2, The Ranting Gryphon

Matthew Wayne Davis, also known as 2, The Ranting Gryphon and 2 Gryphon, is an amateur comedian who performs mainly at sci-fi and furry conventions who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

Biography
Born in August 11, 1972, 2 has been a performer for most of his life. He began as a rock guitarist in the 1980's. He then ventured into the sci-fi and fantasy fields, doing comedy events at conventions during the 1990's.

A member of the furry fandom, he has a gryphon fursona. His name allegedly came to him in a dream about the creature. He regularly attends furry conventions and often performs stand up there. He has been the guest of honor at Califur 0, Oklacon 2004, Rocket City FurMeet 2005, Feral! 2006, RBW 2007, and MiDFur X (2008).

2 was a guest of honor at Rocky Mountain Fur Con 2013.

2 was a founding member of Furry Connection North, and was previously on staff at Furry Weekend Atlanta and Rocket City Furmeet.

2 formerly resided in Arkansas, USA, in a social collective of fellow furry fans/artists ("furs"), known as the North Arkansas Regional Furry Association (NARFA), and also formerly lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

2 Gryphon was inducted into the Furry Hall of Fame at MiDFur 2009 by his mentor Uncle Kage, and MiDFur Chairman CynWolfe.

Performances
2 also performs and records audio 'rants', and hosted an Internet radio show called 2 Sense which ran for 87 mostly-weekly episodes, up to two hours in length, before being discontinued due to time and work constraints on July 2nd, 2005, at the peak of its popularity. 2 Sense 2.0 debuted on November 12, 2006 and ended at Episode 52. 2 Sense 2.2, with a scheduled start date of June 4, 2010, is next in the 2 Sense line and is to be a video broadcast, a major change after the audio-only setup of the previous seasons.

2 ranted about many things during the early stages of his website. His rants were between 3-6 minutes long and normally focused on three areas. These areas are religions (rants about holy wars, prayer, and Christmas), political issues (delving into such issues as gay pride, hunting, guns, abortion, and the U. S. military), and the furry fandom itself. Rants on the latter are geared specifically to that community, and thus less accessible to those outside the fandom, and have dealt with Further Confusion, Anthrocon, fur artists and "Muck Talk".

The rants were originally scripted and were released on average once every two months. Their main purpose was for 2 to spread his opinions. His latest rants have dealt with intelligent design, the news media and justice. He has also released his second outtake reel, and has moved on to producing his rants in video format, which he started posting to YouTube in March 2007. There are over 50+ Rant topics in total.

Before the rants however, 2 created a lot of music. Some of the more popular songs include "Salvation" and "Jaunt". In the 1980s, 2 had originally hoped to become a rock artist, and still aspires to make music professionally.

2's rants were once featured on the Portal of Evil. He responded by posting a rant about atrocity tourism, which was subsequently subjected to a techno remixing by Nick C, a member of Portal of Evil.

In September 2007, the online edition of the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung featured one of 2's video rants and an excerpt of his live performance at Eurofurence 12 in their Internet Video of the Week column, comparing his style of comedy with Woody Allen and David Byrne.

2 also appeared in a parody of the Beastie Boys video Sabotage. The video was shot at Anthrocon 2004.


 * Sabotage Tribute (video)

LSD files
2 has been making poetic audio files known as the Lucid Sonic Delusions. At present he has released two of them on his official website, with plans to release a whole new series as time goes on.

It is thought that the files were named LSD Files because they give the same euphoric feel as the drug of the same name (though they have nothing to do with drugs). The files are in fact named Lucid Sonic Delusions; this may have been on purpose so that the initials would be LSD, but this has not been confirmed.

The two LSD files released so far are:
 * The Hole
 * The Box

Dear 2
2 Gryphon is doing a short show (if it can indeed be considered a show) approximately 10 minutes long in which he answers letters sent in by (presumably) past 2 Sense listeners and fans of his website. The show is identical to the Dear 2 segment from 2 Sense with the exception of there being no co-host. This show has no actual release date and is released based on the amount of mail received and time restraints on 2 himself. Dear 2 is expected to end when 2 Sense 2.0 starts.

DVDs
2 the Ranting Gryphon has released six DVDs and a CD since 2002. These are available to buy from 2's official website.

The first DVD, "Rolling A One", is a one hour long comedy show recorded live at Anthrocon in 2002.

The second DVD, "The Truth", is a one hour long comedy show recorded live at Anthrocon in 2003. It includes commentary from 2 and Lord Skandranon on one track, and a separate track consisting of 2, Lord Skandranon, Skates, and Krahnos. The DVD also includes the infamous "chocolate bunny death" video.

The third DVD, "The Gods Hate Me", is a one hour long comedy show recorded live at Anthrocon in 2004. Among the DVD's special features are a full length MST3K style commentary from 2, the DVD's creator Lord Skandranon and their friend Gir Tygrin (who in the video refers to himself as random other guy), some random bonus footage, and an explanation of the "beer shot" joke.

Plans for a fourth DVD, "Place Gryphon Here", were scrapped due to technical problems while recording the shows at Anthrocon 2005 and Midwest FurFest 2005. Instead, an audio CD was released that contains audio from both. It replaces an earlier audio CD that has gone out of print.

A fourth DVD was eventually released, called "Live In Germany". This DVD is a one hour long comedy show recorded live at Eurofurence 12 in 2006.

Two other DVDs have also been released, "Yiff in Hell" in 2008 and "Apocalypse of Cute" in 2009.

In comics
2 is referred to in a Jack comic short, in which a "ranting talent agent" whose species is a gryphon has a small '#2' written in over his head. 2 is also referenced twice in the online comic Loserz by Erik Schoenek.