October 8, 2024 • 47 mins
Become a Relative & send some love
Ever wondered how childhood toys and comic books can spark a lifelong passion? Meet Nicole, also known as Paper Doll, who shares her inspiring journey into the world of cosplay. Growing up with a mother who collected Barbies and a father who adored comic books, Nicole's early interests evolved into a vibrant cosplay career. Discover how her military upbringing and experiences in different cultures, including the "Blurred" culture of Black nerds in the DMV area, have shaped her perspective and artistry. From her beginnings in Japan to attending conventions on her own in 2014, Nicole's story is a testament to the power of family influence and community.
Step into the vibrant world of cosplay with Nicole as she discusses the collaborative spirit within the community. As part of Dollhouse, a group of women cosplayers dedicated to inclusivity and charity, Nicole illustrates how events like 90s-themed parties and toy drives unite people from diverse backgrounds. Here, it's not just about the costumes; it's about making a positive impact. Learn about the intricacies of creating costumes, organizing events, and the shared goals of promoting mutual support, especially in the DMV cosplay scene.
Switching gears, we reflect on military family dynamics, sports rivalry, and superhero passions that add a delightful mix of humor and nostalgia. From funny anecdotes about football team rivalries to thoughtful insights on family roles in managing PTSD, our conversation explores the calming influence of familial bonds. We also share memories of Miami Dolphins games and comic book favorites, underscoring how pastimes like these continue to connect us. Nicole's experiences meeting the cast of beloved shows and the importance of genuine connections in the cosplay community leave us with a heartwarming reminder: meaningful relationships and kindness are what truly matter.
Relationships Worth More Than Money by Tweezy Kennedy & Marcus Alland
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, we back Episode 23.
23?
, 23.
And you know I'm Tweezy.
Who do I have to the right ofme?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey everyone, I'm Paper Doll, also, nicole, that's
my real name.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay, okay.
So we was talking through textmessages, well, through DMs on
Instagram, and we found out thatwe both were in the military.
So kudos to that.
Shout out to you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thank you for serving.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thank you, thank you.
It's always something like Ifeel like when you meet people
and I met you through Taz, yes,taz Like Taz was always telling
me about you or whatever and Iwas like yo, she dope, like I
got to interview her.
I got to interview her becauseshe's always in some dope
cosplay outfits and I'd be likehow?
(00:54):
The first question is how didyou get into cosplay?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So when I was younger , my mom she collects Barbies,
so she always took me to barbieconventions and my dad, big
comic book geek, so he wouldtake us to him.
My sisters because I have threeother sisters would take us to
conventions and they would dressus up all the time.
Of course I fell in love withcomics and I just continued
(01:20):
dressing up, but I get to dressup the way I want to.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Versus hey, y'all are going to dress up as some
Trekkies, and I'm not a StarTrek fan.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh man, that was like I couldn't stand Star Trek.
I couldn't stand it at all.
It was like the only thing thatever came on TV that wasn't
like a cartoon, so it was likeI'm Star Wars.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Or Star Trek, what was?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Buddy's name Spock.
What was his name?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, the one with the ears.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, that's what was the dude with the like mud pie
face?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I don't know, he ugly .
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, super ugly, super ugly.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That was nap time.
Every time that came on, I waslike oh.
I'm going to bed.
So how long you been well, Iwould say probably 2014.
That's when I really startgoing on my own to conventions
and dressing up.
But if we say like all togetherwith my parents, that was okay,
(02:15):
yeah, we'll just say since 2014okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So 10 years now, like how many conventions are there?
Cause I know cosplay is like.
Correct me if I'm wrong, it's'slike a.
I can't even explain it.
What is like?
What is cosplay?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So every year, you know you have Halloween.
People dress up as theirfavorite character or something
scary or something funny orsomething cool.
Well, conventions, it's to likemeet other people.
Conventions it's to like meetother people.
You have panels and funactivities after parties and you
can either dress up or justwear, you know, regular clothes
(02:52):
and you dress up as yourfavorite character.
You'll meet other people like,oh wow, you like star trek, I
like star trek.
Look at my outfit.
And there's so many and it'slike back to.
You can literally go like everyweekend if you're traveling
around.
But in the DMV area we do havesome of the biggest events every
year First Weekend of January,magfest, valentine's Weekend,
(03:15):
katsucon, blurcon, which is inMarch, which is Black Nerds.
So you can see more people likeus.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Oh, that's what Blurred means.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, Blurred is Black Nerd Nice more people like
us.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Oh, that's what Blurred means, okay, okay, yeah,
blurred is black nerd, nice,nice.
So before the cosplay, let's goback to when Nicole, like where
you from, like tell me aboutlike your childhood, like coming
up.
You know how you started.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So both my parents they're Marines.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And, of course, and they met overseas, and I was
born in Japan.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So I spent some early years over there, then came to
DC and traveled around, but thencame right back to DC and
that's where I had high schooland part of my adult life and I
joined the military.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Army, all right, school right it's school right.
School yeah, or School rightit's school right yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
So I usually claim DC , because that's high school.
To circling back now, I'm morecomfortable here.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So were you in Japan that whole time, from all the
way to middle school, to highschool, oh no.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I probably left around maybe four years old, and
then Arizona and a lot of theWest Coast and the West Coast
was nice but it really wasn't me.
And then when my parents movedto North Carolina and then DC by
high school, Okay, what schoolyou went to.
I graduated from Oxon Hill Okay.
I went to Spangon in DC for thelongest, and then 11th grade
(04:42):
went to Oxon Hill.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay, and then 11th grade went to Ockland Hill now,
when you having a bomb and deadas a marine, right, how was life
like?
Was it strict?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
had to be home before the street lights.
Mind you, I graduated at 17.
I'm like, hey, I have a job.
Oh, you better be home beforeit gets dark, because the door
is locked, top locked, you can'tget in, and I'm like dang how
do I?
Get home with a job Like noboys calling the house, you and
(05:17):
your sisters all together.
So I'm like dang, we all got tostick together, all four of us
walking around.
My dad didn't play.
He was like hey, just y'all andthem streetlights.
You know, wintertime, themthings start coming on at like 5
in the afternoon?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, super early and you would speed into the house,
yeah, it was strict, so wouldyou be.
Are you the oldest?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I am the oldest.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay, how is it with the siblings?
Like, how are you with yoursisters?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We're all two years apart and we get along.
We all see each other.
They my best friends.
That's who I'm mostly with.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Nice, what else?
What else we got?
I seen you did like thispicture.
I don't know what it was like.
It was like it was likeCandyman.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
You was kind of dressed up like.
Candyman, but you was like thefemale version.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Is that like a movie that you was taking a picture
for, or was that just like a-?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Oh, that was for cosplay, because now that it's
October it's kind of like theOlympics for us cosplayers.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And I'm real big into scary movies and the horror
genre.
So once October hits allcosplayers we're just throwing
out Halloween content, and Ihave a lot of Halloween, so each
day I've been just droppingsome of my older cosplays until
I dropped the newer ones whichstart next week.
(06:46):
But that was Candyman.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, I thought I would.
Yes, that's all right, let meask because I'm like that looked
like the female version ofCandyman.
Then I think you said like saymy name three times.
Yeah, I seen that and I waslike, oh snap.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
He's all in these.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
How long does that take to get into that like
costume and like makeup.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, first you got to like just put that together
and make it.
So I'll like, of course, I'mlike watching Candyman a couple
of times I don't know how manytimes we said that name, so
we'll just say Candy, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, so I'll watch themovie, see what the character's
wearing, and I'm like, okay, I'mgoing to do this, but switch it
up, because he had like oldtimey clothes, find some like
(07:28):
fake little bees.
Because I was like I can't makeno bees.
But, you know, put the costumetogether.
And so I found like this yellow,hot, blue and I was like, oh
wow, this looks like honey, letme pour this on the hook, stick
some of the bees.
So it probably took me likemaybe a week or two to put that
together.
And then I have like a bunch ofcontacts.
I'm like, okay, boom, boom, itdoesn't take too long to get
(07:51):
into makeup.
Once I do like a practice, tryto figure out how I want to look
.
Then the day of the shoot, I'mlike, boom, I need like an hour
and a half to get ready.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And then meet at that location.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Now, how long does it take for each costume?
Is it like a set?
You already got it down to theT.
Or is it like the bigger thecostume, the longer it takes?
How do you get creative likethat?
What makes you?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I kind of got it down to a T where a lot of my
cosplays you'll see that they'relike super different, but I
literally shot like maybe threeof them in the same day.
I reach out to a photographerand be like, hey, give me a good
three, four hour block and Ichange in and out quick, as long
as the characters aren't toofar off.
But if I'm doing a clown look,that's just that look for the
(08:43):
day which I actually was able todo two looks in one day where I
did the clown look and I wasdoing Captain Spaulding from
House of a Thousand Corps.
Okay, if you've seen the movie,it's a scary movie.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
It's an old one.
I've seen them, pretty much allof them, but some of them I had
to go back and like think aboutbut once you say House of a
Thousand Corps, yes, pretty muchall of them but some of them I
had to go back and like, thinkabout.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
But once you say House Over a Thousand Quartz,
yes, it's a little commercialwith the clown guy that owns the
fried chicken and gasoline.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I was doing that, look, and I was like oh, I'm
also doing Ghostface from Scream, let me do the makeup, shoot
that.
And then I'm wearing a mask.
Oh my gosh, it was hot, yousweating under the mask, the
makeup dripping.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, especially depending on where you're
shooting.
You normally shoot outside.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I prefer outside because I don't really like that
whole studio, the lighting,that JCPenney vibe.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, the lighting and everything.
Yeah, I feel like outside tellsmore of a story, but I would
still do some studio.
Now you have a business,correct?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
A business like Dollhouse.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yes, it's kind of a business because we do a lot of
promotions and some charity work.
It's just a group of girlsbecause we all, we're all around
the same age and then we haveour day jobs and then we all
like to cosplay and we all talkto each other and we're all
around the same age and then wehave our day jobs and then we
all like to cosplay and I was.
I, um, we all talk to eachother.
We're like, hey, we're alldoing the same thing.
(10:11):
We all just come together andwe can all be guests at events,
cause you know, one person Imean three people are better
than one.
