Matt Stagliano: Well, would you look at that I haven't fired
myself from hosting this podcast yet. So I'm going to call that a
small victory. This week, I'll keep this intro pretty short.
What you're about to hear is part two of a long conversation
that I had with Johnny Edward, about all things WPPI 2024. If
you haven't had the chance, be sure to go back and listen to
part one, because that will give you the foundation for
everything that we talk about here. That's it. That's my
introduction. So let's dive in, shall we? Thanks again for
joining me. And without further delay, here's part two of the
WPPI 2024 recap with Johnny Edward.
Jonny Edward: You know, I guess probably the biggest overriding
thing, like the thematic element that keeps coming back to me is
this idea of like, firstly, honoring ourselves as artists,
and then thusly honoring those who we're working with,
alongside colleagues, allied professionals, models, subjects,
you know, all of these different things, and it just feels like
it's really easy to lose sight of that, you know, art, to me is
this really beautiful poetic expression of self. And so when
we lose sight of ourselves, we lose sight of our arts. And then
when we lose sight of ourselves and our art, we lose sight of
everything that comes along with that. Everything that that sort
of encapsulates that includes the people directly and
peripherally, who were engaged with and involved with directly
and indirectly, but I think so much of this just comes back
down to that, for me, at least,
Matt Stagliano: you know, I find myself beating myself up quite a
bit, because I feel like an elitist I feel like a snob, or
that I have a very high opinion of myself when I go to a show
like WPPI, because I'm so insulated in my own little world
of my own business, and I'm trying to make things work and
survive. And I don't know the numbers, but I'd have to say
probably 50% are probably not full time, pro photographers,
right? Or they're Pro, but it's a side hustle or whatnot. Yeah,
which is all fine. But I think I find myself being a little bit
too, too exclusive, too elitist. And I want everybody to be at
the same high standard that I try to maintain that, you know,
is my version of a high standard. And when I don't see
that I get annoyed. And you know, that's not necessarily
right. It's not my position to judge anybody else or feel a
certain way about someone because they're not doing what
I'm doing. So I often find that I need to keep myself in check,
because I can go from just kind of cool guy to judgmental
asshole. In lightspeed. Yeah, I'm a nobody in a huge pond of
photographers. Yet, in my own world, I am a big fish in a
teaspoon, right? So, you know, as much as I sound like, I'm
cutting things apart. While I talk about this. It's really
nothing but stream of consciousness. So we were
talking a few minutes ago about the shooting bays, and ways that
we can maybe improve them. I wanted to get your thoughts on a
couple of things. One, I know, when we go into the shooting
base, there's typically one light, maybe a two light setup.
Yeah. And like you're saying, don't touch them under penalty
of death, because then you won't be able to get a properly
exposed photo. Yeah, I wanted to get your feel. Because they went
back to strobes this year from constant lights last year. Yep.
Would it be better to say, All right, here's a two light setup.
Here are the settings for three different looks with that to
light setup. And you have three minutes, one minute for each
setup to try it out. To give people a little bit more
variety. I don't know if that's feasible. But let's talk about
that the constant versus strobe can we do you know, multiple
lighting setups in one day.
Jonny Edward: So on the constant versus strobe thing, obviously,
I'm heavily biased in this since I predominantly use constant
lights these days. And I do that for a number of reasons. As an
artist, I use constant lights. And I've elucidated on this a
little bit before but because it allows me to stay better
connected to the person in front of my lens, there's less
technical minutiae to deal with, there's less things that could
possibly go wrong. If you're working with a professional
model, sometimes it's really nice to have a straw because
they can just move relative to the flash, right? So you're
working with someone who's amazing and they just, and it
looks like dance and it's mesmerized, and that's not how
most people are who step in front of our lens. It's jarring
If you're nervous, and you sit here and you put me in front of
all these lights, and I'm uncomfortable, then you just
start throwing strokes to be able to walk, you know, and so
it's uncomfortable. So I do that number one to stay connected to
the people. But as an educator, especially because I work with
so much shadow, it's really brilliant to be able to
demonstrate foundational lighting topics in real time.
You know, if I were to take the key light in front of me and
move it away and say this is what feathering looks like. And
so we don't have to imagine it. And we don't have to jump to a
screen on the back of a camera or something where it's either
going to, you can just see it, you can see Phil in real time,
here's what happens when we turn that up. Here's what happens
when we turn that down, you can see the effective color
temperature look at when those shadow lights become warmer and
cooler. So it's very, it's a lot easier to I think, educate and
empower photographers when working with constant light. So
I you know, once again, this goes back to ideal versus
monetary. And I think that's the big debate. I know that Profoto
wanted to be the exclusive provider of light and Profoto I
love working with your strobes. If you want to pick up a maniac
who makes amazing art is a wild card to be up sometime, I'll
totally throw everyone for a loop and switch over to strobe
that's not true, but maybe it's true. But um, you know, I know
they wanted to do that, I wouldn't necessarily want to see
something like WPPI or TPM switch to using constants
exclusively. But I think a mixture is important, I think
it's really important to be able to show photographers that
ultimately, outside of the physics element light is light,
whether it's coming from an incandescent bulb, whether it's
coming from the sun, whether it's coming from a strobe,
whether it's coming from a constant light, light is light,
and of course light behaves differently. And we can talk
about CRI and skin tones and get into the nerdy aspect. But for
our purposes, 95% of the time, light is light. And I think it's
important for people to get away from the dogma and from the
sales pitches and go oh, fuck, like, I can literally have a
light bulb from my house and make world class art, I do not
need to have a $5,000 strobe with a $5,000 modifier on it. I
also think that it allows us to educate better when we're
working with constant light. So that did throw me for a loop.
