282: The Pope Lick Monster goes to the Carnival

I have a mic now. Usually a bad sign. Okay, you bozos out there, this is Stephen Chiodo and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Movie Meltdown. It's showtime.

The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian and this week we're heading back into our coverage of our own crazy festival, The Cryptic Carnival. which featured an art show, live music, a movie viewing, a live yeti, belly dancers, and an out-of-control giant frogman roaming the grounds.

Plus, along the way, we still managed to hang out and talk movies, like we do. Now, this is our second wave of cryptid insanity, so if you haven't already listened to the first. Half of this coverage, well, you're doing it wrong. So I say you go back and listen to episode 281, appropriately titled Welcome to the Cryptid Carnival. Then you'll understand how we got to this point, and just how all this craziness started.

Well, as much as anyone can understand it. And again, this episode we had Sterling on hand as one of my main co-hosts, and as it turns out, there's a lot to do and keep track of when you're hosting a cryptid carnival. So the keeping things up and running, of course, fell on me, but as I went to go take care of cryptid business, I will give credit to Sterling, as I passed the mic off to him and let him continue talking with people at the show. Now, normally, I think I would usually just stop recording at this point, but knowing how Sterling operates, I kind of wanted to see not only if he would take the mic and run with it, but also just how long he would keep posting on his own. At one point, I came back after I'd finished what I was doing and just kind of stood there watching him talking with people.

Amused by his antics, I actually just stood back for a minute and watched the crazy conversation unfold. It is quite amusing. That's probably why I was laughing and taking pictures of him at that point. Anyway, that having been said, let's get back into the coverage of the event, and you'll hear me pass the mic off to Sterling right now. Oh, oh, looks like we've got another band warming up over there.

Should we head over there? Should we talk to some of these preteens over here? Can you take and run with it if I go flag these people to the right spot? Yeah, I can take it and run with it. You're going to give me all this stuff?

Dude, you're still attached. Could you just unplug that? I don't need that. You don't need that. Okay.

All right, so Brian has given me the equipment, and I'm just kind of wandering around by myself. Looks like we have a band setting up here. Who are you guys? We are The Formalities. The Formalities.

Yes, sir. Okay, and what kind of stuff are you guys going to play for us tonight? All original groovy tunes. Groovy tunes. I'm in favor of groovy tunes.

What brings you here to the Cryptid Festival? Well, we got invited by Brian. Brian was like, come play, and we said, hell yeah, dude. I like your honesty. Yeah.

All right, well, we're looking forward to hearing you tonight. All right, sweet. All right. Not very many people with insight into the cryptid problem. I'm wondering about, I see a Yeti. over here.

Say a couple words, Yeti. Good evening, and welcome from Yeti. There's Yeti. Let's see. You all look very young.

I'm going to start talking to you as the bus goes on. That way, you know, this will all get erased eventually on the mic, and you can say whatever you want, and we'll be basically censored. What brings you all here tonight? Anyone, speak up. Our friends.

Your friends band brought you here? What about monsters? What about cryptids? What about the Loch Ness Monster? The things that really matter.

You don't know? I didn't know that was happening. You didn't know that was happening. Well, most people don't know what's happening until the bus passes right by. Most people don't know what's happening until the monster's already in their backyard.

Are you concerned at all about cryptids? Hell yeah. Hell yeah? Do you realize they could be upon us right now? Yeah.

They could be watching us at this very location. Yes, sir. Yeah. Don't call me sir, okay? Jesus.

Wow. I mean, brah? You call me brah? Yeah. Brah?

Sorry, I've heard bro, I've heard bra, I have yet to hear bra. Is that a new thing? Nah. See, now I'm old. When I say, is that a new thing, that's automatically old.

So tell me, what do you think about the cryptid menace? I think that's pretty crazy. You think it's pretty crazy? Which one are you most afraid of? What are the options?

What are the options? Listen, lady, you need to get yourself informed, okay? Because this problem is not going to go away if we continue a laissez-faire attitude, all right? We need to be electing the right kinds of officials to deal with the problem, all right? Okay, I agree, yes.

Preach. Preach? Yes. You want me to tell you what you should already know, okay? Next thing you're going to be telling me, what?

Wait, oil pollutes things? What? Cryptids are a problem? Come on. I don't know.

I don't know anything. There you have it, folks. America, uninterested, bored, and tragically uninformed. That's a good explanation. I'm sorry, miss, what's that?

I said I like your slint shirt. Thank you very much. I also like this slint shirt. We just had a very long conversation about it. In fact, I like it quite a bit.

You say the American public is misinformed. Who's misinforming them? The government. The government. So the government is indeed keeping, and the media.

And the media. The media. You hear it right here, folks, from the mouths of babes. We have America being torn apart through misinformation thanks to the government and the media oblivious to the cryptid menace. Hey, gang, what's up?

I'm just interviewing people here to discover why we've come in search of cryptids, monsters, machinations of the unknown. What do you guys think of cryptids? Which one are you afraid of? Which one draws you with its mysterious allure? I'm not afraid of any cryptids.

You're afraid of no cryptids? I'm afraid of nothing. Sir, do you know what Bigfoot can do to a fully grown human being? Nothing. Neither do I.

You know why? Because no one has survived to tell the tale. Or no one's seen him. Sir, you can't qualify that. You can't prove that.

She survived it, dude. You survived Big Dude. They just referred to Bigfoot as Big Dude. You survived Bigfoot. Yeah.

You're very small. How did you survive Bigfoot? He's friendly. There you have it, folks. Bigfoot is friendly.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So the media is misinforming us about Bigfoot. Yeah, they're making him bad when really there's chill. Bigfoot is, in fact, just chill. You heard it here.

What about Bigfoot? What about Mothman? You guys tell me. He's scary. He's scary?

Why is he scary? I've seen Mothman. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hang on, hang on. You are sitting here telling me there is no such thing as cryptids.

You tell me that you're not afraid of Bigfoot, and suddenly you're afraid of Mothman? I'm not afraid of Mothman. That's like saying you're not afraid of Godzilla, you're afraid of Mothra. I'm not afraid of no Mothman. You're not afraid of no Mothman.

Is it your backwards cap that gives you such confidence there? Exactly. Well done, sir. It's actually my hat, but I'm scared of Mothman, too. Well, you should be afraid of Mothman.

Why are you afraid of Mothman? I don't know. You don't know? They made a movie about it, and it was scary. It was.

It did have Richard Gere. Everyone was very much afraid. They did a good job. They did do a pretty good job. There's this little part in the beginning where his wife's cancer in the brain was shaped like a Mothman.

Yeah, yeah. And the whole movie, I was waiting to see, so why is Mothman in her brain? I don't understand. But it was never explained. Yeah, but Mothman, it makes sense that you wouldn't know why you were afraid of Mothman.

Because if you think about it, Mothman is all about the unknowns. He's about the mysterious. He's about that thing coming to us in the middle of the night that says, something terrible is going to happen. And you're like, no, it's just indigestion. And it's like, no, it's for real.

