Sit down with David Roman (a.k.a. “Roman”), owner and lead guide of the Henry Mural Tour Company in Seattle. David shares the story behind Seattle’s iconic ‘Henryverse,’ his deep friendship and partnership with prolific street artist Henry, and the unexpected adventures that come with leading creative tours — including fire-breathing at Burning Man. Tune in for a behind-the-scenes look at Seattle’s vibrant mural scene, the logistics and magic of event planning, and a sneak peek at the new Sober Curator happy hour tours launching in May 2025.
Resources Mentioned:
- Henry Mural Tours: Website, Facebook, Instagram
- GET TICKETS: The Sober Curator Happy Hour Tour
- Henry the Artist
- The Sober Curator
- Alysse & Libby: Bios & LinkedIn
Connect with Us:
- Website: www.beatsworkingpodcast.com
- LinkedIn: @BEATS WORKING Show
- Instagram: @beatsworkingshow
- Facebook: @Beats Working Show
- YouTube: @BEATSWORKINGPODCAST
Support the Show:
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your feedback helps us improve and reach more listeners.
BEATS WORKING is a platform on a mission to redeem work—the word, the place, and the way. We believe that work is the most honorable act in the universe, and through inspiring stories and practical insights, we want to transform the way people think about work and help them discover greater fulfillment in their lives. We invite you to join us as we build community through sharing and actively demonstrating what we learn.
If you have a show idea, feedback, or just want to connect, email producer Tamar Medford at tamar@workp2p.com.
Share Article on Social Media
Transcript
The following transcript is not certified. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. The information contained within this document is for general information purposes only.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:00]:
This brings me. I have to ask you this question before we wrap.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:04]:
Oh, I know where we’re going.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:06]:
Are you a fire breather?
David Roman [00:00:09]:
Yes.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:10]:
Can you just give us a little information? How did that start and where do you still. Do you still practice?
Alysse Bryson [00:00:18]:
Is that why there’s a dragon in your backyard? Is that why you have a dragon?
David Roman [00:00:22]:
That’s, you know, it’s. My partner and I both have very dragon like expressions to ourselves. My focus on breathing fire went back to my very first year at Burning Man. My partner is not excited. She’s seen it like twice and she’s not excited with it.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:43]:
Roman, have you. Have you burnt your lips? Have you gotten burnt doing this? That’s a yes.
David Roman [00:00:52]:
There’s a story for everything.
Libby Sundgren [00:00:54]:
Vaseline before you do it.
Alysse Bryson [00:00:56]:
Welcome to Beats Working Winning the Game of Events, where we share stories and strategies to turn any event or life moment into something unforgettable.
Libby Sundgren [00:01:06]:
Events are wild and the people who work in them are some of the most resilient humans on earth. If you know, you know.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:14]:
So come with us behind the curtain for a look at their most memorable experiences.
Libby Sundgren [00:01:19]:
As they say, the show must go on. So let’s get on with the show.
Alysse Bryson [00:01:24]:
Foreign welcome to another episode of Beats Working Winning the Game of Events. I’m super excited to introduce today’s guest. I want you to meet David Roman, owner and lead guide for Henry Mural tour company in Seattle, Washington. Since arriving in the Emerald City in 1999, David has immersed himself in the local art scene, forging a 17 year friendship and artistic partnership with one of Seattle’s most iconic figures, and that is the street artist Henry. I’m a big, big, big, big, big fan of street art in general, but also of Henry and now also of David. With a background as a journey level carpenter, UW alum, Go dogs, and world traveler, the stories that could fill a gallery wall. David brings knowledge and a whole lot of fun to every tour. That’s right.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:27]:
We’re talking tour guide today. His curated experience highlights Seattle’s most vibrant murals and the colorful tales behind them. I am so excited to jump into this conversation today, David.
David Roman [00:02:41]:
Me too.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:43]:
Yay.
David Roman [00:02:43]:
Just off and just off a tour. So I’m all primed and ready to go.
Alysse Bryson [00:02:47]:
You’re fresh off a tour. Fresh off a tour. So Libby and I learned about your tour a couple years ago at the Northwest event show. We came across the bus in the. In the downstairs huge exhibit area where they had.
David Roman [00:03:02]:
I know I got to drive my bus into the convention center. That was so much fun.
Alysse Bryson [00:03:08]:
I Bet that was really cool. You guys were not very far away from that ginormous hot air balloon, which I don’t think people realize how big those things are as a side note.
David Roman [00:03:19]:
No, yeah. And they were really cool. That guy had so many interesting stories. He was pretty cool too.
Libby Sundgren [00:03:24]:
So many.
Alysse Bryson [00:03:24]:
Yeah, very cool. We’ve talked to him as well. He hasn’t been on the podcast yet, but the offer is standing. But. So why don’t you first tell us about, like, your background with Henry and tell us, like, how this tour came to be. Let’s hear. Let’s get a little bit of the backdrop.
David Roman [00:03:40]:
So I moved to Seattle in 1999, and for the first 16 years, I lived in downtown Fremont, artistic hub of the whole city. And Ryan moved into the neighborhood in 2008, and we met within the first two, three months of him living here in Seattle. And so we quickly became friends. I emceed and kind of helped host a whole handful of his gallery shows throughout the year. I’ve even got to be his carpenter at the Sasquatch Music Festival a couple times. And those were really, really great times. He’s really a community based artist. He really tries to involve as many people as possible into different things that he’s doing.
David Roman [00:04:24]:
And, you know, a couple years ago, he asked me to help him put together his first permanent gallery space. We were taking over a used record store, and it was up on University Ave. And, like, somebody in 1975 had painted the entire room peach, and it kind of grayed and rotted and, I mean, the floor, everything. So we were just happening to, you know, we were in there one day, you know, changing the lights, painting, just getting everything, you know, lifted up a little bit. And I really, I made this totally offhanded comment of, like, man, it’d be really cool if, like, your fans could go take a tour of your different murals. And he said it’s something that he’d been thinking about, but, I mean, he’s just way too busy being Henry. Literally within, like, five minutes of me making this totally offhanded comment, he goes, well, would you want to run the tour? I was like, of course I would want to do this. What a great idea.
