May 25, 2023 • 50 mins
Dax interviews Tannah O'Banion, Assistant Director of Entertainment at Evermore Park. How did her character Lady Violet ascend from a lowly caroler to the mayor of Evermore? How has that impacted Tannah's career as a professional performer? What other crazy shenanigans (or "Tannanigans") is Tannah up to? Support the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/dungeonsanddax
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:35):
And welcome to episodeeight of Dungeons and Dax.
This is Interactive Shenaniganswith Tannah O'Banion.
Tannah, thank you so much for comingon and it's wonderful to finally meet
you, and thank you for having me.
It's so, it's so funny thatyou say that cuz in my head I
feel like I know you so well.
(00:57):
But you've never hadThat's cause you've met me.
You've met Dax.
Yeah.
But you've never spoken to me.
You've only ever spoken toa character I've played.
So those of you who don'tknow Tannah, she's awesome.
And she has done a lot of work at EvermorePark and that is where I met Tannah.
You were a caroler at thetime, playing Lady Violet.
(01:17):
I was.
And since then, so many awesomethings have happened for your
character and for your career.
And let's, let's talk aboutthose things because, you
know, they're exciting for me.
They've been following that for years.
But then I wanna get to knowTannah finally for the first time.
So tell us about howyou became Lady Violet.
(01:38):
Well, I do a lot of theater and I was ina show with an individual that used to
work at the park, and he gave my name tothe previous the original creative team.
And, and so they reached out to meand they said, Hey, can you come in?
And, and I said, sure.
And so I, I went in and we had a chatand they were really, really nice.
(01:58):
They had me read a monologue and,and then they were like, great,
we're gonna have you come in and.
Be one of our carolers forour, for our Christmas season.
And I said, that sounds so fun.
And I got to sing and itwas really, really fun.
Cause that's really all they wantedme for is just for me to sing.
And you have a wonderful voice.
You're very nice.
(02:18):
You have a terrible poker face.
Okay.
Terrible poker face.
Yes, I will say, but the more I gotused to the way that people interact
with the actors or rather withme in the park, the better I got.
So.
Hmm.
I don't know.
I beg to differ.
You see how, I remember Lady Tyler beingthe caroler my wife was invited up.
(02:43):
You were bringing people To, to Carolwith Carol with the carolers and you're
giving them music around the fire.
Around the fire.
It was awesome.
It was snowy, it was magical.
It was beautiful.
And you know, my wife used to be in choir.
I used to be in choir.
I didn't tell you that, but shevolunteered and you know, you
got to share music with her.
And then we started making faces at you.
(03:03):
Yeah.
During your performances.
I remember that.
And you tried so hard to play a cool,to stay focused, but we got you to
break so many times and so we keptcoming back again and again to evermore.
It was before we had littlecreatures of our own to take care of.
Yeah.
Bethany and I would come frequentlythat winter and every time
(03:25):
we're like, where's Lady Violet?
We need to go mess her.
Okay.
To be fair, I would break.
I would stop singing, like I wouldbreak character singing, but I
wouldn't break like Violet character.
I say in character, but Idefinitely, I, there's just,
that is an important distinction.
It is a very important distinction, butI, I will say this, favorites are a thing.
(03:50):
People, even actors at evermorehave favorite patrons of the park
and you two still to this day.
Cuz I don't act in the parkvery much anymore now that I am.
Behind the scenes, but I you and yourwife are, in my opinion, the top tier
individuals that would come to the park.
(04:11):
The best.
The best.
So it, it was more of a i a comfort leveland like you guys are being really fun and
like I can, violet can be herself, whichis essentially a British version of me.
It's so great hearing youwith an American accent.
I love it.
Yeah.
Cuz you only ever heard mm-hmm.
(04:32):
A Surry type.
Accent.
That's so funny.
But yeah, we loved coming to seeyou and Violet became so much more.
Than just a carer in the park.
We were talking a little bitbefore the stream about some of the
work you put into this character,and as you were doing that, I'm
like, no, save it for the stream.
(04:54):
Oh yes.
It's good stuff.
But now is your time.
Tell us how did Lady Violet become thecomplex three-dimensional character
that everyone, well, it startedbehind the scenes and it also was
influenced by the patrons of the Parker.
We call them world walkers.
So.
When I, when, when Violet became acharacter, just a carer, they only
(05:15):
gave me her name, which was LadyViolet Atkinson and the daughter
of a famous judge in London.
That was it.
And so during rehearsals gettingready for our summer season, which
was Mythos 2019 I became reallygood friends with two individuals
who shout out to Caden Cameron.
They played o Manus and Maxwell, and we.
(05:39):
Didn't have a lot of directionand so we, we actually created our
backs, stories of our characterstogether, and we wove them together.
Osmand, new Violet's father whowas a corrupt judge, all this fun
stuff, and it just kind of unfolded.
And then I had a meeting with the creativeteam that let me know at the time that
they had plans for my character, but theydidn't tell me what those plans were.
(06:02):
And so I essentially just made Violet.
I, I wanted her to be the better versionof who I am which was just like really,
really nice and always super approachable.
And I mean, this is how I amnormally, but Violet was like,
hello, welcome to the park.
It's lovely to meet you, blah, blah, blah.
Oh, it's so good to hear that again.
(06:25):
And, and she became the, oneof the first people that you
would meet when you come in.
And as a patron of the park, you lookfor somebody who's familiar, like that
first person just cuz it's like, oh,you're that, almost like a safe space.
And throughout the season she, shewent through some stuff, her burn her,
her burn, her barn was burned down.
(06:46):
Her burn barn, her barnburn, all this drama.
She had a love interest.
And then the ultimate.
Like ending of the season was, was herbeing elected as mayor and obviously the
behind the scenes they had plans for her.
They wanted to her to be the mayor,but I asked them because I'm this
(07:07):
person, I was like, did you have to?
Did you have to like fake the numbers?
And they said, veryhonestly, they said no.
And they would show me the numbersof counting and they actually,
violet would be the one that wouldwin at the end of every voting.
And so we voted for you.
Thank you.
For me, you voted for violet?
Yes.
Voted for violet, but stand a character.
(07:31):
But she, she ended upnot needing the, the.
The story team to make it sothey've like messed up the,
the, or like fudged the numbers.
It was the world walkers whochose her to be the mayor.
And so you won a, you won a, anelection the old-fashioned way.
(07:52):
I did.
Didn't against have to run a campaignagainst the other candidates?
Say again.
You didn't even have to run a smearcampaign against the other candidates.
It was just nice and wholesomethe way democracy should be.
I love it.
That's so funny.
100%.
I agree with that.
But that's funny because therewere, there were, if I rem like I.
(08:14):
Now that we're talking aboutit, I remember all of these
conversations of people beinglike, well, let's spread rumors.
And I'm like, no.
Because again, like my number onething when I was creating her was
that she was kind and honest andshe was all about uplifting people.
Like we have these things called lots,which are essentially individual quests
or activities that you can do to earn.
(08:36):
At the time it was gold, which was the.
The currency of the park.
You still have my bagof gold and everything.
Ah, yeah.
So for, for me, for Violet,her loti was compliments.
So I would look at that.
Oh my gosh.
(08:57):
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
She, she's rich.
Look at that.
This was, you know, my gold andBethany's gold that we saved up for
like a year and then never got to spend.
And I dropped some of it on the floor.
Let's those of you listening and notwatching, there are little gold nuggets.
Well, They're little pieces of gravel.
(09:23):
Also, if you hear any dog noises, my dogis sleeping right next to me, so just
wanted to for anybody listening, but,but yeah, so, so her laie was, was either
having you go out and talk to a completestranger and compliment them based on
I would try really hard to avoid looks,because I feel like our world is, Is way
(09:44):
too obsessed with what people look like.
So I would try to have them havea conversation and, and learn
something about an individual andcompliment them based on that.
If it was a stranger situation, but ifit was a family situation or friends
or, I would love it when they were kidsbecause I would have the kids compliment
their parents, specifically their moms.
Cuz I feel like, I mean, I told you thisbefore, but I feel like moms don't get
(10:08):
thanked enough for all that they do.
Same with dads, I feel like.
Vice versa.
No, dad's get to be the cool ones.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, growing.
I have the best parents in thewhole wide world, but they, they
were pretty equal in like good cop,bad cop, so they, they took turns.
But but yeah, it was so fun to watchbecause it was, it was heartwarming really
(10:28):
because the kids would compliment the momsor say thank you or whatever, and then the
moms would actually get pretty emotionaland it was, it was very, very sweet.
And then they would get their goldand run off and it was, So, so fun
and, and Violet kept that up untilshe was no longer no longer the mayor.
So no longer the mayor.
What happened?
Did she get deposed?
(10:49):
She did not get to postthe, the town executed.
She was framed actually.
Mm-hmm.
And so she was removed from officeand her deputy Mayor Valla if you
remember her, she was an Elvin ranger.
She took over and this was the transitionbecause they wanted me to come in and
(11:10):
play the villain because I had playedViolet for five and a half seasons.
And they were like, girl, it's time.
It's time for you to bea different character.
And I was like, I welcome this.
Thank you so much.
I love Violet.
Don't get me wrong.
I, if I could, I mean, it's old lore and,and she's a character that people, I still
get messages from people asking about howshe is and which is really, really, really
(11:34):
sweet for me because I'm like, oh mygosh, I played this character that people
ended up really loving I love her too.
So shout out to all those peoplethat still send me messages.
But, but yeah, so she, she ended upbeing framed and she was later proven
innocent, but she decided to go offto London and be with her sister and.
(11:58):
Follow, find out what was happeningwith her romantic relationship with Mr.
Phillip Humphreys.
The, the postman.
He was my other favorite.
Yeah.
I found out that there was likea love interest subplot going on.
I shipped that so hard.
Well, you, you and multi,there were a lot of people.
(12:18):
Not only would you get people tocompliment each other, but Philip made.
It his personal mission to learneach and every guest's name.
Yep.
And when they came back, he wouldremember their names, remember
little details about them.
And, you know, we felt specialcuz he remembered our name.
But then we would just sit backand, and watch other people.
(12:39):
We thought we, we werethe exclusive ones, right?
We were top tier guests.
But no, that, he was just thatnice and that awesome too.
Everybody.
And, and when there were othersubplots and main plots going on
where, you know, plagues were infectingevermore before plagues were cool
and they were these winter I don'teven remember the main plots as much.
(13:01):
I had more fun hanging out with the sidecharacters like you and Philip Humphrey's.
You know, it was a nice, like cozyslice of life in the middle of this,
you know, conflicted fantasy world.
It.
I agree.
I, I loved, because I only ever worldwalked the one time when I was like
trying to figure out what it was inbetween the time that they had me come
(13:24):
in and between the, the time when Iwas in park and it was so fun to watch.
