Welcome to our episode our second Back from the Dead episode!

Next up is our unofficial AnimeFest 2016 interviews. These interviews were ones that we arranged while we were at AnimeFest since regular interviews were not scheduled. Because of what I mentioned in the last post, I’m going to combine all 3 of these interviews together so everyone can finally listen to them in all their glory!

Tom McKee

First up is independent voice actor Tom McKee (and our new friend and very patient man for putting up with us) who has worked at FUNimation on One Piece and many others, as well as on many independent video games such as Pirates Vikings Knights II, Riot!, and others, plus being a very accomplished theater actor and director in the DFW area. Honestly I feel like I can’t write enough about Tom to really do him justice, so please give him a listen.

You can follow him on his Facebook page

Kristen McGuire

Kristen has been very busy since last time we met with her (and even busier since we’ve recorded this). She has voiced Dolugh in elDlive, Hanabi Kawai in Keijo!!!!!!!!, Loop Nishigori in Yuri!!! On ICE, An Onoya in ReLIFE, Chiyo Kurihara in Prison School, Hinano Kurahashi in Assassination Classroom, and much more. Since the last time we’ve talked to Kristen, has become a script writer for Funimation for titles like Dance with Devils, Dagashi Kashi, and also an assistant ADR Director for several more titles. If you want to check out more of her comics and voice roles, you can at her website, and like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Assassination Classroom: Season 1, Part One

Prison School: The Complete Series

Tweets by KrisComics

Ethyn Gutierrez

Ethyn Gutierrez is an actor, director, producer and so much more. Based out of Oklahoma, Ethyn still has very strong ties to Texas and the Dallas area and is a personal acting coach. We discuss his new project in the works and even try to give a few suggestions of our own.

Ethyn can be found on Facebook and on Twitter. Check out his IMDB as well. Be sure to contact him if you’re interested in private acting lessons or if you’re like him to star as an actor in anything!

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Welcome to our first Back from the Dead episode!

First up is our interview with Cherami Leigh from A-Kon 27. I made the mistake of trying to separate out our interviews from our usual routine and that made everything take even longer to post. We definitely won’t be doing that again for a while!

Cherami Leigh

Cherami Leigh is a prolific voice actress from the Dallas, Texas area though frequently travels back and forth between Dallas and Los Angeles though now living in Los Angeles. Cherami a number of extremely well-known voice acting roles such as Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail, Asuna Yuuki from Sword Art Online, Kudelia Aina Bernstein from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Sailor Venus from the new dubbed version of Sailor Moon, Patty Thompson from Soul Eater, and many more. Cherami also is an on-camera talent having starred in many guest starring roles such as NCIS: Los Angeles, Shameless, Bones, Longmire; and movies such as Not Cool, and since our recording starred in the web series CONfessionals.

If you’d like to find out more about Cherami, you can check out her IMDb page, wikipedia page, and her Behind the Voice Actors page for a more complete list of her acting credits. If you’d like to follow her on the internet, you can follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Transcription coming soon

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Welcome to another super late episode from A-Kon 27 in Dallas, Texas!

Ryter Rong

Ryter Rong is an author and now frequent panelist at anime conventions. She has written Ireland Calls My Name, a story about little discussed practice of Irish Indentured Servitude (though sometimes done forcibly), inspired by her own family history plus with other books soon on the way. She also hosts a number of panels at anime conventions about writing and publishing and a new panel about depression as a way to help others that may be suffering from depression.

If you’d like to follow Ryter Rong on the internet and find out more of her work, you can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. You can also visit her website and purchase Ireland Calls My Name on Amazon!

The post Ryter Rong Interview – A-Kon 27 appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

Welcome to our special episode with author Tracy Lawson!

Tracy Lawson

We first met Tracy Lawson a the Creative Women’s Conference in Denton, Texas where she was a guest and we learned of her unique background. She has a very diverse background in both writing and the performing arts having had her own dance studio where she taught tap dancing, directing and choreographing musicals for grades 6-12 (which she still does during the summers in Ohio), and now author of several books.

Tracy’s literary career is just as diverse as the rest of her life; having published both fiction and non-fiction and worked both with publishing houses and as a self-published author. Not only that, but we’ve discovered that even her non-fiction work and family history has crossed over into her latest series.

Tracy’s non-fiction books are based on her family stories. Fips, Bots, Doggers, and More is based on the travel journal of her great-great-great grandfather and traces his journeys in Ohio. Her other book, And I Can Tell You War Stories tells the stories of her grandfather during World War II after he lied about his age to join the Navy at 15. If you’d like to find out more of Tracy’s non-fiction books and other works, you can at tracylawsonbooks.com.

Her latest work,the Resistance series, follows Tommy and Careen in the near future where the US government, under the direction of the Office of Civilian Safety and Defense has taken extreme measures to “protect” citizens from threats from terrorism. The Government gives the populace an antidote to chemical weapons that might be used in an upcoming attack, even warning everyone about their side effects. When Tommy and Careen run out of the antidote and discover the lies the government has been feeding its citizens, they join an underground resistance that works to expose the truth. However, as Tommy and Careen learn more about the resistance in the series, they have to contend with personalities and others within the group as well as those in the government.

Portrait of Tommy from the Resistance series by Tracy Lawson Portrait of Careen from the Resistance series by Tracy Lawson

The Resistance series has 3 books so far with a fourth book due out in 2017, along with a prequel novella in late 2016. You can find out more about the Resistance series at counteractbook.com. All the books are available on Amazon in paperback, eBook, and audiobook format!

Counteract: Book One of the Resistance Series

Resist: Book Two of the Resistance Series

Ignite: Book Three of the Resistance Series

If you’d like to follow Tracy around the internet and see her latest works, you can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram! Plus you can meet Tracy Lawson in person at Dallas Comic Con’s Fan Days at the Irving Convention Center from October 14-16, 2016 and even buy a book in person! Make sure you tell her hello from My Geek Confessions!

The post My Geek Confessions with Author Tracy Lawson! appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

Welcome to another super late episode from A-Kon 27 in Dallas, Texas!

Octopimp and Sparky The Android at A-Kon 27

Octopimp and Sparky the Android

Octopimp (aka Alexander Gross) is best known as the creator of 50% Off (which we’ve featured several times on the show) and is the voice of Makoto, Nagisa/Thugisa, and Rei. SparkyTheAndroid (Sparky The Android aka Brett Jones) is a writer for the series and is the voice of Haru (all of the Haru’s) and Rin. Not only that but Octopimp and Sparky had the chance to voice Toru Iwashimizu and Shouta Nakagawa in Funimation’s dub of Free: Eternal Summer! We’ve loved 50% Off and were happy to get a chance to interview the both of them while at A-Kon 27.

You can subscribe to Octopimp’s channel for 50% Off and more, and follow him on Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! And you can visit his store on Spreadshirt to buy various 50% Off shirts!

If you’d like to follow Sparky, you can subscribe to his Youtube channel, follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Below are the videos from A-Kon! First is “Waste Your Time Panel” which we weren’t able to make.

Second is the panel we were able to make, the “Big Show Panel” where due to technical difficulties most of it turned out to be a live read of the latest episode.

Last is the 50% Off Bonus episode that finally premiered at the “Big Show Panel” once the technical difficulties were figured out.

