Transcript:Fireside Chat with Sam Riegel

SAM: Oh, hi. Didn't see you there. It's me, Sam Riegel. Welcome to my fireside chat. Tonight we're joined by the greatest guest of all, myself. Welcome, chat. Welcome, wine lovers, and all kinds of lovers everywhere, to what's going to be an entertaining, sensual, provocative night of questions and answers. Let's keep it serious. Hey guys, welcome. I'm doing this fireside chat tonight because of you and your support of a fine organization called the Pablove Organization, the Pablove Foundation. You guys, the critters, pitched in and raised over a hundred thousand dollars to support this amazing foundation that funds research and supports those suffering with childhood cancer. You did such a great job that you earned this-- this-- whatever this is right now, you earned this with your hard-earned dollars. Me-- thank you-- me in a lady's robe sipping lovely wine and talking to you about-- I don't know-- life and stuff. So let's get into it, shall we?

I'm seeing some some questions on the chat right now. It's not really questions as much as insults about my legs.

DANI: They're asking if you oil your legs.

SAM: These legs are not oiled. No, these are naturally shiny. They have a nice sheen to them. I buff them twice a day.

I saw a question fly by. Has the wine been aerated? Of course, the wine has been aerated. Wine is not meant to be drunk unless it's had time to breathe, to let the flavors percolate, to get the nose going, and of course I aerated both bottles of wine that I brought tonight. I started with a lovely blend and then I might move on to a nice Cabernet later. Anyway, let's get to the questions, shall we? I'm joined by Dani over here. Max is here, as well. You won't see them tonight. This is kind of like an episode of Talks Machina except the bad parts are cut out of it: Brian Foster; and the good parts are in: me. So it's great.

All right, let's get into the questions, shall we? I don't know what I'm supposed to do, so I'm just gonna start reading. This question was sent in on the Reddit by Seedy88. Thanks, Seedy. Sam, you often create D&D characters-- nope. Sam, often a D&D character will evolve in unexpected ways when we start playing them. What's your favorite aspect about Nott that you hadn't planned on when creating her? Okay, so lots of things just pop up in the moment. I think the most unexpected thing or my favorite aspect of her that I hadn't planned on initially was just her voice, which is pleasant for sure. Her voice was something that evolved like moments before the first episode of the stream started. When we played-- we had like a test session that we all played together at Matt and Marisha's house and we tested out the characters to see how they would work and stuff, and me and Liam played together and I didn't do a voice for Nott. I just was my own self, and he did a different type of a voice for Caleb, but it just didn't feel right. So right before the first streaming episode of Campaign Two started, I came up with Nott's voice, and that was unexpected, and I'm glad I get to do that voice every week because it's weird.

Hey, Dani, how's this-- is this going well? I don't know.

DANI: It's going great. Do you want me to talk to you during this? Of do you want me to--? SAM: No, no, no. Shh. It's better when you don't talk. I'm kidding. You can talk all you want. I love your voice. Question: What would Nott'd favorite wine be? says the Goblin King 86. Well, Nott, like Sam Riegel, loves a fruity Pinot, but I think Nott would also like the the robust wines of the Tuscan region of Italy, also because Sam Riegel does. I'm talking about your brunello di montepulcianos, your vino nobile di montepulciano-- shit, I'm getting that wrong. But you know what I'm talking about. Chianti grapes, mmm, so good, so good.

Oh shit, that was a good question but it's gone.

DANI: Do you remember anything about it?

SAM: Nope. Wow, there's so many good questions, guys, this is amazing. Pinot Noir. All right, great. Oh boy, okay, yeah, I can't get sucked into chat. It's like addictive, it's crazy. Okay, I can't read the screen name, but she said, "Who likes the robe more-- your wife or your husband?", I believe. My wife has not seen this robe yet. If she did, she would be horrified by it. But I know for a fact that my husband has seen this robe. He was just out in the lobby, and he said, "Very nice."

All right, let's go on to another question here prepared. Oh yeah, so CoachVeratu from the reddits asked, "Hey, Sam, out of Scanlan, Taryon, and Nott-- the characters that I played on Critical Role-- who would you sleep with, marry, and kill?" I think I would have to sleep with Scanlan Shorthalt because he is a fine lover, he's an experienced lover, and he would treat me ooo so nice. I would probably marry Nott because she's loyal and a wonderful person and I think very caring and someone I would want to spend the rest of my life with. And Taryon I would kill because he's an asshole.

That's great. Wow, this feels like this should be our channel all the time.

DANI: Just you talking?

SAM: Just me drinking wine and talking to people. This is my favorite thing. Talking at people is even better. Mmm, okay. There was a question that popped up in chat. Question: If Scanlan met Caleb, would they be friends? Absolutely not, no way. Caleb has no game, he's a weirdo, he's all in his head and all neurotic and stuff. Scanlan might be interested in some of his magic, but he's also stinky, he's not a good wingman to bring into like bars and hit on ladies with. No way.

Okay, let's get back to this one. Amarettos asks, Sam-- that's me-- Nott has been extra nice to Caduceus since the pirate journey began. Is she genuinely concerned for Caduceus, or she only doing it to make sure the party keeps a powerful cleric on their side? Good question. I think Nott is genuinely concerned for Caduceus. She saw him get kind of messed up by the initial journey to the boat and the escape from that craziness, and she cares about his well-being and his psyche. He just seems different than he did before, and she wants to make sure that he's okay. She's been traveling around with Caleb for quite some time now, so she's used to like the signs of trauma and the signs of psychological-- you know, PTSD and stuff like that, so she probably recognized a little of that in the Deuce man and wanted to make sure that he didn't like go catatonic that sometimes good old Caleb does.

I'm crossing my legs, guys. Oh boy. Okay. Oh! Thank god. Thank god. That was close, because I am free balling it tonight. For those of you watching at home who want to get a little bit closer to Sam Riegel, just look down at the bottom of your screen and you might get a little a little hint of something, a couple little lumps. I don't know why a couple. Maybe just one little lump.

DANI: I think we should move forward.

