AMA: Ask Me Anything!

Chuy! · Post by **Chuy!** » September 11th, 2012, 11:40 am

I have questions for both:

Brett, you mentioned that you used to have a wrestling-themed radio show. Who was your biggest guest? Who was your weirdest guest?

Val, I think from a marketing standpoint, a vegan ice cream parlor is a GREAT idea for Austin. What was your inspiration for starting this business?

Chuy! · Post by **Chuy!** » September 20th, 2012, 11:59 am

Is this thing on? BUMP, I believe is what the kids call it...

B. Tribe · Post by **B. Tribe** » September 20th, 2012, 4:55 pm

Chuy! wrote:I have questions for both:

Brett, you mentioned that you used to have a wrestling-themed radio show. Who was your biggest guest? Who was your weirdest guest?

Val, I think from a marketing standpoint, a vegan ice cream parlor is a GREAT idea for Austin. What was your inspiration for starting this business?

Sorry, I forget to check the forums sometimes.

We didn't have a ton of guests on the show. It happened occasionally and we treated it like a really big deal. Usually we'd sort of recap the weeks shows and talk about what we liked and didn't like. We had some non-wrestling fans who enjoyed the 'post-modernism' of the show. Weird.

The biggest guest was also the weirdest. We landed Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. I was super exited. He was probably the best manager and heel announcer ever in the history of wrestling.

The interview started okay. He recapped his career. He was talking about when he worked the rural territories and how crazy the fans were. We're talking throwing things at him, waiting outside to beat him up, death threats, all that. I was laughing and saying things like "oh, wow". I couldn't fathom people taking wresting so seriously that they wanted to assault someone. Bobby got SUPER MAD, thinking I was laughing at him, started bitching me out live on the air. I apologized as quickly as I could. We managed to keep him on the line, but everyone was so shaken that we lost the ability to ask questions. The interview was stilted and seemed to go on forever. On top of that, Bobby has a lot of scripted responses to questions that he uses on interviews. Like his response to "What was it like working for WCW" is followed by "Here's the answer" and then he has a toilet bowl flushing sound effect. EVERY TIME.

Anyway, by the end of the interview he was cool again and apologized for freaking out on me. The host covered it beautifully, saying "How many people can say they were heeled out on by Bobby Heenan?"

There was an interview that I wasn't around for that had a surprise moment. The host was live at an ROH event. He interviewed a bunch of wrestlers until he got to a manager named Julius Smokes. He worked a kind of crazy thug gimmick, staring people down, showing off his gold teeth, stuff like that. He had THE BEST understanding of gimmicks. Essentially that "Gangstas are the new Cowboys" so all those 70's cowboy outlaw characters have been replaced by the modern gangsta, including John Cena's earlier gimmicks until he became John Cena, No Gimmick Needed. He was such a numbnuts around the ring that I figured he wasn't really doing a gimmick so much as turning himself up to 11. I was wrong. And I kind of sound racist. Well, I'M NOT.

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » September 20th, 2012, 5:01 pm

Chuy:
So you had your first Austin Secrets rehearsal yesterday. What are you excited about in terms of performing in the show?

Chuy! · Post by **Chuy!** » September 20th, 2012, 5:13 pm

First off, Brett, thanks man! Great answer! I need to get you on my podcast soon...

Kaci, I am really looking forward to showing people that I am not afraid to say anything or go anywhere on stage. If you ever read anything I post on FB you know that I am pretty much an open book. I can't wait to tell some secrets and be exploited (good connotation) for all I'm worth. I am really excited to work with a bunch of folks who kind of took the torch from we old school Austin imps and made it what it is today. Fun Fun Fun!

cindy · Post by **cindy** » September 21st, 2012, 2:29 pm

Kaci, you do amazing things with paint. Have you tried any other visual media? If so, what sort of experiences did you have?

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » September 23rd, 2012, 1:13 pm

cindy wrote:Kaci, you do amazing things with paint. Have you tried any other visual media? If so, what sort of experiences did you have?

Hey Cindy, awesome question! Thank you!

I've tried my hand at a lot of visual media, partially because I took art classes every year that I was in public school and I have a degree in Art from St. Edward's University (class of 09!). I'm a very visual thinker, so working in almost any visual media is exciting to me.

I really enjoy drawing, for one. I quickly learned early on that to be adept at painting you have to be able to draw well. I found Life Drawing to be the most helpful and interesting drawing class. Sometimes you just get into a zone and you have this amazing form right in front of you to work from. You don't have time to perfect it, so you're propelled into making instinctual choices. You also learn specific techniques and the human anatomy when you take Life Drawing.

Man's Leg, Conte crayon on textured paper

A gesture drawing of a nude woman

David, a pencil drawing from life

The requisite still-life drawing, cow skull and all.

I took a sequential art class that I really enjoyed. Combining storytelling + art is an intriguing thing to me. I don't especially love cartooning, comic art, or figure drawing so much, so I never really got into doing this more.

A page from my graphic novella Das Krankenhaus

One of my tiny intaglio prints, an etching, done in aquatint and drypoint.

