October 20, 2023 • 12 mins
Lamar Wilson, who plays the fearsome Captain Blackbeard in the Pirates Voyage show in Myrtle Beach SC, joins Backstage Pass to chat about the tumultuous journey toward his exciting career on stage, heartfelt moments with young fans, and how it feels to step into Blackbeard’s iconic boots.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.This is Fascist Past with Victoria Henley.
(00:24):
Hi everyone, It's Victoria Henley herewith backstage pass. We have returned to
the Amazing Pirate's Voyage show in thebeautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I
am here with Lamar Wilson, thefearsome Pirate of the Sea, Edward Teach
Blackbeard. How are you, Lamarah doing well? Doing well? Well?
We all know why you landed thegig. I mean you, you
(00:46):
are the best. So we interviewedyou about this time last year in character
is black Beard? Now I wantto get to know you. How did
you become Blackbeard? What was thatjourney like for you? It's a really
funny story. I gave the reader'sdigest version of it and go for it.
I was it was said seven yearsago, almost seven years ago in
(01:07):
January, and I was probably atthe lowest point in my life. I
was homeless, it was jobless,I had no money. I was living
in my car, I was livingin sheds, I was living on sofas,
and I had a very good friendof mine in Dallas. When I
went back to Dallas, tried toget back up on my feet, let
me stay with her and kept mefed, and I didn't even feed myself.
(01:30):
I mean, it was awful andout of nowhere. In December,
my friend had got me a subscriptionto Backstage, and so I thought,
and I was so depressed because everythingthat happened to me. I mean,
it's just one thing after another,and I just nothing would go. And
(01:51):
I had saved all these submissions.I'll be honest with you, I was
ready to pull the pen. Iwas done because nothing was working. I
had lost that last little bit hopeand the fun and New Year's happened and
I made a New Year's resolution andI said, all right, I'm gonna
give it one more shot. I'mgonna put all of these submissions out and
let's see what comes back before Idecide to say enough is enough. You
(02:15):
know, it's got to be something. And so that was my new Year's
resolution. I put all these thingsout. Pirates Voyage was one of them,
and it was like on a Mondaymorning a couple of weeks later,
like towards the end of January.It's like two three weeks after I submitted
into it. The entertainment director calledme and he remembered me from a time
(02:38):
he had hired me at Disney whenhe worked at Disney back in nineteen ninety
five. I think so, Imean years. But something clicked with him
and he remembered me when we gottalking and he was asking me about the
Lumberjack Show and Pigeon fors and wasasking me about this show. And I
was like, you know what,I'm in a really good place right now
(03:00):
to be portable because I literally onlyhad two garbage bags full of clothes that
didn't even fit anymore because I hadlost oh why forty two is what forty
twenty sixty pounds? I lost likesixty pounds. Yeah, And I went
from get to forty one stayed atone eighty. Anyway, I got the
(03:23):
call, and of course I'm inmy pajamas and I'm sitting in this room
and I'm drinking coffee. You know, my you know, woe was made
in the phone rang and he waslike, ah, this is Randolph but
see I and I'd like to talkto you or it's a Dolly Parker company.
I was like, and I said, well, is this a good
time? I guess sir. Youactually caught me right as I was coming
(03:45):
out of a protection meeting. Howare you so? One thing led to
another. He called me back andasked me if I wanted the job,
and he goes, hang on asecond, I can hear somebody in the
background talking. I said, whenis that and he goes, Oh,
that's Dolly Parton. What that's allwe're laying down tracks for the show.
I was like, oh, looklike that. Wow, So long story
(04:09):
short. I got here and Igot here March eighteenth, twenty seventeen.
