If we love nerdy comedy, queer joy, tabletop chaos, and snack talk that gets oddly deep, this one is our vibe. In this episode of Snackin’ & Yakkin’, Big Ben Kennedy reunites with Baltimore comedian, GM, and cosplay menace Violet Gray after 15-plus years, and it feels like rolling a natural 20 on nostalgia.

Reconnecting After 15 Years in Baltimore Comedy

We start back where it all began, at the tiny upstairs room of Winchester’s Comedy Club above the Shamrock Pub in Baltimore. That open mic was scrappy, weird, and wildly supportive, and it forged a whole crew of comics who still talk about it like summer camp with more beer.

Back then, Violet was performing under her birth name, Dorian Gray. Yes, like the cursed portrait guy. The joke writes itself, because Violet still looks like she does not age at all. New name, same face, same razor-sharp brain.

Nerdy Roots: D&D, Wizards of the Coast, and Pathfinder Monsters

Violet’s nerd card was visible from day one. Onstage at Winchester’s, she tossed off a line like, “You know life is sad when your eighth-level mage is getting more action than you are,” and the room’s D&D crowd instantly claimed her as their favorite comic.

Offstage, she worked at a Wizards of the Coast store in Maryland, calmly teaching people how to play Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons while rocking that quiet, bookish chaos energy. Years later, she even landed a few monsters published in a Pathfinder monster manual, taking those tabletop dreams straight into canon.

That mix of standup chops and rules-nerd brain is basically Violet’s whole brand.

If we want to see more of her blerd side, her profile on The Geek Comedy Tour site gives a nice snapshot of how deep the references go.

Running a Standup-Comics RPG Podcast

Today, Violet runs a tabletop RPG podcast where the entire party is made of standup comics. She GMs, writes the adventures, designs all the dungeons, and voice acts a whole cast of NPCs.

They record using Riverside, the same remote studio tool Big Ben uses for Snackin’ & Yakkin’. Violet runs six people at once, including herself as GM, for about two hours every week. It is a lot of improv, a lot of story, and a lot of comics trying not to derail everything in the most chaotic way possible.

Why D&D Clicks (Or Doesn’t)

Ben admits that D&D never fully stuck for him, even though he loved watching his friends play and his son is now a legit published author who could probably run a great campaign.

Violet gives the best explanation we have heard:

• We need the right GM, just like we have favorite comedians whose jokes sit on our wavelength.
• The table has to be full of people who are fun, kind, and collaborative.
• The GM has to be able to teach, not just run rules.

Her take is simple: for some folks it will never be the thing, and that is fine. For most of us, we just have not met the right master of ceremonies yet.

TV, VR Comedy, and Almost Writing for Vox Machina

Violet’s comedy life did not stop at Baltimore bars. She landed a TV credit on Night Train with Wyatt Cenac, a New York standup showcase that gave a lot of smart comics a shot.

Then she jumped into VR. She did a show inside an Oculus comedy club, crushed it, and the producers flew her from Baltimore to Toronto, put her up in a hotel, and paid her to perform in person. All off one virtual set.

Through Wyatt Cenac, her name also landed in front of the folks behind The Legend of Vox Machina, the animated series based on Critical Role’s campaign. They liked her writing samples and invited her into a month-long writers’ camp in California, but she could not walk away from her day job for 30 days. Painful choice, but real life sometimes outvotes even the coolest cartoon. If we want to nerd out about that show, The Legend of Vox Machina overview is a fun rabbit hole.

Snack Spotlight: Old Bay Dusted Caramel Popcorn

It would not be Snackin’ & Yakkin’ without something wildly specific to eat. This time, Violet brings up Old Bay dusted caramel popcorn from Fisher’s Popcorn, which hits every Marylander right in the soul.

Ben has a giant Fisher’s tub as part of his set from a trip to Ocean City, but Violet is on a different level. She still lives in Maryland and casually buys Old Bay caramel popcorn at Giant for her role-playing game nights. It is basically the official snack of goblins, dice gremlins, and late-night battle maps.

Since Charleston grocery stores do not stock it, Ben orders two bags online so his wife and kid can get in on the crunch. One bag for the show, one bag for the home party. That is responsible snacking.

For more snack-heavy hangs with comics, the Snackin’ & Yakkin’ podcast banter episodes are full of this kind of “why is this so oddly specific” food talk.

Cosplay, Fairy Balls, and Baltimore’s Weird Little Subcultures

Violet’s Instagram handle, @ChaoticViolet, lives up to its name. She has more Renaissance faire garb than regular clothes, hits the Maryland Ren Fest in full fantasy kit, and shows up at fairy masquerade balls as glam little fay creatures.

