The Story is The Experience

Foreign. Welcome to the Jody Mayberry Show. Last episode, we had a wonderful guest, Jason Sorrell. He talked to us about Epic Universe and all the work he's done there and leading up to it. Well, as we do on this show, when we have a guest, that guest returns the very next episode to ask me three questions. I don't know what's coming. These questions are not planted by me. They're not prompted by me. They're not promoted by me. I don't know what

Jason's going to ask, but I do know I'm very glad he's here. Welcome back, Jason. Thank you. It's great to be back. It was a fun conversation we had on the last episode. So I'm anxious to turn the tables on you, Mr. Mayberry. Okay, well, let's just jump right into it. What's your first question? What draws you to themed entertainment? A lot of episodes of your show are with people who work in themed entertainment. I know it's a passion of yours.

You've got an imprint at a. At a publishing house called Magic Press that's dedicated to themed entertainment. So what is. I know my story. What is it about themed entertainment that has appealed to you, to motivate you to do all this work? Well, I realize I

have two directions I can go with this answer. One that just marvels at how wonderful themed entertainment is, or there's perhaps the little more candid answer, and it comes down to Lee cockrell. Other than Six Flags in St. Louis, I had never been to a theme park when I started working with Lee Cockrell, but he is working with him, learning how things are done at a theme park. That's what got me

in. And my goodness, I've learned so much. So, believe it or not, the thing that draws me the most to theme parks is seeing how things are done, how stories are created. Yes. It's so entertaining. You go to Disney World and it is. You'll have a wonderful day. I'm so entertained. But I'm also looking at the operations and marveling at the people in blue shirts, even, that are, you know, our leaders that are picking trash up off the ground. And I can't wait to go to Epic and see how they've

created stories, see how they operate. So, yes, I enjoy the rides, but it really is operation and story that keeps drawing me back. Well, that would lead me to my second question, which is especially considering that you're arguably a later arrival to the world of themed entertainment. What so far is your favorite attraction and why?

My favorite Attraction, I think, is probably Flights of Passage, because for three reasons. One, it is an incredible experience that there's no choice but to be all in on that ride. It's fantastic. The other is the whole operation of it. It's just amazing. So this goes back to my last answer, but the way they operate all of Pandora, with probably Flights of Passage being the pinnacle of it, and then the third part of it is the story that it is a story itself, the

ride, that's amazing. And I'll tell you, I was fascinated to see after the second Pandora movie came out, and then riding Flights of Passage again and realizing, oh, my goodness, the storyline for the second Pandora movie was right there in the ride the whole time. There are scenes and characters from a movie that was never made in that

ride. It's pretty fascinating. But the way that they created that land and made it fit in Disney's Animal Kingdom as an actual destination, you could go to, just like Africa, just like the other lands, you go there as a place. And how they crafted that story and took something that was completely made up, made it a real destination with a real story, a storyline. I know, Jason, you know all about this, that you're not just going to Pandora. There is an actual story there, whether

a guest ever even knows it. But that's why Pandora works so well, is they created a whole story around what's going on and what the cast members are doing and why each ride is there. And I just find it fascinating. The way they did it is so, you know, it's going to be good. I think Animal Kingdom could be my favorite park. And the safari is amazing. So, so many good stuff there. But it seems so different to say, okay, if you ride Expedition Everest, it looks

and feels like you're in the Himalayas. That's. I love it. But then to take something that never existed, but make it an actual destination with this whole storyline, I just love that whole experience. Well, it's interesting because one of the strokes of genius among many I think, that we can attribute to Joe Rhodey is the specific story of the land in that. And I didn't work on the Avatar project, so some of this is just what I've picked up and heard over

the years. But I know they were reticent to set the action on Pandora during a time of conflict, which, of course, is what the first film is about. So, to me, what I thought was compelling was the notion of setting the story years after the conflict and the notion of Pandora being an eco tourism destination, where, you know, now it's finally open and safe, you know, for humans to come and bond with their, with their own Avatars and kind of explore the world because it gives you all of

the visual splendor that you want and expect from the movies. But it's in more of a tranquil, beautiful environment where you're not worried about getting caught in the crossfire. So were you a pre existing Avatar fan or were you converted by the land or, you know, what was your relationship with the franchise prior to visiting? I did not see Avatar until the night before we went to Animal Kingdom for the very first time. We realized, oh, there's the Avatar is

there. Maybe we should watch the movie. And in the hotel room at Disney World, my wife and I watched Avatar before going to the park the next day. So it was really knowing I was going to be there and then experiencing it. That's what, what got it started. I want to add one more piece to what Jason just told us is also in that storyline, you can find any cast member in Avatar and ask them what brought them to the planet. And they

all have a story, their own story. That's part of the cast member training is that they are allowed to come up with their own backstory because there's no script. Like if you are in Galaxy's Edge, there's a script, but in Avatar they each get to come up with their own story of what brought them to the planet. So that's a fun thing you can do next time you're there. Just find a cast member and say what brought you here? And they'll tell you a story. It's a lot of fun.

