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We often hear from Disney Imagineers about developing the concepts that ultimately become attractions and lands at the parks. But what about the artists that bring those visions to life on the ground? The best ideas still need talented people to put everything in place on site. A perfect example of this type of doer is Brandon Kleyla, who has acquired props and decorated sets on many great attractions for both Universal Creative and Walt Disney Imagineering. He’s also written books and created a collection of cool pieces under his brand as Trader Brandon.
Brandon is my guest on this episode of The Tomorrow Society Podcast to talk about his career. He began as a child actor and appeared in films like Gods and Monsters and Now and Then. His surprising road led him to Disneyland as a Jungle Cruise Skipper during the park’s 50th Anniversary. On this episode, we talk about Brandon’s experience on that iconic attraction and how he started working for Walt Disney Imagineering. He joined full-time as a Set Decorator in 2011, and one of his first projects was Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar in California. We chat about his experience filling an empty room with props that had to feel lived in and natural.
More recently, Brandon worked closely on Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We talk about how that ambitious project turned out better than anyone expected. Brandon joined Universal Creative in 2016 and received the dream project managing props for Waterworld at Universal Beijing. He describes some of his favorite details from that cool land, which includes the long-running stunt show from Hollywood. I really enjoyed the chance to talk with Brandon, and I can’t wait to see his work as an Art Director for Epic Universe.
Show Notes: Brandon Kleyla
Learn more about Brandon Kleyla on his official website at brandonkleyla.com.
Follow Brandon Kleyla on Twitter and Instagram.
Check out Brandon’s books, Tiki collection, and more at traderbrandon.com.
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Note: Photos in this post were used with the permission of Brandon Kleyla.
Transcript
Brandon Kleyla: Everything I try to do, everything I try to work on, I always go, well, what do I want to see if I was going in there? And that’s what Sam’s is. Sam’s is just, well, where would I want to hang out? Well, this place is cool.
Dan Heaton: That is Trader Brandon himself. Brandon Kleyla, who’s here to talk about Trader Sam’s on both coasts, Waterworld at Universal Beijing, Pandora: The World of Avatar, so much more. This is going to be awesome. You’re listening to the Tomorrow Society Podcast.
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Dan Heaton: Thanks for joining me here on Episode 160 of the Tomorrow Society Podcast. I am your host, Dan Heaton. I hope that you’re all doing well as we roll into February; I don’t know about you, but I am here in the middle of Missouri and I am done with cold weather. I’ve had it. I can’t wait for it to get warmer so I can get outside, maybe go to some parks and just enjoy the spring. This is brutal. But what is not brutal is this episode, I had such a great time talking to Brandon Kleyla.
I love the way that he was able to do so many big projects just from being in the right place at the right time, but also being willing to take a shot and not totally understand everything upfront, but to learn it and then to get to do really cool things like Trader Sam’s, the Matterhorn, Buena Vista Street, Pandora, so many things for Disney, and is now working for Universal.
Worked on Beijing, currently working on Epic Universe. Just a lot there. And I also just enjoyed talking about theme parks. We easily probably could have gone down a various rabbit holes about parades, old characters. We even talked about 12 Monkeys for a little bit. And for me, that’s what I really enjoy about the podcast, where it goes beyond just, Hey, what did you do on these attractions? But just becomes a cool, fun conversation. And that’s definitely the case with Brandon.
He’s doing a lot of cool stuff with Trader Brandon, his books, all the other pieces he’s offering there. I’m just thrilled they got the chance to talk with them because it was super fun. And hope that we get another chance to talk down the road. And I want to get us to this interview, so let’s do it right now. Here is Brandon Kleyla.
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Dan Heaton: I am very interested. You started out as a child actor, appeared in some films like Now and Then and Gods and Monsters as the young James Whale. When you were getting started, I mean, what got you into acting when you were younger and kind of involved in films?
Brandon Kleyla: It was mostly, my grandfather was an entertainer of sorts. He was a band director. He was a music teacher, so he was very, very much crucial in that part of my life as far as let’s put on a show that was a big part of it. Then growing up in Florida and going to the theme parks all the time and running around and watching the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. And watching Streetmosphere at the parks and Hoop Dee doo and all the entertainment stuff, especially Dream Finder and Figment and all that entertainment of the mid-‘80s. So yeah, it just became a thing.
And I did theater. I did local theater here in Florida when I was seven. My first paying job was 75 bucks a week, which is about the same as I’m getting now. No, and then it just kind of went from there and then like you said now, and then shot up in Savannah, Georgia. So we went up there and did that. And yeah, it just kind of became a great fun thing that I still try to do whenever I can. I miss it. Did a little bit of voiceover work in my time. That’s the short version of the story for sure.
Dan Heaton: Getting the chance to act when you’re so young. And then you mentioned going to the parks a lot. What was your interest there or what did you enjoy when you were going to Disney World or even if you got to Disneyland when you were younger?
Brandon Kleyla: Oh man. Yeah, I got to Disneyland in 96, so for the first chunk of my life was all Disney World. We lived about an hour and a half or so away, which oddly enough, as far as we lived away from Disneyland when we moved to California. Yeah. And back in the ‘80s, you didn’t have to make a reservation. There weren’t magic bands. You had a ticket, you went to the park.
There weren’t fences around the pools. We used to go to the pool, have dinner, go home. That was a park day, that was a Disney Day. So yeah, it was just a great place to go. And then obviously when you’re little and you’re at the right age, and there’s Purple Dragon you can go play with every day is huge. Singing bears and Frontierland. And I remember very vividly, they used to do a Frontierland Shootout in the eighties.
That was awesome. They’d fall off the roof and that was great. You’d just see just vicious badass looking cowboys just sitting on rocking chairs in Frontierland. And that was awesome. That’s a big thing that I’m always pushing when we do projects and we need more live street atmosphere type entertainment always definitely sets your scene. So yeah, it was just growing up at the parks and then eventually one day realizing that there were people that made that, when you’re young, you just think they magically appear and there they are. But then, yeah, you eventually realize that, oh, this is a job which came many years later. But yeah, it was definitely a thing that piqued my interest and turned my head for sure.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, I went a lot as a kid in the ‘80s and ‘90s. We drove up from Missouri and they definitely seemed to have more of those, I mean, even more recently at the MGM Studios early on with the Streetmosphere. But like you mentioned in Frontierland and everything, there was always something weird going on. I don’t know if that’s possible now because it’s so much more crowded, but it made a big impact on me too, because it was not just the rides, there was all these other things, which you still see in a lot of parks, but I don’t know if you see as much there. It’s a different setup.
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, I think they got too crowded, honestly. And so it’s such a, I hate to say it, but it’s such a chore to go to the parks now. It’s so much work. I had to make a reservation yesterday, I’ve got to go look at a couple things, and it was like I was so frustrated by the time I made my reservation, I didn’t even want to go. I was just like, I’m done. I’m over it. I don’t care. But back in the day when you had Dream Finder and Figment at Epcot, you had Gyro, the robots in Future World that walked around.