SAM: Sure, sure. Jelly 15 asks, Do you ever watch previous episodes and try to pick up on details you missed when playing? No, I do not. I do not watch the show. It's too long. I think we should make a shorter version of the show that sort of encapsulates what happens in the show, but in a much shorter compact way, like a 10-minute version or something like that. If we made a show like that I might watch it.

DANI: What about a five-minute recap?

SAM: That's crazy. That's crazy. No, let me know if they make something like that because that could be really cool. Let's see here. ER Nesbitt writes, Based on your experience with UCB-- that's Upright Citizens Brigade, an improv theatre company-- what recommendations would you give to help improve onstage improvisation? Improv tips. I know this is the real reason you guys came to the fireside chat tonight, is to get hard-core improv tips. Look at that, the censored sign shifted. Amazing. Improv tips. I mean, that the basics are sort of uniform whether you do short form or long form improv. The basics are simply listen, say yes and heighten, right? So listening just means paying attention to your fellow players, what they're saying to you, what sort of reality they're bringing to the table, and and saying yes to that is accepting whatever reality or or character or situation they're bringing to you. And heightening it is taking the ideas that they bring to the table and and making them-- exploring them more or getting into more detail about them and stuff like that. Now you'll notice some of these improv-y techniques you'll see on the Critical Role show, without I think even some of the cast members knowing it. You'll see when someone's having a moment and having like a little emotional beat or something like that, all the other cast members sort of go a little silent or or don't chime in as much or let it breathe a little bit. That's because they're listening and they're trusting their fellow player to do something, and then when that player is done, they jump in with whatever idea they have to "yes, and" it. But I think most of bad improv is from not listening, is from people just talking over each other or talking past each other or just missing key things that their friends are trying to tell them.

SAM: Okay, let's see here. Someone says, Has Matt cleared you to-- nope, it's gone. I missed it. Damn it. No, it's fine. What's on your socks? I saw that question. I believe it's Big Foot and hearts. Yeah. It could be Sasquatch, I don't know. Is that--?

DANI: That's the same thing.

SAM: Is that the same thing? So there's Bigfoot and Sasquatch-- whoa, got a little close there-- Bigfoot and Sasquatch are the same. Abominable Snowman, I mean that's...?

DANI: I think Abominable Snowman is the same but like in a different area. Like more northern Bigfoot.

SAM: Sure, sure. What's a Yeti? Is a Yeti a snowman, or is a yeti a sasquatch?

DANI: I think a Yeti is a sasquatch.

SAM: Yeah, we got to figure this out. All right, question: Would Nott like Vax? Would anyone like Vax? I don't know. That's a good question. That's a good question. No, Vax, has-- especially in the home game but even in the broadcast game, Vax is a great guy. Scanlan loved Vax. Vax is awesome. He can be funny, he can be witty, he can be charming, he can be clever-- Honestly, he was a great guy. So yes, Nott would like Vax because Vax was awesome. He was a cool dude. Sometimes he got a little quiet when talking about his feelings and stuff like that, but we all do, and sometimes he got a little sad when thinking about the fact that he was not gonna be around-- spoilers-- not going to be around to see his sister have kids and get married and have a great life and stuff that would make anybody sad. Come on, give him a break, guys. What is your problem? Jesus.

DANI: Thank you. Thank you.

SAM: There's question in the chat from Lathe: Who is Dani?

DANI: Good question!

SAM: That is a good question. Who is Dani? Dani is right over here. You can't see her. Dani is sort of the glue that binds together any live event that you see on this channel. She is part producer, part writer, part cheerleader, part makeup artist, part performer, and just kind of a giggle monkey that sits just offscreen making us all feel like we're charming and entertaining, even when we're not.

DANI: Aw, that's really sweet.

SAM: Yeah, well, I'm on camera, so I can't really be truthful. Okay, let's go to some more questions. They're going so fast. Boy! Question: Nope, it's gone. I saw one, I saw one-- well, it's gone. Shit.

DANI: I'm sending you some.

SAM: Oh, you are? Okay, let me check the email here. Itchyhoofs says, Question: Was it a challenge playing Nott as a female character? No. I don't think so. I don't think so. Half the people I know in my life are women, and so I have a lot of experience talking with them and knowing who they are and what they feel, and I don't think they're sups different. Hmm. No, I don't think it was. I hope I'm doing a good job. You know, it's the first woman I've ever played, so I don't-- maybe I'm sucking at it, but so far it has-- her femininity or womanhood has not been a stumbling point for me other than just to remember early on pronouns and stuff, but no I think it's been really fun to play a female character and just to try to think in a different way than I normally think and it actually makes makes me want to portray Nott as a more nurturing character. But yeah. It's been fun. I like playing female characters. It's great.

Okay, let's go for more questions. PrimeGrendelsMater says, How do you feel about how Tary's books keep appearing when Caleb is on his magic book hunt? I think we've only seen one of Tary's books. Just the one, but it was super exciting to know that Tary got something published, even if it was self-published, as he just wanted to be an author. He just wanted to have some notoriety and leave something behind that would be lasting, and it seems like he did that, so that was exciting. And I'm excited to see if there are any other books. You know, Tary is a book writer, but also Scanlan is a storyteller, so there is a chance--

DANI: There's a question about that.

SAM: There's a question about this?

DANI: There's a question about Scanlan's books as well.

SAM: Oh, I'm looking. Oh yeah, this is a question from JableTownCity, maybe. What kind of books did you imagine Scanlan writing after finishing the Vox Machina tale? Yeah, so Scanlan made-- I don't know, he probably hired a scribe to write down the Vox Machina tale, and he like-- I guess he was more of an oral storyteller. But I assume he finished that book and so the Mighty Nein may come across it at some point, if it's out there. To answer TownCity's question, What kind of books do you imagine Scanlan writing after finishing the Vox Machina tale? You know, after the big Epic Yarn has been spun, I think Scanlan would focus on building his brand more, maybe a prequel, "The Scanlan Story", sort of like the young adventures of Indiana Jones. It's that sort of thing, a lot of prequels, maybe some other sort of Scanlan specific stories, like just a cookbook, or a "Scanlan's Guide for Picking Up Chicks", or maybe "Scanlan's Guide to Fatherhood." He'd probably make some sort of a branded thing like a "Dummy's Guide to--" except it would be a "Scanlan's Guide to Fatherhood", a "Scanlan's Guide to Playing a Shawm"-- you know, that kind of stuff. You can have a whole series of books.