And in fact, with the production team when I was talking to them
before, before, you know, WPPI actually took place I was like,
Listen, if there's constant light, please give me that
because then you don't have the trigger issue. And I think for
me, that's the hardest thing I guess if I if I was going to
summarize this is if you're a new or photographer, new ish, if
you're new to let's say, studio lighting, or whatever we want to
say you're not comfortable, we don't even need to use the word
new. I think that's probably wrong. You're not comfortable
with studio lighting. And now you have 30 Fucking people
behind you. And you've been waiting in line for 30 minutes,
and it's someone you really want to photograph and you're already
fucking trepidatious and you might be taking that Xanax just
enough, you know, in your fucking shaking. And you're
like, Hello, my name is Chris and I you I love your look and
and now you have this fucking light you've never worked with,
you've never mounted a trigger onto your camera. You don't know
why your screen is black because of exposure compensation. And
you're sitting there and you have two minutes to create and
it feels like everything is going fucking wrong. That's a
shitty experience. Yep. I think that for me was harder than
anything else was seeing someone who is so excited and so fucking
elated. Then look at their camera go Johnny, why is it
black, and I'm like, listen, it's for this reason, I've never
used your camera. If you take it to Canon, Fuji Sony, they'll fix
it for you come back, I'll make sure your first but it was so
defeating for them. So it adds an unnecessary layer of
technical complexity to people who are already struggling with
the technical side of our craft. And I think that is very, very
unfortunate. So I would love to see the reintroduction of
constant and I don't care. It could be Nan light, it could be
aperture, it could be go docks, I have no invested interest. But
I think just to allow people to be more invested in the creative
process rather than technical minutiae. That is huge, because they're
Matt Stagliano: now looking at you to be not only the model and
the teacher, but also the technical expert on their
specific camera model from their specific platform on their
specific firmware that they haven't updated because they
didn't know they could update it. That was one thing that I
saw over and over and over and primarily with Nikon shooters,
that their exposure compensation settings buried like 37 menus
deep. And it was unfortunate because I saw great shooters
with great ideas. Yeah, struggling with the technical
side. And I think that does add into the frustration it takes
you out of the element. It takes you out of the process, and all
that good energy that you had just spills out all over the
floor. You got defeated by your camera. You know one thing I
would have liked to have seen because Profoto did a great job
in the production team are the unsung heroes of the LM
Jonny Edward: and everyone else on that team are fucking the
real MVPs and heroes, watching
Matt Stagliano: Kelan and Matt just crushed the entire show. I
mean, it just nonstop. I can't imagine what's on their
shoulders and they crushed it. But having technical experts in
the shooting Bay Area, a Profoto, representative or two,
yeah, right, going back and forth, just making sure that
people understand how to use the trigger, maybe talking about the
product a little bit. It's
Jonny Edward: a missed opportunity for these brands to
me too. And obviously, like, I'm a single fucking solo LLC, right
guy, and he's in the suburbs of Denver in this, you know,
generational area where I'm basically surrounded by
nothingness or people who are in their 70s, who want to give me
antique. So like, I am very isolated in that way, not
isolated, like you. But I mean, so you take this Profoto idea.
The other brilliant thing is, if I was Profoto, not only would I
want my technical experts there to do that, but if the line is
20 people long walk that line, every party, you're going to be
coming up, let's do this, let's do that. It allows for a level
of interactivity and service that could directly translate
into revenue. And it's not to say sell to us at all points in
time. But for more of a consultative element to be like,
Hey, have you ever used strobes before? No, you haven't? Are you
on Nikon? Let's make sure this setting is right. Big enough
value that would fucking add would be substantial. The
comfort that that would create would be amazing, the stress
that would alleviate would be fantastic. And especially for
the person who's running the booth, or for the model, they're
now not being confronted with that in that two minute period
that has already been addressed and is taken care of. So this
person can focus on what it is they are doing. And yeah, I
think it's you know, sometimes you get thrown to the wolves,
there is an understaffing element to all of these things
always everywhere in life. Now, you know, if you're going to
have someone running a booth, they should have worked with
those strobes or gotten a crash course on it, even if it's a
basic video thing, like, this is how you swap a battery. This is
how you reset the transmitter. These are the basic things and
even having a laminated sheet for them to say like If This
Then That, here are the three steps like unplug the modem to
start, give it 10 seconds and plug it back in. That's hugely
empowering for everyone. So I couldn't agree more with that.
And there is that that that sort of sad element of the timer
thing like I did not run a timer the first day WPPI production
quickly gave me a handler day to to run a timer for me. Yeah. Now
that was kind of odd, because everyone was self managing. And
I would address them and I would just talk to the crowd and mass
and say, Hey, listen, I'm not going to run a fucking timer.
Number one, I don't have the ability to number two, we're all
adults. If you take a little bit longer, or you're a little bit
shorter, but let's be courteous, you can feel the energy. When
people are like, alright, Matt, you've done fucking enough get
out of the way. You know, when you're overreaching, let's self
manage, because we're adults, let's self manage because we're
a community. And I get that that's not necessarily feasible
for every place and time but that hardline two minutes, even
when I was shooting it a couple of days when we were together at
TPM, I got in and I got that one light turned off. And by the
time I turn that light off, got my camera settings fiddled, went
in and talked to the model who was there and said, Hey, I'm
Johnny, what's your name? You're a fucking badass. Thank you so
much for killing it. And step back. It was brought to you at
47 seconds and I was like, Oh, shit. Okay, now it's time to go
in for me. The trigger wasn't registering properly with my hot
shoe. So I was dealing with an exposure compensation issue. And
I just shot with the black screen. And what a lot of people
don't realize is on mirrorless that actually affects not only
what you're seeing, but the focus based on how stop down the
lenses. So then your camera's guessing while you're guessing
in the strobes firing at random fucking times you like I hope I
get something that's fucking great. And you might walk into
something and you walk away shaking and you're like, Oh,
look at this great photo that I kind of made, but was kind of
made for me just based on chance and happenstance. Yeah, I love
the idea of the settings thing that you said too. I think that
even if it wasn't three defined setting, saying all right,
people were working with strobes. We're locking in our
ISO and our shutter speed. However, here's three different
aperture settings for low key high key middle of the ground,
really dark shadows, really bright shadows somewhere in
between and saying, shoot with all of this, see what you want,
because what people would do, especially since I'm a well
known photographer, as well, as they take a shot, I'm like, hey,
what do you think of it? They're like Johnny, what do you think
and I do doesn't fucking matter what I think. Like, I'm not here
to portfolio review. I'm not here to create for you. Do you
want bright shadows? No, well, then that's probably not good.
Let's darken those up. Right So giving people some levity or
some like space to play in a way that still safe in a way that's
still predefined, but where there's some fucking switch
there would be monumental. And then someone gets to decide for
themselves. If they own the brain that's between their two
ears. I like it darker, I like it brighter, and then they start
to develop a way of critically evaluating their images. So in a
very direct but indirect way we start to better equip these
artists to evaluate their own work and what it is they want to
do and why. And so we're not just having someone recite verse
we're helping them actually develop the language skills to
compose verse of their own. And that is massive
Matt Stagliano: at portrait masters in Arizona last year
when I was in helping in the booth when people would come up.
