Relationships Worth More Than Money Podcast
Conversations about relationships being valuable and worth more than money! its a heartwarming podcast that delves into the profound value of connections, friendships, and love that transcend the monetary realm. Hosted by Tweezy & a diverse range of guests, including athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, engineers and everyday people, each episode explores the immeasurable worth of relationships in our lives. Through compelling stories and thought-provoking discussions, the podcast inspires listeners to cherish the bonds they share with others, reminding us that the wealth of a meaningful relationship is far more precious than any currency. Tune in to "Relationships worth more than money" to discover the true treasure in life.
Relationships Worth More Than Money Podcast
Cosplay and Culture: Nicole's Journey from Childhood Passions to Community Impact
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
available on all streaming platforms!
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RWMTMpod
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All right, we back Episode 23. 23?, 23. And you know I'm Tweezy. Who do I have to the right of me?
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, I'm Paper Doll, also, nicole, that's my real name.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So we was talking through text messages, well, through DMs on Instagram, and we found out that we both were in the military. So kudos to that. Shout out to you, thank you.
Speaker 2:And thank you for serving.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you. It's always something like I feel like when you meet people and I met you through Taz, yes, taz Like Taz was always telling me about you or whatever and I was like yo, she dope, like I got to interview her. I got to interview her because she's always in some dope cosplay outfits and I'd be like how? The first question is how did you get into cosplay?
Speaker 2:So when I was younger, my mom she collects Barbies, so she always took me to barbie conventions and my dad, big comic book geek, so he would take us to him. My sisters because I have three other sisters would take us to conventions and they would dress us up all the time. Of course I fell in love with comics and I just continued dressing up, but I get to dress up the way I want to.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Versus hey, y'all are going to dress up as some Trekkies, and I'm not a Star Trek fan.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that was like I couldn't stand Star Trek. I couldn't stand it at all. It was like the only thing that ever came on TV that wasn't like a cartoon, so it was like I'm Star Wars. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or Star Trek, what was?
Speaker 1:Buddy's name Spock. What was his name?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the one with the ears.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what was the dude with the like mud pie face?
Speaker 2:I don't know, he ugly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super ugly, super ugly.
Speaker 2:That was nap time. Every time that came on, I was like oh. I'm going to bed. So how long you been well, I would say probably 2014. That's when I really start going on my own to conventions and dressing up. But if we say like all together with my parents, that was okay, yeah, we'll just say since 2014 okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So 10 years now, like how many conventions are there? Cause I know cosplay is like. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's's like a. I can't even explain it. What is like? What is cosplay?
Speaker 2:So every year, you know you have Halloween. People dress up as their favorite character or something scary or something funny or something cool. Well, conventions, it's to like meet other people. Conventions it's to like meet other people. You have panels and fun activities after parties and you can either dress up or just wear, you know, regular clothes and you dress up as your favorite 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's like back to. You can literally go like every weekend if you're traveling around. But in the DMV area we do have some of the biggest events every year First Weekend of January, magfest, valentine's Weekend, katsucon, blurcon, which is in March, which is Black Nerds. So you can see more people like us.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's what Blurred means. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Blurred is Black Nerd Nice more people like us.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's what Blurred means, okay, okay, yeah, blurred is black nerd, nice, nice. So before the cosplay, let's go back to when Nicole, like where you from, like tell me about like your childhood, like coming up. You know how you started.
Speaker 2:So both my parents they're Marines.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And, of course, and they met overseas, and I was born in Japan.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I spent some early years over there, then came to DC and traveled around, but then came right back to DC and that's where I had high school and part of my adult life and I joined the military.
Speaker 1:Army, all right, school right it's school right. School yeah, or School right it's school right yeah.
Speaker 2:So I usually claim DC, because that's high school. To circling back now, I'm more comfortable here.
Speaker 1:So were you in Japan that whole time, from all the way to middle school, to high school, oh no.
Speaker 2:I probably left around maybe four years old, and then Arizona and a lot of the West Coast and the West Coast was nice but it really wasn't me. And then when my parents moved to North Carolina and then DC by high school, Okay, what school you went to. I graduated from Oxon Hill Okay. I went to Spangon in DC for the longest, and then 11th grade went to Oxon Hill.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then 11th grade went to Ockland Hill now, when you having a bomb and dead as a marine, right, how was life like? Was it strict?
