For the Love of the Map

Behind The Maps With Lead Supernatural Choreographer - Benny White EP|27

August 23, 2024 • For the Love of the Map • Season 2 • Episode 3

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Explore the captivating world of VR mapping with Benny White, also known as "Benny Da Beast," as he recounts his incredible odyssey from Beat Saber mapping to becoming the lead choreographer for Supernatural. Benny's love for dance and pioneering workouts will mesmerize anyone seeking to grasp the enchantment behind Supernatural's immersive workout experiences. 


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Benny:

their creativity. That would then inspire me. I'd be like I really like that thing. That feels really cool. I didn't think I could do that before. And so fun to move your body to music and then also flirt with the ladies. I was like this is amazing. I've never. This is the coolest thing. Yeah, and a dip? Yeah, I would love. Hearts, do they swirl around you?

MJ:

yes, of course, is it like a whirlwind?

Benny:

yes, dude, of course it is like the biggest hug of love that you can imagine just blew me away, that I was like I can't help make something new and exciting of an app and build our own thing. That's, yeah, really more like I hope these targets are on beat, because I was just like and trying to do the rhythm like that was like let's just go, buddy, let's, let's do it, let's push the boundaries basically, you want to chop people's heads off did I say that?

MJ:

I didn't say that hello and welcome back to another episode of for the love of the map, where we talk all things supernatural choreography and finding joy in movement. I am beyond excited for our guest today. It is lead choreographer Benny.

Speaker 3:

White.

MJ:

Hi dude, Welcome to the show.

Benny:

Hi, hi, yeah, pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

MJ:

Yes, on my list, on my dream wish list. When we started this podcast, I said I'm gonna have benny on here one day, and today is that day. Dreams come true, y'all, is that a kitty?

Benny:

yes, this is uh amadeus making his appearance, my buddy amadeus, what a fitting name. Does he? But he's. He's actually scared of piano, which is the funniest thing. Anytime I play, he's like what is that? What is going on there? You're freaking me out.

MJ:

He's like OK, stop that, I am. I'm not cool with this. That might be my name, but I am not into the piano. Yeah, that's too funny. I was actually gonna ask you if you were a cat or a dog person, but the answer is right there, so easy.

Benny:

They're so easy to take care of.

MJ:

I don't have to walk them right and they just sort of do their own thing. But they, they are a little demanding sometimes I have cats sometimes.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, I'm a dog, I'm a dog person and a cat person. Oh yeah, Okay, you do both.

MJ:

Mm-hmm, yeah, and a bearded dragon.

Speaker 3:

Right.

MJ:

That's so cool. Yeah, he's really cool. His name is Crocky Crocky, we call him Crocodilly and, for some reason, melon. I have no idea why Melon? Yeah, don't ask me, it just happened one day. You know, you give your pets weird.

Benny:

Who is that? The other one decided to join us, Aaliyah.

MJ:

Gorgeous kitty.

Benny:

So she's one, he's four and I wanted to get him a friend, so she is his bestie. Aw do they snuggle they turn out well together. Oh, do they snuggle? They turn out well together. Oh, that's so nice After they play fight. Sure, sometimes their personalities might clash a few here and there, but they're getting along well though. That's awesome, it's great.

MJ:

And what do they use? Do they usually go hide when you're working and making maps, or are they in there hanging out with you?

Benny:

No, they're like stepping right under my feet. If I'm ever doing supernatural, I'm like are you guys kidding me, Can you?

MJ:

see me working Exactly. They'll be sleeping until you put the headset on and then suddenly, you have cats at your feet, Same same.

Benny:

Happens to me too.

MJ:

That's hilarious, so supernatural. Hats at your feet. Same same happens to me too. That's hilarious, um so supernatural. We have lots to discuss about supernatural, but first, first, I have a very important question do you have a nickname? Okay, uh like people yeah what well?

Benny:

I mean? Mean, benny is actually a nickname, is it? I mean it's. You know, my actual name is Benjamin, but I went I actually I think I gave it to myself because when I was like Twitch streaming and playing video games and trying to figure out my gamer tag, I came up with Benny the Beast and then that kind of stuck even through, like Beat Saber and all that and mapping, and then when I came out here they knew me as Benny from Benny the Beast instead of like Ben. I was just like normally going by Ben.

Speaker 3:

Right, so I guess that's my nickname yeah. So you kind of gave yourself.

MJ:

Yeah, you gave it to yourself. That's funny because I always I have a rule. I'm like you can't give yourself a nickname, but you did and it fits so perfectly, especially with your Beat, saber mapping and YouTube, all that kind of stuff, it makes perfect sense.

Benny:

Yeah, so it was between that, or I was going to do Benny Bandito with the mustache a little play on that. Yeah, I was like yeah, this would be my. You know, I could do like a pirate or something.

Speaker 3:

Sort of bandit I was like no, no, no, Benny the Beast.

Benny:

It rolled off the tongue easier, benny the Beast.

MJ:

Yeah, it does roll off the tongue.

Speaker 3:

I like that. I like that play.

MJ:

Me too. Me too Favorite food. We have to know what your favorite food is. Thing you could eat every day for the rest of your life if you had to.

Benny:

Oh, that's so hard.

MJ:

Right so hard. Can you eat something for?

Benny:

like. I'm like yeah, I like all of these different foods. You know, everything tastes great, but would I eat it every day?

MJ:

I could eat mexican food daily, not one particular dish, but like all of it, no matter what it was.

Benny:

I could do that oh, you got me, yeah, sushi, yeah sushi another sushi lover love that.

MJ:

Another, okay, another justin, when he was on the show he said sushi as well.

Benny:

That was his answer yes, I could eat that any day. Wow, didn't think about that. That's great, I would have some sushi today.

MJ:

That's awesome. So you brought up Beat Saver already. I know you from Supernatural, but when I started Supernatural I came across a post. It was like a backstory on you, an introduction. They posted it on Instagram. I'll put it up here when I edit for. Youtube so people can see what I'm talking about. And that led me down to well, who is this dude Like? He's? He's mapping. I got to find out everything I can, Right, and then I found out that you had mapped previously, just on your own for fun. Beat Saber maps.

Benny:

And I thought that was so cool?

MJ:

Was that your first like introduction to mapping in virtual reality?

Benny:

Yeah, I, I saw beat saber coming out. There was like this amazing like preview video of just like the blocks flying at me or at you and you're seeing the sword slashing. I don't know what it was, but it was like. So it was such a good trailer that I instantly was like I need to buy vr. And I one of my friends had a vive. So I went out, bought a vive and then I got into vr. But actually it was um september. Oh, I also built my own computer for it too. I was like I'm gonna build a computer and I'm gonna buy vr. Like just jumped right in. That was full on nerd full on.

Benny:

That was like september of like 2017 or something, and and beat saber is coming out in may of 2018 and uh, and then I actually didn't like anything in vr. Like I played, you know, around several of the games, but nothing like hooked me, uh, so I put it away until uh, beat saber came out and, like, when it did, it just took me and like I feel like it took vr by storm because everybody just dove in and the community within a week had, uh, somebody in the community had reverse engineered Beat Saber and turned it into an editor and released it to the community and people started mapping and it just like blew up.

MJ:

And you were like hey, let me try this.

