WEBVTT

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Hey y'all, Happy twenty twenty four, Happy New Year, Welcome to Coming

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Out Pod. Okay, so,
as you know, I am not breaking

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with tradition. I will still be
shouting out queer roots at the top of

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every episode. So for the first
queer root shout out of this New year,

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shout out to you. If your
queer root is Jessica Rabbit from the

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film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now, this is more in line with you

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know, my age people who are
a little older, But damn, when

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this movie came out, Who Jessica
Rabbit voiced by Kathleen Turner, this was

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a weird one because you see this
movie with your family, It's like a

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fun cartoon movie and then there's a
very very sexy lady cartoon. And I

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also chose Jessica Rabbit as a queer
root shout out because she is married to

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Roger Rabbit, a bunny, and
I felt like that was sort of a

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thematic tie in, or at least
adjacent to what we're going to be discussing

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today. So yes, if Jessica
Rabbit affected you as as a wee baby

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gay, shout out to you,
y'all. I it is hard when you

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do a podcast for five and a
half years to have firsts after a while,

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but this is a first. That's
why I wanted to kick off the

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new year with today's guests. So
I am here with Adario Mercadante. How

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was that? And that was perfect? Beauty, that was perfect. I'll

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take it. Adario, Hi,
thank you so much for being here.

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It's an honor to meet you.
I just watched Oh well, I should

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explain. So Adario is an actor, a comedian, a fellow improviser.

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Yes, I know Adar well.
I just met Adario for realsies on the

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Zoom. But I have heard about
you just so much from our mutual friend

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Brandon that to our queer buddy Brandon
Brand and I just watched you last night

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and it's called the Prank Panels.
Do I have that correct? Yes?

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The Prank panel on ABC Hulu.
Hell yeah. And I'm gonna I'm gonna

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link to this. I'll let you
all know where you can find the link,

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because I watched a Dario segment on
this show last night and as I

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told you off Mike, I was
I teared up. I want to really

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moved by it. So I'm having
one of those things where like I feel

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like I know you even though you're
just meeting me because I have seen you

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and stuff. But so I don't
wanna. I don't know. Is there

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any before we like launch into me
asking you how you identifying all that?

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Is there anything that you want to
say to the guests about who you are,

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what you do in terms of stand
up acting, anything like that.

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Yeah, just the general bit.
I'm an LGBT, you know, queer

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person from Murray, Kentucky. I'm
from the South and I live in Los

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Angeles. I've been doing stand up
since like I was eighteen. My mother

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opened for me that day. She's
the funniest woman I know. I'm a

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furry. I've gone through a long
journey of weight loss and finding myself and

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I have a partner of eleven years, and I'm polly amorous and I'm just

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so happy to do this show,
the Prank Panel, because it has my

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idols, Johnny Knoxville, Eric Andre
Gaberie, cidebe aka Perecious, And so

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I'm really happy you saw it because
so many people had that reaction just like

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you of emotional on TV. Yeah, it really got me. It legit,

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I legit teared up and I was
not. You don't expect that watching

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a prank show like that never happened
to me. Back in the day when

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I watched punked, I never like
got emotional, but this really got me.

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Yeah, Ashton Kutcher has never made
me feel feelings of any sort.

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I'm sure he's a lovely man,
no shade to him. But yeah,

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but we will get into how that
episode came to be. And there was

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a very like you said in your
email, to be it changed your life,

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like there was something that came out
of it that was like huge beyond

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just being on TV. So we
will, we will get to that,

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but I don't want to get ahead
of us. But yes, So in

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terms of how you identify, you
hit a few of them already. Do

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you Is gay the word you preferred? You? Do you use LGBT?

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What's your preferred nomenclature, queer?
What resonates with you in terms of that,

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Yeah, let's dig right into it. So I identify as a gay

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man. I identify as polyamorous.
I tried having a boyfriend on top of

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my mate for a year and that
was great and everything. And I also

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furries aren't a sexuality, you know, a lot of Furris will tell you

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it's just a hobby, but it
runs a lot deeper than that for basically

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all of us. So I'm a
he, him, gay, and a

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hyena or yen for short. Like
again, it's not necessarily my sexuality,

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but it's it's important. And I
will say one more thing is that through

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this journey I'm thirty three, now
I feel like I could I don't know

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the word breed with a woman,
maybe a furry, but I've yet too.

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I'm not pursuing that. I'm not
like doing anything to make that happen.

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And it's just I would still,
even if I did that, not

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necessarily call myself bisexual. So I
identify as gay. Okay, oh my

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god, this is excellent and I'm
so glad you're already speaking to the distinction

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of I have a lot of furry
specific questions. Some are my own,

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and then some I put it out
to listeners if they had any questions,

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and yeah, one of them,
well I don't. Again, I don't.

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I'm I'm gonta know myself because I'm
so excited, but I yeah,

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I'm so curious to talk about the
idea of it being a sexuality or identity

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or just all that kind of nomenclature, because I think most of us don't

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know much or anything accurate about furries. I'm sure you have encountered a lot,

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a lot of jokes and a lot
of stereotypes. You are a mystery

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and an enigma. But so in
terms of the order of your realizations and

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coming outs, were they were they
in that order? Was it like gay,

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polyamorous, furry or how did it? What's your coming out journey in

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terms of all of your identifiers.
I think first it was experimentation with guys,

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realizing that guys were making me feel
things and women were not making me

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feel these things. And at a
very early age, you know, even

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like pre puberty. But then,
of course once puberty hit. And I'm

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a nineteen nineties born person, so
it was on like Kazah and lime wire,

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things where you could download free music
and then see anything your heart can

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imagine. Naughty wise, I found, you know, furry stuff and things.

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You found it that early? Oh
yeah, a lot of us find

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it very early on, okay,
or you could blame Disney. Some people

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are like you know Nick Wilde,
maybe queer or you know Lion King.

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You know was my trigger point for
becoming a friar. I hear simba from

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Yeah, I hear simba nala timone, Ugh, you're a tomonfho. Okay.

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But but when you when you say
you found for stuff, is that

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were you kind of even if it
was unconsciously like seeking it out or did

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you literally just kind of stumble across
it and it like you're like, oh

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my god, what am I feeling
seeing this? Or were you more deliberately

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like looking for something even if you
didn't realize it until you found it.

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There's a lot that happened around that
age. I would say I knew that

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these male attraction feelings were happening,
and then I knew that I was such

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a huge nerd like gamer, you
know, one of those online people all

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the time and webs anime lover.
It was happening even without it being necessarily

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furry. You know, if you
watch Naruto, Naruto was a fox man

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technically because he has a demon fox
in him. So if I'm attracted to

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Naruto at that age, then you
know, maybe I'm like, oh,

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I like the foxiness too, And
things can just start mixing really quick.

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When Pokemon comes on the screen.
Do you know what I mean? Okay,

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yes, And you're also reminding me
I have previously shouted out the queer

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root of the robin Hood Fox,
the fox and robin Hood that is for

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people, Oh so hot, that's
a sexy fox. That's a sexy fix.

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He's a biicon. But yeah,
yeah, okay, okay, so

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yeah, so so how did it
so you discover these things at at it

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sounds like pre puberty and yeah,
where where does it go from there?

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So we're going to get into it, Lauren, Yeah, let's get into

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it. What I was doing was
hiding all this from my parents because the

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computer was in my room and my
dad liked to come in and do like

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eBay stuff and sell stuff. So
I really had access to the internet,

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you know, at my leisure well, on LimeWire and Kazah. These things.

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We were downloading anything from movies to
porn, to things you think are

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music that are actually porn. I
started seeing things like digimond porn and started

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seeing you know, Pokemon porn and
anime porn and loving it from the very

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like. I was fascinated and it
just got off the rails from there.

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I mean, anything you can think
of I was looking at not just furry

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stuff. You know, it was
probably too much for a kid, But

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what then that was not enough?
You know, I'm in Kentucky, so

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you're desperate. I was so desperate
even at that age to start exploring these

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feelings. And it's not like I
can just find my queer classmates. Who

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are? You know? It's like
I have a joke in my stand up

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where it's like, you know,
being gay in Kentucky is like being a

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spy, Like you have to do
spy work to find the other queers.

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You're like, I hear you like
cook the mutue, and it's like,

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oh, who tells you? You
know? Yet? Maybe well you know?

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But so I don't have a way
to have an outlet for this,

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and I'm just using the internet and
I find this game, this online game,

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very low polygon pixel like it's really
up to your imagination. It was

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called for Kadia, and for Kadia
is very customizable from you can make your

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own like quote unquote rooms with like
all this text. I was very into

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reading porn back then. I would
find this website full of just novels of

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romance scene and penis scene like yes, like yeah, erotica, this website

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called yift Star. I was like
every day after school or something, I

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would look up like another story,
and not all of them were good,

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but a lot of them. I'd
be like, oh my gosh, yes,

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I hope tomorrow he comes out to
him and kisses him on the mouth

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and fox him. And I'm like
thirteen, you know, and I'm like

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fourteen. And then I get on
this game for Kadia and I start to

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you can be anything you want on
there. You know, you can say

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I'm a female fox girl and go
into this place and hook up with your

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words. Mostly it's very low like
screen resolution, but your role playing sex.

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And I started role playing sex with
older adult men and lying to them,

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and that was like my favorite thing. It was like, finally I

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have a way to like flir and
explore these things and these fantasies. And

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I had multiple characters. I had
like a whrse you know, I had.

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It's hard to remember, but even
back then, you know, I

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to sideswipe from that for just a
second. My furry origin. This was

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when I was a fourteen year old
in high school and the senior girl who

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wore cat ears and a collar to
school. Yeah. Yes, she was

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an amazing artist and she was really
nice and she eventually became friends with me,

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and she drew me one day as
a hyena. Just made an original

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concept character out of nowhere. I
used to spike my hair a lot,

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and I think that maybe influenced it. But I also love to laugh.

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I've laughed my whole life. I'm
so high energy, and it just clicked

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with me. This like gray kind
of black and whitish spotted hyena and I

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was like, this is my persona. And if anyone doesn't know if persna

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is like what your character's species is
and its name and its usually you make

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it like the best version of yourself
or something that helps you express yourself.

