Hark, Peter! Tiffany Shepis LIVE

Announcer

Loudspeaker Studios. Tromaville, news on the march. [DRUM ROLL]

Zack Beins

Good morning, Tromaville. It is me, your host, Zack Beins. And I come to you from the Colorado Festival of Horror. This year was a very special year as Scream Queen, Goddess, and all around wonderful person. Tiffany Shepis was at the festival and I got a chance to talk to her. Talk to her about Troma's Edge TV,

Zack Beins

and Tromeo and Juliet, and all the crazy movies she's in. And she is one of the nicest people I've ever met. And if you could go back in time and tell 14 year old Zack Beins that I would be talking with Tiffany Shepas on a stage, he would be like, "No way, I don't believe you." But seriously, oh my God, this was a dream come true. And we have a very fun panel that we were able to record.

Zack Beins

Thank you Smurf and the Gang at COFO, Colorado Festival of Horror, for allowing me to do this because no one else probably would, or maybe they would. I don't know. I'll speak at your function, your bris, your bar mitzvahs, you know, your auto shop openings. Give me a call @legallary on Twitter. And I will say that some silly moments happen

Zack Beins

on this episode and some touching moments as well. Well, I'm rambling a little bit here. I think for now, let's listen.

Tiffany Shepis

Oh my God, what an incredible intro and listen to this amazing sound.

Zack Beins

Nowhere else but the mile high city can you get audio quality like this.

Tiffany Shepis

Nowhere else. And did you know it is our sound guy BJ's birthday today? Oh my God, happy birthday BJ. BJ, oh my God, that is why the sound sounds so good and crisp.

Zack Beins

You know what also makes this extra special is that it was also your birthday a few days ago.

Tiffany Shepis

What? It was my birthday.

Zack Beins

I don't know if you realized that, but happy birthday.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Now that you've reminded me, I'm gonna leave and go do something else.

Zack Beins

(imitates car horn) Well, before, you were just about to regale the tale of you wrestling in Women of Wrestling and Glow.

Tiffany Shepis

Guys, hi. Thank you for being here. I'm really excited. I love Colorado. As a matter of fact, who here is a Casa Bonita fan?

Zack Beins

Oh yeah.

Tiffany Shepis

So let me tell you a really sad story. I've been obsessed with that place forever. Never been, okay? Never been. Finally got on their dang reservation list. Get my black card in the mail that says I'm super fancy, which I don't think means anything 'cause I think everybody gets one.

Tiffany Shepis

Do you have one? Yeah. If you don't have one, all right, I'm fancier than you. You've got the back order card. Anyhow, I was supposed to go there last night and I had to cancel going. So here I am in Colorado, have not seen, not been or done anything at Casa Bonita.

Tiffany Shepis

Everyone feel bad for me right now. Aww. I know, and it was my birthday. Aww. So I bet BJ gets to go to Casa Bonita. We don't get to go. This is bullshit. So that means I have to come back

Tiffany Shepis

to this film festival again, maybe next year.

Zack Beins

Next year, and we will make sure- We go to Casa Bonita. And we will have sopa pies and watch cliff divers. And maybe we will cliff dive. I will watch. I'm more of a cliff like cannonball type of fella.

Tiffany Shepis

I swear we are not sponsored by Casa Bonita.

Zack Beins

I mean if we were though, that'd be rad.

Tiffany Shepis

No, so I was telling you guys the story because he talked about how I should come into these panels like a wrestler. And a lot of people don't know that I actually did wrestle. So I was a huge fan, like all of you, of GLOW in the '80s, like super fan. And they were, like GLOW, the TV show, were holding auditions in LA for the revamp of GLOW,

Tiffany Shepis

which they were going to call WOW, Women of Wrestling. And they did it just like the TV show. Like it was like an open call audition. I went out for it, and I was like, yeah, man, I made all these horror movies. Like, yeah, I could fight. Like I made up all these stories. Like I was like this world class fighter, which I also

Tiffany Shepis

did to get my job in Tromeo and Juliet. So if you see a trend here. But I didn't, I was just like a street fighting kid. But they trained you and I got the part of Madison, the New York rich bitch who was like the Ted DiBiase, like the million dollar man. But look at the service here in Colorado. Cheers. - Cheers.

Tiffany Shepis

Happy birthday to me and BJ. Oh wait, you have to take a sip, otherwise bad luck and surprise your team. (slurping) Okay, good job. Oh, that was like that, what's it called? The sound people like? - The ASMR. ASMR, do it again.

Tiffany Shepis

(slurping) (laughing)

Zack Beins

Did that just turn people on or something? It's the Tromaville ASMR.

