Sci-fi Actor Yee Jee Tso Interview At Spooky Strides

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

The "Spooky Strides" Halloween event for "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer" had a large number of music events. But that was not all. At one point, they had a TV and movie actor to talk to: Yee Jee Tso. It took place at 4PM SL time at October 24.

NOW @ Spooky Strides: Actor Yee Jee Tso  4pm-5pm
you've seen them in Snowpiercer, Psych, Battlestar Gaalctica, Dr Who, and MANY more things.  LIVE LIVE Halloween Question & Answer event.

The event took place in front of an audience. Tso appeared in the avatar "yjtso Resident." He sat in front of a chair, next to a real-life picture of him.  Also nearby was a Relay kiosk for donations. Various people from the crowd would ask questions. Occasionally someone would be thanked after a donation.

Jenny Anatine (Jenny Shackle), "You have been in a ton of films!"

Tso, "Yea there's been a few lucky moments over the years, haha."

VєηυŞ (Venus Amore), "So Yee, I know you have done a lot of things in your career over time. Do you still enjoy it now as much as you did in your earlier years?"

Tso, "Yea being on set is fun. Haven't been doing it lately as I took a hiatus. (The) last show was Snowpiercer. Great crew."

Jenny Anatine (Jenny Shackle)  "Well, let's go, top three? I wont judge the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie!"

Tso, "Oh I'm not totally sure about Mary Kate. If I recall correctly it was an animated thing. Top three: Doctor Who. Maybe Snowpiercer is in top 3? I dunno, that's hard to say, 50/50 maybe. Oh 'Honey I Shrunk The Kids' was an interesting time. Unfortunately Peter and i did not spend too much time together."

Jenny Anatine (Jenny Shackle), "The Muppets Christmas Movie!! So fun."

Tso, "MUPPETS! That is top three for sure. Small part, but very fun and amazing to work with the muppets. Good cast too. Although I saw some of the muppets being 'transported,' and it was a bit freaky,.cause they just sit there. I was expecting them to start talking to me. They had crazy CNC machines to make all the detailed set stuff. Yes when you go up close they still look real. Well, they were real, I guess, in a way (laughter). The CNC machine means they could make it look almost exactly like they designed it."

Jaqueline Malus (Etoile Galicia), "Which character that you have played would you say is most like yourself?"

Tso, "Oooo, good question. Um. well I'm pretty nerdy in real life. I work in software engineering, so that could be a few roles. Actually Teddy Chin in 'Antitrust,' he was an open source software developer."

When Nance Clowes thanked someone for donating to the kiosk, Tso asked, "So Nance, when I click on that kiso, I go to a web page. Do I just click a donate button and do a web chcekout?"

Nance answered, "The kiosk lets people donate to it in 'Second Life' Linden money."

Tso responded, "Oh I'd love to do that but not sure how." Nance informed, "You CAN donate by Paypal, directly to American Cancer Society, which is also us, at https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/12854 ."

Tso then noticed something, "Ooooo, nice cover of radio head." VєηυŞ (Venus Amore) told him, "This is 'Post Modern Jukebox.'"

Jenny Anatine (Jenny Shackle), "So (about the) hiatus? Will you be returning to this life? Or are you enjoying hiatus?"

Tso, "Hiatus, yea I'm enjoying trying out other things, like I've been producing music or learning to. But I'll get back into acting at some point."

Liz Wilner, "Of all the roles you've had, which was your all time fav?"

Jaqueline Malus (Etoile Galicia), "The characters you play seem to be more on the positive side, do you ever think to play more dark characters?"

Tso, "Dark characters, yea. On 'Witches of East End,' I played this guy that was possessed by demons and went insane. Also when I was young they used to cast me in Chinese gang member roles (laughter)."

Liz Wilner, "Is there any current show or project out there that you would love to be cast in?"

Tso, "Brandon Sanderson's stuff, because I read them all with my kids, so they'd be super-stoked. Or maybe the new 'Wheel of Time' series?"

Jaqueline Malus (Etoile Galicia), "Which character that you have played would you actually like to be friends with in real life?"

Tso, "Oooo, good question. Okay, there was one on Smallville where my character could make electric energy bolts and stuff. So, that could come in handy I think, if we were good friends. Maybe he could like power my house or something."