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So back to the Furcadia game.
Long story short, my parents eventually find

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out that I'm role playing because I'm
emotional, I'm private, I'm like,

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you know, get away, I'm
like in my room, you know what

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I mean, And they eventually yea. The worst of it is I just

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flat out because my mother got rid
of the program and she was like,

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if you'll tell me what you're doing
on there, then you know I'll let

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you play it. So I showed
her exactly step by step what I was

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doing. And I'm like fourteen,
telling her, good, mom, I'm

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just role playing sex with older men. So back back at it, right,

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and she I can't even probably process
what she was going through, but

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she said, if you can,
you know, in your good conscience keep

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doing this, then you could keep
playing it. And I was like,

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sweet, awesome, Mom gave me
the go ahead, so I redownloaded it

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and continued at it, and she
was like, what the fuck? I

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thought? You know, it made
it clear she thought a fourteen year old

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boy was going to be like,
you're right, I should have been doing

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that. Sorry, mama. Yeah, she made a mistake there, but

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and it just that's basically was one
of the first moments where my mother was

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getting a taste of me, like
coming out. She had like a guy,

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is that a double coming out?
Was that also her first awareness that

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you were attracted to men or had
that been discovered slash discussed prior? It

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was? Wow? So this was
a dual. Yeah, I think it

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was her first because that she had
a guy come over and like, I

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guess clean up things on the computer
and he told her like he's looking at

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both men and women. Porn,
you know, and she's like, that's

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the biggest I know. And she
was like, guy, seeing the furry

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porn for the first time, She's
like, that tiger had the biggest dick

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I've ever seen. And I'm like, it's the most awkward thing you can

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hear from your mother seeing your Like, you know, you don't want them

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to think you're into like beast reality
and you don't want, you know,

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or even just to know that you're
gay. And you're also so young and

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it's Kentucky. Are they gonna accept
me even if I have which I did

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have a wonderfully accepting mother. But
it's scary to think about. And sometimes

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I would experiment with my friends around
that age, and I would lay on

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the couch or bed and just cry
thinking about everyone turning their back on me

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or like God even hating me.
And I'm not necessarily like religious anymore,

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but at the time, it's a
big challenge. Yeah, oh my god.

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Okay. And so it sounds like
you were experimenting at lea a bit

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in terms of the homosexuality stuff,
like you were finding other guys around your

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age that yeah, that was but
were you keeping the the furry side of

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things secret in terms of like your
interactions you're like romantic or sexual interactions at

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that point, or were you like, hey, it would be fun if

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we pretend you know that you're this
and I'm this? Or was that not

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right? I think ideally that would
have been fun to explore. But it

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was just such a shameful thing for
me at the time that it was just

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became private. It was like,
this is for me, this is my

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thing. I'm just going to look
at this stuff forever and ever and just

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hope to find a boyfriend or hope
to like even touch a guy. Doesn't

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have to have anything to do with
furreism. And you know, I got

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into therapy and it did. Was
that your choice or was that it was

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mutual, like you know, dealing
with other things like anxiety and depression and

220
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yeah, he yees. So the
therapy was good. Now, I will

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say one of the first questions when
I came out to my psychiatrist, who's

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also like my mom's doctor, like, he was like, are you attracted

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to children? And I was like
no, I was like, why would

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you ask that off the bat?
Yeah, So just the automatic assumption or

225
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linking of furry stuff to pedophilia,
just like yeah, right out of the

226
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gate, even just coming out to
him. Maybe I don't know if he

227
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has every game. Was coming out
just like crying and saying, I think

228
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I'm a homosexual or I'm gay.
That's like his first question. Well,

229
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I mean things got better from there, you know, But how old were

230
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you when you went into therapy?
I had to be like fourteen. Oh,

231
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so this is well, this is
like Domino is just like one after

232
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oh yeah, because then she's like, you know, there was one guy

233
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like kind of had who was an
older man, and I was like,

234
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oh, I mean I love him, I'm in love with him, and

235
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it was so stupid of me,
and like my mom like talked to him

236
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and she was like, well,
there's safe spaces. He was like,

237
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there's safe spaces on this, you
know, for him, in certain places.

238
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But it was I was lying to
him for so long and then eventually

239
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I came out that I was younger, but he continued talking to me,

240
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which is you know, on him. But at the same time, I

241
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don't blame this man for me manipulating
his feelings. I feel very bad and

242
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I was bad to be on there
at that age, but you know,

243
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I started to slowly try to suss
out other queer friends of mine, or

244
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sleepovers were a good chance to do
a truth or dare or just push my

245
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Yeah, it really wasn't until you
know, maybe around sixteen or seventeen that

246
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things actually get sexually rolling instead of
just like all these flirtatious that I could

247
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go on about all the ways that
that's happened to flirteen. But finally,

248
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like you know, lose my virginity
at like sixteen or seventeen, starting to

249
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like have a maybe one or two
friends that I can consistently like start exploring

250
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with, and we're all in the
closet. You know, I can't even

251
00:18:06.359 --> 00:18:11.359
start dating in Kentucky. Is there
like, is there like a gay club

252
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that you can you know, have
fake ideas and go to or like what

253
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yes, it was the Japanese Club
at the time. Really okay, I

254
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mean it wasn't known. It was
just like, oh, we're all gay

255
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in here, you know, Like, Okay, I'm glad there was a

256
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place like the Anime Club mixed into
the Japanese Club. You know, it's

257
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just a high school thing, but
that's where we flought to interesting. Wow,

258
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that's but that's like a nice intersection. I feel like it was.

259
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Yeah, it was really thrilling,
it was fun, and it was hard

260
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not to have like relationships that could
really form. And yeah, but that's

261
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my that's my, like I would
say, my origins of everything, and

262
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the free stuff is always in the
background. And I haven't created an original

263
00:18:56.839 --> 00:18:59.680
character yet really, Like I still
knew I was a hyena. I knew

264
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my speed. But a lot of
times they create a character and they name

265
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it and they eventually want to,
you know, maybe create a suit of

266
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it, or they want to get
artwork of your character to give it life

267
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and breathe it into the world.
But at that time, I still just

268
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had my species and the hidden fact
that I was a furry. Okay,

269
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this ties in so nicely to one
of the questions that someone asked, which

270
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is, and I don't know if
this differs from person to person, but

271
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can people is there like are there
people who are like more generally furries or

272
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does kind of everyone have a persona
that is their specific character, their specific

273
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animal, their specific name, or
some people just like I am, do

274
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you know what I mean? Like
that the person was asking, like,

275
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yeah, okay, I'll let you
sort of roll on that. Then yes,

276
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there is the answers yes to both. Some people are more casual furries.

277
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They not necessarily know that they even
have like a species. Maybe they're

278
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working on that. It's usually the
first thing is you're like, I'm more

279
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like dog like, cat like,
dragon like, fish like, bird like,

280
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and you you know, go from
there. But then you can also

281
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be like my roommate, for example, who's furry adjacent. And it's not

282
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like a popular term free adjacent.
I just feel like it's very useful nowadays

283
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because that means like people who are
around furries, they know what furries are.

284
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Maybe they've been to an event,
or they've been around them, or

285
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they even grew up with some of
the there's a lot of like furry comics,

286
00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:30.680
like they make the art into stories
that are graphically designed because they're amazing

287
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:36.480
artists. So that ties into also
with my love of the erotica. It

288
00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:40.920
was now adding pictures to it.
Of course they have nowadays, like you

289
00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:47.519
know, videos and gifts they've made
and there's so much horniness. But yes,

290
00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:52.200
there are people who are generally furries
and there are people who are mostly

291
00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:53.839
like I have my sona, I
have the name of it. Here's some

292
00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.319
artwork, here's my tail, here's
this, this is I'm trying to get

293
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ahead. I'm trying to you know, or the body suit one day.

294
00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:07.119
They're all colors of the rainbows of
furries. Okay, okay, And is

295
00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:12.200
the gender breakdown sort of because I
when I think of it in my head,

296
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I tend to think of furries as
being male. And I don't know

297
00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:21.359
why that is, maybe just in
terms of like what I have been exposed

298
00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:25.680
to or whatever. But is that
is that is there any accuracy to that

299
00:21:25.880 --> 00:21:30.720
or is it sort of across the
spectrum in terms of people who gravitate.

300
00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:36.240
It's across the spectrum. I would
say it's a lot of gay men,

301
00:21:36.359 --> 00:21:38.480
but it is not dumb. I
mean, it's just like there may be

302
00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:45.359
the the most of it is gay
men, but there's so many females in

303
00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:47.319
the fandom. Even when I take
friends, they're like, Wow, I'm

304
00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:51.079
surprised how many women are at this
convention. Yeah, that's my question as

305
00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.559
well. Okay, that's really good
to know. I'm glad. I'm even

306
00:21:53.559 --> 00:21:57.640
if they're women. Okay, even
the women are probably queer in some way.

307
00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:00.319
There's you know, they Jo is
like, oh, you're a straight

308
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.559
furry, it's like good luck,
you know, But there are what I

309
00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:07.359
wondered, so there are some hetero
identified furris, but it sounds like it

310
00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:11.640
that's a lot more rare. Yeah, it just might be harder for you

311
00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:15.000
to meet someone because if you're a
straight for a girl for example, which

312
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.279
you'll probably buy. If you're a
straight for a girl, then you have

313
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:21.680
all these like straight furry men.
Just like with tender anything, you're the

314
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:23.400
big fish in the little pond or
whatever, you know what I mean,

315
00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:33.000
And so it could be difficult to
find like a straight relationship. But what's

316
00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:37.680
so cool is, like talking about
gender, the furry thing allows for you

317
00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:41.119
to get rid of all your human
flaws and be what you want. You

318
00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:45.720
can be a woman and be called
she her because my SONA looks like a

319
00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:49.039
girl and you are. You have
no idea that I'm a I'm a penis

320
00:22:49.160 --> 00:22:52.599
under here. And it's not about
that. It's not about, you know,

321
00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:57.119
tricking people. It's about giving you
a way to confidently be the best

322
00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.799
yourself or to explain or that you
know. It can get rid of race,

323
00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:06.000
It gets rid of you know,
a lot of phrase are neuro divergent,

324
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:08.839
they're autistic, or they just maybe
they have a stutter, or maybe

325
00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.599
they and a lot of phraries are
like superhunks, you know. Or there's

326
00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:15.799
just so many reasons you could get
into the fandom. But we all love

327
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:21.720
anthropomorphosized characters, and through these characters
we develop like, oh, I'm actually

328
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:23.920
able to like sing karaoke when I
put on the head, or I'm actually

329
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.720
able to play my guitar like a
savant when I don't have eye contact,

330
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:32.279
or like, oh my god,
I'm actually able to like show off my

331
00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:34.440
muscles when I don't have to worry
about these zits on my face. You

332
00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:38.880
know, there's so many ways that
can empower you and take away your human

333
00:23:38.920 --> 00:23:47.599
flaws. Ah, that's really cool
is in terms of uh, talking to

334
00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:49.799
people in the is it because and
the reason this is so dumb, but

335
00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:55.039
I'm thinking of you know how when
you like mascots, it's like they can't

336
00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:56.720
talk to you because you won't hear
them, Like the suit's too big,

337
00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:02.400
so it's all like body movements and
indicating. But when you're in the suit,

338
00:24:02.519 --> 00:24:06.440
can you like have a conversation with
someone or is it sort of that

339
00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:08.960
thing that you're speaking to where it's
really kind of like anonymous and you're really

340
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:17.359
interacting through the suit and your movements. The majority you can have a conversation

341
00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:19.640
with. Okay. The thing is
you just have to realize, like inside

342
00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:22.960
the head if they have the head
on, Yeah, it can be hard

343
00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:26.039
to hear you. You need to
get a little closer. It can be

344
00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:29.599
hard to hear them. You might
have to ask repeat themselves. And when

345
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:34.200
you're becoming like popular or what they'll
say is like pop you fur. Then

346
00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:38.599
like you have Let's say I walk
into and this happens to me. You

347
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:42.319
walk into an event or a club
or something with furries, and all of

348
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:45.880
a sudden, everyone's like saying your
furry name at you. You know,

349
00:24:45.960 --> 00:24:48.160
Yamo Yamo. That's my name,
by the way, it's Yamo the yen.