Yeah. So you, not afraid of Bigfoot because that represents actual physical terror. You're obviously a very physically confident fellow, wouldn't you say? Not really. Yeah, well, it's all in your stance, sir.

But besides that, yeah, the way you're huddled there in the corner. But you're obviously a man who's afraid of what the future has to hold. Yes. Yes. Would you say that cryptids in some respect represent this fear to you?

No. No? What represents the fear of the unknown to you, sir? Because I don't know. I'm sorry, sir.

That was the wrong kind of sentence to answer that question with. What represents your fear of the unknown is what I'm wondering. Okay, let me pose this in a different way. Let me pose this in a different way. Why do you think people believe in things like Bigfoot or Mothman or Mothra, for that matter?

Mothra? Yeah, you know, Godzilla's greatest enemy. I know, I know, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I think people....

I don't know. I'm lost for words. Because I've just never believed in Bigfoot. Because people are curious. So you think curiosity creates these things?

Curiosity.... I guess, yeah. So curiosity creates the critters? Somewhat. Yeah.

So you think it's like. Seeing something that's unexplainable and then turning it into this big story over exaggeration. Stretching the truth. Okay. Why do you think people feel... the need to stretch the truth?

I mean, we live boring sometimes because. Life is boring, especially if you live in Arkansas. Believe me, I've been through Arkansas. I've seen it. It's all boring.

Except for Hebrew Springs. That's pretty nice. But but anyway, back on point. Okay, so curiosity, boredom, these things eventually lead people to create monsters. Why monsters?

I have no idea. Me neither. And we may never know. It's the same thing as. Religion, like God.

Wait, so cryptids are the same thing as religion? In a way. They're something that's not been proven, that's made up, that people put their beliefs into. Things that you can't disprove. Things that you can't disprove, like Mothman.

Yeah, you can't disprove Mothman. You can't disprove Mothman. Mothman is God. Mothman is God. I'm kidding.

Alright, you heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen. The first church of Mothman has been founded. We don't know yet what membership will consist of, but certainly the destruction of bridges will be a part of the faith. Yeah. So you can't disprove God, you can't disprove Mothman, so in a way, God and Mothman are the same in your mind.

Yes. Alright, fair enough. So all that theology stuff is just essentially more complicated explanations for how Mothman does his Mothman thing? Exactly. Okay, okay.

Richard Dawkins would be proud of you. Any other parting words about cryptids before I move on and harass more people? Believe what you want to believe. Believe what you want to believe. Don't believe what you don't want to believe.

Nice. So if anyone out there in listening land wants to believe in monsters, wants to believe in cryptids, wants to believe in the unexplainable or the unexplained, go ahead. Because you know what, man? More power to you. Yeah.

Thank you. You heard it right here. What is this for? It's for the podcast. Movie Meltdown is what's sponsoring this whole thing.

I didn't even know. Isn't that cool? I don't know how to ask. Yeah, I know. It's Movie Meltdown.

Everything has a specific purpose. Even the unexplainable. No? No. Things don't have specific purposes?

No. No. Okay. There you have it, folks. A belief in random chance.

Yes. Gotcha. Do you think cryptids are the result of random chance? I'll be honest. I don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know what a cryptid is? No. A cryptid is something like the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot, any sort of monster that people claim to have seen, but, yeah. Typically, cryptids are any kind of large critter that people buy into, but we don't necessarily have proof of. Sorry, aren't what?

Are there various cryptids there? Well, not exactly. That's actually a good question, though. Why not, he says. Haven't you seen that video that was, I think it came out, like, 2012 of, it was in England.

It was, like, This guy, he was filming his daughter. She was playing with these bugs, and they looked like fairies. No, I haven't seen that video. But, well, fairies may... This is actually an interesting question.

Some people claim that things like Bigfoot or space aliens that they see over Roswell, New Mexico, which is a pretty neat town, by the way, all these sorts of creatures are, in fact, just the American version of fairies. In ancient Europe, they had fairies and monsters and demons and things like that, and we have space aliens. What's up? How did you come up with the definition? Who came up with the definition of cryptids?

Well, cryptid, of course, means like crypto, like secret. Yeah. Like, yeah. I understand the etymology. Sure.

Well, cryptozoology is the study of creatures that are not yet known. So in other words, if people discover like traces that an animal might exist in a certain area and they try to track it down, that's cryptozoology. That's trying to find secret animals. Now, by the way, I want to mention that creatures are actually found every other week. Like, we find new species constantly in the ocean, all over the place.

Yeah, in the ocean. Yeah, there we have a good example. But people who call themselves cryptozoologists usually go looking for things that are a little bit more unusual, like Bigfoot. Like they're not looking for a microbe. They're not looking for like a subspecies of some kind of fish.

They're actually looking for, you know, something huge that eats a lot of food that only like five farmers have seen in Arkansas in the last 30 years, you know? So that's why when people usually talk about cryptozoology, you know, most scientists just sort of roll their eyes and say, oh yeah, that. But yeah, that's where the word came from. Make sense? Yes.

So do you guys have any parting thoughts on cryptozoology or would you like to grow up someday and become cryptozoologist yourself? Are you a cryptozoologist or are you just like an interviewer? I'm just an interviewer, but I did in fact play a cryptozoologist once in a play. But that was a long time ago. That was like all last year or something.

What's your own personal opinion on what you're talking about? Oh, on cryptids? Well, I said before, I like to hold to a principle called Sterling's Razor. My name is Sterling, by the way. Which says that all other things being equal, choose the solution that's most interesting.

So if you run across a giant foot in the woods, yeah, you could believe it's just a footprint that's been distorted or some random natural phenomena. Or you could believe there's a giant ape man living out in the woods. Which one's more fun to believe? That's awesome. Yeah, isn't that...

That's really cool. It's like people get bored, so they have to create their own fun. Sorry, it's like drugs? I mean, like, people get bored, so they have to create their own fun. Okay, well, it's funny, because someone just used that exact same explanation over there on that table to talk about God.

No, dude, I totally feel that. Yeah. So drugs, God, and cryptids. Are all the same thing. They're all the same thing.

So God is a Bigfoot on acid. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Okay.

Wow. Wow. You people are credits to your Catholic school teachers. I went to a Catholic school for two years. Of course.

It's only people who go to Catholic school that wind up really hating Catholics. Oh, yeah. No, dude, my dad has a life-size cross. Your dad has a life-size cross? Wow.

Does he intend to put anybody on it? Because that's a problem. He really likes Jesus. Well, a lot of people who have crosses do. No, but he chose Jesus to escape from drugs.

Gotcha. Well, that works for some people. So it's another addiction. Oh, I see. So religion is an addiction.

Yes. Okay. Well, what's not an addiction? And they use it to, like, justify shit. Well, help me out here.