Transcription Coming Soon

The post Octopimp and Sparky the Android Interview – A-Kon 27 appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

Welcome to our next super late episode from A-Kon 27 in Dallas, Texas!

Austin Tindle at A-Kon 27

Austin Tindle

Austin Tindle is a actor and voice actor in the Dallas, Texas. Not only is he a voice actor, but as we learned at the convention that he is a theater actor (though he has been too busy for theater lately) with a passion for Shakespeare. Seriously, if you have a chance to see Austin’s 18+ panel “Raunchy Shakespeare“, you’ll definitely walk away with a newfound appreciation for Shakespeare’s works. And by appreciation, I mean that Shakespeare liked to talk in puns and about sex all the time just like we do. It was definitely an eye opener that makes Shakespeare a lot more fun and interesting.

Though his last name is spelled slightly different, Austin Tindle is related to William Tyndale, who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English for the Tyndale Bible. The Tyndale Bible was used as the basis for the King James Bible as well as helping to solidify modern English for Shakespeare and all English speakers everywhere! So in a way, we should thank Austin for giving us modern English and Shakespeare. Yes, I do realize this is a bit of a stretch but the connection is very interesting.

Austin Tindle is most well known for playing Karma Akabane in Assassination Classroom, Kaneki Ken in Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul√A, Obi in Snow White with the Red Hair, Accelerator in A Certain Magical Index, and Ichirohiko in The Boy and the Beast among many others.

If you’d like to see more of Austin’s credits, you can check out his profile on Behind the Voice Actors, Anime News Network, Wikipedia, IMDB, and even some of his theater credits. If you’d like to follow Austin online, you can find him on Facebook and Twitter

Transcription Coming Soon

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Welcome to our fourth super late episode from A-Kon 27 in Dallas, Texas! Working 3 other jobs with a busy summer can get to you.

This interview was a fun treat for us since we had two awesome voice actors at the same time. We started out with actress Alex Moore and she called over Justin Briner to come in on the interview who wasn’t even at A-Kon officially as a guest! We appreciate both of them for taking the time and arranging for both of them to be interviewed. However, Justin was a late arrival to the interview, so be aware he comes in a little later.

Alex Moore and Justin Briner at A-Kon 27

Alex Moore

Alex Moore has acting in her blood, having grown up the daughter of two actors and always being involved in theater and the actor life from a young age. Alex has a Master’s of Fine Arts in Acting and continues to be active in the theater scene in Dallas at the Texas Star Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre and Pegasus Theatre in their “Living Black and White” productions. Alex is also an avid cosplayer (in fact debuting a Mary Poppins outfit with her husband as Burt at the convention) as well knowing magic and juggling.

Alex also is a voice actress and has been in several different anime from Funimation. Alex is most well known for Suzuno/Crestia Bell in The Devil is a Part-Timer (which is on Netflix and we highly recommend), Lola on One Piece (in the Thriller Bark arc currently airing on Toonami), Flare Corona on Fairy Tail, and Mitsuba Sangu in Seraph of the End among many others. To see more of Alex Moore’s credits, you can visit her page on Behind the Voice Actors or on IMDB.

If you wanted to follow Alex, you can do so at her website, on her Twitter @plus3toogres, and on her Instagram.

Justin Briner

Justin Briner is a relatively new voice actor to Funimation but has made a big splash there very quickly, though has spent many years in theater previous to working in voice over. Justin is most well-known for being Mikaela in Seraph of the End, Elam in Heroic Legend of Arslan, Qwenthur Barbotage in Heavy Object, and most recently as Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia.

You can check out more of Justin’s credits at Behind the Voice Actors (which isn’t up-to-date), IMDB, and on Anime News Network. If you’d like to follow Justin online, you can follow him on Twitter.

Transcription Coming Soon

The post Alex Moore and Justin Briner Interview – A-Kon 27 appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

Welcome to our third delayed episode from A-Kon 27 in Dallas, Texas!

Morgan Berry

Morgan Berry

We’ve actually known Morgan for a little while since we’ve been able to see her frequently at various events and conventions here in the Dallas Metro area, but never had the chance to interview her. So we were really excited to finally get a chance to sit down with her!

Morgan Berry is a relatively new voice actor but has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time! She got her break into voice acting by winning a voice acting competition at “Haber-Kon” (a convention thrown by voice actor Todd Haberkorn) which gave her an audition at Funimation and the rest is history.

Since then Morgan has been very busy! She’s Tokaku Azuma in Riddle Story of the Devil, young Ichirohiko in The Boy and The Beast (where she did VERY good) , Linda in Hyperdimension Neptunia (co-starring with David Vincent), plus parts in several Broadcast Dubs like Show by Rock!!, My Hero Academia, and many others. She’s also going to be playing the villain in the upcoming game, Forbidden Planet 2.

Not only that, but Morgan also has her own Youtube channel where she sings covers of anime songs as well as original material under the username “AnUnknownSongBird”.

If you’d like to find Morgan Berry on the web, you have plenty of places to do so. You can like her official Facebook page and follow her on Twitter, subscribe to her YouTube page, and even on Instagram and Tumblr!

Transcription

MyGeekConfessions: Alright, we’re here with our next guest! I’ll let you introduce yourself.

Morgan Berry: Hi, guys! My name is Morgan Berry. I play Tokaku Azuma in Riddle Story of Devil, Linda in HyperDimension Neptunia, and young Ichirohiko in The Boy and the Beast.

MGC: Yes, and you’ve been in a lot of the movies and stuff lately, too. You’ve been really busy! So, we already kinda know each other, but for those listeners, we wanted to start with our generic question of: How did you get your start? In this case, we know you do both voice-acting and, like, your youtube, and singing, and everything like that. So we wanted to kinda cover all of the bases there.

MB: Awesome! Well, how I got started into voice-acting… I’ve always loved anime, and I’ve always loved acting. And, at one point, I was doing more singing than I was acting, and I thought, “You know what, I really want to get back into acting.” And I just happened to be on Facebook, and Todd Haberkorn had posted that he was having a convention called “Haberkon”!

MGC: Yes!

MB: Yes, and I kept reading. I was like, “Ooh, I wanna go to this!” And then, I read that there was going to be a voice-acting competition. And I was like, “Okay, cool!” Oh yeah, I realized that’s a thing, voice-acting. Like, I love acting. I could do this! You know, because I was so involved with theater all throughout high school and middle school, and it’s something I love, so I was like, “You know what? That’s cool, I’m gonna try this.” And then I read further, and it said that if you win this voice-acting competition, you’ll win an audition at Funimation.

MGC: Well, that’s like a prize right there.

MB: Right? So I thought, “Wow, this could be it.” And then I was like, “Alright, Lord, if this is what you want me to do with my life, then I will win this competition. Let’s see what happens.” And, so I participated, and I won!

MGC: And the rest is history at that point?

MB: Yes, and the rest is history!

MGC: So what was- Do you mind if I ask, what your first audition was, or was it just kind of a generic one?

MB: Yes! I was for A Certain Magical Index movie.

MGC: Oh, okay!

MB: For that specific audition, I didn’t get in that movie, but- ‘cuz there’s a show, and then there’s a movie leading up to it.

MGC: Right, right.

