Living Dead Weekend at Monroeville Mall | Zombie Book Club Ep 101 - Zombie Book Club

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club
where the book is a convention,and it's a good thing that the
zombie apocalypse didn't start.
While we were there, the moralramifications of not knowing if
you macheted a zombie10-year-old or one cosplaying as
a zombie could be too much tohandle.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's a real dilemma .
I met a zombie who was 11.
I thought they were 20, becauseI have no concept of age.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Luckily that one already had a machete in his
head.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh, that's not the one I'm talking about.
Oh well, then I'm there were afew.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Uh, I'm dan, and when I'm not macheting cosplayers at
conventions, I'm writing a bookthat does actually have a 10
year old zombie in it, as itturns out.
Um, what can I say?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
living dead weekend has inspired me if living dead
weekend did not inspire you, Idon't know.
Like you shouldn't be in thezombie genre because I'm left
very inspired.
I'm leah and I am now writing asmut story called a p calypse
now, where the cure for thezombie virus might involve
golden showers from aliens.

(01:18):
All proceeds go toward fundingmy husband dan's actual and far
less p-soaked zombie novel.
As far as I know, there's not alot of pee in your novel and or
the next zombie creator'sretreat, I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
So are you actually going to write that, maybe?
Well, you know what?
Maybe people can let you knowif that's something they want to
read.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, it happened because I.
It came about because I had adream about needing to pee at a
convention while we were atLiving Dead Weekend and I told
Joe Salazar about it, who wasour roomie, and somehow it
devolved into into a story wowthat's what happens when you
hang out with authors.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
They're like you should write about that they are
your cheerleaders, but alsokind of like the worst kind
where it's like I, I have thisterrible idea and they're like I
love it.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well I think it was also coming off of.
We had a bunch of us all gettogether at the end of it and
hang out at the Airbnb and wewere talking about all of these
horrific smut stories thatseemed to get a lot of attention
and we realized maybe we allneed to write really bad,
ridiculous smut stories in orderto fund the other things you

(02:28):
want to do.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You have to.
You have to write one reallybad smut story that everybody
reads and you make a milliondollars from it, just so you can
write the book that, like 10people might read.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah because I I'm gonna be real here.
I'm not gonna write a good smutstory.
This is not gonna bepolymorphously quality, oh no.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
It's going to be awful, yeah, yeah.
So if you want an awful book,it's coming out sometime.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, today we're talking about our experience at
Living Dead Weekend 2025 at theMonroeville Mall in Pennsylvania
.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, you know so many.
It was such a roller coaster,so let's let's talk about it
also.
We have a lot of interviewsthat we're gonna, we're gonna
stitch in at the end.
I mean, I mean like a lot, wetalked to so many people yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
So you know that we did.
We did an interview becausethey were amazing, but then the
minute I was like, hey, uh,you're really great, do you want
to?
Here's a microphone they'relike no, I gotta go, I'm scared
of the microphone.
I get it, I'll come back later.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
And they never came back.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Although some people did.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
They're like, I thought about it and I'm back.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
There was.
There was a couple of peoplethat they came back because
they're like I love all thestickers.
And then then I'm like did you,did you?
Did you decide whether or notyou wanted to be on the podcast?
And they're like I don't.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's fair.
We're glad if you're a listeneror a contributor to this
episode we release every Sunday,so subscribe.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, I wrote subscribe, let's just keep going
then.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
We're going to do a rapid fire Living Dead Weekend
life update of our experience sothat we can keep this part
relatively short and make spacefor all the other amazing people
that will have the mic for thisepisode.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, We'll keep it short.
We might talk more about thissome other time.
Oh yeah, in greater length ifit comes up, if we're inspired
to, let's talk about Living DeadWeekend.
What is it, leah?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's a convention celebrating George A Romero's
legacy in the Living Dead filmseries and it takes place every
year at the Monroeville Mall.
There was also another locationin Evans City, pennsylvania,
where Night of the Living Dead1968 was filmed, but I think
that one is not happening inthat location anymore, but the
Monroeville Mall one happenedthis year.
It featured celebrity guests.

(04:39):
If you've been listening to ourpodcast recently, we've been
talking a lot about them becausewe were getting ready for
Living Dead weekend.
It had movie screenings, vendorareas, photo opportunities and
it was just generally filledwith a bunch of horror and
zombie fans that I adored.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, I just had an inspired idea.
If they can't do Living DeadWeekend at the mall anymore for
reasons that we'll talk about,they should do it in the caves
where Day of the Dead was filmed.
That would be super fun.
I'd love to go to those caves.
Yes, I would love that too.
I think that'd be rad.
Let's talk about the thingsthat we loved about Living Dead

(05:16):
Weekend.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Number one.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Oh me, yeah, you Leah's pointing at me.
Okay, hanging out with our Zzombesties in real life.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
um so we got an airbnb that, uh, we shared with
our new roommate, um joe salazarand her husband, uli, and, most
importantly, their dog data,who we love.
Who's my new best friend.
We're godparents now of thisdog Sorry, nero and Ziggy.
Yeah, I actually just mailed.
I messaged Joe and was likewould Data like these balls that

(05:51):
light up and bounce around ontheir own?
And she was like yes, and I waslike well, I'm sending them to
her right now.
So much I love Data, the dogData.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
I miss you.
Yeah, so we hung out with, uh,like I mentioned, joe Salazar,
author of the dead weight, umalso Courtney Constantine, who
wrote the babysitters.
Uh, babysitter of theapocalypse series is the newest
one and the sundown series.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
sundown series.
They sold out of books four,five and six.
Yeah, and they were there.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
They uh um, courtney was like maybe I should have
brought more.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, they were trying to fit everything into a
suitcase to carry across acontinent on a plane, so I think
it was fair.
Yeah, brandon star rocky ofavalon comic fame was there.
I finally got to meet him.
He's the reason why we went.
Yeah, we learned about thisevent two years ago because he
went to it and then we were likewe must do this they put.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
they put brandon on a different floor than the rest
of us, like we were in arelatively small hall, but kind
of the one that was where it wasat.
Yeah, he got put into a reallybig hall with all like, the,
like, the, the, the vendors,like a lot of them.
They thought that he was like acomic publisher or like a comic
store and would be confusedthat he only had one comic.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, he, and would be confused that he only had one
comic.
Yeah, he was also surrounded bya lot of celebrities and
celebrity photo ops.
Yeah, and, most importantly,giant penis plushies.
Yeah, which I need to point outbriefly because I did not put a
butthole on the crown I madefor living dead weekend.
Um, and after seeing life-sizedactually not life-sized,
because that'd be a lot smallerum, toddler-sized penis plushies

(07:25):
, if you can imagine that I feltlike they're the size of a
toddler, not like they're thesize of a toddler's penis or
even a body pillow.
Yeah, yeah, they're quite large,I just wanted to specify.
You could cuddle them, youcould nuzzle them, um, but
anyways, I was like I reallycould have put a butthole on my
crown, oh well yeah, and peoplewould have loved it.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, they would.
They would absolutely freakedout when they saw that butthole.
But unfortunately there was, itwas butthole free, yeah uh also
alice b sullivan yeah, umelementary undead.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
elementary undead, the aftermath series a bunch of
books, a bunch of books, a bunchof books.
Also, just gonna say it rightnow happy birthday, alice.
It's your birthday today, today, today, well, not right Today,
when this episode comes out, oh,when this episode comes out,
june 22nd.
Happy birthday, alice.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
I was like I got to get on Instagram, I got to tell
Alice happy birthday.
I'm going to be like a weekearly, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
We are so happy that you exist.
Yay, please celebrate yourbirthday like there's no
tomorrow, but not so much thatyou can't come here and live
record with us in the zombiebunker this summer, which we
have planned for Alice to comevisit.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
That's going to be fun.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
It is.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
These are all now our best friends and we need to
officially start a zombiecommune with all of the authors.
You know there was a lot ofthings that I was really worried
about going to this convention.
I was not worried about meetingthese people who I know are
really cool.
What I didn't know was that theweeks leading up to it, I'm in
a place where I'm kind offeeling a little down about the

(08:58):
fact that I don't really feellike I have friends that I
connect to in real life, feellike I have friends that I
connect to in real life.
It's been a while since I'vebeen like oh, I can't wait to
see that person again in reallife.
I don't go to work and be like,oh, I wonder what Jay is up to.
But when I went to thisconvention all of these people
immediately it feels like I'veknown them for years, even

(09:20):
though it was the first time wewere meeting.
It was totally not awkward atall and I'm like can this just
be forever?
Do we just buy a big house andwe all live together?
Is that something we can do?
I?

Speaker 2 (09:31):
mean, you know, we'd all be good in the zombie
apocalypse, which should be thenumber one criteria.
Yeah, I also want to give ashout out to the new authors new
to us, I should say that wefound at Living Dead Weekend, we
had dead weekend.
We had carl, one half of thewriting duo for wither novels.
Yeah, carl was really cool.

(09:51):
Yep, joseph pesavento, whowrote death cleanse, uh, and a
bunch of other novels that arenot zombies but, I'm sure, also
good.
We just can't read them.
Sorry, joseph, we only readzombies.
Yeah, um, and james redmondcame down I think they were in
another hall and they have abook called hell's maelstrom,
right I?
do remember that.
Yeah, so looking, lookingforward to reading all of those
books, because there's alwaysmore great zombie books out
there to read.
There are, and.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
I didn't realize there'd be so many authors and
if we knew in advance, we wouldhave absolutely had you in our
book crawl, because I think itwas really helpful to the people
that we know.
I think it was really helpfulto the people that we know and
we would have loved to just haveeverybody included and made it
even bigger than it was.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Maybe next year.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I hope so.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, speaking of the author crawl, we did a zombie
book club author crawl, wherethere was a library of the
undead giveaway.
All of the authors that we'dknown previously are going to be
there donated a book uh, inbrandon's case, he also donated
a poster and, um, some othercool stuff.
And courtney donated two booksbecause she's prolific and has

(10:55):
many books.
Yeah, um, but all our books.
We included a t-shirt from us,some stickers and we made this
whole event for people tobasically get, like their
passports stamped at each of ourbooths for a chance to win this
giveaway, and we had 263entries collectively from, I
think, a little over 30 peoplewho actually participated, and a

(11:18):
lot of people, even knowingthat they were a part of this
giveaway, bought books, and thatmade me really, really happy.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
That was the whole point of this, of this yeah, it
really encouraged people to gocheck out other people's booths.
Um, which was, which was thepoint, but it was also
surprising that it worked.
Yeah, like I was, I was, I wassurprised to see people excited
to like get a get a sticker ontheir card.
They're like I'm here to get mysticker I think it would have

(11:44):
been really cool.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I like a specifically book event.
We could do this again.
Yeah, and I also got to giveCarl with their novels another
shout out, because they sharedthat some people would be coming
up to them being like, are youpart of this crawl?
And we didn't know they werethere, so they weren't, and so

(12:05):
they ended up donating one ofwither novel chronicles.
Yeah, that's really cool.
Yeah, um, so that was awesomeand just love, like the instant
community building that happened.
And I also want to give a shoutout to charlie jumper, who won.
Hey, charlie, and your stuff'sgoing in the mail.
Well it, I hope it's alreadygotten to you, actually by the
time you hear this, because itshould have.
Uh, let's move on to anotherfavorite thing uli joe's husband
feeding us.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, you know, it wasn't until we were setting up
our table that I thought.
You know we are woefullyunprepared for surviving out
here, because we didn't even Idon't know about you, but I
definitely didn't think aboutlike we will have to eat once we
get to Living Dead.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Weekend I did, but I basically planned this thing.
So I thought about everything,yeah, and I thought there's not
a lot.
Weekend I did, but I basicallyplanned this thing.
So I thought about everything,yeah, and I thought there's not
a lot, but I knew we'd be ableto get smoothies from the food
court oh, I you know what.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
The smoothies from the food court was news to me.
Uh, speaking of smoothies fromthe juice uh, juice court, other
than the juice court, that'swhat I call it now.
Yeah, juice, nuts and juicecourt, that's what I call it now
.
The food court yeah, nuts andjuice court.
Okay, other than Uli feeding usand saving our lives every day.
Yeah, the upscale juice baralso saved our lives, and I did

(13:14):
not know that avocado just goesin every smoothie.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Dan, you're a newbie to making smoothies, I am.
There's so much potential for asmoothie.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
And now I just want to put avocados in all smoothies
, yeah, but I just gotta.
You know we cannot.
I don't want to have thesmoothies.
Um steal, the show from uli uliis the mvp of living dead
weekend.
Uli, you seriously meant thatwe survived and had blood sugar.
Fewer blood sugar crashes.
Uh, we would have without you,particularly the potato tacos
from taco bell.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
That was a wonderful surprise uli showed up with
surprise tacos, yeah, and wewere like what tacos that we
didn't even know were coming tous?
Yeah what?

