Hey y'all, Happy twenty twenty four, Happy New Year, Welcome to Coming
Out Pod. Okay, so, as you know, I am not breaking
with tradition. I will still be shouting out queer roots at the top of
every episode. So for the first queer root shout out of this New year,
shout out to you. If your queer root is Jessica Rabbit from the
film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now, this is more in line with you
know, my age people who are a little older, But damn, when
this movie came out, Who Jessica Rabbit voiced by Kathleen Turner, this was
a weird one because you see this movie with your family, It's like a
fun cartoon movie and then there's a very very sexy lady cartoon. And I
also chose Jessica Rabbit as a queer root shout out because she is married to
Roger Rabbit, a bunny, and I felt like that was sort of a
thematic tie in, or at least adjacent to what we're going to be discussing
today. So yes, if Jessica Rabbit affected you as as a wee baby
gay, shout out to you, y'all. I it is hard when you
do a podcast for five and a half years to have firsts after a while,
but this is a first. That's why I wanted to kick off the
new year with today's guests. So I am here with Adario Mercadante. How
was that? And that was perfect? Beauty, that was perfect. I'll
take it. Adario, Hi, thank you so much for being here.
It's an honor to meet you. I just watched Oh well, I should
explain. So Adario is an actor, a comedian, a fellow improviser.
Yes, I know Adar well. I just met Adario for realsies on the
Zoom. But I have heard about you just so much from our mutual friend
Brandon that to our queer buddy Brandon Brand and I just watched you last night
and it's called the Prank Panels. Do I have that correct? Yes?
The Prank panel on ABC Hulu. Hell yeah. And I'm gonna I'm gonna
link to this. I'll let you all know where you can find the link,
because I watched a Dario segment on this show last night and as I
told you off Mike, I was I teared up. I want to really
moved by it. So I'm having one of those things where like I feel
like I know you even though you're just meeting me because I have seen you
and stuff. But so I don't wanna. I don't know. Is there
any before we like launch into me asking you how you identifying all that?
Is there anything that you want to say to the guests about who you are,
what you do in terms of stand up acting, anything like that.
Yeah, just the general bit. I'm an LGBT, you know, queer
person from Murray, Kentucky. I'm from the South and I live in Los
Angeles. I've been doing stand up since like I was eighteen. My mother
opened for me that day. She's the funniest woman I know. I'm a
furry. I've gone through a long journey of weight loss and finding myself and
I have a partner of eleven years, and I'm polly amorous and I'm just
so happy to do this show, the Prank Panel, because it has my
idols, Johnny Knoxville, Eric Andre Gaberie, cidebe aka Perecious, And so
I'm really happy you saw it because so many people had that reaction just like
you of emotional on TV. Yeah, it really got me. It legit,
I legit teared up and I was not. You don't expect that watching
a prank show like that never happened to me. Back in the day when
I watched punked, I never like got emotional, but this really got me.
Yeah, Ashton Kutcher has never made me feel feelings of any sort.
I'm sure he's a lovely man, no shade to him. But yeah,
but we will get into how that episode came to be. And there was
a very like you said in your email, to be it changed your life,
like there was something that came out of it that was like huge beyond
just being on TV. So we will, we will get to that,
but I don't want to get ahead of us. But yes, So in
terms of how you identify, you hit a few of them already. Do
you Is gay the word you preferred? You? Do you use LGBT?
What's your preferred nomenclature, queer? What resonates with you in terms of that,
Yeah, let's dig right into it. So I identify as a gay
man. I identify as polyamorous. I tried having a boyfriend on top of
my mate for a year and that was great and everything. And I also
furries aren't a sexuality, you know, a lot of Furris will tell you
it's just a hobby, but it runs a lot deeper than that for basically
all of us. So I'm a he, him, gay, and a
hyena or yen for short. Like again, it's not necessarily my sexuality,
but it's it's important. And I will say one more thing is that through
this journey I'm thirty three, now I feel like I could I don't know
the word breed with a woman, maybe a furry, but I've yet too.
I'm not pursuing that. I'm not like doing anything to make that happen.
And it's just I would still, even if I did that, not
necessarily call myself bisexual. So I identify as gay. Okay, oh my
god, this is excellent and I'm so glad you're already speaking to the distinction
of I have a lot of furry specific questions. Some are my own,
and then some I put it out to listeners if they had any questions,
and yeah, one of them, well I don't. Again, I don't.
I'm I'm gonta know myself because I'm so excited, but I yeah,
I'm so curious to talk about the idea of it being a sexuality or identity
or just all that kind of nomenclature, because I think most of us don't
know much or anything accurate about furries. I'm sure you have encountered a lot,
a lot of jokes and a lot of stereotypes. You are a mystery
and an enigma. But so in terms of the order of your realizations and
coming outs, were they were they in that order? Was it like gay,
polyamorous, furry or how did it? What's your coming out journey in
terms of all of your identifiers. I think first it was experimentation with guys,
realizing that guys were making me feel things and women were not making me
feel these things. And at a very early age, you know, even
like pre puberty. But then, of course once puberty hit. And I'm
a nineteen nineties born person, so it was on like Kazah and lime wire,
things where you could download free music and then see anything your heart can
imagine. Naughty wise, I found, you know, furry stuff and things.
You found it that early? Oh yeah, a lot of us find
it very early on, okay, or you could blame Disney. Some people
are like you know Nick Wilde, maybe queer or you know Lion King.
You know was my trigger point for becoming a friar. I hear simba from
Yeah, I hear simba nala timone, Ugh, you're a tomonfho. Okay.
But but when you when you say you found for stuff, is that
were you kind of even if it was unconsciously like seeking it out or did
you literally just kind of stumble across it and it like you're like, oh
my god, what am I feeling seeing this? Or were you more deliberately
like looking for something even if you didn't realize it until you found it.
There's a lot that happened around that age. I would say I knew that
these male attraction feelings were happening, and then I knew that I was such
a huge nerd like gamer, you know, one of those online people all
the time and webs anime lover. It was happening even without it being necessarily
furry. You know, if you watch Naruto, Naruto was a fox man
technically because he has a demon fox in him. So if I'm attracted to
Naruto at that age, then you know, maybe I'm like, oh,
I like the foxiness too, And things can just start mixing really quick.
When Pokemon comes on the screen. Do you know what I mean? Okay,
yes, And you're also reminding me I have previously shouted out the queer
root of the robin Hood Fox, the fox and robin Hood that is for
people, Oh so hot, that's a sexy fox. That's a sexy fix.
He's a biicon. But yeah, yeah, okay, okay, so
yeah, so so how did it so you discover these things at at it
sounds like pre puberty and yeah, where where does it go from there?
So we're going to get into it, Lauren, Yeah, let's get into
it. What I was doing was hiding all this from my parents because the
computer was in my room and my dad liked to come in and do like
eBay stuff and sell stuff. So I really had access to the internet,
you know, at my leisure well, on LimeWire and Kazah. These things.
