Cosplay, Curtain Calls, and Creativity (aka: Unveiling the Unexpected)

In Episode 3, we discuss our first comic con as a couple, how Jess became a theatre kid, and how a reoccurring dream gave Steph the idea for this podcast in the first place.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:07

Hello and welcome to another episode of Crush Cast. I'm Stephanie Lopez.

Speaker 2 0:12

And I am Jess Lopez.

Speaker 1 0:15

And today? Well, honestly, we don't completely know what we're going to talk about, and that's the fun of it. You get to find out with us. So, um, welcome to Mystery Cast, I guess. Yeah, we've been working out a room for some time in our house that is supposed to be my office slash, the podcast room, yeah, and so far we haven't gone very far. But, um, I, in doing this recently, I have noticed all of the Comic-Con memorabilia I cannot say that word memorabilia that we've collected over the last, I don't know, several years.

Speaker 2 1:00

Many, many years of memorabilia.

Speaker 1 1:04

And I thought too much. This is what I thought to myself Did you ever expect to be at Comic-Cons or did you ever expect to know anything about what goes on at Comic-Cons? And the answer to that was no, I did not. I never saw that for myself. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Speaker 2 1:26

But I didn't. Yeah, nothing is wrong with Comic-Cons, no, they're awesome.

Speaker 1 1:31

They are, but I just never saw myself attending them or even understanding like most of what was happening there, like seeing some of the art and knowing what it meant. You know, like who the characters were.

Speaker 2 1:47

Going to the Comic-Cons has been really awesome for me for both of us now Because there are a lot of creative people there.

Speaker 1 2:00

We've now confiscated all of the toys that can roll around and make noise that she never wants to play with, might I add, until we're in here.

Speaker 2 2:11

All of the toys that she's been playing with recently have been noisy toys that were never around at all. They were under all of the couches when I say all I just mean two.

Speaker 1 2:28

There were three. There were three of them.

Speaker 2 2:31

Yeah, but up until tonight they were all under the couches.

Speaker 1 2:35

Right, so then they just miraculously appeared? I don't know.

Speaker 2 2:39

They were placed strategically behind us so that, when we were recording, one of them would come over and start knocking it around.

Speaker 1 2:49

I love it and I'm leaving it in. Maybe We'll see. If I don't, I'll sound crazy, anyway, okay, so back to the story in hand. You were talking about Comic-Cons. Do you remember the very first Comic-Con that we attended?

Speaker 2 3:06

Was it the one in Arlington?

Speaker 1 3:10

It was in Arlington, but do you remember the year?

Speaker 2 3:12

Was it 03? 03.

Speaker 1 3:15

03.

Speaker 2 3:15

03. 03.

Speaker 1 3:16

Yeah, that was my very first Comic-Con that I'd ever been to and I remember you were excited.

Speaker 2 3:25

We got to meet some really cool guests at that.

Speaker 1 3:28

Con we did. I don't remember who they were because I was too fascinated and too much into artist Allie to care about anything else. All I know is it was my very first one and I didn't know what artist Allie was and I didn't even know if. Did you know about them or About artist Allie.

Speaker 2 3:49

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 3:54

I'd been to.

Speaker 2 3:54

Con's before, and it was okay to see the big celebrities there and stuff. At the time they weren't as popular or as huge as they are now. It was a lot of C-list actors and voice actors, yeah.

Speaker 2 4:10

But nowadays you go to a con and there are like you know A-listers there and it's crazy and I'm sure they're asking for tons of money for an autograph and a picture. But back then it was for me. It was mostly just I went to cons mostly for Artist Alley because I wanted to find. You know, I've been reading the mainstream comic Marvel and DC and I was big into image at the time and there were a lot of indie artists at the cons.

Speaker 1 4:43

Rob Liefeld was at this con. I remember because I took a picture of him for you. It was my long lens camera, yeah.

Speaker 2 4:51

Yeah, he was there, and I was a huge fan of image comics and especially extreme studios, and so that was really cool, and so my main reason was for going to visit those guys.