Speaker 2 (13:55):
what more could you ask for in a zombesty than tacos
?

Speaker 1 (13:59):
yeah, I nearly fainted, partially because of my
crashing blood sugar.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, another thing I personally loved at living dead
weekend was crowning people inthe dr logan.
Yeah, and the last time Italked about this crown that I
made for living dead weekend, Ididn't know what it was called
and I haven't read a descriptionyet, but if you will indulge me
, I'd like to read thedescription of the dr logan.
Yes, please do.
The dr logan zombie crown tookover 20 hours to design, hand

(14:27):
sculpt and paint in honor of the40th anniversary of the Romero
film Day of the Dead, made justfor this year's Living Dead
weekend.
It's crafted with love,laughter and the dismembered
remains of Dr Logan's zombievivisection experiments, all
ethically harvested from hisspare parts, aren't they, though
?
I mean, they were already onthe ground.
We weren't part of the killing,okay, or vivisections, and it's

(14:49):
all a tribute to the twistedgenius of Dr Matthew
Frankenstein, frankenstein,frankenstein, frankenstein,
frankenstein, frankenstein.
Logan, sculpted out of metalarmature and oven-baked clay.
The crown features hand-paintedstrips of fingers, teeth, a
nose and three infected eyeballs.
No buttholes, no buttholes.
Sadly, I'm never doing thatagain.
This is the one-off no buttholecrown Impaled with raw crystal

(15:10):
energy for whoever dares toclaim it Amethyst, smoky quartz,
clear quartz and greenvivianite.
And then the initials LDW forLiving Dead Weekend are carved
in the back like a fresh wound.
And yes, that's a real bitemark, because I always bite my
crowns.
You gotta bite the crown.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
For science yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
And I tried to sell it, I wrote, valued at 666,
inspired by all the eightsbrains, telling me that that
would be appropriate for $333.
And while many people asked meif it was for sale, no one
bought it because it's a lot ofmoney.
It is a lot of money, but whatwas more fun was just meeting

(15:45):
people and having themappreciate it and then taking
pictures with them wearing it.
That was so much joy for me andI met some really cool people,
particularly some specialeffects artists that loved it,
which was really affirming andalso like I think, going to
these kinds of events yousometimes, even if you know
you're never going to see themagain, it's like meeting soul
family.
There were a few people thatput the crown where, like we
locked eyes and I was like, yes,we're relatives and I love you.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, I also felt that with a lot of people,
because you know in real life,if you just start spouting off
things that you know aboutGeorge Romero films, people are
like all right, I guess I likethose movies, I saw them once
when I was a kid.
But these people it's likewhich one's your favorite?
And they will spend an hourtelling you everything that they

(16:28):
love about Romero films.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Literally, yeah.
Yeah, we had to hang out forlike an hour and just chat with
us, or more, yeah, which wasgreat.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
One time I had to pee really bad, but then I got into
a really big conversation thatlasted, I think, an hour and 45
minutes.
Hold that pee, yeah, an hourand 45 minutes.
Just hold that.
P yeah.
Um, it wasn't a p-calypse, see,in so many ways that's what
inspired it.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Uh, the biggest thing for me this weekend was meeting
jerry gurgly yeah, who is thedirector of tom savini's special
makeup program, and joe senthim my way because joe salazar
is a fairy godmother ofawesomeness all the time and
they were sort of like kittycorner from Jerry Gergely's
booth and said, hey, you shouldgo check out this crown.

(17:12):
And so he did, yeah, and heloved it.
Yeah, that's great.
I, yeah, I.
Just to give you context of whothis person is he's worked on
Silence of the Lambs, the DarkHalf, ragdoll, night of the
Living Dead 1990, flesh Eater,my Bloody Valentine, 3d being
John Malkovich, babylon 5, buffy, the Vampire Slayer, the

(17:33):
X-Files, roswell and Charmed,yeah.
And for someone like that,who's the head of the Tom Savini
special makeup program, to comeup to me and be like this is a
masterpiece, um, I hate to admithow much I love external
affirmation, but I was like, ohmy god, I'm actually like an art
.
A fellow artist is recognizingmy art right now, and not just
like anybody, but somebody whois themselves the most masterful

(17:57):
of master in this kind of art.
And briefly, I toyed in my headall weekend like do I take, do
I go participate in this program.
Do I just stop everything andmove to Pennsylvania?
Um, but then I decided I don'twant to make.
I like making crowns.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm not sure if I want to do the rest yeah, um, I
mean, it's a it would be a biglife change.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
It would and one that I don't know that we can afford
right.
But, more importantly, jerrygave me excellent advice on how
to make my crown with othermaterials and told me I could
contact them anytime.
So, jerry, prepare for youremail inbox to be harassed by me
, because I want to be yourbestie, um, and just know that
it meant a lot to meet you andhave that affirmation from

(18:40):
someone amazing as you and alsoall the other artists who came
up and said really nice thingsabout the crown.
It was very, um, ego boosting,confidence boosting, made me
feel like my art might be worthsomething, and I don't mean
monetarily because, honestly,the joy of just seeing people
wear it and appreciate it wasall I needed yeah, I mean it was
.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
it was definitely a fascinator.
Like, yeah, like people.
People would come by the tableand, like you know, they'd see
the stickers and most peopledidn't understand that we were a
podcast until we said it.
And then they're like, oh,you're a podcast, even though
it's like right in the logo.
But when they see that crown,that's the conversation starter,
where they're like, whoa, lookat that thing.

(19:19):
So advice to people going to ahorror convention and don't know
how to bring people to yourtable Get yourself a crown made
of human flesh From me, yeah,from Leah.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, custom made for that event, but I am going to
find a way to mass produce it,because he was like these would
sell and I was like they wouldsell if I could make them
affordable and currently Icannot.
So he gave me a lot of greatadvice.
Thank you so much, jerry Gurley.
It was beyond a privilege tomeet you, yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Also we had a.
There was a brief moment ofpanic when we were setting up on
Thursday.
Where we got to our table,which is right near the front
door, and right in front of ourtable in the middle of the room,
was Greg Nicotero's table, andwe're like, are we just going to
be staring at Greg Nicotero,executive producer and special
effects artist for the WalkingDead all weekend.

(20:13):
But luckily they moved thistable to the back where the rest
of the celebrities were, andleft us little people on our own
to not freak out every minuteof the day.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, you know what else was at the back of our
vending hall A top secret vendorbathroom.
Yes, loved it.
Loved not having to walk.
I honestly, I brought mywheelchair with me and didn't
have to use it as much as Ithought, which is just evidence
of progress.
If you've been listening for awhile, you know that this is a
big deal for me, but I wouldhave had to use it to go to the
bathroom because it was so far,but instead I just had to have a

(20:45):
short walk to the back of thisformer store.
It looked like maybe the sizeof a gap, if you can picture
that, I think, yeah, maybe ababy gap.
Also, I never knew that people,the workers, actually had their
own bathrooms and I'm so happyto learn that.
Yeah, I loved how when you wentback, there and the door closed

(21:07):
.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
It shut off all the cacophony.
It was so quiet.
It was amazing.
It was amazing.
Like you know, I I was dealingwith some anxiety through the
whole weekend so, like every nowand then, going back there and
just turning everything off wasjust like a feeling of relief
for a little while I agree.
I also took top secret footageof the top secret vendor

(21:35):
bathroom that I'm going to sharethe week this episode comes out
, room area that I called myscreaming chambers, where, if I
needed to escape, those areplaces where people, even the
vendors who were going back tothe bathrooms, wouldn't go into
Because it was off to the side.
It looked like a fuckingnightmare.

(21:56):
It looked like somebody wasmurdered in there and that's
where I could go to just screamand cry.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
But how often did you do that?

Speaker 1 (22:04):
I actually didn't do it as much as I thought I would.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, maybe just the first couple hours, you know
what I loved, seeing that youcould do this and I know you
were pretty freaked out in thebeginning, dan I felt like you
might have been on the verge ofa panic attack.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
I was having one.
Yeah, but I just made Dan unpeelall of my zombie stickers and
put them on my water bottles andthat seemed to calm you down
and then you were okay, this iskind of like a new revelation
for me is that I've I'vediscovered by analyzing previous
freak outs is that every timeI'm just like I have this, this

(22:51):
dreadful feeling that I need toescape but don't know how, or
feel trapped, you know.
So, finding the screaming rooms, finding the back room where
the bathrooms are, finding allthe emergency exits and all the
things that I could do to runaway if I needed to Like go get
smoothies Discovering all thosethings made me feel so much

(23:12):
better.
Yeah, and unpeeling stickers.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Probably to unpack another time.
But I just realized you know,when you're at war you have your
flight instinct, but you can'tleave, yeah, so that makes a lot
of sense.
I'm just glad you ended uphaving a good time.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, me too.
I was not expecting to have agood time.
It's weird because it startedwith me being like I need to
find a way to escape and then,by the end of day three, even
though I was fucking exhaustedand torn to pieces physically, I
was like I am sad that it'sending, I don't want it to end.
I um, I was like I am sad thatit's ending, I don't want it to

(23:49):
end, I want to talk to athousand more people apparently.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Who is this man?
I was.
I was ready for the event to beover, but I wasn't ready to
stop hanging out with all of ourauthor friends.
That was really wonderful.
Yeah, uh, we also love the mall.
I mean the mall, the monrovillemall, it an icon.
It was an incredible place tobe Meeting so many people who
came to this event, who werelocals, where this was like a

(24:10):
place that they hung out andalso had the significance to
their local culture was supercool.
And I just want to say, ifyou're not aware, the
Monroeville Mall has beenpurchased by Walmart and is
under threat of extinction andthere is a petition in the show
notes.
Please go sign it.
I don't know if it can save it,but we can at least try.
I mean, they bought a lot ofacreage so maybe they could just

(24:31):
leave them all alone and dostuff elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
I do have some news about that petition that during
living dead weekend it grew from1 000 signatures to 5 000
signatures yeah, keep signing it.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
We were joking with folks, but like this is the time
, we need to all just make ahuman chain around the outside.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
There was definitely enough of us and be like we're
not leaving until this is savedyeah, um, yeah, it's.
It's like such a a cultural,culturally relevant site for us.
Maybe not for everyone in theworld, but for us it means
something, because this is likeit.
Such an iconic movie happenedthere and it's been this place

(25:09):
that's been celebrated withthings like the Living Dead
Weekend for so long.
Yeah, it even has a museum init dedicated to George Romero
films and special tours, which Inever had an opportunity to
look at.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, we'll get into that Moving on, because we've
got to do this quick.
Got to make space for the otherpeople who are about to come on
this podcast.
Dan, tell us about holdinghands with Brandon Starocki of
Avalon Comics.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
It was funny because we're going to take a picture
myself, brandon and you, and yousaid something along the lines
of like I stand in the middlebecause, uh, you guys are two
hetero dudes and you can't standtogether because of, uh, toxic
masculinity, or something likeyeah, I made a toxic masculinity
joke and uh, and they're like,okay, well, we'll just hold

(25:55):
hands behind your back then.
So we held hands behind yourback and you were like, oh my
god, they're holding hands.
And then it's like, oh well,we'll hold hands in front.
So we're holding hands on bothsides of Leah for the picture.
And that's on Instagram, isn'tit?