If you're trying to put anevent together, you're like,
okay, who's going to get thefood, who's going to coordinate
this, instead of it just beingme?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
it's like, wow, it's so much better with all of us so
Dollhouse is a is a collectionof women that cosplay, and what
kind of promotions?
Is it promotions for thecosplay or is it promotions for
anything?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
it's mostly been for cosplay.
We're slowly trying to branchout but still everybody has day
jobs.
But we've so far we're doinglike a yearly event which is
open to the public and they kindof introduce people to cosplay,
which we did a 90s party and itwas at a brewery in DC.
(11:05):
Barely say that word.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Was it about, like the smokehouse, ivy City?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
What's it called Rhode Island Avenue?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Okay, yeah, it's over somewhere, not too far.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Because bringing the cosplay, I like bringing
everybody together.
So we brought the cosplayerstogether and that's when I had
Taz she performed and a lot ofother musical artists.
I was like, wow, you get tocheck out music artists, you get
to meet other cosplayers, foodvendors, regular vendors.
So every year we do an eventlike that to bring everyone
together and then aroundDecember of course we do toy
(11:41):
drives and then amongstourselves and some friends we
kind of do like a regularcollect, like clothes, blankets,
and take it to the homelessshelter.
I forgot what that road is.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
That's dope Downtown.
So that's I think a lot ofpeople should.
I think they get a business andthink they're just going to
make money.
You know what I mean and notfigure out like hey, like it's
bigger than just profiting, it'smore of like giving back and I
think that's dope, that you andthe other ladies are knocking
that down and you know bringingpeople together.
(12:16):
You know what I mean, because alot of people I'm from Detroit,
so like a lot of people don'treally you know what I mean.
It's good now, but a lot ofpeople don't like bringing what
I've noticed here.
They don't like coming together.
There's always a section thatdon't like another section, or
you know what I mean and theydon't ever want to like work
together.
I think that's where a lot ofthe downfall be in the DMV, and
(12:39):
I've noticed that as well,because I've been at other
groups.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Not a part of it, just hung around and it's always
hey, this event is 30, 40dollars, but it's just, you know
, a party.
And then I also had to pay fordrinks and this and that.
So all our events have been free.
So I will speak to the venueand we have a pretty good
rapport.
If you're getting into an eventfor free, you're spending your
(13:05):
money on food, some merchandiseand drinks.
Therefore, everybody is gettingpaid.
And since they're making a lotof money, then they're like hey,
we'll do this event free foryou.
Hey, you can use my venue forfree, I'll bring my food truck
out for free.
So it kind of helps out.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So, oh, we're not making any money, but we're
enjoying it.
Yeah, but it's.
It's going to come back toy'all because, like you're,
you're looking back and you'rereaching out to the community.
You know, I mean you're takingcare of the community.
A lot of people don't want totake care of the community, they
just want to get, get theirsand go.
But y'all doing this free eventevery year and you know I mean
it's building rapport andbuilding relationships.
Yes, hence relationships worthmore than money.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And getting our name out there.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So once people see what we can bring them, then
later on, yes, we could probablycharge maybe $5 or $10.
But I'm always keep the pricelow because I don't want to hit
people over the head with boomthis much money.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, and that's the thing too.
You have to set your goals andset your feet in the sand and
get dirty.
But you also know that you'relike, hey, I'm doing it for free
.
You know what I mean to getyour name out there, and a lot
of people don't, and that can gofor anything music, marketing,
(14:23):
anything that you're doing.
If you're not trying to like,get your feet dirty, get your
feet wet, you know what I mean,like getting out there, then
that's always going to be anissue, because it's like if
you're trying to go at it forjust the money, it's never going
to really last.
So I commend y'all for that.
I commend you for that.
Thank you, military.
We talked a little bit about it.
Thank you, military.
(14:43):
We talked a little bit about it.
What year did you join?
I joined in 04 at 17.
Oh, so you joined same year,same year.
Well, I joined in 03, but Ididn't go to boot camp to 04.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Okay, Okay, I went to boot camp 04.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, Okay, and you graduated 04?
04.
Okay, what made you want 2004?
2004.
Okay, what made you want to dothe military?
Was it the parents?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
No, it wasn't the parents, but I just saw, because
I graduated from Oxon Hill andI just saw everything going on
around me and there was justreally nothing there.
Yeah, it was just.
I just didn't want to be aproduct of my environment.
I was like, wow, I don't haveany money for college.
I'm working at Six Flags likeeverybody else.
I was like, yeah, this sucks,I'm joining the military.
(15:33):
So I made sure I signed upwhile I was still in high school
.
So once I graduated, wentstraight to boot camp, I was
probably home for like two weeksand left in the summer.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So you didn't really have a good summer after high
school parties and stuff.
You didn't do none of that.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I know Just graduated .
Once I went to boot camp andthen training, they sent me
straight to Italy.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And I was like dang, I don't get to say goodbye to
nobody, Nobody Straight aftertraining.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That was it Dang.
At least we get like I mean, wecome home after boot camp, but
then, yeah, after that, yeah,you're going to wherever I went
to Cali, so yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
At least.
You was like a phone call away.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I was in the future.
I would have loved to move toItaly.
So you know, like for how theydo school, they ask you overseas
, west Coast or East Coast.
That's how you pick, like wherethey're going to send you.
So like you put it in thatorder and then from that order,
nine times out of 10, if youdon't get your first one, you're
(16:34):
going to get your second one.
You're guaranteed the secondone.
So I put overseas, west Coast,east Coast, and a lot of other
people put East Coast, overseas,West Coast, east Coast, west
Coast, overseas.
So when I did that, I wanted togo to Japan because I knew we
had a base over there, and so Iwas like, damn, I ain't getting
(16:55):
Japan.
Nobody went out of my class soI ended up getting West Coast.
So I was happy.
I mean, I've never been to Cali, you know what I mean.
And I was like, yo, this iscrazy.
Like palm trees everywhere andthe weather was amazing.
Coming from Detroit, you knowwhat I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Oh, yeah, you was in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
yeah, yeah the weather was.
That was a change, yeah, bigchange, but I loved it.
But Italy, how was Italy?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I mean, okay one, the drink age was 18.
Oh, for real Mm-hmm, which iswine.
But it opened me up to like awhole new culture because, yes,
I was a little military brat.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But that was just all through the US mostly.
But being over there justmeeting a lot of the locals and
everything was just superrelaxed.
I was like, okay, I'm comingfrom a fast-paced DC, we wait.
And I'm like, okay, you'resupposed to sit, talk, sip some
(17:53):
wine.
Then you tell them your orderwhenever they get there and
you're like, oh yeah, let me getthe spaghetti.
They making the noodles realquick.
They're dropping in the hotwater, so you gonna be there for
some time.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So it's kind of like Vapiano's you ever been to V
Papillano's here in DC.
It's closed now.
Man, I'm so mad Like theyliterally used to make the pasta
.
You can see them.
It's like a window, but it waskind of like Chipotle.
They make it right in front ofyou.
You know what I mean.
They make everything right infront of you, so you get like I
used to get it's called Granchéde Fueme, it was like craw fish
(18:28):
and I add shrimp and I addbroccoli to it.
Oh, that's all good, and I usedto get like you can pick all
your different any kind ofnoodles and I used to get um,
instead of everybody gettinglike the penny, I'd get like the
farfellis little bow ties andum, you would see it, they'd put
it in there and then they'd dipit.
It'd just dip down likeautomatically in the water or
(18:50):
whatever.
Oh, so it was fresh air, it wasnice man, but they shut them
down for trafficking.
I guess they was trafficking,money laundering or something.
It was something crazy and theyhad like two or three spots.
One was in Chinatown that's theone I used to always go to and
I had one, I think, on 8thStreet too.
But yeah, I'm talking about itwas nice and then they had.
(19:11):
So they had that was the pastaline, they had a pizza line,
they had a salad line too.
So, like you can get them tomake whatever I missed out.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, yeah, Because it don't matter what restaurant
I go out here Italian, authenticItalian, or even if I make it
at home.
Yeah, Nothing tastes the samelike that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Over there.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, you're rolling out that pasta and making it
like so fresh.
You're like that is so good.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So how long were you in Italy?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
So I was there for like a year and a half and then
from there they sent me straightto Afghanistan, and then I came
back and was finished up mytour in Italy.
I'm like how you can make medeploy from Italy.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, you were already pretty much deployed.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, that was like, but that deployment time counted
as my tour in Italy.
Dude, I want to stay in Italy.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
But they let me stay like a little bit longer to out
process and get ready for yournext duty station, which wasn't
too bad, it was Virginia Beach,over at Fort Story or Little
Creek.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Now, I know you was in the Army.
How does it work for us, likewe call it PCS, y'all call it
PCS.
Yeah, we call it PCS, Like dothey give y'all like a certain
amount of time before y'all like?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
can like y'all get like vacation, get leave.
Before y'all can like it'sprobably exactly the same as
yours.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, because I know, like for us, like when I came
back, I was supposed to go toJapan, mm-hmm, and I came back
from Iraq the second time but meand Benita we wasn't married at
the time.
So my girl's mom, so when theygave me the orders it was going
to be on the company and I waslike I don't want to do that.
(20:57):
So I ended up switching myorders to get stationed here in
Quantico.
Then we got married once we gothere to Quantico or whatever.
But yeah, like that that's whyI was like.
I was like how do y'all stuffwork?
Because you know, everybody'shad their own number system of
MOS and like 88, mike, mike isour 3531, which that's what I
(21:18):
was a motor transport operator.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
My dad's the same MOS .
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I was 88 November, which is the one that did the
paperwork for 88 Mike.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, yeah, so we had our admins.
Is 01s, like they start 01something, 01, 51, something.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh, I was in a motor pool doing the motor pool Admin
for them, for them Dang.
Before I had to drive aforklift or be a driver.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I'm like real, real close to my dad.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Like he was the 88 mic, that Mom was what.
She was what do you call itlike S1 in the office?
Oh yeah, the admin.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, the admin.
Yeah, she was 0101.
Yeah, she was an admin, yeah,okay.
And then you said she was adrill instructor and your dad
was what?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
No, my dad was a drill instructor, my mom was a
recruiter, but if you meet themyou would have thought she was.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
That's crazy.
