Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
So for future notice, guys,there may be some noise in the background,
but it's a beautiful day out hereand I just do not care.
So if anybody complains about there beingmotorcycles or cars or random people in the
background, I don't care. Thisis my show. This is the way
I do it. Welcome to theGame Changer Podcast. I am your host,
Nathan Effigreet, the Paladin of positivity, and I am very fortunate to
(00:21):
have a very positive guest on theshow to you today. Honestly, guys,
realize the other night that I've beenfriends with this guy for almost fourteen
years, and that is saying somethingthat somebody would tolerate me for that long.
But here with me is the verytalented, the very charismatic, the
wonderfully one known as Ian. Welshean, Thank you for being a part
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of this man. Happy to behere. This is pretty awesome. Yeah,
we's been fourteen the years as wefirst met. Yeah, we're gonna
definitely talk about how this evening gotstarted before we get into that full disclosure.
This is the day after we dida murder mystery for Ian's thirtieth birthday.
So first, some awesome express happybirthday to you, sir, Thank
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you. He is on his thirtiethyear, ladies and gentlemen, so you
can tell how great it was.Strong, you can tell how great his
life is going to be after this. There's no way that it's just going
to go downhill at this point.So we did the murder mystery deal,
and it was an awards ceremony deal. Honestly, I didn't know what to
really expect when it came to this, but I'm very happy with how everything
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turned out. So let me askyou this, how did this all come
about? And what were your likeinitial thoughts really getting into this whole day.
Well, I think it was aboutabout the middle of a February of
this year. My mom was askingme if I want to do anything special
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for my birthday, and you knowI had done a couple of murder mysteries
already with the was Helps Watch.I did on nineteen twenties A Gangster one
Murder the Jews joined, and thenI did it. He had totally read
eighties prom Gone Wrong, and Ihave found it on their website. You
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can actually buy your own mystery gettinghosted yourself. I was like, you
know, it's my thirtieth birthday party. I want just on a memorable So
I talked with a couple of mygood friends at the Center station and I
tossed the idea around that we shouldhost our own mystery party. Has a
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way to celebrate my birthday. EverybodyI talked to you was really excited about
it. And then we got toour first big planning a meeting and we
we we were going over all thematerials and talking about the mystery, all
the characters, the decoration asians thatwe were just getting more and more excited
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as we were talking about it.And then and I bought the mystery.
I got all the material was startedbuying the food, the drinks and decorations.
I made a guest list c LIwith and there were several different characters
in this murder mister offer up upto anyone of my friends who wanted to
come. It was a first come, first serve and so many different the
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character ideas, and then before Iknow it, it was getting busy,
and then if aally happened, itwas a super fun event. I think
everybody had a wonderful time, andso many good pictures also, and like
so much positive feedback about the birthday, and a lot of them were actually
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hoped that we could do it again. So I'm hoping that we can set
up another one, like maybe towardswhere it's like October, like Halloween.
Very nice, very so cool.It was, honestly, it's crazy one
time to really be a part ofthat. And one of the things I
really enjoyed was how much creativity oreverybody had, especially when he came to
their characters, just seeing some peoplewere in dresses, some people were in
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their suits. Obviously h Hawkins.My god, she went above and beyond
that was the causes that she hadwas just so phenomenal bearing. I mean,
she absolutely trust the part I'm notyou won the award for the for
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one of the awards for best Dressed. Absolutely definitely got my vote. I
was literally like, as soon asshe walked in down, I was like,
there's no beating that costume, No, no, sad. It's absolutely
great. One of the things Ialso loved was the interactions that we had,
because not only do you get totry and figure out who the killer
was, but everybody also had,like you said, a certain role where
they had prompts that you know,they could talk about this, they can
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talk about this. Oh yeah,one of the one of the funniest things
I could tell about this without givingto which my hands that this was not
a problem for me. But Iremember we actually had a conversation where I
had talked about how your partner hadfiled for trademarks. I'm like, this
is me literally going off the rail. I feel like I am just making
up this rumor here, and somehowI feel like something good is gonna come
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out of it. Oh yeah,definitely mean I didn't. I mean,
I honestly thought that was part ofyour script. I didn't realize that that
was improvised. I just I wentwith it, and honestly, it became
like a pretty good plot point inthe murder mystery. So you never know
what could happen to these murder mysteries. I mean a lot of it is
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just kind of yeah, you know, you have all these objective but it's
okay if you want to add yourown, as long as you pull away
from the main Sorry too much,but honestly, just yeah, so many
good conversations, and man, Ijust one of the funniest things was that
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one of the characters who cares atea Red, who was inspiring rappers to
play by my good friend Dan Thompson. Just he says something about my character
and I used to get getting madand then just like something in something I
snapped in my character, I justwent up to him and started tackling and
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people had to pull me up heartand and it's like, it's not the
first time that Dan and I havehad to fight on say so it was
a little unexpected, but he wasready for it because he remember what we
did for the last show that wehad to do that. But you never
know what can happen in these murdermisteries. No, definitely not. And
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I think, like, like wesaid, all these characters, all these
great actors have just such unique experiences. They brought something different to their character,
or they brought some of the charactersthat made them absolutely stand out.
I still remember talking to t Redwhere at first I was kind of trash
talking him and then I literally hadto kiss his butt for so long.
I felt like he's gonna give meinformation, He's gonna get information, and
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you know what, it always allfor not it was all for nothing.
