00] Cassidy Sledge: Diego was doing you some favors. He was saying like, oh, there's still some juice at the bottom of it. Should we drink it? Not the blood of Christ.

[11:06] Conner Marx: I tuned out for that.

[11:07] Cassidy Sledge: So I don't know. It could be the oil, I guess, that there wasn't enough of.

[11:11] Conner Marx: If there are podcast listeners who have not seen the show, but there is a moment where we loot an item and it is the DM's job to draw that item.

[11:18] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[11:19] Conner Marx: And this was that moment.

[11:21] Cassidy Sledge: In that, the little hamster running on the wheel, powering my brain and nervous system and extremities, has only one thing it can find.

[11:28] Conner Marx: I just shut down.

[11:34] Cassidy Sledge: I'm drawing that item and paying attention to nothing else.

[11:38] Conner Marx: Nothing else.

[11:39] Cassidy Sledge: I mean, I've watched you do it. I've watched you do it from a TK perspective. And I've done it myself with you watching me do it.

[11:47] Conner Marx: And we have not gotten to DM and Cassie.

[11:50] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah, I guess we have.

[11:51] Conner Marx: Oh, yeah. You've watched me. I drew some insane shit for Brienne and Erica one time, and I can't remember what it was. But, like, you pull up reference crap, man.

[12:02] Cassidy Sledge: I love watching Conner draw the looted item. It's amazing.

[12:05] Conner Marx: Oh, yeah. You've got a whole method, dude.

[12:08] Cassidy Sledge: Because you really do lock it out.

[12:10] Conner Marx: My ass has listened to them the whole time.

[12:12] Cassidy Sledge: Absolutely.

[12:13] Conner Marx: I'm like, in my head. Someone whose ass is doing it, you don't want to do that.

[12:16] Cassidy Sledge: You got the ass ears?

[12:19] Conner Marx: I sit there politely and stare at the players while they just pun their way through what feels like the longest minute of our lives.

[12:26] Cassidy Sledge: Conner goes completely quiet and is drawing the great works.

[12:31] Conner Marx: I am staring at three people who are trying to figure out how many different ways they can cram a mac and cheese pun into this moment.

[12:37] Cassidy Sledge: It's honestly impressive sometimes.

[12:40] Conner Marx: That word sometimes is doing a lot of work.

[12:43] Cassidy Sledge: No, I know. It's a lot.

[12:45] Conner Marx: It's fun.

[12:47] Cassidy Sledge: I've been at every single part on the board for that moment.

[12:52] Conner Marx: It's one of the weird... I mean, we can get into these moments that you really have to fill on stage that aren't really improv moments.

[13:04] Cassidy Sledge: For me, it's like, what the fuck do I do for this 35 seconds while people are going to get somebody from the audience?

[13:12] Conner Marx: Or the puzzle, the riddles and stuff. They're a moment for us to chat, but it's odd to fill it out.

[13:21] Cassidy Sledge: The drawing moment is strange that way.

[13:27] Conner Marx: It's so empty.

[13:31] Cassidy Sledge: It could be anything.

[13:33] Conner Marx: The players are also struggling to make stuff up, exactly as the DM is going, A fucking pickle nunchuck. How do I draw a pickle nunchuck? What does a nunchuck look like? I've totally forgotten everything.

[13:46] Cassidy Sledge: I go into a time void. I do not know if it's been 20 minutes or four seconds.

[13:51] Conner Marx: It was the moment for me watching the show, one of the moments I was most anxious about.

[14:01] Cassidy Sledge: Really?

[14:02] Alex Stompoly: First, I'm so sorry. No, it's chaos and we're all here, but like, well, we've all met each other, so it's weird to reintroduce. We asked for your story and you said, I used to play D&D 4.0 and that was as far as we got. Back to talking about, but like, yeah, would you like to step up and introduce yourself? And I don't know. I mean, you say every, every night on stage that. And that intro is not a lie. Yeah, I know. So yeah. Hi everyone. Ooh, weird to say that when I'm looking at Cass, who I've known for months, but I'll keep making eye contact. I'm Stomp. I'm the tavern keeper here now. Joined the company when they came to New York, which was great. Started as the understudy and here I sit.

And yeah, I've been, so D&D's been peripherally around me since I was a kid because my dad played. And back then that was something that my dad did on Wednesday nights with his guy friends and like left. And I didn't like that was his like guy's night out. It was nerd poker. And so like I like, and watching, you know, him like have like the graph paper and like, he didn't have a lot of like figurine. So like the nondescript, like that pop tab is going to be you for a little bit. Yeah. Your hand. Yes. Cass, you have a question?

[15:11] Cassidy Sledge: My hand is raised. Yes. Was your dad a DM?