So my third question is a little bit self serving, but as an author, obviously I'm very interested in Magic Press, your imprint with Morgan James Publishing. So I would just love to know what can you tell us about the future of Magic Press and what you hope to do with it and what kind of stories you hope to bring to the world through it. Oh, I enjoy that question because it's a

chance to talk about Magic Press, what fun that has been. And Magic Press came about. We did an episode about Magic Press on this show once with David Hancock and Karen Anderson. So that episode gives a lot of the good backstory. But it just came from my relationship with David Hancock and Morgan James Publishing and I kept bringing authors and finally one day we just in a conversation came up with the idea of having a separate

imprint called Magic Press. And now when I work with people, I can say, hey, not only can we do a book for you. But we can publish it through Magic Press, which is, is great because it has all of the backing, all of the resources, all of the bookstore distribution of Morgan James Publishing under the title Magic Press. So that's a lot of fun. And we've got some books coming up that I don't think it's out of line to say the one next. I know Jeff Barnes, the author of Wisdom of Walt. He has a

upcoming book with Magic Press. We're working on some others that until it's a done deal, I probably shouldn't say, but we're working with some others that have a theme park background. Some, I will say, some people that have been on this show, I'll leave it, leave it at that. And then as it comes through, because I don't, I don't like to say until, until it's a done deal because you just never know. You've experienced that in your career, Jason. Sometimes your certain things

are going to happen and they don't. And other times the long shots come through. And my hope is to get two or three books out per year starting in 2026. We have four out now. I don't think we have a title coming this year in 2025. And here's the other thing that's lingering and Jason did not know this when he asked the question. I've been working on a book for years. It's been an ongoing theme in this show that people keep bringing it up,

saying, what's up with your book? So hopefully in 2026, Magic Press will also publish a book by Jody Mayberry. And that to me, that will be the best book we ever have or will publish because it'll be my favorite, because it will mean I finally finished. And can you tell us what that might be about? Well, here's the

problem, Jason, is by the time I'm about 45, 46,000 words in on a book about podcasting because it's something I know very well, but I already have know what books two and three and four are. And so I will leave the first book and start tinkering with 2 and 3 and 4. And then I get busy and then I don't work on any. So the first book is 46,000 words in. I intend to get to 65, so I can then cut it back to about 40.

And I just, I even invite people to email me and I get emails often enough to hang my head in shame when I have to tell people, oh, no, I haven't made any progress. So that's it there. I'll finish the podcast book. The next one is about using interpretation in business. Because my background is a park ranger, I talk a lot about interpretation. So that'll likely be the second one or the third or the fourth, depending on. But that's it. And also I. I've got one other

that I probably will do. I started doing a daily podcast for my son and it is, it's really. He did it two years his freshman year, his sophomore year in college, and half the messages are from me, half are from other people. And it is just a wonderful collection of wisdom that Dave. I told David Hancock about the idea. He's the founder of Mortgage James Publishing, and his first words were, that's going to be a book. Right. And Donald Miller did a message for it once, and when I asked

him, he said, oh, I love that idea. That's going to be a book. Right. So if two brilliant people like that say it needs to be a book, it should probably be a book. Yeah, that's definitely a good indicator that you're onto something. Yes. So there you go. Without meaning to do so, Jason has now called me out for not finishing my book. And feel free to reach out to me at any time, Jody, at jodymayberry.com and say, hey, what's up with your book? Have you made any progress? Because if I

feel enough pressure, I probably will just. I'll feel no choice but to keep working on it. Yeah, your audience will guilt you into it. That can be a good thing. Powerful motivator. Yes. There we go. Well, Jason, I'm going to ask you, even though this was about me, I'm going to now ask you, since we're talking books. You have written all those books in the past. Do you have any coming up? Yeah, it's

interesting because I have two on the docket at the moment. One is my memoir, which sounds very pretentious and I really don't know any other way to put it, because that's what it

is. But it's really honestly motivated because after giving a number, any number of talks over the years to colleges and high schools and interviews with reporters over time, you realize, wow, I might have something constructive to say, especially to people getting started or hoping to get started in the themed entertainment business or just entertainment in general. So my memoir is called Excellent Adventures in the Theme Trade from the dawn of Hollywood east to the Twilight of the Imagineers.

And that's essentially my story going all the way back, really, to high school, when I first got into performing and started to get interested in Disney and themed entertainment and actually doing this for a living, all the way up through my stints with Disney and Universal and sort of culminating with Epic Universe and the work that we did on the United Kingdom Park. So that I am in the process of outlining and going to get off a sample chapter or two to get that going.

And then the second book that I have on my docket is Pirates of the Imagineering, a Disney classic, which is essentially a reimagining of my original Pirates of the Caribbean book, which is no longer in print. I have a lot of people over the years ask me, well, how can I get it? It's on the secondary market, ebay, Amazon Marketplace. But I definitely think there's a market for the pirate story to bring it back. So that's a

book that I have planned. And then I'm also collaborating with someone at Lucasfilm on a book on all of the Lucasfilm attractions in the Disney park. Star wars and Indiana Jones, Captain eo, Alien Encounter, you name it. So that's something that I'm pursuing with a collaborator at Lucasfilm. I have a comparable title for Marvel that I'm

interested in moving forward. So two are a lot more solid than the others, but those are our four concepts that will hopefully see the light of day and get published at some point. Fantastic. Those are great. Well, if you want introduced to Jason's books, a good place to start is the Haunted Mansion book. It is. I think you did a great job keeping some good artwork in there. Great story. So if you enjoy Haunted Mansion, I know you'll really enjoy that book.

Thank you so much, Jason, for returning for the Three Questions episode. Yeah, I know. I feel like James Lipton, so this has been wish fulfillment for me. I have a similar. All right, well, thank you, Jason, and thank you for listening to the Jody Mitchell Mayberry Show. There's no dramas here with Sugar J.