Speaker 2 (26:07):
It isn't yet, but it's going to be.
It's going to be.
I will say that or no.
I think actually Brandon'salready posted, but it'll be on
ours as well.
That proved that neither of youare toxically masculine and
made me love you both more.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Yeah, you know, and I feel like that was an important
culturally relevant moment forBrandon and I.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
I agree, it's very important and we need to print
it and frame it for sure.
Lori Calcaterra, author of Pathof the Pale Rider fame, was not
there, though we wanted her tobe here there and Brandon
actually challenged her to aone-on-one duel to steal her
Zombieweenen game show crownthat I made from her for her 20,
2023 win and, as of thisrecording, lori's accepted the

(26:50):
challenge and, honestly, it wasvery scary.
In her video response, they hada lot of knives that she pulled
out but, more interestingly,brandon has not responded with
when they're available.
I.
This is a pattern, brandon.
I want to be team Brandonon,but you keep flaking out on
events.
Buddy, yeah, you got to respond, although maybe when this comes

(27:11):
out, you already have and I'llhave to issue a correction.
Yeah, uh, and, last but notleast, being roomies with joe
uli and, most importantly, data.
Gotta say it again, that was solovely.
They also brought us cake allthe way from chicago yeah,
chicago cake pie, pie, mydarling cake.
It was a confetti cake.
It was the best cake I've everhad.
It had the perfect ratio for meof icing to cake.

(27:33):
I ate it for breakfast.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, thank you so much also um the the demands to
cut the slices of cake evensmaller.
I went for.
I went for quarters.
That was not small enough.
I went for eights.
That was not small enough.
We ate 16ths of a slice of cakeeach.

(27:56):
It's impossible to cut a cakethat size in the 60.
I did it.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
But like smoothies.
Dan, your cake cuttingexperience is low, so I think
you were the wrong person to cutthe cake, but we appreciate you
for trying.
Yeah, but my knife skills arehigh, true?
Well, I need to school you oncorrect cake cutting then for
the future, okay but it waswonderful, that's fair um.
I will dream of that cakeforever more.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Let's get into what we hated from living dead
weekend, which wasn't very much.
But let's talk about what wehate.
What did you?

Speaker 2 (28:23):
hate most.
I hated seeing a randomperson's dick.
That happened the first time.
I used the very secret, special, uh, vendor bathroom in the
back.
Someone told me about it and Iwas like, yes, and the women's
bathroom, because you know,bathrooms have to be segregated
by the binary of gender, whichis stupid, otherwise horrible
crimes will always happenexactly.

(28:45):
And so the quote-unquote women'sbathroom was occupied and I was
like I don't give a fuck, I'lluse the dudes as long as it's
not gross.
Uh, the light was off.
The door was mostly open, so Iwalked toward it and I start to
push the door more open andthere is a man in the dark
peeing full fountain arc.
Seeing his dick and the peearcing into the toilet can never

(29:06):
unsee it.
Of course he apologized, I ranaway, but I still ask you, good
sir, why.
I learned later that the lightdefinitely worked, as did the
door, so why the door was tricky.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
You had to lift the handle to make it latch, but it
did close and the light did work.
Yeah, I can.
I can verify.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
So yeah, this is the second time I've seen a dick
that I didn't want to see inlike a solid month.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
The things that I hated.
We talked about this.
It was a lot.
It was exhausting.
Yeah, it was hard.
It was hard it was.
It was a lot mentally,emotionally, physically.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Like my feet felt like they were ground hamburger
by the end.
Yeah, your feet were in worseshape than my feet because you
weren't getting wheeled in awheelchair between the
convention location and theparking, which is what you did
for me.
So thank you for putting yourfeet in a grinder so that mine
could be okay because I'm doingall right.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, I'm doing all right.
Yeah, I'm I'm doing all righttoo.
Um, but you know what, like ashard as all that was and I and
brandon said this as well likewould would you rather be there
even though it's harder?
Like like more work, or wouldyou rather be at work and living
dead weekend?
Living dead weekend, likethat's it felt, it felt felt
important to be there.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
And I feel really grateful.
I have a job that I like andcoworkers, but this is, this was
super special.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, I didn't like not having drugs.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah, we did look up whether it was legal to purchase
cannabis in Pennsylvania.
Answer is no, so we didn'tbring any yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
And I and I wouldn't have been able to partake anyway
because it's the work season.
Yeah, I don't like that, but itwould have been so much better
if I was high.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
I disagree.
I think I would have beenreally overwhelmed.
Cbd is the way to go, but Igave you the CBDs we had.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
I would have been like maybe one gummy, no dummy.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
No, and then see.
We'll see where that takes me.
Uh, I think it would have mademe chill, yeah, also, uh, I was
sad we didn't get to see therest of the convention or get
picks with bub aka shermanhoward.
Um, that was too bad.
I really told myself.
You know, on sunday, I was likeI'll have time on sunday to go
up to hall a and hall c andcheck it out.
I did not.
Yeah, that's okay, it was.
You know, we had a differentexperience and I think I would
have chosen this experience overbeing just, uh, not just at an

(31:29):
attendee.
Yeah, but it was.
It was unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
I wanted to do that because maybe it won't be there
next year because of stupidwalmart and if we were just
attendees, like I don't knowwhat I would have done for three
days, like I would have seeneverything in one day and then
been like do I just just go back?
Yeah, I've been in situationslike that and that's.
That is actually when it is.
The anxiety is more upsettingfor me.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Um, you know what I didn't like, leah, what the
floods and tornadoes yeah, theconstant flood warnings yeah
with the whole convention centerbeing an annoying sound of,
with a forced notice to notleave the mall because there
might be a flood and Pittsburghapparently did have floods, but
we were okay.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, and then there was briefly a tornado warning.
That was fun.
Yeah, it's like is this how itends?
Are we in the apocalypse?
Is this when it starts?

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah, and then we didn't like when it was over.
It's sad, we want to do itagain when it starts, yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
And then we didn't like when it was over.
It's sad, we want to do itagain, yeah, when it was over,
it was actually like.
It was like leaving summer camp, it was yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
And it's just like but all my friends are here
Better than summer camp, becausewe all have a common interest
and even more impressive commonvalues.
Yeah, that's what made thegroup of authors that we hung
out with so special.
To me is not just like, couldwe talk about zombie shit
forever?
But we've all agreed in thekind of world that we wanted to
see, as courtney constantinjokes like the zombie apocalypse
is basically surviving.

(32:53):
It is socialism.
So that was wonderful.
Yeah, um, let's talk brieflyabout how much this cost us.
Okay versus how much we made.
Uh, I made 120 in Banana.
Zombie, hands down winner,followed by Ziggy and Nero
Zombies, the dogs, followed bythe Hare Krishna Zombie from
Dawn of the Dead, zombioryanking Dan from the truck.

(33:13):
Zombior just by himself.
Grandmata also made some sales.
Make America Dead Again.
I had two pride packs sold, onedoggy pack, the librarian sold
and the art teacher sold.
That was it.
What we also made was newfriends and listeners, new
confidence in my artisticability, priceless what we spent
$80 to get a Savini picture andtwo of his autographs, ouch.

(33:35):
$70 to get a flesh eater plaqueand magnet from Jerry Ruh-roh
Gurgly and a picture with him.
$300 for the booth, an airbnb,plus food, plus all the printing
expenses and table expenses,since it was our first time
vending.
All told, I would say weprobably spent up to twenty five
hundred dollars.
Yikes, would we do it again?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
yes, yes yes, and we do it again anytime.
Is it happening next week?
Let us know?
Well, we can't afford it.
I can't.
Yeah, I'd have to put in.
Yeah, I got it.
I got to tell my boss.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
But it was priceless.
Yeah, I mean I would live there, yeah, but now we're going to
turn it over to you, theattendees.
All of the links that folks aregoing to mention are going to
be in the show notes and they'llalso be tagged on Instagram and

(34:29):
in the newsletter that we'regoing to send out.
So if you're not sure how toget a hold of somebody you're
about to listen to, it will bethere for you.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, I just want to give a brief apology if the
audio isn't that great.
It was in a convention hall andnot everybody knew how to hold
a microphone, but I'm going todo my best to make it sound good
.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
And with that we're turning it over to the
incredible attendees of LivingDead Weekend.
Where are you?
From what's your name, Kevin?
I'm from Virginia Beach.

Speaker 7 (35:00):
And Haley, Virginia Beach.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
You're our first guest for the day, so we're an
absolute mess.
So what brings you to LivingDead Weekend first?

Speaker 6 (35:10):
Big George Romero fans Been here a couple times,
so I'm going to come back thisyear and I'm here to support him
.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
So when we come back this year and I'm here to
support them.
Okay, so the zombie apocalypse,it's in full swing.
You're in it.
You've been in it for a while.
Someone passes off two childrento you.
They're under the ages of five.
Now they're your responsibility.

Speaker 6 (35:38):
How do you cope with this.
Do they talk back as much asthis one does?
Yes, then we might just givethem back to the zombies.
I don't know.
She's the motherly figure.

Speaker 9 (35:49):
We would just add them to our pack and move on, go
with the flow.

Speaker 7 (35:52):
Is there strength in baby numbers, kid numbers?
I think so.
I think they can help us fightback.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Do you think there's any tasks that somebody under
five would be good at for thezombie apocalypse?

Speaker 6 (36:06):
She's very nosy, so she'd be a good scout.
She's little and she noticeseverything and calls everybody
out, so you just send her aheadand she'd come back and be like
Mama, there's ten zombies overthere doing mean stuff, and be
like okay, well, there 10zombies over there doing mean
stuff and be like okay, well,there's 10 over there.

Speaker 7 (36:19):
So I think her cuteness will work for her
advantage.
You wouldn't expect what she'scapable of.
Do you want to say hi on?

Speaker 10 (36:26):
the podcast.
You want to say hi and say yourname and introduce yourself, no
, okay.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
She's like absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Thank you for chatting with us, of course,
thank you.
It was really nice to meet youboth.
Thanks for being our firstEpisode's coming out on the 22nd
.
If you want to hear it, I'mexcited, thank you.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
We will come back a little bit later.
Yeah, don't hang.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
What brings you to Living Dead Weekend Also who are
you?

Speaker 11 (36:50):
My name is Malin Malin Grant.
I'm actually.
You know, we run the PittsburghFighters Guild.
That's a medieval martial artsschool, specifically HEMA,
Historical European Martial Arts.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Do you like teach people how to use like great
swords and chop things in halfwith them?

Speaker 11 (37:07):
So we don't do cutting, oh, but we air
quotations, everybody does it intheir backyard, right yeah, air
quotations, everybody does itin their backyard, right yeah,
but uh, yeah, we use pretty muchany weapon that is written
about in a book, so that couldbe, you know, long swords, great
swords, sabers, spears, maces,hammers, sticks, rapier and

(37:32):
dagger.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
I mean basically whatever you, whatever you can
swing at somebody in your handswhat do you think is the best
weapon if you're fighting likethousands of zombies?

Speaker 11 (37:44):
So, absolutely so.
If I had to choose a weapon forfighting zombies, believe it or
not, it wouldn't actually be asword.
I know I run a fencing school,but I would actually choose a
war hammer or a war pick,because it's going to be durable
.
Right, I mean a sword.
Sword is going to break overtime, like it's going to have a

(38:05):
lot of damage, but a war hammer,a war pick, you can use it over
and over and over and overagain, it only becomes more of a
hammer.
Yeah, yeah, so that would be mychoice.
How do people find you?
You can find me on Facebook,Pittsburgh Fighters Guild, or
you can find me on Google.
You can do a quick Googlesearch hemapittsburghcom or just

(38:28):
search Pittsburgh FightersGuild on Google.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
So, since you said you love graphic novels, graphic
stories, I'm going to ask you aquestion based on Brandon
Starocki's Avalon comic series.
It's a what would you doquestion.
The apocalypse kicks off.
Your family is out to dinnerwithout you.
Do you go and save them?

Speaker 11 (38:48):
Absolutely how many, how many?
I mean how many people you gotto make sure, because you're a
family.
Yeah, my immediate family, orlike all of my family.
Yeah, they're having a party,You're not invited I mean
zombies, I hate to say it like Igot to get my immediate family,
you know, safe and sound.

(39:09):
We could talk about building uplike some sort of militia or,
you know, survivor's group afterthat.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
How many weapons do you have to share with your
family?

Speaker 11 (39:23):
A lot I have a lot of weapons?

Speaker 1 (39:24):
The laugh pretty much answered that question.
I have a lot of weapons.

Speaker 11 (39:28):
Melee weapons.
Do you have weapons here atyour stall?
I have some fetters upstairs.
You know fetter shorts.
They're basically like bluntedlong swords.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
So Also life savers.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Wooden swords, we'll have to go check it out.
One of us will at some pointyeah, I haven't been upstairs
yet, so I'm going to have totake a look, thanks, thanks for
being a five-minute guest on ourpodcast.
Oh, of course, of course.

