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Vol 2 Ch 21 | Stomp The Bee feat. Sonny Strait
263 Plays1 year ago
We're joined by voice actor, artist, cartoonist, and all around Cool Guy, Sonny Strait! Come join us on a journey through weird hats, artistic expression, and wild stories.
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Transcript
Introduction to Sunny Street and Podcast Dynamics
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the Sleepover Podcast. This is Fandames with Parks and Nebula, and this week our guest is so fun and easy to talk to that I completely forgot to introduce the show and to do a full intro. So here is our amazing guest episode with none other than Sunny Street.
00:00:32
Speaker
I forgot I was wearing my little Debbie hat. I love the hat. I love the look. I'm ready to go whenever you press start. It's already started, baby. Oh, you didn't warn me. That's the best beginning of anything. Oh, you didn't warn me.
00:00:51
Speaker
And go. She doesn't let me do the intro to the podcast. And this is almost starting exactly the same way as last time, because I have to explain it to every single guest we have. I am never allowed to introduce our show because I consistently mess it up, I guess. I just can't do it. So I'm never allowed to. So you need to take that little segment you just said and record that and make that the beginning of every show. I'm never allowed to do the beginning of this show. I'm never allowed to do the intro.
00:01:21
Speaker
Our editor cuts it out, so only the patrons know my pain. The other listeners just think it goes on smoothly every time. Yeah, only people who pay us can see us fuck up. Yeah, exactly. So this isn't live except for your patrons? It's not live for patrons either. It's all recorded. So we can edit things out. Yeah. So if there's anything like, Oh, I can't talk about that. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah.
00:01:47
Speaker
which is most of my conversation because I don't know what I'm allowed to talk about. I just actually just sent a message to the One Piece director, Anthony Bowling. I said, are we allowed to say that we're recording One Piece now? And he goes, yeah, you can tell them. I was like, okay. He says, you have any other questions? You can text me while you're doing the podcast. I'm like, I don't think it'll be that complicated, but maybe.
00:02:07
Speaker
Maybe. Well, that's
Sunny's Voice Acting Journey in One Piece
00:02:09
Speaker
how I was because I didn't know. I didn't know. So when Wano dropped in parts, I was blown away because I was really concerned because I'm currently watching through whole cake. I was like, I'm about to catch up past the dub and then boom, boom, pieces. And I'm so excited. I'm thrilled for Robbie Damon to be Odin. I didn't want anyone else to touch Odin. I was so scared. And now it's here and I'm satisfied. Everything is good. I'm so glad one piece is catching up very quickly. Yeah, we now have like
00:02:37
Speaker
two directors, at least this week, doing it, which makes me really hoarse most of the time. I'm like, I'll be sucking on lozenges the whole time I'm doing this. Because Usopp talks like this and then screams in that voice all the time. It kills me. He's one of my favorite characters, and it's just a love-hate relationship, I think. He's more and more sadomasochistic, I think, where I really love playing him and he damages me.
00:03:04
Speaker
I think USAP is one of my favorite roles you do. I was talking to her about this when we were working on our recording notes. I'm a longtime Dragon Ball fan. I didn't start getting into One Piece three years ago, not three years ago. I touched One Piece three years ago, didn't touch it again. And then I finally started watching it last year. And I watched through all of Alabasta and Skypia within the first three weekends of it because I was just trying to
00:03:28
Speaker
Speed through our costumes and so your voice is already very familiar to me And then I just love the humor that comes from early time skip one piece. It's just so
00:03:39
Speaker
I don't know. It's very nostalgic and comforting. And so when I had your Usopp voice coming with a funnier dialogue, it was so nice. Usopp's one of my favorite characters. He's my favorite role you do. I love it. He's one of my favorite characters, too, and Krillin as well. But what really frustrates me is when people say, oh, you use the same voice for Krillin that you do for Usopp. And it just
00:03:59
Speaker
Oh, I wish, I wish. Because Krillin talks like this, right? But Usopp talks like that with his hitch in his voice. And my God, that hitch hurts, you know? I would love to just do this all day. Hey, I'm Usopp. How's it going, man? You know? But he's not that calm, ever. Even when he's just sitting next to you. How you doing? I love it. I have to say this on part of my partner because he's at work right now.
Assassination Classroom and Kuro Sensei's Popularity
00:04:26
Speaker
But he and I both absolutely love your Kuro Sensei.
00:04:30
Speaker
from the assassination classroom. Well, I have to say, that is my very favorite part. Is it really? Of all the parts I've ever played, yeah.
00:04:39
Speaker
OK, I was going to ask because it's the one that like means the most to him. And we both just sobbed through the entire show because it's so good and so weirdly heartwarming in ways you do not anticipate. And I need Parker to watch it. So now maybe this will be the kick in the tail to sit down and I've had a million kicks in the tail because my sister has watched it and she loves it. She sends me memes about the opening of it because it's a good opening. I just haven't watched it.
00:05:08
Speaker
And it's only two seasons. It is a very solid script. The characters are solid. You will really appreciate the ride. I mean, especially if you watched so many arcs of One Piece in a weekend, you'll get through this in a day. I'm almost caught up, and it's been a year. But it is such a good show. And I got cast in that show without even auditioning. I showed up for Joel, who was directing One Piece at the time.
00:05:37
Speaker
I looked at the screen, I said, this isn't one piece, what is this? And he goes, oh, no, this is a assassination classroom. I went, oh, cool. He says, yeah. I said, what am I playing? He goes, you're the lead. And I went, what? Give me some heads up, dude. I would have researched this, you know? But like, probably seven lines into it, I was like, I totally get this guy. And I know what's up with him. And I just, I rode that character so hard. I loved it.
00:06:03
Speaker
I loved it so much. I didn't even realize it was your voice until about three episodes in. And then my partner and I both looked at each other and we're like, holy shit.
00:06:12
Speaker
It's sunny. It's sunny, but it's a smarmier sunny. It's high class. How are you doing? It's up here. It's very fun. It's so much different than what I'm used to from your parts, but in a really sweet spot of you think you're going to hate this character, and then this character means the entire world to you. I love it. I love him so much. That's the best kind of character.
00:06:37
Speaker
We saw a Kuro cosplayer at level up, actually, that had all the tentacles coming out of his coat and everything. When I started playing that part, I loved it. And I was like, this is my favorite role. And then I thought, but nobody's ever going to cosplay this because it'd be too impossible. And yet I've seen so many Kuro sensei's that you cannot tell the cosplay community that they can't do something. They'll figure it out.
00:07:01
Speaker
Exactly. One girl came up to me at a convention, and she was just wearing a yellow wig, but she had it cut into a circle that the hair formed, a circle on her face, and then she had the robes and everything. I was like, oh, that's ingenious. That looked great. That's so smart. All right, there you go, Parker.
00:07:21
Speaker
I'm not resistant. I'm not resistant. I just haven't had a moment No, I know. I just like teasing you about there's so much anime out there I think crunchyroll gets at least 20 new shows every three months So you can never be faulted for not watching an anime, but I am telling you watch this anime It is really good and it was trending every week. It came out on Cartoon Network
00:07:45
Speaker
It was so good. I know. I just didn't jump on the train when it was coming out. And that's on me. It's just now because I have so many conventions back to back. It's like my sewing room doesn't have a TV in it. So I have to sit there in silence while I sew through all of my projects until I'm done.
Balancing Creative Work and Daily Life
00:08:01
Speaker
And then I get like a two week period to do what I want and then back to the grind. Oh my goodness. Is there no TV in there by choice or you just don't want to put a TV in?
00:08:12
Speaker
It's also my office for my actual full-time job. So it's just like, there's not enough space for like my other desk and then my sewing equipment. It's not by choice, but also if there was a TV there, I feel like I wouldn't be able to look down at what I'm doing. I need the forced solitude to actually finish something in time. So many of us have got used to working at home, but watching TV while we work, you know, it's just a multitask we've added to the job.
00:08:41
Speaker
That's literally what I was doing today. I was working from home today and I'm like, ooh, I'm gonna pull up one piece on my second monitor. My sister and her husband both work at home. So they have two offices right next to each other, two giant screens. Once we're watching TV, I wanted to work.
00:08:58
Speaker
I need to do that. I'm tempted to get a side laptop to mount to my side and do it, but we'll see. Are you three dressers yet then? No, I'm on episode 733. I finished 732 right before we started recording.
00:09:16
Speaker
What part is that? Where is that in the story? Luffy, oh, for anybody listening, spoilers for Dressros Arc. So Luffy just got back up after losing all his hockey and he's just about to go fight Dofu. That happens like five times. You gotta be a little bit more specific. It's the one where they had like the big, like the 10 minute countdown and then the- Oh, the announcer? Yeah, he comes back on and he's hyping everybody up.
00:09:42
Speaker
So Rebecca and Viola are doing their thing and then Luffy jumps in at the last second, trying to be very vague. My favorite, I can still water seven. When Usopp gets the money stolen from him and spoiler alert, and he's crying and humiliated and angry all at the same time, I was recording that and I was actually crying like tears down my face and I'd never
00:10:09
Speaker
ever experienced that on stage or anything or any other part except on that character. And I went, wow. Because up until that point, he was more like a comic relief character, right? I didn't think he was going to have enough depth to actually move me that much, but he did. And so suddenly he became one of my favorite characters. Did the Mary scene tear you apart? Yes. Yeah. And then I'd love playing that scene where he fights Luffy.
00:10:37
Speaker
You know, it's just like so intense emotionally, but also you realize that this is why he's still a vital part of the crew because this guy is powerful. He knows people and he knows how to use what they can do against them, you know.
00:10:54
Speaker
Absolutely. I know a lot of people who complain about us up in a writing direction. I don't agree with them because he's the only like human I put in quotes for people who can't see me on the crew. He's the one that doesn't have like any innate supernatural ability like Sanji or Zorro or Brooke even Frankie even I don't know that I'm talking about like the lower hitters. He's still more focused on like his intelligence. It's like people who say we don't know me.
