Episode 28

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Published on:

26th Mar 2024

Ep. 028 - Focal Points with CoHost Jonny Edward: The Recap of WPPI 2024 (Part 2)

This is another installment of a sub-series of Generator called "Focal Points" where Maine photographer Matt Stagliano speaks with Jonny Edward, a commercial and portrait photographer, as well a top-tier educator based in Denver, Colorado about a variety of topics.

Podcast Title: Generator: Focal Points

Episode Title: The Recap of WPPI 2024 (Part 2)

Episode Number: 028

Publish Date: 26 March 2024

Description: In this episode, Matt & Jonny recount their vastly different experiences at WPPI 2024 in Las Vegas. This is Part 2 of a two part episode.

Keywords: creativity, WPPI, trade show, conference, photography, career, growth, community, podcasting, professional etiquette

Key Topics and Talking Points

  • Solving issues in photography shooting bays
  • The need for more photography podcasts
  • The importance of reading shipping labels
  • A last night in Vegas

Resources and Links

  • For more on Jonny Edward's photography and educational courses, please visit jonnyedward.com

Calls to Action

Mentioned in this episode:

Cyanide

Transcript
Matt Stagliano:

Well, would you look at that I haven't fired

Matt Stagliano:

myself from hosting this podcast yet. So I'm going to call that a

Matt Stagliano:

small victory. This week, I'll keep this intro pretty short.

Matt Stagliano:

What you're about to hear is part two of a long conversation

Matt Stagliano:

that I had with Johnny Edward, about all things WPPI 2024. If

Matt Stagliano:

you haven't had the chance, be sure to go back and listen to

Matt Stagliano:

part one, because that will give you the foundation for

Matt Stagliano:

everything that we talk about here. That's it. That's my

Matt Stagliano:

introduction. So let's dive in, shall we? Thanks again for

Matt Stagliano:

joining me. And without further delay, here's part two of the

Matt Stagliano:

WPPI 2024 recap with Johnny Edward.

Jonny Edward:

You know, I guess probably the biggest overriding

Jonny Edward:

thing, like the thematic element that keeps coming back to me is

Jonny Edward:

this idea of like, firstly, honoring ourselves as artists,

Jonny Edward:

and then thusly honoring those who we're working with,

Jonny Edward:

alongside colleagues, allied professionals, models, subjects,

Jonny Edward:

you know, all of these different things, and it just feels like

Jonny Edward:

it's really easy to lose sight of that, you know, art, to me is

Jonny Edward:

this really beautiful poetic expression of self. And so when

Jonny Edward:

we lose sight of ourselves, we lose sight of our arts. And then

Jonny Edward:

when we lose sight of ourselves and our art, we lose sight of

Jonny Edward:

everything that comes along with that. Everything that that sort

Jonny Edward:

of encapsulates that includes the people directly and

Jonny Edward:

peripherally, who were engaged with and involved with directly

Jonny Edward:

and indirectly, but I think so much of this just comes back

Jonny Edward:

down to that, for me, at least,

Matt Stagliano:

you know, I find myself beating myself up quite a

Matt Stagliano:

bit, because I feel like an elitist I feel like a snob, or

Matt Stagliano:

that I have a very high opinion of myself when I go to a show

Matt Stagliano:

like WPPI, because I'm so insulated in my own little world

Matt Stagliano:

of my own business, and I'm trying to make things work and

Matt Stagliano:

survive. And I don't know the numbers, but I'd have to say

Matt Stagliano:

probably 50% are probably not full time, pro photographers,

Matt Stagliano:

right? Or they're Pro, but it's a side hustle or whatnot. Yeah,

Matt Stagliano:

which is all fine. But I think I find myself being a little bit

Matt Stagliano:

too, too exclusive, too elitist. And I want everybody to be at

Matt Stagliano:

the same high standard that I try to maintain that, you know,

Matt Stagliano:

is my version of a high standard. And when I don't see

Matt Stagliano:

that I get annoyed. And you know, that's not necessarily

Matt Stagliano:

right. It's not my position to judge anybody else or feel a

Matt Stagliano:

certain way about someone because they're not doing what

Matt Stagliano:

I'm doing. So I often find that I need to keep myself in check,

Matt Stagliano:

because I can go from just kind of cool guy to judgmental

Matt Stagliano:

asshole. In lightspeed. Yeah, I'm a nobody in a huge pond of

Matt Stagliano:

photographers. Yet, in my own world, I am a big fish in a

Matt Stagliano:

teaspoon, right? So, you know, as much as I sound like, I'm

Matt Stagliano:

cutting things apart. While I talk about this. It's really

Matt Stagliano:

nothing but stream of consciousness. So we were

Matt Stagliano:

talking a few minutes ago about the shooting bays, and ways that

Matt Stagliano:

we can maybe improve them. I wanted to get your thoughts on a

Matt Stagliano:

couple of things. One, I know, when we go into the shooting

Matt Stagliano:

base, there's typically one light, maybe a two light setup.

Matt Stagliano:

Yeah. And like you're saying, don't touch them under penalty

Matt Stagliano:

of death, because then you won't be able to get a properly

Matt Stagliano:

exposed photo. Yeah, I wanted to get your feel. Because they went

Matt Stagliano:

back to strobes this year from constant lights last year. Yep.

Matt Stagliano:

Would it be better to say, All right, here's a two light setup.

Matt Stagliano:

Here are the settings for three different looks with that to

Matt Stagliano:

light setup. And you have three minutes, one minute for each

Matt Stagliano:

setup to try it out. To give people a little bit more

Matt Stagliano:

variety. I don't know if that's feasible. But let's talk about

Matt Stagliano:

that the constant versus strobe can we do you know, multiple

Matt Stagliano:

lighting setups in one day.

Jonny Edward:

So on the constant versus strobe thing, obviously,

Jonny Edward:

I'm heavily biased in this since I predominantly use constant

Jonny Edward:

lights these days. And I do that for a number of reasons. As an

Jonny Edward:

artist, I use constant lights. And I've elucidated on this a

Jonny Edward:

little bit before but because it allows me to stay better

Jonny Edward:

connected to the person in front of my lens, there's less

Jonny Edward:

technical minutiae to deal with, there's less things that could

Jonny Edward:

possibly go wrong. If you're working with a professional

Jonny Edward:

model, sometimes it's really nice to have a straw because

Jonny Edward:

they can just move relative to the flash, right? So you're

Jonny Edward:

working with someone who's amazing and they just, and it

Jonny Edward:

looks like dance and it's mesmerized, and that's not how

Jonny Edward:

most people are who step in front of our lens. It's jarring

Jonny Edward:

If you're nervous, and you sit here and you put me in front of

Jonny Edward:

all these lights, and I'm uncomfortable, then you just

Jonny Edward:

start throwing strokes to be able to walk, you know, and so

Jonny Edward:

it's uncomfortable. So I do that number one to stay connected to

Jonny Edward:

the people. But as an educator, especially because I work with

Jonny Edward:

so much shadow, it's really brilliant to be able to

Jonny Edward:

demonstrate foundational lighting topics in real time.

Jonny Edward:

You know, if I were to take the key light in front of me and

Jonny Edward:

move it away and say this is what feathering looks like. And

Jonny Edward:

so we don't have to imagine it. And we don't have to jump to a

Jonny Edward:

screen on the back of a camera or something where it's either

Jonny Edward:

going to, you can just see it, you can see Phil in real time,

Jonny Edward:

here's what happens when we turn that up. Here's what happens

Jonny Edward:

when we turn that down, you can see the effective color

Jonny Edward:

temperature look at when those shadow lights become warmer and

Jonny Edward:

cooler. So it's very, it's a lot easier to I think, educate and

Jonny Edward:

empower photographers when working with constant light. So

Jonny Edward:

I you know, once again, this goes back to ideal versus

Jonny Edward:

monetary. And I think that's the big debate. I know that Profoto

Jonny Edward:

wanted to be the exclusive provider of light and Profoto I

Jonny Edward:

love working with your strobes. If you want to pick up a maniac

Jonny Edward:

who makes amazing art is a wild card to be up sometime, I'll

Jonny Edward:

totally throw everyone for a loop and switch over to strobe

Jonny Edward:

that's not true, but maybe it's true. But um, you know, I know

Jonny Edward:

they wanted to do that, I wouldn't necessarily want to see

Jonny Edward:

something like WPPI or TPM switch to using constants

Jonny Edward:

exclusively. But I think a mixture is important, I think

Jonny Edward:

it's really important to be able to show photographers that

Jonny Edward:

ultimately, outside of the physics element light is light,

Jonny Edward:

whether it's coming from an incandescent bulb, whether it's

Jonny Edward:

coming from the sun, whether it's coming from a strobe,

Jonny Edward:

whether it's coming from a constant light, light is light,

Jonny Edward:

and of course light behaves differently. And we can talk

Jonny Edward:

about CRI and skin tones and get into the nerdy aspect. But for

Jonny Edward:

our purposes, 95% of the time, light is light. And I think it's

Jonny Edward:

important for people to get away from the dogma and from the

Jonny Edward:

sales pitches and go oh, fuck, like, I can literally have a

Jonny Edward:

light bulb from my house and make world class art, I do not

Jonny Edward:

need to have a $5,000 strobe with a $5,000 modifier on it. I

Jonny Edward:

also think that it allows us to educate better when we're

Jonny Edward:

working with constant light. So that did throw me for a loop.