Like there were these,the main characters.
But I mean, side note, the maincharacters are the world walkers to us.
Like our, our main thing is to makeyou guys the heroes of the story.
It just so happens thatour characters are.
Help we're the PCs, but Philip,specifically the actor who
(13:49):
played him, love him to death.
His name is Brad.
He never wrote anybody's names down ever.
He, that was just his brain remembering.
It was so Wow, so incredible.
And I rem obviously, I rememberedthe people that I really, really
loved, like you and your wife.
And I don't know if you wantme to share names so I won't.
So, but you and your wife, youcan share her name, you can share
(14:09):
her name, a couple other people.
So I love Bethany Bethany's.
Great.
Shout up to Bethany.
And like pit plum and, oh my gosh.
And Rachel evermore adventurous,but now she's ever adventurous.
There are a lot of, there area couple individuals that just
near and dear to the heart.
So what are you up to these days?
(14:31):
We know evermore has been througha lot of periods of, of change and
they've been adapting their model.
I am also a business owner, so I'mfascinated with the behind the scenes
things of, you know, how thingswork and how things are profitable.
They're doing a lot more markets andthere's more of a focus on vendors.
But what are some of the cool thingsthat are changing that make you excited?
(14:54):
Events really we're doing morespecial event type situations.
Like we just actually had a, ourfirst murder mystery in the park
last weekend was our first Yes.
Rivers cove.
That, that stuff is really exciting.
The tea parties that we have areso fun, so if you ever want me to
wanna see me in character a lotof times I will be characters for
(15:15):
those because it's easier for me to.
To also run the show, but alsomake sure that the show is working
and, and facilitate in character.
So if you ever wanna participate inthat regard, I highly recommend it.
There's so much fun, a lot ofwork and rehearsal goes into that.
But my favorite season is lorebecause I'm spooky season.
(15:35):
Yes.
If you can, you can see in thebackground here, I've got like this
rainbow Jack and Sally painting.
But I got it annex last year when Iwas working the booth, but, but yeah,
definitely I have my evermore coins.
Where are my coins?
Here's one of them.
Oh my circus goodness.
(15:57):
And then my absolute favorite coin.
I collect a lot of different fantasycoins and I use them in my games.
I think my favorite one that I have isthis season of lore with the vampire
skull on it and Grail on the back.
What season was that?
Does it say evermore Lord, 2019.
Okay.
(16:18):
In the before times.
In the before times 2019.
The 2019 was, we were so young back then.
It was so intense cuz Violet got attackedby by those, all the plagued people.
And I actually end up littlebehind the scenes stuff.
They weren't supposed to attack mewhen they did and it ended up me
ripping my dress because, oh no.
(16:41):
Because they weren't supposed to.
And I was like running around.
I was like, you got, butwe were, it was crazy.
And so one of my favorites, shout outto this family Ross and his family.
They actually stood by me while I tried tofix my dress because it had ripped so bad.
So they put a whole wall making itlike a human shield wall to Yeah.
(17:01):
And so I put my cloak over it andI was like, ah, well repair rack.
Here it comes.
But, but yeah.
So to, to where I am now, so when,when the pandemic hit, obviously
things happened and so the parkhad to make some adjustments and.
So the individuals that were asked to bethe directors, like the, the c o o at the
(17:21):
ti Well, yeah, he's the COO and, and myboss, she's the director of entertainment.
She was actually an actor in the park.
They both were.
He, he was, if I remember, he wasan acolyte and he was one of the
Aries, and then she was the spiderprincess, if you remember her.
And she was also a fairy, theacolytes, they were the ones
in the spooky bird masks.
(17:43):
Yeah.
And the, and the, yeah.
Long flowing cloaks.
Very cool.
So fun, such fun characters.
But I, I became really, really goodfriends with Adrian and So she's,
she's my boss, but we would Marco Poloall the time and we were just talking
about like what our dreams were.
And I obviously, my ultimate dreamis to be on Broadway and, and to
(18:04):
do film and stuff because one, I'ma plus size individual and I feel
like more representation for plussize people should be out there.
But.
I, I also really, really wantedto get into casting and I wanna
work for Disney and casting.
I think that is like my ultimate,if, if I could snap my fingers, I
would be doing casting for Disney.
(18:25):
And she remembered that conversation.
And so when she was building her team sheasked me if I wanted to, and I said, yeah.
So she originally made me the castingdirector, which I still do that.
But then some shifts happened behindthe scenes, about nine months into
our, the brand new creative team.
(18:45):
And then she made methe assistant director.
And so I do the casting, but Ialso organize a lot of stuff.
And so, so she and I have anincredible working relationship.
We, we have this.
Work life balance with each other.
We can have a conversationwhere it's like, okay, this is
(19:05):
Boss Adrian to to boss Tannah.
And this is BestieAdrian to bestie Tannah.
Like we, we say, okay, quick side.
And we always preface it with thatbecause we also wanna make sure that
we're not crossing or blurring thoselines of work to, to friendship.
So, It's very much a familybehind the scenes, and we have an
(19:26):
incredible costuming department.
Christie is absolutely wonderful.
One of my dear friends, we actuallyjust went to the Tulip Festival
together a couple weeks ago.
Very cool.
But yeah, so I'm the, I organizeall of the, the auditions that
you see and, and the callbacks,everything that that happens.
(19:46):
We sit down and we createthe characters together.
We create the back stories of them.
We collaborate on what wewant their aesthetic to be.
Ken who owns the park, will have aconversation with Adrian and then
she, she has this incredible mind.
It's so incredible.
It, I, I cannot express or likeboost her more, but what she
(20:08):
comes up with is so magical.
It's, it's fantastic.
And then being able to be a part of.
Of creating that and bringing itto life as one of the coolest,
it's like a puzzle piece.
And, which I'm sure you understand whatthat is because you are a professional dm.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's really fun to, to see all ofthat come together and then, and then.
(20:29):
My favorite, my ultimate favorite part,Dax, is literally watching these actors.
I cast them and, and then we sitdown and we work and, and I provide
them with their information.
Right?
And, and I work ontheir accents with them.
I'm the dialect coachso Scottish and Irish.
And we, we try to avoid Frenchcuz it's really hard to understand
(20:52):
sometimes if you're are really,really good at a French accent.
So then there's the RP and.
Just standard British.
And then sometimes we bring an Americanbecause it's really fun to have that.
But my favorite part is, is when thepark is open and you see all of the
preparation that my actors have put in andbringing it to life and seeing the joy on
(21:14):
the patrons or the world walker's facesand it, them getting fan art and, and.
YouTube stories made of them andall of these beautiful photos.
It's so cool.
It's like, oh, there's my kid.
They grown up.
No.
This is cool.
I've never been a casting director, butevery time I start a new campaign, I,
(21:37):
I'm meeting with players and helpingthem bring their characters to life.
Finding out what their play style is,what sort of their, their strengths
are and what yeah, you know, emotionalneeds they have when they're gaming.
And then I work to meld their backstorieswith the plot of the campaign so
(21:57):
that they feel like the heroes.
And, and I love that evermore hasthat same that same mindset that,
you know, the guests, they're,they're the heroes and everything
else is designed to support them.
And so the NPCs that I create in my gamesalso, I can't think of them as the heroes.
It's the it's players that come inand I get to make people feel awesome.
(22:18):
Yeah.
That's what we do, Tannah.
We make people feel awesome.
That's the best part.
I, I cannot ex, I, that's my, there'snot enough kindness ever, like in any
of my bios that I write for a play billthat I'm in or in a show that I'm in.
A program, the end of it will be, havecourage and be kind from Cinderella.
(22:42):
And it starts with that.
It's like our ultimate goal.
And that's actually Ken's biggestthing, that owner of the park.
He cares so, so, so much aboutthe, the experience of the guests.
He just wants people to have funand, and whatever that may look like.
But the park is literally like a love.
(23:03):
Letter to, to people and wantingthem, the creative individuals
out there to have a place to bewho they are and to just be happy.
So kindness is really important.
I love that.
I love that.
We, we talked about Ripper's Cove,which was the most recent event.
(23:23):
Yeah.
Is there any other events you cantell us about that are coming up?
Any secret ones that you areat liberty to talk about?
Not secret ones, but we willhave another Ripper's Cove.
In the spooky time.
So around September not like a ripper'scove, it'll be another murder mystery.
It'll be Ripper's Cove, but spookier.
Ooh, yes, actually, yes.
(23:44):
Twice as much.
Murderer, murder, just as much mystery.
And we will have another tea party.
This one will be pirates versus Knights.
So that'll be really, really fun.
It's more geared towards kids, but ourfirst one was, was Alison Evermore.
It was like a Alison Wonderland.
It's adjacent theme and it was,it was, I was the red queen.
(24:08):
Did you get to say the line, youknow which line I'm talking about?
Did you just say the line,the off with your head?
Yes, I did.
I did say it to the individualplaying the, the Hatha.
But we have to be careful because we,obviously there's copyright issues.
Mm-hmm.
And we don't.
We don't play with that stuff.
(24:29):
Yeah.
So we, because Lewis Carrolls,Alison Wonderland, the book
is in the public domain.
Yes.
And that's what we did.
Disney version and the stuff thatcomes from the Disney version that
is not, and they will hold onto thatas tightly as they possibly can.
Yes.
So the, it was, it was the publicdon domain stuff that we played with.
But so yeah, so we're having anotherone and they're Gilbert more towards
(24:49):
kids cuz they're, You know, we justwant kids to have a lot of fun too.
But it was so interestingbecause a lot, with the first tea
party, it was a lot more adults.
Like there were barely any childrenout there, which was so fun.
And it it, I just love, I, Isaw this post recently where
someone was talking about how I.
In every kid there's an adult waitingto grow up, and in every adult
(25:11):
there's a kid waiting to come out.
And I see that at Evermore.
And, and I also see that in otherproductions that I'm a part of as well,
with like the musical theater and mm-hmm.
All it people get to play andrelease a part of them that they
haven't seen in a really long time.
(25:32):
And it's, it's so beautiful.
It's almost healing in a way.
You mentioned musical theater, and I amfascinated at the wall that is behind
you, that is covered in playbills.
Yeah.
Are these shows you've seenor shows that you've started.
The both, actually, there are playbillsfrom stuff I've been in, but also I
love, I love going to see Broadway shows.
(25:54):
So yeah, it's, it's a workin progress as you can see.
It's like there's stillmore wall to be covered.
What are, what are the, some of yourfavorite roles and some of your dream
roles that you wanna play someday?
Okay.
Favorite roles that I've played Mrs.
Elton in the regional premiereof Emma the musical, if you know.
(26:15):
Jane Austin.
She was a delight.