Tiffany Shepis

Oh, that's more like puking. (laughing) So anyhow, so I get the job of being Madison, the New York rich bitch, and my character is supposed to be this sort of badass, but rather than fighting all the time, I would pay people to throw my matches, pay the refs, pay people to fight for me, whatever. And we were supposed to have our first pay-per-view match on UPN and we were waiting and waiting

Tiffany Shepis

and waiting for like our insurance contract. I don't know. This is very funny, this homeboy over here. We were waiting for our contracts to come in and they were supposed to give us insurance, right? And that's what you kind of need insurance if you're going to like jump off a fucking top ropes like backwards and crazy sexy costumes and they were promised and they were promised and he's like no no no I'll get them to you and like I looked at all the girls and they

Tiffany Shepis

were like I think 30 of us in the league and I was like guys we're not getting insurance so what we need to do is we got to all stay together they can't have a UPN pay-per-view live show without all of us so if everyone stays together we're gonna get insurance I was like I'll do the talking blah blah blah you know you just sit there and look pretty you do this, but I'm going to talk and everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got this. We got this. Fucking producer comes in. I had my Jerry Maguire moment. I stand up and nobody came with me and it was really,

Tiffany Shepis

truly the same exact thing. And I was like, I have two choices right now. Like I could sit down and like, he knows now I'm full of shit. Or I look at him and I was like, Thanks for the free haircut, motherfuckers. (laughing) And I left and I went to my car and I cried. Aw. Wait, hold on, I went to my car and I cried.

Zack Beins

Aw.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you. Yeah, so that was my stint in wrestling. I did not ever fight a real match. It's very sad.

Zack Beins

But I have seen you fight a Sergeant Kabuki Man before and you kicked his ass.

Tiffany Shepis

This is true, I fought Sergeant Kabuki Man, I fought Stevie Blackheart, kicked his ass, Ted Bundy.

Zack Beins

Well, and you also got your introduction into Troma movies by saying you were a fight coordinator, right?

Tiffany Shepis

Okay, no, I did not say I was a fight coordinator. I said I was a black belt in jujitsu. Okay. I think I might have got to yellow belt, but it didn't matter. I had a really great high kick. That's not to go wrong. But no, I think Lloyd knew I was full of shit.

Tiffany Shepis

I was a 15 year old kid who was like, I know jujitsu. I need to be in this movie. You got to hire me. And he was like, Oh yes. Oh, she does know jujitsu. She's amazing.

Zack Beins

That's a pretty good Lloyd impression. Oh yes. Tiffany. Oh yes. And this was in Tromeo and Juliet. Uh, how much of your scenes were directed by Lloyd and how many were directed by James Gunn in that movie?

Tiffany Shepis

Oh geez. I mean, I think it was pretty like collaborative. Like if I remember it right, it was a long time ago, bro. Um, But I think they both kind of like tag teamed like what they were doing on that set. And it's really apparent if you watch Tromeo, it's such a James Gunn film, right? It's like, even though he was the writer, he was there all the time. And I think it would, it was both.

Zack Beins

That's awesome.

Tiffany Shepis

But I was so young and just so excited to be there. I was like showing up every day like, here I am again, in case you might need Peter in the background. They're like, no, you've already gotten killed, I think.

Zack Beins

Well, and you did mention that that's how incidents happen on set. There is a pretty infamous tale of an incident. There is, it was really sad.

Tiffany Shepis

And that was, I mean, it was probably my fault a little bit, but I think it was mostly, we were doing a fight scene and it was, I played Peter, the bodyguard to the Capulet family, and we're in this big fight scene on the street, and when we had practiced the scene, initially, over and over again with the stunt coordinator, I was in like plain people clothes, right? like sneakers, shorts, and then when we did the scene,

Tiffany Shepis

I'm in like eight inch spiked stilettos. And so the distance is obviously off. I was also probably a very overzealous, excited, you know, 15, 16 year old kid who was like, I'm gonna make this cake look the best ever. And I kicked Stevie Blackheart in the face. Oh. And it hurt him bad.

Tiffany Shepis

And at the time, I feel like I was so young, I didn't really think about how terrible of an accident that is and could have been. 'cause I was so young and now as an adult, I'm mortified by this story. 'Cause it could have been really, what if it hit his eye? I'm sorry Stevie, Stevie Blackheart.

Tiffany Shepis

(laughing) I'm not laughing at it, I do feel terrible. But he's okay, yay Stevie!

Zack Beins

In Guardians of the Galaxy now.

Tiffany Shepis

He's in Guardians of the Galaxy and he's fine.

Zack Beins

Well and you also did some other stuff in the Troma offices, like the Edge TV, which I'm sporting on my microphone here. Yes. You were Action Cum News Reporter, Super Trumet Bulimia. Correct. Yes. Tell everybody a little bit about Troma's Edge TV

Zack Beins

who might not be familiar.

Tiffany Shepis

Well Troma's Edge TV was a show that I think just started in the Troma offices and it was really gonna be like wraparounds for a lot of their crazy movies. And then Lloyd somehow convinced Channel 4 in the UK to give us an actual show. And with the actual budget, which I don't think anyone I don't know where that budget went,

Tiffany Shepis

but we did two seasons of it, and from my understanding, it was really popular over there for very late night, very drunk and high teenage boys and girls. But it was fun. We had a good time. It was a really weird show. Definitely very troma.

Zack Beins

Very troma.

Tiffany Shepis

Very troma.

