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Local Threads is a storytelling podcast documenting the voices of New England's creative community. Artists, organizers, and culture makers who shape spaces, movements, and shared experiences.
Welcome to this week's episode of Local Threads. This week, I am talking to Thomas Jury Wong. He is the president of the Audeville Society, which is a nonprofit that provides local performers grant money in order to get their projects started. The Audeville Society is also having a Revelry Ball fundraiser, which is a nightclub themed fundraiser that allows you to go have a good time, get dressed up, and also do so in the name of performance. And and we're gonna tell you all about it.
Molly - Host:Because who doesn't need another reason to wear a costume or get dressed up? We are all too often not doing that. And why not do it surrounded by an amazing performance and cause? Let's get into it. Welcome to the podcast.
Thomas - Guest:Thank you.
Molly - Host:So what can you tell me for those that don't know Yeah. About the Audeville Society?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. So Audeville Society is an organization we started a little over a year ago. The main premise was just there's a lot of people out there who have really great ideas about art and performance, but they don't have the capital to do it. Right? So it's like, I have this great idea.
Thomas - Guest:Wouldn't it be fun if we did this kind
Molly - Host:of event? And you're like, yeah, that would
Thomas - Guest:be great, but it's gonna cost $5,000
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:And we don't have $5,000 so I guess we're just never gonna do it. Right? So by starting a group where a lot of nonprofits and community grants go to bigger organizations. Like, it's really easy, maybe not easy, but it's easier for big theaters in Boston to get grants. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Not now. Grants are kind
Molly - Host:of Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Under attack. But generally speaking, it's I mean, it's still easier for them, right, even if it's not easy. So they just say, like, oh, well, you know, we're we have a million dollar a year budget. We need, you know, dollars 20,000 to run this next event. Let's just apply for a grant.
Thomas - Guest:And they have all the credentials to do so, so they just do. Yeah. If you're a person, just a single solitary person, and maybe you don't have a ton of experience producing events, right? Maybe you're an actor who's been acting for ten years, and now you wanna try to produce your own event. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Or you're a drag artist or a burlesque artist who just sort of has been working independently, but you wanna do your own thing. It's gonna be really hard for you to get a grant with that, where you say, like, I've never done this before, but I really want to. And I think I'd be really good at it. There's a lot of grant companies that are just gonna say, like, no. You're not worth the risk.
Thomas - Guest:We need to see what you can do first. So come back to us when you have a portfolio. Right? We're much more lenient in terms of your portfolio. As long as you can prove to us that you have an idea and that your idea is good and that it's beneficial to the community or to you or to any, you know, beneficial in some way.
Thomas - Guest:Then we'll say, okay. We'll give you a grant. And our grants tend to be smaller because we're giving to individuals who are running smaller events. Right? So whereas a big company might not want to give out a $50,000 grant to someone who's unknown, we'll give a $3,000 grant to someone who's unknown if that helps them to build an event.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:And, I mean, I keep using the word event, but any kind of performance. Right? Even if it's a one time thing, even if it's just like a solo show. And then that adds to their portfolio. So the next time they need a grant, whether it's from us or from someone else, they have something they can pull up and say, look what we did.
Thomas - Guest:Right? We have this here. So that was the main idea of it.
Molly - Host:That's really nice. It's like taking away, like, that pressure to follow into this predetermined path for a performer
Thomas - Guest:Yeah.
Molly - Host:That's very hard to get into in the first place Mhmm. And really opens it up to allow really cool things to happen because people have great ideas.
Thomas - Guest:Right. That's the point. Yeah. Like, everyone has ideas. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Every performer out there has that dream show they wanna do where they're like, wouldn't it be so much fun if we just did this? But they can't. Right? Because who who can?
Thomas - Guest:Right? Who can just randomly do an event? Yeah. No one. No one has that kind of money just floating around being like, would it be cool if we did an event and it cost $5,000?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. That would be cool. But have to pay my rent.
Molly - Host:Yeah. You know? So it's like,
Thomas - Guest:where do they get this money? Yeah. Hopefully, from us.
Molly - Host:And you said you started a year ago.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Last August. What
Molly - Host:was that spark that started it?
Thomas - Guest:So we are doing our our big fundraising ball in February. Oddly enough, it was reversed.
Molly - Host:So you started the ball before you started this Yeah. This society?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Sort of. We started on that same time.
Molly - Host:Right?
Thomas - Guest:So here is sort of the timeline of events. I had the idea for this ball a decade ago. And I was like, I really wanna do this ball. Wouldn't it be great? But I was one of those people who was like, wouldn't it be great if we threw a ball?
Molly - Host:Yeah. But I didn't have
Thomas - Guest:the money to do that. Yeah. And I didn't have the experience to do it. I didn't have the any of the resources to do it. So I was like, yeah, that would be cool.
Thomas - Guest:Anyway, I have to go to work now.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Right? And so like, it just sort of sits in the back of your
Molly - Host:head over and over and over again.
Thomas - Guest:Finally, a decade and I mean, was it's more than a decade. It was like thirteen years later. I was like, you know what? I'm not getting any younger. I just I need to figure out how to do this.
Thomas - Guest:So I figured out how to do the ball. And as I started to plan it, I thought, like, originally we were like, okay, well, we're gonna need to start some sort of business to run the ball, right? Because you're selling tickets and you're raising money, that money has to go somewhere. The government's gonna wanna know where it is. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:So, like, for tax reasons and all that. So I reached out to an accountant, and I was like, hey. You know, what do we do? And they said, well, you can start an LLC, like a private company, just to run this event, like an defense company. Great.
Thomas - Guest:So that was the original plan, which is to make a company, throw a ball every year, have fun. Partway through, one of our friends was like, so what are you guys raising money for? And I was like, oh, it's not that kind of event. It's just like, we didn't wanna add a, like, a charity component to it because we were already kind of thinking, like, oh, it's gonna be tough to run a ball. How are we also gonna run a charity component to it?
Thomas - Guest:And so but then we just kept having people ask like, oh, what's it for? What's it for? What's it for? Because a lot of times these balls are charity events.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Right?
Thomas - Guest:And so eventually, were like, I feel like we had just have to make it charity.
Molly - Host:Yeah. The universe was like, you're gonna have your Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:You're gonna do this. So at first we thought about reaching out to nonprofits that already existed and saying, hey,
Molly - Host:we're gonna run a ball. Do you want to
Thomas - Guest:be the beneficiary? But we couldn't really find anyone that we felt that kind of vibe with. Mhmm.
Molly - Host:And
Thomas - Guest:then it all went like, the the little, like, lightning in a bottle struck, and I was like, oh, I know. Thirteen years ago, I wanted to run a ball, but I couldn't. And I thought I had such a cool, great idea, but I had no way of doing it. What if that's the whole point? What if we run this ball, all the money that we raise for it goes into a fund, and we give it to performers to do whatever they wanna do with it.
Thomas - Guest:And so that was how the nonprofit came out. Mhmm. And so I reached out to a lawyer and said, hey, this is our idea. How do we do it? They were super helpful.
Thomas - Guest:They're like, here's your paperwork. Have a meeting with us. We'll figure out what you're doing. We did that. Filled out our paperwork.
Thomas - Guest:A couple months later, we applied for our nonprofit status. And what month is it now? September? Two months ago, we got our nonprofit status official from the government.
Molly - Host:Nice.
Thomas - Guest:And now we're a nonprofit. And so it was really the ball was the the first step. And then we thought, if we can make a ball because, you know, we're fortunate enough now to have the kind of resource and money and experience that we need, why we help other people.
