062 – Creating in-depth Actual Play Characters with Joshua Simons

Courtney: 37:03

I wanna dig even further then, because you say, you know, how am I gonna tell a story? So how do you, like, how do you get there?

Josh: 37:11

You know, it’s gonna look different for everyone. So like, I can’t say here’s how you should tell a story because your stories are very different from mine, but for me, like, there’s a couple of core things that are always gonna exist. Right? Like I am absolutely like the dad friend of any group of friends, I’m the one who’s making sure that everyone has all the things they, that they need. I’m making sure that you don’t drink too much. I’m making sure that no one leaves behind a phone or a pair of glasses at the table when we’re at the restaurant, that’s just the role that I always play. And so the stories that I tell oftentimes include a character like that. If I have to create a character, there’s going to be a dad friend element to them because that’s something that’s true of me. And so it is true of my characters at the same time. Right? Like I grew up with all these stories. I like to tell these oddball stories. I like to have these weird, quirky, funny things. That’s why one of the first things that I thought about creating that character for The Islands of Sina Una stream was does cheese exist because I want a significant memorable occurrence in this character’s backstory to be the time they shat themselves from eating cheeses. I want this to be a thing, because I think that’s memorable. It’s humanizing because we have all had some horrendously embarrassing thing that has happened to us in the past. And we think back decades later and go, oh God, why did I do that? Why did this have to happen in this way that I look like the fool? 

And so I, I very much want to have those moments, but I wanna have these lighthearted moments, like every character of mine, even in the worst moments when, when everything is going wrong. When, when you’re on death’s door, when you’re grieving the loss of your loved one, there’s still this kind of ironic sense of humor that, that I still try to bring in just a little bit. I think that’s the tall tale piece really honestly, is like when things are the most dire and the most absurd, we just need something just slightly, just a little twist just to laugh at our situation. And then we can move on with the whole mourning, weeping, gnashing of teeth thing. But like you gotta have a moment of levity in there. 

So like the Josh principles of storytelling are you need a character that folks are gonna get attached to. That’s where the wholesome dad vibes come in is like, He really cares. He might not show it well. He might show in all the wrong ways even, but he really cares. Right. And, and he is going to defend those people that he cares about. No matter what. He’s got maybe a little bit of an odd sense of humor or, or, a quick wit perhaps. I have in that Saturday game that I play offline a bard who is like the epitome of like the 1% of the 1% costume changes between every scene, shows up holding glassware from some random bar that he’s just stopped at on the way to the next scene to order himself a drink whiskey on the rocks. He’s just got glassware from all these random bars around town that he just has on him because he’s, oh, I’ll bring it back eventually. 

And then eventually gets put on like a sidewalk somewhere and never makes it back. But then, you know, like he still shows that he cares in that. Oh, something traumatic has just happened? Well, tacos are on me, everyone. Let’s go get tacos right now. Oh, we don’t have time to sit down. Walking tacos it is. All right, we’ll get ’em. We’ll get them to go. Okay. Good, good, good. You know, it’s like, he, he still very much cares about the group, but he expresses it in. Oh, well, everything’s gone to shit so the bar tab is on me. Can I get everyone something to eat? Are we doing burgers today? Burgers it is. I’ll take the orders while you’re all processing emotions. And just, you know, he is the most extra of extra. If bougie could describe a character, it is this character who’s like, oh, well, you know, I, I switched out to my gray three piece suit because I thought perhaps it was maybe a little bit too busy for this. 

So I’ve put on my black three piece suit. Oh what’s that we’re going to the city records office I’m going to do a quick mix and match and put my gray blazer on with my black three piece suit, I think. Like that’s just the epitome of his character is so over the top because his character arc, his story is learning what it’s like to be a normal person who doesn’t come from wealth and learning how to be in touch with his emotions and express them in a healthy way. Cuz that’s not something he knows how to do. And so that’s the story that he’s going on. The arc that, that I’m exploring with this character is how do you go from maximally privileged to, this is a thing that even though it doesn’t affect me directly, I should still be concerned about. And finding ways to make him lovable, but like, love to hateable has been my favorite thing. 