And before you know, someone would be shooting the next
person in line, I'd be having a conversation with them saying,
so what is it that you have in your mind? What's the look that
you want to have? And is this how you would set things up? And
they might say something like, Yep, this is exactly what I
wanted, or I've never used strobes before. Or, you know, I
usually only use one light that at least gave me information to
say we're going rate, I understand what your level and
capability is. Do you want to stretch that? Or do you just
want to shoot your style? Or do you want to shoot for a properly
exposed photo, as listed on the settings on their beautiful
white poster board? Do you want that? My intention was to just
get people to think critically about what it is that they want
it to slow down a little bit, have some intention, and tell me
what it is that they saw in their head so that I could help
them create that? Yes, I did not want them like they were doing
to you say what do you think of this? I would always turn that
around. What do you think of it? Yeah, totally. Right. So you
know, in thinking and brainstorming like we are about
how to make this experience better. From a shooting Bay
perspective, I had alluded way early in this conversation to
Peter Hurley section down the end, I was wondering if it would
be possible to create a cordoned off area just for shooting base
kinda like they had in the TPM portion earlier in the week. And
have in that main hall, a cordoned off area for nothing
but shooting base have a limited amount of people having like a
bouncer Yonsei, there's only 100 people allowed for these 30
Shooting bays at a given time, and you've got an encounter in
and out counter when someone then you let someone else.
Right, and in a way that allows people to not feel the chaos and
the pressure and the intensity of it all. And they walk around
and they shoot what they shoot, whether you have time slots, or
whether it's a one in one out thing, capacity issue. I feel
like by removing that into its own area, yeah, that Yeah, it'll
be crowded at times. And it will be, you know, good flow all day
long. But it's not going to hinder getting to some of the
other booths as well. And it's not taking away from the
vendors. And if you want it to have vendors or other high
profile educators wandering around the shooting Bay Area,
awesome. That just adds to it. I feel like we're trying to
combine too much into the trade show portion. And we're
sacrificing creativity for commerce. Right. And there's,
yeah, there's the balance that everybody that's ever organized
a trade show how to wrangle with right. And it's not an easy
task. Yep. But I'm wondering if more people are leaning into
having that shooting experience, making that its own thing,
Disneyland pass instead of going on Photowalks. I've got my $150
ticket. And that allows me into a private shooting bay area as
much as I want during the week to learn different things to
work with different lighting, rather than just having an
avenue of shooting base, creating an experience out of it
that is attached to but somewhat separated from the main
tradeshow era. Oh, great. What were some of the best things
that you saw at the show?
Jonny Edward: I think what probably probably my favorite
things that I saw had nothing to do with the shooting bays had
nothing to do with the vendors. It was seeing people who let's
say only knew each other online from across the world and
running to each other, like a cinematic film and jumping into
each other's arms going, oh my god, I finally get to meet you.
I finally get to say hello, I finally get to hang out with
you. You've helped me so much. We've known each other for years
now we get to be present as people. So that humanistic
element saying the same thing in the hallways and people being
like, Oh my God, oh, it's so and so wonderful. Hey, can I get
this and get that like that was really really beautiful to me.
It felt so innocent. And it felt so cool and wholehearted and it
was such an aside to the chaos and the commerce and all of
these other things that sort of define so much of this to just
see people genuinely excited and in passion to see one another
and to be present with one another that for me was was
absolutely brilliant. I love that there's some really amazing
educators and I love seeing the people who have notoriety, Be
gracious to actually stop and take the time to go like, Hey,
I'm exhausted. But oh my gosh, you said you love my work. I
have two minutes. But those two minutes are yours. Let's talk.
Let's take a selfie. So seeing people being human and operating
from that, sort of almost prerogative of humaneness was
brilliant. On the flip side, I saw some really ugly things,
where there were people of notoriety, who literally could
not be bothered to even smile at folks. And that felt really
fucked up. But the nice thing about that is the contrast
creates a beautiful differential where you see the people who
don't do that, and it makes the people who do that much more
significant and lauded. I mean, to be completely honest, since
we're this far into the conversation, some of the best
chats I had, were in the bathroom, no lie, like, I was
standing at a urinal, and someone came up there to down
space. And they're like, Hey, you're Johnny, right? You know,
doing the site. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm Johnny, what's going
on? And they're like, Yeah, you were killing it out there, man.
Like, I really want to come to your booth. That's phenomenal.
I'm like, Oh, where are you from? I'm from Madison,
Wisconsin. I shoot weddings. Oh, what do you want to get into?
And so over the course of this, streaming, 30 or 45 seconds, you
know, we connected as human beings and we're washing our
hands, and it's like, Hey, I hope to see you tonight. Are you
going somewhere? So you know, even you talking about that
elements of things being removed, I would love to just
see like, an off floor lounge. And it doesn't have to be a
quiet space. But in one of the other rooms, it's like, Hey, do
you need to reset like we're gonna essentially use library
voices. We're gonna have some ambience musics, and she'll stop
playing, there's fucking chamomile tea and water. You can
come in and you can just sit amongst everyone else and just
be like, Hey, we're just people here. And we don't have to be in
motion. We don't have to be achieving. We don't have to be
producing. We don't have to be purchasing, we can just be
present with one another. There's so much power in that.
And that's a hard thing to quantify. But for me, that was
my, my favorite thing. And I had that happen. You'll Vaughn is a
perfect example of this. Um, she's this, you know, spark plug
of a woman from Serbia and is really amazing. And we've been
talking for a long time and she literally ran up and was like,
throwing Muay Thai elbows at people to get through the crowd
and just jumped on to me and Kelly robots. I was there. And
she was like, what was this? Okay, I'm like, It's fine. It's
fine. But it was hilarious. And she's like, Oh, my god, god, my
image is being judged right now. I have to get in there. And I'm
like, I hope you do. Well. She's like, I don't even get a shit
about that. It's just nice to meet you. So those moments
between moments were fucking amazing. Us at the Capri. You
know, just sitting there dancing and looking around and being
like, all right, for a second, there is no hierarchy. There is
not like, oh, you're a professional and you're a
hobbyist. Oh, you're an educator. Oh, you're an artist.
Oh, this Oh, that there's just people who are you know, getting
near three sheets to the wind, Double fisting drinks, kind of
bobbing around like night at the Roxbury going, Oh, this is
fucking cool. Together. That was lovely. Because there were no
errors. There was no presupposition, it was just
like, Oh, we're all fucking here. And none of us know what
we're doing. And we're all trying to fucking figure it out.
And we're all spiraling into entropy. And we're all gonna go
back home and go, What the fuck just happened. But for these
very ephemeral moments, we're just like, Alright, we're here.
And we're together. And we're enjoying this. And that's enough
hard stop. period on the fucking sentence.