Molly - Host:Yeah. It's it's really the perfect storm. When you create something you wish you had Yeah. When you have the opportunity or, I guess, the time or or
Thomas - Guest:It's all of it. It's the resources. It's the time. It's the opportunity. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:I didn't have any of those
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:When I first had this idea. And I know so many people don't have those the resources, the time, the energy. Yeah. So, yeah, it it became like a I don't wanna say paying paying it back necessarily because I don't necessarily think anyone paid paid me, so I'm not paying it back. But it's that kind of idea, right?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Couldn't do it back then. I can do it now. Remember what it was like to not be able to do it. Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:So wouldn't it be cool if we could help people do it?
Molly - Host:So what's your background? Like, are you an artist?
Thomas - Guest:I have a a mixed background. A lot of my performing and art stuff was never was never professional. I've never professionally been any kind of performer. Right? I did, like, those classic, you know, high school theater kid kind of stuff.
Thomas - Guest:Mhmm. And then, and that was, like, music, that was dance, that was acting and singing. And then when I I originally went to college to be a music teacher, and I realized that I hated it because everyone was mean and snobby and, like, everyone was competing because it was an art. Right? It's music.
Thomas - Guest:Who's the best performer? And I'm like, I don't need to be the best performer. I'm just trying to do my thing. Yeah. But everyone else was.
Thomas - Guest:And it just got, like,
Molly - Host:too I hear that a lot. I'm so glad I didn't go to art school because I would probably not I have I have thin skin.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. And it like, it was it was partly the thin skin part, which is true. Like, it was definitely, like, a little bit of a a kick in the face to be, like, the best music music performer in your high school, and then you go to college where everyone's, like, everyone's in your major. So they're all, like, way better than you are. And you're like, oh, I know.
Molly - Host:Or at least if they it definitely feels like it, even if they might
Thomas - Guest:not You know? Definitely something like impostor syndrome and stuff. Yeah. Like, oh, no. These people are so much better than I am.
Thomas - Guest:They're so cool. So, yeah. And then you get there, and then they all also kind of act like they are better than you.
Molly - Host:Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it
Thomas - Guest:just I don't know. Like, I made some friends, but there was a lot of, like, snickering and gossiping and like, oh, can you believe so and so? They're why are they here? They're not that good. Just let people be people.
Thomas - Guest:Like, I don't know. It got too much.
Molly - Host:I was also a little
Thomas - Guest:bit burnt out from high school. I think for a lot of people that transition straight into college is not a good one because it's just you're so sick of school. Don't wanna be there. So there's a little bit of that too. So I left college, did the classic, like, work retail now.
Thomas - Guest:I did that for, like, fifteen years. I hated it. It drained my soul. Yeah. There was nothing I think that, like, at my core, as corny as it's sound, like, I am kind of, like, an artist.
Thomas - Guest:Like Yeah. I like to create things, like, do things, and, like, be fun and creative with people. So retail doesn't really allow for a lot of that. No. And people are, again, just mean.
Thomas - Guest:Customers are really mean. Yeah. Managers are usually really mean. So after like fifteen years, I was like, I need to get out of this. So I went back to college, this time for communication because I figured that's it's such a broad scope of a of a major.
Thomas - Guest:It's not super specific. You can do a lot of different things with that. And so I did that. I graduated with my degree. COVID hit.
Thomas - Guest:So was I like, well, I can't really find a job right now because no one's hiring. So I just sort of hung around for a while, lived off my savings, just kind of tried to figure out what to do with my life. And then from that, I kind of started to veer into this again, where it's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do with my life. What do I want to do with my life? Because at that point, it was more about what I wanna do.
Thomas - Guest:Because I'd spent so many years doing
Molly - Host:What you had to
Thomas - Guest:do. What I had to
Molly - Host:do. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Either for money or for, you know, social reasons like, oh, well, you finished high school, now you have to go to college. It's like, well, what if I don't want to? It doesn't matter.
Molly - Host:Yeah. That's what I do. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. And then you leave college, like, well, you have to get a job. It doesn't matter how much it sucks. It doesn't matter how little the pay is. You have to have a job because you have to pay your rent.
Thomas - Guest:So I was finally in a place where I didn't have to do anything. Yeah. It's like, what do wanna do? And I had done some performance, like, just really the basic, like, amateur kind of stuff. Like, someone's doing a little variety show.
Thomas - Guest:Do you wanna, like, do a number? Great. Like, that sounds fun. So, like, I've always tried to get back on stage. I've hosted a few variety show kind of events before, so I have, like, some MC credits.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Very loose very loosely. And that was sort of my my history. I feel like now I'm more into, like, producer mode, where I don't necessarily need to perform. I at the ball last year, I was the the host. Right?
Thomas - Guest:But I don't even need to do that. If we find someone who wants to host and we find, like, a good host in the future
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:That's fine too. Great.
Molly - Host:That that was scary for me.
Thomas - Guest:It is scary. I there there are definitely some, like, horror stories from last year where it's like we were because it was our first year, you know? Yeah. It it gets bumpy. And, like, we I went on stage at one point because someone told me that it was time to give for me to give a speech and introduce the band, but the band wasn't scheduled to go on for another ten minutes.
Molly - Host:Oh, no.
Thomas - Guest:So I started to do my little speech and I was like, oh, I guess I just have to I guess they're not ready. I'll vamp a little and I'll, like, talk to the crowd. And I'm doing some, like, real shoddy crowd work because that's not my forte. But I was like, so where's everyone from? That kind of stuff.
Thomas - Guest:And then it just keeps going. And I'm like, I'll be right
Molly - Host:back. Ten minutes is a really long time.
Thomas - Guest:I didn't even make it to ten minutes. I probably made it two. And I was like, alright. I'll be right back, folks. Give me give me a sec.
Thomas - Guest:So I, like, walk off stage and the the stage manager guy is there. And he's like he looks at us watching. He's like, yeah. They're not supposed to be out for another eight minutes. And I was like, oh, someone told me to introduce them now.
Thomas - Guest:Okay. And then I had like slink back on stage.
Molly - Host:Yeah. And be like Oh, no.
Thomas - Guest:Hey, guys. Sorry. The DJ is gonna play music for another eight minutes and then the band will be out. Sorry. Bye.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Good call.
Thomas - Guest:You just gotta roll with the punches at that Yeah. But yeah, so I've been producing and that's really been fun for me because it's I love organizing
Molly - Host:Yeah, bringing people together, you know, a curator.
Thomas - Guest:With communication, like, I'm basically like, okay, I need to send out a call for volunteers, right? And we need to send out a call for performers. And then once that's done, we'll get all the applications. Like, got got performer applications, like, boom, instantly.
Molly - Host:That's good.
Thomas - Guest:Which was great. Had a lot of good word-of-mouth from last year.
Molly - Host:How fun it is too to go through that. Yeah. But then if you have too many, then you have to not.
Thomas - Guest:I know.
Molly - Host:Had to tell people
Thomas - Guest:I had to tell people no.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I hate that. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:It's really the worst part. Yeah. Like, I cut I cut the application off after a couple days. It was it probably should have been for fairness sake, like, up for, a week at least. Next year next year, I'll do something where I'm like, this is the deadline.
Thomas - Guest:We didn't do that this year. We were just like, here's the application. Fill it up if you want. So after a couple days, we had so many applications, I just stopped it. I was like, okay.
Thomas - Guest:No. Nope.
Molly - Host:We're done. We're done.