There was just so much life to everything Frontierland, and there was just so much going on. And yeah, I feel like now they’d be lost in the crowd. You’d never be able to even find them in a crowd, much less wait six hours for, and then when Photo Pass came in, I think that killed a lot of it too, because gone were the days of just stumbling upon a character and spending your day with them. I have tons of pictures when I could barely walk just holding Dopey’s hand and walking through Fantasyland and you’re like, you’d be mobbed now if you tried that. Yeah, it’s a different era for sure.
Dan Heaton: And a lot of it, like you said, makes sense for the crowds, but I have similar pictures of me with The Big Bad Wolf, Winnie the Pooh, or all those characters.
Brandon Kleyla: And there were so many more characters.
Dan Heaton: Oh yeah.
Brandon Kleyla: Weird old ones. There were characters for everything. We had the weird, you find, what’s their name from Pinocchio? They come out every once in a while, but Gideon and Longfeld, and you’re like, holy smokes. And now they bring him out as a special occasion. But a couple years ago I was in Magic Kingdom and they had the Robin Hood gang was out, and I was like, I’ll wait in line, no problem, and wait in line for characters now. But I was like, yep, that’s happening. So yeah. Now we’re just going way off. Okay. You talk about those old parades, look up the parades of Magic Kingdom in the ‘80s.
There’s 200 characters in those. They’re endless. And my favorite thing was back to the entertainment thing. Every unit had their own live band. It wasn’t just prerecorded music. You were like, here comes Jungle Book, and there’d be a 20-piece marching band of guys in pith helmets playing Jungle Book music, and then here come the Robin Hood band and you’re like, it was mind boggling. And then you look at it now and you’re like, okay, which is probably why I’m so temperamental when I watch parades now, or I’m like, it’s not as good as it was.
Dan Heaton: It’s not 25 minutes. Some of those early parades, they were.
Brandon Kleyla: And I even think back, yeah, I remember one parade and I think the float is actually still functioning, which is really funny. I think the last time I saw it, it was used for Pirates of the Caribbean, but there was floats with Davey Crockett on them with the Country Bears. Right. That’s amazing. That’s so good. And then the parades, at the Studios that it was a new parade every year for whatever animated film was out. Those were huge for me. I loved that Aladdin parade when I was a kid and would take all my toys and, alright, we’re going to do the Aladdin parade today. Yeah, so good. Just so good.
Dan Heaton: Well, you mentioned the interest in it being a job, imagining how people actually made that. So how did you get interested in that? When did it click in that this might be something that someone could work at or you might be interested in doing at some point?
Brandon Kleyla: I can tell you exactly what it happened. So when Disney Vacation Club opened, my family and I, well, my family, I was young, but we bought in and we were actually the first family of father, mother, son there. I think there was a husband and wife before us, and we were like Member Number two or three, I kid you not, we had to go in.
My dad and I actually went in not too long ago and got new member cards and they brought everybody out to look at the number on our card so low. It was crazy. And there was only Old Key West, which at the time was Disney Vacation Club. It wasn’t called Old Key West, it was Disney. That was it. That was Disney Vacation Club. But when you stayed there, they had Disney Magazine, which was a publication, and I don’t remember if you could actually subscribe to it, I think it was a special Disney thing, but it was always in the room and you’d check in.
So I always knew where they left them. They would leave them on that little buffet in the living room at Old Key West. And I would open the door bolt to that, grab the magazine and the magazine talked about new movies, new tv, new rides, new stuff. Very little section in the back of the book about this is what we’re doing in Paris, this is what we’re doing in Tokyo. And it was just so cool. One issue had four or five, six-page article on Tony Baxter, and it was, there he is. Here’s this guy who makes this stuff for this company called Imagineer. And I was like, what in the world?
So yeah, ever since that, and then it’s on my shelf over here somewhere, the big coffee table book for Imagineering, the Bible. And that was kind of it. That was like, wow. Yeah. Okay. And then I think what really did it was they had a group called Theme Park Productions, which was the film group. And I was like, oh, I can do both. So that was kind of fun. But yeah, it just kind of spiral spiraled from that and then 20 some years later turns into just a right place, right time luck situation, but I can’t complain.
Dan Heaton: Yeah. Well, I know you started ultimately working at Disneyland, I think before you joined, worked for Imagineering. You did some work there during the 50th. Was it when you went to work there, was it just something where you thought it might lead then to that, or was it more, wow, it’d be cool to work at Disneyland?
Brandon Kleyla: It was totally, it’d be cool to work at Disneyland, being in Orlando, being in acting. I had worked at Disney World doing brochures, commercials, that sort of stuff. So I felt like I had worked at Disney World. Okay, cool. Check that off the list. But I had never worked at Disneyland. So one day, yeah, buddy of mine and I got bored and we drove to Anaheim.
We’re like, let’s go get a job at Disneyland. It’ll be great. And like I said, we lived an hour and a half, two hours away. We went in and I said, I’d like to work at Jungle Cruise, please. And they went, you can’t pick where you want to work. That’s not how it works. I was like, yeah, okay, but I really would like to work Jungle Cruise, please. And they, okay, give us a minute. They kicked us out, they brought me back in, and I remember the casting guy was like, why do you want to work here?
He flipped his monitor around and he had pulled up my IMDB page. Don’t know how he knew to pull that up, but he pulled up my IM DB page and I said, well, that’s kind of why I want to work here, and especially why I want to work jungle. I said, I can act can perform, and if I’m driving two hours a day, I’d like to do something that’s not just pushing a button. So we did it and my buddy backed out. He’s like, yeah, I’m not driving two hours every morning. You’re on your own.
But I did it for about a year and a half. And yeah, there was never a thought, I don’t think of I’m going to do this and work my way up. It was just like, I just want to hang out a jungle. That sounds fun. And yeah, did it for about a year and a half and made no money because all the money went into food and gas to drive two hours every day. But I did it and it was cool, and I miss it terribly.
Dan Heaton: Oh, I can imagine. I think everyone, from what I’ve heard, who does. So what was that like for you doing actually being a Skipper and choosing the jokes and doing all of that? I mean, what was that experience like?
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, it was great. I loved Indiana Jones. I loved that genre. So I was like, yeah, Jungle’s my thing. Yeah, it was great. It was a lot of fun. The script was great. The script is a small white pages. It’s a small stack of paper, and every scene has five or six options of jokes. So you just go through and pick the ones you want to try. And after a month, month and a half, you kind of go, okay, now I know which ones work. Then you just work ’em every eight minutes.
You’re just working them. So I primarily have the same spiel every time, and some stuff would hit some stuff, but it depended on who was in your boat and their sense of humor. But it was cool. I remember I always used to play it really serious, and I definitely played it as real, despite my trainers wanting me to turn around and face your guests.
I’m like, if I do that, I’m going to hit the wall driving a boat. I have to focus where the boat is. So I always played it. They were behind me over, I was steering, and you’d get the timing down on the turns and it looked cool. But yeah, it was a blast. And then you’re cool. All the Jungle Skippers are that you’re, you’re one of those guys. Okay, got it. Yeah. Aside from us, it was only Storybook Canal Boats were the only two spieling attractions in the park that you could do. So it was fun.