Speaker 2: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 before it gets dark, because the door is locked, top locked, you can't get in, and I'm like dang how do I? Get home with a job Like no boys calling the house, you and your sisters all together. So I'm like dang, we all got to stick together, all four of us walking around.
Speaker 2:My dad didn't play. He was like hey, just y'all and them streetlights. You know, wintertime, them things start coming on at like 5 in the afternoon?
Speaker 1:Yeah, super early and you would speed into the house, yeah, it was strict, so would you be. Are you the oldest?
Speaker 2:I am the oldest.
Speaker 1:Okay, how is it with the siblings? Like, how are you with your sisters?
Speaker 2: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:Nice, what else? What else we got? I seen you did like this picture. I don't know what it was like. It was like it was like Candyman.
Speaker 2:You was kind of dressed up like. Candyman, but you was like the female version.
Speaker 1:Is that like a movie that you was taking a picture for, or was that just like a-?
Speaker 2:Oh, that was for cosplay, because now that it's October it's kind of like the Olympics for us cosplayers.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I'm real big into scary movies and the horror genre. So once October hits all cosplayers we're just throwing out Halloween content, and I have a lot of Halloween, so each day I've been just dropping some of my older cosplays until I dropped the newer ones which start next week. But that was Candyman.
Speaker 1:Okay, I thought I would. Yes, that's all right, let me ask because I'm like that looked like the female version of Candyman. Then I think you said like say my name three times. Yeah, I seen that and I was like, oh snap.
Speaker 2:He's all in these.
Speaker 1:How long does that take to get into that like costume and like makeup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first you got to like just put that together and make it. So I'll like, of course, I'm like watching Candyman a couple of times I don't know how many times we said that name, so we'll just say Candy, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so I'll watch the movie, see what the character's wearing, and I'm like, okay, I'm going to do this, but switch it up, because he had like old timey clothes, find some like fake little bees. Because I was like I can't make no bees. But, you know, put the costume together.
Speaker 2:And so I found like this yellow, hot, blue and I was like, oh wow, this looks like honey, let me pour this on the hook, stick some of the bees. So it probably took me like maybe a week or two to put that together. And then I have like a bunch of contacts. I'm like, okay, boom, boom, it doesn't take too long to get into makeup. Once I do like a practice, try to figure out how I want to look. Then the day of the shoot, I'm like, boom, I need like an hour and a half to get ready.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And then meet at that location.
Speaker 1:Now, how long does it take for each costume? Is it like a set? You already got it down to the T. Or is it like the bigger the costume, the longer it takes? How do you get creative like that? What makes you?
Speaker 2:So I kind of got it down to a T where a lot of my cosplays you'll see that they're like super different, but I literally shot like maybe three of them in the same day. I reach out to a photographer and be like, hey, give me a good three, four hour block and I change in and out quick, as long as the characters aren't too far off. But if I'm doing a clown look, that's just that look for the day which I actually was able to do two looks in one day where I did the clown look and I was doing Captain Spaulding from House of a Thousand Corps. Okay, if you've seen the movie, it's a scary movie.
Speaker 1:It's an old one. I've seen them, pretty much all of them, but some of them I had to go back and like think about but once you say House of a Thousand Corps, yes, pretty much all of them but some of them I had to go back and like, think about.
Speaker 2:But once you say House Over a Thousand Quartz, yes, it's a little commercial with the clown guy that owns the fried chicken and gasoline.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2: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, you sweating under the mask, the makeup dripping.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially depending on where you're shooting. You normally shoot outside.
Speaker 2:I prefer outside because I don't really like that whole studio, the lighting, that JCPenney vibe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the lighting and everything. Yeah, I feel like outside tells more of a story, but I would still do some studio. Now you have a business, correct?
Speaker 2:A business like Dollhouse.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's kind of a business because we do a lot of promotions and some charity work. It's just a group of girls because we all, we're all around the same age and then we have our day jobs and then we all like to cosplay and we all talk to each other and we're all around the same age and then we have our day jobs and then we all like to cosplay and I was. I, um, we all talk to each other. We're like, hey, we're all doing the same thing. We all just come together and we can all be guests at events, cause you know, one person I mean three people are better than one. If you're trying to put an event together, you're like, okay, who's going to get the food, who's going to coordinate this, instead of it just being me?
Speaker 1:it's like, wow, it's so much better with all of us so Dollhouse is a is a collection of women that cosplay, and what kind of promotions? Is it promotions for the cosplay or is it promotions for anything?
