We're diving deep into the world of puppetry and horror with our lchat with Jessica Jade Jacob about Jawsica, the one-woman puppet show that's making waves at the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival! We're super stoked to introduce you to Jessica, the mastermind behind this quirky twist on the classic film *Jaws*, where she brings the iconic shark and all its characters to life using puppets. You'll hear how Jessica's passion for horror flicks and her background in special effects makeup collide in this unique performance set for March 26th at the Attack Theater Studios. We’ll also dish on the challenges of condensing a beloved story into a 30-minute show, the joys of puppetry, and the thrill of performing live. So grab your tickets, settle in, and let’s get ready to swim into the depths of creativity and laughter!

Jawsica

Company: Jessica Jade Jacob

Date(s): March 26, 2026

Time(s): 7:00 pm

Genre: Performance Art

Venue: Attack Theatre Studios - Creative Learning Lab

https://pittsburghfringe.org/events/jawsica/

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Well, that music means it's time for another episode of Just Can't Not.

I'm your host, Chris Lindstrom, and this is part of our preview for the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival.

I know this is outside of the typical Rochester area content, but the Fringe is universal and we're thrilled to partner with the Pittsburgh fringe for their 13th year running.

March 19th to the 28th.

To learn more about all the shows and get Tickets, go to pittsburghfringe.org tickets.

Cap out for a single event at $20 and a whole event.

Tickets only, $150.

So make sure to get your tickets today and join the action over on Pen Ave. And.

And I have a guest guest.

Why don't you introduce yourself?

Hi, my name is Jessica.

Yeah.

And you've got a Show over on March 26th at the Attack Theater Studios Creative Learning Lab.

That's a lot of words for a venue.

Tickets are $11 on pittsburghfringe.org It's a seven o' clock show.

So, Jess, why don't you tell me what this show is?

Because when I saw it on the website, I. I'm like, I have to talk to this person.

I'm so excited.

I really appreciate you saying that.

That's really sweet.

The show is called jawsica.

It is a one woman performance of Jaws with all puppets.

So I do all the characters and of course the shark, the most important character of all, basically.

It's just I am a huge horror movie nerd and Jaws is definitely my favorite movie.

It's been my favorite movie since I was a little kid.

So.

So I'd been saying for a very long time now, like many years, that I had seen the movie so many times that I could like probably like recite it.

So I was like, I need to do a performance of it.

And my.

I initially tried to do it.

I was just going to do it like one woman style.

But the puppets just seemed like a more natural fit because, I mean, the star of the movie is the shark puppet, so.

Oh, absolutely.

And I mean, I. I mean there's so.

There's so many.

And I'll say right away, this.

It is easily.

It's in my top five movies and has been for a very long time.

It is one of the eminently most rewatchable movies of all time.

And I know, I know people disagree and it's okay that they're wrong, that this is easily the best Spielberg movie.

And like Jurassic park is just like put Jaws on land with dinosaurs coming out of a thing.

Like, come on.

This is my wife is staring at me from the living room because she's a dinosaur nerd and Jurassic park is her favorite Spielberg easily.

And she's staring at me with her arms out like this.

I adore Jaws and I think it's such a grounded performance from so many people and it maintains that 70s vibe and groundedness and griminess with people that still look like people.

Which is an astonishing accomplishment for a movie since nobody looks like people or very few people look like people anymore.

Sorry, I can just talk about Jaws all day.

So.

Me too.

When, when you were, when you started to distill that passion and love for the movie into a 30 minute show with puppets, how did you pick and choose the things that stayed versus just what's the most famous things?

Like, was it things you loved the most?

So when I was breaking down the story, it was really fascinating because I kind of started it off where I wanted to do something weird with all the little bit players because some of my favorite lines from Jaws are the just completely throwaway lines for characters that don't even matter.

But I realized that that was not going to work in the time frame.

So I actually, especially being a woman, I came back around to like, actually one of the most important characters in the whole movie is Chrissy Watkins because her death sets up the whole movie.

So I kind of like threw a lot of her into it.