It was only a six month contractand they liked me so much they want
me to stay for the Christmas show. I opened the Christmas show that year,
which made the fella who was herenot real happy. He was let
go later that year and I kindof filled in and I have been here
(04:35):
ever since. You know. Iasked for full time, you know,
the number one guy working five daysa week, and they gave it to
me back in twenty nineteen, andI didn't do it whatever since Wow,
it's a good gig. Yeah,what an incredible story too. I mean,
that's just you can't lose hope.You can't lose that inspiration because you
don't know what's around the corner,what's you never know. I love that
(04:56):
and you never would. And thisis obviously a role you were born to
play. And when you look around, you have entertained thousands of people,
not millions of okay, millions,yeah, I mean you look at the
kids and the kids at heart,and everybody's having such a great time.
I saw fans interacting with you.Oh it's my birthday, Blackbeard. What's
your favorite fan interaction moment? Doyou have really a standout? And it
happens all the time. My favoritepart of the show is going through the
(05:19):
audience. But at any point intimes, we started these meet and greets.
Now, so I get to havea little bit more reaction with the
kids. But and I've said thissince I got here, you can see
the menim and you look into achild's eyes, and children are so full
of wonder and their eyes get allbig, and you see it. You
(05:41):
see that second when a dream isborn. And I recognize it because that's
what happened to me. That's whyI'm an actor. I was seven years
old, I so Star Wars,lost my freaking mind, went home my
mom, Mom, I'm gonna bea Jedi. Maybe that he says,
silly, honey, those are realactors. So I was like, that's
what I'm doing now. I wasseven years old. I'll never forget that
conversation. And so it's really specialto see the kids. It's so real
(06:05):
to them, and you want tomake it a good immersive experience because I
remember, I still remember. Iremember when I met Darth Vader. I
knew it wasn't the guy from themovie, but he was in the mall,
in the mask, and it wasso cool. And that's what these
is real. You can't you can'tput a price on it. Man,
(06:26):
People say, you know, you'rejust in accurate. The hell do you
do for anything? You know what? I make memories for people, for
these kids, for their parents,I do something that I give them some
wee all of us. We givethem something that they'll never forget, and
they'll take that with them the restof your life, their lives, and
who knows, maybe we'll inspire themto do something else. Of course,
(06:47):
I've had some teenagers come in andthey're in gymnastics and they want to do
acrobatics, and I was like,well, just keep it up. Our
babies are seventeen eighteen years old whenI start, So that's the best part,
you know, just watching, watchingthe eyes light up and watching you
know, because there's magic to thesekids. Yeah, that's what's special.
(07:08):
Well, that's I think P.T. Barnham said there's no nobler art
than making other people happy, andthat's what you do here. So that's
really incredible that you do all ofthat. I mean the show, there's
so much going on. There's afull meal and it is delicious, by
the way. You don't want tomiss that, the acrobatics, the mermaids,
the seals are sea lions, right, I made that mistake last time,
salting the sea lion Oregon. That'strue. That's true at least,
(07:31):
So tell us a little bit.When we come we book our tickets to
the show, what can we expect? Wow, you can expect. You
can expect an hour and a halfof Pirate's Mermaids, a four course meal
you're going to see. The bestway I can describe it, it's like
going to a Broadway show in Vegas. I love that, like a certain
(07:57):
to slay, acrobatic going on withit on water with Pirates, with something
that sounds like a Disney musical playingon a soundtrack. It's fantastic. There
are so many acrobatics, there's sucha you know, there's a little love
(08:18):
storyline going on. There are DavyJones, which comes out so great.
That's one of my favorite scenes withthe smoke on the water and Davy Jones
and the skeletons. There's just somuch. But you can come out here
and expect to be entertained, expectto be well fed, and expect to
see a little bit magic when youcome out. Absolutely. I mean that's
I couldn't have said it better myself. Now, we have the Christmas show
(08:41):
coming up that opens about a monthfrom our recording date, early November,
right, So tell us, incharacter as black Beard, we have to
do that, give us our pitch. What can we expect for the Christmas
show? Will? It is Christmastime at Firous Voyage and you're not talking
to to the Blackbeard anymore. ThisCaptain Scrooge to you, and I don't
(09:05):
like Christmas bah humba pirates, ohwith Christmas cheer, jumping about wanting to
eat plain in the water. HamberWell, that's what I say. Until
a ghost comes and says, screw, let me introduce you the way the
(09:28):
things should be, and much likea Christmas Carol. It's a very similar
story with a ghost that come andvisit Scrooge, and Scrooge sees the error
of his ways and his heart isfilled with love and the Christmas spirit fills
(09:48):
him with joy. And we havea contest because I'm going to give all
of my hidden treasure away that's hiddenin Buccaneer Bay to the winning crew because
it's Christmas. There we go.You got me hooked. You got to
come see the Christmas show. Sothat's a great thing about Pirates Voyage.