Speaker 7 (39:56):
What's your name?
What?
Oh, of course, of course.
What's your name?
What brings you to Living DeadWeekend?
My name is Ira.
I'm here because I'm a bigGeorge Romero fan, specifically
of the movie Martin, but I doappreciate his other works.
What is it you love about thatone particularly?
Oh God, it was my first Romeromovie and I love its portrayal
of mental illness and it's avery melancholy movie.

(40:19):
And it just the first time Iwatched it.
It literally blew me away.
I didn't know movies could bethat good until I watched it and
I got to the end and it justshocked me.
It was such a beautiful movie.
I think I cried the first timeI watched it.
It's an incredible moving movie.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
I'm curious cried the first time I watched it.
It's an incredible moving movie.
I'm curious what you'd say tosomebody who says that zombie
movies are shallow and it's justlike zombies running around.

Speaker 7 (40:45):
I think it's a little more than that, especially
Romero movies.
They're more about the humanity, the humanity of zombies.
I don't know if that makessense.
It does make sense, but theytouch on the fact that the
zombies, like, remember the malland that's why they're coming
to the mall, and there'scommentary on race and um.

(41:05):
I think there's a little moremeaning to specifically his
films than just zombies walkingaround.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah that's the whole point of why we do the podcast,
because for us zombie storiesare actually like lessons for
the living about life slash.
It's kind of an apocalypse outthere already.

Speaker 10 (41:20):
IMO.
So A little bit.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, Sometimes it's nice to escape into a zombie one
.
Are you ready for a random?
What would you do in a zombieapocalypse question?
Yes, it's a zombie apocalypseand you have a canoe to escape
in.
It's you and four other peopleyou love.

Speaker 7 (41:34):
Who are they All right?
My, who are they All right?
My boyfriend, my best friend,ghost oh my gosh, that's a
really hard one.
You got two more, you know what.
My other best friend, shiloh,you know what?
I don't know how resilient youare to be fair.
And maybe my mom just to keepme in check.

(41:58):
I like that combo.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Mom and some friends and a boyfriend.
Okay, there's only actuallyenough room for four of you, and
the canoe is sinking.
Who is getting out of the?

Speaker 7 (42:08):
canoe.
Oh no, you know what?
My friend just said bye mom, no, bye mom.
Sorry, mom, she might frustrateme a little too much so and she
probably won't hear thispodcast.
No, I will not show her thispodcast.
Amazing, Do either of your?

Speaker 2 (42:29):
friends want a what would you do question, or are
you feeling shy?
I can totally do one.
You can do one.
Alright, hold my bag.
Yes, what is your name?
I am Shiloh.
Shiloh.
Oh yes, Bestie of Ira andShiloh, where are you from?

Speaker 12 (42:43):
I'm from Ohio, just like Ira.
We're from the same place.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
I'm so geographically illiterate.
How far of a drive was that?
It was a train ride.
It was like that on a train.
Yeah, so chill.
Yeah, I mean you know a littleuncomfortable, a little rickety.
Where's your favorite or what's?

Speaker 12 (43:03):
your favorite romero film.
You know, I just watched nightraiders and I know he everybody
loves his horror stuff, but Ilove, I really like night
raiders.
That's the one I just watchedand it was like it was so
interesting and unique and justfun, uh, so I'd probably have to
go with that.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
I love it.
I'm very new to Romero, so I'venot watched that one yet.
Isn't that embarrassing, ohthank you Shia.

Speaker 12 (43:24):
LaBeouf.
No, honestly, I was justtalking.
I kind of feel like a poserhere.
I'm not really into this stufflike some of these people are,
so I'm just kind of going withit.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
you know, I'm going with love when I watched Night
of the Living Dead.
I hate old movies.
So it took a long time toconvince me to watch it.
And then I was like whoa andI've been obsessed ever since.
Day of the Dead is my newobsession, that's my crown there
, the Dr Logan Alright, here isyour dilemma in the apocalypse.
The apocalypse is in fulleffect, so we're like some

(43:51):
months down the line here,Someone passes off two children
under the age of five to you youare now responsible for them,
oh no what do you do?

Speaker 12 (44:01):
oh no, I'm so bad with kids, but uh, I would do my
best.
I would.
You know what I would do.
I would make it my goal tosearch for somebody else who is
much more responsible than meand probably has more resources,
and drop them off there,because I do not believe that I

(44:22):
could take care of two childrenon my own in the apocalypse.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
That was actually very responsible.
We had one person say that theywould just give them to the
zombies, and that person was aparent.

Speaker 12 (44:32):
No, maybe if they were like adults, maybe if they
were like a little older, I'dconsider it.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Well, it was a pleasure.
Thank you so much, both of you,ira and shiloh, for coming on
the podcast.
I appreciate it coming out onjune 22nd and uh, you can have a
free sticker for chatting withus.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Thank you, I appreciate you so much.
I find that once I hit therecord button, which I just did,
um, I get like a surge ofenergy that lasts until I hit
that button again I get theopposite.

Speaker 14 (44:57):
I get nervous and scared.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Oh, okay, do you need to sit down.

Speaker 14 (45:00):
I might pass out, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
What is your name, young man?
I am Brandon Starocki.
And what brings you to LivingDead?

Speaker 14 (45:09):
Weekend I am here promoting Avalon Comic, and just
the wonderful people aroundhere.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
This is where we have to break the fourth wall and
say we know Brandon and thereason we're here is because,
Brandon, we saw Brandon atLiving Dead Weekend two years
ago and we're like we need to becool like Brandon and join.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yeah, see episode 17.
Is that what it is?
And another episode that Idon't remember Was it higher,
higher 40s.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
Does that sound right ?
60s.

Speaker 14 (45:36):
That sounds about right yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Whatever number, I'll just say 62.
So we have some questions.
Are we going to ask all thequestions?
Yeah, okay, so that very littleamount of energy that you had
left prepare to use it all.

Speaker 14 (45:48):
Yeah, and I'm done.
I'm going to be done for thenight alright, so you are 13
years old.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Okay, you're in English class wherever you went
to school when you were 13 yearsold.
Okay, you're in English classwherever you went to school when
you were 13 years old.
The zombie apocalypse ithappens while you're in English
class.
What are you going to do?
Panic?

Speaker 14 (46:10):
Okay, panic at the disco.
No, I don't know if we had adisco at my school at that time.
I panic, and that's probably it.
I don't think I was smartenough at 13 years old to be
like okay, I'm doing this.
That, yeah me either.
I think I would just die yeah,at the beginning of my life, 13
years old zombie I would berealistically.

(46:31):
I like now.
I feel like I'm confident, Icould just handle anything and
I'm over overconfident and Iknow that.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
So if you're in English class right now.
I would live.
Yeah, I would run home.
Plus, being surrounded by13-year-olds, you could just
like throw them at the zombies.

Speaker 14 (46:46):
Yes and just use them as, like you know, meat
shields.
I have other questions.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
It's the zombie apocalypse.
You just got out of Englishclass, by the way, by throwing
13 year olds at zombies.
You escape in a canoe a canoepick five people to bring with
you.

Speaker 14 (47:06):
I have five written okay, so I'm like five,
including myself.
Is that why you're saying four?
Sure, okay, so, so four, okay,yeah, that works, why not?
Um, my wife, my kid, gregNicotero.
Do one of you guys want to flipa coin?
This is tails, okay.
Okay, lee is in the canoe.

(47:26):
Okay, so you're done, dan.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
Okay, well, that makes my next question a whole
lot easier.
So turns out there isn't enoughroom in the canoe.
Who are you throwing out?

Speaker 14 (47:43):
Me and Greg could talk about a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
Really You're not going to throw Greg out.

Speaker 14 (47:49):
Yeah, I'll throw Greg out.
I'll leave Leo out.
Okay, I'm going to let him know.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
I'll throw him out.
This one you might already havean answer for.
It's a zombie apocalypse, itjust happened.
Your whole family is out.
This one you might already havean answer for.
It's a zombie apocalypse, itjust happened.
Your whole family is out todinner without you.
I think it's a birthday party.
You weren't invited, I wasn't.
Do you save them?
Yes, okay, and I'm biased.
I figured you'd have an answerfor that one, since you made a

(48:14):
comic out of exactly that thing,and I'm a bit biased, yeah,
since you made a comic out ofexactly that thing and I'm a bit
biased.

Speaker 14 (48:18):
Yeah, no, my personal, like person, me,
Brandon Strzok.
Yes, I won, All right.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
The APOC.
It's in full effect now.
You saved your family, kickedGreg Nicotero out of your boat.
You killed a bunch of13-year-olds.
I kept you alive, by the way.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, someone passes off twochildren to you under the age of
five.
You are now responsible forthem.
How do you cope with that?

(48:44):
How?

Speaker 14 (48:45):
do you handle it?
I mean, how do they pass themoff?
To me Is it just like?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
here they're yours, yeah, they're like watch my kids
and then they disappear.
Like now they're yours.
I'd probably be pissed.

Speaker 14 (48:56):
But then I'd have to .
I mean, they're kids, they'refive years old.
I'd be pissed that they're.
I mean, why am I going to watchyour kids?

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Good guy.
Brandon, I have a follow-up.
Would you treat them as muchlove as your own child?

Speaker 14 (49:08):
No, no, no, okay, maybe over years in time, if
they survive that long, but notimmediately.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Yeah, so there's zombies coming and you might
need to sacrifice one yeah, I'dlike to save my own kid.

Speaker 14 (49:23):
Yeah, yeah, in a heartbeat, love it.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
It's a, it's cruel, but reality, yeah, it gets my so
you have an opportunity to pullgreg nicotero back into the
canoe.
But you have to throw both kidsout of the boat, jeez.

Speaker 14 (49:37):
I don't even know if Greg would be okay with that
answer.
I think he would stillsacrifice himself.
I'm going to go off on a limbthere and think he would be okay
with me keeping him off thecanoe, even though, again, we
could be talking about a bunchof stuff Sailing away into the
sunset.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
I'll keep the two kids, unfortunately, because
then I, then I gotta watch themall.
Right, that's fair.
Well, thanks, thanks forstopping by, thanks for coming
here.
And let me on it.
Yeah, it was a pleasure to haveyou on the podcast once more
again, even for five minutescome to zombie ween 2025 we'll
see what happens all right younever know okay

Speaker 4 (50:14):
we'll see if my schedule does it this is george
from the pittsburgh goal order.
I'm everybody's favorite hordeclown zombie up here in
pittsburgh and I'm up here everyyear.
I've done this since 2018.
You know, just covering thewhole event.
You know, just makingmonroville mall even more famous
, making monroville,pennsylvania, more famous,

(50:35):
making the entire pittsburgh,pennsylvania more famous, making
the entire Pittsburgh regioneven more famous.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
I've got some questions, some situational
questions.
I don't know how this is goingto work out, because you're a
zombie.
Imagine that you're in thezombie apocalypse.
I guess you're a zombie.
So a little bit differentperspective.
Yeah, someone passes off twochildren to you that are under
five years old.
Now you're responsible for them.

(51:01):
How do you handle thatsituation?

Speaker 4 (51:05):
Don't throw it off on me, man.
It ain't my responsibility.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
So skirt responsibility.
Yeah, do you leave them in thelike?
Where do you leave them whenyou abandon them?

Speaker 4 (51:19):
Huh well, I don't know.
I don't have any kids, so Iwouldn't know.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Yeah, well, you know what I mean.
Dumpsters are kind of safe.
I think so before you became azombie.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
George remember being 13 years old.
Can you go back that far?
Can zombies remember the past?

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Not really.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
Okay, imagine you're 13 years old.
You're in English class in themiddle of the day, Wherever you
went to school at 13, and thezombie apocalypse breaks out.
What's the first thing you do?

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Oh, I remember when that happened.
That was an opportunity to justskip out and go home, when
they're all hiding under theirdesks.
I snuck out.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
I love that answer.
That is the best answer we'vegotten yes, they're all hiding
under their desks.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
They don't see what's going on.
I just snuck out, just go home.
I'm going home, man.

Speaker 7 (52:09):
What are you going to do when you get?

Speaker 2 (52:09):
home.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
I don't know, go to the mall, I guess.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Go to the Monroeville Mall, yeah, before it's Walmart
.
This is a better time, a betterera.
How do you feel about that?

