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July 6, 2021 • 47 mins

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How did Leo's high school friend Shannon Hay become a Storyboard Revisionist for Muppet Babies? Lots of self-discovery and exploration! Shannon shares their journey of learning how they communicate as an artist and how their personal identity has helped them practice empathy with their characters. Leo and Shannon also chat about the advantages and disadvantages of growing up in the LGBTQIA community in a conservative town.

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By: Leo Yockey

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Episode Transcript

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(00:14):
Hello, welcome to the 10thepisode of the Leo Yockey show,
the podcast where i Leo Yockeyinterview guests about how their
unique life path led them todefine success and fulfillment.
The goal is to provide you thelistener some relief for
existential dread. But here's asecret. Oh, did you hear Raja

(00:37):
Raja just saw some birds andmade his little bird sound. But
anyway, the secret that feelingin never fully goes away. And
that's why we're all in thistogether in his international
community. Y'all. Thank you somuch for supporting this show. I
know I said every single timeBut listen, I'm looking at the
charts right now. And for allpodcasts, not just my category,

(01:00):
but all podcasts overall,globally, we've reached the top
10,000 in the charts. Now, to besomewhere in the 9000s doesn't
really sound like something tobrag about. But check it out. so
far. This podcast is mostly justfriends and family. And you know

(01:20):
how many podcasts there areglobally? over 2 million, y'all.
I'm about to start this whole,like social media strategy to
get more people listening to beable to grow the show, if this
is how well we're doing now. Ohmy god. I mean, I just I'm so
excited. Thank you so much forbeing on this journey with me.

(01:41):
And if you haven't already,please leave me a five star
rating and review preferably onApple. That is exactly what gets
these charts to go up. So asmuch as I love doing this as
hard as I've been working, itreally does come back to all
y'all being part of thiscommunity with me. So again,
thank you for being on thisjourney with me. I'm sorry, I'm

(02:05):
so distracted by Raja he issitting in the window next to
me. He's He's looking at thebird's eye. I gotta get some
video this I can put it up onsocial media when this episode
comes out. But anyway, I'm superexcited for my guest today. I've
got a friend of mine from highschool who is a successful
storyboard revisionists they'vealways been this brilliant

(02:28):
artist. They worked mostrecently on Muppet Babies. I
don't know. Have you heard ofthe Muppets? I have, and they've
worked on the Muppet Babies TVshow, we get into a great
conversation about identity andhow growing up in our small
town, you know the advantagesand disadvantages that came from
coming from Lancaster and theirpath to discovering who they are

(02:51):
as an artist, and how it kind ofcoincided with their path in
where they figured out who theyare as a person. You can tell
that I'm really excited. It wasreally fun conversation. There's
a lot of laughter I was laughinga lot, you know, just editing
the episode. And I can't waitfor y'all to hear it. So did I
even say the guests name? Theguest is Shannon. Hey, and I

(03:16):
cannot wait for you to hearthis. So without further ado,
here, Shannon.
Shannon, you are a little bit ofa what's the word I want to use
legend in our hometown circle.
Yeah, legend. Definitely alegend in our hometown circle.

(03:39):
brilliant, brilliant artists.
ratted animator at this point. Idon't I don't actually know what
you do. Can you explain for uswhat it is? I know that like you
are an artist, but I don't knowexactly what it is that you do
professionally at this point. Socan you can you let us in on
that before we go any further?

(04:00):
Well, first of all, thank you.
Um, I'm actually a storyboardartist professionally, I'm a
revisionist, which means that Iget to clean up what the board
artists do. I work with the Editteam. So basically, what I do is
storyboard artists works withthe the writers and the
directors. And then they gothrough a few iterations. And
then when it starts to getrecorded and stuff, or when it's

(04:25):
going into recording, they handit off to the edit bay, which is
revisionists, the director andan editor. And we kind of do the
notes and clean it up fromthere. So that's what I do. I
I'm right now I'm like more of acleanup artist before it gets to
animation.
Okay, cool. So you're kind ofyour your I didn't realize it's

(04:46):
almost like an assembly linetype process. Oh, yeah.
Animated, animated stuff happen.
There's a whole pipeline. Yeah.
Interesting. So how did you howdid you get inserted into this
pipeline? It's kind of your pathto getting into this.
Oh god it was. Listen. Um, so Iokay. I kind of grew up always

(05:16):
expecting to do comics like I Iwas always drawing comics like
forever and I was always surethat I wanted to do comics for a
living until I got to likeCommunity College and dislike
had to take like the realisticart classes and like actually
get my foundations in and then Iwas like, well, maybe I don't
want to draw this is reallyboring, which is just means that

(05:36):
it's It was hard, and I wasn'tgood at it. So I didn't want to
do it anymore. So, I switchedover to film because I always
liked movies. And from there Ilike got really into editing and
I got really into moviemaking.
And that's when we made that onemusic video.
Yeah, yeah,that's right. Yeah, we did make
a music video together. I justlike I know, I'm the one that
brought it up. But like it wasalmost like auto and then I was

