My Geek Confessions

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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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,

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!

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