July 12, 2023 • 11 mins
MKO has been obsessed with the "MerPeople" community featured in the Netflix docuseries "MerPeople" and Otis knows one of them. Mermaid Shannon has been making a living as a Mermaid for many years now and was featured on the new Netflix series "MerPeople". She says, "trying to not drown and stay pretty and natural while doing it, is the hardest part".
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We were being joined by Mermaid Shannon. She made a quick appearance and was
around a lot of the filming ofmer People on Netflix. If you haven't
seen that show, I saw it, and I binge watched all four episodes
because I'm When I saw the thingpop up, I was like, oh
God, I'm watching this. Yeah, it's fascinating. Well, I find
it fascinating because I think a lotof people don't know that one if this
(00:20):
kind of like a group subculture evenexists. And then there's mir Magic Cohn.
I didn't know the depth. Ishouldn't. That's a pun in the
death you know of what you guysdo. It's incredible. So, I
mean, there's so many there's imean, performances all over the place Vegas,
Florida. How did you get intothis? Um? You know,
(00:43):
I actually worked in television before Iworked as a Mermaid. I went to
school for broadcasting. That was mything, and I found out that I
did not really like myself on camerain live situations. It just wasn't the
(01:03):
best fit. And but when Iworked at Fox News, I worked for
a wholely owned place. That's actuallyhow I got to know otis back and
start like years and years ago,and I worked there. An aquarium was
opening and they wanted to put areporter in the water and I was like,
oh, yeah, yeah, I'mgonna do that, and so we
(01:27):
were going to do that, andthen it didn't work out because the aquarium
didn't open on time. And thenI left the television station. But I
still wanted to be a mermaid.So I got this like brandex tale because
I was practicing, I thought,you know, I was going to do
it, but then I figured itcovers up like places that I didn't like,
like my stomach and my booty,and I felt really magical, and
(01:48):
it's really hard to feel magical sometimes, but it worked, and you know
what, people started seeing me.I needed a job. You leave TV,
you have a no compete clause.What are you gonna do? People's
naturally You're like, I put ona tail and I go getting water,
right, what of course, whatelse are you gonna do? So so
you started just independently mermaiding and thenjust flip flip flopping around in a in
(02:15):
a tail that was made of spandex. It was like handmade and it was
a had like a floppy, noteven cardboard but not much better than like
fin cut out kind of like likeone of these, which is what you
know, what we used for thekids now. But it was like barely
it was probably cardboard a little better, and it had flip flops glued to
(02:35):
it and then I would slip thetail over it. I didn't even know
what this was a thing. AndI went to the beach and people were
like, oh, do you dobirthday parties? And I was like,
good business here, that's funny,grassroots, uh business plan. You're like,
you know what I'm gonna do.I'm just gonna go roll out of
the ocean right now, and I'mgonna say, you know what now that
you said that, I think Ihave seen a mermaid at the beach before
(03:00):
wire. I didn't really think aboutit. Oh that was a real one.
No it was not, but ifonly, but that that is a
good idea, Brian, Like yougo to where the mermaids would be,
right, Yeah, I mean it'ssuper. I mean I just honestly it
was. I felt pretty and Iwas playing around. I was sad because
I didn't know what my next movewas, so I just flipper flopped around
(03:22):
in the dirt and people were like, Oh, you're cute. Oh look
at that. You can I can'ttake a picture with you. Here have
some money for donations, and I'mlike, wait, so when you do
parties and stuff, I know apart of on Murder People they were talking
about some of the you know,some of the folks work on like kind
of like Renaissance festival type things,and what is the term for, like
(03:43):
the creepy dudes who hit on Yes, we don't need and we don't like
murderts. So murderts are like dadsthat stare at you. You know,
you have birthday parties, right,Little Susie has the birthday party, and
all Susie's little friends come. Youknow, maybe one dad might show up
(04:03):
at that party. But when youhave a mermaid party, all the friends
want the mermaid back. So youend up being booked the whole summer with
the same group, but the dadskeep showing up more. And here's a
fantasy I didn't know. I hadstand around the girls just staring at the
pool. All right, yeah,how does that work? How does that
thing come on? Susie, Susie'sfriends having a birthday. You know,
(04:24):
I'll take back mom, you takethe day off, I'll take her.