Thomas - Guest:Because we can only do we're we're gonna have a dozen performers, which is already like so many. And then we're also gonna have, like, ambient performers who are just around the venue Mhmm. Doing stuff. Like, they're not on stage necessarily. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:So I think we have six of those. So we have 18 people. And I still had to turn down, like, 10.
Molly - Host:That's awesome.
Thomas - Guest:And I was like, I just felt so bad, though. Yeah. That's my least favorite part.
Molly - Host:I guess you're gonna have to have two balls a year.
Thomas - Guest:I know. Well, we started a new thing too, is, like, we have a newsletter now, like a performer specific newsletter. So if
Molly - Host:you ever wanna perform at
Thomas - Guest:a ball, give us your email. And, like, in the future, when the as soon as the application goes up, we'll send you an email. Was like, the application's up. Apply. All of our performers are also local.
Thomas - Guest:Like, that's a very important thing for us. To us, local is New England because that's sort of the
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:The region that we serve. So as long as you're a New Englander, you can perform at RMN. But we're not hiring out from anywhere else. Yeah. That's really important to us.
Thomas - Guest:We're very, like, community based. We also like, our grants are very specifically New England only. It's not a hard and fast rule, but we're not going to hire the same people every year to perform.
Molly - Host:Okay.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. So if you didn't get in this year, apply next year. And, you know, we're we're trying to also we had someone who applied last year who couldn't make it, but they applied again this year. And we're like, well, they applied this is their second year, so we'll take them. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. So in in the interest of trying to get exposure to as many people as possible, we want to hire it's the same with the grants. Right? We're not gonna give grants necessarily to the same people every year.
Molly - Host:Right.
Thomas - Guest:We wanna give grants to new people who have new fresh ideas.
Molly - Host:Right.
Thomas - Guest:And then so that we can get as many people sort of through the system as possible.
Molly - Host:That makes sense. Yeah. I have notes here. I'm not like reading texts. You share a moment that where you felt this is exactly why we're doing this.
Thomas - Guest:Good question. We our first grant that we ever gave out, we gave out last year to this drag queen called Delta Miles. She's based in Provincetown. She's from Boston. She has a show called Diva in Provincetown that they they do every summer, which is her, Kaya Crystal, and Roxy Pops through Drag Queens.
Thomas - Guest:They do live singing cabaret, and they do it throughout the summer. So that was our first grant. When we gave them the money, they already had a show ready to go, but they wanted they wanted to polish it. Right? They wanted to really up the stakes of it.
Thomas - Guest:Because at the moment, it was just them doing you know, the the singing was already there. Right? The the talent, the humor, that was already there. The message of the of the show was already there. They had the show.
Thomas - Guest:They needed matching costumes. Right? They needed some new wigs. They needed to pay the venue. Because I was the first one, it was really fun for me to watch sort of what it what the grants actually do.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Right? So we gave them money, and Delta is very open and transparent about what she's doing with everything. And, like, she really wanted to make sure that I felt like I was involved.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Or, you know, we as a group were involved in the process because she's like, thank you so much. Yeah. Like, without this grant, the show would still go on and it'd be good, but it wouldn't be this the vision that she had in her head Yeah. Which was this grand production. And so to be able to watch her build the production with our help was really special and fun.
Thomas - Guest:And it made us feel like we were really part of the production. Like, we had nothing to do with it. All credit goes to her and, like, the other queens. Mhmm. But it was fun to feel like we had something to do with it.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I mean, drag is so much work. Yeah. The clothing, the shoes.
Thomas - Guest:It's expensive.
Molly - Host:Yeah. The hair.
Thomas - Guest:The hair. So expensive. And so yeah. And then so that was the first one. And then the second one that we did, well, we gave out four grants this year.
Thomas - Guest:But the first one that actually happened was the Worcester Draglesque Festival, which was put on by Joey March and Lady LaRouge up in Worcester. This was the first year they did it. And so it was sort of a similar process. You know, they were super excited to work with us. We were excited to work with them.
Thomas - Guest:After we gave them the grant, they were very transparent about where our money specifically was going. And like part of our grant went to paying their performers, right? Because a lot of festivals and balls and stuff, they ask for volunteer performers, which if you're a small organization, I get. Right? Especially if you're, like, a nonprofit or if it's for charity because the money's supposed to be going to charity.
Thomas - Guest:Right. But I think performers should be paid well
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:For their time, right, and for their service. And luckily, Lady Lerouge, who was my point of contact with them, she agrees. She thinks performers should be paid. So even though she probably could have said, who wants to volunteer? She didn't.
Thomas - Guest:She paid all the performers. She paid them whatever rate they asked for. And that was part of where our money went, was to paying the performers so that they could perform for this event. We also were able to give them a block of tickets to give away for free, because another big part of our mission is to make sure that art is accessible to as many people as possible.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:So we gave them, I think, four pairs of tickets. So they just had a community post on Instagram, they said, hey, we got four tickets from Audible. If y'all want them, DM us, and we'll give you tickets. And like
Molly - Host:That's awesome.
Thomas - Guest:That was great. And so, like, we had someone sort of, you know, karmically do the same thing for us for the ball this year. We had someone who gave us a thousand bucks. And they were like, I'd love if this could be put into the grants account or the grants fund. And I said, sure, but I have a a wacky idea, because the money for the tickets goes into the grants fund anyway.
Thomas - Guest:If you buy tickets with this thousand dollars, that money will go into the grants fund. We'll also have all these tickets and we can give those away.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:And so he's like, oh, that's a fantastic idea. So we did the same thing. We had four pairs of or five pairs of tickets, I think. And we just gave them away to people who sent us a message. You know?
Molly - Host:That's awesome. You brought up a good point too about accessibility. Yeah. And really, the whole point of my podcast is, one, to get people to realize there's so much going on in New England.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah.
Molly - Host:But also not everything has to be an arm and a leg. It's just the biggest hurdle right now, I believe, other than money. Alright? Money is always a problem.
Thomas - Guest:Always a problem.
Molly - Host:But the biggest hurdle right now is getting off the couch.
Thomas - Guest:Oh,
Molly - Host:yeah. 100%. I feel like that's the problem. Like, everybody it's not convenient enough. Like, you can give all the instructions, all of that.
Molly - Host:Yep. People just have to want to get out again. And I I feel like people are doing that. Yeah. Think so.
Molly - Host:But it's slow.
Thomas - Guest:It's slow. Yeah. We also we were nervous too doing this ball because it's a dress up ball. Yeah. So you have to dress up.
Thomas - Guest:Sorry. You can't show up in jeans and a t shirt. Yeah. I wish you could.
Molly - Host:I think people are craving that though.
Thomas - Guest:They are. And that was the but initially, was the worry.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Right? Is who's gonna wanna Who's gonna wanna dress up? If I wanna go out dancing with my friends, I'll just go to the local club and, like, wear whatever I want. I'll look cute. I'll dance.
Thomas - Guest:The end. Yeah. It'll be maybe like a what? $10 cover at most? That's my night out, right?
Thomas - Guest:Meanwhile, we're like, oh, by the way, our tickets are like $80 or whatever. And you have to dress up. You can't show up looking like a schlub. You gotta you know, and like, we're not super strict about the dress code. It's very much like, just put in some effort.
Thomas - Guest:But that was our worry initially. It was like, are people gonna wanna dress up? It's a big ask. Right? And then we threw the ball, and the costumes were amazing.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Like, everyone looked great. And not a single person showed up underdressed, you know, which was another fear of like, are we actually gonna kick them out if someone does show up in jeans and a t shirt? Yeah. Because they gave us, like, a $100.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:So we're just gonna be like, oops, sorry, bye. No, probably not. We probably still have them in. But no one did. Like, everyone came dressed up.
