EITM: Capitol Merman 8/6/25

Jacob Griffith takes Elliot on an aquatic adventure from the Southside of Richmond to the world of merfolk.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please welcome Jack Jo Advice. Your name Jacob.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
You got forty five different names, please welcome Capital Merman
one of them I can't say.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Is it more more? Many?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
More?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Nannion?

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
What is it more? Nanion?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yeah, okay, yeah, see King of Virginia. And in a
small chat group, Pitt Beef. Please say hello to Jacob.
What do I go with? Which he do you want? Yeah?
You can call me Jacob. Yeah, Jacob, it is welcome.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
How are you, dude?

Speaker 4 (00:31):
I'm jan Gray.

Speaker 5 (00:32):
I'm gonna tell you right now, this is probably the
earliest I've been up in all weeks.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
So I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I thought you were going to say, ever, no, no, no, no,
I get, I get.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
I get up quite early for my job. But this
is my day. Awesome. I'm very excited to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Wait, so wait a minute. So that's one thing. Well,
let me back up a step. Let me tell you
how we end up here. Right, so, we had read
this goes back. You're not even gonna care, but this
goes back. We had we had done. We had read
a story about Toby's Dinner Theater in Columbia, right by
Mary Well and we went and saw a We took
a bunch of listeners and stuff, and we went to

(01:05):
the dinner theater and we saw the Little Mermaid, and
so we saw that, and then I don't know, was
it the day after we went or some of the
Washington Post ripped us off and they did a big
story on mermaid life.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Or the mermaid industry.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
And first of all, I had no idea how number one,
how big it is? Yes, number two, how much money
is being thrown around in that thing? And then everybody
started calling and being like two things. Number one, watch
mur people, and number two, you gotta find capital.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Mermaid.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
People are sending me pictures of your Christmas ornaments. People
are sending me pictures of like people from all around here.
And I felt horrible.

Speaker 5 (01:48):
I never oh no, no, no, this is the first time
hearing about a Christmas ornament. I definitely want one for myself.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I definitely want someone's making bank off of you.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
I want to see that awesome. But yeah, I know
the mermaid industry is quite large and growing, yes in
a big way, very fast.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
It only really became more well known around two thousand
and eight. That's really when it started catching because of
what just accessibility. People actually started making Mermaid tales and
they actually started being more accessible to the public rather
than just being made for movies and TV shows.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
So the and we'll get to that.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
We'll get to that in a second, because then I
went by watched mer people. No, no, I'm going to
tell you where they made a big mistake.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, why didn't they feature you more? So?

Speaker 4 (02:31):
The real reason is I didn't want too many speaking roles.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
So are you serious? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I did.

Speaker 5 (02:37):
I didn't want too many speaking roles. You know how
they did a lot of side interviews throughout the entire thing.
I did a few of those, but actually, I know you.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Did a few of those.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
And then in four, like when you're on the cruise,
like you're you're shown more than in other episodes.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
You didn't want to do speaking roles? Why not?

Speaker 4 (02:54):
I really didn't want too much of this pallet.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
I really wanted my craft to be shown through the
visual side of everything.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
I didn't really want to speak so much.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
I knew that there were a lot more people in
the cast that really wanted to get in front of
the camera and really talk about their story. I just
felt like I kind of had a better presence, really
showing what I can do and what I do best.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
Right, So I really just I actually asked the director.
I was like, can we just like not.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Did they want you to be one of the one
of the one of the Yeah, that should be one
and they.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
Didn't want me to be one of the main storylines,
but they didn't want me to be one of the
high speaking roles in episode for at least.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Did they not want you to be one of the
main speaking roles because there's not enough like crazy drama
going on in your life?

Speaker 4 (03:32):
I cannot confirm another. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
I in the past two years, I've definitely taken the
route of trying to avoid drama and really just get
rid of in my life. You know, I'm in my thirties,
so I really don't want anything to do with it.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
So, yeah, some of the.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
People on the show, I don't know, Sparkles, Blicks, they've
got a decent amount of drama going on there.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
No, I mean I think that's the thing with any
type of industry, There's always going to be some sort
of tiff or you know, tension going on. But I
love everybody there, Blick's and Sparkles, who are her real
name is Brittany. Absolutely love them. They're wonderful people. I
love everybody on the cast.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, so they're all friends, because that was the other
thing I thought, Oh crap, if what did I decide
I'm calling you?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
What if Jacob.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Comes in and he's like, oh, hate this one, hate
this one, hate this one. No, no, no, But your
friends like, yeah, the community's pretty tight, right.

Speaker 5 (04:21):
I mean, just like any friendship, there's gonna be vaccine waiting.
People are gonna like just like each other just because
stuff going through. But you know, the main thing about
it is that the Mermaid community is really just a
group of misfits, unwanted, bullied people throughout their life, and
we really just really stick up for each other and
stick together and really make sure that we're all, you know,
feeling included and valued.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Was that you Did you grow up that way?

Speaker 4 (04:42):
Oh? Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Did you really? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (04:45):
I know my parents are listening to this right now,
and they can absolutely attest. Yes, I got bullied a
lot throughout school.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Now I'm going to guess that and maybe I'm wrong
that you weren't built in school like you're built now.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Because if you look like you beat the crap out
of anybody right now.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
I kill for your body, thank you.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
No, I was very skinny. I was very very tiny. Actually,
everybody in my family is actually quite short. I'm the
tallest person in my family.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, your family.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Yeah, very tiny.

Speaker 5 (05:15):
I didn't really go through a gros spurt until I
was about fourteen.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
How told are you?

Speaker 5 (05:19):
I am five five, but I am up five to
seven of a tower. I'm five six on tender, so
I'll tell you that. But no, yeah, I was always
very short, very tiny. And then the other thing is
that I grew up in a very multi cultural community
down in Richmond. I gre up on the South side
of Richmond, so you know, I was actually the minority.
So there was a lot of instances where I was
left out. But you know, I'm very grateful for for

(05:43):
where I grew up, because you know, I got the
exposure that not many people get to get with so
many different cultures, some of the different family backgrounds. So
I mean, I'm very grateful that I grew up there.
But yeah, unfortunately I did get bullied a lot in school.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
So where was the where is the switch to like,
you don't just wake up on ago? Like well, mermaid time.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
That's the other thing. I'm gonna say mermaid and I
know I'm not.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
No, no, no, you can.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
You can use whatever you want. Some people are like, no,
I'm a murmerman. I'm like, it's whatever you want to
call it. Some people call it mermaiding. I'm like, it's swimming.
Like it's not really, it's really not that special. But
I did competitive swimming from ages four to seventeen. I
did with my sister down in Richmond, and I was
always interested in mermaid. It's not me because of the tails,

(06:28):
but I just really loved under sea life. I always
thought it was really cool. So you just love swimming, Yeah,
absolutely love swimming. From her false true or false? So
your sister is a year older than you, five years
older than me, five years older than you. She is
she's taken.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I don't know where in Richmond you guys went swimming,
but she's at the pool and she's swimming. You're three
years old and you go plunk into the water. Yeah,
and you're laying at the bottom of the pool and
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Somebody in the family was like, my mom, where Jacob go?