[15:14] Alex Stompoly: You know what? We've never talked about. He probably was, but I think at the time, this was my friend, Steven Gladish's dad was running that campaign. The fact that I was able to pull that name out of my hat is impressive. Even a Julie Gladish. That's just a goofy scene. That's very funny. Yeah. And she did it on Wednesdays. And so I grew up with like his monster manual and his like player handbook and everything. And I would just like fantasy, use them in the real life. Like they were like wizarding books. Cause I was that kid. And then I found D&D back again, prominently when I started working at the Renaissance fair. So seven, eight years ago is when I started playing full time for myself and started doing campaigns and everything. But it's gotta be, are there competing at a Ren fair? Are there like competing campaigns?

[16:03] Cassidy Sledge: There's at least, there's at least three to four going on because nobody it's, it's weird too. Cause the Pennsylvania Renaissance fair, there's a pro company that's like 40 actors live in the back half of the fair. So they bring all these actors and they're there full time for like four months. And do they live in the tops of all the buildings?

[16:19] Alex Stompoly: Some of them. Yeah. So I used to, my, my in-laws had a house like a mile away. So I've been to the Pennsylvania Renaissance. We were probably there at the same time. I remodeled the apartment above the place where you can get giant pickles. That's one of the last things that I did. Put the feather in my cap. Pickles aren't big enough guys.

[16:40] Cassidy Sledge: No, I didn't remodel the piece. These nunchucks are supposed to be a deadly weapon.

[16:47] Alex Stompoly: What are we doing? You don't know the stress of having to put curtains. It was. Wow. We never had pickle nunchucks, but we did have, so there's a, at the fair, Matt Selle, one of my dear friends plays the sausage King of the Shire and he has sausage nunchucks. He's Abe Froman, sausage King. Don't you laugh at me. Weirder things have happened in this room than that sentence.

[17:06] Cassidy Sledge: I would imagine that all of us, if any of us are on TikTok, got served a whole lot of a pickle priest this, this past season. No, just me. He's a guy at the New York Renaissance Festival.

[17:17] Alex Stompoly: Oh, I do know him. People go and buy, pay like $3 for a pickle. And it is a like three minute interaction where he's like, yes, I will pickle you with this pickle. And here is the pickle that is in the name. And it's a whole production and everybody prays it. And he's like, yes, our transaction is ended. Some of the Ren Faire people that have broken out on TikTok are very precarious. And I shudder at their existence. Go on.

[17:40] Cassidy Sledge: Well, it's just, it's that thing of like going viral. Right. And they, I mean, good for them. Like they found a shtick, but like when you've worked at one for so long and you see how every day is, and then like you randomly get on TikTok and you see someone who's like doing their, like their shtick and you're like, oh, this is, this is clout driven. Yeah. Good on you. I mean like good on you, but it's very interesting. Wow. But yeah. So then yeah, D&D through Ren Faire. It's just like you know that they're walking around like the cock of the walk in Troy, New York, because their pickle shtick has caught on on the internet. And I love that. But then at the same time, I will roll my eyes out of my head and be like, my guy, we are pretending to be subjects of Queen Elizabeth.

Like we are Americans in the United States clamoring for what? There's a Wolverine over there. Like what are we doing? So we had this thing at the fair. It was like, we said, play the height of your intelligence. I had a director who'd be like, cause people do, they cosplay as whatever they want, which is brilliant at a Ren Faire, but you try to like bring them into the world. I love a Star Trek team at a Ren Faire. It's like my favorite. And we have, when you have like stormtroopers come in, this director of mine would always be like, oh look, there goes a soldier of the Holy Roman Empire. What strange firearms you bear, Traveller. That's so funny. That's great sht.

[19:01] Alex Stompoly: But I, yeah, well, welcome. Here we are. Thank you for having us. We're here. You're good. And I, we're here. You're here. We're good. But I think that was going to be a question. I was going to say, what's, what are favorite moments of the, like for all of us behind the bar, what's like your favorite, you have a favorite moment in the show period. It's like to perform.

[19:25] Cassidy Sledge: I, I, we already talked about it. The looted item moment is easily my favorite. Yeah. I love it so much. I love it so much. Tell me why.

[19:30] Alex Stompoly: I just think that it's, it's such a silly, silly thing. It feels like, like the one and only time that like, instead of just getting like a name from an audience member, it's like, it's kind of like a collaboration of like, let's have a conversation. You, me, 400 people all at the same time. Let's talk about the silliest thing we can find right now. And then I inevitably make a terrible drawing of it and people make fun of me, but then like they pretend like they love it. And it's, it's just like this fun dynamic of just like.

[19:59] Cassidy Sledge: I don't think they're pretending. Did you do the broken key the other day? Was that you?

[20:03] Alex Stompoly: I just saw the card floating around. I loved it. I thought like the idea of a broken key, I would have, and it's like, I would have drawn a key. I guess it was in half or pieces or maybe it wasn't there, but like that it was a key with no teeth tickled me. I just saw the card. I had no concept.

