Speaker 1: And now Audio Theater Central.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central. This is the show
that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and interviews.
I'm your host, JD. Sutter. This is episode two oh three.
We are going to be featuring our on location recaps
from the Adventures of Odyssey One Grand Party with the
ATC team, Austin Peachey and Michael Schrader. I've also got
some highlights from other folks within the AIO fan community
that we're going to be sharing with you later on
in the episode. Really excited to have these folks involved.
And then as we wrap up this episode, we're going
to take a look at what's ahead some of the
things that you can look forward to in Adventures Odyssey,
especially if you were not able to go to the
One Grand Party. However, even if you were, there will
still be some stuff that I'm sure you'll be excited
about as well. So let's get into this. First of all,
I want to say if you are new to Audio
Theater Central, this is not a typical episode. We're doing
things a little bit differently in this episode. It is
a special episode to commemorate this great historical event in
the history of adventures in Odyssey and in the family
friendly audio drama industry as a whole. I mean, this
show has affected this industry in a huge, huge way.
So this is a milestone for all of us. So
if you are new, be sure to come back or
check out the back catalog for more in this family
friendly audio drama space. I'm sure you'll find something that
you will enjoy. Now, if you're not new and you've
heard some of our past recap episodes from Soniccon, I
decided to do things a little bit differently this time,
take a different approach for that event. We usually do
a recap each day and then just release those as
separate bonus episodes, but I decided to put them all
in one episode and just share my thoughts throughout. And
then I decided to complicate things for myself even more
by inviting several guest contributors and editing some musical transitions
between segments. And it's just ballooned. But it's about a
lot of work putting this together, but I hope you
will enjoy it. If you are at the event, the
goal is to sort of help you relive the event
in some way, and if you weren't able to be there.
The goal is to give you a little bit of
an inside look and help you to experience it to
some extent vicariously through us and our team here. Now,
I also want to say real quickly that some of
the on location audio is pretty subpar. It is recorded
out and about it's not recorded in a studio, so
fair warning about that, but I feel like that sort
of adds to the charm of it and helps us
to take you along with us as we experience the event.
And speaking of that, these were recorded each day, so
we may repeat some things, or in later recordings we
may correct something that was said in one prior because
we found out something differently the next day, something along
those lines. But I left that sort of stuff in
for the most part, just so again you could have
sort of experience the weekend right along with us as
much as you possibly can through an audio podcast. And
before we get to those recap recordings, real quickly, I
just want to say thank you to all of the
ATC community members that I was able to interact with
at the event. It was really really cool to see you.
Some of you have met before at other events, but
it was really cool to see you again. Thank you
for everybody who came up and talked to me. Got
to give out some stickers and some business cards, and
that's always fun. Special shout out to ATC backstage member
Nathan Hobbs who brought his ATC backstage pass on his
lanyard and show it to me. That was really cool. Unfortunately, Nathan,
we didn't get a photo together. That was an oversight
on my part, but thank you for that. That really
made my day to see that. So that was really cool.
It's always always a joy to meet folks from this
community out in the wild. Well I guess it's not
really out in the wild that is specifically at an
industry event, so whatever, but you know what I meant.
All right, Well, let's get into this nice Well, as
you know, the event was called One Grand Party, but
each day had its own name. There was different things
happening each day if you were not aware, and Day
one was Thursday Night, which was a much more exclusive event.
There was only a handful of tickets for that and
it was called a Night at the Soda Shop. So
now I'm going to roll the tape of Austin and
me talking about Day one, A night at the Soda Shop.
All right, Well, I'm here with Austin Peachey. The main
event of this weekend at One Grand Party was Friday
Experience Odyssey and then Saturday the live show. But there
was another add on event that people could opt to
purchase a ticket for, and that was a dinner on
Thursday night. Now I was not in attendance there, but
you were, so I thought we should record a little
segment here and share with the ATC community about your
experience there. So tell us what was it not? What
was it called night at the Soda Shop or something?
Speaker 3: Yeah, night at night at the Sook Shop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And those are the tickets that went out super fast,
like very small group of people. It was in the
ad and building, I think across the street. It's worth
the Son the street anestly was set up. I come
inside there. There's a lot of people outside, not as
big lines, but some some of my fell eighty A
members were there, Johnson of the Third, Nathan and Charles
Acres were there. But yeah, come inside, go upstairs. There's
big woods end facade and someone set up like a timeline.
Speaker 5: On the wall. Really nice, like not a whole lot
of people there, but come into this. It was like
a chapeltery I think it was called before.
Speaker 6: That's whereas the.
Speaker 4: Getting the Show vent was go out Back and some
of the previous live shows. Uh. But they had teable
set up there, so you didn't have assigned CDs sack
with whoever. I got to sit with Nathan Charles Acres
and Jasmine from the AO fanfoot prick up Facebook and
a few other people.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I was really nice set up. He had
honestly music playing there and.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just a dinner. There was actually some entertainment
stuff for Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the dinner was a very very small part of him. Basically,
you say, at the table, we have food there, but
Jim Daily came out on stage there and talked to
us a little bit and then prayed for the meal,
and I said, if I was going to get our
food or having it served to us, they dismissed the
table one at a time. So you said that you're
gonna have.
Speaker 3: Some people come to table to dismiss you.
Speaker 4: Special guests please like autographs of how to do it
now or think that so they have to really honestly
cast there, like Kaylee, Chris Anthony and people like that,
and then Paul McCusker and Dave Arnold and people like
that our table, palm Custer can want her to our table.
Speaker 5: So we had to talk to him. He asked the
different people like you know where they're from, and they
things like.
Speaker 6: That, and that was that was really cool.
Speaker 3: I got it, uh, meet his wife the first time, Elizabeth.
Speaker 6: And the food.
Speaker 3: I think you're like salad.
Speaker 2: Like a British accent.
Speaker 4: I didn't hear speak much, but I want you got
to hurt her a little bit more to hear more
of her accent so rather so that's an accent absolute
in the United States.
Speaker 7: So well.
Speaker 5: But yeah, they had salad, surfer vegetables, I think, mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3: And then near the end of that.
Speaker 5: Eating time, Uh, Phil Oliver came out and he's kind
of he's kind of like the MC. For the rest
of the night, he introduced the cast, kept on the stage.
One of the things they did was I think the
first thing. Maybe he mixed some of this up, but
basically there was a contest for the attendees for kids
thirteen or like sixteen or.
Speaker 3: Something like that.
Speaker 4: Basically not not an adult all for kids, I think,
but I made like thirteen other postly, but kids could
write the good scripts, but the honesty characters have the
actors performing live there like wow or scripts. Unfortunately Andre
couldn't Andre Sto, mister Whitaker couldn't be there. So Deve
Arnold actually stepped into play Wits part in that because
really can't live show they were going to adapt, I'm sure,
but for this what was part of the person there.
So Dave arnl Black she had to feel in for
Wits and that's that was kind of cool. It was
I think one thousand things or something like that.
Speaker 5: It is like Candy Conversation with Connie celebrating one thousand
episodes of Candy Conversation with Connie, and different contestas had
that could beat the different characters that could be find
one thousand things, but they could not buy those things.
So I think Woton had to find one thousand marbles
with I think just get one thousand stamps, Wilson to
get one thousand I can't remember with us were Oh,
it is kind of their competition a little bit, you
know some of the rivalry rivalry that you know Witt
and Wilson or Jason had kind of like from Game
Night or like with Wilson and uh Saw on snow
Forth kind of thing. It was a decent script, like
for what it was like, it was short, it wrote,
the characters were there, you know, pretty accurate in their portrayals.
Oh and actually I can't remember I remember the girl's name,
but they had her come up on stage. She had
a stool there, directors stool basically like an feels and
he got some direction for them and they did the script.
So that was that was cool and I'm sure really
made that kid feel special. And I think after that
they had I think it was called Nothing but the
Half Truth, you know, said reference. But basically somebody had
to one person on stage had full in the fighter jets.
One person had, everyone else had, but they each have
to tell the story of how they how they flying
a fighter jet, and only one person was telling the truth.
So each of them are doing this kind dramatic way.
Some like Townsend Coleman did very kind of making it
up like that, and Chris Anthony, she did it in
her Madge voice, like Madge was almost like got her
percent and was like, oh yeah, I was doing I
doing my my nails up in the air. And like
there was some kind of stuff and then like Wilson,
like Gregor.
Speaker 4: Jamarl, you know, I just did a very uh you know,
it was very storytelling, tell them like that he's greated that.
Speaker 6: Kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Wait, so was this but the one that was true?
Speaker 6: Was it?
Speaker 2: Was it true of that person's true that not the character.
Speaker 3: For themselves.
Speaker 2: They were doing them in character voices.
Speaker 5: Well, I think I think they all did in the
normal voices.
Speaker 4: Chris, yeah, I think she played her up a little bit,
and I think just did it in his not his
mouth of voice.
Speaker 5: But he just went through the whole line. At first
I suspected like towns in because it almost felt like
he was going on his way to make it sound
fake to a certain extent. But then I heard Wilson
Gregory Jerborrow's story and like this sounds so really he
got the fact straight. And then some people think had
some tells a little bit and some said it a
little bit too far fetched. So but I people think
like who, who do you think of audience? Like who
do you think uh said a shout out.
Speaker 4: That person's name? I think And then it was funny
Phil had like Okay, the person that actually uh told
the truth or whatever stand up and all the Katska
stand up and then the finolca.
Speaker 5: It's this whole deal of like the sitting down like
like oh and that it was. It was just kind
of funny the way the person as came through and
finally it was proven to be Townsend. He actually told
the story on the cruise, I guess apparently, and I
don't think hearn about it, but basically he had to
take over a little bit for say a friend of
his or something. I can't remember. Oh yeah, it was
when he was working in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 5: I think the radio station like local celebrities, I think
for it, and I think he actually maybe did like
a loop to loop or bar romor something like that
in the air or something like that. I mean, the
way he told the story is very kind of a
little bit to be a player in it to a
certain extent, and it's kind of like plotting, like kind
of making up on the spot. But he told it
kind of more realistically and more true of what he
had said before. But it's like, yeah, feels like yeah
that this is Jason Whittaker here. So that so that
was fun.
Speaker 4: And then they had I'm blanking on what they did next,
but they were going to have after that. I think
that third thing they had the cast got to the
facade at wits End and everyone, all the attendees, they'd
all get a picture with the cast.
Speaker 3: You line up and then get your picture.
Speaker 4: And then but while it's going, they had this really
cool video compilation of from the actors for the one
thous episode celebration, like what did you start on Odyssey
in your first episode and that kind of stuff that
they interview with the cast that were there, some other
actors like uh Plemackail Williams, the Place Trey, Barbara and
Noiles Place, Missus Adelaide, Dan Hagen, the Place Jackaonrie. So
I had quite a bit a few of that, like
nude content something sort of that I'd heard before.
Speaker 5: And then the one grand tribute, the artwork contest kind
of thing that it's been going on for a while.