We were downloading anything from movies to porn, to things you think are
music that are actually porn. I started seeing things like digimond porn and started
seeing you know, Pokemon porn and anime porn and loving it from the very
like. I was fascinated and it just got off the rails from there.
I mean, anything you can think of I was looking at not just furry
stuff. You know, it was probably too much for a kid, But
what then that was not enough? You know, I'm in Kentucky, so
you're desperate. I was so desperate even at that age to start exploring these
feelings. And it's not like I can just find my queer classmates. Who
are? You know? It's like I have a joke in my stand up
where it's like, you know, being gay in Kentucky is like being a
spy, Like you have to do spy work to find the other queers.
You're like, I hear you like cook the mutue, and it's like,
oh, who tells you? You know? Yet? Maybe well you know?
But so I don't have a way to have an outlet for this,
and I'm just using the internet and I find this game, this online game,
very low polygon pixel like it's really up to your imagination. It was
called for Kadia, and for Kadia is very customizable from you can make your
own like quote unquote rooms with like all this text. I was very into
reading porn back then. I would find this website full of just novels of
romance scene and penis scene like yes, like yeah, erotica, this website
called yift Star. I was like every day after school or something, I
would look up like another story, and not all of them were good,
but a lot of them. I'd be like, oh my gosh, yes,
I hope tomorrow he comes out to him and kisses him on the mouth
and fox him. And I'm like thirteen, you know, and I'm like
fourteen. And then I get on this game for Kadia and I start to
you can be anything you want on there. You know, you can say
I'm a female fox girl and go into this place and hook up with your
words. Mostly it's very low like screen resolution, but your role playing sex.
And I started role playing sex with older adult men and lying to them,
and that was like my favorite thing. It was like, finally I
have a way to like flir and explore these things and these fantasies. And
I had multiple characters. I had like a whrse you know, I had.
It's hard to remember, but even back then, you know, I
to sideswipe from that for just a second. My furry origin. This was
when I was a fourteen year old in high school and the senior girl who
wore cat ears and a collar to school. Yeah. Yes, she was
an amazing artist and she was really nice and she eventually became friends with me,
and she drew me one day as a hyena. Just made an original
concept character out of nowhere. I used to spike my hair a lot,
and I think that maybe influenced it. But I also love to laugh.
I've laughed my whole life. I'm so high energy, and it just clicked
with me. This like gray kind of black and whitish spotted hyena and I
was like, this is my persona. And if anyone doesn't know if persna
is like what your character's species is and its name and its usually you make
it like the best version of yourself or something that helps you express yourself.
So back to the Furcadia game. Long story short, my parents eventually find
out that I'm role playing because I'm emotional, I'm private, I'm like,
you know, get away, I'm like in my room, you know what
I mean, And they eventually yea. The worst of it is I just
flat out because my mother got rid of the program and she was like,
if you'll tell me what you're doing on there, then you know I'll let
you play it. So I showed her exactly step by step what I was
doing. And I'm like fourteen, telling her, good, mom, I'm
just role playing sex with older men. So back back at it, right,
and she I can't even probably process what she was going through, but
she said, if you can, you know, in your good conscience keep
doing this, then you could keep playing it. And I was like,
sweet, awesome, Mom gave me the go ahead, so I redownloaded it
and continued at it, and she was like, what the fuck? I
thought? You know, it made it clear she thought a fourteen year old
boy was going to be like, you're right, I should have been doing
that. Sorry, mama. Yeah, she made a mistake there, but
and it just that's basically was one of the first moments where my mother was
getting a taste of me, like coming out. She had like a guy,
is that a double coming out? Was that also her first awareness that
you were attracted to men or had that been discovered slash discussed prior? It
was? Wow? So this was a dual. Yeah, I think it
was her first because that she had a guy come over and like, I
guess clean up things on the computer and he told her like he's looking at
both men and women. Porn, you know, and she's like, that's
the biggest I know. And she was like, guy, seeing the furry
porn for the first time, She's like, that tiger had the biggest dick
I've ever seen. And I'm like, it's the most awkward thing you can
hear from your mother seeing your Like, you know, you don't want them
to think you're into like beast reality and you don't want, you know,
or even just to know that you're gay. And you're also so young and
it's Kentucky. Are they gonna accept me even if I have which I did
have a wonderfully accepting mother. But it's scary to think about. And sometimes
I would experiment with my friends around that age, and I would lay on
the couch or bed and just cry thinking about everyone turning their back on me
or like God even hating me. And I'm not necessarily like religious anymore,
but at the time, it's a big challenge. Yeah, oh my god.
Okay. And so it sounds like you were experimenting at lea a bit
in terms of the homosexuality stuff, like you were finding other guys around your
age that yeah, that was but were you keeping the the furry side of
things secret in terms of like your interactions you're like romantic or sexual interactions at
that point, or were you like, hey, it would be fun if
we pretend you know that you're this and I'm this? Or was that not
right? I think ideally that would have been fun to explore. But it
was just such a shameful thing for me at the time that it was just
became private. It was like, this is for me, this is my
thing. I'm just going to look at this stuff forever and ever and just
hope to find a boyfriend or hope to like even touch a guy. Doesn't
have to have anything to do with furreism. And you know, I got
into therapy and it did. Was that your choice or was that it was
mutual, like you know, dealing with other things like anxiety and depression and
yeah, he yees. So the therapy was good. Now, I will
say one of the first questions when I came out to my psychiatrist, who's
also like my mom's doctor, like, he was like, are you attracted
to children? And I was like no, I was like, why would
you ask that off the bat? Yeah, So just the automatic assumption or
linking of furry stuff to pedophilia, just like yeah, right out of the
gate, even just coming out to him. Maybe I don't know if he
has every game. Was coming out just like crying and saying, I think
I'm a homosexual or I'm gay. That's like his first question. Well,
I mean things got better from there, you know, But how old were
you when you went into therapy? I had to be like fourteen. Oh,
so this is well, this is like Domino is just like one after
oh yeah, because then she's like, you know, there was one guy
like kind of had who was an older man, and I was like,
oh, I mean I love him, I'm in love with him, and
it was so stupid of me, and like my mom like talked to him
and she was like, well, there's safe spaces. He was like,
there's safe spaces on this, you know, for him, in certain places.
But it was I was lying to him for so long and then eventually
I came out that I was younger, but he continued talking to me,
which is you know, on him. But at the same time, I
don't blame this man for me manipulating his feelings. I feel very bad and
I was bad to be on there at that age, but you know,
I started to slowly try to suss out other queer friends of mine, or
sleepovers were a good chance to do a truth or dare or just push my
Yeah, it really wasn't until you know, maybe around sixteen or seventeen that
things actually get sexually rolling instead of just like all these flirtatious that I could
go on about all the ways that that's happened to flirteen. But finally,
like you know, lose my virginity at like sixteen or seventeen, starting to
like have a maybe one or two friends that I can consistently like start exploring
with, and we're all in the closet. You know, I can't even
start dating in Kentucky. Is there like, is there like a gay club
that you can you know, have fake ideas and go to or like what
yes, it was the Japanese Club at the time. Really okay, I
mean it wasn't known. It was just like, oh, we're all gay
in here, you know, Like, Okay, I'm glad there was a
place like the Anime Club mixed into the Japanese Club. You know, it's
just a high school thing, but that's where we flought to interesting. Wow,
that's but that's like a nice intersection. I feel like it was.