(06:00):
like, Oh, yeah, that's right.
We did a whole thing. It was me.
Yeah. Yeah. For the listeners.
Way back. Gosh, that must havebeen like 2009 2010. Somewhere
in there. Shannon directed amusic video for a song that I
wrote. So that was a lot of fun.
I think the the woman that costarred in it with me, I believe

(06:22):
her and I broke up that sameday. I remember you, you you
texted me or Facebook's me orsomething afterwards and was
like, are you still okay withusing this footage? I was like,
yeah, it's gonna be a greatvideo.
Oh, my god, you're right. Holycrap. Oh, how the turntables All

(06:45):
right. Nothing like showbusiness to test the
relationship.
Seriously. You got intofilmmaking when you got to
college, because drawing washard drawing sucks. Now, so what
happened from there?
So from there, I got really intoediting and I got really into to

(07:06):
film and I started doing a lotof film analysis, and it kind of
came back. It all kind of circleback to drawing. And because
like planning your shots andstuff, you need to do
storyboards. And I was like, Oh,I'm, I'm like, I've always been
good at drawing, even thoughartists have hard
way. So you have to be able todraw that stuff out even for

(07:27):
live action stuff.
Yeah.
What a lot of directors do isthey'll like because oh my god,
English is my first language. Alot of directors don't have for
live action. They don't have alot of art training. So like if
you look at like the Guardiansof the Galaxy, like directors
storyboards, they're all juststick figures and stuff that

(07:48):
James Gunn wrote down because hehad a vision in his head, but
he's not a trained artists. Hehas just all these stick
figures. And then he hands thoseoff to like a professional
storyboard artist who draws themand makes them pretty nice.
Yeah, so even in in live action,there's a lot of storyboarding
and stuff. Otherwise, it's like,just super expensive to run a
camera and get a shot thatyou're not sure you want to

(08:09):
take. So yeah, basically,storyboard artists cut down a
lot on production time, andmoney, waste. So it all kind of
came back to drawing and I waslike, Oh, I actually really
enjoy this part. Because it'slike doing a comic. But it goes
into doing a film. So likestoryboarding was like that nice

(08:31):
middle ground. And that's kindof what piqued my interest with
that. And then I thought Iwanted to do animation. And one
of my teachers, when I did endup going back and taking all of
my foundational classes. One ofthe teachers at ABC was like,
Hey, I think you're gonna getbored as an animator, because
they have to draw the same thingover and over and over again.

(08:52):
And just looking at your workand what you enjoy. I think
you'll get really, really bored.
So I think you might want to gointo illustration, which is more
like comics and stuff. And hewas right. He was absolutely
right. I would get so bored withanimation.
Yeah.
I've tried it a couple times.
And honestly, animators are adifferent breed. They're so
strong. I don't know how they doit. But again, yeah,

(09:14):
storyboarding is like a nice inbetween between comics and
animation. And it was just likethis perfect blend of everything
that I love to do betweencomics, animating, Film Editing,
a little bit of script writing.
If you're doing like scratchdialogue, it's a little bit of
acting you get kind of geteverything with storyboarding.

(09:35):
So it's kind of like this weirdlike, mashup of everything that
I loved in one career. So what'scool
Yeah, that's super cool. It's soit sounds like you know, no
matter what it is, you kind ofstarted with the comic, and and
ended in this like storyboardrevisionist space but you never

(09:57):
really strayed away from fromart. and creativity, which I
think is is really cool. At whatpoint you said, You've always
kind of wanted to do comics likegrowing up and stuff like, do
you remember at what point youstarted feeling like this is
what I want to do.
Honestly, if I know a lot ofpeople like that you ask about

(10:18):
this sale I've been drawingsince I could hold a pencil, but
it's true. A lot of us and meincluded, I don't remember when
I started drawing, I just knowthat I've always done it. And
like, I seen comics that like mygrandma and my mom kept from
when I was an add child, butjust like SpongeBob, fan art and
Dragonball Z, and like all thatkind of stuff and Marvel stuff

(10:39):
that I was I was doodling. And Idrew dogs a lot when I was
little. I remember I had a comicbook in fifth grade that we used
for a fundraiser to get ourclass pet surgery. So it's
really just been as far back asI can remember, I've always
loved storytelling and visualstorytelling and doing comics.