(a few chuckles in response)

"Also (the) Snowpiercer guy was one of the richest people in the world. Not that in real life, I'm looking to have rich friends. But since we're fantasizing about fictional friends, might as well be one who can buy me a jet. Haha!"

Liz Wilner: "Can you name a show you like right now, that you watch?"

Tso, "Show right now,that I watch. To be honest, I don't watch much of anything anymore. My kids and I were watching 'Mandalorian' together a while ago."

The donating came up again when Nance spoke up, "You guys have helped us raise nearly 1/4 Million
lindens this expo so far." Tso replied, "Nice! So I made a Paypal thing, but I'd love to try it with the Second Life coins or whatever, how do you make that work?" VєηυŞ told him, "I can help you in IM." Tso spoke, "Sorry I'm pretty bad at operating this thing."

Nance Clowes, "How was working on 'Psych?'"

Tso: "Oh those guys are hilarious! It's constant improv. Very funny, naturally funny people. And (it) gives you the freedom to just do whatever when you're acting with them."

Jaqueline Malus (Etoile Galicia), "As an Asian, do you think it was easy or hard to get into movies/shows when you started your career?"

Tso, "Oh another good question. Yeah, it was more difficult. The thing is, there are less roles available. It's better now, but back then for every audition I got, my white male friends would get five or ten. Now, they would bring up the point that more of them would go to the audition making it more competitive. But they limit the number of people they see for each. And they can only hire one per part. So the competition thing only goes so far. You need the sheer number of opportunities."

Rayvynex Resident, "Do you have any tips for anyone hoping to get a start ?"

Jaqueline Malus (Etoile Galicia), "What acting advice would you give to your younger self just starting off in acting?"

Tso, "Yes keep doing it. It's all about perseverance. And advice to my younger self - Focus. Stop messing about (chuckle). In between gigs find something useful to do with yourself instead of f*rting around."

(a few chuckles from the audience)

VєηυŞ (Venus Amore), "Ok everyone we have time for maybe one more question he has to go to another engagement."

RezzDammit Resident: (Bixyl Shuftan) "Are you going to be coming back to Second Life, either for events like this, for personal fun, or both?  (and pardon about my using an alt, Second Life is one place you can be two places at once)."

Tso, "Yep, next week Venus has another one setup."

Nance Clowes, "Guys, Yee Jee Tso will be back for a Part 2, on Satuday the 30th at 1pm."

Tso, "Cool, it was really nice to meet you all (smile)."

Jaqueline Malus (Etoile Galicia), "Thank you so much for answering our questions."

Rayvynex Resident, "We will look for you on the Big Screen!"

The interview then ended, and Tso left the stage for the musician that came next.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Halloween Fun All Over Second Life

by Grease Coakes

I got an invite last night on Halloween eve to a great Halloween party at club Zero Gravity organized by Jasmine who is Bixyl Shuftan’s girlfriend.  I was surrounded by spooky party goers in great costumes. It was packed. Bixyl told me Jasmine put a lot of work into the Halloween party designing the set and DJing the music. She did a great job. She played Halloween music old and new, and an extended mix of Michael Jackson’s "Thriller." The speakers were made of pumpkins.

She set up a best in Halloween contest for 1000L or so for everyone, and then by surprise Nydia Tungsten the owner of Club Zero Gravity showed up and added 2,000L to the prize money making it a total of 3,000. I won a Halloween contest earlier that day as Guy Fawkes the revolutionary man in a mask from British culture. So I played fair and did not enter the contest wanting someone else to win. The prize winners were Kitacelia and Amaya. 

Looking through notices I saw ZZ studios was having a trick or treat event on Halloween day itself. That sounded like a definite treat. The notice explained that we could go to ZZ studios staff like Cindy Babii or Rhin Forti and say “Trick or treat!” The prize for saying that was a random ZZ studios trading card with various furries in adult themed clothing. The cards were from the Halloween season, so it was a nice treat. I myself am in one of these cards dressed in primitive clothing in loin cloths and spears paired up with Justin Foxchase. 

Finding Cindy Babii she looked like a zombie killer but she corrected me and told me she was dressed from the movie "Mad Max." I said “Trick or Treat!” and she rezzed an orb, which I clicked to get a random ZZ Studios card. When I wasn’t looking, Cindy tried to be sneaky and steal my car that I bought from a charity car show. (When I reported on the Hot Bay City car show earlier in the year) Luckily only I can drive the car, so Cindy was foiled in her car theft.