David Roman [00:05:23]:
Who came up with it and up.
Libby Sundgren [00:05:25]:
With this amazing idea. What a genius.
David Roman [00:05:31]:
And so, you know, he really helped me put the company together, has supported me in so many ways. He actually painted the entire bus inside and out for me for free.
Libby Sundgren [00:05:43]:
It looks so rad.
David Roman [00:05:44]:
He’s hooked me up. I’ve gotten to do, like, you know, all his Media contacts and stuff. And he’s just, you know, like I said, he’s been a really good friend of mine for a while. He is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. And it’s been a real joy to kind of go out and show off the city and really show off Ryan and how really sweet of a guy he is and how just a. A really developing, creative artist he truly.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:12]:
Is, you know, And I. What I love about his pieces is that they’re colorful and happy and playful and they. But they also totally evoke, you know, Pacific Northwest, Emerald city vibes. For those of you watching on video, I do have one of his pieces.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:30]:
On the wall behind me.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:32]:
I’m just lifting up my camera so you can see.
David Roman [00:06:35]:
I got one. That one always is on the wall behind me. The sweatshirt’s kind of a hangout, but that painting’s always there. It’s kind of my little mascot.
Alysse Bryson [00:06:43]:
And, you know, fun fact. So he was top of mind for me because earlier this year, he posted on his socials. I follow him on his socials. That he had this project in 2025 that he wanted to paint a thousand garage doors in the year of 2025.
David Roman [00:07:01]:
How could someone have that much Sasquatches?
Alysse Bryson [00:07:03]:
Yeah, a thousand sasquatches. I couldn’t type in my application. Pick me fast enough. Like, I was just like, oh. So I’ve been very closely watching. He’s somewhere between 100 and 200 right now.
David Roman [00:07:17]:
I think he just finished last week was 156.
Alysse Bryson [00:07:21]:
Yeah. Yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:07:22]:
Oh, my gosh. It’s only April 29th. Well, I guess 156. He’s got to get to a thousand.
David Roman [00:07:27]:
Yeah, he’s going to try. Well, I mean, part of his goes to his style of working. And unlike most artists, Henry doesn’t pre sketch out any of his murals that he works on. He’ll just walk up to a wall. Like, maybe if he’s doing a big mural for a customer, there’ll be a little sketchbook, and they’ll kind of do a little. But when he actually gets on site, he just kind of stands there for a couple minutes and really visualizes what he’s going to do. And then he just kind of starts and goes and it’s this. So he’s really creative in the moment.
David Roman [00:08:04]:
And so, like, a garage door he can do in an hour or two.
Libby Sundgren [00:08:08]:
Oh, my gosh.
David Roman [00:08:09]:
And what you’ll notice, he actually kind of sets it up. So he kind of does neighborhoods. And so he does, like, you know, two or three. I mean, the way that I got my Henry mural was back in 2017, Henry was kind of making a transition between using a mix of brush and spray paint for his murals to just using spray paint. The main reason for that is when you’re using brush paint, sometimes you have to wait a couple hours or an entire day for that layer to dry before you can put your next layer on. Whereas when you’re using spray paint, it’s five minutes and you’re off on your next thing. So it really helped with the immediacy of his creativity. And so in 2017, he wanted to get a bunch of practice in really quick.
David Roman [00:08:53]:
So he reached out to a bunch of friends and people on Facebook and offered what he called a popper and was just kind of like, you know, maybe a six foot tall, like, kind of single character. And it was just a couple hundred bucks. And he did over 100 of these in. In one month between here and Portland.
Alysse Bryson [00:09:12]:
Wow.
David Roman [00:09:13]:
So he was. Yeah, obviously doing multiples a day. And that’s when I got my Henry mural. And so my garage kind of sticks in the backyard. And I was expecting that I would just get like another little character kind of like everyone else is getting. And he ended up taking up the whole side wall.
Libby Sundgren [00:09:30]:
Oh, that’s cool.
David Roman [00:09:31]:
So I got this giant purple dragon with green scales playing a guitar.
Alysse Bryson [00:09:37]:
Of course he did.
Libby Sundgren [00:09:38]:
That’s you. I think if he’s. If that’s a. If you got a Henry character, that’s yours.
David Roman [00:09:43]:
It’s a character in the yard. You know, we have barbecues with Murph, so it’s just kind of the way it is.
Libby Sundgren [00:09:47]:
That’s his name. Murph.
Alysse Bryson [00:09:49]:
His name is Murph.
David Roman [00:09:50]:
Yeah, there was. It just goes to a couple of the stories that we’re talking about, these friends with the family of Murphy’s, and even though they all have a different name, no matter what, all of their friends end up calling them Murphy. So granddad ended became Murphy, dad ended becoming Murphy, the kid ended becoming Murphy. And so we were joking around and you know, my partner, Harper, who has her own rock band called the Harper Conspiracy, we were joking around like, we’ll just call him Merce. So kind of fit in with, you know, the whole time when we were getting to hang out with Henry that day.
Libby Sundgren [00:10:25]:
You know, that really tracks though, because my husband has a friend named Mike Murphy. They all call him Murph. Murphy. Murphy. They almost never call him Mike.
David Roman [00:10:34]:
Exactly.
Libby Sundgren [00:10:35]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:10:35]:
So, yeah, when Henry.
Alysse Bryson [00:10:37]:
When I reached out to Henry about this idea, this event that you and I will talk about shortly. He was like, yeah, let me, let me introduce you to Roman. And so when you, when you and I connected, I thought your name was going to be Roman, like your first name instead of. And so then you were like, yeah, this is David. I’m like, who’s David? And then I was like, oh, I.
David Roman [00:10:55]:
Get the lot from customers. So for me, I mean, David especially my general, like, no one’s named David anymore. But for my generation, there’s like a million David’s everywhere. I started soccer when I was six and there was another David who had a crazy last name. So it was like, how about we just call you Roman? And that’s kind of just gone on and on throughout my life in different times. And it’s, you know, it’s a much more interesting name. And so, especially when I moved to Seattle and started performing with the Cirque du Flambe and the Little Red Studio and stuff like this, it became a really nice. I’m Roman.
