OH!CON: A Chat with the Outer Hebrides Comic Con Founders – OH!CAST

The Origin of the Outer Hebrides Comic Con

Host Callum welcomes Kathleen and John, the masterminds behind OH!CON. However, ironically, they are two of the most difficult guests to nail down for the OH!CAST show! They are the core organizers of the Outer Hebrides Comic Con. John and Kathleen finally sit down to share the full origin story of OH!CON. Indeed, this is a question many people have asked the team for years. We go right back to the beginning of the journey. In addition, we discuss how a full-scale Comic Con was developed in the Outer Hebrides.

Planning, Passion, and Community

The discussion moves beyond the initial idea. Kathleen and John reveal the extensive planning, passion, and sheer effort required to turn the concept into a successful annual event. They talk about the biggest challenges they faced in the early years. Furthermore, they detail how they secured guests and venues in the Hebrides—an effort that once involved coordinating with even the Klingon attendees on the Isle of Lewis. The founders explain that OH!CON wasn’t just built for the existing nerd community. Instead, it was built for the entire island community. Therefore, they passionately discuss the unique atmosphere that only OH!CON creates. This atmosphere is one of absolute acceptance and joy. Consequently, this is clearly a labour of love for both of them.

OH!CON’s Enduring Legacy

The hosts reflect on the incredible community legacy of the Outer Hebrides Comic Con. Moreover, they recall the touching stories that sum up the spirit of OH!CON. For instance, John recounts the story of a young boy attending the very first OH!CON. The boy ran off, exclaiming, “These are my people!” Thus, this powerful moment perfectly encapsulates the event’s purpose. They stress that OH!CON provides a space where people can be their authentic selves. They don’t have to pretend to be into football or other mainstream hobbies anymore.

Finally, Kathleen and John look forward to the next convention. Consequently, they tease some of the guests and events they are currently planning. Ultimately, this is a deep dive into the heart and soul of the convention and the people who make it happen.

Full Transcript Outline (Quick Jumps)

00:00:00 – Introduction to OH!CON

00:10:00 – The Origins of OH!CON

00:20:00 – Community Involvement and Support

00:30:00 – Challenges and Successes

00:40:00 – The Unique Appeal of OH!CON

00:50:00 – Personal Reflections and Impact

Full Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.159)
out for a while.

Yeah, it’s the one we did the Klingonshaw with, they recommended this to us.

No, I used a couple when I was in the library and they all had drawbacks and positives, but StreamYard I found was the easiest.

Yeah. OK. Sorry. Carry on.

No, no, Happening.

Speaker 2 (00:26.231)
Okay.

And hello, everyone. Welcome back to Ocast. It’s been a while. We are the official podcast of Ocon, the Comic Con of the Outer Hebrides. And well, without further ado, I will introduce our two very special guests who, ironically, given how much I work with them, are the two most difficult guests to nail down for this show. I am, of course, talking about who we lovingly described in the promos for this, the masterminds behind Ocon.

I can see the heads shaking already. Welcome Kathleen and John. Welcome to your first, is this your first ever podcast?

Yes, it’s my very first and thank you for asking. We’ve tried to avoid it up till now because I’m very shy. I like to be in the background.

And how are you getting on, John?

Speaker 3 (01:19.458)
Yep, I’m doing well and I’m glad to be here.

All right, so I guess like with all good stories, I think we’ll go right back to the beginning, probably the question a lot of people have always asked me and I can never give the… So where did the idea for all of this come from?

I suspect our memories will differ on this. The way I remember it is going back, I think 2017, And you were working for the library service and a perk of being librarians as you go, a librarians monthly magazine. And in that there was an article about mainland library services running mini comic cons. you said, wouldn’t that be cool to do?

I said something stupid like, yeah, how difficult could that be? And we may revisit that thought later on. It went from there, it? We did some thinking about it. We chatted to quite a few people about various possibilities. We went to Glasgow, kind of sort of suss out the kind of things that we might offer.

Because it took about a year or two years just in the thought process of it. Because I think the libraries that had done things, they hadn’t done it themselves. They’d got one of these kind of Comic-Con companies to come in, but they sort of oversaw it. we knew that would never work here. So I think about two years, we’re just putting out feelers and seeing what people thought, just cornering people, random people around town and sort of spreading the word.

Speaker 1 (03:06.158)
grew slowly.

It took a while to sort of get to the point where we thought we had something more than just a play, sort of, let’s do a comic con.

I remember, I’m going to say it was your idea, because it could have just been a library event, but it was you who said, let’s get volunteers on board. And I think that’s really early on, because we didn’t usually, if you did a library event, it would just be library. So this was different from the beginning, in that we put out the feelers at that very first meeting.

You know, we met people there that are still, you know.

I think it’s important to build us as the of the minds behind it. There’s a lot of people still involved in from the off and without whom we could not be doing it. So yeah, might be the spark, but we’re absolutely not the fire. That’s everybody else.

Speaker 2 (04:10.478)
To quote the boss there, yeah. For me, was like I moved back to the island in 2015. And for me, I also wish there was something like for geeks because remember when the Force Awakens came up and how much that sold out the lanta? Well, was it not do we not set a record loose for the most Star Wars crazy place in the world?

Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:29.545)
And I think-

Speaker 3 (04:36.008)
I hadn’t heard that, that’s brilliant.

I just remembered seeing people go to that in costume and just being so touched by it and thinking, gosh, it could happen here, you know, it could.

No, there was an official story saying for per head of population, our cinema had the biggest attendance for The Force Awakens in the world.

That is awesome.

Thank you.

Speaker 2 (05:03.438)
I think it was 10 days solid it was sold out for show. We could soon it came up

That should be out there in sort of visitor statistics about what’s going on with the art I produce.

mean, just because for me, my memory is there’s always been like a strong interest in all of this stuff, like growing up in school. I remember there was a lot of geeks, but we kind of like traditionally as back then, we kind of hid in the corner talking about it. it was just it was quite a number of us. And as I remember.

Yeah, being so many of you, was still this feeling that you had to hide in the corners.

Yeah, and just to throw it out, I remember the thing we all really bought, the big thing at the time was Red Dwarf. Like we were all obsessive about Red Dwarf back then. That was the mid-90s, the peak of Red Dwarf.