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Walmart sucks.
I boycott.
I actually did an episode on myweb series.
It's just like a littlefive-minute video my buddy and I
did.
We were just telling peopledon't shop at Walmart If they
lose a lot of traction, lose alot of customers.
What do you think is going tohappen?

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I love that idea Just don't shop at Walmart ever, not
just at Monroeville Mall.
Just don't shop at Walmart.
Well, it's been a pleasurechatting with you, george.
Thanks for being on the podcastand thanks for doing a little
video of us, thank you.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
Nice to meet you.

Speaker 8 (52:52):
My name is Dan Soltes , local from Pittsburgh.
Just, I've loved the seriessince I was young.
My family's from around here,so I think, as a younger person,
just seeing, like being able toidentify a lot of locations I
think that was something alwaysvery cool when you're younger.
And then you just started tolearn to love the movies.
Beyond that, when you actuallystarted to watch, it was more

(53:14):
than just the places they wereat, that you recognized them.
I think, just a lot of thebackstories and the developments
during the movies you reallystarted to enjoy and just enjoy
the universe.
Which one was your favoritemovie, my favorite movie, my
favorite movie.
Um, I think the original dawnof the dead holds a close place
in my heart.
Um, I know some people woulddisagree with this because this

(53:37):
was the first zombie movie Iever saw.
Uh, the night living deadremake the 90 remake was the
first one I ever saw.
I picked it up as a kid atblockbuster.
It was just there.
I saw the cover, it lookedinteresting and that was like
the first zombie movie I eversaw and it's always held a dear
place in my heart.
After that I watched theoriginal and you see the

(53:58):
differences and I know I thinkNight 90, you know there are
some people that don't.
I think it's grown on.
Some people, oh, I love it.
Oh, I know I.
Some people, oh, I love it.
Oh, I know, I think there's alot you can appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Uh, barbara's character taking a different
path, kind of coming out on herown, you know you really do
appreciate that it's likebarbara's pretty

Speaker 8 (54:16):
useless.
In the first movie, yeah, youknow, she's almost like
catatonic the whole time until,like the very end, she kind of
comes out of it and this timeyou see, like I mean you want to
talk like character development, like she came from kind of
like a mousy school teacher type, like, um, you didn't like, I
think it's first, you kind ofthought is she going to take the
exact same path that 1968,barbara talking no, she

(54:42):
eventually learns to kind ofstand on her own and she kind of
ends up being a bigger fighterthan anybody.
I love the original best.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
But I will say clearly george romero got, got
some feminism in him between1968 and 1990.

Speaker 8 (54:57):
It was 90 it came out .

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Yeah, because he decided this is like a fully
fleshed out character and I lovethat arc and I think you see it
in the other movies, like dayof the dead.
There's a really awesome leadfemale character, so he
definitely corrected for thatfor the first one.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
It's the zombie apocalypse you've escaped by
canoe.

Speaker 8 (55:14):
Pick four people to bring with you.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Four people to bring with me, you get to save four
people in your canoe in my canoe.

Speaker 8 (55:25):
Um, that's a tough one.
That that's really like itwould have to be.
People I think you know andtrust, because you're getting
into situations with people.
They're going to be pretty madif you don't pick them.
I know right, and like I've haddiscussion with friends about
this.
Like years ago we had adiscussion like would we take
that?
And one friend got really madwhen we said he wouldn't make

(55:48):
our list.
But but his wife made our listbecause she was a nurse, so she
made our list.
But then he didn't.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
He was really pissed at us about it.
Well, you need somebody withthose skills.

Speaker 8 (56:00):
There's multiple levels you have to consider yeah
, I would probably have to sayof four people, I would say two
of my good friends.
Their names are Matt and Chris.
I think we are very similar inour like you have to do what you
have to do, you can't.
Like it's not a time to messaround.
Like there are situations comeup, like you have to address the

(56:23):
situation at hand.
You know you can't have.
Well, maybe this Like you haveto do what you got to do.
Yeah, you have to be verypragmatic, needs to be done.
So I would say the two of themand then I would probably have
to say, speaking about my friend, uh, my good friend nate.
He is a paramedic.
So yeah, and I know he is avery capable person, have your
support class, yeah and um,because I don't want to split up

(56:45):
their marriage.
My friend met his wife, hiswife Elizabeth, I would say I
think would also be very capable.
So I think the four of them Iwould probably take If any of my
friends hear this.
I'm sorry if you didn't makethe cut.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
I have some really bad news for you.
What I lied.
So there isn't enough room foreverybody.
Okay, who do you kick out ofthe canoe?
You have to kick one person outof the canoe.
This thing's not going to floatwith everybody in it, okay.

Speaker 8 (57:14):
Chris, I'm sorry we're going to miss you, but uh.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Oh, Chris Like.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Will Chris be willing to sacrifice himself, or is it
going to be a battle?

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Yeah, he did say that he knows that he needs to be
done battle.

Speaker 8 (57:28):
Yeah, you did say that he knows.
He knows that he's he would, hewould, he would sacrifice
himself.
Is he a strong swimmer?
I think he could make it to.
He would definitely be able tomake it to shore, okay.
But yeah, no, chris, I thinkhe's a no being that pragmatic
person now, I think if we toldhim it's done, like we'd say,
try to walk along the shore andstuff, maybe you can meet up
with us.
Yeah, meet up later.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Yeah when we can't get back in the canoe, so you'll
be walking again.

Speaker 8 (57:52):
You can meet up at the campsite you know, yeah,
just stay on the banks and keepon down river.
And yeah, we'll try to.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
We'll try to keep a warm spot next to the fire for
you catch up.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
I think you're the first person to actually have
hope that the person that getskicked out lives, and I want to
say that's very kind of you,kind of you, for.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Chris, we believe in you, chris.
Well, thanks for being a gueston our podcast.
No, absolutely Thank you.
Thank you.
You've been talking to Leah fora little while.
This is my first time talkingto you, because I was engaged in
a very lengthy discussion aboutmany things up until this point

(58:32):
.
So what is what's your?

Speaker 13 (58:32):
name?
What brings you to Living DeadWeekend?

Speaker 9 (58:35):
I'm CJ.
I brought I'm here because I'ma special effects artist and I
love horror, everything horror.
I also really wanted to meetGreg Nicotero.
I didn't get to meet him lastyear and I was like it's a must.
I didn't get to meet him lastyear and I was like it's a must.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, you showed us some of your work, and the hand
puppet is.

Speaker 9 (58:52):
it's upsetting to look at Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
I really try.
So do you have?
Do you have all this onlinethat people can come?

Speaker 9 (59:02):
and find yes, I do.
I'm CJ underscore SFX onInstagram.
I plug all of my stuff there.
I've got films that I've beenworking on.
I do commission work.
So if anyone needs anythingmakeup or a prop or anything let
me know.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
You want CJ to do it.
I just saw their wholeportfolio.
Their zombies are terrifyingand the puppet, which sounds
very friendly, will haunt yourdreams.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Yes, he will.
Inspired by the Thing.
The dog from the Thing, yeah,Kind of looks a little bit
chestburstery, Very.
Oh, what's the name of theartist on the Thing?
Oh?

Speaker 9 (59:42):
Rob Bottin.
Rob Bottin is the artist andthen like very Cronenberg-esque.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Yeah, I was looking for Cronenberg.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
Very.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Cronenbergian type of nightmare creature.
So we have some questions.
I'm going to ask you the mostuncomfortable question.
All right, let's do it.
This is definitely anuncomfortable question for me.
I don't like this questionpersonally because I don't have
good answers for it.
So fair, okay, zombieapocalypse we're in full effect
right now.
Me.
I don't like this questionpersonally because I don't have
good answers for it.
So fair, okay, zombieapocalypse we're in full effect
right now.
Okay, you're in full swing.
All right, somebody has passedoff two children to you.

(01:00:17):
They're under the age of five.
Yeah, you are now responsiblefor these children.
They left, they just ditchedyou.
Okay, they're like can youwatch my kids for five seconds?
I'm going over there, and thenit's like five hours later,
you're like, are they evercoming back?
And the answer is no.
The answer is no, okay, how doyou manage this situation?

Speaker 9 (01:00:40):
so I think it would be a fair bit of panic at first.
I'd be like I don't know how todeal with children.
I think I would be.
I would like put them in like acorner for a minute and be like
all right, let me figure thisshit out.
You're going to put them in thecorner?
Yeah, you know like I'll putthem like in a cabinet or

(01:01:02):
something.
Oh no, and then figuresomething out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
They would definitely .
Are we locking the cabinet?
I think you're going to have to.

Speaker 7 (01:01:10):
I have to lock it.

Speaker 9 (01:01:11):
Are you going to leave them with?

Speaker 7 (01:01:12):
anything Sure.

Speaker 9 (01:01:15):
Okay, I think that's cool.
Yeah, I probably wouldn't have,but if they, they could have
been like, oh yeah, can I havesomething?
And I'd be like, oh yeah, kidsneed stuff.
Right, yeah, they need likefood and stuff.
I would put them in there andthen I would find like a leash
and put them on the leash.

Speaker 13 (01:01:33):
A leash.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
And have them leashed to me.
You know what?
I don't know if Courtney'sbooks include leashes, but we
should talk to her about leashes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Yeah, I think that that's really good.
This is the moment where I tellyou my mother used a leash on
me as a child, and I think thatthat's really good.
This is the moment where I tellyou that my mother used a leash
on me as a child and it worked.
I didn't run away anymore.
I didn't know you were a leashkid.

Speaker 9 (01:01:55):
I had a friend.
They were a leash kid.
They would promptly likeunleash themselves and like run
away.
God no.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Oh well, thank you for being a guest on on our
podcast.

Speaker 9 (01:02:09):
Thank you so much thanks for stopping by.

Speaker 13 (01:02:11):
Thanks for showing us your gruesome upsetting
artwork yeah, no, thank you forlooking anytime, thank you,
thank you guys so much my nameis john, I'm from new Jersey and
I came to the Living Deadweekend because as soon as I saw
Dawn of the Dead, I fell inlove with the zombie genre.

(01:02:35):
Then I watched Night of theLiving Dead, day of the Dead,
and just appreciated all of thesocial commentary in the movies.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
I it's just created an insatiable itch for great
quality zombie movies since yeah, I think dawn of the dead is
like a really great uh segue fora lot of people, because
there's so much just on thesurface that's fun that even if
you don't see all the subtextbelow it, you can get hooked

(01:03:05):
that way and then you know laterin life, when your brain grows
to twice its size, you can watchit again and be like whoa, hold
on.

Speaker 13 (01:03:15):
There's more story here that I didn't see before
yeah, more than just a uh, goofy, um, what is it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
arm cuff gag yeah yeah, yeah, the arm cuff one
yeah, the Armcuff one is one ofmy favorite and most infuriating
deaths in that movie.

Speaker 13 (01:03:31):
Why is it infuriating?
Because it's the stupidestthing to do.
I thought it was just a greatlittle bit of levity throughout
all this seriousness.
I just appreciated itsgoofiness.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
I think it is realistic, though, and I just
appreciated its goofiness.
I think it is realistic though,like if you're one of these Mad
Max bikers out on the roadraiding, like, those moments of
levity are what you have to doto keep your mind together.
So he probably did it to makehis friends laugh, yeah, and
then he died, which is how somany people die.

Speaker 13 (01:04:03):
It's trying to make their friends laugh, yeah trying
to do things that you thinkother people want.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Yeah, we have some questions we have a teacher here
, an English teacher.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
So I actually think we have a very important one and
you're also reading ElementaryUndead by Alice B Sullivan right
now, right, yes, so I think weshould start with that question
Okay yeah, I'm going to modifythis question a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Yes, you're an English class.
Okay, yeah, I'm going to modifythis question a little bit.

Speaker 13 (01:04:30):
Yes, you're an English class.
Try to imagine that when thezombie apocalypse breaks out,
what age are your students?
Usually High school, so I havejuniors and freshmen, so they're
mostly like 16, 17.
Okay Well, due to a horrible,horrible accident.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
You're stuck with 13-year-olds oh my God.
So you're now a middle schooluh, english teacher.
I'm sorry, it's just.
You know, the school made adecision and that's just how
it's going to be.
Now, however, in this horribleday where you're at a middle
school english teacher with 13year olds, the zombie apocalypse

(01:05:05):
breaks out such a bummer.
How are you going to managethat situation?