Dan Heaton: And you got to do a little more than the canal boat drivers in terms of telling jokes.
Brandon Kleyla: And we got guns.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, you got the time. You just shoot the gun in the air. When I was a kid, they used to shoot the hippo, which I always thought was a crazy thing. I mean in theory, but not actually shoot the hippo.
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, we shot ’em in the air, but it was still cool. And they’re real smith and they weigh a ton. They’re legit. So there is an element of, yeah, that’s the only gun I’ve ever shot in my life. But you pull into the dock, and I always used to play it really serious. You would unload your boat, you would pull up to no man’s land, and then there was the load station. So I’d wait, no man, and I would always reload my gun there and play it so serious so that every little kid that I knew was going to get in my boat was like, holy crap, that guy’s got a gun. Where are we going that he needs that? So that was fun. That was a lot of fun.
Dan Heaton: Excellent. How did you ultimately get started doing some projects for Walt Disney Imagineering, which I know was before you joined full time, you did some projects for them before that?
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, back to the right place, right time scenario. I had met some guys that worked at WDI and just kind of one day, Hey, let’s go to lunch, let’s get together, that sort of thing. And then as always, it carries me through life almost of the, well, I’m going to ask, tell me no, but I’m going to ask. I have no problem with that. To this day of going, well, I’ll go ask them what’s the worst thing they say? No, okay, then I won’t do it.
So yeah, I said, hey, what do you got to do to work here? Which no one ever asked that question at Imagineering, but the timing of it was great. So my buddy Josh (Shipley), was actually getting ready to go and show direct Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln when that got its revamp and needed somebody to replace him at his day job.
So that night we went to lunch, and then that night he was like, hey, shoot me your resume, Photoshop and everything. And I said, yeah. I had an interview maybe two days later. And another thing that carries me through, which I don’t necessarily recommend everyone, but in that interview, they were like, oh, do you know how to use this machine? Yeah, absolutely. Not a clue. Do you know how to do this? Yeah, yeah, I know how to do those. Not a clue. But I figured it out once I got the job. So yeah, had the interview, and a couple days later I was in and I had my temporary green card.
We knew it was going to be probably about a year and a half worth of work. And I said, that sounds good to me. No problem. So yeah, did that for a year and a half, ran the print department, which was kind of all the presentation boards, big artwork that would go into the parks, like the attraction tunnel posters or traction posters for the tunnels and did all that sort of stuff, but kind of a mindless, could be a mindless job at times.
But the cool thing was there was not a single thing in that building that I didn’t know was happening because I was printing it all. So it may not have seemed like a glamorous job just to sit there, but it was like I knew if anything else in that year and a half, I learned how that company worked and thought and who all the players were and who was doing what. So it was a great learning experience of being in there.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, you can’t, it’s really hard to get that kind of training. You could read every book in the world, but it’s not going to tell you, like you said, who makes decisions really, and how things go. Even if you could be there for years and not know that info.
Brandon Kleyla: Oh, absolutely. And it was cool watching stuff come into print and be like, okay, that looks neat. Then a couple of weeks later, you’d print it again and go, oh, they changed that. Wonder why they changed. Oh, that’s interesting. You just watch the progression of stuff happen. And everybody would come in and go, Hey, is my poster ready? And you’d go, hey, question, why’d you change that? Or whatever. Everybody was great. So yeah, you could really, really learn a lot just by having your feet in the fire. For sure.
Dan Heaton: Well, before you joined, I know you did a few other projects during that time, I wanted to ask you about one, which I don’t know anything about because I’m not from the area, the Haunt at Heritage Hill, which I know you worked as a writer and show director. It’s one of those where I read it and I’m like, this looks like the coolest thing ever. And I knew nothing about it. It’s like an annual event.
Brandon Kleyla: It was, it’s very silly. It was a very silly, tiny little, I think you’re the first podcast to ever ask me about that. Very funny, silly little local event in Southern California, in Lake Forest, California. The city would hire me every year to write a little Halloween show that they would do. They would have this little one night in October at this park, they would have all the kids. It was a free event. All the kids from town could come, and it was really fun and very, very child focused. But they had this cool old house, and we would do a show there every year. So we did Ghostbusters one year.
We did Indiana Jones one year. I think we did some pirate stuff one year, and it was just this funny little goofy little thing. Yeah, I mean, it’s a very short story apparently. But yeah, that was about it. And it was cool. It was fun, and it’s fun to play with the kids, and it was just part of that, oh yeah, I can write that. Then you just kind of work it and get a couple actors together and you do it.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, it seems like it’s something that’s still going on. I don’t know if it’s doing shows they did back then, but they still have that every year. Well, at least pre-Covid and still do it one weekend, which is still so cool to me that that much effort for such time.
Brandon Kleyla: It was pretty neat. Yeah, it was pretty fun. And I mean, they weren’t the greatest shows, but it was very entertaining to a five-year-old.
Dan Heaton: It was pretty good. It’s not always easy.
Brandon Kleyla: No, no, and no money. I mean, no budget at all. It was like, Hey, here’s 200 bucks. Make something happen. You go, okay, why not?
Dan Heaton: Alright, well, you ultimately ended up joining full-time at WDI believe in 2011. So how did that end up happening where you ended up going back and actually getting more a permanent role in working on some big projects.
Brandon Kleyla: Annoyance and persistent? So yeah, when I got laid off the first time, I said, hey, if you ever need any help around here, give me a call. Whatever you need, I’m an hour away, whatever you need. So they did, thankfully. I would come in one day when there was a big crazy presentation coming up and they needed help. I’d run in and run one of the machines, and Josh would run a machine and we’d get that done.
They did play testing for New Fantasyland, and I came in and stage managed that. They went, oh, you do theater stuff? And I was like, yeah, sure. So we did that, and I did lighting just literally random jobs around Flower Street. It was just, well go call Brandon. He’ll do that. And I remember for a couple of days, and whatever you need, cut V boards, who care?
Nobody cares. Just do it. Just get back in the door. That was the point. So one day they called and said, hey, can you come and document props and just take you, fill out your dry erase board with the prop number. You take a picture of the prop with the board and you do it 400 times. And I said, sure, it sounds great. I came in and the person in charge was like, hey, do you know how to use Photoshop? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you know how to use Excel? Oh, sure, sure. You know eBay. Yeah. Okay, great. And then they just handed me projects. I don’t know if they didn’t know why I was actually there, if they just went, yeah, I’m sure, what the heck? But I had two Vacation Club kiosks in Tokyo, and they were like, here you go. And I said, okay.
Just went online, started buying stuff and propped ’em out. Then about two weeks after that, Trader Sam’s got announced, and I kind of jumped all over that, obviously with working Jungle and everything else, and went into my boss’s office and I said, hey, can I do this? He was like, well, that’s not really how it works. Again, you can’t just pick what you want to do. But I was like, what? I fled my case and I said, well, I worked Jungle and I did this. He got me a meeting, and we kind of just went from there.