Because I have a question. Okay, so it's basically assumed, right, when you're looking out into the stars at night, like, you look out there and you're like, you're not like, I know everything that's going on. No, I have no idea what's going on. You have no idea what's going on. Right, right, right.

So can we fairly say that very few of us, you don't even know what's happening right now. To be honest. I never do. So the question then is, if you don't know what's going on, you know, isn't it assumed, though, as you make your way through your day that you have some sort of assumption about what's going on? No, I never know what the day is going to hold.

Well, yeah, but I mean, you assume that the sun's going to rise and that things are going to happen and something. I'm very scared for anything could happen at any time. Anything could happen at any time. But I guess what I'm getting at is this. What's the difference between the assumptions that you make about your universe that you don't really understand all that well and the assumptions that other people make when they claim that something like Bigfoot or a god exists?

Because they need to know something. They need to find something that they can put faith in and believe in to ensure them that the sun is going to rise or something. But that doesn't really relate to Bigfoot. That's more just religion. So Bigfoot and religion aren't the same?

I mean, they are. They have overlapping. Overlapping. Overlapping things in common, but they are not entirely the same because of the complexities in each. I see.

Well, a lovely thesis delivered by... Eden. Eden. Yes. Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you, Eden.

You too. Hope to see you again. There you have it, folks. More and more information about cryptids and God. Feels like blind faith Let me down today.

So, so divine with a young, rousing mind. Smile, sweet kind, a laugh that triggered my heart. On December 25th, 1953, a child is born, a virgin birth. Tomorrow, all civilization will tremble under his almighty power. He must be obeyed.

Who, what? Moses and Jesus, really. Sacrifices to your God are nothing new. Are you going to tell me all those people are meant to die? Why did you attack all.

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Let me down today. Babe. Okay, kids, now just a message about the actual artwork featured at the Cryptid Carnival. I just wanted to pass along that many of the special cryptid works of art created specifically for this show are still. Available for purchase.

I'm going to be posting photos of all the work at MovieMeltdown.com on our Meltdown Boutique page. There, you too can pick yourself up some original cryptid artwork from this actual show. No matter where you live, just email me. The address will be there on the page. and we can work out a way to ship your favorite cryptid artwork. Right to your home.

So go check out our Tales from the Cryptids Art Show online. Speaking of terrific artwork, for this event I enlisted the artistic services of Kelly Toon, who set up out on the sidewalk of the event and started drawing caricatures of all the weird people and creatures that wandered by, including many of our crew. She did a great job, and we want to thank her for adding her art to the Tales from the Cryptids Art Show. So for more on her work, go to kellytoon.com. That's Toon Like Cartoon, T-O-O-N.

But I'll also put the link to her page in the rundown of. This very episode. So go there and check it out. And speaking of those caricatures, right in the middle of all the shenanigans going on at this very cryptid carnival, Sterling and I sat down and got a caricature done of us while we were recording. Again, I love to tie the actual recording into everything that we do on this show.

So Kelly is actually sitting there drawing us while we ramble on about cryptids and whatnot. Which is what we're going to do right now. So let's head back into the coverage and we'll be sitting down to get our caricature done by Kelly. I think we need like a podcasting version of it here. Let's do that.

So you guys have a podcast? He does. I'm just a pod mooch. You do this. I'll be this one.

Okay. It's an action shot. What are you talking about? It's an action shot. It's a still action shot.

Sort of. Kind of. Something like that. So welcome back, by the way. Somehow I hit the off button when I was running around doing interviews.

See, I turned it over to you for a minute and look what happened. Dude, I'm not prepared for this sophisticated podcast technology. The really funny thing is you guys don't even know he was rambling for like 28 minutes. And God only knows what those people were. No, it's amazing.

I talked to the youth of the world about the misinformation, about cryptids. and about all the confusion and darkness being spread by the government and the major corporations and the media about the cryptid menace, which they didn't even know what a cryptid was for the longest time. And then at some point they came to the conclusion that cryptids were something that people needed to believe in, like God. They actually equated Bigfoot to God. Actually, one of the very first discussions we had on them... When we started doing the Tales from the Cryptids series, we decided that it was something that sort of was necessary in society, specifically in American society.

It was this sort of like lost wilderness. It was this like we'd kind of gotten to that point of like, you know, they kind of kick in, especially the Bigfoot stories in like the like 60s. So we'd already kind of built this whole society and we'd sort of settled down and we'd conquered most of this country that we planned on conquering. And like there was this weird leftover version that was like this, there was some piece that was never going to be tamed. It was this wild thing that was elusive to the point that you couldn't even contain it.

It was this thing. It was an idea. It was an ideal of Americana. I don't know. I think we kind of hit on something that There is a reason I think it's so much more popular in America.

It's the world over you have the stories, but we have a weird subculture that's obsessed with it. And I think a piece of it is that missing lost wilderness thing that we have. I think there's something to that. I mean, I won't even comment on whether or not cryptids are actually real in any sense. I mean, to me, that's beside the point.

Cryptids and the phenomenon around cryptids, as well as the phenomenon around aliens in the 50s, Even to some degree like stories about the Soviets during the Cold War. In some way, I feel like they all actually represent sort of a folk culture not unlike that of English fairies or leprechauns or the Kelpie or any sort of like. ancient Celtic or medieval Anglo-Saxon mythology, like where they peopled the world with all these sort of interesting creatures that they imagine sort of lurked at the edges of society. And maybe in some way these things serve a similar function for us. if so i think that's cool because i actually think that uh belief in certain in such things whether or not again i don't care if they exist or not that to me is beside the point uh that belief in these things is actually kind of fundamental to a healthy national psychology you know it's like there should be room for the unknown there should be room for the unusual things should not be left up to uh uh things should not always be assumed to be known perfectly you know.

I think that's part of it. There has to be that, like, unknown wilderness thing. I think that's how it comes back to the weird Bigfoot thing. Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think what else we can say about this.

But, yeah, no, it's kind of amazing what the... So she asked, is that where zombies come from? Is that what the phenomenon of zombies is all about? Well, here's my suspicion. Zombies, to me, I think represent a different aspect of pop culture.

I think that they relate a little bit more to maybe the population issue as people are afraid of it. Now, by the way, I actually don't believe in the population fear. I'm not actually that worried about it. But with that said, I think that people who live in urban areas and deal a lot in customer service jobs definitely have a lot to sympathize with the idea of zombies, you know? For them.

It's not just a monster. It's a direct representation of things that they deal with every day. That's just a thought, though. But I don't even think that fully explains why the George Romero zombie has become so enormously popular. I think it's bits and pieces.

I think part of it is there is just that fear of death. And I think there's a very basic version of it that's just people being afraid of... Of the unknown, of death, of that other side, and they don't know what to do about it, so they create these... It's why all the monsters have sort of come about. If you're living within the fear, you're kind of...

