039 - SiliCon & MidSummer Scream 2022 Recap

​Derek "Midsummer" Young and Darren "Droid Pope" Moser are back! It's been a few months since the duo recapped their latest project and con visits. Since then Derek has attended and taught at MidSummer Scream in Long Beach. While Darren visited SiliCon in the Bay Area and was interviewed by Adam Savage! We can't wait to share these experiences with you.
https://socalhauntlist.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the nerd Polite. Welcometo the Maker's Method podcast here on the
Nerd Party Network. I am yourhost, Darren Moser aka Doctor sci Fi,
and I am joined as always byDerek Young of Van Oak's Props.

(00:24):
This week, not this week,this month. It has been a couple
of months since we last spoke,and you know what that is. Okay,
Sometimes podcasts change, Sometimes you takea little break, but you they're
always there when you need them andyou're ready to talk some more. But
Derek, I'm glad we're sitting downagain. I'm sure a million things must

(00:45):
have happened in the last three months. It's going to be another ninety minute
episode. Maybe maybe not. Imean, it remains to be seen,
that's true. No promises, nopromises. Yeah, I ninety minutes,
one hundred minutes, who knows,thirty minutes? Who knows? Yeah,

(01:07):
just like the length of the creditsof a Marvel show. It could go
as long as possible. You neverknow what that true run time is going
to be. Ain't that the true? Yeah? Like, oh man,
this all we're getting. We're gettingthirty five minutes this week. That's great.
Oh oh, like ten of thatis credits. Okay, okay,
great, thanks thanks Marvel good goodgood shop. Oh well, we'll enjoy

(01:32):
those twenty two minutes. Anyways.Well, the number one thing I wanted
to recap on was my amazing dayat Silicon twenty two, which is a
San Jose convention up in the BayArea. That is Adam Savage's Silicon as
it is called now. He's theexecutive kind of producer of it. I

(01:53):
think initially it started by like SteveWozniak and a few others, So it's
very tech oriented, but it's kindof reinvented itself into like a maker con.
And I think they had like aBay Area maker con that kind of
died with the pandemic, and sothis even more so is a return to

(02:13):
form in that area. And sothis was my first time going. I'd
never been to this particular con,but it was an amazing time. I
was. I was very excited butit Yeah, I'm definitely going back next
year. I'll tell you what Ispent that weekend constantly refreshing Twitter, just

(02:36):
feeling all the fomo oh no,because I'm just seeing pictures of like all
my favorite makers hanging out together,getting into trouble. The maker list was
like fifty deep. It was.It was the who's who of awesome people.
Yeah, yeah, and it's theInternet is a weird play. We

(03:00):
all acknowledge that because so much ofour lives are spent in the scroll,
that you start to feel like youknow people in more ways than you know,
maybe people that you see at workevery day or whatnot. But so
seeing all of these people, fellowmakers, fellow content creators, and being

(03:23):
like, oh, all of myair quotes friends are at Silicon Yeah,
it was. Granted, you doknow quite a few of those people,
and we do interact with people inthat crowd, you know, maybe not
maybe not exactly those names, butyou know, we're not siloed. We

(03:44):
definitely know some of these people.But you know, these are people that
I may have had conversation with onlinewho if my name was mentioned, would
be like, oh, yes,of course, right, but not necessarily
people that I have like regular likereal old timy name recognition world. Yeah,

(04:05):
you know, relationships with you know, and that is sort of the
weird part of the Internet, particularlyin a tail end fingers crossed of a
pandemic where you start meeting a lotof people and having these interactions with people

(04:26):
in a completely virtual way, sothen to see them all out in a
physical place together felt very much like, Oh, all my friends are at
summer camp and I'm I'm stuck athome. But it sounded like, based
on photos and video, which willget into in a bit, that you

(04:48):
had a blast I did. Itis so funny. This this is okay.
This is the story of how Darren'strip to Silicon came about, because
it literally came about because of avacation. I was taking my family and
I were going to go spend aweek at Lake Tahoe with my parents,

(05:10):
and and I was just I don'tknow what calendar I was looking at,
but I came across, Oh,that first weekend that we're up there is
Silicon. I've never been to Silicon. How far is it from tah Well
it's four hours, Derek, Butin my mind, it's six and a
half hours from where we live downhere in southern California. So I'm like,

(05:32):
that's two hours closer. That's likecrazy close in California driving time.
Now, to our listeners, we'reCalifornians, so driving long distances is just
what we do. It's just amatter of putting in the hours to get
to your destination. So yeah,so a four hour so this is my
thought. It's like oh and Iand I thought of it around my birthday

(05:57):
this year, and so I waslike, hey, I got a little
money set aside. I told mywife, I'm like, hey, I'd
like this is my birthday gift tome that I get to go to this
convention. I'd love you to comewith me. We can have a date
night away from the kids, andI'll get to see some makers. Win
win. Everybody's happy. And becauseit's four hours, only only four hours

(06:19):
away, which technically eight hours roundtrip in the single day. I mean,
that was my original plan was wakeup at crack o'dawn o'clock to roll
out of bed, drive from LakeTahoe to San Jose, do the con
have dinner, drive back. Imean, it wasn't the worst plan in