00:11:22
Speaker
because she's just there or whatever when she's one of the most intelligent people on the crew. We need her to get going. It's the same as us up like just because he's not our ship right anymore. Like he used to be doesn't mean he doesn't still play his role extremely well as a supporting character. Yeah, he just took out it. I couldn't say I don't say what I just did. Sorry. Anyway, he's he makes himself useful. I'm caught up on the manga. So I know what was up to right now. We're good. I love him.
00:11:51
Speaker
I'm gonna yeah, I don't want to spoil it. You did see God who's up So, I mean, you know to some regard how much he does. Yeah. Yeah, I Sniper King is still my favorite That's just I do I do play both care. I play both characters, but they're different people I think
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, but they're buddies, and he always asks them to come in and help out when Usopp can't be there. They're practically the same thing. They're like twins. Yeah, almost say they were twins. But not the same guy. You can't loop them together. Well, the main thing is, is one wears a mask and the other doesn't. Exactly. Incredible. I don't know how to react to this. It's a fact. I don't know what you want me to say. Exactly. Oh, man. Okay.
00:12:45
Speaker
I am also a cartoonist, and I drew a picture of Usopp meeting the Sniper King to dispel all these rumors. And what I did was I drew Chopper wearing the Sniper King outfit. You should have drawn a fake Usopp who's wearing his Masculator. Yeah. In Sawbody's time skip. Well, it doesn't matter. Whoever he is, he is in our hearts.
00:13:12
Speaker
He's a cool dude. Always. He's locked on. He's cool. Locked on. Oh, man.
Sunny's Artistic Beginnings and Influences
00:13:20
Speaker
I actually wanted to ask you, Sunny, about your artwork. Well, that's a good segue. Well, you mentioned that you did cartoons, and I looked up your Wii Shadows, I believe, from like almost, no, over 10 years ago, from when it started. When Tokyo Pop was a thing.
00:13:39
Speaker
Oh, Tokyo Pop was my shit when I was younger. Me too. I mean, they had some of the best translators, you know? You could read those books and not feel like it was clunky in the writing or whatever. It was always very, very well written.
00:13:54
Speaker
It always felt like at all ages, typewriting too, which I appreciated that the translation wasn't like too little kidish or too adult. It was very like conversational, which I appreciated. But I wanted to point out for those who are listening and might not be aware of it, of your art and just kind of
00:14:13
Speaker
hear about your creative process when it comes to your Not vocal performance, but you were like two-dimensional art of your painting or your comic writing and what that kind of looks like now in your career Yeah, I was actually a published comic book artist before I was a voice actor and I started voice acting like 150 years ago something like it's a long time ago. So
00:14:38
Speaker
It was a different thing then. Things are much different now. When I started, I started self-publishing and I would print it in black and white. Well, back then, manga wasn't a thing in the United States at all. So you were kind of looked down upon.
00:14:53
Speaker
if you did comics in black and white. People would come to my table and they'd flip open the page just enough to see if it's in black and white or color. And they would go, in a thin black and white, they'd be black and white, and they'd go away. So it was a very different market. And when I finally got to be a voice actor, one of the first conventions we went to was Comic Con.
00:15:15
Speaker
And at Comic Con, all of a sudden, those same guys that were just rejecting me were now clamoring for my autograph, right? And I was there with Chris Sabat and Sean Schiml and Stephanie Nidalni, and they're all like, oh, isn't this cool? We're signing autographs. And I'm like, cool. This is vengeance. This is amazing. And I was signing, and we did not know this at the time, but we were signing in the cartoonist Wendy Pini's booth area.
00:15:44
Speaker
And the reason we didn't know, we were out having lunch, and the guy manning the fundimation table had filled the entire table area with toys and merch, and there was no place for us to sign. Well, they asked Wendy and her husband, Richard, if it would be okay if we could sign in their booth.
00:16:02
Speaker
Well, it's kind of expensive to rent booth space out there, and they're like, no. And then Wendy said, wait, who wants to sign? And this is the Dragon Ball Z actors. And she went, oh my god, I love Dragon Ball Z. So she said, yeah, set up the table right here, and they can sign right here. So we come running in. We just sit down. There's a huge line. We're not even looking up. And we're just signing. And people keep saying Wendy Pini's name over and over.
00:16:26
Speaker
I love her book, ElfQuest. I've read it since I was a kid. And I said, why do you guys keep saying Wendy Pini? And he says, because she's right next to you. And I went, whoa. And she's like, hi. And I went, oh, my God. And then I just turned into a total fanboy because that's the way I am around cartoonists.
00:16:43
Speaker
And so I just said, I love your work. I've been reading this as a little kid. And she said, oh, well, I'm a big fan of yours. And I went, shut up. She goes, no, no, no. I love Dragon Ball Z. And I went, what? And she goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Me and my dog Chewie, we'll take a break from drawing. And then we'll go down and watch Dragon Ball Z and then go back to work. And then she started drawing pictures of our characters with her characters.
00:17:06
Speaker
I went, okay, she doesn't know I'm a cartoonist. So I went back to the hotel room. Interesting enough, this is another story, but Chris and Sean and even Stephanie and I were all booked in the same hotel room. It was a different thing. It's until Chris insisted that Stephanie get her own hotel room. But anyway, so we were all there. And I said, you know what I'm going to do? Because this is so nice of them to let us sign. I'm going to draw a picture of her main character, Cutter, the elf, looking at our characters.
00:17:34
Speaker
And then I'm going to put empty voice balloons for all of our characters. And all of us, we can all write a personal thank you to Richard and Wendy Pini for letting us sign in their booth. And so we did. And I gave it to her. And she's like, I didn't know you could draw. And I said, yeah, I've actually been published. And she goes, do you want to draw for me? And then suddenly the floor just vanished. And I went off into space for about 1,000 years. And I came back sunny the white. And I was like,
00:18:04
Speaker
Is that a trick question? Yes, I'll draw for you." And so she said, oh, great. Okay. And so I went home and I was going to draw it from my home in Dallas and she was in Santa Monica. And then I thought about it and I kind of felt that my art had hit a ceiling and I always wanted to study under a master. And so I called her up and I said, hey, yeah, I am so honored to do this book, but I want to change the terms. And she was like, oh, you want more money? And I went, no, no, no.
00:18:33
Speaker
I want to be your apprentice." And she said, really? And I said, yeah, I would love to study under you. And she said, okay, move to Santa Monica and you work in my studio. So I flew out there. I worked in her studio and I would fly back once a month to record Dragon Ball Z, which is the only show we had at the time. So it was pretty easy to manage.
00:18:53
Speaker
She would critique my work every day. She'd say, this works, this doesn't, and this is why. And I grew so much, like more than 10 years on my own in that one year I was in her studio. That's incredible. And then we became fast friends after that. She was actually the best man at my wedding. That's awesome. I was getting married. I was like, I don't really have any close guy friends to be the best man. And she goes, Wendy's your best man. I went, you think she'll do it? She says, ask her. And she said, not only will I do it, I'll wear a tuxedo.
00:19:25
Speaker
Wendy rules. This is awesome. That's awesome. I am also an artist for anything else. I do two-dimensional art and went to school for it. Parker just picked me up like a kitten at the scruff of the neck and threw me into costuming. That's what I've been doing more recently. You do comics too?
00:19:48
Speaker
I do not do comics. I like comic characters. I like reading comics, but I cannot for the life of me redraw a character the same way multiple times. That is the hardest thing to master is keeping it consistent from panel to panel. Yes, and that's one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to art, but I was looking at your wee shadows and I noticed that you can see
00:20:14
Speaker
your character voices, like the kind of like personality that your voices take form in, in your artwork, that even just skimming through wee shadows, I'm like, oh, this looks like how Krillin sounds, or this looks like the energy that Usopp brings or Kuro Sensei brings. And I just thought that was so cool to see the connection between the two. Well, thank you for saying that. I mean, honestly, I do think that being a voice actor helped my cartooning as well.
00:20:42
Speaker
because you're getting inside the head of a cartoon character, right? And also, a lot of those characters I based on fellow voice actors, you know, not really them, but how I know they would play those characters. So it was a really interesting way. I'm just basically stealing their souls and saying, your soul, get into this character, how would you do it? And I knew how they would perform it. Just a little puppet master.
00:21:08
Speaker
Yes, Colleen Clinkenbeard and Laura Bailey are two of the main characters as well. And my wife is one that the main character goat is actually based on an ex-girlfriend of mine. Oh, all right. How's that been continuing to draw? It's great. I'm friends with all my exes. I have to be because it would be like so many people to not be friends with. Man, Sonny's a player. I used to be. Now I'm just old. And I wear funny hats.
00:21:39
Speaker
That's what it's like. That's what happens when you get past the age of 30, you get a silly hat and just run with it. It wasn't so much that I was a player, though. It was that I was very difficult to be with. I just- You don't have to know. Well, it really has to do with being an artist and being obsessed with drawing. It sounds really romantic to be with an artist and everything, but
00:22:04
Speaker
when they're working every night, all night long on a comic or whatever, and they're obsessed. And that is their main obsession. This is their mistress they spend so much time with. It really loses its charm, understandably, very quickly. And luckily, the woman I'm with now and have been with for 22 years, she's an amazing singer. She's been in several bands. She's pulled me into bands I didn't want to be in. But she's an artist as well, so she gets it.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, I've also struggled with being with someone who isn't an artist or is more technical mindset. And it's like, I can't deal with you because they don't get that zone that artists get or that anyone that's creative in any sense gets, like musicians, performers. It's a special energy. Yeah. And that's why I think that so many voice actors, well, any artist really,
00:23:00
Speaker
is good at many arts because I think it's just the same source and how you apply it. If you just really like guitars and you can connect to that source, you can be a damn good guitar player.
Artistic Talents and Transitions Among Funimation Actors
00:23:12
Speaker
Exactly. I don't know any Funimation actor who's just an actor. Usually they also are musicians or artists or whatever are all three or more. Yeah, definitely. And you both being artists, you probably know that as well.