Speaker 13 (01:05:12):
Poorly, because I was a middle school English
teacher for eight months.
It was a maternity leave.
It was the worst eight monthsof my teaching career.
Swore off middle school afterthat, so I don't know how I
would handle it.
Um, I guess I would try to getthem to safety because even

(01:05:35):
though they drove me insane, Istill loved them and cared about
them.
Uh, I would.
I don't know, god I have, yeah,I have no idea.
Like, should I?
Um, am I supposed to be gettingthem somewhere or getting them
to their parents?
I don't know, you're the adult.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
Yeah, you have to make the decision.
What are you going to do?
You know, actually, we've got agood recommendation for you
Days Worth.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Living by Erica and Rowan.
They have an online free comic.
That is exactly this scenario.
Okay, except they're on a fieldtrip.
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
They have an online free comic.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
That is exactly this scenario, okay, except they're
on a field trip.
Wow, they're on a field trip tothe zoo.
Yeah, they go to the zoo andthe apocalypse breaks out, and
then they gotta figure out whatthey're gonna do.
So if you're looking forrecommendations for this
scenario, I don't know that.

Speaker 16 (01:06:23):
I would recommend what the teacher does in the
comic.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Well it's also 2005, so he can't text the parents in
the school to see what you'resupposed to do so.
They kind of just they're likewe're on a field trip and we're
going to try to get these kidshome and then when they realize,
that's a bad idea, that's likewe are the caregivers of these
kids now and they live on aschool bus with us.

Speaker 13 (01:06:47):
Oh my God, Like Lord of the flies, wow, just okay, I
was gonna say I.
I realized I would probably tryto get them to the bus and then
try to get them drop them offto their parents, because I
don't want to take care of allthose kids.
You don't want to takeresponsibility you go to the
first house.

Speaker 10 (01:07:04):
The parents aren't there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
You go to the first house, the, parents aren't there
, it's full chaos Next house,All the kids.
They start saying but what ifmy parents are dead too?

Speaker 13 (01:07:15):
Oh my God, I have no idea.
I don't want to say I wouldleave, but I don't know what I
would do.
This is what makes it acompelling story?

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Yeah, because, as adults, with our own things
going on, and especially sinceit's your job and you want to
get away from work when the jobday is over, you want to get rid
of that responsibility in thiscrisis and also do the right
thing, which is get them home.

Speaker 13 (01:07:42):
But if you can't do that, how big is your class
Right now?
I mean, my biggest class islike 17.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
you just adopted 17 13 year olds.
Oh my god true nightmare.

Speaker 13 (01:07:56):
This is, this is a.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
This is a series this is netflix right now, like,
yeah, you've got multipleseasons lined up for what you're
in store for that's having tolisten to a lot of skibbity
toilets and a lot of Rizzlers.

Speaker 13 (01:08:12):
That's too much, oh my God yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
You're right.
Yeah, you should just dump themsomewhere.

Speaker 13 (01:08:18):
Uh yeah, I'll drop them off at the local pizzeria
or something like that, maybethe first, the first parents you
find.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Well, you can just trick them into it and be like
they're just going to stay herefor a little while with a
responsible adult, yeah, andthen you take off in the school
bus.
Well, thank you for being aguest on our podcast.
Hopefully the school neverhears this.
Yes, hopefully.

Speaker 13 (01:08:47):
You don't have to have any awkward conversations,
you can delete my last name inpost.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
I can, if you want me to.
Sure, okay, I'll remember that,dan, in the future.
Delete the last name, okay,thank you.
You're doing a great job, bythe way.
Keep up the editing, all right,thank you very much Thank you.

Speaker 15 (01:09:07):
My name is Mark Sino .
I'm a Bram Stoker Awardfinalist, an Amazon bestseller,
a multiple award-winningscreenwriter.
What brought me here is, Iguess, what brought everybody
here just our love for GeorgeRomero and for everything he
created.
You know, I've never been tothe Monroeville Mall before,
never been to really.

(01:09:28):
You know, I've never been tothe monroville mall before,
never been to really pittsburghbefore.
Yeah, so, uh, when I had achance to uh to come, I, you
know, I was invited by my friendand his dad and I said you know
what it's a life, once in alifetime opportunity possibly?
So, uh, yeah, so we drove on uphere and that's that's why
we're here.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Yeah, I've only been to pittsburgh one other time and
it was at a bus station and Idon't recommend it oh well, I
hear the bus stations are nice,but yeah, no, no they lied to
you terrible time.
It was.
Well, it was a.
It was a greyhound station,yeah, um, I'd like to ask you a
hypothetical question.
Okay, the zombie apocalypse ithappens.

(01:10:02):
I wish it does.
You're in it right now?
Awesome, your entire family hasgone out to dinner.
This is pre pre outbreak.

Speaker 15 (01:10:13):
They're not going after the I'm.
I should specify, right,they're not a roving band of
cannibals going out for dinner,gotcha, they go out to dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
Yeah, uh, they're celebrating something.
Thing is, they didn't inviteyou.
You're.
You're the only member likeyour extended family, is there?
God?
Even the uncle you really don'tlike, right?
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (01:10:35):
you know the one, yeah, the one that took those
pictures in the basement,exactly that they invited him,
him, I thought he was shunned.
What did I do?

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
um, anyway, so they go without you even include your
uncle.
The outbreak happens, Do you goto save them?

Speaker 15 (01:10:54):
All right.
Well, there's a few schools ofthought here.
Am I in like a major city, orare we kind of like in a suburb?
Are we in a rural area?
Where would your family go toeat to celebrate something
without you?
My family's kind of highfalutinso would be, uh, downtown
somewhere, to probably a ritzyrestaurant, in which case if
they didn't invite me um, youknow, I have a very, very great

(01:11:18):
relationship with my entirefamily, so how do they more
apparently, no, no, in thishypothetical, I would think I'd
probably have expected it andbeen like you know what.
It's easier now to survive on myown than have these freeloaders
that I'm going to have to killand probably eat to survive.
I understand that entirely.
My plan is zombie outbreakhappens.
I know what's happening.

(01:11:38):
I go up to the attic and Icreate my little safe space in
the attic with water, food and Ihide there Because I figure
everything's going to be chaoticcraziness for the first couple
weeks.
Then, when things die down,literally, I'll come and Stop by
the restaurant.
I'll probably die quickly, butyeah, see how they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
Let me stop by the restaurant See how they're
managing down at the restaurant.
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:12:03):
How was today's special?

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Yeah, go see the bloodbath that has occurred
right as they barricaded therestaurant, and now we're
fighting each other for the lastscraps in the freezer right
they chose poorly.

Speaker 15 (01:12:16):
Yeah, should have invited, is it?

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
a?
Is it a?
Is it a storage for their food,or is it a bathroom?
Now, we don't know.
We don't know.
You told me I talked to you alittle bit before and you are a
writer, yes, and I wasimmediately fascinated by the
project that you have going on.
Do you want to tell us a littlebit?

Speaker 15 (01:12:37):
about that?
Yeah, sure.
So I have a book called theCadaver Chronicles and it is all
my collected zombie fictionthat's been published in uh in
magazines and in um anthologies.
Uh, even have a story that gotpublished in a uh, a textbook in
denmark, which is one of theweirdest things that ever
happened to me.
Really quick side story I gotan email from this giant

(01:13:01):
publishing company in denmarksaying, hey, we found this story
and we'd like to buy the rightsto put it into a, a book to
teach children how to learnenglish using vampires, zombies
and werewolves the dream.
And I said, cool, okay, thatsounds like a scam.
And they're like can we have it?
And I'm like sure you can haveit, send me a contract.
They're like we don't need acontract, it's a reprint, just

(01:13:22):
give us your email and we'llsend you a PayPal money when it
comes out.
Sounds like even more of a scam.
And I'm like, well, you knowwhat?
It's just my email, so whocares?
They can't break into anythingwith just my email.
So I gave them my email and Idude, I'm telling you like six
months a year happened.
It went by, nothing happened.
Suddenly, my phone goes off ayear later, cha-ching, I got

(01:13:44):
like a $500 payment, came out ofnowhere and then the literally
next day I have this beautiful,full-colored textbook that has
me, anne Rice, stephen King,robert Kirkman every named
person and me and dude, I stilldon't know how they found this

(01:14:04):
story, this random story.
I wrote that was in this randomanthology and said you know
what?
That's the one we're putting inthere.
Somebody was clearly a fan, soI had to translate this shit
because I wanted to make surethis wasn't like hey guys,
here's how not to write English,but yeah, so that was one of
the wildest things.
Anyway, cadaver Chronicles has ashort story of mine called the

(01:14:27):
Glass Coffin.
It's a story I wrote a whileback about a man who gets
trapped in a glass elevator inhis condominium and the power
goes out, a zombie outbreakhappens and he has to watch it
all unfold as it's happening.
And I was having lunch with afriend of mine who's a director.
He's a huge zombie fan and Ipitched him and I said, hey,

(01:14:49):
look, man, man, I've alwayswanted to make a zombie movie.
I know you want to make azombie movie.
Can we make a zombie movie?
And he's like I was like I havea story.
It's like a one shot, one setlocation kind of thing.
I think we can do it.
He goes yep, let me read it.
He read it, he liked it.
I wrote the screenplay, hepurchased it and then it it was.
We were off and running fromthere and it was absolutely

(01:15:11):
amazing.
So the name of the movie isalso the Glass Coffin.
It is currently inpost-production.
It is set to probably bereleased in the next couple of
weeks, where it's going to go ona film festival tour.
We'll have a couple ofpremieres.
I'm from Louisiana, so we'llhave a few premieres in
Louisiana and then from therewe're hoping to use it to pitch

(01:15:33):
to other major studios.
Let us make you an X-Greatzombie movie.
That's the hope.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
When you told me about this premise, it both
sounds like the worst situation.
I want to be in the zombieapocalypse, being trapped in an
elevator but a glass elevatorprobably infinitely better than
being stuck in a normal elevatorand even worse like a really
rickety freight elevator you cansee it all just unfold in front

(01:16:01):
of you.

Speaker 15 (01:16:05):
It's funny because I wrote it and I love horror of
all.
I love all the sub genres ofhorror.
I like my horror funny.
I like my horror to fuckingdisturb me.
I like it all and.
But sometimes, man, I just wantto get like I want to watch
really, really bad people havebad stuff happen to them and I
don't really want to feelanything good, I just want to.

(01:16:26):
Yeah, so you really have sometragic characters that a lot of
bad things happen to them, butit's really funny.
So I wrote the screenplay, Igave it to my friend, he read it
, he liked it, he gave it to hisinterns.
His interns were, they lined itout to see what props they
needed to buy.
They lined out the scenes andI'm on the phone, we have a

(01:16:47):
conference call with the internsand the interns read the whole
thing and they go.
You know, there's this onething, Mark.
They're like it's really notthat funny for being a comedy
and I went it's not a comedy.
And they're like, well, there'sone part where the guy screams.
We kind of thought that wasfunny and I'm like, well, it
might be funny, but it's not acomedy.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
They were experiencing dark humor for the
first time.
They were kids.

Speaker 15 (01:17:10):
They were these interns from LSU, from Louisiana
State, from the film department, and the youths, as I call them
.
But yeah, that's coming out,hopefully soon, and from there
I'm still churning out books andstill doing projects.
That's amazing.
I have an anthology that justcame out.
It's called Gabagool G-H-O-U-L.

(01:17:32):
It's an Italian mafia horroranthology and very soon I have a
person this is through my press, october Nights Press we're
doing a dark, cryptid andfolklore anthology that
someone's editing that's goingto be coming out in the near
future.
All right, so yeah, stayingbusy creating.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Well, thanks for being an interviewee on the
podcast.

Speaker 15 (01:17:59):
No, thank you for having me and I'm so glad I
walked around and ran into y'alland met y'all and I'm going to
subscribe and listen to y'alland I love it, thank you.
I finding, uh, like-mindedzombie fans.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
yeah, I mean, that's why we made this I'm aaron and I
came because of my friend and,uh, he told me about live and
dead weekend and it was my firsttime ever coming here.
And I'm you know, I'm a horrormovie buff.
You know you're, uh, you're afilmmaker right well, kind of
I'm not really a filmmaker, Ijust I'm behind this, the you
know behind the scenes and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
Yeah, I've been behind the scenes as well, but I
did do like one film.