350
00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:52.680
So it's like hearing my own name. It's like hearing adarios. So

351
00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:55.559
it's like, oh, who said
that? Let me turn around. Then

352
00:24:55.599 --> 00:24:57.759
someone's pulling on you, and people
like to boop your snoop because that's like

353
00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:00.519
a thing, and you know,
then you start being like, well,

354
00:25:00.519 --> 00:25:03.160
I wish people would ask more consent
before they just come up to you.

355
00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:06.759
And sometimes there's all these things we
can get into about that, Like some

356
00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.599
people wear badges like do not hug, or like ask for hugs cause you

357
00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:15.319
just are blind and deaf, and
people you don't know really messed with you,

358
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.920
even if they didn't mean to,
and maybe they're neurodivergent. Now you

359
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:22.079
have all this awkward energy mixed up
and suddenly you could have a panic attack

360
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:26.119
or something. But it just depends
person to person. So some people,

361
00:25:26.119 --> 00:25:30.599
for example, I know this one
bird Furrey who just squawks. He has

362
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:33.119
a little like this thing in his
mouth that is a bird whistle, and

363
00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:37.039
it's like, oh yeah, and
you're like, how are you and like

364
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:40.480
and you're like, oh yeah,
me too, you know, getting really

365
00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:42.119
deep into the role play. I
remember he I was like, what's your

366
00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:45.759
Twitter? And he stops and he's
like it's a blah blah blah. And

367
00:25:45.799 --> 00:25:51.400
I'm like, oh my god,
you speak human, you know this is

368
00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:53.599
I fucking love this, okay.
And I do feel like I got a

369
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:57.319
little ahead, because of course I
did. But so so going back to

370
00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:03.839
so you're going back toward you're fourteen
and you're in therapy and you're being asked

371
00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:07.200
these not great questions initially by your
psychiatrist, but it sounds like that at

372
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:12.160
least got better. What happens as
you mature and you go off to college

373
00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:18.240
and stuff. Are you able to
come more into the or when did you

374
00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:23.079
stop I guess keeping it a secret
in terms of the furry aspect of your

375
00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:29.400
identity. When did that become less
like a shameful secret and more something you

376
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:33.920
were open with. My friends would
know about my furry tastes. My friends

377
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.519
I would be open with about that. But I still it was so traumatic.

378
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:45.559
It was so unbelievably traumatic for all
that to happen that I was like

379
00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:49.359
really trying to just keep it on
the down low. It wasn't that I

380
00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:52.960
was like hiding it from my mom, but she would have mixed feelings,

381
00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:56.359
you know, about it, And
she's come full circle, like she's so

382
00:26:56.400 --> 00:27:00.759
supportive now, But at the time
I was still really care keeping it just

383
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:04.359
like, oh, this is just
my like everyday porn habit, and not

384
00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:08.519
that it's one real quick message about
the furry thing is is not all about

385
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:15.480
sex. I think it allows for
most of us to feel relief being homosexual

386
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:19.200
and engaging in that those acts in
a really kind, caring way. I

387
00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:23.640
think being furry is like the softest
way to be gay. It's not competitive

388
00:27:23.720 --> 00:27:26.440
necessarily. It's like very loving.
Even if you don't find like, oh

389
00:27:26.519 --> 00:27:29.440
I'm not into you, it's like, okay, well I enjoy rope playing

390
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:30.720
and I like your character. It's
like, well that's cool. You have

391
00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:34.119
no hard feelings. Cool, and
we can just hug and get friends.

392
00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:38.480
It also, and this is I'm
I'm not a gay man, but I

393
00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:45.240
feel like, does it maybe take
the focus off of gay men who I

394
00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:52.519
adore are very off an image focused
how you look is extremely important, workout

395
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:56.839
culture, all of that, And
it seems like maybe there's a nice sort

396
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:02.640
of opposite side of that coin,
which is those things are majorly decentered.

397
00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:07.839
If folks can't see you, that's
a nice Yeah, it's absolutely right.

398
00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:11.400
Imagine like you in a gay culture. Maybe you're like I have to be

399
00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:14.519
so fit, I have to have
be perfect my hair and all this.

400
00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:15.480
Well, it's like, well I
can't see any of that, brother,

401
00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:21.519
And I really like your cat Miaomiow
and I'm attracted to you, and it's

402
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:23.359
like, well, gosh, like
nobody thinks I'm attractive, and it's like

403
00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:27.440
I can't believe because I think you're
really attractive and that happens all the time,

404
00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:30.960
and it feels amazing, Like I've
opened up my world of like body

405
00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:33.880
types I like more and more.
In a way, I'm also restrictive,

406
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:37.960
like I really only want to be
with furries. Now. There's a certain

407
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.119
like mindset, like role playing or
something that just makes you feel like understood

408
00:28:42.119 --> 00:28:45.559
from the get go. Like you
can say, like, oh, we're

409
00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:47.559
both gay, we should know each
other. It's like we don't know anything

410
00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:48.960
about each other. But if you
say we're both furries, it's like,

411
00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:52.119
oh, we have we know a
lot about each other, and we can

412
00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:56.039
find out a lot quickly about exactly
what we're into, whether it's video games,

413
00:28:56.519 --> 00:28:59.640
art, just the love of animals, whatever it is. It's like

414
00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:03.240
we have a much closer jumping off
point to getting to know each other very

415
00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:07.559
closely, very quickly. I've heard
on this podcast, I've heard trans folks

416
00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:11.799
say similar things about how dating someone
who is also trans is like in your

417
00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:18.119
immediately starting from an understanding of like
who you are, what you've been through,

418
00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:21.839
like the like your viewpoint, how
you see the world, Like yeah,

419
00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:26.000
that's oh that's very cool. Yeah, oh, my god. Okay,

420
00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:29.359
okay, okay. So in terms
of what you just said, because

421
00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:33.960
this was another listener question, yeah
that I want to read exactly how this

422
00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:38.279
person phrased it, because you just
touched on this a little bit. The

423
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:47.960
question was is it a sexual kink
or more romantic slash fantasy? And it's

424
00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:52.680
sounding like there's room for all of
that, but yeah, could you speak

425
00:29:52.720 --> 00:29:56.400
a little to the sort of because
I think that lay people we do think

426
00:29:56.440 --> 00:30:00.000
of it as just a sexual kink. This is a like that's what all

427
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.480
the jokes and the stereotypes are based. But the way you speak about it,

428
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:07.440
it seems like it's a lot more
expansive in terms of ident today.

429
00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:12.960
Right, it is not all about
sex the sexual side for me, it's

430
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.359
always person to person. But the
sexual side for me is it was so

431
00:30:18.440 --> 00:30:27.359
engaging and like wonderful and freeing,
and it wasn't necessarily about like objectifying a

432
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:33.640
man per se. It's like I've
turned you into a werewolf with like all

433
00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:37.240
these exaggerated features on a two D
plane, like I'm looking at two D

434
00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:42.240
art constantly instead of like real porn
per se, and the romance you can

435
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:48.759
feel for a fictional character is wild
or for you can romanticize like somebody you've

436
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:52.160
never met in person, and it's
like, well, I'm falling in love

437
00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:57.160
with you potentially for the inside,
and that's like kind of a more pure

438
00:30:57.240 --> 00:31:02.279
thing then just sexing someone. It's
like, well, if I'm still horny

439
00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:06.559
for you, then at least it's
coming from a more caring place, Like

440
00:31:07.240 --> 00:31:10.559
I have so many wonderful men in
my life and so many furries and so

441
00:31:10.680 --> 00:31:14.720
much like wrote like, I love
kissing them, I love make seeing them

442
00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:17.640
happy. Like it's not just like, oh, when are we gonna bone

443
00:31:17.640 --> 00:31:23.920
again? Rhinoceros daddy, you know, you know, rhino cook me.

444
00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:29.799
Uh no. So yeah, it's
not all sexual, but the sex that

445
00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:34.599
I've had as a furry has been
more love filled than any gay sex almost,

446
00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:37.519
you know, any gay sex I've
had with just being like two dudes.

447
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:44.799
Wow, okay okay. And I'm
also obviously not meaning to like shame

448
00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:48.240
folks for who it is purely sexual, because it sounds like you're saying like

449
00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:53.880
that there there are some folks who's
who it's more sexual base, But like

450
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.720
any predilection, it sounds like there's
a wide range of people and what they

451
00:31:57.839 --> 00:32:01.559
get out of it. And I
bet they're a little more respectful in how

452
00:32:01.559 --> 00:32:06.400
they go about it because they're aware, like they're into a weird, you

453
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:09.720
know, animal thing, but they
it's a very playful thing and it's a

454
00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:14.839
very cute thing. So just because
it can be so sexual, you know,

455
00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:19.039
there's things like pups, which are
usually more kink community focused, but

456
00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:21.480
even some pups will get offended.
They're like, well, this means a

457
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:23.359
lot to me and my you know, my pupness lets me be a better

458
00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:25.240
version of myself. And it's like, well I get that, brother,

459
00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:29.599
Like you know, I'm not saying
you're a sexual deviant. But for example,

460
00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:35.559
some furry spaces which are by furries
from furries, will say like no

461
00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:39.079
pup hoods, no kink gear,
and then you can wear all your furry

462
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:42.720
stuff though, but then they might
say, oh, kink gears allowed to

463
00:32:42.759 --> 00:32:45.960
maybe where like for example, I
have a leash. I usually only wear

464
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.519
that if I'm trying to be more
LISTIVI it is, but even that like

465
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:52.279
might get get by, Like callers
are fine, but then you have like

466
00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:57.119
harnesses or maybe you have like a
fake plush sheath, like like a dog

467
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:00.880
sheath, you know, like you
could get pretty elaborate. But so even

468
00:33:01.319 --> 00:33:06.640
within the community, it's kind of
self policing and how they go about deciding

469
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:09.519
all that. Okay, And is
the pup stuff that you're referring to?