Jonny Edward:

And in fact, with the production team when I was talking to them

Jonny Edward:

before, before, you know, WPPI actually took place I was like,

Jonny Edward:

Listen, if there's constant light, please give me that

Jonny Edward:

because then you don't have the trigger issue. And I think for

Jonny Edward:

me, that's the hardest thing I guess if I if I was going to

Jonny Edward:

summarize this is if you're a new or photographer, new ish, if

Jonny Edward:

you're new to let's say, studio lighting, or whatever we want to

Jonny Edward:

say you're not comfortable, we don't even need to use the word

Jonny Edward:

new. I think that's probably wrong. You're not comfortable

Jonny Edward:

with studio lighting. And now you have 30 Fucking people

Jonny Edward:

behind you. And you've been waiting in line for 30 minutes,

Jonny Edward:

and it's someone you really want to photograph and you're already

Jonny Edward:

fucking trepidatious and you might be taking that Xanax just

Jonny Edward:

enough, you know, in your fucking shaking. And you're

Jonny Edward:

like, Hello, my name is Chris and I you I love your look and

Jonny Edward:

and now you have this fucking light you've never worked with,

Jonny Edward:

you've never mounted a trigger onto your camera. You don't know

Jonny Edward:

why your screen is black because of exposure compensation. And

Jonny Edward:

you're sitting there and you have two minutes to create and

Jonny Edward:

it feels like everything is going fucking wrong. That's a

Jonny Edward:

shitty experience. Yep. I think that for me was harder than

Jonny Edward:

anything else was seeing someone who is so excited and so fucking

Jonny Edward:

elated. Then look at their camera go Johnny, why is it

Jonny Edward:

black, and I'm like, listen, it's for this reason, I've never

Jonny Edward:

used your camera. If you take it to Canon, Fuji Sony, they'll fix

Jonny Edward:

it for you come back, I'll make sure your first but it was so

Jonny Edward:

defeating for them. So it adds an unnecessary layer of

Jonny Edward:

technical complexity to people who are already struggling with

Jonny Edward:

the technical side of our craft. And I think that is very, very

Jonny Edward:

unfortunate. So I would love to see the reintroduction of

Jonny Edward:

constant and I don't care. It could be Nan light, it could be

Jonny Edward:

aperture, it could be go docks, I have no invested interest. But

Jonny Edward:

I think just to allow people to be more invested in the creative

Jonny Edward:

process rather than technical minutiae. That is huge, because they're

Matt Stagliano:

now looking at you to be not only the model and

Matt Stagliano:

the teacher, but also the technical expert on their

Matt Stagliano:

specific camera model from their specific platform on their

Matt Stagliano:

specific firmware that they haven't updated because they

Matt Stagliano:

didn't know they could update it. That was one thing that I

Matt Stagliano:

saw over and over and over and primarily with Nikon shooters,

Matt Stagliano:

that their exposure compensation settings buried like 37 menus

Matt Stagliano:

deep. And it was unfortunate because I saw great shooters

Matt Stagliano:

with great ideas. Yeah, struggling with the technical

Matt Stagliano:

side. And I think that does add into the frustration it takes

Matt Stagliano:

you out of the element. It takes you out of the process, and all

Matt Stagliano:

that good energy that you had just spills out all over the

Matt Stagliano:

floor. You got defeated by your camera. You know one thing I

Matt Stagliano:

would have liked to have seen because Profoto did a great job

Matt Stagliano:

in the production team are the unsung heroes of the LM

Jonny Edward:

and everyone else on that team are fucking the

Jonny Edward:

real MVPs and heroes, watching

Matt Stagliano:

Kelan and Matt just crushed the entire show. I

Matt Stagliano:

mean, it just nonstop. I can't imagine what's on their

Matt Stagliano:

shoulders and they crushed it. But having technical experts in

Matt Stagliano:

the shooting Bay Area, a Profoto, representative or two,

Matt Stagliano:

yeah, right, going back and forth, just making sure that

Matt Stagliano:

people understand how to use the trigger, maybe talking about the

Matt Stagliano:

product a little bit. It's

Jonny Edward:

a missed opportunity for these brands to

Jonny Edward:

me too. And obviously, like, I'm a single fucking solo LLC, right

Jonny Edward:

guy, and he's in the suburbs of Denver in this, you know,

Jonny Edward:

generational area where I'm basically surrounded by

Jonny Edward:

nothingness or people who are in their 70s, who want to give me

Jonny Edward:

antique. So like, I am very isolated in that way, not

Jonny Edward:

isolated, like you. But I mean, so you take this Profoto idea.

Jonny Edward:

The other brilliant thing is, if I was Profoto, not only would I

Jonny Edward:

want my technical experts there to do that, but if the line is

Jonny Edward:

20 people long walk that line, every party, you're going to be

Jonny Edward:

coming up, let's do this, let's do that. It allows for a level

Jonny Edward:

of interactivity and service that could directly translate

Jonny Edward:

into revenue. And it's not to say sell to us at all points in

Jonny Edward:

time. But for more of a consultative element to be like,

Jonny Edward:

Hey, have you ever used strobes before? No, you haven't? Are you

Jonny Edward:

on Nikon? Let's make sure this setting is right. Big enough

Jonny Edward:

value that would fucking add would be substantial. The

Jonny Edward:

comfort that that would create would be amazing, the stress

Jonny Edward:

that would alleviate would be fantastic. And especially for

Jonny Edward:

the person who's running the booth, or for the model, they're

Jonny Edward:

now not being confronted with that in that two minute period

Jonny Edward:

that has already been addressed and is taken care of. So this

Jonny Edward:

person can focus on what it is they are doing. And yeah, I

Jonny Edward:

think it's you know, sometimes you get thrown to the wolves,

Jonny Edward:

there is an understaffing element to all of these things

Jonny Edward:

always everywhere in life. Now, you know, if you're going to

Jonny Edward:

have someone running a booth, they should have worked with

Jonny Edward:

those strobes or gotten a crash course on it, even if it's a

Jonny Edward:

basic video thing, like, this is how you swap a battery. This is

Jonny Edward:

how you reset the transmitter. These are the basic things and

Jonny Edward:

even having a laminated sheet for them to say like If This

Jonny Edward:

Then That, here are the three steps like unplug the modem to

Jonny Edward:

start, give it 10 seconds and plug it back in. That's hugely

Jonny Edward:

empowering for everyone. So I couldn't agree more with that.

Jonny Edward:

And there is that that that sort of sad element of the timer

Jonny Edward:

thing like I did not run a timer the first day WPPI production

Jonny Edward:

quickly gave me a handler day to to run a timer for me. Yeah. Now

Jonny Edward:

that was kind of odd, because everyone was self managing. And

Jonny Edward:

I would address them and I would just talk to the crowd and mass

Jonny Edward:

and say, Hey, listen, I'm not going to run a fucking timer.

Jonny Edward:

Number one, I don't have the ability to number two, we're all

Jonny Edward:

adults. If you take a little bit longer, or you're a little bit

Jonny Edward:

shorter, but let's be courteous, you can feel the energy. When

Jonny Edward:

people are like, alright, Matt, you've done fucking enough get

Jonny Edward:

out of the way. You know, when you're overreaching, let's self

Jonny Edward:

manage, because we're adults, let's self manage because we're

Jonny Edward:

a community. And I get that that's not necessarily feasible

Jonny Edward:

for every place and time but that hardline two minutes, even

Jonny Edward:

when I was shooting it a couple of days when we were together at

Jonny Edward:

TPM, I got in and I got that one light turned off. And by the

Jonny Edward:

time I turn that light off, got my camera settings fiddled, went

Jonny Edward:

in and talked to the model who was there and said, Hey, I'm

Jonny Edward:

Johnny, what's your name? You're a fucking badass. Thank you so

Jonny Edward:

much for killing it. And step back. It was brought to you at

Jonny Edward:

47 seconds and I was like, Oh, shit. Okay, now it's time to go

Jonny Edward:

in for me. The trigger wasn't registering properly with my hot

Jonny Edward:

shoe. So I was dealing with an exposure compensation issue. And

Jonny Edward:

I just shot with the black screen. And what a lot of people

Jonny Edward:

don't realize is on mirrorless that actually affects not only

Jonny Edward:

what you're seeing, but the focus based on how stop down the

Jonny Edward:

lenses. So then your camera's guessing while you're guessing

Jonny Edward:

in the strobes firing at random fucking times you like I hope I

Jonny Edward:

get something that's fucking great. And you might walk into

Jonny Edward:

something and you walk away shaking and you're like, Oh,

Jonny Edward:

look at this great photo that I kind of made, but was kind of

Jonny Edward:

made for me just based on chance and happenstance. Yeah, I love

Jonny Edward:

the idea of the settings thing that you said too. I think that

Jonny Edward:

even if it wasn't three defined setting, saying all right,

Jonny Edward:

people were working with strobes. We're locking in our

Jonny Edward:

ISO and our shutter speed. However, here's three different

Jonny Edward:

aperture settings for low key high key middle of the ground,

Jonny Edward:

really dark shadows, really bright shadows somewhere in

Jonny Edward:

between and saying, shoot with all of this, see what you want,

Jonny Edward:

because what people would do, especially since I'm a well

Jonny Edward:

known photographer, as well, as they take a shot, I'm like, hey,

Jonny Edward:

what do you think of it? They're like Johnny, what do you think

Jonny Edward:

and I do doesn't fucking matter what I think. Like, I'm not here

Jonny Edward:

to portfolio review. I'm not here to create for you. Do you

Jonny Edward:

want bright shadows? No, well, then that's probably not good.