So me and mom was the recruiterand your dad was the driller
strike Mm-hmm Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You look at that, my mom, the main one, my dad.
He's 6'3 and slim.
My mom's like about 5'5, like alittle bit taller than me, and
she'll be coming in like did youdo the dishes?
And you need to do this Withthe knife hand.
What don't use the knife man?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, we chill, that's how I am with my
daughters.
I don't, I don't even.
I don't do all of that Becauseliterally once I'm done here,
I'm about to go be softballcoach with the girls.
So it's like, yeah, that's so.
I don't really.
I got girls and I feel like mehaving the girls it calmed me
way down Because I was on like10.
(22:57):
From being in the Marines andbeing deployed, like you really
start seeing when the PTSD kickin, you know what I mean.
And the girls having the girlshelp it calmed me down and
that's like I can't be yelling.
If I have boys a wholedifferent thing.
(23:17):
But the girls it's like funny,like I dropped them off today
and it's like I can't do nothingbut just laugh and I'm like
dang man, like I wanted a boy sobad.
But these girls take care of meand they make me laugh day in
and day out.
So it's dope, like you got ason, right.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I have a son.
So it was my dad had four girlsand it was like dang.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So he definitely had yeah, that's five women.
Yeah, did y'all have any petsGirls.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
See, see what I'm saying.
So, being the only male in thehouse, he, the only man, he had
to be chill.
And then his girls had boys.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
That's crazy so now he got all the grandsons.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Which is nice because I was like wow, we about to
swamp you with girls.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, now that would have been even crazier.
Like now he got granddaughters,he got daughters and his wife
you know what I'm saying Like heain't got no time, so now he
can talk sports with them.
You know what I mean.
Get them, get them, take themto the little games and stuff
like that, even though, like,you can take your daughters to
the game.
But they got to be like.
(24:21):
My youngest, she just want togo to the games for like food.
My oldest, she actually wantsto look at the game.
She's like Daddy, when yougoing to take me to a Ravens
game, when you're going to takeme to another, you know what I'm
saying.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
So the funny thing is my dad's not a sports guy, he's
just strictly comics and nerds,yeah.
But the women in my family frommy grandmother, we're all
sports.
I'm a Miami Dolphin, mysister's a Colts, the other one
is a Titans, which Monday we wasarguing.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, isn't that?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
no, we just had a game Monday that had me I was
here, oh yeah oh, my rival ohyeah, y'all played the Titans
right.
Patriots, patriots and theBills.
But we played the Titans thispast Monday and we lost, and I
was mad y'all ain't got noquarterback yeah, we need to.
We need to let him lay down andget a new quarterback.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I mean he, he got guaranteed 90 million.
He might as well go ahead andjust dip.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, it's like I love Tupac but he keep doing
stupid stuff.
Like you're supposed to slide,not.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah, but it's just weird that every other
quarterback is doing the samething he does.
It's just like his body justlike Fragile yes, it's like
fragile and it's like hisequilibrium is off, Because
every time he gets tackled itjust looks weird you know what I
mean?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah, he just ball up like newspaper.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It's just like he crumbles up and I'm like yo,
I've seen so many quarterbacksie Jaden Daniels, which is a
rookie yeah, he's a rookie, buthe's smaller than Tua and he
gets hit.
It's like a regular hit, butit's like every time Tua gets
hit he just and.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm like dang.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, it's like he going like a cardiac arrest or
something and I'm like no what'sI'm like?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
can we go back to Dan Marino?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
days, yeah, but I was telling somebody.
I was telling somebody, y'allshould go get.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Someone was telling me that.
Because I've been just lookingat the different quarterbacks,
I'm like we just need somebodynew.
Just put Tua on the bench, justlet him rest, let him get his
money Maybe.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Come back a couple years yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Or Cam.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Newton yeah.
You don't like Cam.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I think it'd be good for y'all.
Yeah, it would be good for us.
I'm still on the fence abouthim.
I got like this littlelove-hate for Cam.
It's like I like him, but thenhe, it's personal, like he just
be too much.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, and we like.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
No, I need my Dolphins to just be at home,
mind your business.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, stay on social media Because a flashy Dolphin
player.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Not really the flashiest we have is Tyreek.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Hill, tyreek Hill.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And he's not really that flashy.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Nah, he just drive nice car.
Everybody drives nice car.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
So yeah, and then his house caught on fire.
That part too, yeah but otherthan that we're not in the news.
I'm like, we mind our business.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, I think it's, but that's why I said Russ first
, though.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
If y'all got Russ.
I like Russ more than Cam.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Okay, I'll take that.
I mean I'm saying for I wouldsay Russ, because one he's
already getting paid from theBroncos $47 million.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So he's chilling.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Y'all can go sign him for the league minimum,
Whichever that is, If it's likea million or three million,
y'all can go sign him for, likethe league minimum, whichever
that is, If it's like a millionor three million, y'all ain't
losing a lot of money and it's aone-year thing.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, do like a one-year so that.
Tua can rest up and the crazything is Tua's like 26.
All them concussions.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I really, to be honest, I think he might need to
stop playing altogether.
Yeah, he's too young for allthem concussions.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
My only thing is, though, is like when you play
football, you're going to getconcussions.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Oh yeah, you know what you're signing up for, you
know what you're signing up for,you're going to get concussions
.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I feel like my first concussion I was like in power
league I.
I was like in power league.
I was a kid, you know what Imean.
But I stopped after ninth gradeplaying football and just stuck
with baseball.
But I know for a fact there'smultiple players that had that
same amount of concussions.
Yeah, his just looks sodifferent, like it looks like
(28:28):
super damaging to his.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
He wasn't supposed to be playing this sport.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, this ain't your sport.
You might as well go playtennis or something Like.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, because this ain't it.
But you know, I hope he getsbetter, because I do like to see
him, because it was excitingwatching Miami him throw the
ball to Waddle and Tyreek.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I get excited for the games and you know, when
there's like games Monday nightor whenever it's the night
games, I have my like MiamiDolphin onesies on and I'm like,
yeah, this is how you watch thegame, bringing out my little
Miami Dolphin little coffee cup.
But then there's a bar calledthe Admiral at DuPont Whole
bunch of Miami fans.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Is that the one that's below, below the ground,
like it's like?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
in a basement.
No, it's above ground.
It's above ground.
It's DuPont.
You might be talking about theSaints.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Remember Front Page, the brunch spot that everybody
used to go to.
There used to be a sports barright up under it.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, I know what you're talking about and it had
like a.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It was like a sports bar.
It had like it had like abasketball hoop shooting it Okay
.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
yeah, we're not there .
Okay, I forgot the name of it,though.
Yeah, there's so many newplaces.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You see, just keep.
So Admiral is like the Dolphinsplace.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Mm-hmm.
I don't know if it's the Chiefsor the 49ers, because I was
just driving past I just saw somuch red and I was like where's
our new bar at?
And they changed it.
It was like two years ago whenthey because we used to always
have it.
But we have that and we haveanother place down.
(30:06):
There's another downtown.
It's like a little hole in thewall, but they got the best fish
tacos.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
And it'd be like the.
That'd be the best spot, though.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, it's a little, but then you got the little TV
up in the ceiling.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Just a little.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
It might as well be a box TV Everybody crowded up,
you're drinking a beer andyou're like, yeah, Watching a
game in a little TV.
So we playing the Patriots Then, yeah, I'm in down and my
little brunch and some steak.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
But there you ain't getting no bar elbow space, you
just a pool of fans.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, I feel you on that because I'm a Ravens fan
and you know, Okay, yeah, we hada little rough start but we
back.
I know it's going to take sometime to get invested with
Derrick some time to getinvested with Derrick.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I love y'all defense.
Last year I was just so.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
We were supposed to be in the Super Bowl you were.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
That's why I was just like this, don't make sense.
I'm doing the math.
I'm like did I carry the one?
Y'all should have been in theSuper Bowl.
Your defense is like that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And we got better.
That's the crazy thing.
We got better, we got better,you good, you good, you got
better, we got better.
And let me see you got 30, 35.
You good, okay, you good,because I know you were telling
me about Iron man.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
That was your favorite, right, oh so yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So you know, shout out to my Marines that got me
this, what you call it Collage,collage.
So yeah, iron man man, it'sjust always been.
He's been the dopest one BeforeAvengers.
It was him and I used tocollect comic books as a kid and
my mom threw them joints away.
I'm talking about I had mintcondition Wolverine, x-men,
x-men and Avengers.
Iron man and them was myfavorite comics and she threw
(31:59):
them joints away and you gotthose appearances like okay,
he's past, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Eight years old you outgrew this trash, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
And and then you know , like the comics was like a
dollar fifty, they were supercheap, and like I used to go to
the store, it was because I'mfrom eight miles, right right on
nine miles back home, and um, Iused to go there like every
weekend and buy like one comicbecause that's, I hated reading
regular books.
I love magazines and comics,like like that's what interests
(32:27):
me.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Now I listen to audiobooks but,um, iron man, man, he's just
like to me, just like he's justlike he's that guy and I hate
the way they killed him off.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Oh yeah, for that, and I'm trying to see what
storyline they're going withBecause he didn't die in the
comic book.
But in the multiverse he doesbecome Dr Doom, which I'm
open-minded to it because I loveme some Dr Doom.
Yeah, you know I collectedcomics, but I collected For some
(33:03):
reason, like when my dad wouldtake me to a comic book store.
He'd be like you know, harleyQuinn, you want Catwoman, you
want Storm, just pushing likeemail characters on me.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I collected Punisher.
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Punisher was nice.
Me, I collected Punisher.
Ooh, I collected all FrankCastle comics.
Punisher was crazy, he was.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I was mad that he didn't have a cartoon like that.
He had one, but it didn't lastlong.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I didn't get to see the cartoon.
Sure Now I got to go on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, like he got a cartoon Because I was watching
X-Men Every time I came on, thatmusic started playing.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
That's why I like that X-Men 97.
It brings that whole nostalgia.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I haven't watched it yet.
No, I haven't watched it, but Iknow, once I do, I ain't going
to want to watch nothing elseBecause it was X-Men.
It was what was.
