Cleveland Guardians Roller Derby

Hey, folks, Jeff, AKA Grounded Geek here.

Just a really quick message before we jump into this awesome episode with the Cleveland Guardians Roller Derby.

Just a heads up, we had a little technical gremlin sneak into the mix.

My mic comes through a little bit distorted during this interview and everything looked right on Streamyard.

It looked right on the Rodecaster.

But clearly something had other plans.

And if this message sounds okay, then I think we finally got it sorted.

Now, we always joke that it wouldn't be a World Gun Geek show without some kind of technical difficulty, but we, we still take pride in putting out the best quality we can.

At the same time, we also pride ourselves on being real, raw, authentic, not overly edited or polished.

That's we're just who we are.

And we're all just who we are, right?

We own that.

So, that said, this conversation with the Guardians is too much fun not to go ahead and keep sharing.

So thanks for sticking with us, imperfections and all.

And hey, if you're near Cleveland, come out to the Cleveland Heights rink on June 14 for the Guardians next roller derby.

It's a doubleheader.

I'm going to be there and I think you should be too.

We're going to have a great time watching some roller derby.

So let's get into the interview.

We're all living in a world gone geek.

It's time to geek hard or go home.

The podcast is real.

Here's your host, Grounded Geek.

Hey everybody.

Welcome back to another episode episode of World Gone Geek.

The podcast is real.

It truly is real.

Because here we are again with my good friends Utah and Aaliyah.

Welcome back, guys.

Greetings, programs.

Hi.

We are excited to bring you another episode of the podcast.

Today we are going to be talking with some folks from the Cleveland Guardians Roller Derby.

We're going to get into that in just a little bit, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, Utah, you are not at home.

We don't see your stormtrooper in the background.

There is definitely something different about where you are.

Tell us where you are.

Yes, Unfortunately, Richard could not make the trip with us.

I'm here with my son.

We're in Atlanta, Georgia for the son.

Tycho looks so different now.

This is.

Well, we name him Mo.

His name is Mo now.

And he turned into a three eyed Kaiju.

Isn't he cute?

Anyways, I mean, you did sound like.

You were saying, I'm here with my son.

And you're holding up.

I'm holding up a little plushie of Mo.

One of the.

Which is not Tycho, which is Not Tycho.

No.

But I'm here with Taipan.

Taipan?

My bad.

No, no.

He's my other son.

I have two sons, Jeff.

I know.

But you're there with Taipan.

Yes.

We're here at Momocon, the 20th year of Momocon.

And Momo Con is a big anime, gaming and comics convention here in Georgia, which is why it's called Momocon.

Momo is the Japanese word for peach.

Georgia is the Peach State.

I didn't know that.

So it was started 20 years ago by a bunch of Georgia Tech students.

It was held on Georgia tech campus.

About 700 people showed up.

Move up and go into the future in 2025.

Twenty years later, over 56,000 people are here this year.

Wow.

In the Georgia World Congress center, which is the big convention center here in Atlanta.

And just to give you an idea of the scale of this place now, you know, I've gone to San Diego Comic Con many times.

A lot of people think of San Diego Comic Con as arguably the granddaddy of conventions.

So San Diego Comic Con is held in the San Diego Convention center, which is about 500,000 square feet of convention floor space.

And they last year had 150,000 attendees.

So not granted, not all those people are on the floor at the same time, but you can imagine how crowded it is here at Momocon.

They have 56,000 people, and they are occupying all of one building.

Building B at the Georgia World Congress Center.

And building B is 730,000 square feet.

Wow.

We're talking one third of the attendees in about five times the space.

Holy cow.

So one of the things that's making me feel like I want to go to MomoCon now on a regular basis in San Diego is one.

There's a cost difference because we can drive here, which will be cheap, is cheaper than the airfare to San Diego.

But because there's so much space here, the aisles between the vendors and the booths and even artist alley are so much wider, they're, like, almost twice as wide as they are in San Diego.

So you don't feel crowded.

And then add to that, there's only 50.

Only.

Only 56,000 people here.

So there's plenty of space.

You don't feel crowded.

I think it's great for people who perhaps don't like crowded spaces or have anxiety and very, you know, cramped social situations.

And so I'm excited that I came this year.

And what I love, too, and this is something that I didn't realize until this year, their.

Their Tagline is we are your all ages geek culture convention, anime gaming and comics.

And so I think their mission and message is very similar to ours.

So having a great time?

Yeah, we're having a great time here.

Like I said, our first year here.

So far, so great.

I've already met a couple of voice actors that I recognize from various dubs of Japanese animes and video games.

I met the voice actor Sungwon Cho, who for me anyway, he voiced flack from borderlands 3.

Oh, and he also voiced the squirrel in God of War, Ragnarok, which I thought was hilarious.

So nice.

I should have had you.

So far so good.

If I'd known.

I should have had you get an autograph for Libby because you know, she, a cosplay.

She cosplays Flack.

Yeah, I, I, I didn't think of that until he was going through his characters that he had done.

We, we stopped at the panel.

I'm like, oh, so he's still here all weekend?

He's still here all weekend.

So maybe I'll run into him again.

That sounds, that sounds like a pretty, you're right.

I think it does align with our mission a little bit, which is pretty cool.

Maybe we should make a road trip next year.

I think it's very, look, it's an easy road trip.

It's a little easier than San Diego, I feel like.

Although I still want to do that.

Well, yes, I highly, I recommend doing San Diego at least once just, just to see what, what, what the, what, what the spectacle is.

But yeah, MomoCon so far is great and I think, I think we're hitting it at its 20th anniversary, which is great because they have a whole bunch of cool stuff going on.

Plus I think it's nice to hit the peak, hit the convention at like pre peak.

I think it's only going to get bigger and more popular and to see it before it gets too crowded and too busy and too expensive, I think is a great time to hit it.

To be fair, Momo Khan's subject matter only slightly overlaps with mine.

So I did kind of take a break from the floor.

Taipan loves all this stuff so he was able to spend all day on at the convention.

But I went out and snuck out and went and saw a movie.

So nothing against, nothing against momocon.

It's just I, I, I've done everything that, that interests me.

So while I'm here I might as well, you know, take in some, some of the great, not necessarily Atlanta specific things like a movie.

Right?

Was it Like a, a specifically famous Atlanta movie theater, perhaps?

Oh, well, well, is it just a.

Cinemark you could have gone to anywhere in the country?

Well, it wasn't amc, which are very rare up north in Ohio.

So it, it was AMC Madison Yards 8.

Shout out to them.

They, they, they, they.

They did great for an AMC 8 screen theater.

Nice.

What did you see?

What did you see?

I went and saw the final reckoning.

Mission Impossible.

Final reckoning.

All right.