(11:03):
That's really cool. So if I'munderstanding this correctly, it
almost sounds like there wasn'ta decision of this is what I'm
going to do. It was just, it wasalways a part of you. And other
jobs or other careers, I shouldsay, almost weren't even ever
considered is that am Ikind of I mean, I, I tried
acting, and I enjoyed it. Itried graphic design, and I

(11:26):
hated it. Because I that was myfirst job as I was a I worked at
like the little print shop therein Lancaster, and I was a
customer service rep, but theyknew that I can draw and I had,
you know, computer and artistictalent. So they were like, oh,
if you, you know, if you'reworking here and we have an
opening, maybe we'll move youover to do graphic design,
because it was like, five peopleworked there, you know. So

(11:48):
eventually, our designer didleave, and I got to go do
graphic design. And it was fun.
ish. Because it was mostly justtypesetting. And there wasn't
really a lot of actual designbecause people in Lancaster
can't afford that kind of work.
Sure. But it was like enough forwhen I moved out to Pasadena to

(12:10):
pursue art school that I couldget another graphic design job
out here. And that was a littlemore intensive, it was a little
more creative, which was nice.
But it it was just kind of therewas nowhere else for me to go.
It just kind of always felt likea dead end. And it didn't really
have like, it wasn't my languagefor storytelling. I know graphic

(12:32):
designers do have their ownvisual language. And they do
tell their own stories withtheir work. Like if you ever
look at logo design, it's crazywhat people can pack into like
in, you know, a half inchpicture. Yeah, but uh, for me,
that wasn't the language that Ispoke. And it wasn't the
language that I fell in lovewith. So I I just realized that

(12:57):
I needed to continue doingsequential storytelling and that
kind of thing. So yeah, it Ikind of like took a little bit
of curved pathways. Oh, I also,when I was in the film, I
considered doing special effectsmakeup, because I've always
enjoyed creature design andstuff like that. Nice. Yeah, it
always it always just came backto Oh, I can implement creature

(13:19):
design into storyboards. And,you know, it always it always
just kind of came back to thatstorytelling in sequential
images. Just kind of where Ilive. It's my native home.
Yeah, that makes sense. Iactually really like how you
worded that, that these otherforms of art, were not your

(13:41):
language or storytelling. Ireally like how you put that. So
in a way, it's like, it's like,you know, coming into, you know,
finding storyboarding, it waslike you finding your voice in a
way? Oh, absolutely. Do you? Doyou think there is a correlation
between? Or did you find thatthe closer that you got to

(14:02):
finding your voice in art, themore that you kind of came into
who you are as a person outsideof your art? I make sense.
I think there's definitely truthto that i. i saw i think
somebody put it on Twitter thebest I've ever seen it anywhere.

(14:24):
I can't remember who tweeted it.
But they said something. alongthe lines of storyboard artists
are really just theater kidsthat got tired of being onstage.
How dare you first of all, butyeah, like a learning what I
liked and what I didn't likeabout all of the other things
that kind of chiseled my pathdown into storyboarding. I feel

(14:46):
like it's hard to go down a pathlike that and not learn
something about yourself and notlearn like what your limitations
are and what you like whatbattles you want. wanna pick?
Yeah, oh, it's all like reallyintensive skill sets that go
into all of those things. Andsome people can do it all, but I
am not one of those people. Andit's just a matter of like,

(15:11):
focusing on what your prioritiesare as a creative and figuring
out what, how you bestcommunicate as a creative. And I
was talking to another friend ofours the other day about how
hard it is for creatives topursue other routes, because it
is kind of our native languageand how we learn to speak to

(15:32):
each other. Yeah, and speak withother people. And for me, yeah,
learning how I communicate withother people definitely came
along with learning that I likestoryboarding most, because it's
hard. Yeah, it's hard to figurethat out without learning about
yourself on the way.

(15:54):
Yeah, what what were some of thethings that you learned about
how you communicate with otherswhile you're on this journey?
Not not to be down on myself,but clearly that I'm not as
verbal as I would like to think.
I mean, there's nothing wrongwith that. There's many ways of
communication. Yeah,I definitely think stepping away
from theater kind of degraded,my talking skills. But uh,

(16:15):
because you know, doing improvevery week to like not talking
to anybody for a year. Right.
But yeah, I find that I, if Ihave like a pre recorded idea,
or if I can go in and like doscratch audio, and then animate
to it, it's a lot easier for meto, like, present that idea than

(16:39):
it is for me to like, take stillimages and talk to somebody like
talk somebody through a scenelike what I'm presenting it,
even though I know pitching islike a really big part of
storyboarding. And we can talkabout that later, if you want.
But I've definitely learned thatI'm much more. I like to have a
complete picture before I showit off. Otherwise, I tend to

(16:59):
over explain things so that I'm,like, clear about my intentions
with something. Yeah, that'sbeen learning how to edit that
down into bite sized chunks, wasreally a difficult lesson to
learn. But I took ascreenwriting class at art
center, and oh my god, myexposition was just so long.