(06:42):
the world, but it wasn't asmart plan. Short version of our travel
itinerary. We did actually find afriend's house that only lived like ninety minutes
away, and so we stayed therethe night both before and after, so
it was not nearly the surmountable drivingtime. The day of which yeah,

(07:03):
because you know me, until we'reparked in the parking structure, I'm stressed
because it's traffic. It's ninety minutesaway. All it takes is like two
accidents and that and your time isshot. So yes, yes, So
anyway, we we the timing workedit out where I really could only go

(07:25):
one day was on Sunday. AndI am part of the Maker Alliance,
which is kind of what the Ilike to make stuff channel calls their Patreon
or YouTube supporters, and one ofthe things they do is Bob hosts a
monthly hangout, which you've joined.A couple of times I fire call,

(07:48):
and what was cool about that is, you know, it's just a little
bit of face time, a littlebit of hanging out. And I had
gotten to show Bob my bead oneone of the times I been able to
be in my workshop during the conversation, and so I had he had he
messaged me and he said, hey, I'm going to Silicon and they were

(08:13):
asking me people I thought of whomight be of interest to interview for tested
and I brought up your name andI was like, oh, thanks,
Bob, like that, that's awesome, Like I would love to be interviewed
by Tested again, And I knowI didn't say it that way modest day,
I know, I know, Well, this is my third Tested interview.

(08:35):
The other two were with Norm ata convention with K two, which
which is an awesome crossing a pathand you know, if Norm comes up
to interview, you're gonna say yesand you're gonna have a great time talking
with him. But yeah, sohe put me in contact with their people
and they they reached out to me. I mean again, Tested is a

(08:56):
top class group, like they they'revery professional, they know what they are
doing. But it was funny tome because they're just really humble and really
encouraging and like, hey, likeif if you're available, if you have
the time, we'd really like tohave you. You know, you come
over and interview. And I'm thinking, in my mind, you got this

(09:16):
reverse. I am the one whois grateful and thankful for this opportunity.
But the way they worded it wasas if like I was granting them an
audience with the the droid Pope orsomething, and I'm like, no,
no, no, that is notthat is not this case anyway. But
no, they treated it's super niceand so yeah, they're like, oh,

(09:39):
yeah, so if you're if you'reavailable right at the beginning of the
day at like at like ten o'clock, uh, we we'd like to have
Adam interview. And then my mybrain just you know, short circuits for
about thirty minutes, and I'm like, yes, like, if if you'd
grace us with that, I'm thinkinglike, okay, let's get the get

(10:01):
the priorities straight of who's asking whohere, because I would be I would
beg for this. No, no, there's no droid pope. I regretted
it as soon as I said it, but handle everybody. But no.
So they yeah, but they workthat out, and they said, hey,
we're going to interview a couple ofpeople and you'll because I didn't have

(10:22):
like a VIP ticket or anything likethat, so I was going to be
in at the normal time, andthey said, maybe we'll squirrel you away
in early if we're able. Andso we arrive, we get there and
and I'm going to be rambling thestory, so if you any questions,
you just interject because I'll just keepthe story. Training. Again, I
love that this is an episode whereyou do all the talking me, you

(10:46):
know, that's true. I'm lookingat the wave for him. I see
a lot of Darren right now.But it's okay. So we roll in
and we coordinate that they're going tohelp us. My wife and I get
in a little early just and Ilove that. I love early. Early
is great, Early is on time. So we arrive, we park,
I put I get bad one allon because you know, he's just going

(11:07):
to be on my arm all day, which is fine, cosplay is pain
and if anyone tells you otherwise,they're selling you something. But so no,
it's not. And it's a greatPrincess Bride quote there. So so
anyway, we connected with that oneof the tested producers, and she basically

(11:31):
walked us in kind of a backway, and as we were heading towards those
doors, the security people are like, oh, sorry, this is an
interest and she just basically is likejust walking. Those are credentials, and
we're kind of like just like we'rewith her, like we don't have the
credential she has, but we're justgonna follow and and again it worked out
fine. So we got in andso it's like thirty forty minutes before doors

(11:54):
open, so the VIPs are therelike wandering the floor and enjoying it,
and I'm starting to meet like coreGeek is there, and Odin is there,
Odin makes and props of history walksby and it's like all these cool
again, like these are the peopleand I'm like, oh, because I
had a short list, well notshort I had a long list of makers

(12:15):
that I wanted to meet and justto say hi to, you know,
and chatter off for a second.But yeah. We was over at the
tested booth and I was right afterBeverly Downen who was showing her still suit
from the new Dune movie, whichcan we take a minute to talk?
Yes, how pleased is? Itlooked so good and I think I saw

(12:41):
because I think she went to,oh what was it? There was another
con after that that was, oh, dragon con. I'm like, as
a big con. What was thatbig con? I can't think of?
And there's a picture of like allthese Dune people and she posted about it
and she said every single person stillsuit was base basically made differently, but
they all look like not in abad way, but just in the fact

(13:05):
that everybody approached the problem from theirown unique way to solve this complex costume.
But yeah, it's still suits areYeah, they're they're incredible. Yeah,
and hers is particularly good. Andthe fact that she really like documented
it across the entire build over onher Instagram was like really fascinating to watch

(13:31):
because it was like part prop build, part patterning, part sewing and sewing
fasteners and a bunch of different skillsets all being put to use to come
up with like one of the bestlooking still suits I've seen since the movie
came out. And her wig,which got quite the laugh in their interview