And so, like, I can say the most absurd, ridiculous lines with him and get away with it because he is who he is. You can’t see it right now, listeners at home, but I am making like this face of like, I’m sorry, who is this distinguished gentleman who has walked in and bought the entire bar, but that’s the character. And so you just get to play with a character who is so ridiculously privileged that you shouldn’t be able to like him and find ways to make him likable. And he starts to have cracks in that facade of I’m too good for everyone else. And it starts with, oh, well, I care about this one person and you know what, maybe, maybe it’s right. That it’s not all going your way right now. Right? Like maybe it’s okay. And we’re going to figure it out together because I don’t know much, but I know that this thing is not your fault. And so you shouldn’t have to fix it alone. And you just get to explore. And if you don’t like the path you’re going down, just change it. Right. 

Like, that’s the great thing about these characters. Like, like I’m gonna try this. Mm. I didn’t like that. That’s not for him, but you never have to do it again. You can just. Find something else. I’ve feel like I’ve, I’ve just gone on a short monologue here and by short, I mean, 20 minutes. So I’m gonna wrap it up, but just you find the things that are humanizing about a character, even if they’re few and far between, and you explore those things and you find ways to lean into them, especially like when you’re playing a character who is a bit over the top, perhaps an unlikable character, maybe even a deliberately unlikable character, you find the touch points that people are gonna connect with and you lean into them just enough that people don’t get sick of the character, that they actually start to care about this character. As they see this arc that you’re going on. Doesn’t have to be quick. 

My arc for that character is a long one because all of our other characters in that game have more pressing things. And so his arc is very much on the back burner, little things happen, scenes here and there, but he’s just enjoying the ride. There to get drunk and try fancy new hor d’oeuvres that he hasn’t had before in the meantime. But you know what? In those moments, he’s still learning about his friends and he’s got opportunities to show that he cares about them. Even if he’s not in the spotlight, I’m sprinkling in little moments and that’s all you need. And a character really is just like a chance to have a little moment here that shows just a tiny bit of development or what are they thinking about right now? Or how do they cope with grief? I’m gonna leave it at that because I could just talk for hours and hours. And I feel like at some point, at some point you want to move on from Josh talking about how to tell a good story with a character.

Courtney: 46:00

this has been absolutely fascinating, and I am really enjoying all of this. I do want to kind of go back a little bit and you said that, you know, when you were first thinking about getting into the content creation side of things that you managed to find a couple of shows to audition for. And then things have kind of progressed since there where you’ve just been in a lot of gigs ever since. So how did you find those original auditions?

Josh: 46:27

Yeah, so I cannot recommend enough finding a community channel. There’s a number of them out there. The one that I’ve been involved with most recently is The Free Forge. You can follow them on Twitter, and I presume that they’ve got links to their discord and other things that you can get to, but they have their own Twitch channel, got some shows going on, whatever. I, I firmly think that the best way to get into performing on actual plays is to get involved with the community and just start to build those relationships within that community because they’ll have a charity event and they’re gonna be like, Hey, we need to fill some seats or they’ll have some offline games that they’ll use to, you know, kind of figure out who they want to bring in for this next show. Because one of like the key things, if you run a Twitch channel and you have a community Twitch channel is you wanna make sure that you keep having fresh faces. 

And so you’re gonna have some form of vetting process to find new folks in the community that you can bring on. You’re not always gonna cast from the same handful of people that you know, at some point you’ve gotta get new folks. If you’re in a community that doesn’t ever do that find a new community because that community probably isn’t one, that’s gonna give you a shot right away. But go find a community where you can play some games with some of the folks who are appearing on those streams. Maybe have a chance to run a game for some of ’em or appear as a guest for a one shot. And you’ll start to find that as you build up your chops, they’ll instead of going, Hey, open call for auditions, they’ll say, Hey, we want you to be on this cast and open call for auditions, because with most of those things, they know who the DM or GM is gonna be, and they know who one or two of their key players are gonna be is that’s like the anchor for this stream. And then they bring in new faces. 

