August 23, 2024 • 30 mins
Cosplayer A.Mom.That.Lifts joins us to talk about cosplaying at Dragon Con including the Spartans and her cosplay plans for this year.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the dragon Con pregame show powered by Columbus
State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, where you can
learn the science behind the fiction.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My next guest is a case player whose group of
spartans is quite the intimidating sight to see marching down
Peachtree Street during the parade. Her cosplay name a mom
that lifts her real name Alison Allison. Welcome to the show.
I'm well looking forward to dragon Con. That is where
we met, That is how we know one another. Two
(00:34):
years ago at dragon Con. You were dressed as the
Scarlet Witch.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I was dressed as a a very fancy boudoir, which
is what I.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Was, okay, but you know, looked fantastic. And you were
there with some other very like ripped built people and
I stumbled upon you. I was dressed as Eleven from
Stranger Things. There were several of us dressed as eleven
different any of you. Yeah, and I was the pink
dress eleven, mainly because I have the same hair. I
(01:08):
mean that worked.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, it was very convincing.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It was, and I was enjoying, you know, doing the
eleven powers at people. And then so you and I
we took a picture where we were doing the the
the hands at one another. So that's the first time
that we met. And then there was someone who was
there with you who made a comment about how our
socks were the same. This guy was very ripped. But
(01:34):
the one thing about in most circumstances, I can say this,
I don't look like I've missed many leg days. It's
a lot of soccer over the years. I have calves
that I looked like Popeye walking on his hands. It's
so I said some smart comment to him about, you know,
it looks like he's been missing leg day. And then
as we walked away, my friends were like, you're that
(01:54):
guy would have killed you, Like he could have just
choke slammed you right here, but he was. It's dragon called.
People are nice, you know, everybody most everybody's.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But sometimes people do some kind of stuff. But you know,
I feel like we're all there. You let it roll off.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's what you do. So I have I have two
fond memories of that moment. The guy that I actually
had the first time that with a guy I had
more muscles than he did, uh, and only in one
specific part of my body and it was just my legs.
And then and then meeting you because then last year
we bumped into you again, uh in a different hotel.
(02:34):
This time we were at the Hyatt and I've I've
got my uh my ribbons uh for for this year,
ready to go. But we were handing out ribbons to people.
It's a long story, but it's a big thing at
dragon Con. People hand out ribbons to people.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
There's like a whole coat. Yeah, and I.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Had one that said red on it. And you were
in again in your boudoir witch costume and all red,
and I said, I was presenting that to you. So
we took a picture that anyway, So and then we've
kept in touch, you know, over the last year. And
I like to involve a cosplayer in the pregame show
every year because cosplay is such a big part of
(03:14):
dragon Con. And I think when people think about a
convention any sort of I mean, dragon Con is pop culture.
And I've had people say like, I don't understand why,
you know, some guest is going to be like why
would that guest be there? And it's like, because it's
pop culture and they're part of pop culture. That's why
they come. But isn't this just like a Star Trek
that no, although there's a lot of Star Trek people
(03:35):
coming this year, but that's just a coincidence. But the
point is cosplay time, yes, which is which is a
very impressive thing to pull off.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It is effectively year after year for as long as
they have.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So the first thing I guess I want to talk
about is Dragon Con in general, Like what you like
about it, what brings you back, Maybe an experience other
than you know, meeting me for the first time that
really stands out. Yeah, it was. It was truly magical
and I can't get over me going, hey man, don't
skip any more leg days come.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Honestly, that's that was one of my favorite moments of
all times, be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I so I went to my first Dragonthon in twenty sixteen,
and prior to that, I had never been to this
sort of convention. Before I knew they existed, but only
like New York Comic Con certainly stayed the ego comicon, right,
the big ones. Now, I say that knowing now that
Dragonson is also a big one, but didn't. I hadn't
no idea it existed in and I lived close but
(04:41):
not super close, and me and my family were looking
for something to do that particular weekend and it was
a sun day and Atlanta wasn't that far maybe three hours,
And I'm like, we got friends down there, there's some
kind of thing happening. Let's go see what they're talking about.
They told us to bring costumes and were kind of
vague about it, which was a little rude, but it
made total sense. Got there and we went to Dragon Con.
(05:03):
I wore Laura Croft, my first time. I had worn
her sort of recurrently and proudly for Halloween basically like
every year for the last like six years prior to that,
so she's kind of all I had anyway. But I
went and you kind of you step into a world
that you didn't think was real or ever existed, that
(05:26):
everybody's totally okay with with it, and and there's I mean,
and Sunday is a kind of a crazy day to go,
right because it's like the last official like night of
con right, so everybody's like trying to finish their alcohol.
Like everybody's always drunk anyway, but Sunday night is nuts.
And here who got there not in the morning, who
(05:46):
got there in the afternoon? And we stayed for the
after it into the we we laid hours of the
night and got really pretty solid dragon Con experiences for
them one Sunday, and I remember telling my group at
the time, I was like, I will never not come
back here again. This is awesome. Incidentally, it took me
several years to come back, had a baby, and life happened,
(06:09):
and you know, I moved out of the state and
further away in the whole thing. But I never forgot Dragonson.
And when I was trying to find my way back
into fitness, which at that point I had been doing
for close to I don't know, six seven years, at
that point, I remembered that when I had been at
Dragonson that one day in twenty sixteen, I had seen
(06:31):
like three or course spartans sort of moving around. I
did not know at the time that there was a group.
I did not know that there was anything other than
just these three duds in really impressive spartan costume. And
I had bookmarked it and I was like, people take
cosplays really seriously, Like this is cool. This is what
I like. I work out, it lends itself, well, I
(06:53):
want to do this in Bookmarke it twenty nineteen, I
was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna apply and this is joint.
I'm gonna go back to Dragon.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So there, so there's an application process because these are
part of the questions that I have. Because so I
was aware of the Spartans for many years before this
point and it was mostly guys. There was a point
where where the ladies started to show up and it
was it's just it's impressive in general, and it has
(07:20):
gradually grown into this like larger and larger group. Okay,
so you applied to be part of the group. Now
what is the application process? Like do they do they
need a photo of your abs? Is that part of
the rule or Okay?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
At the time, it was an email that you reached
out to basically expressing interest and they sent you a
link to a Google form that was simple basically, you
know your name, how old are you had to hear
about us, Why do you want to be a part
of us? You know you have experience of training kind
of thing, and that, I mean, it was simple. It
(07:56):
was pretty pretty bare balls on it.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Is there a question? Is there a question that's like,
you know, how would you define your pack? Six pack?