DANI: There's a question on what advice would you give Scanlan on being a dad?

SAM: How would I give Scanlan advice about being a dad? Oh boy. Use that wish spell. I think it regenerates every day, so you could wish that-- I think Scanlan should use his wish spell to wish for a good night's sleep every day, because that is the hardest part of fatherhood, of parenthood, is just taking this amount of sleep, and reducing it to like this. Just the bare minimum that you need to survive.

All right, let's go to the big board, guys. Let's spin the wheel. Hey, can I just remind all of you that this was all for charity, and that I talked to Blair, one of the people on the board of the Pablove Foundation earlier today. Blair told me that the charity ride that you guys helped sponsor-- it wasn't just us raising money. There was lots of people across the world raising money for different riders in the charity ride, and that ride all together raised nine hundred and ten thousand dollars for charity to fight childhood cancer, and you guys were a ninth of that. So thank you very much. It exceeded all expectations. He also said that we're gonna be getting an update about the scientific research that you guys have financed and the other programs that you guys have given money to. So, amazing.

Let's go to some more questions here. TurboMackels asks, Your favorite meal your wife has ever made you? Hmm, that's real tough. She cooks really well. She makes amazing Italian food. She makes pasta noodles from scratch. She has made salmon en papillote. She makes a really good moussaka. She makes pho, Vietnamese pho, which is hard to make but also amazing. I think my favorite thing that she has ever made for me, though, is apple pie, because she knows I love it so much. So like for instance a few nights ago on Thanksgiving, she-- well, it was a couple days after Thanksgiving because we delayed our Thanksgiving feast for reasons, she made me an apple pie because she loves me. Why don't you come over next time? Okay, cool. Pho's really good.

Okay, let's see here. This is so fun, guys. Okay, let's see. Question from Prime, LauraLeeCupcake. What's the worst wine you've ever had? Where was it and why was it so terrible? This is good, this is good. I wish you guys could taste this cause it's really nice. It's full full-bodied-- not too much, though. Mmm. Got a nice nose. The worst one I've ever had... let's see here, must have been... I mean Two Buck Chuck's real bad. Sorry, Trader Joe's. Airplane wine's pretty bad, usually. I think-- you know, when we were in London for MCM London just recently, I had a really lovely two bottles of wine-- not by myself. We had two bottles of lovely wine at this lovely restaurant that we went to in London and the wine was excellent, but that night I got food poisoning and I barfed it all up, and the wine taste was still there coming out of my mouth, so I could still taste-- and it was still good wine, but like I couldn't enjoy it. It was like, Oh no, come back, come back, but it was leaving my body going into the toilet. I wanted it to stay, just stay in, but I couldn't. It was gone. That was the best worst wine I ever had, I think.

DANI: Oh, gross.

SAM: All right, let's see here. Oh, nope, it's gone. It goes so far. We need an emote of Sam barfing wine. Yeah, probably, probably.

DANI: No, we don't.

SAM: Let's see here. JDShade85 says, Sam, what's your favorite nerdy thing to do that people don't know about? People know most of my nerdy things that I do: playing D&D. I used to collect comic books as a kid. I have a fine collection of comic books. People know that. People know that I've been in an acapella group, but people don't know, maybe, maybe, that in that acapella group I also arranged music. So I arranged acapella songs, and then after I graduated from college, I continued to arrange acapella songs for other acapella groups in other colleges. That was pretty nerdy, to send acapella arrangements out to different different groups at other other schools, and to like record myself singing all the parts and stuff. That was pretty nerdy.

Okay, let's see what else we got here. Willtay32 says, Sam do you know that Nott resonates with trans fans? I have learned that from chat and Twitter and various social media outlets and I'm extremely pleased. We love our trans fans, our trans critters and all of our critters. I can tell you that I did not necessarily set out to create a character that resonated with one particular group like that, but I'm thrilled that she does. I think that the things that I like about Nott's character that are so relatable that might resonate particularly with the trans community is that she-- I think, and maybe I'm wrong here, I think that everyone, all of us, me, you, Dani, everybody, has at some point in their life, maybe even recently, not liked something about their body or felt like their body is somehow betraying them. It's like, Goddamnit, I got that pimple right right before a date, or when you're much younger, you know, these gigantic buck teeth, or your voice changes or your hands are clammy or something much more significant than that, like the size and shape of your body's not what you wanted it to be or the height or whatever it is. Your body is something that can betray you often and I feel like Nott always has that sense that her body is not right, just not right. Something is wrong about that configuration of body parts, and I think that's what probably resonates with the trans community.

I've also seen some comments online about people with-- and I don't want to get the terms wrong here, but body dysmorphia, and I think that's apt and fair and all that stuff, and I'm glad that those-- the people from those communities are seeing something that echoes, something that they have experienced in their life, also. Obviously I can't know exactly what that experience is like, but I think in playing this character, I hope to understand it more and understand what that feels like, to live like that all the time, and it must be very taxing and emotionally exhausting. I'm trying to figure that out just through Nott and also through not flashing the audience. So yeah, it's been really fun to explore that and I'm glad people are getting that.

Okay, let's see what's next. Question, could you list one good day or one bad day in-- Oh, it's gone. Oh, well.

DANI: List one good day and/or one bad day in Nott's life before Campaign Two started. Just a general plot. From XRinger28.

SAM: Whoa, whoa. One good day or one bad day?

DANI: And/or one bad day.

SAM: And/or one bad day. I mean... I can't-- there's some that I know about that I can't talk about because it might give away too much. But I can say a very good and bad day, which some of you guys have probably-- we've talked about it, I think, on Talks Machina-- was the day that Nott and Caleb met each other in jail, and were almost killed by their jailers who kind of like-- "We're gonna let them burn to death." It was a very scary day for both of them. Sort of weirdly forged-- their friendship was forged in fire, but it was also a great day because once Caleb and Nott escaped from this inferno, they kind of looked at each other and they're like, "You're not running away from me." "Oh, you're not running away from me. I guess we'll stick around each other for a while." So that was both a good and a bad day.