(17:21):
It's I just over explainedthings when I have words, but
when I have pictures, I can't dothat. Yeah, it's it's kind of a
way to tether that instinct. Andjust be like, what's important
in this image, like, what do Iwant people to focus on? What do
I want people to look at? Andthat's kind of a more when when
that gets across that feelssuccessful to me is like when I
get a comment on somethingthat's like, Oh, this feels like

(17:42):
the exact thing I was aimingfor. I'm like, Oh, yeah, I
edited that emotion down into asingle image versus my, my
tendency to just ramble andramble and ramble. So forgotten
the original question? No, Iasked what, what you've kind of
learned about yourself on theway and you said that you're not
as verbal as a communicator, youknow, like, other forms of

(18:05):
communication are better foryou. So thank you, especially
now that I know that foragreeing to come on to my
podcast, you're doing great.
Thank you. I I also definitelylearned that I've add, you know,
again, you're doing great.
You're taking notes over here,just so you know. So it's not

(18:28):
that I have great memory, I'mtaking notes as you're talking,
you know, we don't have ourcameras on so so. So I know you
can't see that. But um, youmentioned something really
interesting, because I know um,and you know, for a peek behind
the curtain for for thelisteners, you know, Shannon has
had been involved in theater,definitely in high school, maybe

(18:49):
also in community college. Yesor No, I don't know.
Yeah. I was involved with likethe 1x for a little while, and I
was doing the improv troupe.
Probably until I moved so closeto like, 2012 2013. I think I
quit when I had to do Romeo andJuliet.

(19:10):
So but you also said somethingabout doing improv going from
doing improv every week to notseeing people for a year. So
were you involved in some otherkind of like improv or something
up until the pandemic? No, notquite. That was more of an
exaggeration. Oh, God, Iapologize, but I don't know.
It's fine. So sorry. I'm sorry.
Go ahead. So did you find thatin doing theater did it did it

(19:34):
always feel like almost like itjust didn't quite fit? Like, was
it something was it somethingwhere like, you enjoyed it, but
it just didn't quite feel likeit like, like, you're close, but
not quite on the mark of whereyou're supposed to be?
Yes and No, like, the thing Ithink that drove me away from

(19:54):
theater and I think it'ssomething that I think a lot of
people in the LGBTQ communityrelate to is I had a lot of
characters that I related tothat I could, that I knew going
in that I would never be rightfor as far as director was
concerned, because I'm five footthree and stacks. And I tended
to relate to a lot of malecharacters. And I was like, I

(20:15):
know I can never, like get thoseparts. Even though I'm a, I
think I'm a good actor. And I'ma, I'm an okay, singer, I'm not
very good. But this isobjective. I'm not trying to be
down on myself. You know, it'slike, it was never like plans to
go to Broadway or anything. Butjust like, it was really
disheartening. Which is why Iended up going to improv because

(20:36):
an improv you can play whoeverthe hell you want to play.
Because it's improv, you justkind of jump into the role that
you need to take at the time.
And that kind of drove metowards realizing more and more
what I liked about boarding and,and comics and things because
you're kind of every character.
When you do that you're actingthrough art. And you're, you

(20:58):
have to kind of put all of thethings that you would be doing
on a stage into a drawing. Soyou get to kind of be every
single character that shows upin the show every single
character that shows up in yourscene, like you get to act that
part out. And that was reallyfun for me. And I think that
character work that I I learnedto do in theater is a really big

(21:20):
part of what pushed me into thisparticular career. So I really
can't why that person saidstoryboard artists or theater,
kids don't want to be on stageanymore.
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.
I think you touched on a veryinteresting connection here.
Because you know, what, onething that I'm kind of observing

(21:41):
both from my own life, and, youknow, people that I've
interviewed on this podcast, andeven conversations I've had off,
Mike, is that when you're partof the LGBTQ community, LGBTQ
plus community, you, it usuallyinvolves a level of self

(22:02):
discovery and self reflectionthat a lot of other people, even
if they do it, it, it's not asmuch of a necessity, you know,
what I mean? Because the worldis very heteronormative. And
when you fit into that category,you know, the world is doing a
lot of the thinking for you, anda lot of the reflection for you.

(22:22):
And, you know, so for you, itfeels like some of these things
kind of go hand in hand, right?
You know, because you had, youhad this, you know,
understanding that you wanted tobe able to play certain parts
that, you know, because, again,going back to the
heteronormativity of the worldwouldn't be able to play, you

(22:45):
know, like the leading, youknow, male character in a play
or something like that, eventhough, you know, like, you, you
know, that that is a role thatyou would both feel comfortable
embodying and would you want toembody? Yeah, and, you know, if
you had been in a position wherethat was available to you, maybe

(23:07):
you wouldn't have been able todo the self reflection required
to, you know, to get to thepoint of realizing that, like,
Hey, I'm actually not as intoverbal communication anyway,
like, what are other paths forme, and like you said, you know,
kind of being able to get you inbody, every character in, in,
you know, storyboard, you know,you kind of get this, like, it's

(23:30):
not the same, but it is like adifferent type of experience
where, you know, you kind ofsaid before, like, I also get
bored very easily, you know, andyou, you, I know, you kind of
just mentioned Broadway kind ofjust because, but like a
Broadway actor is playing thesame role over and over and over
and over again, until that showis over. And even if you're on a