Speaker 2:it's mostly been for cosplay. We're slowly trying to branch out but still everybody has day jobs. But we've so far we're doing like a yearly event which is open to the public and they kind of introduce people to cosplay, which we did a 90s party and it was at a brewery in DC. Barely say that word.
Speaker 1:Was it about, like the smokehouse, ivy City?
Speaker 2:What's it called Rhode Island Avenue?
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, it's over somewhere, not too far.
Speaker 2:Because bringing the cosplay, I like bringing everybody together. So we brought the cosplayers together and that's when I had Taz she performed and a lot of other musical artists. I was like, wow, you get to check out music artists, you get to meet other cosplayers, food vendors, regular vendors. So every year we do an event like that to bring everyone together and then around December of course we do toy drives and then amongst ourselves and some friends we kind of do like a regular collect, like clothes, blankets, and take it to the homeless shelter. I forgot what that road is.
Speaker 1:That's dope Downtown. So that's I think a lot of people should. I think they get a business and think they're just going to make money. You know what I mean and not figure out like hey, like it's bigger than just profiting, it's more of like giving back and I think that's dope, that you and the other ladies are knocking that down and you know bringing people together. You know what I mean, because a lot of people I'm from Detroit, so like a lot of people don't really you know what I mean. It's good now, but a lot of people don't like bringing what I've noticed here. They don't like coming together. There's always a section that don't like another section, or you know what I mean and they don't ever want to like work together. I think that's where a lot of the downfall be in the DMV, and I've noticed that as well, because I've been at other groups.
Speaker 2:Not a part of it, just hung around and it's always hey, this event is 30, 40 dollars, but it's just, you know, a party. And then I also had to pay for drinks and this and that.
Speaker 2:So all our events have been free. So I will speak to the venue and we have a pretty good rapport. If you're getting into an event for free, you're spending your money on food, some merchandise and drinks. Therefore, everybody is getting paid. And since they're making a lot of money, then they're like hey, we'll do this event free for you. Hey, you can use my venue for free, I'll bring my food truck out for free. So it kind of helps out.
Speaker 1:So, oh, we're not making any money, but we're enjoying it. Yeah, but it's. It's going to come back to y'all because, like you're, you're looking back and you're reaching out to the community. You know, I mean you're taking care of the community. A lot of people don't want to take care of the community, they just want to get, get theirs and go. But y'all doing this free event every year and you know I mean it's building rapport and building relationships. Yes, hence relationships worth more than money.
Speaker 2:And getting our name out there.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So once people see what we can bring them, then later on, yes, we could probably charge maybe $5 or $10. But I'm always keep the price low because I don't want to hit people over the head with boom this much money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's the thing too. You have to set your goals and set your feet in the sand and get dirty. But you also know that you're like, hey, I'm doing it for free. You know what I mean to get your name out there, and a lot of people don't, and that can go for anything music, marketing, 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 an issue, because it's like if you're trying to go at it for just 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. We talked a little bit about it. What year did you join?
Speaker 1:I joined in 04 at 17. Oh, so you joined same year, same year. Well, I joined in 03, but I didn't go to boot camp to 04.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay, I went to boot camp 04.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, and you graduated 04? 04. Okay, what made you want 2004? 2004. Okay, what made you want to do the military? Was it the parents?
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't the parents, but I just saw, because I graduated from Oxon Hill and I just saw everything going on around me and there was just really nothing there. Yeah, it was just. I just didn't want to be a product of my environment. I was like, wow, I don't have any money for college. I'm working at Six Flags like everybody else. I was like, yeah, this sucks, I'm joining the military. So I made sure I signed up while I was still in high school. So once I graduated, went straight to boot camp, I was probably home for like two weeks and left in the summer.
Speaker 1:So you didn't really have a good summer after high school parties and stuff. You didn't do none of that.
Speaker 2:I know Just graduated. Once I went to boot camp and then training, they sent me straight to Italy.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And I was like dang, I don't get to say goodbye to nobody, Nobody Straight after training.
Speaker 1:That was it Dang. At least we get like I mean, we come 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:At least. You was like a phone call away.