Speaker 1 (05:57.698)
What were your favorites? Because there’s lots that I missed, not being, you know, sort of being South African. I missed a lot, but I’ve heard about Blake Seven and Doctor Who. For me, I’d never seen Doctor Who before coming to the UK. And it was the thing I most wanted to do. And I got a friend I was working with at the time. His son loaned me the best of. And it was just like, I can finally see Doctor Who.

You

Because I’ve got a friend in South Africa and like, you know, I met her briefly when she was here, like just a work colleague. And she went back and then the Doctor Who revival. And I met her and what she’d doctored. said, what’s that? And I just sent, it was the promo image of Chris Eccleston standing in front of our tower. goes, what? then, what is this all about? And I tell you, he travels in space and time in that book. And she was just, what? But then I sent her some,

Nimble.

Speaker 2 (06:57.304)
borrowed DVDs, I won’t say in what way they were borrowed, but she’s now, and she’s hooked on it now. She just said it’s most incredible thing ever.

Yeah, you know, and I can’t remember if it was did I hear about that after Star Wars came out because I remember buying a whole lot of Star Wars, you know first I was Sort of publications and I think that’s they said Doctor Who these were the inspirations and I think that’s how I discovered about it. So it was Quite late for me. But yes, I’d read all about it before. Yeah. Yes

And so when was that first meeting again? I’m trying to remember what year.

I think 2019 because the first Ocon would have been 2020 but of course pandemic and so on. Lockdown was only about four weeks before the actual plan.

Yeah, it was so tight.

Speaker 3 (07:59.054)
You can’t look back and think, well, actually, that’s probably a relief because I think we’d probably underestimated at the time how much.

Yeah, because I remember, I remember seeing the article in Hab News where you called out for volunteers and I went along and I just thought, well, this will be, you know, very early ideas, months. And then you said six weeks and I was like, what’s six

Yeah.

And that was, I think that was just sort of because we got funding for it and you know, there are always some sort of time constraints with this kind of funding and we’d only got some, you know, sorry, you know, not a huge amount. So I think we were thinking of very low key. And remember one of our guests a couple of years ago, Sean Azir, he was on the board of the library group that okayed that first funding. I thought it was…

Interesting, so it was going to be so low key. It was going to be a very small event

Speaker 3 (08:57.966)
you say that we had been committed very into supporting library and library events.

We had about four to six really good guests.

I guess things got in the way.

The member at one meeting someone saying well we we need to just make sure that we’ve got enough hand sanitizer

Yes.

Speaker 1 (09:29.41)
Couple of weeks later, that was okay.

Yeah, and I do remember saying, there might be some COVID restrictions, but we can work around them. And then just four weeks later, the world shut down.

We were so naive, we were so focused on this had to happen.

Yeah.

Looking at it from the other perspective, it gave us a couple of years to start thinking about it little more sensible kind of way or realistic on the way. And we did get funding again. That was the COVID recovery funding, I think.

Speaker 1 (10:04.718)
That’s it. I think because that was just a sort of thanks to Creative Scotland because it was, again, that was library funding we got, but they gave us COVID recovery funding then. And that really supported it because I think we were feeling, you know, was that period of the COVID where you’re coming out and everyone was still so exhausted and kind of apathetic. And I don’t, I think we’re just thinking, are we going to do this or aren’t we?

you know, everyone was feeling a bit pooped. And I remember it was talking to Linda, the librarian at the Nicholson, and she just said, some of the pupils have asked her, is it going to happen this year? And I just thought if some of those pupils had remembered through COVID, we’ve just, we’ve got to get our fingers out. We’ve got to do it. And it was her telling us that, that I think really gave us that push with the funding from

the COVID recovery funding that gave us a bit of the energy to do it. A lot of things just fell into place and it just did work out better. And everyone from that first meeting, so many people came and were still willing to get involved.

I was really surprised after three years, this is essentially the same crowd that was here before. It was quite remarkable. It must have just been in everyone’s head all the time.

Yes.

Speaker 1 (11:32.366)
Yeah, yeah. And it is remarkable. is, know, a couple of people had moved on and that, but otherwise essentially the same. yeah, it was. And of course, I think after that first year, it was that big decision. This seemed to be so special. needed to stand on its own. So kind of. Yeah, but I suppose I’m jumping ahead a bit there.

It’s alright. The times like like Doctor Who times kind of not going to be linear Yeah, time you why me stuff moving on but it was a I’ve just got that abiding memory. I told the story when I was on Robert’s podcast the Scottish Klingon the awesome Robert and it will have to get to his story later on So his glorious journey that and those cut short and all that but it was just

Thank you, Bonnie.

Speaker 1 (12:26.94)
Yeah.

Yeah, but I just remember walking into that meeting and then, know, as I walk, I was just looking at the the notice board and then I saw the quiz night on at the golf club and I just, all right, yeah, that’s that’s nice. And it was just when you sat down and you saw planning out, think. Now, was Heddaward going to do his cult movie on the Wednesday night or the Thursday night? I can’t remember for that first one.

That was Thursday.

Yeah, I remember you Kathleen, as you always do, love standing next to whiteboards at meetings.

and my comfort.

Speaker 3 (13:07.852)
Yes.

Speaker 2 (13:11.694)
And I just, like I said, I remember just seeing Thursday and then Saturday and you were on about, and I was just thinking, that Friday just, we’ve got to have something on a Friday. And I kind of mentioned it and you said, well, we’re open to ideas. And then it just popped into me. Oh, there was a quiz. I saw that on the board and I just said, how about we do like this gay quiz thing? And you guys go, that’s great. And then John, it was you turned to me and said, oh, would you be able to write something for us?

This, and then in my head I’m going, I have never written anything in my life. I wouldn’t have the first clue. But of course, I just immediately said, yeah, no problem. I’ll do that.

And ever since that first one, it’s just part of Ocon now, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s just part of Ocon.

Yeah.

It was the very first quiz that night when it started turning up. That’s when I started to realize we have something special here this whole event.

Speaker 3 (14:16.33)
Yeah, I think you touched on something there, which is that first year we really didn’t know.

Yeah, we have no idea.

bite, you know, was anyone other than ourselves interested in it? So, yeah, I can get that.

And also in my head, it’s just, well, you guys will have noticed as Lewis folk, we’re not the most outgoing of people. We’re quite reserved, aren’t we? I think it’s fair to say. And so I was just thinking, will anyone be daring enough to come and cosplay? Will anyone turn up and cosplay? And then we were just stunned on the day, like the cosplays had turned up.