Are you Illustrated? Episode? So they had an episode that
episode artwork on there and they paid like a like me,
like a ten or fifteen second clip of this episode
there and they go that kind of slide it in
through that. So it filled up the time for which
of when all the tables would being dismissed to go
have the pictures.
Speaker 4: But also during that time we saw the different displays
that would be shown for Experience Odyssey the next day,
like the battle Room, imagination station, the gallery and stuff
like that, and then meeting people like Check Bowlty was there,
Paul Cusker, Abigail Geiger was there, Lucado, so a lot
of the cast and crew, maybe the main cast Rea
and I take a pictures, but a lot of the
crew members and people that work at Focus were there,
so it was really nice getting to talk with them
and get pictures with them or autographs and things like that.
And then after the pictures were taking them, they left,
but myself and the third could Brumley I forgot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Col Brimley from the Ada was there too, taught the
few people there. We actually we actually when the last
peoples there spread, they didn't kick us out sooner, but
we thought to Marissa from at my Wits End just
an intern I Focused this year, so that was kind
of cool to see her and it was so nice,
like it was, I feel the cart iskent on more
intimate setting because you have so not as many people
and there's a good I think it's a hundred fifty
two undred people, I mean attendees max.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's quite a lot. That's quite a difference
from six thousand for sure.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's where the tickets win so early. There was
so few of them. But it just relaxed and you know,
and the food too, Like I ate my food, but
not bad, not extra good.
Speaker 6: It was it was just there. I wasn't there for
the food anyway, but.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, it was kind of surree to a certain
extand like I felt like, you know, I'll look back
on this later, like wow, that actually happened. Yeah, but
it felt like, you know, it felt like friends and
family get together on those and then you're meeting fans,
you know them making that you're connecting over Odyssey and
like well your favorite episode or quotes, like what quotes
you use or where'd you come from and things like that.
So getting to know some of the some of the
other fans there, it was just yeah, it was. It
was an amazing experience. Well worth the money. I wish
I wish more people could have been able to get
tickets for it, but it was definitely a highlight. Like
I think at that time that day said, even though
I didn't get to go to anything past this day,
I think this has been bul with the trip.
Speaker 2: Mmm, that's cool. That's cool. Yeah, I think from what
I've seen building up to the event, they've really put
a ton of time, effort and thought into every aspect
of this weekend. So kudos to the AIO team and
all the people that Focus, because it's not just the
AIO team that's involved in this. I mean there's a
lot of other people helping out with everything. So yeah,
it's just really really cool to see these kinds of things.
And stay tuned and we'll be checking in and giving
some recaps of the rest of the weekend. Thanks Austin,
Thank you. So Day two was Friday, and this was
all day long and it was called Experience Odyssey. Now
they had two separate time slots, time blocks I guess,
a morning and an afternoon, so they split the entire
crowd half went to the morning, half went to the afternoon.
And this was where you could basically walk all over
the Focused campus and there were Odyssey related things everywhere
in the Welcome center down in the wits End area,
and there were sessions and interactive displays and then just
displays that you can browse through. There was merchandising happening,
all kinds of stuff. So I'm going to go ahead
and roll the recording of me, Austin and Michael recapping
the Experience Odyssey. Well, Hello, this is Jad and I'm
here in Michael's vehicle outside of Cracker Barreling.
Speaker 7: Live from the Cracker Barrel parking lot, and Oftin Peach
is here too. Hello, we're right in front of the
Friendly Neighborhood. Reminder to lock our car and remove our valuables.
Speaker 2: Right, we just left the Friday What was it called
Experience Odyssey. Yeah, uh, it's been a long day, let's
just say that, and my brain's a little fried. So yes,
it's called Experience Odyssey. And it was pretty amazing. It
was pretty spectacular. I was very impressed.
Speaker 7: I was not expecting all of the sets they had
set up when you walk in that are simulating the
ton of Odyssey.
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 6: I loved the Bible Room. I loved the Bible. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I like the Tinknamas or the Covenant, like the bookshow
from a Consequence, but really miss opportunity.
Speaker 3: They didn't have a wolf Jericho for you don't have more, Oh,
come tumbling down.
Speaker 7: I did like how the Arc of the Covenant had
like smoke coming out of it and uh and kids
kept about to touch it and I was like, hey,
don't touch it.
Speaker 6: You want to fall dead? What's wrong with you?
Speaker 7: And they had the bookshelf to go into the computer
room with the Last Battle on it, and Austin, did
you try to pull out the Last Battle to see
it open? I did and it was a cardboard. It
wasn't even a real boat, no key, but I tried
and it was awesome.
Speaker 2: It was really cool. And they had the Tower of
Babble display.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then there was the imagination station.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's not the elevator that the welcome center has.
It actually was like they had the elevator spaceshift kind
of thing, and you know, you get in there, rumbles
and make noises of the red button.
Speaker 6: There you're with voice. It was pretty cool. That's what
I always pictured the imagination station as the one they
had there. Yeah, sort of like a phone booth.
Speaker 8: Guy.
Speaker 4: They are already don't need the rooms imagination station for this,
yeah no, yeah, and yeah there was a really long line,
so I tried when I walked past, I tried to
get in as many of the family photos as they could.
Speaker 6: But yeah, that was really fun.
Speaker 4: Speaking of pictures, they had the gallery there, yes, and
then throughout the day they have this picture moved and
have like Odyssey actors or crew members like True Martin,
abol Geiger, Robbie Bruce where they would answer questions from people.
Speaker 7: That was such a fun idea and they had. Yeah,
I saw Shona and Gregory Jabara and Katie Lee.
Speaker 6: I walked past.
Speaker 7: I could hear Katie's voice and She's like, nobody ever
tells me anything, And I was like like, oh, this
is such a great classic Connie line. That was one
of the trivia questions in the trivia game.
Speaker 4: They had a trivia game later on where participants could
work on it and like some people from the audience
and then people with the phones. One of the questions
was filling fill in the gap or film filling the
quote here nobody ever tells me or something like that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so then they had all different types of demonstrations, music,
sound designed. Then they had writers Q and a creators
Q and A sessions. Just a lot going on and
there were a lot of people.
Speaker 7: Yes, there were so many people. I know, the first
sessions that I got to, all of them were packed out.
We couldn't even go sit in on any of the
same from sound design or music or writers.
Speaker 6: Or anything because there were so many people there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The most used word I used to stay or words
it was excuse me, so many people. But it was
amazing having so many Honesty fans there, like even if
you're like waiting a line for something, you didn't talk
people like, hey, how long you listen to Odyssey and
things like that. So cool, like finding friends that he
didn't know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and they had a lot of historic Odyssey memorabilia
just in displays. So they had like the first the
reels of the first episode, right did you see that?
And they had they had Connie's audition tape. Oh wow,
that she sent in there, Katie Lee, I should say
her audition tape. And even I saw John Fornoff walking
in and he's the one who told me about that,
so I went and found it.
Speaker 2: But that's interesting, Yeah, so real, real quickly, let's talk
about some of the people industry folks that we ran into.
So I got to speak with Tory Martin's Real, briefly
talked to Chris, Anthony Lansdowne, Katie Lee, Kathy Buchanan, talk
to John Fornoff a couple of different times. Ran into
Grayson Smith, the Getting the Show winner from twenty seventeen.
I know I'm forgetting people, but what about you, Michael.
Speaker 6: Let's see.
Speaker 7: Yeah, So we ran into John Fornoff almost immediately when
we got here, and then he jumped out.
Speaker 6: Yeah with the Eugene mask. It was crazy, j and
uh yeah, Jay, there you go. I I'm trying to remember.
I like saw a bunch of people in passing, but
I didn't.
Speaker 7: Oh well, I was standing there when you were talking
to Dave Arnold, and I saw you taking a selfie
with John Campbell.
Speaker 6: I tried to get a picture of you taking in
selfie with John Campbell, but I was too slow.
Speaker 7: I know, I know, for I almost jumped on the
back of the golf cart with Paul McCusker and Phil
Laller that I decided against it.
Speaker 6: Try to think who else who did you see?
Speaker 9: Austin?
Speaker 4: I saw Luco there, oh yeah, Zach Zack Schneider, and
saw some people had uh met the day before, like
I saw Kathy Canader briefly, Hey, Lee, that was cool.
Speaker 6: We were even the building after the event and saw
kating your advice with.
Speaker 3: And also, you know J's j D's a very uh
to his.
Speaker 4: Name and John Campbell and the John Campbell and the
music uh demonstration, like he's the people who are asking
questions and the like that.
Speaker 6: He said their name was Jady. I would expect nothing less.
Speaker 2: He's such a nice guy.
Speaker 6: He's very funny, and yeah, he is funny.
Speaker 2: He was very funny. And I had to talk quite
a bit with Nathan Jones, sound designer. He's he's a
really really cool guy. I like him a lot. And
he just saw me sitting in the little wits end
area where they had the table set up, and he
just came and sat down and started chatting. And I
did speak to Lugano, Randon, David Hilder from AIO update.
Let's see, Yeah, all things Adventures in Odyssey is here. Yes,
he's inside Cocker Barrel right now as we speak, right,
Nato Jacobson, Well, I just got the notification that our
table is ready, so we're gonna pause this and we'll
come back shortly in like two seconds for you, Okay,
we are back, Michael and Austin with me here and
we are no longer sitting in the car the restaurant.
We had a great meal, great time and visited with
some people and now we're back to continue our recap.
Speaker 10: Hey.
Speaker 2: I mean, when they say your table's ready, you don't
wait around, even if you're in the middle of a podcast,
especially at Cocker Barrel. You got to take what you can,
get it when you get it, Okay. So we were
talking about the people that we ran into, and as
with all of these kind of things is with Sonic
Coon and other AIO events, it's the show aspects of
these things are great, but for me, it's really about
getting to see the people again, you know, whether that's
the cast or crew or just other fans. So of
course Odyssey fan Dan was there and I mentioned David
Hilder a moment ago, Daniel Daniel Roth, the of the
fan club, and so just uh, just a ton of people.
I mean we said that already there was like, you know,
they had six thousand tickets and they are all sold out.
But that's that's just one of my favorite things is
just getting to see the I said it too to
Austin and I don't remember if I said it to you, Michael,
but I said it to somebody else too. It just
kind of felt like a family reunion, just getting to
see all these people again, you know.
Speaker 9: So except for Austin not recognizing me.
Speaker 7: That made it feel like Lucid glasses, ma'am, I'm like Clark,
can't you can't tell who I am?
Speaker 5: I have my glasses on Michael Shoulder's release Superman keep
it to yourself listeners.
Speaker 2: So, of course, I mean, we talked about a lot
of the people that we get to see, but we
mentioned the different types of sessions that they had. So, Michael,
what was the first session you made it into? Because
you mentioned earlier that there were something you couldn't get into.
They were already full, So what was the first one
you got to get into.
Speaker 7: I just kept walking around until I found one where
I could slip in the back and and wasn't getting
turned away at the door. They had guards at the doors,
so you just had to find your way in, and
so I went in during the trivia towards It was
in the middle of the trivia as they were doing
the game, and so I watched a couple of.