Not to do too much spoilers, but that was kind of my launch off point because initially, you know, being a woman There is 70s, maybe there's not a lot of like strong female characters in it because the time period, you know, we forgive them.

But so for me, I was like trying to figure out like how to approach it.

Like, and initially I was like, oh, maybe I could do something with Chief Brody's wife.

But her character is not like it's just basically there to support his character.

So like I ended up like that.

That wasn't going to work for what I was trying to do.

So I settled on like all the main players, but then also like Chrissy Watkins because I just felt like, you know, even though she only has a few lines, she is very important because literally without her deciding to go for that super late night swim, early morning swim, the whole movie would never have happened.

Yeah, it certainly definitely happened during the night and definitely didn't happen during the day.

Colored down to darkness.

I mean, I got to say one, I 100% agree that Ellen Brody is downgraded from what she could have been because every moment she's on screen, I Am entranced.

She's so good just by her charisma.

Just that charisma and that honest relationship that they have.

Did you pull out of the Super Deep Cuts a scene where she's cheating on his husband with Matt Hooper?

I actually have read the book.

I haven't, for a nerdy fact.

When I was in grad school, I did a paper Jaws book versus the movie, which was so stupid.

I should have not been allowed to pass grad school for writing this whole paper.

But that's what I chose to focus on.

I love it.

That's awesome.

I thought it was important.

Yeah.

And it's such a rich movie with those little lines that I think we can both just grab lots of them.

There's any number of times where I'll just go, what?

For absolutely no reason.

Adding that in is so nonsensical, but perfect to make everybody feel like they're weird islanders and all that stuff.

Did you find yourself doing accents during the.

During your practice for this?

I have been trying.

I'm not very good at accents.

Like, I'm actually more used to being behind the scenes, so being in front of the camera or even in front of the audience is a little bit more crazy for me.

So I'm getting used to it.

My accents aren't the best, but I do try.

That's fair.

So back to the thing.

So putting more Chrissy Watkins in and distilling the story down to 30 minutes is one challenge, because people know the story hopefully relatively well by this point.

When you're thinking about how to perform those parts, were you trying to drive this in a different direction, towards more comedy?

Were you trying to be true to how you felt about it?

How did you make those choices?

Because this could be.

You know, we.

We talked.

We talked to somebody earlier who did, you know, Shakespeare, you know, with.

With fighting and more brawling and chaos, and there's so many different ways of interpreting it.

Did you choose to interpret or perform?

I.

It's definitely more performative, but there is some interpretation in there.

So a little bit of both.

Yeah.

I tried to stay true to the story for the most part.

Like, there were so many lines that I just couldn't not have in there.

And I'm sure you can kind of guess which ones.

And then I tried very hard because with the three main male characters.

And I did a bit of the mayor, of course, because he's so amazing, but they all have distinct voices that even one person doing them, like, you know, like, Hooper's voice is very nerdy.

And Quinta's very gruff.

And then I just kind of played Chief Brody very straight.

And then the mayor is very Know it all.

So I try to channel the characters as much as I can.

I've only ever lived in Pittsburgh, in New York, so I feel like I can somewhat do a New York accent from hearing a lot of Long Islanders and whatnot, but it's still not very good.

It should be better for as much time as I spent in New York.

But I do try.

Well, I mean, you know, I had growing up in Buffalo, living in Rochester.

Like, we all live in that, like, nasally world of accents.

Like, it's.

It's pretty identifiable.

But yeah, I think it's.

It's also kind of a fun challenge to see what you can do.

And part of the joy of doing a show like this is the trying is its own endeavor.

And also, like, the trying makes it.

Even if you don't plan a moment just might bring that, like, bring a laugh moment you didn't expect.

And that's an amazing feature of shows like this.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So I'm kind of.

So puppetry is a whole different art form.

My wife, who was taunting me from the other room before, sells at conventions, and one of her friends has done a lot of, like, high end puppet work.

And, you know, their character, you know, lives in that world and is very animated and performative.

When you were thinking of doing puppetry, is that something you've done before?

Is that something.

This was new to you.

So I actually started when I did my undergrad.

In the beginning of my career, I started in special effects makeup and I did a lot of, like, pretty intricate puppets.