Within that second, like, you're not afraid. Like, it's sort of trying to answer that question of what's in the unknown, and if you make up what's in the unknown, then you know. Yeah. I think part of it is that, and then there is, like, these weird other versions that we've been branching off over the years that, like, is it, like, the... consumerism that we come up with. You get to Shaun of the Dead or something where it's the mindlessness as he walks down the street every day.

And don't we all feel like we go through the same drudgery every day? So there's a weird commentary there. Or it is fear of overcrowding or disease or just general fears in our society at this point that just manifest themselves In this zombie thing, I think that's part of why people latch onto it. Even if they're unknowingly doing that, I think that's part of it. Also, who doesn't imagine a day where they could just run down their hometown street with a shovel in hand and just beat the crap out of every face they run into?

That is also true. Who doesn't have that day every day? I mean, who doesn't wake up every morning wishing that they could just teach them all a lesson? Who doesn't hope that... We are a culture built on that, you know... crazy individuals and that time bomb of like one of these days i'm gonna get to do things my way and so when all hell breaks loose no matter what kind if if it's a virus outbreak or zombies overtake the world or nuclear war sets in you know it's like you get all of a sudden you get your free chance to do whatever the hell you want so.

So i like i like by the way individualism is a time bomb is that you're yeah. You're a walking time bomb right now Um, yeah, it's funny actually, cause, cause, um, that was what people used to say back when the American experiment was first starting, you know, eventually. You know, you're all your people who are just let loose spot, you know, to do whatever they want. They're going to, they're going to eventually kill each other. That's just inevitable.

Well, I, that's how, that's another thing. Maybe, yeah. The whole idea of, of, of, the cryptid, the experiment, you know, run wild. Like certain cryptids are rumored to be escaped monsters from laboratories and things. And that plot is in every TV show, you know?

So, so, um, I don't know, maybe, maybe here in America we have a love for experiments gone wrong as much as we have a love for science gone right. Again, we may be an experiment gone wrong. Well, I certainly know all about that. I do experimental theater and that's almost always going wrong. I built a lab in my home.

You built a lab in your home? I'm working on experiments. Did you re-watch Re-Animator? Last year. Actually, that frogman over there, I watched it in his backyard.

Oh, yeah? He projected it on a screen in his backyard. By the way, the frogman is hanging on the tree. If you haven't talked to Bo, he's put on a giant Leland frog monster. That's Bo.

Yeah, that's Bo. Do you know Bo? He's very special, that Bo. She doesn't know Bo, or she does seem to know Bo. I know, she's waggling her eyebrows.

Everyone kind of has that when Bo's around, actually. He's a charming fella with his tie and his vest. But now he's put on a giant frog head, so he's been running in traffic and trying to chase down a train. Now he's doubling up on frog masks. Yeah, he grabbed my other frog mask.

He's trying to put that on the frog mask. He's in disguise while in disguise. Yeah, I think that the frog mask has unleashed something in Bo. And we have someone with a bird on their shoulder. This is pretty entertaining.

Yeah, I know. It looks like a pirate with some sort of hip attachment. oh wait is that a real bird that is a real bird oh holy shit that person has a real bird on their shoulder that's awesome they're a real like pirate that's yet to be seen and they're like one of the cool kinds of pirates not the ones i see on cnn they're not cool well i mean i'm sure they're living the dream man come on i'm sorry i'm sure they're cool where they're from like so cool when they take over your boat well it's just one of those things of like oh man like we have pirates then none of them wear three-cornered hats like you know It's not so much like a, hey, that's lame. It's more like, really, guys, can't we? If you're going to take over someone else's vote, at least stop by Long John Silver's first.

Is that too much to ask? By the way, we would like to apologize to the nation of Somalia and all of its people. And Long John Silver. And for Iyaka. By the way, screw anybody that makes fun of Somalia.

Actually, they've got a very interesting legal system, which I'll go in depth in in the next podcast. We don't need that. Be that way, Brian. Always wreck my dreams. That's what I'm here for.

So we're hanging out. We're listening to some tunage. We're still getting our picture drawn. That'd be the formalities. Well, I think it's going to be...

I think she's making it extra humiliating. Is her goal. Because ever since I saw her for the first time, she's had a very wicked smile on her face. Sinister, I believe. Sinister.

And. She's been waiting. She's been waiting, and... Oh, God. It's...

She's doing something to the lower half of the picture, and I don't know what it is. Uh-oh, here it comes. Uh-oh, here comes our. Nice. Wow.

That is the rambling mood that we usually. Who doesn't want to kill everybody? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. So, I think we found our...

Your new, our new, uh... Wow, that's a perfect me, too. I look just that chubby and bald. I think this is fine. I don't know what you're talking about.

Frogger's being a creeper. Uh, he is a creeper. Can we help you, Leland Frogmonster? You did great work, by the way. Yes, absolutely fabulous.

What was your name again? That was the Frogmonster. Yeah, no, uh. That was a nickname of mine in theater camp. Back when I wasn't.

Cool and I went to theater camp. Wait, when you weren't cool? When I weren't cool. Sorry, I should say when I was cool. You know, when I was doing musicals in the summer like all the cool kids.

I think we need to redefine this cool you're using. Man, I redefine cool. You're throwing the word cool around loosely. I walk around and people realize that they can't do the things they were doing before. It's not cool anymore.

Well, that's the thing. I put it on a baseball cap, everyone else takes theirs off. Obviously, because I do it too cool. Can you talk about berries and big foots and all that fun stuff? Yeah, hey, I mean, it's how I keep myself interested.

I just turn off my brain and I turn on my mouth. And yet, we handed you a microphone. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Well, you were thinking you really need to eat up minutes on this podcast and you had nobody else to turn to. Seems to be working.

Because she's... He's kind of like that all the time, but if you let him. Kelly, I'm giving you the mic. Recently, we were at Wonderfest, and that frog creature over there, he actually got completely made up in full-on werewolf attire, in actual latex, and he spent the entire night made up as a werewolf, and he ran around terrorizing people, much like he is here tonight. That sounds like my kind of fun.

It's kind of his thing. He likes to pester people. Not for our purposes. No, it's okay. I was going to say, yeah.

Lovely evening out here at Nancy's Bagel. Grounds. Where are we? Nancy's Bagel Grounds. Kelly, you make a wonderful, clueless reporter.

Oh, yes. Thank you very much. You have that going for you. Where am I? Who am I?

Where am I? What am I saying? Oh, cue card. Oh, I'm drawing. All right.

Who am I drawing next? Thank you. You can edit this out. Do you have any questions for a professional caricature artist since I've got. A microphone in my hand?

I have nothing but pictures of myself. What sort of weird ego thing am I working with here? I have one in there that I'm on the head of an alien, like the egg-bursting alien from Alien. Nice. Yeah.

My head has been put on one of those. Very creative. I didn't request that part, but it's... It's pretty entertaining. It's always the stuff that you don't request that's the most fun.

Well, I convinced Eric Chu to do the artwork, and then he was like, I'll do it, but I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do. Who did you say you convinced to do the artwork? Eric Chu. He's like a visual designer. He did the Battlestar Galactica reboot.