Speaker 9: Questions of that and that was fun.
Speaker 7: And I were you in the tribute thing for Yeah,
I was there it all it okay, yeah you're standing
room only. Yeah, it was packed in there and it
was very hot. And how did they get the contestants
out there? I didn't see that part.
Speaker 5: The first session around, they had like the kids thirteen
and under go up there. The Nathan asked them qualifying questions.
So he asked a question, kids has raised her hands
to point random one out. They'd answer and they got
it right. Then they got very four of them, and
then they had the questions reaching. They had buzzers. Zack
Schneider and Luca and Nell were helping out with that
with the score keeping and the buzzers and that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 9: And Nathan Hudler was moderating right exactly.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so if you make a mistake, he's gonna let
you know. He does all things Odyssey. But yeah, and
then they had family event where you cure code qualifan
question with that so family groups could compete together.
Speaker 9: Oh okay, And then I was competing in the back
just to wife in your mind. Yeah, she was very
impressed without my trivia.
Speaker 5: And then they had the last part of it was
the die hard. It's a lot more harder questions and
this could be I think anybody, but yeah, that was
a lot of fun to see see this happen. And
some questions are fairly easy, at least I'm not saying
I'm the best at trivia for that, but most of
them are fairly easy, and I was kinda fine with
the people around me were saying that kind of the
answers or whatever, some of them. I think I got
me one or two wrong, possibly, but I was pretty
impressed with how many of the I think it was
mainly old kids, not really any adults, but the kids,
well they know their odyssey.
Speaker 9: Yeah, which is how it should be.
Speaker 6: That was that was good.
Speaker 2: So easy questions like what is mister Whitaker's school name?
Speaker 7: Well, they had some like the one I was in
there for was like what was Connie's nickname at camp?
I don't even Inville Gumonville, yeah, which I had a
it was the Avenger, right, yeah, yeah. And then they
asked like who or what came out of the Imagination
Station in Isaac the Chivalrous, you know, So it was
it was stuff like that, but.
Speaker 2: So I guess we did forget to talk about what
you see when you first walked in. So talk a
little bit about the displays that they had set up
in the entry area.
Speaker 7: Well, first you register and you get these packets that
had trading cards in them. So I want to know
what trading cards you guys got because I may want
to trade right now.
Speaker 9: You have my packet there, so look it's his Now
look at this, Okay, So we.
Speaker 7: Have wit in a like revolution. No, he's dressed like
Benjamin Franklin with a kite and a key. And this
is I think it's an ultra rare. Whoa it has
you are on it, So that doesn't an ultra rare.
So I'm gonna be pocketing.
Speaker 6: And then we have vacation with which is rare.
Speaker 9: Wow, JD.
Speaker 7: It's because you're j D Jimmy, which is common. And
then Eugene the old old picture, and this one is
it's got a you what does that mean?
Speaker 9: Ultra ultra No, that's uncommon, uncommon? So is a common uncommon?
Aryl Truger. Wow, all right, so these are pretty good ones.
Oh and then Renee. You've got Renee also, it's.
Speaker 5: Probably a common. This one is connon Yeah, JD. Keeps
the common ones.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and then you and I can split up these.
Speaker 7: And then I got Young with which I think is
just rare and blacquered and Harlow Doyle and.
Speaker 6: Zoe and that's what I got.
Speaker 9: Did you get in yeah?
Speaker 2: Rene for a black.
Speaker 5: Got kidding me, We're gonna have a deal. I can't
remember all the ones like I got. I did get
Connie in Love, which was.
Speaker 9: You already traded.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I trade that for a jaredd Wight, which I
was very happy with. That's the only trade I made today.
I can't the other ones I think I had, Like
I think I had the Tom for Mare one. I
think that was an ultra rare or uncommon. Wow, he
had like one or two common ones. But yeah, that
that was kind of fun, see seeing all the people
trading cards, Like all the kids were trading with each other,
and JD and I were talking. At one point kids
came up to us and I say, Hey, what cards
you go? It's kind of cool this kind of event
that any place in the event that people could have
this kind of connection of like, hey, what cards you
got on the trade? I had this one?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And let me apologize to that kid if he's
listening because I I accidentally lied to him. I said,
I told him I didn't have any cards. I didn't
realize that they were in the packet because I hadn't
opened it yet.
Speaker 5: You heard it here first.
Speaker 9: Children?
Speaker 5: What if that revolutionary Wit?
Speaker 9: Franklin w Yeah.
Speaker 7: And so then you walk in and they had all
the rooms in the so they had both buildings being used.
If you've been to the Focus on the Family headquarters before,
there's like the building where everybody works and they have
chapel and auditorium and stuff.
Speaker 9: And then there's like the visitor center, and so.
Speaker 7: You walk into the visitors or to the main Focus
on the Family building, and they had a like different
rooms called like the Electric Palace or the Harlequin Theater,
Triple J and Triple Antiques.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 9: And then so you walk in there's this facade of
wits end is that what you call it?
Speaker 7: Like cardboard facan and a cardboard cut out of Wit
and you could like take pictures there.
Speaker 9: And Austin wasn't very impressed, but I thought it was
very good.
Speaker 7: And there was a timeline of like all these trivia
things about adventures in Odyssey, and I think I already mentioned.
They had like some historic artifacts like the first reel
of like Wits Flop and Katie Lee's audition tape and
and things like that.
Speaker 5: I think I spoke. The Triple JS Antiques were further on,
but yeah, you go into this big room where they
they've had some previous live shows where we had to
get in the show event. Last time, they had the
Bible room there, some display like I think may earlier.
Speaker 9: Had they had a soda counter setup you have had that.
Speaker 5: And then they had like a map of Odyssey set
up there and oh yeah, the map was cool.
Speaker 9: You didn't see the math.
Speaker 5: I'll I'll show you my pion the mention O club
members lounge, which I didn't get to go in there,
but the cool was like some pins.
Speaker 9: I saw Tom Pins and.
Speaker 5: Ryan and Valerie for kidsborough.
Speaker 9: No, that's funny.
Speaker 5: And then yeah, they had Joqarine's art gallery like pictures
of Odyssey artwork in there, and then then Triple J
Antiques and then the different really Carlgan Theater and they.
Speaker 7: Had a little kids radio things set have with microphone
so you can take pictures.
Speaker 9: It was a lot of like interactive stuff that the
kids could play with.
Speaker 5: A lot of photo opportunities.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and then that gallery thing, like you mentioned earlier,
they had that one area.
Speaker 2: They called it green Blatz Department Store showroom, and it
was just like examples of some of the products. It
wasn't like a place where you could purchase them, but
it was all the way at the end of that
one hallway past Electric Palace.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the actual store was closer to the woods End facade.
I think.
Speaker 11: Okay, I only get those, you know, first run comic books. Yep,
I grabbed mine. Okay, So let's go back to the session.
So I think I mentioned earlier. I was not able
to get into a couple of them either because they
were just full. And then so the first one that
I actually got to sit through, I believe was the
creator's panel, I'm not mistaken, And that was with so
Nathan Hoobler was moderating and it was Phil Lawler, Dave Arnold,
Chuck Bolty, and Paul McCusker.
Speaker 7: And yeah, historic moment was that Nathan Hoobler said that
Phil Lawler played Philip Lasman and Phil Alller called him
out so hard, and it was that was a hard
moment for Nathan Hoobler.
Speaker 9: I'm sorry for listening. Nathan Paul be okay with him,
but he wasn't like being character.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was funny, total total slip of the tongue there.
But yeah he corrected it, and you know, you know
everybody was thinking.
Speaker 6: What did you just say?
Speaker 9: Oh, there were some people with hats that had like
different phrases from Odyssey. Oh yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Lots of people had custom T shirts too, Like there
was a family that had Wade fam chalk said each
part on each one of their T shirts so they would.
Speaker 9: Stand something like that. We could have coordinated atc YE
next time.
Speaker 5: Two thousands built don't move around with tac like, yeah,
you're right.
Speaker 2: Hat.
Speaker 5: At actooin actors.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so that was an interesting session. I enjoyed
it just because it was cool to see those guys
up there together. I haven't seen Chuck in several years,
so that was really cool. It wasn't my favorite though,
just because there wasn't really anything new there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, if you've listened to interviews and this stu'd be
pretty much heard a lot of that information before.
Speaker 2: But it was cool and there was, you know, the
interaction with the other attendees, so they would they had
I don't know when they did this, but they collected
questions from the fans and so they would just read
random questions and trying to see if that person was
in the room at that moment, and several of them
were actually in there. And Hunter, which a lot of
the AIO fan community will probably know him for doing
the impersonations that he does of a lot of the
AIO characters, but his question was one of the ones
that got asked. I don't remember what it was now
off the top of my head, but it was that
part of it was kind of cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, during that time, I had an autograph session with
Chris Anthony and that was pretty cool again to talk
to her. I got her to sign my Flat Chris
as busy put together like Flat Eugene. But by the
time I got to give my autograph, most of the
sessions I think, were already over. So I went to
get my comic book from elsewhere in Odyssey were you
in that time?
Speaker 7: I was in the creator's panel, not on the panel,
but in the room while the panel was happening.
Speaker 5: Yeah, on the fourth row you took over for Chick Bolt.
Forget about them all.
Speaker 2: There no It was right before that session that I
actually ran into John Campbell for the first time. Like,
you know, he's been on the show and I emailed
him several times over the years, and but that was
the first time to meet in person, and so that
was cool. And at the same time, I had ran
into Grayson Smith earlier, which I mentioned in our first recording,
but I saw him a few rows ahead of me,
and I'm like, we didn't get a picture when we
ran into each other in the line outside. So I
went and I was like, hey, you mind if we
can take a picture, and so we chatted for a
couple of minutes before that session started. So again I
think it's that's that's my favorite thing, is just getting
to chat with everybody. And you know, that was twenty seventeen,
so what is that for five, six, seven years ago?
And he was a kid, right, And so I didn't think,
I mean, I didn't know if he would really remember us,
because Michael and I were there at that moment, at
that moment, yes, at every single one of those moments
at the show. But you know, we had interviewed him
and I think we talked to all three of the
contestants of the finalists right at the end, and so
I but I didn't know if he would remember, but
he did, and so that was cool. And after that session,
I tried to get over to one of the writers.
Speaker 7: I know, I told you I would save you a seat,
but it was packed out and I did try to
save you.
Speaker 9: Some wall space, but you didn't know carpet.
Speaker 7: Well, there was carpet underneath because but it was on
the ram where people were walking. So yeah, it was
funny when they were starting, it was so packed in there.
And then Marshall Junger ran by and there was a
seat up on the stage for him and he got
up there and goes, oh, I found.
Speaker 12: A seat.
Speaker 5: That was the one was supposed to get.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry, Jammy. I tried to save it
for you. But yeah, that was a lot of fun.
There was a lot of well, Marshall and Kathy Buchanan
were going.