470
00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:14.599
Is that? Like I feel like
the stereotypical image is like a woman who's

471
00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:17.960
like a dominatrix type and then a
man on all fours with the collar and

472
00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:22.440
the lead. Is that, Jason? That might be that? Yeah,

473
00:33:22.440 --> 00:33:28.559
because that's pup playing somebody. Somebody
saying that they are a pup usually means

474
00:33:28.559 --> 00:33:32.039
they wear a neoprene or leather like
pup mask. Oh okay, gotcha,

475
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:36.279
gotcha, gotcha, you've seen that
before. I'm sure like those are puff

476
00:33:36.359 --> 00:33:42.400
yes specifically, Okay, this is
they're often intersecting with the furry community,

477
00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:47.359
but they themselves may not be furries. Okay. This is so fascinating and

478
00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:52.240
I feel like so little is no
one and understood about. I mean,

479
00:33:52.279 --> 00:33:57.240
I'm sure I'm telling you this,
like you know, we're breaking ground line.

480
00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:06.200
Yeah, I'm really I'm on the
cutting edge of things. So college

481
00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:13.000
and young adulthood, where how does
this develop? How do you start sharing

482
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:17.320
it with five? I mean,
you said eleven years with your boyfriend son.

483
00:34:17.880 --> 00:34:21.639
That's what I would say is my
midpoint. It was meeting the love

484
00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:24.760
of my life. We had a
mutual friend who was like, I think

485
00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:28.719
you guys really get along, and
so we went on a date in our

486
00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:30.639
college. He was a freshman,
I was a senior, and we went

487
00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:34.599
on a date to like our wellness
center, which had a beautiful like big

488
00:34:34.679 --> 00:34:37.960
pool and hot tub area, swimming
lanes. Well, you know, we

489
00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:43.320
first we like already like each other's
bodies in the changing room, and I

490
00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:45.039
was heavier at the time. He's
kind of a chubby chaser, and he

491
00:34:45.079 --> 00:34:47.760
was like super skinny, and I
like twins. I like a variety of

492
00:34:47.760 --> 00:34:51.800
bodies, as I said. But
we were already off to the races,

493
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:54.320
and we were talking about general things. We were into video games. We

494
00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:59.800
started talking about Skyrim, and in
that video game there's this race of cat

495
00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:04.159
men called the Kajitite, and we
started mentioning that, and we started mentioning

496
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:09.239
kind of like attraction to them in
furries. And he was like, oh,

497
00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:13.039
well, I'm not into them like
sexually, and I was like,

498
00:35:13.480 --> 00:35:16.679
oh, well I am, and
he goes, oh I am too.

499
00:35:19.119 --> 00:35:22.719
This is incredible. His instincts was
to hide it. His instincts was to

500
00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:25.280
be like, I'm not weird.
But I was like, don't worry,

501
00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:30.440
I'm weird too, and we He
was like I'm a husky, and I'm

502
00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:34.239
like, I'm a Hyaena. And
my parents were away on vacation and they

503
00:35:34.280 --> 00:35:36.719
just happened to be gone and I
just had met this beautiful boy and I

504
00:35:36.760 --> 00:35:40.679
took him home and we did naughty
things and a week later we started dating

505
00:35:40.679 --> 00:35:47.079
in the culvers on nine to eleven
in Marie, Kentucky. Yeah, and

506
00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:54.039
I've been together with him ever since. And that moment was it was huge.

507
00:35:54.079 --> 00:35:59.000
The thing was so talking about mental
health. This is another reason it's

508
00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:01.559
the midpoint at ages nineteen. So
I met him when I was just right

509
00:36:01.599 --> 00:36:05.880
at the end of like twenty two, at nineteen. I went to the

510
00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:10.280
psych word for the first time for
a psychotic break and I went like twice,

511
00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:14.760
like within the span of like two
or three weeks. And I was

512
00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:16.719
so psychotic, like I thought,
you know, I was on the Truman

513
00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:20.960
Show. I thought there was a
mirror in the psych ward with a camera

514
00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:22.480
behind it, and I tried to
like punch it, thinking I was going

515
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:24.800
to break it. Well it's a
bulletproof mirror. I found out, and

516
00:36:24.800 --> 00:36:30.360
I broke my hand and I had
to wear a cast. And I mean

517
00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:34.039
I at one time my parents visited
and I had so much anxiety I threw

518
00:36:34.119 --> 00:36:36.760
up and it went into the cast. Like this is a terrible time in

519
00:36:36.760 --> 00:36:42.119
my life at nineteen and so I
was on these different medicines for a while

520
00:36:42.880 --> 00:36:45.719
and sober on and off, you
know, mostly with the only things I

521
00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:51.320
ever really did was weed or alcohol, and I was never a big drinker.

522
00:36:51.400 --> 00:36:54.880
But then come twenty two, it
happens again, like shortly after meeting

523
00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:01.280
Jonathan, you know, my man
and my mate, I have another psychotic

524
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:07.599
break and I have to go to
Nashville the Centennial. And that first day

525
00:37:07.840 --> 00:37:13.639
they're like, well, actually what
happened was first my parents they were sending

526
00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:15.440
me to rehab because I was like
I want to get detox. I'm you

527
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:19.360
know this and that we didn't know
I was by polar And that first day

528
00:37:19.480 --> 00:37:22.480
at rehab, the first day at
rehab, they were like, this is

529
00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:27.039
something else other than coming off drugs
and alcohol. So they sent me to

530
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:31.159
the psych word and then I get
diagnosed by polar one. And while I'm

531
00:37:31.159 --> 00:37:38.679
in the psych word for that week. My grandmother is she starts having major

532
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:44.079
health complications. And one day they
call me because the doctor says I was

533
00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:47.159
sound of mind enough to talk to
My grandmother was on her deathbed, and

534
00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:51.559
she was in My mom said,
you know, Nan, I always called

535
00:37:51.559 --> 00:37:53.760
her Nan. She can't hear you, you know, she's in a coma,

536
00:37:53.920 --> 00:37:57.760
but or she can't speak to you, but she's in a coma,

537
00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:00.440
but she can hear you, and
so you should probably say, you know,

538
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:04.360
goodbye to your grandmother. And so
I'm on the phone and the psych

539
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:09.199
word and I say, you know, hey, I'm okay. You know,

540
00:38:09.400 --> 00:38:14.679
I love you. And my grandmother
finds the strength to come out of

541
00:38:14.679 --> 00:38:19.480
the coma and she rises up in
bed with the last of her strength and

542
00:38:19.559 --> 00:38:23.360
she says, I love you.
You're wonderful. And I said, I'm

543
00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:28.880
okay. And then a few hours
later they called me and said that she

544
00:38:29.079 --> 00:38:34.360
was in heaven. And this was
the lowest point of my life, you

545
00:38:34.360 --> 00:38:36.880
know, I started. Then I
had to go back and do the whole

546
00:38:36.920 --> 00:38:40.840
month of rehab after all that had
happened. And so I'm in Tennessee,

547
00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:45.360
like Dixon, Tennessee, in a
rehab and with all these major alcoholics and

548
00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:52.000
you know, and going through the
steps and meetings and AA and I do

549
00:38:52.159 --> 00:38:54.519
AA for several years. But Jonathan
and I start we like write to each

550
00:38:54.559 --> 00:38:59.360
other in rehab, you know,
and I'm still a very you know,

551
00:38:59.480 --> 00:39:01.559
like I'm being a stand up comedian, Like I've been a stand up since

552
00:39:01.599 --> 00:39:07.000
like eighteen, so I'm in Kentucky
trying to pursue this art form. I

553
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:09.480
would even tell jokes to the people
in rehab and it was really cool,

554
00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:12.880
like it was some of the only
entertainment they got, and they would really

555
00:39:13.519 --> 00:39:15.079
and with a gay man too,
you know, in Tennessee, like all

556
00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:19.559
these probably straight men alcoholics are like
finding out like, hey, this gay

557
00:39:19.639 --> 00:39:23.599
dude's all right, and you know, I get done with that. And

558
00:39:23.639 --> 00:39:28.119
my mother and I's relationship is difficult, you know. For a while,

559
00:39:28.159 --> 00:39:30.960
I feel like she'd blamed me for
my mother's death or I'm sorry her mother's

560
00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:35.800
death because of just so many things. And of course we resolved all that

561
00:39:35.880 --> 00:39:38.960
over years, and my mother has
her own mental illness. But I'm over

562
00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:45.599
two hundred and thirty pounds. I
eventually start to and I'm sticking with Jonathan.

563
00:39:45.639 --> 00:39:49.239
He lives like an hour away,
so we have to, you know,

564
00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:52.079
kind of try and get hotels here
and there. And like, I

565
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:59.079
eventually moved back out, but I
start doing improv at this place called Paduca

566
00:39:59.159 --> 00:40:01.239
Paduca Improv, and I did that
for like a year. We taught with

567
00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:06.440
the Upright Citizens Brigade book and we
were really good. And we put on

568
00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:09.840
two shows a month, one PG
thirteen and one rated R later that night.

569
00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:14.239
And we would meet for rehearsals each
week and drive an hour to Paduca,

570
00:40:14.280 --> 00:40:17.159
Kentucky for Murray. And it was
starting to really give me a sense

571
00:40:17.159 --> 00:40:21.719
of purpose and joy. I was
a theater major. This is what I

572
00:40:21.719 --> 00:40:22.480
wanted to do. I didn't know
how I was going to get out of

573
00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:28.360
Kentucky. It can feel like a
black hole there. And I also was

574
00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:31.480
happy that I had a boyfriend finally
and that he was always there for me.

575
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:36.079
And he would struggle with his own
things being in Kentucky and being queer.