Speaker 4 (06:56):
My mom?

Speaker 5 (06:57):
She looks down at the pool and sees this like
small child. So he was like, wow, he's a really
good swimmer. She didn't realize it was me until I
picked my head up and take a breath. And I
have never taken a swim lesson at that point.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I have just seen years old.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Yeah, three or four. Yeah, I've only been like watching, yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
And so at that point. But but you felt comfortable
in the water.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, Now that is that a little bit easy revisionist.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
To go like, well, at three, I already knew I
was comfortable.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, or was it just like at three, I don't
even know if you're old enough to even process of like, wow,
this is really comfortable.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Well anywhere between the ages of two to four. A
lot of humans actually retain their amphibian reflex, which is
actually where you get to control your soft palette and
so you can actually hold your breath. A lot of
small infants can be thrown in water and their amphibian
reflex will actually go into effect.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
And can hold your for long.

Speaker 5 (07:46):
The average human, like an adult human, can hold their
breath up to a minute long without having any complications.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
The average adult can hold their breath for a minute.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
Yeah, and then for a small infinite. It's anywhere between
fifteen to twenty five seconds.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Oh, I thought you were gonna say minutes.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
No, no, no, no, no, no no no.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'm like, I am trying that.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
No.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
And the only reason why I know this is because
of my background swimming and I was actually an aquatic
director don Richmond.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
I was gonna say, you ran like a massive swim program,
didn't you.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Yeah, I used to work out a swimm r VA
where I was the quatics program director or assistant and
I used to run all of the swim lessons and
the swim team and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
So when were you doing that right out of college?

Speaker 4 (08:22):
I've always loved swimming and aquatic safety.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
So what was so you went to VCU? What were
you doing at VCU?

Speaker 4 (08:29):
I was on the pre med trek for biology.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Were you really yes? The and you were just like no,
f that.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Well.

Speaker 5 (08:37):
The funny thing is that throughout high school I actually
used to print us under a guy that did koy
breeding in Richmond, So we used to do procedures on
fish and things like That's always I was always interested
in like aquatics and biology and things like that, which
actually led me to my full time job. Now, which
is I'm a veterinary surgical assistant at Yeah, band Field
to shout out to my fam there, you know, I

(08:57):
love that for you.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, good for you.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
What is the But what is the So obviously water
water is in the background with your sister and then
you end up running this whole aquatics program.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Where where though, does the switch flip to go, I'm
gonna try.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Mermaiding.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
So it really started at swimmrvia one of the employees there.
Her name is Abigail. She's one of the lifeguards. She
had a bunch of mermaid tails bring them in all
the time, and I was like, oh, I know those
companies because I follow them, but I always thought they
were really cool. She had me try on a couple,
and I tried them on, and then she convinced me
to get my first tail. And then it was kind
of history after that because four months after buying my

(09:36):
first tail, I actually met Eric the Ur Taylor at
a mermaid convention and we kind of hit it off.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
We've been friends ever since. So now I represent his
company right.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
By the way, and he's featured pretty heavily in in
uh People.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, and he's he's absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
So a cool dude.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yeah, he's wonderful. I mean a lot of people can
get intimidated by him, either by you know, his you know,
status in the community, being really well known. But you know,
the thing is, once you kind of sit down and
have like a real conversation with him, he's one of
the most genuine humans that you can ever meet, especially
his mom Candy.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Right now, did you know the background of all what
is it?

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Wiki watch Yeah? Did you know the whole background of that?

Speaker 5 (10:19):
Not when getting started, but now that I've kind of
like immersed, you know, a little pun there, but getting
immersed into the mermaid community.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Well, now, don't I feel stupid I should have said
shell oh I walked in.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
I know you would have said it on Porpoise. But
the thing is is, you know, wiki watchy is full
of history.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
I mean it really is.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
I had never even heard of it.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, I've never heard of it, so so wiki Watchy,
which I don't feel like I'm saying right, no, you are.
It was a was kind of the birthplace of mermaids.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
It really kind of pioneered within America.

Speaker 5 (10:53):
I wouldn't necessarily say it's like the birthplace, you know,
but I mean it really what made it more accessible
to at least people in America, especially Florida.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay, so it's it's in Florida, yes, and it was
like a natural water.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
If you guys ever get the chance to go to Florida,
there's so many springs and I mean they look like
underwater Star Wars Worlds there. It's fresh water coming straight
out of the ground. Beautiful and it stays around seventy
degrees throughout the year. So if you go down there
at New Year's which is usually one, I go seventy degrees.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
And so they built like a they built an.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Arena so that people would go in and they'd sit
underwater and the mermaids although kind of lame in the
tails if you will, but they would go they would
go in there, and like that was a whole show.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yep. Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
And the thing is with Eric at Marcheller, they do
the exact same thing. They have a whole tank, they
have an underwater speaker system so you get to send
in the audience and everything is choreographed in music.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
So when when Eric Murtaylor he gets a job at
Wiki watchie, yes, Wiki Watch, he ends up going away
for safety reasons because of that long tube you gotta
swim through and then the so but then he opened
up his own joint.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
Yes, mer Taylor does have their own full sized aquarium.
I mean, I wouldn't say it's nothing like you know,
the National Aquarium here in Baltimore, but it is a
full size aquarium.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
You get to walk through.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
It has a bunch of educational exhibits, whether it be
mcau's line fish, there's eels, sharks, whatever you want. And
then they have a Mermaid tank where there are live fish,
live sharks, whatever you can think of, sting rays, and
they do an underwater show.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Have you ever have you ever done the show there?

Speaker 5 (12:26):
Oh I've swim in that tank so many times and
I absolutely yeah, I love it, absolutely love it. And
the thing is a lot of people think it's like
so cool to swim with the animals, and I'll be honest,
the stingeries are absolutely annoying.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
They also kill people. Oh well, I mean yes they do.

