Big Food and Beyond.
With Cliff and Bobo. These guys a favor.
It's so like, say subscribe and rade it.
I'm stuck and me.
Grates on Ques today listening watching limb always keep its watching. And now you're hosts Cliff Berrickman and James Bobo Fay.
Hey, everybody, welcome to Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and very often Bobo. Bobo is not here today, as you can tell by my snarky entrance, but it's okay. He had like a friend's emergency sort of thing, very very reasonable excuse, in my opinion. So we will keep the heckling of Bobo to a minimum, or at least we'll try. There'll probably be some things that leak out because that's who we are. But joining us instead of Bobo is gonna be Matt Pruitt. He's always lurking around here somewhere,
So hello, Matt, how you doing? Man?
I think we can heckle him a little bit, because nobody heckles me in my life more than Bobo, which I quite enjoy his heckling, So he could take a little bit of it. But he does have a good excuse this time.
Yeah, yeah, So what We'll let him slide said, I'm sure Bobo's listening to this somewhere right now, so Bobo would love you. Sorry you can't be here, but always forgiven until next time you screw up. And then it's, you know, the chopping block for you. But a couple of things going on you might want to know about. And I guess, Matt, you has a little bit of housekeeping for our listeners first, don't you?
Certainly? So you know, we upload these episodes through our RSS feed and that auto publishes to all the big podcatchers, you know, the free podcast app, So whether you're an Apple user and you listen on Apple Podcasts, or if you listen through Speaker, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora. The list goes on and on. We also used to publish to YouTube because YouTube would accept our RSS feed and then auto generate a video with a little thumbnail with a sort
of moving waveform. And I noticed over the last few episodes they just weren't populating, even though everything looked right on my end logging in through our distributor and into our YouTube account. And then I finally found out today that YouTube is no longer allowing that, so I don't know that we'll come up with a solution for that if there's a good workaround, because it helps us that it all comes from the same RSS feed rather than doing it as two separate uploads and not being able to
track numbers as easily. So if you usually listen on YouTube and you found us on another platform, it's all the same show. You're going to get the same experience, maybe even a better one if you're not using YouTube Premium and you're being subjected to more ads than usual. But I'll also put a post out on social media. So if any of you are used to listening on YouTube and now you've found yourself on another app and you're waiting for it to come back to YouTube, looks
like that's not going to happen. So we're glad you're here. Use any of the apps of your choice, and we'll give you the best show we can every single time.
Regardless YouTube we should you call them bootube. That sucks and I love YouTube. I'm a frequent YouTube user, so it's a little unfortunate. You know, we all always knew from day one that we weren't going to do video content as far as the podcast goes, You know, if we happen to be together in person, or you and Bobo are together, or any permutation. You know, we try to get some video content and put that up, but that's kind of rare these days because we all live fairly far apart.
So it wasn't like YouTube was a great platform for us anyway. But I know a lot of people listen on YouTube, and so it was just another app they could go to.
But oh well, oh well, yeah, they should subscribe anyway. It's not like it costs any money or something. It's all free. It's all free. Yeah, And apparently it's simple. Not that I've subscribed to any podcasts, but apparently it's simple to do. And if you don't know how to do it, just find a young person near you and ask them. They'll tell you. That's what I do.
Yeah, I feel kind of silly like trying to walk people through that, because trying to say, like, well, if you don't listen to this podcast, let me tell you how on this podcast right now that you're not listening to yet, you know.
Yeah, yeah, no one's hearing you, and I'm sure everybody who's not hearing you will follow your directions very well.
But yeah, mostly speaking to the people who used to listen on YouTube, because we have gotten a couple of emails from people going, hey, what happened to the show? Did you guys stop making episodes? And I've had to respond to them and say no, no, no, We've kept doing it. We just don't publish a YouTube right now, and I'm trying to figure out why. But now we know why, So go over to the apps. I would recommend you know, obviously, if you're an Apple user, Apple Podcasts will be your
best bet. For Android users, there's so many different options. You know, Spotify is a great option, but you can always listen in your browser. Very few people do that, but if you want to, you can go to the link and the show notes to our website, Bigfoot and Beyond podcast dot com. There's an embedded player if you want to listen to your browser while you're sending it your computer. So there's a lot of options out there besides YouTube.
Yeah, and if none of that makes sense, just grab the nearest teenager and ask them. They'll explain it to you.
Absolutely well.
I guess the other big news of this this week, especially this coming week, which has everything to do with our guest today is that this coming weekend. It is this coming weekend, right, Matt, That's what we're doing here. It is Okay, Matt Pruett and I are are both going to be at one of the best events of the year called cryptid Con. It's out in Kentucky and
today our guest is Jennifer Kirkland. I'm gonna say half of the brain's involved, but probably way more than half of the brains involved in organizing cryptid Con because we've had her husband Lee on the podcast before, and maybe Matt Prode here can put that link down in the show notes there so you can listen to Lee's version of things. But Lee and Jennifer Kirkland are the organizers of cryptied Con. It's one of the best events. It's certainly one of the largest events on that side of
the country or anywhere in the country. Really. I think some of the best guests are there, and it's partly because they also have a management company. They manage most of the main quote unquote talent that you can find on various television shows and researchers, I mean everybody. I mean, they represent me. So if you want to book me for an event. You got to go through them, which is great because I'm not a good businessman. I'm just a good man, so I need some folks to negotiate
on my behalf. So they have everybody from me and doctor Meldrum to Jason Hawes. I think works for them. I could be wrong, but anyway, enough for me, man, Let's talk to Jennifer. So this is Jennifer Kirkland, way more than half of the brains behind cryptid Con. And we're not just talking about an event here either, because Jennifer is a legit paranormal investigator. She has all sorts of crazy stories and because she's going out on these
events and trips and expeditions and whatever else. So Jennifer, thank you so much for setting aside a little bit of time and your busy schedule for us. We're sorry Bobo couldn't be here.