Speaker 9: Back and before tell us who were who are all right?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 7: So Jesse I don't know his last name, Floria, Yeah,
he was moderating, and and then it was Bob who's
Kathy Buchanan, Abigail Gager and Marshall Winner and yeah, that
was very entertaining.
Speaker 9: They they have great like camaraderie, so it's fun to.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's it was quite entertaining iking with Marshall and Kathy,
but also some of the stories. And I don't hear
as much from Bob who's that often.
Speaker 9: I haven't heard as.
Speaker 5: Much behind the scene stuff from a Geiger since she's
feeling new to the show. So hearing from those two
especially was really cool.
Speaker 7: And I hadn't heard how they all started working for
Odyssey either, and they told those stories and it was
very all very different ways, Like Kathy started in a
different position of Focus and she said she was really
bad at it, and then they offered for her to
become a writer. And then uh, Marshall got He did
a he wrote a script for another audio drama and
he didn't really even know what it was, and but
he wrote a script and this guy produced it and
he sent it into Focus on the Family, hoping that
they would be impressed with his production. And Paul mccuster
called back and asked who wrote the script hired Marshall didn't.
Speaker 2: Hire that guy? Oh wow?
Speaker 7: And then uh, and then we and then we know
a little more about Abigil Geiger because she came on
more recently, but she she applied through the apprenticeship program.
Speaker 9: And Bob, who's I forgot what you said?
Speaker 5: Actually, yeah, I think he told a little about his
drama days. I think I thought you'd mentioned Jim Custer,
but they know he used to have a comedy kind
of trip with him or whatever. I think he met
Steve Harris or someone. I can't remember this story now
it's been a day, but it was very a very
fun session. Yeah, it was a very fun session for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you said that there was a bit of
news about Abigail.
Speaker 9: Oh, yeah, as of Monday, she came on that full time, right,
wasn't that full time? Full time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's cool. I saw Jesse Kellum the fourth around,
but I never actually got to talk to him, but
I saw him from a distance. Again, there were so
many people there, it was just tough to At certain points,
it was tough to get through the crowds. And so, yeah,
it was unfortunate. I would have liked to I don't
know if he knows who I am, but I would
have liked to introduce myself. But I did get a chance.
I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but I
did get a chance to talk with Christopher Deal and
Rudy Hare for just just a few moments and introduce myself.
So that was cool. You know, I've heard their work
and I don't remember. I think Chris Deal has had
some Seneca noms, hasn't hasn't he Austin possibly?
Speaker 5: I can't remember now.
Speaker 2: I think there was one where he might have worked
on one with somebody else or something. I know Nate
Jones was the lead on that one. But anyway, he's
been in the photos so that they would when they
take a team photo with the Seneca Awards and so,
but he knew who I was, and so we chatted
for a few minutes, and you know, Rudy said something
that is so true that a lot of times the
you know, the official podcast does talk about the sound
design aspect of it a lot, and of course on
ATC we talk about the sound design and how important
that is to the story, but usually the fans are
more interested in the actors, right, I mean, that's just
kind of makes sense. And he said, so we don't
really get to talk too much about what we what
we do the part of this audio drama that that
we focus on, and so he said he just really
enjoyed getting the chance to do that at the at
these sessions today. So I thought that was cool. That
is cool. Yeah.
Speaker 7: One of the things I hadn't thought about before too much,
but they were bringing it up in that creator's panel
was how much work they had to do originally with
those the tapes and the razor blades and you know
all that and that that seems like that would be
so much work. And I think it was Chuck Boltie
that I mentioned how you really can't tell the difference
in like there's a distinction, but like just as a
casual listener, I wouldn't know the difference between the old
ones and the new ones production wise, but what a
different ballgame like doing it digitally versus doing.
Speaker 12: It that way.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's just all the work that they put into that.
It's amazing.
Speaker 2: So the last session that I was in was the music.
They could just call it a music demonstration with John Campbell,
and I didn't know exactly what they were going to do.
I assumed it was going to have something to do
with music, but.
Speaker 5: I thought John Kimball's an actor.
Speaker 2: No, I thought maybe he would just you know, share
some cues that he had done or something I didn't.
I didn't really know. But when I had spoken to
him early I earlier, I told him I was going
to try to make it to one of his and
so he said, yeah, you gotta come, you gotta get him.
And so he actually sat there and composed a piece
of music right there, and I started adding all the
instruments and stuff, and I was like, that is amazing.
This guy's a genius. And I really enjoyed that. And
so he just kind of went through his process of
we'll start with this instrument and then we'll layer in
this one and then well I had a melody here,
and it was just really really neat to see him
just do his thing, and it was it was really cool.
And then the ended with a couple of questions from
the audience, and Yeah, that was really really enjoyable for me.
I love that part of it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I've seen him do some of that at the Guild.
I didn't make it to the session this time, but
it's so mind blowing the way that he puts.
Speaker 9: Everything together in all the different instruments he can use.
Speaker 6: It's very cool to watch them work.
Speaker 5: The guy's funny too, he is a good entertainer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he is.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's so awesome seeing like you see like I
think he's still like some behind the scenes videos for
like Odyssey, and I think there's one that somebody did,
like it wasn't an audisty related thing, but just seeing
that processes how how he works all the instruments in it,
like oh, this doesn't work and that kind off making mistakes,
like it's all on edit. You're seeing this live in
front of you, Like this is kind of the process.
I guess there's a little more pressure on it because
you have an audience watching you while you're doing it.
But it was just kind of so neat to see
the peak behind the curtain in that in that way
right before your eyes and your ears. And he's such
a humble guy and he's very very said, like very
funny guy and really down to earth, very personable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Nate Jones was sort of I mean, I
was gonna say moderate, but it's not really a moderation
of a panel when it's just one person facilitating MC
and so he would, you know, toss in something here
and there, and so they kind of talked about the
process of how they work back and forth when they
were working with that script and so that was that
was interesting too. So yeah, I think I think that
was probably my favorite session, even though I mean I
didn't make it into all of that all that many,
but out of the ones that I was able to
participate in, I really really enjoyed that one.
Speaker 9: Yeah, they did a great job just putting all of
this together.
Speaker 5: They put a lot of work into it. Yeah, you
can tell it is Yeah, you can really see the
attention to detail and care that they all had for
this is like, you know, this is like you know,
our Disney World people will always pay all these millions
go to or thousands or whatever to go to Disney World.
This is like you have the welcome center there. You know,
it's kind of coole tot See. This is like such
a heightened level and against seeing so many fans and
people have such a common interest. So if you're waiting
a line for something or whatever, you're talking with people
about you know, oh, hey, like what's your character and
of course like the trading card things, or like talking
about what you're gonna have actress signed or.
Speaker 9: Something like that.
Speaker 5: It's just such a cool experience.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and then did you guys make it down to
the soda shop where they're they're giving away free raspberry
ripple and cupcakes.
Speaker 2: I didn't know, are you telling a story?
Speaker 5: I am telling you the truth.
Speaker 9: I we we went there.
Speaker 5: I don't know if that's true.
Speaker 7: No, you can ask like any of the other thousand
people that were down there, they'll tell you the same.
But yeah, they had they had cups with the raspberry
ripple and uh in cupcakes that because we were just
gonna go buy something to drink, and they just had
that available for anybody who went down there.
Speaker 5: I think I saw I saw the thing over the
bed and didn't walk over close to it. But yeah,
I remember when the previous day they're bringing a bunch
of cupcakes through one the doors there. So that's as
close as I got to them.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And then they had they had you go sit
out on the patio and they had chalk for the
kids to draw, and there was a lot of kids
that had drawn with a lot of child So I
have like blue chalk on the back of my pants
now because I sat down on you.
Speaker 5: Didn't trying to pictures yourself.
Speaker 9: No, there was no room. But I enjoyed the raspberry ribble. H.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm a little bit jealous.
Speaker 9: I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have told you. But it
was awesome.
Speaker 2: I think that's the that's the key phrase for the
whole day. And I ran into I kept running into
John Forurnoff. I think I came across him like four
times throughout the day and we just kept saying, home, man,
this is so so fun. It's just just the interaction
and just seeing the excitement with everybody too is really cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there's nothing. There's nothing really passive about it, like
you may just go to some events. To me, we're
just there. But just the energy in the room and
things happening was just such a cool experience. Like it
wasn't it Never there's like princh, never a dull moment,
And you couldn't.
Speaker 9: Get to everything that was there. You couldn't read everything
or be in every spot.
Speaker 6: There was a spot just for.
Speaker 9: Club members that I never even looked into. I have
no idea what was in there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they just had so much going on. They had
three sessions like every every hour, it seemed like so,
and they repeated them like twice, you know, which is nice.
Speaker 5: And if you don't, if you don't get to go
to the one you have a layer tend to do
to do that, like Duhn Campbell, like I wanted to
go to the Creators in the Creators Channel possibly like
I've never met John Campbell in her life before, Like
I have to go see this one. Yeah yeah, So
like it was a pretty easy choice, I guess.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And one thing is that there were several people that
I wanted to get to see but I didn't. So,
I mean I saw Phil phil Aller on the stage,
but I never got to talk to him. I never
got to talk to Nathan Hoobler. So there was quite
a few people hopefully tomorrow might get a chance to
say something to them. I never saw Evan David. Did
get to speak to Dave Arnold very very briefly, just
a minute or two. And then we ran right right
around the same time ran into Nato Jacobson and he
ended up having dinner with us tonight.
Speaker 9: And so that was a lot of an actress and
a lot of a lot of stuff Lamb Blighter and
other things.
Speaker 2: The Adventum and the yeah yeah so and.
Speaker 5: Then all the way out of the building we ran
into Katie Lee.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Yeah, yeah, and I actually did
see Jess Harnell. I don't know what they were doing.
He was getting out of like an suv and walking
across some area with somebody else. So his his handler
for better lack of a better term, I don't know,
because they you know, each of them as signed a
person and so they were moving him from one place
to the other and didn't get to talk to him,
but I saw him.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Everybody did seem pretty accessible though, Like when I saw
Phil and Paul getting on a golf car because they
were going to go do their book signings. Yeah, and there,
you know, there was a staff member there trying to
take them to the book signing and somebody came up like, oh,
could we get a picture, and like well, sure, they
get down off the golf card and you know, there
was there. They were just walking around, you know, everybody.
You know, even though you couldn't visit with everybody, you
had a chance to see people.
Speaker 9: They weren't just like clothed off.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a that's a good word describe, very accessible
to approach every everybody. And yeah, people in honesty are
just so awesome to to meet. They're not. They're not knowledge,
they're not you know, staying office. They're very very low
being around the fans and.
Speaker 9: It says yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And so there was a couple other very very brief,
like just short short interactions that I had to That
was one was with with Kathy Buchanan. She was heading
to that writer's panel that I didn't end up getting into,
but I didn't know that. I didn't know that's where
she was headed. But she was coming in to a
welcome cinder and I was standing there talking with Tory
Martin and she said hello, and I gave me a
hug real quick, and then she was off it, you know.
And then I later I found out that she was
on that panel. And then after that I ran into
Chris Anthony Lansdowne real briefly. Did I say that earlier?