[20:18] Cassidy Sledge: No, no. Yeah. That was my fault. Cause they did say, they just flat out said broken key is one of the moments between where Cass was like downstage and like flip it back up to me at the bar. And I was like, and I just off the top of my head, I was like, Oh, do you mean it's like when you go to make a duplicate, but you've just bought, you never finished the steps. So it's just this. Cause they had failed. They had failed combat. I said like, you know, someone gave me a, an item and I'm like a key. And I was like a great, exciting, but like, you know, what, what is it about that? What's the special thing about this key? And someone just goes broken. It's like, all right, great. The broken key. What are we doing here?

[20:54] Cassidy Sledge: I can tell you what I don't like. Well, I say that because it, the, the TK experience is so, I mean, for myself, I'll speak solely on mine. Um, I, I'm a huge fan of every night of the show because I get to watch sure. I, you know, and it's brilliant and the energy from the audience and I'm watching like two separate performances. I'm watching you all on stage and a one shot that I have, we all have very well memorized. Um, and then, but I'm watching you all try new things and watch the players try new things. And then I'm watching the audience enjoy and it's, it's being my own audience member, um, while still having like my finger on the pulse of like when I have to click an election and whatnot.

Um, and it's just, it's, it's great. And the show is always so vastly different and I get to genuinely react and laugh. That's one thing I really love about this experience in this show is that I don't have to like stifle it. There's no, there is so much professionalism happening, but they are not asking me to not, not enjoy my work and enjoy the work of my friends. So I am laughing and I am enjoying it and it's genuine breaking moments. Exactly.

[21:59] Cassidy Sledge: And that's what I love. Cause that's, I mean, I grew up with the Carol Burnett show. That was every morning before I went to school watching, um, them break at each other and enjoy each other is paramount to having fun. The moment I despise is when I have to tell a room full of people, no, you didn't figure that puzzle out. And now I have to explain it. That is a moment for me. The show comes to a screeching halt because there's not a single person in that audience that cares about an answer to something they didn't succeed at. We can't go back and do it again. Here's how it works. Idiots. It is shut up. You didn't unscramble the words. You didn't do teamwork, right? You can just, you can, you feel the ire, especially when, you know, and it's all statistical based.

They've been chanting C4 together for like, I hate when they chant because they chant, but then so many don't type it in. And then we're in this weird moment of, I have 300 people playing 60 of you got it right. Somehow all of you chanted the answer and I still have to say, no, you failed. And I feel like afterward, they're going to follow me to my car. That's the moment. Like, cause then damage is coming and it's upheaval. It's a bad item. And they're going to follow me all the way back to Harlem and be like, listen here, Baldy, I don't think you were playing fair. And I'm like, I was, I would, I would turn the computer around if I could. Um, but yeah, that moment, I, I hate that moment.

[23:29] Alex Stompoly: Yeah. I mean, they don't love failing a ton. Uh, I, how about, I don't know about y'all, but like, I actually really enjoy when it's like at the very end, you get the language, you get to be like, the ritual is largely a failure. I've, that sentence is really fun to me to just be like, wah, wah. I was very afraid of failing the audience, uh, for so long. And I, last night, maybe was my first true worst outcome, killed the wizard, abject failure. And I think there is something, uh, satisfying about it when it is earned, when the audience is able to see where the failure came from. And so when I say, yeah, when they were like, when no one's like, Hey, WTF, man, we, when it's like, yeah, I see how we got here.

You are not wrong. We did. In fact, we were busy trying to fuck everybody. Yeah. We really should have concentrated on the mission more. Right. And when it, yeah. When it feels like we went on a narratively enriching adventure together that had dire consequences, and we now get to take ownership of those consequences, I think that those failures can feel good, but I do think it's a tightrope act to walk.

[24:47] Cassidy Sledge: Oh yeah. Because you, you have to make sure that you are communicating how equally exciting it is to fail or succeed. That one is not right and one is not wrong. Right. That we are telling a story and this story had a certain color or flavor of ending. Yeah. But that the, it does not dictate the fun we had along the way. No, the jury, like if any show was ever the journey, not the destination. Right. And I was talking to a Bria about this, uh, when we were talking is like, what a cool thing that we get to do, that we get to fail because you can't do that shit. If you've had people listening to your actual play for like two years, you can't just be like, yep, then the bad bag comes in and, and all the three characters that everybody's done all this fan art of die and you lose and it's over. Oh, no one will ever listen to you again. It's a really cool thing that you can, that you can just come back and like try again tomorrow.

[25:51] Alex Stompoly: And I think to that end, someone who sits and has, um, I feel it, but I have less, um, of a horse in the race on the audience response to the ending, you know, cause it's, I don't narratively take them on this journey. I help facilitate their involvement, but I do not as, as you know, as the TK, you don't really have a narrative thread through anything. You're kind of just, you are the consequence to actions. You present the action and you are all the consequence.

