TALIESIN: No one tweet at Brian. He'll never
know. MARISHA: Don't tell him he's supposed to be here! TALIESIN: (whispering) It'll be our secret. MARISHA: Him breaking contract will be funny. MATT: I was told that we are supposed to eat the
mic for the purposes of this. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Matt. MATT: I love you too! MARISHA: I love that this has the name of our
panel on it for us as a reminder. TALIESIN: Of course you're glowing. HANNAH: Remember where you are. MATT: It's important. TALIESIN: That's amazing. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Papa Mercer! MARISHA: Are you Papa Mercer? Is that a thing? MATT: We should have a talk. TALIESIN: It is now! MATT: Apparently. MARISHA: Are you reaching Godfather status? TALIESIN: I like my nickname for you during game. MATT: It's technically Papi Mercer, but we're not
going to-- MARISHA: I think my chair's broken. MATT: Oh no. TALIESIN: We got an extra chair. Do you want to
just-- MARISHA: My chair, the seat might fall out. TALIESIN: Throw the chair back. VOICE OVER: As all of you start filing in, please
make sure that you're not leaving seats open. We need to pack it in. Elbow room is not really
optional here. Thank you for your cooperation. MATT: Be patient! VOICE OVER: We appreciate you coming to MomoCon. HANNAH: This is going to be so much fun, you
guys. MATT: (evil laugh) We now have dice up here. That
means games of chance are possible. Or I'll eat them... keep them away from me. They look tasty.
They look really sparkly. HANNAH: I would like to remind everybody that dice
are a choking hazard. Do not eat them. MATT: Yes, this is true. Thank you for the dice!
We're just patiently waiting for the rest of the folks to sit in. TALIESIN: Okay, that's what we're waiting for.
There's people who are coming in. I just got off a plane. This is the best I got right now. MATT: It's true. Well, you still have technically
six minutes until the panel starts, so-- TALIESIN: Well that's cool. We can talk amongst
ourselves, then. That's not bad. MARISHA: It's all right. It's all right. TALIESIN: It's not bad. MATT: You get to reroll the ones, though. MARISHA: I do get to reroll ones if it's elemental
damage. Re-rolling that one. MATT: Respectable. MARISHA: It's pretty good. It's all right. It's
above average. MATT: It's pretty average. Numerically! TALIESIN: Oh! Okay. MATT: Okay, there you go. HANNAH: All right everybody, we're going to get
started. Are you guys ready? MARISHA: Yeah! (cheering) HANNAH: I get two? Are my panelists ready? MATT: Yes, you ready? TALIESIN, MARISHA, and MATT: Yeah. Yes! HANNAH: Excellent! Okay, let's do this! MATT: Oh no, now you're all just anonymous shades.
This panel just got really creepy from our perspective, and I like it. It feels like we're
being judged. TALIESIN: This is like Act Three of the Rocky
Horror Picture Show. Just really disturbing. MARISHA: A really low budget VR horror game
happening right now. MATT: It's like the ghosts of our ancestors
judging us in the final moments. MARISHA: Yeah. "What do you will of me, council?
What do you want?" MATT: Right, anyway, sorry, this is your panel. HANNAH: No, it's all good, you guys are hilarious
and I love you. Okay! Welcome, everybody, to Critical Role! (cheering) MATT: You are, of course, Taliesin Jaffe, our
fantastic moderator. HANNAH: Yes, I am, hello. Actually, my name's
Hannah, and I will be moderating for all of you lovelies. (cheering) HANNAH: I cannot give these guys a proper
introduction, because you all know them and you love them. I'm going to let them do it, because
they're fantastic. MATT: Hi, I'm Matt. (laughter) MARISHA: Oh my god, Brian Foster, who is
apparently supposed to be on this panel! (cheering) MARISHA: I'm sorry Taliesin told you you weren't
supposed to be on this panel, and I didn't have anything to do with it. BRIAN: Where is my chair? TALIESIN: One of them is broken. Just make sure
that's not the one. BRIAN: Feels good to me, guys. TALIESIN: All right. BRIAN: This is really funny. MATT: All right. So you are? MARISHA: Oh, I'm Marisha Ray. (cheering) MARISHA: A.K.A. Keyleth. A.K.A. hashtag
ThanksKeyleth. A.K.A. Goldengods. Yeah, we're basically gods. TALIESIN: I'm Taliesin Jaffe. A.K.A. Percy. Percy
de Rolo the third. A.K.A. the port for all ships, apparently. Which is
very exciting. (laughter) BRIAN: Hello. I am the host with the most. A.K.A.
the grandma killer. That's not good. No, I'm Brian, with an 'i.' ' (applause) HANNAH: Well it's fantastic to have all of you
here. MATT: Happy to be here. HANNAH: Very happy that you're here. Let's just
kick it off. Let's just jump into it. For everybody that wants to be a voice actor here, I
thought I'd throw out the question: how would you guys normally prepare for a voice acting role? MATT: Okay, prepare for a voice acting role. I
would recommend reading the lines for the audition. TALIESIN: Fuck. MARISHA: That was going to be your-- MATT: Yeah. Sorry. BRIAN: Do you charge for this great advice?
Reading a script. MATT: We can work out classes, Brian. No, I mean,
and I've emphasized this at other panels before, voice acting is 90 percent acting, ten percent
voice. And so, for preparation, not just for the industry in general, but for any sort of character
role that comes your way, is prepare it like you would any character. You want to read the
dialogue, get a feel for the personality, take whatever information is given to you about that
character and then extrapolate from that to help flesh them out. A lot of times, you get, "He's 25
to 35, parents died in a fire, uses a machine gun." TALIESIN: Blood type B. Every now and then you get blood type.
I'm not kidding. MARISHA: Yeah. Or the guy you'd like to have a
beer with. MATT: Yeah. Japan's really into their blood types
and America's really into their "Have a beer with." MARISHA: Yeah, guy you'd like to have a beer with. MATT: At least my first thing would be to make
sure that you take the time to try and create a character that feels fleshed out to you and don't
feel too beholden to what little information you have there. Just find something that you feel is
honest in the performance. MARISHA: I love that it feels like that you're
calling the world series right now. From everyone-- MATT: "And the back row--" MARISHA: --the reverberation. Yeah. TALIESIN: Is it hard to understand us, or is it
relatively--? Okay, good. MARISHA: It's just us I think. We're hearing it. TALIESIN: Yeah. BRIAN: It's slapping back against the back wall. MARISHA: "Welcome, welcome, welcome, to Wednesday
Wrestlemania!" is what it feels like. TALIESIN: That's a different panel. BRIAN: That's after this. MATT: Brian, how do you prepare for a voiceover
role? BRIAN: Well, I prepare-- typically, I stretch. (laughter) BRIAN: I call Steve Blum and I say, hey man,
before I audition for this part you're going to get. No, I'm not a voice actor, but I do hang out
with a lot of them. And I can tell you that they do prepare a lot of stuff. And the people on this
stage-- I think Taliesin Jaffe should be playing every villain in every video game. MATT: Yes! BRIAN: And I've been saying that for years and I
will continue to say that until the video game makers will listen to me. MARISHA: It's true, though. There's been a few
times that me, as a very supportive girlfriend, Matt's gotten sides in and I've been like, "Aw,
babe, just, Taliesin.' BRIAN: Just hand that over to Taliesin. MARISHA: Hearing him read through the wall and I'm
like, it's not good. Just give it to Taliesin. MATT: Yeah. I've been requested to go and audition
on roles, and I've told them in the room, "I mean thanks, but you should really get Taliesin in for
this." TALIESIN: This is an industry, where occasionally
some of us go in to read for something and we're like, are you having these five people in for
this? I know I just read for this, but you should really have these other five people read this,
because I'm sure what I did was great and all, but this is a Patrick Seitz role. What are you doing?