Eight pack?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Twelve pack, like, no, there's actually a diagram and they're
to circle the ones that you have. No, no, no, no.
It was it was very black and white and straightforward,
and I was brought in and there so there have
always been women in the group, so the group was
just for a little bit of context. The group was
(08:26):
started in two thousand and seven by a group of
guys who loved the movie and wanted to sort of
emulate the workout aesthetic and the physical aesthetic of the movie.
They new workouts that the guys did the movie did,
and they ram those often during the in between times
of the Dragon con and sort of forged among themselves
this really really cool sense of some batterie and brotherhood
(08:49):
and you know, this mindset that is the Temple of Iron,
and it's really cool and that they got really close
and it grew and it grew and more members joined
and as sort of the commitment showed itself and it's
not worship, people wanted to sort of be a part
of it. It's a group, right, It's not really about
individual any one of our achievements sort of personally, we
obviously celebrate those, but we're affected at the group and
(09:12):
that's the foundation they started, and so when I got
in there, that was apparent there was. They had what
they called the blogos. Those are the women in the
white dress that you see. They they had their own
sort of separate process too, but to join the same
you fill out of forms at an email. They had
(09:34):
women in case in some capacity from the beginning, but
there was never any sort of like structured sort of
process for them. They just sort of did what the
guys did, and the guys. The group has, as it's thrown,
has gone through sort of different iterations of sort of
internal organization and how they sort of eliminate parade bands
and make conditions for things and sort of have their
(09:55):
own sort of standards and accountability requirements. Yeah, changed, it's evolved.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Their room for like a dad bod that has really
good calves, though, like is there room?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
So what you do? So what you do is you
go to that email and in the other sections that
you said, I have really great calves and there's a
person we send that.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Okay, well that's good. I want to if there's not
that division, you know, maybe I could get it on
the ground floor.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
You know, anybody can anybody can join really there's not
The guys are not like it's not just like hyper rigid,
We're gonna moop you out of your you know, it's
it's not anything like that. The rumor Milion on the
spart And is kind of nuts and none if it
is true, we do not all follow the same workout regime.
We do not you know, do any kind of crazy dieting.
(10:42):
We don't do any sort of weird unhealthy nothing like.
It's just we're all sort of fitness and us.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay, Now you say you say there's nothing crazy, but
I mean, you know, some of the some of the
cosplay I've seen you do, there's not a lot to it.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So I.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Do, yeah, that I've seen you do like in person. Right,
there's there's not a lot to the actual It's not
a lot of material.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So I know because my body is part of No.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
No, I'm not complaining. I'm just making the point that
while you say there's no crazy dieting and crazy workout,
you're very fit is all that I'm saying. And you know,
like you look ready in most of you guys and
gals that I've seen there look ready to go compete
in you know, full on like you know, the Arnold
(11:33):
Fitness whatever it's called. I just watched that documentary, don't
remember what the competition was called. But you look like
you're ready to go. You like you're ready to get
up there, and you know, really do the posed downs.
So I know that there's an intense workout to it.
So I guess my question is as you get ready, Well,
I think about it like this, At any given point,
you're three hundred and sixty five days from walking in
(11:55):
very little clothing downtown Atlanta, you know, in broad day light,
in front of God and everybody, at any given point
that's all. Is that always on your mind? Or is
it you just stay fit anyway and it's just convenient
for what you want to.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Do that one.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So I would looked this way whether I went to
Dragon Con and have had cosway to do it, to
do it for anyway, And that's the case for all
of the Sparta. I can stay pretty confidently we are
fitness enthusiasts that have come together with the care and
love of the movie and the aesthetics and what we
do and how we live our lives lends itself to
(12:31):
the costume and it keeps a lot of us doing
it every year, Right, We're not having to change anything
that we aren't already doing.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So when you get down to like like now as
we're recording this, we're a couple of weeks away, so
you're getting to the point like there's you're not changing
anything in the next two weeks. You're not doing any
like I'm going to cut out carbs or like none
of that.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
No, no, I don't right now. It's a lot of
a lot more cardios than I do it. I'm just
party other than maybe in this month, I think it's
the only one with your party. Oh, I just sort
of uptick there. Food has been sort of steadily bopping right.
To kind of carve things out, you do have to
sit in a slight cut. But and we say this
to the numbers in our groups too, we don't ever, ever,
ever want anybody to be unhealthy or feel like they
(13:17):
have to be unhealthy to meet like a Spartan level aesthetic.
We do not expect stage level body or save ready
bodies that. We don't want you to come in with
that perspective or that aesthetic. If that's how you want
to live your life, We're not here to tell you
how to live your life. You want to press that
way live your life. But from a Spartan perspective in
terms of what we expect membership to bring the con
(13:38):
every year, that's a very individualized process, but subjective from
person to person. We don't want you to be unhealthy.
We don't. We will gut you if we think you're
doing like water manipulation or doing anything like that, like
you are out because and again a part of that
goes back to, like there's so many weird rumors about
the Spartans just in general. That's just not how we are.
(14:00):
We don't want to protect you sort of misinformation. And well,
there's maybe two or three that actually do like personal
training or fitness as their actual real time job. I
think there's one person or two people in our in
our group, one to three people maybe that have competed
at any sort of level. But for the most part,
it's a bunch of it's a bunch of people who
(14:21):
have nothing to do with fitness other than they do
it as part of their sort of daily health routine
and regimes.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, I hope my silly questions, don't. I hope we're
able to clear up all of the rumors because I don't.
I don't want it. I don't want to be any
part of continuing that on. I just my very very
best no. And you've done well to clarify it, and
I think that's great. I didn't know that about the group,
and I like how organized it is, and I like
that there's that aspect to it. I just know that
if I knew, like Dragon Con twenty twenty five, that
(14:53):
I was going to have to walk with no shirt
on down Peachtree Street, it would it would drastically change
the way that I eat and work out. But I'm
not anywhere close to where you guys are.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So they're taking for sure, right, Like we get concerned, Right,
it's just a big splatform we sit on and and
you know, we ignore head and when you're when you're hungry,
it does magnify the field. But we are most impressive
again as a group, and I've said this before too.