And I will say, did they reckon finally?

I think they finally, I think they finally reckoned the impossible mission.

That's good.

But that doesn't mean it's necessarily the last, right.

I believe it's just Tom Cruise's last.

Right.

Like, isn't he like, I'm done with this.

I feel, I feel like Tom Cruise has very strongly hinted and implied that he may not be putting his life in danger any longer for these movies.

And I think he'll.

I feel like he's going to step back and produce and then maybe Ethan Hunt will take on like the Jim Phelps role of old, right.

Where he, he's the one in charge and assigning the missions and his own recordings and I'll pop up.

But he's not going to be like doing the American version of Jackie Chan still going stuff.

Right.

I mean, and I think, I mean he's amazing in this, just like he is in all the other ones.

And this one, for me, the last half of it was much more engaging than the first half.

The first half felt like a lot of recap that I personally didn't need.

But I can understand why they felt like they needed it in there because a lot of people were.

Will not have binge watched all the Mission Impossible movies like perhaps I did, which you can.

On Paramount plus.

That's right.

They're all on Paramount right now.

You know, he's 62.

He's 62 years old.

He's older than both of us.

He's older than both of us.

And you know, he's like jumping motorcycles off of the largest, tallest ramps possible.

He's like, you know, hanging off of the side of a cargo plane.

He's like not just wing walking, he's like wing somersaulting and stuff.

I won't spoil too much, but I mean, you've seen the clips in the trailer.

He's doing that stuff on play.

And yes, he has safety harnesses because you have to.

Yeah, but it even stunt.

Right, exactly.

But it's just still insane that he's, you know, I think to myself, he's almost 10 years older than us and he's doing that.

And I'm like, I don't know, sitting on my couch playing Assassin's Creed Shadows.

So, you know, I sort of the.

Same thing getting out of bed this morning.

So I don't know.

So.

And there.

And you're not getting any accolades for doing your own stunts.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

And yeah, all of them are on.

Go ahead, Aliyah.

Sorry.

Have you seen the Mission Impossible?

Any of them?

No.

That's what I was gonna say.

There's like 11D.

Seven of them now, I think.

I don't know how many.

They're all great.

Skip.

You can.

You can skip the second one.

That one's.

Eh.

Maybe save that one for last.

I don't know.

I mean, it's fun.

It's.

It's just.

It's very different.

It's really not a Mission Impossible movie to me.

It's more action.

It's a John Woo movie starring Tom Cruise is really what it is to me.

Yeah.

So.

Well, that's why I guess it's called Mission Impossible because you can never do it.

Well, that's why they always complete the mission.

Right.

I.

I feel.

I feel like it's the worst title.

They fail.

They fail every time because they say that it's impossible and then they realize it's possible.

I'm like.

That's like 00% success rate.

Right?

The impossible part of the mission is making it impossible.

So therefore it's Mission Impossible.

So the possible part of.

Wait.

The possible part of the mission.

The possible part is because they always pass it.

So that makes it impossible.

Oh, it's impossible for them.

Do not possibly fail.

I don't know.

I think my brain just.

I've gone cross eyed.

But yeah, it is.

It is possibly possible to do the.

So the impossible part of the mission is impossible.

You call these people.

That's.

I mean, that's where the.

Or that's where it comes from.

That's.

That's where the name.

Think it's impossible.

Get all these guys.

Oh, okay.

Because they'll do it.

Yeah, right.

That's.

And so it isn't impossible for them.

It's just exactly so.

Right, right, right.

Which is funny because.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense because they are called the Impossible Mission Force.

So.

Yeah.

The imf.

Well, Aaliyah, you should watch them because they are a lot of fun.

They really, really are.

The.

The first.

And the first one was a lot more cerebral than I expected, which I Liked about it like it was a lot more smart.

Like it wasn't just action.

The rest of them have elements of that, but they, they like to ratchet up the action even more every.

Yeah.

They skewed more action because they want to see what crazy things they can make this old man, Tom Cruise do.

I almost feel like there's a faction of people who are like, will he die this time?

Exactly.

Will he get hurt this time?

Well, he did get hurt on one.

Was it the last one he got hurt?

I don't know.

Yeah, I think.

Well, it might have been this one.

Or was it.

I don't remember.

No, it was one of the previous ones.

Yeah, it was the previous ones.

One of the.

Yeah.

He heard his.

His leg jumping across the.

Yeah.

Building.

Yes.

And continued the scene.

And that shot is in the movie.

Yeah, the one where he breaks it stays in the movie because he continued the scene until the cut.

And he did it all on a broken leg.

And again, I will repeat, I pulled.

Him out of bed again.

I don't understand how he's doing this stuff.

I really.

All of his own stunts.

That's incredible.

He does.

It's crazy.

It's a little.

And he does all his own running in every movie.

Oh, yes.

Thank you for reminding about that.

If you're a fan of Tom Cruz running, you're going to love this movie.

This one's got some running.

I saw it in some of the making up stuff.

I, I feel like ever since I think the fourth or fifth one, there's.

I think it's in the contract in his writer.

I need to run for at least three minutes in the movie, like way of running.

He's got that weird running gate sort of thing.

And it's not just Mission Impossible like he did it.

No, that's just how he is because of his movies.

Even though of his like bone structure or whatever, that's just how he runs.

What was the lawyer?

The first.

Even that one he's running.

Oh, yes.

Even in the first.

He's a weird runner.

I don't know that it's weird.

It's just.

I don't think it's different.

Specific to Tom.

Yes.

Like, like.

Yeah, yeah.

Like if, for example, if, like some.

If we took video, if we had took video.

If we take video of like sprinters and runners or people just running and like made them silhouettes, I swear a good majority of people would be able to say that's Tom Cruz.

Yeah, yeah.

He's got just an iconic way of running.

Very like Very upright and kind of his arms are doing this weird thing.

It's.

It's iconic is the word.

I don't think.

I don't think there are many people that can do it.

Like you can.

Unique.

Unique.

Okay, sure.

If you want to.

If you want to dis Tom Cruise like that, fine.

No, no, no, no.

I don't know.

Don't come for me.

Tom Cruise.

You come out here and do these stunts.

I mean, jump.

He's 62, but he could probably take us all.

All three of us.

I think so.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, hey, look, he's.

It's kind of, you know, he's.

He's like a certified skydiver and high altitude skydiver.

Just nuts.

He's a certified licensed pilot of planes, jets, and helicopters.

He knows how to deep scuba dive.

He knows how to free.

I mean, it's kind of crazy, all the stuff that he does.

So I got to give him credit for that.

You know, I'm not necessarily a big believer of Scientology, but everything else.

Everything else is just, you know, and.

Wanted to do something like that.

Like be like a scuba diver or like a certified scuba diver or, like, certified.

