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Interviews with creatives on the ground making art, community, and experiences in Jersey City and beyond. Hosted by Melissa Ragsdale.
Victor Soldano: [00:00:00] I love the feeling of having like a vast library of
things
I've created, and when I think about that stuff, I don't feel like I'm burning out. I feel like I'm like, you know, setting my brain on fire,
Melissa Ragsdale: you're listening to Scribble to Sparks. I'm your host, Melissa Ragsdale. I'm a writer, editor, and performer based in Jersey City. And in my time living here, I've been really inspired by all the people I've met who are out here making their creative visions come to life. In this podcast, I'll be talking with creatives who are on the ground making art, cultivating experiences, and building community around Jersey City and North Jersey.
This is a podcast for anyone who needs inspiration to go out and do the thing for anyone who loves to hear the behind the scenes of how ideas become reality, or for anyone who's simply interested in hearing more about local art and culture. For this episode, I'm really excited to be here in [00:01:00] Newark, in the, beautiful, cozy, amazing space at Sweet Jeans Cafe with its owner, Victor Soldano, who is also the creator of newark Tabletop,
hi Victor.
Victor Soldano: Hello.
Melissa Ragsdale: I feel like there's some.
People listening who might not know what tabletop even is. Do you have a way that you like to describe it for someone who's new?
Victor Soldano: Yes. I just, explained this to someone earlier today and I was, I was saying, you know.
Exactly what the group was, which is not specifically anything. Um, you know, we do at, in newer tabletop, it's like, kind of like a blanket term for anything creative and collaborative, you know, ideally done at a table. And that could be Dungeons and Dragons, it could be tabletop roleplaying games, other tabletop roleplaying games.
We also do murder mysteries, which is like a community actor collaboration. Live music. Oh. And then [00:02:00] obviously classic board games, settlers of Catan. Yeah. Wingspan, things like that.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. And kind of the heart of the group is this Discord channel.
Victor Soldano: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
I mean,
It's certainly a hub for, you know, scheduling. think that's mostly what we do. We tried to make it for memes and then we just deleted those channels because it was getting a little crazy. But it's, it, you know, the Discords a great place for us to schedule out events and make sure everyone's timing lines up.
Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: So what do you love about, well, you just named a ton of things, but what you love about Tabletop .
Victor Soldano: I think I just have a. A big love for people, setting aside time and being at a space with the intention of sharing enjoyment with like, strangers, friends, you know, things like that.
And I think [00:03:00] that,
you
know, tabletop is many things, but to me it's, it's, it's that it's just, you know, intentionally spending time with people in a space where, you know, everyone's collectively trying to have like a little bit of fun
Melissa Ragsdale: That's beautiful.
Victor Soldano: hopefully
for, totally free for us. It's totally free.
I didn't mention
That's,
Melissa Ragsdale: that's an important thing.
Victor Soldano: very important that everything is free. In terms of like any tabletop stuff, anything that you sit down for, we always try and make it a hundred percent accessible for the people in the community.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. And I, what I really appreciated when I joined it was that I could just
up
and there were like immediate friends.
Oh,
Victor Soldano: Oh yeah. I mean, the, the people are really what fuel it to be so good. And we're, we're so lucky that we have so many good volunteer GMs community members who are, you know, willing to like, you know, show up and like, have fun and like be nice and cool.
It's very honestly very special.
Melissa Ragsdale: Just to give a [00:04:00] quick explanation to those who haven't played role playing games before.
GM stands for Game Master. They're like the person who's leading the game. So in a story based game, like d and d, they're like the narrator. They're guiding the story forward.
So you're a GM yourself.
How did you get started GM ing?
Victor Soldano: So like 10 years ago. My friend introduced me to Dungeon Dragons, which I fell in love with. I thought it was so fun and I was so impressed by his GM ing that I was like, okay, well, you know, he GMs all the time.
Maybe I should try, and that it was like three years of like not doing great doing that. And then I was like, okay, I wanna like actually dedicate some time to this. I wanna take this like far more seriously. And then I, you know, increased the amount of time I was doing it by like, I mean, I was trying to GM like three times a week.
As I could. Um, and then I did that for like five months [00:05:00] and then I think I got a little bit better at it, and then
all
of a sudden it kinda like steamrolled honestly into this community.
Melissa Ragsdale: That's cool. Yeah. I
Victor Soldano: came from, uh, striving to be better than I was. Like
Melissa Ragsdale: like you wanted more chances to practice.
I
Victor Soldano: I was very self-conscious about, uh, my GMing. I was like, I need, I just to put in the numbers.
Melissa Ragsdale: What prompted you to start the group,
Victor Soldano: I think
for
the
conception of the group, it wasn't really like. A group until we started, like, I mean, it just like happened to happen. But I mean, originally what it was, was I was working at a cafe
Melissa Ragsdale: where
Victor Soldano: we needed to fill out more people at night.
Justify us being open later. And I was like, well, I've, I've been wanting to work on being a better gm. I want to [00:06:00]
put
in the cafe and like bring the community together. So I just took one stone and I like four birds it, four one stone, something like that. I found a group of people who all were like interested in trying it.
I set up a bunch of free little, like
let's
create a character. Mm.
Melissa Ragsdale: Mm.