I love her so much.
Miss Flannery in thoroughly modernMillie, I, I tend to play the comedic.
Side characters that's like mm-hmm.
Me, Jennifer Coolidge.
That's not the main character,but just like, comes on stage
and is absolutely hilarious.
That's, that's side characters in thevillains are the most fun anyways.
(26:39):
I'm always, yes.
And then Adela, who, Adela is oneof Ariel's sisters in the Mermaid,
in the Little Mermaid skit.
And then villain wise, one, oh, sorry.
The Drowsy Chaperone was adream role and I got to play her
in Because you were the star.
You were the Drowsy Chaperoneof The Drowsy Chaperone.
(26:59):
I was the Drowsy Chaperoneabsolute dream, which is so funny.
Sorry, side tangent.
I was in that show 10 years before Iwas in it again here, and I had played
a different character and I told myselfthe first time I did it that one day
I would play the Jas of Chaperone.
And then 10 years later, it'sso funny because I got an award.
For best cameo, best female cameo for thecharacter at the time was tricks that I
(27:24):
played in the first, the first go around.
And then while I was in product,like we were open to the public.
I.
My Facebook memories reminded meof the award that I got and how I
was in like at the exact same time.
It was, it was so crazy.
But yeah, then I was thera of chaperone.
Did you get and then put your hand onthe shoulder of the new tricks and be
(27:44):
like, someday, 10 years from now you toocan be thera chaperone, keep dreaming.
Oh my gosh.
I didn't, but I should have.
Her name is Abby and she's incredible.
I love her so much.
The, the girl who played her inwhen I was drowsy, but Then villain
wise, favorite role was actually myvillain, my character that came in
(28:05):
after, right after Violet was gone.
Her name was Serin.
Hemstead.
She was Slovic, she was from Aurora,but that was such an epic name.
Can you say that again?
With Menace Sieg Sea.
She's Sieg.
I loved her.
(28:25):
She was, she actually was the characterthat showed me that I had more range.
Cuz again, I'm usually just the comedic,comedic relief character, or in this
case I was the really like just meekand and loving motherly type character.
Whereas Serin came in and itwas like, Death upon everyone.
(28:50):
So it was really, and I got tolearn stage combat with that.
And there was a lot of really neatthings that happened with that villain.
But the, I would say those are myfavorite roles that I've played.
And then dream roles, I wanna beRosie and Mama Mia, which, if I'm,
if I do this right, right there,that's a playbook for Mamamia.
Yep.
I wanna be, Ursula in the lettermer in the Little Mermaid skit.
(29:13):
I absolute dream.
I'm a little bit too old now, but I wouldlove to be Tracy Turnblad and Hairspray.
But I'm too tall for her.
She's supposed to be short andstout, and I'm, I'm, I'm chunky,
but I'm, I'm also five nine.
So and then Glinda in Wicked, which.
(29:34):
Most people are like, I wanna be Alphabet.
I'm over here.
Like, no, I wanna be Glinda.
Cause she's, again, she's the comedicrelief, but she's also got this complex
character growth that a lot of peopledon't pay attention to that I'm, and
she's an antagonist through most of it.
Yeah, she is.
Is an antagonist.
Ugh.
I love it.
Oh, and then There are some showsthat I don't like very much that
(29:57):
I would love to be in so thatI could gain an appreciation.
And so yeah, those would be, Iwould guess I would consider dream
roles as well, but they're notlike my go-to, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
There's that.
You, you mentioned you wanted toask me about my theater experience.
(30:19):
Yes.
It has been over a decade sinceI've been in an actual play.
In high school and incollege, that was my life.
If I wasn't doing school plays,I was doing community theater.
I did a lot of shows over at theEmpress Theater in Magna, and yes, you
know, I was constantly in shows likethree or four a year and in straight
(30:41):
plays and in musicals You know, didn'tget to play any of my dream roles in
that, that brief period of my life.
And when I got back to college,declared my major, I got really
busy and still did improv.
Still did d and d, but, you know,haven't been in a musical since,
haven't been in a, an actualplace since I've been on stages.
(31:01):
Right.
Yeah.
I've done performances with gamesand I've been panelists and a lot of
those skills have carried on, but,Part of me wonders if I'll ever get
back to an actual play on stage.
Maybe something I need you to, I needyou to, I need to see you in action.
One role that I actually playedtwice once at a summer camp and
(31:23):
later at the Empress Theater.
I was an arsenic and old lace.
I've never seen that show.
Oh, you would love Arsenic on Old Lace.
It's about two sweet little old ladies.
Who poison lonely men who comeinto their house as a service and
as a kindness to them, and theybury their bodies in the cellar.
It's a, it's a very dark comedyand there are three brothers in
(31:45):
it who all have their own issues.
And I was Jonathan who was the.
The serial killer who one of the twistsof the show is he finds out that his
nice, sweet, old ants have actuallykilled more people than him, and he's
very, very upset about what, what,my gosh, part of his character is.
He's supposed to look like Boris Carla.
(32:07):
And you know, I just have highcheekbones and a deep voice and
back then I had hair on my face,but I shaved my beard for this roll.
My hair was black and slicked backand I had scars all over my face and I
made a little girl in the audience cry.
This is good acting.
That is a major milestone.
Like that was a definingmoment in my acting career.
(32:28):
Made a little girl cry and then the,her her aunt who brought her was
like, Hey, you made my niece cry.
She wants to just know how nice youare cuz we, we know you're nice ex.
We know you're sweet.
So here, here she is.
And I just gave her aglare and she ran away.
You're like, no, I'm not ruining this.
I'm gonna, I'm not gonna be the nice guy.
I'm gonna make sure that she knows.
(32:50):
So, yeah.
So I did, I did Jonathan twice.
Oh, fun.
I've done, I've been one ofthe brothers and Joseph in the
amazing technical dream coat.
I've done, I did EnsembleLe Mis at my high school.
Were you Ruben?
I was Dan.
You were Dan.
Okay.
I was Dan.
Yeah.
They're like, Dan Daxsounds the same, so Sure.
Sure.
I did Pirates of Penzance twice actually.
(33:12):
I love that show.
Someday I would loveto be the pirate King.
Someday I would love to be thepirate king and you could be
the Ruth to my pirate king.
Like can you imagine that?
Honors?
Can you imagine that?
That would be so cool.
My absolute dream role.
And you know, I, I haven't kept upon voice lessons or anything, so I,
(33:34):
you know, not an operatic singer, butI would love to play Sweeney Todd.
I wanna be Mrs.
Lovett.
Listen, the Grand in Salt Lake isdoing that this, this, this October.
Oh.
Although get someone who probablyhas a lot more voice experience than.
Than I do.
But Sweeney Todd is, you never know,maybe 10 years from now, if I start
(33:57):
now, I know we'll go, we will audition,will be small, little minor characters.
And then 10 years from now we'll goback and then we will be the leads.
We're gonna be like, like Drew Barrymoreand Adam Sandler, where they only
do shows together every 10 years.
(34:17):
That's, that's, that's our dynamic.
But yeah, I'd love to do Sweeney Todd.
I did not like the Tim BurtonJohnny Depp movie at all.
I am very upset with it.
That's how I feel about cats.
Cats wasn't good to begin with, wasn't it?
Okay.
Okay.
You're gonna, you're gonna judge me andpeople watching might judge me as well,
but that's actually my favorite musical.
(34:38):
Huh.
Okay.
The 29.
Listen, I've studied it so I actuallyknow that there's a little bit of, you
studied it, there's things to study.
Is there like an academic trackto understand the deeper meaning?
Isn't it just about cats?
On the surface, yes.
I, I did my, my junior yearterm paper on Cats, the musical.
And so I learned a lot about whereit came from and, and character
(35:02):
development for each of the charactersand what each character wanted.
Like it's, there's a lot that goesinto it, but the 2019 version of Cats,
the musical is the most disrespectful.
And like it, it's so rudebecause not it showcases
(35:24):
terrible, terrible, terrible cgi.
And Jennifer Hudson's snot was likethe number one star that I remember.
And cats, to me, the musicalis the epitome of, of, of human
creativity because it, it, Imean, every show is incredible.
Whoa.
Let's, let's quote that youthink Kat's the musical is the
epitome of human creativity.
(35:46):
Yeah.
Judge me if you want.
Every show showcasesincredible creativity from.
Pe Human beings are incredible what theydo, but for me, at the time when I had
first seen cats, it was the acting likeyou're portraying a cat, which I thought
was so fascinating, and they had it.
(36:06):
They have it down, and then the costuming,the costume design, the set design,
the music, the vocals, the dancing.
Everything together.
I was like, what a weird piece of art.
And yet it, it's so beautiful and itshows what a human can do creativity wise.
And then I was introduced to moreshows and I was just like, oh my gosh.
(36:26):
Like it, it's whatintroduced me to theater.
And I, and then they had to putCGI all over it and, and then
that 2019 version came out.
Listen, if you want a good versionof it, watch the 1998 version.
It is so good.
So good.
I don't know if we'll evershare the stage for cats.
I'm more of a dog person.
(36:47):
I love dogs too.
Look, you can see my dogs behind me.
Wait, over here?
Yep.
Paintings, watercolor paintingsthat my friends gave me.
No, even though I haven't beenon stage for a long time I still
get to express that creativity.
I still get to.
Interact with other people incollaborative storytelling, right?
(37:07):
Yeah.
I run, you know, d and d games fora living and it's so much fun taking
the shy players and giving themcharacters that they're passionate
about and seeing them step into thoseroles and become awesome, right?
That's what we do.
We make people feel awesome.
Wait, so.
I'm curious then, so do you, do youcreate the characters and like you
go through the character sheet and,and figure out what their, their
(37:29):
stamina is and like all of this stuff?
Great question.
No, those are decisions thatthey make, but I walk them
through the process step by step.
Okay.
One, to make sure that they are, Iwant people to have viable characters.
I don't have them overpowered,you know, broken characters, but
you know, so they are good at thethings they want to be good at.
(37:50):
Mm, I, I read all the rule booksso that my players don't have to,
if they don't have the time for it.
Right.
But I talk to them about what sort ofcharacters inspire them, what sort of
movies or books that they like to geta feel for how they want to express
themselves, how they want to feel.
Awesome.
And so I'll make suggestions and sometimesI take my suggestions, sometimes they
(38:12):
don't, and I'll work together with themto build their backstory, you know?
And fit it into the campaign that I have.
So if I run the same campaign for twodifferent parties, I'm gonna run it
into very different ways because thereare different characters in play.
They make different choicesthat affect the narrative.
That's another thing Ilove about evermore is.
(38:35):
The narrative would change based ondecisions that world Walkers made or key
events that were turning points that wouldtake things in a different trajectory.