There was one point in my life where I wanted to be a certified skydiver.

I did a lot of vertical wind tunnel diving in Florida because they had one there.

I would try that.

But I.

I will never jump out of a plane.

You don't.

You don't think jumping out of a perfectly fine plane is.

You don't want to be in the plane to begin.

I mean, I'm fine flying, like, you know what I mean?

But I don't prefer, like.

I mean, I'm not like, yeah, let's go fly.

But I mean, if I got to get somewhere, I fly.

I'm not afraid.

But at the same time, I'm like, once I'm in there, like, I don't want to get out until we land.

Until it's late, until we're at our final destination.

That is a fair statement.

That is.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, but not scoot.

I don't know.

Scuba diving scares me.

For some reason, I feel like I.

We did, like, the tourist thing, this tourist scuba diving thing where you get the scuba gear on and you go down, I don't know, not even 100ft, and you get to feed the fish.

And number one, I didn't realize how cold the ocean is.

The ocean is very cold once you get past, like, 30ft.

And so I'm like.

I'm like, feeding the Fish like this, because I'm like.

And it's very strangely claustrophobic because everything, like, you.

All you hear is yourself breathing in the air in your tank.

And for me, that was disconcerting.

Yeah.

So, like, going any deeper where, like, you need lights to see because it's so dark, because the sun doesn't.

I can't do it.

Yeah, no, thank you.

I'd, like, think about that on cruises where they're just.

You, like, look over the edge, and it's just like a black abyss.

Right.

And it's, like, miles deep.

Yeah.

Like, you're not going to touch the bottom.

Tom Cruise would jump off.

Yeah, he would.

Yeah.

And he would wave and smile and go see my movie as he goes down.

Are there any crazy things like that that you would do, Ilia?

Would you jump out of a plane or do you stand, like, what.

Do you stand in front of a brick wall?

No, I would never stand in front of a brick wall.

Sit in front of a brick wall, though.

I would.

Yeah.

No, I'm terrified of heights.

Definitely right there with you, Jeff.

I do not ever want to jump out of a plane willingly.

Ever willingly jump out of a plane.

Scuba diving.

I don't.

I don't know.

None of that actually just sounds like fun to me.

It doesn't sound intriguing.

Doesn't sound like I'm terrified of the water.

Like, I could swim, but I don't want to go underneath and see all of the things.

Maybe, like, snorkeling, you know, to see.

Like, the coral being on the surface.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But you put me down in.

You know, but maybe surfing.

I don't know.

Okay.

There's, like, certain things that I think I would like to do, like surfing or something, like, try and get me.

Okay, okay.

But it sounds like a lot of these water things are, like, either near land or at the surface.

Oh, I'm with you there.

Yeah.

I don't want to be out there in the.

In the.

In the middle of the ocean where the stuff is.

The sharks and the stuff.

Yeah.

Even surfing is, like, a stretch.

Keep me.

This land.

I am not.

That sounds like.

That sounds like the name of the next, like, sea, water, ocean, horror movie stuff.

The stuff.

Jason Statham.

Do whatever you want, but stay away from the stuff.

I'm definitely a beach person, but I'm not a, like, ocean.

Don't you do some, like, indoor rock climbing or something, Aliyah?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

I guess there is, like, some things that I would do that's, like, I Would probably like, rock.

I mean, I have.

But how high would you, like, rock climb up a.

Like an actual rock face in the nature?

I've done that.

Like, I've done in West Virginia with a friend that I don't even know if it's, like, certified now that I'm, like, looking back.

Well, no, but he bought.

But you did that.

I did.

And then I took my sister with me, like, oh, you should come with me and do this.

And she.

How high up were you?

I don't.

I.

I'm not really good with that type of stuff.

But I mean, it was decent because it was on a mountain in West Virginia, so it wasn't.

It wasn't terribly high, but it wasn't.

Well, this is, this is good because since you don't really pay attention to that, we could just tell you to keep going and the next thing you know, you're like 5,000ft up.

No, that's climbing like El Capitan in.

Yeah.

And I'm not doing.

And they're free climbing, like, you know, stuff.

Yeah.

That isn't what I.

By the way, Tom Cruise did that in.

Oh, he did that in the second movie.

Yeah, he.

Was that the one where he's hanging by the one.

Yeah, he's hanging.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

So you still got to see it.

Yeah.

You gotta see it, though, Elliot.

At least the first.

At least the intro.

That's.

That's what he's doing.

Since you're a rock climber, you'll appreciate it.

Yeah, I do.

And there was like another part of me that was like, oh, man.

I would be really interested in, like, learning how to snowboard because I.

I was.

I went down this, like, rabbit hole of seeing all these snowboarders going through.

Going through, like, the mountain.

I can't think of what that actual term is.

Like a cravat.

Cravas.

I don't know what it is, but yeah.

And because if you make.

If it's like soft snow or something, then it's an avalanche and you got to figure out.

Yeah.

How to get out of that.

So.

Well, it sounds like if we do.

If we ever joined the Impossible mission for us, you two are ready to go out and do the adventure.

I'll be the guy on the tape.

I'll just be like, you'll be.

You'll be.

I pulled a muscle pressing record.

Guys, can you go.

You guys go out there and get this done.

You were 100 Simon Pegg for the first couple of movies he was in.

There you go.

That's me.

I'll be the guy behind.

I'll be the guy in the chair, as they call, as Ned calls it on Spider Man.

That's right.

So we've got to get to our guests.

Before we do, I do want to mention, obviously, you know, we just really pumped up Paramount there a little bit, talking about Mission Impossible.

Every Mission Impossible movie is on Paramount plus right now, except for this one.

Obviously you got to go to theaters to see the final reckoning, but every movie is on there.

You can catch up with all the Mission Impossible stuff right there on Paramount plus, you know what else is on Paramount plus, that's my second, Jeff.

There's a hit series called Landman.

It's in the middle of season one, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore and John Hamm, and it's now available on DVD and Blu Ray with over 85 minutes of special features.

Landman Season 1, you can own it on DVD.

And Blue.

Is that actual physical media?

You actually have that in your hand?

Physical media, yeah.

Wow.

So I know that a lot of our viewers out there like physical media.

They like holding on to stuff.

And I'm talking about Paramount plus, where you can watch this show.

Well, you can also get it on physical media and you can win it from us right here at World Gun Geek because we partner with Paramount on a few of these things.

My wife and I just started Landman literally last night.

And so far, so good.

I'm really loving it.

Billy Bob Thornton is great in this.

Like, it's just the writing is so good.

It's from one of my favorite show creators, Taylor Sheridan.

I think I mentioned him.

I mean, obviously I mentioned him because we get a lot of stuff from Paramount and he does a lot of stuff on Paramount, but his shows are great.