(13:56):
where I guess she was talking aboutit and Adam thought it was her hair
and she's like, no, thisis a wig, and yeah, I
none of my droids have worn wigs, so I don't really know what that's
like. But yeah, she's thewhole, the whole package. And just
like you said, it wasn't justbuilding it and saying look at this,
it was taking people through the processand making it accessible and sharing the methods

(14:22):
and yeah, and that's I mean, we've talked a lot about this.
We love that part of the makercommunity. It's the sharing. So yeah,
so they interviewed her and then youknow, and I'm you know,
I told myself, Okay, Darren, you're gonna bring it to eighty percent,
Like, don't go full hundred percentbecause like, like this is a

(14:43):
cool moment, but you gotta tapeit down just a little. And afterwards
my wife is like, you didnot stop grinning. I'm like, of
course, I didn't stop grinning theentire time it was talking to Adam Savage.
It was amazing. And again I'mreally glad that it was interviewed,
and because afterwards I couldn't remember athing I said. It was like in

(15:03):
and out of my brain. Butyeah, I brought him over and you
know, they got me miked upfor sound and and I'm okay, thank
you. Norm. I just wantto say you gave me the greatest advice
like two seconds before you recorded isYou're like, plant your feet, and
I'm like, oh, that makessense. And I just planted my feet
and I did not move my feetthe entire time, because I bet I

(15:24):
would have been bouncing all around,moving all over and it probably looked ten
times better because he gave me thatgreat advice right before. Because Norm's a
pro, he knows what he's doing. It's not his first first rodeo,
that's right, So yeah, soit you know, we go into the
interview, and my favorite part isprobably the very beginning of the interview where

(15:48):
you know, Adam's like, hey, I'm here with you know, with
Darren Moser, and you know,then again, my part of my brain
sparks off. It's like Adam Savagesaid my name, you know, because
of course everyone would have that reactionif that happened. But yeah, so
he he says, you know,and his Beat one puppet, and I'm
just puppeting Beat one and moving himaround and making him make his little chirp

(16:11):
sounds. And there's this moment atthe very beginning where Adam he's almost kind
of not losing composure, but youcan tell like he's falling under the spell
of Beat one and and I makeBeat one do like a chirp and a
little move and he kind of Adamkind of puts his hand up to his
mouth kind of like and he couldtell him that moment like Beaty one just

(16:32):
came alive in his eyes, andit's and that's the thing with Adam is
he's so he's a genuine person,Like he's not hamming enough for the camera.
It's like he's literally giving you hisreaction as it's happening, and and
so I mean as a puppet,as someone caused playing or creating a character
in front of someone else. Imean, that's just the best feeling is

(16:55):
getting to see in their eyes likethey just lost it for a second because
of Now, granted's the cuteness likeBeaty one is ridiculously cute, so I
understand that. So that was yeah, I have to say that was the
best moment. And then yeah,we just had a good conversation. I
only fumbled one word or two,and I felt I almost felt bad because

(17:18):
he geared up this great question oflike he's like some people have like their
favorite colors and they're like purple,and like everything's purple. And he's like,
for you, is it puppets,Like do you have like more puppets
than just these Star Wars ones?And I'm like, uh no, it's
just the Star Wars puppets. AndI was thinking, I'm like, oh,
I feel bad because it's not likethe giant answer, but I'm like,

(17:38):
I don't really have any puppets besidesStar Wars, you know. I
mean this is coming from someone whohis interests are so varied that is true,
Like he's he's basically acting, areyou the puppet guy? Like is
that your your life and world?And it's not. That's true. That's
true if I look at in thatlane, that does make a lot more

(18:00):
sense. Yeah, yeah, Iwouldn't let that one bother you too much,
although a lot of people in theYouTube comments were like, I feel
called out about my purple. Butyeah, So we just chatted and just
talked about the puppet and how heworked, and I got to share about

(18:22):
like the moment at celebration sitting downwith the kids and talked about K two
a little bit and puppeting him.And I think we talked probably for about
fifteen twenty minutes and they edited itdown to like a six to eight minute,
you know, the gist of it. And but yeah, but I
mean, you know, I've beenpodcasting for thirteen years or something, so
I know how to sound bite andtalk and clearly communicate, and and I'd

(18:48):
already been kind of telling all thesestories, like I have the same five
little anecdotes I kind of say aboutbad one, like so you know what
you're saying. It's not a lotof ums and ohs and oh I've never
thought of that before. It's like, no, I've thought of all of
this before. It's it's one ofmy favorite things to talk about. You're
an old pro no the droid pope, but uh, well yeah and then

(19:17):
uh and then it was over andhe said thank you, and you know,
I was, like my wife said, was grinning from ear to ear
and was just super excited. Andthat was the beginning. That was the
beginning of Silicon And it was I'mnot going to say it was all downhill
from there. I'm just saying itcouldn't even it was nowhere but up It
was like, this was amazing.But yeah, Silicon was great. It

(19:38):
was super fun again getting to chatwith a bunch of people I got to
talk to, Like I said,props to history and that was fun because
he actually shot a little video forhis TikTok of bad One and at the
end he's like, oh, sodo you have a handle that people know
you buy and I'm like, oh, I'm doctor Softban. He's like,
oh, I know who you are. This is our first time meeting.