Yeah, I've, like done, like, mechanical masks and giant creature puppets and stuff.

When I was in school, I made this, like, giant snail, like, creature.

So I have a background in that.

So I definitely, like, utilized that somewhat.

But I actually didn't want to go too, too crazy with this because I want it to kind of look like a crazed scrapbooking, like, craft project kind of.

So I tried to keep it more like old school, like almost like little kids puppets kind of, because I thought that was funnier than if I spent all the time making, like, a super realistic Chief Brody thing.

And because I'm working with so many puppets, like, I can't.

I have to have them, like, somewhat smaller and easy to manipulate.

So I made them a little bit more lo fi, but on purpose.

Well, and I think if we're.

If we're looking at the history right, you know the history of that art form.

There can be all the way from ventriloquism, you know, to, you know, to, you know, obviously Muppet style performing, where the puppets.

The only thing you see.

And also then you.

You get the version that so many kids grew up on, which is The Pittsburgh icon, Mr. Rogers style puppetry, which is so, so viscerally lo fi.

And if you looked at them individually, you'd be like, you know, it's that Punch and Judy old school style.

And you look at it and you're like, what am I looking at?

This is nothing.

And then when you watch it, you just feel that life because somebody's trying, you know, somebody's honestly making those characters come to life, regardless that it's a little finger puppet.

And like, that's.

That's all you have to offer.

But it's offering so much more.

It's offering that opportunity for you to.

You make your own interpretation, you make your own thoughts about motions.

I kind of like that choice because one, for a 30 minute thing, it's hard to do giant puppet work or learn how to do the big expressive puppets with mouths and articulation, but that kind of thing can work in that kind of show.

And I wasn't thinking this at the time, but stepping back and look at it also, like, the aesthetic and everything I made feels very 70s, so it is kind of like more throwback than if I made it a bit more high tech.

Yeah.

And it's.

And I love, you know, that that whole angle of doing, of doing puppets.

Did you find when you were doing the different characters, you started to move them differently as you started to practice.

So because I'm working with so many different characters and puppets and switching them in and out, the movement for me is a little bit more limited because I'm kind of like doing like five different things.

So I kind of like set the stage and just move them a little bit.

So, like, for me, it's not too much movement just because of the amount of volume of puppets, if that makes sense.

More simplistic.

That is completely fair.

Did you buy a vacation house with your money from perform.

From performing this show a la Michael Caine in Jaws 4?

No, but I wish that.

And I would like to say for the record, Jaws 4 is incredibly underrated.

Well, I do appreciate the revenge part that the shark has chased Ellen Brody to the Caribbean and terrorized Michael Caine in one of his.

One of his career performances or a performance that occurred during his career, that is.

I also spent way too much time of My childhood trying to play the Nintendo game version of that.

I don't know if you ever played the old school one.

Oh, yes, of course.

Oh, those kids are beat.

Several times.

But it was really hard.

You had to collect a lot of conch shells.

Yeah.

Which is the real purpose of any Jaws movies is to collect the shells from the native environment.

That's that whole subplot.

So I also think Jaws 3 is highly underrated as well.

It's also very good.

You know what?

I did love how aggressively they went into the 3D for that one.

Yeah, I never got the pleasure of seeing that in the theater that way.

Our local genre movie festival, the Anomaly Film Festival did a showing of.

I think it was.

Yeah, I think it was one of The Friday the 13th movies.

The 3D one with an original print and original glasses that somebody had kept and tours around for shows that want to do that kind of thing.

It's a special thing seeing that with that old school red, blue, 3D style showing.

That is amazing.

I don't know if you remember a few years ago they redid when 3D movies were like super popular like maybe about 10 years ago and they re released Jurassic park in 3D.

But they should totally do that with Jaws.

They did.

And I saw it in the theater.

Oh yeah.

It was unbelievable.

As somebody's probably seen the original, you know, probably 50 times.

You're seeing things differently.

It's the.

Because of the depth of field, you're actually seeing parts of it that you'd never noticed before.

And I'm just sitting there the whole time paying attention to these things that you never see.

It's like when, like if you watch a.