I mean, remember when the tickets went on sale and you know, think they were in a state of absolute fear that this would be the biggest dud and it was just, and it went on sale, didn’t it go on sale at one minute past midnight or something? And people had actually stayed up and were just thinking, what? Because you know, I’ve been to so many kind of events when I was at the library.

Speaker 1 (15:20.526)
of quite big names and you know there would be four people turning up in the audience. So you know it’s a real threat, it’s not sometimes the know the person, the guest you’ve got, you just don’t know what’s going to appeal. So yeah I just don’t think anything will, yeah we’ll never forget that feeling that first year, you know it was exhausting, absolute elation I suppose.

Yeah, because it was my girlfriend at the time, she was one of the people who stayed up till midnight because she had three kids and she was like, what if I don’t get the tickets? Well I said, you’ll be okay.

I apologise to mums up and down the aisle because so many had to stay up till that time to get their tickets.

Yeah, well they had so much to do already.

You can sell at a more sensible time now. Yeah, lessons learned.

Speaker 1 (16:08.75)
Don’t panic, don’t panic.

And so like, one of the big questions, so like, well, I’m involved in it, but I’m obviously asking as kind of the outside voice, what goes into organizing all of this? I know it’s just, don’t, I’ll let you guys answer the question in your own words. Like how much work goes into organizing.

I suppose in a strange way we keep on thinking as we go on it will get easier but I think it doesn’t it kind of gets more complex because you’re having to actively improve and tighten things up. First year was just we let’s just see what happens. But now yeah it gets it’s sort of slightly more challenging and gets more formal which I think it has to be to be sustained.

you

Speaker 3 (16:59.47)
Yeah, it does suck a bit of the fun out of it. It’s water allows us to keep going because either there is money that needs to be put into this to make it work. Yeah. And we’ve been really lucky that we’ve had some generous funding over the years. that does mean we have to do things in a certain way, business-like way. yeah, that side of it.

responsible.

It’s tedious but, you know, it’s all the permits and the insurance and, know, policy on this and a funding application for that, all that kind of stuff. But then there’s payback on all of this to make it worthwhile the doing of.

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:34.882)
Hold this.

Speaker 1 (17:46.478)
Absolutely, and I think you know it is it’s all that Edmund stuff that’s kind of behind the scenes and I think you know a lot of people You know don’t realize what goes on in the background. You just wanted to to Carry on but it is a lot to do with the funding and making sure that we are Doing the right thing that we’re listening to people come and respond to them Make sure it’s inclusive

and welcoming and affordable for people. And it’s our volunteers as well. It’s not just the public who come. Our volunteers are so important. Everyone has a role to play and they need to feel that they can contribute and grow.

We are making it sound like we do all the heavy lifting and that’s not true. There is so much that comes in. John making his games and all the organisation in the town hall. There’s the cosplay. There’s a massive contribution in from…

It’s

Speaker 2 (18:47.918)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:55.054)
The Atman is just sort of almost a tiny bit. It’s all that kind of stuff.

We bang on about it because we do it. It’s a tiny portion of it and hopefully we do the dull bits of no one else has to. It is more fun thinking about cosplay or thinking about a session of D &D or whatever. That’s better thing to be organizing.

Because again,

Speaker 1 (19:24.174)
It’s the creativity. You just need that infrastructure, think, which is the double. But once that’s done, and I think we are getting better at that. But yeah, when you think of what we’ve done, you you’ve got your quiz. You know, there’s been Gaelic translations of role-playing games, know, functions, glossary, Gaelic glossary. There are a couple of volunteers are thinking of creating their own tabletop games.

You know, there’s been so much creativity.

the heroes of the Outer Heavens comic. Bristol did. We’re in association with 10 schools across the island.

think it may have been 12, even, you know, huge things. And also to talk about the art competition. What that is just.

See you there.

Speaker 2 (20:12.974)
Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:18.028)
Yeah, do gain trees right from power up to here. that’s kind of graphic. Yeah.

I remember was it in the first year in the juniors, there was a girl who won a prize and Tanya just said, like, you’re way ahead of a lot of the artists I’ve seen some of the, was something like that she said to her, Like Tanya was like so impressed.

Yeah. And that difference you hope that would make to a young artist growing up, that’s just essential, would make such a difference. And I have read about, well heard from people that, who’s drawn and came and then developed an interest in art, which those are the stories we’d love to hear more about. And you never do get those little bits in feedback. You sometimes do. But that’s the important thing.

people have.

There’s an impact to more, you know, because on the one hand, this does look like a load of us dressing up in sort of, you know, lycra rubber and playing games all day, which is absolutely nasty. But there is also the the fact that you look at the just the cosplay competition, for example, the invention and the actual technical ability that is on display there where people created their own costumes. I’m thinking of the guy that won the

Speaker 3 (21:40.654)
2023 on the Transformer. He literally did Transformer. Just extraordinary ability. But it’s also people getting involved in having the nerve to stand up on stage and be part of the cosplay. It’s about people suddenly finding they’re not the only Gaelic role player in the entire island.

Thank

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:08.718)
And that confidence to stand out there in their costume and their character.

There’s also the workshops and the kind of hope and this sounds right up myself, but you kind of hope that people go away from con with something more than they came to it. There is thinking, thinking, Oh, actually, I really enjoyed doing my activity. I’m going to find more about or I thought that costume was great. I’m going to go for that kind of costume next year myself. Yeah, this kind of thing. So see. there’s there is that kind of loftier aspect to it as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

It’s also about dressing up in rubber and playing games.

It’s everything, it’s a bit of everything and you can come and have fun or can come and learn something and hopefully just meet a guest and you know, it’s just all those things but I think yes, underlying that it’s really, really important and valuable to encourage people’s creativity but in a space and an area where they feel that they can sort of flourish, you know. Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:19.724)
And hopefully there’s room for all kinds.

Because the one way I kind of see that we have become this very welcoming space is, and again, I’m probably going to bang on about the quiz just because that’s what I do. There is a team of four young boys who have attended every quiz. And they finish dead last every year as well. But they love it. They still come. They still come just because the end of it.

I love it.

They said to me, it’s just because it’s so friendly and welcoming and it’s so fun to do. Even though they finished dead, absolutely dead last year. And I love that about them. I look forward to seeing them again this year.

I think you’re to have to have a special round just aimed for them that no one over 21 will know the answers to.

Speaker 3 (24:12.736)
you

Well, I’m not giving away too much, but there’s a special question this year, which if you’ve attended every quiz, you should know the answers to.

okay.