I found Rhin Forti in their movie theater. Just like Shockwave’s movie night ZZ studios has a place to play movies. Rhin herself was dressed up like a piranha plant from the Super Mario brothers game that pokes up from pipes to bite those pesky Mario brothers. She also gave me another card through the random orb. For kicks I drove past the zombie house and saw a Halloween party going on so I stopped by and chatted a little bit through voice and text. Throughout the day ZZ Studios was playing Orson Welles’s "War of the Worlds," "Zombie Land," and "Ghostbusters" 1 and 2 in that order in their movie theater.

Later in the Halloween day I got a teleport invite from Gemma to a Halloween party at the “Corner of Revolving Time.” DJ Qwark Allen was playing some cosmic and spooky psytrance. Gemma and Qwark were reapers with pumpkin heads, and I saw an avatar with a large skull head. Made me think of the show animanics and the character “Mr. Skullhead.” A friend of mine ShinyWhiteDragon was at Qwark’s party wishing me well for Samhain, another word for Halloween as the pagan holiday when the veil between the spiritual world and the physical is at its thinnest.

All in all I had fun partying with furries and humans for the fun holiday of Halloween. I didn’t get any chocolate or candy but I still had a lot of fun in SL’s various nooks and crannies.

Grease Coakes

Shockwave and the Sunweaver Movie Night

For a couple of years Shockwave Yareach has been treating the Sunweavers and any guests on their land to a movie night here in the land of Second Life. "Movies in SL? Never!" Well, actually it’s true. Shockwave every Sunday night at 6pm SL time, 9pm east coast time of the US, has picked a movie to show the Sunweavers. The Sunweavers being the furry group headed by Rita Mariner. I joined her group long ago and I never had a reason to drop them.

Long ago when I first learned about Shock’s movie night, the first movie I saw was the "Star Wars Christmas Special." I remembered a friend’s warning in real life to never watch it. Be warned though this movie is completely wretched I was only able to watch it with friends to make fun of it.  It also came complete with retro commercials. In Shock’s words it’s a neat time capsule, "Oh it's epically bad.  But it's so bad it's funny and with all the commercials, it is a great time capsule."

But don’t lose heart. Shockwave plays excellent movies as well as bad from new to old school. One time I mentioned I never saw the old animated movie “The Last Unicorn.” My friend Tantari Kim said it was a good movie that was a little scary for kids. Shockwave was nice enough to play that movie for me. I was surprised as it was like a bottle of old wine that aged well and was a joy to watch.

A couple other movies that come to mind was "UHF," the classic movie with Weird AL the oddball songwriter which makes parodies of popular songs. "Summer Wars" was an excellent Japanese animated film. It explored a near future where everyone had an avatar to explore the Internet, with someone’s avatar wrecking it. The animation was wonderful with amazing action. Shock also played “The Avengers” which just came out on DVD. I saw that in the theater recently and enjoyed watching it a second time.

Shockwave said the movie night for the Sunweavers was started by Jaxx Tardis. Sadly Jaxx was laid off in real life, so Shockwave took over. The pair still work together on the file conversions for every movie. I wished Jaxx good luck on finding a new job.

In addition to being the movie man for the Sunweavers or as Shockwave says “The Sunnies,” Shockwave also composes music parodies. Nydia Tungsen told me that he also wrote a funny song. Everyone might have heard the song “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Shock wrote a parody of it one Christmas season. All I can say was Grandma was drunk and regretted doing something with a reindeer. 

Shockwave has played lots of movies almost every week for his fellow Sunnies. If you would like to check out a movie night ask Rita Mariner for an invite to her group the Sunweavers. Shockwave has started a trend as the Disney cartoon movie "Robin Hood” was played at the furry club Anthroxtacy. Shockwave also takes requests. I mentioned not seeing "The Last Unicorn" and he put it as the movie the following week. He generally plays sci-fi movies, animated movies, and anything that goes with the season. Shockwave announces in the group chat what movie is showing and he’s a friendly guy to boot.

Grease Coakes

Editor's Note: Middle picture from the showing of "Madagascar 3."