- [Noah] Whoa, the chameleon's on the camera!
- This isn't working out at all!
This is terrible.
- So you wanna keep big snakes, right?
We're in Lucy's cage and there happens to be
a little bit of a mess going on here.
Lucy looks like she pooped in the water.
Yes, God truth is this shed all over the place here
didn't come from Lucy.
She's actually in shed right now getting ready
for a pre lay shed so the culprit of this one
happens to be right up there in the tree,
which is Tyton.
I know in a perfect world we want our snakes to shed
in one piece, obviously, it's something that we
always are struggling with here because obviously
we're trying to heat this huge cage,
we've got basking lights here, we got head pads underneath
and that's gonna dry the air out.
We do the best we can do to spray down the bedding
as much as we can.
We obviously have a large water basin
but sometimes this still just happens.
With that being said, my start of the day
is gonna be cleaning this cage out,
cleaning out the water here and get ready
for an extremely busy day
and honestly I have some more shed over here
in the corner, definitely have to do the entire
water basin but I'm here alone and I always say,
I don't wanna go in a cage alone with a snake
like Lucy and sure enough, she was striking at me.
I finally said, you know what, I'm just gonna let it go,
wait till Bruce comes in and then we can tackle
the last little bit but at least I cleaned
it up the best I can and oh by the way,
welcome to the vlog.
When I say I have a busy day, I'm not kidding you.
I have five private tours today before we're open
at the Reptarium tonight for the five hours we're open
so it's gonna be absolutely incredible.
I'm actually in here now, just going through
and making sure everything is okay, again,
Bruce and Jessica and Laurie and Noah will all
be here in a few hours to start doing all the maintenance,
you know, cleaning up the glass, obviously,
Bella gets her glass dirty every day,
making sure that there's water, feeding all the lizards,
tortoises, all that type of stuff.
Regardless, I just am going through making sure
everything's okay. What do you say we say hi to Bella.
Come on girl, that's it, there's the ball.
And there's the food.
There you go, girl.
And just continuing to habituate her to getting
this training done.
Bella, you're so cute.
Every morning I love to come and see Bella
and you know, I never wanna get like bragadocious
on you guys because that's not what I am at all,
you know, I work hard and the success that we sometimes
can see is really through just tremendous
amounts of hard work.
Take a look at Night Fury.
Oh doggy, he is getting big and he's getting more beautiful
every single day but every now and then I do wanna
just kinda tell you to follow your dreams,
you guys know that I'm all about inspiration,
making sure that you follow the dreams you are.
The Reptarium was really a dream of mine, right?
It was a passion project, it was something that
I didn't know anyone would even wanna come and see
to be totally honest with you so when I went to Laurie
and said, is it okay if we spend like 200 thousand dollars
making a little private zoo that is just basically for us,
maybe people will come, maybe they won't.
Surprisingly enough, Laurie was completely on board.
I really haven't showed you how big Big Bertha
is getting lately, it is unbelievable.
Look at her colors too, absolutely incredible
and oh by the way, I'm gonna try to get some more
leeches here pretty soon, more on that later.
But the fact is, is like I told you guys,
when I first opened up the Reptarium,
I literally didn't know if anyone was gonna come,
I had no idea.
I just wanted to make the place that I wanted to go
when I was a kid, you know, my dream place
and the truth is, I'm gonna share with you guys
a little bit about just following your dreams
and sometimes, even when you think of something crazy
like the Reptarium, sometimes it works out.
You know, I had told Laurie when we decided to open up
to the public that I was hoping we would get
between 30 and 40 people per night here on the weekends,
meaning that, I hoped that somewhere between
a hundred people a weekend would come in,
see the Reptarium and then I hoped that we would do
between one and three tours or birthday parties per week.
I figured if we did that much we would be able
to at least cover expenses, we'd never make
that initial investment back but hey,
it didn't matter but I thought it would be good
if we at least covered our expenses.
And here we are eight months later and I can't
even express to you how crazily successful it's been.
I mean, not in my wildest dreams would I have thought
what would happen would have happened
where it became so popular.
Now again, I'm not bragging, people.
I don't know what the future holds.
I mean, maybe it will one day not be successful,
I don't know but again, instead of doing one
or three events per week I'm doing five today.
I think total we did 15 or 16 events this week
and honestly guys, we hardly ever do less
than 500 people through the door on the weekend,
most weekends we're closer to 700.