Come on. Let's not kid ourselves here. MARISHA: My favorite is when I get a voice
reference and it's Laura Bailey. (laughter) MARISHA: I'm not kidding. This happens all the
time, and I'm like, "Do you want me to text her? Yo, you free? Wednesday?" TALIESIN: Before-- my voice just recently cracked
a little bit-- so before that I used to-- BRIAN: Puberty. MATT: We were all waiting! TALIESIN: It's crazy. Second puberty. I used to
get paired up with Liam and now that's stopped happening which is really nice. MARISHA: You always have people that are-- TALIESIN: Yeah, who you're right there with. MARISHA: Yeah. Me and Courtenay Taylor. Every
time. MATT: You mentioned hearing voice matches of Laura
Bailey. I remember when they did the live action Resident Evil movie that had Leon in it, because
apparently the actor that played him had a French accent, so they wanted someone to dub his lines
and sound like Leon, so they sent out an audition to try and match the sounds, and the audio clip
was me. I was the reference. And I didn't book it. I'm genuinely really curious to meet whoever it
was that did a better me than me. I haven't found him yet, but one day. I hope that helped you learn
some tips and tricks about voice over! TALIESIN: The most random voice over. MARISHA: Yeah, I mean the real tips that you can
get are just buy Voice-Over Voice Actor by Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt. Go to How To Be A Voice
Actor.com by Dee Bradley Baker. BRIAN: Find any panel that Fred Tatasciore is at
this weekend. MARISHA: Yeah, go talk to Fred, he's here. There's
so many resources out there that are written down, and probably way more eloquent than what we could
tell you right now. TALIESIN: Yeah, Yuri's book is great, very
helpful. MATT: These title cards are more eloquent than
any of us right now. TALIESIN: Voice good, panel hard. MATT: Flight long. Thank you. HANNAH: Y'all are way too modest, like jeez, come
on now. Off of that, I know you guys know how hard being in the industry is, and not only being an
actor, but also being a voice actor on top of that. I was wondering if you guys could talk to us
a little bit more about what the hardest parts of being in the industry are. What struggles have you
had? MATT: Who wants to jump off on that one? TALIESIN: Oh wow. MARISHA: I mean honestly, being a voice-over actor
is the easier parts of being in the industry. On-camera is scary. TALIESIN: I used to describe it to my friends with
real jobs as it's trading the illusion of security for the illusion of freedom. MATT and MARISHA: That's a really good way of
putting it. TALIESIN: You can either have the illusion of a
job that's not going anywhere that's going to be there for the rest of your life, or you can have
the illusion that you can do anything you like, and leave your house and go on vacation any time
you like because you don't have a boss and you're your own boss, and your office is just your house
and your bedroom. And there's no reason to ever leave your bedroom because you've got work to do.
And sleep is really a bad use of your office really-- And why are you sleeping? Weekends are
for people who have real jobs! What are you-- Yeah. MARISHA: Oh god! Let's go to the Bourgeois Pig!
This'll fix everything! BRIAN: Hey, say the first part again, for those of
us who are going to put it in the yearbook. What was the first thing you said? TALIESIN: The illusion of security versus the
illusion of freedom? Yeah, you trade the illusion of security for the illusion of freedom. MARISHA: What we tell everybody is when you go to
interview for your job, and you do it once and you're like whew, awesome. We do that every day.
Every time you audition it's basically the equivalent of interviewing for your job and trying
to convince people why you should be there. The reality is, you shouldn't, no one should be, it's
a desert. It's, there's a serious water shortage you guys, no one should be there. TALIESIN: The phrase I hear in my head every time
I walk out of a booth is, "Well, this is it. That's the last job you're ever going to book.
It's been a great run, you've done very well, but it's all over now." BRIAN: That's just Sam telling you that after you
leave the booth. TALIESIN:It's time to go back and work at the
video store. Oh man. BRIAN: Yeah. Well, I'm a writer, so I'm not
subject to the persecutions of the voice actors, but I am-- TALIESIN: You get discount coffee at the Bourgeois
Pig. BRIAN: I do get discount coffee there. Well, I'm
not allowed there anymore, but some places I get a discount. TALIESIN: It's nice that they can look at you and
they're like, "Oh writer, okay. Yeah." BRIAN: Yeah, exactly. They're like that's a
writer's beard. And then I take it off and-- TALIESIN: It's not a beard for anybody who
actually has to audition for anything. BRIAN: Yeah, or be anywhere. No, but the business
is the same regardless of which genre you're in, if you're an actor, if you're a writer, if you're
a producer, whatever you're trying to... You're trying to tell a story and you're trying to make a
point, and you're trying to be relevant while at the same time trying to be yourself, and so you're
in a place where there's thousands and millions of people trying that at the same time. You're hoping
something cuts through. Critical Role is an incredible example of something that has no reason
to cut through the way it did. Like really, it doesn't, and we talk about that all the time, but it
has resonated with people, in a way that I think "good art" connects us to, and makes us have an
intimate connection with enough to where we're willing to-- some people drove and flew a long way
just to meet the three of you. MARISHA: And you! BRIAN: It's crazy! MARISHA: Dude, people are cosplaying as Brian
Wayne Foster, okay. BRIAN: There are cats now, that's what I'm excited
about. MATT: Well it-- MARISHA: Oh, sorry. I feel like every artist or
every creative wakes up one morning and starts having this existential crisis of, "Oh my god,
everything that I do for a living is just made up. I just make up shit. Oh my god, nothing is real,
what am I doing. Why are people paying me for shit, this is all a bad idea." TALIESIN: We all spent six months just saying "what is
happening?" MARISHA: What is happening, this is weird, why are
people watching this? MATT: To work the entertainment industry, and be a
somewhat sane human being means you're a professional harbinger of impostor syndrome. It is
a perpetual process, and in a weird way it's kind of healthy. TALIESIN: You have such a solid respect for-- I
was directing Erica Lindbeck in some show ages ago, and we had this really fascinating,
interesting professor of Medieval Language or something he was in, and he was like, "Well,
you've worked hard to get where you are," and Erica, bless her, was like, "No, there are people
who have worked way harder than me that have nothing, I'm just really lucky!" He's like, "Don't
sell yourself short," she's, "No, you don't understand how this works! There's a hundred
people just as talented as me, I'm just really lucky!" MATT: Four of them are in the parking lot with
knives right now! MATT: Can I ride home with you? TALIESIN: You have a really healthy respect for
luck in this industry. BRIAN: I tell people that I slept my way all the
way to the bottom. TALIESIN: What you mean is you napped all your way
to the bottom, let's make one thing clear. MATT: Now, on a legitimate point too, it is a job,
especially for voice-over, that is built on perpetual rejection. It is a career that, you do
the work before it's decided whether or not you're paid for it. To play off what you were saying
before, it's working, you're doing your two weeks at your job and you have to re-interview every two
weeks for your paycheck after doing the work. And so it has to be a passion. You have to do it, not
to make an extravagant living, because we'll all profess, that's not going to happen usually, you
might be able to get by if you work really hard, but each of us has spent countless years in
squalor trying to make something like this happen. You have to be able to push through the rejection,
do it for the art of it, do it for the love of it, and maintain being a good person. Because
voice-over, more than any other form of entertainment, does not really allow for
douchebags to persevere. TALIESIN: No, we're a small community. MARISHA: Yeah, we eat douchebags for breakfast. MATT: I would not quote that. TALIESIN: It's weird that they come in breakfast
cereal form now actually. BRIAN: I'm going to sit with that one for a little
bit. MATT: That's the yearbook quote from the panel to
take home with you guys. TALIESIN: Douchebags for breakfast. MATT: The answer to that question is we eat
douchebags for breakfast. HANNAH: Okay. That will be accepted. It's
interesting you guys talk about how you got your start, and how difficult it is to break in, and
Matt I know that you started in high school, correct? MATT: Right, the tail end of high school. HANNAH: Right, so what was that like, still trying
to get a GED and working and figuring that out, what was that like? MATT: Oh, it sucked! To put it into context here,
I wasn't considering pursuing voice-over when I was in high school, I was just getting into
theater heavily and I was enjoying the performing aspect of it, but I was going to go into
animation, I grew up watching and loving cartoons and I wanted to be an illustrator, an animator.