David Roman [00:11:35]:
And you know, it also, you know, kind of, you know, as a Gemini, was a kind of nice mental, like, switch going from just being like, you know, nice hangout, David. Okay, I’m performer mode. I’m being Roman now, your alter ego. And the tour is pretty much like a two and a half hour, one man play that I wrote about my friend Henry. And I get to perform it, you know, pretty much several times a week. I’m always trying to, like, perfect it, and it’s never going to be same twice because there’s traffic, there’s questions from the guests, there’s all, you know, every now and then something else pops up. So it’s like this ongoing reach for, like, kind of perfection that I’ll never get to because you’ll never do it again that same way. So.
David Roman [00:12:25]:
Which is also kind of the fun part of it is that I’m, you know, always having to be, you know, flexible for what’s going on and what’s in the moment. And there are some guests that are, you know, boom, boom, boom. Okay, we’re ready to go. And there’s other times where, you know, we get to the gallery and it’s like chasing around little kids and cats. You know, they just don’t want to run around and see everything. And so it’s, you know, there’s just this whole kind of fun process that goes along. You know, it’s not any one thing, but I just, I really enjoy it. It’s.
David Roman [00:12:57]:
Every day is super fun.
Alysse Bryson [00:12:59]:
Well, that’s kind of how you explain that Henry does his painting is he kind of sits and looks and then it just, he makes it up. And so that sounds very similar to like you probably sit and look at your, your, your bus of people and you just make it up as you go.
David Roman [00:13:13]:
Yeah, yeah.
Alysse Bryson [00:13:15]:
Do you ever do more than one tour in a day?
David Roman [00:13:18]:
Not in this traffic.
Alysse Bryson [00:13:20]:
Yeah, I wouldn’t think so.
David Roman [00:13:21]:
I wouldn’t. So yeah, normally, I mean it’s. Yeah. You know, because the tours we do mostly in the morning, starting 11:00am you know, even if I finished exactly. And picked up another group then that’s trying to do a tour between 2 and 5 o’clock in Seattle traffic. So there’s just no way you’re going to do kind of like the similar thing. Which is why, you know, we are going to end up talking here in a couple minutes about a more interesting idea that we can do in the afternoon, you know, in the afternoons. But doing just a complete full tour.
David Roman [00:13:51]:
I mean, kind of reminds me the first tour that we ever did, Henry set up so that Evening magazine would come along and so we, you know, put it out. This is a three hour tour. Yes, everyone can do it now. Sing it out loud. Get it out of your system. Okay. Our first tour was four and a half hours. We were like, okay, there need to cut it down.
David Roman [00:14:15]:
And because there’s so many murals, you know, especially in Ballard Fremont area that just, you go just a block that way and there’s a mural, you go two blocks that way. But that just all kind of added up and so I had to keep like piling it down so that we could actually do a three hour tour. So I mean there’s plenty of tour like murals around to. I’m hoping eventually, you know, have enough demand for getting like a second North Seattle tour. And there’s obviously plenty of space for like a Georgetown West Seattle area tour also. So there’s a lot of, lot of room. And he’s still working. I mean there’s still like he’s in the middle of the thousand right now.
David Roman [00:14:57]:
But I mean just in general he is constantly. He’s still out there. You know, he did another like 30 murals last like full size murals last year. So he’s, you know, consistently creating and so there’s always going to be more and more to follow around. Like I said one and one of the Sasquatch murals is right on the road. That one that the tour’s on. And so he just called, he’s like, great, hey, I did a mural for you and it’s at a friend’s house, which is really great. She’s kind of on this block where it’s hard to figure out which house is her.
Alysse Bryson [00:15:29]:
She’ll love it if you swing by.
David Roman [00:15:30]:
Now it’s. Yeah, now it’s so totally easy to find her house. It’s really great. So, yeah, no, I literally. So we go down this one road and literally like every couple of blocks is another Henry mural. And now she’s just added another one on the very top of the street. And so, yeah, there’s always something new to see on the Henry tour.
Alysse Bryson [00:15:49]:
Libby, do you know the reference do you know the reference of the three hour tour?
Libby Sundgren [00:15:54]:
Like the three hour tour?
Alysse Bryson [00:15:56]:
Okay, I just don’t sing it. Yeah, I just wanted to make you sing it. Yeah, that was good. That was good. Okay, thanks.
Libby Sundgren [00:16:02]:
It was a little like, flat. Sorry about that. I had not warmed up yet.
David Roman [00:16:07]:
I have not heard that 10, 32 times.
Libby Sundgren [00:16:12]:
Well, you know, I heard the Libby on the label song from Libby Canned Foods miss. I still hear it to this day. So we’ve all got our own jingles.
Alysse Bryson [00:16:27]:
Do you want to know what my jingle is?
Libby Sundgren [00:16:29]:
Yeah, what’s your jingle?
Alysse Bryson [00:16:30]:
I took the words from Ice Ice Baby and I made it. Bryce. Bryce baby. Dun dun dun dun dun dun. Yeah, that’s it.
David Roman [00:16:39]:
That’s.
Alysse Bryson [00:16:39]:
That’s the whole jingle.
Libby Sundgren [00:16:40]:
That’s good.
David Roman [00:16:41]:
That’s good.
Alysse Bryson [00:16:42]:
I can tell you’re really impressed. Okay, back to your questions. Libby.
Libby Sundgren [00:16:45]:
Okay, what do you think surprises people the most about the tour?
David Roman [00:16:50]:
I think just the variety of locations and styles of murals. I mean, we’ve even had a couple local people who were like a lot, especially a lot of the local people that get on the tour wait till it’s like someone’s birthday where they have like friends coming into town. And so I especially remember this one guy. Oh, I’ve seen all of the engineering murals that are around. I’m like, okay, so we’ll see. And I did. And there were a couple and he was like, okay, well, I hadn’t seen that. And he.