Benny:

Yeah, I was so addicted to it. I was just like I was, you know, just grabbing at everything I could find in it, cause we're like everybody's posting on Reddit, you know. The community started popping up discord and the hype train was like this just massive wave of energy that you just kind of get sucked into, yeah and uh and like I. I think I was like taking days off of work just to play and to and to math. I was so excited that's awesome.

MJ:

That that's when you know you found something so unique and different that you're willing to take off work.

Benny:

You're like oh, I got a sick day. I need to use it.

MJ:

PTO oh gosh, I want a map.

Benny:

It's not vacation. This is important.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I felt that energy.

MJ:

Wow. So how did you go from Beat Saber to Supernatural?

Benny:

Yeah, yeah, that was them finding me. So I was just making a name for myself, mapping, and I was also Twitch streaming and I think it was. The company was called Within and they were like a virtual reality company. They were doing they had multiple projects. Hi, baby, oh, she is getting at the cord. Oh, they were doing, they had multiple projects. Hi baby, oh, she is getting at the cord. Oh, no, so they had multiple projects and one of them was there, like we want to start a health project. And they reached out to me randomly on Discord, just a guy messaging me. He's like hey, are you interested in an opportunity? And I'm like this is so sketchy, what's going?

Speaker 3:

on.

Benny:

You know, like a guy in the back corner is like hey, I got a cool deal for you, we're out in LA. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm like okay.

MJ:

On Discord at that you're like oh.

Benny:

I had no idea what was happening and yeah. So they called me up, had a good chat, flew me out, had an even better time just getting to know them and seeing what they were doing. And then I was sold instantly. I was like, yeah, I want to make a new app, like that was such a cool idea to create something new, yeah, and like the opportunity for that. So I was just like, yes, I jumped at it, um, and I became their first uh yeah, choreographer yes, you did so.

MJ:

Did they have like an app, something they could show you? Um, and you put the headset on and go what is this? Or were you like sold from the get-go?

Benny:

before you even looked at it, you're like, yeah, I'll do that I know, from the get-go, just because of the opportunity, like, coming from South Carolina, I was just a graphic designer at Aramark College Dining. So it was just at my college, clemson, that I stayed at, and then I started working there and I was ready to get out. I was like I'm so done with South Carolina. I've been here 30 years, I want something new, and so it just kind of fell on my lap, you know, and uh yeah, I jumped at it. What were you asking?

MJ:

there was another thought in there um. Did they show you?

Benny:

the concept, yeah, what they had so far so, yeah, they had a couple demos Okay, and it was just across the board. So essentially they had done a hackathon or something with their engineers to build different things, prototypes, and I think I still have my hands on a couple of those. One of my favorites was a bo staff, so if you can imagine you were holding it. One of my favorites was a bow staff, so if you can imagine you were holding it and the targets would be like coming at you and you're kind of just smacking them with the bow or with the staff, okay, and it's just this kind of you know, martial arts, you know similar to swords, but this one was now, uh, with the staff. And then my favorite part about it was you could then extend the staff to like it's very like monkey king, if you've ever seen any of that stuff, but his staff is like extendable and so like there's targets that are further away and targets that are close that are like easy to swat, extend.

Benny:

Easy to swat, extend that wow that was my favorite and they had plenty of other ones you know like also testing out different weapon types, like a flail or like a mace that had the head off of a chain, even whips, Like any weapon you can think of. I think they had built. One of the prototypes was, yeah, the different types of weapons. You would see the targets coming at you and then you'd have whatever the weapons are and play with that and see how that felt. There's a lot of ideas in there. I don't know if I'm supposed to share those ideas, but I think it's cool.

MJ:

I think you're right.

Benny:

We're going to say it's cool, it's been a long time it's been a long time.

MJ:

Yeah.

Benny:

It was really fun. It was cool to see, and it just blew me away, that I was like I can't help make something new and exciting of an app and build our own thing. That's, yeah, really exciting.

MJ:

So yeah, I would, I would agree. Yeah, I would have jumped at the opportunity as well. You and I are the same in that way. It's like you find something you're super passionate about. You learn it, like you did with. Beat Saber. You got so involved, it was all consuming. And then the idea of making a better version, but you know something different but better.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, I would have quit my life and been all up on it, like let's do this, I want to be a part of it.

MJ:

Yeah exactly exactly, wow. So I know that you have a background in swing dancing, were you swing dancing before you got your job at Supernatural and when you were playing with Beat Saber Maps. Is that like? Were you trying to incorporate dance moves into the motions?

Benny:

Oh, wow, 100% yeah oh 100 percent. Yeah, okay, I found I found dancing uh late, as like uh normal or not normal, but like abnormally. I guess I found it late after college, so I was not dancing until I was like 22, 23 okay so they had um, swing dancing.

Benny:

I also took like a hip-hop class, um, and and what prompted that? What's really funny is I was at gold's gym with my co-workers, um, and one of them was becoming a teacher. You can like, you can like train to be one of the teachers in the class, okay, and I would like be her sidekick, because then you would have, you'd have the teacher and then you'd have like two little people next to her also doing the moves and everything.

Benny:

And so that was actually my first taste of dancing, surprisingly, where we had like, uh, essentially there was a kickboxing class and it's literally like what supernatural is, it's the funniest thing. I'm like, oh, I was already doing supernatural, but in the real world, because it's just, you know, you're, you're throwing, you're throwing the punches, you're, you're doing the weaves, and but they had kicks too. So, um, and you know, we have knee strikes.

MJ:

Be cool to get kicks, maybe one day, but I, I kick knee strikes from time to time I kick them. Oh yeah, sometimes it's a lot of fun, so fun.

Benny:

No, you're good and and so that was my first taste. And then I found swing dancing with friends, um, who were also some of the ones that were like well, one of them was at gold's gym and then she was swing dancing and she took me out and, um, and yeah, so I've been hooked ever since. That was like 14 years ago, and I just like deep dove into it when I found it because, like same as how Beat Saber kind of was, that spark Dancing was another one that I just like I got consumed by it because it was. It was so fun to move your body to music and then also flirt with the ladies. I was like this is amazing. I've never. This is the coolest thing, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And a dip yeah, and they were just like whoa.

MJ:

Look at dude over there dancing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, it was really fun.

MJ:

Great motivation to continue getting better at it, for sure.

Benny:

For sure.

MJ:

Wow, sw swing dancing is hardcore man. I was watching some videos on youtube of uh like I guess you guys have like events, competitions that you participate in, and the energy. I can see why you're into it. The energy man alone is awesome.

Benny:

It is incredible, yeah, and we've been partnering me and Bianca been partnering for two, three years now and we just keep going hard and stepping up our game and making it into these higher tier, tier competitions that are.

Benny:

It's been really exciting and really, uh, yeah, like I love the building towards something feeling yeah like when you find something and then you are, you know, same as supernatural, same as beat saber, same as dancing. You you put your time and effort into it because you're enjoying it and working at it, and then to see it like pay off, um, as you keep going, it's, it's really fun it's very relatable for me because I'm I'm the absolute same way I also like to be a noob at things and have to learn and take it all in and it's very rewarding.

MJ:

Keeps you young. That's what my dad says. He says keep learning keep failing, keep being bad at things, you'll stay young forever. And I'm like all right, I'm going to keep doing it, let's go.

Benny:

Yeah, yeah, you'll always, yeah, have something, yeah, something to work at. That's why I'm like I don't think I'm ever going to retire, I'm always going to be doing something.

MJ:

Right, right.