And right as I was getting to the end of my high school years I realized, "I-- no-- scary. I don't
want to--" That was not something I was as passionate about as I thought I was, and that also requires
passion in the face of rejection. I had an opportunity through a strange connection to do
background voices in one series. When I say background voices I don't mean you got to be a
side character, this was like, "Guy's head who explodes number seven," or "Guy whose car gets
stolen and goes 'No!'" That kind of thing. TALIESIN: Was that Mag 8? MATT: That was the Mag 8, that was for the Fist of
the North Star animated series. TALIESIN: (Groans) Oh my god! MATT: I got to be one of those guys whose head
exploded. But it was just enough of a taste for me to go, "Oh. Okay, this is a thing, and maybe this
connection will help me." Didn't at all. But it was enough of a taste to really let me start
focusing on that. A lot of my time after that was just thinking, well, what can I do to maybe
someday pursue this? I began to continue doing theater, taking classes, learning, trying to just
better myself, and then it wasn't until eight years later, back in about 2008 or so, that I
finally quit my job, and was like, let me take this full on, and fail. Or succeed. You know, I
prefer not to live with regret, I think regret's a terrible thing, and I'd rather fail and know that
I tried and move on to the next endeavor, than spend the rest of my life going, "What if?" HANNAH: That must have been so scary, though. MATT: Oh, it was really scary! HANNAH: Yeah! MATT: I downsized my entire life. I had to go down
to this tiny studio apartment, and Marisha saw it, when we first met, I had a kitch. TALIESIN: We still have friends who live in that
apartment, actually. That apartment is still in our friends' family, we're like, you'll get out of
here one day. MATT: The Sisterhood of the Travelling Box. That's
what it has become. TALIESIN: It's a pretty depressing place. MATT: It was doing temp work and odd jobs off
Craigslist, and whatever I could to try and pay the bills, working as a barista at a Barnes &
Noble cafe for a long time, working in warehouses stocking shelves, whatever I could do to allow me
the time to continue to pursue this. It took a lot of years of busting my ass and trying to make it
happen and slowly getting traction. But it wasn't an easy climb. HANNAH: I bet. Okay, so for the rest of the panel,
let's hear it, what was you guys' moment? BRIAN: I was sending Ashley a picture.
Ashley asked for a picture, I sent a picture. No, the back of Matt's head looks beautiful. MATT: Thank you. I think it's great that I can
distinctly sense the type of laughter that is evoked by Brian Foster. (laughter) MATT: Just an observation. Anyway, sorry, continue
with your question. HANNAH: No, that's fine. Miss Marisha, tell us: how
did you get your start? What was your lucky moment? MARISHA: Ooh. Oh no. TALIESIN: Maybe another story. MARISHA: Oh no, this is a long story, you guys.
I dunno, are there any singular lucky breaks? MATT: For some people, but not really for us I
don't think. BRIAN: Weren't you the Cash Me Outside, How 'Bout
Dat girl? (laughter) BRIAN: That's what I told them at the airport to
try and get us upgraded to first class, but they Googled her and they were like, that ain't her. MARISHA: Always bet on Mercer. Always bet on him.
No, I mean, I feel like my career and my success, when you look back in that introspective timeline
of your life, and it was all these little nudges and hints, just pushing me into the same
direction, and these weird little trail of events that happened that lead me one thing to another. I
am obnoxiously tenacious, like maybe to a damaging degree, sometimes. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Goldfish! MARISHA: Goldfish is very indicative of that! I
hate hearing no for an answer. Shouldn't say that out loud, either, that's probably damaging. But
yeah, I turn into that toddler who's like four years old that's like, "Well why can't I do this?
Why?" And it's like, "Well, that's because if you jump off a cliff, you'll die." "Why?" "Well,
gravity and terminal vel--" "Why?!" And I just keep asking why until something happens. MATT: Or conversely, "You can't play this because
you're a woman." MARISHA: "Why?" MATT: "You can't do this job as good because
you're a woman." MARISHA: "Why?" MATT: You just keep pushing until eventually they
don't have an answer for it. MARISHA: Yeah, break people down with their own
defense. TALIESIN: You always remind me of the Jason C. Lee
character from Mallrats. I feel like I've been in so many rooms that started with, "Just because a
chick reads comic books, you think she can't start some shit?! I'll kick your ass!" Whoa, no! Run! MARISHA: That's true. There has been like one
maybe two times that Taliesin has been to me, "Leave, Marisha. Go. Out." MATT: Before you stab someone, yeah. TALIESIN: Yeah, never because, yeah, it's always
the-- I don't want to go explain this to the cops later. HANNAH: No, we want to hear that story, what's
that story? TALIESIN: Oh god. MARISHA: That story? There's too many stories.
But, no, I don't know, there's been-- BRIAN: Keyleth isn't the only one who's been to
jail. MARISHA: A strong perseverance and hard-
headedness, and honestly just constantly pursuing what made me happy in what I knew I
wanted to do. That ended up putting me at a crossroads of acting and nerddom, and it was
perfect. BRIAN: I will say passion, though, because
Marisha, even if she's just asked to help participate in something or help step in to assist
with something tiny, she treats it as if it was an idea she came up with. She treats it with that
same amount of passion. I'll say that's why now she's becoming more famous than all of us and
she'll forget us soon. TALIESIN: Well you, yeah. BRIAN: Me first, yeah. TALIESIN: You're the first to go. BRIAN: The new guy has got to go first. MARISHA: Thanks, man. BRIAN: You're welcome. I'll invoice you later. MARISHA: Yeah. Best 50 bucks I ever spent. TALIESIN: I can think of several examples that are
probably not true on that. Some good stories, sorry. I beg to differ. BRIAN: Us jet-lagged, it turns out, is awesome. TALIESIN: I am so amused. BRIAN: Let's do this every day. MATT: This is before drinking, guys. TALIESIN: I didn't have a moment. MATT: You didn't have a chance to, you were thrust
into the industry as a child. TALIESIN: I was born into this. I worked
as a child actor. I was in the union before I was one years old, I had a SAG
card. I was doing this solidly until the age of approximately 13 working on-camera. BRIAN: You could've been Boss Baby. TALIESIN: I could've been Boss Baby. "Yeah, never
going to happen." Even back then I was really interested in Japanese cartoons and Japanese
animations, which hadn't really become a thing yet, but I was really into it. I was excited by
the notion that they were going to be dubbing them into English, and we were still figuring out how
that worked. And because I was in the industry and working all the time I came at it in that
direction of "Well, how are we going to do this? What kind of acting are you going to use for this?