I, I get to do that and it's alot of fun and you confessed to
me before the stream and I'm gonnafeel like I have to call you out.
You've only played d and d one time.
(38:56):
Listen, you can call meout on a lot of things.
I've shared that I love Kathleen.
You like cats?
Yeah.
I, I I think it's incredible.
D and d I think it's a fun game.
It's so, there's so much to it, butI actually find more joy watching
people play because I, I love.
(39:17):
I love movies.
I love film.
I love reading.
I love books.
Like I, I even love video gamesthat have story, but I, I have
found that I like to watch it.
Like I, I actually sit in myoffice, so I have three jobs.
I have three I.
Full-time jobs, so I don't sleep a lot.
But one of them I work forcriminal full-time jobs.
If it's eight hours a day,that's no sleep at all.
(39:39):
Yeah.
So you, you can imagine that my eveningsare packed and my weekends are packed.
So, but my, my job, my eight tofive is I work for a criminal
background screening company.
So I essentially who I legally stalkpeople through the court system.
So I know a lot about a peoplein their criminal history.
But I sit in my office and I actuallylisten to a, her name is Kelsey Peaches.
(40:05):
May Peach K, actually, but that's her sim.
She plays the Sims professionally,and I love the Sims.
But, but what, why I'm telling youthat is because I love, I love the
joy that people get playing the game.
And I, I love hearing theircreativity or their, their
ideas, especially the dms like.
(40:26):
We had a really neat event thathappened at Evermore a couple
weeks ago called the Convergence.
Mm-hmm.
If you know who Quincy, Quincy isfrom Quincy Tavern, Love his content.
He's amazing.
And the nicest dude, nicest guy.
My my wife got into Quincy during thepandemic into watching his content.
I mean, yeah.
And she was like, oh, he's,he's doing this tavern.
(40:46):
He just talks at the tavern.
I'm like, that's a brilliant idea.
Why didn't I think of it first?
So I decided I was gonna go hatewatch Quincy's Tavern, and you can't.
You can't.
I was like, this guy has such a good idea.
I can't believe he'soh, oh, he's so sweet.
And I feel seen and oh, I want to go tothis tavern and like 2, 2, 2 videos in.
(41:07):
And I just melted and was,became a Quincy stand.
Just such a nice guy.
He's amazing.
He really is.
And going back to the kindnessthing, I actually had a
conversation with him on the.
Second or no, the last day ofthe conference, the convergence,
the conference is essentially itwas a d and d whatever, whatever.
It was very heavily influenced by d and d.
(41:29):
But we were talking about how, Imean, good and bad comes with a
lot of stuff that we do, right?
And I experienced a lot ofbad as Violet Atkinson and
My, my that sometimes overshadows someof the, the really good things and,
and I just, I was having a conversationwith, with him and this other lady
(41:49):
that works at Evermore, she's lovely.
Her name is Wendy.
And she was talking about howsometimes patrons of the park will get
a little bit too into the game and,and get kind of mean sometimes and.
We were talking about how Quincy,we never experienced that with, with
that whole week of the convergence.
(42:10):
We never experienced anybody being cruelor mean because they felt like they could
or because they wanted their characterto be that everybody was so kind.
It, and it was very much like gay pride tome in the sense that when I go to Pride,
All you feel is love and acceptance.
And that's what it waswith the convergence.
The kindness was literallythe driving force.
(42:31):
And that's why I feel like he welcomes in.
And so it, it was so fascinatingto, to watch that and the way
he interacted with his guests.
And that's, that's essentiallywhy I like d and d.
But, but the convergence,we had d and d games.
We had Like, I think they're calledOne Shots again, I'm not as super.
(42:51):
One shot it game.
That has the beginning and an end.
Yeah.
Wraps it all up in one session, one shot.
And we had a lot of those and, andpeople wanted to play and it was, I,
I say this a lot, but it was, it was.
Magical watching it because these people,they heal from, they heal from it.
And I maybe that's a driving forcefor you and wanting to be a, being
(43:13):
the professional DM is, is notonly fun for you, but also to,
to see what it does for people.
And, and I think that'swhy I, I love watching it.
I, I, again, I don't have a lot of freetime, so that's why I enjoy like listening
to it, podcasts and stuff like that.
But I can't participate itbecause I have to work a lot.
(43:35):
I'm kind of the same way.
I don't get to be a player very often.
I'm mostly running the games for people.
Yeah.
Helping them.
It's nice to just get home,play a video game by myself
and be protagonist for a while.
Yay.
I'm always the villain.
I'm always the villain, but I'msuch a nice guy on the inside.
I just, I'm scary lookingand scary sounding.
(43:55):
Scary looking and scary sounding.
I, I was actually listening to your talk.
I was thinking you, you could narrateaudiobooks and I would gladly listen
to them and fall asleep to them.
Your voice is incredible.
Oh, I put you to sleep.
That makes me sad.
No, that's a compliment.
What I'll need to do is I'll have toread some scary audio books to you,
which I would listen to and gladlyrelax you and dream horrid dreams.
(44:20):
That's my voice.
Infiltrates the crevices of your mind.
Haunts you.
I made, I welcome it.
I work for a criminal background screeningcompany and a theme park that they're
like the biggest, most wonderful.
I mean, all the seasons aregreat, but we love the dark stuff.
So we at work, at my, thecriminal background screening, we
(44:44):
actually, we read a lot of prettyintense charges, obviously, and.
When we get like a murder charge,we will actually go and look
for, there are multiple podcasts,like murder, podcasts and stuff.
And we will find, do you fan ofonly murders in the building?
Say again?
Only murders in the building on who?
Watch it.
Love it.
I'm obsessed.
(45:04):
Oh, so good.
So I love it.
But also it's Scott Martin Shortenand Steve Martin in it and, and
my queen, Selena, I'm obsessed.
She held her own and she.
Owned that show.
She really did.
I heard it was those guys in her, andI'm like, is she gonna be that good?
No, she was that good.
She was.
I was a doubter.
She made me a believer.
(45:25):
Steve Martin is actually like, him andJennifer Coolidge are my comedic idols.
Like I'm obsessed with them.
I think they're so good.
And Tina Faye.
And Tina Faye, yeah.
She's wonderful.
And she's got a scar in her facebecause I have a scar on my face.
I have multiple scars.
Do you have a cool storyabout how you got the scar?
(45:46):
So when I was little, so I love dogs.
I love, I love dogs, but when I waslittle, I wanted to be a drummer.
And dogs have soft spots on theirtails, much like a bebe on their head.
But I was making my own sweet beets and Itapped my dog on the tail, on, on the tail
of a stick, and he actually, it hurt him.
So he retaliated and heactually ripped my face off.
(46:09):
So like, I have a, a hort, youcan probably, you can kinda.
Maybe see it.
I have a horseshoe start.
No, it goes here up and then.
He almost took my eye out.
So I have an, it looks like a cursiveF, and then he ripped my cheek off
and they had to graft it together.
And this looks like a velociraptor.
(46:31):
That is a terrifying story.
Oh my gosh.
And then my, I have a scaracross my chin right here, so
you can see it in the shadow.
And then he ripped my lip off ofmy mandible or my jaw, and so they
had to sew it back on, so theyreconstructed half of my face.
Wow.
Well it's a good face.
Good job.
Thanks.
(46:51):
But yeah, that's why I love TinaFaye cuz I'm like, girl, she got,
I mean her, if you read her book,it's pretty intense, like my story.
But That's why I'm like, she'sgot a scar in her face, and
she's absolutely stunning.
Ugh.
I love her.
I love her.
I have chills thinkingof that story right now.
I have little kids and I wantthem to be safe and yeah.
Like dogs.
What I love dogs.
I'm a dog trainer.
(47:12):
Like I, I'm not afraid of them.
So, yep.
Just you were, you are dominant now.
You I am.
I'm you.
Were alpha over those times.
No dog will ever bite you again.
Well, that's not true.
I actually, I got bit on my mission.
I served a mission for the, for, formy church and I got bit on my mission
because we were doing service andthey were like, can you try my dog?
(47:32):
And I was like, sure.
And it bit my hand and I was like, itdidn't hurt as much as this obviously,
but I've been bit a couple times.
I have a 13 year old border Col.
She's very old, verysweet, very smart girl.
She doesn't get to play fetch as muchas she used to because she's so old.
But yeah if she ever likebit my three year old.
(47:57):
I would know that he started itand he deserved it because she
is so sweet and so mild mannered.
And my three-year-oldis the three-year-old.
You right.
See, that's the thing.
You, you learn, you learn aboutyour animal and their personality
and you do, you know, like the dogthat bit me, I loved him so much.
He was my best friend.
His name was Gonzo.
But he, we didn't work with him.
(48:17):
We didn't give him an a trueopportunity to like be the goodest boy.
He could be.
So the poor thing.
Zo.
Yeah.
Well, Tannah, it has beenso awesome talking to you.
I know.
I love you so much.
Seriously, you love you.
Awesome.
You so much.
You, you come hang out with me andBethany, because we still talk about you.
(48:39):
I would love it.
I would love it.
Talk about you.
We were so excited when we becameFacebook friends with you, and
then we never hung out becausethe world ended and Yeah, I know.
Didn't end, end.
And here we are the after times.
I'm just like super honored that you.
Shout out to your previous guestsfor saying that they like working
with me, but like, oh yeah,Rachel, Anne thinks you're great.
(49:02):
Courtney thinks you're great,James, I love thinks you're great.
I love them.
I love this.
They kept bringing you up and I'm like,okay, it's time, it's time to actually
meet Tannah because Lady Violet was great.
But now I actually get to meet Tannahand I'm hoping that we find cool
ways to collaborate in the future.
Maybe a Sweeney, Todd and Mrs.
(49:22):
Love it.
We'll see.
Maybe something elsewe'll work up to that.
It's part of the 10 year plan.
Yeah, 10 year, 20 year,you know, every 10 years.
See, you can play thosecharacters at any age.
So you can, it's fine.
They can be young, they can be old.
Like we can't age out of those roles.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
And what do you wantour listeners to know?
(49:44):
Where can they find you?
What should they?
What should they do to getmore shenanigans in their life?
Literally follow me onInstagram shenanigans.
It's literally just shenanigans.
I do this thing called You're the OnesieI Want, where my incredible friends
that I meet at the theaters out herewe sing Broadway songs in onesies.
I have a closet I would show you,but my room is a mess right now.
(50:06):
But I have 40 onesies and we 40 onesies.
Yes.
Oh my gosh, I love onesies.
I really do.
So anyway, yeah, so they, theypick onesies out or they have
their own and they come on andso yeah, you're the onesie I want
That's on the TikTok and Instagram.
You're gonna send me a link to that andI'm gonna put that in the description
(50:27):
when I, when I repost this so thateverybody can see 40 of these ones.