And as you start to build up that reputation in that community, you perform well. You’re gonna have opportunities to be someone that they turn to, that they rely on. And once you have appeared in one or two streams, it’s really easy to go find calls for auditions on Twitter. They happen probably weekly, if I had to guess, I have seen, I think, two in the last week where someone is like, Hey, I’ve got a show and admittedly, on those big ones that are happening on social media, like a hundred people will apply. So it’s helpful to have a stream or two that you’ve appeared on where you can say, Hey, refer back to this. I appeared on this channel. Here’s a clip. It’s a minute long highlight of some of my best work on that stream. Super helpful. You start to then build a little bit of name for yourself because once you start appearing on one channel, couple of times, someone’s gonna stumble on and go, Hey, maybe you should appear on our channel too. We’d love to bring you in as a guest. 

And of course, you’re gonna do some work. You’re gonna you know, put your name out there and find some places that are gonna be interested in bringing you on. But that’s where the big word that people hate and everyone is afraid of: networking comes in because. We talk about networking and it sounds terrifying and horrendous and this big evil thing, because it means of course, that you have to go and talk to people you don’t know. And it bears this connotation of like being at the bar after work, getting drinks, talking about your business plans. And it’s really not all that. You can do so much good networking on Twitter just by interacting with folks that you think are doing cool things and that you appreciate what they’re doing. And then by just interacting with them. They’ll start to interact with you, especially if you’re doing things kind of at a similar level. I think it is an easy mistake to say, Hey, I have just appeared on my first actual place stream. I’m gonna go talk to the cast of Critical Role. And I’m gonna go at B Dave Walters and Aabria Iyengar and you know, Tanya DePass and all of these people who do all these big name shows, and I’m gonna go tell them that I want to perform on their streams because they should have me. And look, I respect that that is what you wanna do. It helps to set a goal and then try to achieve it. Because if you don’t have a goal, you don’t know where you’re going. Right? Set that goal, say, this is what I’d like to do eventually, but work your way there. 

Start by working with other folks who are doing streams in the same circles that you’re in. And when I say circles, I talk about your community channel has other community channels that it’s connected to, that they’ve partnered with. There are gonna be other individual creators who are doing similar things to you. You go appear on their show and then they’ll appear on your show. You can do some of those things where you’re building this network by saying, Hey, I’ve got a podcast. We talk about X. I’d love to have you come on. And then I can come and do something on your show, set up something where you’re giving each other content. You might find like a new best friend in the tabletop space by just, Hey, we really like working together. We’re gonna become creative partners. And suddenly the two of us are doing things together. You start to just build these relationships just by engaging authentically, right? You’re not doing it because if I talk to this person, they will give me a role on their actual play show. And then I will become famous and make lots of money. Spoiler alert the whole, get famous and make lots of money thing is very hard to do. And like really, I would recommend not banking on making lots of money in the tabletop space as a performer in actual plays. Cause like nobody does that. 

Everyone who makes money performing in actual plays makes more money doing something else to actually pay their bills. And then the actual play thing is a for fun thing on the side. In 10 out of 10 cases, that is the case. Trust me. I know I do casting for shows. I have seen the budgets. I know how much folks are making to perform on these shows. They have something else that is their day job. I promise you. You start to build these relationships just because I enjoy what so and so is doing. I honestly, I really recommend taking an hour or two each week if you can, to go check out a new stream or go find a new series on YouTube or listen to a new podcast, just an episode or two, just to get a feel for it. Listen to like the first episode and the most recent episode and just what’s going on here. What is the vibe? Is this someone that I would get along with and you start to find people that you’re like, oh, I really like what they’re doing. I like their spin on this, or I like their particular flavor of storytelling or their particular approach to educational content in the tabletop space. And as you consume content from different people, you’re gonna find those folks. You’re like, this is someone that I think we would get along well with. I want to bring them on my thing. I want to do something on their thing. 