MB: And so I didn’t get into that, but then shortly after, they called me in for Fairy Tail, and so I did lines in Fairy Tail, and then shortly after that, I got my first named role in HyperDimension Neptunia as Linda.

MGC: With David Vincent, actually.

MB: Yes! I love David Vincent, he’s great.

MGC: Because we just interviewed him, too.

MB: Awesome~!

MGC: So, did they have you do, like, walla and stuff at first, as well?

MB: Yes, basically it all starts with Walla. You have to… Yep, it all starts with walla!

MGC: Okay! And so, let’s go back. You talked about your voice-acting. What about all your singing, and your career on that side of things? How’d you kinda get your start there? Yes, singing, because I know you have your YouTube page, and you’ve done a lot of those other things, as well.

MB: Yes. I love singing. I’ve been singing ever since I was a kid. And, a few years ago, I thought to myself, “You know what? I wanna find this one song in English.” It was the opening to Attack on Titan.

MGC: Okay.

MB: And I looked all over YouTube, and I wanted to find a cover that I just really liked. I’m pretty picky, and I couldn’t find a cover that I liked. Like, I wanted to hear it in English, you know? I wanted to hear some adapted lyrics. And, when I couldn’t find one I liked, I was like, “You know what? I’m a singer. I could do that. I could make my own!” And so, that’s when I started the channel, AnUnknownSongbird. That’s what it’s called. I didn’t expect it to take off the way it did. But, I started with singing. I adapted the lyrics from Japanese to English for “Guren no Yumiya,” the opening song. And, I sang it, and it did very well! And so, I thought, “Oh, then I’ll upload another!” And so, I just started recording all these songs I really love. I adapt the lyrics. I find the translation online, and then I adapt the lyrics to make sure it rhymes, and it hits every…

MGC: Fits the beat and everything, gotcha.

MB: Yes, gotta hit the beat. It’s gotta hit every syllable. Yeah, it’s gotta hit every syllable, ‘cuz I want it to be genuine.

MGC: And, how difficult is that, to be able to adapt the words, the rhythm, and everything like that?

MB: It’s so hard. Because I’m so picky, and I want it to be perfect. And, there are some words that just don’t work in a song. It may be the right amount of syllables, but it just doesn’t sound right, because it doesn’t flow off the tongue right, and so I can’t use it, and so I have to find other words. It’s pretty difficult. It takes me days – a long time to get it right.

MGC: Wow, really. Okay. Well, you kinda mentioned a little bit, but have you always wanted to sing and to voice-act? Is that always been a kind of a goal, or is it something you just kinda fell into?

MB: I fell into it! I literally just fell into it. Because, when I was younger, I loved anime, and I loved acting, but I didn’t realize I could do that. I didn’t realize it was a thing. And even when I got back into anime in 2007, I started watching Fullmetal Alchemist, and I fell in love with the voices – but even then, it didn’t occur to me that voice-acting was a thing that I could do, that it was possible I could actually be in those shows, and do what I love: acting. I didn’t think about it, and then it all just happened when I won the contest. That’s when I realized, “Oh, well, I guess this is what I’m gonna do!”

MGC: Was that the same with the singing, as well? Or is it, like you said, you just kinda like, “Oh, I’ll do this cover,” and then kinda just exploded from there?

MB: Well, I used to be a part of a band. And so, we traveled all over America, singing and dancing. And, it was an all-girl pop rock band.

MGC: Oh, really! Okay!

MB: Yeah, it was a lot of fun, and so I did that for years. My first solo was at Bass Hall when I was 14, and.. Yeah, I guess it kinda started from there, because I loved singing when I was little, but I didn’t take it seriously until I was 14. And, I started taking lessons, then I sang my first big solo, and then I joined the band.

MGC: Is that something you always have thought about as part of your career, as well, or is it just still kinda-?

MB: Yeah!

MGC: Okay.

MB: I would hope. I mean, I wrote a song called “Fearless,” and it’s on iTunes right now. It’s the only song I have on iTunes right now, but I’m hoping to- I love writing songs, and I’m hoping to eventually get all of them out there.

MGC: Okay. Well, hopefully we’ll be able to help promote those when you do. So, what kinda process do you go through when you’re trying to channel a character? I know especially with anime and everything, you usually don’t have a lot of time to be able to come up with a character-

MB: Nope!

MGC: But as far as both coming up with one, and then, you know, if it’s something that you’re having to repeat over and over again with multiple sessions, how do you get back in character?

MB: Well, for some cases, I’ll come in not knowing what I’m recording for. They just have me on the schedule, and they’re like, “Hey, can you come in for this?” Like, at this time, they don’t even tell me what show, what character. And, so I’m like, “Yeah, I can come in.” And so, I come in, and that’s when I find out what I’m voicing for. And, the director will tell me what’s going on in the scene, and then I’ll do it, and it’s just so quickly. But, when it comes to.. like, that’s just when I’m given a role, and I don’t even audition for it. But, when I audition for a role, they have the sides, they explain the character’s background, and how the character’s supposed to sound. And, I look through that, and I look at the character’s picture, and I try to get a feel for how this character’s gonna sound. And, you know, I try to put myself in their shoes, because it’s acting, and so that’s how I get into character.

MGC: Okay. Do you ever have to, like, if you’re doing it in multiple days, you ever have, like, have a vocal reference, or do you pretty much already have it down by that point?

MB: Sometimes, I have to listen to a recording of myself. And, the directors will sometimes play a recording of the actor. If it’s been a few weeks since we’ve recorded for the character, they’ll say, “Alright, here’s a reference,” and they’ll play the last line you read for last time you had a session, so you can get back in the character.

MGC: Gotcha. Well, and you kinda described that a little bit, as far as when you first did your first song, and it takes a few days, but what is your process of being able to do a video for your singing? You know, do you do warm-ups, do you do what other things you look for in your adaptations, and being able to post this stuff on YouTube?

MB: I drink a lot of water before I record, because, especially with voice-acting, you don’t wanna have those clicks in your voice when you’re talking through the mic, ‘cuz then they have to edit those out, and that takes a while. So, you don’t wanna give them more work than they have to do, so drink lots of water before you record – whether it’s voice-acting or singing, and sometimes I do vocal warm-ups whenever I get the chance.

MGC: And, ones we always like to kinda end with, as well, is do you have an advice for people who’re trying to do this for a career, either, again, for YouTube, for singing, or for, you know, doing voice-acting, or anything like that – for people who’re starting out, people who’ve been doing it for a while, or who’re trying to just kinda put their feelers out there. What kind of advice would you give?

MB: Definitely, when it comes to voice-acting, take acting lessons and acting workshops, and it’s something you can even google. You can find classes in your area, and just to hone your acting skills. And, you can get involved in your local theater – or if you’re in a public high school or middle school, you can get involved in the theater department. And, just, get as much experience as you can, and build your acting resume.

MGC: Okay. Anything else as far as- I’m assuming that’s kinda the same as far as for singing, to just take classes, and practice, and things like that.

MB: Yeah, I was a part of a choir for nine years.

MGC: Wow, okay.

MB: Yeah, and that’s including me being a part of the band, so I did all of that for a super long time.

MGC: It definitely sounds like it. And, our last question we always like to end on is, what general life advice do you like to give out? If you’re trying to give advice for somebody to live a good life, what kinda things would you say?