I liked print-making well enough, but I didn't particularly enjoy the long process and you have to have access to lots of specific materials to keep it up. I could join a print co-op, but it never grabbed my interest enough.

I've made clay vessels:

And also sculpted the live human form in clay:

This is a hollow form, unfired.

Working in clay never really did anything for me (inspiration-wise), but I'm glad I did it. Sculpting the human form in 3-D was really neat, it definitely takes your brain to a new place of creation.

I've made collages:

This may count as painting, but I also took theatrical make-up classes, which I really enjoyed.

The only make-up design I've really done since is design PGraph's French Farce make-up, which is pretty basic.

And of course, you guys have seen a lot of my graphic design work - all the mainstage posters for the Hideout, the slideshow that plays before shows, etc.
I'm really into costuming and have had fun helping to design basic looks for improv shows, especially with PGraph.

Over the years I've experimented with different forms, but ultimately work in paint more than most others because of the kinship and connection I feel in that media.

B. Tribe · Post by **B. Tribe** » September 23rd, 2012, 2:15 pm

Cool stuff there Kaci. I'm thinking about working on painting so I can be more useful at next OOB.

CINDY: What is something that you are super proud of that is WAY OUTSIDE your usual comfort zone?

valetoile · Post by **valetoile** » September 24th, 2012, 12:45 am

Chuy:

It was actually my business partner's idea. My friend Amelia worked at Toy Joy and had created their vegan soft serve recipe, but wanted to open her own shop. I was tired of my job and itching to open my own business of some sort, so when she mentioned it, I said that I had ice cream store management experience (2 years at Amy's, including managing their flagship and helping open several new stores) and invited myself in. We were worried/warned that advertising ourselves as vegan would be a turn off, but it's never been a problem in the least. We share an old-timey aesthetic and a love of tasty desserts and making people happy, so it's worked out pretty well!

Chuy! · Post by **Chuy!** » September 24th, 2012, 1:26 am

valetoile wrote:Chuy:

It was actually my business partner's idea. My friend Amelia worked at Toy Joy and had created their vegan soft serve recipe, but wanted to open her own shop. I was tired of my job and itching to open my own business of some sort, so when she mentioned it, I said that I had ice cream store management experience (2 years at Amy's, including managing their flagship and helping open several new stores) and invited myself in. We were worried/warned that advertising ourselves as vegan would be a turn off, but it's never been a problem in the least. We share an old-timey aesthetic and a love of tasty desserts and making people happy, so it's worked out pretty well!

I swear I am gonna bring my kids by soon...

Post by **happywaffle** » September 24th, 2012, 10:22 am

Kaci just won this thread, y'all.

Kaci, where's this graphic novella? Can it be read by me?

kaci_beeler · Post by **kaci_beeler** » September 24th, 2012, 11:55 am

happywaffle wrote:Kaci, where's this graphic novella? Can it be read by me?

I have some printed copies of it. I can lend you one for sure.
It's also on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/kacibeeler ... 1484614672.

Post by **happywaffle** » September 24th, 2012, 12:44 pm

kaci_beeler wrote:
happywaffle wrote:Kaci, where's this graphic novella? Can it be read by me?
I have some printed copies of it. I can lend you one for sure.
It's also on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/kacibeeler ... 1484614672.

Cool! I'll take you up on that.

cindy · Post by **cindy** » September 25th, 2012, 10:51 pm

Kaci: Awesome stuff! I love the makeup work. I've always liked the way conte crayon looks, but I can never control it sufficiently to get what I want out of it. Seeing it again makes me want to give it another shot.

B. Tribe wrote:CINDY: What is something that you are super proud of that is WAY OUTSIDE your usual comfort zone?

Well shit, Brett. That was actually a really difficult question.

I think my first year of improv classes culminating in lighting Live Nude tops a very short list of things I did outside of my comfort zone that didn't end in disaster of one sort or another, and I'm pretty proud of what I did there for several reasons.

Classes pushed me to let go and try new things that were way out of my comfort zone, and just being able to do that in a classroom was a big step for me. I got a lot bolder and that bled into life outside of class - including jumping up in the booth when I had effectively zero practical experience. I'm always pleased when I learn things quickly, and I felt like I picked up the light board the way I used to pick up musical instruments - it takes a good bit of confidence to dick around with a new tool like that and perform with it in front of people, and I'm not a naturally confident person. That experience also marked the long-overdue end of a completely irrational hangup on nudity, which was a nice little bit of personal growth.

So there.

I feel like that's kind of a whimpy answer given the enthusiasm of the question, but really, the vast majority of the things I'm most proud of were the result of a lot of practice and hard work to get comfortable with a thing before I did it. I've made a nice home for myself in my box, and I don't venture out often.

(I'd also like to throw out a quick thank you to the friends who have gently coaxed me out from time to time since I stumbled into this community. In a crowd of boisterous performer-types, it can be hard to get that just showing up to play is a victory for some of us.)

Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell · September 27th, 2012, 9:51 pm

Brett: you've got one of the biggest hearts of any guy i've known. tell me about the first time you fell in love.