Matt Stagliano: Yeah, I found I found that quite a bit,
especially at that big party, that I did look around at one at
one moment, and everybody was just really cool with each
other, which is a big contrast to the same party, same club
last year where there was just a really strange vibe to it, they
did a great job. And you know, you'd mentioned one thing about,
you know, having these kind of like chill rooms when I was
going to SHOT Show for a lot of years over at the Venetian in
the sands. One of my friends companies would have a suite,
and a good size suite that was opened the entire week, they
spent a good amount of money on it. It was basically a Delta sky
lounge, you know, where you could wander in and out there
was always someone there from the company. Yep. And people
could just go, you didn't have to be like, Oh, if it's the
Profoto suite, you didn't have to go up and talk about Profoto.
It was literally just cheese and crackers and drinks and quiet
and good internet. And it wasn't so removed from the show floor
that you felt like you had to walk to another hotel to get
there. It was, you know, a conference room that they had
commandeered and turned into this. And it was great. Because
if someone did want to slip away and get off the floor, just so
you could have a conversation be like, Hey, let's go over to
Johnny's, you know, suite and talk in there for a few minutes.
And it was great. And I really enjoyed that. And that's not
something that I saw and maybe I just didn't know about them and
that they existed but outside of the staff rooms. I don't think
anything like that existed. And it could be a good A thing you
know, hey, this, this lounge sponsored by Profoto on Tuesday
sponsored by figma. On Wednesday, write whatever, and
have it be a place that people can go and just relax a little
bit. They did something like that at portrait masters in
Arizona they did. They had like quiet rooms of beanbag chairs
and whatnot. And it was pretty cool idea. So I'm just wondering
if that can if that can grow to scale, or if it would just be
unmanageable. I don't.
Jonny Edward: And you even even talking about that makes me
think, you know, not once again, not to shit on anything or be
overly critical, but like just better signage in general. You
know, like, just no one knew where the fuck they were going.
Most of the time, even me being on production being on modeling.
And this isn't a knock on production. They did phenomenal
relative to the cards. They were dealt, but like when I had to go
eat the first day I was on the show floor. They were like, oh,
it's in Montego D. And then someone's like, well, there is
no Montego, there's Montenegro. And I'm asking everyone who has
a bad she looks like their hotel staff or security. So no one
knows. And finally, he just started walking. And I saw
someone with a plate of food. And I was like, it has to be
that way. And I just wandered into this corridor into a door.
But there were no signs anywhere that said anything. So I think
people you know, like there's so much going on. And there is so
much overstimulation that even to go well, like, yeah, it's the
place where Pratik had his class. And you're like, that was
24 hours ago, and I dumped all of that information out of
necessity. Um, so just having some guideposts or people who
are just roving going like, Oh, where are you going? What are
you trying to get to? Is that for TPM, or WPPI? You just
trying to register it, hopefully getting an anchor point. So
something like registration doesn't move. So then you get
there. And they're like, oh, it's an you know, archive, see,
and you're an archive, see, they're like, no, actually, it's
in blue and a now. And that's exactly three football fields
away that way. And you have to knock on the door and say,
banana to get into the basement to get your badge. And it's just
unnecessary brain damage for everybody. If any of this is
something we can do a thing about, right? Let's remove it
from the equation. It's sort of like obviously, this maximalist
thing going right now, but like in my photography, generally
speaking, I'm like, does this element say something in the
frame? If not, let's remove it. So all of those unnecessary
obstacles that can be addressed. All that that means is that
people are going to have a better experience, they're going
to be more connected, they're going to be more immersed,
they're going to be more joyful, they're going to be more
creative, like we have a finite amount of energy as human
beings. So let's not make people allocate that finite energy to
things that we could address on their behalf from from the
forefront of it. And that's for me, that's what it really sort
of boils down to. For
Matt Stagliano: me, the energy this year was definitely better
than it was last year. I think, you know, there were more
people, there was definitely more excitement around
everything. I two met a ton of people that I had never met in
real life. And that felt really cool to actually be able to
shake the hands of people and give hugs to people that I've
known for years and never met in person. You know, I spent a lot
of time with my friend Bassam, who I've known for years. And
we, he lives five hours north of me, and we've never, we've never
met. So it was good to spend a lot of time with him. The
vendors this year, were very well curated. Maybe the vendors
just came back that haven't been there for a few years. And it
seemed like there was just a better energy amongst the
vendors, there was more to look at more to play with more to
see. And it was it was a really good time. And there were a
couple of things that I really loved about the show. And there
were a couple of things that I didn't like. And I think we've
talked about stuff we didn't like, but what I what I did love
in the TPM summit in the portrait masters Summit, was the
fact that there was one room where we all got to see all the
speakers, there was no running from place to place. It was just
you had your seat, you had your room, it felt intimate, it felt
good. It was very engaging. And I really like that setting. But
again, you've got 8000 people in an area or logistics, right? So
I'm not I'm not bashing anything. But I think that's one
of the things that I loved because it just felt better. It
felt smaller and more communal. I started looking across the
industry. There are a ton of photography podcasts that are
not technically focused, right, you've got Nikki doing the
portrait system, which is nominal from a business
standpoint. You've got podcasts out there that are very focused
on no pun intended, very focused on the technical aspects of
things. There's room for so much more personality in this space.
Should there be a gossip podcasts or should it be an
industry news where you know, it's like 62nd industry Use,
Jonny Edward: I do think that there is a sort of pervasive
self imposed stoicism, right? Yeah. Where we take everything
so seriously. And shooting is serious. And what we do is
serious and making money is serious and, and there's all of
this weight to all of it. And I think I'm a I tend to be a
counterpoint to that just because I'm a big personality
and I laugh at myself and I laugh at the world. And, you
know, I'm an ass and I'm an asshole. And I'm also a really
amazing person. And all of these things sort of coexist. So yeah,
I think that there needs to be more space just for fucking fun.
Fun, right? Yes, for fucking fun. And I think that even goes
back to the idea that we were talking about knocked up,
diverge back into the shooting Bay thing, but like, that's why
Mitzie thing was so great. Because it was all so serious in
there were serious models seriously style, doing very
serious things. And then she was over there with these really
radiant human beings be like, pretend like you just had a Jack
in the Box popping you in? Because it was such a
counterpoint to the austerity of so much else. Right. So not only
do I think there is space for that, I think it's a fucking
necessity. I think it's it's a natural part of human emotion.