Thomas - Guest:They looked great. And I think the and a lot of people, you know, on Instagram afterwards, who maybe didn't know the mall was happening or couldn't make it or whatever, we showed, like, the videos and the photos from the event. Everyone's like, oh my god, this looks like so much fun. I super wanna go next year. This looks great.
Thomas - Guest:I can't wait. And like, we've talked to people who, as soon as we announced the theme this year, were like, oh, I have so many great ideas for a costume that I would wear to that. So while we were definitely afraid that people didn't wanna weren't gonna wanna, like, participate in the ball Mhmm. The way that we had set up. We found, like, kind of the opposite.
Thomas - Guest:Everyone's been, like, super cool and super into it.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Speaking of the theme, what is the theme this year?
Thomas - Guest:Our theme this year is Emerald City. Obviously, we're trying to ride the coattails of Wicked. Yeah. Wicked's popular. Great.
Thomas - Guest:We'll we'll we'll take that. The theme is generally, like, it can be anything from I wanna dress up like I'm a resident of the Emerald City, like I'm dressed head to toe in bright green and gold. It's wacky. It's Oz. It's fun.
Thomas - Guest:All the way down to like, I just I'm wearing a green shirt and that's that's enough.
Molly - Host:That's Or you could paint your whole body green.
Thomas - Guest:You could paint your whole body green.
Molly - Host:It's up to you.
Thomas - Guest:You should still wear something over it.
Molly - Host:Yes. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. So that's the that's the theme. We didn't do a theme last year. Well, we did, but it was like a very loose theme, which was just like nature.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Because again, I was so nervous that people weren't gonna wanna dress up. Yeah. But I didn't wanna also then impose this, like, stricter dress code of, like, also you have to be on theme. Yeah. So we're like, here's if you need inspiration, nature.
Thomas - Guest:Right? Wear a flower crown. Wear a dress with butterflies on it.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Super easy. But people really loved it, and we sent out a survey after the ball last year. And one of the questions was like, what would you I think it was like, what do you what how did you feel about, like, the theming of the event or something like that? And we got so many replies that were like, a straighter, more like specific theme would be really appreciated because it'll help me to figure out what I'm gonna wear. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:So like, all right.
Molly - Host:So do you plan on it always being a costume event?
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Good. Yeah. Totally.
Molly - Host:There needs to be more of them.
Thomas - Guest:There need to be more costume events because there are a lot of costume events around the country. Right? Yeah. Boston doesn't really have one. That's sort of what we're hoping to become.
Thomas - Guest:Mhmm. There are there are some. Right? But I feel like they're also not the same kind of vibe that we are trying to offer, which is there's a lot of, like, Halloween costume balls Yeah. Obviously.
Thomas - Guest:And then there's a lot that are themed around sort of like cabaret events Mhmm. Where it's like the the dressing up is more of just like wear a suit and like a a flapper dress kind of thing, which are also super fun. Right? Our event, we're trying to make it more artsy in a way, as as silly as that might sound, and also like more queer, obviously. Where it's like, we want people to show up being as creative as they possibly can.
Thomas - Guest:If you wanna show up just wearing a cute green dress, that's fantastic. If you wanna go way over the top, paint your body green, make a giant feather headdress. There's not a lot of ways, I feel, for people to really, like, artsy fartsy express themselves. I think that's really important. And that's really fun for people.
Molly - Host:I feel like people are starting to get more into that now as adults, you know, like, all those missed opportunities to wear costumes. Even as an adult, like, I just didn't have friends that wanted to do that Yeah. At all.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. No. I agree with that.
Molly - Host:Not interested.
Thomas - Guest:And I do agree with you that I think people are becoming more interested in it. And Yeah. Not just more interested in, like because I think I think the idea of of balls and, like, caution balls is really ramping up Yeah. Recently. Like, I would say over, like, the last five or six years.
Thomas - Guest:These these sort of costume dress up balls. And, like, there's there there are different kinds. You know, obviously, there's, like, Halloween costume, which isn't really what we're doing because for Halloween costume ball, you can come dressed as, like, we would say, like, a bottle of ketchup. Right? Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:That's not really in theme
Molly - Host:Yeah. Of our ball.
Thomas - Guest:Our ball is more like fancy dress
Molly - Host:up Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Right, where you're wearing, like, pretty dresses and stuff. And then there's, like, the historical balls where you have to look like you're you have to know what you're doing.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:And you have to dress in 18.
Molly - Host:Like the one in France, the
Thomas - Guest:Oh, Versailles? Yeah. Yeah. That was that was amazing.
Molly - Host:That looks fun.
Thomas - Guest:That looks so much fun. Yeah. So like, we're we're hoping to sort of strike a balance there.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Where you can you can dress up, but you don't have to look like Marie Antoinette.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:You know, but you could.
Molly - Host:Yeah. It's true.
Thomas - Guest:It's too much. So but I found that there are a lot of those around the country, and it's really great. Yeah. Which is really fun. And then, like, I think the popularity of things like rent fairs.
Thomas - Guest:Like, I think rent fairs are getting more popular than they were before. And LARPing, you know, LARPing
Molly - Host:is Yes.
Thomas - Guest:Like, I think LARPing is getting more popular than it ever was.
Molly - Host:There's so many subgenres of LARPing. I had no idea. And one thing about me is if there's a subculture, I wanna know everything about it. It might not be for me.
Thomas - Guest:Right.
Molly - Host:But I wanna get in there and I wanna You're a liar. Like, there's this post APOC one in Maine.
Thomas - Guest:Oh, yeah.
Molly - Host:Like, you can't eat. I I would be
Thomas - Guest:That sounds a bit extreme for me.
Molly - Host:No. For
Thomas - Guest:sure. Me
Molly - Host:too. But could you imagine? I would be in the back with my chips, like, trying to open them all. Yeah. And then I'd get kicked out or whatever.
Molly - Host:But still, I would wanna I'd wanna break through that, like, culture and see how
Thomas - Guest:it works. I love the aesthetic of post apocalyptic. Yeah. I don't think I'd wanna live it.
Molly - Host:No. Definitely not. No. Yeah. I have this picture of LARPing in my head.
Molly - Host:It was some movie. I don't know what it was. They were all out in the park during the day.
Thomas - Guest:Okay.
Molly - Host:So that's just I just assume people just do it during the day. But apparently
Thomas - Guest:There's both. There there you can do a daytime LARP, which is just like during the day.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:There are definitely like weekend LARPs where you go there on Friday night, and you're there till Sunday afternoon. And you camp, you know, you bring a tent or you sleep in your car or whatever.
Molly - Host:And you're in character the whole time?
Thomas - Guest:Character the whole time.
Molly - Host:Sick. Yep. Yeah. I'd be so bad
Thomas - Guest:at it, but
Molly - Host:this would be fun.
Thomas - Guest:There's like every different flavor of LARP for every different type of person. So there are definitely the LARPs where it's like, you show up and you are just you're your character the whole time.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Period. And they're very strict about that. Then there's the ones where they're a little more loosey goosey.
Molly - Host:Yeah. They have a time.
Thomas - Guest:You break character every now and then, no one's gonna say anything. Yeah. You know, maybe at night, like, during dinner
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:You're not in character or whatever. You know?
Molly - Host:My dream is to have like, go to a place. And this all just to tie back into, like, we all appreciate art. We all appreciate play. Yeah. You don't there's no age limit No.