Speaker 1 5:07

Yeah, the people who were actually creating comic books.

Speaker 2 5:10

Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:11

Comic con is kind of morphed into, and I'm not going to say this is a good or bad thing. There's plenty of people that have been to these for way longer than I have that would probably want to weigh in. But the truth is is that they definitely are more pop culture oriented now, and you will find some. There are still some purists out there, I think. I feel like Staple in Austin is a little more pure in its form of like staying true to comic books and creators and indie creators, but for the most part they're pretty much pop culture cons and I'm not here to say whether that's good or bad or whatever. I still attend them. So, and one of my favorite ones is right here in our own backyard. So it's bell county Comic Con and it's coming up in August. You can get tickets and more information on that by going to bell county Comic Concom or you can find them on Instagram and Facebook. And if you're into anime, the creators of bell county Comic Con are doing a anime and sneaker convention and Asian food festival in February. So that's anime su-ne-ka-s-u-n-i-k-a dot com.

Speaker 1 6:35

But what I wanted to get to is artist alley within itself. Like that was so cool. I had never seen anything like that. All of the most of them were local. I mean, most of them were from Arlington and they had created, or you know, dfw and they had created all of these amazing things, like there were comic books and zines and like crochet monsters and toys and different things, and I mean I had never seen anything like it and never been able to like go up to these creators and just talk to them and have conversations with them, and even some of the I think Dark Horse and some other comic book companies had like people there that were reviewing portfolios and you could just walk right up to them.

Speaker 2 7:27

Yeah, If you had a portfolio, you could. They could give them a review and a critique if you were, you know, thick skinned enough to receive a critique. I took some work up there one time and I was told that it needed more detail. So I've taken artwork, I've taken portfolios to two cons, and the first one they said it needed more detail.

Speaker 1 8:00

Okay.

Speaker 2 8:01

And the second one, which I think you I still have the artwork for it that you've seen.

Speaker 1 8:06

I think you've seen it, yeah.

Speaker 2 8:11

I did. I drew it a long time ago and then I took it to a con years later and was told that it looked. The artwork was good, but the layouts and all of the, the way the panels were laid out and everything were kind of old school and that was because I drew it a long time ago.

Speaker 1 8:31

Yeah, and now a long time ago is an even longer time ago.

Speaker 2 8:35

Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:36

But here's that weird thing, like is it a long enough time ago that now it's back, or is it? You know what I'm saying? Cause that happens right, like some of my clothes that are in the closet that I will never be able to wear again, ever, ever, ever are now back. So I don't know, maybe I should give them to some young fashionista.

Speaker 2 9:01

I mean it could be back in style. I don't read comics as much as I used to.

Speaker 1 9:08

We can post it and we can see what they say.

Speaker 2 9:11

Oh, that's, scary.

Speaker 1 9:15

Okay, so we know something that you got me into, like, you definitely got me into that. It wasn't something that I was like, hey, I want to go check out this comic con, nope. So I'm curious was there anything that you got into because of me, or yeah, I don't know how else to ask that so was there?

Speaker 2 9:41

Yeah, yeah, it's happened quite recently and that is theater. I said that really loudly.

Speaker 1 9:49

Yeah, you did. They would be very proud of you for projecting your voice. I don't know what was that laugh? I said, oh, I don't know, I'm going to keep it in because yep, yeah, I kind of so.

Speaker 2 10:06

A few years back, Steph worked on Suzical right Yep, and she asked if I could do some. Was it T-shirt?

Speaker 1 10:20

art first. Yes, and if you wouldn't mind coming to help on our work day, because theater always needs people y'all. The theater always needs people to help on their work days or just to volunteer at templesypictheatrecom Okay.

Speaker 2 10:35

Yeah, good, it's a labor of love, you will, it's work.

Speaker 1 10:41

It is.

Speaker 2 10:42

But it's very rewarding. It is so T-shirt design, the T-shirt design, and then Just the work day, just helping. And I guess yeah, Steph told them that I could draw stuff, and so I drew a bunch of Dr Suz type fish.

