Unemployed Alcoholic Aaron Sorrels: Metaverse World Building, Comedy, Alcoholism, Recovery and Contentment

Can humor and recovery reshape your entire life? Whether you're a comedy enthusiast or curious about the metaverse, this episode offers a compelling blend of personal narrative and innovative vision. Join us for an engaging chat with Aaron Sorrells, the Unemployed Alcoholic, as he uncovers the transformative power of clean comedy in both the real and virtual worlds. From his turbulent college days and struggles with alcoholism to his breakthrough in the world of virtual reality comedy, Aaron's story is a testament to resilience and reinvention. You'll get an in-depth look at his journey from the stages of traditional comedy clubs to the innovative creation of the Soapstone Comedy Club in Meta Horizon Worlds.

Discover how the global pandemic became a catalyst for Aaron's dive into the metaverse, leading to the development of a unique VR comedy venue that has become a beacon for both seasoned and emerging comedians. We break down the intricacies of Meta Horizon Worlds, and the Soapstone's standout features like omnipresent celebrity performances, daily open mics, and recorded video specials. Aaron also shares the challenges and triumphs of bringing a dream to virtual reality, from collaborating with world builders to managing a vibrant and dynamic online community.

But it's not just about the laughs. Aaron opens up about his personal battles, how sobriety steered him towards a fulfilling path, and the creation of Clean Comedy Time—a platform that challenges comedians to be funny without being hurtful. As Aaron reveals the meticulous process behind building the Soapstone Comedy Club, you'll gain insights into how he's merging technology and humor to create an accessible and engaging environment for comedy lovers everywhere. 

Transcript

Aaron Sorrels: 0:00

If I just said here's the plan.

Eldon Palmer: 0:02

Yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 0:03

I'm going to take about a year out of work and then I'm going to start doing comedy as the unemployed alcoholic. And then there's going to be a global pandemic which is going to shut everything down. And then from there I'm going to go into the metaverse and build a cartoon comedy club in a pretend land and start to do comedy.

Eldon Palmer: 0:23

Hey, welcome back. Today we have Aaron Sorrells, the unemployed alcoholic and world creator of the Soapstone Comedy Club and Meta Horizon Worlds. Welcome, Aaron, Longtime friend. Tell us what's Meta Horizon Worlds and what is the Soapstone, Because I know it's a pretty big deal but not everybody is aware of the metaverse.

Aaron Sorrels: 0:44

Yeah, it is the metaverse. You know, that's the big exciting thing right now is virtual reality. Of course, meta, which used to be known as Facebook, rebranded their whole company as Meta and really took on the lead position in creating the metaverse. Their cornerstone app, which is how they bring people into the metaverse, is called Meta Horizon Worlds, and one of the cornerstone worlds in that is the Soapstone Comedy Club, which me and a whole team of talented people created.

Eldon Palmer: 1:19

Yeah, so how long has that been rolling so?

Aaron Sorrels: 1:23

about two and a half years now, Okay, and we started off with a bang pretty much. I got in on the beta of Meta Horizon Worlds and we launched that world right as it became open to the public. So it was fortuitous timing and we were doing some cool things and that kind of jump started this momentum and some really incredible things have happened since.

Eldon Palmer: 1:53

Cool. I remember at one point you were like one of the top most visited sites or locations there. I don't know where all that stuff stands, but you've gone through a few iterations what actually happens there. So it's a comedy club, like we're going in and sitting at high top tables and having beverages and watching comedians, or is this something else?

Aaron Sorrels: 2:13

Yeah, what happens? There is a lot of different things. Like our top tier experience. We've got celebrity comedians that will come in and perform. Jay Pharoah is coming up, pete Holmes and Natasha Leggero and many others. We, about once a month, we're bringing in a celebrity comedian to perform and those experiences they're what I call omnipresent experiences. So it doesn't matter how many people are in the soapstone, everybody can can experience that, uh. So the the way worlds work is, uh, there's a capacity of the number of people that can be there, uh, and once you exceed that capacity, it opens up another version of that same world.

Aaron Sorrels: 3:00

A lot of people refer to it as instances or lobbies. And so Pete Holmes, he's going to be in all places at once, or omnipresent, if you will. So that's kind of our top tier experience. We also are really, really excited because we've got big screen experiences where we're actually producing video specials in virtual reality of nationally touring headliner comedians and about twice a month we're having people come in where we're recording these specials and then we're replaying those every Thursday in the Soapstone Comedy Club. And then over 50 events per month. We produce live events and we have a team of marquee hosts that spearhead each of those events, and those are live, per instance, events where people can come in and experience that. And then the most popular thing that we do, or the most easily accessible even even is we do an everyday open mic so anybody can come into the soapstone, get on the same stage as these other folks and and do their thing okay, very cool.

Eldon Palmer: 4:14

Now I know there's a lot of people like I'm probably more familiar than many, but not as familiar as you. I think there's a lot of people that just haven't even scratched the surface what the metaverse is and how to interact. So how does somebody actually access all of this?