Molly - Host:To be able to tap into that. I think that's why these things are becoming more popular or more not maybe they're always been popular, but more mainstream and accepted, which is so stupid. We should accept everything. But Yeah. I mean, within reason.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Not like a like murder camp or some bullshit.
Thomas - Guest:No. I mean, as long as everyone consents, you know?
Molly - Host:Yeah. Exactly.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. I do agree that I I do think they're getting more popular. They're definitely getting more mainstream, and they're definitely getting more, I think more just known.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:I think they're more popular in the sense that once people find out that they exist
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:They think, oh, that sounds cool. Right? Or that sounds fun. And that even ties back into, like, when we were setting up our organization, we had to meet with lawyers, which was not fun, but, like, you know, you do what you gotta do. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:And one of the questions that they asked, were like, the government needs to know specifically what you're doing. Like, they're gonna ask you questions about what this nonprofit's for, what's your goal, what's your aim, who are you serving? And one of the questions the law the lawyer asked was, what what is performance? Because the government's gonna wanna know.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:You're giving grants to performers. What does that mean? Yeah. And we were like, oh, damn. Like, what a heavy question that we were not expecting to answer.
Thomas - Guest:We really had to define, like, what is performance? What does it look like? What does it mean? I think the definition we finally came up with was anything where you are performing in front of an audience. Like, I think that literally, like, that that was our definition.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Are you performing in front of an audience? Yes
Molly - Host:or no?
Thomas - Guest:If your answer is yes, then great. You're a performer. Oh, and it had to be it had to be live. Right? So recording doesn't count.
Thomas - Guest:So we're not gonna, like, fund films or anything. Even though obviously that is also performance. But we're we're a live performance organization. So as long as you're in person and you're, you know, either on stage or at least in sort of, like, in view, and you're doing something that an audience is watching you do, great. You're a performer.
Thomas - Guest:We're not gonna necessarily give grants to people who've been doing it for twenty years because at this point, I feel like you should have your own kind of support system built in. Mhmm. But if you're new, great. We'll try to help you get off the ground.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I mean, this area is just very supportive of artists.
Thomas - Guest:Mhmm.
Molly - Host:But sometimes that falls short when it comes to, like, money. You know?
Thomas - Guest:I think yeah.
Molly - Host:There's just so many people.
Thomas - Guest:There's so many people. And so many people are trying to do so many different things. So I think I think as far as like federal government
Molly - Host:Oh, yeah. No.
Thomas - Guest:We're not even we're not even talking about
Molly - Host:Who are they?
Thomas - Guest:Who are they?
Molly - Host:We don't know them.
Thomas - Guest:State but like state by state government, I think New England does pretty well. Yeah. You could always just use more help.
Molly - Host:For sure. And it I mean, somebody even starting out and creating a new journey for themselves mid life. Like, you don't have to always go to school to have an, you know, develop an art Correct. Habit or hobby or career. It's just very hard.
Thomas - Guest:So it's so tough. Yeah. And sometimes, like, really the the the thing at the at the end of it was if all that one person needed was just a little bit of a boost at the beginning
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:And their career takes off, and you could be that little boost, that's great. And that's like a really great feeling. Also, sometimes not but not everything has to be so important either. Yeah. If you do an event, and it goes really well, and people had fun, and you brought community together, and it only happens once and you never do it again, that's great too.
Thomas - Guest:Right? Yeah. Not everything has to be like, we're the Worcester Dried Glass Festival that we that we sponsored, that did do really well. That was like a smash out. Presumably, they're gonna do it again next year.
Thomas - Guest:Right? And that's so cool and so great. It was the first year they did it. We sponsored a music fest in Vermont. It was all local bands, all original music.
Thomas - Guest:Right? That event went super well. They're definitely gonna do that one again. So that's great. Even if we just give someone money and they threw one event, and it was just super fun, and everyone had a great time, and we never we never see it again.
Thomas - Guest:That's that's cool too. Like, we need we need little moments of like, oh, that was super fun. Remember that?
Molly - Host:Yeah. Some some things can never be repeated. You know, the magic Right. Is just like you you were either there or you weren't.
Thomas - Guest:You were there, you
Molly - Host:weren't. Yeah. Yep. And not everything has to be commodified either.
Thomas - Guest:Correct.
Molly - Host:It can just be an experience that you needed to get to the next idea, to the next evolution of your art. And Yep. You know, maybe that's performance art. Maybe that's something else. But
Thomas - Guest:Or maybe you know what? Maybe you did it and you didn't like it.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Exactly. That's fine too.
Thomas - Guest:Like, everyone does that. Right? Everyone tries something and they just like,
Molly - Host:nah. And it there's not always you don't even need a reason other than I didn't like it. I didn't like how it made me feel. I didn't enjoy it. Yep.
Molly - Host:And that's okay.
Thomas - Guest:That's fine too.
Molly - Host:I feel like people don't give themselves permission to not like something without an extra explanation.
Thomas - Guest:Especially if people around you like it. Yeah. Like if you're surrounded by art friends and you're like, oh, I tried this art and I don't like it. They're like, what are you talking about? Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:I do this all like, it gets my adrenaline pumping and it gets my my creative juices flowing. Yeah. That's great for you, but it didn't work for me. Yeah. And that's fine too.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I mean but if you don't try, you won't know. But if you don't try, you don't know. And so the biggest barrier to try anything is money.
Thomas - Guest:It's always money. People need money. They can't get it. There is no money. Time is a big one because people are so busy, like, working Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:To get money. So again, we're back to money. Networking is also a huge one. If you don't know where to go, if you're like, I need a venue. How do I get a venue?
Thomas - Guest:I don't know anyone who runs a venue. Mhmm. I don't know what venues are good or bad. I don't have that, like, word-of-mouth of, like, oh, you should go here and talk to so and so. And so another big part of our group is about the networking aspect of it.
Thomas - Guest:It's not just about raising money. It's not just about throwing events. Those are, like, the two big things that we do. But also, if we give a grant to someone and they say, like, oh, by the way, do you know, like, someone who does hair and makeup? Because we need someone to do our hair and makeup.
Thomas - Guest:And I'll say like, oh, yeah, we worked with this person last year on this event.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Or I don't know any personally, but I know I work with so and so. I'm sure they know someone. And then you just get all these people talking together. And once they've met once, they're connected. And you get the spider web of artists.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Where it's like, anything you need, you know, you're only six degrees of separation away from it. And when you get people who work together a lot, there's more of like a it's not just about it it I think it becomes less commodified, you know, in a strange way of like, yeah, you're paying me to like do the costuming for this event, but like maybe I'll give you a discount or maybe I won't charge you as much, but then also in the future, you'll do this for me. Yeah. And when you start to know people, you also like, you just you start to build these relationships up.
Thomas - Guest:And then the community is building something, and it feels less like, I'm running this event, and I've hired these four people to work for me Yeah. And to give me their product. Right? And it feels more like, the five of us are doing this event together, and I just happen to be paying them. But that's not, like, the cornerstone of it.
Thomas - Guest:Isn't, like, the money and the transactions. It's about we're creating an event. Do you wanna come do this event with us? Yeah. That sounds super fun.
Thomas - Guest:You know?
Molly - Host:Last time we talked, you talked about going to a circus school. Did
Thomas - Guest:No. You November 3.
Molly - Host:November 3.
Thomas - Guest:The woman who runs it, her name's Ellen, she's been super helpful. She's like that's again another one of those networking of things where it's like we met her last year because she performed at the ball. I reached out to her because her school is near my house. And so I knew the school was
Molly - Host:there. Is there like a big sign that says circus school?