Zack Beins

And did you shoot a lot of your stuff in LA? I remember Trent Haga, who went on to write like Dead Girl and several other classics. He was the New York reporter, and you were LA?

Tiffany Shepis

Correct, so Debbie did a lot, Debbie Rashawn did a lot of them as well, but I started in New York and then I moved to LA like everyone else 'cause it's like, oh, you'll have jobs here. And I was like, awesome, let me move to LA. Oh, there's no jobs here, that's awesome. (laughing)

Tiffany Shepis

I guess I'll be a wrestler. But yeah, so we shot some of mine in New York and some in LA.

Zack Beins

And you kind of like, it seemed like you cut your teeth just even getting super comfortable in front of the camera with a lot of those shorts, 'cause how much creativity control did they give you on what you were doing there?

Tiffany Shepis

I mean, if you watch that kind of stuff, I mean, it's still very Troma. Lloyd and the writers on that very much have their hands in it. I don't think I would have written myself, like, hey, let's just hump a car. (audience laughing) But because it still, I don't want,

Tiffany Shepis

but you're on, my guy. (laughing) I've never felt more funny in my life. No, he, like, it's still like, they still run it like, you know, a real show or a real movie, but then with all like the liberties of being on an indie movie production, right, or indie TV show. Like, that's what I think all of us like

Tiffany Shepis

about a lot of the B and cult stuff that we do love Because you can watch the behind the scenes and go, "Oh my God, half of that scene was improv'd, or half of that scene they had to change because they didn't really have a factory, they only had a warehouse." Or they had... I made a whole movie called Death Factory that was shot in a haunted house. Where's the factory? There's no factory at all.

Tiffany Shepis

That's kind of the charm that if you guys, in which I know all of you do, 'cause you wouldn't be at my panel, is the charm of the indie cult B movie is you really see how it

Zack Beins

was put together. Like the seams. Yeah. Like,

Tiffany Shepis

and the charm of that, that, you know, Oh, this is somebody that just had a passion to make movies and Oh shit, if they made that piece of crap, I can too.

Zack Beins

I love death factory by the way, that was on my employee pick shelf at Hollywood video. Oh my God. So like, and, but it's like you said, you can see the seams and it's, it's one of those it's like, well, this dude got his movie in a video store. Why can't I get my movie in a video store?

Tiffany Shepis

It's funny. Like for that movie in particular, It was a movie called Death Factory. I only took it 'cause I wanted to play a monster. Your costume is rad in that movie. My costume's pretty rad. It's basically like a G-string and some knife hands.

Zack Beins

And like fangs.

Tiffany Shepis

And like fangs and knife hands and white contacts. Like none of it really makes sense or matches. But I was scary and cool. I was very much my homage to Mindy Clark in Return of the Living Dead 3, right? That was my very, very Z-grade version of that. But not my fault, because they didn't have a factory. But it was at the time when Blockbuster was just

Tiffany Shepis

buying things that had cool people on the cover. And for whatever reason, they liked me. And so that movie got so many re-releases. It was incredible how many times that movie disappeared. And then it was like, it's back. And it's still my face on the cover, but there's a different tagline. And I was telling you earlier, it's really cool that,

Tiffany Shepis

well, I don't know if it's because something was so bad and they thought, oh wow, if they could do that, so can I. Or if it was just like, wow, this is sort of like the cool stuff I wanna make and somebody did it and how cool and now I'm gonna make my own. And so I have a lot of people that come to me and they're like, "Death Factory was the reason "I started making movies."

Tiffany Shepis

And I'm like, that's so cool. Why am I not in your movie now? (audience laughing) What the fuck?

Zack Beins

I'm sure another one people come up a lot is Delta Delta Die.

Tiffany Shepis

Yes, so Delta Delta Die was kind of one of my favorite movies I've ever made, but it had a limited release. So like for whatever reason, Full Moon, I don't know if you guys wanna reach out to Full Moon, it's all them like, get on that.

Zack Beins

Charles Band.

Tiffany Shepis

Charles Band, what the hell. It was myself, the late Julie Strain, Brink Stevens. Yes. And just a very weird sorority house that bakes the fraternity guys into pies and sells them.

Zack Beins

It's such a good, it's just fun. It's a good party movie.

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah, like who doesn't want that? Like, you know, asshole frat guys. Dead. (laughing)

Zack Beins

And you have a lot of fun ones like that. Like when we're showing tomorrow, "The Hazing."

Tiffany Shepis

Yes.

Zack Beins

Who here has seen "The Hazing?" Okay, a couple. Everybody else, come tomorrow to watch "The Hazing."

Tiffany Shepis

Okay, if you're here at this film festival, which is what it is at the heart of it, come see The Hazing. I'm not kidding because it was a movie that if you like, like who here seen Night of the Demons?

Zack Beins

Oh yeah.