I ain't gonna want to watchnothing else because that was
X-Men.
It was what was the other one.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I don't remember.
There was a lot of superheroes,of course, batman you had
Batman, you had Superman, youhad Flash okay, yes, we had
Flash, we had a bunch of.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
That's what I'm like.
Nowadays, these kids don't Isee why they just be on their
iPads and stuff, because theydon't really have no TV shows.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
And then they started coming out with some good ones.
Yeah, yeah, because I like theAmazing World of Gumball, I was
watching it on my side I'm likeoh, this is good Adventure.
Time they started having somepretty good stories where I was
invested, and then you know yeah, they get rid of them, like all
they got now is what?
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Rick and Morty?
Yeah, we still have Rick andMorty, just waiting for the next
season.
That's like an adult show.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
You know what I mean.
And I Simpsons.
Yep, simpsons has been out.
Still got the Simpsons Sincelike what?
85?
Yeah, and I still watch theSimpsons.
I'm up to date.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yep, the Cleveland show went away and that one was
good.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, family Guy, family Guy.
I like American Dad more.
First I was team Family Guy,but then it just started getting
dumb.
And American Dad, I had abetter story line.
It was more relatable yeahdefinitely more relatable.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, definitely.
But yeah, iron man Got my man.
So I got that from a goodfriend I met about my daughter's
school over there by Georgetown.
He had a whole toy store of allcollective items and I'm mad he
just closed down in Northwest Igotta find out where he moved
(35:37):
but he had like old school, likenintendo's, nintendo 64s, oh
yeah, the classics, yeah yeah,like um vr troopers, uh, he man,
he like toys still in the box,so like that one's never been
open and I, when I saw it, Ilike man, how much is this?
40 bucks, maybe it'd be morework, more.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
But I like this.
We got a Japanese right nowyeah, definitely, I see the PS5.
It was London Dead.
Perfectly, yeah, I play PS5.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I play.
So my favorite, I don't know, Idon't know, I don't know, I
don't know.
And then they're like I don'tknow, I just got tired of it,
but the Batman Arkham Asylum.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I've been watching Walker.
That looks so good yeah, thatwas dope.
But he coming out with anotherone, spider-man, is dope.
Yeah, that joint is dope.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I haven't got the new one, but the one last year that
came out was crazy.
Yeah, I've been playing that,trying to get all my trophies,
trying to get all my trophies,trying to get all my uniforms,
the outfits I was trying to getall the outfits, because it's
like 20 something outfits.
So, yeah, I play, of course,madden, all the sports games and
(36:52):
a little bit of fighting.
Mortal Kombat.
You got to play that.
That's classic.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh yeah, I want Mortal Kombat because I'm okay
with it, but a friend of mine,because me and her had met and
we just like hit it off, met herat a con, I was like oh, we can
draw, I'll take pictures withher and I'm like, oh okay, and
then finding out that she's theum, the number one Mortal Kombat
player wow, is she in DC in aDMV area?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
no, she's um, she's a flight attendant, so she's like
everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
But yeah, but me and her exchanged numbers,
everything, and then, like lateron, I'm like, girl, hold on, is
that you were that megastar invideo not the most recent one,
but the one before that whereshe was, um, no, it was the
amazon commercial where she wasdressed up as an anime character
.
Then she had the headsetplaying a video game against
another girl and that was her.
(37:40):
Wow, so with the cosplay I'mmeeting so many different people
.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It's bigger than just the outfits.
It's like really dope genuinepeople.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And it builds a bridge for us, because I'm into
like anime, but I'm also intovideo game, and then I go to a
con where they have like agaming tournament and I'm like,
oh yeah, let me get you know,let me play some Mortal Kombat
and then I was like, hold onthat person over there playing a
game.
He look familiar and it was.
(38:14):
Chloe Thompson from that movieHoles from the Disney Channel.
Wow, I was like, yeah, he'splaying the championship.
You be just running intodifferent celebrities, you would
never know I got to go to one.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I definitely got to go to one.
So this year my daughters.
They love Halloween andChristmas.
That's their favorite holidays.
So, this year I was like youknow what I'm going to dress up,
like I did before One year, Idressed up as Deadpool with the
girls and they were like little,like five, four years old, so I
(38:52):
got a ghillie suit, oh yeah.
So my youngest was like Daddy,what is this Like?
What it's like?
Oh, this little girl, what isit?
And I'm like it's a ghilliesuit.
And they're like what is it?
And I'm like it's a ghilliesuit.
They're like what is it?
I'm like it's a scout sniper.
Like this is what they wearwhen they're out in the woods or
wherever they get accustomed totheir surroundings.
(39:12):
They wear certain things thatmatch the colors there and I'm
like I want to be that now.
I want to be, that.
So now my youngest probablygoing to get a ghillie suit.
She's like daddy, I'm about togo get me a ghillie suit.
I said you got to get thelittle Nerf gun too.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You got to get the little Nerf sniper.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
They got a bunch of them though, so all they got to
do is just wrap the littlecamouflage around their sniper
and then and you can findthere's some camouflage ones too
.
Yeah, I.
Just the crazy thing is I justordered the camouflage photo gun
(39:48):
, the uh camouflage for the gun.
Like the stuff like that looklike, yeah, because it got like
little like pieces falling off.
Like it looks like you're oh.
So it looks like, yeah, I likethat, so, yeah.
So the costume was man, I gotta, I gotta get into the cosplay
and that's why I really wantedto interview you, because I
wanted to dive into it, becauseI didn't know, I don't know
about, I know about it, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
You would love, like BlurCon, because it's black
nerds and there's so many levelsof the dressing up.
You got people that are likehardcore, spent months building,
crafting robot, all that stuff.
People with more materialssewing or somebody with a hoodie
(40:27):
on and it's got got Deadpool onit.
They're like oh hey, I'm here,and everybody's welcome.
And they're like hey, we'reabout to go get something to eat
.
You want to come Whole line offood trucks because you know
nerds love to eat.
But everybody is like super,super friendly, where they'll
see you and they'll be like ohhey, we're about to go.
(40:49):
You know, get some drinks.
Do you drink whiskey?
We got whiskey.
Oh, we're going to go to thispanel and a lot of celebrities
come.
I got to meet the cast ofSteven Universe and then, of
course, chris Summers Everybodyknows Chris Summers because she
has that real scratchy voiceSuzie Conn, michael Fromm
Rugrats, wow so, and she's beenthere like three times.
(41:13):
So I got to meet her this pastJuly.
I got to meet the Black.
Ranger and the Black girl,that's the Pink Ranger.
And then me and her we had thesame birthday.
I was like, oh snap, not PinkRanger, yellow Ranger, black.
Then me and her finally, we hadthe same birthday I was like,
oh snap, that Pink Ranger,yellow Ranger Black.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Girl's Yellow Ranger.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
But you get to meet.
Like Pink was an Asian girl,right, yeah, no, pink was a
white girl the yellow.
I would say the yellow one'sthe minority Ranger, because it
was an Asian girl and it was ablack girl.
And you just meet them andthey'll be like, oh hey, what's
up?
Take some pictures.
Y'all at the after party, y'allgo get something to eat.
You know what I'm saying?
Hello Ranger, we got somepictures.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah, that's dope man and that's exactly why I wanted
to get you on the show, becauseyou know what I mean.
Relationships mean a lot.
It means a lot to me, it meansa lot to the world.
Like, if you don't know, it'snot about what you know, it's
about who you know and you know,like you never know.
Like these cosplay things.
(42:12):
Like you're saying, you got allof this stuff, you meet
somebody, you're networking, youbuild a rapport.
All of these things make sense.
But before we get out of here,I always do this thing called
gym class, not G-Y-M, g-e-m.
What is a gym that you canleave with?
You know with the relatives, oryou know like a saying that you
(42:34):
always say, or something thatthey can put in a toolbox, like
what's some gyms?
Speaker 2 (42:40):
So I always say this I know everybody heard this,
it's a classic.
But you attract more flies withhoney.
I'm always saying that to mymom with a little jackhammer
knife and to other peoplebecause, um, there's a lot of
different cosplayers, a lot ofpeople that have this big
following on facebook, tiktok oranything like.
I have a big following, but thething is you have to be a nice
(43:04):
person.
You generally have to be kind,because you never know where
you're at or who you're going tomeet, and some people are very
arrogant and whatnot.
But what really makes my day iswhen I meet people at cons and
they're like, oh my God, you'remy favorite cons player.
You're always just so nice andyou actually talk to me and I'm
(43:25):
like I'm no bigger than anybodyelse, right, and so if I meet
somebody, sure I'll take apicture with you and little chit
chat.
They're like, oh, I love yourhair, where did you get it done
at, or how can I improve thiscosplay?
And people slide in my dms, asksome questions and I have no
problem talking to people if Ihave time.
But I'll see other people that Irun into at these functions,
(43:50):
like these TikTok or theseYouTube ones, where you have to
have minimum 100K to be at theseevents.
Wow, and a lot of them are juststuck up, stuck up in arrogance
, where they're like're like,yeah, why are they bothering me?
And they're like really mean.
Yeah, why are you mean?
Like there's no need to be likethis because we're all it's
(44:16):
social media.
The internet drops and there'sno more internet.
And I walk down the street andI see you at chipotle.
I don't know who the heck youare.
Are you going to be like?
Oh, I have a printout.
Once ago I used to have Like no, just be generally nice, it
gets you a long, long way.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
All right hold on real quick.
I have 37 minutes on here.
Did it stop?
Are we good?
We still got 11 minutes?
Okay cool, we still got 11minutes.
Okay cool, we still got 11minutes.
So what was the gym?
Again, Never.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Oh, you attract more flies with honey.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
You attract more flies with honey.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
I've never heard that one.
Oh yeah, I've never heard thatone.
I got that from my grandmother.
I thought you heard that.
I'm pretty sure if I asked myaunt she definitely heard it,
but I never heard that one.
You attract more flowers withhoney, mm-hmm, baby, but you do,
because they like somethingthat's sweet and genuine versus
(45:18):
men.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Once again, I appreciate you for coming Shout
out to you and I hope you keepkilling the game with the
cosplay and everything that youdo for the community.
Give it back to the community.
And this might you know Ialways do these too.