00:23:27
Speaker
Yeah, I myself have stepped out of 2D art because I just, I don't know, I was on a really good peak and I was having a great time, but I was also in the medical field. So it was kind of hard to balance my medical, like working day to day, 24 hour shifts versus like my actual physical art. And I was a watercolor painter. I love doing it. I love doing landscaping. I love doing urban cityscapes. I love painting.
00:23:51
Speaker
but I just couldn't handle it anymore and so I kind of focused on my other tactile thing I could do and that was specifically going into creating costumes because it was easier for me to visualize and feel like I'm putting in the same workflow that I was before when I was working in that medical field.
00:24:07
Speaker
Plus, it's more mystical manifestation because you're actually taking this creative idea and creating something that exists in this plane. I just learned how to do traditional armor, technically. I mean, it's made out of foam, so it's not the full traditional way, but my onigashima armor for Nami is done and tied traditionally like it would be.
00:24:30
Speaker
The only difference is that there's a secret zipper, but I still had to learn how to do those techniques and bring them to life and make it all work. And I looked awesome. So it's cool. But it's just, I feel like because I have dipped so far into 3D and making everything by hand, doing 3D printing, selling, painting, foam work, whatever.
00:24:50
Speaker
It's really, really hard for me personally to step back into 2D art because I can't bring myself to make it to that same fantastical level I'm able to make it. Yeah. Once you achieve a certain level of proficiency, it's very hard to go to another art and start at square one. Exactly. When I turn 50,
00:25:13
Speaker
instead of buying a fast car for my midlife crisis, hopefully I'll live to be 100, I decided instead to pick up playing guitar. So I've been playing guitar in my 50s now and I finally got to the point where I can
00:25:27
Speaker
play and sing without looking at my fingers. I don't ever plan on being amazing at playing guitar, but it's just that after a while, you're going to master your sewing so much, you'll go, I need to do another mountain to climb. Sometimes that means going to square one again. That can be also thrilling as well, because then it's all new equipment, all new stuff to buy at Michael's or whatever.
00:25:54
Speaker
Exactly. I don't know. It's like, you know, when you're a teenager and you have all this energy and stuff to do, so you feel like you're a master of all, or sorry, it's a jack of all trades, a master of none, where it's like, I do a million things, but I don't have anything like I feel perfect at. And then I get a little bit older and I finally find that niche, but it makes you sad to lose everything else that you've been using to get there. That's kind of how I feel about my 2D art. That's why I let Neb do all of the assets.
00:26:20
Speaker
I'm always afraid of mastering anything because I'm afraid of not improving because I think that I've got it. I tell my students all the time because they're always like, he's so much better than me or whatever. He's not better than you. I guarantee you he's not better than you.
00:26:39
Speaker
Art is not a competition because if it was, we would have a winner by now. We have been doing art for thousands and thousands of years. Who is the winner of art? We don't have one. Art is self-expression. That's all it is. And if you're starting at square one or you're considered a master, you're still expressing you, you know? And nobody expresses Nebula or Parker better than Nebula or Parker, our sunny straight.
00:27:06
Speaker
Exactly. I'm doing my best. It's weird. I love art. No, you're doing you. You're doing you. Which is your best? I am myself. I'm a plant that just needs a little sunlight and water, and I'll make it through. It's cool. No, you need my wife yelling at you. That's what she does to her plants. With her shears. Get to work, or I'll cut you. That's what my mom used to do. She would threaten not to cut our fingers off, but just cut them a little bit if we would fuck with her stuff too much.
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, another piece of the puzzle has been laid. Also, Sunny, I need you to understand that Parker is shit-talking her costuming skills. She made, what is it, 35 costumes last year? Damn. For myself or for like other people? Total.
00:27:55
Speaker
30 in nine. Yeah. So other people. So feel free to threaten her with the shears. Like two and a half a month. You make two and a half costumes. No more. No more. Wow. Um, I made Selba mask in two weeks.
00:28:12
Speaker
Um, that was a feat. Yeah. And it looked phenomenal. Thank you. You sell these online or what do you do? Nope. I make them all for myself or I make them for my partner. Um, if you want later, I can link you my Instagram if you want to see what I do, but I love to.
00:28:27
Speaker
Started learning to make costumes for my partner. I've never sewn for another person I've been sewing for a decade for myself But I still feel like because I have a I'm 6 4 and I have a very very skinny body type So it's hard for me to find clothes for myself So I learned how to sew trying to make pants that would fit my super long legs Or things that would just fit me and so I never learned how to sew traditionally with patterns I would just make it up from my body type because I oh Wow, how long you've been sewing your own clothes? Oh
00:28:55
Speaker
probably since middle school. I would want something like leggings. You were tall then too? Yeah, oh my God. I was 6'3 in seventh grade. I was probably like 5'6 in first or second grade. I was pretty tall most of my life. My dad is 6'6 and comes from a family of really tall people. My mom is 6'3. My sister is like 19 or 20 and she's like 6'3 as well. I'm the tallest of both my mom and my sister. But we're super tall. What a cool solution. I'm just gonna make my own clothes.
00:29:26
Speaker
I like it. It's extremely frustrating sometimes, but that's how I learned and my aunt does dance costuming. So I was able to use her as a reference when I wanted to start going more into cosplay rather than just normal garment making.
00:29:41
Speaker
So still no traditional patterns. She would just help me make them myself, like draw them out for me or just mail them to me. And until my boyfriend, whom I've been with for a year now, who was doing cosplay before we met, blah, blah, blah, he stopped because of COVID. Once we started dating again, he's like, well, I like to do this. I don't really know or how to do it myself as much to a technical extent. Will you help me do this? Like I'll pay for it. Just will you do it?
00:30:08
Speaker
So I learned how to sew for another person and technically Sangaro, the Wano Commission was my first thing I sewed for another person. And then I made Stealth Black the following two weeks after that. I made him Del Flamingo. Mostly one piece costumes for him, but I try to do a bunch. Nebula, are you also over six feet tall? No, I am five foot two. I am very teeny tiny.
00:30:38
Speaker
I have been this tall since I was 12. I want to say I'm 25. And I remember being at the doctor when I was in like sixth grade. And he's like, Yeah, you're, you're not gonna grow anymore, dude. This is it. Like, are you sure? Not even a half inch, not even a little bit. So I wasn't the same thing. Because in junior high, I was five seven. And I am five seven now.
00:31:00
Speaker
So at one point I was like, yeah, okay, this is working out pretty good. I'm pretty much the same height as all the guys and all of a sudden I'm in a forest of men in the hallways in high school.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, I went to high school with a guy who was my height. He's 5'3", and still is 5'3". In middle school, I dated someone who was 4'11", when I was six foot. And I think at his growth spurt, he went to only 5'4".
Costume Design and Tailoring Challenges
00:31:29
Speaker
See, I need to learn how to make my own clothes too, because when you're a short guy, and you're fat, like me, it's really hard to find anything to wear, except
00:31:42
Speaker
like jerseys like this and t-shirts and stuff like that. To get really cool clothes, very few people know how to make the right kind of cut for that size. My wife sometimes shops at this place called Torrid. It's like a hot topic place, right? Why don't they have a thing for guys? You could call it horrid and it'd just be for short fat guys. I would be there every week
00:32:10
Speaker
Love it. I think for sure, I do fashion stuff because of it, but I think that the way that body inclusivity is very narrow still, we're not getting anything, but although it's starting to get better for women, we're not getting any better for men. It's like all men either get t-shirts, jerseys, things that are very loose fitting or the worst fitted suit you've ever seen in your life.
00:32:34
Speaker
They don't tailor it. You just kind of look like you're drowning. It's not flattering. It's very unfortunate how we handle it. That's why I do my own clothes because although I can't like complain because I'm still very skinny, I can fit into a size four. Like maybe just don't go for anything longer than like my knee. I can make it work. But like getting pants for me, it's like a $90 expense every time you get them to fit me for the most basic pair of jeans someone else could buy for 20 bucks at Target.
00:33:04
Speaker
Anime, especially like One Piece and Dragon Ball, they've been getting movie releases, right? So we've had to walk red carpet in Hollywood and stuff like that. And they don't give you a budget. So I have to tailor everything I buy, you know? The coat you wore to the red premiere was amazing. The pink one? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I was looking around this really funky store. They had all kinds of great suits. And I went,
00:33:32
Speaker
pink. And my wife said that you got to get that I said, I think you're right. That's the one you absolutely nailed it. I honestly think because my partner has a similar issue that you do, Sonny, he's like really broad shouldered and he's long torsoed. But he's like 510. So he's in that real average range. So it's hard to find things that fit his height.
00:33:53
Speaker
And the best option I would say would just be buy something that's too big if you can find it and then alter it down and teach yourself how to do those little things. That's what I need to do. I need to learn how to alter because I always buy larger than my size and I just wear it. And I'm like, okay, I'm just baggy. That's me. I'm a baggy boy.
00:34:13
Speaker
This is the seamstress hack. Just put it on inside out, get safety pins, and then put it to your figure, and it's a single stitch down on each side. That's the easiest way to take in clothing. Yep. Really? Okay. Well, my wife sews a bit. Maybe she could do that. You sew things inside out anyways, so if you try it on inside out, then you'll know exactly how it's going to fit you. Okay. You can just follow the seams that are already there, just to your measurement.
00:34:40
Speaker
This is the best interview I've ever had.
00:34:45
Speaker
It's just, it's a good thing. Like I specifically had to, the biggest like challenge for me was how to make things that were not realistic. Cause I started off with like League of Legends cosplay, if you're familiar with it. Um, where I had things like floating weapons in front of me. And so it's like, I really had to push myself to learn how to make things a little bit easier while still keeping the fantastical and cool and pretty from afar. Um, and it was really hard because I just knew how to like sew basic skirts, leggings, whatever. So trying to like.