Benny:

Finding something fun that I like to sink my I'm into it.

MJ:

I like hearing about how, you know, just going to a gym led to you dancing, to you know, and now Beat Saber, and then you started with Supernatural mapping there, I want to hear about the start, when you started making maps. You talked about the different weapon styles and movements.

Benny:

Yeah, yeah, started making maps.

MJ:

You, you talked about the, the different weapon styles and movements and, yeah, yeah, obviously supernatural wanted to be different than beat saber and you can clearly see the difference. I mean it's, it's totally different um type of workout it's. I look at beat saber. It makes me sweat, but I don't look at it like a workout. I kind of see it as a game, supernatural is full on, just a fun workout.

MJ:

And you can see how initially your choreography was trying to get people to move so differently. And it fascinates me how you guys like, what did you do? Just make maps, everyone play it, you adjust. I mean, that's how I sort of see how things evolved, I guess.

Benny:

What those?

MJ:

early days were like.

Benny:

Yeah, oh well, I just remembered the bad side of the early days, which was the bugs.

MJ:

Oh, man Like creating something new.

Benny:

I would. I would make Matt sorry, I go to the negative first, but I would I would make maps one day and then a bug would hit and it would delete all of my work for that day. And I was like, how did this happen? Like just just building a save feature, you know, and getting it to work properly. It's so like we're so used to it nowadays, but when you see something, when it's first being built, it's the wild, wild west, everything's new.

MJ:

They're learning too, as you're developing things, so it makes sense to have all those bugs and errors.

Benny:

yeah so that was so, but that aside, it was awesome. It. It was like, uh, a big playground, like you said, where we were, because we're we're still working with the prototypes, we're testing it. I'm like like building maps in the prototypes. It's not as easy as like what we have now.

Benny:

The editor has come so far, but, like before any of the grids or anything, and like setting up the beats and like stepping through and being able to methodically place. It was more like I hope these targets are on beat, because I was just like boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, bo. I was just like and trying to do the rhythm, like that, and I would record a rhythm session, you know, and then turn that into targets. And there were so many prototypes. One of them, like we, the idea before we had lanes was full on 360, where the targets are just me recording them and and they were like some of these targets. Oh, and target types have always been different. So I think the first targets were balls and then they had little scoops on them like the trails, and I would record, record and it would just be these, you know, little slices coming at you in space. But yeah, I could record full 360 and it would just come you know.

MJ:

From everywhere.

Benny:

So that was one prototype, but it was so. Getting into a map and having it have that much 360 was very daunting and hard for people to play it and keep up with it. And so then eventually we were like, okay, we do have to go back to just lanes. We need to make the language readable enough or understandable enough, because even our turns we were turning. We were like we're going to turn 180 with this. Yes, yes.

MJ:

Front to back, Front to back. That song still has that move in it.

Benny:

It still has it dude, we had some big turns, oh my gosh.

MJ:

Yes, it's like you said. It goes all the way backward. I know, it skips three lanes because I always have to remember remind myself when I play that map I'm like, oh, we're going to skip three lanes, hold on, and I giggle the whole time. I giggle, I love it.

Speaker 3:

It's crazy, it is crazy.

Benny:

It is crazy. So that was yeah. So it was just that fun, like we were trying all the things. I was just building all sorts of maps and just figuring out what weapons we wanted, and and eventually it like it just. I think it evolved over time because we we started to see, you know, as we play, tested it, we started to see what stuck. We started to see what stuck. We started to see what people enjoyed. We started to see the negative side, what people didn't enjoy, and it's like, okay, we'll stay away from that, we'll go towards this, we'll do this. We even had oh man, what were we calling it? Auto intensity.

Benny:

Yes, it was called auto intensity when it would speed up.

MJ:

The better you did, the more targets you would miss. It would slow the map down yeah, the better you did, it would go faster yeah, and we would build.

Benny:

we learned this after launch that we shouldn't do this. But we we would build five maps of like five levels of the map, all the way to roughly pros and then you know, medium down to low, and then it was kind of like a low, low, it was like too low. It was almost we we call those sleepers whenever it's just like it's way too low, that you're just like there's nothing in this map that makes me energized and um, and yeah, then they would progress through that. But that one got that one got booted really quick because we realized how much effort it is to build five maps. It's. It's kind of the same with um, oh, I can't talk about what's coming up, nevermind.

MJ:

Ha ha no, no Spoiler.

Speaker 3:

Ha ha.

Benny:

Um, wow, spoiler. Um, yeah, the five maps for one song, that's insane. It was a lot, and we were like, okay, we just gotta boil it down. Low, medium, high feels. You know, that's so common, it's so relatable that that one's an easy understanding of, of you know your level of what you should be picking. Um, and then it made it easier on us mappers to then build, um, you know, so our workload wasn't crazy and, um, yeah, so all along the way there were, there were little, there were speed bumps and progress and, um, you know, throughout the development process it was really uh, it's really fun to be a part of that, because it's like this, it's like, um, it's uh, it's a healthy challenge for yourself, cause it's not all bad, it's not all good, but you can feel yourself creating something new and building towards it, and and and seeing that from the ground up was fun, yeah.

MJ:

How long were you working there before they brought in more full-time choreographers? I know people were working on contracts at first. I know people were working on contracts at first. Do you remember when they were like okay, Benny needs, we need more people yeah.

Benny:

It already launched, I think.

MJ:

I would assume, maybe it didn't.

Benny:

When we started getting people Mm-hmm. I think we were trying to hire before? Did we launch 2020? Yes, april 23rd, um, fun fact, it's totally side side trail. You're good sidetrack. Um, and and maybe a little bit morbid, but not supposed to be but my grandfather died on april 23rd, which is the same day we lost supernatural yeah, so you remember both of them.

Benny:

You get the bittersweet, yeah, you know it's like the next generation, it's like passing it on um side note, but uh, yeah, we started hiring before launch. I can't remember exact details, it's fuzzy thinking back to it, but we were training we would bring in, so we put out a job opportunity, job offer, and we were looking for dancers who were also gamers, who might also be musicians and liked choreographing things, and we called them unicorns if we would find them.

MJ:

Yes, it sounds like you're talking about unicorns, for sure, that's a lot and a fitness background.

Speaker 3:

So the five we had like the whole thing.

MJ:

It's like you're talking about unicorns for sure.

Speaker 3:

That's a lot and a fitness background.

Benny:

So the five we had like the whole thing is like five pillars of what makes a choreographer for Supernatural. And yeah, I think I remember Asia and Ethan were in those first batches that we like brought into the office and we taught them to use the editor. We gave them like a week. It was like a trial period of like okay, we're going to teach you and we want to see what you can create and what you you know and how you feel and yeah, so that was that was that. And so, yeah, eventually Ethan and Asia came out of there, out of those pods. If you will Like we would have six maybe at a time, and this is when I was working with Jess Zobler.

Benny:

I don't know how well you know her, but she was always right there with me and say she's like my there with me, and say she's like my manager, if you will, whenever we were back there in the day. But she's a big part of it getting it set up and and going through the motions and figuring that all out yeah. Getting us building our choreographer team.

MJ:

That's pretty awesome because I know there are eight of you and I'm so excited that we get to say that, because I feel like you guys have been so mysterious for so long. Um, it's awesome to bring you guys out from behind the curtain and let let people hear what it's like to to build workouts. Um, so, hearing the history, I know so many of my Supernatural obsessed friends are going to freak out. Hearing that backstory there.

