Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Vanessa Beyor and this is my brother Jonah.
Speaker 1: We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood
Speaker 1: and nostalgia and how it shaped us into the people
Speaker 1: we are today, who are pretty into layering during the
Speaker 1: winter months, if I do say so myself. Welcome to
Speaker 1: how did we get weird? So, Jonah, I was thinking
Speaker 1: about our guests today, and I was thinking about when
Speaker 1: we first met. Now, I know this has less to
Speaker 1: do with you and me and more to do with
Speaker 1: me and our guest, but I still wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about it. Okay, So just give me a break. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: go ahead, get into it, Okay. Well, I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about today's guest, and the way that I first met
Speaker 1: him was I was doing improv in Chicago. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, out of college for a few years doing
Speaker 1: improv in Chicago. And then all of a sudden, and
Speaker 1: I'm with all these Chicago improvisers. Don't we think we're funny?
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, this group of Detroit
Speaker 1: improvisers moves to Chicago and they are so much funnier
Speaker 1: than us. It's true. Our guest is kind of acting like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's true, and you know it. It includes our guests today.
Speaker 1: Tim Robinson was another one of the Detroit people. I mean,
Speaker 1: these people, they're just so much funnier than us in
Speaker 1: like such a real way. And then I one summer
Speaker 1: got to do a show in Detroit, which I guess
Speaker 1: must have been after that, and I was like, whether
Speaker 1: they're in Chicago or Detroit, they're so much funnier than us.
Speaker 1: By the way, this is not meant to I think
Speaker 1: Chicago improvisers are so funny that Detroit improvisers are money.
Speaker 1: So Vanessa, what was funnier about it? Was it like
Speaker 1: a different like longer form for shuter form, or different
Speaker 1: sensibility or what made it funnier to you? They scifically
Speaker 1: as people were better at comedy than that. They were
Speaker 1: just funnier humans. Yes, okay, So I think the first
Speaker 1: thing we should do after we introduce our guests today
Speaker 1: is asked, why yeah, well, why don't you introduce him?
Speaker 1: And then we can ask ourselves right now? That sounds great. Jonah,
Speaker 1: our guest today, is an actor, comedian, writer, producer. You
Speaker 1: may know him from playing Richard Split on the HBO
Speaker 1: political comedy series Veep, co creating and starring in the
Speaker 1: comedy series Detroitters with Tim Robinson. What about starring the
Speaker 1: Apple TV series The After Party, or how about this?
Speaker 1: How about when he was nominated for a Primetime Enemy
Speaker 1: Award for Outstanding Guest Actor at Comedy Series for his
Speaker 1: performance in Test Lasso. Folks, you know him from that,
Speaker 1: but I know him from our days of improvising together
Speaker 1: in Chicago. Please welcome Sam Richardson, you know, thank you
Speaker 1: very much. I don't know where, well, yeah, now I
Speaker 1: think truly Detroit improvisers. Like in Chicago, I feel everybody
Speaker 1: knows what improv is. So like when you're performing improv show,
Speaker 1: everybody's like on board immediately, and in Detroit that's not
Speaker 1: the case. So you have to like just like learn
Speaker 1: to become real good, real fast, because that's the only
Speaker 1: way it works. So like, as a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: people who were like what is this and you're like,
Speaker 1: trust me, and then you know, so like we all
Speaker 1: like trained like hyperbolic chamber of no laughs for a
Speaker 1: long time and then you like squeeze blood from a stone.
Speaker 1: That's my theory. Yes, I feel like Tim has told
Speaker 1: me a similar thing, which is that like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: were performing at like second City in Io, these places
Speaker 1: where it's like everyone's kind of there to have fun,
Speaker 1: whereas you guys were often well you had a second
Speaker 1: city there, but you was the So the second city
Speaker 1: was first was in Detroit City proper, and it was
Speaker 1: in the Hockeytown cast f and I was like right
Speaker 1: across the street from America Park and like it's a
Speaker 1: right like downtown and that that was like where it started.
Speaker 1: I was there for like ten like a little less
Speaker 1: than ten years, and so there it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's like cool, small black box theater of a second
Speaker 1: city where you know you're in here, you're in our rules,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's fun and funny. You can really
Speaker 1: come out in the city and all that stuff. Then
Speaker 1: it closed down and then reopened in Nova, which is
Speaker 1: a suburb, which is where I did a summer doing
Speaker 1: Jusical the musical and Nova. That's right, yes, And Nova
Speaker 1: was like a very very much the suburbs. And they
Speaker 1: were right above and i Amo restaurants, the Italian restaurant,
Speaker 1: and it's a club next door. And anybody who came
Speaker 1: out there, they didn't care. You know. It's like a
Speaker 1: big open space, which is not great for a small
Speaker 1: comedy and wasn't there another place that you guys kind
Speaker 1: of would perform it a lot where you really had
Speaker 1: to prove Like So then there was also Planet Ant Theater,
Speaker 1: which pain was like a the audience was like on
Speaker 1: board for in that space because it was like very
Speaker 1: like very experimental like there, and so like it was
Speaker 1: that plus comedy, like so you know, as we get
Speaker 1: to like write our first shows and everything and like
Speaker 1: sort of get a feel for what our comedic voices were.