Speaker 1 11:06

I forgot, oh yeah. I forgot and they glowed in the dark. We used to them in a glow in the dark, yeah.

Speaker 2 11:13

I don't remember how many I drew. It was a lot.

Speaker 1 11:16

I had completely forgotten that I don't know.

Speaker 2 11:19

Soos, soos down. Yeah, that was actually fun. It did take a long time, but it was a lot of fun to do. So that was there was that one. I did a T-shirt for Clue Right when that came around After Clue there was a span of a few years and then you wanted to get back into theater and wanted to stage manage a show, yeah.

Speaker 1 11:48

So how I got back into that, though, was because our dear friends Jerica and Chilonny Stieger were in a production of the Addams Family at the Bastrop Opera House in Bastrop, texas, and we went to see that, and I thought it was such a fun show. I was really surprised, because I've never really been a fan of the Addams Family like on TV or anything like that, or even the movies, but this show was a blast, and I thought, if Temple Civic Theater does this show, I want to stage manage this show.

Speaker 2 12:27

It was so much fun. It was I like you. I went into that just not knowing what was going to happen and I had a blast. It was a lot of fun and I think for me that was quite a catalyst.

Speaker 1 12:44

Yeah, it was a little bit of a turning point for how you felt about musical theater, right?

Speaker 2 12:50

Yeah, when I discovered that. Well, when Steph told me that Temple Civic Theater was going to do Addams Family, I was like, oh, that sounds like a lot of fun to be involved somehow.

Speaker 1 13:04

Yeah, so we have a. We're living the one car life right now. So I had reached out to the director and asked hey, can my husband come up here and like do his side gig stuff on his computer? And so they didn't have to turn around and come back home.

Speaker 2 13:22

Right, that was it.

Speaker 1 13:23

You know and we.

Speaker 2 13:26

Because the theater is literally across town. We're on one side of the town and the theater is literally on the other side of town, and so it was quite a drive.

Speaker 1 13:37

I'm just laughing, though, because anybody from DFW or Austin or whatever going to be like rolling eyes, as my dad would say okay, anyway, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 13:47

It took a full 20 minutes to drive all the way across town to get there.

Speaker 1 13:51

But yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2 13:54

So the plan was to either drop Steph off, you know, drop her off and then just work from there on my laptop. You know, once everything was over, I would pack up and we would leave. I guess Steph told them that I could draw some stuff.

Speaker 1 14:12

They can sniff it out. Theater people can sniff it out. It's like also you had an iPad on you.

Speaker 2 14:18

I did have an iPad. People would walk by and see me drawing.

Speaker 1 14:22

We were able to put two and two together and deduce you were in the studio.

Speaker 2 14:28

They did deduce. It was a deducing.

Speaker 1 14:33

But I thought it was so cute that you thought that you were going to be an abled-bodied person that come in there and have these skills and think that you were not going to get roped in.

Speaker 2 14:45

That's when I was told that if you're there, you end up doing something.

Speaker 1 14:50

And you did lots of some things.

Speaker 2 14:52

I did. I did so. I was asked to do the t-shirt, which doubled as the program cover yeah.

Speaker 2 15:03

I did the poster for the show and I did some set work. I did some painting and some typography type stuff for the show. Like I was saying, I've worked on the set, helped work on the set which was designed, which was created, conceived by Paul Blackstop. He's an amazing, amazing human being. He is such a creative. When we talk about creative people, he is absolutely one of those types of people. He's just his designs for Adam's family and other things that he's worked on in the past and some of the newer stuff. It just blows me away. It's really creative, it's really clever.

Speaker 1 15:56

He and Natasha are visionaries for sure, like I would say that for sure.

Speaker 2 16:01

He's just been, he was just so kind and he's so patient.

Speaker 1 16:07

Really nice. We love you and we think you are incredible. And yeah, we just wanted to mention that yeah, you're an amazing person. So definitely part of the reason that just fell in love with theater. But since I said that you pretty much did, how did you find yourself falling for the old girl?

