MAGfest Vlog

Todd: Hi. Uh...I'm just gonna sit here and ramble. I've never shot a vlog before, so I don't know how this is supposed to work. Um...you know, I saw people doing MAGfest vlogs, and I wanted to horn in on that. Um...that was amazing. It was amazing in a lot of ways. I...I do this, you know, for myself, and, you know, I...I've talked to all these people on Skype before, sometimes in voice chat. But getting to meet all these people, it's...it's just really cool. It's just really cool to be a part of this. [Laughs a little] And everyone's so nice.

Yeah, it's, um... Okay, if you want to know who's most like they are on camera, it's Nash. Nash from What the Fuck Is Wrong with You?!, he is the nicest guy in the world, but he's also exactly like he is on camera. There is no difference between on-camera Nash and off-camera Nash. The person who is least like they are on camera is Phelous. Phelous...Phelous, you know, he does his over-the-top stuff while he's on...while he's on camera, but off-camera, he's just this low-key guy. He's like...didn't seem to get excited. He's just always, you know, kind of mellow.

And, uh...this is the first time I've ever gotten to be around fans. Because I do this in the dark, I never get recognized. Even if there are people out there in my hometown who know what I do, there's still not a chance I would ever, ever be recognized. And then I come... You know, I didn't even... And you know, when I got there, I wasn't even recognized either. I had my name, Todd, on my nametag. But, you know, it's not like I'm gonna walk around and people are gonna recognize me. I got recognized sometimes...that first day, at least, when I was hanging around other famous people. I came in around the same time Paw and Roses were hanging out, and Paw and Roses, for the record, are the only people I'd met before I went to MAGfest. Good people. But yeah, I was hanging around Paw, and he'd get stopped, and I'd say, "hi." I guess I wasn't sure what to do. And they're like, "I...don't know who you are, who are you?" And I'd go, "I'm Todd," and there would just be this, like, dawning recognition on people's faces, like, "Todd...in the Shadows?!" Well, maybe not that exaggerated. And that was pretty cool.

I wore a mask the entire time, whenever I would be on camera, or if I thought I might be on camera because, you know, this is my shtick; it's, uh... Okay, I value my anonymity, okay. It's not a big deal if images of what I actually look like without the mask leak out, it's not a big deal. I'd prefer it if they didn't leak out, though. And if you have photos of me, if anyone has that, I'd appreciate the courtesy if you didn't, like, share them, or at the very least, just don't label them, "Todd in the Shadows." It makes what I do harder...maybe not, I don't know. Like I said, it's not a big deal, but I'd appreciate the courtesy if you didn't. But I'm not gonna go around trying to stomp out every image of me that's gonna leak out. I'd just appreciate that, trying to make it harder than it is. And you know, I was not wearing a mask the entire time. If it would just leak out, then it's my fault. But, you know, I was wearing a mask the entire time—and I cut a hole in it so you could see I was actually talking through the bottom of it—and anything that was on camera. I wore the mask the entire... I'm sure everyone thought I was a weirdo for this. I'm sure everyone thought I was just this crazy person. In fact, one of the only people I didn't meet that first day was Spoony. And I was just waiting to get on an elevator, and Spoony was heading...got off the elevator, I think he was heading to one of his panels—I'm not sure, I think he had five different panels. And he was the last one I was to meet, and he was like, "oh, hi, I know you!" You don't know me, I'm just some weirdo in a mask. He was like, "hey," then he headed off to where he needed to go. I didn't actually get a chance to converse with him until later.

You know, speaking of the mask, I was in a room with Phelous and SadPanda and Welshy. We neglected to share contact info, and this is my fault. I forgot to get their info before I showed up. So I get there, I was like, okay, I have no way to get in contact with them, and they don't know what I look like.

And while we're talking about MAGfest, this has to be addressed because everyone...it was the only thing anyone was talking about. The elevators were so bad. They were just so bad. There were not enough of them, so basically when you got in an elevator, when you finally manage to squeeze yourself onto an elevator after waiting for forty minutes, you have to stop on every floor because everyone was trying to get on the stupid things, and we were on the 28th, so I didn't have the option to take the stairs unless I wanted to die.