I've never seen more dads really interestedin driving kids to the party. No,
no, no, bab you checkthe day off? Yeah, I
got it. What do you meanyou want me to day off? Hey?
Did you know that Mermaids actually they'reprobably top? Was really? I
bet you feel better if you weretalking. I didn't really worry about the
shells, if you know what Imean. Yeah, yeah, if you're
(04:46):
gonna be real, keep it real, you know what I mean. I'm
for accuracy. I'm not a creepyou know what I mean. So you're
not trying to be creepy you are? On the second episode, just for
a Brie, I was Yeah.So mer Magic on so Circus Iron Pod
is my team. I travel withthem. They are very heavily featured.
More Ghana is you know my boss. So we were heavily featured and I
(05:13):
we FM for like two years.I was along for the ride. I
just did not on the camera.UM had enough of that. But uh
with mer Magicon, that was startedabout, I guess four years ago,
and it just got bigger and biggerevery year. More people, you know,
came. I'm the press director forher Magic on so every year we
(05:35):
get more pressed requests. So it'sjust getting momentum. Like this giant snowball
that's not stopping, but now Ifeel like we need to cover it now.
Now you have you talked about thelike cheap glued ontail earlier. Now
you have like the git fish scale. This. Oh yeah, this thing
(05:56):
is is big. I don't wantto move it around too much because I'm
gonna knock the hamra over. Butit's got like little dorsal fins. And
then we have the tops and they'realso made out of silicon. And you
said it's really it's heavy too,right, How often, like how much
training do you have to do forswimming? Because it is one of those
things where you watch it and youdon't kind of forget that you're swimming,
(06:16):
and you get so wrapped up inthe moment you're like, oh, these
people don't actually breathe underwater like youhave to swim. Well, it's it's
actually not super hard to swim init because you're not quickly. You're actually
trying to stay safe under the waterand also you know, not drown and
also look very pretty and natural whiledoing it. That's that's the really hard
(06:38):
part is you know, uh,you know, breath training. A lot
of people have been a lot oftime holding their breath. I did not
breathe in public bathrooms from a youngage. I just already. I didn't
mean to, yes, something Idid. I didn't know that I even
(07:00):
was training myself for this breath controlfor mermaiding, because public bathrooms are disgusting.
I won't I and ever since Iwas a child, I would not
breathe. I would hold that breathis, you know, and I just
had that already, so, uh, you know, the next thing is
not not drowning. And you knowwhen the kids are on the other side
of the aquarium you mentioned our renaissancefairs, Uh, there will always be
(07:23):
you know, kids on the otherside. And we're like, oh yeay,
heart bubbles and all of that,and the moms like take a picture.
And so here I am in thetank like right behind you, and
then here's the kid with their backto me, and the kids messing around,
and the mom wants like four differenttakes. They're like, stoozie,
smile, your phone's locked, unlockit with your face. Stay right there,
(07:46):
Mermaick's stay right there. It's onface mode none. Why does the
mermaid look blue in our photo?Mom? Wait, which way do you
want me to have a vertical?Horizontal? Oh? Oh, that's not
really happening back there. I'm like, what did my phone break? No?
The kids are like, I'm like, oh my god, did I
do something? The kids? No, The kids will be screwing around and
the moms are like, you know, you're holding your breath the whole time.
(08:07):
Like you said told me before thatthere are kids. They kind of
treat like an animal in a way. They do what happens with some things
that the kids have done to youwhen when you're not in the water,
you're actually out taking photos sea side. I have a lot of the a
(08:28):
lot of performers will stay. They'lljust do stuff like, oh, you're
not real. I don't even thatquestion is so freaking forever ago. I
don't even deal with it. Myproblem is I the kids are always like
climbing on me and like they wantto pull on the shelves. Yeah yeah,
and the dad drove there. Butso then my friend and I decided
(08:54):
to like create a different talk thatwould be kind of like repellent. So
we like kind of made like anurchin top that was made out of seagrass
and it kind of had poke likefunny, but it was still pretty.