I can't remember if I did.
Speaker 5: Thank yeah, you keep name her.
Speaker 2: And so that was really cool because she was the
one I was really like, I mean, I've met Jess before.
Of course, I've met Connie numerous times and Connie Katie
and I met Shona before. Although it would have been
cool to see her again, but I was really hoping
to at least get to talk with Chris, and so
I was glad that that happened. And so yeah, well
anything any final words of wisdom, any any final thoughts
before we wrap this up.
Speaker 7: The one other thing I was thinking about was that
with that map that you didn't get to see, but
I'll show you a picture. But it was funny because like,
it's smaller then I picture Odyssey, and yet when I
was looking at the map, I was like, Wow, I
would like to live there.
Speaker 9: This looks like such a fun like little town and community.
Speaker 6: They did it.
Speaker 9: They just did a great job with all the details,
putting everything together. I was very impressed.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is well worth the money and the time
spent with it. It was an incredible, very much once
in a lifetime experience. Is to the to the caliber
that they put with this, Like it's even more than
probably like any live show and even maybe even the cruise.
Like the detail and everything which is so awesome. It
was a little bit stressful in some cases, but it
was just that so so much fun and one of
those memories you'll you'll keep for years to come.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I should say real quickly. Marshall, if you're listening,
thank you so much. For going way beyond. He came
out to help me get back to where I needed
to go. Totally did not need to do that, but
he did. You were lost, Well, I just wasn't feeling
well and the altitude, I think was really getting to
me and I just I just had to sit down
and rest and so that one of the elevators wasn't working,
and so he came and took me back into another area.
So I was just like, wait and way above and beyond.
Speaker 9: So he does it all?
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we will check in with you later
after the live show. Thanks Michael, Thanks Austin, welcome, Thank you.
And lastly we have Day three, which was Saturday the
live show. This was not on the Odyssey campus. This
was at a nearby church. And there was also two
sessions of this morning and afternoon, same show both times
with a little bit of a difference which you'll hear
in this recording me Austin and Michael recapping our thoughts
on the AIL live show. All right, here we are
once again JD with Austin and Michael. We're in another
car in front of another restaurant. We have a pattern here, yeah,
so we are getting ready to meet up with a
group and have some dinner. Again. It is Saturday. After
both of the live shows, there was a morning one
in an afternoon one. Austin and I made it to
the morning one, and Michael you were in the afternoon one.
Speaker 6: Representing ATC right cards and stuff. You know, I've passed
out less than I did yesterday.
Speaker 4: But.
Speaker 3: I'll just give quilt how many I handed out.
Speaker 2: So ill we'll talk about exactly what happened in the
event first, but I just want to mention a couple
of people really quickly. Finally got to meet Jacob Aisim
after all these years from Odyssey Scoop. Very cool, super
nice guy, very nice guy. And I didn't get to
see Rose Beasley from Odyssey Moments yesterday but ran into
her today so that was cool. And who else? Oh,
after the show, got to chat with more of the
cast and crew. Got to speak with Chuck Bolti for
a little bit, and so that was really fun. I
was hoping to be able to see him. Of course,
if you were a longtime listener, you know he's been
on the show in the past, and it's been several
years since I've seen him, so like I think twenty
sixteen was the last time I actually saw Chuck, so
that was really cool to see him again. But let's
get into the main event here. I mean, experience Odyssey
was a lot of fun. There was a lot of
walking around, and today we just got to sit and
watch a show and it was fun. So let's start off.
We're not gonna give any spoilers about the story itself,
but if you've paid any attention to any of the
marketing materials, you know that Shona, Robbie, Jess, Greg Jabara, Katie,
Chris and Townsend. Did I miss anybody? They were the
cast members that were there, and of course they played
their signature characters, but I think nearly everybody played an
additional character as well. So it starts off as a
sort of a slice of life kind of adventures, not
as the episode, but then it morphs into a little
bit of a mystery, and then it's sort of a
segment on Pastor Knox's podcast, and then it goes into
a Twilfe Zone sketch, and then we had a candid
conversations with Connie and it sounds like that stuff does
not go together, but they merged together really nicely. What
we your thought on that, Michael.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think they did merge it together very nicely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, Michael.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I was expecting more like a kid's
Radio of BTV kind of story. That's how a lot
of their live shows have been in the past, or
something very far out like push the Red Button. But
this it was kind of nice to you, like a
slice of life with all these other stuff that you
different storytelling genres, like the tot of Zone and Canic
conversation with the Conny kind of that kind of thing.
Speaker 6: But it worked.
Speaker 4: Like there's some moments that was kind of not quite
forth wall breaking, but they're like jokes you may not
get in a normal Odyssey episode.
Speaker 3: That's kind of part of the course for live show.
But it was very it was very fun.
Speaker 4: It had it really played to a lot of you know,
character favorites and callbacks to past shows or even just
the actors' lives in general. Yeah.
Speaker 7: What I didn't expect was all the video elements, which
you wouldn't know if you're just listening to it, but
being there in person. And they had a map of
the odd town of Odyssey, and they had little icons
for the different characters and showing where they were in
each part of the show, and that was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 6: I really enjoyed that aspect.
Speaker 7: And they even had you know, backdrops on the screen
the different locations and yeah, that was a fun way
to do that. They had a little segment at the
beginning of the different actors all saying, you know, a
thousand episodes of which ones they were in, and that
was cool too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it starts off with Chris kind of hyping
up the crowd a little bit and she's fantastic at that.
And then once it actually the show part actually starts,
it begins with John Campbell's Odyssey overture, which is seeing
it's several minutes of just the Odyssey music that we
know and love, just beautifully orchestrated, and it was very,
very cool. And I'm glad you brought up the visual
elements because that map thing with the pins representing the
different characters the place around Odyssey, that was a really
cool element. And the backdrops for each scene that kind
of just helped set the tone of what's going on
in this particular scene that we're seeing.
Speaker 6: And during that overture, they had a whole.
Speaker 7: Segment of like, yeah, it was like a tour through
Odyssey with some of like artwork that we recognized that
we didn't, and they merged it all together in a
really cool way.
Speaker 2: And so it was just cool how they Yeah, it
was a whole bunch of Gary Locke's art that we've
seen over the years, but all merged together in a
really neat way. It wasn't moving necessarily, but yeah, there
were certain elements.
Speaker 3: Like stick puppets or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there was one part where it was kind
of like a as if a camera was panning across
this are down a street in Odyssey and you could
see the little character of Eugene on the sidewalk and
he's moving, but his legs aren't moving.
Speaker 6: It's just like he's he's on a skateboard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was a really really cool way to
do that.
Speaker 7: And h And speaking of Gary Locke, he was like
illustrating stuff on the stage as the live show was
going on the.
Speaker 3: Whole scene, a different character on each scene.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was cool. We're going to get into
a little bit of spoiler territory again, but at least
at this point, there are no plans to actually produce
or release this episode. So if you weren't there, then
you're never going to hear this anyway. So that's that's
what I've heard. I mean, they could that could change,
but yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure they will pray and at least in
the club they've been with all. I mean, it won't
be like a regular episode product the Red Button. Yeah,
it's not gonna be something like that. They're not going
to reproduce it, is what I meant to say. At
least that's that's not on the plan right now. However,
what they do I was right, and if they don't,
was right.
Speaker 2: That's that's fair. That's fair. Well. One thing that was
really cool is we were not expecting at all to
hear Eugene Meltzner.
Speaker 3: And it was a really cool Townsend voice clone thing.
Speaker 2: It was yeah, yeah, so you have to hit that.
Speaker 3: They probably record that, possibly just hit that fact from us.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, who knows, but it was it was Townsend
doing the voice. And another element which we were not
expecting was to hear andre As with show up because
it was announced just shortly before the event that he
was having some health issues and was not going to
make it, and so everybody was expecting them to have
to have rewritten the whole script because he was going
to be an integral part of the whole show. But
he was able to be there some pre recorded lines.
I'm pretty sure those were all pre recorded in the
actual episode part and then at the end. So in
the morning session after the end of the show, they
did a short It wasn't very long, but maybe twenty
minutes total. So I only have a couple of questions,
but they did Q and A where they just had
a list of questions at Bob smith Houser sort of
moderated and they brought in Andre Stoika via zoom. It
looked like and he was at home or in a
studio and he got to answer some of the questions
and so it was really cool to see him and
to hear that he is recovering from the radiation therapy
and he said that it looks like the cancer has
been taken care of. So, yeah, it's very very happy
to hear that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I didn't expect, like I expect to be a
lot of laugh lines. There was a lot of laugh lines,
but I didn't expect to be so emotional.
Speaker 6: I teared up.
Speaker 4: I don't know how much especially near the end, just
the way things brought together, some of the surprise guests
and voices, and it just kind of the It was
a love letter to the fans so much. If you've
listened to Odyssey for any length of years, like from
childhood up or for several years, it was just the
perfect Like I it's the first only actual official liveshow
I've been to. I like a lot of the past
live shows. But I think because of that more emotional
heart heartstream poling kind of thing. Even though it wasn't
as boisterous, are loud or all of the places like
the comedy, there's some really funny moments in it, but
I think that attachment to the emotional aspect of it
maybe like all of their So I think it's my
favorite love love show episode they've done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And even in the Q and A session, one
of the questions was, how do you as an actor
prepare for some of those emotional scenes. Do you do
you have something that you in your mind, you go to,
you think about to help you get in the mood.
And Gregory Jabbar when he answered that question, he said, well,
I didn't have to necessarily have to do that with
this with this script in particular, he said, I just
got into the character, and he said, even the lines
here he was I think mister Gershwin was at the
name something like that that Greg played here, and he said,
I just got into it, he said, And I was
feeling the emotion for real as I was doing the
part right here on stage. So that was really cool.
So tell us what happened at the end of your
session there, Michael.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Unfortunately, in the in the afternoon live show during
Chris's wrap up, ironically, there was a power outage and
somebody said it was like a city block wide, like
it wasn't just that church, but somebody said like traffic
lights throughout and stuff. So I didn't verify that, but
it was kind of funny because a lot of people
turn off Odyssey during the wrap up, so it was kind.
Speaker 6: Of an homage to that. And so we didn't get
the bonus feature either.
Speaker 7: We didn't get the Q and A with the actors,
and they were trying to get everybody out of the
building because it was just on a generator and everything
was going to black out. But initially, because there was
a part of the script, there was a power outage
in the script, and so I thought that they were
making a joke like referencely back, and everybody like started
clapping and stuff.
Speaker 6: Really yeah, and uh, and then they just Chris went.
Speaker 7: Up and she just without a mic, you know, read
the credits and they each person she said you and
I really couldn't hear from where I was at, but
each person came up and like bowed and we clapped,
and so they finished it out that way and then
and then quickly ushered us out of the building.
Speaker 6: So that was kind of a bummer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was disappointed.
Speaker 4: But hopefully, hopefully people were at the event or even
we're at the event that didn't happen to'll be able
to catch from those moments later the podcast or yeah,
a full cut of.