576
00:40:36.880 --> 00:40:42.960
And eventually a friend of mine is
moving. He's been living in la

577
00:40:43.079 --> 00:40:45.079
and he set it up to where
I was going to come out here with

578
00:40:45.159 --> 00:40:49.760
him. And this is after a
huge argument with like my grandma or my

579
00:40:49.840 --> 00:40:52.920
granddad and my parents, you know, they were wanting me to quit the

580
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:57.400
improv, and I was like,
this is so important to me. I'm

581
00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:00.519
not quitting just because gas is expensive
to drive back and forth. And I

582
00:41:00.559 --> 00:41:02.960
was like, I should just move
and they were like, well, then

583
00:41:04.320 --> 00:41:07.559
you should just go. And it
wasn't like an evil thing. It was

584
00:41:07.639 --> 00:41:08.159
just like, well, that's what
you should do. Then. You know,

585
00:41:08.199 --> 00:41:13.400
I'm like twenty six or twenty five
at this point, still working in

586
00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:16.360
Murray, Kentucky, going nowhere.
There's just nothing. My mom always said

587
00:41:16.639 --> 00:41:22.840
there's nothing for you here, and
not in a way like they weren't there

588
00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:25.840
for me, but that I was
gonna waste away there. Yeah. And

589
00:41:25.880 --> 00:41:31.199
so at twenty six, I finally
moved to Los Angeles, California, and

590
00:41:31.559 --> 00:41:36.920
with all my furry baggage and all
my stand up and all my improv and

591
00:41:37.039 --> 00:41:39.760
from day one of getting there,
I was hitting up improv stages at IOW

592
00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:44.480
West and getting people coming up to
me telling me that I reminded them of

593
00:41:44.559 --> 00:41:49.360
Chris Farley and John Belushi and getting
I got a card from a guy like

594
00:41:49.400 --> 00:41:52.440
I mean, I was really hitting
it hard and I was talented. Did

595
00:41:52.519 --> 00:41:57.719
Jonathan move with you out to LA
or did he come later? That's a

596
00:41:57.760 --> 00:42:00.559
good question. He could not afford
to move with me, so we had

597
00:42:00.599 --> 00:42:08.360
to do a year apart. Wow, been through so so much. I'm

598
00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:13.880
so impressed at how strong your relationship
is to have gone through all the things

599
00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:19.119
you've just yeah, and yeah,
I'm very thankful for him. He's kept

600
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:21.360
me. You know, he's been
my rock for a long time. And

601
00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:25.159
during that year apart, we started
to we had already very very little,

602
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:30.679
like experimented with being open. When
we first started dating. He was like,

603
00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:31.519
I think we should be open,
and I was like, were you

604
00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:37.239
crazy? Like we're gonna be even
hachemists forever, like duh, duh.

605
00:42:37.400 --> 00:42:40.199
But then that first year out in
la we knew that we had needs and

606
00:42:40.239 --> 00:42:45.039
so we were okay with and we're
The key is communication and being like completely

607
00:42:45.079 --> 00:42:49.760
transparent about everything, and so we
started, like, you know, I'd

608
00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:53.519
go on like grinder because grinder in
Kentucky sucks. Grinder in la is like

609
00:42:54.599 --> 00:43:02.119
you're surrounded by men, not all
them good, and uh, you know,

610
00:43:02.239 --> 00:43:06.599
we fool around here and there.
Have you ever had sex with someone

611
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:09.480
so hot? Lauren? Like you
start getting in shape, you know what

612
00:43:09.480 --> 00:43:12.920
I mean? Like You're like,
wow, I'm gonna change my habits like

613
00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:16.239
holy and I have not. But
with women, it's I feel like it's

614
00:43:16.280 --> 00:43:21.000
a little it's a little different.
Yeah, I was like, this guy's

615
00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:23.039
way out in my league and I'm
bagging dat, you know with a D

616
00:43:23.199 --> 00:43:27.719
like Dad, I'm bagging Dad.
I'm gonna get in shape. And over

617
00:43:27.719 --> 00:43:30.960
the course of like six or seven
years, I went from two hundred and

618
00:43:30.039 --> 00:43:35.119
thirty pounds to now like one hundred
and sixty five pounds. And I'm kind

619
00:43:35.159 --> 00:43:37.639
of jumping, you know, towards
the end here, but the middle is

620
00:43:37.679 --> 00:43:42.880
definitely you know, Jonathan And moving
to LA, and I started telling some

621
00:43:42.920 --> 00:43:45.599
friends in LA like I would whisper
like I'm a furry, like what And

622
00:43:45.639 --> 00:43:51.039
I'm like I'm a furry and explaining
to that to them, and it would

623
00:43:51.039 --> 00:43:52.280
be funny to them to be like, oh, you find this hot,

624
00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:55.199
you find something like the Hedgehog hoot
and be like yes, yes, dr

625
00:43:57.119 --> 00:44:00.159
yeah, bring it on. And
I don't know if you want me to

626
00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:05.119
jump to where our the prank panel
has happened, but there's a lot that

627
00:44:05.639 --> 00:44:07.880
within the past ten years. Yeah, let's get to that in a moment.

628
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:14.119
But I want to ask, like
it sounds like you've always since you

629
00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:16.639
since you came to terms with it
yourself, or not came to terms,

630
00:44:16.639 --> 00:44:21.079
but since you felt okay with it
yourself. It sounds like you've been pretty

631
00:44:21.800 --> 00:44:28.599
open with folks about it, which
I think is amazing considering I'm sure all

632
00:44:28.679 --> 00:44:34.480
the you know, stereotypes and and
I don't know if jokes is the right

633
00:44:34.519 --> 00:44:37.159
word, but I feel like it's
one of the few identities where it's still

634
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:42.239
kind of socially acceptable to make fun
of it, you know what I mean.

635
00:44:42.360 --> 00:44:45.400
Like we live in a very accepting
and inclusive time, but I feel

636
00:44:45.400 --> 00:44:51.280
like people will still get away with
making furry jokes and not get called out

637
00:44:51.320 --> 00:44:54.000
on it and not feel badly about
it. Like and so the fact that

638
00:44:54.039 --> 00:44:58.079
you seem to have always been so
open about it, I'm wondering. In

639
00:44:58.119 --> 00:45:01.880
your comedy, I know that now
you are very open about it, and

640
00:45:01.920 --> 00:45:06.840
Brandon told me that you will,
you would wear the tail and everything.

641
00:45:06.840 --> 00:45:09.960
But is that was that right out
of the gate. Were you incorporating your

642
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:13.880
identity into your stand up or did
that take a little bit of time because

643
00:45:13.880 --> 00:45:20.639
stand up can be people can be
very shitty. Maybe it's the word that

644
00:45:20.719 --> 00:45:27.400
I'm looking for. Yeah, so
I've always talked about my sexuality and my

645
00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:32.199
stand up being gay, and when
it came to the furry thing, though

646
00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:37.360
not so much, not until more
recently, and even then, like every

647
00:45:37.400 --> 00:45:39.000
once in a while I would try, but it was so complicated to me

648
00:45:39.039 --> 00:45:44.000
to figure out, how do I
get in five minutes an audience to understand

649
00:45:44.039 --> 00:45:49.599
what a furry is, get my
references, understand my personal experience. You

650
00:45:49.639 --> 00:45:52.920
need almost like more time, or
you need the right audience, because it's

651
00:45:52.920 --> 00:45:58.039
such a vast and difficult and unexplored. I don't know any other furry comics.

652
00:45:58.280 --> 00:46:00.599
I think I'm like one of the
only ones, especially you know what

653
00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:04.400
I mean. I yes, one
hundred percent. I feel like you are

654
00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:07.480
the representation. And that's a huge, uh, that's a huge you know,

655
00:46:08.159 --> 00:46:13.559
wait to bear, Yeah, because
no one furry can represent the community

656
00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:16.960
ever. But I feel like I'm
a very good, the best representation they

657
00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:22.000
can ask for, and I think
they would agree. But you know,

658
00:46:22.039 --> 00:46:24.039
when I first moved to LA,
I was terrified of it running my career.

659
00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:28.239
I was afraid that if it was
out that I was a furry,

660
00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:30.599
it was going to stop. I
thought I was gonna have to quit being

661
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:34.519
a furry. I was like,
Okay, I'm in la I finally moved

662
00:46:34.519 --> 00:46:37.480
out of Kentucky. Things are happening
for me. I got an agent within

663
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:39.159
seven months of being out here.
It's like, it's time to be serious,

664
00:46:39.199 --> 00:46:43.719
Like, I can't indulge this thing
that brought me so much joy because

665
00:46:43.719 --> 00:46:49.840
it's a threat to my livelihood.
Yeah, and so I just for a

666
00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:52.719
bit of a little bit of me
buried it, even though it was still

667
00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:59.400
an everyday part of me. Yeah, and that that was tough to deal

668
00:46:59.400 --> 00:47:01.519
with up until just I would say, a few even a few years ago,

669
00:47:01.760 --> 00:47:06.679
when it got better and better.
I mean, it literally sounds like

670
00:47:06.800 --> 00:47:10.719
how people would talk about just being
queer, like I don't know, twenty

671
00:47:10.960 --> 00:47:15.719
thirty years ago, like when they're
starting. I mean you think like Ellen

672
00:47:15.920 --> 00:47:21.119
de Generous not being out for most
of her early career. Like, yeah,

673
00:47:21.119 --> 00:47:24.719
it's just so interesting that it really
runs parallel in the exact same way

674
00:47:24.760 --> 00:47:29.880
that you thought you were going to
have to do you Okay, are we

675
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:32.599
sort of up to where prank panel
comes in at this point, I'm feeling

676
00:47:32.599 --> 00:47:37.079
in my soul the story is getting
to the best part. Do this shit?

677
00:47:37.599 --> 00:47:42.480
Yeah, let's okay. So let's
talk about how this happened. Yes,

678
00:47:42.639 --> 00:47:47.639
So one day I get an Instagram
message and it looks like a bot,

679
00:47:47.719 --> 00:47:50.719
you know, one of those messages
like hey, yes my number,

680
00:47:51.039 --> 00:47:53.079
I have an opportunity for a show
like call me. And I almost like

681
00:47:53.159 --> 00:47:57.400
didn't reply to it, but they
don't usually use leave a phone number.

682
00:47:57.679 --> 00:48:00.280
So I called the number and sure
enough it was a person and they're like,

683
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:02.920
hey, I'm a casting director.
We're looking for funny people to be

684
00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:06.159
on this prank show. And they
didn't tell me a lot of details.

685
00:48:06.159 --> 00:48:07.800
They didn't tell me what network or
anything, but they were like, if

686
00:48:07.840 --> 00:48:10.679
you you know, I can help
you. But form a prank, think

687
00:48:10.719 --> 00:48:15.840
of a friend as a target,
and if you do good, you can

688
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:17.960
pitch it, and then if you
do good with the pitch, you can

689
00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:21.599
be on TV. And I was
like, oh, that sounds great.

690
00:48:21.639 --> 00:48:23.599
So I put together a pitch and
they were like that first pitch is a

691
00:48:23.639 --> 00:48:28.760
little you know, we're a family
network. We're related with Disney. And

692
00:48:28.800 --> 00:48:30.079
I was like, Okay, what
network is that. My friends were like

693
00:48:30.079 --> 00:48:36.320
it's ABC and I was like,
oh, very What were the details of

694
00:48:36.360 --> 00:48:39.440
the pitch that they that made them
respond, Hey, we're a Family Network.