Like, I love every show I've watched with Taylor Sharer.

Another one is Tulsa King, which is with Sylvester Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone.

This is season two in my hands right here.

And then there's Yellowstone season five, part two.

Now it's already at season five, also.

On DVD and Blu ray, with over two hours of special features.

Generations of blood have led to this.

Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2.

You can own a piece of the legacy now on DVD and Blu Ray.

And it is over.

I think it's done.

Like, I think this is the last season.

Last season, Last part of the last season.

Yeah.

I think Kevin Costner wanted to be done, but I didn't know they were going to end the show.

And they may not have, but it seems like they did at the end.

Like, there's some closure to some.

Some things.

Not saying they couldn't keep going, but there's some closure to some things that we've been watching for five seasons.

Well, and they've got other shows, right?

Isn't.

Isn't that the show with Harrison Ford?

That's the prequel.

It is 1883.

Then there's 1923, then there's Yellowstone.

Now they might do some stuff in between.

I don't know.

1883 and 1923 are done.

And like I said, Yellowstone maybe as well.

The finale was great.

Like, there was just a lot of great stuff happened in this show.

I enjoy it quite a bit.

I really liked it.

You should check it out.

And I'm gonna give all three of these to somebody.

To me?

No, not to me.

I've got a few of them, so I could.

But we're gonna give some of these away.

We're gonna give some of these away.

And here's all you got to do.

Follow us on Instagram @worldgungeek.

I'm only gonna make you do Instagram, but we'd love for you to follow us on YouTube and all the other places as well, but @WorldGungeek, on Instagram.

And I'm gonna be posting images from Landman and Yellowstone over the next.

Over this following week.

I need you to go like, no, no, I'm gonna.

They're the actual art that you see here, basically.

And you gotta like those.

And comment below.

There'll be instructions on how to do this.

Follow us on Instagram.

And I will be giving away multiple copies of these I made.

I even have.

I even have the mayor of Kingstown with Jeremy Renner.

Yeah, that was a pretty good one.

And then.

And this is.

This is divided.

But I've still got the.

I've still got first season of Halo.

You know what?

Which I enjoyed.

I thought it was great.

If you.

If you're a big fan of the.

The.

The games, they do take some liberties with the story.

That's fine.

But on its own, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

So, yeah, speaking of Tom Cruise, look.

What else I've got.

Maverick.

I got one distributed movie.

That's right.

So I got one list of these.

I'm gonna give all that stuff away on Instagram over the following.

The coming weeks.

So make sure and check out all that, and we'll get you.

You might end up with some free physical media that you can put on your shelf.

And you know, when the Internet goes down, you can still watch them.

That's what people are.

That's the big argument, right, against streaming.

They're like, we want.

What do you watch when the Internet's down?

And I'm like, I read.

I mean, yet another form of physical media.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So really?

Well, I do it on Kindle, but still.

Oh, see, now you've downloaded like it's.

Just one of the ones that's out there in Amazon.

I can't read it until I download.

So physical.

I love physical books.

You can see behind me, I got lots of them.

So I, I'm not knocking physical media.

I ab.

Absolutely adore it and I keep as much of it as I can.

But yeah, we're trying to keep that going.

So if you're a physical media fan, we're going to give you some free physical media to either continue your collection or start it.

If you're brand new to trying to.

Maybe you grew up in a generation where streaming is all you have.

You didn't know there was physical media.

Like that's.

There's kids that don't know what a DVD is really.

You know, vhs.

I can't even put my head around that.

I will say though that for a trip, for our trip, Taipan wondered if we still had our portable DVD players that we bought decades ago for road trips because he had some DVDs of an anime and he thought if there's some downtime I might want to watch him.

So there's still hope for younger generations.

Jeff, that's awesome.

I'm just saying.

All right, so we are about to get to our special guests today.

We have a special treat.

Joining us, Aaliyah and I got a chance to meet a couple of these folks out at fan expo this year and I was so excited because I've always been wildly interested in this sport but just have never.

I pulled the trigger and actually gone to see see it in in action.

But today we've got some some superheroes on eight wheels.

Members of the Cleveland Guardians Roller derby team are going to join us.

Now these athletes don't just bring the thunder on the track.

They embody the kind of passion, community and sheer geek level dedication to their sport.

The way we like to celebrate in world gone geek.

Right?

We love to celebrate things that people are passionate about and they geek out over.

Well, this is it right here.

Whether you're derby savvy or just roller curious.

Is that a thing?

Gonna have to ask him.

I don't know how roller curious I like.

You're gonna want to hear their stories but Rather than spoil the fun, I'm gonna let them introduce themselves.

But first, let me bring them to the stage here.

Let's do this.

Hey, it's the Cleveland Guardians Radio Derby.

Hello.

Good morning.

Morning.

How are you guys this morning?

Great.

How are you?

Good.

We're, we're recording early in the morning because you guys, you guys are practicing today, I think, right, for an up?

Yes.

Awesome.

Well, let me, let me go ahead and give you guys a chance to introduce yourselves.

Tell us, we'll go down the line.

However you guys want to do it.

Tell us who you are and how long you've been doing Roller derby and then we'll get a little more into the actual sport.

My name is Right Hand Man.

I've been a guardian since I think 2017.

Yeah, I played for a couple of different teams, but came back home to the Cleveland Guardians and just building the team as the years go on.

My name is Moyk.

I've been skating for 13 years with Burning River Roller Derby and this is my first year playing with the Cleveland Guardians.

I also play for Team Ohio Roller Derby, so represent the whole entire state.

My name's Raptor.

This is my second season plane Roller Derby and with the Cleveland Guardians.

So I'm one of the newer skaters.

I'm Gal Fox.

I have been skating with Burning River Roller Derby and the Cleveland Guardians since probably early 2023 is when I should start counting it.

So a couple years.

Awesome.

Awesome.

And so I know that there's folks that are coming in here now.

I've seen roller derby like when I was growing up.

I know this is a little different than what, what we saw back when Utah and I were growing up.

Little bit more theatrical.

What you guys are doing is legit sport out here.

I want you to tell us a little bit about the sport of Roller derby, kind of how it happened and in particular if you get into some of the rules because I think that's where, where people might be a little confused.

And I am actually looking for some video.

I'm going to be putting in the show notes for folks who really want to understand how this sports played to see how you guys do this.

But tell us a little bit about kind of like how the sport you guys play originated.

I think you probably have the best view on this.

You are the most skater here.

Yeah, you're the seasoned.

You're seasoned.

That's what.

You're well seasoned.

It's fine.

Oh, come on.

You bring so much labor to the track.

There you go.

Burning river started in Cleveland in 2006.

So the sport's been around for a really long time.