It's because you never knowLike it might be a kid out there
(45:42):
that you know what I mean thatwant to do this.
It might be an adult that's outthere that want to do this, you
know, um doing these, theseinterviews.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
it definitely helps because I get certain views, um,
and people always comment so uh, be on the lookout.
Yeah, you can do this at anyage, because a lot of people say
, hey, this is for kids, why areyou?
You could be two years old oryou could be 200 years old.
I mean, I'm 39 and I'm stilldoing this.
(46:13):
I'll let you know, you're nevertoo old.
Happy birthday.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Thank you, you're leaving.
Yes, my birthday is September.
Oh, september 19th.
Okay, just made it Virgo.
Yeah, virgo, yeah, happybirthday.
Appreciate it, but, like always, relationships worth more than
money, we out.
All right, we back Episode 23.
23?
, 23.
And you know I'm Tweezy.
Who do I have to the right ofme?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey everyone, I'm Paper Doll, also, nicole, that's
my real name.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay, okay.
So we was talking through textmessages, well, through DMs on
Instagram, and we found out thatwe both were in the military.
So kudos to that.
Shout out to you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thank you for serving.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thank you, thank you.
It's always something like Ifeel like when you meet people
and I met you through Taz, yes,taz Like Taz was always telling
me about you or whatever and Iwas like yo, she dope, like I
got to interview her.
I got to interview her becauseshe's always in some dope
cosplay outfits and I'd be likehow?
(00:54):
The first question is how didyou get into cosplay?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So when I was younger , my mom she collects Barbies,
so she always took me to barbieconventions and my dad, big
comic book geek, so he wouldtake us to him.
My sisters because I have threeother sisters would take us to
conventions and they would dressus up all the time.
Of course I fell in love withcomics and I just continued
(01:20):
dressing up, but I get to dressup the way I want to.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Versus hey, y'all are going to dress up as some
Trekkies, and I'm not a StarTrek fan.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh man, that was like I couldn't stand Star Trek.
I couldn't stand it at all.
It was like the only thing thatever came on TV that wasn't
like a cartoon, so it was likeI'm Star Wars.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Or Star Trek, what was?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Buddy's name Spock.
What was his name?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, the one with the ears.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, that's what was the dude with the like mud pie
face?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I don't know, he ugly .
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, super ugly, super ugly.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That was nap time.
Every time that came on, I waslike oh.
I'm going to bed.
So how long you been well, Iwould say probably 2014.
That's when I really startgoing on my own to conventions
and dressing up.
But if we say like all togetherwith my parents, that was okay,
(02:15):
yeah, we'll just say since 2014okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
So 10 years now, like how many conventions are there?
Cause I know cosplay is like.
Correct me if I'm wrong, it's'slike a.
I can't even explain it.
What is like?
What is cosplay?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So every year, you know you have Halloween.
People dress up as theirfavorite character or something
scary or something funny orsomething cool.
Well, conventions, it's to likemeet other people.
Conventions it's to like meetother people.
You have panels and funactivities after parties and you
can either dress up or justwear, you know, regular clothes
(02:52):
and you dress up as yourfavorite character.
You'll meet other people like,oh wow, you like star trek, I
like star trek.
Look at my outfit.
And there's so many and it'slike back to.
You can literally go like everyweekend if you're traveling
around.
But in the DMV area we do havesome of the biggest events every
year First Weekend of January,magfest, valentine's Weekend,
(03:15):
katsucon, blurcon, which is inMarch, which is Black Nerds.
So you can see more people likeus.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Oh, that's what Blurred means.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, Blurred is Black Nerd Nice more people like
us.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Oh, that's what Blurred means, okay, okay, yeah,
blurred is black nerd, nice,nice.
So before the cosplay, let's goback to when Nicole, like where
you from, like tell me aboutlike your childhood, like coming
up.
You know how you started.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So both my parents they're Marines.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
And, of course, and they met overseas, and I was
born in Japan.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So I spent some early years over there, then came to
DC and traveled around, but thencame right back to DC and
that's where I had high schooland part of my adult life and I
joined the military.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Army, all right, school right it's school right.
School yeah, or School rightit's school right yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
So I usually claim DC , because that's high school.
To circling back now, I'm morecomfortable here.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So were you in Japan that whole time, from all the
way to middle school, to highschool, oh no.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I probably left around maybe four years old, and
then Arizona and a lot of theWest Coast and the West Coast
was nice but it really wasn't me.
And then when my parents movedto North Carolina and then DC by
high school, Okay, what schoolyou went to.
I graduated from Oxon Hill Okay.
I went to Spangon in DC for thelongest, and then 11th grade
(04:42):
went to Oxon Hill.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay, and then 11th grade went to Ockland Hill now,
when you having a bomb and deadas a marine, right, how was life
like?
Was it strict?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
had to be home before the street lights.
Mind you, I graduated at 17.
I'm like, hey, I have a job.
Oh, you better be home beforeit gets dark, because the door
is locked, top locked, you can'tget in, and I'm like dang how
do I?
Get home with a job Like noboys calling the house, you and
(05:17):
your sisters all together.
So I'm like dang, we all got tostick together, all four of us
walking around.
My dad didn't play.
He was like hey, just y'all andthem streetlights.
You know, wintertime, themthings start coming on at like 5
in the afternoon?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, super early and you would speed into the house,
yeah, it was strict, so wouldyou be.
Are you the oldest?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I am the oldest.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay, how is it with the siblings?
Like, how are you with yoursisters?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
We're all two years apart and we get along.
We all see each other.
They my best friends.
That's who I'm mostly with.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Nice, what else?
What else we got?
I seen you did like thispicture.
I don't know what it was like.
It was like it was likeCandyman.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
You was kind of dressed up like.
Candyman, but you was like thefemale version.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Is that like a movie that you was taking a picture
for, or was that just like a-?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Oh, that was for cosplay, because now that it's
October it's kind of like theOlympics for us cosplayers.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And I'm real big into scary movies and the horror
genre.
So once October hits allcosplayers we're just throwing
out Halloween content, and Ihave a lot of Halloween, so each
day I've been just droppingsome of my older cosplays until
I dropped the newer ones whichstart next week.
(06:46):
But that was Candyman.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Okay, I thought I would.
Yes, that's all right, let meask because I'm like that looked
like the female version ofCandyman.
Then I think you said like saymy name three times.
Yeah, I seen that and I waslike, oh snap.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
He's all in these.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
How long does that take to get into that like
costume and like makeup.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, first you got to like just put that together
and make it.
So I'll like, of course, I'mlike watching Candyman a couple
of times I don't know how manytimes we said that name, so
we'll just say Candy, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, so I'll watch themovie, see what the character's
wearing, and I'm like, okay, I'mgoing to do this, but switch it
up, because he had like oldtimey clothes, find some like
(07:28):
fake little bees.
Because I was like I can't makeno bees.
But, you know, put the costumetogether.
And so I found like this yellow,hot, blue and I was like, oh
wow, this looks like honey, letme pour this on the hook, stick
some of the bees.
So it probably took me likemaybe a week or two to put that
together.
And then I have like a bunch ofcontacts.
I'm like, okay, boom, boom, itdoesn't take too long to get
(07:51):
into makeup.
Once I do like a practice, tryto figure out how I want to look
.
Then the day of the shoot, I'mlike, boom, I need like an hour
and a half to get ready.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And then meet at that location.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Now, how long does it take for each costume?
Is it like a set?
You already got it down to theT.
Or is it like the bigger thecostume, the longer it takes?
How do you get creative likethat?
What makes you?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I kind of got it down to a T where a lot of my
cosplays you'll see that they'relike super different, but I
literally shot like maybe threeof them in the same day.
I reach out to a photographerand be like, hey, give me a good
three, four hour block and Ichange in and out quick, as long
as the characters aren't toofar off.
But if I'm doing a clown look,that's just that look for the
(08:43):
day which I actually was able todo two looks in one day where I
did the clown look and I wasdoing Captain Spaulding from
House of a Thousand Corps.
Okay, if you've seen the movie,it's a scary movie.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
It's an old one.
I've seen them, pretty much allof them, but some of them I had
to go back and like think aboutbut once you say House of a
Thousand Corps, yes, pretty muchall of them but some of them I
had to go back and like, thinkabout.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
But once you say House Over a Thousand Quartz,
yes, it's a little commercialwith the clown guy that owns the
fried chicken and gasoline.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I was doing that, look, and I was like oh, I'm
also doing Ghostface from Scream, let me do the makeup, shoot
that.
And then I'm wearing a mask.
Oh my gosh, it was hot, yousweating under the mask, the
makeup dripping.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, especially depending on where you're
shooting.
You normally shoot outside.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I prefer outside because I don't really like that
whole studio, the lighting,that JCPenney vibe.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Yeah, the lighting and everything.
Yeah, I feel like outside tellsmore of a story, but I would
still do some studio.
Now you have a business,correct?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
A business like Dollhouse.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yes, it's kind of a business because we do a lot of
promotions and some charity work.
It's just a group of girlsbecause we all, we're all around
the same age and then we haveour day jobs and then we all
like to cosplay and we all talkto each other and we're all
around the same age and then wehave our day jobs and then we
all like to cosplay and I was.
I, um, we all talk to eachother.
We're like, hey, we're alldoing the same thing.
(10:11):
We all just come together andwe can all be guests at events,
cause you know, one person Imean three people are better
than one.
If you're trying to put anevent together, you're like,
okay, who's going to get thefood, who's going to coordinate
this, instead of it just beingme?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
it's like, wow, it's so much better with all of us so
Dollhouse is a is a collectionof women that cosplay, and what
kind of promotions?
Is it promotions for thecosplay or is it promotions for
anything?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
it's mostly been for cosplay.
We're slowly trying to branchout but still everybody has day
jobs.
But we've so far we're doinglike a yearly event which is
open to the public and they kindof introduce people to cosplay,
which we did a 90s party and itwas at a brewery in DC.
(11:05):
Barely say that word.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Was it about, like the smokehouse, ivy City?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
What's it called Rhode Island Avenue?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Okay, yeah, it's over somewhere, not too far.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Because bringing the cosplay, I like bringing
everybody together.