Dan Heaton: Did you have much history with purchasing props or set decoration? I mean, you had done those shows that we just talked about, but is that something you had gone to school for or done a lot of work? I’m just curious because you obviously did well at it when you got the chance.
Brandon Kleyla: Right? Yeah. No, not really. I mean, you can see it now, but people listening can’t see the background of my study here, but it’s like I’d always collected stuff and movie props and all that. So that was about the extent of my knowledge. I mean, I definitely learned very quickly. Again, you jump right into the fire and you figure it out, and then you’re dealing with fiberglass as opposed to this, and you got to do this, and there’s got to be fire coating, and you learn all that very quickly. But no, I had never thought about, I’m going to be a set decorator, that’ll be great. Never entered my mind, but a great gig. And it’s one of those that I’m really, again, doesn’t really sound the most glamorous, and a lot of times it isn’t.
But it’s definitely one what’s great, because I was talking to a friend at work the other day about how people can spend their careers and work on stuff that never sees the light of day, that never goes into a park. But in the prop department, by the time it hit my desk, it’s going, it’s going in. That’s why we are here now. We’re buying stuff decorated. So yeah, pretty lucky that there’s probably 25, 30 shows or whatever that are in parks today that I worked on, which is crazy. Yeah, there’s people there that were there a lot longer than me that maybe have one thing that went into a park. It’s nuts. So yeah, I’m pretty happy and thankful for that.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, you’re on the ground doing it too, where it’s a lot different than, I’ve talked to a lot of people that worked on concept art and everything and all that is very important. But you’re kind of on the side where then you’re taking some of those and then making it the world in a way.
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, I always said we’re the ones that come in and make it real. We make it look lived in, we make it look messy. We make it look whatever. I always like to point out the Tower of Terror Library without props. That’s just a room with wooden shelving. Then props comes in and puts in every book, every artifact, every cobweb, all of that is props. So yeah, it’s a pretty boring room and pretty empty without us. So it’s kind of a crazy thought that a lot of people don’t know what props is or what we do, which is always great, which is always fun that every time you start a new project, you have to explain why you’re here. But yeah, we come in and make it look real. It’s nuts.
Dan Heaton: Well, you mentioned Trader Sam’s, which I know you were very excited to do that, but do you have much history with, and I’ll admit upfront, I’m not an expert on Tiki and Trader Sam’s, and so I don’t want to play off like I am, but I’m curious, do you have much history with Tiki or being interested in that? Well, before you actually started that?
Brandon Kleyla: Not really. I mean, I knew Tiki as much as probably the next guy, which means I used to go to in Enchanted Tiki Room a lot when I was a kid.
Dan Heaton: I’ve done that.
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, I did that. I remember my dad’s aunt worked at a motel over on the beach in Daytona, the Aku Tiki, which had a giant Tiki as the marquee, which I remember always seeing when I was little. But that was about it, really. I went in, it, went into it with my adventure land, more mindset than Tiki, which even today, I don’t really think of Sam’s as a Tiki bar. I think of him as an Adventureland watering hole type of thing. When we really got going, we went around and looked at a lot of Tiki bars in LA and Southern California, and then I eventually was like, I don’t want to see anymore because I don’t want anything to go into my head that I copy.
I don’t want you to walk in and go, oh, that’s like the light at Tonga Hut or whatever. I didn’t want to do any of that. So yeah, I still don’t think of them as Tiki bars, which I also think kind of helps because the Tiki purists, God love them, and they’re right. Some don’t consider it a Tiki bar or will get mad. Well, you wouldn’t do that in a Tiki bar. And you’re right. You’re absolutely right. Wouldn’t, that’s why I don’t consider these Tiki bars. That’s why they’re different. So yeah, it’s a whole different thing.
Dan Heaton: So when you’re going to something like Trader Sam’s and you have this empty room that has very little, it has a bar maybe.
Brandon Kleyla: Or just very a bar, there’s a couple bar stools. Yeah.
Dan Heaton: I mean, this is the question you could probably spend three hours on, but how do you go about buying pieces to fill that? Or how do you plan that out? Because to me, it just would seem, I think about it, and I think, sure, you could buy a lot of things, but how do you figure out where they go and how to organize it?
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah. Or do you or not? That’s the next question. So with that one, I started out, I did a Photoshop elevation. I took our walls, I put ’em in Photoshop, and I just started laying things in. I went, ooh, that mask will fit there. That picture fits there, blah, blah, blah. Started doing that. And then I went, you know what? I said, if we stick to the story of this, that these are out of work Jungle Skippers, these are off-duty Jungle Skippers that are helping their buddy Sam decorate their bar.
These aren’t guys that are going to use a level. These aren’t guys that are going to be interior designer. These are goofball drunk Skippers. So I did one wall laid out, and then I was like, all right, I’m done. And then I didn’t lay anything out, and we literally, so then I went and bought for a year and a half, bought all the props.
There’s about 15,00 or so props in Anaheim, bought everything, placed the big hero pieces where I knew those would go, right. I knew I needed stuff above the bar. I knew I needed this big mask over here, did that. Then we would just put stuff up as it came out of the crate, like you’d go, Hey, hey, look at this. This is kind of neat. And one of my installers would go, Ooh, ooh, lemme see that. Lemme see that. And he’d put it over here, whatever. We just kind of did it.
That doesn’t work for all projects by any means, but it worked for Sam’s. It fit the story that it took me about a week to break them of using a level when hanging pictures, because when they install pictures at the Disneyland resort, they’re perfect. They’re straight. And I was like, just eyeball it.
Just eyeball it. Don’t make it crooked. Don’t make it cartoony, crooked. But again, if these guys are just putting up pictures, they’re not going to be perfect. So just a little off and, and then we just kept layering stuff. We used everything, and it just kind of went from there. Other projects, yeah, you go through the one I’m working on now, yesterday was doing this frame needs to go here and this, okay, foot eight inches to the left of that, let’s put it. And you’re making it a little more precise what that story calls for. But yeah, Sam’s is a ramshackle drinking hole. So yeah, it can be a a little sloppier.
Dan Heaton: Yeah. Well, it fits, like you said, with the whole story. So I’ve been there, but I wouldn’t say that I know every inch of it. I would love to spend more time there at some point. But what are some of your favorite little details or favorite parts of, I mean either Florida or Anaheim, but just that you like?
Brandon Kleyla: Well, the fact that we got to do two different ones still baffles me to this day. And I think that had to do with the fact that we didn’t build them from the ground up. We shoehorned them into existing locations, which I think was the blessing on that. So the fact that we got to do two completely different ones, tell two completely different backstories, treat them like different adventures that Sam had in his life is really, really cool. And then in Anaheim; Anaheim is much more Adventureland focused. It’s much more browns and mahogany and sepia and all that, as opposed to Orlando, which is just getting into technicolor.
We mirrored the time periods of the locations they were in. So Anaheim is 1930s to 1950s. Orlando is 1950s to 1970s. So you could do different things, which was cool. But yeah, there’s a ton of stuff that’s my favorite, which unfortunately has been removed. The family tree was a great gag. That was just a great, great joke. So obvious, but so good to hang shrunken heads from a tree and call it the family tree. That’s a good gag.