Yeah, it was really thrilling, it was fun, and it was hard
not to have like relationships that could really form. And yeah, but that's
my that's my, like I would say, my origins of everything, and
the free stuff is always in the background. And I haven't created an original
character yet really, Like I still knew I was a hyena. I knew
my speed. But a lot of times they create a character and they name
it and they eventually want to, you know, maybe create a suit of
it, or they want to get artwork of your character to give it life
and breathe it into the world. But at that time, I still just
had my species and the hidden fact that I was a furry. Okay,
this ties in so nicely to one of the questions that someone asked, which
is, and I don't know if this differs from person to person, but
can people is there like are there people who are like more generally furries or
does kind of everyone have a persona that is their specific character, their specific
animal, their specific name, or some people just like I am, do
you know what I mean? Like that the person was asking, like,
yeah, okay, I'll let you sort of roll on that. Then yes,
there is the answers yes to both. Some people are more casual furries.
They not necessarily know that they even have like a species. Maybe they're
working on that. It's usually the first thing is you're like, I'm more
like dog like, cat like, dragon like, fish like, bird like,
and you you know, go from there. But then you can also
be like my roommate, for example, who's furry adjacent. And it's not
like a popular term free adjacent. I just feel like it's very useful nowadays
because that means like people who are around furries, they know what furries are.
Maybe they've been to an event, or they've been around them, or
they even grew up with some of the there's a lot of like furry comics,
like they make the art into stories that are graphically designed because they're amazing
artists. So that ties into also with my love of the erotica. It
was now adding pictures to it. Of course they have nowadays, like you
know, videos and gifts they've made and there's so much horniness. But yes,
there are people who are generally furries and there are people who are mostly
like I have my sona, I have the name of it. Here's some
artwork, here's my tail, here's this, this is I'm trying to get
ahead. I'm trying to you know, or the body suit one day.
They're all colors of the rainbows of furries. Okay, okay, And is
the gender breakdown sort of because I when I think of it in my head,
I tend to think of furries as being male. And I don't know
why that is, maybe just in terms of like what I have been exposed
to or whatever. But is that is that is there any accuracy to that
or is it sort of across the spectrum in terms of people who gravitate.
It's across the spectrum. I would say it's a lot of gay men,
but it is not dumb. I mean, it's just like there may be
the the most of it is gay men, but there's so many females in
the fandom. Even when I take friends, they're like, Wow, I'm
surprised how many women are at this convention. Yeah, that's my question as
well. Okay, that's really good to know. I'm glad. I'm even
if they're women. Okay, even the women are probably queer in some way.
There's you know, they Jo is like, oh, you're a straight
furry, it's like good luck, you know, But there are what I
wondered, so there are some hetero identified furris, but it sounds like it
that's a lot more rare. Yeah, it just might be harder for you
to meet someone because if you're a straight for a girl for example, which
you'll probably buy. If you're a straight for a girl, then you have
all these like straight furry men. Just like with tender anything, you're the
big fish in the little pond or whatever, you know what I mean,
And so it could be difficult to find like a straight relationship. But what's
so cool is, like talking about gender, the furry thing allows for you
to get rid of all your human flaws and be what you want. You
can be a woman and be called she her because my SONA looks like a
girl and you are. You have no idea that I'm a I'm a penis
under here. And it's not about that. It's not about, you know,
tricking people. It's about giving you a way to confidently be the best
yourself or to explain or that you know. It can get rid of race,
It gets rid of you know, a lot of phrase are neuro divergent,
they're autistic, or they just maybe they have a stutter, or maybe
they and a lot of phraries are like superhunks, you know. Or there's
just so many reasons you could get into the fandom. But we all love
anthropomorphosized characters, and through these characters we develop like, oh, I'm actually
able to like sing karaoke when I put on the head, or I'm actually
able to play my guitar like a savant when I don't have eye contact,
or like, oh my god, I'm actually able to like show off my
muscles when I don't have to worry about these zits on my face. You
know, there's so many ways that can empower you and take away your human
flaws. Ah, that's really cool is in terms of uh, talking to
people in the is it because and the reason this is so dumb, but
I'm thinking of you know how when you like mascots, it's like they can't
talk to you because you won't hear them, Like the suit's too big,
so it's all like body movements and indicating. But when you're in the suit,
can you like have a conversation with someone or is it sort of that
thing that you're speaking to where it's really kind of like anonymous and you're really
interacting through the suit and your movements. The majority you can have a conversation
with. Okay. The thing is you just have to realize, like inside
the head if they have the head on, Yeah, it can be hard
to hear you. You need to get a little closer. It can be
hard to hear them. You might have to ask repeat themselves. And when
you're becoming like popular or what they'll say is like pop you fur. Then
like you have Let's say I walk into and this happens to me. You
walk into an event or a club or something with furries, and all of
a sudden, everyone's like saying your furry name at you. You know,
Yamo Yamo. That's my name, by the way, it's Yamo the yen.
So it's like hearing my own name. It's like hearing adarios. So
it's like, oh, who said that? Let me turn around. Then
someone's pulling on you, and people like to boop your snoop because that's like
a thing, and you know, then you start being like, well,
I wish people would ask more consent before they just come up to you.
And sometimes there's all these things we can get into about that, Like some
people wear badges like do not hug, or like ask for hugs cause you
just are blind and deaf, and people you don't know really messed with you,
even if they didn't mean to, and maybe they're neurodivergent. Now you
have all this awkward energy mixed up and suddenly you could have a panic attack
or something. But it just depends person to person. So some people,
for example, I know this one bird Furrey who just squawks. He has
a little like this thing in his mouth that is a bird whistle, and
it's like, oh yeah, and you're like, how are you and like
and you're like, oh yeah, me too, you know, getting really
deep into the role play. I remember he I was like, what's your
Twitter? And he stops and he's like it's a blah blah blah. And
I'm like, oh my god, you speak human, you know this is
I fucking love this, okay. And I do feel like I got a
little ahead, because of course I did. But so so going back to
so you're going back toward you're fourteen and you're in therapy and you're being asked
these not great questions initially by your psychiatrist, but it sounds like that at
least got better. What happens as you mature and you go off to college
and stuff. Are you able to come more into the or when did you
stop I guess keeping it a secret in terms of the furry aspect of your
identity. When did that become less like a shameful secret and more something you
were open with. My friends would know about my furry tastes. My friends
I would be open with about that. But I still it was so traumatic.