Another one of my top movies, like watching It's a Wonderful Life, but you see it in the 4K restoration in black and white and you're seeing things you never saw before because it's so crisp and the textures.

Um.

But yeah, it's.

It was a fantastic experience seeing if they ever release it again.

You have to go see it.

Good movie.

I've heard.

So 30 minutes.

When you were coming up with this.

How long have you been prepping for.

For the show?

So this is actually my.

It's going to be my second year performing it.

I did it last year.

I only did one show last year.

I'm just doing one show this year.

I get so nervous.

Like I can really handle doing one show.

It's very stressful for me.

But like I spent so much time last year getting everything.

So I've been working on this now where we're going to year two, so.

And I still need to.

Like, I've been storing.

I had, like, a custom puppet theater built, and I've been storing in the garage, and I think there's still some spiders living in it from last year that I have to kick out.

I think it's thematically appropriate.

Yeah.

Maybe they can just come perform with me, though.

I don't know.

So when you're thinking about doing this for a second time, did you make any changes?

Are you going back to it, or did you take some lessons from the first time and say, hey, I'm going to tweak some things?

We're definitely going to tweak some things.

I'm in the process of doing that now.

I am doing fellowship at Carnegie Mellon at the Robotics Institute.

So I was thinking about trying to add something a little animatronic to it if I feel ambitious enough.

But I'm still on the fence about that.

It just depends on if I've time.

I need to rehearse it a bunch, though.

But, yeah, there's some stuff in the works, like, I'm hoping to upgrade a little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's always challenging when you're doing version two of a show because you don't want to.

You don't want to change the core of the vibe of things unless you're like, oh, this has to go in a different direction.

Yeah.

But it's all.

There's always that impulse.

And, you know, especially if you're passionate about a project, you want to keep improving, you want to make those little tweaks to make something work a little bit better than it did the first time.

Yeah.

What I'm kind of also thinking about is you mentioned your background in doing, you know, doing production and things like that.

Is.

Is that where you typically.

Is that.

I don't know.

I'm not sure.

Is this your career?

Is this just something you are passionate about, or is that like, hey, this is my angle on this for my passion projects.

So I actually work in film.

I'm in the union for makeup, but I did my master's in film, so I shoot and write and direct stuff as well.

I just been doing, like, shorts recently.

I've been trying to have a couple features I wrote that I've been trying to finance forever.

But, yes, my day job is actually working in film.

It's been slow since the strikes.

Like, Pittsburgh's kind of been up and down.

I think it's been that way everywhere, though.

So it's been A bit rough.

And we're all really scared of AI.

I actually think Jazica was somewhat my response to my fear of AI replacing me, that I was like, okay, AI can't take this job.

AI can't make puppets yet.

No, no.

And I think it's also, you know, thinking about.

Thinking about movies that have been made.

Like, you know, Pittsburgh is such a.

Such a deep, you know, such a visually appealing city for certain kind of movies.

And also every time that we see Pittsburgh on a film, whether it says it's in Pittsburgh or not, my wife's like, Pittsburgh.

And I was actually watching one of the movies.

Movies that you were in recently or you were a part of, was watching the Jack Reacher movie recently.

Oh, cool.

But I helped make all the guns for that.

Oh, God.

And that's, you know, and I love the new version.

Is the new version.

The TV version as well.

But that was my first introduction to the character beyond.

Beyond hearing Stephen King wax poetic about the lack of words that are in the books and how much he likes them.

Wow.

No, that's.

That's really cool.

And that's.

It's always a choice.

And something I've.

We've talked about a lot on, you know, shows around our network for people that are following their passions in one way or another is that regardless of which path you choose, it's a compromise.

Whether you do your passion full time or you do it.

You do a day job to facilitate and do it the other way so you have more stability and more other things when you're working through that.

Was that a decision?

Was that I have to be full time into this, or how do you think about that balance?

It's definitely a struggle.

And it is like, I feel like even when I talk to people that are more established, it's like, constantly a struggle because you just never know when, like, this.

This work is so unpredictable and so uneven.

But it was just something I've.

I've definitely just kind of.

Kind of tried to trust the struggle, you know, and kept going with it and hope for the best.