You start to build those relationships and it really becomes this network of people that you have are like, yeah, Hey, you know, like I wanna do some more shows who can I talk to in my network who is actively casting for shows and you’d be like, Hey, so, and so like, I wanna do some more actual plays. If you got room for a guest appearance anywhere, like, let me know. Or if you want me to like, come and run a three episode short on your channel, like I got you, right. And you start to work that out where you have this Rolodex that you can go through. Metaphorically speaking, of course, I don’t know how many people actually use Rolodexes anymore, but metaphorically speaking, you have a Rolodex for our young people. A Rolodex is that thing you see in like old shows where you like flip through to pull out, someone’s like index card with their name and phone number and like email address and physical address on it. Because back in the day, that was how you kept people’s contact information before your phones did that. It’s great. So you, you, you have this network of people that you can do things with. From there, that network just to keeps expanding right. Is, is, is okay. Cool. You’ve done a show here. You’ve done a show here. You had your first full season actual play over there. All right. Well cool. Put together a reel with some highlights of those moments from those shows. See if you can go find a slightly bigger one, go find someone new to collaborate with, and it just, it keeps growing right? 

Theoretically, you could just keep adding people to your network forever. There comes a point where like physically, your brain cannot remember any more names. And I would recommend stopping before that point. You know, that point for you. It’s about building relationships. And as you go along, you’re gonna find the people that you click with, that you have the same values as, the same goals as, and you’re gonna build a relationship that is going to benefit you many years into the future, because they’ll be like, Hey, we’re putting together something, I need one extra person. Can you hop in and, and fill that role? And you’ll be like, yeah, I got you. Earlier this morning on the day of recording, I filmed a very bit part in a small show that a friend of mine is doing. It’s an online web series. We hadn’t talked in probably like six months and they reached out about a month ago to say, Hey so I know that we’ve done like some D&D games before. I need someone with a vaguely British accent to fill this part in this show that we’re recording we’re doing this day, can you show up and do this bit part? I just, I, we didn’t have enough people, and I thought of you. I was like, yeah, absolutely. I’ll show up. I’ll do that. I’ve got a few hours outta my day. I can make that happen. 

And so this morning I got up, drove into my office a little bit earlier than normal. I currently temporary living situation. My office is not where I’m sleeping. I drove into my office. I got settled in, did a couple hours of this recording session. It was great. Moved on with my day. I may never do anything else with them again, but who knows the little series that they’re doing could get big and, and people could go like, Hey, you you’re that guy who played that one big character in episode nine of that one show. That’s pretty cool. And who knows? Right? I don’t, I’m not banking on that to, to be my, my, my claim to fame. But you start to have those things where someone go, Hey, I need someone to be a guest character for this little charity stream that I’m doing. It’s you know, our, our main cast plus one guest character for this event, will you do it and be like, yeah, sure. So that’s, that’s my tip for building that network and getting onto those shows. As far as honing your craft: practice. Right? I recommend doing like something like stars and wishes after a session where you can talk about things that went well in a session, like what were the highlights? And then also like, what are the things you’re looking to accomplish? 

Because when people know what direction your character is going, they can facilitate that. And they can also set you up for big slam dunk moments where like, Hey, my character arc is learning to care about other people. And they’re like, okay, let’s give you a moment where you could care about me, right? Like if you communicate that way, they’ll set you up for wins. Highly recommend, especially for stream shows. You should talk about the things you want to accomplish and, and offer like, Hey, this was a really great moment. Performing is hard. It takes practice. It sucks to go back and watch yourself, but I recommend going back and watching yourself and critiquing your own performance, including saying, Hey, this was a really good moment, right? This was heartbreaking, right. That moment, when you held your wife dying in your arms, that was heartbreaking. You handled that well. Right. And then, you know, you ruined it with a joke, Josh, but it’s okay. Right? Like next time I won’t ruin it with a joke. You take those notes for things you can do to improve, but also the things that you’re doing well. 