It was so unbelievably traumatic for all that to happen that I was like
really trying to just keep it on the down low. It wasn't that I
was like hiding it from my mom, but she would have mixed feelings,
you know, about it, And she's come full circle, like she's so
supportive now, But at the time I was still really care keeping it just
like, oh, this is just my like everyday porn habit, and not
that it's one real quick message about the furry thing is is not all about
sex. I think it allows for most of us to feel relief being homosexual
and engaging in that those acts in a really kind, caring way. I
think being furry is like the softest way to be gay. It's not competitive
necessarily. It's like very loving. Even if you don't find like, oh
I'm not into you, it's like, okay, well I enjoy rope playing
and I like your character. It's like, well that's cool. You have
no hard feelings. Cool, and we can just hug and get friends.
It also, and this is I'm I'm not a gay man, but I
feel like, does it maybe take the focus off of gay men who I
adore are very off an image focused how you look is extremely important, workout
culture, all of that, And it seems like maybe there's a nice sort
of opposite side of that coin, which is those things are majorly decentered.
If folks can't see you, that's a nice Yeah, it's absolutely right.
Imagine like you in a gay culture. Maybe you're like I have to be
so fit, I have to have be perfect my hair and all this.
Well, it's like, well I can't see any of that, brother,
And I really like your cat Miaomiow and I'm attracted to you, and it's
like, well, gosh, like nobody thinks I'm attractive, and it's like
I can't believe because I think you're really attractive and that happens all the time,
and it feels amazing, Like I've opened up my world of like body
types I like more and more. In a way, I'm also restrictive,
like I really only want to be with furries. Now. There's a certain
like mindset, like role playing or something that just makes you feel like understood
from the get go. Like you can say, like, oh, we're
both gay, we should know each other. It's like we don't know anything
about each other. But if you say we're both furries, it's like,
oh, we have we know a lot about each other, and we can
find out a lot quickly about exactly what we're into, whether it's video games,
art, just the love of animals, whatever it is. It's like
we have a much closer jumping off point to getting to know each other very
closely, very quickly. I've heard on this podcast, I've heard trans folks
say similar things about how dating someone who is also trans is like in your
immediately starting from an understanding of like who you are, what you've been through,
like the like your viewpoint, how you see the world, Like yeah,
that's oh that's very cool. Yeah, oh, my god. Okay,
okay, okay. So in terms of what you just said, because
this was another listener question, yeah that I want to read exactly how this
person phrased it, because you just touched on this a little bit. The
question was is it a sexual kink or more romantic slash fantasy? And it's
sounding like there's room for all of that, but yeah, could you speak
a little to the sort of because I think that lay people we do think
of it as just a sexual kink. This is a like that's what all
the jokes and the stereotypes are based. But the way you speak about it,
it seems like it's a lot more expansive in terms of ident today.
Right, it is not all about sex the sexual side for me, it's
always person to person. But the sexual side for me is it was so
engaging and like wonderful and freeing, and it wasn't necessarily about like objectifying a
man per se. It's like I've turned you into a werewolf with like all
these exaggerated features on a two D plane, like I'm looking at two D
art constantly instead of like real porn per se, and the romance you can
feel for a fictional character is wild or for you can romanticize like somebody you've
never met in person, and it's like, well, I'm falling in love
with you potentially for the inside, and that's like kind of a more pure
thing then just sexing someone. It's like, well, if I'm still horny
for you, then at least it's coming from a more caring place, Like
I have so many wonderful men in my life and so many furries and so
much like wrote like, I love kissing them, I love make seeing them
happy. Like it's not just like, oh, when are we gonna bone
again? Rhinoceros daddy, you know, you know, rhino cook me.
Uh no. So yeah, it's not all sexual, but the sex that
I've had as a furry has been more love filled than any gay sex almost,
you know, any gay sex I've had with just being like two dudes.
Wow, okay okay. And I'm also obviously not meaning to like shame
folks for who it is purely sexual, because it sounds like you're saying like
that there there are some folks who's who it's more sexual base, But like
any predilection, it sounds like there's a wide range of people and what they
get out of it. And I bet they're a little more respectful in how
they go about it because they're aware, like they're into a weird, you
know, animal thing, but they it's a very playful thing and it's a
very cute thing. So just because it can be so sexual, you know,
there's things like pups, which are usually more kink community focused, but
even some pups will get offended. They're like, well, this means a
lot to me and my you know, my pupness lets me be a better
version of myself. And it's like, well I get that, brother,
Like you know, I'm not saying you're a sexual deviant. But for example,
some furry spaces which are by furries from furries, will say like no
pup hoods, no kink gear, and then you can wear all your furry
stuff though, but then they might say, oh, kink gears allowed to
maybe where like for example, I have a leash. I usually only wear
that if I'm trying to be more LISTIVI it is, but even that like
might get get by, Like callers are fine, but then you have like
harnesses or maybe you have like a fake plush sheath, like like a dog
sheath, you know, like you could get pretty elaborate. But so even
within the community, it's kind of self policing and how they go about deciding
all that. Okay, And is the pup stuff that you're referring to?
Is that? Like I feel like the stereotypical image is like a woman who's
like a dominatrix type and then a man on all fours with the collar and
the lead. Is that, Jason? That might be that? Yeah,
because that's pup playing somebody. Somebody saying that they are a pup usually means
they wear a neoprene or leather like pup mask. Oh okay, gotcha,
gotcha, gotcha, you've seen that before. I'm sure like those are puff
yes specifically, Okay, this is they're often intersecting with the furry community,
but they themselves may not be furries. Okay. This is so fascinating and
I feel like so little is no one and understood about. I mean,
I'm sure I'm telling you this, like you know, we're breaking ground line.
Yeah, I'm really I'm on the cutting edge of things. So college
and young adulthood, where how does this develop? How do you start sharing
it with five? I mean, you said eleven years with your boyfriend son.
That's what I would say is my midpoint. It was meeting the love
of my life. We had a mutual friend who was like, I think
you guys really get along, and so we went on a date in our
college. He was a freshman, I was a senior, and we went
on a date to like our wellness center, which had a beautiful like big
pool and hot tub area, swimming lanes. Well, you know, we
first we like already like each other's bodies in the changing room, and I
was heavier at the time. He's kind of a chubby chaser, and he
was like super skinny, and I like twins. I like a variety of
bodies, as I said. But we were already off to the races,
and we were talking about general things. We were into video games. We
started talking about Skyrim, and in that video game there's this race of cat
men called the Kajitite, and we started mentioning that, and we started mentioning
kind of like attraction to them in furries. And he was like, oh,
well, I'm not into them like sexually, and I was like,
oh, well I am, and he goes, oh I am too.