00:35:16
Speaker
flip it on its end to be a more specific angle, I guess is the easiest way to describe it. It was very difficult for me. And so I learned how to just try to make everything as simple as possible first and then build upon it. So breaking down the simple shapes of like taking in a top after I just guessed on this pattern. I don't know. Most of my patterns are guessing. I know what a dress looks like. I draw it down. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn't. I'll take it back in.
00:35:44
Speaker
That's how I get through a lot of it. So I don't do competitions because I'm lazy, but once you get down like the basics of it, it's so nice. It doesn't sound like you're lazy. It sounds like you only want to do what you want to do.
00:35:58
Speaker
When it comes to that, it's lazy. Call her out. Study. Call her out. She needs it. Well, I keep, I don't know. I practice every day because I fix my own clothes. I make my own clothes. I fix my boyfriend's clothes. When you sew, everyone in your friend's circle or life will be like, hey, you know how to do this. Can you do this for me? So you learn how to do it that way because if someone has a hole in their shirt, you're the only one they know who can fix it. Yeah.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I'm the same way when it comes to drawing. I mean, it's like I produce not nearly as many comics as I probably should, but I draw every day. It's just I want to draw what I want to draw. And sometimes what I want to draw is a book. And when I do, like I just finished one, we're probably publishing it pretty soon. But for a year before that, it was just me filling up tons of sketchbooks, you know?
00:36:49
Speaker
I love that. Small projects get it done. But yeah, I picked it up an unhealthy habit with my breakdown. So now I can finish a costume in like two weeks. I did baby five for a friend for a commission and I finished that in three days. What was the quote you just said? Small projects get it done. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's where I am too with like this comic book I just did. It's just me and my buddy, I said, write me a plot and I'll draw it and then we'll both write it.
00:37:18
Speaker
and on top of the drawings. And it'll be all short stories. That way, they're complete stories in themselves. I know I'll complete them, and they'll be done. And there's no expectation for it after. If I want to do more, I can do more, you know? So is it like an anthology series? No, it's based on these characters we came up with in our college years. I say our college years, we both dropped out of college. But it was a book called The Sex Gophers. And The Sex Gophers were originally a rock band, right?
00:37:48
Speaker
There was George Gopher who played bass, Stoner Mouse played guitar, and Rocky the boxing paper bag was a box. It was a paper bag at Big Arm sticking out of the side of it with boxing gloves and a smile drawn on the front. He played drums. Anyway, we did like several stories, and I just fell in love with the art of comics. I'd never drew a comic book before, and so I started drawing these sex gopher comics, and then we did another story called The Atomic Pump that got published.
00:38:18
Speaker
And that's when I dropped out of school. I was like, oh, screw school. I'm going to draw comics now, right? But recently, it was during the pandemic when things were pretty depressing, when we were all at lockdown and everything. And I started just thinking about happier times than I was thinking about back when we were kids drawing the sex gophers. And I said, hey, let's do some sex gopher stories. And we did. I probably have 150 pages of sex gopher comics I've drawn.
00:38:45
Speaker
but they're too depressing and sad because that was going on at the time, right? But it was helping me recover or at least feel good about who I am in this hellhole we live in, right? And then, you know, things started getting better and everyone's disposition started getting better. And then I said, let's do, from scratch, we'll just do another one. And now we've got enough of, I think like three short stories that'll be a 24 page book.
00:39:14
Speaker
It's kind of like packing the wound for your creativity sometimes, because for me, when I started sewing and stuff for cosplay, it was specifically only for conventions. I was not considering myself like a model. I just wore costumes. I made costumes. But when COVID happened, all of us basically were displaced because we don't have conventions to wear things to. And that was kind of when I started doing mini photo shoots with my friends. We didn't have to worry about being too close to each other. We just do long shots, masks, far away, whatever.
00:39:43
Speaker
it was enough to get me by because I didn't have to make all these big builds that would take too much out of me or put me in dangerous places because I couldn't go out to craft stores, some of it was compromised. I couldn't leave my house basically still, even after everything was a little bit more relaxed. Doing those tiny, tiny things throughout COVID when everything sucked was really nice to come out of it. Not that we're fully out of it, but whatever. It was good to keep going.
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was just something to keep you... Well, it's not just busy work, but also it's exercising that creative muscle and also feeling a connection, you know?
Collaborative and Solitary Creative Projects
00:40:23
Speaker
And as cartoonists, it's hard to end probably also as a seamster. You guys don't feel a lot of connection. It's such a solitary job for the most part. But if you are working in a tandem with other people for something, then you do feel that connection while you're doing it.
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I'm very curious, do you have any plans to release like a full book that would just be like comic strips or of any of your little like- I've actually done a couple of comic strips. There's a, if you look up Sunny Straight, Car Bombs comic. Okay. I did a comic strip called Car Bombs. And it's about, initially it was about two 90 year old men
00:41:05
Speaker
who started a goth metal band. It's all about bands for me. Because I've been in so many bands, I know what the stories are like. And it's really just based on my friend Tom and I, a guy I knew from high school. And what if we were 90 years old and decided to start a band at that point?
00:41:23
Speaker
That's so fun. I love it. I, I was the kid that collected the Calvin and Hobbes books and like mine. So it's, it's so fun to talk to somebody who's also like into both sides, into reading it, enjoying it, but also creating it. My, probably my first love, my mother, my mother drew
00:41:45
Speaker
And we'd be watching cartoons like Yogi Bear or something, and she'd just be sketching. And she'd go, look. And it was Yogi Bear. And I was like, holy crap. And when I was, I think I was six, I was looking for something to do. And she said, OK, there's a comic strip called Beetle Bailey. And it took place in the military. And there was this little dog who dressed in a uniform, who was just called Otto, I think. And he had a stake in his hand, a big old stake. And she says, I want you to go to your room, and I want you to draw this dog. And I said, OK.
00:42:16
Speaker
I don't want you to come out until your picture looks exactly like that picture. And I was like, oh, it's kind of a puzzle. So I went in there, and I looked at it, and I realized if I zeroed in on one part of that line, and it was over here, I could kind of follow along that way while I was doing it, while looking at it. And I gave it to my mother, and she goes, oh, that's very nice. But I want you to do it again, and this time I don't want you to trace it. And I went, I didn't trace it. And she's like, yeah, I'm going to show you how I can prove to you
00:42:46
Speaker
If you put the cartoon on top of this and line it up, this doesn't line up. You didn't trace this? No, I just drew it. And she goes, oh, draw this, draw this, draw this. And so she was always encouraging me to draw. And my dad was always encouraging me to do cartoon voices. Well, he taught me how to do Donald Duck when I was two. I know, four. He would read us stories in the Duck Force, like this. And he kept doing his words, I'm used to.
00:43:16
Speaker
It's hard to do now. It takes a lot of wind, and I'm too old for it. But anyway. It's like that pocket of air,
Influences and Pathways in Voice Acting
00:43:23
Speaker
isn't it? It's like you have to have a pocket. It's not a voice, it's a whistle. Because you can talk in Donald Duck and talk with your voice at the same time. You got this possessed duck sound. We just summoned the demon that is Donald Duck. Yeah. So my parents kind of kind of sealed my fate from an early age.
00:43:45
Speaker
I think they had a pact with the devil or something. They knew exactly what you were born to do. You are going to draw comics and you are going to do cartoon voices. You don't have a choice. That's your law.
00:43:58
Speaker
So was there a particular like comic role or voice role that you remember kind of looking at or watching and being like, Oh, I want to be a voice actor like that, or I want to do something? Yeah. Mel Blanc, who did all the Bugs Bunny and wrote all those voices. I loved him to death. I also loved Hanna Barbera characters when I was a kid.
00:44:23
Speaker
Um, there was, uh, the wacky racers and things like that. They just all had these incredible wacky voices. Right. And I remember at one point when I finally became a professional cartoon voice actor and I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't get to do cartoons. Like when I was a kid, like underdog and stuff like that. Right. And then I watched underdog on YouTube and I was like,
00:44:44
Speaker
That is the stupidest cartoon I've ever seen. Thank God for anime because I've grown and I've become a more sophisticated. I mean, I did a lot of serious theater for 14 years before I was even at Funimation, right? So to be able to take these funny voices and make people cry with them is amazing to me, you know, to take it on to make these funny, goofy noises that I used to irritate people with and get in trouble in school with.
00:45:13
Speaker
and then be able to take it to a sophisticated level is just amazing. That's so cool. I love talking to all these voice actors that we've been so fortunate to meet more recently because you guys have such unique creative ways that you approach every character in every project and it's so awesome to hear you talk about it. Nobody comes to the field even the same way. People say, how do you get into voice acting?
00:45:40
Speaker
I don't know. You just do it, you know, because everybody I know gets in a different way. Everyone has a different story. Everyone uses different strengths. And that's how I also know that if you're creative in one thing, you probably can do this as well. You know, as a matter of fact, I teach voice acting classes now, and I'm pretty certain I can teach anyone to find the actor in them. At this point, I have not lost anyone.
00:46:08
Speaker
Everyone has gotten better over each weekend. And sadly, I don't have enough time to do it now like you used to. I'm probably good. I've got one in May and I might do another one before the end of the year, but I used to do it every month. But I've got a method where I just, I get them talking about their life and find out, get them talking in an emotional place. And when I find them get emotional, that's when I grab them and say, hold on to that, you know, and then we pull it. And it always works.
00:46:33
Speaker
I might put my boyfriend in one year classes because you know how there are some people who are just naturals when it comes to being characters? And I don't mean like specific characters. I just mean like for whatever atmosphere or whatever, he's able to naturally get into it like it's nothing. He's the funniest person I know.