(23:53):
like, you know, say you're on a,you're working on a TV show, as
a storyboard artist, you know,even if you're working on kind
of the same characters for awhile, because you get to bounce
around from different charactersthroughout, you know, you kind
of get this like richness andvariety of experience. And, you
know, it kind of seems likethese things go hand in hand a
little bit, because the factthat you're able to do that self

(24:16):
discovery, you know, you're kindof able to veer off into this,
this path that works better foryou anyway, because you you you
enjoy presenting things in avisual way. You know what I
mean? Like, like, I'm totallyoff base by trying to connect
these two dots together. No, no,I think
you're absolutely right. Um, Iwas just, you mentioned, like,

(24:37):
being able to bounce around andkind of it made me think about
how, like, even just on my lastjob that I was working on, it
was a it's a six characterensemble show for little kids
andyou don't want to tell us you
want to share with us. This isjust a humble brag. I got to
work on Muppet Babies last year.
Well, why Yeah, down here. Oh,The Legend of Lancaster

(25:02):
Oh, come on. But yeah, itwas a really fun, fun experience
and talking about how you get tokind of bounce around and play
different characters every day,or, you know, every week or
whatever. It's true. And itreally does keep you or keep
people like me anyway. Intriguedand like interested because you

(25:23):
kind of get to, even though it'slike a little kids show like you
still, actually I kind of likethat it's a little kid show
because everything is much morestreamlined, streamlined,
streamlined. In like, thecharacters personalities,
everybody's got a very, verydistinct personality. And, you
know, they have like, verydistinct motivations and very

(25:43):
distinct mindsets. And it'sreally, really fun for someone
like me to bounce around and getto, like, kind of see things
through that character'sperspective. And like,
understand that character'smotivations and like, kind of
get to develop how they wouldact in the situation or pitch an
idea of being like, how wouldthey respond that would be

(26:05):
stronger for this character thatwould be better for this story,
and still make sense for thatcharacter and the other
characters involved. And it wasjust, it's, it's almost like,
almost like an empathy exercise.
And just learning how differentpeople think. And different
people respond to things andmethod babies is such a cute

(26:28):
show for that, because it's likealways the moral, it's like
trying to understand each otherbetter. And I think that as a
storyboard artist, that's kindof what you get to do as you get
to four as any kind of visualartists, I guess, or even as an
actor. But when you get tobounce around the same scenario
as a bunch of differentcharacters, I think that it, it
kind of helps you get a niceperspective, at some point,

(26:51):
like, even if you don't relateto that character, like you're
like, Oh, I kind of get wherethey're coming from, because
this is how they're feeling inthat moment. And so yeah, I
definitely, I definitely thinkthose two dots are connected
with self discovery and selfexploration and, and being able
to see things from differentperspectives and learning about
yourself in the meantime.
Yeah, definitely. And I don't,you know, I don't know if you

(27:12):
feel comfortable sharing yourgender and or sexual
orientation. And, you know, it'sfully up to you. But you know, I
would say that, just in general,you know, people who are on the
LGBT QA spectrum, you know, wewe just by the nature of growing
up in a hetero normative world,I think we just have a more of a

(27:33):
bird's eye view of all thesedifferent types of human
experiences. Yeah. And yeah,like being able to be in this,
like, empathy building world andalso kind of be in this world
where, like, in my world, Imean, career in industry, I
guess, you know, being in thisworld where you're kind of able
to explore all that. It's like,you know, again, it's like, kind

(27:55):
of, you know, taking some ofyour, you know, a lot of like,
how you walk this earth anyway,and like applying it to what you
do professionally. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Another mutual friend of ourssaid something at a head. You
don't want to name anything oranyone right now. I don't have
any consent. I don't know ifthey want to be. I'm sorry.

(28:16):
Like, I don't know. People'sboundaries. And I don't want to
like cross them accidentally.
That's fair. Um, maybe you enjoya shout out my friend Anthony. I
think you know, Anthony.
I do. Yeah. Anthony shout out toAnthony, if
you're listening. He he made ait was a completely unrelated

(28:39):
joke, during an improv show oncebut he like was like a returning
gag of this thing being anamorphous blob. And like, I kind
of like took that and ran withit. Because I identify as like a
gender a romantic asexual, like,I'm just as across the board,
you're the ace of Ace and theace of ace. So it's, it's kind

(29:00):
of like it's almost likeeverything I see. Because you're
right, like our world is veryheteronormative and binary,
very binary, veryheteronormative. So it kind of
feels like I'm outside lookingat on like, literally
everything. But it'sinteresting, like I don't mind
it, it's it's kind of fun to bean observer. And not to like

(29:23):
give myself a god complex oranything. But it's, it's it's
really interesting to see howdifferent people in different
you know, in differentidentities and different
situations, approach differentsituations and problem solve and
things like that. And I learneda lot from watching other
people. And I think that that'sa big part of anything in the

(29:43):
creative realms is observation.
And I think that not having notworrying about you know, like,
dating and that kind of stuff. Ithink that frees up a lot of
brain space for me, to like,just watch other people. And how
they do things in their lives.
Um, but yeah, like, it's, it'sweird to feel like you're at a

