Friend a Day – Gordon Smuder
Photo by Damon Thrift
I’ve known Gordon from olden Renaissance Festival days. He has moved on to become a puppeteer and the producer of Transylvania Television.
Gordon is not only a great puppeteer, he is also extremely talented at building puppets as well. Last year, I decided I wanted to do a puppet show for CONvergence opening ceremonies and I asked Gordon to help out. Most important was a puppet version of the convention mascot, Connie. Oh, and a puppet version of a Dalek and The TARDIS.
He completely nailed the design on all of them because he’s just that good. You give him an idea and he is going to pull it off because he’s a perfectionist.
I’ve been working with him as a writer for the last several months and he is a very good collaborative partner. He let’s you write what you are going to write but if he feels something needs a push, he’ll offer a few good comments to get your work back on track.
Gordon is very geeky about certain things, like Sid & Marty Krofft shows. It made me think of him when I was looking at Puff n’ Stuff Geyser in Yellowstone this week. I don’t know if the geyser of the TV show came first but it doesn’t matter.
As a puppeteer, he knows how to bring out the best in all of the characters he performs. He’s one of those people who recognizes he is best as a supporting character rather than a lead. I’d love to see him offer classes in puppeteering. I don’t imagine too many people would take them and that would be a shame because he has a lot of good information to share.
When he sits panels at CONvergence, I know that he will have done his research and will have a lot of good information to share. He’s serious about being a fan and being a puppeteer and he wants to make sure that his audience gets the most out of their time.
I am sometimes amazed at the talented people with whom I work. Gordon is one of those people. I’m lucky to know him.
Friend a Day – Lauren Brabec
I don’t know how old Lauren was when she started coming to Dregs shows. I know she’s turning eighteen today and that freaks me out a little bit.
For along time, Lauren was just a kid who liked our music. Then she decided to try out for Vilification Tennis and I got to know her much better.
Think about this: she did an onstage tryout for an insult comedy show at the age of fourteen. And she won. That takes a tremendous amount of guts and no small amount of talent. She didn’t win because she was fourteen. She won because she did the best job on the stage that night.
Since then, she has continued to be a contributor to our cast. She doesn’t just contribute on stage. She helps come up with show ideas as well. I think it’s important that she’s become a part of our cast in every possible way.
She’s played the Chad/Lauren rocks more game with Chad for several years now and as an impartial observer, I have to say she has Chad beat. She regularly comes up with really original and clever ways to tell Chad he rocks more and all Chad can do is shake his head in defeat.
When someone is in a cast with a whole bunch of strong personalities who constantly give her crap for being the kid, it can be a challenge. That’s a tough position for anyone and weaker personalities would have given up. She doesn’t strike me as a quitter and that is a quality that will benefit her a great deal as she moves to the next part of her life.
Lauren is only eighteen. She has a lot more growing up to do but I’m impressed at how much growing up she has already done.
I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to watch Lauren grow into the young woman she is now. Lauren really does rock more.
Friend a Day – Susanne Becker
Photo by Peter Verrant
I’ve known Suze since she was in Renaissance Festival academy and I was one of her instructors. For over ten years, the two of us have been in The Dregs together. We are the only two original members of the band left.
The first thing that anyone notices about her is her signing voice because it is amazing. She has a natural sense of pitch and tempo and nails every song the first time she sings it. It’s no wonder our audience requests her songs so frequently.
When Suze says she is going to do something for you, she will do it in a surprisingly creative way. Just recently I was looking for some feather fans to use in a performance bit. I wasn’t having any luck finding them so she just decided she was going to make them. And she did. And they were amazing.
I think that she’s at her finest when she is really excited about something. She brings all of her considerable energy to a project and makes it something special.
For someone who has a lot of fears, I give her a lot of credit for facing them. She hates puppets and still deals with a bunch of people waving them in her face. She allows those fears to be subservient to entertaining the audience and that takes a lot of courage.
When she is in top form, she is the best vilifier I’ve ever seen. She simply rules the stage. Nothing can stop her. At the top of her game, she has more stage presence than anyone I know.
She’s also been part of some other shows I’ve put together and she always shines when given the chance. She has a magnetism to her stage persona that makes her a worthwhile addition to anything I do. If I could use her in productions more often, I would.
As a friend, she is fiercely loyal and will stick up for a friend or a friendship with all of her considerable might.
I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know Suze over the years and I’m glad that she’s a part of The Dregs and of my life.
Friend a Day – Christopher Jones
Chris was one of those people who worked with me to start CONvergence. Before we began working on the convention, I don’t think we’d ever met. I think a lot of people assumed Chris and I had known each other for a long time because the two of us clicked from the very beginning.
Chris is a comic artist whose work has appeared in DC, Marvel, and a number of other imprints. His work as a visual storyteller is exceptional and he brought those skills to the convention as well. From the beginning, he was great at taking the disparate ideas the rest of us had and turning them into really great and iconic art for the convention.