00:46:50
Speaker
And he's so good at it. He's been doing like the visual bits. He's been making fun of Mr. Beast and doing like those. And it just it cracks me up every time but he doesn't like feel like he can do it because one of our friends is also a voice actor who's friends with Robbie and is using that to kind of get her place into other things. And so we've all been telling him like just get your foot in the door. Just try a little bit. So we're trying to
00:47:15
Speaker
So many voice actors now are teaching. If I was a young actor at this point, I would just take everybody's class just to be seen. Most of these actors are also directors or have-been directors or no directors. Rule one is to be seen and then show them your stuff.
00:47:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I was also one of those actors, it was just totally natural to me. I struggled with cartooning I do to this day, I still struggle with cartooning. And that's why I love it because it's still a challenge to me. I struggle with singing, you know, I even though I was in choir and for years and years, it took private voice lessons and stuff
Teaching Acting and Art: Insights and Challenges
00:47:55
Speaker
like that. I sing well enough in character.
00:47:58
Speaker
Generally, you know, my wife is a singer and I you could tell the difference. It's like solidarity next to Mozart I'm going. Oh my god, that's the magic flute. I can hear it in your voice But I do have that with acting and I've had it from the beginning I just was a natural actor and and from day one I could just Grab the audience. I knew what to do with them. But even then I still learned a lot from other actors like one of my friend Howard
00:48:27
Speaker
When the first show I did, I had the audience laughing and he goes, okay, but here's the thing. You got to hold for those laughs a little bit longer. I said, what do you mean? He goes, wait until they start to decrescendo and then give them the next line. I was like, okay. So the next night I was out there doing the same lines, but waiting and then giving the next one. I was like, oh my God, this is so fun. You know, but that was my first show, you know? Um, but I've learned how to teach though. I've learned how to.
00:48:57
Speaker
deconstruct what's going on subconsciously. And I did that years ago, even before I was a voice actor, I was teaching acting classes at the community theater for kids seven to 18. And I remember I was teaching this kid. She was playing an Oompa Loompa. And she had this monologue and it was just she's just reading it. It just sounded red. And I don't remember what I said, but I made some kind of connection with her.
00:49:25
Speaker
And then I saw her eyes light up and I said, now, read it now from the beginning. And she did. And I was like, ah, okay, so the demon has now possessed her. She knows what to do. And then every time she read it, it got better and better. And not only that, she became more dynamic as a human being. Like the other, she used to be very shy and all of a sudden she was like holding court, you know? And I'm like, wow. And then I had a partner, Michelle, she and I taught a lot of classes together and we were up
00:49:55
Speaker
in the booth watching the performance, and she goes and does her Oompa Loompa speech, and I'm just crying. And she goes, what's wrong? And I went, oh, nothing, nothing. It's like, oh my god, she's owning it. She's owning the room. And from then on, I really just wanted to feel that again. So that's what I try to do with my students is when I get them there, there's no better feeling in the world.
00:50:20
Speaker
And teaching is so difficult when you think you know your craft and then you go to teach someone and you realize you don't know shit. Well, when I became Wendy's apprentice, she was a natural artist. It just comes naturally to her. She doesn't know how she does it. And for the first month, she was a horrible teacher. And I finally said, you have to break this down. Think about where this is coming from so I can learn it from you, right?
00:50:50
Speaker
And she was like, okay, and she started thinking about it. She said, oh, okay, I do, I realize I do think this when I do this, right? And then one point, I was drawing, and she, and she walked to the drawing table, and she goes, she grabs my hand like this, and she goes, loosen up, draw with your whole arm, don't just draw like this, you know? And I was like, oh, okay, you know? And all of a sudden, it was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, I get it now, I've got more control of the whole page, you know?
00:51:19
Speaker
Oh yeah, I've had many a college professor walk up to me and grab my shoulder and draw with your whole wall. I've been told over and over and I still find myself just being all in the wrist. I can't help it.
00:51:31
Speaker
Yeah, it helps if you hold your pencil like this. That helps you move more, you know? I got to hold it like a Disney animator. You got to do what I did in college, which was be yelled at by a very short, angry old woman while carving your pencil because they wouldn't let you sharpen it. You had to carve it by hand, and then you hold up and move your whole arm, and then you'll learn to appreciate it. This is the 19th century, so you must learn to carve your pencils.
00:51:58
Speaker
I'm so glad I didn't go to art school. It was so dope. I'm so glad. I was like, I'm not paying anyone for a college class on art. It was art school in Oklahoma. You think you know what you're doing? You guys had to carve your pencils because you guys didn't have pencil sharpeners either. All right, shut up. I'm gonna fight you. Tell you what though, even though I know now how to draw properly, my favorite way to draw is with a ballpoint pen and a sketchbook.
00:52:24
Speaker
And I will draw and I just something about the flow of that ink. I like the way it feels, you know, and I can get really, really subtle and then really, really tight. And then what I usually do is scan that into Photoshop and then ink it in Photoshop.
00:52:39
Speaker
I had a teacher in middle school, actually, one of my art teachers who was a mentor, and I still keep in touch with him. He does comics as well. But if he saw anyone drawing with a pen or a mechanical pencil, he would walk up and break it in front of you. Like, nope, only number two pencils. You can't do it. And now I see him. He's drawn with inks and markers. He's full of it. I see him.
00:53:06
Speaker
Well, the thing is, I don't like certain things, like I can't stand cardboard rubbing against itself, that noise, you know, and pencils is like that drawing with a pencil is like that, but subtly, you know, it's like that sound guys being insane. That's why I'm a mechanical pencil artist if I have to be.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah, but a ballpoint pen doesn't do that. It just It's those big pens with the little plastic caps that are terrible. Those are so good to draw with. They're my favorite. I the crystal big crystal pens. I've been drawing with those for 40 years. And
00:53:39
Speaker
they changed them recently and i don't change them but they still work i was so freaked out cuz it is a new new formula no no stop it i don't care how cheap it is if it's not broke don't fix it because big pins don't watch as much as other pins do no they don't they're so nice.
00:53:59
Speaker
Right. Occasionally, but it's rare, you know? When it does happen, it does look good. It pulls it off because it's kind of that cheap. It's like when you use material. We just have happy accidents. Exactly. Well, have you ever gotten a sketchbook that's like super nice and expensive? Like, I don't want to touch this. So it just never had to happen. Here's what they always say that a sketchbook isn't a sketchbook unless it has a coffee stain somewhere on it.
00:54:22
Speaker
I'm afraid. I'm afraid of messing up like my nice books or putting things that are not to my standard, I guess, in my actual nicer books. So I'll like do mostly I'm mostly a sticky pad artist if I draw like I'll draw on sticky notes and keep them around, post them up wherever. That's where I feel like in my zone. It's where I feel like there's less of a standard expected of me versus when I'm using like nice paints that I have because I still have all my equipment even if I'm not like physically doing it.
00:54:49
Speaker
Because if it's a fancy sketchbook, you feel like you got to do rough sketches before you put it in there. Exactly, yeah. People are going to look at this as this is a project instead of a sketchbook. Exactly. I use standard Strathmore drawing paper because it's a very high quality paper for the money, but it's still just a sketchbook. You're flipping through it, you could expect to see just random doodles or you could see something that's more finished. I got to get over that too.
00:55:19
Speaker
I can't remember where I read it, but I think it was a tweet that someone said every time they buy a new sketchbook, they throw it on the ground and step on it first. That way you don't have that expectation of it needing to be perfect. I've seen artists now, like at artist alleys who make nice journals or sketchbooks with their art on the covers. Like how can you use that? I'm scared. I can't commit to a nice book because what if I ruin the inside? I'm just going to put stickers in it.
00:55:45
Speaker
That's basically kind of what I do. But that's how I feel when I use like a Bic pen. It's like, this is the perfect medium. I can't mess this up. I love it. Yeah, I agree. So Sunny, I am very curious if you ever do like fan art or little fan comics or anything of the characters that you portray just for you.
Sunny's Art Preferences and Commission Experiences
00:56:08
Speaker
Absolutely. Recently, I got in a kick of Ali Oop.
00:56:11
Speaker
You know who that is? No. This is an old, old comic strip about a caveman started in the 30s. And I just recently, I knew about it, I'd heard of it, but I stumbled across it from some YouTube show or whatever. And I was like, Oh, that looks pretty cool. And then I found it online. And I just started reading it from the 30s. I went, this is such a cool comic. It's so weird. So I've been filling up my sketchbooks with pictures of Alioop. That's awesome.
00:56:35
Speaker
And I drew, I've got an idea for a painting where I want to do alley-oop in a Frank Frazetta style painting, fighting all of these other cartoon cavemen like Fred and Barney and Captain Caveman and all these other weird characters. But yeah, I do that all the time. I love that. I used to do it. I used to sell it. Like I used to do, somebody asked me on Facebook about 15 years ago, do you take commissions? And I went, no, I don't really do commissions. I don't even know how much, you know,
00:57:03
Speaker
would you be willing to pay? And they said, 10 bucks. And I went, 10 bucks? And I thought, wait, what would I do for 10 bucks? And I thought, I'd probably draw one character on a card about this big. And so I said, all right, I'll do that. And he liked it. And I posted it. And people said, well, you should do this all the time. And I went, all right, I will do 10 at 10 bucks. And I called it Sketch-a-palooza.
00:57:32
Speaker
And so I did those 10, and then everybody wanted it. So I said, OK, I'll do 30. And eventually, I did 30 every weekend, and it became so difficult. But it was also, they would sell out in a second. I would say, OK, ready? It's open for sale. Oh, it's already done. OK. 300 bucks. Yeah, 300 bucks. And now I've got 30 drawings I've got to do this weekend. Your weekend is gone. You're drawing all these cartoon characters.
00:57:58
Speaker
But luckily, most people weren't very specific. They just said, this character, and then they let me do whatever I wanted with them. So it was fun to explore these characters. And I would do themes. One weekend, I drew every one of, whatever character you picked, I drew it to look like a Muppet. Love it. That's the best one.