(20:00):
And and when he posted that onTikTok, I gained like three hundred followers
that day, so I'm like,oh, thank you, thank you,
because yeah, let's just be sayingthe follower flow has not been happening on
TikTok as of late. But butyeah, and then, like I said,
cork geek and Odin got to chatwith him a bit and he had

(20:22):
an awesome like corner booth with hislike Mecca Godzilla and all these foam props,
and and then I was standing likepuppeting bad One talking to someone and
I can sense there's like some peoplestanding next to me, but I haven't
like turned yet, and I startturning, and it felt like it took

(20:44):
me forever to finally try and realizewho was standing right next to me.
And it's Bob and the high liketo make stuff crewe and they're just standing
there because we're in like just themiddle of the confloy He's like, hey,
but you get tell he's been probablywaiting like thirty seconds, not a
bad way, but just in alike oh, hey, there's Darren.
I want to go say hi.And Darren hasn't turned ninety degrees to acknowledge
me and say hi yet, sobut no, but that was cool when

(21:04):
we got a photo and he introducedme to the crew and um and that
was cool because again I was alwaysthankful and reiterating to him the thanks for
kind of opening that door. Andhe's like, oh, no, like,
you know, no problem, andI'm thinking, well, like,
I'm like, yes, like,but but let's not pretend that you weren't
instrumental in helping pull these pieces together. But but again, that's a great

(21:29):
part of the maker community. Again, is the humbleness and not that we're
not acknowledging each other. But youknow, it's not We're not over overhyping
it. I mean, it's hardto overhype the droid Pope. Jeez um.
But that doesn't even make sense anywhere. No, so, yeah it
was. It doesn't but I likeit. Okay, you can call me

(21:55):
ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. Umso the droid puppet Pope. We get
some alliteration in there. So butyeah, it was but super fun.
Again, looking at all the boothswas great and I didn't do any panels.
I rarely do, yeah, justbecause it takes a huge chunk of
time. But I definitely want togo next year. I'm already making plans

(22:19):
full weekend. I might try tosplit a booth someone just to have a
place to put K two's console,because I'd like to bring K two and
Beady and whatever else I make betweennow and then. But it's also good
because it kind of gives me agoal. So I because there's still upgrades

(22:40):
and things I want to do withK two and that's about a year away.
So that's a good goal now toget all of that done and get
him in a state where I'm reallyreally happy with him. Yeah, I
want to mention while we're talking aboutthis, I can see behind you K
two's torso it's just sitting there.Yeah. Yeah, so start now.

(23:03):
Yes, well, again, alot of these are upgrades that I had
planned for celebration and they just didnot come to fruition. But yeah,
but yes, no, I Iwant him to be in a state where
I'm happy because honestly, if likeso somebody called me up and said,
like, hey, could you bringpay to tomorrow, I'd be sad because
he's not as good as he couldbe right now. But yeah, so

(23:30):
that's yeah, start now, tryto avoid the con crunch, and yeah,
this would just be probably a weekendaway from the wife and kids,
just to because K two takes upa lot of space in the car,
so he's probably just especially with theconsole. So that's going to be the
whole weekend. But it's driving becausehe doesn't fly, and so that'll be

(23:55):
but that'll be fun. And I'llmanage the six and a half hour drive
somehow, even though it's not four. But I can. I can make
six works to a year's worth ofMaker's Method. I could listen to so
much Maker's Method and so many otherpodcasts, but no, but the energy
was super cool. You know.Again, there's lots of causplay. There

(24:15):
are Droid builders and all the StarWars tables and the Ghostbusters and the Iron
Men and all these different makers.But everyone was just you know, it
was cool because of small ish.You know, it's smaller than wonder cons,
smaller than a lot of other cons. I think it's still kind of
recovering from post COVID, so itI think it has been larger in the

(24:38):
past, but it's growing year overyear now, so the next year I'll
probably even bigger. But but yeah, it's I think I'm going to put
it on my list for attending everyyear because it's so so much fun and
h and yeah, just the Imean there's a little networking, but more
so in the just getting to checkout people's cool stuff and tell them you

(25:02):
like their work. And you know, if if that's all that happens,
then that's cool. Um. Butso for someone who hasn't been to like
Dragon Con or any of those,but has been to celebration and by anyone,
I mean me, how would yousay the scale of it compares um,

(25:25):
what's i mean Dragon Con and likesize of the show floor of celebrations,
I'd say it's like a quarter ofthe size of the show floor.
So like, imagine the the southmostthe whole section that had all of the

(25:51):
backdrops and the stage and all thatthat whole imagine that whole section that's like
the entire con. So okay,it's so it's primarily you know, the
show floor, which is like vendorbooths and the autograph section and all of
that, and then upstair there area couple of ballrooms for panels and such.