Jonny Edward:

Let's darken those up. Right So giving people some levity or

Jonny Edward:

some like space to play in a way that still safe in a way that's

Jonny Edward:

still predefined, but where there's some fucking switch

Jonny Edward:

there would be monumental. And then someone gets to decide for

Jonny Edward:

themselves. If they own the brain that's between their two

Jonny Edward:

ears. I like it darker, I like it brighter, and then they start

Jonny Edward:

to develop a way of critically evaluating their images. So in a

Jonny Edward:

very direct but indirect way we start to better equip these

Jonny Edward:

artists to evaluate their own work and what it is they want to

Jonny Edward:

do and why. And so we're not just having someone recite verse

Jonny Edward:

we're helping them actually develop the language skills to

Jonny Edward:

compose verse of their own. And that is massive

Matt Stagliano:

at portrait masters in Arizona last year

Matt Stagliano:

when I was in helping in the booth when people would come up.

Matt Stagliano:

And before you know, someone would be shooting the next

Matt Stagliano:

person in line, I'd be having a conversation with them saying,

Matt Stagliano:

so what is it that you have in your mind? What's the look that

Matt Stagliano:

you want to have? And is this how you would set things up? And

Matt Stagliano:

they might say something like, Yep, this is exactly what I

Matt Stagliano:

wanted, or I've never used strobes before. Or, you know, I

Matt Stagliano:

usually only use one light that at least gave me information to

Matt Stagliano:

say we're going rate, I understand what your level and

Matt Stagliano:

capability is. Do you want to stretch that? Or do you just

Matt Stagliano:

want to shoot your style? Or do you want to shoot for a properly

Matt Stagliano:

exposed photo, as listed on the settings on their beautiful

Matt Stagliano:

white poster board? Do you want that? My intention was to just

Matt Stagliano:

get people to think critically about what it is that they want

Matt Stagliano:

it to slow down a little bit, have some intention, and tell me

Matt Stagliano:

what it is that they saw in their head so that I could help

Matt Stagliano:

them create that? Yes, I did not want them like they were doing

Matt Stagliano:

to you say what do you think of this? I would always turn that

Matt Stagliano:

around. What do you think of it? Yeah, totally. Right. So you

Matt Stagliano:

know, in thinking and brainstorming like we are about

Matt Stagliano:

how to make this experience better. From a shooting Bay

Matt Stagliano:

perspective, I had alluded way early in this conversation to

Matt Stagliano:

Peter Hurley section down the end, I was wondering if it would

Matt Stagliano:

be possible to create a cordoned off area just for shooting base

Matt Stagliano:

kinda like they had in the TPM portion earlier in the week. And

Matt Stagliano:

have in that main hall, a cordoned off area for nothing

Matt Stagliano:

but shooting base have a limited amount of people having like a

Matt Stagliano:

bouncer Yonsei, there's only 100 people allowed for these 30

Matt Stagliano:

Shooting bays at a given time, and you've got an encounter in

Matt Stagliano:

and out counter when someone then you let someone else.

Matt Stagliano:

Right, and in a way that allows people to not feel the chaos and

Matt Stagliano:

the pressure and the intensity of it all. And they walk around

Matt Stagliano:

and they shoot what they shoot, whether you have time slots, or

Matt Stagliano:

whether it's a one in one out thing, capacity issue. I feel

Matt Stagliano:

like by removing that into its own area, yeah, that Yeah, it'll

Matt Stagliano:

be crowded at times. And it will be, you know, good flow all day

Matt Stagliano:

long. But it's not going to hinder getting to some of the

Matt Stagliano:

other booths as well. And it's not taking away from the

Matt Stagliano:

vendors. And if you want it to have vendors or other high

Matt Stagliano:

profile educators wandering around the shooting Bay Area,

Matt Stagliano:

awesome. That just adds to it. I feel like we're trying to

Matt Stagliano:

combine too much into the trade show portion. And we're

Matt Stagliano:

sacrificing creativity for commerce. Right. And there's,

Matt Stagliano:

yeah, there's the balance that everybody that's ever organized

Matt Stagliano:

a trade show how to wrangle with right. And it's not an easy

Matt Stagliano:

task. Yep. But I'm wondering if more people are leaning into

Matt Stagliano:

having that shooting experience, making that its own thing,

Matt Stagliano:

Disneyland pass instead of going on Photowalks. I've got my $150

Matt Stagliano:

ticket. And that allows me into a private shooting bay area as

Matt Stagliano:

much as I want during the week to learn different things to

Matt Stagliano:

work with different lighting, rather than just having an

Matt Stagliano:

avenue of shooting base, creating an experience out of it

Matt Stagliano:

that is attached to but somewhat separated from the main

Matt Stagliano:

tradeshow era. Oh, great. What were some of the best things

Matt Stagliano:

that you saw at the show?

Jonny Edward:

I think what probably probably my favorite

Jonny Edward:

things that I saw had nothing to do with the shooting bays had

Jonny Edward:

nothing to do with the vendors. It was seeing people who let's

Jonny Edward:

say only knew each other online from across the world and

Jonny Edward:

running to each other, like a cinematic film and jumping into

Jonny Edward:

each other's arms going, oh my god, I finally get to meet you.

Jonny Edward:

I finally get to say hello, I finally get to hang out with

Jonny Edward:

you. You've helped me so much. We've known each other for years

Jonny Edward:

now we get to be present as people. So that humanistic

Jonny Edward:

element saying the same thing in the hallways and people being

Jonny Edward:

like, Oh my God, oh, it's so and so wonderful. Hey, can I get

Jonny Edward:

this and get that like that was really really beautiful to me.

Jonny Edward:

It felt so innocent. And it felt so cool and wholehearted and it

Jonny Edward:

was such an aside to the chaos and the commerce and all of

Jonny Edward:

these other things that sort of define so much of this to just

Jonny Edward:

see people genuinely excited and in passion to see one another

Jonny Edward:

and to be present with one another that for me was was

Jonny Edward:

absolutely brilliant. I love that there's some really amazing

Jonny Edward:

educators and I love seeing the people who have notoriety, Be

Jonny Edward:

gracious to actually stop and take the time to go like, Hey,

Jonny Edward:

I'm exhausted. But oh my gosh, you said you love my work. I

Jonny Edward:

have two minutes. But those two minutes are yours. Let's talk.

Jonny Edward:

Let's take a selfie. So seeing people being human and operating

Jonny Edward:

from that, sort of almost prerogative of humaneness was

Jonny Edward:

brilliant. On the flip side, I saw some really ugly things,

Jonny Edward:

where there were people of notoriety, who literally could

Jonny Edward:

not be bothered to even smile at folks. And that felt really

Jonny Edward:

fucked up. But the nice thing about that is the contrast

Jonny Edward:

creates a beautiful differential where you see the people who

Jonny Edward:

don't do that, and it makes the people who do that much more

Jonny Edward:

significant and lauded. I mean, to be completely honest, since

Jonny Edward:

we're this far into the conversation, some of the best

Jonny Edward:

chats I had, were in the bathroom, no lie, like, I was

Jonny Edward:

standing at a urinal, and someone came up there to down

Jonny Edward:

space. And they're like, Hey, you're Johnny, right? You know,

Jonny Edward:

doing the site. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm Johnny, what's going

Jonny Edward:

on? And they're like, Yeah, you were killing it out there, man.

Jonny Edward:

Like, I really want to come to your booth. That's phenomenal.

Jonny Edward:

I'm like, Oh, where are you from? I'm from Madison,

Jonny Edward:

Wisconsin. I shoot weddings. Oh, what do you want to get into?

Jonny Edward:

And so over the course of this, streaming, 30 or 45 seconds, you

Jonny Edward:

know, we connected as human beings and we're washing our

Jonny Edward:

hands, and it's like, Hey, I hope to see you tonight. Are you

Jonny Edward:

going somewhere? So you know, even you talking about that

Jonny Edward:

elements of things being removed, I would love to just

Jonny Edward:

see like, an off floor lounge. And it doesn't have to be a

Jonny Edward:

quiet space. But in one of the other rooms, it's like, Hey, do

Jonny Edward:

you need to reset like we're gonna essentially use library

Jonny Edward:

voices. We're gonna have some ambience musics, and she'll stop

Jonny Edward:

playing, there's fucking chamomile tea and water. You can

Jonny Edward:

come in and you can just sit amongst everyone else and just

Jonny Edward:

be like, Hey, we're just people here. And we don't have to be in

Jonny Edward:

motion. We don't have to be achieving. We don't have to be

Jonny Edward:

producing. We don't have to be purchasing, we can just be

Jonny Edward:

present with one another. There's so much power in that.

Jonny Edward:

And that's a hard thing to quantify. But for me, that was

Jonny Edward:

my, my favorite thing. And I had that happen. You'll Vaughn is a

Jonny Edward:

perfect example of this. Um, she's this, you know, spark plug

Jonny Edward:

of a woman from Serbia and is really amazing. And we've been

Jonny Edward:

talking for a long time and she literally ran up and was like,

Jonny Edward:

throwing Muay Thai elbows at people to get through the crowd

Jonny Edward:

and just jumped on to me and Kelly robots. I was there. And

Jonny Edward:

she was like, what was this? Okay, I'm like, It's fine. It's

Jonny Edward:

fine. But it was hilarious. And she's like, Oh, my god, god, my

Jonny Edward:

image is being judged right now. I have to get in there. And I'm

Jonny Edward:

like, I hope you do. Well. She's like, I don't even get a shit

Jonny Edward:

about that. It's just nice to meet you. So those moments

Jonny Edward:

between moments were fucking amazing. Us at the Capri. You

Jonny Edward:

know, just sitting there dancing and looking around and being

Jonny Edward:

like, all right, for a second, there is no hierarchy. There is

Jonny Edward:

not like, oh, you're a professional and you're a

Jonny Edward:

hobbyist. Oh, you're an educator. Oh, you're an artist.

