Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
County fair Grounds. Then cool. Okay, here, Hi, Joey Mills.
Do you want to tell us who you are? Please?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes? I'm Joey Mills. I am media relations for VXV
events that host a number of conventions across the Midwest
mid South, including the upcoming Oklahoma Comic con.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Right, and that's on August ninth and tenth at the
Harvest Arvist Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Right, No, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh Okay, my mistake.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I've been saying Oklahoma City for like the past three
months when talking about this thing. We don't have a
show in Oklahoma City. So you are not the only
one I get paid to know better, and I still
mess it up. So okay, don't want to drive to
Oklahoma City on accident. That would be trouble.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Okay. So, but it is the Aravist Convention Center, right, yes, okay,
all right? So it's a two day event. Yeah, and
it's one hundred Civic Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma. I do I
see that now on the website. Okay, all right, all right,
So how's the parking, that's the first question.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Good, there's underground parking at the convention center. And then
there's plenty of other local parking in the area. There's
a number of hotels nearby, so if somebody's staying at
the hotel and they just want to leave their vehicle
there and walk over, they can do that. There's multiple
ways to park and get around. That convention center is
actually set up really nice.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, is this the first time this event has been
held in this place?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No, this would be our third time. Sorry, I having
to do the math in my head. This is our
third event in Tulsa. We did it in twenty three
and twenty four as well.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Okay, so I would imagine you're getting a lot of
traffic then, yeah, okay, all right, So what's the first
thing to do? And is this a good thing to
bring kids to?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Absolutely? Not. Only is it good to bring kids to.
If you buy an adult pass or either the weekend
or a single day pass. Excuse me, every adult past,
you can get two kids ten and under in for
free with your adult pass. So we don't just say
it's a good thing to bring into. We encourage you
to bring the kids out because it's gonna be a
lot of fun and you don't have to pay for
them to come.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
In Okay, So I'm looking at the show floor areas.
All right, So we have we have a costume contest.
Do you want to talk about that?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah? We that's kind of the main event every Saturday.
Saturday is always our biggest busier day, biggest day of
the event. That's the last thing we do on the
stage on Saturday evening. That usually starts at five o'clock
and goes that last hour from five to six, and
for me, that's the probably the most fun thing that
we do. We do three rounds of cosplay contests. So
the first round is just kids, which is absolutely the cutest,
(02:45):
most adorable thing. Whatever you're thinking in your head, you're
not quite there. It's even cuterer than that. So these
kids get to go up there and some of them
for the very first time they're you know, wearing a
costume and they're up on a stage in front of
hundreds of people, and they have a great time and they,
like I said, they're so so adorable. And then we
have a masquerade round, which is kind of like our
open round. Anybody can participate. If you bought your costume
(03:07):
on Amazon, if you pulled it out of the closet
from last Halloween. If you went in and made certain pieces,
it doesn't matter. That Masquerade round is open to anybody.
And then our final round is the Craftsmanship round, and
that's the one that has some stricter restrictions. At least
sixty percent of the costume has to have been made
by the person they're wearing it, So every stitch is stitched,
(03:29):
every every button is sewn on, every zipper is sown.
I mean people have carved out designs and foam and
made that into armor. It's that is kind of the
That's where the folks who take their passion for cosplay
to that next level and really put a lot of
time and effort and expense into making the best outfits
(03:50):
that they possibly can, and we give them their own
separate round apart from everybody else to showcase their stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, all right, then we have a lot of exist
there's what's in your exhibit boosts.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I don't have the list in front of me because
it's ever changing. We still have a couple of spots open.