(26:11):
So it's it's relatively small. Ifyou've ever been out to like the
Ontario Convention Center, it's very similarin that size, but yeah, nowhere
near like Anaheim or I mean DragonCon and San Diego are like on another
level. So yeah, uh yeah, it's it's you're using a different scale
at this point. But but yeah, but it's it didn't feel full or

(26:37):
crazy packed. Again. I thinkit's still rebuilding in the number of people.
And I was there on Sunday,which usually, even though it's a
two day con, Saturdays are usuallythe busier days. But yeah, but
there's plenty to do. And Ihad Beati. I mean, I took
him off for eating, but Ipretty much had him on my arm from

(26:59):
nine to four. And uh butyou know, you just again caused place
pain and um, but it wasgreat. It was super fun and I
can't wait to do it again nextyear. And uh, I mean yeah,
I would, being truthful, Iwould love to be asked as a

(27:19):
as a guest, you know maker. Um, but even if I'm not,
I'm still going because that's that's goingto be a lot of fun.
And and yeah, I think I'vebeen chatting with Brian Thompson a little bit.
I'm kind of try to get himto come out to it. And
um, yeah, because it's again, I mean core geeks coming down from

(27:40):
Seattle and and same as Beverly andBill Duran and his twin, which I
forgot he was a twin. Uh, So I like, I think when
I talked to him talk quote unquotetalked to him at the first time,
I don't think that was him.I think that was his his brother.
So I kind of I kind offelt bad because he h I'm sure he

(28:02):
gets it all the time, sohe like rolled with it. But but
like, yeah, it was Icould I could barely tell them apart because
their facial hair was very similar thatday. And I'm like, I'm like,
come on, one of you needslike a wig or something very distinctive,
or I think one was in aIron Man suit, and I'm like,
oh, that's awesome. And thenI walk around the corner and there's

(28:23):
his brother in a Ghostbusters and I'mlike, I know you didn't change that
fast, so this must be yourbrother, because I know you didn't get
out of the Iron Man in likethirty seconds and become a Ghostbuster. But
yeah, but they're you know,the they had like little buildoffs where you

(28:44):
had like little teams and you hada box of stuff to build a costume
in an hour, and they hadprogramming things and it's just very it's very
niche. I mean, it's definitelymaker focused, but uh and it's kind
of like what do you do ata maker con Like, how do you
Is it all making? Is itall networking? Is it all learning?

(29:07):
How do you focus that energy soit's not just walking around you know for
a day, you know, butmake it worth their while? So um
yeah and we uh yeah, weI got and I did a picture with
Adam as well. I'd bought thebought that ahead of time. Um and

(29:29):
uh and that was that was cooland and yeah, and I told my
wife, I'm like, they're they'regonna be fast, and they were because
it's literally like your assembly line.You go in, of course, smile,
take the picture, yeah, andand go on from there. Um.
And then I lined up to dothe autograph because I'd also bought an
autograph and uh and because you know, in my mind, I had bought

(29:52):
all this before interview was even onthe table. So I'm thinking, well,
if I want to say hi toAdam, it's I got to get
these things. And you see allthose videos where people come up and he
has a little chat and he's like, oh, this cool thing. And
so that's what I thought I wasgoing to do, and and I didn't
end up having that moment because I'min line and and Adam like calls me

(30:17):
over and he's like, dab.He's like, Darren, Darren, come
over here. I'm like okay,and I walk over and I'm you know,
beat and he's like pick pick one, like you're not going to pay
for an autograph and he's like,I'm going to sign it for you.
And I'm like okay, and I'mthinking in my head, like I already
bought an autograph, but I amnot going to tell you that because that
is is the gesture that that matters. Um. But that was very sweet
of him. And right here andhe wrote amazing work, stay awesome,

(30:44):
and I'm like, oh, that'sso. That's so nice. Nice but
um and then this is my photophoto with him and beat one the standard
point and shock look that he hasfor all of those awesome photos. Um.
But yeah, I mean I couldgush about it for another hour,
but it was. It was superfun. And again I totally realize it's

(31:08):
this alignment of stars and other peopleand moments that generated this awesome time.
But but as I've said, beforejust with celebration. You know, there's
a part of the making journey whichis kind of the accolade phase where you've
made something cool and you've put yourwork into it and you're and you're getting

(31:29):
to show it off because it's awesomeand people recognize that and compliment you and
check it out and you do itin return to their stuff. And there's
a totally valid part of the makingcycle. It doesn't have to all be
crunch time or all be oh,this broke or this didn't work or I
had trouble with this. Like we'reallowed to enjoy the praise as long as

(31:52):
we don't live there, you know, I think, which I don't think
we do. But that's that's I'ma belief of that cycle of the maker's
method. Oh boy, I seewhat you did there? You see what
I did there. It's almost likewe named our show that it's like riding
a bike. Everybody, but yeah, but that was That's what I've been

(32:17):
doing for last three months. Mynext con will be Los Angeles Comic Con
in December, which is often fun, and I think i'll probably MC the
Droid panel again, which was reallyfun last year, and bring that energy
and excitement and hopefully we'll get acouple more people in the audience and have

(32:42):
a have a lot of fun.So but but yeah, what have you
been up to? I know we'reit's as of this recording, we're kind
of mid September, so the spookymonth is next month. But I'm sure
gears are turning. I'll tell youwhat. According to the people at Starbucks,
Target, Hobby Lobby, hobby Lobby, etc. Like Halloween started six

(33:12):
weeks ago. The Jack Lanard cameout and saught shadow and said, Halloween's
already starting. Um, it's uh, yeah, this is I would say
we're solidly two weeks into legitimate spookyseason, okay, like like logistical planning