While we certainly praise individual membership sort of achievement and
(15:27):
how they want to arrive, if they do it in
a healthy way, we're affected as a group, right, So
we're one in a group. People aren't necessarily honing in
on one person and sort of like look at that
person's gifts or whatever people look at, they see the group.
We're effected as the group, and at the end of
the day, we all try to put in the same
amount of collective effort, so then we often sort of
(15:48):
take the same collective reward at time.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I just like that you said or whatever people
look at and it's twos.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Or something, probably our cape. They're pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, no justice something that some people look at, you know,
I mean, I.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Think, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
From time to time at least it comes up now
as far as as far as the parade itself goes,
because you got and the parade is one of the
absolute like must see events that happens every year Dragon Con,
and you guys have such an impressive showing there, and
it's I mean, it's one of those things where you
(16:25):
kind of think, oh, and there was a point where
you wonder how like the Marvel group is going to look,
or how the Star Wars group is going to look,
or and then all of a sudden, like it's just
been kind of hands down, like you guys just take
the thing over for like a long stretch of time
because there's so many of you, it is just this
really commend like it's like an army of Spartans just
(16:46):
walking down Peachtree.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Street, and I can seek from experience that is absolutely
what is in every single one of our heads doing it.
It's a very empowering thing to do the Spartans. Obviously
you love the parade there was the old march on
Friday Night has a very similar sort of sort of takeaway,
and honestly, if you ask, certainly a lot of the
more veteran members in the group, we come back to
(17:10):
dragon Con every year because we get such a reception,
particularly from the Friday reveal. We do the Friday reveal
for for dragon Con. Fort stands for the people who
like to see us, that is for dragon Con. That's
what we do. The organized for the Friday reveal. Dragon
Con parades we also like quite a bit, but there's
a little bit more structure kind of organization that has
to go into that in terms of parade bands and
(17:32):
how the block gonna set up and all of that.
It's a little bit more logistically heavy. It's a little
bit more of a list and just sort of saying, hey,
we're gonna walk in a straight line through all of
the hotels and it's gonna be great. We're gonna fai
lanks up in the middle of each lobby and everybody's
like that. It's aesome, but you know, the parade is awesome.
It's you know there as women. So so not to
(17:55):
like backpack too much. I said they were in a
group of guys. We got named spread Us sort of
all the guys as a Hoplite Dianas and you've got
Gordos new in like twenty twenty when was it twenty
twenty two? With my group of girls, which are the
women in cakes, so the female hop Lights, and we're
technically affiliate, but we march under the Spartan groller. So
I leave that. I I run that group, and I
(18:17):
hold all of my girls, and any girl you see
in a case that's marching with the Spartans are there
because they've met as fairly rigid sort of guideline and
list the sort of standards that I have sort of
set for them. But they have to meet those standards
for me to march in. Any any woman you see
in a red case that markets in the parade has
met physical and accountability standards for me for our group.
(18:40):
And then because we're of the Spartans. They put us
in their parade block with them in that period, so it.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Is something to see. And it's one of those things
when I tell people, like if in most people, I
think if they come one day, they try to come
Saturday because they know they're going to get the parade
experience that morning, and it's fantastic. It's a great way
to kind of kick things off, and a reminder to
anyone listening that's thinking about coming up for it. You
want to get there a little early. There's plenty of
(19:07):
room because it's a really long parade route that that
kind of runs through, and you know it better than
I do because you walk the full thing. I'm usually
there like covering it with a camera and I'm taking photos,
but I don't quite walk the whole thing. But there's
plenty of places to set up. But you do want
to kind of get there a little bit early and
(19:28):
plan ahead for it. And another great piece of advice
I've heard people say is if you're coming for the day,
get there early enough that you can go and get
your one day pass before the parade. That way, as
soon as it's over, you're ready to run inside and
start checking things out because the people that don't do
that have to then go wait in line and get there,
and there's a lot more people doing it.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Heyos, that's it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You don't want to mess with that more with a
mom that lifts. Right after this, let's talk about your
(20:15):
costplays for this year. So you've already told me that
no more red this year. That's not happening. You're leaving
that one.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I'll probably have her, but I don't. I'm not going
to prioritize, you know, So.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
What will you be doing and which days will you
be doing it so folks can look for you.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
So I have it narrowed down the days specifically, but
I can sort of generalize. Now. I'll bring a Savage landscrope.
I wore her last year. I have a new version
of so this year that I'm gonna bring. I'll probably
wear her a couple of times, probably certainly Thursday, certainly Sunday.
I'll wear her Friday, and Saturday is pretty much all day.
(20:52):
Friday it's spartan. Saturday morning after the parade, up after
the parade is spartan. But then I've got a good
warm beak that I'm doing this year. So I'm not
doing due to our Charlotte wish. I'm going to do
the Beak. The plan is to paint myself blue and
be the Dazzled in similar fashion. It's not done being
the Dazzle yet and I've not yet tested myself painted blue,
(21:12):
so we'll see what version ends up showing up to
con this year, but it will be the Dazzled and
it will be there.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I have a few paint brushes. I mean, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, I mean you know, I've got help, but I
have I have your number. I can certainly let you
know if if you know the yeah, no, uh, that
will be Saturday night. I think late is that it
will be Saturday night. I will I have a couple
that I want to still make that I'm not going
(21:43):
to commit myself to yet with a with a reveal yet,
so there will be surprising.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Sort of would it even be Dragon Con if you
weren't down to the last like week and a half now, none.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Of my costumes, yeah, none of my costumes. If that
Bartner done, I'm gonna I'm gonna bring Laura, I'm gonna
bring elect got to bring Tammy. Ever, I think everybody
has their go toes that they packed just in case
something isn't finished or done. So no, they're all easy
to throw on. So you know, I'm not like the
most exciting. I'm dabbling and making full scale cost time
(22:15):
this year, so everything else has been sort of bio
or commissioned.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
So we've started, uh with my group, We've we've begun
sort of a practice of like what hasn't been done before,
and even if there's a good reason why it hasn't
been done before. So that's how last year we ended
up dressed like, you know, characters from Little House on
the Prairie. Nobody's ever been Charles Engels at Dragon Con
and I was like, how has no one ever been
(22:42):
dressed as Michael Landon at Dragon Con? Ever, I've never
seen it in all the years, so as far as
I know, I'm the first to do it. And I thought, mane.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
No, I mean yeah, And I.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Mean it started because one of my friends looks like
mister Edwards from Little House and I was like, that's
the beginning of something special right there. I mean, you
start with the beard, and that's the.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Beauty of Dragon Coon. It's so neat you can't and
there's faith for us there, they're really is, you know,
it's it's why I've not done Wonder Woman, not because
she's neat, but because she's so She's so done every year,
and I want to do a Wonder Woman, but I
want to do her justice, no pun intended, so it
so happened. I'm just not sure. This year.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
We've got one that we're working on. I don't want
to say what it is because if we end up
doing it, yeah they have, we do, and it's one
of those things. But I mean, I've never seen anyone
doing this group of characters. You don't want to, I
don't yet, and we're just trying to figure it out
because part of our group to pull this off had
(23:44):
a bit of an injury this week and she's like,
I hope I'm feeling well enough to come, and I'm like,
you have to. It's dragon Con. Come on. I did
kidney Stones at Dragon Con once. Come on, you know
you gotta come on.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
We got to do it. I told it a dragon Ponts.