[26:20] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah. I have to applaud all of you who DM everyone I'm sitting around. I'll take some applause. I'm ready.

[26:26] Alex Stompoly: I don't want to overload the microphone.

[26:30] Cassidy Sledge: But no, I, I really, because you all have a really great ability to adjust the texts that you're given to fit that. I mean, I know that our scripts can update for the ending, but you can feel a little bit like maybe that ending monologue of like the failure, though the game has told us it is an abject failure. Maybe it's not, maybe that's not the sentence you want to say to this.

[26:54] Alex Stompoly: There are a thousand different ways you can say was largely a failure. It's just brilliant. Again, it's, it's brilliant to sit on that side of things because I then become the only real person who knows how much care you just did in that moment. Because on the outside, they're hearing it and they're hearing it and they're leaving the theater and they're just, they're thinking that's the show. And I'm sitting there going, no, they were presented with, I watched this person craft this. I know exactly what those bones were because we stare at them every day. And I think it is just, it's brilliant. And it's fascinating to watch. I really, I am, I am very envious of the, the Tavernkeeper position to be able to watch the DMs like self-edit and move a story along and know a beat that needs to shift. And you all three of you do it spectacularly.

[27:38] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, thanks. Oh yeah, of course. Absolutely.

[27:44] Alex Stompoly: How's that go for you guys? How do you feel? Do you feel when you are self-editing and moving stories along and moving pieces around confident and secure?

[27:55] Conner Marx: I'll take a stab at that.

[27:58] Alex Stompoly: That's creating a great edit point for me to pee. Do you guys want to talk shit about Connor while he's gone?

[28:04] Conner Marx: Now I gotta work with him. Yeah, go for it.

[28:06] Cassidy Sledge: Man, what a stinky guy.

[28:11] Alex Stompoly: Describe the stench. Describe the stench in detail for the listening audience. What does Conner Marx smell like? If you were to get a big whiff of that Marx funk.

[28:25] Conner Marx: It smells like if you put a stinky sock in like a trash can. Have you ever seen that meme? Like that child?

[28:40] Cassidy Sledge: And then you had a dream where you and then you and then you had a but you and you didn't and but then you and then you didn't. My brain is broken today.

[28:49] Alex Stompoly: Today? Okay.

[28:50] Conner Marx: Sorry, I was just pulling some stinky socks out of trash cans.

[28:55] Cassidy Sledge: Okay, you'll take a stab at that. You want to take a stab at the question that I forgot what I answered? I'll take a stab at it. That was a sentence I said.

[29:08] Conner Marx: For me, and I'm sure anyone who considers himself a storyteller has a different experience. There is something so non-empirical about the experience that you cannot do the arithmetic to arrive at the mathematically correct way to structure the sinusoidal roller coaster of an adventure that it really is just a gut instinct of feeling in the moment.

[29:42] Cassidy Sledge: And again, for me, having the little, you know, one skittle rolling around my skull that I call a brain, I don't often remember exactly what has just come before or the exact trajectory or map of the story that we've been telling, but I do have a feeling of it. This kind of ectoplasmic residual sense of what we've done and where the story wants to go. It sounds a little woo-woo, the story piloting me versus me piloting the story.

[30:14] Alex Stompoly: I mean, to those of us who watch you a lot, I would assume that you have a very, I mean, it feels to me like you're locked in all the time. There's things you're doing like foreshadowing with characters and I feel like you manage to pull in the stakes that the party establishes and translate them into the NPCs in a way that I am always trying to emulate. It is very cool.

[30:38] Conner Marx: I mean, I try to let go and let tear as well, pretty much, because that's not my strength. My strength is references and dumb jokes and one-offs and impressions.

[30:54] Cassidy Sledge: But I think you're selling yourself a little short there. I think to that end, it's the idea that we can't do this show with a preconceived notion, right? We're literally fighting chaos.

[31:06] Conner Marx: But to that end, we know Carriers of Chaos. We know how it's going to, there's A, D, whatever. We know what the sandbox looks like. We know the structure of the sandbox and the rails.

[31:20] Alex Stompoly: For anyone listening who maybe has never heard this before, improv does not inherently mean funny. Improv is just listening and responding honestly without knowing what you're going to say. So I don't think it was hippy-dippy at all. I think that's just very honest.

[31:37] Cassidy Sledge: You can't have a preconceived notice. I mean, at the end, you have the bones you can fall back on, but all three of you listen so beautifully to the players and to the wonderful individual over here, Alex Murray, who is also a player. You all provide such wonderful stuff for the bar that it's just gifts. And when you listen and you can hook in, you making, the player, you making a strong choice, is the greatest gift you can give to the other side of the bar. Because the open-ended ambiguity of it all, that's when it gets a little muddled. But if there's a specific thing, ooh, that parameter is going to cook something brilliantly. And every election's nine or seven seconds. Oop, there you go. That's the tidbit I can give from my...