It's just like Dan, I justhad to swallow so much of my pride
all for nothing, But Dan says, enjoy just a huge blue of the
ego that was it and one ofthe crazy things. And this is something
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that I can definitely tell everybody isthat there's a lot of times where you
have just simple things that stand out, and that is probably what's gonna stand
out the most. I saw someof the things and I was just kind
of like, this doesn't make moresense. This other direction that I'm taking
it is making more sense. Butthat's something that we've learned the hard way,
whether it is a murder mystery oras a lot of people know,
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we do escape rooms together. Wetoo. We've had some very interesting experiences
of the escape rooms. I actuallyalmost almost I didn't actually break a prompt
and one of the escape ers andthey actually had to come in and fix
it because it's like, hey,I can do this with my hand.
I can do this, and I'mlike, no, this must use this,
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it must use this object. I'mlike, oh, shoot, I've
broken This is a local one too. I will tell you guys, this
that was during the That was duringthe rollback one, so you'll probably figure
out right away which one he istalking about. I'm not gonna spoil it
too much. But it was oneof those things where it's like, oh,
Karen, this was a am Isupposed to be doing it. It's
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a throwback to the nineties. Wegrew up in the nineties. Probably the
problem is that we run the ninetiesa different way than a lot of other
people, and we have certain toolsto make things go backwards. We use
our fingers there, and I wasdoing it this way. I was doing
it this way. So I'm doingthese escape rooms. It's been so much
fun. So I mean, youwin some and you lose some, and
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we actually have a lot more funwhen we lose. It gives us more
stories to talk about it afterwards.Oh man, well I think I gotther
cutting the wrong wires for bombs orwalking me in a bed and trapping me
in another room, which is myidea, by the way, so i'd
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take if I did not really Iwas going to do that. Oh yeah,
there. Escape rooms are just man, you've never done the skate room.
We highly recommend them because they arejust a great team building experience and
nothing else. It's just a funstory to go back to. So let's
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get into these scape rooms. BecauseI will say this to piggyback of what
you were saying, there is nomore hard feeling that having to see your
friend go into a random room oneman and then the next minute it just
locks up in the airs of Okay, I want to get out now.
I'm getting a little scared here,like how do we get him out of
here? What the hell? Ohmy gosh, I mean the lights rout.
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I couldn't see the version, like, okay, I do not want
to be here, Give me outof here. Jane stopped this crazy thing.
I would tell you. I wastrapped in there for probably ten minutes.
Those one that we want, Sothat was one I'm proud of.
Absolutely. It's like, are youtrying to get me out of here?
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I hear you moving. Somebody's tryingto get me out. So it's actually
funny because the first one that weactually did was Secrets of the Woods.
That was in uh was it?Which was Cracked escape from? Escape from
there? I was sick a breakthroughfor some reason, like no, that's
Steven's point, but yeah, Crackedescape from And what's funny about that first
experience is that it was you,me, Jess and Griff and Jess was
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hung up on the fact that itfeels like me need to focus on this
one thing, when in reality itwas one of those rooms where all we
had to do was just finish offthis one deal and then we could move
on from that. Yeah, there'ssome that we have to actually hang on
to a little bit more because there'ssome piece that goes to that bigger puzzle.
But then there's something there just like, once you get this done,
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just just move on, Just justmove on. But back then, I
don't they give you false CRU's inthe escape rooms. I think they call
him red Hair. He's It's like, you think this object has value on
it. I think you can findout the end of the room, but
that does nothing. We're just messingwith you. It's like, oh,
come on, it's true. Actually. What's also crazy is that if we've
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been doing this for about three almostfour years now, and it mainly came
to that point of me realizing,oh gosh, we've been doing this for
this long because we posted that Iposted that random photo. I think it
was you and me. I wantto say it was Bree, and there's
one other person that was there.I don't think. I don't think it
was Dan I can't remember who whowas but was when we did what was
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that one dark night there we go? Brendan maybe right now? Yeah,
I think Brandon wasn't that one,actually, I think if I remember correctly,
because we actually did it twice andI will tell you the funny story
behind that and just admitted. Butyeah, I think the first time we
did, I freaked out because Iwas not expecting that. I wasn't expecting
something in that well, I'm notgoing to spoil it, but I was
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not expecting something, so I willI will say this before we get too
deep. Secrets of the woods thatcracked escape room is discontinued, so anything
to reveal right now is completely fine. One of the things that is kind
of funny was that we actually wentthere for my uh my cousin's bachelor party,
me and my family. And what'sfunny was that I was also still
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working my cracked escape room, soI kind of knew like all the ins
and outs and all the things there. So if anybody got lost, it
was a situation where I just literallywhere I literally just looked at something.
I didn't say anything. I justlooked here, and they're like, oh,
he's look at it's here. Iwonder if there's something here. Oh,
there's a that's why the game master, I said, which is probably
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one of the easiest rooms I hadto do. I did not even have
to lift a finger with you inthere, like I know, I robbed
your fund. But at the sametime, it just saved a little bit
of time. You've probably got toeat like chips or something like that,
or popcorn while watching us. What'sreally cool was that Secrets of the Woods
in One Dark Knight was a continuingstory. Yeah, that is one thing
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I Specar of the Woods was thefirst one. Then One Dark Knight was
it Was that the sequel or wasthat the answer? Okay, that's that's
a sequel to it. It wasbasically like a continuation from one escape room
to another, which is brilliant.Whoever thought of that was just absolute genius.
Yeah, whoever writes the stories weuse escape rooms I seriously creative people.
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But didn't really get to see thegenesis of our group until you reached
the Locomotive one because it was itwas Halloween and it was you, uh,
bre and Arran was awesome. Yeah, yeah, it was was Brendan
there too. I think Brendain wasthere. Yeah, okay, okay,
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before of us, you were thegame master. I remember that. It
was one of those situations where Ithink we had the conversation where it's like
I need to be their game master. It's like you, sure, yes,
I need to be the game masterfor this, Like they're my good
friends. I think it would bereally good. You're not gonna give it
all away, No, no,I'm not. I'm not let them struggle
for a little bit and then I'llprobably help them. But escape Room was
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pretty cool. That was one ofthe more innovative escape Room has ever been
a part of that, I willsay there is one tricky part in there
that unless you get it like completelyright, you're not gonna get that far.