You got to do it. You just pas to what
about like what about like cause plans?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Right?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Like can you speak through broadly about costumes that you
haven't done that you want to do.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh, that's a great question. I mean, the one that
we're working on for this year is one we've talked
about for a few years that we'd like to do,
and then occasionally we'll have an idea and then we'll
get there and we'll see someone already doing the one
that we thought this is going to be original and fresh,
and then we're like.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, I don't know when we get there and we
see someone do it really well and we just go
there is it's it's it's elite. And that's the only
word for it. Because I'm going to some some you
can tell they just made them up in the room beforehand,
and that's fine too, nobody's going to judge that. But
a lot of the ones that I would like to do,
(24:52):
it's just too hot in those hotels too.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
You know, people wonder why I have such body forward
costumes dragon pot it is because it gets so hot.
That's why it does.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
The only reason I was sweating through my Charles Ingles clothes.
But I just looked like you know, you know, Paul
Ingles had been working out in the fields. That's what
I looked like. So I was going for that look.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
You know it was authentic.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
It was very.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah. This is why I've not done like a Selene cosplay.
She's like in full bodysuit leather. I've not done like
a ninety rogue cosplay again in full bodysuit with a
jacket and a wig. Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I've heard some stories about the body paint, so that
could be an interesting turn for you because some of
that paint does not breathe well.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So I've heard this. I have a high recommendations from
this one, so we'll see. We'll see. I'm gonna judge
tests ahead of going there.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I would just say this, don't expect to see me
in body paint anytime in the next couple of years
at least. And if I did, I would definitely, uh,
you know, cut back my carbs, maybe not out, you know,
go back.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
To cut them out. Now that's where you get energy
comes you did not cut them out.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I would need to cut them out. If I was
going to do a body paint.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Dragon Call, maybe it's so.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, I mean I would have to. But I'm trying
to think if there's just one that we really have
talked about that we haven't been able to pull. We
we're big Predator fans like, inevitably in our room, Predator
is going at any given moment in our room when
we're there. But we've wanted to do group Predator costumes.
And then we saw a group doing it, and I'm like,
that guy looks like he's got a fake mini gun
(26:40):
that he brought, and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Well, simler, like weirdly similar. I have wanted to do
like a like a genomorph costume, just like a like
an alien queen costume. And I saw somebody doing it
together like last year, maker the year before. I'm like, no,
why are you doing this? And he did it so
beautifully it was literal perk. I see. Now I have
(27:01):
all of my desires to do it.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
And and that's that's the challenge, is finding a way
to do And I've got I've got one that I
don't I don't want to give it away, and I'm
not one hundred certain I can pull it off. But
I think, well I can't if I give you this
as a hint, because you know, but if I give
(27:25):
you the if I give you this as a hint, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you think I could pull that off?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Okay, yeah you can't.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, I just I just got to get a green jumpsuit,
you know, I mean, you gotta.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I think you can do it. I think you can. No,
I think I have.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Confidence to make it even better. My wife is Australian.
She doesn't really understand, and I'll just say it. It
was the you know, the Australian break dancer Raygan is
that her name, And I thought I could pull that off.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But again, there's a whole group that's going to I'm
sure I already know that they posted about having already
made the jumpsuits in bulk. It's already happening. There's it's
probably like a flash mob that's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
It was like Barbie Barbie last year, and you know
it's just.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
That that's I think Deadpool will be big again this
year for sure. Certainly Wolverine.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I hope we see at least one that's half in half.
I want to see like a Deadpool and a Wolverine,
like on the same person. That would be nice. It
would be fun because I really liked, you know, the
way that they did the combos.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Stup, did you see the movie?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I have not, Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
That's not a spoil No, no, no, I'm.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Just saying paranoia just then.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
No, no, I want to see someone with like a
like a like a Deadpool mask on one side and
a Wolverine mask on the other side. That's not me.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
They're bringing like alternate universes in and I was like,
I don't know what's in there.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, No, that's not a spoil for anything.
And there's a lot of things that could be spoiled.
You're doing a good job if you're dodging spoilers even
at some.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Of them are spoiled, not all of them, but some
of them are spoiled.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah. I spoiled a couple. I spoiled a couple for
my wife because I didn't really know that she was
gonna end up wanting to see it. But again, she's Australian,
she likes Hugh Jackman. So that's that's that's a go.
It's a national treasure.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Well, Alison, I'm looking forward to seeing you again this year,
and uh, it's gonna be another fantastic dragon Con because
they're all fantastic, each one special and different and unique
in their own way. Every single year your socials. A
mom that lifts is that that's Instagram, anything.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Else that's Instagram. I'm attempting TikTok, but it's not. It's
not really super active, So yeah, Instagram is the best one.
A dot mom dot.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
There you go, Allison, Thank you so much, looking forward
to seeing Yeah, have a good one and that'll do
it for the twenty twenty four edition of the dragon
Con a pregame show. For a full list of all
of the guests will be attending this year and to
secure your membership, go to DragonCon dot org. I want
to thank my guests doctor Seawan Cruzen, Joe Garland, Steve
(30:14):
Taylor from the Arthritis Foundation. You can learn more about
the Arthritis Foundation at their website Arthritis dot org. Thanks
also to Katherine Tate, Ross, mar Kwan, Kristin Kruk, and
a Mom that Lifts. I want to also thank the
media relations team at DRAGONCN, including Greg Sam and Tillman.
I couldn't do what I do with this show every
(30:35):
year without you guys, so thank you for that and
thank you for listening. Look forward to seeing you at
dragon Con.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
This has been the dragon Con Pregame Show powered by
Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Learn more
at ccssc dot org.