Aaron Sorrels: 4:31

Yeah, and you know it's funny because describing the metaverse just doesn't work. No, I heard a quote I heard a quote, uh, where somebody said uh, trying to describe virtual reality is like trying to explain architecture by dancing, like it just how do we get in there? That's like how do I get in? Is there like a?

Eldon Palmer: 4:56

portal that opens up, or yeah, there are.

Aaron Sorrels: 4:59

There are portals, but uh, so it's, it is. It's one of those things that you have to experience to understand. It'd be like trying to listen to the radio to find out what TV is. You can't see or you can't understand something that's immersive unless you immerse yourself in it. Now you can get a taste of it, like through soapstonecomedycom. That's our website. We have a link there where people can actually visit the Soapstone Comedy Club. Granted, it's just on a two dimensional screen, it's on their, their mobile or their or via their browser, but it is a way to get a taste for it, to see what's actually happening in there. And then, obviously, once you put a headset on that's, that's when you are immersed in the environment and you feel like you're walking around in a comedy club and meeting people.

Eldon Palmer: 5:54

So I've actually been in there not super recently, and again, the headset is kind of where I was going. That's the old school, but much newer now. But it is pretty interesting. It's weird, it's kind of a strange feeling. You do feel like you're part of a certainly a 3D environment. You kind of wander around and see people. There's little things you can do to kind of interact with each other, so really interesting. But the VR headsets pretty much required to interact right now with some 2D experiences to kind of give you a taste test. Yeah, all right. So how let's kind of rewind a little bit now. Where did all this get started? Like, let's tell us your origin story. What's where's little aaron, if you're ever little?

Aaron Sorrels: 6:35

well, uh, my mom and dad met, and no, I actually heard that from one of my guests, so it's okay, you can say that, no, I mean it's interesting because, you know, at some point in all of our lives we reach an opportunity that we're perfectly prepared for, and it is really the culmination of all of these things childhood, you know, growing up as a pastor's kid and going to high school and middle school in a small town, to college, where you and I met, yeah, and we first kind of together discovered strategic planning and the idea of an entrepreneurial mindset and stuff. And then going from there into the workforce and experiencing marketing and customer service and leadership and different roles like that, to going back to school, getting an MBA and all that. Each of those experiences played a huge role in what I would say is preparing me for this, which is the most exciting opportunity I've ever been a part of and certainly the most exciting team and community that I've been a part of.

Eldon Palmer: 7:53

Yeah, why don't we, if you're game, why don't we go back, maybe start where we met, sure College again, kind of like revisit that as we were conquering the world, planning out all our strategy, at like 2.30 am on a Thursday night maybe, or Friday night back in the day, you know, we kind of left college and then you went on to do quite a few things, and I think part of this is that you've done so many things and I there's probably lessons that you've taken from each of those and and we don't have to go here. But but if, if it makes sense, can we maybe revisit, like each of those careers or personal developments over that time? I mean, you got married while I was in college, which is pretty, you know, young for most of us. At that time you had a little little one, that one that was this big and this many back in the day, and it's just, I don't know, take us back there if you don't mind, yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 8:54

So you're right, my now wife and I we met very early. In fact we met when we were in middle school. We weren't betrothed or anything, but we met and started dating and got together in high school, got engaged right after high school and were married the summer of our freshman year in college and that's unusual, but snatched her up quick before she realized how great she was.

Eldon Palmer: 9:26

Exactly.

Aaron Sorrels: 9:28

And yeah, and we're still together now Been married 30 years. Actually, we're about to celebrate our 30th year anniversary, so congratulations and good work.

Eldon Palmer: 9:38

I always tell people good work, because you know, successful marriages work. Yeah, yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 9:44

And just, you know, a successful marriage, like a successful life, it's not a straight linear advancement. You know, there's rocky times, there's good times and it takes both to make a strong, healthy marriage, yeah for sure. But yeah, in college was a different experience because we were married and had a family. You know, high school it was really a very rebellious time in my life and not really doing much anything of purpose. And then to get married, get in college, it was time to start getting serious. And that's where your, your and I's conversation uh, got so great because we were future focused. We were thinking about, wow, how do we, how do we build something, how do we, um, how do we create value? And yeah, that that that made for some interesting conversations on docks of Chippewa Lake and just sitting there just talking about, wow, what is this about and how are we going to do things? A&e printing, I think, was an initial little brainstorm that we yeah, let's take the printing world by storm Own the whole supply chain.

Eldon Palmer: 11:02

That's right.

Aaron Sorrels: 11:03

Yeah, and just thinking about different, different pieces. And obviously we never did that Right, but I had a good thing too. Yeah, that's not a booming industry nowadays, but but that, that practice of thinking about something and thinking about how value can be created through it and thinking about how to add value to those around us like that, that was essential to lay the groundwork for some of both of our successes later.