He also created Connie, the convention mascot. That one small choice helped brand CONvergence in a way that I don’t think any other convention can match. That character has become the visual icon that ties the convention together.
In addition to his skills as an artist, he is a great public speaker and entertainer. He is personable and charming and never caught by surprise. I’ve asked him to guest at several Vilification tennis shows because he’s naturally comfortable on the stage and the audience loves him.
He’s been a frequent writing partner as well because the two of us really know how to get the best out of each other’s work. Our senses of humor complement each other well and I think some of my best work has come from him.
In the past few years, he has finally reached the point where he has been getting consistent work as a comic artist. It has been a long time coming for him and I am so pleased to see him enjoying more recognition for this talents.
I love to spend time with him when the time allows. Since we’ve stepped away from the CONvergence board, both of us have found ourselves far busier than we were before. Still, I never tire of the time I spend with him.
Chris is active on Twitter and Facebook and he has a website you can use to follow him everywhere. You really should!
Friend a Day – Molly Glover
Photo by Peter Verrant
I’ve known Molly for just a few years and she’s already become one of my better friends. Sure, it helps we record a podcast together, perform together, and hang out with the same people.
Molly is one of the most open people I know. She doesn’t edit anything out of a conversation because it might make someone uncomfortable. I tend to be something of the opposite so I can’t help but appreciate the way she keeps everything on the surface.
She’s one of those people who is just naturally good at whatever she does. She’s a good performer, she’s a good writer, she’s a good improviser, she’s a good thinker. When I need to go to someone who I know can make something good happen, Molly is easily at the top of the list.
There is a meticulous nature to Molly that I wish I could copy. She keeps track of her life in a way that is amazing, especially given the packed calendar she has to manage. She always seems to know when there is a conflict.
That meticulous nature also explains her passion for proofreading. She gives me grief for typos, misspellings, and bad grammar because it is important to her. I accept it because I know she is giving me grief so I can do a better job.
When Molly tried out for Vilification Tennis, I was her coach. I already knew she was going to be a strong candidate but as I worked as her coach, I was impressed with how focused she was on doing well. Thing is, she could have done exceptionally well without the tremendous effort.
She doesn’t want to do “good enough,” though. She wants to do as well as she possibly can. She will always put in the greatest amount of effort possible to make sure a thing is done right.
I think Molly is naturally funny. She doesn’t have to try to be funny, she simply succeeds at being funny. If she actually tries to be funny, she is even better.
Molly is a great person who brings a lot of laughter to my life. I’m fortunate that she has become such a good friend.
Molly is involved in a lot of things. She is one of my co-hosts on Geeks Without God.
Friend a Day – George Herman
George had played King Henry for many years before I began working at the Renaissance festival. I’ve always played lower class characters so our opportunities to interact were limited.
With George, you needed to impress him and that wasn’t easy. He was a professional and he expected the people sharing the stage with him to be professionals as well. He raised the bar as far as what you as a performer were expected to do.
Years later, I became Assistant Artistic Director (AAD) at the Arizona Renaissance Festival, where George was also playing the king. He and his court had not had a pleasant relationship with their AAD from the previous year and when they heard another Minnesota person was coming to fill the job, they were concerned.
George, however, stepped in and said to them “don’t worry about it. I know this guy and he’ll do a good job for us.”
That statement made my job so much easier.
During my time in Arizona, I got to know George a lot better. When I was trying to take an unscheduled break, I’d drop by his trailer for a Coke.
George loves to tell stories. He has a lot of them and they are all interesting. When you are sitting in his trailer drinking a Coke, you get the chance to listen to a lot of them. It really helped me understand him a lot better. I don’t think I’d really understood him all that well prior to that winter.
He’s been retired for a while now and I don’t see him all that often. When I do, there’s always a smile and a handshake that reminds me I managed to impress him. That means something to me because he was never an easy man to impress.
One thing a lot of people don’t know about George is that he is a great painter as well as an actor. His portrait work is remarkable.
I think most people only knew George as the king and certainly that was a personality he cultivated. George is more than just King Henry, though, and I’m glad I got to know a little bit of the man beneath the crown.
Friend a Day – Emily Cook
Photo by Manna Jaeger
Sometimes you take a chance on someone and it pays off in a big way.
Emily tried out for Vilification tennis a few years ago and she got eliminated rather early. There was something about her, though, that made me decide to bring her into the cast anyway. She was a little raw but I saw a lot of potential.
Over the last few years, it has been good to say that my instinct was, in that situation, spot on. Emily has grown as a performer and it is good to see her moving in the direction of writing more both with Fearless and with some other projects.
Emily recently decided she was an atheist after a long time struggling with questions about her faith. I’m proud of her primarily because she chose to come out and talk about it publicly. Being an atheist wasn’t half so important as being willing to stand up and admit something that could have been painful.
In working with her on Vermin, I think her writing style is really starting to develop and she is very good at taking advice from the other writers on the team. That ability to swallow her ego to work as part of a group is essential to crafting the kind of show we are all working on together.