[32:19] Conner Marx: I suppose I mean less that my intention was not to talk down to myself. And in fact, if I were to risk the opposite and buttress myself up a bit...

[32:32] Cassidy Sledge: There you go. Buttress away.

[32:34] Conner Marx: Yeah. That we've all been doing this, not only in this show, but in our lives and careers for quite a while now. I think that I don't know who is the chicken or who is the egg, but there is a clearly compelling draw towards storytelling, either because we have that in us or because we were drawn to it and it gave us that extra little spark. But if the players make strong choice X, I'm not doing the inner math to say, well, at this point in a story, in order to balance that, I need to make a choice that goes in Y direction. It is very much a vibe. It is a feeling of like, how does my body as a storyteller respond?

[33:18] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[33:19] Conner Marx: And trusting that those instincts are, whether they're correct or not, doesn't matter. Just trusting them and going with them.

[33:26] Alex Stompoly: Correct is a weird thing to get into with improv, right? Like, correct is other than no but, right? Other than no...

[33:36] Conner Marx: And to answer your earlier question...

[33:38] Cassidy Sledge: I haven't seen you in 20 years. No, you've never seen me. Okay, that's wrong.

[33:42] Conner Marx: The real me, that is. You've seen the facade I put out there.

[33:45] Cassidy Sledge: Well, see, now that you're improvising...

[33:49] Conner Marx: The question you asked earlier of moments that we really do or do not love.

[33:54] Alex Stompoly: Oh, yeah.

[33:55] Conner Marx: This is sort of a new moment for all of us. This is a slow macro development that the show is taking as we are starting to, with all of the NPCs, wander further and further off leash in a way that I love because I find it to be so surprising.

[34:14] Cassidy Sledge: And that is where I have a lot of fun playing with poking.

[34:23] Conner Marx: And if the story that the players have been telling is a story of this, then when I interrupt them or when I join them as an NPC, it's very fun to think, okay, if they're telling a story of grief or loss or mourning, how can I, as this character, in a very indirect, circuitous way, prod that or light a little fire under that or do something that agitates that story?

[34:53] Cassidy Sledge: Yes. For lack of a better answer to that. This is the thing that I'm talking about that I really have watched you do a lot that I'm like, oh, this is so good. And it's great to see a mouse guard pop up and without directly doing it, just say some stuff about being your truest self and then watching a bird paladin crumble.

[35:17] Conner Marx: And you have to figure out how, because you can't show up as a mouse and say, oh, you're telling a story about self-actualization. Here's my experience with self-actualization. You have to kind of sneak it in there.

[35:29] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[35:30] Conner Marx: And it's very rewarding for me. I really enjoy that.

[35:33] Cassidy Sledge: It's rewarding and also, the more I do it, the more I'm there, it also informs your character more, right?

[35:39] Alex Stompoly: Sure.

[35:40] Conner Marx: Where you're like, all right. It just gives you something. It gives you less to have to make up, which is great when you have to make up so much.

[35:48] Cassidy Sledge: I would be curious to hear your thoughts. My kind of ethos around this role, at least as a dungeon master, but I think in many ways referring to the bar generally, I consider myself there as a gift basket for the players that I'm really just trying to enrich and enliven their ability to be funny, their ability to go on a journey. And so all of these NPCs, they are opportunities to use a new character to shine a spotlight on them or to give them a gift of something to munch on later or push them off a cliff that they then have to contend with.

[36:26] Alex Stompoly: Figure out how to fly, dude.

[36:27] Conner Marx: Or don't.

[36:28] Cassidy Sledge: And the DC on that push is a 20.

[36:31] Alex Stompoly: Yeah, Connor, I just want to, I really want to commend you on, I think I just, I have really enjoyed watching you in this DM position because I think you really took the role of DM and turned it upside down and I've loved watching how you play with it and your ability to just kind of sit back and listen and be so much more reactive as opposed to generative as the NPCs is just, it's a very thrilling thing to see.

[36:57] Conner Marx: And I think that when I first started in this position, I kept the NPCs on a very tight leash and I was like, I want to be word perfect and I want to honor the script perfectly and improv is for the players and I just read the words and seeing you just be so free with it has kind of like, I'm like, oh, maybe I would like dip my toe into the pool of like, oh, let's try and just, just exist in the moment and see what happens.

[37:19] Cassidy Sledge: And I still think, I still think I'm like, kind of like shimmying my way in there, but it's just, it's a very exciting thing to see and to do.

[37:26] Conner Marx: Well, that's incredibly kind of you.

[37:28] Cassidy Sledge: You make my day. Thank you.

[37:30] Conner Marx: You can get lost in it though.

[37:32] Cassidy Sledge: Oh yeah.

[37:33] Conner Marx: You could absolutely like.

[37:34] Cassidy Sledge: That's when you all get me doing the little finger twirl.

[37:36] Conner Marx: We got to keep it moving.