Speaker 1: Like really really it was planned ant that like let
Speaker 1: us find out who are what our comedic voices are,
Speaker 1: and then Second City let us polish them in front
Speaker 1: of like paying like a full proper paying audience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and here we are in Chicago in these like really
Speaker 1: nice big theaters where everyone knows that improvin everyone. People.
Speaker 1: People have flown to Chicago to you, right, They're like,
Speaker 1: I can't wait, Sam, I don't know if you know this.
Speaker 1: I've done a little improv of myself. It's not really
Speaker 1: a big deal. I haven't been nominated for an Emmy
Speaker 1: or Primetime Emmy, but you know, I had an experience
Speaker 1: where I took some improv classes at UCB yeah, I
Speaker 1: took one. My first class ever was a very long
Speaker 1: time with Anthony Amini was great, and then I took
Speaker 1: a second one. It was very strange because we had
Speaker 1: our class show. We got a lot of laughs, and
Speaker 1: our teacher was upset that we didn't follow the game.
Speaker 1: We weren't playing the Dell close thing, and it was
Speaker 1: so weird because I was like, Okay, this is a
Speaker 1: comedy show, but they were so focused on the Dell
Speaker 1: close thing that like our our teacher was actually was
Speaker 1: kind of annoyed with us. And then I kind of
Speaker 1: never did it again because I was like, this is
Speaker 1: isn't it kind of supposed to make people laugh too?
Speaker 1: Like did you have that kind of experience or was
Speaker 1: it more kind of free form for you? I mean
Speaker 1: I get the idea of like, oh, we want you
Speaker 1: to know the rules before you break the rules, Like sure,
Speaker 1: sure of course that, but like also I feel like
Speaker 1: what happens so much and I'm not doubting any of
Speaker 1: the theaters or anything like that, or at least I'm
Speaker 1: subtenly doing that because like it's like it becomes so
Speaker 1: much about like the form of it, and then everybody
Speaker 1: just kind of like plugs themselves into it. But like
Speaker 1: the whole point of the form is just to like
Speaker 1: make somebody forget to to like just make somebody losing
Speaker 1: like kind of not worry about it. But if you're
Speaker 1: not worried about it and you're doing it, then you
Speaker 1: don't need the form, right, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: as long as it works. But like the whole idea
Speaker 1: of like these like structures and all that, it's just
Speaker 1: to put some bones. You put meat on the bones,
Speaker 1: and you can just kind of get in there and
Speaker 1: like be playful without have to worry about like how
Speaker 1: the structure of it works, because the structure is already established.
Speaker 1: But again, like if you don't need that, it's a crutch,
Speaker 1: you know, yea yeah yeah. And Detroit, we didn't really
Speaker 1: like nail forms and everything, and then somebody be able
Speaker 1: to would like come back from a trip from Chicago
Speaker 1: or like just we've got to do uh you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, We've got to do this form, and
Speaker 1: we're like yeah, sure, now we're just gonna I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna come in as a waiter and and then like
Speaker 1: listen and respond and like I'm gonna fall down a
Speaker 1: bunch and that's gonna work. I also think in Chicago
Speaker 1: it was well, depending on like what improv team you're
Speaker 1: on or whatever, it was such a like big deal
Speaker 1: to like follow the structure. And again I had the
Speaker 1: best time in Chicago, and I learned so much in it.
Speaker 1: You know, got me you know, to where I am
Speaker 1: now and everything. But just thinking about some stuff would
Speaker 1: be like I'll take a suggestion and it would be
Speaker 1: like we would pretty much really do harolds, which is
Speaker 1: like to the listener who's not super familiar with improv,
Speaker 1: it's like a structure of like an improv show that's
Speaker 1: like you get a suggestion and then you do you
Speaker 1: do like a loose like like a bunch of like
Speaker 1: word finding, like some sort of open game to start out,
Speaker 1: or like some exercise just walking around. Like if the
Speaker 1: suggestion is water, you're like, oh, ducks ponds, like walking
Speaker 1: around scuba diving. But while you're saying that, you have
Speaker 1: to be like pulling it from the air and doing
Speaker 1: really embarrassing stuff exactly exactly like yeah, a duck is
Speaker 1: in water the waves, and then like by the end
Speaker 1: of it, everyone's going like tear dropped, tear drop drop drop,
Speaker 1: drop drop drop drop the base, and then you're in
Speaker 1: a club and the and then you do like three scenes.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I don't know how we did it
Speaker 1: because it's like it seems so hard not to do it,
Speaker 1: and like so and then you do three scenes that
Speaker 1: are like kind of loosely based on that, and like
Speaker 1: it'll be like coming out and being like and then
Speaker 1: like sometimes no one's going out and you just have
Speaker 1: to go out and be like, hey Joe, big day
Speaker 1: at the office today, And that's your improft skills have
Speaker 1: only gotten sharper with with times. But I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what that is the reality of what it was like
Speaker 1: the initiation, be like, hey Joe the office, it's Greg's birthday,
Speaker 1: isn't it? Like I forgot to get the cake for
Speaker 1: Greg's birthday. We have to bake a cake right now.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, let's bake it right now in the office. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: We've got to sink. We've got got a microwave. Microwave,
Speaker 1: I've got some flower in the kitchen and all I
Speaker 1: guess we'll flavor it with these onions. Ha ha ha
Speaker 1: ha ha ha ha. If you're lucky, don't worry because
Speaker 1: you go, oh, the scene's over. That stinks. Absolutely not,
Speaker 1: We're going to come back to it in the second act.