Speaker 1:I was in the future. I would have loved to move to Italy. So you know, like for how they do school, they ask you overseas, west Coast or East Coast. That's how you pick, like where they're going to send you. So like you put it in that order and then from that order, nine times out of 10, if you don't get your first one, you're going to get your second one. You're guaranteed the second one. 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 to go to Japan because I knew we had a base over there, and so I was like, damn, I ain't getting Japan. Nobody went out of my class so I 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 is crazy. Like palm trees everywhere and the weather was amazing. Coming from Detroit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, you was in Detroit.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah the weather was. That was a change, yeah, big change, but I loved it. But Italy, how was Italy?
Speaker 2:I mean, okay one, the drink age was 18. Oh, for real Mm-hmm, which is wine. But it opened me up to like a whole new culture because, yes, I was a little military brat.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But that was just all through the US mostly. But being over there just meeting a lot of the locals and everything was just super relaxed. I was like, okay, I'm coming from a fast-paced DC, we wait. And I'm like, okay, you're supposed to sit, talk, sip some wine. Then you tell them your order whenever they get there and you're like, oh yeah, let me get the spaghetti. They making the noodles real quick. They're dropping in the hot water, so you gonna be there for some time.
Speaker 1: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 they literally used to make the pasta. You can see them. It's like a window, but it was kind of like Chipotle. They make it right in front of you. You know what I mean. They make everything right in front of you, so you get like I used to get it's called Granché de Fueme, it was like craw fish and I add shrimp and I add broccoli to it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's all good, and I used to get like you can pick all your different any kind of noodles and I used to get um, instead of everybody getting like the penny, I'd get like the farfellis little bow ties and um, you would see it, they'd put it in there and then they'd dip it. It'd just dip down like automatically in the water or whatever.
Speaker 1:Oh, so it was fresh air, it was nice man, but they shut them down for trafficking. I guess they was trafficking, money laundering or something. It was something crazy and they had like two or three spots. One was in Chinatown that's the one I used to always go to and I had one, I think, on 8th Street too. But yeah, I'm talking about it was nice and then they had. So they had that was the pasta line, they had a pizza line, they had a salad line too. So, like you can get them to make whatever I missed out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Because it don't matter what restaurant I go out here Italian, authentic Italian, or even if I make it at home. Yeah, Nothing tastes the same like that.
Speaker 1:Over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're rolling out that pasta and making it like so fresh. You're like that is so good.
Speaker 1:So how long were you in Italy?
Speaker 2:So I was there for like a year and a half and then from there they sent me straight to Afghanistan, and then I came back and was finished up my tour in Italy. I'm like how you can make me deploy from Italy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were already pretty much deployed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was like, but that deployment time counted as my tour in Italy. Dude, I want to stay in Italy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But they let me stay like a little bit longer to out process and get ready for your next duty station, which wasn't too bad, it was Virginia Beach, over at Fort Story or Little Creek.
Speaker 1:Now, I know you was in the Army. How does it work for us, like we call it PCS, y'all call it PCS. Yeah, we call it PCS, Like do they give y'all like a certain amount of time before y'all like?
Speaker 2:can like y'all get like vacation, get leave. Before y'all can like it's probably exactly the same as yours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I know, like for us, like when I came back, I was supposed to go to Japan, mm-hmm, and I came back from Iraq the second time but me and Benita we wasn't married at the time. So my girl's mom, so when they gave me the orders it was going to be on the company and I was like I don't want to do that. So I ended up switching my orders to get stationed here in Quantico. Then we got married once we got here to Quantico or whatever. But yeah, like that that's why I was like. I was like how do y'all stuff work? Because you know, everybody's had their own number system of MOS and like 88, mike, mike is our 3531, which that's what I was a motor transport operator.
Speaker 2:My dad's the same MOS.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:I was 88 November, which is the one that did the paperwork for 88 Mike.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so we had our admins. Is 01s, like they start 01 something, 01, 51, something.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was in a motor pool doing the motor pool Admin for them, for them Dang. Before I had to drive a forklift or be a driver.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because.
Speaker 2:I'm like real, real close to my dad.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like he was the 88 mic, that Mom was what. She was what do you call it like S1 in the office? Oh yeah, the admin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the admin. Yeah, she was 0101. Yeah, she was an admin, yeah, okay. And then you said she was a drill instructor and your dad was what?
Speaker 2:No, my dad was a drill instructor, my mom was a recruiter, but if you meet them you would have thought she was.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. So me and mom was the recruiter and your dad was the driller strike Mm-hmm Okay.
Speaker 2: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 a little bit taller than me, and she'll be coming in like did you do the dishes? And you need to do this With the knife hand. What don't use the knife man?