[37:37] Cassidy Sledge: Even watching you do it there, my heart accelerates.

[37:42] Conner Marx: Or some just likes it with me, just takes the, just holds up the timer and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[37:49] Cassidy Sledge: That is for sure.

[37:50] Conner Marx: The, for me, the most stressful part of the job is time management.

[37:54] Cassidy Sledge: Absolutely.

[37:55] Conner Marx: It's so much easier now that we don't have, I mean, it's about to get hard again with Travis and then it's going to get hard again with Erica, but my God, it's so much easier when like, I think my, my first one with a Bria, I like, we were going into like the frickin wizards hut and we had like 17 minutes left and I was like, excuse me.

[38:15] Cassidy Sledge: Right.

[38:16] Conner Marx: This, I don't.

[38:18] Cassidy Sledge: All right.

[38:19] Conner Marx: Everybody sit down and then you just start. I just, I, I lose my mind.

[38:23] Cassidy Sledge: I don't know about y'all.

[38:24] Conner Marx: I can't think of anything other than like, get there, get there, get there, get there.

[38:28] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[38:29] Conner Marx: Because all I want in this world is for Sam to not be mad at me.

[38:32] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[38:33] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[38:34] Cassidy Sledge: Truly.

[38:35] Conner Marx: There's nothing I can do. I just want to stay out of trouble.

[38:37] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah.

[38:38] Conner Marx: I'm just trying to do a good job.

[38:39] Cassidy Sledge: Well, that's, I mean, talking about like shining a light on the players and like what, like it's come around to do, how about in combat?

[38:48] Alex Stompoly: Uh, do y'all get geeked up to win in combat?

[38:53] Conner Marx: This is a thing for me that's very strange. Like as a dungeons and dragons player, I want the urchins to fuck them up.

[39:02] Cassidy Sledge: Interesting.

[39:04] Conner Marx: And, and, but as a like collaborative person on stage, I, what I want is a good story. What I want is a good thing.

[39:13] Alex Stompoly: I mean, this is, I mean just different for you, but I like, it's, it's the strange thing is like, I guess the larger question too is like that, like in, in moments in the show that are pointedly adversarial, we are fighting y'all. Like, do you find yourself to get caught up in like the adversarial nature of it? Or do you manage to sit back?

[39:41] Cassidy Sledge: Uh, let's talk to our resident psychopath serial killer over here for a TPK every single night.

[39:50] Conner Marx: Hello.

[39:51] Cassidy Sledge: Okay. First of all, that's called committing to the bit. Learn it.

[39:53] Conner Marx: Uh, second of all, I actually, I don't stop. Don't roll your eyes at me.

[39:58] Cassidy Sledge: No, I know the committed to the bit got me. Please continue murderess.

[40:04] Conner Marx: Okay. I, I think I love saying that I love to be adversarial, but I think in all sincerity, I don't really feel that like aggressive against the players on stage. I'm fully just down to like, let the dice do what the dice do and then just like goof off around like the surrounding circumstances. Cause if there's one thing I have learned that does not work on stage, it is trying to put on a character or trying to like do a thing. If you're reacting to something inauthentically, it just, it doesn't work. It doesn't work in the story. It doesn't work with the audience. It doesn't work for yourself. You just have to be in the moment and just be yourself and just be present. And, and so like when combat's happening and I roll like shit and I miss everyone, then I just kind of, I'm like, all right, I'll just miss all of them. I guess. All right, moving on.

[40:54] Conner Marx: Yeah.

[40:55] Cassidy Sledge: Do you have a thought?

[40:57] Alex Stompoly: I gotta know.

[40:57] Alex Stompoly: I'm just thinking about how ipso facto authentically you live in the truth of wanting to destroy everyone else on stage with you. And it would be inauthentic, you know, not to reveal too much, but I'm balancing everything you're saying with the reality of getting text messages from you after the show that just either brag about how many people you killed or are genuinely furious that you did not kill more people.

[41:23] Conner Marx: I pray that those are just regarding the show.

[41:27] Cassidy Sledge: Cast this commute after works over and be like, Conor, I killed three people today. Perhaps I am at fault for not seeking further clarification.

[41:36] Alex Stompoly: And suddenly I will be recoloring all of our interactions moving forward.

[41:41] Conner Marx: I do not feel at all that way. I do not look to come out on top. I think it's it's you lose a little wind in your sails at playing the playing D&D as a human being with your friends playing D&D or in our version of it on stage when it feels like the D&D.

[42:06] Cassidy Sledge: Putting on training wheels and you're like, oh, yeah. All right. Oh, come on, you know, like we clearly just beefed it. I don't think we should be getting out of consequences, please. Yes, so that is there and I and I do respect that and I see to that but yeah, I don't I'm not trying to I find you're off and I'm not maybe in like for me personally my adversary opponent arrives when house opens and they just don't know we're about to fight until about an hour and a half into the show and then it's me and the 300 of those people sitting out there in the dark and that is the I love that though. Well, that's I love fighting with them. I love fighting with the audience. Yeah, that's I was I think sort of the last sort of thing I want to get into well, we're all here.