(33:36):
or right. People are starting theirbuilds or at least taking them more seriously
now, and some people are alreadystarting to decorate and all the sort of
stuff. But um, over thelast handful of months since we last recorded,
I taught all weekend at Midsummer ScreamThat's right, or Convention in Long

(34:04):
Beach, California, which was myfirst time back in I want to say
three or four years. I hadbeen teaching workshops since they started the convention
way back in the day when theyhad a different name and had basically been

(34:30):
doing it every year since. Andthen oddly enough, before I started doing
YouTube, I stopped doing conventions becauseI felt like I wasn't being able to
like connect with people and provide ameaningful education experience. I mean, granted,

(34:52):
it's a convention, like it's nota six week class, it's not
like totally I didn't even know whereI would start if I had to teach
some something like droid building in athirty minute or hour long, Like,
how do you even start? Well, I mean it's or do you just
accept that you can't? Okay?True? True? And if you approach

(35:13):
it from it is only going tobe an hour. So I can't shoot
the moon. I can get themstarted and point them in the right direction.
Well, and you know, historicallywe had always tried to make things
that you would show up to theclass, you'd learn a skill, and
you would leave with a finished orat least nearly finished project. Where Like,

(35:35):
if it was nearly finished, itwas because we didn't have the space
for people to paint something, asI say, probably paint of the convention
to come back and pick up,which in some of those early years we
tried to do that and found thatat the end of the weekend we had
a bunch of stuff that we didn'twant. I was going to say,
I'm just gues saying people didn't comeback. They did not. Now,

(36:00):
if you collect their driver's licenses thenthat would probably cause some problems. So
I, you know, decided kindof late in the game that I would
teach classes all weekend, which wasreally interesting, challenging, rewarding, mainly

(36:30):
because there was a there was alot of opportunity there for based on my
past experiences, there's a lot ofopportunity for people to sit down in your
workspace and kind of say, well, I know how to do this.
I'm just here because I want tosit down for a while and I figure,

(36:51):
you know, I can learn something, but I kind of already know
this, so whatever, it's aplace to sit and right and oddly enough,
this year, I think a lotof people sat down with probably more
skill than I think we had seenin years past. But we're also very

(37:19):
intent on soaking up as much informationas they possibly could within that hour block.
And you think that might be becauseof the pandemic and people having more
time to kind of start that hobbyand become a little bit proficient. You
know, like every year that theHalloween becomes more mainstream, Yeah, mainstream,

(37:50):
Yeah, I know what you mean. I think more people feel like
it's okay to celebrate in more waysthan just having a costume, going out
trick or treating or going to aHalloween party. And like we've talked about
at length, everyone, like,I think it's in our DNA that we

(38:12):
are all makers in one way oranother, and there has to be some
sort of like circumstance that brings thatto the forefront for people to kind of
have that moment of realization like,oh, I actually can do these things
that they're not as challenging as theythought, or I am a creative person.

(38:35):
And so I think that has reallysort of kind of made the experience
a little bit different, or atleast this year was different in that way
where people were just really open totrying things and weren't just rushing through it.
They were really like, cool,tell me what I need to know,
and then once I'm good to likeget going, then I'm just going

(39:00):
to go for it. But alsoif I need your help, I will
let you know, whereas you know, in years past, people just kind
of do whatever they want to do, and you know, so it was
really interesting and very rewarding in thatway that like when people left those classes,
I feel like they all left verysatisfied with the things that they had

(39:21):
made for themselves, which has alwaysbeen my biggest concern. Right, they're
happy with their macaroni face, andthey're exactly. I wonder if part of
it is just a longer season ofmaker shows and things out there. It
makes you think of like Tabletop,Like when the Tabletop Show came out,

(39:42):
it pushed board gaming into kind ofthat pop culture. Oh hey, this
is cool, it's not just Monopolyand Clue, and everybody started like oh,
like you know, looking, Imean, people would know what companies
made board games, and oh,this one's made by this company. I
played another one of their games likebefore, Like that wouldn't even be It's

(40:02):
not Parker Brothers. Like nobody knows. And I'm wondering if the same thing
is kind of happening in the makerworld, where you know, people are
watching enough of the Bob Claggetts andthese other makers and Van Oaks Props and
all these people to be like,oh I could do that, Like there's
enough of these tutorial kind of showsthat are sparking that imagination and then they're

(40:28):
like, oh hey, well here'sa chance to try my hand. The
materials are cheap, it's not thatyou know, hard to give it a
start, and yeah, that's that'sgreat to hear though, that they're that
your students were excited with the weekend. Did you have like a one O
one, one oh two, likeif someone was there both days they could
progress in like a beginning at advanceor was everything like a fresh course,

(40:53):
you know? One off? Theywere all one off because we had found
over time that more often than not, the people that were taking the classes
were one day attendees. Okay,they were either there on Saturday or Sunday

(41:13):
because of something that they wanted tosee. That makes sense. The convention
is it's big. I mean,it's not like celebration big, but I
think they do like thirty thirty fivethousand people a day over two days,
so there's plenty of foot traffic.But we wanted it to be so that

(41:35):
people could show up, start andfinish a project and leave the class with
something that they could like take homeand put in their yard or put on
their mantle or you know whatever.So this year they were all single classes,
although we basically ran the same trackof education both days. So okay,

