If you’ve been on an Inventionland tour recently, you’ve most likely met Madie. She leads the tours, gives fascinating facts about the sets, and always greets our guests with a smile on her face. But who IS Madie? We asked the tough questions. She answered.
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- Hometown: Wagontown, PA – though no one really knows where that is, so I normally tell people West Chester or Philadelphia, PA.
- Current City: Morningside
- College/Major: I went to Susquehanna University for Creative Writing. (Please see abnormally long responses to seemingly basic questions as proof.)
- How long have you been in Pittsburgh/What brought you to Pittsburgh: I’ve lived in Pittsburgh for five and a half years. I moved here because my roommate and one of my best friends wanted to move back out here (this was where she went to college), and I just happened to be ready to move out as well!
- If you could have any superpower, what would it be? I would love to fly and at incredibly fast speeds. How nice would it be to not need a car?
- Who is your role model and why? My role models would be my grandparents—together they’re just a hilarious and unique pair of humans. My grandfather is intelligent, thoughtful, and quick-witted. My grandmother is this fierce old German woman; she’s absolutely terrifying (though she would hit me if she heard me say that) as well as smart and strong.
- Favorite part of the tour? My absolute favorite part of the tour is the most unsuspecting part! Right on the side of the castle is a pile of products with the toothbrush sanitizer and the worlds, “It all started… because of a failure.” I’m able to tell the story of one of Mr. D’s original ideas and how it went to market before he was able to present it, but he didn’t take that failure and give up; he went off to make the 9 Step Inventing Experience as well as Inventionland. This isn’t only inspiring to the Student tours and the Client tours, but I see the teachers and chaperones really take this message to heart. We’re a company that is here to help people, we are here because Mr. D was able to take that crappy experience and learn from it. We’re facing the beginning of many generations that would just give up because of something like that, but now they’re able to see and stand inside of Inventionland, something that is only here because of that failure. It’s a resounding message that everyone can bring home with them, I love it.
- Tell us one of your most memorable tour experiences. Student tours are my absolute favorite. I feel many high school aged kids always start tours and they’re reluctant to ask questions because they don’t want to seem uncool or dumb in any way. The first high school group I was able to take around the facility was so quiet, to the point where I started talking to myself (loudly, loud enough for everyone to hear me). “Oh, Madie, how many majors would you say are in this building? That’s an amazing question, Madie, great job! There are 35+ majors in this building…” Once I was able to make a foo
l of myself they opened up a bit and all asked for selfies with me at the end. As I was walking the group out of the building, a few of the kids on my tour approached me asking questions. Mr. D came up behind us and offered the kids some Tomorrow’s World Today merchandise and stuck around to ask questions. You could just see the kids light up when they got to see the person that I had been talking about for the last hour. Many kids asked about how to start inventing and everyone’s energy and excitement was palpable.
- When you’re not at Inventionland, what are you doing? Trying to show off to my 13 year old sister with my lacking Overwatch skills! If I’m not playing games, I’m walking my dogs, reading, or watching my fiancé cook while asking every 2 minutes if we can eat yet.
- Unique talents/skills? I’m super handy around the house. I can fix just about anything, except plumbing, because I don’t mess with that one. I have fixed all of my minor electrical problems and the like for the last 5 years. All in all, I’m probably the worst tenant in the world because I don’t like to wait weeks for someone to come out and fix a problem that I can fix myself.
- Favorite TV Show? Archer, for sure.
- Favorite Brunch Food? There is no way I can pick between Eggs Benedict and Eggs-in-a-Basket.
- Guilty Pleasure? Any romance reading material ever; I say reading material because I have been whisked off one too many times with some crappy fan-fiction or one-off blog posts as well.
- What one word would your mom use to describe you? Unique.
- When I was ten, I wanted to be…a veterinarian, but only because 10 year old Madie wanted to come off as sensible and realistic. On the inside I wanted to be a pop-star.
- In high school, I was… always busy! I would play roller hockey with my friends after school, on weekends I would go off-roading and swimming in a local creek.
- People would be surprised to know that I…play Dungeons & Dragons, like a LOT. I play on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 7-11 most of the time. In college I used to play every Sunday from 10am until 6pm. My longest session was 13 hours with a group of friends about a year ago.
- In five years, I’d like to be…a billionaire, but who wouldn’t? All in all, I’d settle for millionaire, or at least having my student loan debt paid off.
- Who would play you in a movie and why? I know she’s significantly older than me, but I would want Lucy Lawless to play me. If I could say I was played by the actress who was Xena the Warrior Princess, I would die happy. Plus, we’re both brunettes!
- If you were trapped in Inventionland overnight, what would you do?
- I would start the night by digging through all of my old creative writing pieces from college and pick out the one which would be most fun to open up again to work on.
- Then, I would go to Chipper’s Tree House and use all of the whiteboards re-storyboarding my story. This would take a few hours, but before I knew it, it would be around 9pm and I would start to feel hungry.
- I’d skip—yes, skip—over to Brainpower Ballpark where I’d make a small dinner feast of Ramen and Slim Jims.
- Finally, I’d find a blanket, probably in Crafty Cottage, and I’d snuggle up on one of the recliners in Dare to Invent Theater and watch Netflix on the big screen until I fell asleep.