Speaker 2 16:32

Well, it was that it was Paul, it was Natasha the director, everyone was just. It was so. We use the word creative a lot we do, but that's what this is about. There were so many creative people there, so many like-minded individuals really friendly, very open, very positive, and it was just a great experience being around so many people like that. Yeah, and it was the whole thing. You know, it was an artistic sort of thing.

Speaker 1 17:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:15

Like an overall. It's a community.

Speaker 1 17:17

It is a community of artists and really it becomes a family.

Speaker 2 17:23

And yeah, I was pretty much hooked at that point.

Speaker 1 17:29

Yeah, I'm so glad that you had that experience, because I was like I knew that you would enjoy it, but I didn't know that you were gonna love it, and so that was just amazing how all of that worked out.

Speaker 2 17:43

We made a lot of good friends there. We did. It was definitely a life-changing experience. I wasn't sure how it was gonna fit in, but I found a way, or I was told how I was gonna fit in that was just kind of how it works, like that's how it was for me.

Speaker 1 18:06

I didn't know. I have always loved creating and everything, but I took theater as a blow off class. Yeah, I'm admitting that it's here, it's on, it's recorded, but I did and I didn't know that it was gonna change my life. So then it really did. It brought me out of my shell.

Speaker 2 18:31

It's done so many things and it got us out of the house a lot more.

Speaker 1 18:38

It did. It was awesome. So, yes, thank you to everyone at Temple Civic Theater for everything. We're so excited to come see Cinderella soon. You guys that haven't bought tickets yet for Cinderella it's gonna be awesome and you can do that at templestimictheatercom, and we hope to see you there.

Speaker 2 19:03

I did the shirt for that too.

Speaker 1 19:08

I would say that being married to you and watching you pursue art and design consistently for 20, well, it'll be 23 years that we've been married in March and I have watched you do this for that long, and for me that's always been amazing, because I feel like I was all over the place I mean literally all over the place as far as what I wanted to do. I mean.

Speaker 2 19:47

There's nothing wrong with having lots of interests.

Speaker 1 19:51

No, I don't think there is either, but I had no real goals other than being creative, and that can drive a person crazy because it's like okay, that's great.

Speaker 2 20:05

Well, you could say that your goal was to learn as much as you could about those interests.

Speaker 1 20:12

I wish that I had known that at the time, and if I had framed it that way in my brain I might not have felt so nuts. But I mean, listen, I literally had to write down some things that I was involved in before I even kind of got on any kind of path, and so, okay, so I was a photographer, I wanted to be an event planner, I was a writer, I had an Etsy store for a hot minute. I wanted to be a singer, an actor.

Speaker 1 20:44

There was a while I thought about speech pathology, about teaching theater, about maybe pursuing my degree in music and being a vocal coach, like all of these things, and so some of those I did and some of those I didn't, but I just I had no, I had no real path, I feel like, and so I took a ton of admin jobs because I didn't understand how being creative was gonna pay any of my bills, and also I didn't really other than photography I didn't really have, which I actually got into a little bit later. I didn't really have anything else Other than acting and I didn't really feel like there was anywhere for me to do that here necessarily at the time. Yeah, but also I was a big scaredy cat, and that is a whole other podcast for a whole other time. But but I watched you do this and I don't want to say that I was envious, but, for lack of a better word, I guess it was like man. What must that be like to have a Basic idea of what it is that you want to go after?

Speaker 2 22:05

well, that thing that I wanted to go after was Graphic design yeah illustration.

Speaker 2 22:12

So I kind of I wanted to, you know, be in that sort of field something creative, but that was probably the extent of it as far as Like a niche in any of in that area. I didn't know what I was doing. The thing that impressed me About you was that all of the things that you could do, you did very well, even though you might not have known you know what your path was at you, you didn't know what the path was going to be all of the other things that you could do, you did really well.

Speaker 1 22:50

See, and I wholeheartedly disagree I feel like I am Okay at lots of things and I'm not great at anything, except for, maybe, talking. That's been the thing my whole life. I can talk and I can listen, and I didn't have to learn how to listen. And At one point, are you gonna say something? I'm listening.