Early on, I got involved with channel that did something called callouts, where at the end of each episode, we would go around and call out the things that each person did well in an episode. So it’d be like, Hey, you know so, and so I really appreciated this character moment. It was clear from your physical descriptions of the way you move through the space that your character was feeling conflicted in that moment. I think that was really a neat way to express emotion without saying so, and so feels conflicted. Very good job on that. So you start to have those moments where you can get good feedback, but then as part of that, it would also, we would say this was something that I felt insecure about, right, in my performance. I didn’t feel good about this thing that happened. Right. I thought I ruined the moment by telling a joke too quickly, or I felt like I kept just talking over you repeatedly in this scene. And then your fellow players have an opportunity to say, Hey, you know I totally understand that. I think, you know, perhaps that was the case, but it’s something that you can learn from and move forward with, or I didn’t perceive it in that way. You said that you felt like you were talking over me, but I didn’t really feel talked over because this was a, a moment where things were really heated. And so it would make sense for us to be kind of shouting and perhaps speaking over one another a little bit. So it made sense in character. And so you have the ability to kind of have that sounding board, get some feedback from other folks who are performing alongside you and are going to know better than anyone else. Perhaps what things you’re doing well and what things you could work on.

Courtney: 1:00:02

When you look back over the last three years of this journey that you’ve been on, is there anything that you would say has been particularly challenging?

Josh: 1:00:11

You know, yes. For the first two and a half years, pretty much until I decided like, Hey, I’d like to work in the tabletop game industry. And then I got my job at Demiplane. I wasn’t really sure where I fit in the tabletop game industry. Because it’s hard to know where you fit for something that you’re doing as a hobby. Because there are folks who this is their day job. And so they have 40 extra hours a week to focus on it. Whether that’s performing or just building the right connections and working on projects, it is very easy to feel imposter syndrome, which I know that is the thing that a lot of people talk about. But I think just generally speaking, knowing where you fit in an industry that is constantly growing and sometimes feels like it’s growing at a rate that is hard to keep up with. It is very easy to feel out of place. It’s very easy to feel like you’re not sure where you fit. And that’s the thing that a lot of folks feel. So you should know that you’re not alone in that. For me, I had dabbled in a little bit of everything, right? I’d done some actual play performances and had been very successful in actual play performances. I’ve done a couple of great shows. And, and I’ve worked with some phenomenal people along the way. But also right like that, wasn’t my main focus. I was working a full-time job. 

And so my hours of availability to appear in actual plays were very limited. I once literally called off of work to appear in a special one shot actual play show because it was worth it, but like, that’s not a sustainable thing to call off of work each week for a regularly occurring show. So if that hadn’t been a one shot, I couldn’t have done that. So it’s important to figure out what your focus is and your focus can change at any given time. But there was a while where actual plays where my focus, and I felt like I was getting left behind because I could not appear in shows that occurred before X time, because I was on Pacific time, which meant that like pretty much anything evening, Eastern time off the table for me, cuz my earliest availability Eastern time was like 8:30 PM if I didn’t eat after work and I actually ended work on time, which Lord knows that happened like once a week. So, you know, like I would have to like actually leave work early in order to get there on time in order to do the thing. So I felt like I was being left behind on that front. So I, I felt lost, I had been doing some writing and some publication, but I wasn’t publishing as much as folks who had more free time because they were freelance writers. That was what they did professionally or people who their day job gave them more flexibility. Mine was one that it demanded that I be on all 40 hours each week. And so my ability to write something on my lunch break or, Hey, I’ve got a good idea. Let me go and jot that down right now was very, very limited. And so I was having to choose each evening. Okay. Do I want to focus on this stream thing that I want to work on? This writing thing that I want to work on? My own projects, perhaps? Right? I wanna do my own streaming stuff. If I wanna do that, I have to work on it. I have a character to prep for this next week for this next show that I’m doing. I have this other thing to work on. I have to draft out all my social media content because like social media is in and of itself a job, if you think about it. 