Yeah. But but oh gosh,so we do. We've done a
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lot of stuff that cracked. We'vedone tactical escaping, which is in Stevens
Point, as well as oh Claire, so many crazy Well, once we
got the tactical, this was likea whole different level of complicated, but
also a whole lot different level offun. Absolutely. I mean, we've
done the tail of the Bloody Bridgea bridge. But I still remember you
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saying like, I just don't wantsomething to jump out at me. What
we did shoot it was a mummy, it was yeah, Marshfield, Yeah,
that was it. It's like,please don't want something pop out of
there. Please don't want something popout there. Oh my gosh, just
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some rubber snakes fault. Oh man, this is not it's not one of
those things that we're revealing something that'sgonna help them. It's just you're gonna
have an Indiana Jones moment in there. So absolutely, oh yeah. But
it's in a creepy Dolls one.Oh that doll. That Dolls one was
just so s real, especially whenyou see the uncle pops of the horror
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movie characters. That was very challengingtoo. And we did the Krakens Revenge
onoin and don't even get us starton that scale because we would have won
that one. Technically it was awin. Yeah, so we were so
so close. So the funny storyabout that is that we call it a
win because there was actually a lockin the escape room that was not set
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properly, So we counted that oopsietowards our victory at the end there.
Because there's a lot let's tell youthis there's sometimes where we have to do
math, and apparently math was notagreeing with us at that bottle puzzle,
so we just said, you knowwhat, you had this screwed up.
We count this as a win becauseof the fact that there was that screw
up. So, like you said, it was a technicality, I went
on, I went all we're sayingis that if you do an escape room,
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you should have at you should havea couplepeople who can do a math
in their heads. So that becausesometimes these escaped brews you really have to
think. I mean, sometimes it'sjust obvious and sometimes it's just like what
is the answer this? What areyou? Ah? But so basically what
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we have is we have a smallgroup of people which we call breaking into
Broadway. The name credit definitely goesto uh Brehonishment or Breamery as we like
to call her. She just asa CD. Definitely check that out.
Who thought the idea because it wasjust one of those things was like,
we're doing this so frequently, wemight as well give ourselves a team name.
We might as absolutely something. Sothe team is myself and ian friends
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are Griffin, Jess, Brianna Brendan, and we recently had Shelley added on
about Terran. Yes, and wejust added another friend of ours, Haley,
who I worked with in a recentshow, So she's gonna be I
worked with her as well throughout Riverin Woods with our second Old Lace,
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and funny enough, she was alsohis actress. She writes at the dinner
party as well last nights she isShe's a plastic And so it was Matt
shout out to Haleiu Matt two ofthe most comedic dudoes I've ever seen in
my attention see him that would bea be able to join our escape from
crew. That, oh my gosh, Matt being a part of that would
be absolutely insane. But in thebest possible way. For those that might
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have seen the photos on Facebook,Matt is a character and in the best
possible way, I, oh mygosh, there was totally in character.
And the whole night he was tryingto go was watching him. I was
listening. It's like, you areso good at this, just like me.
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It never broke the character once.We had so many talents. After
the night was opened, why asa talent representative that was his share?
No. So, circling back tothe acting, one of the things I
will definitely give you a lot ofcredit for is that you definitely have a
huge believability factor about you, andso believable that I will say this that
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you and Grace later it off sowell. I legit thought like I think
these two were actually a couple,but it's like, oh no, I
still believe that these two are somethingcouples. I have the chance to talk
with her a little bit, andshe's the one who helped spark the genius
deal worm. She's like, oh, I've known him for about a year.
I s I've known him for like, you know, four years at
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four, I don't know, it'sbeen longer that nine years. Actually tonight
late since I was twenty fourteen yearsago. We were both just look at
each other with like a job onthe ground and be like, fourteen years
we've known each other. Holy God, is absolutely it is the time ago.
Seriously, well the go go goesJoseph one might say, which exactly,
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which ties into the perfect deal ofhow we actually met. And it
was actually at CWCTS, one oftheir first I wouldn't say it's the first
one, but it's definitely one ofthe earlier ones that we were called Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Code,and we actually you, I think you
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were one of the servants. Weren'tyou also one of the brothers too,
for that first iteration of Joseph.So the second time, I was just
in the ensemble. Oh okay,okay, okay, okay. I remember,
because I remember that you and Iwere in the potiphar. Remember we
had that little going around like this. Yeah. What I remember most about
that dance is that you and Iwere trying so hard to go the circle,
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and across from us, I thinkit was Nathan uh, it was
Nathan Crest and Matt Hainikey, Ithink it was the two of them.
They're just kind of going at theirown pace and I'm just like, oh,
come on, we're literally killing ourselvesover here, and you're just stolen
at your own pace to the rhythmof the music because they're taking faster and
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faster. That that that that wegot there by the end of it,
but just kind of going around incircles. We had to be sure because
we were on the steps and wehad to be careful that we didn't trip.
Oh jeez, that just been theworst I think either that one or
when I was a part of Oliverwould have been like to the scariest stage
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setups that I would have been apart of, just because of the fact
that they had that high leveled hereyou and you just don't You just don't
know. I mean, I'm notsaying the construction workers that constripped that deal
are untrustworthy. I'm just saying youcan't trust wood. Wood has a mind
of its own, So to me, you always have to be careful.
