Sometimes the Vanished Never Return | Campfire for a Cause

MrBallen (0:00)

All right, welcome to the Campfire. Tonight is a very special episode because I have an amazing guest with me tonight. This is Liana, and we're here in Virginia. And Liana and I, we actually met a couple of years ago during the live tour we did in 2024

She is an avid MrBallen fan, and so we had this amazing chance to meet in DC at the live show.

And at the time when I met you, I knew that your dad had ALS, and that had, I think, fairly recently been diagnosed. And it was just so clear that MrBallen, or the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, was really like sort of an honest to goodness centerpiece of your household. It seemed like a lot of people in your family really liked the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, and it was really touching for me.

Also, I loved your flannel. That was really cool. We were going to do a tour this year, and our tour got canceled. And we found out due to the cancellation that you were going to be going to the live tour, which was canceled. But through speaking to Corey, your mom, as well as Tony, we found out that, unfortunately, Liana has been diagnosed with leukemia. And I not only immediately remembered my meeting with you, but also I have children. I have three children. I have two daughters, one of which is 10, nine, and I have a son who's six. And I just remember so clearly when I met you in DC. Honestly, this is corny. I just, you reminded me so much immediately of my own daughter that when I found out about your leukemia diagnosis, I mean, honestly, I immediately said, like, what can we do to just put on a show for you? And fast forward to Spottersville, Spotsylvania, Virginia, you know, a few months later we made it happen. And so we're here tonight to give Liana a private show because she's awesome. Her family's awesome. They're struggling through some things. And I think that they should be highlighted and they actually have a GoFundMe that today actually here's how it's going to go. The proceeds from this video are going to all be donated to your family. So just watching the video in and of itself will be a way to help with medical expenses and help their family in such a difficult time. But then also there's a link in the bio for their GoFundMe because, you know, medical expenses are not cheap. And I want everybody to, if nothing else, just try to support this family, support Liana, support her family if you can. And again, if nothing else, just watch the video. And that is in and of itself a supportive thing. So Liana, thank you so much for being here. That was a very long winded intro.

And so tonight, the way it's going to go is I have three stories to tell. The first two are new ones. These are new to the public, new to you for sure. And then there's a third one that we're potentially waiting until it gets dark here. We're actually, just so you guys, I don't know if you can see from the camera shot, we're right by this cabin in the woods. This is like a very iconic MrBallen setting. And the third story is, it's an OG spooky story that I think you're really gonna like.

But before we get into tonight's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right campfire because that's all we do. And we upload two, three, even four times every week. So Liana, if that's of interest to you, the next time you're at a campfire, go ahead and invite the like button to come here with you. But don't tell them you've secretly embedded firecrackers in the fire, and as soon as you light them, walk away.

Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into tonight's stories.

So on March 3rd of 1954, there was this woman named Ye who lived in Hong Kong, and she and her friends were big time mahjong players. I actually don't, I had to look up what mahjong was, because I obviously heard of it, but I don't really know how it's played. It's effectively like a card game with tiles, like domino tiles, right? And you're sort of trying to arrange the tiles. You pick up a tile, you discard one, and you're trying to build like the best set, the way you would play like with cards. This is probably atrocious for those who play mahjong, but either way, big mahjong player. And in the 1950s in Hong Kong, mahjong was like really, really popular. Like to the point where you go into restaurants in Hong Kong and like the tables would have laminated to the table itself, like a mahjong board. So people are playing mahjong everywhere. It's a big deal. And so, yeah, her name, YE., yeah, she was a really good mahjong player and she played like really competitively. And she had these three friends, these three women that she always played with.