What kind of actors are you going to get? This is interesting." From having that perspective, I
managed to interest enough people who found that amusing to start a career in that direction. At
that time I was going to stop doing on-camera work because-- BRIAN: Baywatch. TALIESIN: The Baywatch story, which is
definitely a story. MARISHA and BRIAN: Tell the story! TALIESIN: I'll tell the Baywatch story, okay. MATT: Taliesin, tell the Baywatch story. TALIESIN: I'm telling the Baywatch story. I was 13
years old, I had the worst haircut on Earth, because it's the hair cut you have to-- if you're
an actor, you have to have actor hair. I'm not kidding, you can't mess with your
hair because you have a photo, and when they call you in, you got to look
like that photo, and that photo has to have just enough hair that if they want to do
something to it, they can, but not so little hair that you're stuck with the haircut you
have. You have to have the bowl haircut boyish thing that's awful, and you have to have it all
the time until they want to mess with it. MARISHA: Photos are expensive. Change your hair,
you have to take more pictures. TALIESIN: That makes your agent angry. BRIAN: What do you think Baywatch wanted to do
with that 13 year old Taliesin's hair? TALIESIN: I was irritated, I had a headache, and I
had to go to an audition for Baywatch for some kid who was upset because his grandfather died. The
dialogue was so bad. The dialogue was so bad the 13 year old boy was going "You don't really expect
me to read this and take this seriously, right? This is so stupid. This is weird, a little creepy,
and there's a whole shower thing that I don't-- Oh god, this is--" I was laughing so much, and
giggling through this serious "Grandpa's dead" scene that my dad, trying to be encouraging in his
way, was like, "Well, if you can't take this seriously, maybe you shouldn't be doing it." And I
was like, "Oh my god, you're right. I should not be put in a room with 11 other kids whose lives
depend on this shit. That's a terrible idea. There are people who want this so bad. Call my agent, I
quit, I'm done. I'm going to my room. I'm done." BRIAN: I'm grounding myself. TALIESIN: I was instantly like, "No more working
out." I was like, "I want to stop working out. Being a 13 year old who works out is weird. I want
weird hair, I want to have fun." I found out that voice acting means I don't have to work out and I
can have weird hair and keep acting. That was literally it. It was like I can have all the fun I
had before, except I don't have to do any of the hard shit. That makes it sound so cheap, though.
It wasn't that easy. It wasn't that easy, but that's a big part of it. Surrounding yourself with
creative people who are doing good work does help. MARISHA: And, seriously, on-camera shit is
terrifying! TALIESIN: Yeah, I still do it every now and then
to remind myself that it's terrifying. MATT: It's like touching the burner of your stove.
"Oh yeah, that hurts." BRIAN: "Yeah, Mom was right. That's a no-no." TALIESIN: You came in while we had that-- we were
just starting to form this great group of people who were constantly-- we don't hang out and watch
movies together, we hang out and make YouTube videos. The people in our group are always doing
shit. We don't hang out together, we're like, "Hey, do you want to come over and help me produce
this short film that I'm putting into?" "Yeah, sure, you need actors? You need a P.A.?
What do you need?" BRIAN: Marisha, we're not Vine stars, that's not
what he said. MARISHA: No, we're Web Stars. It's different. MATT: No. I reject this notion. TALIESIN: Those two words don't go together. MARISHA: Matt. We're Twitch famous, Matt. MATT: (fake sobbing) (laughter) TALIESIN: I just want to point out, that's like
the cruise ships of the internet, right there. MATT: It's just water! Why is it just water?! TALIESIN: Because that's all you've earned. (laughter) HANNAH: All right, let's bring you guys back.
Let's make you inspired and happy again. MATT: If it gets bad, just clap loudly towards
us. (cheering) MATT: You could also get one of those animal
training click things. HANNAH: Like a shocker thing? MATT: Taser works, that's good. Little extreme,
but functional. HANNAH: Okay, so to bring it back up again, let's
talk about what your inspirations are, guys. Let's talk about who keeps you going. HANNAH and AUDIENCE: Aww. BRIAN: Johnny Walker. TALIESIN: Jim to his friends. BRIAN: Yeah. I was saying that for Marisha. MATT: I mean, as far as just personal life and
stuff, friends, family. The family we have and the family we choose, that makes a really, really big
difference. Especially in our city-- TALIESIN: The family we have time for, these
days. MARISHA: The family we make YouTube videos with. MATT: Yeah, those are the biggest points of
inspiration keeping us together and not going crazy in this crazy world. Gets crazier every day.
As far as career stuff, what other inspirations do you guys pull from? What other people or what
other types of art do you draw from? TALIESIN: I have other creative friends,
especially older friends, that are the people I would like to grow up to be, which is a horrifying
thing to say in your forties. I said it. It's weird, it's the people who are older than me that
have found a place that appears to be comfortable, although I'm sure it's not. And then the friends
of mine who are starting out who remind me that I have to work hard, because they're going to devour
me alive and take all my jobs. Bless them. MARISHA: You're so insightful. TALIESIN: Eh. It's mostly jetlag. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Papa savage? MATT: Papa savage. Brian? BRIAN: Oh, man. I think on the show one night, I
said, "Surround yourself with people that want to leave the world better than you found it." I've
known these guys for a long time. Taliesin's the only person I met after the home game started, but
I knew you guys back in the cut. As I've gotten older, too-- I'm 34, I'm not old, but as I've
gotten older, I find myself surrounding myself with people that are not just motivated, but are
passionate, like I was saying earlier, and people that are helping each other. L.A. and New York and
places that are creative, they're also very competitive, and even though a lot of these guys
are in the same industry, nobody really competes. We seem to celebrate successes and we mourn losses
together, and it's a family that you choose. That really inspires me. Plus, I like to read a lot. MARISHA: That's a good point, though. It's a
competitive that's there, but inspiring, and you're always rooting for the home team. BRIAN: Yeah, it's iron sharpening iron. Rather
than walking all over each other or secretly going, "Stab that bitch in the back." Like, you
and Laura do behind each others' backs. MARISHA: Oh yeah, totally. Well, you know. BRIAN: It's where I got that idea from. MARISHA: When she dies, I get the other half of
my soul. I don't know what you wanted me to say. BRIAN: Who couldn't that be said about? MATT: For me, storytelling is very important. On a
basic scale, when you consider both the classic tribal elders around the fire telling stories and
myths to the young, we as a people, as a species, thrive on being inspired by stories from those
that came before us, and that's been as long as we've had speech. As each generation, every epoch
comes by, that transitions into media that we have nowadays, storytelling is even more important,
because that's what inspires us to want to create, to make the world better, to make ourselves
better, to see a character in a story or a TV series or a video game that we aspire to be more
like and make adjustments in our life to try and be more like that character, to feel more
fulfilled and ultimately a better person. I found a lot of that inspiration through, and it sounds
so hackneyed because of what we're here for partially, Dungeons & Dragons and role playing
games were such an inspiration to me because it gave me a safe space to discover myself, and a
safe space to step into the shoes of people who weren't like me. That I could create or come to
understand different experiences and perspectives. Through our show, what we're seeing now is this
resurgence of tabletop gaming. It's one of the few forms of media that people can be inspired by and
then turn around the next day and go create themselves. That, to me, is incredible. I think
it's amazing. If anything from what our game has done, or our stream, show, whatever you want to
call it, our game, is seeing so many of you guys go out there and create your own adventures, and
send us pictures of your game groups, and tell us stories of the things that your parties have done.
