Hi friends,

Initially I launched this as both a personal and professional crowdfund in a state of mania (honesty is the best policy,) as I had just received news that did not bode well for my family. For the sake of sincerity I am leaving the original story at the bottom of this page because it's only right despite how I feel about it with a clear head. While all of the things below are true they are not how I wish for my projects to be viewed. You should not support the show because you feel bad for me, you should support it because it is good, important, and constructed of blood, anger, and tears. 

So let's do this the right way, shall we?

You all know Wireland Ranch, and you know KILL FM.

Soon you will know The Dope Show: an audiodrama presented as an all too real reality show, fully casted and depraved in the best ways possible. 

Concept (redacted show bible available in an attached PDF)

A Big Brother style reality show in which a group of people are dropped onto an island to live in a mansion designed by a mad man. They are given every recreational drug known to man to use as they please, along with food and water for the duration (so they believe.) The final product will be much like Wireland Ranch but also a combination of: Fear and Loathing, Lord of the Flies, and The Real World.

This show will entertwine with season 2 of Wireland Ranch (hence the double crowdfund.)

Current cast and crew includes

(but is not limited to):

Saph the Something from "The Supernatural Protection Company"

Josh Burgess from the upcoming "What's in the Rift?"

Jessica Burson from "Regina Prime" and "Echoes (in) Between"

Waymon Alexander from "The Liminal Lands"

M. Molder from "The Moon Crown"

Derrick Valen from "October's Children"

Naomi Richards from "The Morbid Forest"

Taylor J Roy from "Echoes (In) Between"

Phoebe Monsour from "The Aberrant Report"

Clay Clark (all around COLA voice goblin)

and special individual segments from W. Keith Tims and Nathan Lundsford.

We are extremely excited about this project and we can't wait to share it with you and dedicated enough that we would make it money or no, but money, as we all know, is extremely helpful.

I want it to be noted here that this is by no means a professional crowdfund where we put tons of thought into rewards, what money goes where, and down to the wire deadlines. At heart, this is a campaign to help a struggling  person who found their calling too late in life to continue to do something they love and with any luck, take it farther in the future. I am able to provide these rewards and do this at all because of the group of people listed above, along with the Audio Drama Community as a whole. A community that looks more and more like an internet Laurel Canyon circa 1967 everyday: A buncha insanely talented wild weirdos looking to make cool shit with one another. The world is a cold fucked up place and I want to keep pointing out why. You should help me out with that. A year from now you can look back and say: I helped create this beautiful terrible thing and the world is just a tad better off for someone because of it.

Thank you,

Joseph Rutledge 

Original Story:

My name is Joseph Rutledge and I have had a serious heart disability and blood disorder since birth that has affected my life dramatically from day one. It affects my kidneys, blood pressure, and also provides chronic bouts of gout that can last for up to two weeks at a time (one of which I am currently dealing with.) It has led to addictions and pain and a general lifelong feeling of doom.

This has not been without its advantages though as I make a fiction audio story called Wireland Ranch which seems to be doing well enough that, if I keep it up, I may be able to create a career from it by nothing more than sheer will. Having been so negatively affected by the systems in place for disabled people is one of the main reasons the show is what it is. On top of all of this, I am a single father of two boys who live with me: _______, age 6, and _____, age 8. And, friends, we are truly and immediately struggling and I have had enough, so I am seeking to build a better life for all of us. Both are beautiful and vibrant and deserve a life better than the one they are currently living.

I am doing this alone with the help of the online Audio Drama Community, the most fantastic bunch of people you do not know but should, as they are creating some of the highest quality art in the world right now. And I count myself among them.

This morning we received some pretty terrible news: our food stamps have been cut and we have no medical insurance through the state any longer, meaning our total household income is $895 dollars a month which I receive from disability and $128 dollars a month from my Patreon page and all of you know $1000 dollars a month barely covers rent. And as of right now we have ten entire dollars to our name so as I mentioned above, this need is immediate.

In addition, I am making a new show still in its development stages that will run parallel to Wireland Ranch entitled: The Dope Show. I also aim to begin publishing a nonfiction offering with conversations with creators from all walks of life about current events, events that inspired Wireland Ranch, and concept albums called Wireland NOW. So these are not problems of work ethic, they are problems created by a broken system that treats the world terribly for the sake of a few. I want to do my little part in changing this reality and you can help.

The donations I am requesting through this campaign are two fold: for immediate personal use for my children and myself, and for the ability to continue doing what I love to break the cycle of my father and his father before him.  

Your support means bringing these concepts to fruition and helping to dig a family out of a hole that should never exist in the first place. So this is what I need and what I intend to accomplish.

1,500 dollars: to help cover the expenses of myself and my children for the next two months as I roll these things out.

1,000 dollars: to pay the voice actors and musicians working with me in with our upcoming Audio Drama: The Dope Show.

500 dollars: for promotion of all three of the shows I am involved with including Wireland Ranch, The Dope Show, and (the nonfiction) Wireland NOW.

500 dollars: to upgrade the computer I kindly refer to as "The World's Worst Studio." Seriously guys, my mic is bolted to a block of wood on the back of the desk and the word "desk" is not a proper descriptor, more like: repurposed vanity.

There will be rewards for those of you who donate, after all, I don't want anyone to be left empty handed. These rewards are open ended and may include just handwritten thank you note or cassette versions of my shows. Honestly tell me what you consider valuable that I can make and i will provide that to the best of my abilities. 

To all of you who have read this far, I appreciate that and that alone. If you can donate, please do, you will be helping three individuals who stay together in even the toughest of times and make it through, because in the end, all we really need is each other. Help me prove to my children there is kindness in the world and that art is a thing that matters.

Thank you,

Joseph Rutledge