Speaker 2: It later, maybe we definitely want to. We mentioned the
cast and Chris Anthony was amazing, actually all of them
were amazing. A couple of standouts real quickly was Katie
Lee's computer voice for the phone system that the characters
have to call into. And Katie's voice was that she
did a fantastic job with that. I really enjoyed here
in her in that and we have Missus Randolph shows up,
so Chris gets to play that character. But we have
to say huge kudos to Marshall Younger, Kathy Buchanan and
Phil Aler for writing the script. And Dave told me
Dave Arnold told me that it was Marshall who sort
of orchestrated that whole thing, and of course Phil and
Kathy were involved as well, but it was kind of
Marshall who was guiding the ship there, and I thought
he did a really nice job. I really enjoyed it.
It was fantastic to hear from all of these characters
and the way that it wraps up at the end,
everybody's talk, all the characters are, Are they at wits end? Right? Yeah,
they're all at wits end? And they're Eugene and Wit
are together on a video call on a tablet and
they said, well, we're going to get a picture with everybody,
and you know this is just you know, this is
just happening in the dialogue. And then right when you
hear the click of the shutter sound of the photo
up on the screen, comes up a piece of artwork
that I'm assuming Gary did and it has all the
characters there showing Eugene and Wit on the iPad or whatever.
It was well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and the different character illustrations were the ones he
was doing during the show, like that was on the
computer and right, So yeah, that was very cool.
Speaker 2: And John playing parts of the theme live was really cool.
Speaker 4: John Campbell in the transition music too, I think yeah, yeah,
and the sound the sound effects the Foley team too.
Speaker 3: I think there's like reveal lucnos Zack Schneider, And they had.
Speaker 7: A couple of good spotlight moments, like when they were
having Somebody Run and Wilson knocks his narrating and he
ran and ran and ran, and then you know, you
see the sound design guys up on stage and they're
just running and running and running, and you know, they
had a couple of good humorous moments with that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and the Fivverer McGee closets, Yes, I love that.
Speaker 2: Speaking of closets, I forgot to mention this earlier. There
was a little subtle reference to Chrissie's Closets if you
don't know, Yeah, Christy Anthony Lansdowne has a side business
where she helps people organize their homes and it's called
Chrissie's Closets Fun And so her character mentioned something about
helping somebody organize a closet and I did not know
that was the thing. That had to have been a
pill thing because he's close with them. So yeah, I
thought that was really cool, really cool.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and there was there were there any bloopers in
your show? There was There was one where Gregory Jabbara,
he was playing the other character which I can't remember
the name or or whatever then was, but he he
sneezed and it sounded like a fit with a character
and he goes.
Speaker 6: That was real.
Speaker 3: That was awesome. I think they messed up a tiny bit,
but it wasn't like anything major.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we could talk a lot more about
this because it was just so amazing, but I think
we hit the highlights and huge thing. Thanks to the
entire Odyssey team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2: Think I said that before in this episode, but man,
they did a fantastic job focus on the family, Jim Daily.
Speaker 6: They just did an amazing, high quality event.
Speaker 7: Yeah, the show was high quality. The experience is high quality. Yeah,
thank you to everyone listening that played a.
Speaker 6: Part in that.
Speaker 2: Absolutely well. Thanks so much to Austin and Michael for
recording these with me. It was a lot of fun.
I hope you enjoyed it as well. Hope the less
than stellar audio quality didn't bug you too much. Did
a lot of clean up on them to try to
make them as listenable as possible, so I hope you
still enjoyed them. I know there is so much more
that we could have said about this event, and I
will share some of my final thoughts when we get
to the end of this episode, but for now, let's
bring in some guests.
Speaker 8: Well, ye really agree that you've.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: After I had arrived home and was still sort of
just kind of processing the whole weekend and thinking about
just the amazing time it was, I thought, you know what,
this is the perfect opportunity to reach out to some
others in the community that many of you in the
ATC community are familiar with, and let's invite them to
share some of their their highlights and some of their
favorite moments from this weekend and share them here with you.
So I reached out to several people, and I was
so happy that all of them agreed to record some
of their thoughts to share here on this special episode.
So let's jump into these recordings from some other creatives
and fans in the AIO community and We're going to
start off with Cole Brumley, who is a member of
the audio drama Alliance, a composer and a host of
the All Things That Interest in Odyssey podcast.
Speaker 13: Had the privilege of going to one grand party and
it was just about the best event I've been to
in my life.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 13: I was able to go to the cruise back in
twenty seventeen, and that was really fun. This beat that
for me and maybe just because I'm more involved, but
getting for me the highlight. There were so many events
and you know, I'll run through a few of them
here in a second, but just being able to meet everyone,
the people, the creative forces behind Adventures in Odyssey, it
was really fantastic. It was almost surreal, and just the
kindness and the way they would go out of their
way to make time to talk with you, to not
just talk with you, but like have conversations and be
involved in what you had to say and bringing you
you know, for me, I got to while we were
down there a Friday, an episode came out called Painted
into a Corner, written by Abigail Geiger, and I really
enjoyed that episode and like the day it came out,
I was able to talk to her about episode and
here's some of our thinking behind and it just things
like that, so amazing, just the openness, and that's what
really stood out to me. As for the events themselves,
they were fantastic. You know, the first night there was
sort of a dinner and we got to see the
actors get up there and perform all sorts of things,
but it just lets you their personalities were on full display,
and in some cases you got to see how they
were different from the characters. And in a lot of cases,
these actors are very similar to their characters because the
characters have been crafted in hones and inspired by these
actors in a lot of cases. So yeah, it was
super cool to watch them interact, whether it be with
a script that a fan sent in or telling you know, stories,
things like that. Just really amazing presentation. And then the
next day with all of the different events, you really
got to see inside the creative process, which for me,
I know, there would be a lot of people talking
about a lot of the different facets of one grand party,
and I think it's probably you got out of it
what you wanted to get out. It was that sort
of event. So I'm really interested in that sort of thing,
the creative process behind the making of Odyssey. So getting
to hear the writers talk about their inspiration, the creators
talk about their inspiration, you know, watching John Campbell the composer,
all of that interests me a lot. And that was
just on full display the entire time. And then finally
to close it out with one grand part, one grand show.
Sorry that the show was phenomenal. It was phenomenally done.
And going into it, you know, I didn't really know
what I wanted the show to be. I wasn't sure
what it would be obviously, but I mean, they knocked
it out of the park. There were so many callbacks
to old episodes. I mean, you just could not ask
for more. And that was the story of the entire experience.
So thank you Adventures in Odyssey. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it certainly was. It certainly was amazing. That's
one way to describe it. Thank you so much, Cole
really appreciate that well. Next up is Dan the audit fan.
This fellow has been in the space for a very
very long time in this fan community, and odysseyfan dot
com is well known. The world's largest collection of AIO
merchandise and memorabilia, multiple year sponsor of the ATC SINECA Awards,
so I knew I had to reach out and get
some thoughts from Dan. He is always involved in these
events and so I knew I had to see if
we could get him on the show.
Speaker 14: I attended the One Grand Party in Colora Springs August
first through third, twenty twenty four, celebrating Adventures in Odyssey's
one thousandth episode. Well, my goal at these events is
typically just to buy all available merchandise and collect any
memorabilia we can. I did that, but we've been praying
as a family for months ahead of time that we
can be a blessing to people on our trip, and
my desire was to meet new fans. I spent a
lot of time at the trading card tables and while
standing in lines, and we were able to talk to
other fans and meet up with some online friends in person. Finally,
two families, specifically one from Canada and one from California,
were a delight to meet and talk with. We even
met up again on Sunday. The family from Canada and
I did part with some rare collectibles that were duplicates
to other collectors, and as part of that trying to
be a blessing, we gave away about two hundred trading cards,
mainly to little kids that were trying to build their collection.
One little boy got his mom to go to Walmart
to buy him a binder just for his cards. One
kid started with just five cards, and over the course
of the two days, he was able to trade his
way into almost forty cards in his collection, trading with
other fans, giving up duplicates and less rare cards for
the ones that the other people wanted. Enjoyed connecting with
the cast and crew briefly and finally meeting Robbie Bruce
and Greg Jabbara in person and getting their autographs. If
you've never been to a live event, please plan to
go to the next one. It's an experience you will
never forget. Thank you audio to You're central.
Speaker 2: Oh it's my pleasure, Dan, thank you, And he's absolutely right.
If you have the chance, if you're able to go
to any of these events, do yourself a favor and go.
You will not regret it. It's going to be a blast. Well.
Next up, I reached out to Rose Beasley. You may
know her from Odyssey Moments or Hal's Diner her projects,
which are both linked up in the show notes. But
if you don't know, Rose is also getting into voiceover,
and earlier this year she was a voice in one
of my micro audio dramas called Another Year Older, Another
Year Wiser, So if you haven't heard that, that is
also linked in the show notes, go check it out.
Rose was great and she's been such an instrumental part
of the AIO fan community for so long, and I
knew I had to reach out and see if she
was willing to record for us, and she was so
Rose take it away.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy I got to attend the one Grand party.
Oh my goodness. Now, I did come home a little
under the weather, so I probably sound a little rough
right now, but you know what, it was totally worth it.
So some key takeaways for me were the night at
the Soda Shop. I'm so grateful I got tickets to
that because I really loved everything about that night. I
loved that it was a limited number of people and
it was a more intimate, casual setting.
Speaker 2: We were really able to.
Speaker 1: Interact with the fans and interact and talk with the crew,
and even with some of the cast as well, So
I just overall I really liked that night. And then
of course the live show was spectacular. I loved everything
about that. But another really special thing for me was
seeing so many of you guys, not just one or two,
but so many of you guys wearing my merch, My
not Aio merch. I can't believe it. Just I had
never seen anybody wear my merch before in person, so
being able and having the opportunity to see so many
of you guys wearing my merch and just you guys
were showing so much love for it, and it just
really made my day. I mean it made my whole
year actually to see so many of you guys wearing
my merch and just loving it. You guys have been
so amazing. I just appreciate all the love and support
you guys have shown me, So just thank you. Another
special thing that I really loved was seeing the Barbershop Quartet.
They were singing around the event, singing Eugene Sings songs,
and I just thought that was so touching, so sweet,
and a nice little tribute to Will Ryan, because you know,
Will Ryan should have been there, But I so adored
hearing them sing Eugene sing songs and I'm so happy
that they were there. That was such a great idea
to have them there, so that was super fun. Another
little thing was meeting Chris Anthony Lansdowne. I had anticipated
meeting her all year. I'm so happy I got to
meet her, and because she's amazing and she's the sweetest,
so I love her. And then of course getting to
see Katie Lee and person again with her and I
kind of talk a lot, but it's not too often
I get to see her in person, so that was
super fun. And the most specialist thing was getting to
see all of you guys and talk with you and
meet you for the first time, some of you for
the first time from the Adventures in Odyssey fan club.