David Roman [00:17:23]:
At the very beginning of the tour, he was, you know, he was a little smug about it, but he was on the tour and was ready to go enjoy them. He was very. As a fan and stuff like that, but they’re just everywhere, like on all sorts of odd businesses. You know, I’m. He inspires so many people. Now Henry has been commissioned to do over 600 murals in the Seattle King county area since 2008. So about half of them are for businesses. Half have been for residential customers.
David Roman [00:17:52]:
And then similarly, about half are private, and then half of them are public or easy to view, like so inside of a bar or outside someone’s home. And really, Henry seems to be one of the only artists that really inspires residential customers to pay for his art and then present it out into the neighborhoods. And so there’s just these, you know, weird little pockets out and about that nobody would ever normally go by, that we know where they are. Like, I can’t tell you how many people are like, why don’t you just post where all the murals are? I’m like, that’s like, that’s the only thing, you know, that that’s my. The only. That’s the power that we have is that we know the secret sauce where it all comes from. And so. And then especially we get a chance to go to his gallery, which is now along the Seattle waterfront, right across from the aquarium.
David Roman [00:18:44]:
And like you said, when you see his Henry murals, they’re all public. So they’re all meant to be really fun for kids to seniors, for everyone to really enjoy them. When you get to his gallery, you get to see a really large selection of his canvas paintings. And when you’re trying to sell a canvas painting, you only need one person to love it. So he’s able to really explore a lot more personal ideas. And so a lot of his canvas paintings are much more surreal, some of them more sensual, some of them more spiritual. They’re just very unique. And so there’s a big display there of prints of his older paintings.
David Roman [00:19:28]:
There’s like 75 paintings hanging up on the wall. And so by taking the tour, you really do, you know, eventually get to see how well rounded of an artist he is. He’s just not this, like, happy, go, lucky, shiny, bright artist. He really does explore a lot of very unique perspectives and ideas and kind of his visions of the world. And so it’s really neat to get to have the whole experience. So it really is like the Henry immersive experience. And the entire inside of the bus is completely painted by Henry Floor, everything. Then, you know, we see all these murals, we get to go to the gallery.
David Roman [00:20:11]:
It really is like a, you know, really getting to get a full vision of an artist.
Alysse Bryson [00:20:18]:
I’m so excited to take the tour. So excited.
David Roman [00:20:21]:
Yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:20:21]:
Well, speaking of tours, do you guys want to tell us what you have cooked up here?
Alysse Bryson [00:20:27]:
Well, sure. Yeah, I will. Well, how do I. How do I tell the whole story? Do I need to tell the whole story? I’m not sure.
David Roman [00:20:35]:
No, no, I think so. Somebody came up with, you know, gave Elise the impetus to come up with this idea. And so she reached out to me and we came up with what we think is a pretty neat idea. And we had really enjoyed our interactions with each other. And we were like, screw it, let’s just do it on our own.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:00]:
So I, as a lover of street.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:03]:
Art, you know, whenever I travel, I’m always like, that is what I’m always out capturing. I’m a huge fan of Henry’s work.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:10]:
I knew about the tour bus. I’ve always wanted to take it.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:12]:
I don’t know why I haven’t taken it yet.
David Roman [00:21:15]:
Everyone waits there for their rice. Pacific time, you know, it’s like, it’s just like.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:20]:
I’m not sure, it’s just like waiting or something. Like a fine wine waiting to crack.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:24]:
It at just the right moment. And so we came up with this.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:29]:
Idea to do a happy hour because you haven’t done any evening tours, correct? You’ve been doing daytime tours.
David Roman [00:21:37]:
So I do the occasional like private birthday party and stuff like that.
Alysse Bryson [00:21:41]:
Sure. So we came up with this idea of doing an event that is mocktails and murals. Because one of my other hats that I wear when I’m not wearing my Beats working hat is my sober curator hat. And for those of you that have not been paying attention, there’s a whole sober movement afoot. And Gen Z is drinking far, far, far, far, far less alcohol than millennials or Gen X or boomers, like significantly so much. It’s like shaking big alcohol industries. They’re having to be like, oh, wait, what are we going to do now? I would argue they’re probably all smoking weed, so there’s that. But they’re not drinking alcohol.
Alysse Bryson [00:22:24]:
And so. And I’m a big fan of not drinking alcohol as I’ve been not drinking alcohol for almost two decades. And so the idea is that we’re going to do a sober curator tour that will be a happy hour. And so we will meet our guests outside of Mopop, which is my favorite museum on the planet, Museum of Pop Culture. We will get on the bus, all 10 of us, plus me and David, and then we will go on not a three hour tour and not a.
Libby Sundgren [00:22:53]:
Four and a half hour tour and.
Alysse Bryson [00:22:54]:
Not a four and and half hour tour. It will be more like a 90 minute tour. And we will drive through Fremont and Ballard. We will go by the gallery. Because also if I’m doing an event besides being with people and having fun and taking pictures, which people Know me for. I also love to shop. I love to shop. I never met a gift shop I didn’t love.
Alysse Bryson [00:23:15]:
So when David said, let’s stop by the new gallery, I was like, yes, and what else? And then we’re ending at Flat Stick Pub. And so because Henry has done the inside decor of Flat Stick Pub. And so for any of the guests that want to end their tour there, they can, because it’s only a short walk, very flat, back to the mopop area. If that’s where you’ve left your car or if you want to ride back on the bus, you can. And you’ll just miss out on playing mini golf at Flat Stick Pub. So that’s the whole package. It’s a two hour tour. You get two mocktails on the bus.
Libby Sundgren [00:23:50]:
Two hour tour.
Alysse Bryson [00:23:52]:
Good job, Libby. Good job, Libby. Did that help David, that she changed the hours? Not so much. He still looks like he’s in pain.
David Roman [00:24:00]:
Yeah, it is better.
Libby Sundgren [00:24:02]:
A little flat, but, you know, whatever.