Socially, Emily is sassy and confident. She really manages to capture and hold your attention, which may have been one of the reasons I was willing to take that chance on her.
It is a treat to watch her grow into a better performer as she takes each step. She grows more confident in her abilities but she has never lost that desire to get good feedback on how to improve. She has just the right mix of cockiness and humility.
I’m glad I decided to give Emily a shot because the results have been great. She’s a terrific addition to our cast and to my life.
Friend a Day – Perrin Klumpp
Photo by Peter Verrant
The first time I met Perrin was during the CONvergence room party at Minicon 33. He was friends with one of the many people we’d recruited to help with our party that weekend and he just showed up and started to pitch in. And he never stopped. I’m not even certain he slept.
I’ve spent a lot of time with Perrin since then. We’ve run a convention together, we’ve gone to movies together, we’ve even gone on vacation together. We share a lot of the same interests. In a world of geeks who aren’t interested in such things, he’s one of the few people I can talk to about sports.
Several years ago, I even got to mess up his public marriage proposal!
What made Perrin so noticeable that first weekend was the easy way he can talk to people. He’s naturally friendly and genuinely interested in what other people have to say. He knows how to make his conversation partner feel important.
Perrin was great at securing Guests in those early years of CONvergence because he of his ability to talk to people. The convention had no reputation but Perrin knew how to make it sound like something a potential Guest of Honor would be interested in attending.
I enjoy vacationing with Perrin and Jenni because there is no pressure for all of us to do the same thing. We will talk about what we want to do and if our plans match, that’s great. If not, we all go our separate ways and tell each other about our day at dinner. We all enjoy each other’s company but don’t feel bound to keep it.
Perrin is a friend who will always offer to help when you need assistance and never presume that the favor must be repaid. He helps people out because it is a good thing to do.
Like so many other people I met through CONvergence, Perrin has become one of those people whose presence in my life will always make me smile.
Friend a Day – Molly Zupon
I first met Molly when she was a member of DeCantus. When we would perform a show together at the end of the day, Molly was the most likely to banter with The Dregs and get in a way that was – I guess – “Dreglike.”
Then we had an opening in the band and Molly felt like the perfect fit for us. I’m glad I’d seen that personality in her already because I found it a lot easier to envision how she would fit into the band.
When it comes to deadpan delivery, Molly is one of the best. She spends almost every show looking like she has been forced to be a member of the worst band ever. Then she’ll start doing a weird dance and smiling and it looks just a little bit creepy. Which is the point.
I love to hang out with Molly because she and I have developed an entertaining banter that is unique among all of my friends. I have no idea how or why I interact with Molly this way but it feels right.
She’s begun writing songs for the band now and I appreciate the voice she brings to our music. The Dregs are all about six disparate voices joining together and it feels good that Molly’s voice is getting more distinct. She’s got a really good turn of phrase for lyrics and is very open to suggestion (if any are required and they usually aren’t).
Musically, her contributions have been great. She a terrific violin player and keeps finding great ways to work her instrument into our songs. She’s also got a great, trained voice that makes me just a little bit envious.
Molly is open with her emotions, which is something I’ve tried to emulate a little because I’m not. When she talks about what is going on emotionally, it can often stop problem from getting worse.
I honestly can’t decide if I like her laugh or her horrified gasp more. I guess that’s why I spend equal time trying to elicit both.
I’m so glad Molly became a member of The Dregs because I really enjoy spending time with her.
Friend a Day – Bob Alberti
People surprise me all the time. Bob surprised me more than most.
When people try out for Vilification Tennis, they fall into three categories. The first category is people I know will be good. They may not be a good vilifier but they are good performers. The second category is people about whom I have no innate feel. They could be great, they could be lousy. I just don’t know. The third category is people who I know won’t do well. I’m almost always right about the third category.
At least I was until Bob came along.
Bob is so laid back, I just didn’t think he’d have what it took to succeed as a vilifier. I was wrong in all the best ways.
He’s a good writer, a good performer and he constantly surprises with his willingness to try new things.
I like Bob because he’s an idea guy. He doesn’t sit around and wait for the next show. He thinks about it and offers ideas. And he doesn’t just suggest things other people should do. He’s always willing to do those things himself.
He’s passionate about his politics and more than willing to argue with anyone about his opinions. That inner passion, though, is what I missed in some of those early encounters with Bob. It isn’t hidden but it is subtle.
When Bob says he’s going to do something, he will make it happen even if he doesn’t know how to do it. When he said he’d get streaming to work for Die Laughing, he made it happen.
He takes pictures, runs an art gallery and still has time to be a big participant in Fearless Comedy. Whenever a call goes out for performers, he’s one of the first to answer. Whenever a call goes out for some help, he’ll be one of the first people there.
I was wrong about Bob as a performer and I’m so glad that I was.
Bob has a lot of creative stuff going on. You can read about all of it on his website.
Grail Diary 