Cool.
Thank you so much Tannah.
And thank you listeners andhave a great week everybody.
Bye.
Thanks.
Bye.
And welcome to episodeeight of Dungeons and Dax.
This is Interactive Shenaniganswith Tannah O'Banion.
Tannah, thank you so much for comingon and it's wonderful to finally meet
you, and thank you for having me.
It's so, it's so funny thatyou say that cuz in my head I
feel like I know you so well.
(00:57):
But you've never hadThat's cause you've met me.
You've met Dax.
Yeah.
But you've never spoken to me.
You've only ever spoken toa character I've played.
So those of you who don'tknow Tannah, she's awesome.
And she has done a lot of work at EvermorePark and that is where I met Tannah.
You were a caroler at thetime, playing Lady Violet.
(01:17):
I was.
And since then, so many awesomethings have happened for your
character and for your career.
And let's, let's talk aboutthose things because, you
know, they're exciting for me.
They've been following that for years.
But then I wanna get to knowTannah finally for the first time.
So tell us about howyou became Lady Violet.
(01:38):
Well, I do a lot of theater and I was ina show with an individual that used to
work at the park, and he gave my name tothe previous the original creative team.
And, and so they reached out to meand they said, Hey, can you come in?
And, and I said, sure.
And so I, I went in and we had a chatand they were really, really nice.
(01:58):
They had me read a monologue and,and then they were like, great,
we're gonna have you come in and.
Be one of our carolers forour, for our Christmas season.
And I said, that sounds so fun.
And I got to sing and itwas really, really fun.
Cause that's really all they wantedme for is just for me to sing.
And you have a wonderful voice.
You're very nice.
(02:18):
You have a terrible poker face.
Okay.
Terrible poker face.
Yes, I will say, but the more I gotused to the way that people interact
with the actors or rather withme in the park, the better I got.
So.
Hmm.
I don't know.
I beg to differ.
You see how, I remember Lady Tyler beingthe caroler my wife was invited up.
(02:43):
You were bringing people To, to Carolwith Carol with the carolers and you're
giving them music around the fire.
Around the fire.
It was awesome.
It was snowy, it was magical.
It was beautiful.
And you know, my wife used to be in choir.
I used to be in choir.
I didn't tell you that, but shevolunteered and you know, you
got to share music with her.
And then we started making faces at you.
(03:03):
Yeah.
During your performances.
I remember that.
And you tried so hard to play a cool,to stay focused, but we got you to
break so many times and so we keptcoming back again and again to evermore.
It was before we had littlecreatures of our own to take care of.
Yeah.
Bethany and I would come frequentlythat winter and every time
(03:25):
we're like, where's Lady Violet?
We need to go mess her.
Okay.
To be fair, I would break.
I would stop singing, like I wouldbreak character singing, but I
wouldn't break like Violet character.
I say in character, but Idefinitely, I, there's just,
that is an important distinction.
It is a very important distinction, butI, I will say this, favorites are a thing.
(03:50):
People, even actors at evermorehave favorite patrons of the park
and you two still to this day.
Cuz I don't act in the parkvery much anymore now that I am.
Behind the scenes, but I you and yourwife are, in my opinion, the top tier
individuals that would come to the park.
(04:11):
The best.
The best.
So it, it was more of a i a comfort leveland like you guys are being really fun and
like I can, violet can be herself, whichis essentially a British version of me.
It's so great hearing youwith an American accent.
I love it.
Yeah.
Cuz you only ever heard mm-hmm.
(04:32):
A Surry type.
Accent.
That's so funny.
But yeah, we loved coming to seeyou and Violet became so much more.
Than just a carer in the park.
We were talking a little bitbefore the stream about some of the
work you put into this character,and as you were doing that, I'm
like, no, save it for the stream.
(04:54):
Oh yes.
It's good stuff.
But now is your time.
Tell us how did Lady Violet become thecomplex three-dimensional character
that everyone, well, it startedbehind the scenes and it also was
influenced by the patrons of the Parker.
We call them world walkers.
So.
When I, when, when Violet became acharacter, just a carer, they only
(05:15):
gave me her name, which was LadyViolet Atkinson and the daughter
of a famous judge in London.
That was it.
And so during rehearsals gettingready for our summer season, which
was Mythos 2019 I became reallygood friends with two individuals
who shout out to Caden Cameron.
They played o Manus and Maxwell, and we.
(05:39):
Didn't have a lot of directionand so we, we actually created our
backs, stories of our characterstogether, and we wove them together.
Osmand, new Violet's father whowas a corrupt judge, all this fun
stuff, and it just kind of unfolded.
And then I had a meeting with the creativeteam that let me know at the time that
they had plans for my character, but theydidn't tell me what those plans were.
(06:02):
And so I essentially just made Violet.
I, I wanted her to be the better versionof who I am which was just like really,
really nice and always super approachable.
And I mean, this is how I amnormally, but Violet was like,
hello, welcome to the park.
It's lovely to meet you, blah, blah, blah.
Oh, it's so good to hear that again.
(06:25):
And, and she became the, oneof the first people that you
would meet when you come in.
And as a patron of the park, you lookfor somebody who's familiar, like that
first person just cuz it's like, oh,you're that, almost like a safe space.
And throughout the season she, shewent through some stuff, her burn her,
her burn, her barn was burned down.
(06:46):
Her burn barn, her barnburn, all this drama.
She had a love interest.
And then the ultimate.
Like ending of the season was, was herbeing elected as mayor and obviously the
behind the scenes they had plans for her.
They wanted to her to be the mayor,but I asked them because I'm this
(07:07):
person, I was like, did you have to?
Did you have to like fake the numbers?
And they said, veryhonestly, they said no.
And they would show me the numbersof counting and they actually,
violet would be the one that wouldwin at the end of every voting.
And so we voted for you.
Thank you.
For me, you voted for violet?
Yes.
Voted for violet, but stand a character.
(07:31):
But she, she ended upnot needing the, the.
The story team to make it sothey've like messed up the,
the, or like fudged the numbers.
It was the world walkers whochose her to be the mayor.
And so you won a, you won a, anelection the old-fashioned way.
(07:52):
I did.
Didn't against have to run a campaignagainst the other candidates?
Say again.
You didn't even have to run a smearcampaign against the other candidates.
It was just nice and wholesomethe way democracy should be.
I love it.
That's so funny.
100%.
I agree with that.
But that's funny because therewere, there were, if I rem like I.
(08:14):
Now that we're talking aboutit, I remember all of these
conversations of people beinglike, well, let's spread rumors.
And I'm like, no.
Because again, like my number onething when I was creating her was
that she was kind and honest andshe was all about uplifting people.
Like we have these things called lots,which are essentially individual quests
or activities that you can do to earn.
(08:36):
At the time it was gold, which was the.
The currency of the park.
You still have my bagof gold and everything.
Ah, yeah.
So for, for me, for Violet,her loti was compliments.
So I would look at that.
Oh my gosh.
(08:57):
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
She, she's rich.
Look at that.
This was, you know, my gold andBethany's gold that we saved up for
like a year and then never got to spend.
And I dropped some of it on the floor.
Let's those of you listening and notwatching, there are little gold nuggets.
Well, They're little pieces of gravel.
(09:23):
Also, if you hear any dog noises, my dogis sleeping right next to me, so just
wanted to for anybody listening, but,but yeah, so, so her laie was, was either
having you go out and talk to a completestranger and compliment them based on
I would try really hard to avoid looks,because I feel like our world is, Is way
(09:44):
too obsessed with what people look like.
So I would try to have them havea conversation and, and learn
something about an individual andcompliment them based on that.
If it was a stranger situation, but ifit was a family situation or friends
or, I would love it when they were kidsbecause I would have the kids compliment
their parents, specifically their moms.
Cuz I feel like, I mean, I told you thisbefore, but I feel like moms don't get
(10:08):
thanked enough for all that they do.
Same with dads, I feel like.
Vice versa.
No, dad's get to be the cool ones.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, growing.
I have the best parents in thewhole wide world, but they, they
were pretty equal in like good cop,bad cop, so they, they took turns.
But but yeah, it was so fun to watchbecause it was, it was heartwarming really
(10:28):
because the kids would compliment the momsor say thank you or whatever, and then the
moms would actually get pretty emotionaland it was, it was very, very sweet.
And then they would get their goldand run off and it was, So, so fun
and, and Violet kept that up untilshe was no longer no longer the mayor.
So no longer the mayor.
What happened?
Did she get deposed?
(10:49):
She did not get to postthe, the town executed.
She was framed actually.
Mm-hmm.
And so she was removed from officeand her deputy Mayor Valla if you
remember her, she was an Elvin ranger.
She took over and this was the transitionbecause they wanted me to come in and
(11:10):
play the villain because I had playedViolet for five and a half seasons.
And they were like, girl, it's time.
It's time for you to bea different character.
And I was like, I welcome this.
Thank you so much.
I love Violet.
Don't get me wrong.
I, if I could, I mean, it's old lore and,and she's a character that people, I still
get messages from people asking about howshe is and which is really, really, really
(11:34):
sweet for me because I'm like, oh mygosh, I played this character that people
ended up really loving I love her too.
So shout out to all those peoplethat still send me messages.
But, but yeah, so she, she ended upbeing framed and she was later proven
innocent, but she decided to go offto London and be with her sister and.
(11:58):
Follow, find out what was happeningwith her romantic relationship with Mr.
Phillip Humphreys.
The, the postman.
He was my other favorite.
Yeah.
I found out that there was likea love interest subplot going on.
I shipped that so hard.
Well, you, you and multi,there were a lot of people.
(12:18):
Not only would you get people tocompliment each other, but Philip made.
It his personal mission to learneach and every guest's name.
Yep.
And when they came back, he wouldremember their names, remember
little details about them.
And, you know, we felt specialcuz he remembered our name.
But then we would just sit backand, and watch other people.
(12:39):
We thought we, we werethe exclusive ones, right?
We were top tier guests.
But no, that, he was just thatnice and that awesome too.
Everybody.
And, and when there were othersubplots and main plots going on
where, you know, plagues were infectingevermore before plagues were cool
and they were these winter I don'teven remember the main plots as much.
(13:01):
I had more fun hanging out with the sidecharacters like you and Philip Humphrey's.
You know, it was a nice, like cozyslice of life in the middle of this,
you know, conflicted fantasy world.
It.
I agree.
I, I loved, because I only ever worldwalked the one time when I was like
trying to figure out what it was inbetween the time that they had me come
(13:24):
in and between the, the time when Iwas in park and it was so fun to watch.
Like there were these,the main characters.
But I mean, side note, the maincharacters are the world walkers to us.
Like our, our main thing is to makeyou guys the heroes of the story.