MB: Be kind to others. Don’t be a diva. You know, everyone’s going through something. And so, take the time to encourage someone – even someone random on the street. You don’t know them? Take the time to give them a compliment, because you never know what they’re going through, and a simple compliment could bring a smile to their face, it could make their day, it could make their life. You could save them, so take the chance to encourage people.

MGC: Okay, that’s very nice. And, just lastly, is there anything coming – we know there’s NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) and everything all the time – is there anything coming up that you’d like to pimp out, or is there- want people to reach out through social media or anything? Feel free to take the floor and pimp out whatever you would like.

MB: Awesome! Well, Freedom Planet 2, it’s a video game that’s gonna be coming out next year. I’m playing the lead villain. I play Merga. And, a lot of great people are gonna be in it. There’s Christopher Sabat, Sarah Ann Williams, Lindsay Jones, Josh Grelle, a lot of great people are in it. It’s gonna be fun, and, yeah, that’s something to look forward to! And, as far as social media, I’m on Twitter @TheMorganBerry, and I’m also on Instagram with that same name, and I’m on YouTube as AnUnknownSongbird.

MGC: Okay, well we’ll make sure that we link to all those things for everybody to check out, and we’ll follow you as well once this goes live, and thank you again! I know it’s been a long time coming, but we appreciate you finally sitting down with us and letting us ask these questions of you.

MB: Thank you!

The post Morgan Berry Interview – A-Kon 27 appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

Welcome to the second long-delayed episode from A-Kon 27 in Dallas, Texas!

Ryuu Lavitz

Ryuu Lavitz is a cosplayer, judge, panel moderator, and even a Twitch streamer. Ryuu started by cosplaying at Anime Boston and soon branched out to other conventions since May 2014. She does her own costumes, photography, and has been able to use those skills (which spun off of her mother’s craftiness) to create a career that allows her to travel the world. If you’d like to find more of Ryuu Lavitz online, you can find her at her website, her facebook page, Twitter, Twitch, and finally her Patreon site. She is everywhere online and I’m sure that I’m still not listing all of the ways you can connect with her!

We asked lots of questions, but for those that we didn’t cover, Ryuu Lavitz has a nice FAQ page detailing other common questions that she gets.

Interview Transcript

My Geek Confessions: Alright everyone, we are here with our next interview, and I will let you introduce yourself.

Ryuu Lavitz: Hi, my name is Ryuu Lavitz, I am 23, from Boston, Massachusetts, and I do a lot of artsy stuff, like photography, and crafting, and sowing, and drawing, so it’s my schtick.

MGC: It’s a very good schtick, apparently. And I guess that goes right into our first question: how did you get your start?

RL: I used to do photography in high school, because I really wanted to be a photographer, and I’d done a lot of self-photography. So, I got bored of just taking pictures of all my normal clothes, and decided I was gonna start making stuff based off of characters. I started with Pikachu, and I was like, “Oh, I’m just gonna do some ears and a tail, and throw in a yellow shirt.”

MGC: Okay?

RL: The next one up was Lara Croft, and I was like, “Why not? I know a place with some giant rocks, that’ll be fun.” I didn’t think anything of it, and then the internet started calling me a cosplayer, and I was like, “What is that?

MGC: Ahh, the rest is history, then?

RL: The rest is I had to go on the internet and google it. Now I know I’m a cosplayer.

MGC: Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

RL: Yeah, it was cool! I was like, “Alright there’s this category of people doing the same thing as me, I can get down with that!”

MGC: Okay, and obviously that’s kind of brought you a lot of different things along the way. It was saying in your kind-of bio that you’ve done judging, you’ve done all these different things. How’d that kind of come about?

RL: Oh, I started doing cosplay the first year, and then the next following year I had this little, tiny convention going I’d never heard of in Florida called Omnicon. And they were like, “Come down here and guest for us!” And it wasn’t really a guesting gig as much as they were giving me passes and having me pay the rest of my way in. I paid a lot of money to be there, and it was a really tiny con. But, I think that’s where it started, because that’s where I got my first judging experience. I read a couple panels, did some photoshoots, and it was my first real professional setting, and I think I learned a lot from it and how to go about guesting in general. And then from there, it kind of snowballed getting smaller gigs here and there. I did a lot of main conventions, and those are also very tiny, but very friendly people. Learned a lot from them, did some panels and stuff there. I’ve judged a lot of contests, I saw some really unfair things going on. I decided I was always gonna try to be a judge when I could to ensure people would have fair judging.

MGC: Oh, very nice. Do you mind if I ask what kind of things you were seeing that were not that great?

RL: I had this girl that I was judging with, and she’d be more favorable towards her friends she knew, and, y’know, she’d judge people more harshly if their parents would help. And I was like, “They’re 14, and they did a lot of the work on their own. You need to judge based on what you’re seeing, not on who you like.” There were a lot of unfair judgements. She’d tell me, “Oh that person can’t win, because his paint is chipping just a little bit.” Somebody missing a whole chunk of his outfit would score higher, and it just didn’t make sense to me.

MGC: Okay, that makes sense. So, as far as those types of things, have you been able to do this as like, a full-time thing? Were you still kind of doing that? And, I know you mentioned things like Twitch and like that.

RL: I do a lot of this just for fun. I mean, I could make this a full-time thing if I wanted to, but I feel like it’s not a real job. I understand there’s a lot of opportunities to be had. It could open many doors. People like Nigri, who has her own voice-acting gigs, and Yaya Han,does her own clothing line, material line, and sowing pattern line; there’s a lot of things that could happen for me, but I’m not treating it like it’s gonna be my career, because it’s really not a career. It’s gonna come and go someday. I do have a job doing interior designing – basically like fashion for houses. So it’s kinda where-

MGC: That’s a way of putting it!

RL: Actually, being good at cosplay and doing my own photos and all this stuff for this has actually shown the person who hired me, I’m good at patterns and colors and putting things together. He hired me on the spot by seeing some of my photography and was like, “Wow.”

MGC: Wow, so it’s really transitioned for you, then.

RL: Yeah, so it really worked out. I have no experience designing houses, but here I am doing thousand-dollar bathrooms and kitchens.

MGC: Is that something you would like to continue on as you go forward?

RL: Interior designing?

MGC: Yeah.

RL: It’s fun for now. I’m sure someday I’ll be tired of it, but for right now it’s making the bills get paid. So, I’m doing that and he’s actually very flexible with me. I actually got hired for weekends only, and I was like, “Hey, I do my own thing on the side, and the weekends are kind of what I need.” I kind of got my foot in the door for a while and showed him I was a good worker, that I was capable of doing the job he wanted. And then I was like, “Hey, could you bend with me every once in a while and let me do these conventions?” And he was like, “How about you take the weekends for yourself?” And everybody in my company was upset, because they were like, “We never get weekends!”

MGC: Oh, wow! Okay!

RL: “The new kid gets weekends!” But, I just had to prove I was worth keeping, and he really wants to keep me, so he bends with my convention schedule. And that’s why I’m here this weekend.

MGC: There you go! It’s worked out for us as well. Okay let’s go on to some of the other questions you had. I wanted to ask, what was your favorite cosplay that you do?

RL: That’s kind of like asking someone what their favorite kid is. I mean, it’s kinda hard to pick your favorite.