This is incredible. His instincts was to hide it. His instincts was to
be like, I'm not weird. But I was like, don't worry,
I'm weird too, and we He was like I'm a husky, and I'm
like, I'm a Hyaena. And my parents were away on vacation and they
just happened to be gone and I just had met this beautiful boy and I
took him home and we did naughty things and a week later we started dating
in the culvers on nine to eleven in Marie, Kentucky. Yeah, and
I've been together with him ever since. And that moment was it was huge.
The thing was so talking about mental health. This is another reason it's
the midpoint at ages nineteen. So I met him when I was just right
at the end of like twenty two, at nineteen. I went to the
psych word for the first time for a psychotic break and I went like twice,
like within the span of like two or three weeks. And I was
so psychotic, like I thought, you know, I was on the Truman
Show. I thought there was a mirror in the psych ward with a camera
behind it, and I tried to like punch it, thinking I was going
to break it. Well it's a bulletproof mirror. I found out, and
I broke my hand and I had to wear a cast. And I mean
I at one time my parents visited and I had so much anxiety I threw
up and it went into the cast. Like this is a terrible time in
my life at nineteen and so I was on these different medicines for a while
and sober on and off, you know, mostly with the only things I
ever really did was weed or alcohol, and I was never a big drinker.
But then come twenty two, it happens again, like shortly after meeting
Jonathan, you know, my man and my mate, I have another psychotic
break and I have to go to Nashville the Centennial. And that first day
they're like, well, actually what happened was first my parents they were sending
me to rehab because I was like I want to get detox. I'm you
know this and that we didn't know I was by polar And that first day
at rehab, the first day at rehab, they were like, this is
something else other than coming off drugs and alcohol. So they sent me to
the psych word and then I get diagnosed by polar one. And while I'm
in the psych word for that week. My grandmother is she starts having major
health complications. And one day they call me because the doctor says I was
sound of mind enough to talk to My grandmother was on her deathbed, and
she was in My mom said, you know, Nan, I always called
her Nan. She can't hear you, you know, she's in a coma,
but or she can't speak to you, but she's in a coma,
but she can hear you, and so you should probably say, you know,
goodbye to your grandmother. And so I'm on the phone and the psych
word and I say, you know, hey, I'm okay. You know,
I love you. And my grandmother finds the strength to come out of
the coma and she rises up in bed with the last of her strength and
she says, I love you. You're wonderful. And I said, I'm
okay. And then a few hours later they called me and said that she
was in heaven. And this was the lowest point of my life, you
know, I started. Then I had to go back and do the whole
month of rehab after all that had happened. And so I'm in Tennessee,
like Dixon, Tennessee, in a rehab and with all these major alcoholics and
you know, and going through the steps and meetings and AA and I do
AA for several years. But Jonathan and I start we like write to each
other in rehab, you know, and I'm still a very you know,
like I'm being a stand up comedian, Like I've been a stand up since
like eighteen, so I'm in Kentucky trying to pursue this art form. I
would even tell jokes to the people in rehab and it was really cool,
like it was some of the only entertainment they got, and they would really
and with a gay man too, you know, in Tennessee, like all
these probably straight men alcoholics are like finding out like, hey, this gay
dude's all right, and you know, I get done with that. And
my mother and I's relationship is difficult, you know. For a while,
I feel like she'd blamed me for my mother's death or I'm sorry her mother's
death because of just so many things. And of course we resolved all that
over years, and my mother has her own mental illness. But I'm over
two hundred and thirty pounds. I eventually start to and I'm sticking with Jonathan.
He lives like an hour away, so we have to, you know,
kind of try and get hotels here and there. And like, I
eventually moved back out, but I start doing improv at this place called Paduca
Paduca Improv, and I did that for like a year. We taught with
the Upright Citizens Brigade book and we were really good. And we put on
two shows a month, one PG thirteen and one rated R later that night.
And we would meet for rehearsals each week and drive an hour to Paduca,
Kentucky for Murray. And it was starting to really give me a sense
of purpose and joy. I was a theater major. This is what I
wanted to do. I didn't know how I was going to get out of
Kentucky. It can feel like a black hole there. And I also was
happy that I had a boyfriend finally and that he was always there for me.
And he would struggle with his own things being in Kentucky and being queer.
And eventually a friend of mine is moving. He's been living in la
and he set it up to where I was going to come out here with
him. And this is after a huge argument with like my grandma or my
granddad and my parents, you know, they were wanting me to quit the
improv, and I was like, this is so important to me. I'm
not quitting just because gas is expensive to drive back and forth. And I
was like, I should just move and they were like, well, then
you should just go. And it wasn't like an evil thing. It was
just like, well, that's what you should do. Then. You know,
I'm like twenty six or twenty five at this point, still working in
Murray, Kentucky, going nowhere. There's just nothing. My mom always said
there's nothing for you here, and not in a way like they weren't there
for me, but that I was gonna waste away there. Yeah. And
so at twenty six, I finally moved to Los Angeles, California, and
with all my furry baggage and all my stand up and all my improv and
from day one of getting there, I was hitting up improv stages at IOW
West and getting people coming up to me telling me that I reminded them of
Chris Farley and John Belushi and getting I got a card from a guy like
I mean, I was really hitting it hard and I was talented. Did
Jonathan move with you out to LA or did he come later? That's a
good question. He could not afford to move with me, so we had
to do a year apart. Wow, been through so so much. I'm
so impressed at how strong your relationship is to have gone through all the things
you've just yeah, and yeah, I'm very thankful for him. He's kept
me. You know, he's been my rock for a long time. And
during that year apart, we started to we had already very very little,
like experimented with being open. When we first started dating. He was like,
I think we should be open, and I was like, were you
crazy? Like we're gonna be even hachemists forever, like duh, duh.
But then that first year out in la we knew that we had needs and
so we were okay with and we're The key is communication and being like completely
transparent about everything, and so we started, like, you know, I'd
go on like grinder because grinder in Kentucky sucks. Grinder in la is like
you're surrounded by men, not all them good, and uh, you know,
we fool around here and there. Have you ever had sex with someone
so hot? Lauren? Like you start getting in shape, you know what
I mean? Like You're like, wow, I'm gonna change my habits like
holy and I have not. But with women, it's I feel like it's
a little it's a little different. Yeah, I was like, this guy's
way out in my league and I'm bagging dat, you know with a D
like Dad, I'm bagging Dad. I'm gonna get in shape. And over
the course of like six or seven years, I went from two hundred and
thirty pounds to now like one hundred and sixty five pounds. And I'm kind
of jumping, you know, towards the end here, but the middle is
definitely you know, Jonathan And moving to LA, and I started telling some
friends in LA like I would whisper like I'm a furry, like what And
I'm like I'm a furry and explaining to that to them, and it would
be funny to them to be like, oh, you find this hot,
you find something like the Hedgehog hoot and be like yes, yes, dr
yeah, bring it on. And I don't know if you want me to
jump to where our the prank panel has happened, but there's a lot that
within the past ten years. Yeah, let's get to that in a moment.