I'm working with Wood absolutely. Solet me ask you this in so,
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what was it that got you sointerested in acting to begin with? What
gave you? What was the actingbug that bits you that where it's like,
you know what, I want todo this. Well, when I
was younger, you know, Ialways like to, you know, be
interact to watching shows and movies,like I pretend like I was a character
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in the movie. Just throw myselfin there, pretend like I was actually
actually interacting with the characters having ButI usually did that just by myself because
I when I was younger, Iwas well, when I was a kid,
I was very hyperactive. I wasemotional. I mean I was like
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like four years old, I mean, I was like constantly screaming and yelling
and just throwing fits. And thenas I got into like a middle school,
high school, I kind of shiedinto my show and kind of turn
into an introvert. I meant,I mean, I have social anxiety,
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so it's kind of hard for meto know what to say around people sometimes,
like sometimes I sometimes I don't knowhow to be a part of the
conversation. And the theater, Ididn't actually like get really into theater until
like I got to high school,like probably probably eighth or ninth grade,
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because I was very nervous when Icame to auditions. But then I got
to DC Eversk and I was interested. Well, actually someone very important to
me, mister mister Ahman. Hewas actually the one who kind of brought
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me up and raised me in theater. He taught me, you know,
how to be in character, howto be you know a lot of different
aspects in theater, like a stagedirection, what had to portray a believable
character. And through that, Iover the years, I have grown and
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gained more experience and I've I've reallycome out of my shell. I've made
so many new friends. I'm moreI'm more social. I'm still a little
introverted, but I'm a lot moreopen to you know, having more energy,
trying new things, and just reallygetting into character. So a theater
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for me is not just a hobby. It's it's my lifestyle. I like
to say that because it's a bigpart of my life. And I'll see
if it wasn't for theater, Iwould probably be a totally different person.
You know. It is crazy becausefor all the years that I've known you,
I don't think I've seen the introvertside of you. I think I've
(25:07):
definitely seen you as being a verysociable person. But yeah, I mean,
I can only imagine how great,how you know, part of can
be to be to battle with thatsocial anxiety, because it's one of those
things that you know, some peoplesay, oh, you could probably control.
It's like there's some things you justcan't control. There's some things that
just don't change overnight. I mean, something that's gotten better over the years
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is my my stuttering. Because whenI was younger, I had a really
a severe stutter and I still haven'ta little bit, but not as much
as I did when I was younger. And it's like some days I just
couldn't get any words of it.I didn't want to talk to anybody because
sometimes when I would try to saysomething, it would come out like I
(25:52):
have like this catching my throat andI wasn't able to getting in the us
and my face would get all hread and I'd be so embarrassed. But
towards right the middle of my myhigh school, the years I actually well,
(26:15):
my mom actually found a speech atherapy a program with the University of
Stephens Points, I mean, tosee if they could help me, you
know, manage my stutter development techniquesto kind of you know, we're just
taking a pause, just so recollectingyourself and finding an easier way to say
(26:40):
certain things. And once I starteddoing that, it definitely helped not only
with my stuttering, but also withmy you know, self esteem, my
confidence. You know, I wasn'tblaming myself for my stuttering because not only
(27:03):
because I'm also on the spectrum,I am autistic, and I have a
a specific type of autism I have. I have a Hassburger's a syndrome,
which is basically I don't have afilter. Sometimes I'm not gonna say a
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bad language It's just like, youknow, if I have a If I
have a thought, I don't keepit in my head. I say it
out well, sometimes without thinking itthrough. I also have a heightened sense
of empathy. I can tell howother people are feeling just by looking at
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them, just by looking at howthey act and their body moments, I'm
able to pick up on those emotions. I'm actually very grateful because I'm able
to use a lot of those abilitiesin the theater in order to really upbuild
my character and you know, evenhelp with my social anxiety and get to
(28:07):
meet new people as well. Soeven though I have what of quirks,
I think they're actually I think they'reactually a big part of helping me,
you know, become the man Iam today. Honestly, for you to
have like that kind of you know, empathy and really pick up on something,
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I almost continue that almost like areal life superpower really, because there's
a lot of people that need tojust not pick up on that. But
no, that's really awesome to kindof to that, And like you mentioned,
it does come into play when itcomes to your acting roles, because
I need to have that kind ofgenuine believability you have to have that kind
(28:48):
of genuine kind deal where it getspeople invested into your character. And I
think that from what I've heard froma lot of people, they have really
been really saying that your characters thatyou play are just very easy to abe
relate to as well as get investedinto it. And I think it just
goes without saying that due to anabsolutely fantastic job. And one of the
things I want to backtrack on isyou talked about your relationship with doctor mister
(29:14):
Ahman. I believe he said soit is crazy because it does seem like,
you know, when you work withsomebody who has done this for years,
Like I'll use the example of seventeenseventy six and there was only three
young characters in there. It wasmyself, John Smith, and there was
a he played a representative. I'mtrying to remember what it was. It
(29:36):
might have been, that's right.So seventeen, so he says, is
about the presidents, and a lotof the cast is older. Yeah,
So to be surrounded by so manyolder gentlemen, you not only get a
chance of feeling like, you know, you're a part of that, but
you also get a chance to learnfrom so many people of their experiences.
I mean, give the chance towork with Jeff McDonald again, who is
(29:59):
absolutely just a phenomenon to work with, just working working with I'm trying to
remember some of the names out there. The Purchases was people that I got
the chance to work with and learnfrom. Danny Mueller, trying to remember
the parents a lot of times geta chance to work with them. So
many talented Yeah, and it's reallycrazy to think about how there's so many
(30:22):
like talented uh you guess you couldcall like acting families per se. It's
just really crazy to just see thatand know that, you know, in
the state, in the like thecity of Basso, there's these just crazy
amount of active families that really notonly want to you know, get their
shine, but they also help othersshine as well. So it's really cool
(30:44):
to actually have those kinds of peoplethat want to, you know, support
you and help you do better.I think that also. Indeed, after
the hiatus and going Mexic noses off, it is crazy to really look at
this and think, Okay, I'vebeen out of the game for a while,
so I gotta rust off a littlebit of the dust and be able
to be like, Okay, someof this is starting to click. Some
of this is starting to click,and you start to learn that, hey,
(31:07):
there's some things that you should doand there's some things they should do.