I also grew up watching Roller jam in the 90s, so that's how I knew about roller derby.

So it is a little bit different now than it what it used to be.

It's less professional wrestling and more legit sport with rules.

You have to, you know, there's.

People are like, oh, you elbowing each other.

But no, there's no pro slides.

You know, you could get a forearm, you could get a low block, high block.

So, you know, we try to keep it really safe while keeping it a legitimate sport.

You should come watch it.

So it's hard to really just describe what we actually do without having, you know, a video in front of you because it's such an intricate, different sport.

So you guys should definitely come watch us play sometime so we can explain it to you in real.

In real time as it's happening in front of your face.

That's great.

I.

I have been to a couple of matches with the Burning River.

Awesome.

And yeah, we have some friends whose daughters got involved a couple years ago.

They've graduated college now.

But it's such a.

What I want to say.

It's.

There's so much movement and action.

There's a lot going on.

And I.

I think people fail to realize that, you know, you guys are always moving, you're always in motion.

There's stuff happening in the little groups.

So you're right.

I think I.

I think that actually experiencing and seeing it would.

Is the easiest and best way to.

To know how incredible this sport is.

And we.

And we're actually gonna.

I think.

Well, I know I am trying to come out there.

I think it's the 14th of June.

You guys have a match coming up, and that's what we're trying to promote.

When this episode drops, there'll be time for people to still come out and get tickets for that.

How would they do that?

First of all?

Oh, you can buy tickets at the door.

And where you.

Where you guys play card and we play in Cleveland Heights, the Cleveland Heights Community Center.

We're at the south Rink right now here, prior to our practice time.

Oh, figures.

I live in Cleveland Heights, but you're catching me while I'm in Atlanta.

You know what?

Well, that's why the June 14th.

I'll come by your house, I'll pick you up and we'll go if you're available.

Let's make sure you're available.

Are you going to go, Aaliyah?

Are you available or Are you out of town?

No, I'm on a plane.

That's right.

I thought you were leaving.

Yeah.

Not jumping out this time.

You're staying until it lands.

Taking the brick wall with you.

All right, well, yeah, well, you tell and I will try to come out on the 14th because that's.

I'm very excited to see it live.

And make it to our games in person.

We do have streams on YouTube.

Cleveland Guardians roller Derby.

Oh, that's right.

Oh, like our stream team is amazing.

Like, I think that we have some of the best camera work as far as I've seen from derby.

The best camera.

Okay.

The best camera work.

Yes, we have the best camera work.

Awesome.

So what is like a typical practice I know you guys are getting.

You guys said that you're doing it today.

What does that look like?

So it's a three hour practice and we work on a lot of strategy based things for like upcoming games.

A lot of drills, just working on fundamentals.

But at this point in the season, it becomes a lot of strategic based drilling really in preparation for the games ahead.

Yeah.

So we have a game coming up in Rochester on the 31st and we've been doing a lot of footage watching and here's the people we have to look out for.

Here's the way we have to train for that.

So that's how we handle our practices.

So it's co ed you guys like.

Yes.

Guardians is open gender.

Okay.

Very inclusive to everybody because everybody has a spot, everybody has a part to play.

That's amazing.

So what are the different positions in.

In derby and what, what do you guys specialize in?

So there's jammers and there's blockers and there's one pivot.

I'm typically a jammer, so essentially I use my body to get past other people to see score the points while the other team members are blocking the other team's jammer.

It's pretty.

That's.

That's kind of the simplest way to describe it is one person on each team scores the points by getting their body past the other people.

If you're watching the game, they've got a star on their helmet.

It's a little helmet cover.

That's.

That's the person you're scoring your points.

Yeah.

And he's definitely one of our star jammers.

I'm a pivot, so I do it all.

The pivot is a blocker to start and if your jammer is struggling, they can pass it to the pivot and the pivot becomes the jammer.

So a crucial role.

And we wear a stripe on our helmet.

And I think you also do it all.

Yeah, I mean, for the most part, I'm a blocker, but every once in a while they'll put me in as a jammer, be a wild card.

So, yeah, anybody can kind of fill in any position at any time, which is kind of a nice thing.

Everybody is well rounded and works on their skills in all those different little disciplines.

I'm just a blocker.

Blockers are important too.

Yeah.

Sometimes you just.

Sometimes you got to embrace the thing that you're best at.

Right.

And it's like, if that's you, that's you.

That's awesome.

Them.

Absolutely.

So what kind of.

What kind of league do you guys.

Is there a nationwide league, regional league in terms of like the teams you play?

Yeah, every city and every state and every country has a.

Has a roller derby league.

So we skate under the.

It's called the Men's Roller Derby Association.

So that would be like the MLB of what we do.

So that's the entire governing body.

And then, you know, like I said, every city's got a roller derby league and they function as a business.

We're a non profit and we're also a sport.

Skater owned, skater run.

We went to Canada a couple weeks ago and played against a team in Toronto.

And at the end of June, we're going to the uk.

Oh, wow.

We're playing teams from England and France.

England.

France.

I think two teams from England and a team from France will be playing against.

Oh, that's so cool.

They got teams in Asia, Australia, South America.

It's all over.

There's a World cup coming up in July, so Team usa, you know, like there's.

There's a team for everybody.

I'm really bummed.

I was planning to make it out there, but my travel plans have not really materialized the way I was hoping they would.

Oh, man.

But that is going to be at the beginning of July.

It's going to be in Innsbruck, Austria.

Oh, my gosh.

That's amazing.

Is that going to be.

So is like your.

Your.

Your European trip?

Are your mat.

Those matches also going to be live streamed as well?

Yeah.

We can send you guys information once we get it.

Okay.

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Now, I also noticed, was it your last match against Chicago, the team named.

The team name is always so creative.

I don't know if you guys know Jeff and Aaliyah.

What?

Why don't you guys tell us?

The Chicago team name is.

There's the Step brothers.

There's the Bruce brothers and the Step Brothers.

So, yeah, there's a lot of teams that have kind of cheeky names like that.

I think something to have fun with.

St.

Louis has the gatekeepers and the beekeepers, the undead and the zombies.

Kind of a lot of puns on the.

The sort of B team name.

Very cool.

I think Burning river, which Malloy can I skate for?

Has All Stars, Hazmat crew, and the Pyromaniacs.

So it's a lot of fun.

I love it.

That is awesome.

So, like, what inspired you guys to actually get involved in roller derby?

You started first.

So I had just graduated grad school, and I played sports my entire life.

And like I said, I grew up watching Roller Jam.

I just happened to watch a documentary on Netflix called Blood on the Flat Track, and I was like, you know, I wonder if Cleveland has a derby league.

And I looked it up on Facebook, and lo and behold, they had an orientation coming up, and that was in 2012.