This is the dragon Con pregame show powered by Columbus
State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center, where you can
learn the science behind the fiction.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My next guest is a case player whose group of
spartans is quite the intimidating sight to see marching down
Peachtree Street during the parade. Her cosplay name a mom
that lifts her real name Alison Allison. Welcome to the show.
I'm well looking forward to dragon Con. That is where
we met, That is how we know one another. Two
(00:34):
years ago at dragon Con. You were dressed as the
Scarlet Witch.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I was dressed as a a very fancy boudoir, which
is what I.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Was, okay, but you know, looked fantastic. And you were
there with some other very like ripped built people and
I stumbled upon you. I was dressed as Eleven from
Stranger Things. There were several of us dressed as eleven
different any of you. Yeah, and I was the pink
dress eleven, mainly because I have the same hair. I
(01:08):
mean that worked.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, it was very convincing.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
It was, and I was enjoying, you know, doing the
eleven powers at people. And then so you and I
we took a picture where we were doing the the
the hands at one another. So that's the first time
that we met. And then there was someone who was
there with you who made a comment about how our
socks were the same. This guy was very ripped. But
(01:34):
the one thing about in most circumstances, I can say this,
I don't look like I've missed many leg days. It's
a lot of soccer over the years. I have calves
that I looked like Popeye walking on his hands. It's
so I said some smart comment to him about, you know,
it looks like he's been missing leg day. And then
as we walked away, my friends were like, you're that
(01:54):
guy would have killed you, Like he could have just
choke slammed you right here, but he was. It's dragon called.
People are nice, you know, everybody most everybody's.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But sometimes people do some kind of stuff. But you know,
I feel like we're all there. You let it roll off.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's what you do. So I have I have two
fond memories of that moment. The guy that I actually
had the first time that with a guy I had
more muscles than he did, uh, and only in one
specific part of my body and it was just my legs.
And then and then meeting you because then last year
we bumped into you again, uh in a different hotel.
(02:34):
This time we were at the Hyatt and I've I've
got my uh my ribbons uh for for this year,
ready to go. But we were handing out ribbons to people.
It's a long story, but it's a big thing at
dragon Con. People hand out ribbons to people.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
There's like a whole coat. Yeah, and I.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Had one that said red on it. And you were
in again in your boudoir witch costume and all red,
and I said, I was presenting that to you. So
we took a picture that anyway, So and then we've
kept in touch, you know, over the last year. And
I like to involve a cosplayer in the pregame show
every year because cosplay is such a big part of
(03:14):
dragon Con. And I think when people think about a
convention any sort of I mean, dragon Con is pop culture.
And I've had people say like, I don't understand why,
you know, some guest is going to be like why
would that guest be there? And it's like, because it's
pop culture and they're part of pop culture. That's why
they come. But isn't this just like a Star Trek
that no, although there's a lot of Star Trek people
(03:35):
coming this year, but that's just a coincidence. But the
point is cosplay time, yes, which is which is a
very impressive thing to pull off.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It is effectively year after year for as long as
they have.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So the first thing I guess I want to talk
about is Dragon Con in general, Like what you like
about it, what brings you back, Maybe an experience other
than you know, meeting me for the first time that
really stands out. Yeah, it was. It was truly magical
and I can't get over me going, hey man, don't
skip any more leg days come.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Honestly, that's that was one of my favorite moments of
all times, be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I so I went to my first Dragonthon in twenty sixteen,
and prior to that, I had never been to this
sort of convention. Before I knew they existed, but only
like New York Comic Con certainly stayed the ego comicon, right,
the big ones. Now, I say that knowing now that
Dragonson is also a big one, but didn't. I hadn't
no idea it existed in and I lived close but
(04:41):
not super close, and me and my family were looking
for something to do that particular weekend and it was
a sun day and Atlanta wasn't that far maybe three hours,
And I'm like, we got friends down there, there's some
kind of thing happening. Let's go see what they're talking about.
They told us to bring costumes and were kind of
vague about it, which was a little rude, but it
made total sense. Got there and we went to Dragon Con.
(05:03):
I wore Laura Croft, my first time. I had worn
her sort of recurrently and proudly for Halloween basically like
every year for the last like six years prior to that,
so she's kind of all I had anyway. But I
went and you kind of you step into a world
that you didn't think was real or ever existed, that
(05:26):
everybody's totally okay with with it, and and there's I mean,
and Sunday is a kind of a crazy day to go,
right because it's like the last official like night of
con right, so everybody's like trying to finish their alcohol.
Like everybody's always drunk anyway, but Sunday night is nuts.
And here who got there not in the morning, who
(05:46):
got there in the afternoon? And we stayed for the
after it into the we we laid hours of the
night and got really pretty solid dragon Con experiences for
them one Sunday, and I remember telling my group at
the time, I was like, I will never not come
back here again. This is awesome. Incidentally, it took me
several years to come back, had a baby, and life happened,
(06:09):
and you know, I moved out of the state and
further away in the whole thing. But I never forgot Dragonson.
And when I was trying to find my way back
into fitness, which at that point I had been doing
for close to I don't know, six seven years, at
that point, I remembered that when I had been at
Dragonson that one day in twenty sixteen, I had seen
(06:31):
like three or course spartans sort of moving around. I
did not know at the time that there was a group.
I did not know that there was anything other than
just these three duds in really impressive spartan costume. And
I had bookmarked it and I was like, people take
cosplays really seriously, Like this is cool. This is what
I like. I work out, it lends itself, well, I
(06:53):
want to do this in Bookmarke it twenty nineteen, I
was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna apply and this is joint.
I'm gonna go back to Dragon.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So there, so there's an application process because these are
part of the questions that I have. Because so I
was aware of the Spartans for many years before this
point and it was mostly guys. There was a point
where where the ladies started to show up and it
was it's just it's impressive in general, and it has
(07:20):
gradually grown into this like larger and larger group. Okay,
so you applied to be part of the group. Now
what is the application process? Like do they do they
need a photo of your abs? Is that part of
the rule or Okay?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
At the time, it was an email that you reached
out to basically expressing interest and they sent you a
link to a Google form that was simple basically, you
know your name, how old are you had to hear
about us, Why do you want to be a part
of us? You know you have experience of training kind
of thing, and that, I mean, it was simple. It
(07:56):
was pretty pretty bare balls on it.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Is there a question? Is there a question that's like,
you know, how would you define your pack? Six pack?