And you know what I sent apicture to otis those kids were like,
oh and they just you know,climbed up there. It didn't work at
all. Booby trap literally, yeah, real, Yeah. And you're onto
(09:20):
something though with like if you're goingout with girlfriends and stuff, that is
that the whole entire line of clothingthat would be made. Yeah, make
some predatory broad right. So there'syour siren, there's your siren top,
which is like get away from me, I'm gonna kill you. And then
there's your aerial shells. It's hilarioussirens. Well, Shannon, we appreciate
you taking time to hang out chatwith us about the things you go through
(09:41):
with the lifestyle. The culture isfascinating. Really hope to follow you on
season two see if your story theyhave unveiled on season I do nothing to
do with any of that. Ifyou come, I hope you can see
my team on season two. Ifyou come through the Georgia Aquarium, let's
(10:03):
try to get Kimmy into into thetank with you on a tail. If
it's been done before they'd be likethat one Mermaid's got a scuba mask.
That are Mermaid's work. They're mermaidglasses, glasses meeting amazing. Last question,
did you like the Little Mermaid?The new one? Oh? I
(10:26):
didn't see that one, but generallyI was more of a splash person.
Okay, got it more Daryl HannahFan, Yeah, she doesn't like it.
Who's it's and what's its galore?Yeah, that's a big no no.
Though you say you don't like partyAt the Mermaid conventions, they jam
all the time to Ariel songs.Oh my god, that's hilarious. Those
are fighting words and Mr Magic conthose are fighting words. You don't not
(10:50):
like Ariel? It's amazing. I'msorry. Keep us posted. Since you're
the press person, we'll see him. Maybe we can try to sneak over
and COVERGIC. I absolutely well,So nice to talk to you again,
notis and so nice to meet thetwo of you. Thank you, thank
you, Thanks Shannon,
We were being joined by Mermaid Shannon. She made a quick appearance and was
around a lot of the filming ofmer People on Netflix. If you haven't
seen that show, I saw it, and I binge watched all four episodes
because I'm When I saw the thingpop up, I was like, oh
God, I'm watching this. Yeah, it's fascinating. Well, I find
it fascinating because I think a lotof people don't know that one if this
(00:20):
kind of like a group subculture evenexists. And then there's mir Magic Cohn.
I didn't know the depth. Ishouldn't. That's a pun in the
death you know of what you guysdo. It's incredible. So, I
mean, there's so many there's imean, performances all over the place Vegas,
Florida. How did you get intothis? Um? You know,
(00:43):
I actually worked in television before Iworked as a Mermaid. I went to
school for broadcasting. That was mything, and I found out that I
did not really like myself on camerain live situations. It just wasn't the
(01:03):
best fit. And but when Iworked at Fox News, I worked for
a wholely owned place. That's actuallyhow I got to know otis back and
start like years and years ago,and I worked there. An aquarium was
opening and they wanted to put areporter in the water and I was like,
oh, yeah, yeah, I'mgonna do that, and so we
(01:27):
were going to do that, andthen it didn't work out because the aquarium
didn't open on time. And thenI left the television station. But I
still wanted to be a mermaid.So I got this like brandex tale because
I was practicing, I thought,you know, I was going to do
it, but then I figured itcovers up like places that I didn't like,
like my stomach and my booty,and I felt really magical, and
(01:48):
it's really hard to feel magical sometimes, but it worked, and you know
what, people started seeing me.I needed a job. You leave TV,
you have a no compete clause.What are you gonna do? People's
naturally You're like, I put ona tail and I go getting water,
right, what of course, whatelse are you gonna do? So so
you started just independently mermaiding and thenjust flip flip flopping around in a in
(02:15):
a tail that was made of spandex. It was like handmade and it was
a had like a floppy, noteven cardboard but not much better than like
fin cut out kind of like likeone of these, which is what you
know, what we used for thekids now. But it was like barely
it was probably cardboard a little better, and it had flip flops glued to
(02:35):
it and then I would slip thetail over it. I didn't even know
what this was a thing. AndI went to the beach and people were
like, oh, do you dobirthday parties? And I was like,
good business here, that's funny,grassroots, uh business plan. You're like,
you know what I'm gonna do.I'm just gonna go roll out of
the ocean right now, and I'mgonna say, you know what now that
you said that, I think Ihave seen a mermaid at the beach before
(03:00):
wire. I didn't really think aboutit. Oh that was a real one.