But yeah, I I don't know I had one last thought on the like I have every once in a while I'll go I think the last one or two shows ago, I mean, I don't do it as often as y'all do but like I was behind with with Stomp. We're behind like, you know, we're crouched under listeners, we don't get to leave once I'm on stage once the D the dungeon master and the TK are on the stage. But when house opens you're there till intermission. Yeah, that's not true. We don't disappear in like a trap that hydraulically lowers us. That's just creaking knees getting me to.

[43:34] Alex Stompoly: Tonight's quest carriers of chaos. One of my favorite moments of the show to come around and see the manner in which Stomp is lounging behind. Been losing for you. You get hip abductions the other day. Lego produce. Stomp and I when we first started back in April would work out during we would do push-ups the entire video or we would plank the whole time. I don't know why we won't do that. I don't know why we did that I would stand up and be like sweating out of breath. I think I just jumped back there one time a couple shows ago and I like just looked at something went hey, let's beat up on them tonight. And some was like, yeah, okay and like not adversarial not like I want to win but I was just like let's see what happens if we really wail on these guys tonight.

Yeah, they've had it too easy. We've been on the easy path for like three days in a row and I was like and that's let's give them something to fight and really all we can do if we look at each other and say that based on how the game is designed and in wanting to have something for the audience that's just our intent but our intent can only go so far, you know, it's just dice dice will dice and if the audience is involved and they're actively engaging in you know, let's say I do treat it like a video game and weren't maybe we're not on, you know, easy, we're on intermediate or adventure mode. Even then if you're still engaged you can you take on the computer? Yeah, you still you'll still get me.

Well, there was it was I think that was the show that there was a fight where someone was like, let me do this as a this check and I just went no like I was like that is not a performance that is acrobatics and they did it and they rolled it was plus zero and they were like nope, nothing happens. And then somebody else came up with a card to like make it work and it was like it you know the pressure made made a diamond, but I don't know not adversarial but I think we've got just a few minutes left and enough time for us to talk about the fourth player like how is dealing have y'all have the two of you had to deal with like rooms full of people before.

[45:49] Conner Marx: Stomp and I both came up doing stand-up a little bit, which is like what that is like crowd work. How much crowd work had you guys done?

[45:55] Cassidy Sledge: Little sure in a formal setting. Yeah, maybe next to none which if I may in talking about favorite moments, yeah that first time that you solicit a name from an audience member so much fun. I don't know if I love it or if it has just become symbolically significant but it stands I might be misusing the word litmus test. In fact, I'm almost certain I'm misusing the word here or about to misuse it. No, I think I think you're gonna nail it.

[46:36] Conner Marx: Thank you for your confidence, I don't think so, but right now is a litmus test for your litmus test metaphor that when I first started rehearsing and was about to do the show, you know, I had watched Cassidy be so clever and charismatic in those moments and it is as unpredictable as a moment can get in the show. Yes, you are you are throwing something into the unknown even outside of the bounds of the structure that the performers have sharing a language you're throwing it to someone outside of that world and anything can happen. Oh, yeah, and so leading up to my first show. I remember being the quote good student that I always neurotically endeavor to be I started trying to brainstorm what things someone could possibly say in the ways in which I might have a quippy response now they're way crazier than you are prepared and what I found and it has informed my philosophy about the show is that when I try to lean on that crutch I really acquitted myself of an opportunity to listen and to be present and be authentic and that as soon as as long as I was relying or trying to subtly angle something towards a pre-programmed response I was not available to whatever delightful surprise could happen in that moment.

And so as and I am proud of this and I do feel like it encapsulates the relationship that I'm now coming to have with the show the more I was able to learn to trust myself trust everyone that's on stage with me and really say vulnerably hello random person. I don't know what you're gonna say but I know that if I really just ask you a question and I really just listen to your answer then something organic and unique and delightful is gonna come out of that and it has been a constant training to deprogram myself from the anxiety of that unknown.

[49:04] Alex Stompoly: There's a thing that an acting teacher of mine loved to say which I'm sure is echoed by a lot of folks capital F out there leap and the net will appear leap and the bridge will appear I live for that moment because it's for me that's the first time they really get to know the tone of how the bar is going to respond. Yeah, you know onboarding is great onboarding for those of you who have maybe seen the show once a handful of times maybe you've gleamed this onboarding. That's the canned part, right? That's the that's the guaranteed almost like a 15 consistent minutes. Sometimes sometimes sometimes or you know, Maddie may open the beer differently literally explode and but for the most part though, that's like because it's perfunctory but in that moment when we finally break that wall, they also learn how the DM responds to bullshit.