Yeah, I knew I recognized the name. He did all the Cylons and Raiders and Vipers. Really great stuff, too. Really great stuff. I'm a big fan of his style.

And he's a weirdo. Here comes my next victim, I think. Your next victim? I'll hand it back over to you. All right.

We'll turn it over and clear the chairs so you can do more caricaturing. Now the sheep man outwits and outguesses all comers, runs a reckless course in fierce excitement and showdown action. So for the movie tie-in in this episode, we waited until after dark to be extra creepy. and we sat down and watched The Legend of the Popelik Monster. Now, this is sort of an infamous movie, especially in this area. It's a short film made by a local filmmaker and has been around for years, and it sort of built up a reputation as time has gone on.

So not only was I glad to get a chance to show it there for everyone at the show, but I was also thrilled to convince the director of the short film to come out and join us for the viewing and actually hang around afterwards and answer some questions. And as much as I wanted to, yes, talk about the cryptid featured in this film, I was equally as interested in learning about his early days, starting off as a young filmmaker. I mean, this short was actually shot on film, and some of you younger listeners may need to get an adult to explain the pre-digital days of cinema to you. But seriously, I was glad to get a chance to hear his version of being a young filmmaker who actually took the initiative to get his film made, and back when the resources and equipment were much harder to get a hold of.

The trestle. Ooh, sheep man. Yeah. Wait a minute. Who is the sheep man?

You've never heard of the public monster? Man, where you been all your life? Band practice? No, what is it? It's this half-man, half-sheep creature that lives out near the train trestle.

Yeah, and at night it comes out and it lures people out on the tracks. Where did it come from? Do you really want to know? Yeah. Well, there was this horny old farmer Who had a torrid affair with a youth.

All right, so we're going to jump right back into the coverage here. And this is right as we finish watching the film. We're going to go right into talking to the director. Well, that is right after Sterling wings this crazy intro. I was sitting around with us to watch.

Like many of you, I came here because I'm interested in the truth. Of what happened. And I'd like to think that every time that we get together to talk about an event like this that's so poorly understood by so many of us, it brings us a little bit closer to understanding the evils and terrors that lie at the heart of. Sometimes our own community just off Taylor's Mill Road. So thank you all for coming.

We're going to have a quick Q & A, talk about the movie. And talk about whatever else may arise in that twilight zone between consciousness and cryptids. I just made that up. How's that sound? All right.

So we are here with the director. And Ron, I will let you give your full name because I don't want to butcher it. So please. It's Shultnick. There we go.

All right. I guess we just wanted to find out early on, where did you learn about the story itself or just. The legend of the goat man or sheep man or all of that stuff? Well, I think like most everybody around here, they heard the story. I heard the story when I was growing up.

It was told to me a lot. I was in the marching band, and so there are a lot of stories told about the sheep man when I was in school. Oddly enough, I didn't go to the trestle when I was that age. I was too scared. It scared the crap out of me.

I'm like, no, I don't want to do this. Smart kid. Yeah. So it wasn't really until later when I was... This was my first film, and I was looking for something that was... indigenous to Louisville, you know, and to me nothing seemed more indigenous than The Sheep Man.

So that's what we started to work on. So I guess where did your filmmaking come in? Was it something you'd always been interested in even before that? Yeah, I've been wanting to make films for a long time. I was a cinematic freak when I was in high school, when I was a kid.

So making movies is something that I'd always wanted to do for a long time. My dad had a Super 8 camera, and I'd steal it whenever I could. We'd just far around and make movies. I've got a question about you. When you tell people at the bank or wherever, like, Hey, I need more money for my sheep man movie.

Um, and like, do you, have you gotten a lot of responses from people like, Oh my God, it's about time someone filmed the menace or like, or they wanted to tell you their own like sheep man stories or anything like that. uh, like, have you had a, in other words, have you had like much of a community response to this film in that way? For about 25 years I have. Yeah. Um, you know, it, it started out, started out anytime I would get a, anytime there was something that would happen at the trestle, I would get a phone call from, from one of the TV stations wanting to use the clip because, you know, there was an incident at the trestle. So it was like, um, but yeah, that's, I mean, that's how the movie started when I was, you know, I was, when I was doing the research for the film there, you know, this is pre-internet.

Um, I would just talk to people. Ah, the 90s. Yeah, 80s. Late 80s. Whichever.

So, and, you know, I would do research in libraries, but, you know, surprisingly enough, there wasn't that much information in libraries about the legend of the pulpit monster. Go figure. Shocking oversight in our nation's public libraries. And the Dewey Decimal System. So what, but, what all my interviews, I would talk to anybody that I could that had a story.

And the film became not so much about the Sheep Man, or the story for me became not so much about the Sheep Man itself, although there was a facet of that, obviously. But the stories that people were telling me of their adventures through the trestle. And, you know, they keep coming. And I guess he's not here, I can say this. But my cousin did the costume.

And she's been married for about 15 years, maybe, I think. They were married after the movie. To the sheet man? No. Sorry.

My cousin who did the costume, her husband just told me a week ago that he went out to the trestle and was caught by a train and had to run towards the train to avoid getting hit. Oh, wow. Because he was so close to the other side. So I'm like, dude, you're just now telling me this. What a great...

How many years have I been telling you? Yeah. Right. He knew about the movie. But anyways...

But yeah, I mean, I would get stories all the time. And before I made the movie, after I made the movie, people want to share their stories with me. And people want to ask me about the Pulp Lick Monster, and I'm no authority on the monster at all. I mean, I've seen documentaries about the film that, or about the legend that have incorporated, you know, they interviewed me and used a piece of the film from it, but. They would go into more detail about the sheep man than I even knew of.

Well, but, I mean, to be fair, though, I mean, you just told us that for the last 25 years you've been the go-to guy whenever the news reporters say something else has happened out there at the trestle. I mean, as much as anyone can be called an authority on something, I mean, excuse me, you've made a film about the Pope-like monster. You've been in touch with the media about the Pope-like monster. You've done research and watched documentaries about the Pope-like monster. You're the most educated man I know about the public monster.

I can say that right off the bat. I don't even have to think about it. Well, you know the term that Alfred Hitchcock used called the MacGuffin? It was the device to propel the story. The Sheep Man is the MacGuffin.

The Sheep Man was what propelled the story. These kids to go out to the trestle, have their encounter, the little passage of rights, the little flirting with the girl. the challenging by the friend, that's all. The Sheep Man was just a vehicle. Okay. Just to propel that, to move the story forward.

So how long was the shooting process? You said it was 88 when you started making it or earlier than that? It took me two years to make the film because we had no money. I was shot on 16mm film. I had to rent a camera.

By the way, props for that. I love the 16mm. I really do. Oh, thank you. It's a classic black and white It's a classic look.

It looks great. It's probably the worst day for night cinematography ever captured in a movie. But, you know, it is what it is. And whenever you see an actor by themselves, they probably were by themselves because we filmed this thing piecemeal. I stupidly cast people that were out of town.