Like we need a space to be vulnerable. And that's also
something that's missing. Like, where do we get together and not
talk about it from an analytical standpoint, but just say, You
know what, that like, I'm not sure I want to do this anymore.
I don't think that I'm any fucking good. Like, I might just
want to sell the business. I'm not making six figures right
now. In fact, I'm struggling to make fucking five. And there's
someone banging on my door right now who might break my kneecaps,
like, that type of thing needs to be spoke about. But we just
need to laugh at the joy of it at the absurdity of it, of the
fact that this is what we do and how we do it and bring some
other emotions in so that we could be more whole, as
individuals and as a community and embrace the entirety of
this. And I even have to do that at workshops. Sometimes there'll
be this thing and everyone's so focused, it's like, well, I
need, I need to get the shot. And this needs to go into
fucking photo VO. And I need to make two steps forward. And this
is going to result in 710 K sales. And I'm like, Listen,
this isn't a knock on anyone. But for a second, can we just
just admire the fact or appreciate the fact that we're
in the fucking first world. We're in a beautiful studio,
we're all eating fucking, you know, like noodles and curry.
We're photographing beautiful humans as beautiful humans, like
this is fucking pretty amazing. And let's just laugh at the fact
that we all happen to have converged at this point, and the
butterfly fucking effective all of this, that we happen to not
only be alive, but alive together, making fucking art in
a world that's on fire.
Matt Stagliano: All week, you and I had kind of had our
different stresses. Yeah. And getting through the workshop,
really, at the end of the at the end of the week really started
to set the tone for that Friday night. Yep. So last Friday night
of WPPI. The show it ended on Thursday, we do the trade show.
We do the workshop all day Friday. And then we have to pack
up all the gear and send it back to Nan right. And I just like
you from your first person perspective, to talk about what
happened because we had a great team pack up all of these lights
that Nan light had sent us.
Jonny Edward: So this is this is for any of you once again who
haven't been involved in production. This is a little bit
of insight into how these things actually unfold or fail to
unfold. Wonderful day. We it was such a once again such a great
day, we ended on a good note everyone was fucking dead on
their feet. You know, like Matt had said earlier by 2pm people
like ordered food in and there's just people with like, you know,
subs halfway and their mouths staring at the ceiling. Like
they're on you know hoarse doses of Xanax and ketamine, they're
just fucking gone. Because it's been an exhausting week and for
all the right reasons, but it's still overwhelming. And so this
ends and we're wrapping up and we have all of this stuff to
break down we have six sets, we have the gear that we brought
in, we have Paulina stuff we have now in light stuff, we have
to separate out everything from Black Box studios. And
thankfully, Matt was there Kayla Douglas was there, Rick Lewis
was there and we had a bunch of attendees who are like, I'm in
it for the fucking long haul, which I'm so grateful for. I
kept trying to get rid of them. I'm like, you paid me to be
here. You do not need to help and they're like, fuck you. I
didn't help because I want to be of service. And I was like,
Alright, I'm gonna put my ego aside and say, You know what, if
you're giving me your hands, I'm gonna put them to work because
you just lucked out. So anyway, we do this in mass as a team.
And you know, some people are really experienced with this.
Some people are and there's nothing wrong with that. So
we're just trying to make sure the right lights go into the
right boxes, gear gets separated basic logistical stops. So we
get into this and then we realize we don't have the
shipping labels. This is the first thing right? And let me
backtrack for a second NAMM light was kind enough to send
this literal trailer worth of fucking gear, this veritable
palette to the Mirage to make things easier. Well, it came via
UPS unbeknownst to me and our Arrived at FedEx. So the first
surprise was before we're breaking down is picking it up.
And you know, the people at FedEx are like, Oh yeah, there's
a $250 handling fit. And I was like, What do you mean, you
receive packages? You received a package like that's what you do.
It'd be like getting charged a grill fee for a steak or
hamburger. And you're like, how else do you make this sir? Mess?
Whoever. So that was fine. That was an incidental cost. But we
get it. We get it over there. We don't have enough space. We had
to get Uber excels. I literally got put into the back of a
truck, like a Tetris piece, and probably dislodged multiple
vertebra being stuck in the back of this fucking truck, like a
minion. And I'm already small, but I got cut in half, quite
literally. So anyway, we're packing all this stuff up, and
we realize, oh, fuck, we don't have the shipping labels. And so
everyone pauses and we were in such great momentum, and we're
all shooting the shit. And we're dancing and we have music on.
You were telling jokes. Were just there. As people in a hush
falls over the crowd. All of the energy that was up here suddenly
comes down, out of the room. It's a whisper, and I'm like,
Hey, everyone. You're all doing great. But the reality is, we
don't have the labels, and we need to open up and unbox
everything that we just backed up. Because without those, we
can't do anything. And to everyone's fucking credit, they
took it on the chin, and everyone's like, that's fine.
We're gonna make this happen. So everyone starts unboxing. I
can't remember exactly who it was who found it. But someone
finds it and it was like the winning Lotto number, they
hauled it all. And it was like fucking a scene from The Lion
King, we all looked off and we're chanting. So you know, it
was the sun rising in prehistoric times. And we're
like, fuck you're in. So that's fine. So we get back to what
we're doing. And we're read duct taping and we're repacking, and
we're doing this, we're doing that we're getting everything
segmented. And now we're looking at time, and we're like, holy
shit. Like, if we don't get these boxes out to ship.
Tonight, we're gonna have to do it tomorrow. We have no way to
stage these in hotel rooms. We only have one predominant
vehicle. We're already renting things we have to make this
happen tonight. So I find a FedEx store. That's open until
eight. And it's Friday fucking night on the strip. So it was
empty the day before it is now Hey, OS, like absolute chaos,
like LA freeway meets fucking and apocalyptic movie. And
Paulinus husband Bill and I are like what could do in this so we
throw all of these boxes into the back of the truck. We're
wedging things in we're trying to figure out you know how
things can't fall out. I basically have my head out the
window like a watchdog. So it's stoplight some unsavory
character isn't gonna steal one of these lights and take it to a
pawn shop. It's fucking insane. But like, everyone's on Hi, back
at the studio Bill and I are driving we're stuck in traffic,
there was a brokedown Corvette from the 80s that held the
traffic like it was it was not it was like it was something of
an indie movie, you know, there's just this sort of like
EDM soundtrack playing in the back. And I'm like, Bill, if
this doesn't work out, you know, what are we going to do? And
he's like, you know, maybe we'll just drive off a cliff. And I
was like, yeah, that'd be swayed. And so we're in this
pseudo existential, pseudo excited, pseudo exhausted state,
and we get there, and we have the fucking truck is loaded. And
so we put all of these on flatbeds and we get in and out
of doing a jig. It's like the Joker coming down and do there
is you may walk in Phoenix, I have fucking Sinatra playing, I
backpedal. And guys, like, what's up, guys? And we're like,
we got to ship this stuff out. It's gonna be fucking amazing.