Victor Soldano: And then from there we would take the people who were most interested in that and I'd be like, okay, like what days are you free? And then like, we built it up from there. So I had a lot of Google Documents going, forms Google Docs, just trying to see who would be even interested.
And turned out a good amount of people, I think when we first started. And you know, it didn't have a name to it or anything. I just had about 15 players, maybe 20 players tops over the, and we would meet like twice a week pretty much.
Melissa Ragsdale: That's so cool. One thing that really strikes me about the communities that you've built is that it always just [00:07:00] feels very like, welcoming and warm.
How do you approach that? How do you make that feeling?
Victor Soldano: I think the simplest way to approach, building something is like, how would you want it? And then hopefully if you want it in like a healthy way. Yeah. And like, it's nice and it comes from a good place, then I think that you can make something that is honoring those feelings.
And I, you know, for, for me, I, I just wanted something that was like, felt authentic. Was authentic. I mean, didn't cost anything because at the time I was like, broke, still broke.
still broke.
Um, but I just wanted, I don't know, I think the accessibility portion of it is cool. The fact that, you know, I think it's so easy to feel, we were like coming out of COVID too.
So it's like, I felt like people
were
like isolating themselves, which maybe was a stretch of, you know, like, [00:08:00] I, maybe not actually, I, I, I think that's genuinely what was probably happening and. I thought it was really good to reach out to people and give people a hand and hopefully bring them into a group of, you know, people who just wanted to like see other people face to face.
Yeah. And I think we did that Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah, I think I was definitely in that zone when I started. I don't know, can't even remember what year I started
going
now, but it was like, it was pretty soon after COVID was like, oh I can like be in another room with other people. Like that felt
Victor Soldano: It's so easy to forget, , especially in like super dark times. Like That there are other people who will show up and like, you know, sit at a table with you and I think maybe that's the core tenant of Newark Gaming group. Newark Tabletop group.
Melissa Ragsdale: We should call it something different every time.
really, play with that game. Well that's, that's all. Wonderful. So when you are [00:09:00] GMing a game, how, would you describe your style GMing?
What are you thinking about ?
Victor Soldano: Originally I was like, very much like, let me write out everything.
Let me like create, like what, what's gonna happen from start to finish. And now I'm like, I've abandoned that completely. I think that that's, that was a very bad idea because you can't plan for anything. So my biggest thing is just improving and like, making sure that I'm like nurturing whatever anyone is interested in it, at the table.
I think there's tricks and
little, little like magic things that happen that people talk about. And I think it's literally just. Looking at your players, listening to what they're saying and like not having an ego about your own thing, but just giving them kind of the reins to let you take them where they want to go.
If That makes totally sense, yeah. Sense.
Melissa Ragsdale: Because I feel like one of the traps is, oh, I [00:10:00] spent hours and hours and hours planning this thing and now they're going in the exact opposite direction.
Victor Soldano: Plan nothing. Plan nothing. Feel zero disappointment.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. That's amazing.
Victor Soldano: I mean, I think that that's,
I mean,
I was telling someone, my, uh, someone asked me about my process for like, how much prep do you need to like do a session?
And I was like, I don't know, like 25 minutes. And I felt bad 'cause I lied because it's like five minutes. I, I, I mean it's like it's way worse. It's. It's embarrassing. it's it's
Melissa Ragsdale: that's cool.
Victor Soldano: Yeah. I, I, I feel bad telling people this is stuff that you shouldn't tell your players
is that I have prepped five minutes for what we're about to do for three hours.
Melissa Ragsdale: It's sort of evens the playing field though, because I feel like when you're a player, there's not usually much prep you have to do. So
often you show up and like the GM has been the person who's had to plan
Victor Soldano: That is a great way of thinking about it.
I'm gonna weaponize that forever. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use against my players [00:11:00] now.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. That's, that's, that's how I, sounds like you think of, let me use stuff against my players all So
Victor Soldano: I'm looking at my notes on my phone because I'll, I'll jot some stuff down and unfortunately there are nights where it's like two, like three words max, and I'm like, man, this is, I cannot let them see what's behind
this. thing
Yeah.
Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
You can't see the man behind the curtain kind of thing exactly. Yeah. Or pay no attention to the
curtain.
Victor Soldano: That's what that was. That's really what I'm trying to, um, invoke.
Melissa Ragsdale: Do you have a favorite game system?
Victor Soldano: Oh
my gosh,
kind
of. I think that there's aspects to,
there's
something that with every system I learn or attempt to learn, I like to take with me to create a more idealized version of tabletop.
You know, I learned on DnD 5e, which is
Melissa Ragsdale: what
Victor Soldano: I think a lot of people play, you know, made popular by [00:12:00] critical role and other, like 15 other podcasts. I think a lot of that is cool. Like what they, the systems or like, like. I guess the functionality of the system. , But right now, I mean, I'm having a blast playing Delta Green.
I think it's like,
there
some things to it that I just, I don't even, I won't learn.
Mm-hmm. can't make me, um, but the, the general, like rolling a D 100 for everything feels
Melissa Ragsdale: great. Ooh
Victor Soldano: so good.
Melissa Ragsdale: And for those who don't know, when we say like D 100 or D 20, it's so in like a monopoly or whatever, you have a six sided d but in tabletop games you can have a dye that has four sides. You can have a dye that has eight sides. You can have a D that has 20 sides, which is common.
