Thundergong

Thundergong! is an annual star-studded rock-and-roll variety and comedy benefit show. Hosted by actor and Kansas City native Jason Sudeikis, the event raises money for the Steps of Faith Foundation to provide prosthetic limbs and care for uninsured and underinsured amputees.

For the last several years, I’ve had the opportunity to develop music-reactive visuals, interactive characters and other fun stuff for the show. Here’s a video that gives you a taste of what it’s all about.

The very first Thundergong that I was a part of, we developed a character named Hatrick Swayze. He was voiced by an actor back stage and his movements were controlled by a MIDI control surface. You can see us working side-stage at 0:23 in this video.

One of the most fun things I get to do is create and perform the music-reactive visuals for the LED walls on stage. I do all this work in TouchDesigner and create previsualization tools so that the show team can get an idea of how everything will look on the night.

And since you’ve made it down to the bottom of this page, you deserve a little treat. Here’s Will Forte and Weird Al Yankovic covering Chappell Roan’s HOT TO GO!