Category Archives: Episodes

A Champion Cosplayer: Major Sam Cosplay – Episode 43

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Major Sam in costume as La Carlotta with her Oz Comic Con National Cosplay Championship 2015 trophy. Photo by Dark Age Photography / Oz Comic Con.

Major Sam in costume as La Carlotta with her Oz Comic Con National Cosplay Championship 2015 trophy. Photo by Dark Age Photography / Oz Comic Con.

UPDATE: This post was originally entitled “A Touring Cosplayer”, which seemed really generic; I’m glad I get to change it since Major Sam took out the Brisbane and then the inaugural Australian National Cosplay Championship hosted by Oz Comic Con in 2015! She’ll be heading for Chicago in March 2016 to represent Australia in the C2E2 Crown Championships of Cosplay.

Major Sam is one of the better known cosplayers on the Australian scene. Although it’s partly because she makes sure to attend at least five of the Supanova pop culture expos held across the country each year, Sam still wouldn’t have the reputation she has if she wasn’t such an exceptional craftsperson!

Though Sam’s day job in the bridal industry employs her seamstress and milliner skills, becoming a full time cosplayer is still Sam’s dream, and she’s taking steps toward her goal, selling prints of her cosplays through her online store! Not only that, but she’s also garnered the attention of Australian geek female fashion label Living Dead Clothing, for whom she models!

It was great to chat with Sam about her love of cosplay, geekdom in general and discovering where your true joys lie, even within the hobby you love!

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Creating on Skin and in Costume: Ash Chain – Episode 42

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Forty-two episodes! Does that mean my guest for this episode is the Answer to the Question of Life, The Universe and Everything?

Even if not, it’s great to chat with someone who’s found some pretty good answers to the Question of Getting Paid to Play – and I mean answers, plural! Ash Chain is not only monetising her hobby of cosplay through print sales at conventions, she’s also been able to get into a day job that is all about artistic expression and her personal interests: Tattooing.

Ash has already made her name in both the Brisbane ink and cosplay scenes, and just recently she made the move from the Big Smoke to Cairns, where she will be running a stall at our first ever pop culture convention, Tropicon!

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A Rising Star of Australian Cosplay: Vicky-Vic – Episode 41

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In her handful of years in the hobby, Vicky-Vic has risen to the forefront of the Australian cosplay scene, a feat doubly impressive when she not only lives a little off the beaten track in Queensland, but also works as a registered nurse, a job that would take the spare energy out of anyone.

Nonetheless, Vicky-Vic’s enthusiasm and fantastic results have made her star rise so much that organisers of pop culture conventions across the region have begun inviting her as a guest and also a judge of their cosplay competitions. And she’s not even monetised her play (yet)!

It was a pleasure to chat with Vicky-Vic, who will be one of the three guest judges of Tropicon’s cosplay competition, about her love of the hobby, the fun folks in the scene and some of the unique difficulties of being not just an Australian cosplayer, but a slightly remote Australian cosplayer!

I also make a couple of exciting announcements on the Patreon front at the beginning of the episode!

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Up Shit Creek but with Pozible Odds: Terry Serio – Episode 40

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UPDATE 26 April 2015: I cmpletely forgot to mention eleven days ago that the Pozible campaign met its funding goal and beat it by $1,150! Congratulations to Terry and the gang at Sundown Picturehouse!

This episode is going live outside the normal schedule (with apologies to the folks who normally get early access) to support the Pozible crowdfunding campaign for the crime comedy web TV series, Shit Creek, starring Terry Serio!

If you’ve listened to my last chat with Terry for Episode 2, you’ll know (if you didn’t already) that he’s a verteran of Australian stage and screen. Shit Creek is the first web series he’s been involved in, and I’m glad to do my bit to promote its campaign to secure further funding.

As of this posting, the campaign is just under five grand short of hitting its funding goal of $8,000 with 22 days to go, so please open your wallets and chuck these fine folks some of your hard-earned!

If you need a little more selling on the idea, then please listen in for an entertaining chat with a great entertainer. Be warned: This chat is NSFW (not safe for work) and definitely not safe for kids either!

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Cosplay’s Best Mate: Beethy Photography – Episode 39

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Beethy is a photographer based in Australia who has chosen to focus his craft on portraits of cosplayers; people who not just make costumes based on fictional characters, but also go out in public and bring life to those characters. That focus has garnered him not just a living wage but also a fantastic reputation amongst the international cosplay community.

Cosplayers around the world know that the name Beethy means eminently sale-worthy portrait prints of their craft and art, but they also know it means a fun being who brings joy to the process of making great photos. I got to sample his warm personality in this chat, during which he tells his stories of the community and how he became so well known within it.