Alysse Bryson [00:24:04]:
And so when, when I met David last week for the first time, irl, he was like, so how much talking do you want to do? And I was like, listen, I can talk talking. I can talk all I want, but I don’t really want to talk. I’m not really a tour guide. So you talk and I’ll be like the waitress handing out the ready to drink mocktails. Yep.
David Roman [00:24:21]:
Seems like a great partnership.
Libby Sundgren [00:24:23]:
Yeah, I’m excited. It’s going to be really fun.
Alysse Bryson [00:24:26]:
So the dates, I can say the dates. So because right now we have three dates locked down and then if they sell out and go, go as planned, which we think they will, this is something that we plan on continuing throughout the summer and into the fall. So the dates are May 22, which is a Thursday from 4 to 6, June 5, also a Thursday from 4 to 6, just like a real happy hour. And then June 19, a Thursday from 4 to 6. So we will include the link in the show notes so you can jump on and buy your tickets to the David and Elise extravaganza of fun.
David Roman [00:25:08]:
And it’s Roman and Elise extravaganza.
Alysse Bryson [00:25:11]:
Roman and Elise. I think I need a stage name now. Roman and Bryson hit the streets.
David Roman [00:25:17]:
Yes. Yeah, I like that. I like that.
Libby Sundgren [00:25:20]:
This is gonna be good.
Alysse Bryson [00:25:21]:
You know, as you were talking about his work, I started thinking, like, how long does a mural last? Because it’s taking the beating of sun and air and rain. Like, how long does a mural last before it’s no longer what it was?
David Roman [00:25:37]:
Well, water isn’t much of an issue. Once the mural. Once the paint is dry, they’re pretty good as far as that. The one issue could be sun. So he really does kind of try to go out of his way to not, you know, do a mural right on the south wall. I mean, we’ve got a couple murals that are on the tour that he painted, like, 2012, and you would have sworn he did it a couple weeks ago.
Alysse Bryson [00:26:04]:
Really? Okay, that’s. Do any of them ever get vandalized? That would make me very sad.
David Roman [00:26:09]:
Yeah, it comes and goes. And, you know, it’s just kind of part of, you know, being in a big city, but, you know, part of the process and also part of, you know, Henry’s kind of public view. You know, he. He’s got this public Persona, and so that’s keeping his murals looking good. So they’re always there to make people happy. And especially, I mean, you know, just as a business model, you can’t try to talk someone into, you know, paying a couple thousand dollars for a mural with the idea that a week later it could get tagged over. And you’re like, oh, too bad. And so, yeah, you know, keeping up the upkeep with the murals is part of, you know, the process.
David Roman [00:26:50]:
And, you know, I guess there have been murals that are out there since 2008, and so the fact that we’ve been able to see them and kind of grow with them, especially some of the murals that do get tagged every now and then, there’s ones where he’s actually added every time he has to go and, you know, re. You know, fix up the tagging. He adds little details onto the murals, so they actually kind of keep growing. So. Yeah, and one of, you know, one of the nice things about the bus is that we’re kind of an early alarm system, you know, because a lot of times it’s just, you know, one, like, little tag. But if you leave that for a couple weeks, all of a sudden the whole thing gets. And so we see it on along the way, and he goes and does a little touch up, and it’s kind of good and go. In a way, we are.
David Roman [00:27:35]:
There was the first year we started the tour, we did have an issue with one or two people kind of along the downtown core who were really kind of targeting Henry’s work. And, I don’t know, some people just had this idea that he was this, you know, entitled white guy and hasn’t worked for what, you know, all, you know, what he, you know, all having all his murals everywhere and stuff like that.
Alysse Bryson [00:28:00]:
That’s not his background.
David Roman [00:28:01]:
So the couple guy that’s, you know, he had a couple murals that he had to do. Like the entire murals, like three or four times in like a month and a half. And a lot of these taggers are all on tick tock. They all like taking videos of themselves. I mean, most of them are younger people. And so they’re all trying to share how. How cool they are, you know, destroying, you know, everybody’s property. And somebody got a video of Henry redoing one of his murals at like 4:30 in the morning when it was still pitch blackout because it had just been tagged again, and he wanted to get it back over before people could see it again.
David Roman [00:28:38]:
And that video actually ended up getting passed around and be like, look, this is a really working, hard working guy. He’s out there doing this by himself in the middle of the night. Like, these are the type of, you know, people we want to like, you know, you know, we want in our world. And so that really settled down a lot of the aggressive tagging that was happening on his stuff. You know, there’s still certain places that just get kind of, you know, incidental little tagging here and there, you know, so. But for the most part, you know, there are murals that, you know, there’s a fish sandwich shop on 15th. The business has been closed for five years because they had to close during COVID And everything still looks great. You know, all the mules are still looking really wonderful.
David Roman [00:29:28]:
In fact, this last winter, Henry got a little bored. So we got some plywood, and he painted a bunch of new characters and went and screwed it and covered up over the windows. Like nobody asked him to do them, nobody paid him to do it. He just added a bunch more art and a bunch more characters up onto the wall. And so last summer, there they were actually. They jackhammered out the entire sidewalk right in front of the building, right up to the building, and then poured brand new sidewalks. They’re doing this whole restructuring around the Ballard Bridge. And if you’ve ever seen concrete pour, it is messy, it’s splashy.
David Roman [00:30:05]:
Stuff goes everywhere. It is a filthy job. The work crew, without anybody asked them, actually went completely out of their way and completely protected the entire mural. Put up plastic and plywood, and really so that when they were done, there wasn’t a drop of concrete on any of the murals and stuff like that. They were just as nice as they were when the guys got there. So you really do see that people on a lot of different levels really do appreciate how much work he puts into doing all of this.
Alysse Bryson [00:30:37]:
Roman, you spend a lot of time, like, watching the city from the perch of your bus, and so you must have developed a big love for the area yourself.