No it was not, but ifonly, but that that is a
good idea, Brian, Like yougo to where the mermaids would be,
right, Yeah, I mean it'ssuper. I mean I just honestly it
was. I felt pretty and Iwas playing around. I was sad because
I didn't know what my next movewas, so I just flipper flopped around
(03:22):
in the dirt and people were like, Oh, you're cute. Oh look
at that. You can I can'ttake a picture with you. Here have
some money for donations, and I'mlike, wait, so when you do
parties and stuff, I know apart of on Murder People they were talking
about some of the you know,some of the folks work on like kind
of like Renaissance festival type things,and what is the term for, like
(03:43):
the creepy dudes who hit on Yes, we don't need and we don't like
murderts. So murderts are like dadsthat stare at you. You know,
you have birthday parties, right,Little Susie has the birthday party, and
all Susie's little friends come. Youknow, maybe one dad might show up
(04:03):
at that party. But when youhave a mermaid party, all the friends
want the mermaid back. So youend up being booked the whole summer with
the same group, but the dadskeep showing up more. And here's a
fantasy I didn't know. I hadstand around the girls just staring at the
pool. All right, yeah,how does that work? How does that
thing come on? Susie, Susie'sfriends having a birthday. You know,
(04:24):
I'll take back mom, you takethe day off, I'll take her.
I've never seen more dads really interestedin driving kids to the party. No,
no, no, bab you checkthe day off? Yeah, I
got it. What do you meanyou want me to day off? Hey?
Did you know that Mermaids actually they'reprobably top? Was really? I
bet you feel better if you weretalking. I didn't really worry about the
shells, if you know what Imean. Yeah, yeah, if you're
(04:46):
gonna be real, keep it real, you know what I mean. I'm
for accuracy. I'm not a creepyou know what I mean. So you're
not trying to be creepy you are? On the second episode, just for
a Brie, I was Yeah.So mer Magic on so Circus Iron Pod
is my team. I travel withthem. They are very heavily featured.
More Ghana is you know my boss. So we were heavily featured and I
(05:13):
we FM for like two years.I was along for the ride. I
just did not on the camera.UM had enough of that. But uh
with mer Magicon, that was startedabout, I guess four years ago,
and it just got bigger and biggerevery year. More people, you know,
came. I'm the press director forher Magic on so every year we
(05:35):
get more pressed requests. So it'sjust getting momentum. Like this giant snowball
that's not stopping, but now Ifeel like we need to cover it now.
Now you have you talked about thelike cheap glued ontail earlier. Now
you have like the git fish scale. This. Oh yeah, this thing
(05:56):
is is big. I don't wantto move it around too much because I'm
gonna knock the hamra over. Butit's got like little dorsal fins. And
then we have the tops and they'realso made out of silicon. And you
said it's really it's heavy too,right, How often, like how much
training do you have to do forswimming? Because it is one of those
things where you watch it and youdon't kind of forget that you're swimming,
(06:16):
and you get so wrapped up inthe moment you're like, oh, these
people don't actually breathe underwater like youhave to swim. Well, it's it's
actually not super hard to swim init because you're not quickly. You're actually
trying to stay safe under the waterand also you know, not drown and
also look very pretty and natural whiledoing it. That's that's the really hard
(06:38):
part is you know, uh,you know, breath training. A lot
of people have been a lot oftime holding their breath. I did not
breathe in public bathrooms from a youngage. I just already. I didn't
mean to, yes, something Idid. I didn't know that I even
(07:00):
was training myself for this breath controlfor mermaiding, because public bathrooms are disgusting.
