The Performance Tour Season 03 (2022) Episode 08 was released on August 17, 2022. If you have not seen it yet, you can check it out here:
The introduction segment was filmed at Bryte Studios in Jacksonville, Florida.
Texas Road Trip Part 2
For the second part of the trip, we went from Austin to Dallas to recreate some of the magic from 2020. We had an awesome event at Hard Eight BBQ before. If you have not seen that episode of the show, you can check it out here:
We left Austin the day after the meetup (Episode 07). It was only a few hours drive to Dallas, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t turn it into an adventure.
Waco
On the way to Dallas from Austin, we stopped at the now famous Magnolia Market in Waco – best known from the television show with Chip and Joanna Gaines.
For James, it was a chance to see the Dr. Pepper museum that sits just across the street.
We both got to see everything we wanted and got some great pictures and video footage.
As we got closer to Dallas, we had to stop and get gas. I found this huge straw cowboy hat in the convenience store, and I knew I had to have it. Sometimes you just have to take the bull by the horns.
You can see me wearing it at the beginning of the presentation in this Episode. I’ll be sharing pictures of all of this in the Gallery section of The Performance Tour website.
Dallas Road Show
As I’m presenting in the big hat, a happy Paul Grizzaffi walks in from the left. If you didn’t know, Paul is one of the premier quality and test automation experts, authors, and speakers in the world. His Responsible Automation blog is chock full of good stuff. Paul just happens to be a BBQ fan (and fellow metal head) and loves to hang out with us.
We had lots of awesome people that showed up, includes people from Tricentis and StormForge. Some people we have known for decades. This includes Pete Dhondt, James Newsom, Petar Puskarich, Raul DeLeon. John Mathews, who headed up the Dallas-Fort Worth Mercury User Group for years was also there. It was great seeing old friends and making new ones.
We Love Dallas
We had great interaction with the audience that night, and there were some good questions. There was a lot of swag to giveaway – so much that some people got multiple gifts in “packages”. I always enjoy going to Dallas and I cannot wait to get back there.
More Money Please – Skit
As with many of the skits on the show, this was planned months in advance. I was actually working on the idea in early February. I shared the idea with Darren Beck (the CMO of Tricentis – ultimately the one who sponsors the show) and he loved it. He was such a great sport to be in it. We showed up at the Tricentis office in the Austin area. It was James, myself, and my camera operator and editor, Luke Taylor. CEO Kevin Thompson (or “KBT” as he is known inside Tricentis) sits in the next office over. I’m sure he wondered who the weirdos running around with cameras were. Darren helped to clear any confusion , and got to meet and shake hands with KBT! It was a great day.
Darren is actually a pretty good actor. From what I remember, it only took 2 or 3 takes to complete the scene. That was it for the first part of the skit up to the part where I say “Absolutely, Darren. Absolutely”. This happened in April in Austin.
It wasn’t until July that I was able to get James Pulley down to the Bryte Studios in Jacksonville, Florida to finish the skit. This is the last part that begins with the Lamborghini pulling up to a hotel entrance.
We Are So Fly
There were some construction workers who were doing a remodel of another area of the building. They were on break when we were filming the hotel scene. There were bewildered looks and their phones taking lots of pictures. There is no telling where those pictures landed in the social media world that day. The daily summer thunderstorm for Florida arrived early that day. We had to film takes between rolls of thunder. We were losing light as the clouds moved towards us. The last scene finished just as the rain started. Within 30 seconds, it was pouring! Historic film footage made just in time! Afterwards, we just laughed about the whole thing.
No Budgets Were Destroyed Making This Scene
So before anyone gets any ideas that we actually spent a bunch of the sponsor money on this silly skit:
- The car belongs to one of the founders of Haymaker Coffee (a sponsor for my SMC Journal podcast) – Simon Bitar. You never see me in the car because it was Simon pulling up with James in the passenger seat. That is a super small car for fluffy people like me and James. I’m not sure I would have been the best candidate to drive such a beast anyway. We filmed Simon driving up to the building about 4 or 5 times and then James getting out. Then Simon went home. We did not rent the vehicle. Simon is just that kind of a nice guy!
- The clothes you we’re in = cheap knockoff costumes bought online with credit card points.
- The shopping bags are all empty. Dollar General. – About $20 for everything. My wife prepared them.
- The “hotel” is actually an empty office building around the corner from the Bryte Studios that is currently up for lease. We never went inside the building, we just needed to film walking to the front entrance and then walk towards the doors.
- The major expense for the shoot was the Olaf pinata I am holding. It was $12 at Dollar General. When I saw it, I thought this would be the most useless item to buy for the performance tour travel budget. So, of course I had to get it – and I think it made the shot so much more hilarious.
And Yes, There Was BBQ
I hope you enjoyed the skit as much as we did making it. Before the filming, we had to eat barbeque before we did the filming.
Of course, every one of the 2022 episodes features an “easter egg” at the very end. So if you aren’t watching the show all the way through you will miss them. Enjoy!
Links:
Haymaker Coffee – https://www.haymakercoffeeco.com/
Luke Taylor – https://www.luketaylorfilm.com/
Dave Humphrey and Bryte Payment Solutions – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-humphrey-19400913/ and https://bryteps.com/
Tricentis – https://www.tricentis.com/
QA Consultants – https://qaconsultants.com/
Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/smcllcyoutube And visit The Performance Tour web site often: https://theperformancetour.com