There were these assholes going around shouting, "elevator party!" I don't think they realized how much everyone hated them. They were like, they'd hijack an elevator, just ride it all the way down shouting, "elevator party! Elevator party!" I was just surfing... they put a bunch of that elevator party stuff on YouTube, and it's just nothing but negative comments on there. They thought it was like, "oh, man, we were the life of the party." No, you guys were not. You guys were not. You could just say, "elevator party," to anyone at the convention, and they would roll...you know, "ugh! God, I hate him." No, everyone hated... I know Spoony and JewWario especially were, like, really pissed off about it. Krin, my title card artist—I got to meet my new title card artist and she's awesome—but she said... you know, she seemed friendly all the time, but she said she was about to kill those guys.

I got there... You know, this is the first time I've ever met any of these people, and it's a good thing I was wearing a mask most of the time because I was wiped from the day...from the moment I got there, I was just tired. I woke up tired, I was tired the entire day. I was a little better on Friday, but then I got two hours of sleep that night, and I was just loopy and wobbly the entire time. That first day, I just had these enormous raccoon eyes, these giant black circles under my eyes. But I caffeined myself up so much that...I can...I cannot go to sleep at night. It's...it's a serious caffeine-drinking problem, it's truly awful.

Let me see, what else was...? Oh yeah, meeting fans. This was the first time I'd ever met fans before because, you know, like I said, I would never...there's no chance of me ever being noticed outside of a convention. And I try not to take these things too seriously because, you know, I am not the most famous person on this site by a long shot. By a long shot. I'm about like, what, a fiftieth as famous or as popular as Linkara or Spoony. And Linkara's...Spoony... You know, all of us, all of us who were there at the convention put together, will never ever, ever be as famous as a cast member of The Amazing Race: Season 4. We'll never ever be that famous. But we showed up, and it was like we were rock stars. And after being asked for my autograph a bunch of times, you know...I was telling people it was like, wow, my ego is, like, shooting through the roof. I was... You ever seen Varsity Blues? Like...James Van Der Beek is, you know, this...he's on the football team, not taking it seriously. He's, like, third-string, he's just there to round out his college scholarship. But, like, a freak acc... you know, a freak injury's put him on the field, and after he wins the game, he's starting to get interviewed by, you know, the radio and all that stuff. And he instantly turns into, like, star athlete jock asshole mode as soon as people start interviewing him. You know, I felt like that was happening to me because... I was eating it up. I mean, Lupa...you know, I was telling Lupa I'm eating this up. A couple times, people would, "oh, my God, you have to talk to my friend who couldn't be here." They hand me the phone, dial it up, and they were just like so happy to talk to me. I...I don't get it. I appreciate it. I don't get it, but... there are a dozen people who are more talented than I am, funnier than I am, play the stupid piano better than I am. I'm not sure what I do warrants me... You know, it's not like I'm Adam Sandler over here, it's not like I'm Brad Pitt or George Clooney or...like I said, I'm not even a member of Amazing Race; I just put up silly YouTube videos, and now on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses. I don't get...I don't get it.

And there were two fan incidents that I wanna mention specifically. I was walking around, you know, and, you know, checking out the line to get into panel, and there were so many people that wanted to see us. Well, I mean see them. But there was one fan who was like, "oh my God, it's Todd. Can you sign my autograph?" And I signed it, and she said her name, and I recognized her from Twitter 'cause she's, you know... I read all my Twitter comments, I'm not good at responding to them. I'm actually really bad at responding to fans online, I'm terrible at it. I'm not even good at talking with the other producers online. You know, a lot of us are just socially awkward. Or I mean, we're not socially awkward, we're not...we're mostly introverts who are fun in social situations, I got the impression. But...I mean, we can be fun, but we're mostly, you know, quiet-type people in real life. So that's why I don't talk to many people on Twitter, but I read the Twitter, and I recognized this girl, and like I said, "I recognize you, I know your name." And I...I could tell that just made her day. Like, "oh my God, he knows who I am! Todd in the Shadows!" I still have guys saying, "who the fuck is Todd in the Shadows? Who the hell is that guy? He's nobody."