MGC: Hey, you know, there is that, you always know that sometimes there is actually…

RL: Alright, so there’s two answers. If you want “What’s my favorite that I’ve done so far,” I did a Punk Peach, a very grungy-like Punk Peach – Princess Peach from Super Mario. Or, I liked the white mage I did for Final Fantasy, because it makes me feel like a princess. But, my second answer to that, if you wanna say, “What’s the most fun to cosplay,” it’s definitely Harley Quinn, because you can be as crazy or as somber as you want, and it all works.

MGC: I know there’s some cosplayers that will, you know, they’re just kind of visual element only, but do you go into full character, too?

RL: I definitely do, yeah, definitely.

MGC: Okay so, with Harley Quinn, are you kinda just all over the place and mess with people?

RL: It kinda depends on my mood that day. There are people I will purposefully photobomb just to be a dork about it.

MGC: Okay?

RL: There are people I’ll be like, “Hey there puddin’!” And be all like into character. It really depends on like, who I’m talking to. Some people you can tell that don’t really feel like digging the character schtick and they just wanna take a picture and move on their way, and that’s totally fine with me. Definitely like all them people are all like “Oh my God, Pikachu!” And I’m like, “Pikachu!” I get all into it! It’s all exciting! And he thinks it’s the best thing ever.

MGC: Well, there you go. I think that sounds like it’s a really fun time.

RL: I definitely pick characters that I identify with in some way, so it’s easy to just hop into a character, rather than just pick something that looks good, because I have to understand a character and really feel for the character before I can make an outfit for it.

MGC: And that goes for pretty much all the characters you do.

RL: Every character I do, yes.

MGC: Okay! Okay well, we talked about this a little bit before, but, you know, dream cosplay, dream photoshoot location, and I guess, does that tie into the ones you identify with, as well? So, is there one you identified with more?

RL: Well, I play a lot of Starcraft, I like playing the Zerg race. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the game.

MGC: A little bit, yeah.

RL: But there is this character called Sarah Kerrigan, and she also has infested Kerrigan, and she’s this big, buggy, alienesque-looking babe, and I wanted to do that cosplay so bad that within that within my, like, first year and a half of doing cosplay, I forced myself to pump out this character. I’m not 100% happy with how it came out, because it was obviously my very early time doing it. But, I’m satisfied enough with it that I don’t feel the need to do it again. And, it was actually really tedious to wear the big wings and everything, so I really don’t wanna do that again.

MGC: Well, that brings up another question then, too. How often do you revisit, or like redo, costumes to be able to improve on it?

RL: It really depends on the character. Like, there’s this character, Rikku from Final Fantasy, that I’ve done once in the very beginning. Then I was like, “Hey I really like doing that. I wish I could do that a little bit better.” And I went back and I remade the skirt, I remade the top, and did the weapons differently, and I definitely was happier with it the second time around. And I do find myself being like, “Hey I really wanna remake the boots and the top again.” But depends on the character. Some characters I won’t ever touch again. I did Ryoko, and I was like, “Mm, nope, done with that.” Came out too big, didn’t like it, sell it off to somebody else. Did Annie from Legal Legends, had no personality for the character whatsoever, because somebody asked me to do it. And so I was like, “Never doing that again.” But, you know, if I really like it, and I feel like it could be done better, I will keep redoing it to make it better.

MGC: Oh, that’s nice! Okay.

RL: But I have Catwoman, and Black Cat, and they feel pretty basic, you know, and I’ve improved a little bit on, like, small accessories, but overall it’s all kind of the same when they look the same. So, I do try to improve when I can.

MGC: Do you ever do ones where- I know you mentioned, like, the Punk Princess Peach and everything. Do you ever do, like, the different types on the same character over and over again?

RL: Oh yeah! Harley, I’ve done at least five or six different renditions. Some original, some accurate to character, but it depends like, you know, like I said Peach, like I really wanted to do a ballgown Peach, but I was like, “I don’t wanna drag around a giant ballgown all day, so I’m gonna do something more relatable to me! I like being very grungy and punky and spiky and dark makeup, so I was like, “I’ll do that.” And I did that for Harley, actually last week, so I might break that out on Sunday if I have some time.

MGC: Okay, well hopefully we’ll see her around!

RL: I have a very punky Harley, yeah.

MGC: Well, okay, so the other thing is then location. Do you have a favorite location you’ve always wanted to go to?

RL: … I really want to go to Japan.

MGC: Good answer. I think that’s an answer for a lot of people, so it’s definitely good.

RL: Yeah, at least here it is. My mom always goes, “Japan? Why do you wanna go to Japan so bad?”

MGC: Hey, if it makes you feel any better, my parents did the exact same thing. And I finally was like, “Let me go!” And then I did, and it was great. Alright, so, what about your inspiration? Like, you said you kinda fell into doing costuming and everything like that. Was there a reason you started to do that, or would you find inspiration for the different characters that you can identify with?

RL: There’s a few different answers for that one, too. I find that from my past history with my mom growing up, my mom did a lot of crafting. She showed me how to sculpt.. sculpty clay. And we would make these little figurines all the time. She showed me how to, like, do all these little artsy-crafty things throughout my childhood – making accessories and jewelry and all of that. So, kinda transferred into, “What do I wanna do? Photography. Okay, how do I make this more interesting? Use the skills my mom gave me.” She taught me some basic sowing and stuff, and I started making stuff. And she was like, “What are you wasting all your money for? Making costumes, and then never wearing them again. Wearing them for one event and doing photos one time, and then putting it in your closet.”

MGC: You gotta love parents like that, right?

RL: So I kept working on it, and my parents kept watching me crank out all this stuff. And over time I’m starting to learn about other cosplayers, and I really like Vampy Bit Me. She’s here this weekend, and I’ve seen her at other conventions. I’ve never had the guts to go up and say hi to her until this weekend. I was walking by and I was like, “Don’t say anything, don’t say anything, play it cool!” And then I was like, “Vampy Bit Me I love you!” And it was really awkward. I was like, “No!”

MGC: And how’d that go?

RL: She was really friendly! It was great! Unfortunately, like, there were a lot of girls that I did look up to in terms of, like, my early time in being in cosplay. And it got really disappointing when you meet them, and either they’re really snobby, or they’re really rude, and you’re like, “Oh, I’m so sad.” So I stopped having quote/unquote inspirational people, but Vampy has never let me down in that aspect. She’s always been very friendly, especially in her posts, and, you know, she’s great. I always see her smiling.

MGC: Now is that something that’s fairly common in cosplay? Like, as far as, like, the professional ones, where, you know, they’re sometimes not that great?

RL: I feel like people let it get to their head. I like to play it humble, I don’t like to tell that I do this and they have to find it out on their own. I find that a lot of girls tend to brag about it and treat other people differently, like “Oh, your numbers are lower than mine.” And I find that there’s a lot of competition in terms of Facebook likes, which to me is a little silly, because it really doesn’t mean anything, unless you’re putting the work into it. A lot of girls just wanna ride out the Facebook likes and all that. But, you know, you do find some good eggs in the whole bunch, so it’s not just a bunch of snobby girls. But there are a lot of snobby girls.

MGC: It’s unfortunate to hear that. Well, I guess since we may have an awkward transition to this next one, I guess. What is your favorite game you like to play? Because you do have your Twitch channel and everything. What kinda stuff do you like to..?