(42:00):
the first class was Tombstone's. Secondclass was a skull and candle thing.
Third class was a nightmare before ChristmasHalloween town sign made out of foam
and then you know, rinse andrepeat. Right now, that sounds because
the Sunday classes are better because Saturdayclasses always have some sort of interesting question

(42:27):
or something you never thought of whileyou were making the stuff, and so
come Sunday you're like, I mean, let me tell you how how this
is really done. The other thingthat was really interesting was having people come
up to me and say, hey, are you Van Oaks Props, Which

(42:52):
is a little hilarious because I gotsome recognition. Yeah, I had the
shirt on one day and I hadto on another day. So no,
I just like it swags just clearlythat guy like, I'm out trying to
get people to watch my videos becausethe more people that make Halloween means the
more Halloween stuff that I get toenjoy seeing. So it was neat to

(43:15):
like meet people, particularly people whowere like there from out of town too.
They were like, there was areally nice couple that I met from
Arizona. Oh no, I'm sorry. They were from Utah, near the
border of Arizona, who came forthe weekend, took a couple of classes,
had a nice chance to like chatwith them in between classes. Super

(43:38):
nice. They showed me all sortsof pictures of stuff that they built using
some of the techniques that I've shownin videos. Super flattering to be like,
we wouldn't have been able to doany of this stuff had you not
put out videos. So having thoseinteractions was like it hit me in a

(43:59):
way I did not expect one.That's cool because you know so, I'm
sure sometimes as you're making was great. Yeah, I mean as a as
a YouTuber, I'm wondering if sometimeswhen you're making it's like who is my
audience? Who am I making thisfor? And now you can picture those

(44:22):
people from Utah, like I'm makingit for them because they're you know,
instead this amorphous cloud of for sureviewers. When you're doing stuff for online,
it's like you're doing it all ina vacuum. Like this sounds like
a good idea to me. Orit sounds like a good idea to my
wife. But I don't pull theworld to find out what people are interested

(44:45):
in because I'd never get a goodanswer. But you know, to have
people come up to me and belike, oh, here's a picture of
the thing that you made, likea couple months back, Like I made
one too, and it turned outgreat. I'm really happy with how it
looks. And even if it waslike a total disaster, the fact that

(45:06):
they were happy with how it lookedwas like, that was it. That's
so cool to us being able toteach. I don't I've never done a
class at a convention, but Iwould have to think long and hard about
how to do that. So I'mglad that that people who came and participate
in that seemed to really get somethingout of it. Yeah. Yeah,

(45:29):
and you know, always nice tosee familiar faces. The Los Angeles Halloween
scene is pretty deep, and alot of these people I know only ever
really get to see around Halloween orat this convention. So much like I

(45:52):
was saying how how Silicon felt likeseeing all my friends at summer camp,
and I wasn't there. This wassummer camp for me, but I was
there. Good. Good. Yeah. So outside of that, I have
just been keeping busy cranking out videos. I know in the past, babies,

(46:19):
those babies, those demon babies.I know in the past, you've
produced kind of a list of hauntsand houses. Is that happening again this
year or it is? That Actuallyis a really good point, because so
in the past I've done a reallysimple website and have taken submissions from people.
And this year, I'll back upand say, for at least the

(46:45):
last couple of years, I've thoughtI really should spend some time and make
the website a bit more robust anda bit more mobile friendly. And this
year I finally did it. Ohgood. And so I've spent a bunch
of time over the past month orso revamping the entire website and doing all

(47:07):
the stuff so that when people decidethat they want to go out and see
haunted houses and stuff like that,that it's a lot easier for them to
do that. And if you happento be in the Los Angeles area.
The website is so Cal hauntlist dotcom and it covers everything from San Diego

(47:31):
down south all the way to ohHigh up in the northern portion. Of
southern California. If that makes sense. Awesome. Now, my one question
is can people who submit their hauntsedit them? Yes, as I say,

(47:52):
I think of all the features thatyou've said would be beneficial, that's
the one because otherwise you get inundatedwith change for yeah, so of the
things that I really wanted to makesure it happened. That was the priority.
They needed to be able to submittheir own information. It needed to
automatically be gathered in a consistent formatwith the least amount of options, so

(48:20):
that people couldn't just start putting inthings that they thought fit a particular category
or adjustable fields, not like justwrite in what it's about. It's like,
no pick from these five fields thatwill actually tell people what it is.
They could add in a description sothat people know kind of what it
is. They could add in threephotos just to keep the loading time faster,

(48:45):
and it could link out to youtheir social platforms. And then the
last thing was to add in reviewsbecause oftentimes people will say, oh,
you know, I drove all theway and found out that it ended up
being something you know, that Iwasn't expecting and whatnot. And so to

(49:07):
be able to sort of crowdsource yourHalloween experience to a certain degree through a
website that like not only tells youwhere to go based on GPS location,
but also shows you photos and letsyou look through people's social to see like

(49:27):
is this worth making a drive too, because you know, sometimes you might
be like, hey, I wantto drive four hours to go to a
thing. Is it going to beworth my time? And yeah, it's
really smart. There's a handful ofreally major updates that were made to the
website, and first year doing somethinglike this is always It's always going to