Okay, okay, yeah.

I’ll tell you once the record because I can let you guys know but I gave away too much on AR so…

Speaker 1 (24:33.582)
Good.

Looking at the quiz, I think it’s more difficult this year for those who are interested, but last year’s I thought was impossible, but everyone scored quite highly, which was a shock to all of us.

I remember, I remember reading it and thinking, you know, I can’t say anything, but it must just be me because I don’t know when I don’t know a simple answer. But it just shows the dedication of the people that come. Yeah.

you

Speaker 2 (25:01.772)
Yeah, and we’ve just had so many good stories over the years from people. again, sorry, quiz again, but remember the first year, I think you told me Kathleen, the CO2 alarms were going off in the library.

for Thursday.

Yeah, because everyone has gasped and sighed at the questions.

I see.

Yes, the Sophia.

Speaker 2 (25:26.03)
I’m just, I just for those who are and I don’t know this but see the first year, myself and James were still finishing off that quiz as people coming in. You remember that?

this.

And it was straight out in the library, wasn’t it? And it was so new for that as well, know, just having a quiz and everything. gosh, and I remember Elaine was there, she helped and she’s moved on now and yes, getting so nostalgic.

Yeah.

Like I said, and also we have been blessed with really good guests and they’ve all just said lovely things about us.

Speaker 3 (26:11.424)
No, I mean everyone has been golden, mean couldn’t wish for better guests. always do have this fear that someone’s gonna be a massive prima donna or come in an enormous rider or just not the quietest they were described on the tin but no everybody has been absolutely splendid.

they’ve been amazing. I just sort of feel that, yeah, they do become sort of part of this family. especially for those people that we’ve managed to see again, whether going to Comic-Cons or some have been returned guests. Yeah, we now have that network that’s sort of growing each time.

And again, I think it’s a testament to the whole team is that they make guests feel welcome and part of the event rather than just sit at a table and sort of do your thing. So it does, I think, pay off. bumped into people at comms and things like that. We’ve always been really glad to see it.

And that was very much from the sort of volunteer team, wasn’t it? I don’t know, was it Nick or someone who first came up with the idea of taking them on a, all the guests on a tour on a Sunday? think it was, and it’s just brilliant because it’s become like the quiz and like it’s become such an essential part of it. And I think every single guest we’ve had has gone on that and so enjoyed it, you know.

I think they also, and this comes up every year, several of the guests will say it’s nice to have a con that is not just about the merchandise and the photo ops, but actually where people are doing things and taking part. so that that emphasis that we have on having workshops and activities and the like, think does also pay off.

Speaker 2 (27:57.923)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:15.49)
And I think that’s what does make us unique. And I think there may be a couple of people in the community who would like the big names and the merchandise and that, but never have enough people to justify that. And I think, yeah, for us, think everybody on the team sort of feels that having that creative core, that’s what’s important. And it’s a very democratic and inclusive Comic-Con.

and soon these big names will be begging.

Yeah

If you’re an A-lister and are listening to this and are free on October 11th, it’s a lot. We’re not going to necessarily… But yeah, it’s great. I think people have enjoyed the guests we’ve had and haven’t felt cheating that they are not. From Star Wars or Baldur’s Gate or whatever.

Yes.

Speaker 2 (28:56.455)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:06.99)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:14.326)
Yeah, terrific people.

Yeah, which I have to bring on to one area we are really lucky with now is our hosts. think we are lovely.

Hi. You have been a source of recommending people. We wouldn’t have got lucky on so many guests were it not for you, I have to say. I love him, but you know. Credit where credit’s due.

Good.

Speaker 1 (29:43.406)
Rick, there’s people with, you know, I know the book people, but hadn’t, you we didn’t have it. So everyone brings their expertise and your recommendation. And again, Etienne, I’m just thinking he was fab and hopefully we can invite Etienne back, you know, very soon as well. We’ve just had some terrific, but Rick and there’s just what brilliant hosts.

they just fit in so naturally with us.

It’s like they’ve been with Ocon for years. It’s incredible.

Yeah, because I think it was basically the year of the, was the year before the first meeting I actually went to, I was in Edinburgh for the summer and I just saw Star Wars, we start Rick, Rick’s show and I went to watch it and I just, this is brilliant. said, this guy’s great. And I spoke to him after the show and I don’t think he remembered until I think at the end of just when we invited him, I speak to a guy from Stornoway once after one of my shows. And then it was,

the year after that he wasn’t doing he did do Star but then I went to see his own stand-up show which if you ever get the chance go and see I hope he’s is he planning to perform at this year can we

Speaker 1 (31:02.03)
We haven’t sort of asked and you’ve just reminded me I kind of need to follow up with him and just sort out the kind of travel and all that but yeah I’ll get in touch because it would be nice if you could do something a bit different.

Yeah, because still a fan show I recommend so highly. was, I’m going to be gushing about Ricky’s embarrassment, but it was like, it’s one of those shows about a life as a geek and it is, move you to, you’ll be in tears of sadness and creasing laughter at the same time. It is so well done.

It’s a sweet kind of, lovely.

I mean, I went to it that first year. This was so relatable. And I told him afterwards, that was like a big therapy session for you, Rick. Thank you for doing that. And he was just stunned. Like, was just, well, that’s why I try and do all this.

And I think, isn’t it, that you think you’re alone and then you connect with someone like that in a way that no, someone else kind of understands, you similar experiences.

Speaker 2 (32:16.566)
It’s a good thing we reckon, Des, I think they’re both similar and different enough just to give us that little bit of variety and…

And I remember just Rick, it was just, you know, he just got stuck in when I think we we managed to get something a bit wrong and no one was there to start off the children and families. And I was thinking, wow, it’s just so lovely. He just got on with it and did an incredible

Yes.

Speaker 3 (32:47.523)
Thanks

Speaker 1 (32:52.204)
incredible job. Yeah, he’s just part of the team immediately. Lovely.

Yeah, because you said that when you went to the DACME you went to and you bumped into Rick and Des and it was just like…

It was love.

Yeah, it was so funny looking and thinking, he knows these people and we hadn’t met this then, but we recognized him.

We talked to before we had met him.

Speaker 1 (33:14.808)
Yeah.

I know, yeah Des, we can’t say enough good words about him as well, he was fantastic in his own way.

He’s his lovely wife who pretty much was roped into helping with the cosplay masquerade She was just given a sort of clipboard and just said yeah, can you do this, please?