MJ:

So that's so fun and I mean, wow, we're in 2024 now. Supernatural has been around for almost four years. Wow, 2024 now Supernatural has been around for almost four years. Yeah, wow, how has your personal mapping style evolved? Because I mean, you started from the ground up, building the editor, doing all that stuff. Everything must have changed for you. Yeah, so many different changes You're like oh wow, Marla, what changed?

Benny:

What was it? What changed with my mapping? It was oh wow, Right, yeah, I stumped you.

Benny:

I think I want to say what changed most. Or my mapping evolved as our choreographers grew, and so, because I'm in my own bubble, if you will, building what I wanted to do for Beat Saber, I was like this is what I want to do. And then I also started being influenced by other mappers in the Beat Saber community and I'm like, oh, I should maybe bump up my difficulty a little bit and make it a little more challenging, and then getting to Supernatural and it just being me for the longest time or for a while, that was. You know, if you're like as any artist, if you're just creating in your own space, it's, you know, it can still be great content, but it doesn't like, I don't know, there's so much more to explore outside than what you just have in your own little brain, if you will definitely what I can create on my own and so like.

Benny:

As the mappers came in, I would see, you know, more and more stuff come through, more ideas that they have and their creativity. That would then inspire me. I'd be like I really like that thing you did. That's that feels really cool. I didn't think I could do that before. And and uh, the tails. Some people are like magicians with tails, cause I'm like what did you make me do? Cause that was cool, but I don't understand it.

Speaker 3:

You know cause.

Benny:

I, I'm, you know, I, I, I'm more like I want to call my mapping is more like baseline comfort, um, exercise, like it. It that's where I like to live in terms of you know, uh, mapping and I don't. I don't think I get terribly creative and I would say like, when I look at a scale of creativity in my eyes, I look at Justin and Asia as like creative, just geniuses. I'm just like what? That? What is going on? That was cool, but I don't understand it and I'll try to pull things from there.

Benny:

You know, like when I play with when, when we do like workout reviews, we'll review other people's workouts. Oh really I'll, I'll see.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Benny:

Yeah, every, every workout gets reviewed by somebody at some point before it goes live. So just to double check, make sure you know we don't have any extra targets or any weird stuff broken and um. So anytime I go in their maps, you know I'm like, whatever that was, I'm going to take a snippet of it. We call them snippets. You can grab something, you can grab a little piece of choreography and save it and then pull it up later and you can drop it into other maps and all that stuff. So we take snippets, um, and we're always playing with everybody's ideas and the snippet library.

Benny:

We haven't grown it in a while, but we need to go and throw some more patterns in there, which would be cool. But yeah, I want to say back to the original question. I want to say it's evolved because of all the mappers. Back to the original question. I want to say it's evolved because of all the mappers. Everybody has their own unique style and Lowry so Lowry from Finland, is like tail god, I don't know what else to call him, but he just sweeps you and you're like where are you taking me? That was cool.

Benny:

He takes you on a journey with his tails, yes. And then justin and asia. For me, like those creative geniuses, sometimes I'm like I can't figure it out, but it's fun, whatever the heck is happening. And that was crazy. Like it's a burst of like excitement is usually how their mapping feels when they get into it. And then JR and also Asia. Actually, when they have like a dance map like K-pop or hip-hop or any of those, like something that makes you want to move and hit those lunges and leans. I love their dancing. And then, um, who else is there? Dave, ethan like cat. Yeah, um, dave, ethan, cat are all like solid. Usually ethan likes, usually Ethan likes Ethan's maps. They feel powerful and just like, if I need like a power like set, like that's where I would go. Dave is like a mix of like I want to say Ethan's power and then like Asia's creativity or maybe Justin's creativity. Dave's got a really good balance on things.

MJ:

Yeah, I agree with that.

Benny:

And then Kat is kind of like a mix of like Ethan and some Asia.

Speaker 3:

Oh.

Benny:

Because sometimes her map will be like we're rocking, and then she pulls in the creativity burst and it's like and I'm like what, okay? And then she's going back to chill. She's like okay, now we're back here, we're cool.

MJ:

It's like an unexpected pop. It's like oh, let me catch you off guard and surprise you real quick.

Benny:

And that was fun, yeah, yeah. So everybody has, like I, identify their different styles and that like inspires me, like, especially if you find, if you're doing a workout review of their map in their like preferred genre or songs that they love or that just hit right like there's, it's just like someday sometimes the stars align on a map because you have you feel great, you know like your mood is in the right spot, and then you know the song is just hitting and you've been creative lately or something, and it just comes out in the map and that's always fun and a lot of our internally whenever we get feedback, you know everybody knows, everybody kind of knows everybody's mapping at this point internally that they're like yo, you were on today, I felt it like that, that's like that's, that's just slapped yeah that was great and um, and that's always fun to to to find those maps for sure and be aware you're like, oh, they were they, yeah, they were on it today.

MJ:

Yeah.

Benny:

That's fun.

MJ:

So is there a certain genre of music that you absolutely love to map that? You hear the song and you're like, oh, I'm ready, let's go.

Benny:

You know, yeah, 100% musicals, musicals, and especially disney, like that just gets me like I mean you know and growing up with disney and singing all the songs, but then turning the songs that you know and love into like choreography, wow, you know.

MJ:

Yeah.

Benny:

That's, that's.

MJ:

So are you the one who is always like hey, let me do the Disney workouts, let me do the Disney workouts, let me do that? I?

Speaker 3:

know you did in Kanto.

MJ:

Disney debut.

Benny:

Is that you? Oh, was it.

MJ:

That's the very first one, that's the very you're's, the very you're like oh, oh, was I? I don't know, I think it was you um.

Benny:

It was the very first one disney debut was it called yep? I'm sure I was on it. Yeah, for sure I'm always. I mean we, we fight over disney and every everybody wants it, so it's always you only get one song in a workout. If you're doing disney is usually how it goes oh, that's nice to know.

MJ:

So someone not just one choreographer takes it over. You guys are like all right, I'll take one song, I'll take one song. That way, all of you guys get to do it. That's neat.

Benny:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we all get to have fun.

MJ:

Yeah.

Benny:

Yeah, oh, I think my search didn't work.

MJ:

I think in Kanto was my first Disney workout that I fell in love with completely. I can't tell you. I've done it tons of times. When I'm an admin and in side groups that host competitions, I always pick out and contour, try and get it in to the competition workouts. It's just an all around fun, fun, sing along of a workout every time.

MJ:

Yeah, I love that Absolutely love that one, I love that one and the Disney villains one, if I remember correctly that was huge in the community when it first came out, and I know you have a couple of songs on that one, the Poor Unfortunate Souls, which we've done a giant group community side by side. So I'll add that to the YouTube version here. So you can see that map while we're talking about it. That was a lot of fun. That one was really fun.

Benny:

That's great, I did find it.

MJ:

Oh, did you and just a second there.

Benny:

I did under the sea.

MJ:

Oh, okay, cool, Cool.

Benny:

JR did circle of life. Asia had supercalifragilisticexpialidocious oh my gosh, that map.

MJ:

That's Asia's. Oh, now the whole world's going to know, because people oh no. I didn't. So we're preparing for her episode. We're going to come on. I'm going to tell her all about how you already told the world, supercalifragilisticexpodosius is hers.