Speaker 1: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 Because literally once I'm done here, I'm about to go be softball coach with the girls. So it's like, yeah, that's so. I don't really. I got girls and I feel like me having the girls it calmed me way down Because I was on like 10. From being in the Marines and being deployed, like you really start seeing when the PTSD kick in, you know what I mean. And the girls having the girls help it calmed me down and that's like I can't be yelling. If I have boys a whole different thing. But the girls it's like funny, like I dropped them off today and it's like I can't do nothing but just laugh and I'm like dang man, like I wanted a boy so bad. But these girls take care of me and they make me laugh day in and day out. So it's dope, like you got a son, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a son. So it was my dad had four girls and it was like dang.
Speaker 1:So he definitely had yeah, that's five women. Yeah, did y'all have any pets Girls.
Speaker 2:See, see what I'm saying. So, being the only male in the house, he, the only man, he had to be chill. And then his girls had boys.
Speaker 1:That's crazy so now he got all the grandsons.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Which is nice because I was like wow, we about to swamp you with girls.
Speaker 1: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 he ain't got no time, so now he can talk sports with them. You know what I mean. Get them, get them, take them to the little games and stuff like that, even though, like, you can take your daughters to the game. But they got to be like. My youngest, she just want to go to the games for like food. My oldest, she actually wants to look at the game. She's like Daddy, when you going to take me to a Ravens game, when you're going to take me to another, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: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 from my grandmother, we're all sports. I'm a Miami Dolphin, my sister's a Colts, the other one is a Titans, which Monday we was arguing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't that?
Speaker 2:no, we just had a game Monday that had me I was here, oh yeah oh, my rival oh yeah, y'all played the Titans right. Patriots, patriots and the Bills. But we played the Titans this past Monday and we lost, and I was mad y'all ain't got no quarterback yeah, we need to. We need to let him lay down and get a new quarterback.
Speaker 1:I mean he, he got guaranteed 90 million. He might as well go ahead and just dip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like I love Tupac but he keep doing stupid stuff. Like you're supposed to slide, not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's just weird that every other quarterback is doing the same thing he does. It's just like his body just like Fragile yes, it's like fragile and it's like his equilibrium is off, Because every time he gets tackled it just looks weird you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, he just ball up like newspaper.
Speaker 1:It's just like he crumbles up and I'm like yo, I've seen so many quarterbacks ie Jaden Daniels, which is a rookie yeah, he's a rookie, but he's smaller than Tua and he gets hit. It's like a regular hit, but it's like every time Tua gets hit he just and.
Speaker 2:I'm like dang.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like he going like a cardiac arrest or something and I'm like no what's I'm like?
Speaker 2:can we go back to Dan Marino?
Speaker 1:days, yeah, but I was telling somebody. I was telling somebody, y'all should go get.
Speaker 2:Someone was telling me that. Because I've been just looking at the different quarterbacks, I'm like we just need somebody new. Just put Tua on the bench, just let him rest, let him get his money Maybe.
Speaker 1:Come back a couple years yeah.
Speaker 2:Or Cam.
Speaker 1:Newton yeah. You don't like Cam.
Speaker 2:I think it'd be good for y'all. Yeah, it would be good for us. I'm still on the fence about him. I got like this little love-hate for Cam. It's like I like him, but then he, it's personal, like he just be too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we like.
Speaker 2:No, I need my Dolphins to just be at home, mind your business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stay on social media Because a flashy Dolphin player.
Speaker 2:Not really the flashiest we have is Tyreek.
Speaker 1:Hill, tyreek Hill.
Speaker 2:And he's not really that flashy.
Speaker 1:Nah, he just drive nice car. Everybody drives nice car.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and then his house caught on fire. That part too, yeah but other than that we're not in the news. I'm like, we mind our business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's, but that's why I said Russ first, though.
Speaker 2:If y'all got Russ. I like Russ more than Cam.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll take that. I mean I'm saying for I would say Russ, because one he's already getting paid from the Broncos $47 million.
Speaker 2:So he's chilling.
Speaker 1:Y'all can go sign him for the league minimum, Whichever that is, If it's like a million or three million, y'all can go sign him for, like the league minimum, whichever that is, If it's like a million or three million, y'all ain't losing a lot of money and it's a one-year thing. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do like a one-year so that. Tua can rest up and the crazy thing is Tua's like 26. All them concussions.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I really, to be honest, I think he might need to stop playing altogether. Yeah, he's too young for all them concussions.