David Roman [00:30:49]:
Well, I had it before I started the tour. I mean, that’s. That’s how I could do the tour is that, you know, I’ve really. It’s amazing the possibilities of the city, you know, the level of opportunity there is in the city if you put yourself out there. I mean, there’s just so much to do and so much to get involved with. And, you know, from going to, you know, getting to go to the UW to, you know, doing construction, which means I traveled around all different parts of the city for, you know, getting to, you know, meet just hundreds and hundreds of different artists in this city. Yeah, this is. This was the best decision I made in my life was moving to Seattle.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:28]:
So what.
David Roman [00:31:29]:
When.
Libby Sundgren [00:31:29]:
When folks get off of the tour bus, what. What are you hoping they take with them? So what. What do you want them to be feeling like? How do you know if you’re like, oh, I crushed that tour, like, these people? I did the best job. That was my best. Best.
David Roman [00:31:48]:
Like I said, it’s never. It’s never going to be. It’s always going to change. It’s always different every time. But you can just tell how engaged people get. Like, especially today, you know, I had tourists from South Carolina. They had never have no idea who Henry is. Like, I’ve never seen a single bit of his art, have never heard of his name.
David Roman [00:32:09]:
And, you know, by the end of the tour, all of a sudden, they’re, you know, looking at. Getting stuff at the gallery and, you know, they’ve taken all these photos and they’re getting selfies at the Flat Stick Pub with the Henry stuff. So, you know, what I really hope is that people just, you know, one thing about the tour is that we really get out of downtown. We right now, we, you know, we get up into North Seattle, we go into all these different neighborhoods, and so we really show off a lot more of, you know, where people in Seattle actually live and, like, where they go play, which I think is a lot. A lot of the tourists seem to focus on, like, where people go to work.
Alysse Bryson [00:32:48]:
Yeah, it turns out we don’t all hang out at the Space Needle.
David Roman [00:32:52]:
Yeah, we’re, you know, the, you know, the. The weird spheres or. We don’t want to go watch people beat each other up in a stadium, you know, and so it’s really nice to kind of get out and be like, yeah, this is where the, you know, Seattle actually is.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:08]:
Well, I love that because it’s like, what you’ve put together, it’s like part art walk, part storytelling, part city pride, part feel like a local, even if you’re not. Part live like a local if you are. Like, it’s just such a cool. It’s just such a cool thing.
David Roman [00:33:26]:
Yeah. I mean, it really. Like, it’s just naturally, you know, the way, you know, because of just what it is. It really is like, just a general expression of Seattle. Like, this is what Seattle’s like. You know, I actually have music playing on the bus the whole time. And I don’t know if I’m supposed to, but I just need music around me the whole time.
Alysse Bryson [00:33:48]:
Yep.
David Roman [00:33:49]:
And, you know, so there’s just. And, you know, music is so important to Seattle. I mean, art has been important. Art has been an essential part of Seattle since before the first white guy ever even, you know, crossed over a hill here. So it’s just been like this. There’s this energetic feeling. It’s one of the reasons why, you know, Fremont calls itself the center of the universe. You know, this is just where art, you know, really kind of vibrates with everything.
David Roman [00:34:19]:
So. And I also really like to talk about that. You know, one. One of the few things my stepdad. Not one few things, but one of the first things my stepdad really kind of showed me was that art doesn’t have to be your primary thing. As a kid, you always think that you get one job. You’re a lawyer, you’re a doctor, you’re a salesperson, you’re a chef, and then that’s it. And then when you grow up, you realize, well, yeah, you know, there’s this thing that I do to kind of make money, but then I have all this other free time that I get to choose what I do with it.
David Roman [00:34:53]:
And that’s when you can go find all these interesting things and all these really interesting people. And, you know, I really try to. On the tour, I even, you know, try to talk to people about, you know, going and finding a festival that you really like and then be the volunteer at the festival, because that’s, you know, then you make yourself available to all these unique opportunities when you actually get in the background. Like, I’d much rather stand on the backstage of a concert, you know, doing sound than I would be, you know, out in the audience. I just love the feel of being on stage and in the background working with people, putting things on.
Libby Sundgren [00:35:32]:
Okay. This brings me. I have to ask you this question before we wrap.
Alysse Bryson [00:35:37]:
Oh, I know where we’re going.
Libby Sundgren [00:35:39]:
Are you a fire breather?
David Roman [00:35:43]:
Yes. Can you just. Now I haven’t in a while, but.
Libby Sundgren [00:35:46]:
Give us a little information. How did that start and where do you still. Do you still practice?
Alysse Bryson [00:35:53]:
Is that why there’s a dragon in your backyard? Is that why you have a dragon?
David Roman [00:35:57]:
That’s, you know, it’s. My partner and I both have very dragon like expressions to ourselves. So my. I don’t know if obsession, but my focus on breathing fire went back to my very first year at Burning man. It was 1996. There were 6,500 people there. Now the last year I went was 10 years later. And that year there were 35,000 people.
David Roman [00:36:30]:
And the last several years there’s been over 75,000 people. So it kind of tells you how the whole thing has grown. And so that first year I was there, I found we was walking around with a good friend of mine and we came across like a rave band that was making music live out of the craziest instruments. One guy had a stand up bass and the E string he had out really big and wide and he had this piece of metal that he was scraping on it. They had a piano that literally had fallen off of a bus or after the back of a truck, it was a moving truck and they totally screwed. And so like a third of the keys were broken off and the guy was like playing it with his fists. And then there’s this drummer doing live drumming, like 100 and you know, 50 beats per minute. And they would play for like 15 minutes and then stop, take like a five minute break.
David Roman [00:37:30]:
And then they get everyone sit back down and they would just start like it was amazing. The like nobody would say anything. All of a sudden all, all the instruments would just go kicking and they were off and running again. And there were four porta potties kind of pushed together. And I saw this, some, some people like kind of helping this guy get up there and they passed him up all this stuff. And over the next like two hours, like every 20 minutes or so he would go and blow fire. And he was good. Like after, you know, doing it for 20 years, this guy was good and it was just awesome.