Tiffany Shepis

Okay, everyone. Seen Hell House, you've seen Night of the Demons. This is such an homage to that in a really fun, cool way. And it has me and it has Brad Dourif, you know, the voice of Chucky, and Perry Shen from Hatchet. And it's just, it's so fun and cool. And if you haven't seen it,

Tiffany Shepis

you'll probably never see it until a severance is, I think we're trying to get them to put out a new like Blu-ray re-release. So maybe then, but

Zack Beins

Severin, come on, let's do it.

Tiffany Shepis

Let's go sever.

Zack Beins

Their booth is right across the hall from you, from you. So we'll just go, just don't bother them. Flip their table. Yeah. Flip the table.

Tiffany Shepis

Where's the hazing motherfucker.

Zack Beins

High kick them.

Tiffany Shepis

This is all right. So this is a plan that's just going to stay between us and BJ's cameras. Um, And we're going to go fuck up the seven. No, I'm just kidding. No, but really, if you have nothing to do tomorrow night, come see that. It'll be fun. And maybe there'll be a giveaway, which there will be.

Tiffany Shepis

I'm telling you now. There'll be a giveaway. Ooh. Oh, giveaway.

Zack Beins

Tiffany Schiff says giveaway. Thank you.

Tiffany Shepis

Can you imagine what type of crap it's going to be?

Zack Beins

It's going to be wonderful. Another one of my favorites of yours, later down the trail, but of Model Hunger that you did with, Debbie or Sean directed that.

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah, it was Debbie's first directorial debut.

Zack Beins

And tell us a little bit about that project. Like that's like, I don't know, I consider it one of the more important films of the 2010s. It's an incredible, like just female-led horror slasher. Like it's great.

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah, Debbie did a really good job of putting together this just like really interesting, cool cast, you know, about body dysmorphia and the world and how women should see and feel about themselves in the way like, you know, society fucks all that up 'cause people suck. And she just did an incredible job. I mean, like if you're a fan of Scream Queens,

Tiffany Shepis

you can't not be a fan of Debbie's. So to be a part of her first movie was very cool.

Zack Beins

It was super cool as a fan, like watching you and Debbie, like in the early days in Tromaville and then like now you're making like this movie together. It felt really special that we got to experience something like that.

Tiffany Shepis

Well, if you like that and you like Debbie Rashawn and you like me, you should also watch a movie called Wrath of the Crows. So rather the crows. I know, right? How did you not know about this one? Okay. What is it? So everyone can hear you. incredulous what is wrath of the crow oh my god let me tell you he wants to know what the question guys

Zack Beins

was what is wrath of the crows for in the back for in the back what what is what is wrath of the crows what what is the question again what what is wrath of what is wrath of the crow

Tiffany Shepis

Whoa, director is a guy named Ivan Zuccon, not Ivan, Ivan. And he made a movie with me previous called "Ninfa," which is not what you would think. (audience laughing) I see you, I see you. I saw those eyebrows raised. Not what you think.

Tiffany Shepis

That movie, "Ninfa" is a movie about me going to Italy as a American nun to do her New World Order, like convent, like give her vows. and she doesn't realize that she's at some really fucked up nunnery. And at this place, they, in order to get closer to God, BJ, they have to remove your eyes in order to see God, cut out your tongue in order to speak to God, burn your hands so you can feel God. Like, this is a shit show of a convent.

Tiffany Shepis

And we filmed that in Italy. It's really dark, it's really scary and very weird, and I think this director is like crazy talented, like if he lived here and could direct more stuff in English, he'd be somebody that all of you have heard of. But after that, we did a movie together, Debbie and I, called Wrath of the Crows, takes place in a prison, and where people have done like whatever terrible things,

Tiffany Shepis

and these visitors come to them at night to try to get them to atone for their sins. So a lot of sinning in Italy, but that movie is incredible. It's really one of my favorite movies ever made and Debbie's super great in it and well, I'm really good too. So if you wanna see something that stars some of your favorite Debbie

Tiffany Shepis

or maybe your 19th favorite scream queens, watch "Wrath of the Crows."

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like the one you're hearing right now. Thanks again for listening. Now let's get back to the show.

Zack Beins

Another film that you're really great in, that you're seeing tugs at the heartstrings, is with a horror icon, Victor Crowley. Oh, yes. Tell us a little bit, you were in the fourth Hatchet movie, Victor Crowley. Tell us about that experience.

Tiffany Shepis

So, if anybody knew about what Adam Green did with the surprise of Hatchet 4 being Hatchet 4, it was the same for all of us actors. We all got sent a script. He told me, "Don't tell anybody." I'm like, "How can I not tell anyone? "Who's in this?" He's like, "I can't tell you."

Tiffany Shepis

But of course, if anyone knows my friend, Felicia Rose, she has a very big mouth and she called me. She's like, "So, are you doing the movie?" I was like, "Oh my God, you're such a bad actor. "Is it Victor Crowley?" She's like, "Oh my God, I'm not supposed to tell anybody. "Who are you playing?"

Zack Beins

(audience laughing)

Tiffany Shepis

FYI, that is the best Felicia Rose impression of all time.

Zack Beins

It's dead on.