One of the things is definitely donot talk over the director when they
are talking, because you will notlike what comes out of their mouths.
Not not like that, like thatI've had. I've done a little bit
of that myself, and I've seenother actors and do that, and it
(31:27):
was those conversations I don't always endwell. So having a lot of this
experience, you definitely do see likeone of the reasons why so many people
love, you know, acting.So for you, what was one of
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your earlier acting memories or what wassomething that you kind of you know,
held on muscles like day one thathas really helped make you become the actor
that you've been today. Well,actually, I do remember the very first
show I ever did, and thatwas back in back in like a summer
(32:10):
a school. I think I wasprobably maybe a twelve, yeah, twelve
years old. I was in asummer school class called on Stage one.
It was basically a class where youcould work with everybody I kind of make
(32:31):
your own play, like make yourown story and characters and costumes, and
you actually performed the play at theend of the summer for all the families
in the community and we yeah,give I still remember this. But the
name of the show was Hairy Tails, like fairy Tales with hairy tails.
(32:55):
But and there were all these differentlike imaginary characters who were going to a
ball. I mean, there waslike a Goldilocks, there was three Bears,
there was Barbie, there was Beautyin the Beast Ponzel And I was
actually the first a character who wasintroduced losing got to be on stage first.
(33:22):
And my character was a Donald Duck. I was a Donald Duck in
my very first show. And mymom still has the videotape. Oh my
gosh, but no, my mommade the costume and everything. She had
the hat and the sailors suit,a little duck bill. Oh. I
(33:45):
was trying to do the I wastrying to do the Donald Duck voice.
Ware I don't think it sounded exactlyby Donald, but it was so much
fun. And the interesting thing aboutthat was that was the first like professional
(34:07):
show. I was doing it froman audience and watching the video table.
I remember that during the whole time. I did not was stuttered once,
like I was doing it rehearsals,just you get the line zone. While
I was on the stage and Iwas just playing my part, just I
(34:31):
was more confident. I was ableto speak clearly, and I was able
to not focus on the audience andjust focus on my character. And I
think that's that's a I honestly thinkthat's the magic of the theater. Is
like, you know, you getup on the stage and a costume and
(34:52):
in your character, and you seeyour lines and you feel confident because you
practice your lines, you go outthere, you go in the station,
you just have a fun just likeall those nerves and worries just disappear and
you lose yourself in the character.And I think that's a really powerful ability
(35:15):
in the theater. And I thinkthat's what one of the things I very
much enjoy with the theater. Itis crazy because I think the first few
performances you're kind of still getting usedto everything. If you're not doing it
frequently enough, obviously, the fearkind of comes back to where you're just
like, oh am, I gonnado this right, I'm I gonna do
(35:37):
well well but as time goes on, it definitely does feel like, Okay,
this is getting a little bit easier. Now you still have like a
small twitch and nerves, if notas big as you once had before.
So it is to try to focusthose nerves into your character and like turn
that fear into bravery. Yeah,it really does help. No, definitely,
(36:00):
I definitely does, and I thinkmore than ever. No, I
really do feel like connecting with thecharacter in some way definitely does help get
people behind you and definitely gets youmore you know, standoutish to where people
are gonna be like, you know, this is a great show, but
you don't really stood up that personright there who did an amazing job being
this character, and it is reallyawesome kind of seeing the whole deal.
(36:23):
I think I've gotten a lot ofcompliments over the years with people saying things
a light that it's like you haveso much energy or you were just so
into your character all the time.It's psych it's like you're a totally different
person, and to me it justmeans a whole lot. No, absolutely,
(36:45):
trust me. I don't think Ireally felt that kind of, you
know, appreciation for the work thatI did until I did noses off to
where it really did feel like Iwas definitely trying to be into that character.
But also one of the things thatBrendan and Shelley have told me,
it's like, this was just thiswas you. This was totally this was
totally the line just being this guy. It's like, you're not like as
(37:08):
mean as Marvin was, but atthe same time, just you having this
kind of character about you where you'rejust telling people like, actually, it's
this, actually is this, Likeyou know what, I can understand that
kind of coming from the same backgroundas you, you know, watching so
many movies, whether it was Disneyor whether it was like a Transformers movie
or something like that, just watchingthat and having those lines just stuck in
(37:31):
your head, or even just tryingto like match the voices so that way
you could sound so much the voicesthat were there too. I mean,
there were probably so many times wherewe just rewound certain parts and we were
just like, Okay, there's acertain way that this actor is giving him
the making the voice sound like this, what is it? So pretty soon
(37:52):
it's kind of difficult, but onceyou get it, it's just like,
Okay, this is or like yousaid, there's some voice three like,
no, there's no way we're gonnato like us try to do Donald Ducky's
Like, I don't know how theperson does it, but I'm also very
person definitely his birth fair paycheck.Just this is not gonna work for us.
(38:14):
Who wanted me to do like theuh don chield Donald dug for the
duck Tails something where he just almostnormally It's like, what was that?
Yeah, I did not know that. I did not warmer she was in
the duck Tail Cinemac universe. Ohmy gosh. Talk about some of the
(38:38):
show shows that we mentioned, thefact that done Joseph twice and oh yeah,
completely different roles for each of them. I still remember it during the
second Uh Joseph Federation where you didtune into the the Donny Osmond DVD version
where they did the whole French dealand you went the whole extly loved that.