It just so happens thatour characters are.
Help we're the PCs, but Philip,specifically the actor who
(13:49):
played him, love him to death.
His name is Brad.
He never wrote anybody's names down ever.
He, that was just his brain remembering.
It was so Wow, so incredible.
And I rem obviously, I rememberedthe people that I really, really
loved, like you and your wife.
And I don't know if you wantme to share names so I won't.
So, but you and your wife, youcan share her name, you can share
(14:09):
her name, a couple other people.
So I love Bethany Bethany's.
Great.
Shout up to Bethany.
And like pit plum and, oh my gosh.
And Rachel evermore adventurous,but now she's ever adventurous.
There are a lot of, there area couple individuals that just
near and dear to the heart.
So what are you up to these days?
(14:31):
We know evermore has been througha lot of periods of, of change and
they've been adapting their model.
I am also a business owner, so I'mfascinated with the behind the scenes
things of, you know, how thingswork and how things are profitable.
They're doing a lot more markets andthere's more of a focus on vendors.
But what are some of the cool thingsthat are changing that make you excited?
(14:54):
Events really we're doing morespecial event type situations.
Like we just actually had a, ourfirst murder mystery in the park
last weekend was our first Yes.
Rivers cove.
That, that stuff is really exciting.
The tea parties that we have areso fun, so if you ever want me to
wanna see me in character a lotof times I will be characters for
(15:15):
those because it's easier for me to.
To also run the show, but alsomake sure that the show is working
and, and facilitate in character.
So if you ever wanna participate inthat regard, I highly recommend it.
There's so much fun, a lot ofwork and rehearsal goes into that.
But my favorite season is lorebecause I'm spooky season.
(15:35):
Yes.
If you can, you can see in thebackground here, I've got like this
rainbow Jack and Sally painting.
But I got it annex last year when Iwas working the booth, but, but yeah,
definitely I have my evermore coins.
Where are my coins?
Here's one of them.
Oh my circus goodness.
(15:57):
And then my absolute favorite coin.
I collect a lot of different fantasycoins and I use them in my games.
I think my favorite one that I have isthis season of lore with the vampire
skull on it and Grail on the back.
What season was that?
Does it say evermore Lord, 2019.
Okay.
(16:18):
In the before times.
In the before times 2019.
The 2019 was, we were so young back then.
It was so intense cuz Violet got attackedby by those, all the plagued people.
And I actually end up littlebehind the scenes stuff.
They weren't supposed to attack mewhen they did and it ended up me
ripping my dress because, oh no.
(16:41):
Because they weren't supposed to.
And I was like running around.
I was like, you got, butwe were, it was crazy.
And so one of my favorites, shout outto this family Ross and his family.
They actually stood by me while I tried tofix my dress because it had ripped so bad.
So they put a whole wall making itlike a human shield wall to Yeah.
(17:01):
And so I put my cloak over it andI was like, ah, well repair rack.
Here it comes.
But, but yeah.
So to, to where I am now, so when,when the pandemic hit, obviously
things happened and so the parkhad to make some adjustments and.
So the individuals that were asked to bethe directors, like the, the c o o at the
(17:21):
ti Well, yeah, he's the COO and, and myboss, she's the director of entertainment.
She was actually an actor in the park.
They both were.
He, he was, if I remember, he wasan acolyte and he was one of the
Aries, and then she was the spiderprincess, if you remember her.
And she was also a fairy, theacolytes, they were the ones
in the spooky bird masks.
(17:43):
Yeah.
And the, and the, yeah.
Long flowing cloaks.
Very cool.
So fun, such fun characters.
But I, I became really, really goodfriends with Adrian and So she's,
she's my boss, but we would Marco Poloall the time and we were just talking
about like what our dreams were.
And I obviously, my ultimate dreamis to be on Broadway and, and to
(18:04):
do film and stuff because one, I'ma plus size individual and I feel
like more representation for plussize people should be out there.
But.
I, I also really, really wantedto get into casting and I wanna
work for Disney and casting.
I think that is like my ultimate,if, if I could snap my fingers, I
would be doing casting for Disney.
(18:25):
And she remembered that conversation.
And so when she was building her team sheasked me if I wanted to, and I said, yeah.
So she originally made me the castingdirector, which I still do that.
But then some shifts happened behindthe scenes, about nine months into
our, the brand new creative team.
(18:45):
And then she made methe assistant director.
And so I do the casting, but Ialso organize a lot of stuff.
And so, so she and I have anincredible working relationship.
We, we have this.
Work life balance with each other.
We can have a conversationwhere it's like, okay, this is
(19:05):
Boss Adrian to to boss Tannah.
And this is BestieAdrian to bestie Tannah.
Like we, we say, okay, quick side.
And we always preface it with thatbecause we also wanna make sure that
we're not crossing or blurring thoselines of work to, to friendship.
So, It's very much a familybehind the scenes, and we have an
(19:26):
incredible costuming department.
Christie is absolutely wonderful.
One of my dear friends, we actuallyjust went to the Tulip Festival
together a couple weeks ago.
Very cool.
But yeah, so I'm the, I organizeall of the, the auditions that
you see and, and the callbacks,everything that that happens.
(19:46):
We sit down and we createthe characters together.
We create the back stories of them.
We collaborate on what wewant their aesthetic to be.
Ken who owns the park, will have aconversation with Adrian and then
she, she has this incredible mind.
It's so incredible.
It, I, I cannot express or likeboost her more, but what she
(20:08):
comes up with is so magical.
It's, it's fantastic.
And then being able to be a part of.
Of creating that and bringing itto life as one of the coolest,
it's like a puzzle piece.
And, which I'm sure you understand whatthat is because you are a professional dm.
Yeah.
Right.
So it's really fun to, to see all ofthat come together and then, and then.
(20:29):
My favorite, my ultimate favorite part,Dax, is literally watching these actors.
I cast them and, and then we sitdown and we work and, and I provide
them with their information.
Right?
And, and I work ontheir accents with them.
I'm the dialect coachso Scottish and Irish.
And we, we try to avoid Frenchcuz it's really hard to understand
(20:52):
sometimes if you're are really,really good at a French accent.
So then there's the RP and.
Just standard British.
And then sometimes we bring an Americanbecause it's really fun to have that.
But my favorite part is, is when thepark is open and you see all of the
preparation that my actors have put in andbringing it to life and seeing the joy on
(21:14):
the patrons or the world walker's facesand it, them getting fan art and, and.
YouTube stories made of them andall of these beautiful photos.
It's so cool.
It's like, oh, there's my kid.
They grown up.
No.
This is cool.
I've never been a casting director, butevery time I start a new campaign, I,
(21:37):
I'm meeting with players and helpingthem bring their characters to life.
Finding out what their play style is,what sort of their, their strengths
are and what yeah, you know, emotionalneeds they have when they're gaming.
And then I work to meld their backstorieswith the plot of the campaign so
(21:57):
that they feel like the heroes.
And, and I love that evermore hasthat same that same mindset that,
you know, the guests, they're,they're the heroes and everything
else is designed to support them.
And so the NPCs that I create in my gamesalso, I can't think of them as the heroes.
It's the it's players that come inand I get to make people feel awesome.
(22:18):
Yeah.
That's what we do, Tannah.
We make people feel awesome.
That's the best part.
I, I cannot ex, I, that's my, there'snot enough kindness ever, like in any
of my bios that I write for a play billthat I'm in or in a show that I'm in.
A program, the end of it will be, havecourage and be kind from Cinderella.
(22:42):
And it starts with that.
It's like our ultimate goal.
And that's actually Ken's biggestthing, that owner of the park.
He cares so, so, so much aboutthe, the experience of the guests.
He just wants people to have funand, and whatever that may look like.
But the park is literally like a love.
(23:03):
Letter to, to people and wantingthem, the creative individuals
out there to have a place to bewho they are and to just be happy.
So kindness is really important.
I love that.
I love that.
We, we talked about Ripper's Cove,which was the most recent event.
(23:23):
Yeah.
Is there any other events you cantell us about that are coming up?
Any secret ones that you areat liberty to talk about?
Not secret ones, but we willhave another Ripper's Cove.
In the spooky time.
So around September not like a ripper'scove, it'll be another murder mystery.
It'll be Ripper's Cove, but spookier.
Ooh, yes, actually, yes.
(23:44):
Twice as much.
Murderer, murder, just as much mystery.
And we will have another tea party.
This one will be pirates versus Knights.
So that'll be really, really fun.
It's more geared towards kids, but ourfirst one was, was Alison Evermore.
It was like a Alison Wonderland.
It's adjacent theme and it was,it was, I was the red queen.
(24:08):
Did you get to say the line, youknow which line I'm talking about?
Did you just say the line,the off with your head?
Yes, I did.
I did say it to the individualplaying the, the Hatha.
But we have to be careful because we,obviously there's copyright issues.
Mm-hmm.
And we don't.
We don't play with that stuff.
(24:29):
Yeah.
So we, because Lewis Carrolls,Alison Wonderland, the book
is in the public domain.
Yes.
And that's what we did.
Disney version and the stuff thatcomes from the Disney version that
is not, and they will hold onto thatas tightly as they possibly can.
Yes.
So the, it was, it was the publicdon domain stuff that we played with.
But so yeah, so we're having anotherone and they're Gilbert more towards
(24:49):
kids cuz they're, You know, we justwant kids to have a lot of fun too.
But it was so interestingbecause a lot, with the first tea
party, it was a lot more adults.
Like there were barely any childrenout there, which was so fun.
And it it, I just love, I, Isaw this post recently where
someone was talking about how I.
In every kid there's an adult waitingto grow up, and in every adult
(25:11):
there's a kid waiting to come out.
And I see that at Evermore.
And, and I also see that in otherproductions that I'm a part of as well,
with like the musical theater and mm-hmm.
All it people get to play andrelease a part of them that they
haven't seen in a really long time.
(25:32):
And it's, it's so beautiful.
It's almost healing in a way.
You mentioned musical theater, and I amfascinated at the wall that is behind
you, that is covered in playbills.
Yeah.
Are these shows you've seenor shows that you've started.
The both, actually, there are playbillsfrom stuff I've been in, but also I
love, I love going to see Broadway shows.
(25:54):
So yeah, it's, it's a workin progress as you can see.
It's like there's stillmore wall to be covered.
What are, what are the, some of yourfavorite roles and some of your dream
roles that you wanna play someday?
Okay.
Favorite roles that I've played Mrs.
Elton in the regional premiereof Emma the musical, if you know.
(26:15):
Jane Austin.
She was a delight.
I love her so much.
Miss Flannery in thoroughly modernMillie, I, I tend to play the comedic.
Side characters that's like mm-hmm.
Me, Jennifer Coolidge.