But I want to ask, like it sounds like you've always since you
since you came to terms with it yourself, or not came to terms,
but since you felt okay with it yourself. It sounds like you've been pretty
open with folks about it, which I think is amazing considering I'm sure all
the you know, stereotypes and and I don't know if jokes is the right
word, but I feel like it's one of the few identities where it's still
kind of socially acceptable to make fun of it, you know what I mean.
Like we live in a very accepting and inclusive time, but I feel
like people will still get away with making furry jokes and not get called out
on it and not feel badly about it. Like and so the fact that
you seem to have always been so open about it, I'm wondering. In
your comedy, I know that now you are very open about it, and
Brandon told me that you will, you would wear the tail and everything.
But is that was that right out of the gate. Were you incorporating your
identity into your stand up or did that take a little bit of time because
stand up can be people can be very shitty. Maybe it's the word that
I'm looking for. Yeah, so I've always talked about my sexuality and my
stand up being gay, and when it came to the furry thing, though
not so much, not until more recently, and even then, like every
once in a while I would try, but it was so complicated to me
to figure out, how do I get in five minutes an audience to understand
what a furry is, get my references, understand my personal experience. You
need almost like more time, or you need the right audience, because it's
such a vast and difficult and unexplored. I don't know any other furry comics.
I think I'm like one of the only ones, especially you know what
I mean. I yes, one hundred percent. I feel like you are
the representation. And that's a huge, uh, that's a huge you know,
wait to bear, Yeah, because no one furry can represent the community
ever. But I feel like I'm a very good, the best representation they
can ask for, and I think they would agree. But you know,
when I first moved to LA, I was terrified of it running my career.
I was afraid that if it was out that I was a furry,
it was going to stop. I thought I was gonna have to quit being
a furry. I was like, Okay, I'm in la I finally moved
out of Kentucky. Things are happening for me. I got an agent within
seven months of being out here. It's like, it's time to be serious,
Like, I can't indulge this thing that brought me so much joy because
it's a threat to my livelihood. Yeah, and so I just for a
bit of a little bit of me buried it, even though it was still
an everyday part of me. Yeah, and that that was tough to deal
with up until just I would say, a few even a few years ago,
when it got better and better. I mean, it literally sounds like
how people would talk about just being queer, like I don't know, twenty
thirty years ago, like when they're starting. I mean you think like Ellen
de Generous not being out for most of her early career. Like, yeah,
it's just so interesting that it really runs parallel in the exact same way
that you thought you were going to have to do you Okay, are we
sort of up to where prank panel comes in at this point, I'm feeling
in my soul the story is getting to the best part. Do this shit?
Yeah, let's okay. So let's talk about how this happened. Yes,
So one day I get an Instagram message and it looks like a bot,
you know, one of those messages like hey, yes my number,
I have an opportunity for a show like call me. And I almost like
didn't reply to it, but they don't usually use leave a phone number.
So I called the number and sure enough it was a person and they're like,
hey, I'm a casting director. We're looking for funny people to be
on this prank show. And they didn't tell me a lot of details.
They didn't tell me what network or anything, but they were like, if
you you know, I can help you. But form a prank, think
of a friend as a target, and if you do good, you can
pitch it, and then if you do good with the pitch, you can
be on TV. And I was like, oh, that sounds great.
So I put together a pitch and they were like that first pitch is a
little you know, we're a family network. We're related with Disney. And
I was like, Okay, what network is that. My friends were like
it's ABC and I was like, oh, very What were the details of
the pitch that they that made them respond, Hey, we're a Family Network.
It was like having a lucivid like a naughty woman, maybe horn it
up to try and seduce a friend, Okay, you know what I mean,
Like maybe not prostituting, but just like something naughty there. And they
were like, let's form a different version of this prank. Okay, interesting,
interesting, okay, and I think it's still involved furries, but definitely
like once because I was talking about myself and they were like, you know,
the furry thing sounds good, and I thought of a prank about It
wasn't fully fleshed out, but it was like, I want to trick my
friend into going into an anime convention, but actually it's a furry convention,
and then we try to put him in a first suit and it's funny that
way. That's hilarious. Well, we get the best prank we can together
and fast forward to the day of the shoot. Because there's so many stories
I could tell just about the prank panel. But you don't know the celebrities
on the show until you go up to this wall you're being recorded and the
wall spins, really know until I saw the wall spit around, But you
literally didn't know until you were looking at that until you're looking at the celebrities.
You don't know who you're pitching to. Oh, well, well there
comes the improv training. Like I have been used to pitching and pitching and
writing sketches, and I'm just used to being funny in front of people,
like this is my dream. This is where I feel comfortable and sure enough.
Like the wall spins around and it's Johnnyxville, Eric Andre and the Gabbery
Cidibe aka Precious and yeah, yes, and I don't have time to freak
out. You know, I have a little moment and I have to I'm
wearing a tail. It's probably the first tale they've seen in a long time
on a human beings. So you wait, let me pause you here and
ask. So you made the decision. You knew this was a national televised
show. You're making the decision to come out to the world assuming you get
picked on television. Is that a huge decision for you or did you always
know? Like if I say yes to this show, I'm going to be
one hundred percent me and this is how it's going to go down. It
was terrifying. It was really scary because I wrestled with it back and forth,
being like, oh my god, what if I make the community look
bad? Or what if you know, I like, what if these people
are like what is wrong with you? You know what I mean? There's
just so many thoughts that go through your head. But I knew that,
like at my core, like I'm awesome and like this is uh probably gonna
so authentic, Like he really truly authentic. And I think that that helps
so much in terms of being the face of a misunderstood identity. Thank you.
I think so too. And people on the show felt the same way
because as I'm you know, pitching, you know, they I can tell
that they're bantering with me. I'm holding my own with these legends of comedy.
I'm like making them laugh and I'm just like happy to be there.