Eight pack?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Twelve pack, like, no, there's actually a diagram and they're
to circle the ones that you have. No, no, no, no.
It was it was very black and white and straightforward,
and I was brought in and there so there have
always been women in the group, so the group was
just for a little bit of context. The group was
(08:26):
started in two thousand and seven by a group of
guys who loved the movie and wanted to sort of
emulate the workout aesthetic and the physical aesthetic of the movie.
They new workouts that the guys did the movie did,
and they ram those often during the in between times
of the Dragon con and sort of forged among themselves
this really really cool sense of some batterie and brotherhood
(08:49):
and you know, this mindset that is the Temple of Iron,
and it's really cool and that they got really close
and it grew and it grew and more members joined
and as sort of the commitment showed itself and it's
not worship, people wanted to sort of be a part
of it. It's a group, right, It's not really about
individual any one of our achievements sort of personally, we
obviously celebrate those, but we're affected at the group and
(09:12):
that's the foundation they started, and so when I got
in there, that was apparent there was. They had what
they called the blogos. Those are the women in the
white dress that you see. They they had their own
sort of separate process too, but to join the same
you fill out of forms at an email. They had
(09:34):
women in case in some capacity from the beginning, but
there was never any sort of like structured sort of
process for them. They just sort of did what the
guys did, and the guys. The group has, as it's thrown,
has gone through sort of different iterations of sort of
internal organization and how they sort of eliminate parade bands
and make conditions for things and sort of have their
(09:55):
own sort of standards and accountability requirements. Yeah, changed, it's evolved.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Their room for like a dad bod that has really
good calves, though, like is there room?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
So what you do? So what you do is you
go to that email and in the other sections that
you said, I have really great calves and there's a
person we send that.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Okay, well that's good. I want to if there's not
that division, you know, maybe I could get it on
the ground floor.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
You know, anybody can anybody can join really there's not
The guys are not like it's not just like hyper rigid,
We're gonna moop you out of your you know, it's
it's not anything like that. The rumor Milion on the
spart And is kind of nuts and none if it
is true, we do not all follow the same workout regime.
We do not you know, do any kind of crazy dieting.
(10:42):
We don't do any sort of weird unhealthy nothing like.
It's just we're all sort of fitness and us.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay, Now you say you say there's nothing crazy, but
I mean, you know, some of the some of the
cosplay I've seen you do, there's not a lot to it.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
So I.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Do, yeah, that I've seen you do like in person. Right,
there's there's not a lot to the actual It's not
a lot of material.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So I know because my body is part of No.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
No, I'm not complaining. I'm just making the point that
while you say there's no crazy dieting and crazy workout,
you're very fit is all that I'm saying. And you know,
like you look ready in most of you guys and
gals that I've seen there look ready to go compete
in you know, full on like you know, the Arnold
(11:33):
Fitness whatever it's called. I just watched that documentary, don't
remember what the competition was called. But you look like
you're ready to go. You like you're ready to get
up there, and you know, really do the posed downs.
So I know that there's an intense workout to it.
So I guess my question is as you get ready, Well,
I think about it like this, At any given point,
you're three hundred and sixty five days from walking in
(11:55):
very little clothing downtown Atlanta, you know, in broad day light,
in front of God and everybody, at any given point
that's all. Is that always on your mind? Or is
it you just stay fit anyway and it's just convenient
for what you want to.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Do that one.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So I would looked this way whether I went to
Dragon Con and have had cosway to do it, to
do it for anyway, And that's the case for all
of the Sparta. I can stay pretty confidently we are
fitness enthusiasts that have come together with the care and
love of the movie and the aesthetics and what we
do and how we live our lives lends itself to
(12:31):
the costume and it keeps a lot of us doing
it every year, Right, We're not having to change anything
that we aren't already doing.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
So when you get down to like like now as
we're recording this, we're a couple of weeks away, so
you're getting to the point like there's you're not changing
anything in the next two weeks. You're not doing any
like I'm going to cut out carbs or like none
of that.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
No, no, I don't right now. It's a lot of
a lot more cardios than I do it. I'm just
party other than maybe in this month, I think it's
the only one with your party. Oh, I just sort
of uptick there. Food has been sort of steadily bopping right.
To kind of carve things out, you do have to
sit in a slight cut. But and we say this
to the numbers in our groups too, we don't ever, ever,
ever want anybody to be unhealthy or feel like they
(13:17):
have to be unhealthy to meet like a Spartan level aesthetic.
We do not expect stage level body or save ready
bodies that. We don't want you to come in with
that perspective or that aesthetic. If that's how you want
to live your life, We're not here to tell you
how to live your life. You want to press that
way live your life. But from a Spartan perspective in
terms of what we expect membership to bring the con
(13:38):
every year, that's a very individualized process, but subjective from
person to person. We don't want you to be unhealthy.
We don't. We will gut you if we think you're
doing like water manipulation or doing anything like that, like
you are out because and again a part of that
goes back to, like there's so many weird rumors about
the Spartans just in general. That's just not how we are.
(14:00):
We don't want to protect you sort of misinformation. And well,
there's maybe two or three that actually do like personal
training or fitness as their actual real time job. I
think there's one person or two people in our in
our group, one to three people maybe that have competed
at any sort of level. But for the most part,
it's a bunch of it's a bunch of people who
(14:21):
have nothing to do with fitness other than they do
it as part of their sort of daily health routine
and regimes.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, I hope my silly questions, don't. I hope we're
able to clear up all of the rumors because I don't.
I don't want it. I don't want to be any
part of continuing that on. I just my very very
best no. And you've done well to clarify it, and
I think that's great. I didn't know that about the group,
and I like how organized it is, and I like
that there's that aspect to it. I just know that
if I knew, like Dragon Con twenty twenty five, that
(14:53):
I was going to have to walk with no shirt
on down Peachtree Street, it would it would drastically change
the way that I eat and work out. But I'm
not anywhere close to where you guys are.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So they're taking for sure, right, Like we get concerned, Right,
it's just a big splatform we sit on and and
you know, we ignore head and when you're when you're hungry,
it does magnify the field. But we are most impressive
again as a group, and I've said this before too.
While we certainly praise individual membership sort of achievement and
(15:27):
how they want to arrive, if they do it in
a healthy way, we're affected as a group, right, So
we're one in a group. People aren't necessarily honing in
on one person and sort of like look at that
person's gifts or whatever people look at, they see the group.