Speaker 5 (12:39):
But what the worst part is when you get into
the tank to do any type of like content or modeling,
they are just like little pit bull puppy dogs. They
just want to get in front of the camera. They
want to head butt you. They're so annoyed. Yeah, they're
so annoying. They're absolutely annoying. But yeah, no, the singeries
can be dangerous. They absolutely can be.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
And the the is his tank has the hose that
you could breathe through, right, it doesn't yep.

Speaker 5 (13:04):
I feel like that's cheating, not necessarily, because the thing
is is that you have to think about the salt concentration.
This is just one aspect as to why we use
the hose is not only does it keep that magic
keeps them underwater, but the thing is that salt is
so heavy that you have water in your eyes. The
moment you come up, that water vaporates. I guess what
says on your eyes the salt crystals. So the more

(13:25):
you blink, the more the salt will scratch and will
irritate it, so the things of you.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
So that's saltwater. Yeah, dude, your eyes are open the
whole time.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Salt water is actually really good for your eyes.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
I have never opened my eyes in saltwater. I opened
my eyes in saltwater. I'm like, oh my god, it hurts.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
I know this is probably an embarrassing question, but have
you ever cried, it's salt water, Yes, I cried. I'm
just saying, but that's not like Ocean City. It's safer
for your eyes. In fact, when a lot of mermaids
get gigs, they actually prefer salt water tanks or saltwater
pulls over regularly co chlorinated pools, So.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Why can get in salt water.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
So this whole time that I've gone to the beach,
I'm like, I'm not opening my eyes underwater because.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
I wouldn't necessarily do where the waves are with the sand.
But yes, it is safer. I wouldn't say it's safe,
but it's safer. It'll be less irritating.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
So that's better than like at a like chlorine in
a pool.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, absolutely, the clor will try to open my eyes forever.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
In a pool, the.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Chlorine will dry your eyes out.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
And that's the reason why a lot of people in
a I mean, in the mermaid industry, you're constantly in
the water. So the thing is, if you're doing pool
gig after pool gig after pool gig, you're in chlorine
that can really mess with your vision. There have been
days where I've performed in a pool and then I
can't see for about twenty four to thirty six hours
because every all the lights have like a ring around
them and everything's blinding.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
Oh god, are you.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Wear like do you wear do you wear caps in
your eyes? Nope?

Speaker 4 (14:40):
Everybody in my family has blue eyes.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Are you sure that's beyond blue though?

Speaker 2 (14:43):
That?

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah? Blue?

Speaker 4 (14:45):
Yeah, everybody in my family has blue eyes.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah. But they're short.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah, they are five six on tender.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
So go back to the tail. So you brought two
you brought two tails in.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
Yeah, I brought two tails in. I brought in a
full silicon tail. Both of these are ma by murtailor
so in the mermaid industry massive, Yeah, and the mermaid industry,
you're gonna get a lot of a lot of different
tail makers. Eric being one of the more well known ones.
He makes two different kinds of tails. He makes a
hybrid tail where you have a silicone monophen right here
on my right and that goes inside of the fabric skin.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
That's what it's called, is the skin.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
And essentially what you do is you get your feet
down in there, put your feet into the monofen, and
then slip it up like a sock. Okay, So those
are great for like when you're traveling or you're working
with kids, because you don't want to have something heavy.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
But the full.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
Silicon monofins are great because they're super realistic.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Both of these can absolutely get wet. You can swim
on them.

Speaker 5 (15:36):
But the unfortunate thing about the silicon monofen or the
full silicone tails is they are very heavy. So when
you're sitting, they're pulling your feet down, cutting off blood circulation,
and you don't really want to necessarily be sitting in
the sun with those.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
How heavy is that?

Speaker 5 (15:49):
The full silicone one that I have is fifty five pounds. Yeah,
it's one of the heaviest and larger monophins on a
full silicon tail in the world.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
It's enormous. That is quite How long is it? So
when I wear I'm about nine and a half feet long.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I'm gonna say the tail is longer than you.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Wow, Yeah, dude, I know.

Speaker 5 (16:09):
And that's the funny thing is that you have to
find ways to store them at your house if you
have a lots.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
How many tails do you have?

Speaker 5 (16:15):
So I only have nine nine nine, but this is
my only full silicon one. I'm about to get another one,
but I have nine of I have eight others of
the fabric hybrid ones.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Is that a lot? I feel like that's a lot.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
It is quite a lot. I mean you can really
only wear one at a time.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
But you know, with different occasions, you have to you
know what you're wearing with different kinds of events. So like,
if I'm working a child's event, I'd love to wear
the silicon one because they like to touch, they like
to feel. Versus an event that I just did in
San Diego where they put me in an aerial hoop
and a club above the crowd, I want to wear
the lighter one.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Crazy.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
It was wild, so obviously I want to wear the
lighter one, but I want to wear I want to
wear the fabric that kind of reflects off the lights,
and I was gonna make it more interesting. I'm not
to go up there and wear it, you know, thought
than I will.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
You have to really think about what you're doing, because
I mean, the thing is you're getting contracted, You're you're
being contracted for your performance. You have to be aware
what you're where you're going, what you're performing for the
crowd that you're performing for. You know, the same I
if I perform at Pride. I'm not necessarily gonna wear
the same thing at like a children's party, right, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, but like if you're just like up in a
hula hoop above, oh yeah, I swim it in anything.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
Oh gosh, it was so much fun, let me tell you.
It was absolutely crazy and honestly I can't wait to
go work out work with them again.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
Unite.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
They were just absolutely wonderful and they actually treated me
super well. Most Mermaids are used to working at gigs
and kind of like fending for ourselves. Oh really, yeah,
Unite treated me absolutely wonderfully. I didn't have to worry
about anything. They provided my own personal security they provided me,
which really yeah, because I mean, when you're a tail,
if someone's like inappropriate with you, you can't walk away.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Yeah no exactly.

Speaker 5 (17:53):
Yeah, So they provided me with my own security, made
sure like my stuff was safe, I was safe, and
I felt absolutely secure out there.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
It was wonderful.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Oh that's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
With most events you have to bring your own person,
which I know you guys were talking about on the
other segment.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
Those are called wranglers.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, okay, yeah, right, okay.

Speaker 5 (18:10):
So wrangler will not only like wheel you out in
the wagon. That way, no kids are seeing you put
the tail on, so the magic isn't broken. But the
other thing is that they are providing security also crowd control,
because the thing is with Mermaids, you're gonna get a
lot of a crowd, and you don't really want to
make a semicircle around you because that will kind of
make a wall so other people from the outside won't
really want to come in. You want to create a line,
create a flow, make sure you're secure, nobody's being inappropriate

(18:33):
with you.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
So yeah, wranglers have a really important job.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Is there a lot of inappropriateness that goes on?