(10:09):
There are so many If you lovethe show, you can come back for
Christmas. Now, how do wekeep up? How do we follow along
on social media with you and withPirates. Well you can see on Facebook,
Twitter or X as it's called.Now, Oh sorry, went back
at the voice there going to X. Should I do this in voice or
not? Hey? Voice? Imean come back here, let's do it.
(10:31):
You can go on to Facebook wherelook up Pirates Voyage on Facebook.
You can go to Instagram Pirates Voyage. But the best way he can see
everything that's going on on both ofour properties is when here in Mertall Beach
and the one up in Pigeon Forge. They do not do a Christmas show
however, but you can go towww dot Pirates Voyage dot com. You
(10:52):
will search either Mertle Beach or PigeonForge for your tickets and that'll take you
right to the screen. You havesome VIP options. We have something new
this year that I think people aregoing to think is very special. We
have a Sea Lion experience where peoplecan come out and meet Salty the Sea
(11:13):
Lion before the show and learn alittle bit from our animal trainers before we
come up and see us and thetwo me and the two captains up top.
That is so special, that's amazing. Well, you don't want to
miss out on that and take itfor me. These tickets, these seats
fill up fast, so make sureyou go online book your tickets. We're
going to post all of those linksalso how to follow and connect with Lamar
as well. Lamar, thank youso much for spending time with us.
(11:35):
Thank you, yes, and thankyou to the entire Pirates Voyage team and
you are listeners for always joining in. We'll catch you next time on Backstage
Pass. This has been a presentationof the FCB podcast network, where Real
(12:01):
Talk lives Visitors online at FCB podcasts, dot com, m HM,
This is the FCB Podcast Network.This is Fascist Past with Victoria Henley.
(00:24):
Hi everyone, It's Victoria Henley herewith backstage pass. We have returned to
the Amazing Pirate's Voyage show in thebeautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I
am here with Lamar Wilson, thefearsome Pirate of the Sea, Edward Teach
Blackbeard. How are you, Lamarah doing well? Doing well? Well?
We all know why you landed thegig. I mean you, you
(00:46):
are the best. So we interviewedyou about this time last year in character
is black Beard? Now I wantto get to know you. How did
you become Blackbeard? What was thatjourney like for you? It's a really
funny story. I gave the reader'sdigest version of it and go for it.
I was it was said seven yearsago, almost seven years ago in
(01:07):
January, and I was probably atthe lowest point in my life. I
was homeless, it was jobless,I had no money. I was living
in my car, I was livingin sheds, I was living on sofas,
and I had a very good friendof mine in Dallas. When I
went back to Dallas, tried toget back up on my feet, let
me stay with her and kept mefed, and I didn't even feed myself.