Jonny Edward:

Oh, this Oh, that there's just people who are you know, getting

Jonny Edward:

near three sheets to the wind, Double fisting drinks, kind of

Jonny Edward:

bobbing around like night at the Roxbury going, Oh, this is

Jonny Edward:

fucking cool. Together. That was lovely. Because there were no

Jonny Edward:

errors. There was no presupposition, it was just

Jonny Edward:

like, Oh, we're all fucking here. And none of us know what

Jonny Edward:

we're doing. And we're all trying to fucking figure it out.

Jonny Edward:

And we're all spiraling into entropy. And we're all gonna go

Jonny Edward:

back home and go, What the fuck just happened. But for these

Jonny Edward:

very ephemeral moments, we're just like, Alright, we're here.

Jonny Edward:

And we're together. And we're enjoying this. And that's enough

Jonny Edward:

hard stop. period on the fucking sentence.

Matt Stagliano:

Yeah, I found I found that quite a bit,

Matt Stagliano:

especially at that big party, that I did look around at one at

Matt Stagliano:

one moment, and everybody was just really cool with each

Matt Stagliano:

other, which is a big contrast to the same party, same club

Matt Stagliano:

last year where there was just a really strange vibe to it, they

Matt Stagliano:

did a great job. And you know, you'd mentioned one thing about,

Matt Stagliano:

you know, having these kind of like chill rooms when I was

Matt Stagliano:

going to SHOT Show for a lot of years over at the Venetian in

Matt Stagliano:

the sands. One of my friends companies would have a suite,

Matt Stagliano:

and a good size suite that was opened the entire week, they

Matt Stagliano:

spent a good amount of money on it. It was basically a Delta sky

Matt Stagliano:

lounge, you know, where you could wander in and out there

Matt Stagliano:

was always someone there from the company. Yep. And people

Matt Stagliano:

could just go, you didn't have to be like, Oh, if it's the

Matt Stagliano:

Profoto suite, you didn't have to go up and talk about Profoto.

Matt Stagliano:

It was literally just cheese and crackers and drinks and quiet

Matt Stagliano:

and good internet. And it wasn't so removed from the show floor

Matt Stagliano:

that you felt like you had to walk to another hotel to get

Matt Stagliano:

there. It was, you know, a conference room that they had

Matt Stagliano:

commandeered and turned into this. And it was great. Because

Matt Stagliano:

if someone did want to slip away and get off the floor, just so

Matt Stagliano:

you could have a conversation be like, Hey, let's go over to

Matt Stagliano:

Johnny's, you know, suite and talk in there for a few minutes.

Matt Stagliano:

And it was great. And I really enjoyed that. And that's not

Matt Stagliano:

something that I saw and maybe I just didn't know about them and

Matt Stagliano:

that they existed but outside of the staff rooms. I don't think

Matt Stagliano:

anything like that existed. And it could be a good A thing you

Matt Stagliano:

know, hey, this, this lounge sponsored by Profoto on Tuesday

Matt Stagliano:

sponsored by figma. On Wednesday, write whatever, and

Matt Stagliano:

have it be a place that people can go and just relax a little

Matt Stagliano:

bit. They did something like that at portrait masters in

Matt Stagliano:

Arizona they did. They had like quiet rooms of beanbag chairs

Matt Stagliano:

and whatnot. And it was pretty cool idea. So I'm just wondering

Matt Stagliano:

if that can if that can grow to scale, or if it would just be

Matt Stagliano:

unmanageable. I don't.

Jonny Edward:

And you even even talking about that makes me

Jonny Edward:

think, you know, not once again, not to shit on anything or be

Jonny Edward:

overly critical, but like just better signage in general. You

Jonny Edward:

know, like, just no one knew where the fuck they were going.

Jonny Edward:

Most of the time, even me being on production being on modeling.

Jonny Edward:

And this isn't a knock on production. They did phenomenal

Jonny Edward:

relative to the cards. They were dealt, but like when I had to go

Jonny Edward:

eat the first day I was on the show floor. They were like, oh,

Jonny Edward:

it's in Montego D. And then someone's like, well, there is

Jonny Edward:

no Montego, there's Montenegro. And I'm asking everyone who has

Jonny Edward:

a bad she looks like their hotel staff or security. So no one

Jonny Edward:

knows. And finally, he just started walking. And I saw

Jonny Edward:

someone with a plate of food. And I was like, it has to be

Jonny Edward:

that way. And I just wandered into this corridor into a door.

Jonny Edward:

But there were no signs anywhere that said anything. So I think

Jonny Edward:

people you know, like there's so much going on. And there is so

Jonny Edward:

much overstimulation that even to go well, like, yeah, it's the

Jonny Edward:

place where Pratik had his class. And you're like, that was

Jonny Edward:

24 hours ago, and I dumped all of that information out of

Jonny Edward:

necessity. Um, so just having some guideposts or people who

Jonny Edward:

are just roving going like, Oh, where are you going? What are

Jonny Edward:

you trying to get to? Is that for TPM, or WPPI? You just

Jonny Edward:

trying to register it, hopefully getting an anchor point. So

Jonny Edward:

something like registration doesn't move. So then you get

Jonny Edward:

there. And they're like, oh, it's an you know, archive, see,

Jonny Edward:

and you're an archive, see, they're like, no, actually, it's

Jonny Edward:

in blue and a now. And that's exactly three football fields

Jonny Edward:

away that way. And you have to knock on the door and say,

Jonny Edward:

banana to get into the basement to get your badge. And it's just

Jonny Edward:

unnecessary brain damage for everybody. If any of this is

Jonny Edward:

something we can do a thing about, right? Let's remove it

Jonny Edward:

from the equation. It's sort of like obviously, this maximalist

Jonny Edward:

thing going right now, but like in my photography, generally

Jonny Edward:

speaking, I'm like, does this element say something in the

Jonny Edward:

frame? If not, let's remove it. So all of those unnecessary

Jonny Edward:

obstacles that can be addressed. All that that means is that

Jonny Edward:

people are going to have a better experience, they're going

Jonny Edward:

to be more connected, they're going to be more immersed,

Jonny Edward:

they're going to be more joyful, they're going to be more

Jonny Edward:

creative, like we have a finite amount of energy as human

Jonny Edward:

beings. So let's not make people allocate that finite energy to

Jonny Edward:

things that we could address on their behalf from from the

Jonny Edward:

forefront of it. And that's for me, that's what it really sort

Jonny Edward:

of boils down to. For

Matt Stagliano:

me, the energy this year was definitely better

Matt Stagliano:

than it was last year. I think, you know, there were more

Matt Stagliano:

people, there was definitely more excitement around

Matt Stagliano:

everything. I two met a ton of people that I had never met in

Matt Stagliano:

real life. And that felt really cool to actually be able to

Matt Stagliano:

shake the hands of people and give hugs to people that I've

Matt Stagliano:

known for years and never met in person. You know, I spent a lot

Matt Stagliano:

of time with my friend Bassam, who I've known for years. And

Matt Stagliano:

we, he lives five hours north of me, and we've never, we've never

Matt Stagliano:

met. So it was good to spend a lot of time with him. The

Matt Stagliano:

vendors this year, were very well curated. Maybe the vendors

Matt Stagliano:

just came back that haven't been there for a few years. And it

Matt Stagliano:

seemed like there was just a better energy amongst the

Matt Stagliano:

vendors, there was more to look at more to play with more to

Matt Stagliano:

see. And it was it was a really good time. And there were a

Matt Stagliano:

couple of things that I really loved about the show. And there

Matt Stagliano:

were a couple of things that I didn't like. And I think we've

Matt Stagliano:

talked about stuff we didn't like, but what I what I did love

Matt Stagliano:

in the TPM summit in the portrait masters Summit, was the

Matt Stagliano:

fact that there was one room where we all got to see all the

Matt Stagliano:

speakers, there was no running from place to place. It was just

Matt Stagliano:

you had your seat, you had your room, it felt intimate, it felt

Matt Stagliano:

good. It was very engaging. And I really like that setting. But

Matt Stagliano:

again, you've got 8000 people in an area or logistics, right? So

Matt Stagliano:

I'm not I'm not bashing anything. But I think that's one

Matt Stagliano:

of the things that I loved because it just felt better. It

Matt Stagliano:

felt smaller and more communal. I started looking across the

Matt Stagliano:

industry. There are a ton of photography podcasts that are

Matt Stagliano:

not technically focused, right, you've got Nikki doing the

Matt Stagliano:

portrait system, which is nominal from a business

Matt Stagliano:

standpoint. You've got podcasts out there that are very focused

Matt Stagliano:

on no pun intended, very focused on the technical aspects of

Matt Stagliano:

things. There's room for so much more personality in this space.

Matt Stagliano:

Should there be a gossip podcasts or should it be an

Matt Stagliano:

industry news where you know, it's like 62nd industry Use,

Jonny Edward:

I do think that there is a sort of pervasive

Jonny Edward:

self imposed stoicism, right? Yeah. Where we take everything

Jonny Edward:

so seriously. And shooting is serious. And what we do is

Jonny Edward:

serious and making money is serious and, and there's all of

Jonny Edward:

this weight to all of it. And I think I'm a I tend to be a

Jonny Edward:

counterpoint to that just because I'm a big personality

Jonny Edward:

and I laugh at myself and I laugh at the world. And, you

Jonny Edward:

know, I'm an ass and I'm an asshole. And I'm also a really

Jonny Edward:

amazing person. And all of these things sort of coexist. So yeah,

Jonny Edward:

I think that there needs to be more space just for fucking fun.