Okay. ReggieSloth says, How is your Spice Girls one-shot coming along? Well, it would have been great but apparently one of the Spice Girls is not touring with the others anymore. I don't know, can we-- I think the famous one, Beckham?

DANI: Ginger? Oh, no, yeah, that's-- Ginger is just my favorite one, so she was the automatic--

SAM: Yeah, I think Beckham is not touring with them anymore, so that might put the kibosh on the one shot.

DANI: That's upsetting. I have to leave now. I'm too upset.

SAM: Oh, please don't leave. Okay. Back to this. Boop boop de boop boop. Trappedinagogurt says, "You've mentioned that sometimes you tell your kids what happens on Thursdays as a bedtime story." True. "Do they have a favorite character, and do they have favorite story arcs-- intense battles, moments between characters, pub crawls--" Yeah, my kids love pub crawls. My kids, Keanu and the Terminator, are four and six, and they love hearing the tales of the Mighty Nein. Before that, they loved hearing the tales of Vox Machina. They do have a favorite character. Guess what, guys? It's Nott the Brave. I will admit freely that sometimes in the retelling of the exploits of the Mighty Nein, I might shine a brighter spotlight on some of the things that Nott does in the battles. I might spend a little bit more time talking about the glorious and brave things that Nott did to make the battle go well, and I might forget some of the moves that Beau made and maybe Caduceus and stuff. Like they're still in the story, they exist, but they're not the stars of the story, you know what I mean? I just feel like for kids, they want to root for one character, and so I had to choose. I will say this, though. My daughter, Terminator, has recently been asking about Yasha because at some point I mentioned that Yasha comes from a place where lots of monsters are, Xhorhas, and my daughter was fascinated by this and she's been asking, she said, "Papa, did Yasha have diapers when she was a baby?" and I said, "Yeah, I think so. Why would she not?" and my daughter said, "Well, because she was raised by monsters," and so she didn't think that monsters had diapers, which is a fair point. I don't know that Yasha did have diapers in Xhorhas. Yeah, she just might have been covered in shit her whole childhood. I have no idea. This is a really good question. And my son has been really interested in Vecna lately. He's been-- he asked me to read all the Vecna stats and I had to explain what a legendary action is and all kinds of stuff. He's interested in Vecna primarily because he wants to find out who is the most powerful bad guy in D&D and we've been-- we've been talking about bulettes and ancient red dragons and all kinds of real baddie bads, and I told him that Vecna might be the biggest bad. I don't know. I don't play D&D very much, so I don't really-- I don't play the game as I'm not a dork, so I don't know this stuff.

Okay, let's see here. I saw one question that scrolled by, that was Who is Side by Samuel? Who is Side by Sam? Guys, some of you may not know there is a Twitter account out there. It's called Side by Sam and it features candid photos taken of me from different unflattering angles, and it also seems to have a side influence where Side by Sam is trying to get people to vote and participate in government, which is great. And I do know who runs Side by Sam @ Side by Samuel, and I'm not going to tell you who it is. I can tell you that it is one person and that I see him or her every almost every day of my life, almost every day of my life, and that he or she appreciates you guys, and and also that he or she is not me.

DANI: I would home that you see yourself more than almost every day of your life.

SAM: Well, sometimes you don't look in the mirror.

DANI: That's true.

SAM: Well, do you look in the mirror every day?

DANI: I mean, when I brush my hair.

SAM: I guess so, but do you really, like, look at yourself? And go, I look fucking hot today!

DANI: No, I do not do that. But I do look in the mirror when I brush my hair.

SAM: I guess that makes sense. Guys, I'm out of wine. No one's doing anything.

DANI: Which one do you want?

SAM: I think I'll move on to the cab. Thank you. Yes, that's the cab-- wait, no, it's capped, first of all-- Dani, stop! You gotta put the aerator in first. We're gonna do-- put this part down. We're gonna see some aerated wine-- wait, let me get this just on screen so the kids at home can see this happen without revealing the label. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

DANI: Am I going to get wine all over my hands?

SAM: Nope.

DANI: It makes a noise.

SAM: It makes a cool noise.

DANI: It makes a terrible noise.

SAM: Yeah, this is it. Okay, that's good. We aerated wine together.

DANI: Oh, my god!

SAM: Thank you, Dani.

DANI: You're welcome.

SAM: Dani's the best of us. Let's check this wine out. Oh yes, yes, that's a richer full-bodied experience. It's jammy but New World jammy, you know what I mean?

DANI: No, but okay.

SAM: Mm-hmm. Question: What is this song? Okay, this song I believe is library-type music, and it's been playing for almost an hour now, even before the show started, and it will haunt my nightmares tonight. It's really catchy. (singing) Here's Sam... Here's Sam... at the fire... talking about jam. Here's Sam... can't show a nipple... he'll get us banned... banned from Twipple. Here's Sam, Sam-- what is this little censored sign!? My dick is not that tiny!

All right, guys, back to the questions. This is serious. Dragonkeeper2500 says, QUESTION!-- all caps-- Was Scanlan's hatred of goblins and Nott's being a goblin purely coincidental, or something you thought about beforehand? It was mostly coincidental because Liam decided that Nott was going to be a goblin. Liam, friend of the show Liam O'Brien--

DANI: Liam O'Brien, your husband.

SAM: My man-husband, was kind enough to both for Campaign One and Campaign Two choose my character's class and race for me, and from that I built a character. And this time around he said. "Why don't you play a rogue goblin?" So it was a little bit coincidental. I don't know if it went into his thinking, but I really like-- I love that sort of echo that both Nott and Scanlan hate goblins. It's kind of cool. So yes, TrainerTory, man-husband, the best kind of husband.

DANI: I mean, I wasn't going to say anything.