I'm getting ready to wipe the slate clean. And he's like,
where are the labels? And I was like, boss, the labels are on
the fucking box, right? Where we flip them, you can take a peek
right there. And he's like, Ah, man, what the fuck do you these
are UPS labels, you're at FedEx. That that uncomfortable? Pause
is exactly what happened. So for me, everything came I was
received at FedEx. And I'm like, Alright, there was a handling
fee. So whatever is going on with the shipping, it can go out
via FedEx. That's what was at The Mirage now. And because all
of us were so utterly exhausted, none of us took a look at the
labels. We were not out of this team of 10. And so I'm like,
fuck, okay. Who's open UPS wise? No one man, all the ups closes.
So now I'm dealing with the fact that we're in a 24 hour fucking
city Sin City where, like, places closed down at 6pm on a
Friday night. So I'm calling access points literally for UPS.
I'm like, listen, I know you guys only deal with drivers.
I'll throw you fucking undos like I got money in my back
pocket. I'll rub your back. I'll you know be godfather to your
first child, whatever the fuck and they're like Sorry, sir.
We'd love to help you. We can. So Bill and I get the bright
idea of fuck it like we're going to try and go to a Walgreens.
Right? Like they have a UPS store. They're probably not
equipped to handle this, but I'm like someone there need some
fucking money. I'll ply the trade. I'll do whatever I need
to fucking do like I'll don a Walgreens outfit and dance on
the strip for the next four hours. Just to bring people into
a place they can get cheaper booze, whatever the fuck. So
we're heading to this Walgreens and then we realize it's the
Walgreens on the strip, the eponymous strip Walgreens. And
we're like, well, that's not going to fucking work. So we get
stuck in traffic. I'm calling Matt. I'm calling Paulina. I'm
like, Hey, things are fought. I don't know what we're gonna do,
we need to schedule a pickup, we need to do this. So anyway, it's
just this fucking thing. And I'm now my wit's end was an hour
ago, was what three debacle is ago. So I'm just sitting in the
truck Deadeye like a shark, just staring at these neon lights,
and I can't even I'm not even upset. I don't even have the
energy to be upset. I'm just fucking completely convalesced.
And so we show up. And everyone's like, what are we
going to do, and I'm gonna be, let's just let's unpack it. I'm
like, it just has to go back inside. And so we come up with
this plan where Paulina, and Bill are going to take care of
it in the morning, and they're going to get an Uber XL. I'm
considering changing my flight. I can't do the app, because it's
just madness, with people trying to fly out, we come up with this
fucking plan. And it ended up working out like credit to
Pauline and Bill, thank you black box studios for letting us
stay there. They were so kind, they didn't even charge us for
the staging of the extra hours, the best of humanity, like
people fucking came together. And we're like, Listen, this is
a problem. But in the scheme of life, it's really not a problem.
Let's fucking pivot and make it work. And so we get with a plan.
And now Matt and I are going back to the Mirage. And I'm just
like, we're sitting in the back. And now it's like, how are you?
And I'm like, I don't even know. Like, how are you? And he's just
like, like, we're both speaking in evangelical tongues. There
weren't even word big enunciate. We're both just like primitive
grunts.
Matt Stagliano: It was at that point that I realized I hadn't
eaten all day, right? I'm the type that will go go go and then
realize, Oh, God, I have not even low blood sugar, I have no
blood, or whatever. And I'll crash. And that's exactly what
the way that I was feeling. At the end of the workshop. Now I
snacked kind of throughout the day, but never really had too
much of substance. And so sitting in the back of this
truck, on the way back to the hotel theater, killing me, we've
just had this amazing, like emotional day. And then the
problem that we have to solve, and all I'm thinking is like, I
just have to get back to the hotel room. Take a quick shower,
I need something to eat really bad. So we get back. And because
it's Friday night, and all week, I had brought out with me a an
edible chocolate bar, a 200 milligram edible chocolate bar
that was going to manage me throughout the week, and it was
doing great. It was mainly for sleep at night, make sure that I
can sleep a little bit. And I had a couple of pieces left,
probably, I don't know, 40 milligrams worth of chocolate.
Now, here's where it gets fun. So we go back to the room. You
and I sitting there just dead. I'd like sharp and I'm
Jonny Edward: exhausted. I'm like, Alright,
Matt Stagliano: you go. Let's go get dinner somewhere. Everybody
that we knew was basically gone. I'm like, let's go get sushi
downstairs and hang out. What I'm going to do is I'm going to
take a little bit of this chocolate bar right now. And
then we could just kind of groove on a Friday night.
Totally not intending to do what I did, which was take that get
dressed in in my low blood sugar haze of my brain. I took the
other half now. Now I would that's it. I was just hungry.
And I was just eating chocolate. And I realized, oh no, I've made
a disastrous error and wind up realizing that I took in the
night taking about 3540 milligrams of this chocolate
bar. And I go that's a lot for me. Given what I'm about to do.
We go downstairs to the the sushi restaurant. And we have
the same waiter that we had had a couple of nights prior. Yep.
And he seemed a little bit aggressive. On this night. He
was great. The first night we were there. Yeah, we kept him
well, I don't know why he was aggressive. But he kept coming
over and we were both still sober at this point.
Jonny Edward: Yeah. Relatively lucid. Is
Matt Stagliano: Is he like fucking with us a little bit?
What's going on? So it brings up the socket, we're having socket.
But everything out of his mouth was like, looking at us a little
weird. And I start to have these moments of paranoia where I'm
like, is he dosing our food? Like did he put something in the
socket and he's just waiting for us? Because everything is just a
little bit weird. So we're sitting there and we're having a
good time. And then it happened. Everything kicked in at once.
When they put those first person cameras on, you know, and it's
facing the person's face and they're looking around and the
whole angle Little is just this real dystopian view of what
person is experiencing, and they're stumbling through a
party. And sometimes it's like hyperlapse. That's what I felt
like was starting to happen. I look up for my meal, and I look
at you and you've got eyes, the sides of Frisbees, and you're
looking at me going, oh, yeah, we're in the same place, aren't
we? And I said, Yeah, this is gonna get weird. We need to
settle up and get out of here immediately. But let's use the
restroom first. And we get up and start walking through the
casino, and we do one lap around the casino. And then we do
another lap because we just kept taking rights. And we wound up
at the same spot. We're like, I can't do another lap. So we're
like, alright, let's let's hit The Strip. And just go outside
get some fresh air. We started walking out of the four exit
because we couldn't find it for some reason couldn't find a
restroom at The Mirage. Yeah, don't ask why just
Jonny Edward: we got we got stuck in the casino floor loop.