Beethy also gives a good chunk of practical photography of business advice, including a crash course in taking good cosplay photos and the rules that Beethy built his business around. You may find his experiment into who produces the best photo prints to be a real eye ear-opener!

Oh, and there’s some random geeking out about video games and consoles at the beginning too! I love asking folks what they’re digging right now!

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Paying Sight and Sound Forward: Matt Bond – Episode 38

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I’m pretty sure that I said that Matt Bond puts the rest of us to shame when I first chatted with him at the beginning of 2013. At the time, Matt had successfully overcome the ongoing pain from a pair of broken legs that had put an end to his career in the music industry by becoming a freelance photographer.

Since then, Matt’s photography business has only flourished, but he’s also got back into music, returning to his beloved guitar and becoming a studio producer for local talent. On top of those, he’s added video shooting and editing to his already well-strung bow and is paying his success forward by helping community charities and fellow artists (not to mention the odd podcaster) out wherever he can. And he does all this while being a part-time Dad! I just had to get him back on the podcast for another chat.

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Comic Art on Page and Skin: Paul Abstruse – Episode 37

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Diversification is a byword nowadays; building your life around one source of income is risky, even when you’re doing the nine-to-five. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, especially when your dream job simply won’t pay the bills.

Paul Abstruse has taken his love of creating comic art and built himself two income streams. The first is the one you’d expect, working for comic labels like IDW and Zenescope to produce pages for comic books.

The other is as a tattooist, where he not only creates the ink you see on folks every day; he also creates tattoos of the comic book characters we all love, even inking whole action scenes on people!

And if you’d expect a tattooist to be a very rough and ready type, you should see the art he’s created for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic book series!

Please join me as I chat with Paul about how the Australian body art industry has changed over the last decade, the convention scene in Australia and what it means when the job you love doesn’t quite love you back.

WARNING: Due to technical issues, there are a lot of audio issues in this episode that I simply couldn’t edit out. These include background hum, keyboard noise and dog panting.

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Long Distance Sex Therapist: Isiah McKimmie – Episode 36

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Becoming a sex therapist in the cosmopolitan environment of a major city is one thing, but it’s another thing entirely to start a sexual health practice in a tropical town with canegrowing and industrial roots a good two thousand kilometres from anywhere.

Nonetheless, Isiah McKimmie has established a solid business helping the people of Queensland’s Far North and beyond with their most intimate troubles and has found that sometimes, a little distance can work to your advantage.

Though this interview was recorded in July of 2013, Isiah’s business – now rebranded from “Passionate Spirit” to simply Isiah – is still going strong, and there seems no better time to release our chat than just before the traditional celebration of love and intimacy on St. Valentine’s Day.

(UPDATE 7PM February 2nd, 2015: Isiah just told me that she’s relocated herself and her business to Sydney. I still reckon this chat has value for those looking to start a venture in a location considered out-of-the-way.)

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A Friendly Local Game Store in the Tropics: Mick Archer, The Wicked Goblin – Episode 35

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Opening a friendly local game store in an out-of-the-way, tropical tourist town might seem downright crazy, but Cairns boy Mick Archer has not only done it, he’s made The Wicked Goblin a success. He focuses his store on the people who play tabletop games as much as, if not more so than, the products themselves.

Exterior of Wicked Goblin friendly local game store

The exterior of The Wicked Goblin.

In my latest location recording, Mick and I chat about his background in both gaming and hospitality, how Mick built his war chest for The Wicked Goblin and the importance of not just having friends and family in your corner but also having a true partnership in your business.

Thank you again, Adam at Sprue Grey, for your questions! I hope my chat with Mick helps you open your own Friendly Local Store soon!

Please stick around after the interview for an update on my own paid to play progress!

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Henry “Hengineer” Smith and the Spaceteam Admiral’s Club – Episode 34

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UPDATE (8 July 2014): The Spaceteam Admiral’s Club Relaunch met its funding goal! Congratulations, Henry!

It’s been almost two years since Henry Smith quit his job at triple-A game studio BioWare to make his own games. In that time, his Android and iOS game Spaceteam has become a viral, independent hit.

Now Henry is reaching out to his community to fund another year of self-employed game development via a Kickstarter campaign. I had to pounce on the opportunity to not just spread the word, but chat with him (again) about life as a self-employed game developer living by his own rules, passions and schedule!

(Wouldn’t Hengineer Smith and the Spaceteam Admiral’s Club make a great title for a pulp novel?)

WARNING: Though I’m happy with the sound quality, the rush to get this up meant I didn’t edit out some audio problems at my end, mostly revolving around our dogs acting up. I owe a HUGE debt (and several bouquets of flowers) to my wife Vickie who got up on several occasions between 6AM and 7AM to deal with them while I chatted with Henry.

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