Eldon Palmer: 11:36

Yeah, any, you know it was a pivotal time for me as well, like our friendships, like a lot of things. You know we've had times where we've been closer and farther apart, but it really was a pivotal part in my life because it sort of became I had somebody I could talk to about these things. We can kind of bounce ideas and thoughts off each other Somebody that was always creative, a little um and um, a little bit um and just it was just been, it's been a good. It's sort of like an anchor and sort of a starting spot for my life. So, um, where, like my adult life, I guess I'd say, because I came from a small town and um, like fair state university printing program, um became sort of that launching point for the rest. So what did you learn about, like being married early, like what? What kind of lessons came out of that? What challenges I mean?

Aaron Sorrels: 12:34

well, we, I mean we started our life early. Uh, you know, we, we had kids very, very early. Um, and I tell people, you know you can choose to have kids early or have kids late, just don't do both.

Eldon Palmer: 12:46

Yeah, yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 12:47

Yeah, I don't know how people do it.

Eldon Palmer: 12:49

Yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 12:49

Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, my wife and I, we know each other very, very well. Um, we're the best friends. Uh, we're romantically attracted to each other. And uh, um, and and again, we, we know each other. Like there's just a look and communicate way too much sometimes, but, but, but, yeah, it's. You know that's, spending time with a significant other is an important piece of that, and the longer you've been together, the more time you've spent together hopefully if it's working right.

Aaron Sorrels: 13:28

Right, oh, but yeah, that's uh, during, during that, uh, that collegiate time, um, I'd say you know that that was a big time of dreaming, because everything was future focused, everything was preparation, um, and and there are a lot of dreams, you know, and, and that was a good time. And then I would say that, uh, going into my, the career after college, really that whole next section of life, um, I'd say would really be most categorized with discontentment. I wasn't real happy and there was a lot of reasons for that, but I really struggled with a spirit of discontentment. I wasn't fulfilled with what I was doing, I wasn't enjoying it. You know it was just kind of a rough time and that led to a lot of transition. You know where I would work someplace and then be discontent and end up another place Later on in life determined some root causes for some of that.

Aaron Sorrels: 14:47

You know, alcoholism was a big contributing factor there. It was both something I was turning to in a self-medicating standpoint, but also it was causing a lot of it. Uh, there were some mental health struggles along with there as well. That, uh, when, when I came to terms with that and uh and sought counseling and also, uh, medical attention, um, that changed how I was experiencing life so dramatically and so and such a radical improvement it's. It's amazing, so, and and even that even in a, in a season of discontentment, there were pockets of value, there were things that I learned and experienced that that I couldn't have experienced otherwise. So, even a season of discontentment, even a season of depression, even a season of alcohol abuse, there can be great things that come out of it.

Eldon Palmer: 15:55

Yeah, anything you can kind of name, put you on the spot here a little bit, but I know there's tons of them we can talk privately about.

Aaron Sorrels: 16:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, one is yeah um yeah, I don't have that sound effect on the board yeah, um, yeah, I mean as, as far as um, what I would would say would be a primary thing that I took out of that is the value of contentment. Yeah, sure, I really think that contentment, and actually during COVID I put together a short video on contentment theory.

Eldon Palmer: 16:39

I loved your videos. I forget I missed those actually.

Aaron Sorrels: 16:42

Oh, thanks, thanks. Yeah, focus is an important thing and you know I really try to focus my energies and efforts. But I did like creating videos and we'll do some more of that at some point, but during COVID I created a video called Contentment Theory. During COVID, I created a video called Contentment Theory and it really compares and contrasts the environment that you set for yourself when you're in a place of contentment versus discontentment. So I guess that would be probably the biggest thing, the biggest single focal point thing that I got out of that period of time was understanding the, the dynamics of discontentment and contentment and the value of contentment.

Eldon Palmer: 17:28

Yeah, I think you know, relating to that, like you, you know, some of our conversations in college led to me, you know, changing my life in a way, um, where I became more content, more accepting of myself. You know, through faith it just became, you know, a big life-changing event there and once you can kind of, like you know, unburden yourself of that and feel content with what you have and who you are. Like to me that was something that you know you planted some of those early seeds there and I always appreciate that you planted some of those early seeds there and I always appreciate that, but it's easy to forget.

Eldon Palmer: 18:05

Ironic that those seeds could be planted during a season of discontentment for myself, that's interesting, I think that's I don't know if you call it yin and yang or whatever terms you have for these things Quite often all of that stuff is still there. We don't always do what we know we should, um, and, and so we, we still make, you know, bad decisions, sometimes um, and sometimes when I don't know. It's just, it's just life. I guess.

Aaron Sorrels: 18:36

Yeah, and it's a long game. Yeah, it gets a long uh process, yeah like that marriage thing and the life thing.

Eldon Palmer: 18:44

I mean there's all kinds of ups and downs and I think you know, as long as we keep growing and building on those new lessons we get soapstone, the.