RL: I’m seen playing Starcraft a lot. I’ve played Starcraft for, like, four years running, and I’ve recently kinda burnt out on it a little bit. I’ve kinda switched over to some things with my friends. We’ve played Borderlands. We’ll play random RPGs and stuff, but it really depends on my mood that day. I used to play a lot of Don’t Starve, which is a basic survival game, if you haven’t played it before, and I got my mom into that. My mom never played videogames. My mom plays videogames off-and-on, like on Playstation, but she saw me playing this game on my computer one time, and she goes, “What is that? It looks really fun.” And I’m like, “Oh, it’s Don’t Starve.” “What is it about?” “You run around, you pick up food, you try not to die.” “Oh, okay.” She’s been playing this game nonstop for the last year and a half.

MGC: So, you’re a bad influence, too.

RL: Oh my god. I bought her this $8 game, and I see her playing it every day just like it was Farmville. And I’m okay with that.

MGC: It’s probably better than Farmville.

RL: It’s a lot better than Farmville. Everything’s better than Farmville. But I do feel a lot better seeing her play a game that she can play with other people – they’re real people, and she’s running around doing this chat thing, and she’s having fun with it. So, I feel good she introduced me to Playstation in my early years, now I can introduce her to PC games. And this is a good transition to some simple PC games – some simple puzzle stuff. That’s what she likes.

MGC: Well, and I know you mentioned before we went on air that you’re not really currently playing anything, so what kinda things are you doing as a replacement to them? Are you binging on Netflix, or what kinda things are you watching right now?

RL: For the last year and a half, I was really crazy about pumping out all these costumes, playing all these games, entertaining the masses, and I’ve kind of been like, “Wow, I’m getting really burnt out. I need a break for myself, hang out with my friends, go out and find good food, go to the movies, go out dancing, do some different things.” I do watch a lot of TV and be a couch potato quite frequently. While I’m at work, I’ll just go home and crash on the couch and watch TV. But, eating is a huge hobby of mine. I do a lot of cooking recently.

MGC: Favorite food?

RL: I like buffalo wings, pickles, kind of random foods. I like artichokes, too.

MGC: Oh, good choice, okay. So, are you taking a break from, like, promoting your Twitch channel, as well? Or, what kind of things would you do to help promote and make that a success?

RL: For Twitch specifically?

MGC: Yes.

RL: I just kinda post on my Facebook whenever I’m streaming. I don’t really care about being a partner on Twitch, and a lot of people are like, “Aw, you can make money from it!” But really, I play on Twitch to entertain my fans who ask about it, because I figure I’m playing games anyways, I might as well just link it when I’m doing it. But, I really don’t push it that hard unless I’m actively playing something.

MGC: What kind of advice do you have for people who are wanting to get into cosplay, or wanting to do Twitch, or things like that? What kind of career advice, I guess?

RL: I mean, a lot of people expect everything’s gonna go right the first time you try it, because you know what you’re doing. But really, you have to have the patience to start over two, three, four times sometimes, and you have to accept the fact that it’s not gonna come out the way you want it to. And, really give it time. Like, you can’t rush something out two days before a convention, because that’s how things get bodged, and you get really frustrated. You don’t ever wanna pick it back up again. You wanna do a different character. But, if you like that character, give it the love it deserves. And, really like, spend time planning it out, figuring out what material- even material. Like, I’ve made dresses that I’m so happy with, except for the material type, and I wish I splurged for a little bit better material. So, if it’s something you really care about, spend a little bit more on it. But, if it’s just a quick throwaway thing, who cares? You know, try not to be too critical on things, because you’re gonna see all these mistakes, but not everybody is going to. So, just simple stuff like that. You know, a lot of patience goes a long way, and always compliment each other. So many people are into ripping each other apart. And, I’ve spent a lot of time going through these conventions, walking by people, “I like your outfit! I like that what you did there!” Boosting each other up is what’s gonna make this community a strong community, instead of tearing everybody apart. And, I know this nerd, this “nerd-dom” I guess I’ll call it, is getting to be a fad, so you kinda have to pick out, like, who’s the real people who enjoy their stuff, and who’s just here just to see what’s going on? And so, we all gotta kind of, like, work together, instead of against each other for fame, because it doesn’t make sense in a world where we all play dress-up as adults.

MGC: Yeah, makes sense. Well, I guess that kinda goes into our last question which was to, like, end on, which is: Have any general life advice? Something to be able to help people, that you think they’d be able to have a better life hearing, that they’d put into practice.

RL: You can’t care about what everybody thinks about you. People say a lot of rude things. “You’re too skinny.” “You’re too pale.” “You’re too short.” All this stuff. You know, people wanna cause drama, and hate on you, and all this stuff. Just forget about it, because they’re obviously dealing with their own stuff. And, it’s easier just to forget about what people say and go about your business, and care about what the people you care about say about you, instead of, you know, worrying about everybody else. Because, at first I was like, “Aw, man, people are making fun of me for my teeth, or my hair.” Whatever. In the long run, it really doesn’t matter, because I don’t even know these people. So, you know, in general, don’t let people get to you, do what makes you happy, and hope that it goes somewhere, and if not, find something that makes you happy. People tell me all the time, “I hate my job,” or, “I hate where I live.” Well, do something about it.

MGC: Okay! Is there anything that you, you know, you mentioned your interior designs and everything. Is there anything else coming up that you would like to pimp out, or anything like that?

RL: In terms of..?

MGC: Of whatever you would like.

RL: I guess I’m going to this, it’s called “Freaky Fest” in Argentina, and I’m pretty excited about it.

MGC: Wow, okay!

RL: I am pretty excited, but also pretty nervous, because that’s really international. I’ve been to Canada, but I’ve never been, like, out of the North American area, and I’m really nervous about that. But, I’m doing that. I put a lot of stuff on Facebook. You can follow me at facebook.com/ryuulavitzcosplay. I do put a lot of stuff on there all the time. I have a DeviantArt page with the same name. Other than that, I mean, it’s cool.

MGC: Well, it sounds like it if you’re going to Argentina!

RL: Follow me. If you see me, follow me. If not, whatever.

MGC: Okay! Well, thank you very much for joining us, and taking the time for this interview. And, we wish you the best of luck in Argentina and the rest of the convention.

RL: Oh, thank you! … I don’t even speak a lot of Spanish, so it’s gonna be kinda hard.

MGC: Ah, point at things, I guess.

RL: I mean, it’s funny, because I took four years of Spanish in high school, and you’d think I’d know a lot of Spanish, but…

MGC: No, you never do.

RL: Nope, I learned Japanese in a year on my own on some playbooks, and I know more Japanese than I do Spanish. So, I’m pretty nervous about trying to figure out where I’m going. People always ask me if I’m Hispanic, and they’re like, “Do you speak Spanish?” I’m like, “No.” “You look like you speak Spanish!” I don’t know what that means!

MGC: Okay, well, thank you very much. Have a good weekend, and good luck.

RL: Thank you!