(30:06):
slight advantage when you're ina marginalized community. It
kind of feels like thatsometimes.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, didyou? Do you know that you're
actually not the first guest ofthe show to both identify as and
speak on the show about beingasexual? No, I didn't. Yeah,

(30:26):
friend to help. Yeah. For formerguests. And old friend of mine,
Emily Sedgwick, was on. I thinkher episode came out. It was the
most recent episode, as soon as,right now, while we're
recording, and she said theexact same thing that you just
said that, you know, notfocusing on dating, you know,

(30:49):
frees up a lot of brain space.
Yeah, her perspective was alittle bit more coming from the,
you know, like, societalpressure. It's like, I don't
have to worry about what am Idoing wrong? Because, you know,
all my friends are like, gettingpartners and stuff, and I'm not,
you know, and, and realizingthat she's asexual, you know, I
don't, I don't put too manywords around when people can
listen to the past episode. Butthey, you know, but she said,

(31:11):
the, like, kind of the samething, like, it frees up a lot
of brain space. And I thinkthat's true for all of us. To
some degree, it's like, when weknow like, who we are, what
we're doing what we want it, weget so much of our energy back,
because we're not constantlytrying to figure out and focus
on and chase the wrong things.

(31:33):
Right. And, you know, like you,you mentioned something about,
like, I don't want to sound likeI have a god complex. And I'm
saying you don't at all, becauseit's absolutely true that we all
have these, like, differentexperiences that let us kind of
peer in, peer into life andobserve life and and document
life in our own unique way. Andthe only reason why it feels so

(31:56):
much like outside looking in isbecause the white hetero
normative perspective is theonly one we ever hear when in
reality, there is such a widearray of human experience. And
it's absolutely true that youknow, it, he says something
like, you know, being beingmarginalized in this way is
almost, you know, I forgetexactly what you said, I don't

(32:17):
want to butcher it, but it'slike, trust you. Thank you,
thank you for trusting me tobutcher it, I hope I butcher it
very well and make you proud.
You said something about, youknow, like being in this
marginalized community almosthas, like, its advantages. And I
think that that's true, too, youknow, to some degree that, like,
any experience that you have,you know, can provide some sort

(32:39):
of value. And I think it's likeso, you know, and we kind of
have the like, double edgedsword, it's an advantage and a
disadvantage of, you know, the,the world wasn't designed for
us. So we kind of have to gothrough, you know, a much, often
a much longer, darker period tofigure out who we are, and where

(33:00):
we belong. But the upside of itis that once we come out the
other side, and we figured itout, you know, again, kind of
going back to what I was sayingabout the acting, it's like, it
takes so much more work, youknow, to figure all that out and
that work, like mean something,you come out of it, really
understanding who you are, andyou're able to, you know, like

(33:20):
make that stamp on the world andsay, you know, this is who I am,
this is my perspective. This isI know where I belong, because,
you know, again, without that,without that kind of level of
contemplation, you know, maybeyou would still be pursuing
acting and not fully satisfied,you know, and, and I think
that's so important foreverybody. It's like, you know,
we have to figure out you know,no matter where you fall on the,

(33:42):
on the race, gender, or sexualorientation and spectrum, you
know, because none of this stuffis as binary as we wanted to, is
we want to think it is all ofthese things are social
constructs. Like no matter whereyou fall in these things, it is
so important to understand whereyou're at, you know, yeah, for

(34:03):
sure. Like we another formerguest of the show, Diego you
know, we talked about it alittle bit because, you know,
he's he's a trans man like me,and you know, we both kind of
talked about how, like, youknow, when when we you know,
before we were living as acorrect gender It was like so
many other things were offbecause if I'm not living my

(34:25):
full truth, the version of methat's making decisions is
making decisions based off likesomeone else's dreams. No. Yeah.
See, I think that's I thinkthat's really cool that you were
able to you know, one figurethat out in not only a world but
also again, keep talking aboutour hometown like we were do not
exactly grow up in anenvironment where that was

(34:47):
heavily encouraged in oursmaller friend group for sure,
but not in the greatercommunity.
Oh, yeah. is in our district isone of the reddest in the
States, isn't it for the state.
So yeah, We'd, yeah, yeah. Yeah,thanks, thanks. I'm not even
gonna give them a shout out onthe podcast, I'll tell you after

(35:09):
you record what I'm thinking ofright now,
on the on the bright side, likeI think coming from a community
like that it is how we all foundeach other, which is nice. Like,
you know, we have our own littlecommunity within a marginalized
community.
Yeah, absolutely. And I thinkthe takeaway for that is, you
know, like, anybody, no matterwhere they're at, in life, no
matter what they're doing, ifsomething feels off, or if

(35:30):
something feels like, I don'teven know if I fit in here, like
what's going on, you know, thatthat is absolutely something
that can and should be, like,investigated, you know, because,
you know, even even, you know,like, I don't know, I won't go
that far. But I discussion foranother day. Yeah. There's,