Speaker 1: So then need three scenes that are like that kind
Speaker 1: of unrelated, or they can be on the same theme exactly,
Speaker 1: or they can be exactly. So moving forward in time
Speaker 1: a little bit like after the oh the cake didn't
Speaker 1: go well or he got sick, and then that's then
Speaker 1: you're doing that for another five minutes. Yeah, now between that,
Speaker 1: so you do three scenes in a row, and then
Speaker 1: there's another game where you go like you would maybe
Speaker 1: want to pick up on what was the suggestion It
Speaker 1: was duck water and then duck was when it came
Speaker 1: from right right water. So then the next thing, maybe
Speaker 1: someone goes on stage and goes glug glug glug, glug glug,
Speaker 1: and then people start like harmonizing with it, and everybody's
Speaker 1: doing the idea of being it's a real palate cleanser,
Speaker 1: because right, that's right, that's right, it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: a palate. And then you come back to the three
Speaker 1: seats and yeah, like you said, Sam, like when you
Speaker 1: get to that scene about the cake in the office,
Speaker 1: then it's like Joe's like, hmm, this cake looks really good,
Speaker 1: and then he tries it and he's like, guys, guys,
Speaker 1: you know I'm allergic to onions, right, And they go
Speaker 1: oh shit, And then it's like, then, why did you
Speaker 1: eat the cake? And he goes, I didn't think onions
Speaker 1: would be in a cake. Everyone last, someone runs across
Speaker 1: the state because that's the end of the scene. That's
Speaker 1: how you edit. Someone has to run across the stage,
Speaker 1: which is awesome. It's also really hard to be that
Speaker 1: person I've always found who edits the scene because it's
Speaker 1: like you're basically like, also, you can't let people sit
Speaker 1: out there and improvise for too long because then they
Speaker 1: look stupid. But it's hard because you have to run
Speaker 1: as yeah, exactly, you have to do this like light
Speaker 1: jog across the stage to show the audience and the
Speaker 1: players all right, and that's it. It's a white that's
Speaker 1: so that's the end of that scene. And he doesn't
Speaker 1: look extremely cool doing a light jog. Then three scenes again,
Speaker 1: then you do another game, which is like the last
Speaker 1: game for this one. Sometimes it would be like somebody
Speaker 1: would like initiate that you're at a water talk show
Speaker 1: and everybody would be like a guest on that thing
Speaker 1: sometimes yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Everybody's included
Speaker 1: because like you you typically you have like, oh, so
Speaker 1: with all these things, they're doing three different scenes per act.
Speaker 1: Let's say it's a three act thing. So like, so
Speaker 1: we will do our office, even somebody else is doing
Speaker 1: you know, a mother daughter scene, going to you know,
Speaker 1: a park, and somebody else is doing a scene in
Speaker 1: a womb, right exactly, Yeah, you know that sort of
Speaker 1: third act, a pre third act sort of group thing
Speaker 1: is just includes everybody another palate claims and maybe incorporates
Speaker 1: like little bits and things from what you've done, or
Speaker 1: it just like doesn't at all. And you know that's
Speaker 1: a good idea. So you're saying, like maybe the third
Speaker 1: game is like an underwater or like an aquatic talk
Speaker 1: show where like the characters from the other scenes in
Speaker 1: the show come on. Well I wouldn't because a third
Speaker 1: act usually has everybody and then they like sometimes like
Speaker 1: we've in between right right right, yes, man, just me
Speaker 1: my whole life same here. I feel like our listeners
Speaker 1: are getting just a masterclass in improv. Well yeah, honestly,
Speaker 1: that's really like if you were going to move to
Speaker 1: Chicago or Detroit and learn improv. You don't have to.
Speaker 1: We just saved you five years of grind. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it is. Just practice that you know, and
Speaker 1: you're some comfortable space in your home, exactly enough space
Speaker 1: to be able to lie out. Two people can lie
Speaker 1: head to toe, head to toe and you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I have space and that's about as much as as
Speaker 1: you need in a back line, and then you're ready
Speaker 1: to go. Okay, we've really set some people up here
Speaker 1: now before we go to our first commercial break, can
Speaker 1: I just bring up one other thing that happens, which
Speaker 1: is that a couple of improv teams might do heralds.