You know, even if it just ended ended there, it would have been
worth it. But here I am representing a furry and you know, Gabory
Sideby knew what a furry was. She was like, oh, they call
it yiffing when they have sex. And I'm like, yes, Gabby,
they do call it that when they do that. Back to the pitch dough
and so they agree to do it, like she wants to do my prank,
and Johnny Knoxville is like, I guess we're doing it, and I'm
like through the moon and you know, there's some behind the stuff that happened
after that that was really cool too, But what ends up going down is
they reverse prank me. So they took me to a writer's room and they
told me. And in the writer's room, I'm explaining to some of the
best writers in Hollywood and producers and Johnny Knoxville and Gabby what any furry questions
they have. I'm explaining just like I am to you today, Like you
know, we are targeted often like this cannot look bad. Please, you
know, I'll kill myself, not really, but kind of, and telling
them about like you don't have to have a furs suit, you can go
to us. You can all go to a furry club yourself if you want,
like, and teaching these people about who they're you know, working with,
and they're telling me, well, we're going to do a furry pub
crawl and then a busload of furries is going to come out and have a
West Side story dance battle. And I was like, that's fabulous, Yes,
made my pranks sound good. Well, they're lying to me. They
show up the day of the prank. They show up like ten days early
to Alex, my friend who I targeted, who's free adjacent, the sweetest
man, the sweetest straight head ound just wonderfully except yes, he is a
ball of sweetness, which is why I picked him, and unfortunately I'm just
as sweet. So they decided to prank me, and they told him that
I was going to prank him, so he had all the heads up in
the world to get me and what they did. You know, everyone should
go watch the episode. It's the season Finalene. It is really really well
done. I cannot stress enough. I really can't. I'm gonna wrap this
part up because this is I always It's such such an emotional thing, Lauren
like. So basically, they everything's going well. I'm like, we've got
him in a Furst suit. It smells like, I think my prank's going
off fantastically. There's all these free extras who don't know how to be a
Fury and they're like, okay, we're gonna cow brought him now, and
I'm like, okay. So he comes back from using the quote unquote restroom
and he's in a full Fox costume. So I think it's my friend in
the costume, and they cowprod him into the street, where a motorcycle then
comes out of nowhere and collides with him right in front of me. Yes,
it's loud, and it's like, uh, okay, keep it together,
Adario, keep it together. Don't know what's happening, Probably not life
and death, but not this wasn't in the plan, and there was a
GoPro on his head, so maybe this isn't you. But also can't break
you know what I mean. There's a million thoughts going through my head and
it's all happening so fast. Everyone's popping out like what happened? Oh my
god? Is he okay? An ambulance comes out, and then he starts
going down the hill Benny Hill style from this gurney pretty amazing. He has
a milkman, a male lady, a furry. I go down the hill
and then I'm like, are you okay, Alex? And I look up
the hill and I see the same fox costume with no head and there's my
friend going what happened? And then here comes the whole crew. They start
clapping, they go we did it, and I'm like, oh, oh
my god, and They're like, this is why you don't prank your friends,
you know, because blah blah blah, and it just was an incredible
day full prank. You'll see this. Why do you watch it? But
basically, so they swapped a stunt man into the costume because this guy really
took the hit from the motorcycle and not like this guy. I was worried
about the stunt man. But yeah, so it'll make sense when you see
it. But it is truly so to jump right from there. When you
do your prank, you then before the show's over, you watch the prank
in a live studio audience with Johnny and Eric and Gabby, executive producer Jimmy
Kimmel and Oh I got to meet, Oh my God. And you watch
your prank on a big screen with all these people, and they film that,
and they film the audience reaction and then they talk about the prank a
little bit and that becomes your episode. Well, as we do all of
that, I'm like tearing up just watching the prank for the first time I'm
on the TV because it's a positive thing with Furyes. It's me looking good
with all these celebrities and like my dream coming true, and I was already
getting emotional. They're like, but Adario, we have one more surprise for
you. And they call this girl and she brings out this big, giant
present and they put in the middle of the stage and they say open it.
And I'm getting excited because I'm like, there's no way they got me
a Furst suit. There's no way. And I take the head or the
lid off and inside I pull out the head of my brand new Furst suit
and I'm looking out at the audience and they're going crazy. And I look
at Johnny Knoxville and I said, is this for me? And he goes
yes, and I start crying. I cry my little eyes out in front
of the whole world. I'm just so overwhelmed because I know how expensive they
are and how rare this is, and to have it from these people that
mean so much to me on the show with my friend, like, it
was just completely overwhelming and I didn't have like two seconds to to like cry
for very long before they start getting the crowd the champ put it on,
put it on, and literally you don't see this on the camera's faulks,
but Eric Andre and Johnny Knoxville are forcibly picking me up off the ground and
shoving me into my first suit, right, I don't think anyone else on
earth can say that. No, that's its own fantasy. I feel like
a very specific And then they shoved me into my suit. No. I
pleaded no as my erection grew hotter and thicker and longer. So I get
in the suit. I don't even know what I look like. It's you
know what I mean, I don't even know what I did tot and I
zipped up and I'm in a full first suit for the first time, also
in jeans. It's getting very hot in there. Two like in stage lights,
like those suits get hot. People and their own Yeah, not to
be on TV, and a Disney character can attest to that, right,
So you know, I do some cool hyena moves iya wu, I howl.
I'm like, this is incredible. I'm like talking to them on and
off between shoots like Eric Andry's like, this is gonna get you so much
Dick, how right he was, Lauren. I don't even think he knew
how right he was. And it was just an incredible, unbelievable moment my
life. On December sixteenth, twenty twenty two, and we're recording this if
that's okay for me to say, you know, on the fourteenth of December.
So in two days, I'll have had my first suit for a whole
year and Yamo finally came into my life in the most unbelievable way. God
damn, that is so incredible. I'm so fucking happy for you. I
and Brandon had told me ahead of like I even knew that they were gonna
surprise you with a suit, and it's still made me tear up just based
on your reaction. And I think also as someone you know who does this
queer podcast and is in the queer community, like seeing someone feel acceptance for
the first time and know that they are providing represents, It's like, all
I feel like anybody, maybe if you're not even queer, but if you're
any kind of marginal yes person, you you feel that you just feel what
you're feeling in that moment, and it's it was lovely. I'm really happy
to share that with humanity because growing up, I always thought about like one
day I'm going to be on like a talk show and I'm going to tell
my story and I'm gonna cry. Yes, I don't know, it was
just what was fantasy, and little did I know that it was going to
happen that day in such a better way than I could ever have pictured.
They used the picture of me crying for like the preview of the episode,
and I'm like, I'm just like ugly crying in the preview. I'm like,
oh, well, you look so handsome. I did be handsome in
the studio, Thank you. I did. I did look very handsome and
just a quick what I think is like unbelievable. When I started creating my
original character of Yamo the Yen, the Hyena, he was with natural colors
like brown, big brown eyes. And even within that past year, was
I finally starting to get a reference sheet. Usually need a reference sheet that
shows like all your marketings and colors and name, and people can use that
to make your art. So I finally had all this art starting to get
made. I was paying for commissions, getting to get on Twitter for ey
Twitter for the first like ever, and like getting to ex build my community
and the Southern California Ferry community is amazing too, met so many amazing friends.