But again, right to the spirit of it. Absolutely.

Yeah

Speaker 2 (33:36.846)
Which I think we have done with a lot of the partners. We’ve just kind of said are you doing anything you could help us with this?

This must be an occupational hazard.

Yeah

So like, can you let us in on, well, I spilled the beans on one guest by accident there by virtue. Can you spill the beans on things we have planned this year? I already know them, but I’m trying to make it sound like this is like I’m extracting like really good information. Like an interrogator.

I’m not quite sure if we can yet, can we?

Speaker 3 (34:18.248)
Some we’ve got agreement from but we haven’t got the funding in place yet so it would be preferable to mention them.

We may not know for another couple of weeks. Let’s be discreet. We can’t give names, but we do have. Again, thanks to Creative Scotland, but also thanks to Scottish Book Trust. They have given us support every year. Amazing, amazing support. And they’ve supported us again this year. So we’re going to have some of their recommended…

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:54.306)
get artists and we’ve got one kind of comic artist who’s also written books on creating comics and he’s done a really interesting sort of on the sort of history of film so I think there’s going to be a lot of very nerdy conversations with him about film and stuff. think that will be exciting. And then we’ve also got someone who writes games and also sort of teaches writing games.

That’s really good. We haven’t, we’ve always wanted to do more in that area. Yeah. focusing on highlighting games, but we’ve been, haven’t been that lucky in actually getting someone.

We.

Speaker 2 (35:37.807)
Yeah. Yeah.

We have to go through a

Yes, we have Grand Turtles here.

But yes, he’s probably about the only game specific guest we’ve managed to get in the three years we’ve done it.

because we really want to focus on games and comics, writing, know, it’s trying to get that balance, that break. But knowing that we’re only on for a day and so can’t fit, you know, too many. So yeah, sorry, it’s probably just a wee bit early. We’ll have to do another set to do the big announcements.

Speaker 2 (36:05.271)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:14.451)
We could maybe do a little mini episode where we can…

Absolutely, yeah.

You can have five minutes to wait

We’ll have Rick again. We’ve got Rick as a host.

Yeah, I’m sorry. I spilled that.

Speaker 1 (36:29.614)
That’s brilliant. mean, yeah.

you

No, think there’ll be a lot of people who’ll be looking forward to seeing Rick again. There’s quite a few people up here who are persuaded to watch his live streams.

Yeah, now we’ll chat and see what he can be persuaded to do.

Yeah, I think we are planning to do some more cast stuff on the day. think I’ll announce what exactly what it is later on. I think we haven’t quite nailed that down yet, have we?

Speaker 3 (37:05.454)
And the fact we definitely want to try and do it again. Yeah. It’s been an aspiration for all three years. We’ve not. It’s always one of those things that has been there. There’s been other stuff to do is to try and broadcast elements of of the day. people who are too far flung from the store can actually enjoy some of the event as well. So yes, if we can get outcast on the day, that’s.

That’s going to go a long way. Moving us down the path to doing what we’ve to do for three years on the

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:44.526)
And I think that’s it. know it takes place in Stornoway, but we really want it to be a sort of Outer Hebrides wide Comic Con. We know it’s still the travel, the accommodation. It’s costly for people coming up from the Southern Isles. So we’d love to see more people travel up for the day. But at the same time, we are thinking of ways of, like the live stream.

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:13.098)
and doing that and maybe, yeah, working more in partnership. And I’m glad to say we might be able to do something with TIE-Kursiva this year, you know, in North York at the Arts Centre, because they’ve agreed, you know, we’re still discussing it, but they’re going to host two of our live literature sessions on Oconte to get maybe sort of comics and

maybe events for young people and older on the same day. So I think that’s a wee step in the right direction. But we still would love to go down and do a mini Ocon day sometime.

It has definitely always been in the plans and just…

about it we just haven’t quite made it there.

Yeah, because it’s like talking about that. I think I’ve told you this before, but see one of our outreach, because we do some kind of regular outreach, OTT. I think I told you about that. There’s that guy and his daughter. They should be returning soon, but they used to travel all the way up from South US to go to OTT. They’ll catch the morning ferry and then come back, because she was really desperate to play some.

Speaker 1 (39:31.79)
dedication and it makes me feel ashamed that we still after all this time haven’t managed to. That’s incredible and yeah, you know, we really need to do more there but yeah, I don’t know, I just feel quite overcome, you know, that they come all that way and that’s how wonderful that is.

Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (39:54.342)
it’s fantastic to see which would be a nice lean into this. What’s some of your favourite memories over the years? There’s a lot, I think. We’ve all got a bank on them.

Well, yes.

So we go to year one like what were some of the just Highlights of the day like if you can because I know for you guys the day just whizzes by in an instant, couldn’t

Yeah, some of it is a blow if I’m right enough.

Little flashes, I mean that ridiculous thing was it Kieran and heroin skipping up?

Speaker 2 (40:32.462)
As a was it Jason and Michael Myers

Speaker 1 (40:45.794)
And the cosplay, I suppose, because it was so unexpected, I don’t think we were expecting so many entries. And I know it’s sort of doubled since then, but it was just that people had gone to so much trouble. It was overwhelming.

Yeah.

think being inside the Dalek and one man leaning into me, his wife had just gone past him. I’ll give you a tenner if you exterminate her.

Dalek I’ve forgotten that that was just such a hit and and our guests I have such those first guests I think were so generous with their time and they were so enthusiastic there was I don’t think we’ll ever you know we’ve had so many fantastic guests each year but that first lineup I think have a special place

See ya.

Speaker 2 (41:38.614)
Yeah, and for anyone who’s it if you go to if you look up eti and on youtube he’s got a little video diary of the first okon remember

So lovely, yes, he would sort of post it so much. He was so generous with his time and that, yeah.

But also, think a real highlight for everyone was the raffle. And am I right? It’s Rachel’s son that was, he won the…

It’s so funny and we kept on mixing up the raffle tickets and kept on mixing them up and he kept on it was like five or seven times wasn’t it?

Yeah, it was and he was way up on the balcony for the first one and when you drew it and the scream you let out and the run was just

Speaker 1 (42:24.878)
And then he ran all the way back and then he had to come running all the way down.

And then I think it was at the third time Nick was just standing, I think you’d just better stand there, mate.

And I mean, were lot of tickets there. It was just how statistically that could have happened.

He was his enthusiasm for winning a prize didn’t die down at all each time his name was read.

yeah, I won’t forget that.