And then a hundred is actually 10 sides. Oh yeah.
Victor Soldano: It's,
two 10 dye.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. But so a lot of the, when we're talking about game systems, that's like different versions of these games use the dice in different ways. [00:13:00] and have different rules and stuff around them.
Victor Soldano: I think like, you know, for me it's always been like about RP and like talking to people. So in terms of like style and like, what I like most about like these games is just joking around with friends. So like, I barely learn most of the rules for most of these systems, which pretty bad.
Melissa Ragsdale: No, I like that. That's how I like play because I, I feel like, I feel like when you get in a game where it's just too caught up on DM versus players and you're trying to like, uh, like sometimes it is fun to be like, how can I fiddle with these
rules
But like, if it's feeling like adversarial or like I'm trying to be a lawyer about this all the time, that's not as fun to me personally. Like, I like being in that imaginative play space with others We
Victor Soldano: have our whole day like coded and like steeped in rules and like, we gotta do this, we gotta, you know, we think it's on us to then, especially because we run this mostly on weekdays. And it's supposed to be like a [00:14:00] bite size, like two hour session. I think we need to abandon certain, like, amounts of rules to just enjoy ourselves and like have fun.
So I, I, I think like it's critical too.
I
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that.
Victor Soldano: that.
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that. So I guess moving into like the other side of your
Victor Soldano: Oh yeah, sure.
Melissa Ragsdale: Uh, we're, we're in your cafe, we're in Sweet
Victor Soldano: Jeans. Which,
Melissa Ragsdale: You opened up a year ago, yesterday,
Victor Soldano: A year ago yesterday.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah, been a whole year. , Tell me a little bit about your vision for Sweet Jeans.
Victor Soldano: You know, what resonated with me, and pardon me, scribbles and
Melissa Ragsdale: scribbles to sparks
Victor Soldano: scribbles
to sparks something that I was really excited for. And I don't know if you heard maybe even like the story of the conception of this place, but like.
I
was sitting down at a cafe that I was working at, and one of my friends came in and she was like, what are you up to? And I was like, oh, I [00:15:00] don't know. I'm just writing down ideas for like, what would make like a really cool like space. Like what, what? Like, and I was like, it was all about breakfast. 'cause at the time I was really into breakfast,
specifically
eggs benedict, which I'm still into, um, in a big way that's not on the menu.
Um, but I was writing this down on a piece of paper and then we just started going back and forth for like an hour and we were having so much fun writing down this concept. And then like, literally that concept is what we turn sweet jeans into. I mean, like all of the things that we put there besides the eggs Benedict, uh, everything that we put on that paper, we've like tried to implement like one-to-one.
Um, and I think, you know, that's. I, that is like a core thing of our, you know, existence. And I just thought it was really cool that when you reached out,
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that you literally went from scribbles to
Victor Soldano: a
Melissa Ragsdale: jeans. [00:16:00] I
Victor Soldano: feel like, um, there's like this thing that people tell you
often
where it's like, if you want to make it real, you gotta write it down. Which I'm like, that's like, that's bullshit. Like who, who does? I don't have to write something down. But it's, it's kind of real and I think it's a little bit real.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. Yeah.
Well, it's like sometimes I feel like I'm in a, a mind space and I'm like, oh, I'm never gonna forget this. Ever. And then 20 minutes later gone,
Victor Soldano: I feel that I actually, I think about that a lot because, you know, I also, like, I've done music for many years. I would, I would write a song or I would like start like singing a song or like building a song and I'd be like. You know what? I don't have to write this down 'cause I could just make it again. Who cares? You know, if I'm creative now,
Melissa Ragsdale: uh,
Victor Soldano: one of my biggest anxieties is if I'm creative now and then I'm not creative later.
Oh,
Melissa Ragsdale: I feel that. So,
Victor Soldano: [00:17:00] hard
Melissa Ragsdale: And so I was reading an interview you did when the cafe opened Yes. Where you're talking about, your grandmother's influence.
Victor Soldano: Yes. Sweet Jean who was right back there. Yeah, Jeanette.
, I think about her when things get pretty hectic and pretty scary, I would say. , She had like this house, um, that had a lot of warmth to it, like it was filled with books and art and like. The wood was like
dangerously
old and like severe. Like the cracks in the pavement were like, in her backyard.
Were like very, I don't know, there's like an old statue of, , mother Mary, which was like covered in spiders and like that did something to my brain. And like all of these things, my N 64 that I now have at the shop [00:18:00] stayed at her house for like years and years and years. And, she's like this figure that like kind of represents, uh, home and like welcomeness, which I try and exude here.
Melissa Ragsdale: I think you do exude
it. Maybe.
Victor Soldano: Who knows knows. I, I hope. I hope we do. I hope uh, people want to come back 'cause we're nice and warm.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
No, that's lovely.
Victor Soldano: Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: And what a wonderful way to honor that.
Victor Soldano: Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, she taught me about 50 times how to make pancakes. Yeah. And I don't know if I ever like really caught on,
now
I know how to make pancakes, by the way.
It's just like, I just never paid attention.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. Well, you're a kid.
you're like
Victor Soldano: Yeah. I was like, way more interested in like, running around like a lunatic.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. I, yeah. That was me as a kid. , So you had the idea, you wrote it on your paper, with your friends, it Scribbled. it.