(35:52):
there's so many ways I couldtake this conversation, right?
Oh, yeah. But I do think it'sreally cool to but you know,
because you touched on somethingreally important there too, you
know, like, we had this like,unique advantage of because, you
know, again, that's where, youknow, kind of being marginalized
has its upsides and downsides.
Like being in this marginalizedcommunity, we kind of found each

(36:13):
other, right, like all the allthe LGBTQ plus kids in our
school, in our high school allkind of stuck together a little
bit. And as a result, you know,we had, you know, like all of us
that like hung out at sagebrushcafe, every you know, every week
shout out to Sage rose cafe, I'mso happy that they survived the

(36:37):
pandemic, I would have beenheartbroken if they, if I could
have if I never had a chance togo back there. Same. But you
know, like them? Yeah, me too.
I'm gonna have to go back there.
Shin. Yeah, like being able tokind of cultivate these
communities, it's always soimportant to like, know who your
people are, know where they are,know where to find them. And the

(36:59):
only way to really, truly beable to do that, to find your
people to find your group is toknow exactly who you are. And
then to be that person, right?
Because I know, there's so manykids, you know, that there were
so many kids that you were notout when we were in high school
that are out now. And yeah, I'msuper proud of them too. And,

(37:23):
you know, like it, but I wouldventure that we probably had an
easier time coping emotionallythrough, like the ups and downs
of high school, simply because,you know, like, we were living
our truth. And, you know, livingour truth comes with its own set
of problems, because there's thethreat of violence and and, you

(37:44):
know, I Oscars, I ostracization,Josh, is the threat of being
ostracized. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
You know, but, but also, youknow, like, there's just so much
angst when you're a teenagerwhen you're in high school,
because, you know, like,everybody is upset everybody is,
you know, people are starting toexperiment a lot with drugs and
alcohol. And many people usedrugs and alcohol much more

(38:06):
heavily in their teenage andearly 20 years than they do at
any other time in life. And Ithink it is because a lot of
people do not yet feel empoweredto live their truth. So, again,
going back to the good and badside of everything, I think
that, you know, even though wekind of ignored that, hell, we
kind of have the advantage nowof saying, well, I've been

(38:26):
living my truth this long,there's no turning back. Now.
It's like, once you seesomething that can't be unseen,
I think living your truth, themore you do it, the more you
can't hide, and the more you'reable to live your truth, the
more you are able to findexactly what it is that you
wanted to even, you know, goingfrom wanting to draw comics to,
you know, kind of figuring outyour way through acting and film

(38:49):
and kind of finding your home inin storyboard artistry. And I
think that, you know, the, thoseskills that it involves fits so
beautifully into, like the lifejourney that you've had outside
of work of figuring out like,where, who you are and where you
want to be in this world. So Ilove that.

(39:10):
Well, thank you very much. It'sit's been it's been a good time.
It's been a hard time.
And yeah, like you said, like,I'm very, very lucky that I
found that community very earlyon and I've had a lot of love
and support on this journey. AndI think that that makes such a
huge difference in anybody'struth is like definitely the

(39:30):
village you call home.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Thevillage call home is so
important. And so it looks likewe're just about out of time so
I know the Muppets baby projectis is over now so all this being
said you know like what are whatare kind of the jobs that you're

(39:50):
let's put it like this what whatis kind of like your dream job
at this. Point anything. A jobis my dream. And beyond that,
beyond that, I just really likeI like comedy storytelling I
like I like a lot of foundfamily tropes. I really just

(40:11):
enjoy stories that do what sortlike cartoons did for me, like
I, I like stories that I maybehear about in 20 1520 years that
some kid was like, Oh, that'swhat made me want to get into
this. Like, that's what made mewant to get into entertainment.
Like, that's my goal. Like I, Iwant to help people realize that

(40:32):
they can get out there and telltheir own stories, too. And, you
know, like little kids and, youknow, help people realize
they're not alone in how theycommunicate. And you know, that
kind of thing. Just paying itforward, I guess, is my my big
goal. Because this is thisjourney has meant a lot to me.
And I would really like to helpsomebody else be successful in

(40:54):
theirs.
Yeah, I love that. I thinkthat's what it's all about. I
mean, I couldn't have said thata better myself this this
journey is, you know, it Yeah,it's great, you know, because
all all we can really do is makethings better for the people
behind us. And again, I thinkcoming from this community, I
think that it is so much more,we understand it so much more,

(41:16):
because going back again, to howmuch it you know, the downside
of being in this community. Andyou know, what we went through
when we were really young, tooyoung to really even understand
what we were going through andwhat we were enduring. Yeah, be
able to make it easier for thatnext generation is, I would say
it's both a gift. And you know,when we're able to do it, I
think our duty?