And went to that orientation and met some of my best friends in the world and never looked back.

And here I am, you know, 13 years later.

And for me, that's so cool.

Funnily.

Oddly enough, Maloika and I are married, and we met.

Funnily enough.

Yeah.

Years ago.

After we met, I came to watch her play.

And then I played hockey as a.

As a youth, so it interested me right off the bat.

And as time went on, I just figured, well, I'll try it out.

And it's kind of been ever since I've just been involved.

So we bullied him into playing.

Yeah.

On skates right now.

Yeah.

So kind of worked out perfectly.

And I played sports my whole life growing up.

And a few years prior, I wasn't really doing anything.

I was getting out of shape, and I needed to find something to stay active.

I always thought roller derby was a women's league sport.

And one day I saw Burning river share a post from the Cleveland Guardians.

And as soon as I saw that saw there's a men's league, I sent a message.

I got a response within one minute and showed up to practice, and that was about it.

Wow.

I.

I did learn about Burning river the.

The women's league first.

I saw Burning river at Pride one year, I want to say, and I kind of like, that was like, oh, neat.

There's a royal derby team in Cleveland.

And then I heard they were doing a learn to skate program called Skater Tots, which is for both teams.

I think signups end this week.

If I remember correctly, we start June 8th.

Yeah.

So there is time to sign up.

If anyone's actually interested in playing from skater tots, we teach you from the ground up.

But back to my story.

I heard about my tots class coming up, and I was like, oh, I want to learn to skate.

I had never seen roller derby played at this point.

I don't know that I fully watched a game of roller derby until part way through.

I was learning to play the game, and I'm kind of embarrassed to say it, but I had.

I was just looking for some community.

I found a bunch of really close friends and a really, really engaging sport.

It's.

It very quickly became my favorite sport.

Nice.

That's so cool.

And you guys.

I mean, this is on traditional roller skates.

Four wheels on each skate.

These aren't roller blades.

Is there a version with rollerblades or.

No, I'm just.

That even a thing.

Not for the purists.

What is the rollerblades and roller skates?

Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you about.

Interior skates.

So I grew up rollerblading, and I think that it.

It's an easy transition from doing the rollerblades to this to the quad skates.

But, you know, obviously you can see the difference.

These are my husband's skates, quad skates, custom antic AR2s.

You know, there's a plate that gets attached to it.

So everybody's got different types of plates, different types of wheels, different types of toe stops.

Everybody likes a different type of boot.

So there's all sorts of different ways you can go with this.

But I find that, you know, skating on quad skates is a little bit easier on the body.

It sets your knees properly, it sets your hips properly.

This is.

This is my sports medicine background talking.

But, you know, when you see people.

When you see people on rollerblades, you'll see, like, their knees are turned in.

Exactly, exactly.

So you get the knee pain, you get the hip pain, you get the back pain.

With quad skates, you have that platform that sets you in the right anatomical position.

And it's a little bit easier, I think, to tolerate on the body.

Plus, I think the wider base just gives you more leverage when you're doing those really physical things.

Absolutely.

And also you got some roller skates, and a lot of times, if you're like a jammer, you end up running on your toe stops.

So that's of it, too.

So true.

Interesting.

Yeah, the regulations.

I'm sorry, Jeff, go ahead.

I was asked if there Are regulations on.

Are there like specific things?

You can only have certain types of wheels or certain weight for the wheels or the frames or you can just.

No go.

Everybody's got their own setup and, and you know, the skate durometers.

The wheel durometers go from, you know, your softest wheels to your hardest wheels.

So it depends on what floor you're skating on.

If you're skating on a floor like ours, where it's concrete, you'll go kind of like midway so you get some them slide.

If you're skating on a really slick floor, you're going to skate on your softest wheels so you can get a grip.

Grip, you know, so everybody's got a different thing that they like.

There's really no regulation on what you can skate on.

As long as.

As long as it's quad skates.

Yeah.

No extra wheels.

No.

That would be weird.

If you had a middle.

Now I'm just thinking about it.

You'd lose.

You gotta wonder.

A little motor inside or something.

Whatever little advantage you can get.

Right.

That's too funny.

I'm pretty sure a motor would jam up really quickly.

I would.

Yeah, probably.

So it's interesting.

So it, it.

I mean, it sounds like.

The way you were describing this, the, the skate itself really makes me think of like even skateboarding, like how detailed that, you know, someone who's really into skateboarding gets with the trucks and the.

The wheels.

They want to make sure that they get exactly the right kind of feel.

Not everybody rides on the same smoothness.

Some of them want a little bit more traction, all that.

So that's very interesting.

There's a lot more strategy than you think.

They're just throwing on some skates and, and getting out there.

Yep.

And we do have a local skate shop in Cleveland called Next Level Skate Shop.

The owner is Coco Spark.

She's been with Burning river since the very beginning.

So she knows everything about skates with.

We send everybody right to her and she'll, you know, take a look at your foot, take a look at your stance, and she'll make sure that you're leaving the shop with the right equipment.

She's been voted best skate shop in Cleveland, I think 20, 23 or 24.

Yes.

That's awesome.

Yeah, we'll put, we'll put the link in the show notes.

Great.

She'd love that.

So like, what is like a personal or like a, like a highlight memory that you guys have?

Like a game or, I don't know, practice or something along those lines?

That you could share with somebody that might be interested.

Is it physical?

I'm sorry, I've never, like, really watched roller derby, but I am very, very interested in it as a sport.

So is it, like, physical?

I know hockey can be a little bit physical.

It's a full context sport.

Like, you could hit people as hard as you can with your shoulders and your hips.

We've got.

We've got a teammate who, whenever they get hit, they kind of go sliding all the way into the audience sometimes.

Yeah, it is very physical.

You have to take care of yourself.

You know, like, a lot of training goes into it because it is the highest contact sport.

You're skating against some of the biggest people you've ever seen, some of the smallest people you've ever seen.

Yeah, it's super physical.

So what's like, a highlight?

Yeah.

I think, personally is how the team has grown this season over the years.

I mean, as you may imagine, it's.

It's a sport that you pay to play.

We're all adults.

We have jobs, we have lives.

But getting some of that.

That buy in from new skaters that are just coming on board and watching them develop into higher level skaters, that's been a highlight for me because the team has changed, you know, a lot over the last few years, and we're in a really good spot this year.

We've only lost one game so far this year, so.

Nice.

Wow.

It's become a really interesting thing to watch and be a part of.

Super cool.

My highlight is when you proposed to me.

I was about to.

I was gonna ask if the marriage had or wedding had anything to do with the highlight.

Yes, that's definitely my highlight.

We had a double header where we played, like, an open scrimmage with the Guardians.