That was just that was the most specialist thing from
the whole event, if if I can use that as
a word. It was just getting to meet and see
all of you guys. You know, that was I just
I love the fan community so much. You guys mean
a lot to me, and just seeing all your faces
was just the best thing ever. So I'm gonna miss
you guys, but you know that just means we need
to do another So here's to the next one.
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, here's to the next one. Thank you so much, Rose.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 2: Next up is Daniel Roth. He is the host of
the Your Fellow Odyssean's podcast and admin and I believe
the founder of the AIO fan Club group on Facebook.
This group has been huge in this space in the
last handful of years, well, especially since COVID, A lot
of people were online and trying to find other fans,
and Daniel has has really started to cultivate the fan
group in a really cool way. So Daniel, you're up.
Speaker 12: The one Grand party was phenomenal. The biggest highlight for
me was not only attending the event with my sister,
but also having along my niece and nephew as well.
It was really special to have them there and getting
to experience this milestone celebration with them. Everyone except my
niece had visited Focus Slashwitzend before, but for all of
us this was our first Odyssey live show. A few
other highlights, particularly from the experience Odyssey time was being
able to see a to scale imagination station there that
had all the beeps and whistles. That was pretty awesome
to see, but it was also really cool. Was meeting
other fellow AIO podcasters and content creators for the first time,
being able to finally meet and talk to Adventures in
Odyssey fan club members in person, and even having a
few people that knew of or listen to my podcast
and would come up and say hi. That was pretty cool.
It was also really special to meet AIO cast and
crewe who I hadn't met yet, such as Dave Arnold,
Kathy Buchanan, Chris, Anthony Lansdowne, and Katie Lee, to name
a few, and being able to see others whom I'd
met before again and it was really special to watch
my niece and nephew meet all these people who they
had only just heard on the show. In regard to
the one thousandth live show celebration, well, I didn't think
I would cry so much from the overture AIO theme
intro played live by John Campbell to wits monologue at
the end, where I cried the most as I realized
how much this show has impacted my life and what
a blessing it has been not only my family's lives,
but also my siblings' families lives. Is they've introduced the
show to their kids like the two sitting there with me.
All in all, it was a very enriching and impactful
time that I won't soon forget.
Speaker 2: That's so cool. That is so cool getting to pass
down the show from generation to generation. I mean, I
love that.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: So glad you had such a great time, Daniel, and
I agree with you there. I mean, I did not
expect to tear up as much as I did. There
were multiple times throughout that live show, and you know,
as we said earlier in the recaps, we're not going
to give away any spoilers on that, but oh man,
it was. It was tear jerking at several different points,
but in a beautiful, beautiful way. Thank you so much, Daniel.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: Next up is David Hilder of The AIO Update and
this website, if you haven't checked it out, has been
around for a handful of years now, and David has
been writing some really really great editorial pieces about the show,
tackling all sorts of different interesting issues and I just
love his enthusiasm for AIO and keeping that website going,
and so I'm so glad that David agreed to join
us on this special episode.
Speaker 10: The One Grand Party was very exciting and also a
little overwhelming at times, just because I had never seen
so many Odyssey fans in real life. I had never
seen ten of us in the same room before, so
this was six thousand fans a big change. And yeah,
this was my first event, Odyssey events, my first live show,
and it was very cool to see so many Odyssey
fans and to hear just hear random snippets of conversations,
somebody's talking about some obscure Odyssey character or reference, and
it was just so fun to be in that environment
and to see all the excitement for Odyssey. And yeah,
meeting the Odyssey cast and crew, that was definitely a highlight.
And yeah, I learned something new just about them and
just how they're so down to earth and humble and
welcoming to all of us Odyssey fans, and that was
just so amazing, amazing to see. Like I went up
to Jonathan Crowe and I introduced myself and he was
surprised that I even knew who he was and what
he looked like, and that he had been a sound
designer on Odyssey. And yeah, we had a great conversation
and he was very kind and just generous with his
time as well, and that was I had the same
experience talking to all the different Odyssey cast and crew,
and it was just it was super fun just to
see all of them, to talk to them, just to
see like Paul McCusker walking around, or Dave Arnold or
Phil Lawler, who was a lot nicer in real life
by the way, and then just meeting the fans, I
think was an amazing thing, just the friends that I
had only known online previously, and it was just so
meaningful to be together and just you know, experiencing the
live show together, reacting to it in real time, and
just going to all the all the events, or as
many events as I could manage.
Speaker 2: In the time.
Speaker 10: And yeah, I wish we did have more time together.
And it felt like it went by super fast. There
were so many things happening all the time, and I
could have easily felt alone in that big crowd, except
for the fact that I kept seeing people that I
knew from online, and even though I had traveled there
by myself, I wasn't alone when I got there, just
because of all of you. So I'm so grateful for
the experience, and I'm grateful for Odyssey that we were
able to experience this together.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and David was one of quite a few I heard,
but you know, most people are from the United States
who come to these sorts of events, but he was
one of a handful that came all the way from Canada.
So it was so cool to meet David in person,
having followed his website for quite some time now, and
so yeah, that was pretty cool. So thank you David
for sharing your thoughts there. And I got to ask, like,
when did you run into Jonathan Crow when he wasn't working?
Every single time I saw him on Friday, he was
busy interviewing somebody and I just never had a chance
to speak to him at all. But that dude was
busy the entire time, it seemed like. But yeah, everybody
was so friendly and nice and it's such a pleasure
to get to interact with some of these folks that
we've admired their work for so many years. And yeah,
it was such a great time. Well, we're going to
wrap up this guest contributor section with is it right
to say the og I don't know. Jacob Isam has
ran the Odyssey Scoop for a very very long time.
I don't know if he was the original fan website.
I know there's been some forums. I never really got
into those all that much, but the Town of Odyssey
and some of the other forums have been around for
years and years and years. But I know the Odyssey
scoop has been around for a long long time. And
it was so great that Jacob got to be there
and that we got to meet in person for the
very first time. So I knew that I had to
see if he was willing to be involved in this episode.
So let's see what Jacob has to say.
Speaker 15: I had the exciting privilege of attending one Grand Party
all three events. So it started out with the wonderful
dinner that was put on by the Odyssey team. The
creators were there and some of the actors and some
of the sound designers, even Bob from the official podcast.
It was just great to be there in a small
setting where we were able to kind of talk with
some of those folks and enjoy kind of the kickoff
of one Grand Party. So it was a really, really,
really well put together event. It was nice to also
see the displays, and then at the very end of
the event, they called each family out individually did to
get a photo taken with the actors, and that was
really really special. The next day was Friday, which was
the actual Experience Odyssey event, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I
was able to go to the several demonstrations, so I
went to the Gary Locke demonstration where he was illustrating
how to draw wit. I learned a bit about like
how to you know, the ears can be complicated. Surprisingly,
ears can be difficult to draw. And then one of
my favorites was the writer's Q and A where Kathy
Buchanan and some of the additional writers were there and
they were just sharing some of their humor and behind
the scenes and what goes into the writing process. Abigail Geiger,
Marshall Younger, and a couple other folks. It was just
really really great. There were other you know, there was
so much to see at this event. It was hard
to keep up, so you had to think fast and
move around quickly. There were so many displays to see,
like the Imagination Station, the club members Lounge, even the
attention to detail that was put into this event, from
the little store shops like Triple j Antiques, Electric Palace,
even down to the very sign itself and then just
the hidden Easter eggs that were kind of hidden throughout
the event. It was just an amazing experience. There were
things for all ages there, even like going to Wits
End to visit that, but there was just so much
to do. It was literally like an Adventures in Odyssey
comic con. It was really really good. And then the
event closed out with the live show on Saturday, which
was an amazing experience. I was able to go to
the morning show where they performed a wonderful, polished script
for a live performance. It was so great to just
see the actors. I think my favorite part above the
performance was just the heart for Odyssey, the heart of
love that was there shared by everybody at this event,
even just all three days. Just the common love for
Adventures and Odyssey in the Lord. It was just really
good to see that. My favorite part of all was
probably just the fan community in general, just being able
to be with those folks, meet some of those folks,
and meet some of this staff. So I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommend you attend the two thousandth episode a grand Party.
Not sure what they'll call that, but I'm sure they'll
have a great name.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if we'll still be around that
far into the future. I know Nathan Hubler was talking
about that after the show on Saturday, saying, yeah, we're
already looking forward to the next one, and yeah, that's
going to be quite a ways away. But in any case,
thank you Jacob for sharing your thoughts on this, and
huge thanks to all of these great folks for taking
time to record some of their highlights and special memories
from this weekend. It was fantastic, as you heard, witnessed
by all of these fine folks, and again, links to
all of them are in the show notes. Go check
out what they're doing in this space and be sure
to send them some love and thanks again. Cole, Dan Rose,
Daniel David and Jacob.
Speaker 9: Friends. Nait right down, it's lazy.
Speaker 2: Well, I just wanted to share a few final thoughts
with you on this event before I head out the door.
First of all, it has been said numerous times, but
it was amazing. It was a fantastic event. It was
a once in a lifetime sort of thing. I mean,
there's not going to be another time that the show
hits a thousand episodes, so this was a celebration that
will never happen again quite like this, and so that
I was able to be there and witness it was
such a privilege and I am so so grateful. To
be perfectly candid, I was not feeling well and it
was a very very tough weekend on me physically and mentally,
but I am so so grateful that I was able
to be there and experience it with with all all
of you folks that have appeared on this episode and
those of you who are listening who were there at
the event as well, And just to wrap up, I
wanted to share a couple of things that I don't
think we covered earlier, and one was I don't remember
if anybody has mentioned this or not, but at the
live show on Saturday, I was sitting not too far
from a couple of ASL interpreters and they were amazing,
Like I kept getting distracted by watching them how they
were doing the different characters as the show was progressing,
and they would there was two of them. They would
they were both taking turns with each different character as
they were speaking their lines, and they would try to
match the physical sound of what the characters might be
doing in that scene by their facial expressions even though
they couldn't see at least not or my perspective. Maybe
they had a screen that they could see as well,
but it looked like they were just listening as I was,
and then then interpreting for the deaf and heart of
hearing folks there. But they were just getting so into it,
and I just found it so fascinating. And I watched
how because they also mouthed the words as well, and
I saw how they would make slight adjustments on the
fly to maybe some of the words that are not
I don't know American sign language, so I don't know
if it's that they're not translatable directly, or if it's
just quicker to substitute in a more common word or
something like that. But watching them do that was so cool,
and you know, somebody who's used to that kind of stuff,
it was probably what normally happens. But I've never seen
that before. I mean, I've seen people. I have a
deaf cousin and so I've seen people signing, and I
used to know a little bit of it myself. But anyway,
this has nothing to do with Adventures, not Asy specifically,
but it was one one of the things that I
saw at the event that I thought was so cool.