Tiffany Shepis

And if you're a fan of Felicia Rose, she, I, and Kane Hodder host a podcast. It's called Casualty Friday. You should pull out your phones right now and hit subscribe. We are in like our third season, and it's not really great, but- It's fun. - It's us. (audience laughing)

Tiffany Shepis

No, it's a lot of fun. So Adam Green sent out a script to everybody, and it was like, "Don't tell anybody," and of course we all did. And everyone was super excited. I was asked to work with Adam years and years earlier on one of his Halloween shorts and I couldn't do it. And so it always became like a thing,

Tiffany Shepis

like when are we gonna work together? And then we did Scary Sleepover and it was a ton of fun. And so working on Victor Crowley, although if anyone has seen it and watched my very sad, I'm not gonna call it a death scene because if you go back and rewatch it, you never actually saw me die. So I will tell you why I am still alive.

Tiffany Shepis

So I'm there, all these idiots can't figure out how to take away like one inch of water in front of my mouth to help me breathe, which is absolutely bullshit, that you have such terrible friends that they can't figure out how to put like a silly straw in your mouth, or like one of those oxygen tubes

Tiffany Shepis

you could have just ripped off and had me breathing the whole time. So dumb. Anyhow, I'm there drowning, dying. Well, then Victor Crowley comes to the window And they all run to the other side of the plane, which in my head would make the plane tilt, meaning the water would flow away from Casey, me,

Tiffany Shepis

making me breathe, ah. They all run out of the plane, Victor Crowley's there, this whole fight happens, blah, blah, blah. Victor Crowley takes me, because I'm pregnant, I have the baby. And he raises the baby as his, a mini Victor Crowley. There it is, Hatchet 5, starring Tiffany Shepis. and my baby.

Zack Beins

Yes! (laughing)

Tiffany Shepis

So, if you guys all want to write to Adam and tell him that you all came up with this on your own.

Zack Beins

@AdamFNGreen.

Tiffany Shepis

@AdamFNGreen, @AdamFNGreen, I came up with this idea this weekend and you all tell him it was your idea, maybe we can get this made. I also have a Kickstarter, no I'm just kidding. (laughing)

Zack Beins

We'll go to your Indiegogo and-

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah, it's just as Tiffany Shep is, I don't know why.

Zack Beins

It's a direct link to your paid pal? Yeah, it's so weird. - I don't know. (laughing) And then you later went on to explore other fandoms in the Star Trek, which I would say has just as popular a fandom as horror.

Tiffany Shepis

Oh my God, yeah.

Zack Beins

And you're in the new Picard series.

Tiffany Shepis

I am, on season three of Picard, I play Dr. Oak. So much fun, and it's one of those things that, I mean, you guys know, I've been going to conventions, I've told you now, since I was 15, 16 years old. And the only thing I ever, 'cause I think our genre is the best genre. I was a fan growing up.

Tiffany Shepis

I didn't even tell you how I got the part in Tromeo and Juliet. I was a little actor kid in New York and I was just making movies with my big giant VHS on my block, having friends jump off the roof and cover themselves in ketchup. That's all I knew. I didn't think that there was a world

Tiffany Shepis

where you could just go become an actor. And I was at school and some kid was circling things in a paper and I was like, "What is that?" And they're like, "I'm an actor. I'm gonna try out for these parts." And I was like, "Let me see that." 'Cause I was a bully. I probably like punched them and like took the paper.

Tiffany Shepis

And in it was an ad for trauma films. And I was like, "I know them." It's like, "They made 'Nymphoid Barbarian' and 'Dinosaur Hell'." And so I cut class and I went and I auditioned and that's how I got that part.

Zack Beins

That's awesome.

Tiffany Shepis

So when I would go to these conventions as a kid, growing up as a fan who now was in these movies, I would see Star Trek conventions, would always be like right next door. And I'm like, damn, I was like, their fans are on point too. Like, how do I get in that world? And, but it was like, it's just the same sort of thing.

Tiffany Shepis

It's like the camaraderie that like Trekkies have is the same thing we all have when like, I'm like, bro, like nice Troma shirt. Like, oh dude, I saw that. Oh, what'd you think of that movie? It's like, that's what I find fun about coming to these is that like, we all watch the same stuff, right? And I would see that at Star Trek convention.

Tiffany Shepis

I'm like, "Oh man, I guess I gotta get into Star Trek." And so when I came time to audition for Star Trek Picard, I was like, "Oh, I gotta go and really verse myself in this world." And I kind of realized how much Star Trek I actually had seen. Like, you don't realize it until all of a sudden I'm going back, like, "I've seen this, I've seen this.

Tiffany Shepis

"Oh, I know who all these characters are." Because it's such pop culture, right? It's like in our DNA. - In our DNA. Just like Jason and Freddie are, so is Star Trek Next Gen. So super excited, I play Dr. Oak, she's I guess kind of a bitch. But...

Zack Beins

(laughing)

Tiffany Shepis

And yeah, if you like Star Trek, you should watch it.

Zack Beins

I am curious, what things on a Troma set did you learn to do or not to do that have carried over to Picard?