Oh thank you for having me.
This is exciting and I miss Bobo too, But I'm excited to talk cryptic Con and all things weird.
Yeah, yeah, because it's not. You're just not just an organizer. From what I understand, your first love was the paranormal weird side of things, and you eventually decided to start running some events or something like that. Is that accurate?
Yeah, that's it.
I was one of the weird kids growing up that had a fascination with ghosts and the paranormal, and from as long as I can remember, I would love to hear my grandma tell ghost stories and that was just my that was my thing, and it has kind of developed into a side gig now, which is exciting.
Yeah, and it seems like, God, I joke with you that you're a glutton for punishment because you're kind of out most weekends at one of these events, whether you're an organizer just representing some sort of talent there, you know, some guests or whatever, some celebrities or whatever. You're out at these things too, at least two or three weekends a month between you and Lee, right.
Oh yeah, it seems like, especially around this time of year, we've got either people books somewhere, or we are somewhere. We stay busy with it.
Oh yeah, yeah, far busier than I would want to be, that's for sure. You're just a different kind of person than me. You do like being out there and then hearing the stories and talking to the people and all that sort of stuff. But you mentioned that your grandmother, and I had not heard of about this yet. What kind of ghost stories did your grandma tell you.
It's kind of weird because my grandma was like, super very religious. I'm convinced right now she's sitting at the right hand of Jesus up there, but so she It's like the stories she would tell were things that.
Would have happened to them growing up.
I remember one particular story she and what would have been my great grandfather. I'm sure this would have been like maybe late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds. I grew up in eastern Kentucky, and you know, things developed kind of slow there as far as technology and just you know, everything is kind of slow to develop, So you're thinking
this was backwards Kentucky, early nineteen hundreds. And I remember this story in particular, and I don't know why it sticks out with me, but my great grandfather had taken one of her older sisters out to like a church
re bival or something like that. They were on a horse like horse and carriage coming back after dark, and they're on their little road home and the horse starts just like going crazy, and she said that her sister would talk about how it sounded like they were just going through I guess this time of year where they were like leaves everywhere here, leaves crunching, sticks snapping, and the horse is like reacting to something that they can't see out there, so they go ahead and get it
under control, make it home. My great grandfather goes back the next day and it's like it's not fall, there's not dried leaves anywhere. But just like the whole incident was, I'm assuming paranormal.
I don't know. And of course she's like.
Oh no, you know, she has some excuse for it, but just things like that would stick out to me as a kid, and it's just kind of grown from there.
Just as a general weirdness story, like things that were perceived but turned out not to be true later. And that's is Is there a word for that kind of phenomenon? I don't know anything about that. That's weird.
I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know.
To me, it's almost like a like a time slip or something, is what it kind of sounds like to me, where they've just kind of either gone back in time or like slipped into another dimension. I don't know, but yeah, just general weirdness.
Yeah yeah, but but yeah, yet the witnesses are adamant that, yeah, that is what happened. And whereas an outsider would say, oh, hallucination or something like that to try to explain it away, but the people involved in it, that story probably wouldn't take I guess interesting. So you heard all these sort of stories, Now, do you think that like planted a seed of interest? I mean, it obviously planted a set
of interest with you because you're still here. But did you grow up having odd things happen around you or to you, or something like like a haunted house sort of stuff, or the honest thing.
That happened to me as a kid.
I remember, and this is so stupid, but I was a Hull Cogan fan, like huge bulk Coging fan, Pokemonia baby, and I had like the big eighteen and hard plastic doll. I was having a slumber party for my eighth birthday. I remember this very vividly, and I had this whole Cogon doll. He had set up on my dresser for months and months, and I had several girls over for a slumber party and we were playing with the wig aboard, because what else do you do when you're eight years old?
And I had gone into the kitchen to get something, Oh, I don't want to I was going to get ice cream out of the freezer, and the girls were there playing with the wage aboard and they say, you know, of course the classic.
If you're here, give us a sign on the wage of board.
And as soon as they did that, the whole Cogain doll falls off of my dresser, that gallant half gallon of ice cream falls out of the freezers, like simultaneously, all of this stuff is happening. So as far as like experiences that happened to be as a kid, that's what sticks out in my mind. And I'm sure it was absolutely nothing, but when you're eight years old with a wige aboard and a whole Cogan doll, you know, it's got to be very and normal.
At that time, I could tell see that. I could totally see that. Uh. As a as a side question, was your whole Cogan doll was his skin like hot dog colored like it is in real life?
Yes, it was. It was kind of the same shape.