Aaron Sorrels: 18:53

The soapstone comedy club, which again is, is the most exciting uh thing that I've ever been a part of, because of the community that's involved, because of the potential of what's happening, because of what we're doing currently, like this is just like it's like going to the moon, it's it's just amazing and exciting and that absolutely would not be possible without hardship. You know, the fact is I left a good grown-up job to address alcoholism and that led to a season of unemployment and addiction recovery and then from there I found comedy.

Eldon Palmer: 19:45

So, so yeah, let's get into that a little bit more, because we opened with the unemployed alcoholic. You're known as the unemployed alcoholic, which is an interesting origin. Why don't you tell us about the origin of that guy?

Aaron Sorrels: 19:56

Sure, sure, yeah, it got to a point where I knew that I needed to address alcoholism. Health was fading, relationships I mentioned the importance of the relationship with my wife Relationships were struggling, professionally struggling. It's alcoholism and alcohol abuse will always take its toll and unfortunately it's a very, very controlling thing and it's a rarity that people are able to address it and make the lifestyle changes necessary to overcome it. But it came to the point where I knew that if I didn't address it, ultimately I'd end up losing everything of value. And so I did.

Aaron Sorrels: 20:52

I left a good, grown-up job I say a grown-up job because I certainly don't have a grown-up job now but I left a good job and got involved in a good church, a good recovery program and and started rebuilding who I was, my identity, um, and and that was so valuable and good. I mean the, the lessons that I learned during taking a season to recover um are far more valuable than anything that I learned through any entrepreneurial venture that I've done in the past or any um, the MBA that I went through. You know the, the mindset and the focus of a 12 step program, um it in as far as creating value for those around you. It's incredibly valuable. It's great.

Aaron Sorrels: 21:49

So, yeah, I left that job to address alcoholism and go through a recovery process. I thought that might take a couple weeks and then I'd get back to work.

Eldon Palmer: 22:00

It's not how it happened. That's what you told Renee to work.

Aaron Sorrels: 22:09

Yeah, it's not how it happened. Uh, you told uh renee, well, it's funny at that point, uh, if I were to have laid out, if somehow I had a vision of what the future would hold, and I laid that out, she just said no, like if I just said here's, here's the plan yeah I'm gonna take about a year out of work and then I'm gonna start doing comedy as the unemployed alcoholic, and then there's going to be a global pandemic which is going to shut everything down.

Aaron Sorrels: 22:33

And then from there I'm going to go into the metaverse and build a cartoon comedy club in a pretend land and start to do comedy.

Eldon Palmer: 22:40

Yeah, yeah, all in, I can only imagine. Yeah, weird how things. I can only imagine. Yeah, yeah, weird how things turn out, though, you know, like we just can't predict the future and you just have to keep moving forward in the best way you think you can at the time.

Aaron Sorrels: 22:55

Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, and we have to keep learning and we have to keep trying.

Eldon Palmer: 23:02

Well, that was super important, Like I don't think anything else in life mattered at that time other than, you know, getting yourself right.

Aaron Sorrels: 23:10

Yeah, yeah and um and fortunately, you know, renee had a good job at the time. So, um, even though we lost about half of our household income, uh, we, uh, we were able to survive Huge lifestyle adjustments, and that's okay to be able to make those lifestyle adjustments, but we were able to survive through that. And again that led to a season of starting to do comedy professionally, starting to produce comedy shows through Clean Comedy.

Eldon Palmer: 23:48

Oh, that was just pretty easy at that point then yeah right.

Aaron Sorrels: 23:52

Yeah, yeah, decided. Hey, you know what? I might as well pick a super easy industry like comedy and performance.

Eldon Palmer: 24:00

Yeah, where there's no, you know, no drinking around or no temptations of any kind like that.

Aaron Sorrels: 24:07

Well, it's interesting. Creating the identity and the brand of the unemployed alcoholic has been crucial in my sobriety, as I'm performing comedy and in bars late at night. Sobriety was so much a part of my identity that you know that it wasn't the same temptations weren't necessarily there because I was there specifically doing something different and that created an accountability within that, for sure, for sure.

Aaron Sorrels: 24:44

Yeah, I mean there's people literally all over the world that have a personal stake or emotional investment in my sobriety. Yeah, and so that's to me that seems like a good thing and a good motivator.

Eldon Palmer: 25:01

And you know, at that point, you know, you know, looking back, I mean you actually were able to help a lot of other people because you kind of led that recovery process for others, um, and I just think that there's so many things that that happened during that time. There's so much growth and so many roots that you kind of put in that you've since built on that have grown out of that.

Aaron Sorrels: 25:23

Yeah, undoubtedly, doing comedy was a secondary thing. The primary thing was adding value to those around me and, yeah, many, many great private conversations happened where people would share some of the things that they're going through and we would be able to talk and I would be able to encourage them and and also share some of the things that I'd experienced in some of the ways that I found healing and growth. Um, so, yeah, that that right there is where it's at. You know, to have genuine personal connection and to be able to contribute to somebody's well-being and help them.