David Roman [00:38:08]:
And so, you know, everyone’s like giving him drinks and like all standing around and just. It’s just, he was making this whole, like he just made the whole that much more amazing. And over the next couple years, I really didn’t see any fire breathers. And so One of the points about Burning man is that everyone contributes something to the city. Some people volunteer. Some people really spend time getting dressed up in costumes. Some people really make an environment of their campsite that people can go enjoy. Other people are bartender, you just have your own thing.
David Roman [00:38:43]:
You know, you can be a ranger, whatever it is. And so one of the things I wanted to do was I wanted to share that experience of being so excited when I saw Fire Breather. Like I just had never. And although I noticed how it reacts, the other people around it were reacting to it too. Had so right about that time. So the year I. So end of the third year, I’m in Sacramento. I then moved to Seattle and I try to.
David Roman [00:39:07]:
I’m trying to find someone in Seattle to try to treat. Teach me to breathe fire. Have one or two little run ins with someone who’s trying to, you know, who’s trying to teach. It didn’t necessarily go very well. And was living in downtown Fremont and one night I was just doing my normal walk down along the canal and this is way before they ever built Google and all those things. And it was just kind of open along the Fremont Canal. And I walked underneath the Fremont Bridge and all of a sudden there were like a bunch of cars, like dozens of cars parked under there where in the evening there’s usually nothing there. And I absolutely swear this guy comes around between a couple of cars, looks at me kind of funny, blows a ball of fire and then turns around and walks back underneath the Ballard Bridge.
David Roman [00:39:59]:
And I’m just like, what the. And so I’m like, follow him. And so you can actually walk underneath the Balor Bridge. Now they’ve closed. You used to be able to go like a block and a half underneath Fremont. Now they’ve kind of closed it off with some of the remodel. And so I follow him back underneath the bridge and way back in there is the Cirque du Flambe Fire Circus having one of their big rehearsals. And I was really lucky that there happened to be a woman there who also ran a booth at the Sunday Market in Fremont.
David Roman [00:40:38]:
And so we had kind of interacted a little bit. And so she waved me over and sat down and said, well, you know, hey, you know, I was like, what in the world is this? It’s amazing. I mean, they’re doing flaming jump ropes. There’s people blowing fire. Like it’s just crazy. It’s so awesome. And so she. Oh yeah, hang around, watch this.
David Roman [00:40:55]:
And she says, well, we’re actually leaving in a Couple of days, we’re going to go up to Edmonton to do a performance, and then we’re going to drive down to Burning Man. I’m like, cool, I’ll come and find you guys down at Burning Man. So we go down to Burning man, and I, like, it’s, I think, like the second night. And so we stay out really late. And, you know, I’m probably up to like, three or four in the morning. And then all of a sudden at like a little after dawn, sounds like there are elephants right outside my tent. And I’m like, what in the hell is going on here? And so I go, and I open, I stick my head out, and literally 20ft away, the Cirque du Flambe is unloading their cargo truck. And so I then.
David Roman [00:41:42]:
And so then I got to spend that whole week playing with the Cirque. And they were like, yeah, well, I’ll see you when we get home. And like, I, you know, this. It was kind of a reverse. The circus took me home. And so that was then the beginning of five years of performing with the Cirque de Flambe. And so we got to do all sorts of crazy things. And, yeah, one of my characters was the human dragon.
David Roman [00:42:11]:
And, yeah, that was just amazing fun. So kind of aged out a little of some of my things. You know, putting paraffin lamp oil in your mouth and spitting it out. Kind of a younger man’s game. My partner is not excited. She’s seen it like twice, and she’s not excited with it occasionally and stuff like that. And I have a really cool LED staff that I bought a couple years ago that I really like. That thing is really cool.
Alysse Bryson [00:42:40]:
Roman, have you. Have you burnt your lips? Have you. Have you gotten burnt doing this? That’s a yes.
David Roman [00:42:49]:
There’s a story for everything.
Libby Sundgren [00:42:51]:
Vaseline before you do it.
David Roman [00:42:53]:
No. So the first year that I was breathing fire, I lived in Fremont, and I was in an apartment building that had kind of like 10, 10 little un. And there were several of us that were really good friends. We would have barbecues multiple times a week together. There was a nice courtyard for everyone to share. And so that fall, my neighbor knew that I was kind of starting to work breathing fire. And she hadn’t seen it yet. And she was like, well, can we go out to Golden Gardens? Will you breathe fire for me as, like, that’s my birthday present.
David Roman [00:43:27]:
I want. Like, that sounds fun. Okay, we’ll go do that. And now that I’m wiser, I know that you don’t go Breathe fire on the beach when there’s gusty winds. Didn’t know this the first year I was doing it. And so, like, nothing too serious. Like, I was fine. You know, I’m pretty safe guy for, you know, I’m pretty safe guy generally.
David Roman [00:43:47]:
I mean, I’ve had long hair the entire time. I was a fire performer, so.
Libby Sundgren [00:43:51]:
And that’s.
Alysse Bryson [00:43:52]:
That’s impressive.
Libby Sundgren [00:43:52]:
You didn’t sing it off. That’s good.
David Roman [00:43:54]:
It was really great. I used to have three friends of mine that were all other fire breathers, and they were all either, like, you know, had shaved their heads or had mohawks. So I was always impressed with what I had. We’re out, and I breathe fire for her out on the beach. We have a really great time. And I wake up the next morning, and my lungs are just. I don’t know, just feeling a little scratchy and itchy on the inside. And so I was going to Bastyr for my medical stuff at that point, which is very natural path place.
David Roman [00:44:22]:
And so I’d gone in there a couple times. I already got some acupuncture and some other things and really, really liked it. So I went in there and scheduled a meeting. And there’s. It’s also a teaching college. So the way it works is that you go in and there’s. Students are in their last year, and there’s two of them, and they have the initial meet and greet. What’s wrong? And then they go and talk to, you know, an actual.
David Roman [00:44:45]:
One of their actual doctors and come up with a plan of what they’re going to do, and they come back in and then tell you what the treatment is, and you kind of go on from there. So these two women in there, you know, they’re, you know, about my age. I may be just a couple years older than them. And, you know, I talked to them, but, you know, I was out at the beach last night breathing fire, and, you know, my lungs just kind of hurt. And I was just wondering if maybe there was something you could do to kind of help. I just don’t know. And so in the past, when I’ve done that, they go. And it’s like five, maybe eight minutes, and then they’re back in and they’re ready to go boom.