(39:08):
One of the shows that we don'tnecessarily talk about, but I feel
like it is something that a lotof people will never forget was The Best
Little Whorehouse. Yeah, were supposedto be football players. Yeah, we're
supposed to be making out with ladies. I say we were half naked.
You're interested in our tad is whatever. I will say that was one of
(39:30):
the shows that probably still to thisday scars my parents from watching it.
But it also is funny looking onthe audio even talking about it with my
parents anymore. So, I actuallythis is no joke. I literally feel
like my parents when they watched theshow, they saw me when I was
in my tity whys they are justliterally have this look of just horror on
(39:51):
their face. And it was atthe same show that my own uncle came
to and they were and after theshow was over, they were just like,
yeah, you go man. Hewas like, Hey, it's not
our kids, so it's not ourproblem. Oh my gosh. But I
also remember that I think with withthe four of us that were up there,
(40:13):
we each had like our own littledance that we did before getting to
the way. I did this.I remember that movie. Oh my god.
Yeah, I had like a littlestep and jive, you had the
you had the flap deal. Oneguy I trying to remember what he did.
I don't know if he did likesome kind of line dance or something
(40:35):
like that. And then of course, uh Marcus I believe was his name.
He did a tumble role and justhad on the ground like, you
know what, I'm so glad I'mnot doing that. It worked for me,
oh my gosh. But it alsodid give me like the introduction to
really think on your toes and knowthat improv can be very very very powerful
(40:55):
to it because you and I takebands of whose line. There was one
performance. I remember this so wellbecause when we were coming onto the stage
and we were talking to the mayor, there was some feedback and it kind
of threw everybody off. So Ijust remember thinking, Okay, we're just
(41:16):
gonna continue on like normal, andthen there came a point where the mayor
actually forgot what he was supposed tosay afterwards, so I kind of ed
him the line a little bit andit was like, Okay, I think
we made that very naturally. Ithink it worked on nicely. But I
also remember there being a point wheresome of the lines got shumbled up somewhere.
Somebody was supposed to say one thing, somebody will say another. Larry
(41:40):
came in I think a little tooearly, and it just was one of
those things where I'm just watching this, I'm like, I's there's not much
I can really do to say this. We're just gonna play it off like
it like it is. But honestly, that was another really good show because
hey, what a surprise we getto work with jaf McDonald again. I
(42:01):
I still remember one of those showswhere those shows we were supposed to be
It was the end of the firstact that we were caught. We were
supposed to be running down the stairstrying to escape and we had to freeze
these on the steps. And it'slike, as I was trying to head
down the steps, I froze,my foot slipped, but I started like,
(42:23):
oh, I thought was the wholesomething. But thankfully, thankfully I
was able to catch on something.But it's like I almost broke my leg
on put my leg on the stairsfrom falling down the stairs, broke and
twisted it. But I was like, don't move. I know you're in
(42:43):
pain, but don't move. Waittil the curtain goes down to you always
have to be careful on steps.So Seal were wearing cowboy boots exactly.
I was at one more story Idefinitely talk about with this show and then
we'll move on from it. Waswhen we were up there getting quote unquote
(43:05):
lucky with the lays. I dorecall one point looking over at you and
I just see one of the ladiesjust kind of like scratching your back and
you're just you're pounding your leg downlike you were a dog. I tried
so hard. Do you remember that? Oh my gosh, I tried,
really you saw that wolves. Itried so hard just to keep a straight
face during that deal. But atthe same time, it's like, that's
(43:27):
just funny that And plus there's oneguy that's up there that's the challenge is
making out on stage, just likedo you actually make out with the person?
Do you try to fake it?Because that is true. This is
one of those shows were like,there's a gray line here. How do
we want to how exactly do youwant to approach this? Do we want
to make this a little bit?Do we want to make it a little
real? We want to we wantto do here exactly? But I think
(43:52):
we found it really good safe Likethat was definitely one of the most controversial
shows I've ever done. It's oneof those shows where it just makes you
think, you know, I'm notgoing to put the sub my resume,
But at the same time, becausea part of me that's proud of the
fact that I can put the submy resume. So the few shows when
I was actually topless on stage,that's right, it doesn't happen too often.
(44:15):
Thing, well, I think Ireally think of that too. I
was like, man, this isthe first time I think I'm going to
have people seeing my chests. Soyou get to see my chest hairs.
I'm like, so one role Idefinitely do want to talk about. Yes,
unfortunately I didn't get the chance tosee it. But this was a
big deal for you. Was whenyou were in Young Frankenstein. Yes,
(44:36):
I was doctor Frankenstein. Yes,that was my first lead role I ever
had. Really, gosh, itwas so I've been trying to get a
lead role for many shows before that, and it's like, well, the
auditions for you, frank Stan.I mean the director Andrew Spencer was very
(45:04):
impressed with my song and also thescenes I read for as well. I
think he actually had me back fora call back because he wanted to see,
like, I want you to reallyplay the doctor. I wanted to
see your mad scientists will come onin this scene, and so I just
(45:25):
I gave him my one percent.In a few days after after I checked
my phone, I got a messagefrom him, and I was like,
oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh. I was so
happy, just first time I hada lead, and I very much enjoyed
(45:51):
the show, despite the fact thatI was recovering from illness the entire tech
week and that performances as well.So I didn't sound one hundred and ten
percent. I sounded like ninety percent, but I still gave him my all.