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (18:39):
One of my really good friends Ali, she actually is
here in Springfield. She used to work for Disney, and
I actually have a couple other friends that are Disney princesses.
There are so many stories of like you know, just
random people just being like a little over the top
or just completely crossing the line. And it's always important
to have that person next to you that can be
like okay, all right, next, like let's keep it going.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Yeah. No, there's a lot about stuff, but.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
You know what bothers me a little bit is like
you you talk about how when you were younger, like
the community, were kids that may have been bullied or
didn't fit in, or were kind of pushed aside, and
then you end up in this thing that you love
and this whole community loves, but you still kind of
find yourself on the end of I don't want to

(19:23):
say being bullied, but yeah, being picked on. Oh absolutely,
And I'm sure there are times where you feel like
you're being made fun of and so you fall back in.
I don't want to say you fall back in, but
it's like what you were as a kid. So now
you've got this whole community, but you're kind of on
the same end of it. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Absolutely, And the thing is, well, I would love to
talk about this in a second, but fortunately I have
a background in baton twirling, which I know you guys
talked about, and one of my.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Get up and listen to the whole goddamn show Jesus Jacob,
which is funny enough.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
I will mention that you guys mentioned the girl Annealish,
who was actually my baton little sister.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
We were on the same team.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Are you serious.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
We're part of Wheaton Dance troll teams and our coach,
Annie taught me to have absolute confidence, would never be cocky.
So you know, the fortunate thing about I'm able to
translate that to anything with the Mermaid community. Yeah, I'm
absolutely getting bullied. They are horrible comments of somebody telling
me to, you know, grow up or you know, get
it together. Yeah, And the thing is I realized, you
know what, now everybody's getting flown out to San Diego. Okay,

(20:25):
nobody gets to say that they're on Netflix, but yet
they still get to go work at the gas station
job that they still have. So the thing is I'm
confident and where I'm at and that I look a little,
just only enough to know I look good and I'm
good at what I do. And the thing is nothing
you can say because you're not the judge of it,
and you know nothing about what I do. So regardless
of whatever you want to judge me on some sort

(20:46):
of critique or curriculum, I always resort back to, well,
you don't get to do what I get to do,
and I'm getting these amazing opportunities because I know how
to swim and I know how to put it on tail.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
You don't.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Okay, No, I'm glad I'm I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
But the other thing is is that, unfortunately, you know,
in the mermaid community, everybody wants a mermaid, so you know,
being a mermaid, it's a little bit harder. People will
inquire about gigs and want a mermaid, and you want
to do stuff with a mermaid, and then they reach
out to me and they're like, no, I only want
the mermaid, and it's like, well, I can provide the
same thing, and it really is, unfortunately, because the merman

(21:23):
are always overlooked. So that's the reason why I'm very
happy with how much work I've done in the past
two to three years is I've really been representing that
merman can do the same thing.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
We can be just as magical and just as fun.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
But is that because in our heads the first thing
we think of is what's her name? We just saw
the little mermaid Ariel, Like that's the first thing that
comes to mind.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
Is No, absolutely, I mean it's totally normal to kind
of go down that path of thought. But you know,
at the same time, for example, a month and a half,
two months ago, I was about to be hired for
a gig, and I was being contracted through one of
my friends, and the event owner just randomly goes, I
don't know how I feel about having a mormad. Can
we just have two mermaids instead of a mermaid and

(22:05):
a Morman because for some reason, the thought of me
being shirtless there made them uncomfortable And it's like, am
I really the one with the problem? I don't think so.
So that's the thing, is like I'm dressing as a magical.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
Fish, right, and you have a problem with that, and
then I you know, it kind of upset me for
a day or two because it was like, dang, I
would really love, you know, being at the gig. I
love interacting with people.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
I love making people feel, you know, like they have
my attention and making them feel like, you know, they're
awesome and I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to them even
though I'm hired for this event. I love talking to
them and interviewing them, right, And it's sex that I
didn't get that opportunity. But at the same time, it's like,
I'm not going to be an event that I'm not wanted.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, sure, why put yourself? Why put yourself on the
end of that?

Speaker 5 (22:51):
Absolutely not so Yeah, no, I'm very happy that I
didn't go to that event, but you know, it allowed
me to be available for other events that I have
done since then.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
So I've got all kinds of events that I'm booking
you for this.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Let me take a quick break. Jacob's with US Capital Merman.
Give me a quick break. It's Elliot in the morning.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Elliott. I was also convinced earlier that it's easy. It's
probably not.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, you throw a stick in the air.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
I'm more injuries hearing that than mermaiding.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Injuries from the baton, like head.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
Oh no, I ripped my handstring about four times completely
in half. I've uh dislocated my ankle and my knee
a couple of times. And I have a couple of
chip teeth.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
You got chipp tea that's from the baton.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
Yeah, and then in fact I've broken so knows this
and neither of hermine with the baton.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, oh yeah. Anyway, Jacob Griffith is with US Capital Merman.
But was I was I right earlier? Like we mentioned
the girl that we were trying to track down earlier,
she's over in Italy right now, because yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
The the is it the international?

Speaker 4 (24:02):
I don't know what it's called the International Baton Twirling Federation.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
But what were you You were like on Team USA
for baton twirling?

Speaker 4 (24:10):
Yes, a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, dude, that's freaking awesome.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
You know.

Speaker 5 (24:14):
The funny thing is that analyst was actually on the
same team as me, based in Maryland, and we kind
of have like a big sister, little sister, big brother,
little sister kind of thing, and she was actually my
little sister. So yeah, I sent all the vibes out
to her.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
But weird is it?

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Like so like right now she's over there doing that
like when you when you were representing Team USA, Like,
did you travel all over the world doing it?

Speaker 4 (24:36):
I didn't because I only did it for about nine years.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
So the furthest cyber travel was Canada, which was beautiful,
beautiful enough, but no, I traveled all over the country
either teaching, competing, doing all those fun things.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
And yeah, and then I in fact brought it to
mur people, So.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Oh did you Yeah, so that's right. Yeah on the
cruise ship.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
Fun fact about that episode, they actually filmed me doing
that while the ship was going through a storm. The ship, yeah,
the ship was about going about thirty feet up thirty
feet down, so I'd toss it and it would be
above me, and I'd do whatever trick under it, and
then I would meet the baton. The baton would not
meet me. Oh got so, Yeah, there were a couple times.
They almost hit me on the head a.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Couple of times.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, So can I can I ask you this about
the cruise ship thing?