My point is is that even when you think something
outrageous and crazy, in my case,
wanted to spend a lot of money building something
really awesome that I just wanted to do for myself
and for my animals quite frankly,
it sometimes works out.
So if you have a crazy idea that just seems like,
how can I possibly do this, what if it doesn't work out,
sometimes you just gotta go for it because honestly,
sometimes it does work out and when it does work out,
oh my gosh, is it amazing.
I was literally sitting here last night with a group
of people just kind of playing with Sunrise
and just talking about how amazing of an experience
this whole thing has been and how again,
it blew my expectations out of the water.
Not just from a success standpoint 'cause
most of the people that know me know I really
don't care about the money side of things.
You see that I don't dress in fancy clothes,
I don't wear a bunch of fancy jewelry,
I obviously am driving a truck that's getting old
because I don't wanna spend the money.
I don't really care about material things.
The success for me is the fact that we're reaching people.
People are coming in and experiencing things
that they couldn't experience otherwise
and the thing that shocked me the most honestly,
is my enjoyment level out of it.
I mean, I am obsessed with this place.
I'm obsessed with people coming in and teaching them
and letting people hold their first snake
and letting people that love snakes hold more snakes
or getting a chance to see a retik for the first time
or whatever the case may be, it has been a dream come true
but I don't wanna bore you guys 'cause some of you guys
are like, alright Brian, I don't wanna hear about
how great your life is.
Listen, it's not all peaches and cream, you know.
I haven't updated you guys on Helen in awhile,
she's doing absolutely incredible.
I love her to death and again, this is one of those animals
that when kids do come in that are a little bit
apprehensive I can pull her out and for two reasons,
kids seem to love her.
Number one, she's small, she's really placid
and absolutely incredible but for whatever reason,
sometimes because she doesn't have eyes,
kids don't feel as intimidated by.
Almost like, if she can't see, she can't bite me
and this is a way to break that fear, right?
They hold this and they think, oh my God if I hold this,
I can hold the next snake and the next snake
and the next thing they're holding Purdida
but the fact is guys, is it's not always easy for me.
You guys know I take a tremendous amount of heat online,
it's just part of the thing.
Not to mention, you know, I wake up every morning
at like 6:30 in the morning and I work until
like 11 o'clock at night, seven days a week
so that's just kinda part of the deal
so if you wanna go after your dreams,
you have to be willing to sacrifice and work hard for it
but again when you do something you love,
are you really truly working?
For those of you guys that don't think leopard geckos
like to climb, take a look at that little monkey up there,
right there and that's one of the things we see
with this particular cage, which by the way,
one day I will be selling leopard gecko cages
just like this, I promise, it's gonna be soon.
I think that this week we actually have a friend
of mine that's a photographer to come out
and actually take pictures because the only
thing that's holding us back from putting these out
online, bearded dragon, ball python and leopard
gecko cage is literally pictures.
I just need pictures for the website,
we have pricing, shipping, everything worked out
but nevertheless, look at that animal up there
using that and she often is up here on this ledge too.
It just warms my heart to see animals use all
these cracks and crevices and I think that when
we do start selling these, how many animals
are gonna truly love it as well.
K, so I'm done with the inspirational talk,
I hope that you guys have an amazing day.
If you guys like it, hit that like button.
I'm gonna turn the vlog over to Laurie and Noah
for a little bit.
I'm gonna be checking back in with you guys
on occasion but I'm gonna be really busy
for the next five and a half hours doing tours,
I'm gonna love it, it's gonna be amazing
and then we're open tonight so it's gonna
be really cool too.
But again, I'll check back with you guys.
As for now, here's Laurie and Noah.
- Yo what's up guys, it's me, Noah
and I'm here with my mom, what's your name?
- Laurie.
- Okay, that's her name.
And today we're gonna be going around the Reptarium
and we have like a whole table of insects.
We're gonna be going to guys like our little
chameleons over here, our buddy, Andy,
what else are you thinking?
- Yeah I just wanna try to see what kinds
of animals like chameleons, lizards that maybe
I can get to tong feed, that's not something
I really have ever done.
- Okay.
- I know I've heard Jessica and people talking about it.
- Okay.
- So I thought, hey, why not me try?
- Okay cool, so we're gonna be going around
the Reptarium tong feeding and let's just start off
with our 16 baby chameleons, are you ready for this?