What inspires me to do anything that I do is the hope that whatever art I create inspires other
people to create better art in the future. MARISHA: Word. BRIAN: It does, Matt. (applause) HANNAH: Do you guys have any good book
suggestions? MATT: House of Leaves. It's a really good horror
book. You should read it if you like horror books. Read it at night with the lights low. Trust me. BRIAN: Oh, book recommendations? City of Thieves
by David Benioff. He's the creator and writer of the Game of Thrones TV show. He also wrote a book
called The 25th Hour which is incredible. And he wrote a book called When the Nines Roll Over.
Okay, I'm recommending all three of his books. Anyway, if you like Game of Thrones, it's nothing
like it, but you'll like it. City of Thieves. It's an incredible book. The video game, The Last of Us
was, Neil tells me, 95 percent inspired by that book, so it's a really incredible book, so that's
my recommendation. I also wrote a book. That one's pretty cheap on Amazon. MARISHA: Come on, shameless plug. You
brought it up. MATT: What's it called? BRIAN: Yeah. I'm a published poet. I've made tens
of dollars as a poet. TALIESIN: Damn. MARISHA: It's pretty dope. BRIAN: My book is called Blackened White, Brian W.
Foster. It's on Amazon. It's a collection of essays, short stories. I have another one coming
out next year, because it will be ten years that I've been in Los Angeles. And it's called Poisoned
Chalices: Reflections on an Almost Sober Decade in LA. MARISHA: Next year is your ten years? MARISHA and BRIAN: Next year is my ten years. BRIAN: Should we all leave? Are you supposed to
go? TALIESIN: I believe you get a convertible and head
to Vegas. MARISHA: Yeah. BRIAN: With a suitcase full of drugs in the trunk? TALIESIN: It's a suitcase full of games. MARISHA: I automatically get my Jeep Wrangler,
right? That just comes with my ten years? BRIAN: Plane Shift to Vegas. TALIESIN: You can only drive it in sandals. MARISHA: I automatically get a medical marijuana
card, just with your ten-year anniversary. Yeah, great. MATT: It comes with your car registration.
Taliesin, book recommendations? TALIESIN: I just cleaned up my bookshelf, so I'm
rereading a bunch of nonfiction that nobody wants to read, but the last fiction book, I reread Terry
Southern's Magic Christian, because I was using it for something I was writing. Which I love madly,
so, I really like weird 60s pop. I've got a thing for it. It's a great book! MARISHA: I guess I'm going to go off the fiction
ramp-- TALIESIN: Please, because mine are awful. MARISHA: Since we were talking about creativity
and how to inspire that, I've been reading through Creativity Inc. which is written by Ed Catmull,
who was one of the founders of Pixar. He talks about harboring a creative environment, and
helping the creative flow in the workspace, it's just really good for anyone. It's good! BRIAN: What's the takeaway from it so far? TALIESIN: Something other than babies and cars.
You give those Patton-style speeches in the office every now and then, where you just stand up and
start, "There's a story in this book, you got to know." We all just sit and listen for a minute. BRIAN: Storytime. Everyone gets on bean bag
chairs. MARISHA: I think just allowing creativity to flow,
and not extinguishing anyone's creative flame just because you think that your job title allows that.
It could be a PA, it could be a writer, it could be someone in sales or marketing, and anyone can
have a creative idea, and I think we all have a responsibility to listen to those creative
ideas-- BRIAN: Regardless of where they are in the chain. MARISHA: Regardless of where they are in the
chain. Because anyone can have an amazing idea. I think a good leader will listen to all of those,
even if they decide to implement them or not. BRIAN: Then why have you shot down all my ideas
for other shows? MARISHA: Well, your name's Brian Foster. I mean. BRIAN: I wanted to have the show where they chase
wheels down the street. Where you chase wheels down the street? MARISHA: Yeah, well, stop pitching porn and then
maybe we'll talk. BRIAN: It's VR, but it's an experimental form
of-- MARISHA: I know. But we'll talk. Back to the
drawing board. MATT: To be fair, we are in the valley. Next
question? BRIAN: Please. HANNAH: I actually did want to ask, have you guys
ever had a role offered to you that made you feel very uncomfortable, that you didn't want to do,
that you had to say no to? MATT: Ever had a role that we felt uncomfortable
and said no to? TALIESIN: Part of your job as an actor, one of the
first things they teach you, if you're going to be an actor, is that your job is to be very
uncomfortable. That's something that doesn't get said very often, is there's nothing that will kill
your career faster than being, "I'm not comfortable playing that part." And they're like,
"Okay. Thank you." I mean there are places and there are things, obviously, but I spent a chunk
of my childhood crying being molested for ABC afterschool specials. (laughter) TALIESIN: Child's Cry, with Peter Coyote,
which you can find on the ABC Afternoon-- I'm not even kidding. I think it's probably
findable on YouTube, and you can watch a whole courtroom scene where I'm crying and bawling,
describing terrible things that a baseball coach did, and what you're not seeing, is that every ten
minutes they stop as that lawyer forgets his three words of dialogue, while-- I have been sobbing for
45 minutes, fucker, you just have to remember "Objection." I'm nine! What is your damage? While there's the creepiest looking
baseball coach who's just looking at me, going, "I'm so sorry, dude, I
don't even know." Like, he's okay! MATT: Taliesin? You're my favorite person. TALIESIN: I mean obviously, there are things, but
part of your job is to be excited by the notion of doing something that's going to make you
vulnerable, as long as it's the right kind of vulnerable. MATT: Yeah, as a performer, as an actor, if it's a
space that you want to explore because it is outside of your comfort zone, and you want to
stretch those muscles, yes. I have had radio spots that I read for, and then didn't realize that the
ideologies or the political circumstances behind those pieces I was very fervently against, and
then said, "I'm good," and turned those down. There was one video game that I read for, or I
didn't read for, I was about to read for. I sent the audition. They didn't send the sides, I was
supposed to arrive and get the sides, and it was for a motion capture project. The game ended up
being cancelled, thankfully. But I show up to it, they give me the sides for the character, I had a
little bit of character background. I start reading through the script, and it was just
extremely racist, extremely offensive. BRIAN: Yeah, but I told you I was going to do
revisions. (laughter) TALIESIN: I felt it coming, too. Oh no! It's like
the wave at the Shamu tank, and it's no, no, no. Why did I pick the first row? BRIAN: I'm sorry. Please forgive me. TALIESIN: Goddamn. Dude. I'm so proud of you. MATT: I can see what you were going for, Brian. But
I felt the methods of delivering those things were a little too ham-fisted, and the point was lost.