So we brought the cosplayerstogether and that's when I had
Taz she performed and a lot ofother musical artists.
I was like, wow, you get tocheck out music artists, you get
to meet other cosplayers, foodvendors, regular vendors.
So every year we do an eventlike that to bring everyone
together and then aroundDecember of course we do toy
(11:41):
drives and then amongstourselves and some friends we
kind of do like a regularcollect, like clothes, blankets,
and take it to the homelessshelter.
I forgot what that road is.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
That's dope Downtown.
So that's I think a lot ofpeople should.
I think they get a business andthink they're just going to
make money.
You know what I mean and notfigure out like hey, like it's
bigger than just profiting, it'smore of like giving back and I
think that's dope, that you andthe other ladies are knocking
that down and you know bringingpeople together.
(12:16):
You know what I mean, because alot of people I'm from Detroit,
so like a lot of people don'treally you know what I mean.
It's good now, but a lot ofpeople don't like bringing what
I've noticed here.
They don't like coming together.
There's always a section thatdon't like another section, or
you know what I mean and theydon't ever want to like work
together.
I think that's where a lot ofthe downfall be in the DMV, and
(12:39):
I've noticed that as well,because I've been at other
groups.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Not a part of it, just hung around and it's always
hey, this event is 30, 40dollars, but it's just, you know
, a party.
And then I also had to pay fordrinks and this and that.
So all our events have been free.
So I will speak to the venueand we have a pretty good
rapport.
If you're getting into an eventfor free, you're spending your
(13:05):
money on food, some merchandiseand drinks.
Therefore, everybody is gettingpaid.
And since they're making a lotof money, then they're like hey,
we'll do this event free foryou.
Hey, you can use my venue forfree, I'll bring my food truck
out for free.
So it kind of helps out.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So, oh, we're not making any money, but we're
enjoying it.
Yeah, but it's.
It's going to come back toy'all because, like you're,
you're looking back and you'rereaching out to the community.
You know, I mean you're takingcare of the community.
A lot of people don't want totake care of the community, they
just want to get, get theirsand go.
But y'all doing this free eventevery year and you know I mean
it's building rapport andbuilding relationships.
Yes, hence relationships worthmore than money.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And getting our name out there.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So once people see what we can bring them, then
later on, yes, we could probablycharge maybe $5 or $10.
But I'm always keep the pricelow because I don't want to hit
people over the head with boomthis much money.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, and that's the thing too.
You have to set your goals andset your feet in the sand and
get dirty.
But you also know that you'relike, hey, I'm doing it for free
.
You know what I mean to getyour name out there, and a lot
of people don't, and that can gofor anything music, marketing,
(14:23):
anything that you're doing.
If you're not trying to like,get your feet dirty, get your
feet wet, you know what I mean,like getting out there, then
that's always going to be anissue, because it's like if
you're trying to go at it forjust the money, it's never going
to really last.
So I commend y'all for that.
I commend you for that.
Thank you, military.
We talked a little bit about it.
Thank you, military.
(14:43):
We talked a little bit about it.
What year did you join?
I joined in 04 at 17.
Oh, so you joined same year,same year.
Well, I joined in 03, but Ididn't go to boot camp to 04.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Okay, Okay, I went to boot camp 04.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, Okay, and you graduated 04?
04.
Okay, what made you want 2004?
2004.
Okay, what made you want to dothe military?
Was it the parents?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
No, it wasn't the parents, but I just saw, because
I graduated from Oxon Hill andI just saw everything going on
around me and there was justreally nothing there.
Yeah, it was just.
I just didn't want to be aproduct of my environment.
I was like, wow, I don't haveany money for college.
I'm working at Six Flags likeeverybody else.
I was like, yeah, this sucks,I'm joining the military.
(15:33):
So I made sure I signed upwhile I was still in high school
.
So once I graduated, wentstraight to boot camp, I was
probably home for like two weeksand left in the summer.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So you didn't really have a good summer after high
school parties and stuff.
You didn't do none of that.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I know Just graduated .
Once I went to boot camp andthen training, they sent me
straight to Italy.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And I was like dang, I don't get to say goodbye to
nobody, Nobody Straight aftertraining.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That was it Dang.
At least we get like I mean, wecome home after boot camp, but
then, yeah, after that, yeah,you're going to wherever I went
to Cali, so yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
At least.
You was like a phone call away.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I was in the future.
I would have loved to move toItaly.
So you know, like for how theydo school, they ask you overseas
, west Coast or East Coast.
That's how you pick, like wherethey're going to send you.
So like you put it in thatorder and then from that order,
nine times out of 10, if youdon't get your first one, you're
(16:34):
going to get your second one.
You're guaranteed the secondone.
So I put overseas, west Coast,east Coast, and a lot of other
people put East Coast, overseas,West Coast, east Coast, west
Coast, overseas.
So when I did that, I wanted togo to Japan because I knew we
had a base over there, and so Iwas like, damn, I ain't getting
(16:55):
Japan.
Nobody went out of my class soI ended up getting West Coast.
So I was happy.
I mean, I've never been to Cali, you know what I mean.
And I was like, yo, this iscrazy.
Like palm trees everywhere andthe weather was amazing.
Coming from Detroit, you knowwhat I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Oh, yeah, you was in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
yeah, yeah the weather was.
That was a change, yeah, bigchange, but I loved it.
But Italy, how was Italy?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I mean, okay one, the drink age was 18.
Oh, for real Mm-hmm, which iswine.
But it opened me up to like awhole new culture because, yes,
I was a little military brat.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But that was just all through the US mostly.
But being over there justmeeting a lot of the locals and
everything was just superrelaxed.
I was like, okay, I'm comingfrom a fast-paced DC, we wait.
And I'm like, okay, you'resupposed to sit, talk, sip some
(17:53):
wine.
Then you tell them your orderwhenever they get there and
you're like, oh yeah, let me getthe spaghetti.
They making the noodles realquick.
They're dropping in the hotwater, so you gonna be there for
some time.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So it's kind of like Vapiano's you ever been to V
Papillano's here in DC.
It's closed now.
Man, I'm so mad Like theyliterally used to make the pasta
.
You can see them.
It's like a window, but it waskind of like Chipotle.
They make it right in front ofyou.
You know what I mean.
They make everything right infront of you, so you get like I
used to get it's called Granchéde Fueme, it was like craw fish
(18:28):
and I add shrimp and I addbroccoli to it.
Oh, that's all good, and I usedto get like you can pick all
your different any kind ofnoodles and I used to get um,
instead of everybody gettinglike the penny, I'd get like the
farfellis little bow ties andum, you would see it, they'd put
it in there and then they'd dipit.
It'd just dip down likeautomatically in the water or
(18:50):
whatever.
Oh, so it was fresh air, it wasnice man, but they shut them
down for trafficking.
I guess they was trafficking,money laundering or something.
It was something crazy and theyhad like two or three spots.
One was in Chinatown that's theone I used to always go to and
I had one, I think, on 8thStreet too.
But yeah, I'm talking about itwas nice and then they had.
(19:11):
So they had that was the pastaline, they had a pizza line,
they had a salad line too.
So, like you can get them tomake whatever I missed out.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, yeah, Because it don't matter what restaurant
I go out here Italian, authenticItalian, or even if I make it
at home.
Yeah, Nothing tastes the samelike that.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Over there.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, you're rolling out that pasta and making it
like so fresh.
You're like that is so good.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So how long were you in Italy?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
So I was there for like a year and a half and then
from there they sent me straightto Afghanistan, and then I came
back and was finished up mytour in Italy.
I'm like how you can make medeploy from Italy.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, you were already pretty much deployed.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, that was like, but that deployment time counted
as my tour in Italy.
Dude, I want to stay in Italy.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
But they let me stay like a little bit longer to out
process and get ready for yournext duty station, which wasn't
too bad, it was Virginia Beach,over at Fort Story or Little
Creek.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Now, I know you was in the Army.
How does it work for us, likewe call it PCS, y'all call it
PCS.
Yeah, we call it PCS, Like dothey give y'all like a certain
amount of time before y'all like?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
can like y'all get like vacation, get leave.
Before y'all can like it'sprobably exactly the same as
yours.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah, because I know, like for us, like when I came
back, I was supposed to go toJapan, mm-hmm, and I came back
from Iraq the second time but meand Benita we wasn't married at
the time.
So my girl's mom, so when theygave me the orders it was going
to be on the company and I waslike I don't want to do that.
(20:57):
So I ended up switching myorders to get stationed here in
Quantico.
Then we got married once we gothere to Quantico or whatever.
But yeah, like that that's whyI was like.
I was like how do y'all stuffwork?
Because you know, everybody'shad their own number system of
MOS and like 88, mike, mike isour 3531, which that's what I
(21:18):
was a motor transport operator.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
My dad's the same MOS .
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I was 88 November, which is the one that did the
paperwork for 88 Mike.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, yeah, so we had our admins.
Is 01s, like they start 01something, 01, 51, something.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh, I was in a motor pool doing the motor pool Admin
for them, for them Dang.
Before I had to drive aforklift or be a driver.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I'm like real, real close to my dad.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Like he was the 88 mic, that Mom was what.
She was what do you call itlike S1 in the office?
Oh yeah, the admin.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, the admin.
Yeah, she was 0101.
Yeah, she was an admin, yeah,okay.
And then you said she was adrill instructor and your dad
was what?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
No, my dad was a drill instructor, my mom was a
recruiter, but if you meet themyou would have thought she was.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
That's crazy.
So me and mom was the recruiterand your dad was the driller
strike Mm-hmm Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You look at that, my mom, the main one, my dad.
He's 6'3 and slim.
My mom's like about 5'5, like alittle bit taller than me, and
she'll be coming in like did youdo the dishes?
And you need to do this Withthe knife hand.
What don't use the knife man?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, we chill, that's how I am with my
daughters.
I don't, I don't even.
I don't do all of that Becauseliterally once I'm done here,
I'm about to go be softballcoach with the girls.
So it's like, yeah, that's so.
I don't really.
I got girls and I feel like mehaving the girls it calmed me
way down Because I was on like10.
(22:57):
From being in the Marines andbeing deployed, like you really
start seeing when the PTSD kickin, you know what I mean.