That’s a Marc Davis quality gag right there. And then we did it again in Orlando, and it was the East Coast branch of the family tree, but it’s so stupid, but works so perfect. Yes, still works, but works so great. Yeah, there’s so many props. I mean, yeah, like you said, I could sit in there for hours and tell you a story behind every one of ’em, either where I got it or what it means in the story of Sam’s. But yeah, there’s so much stuff. But yeah, we don’t have time for that answer. There’s way too many things.
Dan Heaton: Well, I am sure there are better people than me too that could ask really probing questions about each one of the items. That might even be too much.
Brandon Kleyla: Everyone listening, send Dan your questions and we’ll address them in another episode.
Dan Heaton: That would be awesome. Yes, just if I get a down, we could…
Brandon Kleyla: Send Dan your questions, folks. Do it now.
Dan Heaton: That’ll make my job really easy too. I can just hold it.
Brandon Kleyla: Pause this podcast, send Dan a question, and then unpause it and continue to listen.
Dan Heaton: Dan@tomorrowsociety.com. Everyone, that’s the email address. We’re there.
Brandon Kleyla: Do it.
Dan Heaton: Alright, well do it. I want to ask you about other projects, but before I do that, I think it fits to ask you now about Trader Brandon and how you set that up. I know it was much later, but I think it fits with talking about Trader Sam’s with that shop. So what got you into doing that and just setting up such a cool collection of stuff?
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And then you have a hundred items on your website. You go, what the heck? You have a guest room in the house you can’t even get into. There’s so much merchandise. It started as people asking me to write a book about Trader Sam’s and about the creation of Sam’s. And I said, yeah, I can’t do that. Disney will come after me.
So I wrote a book called The Field Guide to Tiki Decorating, which was kind of things that I thought of when I did, and if you’re decorating your home bar, think about this and look for this and oh, here’s a tip, and that sort of stuff. Then that did well. And then that snowballed into, ah, well, let’s make a tiki mug. That’ll be fun, which snowballed into let’s make another Tiki mug.
That’ll be fun. Which then went, let’s do pins and let’s do shirts, and let’s do hats. It just spiraled out of control, but thankfully, it’s well received. People love it. I took a batch of boxes to UPS today and then during the pandemic during 2020, which shockingly is two years old now, I was sitting at home and I like to do things just to challenge myself and just to get my gears going. And I was like, oh, I’ve never written a comic book. That could be fun. So that’s where the Untold Adventures of Trader Brandon came from.
We did five issues of a comic, which turned out really well. And then that, again, if you’re sensing the pattern snowballed into, we did a vinyl record soundtrack for it, which snowballed into just because I am how I am, we did an action figure. It’s just stupid. The majority of everything on the website is stuff that I myself want. I just have to make 500 of each of them. So then I keep mine and I sell the rest on the website. That’s really what it’s, it’s very selfish.
Dan Heaton: It’s not a bad way to do a business though. I mean, assuming that people are interested, which they are, I think it works out pretty well.
Brandon Kleyla: I mean, I kind of go back everything I try to do, everything I try to work on, I always go, well, what do I want? See if I was going in there, and that’s what Sam’s is. Sam’s is just, well, where would I want hang out? Well, this place is cool. So yeah, merchandise is no different. What would I buy? I mean, clearly I buy a lot of stuff, but yeah, it’s like, what would I want to buy? Oh, well, yeah, I want to buy a Tiki mug. That’s the Shankar Stone Altar from Temple of Doom that you can put a glow cube in that lights up. Yeah, I’d buy that in a second. Oh, nobody makes it. I’ll make it. I mean, that’s what it comes down to. So yeah, it’s kind of crazy.
Dan Heaton: Well, I have to ask you too about your book Mystic Libations, because I’m very familiar with the actor Todd Stashwick from 12 Monkeys. He plays this kind of scary dude named Deacon who’s like funny, but also a little imposing. And then I see that you and him wrote a book together, and I was like, I have to ask about this because I don’t know, I mostly just know it from that show. And I’m like, I’m trying to picture how this works.
Brandon Kleyla: It’s a very odd thing to picture back to the pandemic, which is fitting for that show, for those of you who’ve watched it. So during the pandemic, my wife and I went through a lot of television programming and things to watch, and one of the things was 12 Monkeys. She started watching 12 Monkeys, and we did that, and he’s in it, obviously. And at the time I was doing Trader Brandon Transmissions on Instagram, and they were just, again, it’s a pandemic. We got to spend our time somehow. So I went, it was like, I’m going to do this little live show on my Instagram page, and I’ll go through my phone and I’ll pull out some buddies that are fun to talk to, and we’ll talk to some people and we’ll have a great time.
I called Michael Giacchino and we talked about write music for Up, let’s talk about that. I called buddies that were on Broadway and Hamilton, and let’s talk about Hamilton, just stuff, just people. It was really great. It’s continuing to go. And ultimately we did over a hundred episodes of me sitting in this room with my, hey, tonight we’re talking to just whatever.
Dan Heaton: This is familiar to me. I understand that.
Brandon Kleyla: And it was a lot of fun. And one day I’ll turn ’em all into audio files and upload ’em as a podcast. But you can watch them on my Instagram page. Now, if you go and click the little icon, that’s the TV, you can still find ’em all. And yeah, there’s like over a hundred. So my wife’s watching 12 Monkeys and she goes, ah, you should get this guy on your show. He plays Deacon. And I’m like, okay.
I started watching it with her and she goes, yeah, he’s really chatty on Facebook and all the groups. He seems like a really cool guy. So I said, alright, sure, let’s do it. So I send him a message and I go, hey, I worked at Imagineering, I did Trader Sam’s. I’m telling you about do this little Instagram show, love to have you on as a guest.
Let’s do it. And he goes, okay, sure. Alright, great. Wow. So we talked once before we FaceTimed, once before we did the little transmission and just hit it off. And it very instantly within that 10 minutes became a, are you sure we haven’t spent our lives as friends? It was that sort of thing. I mean, we loved all the same stuff. We loved all the same Tiki bars, we loved all the same attractions, all the same movies. It was just a thing.
The one thing that we did not have in common was I had never played Dungeons and Dragons. Todd grew up with Dungeons and Dragons, so he was like, how in the world have you not played Dungeons and Dragons? I was like, I just haven’t. I’m sorry. I just never did. Flash forward two or three days later, it’s literally Easter Sunday, I get a box from Amazon on my front porch full of everything.
You need to start playing Dungeons and Dragons. And I’m like, where the heck did this come from? And he calls, hey, did you get the box I sent you? So I go, oh boy, now we’re into it. So still pandemic. He was running D&D games on Zoom, which is easy enough to do. I think a lot of people did it during the pandemic, and I would play, and I was learning how to play, but one thing I would do is I would make a drink recipe that he could include in the email for every game so that no matter where the group of us were in the world, it was like we were at the same table.
We could all drink the same drink while we’re playing our game. Right? Very chummy. So we did that and we did probably five or six of them, and then eventually one of us went, Hey, these are really good.