695
00:48:39.880 --> 00:48:45.400
It was like having a lucivid like
a naughty woman, maybe horn it

696
00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:49.920
up to try and seduce a friend, Okay, you know what I mean,

697
00:48:49.960 --> 00:48:53.159
Like maybe not prostituting, but just
like something naughty there. And they

698
00:48:53.159 --> 00:48:57.679
were like, let's form a different
version of this prank. Okay, interesting,

699
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.679
interesting, okay, and I think
it's still involved furries, but definitely

700
00:49:00.679 --> 00:49:04.280
like once because I was talking about
myself and they were like, you know,

701
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:07.559
the furry thing sounds good, and
I thought of a prank about It

702
00:49:07.599 --> 00:49:09.239
wasn't fully fleshed out, but it
was like, I want to trick my

703
00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:13.559
friend into going into an anime convention, but actually it's a furry convention,

704
00:49:13.920 --> 00:49:15.760
and then we try to put him
in a first suit and it's funny that

705
00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:22.039
way. That's hilarious. Well,
we get the best prank we can together

706
00:49:22.199 --> 00:49:27.760
and fast forward to the day of
the shoot. Because there's so many stories

707
00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:31.599
I could tell just about the prank
panel. But you don't know the celebrities

708
00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:36.159
on the show until you go up
to this wall you're being recorded and the

709
00:49:36.199 --> 00:49:38.599
wall spins, really know until I
saw the wall spit around, But you

710
00:49:38.679 --> 00:49:43.320
literally didn't know until you were looking
at that until you're looking at the celebrities.

711
00:49:43.360 --> 00:49:45.320
You don't know who you're pitching to. Oh, well, well there

712
00:49:45.320 --> 00:49:50.119
comes the improv training. Like I
have been used to pitching and pitching and

713
00:49:50.559 --> 00:49:52.199
writing sketches, and I'm just used
to being funny in front of people,

714
00:49:52.239 --> 00:49:57.760
like this is my dream. This
is where I feel comfortable and sure enough.

715
00:49:57.840 --> 00:50:04.519
Like the wall spins around and it's
Johnnyxville, Eric Andre and the Gabbery

716
00:50:04.679 --> 00:50:12.880
Cidibe aka Precious and yeah, yes, and I don't have time to freak

717
00:50:12.920 --> 00:50:15.679
out. You know, I have
a little moment and I have to I'm

718
00:50:15.679 --> 00:50:21.599
wearing a tail. It's probably the
first tale they've seen in a long time

719
00:50:21.679 --> 00:50:23.800
on a human beings. So you
wait, let me pause you here and

720
00:50:23.800 --> 00:50:29.119
ask. So you made the decision. You knew this was a national televised

721
00:50:29.159 --> 00:50:32.920
show. You're making the decision to
come out to the world assuming you get

722
00:50:32.920 --> 00:50:37.199
picked on television. Is that a
huge decision for you or did you always

723
00:50:37.239 --> 00:50:39.559
know? Like if I say yes
to this show, I'm going to be

724
00:50:39.559 --> 00:50:43.320
one hundred percent me and this is
how it's going to go down. It

725
00:50:43.360 --> 00:50:49.079
was terrifying. It was really scary
because I wrestled with it back and forth,

726
00:50:49.400 --> 00:50:51.800
being like, oh my god,
what if I make the community look

727
00:50:51.880 --> 00:50:54.840
bad? Or what if you know, I like, what if these people

728
00:50:54.840 --> 00:50:58.039
are like what is wrong with you? You know what I mean? There's

729
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:00.639
just so many thoughts that go through
your head. But I knew that,

730
00:51:00.760 --> 00:51:06.119
like at my core, like I'm
awesome and like this is uh probably gonna

731
00:51:06.280 --> 00:51:09.960
so authentic, Like he really truly
authentic. And I think that that helps

732
00:51:10.039 --> 00:51:16.280
so much in terms of being the
face of a misunderstood identity. Thank you.

733
00:51:16.400 --> 00:51:20.320
I think so too. And people
on the show felt the same way

734
00:51:20.719 --> 00:51:22.920
because as I'm you know, pitching, you know, they I can tell

735
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:28.000
that they're bantering with me. I'm
holding my own with these legends of comedy.

736
00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:30.519
I'm like making them laugh and I'm
just like happy to be there.

737
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:34.880
You know, even if it just
ended ended there, it would have been

738
00:51:34.920 --> 00:51:37.800
worth it. But here I am
representing a furry and you know, Gabory

739
00:51:37.840 --> 00:51:42.039
Sideby knew what a furry was.
She was like, oh, they call

740
00:51:42.079 --> 00:51:45.840
it yiffing when they have sex.
And I'm like, yes, Gabby,

741
00:51:45.199 --> 00:51:49.280
they do call it that when they
do that. Back to the pitch dough

742
00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:53.760
and so they agree to do it, like she wants to do my prank,

743
00:51:53.840 --> 00:51:59.280
and Johnny Knoxville is like, I
guess we're doing it, and I'm

744
00:51:59.320 --> 00:52:02.199
like through the moon and you know, there's some behind the stuff that happened

745
00:52:02.239 --> 00:52:07.280
after that that was really cool too, But what ends up going down is

746
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:13.679
they reverse prank me. So they
took me to a writer's room and they

747
00:52:13.800 --> 00:52:17.199
told me. And in the writer's
room, I'm explaining to some of the

748
00:52:17.199 --> 00:52:22.480
best writers in Hollywood and producers and
Johnny Knoxville and Gabby what any furry questions

749
00:52:22.519 --> 00:52:25.719
they have. I'm explaining just like
I am to you today, Like you

750
00:52:25.719 --> 00:52:30.440
know, we are targeted often like
this cannot look bad. Please, you

751
00:52:30.480 --> 00:52:32.960
know, I'll kill myself, not
really, but kind of, and telling

752
00:52:32.960 --> 00:52:36.679
them about like you don't have to
have a furs suit, you can go

753
00:52:36.719 --> 00:52:37.920
to us. You can all go
to a furry club yourself if you want,

754
00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:44.840
like, and teaching these people about
who they're you know, working with,

755
00:52:45.320 --> 00:52:47.199
and they're telling me, well,
we're going to do a furry pub

756
00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:51.239
crawl and then a busload of furries
is going to come out and have a

757
00:52:51.280 --> 00:52:53.559
West Side story dance battle. And
I was like, that's fabulous, Yes,

758
00:52:54.199 --> 00:52:58.519
made my pranks sound good. Well, they're lying to me. They

759
00:52:58.519 --> 00:53:01.599
show up the day of the prank. They show up like ten days early

760
00:53:01.880 --> 00:53:07.639
to Alex, my friend who I
targeted, who's free adjacent, the sweetest

761
00:53:07.679 --> 00:53:13.320
man, the sweetest straight head ound
just wonderfully except yes, he is a

762
00:53:13.360 --> 00:53:16.119
ball of sweetness, which is why
I picked him, and unfortunately I'm just

763
00:53:16.119 --> 00:53:19.920
as sweet. So they decided to
prank me, and they told him that

764
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:22.280
I was going to prank him,
so he had all the heads up in

765
00:53:22.320 --> 00:53:27.119
the world to get me and what
they did. You know, everyone should

766
00:53:27.119 --> 00:53:31.440
go watch the episode. It's the
season Finalene. It is really really well

767
00:53:31.480 --> 00:53:36.960
done. I cannot stress enough.
I really can't. I'm gonna wrap this

768
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:40.119
part up because this is I always
It's such such an emotional thing, Lauren

769
00:53:40.239 --> 00:53:46.840
like. So basically, they everything's
going well. I'm like, we've got

770
00:53:46.880 --> 00:53:50.760
him in a Furst suit. It
smells like, I think my prank's going

771
00:53:50.800 --> 00:53:52.639
off fantastically. There's all these free
extras who don't know how to be a

772
00:53:52.719 --> 00:53:57.159
Fury and they're like, okay,
we're gonna cow brought him now, and

773
00:53:57.199 --> 00:54:00.639
I'm like, okay. So he
comes back from using the quote unquote restroom

774
00:54:00.679 --> 00:54:01.920
and he's in a full Fox costume. So I think it's my friend in

775
00:54:01.960 --> 00:54:07.480
the costume, and they cowprod him
into the street, where a motorcycle then

776
00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:12.000
comes out of nowhere and collides with
him right in front of me. Yes,

777
00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:15.840
it's loud, and it's like,
uh, okay, keep it together,

778
00:54:16.320 --> 00:54:21.599
Adario, keep it together. Don't
know what's happening, Probably not life

779
00:54:21.639 --> 00:54:24.920
and death, but not this wasn't
in the plan, and there was a

780
00:54:24.960 --> 00:54:29.480
GoPro on his head, so maybe
this isn't you. But also can't break

781
00:54:29.519 --> 00:54:30.840
you know what I mean. There's
a million thoughts going through my head and

782
00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:34.400
it's all happening so fast. Everyone's
popping out like what happened? Oh my

783
00:54:34.440 --> 00:54:37.119
god? Is he okay? An
ambulance comes out, and then he starts

784
00:54:37.119 --> 00:54:42.119
going down the hill Benny Hill style
from this gurney pretty amazing. He has

785
00:54:42.199 --> 00:54:45.840
a milkman, a male lady,
a furry. I go down the hill

786
00:54:45.840 --> 00:54:49.519
and then I'm like, are you
okay, Alex? And I look up

787
00:54:49.559 --> 00:54:52.519
the hill and I see the same
fox costume with no head and there's my

788
00:54:52.559 --> 00:54:57.480
friend going what happened? And then
here comes the whole crew. They start

789
00:54:57.480 --> 00:55:00.119
clapping, they go we did it, and I'm like, oh, oh

790
00:55:00.119 --> 00:55:01.480
my god, and They're like,
this is why you don't prank your friends,

791
00:55:01.960 --> 00:55:06.280
you know, because blah blah blah, and it just was an incredible

792
00:55:06.360 --> 00:55:08.880
day full prank. You'll see this. Why do you watch it? But

793
00:55:08.920 --> 00:55:15.119
basically, so they swapped a stunt
man into the costume because this guy really

794
00:55:15.119 --> 00:55:19.800
took the hit from the motorcycle and
not like this guy. I was worried

795
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:22.679
about the stunt man. But yeah, so it'll make sense when you see

796
00:55:22.719 --> 00:55:28.800
it. But it is truly so
to jump right from there. When you

797
00:55:28.800 --> 00:55:32.079
do your prank, you then before
the show's over, you watch the prank

798
00:55:32.199 --> 00:55:37.760
in a live studio audience with Johnny
and Eric and Gabby, executive producer Jimmy

799
00:55:37.800 --> 00:55:44.360
Kimmel and Oh I got to meet, Oh my God. And you watch

800
00:55:44.360 --> 00:55:46.519
your prank on a big screen with
all these people, and they film that,

801
00:55:46.599 --> 00:55:50.559
and they film the audience reaction and
then they talk about the prank a

802
00:55:50.559 --> 00:55:55.360
little bit and that becomes your episode. Well, as we do all of

803
00:55:55.400 --> 00:56:00.199
that, I'm like tearing up just
watching the prank for the first time I'm

804
00:56:00.199 --> 00:56:05.000
on the TV because it's a positive
thing with Furyes. It's me looking good

805
00:56:05.039 --> 00:56:07.679
with all these celebrities and like my
dream coming true, and I was already

806
00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:13.599
getting emotional. They're like, but
Adario, we have one more surprise for

807
00:56:13.639 --> 00:56:16.199
you. And they call this girl
and she brings out this big, giant

808
00:56:16.199 --> 00:56:20.320
present and they put in the middle
of the stage and they say open it.