Yeah. Whenever Melissa sees that guy on TV, says why is he the color of a hot dog? Like, what is what's wrong with that guy? Yeah, it's just unnatural. But okay, So that that. So, where did your current, like your presence loved for the paranormal? When did that really start taking shape? Where was the moment of the momentum that pushed you forward in that realm?
Honestly, I think it was when Lee and I first got together. He had he was always afraid of the ghost stuff growing up because he lived in a home that had a whole lot of activity, whereas I was the kid that was like wanting the activity. So when we got together, we started discussing, you know, like his
background and my interest. And about that same time, the show ghost Hunters just started on TV, and it just kind of, you know, it's like, hey, there's other people that are interested in this and they're actually going out and looking for this stuff. And we just kind of did some research from there and got hooked up with a local ghost hunter and went on a few of her ghost walks, and it escalated.
And and so you went on the ghost walk, you started looking into things a little bit more and more. I don't know about you, and you know me, well, enough that you know that Bigfoot has kind of taken
over my life. And I think in a lot of ways, this whole umbrella of a weird subject matter thing has kind of done that something similar to you At what point in your life maybe what year or maybe this or something that happened when do you think that actually happened right where you found yourself swimming in the deep end?
Lee and I started out with Scarefest here in Kentucky, Horror in Paranormal convention.
At that time.
It was the first kind of convention that combined both a horror convention plus a paranormal convention.
We were on with the ground in with the ground floor.
On that and through that event just meeting and networking with people and you know, talking to the attendees that were coming out wanted to tell their stories. That was really what as far as like the event side, the entertainment side and all that. That's where we got our start with that and the networking that we did with that event, I think is really kind of catapultist to where we are.
Had you ever organized anything before?
No, no, that was the first one.
So yeah, thank God for ignorance, right, Like you can just step into something, not knowing what you're up against and somehow making it happen and learning from it.
Exactly we were with that event I think six or first six or seven years, just some differences and opinions and the way the event should grow. So we left and from there we started working with Nick Groff, whom we had met through Scarefest, and that was about the same time that he was leaving Ghost Adventures, and he
still wanted to. Because of contract obligations, whatever, he couldn't do anymore filming for a little while until his protract was out, but he still wanted to meet with fans and do you know the paranormal stuff.
That's when we organized the Nick Croft Tour.
And if you've never been on a like a ghost hunt, I recomain getting started with something like that. People say, you know, it's hard to have experiences with a large group. It is, but also you know, it's what you make of it. I think you and Melissa came out when we were at the Queen Mary.
Yeah, yeah, Melissa and I were just talking about the other night. Actually, you know, Bobo had somehow met you guys, I don't know how, and he was down in Long Beach. Melissa and I were down in Long Beach. It happened to be the same time my mother was dying, so I was down there a lot at that time. And and Bobo says, yeah, I'm going to go Queen Mary ghost Tour stuff. And you know, you know me like I'm mister pooh pooh guy, you know, like I don't,
I don't know all that stuff. But Melissa loves ghost stuff. So I said, sweet, we got invite over here. Bobo said, this is going to go on. There's some guy named Nick Groff. Never heard of him, and who's now my friend, you know to some degree, Like you know, he's been on the podcast. Matt will probably put the link down to that episode in the show notes as well. Super nice guy. So that's the first time I met him.
First time I met you and Lee my first ghost thing trip or whatever on the Queen Mary, which I've always loved the Queen Mary. I used to fish around that area quite a bit. And it's funny because Molssa was excited to go on the ghost tour. I was excited to go look over the rails of the boat at the very very large calico bass that are stuck inside the no fishing zone around the Queen Mary. But we all had our reasons. But yeah, that was a
lot of fun. I'm not sure I bought any of it, but like, that was a lot of fun, that's for sure. I would recommend people going on one of these trips just because it is kind of fun in some ways, and who knows, maybe something would happen at some point. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bobo. We'll be right back after these messages. Are you guys still running to the neck rof stuff?
Yeah, we're still doing.
We've got one coming up in January in Tombstone, Arizona. That'll be our first one back, I guess in a couple of years. But Tombstone is such a fun town, like it is true Old westtown, and it's the first time that the Neckgrof Tour will be in Tombstone. I think we've got five different locations that we're gonna have
some different investigations going on. We've got some of the local ghost tending tour guys that are there that are going to help us with those and just hang out in Tombstone for a weekend.
Oh, that sounds like fun. How cool is it? So I wasn't wrong because I don't think I had heard about any of the Nickrof tour going on lately, but you said this is the first one in a couple of years.
Yep. Nick has had he and Tessa got married.
They've got a couple of new babies, so they've been doing the family thing and ready to get back out on the road with the tour.
So we're excited for Tombstone.
Oh that's good. That makes me feel a little bit better too, because sometimes like, no, we've been doingever every month and you just don't know about a cliff and it's like, I just feel like a bad friend when I don't know things sometimes. Okay, it's back back to the line of thought here. So then you organize You helped to organize scare Fest for you did it for a number of years, and what was the next big event that you decided to undertake.
The next big one would be crypted On and that's been going since twenty seventeen.