Jonny Edward:

Fun, right? Yes, for fucking fun. And I think that even goes

Jonny Edward:

back to the idea that we were talking about knocked up,

Jonny Edward:

diverge back into the shooting Bay thing, but like, that's why

Jonny Edward:

Mitzie thing was so great. Because it was all so serious in

Jonny Edward:

there were serious models seriously style, doing very

Jonny Edward:

serious things. And then she was over there with these really

Jonny Edward:

radiant human beings be like, pretend like you just had a Jack

Jonny Edward:

in the Box popping you in? Because it was such a

Jonny Edward:

counterpoint to the austerity of so much else. Right. So not only

Jonny Edward:

do I think there is space for that, I think it's a fucking

Jonny Edward:

necessity. I think it's it's a natural part of human emotion.

Jonny Edward:

Like we need a space to be vulnerable. And that's also

Jonny Edward:

something that's missing. Like, where do we get together and not

Jonny Edward:

talk about it from an analytical standpoint, but just say, You

Jonny Edward:

know what, that like, I'm not sure I want to do this anymore.

Jonny Edward:

I don't think that I'm any fucking good. Like, I might just

Jonny Edward:

want to sell the business. I'm not making six figures right

Jonny Edward:

now. In fact, I'm struggling to make fucking five. And there's

Jonny Edward:

someone banging on my door right now who might break my kneecaps,

Jonny Edward:

like, that type of thing needs to be spoke about. But we just

Jonny Edward:

need to laugh at the joy of it at the absurdity of it, of the

Jonny Edward:

fact that this is what we do and how we do it and bring some

Jonny Edward:

other emotions in so that we could be more whole, as

Jonny Edward:

individuals and as a community and embrace the entirety of

Jonny Edward:

this. And I even have to do that at workshops. Sometimes there'll

Jonny Edward:

be this thing and everyone's so focused, it's like, well, I

Jonny Edward:

need, I need to get the shot. And this needs to go into

Jonny Edward:

fucking photo VO. And I need to make two steps forward. And this

Jonny Edward:

is going to result in 710 K sales. And I'm like, Listen,

Jonny Edward:

this isn't a knock on anyone. But for a second, can we just

Jonny Edward:

just admire the fact or appreciate the fact that we're

Jonny Edward:

in the fucking first world. We're in a beautiful studio,

Jonny Edward:

we're all eating fucking, you know, like noodles and curry.

Jonny Edward:

We're photographing beautiful humans as beautiful humans, like

Jonny Edward:

this is fucking pretty amazing. And let's just laugh at the fact

Jonny Edward:

that we all happen to have converged at this point, and the

Jonny Edward:

butterfly fucking effective all of this, that we happen to not

Jonny Edward:

only be alive, but alive together, making fucking art in

Jonny Edward:

a world that's on fire.

Matt Stagliano:

All week, you and I had kind of had our

Matt Stagliano:

different stresses. Yeah. And getting through the workshop,

Matt Stagliano:

really, at the end of the at the end of the week really started

Matt Stagliano:

to set the tone for that Friday night. Yep. So last Friday night

Matt Stagliano:

of WPPI. The show it ended on Thursday, we do the trade show.

Matt Stagliano:

We do the workshop all day Friday. And then we have to pack

Matt Stagliano:

up all the gear and send it back to Nan right. And I just like

Matt Stagliano:

you from your first person perspective, to talk about what

Matt Stagliano:

happened because we had a great team pack up all of these lights

Matt Stagliano:

that Nan light had sent us.

Jonny Edward:

So this is this is for any of you once again who

Jonny Edward:

haven't been involved in production. This is a little bit

Jonny Edward:

of insight into how these things actually unfold or fail to

Jonny Edward:

unfold. Wonderful day. We it was such a once again such a great

Jonny Edward:

day, we ended on a good note everyone was fucking dead on

Jonny Edward:

their feet. You know, like Matt had said earlier by 2pm people

Jonny Edward:

like ordered food in and there's just people with like, you know,

Jonny Edward:

subs halfway and their mouths staring at the ceiling. Like

Jonny Edward:

they're on you know hoarse doses of Xanax and ketamine, they're

Jonny Edward:

just fucking gone. Because it's been an exhausting week and for

Jonny Edward:

all the right reasons, but it's still overwhelming. And so this

Jonny Edward:

ends and we're wrapping up and we have all of this stuff to

Jonny Edward:

break down we have six sets, we have the gear that we brought

Jonny Edward:

in, we have Paulina stuff we have now in light stuff, we have

Jonny Edward:

to separate out everything from Black Box studios. And

Jonny Edward:

thankfully, Matt was there Kayla Douglas was there, Rick Lewis

Jonny Edward:

was there and we had a bunch of attendees who are like, I'm in

Jonny Edward:

it for the fucking long haul, which I'm so grateful for. I

Jonny Edward:

kept trying to get rid of them. I'm like, you paid me to be

Jonny Edward:

here. You do not need to help and they're like, fuck you. I

Jonny Edward:

didn't help because I want to be of service. And I was like,

Jonny Edward:

Alright, I'm gonna put my ego aside and say, You know what, if

Jonny Edward:

you're giving me your hands, I'm gonna put them to work because

Jonny Edward:

you just lucked out. So anyway, we do this in mass as a team.

Jonny Edward:

And you know, some people are really experienced with this.

Jonny Edward:

Some people are and there's nothing wrong with that. So

Jonny Edward:

we're just trying to make sure the right lights go into the

Jonny Edward:

right boxes, gear gets separated basic logistical stops. So we

Jonny Edward:

get into this and then we realize we don't have the

Jonny Edward:

shipping labels. This is the first thing right? And let me

Jonny Edward:

backtrack for a second NAMM light was kind enough to send

Jonny Edward:

this literal trailer worth of fucking gear, this veritable

Jonny Edward:

palette to the Mirage to make things easier. Well, it came via

Jonny Edward:

UPS unbeknownst to me and our Arrived at FedEx. So the first

Jonny Edward:

surprise was before we're breaking down is picking it up.

Jonny Edward:

And you know, the people at FedEx are like, Oh yeah, there's

Jonny Edward:

a $250 handling fit. And I was like, What do you mean, you

Jonny Edward:

receive packages? You received a package like that's what you do.

Jonny Edward:

It'd be like getting charged a grill fee for a steak or

Jonny Edward:

hamburger. And you're like, how else do you make this sir? Mess?

Jonny Edward:

Whoever. So that was fine. That was an incidental cost. But we

Jonny Edward:

get it. We get it over there. We don't have enough space. We had

Jonny Edward:

to get Uber excels. I literally got put into the back of a

Jonny Edward:

truck, like a Tetris piece, and probably dislodged multiple

Jonny Edward:

vertebra being stuck in the back of this fucking truck, like a

Jonny Edward:

minion. And I'm already small, but I got cut in half, quite

Jonny Edward:

literally. So anyway, we're packing all this stuff up, and

Jonny Edward:

we realize, oh, fuck, we don't have the shipping labels. And so

Jonny Edward:

everyone pauses and we were in such great momentum, and we're

Jonny Edward:

all shooting the shit. And we're dancing and we have music on.

Jonny Edward:

You were telling jokes. Were just there. As people in a hush

Jonny Edward:

falls over the crowd. All of the energy that was up here suddenly

Jonny Edward:

comes down, out of the room. It's a whisper, and I'm like,

Jonny Edward:

Hey, everyone. You're all doing great. But the reality is, we

Jonny Edward:

don't have the labels, and we need to open up and unbox

Jonny Edward:

everything that we just backed up. Because without those, we

Jonny Edward:

can't do anything. And to everyone's fucking credit, they

Jonny Edward:

took it on the chin, and everyone's like, that's fine.

Jonny Edward:

We're gonna make this happen. So everyone starts unboxing. I

Jonny Edward:

can't remember exactly who it was who found it. But someone

Jonny Edward:

finds it and it was like the winning Lotto number, they

Jonny Edward:

hauled it all. And it was like fucking a scene from The Lion

Jonny Edward:

King, we all looked off and we're chanting. So you know, it

Jonny Edward:

was the sun rising in prehistoric times. And we're

Jonny Edward:

like, fuck you're in. So that's fine. So we get back to what

Jonny Edward:

we're doing. And we're read duct taping and we're repacking, and

Jonny Edward:

we're doing this, we're doing that we're getting everything

Jonny Edward:

segmented. And now we're looking at time, and we're like, holy

Jonny Edward:

shit. Like, if we don't get these boxes out to ship.

Jonny Edward:

Tonight, we're gonna have to do it tomorrow. We have no way to

Jonny Edward:

stage these in hotel rooms. We only have one predominant

Jonny Edward:

vehicle. We're already renting things we have to make this

Jonny Edward:

happen tonight. So I find a FedEx store. That's open until

Jonny Edward:

eight. And it's Friday fucking night on the strip. So it was

Jonny Edward:

empty the day before it is now Hey, OS, like absolute chaos,

Jonny Edward:

like LA freeway meets fucking and apocalyptic movie. And

Jonny Edward:

Paulinus husband Bill and I are like what could do in this so we

Jonny Edward:

throw all of these boxes into the back of the truck. We're

Jonny Edward:

wedging things in we're trying to figure out you know how

Jonny Edward:

things can't fall out. I basically have my head out the

Jonny Edward:

window like a watchdog. So it's stoplight some unsavory

Jonny Edward:

character isn't gonna steal one of these lights and take it to a

Jonny Edward:

pawn shop. It's fucking insane. But like, everyone's on Hi, back

Jonny Edward:

at the studio Bill and I are driving we're stuck in traffic,

Jonny Edward:

there was a brokedown Corvette from the 80s that held the

Jonny Edward:

traffic like it was it was not it was like it was something of

Jonny Edward:

an indie movie, you know, there's just this sort of like

Jonny Edward:

EDM soundtrack playing in the back. And I'm like, Bill, if

Jonny Edward:

this doesn't work out, you know, what are we going to do? And

Jonny Edward:

he's like, you know, maybe we'll just drive off a cliff. And I

Jonny Edward:

was like, yeah, that'd be swayed. And so we're in this

Jonny Edward:

pseudo existential, pseudo excited, pseudo exhausted state,

Jonny Edward:

and we get there, and we have the fucking truck is loaded. And

Jonny Edward:

so we put all of these on flatbeds and we get in and out

Jonny Edward:

of doing a jig. It's like the Joker coming down and do there

Jonny Edward:

is you may walk in Phoenix, I have fucking Sinatra playing, I

Jonny Edward:

backpedal. And guys, like, what's up, guys? And we're like,

Jonny Edward:

we got to ship this stuff out. It's gonna be fucking amazing.