Speaker 1: And then there's this thing called the dream. I'm so sorry, Sam,
Speaker 1: oh my god. The dream is this thing where you
Speaker 1: pick an audience member, you single them out, you bring
Speaker 1: them on stage, and you tell us about your day
Speaker 1: and they're like, uh had By the way, it seems
Speaker 1: like I feel like I'm shooting on Chicago Improv and
Speaker 1: I actually we love it, and I don't. That's not
Speaker 1: what I mean this. I just I'm looking back lovingly,
Speaker 1: think back lovingly. Okay, someone's like on stage, Okay, so
Speaker 1: Jonah like imagine we would like bring you up on stage. Okay, Jonah,
Speaker 1: we're going to do it to you now, Jonah. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess it's morning, so you haven't had a full day.
Speaker 1: Tell us about your day yesterday. You don't really have to.
Speaker 1: I won't take a long time with this, but okay, like,
Speaker 1: what did you have for breakfast? Woke up? I had
Speaker 1: some cereal for breakfast, took my dog for a walk,
Speaker 1: came home, did some work, and then and what do
Speaker 1: you do for work? Sir? Yeah, exactly what is it
Speaker 1: you do for work? And the other person will come
Speaker 1: I'm like kind of okay, and what it wants to
Speaker 1: get on stage? So like I think of a question.
Speaker 1: I got to think of a bustion for this guy. Okay, Sam,
Speaker 1: I'm a therapist. Oh wow, wow, that's really cool. Okay,
Speaker 1: someone who does improve all day. That's really cool. Okay, sorry,
Speaker 1: just kidding, interest saying cool? Cool? And Okay, So you
Speaker 1: went to your job, did you see clients or is
Speaker 1: there anyone you work with that, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: who annoys you or that you really like? Just a
Speaker 1: regular day? And then I came home and then I
Speaker 1: played with my dogs some more, played with your Did
Speaker 1: you eat dinner? I did eat dinner? Yes, okay. What
Speaker 1: are your dog's names? A dog's name is Lupin? Okay,
Speaker 1: dog's lupin okay, like the flower? Okay, okay, got it,
Speaker 1: like the flower? Okay. And then you had dinner? What
Speaker 1: did you have for dinner? I had mashed potatoes. Okay,
Speaker 1: you had mashed potatoes. And then did you watch any
Speaker 1: TV or anything like that? I watched the news. You
Speaker 1: watched the news while I ate mashed potatoes. Okay, all right, well,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. You know what, this is your dream? Okay,
Speaker 1: so then we do Jonah's dream. Oh yeah, go ahead
Speaker 1: to me is wow? Okay, wait what did you have
Speaker 1: for breakfast? Cereal? Time for cereal? Our loop in loopin?
Speaker 1: Please be quiet. I have to go to work. Walk
Speaker 1: walk walk walk walk to work. I'm having so many
Speaker 1: problems today, Jonah. It's just like the week has been
Speaker 1: so weird and like just I'm having problems with my
Speaker 1: mother and my father. Well, here's what you should do.
Speaker 1: You should talk to them. M that's a good idea. Okay,
Speaker 1: work work, work, and then everyone at stages work work work, work,
Speaker 1: work work. Well, it's time to go home, walk walk,
Speaker 1: walk block block clock a wop in, Okay, I'll take
Speaker 1: you for a walk, walking, walking, walking, Okay. Finally I'm
Speaker 1: to have dinner. What should I have? I'd come out
Speaker 1: and I'd be the fridge of like empty empty empty empty,
Speaker 1: mashed potatoes empty empty empty empty. And then I go,
Speaker 1: I guess I have one choice. And then everyone's stage
Speaker 1: goes mash and then I go, well, I guess I'll
Speaker 1: turn on Did you say you watch TV? You're not
Speaker 1: supposed to, Well, it's time to turn on the TV.
Speaker 1: And then someone who hasn't got the last stage chance
Speaker 1: to do something. And in the news tonight, a lot
Speaker 1: of things happening in the world, and that's the news.
Speaker 1: And then I go, okay, now I'll go to sleep, Sleep, Sleep, sleep, Sleep.
Speaker 1: And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Jonah's dream last in Chicago.
Speaker 1: The audience laughs, and the audience laughs laughs laughs. Maybe
Speaker 1: some other places, yes, you know, maybe some here too.
Speaker 1: That was incredible. Yeah, I guess, so that was your
Speaker 1: exact dream last night. Okay, And with that, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a quick commercial break and we'll be right back
Speaker 1: with Sam Richardson. And we're back from Commercial Break Back
Speaker 1: from Commercial Break, Sam had a good question for you.
Speaker 1: You know, Vanessa did the Second City touring company, did
Speaker 1: some cruise ships stuff? Did you do any kind of
Speaker 1: touring stuff when you were kind of cutting your teeth
Speaker 1: in the biziness? I did performing the Second cit Detroit.