Speaker 2 23:14

Well, I was gonna say I'm good at listening and not great at talking right.

Speaker 1 23:18

So I mean so look at us like with this podcast. Okay, we are sitting here doing this podcast together and I can definitely tell you that I never thought that would be a thing. Would you have ever thought no, no or people are gonna be listening to your innermost thoughts, or yeah?

Speaker 2 23:37

no, because I Never thought I would have anything of Interest or substance to talk about. I Mean, I'm just.

Speaker 1 23:47

I'm just this guy man and I see where we're gonna have to talk about. There are so many podcast episodes that we've just created for ourselves. Here let's discuss imposter syndrome that's definitely coming but have always just been fascinated by creativity and I've always been creating in some way. And and what's really interesting about this podcast because we were talking earlier about how did it happen? Look, how, how have we come across this thing? And so for several years Maybe more than to me five is several, but I mean I'm gonna say even more than that I have this pretty consistent dream where I was a guest on the Tonight Show and, honestly, that didn't make any sense to me because and I mean it was a consistent dream that I've had Over the years. I've told you about it.

Speaker 2 24:54

Yeah, okay, yeah, I remember you talking about it before yeah a few years back. Was it the Jimmy Fallon version or the Jay Leno version?

Speaker 1 25:06

Jay Leno hosted the Tonight Show, because I just go straight, I think, johnny Carson to Jimmy Fallon.

Speaker 2 25:13

Yeah, he did right did I just age myself.

Speaker 1 25:16

No, I think I just. I well, I just said Johnny Carson, so Jay Leno did it too.

Speaker 2 25:22

Yeah, after Carson.

Speaker 1 25:23

Yeah, see, I don't remember that because that's, that's good, because you know what we're staying positive. So those were your words, going back to the first podcast.

Speaker 2 25:33

I'll just say that nobody beats Carson.

Speaker 1 25:35

Okay so, but I don't you know what, I really don't know. I do remember several, several of those dreams being with Jimmy Fallon as the host, but anyway. So this happened over the years and and one of the things for me is I felt like maybe God was trying to show me something in all of this, because a lot of times, you know, people say I felt like God told me this or I heard God say this or whatever, and for me it is like I feel like I hear his voice through, or like he's showing me things through movies or TV or my dreams or whatever. And so it finally occurred to me to just pray and be like hey, why am I having this dream pretty consistently? Because I was like I'm not going to be on the Tonight Show, but it kept coming up so much that I thought why does this keep coming up? Like maybe I just need to pray about it and find out.

Speaker 1 26:46

And I can't even tell you the moment that it happened, but it was like a revelation to me. I was like you're not the guest, you're the host. And I was like, oh, that makes so much sense, because one of the things that I liked about Jimmy Fallon early on when he took it, took it on. I don't really watch the Tonight Show anymore, mainly because we watch, you know, netflix and Hulu and all that and. But right at first it was infectious to watch because he was having so much fun.

Speaker 2 27:23

He did a great job when he first started. I mean he's probably doing very well now. We just haven't watched in a long time.

Speaker 1 27:33

Right, but it was infectious.

Speaker 2 27:34

But when we were watching it it was, it was really cool and he was really into the guests and he was funny and you know the music was was really good yeah it felt sincere to me, like his excitement and everything felt sincere, and like I can't believe I'm doing this right Like.

Speaker 1 27:53

I can't believe. This is my job and this is what I get to do every day, and so I loved watching it for that reason. And so when I kind of got this revelation, if you will, about oh, I'm not the guest, I'm the host, I thought, oh man, that makes so much more sense to me, right.

Speaker 2 28:14

Me too.

Speaker 1 28:15

And because I want to know, like what makes you tick, like tell me your stories. And I'm kind of the person who might ask uncomfortable questions or off the wall questions or whatever. I that's just kind of been who I am.

Speaker 2 28:33

That's how you find out more about someone. I mean you could ask silly questions and you know, if they give you a silly answer, then you know. That's something that you know about them.