But it is definitely uncertain times in the film world right now with AI.

Like, I. I know my union has already had meetings about, like, artists getting replaced by AI.

So when people are like, oh, it's going to replace jobs in the future, like, let me tell you, it's replacing jobs now, especially special effects makeup, I think is going to get hit the hardest, just because, I mean, it is rough for actors to sit in the chair for four hours, plus sometimes to do all that stuff.

And it's doing stuff that realistically we can't do.

Like, de aging people, I'm kind of fascinated by.

I see a movie where they do the de aging.

Like, sometimes I think it looks really good and sometimes you can tell, but, yeah, that's something.

Like, you're kind of limited with what you can do de aging wise with makeup, because obviously if there was some magic button, we'd all look 20 years younger all the time.

Yeah.

And sometimes it can look great and terrible in the same scene.

And that's part of that endless struggle of, you know, that's.

Even with intentional CG with lots of money versus, you know, some of the results that we're getting can be.

They're interesting sometimes, kind of, but they're rarely great.

And it.

I think it's almost impossible for it to be transcendent, which is.

I think part of what.

Part of what's missing is, yes, you can.

You can cut out some of the base stuff, but you're losing the opportunity for amazing.

You're losing the opportunity to make something really special.

And every.

Every person who's contributing to that on a movie set is contributing to that opportunity for something to be beyond.

Oh, this is a movie to make somebody feel something, to make somebody care about something.

All the people that contribute to that, you know, makeup, special effects, um, you know, you know, all those.

You know, and we think about the best horror movies of all time.

It's practical effects.

Yeah.

I could not give two shits about another cg.

Another CG blood fest.

Like, yeah, give me the stuff that makes you feel like, oh, God, I'm squirming in my chair.

Right.

There's a reason why we love, like, we love the mediocre, like, Jaws Shark, but because there are moments where it has something else.

There's a visceral thing that the Meg 2 doesn't offer.

Yeah.

Or you think of the thing.

You think of amazing visual effects artists who are doing these practical effects, and sometimes they look weird, but damn if you don't feel something when you see them.

Yeah.

I always think.

I always go back to Jurassic park too, because I think that's one of the most perfect marriages of CGI and real world effects where I felt like that set the stage and then just people decided, like, oh, I don't want to bother puppets.

I'll just do it all in post because it is easier as a director.

I do understand why people say that, but when you see, like, those little kids reacting to the T. Rex come down into the Jeep.

You know, they were probably really scared in real life because that puppet was really terrified.

Versus when you have all these movies now where people are reacting to whatever stick with some googly eyes or whatever they have holding up for the sub, for whatever they're gonna throw in with cgi because, like, I don't know if you ever went and saw, like, I don't know if it's still around, but a few years ago they were doing, like, the Star Wars Museum that was like touring everywhere.

And the older stuff was so cool.

But when they showed stuff from the later ones, like, it was like nothing.

It was like some wardrobe and props because everything was, like, done in cgi, so they didn't really have, like, all the crazy, like, life size stuff that they used to build.

Yeah, I didn't see that one.

I did go to.

I forget what city it was in, to be honest.

But it did have a lot of, like, film artifacts.

And you see those things, you're like, oh, yeah.

And there's.

There is a tie to that thing that is a part of that production.

It kind of reminds me of.

There was some recent.

I think it was a TikTok poster, somebody else that.

Where people had went to see.

I think it was like one of the Jim Henson exhibits.

And you see people's reactions to seeing, like, Kermit or Ralph, just a puppet in a case.

And you see people just delighted or weeping with.

With like.

With like this.

This connection to a piece of fabric and foam.

But there's this.

There's that connection with something because the performance is real, because there's something.

There's something physically there.

Yeah.

I'm not.

I'm not a purist.

I'm not a What it.

When it comes to CG by any means.

But, you know, losing that tie to somebody who's there working with a person, making them look great for the shot that needs to be made.

Because you're doing makeup that's not for one thing you're not doing.

Right.

You're.

You're not doing that for.

Oh, a random version.

You're doing it for this.

Yeah.

Which is custom and it makes.