Speaker 3:

XB.

MJ:

Allodosius. It's a great map and then it speeds up. It does.

Benny:

Yeah, it's intense.

MJ:

Yes, it's good. It's an example of sometimes a song is in a medium workout and it's a little faster, and so the mapping kind of lends to a little bit more targets than usual in a medium. I always love finding those in the middle of a workout because I like every intensity level, but I'm personally high flow pros. Only girl to a 10.

MJ:

So when I find like a medium plus hidden somewhere, I get very excited. Mark that one down. Yeah, yeah, save that one. You get very excited, mark that one down. Yeah, yeah, save that one. You said musicals.

Speaker 3:

Are you the one responsible for a fan favorite?

Benny:

song. This is me yes.

MJ:

That is me, that is you. Yeah, that is a great map too, and, man, you capture the emotion of that song with the movements.

Speaker 3:

It's so good.

Benny:

Yeah.

MJ:

You can tell you enjoy that song. You can tell by the map.

Benny:

Yeah, it's such a powerful song. Like watching the movie, I was not expecting that song and it just hit so well, and then having it come through and then getting the map. It was like that was one. I was like I'm gonna fight tooth and nail for this one. We were yeah, we used to. We would get in a little bit of a tussle, you know, over some maps, and I think that was one.

MJ:

I love that. I see you guys in my head, like at work in an office in a big building somewhere, going all right, let's battle, let's battle, let's have a dance battle right here, right now, for this song. I'm going to win it. It's a big circle, there's like break dancing happening. This is what's going on in my head when you guys are fighting.

Benny:

We're throwing down. Yes, we're throwing down just for the rights to this map.

MJ:

Exactly. That's how you know you love your job. If you're willing to do that, that's how you know you love your job if you're willing to do that.

Benny:

Okay, it feels like that. Oh, you know what Insider info we used to call ourselves when we had less mappers Voltron, really, but now yeah, because we were associating with different characters and the character tropes and it kind of lines up with us. But we recently had, at one of our meetups, we realized we're the Umbrella Academy.

MJ:

You are 100%. I can see that. I can see that.

Benny:

And we all were like, oh, no way, okay, this is you and and this is me and this is and that was so funny to you. Know it's this, what would you call it? I was going to say ramshackle, but like a mismatch of like personalities, but as a family, like unit, that's totally what it feels like, and that includes Dennis too, because dennis is like our boss man takes care of us. The he's just, he is the guy that has our backs yes but also is our manager and pushes us.

Benny:

But he's the best. Just don't write that down.

MJ:

I've spoken with him. I had the pleasure of of speaking to him um in a call once. And he is the most genuine and he absolutely adores every single one of you and is so proud of you guys. Like you can tell, it was like he's the boss man, but he's also like got this dad vibe to him where he's like these are my kids. You be nice to them. You hear me, you know like you take care of them and I'm like sir I promise, I will take the best care of your kids.

MJ:

I promise you Um that's so, dennis. Yeah, he was really great, great, great guy. Most people he's a the choreographer manager who loves to be in the background just like most of the choreographers who are coming on the show. You guys have been in the background for so long and I just think it's so cool that we as the community are finally able to sort of meet you guys. And I always say the coaches are the heart of Supernatural, the choreographers are the soul of Supernatural.

MJ:

And you know, of course there's, you know, the brains. You've got the developers. You know, I can go on and on and on about this. But I think it's very exciting to have you guys come on talk about your process, what it's like, you know, like if you know you have a workout that you were so excited about coming out and you're like it's dropping this week, it's dropping on Monday.

MJ:

Do you like go check the community Like are they talking about it? Are they? Are they mentioned in my workout? Do they like it? I gotta know.

Benny:

Definitely. Yeah, we definitely do that. Okay, it's it's a little sometimes. It is a little hard though, because it's by the time we finished making a workout, I think it takes like two or three weeks to launch. So it's a little bit fuzzy like in our heads, but like once it launches, because then, because then, like after we map it, then the coaches are recording over it, then it's getting reviewed and edited and um, but it is so fun to hear it and we'll usually have, uh, we have a data review meeting on Fridays where we cover the, the like previous two weeks.

Benny:

So then it's kind of like aha, I remember that now. So that's and, and that's where they'll bring up Like if we hadn't, if we hadn't been, you know, all over Facebook watching the posts come out. That's where they'll share like, okay, here's some feedback that came in Um, and here's the ratings and how you did, and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, you know, and so it's fun and it's it's so fun for me when we get those. Um, we hear about those workouts that are the controversial ones, that are like oh yes, oh yes, it's like half of the people love it and half of the people hate it.

Benny:

So we need to talk about it. What happened in this?

MJ:

I'm so glad you brought that up, because I'm going to bring one up. I absolutely know this has to be a controversial workout. It is the newest well, close to newest. There was one that came out since then, but pros only. Fiddle and Fury. It is the first country hoedown-ish pros only that's come out, and I know that you mapped the first two songs in this workout and the knee strikes man. This workout, I'm on the side. Give it to me. Give me that challenge. I've been doing Supernatural for three years.

MJ:

I want to continue to be challenged. However if I was new and I got in that workout, I'd be like what just happened to me? But I would laugh about it because it's so fun, dude, it's so fun talk to us about you coming up with mapping for these, these two songs, because you put us through it, dude. You put us, yeah, through it we did.

Benny:

that was definitely. Oh man, that was. That was like when I say like I'm inspired by other mappers, getting to collab with them kind of brings that and that like so, what do you do in this kind of situation? Okay, what do you build in that kind of situation? And Justin, with his knee strikes and his creativity just was like you know that that blew my mind a bit for, like, what he he was wanting to build and the patterns that he was showing me, and I was like, can, can I do this? And so like, and he actually built the first map that I, that I then play tested or not the first map. But like he built a map, showed me the patterns that he was thinking, and I got in there and I was like, how can I? What is happening here? What am I trying to, you know? And I had to play it back Like the, what I like about it. It's like the, if you will.

Benny:

I don't want to say this, but because I know Justin might take it, but like the genius of his creativity, he might take it, he might go to his ego. The genius of his creativity is like it's not, it's not, you're not going to get it on the first pass, you have to play it. You have to play it several times, maybe three to five, before you're like your body is like oh, that's the way it works. There's the you know you, you can't and you know it's.

Benny:

It's not a dance move for somebody to just pick up on the fly and just like, oh, I feel it, this is natural. No, this is like unnatural. You need to think about it. You got to work on it and eventually it'll come through once your brain clicks in that you can then do those moves. So, justin, challenge Challenge master. I'm like, ever since I've seen his pros only because I used to map some, I'm like I don't want to Like give it to Justin. Justin knows what he's doing. I don't like I'll get in there and do a pros and it's just like it's just my mapping, but extra targets, you know, it's just like very dense.

Speaker 3:

And.

Benny:

I'm like yeah but where's the challenge? I don't want to say it doesn't come natural to me. It's something that I would have to train, but, justin, it feels like it comes naturally.

MJ:

Yeah, his workouts. I have a little inside joke that his pros only workouts are what are keeping me from the early onset of dementia, because my brain works so hard and I love that dude like yeah. I want a workout that I can't get on the first try. I want to play it uh-huh.

Speaker 3:

I played. Return to the madhouse.

MJ:

I played Return to the Madhouse over 50 times to get 100% accuracy on that.