And most of these people are people that you're now not only good friends with, but also you represent some degree like me for example, you know, like represent our interests when we negotiate for live appearances and all that sort of stuff. Let me ask you about a couple of these people, one in particular, one of my favorite
people on the planet. And I want to know a little bit about the backstory between you and this gentleman Tom Shay, like it is legit, in my opinion, legit one of the best bigfoot investigators to ever walk the planet period. And very few people can hold a candle even close to this guy in my opinion. Tom's not on a podcast, he's not on a TV show. He's not he has a website maybe you know. And but that's about it. How did you get tangled up in Tom Shay's world?
So, Jeff Waldridge, who is our other business partner and co organizer for Cryptic Con, he was already he was friends with Tom. So whenever we started doing Cryptic Cons, like, I got a local guy here that's going to make a great guess and he is, you know, Tom is amazing. Just it seems like he is out all the time in the field. He is so impressive. If you've never got to sit in on any of his talks for seingny of his past, he is the real deal.
Yeah to just today. Like I'm not kidding when I say an hour and a half ago, two hours ago. I received three photographs, actually two photographs and a three D scan from Tom Shay of footprints that he recorded today, you know, and that happened last week too. Like he's out all the time. He takes notes every time he goes out, He documents, he casts footprints. He's one of the most active people around. And what a treasure, What
a treasure of a person that guy is too. Did I tell you that he's a gamer that I tell this conversation with you. Yeah, his wife, Like he plays video games with his wife because that's what they'd like to do as a family. You know. They get like the little headsets on and they played some video game against each other. And this probably won't make the air
or something. Matt prude, of course. And I was talking to Crystal and Tom last year about it, and Christal says, oh, yeah, I'll stay up till three in the morning or sometime if I'm in a good game, and Tom goes, yeah, I can't make it that far. I'm just too old, you know. I you should go to bed around eleven and Crystal looks at him, he goes, that's because you're a Crystal rules. I love her. Yeah, so you probably want to take that out prode of course.
But listeners will have heard my patented chimp cry, which is not my patented cry. I stole that from my good friend Darryl Callier, who uses that in his edit so the podcast we used to do together. So instead of bleeping words, I just put in a chimp screaming.
Very cool, very good. So so, going on on all these ghost tours and either the neck Croft thing, which of course you you help organize and run and everything, you're out in the ghost field, so to speak, kind of a lot. What are some of have you run across anything that's the truly inexplainable that you think is of the realm of ghost y paranormal stuff?
So, Yeah, the longer that I have been doing this, the more skeptical I get. Do I believe that there are things that can't be explained there, that there are paranormal things, ghost things? I do, But do I believe everything that moves out of the corner of your eye, or any sound you here, or any lack of dust that you see on camera as a ghost.
No, not at all. With that being said, though, I have had a couple of.
Memorable experiences that I can't explain any other way, and the most I guess, the most profound one for me happened at Penhurst State School or Penhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania. And if you're not familiar with this location, it was there was a documentary done on it. It's called Suffer the Little Children, and this location just horrible, horrible things happened.
To these people that were sent here to this place.
When we first got there, just like doing the pre tour where the tour guys were showing us the different areas where we would be the next day, I walked into one building, one room, without any prompting, without any backstory. I had this overwhelming, just emotion that hit me and just pure sadness, Like I started bawling right there for no reason but other than the energy of the place
was so intense. And in this one particular room, we found out that they had basically adult sized cribs that were stacked side by side by side, and these people would lay in these cribs with just enough room for a nurse to come in and administer medication or you know, feed the patients whatever. It was just a very emotional spot for me. But the next day we were in the actual event. We were the room for the building
that we were in. There were different wards, so you went out of the area where we were doing our meet and greet, and I was in like the back room.
If you're in this room, there's like four open they called a ward. So four open rooms.
There's just doorways from one to the other, kind of like they're laid out like four corners. So I was facing the window. It's still daylight outside. I had my selfie camera up. I was fixing my makeup or something I can't remember, and so I'm looking in my camera and I see in my phone in my camera, I watch in the door way of the ward. Behind me, I see a girl pass across that open doorway.
She was wearing a hospital gown.
She had like dirty blonde hair, shrill, greasy stringing looking it was about elbow link.
She did not look at me.
She just passed like she was walking across that open doorway behind me. And so when I see this, it's, you know, it startles me, So I go I kind of gasped and when I did that, I heard a giggle coming from what would be the next word over. So immediately my first thought was somebody's back here screwing with me. And I walked over to the doorway where she had passed, and there was nobody there. I was in this room by myself, and it was like I always just I was dumbstrick. I didn't know how to
explain it. All I know was that I was back there by myself. There was nobody else there, but I watched a girl walk across the doorway behind me. You're saying, well, why didn't you get your selfie camera? Why didn't you take a picture? I don't know, Jennifer, Why when you see that, that's not the first thing that comes to your mind, Like you're the first thing comes around.
You're trying to figure out what the hell is going on?
Yeah? Yeah, and so that that would scare the hell out of me, honestly. Okay, And now you showed me pictures. I think it was you or lead, but you, guys, I think we're there together. What's the story behind these pictures of like a cannon? I remember that's right, Maybe a Gettysburg or it's a.
Pair of Al Battlefield, which is about fifteen minutes from where we live. It was the side of the largest Civil War battle in the state of Kentucky, and we used to we worked with the battlefield for several years and we would lead ghost walks down there, and then whenever they would do their re enactments every year, we
would do like a ghostwok, huge ghostwalk with that. So the pictures that we had were from people that had been on one of our ghost walks, and one of them like, it looks like a Civil War soldier that is standing there. You can see he's got his hand either on the hilt of his sword or like grabbing a hold of the pail of his jacket.