That happens. Yeah. But, you know, to your credit, though, I mean, like every, you know, you criticize your own cinematography, but. Almost every shot of that trestle is overlaid with shadows, and you see people scrambling up dark hilltops. It really does feel like a strange, otherworldly...

I'm actually not a native. I haven't been out to the trestle yet and seen the otherworldly power of the place. So I don't know, but it really does look like a place I would never want to go. So if that was part of your intention, you really captured that. I will never go to Pope Lick.

I will obey the no trespassing sign. Well, there's a fence there now. Oh, good. Which they put up. To keep the Pope Lick people in?

You still can. I've actually, a Fox reporter, he did a story about six months ago. There's another reporter calling you and being like, hey. And we actually cut through the fence, and he wanted to get some shots. That's the kind of reporting I love.

He didn't use. I guess he got scared. Oh that came up right after that i mean you you made this and then all of that media craziness sort of set in and sort of started to center around you i guess you had no idea what you were getting yourself into shooting. It well i you know i knew i was flirting with a little bit of danger because i was shooting i asked the railroad for for permission to shoot the trestle and. They said sure um oh so it's still in operation today like it's still uh It's a functioning railroad, yeah.

Again, I don't know. I've not been to this mysterious Pope Lick planet. We'll send you down there. But they said, sure, you can film it. We just need a $ 3 million insurance liability policy, which is.

You totally had that. Yeah, yeah. Let me just pull that out. Not a problem. So we trespassed, obviously.

Nice. Like most indie filmmakers. Like most real filmmakers, excuse us. Yeah. Awesome.

They weren't happy with the film, as you might imagine. After that, there actually were deaths, and then a lot of that media came about. There were two actual deaths between the time we started it and when we finished it. So the railroad was in litigation with those two cases. So obviously they didn't like the film.

No. When the film was screened at the Uptown Theater on Bardstown Road for its premiere. Which now serves burritos, by the way. The fall in theaters. There was just this little blurb in the arts section on Sunday announcing the screening of the film.

By Tuesday, I found myself giving a private screening to the railroad's attorney, the railroad's chief of safety police, and the mother of one of the victims. Wow. That's not fun at all. Talk about a tough crowd. Yeah.

The whole message that Ben does at the end of the film, I really put that in myself because I did want there to be some sobering message in the film. But they wanted more. They wanted me to add a card at the beginning of the film that states the dangers. It's 300 feet across. It's 100 feet high.

There's no way someone could physically hang from the trestle that long. I think that would backfire. That's almost like a dare for kids at that point. There's no way you could do it. Yeah, no, that's right.

Waiting for waiting for horrible things to happen and not just goat men or sheep men but but other trains yeah trains. And of course after the night after the film they caught people out on the track and they're like see we told you right your movie is causing harm. I don't know i guess their jobs yeah i was gonna say but but it seems to me like pretty much everyone is always always ready for like oh sweet there's a there's another work of art out there that that that We can attack in lieu of attacking all these people who have made a decision of their own free will. I don't know. I stand by your little film.

I like it. It was fun. I'm glad you made it. Thank you. Absolutely.

What I wanted to ask is now we deal with such a different world for independent filmmakers, especially for kids that are coming up that want to do it. For you, shooting it like that, what do you do with a film? I mean, it's a very different world. So how did you... Once you had it done, then what were the steps at that point for you to try to do something with your movie?

Well, obviously you want it to be screened, so it was in film festivals. I had a lot of local screenings. Screening it 25 years later in a coffee shop, you know? Yeah. So you just look for any avenue you can to screen it.

I mean, obviously it's a different landscape now with YouTube and things like that. But there are still film festivals. There's still the little... film society that has screenings. and you know there's there's venues anywhere that you can you can find them you know or create them yourself and we and we did that after after the the premiere was so successful um i teamed with another filmmaker and we had like a week we screened the film for a week another week at the uptown theater so you just kind of create your own opportunities to get get the word out there cool. So do we want to open it up yeah if we if anybody else has any just do we have any questions to the mic and uh yeah we'll ask him questions.

Yes, about the sheep man, about his personal encounters with the mysterious. Okay, you're walking up, sir. Is that what this elephant motion is? I thought you were a frog earlier. Sir, could you state your name?

My name is Bo. Good job. So what's your question, Bo? My question is, how did you shoot the shots where he's hanging off the trestle as the train goes by? Because that's really impressive.

Was it? I mean, were you actually shooting when a train was going by or was it some sort of rear screen projection? No, there's no rear screen. I didn't, I didn't have that kind of access to that kind of technology. Um, you know, in the story, in your mind, you think that he's in the middle of the trestle when, you know, if you, of course now the trestle goes all the way up to right above ground.

So it was just, so he's just, he's just a few feet away really. I mean, there's, there's a shot on, on, in the outtakes on the DVD where he, he lets go. Um, it just, you know, the story puts you out in the, in, in the middle of the trestle when in fact he's just a few feet away. And that just answered my question. I was going to ask for both the viewers and myself, if you all sold copies of it, because yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Normally $ 20, $ 10 cryptid special tonight. There you go.

That's a deal. Cryptid special. Well, cryptids are always special here at movie belt down. I guess one last question. Do you have anything you're currently working on now?

I'm working on a, uh, yeah a handful of films right now um it's a uh i'm working on a detective story um i can't really talk about him too much right now. Gotcha it's too much and it's a mystery is what you're telling us yeah it's a mystery yeah yeah get it yeah no sorry it's a bad joke um i know rod you were asking about what other stuff he had out there or if things were available. So I guess, do you have other stuff available at your website or ways that people listening could get a hold of? RonShelton.com. Yeah.

Awesome. Spell the name. We will put a link on the show. There you go. It'll be easier.

Thanks. Thanks. We have time for more questions. I grew up in J-Town, so I went to J-Town High School. I know exactly this story.

I've done what you see in the movie. All right. And I'm still alive. And you're still here. Great.

Or are you? Maybe that's the twist of this episode. You saw The Sheep Man? I did not see The Sheep Man, thank God. But I've heard lots of stories about The Sheep Man over the years.

And your film just kind of comes up over and over in my life. I was a manager at Wild and Lonely Video for about six years. And your film was unobtainable. And every time Halloween came up, I swear I could answer the phone and say, thanks for calling Wild Moly Video if you'd like to get the legend of the Pope Lick. I mean, literally, almost everyone calling was calling about your film for year after year.

I was hooking them up. I was hooking Todd up with first VHS and then we did a DVD. Yeah, we had one copy on VHS. They still have some DVDs, but it's only a couple copies. Yeah, yeah.

You would think, but I think every time you've sent any, we sold them almost immediately, and then Todd would forget until next Halloween. So that's kind of how it went. I'll send them to you. Now I'm editor for LouisvilleHalloween.com. I'll just throw you the card right now.