Speaker 2 (42:57.181)
Yeah, and that was the town hall the first year we held it.

internal with parts at Atlanta and parts at Lord.

yes, yes, yes, some of the library as well and spread out.

spread it around a bit.

Yes, because I think then, yeah, year two was a year at the college. That was, it was a great, it was a great year, but we did lose, I think it was like the one thing we all liked was seen just stormy full of cosplayers, like the random cosplayers.

Speaker 3 (43:28.096)
Yeah. You were right enough there. was the loss of it.

Yeah, it was a great venue and I think what I remember is that we just had line up in the foyer with all the costumes. The cosplay was wonderful. But yes, there’s something about that first year, I also remember seeing some of the young people together in costume just walking up and down town and feeling and looking so happy, you know.

Yes, before, you say, everyone was sort of maybe hiding in the shadows, you know, and everyone just embraced it and that joy in the middle of town, I think, was really…

Yeah, I think that was certainly part of the reason why we wanted to come back to the town hall for year three, was to just bring it back into town again. So, yeah.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:23.052)
Yeah, and it was good to see that last year, just the costlers wandering around the town. was, I would just realize that is like a core part of it. as for those of on the know, just the narrows we call it in Stornoway, like the pedestrian, but I’ve just seen these costumes wandering about. just, it brightens, it’s because it’s the other thing, like with the time of year we have it, it’s just, you know, the tourists, it’s all kind of quietening down and this just brings a little bit of life just in the lead up to the dark months.

That’s it, yes. It’s still time to have fun.

Because the other thing with the first year, were, and I think we all take credit to OH!CON for this, were generous enough to organise the Northern Lights for them on the first night.

We did! I mean, that was amazing. I mean, think it was one of the best displays, wasn’t it? Yeah. Just the guests just thought, this is just the most magical place in the world, you know, which it is. But yes, they got that incredible display as well. That was lovely.

Yeah, and I think I’ll always just remember the first OH!CON the most, like I’m sure I’ve got those great things in here, but it’s just that’ll always stick in our minds the most that day, because.

Speaker 1 (45:43.468)
I think so, because and what when you think back and maybe we don’t reflect back enough that we did get so many things right. was that first thing, first year that we’ve carried through, which is unusual. know, it is. just think it just shows what an incredible team it was and that everyone had that different ideas and it all came together so well. It’s a real testament to, you know,

team. Because I think we are kind of one of the only, I think there’s one other sort of volunteer run Comic Con. I’m not sure.

this.

Speaker 3 (46:23.59)
I mean a lot of the 991s are all company run.

Yeah.

I don’t know what was last year or the year before in the summer, I travelled down to… Well, because I do want to badmouth anyone, but I went down to a convention or meet up. And remember, I came back and I said, like, we are so far ahead of these guys. And they had halls in the exhibition centre in Glasgow to work with. Remember, I told you, like, yeah, we are so far ahead, you wouldn’t believe it.

And it’s kind of weird, think we got a wee idea because Sean is here very kindly last year gave us a sort of table at ACME, so that was September and so we were there as Ocon. And I think that’s made us realise we saw so many other guests we’d had up and we chatted and we got so many people coming up to the table that we kind of realised for the first time.

We’re doing okay, you know, think we’re really hard on ourselves. We have a sort of inferiority complex. And I think it’s good to always try and be better. But that’s when it’s sort of, and you discovered that as well, we’re doing something right. We just need to keep doing.

Speaker 3 (47:43.694)
that seeing where we can improve things, a good thing. drives you forward.

Absolutely, yes. You don’t want to be static. You want to sort of push.

Yeah, it’d be easy to sort of sit on a resume with the gracious thing since.

But I think it was quite nice to think, no, the focus on the creativity and getting the guests to actually do things. And as I say, I know people would like the merchandising and the autograph opportunities, but we won’t turn any guests down. But we’re doing OK. We are.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:19.678)
Yeah, because it’s got a lot of echoes because I can remember when the first Hebridean Celtic Festival, because I was a volunteer at that one the very first time. It’s just there’s a lot of echoes there. Like when I was thinking about this in the lead up to our conversation, there is quite a lot of similarities I see. It just started off so well, and it’s it’s big for us, but it’s not a huge, but it’s got such a great reputation.

Yeah, because

how they do it and because it’s unique and local and

Yeah, and it’s also seen as the family one, the friendly one, the community one, and everyone joins in. And I think we’ve kind of adapted a lot of that ethos into Irish.

I hope so. Yes, I hope so as well. I think it’s a real thrill for us this year that we’re going to have a tent at Headcelt. think that’s great.

Speaker 2 (49:16.128)
like the stars of a line were cut off with them.

And I think it’s going to be great. I don’t think we were sort of ready before and now I think we feel we can sort of take part and they’ve been wonderful and so enthusiastic. It’s been really lovely to work with them.

Would you say that’s probably like the goal for us? like we can be for the Scottish Comic Con scene, what’s Hebkelt is for the music festival scene in Scotland.

You’re always sad.

I like that, I think that would be a very, very worthy ambition.

Speaker 3 (49:55.66)
Yeah, I mean, think we’ve got a little distance to go, but it’s yeah, mean, think inspiration, absolutely. It’d be nice to be that independent festival that punches above its weight and it’s really something kind of worth.

but never forget who they are and what they are, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, because it was the one thing I do see that Hebkelt has done right and that we seem to be adopting now. And it’s something I think when people get into doing these kind of events up here or where you’re trying to attract outside focus, they always think, who’s going to come up here? And I think we’ve now adopted the mentality of, come on, you want to come up here. It’s amazing. Yeah. And when you go and when we get like

some people that we ask and they look so enthusiastic like that we’ve got to we’re realizing let’s use the hebrides as being the selling point and not the disadvantage.

Speaker 3 (50:52.606)
It is a double edged sword thing exists. When we go to say, would you like to come to Comic Con and say, where is it? you say, is the out of head release? It’s actually quite a big ask because if you’re just doing a Comic Con in Edinburgh, you can get there and be home for tea at the end of it. What to actually, and particularly if you’re a working professional, no, guess I’m a You’ve got to, yeah, you’re, we’re not hiring you for a day’s work, but you’ve got to take these to Comic

You’ve got to take two days.

Speaker 3 (51:20.338)
to get here and get back again. It is a big ask but it is the thrill of coming to somewhere that you otherwise probably wouldn’t come to accidentally. You think if you’re invited to the stop or comic con, well yeah I might drive you to stop. You’re not going to come through the Irish Hebrides by accident.