Speaker 1: Then I worked in the cruise ship. Actually that is
Speaker 1: where I first met you, Vanessa, because you were on
Speaker 1: the ship with Brett and Chris, and we met in
Speaker 1: Miami for like timeout, like a day, and then I
Speaker 1: moved to Chicago. After that. I was on the ship
Speaker 1: for a year. Okay, you're on a ship for a
Speaker 1: year and did two contracts he did five months, and
Speaker 1: then home for a month in five more months than moved. Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So we actually met on a cruise ship for a
Speaker 1: day in my because the way that probably were docked
Speaker 1: in Miami exactly, so like were at I can't remember where,
Speaker 1: but one of my oldest and best friends, Brett Ganell,
Speaker 1: was in your cast, so I went to meet up
Speaker 1: with him, and then I was introduced to you and
Speaker 1: Chris Wotowski and Brett Lions Lions right, and who was
Speaker 1: your Molly Durand and our music. Um, that's tall guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was very talented, and I truly can't believe I'm
Speaker 1: blanking on his name. It wasn't johny Wartowski, was it. No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't John Edwardowski. But I worked with him when
Speaker 1: I did jusical The musical Vanessa. You have a poster
Speaker 1: of the cold cast of this ship somewhere, Well, there
Speaker 1: was one in our grandparents grandparents apartment and in our
Speaker 1: parents house. The laminated poster of that cast and musical
Speaker 1: director who's name we're blankie on, was in my parents
Speaker 1: has my grandparents department. So yeah, So Sam, you did
Speaker 1: a five month contract. You said this is pretty cool,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it again. Did you think like
Speaker 1: this could just be my thing? Or you after a
Speaker 1: year you were ready to move on? Well, I went
Speaker 1: to the ships because I was trying to move out
Speaker 1: to Chicago to do Second City where actually, really I
Speaker 1: want to go to Vegas because like, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the coolest job, because there was a second city in
Speaker 1: Vegas then, right there was there was for me. I
Speaker 1: was like twenty one, and I was like, this could
Speaker 1: be the best job one year old could have. Is
Speaker 1: like to live in Vegas and like working you know,
Speaker 1: as an adult. I'm like, now, I'm like that would
Speaker 1: have been the death of me, and like, but I
Speaker 1: really wanted to do Second City Vegas, you know, because like, oh,
Speaker 1: they do have Second City main stage in Chicago. That's lofty,
Speaker 1: but Vegas is like accessible. I want to do that.
Speaker 1: Of course I want to tour. So I went to
Speaker 1: work on the cruise ship and while it's in the
Speaker 1: first cruise ship, Second City Detroit closed. So then I
Speaker 1: was gonna move to l A. But I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I'll just do another cruise ship to
Speaker 1: kind of figure out what I'm gonna do. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: I was just like working a cruise ship. The cruise ship,
Speaker 1: then they hired me to the touring company. So I
Speaker 1: moved to Chicago toward for two years and then got
Speaker 1: hired to the main stage and then did two years
Speaker 1: in the main stage before I moved up to l A.
Speaker 1: And that's my Chicago life. Yeah, and Vanessa, you understudy
Speaker 1: my touring company Greenco. And we had the best time
Speaker 1: because you think you came into Lily for like a
Speaker 1: week on a tour and that's why I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my God, Venus is the funniest and the absolute best,
Speaker 1: because I feel like that was so funny. Was I
Speaker 1: stealing stuff left and right on that? Because I love
Speaker 1: free stuff? That's all this soap, It's so free. There
Speaker 1: were always a lot of extra bottles of water that
Speaker 1: I'm like, no one's going to take these exactly, just
Speaker 1: like let me sit here. M wasn't waste. Wait, your
Speaker 1: ship was also docking in Miami. Was it your first
Speaker 1: cruise ship or your second cruise ship? Was my first
Speaker 1: cruise ship? Yeah? It was the Norwegian Pearl. Oh great,
Speaker 1: I remember the Pearl. I remember the Okay, so we
Speaker 1: met on the cruise ships first. Okay, I thought we
Speaker 1: met in Chicago first. I got that wrong. Unless I
Speaker 1: met you when we were like auditioning. But I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure it was introduced me to you. I bet, I
Speaker 1: bet that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, such
Speaker 1: funny Detroit guys. Look at us now here we are
Speaker 1: my own recording studio here. Yeah. For listeners who didn't hear,
Speaker 1: I thought that Sam was in a recording studio, but
Speaker 1: he said, he's just in a room that has a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, glad a junk toys on the wall.
Speaker 1: Actually it really looks cool to me. I'm sitting on
Speaker 1: the floor of my guest bedroom. Go ahead, JOHNA. I
Speaker 1: was going to say, you know, Sam, speaking of toys,
Speaker 1: here comes a seamless transition. We reached out to you
Speaker 1: about topics. You picked a great one, which is action
Speaker 1: path television shows like Power Rangers, ThunderCats, Ninja Turtles, and
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, like, why did you kind of pick
Speaker 1: this topic. Were you really into these shows growing up?
Speaker 1: Do you still watch them? What's behind that for you?
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with these things. They really did like
Speaker 1: they were my whole life, like you know, Ninja Turtles,
Speaker 1: Power Rangers, like when you like when you asked the question,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, what off things? And like it
Speaker 1: took me a second because I'm still really into these things.