It's the craziest picture that I've ever seen.
Yeah, it was really bizarre. When you guys showed me that. I just couldn't believe like what I was looking at, because you know, I'm very very skeptical of everything, especially in that kind of realm or whatever, even though I've had weird experiences that I can't explain either, and it sure looked like it was legit. But again, who knows, who knows? Have you been to Gettysburg. I've heard that's a pretty spooky place.
We have been to Gettysburg as just to visit Gettysburg. We've not done any events up there or anything, but again, that's one of those places like when you're out there on that battlefield, the energy is weird, like it's very it's somber. It's just I don't know, the energy feels different. And I talk about injury. I'm not a psychic, I'm not a medium. I think ninety nine point nine percent of.
Them are full of shit. But I am a believer in energy. Like you can feel just when a place feels bad.
Or whenever you walk into a room and you know everybody's been laughing or something, and you know you can just build a mood. The energy there is, you know, is different that the energy at Gettysburg is weird.
M hmm. Is it similar to other battlefields that you've done this, these sort of things that.
I would say it's similar to parable, Yeah, for sure.
Now you've had a lot of some ghost experience. We've had a lot. It sounds like you've a handful of them at least on some of the tours that you've
been associated with. Have you ever had something happen that would that would seem like, for lack of a better term, evil, because every once in a while on on here, because really I'm not exposed to a whole lot of paranormal things except for the podcast and when I'm on a particular gig or something like that, some speaking event where there's some some some folks out there doing stuff that
I would never dream of. And and I we keep running across people that say, oh, yeah, I'm a demonologist, and I just think, like, what the hell are you doing unintended? Like like what why? Like why in the world would why would you dance with something like that? I just don't get it personally, but I guess teach their own right. I prefer giant apes, but Bo's not
here right now. But have you ever run across anything like that, It's like something you just went like, holy smokes, I really ought not to be doing this.
No, but again, that's not what you know.
I think there's people that they go out looking for the negative, they go out looking for the evil or you know, whatever they want to call a demon.
That's not That's not what I'm looking you know, that's not what my intent is. Whenever I go out.
It's more, you know, like, yeah, you're gonna have You're gonna have me, you know, like grumpy spirits. I guess because people are you have grumpy people. So wouldn't it makes sense that whenever you pass on, you're still an asshole.
I think so.
But as far as like anything that would consider debonic, now, I've never come across any of that. But again, I'm not going out you know, saying hey, demon, come get me, which some people do that.
Yeah, I just don't understand that. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bogo. We'll be right back after these messages. Now, I also know that you've been out big footing a handful of times. Can you tell us about some of those stories?
Yeah?
So we Actually the first time I ever went bigfooting was with Tom Shay and Charlie Raymond. We were up at somewhere that Tom had taken us to and we had it sounded like a limb or a stick or a branch, like something was being like coming through the woods at us, like being grown at us. And then you know, Jeff was with us and he sprained his ankle,
so that trip got cut short. But just the fact that it sounds like there's some enormous creature coming through the trees toward you was to me that's scarier and a ghost could ever be Really Yeah, I feel like a physical creature is going to do me more harm than a ghost.
Maybe just physical harm, but I think it's the other kind of harm that's scarier. I think. So you didn't see this. You just heard something coming through the woods and it sounded like something that was thrown at you. Is that correct?
Yeah, either thrown or just like rushing. Maybe did they rush? I think that kind of sound like it was Russians.
Well, there's bigfoots in Russia.
I missed your dad jokes.
Well, we'll be together again next weekend, so that'll be kind of fun. That'll be good to touch base with you guys again. It's been too long. But is that the only time you've been bigfooting?
So that's the only time we've you know, like been out on an actual, you know, a bigfoot hunt. The house that we used to live in, we had owned twenty five acres of woods, and I heard.
Some stuff down there that I cannot explain.
I think I sent you the link to it because I'm not a YouTuber, I used it as a means to upload that.
I will put the link to that YouTube video and the show notes there for the listeners. So just head to the show notes of the episode and click that to hear the.
How Yeah, I remember, I liked it. There's coyotes and then something else is in there? Is that the only time you ever heard anything at your property? Because I know you lived in rural Kentucky for a long time.
Yeah, no, that was That was actually the second or third time the first time that I ever heard anything.
It was I think mid to late fall.
And we have a cat that she comes out of hiding maybe once a day to eat.
But for some reason the cat got outside.
She's an inside cat, so she had gotten outside and she was out there for like two or three days, and I would catch her on our security camera at not like she would.
Come up for the porch.
Of course, we were in bed, so wouldn't know until go next morning. So one evening it was right around dust Mason and I were on the back porch and I was calling for I was actually meowing. I'm not going to recreate that like I could meow and I could hear her in the woods like me, yowing back at me, and then Mason and I both heard. He said he heard a either like a knock or a branch break or something.
First I didn't hear that, but I.
Heard a very loud, very agitated browl.
That's what it sounded like.
And we had lived there long enough, like I knew every donkey or cow because it was farm land around us, so I was very familiar with any other animal that was out there, and this was not any animal that I had ever heard. It sounded like a mixture of a lion and a maybe a monkey.