Speaker 2 (25:16):
So the the in the Netflix documentary for more people, Yeah,
in the in the fourth episode, everybody, well not everybody,
but there's like, you have to fill out a questionnaire
and you have to I guess, audition in some way
to be on the.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
To be on the cruise ship.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, and so a bunch of you end up on
I don't know how many it was, but a bunch
of you end up on the Virgin Cruise Lines cruise ship.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
It was about twenty of us.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, right, which is good. I mean that's a that's
a pretty large amount. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
How shocked were the other people who had no idea
that you guys were going to be on the cruise ship.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
So they knew that we were doing something big. They
knew that we were doing a project, but we were
allowed to really talk about it too much.

Speaker 5 (25:58):
So when it finally came out, everybody was like what
But yeah, no, it was not.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Everybody who was laying around on the cruise ship knew
that there were gonna be a budget.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
You mean the sailors on this ship. Oh no, they
definitely knew.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
Oh yeah, So they definitely knew that we were on
that cruise ship because for the voting portion, where we
were around the pool the day before, we had to
go around and like let all the sailors know. So
like production was like, you guys, wear your sashes at
all times, wear as much Mermaid stuff as you can,
go around and tell the sailors like, come tomorrow morning
to the pool deck at eight am, vote for your

(26:33):
favorite Mermaid. So like they knew that we were there.
They knew that we were doing like a talent portion.
They were even there when we did our on stage
interview portions. So yeah, no, they loved it. They absolutely
loved it. Yeah was the.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Was it like? Was it a good experience?

Speaker 4 (26:49):
It was a good experience.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
I definitely think that my role is more behind the
camera in regards to events. I'm not really the person
that I would feel his best put in front of
the camera. I'm not I'm not really wanted to put
on a show. I'm really gonna be like super real
with you and be really transparent. I'm not gonna like
put on an or up a show for you.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah no, because the and I was selfish, I was like, well,
I know, I know, uh, I know. No.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
I was like, Jacob's coming in, I'm gonna watch the show.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
I was like, well, god damn it, put him on more. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
No, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry, but I will say.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
That that underwater modeling person is like one of my
favorite pictures that I have so far.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
So I do love that.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Hold on, where am I going?

Speaker 4 (27:30):
By the way, is that his baton bag? Yeah, that's
actually my baton bag.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Batons. Yeah, oh dude, I get I can show you
how to use that. There's not enough room in here, though, dude.
That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Oh so you're not taking
one out?

Speaker 4 (27:48):
Oh I mean I absolutely can. Yeah, Okay, let's see.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
No, don't take out the baton, just leave the fifty
foot tail that's here. There's not a lot of if
you're gonna if you're gonna break a tooth, Diane get
Diane already.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
With my hands. Elbow pops. Wow, And Elliott says, that's easy.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
I understand that's not that hard. Look at that the god, Okay,
the guy's on Team USA.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
What do you think he's going to come in here
and just kind of wave it around a little bit? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Is it like a hockey sec do you give it
to someone else? Now? I can guarantee you right now,
my mom is probably giggling.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Hey, can I can I ask you this serious question?

Speaker 2 (28:37):
When you when you decided that you were going to
get into the world.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Of being a mermaid or or that community. Were your
parents cool? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (28:49):
No, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (28:50):
They always knew that I was obsessed with swimming, you know,
they're always that hesitation of like I just want my
kid to do well. And then finally when I was like,
I'm doing good at this, and then you could kind
of see like the like the sigh of relief, like, Okay,
he is actually doing really good at this.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
This isn't just like a crazy hobby.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Right, Okay.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
So the previous to the sigh of relief, yeah, was
the was the like is he gonna make this? Is
this gonna be dangerous? Is this there was a world
we don't know, like I know who my biggest critic is.
It's probably my sister. Honestly, absolutely not.

Speaker 5 (29:26):
I'm I'm really hard on myself, But my biggest critic
is like, I'll tell my sister something and it will
be like the biggest I roll and be like really,
and it's like no, like, let me convince you. And
that's the nice thing about it is it's like, if
I can't convince my sister that I'm gonna do good
at this and this is worth it, I'm not gonna
do it, you know.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
And that's that's a nice thing about it is. I
always know that she has my back.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
But yeah, I know when I finally started doing gigs
and and and working with my team, which is the
core of the water nymps. You know, I I worked
so many events and and also I do gigs through myself,
but I mainly do it through them through with my
friends Megan and Christian.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
You know, when I finally started doing those like really
high end gigs at like the Tennessee Renaissance Festival or
working events here in DC like Pride. You know, the
nice thing about it is like it's kind of like,
you know, I'm actually doing this and I'm doing really well,
so it's really nice to kind of get their approval
for it.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
That's cool. Let me grab line one real quick. Hi
Elliott in the morning.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Bye, this seems happy or aerial.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
From Toby's Dinner Theater. Wait a minute, Wait, Ariel from
Toby's Dinner Theater.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
I see you twice. Oh my goodness, it's my cousin.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Wait a minute.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
No, Oh my gosh, Elliott.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
No, I'm not dumb. Wait so oh Ariels say hi
to say how to Capital? Say hi to Jake.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
I think I've heard so much about you.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
Oh my gosh, that's so nice to hear you speak.
I thought you lost your voice at one point.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Ariel, can I can I ask you something like? What
did I say?

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Ariel?

Speaker 1 (31:06):
She's Ariel. I don't know what her real name is. Ariel.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
I'm calling this guy Capital Mermaid.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
I haven't called anybody by a real name, Ariel.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
The are you, like, obviously you're an actress, and you,
by the way, you were very good in the in
the show.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
I'm sure that means a lot coming from me. The
but are you? Are you a mermaid as well? Or
you're just totally an actress? I am totally an actress. Yes,
I gotcha.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
I didn't know if like it was. It was a
little bit of both. If that makes sense that that
that you would do that?

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, this is all. These are the two most famous
mermaids in the world that I have.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
It's fantastic, all right, Ariel, Well, I I appreciate the photo.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
You were very good in your show.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Yeah, I would love to come and see you sometimes.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Oh dude, you should.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I would love to have you.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
You should.