Benny:

That is what I'm.

MJ:

Yes, I started a little club it's like 100% accuracy. On Madhouse Club there's like a bunch of us crazy peeps, but I know we're a small percentage of users and so the fact that this workout is controversial makes sense to me. But I loved it the three-year user who loves the challenge?

Speaker 3:

who?

MJ:

wants to work hard physically and mentally, this workout. I don't like country music. I I pick fun of hoedowns. It's like a whole thing, this workout came out and totally changed my mind. Dude, you guys working together was fantastic.

Speaker 3:

Fantastic. Thanks, yeah, that was fun.

Benny:

It was fun. It pushed me out of my comfort zone for sure. I was like, what is this that we're doing? And I, I was like I'm gonna. I I feel like I was the simplified version of his mapping in those first two tracks. Like I was like let me try to find a middle ground between, like how crazy this is and what I want to do, cause.

MJ:

I think you guys blended well together your styles and, uh, I love this cause. It's almost a full circus circle moment to the beginning. You're being challenged to do something different and new.

Benny:

Mm.

MJ:

That you're not actually very comfortable with.

MJ:

And you have to work at it yourself and I love that. And I have to say, the first two songs of that pros only fiddle and fury. The knee strikes in there reminded me of another workout that actually came out before fiddle and fury, which was sweat, symphony, stars and stripes spectacular. And I said this on an episode a couple weeks or maybe a couple months ago, back in july. At some point I called you out as the choreographer. I said I don't know if it's true, I could be wrong, but I feel like this is a Benny map and those knee strikes as soon as I saw him in fiddle and fury, I was like this is Benny's workout.

Benny:

Talk to us about that workout Cause that one seems sort of on the controversial side too. Maybe it's hard, you're marching, you're marching.

MJ:

I'm like marching the whole time, dude.

Benny:

Yeah, yeah. When they said it's going to be a knee strike workout because curation, they'll come up with these ideas and then they send them down to us.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Benny:

And in the notes, like the curation notes, they're like yeah, this is knee strikes, you could probably do a little marching. And I was like, can I or will I? The whole time and I full sent it. I don't know what I was, where the energy was coming from, but I was like I I'm going, this is this is like. There's those days, like I was saying earlier, like where you just something's clicking right, you know, or you just feel like you feel energized and you want to create something fun.

MJ:

And I was like I'm full on taking this marching idea and we're gonna have you marching the whole time you, you do march the whole like at one point I was playing with a dear friend and we were laughing like what is happening? This is so cool, we're marching, we're marching. And she said, I'm just going to continue marching through this whole song even if there's no knee strikes, because it keeps me on rhythm and balance.

MJ:

And I was like okay, so I did it. Oh, what a workout. At one point we couldn't even talk to each other working out anymore. We were like so out of breath and laughing. It was one of the best workouts ever because it was everything. It was fun. It was physically demanding, mentally demanding. You're laughing. It was just the best high to come out of. I remember just feeling so great that day Like this is just such a fun workout.

Benny:

It was so fun. Yeah, I remember, and when I was looking it up, because I actually looked up videos of color guards marching- oh you did research.

Benny:

I, I did my research and I had also like a little like, I think, inspiration or maybe why the spark came to me was I had done rotc, color guard with um, the gun twirling, and I had actually done that in like not like big performances, but we would have like our, you know, performance at high school or whatever. So I did ROTC for a few years, j-r-o-t-c, and that was like I don't know it, just that. And then I went up and looked videos and I was like this is yeah, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm doing and full sent it. And so that was funny. I actually had to. I had actually full sent it on marching and I had gotten feedback after somebody played it that I needed to tone it down a little. They were like this is a bit. Who was it? Was it Mark?

MJ:

This is a bit too much. It was Mark. Mark is the coach on that one.

Benny:

I think I think a couple of the maps are like two maps that are like faster than the others maybe, or one or two maps, and I went into like I mean it just felt like double time marching really.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Benny:

And and he was like I can barely keep up, maybe we should trim this a little, bring it down. And I was like, okay, okay, okay, okay. If Mark's saying it, then that's a, yeah, that's a pretty good measure of like okay, okay, let me pull back a little bit, let me not push it too much, but yeah, so much fun to map that.

MJ:

That's so much fun. So that sounds like you just told us what your mapping process is sort of like. You get that, you know you get get something from the curation team their ideas, their notes, the set list, the playlist. Um, what do you? How do you go from?

MJ:

there so you get that, and then what do you do? You listen to the music, you know. Sometimes you go online and look up videos. Uh, how does the process? I'm sure it's different a lot of times because creative, creative energy comes from so many different places right, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's.

Benny:

But yeah, um, for me, well, first is the theme, and so, like, I'll listen to the songs and I'll vibe on the theme and I'm like, okay, this is what I'm feeling. Or, you know, if they tell me, you know it's like, oh, we're going to do an absalicious, oh, we're going to do call to arms, um, then those kind of naturally present patterns. But if it's anything else and the theme or or there's no inherent like it needs to be this body movement, then, um, then it's, yeah, a little bit of exploration, depending on the music. If, um, if it was like a fuego, I'm like already like, yes, I'm going to make this dancey and I'm going to get some of those dancey vibes and maybe look up, uh, choreography to the song. If anybody's done like dance choreo, yeah, um, you know, and and and then, kind of, from there, just like listening to the songs before going in headset, patterns just kind of start to show themselves like it's like feelings of patterns, if you will.

Benny:

It's not like anything concrete, but I'm just like, um, I think we're so in tune with music now that, like, when the music hits my body is just like, I feel this, like, yeah, if that makes sense. So it does. Uh, uh, uh. My my body just has all of these natural things that I've I've been, you know, mapping with and you know the big drops were just like bong. You're like instantly, you know, you go down. Or if it's something like you feel the like, okay, this, whatever this pattern is, it's gonna end up upwards. Um, yeah, um. Or just having like the sidestep groove, like I tend to when I do stuff like jazz or something, I'm just like I start with the sidestep groove, I'm like that is already going in there and now I'm going to figure out how to make targets that play with this sidestep group. So it's all. It all depends.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Benny:

And then that's based on how I'm feeling, too, or like whatever my mood is or whatever's on my mind, or like the last maps that I was working on or the last thing I was inspired by, because it's so funny. One of the things, one of the little hiccups that can happen, is like if you were mapping a pros only workout recently, the last workout you did and then the next workout is a medium. That's going to be a a like it kind of it bleeds over, and so that medium is going to be a medium plus like, like, unintentionally, but like unintentionally, but it's so. It's always like. I don't know if you will, but it's like a journey of like creativity where you're getting, we get input and we work on different stuff and you know, and that always that's feeding into whatever mapping we're creating day by day feeding into whatever mapping we're creating day by day, I love it.

MJ:

I love it you mentioned two steps automatically going into jazz workouts, and my best friend would absolutely hate me if I did not bring up this one particular workout. It is a jazz it up and it is called going up swinging with DeJuana. It has shorty George, um, in the mood. The Harlem shout the Jeep is jumping, sing, sing, sing, this jumping, yes, yes, yes, yes, this workout, you are legit swing dancing.