Mm-hmm. You scribbled it. Scribbled
So then what was the [00:19:00] spark? Like how did you get from point A to point B to point C?
Victor Soldano: That's a great question. I think through, I would say probably through just like tenacity and just being like aware of like what's going on around, especially in Newark. Newark has a lot of opportunity right now for. Grants and, working with, the city also people who are like working for the city, who are like meant to like bring great business into the city. So it was like a really good time to investigate that. And so we did. And in fact, a lot of stars kind of aligned to make this place
very
easy, is definitely not the word, but accessible is probably,
Melissa Ragsdale: yeah.
Victor Soldano: probably the word.
I mean, it, it's definitely the only reason we are here is because of how much accessibility there was [00:20:00] to funding. I was also lucky because I had worked here for many years, so like
in
time that I like built up Newark tabletop and like we did murder mysteries, which weren't quite affiliated with Newark Tabletop at that time.
We were
just doing a lot of stuff
and getting
a lot of like positive attention from the city, which I didn't even recognize. And like, also audible, weirdly, like a lot of people were just coming around to go to these events. By the time Sweet Jeans was even an idea, we had done like over a hundred and like 50 events or something like that.
Melissa Ragsdale: Wow.
Victor Soldano: Which was like, we weren't like keeping track necessarily, but like, when we like did our pitch, I mean, I think that was like a big, that was a big part of it was like explaining like, people know about us already, so please give us money because people know about
Melissa Ragsdale: [00:21:00] Yeah.
You did all that work, like all that community building. Naturally. And then it like created the foundation
Victor Soldano: It it, it definitely put us at in a place where it was like, name recognition helped. Yeah. And like, I mean that, that took us. Very far, I would say, oh yeah, that guy does weird murder mysteries with Celine Dion impersonator. And that, that was a, you know, I guess that helped.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. And so you got funding through, Audibles Business Attraction program and And Invest Newark.
Victor Soldano: yes. And N-J-E-D-A.
Melissa Ragsdale: Wow.
Victor Soldano: Uh, so we had a lot of help from these folks, which we're definitely super thankful, uh, for, and they continue to support us in a lot of our endeavors right now
I mean, we are very, very lucky to have so much support, um, from around Newark. , So many places that want us to succeed, which is great. But, I think like, you know, [00:22:00] a lot of it is just like seeing an opportunity and like trying to seize it or like just ask a really uncomfortable question.
Hmm
Can I be a part of this?
Can I get this question answered? Can I, you know, be here and like, you know, talk to people and like ask what I need to ask to progress this like,
kind
of amorphous idea.
cause
we, I mean, you know, as much concrete as we are, as much as we are sitting in this space, there is still more to be done and create.
And it's like you have to be able to ask weird, kind
of uncomfortable, strange questions that like, our human bodies aren't made to ask, we shouldn't be able to ask for
hundreds
of thousands of, know, made up dollars. I haven't, but, you know, it's, it's just the idea of like, what is a loan?[00:23:00]
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
Victor Soldano: what,
what, are these things?
Melissa Ragsdale: How do you psych yourself up to
Victor Soldano: have
Melissa Ragsdale: have the bravery to ask those questions?
Victor Soldano: I will quote a book that I have partially read and a show that I have completely watched, uh, in Game of Thrones. How does one, be brave if they are afraid? And I have an anxiety disorder. So the answer to that, by the way, is that that's the only time that you can be brave is when you're afraid.
And although corny, I think that it is one of the most important things that I take with me whenever I start anything is like, we're gonna get to this point, my inner negotiation monologue. We're gonna get to this point where we are scared, where we are uncomfortable, where you might have a panic attack or an anxiety attack and like.
We just [00:24:00] need to push through and we need to figure out how to be brave. And sometimes that's just going to the building department and asking someone a really annoying question three times in a row. And that's what we did.
Melissa Ragsdale: that's amazing. Are there any like particular moments that stick in your mind as, oh, we had to do some creative problem solving to make this happen?
Victor Soldano: Surely, yes. I would say like when we were building this space, a lot of things were just wildly expensive and the only way to truly combat that, like how expensive things were, was to figure out how to do it ourselves. And creativity comes in all shapes and sizes, but I think it's also plainly just asking your friend to help you paint a bathroom.
Mm.
I love that crowd. Crowdsourcing. crowdsourcing. Anyone who had black spray paint, like, you
know, wow.
Looking up how to make like those menus. We've made those menus.
[00:25:00] changed them since we put them up? Not at all. But we made them and
Melissa Ragsdale: well, a lot of work and love went them.
Yeah. So
Victor Soldano: Yeah. Absolutely.
Melissa Ragsdale: So that makes it even more special. I think that you had to,
Victor Soldano: yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: You had to figure it out.
Victor Soldano: I mean, if you don't then you just have no menus. And that's sad too. Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. That's one way to think about it. Um, we've been talking about Newark a bit and I, I think many of our listeners are based in Jersey City.
Mm-hmm. May not be very familiar with Newark. I think that Newark is often overlooked,
misunderstood.
Um, for you, what is special about Newark?