Speaker 1: So it's like, well, something that shape my childhood. As
Speaker 1: I sit on like a Ninja Turtles chair and then
Speaker 1: and look at my wall of Power Rangers, and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I was like trying to think like
Speaker 1: other stuff. I was like, well, but no, these things
Speaker 1: truly are what like shaped me and I was like
Speaker 1: so obsessed with them as a kid. I lived in
Speaker 1: Ghana for a while you know, back and forth. But
Speaker 1: like in first grade and second grade I lived in Ghana,
Speaker 1: I would have like all these tapes of stuff, and
Speaker 1: like the tapes would be of you know, Ninja Turtles
Speaker 1: or like you know movies, but like a lot like
Speaker 1: g I. Joe and like he Man and ThunderCats and
Speaker 1: so like I would just watch these on repeat. And
Speaker 1: like now I have like a said encyclopediccknowledge, like you
Speaker 1: has to be coaching about ThunderCats, I can tell you
Speaker 1: anything about it. I was a Thundercat for Halloween. I
Speaker 1: was lying over Halloween, like a few years ago, I
Speaker 1: was skeletor this past Halloween. You know. I got into
Speaker 1: martial arts because of Ninja Turtles, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why I picked it. Because it's even still I'm
Speaker 1: I'm like, actually they are legit good movies, and I agree.
Speaker 1: I agree with myself. Sam. I was in a punk
Speaker 1: band in college for a few years and we're called
Speaker 1: Mamra the Ever Living. That's incredible. Now to people who
Speaker 1: aren't super familiar with ThunderCats, can you explain that name? Yes, So,
Speaker 1: the ThunderCats were this humanoid cat people from this planet
Speaker 1: called Thundera and their world is being destroyed, so they
Speaker 1: left their planet and landed on this place called Third Earth.
Speaker 1: So then they were trying to make a new world
Speaker 1: there on third there were about seven ThunderCats who were
Speaker 1: like the last surviving members of Thundera like by Lionel
Speaker 1: with the Sword of Omens, which was the like sort
Speaker 1: of symbol of the ThunderCats, but it was like this
Speaker 1: power magical power sword that held the Eye of Thundera,
Speaker 1: which was the a like a magic jewel that was
Speaker 1: the source of the ThunderCats powers essentially, and so the
Speaker 1: ThunderCats essentially the ThunderCats like being the name I'm assuming
Speaker 1: comes from like dinosaurs being thunder lizards, but these are ThunderCats,
Speaker 1: got it. But they weren't huge. They were like human
Speaker 1: size but like very strong humans, like very big humans,
Speaker 1: but they were like hed cat features, right, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: Well I was actually asking about the name Mamra, but
Speaker 1: I didn't. But mum Raw was like a mummy. He
Speaker 1: was like a mummy sorcerer, evil sorcerer. So he's mum Robb.
Speaker 1: Then he like turned into like a big version of Memra,
Speaker 1: who was like very muscular, but he was very like
Speaker 1: Egyptian themed, so he had like snakes and like he was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's mum raw and Rob being the god of the
Speaker 1: Egyptian sun God. It's never like pointed out in the
Speaker 1: show because that's not really what he is. But I
Speaker 1: think it's just something that sounded very you know, and
Speaker 1: they're like, what's his name? Mummy? I ra like, mum
Speaker 1: Rod is good, cool name. Johnny, you guys used it
Speaker 1: in your No one knew what really what it was.
Speaker 1: I feel like very few people got that reference. And
Speaker 1: this is probably early two thousand's. Yeah, I've been over
Speaker 1: interesting that you picked the villain. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that happened. I don't remember the
Speaker 1: ancient spirits of Evil that was what you say, say
Speaker 1: Ancient spirits of Evil transformed this decade form to Mum
Speaker 1: Rob the ever Living and they turned like huge. So
Speaker 1: you watched these shows a lot growing up. When did
Speaker 1: you move to the US or back to US? So
Speaker 1: I moved back after second grade, so I was there
Speaker 1: for first and second grade, So that would have been
Speaker 1: when I came back to THEE is when I like
Speaker 1: moved back to the States, back to Detroit, and like
Speaker 1: you know this whole time. I've just been watching and watching, watching,
Speaker 1: and like that's a round. Then. Is also like when
Speaker 1: Power Rangers came out, Yeah, and it was like aimed
Speaker 1: right at my chest because like I was how how
Speaker 1: would I have been? I would have been like eight
Speaker 1: seven or eight years old? Yeah, and uh, I just
Speaker 1: you see that these remember that the toy commercials and
Speaker 1: then the Fox. Like I was watching Fox and like
Speaker 1: the commercial for Power Rangers came out and I was
Speaker 1: blown away. I was like what is this how? And
Speaker 1: like the idea they were teenagers was like so cool
Speaker 1: because I was like, oh man, I'm gonna be exactly
Speaker 1: like that, and I'm gonna have powers and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be a bit morphin transformed. It's gonna be morphin time
Speaker 1: never happened for me. So you were at the perfect
Speaker 1: age for that. I never thought about them as being
Speaker 1: Did they fight a lot Power Rangers? Yeah? Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: They would fight the Putties first, like so the Tears.