Thomas - Guest:I I've never been. I don't know. I'll let you know on November 3.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I'm just so curious because, I mean, obviously, people that do I don't know what's involved. I didn't I need to look up their website, but, like When you said it
Thomas - Guest:do mostly, like, aerial and gymnastics stuff.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:So if you wanna learn how to swing from the ceiling on a trapeze, they'll teach you. Or if you wanna learn how to juggle, they got jugglers. If you wanna learn, like they have, like, balance. I don't know if this circus so there's there's a bunch of different circus groups
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:In Boston that I had no idea about. I knew about them because they were in my town. Mhmm. But then I found out there's, like, the Boston Circus Guild, which is just like anyone who in Boston who works in the circus arts, they can
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Try to join this group. There's another organization called Circus six one seven, which is the area code, of Boston. And, like, they're another group where they're just a bunch of professional circus artists. And if you need them for your event, you can hire them. And so, like, that's what we've started doing.
Thomas - Guest:And so Ellen became sort of our liaison with the circus performers. So this year like, last year, she was just a performer. Right? She performed she does aerial she did aerial silks. Right?
Molly - Host:So you're coming
Thomas - Guest:from the ceiling from silks. And then we were like, hey, Ellen, do you wanna come do you wanna go do our event again this year? And she said, yeah, that'd be great. And then I said, we're looking for a couple other circus acts. Do you know any?
Thomas - Guest:Obviously, she does. But and then she's like, yeah, sure. And she's like, do you want me to reach out to them for you? And I was like, well, I can reach out if you want. She's like, no, I can do it.
Thomas - Guest:I I know them. I'll just talk to them. And like, she basically just took that off our hands.
Molly - Host:That's nice.
Thomas - Guest:And she's just like running so like all the circus performers who are coming to our event, like, she's just handling
Molly - Host:I want to know everything about this circus school.
Thomas - Guest:I'm super excited. My friend and I are going, we're gonna learn sling, which is kind of like the silks, but instead of it being two different silks, it's one that's like a U.
Molly - Host:Yeah. So there's like a
Thomas - Guest:loop at the bottom.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I need that.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Yeah. That's for beginners, right? Because you can stand on it.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:With Oh, the two silks, you're always like, you have to hold yourself up somehow. Right? Whether it's wrapped around you or you've made a knot on your foot or you're like holding onto it. But with the sling, you can, like, put your shoulders in it. Like, you can Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Into it or, like
Molly - Host:And fly.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. So super excited for that.
Molly - Host:I went to Mexico last year. Mhmm. I'll have to put this on the Instagram, but I I they had, like, zip lines or whatever, and I'm like, okay. No big deal. He's like, you can put the harness around, like, under your chest.
Molly - Host:So you're like, when you drop, you're like Superman. You put your arms out. Oh, yeah. When I dropped, my body folded. So I just looked like a dead body.
Molly - Host:You were just hanging. Oh my god. That's so funny. So that's my extent of Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:That was That's your trapeze.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I've literally looked
Thomas - Guest:Swinging corpse.
Molly - Host:And all of my friends have that sticker and their iPhones. Me, like, dead, hanging from
Thomas - Guest:That's hilarious.
Molly - Host:Zip on.
Thomas - Guest:So we're gonna have you perform with the ball next year. Yeah. Yeah. The theme is
Molly - Host:It's very interpretive. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:It's very interpretive.
Molly - Host:Oh my gosh. Yeah. The revelry ball came first before the nonprofit. Yep. Now you're on your second year Mhmm.
Molly - Host:Both, essentially. Yep. How has it grown throughout?
Thomas - Guest:Great question. The nonprofit grew in the sense that we just had more money. Yeah. So the first year we gave away one grant to Delta Miles in Provincetown. Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:And then the second year we gave out four grants. Right? So that'll and then that depends that hinges on how successful the ball is. Yeah. Because that's where we get
Molly - Host:our money. Get your tickets.
Thomas - Guest:So get your tickets. Yeah. So however successful the ball is determines how many grants we can give out.
Molly - Host:And who's all performing at the ball this year?
Thomas - Guest:We just started this week to announce all of our performers. So this year we're doing something different where we're breaking up our variety show into three acts with dance breaks in between. So the first act is gonna go on, then the DJ will play a set for a while. Second act, DJ, third act. Act one, singers and dancers.
Thomas - Guest:We have, a comedy singer. We have a drag trombonist.
Molly - Host:Oh, cool.
Thomas - Guest:Hilarious. We have someone who's gonna do a ballroom number. And then we have another, like, operatic style singer. Act two is all burlesque because partly because we gave the grant to the Draglesque Festival. So a lot of them applied for to perform with us, just from, like, word-of-mouth and because they knew that we supported the event.
Thomas - Guest:So we had so many burlesque performers apply that we couldn't take all of them, but we did take four. Or we took two from them and then two others from outside. So we have four burlesque performers in the middle, and then the third act is all circus. So we have like aerialists, we have acrobats, we have, we have a contortionist.
Molly - Host:Woah. Super fun. How do you get into that class? It's like, I'm super bendy.
Thomas - Guest:I always wonder how late is too late to try to be like Yeah. I'm, like, early forties. Yeah. Can I
Molly - Host:I think I've aged out?
Thomas - Guest:I think I've aged out. Right?
Molly - Host:Always rolling an ankle. Yep. The wind blows. Someone looks at me wrong. I'm rolling an ankle.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah.
Molly - Host:Doesn't matter. The ball is February 28
Thomas - Guest:Yep.
Molly - Host:2026. Correct. Tickets are on sale now.
Thomas - Guest:Yep. We have 500 tickets. So tickets will always be up. The VIP tickets, however, the the deluxe tickets, come with, like, some bonus goodies, those will sell out. Like, we sold out of those pretty pretty early.
Molly - Host:They're already gone?
Thomas - Guest:No. Oh, sorry. Last year.
Molly - Host:Last year.
Thomas - Guest:Last year, we sold out pretty easily.
Molly - Host:And so what do you get with the VIP package?
Thomas - Guest:So this year, you get to come an hour early, which I think is great. So doors open at eight for standard tickets. They open at seven for deluxe tickets. You get a free drink ticket. Who doesn't love that?
Thomas - Guest:Which is like a, you know, $12 value. This year, we didn't have this last year. We have hand fans, the big silk
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Fans with our logo on it.
Molly - Host:Oh, cool.
Thomas - Guest:Like, custom this year only because it's it they're it's themed. So it's like Emerald City themed. So this year only I should
Molly - Host:do that every year.
Thomas - Guest:It's like a memento.
Molly - Host:A collection.
Thomas - Guest:Exactly. Collectibles.
Molly - Host:Yes.
Thomas - Guest:And then, you also get put on a private mailing list for a year where if we have, special discounts on future events, you're also the first to know when tickets go on sale for next year's event. Mhmm. Stuff like that.
Molly - Host:Now, you mentioned that there's, like, some seating. Yeah. So theoretically, if you do buy a VIP ticket, you can take over.
Thomas - Guest:You know, couches along the outside and, like, some, maybe some like high top tables with little bar stools and stuff like that. But that's just sort of first come, first serve.
Molly - Host:Yeah. So buy a ticket. Get your get your seat.
Thomas - Guest:Buy a ticket. Get there early.
Molly - Host:Do you need volunteers?
Thomas - Guest:We do need volunteers. We're probably gonna need like maybe six volunteers total. And so it's it's a way for people to go to the ball for free. And they get to enjoy the ball
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:At least for part of it.