That's not the main character,but just like, comes on stage
and is absolutely hilarious.
That's, that's side characters in thevillains are the most fun anyways.
(26:39):
I'm always, yes.
And then Adela, who, Adela is oneof Ariel's sisters in the Mermaid,
in the Little Mermaid skit.
And then villain wise, one, oh, sorry.
The Drowsy Chaperone was adream role and I got to play her
in Because you were the star.
You were the Drowsy Chaperoneof The Drowsy Chaperone.
(26:59):
I was the Drowsy Chaperoneabsolute dream, which is so funny.
Sorry, side tangent.
I was in that show 10 years before Iwas in it again here, and I had played
a different character and I told myselfthe first time I did it that one day
I would play the Jas of Chaperone.
And then 10 years later, it'sso funny because I got an award.
For best cameo, best female cameo for thecharacter at the time was tricks that I
(27:24):
played in the first, the first go around.
And then while I was in product,like we were open to the public.
I.
My Facebook memories reminded meof the award that I got and how I
was in like at the exact same time.
It was, it was so crazy.
But yeah, then I was thera of chaperone.
Did you get and then put your hand onthe shoulder of the new tricks and be
(27:44):
like, someday, 10 years from now you toocan be thera chaperone, keep dreaming.
Oh my gosh.
I didn't, but I should have.
Her name is Abby and she's incredible.
I love her so much.
The, the girl who played her inwhen I was drowsy, but Then villain
wise, favorite role was actually myvillain, my character that came in
(28:05):
after, right after Violet was gone.
Her name was Serin.
Hemstead.
She was Slovic, she was from Aurora,but that was such an epic name.
Can you say that again?
With Menace Sieg Sea.
She's Sieg.
I loved her.
(28:25):
She was, she actually was the characterthat showed me that I had more range.
Cuz again, I'm usually just the comedic,comedic relief character, or in this
case I was the really like just meekand and loving motherly type character.
Whereas Serin came in and itwas like, Death upon everyone.
(28:50):
So it was really, and I got tolearn stage combat with that.
And there was a lot of really neatthings that happened with that villain.
But the, I would say those are myfavorite roles that I've played.
And then dream roles, I wanna beRosie and Mama Mia, which, if I'm,
if I do this right, right there,that's a playbook for Mamamia.
Yep.
I wanna be, Ursula in the lettermer in the Little Mermaid skit.
(29:13):
I absolute dream.
I'm a little bit too old now, but I wouldlove to be Tracy Turnblad and Hairspray.
But I'm too tall for her.
She's supposed to be short andstout, and I'm, I'm, I'm chunky,
but I'm, I'm also five nine.
So and then Glinda in Wicked, which.
(29:34):
Most people are like, I wanna be Alphabet.
I'm over here.
Like, no, I wanna be Glinda.
Cause she's, again, she's the comedicrelief, but she's also got this complex
character growth that a lot of peopledon't pay attention to that I'm, and
she's an antagonist through most of it.
Yeah, she is.
Is an antagonist.
Ugh.
I love it.
Oh, and then There are some showsthat I don't like very much that
(29:57):
I would love to be in so thatI could gain an appreciation.
And so yeah, those would be, Iwould guess I would consider dream
roles as well, but they're notlike my go-to, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
There's that.
You, you mentioned you wanted toask me about my theater experience.
(30:19):
Yes.
It has been over a decade sinceI've been in an actual play.
In high school and incollege, that was my life.
If I wasn't doing school plays,I was doing community theater.
I did a lot of shows over at theEmpress Theater in Magna, and yes, you
know, I was constantly in shows likethree or four a year and in straight
(30:41):
plays and in musicals You know, didn'tget to play any of my dream roles in
that, that brief period of my life.
And when I got back to college,declared my major, I got really
busy and still did improv.
Still did d and d, but, you know,haven't been in a musical since,
haven't been in a, an actualplace since I've been on stages.
(31:01):
Right.
Yeah.
I've done performances with gamesand I've been panelists and a lot of
those skills have carried on, but,Part of me wonders if I'll ever get
back to an actual play on stage.
Maybe something I need you to, I needyou to, I need to see you in action.
One role that I actually playedtwice once at a summer camp and
(31:23):
later at the Empress Theater.
I was an arsenic and old lace.
I've never seen that show.
Oh, you would love Arsenic on Old Lace.
It's about two sweet little old ladies.
Who poison lonely men who comeinto their house as a service and
as a kindness to them, and theybury their bodies in the cellar.
It's a, it's a very dark comedyand there are three brothers in
(31:45):
it who all have their own issues.
And I was Jonathan who was the.
The serial killer who one of the twistsof the show is he finds out that his
nice, sweet, old ants have actuallykilled more people than him, and he's
very, very upset about what, what,my gosh, part of his character is.
He's supposed to look like Boris Carla.
(32:07):
And you know, I just have highcheekbones and a deep voice and
back then I had hair on my face,but I shaved my beard for this roll.
My hair was black and slicked backand I had scars all over my face and I
made a little girl in the audience cry.
This is good acting.
That is a major milestone.
Like that was a definingmoment in my acting career.
(32:28):
Made a little girl cry and then the,her her aunt who brought her was
like, Hey, you made my niece cry.
She wants to just know how nice youare cuz we, we know you're nice ex.
We know you're sweet.
So here, here she is.
And I just gave her aglare and she ran away.
You're like, no, I'm not ruining this.
I'm gonna, I'm not gonna be the nice guy.
I'm gonna make sure that she knows.
(32:50):
So, yeah.
So I did, I did Jonathan twice.
Oh, fun.
I've done, I've been one ofthe brothers and Joseph in the
amazing technical dream coat.
I've done, I did EnsembleLe Mis at my high school.
Were you Ruben?
I was Dan.
You were Dan.
Okay.
I was Dan.
Yeah.
They're like, Dan Daxsounds the same, so Sure.
Sure.
I did Pirates of Penzance twice actually.
(33:12):
I love that show.
Someday I would loveto be the pirate King.
Someday I would love to be thepirate king and you could be
the Ruth to my pirate king.
Like can you imagine that?
Honors?
Can you imagine that?
That would be so cool.
My absolute dream role.
And you know, I, I haven't kept upon voice lessons or anything, so I,
(33:34):
you know, not an operatic singer, butI would love to play Sweeney Todd.
I wanna be Mrs.
Lovett.
Listen, the Grand in Salt Lake isdoing that this, this, this October.
Oh.
Although get someone who probablyhas a lot more voice experience than.
Than I do.
But Sweeney Todd is, you never know,maybe 10 years from now, if I start
(33:57):
now, I know we'll go, we will audition,will be small, little minor characters.
And then 10 years from now we'll goback and then we will be the leads.
We're gonna be like, like Drew Barrymoreand Adam Sandler, where they only
do shows together every 10 years.
(34:17):
That's, that's, that's our dynamic.
But yeah, I'd love to do Sweeney Todd.
I did not like the Tim BurtonJohnny Depp movie at all.
I am very upset with it.
That's how I feel about cats.
Cats wasn't good to begin with, wasn't it?
Okay.
Okay.
You're gonna, you're gonna judge me andpeople watching might judge me as well,
but that's actually my favorite musical.
(34:38):
Huh.
Okay.
The 29.
Listen, I've studied it so I actuallyknow that there's a little bit of, you
studied it, there's things to study.
Is there like an academic trackto understand the deeper meaning?
Isn't it just about cats?
On the surface, yes.
I, I did my, my junior yearterm paper on Cats, the musical.
And so I learned a lot about whereit came from and, and character
(35:02):
development for each of the charactersand what each character wanted.
Like it's, there's a lot that goesinto it, but the 2019 version of Cats,
the musical is the most disrespectful.
And like it, it's so rudebecause not it showcases
(35:24):
terrible, terrible, terrible cgi.
And Jennifer Hudson's snot was likethe number one star that I remember.
And cats, to me, the musicalis the epitome of, of, of human
creativity because it, it, Imean, every show is incredible.
Whoa.
Let's, let's quote that youthink Kat's the musical is the
epitome of human creativity.
(35:46):
Yeah.
Judge me if you want.
Every show showcasesincredible creativity from.
Pe Human beings are incredible what theydo, but for me, at the time when I had
first seen cats, it was the acting likeyou're portraying a cat, which I thought
was so fascinating, and they had it.
(36:06):
They have it down, and then the costuming,the costume design, the set design,
the music, the vocals, the dancing.
Everything together.
I was like, what a weird piece of art.
And yet it, it's so beautiful and itshows what a human can do creativity wise.
And then I was introduced to moreshows and I was just like, oh my gosh.
(36:26):
Like it, it's whatintroduced me to theater.
And I, and then they had to putCGI all over it and, and then
that 2019 version came out.
Listen, if you want a good versionof it, watch the 1998 version.
It is so good.
So good.
I don't know if we'll evershare the stage for cats.
I'm more of a dog person.
(36:47):
I love dogs too.
Look, you can see my dogs behind me.
Wait, over here?
Yep.
Paintings, watercolor paintingsthat my friends gave me.
No, even though I haven't beenon stage for a long time I still
get to express that creativity.
I still get to.
Interact with other people incollaborative storytelling, right?
(37:07):
Yeah.
I run, you know, d and d games fora living and it's so much fun taking
the shy players and giving themcharacters that they're passionate
about and seeing them step into thoseroles and become awesome, right?
That's what we do.
We make people feel awesome.
Wait, so.
I'm curious then, so do you, do youcreate the characters and like you
go through the character sheet and,and figure out what their, their
(37:29):
stamina is and like all of this stuff?
Great question.
No, those are decisions thatthey make, but I walk them
through the process step by step.
Okay.
One, to make sure that they are, Iwant people to have viable characters.
I don't have them overpowered,you know, broken characters, but
you know, so they are good at thethings they want to be good at.
(37:50):
Mm, I, I read all the rule booksso that my players don't have to,
if they don't have the time for it.
Right.
But I talk to them about what sort ofcharacters inspire them, what sort of
movies or books that they like to geta feel for how they want to express
themselves, how they want to feel.
Awesome.
And so I'll make suggestions and sometimesI take my suggestions, sometimes they
(38:12):
don't, and I'll work together with themto build their backstory, you know?
And fit it into the campaign that I have.
So if I run the same campaign for twodifferent parties, I'm gonna run it
into very different ways because thereare different characters in play.
They make different choicesthat affect the narrative.
That's another thing Ilove about evermore is.
(38:35):
The narrative would change based ondecisions that world Walkers made or key
events that were turning points that wouldtake things in a different trajectory.
I, I get to do that and it's alot of fun and you confessed to
me before the stream and I'm gonnafeel like I have to call you out.
You've only played d and d one time.
(38:56):
Listen, you can call meout on a lot of things.