Speaker 1: So the Power Rangers ideas like Rita Repulsa is released
Speaker 1: from her prison on the Moon after ten thousand years ago,
Speaker 1: putting this tomb eyes sord On on the moon, and
Speaker 1: then like there's a mission to the moon that the
Speaker 1: US takes or whatever the world takes. And then they
Speaker 1: find this this thing and they take the top off
Speaker 1: of it, and it releases Rita and her evil forces.
Speaker 1: And so Zordon finds five young people teenagers with attitude,
Speaker 1: and brings them to the command center and gives them
Speaker 1: these power coins that then turn them into the Power Rangers,
Speaker 1: and so then they can transform and they can protect
Speaker 1: the earth from the evil forces of Rita. And so
Speaker 1: they would fight the putties, which were her like goons
Speaker 1: that were made of clay. They'd fight them, but then
Speaker 1: like they would make monsters out of clay who would
Speaker 1: be like Pudgy Pig or Madam Woe or you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, nasty Night, and they would fight them
Speaker 1: first with their blade blasters, then use their power weapons.
Speaker 1: If that didn't work, then they would she would make
Speaker 1: them huge, you know, building size, So then they would
Speaker 1: call their power swords, which were these like robot dinosaurs,
Speaker 1: and then they'd come out. And then the robot dinosaurs
Speaker 1: didn't do it, then they could combine the robot dinosaurs
Speaker 1: and make the Megasaurd, which would then fight the giant
Speaker 1: monster with his power sword, which came from the sky
Speaker 1: and would always win the day of course, of course,
Speaker 1: And what do you think you loved so much about
Speaker 1: that show and that show in particular, but also all
Speaker 1: of these kind of action packed, sort of magical adventure shows. Huh,
Speaker 1: I've never thought about it. So I had gotten into
Speaker 1: martial arts cotton Ninja Turtles. So, like, Jonah, did you
Speaker 1: get into martial arts because of Ninja Turtle? I did
Speaker 1: take taekwondo classes around that age. I don't know directly,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure it was influenced, probably by my favorite
Speaker 1: ninja turtle, Donna Tello, Yes, down, tell her from the
Speaker 1: movie is my favorite as my favorite ninja turtle, but
Speaker 1: usually Leonardo's is my favorite period. Got it. I find
Speaker 1: like I'm most like the two of him. However, like
Speaker 1: I feel like as a person, I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: of all four of them in some way, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? All four of them make one sam
Speaker 1: but like same here because I love pizza, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. That's the main thing. I'm a party dude,
Speaker 1: but I also do machines. Sometimes I lead, but I'm
Speaker 1: also rude. I'm cool but rude. Which one is funny?
Speaker 1: That depends. Michael Angelo is the funny one in the movies.
Speaker 1: In the cartoon, Rafael is the sarcastic, funny one. That's
Speaker 1: so weird that they switch that. Yeah, but because in
Speaker 1: the movie Rafael is the brooding you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like upset one. So he's so his idea is like
Speaker 1: the prodigal son, Like he doesn't feel like he's knit
Speaker 1: with the group because he's teen. He's like the most
Speaker 1: teen angsty one. So like he likes it's really trying
Speaker 1: to find himself and so like he leaves the group
Speaker 1: a little bit and then that's kind of like the
Speaker 1: push pull and so with that, then you have like
Speaker 1: Michael Angelo and Donna Tello or like the sort of
Speaker 1: like comedic duo or michel Angelo is just like jokes, jokes, jokes, gas.
Speaker 1: Dona Tello sits back and he's like very like quippy.
Speaker 1: But Leonardo is like the leader and he's like a
Speaker 1: little dorky, but he's trying to like keep his brothers together.
Speaker 1: But meanwhile fight with Rafa yell because he's like I'm
Speaker 1: trying to keep us together and he's like you you know,
Speaker 1: the Boston Median. So like that's essentially the this is
Speaker 1: just a very it's a very good film. If you
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, you're talking about the original film that
Speaker 1: had the song go Ninja Ninja from two that's from
Speaker 1: Ninja Turtles too, was there an original song from the
Speaker 1: first one? And can you sing Turtle Power, Turtle Power?
Speaker 1: That's right. So it's a rap song. I can't remember
Speaker 1: the name of the guy who did it, but I
Speaker 1: remember so well because it would come out the end
Speaker 1: of the movie on the half shown anyway, the guy
Speaker 1: would the guy would rap and he would like explain
Speaker 1: the plot of the movie, you know, which is what
Speaker 1: like rap songs in those days, it was just at
Speaker 1: the end of the movie that the person would wrap
Speaker 1: a thing that would explain the whole movie that you
Speaker 1: just saw. You just said, you just saw it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like and like clearly he saw
Speaker 1: it and they let him see and he was like,
Speaker 1: I'll take it on some notes and then that's what
Speaker 1: the rap would be about. It's not thematic. It's just
Speaker 1: directly Wikipedia. It was like Wikipedia before Wikipedia that synopsis
Speaker 1: of this this is incredible. So it was by this
Speaker 1: hip hop duo from New York called Partners in Crime.