Molly - Host:I think people need a reminder the power of volunteering and the fact that you do get into events for free when you And, you know, also, just the act of volunteering is so rewarding in itself. And if if people haven't done that lately, I'd definitely suggest.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. I love volunteering. And I think it's a great way. It's also a great way for us to, again, that thing where it's like we're trying to make art accessible. So if you don't and we we've been lucky enough to be able to give away free tickets here and there.
Thomas - Guest:But if you didn't get the free tickets, you weren't able like, you asked too late or you just missed them or whatever. Volunteer. You get to go to the ball for free. Yeah. And, like, maybe you don't get to see the whole thing, but you get at least half of it.
Thomas - Guest:I will tell you from both having been a volunteer and someone who runs events with volunteers, the people who are running the events are so appreciative Yeah. Of volunteers. Like, truly, when a volunteer and shows does their job well, you're just like, thank God you're here.
Molly - Host:You
Thomas - Guest:have made this event so much easier
Molly - Host:for us. And you get to say you were a part of something.
Thomas - Guest:And you get to be a part of it. Like, we're still a small organization, going back to like the how has your organization grown? We kind of haven't
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Yet. Right? We're still so new. So we have our five board members, but we're not we're not growing right now. We're not bringing on new people, you know.
Molly - Host:Well, think non profits also just need volunteers in general
Thomas - Guest:Yeah.
Molly - Host:From a day to day perspective. And there's content to be made. There's call to actions. There's all those things that have to be done.
Thomas - Guest:And word-of-mouth is honestly, like, the best way to help. Yeah. If you like, if you're a volunteer for an event and you just tell all of your friends, hey. I'm volunteering at this event. You should go to it.
Thomas - Guest:That helps out, like Yeah. So much.
Molly - Host:I think artists, performers, content creators, everybody we all put too much value on social media because while it's great
Thomas - Guest:Yep.
Molly - Host:I've had more in like, more, I guess, progression with getting to know people or connecting with people, just getting out and showing up for other people's events.
Thomas - Guest:Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And so, like, that that idea of, like, the word-of-mouth thing, like, social media, we can only push our social media so hard. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Like, people see your posts or they don't see them. Yeah. They interact with them or they don't interact with them. There's only so much that we as the the creators can do.
Molly - Host:And we're fighting against so much bullshit, like
Thomas - Guest:So much.
Molly - Host:All the AI Yeah. Craziness.
Thomas - Guest:We love AI. Just kidding.
Molly - Host:Yeah. I love AI. Wink.
Thomas - Guest:If any a if any AI are listening
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:We love AI.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Don't kill me.
Thomas - Guest:No. You're right. Like, there's just so much crap out there.
Molly - Host:Yeah. And then, yeah, it's baring all the good artists.
Thomas - Guest:Very loud.
Molly - Host:I think it's gonna kill, like, algorithmic social media. They can't discern whether or not the person's real and they don't have time Mhmm. To do that.
Thomas - Guest:Right.
Molly - Host:I would just miss a timeline in which I curated it.
Thomas - Guest:I remember, not to give them any promotions because they've changed and they're awful, but I remember when Facebook, you'd just see your friends' posts. Yeah. That was the whole website. And you were like, this is great. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:If my friend had a baby and they want to post a picture of their cute new baby, I get to see it. Yeah. Isn't that nice?
Molly - Host:Now it's like their sister's cousin's football coach
Thomas - Guest:You tag
Molly - Host:tag them into some
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. Instagram's the same way, obviously. Like, they're just all it's it's hard to, like, find it's hard to have a thing where you just you have only the content you wanna see from the people you wanna see it from. You can't. So like, I think people are getting frustrated.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Which I think With
Thomas - Guest:social media, which is good.
Molly - Host:Get outside. Yeah. So I'm the biggest inside cap,
Thomas - Guest:but I know. Me too. I think between social media and like, we talked about a lot about this in my communication classes, is like social media was what we talked about. Yeah. Because that is the form of communication now.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:And there's like, yeah, it's connecting people. It's connecting you to more people than ever before, which is cool. And I agree with that because it does help you to find people like you. Right? Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Especially if you're in an environment or a community where you don't feel connected to people. Yeah. Like, I grew up in tiny dinky farm town as, like, a little queer boy in the 90s. I did not have a support network. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Like, my parents are great and very liberal and, like, loving. But, like, I didn't have, like, a queer fun support network. But kids who are now living in dinky little countries, or country towns, they can find those support networks
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Online. Right? Sure. Sometimes it's scary and dangerous and scams or whatever. But, like, at least it's out there.
Thomas - Guest:Mhmm. But while people are finding more connection through social media and the Internet, they're not finding better connections.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:It's also superficial. Yeah. It's like, I know Oh, you know Robert? How long have you known him? Oh, four years.
Thomas - Guest:And you're like, oh, that's cool. Like, where does where does he live? And you're like, oh, I don't remember. I don't know. And you're like, you don't know anything about these people.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. And and you don't feel you don't get the same kind of adrenaline or not adrenaline, but like, what's the thing? Dopamine. Yeah. You don't get the same, like, dopamine hits from seeing people No.
Thomas - Guest:In real life. From, like, hugging a friend and, like, being at a table with them, talking over dinner. Like, that's really important. Wow. And, like, that's so important.
Thomas - Guest:And so I think, like and I think people are hopefully getting sick of social media.
Molly - Host:I think well, I am, but I'm also getting I'm
Thomas - Guest:also getting old. Yeah. But I think people are getting sick of it because I don't think that it provides what it was promised.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Especially not to artists. No. It's like ripping artists
Thomas - Guest:off. And like performing artists. Like Yeah. It's cool to see photos from someone's performance. Like, they're like, oh, I performed at this club last week.
Thomas - Guest:Here are my photos or here's a short video. And that's really fun to see. But it's nowhere near as fun as sitting in that audience Yeah. And watching this
Molly - Host:performance. The whole point of it was to keep in contact with people that you've known in real That
Thomas - Guest:you already know. Yeah.
Molly - Host:Yes. And so, I think it's about to I think it's gonna crash. Think that's why you see all of these influencers literally spending till they can't anymore because they know they're just it's about to the well's gonna dry up.
Thomas - Guest:Yep. And I think in a weird, wacky way, the pandemic and the lockdown and stuff kind of, like, pushed that forward. Yeah. Because everyone when you have to be stuck in your house and you have to communicate with everyone through the Internet, once you don't have to do that anymore, you kind of want to see people. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Right? Like, I remember as soon as stuff was getting better, I was seeing people way more often than I did before. Yeah. Because I was like, oh, I haven't seen you in forever. We should go get dinner.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:We should hang
Molly - Host:out. I mean, it was there was such a time where we were locked into, like, overworking.
Thomas - Guest:Oh, yeah.
Molly - Host:The only social engagement is, like, getting shit faced maybe together and then going back into that overworking cycle and not really doing things that are meaningful and fun or having conversations that, you know, check on your friends Yeah. Necessarily. You might just be, like, having the good how are you loop that everybody but, like, makes fun of Americans for.
Thomas - Guest:Totally. And I think that that that idea of, like, wanting to get together with your friends again and wanting to, like, see people and see, like, live art and stuff really plays into, I think, why balls and similar events are becoming more popular. Yeah. It's because I think people just really want to do stuff and to leave their house and have, like, a weird night. And also, I think when when political climates like, I'm not an expert by any means, but when political climates start to get really contentious and bad and scary, like, you can I I'm really bad?