And I don't know why I didn't realize, like, his whole family was hiding around, my whole family was hiding.

And I'm like, oh, whatever.

So at the end of the game, one of my teammates gets on the microphone and she's, like, talking.

She's like, oh, Malloy, come out here.

We're gonna talk about you.

I'm like, why?

And then she's like, oh, I got some nice things to say, but, you know, somebody else has some really nice things to say.

And here he comes on skate.

Oh, look at his face.

Skates out there.

Smoothest transition to getting on his knee on skates in front of everybody.

Proposes to me.

I mean, that was just one of the best nights of my life.

It was amazing.

That's incredible.

I love that.

Is that somewhere like recorded for posterity?

Were you guys streaming with it?

I do have videos of many different angles.

My teammates all knew.

Everybody knew.

Everybody knew.

No one.

I had no idea.

It took some planning and some secrecy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

Talk about mission impossible.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

So what are the other two have highlights.

Before I move on to the next question, I just want to make sure you guys get a chance.

Normally I'm a blocker, but they threw me in as jammer on our last game and I ended up staying scoring 20 points and one jam.

Nice.

Nice.

My highest scoring jam yet.

So I was happy about that.

Very cool.

Cool.

Some of my favorite.

Some of my favorite moments in derby are when I do a thing I think I couldn't do or I do a thing I've been working on.

So primarily I'm a blocker and I've really been trying to work on my ability to catch and hold people and slow them down so that I can get support.

And we can kind of, you know, keep things moving for our team, but not their team.

And, you know, being able to look back and see how I have grown in my ability to do that just kind of generally my stopping power is something I'm really, really proud of.

That's awesome.

So tell us a little bit about, like how long is a game?

Is it in rounds, quarters?

Like how does the structure of the game play out?

Yeah.

There are two 30 minute periods.

Each period is broken up into a non finite number of jams.

And that's the only really good way I can explain it.

Each jam lasts for either two minutes or until the first jammer out of the pack calls it off, which you do by tapping your hips like this.

So if you're watching derby footage and you see this and you hear four whistles, that's a jam ending because the jammers called it off.

That goes for half an hour.

You have a typically 15 minute intermission and then we do it all again for a second half hour.

And I'm kind of trying to skirt around the rules because they can get really complicated really quickly.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, that's fine.

And we'll get to see it live.

And that's what I'm looking forward to.

But I just wanted to know what to expect.

Each team has three timeouts and one official review per half.

And the official review is.

Hey, you'll see someone go like this.

Hey.

We saw something on the track that we think should have been a penalty.

We saw something on the track we think shouldn't have been a penalty.

We would like the referee crew to reevaluate this decision or we'd like to appeal this decision the ref crew made.

The refs go and talk about it.

And if you win the official review, you keep your official review.

You can do it again.

If you don't get it, you don't keep the official review.

So it's really nice.

It can be used as a strategic break.

It can be used to try to get the other jammer a penalty or, you know, try to get a blocker off the.

Like a penalty or what have you.

And then timeouts are a minute typically outside of the official review, which runs until the ref crews finish.

And how many people are out there per side for each of those?

Five.

So one, one jammer, four blockers or one jammer, three blockers in the pivot.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, you got it.

Is there always.

Is there always a pivot or is there?

Unless they're in the box or unless you forget to put the COVID on your helmet, which happens.

You know, sometimes there's a lot of confusion when you're.

Oh, shifts.

And I was gonna say you shift in and out.

Sort of like hockey.

Right.

So it's two maximum, two minute shifts.

And then you said in the box like you're one of the players could be penalized penalty.

And then are you just down for that or do you bring somebody in or how so is that like hockey as well?

Oh, you get power plays, right?

Right.

Pretty much.

To go to the box, and then only the other team's able to score.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, wow.

So if.

If your jammers in the box can the pivot then take that role or you just can't score.

Have the physical helmet cover with the star on it.

Oh.

So the pivot, it's actually a physical handoff of the star.

You can't throw it.

You have to make a physical.

Oh, interesting.

Gotcha.

Okay.

That make.

That's cool.

So I'm sorry if you said this already, but when would somebody, like, do the.

The hips.

Hands on the hips.

The call off a jam?

Yeah.

When would they do that?

Yeah.

Points.

If.

Let's say Both teams score 10 points, 10 to 10, nobody gained an advantage point wise.

So sometimes it's more strategic, like you score a couple more points than the other team, then you call it off right away.

So then you come out of that jam with the lead.

That's definitely one of those things that you have to see in person, Don.

Yeah, yeah.

The sport is crazy.

It's Vibes, who made these rules?

There's so many rules, it's out of control.

I think there's like seven referees, isn't it?

Oh, wow.

So that's a lot of eyes trying to keep track of everything.

Right.

And some calls still get.

She doesn't.

She doesn't even know how many referees.

That's why you're in the box so.

Much, because you never see that.

There was a referee over there, too.

You saw that There are three.

I think typically there are three outside pack referees, two jam referees, two inside pack Raptors.

I want to say two inside pack referees.

It might be three.

Anyone watching from, like, Wifta or Murda who knows the rules, I'm so sorry.

And then there are also a lot of people that we have who are off skates, who are also officials.

There are nsos, non skating officials.

They time the penalty box, they time the game, they operate the scoreboard, they track penalties.

We honestly cannot play the game without officials.

One of our teammates likes to say that there are more officials on the track at any given time than there are skaters on an individual team.

So it is very much like many.

Many hands make slightly lighter work.

I feel like there's a lot of sports that could benefit from a few more.

I was gonna say it sounds like Roller derby's one of the few sports.

Right, where they actually have enough officials to make sure things are going right.

Yeah, that's funny.

Well, that's why so many sports are going to replays.

Right.

Because the human factor is, you know, not always perfect.

Yeah.

And you can't bribe a camera.

I'm kidding.

Nobody's bribing anybody and.

Right.

You're kidding.

You can't grab the camera.

Oh, my gosh.

All right, so.

So how many more games do you have this season then?

You said you are going away, you've got a game in Rochester and then you're going out.

We have a double header on the 14th.

We go to the UK and play three games.

We, in July have a trip.

No, we have a tournament in July.

We'll have multiple games and then we'll end our season with our little.

Like, we have a.

Well, it's not little.

We have a big event that the Guardians host in Summit county called Summer Affair, where we invite everybody from all over the world to get tickets and go on scrimmage teams and we just play a fun weekend of Derby together.

It's Derby summer camp.

Yeah, it's summer camp.

Oh, so we'll end out our season with that.

And when is the end of the.

Season, then technically, the end of the season is the end of July.

July.

And then when do you start back up again?

Like, what's the cycle of your season?

Typically, Burning river and the Guardians will have home games kind of from August, September up through November.