(01:30):
I mean, it was awful andout of nowhere. In December,
my friend had got me a subscriptionto Backstage, and so I thought,
and I was so depressed because everythingthat happened to me. I mean,
it's just one thing after another,and I just nothing would go. And
(01:51):
I had saved all these submissions.I'll be honest with you, I was
ready to pull the pen. Iwas done because nothing was working. I
had lost that last little bit hopeand the fun and New Year's happened and
I made a New Year's resolution andI said, all right, I'm gonna
give it one more shot. I'mgonna put all of these submissions out and
let's see what comes back before Idecide to say enough is enough. You
(02:15):
know, it's got to be something. And so that was my new Year's
resolution. I put all these thingsout. Pirates Voyage was one of them,
and it was like on a Mondaymorning a couple of weeks later,
like towards the end of January.It's like two three weeks after I submitted
into it. The entertainment director calledme and he remembered me from a time
(02:38):
he had hired me at Disney whenhe worked at Disney back in nineteen ninety
five. I think so, Imean years. But something clicked with him
and he remembered me when we gottalking and he was asking me about the
Lumberjack Show and Pigeon fors and wasasking me about this show. And I
was like, you know what,I'm in a really good place right now
(03:00):
to be portable because I literally onlyhad two garbage bags full of clothes that
didn't even fit anymore because I hadlost oh why forty two is what forty
twenty sixty pounds? I lost likesixty pounds. Yeah, And I went
from get to forty one stayed atone eighty. Anyway, I got the
(03:23):
call, and of course I'm inmy pajamas and I'm sitting in this room
and I'm drinking coffee. You know, my you know, woe was made
in the phone rang and he waslike, ah, this is Randolph but
see I and I'd like to talkto you or it's a Dolly Parker company.
I was like, and I said, well, is this a good
time? I guess sir. Youactually caught me right as I was coming
(03:45):
out of a protection meeting. Howare you so? One thing led to
another. He called me back andasked me if I wanted the job,
and he goes, hang on asecond, I can hear somebody in the
background talking. I said, whenis that and he goes, Oh,
that's Dolly Parton. What that's allwe're laying down tracks for the show.
I was like, oh, looklike that. Wow, So long story
(04:09):
short. I got here and Igot here March eighteenth, twenty seventeen.
It was only a six month contractand they liked me so much they want
me to stay for the Christmas show. I opened the Christmas show that year,
which made the fella who was herenot real happy. He was let
go later that year and I kindof filled in and I have been here
(04:35):
ever since. You know. Iasked for full time, you know,
the number one guy working five daysa week, and they gave it to
me back in twenty nineteen, andI didn't do it whatever since Wow,
it's a good gig. Yeah,what an incredible story too. I mean,
that's just you can't lose hope.You can't lose that inspiration because you
don't know what's around the corner,what's you never know. I love that
(04:56):
and you never would. And thisis obviously a role you were born to
play. And when you look around, you have entertained thousands of people,
not millions of okay, millions,yeah, I mean you look at the
kids and the kids at heart,and everybody's having such a great time.
I saw fans interacting with you.Oh it's my birthday, Blackbeard. What's
your favorite fan interaction moment? Doyou have really a standout? And it
happens all the time. My favoritepart of the show is going through the
(05:19):
audience. But at any point intimes, we started these meet and greets.
Now, so I get to havea little bit more reaction with the
kids. But and I've said thissince I got here, you can see
the menim and you look into achild's eyes, and children are so full
of wonder and their eyes get allbig, and you see it. You
(05:41):
see that second when a dream isborn. And I recognize it because that's
what happened to me. That's whyI'm an actor. I was seven years
old, I so Star Wars,lost my freaking mind, went home my
mom, Mom, I'm gonna bea Jedi. Maybe that he says,
silly, honey, those are realactors. So I was like, that's
what I'm doing now. I wasseven years old. I'll never forget that
conversation. And so it's really specialto see the kids. It's so real
(06:05):
to them, and you want tomake it a good immersive experience because I
remember, I still remember. Iremember when I met Darth Vader. I
knew it wasn't the guy from themovie, but he was in the mall,
in the mask, and it wasso cool. And that's what these
is real. You can't you can'tput a price on it. Man,
(06:26):
People say, you know, you'rejust in accurate. The hell do you
do for anything? You know what? I make memories for people, for
these kids, for their parents,I do something that I give them some
wee all of us. We givethem something that they'll never forget, and
they'll take that with them the restof your life, their lives, and
who knows, maybe we'll inspire themto do something else. Of course,
(06:47):
I've had some teenagers come in andthey're in gymnastics and they want to do
acrobatics, and I was like,well, just keep it up. Our
babies are seventeen eighteen years old whenI start, So that's the best part,
you know, just watching, watchingthe eyes light up and watching you
know, because there's magic to thesekids. Yeah, that's what's special.