If you are, want to hear about how you ended up in the US.

Cool sat nav ever, isn’t it?

And I think we would love to be in a position, I think it’s sort of difficult. I don’t think we would ever have the capacity for many more audience members than we’re getting at the moment. Yeah, because just, how do we do it? Yeah. But also we’d love people to come from the mainland and we know it’s not

is certainly something we’re wrestling with. We expand hell. And it’s not something with an easy answer, I think.

Speaker 1 (52:20.352)
Probably the best time of the year to visit, but face it, any time of the year is fabulous to visit. It may be the beach, sort of what you do, the summer experience. But we do hope it will then be a tourist tour as well.

What we don’t do is enough spending 500 tickets to people on the mainland and then no one here can enjoy it. It’s certainly an aspiration but we’re thinking about it. If anyone’s got a solution, again, write in, you’ve got the address.

There’s people coming.

Speaker 2 (52:54.926)
Yeah, we’re welcome, Eddie. We’ll just say that right now. If you’re in the islands and you’ve heard this and you are interested, just get in touch with us. We’re happy to help. It’s one thing we’ll never stop accepting as more volunteers.

Absolutely and and suggestions and I think even if people write in and make suggestions and then the evaluations We listen to everything we may be not act on it all but we take it all in because we want to make sure that it’s You know a community Comic-con for the community and yeah sort of respond to people’s needs and interests and not yeah

I was just thinking, know, Theresa, who came last year, she said she’s, so she was checked. So a friend of hers is coming again this year because they came especially last year. we do get, you know, we’re getting a few people from elsewhere and it will hold, as you say.

Sh**

Yes.

Speaker 2 (54:01.742)
Spending their web, so to speak.

Yeah.

I think it’s lovely having these connections further afield, which you’ve made so many connections through OCAS. That’s just incredible.

No.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:20.366)
I think, has Herward spoken to you that one of our, guests we’ve had on is coming over? I think, or he said he will come over and do a stall or something?

it Davies? Is it Ben Davies?

No, Bob.

Bob, sorry, me and my names. yes. And he’s got in touch and booked a table and yeah, that’s going to be great, which is fantastic.

think he’s going to be the furthest travelled we’ve ever had at the con, I think.

Speaker 1 (54:54.456)
think so, probably.

Yeah.

to raise a pursue yes

Yeah.

Yeah, Bob’s Netherlands.

Speaker 1 (55:04.174)
So yeah.

Gosh, our tentacles are spreading further and further.

Hell.

I think we should probably have a map somewhere on the wall and ask people to put a pin or a dot where they’ve come from and we take the same map out each time and see where we can sort of attract people from. That would be great.

Yeah, because yeah, I was looking at yeah, I was looking at the demographics for the podcast list just because it’s been a we’ve been on hiatus for a wee while Yeah, we have got listeners in all corners of the world. So we would love to hear from yeah, they will call us on every continent

Speaker 1 (55:47.832)
That is amazing. you know, when we had the few online workshops in March, you know, because there were workshops, you couldn’t have huge audience numbers. They were small. for the one we had people from America and Germany and as well as out of Hebrides. And I thought that was wonderful. It’s kind of. Yeah, you know, it’s just that that we can.

offer something and have this sort of extended family, but yet we’ll always be, you know, kind of.

Yeah. I’ll let you know this when I looked at it, we picked up listeners in a new country that wasn’t there the last time I looked. We’ve got a few listens in Colombia.

welcome, welcome. And then we’ll write in and we hope you can visit sometime.

Yeah, if you are and you’re going to make a journey, we really want to hear about that journey or how you ever found out about us in the first place would be even more interesting.

Speaker 3 (56:49.966)
I’m contacted earlier in the year by a lady from… gonna say Kentucky, I might be…

Speaker 3 (57:01.077)
Enjoyed the old cast you did for it must be in the 24 event. Yeah, she enjoyed it.

you.

Speaker 1 (57:12.184)
And actually, would you want to, if I set it up, she runs an event in Kentucky, would you consider chatting to her on Ocost?

Oh yeah, definitely. Would you consider going out to visit our all-expenses period? Yeah, chatting to you online is just as good.

Kentucky and Columbia. I think that’s amazing that you’ve got these.

was what she said she just said like when she listened to that episode which for those of you who have listened to it it sounded so planned and rehearsed and literally it was just after the quiz head or two well we’re doing that the podcast tomorrow yeah what are we doing and I was a nerd debates and it goes great idea right we’ll go with that and then like when you listen to the intro

We hadn’t even thought the questions we were going to ask at so it was completely made up on the fly.

Speaker 1 (58:18.549)
But it just so sometimes when you just go with it, it works. It’s fun to you don’t need to overthink it. You just need to and I think that kind of enthusiasm was just come through. So yeah, now it would be lovely. I will contact her again and hopefully we’ll we can all have a chat and find out about her event and yeah.

And speaking of kind of guests on epic journeys, we must, we alluded to him earlier at Klingon.

Speaker 2 (58:53.804)
They are amazing. If you haven’t, go find Cromlech Fleet, follow them. They do so much. They do a lot of activities you’ve probably seen on Facebook.

amazing amount and it would be lovely to, yeah, must chat with them before they come up to see what we can do. I am so looking forward to it. I even got into a conversation at work once and someone was talking about What’s the Base Bar and I suddenly said, no, we were down to get the Klingon and Mr Spock together in a bar, just their faces, you know, it was just like what?

I’m talking about. That’s perfectly.

No Robert was awesome and It was when I contacted him last year. I Think I’d had a run-up kind of content. I was just putting out you know cosplay guests That’s too far. That’s too far and then Robert just said yeah. Yeah, lovely wonderful love. Thank you so much Excited for it. You remember you saw the messages. He was

Speaker 1 (01:00:05.73)
And you sort of mentioned before, he got all the way there last year and then had to just literally turn around.

So he drove all the way up and I told him just park your car in Ollipool. You can just go as a food passenger on the ferry. well, there’s another wee bit. It was at the quiz night. And remember the round last year, how about the badly translated film lines? Yes. It was during that, Nick, was scoring the quiz, he kind of walked up behind me. And the first question he has is what were you smoking when you came up with this?

Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44.142)
And he says, and he said to me, if you look out there, this whole room has turned on you. I don’t think you’re making it out of here alive tonight. But I had the perfect response. said, there’s a Klingon outside who’s going to defend me.