Eldon Palmer: 26:06

If that's what's driving us, then everything else becomes very easy well, I think out of that, you know, was the blessings and the connections with all the people in the situations I remember just watch, coming to the clean comedy time showcases, for instance. You know a lot of these. You were challenging in a sense a lot of these. You were challenging in a sense A lot of these comedians that didn't always do clean comedy and I forget exactly how it was put, but adult comedy, but without you know, essentially yeah with Clean Comedy Time.

Aaron Sorrels: 26:38

We did clean comedy for adults and and, yeah, things can be very, very funny and they don't have to be insulting, they don't have to be mean, they don't have to be dirty. So so yeah, that was the concept. There was, hey, let's let's do comedy, but do comedy in a way that's not hurtful to other people.

Eldon Palmer: 26:59

You know, that was super. It really opened up to a new audience. It doesn't necessarily um marketed to all that much. In my from, from my perspective and I I just remember talking to some of those comedians after the shows and they were like, um, they enjoyed the challenge, because it's sort of easy sometimes just to kind of go to the, to the standards but to try to clean up their acts. Um, you know, I think that really helped some of them as well.

Aaron Sorrels: 27:27

Um, well, and that was that was. A cornerstone of that business was we wanted to find funny comedians that could work clean, because there's a whole lot of people out there that are clean comedians that aren't necessarily funny, right, um and and and anybody can do that. And that's not what we were trying to do. We were trying to find funny people that could work clean. So, consequently, many of the comedians that we worked with are very, very blue oftentimes, and now in the Soapstone that has translated over and the Soapstone is a clean comedy club but many of the comedians that we work with uh do do blue material. Bloom is something that the industry calls when, uh, it contains curse word or r-rated stuff or potentially even x-rated stuff. You know, um, it's uh that blue is the term that.

Eldon Palmer: 28:19

Yeah for that clarifying, yeah, yeah yeah, um, and, and it's fine.

Aaron Sorrels: 28:25

You know, people can say and do whatever they want. They just can't say or do whatever they want wherever they want, right, right, and if, if people are funny, then people are funny, and if, and it, uh, it doesn't degrade any of their blue material, if they also can do clean material, which, by the way, almost all professional comedians can very much do, clean comedy. Yeah, you know, it's, it's. It's an interesting dynamic, because when you look at entry-level comedy, they're like, oh no, this is this is all it's got to be dirty, it's got to be this and it's like man.

Aaron Sorrels: 29:02

You realize that even the people that you're looking to that are doing, uh, blue comedy. The vast majority of money that's made in comedy like like almost all money that's made in comedy is made through clean comedy. Interesting, yeah, yeah and yeah so. So, yeah, it was. It was really nice to be able to work with funny people that hadn't necessarily discovered clean comedy and open that up to them.

Eldon Palmer: 29:29

So you mentioned that COVID played a role in, you know the start of the soapstone, so tell us how that connection went from the unemployed, alcoholic and clean comedy time into the metaverse Like how did you find that?

Aaron Sorrels: 29:46

into the metaverse. Like, how did you find that opportunity? Sure, sure, yeah. So, uh, it's interesting because most things that end up being great, uh, came from hardship. Yes, oh yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 29:51

And, of course, the unemployed alcoholic came from addressing alcoholism, going through that recovery program and then, as, uh, I was able to build that out and create a brand in comedy and in comedic show production. Uh, covet hit. And, to tell you the truth, that was devastating. This new identity that I had just discovered and and, uh, the way I was presenting myself literally became illegal. Yeah, to gather in group with groups of people and and laugh together. It was illegal.

Aaron Sorrels: 30:27

And then it was like, ok, what do I do now? And actually, my wife, renee, she said, hey, maybe you should check out the metaverse. And I thought, renee, yeah, put some goggles on and go pretend I'm in a faraway, fake land. I don't think so, yeah, but then I actually saw Mark Zuckerberg's keynote address with at the time it was Facebook Connect, and this was the one where they announced that they were rebranding the company as meta. And as he talked through that and I realized what they were pouring into the metaverse, it it struck me that this isn't something that's going to happen someday.

Aaron Sorrels: 31:17

This is something that's happening right now, and so, between those two motivators, I decided okay, I'm going to get into the metaverse and I chose Meta Horizon Worlds as the area to focus my energies on, and I went all in. I was able to get into the beta program. So I met some incredible world builders and incredible programmers that were part of that early beta. We built a place and launched it, and that those early adventures is what ultimately turned into the Soapstone Comedy Club and this thing. That's it's. It's changing lives and doing huge things now, but it's also right on the verge of becoming a global phenomenon.

Eldon Palmer: 32:11

Yeah, it will. And it started like you were. I remember I was excited for you because you were kind of jumping in on what's essentially the ground floor and they were such a you know massive amount of money flowing into the development of this that you know they've done a thing or two right over the years. You know massive amount of money flowing into the development of this that you know they've done a thing or two right over the years. You know they've made some mistakes as well, but great opportunity. So because part of your introduction that I had for you there is world builder. What does that mean?