Oh, so was there Did youfeel like there was more pressure on
you as a lead role you tookwhen you took the roll to be at
(46:12):
the top of your game, ordo you feel like I feel like there
was a little more pressure with thisone because this particular a lead was very
you know, he had a lotgoing on. Because there's there's sometimes the
leads and shows are only on stagefor a short amount of time. My
character was actually on stage for aa lot of time. He had a
(46:37):
lot of musical numbers, he hada lot of acting, and even had
a lot of good He's a partof some of the big dance numbers.
Also, this was definitely like abig challenge for me, like, you
know, stepping on my comfort zonejust trying all these different things, and
(47:00):
it was a little challenging because youknow, I was constantly getting feedback from
Andrew you about but how my charactershould have that I was trying to training
different things that he was telling mesomething else. So it was a little
hard to find that balance. ButI think by the tech week I was
(47:22):
able to nail it down. Ithink that I give a lot of credit
to Cindy because I think there weresome points where I was getting a little
over else when I came to theMarvin character, I think she definitely wanted
me to tone it back just alittle bit, and I definitely tried the
best I could. I think thatthere does come a point where you feel
in the moment like this is theway to go, and sometimes you get
(47:44):
like one of the best reactions fromthe crowd. So I can imagine how
hard it must have been to belike, you know, I know they
said to go this way, butI feel like this way we get a
good life. So just having thatkind of yeah, that kind of self
restraint, if you will be like, Okay, if you go this way,
this is probably the best way todo it, they'll probably get a
good life and surprisingly enough you goin that direction that people are still like,
(48:07):
oh, that's funny. It's like, yeah, so it's crazy to
think. No, I very muchenjoyed that show. It's definitely a challenge,
but it was absolutely worth it.Definitely, And hey, you can
also put that on your bucket listand be like, hey, I was
a lead role for a production.Crossed it off the list. So other
(48:31):
than Young Frankenstein, are there anyroles that you did that kind of stood
out to you as a favorite.You don't have to give like a top
five or anything like that, justsome that Like when you say, when
somebody asks you, what's been yourfavorite roles to do? What are some
that kind of just pop up intoyour mind? Well, honestly, I
think one of my I think oneof my favorite roles was when I did
(48:53):
Arsenic and Old Ways with River andWoods and I was doctor Iron. I
steined a different kind of Doctor Eystein. But that was very fun because I
got to use an accent, Igot to have a lot of funny lines,
(49:13):
and I got to work on myuh prap falls on stage of My
character was very clumsy, but Ivery much enjoyed it because I think the
character was supposed to have a Germanaccent. I was trying to do that.
After one of the performances, oneof the audience, well a few
audience members were telling me your accidentwas really good. I didn't know what
(49:39):
you could do an Italian accent.It's like, wait, did it sound
Italian? It did? It's like, oh my gosh, I was I
doing the wrong accent. It wasstill funny either way, but it's like
I thought I was doing a Germanaccent. I'm not the Tiana doing that
(50:00):
Italian accent? How did they that? In accents? This is one of
those things where it was like itwasn't intentional, but it was really funny.
Some of things, some things aremost unintentioned. Are are the most
funny? Are there? Like there'ssome one when you fall off the platform
and thoses off and there were withthat loud thought, but I was worried
(50:21):
you actually hurt yourself. My gosh. So the funny story about that is
that at the start, when Ijust started doing that, because I felt
like it was one of those thingswhere with my character having the appendicitis quote
unquote apendicitis, I have a friendwho actually had appendicitis, so I did
not want to joke too much aboutthat. So basically I just started falling
(50:43):
off the couch. And what's funnyis that Sammy uh Rihanna, she is
called like I didn't push him.I didn't push her. Every single time
I think of myself, I'm justgonna keep doing this until Cydy tells me
not to week of the performance,like she still hasn't it to stop doing
it. So, you know what, I think that this is stuck in
the show. So I just literallyjust started kept doing that. And then
(51:07):
I think it was until the actualshow that I started incorporating Chris Farley into
my performance, where I just startedcoming up. I said Van down by
the River. And what's funny isat the final performance I actually made it
seem like I was knocked for aloop. So after I did the band
(51:28):
down by the River, I juststarted getting up squatting and I just started
doing like the Matt Fuley arms deal, like people were just busting a gut
laughing. I'm like, oh,why did I think of this sooner?
One of the things I will sayis that for me personally, I knew
I was getting quite a few laughsand I even made a joke at the
final performance like watch, you guysare gonna get more laughs than I am,
(51:51):
And to be honest, I feellike they definitely did, which I'm
totally fine with. It's one ofthose things where you know a lot of
everybody should definitely feel like they've donean amazing job because there's so many working
gears that go into making these performanceslike abso we probably saw the ten paragraph
deal that I did where I thinkevery single individual character, cast member,
(52:15):
crew member literally because I think that'swhat people really forget, is that us
as actors, we can bring thecharacters and the stories of life, but
there are a lot of people thatreally add more depth to our character.
And I also add more of thebecazazz that you see up there, because
if we didn't have the proper lighting, we're just talking in the dark.
(52:35):
If we didn't have the costumes,we would probably just be in like a
wife beater and jeans, just goingup on stage being like, believe it
or not, I am an Einstein. And we didn't have a stage manager
backstage, we total chaos. Unlessyou're headed firm me. Sometimes it still
isn't even when we have a stagemanager, but still like controlled chaos is
(53:00):
better? Old? Is that reallya thing? Oh? Wait, noses
off is the perfect example. Soone of the cool things I didn't know
about until until Cydy brought this upwas that I didn't know that you actually
worked with a radio station. Sothat also has to help with helping them.
(53:22):
Actually, yeah, awesome. Sowhat do you do do with that?