Tiffany Shepis

Oh my God, on a Troma set?

Zack Beins

I'm sure there's things that you're like, I remember learning this with Lloyd and I'm still like doing the same technique here. Or it's like, I remember learning this from Lloyd and I'm fucking not doing that here.

Tiffany Shepis

I mean, I think a lot of the stuff that I learned just being an actor, it's from the Tromaverse of kind of being a little bit larger than life, which maybe only works in this genre. But I can't really off the cuff think of something that carried over from it, other than just realizing that, like I said, like all of us that are genre fans,

Tiffany Shepis

whether it be sci-fi or horror, it's all kind of the same, right? It all kind of mixes and melds together into that same pot. And, you know, actors and friends and fans of both worlds kind of tend to be like, all right, I may not watch that, but that's cool, right? And it's like still special effects and prosthetics and you're still painting a world that is sort of incredible.

Zack Beins

Yeah.

Tiffany Shepis

You know, so I didn't answer that at all 'cause I don't know.

Zack Beins

You did exactly what I hoped is very political. I appreciate. (laughing) So no melon crushings in Star Trek.

Tiffany Shepis

I'm sure there was, just not on mine. I wish there was more melon crushings.

Zack Beins

You're like, no, no, it's gotta be a cantaloupe.

Tiffany Shepis

Yes. (laughing)

Zack Beins

And another favorite in my household is Tales of Halloween.

Tiffany Shepis

Yes, if you guys haven't seen Tales of Halloween, very fun anthology, so many horror people in it. Actually, one of the people that is here today, Alex Esso is in one of the segments. I think that's how you say her name, Alex Esso, right? Esso, yeah, she's in one of the segments, I'm in one, Barry Bostwick, I mean, Adam Green, Like it's, yeah, Barry Possum.

Tiffany Shepis

It's chock full of horror people and all directed, each segment directed by a very cool horror director. And it's a lot of fun. And also if you like horror anthologies, I did another anthology called Deathcember. So holiday horrors at its finest. And it may actually be one of my favorite characters to play of all time, a Christmas shopping Karen.

Tiffany Shepis

And I am shockingly good at it. So you should watch that just for that. Directed by Michael Verratti, also of Troma fame.

Zack Beins

And he does the, directs "Dragula" if you're watching that on Shutter as well.

Tiffany Shepis

And the Chainsaw Awards, which I will be on this year as well.

Zack Beins

I am curious, with all the films you've been in, is there a role that you feel sticks out to you that not enough people talk about?

Tiffany Shepis

"The Hazing." So "The Hazing," which is gonna be playing here this weekend, I think we talked about that a little bit. It's really just more of a fun popcorn movie. It's not like the role itself was something that I'm like, oh man, you guys all have to see this. This character's so amazing. It's more that I just really like my acting in it.

Tiffany Shepis

Like I think she's funny and fun and cool. But another one is a movie called "The Frankenstein Syndrome" which I play a molecular biologist who's of course hired to develop a serum that will of course bring back, regenerate dead tissue, which of course means bringing the dead back to life. But it's really, it's not campy like a lot of the stuff that I usually do, so it's very serious,

Tiffany Shepis

which a lot of my fans actually were like, "Ah, why aren't you being funny? "Why aren't you being naked?" (laughing) But it's really cool and a lot of people that do see it, it's a really interesting, fun one. And I met my husband making that movie, he directed it.

Zack Beins

That's awesome. Aww.

Tiffany Shepis

But we hated each other when we made the movie and that's a true story. Like absolutely hated each other. And it wasn't until many, many months later that I was like, oh, you're actually kind of cool.

Zack Beins

And another thing that I love about you that I don't know if everybody knows is that you are also an activist, um, out there. And I don't know if you,

Tiffany Shepis

it's a gear switch guys,

Zack Beins

but, um, but I do think it's important that people know the multifaceted, Tiffany Shep is, and you're, you're more than just a scream queen. You are an important person right now.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you. Uh, so I, we advocate for just gun safety, have a gun. Totally cool. Just make sure a kid can't get it. Right. It's kind of common sense. That's what I advocate for. I have real-life experience with it. Our daughter was shot at a school shooting And the number one cause of death of kids and teens right now is gun violence and the majority of time It's a preventable one because somebody left a gun out right you hear about it all the time Kid just you know oh, it's my coffee table I didn't think my kid could play with it, or I didn't think my kid would because I taught him gun safety It's not always the case

Tiffany Shepis

Preventable deaths have a gun no problem. Do what you want, but make sure it's stored safely. That's the end of my speech

Zack Beins

I appreciate you mentioning that and for letting me put you on the spot like that.

Tiffany Shepis

No, thank you. Pardon? (audience member speaks off mic) So we work with a lot of them, but we have one that we started ourselves that is called Trauma to Triumph. It's trauma-triumph.org, and it is tax deductible. So what we do with our organization

Tiffany Shepis

is we provide monetary scholarships to children, specifically who were victims of violent crime. So if you were a wounded victim of violent crime, not necessarily have to be shooting, it could be whatever the case may be. There's lots of bad things that happen. We'll provide resources, support, and scholarships. Yeah, thank you.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you for asking.