Aaron Sorrels: 32:39

Yeah, so it's an interesting title the world creator of the soapstone. There's a lot that's involved in creating a virtual reality world and and there's a whole village of people. There's a whole team of people, dozens of people, that are involved on a daily basis in making this place happen. But yeah, I'm the world creator, so I'm basically the guy who finds the folks that are passionate and talented and can play a specific role in the development of this community and bring them into the team and help position them or empower them for success.

Eldon Palmer: 33:25

So you're essentially you know, from my perspective you're essentially general contracting to some extent, like the construction of this virtual building and all the systems that are in place. So you're also kind of the CEO of a company in a sense, kind of the CEO of a company in a sense, and you know everything from moderation to you know the layout of how the soapstone looks, how the experience people have as they enter to, the experience the comedians have on the stage. There's a lot to it there and then trying to, you know, pay for it or find a way to make it all work. It's, I mean, that's kind of how I see it. Is that accurate?

Aaron Sorrels: 34:07

Yeah, I'd say there's kind of four pillars of things that are involved with the Soapstone, one of which is you touched on is building. So we have a whole team of people which is really really held together by our partnership with Inspire, create Labs and this is a metaverse building company, 3d model and artistically design the spaces, and they'll also program the actions, like what happens in the world. Like, for instance, we have a force field around our stage and when somebody signs up for three minutes, they get access to pass through that force field, so they get the stage to themselves and then if somebody else tries to take the stage, they get teleported back to the back of the room. You know, that's code that's a program that does that so great, uh.

Aaron Sorrels: 35:12

So we have a team of people that, uh, that do that also the. You know, if you look at the the soapstone at hanalei bay, it's beautiful and there are several different 3D modelers and artists that have come in and made contributions towards that, that aesthetic. So that's the build team. Then you've got the community and we have a team of people that I call our leads, and there's 10 of us total that are on the lead team and we are really responsible for leading the community. And from there we've got CSMs, which is Certified Soapstone Mentors, certified Soapstone Producers, and then Contributors, and all together there's hundreds and hundreds of people on on those teams. Uh and uh.

Aaron Sorrels: 36:02

But again, it's all about leading the community. Um, you know those, those three uh cornerstones of of what the soapstone does. We encourage people towards the spotlight, we empower leaders and we share what we're learning. So there's that. Then we also have, like, our show production or our experience production team, which includes marketing, it includes videography, it includes coding and preparing things, and that team comes together very, very well. And then we've got like the business end of things, where we've got our marketing professionals that we work with to make sure that we've got a good cadence for social media. We've got our legal team to make sure we're doing things the right way. We've got our accounting team to make sure we're checking the right boxes on the tax forms and all that stuff. So yeah, all of these different teams I'm kind of leading, and the only way that I can do that is by finding the best people in the world at all those different things and then totally empowering them and trusting them to do the right things.

Eldon Palmer: 37:17

That's awesome. That sounds like a huge undertaking, but it's a kind of a really interesting blend of real world and virtual world to make that all happen.

Aaron Sorrels: 37:25

So it is, you know, and again, the MBA background, the, the early on dreamings, yeah, the process of going through recovery. All of these things have folded together, I think, to prepare me to be able to, um, help add value to other people around, yeah and and uh, really thrive as a community through this opportunity I think that's a big takeaway for listeners or viewers is like all that adversity, all of it stacks and all of it's over time.

Eldon Palmer: 37:59

You know, even though you're going through a challenge at one particular time, generally come out of that strengthened. You know the storm rolls through, drops some rain. It kind of sucks at the time, but then you know it waters your future and so, yeah, that's great. So you actually mentioned that the soapstone is clean comedy. Tell us a little bit more about that and where, like maybe, the origin of that and why you decided to go there.

Aaron Sorrels: 38:25

Yeah, so you know, like I mentioned, with Clean Comedy Time and the Unemployed Alcoholic, doing comedy that's not hurtful to people and actually can be helpful to people has been a cornerstone of what I've been doing. So it makes sense that entering into the metaverse, that I would carry that with me, and I did, but it became incredibly important, even more so important in the metaverse than any place else or any other platform, because there are people that are specifically, uh, there to hurt people. You know, there are trolls, there are bullies, there are on the internet yeah, yeah on the internet in the gaming industry yeah, like, uh, yeah, there's

Aaron Sorrels: 39:10

some. There's some folks that, uh, they're pretty mean and uh, you know, early on in the soapstone, especially building a comedy club, in that you had a lot of people that were coming in and felt like they should be able to say blatantly racist things. People that were coming in and felt like they should be able to blatantly verbally abuse women, verbally abuse women. There are people that felt like they could come in and just be blatantly insulting to people because it's a joke, it's in the name of comedy, and so we had to draw a very, very clear line in the sand and say that is not what we do here, and if you come here and do that, there'll be consequences.