And I absolutely spent hours a week thinking, okay, what are my tweets that I want to schedule to send at specific times when I know I’ve got a stream coming up, I try to schedule and send a tweet at least once a day, doesn’t always work out, but like, I try to have content coming out consistently because part of building a presence is having a consistent social media presence. And so there are so many things that I had to think about, right, including engaging with the other things that are happening, because that’s important too. If you’re trying to build a name for yourself, you need to be seen engaging with other people, appearing in chats. I mod for a variety of Twitch channels because I’ve got great friends who need Twitch mods. And so I also have to prioritize that. And also like I would like to have downtime every now and then. And so I was constantly doing so many things. And at the end of each Workday, I would have to make a choice. What is my focus today? And anything that I didn’t pick would feel like I was getting left behind in that avenue. If I choose to focus on social media. Okay. Well, my writing and streaming is falling by the wayside. Okay. Well, if I choose to stream, I don’t have time to write. I’m behind on my deadlines if I choose to write. Okay. But hold up. I’m still not ready for that stream next week. 

And guess what? I don’t have anything drafted out for next week on socials and I’m lurking in a Twitch chat right now, but they don’t know that I’m here. I’m not making myself known. So like, it is so hard to feel like you are caught up on everything going on in the industry, because there’s just too much to do, unless you can really dedicate time to it. Add to that, like being a parent or having to commute to work, or like having special dietary needs where you can’t just eat at taco bell four days a week. And suddenly you’ve gotta like, actually like plan your stuff out in a much more organized way than I’ve had to. But I was so overwhelmed and felt like I didn’t fit in and I couldn’t keep up with anything because I was doing all these things and like, That’s a normal experience for creators. So you really do just have to choose, okay, today, my focus is this, and I’m gonna make sure that I’m doing the best I can to be as much up on this. And then tomorrow, if I do something different, I’m gonna do something different. And that is okay. I don’t have to be on my, a game for every single thing every single day. 

If I’m on my, a game once a week with everything, I’m killing it. And when I finally got my day job in the tabletop game industry, Rocky, like this is what pays my bills. I’m gonna focus on this thing and this thing, but you know what? Actual plays falls under the umbrella of responsibilities for my day job, kind of because like, as a person who is a known entity in the tabletop space and like kind of the community facing face of my company, it makes sense that I should have some kind of community presence on other channels too. And my writing stuff has taken a little bit of a backseat because I don’t have time for that because I’m doing all these other things, but I’ve accepted that about myself because that is not my focus. And that is not how I am paying for my bills right now. And so you have to understand that everyone who’s a creator is trying to juggle 1,000,001 things and no one is doing it particularly well, but some people are really good at pretending that they are on social media. I’m someone who’s very good at pretending that I’m on my, a game all the time on social media, but I can promise you, I have a sticky note, color coded organizing system on my desk because otherwise I will forget deadlines. I will forget when I’m supposed to be places. I will forget, oh, that’s right. I had an idea that I had to have for that project, for this stream that I’m doing next week. What was it? And so I have color coded sticky notes. I have, I’m holding of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 different colored sets of sticky notes that I keep on my desk at all times. So that at any given time, if I need to make a note to myself, I can because that’s how much I forget. And that’s just life. I do this professionally. I don’t have another 40 hour, a week job that I have to worry about. 