We're effected as the group, and at the end of
the day, we all try to put in the same
amount of collective effort, so then we often sort of
(15:48):
take the same collective reward at time.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And I just like that you said or whatever people
look at and it's twos.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Or something, probably our cape. They're pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, no justice something that some people look at, you know,
I mean, I.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Think, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
From time to time at least it comes up now
as far as as far as the parade itself goes,
because you got and the parade is one of the
absolute like must see events that happens every year Dragon Con,
and you guys have such an impressive showing there, and
it's I mean, it's one of those things where you
(16:25):
kind of think, oh, and there was a point where
you wonder how like the Marvel group is going to look,
or how the Star Wars group is going to look,
or and then all of a sudden, like it's just
been kind of hands down, like you guys just take
the thing over for like a long stretch of time
because there's so many of you, it is just this
really commend like it's like an army of Spartans just
(16:46):
walking down Peachtree.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Street, and I can seek from experience that is absolutely
what is in every single one of our heads doing it.
It's a very empowering thing to do the Spartans. Obviously
you love the parade there was the old march on
Friday Night has a very similar sort of sort of takeaway,
and honestly, if you ask, certainly a lot of the
more veteran members in the group, we come back to
(17:10):
dragon Con every year because we get such a reception,
particularly from the Friday reveal. We do the Friday reveal
for for dragon Con. Fort stands for the people who
like to see us, that is for dragon Con. That's
what we do. The organized for the Friday reveal. Dragon
Con parades we also like quite a bit, but there's
a little bit more structure kind of organization that has
to go into that in terms of parade bands and
(17:32):
how the block gonna set up and all of that.
It's a little bit more logistically heavy. It's a little
bit more of a list and just sort of saying, hey,
we're gonna walk in a straight line through all of
the hotels and it's gonna be great. We're gonna fai
lanks up in the middle of each lobby and everybody's
like that. It's aesome, but you know, the parade is awesome.
It's you know there as women. So so not to
(17:55):
like backpack too much. I said they were in a
group of guys. We got named spread Us sort of
all the guys as a Hoplite Dianas and you've got
Gordos new in like twenty twenty when was it twenty
twenty two? With my group of girls, which are the
women in cakes, so the female hop Lights, and we're
technically affiliate, but we march under the Spartan groller. So
I leave that. I I run that group, and I
(18:17):
hold all of my girls, and any girl you see
in a case that's marching with the Spartans are there
because they've met as fairly rigid sort of guideline and
list the sort of standards that I have sort of
set for them. But they have to meet those standards
for me to march in. Any any woman you see
in a red case that markets in the parade has
met physical and accountability standards for me for our group.
(18:40):
And then because we're of the Spartans. They put us
in their parade block with them in that period, so it.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Is something to see. And it's one of those things
when I tell people, like if in most people, I
think if they come one day, they try to come
Saturday because they know they're going to get the parade
experience that morning, and it's fantastic. It's a great way
to kind of kick things off, and a reminder to
anyone listening that's thinking about coming up for it. You
want to get there a little early. There's plenty of
(19:07):
room because it's a really long parade route that that
kind of runs through, and you know it better than
I do because you walk the full thing. I'm usually
there like covering it with a camera and I'm taking photos,
but I don't quite walk the whole thing. But there's
plenty of places to set up. But you do want
to kind of get there a little bit early and
(19:28):
plan ahead for it. And another great piece of advice
I've heard people say is if you're coming for the day,
get there early enough that you can go and get
your one day pass before the parade. That way, as
soon as it's over, you're ready to run inside and
start checking things out because the people that don't do
that have to then go wait in line and get there,
and there's a lot more people doing it.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Heyos, that's it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You don't want to mess with that more with a
mom that lifts. Right after this, let's talk about your
(20:15):
costplays for this year. So you've already told me that
no more red this year. That's not happening. You're leaving
that one.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I'll probably have her, but I don't. I'm not going
to prioritize, you know, So.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
What will you be doing and which days will you
be doing it so folks can look for you.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
So I have it narrowed down the days specifically, but
I can sort of generalize. Now. I'll bring a Savage landscrope.
I wore her last year. I have a new version
of so this year that I'm gonna bring. I'll probably
wear her a couple of times, probably certainly Thursday, certainly Sunday.
I'll wear her Friday, and Saturday is pretty much all day.
(20:52):
Friday it's spartan. Saturday morning after the parade, up after
the parade is spartan. But then I've got a good
warm beak that I'm doing this year. So I'm not
doing due to our Charlotte wish. I'm going to do
the Beak. The plan is to paint myself blue and
be the Dazzled in similar fashion. It's not done being
the Dazzle yet and I've not yet tested myself painted blue,
(21:12):
so we'll see what version ends up showing up to
con this year, but it will be the Dazzled and
it will be there.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I have a few paint brushes. I mean, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, I mean you know, I've got help, but I
have I have your number. I can certainly let you
know if if you know the yeah, no, uh, that
will be Saturday night. I think late is that it
will be Saturday night. I will I have a couple
that I want to still make that I'm not going
(21:43):
to commit myself to yet with a with a reveal yet,
so there will be surprising.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Sort of would it even be Dragon Con if you
weren't down to the last like week and a half now, none.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Of my costumes, yeah, none of my costumes. If that
Bartner done, I'm gonna I'm gonna bring Laura, I'm gonna
bring elect got to bring Tammy. Ever, I think everybody
has their go toes that they packed just in case
something isn't finished or done. So no, they're all easy
to throw on. So you know, I'm not like the
most exciting. I'm dabbling and making full scale cost time
(22:15):
this year, so everything else has been sort of bio
or commissioned.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
So we've started, uh with my group, We've we've begun
sort of a practice of like what hasn't been done before,
and even if there's a good reason why it hasn't
been done before. So that's how last year we ended
up dressed like, you know, characters from Little House on
the Prairie. Nobody's ever been Charles Engels at Dragon Con
and I was like, how has no one ever been
(22:42):
dressed as Michael Landon at Dragon Con? Ever, I've never
seen it in all the years, so as far as
I know, I'm the first to do it. And I thought, mane.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
No, I mean yeah, And I.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Mean it started because one of my friends looks like
mister Edwards from Little House and I was like, that's
the beginning of something special right there. I mean, you
start with the beard, and that's the.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Beauty of Dragon Coon. It's so neat you can't and
there's faith for us there, they're really is, you know,
it's it's why I've not done Wonder Woman, not because
she's neat, but because she's so She's so done every year,
and I want to do a Wonder Woman, but I
want to do her justice, no pun intended, so it
so happened. I'm just not sure. This year.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
We've got one that we're working on. I don't want
to say what it is because if we end up
doing it, yeah they have, we do, and it's one
of those things. But I mean, I've never seen anyone
doing this group of characters. You don't want to, I
don't yet, and we're just trying to figure it out
because part of our group to pull this off had
(23:44):
a bit of an injury this week and she's like,
I hope I'm feeling well enough to come, and I'm like,
you have to. It's dragon Con. Come on. I did
kidney Stones at Dragon Con once. Come on, you know
you gotta come on.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
We got to do it. I told it a dragon Ponts.