(07:08):
Well, that's I think P.T. Barnham said there's no nobler art
than making other people happy, andthat's what you do here. So that's
really incredible that you do all ofthat. I mean the show, there's
so much going on. There's afull meal and it is delicious, by
the way. You don't want tomiss that, the acrobatics, the mermaids,
the seals are sea lions, right, I made that mistake last time,
salting the sea lion Oregon. That'strue. That's true at least,
(07:31):
So tell us a little bit.When we come we book our tickets to
the show, what can we expect? Wow, you can expect. You
can expect an hour and a halfof Pirate's Mermaids, a four course meal
you're going to see. The bestway I can describe it, it's like
going to a Broadway show in Vegas. I love that, like a certain
(07:57):
to slay, acrobatic going on withit on water with Pirates, with something
that sounds like a Disney musical playingon a soundtrack. It's fantastic. There
are so many acrobatics, there's sucha you know, there's a little love
(08:18):
storyline going on. There are DavyJones, which comes out so great.
That's one of my favorite scenes withthe smoke on the water and Davy Jones
and the skeletons. There's just somuch. But you can come out here
and expect to be entertained, expectto be well fed, and expect to
see a little bit magic when youcome out. Absolutely. I mean that's
I couldn't have said it better myself. Now, we have the Christmas show
(08:41):
coming up that opens about a monthfrom our recording date, early November,
right, So tell us, incharacter as black Beard, we have to
do that, give us our pitch. What can we expect for the Christmas
show? Will? It is Christmastime at Firous Voyage and you're not talking
to to the Blackbeard anymore. ThisCaptain Scrooge to you, and I don't
(09:05):
like Christmas bah humba pirates, ohwith Christmas cheer, jumping about wanting to
eat plain in the water. HamberWell, that's what I say. Until
a ghost comes and says, screw, let me introduce you the way the
(09:28):
things should be, and much likea Christmas Carol. It's a very similar
story with a ghost that come andvisit Scrooge, and Scrooge sees the error
of his ways and his heart isfilled with love and the Christmas spirit fills
(09:48):
him with joy. And we havea contest because I'm going to give all
of my hidden treasure away that's hiddenin Buccaneer Bay to the winning crew because
it's Christmas. There we go.You got me hooked. You got to
come see the Christmas show. Sothat's a great thing about Pirates Voyage.
(10:09):
There are so many If you lovethe show, you can come back for
Christmas. Now, how do wekeep up? How do we follow along
on social media with you and withPirates. Well you can see on Facebook,
Twitter or X as it's called.Now, Oh sorry, went back
at the voice there going to X. Should I do this in voice or
not? Hey? Voice? Imean come back here, let's do it.
(10:31):
You can go on to Facebook wherelook up Pirates Voyage on Facebook.
You can go to Instagram Pirates Voyage. But the best way he can see
everything that's going on on both ofour properties is when here in Mertall Beach
and the one up in Pigeon Forge. They do not do a Christmas show
however, but you can go towww dot Pirates Voyage dot com. You
(10:52):
will search either Mertle Beach or PigeonForge for your tickets and that'll take you
right to the screen. You havesome VIP options. We have something new
this year that I think people aregoing to think is very special. We
have a Sea Lion experience where peoplecan come out and meet Salty the Sea
(11:13):
Lion before the show and learn alittle bit from our animal trainers before we
come up and see us and thetwo me and the two captains up top.
That is so special, that's amazing. Well, you don't want to
miss out on that and take itfor me. These tickets, these seats
fill up fast, so make sureyou go online book your tickets. We're
going to post all of those linksalso how to follow and connect with Lamar
as well. Lamar, thank youso much for spending time with us.
(11:35):
Thank you, yes, and thankyou to the entire Pirates Voyage team and
you are listeners for always joining in. We'll catch you next time on Backstage
Pass. This has been a presentationof the FCB podcast network, where Real
(12:01):
Talk lives Visitors online at FCB podcasts, dot com, m HM,
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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