Victor Soldano: I
think opportunity in Newark is. Incredible. But I think what's special about it is there are people who, and I, I, I will, I will speak specifically on downtown Newark because I feel like that's what I'm most familiar with.
There are people here who I have known for years [00:26:00] who stay here and who
try
be here no matter what. And they believe in it and they remain. And I believe in them and I hope that they believe in me. And it is tough to be here. I will not say that it is easy by any means. Prices are going up.
To live
here is tough to pay rent here is tough. It is expensive.
But
we are all working harder and making more connections to try and like. Exists here. I guess I, I, I mean like, truly like from a small business perspective, it's all about trying to survive, become a staple and like, you know, show people that you're here for them. I, I believe that that's like what every great small business [00:27:00] in downtown Newark should be doing, ought to be doing.
Like that's definitely what I'm trying to do. And I think that the most special thing is just like, you know, all of these people are probably not aware of how connected they all are, I guess. I mean like these like staple people who are like, you walk down the street, you see one of these folks and like, to me, that's why I am here.
It's to. Try and be here to be with like all of these great, incredible individuals who like are also doing the same thing. So I think it's like a very renaissance innovation time here in Newark, which is exciting.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah. I love that.
Victor Soldano: Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
Victor Soldano: I, I, I, I think about that quite often, frankly.
Yeah.
It's hard to put into words sometimes, like what exactly we're all doing here.
[00:28:00] Yeah.
I get stopped a lot when I'm like thinking through, especially like, you know, what is special about Newark? Because there, I think that there are like a tremendous amount of challenging things here that like, make me frustrated, make me want for better.
And I think staying on the positive side is the best that you can do. And like really just believing in the people here and like, trying to do the right thing every day. I think that that helps.
That's
Melissa Ragsdale: that's beautiful.
Victor Soldano: Yeah. Move it forward hopefully. I think so. Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
talk about more of the cool stuff that you're doing
Victor Soldano: So much cool stuff.
Melissa Ragsdale: So much cool stuff. The murder mysteries, it's come up a few times. Yes. Let's dive into it 'cause they're so cool.
Victor Soldano: It is, one of our biggest events.
I think people don't realize how absolutely wild they are. First of all, the format itself is very cool. It is one of those [00:29:00] things that we've, like, we started maybe like
four
years ago
Melissa Ragsdale: and
Victor Soldano: we kind of built it from the ground up of what it is. not like other murder mysteries, because I've never been to another murder mystery.
Melissa Ragsdale: I
Victor Soldano: know if that's messed up to
say
Melissa Ragsdale: So you'd never been to one and you were like, let's do, like, how did they get, how did it
Victor Soldano: That's
a good question. I my friend Bruno, like once in passing was like, oh my gosh, I would love to do a murder mystery for my birthday or something. And I was like, I don't even know what that is.
And then I was like, well, I could probably just come up with it. Like, I probably just like put together like what that is and I made a wildly complicated like social game that involved like 16 players and then there were like people, there's also like an audience of people.
Mm-hmm
Melissa Ragsdale: Mm-hmm.
Victor Soldano: But the audience of people weren't involved by any means.
And then, I don't know. It was, [00:30:00] it was honestly so convoluted that I, I, I would have to say that it was, it was just bizarre.
Yes.
Melissa Ragsdale: Well, now, well, so, so that's developed with each one probably,
Victor Soldano: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's better now.
Melissa Ragsdale: Um,
the one I went to was great.
Victor Soldano: Okay. That's great. Which one did you go to
Melissa Ragsdale: I went to the, well, I solved the mystery. I think that's the most important thing. Yeah. Um, I went to the, uh, circus one.
Victor Soldano: Oh, that's a
Melissa Ragsdale: was a great
one.
one.
Victor Soldano: That's a good one to go to. Um, that's one of our, it wasn't our last one. It was the one right before. Yeah. Which we worked on set design for that one.
We worked with the Amy Stone Foundation, which is an excellent cause that helps, kids get on a climbing wall for totally free, which is really rad. We did a lot of stuff in that one that we like, we like had a show portion of it, like we had never done. There were, I don't know, it was, I'm, that one's near, near and dear to my heart.
Melissa Ragsdale: There was like a moment where you were projecting Okay. The projector, the projector had problems. That [00:31:00] kind of the fun of it there
Victor Soldano: there were
Melissa Ragsdale: But you like projecting like a shadow cast of the person. It was like the trapeze Swinger got,
this
Victor Soldano: She was a trape artist. I think
Melissa Ragsdale: she was up in the air doing something and she got murdered and So like, there was like, they did like a shadow cast using the projector. So like, it felt like you were in the audience of the circus seeing this,
Victor Soldano: It was so,
one of the funniest moments in any of the shows that we've ever done.
For me at least, I was howling laughing because of how poorly it was going. But also at the same time. Going pretty, pretty well. Like it looked very good, but I knew how like, bad we were f uh, it's great. Um, we get local volunteers to act in these things, so it's all of our friends and community members who show up to have fun and [00:32:00] like joke around with people, which to me is like the best
like
cast that we could ever ask for is just a bunch of people who are so down for us to try and do something like this, like shadow puppet pro projection, which does go wrong.