Zack Beins

Well, I think on that, maybe we will open up to the floor for some Q and A's. If you're ready for some Q and A's, I'm going to try not to fall off the stage here. I can handle it. Oh, oh, now I got a hot back up on the chair here. Test one, two.

Tiffany Shepis

Somebody better come up with a question.

Zack Beins

Test one, two. Mo definitely has a question.

Tiffany Shepis

Mo's got a question.

Zack Beins

Thank you.

Tiffany Shepis

It's hot in here.

Zack Beins

It's toast, well that's good to be, you're here.

Audience

She's going to start with I love you. Well, it's true. I love you. I do absolutely love you. But, so you mentioned one of the films You chose specifically 'cause you really wanted to be a monster, and I do love some of the transformations you've done like in Night Watchman.

Audience

Do you have kind of a favorite transformation character that you've played?

Tiffany Shepis

Oh man, so, okay, I hate to keep saying it, but in The Hazing, I get possessed, I'm just gonna spoil it for you. Yeah, tomorrow it's playing here, And who's the place that we want to put it out?

Zack Beins

Severin.

Tiffany Shepis

Severin's gonna probably put it out, even though they don't know they are. They're gonna do a re-release of it on Blu-ray. So in spoiler, I do get possessed by Brad Dourif. And so I kind of look like me, I kind of look like Brad Dourif, but I kind of talk like Brad Dourif, who of course decided he was gonna do an English accent

Tiffany Shepis

like the week before. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, I'm just prepared to do Brad Durif. I'm not prepared to do Brad Durif with an English accent, but Brad Durif called and he left me, and I wish I still had these. Like, this is an old school, like, tape-recorded, like, voicemails.

Tiffany Shepis

He left me voicemails of my lines, how he would do it in an English accent. Isn't that cool? It's kind of awesome. I remember just being like, "Oh my God, you guys, Brad Durif is leaving me messages." But so, that was really fun. It was a lot of fun, a lot of prosthetics.

Tiffany Shepis

Also that Italian movie where they had to take out all of my eyes and mouth. That was really hardcore, but very, very fun to do. I do very much love special effects makeup. So, uh, anything that gives me a chance to, to do something weird is a good time.

Zack Beins

Thank you. Thank you. Well, other, other cues in the, Oh, right. Oh, right over here. Love lovely shirt, by the way.

Audience

Isn't it a great shirt?

Tiffany Shepis

It's a great shirt.

Audience

I mean, it's like the coolest shirt ever. Okay, so we talked earlier, and I told you that you are one of my favorite actresses of all time. Oh, hold on. Not just Cream Cream. Aw. Aw.

Audience

Yes. You and Sarah French, who was here a couple years ago, my two favorite actresses of all time. And she loves Loki, by the way. So, with that being said, I have to ask you, it's kind of a personal question, okay? Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Audience

What is it like being married to a genius Everything he touches turns to gold.

Tiffany Shepis

Oh my god. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I was gold before I met him. We just say that. Totally fine before, too. No, okay. All right. There's a lot of Sean Trettelove going on here.

Tiffany Shepis

He is married, just so you know. Dude, I am with you. My husband is a genius. is he's very, very, very smart. Like, I really do love "The Frankenstein Syndrome." I love the part that I played in it. I think it is a massively sleeper horror film for when it came out.

Tiffany Shepis

It just came out at like an odd time. Like, we were getting rid of like DVDs and Redbox and it was like, where do you put these movies? There's like weird indie movies now. Yeah. And he's an incredible writer and he's doing such cool stuff that I don't know if I'm allowed to tell anybody about.

Tiffany Shepis

So you could come to my table and I'll tell you all about it. But it definitely ups your game when you're married to somebody who's doing sometimes cooler things than you are. You're like, what the fuck? Now nobody cares about Death Factory.

Zack Beins

[LAUGHTER] I will always have a spot for Death Factory.

Tiffany Shepis

It may be a year for divorce, to be honest. Mayans, right? 12 Monkeys? Yeah, Mayans, 12 Monkeys, Star Trek. Like, no. He sucks.

Zack Beins

Can we get a Mayans-Death Factory crossover?

Tiffany Shepis

Oh, Mayans Death Factory crossover, oh. Well, actually, I kind of did that in the form of another movie that's playing here called The Violent Kind. So, The Violent Kind, made by the Butcher Brothers, who made The Hamiltons, they made the remake of April Fool's Day. If you like bikers, and you like fucking possession,

Tiffany Shepis

and you like Tiffany Shepard, you should watch The Violent Kind tomorrow night at the Colorado Festival of Horror.

Zack Beins

Yes. (laughing) All right, anybody else out there? Well, I wanna say thank you so much for coming back to Colorado.

Tiffany Shepis

I love it here.

Zack Beins

And next time we'll make sure- Casa Bonita. Yeah, so Pupillas and Cliff Divers.