Jonny Edward:

I'm getting ready to wipe the slate clean. And he's like,

Jonny Edward:

where are the labels? And I was like, boss, the labels are on

Jonny Edward:

the fucking box, right? Where we flip them, you can take a peek

Jonny Edward:

right there. And he's like, Ah, man, what the fuck do you these

Jonny Edward:

are UPS labels, you're at FedEx. That that uncomfortable? Pause

Jonny Edward:

is exactly what happened. So for me, everything came I was

Jonny Edward:

received at FedEx. And I'm like, Alright, there was a handling

Jonny Edward:

fee. So whatever is going on with the shipping, it can go out

Jonny Edward:

via FedEx. That's what was at The Mirage now. And because all

Jonny Edward:

of us were so utterly exhausted, none of us took a look at the

Jonny Edward:

labels. We were not out of this team of 10. And so I'm like,

Jonny Edward:

fuck, okay. Who's open UPS wise? No one man, all the ups closes.

Jonny Edward:

So now I'm dealing with the fact that we're in a 24 hour fucking

Jonny Edward:

city Sin City where, like, places closed down at 6pm on a

Jonny Edward:

Friday night. So I'm calling access points literally for UPS.

Jonny Edward:

I'm like, listen, I know you guys only deal with drivers.

Jonny Edward:

I'll throw you fucking undos like I got money in my back

Jonny Edward:

pocket. I'll rub your back. I'll you know be godfather to your

Jonny Edward:

first child, whatever the fuck and they're like Sorry, sir.

Jonny Edward:

We'd love to help you. We can. So Bill and I get the bright

Jonny Edward:

idea of fuck it like we're going to try and go to a Walgreens.

Jonny Edward:

Right? Like they have a UPS store. They're probably not

Jonny Edward:

equipped to handle this, but I'm like someone there need some

Jonny Edward:

fucking money. I'll ply the trade. I'll do whatever I need

Jonny Edward:

to fucking do like I'll don a Walgreens outfit and dance on

Jonny Edward:

the strip for the next four hours. Just to bring people into

Jonny Edward:

a place they can get cheaper booze, whatever the fuck. So

Jonny Edward:

we're heading to this Walgreens and then we realize it's the

Jonny Edward:

Walgreens on the strip, the eponymous strip Walgreens. And

Jonny Edward:

we're like, well, that's not going to fucking work. So we get

Jonny Edward:

stuck in traffic. I'm calling Matt. I'm calling Paulina. I'm

Jonny Edward:

like, Hey, things are fought. I don't know what we're gonna do,

Jonny Edward:

we need to schedule a pickup, we need to do this. So anyway, it's

Jonny Edward:

just this fucking thing. And I'm now my wit's end was an hour

Jonny Edward:

ago, was what three debacle is ago. So I'm just sitting in the

Jonny Edward:

truck Deadeye like a shark, just staring at these neon lights,

Jonny Edward:

and I can't even I'm not even upset. I don't even have the

Jonny Edward:

energy to be upset. I'm just fucking completely convalesced.

Jonny Edward:

And so we show up. And everyone's like, what are we

Jonny Edward:

going to do, and I'm gonna be, let's just let's unpack it. I'm

Jonny Edward:

like, it just has to go back inside. And so we come up with

Jonny Edward:

this plan where Paulina, and Bill are going to take care of

Jonny Edward:

it in the morning, and they're going to get an Uber XL. I'm

Jonny Edward:

considering changing my flight. I can't do the app, because it's

Jonny Edward:

just madness, with people trying to fly out, we come up with this

Jonny Edward:

fucking plan. And it ended up working out like credit to

Jonny Edward:

Pauline and Bill, thank you black box studios for letting us

Jonny Edward:

stay there. They were so kind, they didn't even charge us for

Jonny Edward:

the staging of the extra hours, the best of humanity, like

Jonny Edward:

people fucking came together. And we're like, Listen, this is

Jonny Edward:

a problem. But in the scheme of life, it's really not a problem.

Jonny Edward:

Let's fucking pivot and make it work. And so we get with a plan.

Jonny Edward:

And now Matt and I are going back to the Mirage. And I'm just

Jonny Edward:

like, we're sitting in the back. And now it's like, how are you?

Jonny Edward:

And I'm like, I don't even know. Like, how are you? And he's just

Jonny Edward:

like, like, we're both speaking in evangelical tongues. There

Jonny Edward:

weren't even word big enunciate. We're both just like primitive

Jonny Edward:

grunts.

Matt Stagliano:

It was at that point that I realized I hadn't

Matt Stagliano:

eaten all day, right? I'm the type that will go go go and then

Matt Stagliano:

realize, Oh, God, I have not even low blood sugar, I have no

Matt Stagliano:

blood, or whatever. And I'll crash. And that's exactly what

Matt Stagliano:

the way that I was feeling. At the end of the workshop. Now I

Matt Stagliano:

snacked kind of throughout the day, but never really had too

Matt Stagliano:

much of substance. And so sitting in the back of this

Matt Stagliano:

truck, on the way back to the hotel theater, killing me, we've

Matt Stagliano:

just had this amazing, like emotional day. And then the

Matt Stagliano:

problem that we have to solve, and all I'm thinking is like, I

Matt Stagliano:

just have to get back to the hotel room. Take a quick shower,

Matt Stagliano:

I need something to eat really bad. So we get back. And because

Matt Stagliano:

it's Friday night, and all week, I had brought out with me a an

Matt Stagliano:

edible chocolate bar, a 200 milligram edible chocolate bar

Matt Stagliano:

that was going to manage me throughout the week, and it was

Matt Stagliano:

doing great. It was mainly for sleep at night, make sure that I

Matt Stagliano:

can sleep a little bit. And I had a couple of pieces left,

Matt Stagliano:

probably, I don't know, 40 milligrams worth of chocolate.

Matt Stagliano:

Now, here's where it gets fun. So we go back to the room. You

Matt Stagliano:

and I sitting there just dead. I'd like sharp and I'm

Jonny Edward:

exhausted. I'm like, Alright,

Matt Stagliano:

you go. Let's go get dinner somewhere. Everybody

Matt Stagliano:

that we knew was basically gone. I'm like, let's go get sushi

Matt Stagliano:

downstairs and hang out. What I'm going to do is I'm going to

Matt Stagliano:

take a little bit of this chocolate bar right now. And

Matt Stagliano:

then we could just kind of groove on a Friday night.

Matt Stagliano:

Totally not intending to do what I did, which was take that get

Matt Stagliano:

dressed in in my low blood sugar haze of my brain. I took the

Matt Stagliano:

other half now. Now I would that's it. I was just hungry.

Matt Stagliano:

And I was just eating chocolate. And I realized, oh no, I've made

Matt Stagliano:

a disastrous error and wind up realizing that I took in the

Matt Stagliano:

night taking about 3540 milligrams of this chocolate

Matt Stagliano:

bar. And I go that's a lot for me. Given what I'm about to do.

Matt Stagliano:

We go downstairs to the the sushi restaurant. And we have

Matt Stagliano:

the same waiter that we had had a couple of nights prior. Yep.

Matt Stagliano:

And he seemed a little bit aggressive. On this night. He

Matt Stagliano:

was great. The first night we were there. Yeah, we kept him

Matt Stagliano:

well, I don't know why he was aggressive. But he kept coming

Matt Stagliano:

over and we were both still sober at this point.

Jonny Edward:

Yeah. Relatively lucid. Is

Matt Stagliano:

Is he like fucking with us a little bit?

Matt Stagliano:

What's going on? So it brings up the socket, we're having socket.

Matt Stagliano:

But everything out of his mouth was like, looking at us a little

Matt Stagliano:

weird. And I start to have these moments of paranoia where I'm

Matt Stagliano:

like, is he dosing our food? Like did he put something in the

Matt Stagliano:

socket and he's just waiting for us? Because everything is just a

Matt Stagliano:

little bit weird. So we're sitting there and we're having a

Matt Stagliano:

good time. And then it happened. Everything kicked in at once.