That's where we scrimmage each other.

We break our own team into, like, two different groups, and we just.

We stay active.

We play year round.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's never ending.

The closest thing I can call to, like, an end of the derby season is at least for Burning River.

We have a big old fundraiser in, like, November, December time called.

Right, right, right.

It's huge.

Everyone skates, everyone comes up with these incredible names, lots of puns.

I'm trying to think someone was Jerry Hatrick last year.

Yeah, we had some good ones, but, yeah, then we, camera after black and blue, take a little bit of a holiday break and then come back in January, full swing.

So we get a little breaks here and there, but truly, we're playing year round, so that's awesome.

Never ending.

So do you guys get, like, a lot of fandom or, like, how can, you know, Clevelanders, like, support you guys more or what?

You know, what's that like?

We're.

We're active on Facebook, so if you could follow us there, you know, that's where we have all our schedules and we post videos and links to our games.

Yeah, okay.

Come to our games.

You know, every bit of merch that we sell goes into the business, so everything we sell is a fundraiser for us to be able to, you know, get our jerseys, travel, all that good stuff.

Tournaments.

Yeah.

Follow us on our YouTube page.

The more followers that we get, the better off we're gonna be.

But, yeah, coming to our games, I would say, is the best way that you could help fundraise us, you know.

And then sometimes you'll see some of us at, like, local skating, like, Cleveland area skating rinks.

I think we have a couple of people who session skate in Illyria.

Skated there last night, my kid.

Yeah.

So if you.

If you see a Guardians Roller Derby jersey in the wild, come say hi.

Yeah.

Oh, very cool.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Sweet.

Well.

And I did.

We, like.

I said we did see.

See you guys at Fan Expo.

Yeah.

So you guys do events like that throughout the year to kind of promote as well?

Yep.

Yeah.

Are you going to be at any other events like that?

I'm not sure.

Nothing's in the works.

Right?

Yeah, right now, like, traveling, playing, so.

But you will see us at events throughout the year both Burning river and.

And Cleveland Guardians.

We try to connect with local businesses and events like that as much as we possibly can.

So.

So the next chance for folks in Cleveland to see you live, other than YouTube, obviously, is the June 14 game, correct?

Yes.

All right, well, then, guys, you need to go out and see that.

Plus, you know, like I said, hopefully Utah and I both will be there to check it out.

You said it's a double header.

There's going to be two games.

Yes.

All right.

Who are you guys playing against?

Pittsburgh Zombies.

Oh, can we root against that?

Do we hate Pittsburgh and roller derby.

As much as all friends?

Nobody hates each other.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

We all go to after parties together after the.

Yeah, it's.

That's one of the best parts about, like, derby, like, the camaraderie on the track, you know, while blocking, you'll.

Or while playing people like, oh, my God, that was an awesome hit.

Or what have you people joke around before the jam star.

Yeah, that's really cool.

It's a fun movie.

That's great.

We'll be playing Pittsburgh Zombies and Casco Bay's team, so.

Okay.

Teams from great places.

All right.

Nice.

Awesome.

Looking forward to it.

And I know you guys are getting ready to practice here at 10, so we don't want to keep you guys too much longer, but.

And we told everybody how to find you guys on Facebook.

What about you guys individually?

Do you guys post about roller derby on your personal Instagrams, things like that?

Do you want to share that or is that.

If you.

If it's just for friends and family, that's fine too.

I'm honestly kind of private on social media.

I don't post anything.

Totally, totally get it.

Yeah.

I just want to make sure.

Not that famous yet.

You can follow me @malloy988 on Instagram.

My Instagram is public and I also work for a company called Roller Derby Athletics, so you can follow us there.

We.

We work on, like, training, strength training for people who play roller derby all over the world.

So if you want to follow that Instagram page, that would be awesome, too.

Awesome.

All right, well, thank you guys so much for being on the show.

It's so cool to talk to you guys.

I can't wait to come out and see you guys live and enjoy.

Stay safe at practice today and we'll see you soon.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks for having me.

Nice for having you.

All right.

That was awesome.

I can't wait to go and see roller derby with these guys.

Are you.

So you didn't commit.

Utah, you're going to be there with me or.

No.

Well, okay.

So your calendar with the family.

I know.

Well, the big.

Well, yeah, the big thing is, I think for our reload decision, I think we're leaning towards staying.

Okay.

And so.

And so.

Yes.

And so I think that.

I think the 14th will be great.

The.

It's, like, just down the street for me, so that's what I'm thinking.

Yeah.

It's so close.

Even if you didn't stay the whole time, like, we could.

Yeah.

But I definitely.

I definitely want to support them.

They.

I mean, like I said, one of our family friends, their daughter Ginger was part of the birding river.

I think she was part of the hazmat crew.

And she did that for a while, and it was just neat because I had.

I honestly didn't realize.

I knew it existed, but I didn't realize that it was so organized, you know, that there's actual organized communities and leagues and teams.

And so it was cool to see a friend's daughter get involved and see.

Get a little peek into that world.

And, you know, these guys sound great.

They've been.

I mean, they're committed.

They've been doing it for over a decade now.

So.

Yeah, I love.

I love the spirit of it, too.

Like I said, you know, there's rivalries, obviously, you're.

Once you're on the roller.

On the.

I didn't ask.

Track.

There we go.

Once you're on the track.

Once you're on the track there, you know, all bets are off.

But then, you know, after, it's like, you know, we're just all in this together.

It's fun.

We're having a good time, and that's what it should be.

So.

Yeah, that's why it's not.

Celebrate that.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Funny.

No.

And, yeah.

But I don't know, it's funny because if you saw the stuff that.

That we saw when we were younger, Aaliyah Roller Derby was a lot more like wwf.

Like, it was basically pro.

It was basically pro wrestling on wheels.

Skates.

Yeah, it was very theatrical.

So lots of, like, high elbows to the neck, clotheslines, headbutts.

This is like an actual sport, and it's exciting to come and check it out, so I'm looking forward to it.

So I want to remind everybody that I'm giving away all this stuff here, guys.

On Instagram.

Paramount has been kind enough to share these things with us, and we're gonna.

We're gonna then share them with you.

So make sure you follow us on Instagram so that I can give you some free stuff.

Hopefully there.

Not sure what our next episode is going to be yet.

We've got a couple things in the pipeline, but we will also be telling you about that on Instagram, so make sure you're there so you can find out about future episodes.

Utah Aliyah, thank you again for being here.

Glad I could be there long distance.

I know even though you're away, I'm so glad we were still able to pull this off.

So yeah, that's it for this episode of the Podcast Is Real with worldgun Geek.

We'll see you guys next time.

See ya.

We're waving.

The Podcast Is Real is a world Gone Geek production.