And we have tons of people write us all the time asking about this film. So I've tried to turn them over to your website. So I assume you are still selling it there. Okay. Yeah.

Definitely. And I just want to thank you for bringing the film out here. I watched it. It's probably been 10 years since I've seen it. And it strikes me as having the same kind of quality as, like, George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

It's got that stark black and white, you know. It holds up. I think it is that cinematography. It's something about the way that it's shot kind of gives it its own feel. It's really cool.

Well, when you're shooting film, you know, it's so much different now with phones. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you shoot movies with phones. You never thought you would say that when you were shooting this, did you? I didn't, no.

I mean, every frame is money, so every frame is precious, and you really align it for shots, and you think very carefully about it. I had the same question Bo had, actually. I wondered if you used rear projection in that shot, or if it was on another location or something like that. It's the magic of editing. Some of those locations you shot back then in J-Town, I don't think very many of them are even around anymore.

Have you been out there recently? I have. I forgot the name of the reporter from 41, but we went out there and he shot. It's a completely different scene now. There's a park now at the bottom of the.

There's so much is built. There's all these like strip malls out there. Well, when I was a kid, it was like wilderness basically. Once you pass J-Town, there was nothing there until you got to the trestles. Now there's like a speedway right across the street and there's a cop car sitting there.

There's fences erected. You can't really climb up the hill anymore. And yet no more evidence of Goatman has emerged or Sheepman. I mean, it's actually kind of tragic. It's lost to the.

Mists of history, I think. There's a lot of stories in this story. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, thanks for coming out. I'm going to hand the microphone back to the movie meltdown guy.

Thanks, dude. I think that was it, unless anybody else has anything. Do you have anything to add to that? I guess the last thing I want to say is people are really in love with CGI right now, and they love to do monsters that are just all digital and things like that. I got to say, for me being a big horror movie nerd, it's always so great to see a real mask on a creature, and the rubber or whatever moving in that weird way that that rubber latex stuff moves when the face contorts. there's something really effective and creepy about it.

Like I remember when I was a kid watching those movies and seeing those really unnatural, but kind of physical faces moving and, uh, seeing that vision of the goat man is so real, you know, so it really brought it home for me. Uh, at least, at least as a child of eighties horror films, you know, so I want to, I want to thank you again for doing such a great job on this film. Aline, like I said, my cousin Aline, uh, did the makeup and the costume and, I invited her here tonight. I'm sorry she's not here. She would love to have heard your.

Well, pass it along. I will. Please do. I'll send her to the podcast. Yeah, there we go.

Definitely. Had you always heard goat versus sheep? Because there's so many different stories. That's the argument, yeah. I think I hear probably goat man more than sheep man.

But I don't know. Sheep man sounded better to me. I don't know why. Yeah, I had never heard... Goat man was all I heard for a long time.

In fact, I was in a play where goat man was a character. It was called Goblin Universe. My character played a cryptozoologist, and one of his roommates was Goatman, who kind of encouraged him to do a lot of naughty things. Goatman was all I heard. Sheetman, though, does have a weird creepiness to it, though, that I like, too.

Do we have any more questions for our great director here? Anybody else want to investigate the mystery of Sheep and or Goatman further? Think that is it? Oh, we got one more. The man with the Goatman Lives shirt.

Goatman Lives shirt. Come forward, sir. Come on. What is your name, sir? Ed Kirchner.

One of the featured artists here tonight. Mr. Kirchner, what is your question? Goatman, Sheepman, what's the difference here? One's a goat and one's a sheep, sir.

Okay, all right. The Sheep Man has a torrid backstory. Goat Man just has like he fell off the circus train backstory. Also, Goat Men have those weird rectangular pupils. Can you make a sweater out of the Goat Man?

Sweater out of the goat. Right. A goat sweater, if you will. Sheep Man's got wool. Why?

The Sheep Man and Goat Man thing. I think it's because people prefer alpaca today, sir. Okay. All right. I always heard the goat man from Popelik, and it was sheep man now.

Uh-huh. So is it a regional thing? I don't know. You know, I don't know. That's actually a really good question.

It's like Germantown or Schnitzelburg. You know, it's like one of those. Or the Schnitz. And I think it kind of changed over the years, too. It may have been more Sheepman when you were doing that.

And now you've got, again, you have a Goatman Live shirt on. I have another different Goatman shirt at home. I think there's been this weird resurgence in these last 10 or 15 years that now people have sort of latched on to that Goatman image. And we have weirdos like us doing artwork about cryptids. That wanted to create something.

And they've just kind of steered more towards the Goatman. Cooler horns, maybe. Possibly. Possibly. That was it.

It was the horns. Thanks, man. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for coming out and sitting here and watching the movie with us and answering some questions.

Thank you for having me. Thank you, man. Very cool. Thank you all for enduring the movie. Always a pleasure, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Goatman. Goatman. Goatman.

Goatman. Goatman! Goatman! Goatman! Goatman!

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Hi, this is Lance Henderson, and you're listening to Movie Meltdown. Listen if you dare. It's part of your problem, you know. You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are.

Answered in the movies. And now, on with the show. Goatman, Goatman. Goatman, Goatman. Man.

You've now lived through the cryptic carnival. What is your take on it? I want there to be rides next time. I want a bouncy castle. See, I pitched that to Sterling, actually, when we were standing over there.

I was like, I want a bouncy castle in the parking lot. We passed a bouncy castle. I said I was thinking more of like ride a Yeti. Like, I don't know. That seems inappropriate.

Like Yeti, well, Yeti back rides. That's not any better. Just digging a hole. That's appropriate. How about we just find a really tall, hairy guy to piggyback people?

Again, you're crossing into a very weird territory. I'm not saying you're not allowed to do it to each their own. Sometimes you have to pay extra. But whatever. Not weird for us.

Depends on what you're doing with this big, hairy guy. Innocent back rides. Sounds so creepy. There was a bouncy castle down the street. You're lucky I showed up here.

Why did they steal my bouncy castle idea it was like. A little to the church that everyone like some kind of i was like fuck a bunch of art show there's a bouncy. Castle see they stole my idea i had that like. Months ago we definitely need at least games and prizes. But see nobody wanted to throw that.

In i offered the popcorn machine but then where is it at but then you're like well someone has to work and i'm like i don't want to do. That was i was i in one spot more than about 15 seconds Somebody's. Got to work this shit. I know. I wasn't disagreeing with you, but I was just saying.

Like, I don't want to work that shit. You were like, no, I don't want to work that popcorn machine. Maybe you could get a cute little outfit, like a little, like, what are they called? Where they go around the theater with the little, like, boxes of cigarettes. Cigarette girls, only they had popcorn, too.

You could wear a little hat. But you could have, like, popcorn instead. Any excuse to wear a hat. So if you had a cute outfit, you might be up for it. You could have been a popcorn carny.

My mom would have manned the popcorn machine, but then she would know what the podcast name is, and I'm trying to avoid that at all. And all of the popcorn would taste like cigarette smoke. That's probably true. Anyway. Had there been a popcorn machine here and I'd known about it, I would have been here on time.