I don't know. That was scary.
Well, you're safe now, right. You moved a little bit closer to town.
I'm a city girl now, very good.
So I know you have the Tombstone event coming up and obviously Cryptid CONC. What can you tell us about the Cryptied con What can we look forward to next weekend?
Oh, we have a full lineup.
We're going to have presentations all day both Saturday and starting at the doors open at ten am, and we've got lectures going all day both days, and we've got you know, a lot of people from the Bigfoot community as well. As a couple of the paranormal people too.
We have Brian Murray and Rachelle Stratton.
They're from the Anti ghost Hunters, great people, they are so much fun to be around.
So we incorporate a little bit of true dedicated.
Boots on the ground researchers as well as, you know, some of the more fun entertainment side of the paranormal and big putting, because we want our event to be something for everybody there. So whether you are you know, if you want to truly learn about the field and about what research is going on.
We have that.
If you just want to get out and meet people that you've seen on TV, we've got people for that.
Plus we have so many amazing vendors.
I think I'm as proud of our vendors as I am of our lineup. We've got some of the best artists that their main focus is cryptid art.
If I could brag on you guys for a little bit. You know, I've done a lot of events over the years, even before I got into sasquatchry, playing music all over the place, and so I know how awkward and weird things can be sometimes. You know, we've all had the experiences that run the gamut. I'm sure Cliff has two playing music and doing events. But Crypti Con is so much fun every year. This will be the fourth year
that I've done it. And I think that starts with you and Lee and Jeff, is that there's very much a friendly family vibe. And because you're so close with all the talent, you know so many of the speakers you work with, everyone feels like familiar friends. I love the fact that it's all under the same roof, and so it's like we're all kind of collectively hanging out for a number of days. You know, not just the speakers, but also the patrons. You know the attendees as well,
and so it's such a positive experience. Everyone's super friendly. You guys run such a great show. It's always the most positive of time. I get so much great catch up and social time hanging out with friends there. The crowd's always super attentive, but I will say you have the best vendors, Like I always love walking around and just the raw talent in that room. So many of those artists are unbelievable and it's always super cool to see.
And so you do an excellent job of putting so much under one roof, and I think there's very few events where people could come in and just get so much out of it, from the expertise of the speakers or getting the chance to meet and speak with people that they want to talk to, to the camaraderie and the friendship and the exposure to all that great art. It's a it's a super positive event.
Thank you so much. That's what we try to do.
We want it to feel almost like it's a family reunion where everybody's getting together once a year to you know.
Chit chat, just hang out.
We do like to keep people busy, but we also we don't want to just cram it so full of back, back, back back stuff that you don't get a chance to hang out.
So that's feed back to here. Thank you so much.
Oh it's absolutely well deserved. I mean I mean it because I've traveled all over and done a lot of events of all different sorts and this is one of the most positive ones. And I will say on a selfish level, you always have the best green room catering, which I greatly appreciate.
I'm taking request. I'm booking catering right now, so you let me know, if there's anything.
You want, Cliff will tell you. I'm highly food motivated, so it doesn't take much to make me super happy.
He's like a labrador in some ways, So I understand that. Did they finish the renovation of the hotel?
Yeah, so the well, it's finished for now. We're hoping that they will be adding on in the future. I don't know if that's going to be, you know, soon enough for our liking, but Jeff, for now it's done.
We've just outgrown the Clarion.
I mean they are It's the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Lexington is where the event is held, and their staff is wonderful to work with.
But we are busting at the scenes. I think I had forty two vendors on a waiting list this year, Like, that's forty two more people that I could give a table to if I had the space. But we just don't have the room there.
So at some point we're going to have to, you know, figure out do we want to take this up to the next level and go bigger with it or are we kind of happy where we're at. I just hate turning people away, like hate turning vendors away.
That's my biggest my biggest regrant.
Is it the same venue as the last couple of years? Yeah, okay, good. Well. The reason I ask is because there's that very very long tile hallway, you know, that kind of connects the two rooms.
And the groundhog lives out there.
Oh yeah, right, the ground I was. I kicked myself in the butt pretty hard last year because I'm going to do it this year. That hallway, to me just screams super Bowls. I got to throw super balls down that thing, because it's like one hundred feet long at least, it's tile on all sides. And I can think of very much that I would probably enjoy more than like three or four or five, six, seven, twenty Super Bawls being thrown up and down that hallway.
Bring them all, Bring all the super Bowls.
I'm going to do that. I'm totally going to do that. And if super Bowls aren't enough fun, someone we didn't even mention is going to be there. We haven't really gone over the guests at all, and I'm looking at the guest list now and I gotta admit I don't know who most these people are, which probably means we're on TV. You know, I don't really know who any of these people are because I'm blessed with with no desire to watch television whatsoever. But Renee's going to be
there this year. Bright Renee Holland from Finding Bigfoot. I do know her. She's going to be there. But and besides Matt Prude of course, and Tom Shay, there's actually we've had a lot of these people on his guests on the on the podcast here. I mean, we've had Charlie Raymond, he's going to be there. We've had Joe Purdue, he's going to be there from Weird and Wild West Virginia. And of course Tom Shay's been on as well. Matt Prut's on every time. He's going to be there. Mark Murcell,
Mark Murcell, what what a treasure? The human species is better because Mark Mercell is a member of it. God, I love that guy.