(41:38):
Absolutely. It's, it's kind of,it's the most you can do, but
it's also the least you can doyou know.
Exactly.
Yeah. You want it to be the mostyou do. But it's, it's Yeah,
it's it's a goal. I think itshould be a common goal, to help
set up our separate notpredecessor, but now that

(42:02):
successors successors to set upour successors for success.
Yeah, that's a mouthful. set upour successors for success.
That's all we're really tryingto do. That's what I'm trying to
do with this podcast too. Andjust, you know, shine spotlight
on on things and people that Ithink are important. And again,
yeah, just raising that flag ofrepresentation. I love that.

(42:24):
Shannon, thank you so much forcoming on. Thank you so much. I
mean, so much of what we talkedabout, I didn't really know this
about your journey. So it wasactually really cool to kind of
learn some of like, what wasgoing on, internally through
this process. And, you know, Iagain, I think you're so
talented and so fantastic as anartist, so it's so exciting for
me to hear that you kind offound your home in that space.

(42:47):
And how do you say before thelanguage that you speak in in
the art world and have reallyfound your voice because I I
just love it. So thankyou very much. And same to you.
Like I love to see what you'redoing now. Like, from that one
fateful day in high school allthe way to now.
Right? Yeah, yeah, full circle.
peek behind the curtain forlisteners offline. You know, we

(43:07):
were talking about how I went toa single improv club meeting in
high school, I think maybe myfreshman year and never showed
up again. And now I'm doingstand up comedy. Yeah, you know,
never give up on your dreams.
It's never too late. He sayslove 29 year old.
Hey, I turned 31 last month likeand I'm just now getting my foot

(43:30):
in the door with where I want tobe. So really don't give up like
your your people are out there.
Your Dreams are out there. Likedon't don't stop chasing them.
Absolutely can't can't agreewith you more. So where can
people find you and your work?
Um, oh god.
I'm a my portfolio is Shannonsketches calm, but you can see
me ramble about all kinds ofdumb stuff on twitter at sketch

(43:53):
boards. And it's just sketchboards. Should I spell it? SK e
t c h e s Bo, ar d s?
Yeah. And I'll also put the linkto both of those in the show
notes. Well, thank you. Again,thank you for coming on, I hope
is lifted. Of course. You know,now this pandemic has lifted

(44:15):
she's know, now that you know,people are getting vaccinated
and things are opening up again.
I hope that we can see eachother soon because we just
discovered it has been about twoyears and yeah, Mm hmm.
Yeah. Soon, definitely. I'mfully vaccinated now. So I'm,
I'm happy to go see friends.
Yes, me too. Excellent. Allright. Thank you so much. Bye,

(44:36):
Shannon. Bye, Leo. All right.
Once again, that was Shannon.
Hey, thank you for coming ontothe show. Shannon. I I hope you
get booked on another show soonbecause again, Shannon is a
brilliant artist. And I reallylove their perspective on you

(44:57):
know how there's advantages anddisadvantages. pros and cons to
everything, and how theirunderstanding of that has kind
of shaped them as an artist, youknow, any show would be super
lucky to have them. As wementioned, you know, Shannon and
I went to the same high schooland next week, I have someone
that is also a classmate ofsorts. I'm gonna have Tyler

(45:20):
Christian Shin on the show, wedid a stand up comedy class
together, actually. So those ofyou who have seen some of my
stand up already, again, thankyou for the support. And he is a
brilliant actor, so much fun towork with a voiceover actor. And
it's another really interestingconversation, you know, because
it's, it's almost the flip sideof of the conversation that we

(45:41):
had with Shannon. And you'llhave to tune in next week,
though, to see exactly what Imean by that. Whoo.
cliffhangers. Seriously, Icannot believe we've already
gotten through 10 episodes ofthe Leo Yockey show. And like I
said, we are just gettingstarted, all of this has just
been a ramp up. And it's time toreally hit the ground running

(46:04):
and and really see where thiscommunity can go. I love having
this conversations, I reallytruly believe that hearing other
people's experiences are thebest way that I can figure out
my place and path on this earth.
And I'm, honestly, I'm soexcited to see that other people
are getting the exact same. Whatshould I call it benefit from

(46:28):
the show, I don't even know whatto call it. But whatever it is,
I'm so happy that you all areloving it. And like I said, this
is mostly contained within mynetwork so far in the network of
my guests. So now that I'm goingto start getting really into
Tick Tock and Instagram reelsand really pushing out more
content every single day, to letpeople know who I am, what I'm

(46:49):
about what the show is about andwhat we're doing here in this
community. It's only going togrow. And the more it grows, the
more we can all do together. Iam so excited. We're all
figuring out this weird postpandemic world what it means for
us. I just had dinner with afriend the other night that I
hadn't seen in years. And wewere talking about how you know

(47:11):
that the time is now to makethose changes to really figure
out what the fuck it even isthat we want out of life. You
know, so, man, I'm figuring itout more and more every day. And
I again, I say it all the time,but thank you for being on this
journey with me. We'll be backnext Tuesday with Tyler. Have a

(47:33):
good week and stay evolving.
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