Benny:

Talk to me about this workout. Yes, this is, this is the music I dance to. This is literally I cure. I curated this one with, um, uh, you know, like we have a whole library that we can go and just like browse songs, and I had a playlist and I was like, all right, let me see if I can find any of these songs in our library. And so then I was able to pull these songs that I swing dance to. This is like 1930s, 1940s. Lindy Hop is what it's called. Swing dancing is like the umbrella name, but underneath it there's all these types of dancing. So lindy hop is the really like exciting athletic one where they're like throwing their partners as well. Um, and it was born in harlem, um, in the ballroom savoy ballroom was one of them and um, and so, yeah, I just basically got to to convey the way I dance and you know my ideas of dance and try and translate them into supernatural that like feel like a swing dance.

Benny:

It did, and so that was really fun. Yeah, I did it.

MJ:

Yes, yeah, you totally did it. You can. You can feel the passion that you had, uh, that you have for dance and the music it. It all came out in that workout. It's a beautiful workout, absolutely. Love that one, in fact. Um, I know that my friend crystal loves it so much. I sent her a message one day. I said film us a song, your favorite song, in this, and I'll put a side by side together for us.

MJ:

And she was like, okay, I'm doing it, she sends it to me, she was wearing a dress and I legit cried because I often wear dresses in my side by sides and she's not a dress, girly.

Speaker 3:

She's like.

MJ:

I don't wear dresses and uh, she recorded the whole workout and sent it to me Like she never wants to record. She just loves this workout so much and so getting to dance with her. We've played this workout together several times. It's just such a mood booster Um.

Speaker 3:

we absolutely love that Great job More.

MJ:

Go curate some more, go make some more.

Benny:

Okay, I can do it. Sure, I'm on it Can you shirt.

Speaker 3:

I got it, thank you, thank you.

Benny:

Oh man, that's amazing. I love that she's doing it in her dress and that makes her You're swing dancing, you are, you are. It's just solo jazz, since you're not actually connected to a partner, but it's still swing dancing.

MJ:

Yeah, definitely, it's so much fun which this if you could make any move in Supernatural, you had no limitations, right by the programming, by the movement. What kind of movement would you add in? Because I have a feeling it would relate to swing dancing in some sort of way.

Benny:

That's a really big question.

MJ:

It is a huge question.

Benny:

That is a huge question, I can tell you. You first.

MJ:

Yes, go, I would do a full twirl. I would do a full 360 twirl. Oh, yes, I would do a full twirl, I would do a full 360 twirl. Oh yes, Exactly like that.

Benny:

Oh, with the arms too. Oh, dude with the arms.

MJ:

Yes, almost like yes, and I can see the targets, and I've already seen the targets in a mat before, and if you just extended it all the way, around. But I understand that that's not for everyone and people could interest themselves. But you know, like in a pros only it would make sense because you're a pro, right? Come on, Do you have something that you you could go frontwards and backwards, not just side to side? Oh, my gosh Right, it's a huge question.

Benny:

Do I? That is really big. I I think I mean, what's great about this question is is that's what we actually wanted supernatural to be? So it was like, how can we essentially like this? Like I guess the heart of the idea for me oh, this was for me, this was my idea for Supernatural was that I can just dance and then you take that dance and you just hand it to somebody else and then they can do it too.

Benny:

So I don't know if it's just any move in particular, but it's the idea of being able to move my full body. So when I say like solo jazz dancing because we have, you know, in the swing scene it's called solo jazz, no-transcript doing you know, there's like 20s charleston, but there's all different styles, there's not even that. There's jumps charleston, squat, charleston, um, and then there's all these different moves that people do, like suzy q's, tacky annies, just a whole bunch of names, and even in um, the shim sham, which is originally that was a tap dance, like a tap line dance. That be translated as a map. If I can move my full body the way I want, like you said, forwards, backwards, all that If I can just move my full body and do my dance moves, do my dance moves, do my dance moves.

MJ:

And then we follow.

Benny:

That's what I want.

MJ:

Then you would be the map, like you're dancing, your movement would be the map. Like you're dancing, your movement would be the map and us wow, that's way. I really love this idea. I'm just like thinking developers would probably hate us.

Benny:

Yes, they completely, because it's back to having the problem of it's. So, because it's the it's, it's, it's back to having the problem of it's, so it's it's. It's so challenging to then have like, are you also translating the hands and the feet and all the body parts, because then you have to. You get to that issue that we had, where it's like, oh, but you have to boil it down. You have to boil it down to the simple language um and then evolve it from there.

Benny:

You know, or something which is I think you know what we're doing, and then all the mappers and all the creativity it's continuing to push it and evolve it. It is so.

MJ:

That's my roundabout answer for that question I'll take, I'll take it, I'll take it. Oh man Dance.

Benny:

More dance. I want to share the joy of dance. Ever since I found dance, I want to share the joy of dance.

MJ:

I like that mission. It's a great mission to have and I think Gett you do that very well.

Benny:

Thank you.

MJ:

Yeah, yeah, thank you, yeah, yeah. So do you think you have a signature, move something that, if we saw it in a flow workout. That chances are. It's a benny workout like your tell uh, yeah it's, it's simple.

Benny:

I don't know, is it too simple? I have one move, but maybe, if there's another one you want me to think up, I could probably do it. But it's like the trifecta of a power move and it's a squat into a cross, into a victory release. Oh, it's the, this trifecta of like. It's like my staple and that's like the when it's a power, when it's like like that is the move I always use. I think Like that is the move I always use.

MJ:

I think Would you make one of the ending up ones what I call a joy ball.

Benny:

You call them an.

MJ:

Easter egg? Yeah, because that would be pretty rad too, for sure. One of them being a joy ball. Do you have a favorite joy ball that you use? Out of all of them?

Benny:

a joy ball. Do you have a favorite joy ball that you use? Out of all of them, I think my favorite go-to is probably the butterflies. Um, but I've been trying to figure out how to use more, more of snow.

MJ:

Oh yeah.

Benny:

And the blowing leaves.

MJ:

The leaves are so rad. The first time we saw them was in a. Disney workout Pocahontas.

Benny:

Oh, my God and I got chills, goosebumps, goosebumps.

MJ:

That was just so epic, and it was just like Pocahontas, I mean like I think, I might have gotten emotional about it. I know I filmed it and put out a side-by-side the day that workout came out, so I'm glad the leaves are there, because that's really cool.

Benny:

Yeah, definitely love that. I want to use those more. Actually, I just mapped something and I used it, so oh, we'll be on the lookout. Give or take three to five weeks, you'll see Right.

MJ:

In three to five weeks. Let me put that on my calendar Be on the lookout. And every map that has leaves, and we're going to be like Benny. Benny, is that you?

Speaker 3:

That's funny, oh man.

MJ:

So this is a Freaky Friday style question.

Speaker 3:

Freaky Friday. That was a movie, yes, it was a movie.

MJ:

I never watched it, oh gosh.

Speaker 3:

My age is showing. My age is showing.

MJ:

My age is showing Thanks. No, it's if you were trading bodies, positions, life with someone else but a supernatural employee you could trade jobs with anyone in the company, anyone for one day. They would do your job. You would do their job.

Benny:

Do I have to be good at the job or Nope?

MJ:

Nope, nope, definitely not. No that is not this. This is your fantasy friend. You want to go be chris milk for a day. Go be chris milk for a day yeah, okay who would I change with? What job like, what role would you go to?

Benny:

oh, I know the easy answer what is it?

MJ:

what is the easy answer is?

Benny:

What is it? What is the easy answer Is is our uh, our Disney rep, because she gets. She gets to work with Disney and share them, share the ideas with them and talk to them about and convince them to let us do workouts.