The post Ryuu Lavitz Interview – A-Kon 27 appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

While we’ve been catching on real life fun, we had the wonderful opportunity to visit the new local venue for us, Southwest Reprise Theatre in Fort Worth and see a rehearsal of their new original production of Find Dorothy: Tell her Oz is in Trouble by writer and director James Long. Find Dorothy: Tell her Oz is in Trouble is based on the works of L. Frank Baum but expounds on it and takes the citizens of Oz on a journey to find Dorothy after the evil witch Zelbella regains her magic powers and seeks to take over Oz.

After the rehearsal we had a chance to sit down with the cast, crew, director, and producer/president of Southwest Reprise Theatre for a group interview to discuss the new play and their experiences in preparing for the new production. We hope to go back to see the final product of Find Dorothy: Tell her Oz is in Trouble once it’s in regular production! We’re looking forward to see that those final costumes will look like!

Performances will be from July 8th – July 30th, 2016.

The Southwest Reprise Theatre is located at:

Trinity Cumberland Presbyterian Church
7120 W. Cleburne Rd.
Ft. Worth, TX. 76133

For more info you can visit RepriseTheatre.com and follow them on Facebook. Plus if you’re in the Fort Worth or general DFW area and are interested in joining an upcoming production, auditions are announced on their Facebook.

Thanks to everyone in the cast that let us interview them! We’d like to properly give a shout out to everyone we met and wish them all luck. Break a leg!

The Find Dorothy: Tell her Oz is in Trouble Cast after our interview!

Cast List

Dorothy Gale: Gabby Nero
Dorothy Gale: Bethany Beardshay
Scarecrow: Adam Kullman
Billina: Candace Cook
Grumly: Amy Sorter
Matildarilla: Erin Pillow
Bucket: Matthew Walls
Auntie Em: Vonciel “Vonnie” Lowrey
Uncle Henry: Dwayne Pillow
Zelbella: Rianna Lester
Glinda: Jacqueline Divilla
Admiral Hiandry: Alfie Smith (understudy – Bryan Cook)
Oberhoston: Alan Meadows
Sarafina: Gabby Nero
Barbu: Ana-Lisa Divilla
Paralavous: Laura Francais
Whistler: Megan Leonard
The Cowardly Lion: Alan Meadows
The Tin Man: Alfie Smith (understudy – Bryan Cook)
Ozma: Gabby Nero
Security Guard: Shay Dellinger
Mombi: Jojee Allgood

The Production Team

Writer/Director: James Long
President/Producer: Lisa Pillow
Costumer: MacKenzie Pillow
Sound/Lighting: Daniel Carrizales

The post Find Dorothy: Tell her the Cast is in Trouble – Reprise Theater Cast Interview! appeared first on My Geek Confessions.

Welcome to first and long-delayed episode from A-Kon 27 from Dallas, Texas!

David Vincent

We first met David Vincent way back at Anime Banzai in 2012. While we’ve seen David a few other times since then, we’ve not been able to set down with him again for an interview so we were excited to catch up!

When we first interviewed David Vincent, his biggest roles in the anime world were as Grimmjow Jeagerjaques from Bleach and Van in Gun X Sword. Since then he’s added a lot more anime and video games to his résumé! David has been the voice of Archer/Gilgamesh in Fate/Zero, the all important talking piece of clothing Senketsu from Kill la Kill, Anonydeath from Hyperdimension Neptunia (in the game AND the anime and is one of the on only cast members to be on both releases), Jin Kisaragi from BlazBlue (both the anime and the game), Zebrin in Aldnoah.Zero, Robin from Fire Emblem, and just recently announced as Naze from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron ­Blooded Orphans that just started to air on Toonami!

Be sure to check out David Vincent’s IMDB page and Wikipedia page for more info on his roles. You can connect with David on his Facebook Fan page run by Michelle Tan Facebook, his fan club page run by Michelle Tan, and on Twitter.

We’re always excited to have David on the show and we hope to meet up with him again soon!

Transcript

My Geek Confessions: Alright, we are here at A­Kon 27, and we are here with our first guest with David Vincent, so thanks for returning to interview with us.

David Vincent: Hey, absolutely! It’s a pleasure to see you again, and-

MGC: It’s been like four years at this point?

DV: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. No, I’m excited to be here and it’s always good to see you guys.

MGC: Yeah I mean, we’ve seen you around, we just haven’t been able to interview at this point, so we’re just kinda glad to officially (for sure).

DV: Nail me down!

MGC: Yeah, exactly!

MGC: So it has been about four years since we’ve seen you last, so what have you been up to lately? ­ New projects, new anime?

DV: Oh gosh, since the last time?

MGC: What do you want to promote? (Yeah, new stuff you can promote, I mean?)

DV: Stuff that I can promote, uh, when is this going on, by the way?

MGC: Probably either this week or the next.

DV: Okay good, then I probably should be safe to announce the latest is Gundam: Iron ­Blooded Orphans. I do the voice of Naze, who is a very lucky guy. He has a harem of his own. Which that’s a fantastic show. That’s gonna be airing on Toonami, starting tomorrow night, Saturday. It premieres tomorrow night. So that’s exciting. Since you and I have last interviewed, oh gosh, I’ve had a lot of stuff come out. I’ve had a series called Kill la Kill. I do the voice of a sentient talking sailor uniform named Senketsu.

MGC: Did very well with that by the way.

DV: A two-­time run on Toonami as well, so that one was very well­ received. I was very proud of that, happy to be a part of it. Also, another big one would be Smash Brothers.

MGC: Oh yes, for sure.

DV: I do the voice of Robin from the series Fire Emblem: Awakening.

MGC: I know that’s a perennial favorite for a lot of people.

DV: Yeah, yeah, so I was lucky to be a part of that, and very happy to be a part of Smash Bros. I had to sit on that one for a year.

MGC: Wow!

DV: I recorded, I couldn’t tell anybody about it. They would ask me, “Do you have anything cool coming up?” And I would be like, “Mmm, yes! But I can’t tell you!”

MGC: Those pesky NDAs. (Non-disclosure Agreements)

DV: Yeah, and so now I’m excited that I can talk about that, that it’s been out, and it’s been a runaway hit, so thrilled to be a part of it.

MGC: Well, definitely congratulations. You’ve been very busy and everything, and that kind of leads to our next question, which is: since our last time we’ve interviewed, you’ve done a lot more cons, and been able to go around all these different places. Do like going to the cons?

DV: I love them.

MGC: Do you have any interesting stories from your adventures now?

DV: You know, I’ve lots and lots of interesting stories. No, but do I like going to cons? I love going to cons. I think they’re so much fun. You know it’s so funny, I was just talking with somebody earlier about how much I enjoy the fact we can all get together in a venue over the weekend. I saw two grown men doing their own skit, just impromptu skit, play fighting. And to me, I’m like gosh, what a wonderful experience for us to all be able to go and just be kids again, and to just enjoy each other’s company, enjoy what we’re all interested in, and enjoy the process. It’s just a fantastic thing, so I love going to conventions. I love the cosplay, it’s one of my favorite things. And, for me, I love meeting the fans. For me, that’s honestly icing on the cake for what I do for a living.

MGC: Any other interesting stories that you want to share?

DV: Interesting stories that I want to share… Gosh, you know, I had a… Okay, you know this is going to be a little more on the serious side, but it was something that meant a lot to me, and it was, a person had approached me who was going through a very difficult time, and at this point in time was considering suicide.

MGC: Oh no! Oh!