So I decided to decline and not go through with the audition. BRIAN: I get it. I found a new gig, anyway. TALIESIN: I guess there are auditions that I just
turned down because I'm like, no, I don't want to. If it's not a story I'm really behind, yeah, that
does happen. MARISHA: Yeah, there's a difference between
getting a script for the Scientology Center and being like, nah, I'm good-- TALIESIN: I always read the Scientology scripts. MARISHA: Versus an acting role. TALIESIN: Yeah, that's true. I got my dad on their
mailing list when I was 16. BRIAN: That's messed up. TALIESIN: I am such a jerk. BRIAN: Unless he enjoyed it. TALIESIN: No, he did not. He still doesn't. You're
never off. BRIAN: I've never lost a role to anyone. But
that's because I've never gotten offered one. I did lose one to Elijah Wood, though. Nah, I don't
know what that means. I'm just kidding. I like him. I'm not saying, "Fuck that guy." I don't want
that to get out there. I think he's cool. Frodo. I mean, he's known for more than just-- Whatever.
I sound like Dan Harmon. TALIESIN: You're starting to-- BRIAN: I'm starting to turn into him. MATT: You're spending too much time with him. BRIAN: Yeah, I'm turning into a fat, drunk, old
man, all of a sudden. MARISHA: Your white, older, drunk male is rubbing
off. It's showing. BRIAN: Yeah, I know. That's what it says on my
badge, actually. White, older, drunk male. That's it. Right there on the badge. TALIESIN: It's my favorite character class. BRIAN: Is that in the campaign guide, Matt? MATT: You find that on DM's Guild, I think. MARISHA: You get advantage on constitution
checks. MATT: Disadvantage on wisdom, intelligence and
charisma. Any roles that you've turned down? MARISHA: What Taliesin said. Next question. TALIESIN: Next question. HANNAH: Guys, if you're okay with it, we're going
to do one more question, and then we'll open it up for questions. Is that okay for everybody? BRIAN: As long as we could be able to see the
person that asks. TALIESIN: To be fair, you could have all left, we
can't even see you. HANNAH: I will ask that you guys keep it
appropriate, please. We are all adults, I think. Maybe. Possibly. MARISHA: I thought she was talking to us. A
hundred percent. I was like, oh no. (laughter) MATT: Says a lot about us. BRIAN: By the end of the weekend, she will be. MATT: At least we're self-aware. Can't say that
we're not that. All right, what's the final question? HANNAH: Okay, final question is: Is there any
projects that you guys are working on or hope to be working on that you could tell us a little bit
about? MARISHA: Actually this one-- A few just came out
that I can announce. I am super over-dramatic and ridiculous and insane in the Friday the 13th video
game that's coming out. You can kill me so many ways. So many ways to kill me. I am A.J. in that
game. TALIESIN: Awesome. BRIAN: When does it come out? On Friday the... MARISHA: (intentional mumbling) Comes out on
google it. Yeah. BRIAN: You think it came out today? Said a
voice-- AUDIENCE MEMBER: I saw that on one of the store
pages online. MARISHA: That actually might be true-- MATT: Came out on Friday, the 26th. Missed the
ball with that one, guys. MARISHA: I did have people tweeting at me how
they're like, "I've saved Marisha two times already! I gave her a security blanket and some
hot chocolate." Like legit, that was someone's tweet. BRIAN: You're like, "Thanks, someone's going to
come along and murder me with an axe." MATT: I don't know why, but when you said that I
imagined a wonderful game where you don't play as the people being killed in Friday the 13th, you
play as the EMT's that come up after the scene and comfort the survivor. MARISHA: The true heroes. MATT: Press square to slowly rub their back as you
ask them what's wrong. BRIAN: Oh my god. I would play that game. MARISHA: It's got a dialogue tree. MATT: There's a DLC where you can bring like a
help dog to come over. MARISHA: A canine unit. TALIESIN: Therapy dog. Downloadable content
therapy dog, yeah there we are. MATT: That is for free, you can run with it. TALIESIN: The big one for me after over a year of
waiting. Injustice 2 finally came out. I get to be Barry Allen The Flash! Oh my god! So that's really
cool. MARISHA: You and Liam as Reverse Flash in that
scene that came out was like the best thing ever. TALIESIN: One of the guys who was actually working
on the animatic, when I was in there. He was like, "Do you want to see?" He was delighted, I was
delighted, everyone was delighted. We were giggling like 14 year-- (giggling) oh, the windmill!
(giggling) MATT: I'm not going to lie. I'm deriving so much
enjoyment from all of the posts in recent weeks about everyone complaining Deadshot is so
overpowered in the game. and I'm like (laughter). Learn to zone! BRIAN: Oh dang. MATT: I can't say who I'm playing yet. but I can
say that I'm in the Star Wars Battlefront 2. I'm really excited about that, a fun character in that
one. Let's see what else can I talk about. NDAs is a problem. We all have like four chips in the
back of our brains from Warner Bros, Blizzard. They can press the button any time and we're done.
It's like a remote Battle Royale scenario; it's pretty intense-- and if you don't know what Battle
Royale is: watch that movie, it's great. The original Japanese one. The perpetual joy that is
Fire Emblem Heroes, which I still play way too much. MARISHA: You're all welcome for Effie being a
badass. Just putting that out there MATT: She's one of the most dangerous arena
characters, with the proper inherent skills. TALIESIN: (deep voice) I like that I'm getting to use the
Wolverine voice more and more, it's really nice. BRIAN: Oh, that is really nice. TALIESIN: (deep voice) It's got a lot of treble; it's good.
(regular voice) I don't know where I'm going with that. MARISHA: Brian, you're doing so much cool shit
and you can't say any-- BRIAN: I can't say shit. I can't say-- I have this
phone right here-- TALIESIN: You think that we're teasing him but
we're not. BRIAN: I have this picture of my lawyer and I just
know that if-- MARISHA: He's on Facetime right now glaring at
you. BRIAN: I'll just say that after I lost my job at
the Two Broke Girls show doing security. By the way, I can say this now the show's been cancelled,
neither of those girls were broke. That was a lie. I have a new gig but I can't talk about it. I'll
just say I'm stoked, and when it is announced you'll probably hear something about it. MATT: Yeah, it's really cool. MARISHA: (whispering, no audio) BRIAN: About the-- Oh yeah, I was a part of that.