Speaker 1 28:44

Yeah, but then I'll go deeper, like why are you thinking like that or whatever? I mean, it's just something I don't know. It's just always kind of been something that I've been interested in. But to someone who for years and years and years, loves all kinds of things and just doesn't feel like they're super amazing at everything and look, I'm not saying I'm the best host in the world Like we haven't had a guest on yet, so I have no idea how I'm going to be Not yet, but we're still getting equipment for that guy. So it's coming, it's happening. But I know that I have a lot to learn and I'm excited about that. That's one of the things that I love about the arts. You will never get to a point where you know it all. You will never, ever, ever get to a point with art or creativity where you can't, where you've learned it all.

Speaker 2 29:40

You learn something new every time. I've been using Adobe Illustrator for 20-some odd years and I still learn stuff almost every day. Shortcuts or you know, they add new things all the time. It's a learning experience every time.

Speaker 1 30:04

I'm so glad that we have it on like recorded. You said learning, it's a learning experience.

Speaker 2 30:12

I don't know what that is. That's my second central text is coming out.

Speaker 1 30:18

It's a learning experience. Oh man, awesome, okay, so yeah, but so now? So now I'm the host, and what I think is so great about that is that I feel like I've found something that I can so purely enjoy that will encompass everything that I love, because I can talk about all those things with people who are doing those things. So, like, hopefully, I learn enough to be great at discussing these things with people who are great at doing the things that I love and appreciate.

Speaker 2 31:03

And you can ask questions that will Make them think about themselves that maybe you know, other people haven't asked them before maybe like that guy on Hot ones, hot ones. He asks great questions that guy.

Speaker 1 31:20

He blows my mind. I. Why can't I think of his name right now? It's gonna really super annoy me. But yeah, that's the point that I Aspire to be where it's like nobody's ever asked me this question. I want to be that person where I'm that's a great question. Yeah, where I'm so in your business, that's a great question. So, yeah, that's, that's, that's the goal. So we'll see.

Speaker 2 31:54

We'll see we'll have to look up his name, because I feel bad now yeah.

Speaker 1 31:57

I totally feel bad. I mean, we do have phones that we can oh yeah, they're just right here next to us. But yeah, so that's to me it's just like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be able to talk about all of these things and that is so exciting to me. So stick around and Watch us grow.

Speaker 2 32:19

Sean Evans.

Speaker 1 32:21

Sean Evans.

Speaker 2 32:27

I'm gonna close out this podcast with a little thing called.

Speaker 1 32:34

Finish the sentence. I mean, actually I don't think I did.

Speaker 2 32:39

So, steph, I would like for you to finish the sentence. Okay, I Am married to Jess Lopez of course I know the history of the MCU.

Speaker 1 32:50

I'm married to Steph Lopez, of course.

Speaker 2 32:53

I want ice cream for dessert. I'm married to Jess Lopez, of course.

Speaker 1 32:59

I can identify fonts. I'm married to Steph Lopez, of course.

Speaker 2 33:05

I binge watch Gilmore girls.

Speaker 1 33:07

Yeah, you do.

Speaker 2 33:09

I'm married to Jess Lopez, of course.

Speaker 1 33:12

I have a favorite Battle Bot.

Speaker 2 33:15

Favorite Battle Bot. Which is who?

Speaker 1 33:17

well, right now it's whiplash and Well, and also lockjaw, because he's the OG, he has an OG Mm-hmm. Yes. Last question Are you ready, lopez? Yes, I'm married to Steph Lopez, of course.

Speaker 2 33:33

I was roped into co-hosting this podcast.

Speaker 1 33:37

Fair enough.

Speaker 2 33:43

Thank you for joining us on this week's podcast.

Speaker 1 33:45

That's right please consider joining in on the conversation by coming to our social media pages and Telling us what creative things you love or, if you're married, what's something that you got into after you got married. I'm super curious, like I know for Jess. Now he's eating ranch on his pizza, so that's a thing. I can tell you the backstory of the MCU. So so, yeah, we want to hear what you guys have to say and we would love to have you join in on the conversation. We're on Facebook and Instagram and and, yeah, thanks for being here, guys. Bye, bye you.