You got to do it. You just pas to what
about like what about like cause plans?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Right?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Like can you speak through broadly about costumes that you
haven't done that you want to do.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh, that's a great question. I mean, the one that
we're working on for this year is one we've talked
about for a few years that we'd like to do,
and then occasionally we'll have an idea and then we'll
get there and we'll see someone already doing the one
that we thought this is going to be original and fresh,
and then we're like.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Well, I don't know when we get there and we
see someone do it really well and we just go
there is it's it's it's elite. And that's the only
word for it. Because I'm going to some some you
can tell they just made them up in the room beforehand,
and that's fine too, nobody's going to judge that. But
a lot of the ones that I would like to do,
(24:52):
it's just too hot in those hotels too.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
You know, people wonder why I have such body forward
costumes dragon pot it is because it gets so hot.
That's why it does.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
The only reason I was sweating through my Charles Ingles clothes.
But I just looked like you know, you know, Paul
Ingles had been working out in the fields. That's what
I looked like. So I was going for that look.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
You know it was authentic.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
It was very.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah. This is why I've not done like a Selene cosplay.
She's like in full bodysuit leather. I've not done like
a ninety rogue cosplay again in full bodysuit with a
jacket and a wig. Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I've heard some stories about the body paint, so that
could be an interesting turn for you because some of
that paint does not breathe well.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So I've heard this. I have a high recommendations from
this one, so we'll see. We'll see. I'm gonna judge
tests ahead of going there.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I would just say this, don't expect to see me
in body paint anytime in the next couple of years
at least. And if I did, I would definitely, uh,
you know, cut back my carbs, maybe not out, you know,
go back.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
To cut them out. Now that's where you get energy
comes you did not cut them out.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I would need to cut them out. If I was
going to do a body paint.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Dragon Call, maybe it's so.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, I mean I would have to. But I'm trying
to think if there's just one that we really have
talked about that we haven't been able to pull. We
we're big Predator fans like, inevitably in our room, Predator
is going at any given moment in our room when
we're there. But we've wanted to do group Predator costumes.
And then we saw a group doing it, and I'm like,
that guy looks like he's got a fake mini gun
(26:40):
that he brought, and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Well, simler, like weirdly similar. I have wanted to do
like a like a genomorph costume, just like a like
an alien queen costume. And I saw somebody doing it
together like last year, maker the year before. I'm like, no,
why are you doing this? And he did it so
beautifully it was literal perk. I see. Now I have
(27:01):
all of my desires to do it.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
And and that's that's the challenge, is finding a way
to do And I've got I've got one that I
don't I don't want to give it away, and I'm
not one hundred certain I can pull it off. But
I think, well I can't if I give you this
as a hint, because you know, but if I give
(27:25):
you the if I give you this as a hint, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you think I could pull that off?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Okay, yeah you can't.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, I just I just got to get a green jumpsuit,
you know, I mean, you gotta.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I think you can do it. I think you can. No,
I think I have.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Confidence to make it even better. My wife is Australian.
She doesn't really understand, and I'll just say it. It
was the you know, the Australian break dancer Raygan is
that her name, And I thought I could pull that off.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But again, there's a whole group that's going to I'm
sure I already know that they posted about having already
made the jumpsuits in bulk. It's already happening. There's it's
probably like a flash mob that's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
It was like Barbie Barbie last year, and you know
it's just.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
That that's I think Deadpool will be big again this
year for sure. Certainly Wolverine.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I hope we see at least one that's half in half.
I want to see like a Deadpool and a Wolverine,
like on the same person. That would be nice. It
would be fun because I really liked, you know, the
way that they did the combos.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Stup, did you see the movie?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I have not, Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
That's not a spoil No, no, no, I'm.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Just saying paranoia just then.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
No, no, I want to see someone with like a
like a like a Deadpool mask on one side and
a Wolverine mask on the other side. That's not me.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
They're bringing like alternate universes in and I was like,
I don't know what's in there.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, No, that's not a spoil for anything.
And there's a lot of things that could be spoiled.
You're doing a good job if you're dodging spoilers even
at some.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Of them are spoiled, not all of them, but some
of them are spoiled.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah. I spoiled a couple. I spoiled a couple for
my wife because I didn't really know that she was
gonna end up wanting to see it. But again, she's Australian,
she likes Hugh Jackman. So that's that's that's a go.
It's a national treasure.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Well, Alison, I'm looking forward to seeing you again this year,
and uh, it's gonna be another fantastic dragon Con because
they're all fantastic, each one special and different and unique
in their own way. Every single year your socials. A
mom that lifts is that that's Instagram, anything.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Else that's Instagram. I'm attempting TikTok, but it's not. It's
not really super active, So yeah, Instagram is the best one.
A dot mom dot.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
There you go, Allison, Thank you so much, looking forward
to seeing Yeah, have a good one and that'll do
it for the twenty twenty four edition of the dragon
Con a pregame show. For a full list of all
of the guests will be attending this year and to
secure your membership, go to DragonCon dot org. I want
to thank my guests doctor Seawan Cruzen, Joe Garland, Steve
(30:14):
Taylor from the Arthritis Foundation. You can learn more about
the Arthritis Foundation at their website Arthritis dot org. Thanks
also to Katherine Tate, Ross, mar Kwan, Kristin Kruk, and
a Mom that Lifts. I want to also thank the
media relations team at DRAGONCN, including Greg Sam and Tillman.
I couldn't do what I do with this show every
(30:35):
year without you guys, so thank you for that and
thank you for listening. Look forward to seeing you at
dragon Con.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
This has been the dragon Con Pregame Show powered by
Columbus State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Learn more
at ccssc dot org.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.