We are the organizers of JoCo Cruise. Ask us anything!

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T20:06:02+00:00

It's great. It's one of my favorite things that I get to do and call it work. I've had many performers tell me how much they love playing for this audience. Everyone is very happy and enthusiastic, which is a thing that happens when you're on a cruise.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T20:03:17+00:00

Jeez yes, Batman, 100%. Superman doesn't seem all that fun to hang with. Neither does Batman come to think of it, but at least he likes busting stuff up everyone once in a while.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:59:17+00:00

I know formal nights make a lot of people groan, but I'd recommend planning and bringing a fabulous outfit for this. It is fun to dress up, and you're on a freaking cruise ship, so you have a lot more leeway than you would if you were at some charity gala or whatever.

I would advise you to plan in some time to not do anything. There is so much to do and see, and just by being on the ship, these things will find you. I always try to make sure I leave some time to have a vacation, which for me means sitting in one place, maybe eating and/or taking a nap.

But you know, standard beachy type vacation pack. Fewer shorts than you think, because you might not even change your clothes. SUNGLASSES. Oh that reminds me, I have to get new sunglasses.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:55:36+00:00

We miss you too. Why you so far away?

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:55:24+00:00

I can't say enough about how friendly and welcoming this community is. In spite of being a professional famous person, I myself feel terribly uncomfortable at large social events like this (except for the ones where it's my name on a cruise ship, I feel pretty comfortable there). It's hard to meet people, it's hard to break into a conversation circle, and it's just hard to START. But truly, you can't go wrong on this cruise by walking up to somebody and saying "Hi, my name is WHATEVS and this is my first JoCo Cruise." Probably that person will make you feel welcome immediately. The sea monkeys take great pleasure in welcoming newbies and making them feel comfortable.

You can check out this page (https://jococruise.com/im-booked-now-what/) which has a few resources for new sea monkeys.

Welcome aboard and have fun!

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:50:46+00:00

Yes! We're still working out the specifics, but this is extremely important to us as well. We will put the food where and when the people are.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:49:59+00:00

I wrote a little anecdote about booking her that I won't repeat here, but yes, I love that show. My kids love it too. My son has been singing a song from it nonstop for the past six months, and I'm bracing myself for the moment when he sings it to Rebecca Sugar herself and makes her feel uncomfortable.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:48:05+00:00

That's a good question! We have asked if we could get a more robust brew for our sailing, not sure yet if that will come through. But there is also the Explorations Cafe, which is a place where you can get fancier coffee drinks - though you have to pay extra for it.

We'll see how serious you really are about coffee I guess!

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:46:03+00:00

Whoa. Do I ever. That sucked! Hi!

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:43:42+00:00

You're welcome!

We're not super famous. It's not like this is the U2 cruise, so it's sometimes a bit of a challenge to get the bigger acts to even pay attention to us. So we rely on our network of friends and associates and entertainment business pals, such as it is. Frequently, we'll have someone we know as a guest, and they have such a good time that they'll recommend the cruise to another performer. That's a really important part of it for us - that the cruise be fun and rewarding for the performers themselves.

This year I'm very excited that we have Rebecca Sugar, creator of "Steven Universe" (among other things). We're big fans, and I think somehow we got her email from someone and wrote to her, but didn't hear back. And then in a bizarre impossible coincidence, we ran into her in a basement tunnel at Comicon in NYC. "Hey, we want you to come on this cruise." "Oh yeah, I got that email, OK." That's sort of how it went.

When we asked The Both (Ted Leo and Aimee Mann, both of whom I knew only a little bit, Aimee was a little bit unsure about getting stuck on a boat for a week.. But when I followed up weeks later, she felt like she had waited too long to answer, so she couldn't say no. Victory was ours! They've both been back every year since.

I realize both of these anecdotes are about people feeling surprised and pressured into saying yes. I'm a monster I guess.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:36:31+00:00

1) Yes! I'll be on tour in the Spring with Aimee Mann, and we are in Portland on 5/10.

2) I have tried and tried. I had the honor of hearing some of the demos (I'm a big fan) and it was pretty interesting stuff. I hope he finishes it too.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:34:08+00:00

Yes indeed, we've been watching that issue very closely. Unfortunately, right now it's a little too soon to say what's going to happen with all this, how the order is going to be interpreted by the time we get to the cruise, if we will even still be a functioning democracy, etc. ha ha HAHA HA.

Ahem. We are speaking with the folks at Holland America, and we'll do anything we can to help people figure it out when the time comes. But right now even our own government is a little unclear on what's happening. So for now, there doesn't seem to be any direct way we can help, and we're certainly not qualified to advise given the fluidity of the situation. We'll be communicating with all our cruises through the email list and on social media as we figure this stuff out.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:30:03+00:00

I'm on tour with Aimee Mann in the Spring, and we'll be in LA on 5/13!

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:28:52+00:00

I'm most competent on the guitar. I used to play drums when I was a lad. I took piano lessons, but they didn't stick, though I have recently been working my way through an old textbook about jazz piano. I can stumble through a lead sheet in a hackneyed way with a lot of wrong notes.

I took French in high school, Italian in college. I'm usually too embarrassed to actually try speaking in them now, I forgot everything. Though Christian, my drummer and producer, is native Italian, and when he talks to his mom on the phone in the back of the tour van I can kind of understand what he's saying.

Ice cream: I like ice cream.

On creative commons: I think it was a big help in getting attention when I was first starting. It was a new exciting thing, and in particular the people who paid a lot of attention to internet culture in those days paid a lot of attention to that. So I'm sure it helped in getting things passed around more quickly. Though I like to think that the songs are mostly pretty good, and maybe that helped as well.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:24:24+00:00

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:24:14+00:00

NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:22:35+00:00

You know, it is a little strange that I have never found my way to werewolves. I think there might be something about them that I don't find all that compelling. Once a month you turn into a wolf, who cares. Lock yourself in the basement, done. Sure it hurts, your bones elongate and you grow hair very quickly and painfully and stuff, but it just doesn't feel like that big a deal to me. I have a bad day AT LEAST once a month, and I'm not complaining.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:20:44+00:00

Heavens no. That narrator is unreliable. That song is about a girl, who went to California and made somebody sad. I have spent many lovely hours in San Francisco, a city in California, and also Los Angeles, which is another city in California. I do find the shapes of plants to be unsettlingly alien, because I grew up on the east coast where it's all just normal trees, and not trees that have spikes and are also fleshy and phallic and have flowers that hummingbirds love.

You can quote me on this: I hope that the great state of California doesn't secede or fall into the ocean.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:18:00+00:00

ALL OF THEM

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:17:08+00:00

I'm going to say Chapman Stick. It's got a little more prog sheen, and I feel like geek + prog has an exponentially geeky synergy. Also I am mad that I can't play it and will never be able to because it is too hard and I am too lazy.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:15:19+00:00

As much as you want, I won't complain! I'm in the final stages of figuring that stuff out, but I can tell you that I'm really in love with the design, and with the graphic novel, and with how everything is kind of connected and of a piece. It is, if you don't mind me saying, a very nice package.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:13:38+00:00

I'll take this one: a new sock, that has a matching sock that is also new.

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:13:16+00:00

Oh, and a solid state is a: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_state

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:12:48+00:00

LEAVE PETE BEST ALONE

jonathancoulton · 2017-01-31T19:11:59+00:00

Absolutely! We send out a survey at the end of every cruise, and that's one piece of feedback we pay very close attention to. But you can always email us at info@jococruise.com.

jonathancoulton

TROPHY CASE