SAM: Yes, a question from Dragon something. DraginnaHoodie. Favorite All Work No Play activity this season? Hmm. I think I've answered this before, but I think sword fighting for me was was my favorite activity. Goat Yoga was the most sort of bizarre but just holding a sword and being a knight was pretty cool because I'm not a cool guy, so that was really awesome. But we had a lot of great episodes, and if we get to do another season, we're already talking about some really great creative ideas for what we're gonna do next season. It's a hard thing, this All Work No Play. I'll tell you why. Because really it's an excuse for me and Liam to hang out, and love each other like we do, but it's also an excuse for us to try cool things, cool new experiences that we've never experienced before, and sometimes those things are in conflict with each other, 'cause like we want to hang out and just pal around and be bros, but also we have goats on our backs. So we can't just be hanging out and and shooting the shit when you've got a goat on your back. So we have to find experiences that we can experience together, but also that we can still interact with each other in and stuff, so second season we got some great plans coming up, and I hope we get to do them soon.

Frodo says, 11,156 people think you're cool, Sam. I guarantee that most of the people watching do not think I'm cool. They are watching it like watching a bad car accident. It's like "I want to see what breaks first!" And there's probably like a thousand of those people who are just trying to see my junk. Like the pervs-- you know who you are-- there's a bunch of pervs out there who just were clicking around Twitch and they're like, "Ooh, I might get to see this guy's junk. I'll stick around for this." Yeah, yeah, you know who you are.

DANI: So many people suddenly left Chat.

SAM: Yeah. All right. Jevetta Keith-- JevaKeith says, "Nott collects buttons. Sam, do you collect anything?" I used to collect comic books. I had an extensive collection. I have still Fantastic Four Number 1. I have many Fantastic Fours from the first 100. I had at some point every comic book that Groo had ever appeared in-- Groo the Wanderer, a favorite character of mine. At some point I had every single comic book he had ever been in, including other people-- other comic books like that he had made appearances in. Thank you, Tara V: Sam's collecting Emmys. Yes, correct. What do I--

DANI: One isn't a collection.

SAM: It's a start.

DANI: You have to have at least two.

SAM: Yeah. What else do I collect? I collect wines. I have some nice wines in a wine fridge, mostly that wonderful friends have given me or that I've discovered on trips and stuff like that. Now I collect t-shirts because-- I don't know if some of you have maybe caught this-- from Campaign One and Campaign Two, I've been repeating outfits sometimes from Campaign One to Campaign Two on Critical Role. I'll wear the same shirt that I wore the first time around, which means that I can't throw out any clothing anymore so I have hundreds and hundreds of t-shirts, and my wife really does not appreciate all the drawer space I'm taking up and yeah, yeah, it's a problem. It's a real problem. Also I've encountered a bunch of shirts from Campaign One that I simply gave away. There was one moment during Campaign One where I believe we auctioned off a bunch of my t-shirts and now I don't have those anymore so I've had to substitute other things. Anyway.

Let's see, what else should we answer? DeathlikeCat says, Question: Which Fantastic Four character is your favorite? Used to be the Thing when I was a kid, because clobberin' time. Now, as I've gotten older, I think Mr. Fantastic. He was sort of my least favorite character growing up. I loved the Invisible Girl who became the Invisible Woman because she had some cool powers. At first she was just invisible, but then she could make stuff with her invisibility, force fields and yeah, and that was really cool, too. Got into her for a while. But I think now Reed Richards might be my guy. He's just, he's a-- oh wow, someone saying Reed Richards is a dick. Reed Richards is an asshole. Not Reed Richards. Naw, Reed's a prick. Wow! Wow! Maybe I've chosen unwisely. You know, to be fair to me, I haven't read the comic book in a good long time. Probably not since the '90s or early 2000s? So maybe he's done some stuff that I'm not aware of. I really should catch up. Did he kill his wife or something? What happened? Jesus, guys, what happened? Fuck Reed Richards? Wow, this is crazy! What's going on? I feel like I just said like, 'Oh yeah, my favorite character from Seinfeld is Kramer," and everyone's like, "Oh god, the racist guy?!" Oh god, what did I do? Did I just ruin everything? I'm sorry! I apologize! I take it back! It's the Invisible Woman, straight up. Okay, oh man. All right.

AlexanderHero83 says, "How many kids do Pike and Scanlan have if Scanlan had had his way?" Oh, so if Scanlan could choose how many kids he had?

DANI: I mean, since you are Scanlan, how many kids did he and Pike have, do you think?

SAM: That's up to Ashley Johnson to some extent, because she knows Pike's reproductive cycle better than I do, and would be able to plan accordingly using the rhythm method. I think that Scanlan would probably want a bunch of kids, because the thing that I've noticed about having my own children is if you like yourself, then you really like kids. Because, yeah, I really like me. I think I'm a cool guy. And I see a lot of myself in my kids, and man, I love them. They're like me! Guys, I have an ego problem. So I think that Scanlan would love like tiny versions of himself, and I'm sorry, guys, I'm sorry. Anyway. Oh yeah, yeah, people are psychoanalyzing me now. That's good. This is going great. Thanks, Dani.

Let's see here. Moonday113 says, "What's your favorite thing that you've attached to your mug or flask? What got the best reactions from cast and crew?" I think there was one-- there was an Eric Andre meme that I used that was like Caleb killing his parents, and then it said... Yeah, it's the gun one, and it said like, "Why would--" What's the guy's name who actually commanded Caleb to kill his--? "Why would Trent do this?" or something like that? I liked that one. That was clever. But there's been some also that I haven't used because they were just like not funny or insensitive. "Why would Trent do this?" Thank you, guys. All right.

Hermès Sandals-- that's some fancy sandals. Or maybe it's HermesSandals. That makes way more sense. I read that as Hermès the brand, the expensive brand, but no, it's Hermes. This is-- You've never heard of Hermès? Oh, it's a very fancy brand.

DANI: That's why I haven't heard of it.

SAM: They make like fine leather purses for seven hundred dollars. They make-- I think they make-- the cheapest thing-- I went into an Hermès store once. Cheapest thing you can get is like a leather bracelet for like $250. It's cray. Anyway, HermesSandals says, "What's your most memorable time randomly running into a critter?" I would have to say when I was in Yosemite National Park this summer with my family. We were in the middle of the park and we stopped to get some water and probably a popsicle or an ice popsicle thing for my kids, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the wilderness, at this little stand, and the lady was wearing like a Ranger hat or whatever, and she sold us our waters and then she said, "I'll give your kids an extra popsicle if you take a picture with me because I love Scanlan so much."