Speaker 1:My only thing is, though, is like when you play football, you're going to get concussions.
Speaker 2: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: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 I mean. But I stopped after ninth grade playing football and just stuck with baseball. But I know for a fact there's multiple players that had that same amount of concussions. Yeah, his just looks so different, like it looks like super damaging to his.
Speaker 2:He wasn't supposed to be playing this sport.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this ain't your sport. You might as well go play tennis or something Like. You know what I mean? Yeah, because this ain't it. But you know, I hope he gets better, because I do like to see him, because it was exciting watching Miami him throw the ball to Waddle and Tyreek.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get excited for the games and you know, when there's like games Monday night or whenever it's the night games, I have my like Miami Dolphin onesies on and I'm like, yeah, this is how you watch the game, bringing out my little Miami Dolphin little coffee cup. But then there's a bar called the Admiral at DuPont Whole bunch of Miami fans.
Speaker 1:Is that the one that's below, below the ground, like it's like?
Speaker 2:in a basement. No, it's above ground. It's above ground. It's DuPont. You might be talking about the Saints.
Speaker 1:Remember Front Page, the brunch spot that everybody used to go to. There used to be a sports bar right up under it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know what you're talking about and it had like a.
Speaker 1:It was like a sports bar. It had like it had like a basketball hoop shooting it Okay.
Speaker 2:yeah, we're not there. Okay, I forgot the name of it, though. Yeah, there's so many new places.
Speaker 1:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:It's a lot.
Speaker 1:You see, just keep. So Admiral is like the Dolphins place.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. I don't know if it's the Chiefs or the 49ers, because I was just driving past I just saw so much red and I was like where's our new bar at? And they changed it. It was like two years ago when they because we used to always have it. But we have that and we have another place down. There's another downtown. It's like a little hole in the wall, but they got the best fish tacos.
Speaker 1:And it'd be like the. That'd be the best spot, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little, but then you got the little TV up in the ceiling.
Speaker 1:Just a little.
Speaker 2:It might as well be a box TV Everybody crowded up, you're drinking a beer and you'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:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But there you ain't getting no bar elbow space, you just a pool of fans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel you on that because I'm a Ravens fan and you know, Okay, yeah, we had a little rough start but we back. I know it's going to take some time to get invested with Derrick some time to get invested with Derrick.
Speaker 2:I love y'all defense. Last year I was just so.
Speaker 1:We were supposed to be in the Super Bowl you were.
Speaker 2: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 the Super Bowl. Your defense is like that.
Speaker 1: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:That was your favorite, right, oh so yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, shout out to my Marines that got me this, what you call it Collage, collage. So yeah, iron man man, it's just always been. He's been the dopest one Before Avengers. It was him and I used to collect comic books as a kid and my mom threw them joints away. I'm talking about I had mint condition Wolverine, x-men, x-men and Avengers. Iron man and them was my favorite comics and she threw them joints away and you got those appearances like okay, he's past, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Eight years old you outgrew this trash, yeah.
Speaker 1:And and then you know, like the comics was like a dollar fifty, they were super cheap, and like I used to go to the store, it was because I'm from eight miles, right right on nine miles back home, and um, I used to go there like every weekend and buy like one comic because that's, I hated reading regular books. I love magazines and comics, like like that's what interests 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 just like he's that guy and I hate the way they killed him off.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for that, and I'm trying to see what storyline they're going with Because he didn't die in the comic book. But in the multiverse he does become Dr Doom, which I'm open-minded to it because I love me some Dr Doom. Yeah, you know I collected comics, but I collected For some reason, like when my dad would take me to a comic book store. He'd be like you know, harley Quinn, you want Catwoman, you want Storm, just pushing like email characters on me.
Speaker 1:I collected Punisher. Ooh.
Speaker 2:Punisher was nice. Me, I collected Punisher. Ooh, I collected all Frank Castle comics. Punisher was crazy, he was.
Speaker 1:I was mad that he didn't have a cartoon like that. He had one, but it didn't last long.
Speaker 2:I didn't get to see the cartoon. Sure Now I got to go on YouTube.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like he got a cartoon Because I was watching X-Men Every time I came on, that music started playing.
Speaker 2:That's why I like that X-Men 97. It brings that whole nostalgia. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:I haven't watched it yet. No, I haven't watched it, but I know, once I do, I ain't going to want to watch nothing else Because it was X-Men. It was what was. I ain't gonna want to watch nothing else because that was X-Men. It was what was the other one.