And it did go wrong, but
Melissa Ragsdale: it was so fun when it like,
Victor Soldano: wrong it. was so like
Yeah. One of my favorite moments ever was, uh, from any of our, I think like six or seven of these things was that moment. And it gave us the courage to like, honestly, like keep pushing it. We just did a.
matchmaker
murder mystery, which was excellent.
And like that had like a show component to it. And I don't know, we're just, we have one coming up in the summer, which is gonna be a summer camp theme, which I'm very excited for.
Melissa Ragsdale: I And, um,
I wanna go so bad. Yeah. I mean, that's so amazing. Yeah.
So when you're, 'cause this is a lot of moving parts to put together [00:33:00] with GM ing we're talking about what an improviser
you Are Yeah.
Are you still thinking with that mindset for something
Victor Soldano: mean, it's really irresponsible, but we, we, we, we try and like, just like, I mean, we have enough people helping out and like so many great volunteers helping out pillars of our community, if you will. Mm-hmm. Um, they're all
kind
of working on separate roles that enhance.
The,
, Show, so I don't have to be like,
I
really enjoy the chaos of it. So for me, I'm like, less script.
Less planned things. Feel it out. Be open and be open to like, just doing weird stuff.
Yeah.
Everyone hates that.
So
put together
we put together a committee of people who like
make
the event more full and it's way better that way.
[00:34:00] But I think probably the best, the thing that helps us the most is that no one has an ego really about, like,
the
must be run this way. Like, ultimately it just comes to like, whatever we are, we're feeling, that's what it becomes. And it's always different because the cast changes. And when the cast changes, we, we wanna make everyone who's a part of it, like.
Actually have a say.
Melissa Ragsdale: awesome
Victor Soldano: That's awesome. Um, yeah, so I think like that's the best way for us to do those things. So, yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: That's so cool. Um, my summer camp, murder mystery. I'm so here for it.
Victor Soldano: Short shorts. I just wanna wear short shorts.
Yes.
Melissa Ragsdale: And like a vest.
Victor Soldano: Yeah. I didn't even think about a vest. Now I want a vest.
Melissa Ragsdale: There
we go. We're we're, we're ready. Let's do it right now. You've done so much
So like what? Like what do you think of when you think of like, oh, this is like the thing that I'm most proud of?[00:35:00]
Victor Soldano: That's a tough one. I mean, with the. The shop. I feel like I've never worked harder doing something like this, but this is not like exuberant joy, which is like, what I think my main goal is, is like to find where I can like really have fun. Mm. And I don't mean to, you know, say that the shop isn't exuberant fun, but, you know, we're working.
So, um, the things that I'm like most proud of and like the thing that like makes me feel electrified is always the murder mysteries are just so up my alley. Like, I, I really love acting and like, improvising and like talking to people and like creating like an incredible moment, that like resounds with people.
Mm-hmm like
uh, I went to. Have you ever heard of Sleep No More?
I've
Melissa Ragsdale: [00:36:00] I've
never been. But I know, I know what it is
Victor Soldano: Yeah. Um, I went there once
Melissa Ragsdale: and
Victor Soldano: it is like a fully interactive, or it was, I'm pretty sure it's moved onto a different show now. It's a fully interactive, cast driven
immersive show
where you don't have seats, you're walking around for four hours and it's four floors of these scenes that play out with actors that you can follow and chase into different rooms and like, it's so immersive and so just like mentally and physically driving, I mean, I've never been a part of something that like, feels so alive and it's just plainly art.
Melissa Ragsdale: Mm-hmm
Victor Soldano: Anyway, I had like a wild experience there. You can have rare experiences where you get pulled into a room. Yeah. [00:37:00] Or, you know, for, there's so many different things that could happen.
I got pulled into a room, this
woman
like, looked in the mirror, like did like a dance thing. Took me like, ran through into a closet that was apparently a door into another room.
This type of stuff blew my mind. So anyway, that's what we're trying to do.
Melissa Ragsdale: it?
I I can definitely see that influence in the murder mystery. The one I went to. There was oh, what was it? The clown? And somebody were like, Had like discovered some beef that they were having. Like it was just kind of like any, it did feel like there's so much going on.
Anything can happen. Like
Victor Soldano: the, anything that can happen taps into like this imagination part of it where it's like, okay. When the player, or like the guest, or like anyone who's like enjoying the experience feels that, Like I think that we've really tapped into something that is like exciting.
Yeah. I, that's why I get so stoked on it. I just feel like [00:38:00] it's something that I'm super interested in right now.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
Victor Soldano: Um, so yeah. I I love, I love building those experiences.
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that. I love attending them. So keep it up. Thank
Appreciate that.
So much of what you're doing, you're creating things. Yes. Do you have any like, creative rituals that you do? Like, what gets your brain going in that way?
Victor Soldano: Oh my gosh. It's actually kind of sad and simple. Sometimes if I just have caffeine at the right time, I'm like electric. Like, I'm like ready to sit down and like just start building something. But usually it's like, kind of like an iceberg. So it's like just that, like top, what is it, like 5%?
So like, I get the, like the bulk of the idea, like the very much like the superficial
portions
it out and then.
Yeah
after the caffeine wears off, I really have to dig deep to, to get to the, you know, whatever the meat is of like that idea. And like, in [00:39:00] terms of creativity, I mean, it's very much power through
Building,
that superficial like face plate of whatever I'm doing and like, really, or if, you know, I, if I experience massive tragedy for some reason, that really gets me to where I need to go creatively.