Thomas - Guest:I should be better, but I'm really bad at, like, reading the news and paying attention to what's going on because it's there's so much of it. Right?
Molly - Host:Mhmm. Well, everybody thinks they're an expert too now. Right? So you have to be able to okay. Is this person telling the truth?
Molly - Host:Let me go do the research, which obviously, at some point, you gotta check on what in the fuck is happening. Right?
Thomas - Guest:Of course. Like, you you you need to stay informed. You need to know what's
Molly - Host:going on in the world.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. But like, just waking up in the morning and reading the news first, like, can't do that. Mm-mm. It drives me insane.
Molly - Host:I kind of low key want to get a like, go and get a physical paper. Yeah. Like the olden days.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. No, that makes sense. And so I think for for, like, some people, they just dive into politics and they dive into action and volunteering in that regard, and, like, doing that kind of work, like protest work.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:And that's all obviously super great.
Molly - Host:Yes.
Thomas - Guest:I admire everyone who does that. Mhmm. That's not me. And so for me, I'm like, well, if I can create these sort of like escapes for people.
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:Because I think that's really important too. Yeah. I think it's really important to have that balance of like paying attention to what's going on in the world. You know, writing to your senators, going out and voting. Obviously, that stuff is undes indescribably important.
Thomas - Guest:Right?
Molly - Host:Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:But sometimes it's important to just go to a ball Yeah. And, like, have fun for a night. Yeah. And it seems it can seem frivolous and it can seem silly, but I think it's really important for mental health
Molly - Host:No. It
Thomas - Guest:is. And for just, like, community building and for a society in general.
Molly - Host:How can we ever expect to get anywhere with these arguments if we don't even, like, hang out with each other.
Thomas - Guest:Right. Yeah.
Molly - Host:You know?
Thomas - Guest:Totally.
Molly - Host:And I was reading this book about your brain on art and how consuming art literally impacts your DNA or your neurotransmitters or something. But they said, essentially, like, art and dancing and, like, being in community is such a tribal thing that we've always done throughout the evolution of of society, and we've kind of backed away from it. Mhmm. And so it's really interesting. I didn't even think about it like that.
Molly - Host:Like, obviously, when you're going out and you're hunting and you're like a caveman, like, somebody's drawing on the walls, you know Right. Indigenous folks or whatever.
Thomas - Guest:I mean, you look at every ancient culture. Yeah. They all had art. They all had, like, architecture. They all had music, dance, storytelling.
Thomas - Guest:Yeah. We've been doing that forever. Right? We have not been staring at our tiny little screens.
Molly - Host:And they didn't stop doing it just because the world got hard. You know? If anything, it got more. It did more.
Thomas - Guest:Well, art gets really kind of explosive when Yeah. The world gets shitty. Because people are like, I'm gonna channel this into my art. And I'm gonna make art that makes a difference.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:And so I think you do get that sort of like You get sort of two kinds of art in times like this. You get the fun, frivolous art, which doesn't mean anything. And it's not supposed to. That's the point. Right?
Thomas - Guest:It's not about politics. It's not about community. I mean, is about community. It's not about, like, society or social
Molly - Host:Sometimes you just wanna cut up and have fun and have a laugh.
Thomas - Guest:And sometimes and you should. Yeah. And you should, and that's fine. And then there's the art that goes full on political, this is my statement. Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:I'm saying something like this. Mhmm. And both are super important. Yeah. And both are great.
Thomas - Guest:And I love both of them. I'm not good at the other one. I'm not good at, like, political art. That's never been my forte. Mhmm.
Thomas - Guest:But I
Molly - Host:can do fun. I can
Thomas - Guest:do frivolous. I can do silly. That's great. That's my that's what I do.
Molly - Host:Yeah. And I think it's important. I just love being a goofball.
Thomas - Guest:Me too. More I love it.
Molly - Host:Same. Like, how many times have I tried not to bust out laughing when you said balls?
Thomas - Guest:I know. And every time see, here's the thing. Every time I said balls, I'd be like, you should say something different. But I can't because that's what it is. Like, people love balls.
Molly - Host:I'm sitting here, like, sweating. Like, don't fucking do it. I keep doing this.
Thomas - Guest:But I do the same thing when I'm saying it. Balls are becoming really popular. Everyone loves balls. People just want a a good excuse to just go to a ball. And you're like, come on.
Thomas - Guest:Say something else. But there is that's what it's called.
Molly - Host:Never stop.
Thomas - Guest:I started calling it like a gala and stuff, but that's just that feels Oh. That's not what it is. It's not a gala. That's It's a ball.
Molly - Host:That's too uptight.
Thomas - Guest:It's so uptight.
Molly - Host:Yeah. Do you announce grant award recipients at the ball?
Thomas - Guest:No. Because we don't have any money yet. That's true. The way Yeah. We sort of do, like, the we do it.
Thomas - Guest:More like a retrospective. Yeah. So we're not giving people money at the at the event, but we will tell you about the money we did give out. And then as soon as the ball's over and we know how much money we have, we will announce on social media and through our newsletter. We'll say, grants are open.
Thomas - Guest:We'll open the application. We'll keep it up for, like, either a month or however long it takes for people to, we've already had people reach out to us and be like, are your grants open yet? And we're like, no, we don't have any money. Yeah. We've given away all of our money.
Thomas - Guest:So I don't imagine it will be difficult to get applicants for next year because we've already had so many people reach out to us.
Molly - Host:Well, thank you so much for coming. Was there anything else you wanted to cover or do you think we got it?
Thomas - Guest:No. Okay. I feel like we covered a lot.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Just go to the website.
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Check it out. Buy your tickets. If you want the deluxe experience, if you want that hand fan, it's really cute. Get your deluxe ticket.
Molly - Host:VIP.
Thomas - Guest:VIP.
Molly - Host:Volunteer. And if
Thomas - Guest:you can't yeah. If you can't afford, keep an eye on our social media. I know that we've been sort of dissing social media, but it it is still a tool. Yeah. So keep an eye out on our social media where anytime we get free tickets like, last year, we had a couple of people who were like, Oh, I bought tickets, but I can't go anymore.
Thomas - Guest:But I feel weird doing a refund because it's for charity. Yeah. So you can just give the tickets away to someone. So we just announced on social media, Hey, we have two tickets. Send us a message.
Thomas - Guest:And then if you still can't afford it and there were no free tickets around, volunteer. We'd be happy to have you. Yes. And spread the word.
Molly - Host:Tell all your friends.
Thomas - Guest:Tell all your friends. And watch the videos that we have on our social media. We have, like, clips from last year, so you can kind of get an idea of what the event is like. So I think that's really important. And I think the videos that we've set up on the website really do give you the vibe Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:Of what the event is. So I think that's important. So I think there are different types.
Molly - Host:I mean, where where else are you gonna see Circus performance and, like, singers? Like, all these in one place.
Thomas - Guest:It's a real variety show. Like, that's that was the point. Yeah. So we want a variety of things, and it's gonna be. And there's some weird weird ones, some funny ones.
Thomas - Guest:I've seen some of the acts already, and like
Molly - Host:Yeah.
Thomas - Guest:They're funny, and they're weird, and we love
Molly - Host:it. Perfect. Alright. I think we got
Thomas - Guest:it. Great.
Molly - Host:Yay. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Check the show notes for all the information regarding the Revelry Ball and the Audeville Society. Whether you want to apply for a grant or you want to volunteer your time, I'm sure they won't turn you away. As always, I appreciate you listening to the show, and I hope to see you at the ball.
Molly - Host:Bye.