Matt Stagliano:

When they put those first person cameras on, you know, and it's

Matt Stagliano:

facing the person's face and they're looking around and the

Matt Stagliano:

whole angle Little is just this real dystopian view of what

Matt Stagliano:

person is experiencing, and they're stumbling through a

Matt Stagliano:

party. And sometimes it's like hyperlapse. That's what I felt

Matt Stagliano:

like was starting to happen. I look up for my meal, and I look

Matt Stagliano:

at you and you've got eyes, the sides of Frisbees, and you're

Matt Stagliano:

looking at me going, oh, yeah, we're in the same place, aren't

Matt Stagliano:

we? And I said, Yeah, this is gonna get weird. We need to

Matt Stagliano:

settle up and get out of here immediately. But let's use the

Matt Stagliano:

restroom first. And we get up and start walking through the

Matt Stagliano:

casino, and we do one lap around the casino. And then we do

Matt Stagliano:

another lap because we just kept taking rights. And we wound up

Matt Stagliano:

at the same spot. We're like, I can't do another lap. So we're

Matt Stagliano:

like, alright, let's let's hit The Strip. And just go outside

Matt Stagliano:

get some fresh air. We started walking out of the four exit

Matt Stagliano:

because we couldn't find it for some reason couldn't find a

Matt Stagliano:

restroom at The Mirage. Yeah, don't ask why just

Jonny Edward:

we got we got stuck in the casino floor loop.

Jonny Edward:

Like we were just literally, it was like Groundhog Day.

Matt Stagliano:

So we find this this exit and it's by the Rum

Matt Stagliano:

Bar in the cafeteria. So we go out, and we just start walking,

Matt Stagliano:

we get outside and we get hit with that fresh, fresh air and

Matt Stagliano:

it feels so good. And it's the lights of the strip. And I'm

Matt Stagliano:

standing there and I'm going, we made a disastrous error here as

Matt Stagliano:

well. Because now we've got to deal with the strip, keep it

Matt Stagliano:

together, keep it together, keep it together, keep it together.

Matt Stagliano:

Now, at this point, my high is getting more and more and more.

Matt Stagliano:

And I'm just starting to feel super groovy. And when I get

Matt Stagliano:

like that I shut down and I'm observing everything and we're

Matt Stagliano:

walking by street performers that are awful. Just not good

Matt Stagliano:

street performers at all playing Oregon's playing guitars playing

Matt Stagliano:

pipes. I don't know what they were playing. But it felt like

Matt Stagliano:

walking the 20 yards past. This guy playing in Oregon, took us

Matt Stagliano:

45 minutes and it very well may have taken us 45 minutes. But

Matt Stagliano:

we're walking. So that's happening. I'm getting freaked

Matt Stagliano:

out. I look over you. You're just laughing at me because I'm

Matt Stagliano:

freaked out. But you're freaked out too. So we keep walking. All

Matt Stagliano:

of a sudden, a woman starts running at us full bore. I don't

Matt Stagliano:

know what's happening, but she takes off. Suddenly, a guy's

Matt Stagliano:

chasing her with a full beer in his hand. Yep. I think he had

Matt Stagliano:

just robbed him of his phone and took off. I tried to chase like

Matt Stagliano:

grabbed it out of his hand while he was talking and just ran. And

Matt Stagliano:

he winds up tripping over a curb and eating it. And everybody was

Matt Stagliano:

like, Oh, no one looking to help them. No one's came out and

Matt Stagliano:

we're like, Look at this guy. But world. I'm like we just

Matt Stagliano:

witnessed a crime. Yep, walking forward. Keep walking straight

Matt Stagliano:

in the distance. We see Caesars Caesars must have a bathroom

Matt Stagliano:

because moth to a flame it's a beacon. There was literally no

Matt Stagliano:

place to just turn off into like an In and Out Burger or

Matt Stagliano:

something to use the restroom. So we're like, Alright, let's go

Matt Stagliano:

into the casino. Now after a week of being at WPPI in the

Matt Stagliano:

Mirage, now the Mirage, if you haven't been to Vegas is kind of

Matt Stagliano:

like the middle aged couple of the Vegas casinos where they

Matt Stagliano:

kind of want to go out and party a little bit but you know,

Matt Stagliano:

around 11 o'clock, you kind of dead you know, as opposed to

Matt Stagliano:

like ARIA or Cosmo which are much younger and hipper and the

Matt Stagliano:

Mirage is a great place. But it's just kind of like a middle

Matt Stagliano:

aged married couple of

Jonny Edward:

80s Nostalgia vibe about at the sound. Yeah. So

Jonny Edward:

we're like

Matt Stagliano:

all right there Caesars. Let's get into Caesars

Matt Stagliano:

and we walked in. I was ready for what we experienced. I don't

Matt Stagliano:

know what went through your mind when we went in there. But all I

Matt Stagliano:

saw when I walked in was like Russian mobsters. Bright lights

Matt Stagliano:

a line for the nightclub? Yeah, Omnia, that was there. That line

Matt Stagliano:

and you and I are walking in. You're dressed the way you're

Matt Stagliano:

dressed. I'm in like a Canadian tuxedo, rolling in in a

Matt Stagliano:

turtleneck in a denim jacket. I could not have felt more out of

Matt Stagliano:

place. And it wasn't just the drug paranoia that was going on.

Matt Stagliano:

We were literally there was

Jonny Edward:

like 12 women from South America dressed like

Jonny Edward:

Leeloo from the fifth element over girls dispersing and coming

Jonny Edward:

together like a lava lamp. Like it was it was literally it was

Jonny Edward:

it was a paragraph out or a fucking Hunter S Thompson trip

Jonny Edward:

in real time that we were living into. We walked

Matt Stagliano:

for Caesars find the restroom and I go in. I go

Matt Stagliano:

in first. I'm like running recon apparently. So I go in and

Matt Stagliano:

standing there in there, too. Whoo Persian gentleman rather

Matt Stagliano:

sizable guys hammered, absolutely hammered in the

Matt Stagliano:

corner. Speaking to each other, I don't understand a word that

Matt Stagliano:

they're saying. But it starts to get a little bit heated. Like

Matt Stagliano:

they're having that drunk friend argument. Then one of them does

Matt Stagliano:

that slow motion turnaround I can see in the mirror, slow

Matt Stagliano:

motion and focus on me because I'm the other human in the room.

Matt Stagliano:

And he starts going a, and I'm like, no, just stare at the wall

Matt Stagliano:

mat, stare at the wall, and starts wandering over to me. And

Matt Stagliano:

I'm just like, out of there. And there were multiple anti

Matt Stagliano:

chambers in this bathroom. It was like looking at this endless

Matt Stagliano:

hallway. There's no way I'm getting out of here. So do a

Matt Stagliano:

loop around Caesars and the strange feeling of I don't

Matt Stagliano:

belong. But I didn't belong. And we needed to get out of there

Matt Stagliano:

quickly. Now. Did you see anything in there? I'd love your

Matt Stagliano:

your thoughts. I can remember every step that I took in every

Matt Stagliano:

face that I saw and trying to get out of this place. Was there

Matt Stagliano:

anything weird that you saw, as we know, it was? It was

Jonny Edward:

it was such an odd crowd. It was just it's hard to

Jonny Edward:

even typify. I don't know, it was like a sort of like a Chad

Jonny Edward:

convention mixed with like a division to like lower tier frat

Jonny Edward:

party. But if everyone was wearing masks of the same

Jonny Edward:

person, everyone was dressed slightly differently, but looked

Jonny Edward:

identical. And they all had this like similar despondence where

Jonny Edward:

they weren't even excited to be there. And the tables were

Jonny Edward:

insane. And everything was insanely good. It was like that

Jonny Edward:

the verbs bittersweet Symphony video, so we were walking and

Jonny Edward:

not only did we stand out, no matter which way we walked, we

Jonny Edward:

were countered to the flow of the way everyone else was

Jonny Edward:

walking, just getting shoulder checked by these like

Jonny Edward:

emotionless, like Pink Floyd knights, just mindlessly

Jonny Edward:

walking. And that was my bit too. I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm

Jonny Edward:

drowning in a sea of people. But it's not even people. It's just

Jonny Edward:

like a mass of the same person, we have to get the fuck out of

Jonny Edward:

this place. The buzz was going but it was starting to turn

Jonny Edward:

south a little bit.

Matt Stagliano:

We're like, Alright, let's get back outside,

Matt Stagliano:

let's get back to the hotel, this was clearly a bad idea, to

Matt Stagliano:

walk a mile and a half to take a piss and then walk all the way

Matt Stagliano:

back right? We could have accomplished this at The Mirage.

Matt Stagliano:

But you know, adventure, as we leave, we get out, we get back

Matt Stagliano:

to the Mirage we walk in now we've got to navigate the Mirage

Matt Stagliano:

again. And we're like, Alright, there's no way that we're going

Matt Stagliano:

to be able to get from the entrance to our room in one

Matt Stagliano:

piece, we should probably stop halfway and have a drink at the

Matt Stagliano:

bar. So we start walking to set a bar. And as for blocking, I,

Matt Stagliano:

I'm walking to help the center all the way and you're to my

Matt Stagliano:

left. And I'm basically hugging the right side of the pathway.

Matt Stagliano:

And I can see this couple coming out of the slots like in there's

Matt Stagliano:

a pillar in the way so they were going to come behind the pillar

Matt Stagliano:

and then widen. And I saw this happening. And I knew that they

Matt Stagliano:

were going to present right in front of us. And as I'm walking,

Matt Stagliano:

they came out exactly where they were supposed to scared the shit

Matt Stagliano:

out of me. I jumped. In my mind, I was just like, Oh, that was a

Matt Stagliano:

little startling. In reality, I think you could probably say, if

Jonny Edward:

you were at like an elite CrossFit game and

Jonny Edward:

someone who was doing a box jump in reverse, but that person

Jonny Edward:

happened to be Nosferatu. His fucking arms folded across his

Jonny Edward:

chest and he hopped back like his life depended on it. And it

Jonny Edward:

startled me. And in the moment that I saw it happening, I went

Jonny Edward:

back to the default like I'm gonna laugh so hard. I'm gonna

Jonny Edward:

have a fucking panic attack laugh. And so now Matt's frozen

Jonny Edward:

upon hitting the ground, very athletic. I was very impressed.