She also performs at anime and board game conventions, where her nerdy jokes actually land. One of her standout Halloween looks was the “Eye Fairy”: elegant dress, a bag of fake eyeballs, a bag of chocolate quarters, and an ice pick prop. The lore is simple and creepy. Lose an eye, gain a quarter.

Baltimore itself keeps feeding her new subcultures. While doing a pirate-themed show with the Baltimore Rock Opera Society, the vocal director brought the cast to a sea shanty night in Fells Point. There is a whole group of folks who dress like sailors and whalers, know every shanty, and bounce between harbor bars singing.

Then there is the Shrek rave phenomenon. Packed clubs, people in Shrek merch, and wild EDM versions of “All Star”. It is not just Baltimore either; Shrek Rave events are popping up all over. Ben jokes that the new Shrek movie teaser looks too shiny and “Pixar-pretty”, the same problem he had with the polished Robocop reboot. Sometimes we want our swamp to stay swampy.

Baltimore Comedy Now and a Wild Factory Story

On the standup side, Magooby’s Joke House is still the big Baltimore club. It started in the basement of Tracy’s at the Bowman, then moved into a larger former dinner theater space.

Around it, there is a web of indie and alt shows:

• The Second Saturday Show at the Ottobar.
• A monthly all-women and queer showcase at Peabody Arcade, where ten bucks gets us unlimited arcade play.
• Pop-up shows with groups like Don’t Tell Comedy.

Violet also tells a war story from her days helping at the Comedy Factory with Alabama. During a Mickey Cucchiella set, a very drunk audience member in the front kept heckling. Mickey roasted her, she tried to charge the stage, tripped, and body-slammed the platform instead.

Later, out in the lobby, she demanded a kiss from Violet, then tried to grab her when she said no. Violet got knocked backward into a giant trash can packed with empty beer bottles while Dan Tracey filmed and laughed so hard he could barely stand. Pure chaos, zero OSHA.

Becoming Violet and Helping Nerdy Kids Find Their People

Violet shares that she first felt that internal pull toward girlhood at around age five. For her, being trans is not about a fantasy she believes, it is about a need to live a certain way. She came out in waves, first to close people, then to the comedy scene.

Her first set as “Violet Gray” was at Jim Meyer’s show at the Golden West in Hampden. She rewrote her whole act to address it onstage, stood in front of her peers, and claimed her name out loud.

Now she works at a Baltimore library and wants to bring tabletop role-playing and board games to local youth. She talks about how kids get into less trouble when they have something to do and a place to be. Giving them dice, stories, and a table of fellow weirdos can keep them off the corner and help them find “their people” earlier than she did.

If we are into queer-led actual-play stories, projects like Transplanar RPG’s The Chaos Protocol scratch a similar itch of high fantasy plus queer community.

Tenacity, Algorithms, and Building Our Own Thing

Violet mentions a stat she loves: more than raw talent, tenacity is what predicts success. The people who keep going tend to outlast the ones who were “naturals” but quit.

Ben has the same mindset for Snackin’ & Yakkin’. He ran the numbers like it was a restaurant. Could he eat the cost of a two-year studio rental and 100 episodes, even if the “ink” did not turn black until then? The answer was yes. So he committed.

He has noticed that posting regular shorts and episodes makes the algorithm friendlier. Views climb faster, more people discover the show, and suddenly those weird snack conversations about Old Bay popcorn have a life of their own.

The plan is simple: build a steady audience around culture, food, and comedy, then one day take that following on the road. Instead of begging clubs for spots, rent a small room in a city, hand out snacks, do standup and live podcasting, and keep most of the door.

Follow Violet and Support Snackin’ & Yakkin’

To keep up with Violet’s costumes, dice-laden tables, and show dates, we can follow her on Instagram at @ChaoticViolet, and check out her blerd-comedy work via The Geek Comedy Tour’s Violet page.

To support Snackin’ & Yakkin’:

• Join the Patreon at patreon.com/snackinyakkin for just $5 a month.
• Follow @snackinyakkin and @bbkcomedy on social media.
• Like, comment, and subscribe on YouTube so the algorithm gods stay fed.

Wrapping It Up

This episode feels like hanging at the back of a club with the funniest, most nerdy trans girl in the room, a giant tub of caramel popcorn, and zero pressure to explain our references. We get old Baltimore memories, wild club stories, tabletop wisdom, and a reminder that persistence beats “pure talent” when talent gives up.

If we are queer, nerdy, love D&D, or just like hearing smart weirdos talk snacks and life, this conversation is pure comfort food. Thanks for rolling through with us, and may our next game night be stocked with Old Bay popcorn and good party members.

More episodes are waitin’ on the blog!