I've shared that I love Kathleen.
You like cats?
Yeah.
I, I I think it's incredible.
D and d I think it's a fun game.
It's so, there's so much to it, butI actually find more joy watching
people play because I, I love.
(39:17):
I love movies.
I love film.
I love reading.
I love books.
Like I, I even love video gamesthat have story, but I, I have
found that I like to watch it.
Like I, I actually sit in myoffice, so I have three jobs.
I have three I.
Full-time jobs, so I don't sleep a lot.
But one of them I work forcriminal full-time jobs.
If it's eight hours a day,that's no sleep at all.
(39:39):
Yeah.
So you, you can imagine that my eveningsare packed and my weekends are packed.
So, but my, my job, my eight tofive is I work for a criminal
background screening company.
So I essentially who I legally stalkpeople through the court system.
So I know a lot about a peoplein their criminal history.
But I sit in my office and I actuallylisten to a, her name is Kelsey Peaches.
(40:05):
May Peach K, actually, but that's her sim.
She plays the Sims professionally,and I love the Sims.
But, but what, why I'm telling youthat is because I love, I love the
joy that people get playing the game.
And I, I love hearing theircreativity or their, their
ideas, especially the dms like.
(40:26):
We had a really neat event thathappened at Evermore a couple
weeks ago called the Convergence.
Mm-hmm.
If you know who Quincy, Quincy isfrom Quincy Tavern, Love his content.
He's amazing.
And the nicest dude, nicest guy.
My my wife got into Quincy during thepandemic into watching his content.
I mean, yeah.
And she was like, oh, he's,he's doing this tavern.
(40:46):
He just talks at the tavern.
I'm like, that's a brilliant idea.
Why didn't I think of it first?
So I decided I was gonna go hatewatch Quincy's Tavern, and you can't.
You can't.
I was like, this guy has such a good idea.
I can't believe he'soh, oh, he's so sweet.
And I feel seen and oh, I want to go tothis tavern and like 2, 2, 2 videos in.
(41:07):
And I just melted and was,became a Quincy stand.
Just such a nice guy.
He's amazing.
He really is.
And going back to the kindnessthing, I actually had a
conversation with him on the.
Second or no, the last day ofthe conference, the convergence,
the conference is essentially itwas a d and d whatever, whatever.
It was very heavily influenced by d and d.
(41:29):
But we were talking about how, Imean, good and bad comes with a
lot of stuff that we do, right?
And I experienced a lot ofbad as Violet Atkinson and
My, my that sometimes overshadows someof the, the really good things and,
and I just, I was having a conversationwith, with him and this other lady
(41:49):
that works at Evermore, she's lovely.
Her name is Wendy.
And she was talking about howsometimes patrons of the park will get
a little bit too into the game and,and get kind of mean sometimes and.
We were talking about how Quincy,we never experienced that with, with
that whole week of the convergence.
(42:10):
We never experienced anybody being cruelor mean because they felt like they could
or because they wanted their characterto be that everybody was so kind.
It, and it was very much like gay pride tome in the sense that when I go to Pride,
All you feel is love and acceptance.
And that's what it waswith the convergence.
The kindness was literallythe driving force.
(42:31):
And that's why I feel like he welcomes in.
And so it, it was so fascinatingto, to watch that and the way
he interacted with his guests.
And that's, that's essentiallywhy I like d and d.
But, but the convergence,we had d and d games.
We had Like, I think they're calledOne Shots again, I'm not as super.
(42:51):
One shot it game.
That has the beginning and an end.
Yeah.
Wraps it all up in one session, one shot.
And we had a lot of those and, andpeople wanted to play and it was, I,
I say this a lot, but it was, it was.
Magical watching it because these people,they heal from, they heal from it.
And I maybe that's a driving forcefor you and wanting to be a, being
(43:13):
the professional DM is, is notonly fun for you, but also to,
to see what it does for people.
And, and I think that'swhy I, I love watching it.
I, I, again, I don't have a lot of freetime, so that's why I enjoy like listening
to it, podcasts and stuff like that.
But I can't participate itbecause I have to work a lot.
(43:35):
I'm kind of the same way.
I don't get to be a player very often.
I'm mostly running the games for people.
Yeah.
Helping them.
It's nice to just get home,play a video game by myself
and be protagonist for a while.
Yay.
I'm always the villain.
I'm always the villain, but I'msuch a nice guy on the inside.
I just, I'm scary lookingand scary sounding.
(43:55):
Scary looking and scary sounding.
I, I was actually listening to your talk.
I was thinking you, you could narrateaudiobooks and I would gladly listen
to them and fall asleep to them.
Your voice is incredible.
Oh, I put you to sleep.
That makes me sad.
No, that's a compliment.
What I'll need to do is I'll have toread some scary audio books to you,
which I would listen to and gladlyrelax you and dream horrid dreams.
(44:20):
That's my voice.
Infiltrates the crevices of your mind.
Haunts you.
I made, I welcome it.
I work for a criminal background screeningcompany and a theme park that they're
like the biggest, most wonderful.
I mean, all the seasons aregreat, but we love the dark stuff.
So we at work, at my, thecriminal background screening, we
(44:44):
actually, we read a lot of prettyintense charges, obviously, and.
When we get like a murder charge,we will actually go and look
for, there are multiple podcasts,like murder, podcasts and stuff.
And we will find, do you fan ofonly murders in the building?
Say again?
Only murders in the building on who?
Watch it.
Love it.
I'm obsessed.
(45:04):
Oh, so good.
So I love it.
But also it's Scott Martin Shortenand Steve Martin in it and, and
my queen, Selena, I'm obsessed.
She held her own and she.
Owned that show.
She really did.
I heard it was those guys in her, andI'm like, is she gonna be that good?
No, she was that good.
She was.
I was a doubter.
She made me a believer.
(45:25):
Steve Martin is actually like, him andJennifer Coolidge are my comedic idols.
Like I'm obsessed with them.
I think they're so good.
And Tina Faye.
And Tina Faye, yeah.
She's wonderful.
And she's got a scar in her facebecause I have a scar on my face.
I have multiple scars.
Do you have a cool storyabout how you got the scar?
(45:46):
So when I was little, so I love dogs.
I love, I love dogs, but when I waslittle, I wanted to be a drummer.
And dogs have soft spots on theirtails, much like a bebe on their head.
But I was making my own sweet beets and Itapped my dog on the tail, on, on the tail
of a stick, and he actually, it hurt him.
So he retaliated and heactually ripped my face off.
(46:09):
So like, I have a, a hort, youcan probably, you can kinda.
Maybe see it.
I have a horseshoe start.
No, it goes here up and then.
He almost took my eye out.
So I have an, it looks like a cursiveF, and then he ripped my cheek off
and they had to graft it together.
And this looks like a velociraptor.
(46:31):
That is a terrifying story.
Oh my gosh.
And then my, I have a scaracross my chin right here, so
you can see it in the shadow.
And then he ripped my lip off ofmy mandible or my jaw, and so they
had to sew it back on, so theyreconstructed half of my face.
Wow.
Well it's a good face.
Good job.
Thanks.
(46:51):
But yeah, that's why I love TinaFaye cuz I'm like, girl, she got,
I mean her, if you read her book,it's pretty intense, like my story.
But That's why I'm like, she'sgot a scar in her face, and
she's absolutely stunning.
Ugh.
I love her.
I love her.
I have chills thinkingof that story right now.
I have little kids and I wantthem to be safe and yeah.
Like dogs.
What I love dogs.
I'm a dog trainer.
(47:12):
Like I, I'm not afraid of them.
So, yep.
Just you were, you are dominant now.
You I am.
I'm you.
Were alpha over those times.
No dog will ever bite you again.
Well, that's not true.
I actually, I got bit on my mission.
I served a mission for the, for, formy church and I got bit on my mission
because we were doing service andthey were like, can you try my dog?
(47:32):
And I was like, sure.
And it bit my hand and I was like, itdidn't hurt as much as this obviously,
but I've been bit a couple times.
I have a 13 year old border Col.
She's very old, verysweet, very smart girl.
She doesn't get to play fetch as muchas she used to because she's so old.
But yeah if she ever likebit my three year old.
(47:57):
I would know that he started itand he deserved it because she
is so sweet and so mild mannered.
And my three-year-oldis the three-year-old.
You right.
See, that's the thing.
You, you learn, you learn aboutyour animal and their personality
and you do, you know, like the dogthat bit me, I loved him so much.
He was my best friend.
His name was Gonzo.
But he, we didn't work with him.
(48:17):
We didn't give him an a trueopportunity to like be the goodest boy.
He could be.
So the poor thing.
Zo.
Yeah.
Well, Tannah, it has beenso awesome talking to you.
I know.
I love you so much.
Seriously, you love you.
Awesome.
You so much.
You, you come hang out with me andBethany, because we still talk about you.
(48:39):
I would love it.
I would love it.
Talk about you.
We were so excited when we becameFacebook friends with you, and
then we never hung out becausethe world ended and Yeah, I know.
Didn't end, end.
And here we are the after times.
I'm just like super honored that you.
Shout out to your previous guestsfor saying that they like working
with me, but like, oh yeah,Rachel, Anne thinks you're great.
(49:02):
Courtney thinks you're great,James, I love thinks you're great.
I love them.
I love this.
They kept bringing you up and I'm like,okay, it's time, it's time to actually
meet Tannah because Lady Violet was great.
But now I actually get to meet Tannahand I'm hoping that we find cool
ways to collaborate in the future.
Maybe a Sweeney, Todd and Mrs.
(49:22):
Love it.
We'll see.
Maybe something elsewe'll work up to that.
It's part of the 10 year plan.
Yeah, 10 year, 20 year,you know, every 10 years.
See, you can play thosecharacters at any age.
So you can, it's fine.
They can be young, they can be old.
Like we can't age out of those roles.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
And what do you wantour listeners to know?
(49:44):
Where can they find you?
What should they?
What should they do to getmore shenanigans in their life?
Literally follow me onInstagram shenanigans.
It's literally just shenanigans.
I do this thing called You're the OnesieI Want, where my incredible friends
that I meet at the theaters out herewe sing Broadway songs in onesies.
I have a closet I would show you,but my room is a mess right now.
(50:06):
But I have 40 onesies and we 40 onesies.
Yes.
Oh my gosh, I love onesies.
I really do.
So anyway, yeah, so they, theypick onesies out or they have
their own and they come on andso yeah, you're the onesie I want
That's on the TikTok and Instagram.
You're gonna send me a link to that andI'm gonna put that in the description
(50:27):
when I, when I repost this so thateverybody can see 40 of these ones.
Cool.
Thank you so much Tannah.
And thank you listeners andhave a great week everybody.
Bye.
Thanks.
Bye.
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