And when there's intention on top to bottom, everything's on purpose.

This thing, people forget, like, oh, it's just makeup.

Like, no, it's not.

It's everything in conjunction together.

Yeah.

Sorry, I'm just going on rants now because I'm.

You got me going.

Unpractical.

Yeah.

And it's crazy.

They don't realize, like.

Yeah, like some Film people are going to lose jobs.

But like the amount of money that film is bringing into all these different areas, whether it's like Atlanta or Pittsburgh has like fairly happening film that kind of comes in waves.

But it's just like so many local businesses get a boost when a movie comes in.

Like when we go to an area that might be further outside the city and you have the whole crew buying like lunch or treats at like the local pie shop or whatever.

Like it adds, it's a big boom for local businesses.

Like, it's nice, but if they, you know, eliminate all the background actors because they can do that with AI, that eliminates a lot of jobs.

Not just the, those actors, but all the caterers that would feed those actors, all that additional costume, makeup, hair, people that would come take care of them.

Like it's like a pretty rough chain effect that we're worried about happening and I think it's probably happening in some places already.

Yeah.

And it really does.

I'm glad you mentioned just even catering.

A lot of my backgrounds in food and drink as somebody wrote restaurant reviews, my, my main shows around food and drink related things.

I did three years working with small money only small minority owned restaurants in Rochester.

And when, you know, even what I could do, which was, you know, on a quiet night, get somewhere around like, you know, 6 to $800 in their pocket for just making good food at a reasonable price.

Yeah.

How much of a difference that made for that week for some of the places?

That consistency of work and having those opportunities to raise your floor and you know, help make something happen is such a great thing for a restaurant or for the catering companies that lets them survive.

What might be a downtime, you know, it's summers are tough, like they're not that busy, but maybe a film production is happening and that keeps you going for another year.

Yeah, that, that means something.

It means something to the people that all the people that contribute.

Yeah.

So you mentioned directing, you mentioned all the different angles on film that you're involved in as you're, you know, working on your projects and you're thinking about where you are, where you want to go.

Do you have, are you somebody who really thinks about here's the path I want to get to and here's all the steps I'm going to take to get to them.

Or are you reading, reacting and saying this is kind of my direction, but it might go where it goes?

So definitely both.

I have like dream paths at any given time.

Like when I lived in New York, I was like pitching a bit more and constantly trying to fundraise since I've been back in Pittsburgh.

I moved back to Pittsburgh right before COVID happened actually.

So I've been back here a few years and I kind of got more into guerrilla style stuff, like just doing like shorts.

Been doing the 48 Hour Film Festival a couple times.

There's really fun.

It's super fun out here.

It's like a really big group and a really great group of people.

And I had tried to do fringe in New York, but it's very competitive.

It's really hard to get in.

So I was like really pleasantly relieved to see in Pittsburgh it's like a little bit more open door because in New York you're competing with like, you know, bigger names and whatnot and they only like take a few people, I guess.

But I love here because it's like a lot more open door, so they let you do the weird stuff, which is cool and I appreciate.

Do you see yourself doing, you know, working on this more and doing it outside of Pittsburgh and fringe festivals?

Sure, I'm game for whatever.

I would love to do it.

I wrote them an email, but I'm horrible at promoting myself.

But Jaws Fest because like, I'd been trying to do this for a long time, but what really like pushed me to do it the Most was the 50th anniversary.

I was like, it's time, I gotta celebrate this.

So I'd love to do it for like Jaws Fest.

Like I actually have never been out there, so I kind of just want to go to see all this stuff.

That would be very cool.

And I will say that also submitting, you know, you know, Pittsburgh as it's growing is a great place to, you know, be the home base.

But there's lots in the surrounding areas.

I mean, I did a whole bunch of previews for Rochester last year and when it comes to like mid sized ones, it's one of the biggest midsize ones and you know, hop, skip and a jump.

Four and a half hours from Pittsburgh.

So.

And there's still a lot of small venues that would be a lot of venues of different sizes where you can still just submit and get something.

Okay.

While, you know, the opportunity to be as part of the bigger thing is, you know, it's a little bit of a jump.