I won't I and ever since Iwas a child, I would not
breathe. I would hold that breathis, you know, and I just
had that already, so, uh, you know, the next thing is
not not drowning. And you knowwhen the kids are on the other side
of the aquarium you mentioned our renaissancefairs, Uh, there will always be
(07:23):
you know, kids on the otherside. And we're like, oh yeay,
heart bubbles and all of that,and the moms like take a picture.
And so here I am in thetank like right behind you, and
then here's the kid with their backto me, and the kids messing around,
and the mom wants like four differenttakes. They're like, stoozie,
smile, your phone's locked, unlockit with your face. Stay right there,
(07:46):
Mermaick's stay right there. It's onface mode none. Why does the
mermaid look blue in our photo?Mom? Wait, which way do you
want me to have a vertical?Horizontal? Oh? Oh, that's not
really happening back there. I'm like, what did my phone break? No?
The kids are like, I'm like, oh my god, did I
do something? The kids? No, The kids will be screwing around and
the moms are like, you know, you're holding your breath the whole time.
(08:07):
Like you said told me before thatthere are kids. They kind of
treat like an animal in a way. They do what happens with some things
that the kids have done to youwhen when you're not in the water,
you're actually out taking photos sea side. I have a lot of the a
(08:28):
lot of performers will stay. They'lljust do stuff like, oh, you're
not real. I don't even thatquestion is so freaking forever ago. I
don't even deal with it. Myproblem is I the kids are always like
climbing on me and like they wantto pull on the shelves. Yeah yeah,
and the dad drove there. Butso then my friend and I decided
(08:54):
to like create a different talk thatwould be kind of like repellent. So
we like kind of made like anurchin top that was made out of seagrass
and it kind of had poke likefunny, but it was still pretty.
And you know what I sent apicture to otis those kids were like,
oh and they just you know,climbed up there. It didn't work at
all. Booby trap literally, yeah, real, Yeah. And you're onto
(09:20):
something though with like if you're goingout with girlfriends and stuff, that is
that the whole entire line of clothingthat would be made. Yeah, make
some predatory broad right. So there'syour siren, there's your siren top,
which is like get away from me, I'm gonna kill you. And then
there's your aerial shells. It's hilarioussirens. Well, Shannon, we appreciate
you taking time to hang out chatwith us about the things you go through
(09:41):
with the lifestyle. The culture isfascinating. Really hope to follow you on
season two see if your story theyhave unveiled on season I do nothing to
do with any of that. Ifyou come, I hope you can see
my team on season two. Ifyou come through the Georgia Aquarium, let's
(10:03):
try to get Kimmy into into thetank with you on a tail. If
it's been done before they'd be likethat one Mermaid's got a scuba mask.
That are Mermaid's work. They're mermaidglasses, glasses meeting amazing. Last question,
did you like the Little Mermaid?The new one? Oh? I
(10:26):
didn't see that one, but generallyI was more of a splash person.
Okay, got it more Daryl HannahFan, Yeah, she doesn't like it.
Who's it's and what's its galore?Yeah, that's a big no no.
Though you say you don't like partyAt the Mermaid conventions, they jam
all the time to Ariel songs.Oh my god, that's hilarious. Those
are fighting words and Mr Magic conthose are fighting words. You don't not
(10:50):
like Ariel? It's amazing. I'msorry. Keep us posted. Since you're
the press person, we'll see him. Maybe we can try to sneak over
and COVERGIC. I absolutely well,So nice to talk to you again,
notis and so nice to meet thetwo of you. Thank you, thank
you, Thanks Shannon,
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