Jonny Edward:

And then these, this old couple who literally looked like they

Jonny Edward:

could have been, I don't know, like a parody out of the Beverly

Jonny Edward:

Hillbillies. just stands there, staring at us in time stops for

Jonny Edward:

a moment called Matt. Matt is frozen in like the Heisman

Jonny Edward:

trophy pose. I'm laughing so hard. I might actually piss my

Jonny Edward:

pants. And then all of a sudden it's like the hyperlapse thing

Jonny Edward:

or like the time scaling and video then time just starts

Jonny Edward:

again. So slowed, it expands and contracts.

Matt Stagliano:

We get past that couple and we're pretty good.

Matt Stagliano:

You're nonstop laughing.

Jonny Edward:

I'm dying. I'm like people are getting up to

Jonny Edward:

see who's laughing so hard. I am just geeking out like 10%

Matt Stagliano:

Howling laughing we're like alright, let's go to

Matt Stagliano:

the center bar. So we go to the center bar and we sit down at

Matt Stagliano:

the bar. Now one thing you have to know about the center bar,

Matt Stagliano:

it's run by the all of bartending staff. They all seem

Matt Stagliano:

to have come from the same place. Isn't gang because they

Matt Stagliano:

were all built like they had spent years in a Thai prison.

Matt Stagliano:

The rest of their penalty was to serve drinks at the center bar.

Matt Stagliano:

And

Jonny Edward:

one of the guys I spoke to before actually fought

Jonny Edward:

Roy Jones Jr. I mean caliber to this like legitimate badass

Jonny Edward:

dudes.

Matt Stagliano:

Well, the funny thing was, I'd sit at the bar.

Matt Stagliano:

And despite how we were feeling, we still held it together

Matt Stagliano:

relatively well. And there was zero sloppiness, but boy, oh,

Matt Stagliano:

boy, they hated serving people drinks. And I was watching it.

Matt Stagliano:

And I said, you know, Hey, can I have a couple of woodfords. And

Matt Stagliano:

the guy looks at me, he's just like, uh, now clearly, I

Matt Stagliano:

offended him in some way, shape, or form. In the music that was

Matt Stagliano:

playing the band that was playing, they were a cover band,

Matt Stagliano:

and they were fine. They were serviceable. And I turned

Matt Stagliano:

around, and I looked at them. And it was like, every eighth

Matt Stagliano:

grade substitute English teacher had gotten together and created

Matt Stagliano:

a cover band that was going to go play Las Vegas, they were

Matt Stagliano:

recapturing their youth. Every time I turned around, there was

Matt Stagliano:

another person appearing, there were some on the stage, there

Matt Stagliano:

were some that were standing off the stage, they're going on, the

Matt Stagliano:

guitarist started to walk around the bar and sit at people's

Matt Stagliano:

booths, lap, laps and riff. All I wanted to do is watch the band

Matt Stagliano:

from this point, because they played terribly. They had no

Matt Stagliano:

presence, there was no style, but I wanted nothing. But to get

Matt Stagliano:

these guys to play every event that I'm ever going to attend

Matt Stagliano:

again, it

Jonny Edward:

became an exercise and people watching and so this

Jonny Edward:

all sounds innocuous enough, but you have to once again reframe

Jonny Edward:

relative to our states of mind, and what had preceded this, so

Jonny Edward:

we're sitting there sipping on the Woodford that you know, no

Jonny Edward:

one wanted to serve to us. Next to this people who didn't want

Jonny Edward:

to be there. Having just had our you know, strange Nosferatu

Jonny Edward:

strip mugging Chad convention experience both just wide eyed

Jonny Edward:

and bushy tailed going. This is our last night in Vegas

Jonny Edward:

together. All right, like just

Matt Stagliano:

trying to end the week with a meal and a

Matt Stagliano:

cocktail that's developed into this adventure. Right? And I

Matt Stagliano:

don't know at what point we finally called it a night, I

Jonny Edward:

distinctly remember looking over and we

Jonny Edward:

were getting to the end of whatever Woodford that was,

Jonny Edward:

whether it's the third or fourth and I'm like, Matt, kinda kinda

Jonny Edward:

think I want to go what do you think it was? Like? Yes,

Jonny Edward:

absolutely. The switch got turned off on the receptivity to

Jonny Edward:

all of the experience for the night and it was just like,

Jonny Edward:

getting home like lost in the woods, follow the compass, there

Jonny Edward:

has to be a road in that general direction. Let's hike out

Matt Stagliano:

as exhausted and as high. And as just mentally

Matt Stagliano:

spent. As I was on that last night. It absolutely made the

Matt Stagliano:

entire week come together. And I feel like all the stresses just

Matt Stagliano:

kind of washed away. What a great way to end the week. And I

Matt Stagliano:

can't say that. I've never done that in Vegas before. But this

Matt Stagliano:

was certainly the most memorable most visual night that ever. The

Jonny Edward:

only thing that I could think from the outside

Jonny Edward:

looking in as it must have looked like we looked like like

Jonny Edward:

a B movie version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Sort of,

Jonny Edward:

you know, we can't stop here because it's bad country is the

Jonny Edward:

organist is playing the same three notes that sound that are

Jonny Edward:

sounding so off key and ominous while we're just sauntering up

Jonny Edward:

and down, drip like zombies, like these two morons

Matt Stagliano:

are coked out of their head and like, no, no,

Matt Stagliano:

we're near that. And we're on basically a chocolate bar and

Matt Stagliano:

Xanax exactly, like just trying to chill from a huge week. And I

Matt Stagliano:

think it's probably a great way to end this entire episode,

Matt Stagliano:

which I'll probably have to cut into several parts. But dude, it

Matt Stagliano:

was it was a ton of fun to see you. It's been amazing to kind

Matt Stagliano:

of go through the whole week again, what's next for you?

Matt Stagliano:

What's are you going? Are you going to have any workshops

Matt Stagliano:

coming up,

Jonny Edward:

I have a workshop in April here in Denver on the

Jonny Edward:

27th and 28th. It is sold out. And I'm very grateful for that.

Jonny Edward:

So for those of you who are attending, thank you so much for

Jonny Edward:

giving me the opportunity to be part of your journey. I'll be in

Jonny Edward:

Seattle in early May at my friend Simon Diaz's studio. So

Jonny Edward:

he's a badass who also partied way too hard. Every time I saw

Jonny Edward:

that man, he was four sheets to the wind but having a great

Jonny Edward:

time. In the end of May or mid May, I should say the 18th and

Jonny Edward:

19th. I'll actually be in Harlem, New York running my

Jonny Edward:

first workshop in New York in collaboration with Nat light. So

Jonny Edward:

I haven't opened that up publicly yet. Now I'm late and I

Jonny Edward:

have not made a public announcement. We'll call this

Jonny Edward:

the official public announcement for that. But I'm really excited

Jonny Edward:

to be in New York doing it. It's been something I've wanted to do

Jonny Edward:

since I started Getting into education at all. So it feels

Jonny Edward:

like an apex point for me. We're gonna be at this really rad

Jonny Edward:

studio called uptown shots, which is a brilliant

Jonny Edward:

multipurpose production studio there. And I'm definitely going

Jonny Edward:

to be bringing my A game I'll probably be in New York for

Jonny Edward:

about 10 days. I want to do some touristy things, eat some good

Jonny Edward:

food, connect with a lot of people I know out there and

Jonny Edward:

certainly work with, you know, some of the diversity and magic

Jonny Edward:

that exists only in that city. So that will be a wild, wild

Jonny Edward:

ride. And when I'm laughing hysterically, you know on too

Jonny Edward:

many Xanax out on the streets in New York, I have a feeling I'll

Jonny Edward:

blend in even more than I did in Las Vegas, which will be peachy

Jonny Edward:

keen.

Matt Stagliano:

No one's gonna bat an eye.

Jonny Edward:

I laugh like an asshole like I feel at home when

Jonny Edward:

I'm in New York. I just people telling me to fuck off I tell

Jonny Edward:

them to fuck off. And I'm like, all my heart strings are being

Jonny Edward:

pulled at just the right time. And it's

Matt Stagliano:

cool, man. Well, I might. Maybe I'll try to be a

Matt Stagliano:

wedding crasher sometime in May and just drive down maybe I'll

Matt Stagliano:

pick up some people along the way and we'll just do a bus tour

Matt Stagliano:

and follow Yeah,

Jonny Edward:

well let's go into get into like a West Side Story

Jonny Edward:

as Brawl you know in the Bronx this dressed up similarly,

Jonny Edward:

that'll be what actually takes us viral and makes makes us

Jonny Edward:

famous. Is this snapping in denim on the streets of the

Jonny Edward:

fucking Bronx? The art No, the mentor ship? No, the positivity.

Jonny Edward:

Fuck no. Did you see them doing the shuffle in that Tiktok

Jonny Edward:

video? Fuckin infamy immediately.

Matt Stagliano:

Thank you my friend. Again. Love your setup.

Matt Stagliano:

love talking to you, man. I love you as a human so I will. I'll

Matt Stagliano:

talk to you soon, man.

Jonny Edward:

I look forward to it. Alright, take it easy.

Jonny Edward:

Cheers, man.

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About the Podcast

Generator
A podcast about creativity
Join host and Maine portrait photographer Matt Stagliano while he has long, casual conversations with his guests about creativity in art, business, and relationships. We believe that anything you create is worth talking about!
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Matt Stagliano

Matt Stagliano is an internationally awarded and accredited Master portrait photographer, videographer, speaker, mentor and owner of several businesses including Maine's premier portrait studio, Stonetree Creative.