We should put these all in a book. That’d be cool. I was like, yeah, that’d be kind of fun. I haven’t done that. Yeah, let’s do that. That’d be kind of cool. So we put it on Kickstarter. We were funded in a day, and then it just continued to grow and grow and grow and grow. And I grabbed one of the bartenders Roy over at Trader Sam’s in Anaheim, who, again, pandemic wasn’t working.
Roy came in and did all of our drink recipes. I pulled other artists that I either had found online or worked with an Imagineering who weren’t working, hey, come on, we’re going to do this. And we did it and cranked it out. There’s over 200 recipes in it. There’s a game that Todd wrote in it that you can play if you’re a D&D player. And yeah, it just became this thing. But yeah, thanks to a global pandemic, we became best friends and the rest is history, which again is very fitting if you know that show. And very weird if you know that show, but that’s where we are.
Dan Heaton: Yeah, it is weird. I didn’t even think about that when I asked the question. Just the correlation to, I hope we don’t continue down that…
Brandon Kleyla: Nothing is a short answer either.
Dan Heaton: That’s a good answer.
Brandon Kleyla: Nothing is a short answer. And obviously highly recommend. If anyone has not watched 12 Monkeys, watch 12 Monkeys, it’s a damn good show. And I’m not just saying that because Todd’s a friend, but it’s a damn good show. And the more you watch it, the more you pick up on stuff going, oh, that’s the thing from the, oh, my wife and I have looped that show several times and every time go, oh God. Oh, I can’t imagine being in the writer’s room for that and give me a headache.
Dan Heaton: It’s a good show for binging. We did it that way. We watched it as a straight shot in a few months, and if I was watching it over several years, I would not remember, oh, that’s that thing from season one that they’re now in on four, or
Brandon Kleyla: It would be one. No way. It would be horrible to watch live.
Dan Heaton: Oh my gosh.
Brandon Kleyla: You have to binge it or you’re going to get lost. Do a season a day. People like that level of binging. Yeah. If you had to wait a week for every episode, it would be horrible. I would never have done it.
Dan Heaton: No, I wouldn’t have had the same impact. Okay. Well, totally weird transition. We’re going to go back to Disney attractions now.
Brandon Kleyla: Okay, here we go. We’re going back.
Dan Heaton: But no, I just figured there’s a lot of other things you worked on that I figured we could cover a few, a couple things together. I know you did some work on Haunted Mansion at Disneyland when they put in the Hatbox Ghost and then also the Matterhorn when they made some updates. So I’m curious, just as general when you’re going into, I mean it could be specific to those, but classic type attractions that have been in place since 1959 or the late ‘60s when you’re adding new things, what’s that process like in general, just to put in fun things, but then you’re also working in something with so much history?
Brandon Kleyla: Oh yeah. It’s horrible. It’s horrible; it’s a terrible feeling. You just know you’re going to be the one that screws it up. That one prop that you put into the Haunted Mansion is going to ruin the whole place. Yeah, it’s terrible. But no, it’s amazing. I mean, I remember being in the room that was part of the Disneyland 60th anniversary, so it was Mansion, Matterhorn, Grizzly Peak, all three Ray Spencer projects. But yeah, I remember being in the room where we were like, okay, let’s talk about Grizzly. Okay, great. Alright, we’re talking about Matterhorn.
We’re putting in the horde scene. We’re doing this, we’re doing this. Oh, that’d be cool. That’d be cool. Alright, so this next one we haven’t announced. We haven’t told anybody, it hasn’t been leaked yet. We haven’t done anything, blah, blah, blah. Oh, by the way, we’re putting the hat box goes back into Haunted Mansion, and I think my soul left my body for a moment and then was reentered.
Yeah, you go, holy crap. Yeah, yeah, I want to do that. I want to work in the Haunted Mansion. And it’s great. It was a crazy time. Like I said, we had those three projects that opened on the same day. So installation was a zoo. I had my Disneyland installation team working in the Matterhorn second shift would work over at Grizzly, and then I would work in Mansion on my own mostly until to place everything. It was middle of the night and I had already used my help.
So yeah, we were kind of just doing it that way. But it was great. I mean, yeah, my God, to sit in, just hang out in the Haunted Mansion for a week in the middle of the night with nobody else in the building one is absolutely horrible. Oh, yes, it’s terrible. Terrible experience. Horrifying. You just know everything is going to get you.
But I did spend a birthday night in there, which is pretty wonderful and unique. That’s pretty cool. But yeah, it’s great. And then that one was pretty easy. I added some hat boxes; I don’t know how many people noticed it, but there’s the portraits in the attic of the bride in her grooms. I added a hat box to each one of those. So as you’re working your way through the attic, if you really know the decor in there you go, Hey, that hat box. Oh, that hat box is new. Oh, there’s another hat box, which obviously leads to there he is with all of his cart full of hat boxes and doing his thing. But yeah, great, great fun. And our man, Daniel Joseph.
Making that come to life as only he could. So yeah, it was great. Matterhorn was fun. I cannot stress enough how horrible it is to climb the steps of the matter horn. It is terrible. I don’t wish it upon anyone. That first ramp that goes up, the matter horn to the left, and of those are as staircase. So to get up to work every morning you’re walking those stairs and by the time you got up to the scene you’re like, I’m done. I’m out.
I need a 20-minute, give me a break. But yeah, that was a lot of fun to do that and make a mess up there and rebuild some bobsleds and Skyway buckets and all of that was cool. Yeah, it’s all good stuff. I mean, I could very easily on one hand, half of one hand call out the projects that were way more trouble than they needed to be, while the majority were just like, yeah, this is great. This is it. This is what it’s all about right here.
Dan Heaton: Well, you mentioned Ray Spencer, who I’ve talked with recently, and I know you also worked with him a bit on the Buena Vista Street updates and just in general with DCA, which changed so much. I am just wondering what that was like to work in a park that essentially part of it almost became a new place. Even Grizzly Peak, for example.
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, it was cool. It was one of the projects that was way more trouble than it should have been, but it was cool and really cool to be able to go at that time. I mean now with Universal Beijing and all that, it’s one thing to build a new park, but at that time I had only been doing attractions. So that was a big deal to we’re going to redevelop this park and we’re, it’s almost like building a new park. Everything was so drastically changed, but that one was fun. And Ray’s great.
I remember one night we were dirtying up Oswald’s gas station and was out in the street by the gas pumps pouring flicking like acid on the ground so that it looked real where cars would pull up, they’d do their gas and the ground is stained or whatever, and okay, makes sense.
And I’m inside with paint on my hands grabbing the doorframes and stuff, which led to the workshop, the service shop back there. So it made sense that guys would have grease on their hands and all that. And we were like, oh yeah, that looked pretty good. All right, we did it. That’s pretty good. And we went home, no big deal. You come back the next day, spotless, oh gosh, custodial come in the middle of the night pressure washed the pavement. They thought a truck had made a mess and cleaned every bit of black paint off of anything in the inside. We were like, well, we tried.
Dan Heaton: That’s it!
Brandon Kleyla: Alright. Well, it was worth a shot. It looked good for a night. Yeah, it was crazy. But no, that one was fun.