It's not the, you know, Philadelphia or New York or obviously going to the.

Going to, you know, Scotland or anything like that.

Yeah.

Just seems like a lot of great opportunities to, you know, stretch and does it grow?

Does it change or do you do.

You'll continue to refine.

It's been cool this year because they've done a lot of really neat zoom like info session sessions.

And I knew Fringe was big, but I didn't realize like how big it is.

Like they were talking about how like the main one and it's in Edinburgh, right?

The main one.

It's like the third largest in person event in the world, which I had no clue.

Like I knew it was big, but it was that big.

It's like behind like the Summer Olympics and I think the World cup and then it's like Fringe is the third one.

And I was just like, that is insane.

That is so cool.

Like, because they get like a huge, huge crowd, like goes for, for that like in the mainland.

So I was like, that is really wild.

That's unbelievable.

And I got to say, like, yeah, it's, there's something about the whole vibes of Fringe because you can, you can do something just because did when you found your venue, is this the same venue did last year or is this a new venue for you?

So I'm trying a new one.

I loved last year I did a Mr. Roboto project, which I love, but unfortunately, just because I, I'm taking.

I'm pretty busy with the CMU stuff and the days Roboto had available were days I had CMU stuff.

So they had.

Is it.

I think it's a new venue.

I don't think they had stuff last year they had Attack Theater.

So I'm going to try that one.

But I think it's going to be cool.

Like, I'm excited.

That's awesome.

So if you had, you know, when you're, when you're thinking about your, your upcoming projects, if somebody was to say what is, you know, what is a project by Jessica Jacob, if you had a signature, what would you say is your, what's your style?

What's the kind of thing you'd want people to think about when they saw like your production, your short or something else?

I guess, like, I probably just do things like quirky, I don't know, like what to call my style.

My style is definitely very quirky.

Yeah, well, there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

I mean, that's.

But that's honesty too, right?

That's.

Yeah.

It's not trying to force yourself to be something, you know, something you're not.

Right.

But you know, bringing the most of that you can to a show or to a, to a movie, to a short or anything else.

Yeah, that's the thing.

Right.

Like, being the most you, you can possibly be is to me one of the best goals you can have in any creative project.

And I think that appeals to the.

The right person at the right time.

Yeah, I think so too.

Well, I think we're going to do.

We're going to close out with your plugs again for the show.

So shows on March 26, 7 o', clock, attack theater studios, the creative learning lab, 11 hour tickets on Pittsburgh fringe.org and Jess, why don't you throw a plug so they can check out other things as they come up, whether it be shorts or other productions.

I don't know if I have anything else to plug.

I just kind of had a brain blank there.

That's all right.

Do you have a social media where people can follow you for other things?

I'm on Instagram.

I am terribly allergic to social media and also terribly allergic to promoting things.

This is actually a big step for me because I didn't really like talking about myself.

Oh, it's all right.

See that, that's part of why.

Part of why I love doing this.

And we have another show on our network called behind the Glass, which is underrepresented visual artists, mostly photographers.

Shockingly, Rochester has a lot of photographers in it with all the Kodak history and everything else that makes sense.

Yeah.

But a lot of them had never been in a gallery before.

So they're putting them on in a gallery and then bringing them into the podcast studio to tell their story about how they started taking pictures.

And so many of them never thought of themselves as an artist or never had a chance to tell their story.

And sometimes it's that experience of, oh, I'm doing this.

And yes, it can be, it can be tough the first time you talk through these things or when you don't do it regularly.

But it's one of my favorite things to do when I hear that is we just work together and having a fun conversation.

And that's, that's the end goal with any of these things.

Oh, well, I appreciate it.

So if you want to go see an amazing show and learn more about Jaws, definitely go check out Jess's show at the attack theater on March 26th.

If you want to learn more about the Lunchadore Podcast network, go to lunchadore.org to check out all of the shows.

I'm hoping to be down to Pittsburgh for the second weekend of the Fringe.

I was already booked up for the first one, so I'm hoping to see everybody on Pen Ave and We'll see you out on the fringe.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchadore Podcast Network.

We're gonna need a bigger puppet.