00:58:17
Speaker
Yeah. And then eventually I was like, I can't keep doing this. It's too much. So I thought, well, I'll just raise the price and get it out of people's, you know, so it's 50 bucks a drawing and they're still sold out like that. And I was like, Oh my God, how do I stop? And then, and people kept complaining because, you know, I was only doing 30 and I have, I have 5,000 people on Facebook alone. Right. And I was like, shit. All right. I tell you what, I will go and I will take as many orders as I can get in one hour. Right.
00:58:48
Speaker
And then I will do that when it probably take me a year to finish it, right? But if you're willing to wait, this will do.
00:58:54
Speaker
And they all agreed, and they did it, and it was the biggest mistake of my life. It took me years, years to finish this. And then it was such an organizational problem, you know? And I was like, I didn't know if I, there may be ones I haven't finished today. I think I got them all done. I really think I do. And nobody said it, but like, I remember like maybe three years ago, somebody said, you never drew my sketch of a loser. I went, oh, what did you have? You know? And I looked it up and went, yeah, you sure did. Let me draw it for you and send it out. So I will never.
00:59:23
Speaker
ever, ever do that again. And now if you want to commission for me $5,000. Or get an autograph at a con. Yeah, exactly. I draw on everything I sign. Every time I sign I will say what are your favorite character I do voice up and I'll draw a quick head sketch of that character on the signature. That was one of your first tiktoks that came up on my feed was you drawing us up. I love it so much. I'm so sad that you haven't been out to a con my way because I... Where's your way?
00:59:53
Speaker
I'm in Utah. I'm in the middle of nowhere. It's been a while. I have been to Utah a few times, but it's been a long time. It's been a very long time. Beforehand, I was a teenager with no money in my hands, but it's cool. Then you're dead to me. I travel now. It's cool. There'll be a chance. I will get mine. I love that you say you're in the middle of nowhere when you're in Salt Lake State and I'm over here in Oklahoma. Yeah, Oklahoma really is the middle of nowhere. I used to live there. Where did you live? Tulsa. I was in the third grade.
01:00:23
Speaker
Where do you
Cultural Reflections: From Oklahoma to Las Vegas
01:00:24
Speaker
live? I live in the Oklahoma City area. That's a little bit more sophisticated than Tulsa. See, you would think. Tulsa got real snooty and decided that they were better. For the past 10 or 15 years, they've been on this big artistic movement and they're trying to build all these new things. Tulsa is the place to go now in Oklahoma. They just put in this huge thing called the Gathering Place.
01:00:50
Speaker
half hiking trails. There's like, there's little museums that pop up at the gathering place that you can go to. They do events there. There's like a whole child hands on learning and like playground area. Yeah, there's okay. Let me tell you my Oklahoma experience. I was in the third. I was in a third grade. I never thought people were dumb. People were just people right? Till I went to Oklahoma.
01:01:17
Speaker
And I didn't even know how to define it, right? But I was out playing at recess and some kids said, hey, new kid, do you want to play stomp the bee? And I went, what, stomp the bee? You never played stomp the bee? And I went, no, what is that? And he says, you see if there's these bees that fly near the clover, you stomp on them, then you pick them up by the wing and you put them in the ant bed. And I went, what? And sure enough,
01:01:47
Speaker
stomped the bee, consisted of stomping on a bee, grabbing him by the wing, and putting him in the ant bed. And I watched the kid do this, and then his ants would just attack this bee and drag it down into the ground. And I was just horrified. This was like a horror show, this bee, and he went down into the ant bed. And I was like, what is happening to him? And then,
01:02:09
Speaker
The bee fought his way out of the ant bed. He was like kicking and doing karate moves and shit and he flew up in the air and the ants were falling off and he flew off and I went, I cannot play Stomp the Bay with you anymore because I respect bees way too much now. They're amazing. That bee is the biggest underdog of our century. The hero of my life is that bee. Oh my god. It was so amazing and so horrifying.
01:02:41
Speaker
That was my Oklahoma experience. So when you say this is a cultural mecca, I'm like, really? The only thing I'll go to Oklahoma for is Brahms. I'm not going for anything else. Brahms is the best.
01:02:55
Speaker
My dad is from New Jersey and he moved to the Oklahoma City area in 72, I want to say, when he was in middle school. And his older sister came home from school the first day and my grandmother was like, how was it? How was everything? And my aunt says, well, a lot of the girls are pregnant because I think that's the only thing to do around here.
01:03:19
Speaker
Yeah. That was before we had Walmart to drive around in. It was, yeah, that's, that's what we did. I was in high school. So what do you want to do? Let's go to Target and walk around for two hours. I got so behind in math because I was only there one year. And then I went back to Texas and that the math class consisted of this, this little lady sitting at desk going, all right, y'all get started. And then I went, what does that mean? And I turned to the kid and said, what are we supposed to do?
01:03:46
Speaker
You're supposed to just pick any page in the math book and just work on it. I was like, what? Yeah, just pick out a page and work on it. And so I would go to the adding and subtracting because I was in the third grade and I could do that easily. And multiplication, I just ignored it. I said, I'll just work on this and I would turn it in. And you weren't given a grade. The grade was needs to improve. That's all it was.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, they did it. That would be an F. There's a reason that we're 46th in education. When you were listing off how Tulsa was getting bigger now, you listed things that are trashy here because we have real things here.
01:04:33
Speaker
And I'm not in a big city. In every aspect of, I don't know, modern culture, daily life existing, in Oklahoma and like Kansas and the Dakotas and stuff, we are about 10 years behind everything because it takes so damn long for everything to move in from the coasts. Oh, that makes sense. Well, you sound like you're educated. You sound like a bright, educated young woman.
01:04:56
Speaker
Well, thank you. I'm the only member of my immediate family that went to a... Well, that's not true. So my mom, my brother and I have graduated from...
01:05:08
Speaker
a state college, but the college that they went to is technically no longer a state college. Yeah, a little bit crediting them. All right, I see it. But I also went to college in the boonies because I went to Oklahoma State, which is in between it's like halfway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
01:05:27
Speaker
And it is so far out in the middle of nowhere that our apartment was in the direct flight line of the Medevac helicopter because it was the only hospital in like a 30-mile radius. Wow.
01:05:42
Speaker
Wow. Tell me more about how you're in the middle of nowhere, Parker. No, I mean, in terms of things that matter, not in general, because we're still a huge skiing hub. We have Park City 30 minutes from my house, and every celebrity you could ever know is there. I see Post Malone if I go to Murray sometimes. I went to the, where's the Norman Tabernacle?
01:06:03
Speaker
Mormon Tabernacle Choir. That's straight downtown. That's usually done at the Temple in Salt Lake. That's five minutes from me right now. The Temple. That's an amazing place, though. I was there to get a tour there, and the woman giving the tour was way off the other side, and she goes, like, you see this? This is a pin. Listen. And you can hear it. Ting! Just reverberate through the whole cathedral.
01:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, it is. It's under construction right now. So it's nothing incredible to look at. It's actually an eyesore because of how bad the construction has been going for the last two or three years. But the temple is gorgeous. However, I may feel about religion and living in it. It is gorgeous. It's a really nice area. Salt Lake is very modern these days. I like it. I like living here. I'm not complaining that much, especially after being somewhere like Vegas. Oh my God, I'm glad I don't live in Vegas. Yeah.
01:06:53
Speaker
I'm not a Vegas guy. I like going to the shows when I go there, but I'm just not much of a gambler. My friend Wendy, she loves Vegas. I was doing a convention in Vegas and she drove down to Vegas just to hang out with me and show me around. That crazy lady, she walked me seven miles all over Vegas to show me everything she loved about it. I got it. I got it from her.
01:07:19
Speaker
We stayed at the Flamingo and I made her walk all the way from the Flamingo across the street to Caesars and then down all the way to Cosmos. We could go get breakfast inside of Cosmo and then we went across the street to our all the way down to Aria and then came back all walking the whole way the first day we got there because it was her first time coming to Vegas and we were mostly there for level up because it's one of the cons. It's nearby me. I like going to Vegas for a weekend. That's it. It was great for 36 hours. Exactly.
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, I feel that way about a lot of places. I love New York City for about 36 hours. I'm tired of being here after a minute. Maybe 42. Sunny, are you in the DFW area or are
Relocating for Career and Lifestyle Changes
01:08:00
Speaker
you moving outside? I'm in Connecticut now. Oh, shit. Okay. I moved up here. Well, it was during the lockdown, Funimation at the time was still running things over there and they said, well, we're going to start letting you record from home. I went from home. Well, that means I don't have to live here.
01:08:19
Speaker
So where do I want to live? And our friend Linda had just moved to Connecticut the year before that. And Wendy, we were working on the last ElfQuest book together, came out last year, but we were finishing it up. And I said, well, she lives about an hour and a half from here. So why don't we just move up to Connecticut? And that way I can do work in her studio if I need to. And also, I just see something different, you know? That's awesome.
01:08:47
Speaker
Plus, because you couldn't see people, it was great to see nature. There's a lot of nature here. That's part of why I'm spoiled by being in Utah too, because I'm right on the mountain at all times of the day. It's really nice. Utah is beautiful. It's so beautiful. Is that where the rock candy mountains are? Yeah. Yeah, I drove through those two, going down to the Grand Canyon from there.
01:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, I've been through the Grand Canyon Road. It's always that same gorge you have to go through, whether you're going through to Nevada or to Arizona. And it's so beautiful to drive through. Is it those white trees, birch trees out there? Yeah. Oh, God, this is so gorgeous. We have huge parts. There's really, really beautiful canyon drives out here because we just have so many little tiny canyons throughout our area because we're all on a huge plateau of, or sorry, we're in a basin, tons of mountain ranges around us.
01:09:42
Speaker
Yeah. Very spoiled by it. And then the salt flats are gorgeous. I don't know. We get all the weather. I like it here. I'm okay being here. I like all the weather too. Although I hear now that if I want to get any new roles, I'm going to have to move back to DFW so I can be local. I mean, I've got parts like
01:10:02
Speaker
Well, I can't say whatever, but Krillin will do it probably for another few years and Usopp probably another 10 years. But if I want to get any new roles, I'm going to have to really seriously go back. I love the people there, but I just don't like Texas. It's too hot.