809
00:56:21.119 --> 00:56:24.000
And I'm getting excited because I'm like, there's no way they got me

810
00:56:24.920 --> 00:56:30.000
a Furst suit. There's no way. And I take the head or the

811
00:56:30.440 --> 00:56:36.159
lid off and inside I pull out
the head of my brand new Furst suit

812
00:56:36.960 --> 00:56:40.679
and I'm looking out at the audience
and they're going crazy. And I look

813
00:56:40.679 --> 00:56:45.400
at Johnny Knoxville and I said,
is this for me? And he goes

814
00:56:45.480 --> 00:56:49.840
yes, and I start crying.
I cry my little eyes out in front

815
00:56:49.880 --> 00:56:54.480
of the whole world. I'm just
so overwhelmed because I know how expensive they

816
00:56:54.480 --> 00:56:58.679
are and how rare this is,
and to have it from these people that

817
00:56:58.760 --> 00:57:01.480
mean so much to me on the
show with my friend, like, it

818
00:57:01.559 --> 00:57:07.280
was just completely overwhelming and I didn't
have like two seconds to to like cry

819
00:57:07.320 --> 00:57:10.360
for very long before they start getting
the crowd the champ put it on,

820
00:57:10.679 --> 00:57:15.320
put it on, and literally you
don't see this on the camera's faulks,

821
00:57:15.320 --> 00:57:19.880
but Eric Andre and Johnny Knoxville are
forcibly picking me up off the ground and

822
00:57:19.920 --> 00:57:22.960
shoving me into my first suit,
right, I don't think anyone else on

823
00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:27.199
earth can say that. No,
that's its own fantasy. I feel like

824
00:57:27.239 --> 00:57:30.639
a very specific And then they shoved
me into my suit. No. I

825
00:57:30.679 --> 00:57:37.800
pleaded no as my erection grew hotter
and thicker and longer. So I get

826
00:57:37.800 --> 00:57:42.719
in the suit. I don't even
know what I look like. It's you

827
00:57:42.719 --> 00:57:45.960
know what I mean, I don't
even know what I did tot and I

828
00:57:45.199 --> 00:57:49.840
zipped up and I'm in a full
first suit for the first time, also

829
00:57:49.880 --> 00:57:52.119
in jeans. It's getting very hot
in there. Two like in stage lights,

830
00:57:52.119 --> 00:57:55.119
like those suits get hot. People
and their own Yeah, not to

831
00:57:55.159 --> 00:58:00.159
be on TV, and a Disney
character can attest to that, right,

832
00:58:00.840 --> 00:58:07.599
So you know, I do some
cool hyena moves iya wu, I howl.

833
00:58:07.800 --> 00:58:10.280
I'm like, this is incredible.
I'm like talking to them on and

834
00:58:10.320 --> 00:58:15.000
off between shoots like Eric Andry's like, this is gonna get you so much

835
00:58:15.079 --> 00:58:17.599
Dick, how right he was,
Lauren. I don't even think he knew

836
00:58:17.639 --> 00:58:22.519
how right he was. And it
was just an incredible, unbelievable moment my

837
00:58:22.519 --> 00:58:27.280
life. On December sixteenth, twenty
twenty two, and we're recording this if

838
00:58:27.360 --> 00:58:30.880
that's okay for me to say,
you know, on the fourteenth of December.

839
00:58:30.920 --> 00:58:32.119
So in two days, I'll have
had my first suit for a whole

840
00:58:32.199 --> 00:58:38.599
year and Yamo finally came into my
life in the most unbelievable way. God

841
00:58:38.760 --> 00:58:46.000
damn, that is so incredible.
I'm so fucking happy for you. I

842
00:58:46.079 --> 00:58:51.199
and Brandon had told me ahead of
like I even knew that they were gonna

843
00:58:51.199 --> 00:58:53.440
surprise you with a suit, and
it's still made me tear up just based

844
00:58:53.480 --> 00:58:58.360
on your reaction. And I think
also as someone you know who does this

845
00:58:58.440 --> 00:59:04.679
queer podcast and is in the queer
community, like seeing someone feel acceptance for

846
00:59:04.719 --> 00:59:07.960
the first time and know that they
are providing represents, It's like, all

847
00:59:07.079 --> 00:59:10.960
I feel like anybody, maybe if
you're not even queer, but if you're

848
00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:15.519
any kind of marginal yes person,
you you feel that you just feel what

849
00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:22.119
you're feeling in that moment, and
it's it was lovely. I'm really happy

850
00:59:22.159 --> 00:59:27.480
to share that with humanity because growing
up, I always thought about like one

851
00:59:27.519 --> 00:59:30.480
day I'm going to be on like
a talk show and I'm going to tell

852
00:59:30.519 --> 00:59:31.840
my story and I'm gonna cry.
Yes, I don't know, it was

853
00:59:31.880 --> 00:59:36.039
just what was fantasy, and little
did I know that it was going to

854
00:59:36.119 --> 00:59:38.960
happen that day in such a better
way than I could ever have pictured.

855
00:59:39.360 --> 00:59:43.519
They used the picture of me crying
for like the preview of the episode,

856
00:59:44.039 --> 00:59:45.519
and I'm like, I'm just like
ugly crying in the preview. I'm like,

857
00:59:45.519 --> 00:59:50.280
oh, well, you look so
handsome. I did be handsome in

858
00:59:50.320 --> 00:59:53.400
the studio, Thank you. I
did. I did look very handsome and

859
00:59:53.639 --> 00:59:59.480
just a quick what I think is
like unbelievable. When I started creating my

860
00:59:59.559 --> 01:00:04.719
original character of Yamo the Yen,
the Hyena, he was with natural colors

861
01:00:04.760 --> 01:00:08.039
like brown, big brown eyes.
And even within that past year, was

862
01:00:08.079 --> 01:00:12.960
I finally starting to get a reference
sheet. Usually need a reference sheet that

863
01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:15.079
shows like all your marketings and colors
and name, and people can use that

864
01:00:15.159 --> 01:00:19.920
to make your art. So I
finally had all this art starting to get

865
01:00:19.920 --> 01:00:22.519
made. I was paying for commissions, getting to get on Twitter for ey

866
01:00:22.519 --> 01:00:28.199
Twitter for the first like ever,
and like getting to ex build my community

867
01:00:28.280 --> 01:00:32.280
and the Southern California Ferry community is
amazing too, met so many amazing friends.

868
01:00:32.880 --> 01:00:37.320
But what's so crazy to me is
that I had pictured Yamo as this

869
01:00:38.079 --> 01:00:45.199
brown hyena, and all those years
ago that friend of mine drew me as

870
01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:51.320
this black and white gray hyena.
And then here comes, all these years

871
01:00:51.400 --> 01:00:55.440
later, this black and white and
gray hyena in a box. And it's

872
01:00:55.480 --> 01:01:01.039
almost as if Yamo had come full
circle from my childhood and been like here

873
01:01:01.079 --> 01:01:07.519
I am daddy, and like I'm
born, and he's been with me ever

874
01:01:07.559 --> 01:01:09.599
since, and he's, you know, a part of me. I say,

875
01:01:09.639 --> 01:01:15.079
he like he's this walking, talking
creature, but he's me. And

876
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:20.159
there's it's like I have a part
of me that's also I love separately and

877
01:01:20.199 --> 01:01:25.400
that I also inhabit constantly. And
it's an incredibly interesting, like mental space

878
01:01:25.480 --> 01:01:31.719
to be in as a furry.
But it's really awesome. It feels a

879
01:01:31.760 --> 01:01:36.800
little similar to me with how actors
will sometimes talk about a role that really

880
01:01:36.800 --> 01:01:40.320
affects them and they'll speak in the
third person about it because there's the awareness

881
01:01:40.360 --> 01:01:44.679
that this is a role, but
they also inhabit it, and it like

882
01:01:44.800 --> 01:01:50.280
that's what it's reminding me of when
I've heard like great actors speak about Yeah,

883
01:01:50.400 --> 01:01:53.000
it's just really Oh my god,
Adario. Before we wrap up,

884
01:01:53.039 --> 01:01:59.199
I want to give you the space
and the time to share anything like anything

885
01:01:59.239 --> 01:02:01.840
you would like people to know,
or any like myths you want to bust,

886
01:02:01.960 --> 01:02:07.599
or just like any For a lot
of people listening, I'm sure you

887
01:02:07.639 --> 01:02:10.400
are the first person they've ever heard
speak on these things. And yeah,

888
01:02:10.440 --> 01:02:15.960
if there's just anything that you that
you want to share about the culture,

889
01:02:15.320 --> 01:02:19.840
or anything you want to push back
on where you're like, here's a stereotype

890
01:02:19.840 --> 01:02:22.840
that is not accurate. Yeah,
I just want to give you as much

891
01:02:22.880 --> 01:02:27.440
time as you want to just speak
on all things Furrey. Thank you,

892
01:02:27.519 --> 01:02:30.079
Lauren. I appreciate all this time
here with you to share this. It's

893
01:02:30.079 --> 01:02:35.199
been incredible. And I just want
people to know that the sex is not

894
01:02:35.280 --> 01:02:39.960
the predominant reason you get into furryism. It's a great way to enjoy your

895
01:02:39.960 --> 01:02:45.679
sex without maybe having all these weights
attached to your guilty conscience of being queer

896
01:02:45.800 --> 01:02:52.039
or queer coded or non binary or
whatever your issue is. And so the

897
01:02:52.039 --> 01:02:54.960
next time you see a furry,
it doesn't mean that they're covered and come

898
01:02:55.039 --> 01:03:00.039
on their suit with very clean you
know, it doesn't mean we want I

899
01:03:00.039 --> 01:03:04.119
want to like you know, abduct
your kids. It doesn't mean anything weird

900
01:03:04.280 --> 01:03:09.519
like that. It is for us
and our self acceptance and to create safe

901
01:03:09.519 --> 01:03:14.159
spaces for us. We're not trying
to convert you or anything like that.