DANI: That's pretty good.

SAM: That was pretty great. That was pretty great.

DANI: Did you get an extra popsicle?

SAM: I did not accept such things. We're legally bound not to accept gifts like that. And also I think one of the other favorite times was going through the TSA, the security at the airport and the guy checking my bag or whatever and saying, "Okay, you're good-- you're clear to go, Mr. Shorthalt." That was pretty great.

Question from Gearafonblade77 or something. "Where in Virginia are you from?" Okay, this is an easy one. I know the answer to this one. I was born in Washington DC, just close to Virginia, and we moved-- I grew up in Northeast DC for like four years, then we moved across the Potomac to Arlington, Virginia, where I lived until I was like 12 or 13 years old, then I moved to New York City. But in addition to living in Northern Virginia for a great deal of time-- oh boy, oh boy-- I also lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, when I went to the University of Virginia there. It's a lovely town, it's a lovely state. My grandparents lived in Lexington, Virginia. I used to date a girl in Roanoke, Virginia. I've been all over the state. It's a great state, it's for lovers, guys, and thank you, WebofWords lives in Nova. Yes. Oh yeah, my wife is from Fairfax, Virginia, whoever just wrote that they're from Fairfax, Virginia. I got married in Fairfax, Virginia, which we used to call, when we were kids, Whorefax, Vagina. Oh no, no, Whorefucks, Vagina. It was a kid thing, guys. Guys. Fairfax, Virginia, lovely place.

OFFSCREEN VOICE: Ten minute warning.

SAM: Ten minute warning? I have to stop? Doesn't this just go as far as I want to go? Someone's posting Fairfax sucks. Is this a Reed Richards thing? What did what did Fairfax do? Jesus, I've ruined the channel. The Winter Miner says, "Did you and Liam discuss the Mama Nott speech before or after the fact?" Never. We've not discussed the Mama Nott speech, ever, not before or after. I assume he never-- you know, Caleb didn't hear it, so why would we ever discuss it? And he didn't know it was gonna happen ahead of time either, so it's not a thing that he needs to know about. I know he was right there, but you get what I mean.

Let's see here. Doo doo... Oh, Alex DM 208 says, "How do you think Nott would react if someone showed a romantic interest in her?" Oh boy. She might be momentarily flattered, but then would probably start questioning what is going on, because that can't be right, because she has a pretty low sense of herself, low sense of self esteem. So I think she would probably question the motivation and not believe it, if that makes sense.

All right, so now VillusFartHuck is saying Northern Virginia is more DC than Virginia. Is questioning my virginity. Basically my virginia-ty. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry, but I'm from Virginia. I'm a southern boy, so you know (sings Dueling Banjos).

Question: Do you like the Capitals? I do like the Capitals. They're my favorite football team. Go, sports guys! Let's see here. Did you see something about UVA winning the Commonwealth Cup? No, I did not. Sports guys! What is something that you're really bad at but still enjoy? Ah, that's a really good question that I should have not read because I don't have an answer for it. Something I'm really bad at that I still enjoy. Writing songs. I'm not that great at writing songs, guys. I don't play piano, I kind of strum guitar a little. I played bass in a band a little bit. I'm not a great songwriter but I really love writing songs and I will continue to do it, and you have no choice in the matter, but I'm not great at it. I wish I had a more-- my wife is a great pianist, flautist, has perfect pitch-- she's very musical, but I'm not technically proficient.

Let's see here. Oh, something about coitus. That seemed like a great question that I missed. Oh well, thank you.

DANI: I'll look for the coitus question.

SAM: Thank you. Do a word search for coitus. Vishanti Cuffus says, "Sam, did you know that even if everyone jokes that you're never on Talks you still, according to CritRoleStats, outrank Ashley, Laura, and Matt on number of appearances." I find that extremely hard to believe. CritRoleStats, I think you guys got it wrong. I believe that I've had more appearances than Ashley because she famous, but Matt-- I feel like Matt's on every other week.

DANI: No, Matt's definitely not on every other week.

SAM: Every time I tune in for the 30 seconds I'm contractually obligated to tune into the show--

DANI: It's technically 45.

SAN: Ooh. Yeah, I usually log in, watch the show, post one comment so it seems like I'm watching, and then logoff. Yeah, all right, let's see here. You dare question CritRoleStats? I'm sorry. What's your favorite DND Beyond bit that you have done thus far? Boy, I mean they're all really good guys.

DANI: My least favorite was the one with all the blood.

SAM: The one with all the blood-- why did you not like the blood one?

DANI: Because I was terrified for the table.

SAM: Oh, you're worried for the table.

DANI: I was. I was just stressed about the table.

SAM: The blood one was cool because we were using special effects. I like the ones where we use special effects. I think that my favorite one so far was when the devil was making a deal with me. That one was fun because it was heady and weird. I like heady and weird comedy. Yeah, there was this other one that I wrote that I didn't use, that I think could have been really great, but man, it was not funny. I wrote this whole thing. It was like a morning zoo crew thing with sound effects, and it was gonna be me like running a whole like, "Hey, it's the morning zoo crew! Pew pew!" sound effects thing, and I rehearsed it and it sucked, so I trashed it. I don't know. I don't know guys.

What else we got here at the bottom? Mm-hmm. Okay, Maze of Mind-- What was your best vacation you ever took? If you can go on vacation anywhere, where would it be? The vacation I just went on was pretty great. I just went to Mexico for the Thanksgiving week with my family. As you can see, I'm a little bit tanner. Just a little bit. I'm not pasty pasty white. I am a nice evening cream. That was a lovely trip because I was there with my whole family and we were just relaxing and eating fish tacos and drinking margaritas and that was great. I think my most amazing, adventurous vacation was going to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, Vietnam especially, because my wife's family is from there. She was the first one in her family born here. And we were the first ones to ever go back since the war. And so we got to see some of her relatives that she had never met before, and go to this town where her parents lived, and meet some of her close relatives, cousins, and aunts and uncles and stuff that she had just heard about but never met before. It was very emotional and amazing and Vietnam was beautiful. And I also got to go to Iceland once which was really weird because there's no trees, and when I went it was bright all day and all night and they're all super tall and gorgeous people.