David Roman [00:45:19]:
Well, like, I’m sitting in this office for, like, 20 minutes. I’m like, man, this is kind of like, I didn’t think this was that hard. I’m, like, starting to get a little worried. Like, you know, am I like, did I really hurt myself or Something. And then all of a sudden this I end up finding out who is the director of Bastyr. He’s this like 75 year old Asian guy, really nice, really sweet, very calm, quiet. He comes in and he sits down and he starts asking me, you know, just the basic medical questions again. Okay, so you said you were out breathing fire.
David Roman [00:45:57]:
And so he, you know, what’s wrong? Okay, so you were out breathing fire at the beach last night, like, yeah. He’s like, okay, so do you have some sort of special organ that allows you to do this? And I’m like, no. I take paraffin and a torch and I go. He goes, oh, like a circus performer. Like, yeah.
Alysse Bryson [00:46:19]:
What did he think?
David Roman [00:46:21]:
The girls thought I was freaking insane and thought that said I could just on command. They thought I was in Bastyr bragging about literally being a human dragon.
Alysse Bryson [00:46:34]:
No.
Libby Sundgren [00:46:35]:
They’re like, we’ve got a case.
David Roman [00:46:38]:
We’ve got a case.
Alysse Bryson [00:46:39]:
Yeah.
David Roman [00:46:40]:
I’m a six foot tall guy, you know, I’m not small. And I’m a, I’m a carpenter at that time. I’m an, I’m a, you know, I’m 200 pounds and 6 foot, like, you know, so he goes, oh, so sorry. And he goes, and he opens the door and there’s these two just giant guys standing there in like security outfits.
Alysse Bryson [00:47:04]:
Ready to commit you.
David Roman [00:47:05]:
Oh, yeah, they are. And they’re like, everything’s fine. Our mistake. Girls, you need to come in here. And so the whole thing got settled. They gave me giant vitamin C pills, I did a little acupuncture. And a couple of days later I was fin. But I mean, the whole.
David Roman [00:47:24]:
And I was like, you know, you ladies are in a very weird part of Seattle. You need to get a little bit more used to maybe people bringing you some interesting things and just ask a couple more questions next time.
Libby Sundgren [00:47:39]:
So everyone’s breathing fire these days. Come on.
Alysse Bryson [00:47:44]:
All right, but let’s be clear to our listeners. There’s no fire breathing on the tour.
David Roman [00:47:50]:
No, there is not.
Alysse Bryson [00:47:51]:
No fire breathing on the tour.
David Roman [00:47:53]:
Maybe lots of fireworks, but no fire breathing. Because it really is a lot of fun. Every, every, every tour that I have done has just been absolutely fun. I just, it’s, it’s been a really great run.
Libby Sundgren [00:48:07]:
Well, we can’t wait to be regulars.
David Roman [00:48:09]:
Oh, yeah.
Libby Sundgren [00:48:11]:
For the next, you know, month, and actually probably through the summer for forever. Because these tours are going to be a big hit and they are going to be. We’re gonna have to keep.
David Roman [00:48:19]:
Yeah. Once the word gets out this is going to become. It’s going to be a thing.
Alysse Bryson [00:48:23]:
Yep. Okay.
Libby Sundgren [00:48:24]:
Well, if somebody wants to find you and go on a tour or go on the sober curator tour, how. How would they do that?
David Roman [00:48:33]:
It’s great. You know, you go to Henry Art. It’s really nice, easy thing. There’s a little thing on that says tours. If you want to type it out straight, you go, Henry Art backslash tours. And that’ll take you right to our page, and you get to take a look at all the different options you have that will also include our happy hour tour. And then you get to flip back over and take a look at some Henry art and get really excited about going on a tour.
Libby Sundgren [00:49:01]:
Yeah, but, you know, you won’t see all of it on there, so that’s why you got to do the tour.
David Roman [00:49:05]:
No, there’s. I mean, there is always more to see. You know, he’s. He is a very prolific artist, and he has shared himself all over the city, so. And it’s really interesting, you know, once you start getting pointed out some of them, you start to then see where they are all over the city. There’s so many murals in the town. They all kind of bleed in together. But once you kind of get, you know, acclimated to seeing a Henry mural, you really do start realizing they are everywhere.
David Roman [00:49:38]:
And it’s just. It’s so cool. I mean, I even keep running across ones that I hadn’t seen before. You know, I mean, well, it’s kind.
Alysse Bryson [00:49:44]:
Of like when I got my gunmetal Jeep. I thought, oh, this is so original. And then, like, everybody drives a gunmetal jeep. It’s one of those kinds of things. Yeah. Well, we’re super excited to become your sidekicks. Your sidekick tour guides.
Libby Sundgren [00:50:00]:
Yes.
David Roman [00:50:00]:
This is going to be so much fun.
Libby Sundgren [00:50:02]:
Yes. All right, well, David, thank you so much for joining us, everybody. That is a wrap for this episode of Beats Work.
David Roman [00:50:11]:
Come join the Henryverse.
Libby Sundgren [00:50:13]:
Yes, Henry Art. Be there, be square. If you’ve got an idea for an upcoming episode or somebody that you really think we should talk to or just want to reach out to us, just chat about art. You can email us at infoatsworking show. Remember, every detail matters. Every moment counts. And no matter what, the show must go on.
Alysse Bryson [00:50:35]:
Thanks for listening to Beats winning the game of events, where we explore what it takes to make moments unforgettable.
Libby Sundgren [00:50:42]:
If you’re leaving with a little more inspiration, a little more perspective, and a big sideache from all of the laughing at our funny jokes, then we’ve done.
Alysse Bryson [00:50:50]:
Our job beats Working is a work P2P production. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast platforms.
Libby Sundgren [00:51:01]:
Your support helps us keep the magic going.