Speaker 5 (01:18:34):
It was called Dating Slump.
That was the only film I'veever did but it took a lot of
work just for but it wasn'treally well known, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Yeah, I get that.
So we have some questions Hyp.
So we have some questions,hypothetical questions.
Sure, go for it.
That I'd like to ask you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
This is based on Steve Urena's comic called
Zombie Date Night.
You're on a date.
It's a blind date.
It's going really badly.
You are failing on this date.
Okay, just ruining it, she'sall right, she's not that much
better.
Or he just ruining it, she'salright, she's not that much
better.
Or he, and the zombieapocalypse breaks out in the

(01:19:13):
middle of the movie that you'rewatching.
What do you do?
Do you try and save her too, ordo you just save yourself?

Speaker 5 (01:19:20):
See, that would be a quick decision I would have to
make to do.
What would I do in that case?
I'd probably have to just thinkabout it for a second.
Like well, I don't have time tothink about it, what am I going
to do?
But if it's a girl I reallylove and that I know, I will
never?

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
see again you just met her and you yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:19:35):
I just met her.
Blind date it's not going well,I'd probably be like not worth
it.
I'm getting out of here, youknow.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
We appreciate the honesty, aaron.
Aaron, can we give you one morequestion?
Sure, completely different.
The Apocalypse Kicks Off.
This is based on Avalon comicseries.
The Apocalypse Kicks Off.
It's just starting.
Your family is out to dinnerEveryone you know in your family
.
It's a whole reunion.
They're out to dinner.
They didn't invite you, aaron,I'm not sure why you might have

(01:20:04):
ideas based on your family, Idon't know.
Do you save them, do you gohelp them, or do you just worry
about yourself?
In that moment?
What do you do?

Speaker 5 (01:20:11):
And this is my close family I'm talking about.
They don't invite me, and I gotupset by it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:15):
It's like a full-on family.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Yeah, like they forgot or they didn't invite you
on purpose.

Speaker 5 (01:20:21):
Oh my God, In this case I would let that go,
because I'm gonna try not totake it personally, you know so
you'd go save them.
I'll go save them what a niceguy.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
So if you are loved by Aaron, you're good.
If you're a stranger fuck off.

Speaker 7 (01:20:36):
If you're a stranger fuck off or you know what else.

Speaker 5 (01:20:39):
If you're, let's say, if it's someone I don't care
about, they're out of here, youknow?
Yeah, okay, yeah alright.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Well, thank you for being a guest on our podcast.
Thanks for interviewing me.
Where can people find you?
Do you want people to find yousomewhere on the internet?
You can find me for ToddWolfson.
I'm Aaron Shaw.
Alright, we'll talk to him next.

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Yeah, alright thanks for having me on your podcast on
the zombie book club that's us.
My name is Todd Killer Wolfson.
I am an independent filmmakerfrom Pittsburgh, pa, and I'm
putting out my first featurefilm called Bat Shit, which is a
fun horror comedy.
I feel like Evil Dead, timBurton I can think of a million

(01:21:18):
other things but basically Ifeel like independent dark humor
and a bunch of crazy stuff likezombies and killer cherry pies
and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
Yeah, okay, when you were talking to us earlier,
there's singing zombies.
Yes, that's possibly thescariest thing I've ever heard.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
So, basically, not to give everything away.
Give it away.
Give it away.
Now the story's about.
The main character played byJerry Paitrola is Felix Darby,
and Felix is basicallyprescribed this medication that
makes him hallucinate and he'sin a dreamy, nightmare world
where anything goes from singingzombies to killer cherry pies.

(01:21:59):
He's about to eat the cherrypie it's.
It comes to life and tries tokill him and so, like, anything
goes.
He has a sidekick named Devwho's a little animated bat and
it's a fun, you know, horrorcomedy.
That's got everything in it andwe have every type of animation
style I could think of, from8-bit animation to 2D, 3d,
claymation.

(01:22:20):
I keep going, like I try to do.
I try to go just like the titleBatch it as, batch it crazy as
I could with it, but it's like.
But it's like also for, like,the weirdos and just the people
like that love zombies andhorror genre and all kind of
crazy stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
Well, we're going to put you in your own horror story
right now.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
Uh-oh, zombie apocalypse.
It's been going on a littlewhile, it sure has.
We'll say this is like dawn,dawn of the dead era.
Okay, you know you've theyexist, you know about them
you're dealing with.
It thing is, somebody haspassed off, uh, two children to
you, uh-oh, under the age offive.

(01:23:00):
Um, yeah, they're just like.
Hey, can you watch my kids?
Real quick, I gotta go to thebathroom.

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
So do.
Do I eat them like Donner Party?
Well, that's a question or do Isell them to the black market?

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
I mean these are options.
So I mean you're responsiblefor them now, because they
didn't come back from thebathroom.
They said they'd be gone likefive minutes.
They're not coming back.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
So like I'm like their father, like like I'm the
one who's looking out for themand I already created like a
relationship with them, that Icare about them, like have I
known them for a long time, youmight have.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
I mean, you've been waiting for their parents to
come back and they haven't youonly known them since you got
randomly foisted.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
They were like foisted on you okay, see, that's
a big factor, like it's azombie apocalypse.

Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
I gotta go find my sister.
She's in danger.
Can you look after my kids forfive minutes?

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
okay that's a week later all right, that's the
asshole when saying that I Iwill say, since, like you know,
if you're really in a world of azombie apocalypse and you're,
you're in survival mode andyou're protecting two little
kids, like you have to take careof them, just like they're
yours.
So I would do my everything inmy power to go find them, take,

(01:24:08):
you know, and protect them andfight off the zombies like the
best.
Don't be a punk ass bitch likeRick in Walking Dead.
Okay, step it up, grab whateverweapon you can find.
Well, I mean later in theseasons, he basically just went
off and never came back.

(01:24:28):
And he basically just went offand never came back.
Yeah, and he also like just letlike freaking.
Uh, what's her name?
Um, what's the?
Uh?
michonne, yeah, michonne, likepretty much was just left to
take care of the kids now yeah,like if you don't think about
like that's what happened, likewhere's rick at, he was our
fearless leader and then he justdisappears, I mean to be fair,

(01:24:50):
he got pretty messed up.

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
He was on a bridge that exploded.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
I feel like that's a good excuse, but anyways, but I
guess we're going on a tangent,yeah this is a tangent, I guess
it's because, like, I don'tremember all that, I just
remember him just disappearingand I'm'm like what happened to?

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
rick.
Yeah, like he was theirfearless leader.
He was stabbed through thekidney.

Speaker 3 (01:25:12):
The bridge blew up it was oh okay, 86, that I didn't
say anything.
Yeah, let's start over.
I mean, you can?

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
let's criticize rick.
No, you know what?
I'm glad because I thought youwere really gonna sell these
kids into the black market.
It seems like.
It seems like, deep down,you're a good guy with some dark
humor.
Yeah, you probably told themthat you were going to sell them
to the black market.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
I don't fuck with them.
I mess with them, I woulddefinitely mess with them, but
at the end of the day I'm likethat.
I'm not going to be like Negan,but I kind of you know, I find
humor in like Negan, but not inthe way that I would Well Negan
would take care of those kids.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Yeah, he's got a soft spot.

Speaker 3 (01:25:54):
Right, which is crazy , because he killed, like what?
What's the Chinese dude, glennGlenn?
They killed him like, right infront of everyone and like, but
it just shows, I guess, thedimensions of Negan, like his
character, which is cool.
Like, as a writer I do respectthat that they made what an

(01:26:14):
anti-hero, basically, so that'scool.

Speaker 1 (01:26:17):
It's a serious anti-hero.
Yeah, no, I would not.
He's also like ananti-everything.

Speaker 3 (01:26:22):
Yeah, almost hard to call him a hero sometimes Lucy
he's got Lucy, yeah, like rah.
Hard to call him a herosometimes lucy he's got lucy,
yeah, like.
But yeah, I love, I, I wouldnot, no, I would, I would, I
would take care of the kids.
That that's my final answer.
Jeopardy, all right thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
Thanks for being a guest on our podcast.
Thank you for having me, man.
Where can people find you ifthey, if they want to check out
your movie?

Speaker 3 (01:26:43):
everything is on just buried entertainment dot com or
on our youtube, just BuriedEntertainment.
All right, you'll find us.
Batch is coming this October.
I won't say what date, but it'scoming October.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
Sometime in October.

Speaker 4 (01:26:55):
Sometime in October.
Thanks for having me, man,thank you Appreciate it, partner
, all right.

Speaker 10 (01:27:02):
My name's Courtney Constantine and I am a zombie
post-apoc writer, and so I cameall the way out to Pittsburgh to
hawk my wares, basically topeople that love zombies.

Speaker 1 (01:27:13):
How's it been going on your side of the booth?

Speaker 10 (01:27:17):
the room Pretty good .
I mean, it's really fun to talkto people that actually like
the genre.
Usually, at book events andstuff, people are not exactly
looking for zombie books, sothis has been kind of exciting
to actually talk to people thatdo like zombies yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
You know, we found the same thing with podcasts.
They're not always looking fora podcast and they don't even
realize it until we're talkingto them, and then they're like
oh, that's interesting now.
So I feel like it's a similarsituation.
Yeah, you're like I wrote abook.
You're like oh, I've heard ofthose.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
Yeah, those things that you read, I'm stealing the
mic to say that Courtney's beinghumble and sold out of books.
Four, five, no five, six andseven, right no four, five and
six, four, five and six of theSundown series.
Clearly, if you haven't of thefirst, I did.

Speaker 10 (01:28:09):
So because I was coming across the country, I had
to make some choices on what Iwas going to bring and I really
did think that just the firstbook would sell the most, so I
only brought five of the rest ofthem.
So I had five people buy theentire set who never even heard
of me and I was like, oh okay, Ijust didn't expect that to
happen.
I'm almost out of the the restof the series too, which is

(01:28:29):
pretty exciting, yeah next timeyou gotta, you gotta, ship some
ahead to us, truck that youcould I know?
I, yeah, if they do this again,which I totally hope they do, I
will ship books instead, becausethis, this was crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:28:42):
So um, I have a question for you.
Okay, a hypothetical question.
So it's the zombie apocalypse.
Okay, you may be familiar withthe concept.
Yeah, I've heard of those.
You're lucky enough to escapein a canoe.
Oh, my God, you get to pickfour people to bring with you.

Speaker 10 (01:29:00):
Oh, don't do that.
Who do you pick, like?
So I have to immediately say myfamily, right?
Because if I don't say that andthey hear this, I'm in a lot of
trouble.
Which members of your family?
You can only pick four.
Well, I only have four others,like my three kids and then my
husband, right?
So I would have to say them.
Isn't that required?

Speaker 7 (01:29:16):
Okay, it's not required.
Brandon has a wife and kid andincluded Greg, nicotero and me
and Dan, but I think it's niceof you to care about your family
.

Speaker 10 (01:29:27):
I'm going to say that first, because my two
oldest are old enough to havefound a podcast that I'm on and
they will listen to it, and Iwill never hear the end of it.
However, if we're actuallytalking about people that are
somewhat prepared, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:29:43):
Okay, who do you want to bring?
I mean, I guess this is part ofthe process.
Well it's.
Who do you want to bring?
I mean, I guess this is part ofthe process, right?
Are you going to prioritizeyour survival or the safety of
your family?

Speaker 10 (01:29:54):
I mean, oh see, that's messed up.
Now we're just having a wholeproblem Because, yeah, if I was
to bring my family, my kids are,I mean, you know, 20, 16, and
14, they're somewhat capable,but they probably would make
sure I died.
I mean, I would probably, wewould probably drown, is really
what would happen.

Speaker 1 (01:30:11):
Forget the zombies, we would drown, yeah I mean, I'm
familiar with babysitter of theapocalypse, so I know that
they're not exactly an asset.
No, no, I mean at that age theycan be maybe.
But yeah, it's one of those,let's see kind of yeah, it's a
gamble.

Speaker 10 (01:30:26):
I think now you're making me think I need to teach
my kids how to garden and I needto make sure someone knows how
to work with leather.
They have youthful energy andathleticism on their side.
That is true.
I will make them row.
I can tell you that they willbe rowing because that would be
exhausting.
So keep all this in mind.

Speaker 1 (01:30:43):
I have terrible news for you, oh no.
Terrible news for you, oh no.
There actually isn't room forfour people.
You have you.
You promised this to fourpeople.
You have to kick someone out ofthe canoe or else that thing is
sinking my husband.