Speaker 3:

Got it, that's the easy one.

MJ:

You can sell at that.

Benny:

I would love that. That would be so fun. You can sell it that. I would love that. That would be so fun. Yeah, I'm like we're going to embody Moana.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Benny:

And we're going to use a seascape and it's going to be, you know.

MJ:

Yeah, there's going to be leaves coming out of balls. It's going to be great. You could sell it.

Benny:

Where's the water ball? We need a water ball, yes please. And a heart. I would love heart. Do they swirl around you? Yes, of course. Is it like a?

MJ:

whirlwind. Yes, dude, of course it is like the biggest hug of love that you can imagine. It comes out on Valentine's day for the first time. I got it all planned. Okay, call me, call me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, okay.

MJ:

Yeah, that would be cool Hearts.

Benny:

I would be that person that approves Joy Balls. That would be the job. That would be really cool, and I would push out all of the Joy.

MJ:

Balls Lightning, I really want lightning, lightning.

Benny:

I would make them.

MJ:

I really want lightning.

Benny:

Lightning.

MJ:

Lightning strikes. Yes, like coming out, but see, this is like a whole full effect, like there'd have to be like thunder and a ball in the sky, like I have to take it an extra step.

Speaker 3:

Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, but yeah.

Benny:

Well, does it do a storm cloud? Does it darken the whole environment? Yes, yes. And then the lightning like is shining off of everything and illuminating Wow.

MJ:

Because you know.

Benny:

I mean, our environments are, if you will, 3D. That's not the word for it. There's not a word for it, but the way they map it. So, yes, it's a 360. But then they build the freaking I don't know if you could see like a vector art or you know vector lines. They're actually mapping out the environment and then they push it images back on it so it looks like a I don't know if you've ever you know, like what they do in plays or anything on on our theater.

Benny:

On the stage they have you have the multiple levels of backdrop and that's kind of what it feels like, but it's 3D, hey yo.

MJ:

That is so cool, man, the possibilities, so yeah, a lightning joy ball that changes the whole scenery, all of that.

Benny:

Oh my God, I'm in Storm it.

MJ:

I would approve this new job for you.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, thank you Approved?

MJ:

Approved, all right. One last question. And it's got to be the most important question of this whole episode.

Benny:

The most important, it's the whole reason.

Speaker 3:

People are listening. This is why this is why?

MJ:

This is why I went on a two-year mission to hunt down the choreographers. This is the whole reason. Are you ready? I need to know I need to know this answer right now. All right, serious time, all right If you had to pick an emoji animal, only animal emojis as a hug reaction. So someone sent you a message, they had a horrible day, it's so bad and you want to give them a hug. You want to give them a hug. What animal emoji are you reacting with?

Benny:

My animal emoji would be Well, I just said it, it would be a bumblebee.

MJ:

Would it? Is that an animal?

Benny:

Is that an animal? Is that an insect? It is. Does it count?

MJ:

It does 100% count. I will accept an insect I love that you would be a bee.

Speaker 3:

It would be a bumblebee.

MJ:

That's awesome. I love it Yay.

Benny:

Yeah, they look really fuzzy and warm, but they also have a stinger. You just got to avoid the stinger and it's great I'm into it, dude, I'm into it.

MJ:

And they make honey. So I mean come on yeah, that's number one right and they pollinate all the plants.

Benny:

They're very oh my god. Yeah, they're the reason flowers grow, exist, that's right, that's right Come on, that's right, tell them. Or plants, even Any plants. You got to pollinate everything.

MJ:

Yeah. Would it be too extreme to suggest a bee joy ball?

Benny:

Oh, my God, Well actually, oh, my freak out. Some people might be allergic to bees, and I don't know if that would be a good.

MJ:

It would be a bit extreme, but it's kind of like the um, the buzzards that fly over in some of the scenes and you're like they're coming for me. Oh no, they're gonna get.

Benny:

They know I'm struggling and I would love to see some like have some flowers and have bumblebees, just kind of yes, pissing around all happy.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes, I'm into it.

MJ:

That's so cool oh cool, all right Weekly workout suggestion right from you. If there was one workout you would like our community to experience what workout would it be.

Benny:

It's the one that you enjoy experiencing. It would be.

MJ:

The joy workout.

Benny:

My recommendation is the joy, yes, joy powerful, because that one was so much fun to do with Mark as a collab of ideas. Oh, and Mark was like let's just go buddy, let's do it, let's push the boundaries.

MJ:

Basically, you want to chop people's heads off. Did I say that?

Benny:

I didn't say that. I didn't say that, we said it.

MJ:

I want him to have where's the target coming from? I don't know.

Benny:

It's so much fun and it was really a lot of fun to map.

MJ:

Yeah, it's a very good workout from start to finish. It prepares you for the very last song, which, for me, the very last song, is the best in this set. It's so unexpected and so fun. And to hear that you were collabing with Mark to come up with that, to hear that you were collabing with Mark to come up with that you were pushing the boundaries of boxing.

MJ:

You were doing something totally new, like you did when you first started at Supernatural with this workout yes, and I bet it was a controversial workout in the ratings. It was it was Pushing the envelope. It was, it was Pushing the envelope is good A little bit. Yeah, pushing the envelope is good, I like it.

Benny:

All right, we had fun with it.

MJ:

Good, I will definitely put that up on the screen and post it in the group for you guys to find. And after you're done playing this workout or any workout, don't forget to rate it. Look to the left Little thumbs. It will say like not for me, other loved. You can pick the reasons movement, difficulty, coaching. If you hit other it will prompt an email and you can send back a whole novel of your feedback, like I do. Often they want to hear from you guys Seriously. I mean everyone says they want to hear. They have meetings about it. So you guys rate your workouts for sure.

Benny:

Yes, and maybe we'll be reading your comments when they come through.

MJ:

Oh, oh wow, Are we anonymous.

Benny:

Yeah, they don't put names on it so. I couldn't.

MJ:

I couldn't even fathom to guess, but I'm sure if you've been writing comments they've yeah, yes, I write them often, especially on on workouts that I absolutely love the controversial ones because I always love them. On workouts that I absolutely love the controversial ones because I always love them. I'm all about them.

Speaker 3:

I'm not 1%.

MJ:

That's like do the hard thing, Make me think differently and, uh, you know, I, I love lows, I love mediums, but highs and pros, that's that's, that's, that's a spot.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah.

Benny:

We try to make it for everybody. So even that 1% they're still there, but you just get the pros. It's not as many offerings, but I think we do our best to kind of make an equivalent offering for how many people play different intensities and everything.

MJ:

Definitely, and we've been getting a lot more pros lately. Now that we're getting weekly drops, which I'm very into, I have to say I don't have to wait all week. I can get them on Monday. Play my most excited one, play all of them. I'm into the weekly drops. So, yeah, into it. Yep, well, all right. Guys, thank you so much for uh tuning in for, for hanging out with Benny and me and um and enjoying some supernatural chat, choreography chat, and uh, see you guys next time, thanks, bye. Thanks for joining us on today's episode of for the love of the map. As always, you can join the discussion in the private Facebook group and follow along with show updates on Instagram and TikTok. Links can be found in the description below. If you find value in the show, please share it with your friends. Your comments, likes and reviews are invaluable and I cannot thank you guys enough. See you next time.