Speaker 4 (32:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
Absolutely, I'll make sure to reach out and see if
we can work something out with Tyler.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
He hasn't been in a week.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Definitely.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
Well, Tyler, you and I will definitely go. Let's do it. It
is my third time in three weeks. Oh my gosh,
that's not hyperpoleate. So then then you can walk me
through and see how amazing she is.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Oh no, no, no, your tail just fell your tail,
hold on, Ariel, it's okay.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, it's meant to be in like pretty much indestructible.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Okay, Well we're also not in the pool.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah no, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
All right, that's fine. Go back to gigs for a second.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Yeah, so you get hired out to do gigs pretty regularly.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
I would say regularly.

Speaker 5 (32:37):
Right now, we're in our high time because it's summer,
so everybody has that like ocean itch. But you know,
like during the winter it won't be as many.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
But like whether it was watching mirror people or it
was like like like reading up on you, it's everything.
Like you said, it's everything from like kids parties to
being flown out to San Diego for like high end
events and parties and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Are they is that like that keep that's very busy?

Speaker 4 (33:07):
Yeah, there takes a goodbye.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Wait.

Speaker 5 (33:11):
So for all my Mermaids just watching my my spell,
Bountell just fell off a table chair. So it's fine,
but at least it's on the ground now. But no,
the the nice thing about it is that, you know,
with being hired for those gigs, I have to like
prepare for them well in advance. It's not like I
get hired for a gig and then like I kind

(33:31):
of get myself together like four days before. It's like
for San Diego, for example, I started going extremely hard
in the gym about a month or two month before
to make sure I was going to be you know,
ready for it versus for DC Pride. You know, I
was the main contractor for that, so I had to
contract a mermaid tank to be there. I had to
contract you know, all of these other supplies and equipment

(33:52):
that's going to be there.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
And so you show up with a tank.

Speaker 5 (33:55):
Yeah, so I have a couple of friends to have
a tank, so I'll contract them out for events.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
And the big it's the tank.

Speaker 4 (34:00):
Which tank?

Speaker 1 (34:02):
How big of a space do I need?

Speaker 4 (34:04):
So the tank that we use, a DC Pride, fits
on a regular sixteen foot trailer. It's about twenty two
hundred gallons. But the other tank that I usually use
is called the Nautilus Tanks through the Appalachian Mermaid Society.

Speaker 5 (34:16):
That's a thousand gallons. It's about as wide as this table.
And yeah, you just PLoP it down and it's about
seven tons once it's finally filled. So yeah, you have
to like make sure where we're putting it isn't like unsafe.
You have to make sure there's space to drain it.
You have to make sure, you know, like do we
have a space to change wrangler wrangler?

Speaker 4 (34:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (34:38):
Absolutely, So there's lots of logistics that go into thing.
Is It's not really like I fly out with my
tail put it on and fly back. There's a whole
lot that goes into it.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Have you been hired to do a wedding?

Speaker 4 (34:49):
I have not.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
I've been offered to be performing at a wedding, but
it was like a volunteer status. But no, I haven't
been offered to perform at a wedding. That'd be awesome, though,
I would absolutely love that'd be cool. Yeah, that would
be absolutely amazing. Yeah, no, I would love that. In fact,
I'm currently engaged. A lot of people are like asking
me if I'm gonna have like a Mermaid ocean themed wedding,
and I'm like, absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
That would be like working yeah, yeah, yeah, But if
I put on the tail and I went swimming around,
that would be awesome.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
You would be the highlight of the entire family the time.
People would be throwing fish tips at you.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
When is the When is the big the big wedding?

Speaker 5 (35:28):
We're blanning for like an early summer spring wedding, so
it might either be next year the following year. We
keep saying that every year. We've been engaged for two
years now, and in fact, we got engaged at the
Murtaylor Aquarium. I was actually in the tank modeling a
new tale that was going to be coming out, and
like I said, there's underwater speakers, so there's music playing.

(35:49):
But when the shows are happening at Murtaylor, the music's playing.
The Mermaids is going to hear it, and there they
have a choreographer team, but there's also somebody in a
safety boost talking to them saying like, hey, watch out
for you know X animal School. So I was modeling
and Eric is taking pictures and he has his like
Britney spears headset on speaking to me. And next thing
you know, I hear Jacob Hunter Griffith, my full government name,

(36:12):
and I'm underwater and I'm like, oh, crap. And then
the speech starts, and you know, then everybody's like oh
and all I'm thinking is crap.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
I have to hold my breath during the entire speech
and I fortunately stand under there.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
And then the moment that speech ended, uh my fans
started walking up to the glass and they were like
taking pictures and I was like, nope, I gotta.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
Take a breath. I gotta nope, I gotta go. So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
That's pretty cool. And if you cry under there, it
doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
We get to do that's salt anyway, Yeah, exactly, it's
salt water, thank you.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
The other like like you mentioned mur tailor, yeah, and
the like not just the tails, but also the the
like the tank or the facility where they have everything.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Are you do you like the Circus Siren Pod people? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (36:56):
Absolutely, There are members on there that I consider one
of my summer good friends. They're a great group of performers.
They are really really awesome at what they do.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, because they.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Obviously get featured pretty heavily in the in the people thing. Yeah,
and I couldn't tell do people? Is it who's the
lady who's in charge? More MORGANA MORGANA yea. Is she
like she's very well loved or is it just she
like what's her deal?

Speaker 3 (37:23):
She?

Speaker 5 (37:24):
I think personally, I think she she rightfully so has
a lot of walls up and she only lets a
few people in. And you know, I think, you know,
that's an appropriate thing to do in this day and age,
especially in this kind of industry where there's not that
many performers.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
We're very big, like we're global.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
But the thing is, if you think about it, one
person puts an inquiry for an event, you know, everybody's
going to try and grab that. So you know, she
holds a lot of people very close to her chest,
and I think she means business. She's very you know, dry,
and let's get to the point. Let's get this contract.
Let's let's perform and do a good job, and you
know do she definitely takes the performance seriously.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (37:58):
No, I think that's what's most important, is that you know,
she does her job and gets it done. And that's
what you're meant to do, is like we're performers, Like, yeah,
are we having fun? And that's great to do, and
like sometimes at events we get to go out and
have fun, but you know, the main thing is like
why why are we there just to kind of like
goof off? So she takes business seriously, and I think

(38:18):
that's important.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
You mentioned somewhere that there were some unfortunate things that
happened behind the scenes during the filming of the Netflix series.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Oh goodness, you really doved Eve into my Instagram.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
Love this.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
They were not.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Very kind, they were not addressed properly, but you have
been apologized too. I'm not expecting that you're gonna tell
me what they were, but what would I be pissed
if I knew what they were.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yes, really, m let's just say.