So if you guys know Logic the rapper, he's one of my best friends and my writing partner. He just
put out an album and I was a part of that process a little bit and working on a lot of cool stuff
with him and the next record already. If you guys want to check it out it's called Everybody. I had a
shirt on earlier but I took a shower because-- TALIESIN: And the shirt melted off. Dissolvable
shirt. BRIAN: Everyone on the plane-- the plane was like
The Stand. Our journey here, friends, to see you was long, but we're glad to be here. MARISHA: That's what happens when you fly
American. BRIAN: The plane was sticky, the windows were
sticky, the floor was sticky. It was like they had just filmed Neighbors 3 inside the cabin of the
airplane. TALIESIN: Does it ever occur to you that maybe
it's just that you're really sticky, so everything you touch is sticky? I'm not saying it wasn't
sticky; it was a sticky airplane. BRIAN: You know how some people are born with
naturally moist hands? What if I just had sticky-- Like Spiderman, yeah, but isn't there a guy who
has furry, sticky--I don't know why they got to be furry, but sticky hands? You all right? TALIESIN: Other than my dad, I think you're pretty
good on that. HANNAH: Do we want to open it up for questions
now, on that note? I do have notes, guys, before we jump into it. MATT: Before we jump into it, she has notes. TALIESIN: There's going to be a short quiz. HANNAH: Can I have everybody hold on one second?
One thing: these guys are lovely, but they cannot stay for signings. I encourage you to check your
MomoCon app to see where they're going to be next. Follow them around like little birds. TALIESIN: We have a few more signings. HANNAH: Also, at the end, please stay seated. This
is for your safety, we want to get people out in an orderly fashion, not like cavemen. Or women, to
not be sexist. TALIESIN: Caveperson. HANNAH: So please stay seated. ALL: Cavepeople. MATT: (high-pitched) It's high noon!
(normal voice) Sorry. TALIESIN: I'd play that app. MARISHA: Chibi-Overwatch? TALIESIN. Chibi-Overwatch. I would totally play
Chibi-Overwatch. Especially if I got loot boxes for it. MATT: Choverwatch. HANNAH: That's all the notes that I have, so let's
do some questions. MATT: All right. Oh, there's already-- MARISHA: Can we bring house lights on a bit? HANNAH: So we can see our lovely people. MATT: Banish these shadows from the land. TALIESIN: Right now I feel like we're facing the
Grand Inquisitors. AUDIENCE MEMBER: How to do this? MATT: No, we are doomed to a thousand more years
of darkness, guys, I'm sorry. MARISHA: I guess we can go ahead and get started,
man in the dark. What's your name? AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm Daniel. ALL: Hi Daniel! MATT: How's the abyss? DANIEL: It's nice. MATT: There we go. (cheering) AUDIENCE MEMBER: Let there be light! MARISHA: I see your face now! DANIEL: Thank you. My first livestream was the
Crucible fight with Grog. That's probably going to be ingrained in my mind forever. MATT: Good! DANIEL: What are some of your most memorable
moments from the show before the goldfish? TALIESIN: Doesn't remember much after. MATT: First off, I was really scared about that
fight, because I was like, "Oh great, I'm going to have a one-on-one with two bruisers. That's going
to be great for people to watch and play." Because it's just two people. The rest of the party's
like, "All right." So I was really happy that Travis went with me on the narrative elements of
that, and we turned it into a fun, dynamic battle. TALIESIN: That was the last time Ryan made
popcorn. That was nice. MARISHA: So awesome. TALIESIN: It was really good popcorn. MATT: Most memorable moments of the show. You guys
go first. TALIESIN: God, do I have to pick? MARISHA: So many. BRIAN: Hells. TALIESIN: Hell was great. Almost drowning
underwater was great. MARISHA: I was going to say, the kraken fight was
intense. BRIAN: Cows. TALIESIN: I was sick for that.
MARISHA: Cows! I'll never forget cows. TALIESIN: I watched cows. BRIAN: Kevdak. MATT: I'm so sorry for any of you in the audience
that has not watched the show and right now is going, "What the hell are they talking about?"
Cows. BRIAN: I'm just going to keep yelling one-word
random shit--Vorugal. MARISHA: Kicking K'Varn in the face was pretty
dope. TALIESIN: Finally firing that arrow into the orb
was pretty great. That was solid. MATT: From a Dungeon Master's standpoint, I
still-- thank you, ten minute sign. There was something so weirdly frightening and satisfying
and delightful spending so much time building up Emon and Tal'Dorei, and then in one fell swoop,
just destroying the city. Oh man. TALIESIN: Like a kid with a cardboard box. MATT: I recommend it sometime. BRIAN: You recommend someone spending thousands of
hours creating a world and building it up, and then destroying it? MATT: Isn't that what SimCity is? BRIAN: Hell yeah! MATT: And isn't it fun? BRIAN: Hell yeah! Awesome. TALIESIN: Lock them in the pool. TALIESIN: We'll try and be quick, because there's
a line. BRIAN: Yeah, go ahead. What's your name? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello, I'm Thomas. ALL: Hi, Thomas. THOMAS: I'm a sound designer and composer for
games, so I understand the taxes, and the sticky airplanes, and all that stuff. My question for you
guys is: how do you deal with monotony, when it comes up in your professional life, and-- BRIAN: Monogamy? AUDIENCE MEMBER: That too, but monotony. When
things just become really repetitive or routine. TALIESIN: Weirdly, I got to say, maybe this is a
function of LA, I don't think I've had a repetitive day in 35 years or so? MATT: You also live in a very unique plane of
existence, Taliesin. BRIAN: Yeah, Taliesin, you sleep in a different
coffin every night, what are you talking about? TALIESIN: There's a curse, and there's some things
I have to do-- BRIAN: I know, I've seen the clipboard. TALIESIN: God. MATT: For me? Change of scenery. Self care is a
very important thing in any creative field because it can be a very soul-crushing experience at
times, and the monotony in any job can become a very difficult thing to maintain, so you owe it to
yourself, when you feel that drudgery take over a bit, to walk away and force yourself to go to a
space that's unfamiliar, a space that is different and forces you out of your comfort zone, and you
have to adjust. Partially, because it shakes your system a bit, but you might end up discovering a
location or people or an environment that you never thought you'd enjoy before, and it might
unlock some interesting passions and reinvigorate aspects of your life that you didn't consider
until that moment. It's amazing what a change of scenery can do, even if it's just taking a walk if
you have writer's block, or something along those lines, just getting yourself out of that stagnant
space that you found yourself in, and run in a different direction for a while. TALIESIN: Just to quickly add to that: there is
information in the ether that surrounds us, there's this notion that life is designed in its
very DNA to be toil, and the notion of any kind of delight or pleasure is a strange aberration from
the toil that life is supposed to be. I assure you this is not true! You are currently at a
convention full of people enjoying themselves, and this is an important and necessary thing you're
supposed to do every day in some way. Toil is almost the weird one, really know that you'll do
better work if you're happy and enjoying yourself, any way you can. BRIAN: Yeah, and I would say fresh eyes, fresh
ears, if you write, give it to somebody to read that doesn't normally read the kind of stuff you
write. If you make music, get fresh ears and fresh eyes on whatever you create, maybe somebody that
wouldn't normally listen to it. It's good to get an outside perspective on something. I think that
helps me, creatively. TALIESIN: Sound design is nuts, too. BRIAN: Yeah, sound especially. AUDIENCE MEMBER: We might be giving you guys a
call at some point. MATT: All righty! BRIAN: As long as you're not with law enforcement,
you're more than welcome to. MATT: Is it a subpoena? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes. MATT: Oh god. I know who you are, now! Thank you
very much! AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah, of course! MATT: Hey, what's your name? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Be pleased. MARISHA: Beep beep. MATT: Bidet. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I was at the Charlet Chung panel,
and she touched on this bit where directors would give really weird descriptions of the kind of
sound they were trying to get. What's one moment that sticks out for you? MATT: Of strange script directions and sound
effects? AUDIENCE MEMBER: If you want
to give an example-- MARISHA: One was with Taliesin as the director. TALIESIN: I do that a lot. MARISHA: With me, that I reference all the time.