Melissa Ragsdale: I I totally get what you're saying. 'cause I'm, I am the, when I was in high school and I had my first breakup, I was writing so much poetry and my like, uh, , someone in like my creative writing class said something like, what's, why are you like, what's happened?
Victor Soldano: what are
Melissa Ragsdale: you gonna
Victor Soldano: through
Melissa Ragsdale: like, and I said something like, oh yeah, I just had a breakup. And my friend was like, no, you had a creative awakening or something like,
Victor Soldano: yeah. I, I, I think honestly any, anything, any projects that I've done in my adult life is weaponizing really bad, intrusive old, like thoughts that I can now build into creative [00:40:00] projects.
I think like for sure it's, it's like, feel bad, make something creative, awakening.
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that.
Victor Soldano: And then just go dormant for a couple weeks.
Okay. Yeah. or months even. Yeah. I mean, there's been periods in my life where I feel like totally, like I always am looking for a creative outlet. And luckily tabletop games are like such a great outlet for like small bursts of creativity.
But, yeah, there's like dark times where it's like, you know, I don't really want to write a song, or I don't really want to like, focus on a project for like. Yeah. Three months straight. It's, you know.
Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Well, it took so much tenacity to make so many of the things that you have, have
Victor Soldano: yeah.
Done.
Melissa Ragsdale: Like, have anything that you do to protect from that feeling of burnout.
Victor Soldano: Huh.
I think I have a lot of complicated feelings about burnout when I think about burning. I've definitely felt it before. Especially like when I was [00:41:00] younger. I would like do projects for like these, like really wealthy
like alpha personas who would be like, oh, I want to create X, so I need you to be my sword, and like, just go to war until it's over.
And it, that would burn me out almost every time. And I was curious, especially when doing this project with, sweet Jeans is how long is it gonna take to burn out? And the reality is like when you, you know, have a general respect for what you're doing, and like, you kind of try and listen to your body as much as you can and you, are also looking out for your mental health to some degree.
I mean, it's not great, but you can kind of protect yourself from burnout. I mean, for me, it's like when things get really dark, go to therapy.
you
know, just to therapy. Give, give myself that. Like, okay, I, I, I [00:42:00] will spend X amount of dollars to like, see my therapist. That's really good. Um, eating good is always great.
I mean, I always feel best when I'm like eating like really like wonderfully. Sourced and made food, which like definitely helps from burnout. I just feel like having like a cooked meal is like incredible. Especially 'cause we do quick service. So it's like, you know, how many egg sandwiches am I gonna eat?
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah,
Victor Soldano: I need greens. I need asparagus, I need broccoli. Dark deep greens fuel me. I mean, there's definitely things that I could do better for sure. Like, I know doing physical activity is like something that would make me feel so much better, but the time set aside to like be like, okay, I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm gonna like really lock in for a sec and then to have the energy to like, I'm still trying to figure this out.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
Victor Soldano: I think that those are like the simple, like things that everyone tells you to do to [00:43:00] like not burn out. But creatively I do find, I mean, I find love for my creative process by just keep, keep building, keep, make, make another, murder mystery, make another, module for, you know, a table talk game.
Writing another story, writing another song. Like, it's like do another, like comedy bit or whatever the, you know, whatever is. Yeah. It's like, I love the feeling of having like a vast library of
things
I've created, and when I think about that stuff, I don't feel like I'm burning out. I feel like I'm like, you know, setting my brain on fire, which is like, that's exciting.
Melissa Ragsdale: That's beautiful.
Victor Soldano: think. Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Yeah.
It. So tracks that you own a cafe and you've recommended coffee Yes. And eating. Yes. Uh,
Victor Soldano: I do those things here. Yeah.
[00:44:00] Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: Okay. I have two that I'm like asking
Victor Soldano: mm-hmm.
Melissa Ragsdale: The first question that I'm asking everybody is, what books or any media would you recommend to anyone who's been inspired by this conversation?
Victor Soldano: Whoa.
Melissa Ragsdale: Whoa. Or like that inspires
Victor Soldano: That's a great
question.
Melissa Ragsdale: Thank you.
Victor Soldano: you. The
first thing that, pops into my head is, okay. My favorite game of all time this month. Is, uh,
Melissa Ragsdale: that's the most nerd thing ever heard.
Victor Soldano: I think about, this game called Disco Elysium all the time, which is one of the most, I mean, just such a cool
top
to bottom from art to music to content like experience that you could have if you like, point and click, kind of luck based
games.
I mean, this is, it's d and d, it's kind of like [00:45:00] a murder mystery, art house like experience. I mean, after I played that game, everything in my life I feel like has been somewhat referencing its own. There's a, there. Drink on our menu currently called Disco Elysium.
Melissa Ragsdale: Oh, cool.
Victor Soldano: But like, yeah, I mean, it's just one of my favorite things to talk about, to think about it, the level of creativity in it, you know, permeates through whatever I do for sure.
And I think if you like books, it's like incredible to read through all of the conversations. If you like games, it's like incredible to play through. And if you like, you know, visual media, I think it's like one of the most visually and auditor Auditorially.
Melissa Ragsdale: yeah, auditorially.