Like we were just literally, it was like Groundhog Day.
Matt Stagliano: So we find this this exit and it's by the Rum
Bar in the cafeteria. So we go out, and we just start walking,
we get outside and we get hit with that fresh, fresh air and
it feels so good. And it's the lights of the strip. And I'm
standing there and I'm going, we made a disastrous error here as
well. Because now we've got to deal with the strip, keep it
together, keep it together, keep it together, keep it together.
Now, at this point, my high is getting more and more and more.
And I'm just starting to feel super groovy. And when I get
like that I shut down and I'm observing everything and we're
walking by street performers that are awful. Just not good
street performers at all playing Oregon's playing guitars playing
pipes. I don't know what they were playing. But it felt like
walking the 20 yards past. This guy playing in Oregon, took us
45 minutes and it very well may have taken us 45 minutes. But
we're walking. So that's happening. I'm getting freaked
out. I look over you. You're just laughing at me because I'm
freaked out. But you're freaked out too. So we keep walking. All
of a sudden, a woman starts running at us full bore. I don't
know what's happening, but she takes off. Suddenly, a guy's
chasing her with a full beer in his hand. Yep. I think he had
just robbed him of his phone and took off. I tried to chase like
grabbed it out of his hand while he was talking and just ran. And
he winds up tripping over a curb and eating it. And everybody was
like, Oh, no one looking to help them. No one's came out and
we're like, Look at this guy. But world. I'm like we just
witnessed a crime. Yep, walking forward. Keep walking straight
in the distance. We see Caesars Caesars must have a bathroom
because moth to a flame it's a beacon. There was literally no
place to just turn off into like an In and Out Burger or
something to use the restroom. So we're like, Alright, let's go
into the casino. Now after a week of being at WPPI in the
Mirage, now the Mirage, if you haven't been to Vegas is kind of
like the middle aged couple of the Vegas casinos where they
kind of want to go out and party a little bit but you know,
around 11 o'clock, you kind of dead you know, as opposed to
like ARIA or Cosmo which are much younger and hipper and the
Mirage is a great place. But it's just kind of like a middle
aged married couple of
Jonny Edward: 80s Nostalgia vibe about at the sound. Yeah. So
we're like
Matt Stagliano: all right there Caesars. Let's get into Caesars
and we walked in. I was ready for what we experienced. I don't
know what went through your mind when we went in there. But all I
saw when I walked in was like Russian mobsters. Bright lights
a line for the nightclub? Yeah, Omnia, that was there. That line
and you and I are walking in. You're dressed the way you're
dressed. I'm in like a Canadian tuxedo, rolling in in a
turtleneck in a denim jacket. I could not have felt more out of
place. And it wasn't just the drug paranoia that was going on.
We were literally there was
Jonny Edward: like 12 women from South America dressed like
Leeloo from the fifth element over girls dispersing and coming
together like a lava lamp. Like it was it was literally it was
it was a paragraph out or a fucking Hunter S Thompson trip
in real time that we were living into. We walked
Matt Stagliano: for Caesars find the restroom and I go in. I go
in first. I'm like running recon apparently. So I go in and
standing there in there, too. Whoo Persian gentleman rather
sizable guys hammered, absolutely hammered in the
corner. Speaking to each other, I don't understand a word that
they're saying. But it starts to get a little bit heated. Like
they're having that drunk friend argument. Then one of them does
that slow motion turnaround I can see in the mirror, slow
motion and focus on me because I'm the other human in the room.
And he starts going a, and I'm like, no, just stare at the wall
mat, stare at the wall, and starts wandering over to me. And
I'm just like, out of there. And there were multiple anti
chambers in this bathroom. It was like looking at this endless
hallway. There's no way I'm getting out of here. So do a
loop around Caesars and the strange feeling of I don't
belong. But I didn't belong. And we needed to get out of there
quickly. Now. Did you see anything in there? I'd love your
your thoughts. I can remember every step that I took in every
face that I saw and trying to get out of this place. Was there
anything weird that you saw, as we know, it was? It was
Jonny Edward: it was such an odd crowd. It was just it's hard to
even typify. I don't know, it was like a sort of like a Chad
convention mixed with like a division to like lower tier frat
party. But if everyone was wearing masks of the same
person, everyone was dressed slightly differently, but looked
identical. And they all had this like similar despondence where
they weren't even excited to be there. And the tables were
insane. And everything was insanely good. It was like that
the verbs bittersweet Symphony video, so we were walking and
not only did we stand out, no matter which way we walked, we
were countered to the flow of the way everyone else was
walking, just getting shoulder checked by these like
emotionless, like Pink Floyd knights, just mindlessly
walking. And that was my bit too. I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm
drowning in a sea of people. But it's not even people. It's just
like a mass of the same person, we have to get the fuck out of
this place. The buzz was going but it was starting to turn
south a little bit.
Matt Stagliano: We're like, Alright, let's get back outside,
let's get back to the hotel, this was clearly a bad idea, to
walk a mile and a half to take a piss and then walk all the way
back right? We could have accomplished this at The Mirage.
But you know, adventure, as we leave, we get out, we get back
to the Mirage we walk in now we've got to navigate the Mirage
again. And we're like, Alright, there's no way that we're going
to be able to get from the entrance to our room in one
piece, we should probably stop halfway and have a drink at the
bar. So we start walking to set a bar. And as for blocking, I,
I'm walking to help the center all the way and you're to my
left. And I'm basically hugging the right side of the pathway.
And I can see this couple coming out of the slots like in there's
a pillar in the way so they were going to come behind the pillar
and then widen. And I saw this happening. And I knew that they
were going to present right in front of us. And as I'm walking,
they came out exactly where they were supposed to scared the shit
out of me. I jumped. In my mind, I was just like, Oh, that was a
little startling. In reality, I think you could probably say, if
Jonny Edward: you were at like an elite CrossFit game and
someone who was doing a box jump in reverse, but that person
happened to be Nosferatu. His fucking arms folded across his
chest and he hopped back like his life depended on it. And it
startled me. And in the moment that I saw it happening, I went
back to the default like I'm gonna laugh so hard. I'm gonna
have a fucking panic attack laugh. And so now Matt's frozen
upon hitting the ground, very athletic. I was very impressed.
