Every event was canceled. People lost their jobs and things were pretty bleak. I struggled with doing something for people to enjoy. Something they didn’t have to fork out for and wasn’t a huge deal for me to produce. A happy distraction for these “uncertain times”.
Creating things for online isn’t anything new. For 20 years I’ve created free comic downloads, activity sheets, movie guides, ornaments, robots and more. But I enjoy the human-to-human contact at conventions, in classes and art shows. A scheduled livestream seemed like a perfect way for me to communicate with others while also being creative.
For format simplicity, I decided I would continue to share my love of robots with others. I'd talk a little about a type of Robot, then talk about a toy and then draw a robot. Nothing complex, just a little something friends and family could watch during lunch instead of the news. A way to commune and learn together. Something fun, interactive and interesting!
After 4 episodes I realized how boring my format was. My face wasn't even on screen. As amazing as I am I'm nothing interesting to look at. But people like faces but I needed something else. So I made a robot puppet for my daughter and everything instantly got more entertaining. A random show developed that still included a small section where I could “Talk About Robots”. Soon I had made my son a puppet and even one for my nephew who was visiting for a week.
We were having fun together. Coming up with props and ideas for different gags. But After 15 episodes we all needed a break. Going live every weekday with a half improvised show was a lot of work. Also, it was at 12 o'clock so we couldn't do anything around that time. Plus we were all stuck in my office with very little wiggle room to preform in. So we took a rocketship into space.
J Chris Campbell
Mr. Sprinkles, T.T.U.M.E.R.S.
and Lil Tum Tum
We basically moved to a bigger location in the house and build a space set. We had more room to do different things and that allowed me to play around with models, sets, props while also learning new digital tricks. All perfect for cutting back on workload, right? No it is not (just incase you didn’t catch the sarcasm).
Thankfully, for me, school started back a week after we started. So we had to stop season 2 after just 5 episodes. I think they turned out pretty great. We had a storyline and we really did crank up the creativity juices. I even got friends and family to participate.
I hope they bring some joy to others and I’ll slowly upload them to youtube. For now you can watch them on Facebook and Instagram. For now check out the mega-show on youtube that combines all of season 2 into one long video. So go check it out.
Also check out www.talkaboutrobots.com for the full listing of shows.
P.O. BOX 14234
Greenville, SC 29610
Email: chris@talkaboutrobots.com
AI Website Creator