I think you actually just have to use your hand.
Yeah because they all come out and they
just like attack your hand.
- Really?
- Yeah, it's pretty cool.
- Okay. - So let's get started.
- Alright.
- [Noah] First one up, our chameleons.
So we have our little, baby crickets.
Obviously we need a lot of them because there
are a lot of these chameleons, 16 to be precise.
So you know what to do, just grab a handful.
- I know what to do, I'm not really happy about this,
it freaks me out really bad.
- [Noah] Oh!
They're all up your arm.
- Oh jeez.
- [Noah] Go, go, go.
Look.
You're blowing them off, mom.
- Alright it's not working at all.
(laughing)
- [Noah] Whoa!
Whoa, a chameleon's on the camera!
- This isn't working out at all!
This is terrible.
Ugh, I got crickets everywhere.
- [Noah] Someone grab this chameleon off the camera.
- [Girl] Come here, little guy.
- [Laurie] What?
You just made this up, this is not even.
- [Noah] Bruce made it up!
- I have video, I have video footage of it.
I have video footage of it.
- [Laurie] Oh my God, this was terrible.
- [Noah] We didn't even get a single one food.
- No.
They just crawled all over me.
- That was, that was so funny.
I was looking through the viewfinder and all the sudden
a freaking chameleon just comes out and just
goes onto the screen, that was awesome.
- [Laurie] I mean, they're eating, they're catching em,
but they did not eat em off my hand.
- [Noah] Operation get Laurie to have
crickets on her, complete.
- This was, this was a huge fail.
I feel like I have crickets all over me still.
- Okay the first, our first feeding of the day,
not very well.
Guy right here, he's about to get it.
Oh, there he goes!
Boom!
Look, another one.
Oh!
- [Laurie] He stole it.
- Long shot, this is actually awesome.
Okay.
- [Laurie] Last time I listen to.
- Boom!
It is so cool how long their tongue's are.
Bam!
That is awesome.
- This is really cool.
- Alright cool so actually it turned from unsuccessful
to pretty successful.
Chameleons, 16 chameleons fed, mark that off the list.
- I do have to take a little bit of a break here
and tell you guys that Deadpool showed up.
- What's up?
- What is going on?
I've been excited about this tour for awhile now.
You travel around as Deadpool and you do a bunch
of cool stuff?
- Oh yeah, I just go like I'll go to Walmart as Deadpool.
- [Brian] Oh my God, that is awesome.
Now do you post this online?
- Yes, I have an Instagram.
- [Brian] Alright, tell me your Instagram.
- The smoking gunman.
- I'm gonna put a link in the description, guys,
go pay him some love.
We're gonna have a great time, alright?
- Awesome.
- [Noah] Next one up on the list, our boy, Novah.
- Ah, hi guys!
- [Noah] We got a tour back there.
They wanna be in the vlog.
Hey, guys!
- This is the place to be!
(laughing)
- Novah, he's kinda weird.
Sometime, he doesn't like... - Yeah, he's a little shy.
- [Laurie] Like me a lot.
Oh yeah, see that's what it was.
- [Noah] There we go.
- He was like, I will not come close to you
but if you bring it to me, I will eat it.
(laughing)
- There you go, Novah.
And when he, I love when he like chews it,
his little ears go like boom, boom, boom.
- Goes out?
You want another one, bud?
(laughing)
Oh, he's really happy about that.
- [Noah] Yeah he is, he is.
A roach, right here.
- Oh, how did I miss him?
These things are so gross.
- [Noah] Yeah, they are pretty nasty.
It's kinda hard, you gotta grab em by the butt.
- Is it? That's what I was gonna try to do.
- Oh, look at that.
- Ah!
- [Noah] Squeeze it.
(laughing)
Here, I can hold it.
(laughing)
- [Laurie] Oh my God, why is this so hard for me?
- Hold the cup.
Okay.
- [Laurie] Oh look, you're just gonna do it all.
I think he'd go after anything right now.
Get it, get it!
- Get it, boy.
Ah!
Look how crunchy they are, that's like a little Lay's chip
right there.
Oh shout out to Lay's.
Anyway, there you go.
Feeding Novah went pretty well.
- Yeah.
- I think the next one up on our list is our new boy, Andy.
- Andy, yeah.
- Shout out to Andy for sending that to us,
I'm sure you're watching.