DV: Yeah, and had approached me and had just said that, “Hey, one of the characters that you had voiced in that series really helped me through that period of time.”

MGC: Well that’s good!

DV: And so that, to me, is just like, gosh, you know, what an amazing thing to be a part of, that somebody can move and inspire somebody to move past a difficult point in their life.

MGC: Yeah, you never know what kind of effect you have on a character.

DV: Yeah, exactly. And so that type of thing to me is just really powerful and very meaningful to me, and it’s something that I’m very proud that I was able to help somebody in that way. And then, to me, sort of just meeting the fans. I mean, gosh, you know, it’s so much fun to sit and talk, and like, “Wow!” you know, “I loved you in this!” And I’ll tell you what, I’ve been getting a lot lately which is making me feel very old is, “Mr. Vincent! Mr. Vincent! You are such a part of my childhood!”

MGC: Oh no!

DV: I know, I’m like, “Wait, what?”

MGC: It’s like, “How old are you?” (I know, I don’t like to talk about that, either, because

then I feel old!)

DV: I know, but, no, it’s still so much fun, man. It’s a blast.

MGC: You’ve been travelling both to FUNimation here and Dallas. Are there any differences between FUNimation and Aniplex that you can share? (Not just Aniplex, I know there’s other studios.) Oh yes, other studios between the west coast and middle coast.

DV: There’s not really that much of a difference. They’re both.­ FUNimation I’ve worked with. They’re just amazing people, so much fun to work with. And they put out amazing work. Aniplex, Viz Media, and all the other studios I work with in Los Angeles, same thing. They’re just wonderful people, and it’s a privilege to me to get to work with them and call them colleagues. So, there’s not much of a difference, other than when you’re working with FUNimation ­ especially for actors like me who live in Los Angeles if we’re out in Dallas to work with them on a project, their sessions will last a little bit longer than in Los Angeles. Los Angeles, they tend to limit your sessions to two hours. And then, at times, four hours, max. As opposed to FUNimation, if you’re working on a series, you may, you know, do the whole thing. You of course have breaks and lunch, and all that stuff, but you will, in fact, be in the studio for the entire day.

MGC: Because you did Hyperdimension Neptunia that way, correct?

DV: Hyperdimension Neptunia, yes, where I play Anonydeath, who’s a fabulous robot.

MGC: So, in that case, you were there in the booth a lot longer to be able to kinda finish your character.

DV: Well yeah, yeah, just geography dictates that, you know. I live in Los Angeles, and I’m in Dallas for a limited amount of time. They obviously want to utilize our time together as much as possible.

MGC: Right. Well, and we’ve heard some stories that like, I guess some Sentai doesn’t use, like, the beeps, like the three beeps?

DV: You know, I haven’t worked with Sentai yet. That’s Chris Sabat, right?

MGC: No, that’s the one down in Houston.

DV: Oh, sorry, which Sentai’s in Houston?

MGC: Yes.

DV: Okay, sorry, I guess I got mixed up. I have not worked with Sentai, so I’m not familiar with how they…

MGC: So still does everybody you work with used the three beeps?

DV: Yes, yeah. Everybody that I’ve worked with, they do use the three beep system.

MGC: Okay. Now, the other thing is, that you’ve also been part of kind of the “simuldub movement,” more on the Aniplex side.

DV: With Durarara!!, yeah.

MGC: How is that different from like a normal dubbing session, then?

DV: Well, to be honest with you, the dubbing session’s the same. There’s no real difference when you’re actually in there recording. The difference is, is the turnaround time. You need to be able to, uh, you gotta be available to go into the studio, you have to be really flexible with your schedule and make sure that you’re available. And two, is the deadlines are very quick. I’d say it affects the directors and the producers more than it affects the actors, just because they’ve got super tight deadlines ­especially if it’s a broadcast dub. But, like, for Durarara!! for instance. You know, it was kind of surprising to me is I’d go in and record, and then literally two days later, you know I’m getting a message on Facebook, “Hey! I just saw you on Durarara!!”

MGC: Oh really! (That fast! They mix that quick!)

DV: Yeah!

MGC: Just to follow up on that, as far as.. is it still like you’re two hours in the booth, or are you having less time when you’re doing the simuldub set?

DV: The simuldubs, it’s mainly two hours. You know, unless, again it just depends. If the character that I was doing in Durarara!! was Seiji Yagiri, so there wasn’t a tremendous amount of dialogue for that. So, yeah, two ­hour max. If it’s a character where there’s a lot of dialogue that needs to be done, then they will go up to four hours in Los Angeles.

MGC: Another thing, too, is, I don’t know if it’s still the case, because you’ve been so busy, but you’ve been teaching a lot recently, as well. Is there any common things people need to work on, or that people have been good at that you’ve noticed as a trend across the country, or anything?

DV: Here’s a one­pointer that I can give: slow down your read. When people get either copy or they get a script in front of them, they tend to race through it as quickly as possible, because they see that dialogue; it’s a natural inclination to race through it, to get through it before you mess it up. One thing that I constantly tell people is take your time with your copies. Be it a script or be it an advertising copy, take your time with it.

MGC: Is it also because of nervousness, then?

DV: Yeah, especially when I get up on stage in front of a crowd of people, then yes, nerves have a lot to do with it.

MGC: Alright, we’ve got one more question for you, and it’s always the one we like to end on. You’ve already answered it, but do you have any updated life advice for us? Anything you’ve learned in the last four years?

DV: You know what, I would say, honestly, to the folks listening to this is don’t let the little things get you down. Just live life every day as it comes, and that’s what I would say. You know, be glad that you’re here. Be glad that we’re all here. But life advice, that’s my philosophical answer. But otherwise, as a message to your listeners, what I would say is just thank you so much guys for all of your support. It means the world to us. You know, this is a very fun career, but it’s also very challenging. You guys make it all worth it. So thank you for what you do; thank you for watching, and thank you for playing. And we appreciate your support. So thank you for your support. Stay tuned, because I do have something that I am working on. It’s not a show or a game, but it is a business that I am launching that is going to be applicable to everyone who listens to this. So please stay tuned. And once I am able to actually make the announcement, I will very excitably make the announcement, because it’s going to be really cool, and I think it’s going to make a lot of people happy.

MGC: Well we’re definitely going to be very interested to hear what you have planned going on.

DV: And real quick, I just wanna give my social media, is that okay?

MGC: Yeah, sure! (Go ahead! Use whatever plug you want.)

DV: Yes, I would like to also plug my social media. You can follow me on Twitter at just simply at @davidvincentva (for voice actor) @davidvincentva. Same for Facebook, you can send me a Facebook request. Facebook.com/davidvincentva (for voice actor). I’ve got a fan club that is run by Michelle Tan, who’s a good friend of mine, and probably the best club president a guy could ask for, and that is The Wind Roars Panthers, which you can find from my page. Give my Offical David Vincent fan page a like, I’d appreciate it, and thank you guys again. I really appreciate all of your support. I love ya.

MGC: Well and thank you. You know, it’s been a while since we’ve been able to officially interview again, but we’ve enjoyed being able to talk to you all this time, and still let us know when you are able to announce your new project, and we’ll keep seeing you around!

DV: Alright, sounds good, man. Always, always good seeing you. Thank you.

MGC: Good seeing you, too.

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