Speaker 2:I don't remember. There was a lot of superheroes, of course, batman you had Batman, you had Superman, you had Flash okay, yes, we had Flash, we had a bunch of.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm like. Nowadays, these kids don't I see why they just be on their iPads and stuff, because they don't really have no TV shows. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And then they started coming out with some good ones. Yeah, yeah, because I like the Amazing World of Gumball, I was watching it on my side I'm like oh, this is good Adventure. Time they started having some pretty 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:Rick and Morty? Yeah, we still have Rick and Morty, just waiting for the next season. That's like an adult show.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. And I Simpsons. Yep, simpsons has been out. Still got the Simpsons Since like what? 85? Yeah, and I still watch the Simpsons. I'm up to date.
Speaker 1:Yep, the Cleveland show went away and that one was good.
Speaker 2: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 a better story line. It was more relatable yeah definitely more relatable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. But yeah, iron man Got my man. So I got that from a good friend I met about my daughter's school over there by Georgetown. He had a whole toy store of all collective items and I'm mad he just closed down in Northwest I gotta find out where he moved but he had like old school, like nintendo'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, I like man, how much is this? 40 bucks, maybe it'd be more work, more.
Speaker 2:But I like this. We got a Japanese right now yeah, definitely, I see the PS5. It was London Dead. Perfectly, yeah, I play PS5.
Speaker 1:I play. So my favorite, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And then they're like I don't know, I just got tired of it, but the Batman Arkham Asylum.
Speaker 2:I've been watching Walker. That looks so good yeah, that was dope. But he coming out with another one, spider-man, is dope. Yeah, that joint is dope.
Speaker 1: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 get all the outfits, because it's like 20 something outfits. So, yeah, I play, of course, madden, all the sports games and a little bit of fighting. Mortal Kombat. You got to play that. That's classic.
Speaker 2: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 her at a con, I was like oh, we can draw, I'll take pictures with her and I'm like, oh okay, and then finding out that she's the um, the number one Mortal Kombat player wow, is she in DC in a DMV area?
Speaker 1:no, she's um, she's a flight attendant, so she's like everywhere.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but me and her exchanged numbers, everything, and then, like later on, I'm like, girl, hold on, is that you were that megastar in video not the most recent one, but the one before that where she was, um, no, it was the amazon commercial where she was dressed up as an anime character. Then she had the headset playing a video game against another girl and that was her. Wow, so with the cosplay I'm meeting so many different people.
Speaker 1:It's bigger than just the outfits. It's like really dope genuine people.
Speaker 2:And it builds a bridge for us, because I'm into like anime, but I'm also into video game, and then I go to a con where they have like a gaming tournament and I'm like, oh yeah, let me get you know, let me play some Mortal Kombat and then I was like, hold on that person over there playing a game. He look familiar and it was.
Speaker 2:Chloe Thompson from that movie Holes from the Disney Channel. Wow, I was like, yeah, he's playing the championship. You be just running into different celebrities, you would never know I got to go to one.
Speaker 1:I definitely got to go to one. So this year my daughters. They love Halloween and Christmas. That's their favorite holidays.
Speaker 1:So, this year I was like you know what I'm going to dress up, like I did before One year, I dressed up as Deadpool with the girls and they were like little, like five, four years old, so I 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 is it? And I'm like it's a ghillie suit. And they're like what is it? And I'm like it's a ghillie suit. They're like what is it? I'm like it's a scout sniper. Like this is what they wear when they're out in the woods or wherever they get accustomed to their surroundings. They wear certain things that match the colors there and I'm like I want to be that now. I want to be, that.
Speaker 1:So now my youngest probably going to get a ghillie suit. She's like daddy, I'm about to go get me a ghillie suit. I said you got to get the little Nerf gun too.
Speaker 2:You got to get the little Nerf sniper. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:They got a bunch of them though, so all they got to do is just wrap the little camouflage around their sniper and then and you can find there's some camouflage ones too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I. Just the crazy thing is I just ordered the camouflage photo gun, the uh camouflage for the gun. Like the stuff like that look like, yeah, because it got like little like pieces falling off. Like it looks like you're oh. So it looks like, yeah, I like that, so, yeah. So the costume was man, I gotta, I gotta get into the cosplay and that's why I really wanted to interview you, because I wanted to dive into it, because I didn't know, I don't know about, I know about it, I don't know.