- Shout out to Andy for Andy.
- So Novah, thanks for your success.
Andy, you're up next.
- Introducing Deadpool here to Purdida.
She absolutely loves him, right?
What do you think about her?
- Oh, I'm taking her home, she's my new girlfriend.
- [Brian] Oh my God, I like it.
- Bye, thank you.
- Alright, see ya man, good to meet you, bud.
- [Laurie] Hey Andy.
Oh yeah!
- [Noah] There he goes! - [Laurie] He got em both.
- [Noah] Yeah! - [Laurie] It was one thing.
- [Noah] Whoa wait, did he really?
- Yeah, he took out both at the same time.
- That's a double kill as I like to call it.
Yeah after this one try a super worm.
Oh, there you go.
Alright now train a super worm.
So let's see if he likes it.
- [Laurie] It moves a lot so he should be.
- [Noah] Here we go.
Andy.
Super worm, Andy.
Come on, bud.
Yeah!
Let's go.
- [Laurie] He's chowing.
- [Noah] Awesome.
- One more?
- [Noah] One more super worm and then that will be good.
Come on, buddy.
Oh you do it if the price is right.
Bam!
There you go, awesome.
- And you win an all paid vacation from the price is right.
- To Hawaii.
Alright, there you go.
- To Hawaii, I think he'll like it there.
- Yeah, he'll fit in just good.
Alright so that actually, I wasn't really expecting
him to eat, I don't know.
- Yeah me neither, actually.
- I was hearing some rumors around the shop
that he's a little spotty but we fed him crickets
and super worms so that's actually good,
maybe we're gonna, maybe we can increase his diet
next time to some roaches.
- Yeah right now I think we're three for three.
- We are three for three.
- And then Deadpool met my boy, RJ, here.
You're like a gator whisperer here too,
you're doing pretty good, bud.
- Oh, crickey.
Ah!
Easy buddy!
- I better save Deadpool.
Alright that was a mad, crazy morning.
A lot of tremendous fun, definitely had a great time.
It was definitely a crazy morning.
Tours went absolutely great.
I appreciate that Laurie and Noah kind of took up
for me so I didn't have to bore you guys with all the tours.
Regardless, we are ready to open for the Reptarium,
what do you say, we get it going. You ready?
- Let's do this.
- [Brian] You ready?
Laurie, you ready?
- No.
- [Brian] Noah, you ready?
- Yeah.
- Let's get it going.
Hi guys, hi, how are you?
- Hi, good. - Welcome, come on in, guys.
How are you?
Hi how are you, welcome.
Thanks for coming, guys.
How are you?
Welcome, welcome, guys.
Hi, come on.
(upbeat music)
- Can I give you a hug?
- Oh yes.
And it's on, you know, it's definitely a busy night
tonight, it's actually really cool,
a lot of again families are coming in
and that's one of the biggest changes I've seen
in the Reptarium in the last probably two months
is it's so family oriented now whereas maybe
it was before a bunch of reptile lovers.
Now it seems to be families that are coming in,
trying to hold stuff.
You see all the kids and it is so much fun,
I tell you, we're having a great time as always.
- [Woman] Hold on Amaya, your not...
- Joker out, we got oh my gosh we got Peaches out,
Purdida, oh my gosh.
Rocking night here, I tell ya what,
got the alligators over here.
You guys liking the alligators, guys?
We got Daisy out just having some fun.
Are you guys enjoying yourself, man?
Yeah.
- [Man] Wave, wave.
- Alright.
The day is finally winding down here at the Reptarium,
I think we got about 10 minutes before we close,
just a handful of people left.
I tell you what, what an amazingly awesome day it was.
Five tours, that was our record, we've never done
five tours before.
It was great to have Deadpool out for em.
Everyone that came was absolutely incredible,
had an absolute blast and then tonight
was super busy at the Reptarium.
I don't wanna be repetitive so I don't film everything
all the time.
I'm glad Laurie and Noah got to pick up the slack for me,
it was definitely very well worth it
but I've got maybe an hour, hour and a half
left of work to still do here and then I'll go home.
So my day started about six o'clock in the morning
and I'll probably get home about 11 o'clock tonight
so just a typical day for me.
Guys, I am beat, gonna wrap up here,
call it a day.
I love you guys so much, your support is amazing.
Be kind to someone today and I promise,
I will see you guys tomorrow.
(upbeat music)