There was also a piano out there. Like just this crappy, quiet piano, and I was sitting there playing with mine 'cause I figured that was the only way I'd get recognized. And by the second or third day, I was actually getting recognized quite a bit. You know, for "he's the guy with the hood and the mask." And I was sitting there playing, and people would come up to me because they recognize me, like, "oh hey, Todd in the Shadows." Someone recognized me entirely from the sound of me playing. Apparently I have a distinct way I play these songs, and someone recognized me from the sound of me playing. And...I was taking requests. It was a trip.

And this one girl, she was there with her boyfriend, but you know, they were like... She was just, you know, she was amazed by, apparently I'm her favorite person ever on the site, and she was just sitting, watching me play, you know, for a while. It was...it was pretty amazing.

One other piano thing I got to do. I got to...there was a jam space, it's the place where the bands play when they're not playing the concert hall, and anyone who wanted to could go in and start playing. And I...I got on there and Skitch was there, he was on drums, and MarzGurl was there on guitar. And I'd never played with people anymore, I just played on my own in my house. This was...you know, we sounded terrible most of the time. We managed to get out one decent song, and that was "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, believe it or not...of all songs.

By the way, MarzGurl is just so much fun. She got sick that first day. But she's...she's, like, awesome to be around. Marzie was there with friends, so she didn't do much with the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses people, I don't think. But she was hanging around some and she was a lot of fun.

Yeah, I'm coughing a little. I came down with the con flu, I understand a lot of people are coming down with the con flu. You know, I just needed to film this, get all my thoughts out before the con flu takes me over. It's the first con I'd ever been at, and I'm told that MAGfest is comparatively pretty dinky compared to giant cons like Otakon and all that stuff. I had a great time. I would do it again despite the fact that one, I was exhausted the entire time; two, the elevators were god-awful. I think Rollo T blew out his knee because he refused to wait for the goddamn elevators, so he just went up, like, eighteen stories. I have never had elevator phobia in my life. In my life. I love elevators...but this sucked. Those elevators sucked. There were, like, thirty people crammed on them.

Everyone who was there got stuck on an elevator at least once. What happened to me was we were, like, stopped at the fifth floor, we see one person there, we were looking around going, "yeah, you know what? We can fit...you know, we got room for more." We meant one more, he had three more 'cause he had boys we didn't see and they all filed on. We made it up to the eighth floor and it went [makes motion with hands indicating the elevator stopped], and then went, after a few moments of quiet, went down to the seventh, then rocketed back up to the tenth. And I was done at that point. I was like, no. Done, gone, off this. And I walked the rest of the way.

I'd never been to a con before, it's like, you know, it's very... I felt like I'd walked into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 'cause, you know, it's... I don't... My friends were nerds, but they're not, like, colorful nerds. You know, I've seen pictures of the panel, I haven't seen the full video of the panel yet, but we look like superheroes or rock stars or, like, pro wrestlers or something like that 'cause it's...I don't know, it's just...we look...we actually do look like we kinda deserve to be famous, like we are, like, larger-than-life personalities. I'm there with my mask, JO had her Batman shirt on, we had red-haired Lupa and blue-haired MarzGurl right next to each other. I didn't get most of the questions, obviously; most of those went to Linkara or Spoony, but everyone who was there on the panel...everyone who was there got a chance to answer a question. Every single person got a question.

And...you know, it's cool that we have those fans. So when I introduced myself, someone shouted, "whip your hair back and forth," and I was like, "later." But you know, just that alone was a bit of an ego boost. I don't think I answered my questions very well. Some guys up there were having...you know, Spoony was born into the forum. And you know, it's just great being up there.