Yeah.

That’s that’s when you know it’s comic. That’s when you know it’s open. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, he he made his way up. got off the ferry and he said it was just as he was walking out, heading up towards the hostel. He got the pink yellow alert for tomorrow. And so he checked in and he went down and he met us after the quiz and we’re just standing there. I got this yellow. And of course, did. You get the yellow alert constantly at this time of year. You know.

Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine. Because he had to be in the borough for his His son was representing Scotland in American football.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44.485)
And I know he said, look, don’t worry, you’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. You can spend the day. Don’t worry. You’ll be okay. And then I think he woke up on Saturday morning just for the early ferry, just in case. And the lady did say, yeah, you’re better. It’s not looking good out there.

He couldn’t have taken the chance, you know, not with his…

Yeah, so he got to spend one night in Stornoway, which was completely dark when he was there and when he left. So he’s not even seen Stornoway in the daylight.

mean, it is the subject of a Klingon epic poem, which he could compose and then recite in October on Okon Day, know, the tragic, volatile ferry, you know, yeah.

It’s fun to do the Gaelic version of it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33.123)
yes!

I’m sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40.066)
Well, for those listening, Robert will be with us this year. I’m talking to him. He’s definitely coming up.

Thank you.

Terrific. know. Yeah, I’ll with you later too. So we can yeah, maybe have a chat

Yeah, there’s a few other things I need to discuss which we can’t announce yet, but some really cool things that are brewing in the background here.

That’s it. Exciting stuff. Always this kind of critical time, of June, July, August, when lots of things happen before we can make the announcements.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03.618)
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13.838)
Yeah, it’s, it always, because someone asked us, when do we start planning these things? It’s almost immediately, once we’ve swept up the last bit of rubbish in the venue, then we’re thinking about the next one.

isn’t it you know

Yeah, November, December, a quarter, but then I think everyone’s exhausted at that point. But there is that kind of after event mopping up. But you do start to think about all the things. might be speaking to all the things you would like to do this year. You didn’t get around to the next year. So yeah, it is a plan, think.

Mm.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56.908)
That’s it, yeah. And they are the tedious things, because the kind of things as well, like sort of having, you know, get together with the volunteers and chatting about, just, yeah, and feeling satisfied that another year is gone, you know, successfully.

No.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21.134)
Yeah, I will just put out again if you’ve listened to this you’re interested in joining in the madness and helping out plus contact Any do any way any no matter how small it is we? Appreciate anything anyone can do in their spare time for us. We really do

Absolutely and you know for anyone wanting to volunteer on the day you know just head to the website so that’s okon.info and there’s a sort of volunteer application form so even if you can’t give a lot of time you know we really appreciate it.

Or if you’ve got something you want to sell there on the day or any, if you’ve got any work or something you’d like us to have a look at, we accept all of that. We’re more than willing to have a look at anything. You’ve got any idea you have.

Absolutely. just just Beam me up at okon.info. mean you can’t forget email address

Speaker 2 (01:05:25.879)
And yeah, just on the socials, just look up Ocon and you’ll find us very easily. Like it’s actually quite a great name because there’s not even a name close to it anyway.

No

When we first started there wasn’t a convention in Ohio that kept popping up.

Iocon, really?

Well, if you want to know something, when we started OCAST, I looked up OCAST and it’s a long, defunct, Portuguese cooking podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48.192)
all gone now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05.267)
So yeah, that’s a…

ruining in for shellfish recipes that are really quite disappointed with their outputs.

So there, yeah, if you’re looking for good taco geeks or if you’re looking for Puerto Rican recipes, the name will help you get there.

I do someway have a very nice vegan recipe for pasta di natto, so I can share those if people would like.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33.868)
In Portuguese.

Maybe not.

You

I’m tempted to like just mail the creators of that podcast just for a weird crossover episode, the weirdest crossover you’ve ever seen.

Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51.05)
You know, it would work, it would work, absolutely.

It probably would work in a weird, weird way.

Yeah.

All right, guys, we are coming up on the hour mark there. It’s been fantastic to have you both on at last. Like I said, the two most difficult guests I’ve ever had to try and nail down for a show here.

Very good at excuses and putting things off. No, no, I can’t, can’t. But thank you so much. And yeah, and hopefully soon we’ll have some more announcements to make in the next couple of months. And there’ll be the art competition and the writing competition and hopefully some more exciting things. just, yeah, visit the website.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37.74)
Yep, and also if you want to join in, cast, or you’ve got ideas for an episode, or you want to be a guest on it, I’m happy to have you. Just reach out at any of the sites and you’ll be able to, you can get in touch with us.

Absolutely. you. It’s been really fun thinking about the past couple of years and how we got here. Wonderful people we’ve met on the way. It’s been great working with you and all of them.

Bye.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13.102)
because that’s the other thing I’ll say. This might get a wee bit weepy here, but I came back to the island those years ago and because I’d left when I was 18, my friend group was dispersed and vanished and lost contact with it. And it’s thanks to you guys and this thing that I’ve got this amazing new group of friends. So it built that up for me. So I don’t know.

and I kind of feel the same. Yeah. So thank you. You know, it’s I think it’s done so much. It means so much to me as well. You know, absolutely. So that’s good to hear. Yeah.

because there’s one brief story, it kind of summed it up for me was my girlfriend at the time, the first Ocon, she took her son along with her, her eldest son, and he just kind of looked, when he walked in, he looked and he just went, these are my people, and he just ran off. I said, what more do you want than that?

What?

No, that is it. That just sums it up. These are my people. And he may not have realized they were there before. So thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20.376)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26.029)
As James said that first night, we don’t have to pretend to be into football anymore. We can talk about anything we love.

Brilliant, brilliant, so well put.

All right, so we’re going on and on here. So again, big thank you, Kathleen, big thank you, John. And hopefully we’ll have you on. Hopefully have you on again very soon. Maybe we can talk about some other things. I think I’ll let you know what the episodes I have planned are. You might be feel free to join in on some of them.

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57.46)
would be lovely and maybe just like a little chat about, you know, just before Ocon, some of our guests and what we’re looking forward to do.

Yeah, we’ll do a pre-con episode once we have everything locked and nailed down. All right, so thank you everyone for listening and we’ll see you again next time. Bye.

That’s it. Yeah. Lovely. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20.034)
Bye.

Cheerio.