And the girls having the girlshelp it calmed me down and
that's like I can't be yelling.
If I have boys a wholedifferent thing.
(23:17):
But the girls it's like funny,like I dropped them off today
and it's like I can't do nothingbut just laugh and I'm like
dang man, like I wanted a boy sobad.
But these girls take care of meand they make me laugh day in
and day out.
So it's dope, like you got ason, right.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I have a son.
So it was my dad had four girlsand it was like dang.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So he definitely had yeah, that's five women.
Yeah, did y'all have any petsGirls.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
See, see what I'm saying.
So, being the only male in thehouse, he, the only man, he had
to be chill.
And then his girls had boys.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
That's crazy so now he got all the grandsons.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Which is nice because I was like wow, we about to
swamp you with girls.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, now that would have been even crazier.
Like now he got granddaughters,he got daughters and his wife
you know what I'm saying Like heain't got no time, so now he
can talk sports with them.
You know what I mean.
Get them, get them, take themto the little games and stuff
like that, even though, like,you can take your daughters to
the game.
But they got to be like.
(24:21):
My youngest, she just want togo to the games for like food.
My oldest, she actually wantsto look at the game.
She's like Daddy, when yougoing to take me to a Ravens
game, when you're going to takeme to another, you know what I'm
saying.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
So the funny thing is my dad's not a sports guy, he's
just strictly comics and nerds,yeah.
But the women in my family frommy grandmother, we're all
sports.
I'm a Miami Dolphin, mysister's a Colts, the other one
is a Titans, which Monday we wasarguing.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, isn't that?
Speaker 2 (24:49):
no, we just had a game Monday that had me I was
here, oh yeah oh, my rival ohyeah, y'all played the Titans
right.
Patriots, patriots and theBills.
But we played the Titans thispast Monday and we lost, and I
was mad y'all ain't got noquarterback yeah, we need to.
We need to let him lay down andget a new quarterback.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
I mean he, he got guaranteed 90 million.
He might as well go ahead andjust dip.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, it's like I love Tupac but he keep doing
stupid stuff.
Like you're supposed to slide,not.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Yeah, but it's just weird that every other
quarterback is doing the samething he does.
It's just like his body justlike Fragile yes, it's like
fragile and it's like hisequilibrium is off, Because
every time he gets tackled itjust looks weird you know what I
mean?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah, he just ball up like newspaper.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
It's just like he crumbles up and I'm like yo,
I've seen so many quarterbacksie Jaden Daniels, which is a
rookie yeah, he's a rookie, buthe's smaller than Tua and he
gets hit.
It's like a regular hit, butit's like every time Tua gets
hit he just and.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I'm like dang.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, it's like he going like a cardiac arrest or
something and I'm like no what'sI'm like?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
can we go back to Dan Marino?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
days, yeah, but I was telling somebody.
I was telling somebody, y'allshould go get.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Someone was telling me that.
Because I've been just lookingat the different quarterbacks,
I'm like we just need somebodynew.
Just put Tua on the bench, justlet him rest, let him get his
money Maybe.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Come back a couple years yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Or Cam.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Newton yeah.
You don't like Cam.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I think it'd be good for y'all.
Yeah, it would be good for us.
I'm still on the fence abouthim.
I got like this littlelove-hate for Cam.
It's like I like him, but thenhe, it's personal, like he just
be too much.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, and we like.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
No, I need my Dolphins to just be at home,
mind your business.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, stay on social media Because a flashy Dolphin
player.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Not really the flashiest we have is Tyreek.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Hill, tyreek Hill.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And he's not really that flashy.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Nah, he just drive nice car.
Everybody drives nice car.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
So yeah, and then his house caught on fire.
That part too, yeah but otherthan that we're not in the news.
I'm like, we mind our business.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yeah, I think it's, but that's why I said Russ first
, though.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
If y'all got Russ.
I like Russ more than Cam.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Okay, I'll take that.
I mean I'm saying for I wouldsay Russ, because one he's
already getting paid from theBroncos $47 million.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So he's chilling.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Y'all can go sign him for the league minimum,
Whichever that is, If it's likea million or three million,
y'all can go sign him for, likethe league minimum, whichever
that is, If it's like a millionor three million, y'all ain't
losing a lot of money and it's aone-year thing.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, do like a one-year so that.
Tua can rest up and the crazything is Tua's like 26.
All them concussions.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I really, to be honest, I think he might need to
stop playing altogether.
Yeah, he's too young for allthem concussions.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
My only thing is, though, is like when you play
football, you're going to getconcussions.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Oh yeah, you know what you're signing up for, you
know what you're signing up for,you're going to get concussions
.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I feel like my first concussion I was like in power
league I.
I was like in power league.
I was a kid, you know what Imean.
But I stopped after ninth gradeplaying football and just stuck
with baseball.
But I know for a fact there'smultiple players that had that
same amount of concussions.
Yeah, his just looks sodifferent, like it looks like
(28:28):
super damaging to his.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
He wasn't supposed to be playing this sport.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, this ain't your sport.
You might as well go playtennis or something Like.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, because this ain't it.
But you know, I hope he getsbetter, because I do like to see
him, because it was excitingwatching Miami him throw the
ball to Waddle and Tyreek.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I get excited for the games and you know, when
there's like games Monday nightor whenever it's the night
games, I have my like MiamiDolphin onesies on and I'm like,
yeah, this is how you watch thegame, bringing out my little
Miami Dolphin little coffee cup.
But then there's a bar calledthe Admiral at DuPont Whole
bunch of Miami fans.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Is that the one that's below, below the ground,
like it's like?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
in a basement.
No, it's above ground.
It's above ground.
It's DuPont.
You might be talking about theSaints.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Remember Front Page, the brunch spot that everybody
used to go to.
There used to be a sports barright up under it.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, I know what you're talking about and it had
like a.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It was like a sports bar.
It had like it had like abasketball hoop shooting it Okay
.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
yeah, we're not there .
Okay, I forgot the name of it,though.
Yeah, there's so many newplaces.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You see, just keep.
So Admiral is like the Dolphinsplace.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Mm-hmm.
I don't know if it's the Chiefsor the 49ers, because I was
just driving past I just saw somuch red and I was like where's
our new bar at?
And they changed it.
It was like two years ago whenthey because we used to always
have it.
But we have that and we haveanother place down.
(30:06):
There's another downtown.
It's like a little hole in thewall, but they got the best fish
tacos.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
And it'd be like the.
That'd be the best spot, though.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, it's a little, but then you got the little TV
up in the ceiling.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Just a little.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
It might as well be a box TV Everybody crowded up,
you're drinking a beer andyou're like, yeah, Watching a
game in a little TV.
So we playing the Patriots Then, yeah, I'm in down and my
little brunch and some steak.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
But there you ain't getting no bar elbow space, you
just a pool of fans.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, I feel you on that because I'm a Ravens fan
and you know, Okay, yeah, we hada little rough start but we
back.
I know it's going to take sometime to get invested with
Derrick some time to getinvested with Derrick.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I love y'all defense.
Last year I was just so.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
We were supposed to be in the Super Bowl you were.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
That's why I was just like this, don't make sense.
I'm doing the math.
I'm like did I carry the one?
Y'all should have been in theSuper Bowl.
Your defense is like that.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And we got better.
That's the crazy thing.
We got better, we got better,you good, you good, you got
better, we got better.
And let me see you got 30, 35.
You good, okay, you good,because I know you were telling
me about Iron man.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
That was your favorite, right, oh so yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So you know, shout out to my Marines that got me
this, what you call it Collage,collage.
So yeah, iron man man, it'sjust always been.
He's been the dopest one BeforeAvengers.
It was him and I used tocollect comic books as a kid and
my mom threw them joints away.
I'm talking about I had mintcondition Wolverine, x-men,
x-men and Avengers.
Iron man and them was myfavorite comics and she threw
(31:59):
them joints away and you gotthose appearances like okay,
he's past, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Eight years old you outgrew this trash, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
And and then you know , like the comics was like a
dollar fifty, they were supercheap, and like I used to go to
the store, it was because I'mfrom eight miles, right right on
nine miles back home, and um, Iused to go there like every
weekend and buy like one comicbecause that's, I hated reading
regular books.
I love magazines and comics,like like that's what interests
(32:27):
me.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Now I listen to audiobooks but,um, iron man, man, he's just
like to me, just like he's justlike he's that guy and I hate
the way they killed him off.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Oh yeah, for that, and I'm trying to see what
storyline they're going withBecause he didn't die in the
comic book.
But in the multiverse he doesbecome Dr Doom, which I'm
open-minded to it because I loveme some Dr Doom.
Yeah, you know I collectedcomics, but I collected For some
(33:03):
reason, like when my dad wouldtake me to a comic book store.
He'd be like you know, harleyQuinn, you want Catwoman, you
want Storm, just pushing likeemail characters on me.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
I collected Punisher.
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Punisher was nice.
Me, I collected Punisher.
Ooh, I collected all FrankCastle comics.
Punisher was crazy, he was.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I was mad that he didn't have a cartoon like that.
He had one, but it didn't lastlong.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I didn't get to see the cartoon.
Sure Now I got to go on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, like he got a cartoon Because I was watching
X-Men Every time I came on, thatmusic started playing.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
That's why I like that X-Men 97.
It brings that whole nostalgia.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I haven't watched it yet.
No, I haven't watched it, but Iknow, once I do, I ain't going
to want to watch nothing elseBecause it was X-Men.
It was what was.
I ain't gonna want to watchnothing else because that was
X-Men.
It was what was the other one.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I don't remember.
There was a lot of superheroes,of course, batman you had
Batman, you had Superman, youhad Flash okay, yes, we had
Flash, we had a bunch of.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
That's what I'm like.
Nowadays, these kids don't Isee why they just be on their
iPads and stuff, because theydon't really have no TV shows.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
And then they started coming out with some good ones.
Yeah, yeah, because I like theAmazing World of Gumball, I was
watching it on my side I'm likeoh, this is good Adventure.
Time they started having somepretty good stories where I was
invested, and then you know yeah, they get rid of them, like all
they got now is what?
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Rick and Morty?
Yeah, we still have Rick andMorty, just waiting for the next
season.
That's like an adult show.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
You know what I mean.
And I Simpsons.