902
01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:17.679
You can come up and get pictures
and hug us if you ask. Like,

903
01:03:17.880 --> 01:03:23.280
we love attention, you know usually, but it's not the same as

904
01:03:23.320 --> 01:03:28.000
like calling it kink gear. That
would be offensive. Okay, Okay,

905
01:03:28.039 --> 01:03:31.719
that's really good to know. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah. And

906
01:03:31.760 --> 01:03:36.679
we're just a bunch of like playful
puppies and we love life and we love

907
01:03:36.719 --> 01:03:38.159
animals, and I'm sure you do
too. So the next time you see

908
01:03:38.199 --> 01:03:42.679
a furry maybe just ask and say, like, hey, can I can

909
01:03:42.679 --> 01:03:45.679
I pet you, boop your snoop
or compliment your suit, you know,

910
01:03:45.760 --> 01:03:50.119
and we'll be super happy you did. Oh my god, thank you so

911
01:03:50.239 --> 01:03:53.880
much. I'm just I'm so I'm
so grateful to you. I really I

912
01:03:53.920 --> 01:03:58.400
hope that people, yeah, I
don't know. I hope that people walk

913
01:03:58.400 --> 01:04:03.119
away from those feeling like they know
more and maybe are encouraged to go and

914
01:04:03.199 --> 01:04:10.159
learn more. I think we have
a lot of misconceptions about furries, and

915
01:04:10.280 --> 01:04:15.840
like I said, I don't think
I hope that soon and you're no longer

916
01:04:15.039 --> 01:04:20.199
the butt of any jokes because it
just seems like there's so much more,

917
01:04:20.360 --> 01:04:23.599
or at least not in a way. I mean, I feel like the

918
01:04:23.639 --> 01:04:28.000
queer community is really good about poking
fun at its. We're also really good

919
01:04:28.000 --> 01:04:30.639
at taking ourselves way too seriously.
But those of us in the community who

920
01:04:30.679 --> 01:04:34.480
are in comedy or like, we'll
we'll poke fun at our own stereotypes that

921
01:04:34.519 --> 01:04:38.400
we fall into and stuff. So
in that respect, I think it's fine,

922
01:04:38.440 --> 01:04:41.840
but I don't like what I was
saying about how it seems like the

923
01:04:41.960 --> 01:04:46.119
last thing that you can freely make
fun of without anybody sort of giving you

924
01:04:46.280 --> 01:04:49.039
side eye. And we have great
senses of humor. Furries, we'll joke

925
01:04:49.079 --> 01:04:55.159
about everything. We're just people inside
of all this. And I think now

926
01:04:55.679 --> 01:04:59.840
there are more furries than ever.
It's getting into media more than ever in

927
01:05:00.119 --> 01:05:05.280
new accepting ways. It's like people
are understanding furries. And I'm really optimistic

928
01:05:05.280 --> 01:05:08.960
about the future for furries. And
I think there's gonna be a lot more

929
01:05:09.039 --> 01:05:13.159
hyenas. There's a lot of wolves
and foxes, but I think hyenas are

930
01:05:13.159 --> 01:05:17.360
on the rise, Okay predominant,
but you're you're single handedly this is a

931
01:05:17.440 --> 01:05:23.320
basic yeah, So what I'm very
optimistic for it and just like you said,

932
01:05:23.360 --> 01:05:26.559
I think more and more people are
going to understand what it means so

933
01:05:26.599 --> 01:05:30.000
they don't have to freak out like
maybe my family did when I was a

934
01:05:30.039 --> 01:05:36.159
hurry at fourteen. Oh well said, Well said So Adario, where can

935
01:05:36.239 --> 01:05:44.079
people find you and your comedy?
And I will link to the prankue panel

936
01:05:44.119 --> 01:05:46.119
as I mentioned. But yeah,
anything you want to plug where folks can

937
01:05:46.159 --> 01:05:48.960
find you. Yeah. I just
started the TikTok, so I'm going to

938
01:05:49.000 --> 01:05:54.119
get better and better at that.
But it's my name, Adario Marcadante.

939
01:05:54.599 --> 01:05:58.880
I should shorten that my Instagram.
Oh it's a gorgeous name. Thank you.

940
01:05:59.079 --> 01:06:02.320
My Instagram is just a Dario A
D A R I O and the

941
01:06:02.400 --> 01:06:06.079
number one. I post a lot
of stuff there. You can see all

942
01:06:06.079 --> 01:06:12.239
my stand up dates. I'm gonna
be at the s x s W Festival

943
01:06:12.280 --> 01:06:15.079
in Austin, Texas in March,
so my first time touring stand up in

944
01:06:15.079 --> 01:06:20.639
any capacity. Uh yeah, And
I'm always going to be posting more and

945
01:06:20.679 --> 01:06:25.239
more stand up comedy. And I've
only recently started doing it in suit here

946
01:06:25.280 --> 01:06:28.800
and there, so who knows,
maybe AMO would become Yeah. I did

947
01:06:28.840 --> 01:06:30.880
it for the first time at a
at a furry event I always go to.

948
01:06:31.360 --> 01:06:34.679
They started having drag queens and they
let me do like furry drag,

949
01:06:35.079 --> 01:06:39.079
and they started they let me do
stand up in the full suit. So

950
01:06:40.119 --> 01:06:44.320
I just don't know. I would
want to always keep my suit in good

951
01:06:44.320 --> 01:06:46.519
condition. But if it started becoming
like a phenomenon, like I don't mind

952
01:06:46.559 --> 01:06:53.679
becoming the furry comedian, Oh my
god. And my furry Twitter is yamo

953
01:06:54.039 --> 01:06:58.519
yeen y a m m o y
e e N. I have a lot

954
01:06:58.519 --> 01:07:03.679
of furry art. Shoulds what I
get into the community with, and yeah,

955
01:07:03.719 --> 01:07:08.519
feel free to give me a follow
And if folks want to find out

956
01:07:08.679 --> 01:07:14.199
more information just in general about furries, is there because you know, we're

957
01:07:14.239 --> 01:07:17.760
always like you can google anything,
but are there like better resources or more

958
01:07:17.840 --> 01:07:20.920
positive, more accurate resources that you
want to shout out or something, because

959
01:07:20.920 --> 01:07:25.119
I feel like if you just google
furry, you're going to get maybe a

960
01:07:25.119 --> 01:07:28.960
lot of stuff that's like I don't
know, well, will that give people

961
01:07:29.000 --> 01:07:31.719
a good perception of it? Or
are there any sort of resources specifically where

962
01:07:31.760 --> 01:07:36.599
people can learn, Like, yeah, I want to inform right, well,

963
01:07:36.599 --> 01:07:40.800
I want to shout out one YouTuber
I really like as a furry who

964
01:07:40.800 --> 01:07:44.280
I think does an excellent job of
explaining a lot of things. His name

965
01:07:44.400 --> 01:07:50.920
is It's complicated, Beta Ada Delta. It's just like it sounds, and

966
01:07:51.239 --> 01:07:56.000
he explains a lot about You can
type into YouTube like and if you see

967
01:07:56.000 --> 01:07:59.360
it's his comment thingy it's like what
is a furry? In like two minutes

968
01:07:59.400 --> 01:08:03.719
like and he'll e everything from Anthromor's
perspect and plopomorphic characters to what it means

969
01:08:03.719 --> 01:08:08.400
and what it doesn't mean. You
can go on furry Twitter. You're probably

970
01:08:08.400 --> 01:08:12.119
gonna take a long route if you
go about that, but that's like you

971
01:08:12.159 --> 01:08:15.039
actually getting involved with the community.
If you go on twitters are adding for

972
01:08:15.239 --> 01:08:17.920
suitors and seeing they're you know,
they're all different people. Some might be

973
01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:21.239
horny, some might be just like
playful little bunnies and like show off their

974
01:08:21.359 --> 01:08:27.560
character. And that's really a great
way to see boots on the ground what

975
01:08:27.600 --> 01:08:30.199
it's like to be a furry.
Other than that, I don't think it

976
01:08:30.279 --> 01:08:33.439
hurts to google, like what is
a furry? What is a furst suit?

977
01:08:33.800 --> 01:08:38.600
Basic questions you have, you know, you can always do a little

978
01:08:38.600 --> 01:08:42.960
research on your own, but finding
out from furries is the best way to

979
01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:46.720
answer your questions. Oh perfect and
I will I will link to that YouTuber

980
01:08:47.399 --> 01:08:54.319
in the show notes. Yeah fantastic. I am at Lauren Flans on Twitter

981
01:08:54.359 --> 01:08:58.920
and Blue Sky and Lauren Underscore Flanns
on Instagram. The podcast is ad coming

982
01:08:58.920 --> 01:09:04.359
out pod. That hashtag is hashtag
coming out pod. We have incredible pay

983
01:09:04.439 --> 01:09:11.359
trends. Shout out to Carmel Keaz
Simone, Cayenne, Michelle l Adri,

984
01:09:11.520 --> 01:09:15.680
Tanya Pooh, Tia, Kiaran Smiley, Aaron Mitchell, Diego, Hernandez and

985
01:09:15.760 --> 01:09:19.199
beyond Clexa dot com. And I
said it last year, I'm still gonna

986
01:09:19.239 --> 01:09:21.680
keep saying that this year. A
great thing you can do to help the

987
01:09:21.720 --> 01:09:28.239
podcast for free is to rate it
five stars on either iTunes or Spotify.

988
01:09:28.680 --> 01:09:31.720
So if you want to hop on
over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify on mobile

989
01:09:31.720 --> 01:09:34.600
and give those five stars, I
will be so appreciative. And on iTunes

990
01:09:34.640 --> 01:09:39.840
you can even leave a little review
if you are so inclined. Adario,

991
01:09:39.960 --> 01:09:45.159
this has been so one. You
are like such a fucking kind lazy He's

992
01:09:45.239 --> 01:09:47.079
going, uh, you are,
You're a raised I know you hear this

993
01:09:47.119 --> 01:09:49.399
all the time. It's like I
feel like I'm known you one hundred years.

994
01:09:49.399 --> 01:09:53.199
Blah blah, blah. I'm sure
you get this a lot, but

995
01:09:53.319 --> 01:09:57.239
you're just a ray of light,
and like you said, you are literally

996
01:09:57.279 --> 01:10:01.000
the best representation that your community could
ask for. I truly feel that,

997
01:10:01.760 --> 01:10:08.399
and I'm just so excited to see
what more opportunities you get. Me too,

998
01:10:08.439 --> 01:10:12.479
Lauren. I'm very excited, excited
for the future. I'm so thankful

999
01:10:12.479 --> 01:10:15.840
for my community. I'm so full
of love. I cried every single day

1000
01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:20.119
after the prank panel until the New
Year because I just couldn't believe it happened

1001
01:10:20.159 --> 01:10:24.199
to me. So I'm very thankful
and blessed, and I look forward to

1002
01:10:24.239 --> 01:10:28.600
making more people laugh and smile.
Oh my god. Well, on that

1003
01:10:28.760 --> 01:10:33.119
note, yeah, I will say
goodbye and I will see you all next

1004
01:10:33.199 --> 01:10:42.000
week. Bye.