Okay, let's see here. Question: You get to cast Wish in real life-- what is your wish? I think they meant, you'll get to cast woy in life-- no, you get to cast Wish in real life, what is your wish? That's a good question.

DANI: It's a dangerous spell, too, because if you say it wrong...

SAM: Oh god, I don't know about the wording. That's hard. It would take months to come up with the proper wording, but I think what I would wish for is that for me, my day is 25 hours. Everyone else can still have 24. I don't want to mess up anybody else's life. But I'd like to have one extra. Just for some me time. Maybe catch up on Netflix, maybe you just have an extra-long poop that day. Yeah, or maybe just just kind of enjoy just having just that extra little hour just for me would be real nice. I think that would be my my wish.

It seems like we're almost done with this. Is this timed? Do we have to stop?

OFFSCREEN VOICE: It's up to you, Sam. You want to go another--?

SAM: No, no, we should stop. I don't want to keep the crew. They have families--

OFFSCREEN VOICE: You want to go another 15 minutes?

SAM: 15! Jesus, I was gonna say five! I got shit to do. I just said I need another extra hour in my day every day.

OFFSCREEN VOICE: We haven't seen your goods yet, so I feel like we should...

SAM: I got this bathrobe in the women's section of Target just yesterday... it's a women's extra extra extra large and it comes up to just the right spot and it's a fine garment. It's a fine garment. All right, let's see here. Question: What's your favorite book currently? I don't read as much as I should read. I'm currently still trying to read Good Omens.

DANI: That's my favorite book.

SAM: I know, it's really great. It's a great book, but it's taking me forever.

DANI: It's really wordy, too.

SAM: It's wordy and the problem is I read so sporadically-- it's a Gaiman novel, by the way-- or Gaiman and Pratchett. But it's not one of those that you can put down and just pick up a few days later and be like, wait, what was going on. You kinda have to go back a few pages and, yeah, yeah. I read... I listened to the Martian on audiobooks. That was really good. I don't know, give me some recommendations, guys, give me some recommendations. Audiobooks, because I do listen to a lot of audiobooks. What are you watching on Netflix? These are not-- that's not a good question, because I never have time to watch anything. I'm the worst. Although I did just watch-- shoot, what's it called? Nope. The End of the Fucking World? That's not on Netflix. I think that's on Amazon. Do you know that one?

DANI: I have heard of it.

SAM: It's really good. No. It's two kids. It's British. There's some killing. Anyway. Brian Blessed reading his autobiography. Okay, I'll look it up, guys. This is great. Oh man, these are all great suggestions. If only there was a way to archive all this. Is there? Can I look at this later? Will this be archived on our--? I'm not-- I don't-- I can't-- will you explain to me how to log in and watch this later? Okay, good. Thanks, guys.

I Am Sin To You. I Am So Into You. I don't know-- asks, "Besides your own characters, which character relationships or interaction dynamics do you enjoy watching the most?" Oh, that's a great question. I really like Caleb and Fjord. I think there's interesting stuff there. Like they respect each other, they are both a little wary of each other. It's like we're watching two could-be leaders jockeying for position but in a polite way. Like they don't want to step on each other's feet but they also want to get what they want but they also don't want to piss off the other guy. It's really cool to watch. I also enjoy watching Caleb and Beauregard a lot, watching what Caleb does to Beauregard and brings out a little bit of her humanity, and her softiness just a little bit. I enjoy watching Caduceus and anybody who's an NPC, especially. Just the way he reads people is really cool. And I just like Ashley Johnson in real life, not as a character.

All right, That Gamer Girl says, "What is your favorite guilty pleasure?" Well, you're looking at it right now. It's talking about myself. [Laughter] Oh, that's also a good guilty pleasure. My favorite guilty pleasure... let's see here. Guilty pleasure. I mean, a lot of the pleasures that I have in life are not really guilty. It's like, yeah, it's mostly like reading to my kids and and stuff like that. Lately my favorite guilty pleasure is watching clips of magicians on YouTube. Like Penn & Teller, You Can't Fool Us or whatever that show is. I've been watching a lot of that. And then I got on this weird tangent the other night-- Travis would be proud-- I watched this series of YouTube videos of the craziest trick plays in football history, and I went on this crazy deep dive into football plays. I spent like an hour, and my wife had texted me, she was going to bed. She texted me like. "Are you coming to bed soon?" and I was like, "I'm just finishing up some work, baby, cause I was in the office. I just watched football videos for an hour. It was terrible. I'm a terrible person. Thank God she doesn't watch our channel.

Okay Ennebrabrit-- nope. Enneabrit says, "How do you think Campaign One would have gone differently if Scanlan had never come back to Vox Machina?" They would have all died. Yeah, I mean, they really needed him in that last fight. They needed him in the part with the Ioun, right? They would have all died.

DANI: Counterspell was so clutch.

SAM: And that's not just me puffing myself up. I think they all needed everybody. It wasn't just they needed only Scanlan. Everybody needed to be there for that to work, and if Tary had been there, it would not have worked. There is no amount of money that would have bought them a victory in that final fight. Spoilers-- they won. Scanlan MVP. Thank you very much. Yeah, you guys are being so nice to me now. Where was this niceness when I was talking about how Reed Richards was my favorite character? Huh? How quickly they turn.

"If Nott could switch bodies with one member of the Mighty Nein, who would it be?"

DANI: Beau's got a pretty hot bod.

SAM: Beau is hot as shit. She is ripped. And by the way, monks? I had no idea. They can do anything. They're amazing. Everyone should be a monk. Beauregard would be high on the list. Jester's a cutie. Nott likes Jester a great deal. I think probably Beau though. I mean that's--

DANI: If you have the option to switch bodies with somebody, go with the one that has a [JENGA] bod.

SAM: Yeah, you can bounce a quarter off of any part of Beau's body. It's amazing. Back to Reed Richards hating. Great. Awesome. Question: What sitcom would Nott star in? Alf. Nott would be Alf. Yep, yeah, yeah, she would eat cats, yes.