Are you kind of like a cohost? Are you? I work
for w x CEOFOS Radio and WARSAW. I am a producer and engineer and
also the the co host for theChad Holmes show wnday threw Fridays from a
(53:47):
eight until ten in the morning.She plugged but still well, but it
definitely does. You actually did justhelp to get that experience in media,
and yeah, and working with themicrophones and the equipment as well, We've
actually gotten to have more phone callson the shows on the show as well,
(54:13):
so I'm able to talk with peoplein the community when I got on
the show as well. So that'sa really good experience for me as well.
But don't be working in radio isvery fun challenge because well, honestly,
(54:34):
it's probably easier to work in radiothan it is television because the television
there's a lot more aspects and youdon't actually see your face on radio.
Well, then we do because wenow have a video livestream so they can
actually see our faces. But yeah, have you had any of those,
like, uh, crazy phone callswhere you've had a point where it's like,
(54:57):
I think we're just gonna end thiscall here right now, out with
them? Or have they been prettyit was pretty open to you know,
people with different opinions, But wehaven't had like, we haven't had anybody
who's like been like off the rails, like shouting in an angry voice.
But you know, that does happen. Just hopefully I can do it in
a professional way. I hope.Please. Oh that wasn't the whole button,
(55:25):
That was the hang up button.Oh darn close. They hit their
w own button. No, wehaven't gotten any of those yet, but
no, working in radios definitely haveto improve the skills as well. Well.
That that is awesome. Well,we're just about wrapping up for this
(55:47):
deal, so I do want toask this one final question. So you
have definitely been probably the perfect exampleof hard work really pays off from somebody
who has worked in the ensemble,to a supporting member to a main lead.
Deal, is there any advice thatyou would give somebody who has been
in your shoes before, somebody whowants to aspire to be a tremendous actor?
(56:10):
Like, what would you give?What would your advice be to?
Absolutely well, the best piece ofadvice I can offer is never give up
even when things are tough. It'swhen you keep getting the same what's over
and over again, even though theymay not seem like big parts. If
(56:37):
you you're able to be creative,you kind of have your own twist on
the character. And just like maybehave the character reflect a little bit of
your personality, had to bring morelife to the character. Maybe you can
(57:00):
try things that may not work,just think out inside of the box.
But even when when you're even whenyou're faced with challenges like if you miss
a line or you miss a queueor something, you forget what to say,
(57:22):
don't want that. I'll stop youfrom trying to just let's just see.
Well it was actually this famous quotethat I was taught is that if
(57:44):
you make them a if you makea mistake in the theater, make it
big, because if you make itbig, and it's part of the show.
The audience isn't going to know it'sa mistake. I just think it's
part of the show. So evenif you make them mistake like the Titan,
to the show and do something funbecause to the audience, I mean,
(58:08):
they're seeing the show for the firsttime, so they have no idea
what to expect. I mean,even professional actress have to deal with that.
You know, they made mistakes onthis age. They just have to
roll with it as well. Andsometimes they can make something really funny out
of it too. That is true. That's also our movie has blooper reels
(58:29):
exactly. You know, nobody's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. That's why they
have the blooper reels because it's becauseeverybody goops up or messes up. Hawaians
are just trying to make people laughfor no reason at all. That's one
of the joys of theater. Imean, even if you make him a
mistake, it's still funny. It'sso funny. Well, it was like
(58:53):
that video of Amanda. I actuallysaw the video of her wearing the clowns
shoes forms and those were really bigshoes. It's like I can hear the
laughing in the background. It's like, Yeah, if I was in the
show, i'd be laughing too.Is that's just hilarious. There are so
many, so many hilarious moments fromNoses Off that I will definitely want to
(59:17):
talk about. Maybe we'll have toget one of the cast members, or
maybe it will have to be anepisode that I do with Cindy where we
talk about these crazy, insane moments. There's just so much absolutely not about
that. But I just want totake the time to say thank you Ian
for your time. Thank you somuch for everything you do, and I
know that I am one of manythat have just been absolutely just inspired as
(59:38):
well as just absolutely mesmerized by thehard work that you put in because you
definitely hit the nail of the head. You put your heart into it,
put the hard work, and you'regonna get your moment to shine. I
mean, there's no better example ofthat than you when I look at it.
Man, So thank you for everythingyou do and continue to be you,
because like I said, there needsto be more people like you in
(59:59):
this world. Honestly, thank you, Thank you for having me on.
Absolutely so for those of you thatwould like to interact with Ian possibly on
social media. Are there any kindof handles or any ways that people can
interact with you? Speak with you. You can find me on my Facebook
and YouTube the challenge. I willbe trying to post some new content on
(01:00:22):
my YouTube channel in this couple ofweeks, so you can find me by
searching Ian welsh on on YouTube.You should be able to find my channel,
so I should be able to postnew content next couple of weeks,
some pretty fun stuff as well.Could we see the return of a possible
(01:00:46):
furry K nine? Oh? Absolutely, I guarantee that, I guarantee that
absolutely you got an exclusive. Charles, You're welcome. So I've been Nathan
ff and great. You can alwaysfollow me on social media at real FN
game which are It's on the Twitter, on the Instagram. You can always
(01:01:07):
follow me on many different platforms.For this podcast, getting back into it,
you guys has been absolutely fun.Recently, we just did the pilot
relaunch episode with Tory Clark. Definitelycheck out that. And you're gonna be
experiencing more interviews with so many greatpeople here because honestly, I don't think
people here in Central Wisconsin get enoughcredit. And I am so thankful that
(01:01:28):
we're starting on the right foot withthe right person in one. Ian Welsh
for Ian Walsh, I've been NathanFF and great you've been listening to the
Game Changer podcast. Guys. Thankyou so much and remember, just as
Tom Walsh says, that you canmake a difference, but be the positive
difference in somebody's life than you.Guys so much, take care. See yeah,