Once I found my mom on the street corner selling popcorn. I'm not making this up. Is this some kind of secret code for something? No, I really... Once I was walking down the street.

Was there a large hairy man involved? No. This is a true story. It was very sad. I was like, it's hilarious, but also sad.

I turned the corner and my mom is standing on the street corner selling popcorn. Was she wearing a cute outfit? No. Anyone else surprised? Was she standing on a rug that had dolphins on it?

She. Did bring the kitchen table with her, so. What kind of popcorn was it? Just regular. Buttered?

Buttered popcorn, yeah. No kettle corn? Movie popcorn? She has a popcorn machine, but yeah. She was like at her friend's house during some festival thing.

Why am I being called? I don't want to answer. She was at a festival, like a barbecue festival, and she was in her friend's house on the corner, like with an extension cord on her big popcorn machine. It is like a big popcorn machine from the 50s. It's not like a cute, dainty, modern, nostalgia, electronic popcorn machine.

The fact there was a festival going on makes it kind of less sad. Yeah. It's not like she was just there, hey, buy my popcorn. It is really hilarious to imagine someone just standing on a random street corner for no reason selling popcorn. Wouldn't it be more awesome if she had the little smoke machine with her?

Like the little, the fancy, the fancy. Yeah. I think I would find it more disturbing if I turned a corner and just out on the street was sitting my dining room table. It seems like an odd juxtaposition of I was just walking past a tree. Hey, my dining room table.

Well, we had awesome things. I mean, maybe no popcorn machine, but we had belly dancers. Next time. I missed the belly dancers. Oh, belly dancers.

I missed yoke. And caricatures. Yeah. And. bow with a frog head and almost got run over by a car a couple times. And possibly hit by a train at one point.

I did see his seductive pole dance he was doing with the tree. That was pretty sexy right there. I was seduced. She ran out there to try to get video, but it was too late. I was kidding.

I wasn't. That's what she says now. You didn't see her. She was all flushed. It was mostly the frog head.

There was some swooning going on. I love a man in a frog mask. Yikes. How do you top that? No, no.

We have fabulous artwork, which is possibly still available right now as you're listening. So email us. I'll send you some photos. It's awesome. I made a Bigfoot.

He's kind of pissy. He's annoying. He doesn't have nipples. Why does Bigfoot not have nipples? Other people have brought that up, oddly enough.

He's not supposed to. He's imaginary. He doesn't have to have nipples. Yeah, I mean, he's not a super detailed piece. It's very cartoony on purpose.

He has pectoral definition. He should have nipple definition as well. Are you making yourself a Bigfoot? Maybe. You can make nothing but nipples on your creature that you made.

It's going to be a nipple monster. Nipple monster for you, but I made this annoyed Bigfoot. I would do that. He ain't worried about no damn nipples. Nipple monster wearing.

A frog mask. I need to stop saying like my catchphrase is I'm into that which like sounds really perverted I mean it totally innocently but like but that big hairy. Guy keeps getting the wrong idea I noticed that Bigfoot does not have nipples but he does necessitate a loincloth. If in fact that's what it is oh I see I like to leave a little mystery in my artwork maybe. Maybe he just has a really weird belly hairline.

Yeah he might just be really hairy maybe his pubes weird growth Any other bright, shining moments of the evening for you? I had a Mexican Coke. That was pretty exciting. Oh, those are fantastic. Hell yeah, they are.

Well, that's too international. That's kind of why I like the artwork. We had creatures from different areas. We've got this scripted over here. It's from Japan.

We've got this one here. It's from Mexico. That one's from Scotland. Oh, a chupacabra. My favorite is the Fiji mermaid.

He's American. He's folklore. I still like it best. I have a dog that looks like a collie, but it got run over. And the Fiji mermaid has nipples.

Yeah. Are you allured by those? A little bit. All right. I'm into that.

That's what I hear. Word on the street next to that popcorn lady says, you're into that. All right, so we're wrapping things up here at the Cryptic Carnival. And we're going to round out this episode with the second of the two bands to play here tonight. That would be the Formalities.

They were a really great band and had a good fan base there to support them, and I thank them for coming out and playing for us. Again, they are The Formalities. You can like them on Facebook. You can find more of their music on Reverb Nation, and that link to their music will be posted in with the information on this episode. So thank you to them for playing The Cryptic Carnival, and their song we'll be going out on is the very fitting track, Popelik.

So a big thank you to everyone who actually came out to the show and supported us. That's always amazing when we have people who show up and support what we do. So thank you to you guys. And thanks to all of you who have joined us on this magical journey. condensed podcast version. I love being able to set up these live events, but I always still center them around the recording of the show because I feel like creating the show for you guys listening at home is really my main concern.

So being able to set up something interesting and fun and for the audio listeners, it's equally as important as the live event that I put together. So, I appreciate you guys listening and hope you enjoy these episodes and, you know, send us an email and let us know what you think. But overall, thanks to everyone who helped put this together and for all of you who have supported us along the way. It was a fun evening and I'm sure before. Long we will return with more cryptid-themed episodes.

I think we've had our fill of cryptids for the night. Now, somebody's got to piece this place back together. Or I say we just leave it. Just, train wreck that it is, the wreckage of cryptid fare around us. I guess we better clean this place up.

So with that, let's get the hell out of here. Otherwise, that about does it. We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek feed. Thanks for listening.

Good night. Bye. Bye. Bye. In the middle of the night, just wandering around.

By a little candlelight. Yeah, the clacking of the. Hooves, better start running fast. Soon as you see the railroad, you know you. Ain't gonna last.

It's half, man, it's half old. It's gonna drag, drag, drag you down till. You feel like you won't stop. Better get ground running with everything. That you've.

Got. That you've got. He's the. Public monster living in Taylorsville. If you ever see him coming, you better run.

To the hills. He's gonna hypnotize your soul. Till you feel like you can fly. Next thing you know, you're walking up a bridge. You're gonna die.

He's half man, he's half man. Check you down till you feel like you won't stop. Better hit the ground running with everything. Boyfriend was taken away at how very peewee's playhouse this building is. If you actually look.

It's very odd. Yeah, it's like weird angles. It's not exactly the first time I've been here. Who built this? Peewee.

Let's go for the blind actually. That would explain a lot. Yeah. We're down the street from the American School for the Blind. I'm going to go get some chicken and waffles.

No offense to the blind people. Oh, my gosh. I want chicken and waffles right now. Hilltop. Let's go to Hilltop.

I need chicken and waffles. I'm so hungry right now. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to eat chicken and waffles.

As long as somebody helps me clean. This shit up. Hey, I'm really hungry. After you explode, we also have to clean that up. I'm really hungry.

Because she's vibrating at this point. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by the Auditude Studios, with the opening music performed by the Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, Email producer at MovieMeltdown.com. Talk hard!