Question: Why didn't Scanlan use Wish the day after the last battle? There's nothing to say that Scanlan didn't use Wish the day after the last battle but there was nothing to do. You can't undo something that has been done by a god. I think Matt and I actually maybe even talked about this briefly, that like-- and he confirmed that the only way Scanlan's Wish could have done anything to prevent Vax disappearing forever was right then in that moment before Vax was taken away from us, and and once that happens-- that's something that I don't think even Wish could have taken back. That's not to say the Scanlan didn't try maybe a few days later, or something just like a quick little little effort. It probably just didn't work and so just went on with sadness.

Well, that's the show, guys. No. No, we'll do a few more. Let's see here. What's your favorite pudding? Tapioca. What's next? Yeah, tapioca is great.

DANI: Chocolate?

SAM: Ew.

DANI: What?!

SAM: I don't like chocolate, period. Straight up, I don't like chocolate. Dark chocolate is gross. Coffee is gross. Milk chocolate is okay, but only with something else, like peanuts or peanut butter. A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup-- mmm. A Snickers bar-- mmm. Chocolate with some wine? That's nice.

DANI: Is that just year drinking wine--

SAM: It's a nice accompaniment to the wine. But yeah, chocolate is straight-up not great. Oh boy, oh boy.

DANI: There are no more questions.

SAM: I'm sorry, guys. Yeah. Yeah, and I hate kittens, too! No, I like kittens. They're great. Ooh! A kitten covered in chocolate-- just eat that thing up. All right, Uncle Peepums-- great name-- "What did you give that person at the back of the live show in New York?" I think that's gonna have to remain a secret. I will say it might be illegal in some states. It was a ferret. Yep, it was a ferret. I know for a fact that ferrets are against the law in New York City because I used to own one in New York City very briefly. By the way, I hope not controversial-- ferrets are the worst pet. Do not get a ferret. They look real cute. They're fun when they crawl all over you, but man do they stink. They poop, they hate humans, they scratch, they're awful. Again, this is from my one ferret experience, so please don't come at me if you're a ferret lover, but man it was the worst experience.

Thank you. A lot of support here. Reed Richards was a ferret. True. Man. Okay, let's go back to the list here. What do we got? What do we got? Vermillion Crimson says, "After Scanbo, what's your favorite shenanigans moment as a D&D player?" Just straight-up shenanigans, huh? I mean Tary and Grog--

DANI: Oh, god, yes.

SAM: --doing stuff together and guard stuff.

DANI: That escalated so quickly. That went from [JENGA] to batshit insane in 3.5 seconds.

SAM: Yeah, that was a good time. You know a lot of Tary shenanigans were pretty fun to do. The whole prank on the beach, the prank war on the beach in Dalen's Closet or whatever it was called. Tary... oh, there was another one with Taryon that was real fun, too. I don't know. There was a lot of good shenanigans with Tary. With Scanlan, there was a lot of lady favor stuff that happened. Oh, Taryon when he got hooked up with Helga, Hilga-- that was good shenanigans. There's all good-- it's probably my favorite stuff about D&D is doing shenanigans, especially with Travis Willingham. Name-drop. Okay guys, we're--

DANI: He did the same thing that you did earlier, which is drop in for one question, and--

SAM: Travis showed up in chat?

DANI: Yeah.

SAM: Are any of the of the Mighty Nein here in chat? Do any of them care about me or our friendship? Let's look for a second and see if anyone-- Oh, fluffernutter, yes, was a great shenanigan. And the love potion was a great shenanigan-- holy shit, that was so fun and it was on the live show. That took up like 45 minutes of the live show. Dasbif is here but there's no people. Oh, Arsequeef is here? Yeah, these are my peeps, but none of my actual castmates. Spice was a good shenanigan. Miss Rachel is here. Oh, that's good enough for me. That should be good enough for anybody.

DANI: I'm here for you.

SAM: Sure. That's good, too. "How did you and Laura come up with fluffernutter?" I whispered something to her. She whispered something back, and I think she might have said-- this was during a game, probably while other people were talking, because sometimes we chat-- she said, What should our codeword be? and I wrote down on her page "fluffernutter" and that was that. Travis and Laura are here. Oh, guys! You know what would be-- "Sam is stupid." Fuck you, Travis! Please don't hurt me. You're bigger than me. Wouldn't it be awesome-- I'm just gonna say this. I'm just gonna imagine this cause this one's for me, guys. Wouldn't it be awesome if Travis and Laura were making out during this, like they're watching me but they're making out? They're like necking or something. Not full-on, cause that's gross, but they're just canoodling a little bit on the couch cause Ronin's asleep, they got the night to themselves, they're like, "What should we do?" and Travis is like, "I don't know, baby, I'll just turn on Twitch or something." She's like, "All right, sure, let's turn on Twitch," and they start watching and then they're kind of just like "Mmmm," nuzzling each other, and then they're full-on in it, making out, necking each other, and now they're watching this and it's turning them on more somehow. Oh, yes!

DANI: I just want you to know that Travis called you a dickbat.

SAM: Yeah, that's probably not happening. It's probably not.

DANI: Well, not anymore, not since you called them out on it.

SAM: I'll be hearing about that later. All right. I guess we should wrap it up. Guys, this has been amazing. Commander Pop, you get the last question. "What's one musical you think everyone should see?" I'm not gonna go the Hamilton route, guys. I'm gonna switch it up and give you a little Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen. I just saw that, and boy, was it special. It was really great. The staging was great, the production design was amazing, the music, especially in the first act, is incredible. Dear Evan Hansen, run, don't walk, to go see it. And also the other musical you should think everyone should see is one of those super cuts of me singing a bunch of Scanlan songs. Because it's all about me tonight, guys! Me! Me and the Pablove Foundation. So guys, thanks for your support. You guys raised a lot of money to support those suffering from childhood cancer and research that's gonna beat this disease. Thank you, guys, for your support, your dollars. Thanks for hanging out with me tonight. Thanks for not reporting us to Twitch, and I hope you guys have had as much fun as me. We're gonna stop streaming right now but I'll still be here talking for a good hour or two more. Goodnight. Have some wine. Think of me. And Travis and Laura, continue.

[Music]