Speaker 5 (38:46):
And the thing is, I understand why during filming there
were certain rules put up looking back at it, but
it was kind of like I think they put a
group of mermaids together who were just a we're really
happy to be together. I mean, we don't really get
to see each other often except for when there's big
events or conventions. But I think they put a bunch
of us together and kind of expected us to kind

(39:07):
of already know the unspoken rules of filming, and unfortunately,
you know, some of us violated those and we didn't know,
and you know, unfortunately some of us were kind of
really talked bad.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
To what are what are the what are the rules
of filming?

Speaker 4 (39:23):
During filming, we weren't allowed to take our tails outside
of our room.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
Wait what, I don't even understand what that means.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
Unless it was for like the underwater modeling portion for
the pool. Tail had to say in the room. If
you were to go anywhere on the ship and like
take like a social media picture, we would get in trouble.
And looking back at it, I understand because technically we
were being paid for our presence and our content. So
if we took any pictures and posted it on our
for ourselves, technically that's content owned by the production company,

(39:52):
which makes sense, like we're being paid for it. But
they it was kind of like we didn't find that
out until like day three or four.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yeah, how about tell me before we get on?

Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (40:04):
No, absolutely, And that's the unfortunate thing is, like, you
know it we once we realized that we were like,
oh okay, but like some of them were, we really
getting in trouble, really bad, and it just I don't
feel like it was totally appropriate. And you know, there
are some very interesting characters on people, yes, and and

(40:24):
I will say there, I will say this, there are
cast members that are absolutely wonderful and I will call
them my friend until the day I die. But there
are some people on the cast that, you know, were
did not represent themselves I guess as professionally or as
positively as most people in the community would have appreciated,

(40:45):
and they were worse behind camera.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
I got you, But I mean that's that's true of
anything like there.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
Like it. So I hate that I would with my
own bear.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think that it's just like any
other community you know, there are some people who are
just like like, oh, like they're great, it's just you know, necessarily,
you know, out in public, it doesn't really show them
the best. But then there are some people where it's like, oh,
they they look way worse than they didn't on the documentary.
They're mean, my gotcha? Yeah, all right, And I try
to stay away from mean people. I try to be

(41:16):
as kind as I can to everyone.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Just like me.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Now.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Also, I saw somewhere where you said that that people
who get into being a merman or a mermaid are
usually inspired by a The Little Mermaid, B Thirteenth Year,
or c Splash those three movies.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Is that true?

Speaker 5 (41:35):
What The Little Mermaid, Splash and the Thirteenth Year? Right, Yeah, no, absolutely,
So I really got into the mermaid community because The
Little Mermaid. But then I really watched The Thirteenth Year,
who the actor's name is Chaz and I would love
to do a collap with him.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
He's absolutely awesome.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
But that's why he's a mermaid.

Speaker 4 (41:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
And the thing is that's how I got into the community.
But the thing is one of my really good friends,
Murmaid Christian, he really got into the community through Splash
like he absolutely loves Splash. So it's like it depends
on how you get into the communia. And then you know,
you have the younger generation that has really watched like
Sirens or H two O or Maco Mermaids, and it's
like it's a matter of like how you go through.
And now there's gonna be even a younger generation because

(42:15):
they watched the New Little Mermaid with Hallie. So it's
like it's just gonna be a constant cycle.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
So that's what I was gonna ask, Like there is
and you would know better than me, like what the
timeline is of, like what what made it take off?
And like again I was dumb going in. I didn't
know about waxy Hatchie or wiki wiki watching whatever, you
know what I mean. But like I would have never
guessed that that existed back then, I'd never heard of.

(42:40):
It had no idea, And it's grown, and it's grown
and then and then it really grew. Do you expect
that it levels off for a little bit or it's
still good, it's.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
Just going No, absolutely not.

Speaker 5 (42:52):
So I know there was a caller in during the
segment about the Washington Post that said that you know,
some of us do modeling and movie. So I do modeling.
I don't do movies yet. But one of my really
good friends, Rachel Novac, based out of Las Vegas. If
either of you have watched the New Avatar or the
New Wakanda movie that was all underwater, she was actually

(43:13):
one of the main stunt doubles in both of that
movie mainly mainly because she knows how to hold her
breath and she's a mermaid and she's comfortable. So yeah,
I absolutely do not think this will ever level off.
I think this will just continue to push the boundaries.
I mean, there was a free diving documentary that was
just released two years ago on Netflix, so it's like
people are now getting into free diving. People are now
understanding aquatics a little bit more, which is unfortunate because

(43:36):
I mean, if you go to any type of pool
management company or insurance company fifteen, ten years ago or
even now, they're really against breath holding. I mean I
had to fight my own HOA just to let me film,
and a majority of the videos that you guys see,
I just had a like debate with them and be like,
what I'm doing is not as dangerous as you guys
are making.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
It seem they actually maybe.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Your HOA has rules on how long you can hold
your breath.

Speaker 4 (44:00):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
The pool management company was like, yeah, if anybody holds
their breath longer than like six seconds, it's a huge risk.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
And I was like, have you guys done seconds? And
it was it was.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Thrown in the pool. They could hold her breath.

Speaker 5 (44:12):
It was absolutely insane. And the thing is they were like,
it's a risk, it's a liability. I'm like yeah, but
so it was just getting in the water. It's a liability.
So it's like if you're and they were telling me
that holding a breath is dangerous, and then my rebuttal
that was, how do you expect anybody to pass your
lifeguard certification course that they've never learned how to hold
their breath?

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yeah, Jack asked, you know?

Speaker 4 (44:30):
That was my response.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
And then unfortunately, uh well fortunately they ended up giving
me a waiver and they really like, you understand your
own risk, and I was like, yep, whatever, great, But
then they ended up having their own lawyer and I
don't mind talking about this because I found this absolutely insane.
They had their own lawyer of the pool management company
email me and she was like I've changed the wording
because at one point they were trying to make me
sign like an industry in DR or a DNR. But

(44:55):
She's like, I changed the wording, but I just want
to you know, I'm a certified diver and I've never
heard of any diver using a recreational poll to practice.
You know, I recommend you go through a dive club.
I recommend you do this, xyz. And my response was,
thank you for your input, but you using your diving
certification to use it on the reef scuba dive on

(45:16):
your cruise that you go on once a year with
your family and me getting paid every other weekend to
do my job, We're not on the same level. Thank you,
but no thanks. You do you pay to do what
you do. I get paid to do what I do,
and you're so that was my response. And fortunately, and
the thing is I was really replying. I responded to

(45:37):
her like I said reply. I did not hit reply
all because I was like, do not try and school
me in something that I can definitely read you under
the table for.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
So yeah, no, I mean.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
The thing is a lot of pool management companies are
so against breatholding, and it's like there's so much research
that shows that there's health benefits to people who have
like neurological issues, whether it'd be like cerebral palsy or
seizures that you know, breath holding can actually help improve it.
NFL athletes, professional Olympic athletes, whether it be swimming or
not swimming things go through breath holding exercises to.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
Improve their performance.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
Yet, so it's like breatholding is yes, we assume breath
holding is gonna equate to death, because when someone's dead,
they're not breathing. But the thing is, when you're holding
your breath, you're actually challenging your body a little bit.
And the nice thing about free diving is there's free
diving breathing techniques. I actually teach you how to lower
your heart rate, so I can, you know, funny enough,

(46:33):
at work, sometimes I'll take the pole socks and I'll
put it on my finger and I'll try and get
my heart rate down to like fifty or forty.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Five, just to see if what is it?