But yeah, this will be like local people to the
Tulsa area. Typically what we've had in the past, there's
like a community college that a lot of times comes
out and they'll have like like science experiment type stuff
to get the kids excited about STEM. We'll have a
lot of times we'll have like a blood center's there,
(04:23):
or like a local like a not humane society, but
a local pet shelter where you can meet and adopt
some pets as well. So we tried to get the
local community as involved in as possible because, like I said,
we have you know, eighteen twenty shows a year and
a lot of times, like for Tulsa, we just go
there once a year. But we don't want to be
(04:43):
those people that just show up once a year in
the summer. We want the local community to have a
chance to showcase what they do as well, which is
why we try to save that exhibitor space almost exclusively
just for the local folks.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay, I do you know how the exhibitors you've got? Approximately?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I want to say, and again this number is kind
of changing, so by the time by the time you publishers,
it may be wrong. Usually we have anywhere from twenty
five to forty, just depending on how many people want
to get involved.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So, okay, and what's what's a coast play meetup?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
That is? For like if you're like, you'll have a
lot of times people that especially like the Marvel movies
are big right now or right now we've got the
Superman movie in theater, so a lot of DC comics people.
It's a chance for the people who dress up as
Marvel characters to kind of all come together and we
get like a group photo with them for them, we
post it out on social media, so all your you know,
(05:41):
thirty Spider Man and twelve Daredevils and everything, they're all
together in one photo. And so we do that for
you know, Star Trek, star Wars, the big things that
you would expect to see Marvel DC, but also some
of the smaller like the anime stuff as well. So
a lot of times we'll have a like a my
Hero Academia cosplay group as well that to take a
photo with. So, yeah, it's just a chance for people
(06:02):
to have something else. They can go online, they can
show their friends and kind of showcase everybody that's that's
excited about that particular property. All right. Photo apps, Yeah,
that is where you can go online and you pre
purchase these. You can't get them in at the door
as well, but we encourage people to pre purchase them
because once they're full, they're full. That's where you get
(06:23):
to go take a photo with the celebrity. They will
have professional photographers there against a kind of neutral backdrop,
and so if you want to get a photo with
for example, we have Sean aston at this one from
the Goonies and Lord of the Rings. If you want
to get a photo off with Sean Asten, they bring
you in. You stand there with Sean, chat for a minute,
take a photo, and then they print those for you
(06:44):
right there. So a lot of people will get their
photo printed and then go back to Seawn's table to
get him to autograph it as well. So that's yeah,
it's another thing you can have where you can take
something home with you. It's not just the experience, but
we have something tangible in your hand that you can
walk out of the convention center with.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Okay, and we have a question and answer thing. And
now that sounds like a really lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yep. That is uh, that is becoming one of the
bigger draws at a lot of these You know, we'll
bring in these celebrities and it's one thing to walk
up to them and meet them and shake their hand
and get a photo or an autograph like we talked about,
but this is These are usually run about forty five
minutes to an hour, and it is you know, a
guest or multiple guests, if from if they're from the
(07:25):
same property or whatever, up on a stage or in
a panel room and it's just an open Q and
a where people in the audience can line up in
a microphone, ask a question and get to hear some
of those stories that people have from the different projects
they've worked on. I usually run most of the ones
at the stage. We've got some extra help this year,
so we're kind of bouncing around between a couple different rooms.
But yeah, it's it's a lot of fun. It's a
(07:47):
chance to in a group setting, maybe hear some stories
that you wouldn't necessarily hear, you know, in that short
one on one interaction you get with a guest.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
End video games in the gaming area.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Oh yeah, they bring out all the arcade games, they
bring out pinball machines. They also bring out like card
games as well, like the Pokemon and Magic. A lot
of folks are into those. So yeah, and it's all
free play, so you don't have to pay extra to
you know, if you're if you need a break, go
over to the arcade and play some games for a
little while. There's no extra cost for any of that.
So yeah, it's just another one thing that we provide
(08:19):
again family friendly. You can take the kids and show
them how to play, you know, pack Man on an
old arcade instead of sitting in their room on their
Xbox or whatever playing Call of Duty or whatever they play.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Now, I wouldn't know either, do it's a little before
my time. Yeah, okay, So we have a gaming areas
the board games too.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, that's the board games, card games, that kind of stuff.