01:10:20
Speaker
That's how I feel when I was there for ACON. That was my first time being in Texas. And the whole time we were there, we had the summer rain where it's sunny the whole time, but it is pouring. I'm not used to humidity. So when that was all I had to deal with, I'm used to hot, but not humidity. That was a nightmare.
01:10:38
Speaker
Yeah, when you're when you're over 100 degrees and your humidity is close to 100%, you're basically just underwater, you know, under hot water. I said I told my wife once is it feels like there's a dragon breathing on me. You know, it's disgusting. And I grew up in it.
01:10:56
Speaker
I hate it. Yeah. Me and my boyfriend were there wearing our one-piece cosplays and he was wearing soba mask, which is, you know, it's the cape, the coat, the mask, the huge wig. He couldn't breathe the whole time. He was struggling because if we were outside, it was just wet. And it was June. And inside it's crowded and everybody's breathing around you and you kind of walk down these really tight halls. And that was the year that A-Con was at the Irving Conventional Center, which was way too small. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was crammed like crazy. It was a nightmare.
01:11:27
Speaker
But how we do things like this coming through and they would just part the ways and I just run through the opening. And that was before you had to worry about covid.
01:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, for real. That was their first year coming out of COVID. So, you know, half the people following COVID restrictions are not. Well, in the year before that, they did their convention outdoors the first weekend of June in Dallas, Texas. And that is horrifying. Yep. That's the worst thing you can think of doing. It was at a fairgrounds for three weeks. Why not move it to the winter? Winters in Dallas around 60, 70 degrees, you know, it's beautiful.
01:12:07
Speaker
Great. Awesome. They did Anime Muts or Anime Frontier. Just kidding. Anime Frontier did that and it went off without a hitch, but... Yeah. Now, if you're doing conventions in Florida, it doesn't matter what time of year it is. It's going to be hot and humid and sticky. The first time I did a convention there, I had... Because I always wore sports coats back then to conventions and everything. And I was like, well, this isn't going to work. And I went across the street. I brought a tank top and shorts. And that's what I wore to panels.
01:12:36
Speaker
to everything, just this is too disgusting to not wear anything else. Florida cons, I saw you're going to Mechacon, which was so funny, because the way they did that announcement post, it just made me laugh, because the first slide is like Chris Sabat and his co-host, or his, what was the word they used? I don't know, but they like tagged it off. Co-hosts? Yeah, exactly. And I love that for the second panel, it was like sunny, straight. And then all of these other people who are also big names, but they're not you.
01:13:06
Speaker
It's a very funny way that they did it. Sunny straight and not sunny straight. It's like, here's Usopp, guys, and then all of his friends, Luffy. That was a very funny post, that Megacon. I don't know that I've ever done Megacon before. I'm looking forward to it, but it's going to be a huge convention for what I'm told.
01:13:29
Speaker
Yeah, my friends usually go, because I have tons of friends who are in the Georgia, Alabama, Florida area, and they all drive down to it every time. When you have a place where there's no conventions in those areas, people are desperate for it, they will go. And Megacon is one of those main ones that people will always flock to just because they're desperate for something this time of the month, because there's nothing where they're at. So it's always been kind of big. It's not to the same level as maybe Katsu-Con or DragonCon.
01:13:58
Speaker
But it's it's pretty big for one of the ones out there. I want to go out to home at some point, but I'm afraid Florida Just think linen when you're making your outfits and You'll be alright Scantily clad is for me and not in a sexy way. It's I don't want to die out here in a breezy way exactly
01:14:25
Speaker
although they don't care about that stuff in Florida. I've never been more shocked than when we went to Florida conventions. I'll tell you a story. I've told this at many conventions, but I was out. It was after hours. This convention was all in a hotel, right? So I have the guest in the hotel, the attendees in the hotel, and then he had the panels here. And so I was just walking along the swimming pool, and this girl goes, you play Mays Hughes? And I went, yeah. And she flashed me. And I was like,
01:14:55
Speaker
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. And she did it again. And then her friend was sitting in the pool next to her and he was just like this. And I went, you've never seen this side of your friend before, have you? And he goes, and I said, son, you owe me. I hope they're married now. I hope so too. That would be a great beginning to a relationship. Yeah, she flashed Sunny straight and I knew I had to be with her for the rest of my life.
01:15:24
Speaker
Oh my God. Well, I mean, you're talking about the Mecca of spring break. Yeah. People there, they don't give a flip.
01:15:33
Speaker
No, they do not. That's why katsu is a crazy convention. I'm surprised the Gaylord hasn't like stepped in more because last year they had people because now do you know how the Gaylord works? Like all of the balconies face inwards to the convention center. That's what you told me. They all face inwards and they're all open balconies. And last year the parties were so intense that people were throwing the furniture in their rooms off the balconies. Whoa.
01:15:59
Speaker
Yeah, they're a threat. I don't know. Is it like one of those Ramadas? Was it a Ramada Inn? Were they all? No, it's a Gaylord. I don't know. It's an East Coast chain, I guess. It's the same place they do Magfest and some others. It's in Maryland. I think there's one in Florida. I don't know for sure. You get that many people, somebody's going to screw it up for everybody.
01:16:22
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. Luckily, no furniture was thrown this time, but someone did shit in the gazebo. It's in the very open middle center of the convention hall. How classy. Classy. Conventions are scary. It's like these people, because these people don't do like spring breaks in Mexico. We're not doing like girls got wild stuff. We're doing other things like throwing furniture and drinking in costume. Travis Willingham. It was also in a Florida convention. They had a
01:16:51
Speaker
a river that was manmade that flowed through the whole complex. And he was freaking hot and he had a bathing suit on underneath his clothes. He strips down to his bathing suit and he gets into the water, right? Well, he had washed his clothes, I guess, with too much soap. So it started fizzing up and bubbling everywhere and everything and it went right into the pool. And so he got this reputation of bringing
01:17:19
Speaker
Soap suds and pouring it into the river. It was just an accident. But for years, we just let the legend tell itself. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry if you can hear my cat yelling at me. Hey, come here. Hey, Kenny. Come here. You want to meet a friend? Come here. Oh, nice shirt. Oh, thank you. I just saw the dragon ball shirt. Hi, Kenny. This is lunchbox. Lunchbox. Hey, lunchbox.
01:17:46
Speaker
I've got two Chihuahua mixes. They're Chihuahua Chinese crested mixes. Oh, how cute. My godparents had a Chihuahua named Nacho for several years, so Chihuahuas have a special place in my heart. Well, the thing is, one of them was the size of a Chihuahua. And the other one was a little bit bigger. And then one of them just started losing, the little one started losing her hair. And we were like, oh no, because we were told it was a poodle Chihuahua mix, right?
01:18:16
Speaker
And we took it to the vet and they gave all kinds of medicine and it just made her loopy. It didn't really help her at all. And then we got a new vet and he said, this is a Chinese crested. They're supposed to lose their hair and went, Oh, Oh, okay. So we'll just get her some sweaters, you know? Scratch that sweater dog. She's got a fashionable dog. Yeah, she looks cool.
01:18:41
Speaker
That's incredible.
Funimation's Evolution and Industry Anecdotes
01:18:43
Speaker
Okay, I don't want to keep you forever. So I am going to ask my last burning question, which is, and I'm sure you've answered it a million times, but I have to ask because Full Metal Alchemist is like the most important story to me. To a lot of people, they lose their clothes over it. Did you cry when Mays died? I did, but I cried because I was unemployed.
01:19:09
Speaker
It was like, it was such a cool character. And then he died. But Mike McFarlane was directing that episode and he, and he said, look, this is a very pivotal episode. So usually we don't get to see the scripts ahead of time. He gave me back there. This is so long ago. He had a VHS tape. He gave me a tape and gave me a script, a paper script to go home and watch this so that I'd be very familiar with it. Right. And it was really cool. And it was a great, great send off to the character.
01:19:38
Speaker
But then a few months later, it aired on TV, and I was at Funimation recording a new show, and he said, oh, hey, Baze Hughes died on TV last night. I went, great. And he goes, oh, does that make you sad? And he says, I'm going to show you something that's going to cheer you up. And he took me to all these different websites where people were crying because Hughes died, and I was like, I made the nation cry. Twice! Twice, sonny!
01:20:03
Speaker
I was inconsolable. I it tore me apart. I didn't want to watch it for a bit. I had to like take a break a good like month off each time. Which death did you did you would you thought I would say enjoy? Which death did you like better? The original one or Brotherhood? Brotherhood kind of touched me in a different way. Yeah.
01:20:27
Speaker
All of Brotherhood really, really got me in ways that the original didn't because the way that Brotherhood was done got a little bit more on the in-between. Well, that's because it was definitely more true to the manga, too.
01:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. But when they were able to kind of blow it up into a bigger picture and give the original more time, there was just a little bit more for me. And that's where it really sink its teeth in and got me. Oh, I was gonna say Brotherhood is like my favorite. But the original got me more because you spend more time with the Hughes family beforehand. And so it hits you harder.
01:21:02
Speaker
I think it was executed more. The original was executed much more poetically, and that's why it does make you cry more. But brotherhood was just delicious, being able to bleed and do all this just agony that just goes on and on and on.
01:21:19
Speaker
And I knew it was coming, so it was like I had to really grip onto every moment he was on screen, because I knew it was a ticking bomb of when he was going to be gone. I couldn't handle it. Yeah, you get the agony of I know what's coming with Brotherhood, but with the original, because I watched all of the original and then watched Brotherhood as it aired, because I was such a big fan of the original. I was blindsided completely and just lost it.
01:21:44
Speaker
Well, it happens a lot sooner, too. You're not expecting it. Like, episode nine, I think. Yeah, it's like a sucker punch. It really just comes at you when you're not ready for it. I think the part that actually hits me harder is later whenever Ed doesn't know. And he and Al are talking about when they just want to have Miss Gracie's pies. And that was the one that I'm like, I gotta walk away, man.