Victor Soldano: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Impressive games
Melissa Ragsdale: yeah. Of time.
Victor Soldano: Yeah.
Melissa Ragsdale: That's amazing. It's a video game.
Victor Soldano: Yes. That is a video game.
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that.
So my last [00:46:00] question, that I ask everybody Sure. Is kind of connected to some of the stuff we were just talking about. What would your advice be to someone who feels stuck.
Victor Soldano: Oh my gosh.
How
times I felt stuck. Um, I just talked to my therapist like, um, on Sunday. And the reason why I started going to my therapist five, maybe seven years ago. I went to my therapist because of how, like the first session I booked was. She was like, what do you want to do? Like, what do you want to like get from this? And I was like, I want to feel, I think I said I want to feel like a normal person, but like, I think like I was like tremendously stuck in, um, in that moment.
I definitely, I definitely felt like super stuck and like, I guess like the simplest answer is like, push through, which kind of feels like a tough guy answer, which I don't think is like truly, I think it's like, do what you can [00:47:00] and like find what you enjoy
and
like just keep nurturing those things. Every single person I've ever talked to, uh, is like, well, you're not gonna be a barista for your whole life.
Oh, well, you know, like joking around's fun. But like, you know, you can't just play games all the time. Oh, you know, like music is cool, but like, you can't like make music. You can't make money from it. You, you know, it's not like something that you can like turn into a career probably. Oh. Like no one said anything bad about the murder mystery.
So I'm
even gonna I'm not even gonna that. But for all that other stuff, I mean like, everyone will tell you like, you can't invest enough into something that you love to make it bloom and it's like fucking wrong. Like, I think like truly it's just keep investing. You will never
make yourself
love something that you don't care about, but you can [00:48:00] absolutely
give
to
the things that you do love.
So I think like community, you know, playing games at a table, being a barista, I think I just. Gave love to those things. And I, I, I think like
I
if you, if you know what you love, I, I would just say you're not stuck. You just gotta keep giving it love
Melissa Ragsdale: I love that.
What a great way to end. Uh, do you have anything you wanna plug?
Victor Soldano: You can follow us on Instagram at Sweet Jean Kitchen
Melissa Ragsdale: Kitchen.
Victor Soldano: You could follow me on Instagram at Total dude, guy.
Melissa Ragsdale: dude. guy.
Victor Soldano: I think that you can find the discord through a friend is the only way to do it. Or through a stranger that just happens to be in. Or you can shoot me a message and I will definitely add you to the Discord.
And then. Oh, at [00:49:00] Newark Tabletop. Ah.
Which
definitely an Instagram that we
Melissa Ragsdale: Oh, I didn't even know there was an Totally forgot about that
Victor Soldano: I have not plugged that ever. And I'm glad that I got the chance to do it here.
Melissa Ragsdale: There we go. First time for everything. Well great. Thank you so much Victor.
Victor Soldano: Thanks for having me.
Melissa Ragsdale: wonderful. This a blast.
Victor Soldano: I love talking about this stuff, so this is like a lot of fun. Thank you so much.
Melissa Ragsdale: Thank you. That's it. We'll see you next time.
Bye.
Thank you again to Victor Sano Sweet Jeans is right by the Broad Street Station on New Jersey Transit in Newark, and I highly recommend stopping in for a coffee or a tea or a snack. Honestly, if you're looking for a really nice day in Newark, the cherry blossoms are about to come out in Branch Brook Park.
You could go for a good walk and then settle in at Sweet Jeans for a little creative cafe time. If you're new to tabletop games and you've been looking to try them out, or if you're an experienced gamer and you're looking for a regular group, do join Newark Tabletop. They host one shot nights all the time, which is a great way to just [00:50:00] show up and give it a spin.
And you can also get connected to a group to play with. I've been fortunate to get to play some fun games and make some really close friends through the group. So I'm really grateful to Victor and the whole crew for creating such a welcoming space.
Thank you also to my partner Matt de Silva, for being my roadie and monitoring the audio equipment while we recorded this one.
And thank you for listening. I'm really excited that you're here. If you'd like to support the show, there are a few ways you can do it. The first one is to subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever app you're listening to right now so that you can be the first to hear our next episode.
And if you haven't already, go back and listen to the episodes I did with Hannah Lee of Jersey City Cabaret and Jessica Joseph of Soul Therapy. You can also follow on Instagram at scribbles. The number two sparks for clips behind the scenes updates and more. It's one of the best ways to keep up with what I'm doing over here.
The number two way to support the show. I've set up a bookshop.org storefront where I'm putting any book [00:51:00] recommendations from our guests, and I've also thrown in a few book lists of my own. The way bookshop.org works is if you use that storefront or the affiliate links in the show notes to buy a book, part of the money goes to me.
So it's a win-win. You get a fun new book, your money is going to support local bookstores instead of Amazon, and a little bit of it comes to support this show as well. Finally, I have set up a Patreon for the show. I don't have any fun perks yet, but if you see value in this show and want to help make it sustainable, you can pledge a few dollars a month there.
All the links to everything I've just talked about are in the show notes. I really appreciate anything you give, especially your time and attention. This podcast was created, hosted, and produced by me, Melissa Ragsdale. The intro and outro music is by windshield. Stay tuned for our next episode. Coming to you in a few weeks.