But what's so crazy to me is that I had pictured Yamo as this
brown hyena, and all those years ago that friend of mine drew me as
this black and white gray hyena. And then here comes, all these years
later, this black and white and gray hyena in a box. And it's
almost as if Yamo had come full circle from my childhood and been like here
I am daddy, and like I'm born, and he's been with me ever
since, and he's, you know, a part of me. I say,
he like he's this walking, talking creature, but he's me. And
there's it's like I have a part of me that's also I love separately and
that I also inhabit constantly. And it's an incredibly interesting, like mental space
to be in as a furry. But it's really awesome. It feels a
little similar to me with how actors will sometimes talk about a role that really
affects them and they'll speak in the third person about it because there's the awareness
that this is a role, but they also inhabit it, and it like
that's what it's reminding me of when I've heard like great actors speak about Yeah,
it's just really Oh my god, Adario. Before we wrap up,
I want to give you the space and the time to share anything like anything
you would like people to know, or any like myths you want to bust,
or just like any For a lot of people listening, I'm sure you
are the first person they've ever heard speak on these things. And yeah,
if there's just anything that you that you want to share about the culture,
or anything you want to push back on where you're like, here's a stereotype
that is not accurate. Yeah, I just want to give you as much
time as you want to just speak on all things Furrey. Thank you,
Lauren. I appreciate all this time here with you to share this. It's
been incredible. And I just want people to know that the sex is not
the predominant reason you get into furryism. It's a great way to enjoy your
sex without maybe having all these weights attached to your guilty conscience of being queer
or queer coded or non binary or whatever your issue is. And so the
next time you see a furry, it doesn't mean that they're covered and come
on their suit with very clean you know, it doesn't mean we want I
want to like you know, abduct your kids. It doesn't mean anything weird
like that. It is for us and our self acceptance and to create safe
spaces for us. We're not trying to convert you or anything like that.
You can come up and get pictures and hug us if you ask. Like,
we love attention, you know usually, but it's not the same as
like calling it kink gear. That would be offensive. Okay, Okay,
that's really good to know. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. And
we're just a bunch of like playful puppies and we love life and we love
animals, and I'm sure you do too. So the next time you see
a furry maybe just ask and say, like, hey, can I can
I pet you, boop your snoop or compliment your suit, you know,
and we'll be super happy you did. Oh my god, thank you so
much. I'm just I'm so I'm so grateful to you. I really I
hope that people, yeah, I don't know. I hope that people walk
away from those feeling like they know more and maybe are encouraged to go and
learn more. I think we have a lot of misconceptions about furries, and
like I said, I don't think I hope that soon and you're no longer
the butt of any jokes because it just seems like there's so much more,
or at least not in a way. I mean, I feel like the
queer community is really good about poking fun at its. We're also really good
at taking ourselves way too seriously. But those of us in the community who
are in comedy or like, we'll we'll poke fun at our own stereotypes that
we fall into and stuff. So in that respect, I think it's fine,
but I don't like what I was saying about how it seems like the
last thing that you can freely make fun of without anybody sort of giving you
side eye. And we have great senses of humor. Furries, we'll joke
about everything. We're just people inside of all this. And I think now
there are more furries than ever. It's getting into media more than ever in
new accepting ways. It's like people are understanding furries. And I'm really optimistic
about the future for furries. And I think there's gonna be a lot more
hyenas. There's a lot of wolves and foxes, but I think hyenas are
on the rise, Okay predominant, but you're you're single handedly this is a
basic yeah, So what I'm very optimistic for it and just like you said,
I think more and more people are going to understand what it means so
they don't have to freak out like maybe my family did when I was a
hurry at fourteen. Oh well said, Well said So Adario, where can
people find you and your comedy? And I will link to the prankue panel
as I mentioned. But yeah, anything you want to plug where folks can
find you. Yeah. I just started the TikTok, so I'm going to
get better and better at that. But it's my name, Adario Marcadante.
I should shorten that my Instagram. Oh it's a gorgeous name. Thank you.
My Instagram is just a Dario A D A R I O and the
number one. I post a lot of stuff there. You can see all
my stand up dates. I'm gonna be at the s x s W Festival
in Austin, Texas in March, so my first time touring stand up in
any capacity. Uh yeah, And I'm always going to be posting more and
more stand up comedy. And I've only recently started doing it in suit here
and there, so who knows, maybe AMO would become Yeah. I did
it for the first time at a at a furry event I always go to.
They started having drag queens and they let me do like furry drag,
and they started they let me do stand up in the full suit. So
I just don't know. I would want to always keep my suit in good
condition. But if it started becoming like a phenomenon, like I don't mind
becoming the furry comedian, Oh my god. And my furry Twitter is yamo
yeen y a m m o y e e N. I have a lot
of furry art. Shoulds what I get into the community with, and yeah,
feel free to give me a follow And if folks want to find out
more information just in general about furries, is there because you know, we're
always like you can google anything, but are there like better resources or more
positive, more accurate resources that you want to shout out or something, because
I feel like if you just google furry, you're going to get maybe a
lot of stuff that's like I don't know, well, will that give people
a good perception of it? Or are there any sort of resources specifically where
people can learn, Like, yeah, I want to inform right, well,
I want to shout out one YouTuber I really like as a furry who
I think does an excellent job of explaining a lot of things. His name
is It's complicated, Beta Ada Delta. It's just like it sounds, and
he explains a lot about You can type into YouTube like and if you see
it's his comment thingy it's like what is a furry? In like two minutes
like and he'll e everything from Anthromor's perspect and plopomorphic characters to what it means
and what it doesn't mean. You can go on furry Twitter. You're probably
gonna take a long route if you go about that, but that's like you
actually getting involved with the community. If you go on twitters are adding for
suitors and seeing they're you know, they're all different people. Some might be
horny, some might be just like playful little bunnies and like show off their
character. And that's really a great way to see boots on the ground what
it's like to be a furry. Other than that, I don't think it
hurts to google, like what is a furry? What is a furst suit?
Basic questions you have, you know, you can always do a little
research on your own, but finding out from furries is the best way to
answer your questions. Oh perfect and I will I will link to that YouTuber
in the show notes. Yeah fantastic. I am at Lauren Flans on Twitter
and Blue Sky and Lauren Underscore Flanns on Instagram. The podcast is ad coming
out pod. That hashtag is hashtag coming out pod. We have incredible pay
trends. Shout out to Carmel Keaz Simone, Cayenne, Michelle l Adri,
Tanya Pooh, Tia, Kiaran Smiley, Aaron Mitchell, Diego, Hernandez and
beyond Clexa dot com. And I said it last year, I'm still gonna
keep saying that this year. A great thing you can do to help the
podcast for free is to rate it five stars on either iTunes or Spotify.
So if you want to hop on over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify on mobile
and give those five stars, I will be so appreciative. And on iTunes
you can even leave a little review if you are so inclined. Adario,
this has been so one. You are like such a fucking kind lazy He's
going, uh, you are, You're a raised I know you hear this
all the time. It's like I feel like I'm known you one hundred years.
Blah blah, blah. I'm sure you get this a lot, but
you're just a ray of light, and like you said, you are literally
the best representation that your community could ask for. I truly feel that,
and I'm just so excited to see what more opportunities you get. Me too,
Lauren. I'm very excited, excited for the future. I'm so thankful
for my community. I'm so full of love. I cried every single day
after the prank panel until the New Year because I just couldn't believe it happened
to me. So I'm very thankful and blessed, and I look forward to
making more people laugh and smile. Oh my god. Well, on that
note, yeah, I will say goodbye and I will see you all next
week. Bye.