I can't wait to see him again.
Yeah, of course, Mark Marcel is legit the guy who rediscovered the Ape Canyon site, the Ape Canyon Cabin site. Of course, he spearheaded that whole thing all along. He discovered it back in twenty thirteen. Fantastic fantastic researcher. Yeah, we've got the Mountain Monster dudes on there. They're gonna be fantastic. I love all those guys. Do you have a favorite Mountain Monster. I mean, I certainly don't. As hard to kneel it down, I can't.
That's like picking my favorite kid. I do, but I'm not gonna say it out loud.
Yeah, I suppose I'm partial to Wild Bill. I'll say it. Yeah, they're all super nice guys. But you know, I've done the most events with Bill, and then this last event that we did with him in Ohio, like, you know, we got deep on some subjects and I was like, hey, and we're we're more kindred spirits. You know that, I thought, So I'd love that dude. Just so much positivity.
I can take Bill in small doses.
But he's so positive and so enthusiastic. And you know what really impresses me more than anything, because I've never watched Mountain Monsters. I'm kind of like Cliff, I don't watch a lot of that television, but watching those guys interact with fans is so overwhelmingly positive and pretty inspiring to see because I could just tell from the first events I did with him, Like people really love them.
They love that show and the amount of time and energy that they put into making sure that like every person sort of gets what they want out of the interactions, and I can just see the effect it has on those people. And again, just doing events for as many years as I have around the country in different forms, like that's an exceedingly rare quality which is very sad
and frustrating to see. And so I make a point to tell Bill, like, man, you are so good to people, and that really makes my heart warm because and he's like, oh yeah, we'd be nothing without them, we'd have nothing. And so I want to make sure everyone, you know, gets time and gets what they want out of the interaction. And that's just such a positive thing to see. So I was won over very quickly by the Mountain Monster guys they have.
They've got the most insane fan base, Like they are so popular with their fans, and that's why. It's because what you see on their show, I mean that's exactly. It's like you feel like there's somebody that you could go hang out with because when you're in their presence, like you're just it's like you're part of the show.
And they are. They're so good with their fans.
Like you said, you know, it is rare, it's rare to see and ed I've done so many events with them, and it's like that every single time, like they are, they are, their fans are their one and only main focus.
Yeah, when I first heard of the heard, caught a little bit of their show, and number I've seen a couple episodes, now only after I had met them, of course. But at the beginning, I'm thinking, what are these guys, these are bs ors, these actors doing this this nonsense, you know, tearing down the subject that I love so much. It's like, what the hell you know? But and then
I did a gig out. I did Eric Altman's gig out in Pennsylvania, another great event by the way, it's gonna be going on next year, his camp bigfoot camp out thing that he does. And they were at the booth next to me. I had Meldrum on one side of me and then the Mountain Monsters on the other side, right, So it was very interesting contrasts there in lots of ways.
But when I saw those guys interacting with their fans and singing Happy Birthday to every single person that was appropriate to sing it to and maybe some people that it wasn't. And then like when like little boys and girls would come up and they would just treat them like kings and queens, you know, and then thinking they won me over very quickly, and then I met him. Then I met him and one of them, I'm not going to tell you who happened to have cooked up
some moonshine just recently. So I shared a little bit of that with them, and they were just and I realized, oh my god, oh my god, the most surprising thing in the world has just happened. They're not actors. Unbelievable, and that's actually them, you know. And like every good TV show hosts, they just basically turn it up to eleven when the camera's on. You know, I do the
same thing. That's what TV's fo right, Teacher Cliff is what I always call that, you know, because it's the same thing I did with my students when I was teaching fifth grade. You just turn it up, You just turn up your enthusiasm and you love what you're doing.
And that's what they do. And the ironic part, to me, the ironic part yes, because they're they're chasing the you know, the West VIRGINI you know what is it a snaggle grass or whatever on sense that they're out there looking at looking for you know, whatever there where the wild things are monster that they think is in the woods in their particular area. But they every single one of them, except for Jeff I think, has actually put eyes on
a sasquatch before. If I remember right, Huckleberry has seen him twice. Yeah, like they're they're really interested in the subject. I don't know if actually think about it. I don't know if Bucket's seen one. I know that he had found really big footprints while he's turkey hunting at one point. So like they've all and of course Jeff is also wet experiences as well. I just don't think he's put
his eyes on one. But they've all had experiences. So yeah, they're actually out there doing it in some of the best habitat in the country, you know that that little corner there with you know, Southeast Ohio, West Virginia and all that sort of jazz with them.
I know they get a lot of flack for that, but in mind, I have said this from day one, like kids love them.
They love their show.
What if a kid that grows up watching Mountain Monsters and develops his interests in sasquatch research because of that show, and that's the kid that goes on to provide irrefutable grouit like what because they watch Mountain.