(49:51):
have its challenges, but I thinkit'll pay off in dividends over time because
the management will be less on meand people will realize that they have a
lot more control over the information thatthey put out there. Plus, you
know, southern California, granted wehave really nice weather most times of the

(50:13):
year, become October, we doget some anomalies because you know October,
you you might have a day that'sone hundred degrees or you might have hail.
Like it's a total wild card.And I know some of the haunts
that I've put on the list overthe years have had to, you know,
take their listings off the website orwhatever at the last minute because like

(50:37):
high winds kicked up out in thedesert and knocked over their entire haunted house
or whatever, like you know,irreparable damage within the time frame of October.
So to be able to say,well, look, you know,
if you decide to add an extraday, or you decide to only stay

(50:58):
open until nine o'clock and stay often, now you have access to make
all those changes. I don't haveto do it. It's a lot less
babysitting. I'll be sure that soundsfun single thing. I'm sure. Let's
rather you do the updates. Yeah. I did all the work to put
that back into their hands, andyet I still like, look at every

(51:21):
change. I have to approve everyreview, so that like I got rid
of some headaches and created new headaches, but they're all good headaches. Don't
totally that. I knew that wassomething that you always enjoyed doing and I
was hoping you'd be able to pursueit again this year. And that sounds
like make it even better. Yeah, there's one hundred and forty two listings

(51:45):
as of September thirteenth. I wantto say last year we had two hundred
change and I assume that this yearwill be probably about the same. So,
like I said, you know,if you like haunted houses and want
to come to the Los Angeles areafor Halloween, which I highly recommend,

(52:06):
because look, there's a lot ofpeople at work in the motion picture industry
out here and they like to blowoff steam by making haunted houses in their
front yards and things. So youknow, come to La go to a
bunch of homegrown haunted houses, andthen go check out the theme parks and

(52:27):
do all that sort of stuff.It's a great place to come spend Halloween.
Yeah. I think the map ismy favorite part because I mean,
this is great, but most peopleare traveling by oh well, I'm going
to be in such and such anarea, and being able to see it
right on a map really makes iteasier. Yeah. That's a huge game
changer for the list this year forsure. To be able to integrate Google

(52:49):
Maps and have all the addresses beclickable now that just like automatically pops it
in your favorite mapping app, justmakes the whole thing so much easier.
Yeah, Or if you want tomake a night of it, you could
say like, oh well, Look, there's these three locations relatively close to
each other, whereas unless you weresearching for that specifically, you wouldn't have

(53:10):
known that. Yeah. Yeah,so that's all happening, you know,
big Halloween video stuff happening now andthen Halloween. Well yeah, like you've
said before with a lot of yourvideos, you know, often when you

(53:31):
do Halloween videos, they get agood response because that's kind of what your
channels known for, your kind ofcore demographic of viewers. So this is
a super Bowl time, prime timewhatever we want to call it. Yeah,
my wife and I just went ona small vacation and for three months.

(53:53):
That's why we haven't been recording listeners, just so you know, it's
all Derek's fault. I wish.And we got back on a Monday,
and I thought, well, there'sno way I'm going to be able to
get out of video this week.I got too much stuff going on.
I gotta play catch up. Andshe looked at me and she goes,

(54:14):
what do you mean it's go time? Like this is buckle up, butter
Cup. This is not the timeto call in sick to work. I
say, She's right, it isnot the time to call in sick to
work. Well that's funny. Wellthat's good. Well I'm glad you have
such a supportive spouse in your life. Who can yeah, just say hey,

(54:38):
so we all know, we cannotblame missus van Oaks if if a
video doesn't come out in a specificweek, because she is the driving force.
That is true. That is true. And she made an appearance in
a video two weeks ago. Oh, we always love her appearances. She
made her official debut. Well awesome. Well, if people want to check

(55:01):
that out, I know you gavethe website for that, But if people
wanted to watch this flurry of Halloweenthemed videos that are primed to strike in
the next few weeks, where wouldthey check those out? Derek? You
can find them on YouTube if yousearch for Van Oaks props. And what

(55:22):
about you, Darren? Where canpeople find you online? Will say,
go to doctor sci Fi dot comDr sci Fi. It links to all
my podcasts, true plogs and bitsabout the droids. One of these days
I'll get some more videos put together, really diving into how I designed and
built them. I think that wouldbe some nice content. But I was

(55:44):
going to bring it up, butI didn't know if it was a sore
subject. No no, no,no, yes, I think you know.
I'll start there. And I thinkdoing fun little videos with the droids
like in scenarios works great for likeTikTok and that kind of shoal, But
I think the idea of kind ofreally again, I'd rather make a video

(56:06):
that's the kind of video I wouldwant to watch if another droid builder made
a video talking about how we builtsomething, that's what interests me. So
I'm going to start there and we'llsee where it goes. Sounds like a
plan, all right, And again, you can check this out in many
other great podcasts here on the Nerdpartynetwork, most of them all. You
would have a couple more episodes everyweek than you would have here on Maker's

(56:29):
Method. But that's all right.We do have a couple other things lined
up we'd love to share with youguys, so stay tuned here or share
it with another maker in your lifethat enjoys listening to people in interviews talking
about making here, we're good listeningwhile you're standing Apparently that happens often in

(56:50):
the maker's world. But check usout definitely at the nerdparty dot com and
as always, keep making Pho