Eldon Palmer: 39:59

So how do you monitor that? Like, I mean, that seems like an almost impossible task.

Aaron Sorrels: 40:10

Yeah, I mean it's a very, very difficult task, but we have an incredible community of people that work together to try to uphold that standard, and also the platform MetaHorizon Worlds. There's tools that they provide uh to help moderate and to help uh, um, you know, take care of people that are breaking uh their community guidelines. So it's uh, I mean, I I say a lot in different uh capacities in the soapstone, but it takes a village and and that's social pressure and you know community.

Aaron Sorrels: 40:37

Social pressure and you know community, yeah, and also you know there's a few people that will influence and then there's a lot of people that will follow. And if you get a few people that are in there that are trying to influence it being gross and mean, then a lot of people in the room will follow that. But if you get people in there that want to influence it, towards finding funny people that can be clean, then that's the direction it'll go and that's what we've seen.

Eldon Palmer: 41:10

No, I think that's a big thing in life in general. It's like a few people can make a big influence, both positive or negative, absolutely. And you know one of my most recent guests, same same thing it's like, and I don't think we often share that enough. Um, the positivity can be. Sometimes we're afraid to brag about something or or kind of make a point or make an issue of it, and but when we don't, we really are missing out an opportunity to help somebody else and inspire somebody else.

Aaron Sorrels: 41:39

Yeah, and we have an innate need for belonging.

Aaron Sorrels: 41:42

Yeah, and if somebody is up there saying you can belong to this group by being a prick, people are going to be pricks, sure, and if you have people that are up there saying you can belong to this group by being a decent human being, people are going to be a decent human being.

Aaron Sorrels: 42:01

You know, it's uh, leadership is so very important on on how people act and how people treat others and, unfortunately, if you get a leader that's in place who's a prick and a prick to other people, you will see that cascade through the, through the community, and it's it's horrendous and it happens in a lot of different ways. Yeah, I know we don't, we probably don't want to get super political, but yeah, the the reason we've been successful in the soapstone is because we have leadership that's nice to people. Yeah, but yeah, the the reason we've been successful in the soapstone is because we have leadership that's nice to people. Yeah, and that's a very important thing and I think any, any application. It's very, very important to have leaders that are nice to people and aren't pricks, for sure.

Eldon Palmer: 42:55

And and every any, any aspect of life. So what's kind of next with the soapstone?

Aaron Sorrels: 43:02

You know um? I see your shirt there, yeah, so we just we we'll do a close up, can you zoom in on there.

Aaron Sorrels: 43:10

Yeah, so we just on, on May 9th, we launched a brand new soapstone Okay and uh, it's the soapstone at Hanaleii bay, and this is the first time that we've been able to, uh, actually um, model the, this virtual reality world after a real physical place. Uh, and, and it's been really, really exciting. Hanalei bay is, uh is a bay that's on the northern shore of Kauai, an island in Hawaii, and it's one of the most serene and beautiful places on the planet. So we took it out of the planet into virtual reality and kind of recreated that vibe, that feel, and it's been really well received by the community. People enjoy just spending time there, there, just communicating with people and and that. So, so can you?

Eldon Palmer: 44:05

I know you can't without experience in it, but is what's it like? I mean, are there sites and sounds there that happen when you're in the thing or you kind of wander around?

Aaron Sorrels: 44:14

you see, in palm trees the best way to comprehend it is definitely to get a headset and come in in virtual reality and feel it. The second best is to go to soapstonecomedycom, because right there on the top there's a link where people can check it out and actually see and hear. But to describe it to you, you come in in this little grass roof tiki hut and you spawn in and there's the ocean to your left and the club to your right and there's palm trees and beautiful flowers. It's right on the bay, so there's ocean waves coming in. There's a couple sailboats that are out there. There's the very, very famous mountain ridge that surrounds Hanalei Bay. It's actually where Peter Paul and Mary wrote the song Puff the Magic Dragon. Oh, yeah, man, I loved that as a kid. Yeah, it's a great, great song. And they were on Hanalei Pier and looking around and they noticed that the mountain ridge looks like a dragon.

Aaron Sorrels: 45:24

It looks like a dragon with the head down by the water, and then you can see the arm and you can see the back. I never knew that whole story.

Eldon Palmer: 45:32

Yeah.

Aaron Sorrels: 45:34

So that is represented in the soapstone as well and it's just, it's really cool, awesome.

Eldon Palmer: 45:41

So anything else we should cover here before.

Aaron Sorrels: 45:45

Yeah, you know the thing that you know. You ask what's next and what am I most excited about with the soapstone Virtual reality. The superpower of virtual reality is to make experiences accessible. Like Jay Pharoah performing comedy, to come into an environment and enjoy him performing comedy and be there with 25 of your closest friends, like that's not an experience that's easily accessible, but it is in virtual reality. Easily accessible, but it is in virtual reality. But having performance and having the ability to produce experiences and those things, continuing to make that accessible to large numbers of people, is what I'm very, very excited about.