That was Akiba's Trip. TALIESIN: Which piece of direction? MARISHA: It was, "I need you to attack like a cat
person, like a... half-cat, half-person." TALIESIN: Sounds like me. MARISHA: "And I need you to be incensed that as
you're attacking, your clothes are being ripped off." TALIESIN: That sounds like me--
MATT: Because Japan. MARISHA: Because Japan. And so, I was like-- TALIESIN: Did I say "Because Japan"? MARISHA: I think "Because Japan" got dropped a few
times. TALIESIN: Yeah. If I recall, that was definitely
said several times during that game. MARISHA: And it turned into a: (screeching cat
noise). I don't know. It was weird. TALIESIN: You did pretty good, if I recall. MARISHA: It was all right. It was fine. TALIESIN: That was a good one. MARISHA and BRIAN: It was fine. MATT: A lot of scripts get weird, interesting
sound effect noises. Things I love, are when the scripts give-- you have, especially if it's in a
long row, you have the line of dialogue, and next to it you have the direction that the writer has
for the certain feel of the line. I love the ones that are so, "Why did you write that down?" Where
the line is: "Thank you." And the descriptor is: "Like, thank you." And you're like:
Oh! Man! Thank you! BRIAN: Whoever put that in there, Sam always
Instagrams really funny ones, because he does a lot of voice directing, and it'll say, "Person is
on fire," and it says: "Person acting on fire." Gotcha. I think "Person on fire" is enough. Why do
they always add the thing? You guys aren't dumb. I think you guys could look at that and go, "Oh,
they need a person on fire." MARISHA: One of my favorite ones, I think it was
for the old Star Wars Battlefront, and it was this line where you're yelling, yelling, yelling, and
then I got to a certain point and it was like: "Just... more yelling." I remember taking a picture
of that one. This is my job right now: more yelling. TALIESIN: We'll text each other if they're really
good. MARISHA: Yeah, if they're really good. MATT: If you're lucky enough, I've been in a
couple of shows where I've known the writers, or friends with the writers on it, and so they'll
leave things in the script for you every now and then: "I'm so sorry for this." Like apologizing
for certain lines of dialogue, or they'll write lines in the scripts just to mess you up, and then
they'll be like, "All right, no, the real line is actually down here." BRIAN: That's messed up. MATT: I've had a couple times where I'd get to a
line and be like, "Really?!" BRIAN: Every word starts with P? MATT: Yeah. "How do I--" Then the director's in on
it, they're like, "Yeah, if we can get a few takes on that," and I'm like, "Okay. All right. (sigh)"
And then deliver this ridiculous line that makes no sense in context-- BRIAN: "I liked Paula Abdul's first three albums,
but the last three felt--" MATT: Stuff like that! And then, like: "All
right, cool, we got that on tape, I'll go ahead and send that over to Michelle.
Now we'll get you the actual line of dialogue." I'm like: (angry noise) "You!" BRIAN: That's messed up. MATT: Thank you, that's a good question. We should
go faster. Let's go faster, must go faster. MARISHA. Hey. Oh, hi.
HANNAH: We have about two minutes left. AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is for Marisha and
Taliesin. What was the most defining moment in your character, for either Keyleth or Percy, for a
turning point? What moment is the most important to that character? MATT: Lightning round! MARISHA: I think about Patrick Rothfuss and
talking her down out of a panic attack quite a lot, because the rest of Vox Machina was too
distracted and too in the moment and he was an outside force that was like, "Yeah, let's relate
for a second. Let's go outside and relate. Hey girl, you want to go relate?" AUDIENCE MEMBER: Sure. MATT and MARISHA: Go relate and chill. TALIESIN: Ripley and Orthax in the dungeon was the
moment where I'm like, okay, I finally figured him out. When he was finally having that "What is
happening to me? What is my life? Hold on!" That was his moment of actually getting some clarity. MATT: Cool. ALL: Great question. Great costume! MARISHA: Clank clank clank. AUDIENCE MEMBER: True disadvantage
on stealth rolls! MARISHA: True disadvantage, yep. Now you know why. AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is my friend Lindsey, it's
her first con, and she's going to ask the next question! MATT: Hi Lindsey! LINDSEY: Obviously there are plenty of classes to
be taking that are helpful for voice acting and writing. For you guys, what has been the most
beneficial class that you've taken? MARISHA: Improv. MATT: Improv has been huge. Improv and cold
reading. TALIESIN: Cold reading classes. There's some
classical theater. I liked learning history of theater. It was very useful. MARISHA: The hardest part is picking a few things
and committing 100 percent in those cold reading auditions, and even if it sucks, at least the
director knows you can commit. MATT: Yeah, make a choice and stick to it. MARISHA: Make a choice. Making a choice is
massive. And then the director will say "New choice" and you go, "No, I'm Faye Dunaway!" and
then you go, and then that's a new choice. MATT, BRIAN, and MARISHA: Always Faye Dunaway. MARISHA: Never go full Faye Dunaway. TALIESIN: Not even Faye Dunaway goes full
Faye Dunaway. BRIAN: No, she knows better. MARISHA: But that tells them that you're malleable
and can be directed, and can make a strong choice, even if it sucks. MATT: Awesome. Thank you, good question! BRIAN: If you're a writer, just Google David Milch
and watch any video where he's talking, because he's a genius. That's not a joke. HANNAH: Guys, I'm so sorry, that was our last
one. ALL: (gasps) Wait wait, one last one! BRIAN: Our panel tomorrow is going to be an hour
Q&A, so you can always ask questions tomorrow. AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is inspired by Matt, because
earlier you mentioned Marisha. You mentioned she was shut down because "A woman can't do this" or
whatever. This is probably a good general persevering question. I'm a woman about to go into
a tech industry, which is a male-dominated field. Marisha, what do you do to pep talk yourself,
essentially, during those times? It's probably, like I said, a general thing. TALIESIN: That's a good one.
MARISHA: It's very layered. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I know, I'm sorry,
it's a bad last question. MARISHA: No, it's good. MATT: It's a good question, though. MARISHA: Great question. First and foremost, I
always try and speak to our boys, our guys in the audience, and say you also have a responsibility
here. Feminism is not a female-exclusive problem. This is a team issue. Everyone has a
responsibility here. I do a lot of stuff, super subconsciously. If I have a big meeting, I'll wear
a button-down shirt and slacks and boots. What I try and keep in the back of my mind is that I'm
not the first and I won't be the last, and there are more allies than enemies. Find your allies.
They will be your guiding force and your strength behind you, but to definitely persevere.
You got this, girl. You good. BRIAN: Don't take no for an answer,
like she said. MARISHA: Don't take no for an answer. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Love you guys.
MARISHA: Do not take no for an answer. MATT: Thank you guys. I'm so sorry for the people
who we couldn't get to your questions. We have other panels this weekend, so if you didn't get
your question answered, bring it to the next panel, we'll try and get to it then. [light piano music]