Speaker 10 (01:30:58):
Yeah, sorry, I mean not to be honey, I love you, um,
but he would want me to takeher kids, okay you know what?

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
I thought this was going to be a harder question
for you, but sorry, it'spragmatic it makes sense.

Speaker 10 (01:31:11):
I mean, I write moms with kids for a reason it's.
It is what it was.
What sent me down that roadwhen I first started writing
back in 2016 was the idea ofwhat I would do because I have
kids.
Yeah, you gotta take care ofthose kids.
I mean, they are my spawn.
I mean, what am I supposed todo?
Sorry, hubby.
Yeah, I mean he would mostlikely just want to give up

(01:31:32):
anyways.
He's like this sucks, I'm outLike.
So I don't blame him Stealingthe mic again because I'm
sitting.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
I don't want to stand anymore To say I love you, dan,
but I'd pick our two dogs.

Speaker 10 (01:31:43):
That was harsh.
Thanks, but there's room forthree Leah, You're still kicking
me out.
Well, she needs space for thedog food, so I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
I get it.

Speaker 10 (01:31:57):
Luckily I am a pretty strong swimmer so He'll
just hold on to the side asyou're rowing.

Speaker 1 (01:32:03):
Yeah, well, thanks for being a guest for the last
couple minutes.
Yeah, no problem.
Where can people find you?

Speaker 10 (01:32:10):
I am on Amazon and Audible and the Sundown series
you may even be able to findthrough your Hoopla or Libby
apps on the library and onSpotify.
All right, well, thank you.
Thank you very much forstopping by.
Yeah, no problem, thank you.

Speaker 16 (01:32:25):
Hello everybody.
My name is Regina Lynn Winters.
Hello everybody, my name isregina lynn winters.
I am a special effects makeupartist who is currently a
student at the tom saviniprogram at the douglas education
center down in manassas, and Ihave got to say that this
program has really skyrocketedmy special effects makeup

(01:32:47):
techniques.
But there's a little secrethere that I am willing to share
with the whole world.
I am actually a transgenderdrag artist and I do the art of
glamour and monster art, alongwith a little bit of my special
effects makeup into it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:05):
My drag name is Disruptia Heart, and for those
of you that don't know how tospell that name, it's
D-I-S-R-U-P-T-I-A and Heart isspelled exactly how it sounds
H-E-A-R-T, and we will have itin the show notes so that you

(01:33:27):
can make sure, if you can'tspell, it'll be in the show
notes so that you can make sure,if you still you can't spell,
it'll be in the show notes foryou to copy paste.
Yeah, so you can find.
Disrupt your heart possiblyjust click.

Speaker 16 (01:33:35):
Well, there's also a little bit of backstory here.
I started off drag as just aregular artist and Since the
Boulay brothers from dragulacame up with their show to
showcase drag art with specialeffects, makeup and horror films

(01:33:57):
and stuff like that, they'vereally taken the nitty-gritty of
how, how the horror themeindustry is incorporated with
drag and, like you know, you canbe trans, you can be a drag
king, you can be whatever youwant to be, as long as it's drag
art.
Drag is art and art issubjective.

(01:34:19):
As drac morta says, my biggestgoal is to actually end up on
their show and win.
I'm in my third semester at theTom Savini School, like I told
you guys, so take a look at myInstagram account and give it a
follow.
I am constantly working on newprojects, so you guys will see

(01:34:44):
daily posts, weekly posts aswell and hopefully, hopefully,
in the future you'll see a lotof stuff that I'm gonna get to
work on.
There's a lot of things thatare under wraps, not just for my
drag, but for my specialeffects as well.

(01:35:05):
I'm here at the Living Deadconvention to actually
experience it for the first timeof my life Any type of horror
convention I highly recommend,if you are a horror-themed
fanatic or a horror movie buff,to actually go and get your

(01:35:27):
roots, your roots wetted.
Go, have fun.
You know?
Um, they told me that you couldactually dress up for these
conventions and zombie makeupand stuff like that.
I didn't know that at first,but I will be the first one to
say make sure you come withmakeup on.

Speaker 2 (01:35:47):
To say make sure you come with makeup on, do it up,
live life to the fullest andhave a great time because you
don't know when you're gonnahave another chance to do this,
yeah, or you don't know when thenext one will be, sometimes
like right now, with the mallbeing purchased so exactly we've
got some hypothetical questionsfor you.

(01:36:07):
okay, question for you of whatyou would do in the apocalypse.
It's in full effect.
This woman comes up to you andshe's got two kids under the age
of five and she says I'm goingto rescue my brother.
Can you look after them forfive minutes?
She doesn't wait for you toanswer, she leaves them with you
.
It's a week later.

Speaker 16 (01:36:27):
What do you do, I would take them under my wing
and we start our own damnkingdom.
We start our own following inthe apocalypse.
In fact, we get bitten and turninto zombies ourselves.
Yeah and honey, I'm gonna sayright now, I would be queen of
the zombie empire and I wouldmake sure that those kids find

(01:36:48):
their mother and bite herBecause that neglect, that
neglect reminded me of my father.
I'm sorry, I'm not sorry.
He was a bastard and I'm in abetter place because of it.
We use our art and our I want tosay memories or what we've gone

(01:37:11):
through, and we combine themand we put them into a
performance level like no other.
Drag is full of pain, a lot ofmemories, and when I perform, I
like to convey such powerfulmessages that people are not

(01:37:31):
alone.
And really, with my answer,it's a sense of community,
because I'm queen of the zombies, honey, or I'm queen of
whatever, queen of whatever, andI'm willing to welcome people
into my community as long asthey don't hurt people, neglect

(01:37:53):
people, abandon people or hurtanimals.
Those are my rules and I wantyou all to take a lesson from
this that if you are in pain,going through what we go through
in the world right now.
It's okay, we will get throughthis and we will prevail,
because I am a transgender womanand I've been through a lot of

(01:38:16):
pain in my life, a lot ofsacrifice, a lot of losing
people, and I put that back intomy art.
You just got to stay strong.
You got to stay powerful andwhen you feel like you don't
have anything, and if you're anartist, use your art to build
yourself up, because that is theone thing that will never let

(01:38:39):
you down.
It will take you places thatyou deserve to be and it will
also allow you to fight forthose who can't fight for
themselves.
Because I have done that.
I have fought for the peoplethat can't have a voice or the

(01:38:59):
people that are too afraid.
I'm here to say take your time,love yourself, nurture yourself
and become one with yourcommunity.
Don't fight amongst each other.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
Disrupt your heart.
You disrupted my heart rightnow.

Speaker 16 (01:39:14):
Good.
It's a positive message.
I'm here to make your dayreally disruptive in every
single good and nurturing way.
I may be Rita Rapalza's sisterthat has come back to destroy
the Power Rangers, but don'tforget my lovelies.

(01:39:35):
I'm here to disrupt your day inevery single good and magical,
and bloody and competitive way.
Thank you.
Ask me another question I gotmore we adore you.

Speaker 2 (01:39:48):
I mean you instantly.
I got more we adore you.
I mean you instantly connectwith people.
I felt connected to you becauseof how vulnerable you were
immediately, and so I appreciateyour courage, Because
vulnerability is the mostcourageous thing you can do.

Speaker 16 (01:39:59):
The reason why I do that is because I went through
my transition alone.
I didn't really have a lot ofpeople to back me up and I lost
my family.
I had to make my own family.
My best friend his name is Pete.

(01:40:21):
He is my ex-fiancee, but hestood by my side for 13 long
years and he has watched meblossom and metamorphosize into
this beautiful butterflybumblebee monster queen that I
have become.
You know, the shape shiftingdiva of the moon.
That's who I am, I feel like.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
I know your answer to this question, based on what
you just said.
The apocalypse kicks off off.
It's just getting started.
Your family is out to dinner.
You don't happen to be there.

Speaker 16 (01:40:52):
Do you go and save them?
Honestly, when I needed savingand I needed love.
They already know how tosurvive on their own because my
family is strong.
My mother is the matriarch ofour family and she takes care of
my sister's kids.
My stepfather as much as I havea distaste for him, he protects

(01:41:21):
my mother, you know, and he's agood man in my eyes for that.
But I wish he would come aroundand love me and accept me for
who I am.
To this day he still misgendersme and calls me by my dead name
.
But they can take care ofthemselves.
I would actually go and be withmy community where I'm loved

(01:41:45):
and nurtured and we are fightingtogether.
My family can take care ofthemselves because they are a
strong matriarch unit inthemselves.
Me and my mother, we talk everyday and I'm so happy and I'm so
thankful and so so I wish thiswas a longer time that I had

(01:42:17):
with her, but my mother only hasjust begun to know Regina
rather than my old self.
We didn't speak for 10 longyears and she apologized as much
as I was alone.
I went through a lot, which iswhy I'm sober now.

(01:42:38):
I did a lot of self-defeatingacts that I'm not proud of Kids,
teens, adults.
If you're out there struggling,hurting, reach out.
There are hotlines like theTrevor Hotline or Trans Lifeline

(01:42:59):
out there.
Those lifelines saved my life.
My life has been a whirlwind.
I get vulnerable so that peoplehear my story and if they're
going through the same thing, atleast something in my story can

(01:43:20):
strike a chord with them andsay, hey, don't give up.
If Regina can do it, so can I.
I want to be a symbol ofstrength for my community and
for everybody else out there.
It's through my sobriety that Iwas able to be accepted at the
Tom Savini School of SpecialMakeup Effects.
That is my program and I havebeen there for three semesters

(01:43:45):
now.
My art has skyrocketed and Iwill get to dragula hell yeah,
you will, and I will destroy allmy competitors I cannot wait to
watch it disrupt your heart.

Speaker 2 (01:43:59):
I disrupt your heart, but also the person behind it,
regina lynn winters, it is aprivilege and a pleasure to know
you and I'm very grateful thatyou chose to be on our podcast.

Speaker 16 (01:44:08):
I have one last thing to say.
Okay, jack Morda, boulay,swantulu Boulay, if you are
listening, I'm coming for you,moms Ooh, and I can't wait to be
welcoming to your kingdom ofdeath, chaos, filth, glamour and

(01:44:28):
horror, because I will beDragula.

Speaker 2 (01:44:34):
You heard it here.
This is the next Dragula righthere.
Disrupt your heart.
I can't imagine anyonelistening has not had their
heart disrupted by you today.
Is there anything you'd like tofinish with?

Speaker 1 (01:44:45):
I've been disrupted my whole heart.
Thank you for being a guest onour podcast.

Speaker 16 (01:44:51):
You're very welcome.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:45:04):
Well, we haven't re-listened to any of the
interviews so we don't know whatyou just heard, but I bet it
was great.
How was?

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
it?
How was the audio?
Was it perfect?
Dan fixed everything.
Yeah, I'm just going to assumethat it all went great.

Speaker 2 (01:45:15):
Yeah, but thank you again, folks, for being
interviewed by us and by showingup.
Thanks for all the newlisteners, thanks for the old
listeners.
Thank you for joining, forleaving a rating or review.

Speaker 1 (01:45:32):
Yeah, and if you haven't done that in advance, do
it now, please.
Five stars.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
Send us a voicemail.
Tell us what we got wrong.
Respond to somebody that youjust learned about today in the
show.
Yeah, at 614-699-0006.
You can leave a voicemail.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
It's up to three minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:45:48):
Sign up for our newsletter.
Yeah, I would love that All ofthe people that we talk to are
going to be linked in thenewsletter, and you can also
follow us on Instagram, where mydog will not be barking at
Zombie Book Club Podcast, orjoin the Brain Munchers Zombie
Collective Discord, where we'reall hanging out anyway.
So come hang with us.
Ollie Eats eats brainsregularly hosts movie nights.

Speaker 1 (01:46:08):
Thank you, ollie yeah , we're gonna watch zombie
movies and I guess until nexttime.

Speaker 2 (01:46:13):
The end is nigh bye, bye, don't die.

Speaker 1 (01:46:27):
What the fuck, what the fuck?
What the fuck, what the fuck,what the fuck?
Go, go, go, go, go go.

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Living Dead Weekend at Monroeville Mall | Zombie Book Club Ep 101

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Living Dead Weekend at Monroeville Mall | Zombie Book Club Ep 101