Speaker 1 (46:40):
What is a normal one.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
Average human heart rate is anywhere between sixty five too
about seventy two. And you get it down to what
I usually sometimes can get it down to fifty to
forty five. If I'm like sitting there and breathing and
breathing down.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
That's my new lie. What is your then? I don't know.
Forty five fifty that's normal resting, resting.

Speaker 5 (46:59):
Yeah, I mean that's the nice thing about free diving
is it actually teaches, you know, these proper techniques. But
you know, unfortunately with you know, certain pole management companies,
they're pressured by insurance companies to say, don't do this,
it's going to lead to hypoxia, which is essentially underwater blackout.
And it's like, yes, it can, but that's if someone's
doing it improperly, unsafely, untrained, and you know they're not

(47:23):
really knowledgeable on it. But yeah, they try to tell
me past six seconds I was going to die and
I was like.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
No, no, do you So you do, Molly, would you do?

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Would you be an extra a stunt double in a movie?

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (47:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah, So you won't rule that out?

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (47:38):
I think it'd be an absolutely wonderful experience to kind
of do that. But as for being like a face
on a camera, I would just need to do a
little bit more vetting before I do it next time,
don't get me wrong. I love my time on Murder People.
I think it does a great thing for the murmaid community.
This is what I tell people when they ask me
out about the docu series. Is the information behind it

(48:00):
about Eric Murray Taylor, the industry, csp you know what
we put into gigs absolutely one, one hundred percent true.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
The drama, I don't know. I don't really care. I'm
not really involved in that.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
That's the reason why I was on the docu series
is to give the information and show what we are
as a community. We're not just a group of freaks
that actually think we're real fish people, and we don't
have some sort of behavioral and mental issue, which is
a lot of people think that we have some sort
of mental issue. We're really just people that love doing
this and love making people happy. That's and we know
we're good at it. I Mean, the thing is, have

(48:35):
you ever judged the person that any of the actors
and the Avengers do they really ever think they're really
Spider Man or Captain America know, but they do it
because they know that they're good at it. So it's like,
we don't have a mental issue because we know we're
good at it.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
And we like doing it.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
What is the do you guys?

Speaker 2 (48:51):
If this is growing, it continues to grow, it keeps
getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Do you feel any sense of.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
I don't know if responsibility is the right word, or
any sense of pressure of that you are. It's up
to you and in your in your your peers, in
your community to now as a new generation comes in
to help elevate the community.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (49:18):
No, absolutely, I think it's always it's a more of
a generational thing. And and you know, as new people
come in, we show them the new products, how to
do things properly, where to get stuff. I mean, Mermaid
certifications weren't even really a thing until five years ago.
I mean, and now now that there's true mermaid certifications
that are internationally recognized curriculums. Now, insurance companies are not

(49:39):
being like, oh, if you have a Mermaid, now they
have to be certified.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
So stuff are constantly changing?

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Are you so I'm putting together a promotion at Merriweather
in their pool.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
You're certified? I yes, yes, I do have a few certifications.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
But no, that's the thing is like, there's stuff that's
constantly changing, so as people come in, not only are
we having to educate ourselves, we're having to educate the
new people and show them that there's proper ways to
do things. I mean, the mermaid community is still relatively new.
I would I would like to say we're in more
of our toddler phase right now. So I mean things
are ebbing and flowing and and and molding and doing

(50:13):
different things as we go through each summer season. But
I mean, you know, the most you can do is
really kind of set good boundaries, teach people how to
do things the proper way and show them, you know,
the ropes.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
And then if I go back to the docu sries
for one second, how much how much in the course
of the year, how much loube do you go through?

Speaker 4 (50:32):
So that's the thing I don't use any what Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Everybody on the Doctor is like, oh my god, buckets
and buckets, a lube to get the tails off.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
So there's different tail makers. I was afraid to touch
your tail when it came in.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
I was like, oh, so the nice thing about my
tail is murht Taylor And there's other companies, but Murh
Taylor will always put k neoprene on the inside, so
it's a fabric.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
So if I wear.

Speaker 5 (50:58):
Swim leggings, I can just slip mine up because it's
fabric on fabric. But there are other tail makers that
make silicon tails and it's silicon on the inside, and
that dry silicon on dry skin does not really go well.
So yes, there are some Murmanis. I have to use
a lot of silicone and the thing is sparkles. Yeah,
she has one of those tails that requires lube. But

(51:19):
you know, there are some mermaids that you know, and
one of my really good friends, Megan, she actually discovered
this new trick where you know, you loub up and
you're pulling your tail up, but then you get those
like yellow rubber ducky cleaning gloves and you use that
to grip your tail to pull it and it makes
it so much easier because the thing is you're using
your hands will leave yourself up and then you try
to grab your tail it doesn't work. So I mean

(51:43):
I thought that was genius. I mean, just go to
Walmart pay two bucks for those rubber ducky gloves. But yeah, no, yeah,
you do have to go through a lot of loop.
I mean there are sometimes where like you hear mermaids
of like, yeah, I was moving out on my boyfriend's
parents house. We were living and we just bought a house,
like this is one of the stories I'm thinking of.
And they were like, we're currently moving and the Amazon
box got delivered and my mother in law or my

(52:06):
boyfriend's mom opened it and she just saw this like
thirty two ounce bottle of lube with a pump and
I just don't know how to talk to her now,
and I go, you need to say something. So yeah,
there's situations like that where it gets really awkward. Fortunately
I don't have to deal with that. I just have

(52:27):
to put on mermaid leggings and maybe wet my feet
a little bit and it just slips and.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Then you're good to go. Yeah, Jacob, you are the best.
I think, so glad that you came in