So yeah, and a lot of times we'll have the
folks that do the card gaming for us will be
running like almost like a tutorial session, like learn how
to play Pokemon, learn how to play some of these
other card games. So it's a chance to you know,
come in at a novice level at knowing nothing about
the stuff and learn how to how to play some
(09:01):
of these games that are really growing in popularity across
the country right now. Okay, so what's the best part
of this whole show?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Do you think?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
For me? The best part has always been and it
kind of goes back to the cosplay thing. But having
done this and hitting you know, this is the third
time we're in Tulsa. Some of these places we've been
for over a decade, again and again, year after year.
You'll watch people who don't know each other, and you'll
you'll hear it before you'll see it. You'll hear like
a gasp or a shriek of some sort. And you'll
(09:30):
see people who are dressed in costumes and you may
not have any idea what they're dressed as, but they
know what that other person's character is because they're both
fans of that same thing. So they'll sit there and
they'll get all really excited, you know, and then you'll
see them kind of buddying around throughout the weekend. And
then the next year they come back as a group.
They'll come back together and they'll bring some more friends
with them. Then the next year, that little group gets
(09:51):
a little bit bigger, and then the next year maybe
they don't show up, but then the following year you
see them and they're pushing a kid in a stroller
that's got to cost as well, So that's why they
weren't there last year. You guys got married and had
a kid, so seeing those connections and seeing these people
year after year. I can tell you right now, just
off the top of my head, I may not know
everybody's name, but I know specific faces. I know some
(10:13):
people that I'm going to see because they show up
year after year, and building that relationship is crucial to
our success and it's probably the most fun part of
what we do.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Okay, And you can get autographs and pictures taken with
some of these.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Guys right absolutely. You can go up to their guest table.
You stand in line. When you get to the table,
they'll have some like pre printed usually like you know,
eight y ten photos and stuff, or you can bring
an item of your own and you can bring it
up to them, and you know, you pay a little
extra for those, but you will get those autographed, you'll
get to meet the guest. A lot of them offer
(10:50):
what'll be called table selfies where if you maybe you
don't want to get the professional photo op or you
don't have time for it because it conflicts with something
else you want to do. You know, a lot of them,
you can just take a selfie with them at their table.
And actually you don't have to take it as a selfie.
We have people there who will take you grab your
phone and take a picture for you. But yeah, so
those are all opportunities as well. Again, we want people
to walk out with a great experience, but also, when possible,
(11:11):
have something tangible that you can take home and put
it up on your wall, or you can you know,
take it with you if the kids are going back
to school here in a couple of weeks, take that
picture to school. Show everybody you got to meet so
and so at a convention. Uh. Yeah, we want people
to have a good time and walk out with something
to remember that good time because if they do that,
odds are they're going to want to come back again
year after year. And that's how we build those relationships, right,
(11:34):
And there are different kind of tons that accruse throughss
the year in the United States, right, Oh yeah, and
yeah we do. For for us, we have after we
leave Tulsa, we have a little bit of downtime of
about a month, which is kind of unusual for us.
And then we have two shows well known as our
three shows over six weekends just back to a week
(11:56):
off to back, a week off and back. But those
are going to be and we'll have one in Little
Rock mid September. We have one in Mobile, Alabama at
the end of September, and then we have one in Springfield,
Missouri the first or second week of October, and then
we finish our year the weekend before Thanksgiving out in Peoria, Illinois.
Will be our first year going there, so a lot
(12:17):
still going on this year. It feels like we're maybe
round in the corner. Maybe we'll get through the summer
and then we'll hit that home stretch and knock out
a bunch of shows back to back and then have
a good holiday season to rest up and do it
all again next year.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Well, I'll be catching you in Peoria, idear, because I'm
originally from Illinois, so I'll be catching you there.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, absolutely great, that's awesome. Yeah, you should definitely come out.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, I've enjoyed talking to you. We'll get this edited,
we'll get it up, then hopefully we'll help you get
some people coming in.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Awesome. I appreciate your help. Thank you for reaching out
every time. That's great.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Thank you, Joey.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Bye bye bye.