Tiffany Shepis

Should we just do the convention there?

Zack Beins

Oh my God.

Tiffany Shepis

Every movie has to have a water theme. So Victor Crowley can play. I fell into the swamp. What else can come and play? Freddie versus Jason. All right, all right, Doug Jones is cool. So all right, shape of water. Anything else, any other water horror things?

Zack Beins

We'll do Jaws the Revenge.

Tiffany Shepis

We can do Jaws the Revenge, we can do Piranha 3DD. Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Zack Beins

Yes.

Tiffany Shepis

All right, all right, so we have it set, guys. All right, are we good? All right, this is all planned. So everybody will meet there this time next year.

Zack Beins

Sharknado 2.

Tiffany Shepis

I was in Sharknado 2 and I did get killed on a boat. It works! And you know what, in that one, I don't think I'm dead either. Because if you look at when my face got ripped half off, I didn't stop breathing. It's true, they cut away. So I'm also alive.

Tiffany Shepis

Then I come back like Quint in Jaws and my face is all fucked up and I have to hunt this Sharknado thing, but I'm also a meteorologist now because while I was healing, I went to weather school. The tornado's got dollars. - All right, so you guys need to call asylum and all of you say that you had the same idea.

Zack Beins

It's unbelievable. - For Sharknado seven.

Tiffany Shepis

Or eight. - Eight. Yeah, but it's only starring Tiffany Chepis.

Zack Beins

Sold.

Tiffany Shepis

I also have a GoFundMe for that up.

Zack Beins

It's Venmo code at your table.

Tiffany Shepis

all Venmo's except for the trauma to triumph. That really goes to them. All other Venmo's go to me.

Zack Beins

Perfect, awesome. Thank you so much and thank you all for joining us.

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah, thank you guys.

Zack Beins

And be sure to stop by Tiffany's booth.

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah, come to my table.

Zack Beins

Plenty of autographs and...

Tiffany Shepis

If you say keyword death factory, I'll charge you five dollars more.

Zack Beins

As it should be. You got to get the royalties from that movie somehow.

Tiffany Shepis

Yeah. Just say Death Factory over and over.

Zack Beins

That's nobody's safe word.

Tiffany Shepis

That's a bad safe word by guy.

Zack Beins

You attacked the charges just by saying that.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you guys for coming. Make sure you guys tell your friends. This is like really the funnest, coolest place I've been in a very long time. So tell your friends about this festival. Make sure they know about it. Make sure they come this weekend and if they can't come this weekend, come next year. Cause you know, I'm going to make sure they have me as a guest

Zack Beins

Yes.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you.

Zack Beins

Thank you.

Tiffany Shepis

Thank you.

Zack Beins

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Tiffany Shepas. Oh wow. That was a hoot and a holler. Talking Shroma, we're still on behind the scenes. It's been announced that Refused Films has put out

Zack Beins

a Cannibal the Musical, Sergeant Kabuki Man, NYPD and the Toxic Avengers special editions editions for Blu-ray that right as the time of this recording they're up for order but Talkin' Troma did the exclusive commentaries for those so refusefilms.com you want to pick those up I don't make any money from it but it's a passion project and former guest Liam Regan director of Eating This Campbell he it's his label and we wish him all the best luck and it's gonna be badass and there's certainly badass things happening on these discs. As a

Zack Beins

die-hard Troma nerd I pestered the bejeebus out of him to get you know such a great thing out there. As far as this episode goes though what a great time with Tiffany Shepas and a great time at the Colorado Festival of Horror. There was always a line at Tiffany's table because she is so funny as you could tell from that panel that we did. So thank you Tiffany Shepas and thank you Colorado Festival of Horror. If you're in Colorado around spooky season look up Colorado Festival of Horror. It's independently run. None of the big corporate backers are getting this thing going. It's all fans and you know it's a

Zack Beins

great time. Thank you Loudspeaker for putting the show on and also keep your ears open for more from Talkin' Troma because I assure you there's more in the works. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @Legolary, follow the show Instagram and Twitter @TalkinTroma, be sure to keep on listening and until next time, stay Tromatized.

Announcer

"Talking Troma with Zack Beins" is hosted and produced by Zack Beins, Chris Lanphear and Chaz Kangas. Our head of research is Dr. Nolan Stolz. The show is recorded at Loudspeaker Studios in Fort Collins, Colorado. Executive producers for Loudspeaker are Chris Lanphear and Charles Joseph Kelly.

Announcer

Our theme music is by J57 and Bald Halfwit. Talkin' Troma is a listener-supported production of Loudspeaker Studios, a nonprofit public radio service. To support the show, please consider making a donation at loudspeaker.org. Catch new episodes of the show Thursdays at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific Streaming at loudspeaker.org and the Loudspeaker mobile app.

Announcer

Past episodes of the show can be found at TalkandTroma.com and you can find us on social media at TalkandTroma. Thanks for listening and we'll see you in Tromaville. This has been a listener supported production of Loudspeaker Studios. For more on this and other programs, Visit loudspeaker.org.