Yep, simpsons has been out.
Still got the Simpsons Sincelike what?
85?
Yeah, and I still watch theSimpsons.
I'm up to date.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yep, the Cleveland show went away and that one was
good.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, family Guy, family Guy.
I like American Dad more.
First I was team Family Guy,but then it just started getting
dumb.
And American Dad, I had abetter story line.
It was more relatable yeahdefinitely more relatable.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah, definitely.
But yeah, iron man Got my man.
So I got that from a goodfriend I met about my daughter's
school over there by Georgetown.
He had a whole toy store of allcollective items and I'm mad he
just closed down in Northwest Igotta find out where he moved
(35:37):
but he had like old school, likenintendo's, nintendo 64s, oh
yeah, the classics, yeah yeah,like um vr troopers, uh, he man,
he like toys still in the box,so like that one's never been
open and I, when I saw it, Ilike man, how much is this?
40 bucks, maybe it'd be morework, more.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
But I like this.
We got a Japanese right nowyeah, definitely, I see the PS5.
It was London Dead.
Perfectly, yeah, I play PS5.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I play.
So my favorite, I don't know, Idon't know, I don't know, I
don't know.
And then they're like I don'tknow, I just got tired of it,
but the Batman Arkham Asylum.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I've been watching Walker.
That looks so good yeah, thatwas dope.
But he coming out with anotherone, spider-man, is dope.
Yeah, that joint is dope.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I haven't got the new one, but the one last year that
came out was crazy.
Yeah, I've been playing that,trying to get all my trophies,
trying to get all my trophies,trying to get all my uniforms,
the outfits I was trying to getall the outfits, because it's
like 20 something outfits.
So, yeah, I play, of course,madden, all the sports games and
(36:52):
a little bit of fighting.
Mortal Kombat.
You got to play that.
That's classic.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Oh yeah, I want Mortal Kombat because I'm okay
with it, but a friend of mine,because me and her had met and
we just like hit it off, met herat a con, I was like oh, we can
draw, I'll take pictures withher and I'm like, oh okay, and
then finding out that she's theum, the number one Mortal Kombat
player wow, is she in DC in aDMV area?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
no, she's um, she's a flight attendant, so she's like
everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
But yeah, but me and her exchanged numbers,
everything, and then, like lateron, I'm like, girl, hold on, is
that you were that megastar invideo not the most recent one,
but the one before that whereshe was, um, no, it was the
amazon commercial where she wasdressed up as an anime character
.
Then she had the headsetplaying a video game against
another girl and that was her.
(37:40):
Wow, so with the cosplay I'mmeeting so many different people
.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It's bigger than just the outfits.
It's like really dope genuinepeople.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And it builds a bridge for us, because I'm into
like anime, but I'm also intovideo game, and then I go to a
con where they have like agaming tournament and I'm like,
oh yeah, let me get you know,let me play some Mortal Kombat
and then I was like, hold onthat person over there playing a
game.
He look familiar and it was.
(38:14):
Chloe Thompson from that movieHoles from the Disney Channel.
Wow, I was like, yeah, he'splaying the championship.
You be just running intodifferent celebrities, you would
never know I got to go to one.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I definitely got to go to one.
So this year my daughters.
They love Halloween andChristmas.
That's their favorite holidays.
So, this year I was like youknow what I'm going to dress up,
like I did before One year, Idressed up as Deadpool with the
girls and they were like little,like five, four years old, so I
(38:52):
got a ghillie suit, oh yeah.
So my youngest was like Daddy,what is this Like?
What it's like?
Oh, this little girl, what isit?
And I'm like it's a ghilliesuit.
And they're like what is it?
And I'm like it's a ghilliesuit.
They're like what is it?
I'm like it's a scout sniper.
Like this is what they wearwhen they're out in the woods or
wherever they get accustomed totheir surroundings.
(39:12):
They wear certain things thatmatch the colors there and I'm
like I want to be that now.
I want to be, that.
So now my youngest probablygoing to get a ghillie suit.
She's like daddy, I'm about togo get me a ghillie suit.
I said you got to get thelittle Nerf gun too.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You got to get the little Nerf sniper.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
They got a bunch of them though, so all they got to
do is just wrap the littlecamouflage around their sniper
and then and you can findthere's some camouflage ones too
.
Yeah, I.
Just the crazy thing is I justordered the camouflage photo gun
(39:48):
, the uh camouflage for the gun.
Like the stuff like that looklike, yeah, because it got like
little like pieces falling off.
Like it looks like you're oh.
So it looks like, yeah, I likethat, so, yeah.
So the costume was man, I gotta, I gotta get into the cosplay
and that's why I really wantedto interview you, because I
wanted to dive into it, becauseI didn't know, I don't know
about, I know about it, I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
You would love, like BlurCon, because it's black
nerds and there's so many levelsof the dressing up.
You got people that are likehardcore, spent months building,
crafting robot, all that stuff.
People with more materialssewing or somebody with a hoodie
(40:27):
on and it's got got Deadpool onit.
They're like oh hey, I'm here,and everybody's welcome.
And they're like hey, we'reabout to go get something to eat
.
You want to come Whole line offood trucks because you know
nerds love to eat.
But everybody is like super,super friendly, where they'll
see you and they'll be like ohhey, we're about to go.
(40:49):
You know, get some drinks.
Do you drink whiskey?
We got whiskey.
Oh, we're going to go to thispanel and a lot of celebrities
come.
I got to meet the cast ofSteven Universe and then, of
course, chris Summers Everybodyknows Chris Summers because she
has that real scratchy voiceSuzie Conn, michael Fromm
Rugrats, wow so, and she's beenthere like three times.
(41:13):
So I got to meet her this pastJuly.
I got to meet the Black.
Ranger and the Black girl,that's the Pink Ranger.
And then me and her we had thesame birthday.
I was like, oh snap, not PinkRanger, yellow Ranger, black.
Then me and her finally, we hadthe same birthday I was like,
oh snap, that Pink Ranger,yellow Ranger Black.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Girl's Yellow Ranger.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
But you get to meet.
Like Pink was an Asian girl,right, yeah, no, pink was a
white girl the yellow.
I would say the yellow one'sthe minority Ranger, because it
was an Asian girl and it was ablack girl.
And you just meet them andthey'll be like, oh hey, what's
up?
Take some pictures.
Y'all at the after party, y'allgo get something to eat.
You know what I'm saying?
Hello Ranger, we got somepictures.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah, that's dope man and that's exactly why I wanted
to get you on the show, becauseyou know what I mean.
Relationships mean a lot.
It means a lot to me, it meansa lot to the world.
Like, if you don't know, it'snot about what you know, it's
about who you know and you know,like you never know.
Like these cosplay things.
(42:12):
Like you're saying, you got allof this stuff, you meet
somebody, you're networking, youbuild a rapport.
All of these things make sense.
But before we get out of here,I always do this thing called
gym class, not G-Y-M, g-e-m.
What is a gym that you canleave with?
You know with the relatives, oryou know like a saying that you
(42:34):
always say, or something thatthey can put in a toolbox, like
what's some gyms?
Speaker 2 (42:40):
So I always say this I know everybody heard this,
it's a classic.
But you attract more flies withhoney.
I'm always saying that to mymom with a little jackhammer
knife and to other peoplebecause, um, there's a lot of
different cosplayers, a lot ofpeople that have this big
following on facebook, tiktok oranything like.
I have a big following, but thething is you have to be a nice
(43:04):
person.
You generally have to be kind,because you never know where
you're at or who you're going tomeet, and some people are very
arrogant and whatnot.
But what really makes my day iswhen I meet people at cons and
they're like, oh my God, you'remy favorite cons player.
You're always just so nice andyou actually talk to me and I'm
(43:25):
like I'm no bigger than anybodyelse, right, and so if I meet
somebody, sure I'll take apicture with you and little chit
chat.
They're like, oh, I love yourhair, where did you get it done
at, or how can I improve thiscosplay?
And people slide in my dms, asksome questions and I have no
problem talking to people if Ihave time.
But I'll see other people that Irun into at these functions,
(43:50):
like these TikTok or theseYouTube ones, where you have to
have minimum 100K to be at theseevents.
Wow, and a lot of them are juststuck up, stuck up in arrogance
, where they're like're like,yeah, why are they bothering me?
And they're like really mean.
Yeah, why are you mean?
Like there's no need to be likethis because we're all it's
(44:16):
social media.
The internet drops and there'sno more internet.
And I walk down the street andI see you at chipotle.
I don't know who the heck youare.
Are you going to be like?
Oh, I have a printout.
Once ago I used to have Like no, just be generally nice, it
gets you a long, long way.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
All right hold on real quick.
I have 37 minutes on here.
Did it stop?
Are we good?
We still got 11 minutes?
Okay cool, we still got 11minutes.
Okay cool, we still got 11minutes.
So what was the gym?
Again, Never.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Oh, you attract more flies with honey.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
You attract more flies with honey.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
I've never heard that one.
Oh yeah, I've never heard thatone.
I got that from my grandmother.
I thought you heard that.
I'm pretty sure if I asked myaunt she definitely heard it,
but I never heard that one.
You attract more flowers withhoney, mm-hmm, baby, but you do,
because they like somethingthat's sweet and genuine versus
(45:18):
men.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Once again, I appreciate you for coming Shout
out to you and I hope you keepkilling the game with the
cosplay and everything that youdo for the community.
Give it back to the community.
And this might you know Ialways do these too.
It's because you never knowLike it might be a kid out there
(45:42):
that you know what I mean thatwant to do this.
It might be an adult that's outthere that want to do this, you
know, um doing these, theseinterviews.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
it definitely helps because I get certain views, um,
and people always comment so uh, be on the lookout.
Yeah, you can do this at anyage, because a lot of people say
, hey, this is for kids, why areyou?
You could be two years old oryou could be 200 years old.
I mean, I'm 39 and I'm stilldoing this.
(46:13):
I'll let you know, you're nevertoo old.
Happy birthday.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Thank you, you're leaving.
Yes, my birthday is September.
Oh, september 19th.
Okay, just made it Virgo.
Yeah, virgo, yeah, happybirthday.
Appreciate it, but, like always, relationships worth more than
money, we out.
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