So yeah, it was just very very interesting and again
not related to the show necessarily, but I thought that
was cool that they provided that for folks, and those
two ladies were amazing. Now, I mentioned earlier that I
ran into Grayson Smith, the Getting the Show winner from
twenty seventeen, but he was at the night at the
Soda Shop even though I wasn't there. In my conversation
with him the next day, I found out that he
played piano at that event, So I thought that was
really cool. He's a pianist, and not long ago there
was a family in the fan club who ran into
him playing piano, and so that was cool that he
was able to bring that skill in addition to being
an actor, bring that skill into Adventures and Odyssey for
this event. So that was pretty neat. And another thing
I wanted to mention is AIO fan and illustrator, Noah Cecil,
who I actually met at the last Sonicon. He was
also at this event and he got to participate in
an event. I don't know exactly if it was where
it was it was on Thursday night at the night
of the Soda Shop, or if it was sometime during
the day at the Experience Odyssey event, but he won
an original art print from Gary Locke, the illustrator for
Aio these Days, and it was so cool. He let
me take a photo of it, of him holding it,
and it's autographed by Gary and it's really really cool.
So that is like a once in a lifetime thing
that is a treasured piece of memorabilia. So that's pretty cool,
one of a kind. So congrats to Noah for winning that.
And I definitely alluded to this in our recap recordings.
But getting to see Katie and Chris. I course met
Katie numerous times and it's always a joy to see
her again. But I did not have any access to
the autograph sessions with the cast, and I wasn't at
the dinner, so I didn't think I was going to
get to see any of them at all other than
on stage. I hadn't met Gregory Jabbara, Robbie Bruce, Townsend Coleman,
or Chris Anthony Lansdown in person, though I've communicated with
several of them over the years, and of course Chris
has been on the show and was our speaker at
the Seneca Awards so I was really really hoping to
meet them, and especially her, And this happened with both
Chris and Katie. As I was crossing the parking lot.
It just happened to be at the same time as
both of them at different times of the day on Friday,
and so I got to see both of them in person. Unfortunately,
they were such brief interactions. We didn't get to take
a photo with either of them. But I was so
so happy, and Chris was such a sweetheart as I
knew she would be. And so if you're listening, Chris,
thank you so much for being such a joy. It
was such an absolute pleasure for me to get to
meet her, and so yeah, that was amazing. But then,
speaking of meeting the cast, as I'm heading back home
on Sunday, I'm at the airport and getting ready to
head through security, and I look out the window and
there's a van that just pulled up, and out of
this van hops Townsend, Coleman and Robbie Bruce and I
was like, no way. I was hoping I could meet them,
and I had a fanboy moment and I ran, I
didn't run, No, that's not true. I went out the
door of the airport really quickly and waited for them
to get out of their van at least, and then
I went up and introduced myself to both of them.
I was like, Man, if I was thinking about it later,
I'm like, Oh, they probably think I'm this weird way
just showing up as they're just trying to get into
the airport. It's not fun going through security and all
of that rigmarole to fly, and I felt bad for
bothering them a little bit, but I was like, I
cannot pass up this opportunity. So I got to meet
both of them, shake their hands, and chat very very
briefly with Townsend, but they were both delightful and it
was sut It made my day to get to actually
meet them, because I, you know, I'm heading out of town.
I thought it wasn't gonna happen, and so that was
really really cool for me. And then as I've passed
through security heading down to my gate, and I run
into Noah Cecil again, So that was kind of cool
as well. So you never know when you're flying out
of a small airport in a smaller city after a
big event like that, you might just run into folks again.
Now I had taken a photo of the live show
during a part where they were doing the candid conversations
with Connie broadcast and during most of the show, the
actors are all sitting in there. They're all sitting in
a row in front of their stands with their scripts
on them and things like that, and they have those
high sort of directors looking chairs and they were sitting
on those. But for this particular part of the script,
they set up a separate area a table with an
on air light and some microphones which looks like a
radio station. And so Katie, of course, the voice of Connie,
and Robbie Bruce, the voice of Buck, were sitting at
that table, and so I snapped a photo of that
and I posted it on ATC Socials. Well, come to
find out, that photo ended up getting shared around, and
I saw that Marshall Younger had ended up sharing it,
and then it was included in a post inside the
AIO Club. So you're welcome, adventures not to see. I'm
totally kidd I don't mind at all. I thought it
was pretty cool, but it was really neat how that
photo started making the rounds inside some of the groups
and things like that. So that was pretty cool. And
speaking of photos, there is a link in the show
notes to an entire album of event photos from all
three days, so you definitely want to check that out.
Pretty cool thanks to some of the ADA members who
helped contribute images for that album. And speaking of the ADA,
the Audio Drama Alliance we had to have dinner together
on Friday night and Saturday night. It was a great,
great time with them. Nato Jacobson and Mackenzie Harris, both
great talent in this space, were there and they joined
us for dinner on Friday night, and then both of
them and John Fornoff and Kenny Sargent of Sergeant Family
Productions joined us on Saturday night. So, you know, the
event itself was amazing getting to meet other folks in
the community, but some of the highlights for me personally
were those dinners with the Audio Drama Alliance members and
John and Nato and Kinsey and Kenny. Some great conversations
happened at those dinners. And there's some exciting stuff coming
in this space, not necessarily Odyssey related, but just some
more family friendly audio drama content that's going to be
coming that I'm really excited about. So getting to visit
with those folks was just a joy for me, and
they were all so so friendly and personable, and it's
always wonderful to get to visit with those folks. And lastly,
I got to say a huge, a massive thank you
to Austin Peachey for all of his help. He was
hugely instrumental in everything that I was able to get
accomplished that weekend and just in me even being able
to be there. So Austin, thank you so much, which
really agreed.
Speaker 9: Hi they parted, my Greg, bubb.
Speaker 2: You Well. The last thing I want to do in
this episode is share some things that you have to
look forward to related to adventures, not to see the
one thousand episode all of that. But first I want
to tell you that the transition music in this episode
was that barbershop quartet that's been mentioned a couple of
different times. They were all singers in other groups, but
they got together just for the OGP event and they
called themselves the Caliphonics, and they just did an amazing job.
Loved love getting to see them and hear them singing
around the campus on Friday. It was just really really cool.
They amazing and huge thanks to Aio fan club member
Pete Fernbaugh for sharing his recordings of the group and
letting me use them here in this episode. Thank you, Pete.
So we talked about this in one of the recaps
that the recording of the live show. As far as
I know, there are no plans to remake that episode
and actually put it out as a standard episode for
the show. However, the recording of that live show is
going to be on the club for members. We did
find that out, so that is really exciting. So if
you are an AIO club member, you will get to
experience that show, and then highlights from throughout the weekend
will be appearing on the official Adventures of Odyssey podcast.
From what I understand, I think I got that from
Nathan Hubler. I'm not one hundred percent sure, so don't
quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that he
was the one who told me that. So more content
from this amazing weekend will still be coming and that
is something to look forward to now. Also, there was
a survey that they sent out to all of the
attendees and they asked in that survey what people thought
about the potentiality of a touring thousandth episode celebration, And
I'm not sure what everybody else responded, but I for
one said a big yes, I would definitely attend to
one of those if it was in my area. If
they came to Phoenix, I would be there for sure.
So they are thinking about ways to take this experience
in probably a much more scaled down version around the
country in some way so more people get to experience it.
So that is something to look forward to. And I mean,
I'm sure it probably can't hurt that if you think
that's something that you would like to attend, if they
came to your area, you might want to reach out
to Focus and just let them know, Hey, I heard
that you're considering doing this, Please bring it to my area.
So if they hear from enough people, who knows, maybe
it will happen. And speaking of that, if you are
in the Holland, Michigan area, you're probably familiar with the
Family Central Bookstore there, which is a focus on the
family owned bookstore and they often have AIO related events.
Many of the AIOL cast and crew have been there
at previous events, but they are going to be hosting
a thousandth episode celebration at their store in Holland, Michigan
on Saturday, September twenty eighth, from two to five pm.
Katie Lee is going to be there voice of Connie Kendall,
and they're going to have frozen custard, They're going to
have pizza, they're going to have the Odyssey characters, the
costume characters are going to be there, They're going to
have some activities for the kids, a whole lot more.
And this is a free event, so if you are
in the area of the Family Central Bookstore in Holland,
Michigan on September twenty eighth, you're not going to want
to miss that event. There is a link in the
show notes to their website so you can find out
more information. And lastly, the map of Odyssey that Michael
referenced in one of the recaps earlier, they had this
huge printed out version of it that just looked amazing.
Like I said in the recap, I didn't see it there,
but I saw pictures of it later. And the AIO
social team, primarily Evan David, I think, has been sharing
snippets of it or different quadrants from that map on
social in recent days, and he confirmed that the full
map will be released soon, so it's probably going to
be in the club, but maybe publicly, maybe they'll do
a poster of it. I think that would be amazing.
So the entire map of the town is going to
be available soon, so that's super super cool and a
little behind the scenes here, I think we can probably
say this now, there were several of us in the
community who were asked for feedback and to sort of
consult on this map project many many months ago and
help them to place things where they're supposed to be,
where they've been mentioned in the audio show, to make
sure it's as representative as possible. And of course there's
probably conflicting things. As you know, you have a thousand episodes,
there's going to be some things that don't quite mesh up,
and different maybe street names for different characters, where they
live and things like that. But that was cool to
be able to be a part of that, and so
I've been looking forward to this map for a very
long time, so I'm so glad that it's finally finished
and out for the fans to enjoy. So that's going
to be awesome when that gets publicly released. Well, that's
going to do it for this special edition of Audio
Theater Centro where we recap Adventures anadus Sees one thousand
episode celebration, the one Grand Party. What an amazing historic
event and it was just fantastic to be a part of.
And I thank you for coming along this little journey
with me. If you'd like to get in touch with us,
you can head over to Audiotheatercentral dot com Slash contact
join the ATC Insiders, our newsletter for all the cool
stuff that we're up to. We'll let you know when
we have some news to share. And the show notes
for this episode, or at audiotheatercentral dot com Slash two
o three links to all of our guests. Everything that
we discussed, all of it is going to be there,
so be sure to check that out. And I'm going
to close out today's program with this special edit of
The Only Thing Missing Is You from Eugene Sings performed
by the Caliphonics and Will Ryan and I want to
dedicate this episode to the memory of Will Ryan. We
love you, Eugene. Remember the best is yet to come.
I'll see you next time. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 8: Mha.
Speaker 9: The Only Thing is your The world could be a
better place if I do all easy, R may.
Speaker 12: The old.
Speaker 8: Sure my dreams the talcout true.
Speaker 5: The famous sis.
Speaker 16: A b C p O g pH by j K
dolmment o, p q r S t v w x
y Z.
Speaker 6: The miss you.
Speaker 16: The only thing miss is what could be perfect place you?
I could only see your Facebook. The only thing missing is.
Speaker 9: The only thing.
Speaker 2: Missing is audio. Theater Central is a production of Porchlite
Family Media. Our theme music was composed by Sam Avandanio.
The show is produced and edited by Yours Truly J
D Setter. Our website is audio Theatercentral dot com.
Speaker 6: Say that again, Oh okay?
Speaker 1: Sorgelight Family Media.
Speaker 14: Your source for family censored
Speaker 1: Content Porchlightfamilymedia dot com