And then these, this old couple who literally looked like they
could have been, I don't know, like a parody out of the Beverly
Hillbillies. just stands there, staring at us in time stops for
a moment called Matt. Matt is frozen in like the Heisman
trophy pose. I'm laughing so hard. I might actually piss my
pants. And then all of a sudden it's like the hyperlapse thing
or like the time scaling and video then time just starts
again. So slowed, it expands and contracts.
Matt Stagliano: We get past that couple and we're pretty good.
You're nonstop laughing.
Jonny Edward: I'm dying. I'm like people are getting up to
see who's laughing so hard. I am just geeking out like 10%
Matt Stagliano: Howling laughing we're like alright, let's go to
the center bar. So we go to the center bar and we sit down at
the bar. Now one thing you have to know about the center bar,
it's run by the all of bartending staff. They all seem
to have come from the same place. Isn't gang because they
were all built like they had spent years in a Thai prison.
The rest of their penalty was to serve drinks at the center bar.
And
Jonny Edward: one of the guys I spoke to before actually fought
Roy Jones Jr. I mean caliber to this like legitimate badass
dudes.
Matt Stagliano: Well, the funny thing was, I'd sit at the bar.
And despite how we were feeling, we still held it together
relatively well. And there was zero sloppiness, but boy, oh,
boy, they hated serving people drinks. And I was watching it.
And I said, you know, Hey, can I have a couple of woodfords. And
the guy looks at me, he's just like, uh, now clearly, I
offended him in some way, shape, or form. In the music that was
playing the band that was playing, they were a cover band,
and they were fine. They were serviceable. And I turned
around, and I looked at them. And it was like, every eighth
grade substitute English teacher had gotten together and created
a cover band that was going to go play Las Vegas, they were
recapturing their youth. Every time I turned around, there was
another person appearing, there were some on the stage, there
were some that were standing off the stage, they're going on, the
guitarist started to walk around the bar and sit at people's
booths, lap, laps and riff. All I wanted to do is watch the band
from this point, because they played terribly. They had no
presence, there was no style, but I wanted nothing. But to get
these guys to play every event that I'm ever going to attend
again, it
Jonny Edward: became an exercise and people watching and so this
all sounds innocuous enough, but you have to once again reframe
relative to our states of mind, and what had preceded this, so
we're sitting there sipping on the Woodford that you know, no
one wanted to serve to us. Next to this people who didn't want
to be there. Having just had our you know, strange Nosferatu
strip mugging Chad convention experience both just wide eyed
and bushy tailed going. This is our last night in Vegas
together. All right, like just
Matt Stagliano: trying to end the week with a meal and a
cocktail that's developed into this adventure. Right? And I
don't know at what point we finally called it a night, I
Jonny Edward: distinctly remember looking over and we
were getting to the end of whatever Woodford that was,
whether it's the third or fourth and I'm like, Matt, kinda kinda
think I want to go what do you think it was? Like? Yes,
absolutely. The switch got turned off on the receptivity to
all of the experience for the night and it was just like,
getting home like lost in the woods, follow the compass, there
has to be a road in that general direction. Let's hike out
Matt Stagliano: as exhausted and as high. And as just mentally
spent. As I was on that last night. It absolutely made the
entire week come together. And I feel like all the stresses just
kind of washed away. What a great way to end the week. And I
can't say that. I've never done that in Vegas before. But this
was certainly the most memorable most visual night that ever. The
Jonny Edward: only thing that I could think from the outside
looking in as it must have looked like we looked like like
a B movie version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Sort of,
you know, we can't stop here because it's bad country is the
organist is playing the same three notes that sound that are
sounding so off key and ominous while we're just sauntering up
and down, drip like zombies, like these two morons
Matt Stagliano: are coked out of their head and like, no, no,
we're near that. And we're on basically a chocolate bar and
Xanax exactly, like just trying to chill from a huge week. And I
think it's probably a great way to end this entire episode,
which I'll probably have to cut into several parts. But dude, it
was it was a ton of fun to see you. It's been amazing to kind
of go through the whole week again, what's next for you?
What's are you going? Are you going to have any workshops
coming up,
Jonny Edward: I have a workshop in April here in Denver on the
27th and 28th. It is sold out. And I'm very grateful for that.
So for those of you who are attending, thank you so much for
giving me the opportunity to be part of your journey. I'll be in
Seattle in early May at my friend Simon Diaz's studio. So
he's a badass who also partied way too hard. Every time I saw
that man, he was four sheets to the wind but having a great
time. In the end of May or mid May, I should say the 18th and
19th. I'll actually be in Harlem, New York running my
first workshop in New York in collaboration with Nat light. So
I haven't opened that up publicly yet. Now I'm late and I
have not made a public announcement. We'll call this
the official public announcement for that. But I'm really excited
to be in New York doing it. It's been something I've wanted to do
since I started Getting into education at all. So it feels
like an apex point for me. We're gonna be at this really rad
studio called uptown shots, which is a brilliant
multipurpose production studio there. And I'm definitely going
to be bringing my A game I'll probably be in New York for
about 10 days. I want to do some touristy things, eat some good
food, connect with a lot of people I know out there and
certainly work with, you know, some of the diversity and magic
that exists only in that city. So that will be a wild, wild
ride. And when I'm laughing hysterically, you know on too
many Xanax out on the streets in New York, I have a feeling I'll
blend in even more than I did in Las Vegas, which will be peachy
keen.
Matt Stagliano: No one's gonna bat an eye.
Jonny Edward: I laugh like an asshole like I feel at home when
I'm in New York. I just people telling me to fuck off I tell
them to fuck off. And I'm like, all my heart strings are being
pulled at just the right time. And it's
Matt Stagliano: cool, man. Well, I might. Maybe I'll try to be a
wedding crasher sometime in May and just drive down maybe I'll
pick up some people along the way and we'll just do a bus tour
and follow Yeah,
Jonny Edward: well let's go into get into like a West Side Story
as Brawl you know in the Bronx this dressed up similarly,
that'll be what actually takes us viral and makes makes us
famous. Is this snapping in denim on the streets of the
fucking Bronx? The art No, the mentor ship? No, the positivity.
Fuck no. Did you see them doing the shuffle in that Tiktok
video? Fuckin infamy immediately.
Matt Stagliano: Thank you my friend. Again. Love your setup.
love talking to you, man. I love you as a human so I will. I'll
talk to you soon, man.
Jonny Edward: I look forward to it. Alright, take it easy.
Cheers, man.