And I didn't...I didn't do much...I missed most of the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses panels except the one I was on because I was actually kind of busy/exhausted/I couldn't wait in those lines forever because, my God, like, those things filled up. And I didn't play any of the video games, honestly. I mean, I got a chance to, I did play some, I got to play Darkstalkers for the first time in a long, long time, and then that game disappeared, I couldn't find it again. I realized how badly out-of-shape I am at DDR. I got to play Rock Band. I insisted on singing songs that were outside my range and you could hear my voice crack like, [demonstrates voice cracking].

Fans...I'm much better at talking to fans, it turns out, in real life than I am online. You know, everyone was saying to me, "you're so nice in real life." You know what brings out the best in people? Unconditional praise and adulation. Yeah, I'm nice! You're saying all these nice things about me. I'm really a horrible person in real life. Like, if you said something, like, mean to me, I'm sure I'd be a horrible, horrible human being, and everyone would've had unpleasant things to say to me. I wish we could've gotten to everyone there. Like we were missing a few of the big names. Film Brain wasn't there, I know he wanted to be there, but, you know, he's halfway across the world; and we were missing Benzaie, we were missing...Brad Jones especially, I would've loved to meet Brad Jones because I've talked to him a few times, and he's...you know, he's just a riot. And of course, Doug.

I had to learn how to sign my name. You know, my fake stage name. Like, what do I do? How do you make a capital S in cursive? 'Cause, you know, I've never signed anything, "Todd in the Shadows". And...you know, this was a...every...every...I'm just amazed how well everyone gets long. And, you know, we were filming some stuff. I know some people like JO and Nash were, like, filming just, like, constantly. JewWario was busy the entire time. But you know, everyone was, like, as professional as they could be about it, considering we're, you know, Internet jackasses making stupid comedy sketches and silly reviews.

I got to...you know, some of the people I'd never read before, I met some of the Game Heroes guys and they were straight-up honest. "We're not the big people on the site. We're not Tom, we're not Mickey." But I got to meet them, Jared and Andy...Classy Man Jared and Andy The Movie The Game. Those guys were awesome, and you should watch their stuff. Matter of fact, being around these people made me want to watch their stuff more because they're, you know...

And the orgies were great. I mean, we were just like, there was an orgy every night. I missed the first night because I was so tired. God, that was a...fan-fiction, I mean, you guys have no idea how much orgies there were. They went on for hours. I don't even know, like, I don't even know who half these people were. I...I guess they were fans. But...wow...wow, you don't... you don't even want to know the kind of stuff SadPanda's into, like...wow. He is...

What else? Linkara's the nicest guy in the world, Scarlett is friends with everybody. Scarlett's Spoony's girlfriend. Like I said, I'm still stunned by it. It's...it's just the coolest thing ever to have people care about what you do. Like, you know, you can make fan-fiction, you can make fan art, and you know, you'll be popular in the fandom 'cause I've done that stuff before. You'll never find it, but I have. But you come here, and people actually want to see who you are. They want to meet you, they want to shake your hand, they want to interview you, and I did a couple interviews, like impromptu.

I don't think...I didn't get as many questions as anyone else because I'm not quite as nerdy as everyone else who was there or who I was with. You know, here's a few actual quotes I said to Linkara: "What's Doctor Who?" "What's a Borg?" "What's an Orc?" He got very angry about all of those.

No, I know what those are, but...they were all video game nerds, I was the music guy, the music geek. So I don't...they just...a lot of people tell me they don't know about pop music except what they hear from me. I've heard that many, many times. I've heard people say that they want to listen to more pop music just so they can keep up with what I do...which is insanity.

I think that's it. It was just an amazing time. LordKat needs to keep his shirt on. I didn't get to hang out with Paw and Roses as much as I wanted to. Or Lupa, for that matter. The Radio Dead Air crew, the ones who...always head over to Radio Dead Air on Monday night. Watch Radio Dead Air on Monday nights, by the way. Nash runs an amazing show. If I were to...you know, talk about my favorite people just to be around, it would be those people—JesuOtaku, Nash, Lupa, Roses, Paw—not to disparage any of the other members. Also, Luke Mochrie's fine. That's all. That's what I want to end on. Thank you. Have a good day, everybody.