01:22:13
Speaker
So it's not when Alicia is sitting there at the grave going, Daddy's got work to do. Give me my shovel. Daddy, come out. I'm reliving it. PTSD flashbacks. That was like all the wash at once. And then when you think you're in the clear and then like three episodes later, you hear them talking about they just want to see the Hughes family again. Like, guys, I cannot. I want to see the Hughes family again.
01:22:41
Speaker
Funimation, we've been doing this, what, 25 years and now with Crunchyroll, it's such a long history that our reputation has changed dramatically over the years. When we started, we were the bane of anime that we were ruining the industry according to all critics. Then we got, I think, Blue Gender and then
01:23:09
Speaker
Lupon the third, and then we got the first full metal alchemist, right? And at that point, we started becoming like this incredible source of the actually the high watermark of dubbing when we started winning awards and getting a lot more attention. And then I think Justin's fruit basket came out like right after that.
01:23:35
Speaker
And so we started getting more and more accolades on top of that. So that was actually the beginning of Funimation being taken seriously as a contributor to anime, you know?
01:23:46
Speaker
I remember that cultural shift and mentioning to people like, oh, I like dubbed anime, don't judge me, because everyone would just be like, you can't. That's not not in the way of the purest mindset now, but in the mindset of dubs are literally bad for anime. And it's so refreshing and heartwarming to see the appreciation now that everyone that's involved with from either either language, either continent
01:24:15
Speaker
is really pouring their all into it. And it just... Well, the first Fullmetal Alchemist was directed by Colleen Clinkenbeard and Mike McFarland. And I remember Colleen was handling the auditions.
01:24:29
Speaker
I went in, read for Hughes, and one of the lines is, sorry, but I've got a wife and a daughter to go home to, right? And she said, hey, Sonny, we're going out for drinks after the audition. You want to go? And I said, sorry, but I have a wife and daughter to go home to. And she went, oh, my God. And I left. And she said, OK, that's cast. That's done. Nailed it. Really drove it home. Love it.
01:24:52
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Okay. Thank you. You've completed my young Nebula burning question of I needed to know about Mays because he was always one of my favorites. All right. Now, how did you come up with Nebula?
01:25:07
Speaker
Um, so when I, it's a weirdly long story. When I was younger, I would say about 10 years ago, I had this burning desire to be a tattoo artist. It was my only goal in life. That's all I wanted to do. I would draw tattoo designs all day long and ignore school for it. And I started the process finally when I was in college.
01:25:28
Speaker
And I had this dream, because I have a degree in entrepreneurship. And so I had this dream that I wanted to open a tattoo studio, but to also have it be a local gallery. So artists could rent out space, hang their work, and sell it. And then the studio would get a portion of it. And I could not, for the life of me, think of a name. And the name I came up with was Nebula Inc.
01:25:52
Speaker
I'm like incorporated by I and K and I use that as a handle on like Xbox live and a bunch of other things for a long time and then when my niece was born my sister in law was asking me what do you want your aunt name to be.
01:26:09
Speaker
And Inky is my favorite Pac-Man ghost. And Ink is also my favorite traditional medium. And so I said, well, they can call me Inky. It'll be their fun little nickname. And so then Nebula and Inky were combined. And that's my handle on everything. And I went by Inky for a really long time. And my friend, who's a Twitch streamer, called me out and chat once randomly and refused to call me Inky and said, I'm not saying that shit. Your name's Nebula. And it just stuck.
01:26:38
Speaker
My friend Billy started calling me Sonyon back when we were drawing the sex gophers in college, right? And I never had a nickname because Sonny is a nickname. My real name is Don Rafael Straight, but my dad is also Don Rafael.
01:26:52
Speaker
My parents started calling me Sonny from birth. So no one gives you a nickname if your name is Sonny, right? But he started calling me, hey, Sunyon. And he'd be saying, hey, the Sunyon. The Sunyon's here. And he started saying it on Facebook when Facebook started out. And now everyone calls me the Sunyon. And it's got to delight him because it was usually just his name for me. Now the whole world calls me Sunyon.
01:27:19
Speaker
Oh, I love that. You should do like a little logo of your face and then like little onion as a hat. That'd be cute. I sometimes sign my art, Sunyon. If it's cheeky enough, I'll sign it, Sunyon. No, it's cute. I like it. I'm without nicknames because my name is too short. Your nickname is literally parks. It's in the name of the podcast. Yeah, I don't know. Well, we can't come up with one now.
01:27:48
Speaker
No, no, we don't need to. This has to be well thought out and considered.
01:27:51
Speaker
It's just, I don't know. I stick with Parks because Parker is too formal on things, but also it's not even my main handle. I go buy a completely different thing on my branded cards because it's easier that way than giving people my actual name. But I can't bring that name because I stole it from League of Legends when I was like 15. I can't bring that to my branded like cop. I don't want to be copyright struck, so I'm Parks here. That's all it is.
01:28:19
Speaker
I started painting recently, and I painted 30 years ago, but I worked for a portrait caricature stand. And sometimes people commissioned me to do full paintings. And so the only paintings I did were people's faces. But I started doing some landscapes recently. And I went, This doesn't feel like me at all. You know, it's just I'm just knowing I got to practice with landscapes and stuff, and and other things. And I thought, well, Raphael is my middle name. So I'll just sign it Raphael, right? It's a joke.
01:28:49
Speaker
And then people started taking me seriously, but not seriously, like, we're gonna take that seriously. Are you seriously going by Raphael? You know, like, my dad and my uncles were making fun of him. You know, oh, yeah, it's Raphael. You know, because my dad painted his motorcycle recently and he goes, yeah, it's my latest work from Raphael. I mean, Raphael's a badass name. It's a great name for a painter. It's a perfect name for a painter. Then I abbreviated to Raph, you know.
01:29:19
Speaker
you should practice all your landscapes. And then in the background, just really tiny draw like your little characters fighting or like a robot or something or a tiny alien abduction. I actually do do that a lot. Like there are little creatures that you just don't see. But like, I think I draw a lot in shapes, you know, and even though I'm drawing this, I'm actually also drawing something else.
The Role of Social Media in Art Sharing
01:29:44
Speaker
So it gives it a certain kind of
01:29:47
Speaker
I don't know what it gives it a stylized look for some reason. And it just it resonates on a different level feels more organic. Yeah, I see my wife tells me I see creatures in your artwork all the time. So I put them there, you know, that's awesome. It's like having specific line weights of being able to put just a little bit extra in there. And it's I love that organic feeling to art. It's my personal favorite whenever I see it. Yeah, it's weird too, because it really
01:30:15
Speaker
And at the end, it doesn't really matter what you do. It's just that you are doing something. And if you have some sort of care that you're giving to it, some kind of special thing like a line weight variation or you're giving it, okay, I'm drawing, yeah, I'm drawing this person's head, but I'm also drawing a dinosaur or whatever that you won't ever see, but you will see it. You'll see the quality and the care that was given to it. And that's all that really matters is that you do care about what you're doing.
01:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. That you're having fun and creating.
01:30:46
Speaker
That's such a good note for us to end on, I think, because I don't want to take up too much of your time. This is a great interview. It's all about art. I love it. I love it. We do. That's what we talk about. We just love talking to fellow creatives and people who also love the fandom environment that we love and that we met through. It's been a super delight to have you on, and you're always welcome back. Thank you. Is there anything that you want to plug or link to or anything like that?
01:31:14
Speaker
You can see me at Megacon. I've actually got a lot of bookings coming up. I should have grabbed my calendar. But also, you can see me on TikTok at sunny straight. You can see at sunny straight on Twitter, but I don't ever get any views on Twitter because I have not gotten that blue check or whatever it is I have to do. I really
01:31:34
Speaker
I get more response from Facebook than I do from Twitter. And on Facebook, I'm sunny straight and Instagram at sunny straight as well. Instagram is where I post most of my artwork, like most people, which I don't get. I don't get why that one because it is the least pixelized images you can see are on that. The images look better on Twitter, but whatever.
01:31:56
Speaker
I, Twitter algorithm is just a nightmare. I hate it. I don't, I try to post pictures there because that's where they're in their full thing. I'm not cropped. I get cropped a lot because I'm so tall. So I can't post like my full body stuff on my Instagram has to go Twitter only. Twitter doesn't show to anyone, no matter what. Twitter, I mean, it's like, and they're trying to get rid of TikTok, right? And I'm like, you're just trying to get rid of TikTok because your algorithms suck.
01:32:20
Speaker
Yeah, you're jealous. TikTok. How about create something like TikTok, you know, that's a practically a home recording studio on your phone. Anyway, I'm going to go off my high horse and let you guys go. Well, I'll make sure to tag you on Twitter. I will post it. I will post it on Twitter. Nobody will see it. And I'll talk about it on Facebook and more people will see it. And I'll talk about it on TikTok. And then a lot of people will see it.
01:32:47
Speaker
We appreciate you so much for your time. The same offer we extended, Chris. If you ever want to come back, you are free to. Our podcast can be your playground. You can always come back if you'd like. Hopefully I run into you at a con soon, because that would be awesome. Yeah, maybe if I get to Utah. There's Oklahoma Comic Con in August this year. If you want to look into that, you can come see me. It's in Oklahoma City, yeah. Okay.
01:33:13
Speaker
Yeah, I'll go out there. We'll please stomp the bee. Yeah, I would love to learn. Hey, thanks for listening to our interview with Sunny Straight. And if you liked that episode and you want to hear more, including a video version of our interview that is uncut with a little teaser of a new guest we might have on soon, you can check out the pod at Fandame's Pod.
01:33:38
Speaker
at patreon.com, and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Fandame's Pod. You can follow Parks at Crown Guard Cosplay on Instagram and at LittleLightBeet on Twitter, and you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter at nebula underscore inky. Bye!