Eldon Palmer: 46:35

Yeah, and that's the thing I'm just excited about for you. You take it from, your clean comedy time was sort of a local very excited about. Yeah, and that's the thing I I'm just excited about for you. So, like you take it from, you know, your clean comedy time was sort of a a local and regional thing. And then the soap stone is just worldwide. You know the potential is. Is is amazing. Um, one thing is there. Is there a cost? So you got somebody like jay coming in. Um, is there a cost to that?

Aaron Sorrels: 46:55

yeah, yeah, certainly. Um, I mean, he's a professional and professional comedians, celebrity comedians it costs money to have them come perform. We've been real fortunate in that Meta Horizon Worlds and their entertainment team really likes who we are and what we do, so we've been able to collaborate with them and and make some things possible that, um, that certainly wouldn't be um possible without them.

Eldon Palmer: 47:24

Yeah, so this is sort of like you know, it's kind of an exclusive venue, like you really can't can't do this anywhere else other than the metaverse yeah, yeah, there's, uh, there's several comedy.

Aaron Sorrels: 47:35

Comedy is big in the metaverse, um and um, and there's there's several comedy venues, uh, but, yeah, doing exactly what we're doing. Uh, there's nobody else that's doing exactly what we're doing how we're doing it. Nice, yeah, so it's, it's funny, it's accessible yeah and it is also uh exclusive right um, you say accessible?

Eldon Palmer: 47:59

because I think know, first thing I go to is selling real estate is, you know? Oh hey, anybody can do it, whether they can move or not, which is actually kind of true. So it's not like you have to drive on down to some location and climb the stairs and do all that. You can do that from the comfort of your own house, that's right, yeah, and still interact virtually with other people. And again that's, you can do that from the comfort of your own house, that's right, yeah, and still interact virtually with other people.

Aaron Sorrels: 48:20

And again, that's everybody who's involved in the experience can do it from the comfort of their own home, and that includes superstar comedians can put a headset on and perform instead of jumping on an airplane, flying out to a venue, staying in a hotel that isn't their home and all that. So it's an accessible stage to them, the audience. Like you said, to put on a headset and come in and be there, that's awesome, but we have a team of people that work to produce these shows and everybody can do it from the comfort of their own home.

Eldon Palmer: 49:01

Awesome, cool. Look forward to hopping on myself again, catching one of these. Um, catching back in. I haven't. It's been a while Cool, cool, um, anything else we want to cover? Uh, best way to find you or do. Is there something else you want to chat about here?

Aaron Sorrels: 49:15

I'll reset that, but Okay, yeah, okay yeah, so the the best way for people to find me is is through either soapstonecomedycom uh, if they're more interested in the metaverse stuff, or if more on my backstory, the unemployedalcoholiccom uh, there's, there's stuff about me there so, before we go to one more thing, is there anything you want to rewind on that, like the unemployed alcoholic you do?

Eldon Palmer: 49:40

are you currently doing any um IRL events? Um in real life for those few of us that may not know that.

Aaron Sorrels: 49:48

Yeah, you know. So one of the things that, uh, I think is very, very important is to stay focused on on things and uh, so the during this past season of time, I really haven't been performing much standup comedy. I've done a couple things, but it hasn't been the primary focus. And, to tell you the truth, in order to do good standup comedy, it takes a lot of focus, it takes a lot of effort and energy and practice and time. So it's kind of the stand-up comedy has kind of been put on the back burner for a little while.

Aaron Sorrels: 50:26

I'm certain that at some point I'm going to get that bug and I'm going to be like, okay, it's time to produce a special. You know, it's time to write another 20 or 40 minutes of of comedy and and hone it and perfect it. And when that, when that desire hits, when that, when that bug hits, I've got ways to scratch that itch. Uh, so I'll do it. But anyways, yeah, yeah, but uh, but for now it's um, my efforts are focused on um, on building the experience in the soapstone. My efforts are focused on building the community within the soapstone. My focus is really on the three things that are the core of the soapstone, which is encouraging people to their spotlight, empowering leaders and sharing what we're learning.

Eldon Palmer: 51:17

Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing. Thanks for joining us. Everybody, check out Aaron at the unemployedalcoholiccom or soapstonecomedycom.

Eldon Palmer: 51:27

Hey guys, Eldon here, Thanks again for joining us for this episode. We're all the way up to 12 episodes at this point and we really appreciate our guests coming on. We really appreciate even more your viewership and listenership and that you share this with friends and family. We'd like to make a quick ask here. Please leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you find your podcast. That would be wonderful On YouTube. If you'd like to get more of this content, please subscribe, hit the notification bell and maybe give it a thumbs up. You know, share it with a friend. So we appreciate your efforts in helping us grow and helping West Michigan grow, and actually, every time you share, every time you thumbs up, every time you leave a comment, it really helps the guests as well. Help support your neighbors and we really look forward to seeing you again next time. Thank you, Take care.