Dan Heaton: It’s like the cobwebs in the Haunted Mansion where they…
Brandon Kleyla: Totally. The cobwebs. They take it out, not where they’re supposed, and they come in and clean and you’re like, stop it. Yeah, it’s hard to do that. And you have to really make sure you are very clear that yeah, this is on purpose. Yeah, you really got to stress that.
Dan Heaton: Well have one more Disney thing to ask you about, which is, I know you worked, before you left, you worked some on Pandora: The World of Avatar and creating, you’re working on sets for an alien planet inside the animal kingdom, which to me, until I went there, I was like, I don’t know how this could technically at all work, and yet somehow it does.
Brandon Kleyla: None of us did. None.
Dan Heaton: It’s, it’s amazing how well it works of us, us.
Brandon Kleyla: None of us did except for Joe.
Dan Heaton: Baffling. I mean, how did that go? I don’t know how long you were there before you left, but how did that go for you?
Brandon Kleyla: I was on Pandora for five years. From beginning to install. And I remember the day it was announced and I just went, what? That doesn’t make sense. Yeah. Joe’s the only guy that could have figured that out. I mean, it works beautifully. It’s a beautiful land. Thankfully I say thankfully. Thankfully it doesn’t have anything to do with the movies, which true also is good. And you can take that however you want to take it, but that’s a good thing. You’re not held to that.
So it’s kind of fun to be able to go, well, this takes place a hundred years after whatever the films do in their third film. We’re still beyond that. So that’s kind of fun. It’s a place that I’m really proud of. I’ve got a couple of my, they’re up there somewhere of my teas from Pandora, which I’m proud of those two. Yeah, it’s a beautiful place. It’s really cool. And we had a lot of fun with the propping and finding that balance of, it’s the future, but it can’t be too futuristic to where you walk in and go, what the heck is that thing? It still has to be relatable.
But we built that giant scorpion helicopter and crashed it into the out there and it’s now been overgrown by nature and all that story element. And yeah, it’s a cool place. I think the coolest thing about it, and especially for me, and I don’t know how many other people are like that, but the coolest thing for me about it is I never thought it would work. I just, the boat ride, that boat ride, I kid you not. We would walk through that and I’d go, this is never going to work. Before the foliage was in and you’d look at the wall and you’re like, the wall’s right there.
The wall’s 10 feet from me and you want me to believe I’m in a jungle? And I was just like, you’re out of your, this is never going to work guys. And hot dog, that boat ride’s amazing. I buy every second I’m in that thing. It’s got some of my favorite effects. Those frogs on the big lily pads and this big jumping thing, love that ride so much. But yeah, I think for me, that’s the most fun thing about that land is I just was so, I was not against it, but I was just like, okay, I’ll make it look good. I’ll make you cool props, but I’m like, I don’t think this is going to work. Gosh, it sure did.
Dan Heaton: No, it’s incredible. I mean, I just stand there because pictures, they always say pictures don’t do justice. But in that you walk through and you’re like, I love pausing is great for podcasting, but you just mouth open. Just like how does this exist? I don’t understand.
Brandon Kleyla: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were talking about the other day at work actually, I had run over to the park and had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley and that’s been open a while and there’s still, right when we walked out, there was still a group of kids that walked in just jaw to the ground, ears in their eyes, they’ve made it to Diagon Alley and one of the guys I was with who’s with me now on Epic Universe, we worked on Pandora together and I said it’s really fascinating that despite the fact that the majority of guests, I don’t think really, I don’t know if care is the right word, but they really, nobody’s going, I’m on Pandora. I love the movie. Okay, whatever. Maybe there’s a few.
But I said, they still, people walk into Diagon and Hogsmeade and they cry, they weep. Right? It represents a generation of people. I said, but people walk into Pandora and just are dumbfounded of how we pulled it off. Whether you like the movies or the property or whatever, you still go, how does that mountain, why is that work? How does that stay up there? It’s really glorious on that front that yeah, even if you don’t like it, you still go, my God, this is something, this is really cool. And that’s a hell of a test. That’s a heck of a heck of a thing to pull off.
Dan Heaton: Oh yeah. Yeah. It’s incredible what came together. Well, you mentioned Universal. I know you went and worked there and worked on Waterworld, the land at Beijing. First of all, that park looks, I mean I’ve not been there, but that park looks incredible and
Brandon Kleyla: It’s an amazing park.
Dan Heaton: Waterworld too, given just how, knowing your background, what’s it like to design for something like that where it’s just so lived in and strange?
Brandon Kleyla: The dream. It’s the dream. I kid you not so on Pandora, I had decided I was getting married. And I had decided I was staying in Florida, and I’ll tell this story. I found out the other day, one of my producers on Pandora didn’t know this and I was like, oh my God, I feel terrible. He’s gone six years thinking I just left because I left Pandora before we were even open.
And it came down to I was wanting to stay in Florida and my boss at WDI said, well, if you do, we don’t have work for you. And I said, okay. I had called around and a friend was at Universal and he goes, do you want to come work on Beijing? He goes, I’ve got something that I know you will weep at the chance to do. And I said, sounds good. Alright, no problem.
So unfortunately I left Pandora before we really got hot and heavy into install, which is my favorite part, and left WDI, and I think everybody thought I was crazy because Star Wars was coming up and a lot of stuff, but were already staffed. They had their crews, so it was either go to Universal Beijing or be unemployed after Pandora.
So I had to have the awkward conversation with Joe and say, hey, I’m leaving. But Joe was great about it and very supportive and understood. So yeah, I jumped over and when you go, well, I could have maybe stuck around and worked on Star Wars or I could go do water work and for me that was clear as day I was going to do water work. I love that movie. I love that show; I think it’s the greatest stunt show that’s in any park today.
Should not have lasted as long as it does, but it has lasted that long because it’s so good because it’s the highest rated guest satisfying live show that Universal has ever done in their park history. It is around the globe. It was requested by the Beijing government be in the park. So yeah, everything is great and for me, I’m like, yeah, I love that show. This is great. So yeah, he came around and I said, yeah, we’re doing it. And it was a weird thing that we had gone through. A couple different producers. Some of them were like, ah, nobody knows the movie. It doesn’t matter what we do with the props move on, which was good for me. I was like, I’m going to make this legit accurate. I’m going to make this so freaking accurate to the movie. It’ll make your head spin.
So we did that. I rebuilt a lot of the hero props that I thought were really cool and then just had a field day with our team just making stuff for that world. We made a huge boat for the queue that’s a smoker’s boat out of a pontoon and it’s got the cab of a 1940s Ford pickup truck on it and it’s got a flame thrower and it’s got, it makes no sense.
But these are the bad guys and it’s very clear when you look at that boat that’s wrapped in barbed wire and has skulls sticking out of headlights and all that, you go, those are the bad guys. My favorite thing, my, no one else would’ve been nuts enough to even pitch this idea other than me was we created a 14 foot tall statue of the Mariner because I would want to see that.