I eat, sleep and dream and think and sweat tabletop role playing games, and I’ve got too much going on. So don’t worry. You’re kicking ass, figure out what your focus is, set some realistic goals. And if that includes one day a week, I’m gonna work on writing projects. And one day a week, I’m going to draft and record my podcast. Then that is a success cuz you’re doing it at the rate that is successful and manageable for you. And if you try to do more than you physically can, you are going to either one burn out and lose all passion for anything. And you don’t wanna do that because that sucks. And it takes like years to come back from burnout. It’s awful. It’s miserable. Been there, done that. I still have days where I’m like, I don’t wanna leave bed, but I’ve got 12 things to do. So I’m gonna go pretend that I care about the things that I’m doing, because burnout sticks with you. And if you don’t actively fight it, it will sneak up on you. The alternative that you get incredibly wildly sick and your body says you’re gonna be out of commission for two weeks. I know you wanted to do all these cool things. You’re not. Cause let me tell you, unrelated to tabletop stuff. But as part of my move recently, I like pulled like a 50 plus hour day in order to make sure that all of my move stuff was prepped. And then that led to two days of extreme physical exertion, because I was running boxes up and downstairs and putting things in trucks. It was great. I got here, I got my computer set up. Unpacked, boom. Fever. Boom. Cold. Boom. Felt like shit for three days. Boom. Still on the tail. End of recovery. So spend two weeks on that front. When your body says you’re done, it’ll make sure you’re done. So just take care of yourself, drink a little more water than you think you should and do not push yourself beyond your physical limits, because if you do, your body will stop you for you and it’s gonna be an inconvenient time and you’re gonna wish it didn’t.

Courtney: 1:10:56

I am feeling um, very targeted right now. It’s fine. I definitely relate to basically everything you’ve just said.

Josh: 1:11:03

We’ve all been there. So, you know, pace yourself, find out what your priority project is and focus on that. Let everything else follow the wayside. I do things in shifts. I have one writing project that I’m working on right now. It’s a self-made deadline and I’m already like three weeks behind on said deadline because it’s a self-made deadline, but I’m doing it at my pace because otherwise I will physically be unable to handle everything that’s going on. So just pace yourself.

Courtney: 1:11:34

I do wish that we could keep talking for a while, but I should probably start wrapping us up. Are there any upcoming projects that you are excited about and can talk about?

Josh: 1:11:46

Well right now you can always catch me on Wednesday evenings over on the free forge Twitch channel for a little show called Stay Alive. think zombie survival horror. It’s the end of the world as we know it ,and a bunch of civilians are trying to not die and do. Just what we called the show, stay alive to middling amounts of success. I haven’t died yet this season, but I’m the only one. So we’ll see how long that lasts. Other than that I will hopefully be making my return from my streaming hiatus. I took a break while I was moving, but I will hopefully be returning here in sometime mid to late August. 

So you can catch up on my Twitch channel there. That’s twitch.tv/JoshuaSimons. It’s my name, very easy to remember if you know my name. If not, I’m sorry. And of course stay tuned to all of my various social media platforms for updates on when I’ll be coming back. Oh, I feel like I have a special event coming up in September and for the life of me, I can’t remember the date. But there is going to be a charity weekend for take this in September. Take this as a mental health nonprofit. They do a lot of really great work in the education and kind of area of providing resources and consultations and things like. Phenomenal organization. I’m, I’m an ambassador for them actually. And we’re doing a charity weekend in September that I’m excited about. I feel like I may have another charity weekend coming up soon. And I can’t remember if it’s August or September, so I’m gonna say stay tuned on social media to find out when it is. And I think I have more that I can announce soon, but not yet. So just hang out on social media there will be fun things announced. There’s always fun things announced, but there will be more fun things announced in the near future. Soon I promise.

Courtney: 1:13:46

Well, I will have links to your socials in the show notes so that folks can find you. But Josh, thank you so much for coming on today. This has been a really fun conversation and I just really enjoyed getting to know more about what you do.

Josh: 1:14:02

Yeah, thanks for having me. I’m sorry for monologing so much.

Courtney: 1:14:06

Don’t ever apologize for that. You make my job easier.

Josh: 1:14:09

Hey, fair, fair.