Monsters exactly exactly? And that that's kind of where I did a full circleum came around to that. You know, as much as some of the shows make me cringe a bit or whatever, at least it's inspiring the next generation. And you know what, like cartoons are expired inspiring as well in some ways, so like there's nothing wrong with that at all. And these guys they know what, they know what they're doing. They are they are entertainers, and they supply a fantastic product to a lot of people
who absolutely love them. And honestly, I'm one of them now. I absolutely love these guys. And now that I met them and have hung out with them, I watched their show and I'll tell you I love their show. Now. You know, I don't watch it because I don't watch any TV, but I've seen like four or five of them now, which is for me. I mean, that's great. You know, that's that's a lot of episodes for me to have watched of anything. And you know when Melissa, Melissa and I sat down, I forget it must have
been probably about two years ago, three years ago. Melissa I finally, yeah, let let wild Bill talk to Melissa and then so she fall in love as well with these guys. And when we got home, we watched it and like everything they do is like, all right, guys, let's try that. Hell yeah, hell yeah, all right, let's go get it done or whatever they're all yelling about. And Melissa's big takeaway, He's like, oh, are so encouraging to one another. It's like, yeah, how sweet? How sweet?
And they are a bunch of sweethearts. Man. I just love them all. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and Bogo. We'll be right back after these messages. Okay. Then there's other people of course, Mariah and Russ from the Expedition Bigfoot Show, they're going to come out. They're going to be there as well. It looks like we have a representative from Expedition.
X Jessica Showbot.
There you go, there you go. That's one of those Josh Gates spin off shows I think, isn't it it is?
Yeah, she also did. She is big with gamers, like she was. That's what she kind of got started out was with the gaming community. So she's got a pretty good following as well, just from different you know, not necessarily just the Expedition X type stuff, but.
Other things as well. She's going to be there.
And then Thomas Winterton from Skinwalker Ranch Secrets of Skinwaller Skinker Ranch.
A lot of people love that show man.
Yeah, yeah, it's popular. And then personally, uh, Georgio Suklos from Ancient Aliens. I'm not saying his Aliens but oh.
Right, right, yeah, the guy and all the memes. I didn't know who that was. I didn't know who the guy and all the memes was until this event.
Actually I met him at an event in Tennessee a year or so ago. He is a super nice guy, like, he's another one that takes time with his fans.
So we're excited to have him out as well.
And that his show was The Aliens one, right, the Ancient Ancient Aliens Is that still running? Is that on still? I'm want to ask you that, Okay, I I don't know either so yes it is or no it's not. That's up to you now, editor.
Yeah, just say yes and no that I'll pick whatood.
You'll never know.
It's always on in people's hearts. We'll leave it at that.
Number of episodes, one hundred and sixty four episodes. First episode was March eight, the two thousand and nine.
Golly wow, that's a long time. And we did one hundred episodes and I thought that was a long time. That's insane, unbelievable. So yeah, quite the lineup. Anyway. There's something here for everybody, from absolutely everybody. You got aliens, you have bigfoot stuff. I know that Joe Purdues and all sorts of wacky things down there in West Virginia. You know, there's something here for everybody. For the serious die hard I'm going to document this sort of research
to the entertainment industry and everywhere in between. Fantastic man, I'm really looking forward to this. So tell everybody, I guess, well, before we leave the cryptid con things I do, I want to give you an opportunity to tell us some things that are coming up in the not so near future maybe, but so where and when and how much and all that sort of stuff, and where can people learn a little bit more about it? I know you mentioned it, but let's we'll give it to him now.
So cryptid Con is going to be November twenty third and twenty fourth. It's the week before Thanksgiving at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Pre sale tickets are still available online and at scryptedpn dot com, but we will be selling them at the door as well, but prices do go up, So if you're listening to this before November twenty third, get your tickets online and save some cash.
Very good. And what about in the not like in the not so immediate future, because that's just this coming weekend here. Do you have anything else plan that we should know about?
I think it probably just.
The next thing that we have coming up will be the Nick Croft Tour or the Groft Tour event with Nick and Tessa and Tombstone in January, and you can find that at Creepy Talent dot com. That's our creepy people management website. But other than that, I think we might have a few weeks off, just some downtime.
I'm excited about it.
Actually, Oh my god, what are you gonna do with that?
I'm gonna enjoy Christmas.
Oh yeah, yeah, Christmas is kind of a big deal in the the Kirkland household, isn't it.
Oh?
It is fantastic, all right, Jennifer, Well, thank you very much for coming on Bigfoot and Beyond with Cliff and usually Bobo and very often Matt sitting in. We really appreciate it. Any of our podcast is getting longer every time. All right, Well, I missed you. I'm really looking forward to seeing you next weekend. Thank you very much for everything you've done for me and all that sort of stuff, and not the least of which is turning me on
to my favorite bourbon basil Hayden. Yeah. If it wasn't for you, I'd still be drinking you know, snot water.
I'll we'll have a fresh bottle for.
Very good. And I'm always looking for recommendations too, So if you have another one for me, I completely trust your taste. You can send me in the right direction on that one. All right, everybody? That was it? That was Jennifer Kirkland from Creepy People Management. She's the brains behind cryptid Con and a variety of other events, including the The Groft Tour, previously known as a Nick Groft Tour. Nick Groff, of course, is a friend of ours. He's
been on the podcast before. So if you're into anything ghosty or paranormal or bigfooty or anything like that, keep your eyes on creepy people, because there's always something coming down the pipe. So perhaps I'll see some of you listeners out there at cryptocon and maybe Matt will as well. Matt, you want to do the honors of getting us out of here since we're missing a bogo right now.
Alrighty folks, until next time, you know what to do. Keep it squatchy.
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