So it looks like it’s made out of salvaged metal pieces and it’s a tribute to the guy who saved their people in the a toll. So yeah, it was great. It was so much fun. And then about the time we had shipped everything to Beijing, I got pulled over to Epic Universe. I didn’t get to go over and install Waterworld, which is killing me.
I haven’t done an install in a decade and it’s my favorite thing in the world is to be in the field with your steel toes on and making it all come to life. But water world turned out great and it looks great and a lot of thanks to the guys that were over there that opened all my crates and went, oh yeah, we’ll put this in cool place. But yeah, it’s a great show and it’s going well and beautiful set and one heck of a queue, and they wanted to do 14 some shows a day.
It’s the biggest one we’ve ever built. It’s the biggest theater we’ve ever built. We added nighttime lighting to it and not just, oh, turn some floodlights on the lighting. Makes sense. It has a nighttime light package, which is great, and there’s a restaurant, there’s a Waterworld restaurant, there’s Waterworld food. It’s a little miniature laying. The best thing is in the ground. We put the symbol of the tattoo that is on Anola’s back and it’s in the ground as a big metal compass type of thing. If you go on Google Maps, you can see it from space.
Dan Heaton: Oh my gosh.
Brandon Kleyla: That’s when you know you’ve made it. That’s when you know you’re good.
Dan Heaton: I don’t know when I’ll ever get to Beijing, especially in our current world, but still I’m just like, I think I’m going to a YouTube rabbit hole will be going down very soon I think.
Brandon Kleyla: There is one video, I’ll try to find the, if you search Waterworld Beijing, there’s one guy that went over and he did a video for every land and they’re great. Yeah, just search Waterworld Beijing. They’re wonderful. And he goes to the restaurant, he shows you the food he’s having, he shows the live entertainment, he goes to all the food carts, he goes through the queue. It’s great. It’s a great video. I’m very thankful that he did that stranger in the social media world that decided to document that.
Dan Heaton: Thank you person that did this. Okay, well one more project then I have a few questions to close out. I wanted to ask you about the Sorrow Drowner because I read about it, bar and dining experience reminds me if I read it and I’m like, is this the Adventures Club essentially put into another immersive kind of setup? I mean not exactly; I don’t mean it’s the same with the shows, but it has that spirit I feel like. So tell us a little bit about that.
Brandon Kleyla: So Sorrow Drwonder came around three, four years ago. I feel like I was approached by some guys that wanted to build this social club, wanted to build this bar, and at the time I was at Universal and obviously it’s conflict of interest and we can’t do all that. But then when the pandemic hit and I got laid off and I said, hey, are you guys still doing this bar? And they had just finally found the location that they’re in now in Wilmington, North Carolina, and they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We finally got a building and we’re getting ready to go. And I said, all right, let’s do it.
So I designed it and art directed it and bought a lot of props and did all that. Yeah, they’re still plugging along and trying to come up with an opening day somewhere. I’ve learned that the construction crews of North Carolina like to take their time. That’s a whole different sidebar conversation, but it’s coming along. It’s great; it’s two stories. It’s a big place. There’s some private rooms you can rent out. There’s rooms. If you just want to grab your drink and go up there and literally be in a quiet space and not watch the show, you can do that. We have three custom tiki mugs that are there that are really nice. You’ll be able to take home the souvenirs and all that good stuff. So yeah, we should hopefully be hearing more from them soon.
Dan Heaton: I mean, especially assuming things improve in the world, that sounds like a really…
Brandon Kleyla: That’s the key.
Dan Heaton: Yes, at some point, 2028, it’s going to be incredible. Now, seriously though, I have a few closing questions for you though. You’ve been able to have a lot of success and do a lot of cool stuff like you mentioned just right place, right time, asking to do it, whatever you want to call it. But I’m curious, not just Imagineering, but in general, if people are looking to work in theme parks as a designer or as on the ground, is there something you’ve learned or advice that you think, I’m not even talking about getting a job, more like something you learned that might help someone in their career?
Brandon Kleyla: Honestly, I think the best thing I’ve come to realize and the best little bit of advice is you just, yeah, you got to ask questions. Again, the worst thing somebody says is no, okay, fine. But you don’t know that unless you go ask them. You don’t know unless you obviously read the room. But unless if I had never raised my hand in the first Trader Sam’s meeting I was in and said, this isn’t exactly adventure land, can I take a pass at the layout?
We wouldn’t have the Sam’s that we have. So you got to take chances and you got to believe in what you’re doing, which is always, I really try to do that. I try to approach projects no different than George Clooney picking his next, I try to go, yeah, I like, okay, I see what we’re doing there. I can get on board with that.
Not that I’m picky, I’ll do whatever anybody wants. Again, you don’t get to pick what you want to do kid, but I try to go, yeah, okay, that sounds good. That sounds fun. But yeah, I always say, you got to ask questions. It doesn’t matter who. Very short quick story. Two nights ago I went over to a friend who’s a creative director at Universal, and I said, Hey, I want to show you this. I’ve got an idea. And I had spent maybe let’s say two days on it just really rough. Here’s some jotted down ideas, and this was two days ago, and I go into his office and I said, I want to show you this.
I walk him through it and at the right again, right time other people walk by and he goes, Hey, we should get this in front of so-and-so and so-and-so, and we should probably really take this serious. And you’re like, it’s just an idea that I had. But if I hadn’t gone over and gone, Hey, look at this and tell me what you think. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but there’s a better chance than if I had never brought it up. So it’s always that type of thing. If you’re comfortable enough and believe enough in what you’re saying, then it’s worth bringing up. It’s worth. Don’t sit quietly in the room. You got to let people know you’re there and let people know you care and bring that to the table.
Dan Heaton: Well, excellent. I think that’s great advice for a wide range of things. Well, Brandon, I think this is a good place to end. First of all though, I want to make sure that listeners know where to find out all the things you’re doing at Trader Brandon in your room with all the stuff. They can get some of that, and then I’m like where they can connect with you online, any info if things you’re doing right now that you could pass along would be awesome.
Brandon Kleyla: So it’s trader brandon.com is the website of all that fun insanity. Instagram is at Trader Brandon, and yeah, right now I’m just plugging away on Epic Universe, trying to get back on track, trying to get back on pace of where we were before the blip, I call it, and yeah, trying to build a new park, the first new park in Orlando since Animal Kingdom. So no pressure. That’s all.
Dan Heaton: How excited should I be about Epic Universe knowing, I know you can’t reveal things, but just a little excited or really excited?
Brandon Kleyla: Oh, I’d be pretty excited. I mean, again, as a guest, as a fan, I walk by areas in our building and go, oh God, that’s going to be cool. There’s things where I go, oh man, I can’t wait to ride that. That’s going to be so fun. Yeah, no, I’m excited and it’s going to be cool.
Dan Heaton: Excellent. Well, Brandon, thanks so much for being on the show. It was awesome to talk with you.
Brandon Kleyla: And everybody send in your questions and we’ll do it again.
Dan Heaton: Yes, dan@tomorrowsociety.com, there’ll be like one person.
Brandon Kleyla: Fine. That’s fine. I’ll make it a long answer. I’ll make it a long answer then.
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