Speaker 2:You would love, like BlurCon, because it's black nerds and there's so many levels of the dressing up. You got people that are like hardcore, spent months building, crafting robot, all that stuff. People with more materials sewing or somebody with a hoodie on and it's got got Deadpool on it. They're like oh hey, I'm here, and everybody's welcome. And they're like hey, we're about to go get something to eat. You want to come Whole line of food trucks because you know nerds love to eat.
Speaker 2:But everybody is like super, super friendly, where they'll see you and they'll be like oh hey, we're about to go. You know, get some drinks. Do you drink whiskey? We got whiskey. Oh, we're going to go to this panel and a lot of celebrities come. I got to meet the cast of Steven Universe and then, of course, chris Summers Everybody knows Chris Summers because she has that real scratchy voice Suzie Conn, michael Fromm Rugrats, wow so, and she's been there like three times. So I got to meet her this past July. I got to meet the Black.
Speaker 2:Ranger and the Black girl, that's the Pink Ranger. And then me and her we had the same birthday. I was like, oh snap, not Pink Ranger, yellow Ranger, black. Then me and her finally, we had the same birthday I was like, oh snap, that Pink Ranger, yellow Ranger Black.
Speaker 1:Girl's Yellow Ranger.
Speaker 2: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's the minority Ranger, because it was an Asian girl and it was a black girl. And you just meet them and they'll be like, oh hey, what's up? Take some pictures. Y'all at the after party, y'all go get something to eat. You know what I'm saying? Hello Ranger, we got some pictures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's dope man and that's exactly why I wanted to get you on the show, because you know what I mean. Relationships mean a lot. It means a lot to me, it means a lot to the world. Like, if you don't know, it's not about what you know, it's about who you know and you know, like you never know. Like these cosplay things. Like you're saying, you got all of this stuff, you meet somebody, you're networking, you build 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 can leave with? You know with the relatives, or you know like a saying that you always say, or something that they can put in a toolbox, like what's some gyms?
Speaker 2:So I always say this I know everybody heard this, it's a classic. But you attract more flies with honey. I'm always saying that to my mom with a little jackhammer knife and to other people because, um, there's a lot of different cosplayers, a lot of people that have this big following on facebook, tiktok or anything like. I have a big following, but the thing is you have to be a nice person. You generally have to be kind, because you never know where you're at or who you're going to meet, and some people are very arrogant and whatnot. But what really makes my day is when I meet people at cons and they're like, oh my God, you're my favorite cons player. You're always just so nice and you actually talk to me and I'm like I'm no bigger than anybody else, right, and so if I meet somebody, sure I'll take a picture with you and little chit chat. They're like, oh, I love your hair, where did you get it done at, or how can I improve this cosplay? And people slide in my dms, ask some questions and I have no problem talking to people if I have time.
Speaker 2:But I'll see other people that I run into at these functions, like these TikTok or these YouTube ones, where you have to have minimum 100K to be at these events. Wow, and a lot of them are just stuck 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 like this because we're all it's social media. The internet drops and there's no more internet. And I walk down the street and I see you at chipotle. I don't know who the heck you are. 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: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 11 minutes. Okay cool, we still got 11 minutes. So what was the gym? Again, Never.
Speaker 2:Oh, you attract more flies with honey.
Speaker 1:You attract more flies with honey.
Speaker 2:I've never heard that one. Oh yeah, I've never heard that one. I got that from my grandmother. I thought you heard that. I'm pretty sure if I asked my aunt she definitely heard it, but I never heard that one. You attract more flowers with honey, mm-hmm, baby, but you do, because they like something that's sweet and genuine versus men.
Speaker 1:Once again, I appreciate you for coming Shout out to you and I hope you keep killing the game with the cosplay and everything that you do for the community. Give it back to the community. And this might you know I always do these too. It's because you never know Like it might be a kid out there that you know what I mean that want to do this. It might be an adult that's out there that want to do this, you know, um doing these, these interviews.
Speaker 2: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 any age, because a lot of people say, hey, this is for kids, why are you? You could be two years old or you could be 200 years old. I mean, I'm 39 and I'm still doing this. I'll let you know, you're never too old. Happy birthday.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you're leaving. Yes, my birthday is September. Oh, september 19th. Okay, just made it Virgo. Yeah, virgo, yeah, happy birthday. Appreciate it, but, like always, relationships worth more than money, we out.