They get to see a little bit about how the tavern keeper responds they get I think they get also the true they start to really send see the real insight of the relationship of that of that duo because every configuration of the bar is so brilliantly different that it's maybe very subtle but they all start thinking about how they're gonna interact if they get looked at or called on to yeah and it instantly it's just I think it's it's fantastic and like I'm I miss that and that's that's absolutely like the the P the the fair kid talking and being and you know when the gates open at 10 not being away from people for like 13 hours and being in character and interacting and then a little bit of that drag background that's you know getting to have that bite with people but a bite in a way that's endearing and they still want they want to be as someone looked at me. They said your brand has turned into I'm a bitch. Somehow. We're all okay with that.

[50:35] Cassidy Sledge: Oh, it's it's every really good, New York bartender that I've known. Yeah, I can look at somebody just be like shut up and they're like, thanks I needed to be told to shut up. You're right. Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing.

[50:52] Conner Marx: Wow, yeah. Well, anybody got a final thought they want to say about audience work or be in a DM or TK in general? I'm sure we'll all talk about it lots more but thanks for I mean get us all here as a jumping-off point and an intro bar 101 for our listeners.

[51:11] Cassidy Sledge: Oh to the audience out there as you continue to and I hope you do as you continue to come back and see us and you continue to go to improv shows everywhere. I employ you with this don't try and be funny and that sounds so hateful and maybe I'm not what we need we don't need jokes from you we're gonna do jokes. We used to say that in my improv truth was we were asking for suggestions we would always say we're gonna ask you for things. Don't try and be funny. We will do that for you because if you try to game us we are gonna get stuck in a very unpalatable experience versus if we're like, can I Brea I and Gar is gonna fucking get in your ear and lecture your ass off the stage because and I and oh gosh, I mean, I know you all have heard me say this I laugh at mundane and I laugh at specificity oh sure, and so when we get some of those suggestions in the book and like there was one that was like denim moist denim, but not from water something far worse.

It didn't tell me what it was. That was the suggestion and I I intermission just was a timeless experience. Yeah, I love I love the audience I love when you all are here thank you just you know we got it. Don't worry about it you paid to be here and they pay me to be here so let's.

[52:31] Conner Marx: Hell yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you audience. Thank you. Yes. Thanks for coming. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Thanks for listening. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for interacting if you want to do all of that more join the discord there's a link right in there. We're talking about all this nonsense and like we're listening and bringing that into to these recordings and stuff so come hang out with us. It's all sorts of fun going on in there. Come see the show. We're doing it. Travis McElroy is gonna be here over Thanksgiving. Yeah, holy crap that's gonna be hard for me to be cool about that's gonna be so crazy. Yeah, it's gonna be so fun and it's gonna be a blast and even when there aren't super duper famous middle brothers here like we're all here being hilarious and amazing and having fun six days a week. So, you know come chill come hang out have your suggestions ready now with all this new advice that you've got and um, yeah real quick you want to just say your name social all that?

[53:25] Cassidy Sledge: Yeah, I'm Cassidy Sledge. You can find me at Cassidy Sledge on Instagram.

[53:32] Conner Marx: I'm Conner Marx, Conner underscore Marx.

[53:35] Alex Stompoly: Oh, you're done. There's gonna be more. I actually have to look at my no, hi everyone. I'm Alex. I'm Pauly and the oh goodness. That's my story. Oh, it's gonna play music cut this out in post. What is my ad? Oh, it is just a stomp. Holy. I wasn't sure I wasn't sure.

[53:55] Alex Stompoly: Hi, everyone, Alex. I'm fully. Yeah, just go to the Instagram at a stomp. Holy. There's the woefully on updated website Alex Stompoly.com just so we have that in the bag. Yeah, might as well get them in there. I bet it says pardon like our pixie dust. We're still construction for like got a little man with the construction much like the angel fire done much much like the Space Jam website. I haven't updated since 1999. I refuse friggin comic sans font and neon day glow my Helvetica boy. Hell. Yeah. Yeah, you would be it's like Times New Roman, but a bit pithy I don't need a syrup. Oh, I'm at our Alex Murray. Follow us at the 27th. We love you and until next time ale.

[55:08] Conner Marx: There's gonna be one maybe two pee breaks for Connor and I'm so sorry to fuck with our flow. That's the part of the day your flow chug fluids pee like five times before the show and then do not drink anything for the rest of the night. Your flow is part of our flow the flow and us salutes the flow and you it's all good.

[55:25] Cassidy Sledge: All right, don't you don't bathroom door? Yeah. Yeah, we'll let him go to the bathroom and then we'll just.

[55:31] Alex Stompoly: Room door. Yeah. Yeah, we'll let him go to the bathroom and then we'll just.

[55:41] Cassidy Sledge: Love to see you in a skintight bodysuit.

[55:49] Alex Stompoly: Skin tight body suit my imagination can only go so far.

[55:52] Cassidy Sledge: I also like the idea of what you tonight.