Speaker 1: Crime is spelled k R y m E oh and
Speaker 1: that itself is a crime and it's an acronym for
Speaker 1: keep rhythm. You're motivating element. Oh my goodness. And you
Speaker 1: know they were like, that's it. That's that's in Crime
Speaker 1: and Turtles. We're going to take off. But my favorite
Speaker 1: thing about it, which Will also I hated, is he
Speaker 1: would explain the movie, but he get it so wrong,
Speaker 1: like he described all of them. It's like, uh, this
Speaker 1: person and raphah lale, he's the leader of the crew,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, he's not. He's specifically not he's
Speaker 1: not the lead. He's very much not the leader. It's like,
Speaker 1: maybe we should be listening to someone who can spell
Speaker 1: crime correctly, you know what I mean, Like it was
Speaker 1: clearly a mistake. They're like, no, actually, what it stands for.
Speaker 1: It stands for it keep rhythm and not even rhyme.
Speaker 1: Is it rhythm? Keep rhythm? You're motivating element, You're motivating element? Like,
Speaker 1: how do you even do that? Well? A couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, I was killing some time at a Walmart
Speaker 1: and they had sam and if you remember the Ninja
Speaker 1: Turtles video game, which was huge, oh and how and
Speaker 1: they had like you know how now you can buy
Speaker 1: the Arcade games. And I was playing it. I was
Speaker 1: going some time, and then like part of me was
Speaker 1: like I should buy this, and then I feel like
Speaker 1: I couldn't really do it and probably would not be
Speaker 1: good for my productivity. But that was an incredible game.
Speaker 1: Don't you think it was an incredible game. You can
Speaker 1: buy it now. They have like the little mini it's
Speaker 1: called one up games where they it's like a little
Speaker 1: mini box. That's what I was playing. Yeah, yeah, do
Speaker 1: you have it? I don't. It's like one of those
Speaker 1: things where you like I could buy it for myself.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I find a special occasion and the stays
Speaker 1: of the store. But I want one very much. I
Speaker 1: want that, and I want NBA Jam Arcade Machine. They
Speaker 1: just released maybe a little bit ago game called Revenge
Speaker 1: of the Shread or New Turtles. So it's like very
Speaker 1: throwback to the old like Arcade and Introls games, and
Speaker 1: it's like a multiplayer game. You completely friends online and
Speaker 1: you can be the four Turtles plus two mores. It
Speaker 1: can be a total six people and you're just like
Speaker 1: going through side scroll fighting. It's so much fun as
Speaker 1: like a full almost forty year old adult man playing
Speaker 1: with my other almost forty year or forty plus adult
Speaker 1: men friends or friends and like playing as Ninja Turtles
Speaker 1: and like calling out the guy who you are, and
Speaker 1: I'm Leo because I'm I'm most like him, and then
Speaker 1: we played through the levels. But it's great Ninja Turtles
Speaker 1: Revenge of the of the Shredder or Return Return Revenge
Speaker 1: of the Shredder. But if you like that original game,
Speaker 1: you'll have a blast with this because it really much
Speaker 1: is that? Okay, I'm gonna check it out for sure, Vanessa,
Speaker 1: maybe you could get it from minute what's the name
Speaker 1: of it again? You know at that time of the year,
Speaker 1: people are giving gifts Nina Turtles Revenge of the of
Speaker 1: the Shredder. It's a downloadable game probably cause like for
Speaker 1: I can play for that for myself. It's easy. You know.
Speaker 1: We did an episode last year about the Ninja Turtles
Speaker 1: and we talked about this thing that that no one
Speaker 1: really remembers, and I feel like I want to throw
Speaker 1: it out there to see if you remember it. Hostess
Speaker 1: made these Ninja Turtle custard pies. You remember those? I
Speaker 1: absolutely do, Okay, I absolutely incredible. Jonah was really into those,
Speaker 1: like I love them because I think they were they
Speaker 1: were apple, they had like green on the inside. It
Speaker 1: was supposed to be like this the slime. Yeah, Jonah,
Speaker 1: is this so nice for you? Because I feel like
Speaker 1: our guest when you brought this up, did not remember them.
Speaker 1: There's not even a lot on the internet about these,
Speaker 1: Like they're kind of kind of an obscure eighties kind
Speaker 1: of hostess promo thing. I wonder if they were bigger
Speaker 1: in the Midwest, maybe because we're from Oh maybe maybe
Speaker 1: because like, yeah, I feel like those like factory made
Speaker 1: snacks really really took hold in the Midwest. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember we had them at school, had like a
Speaker 1: little snack bar and you could buy him at school.
Speaker 1: And I remember like when they had the custard Ninja
Speaker 1: turtle ones, like the Floresca ones. That was I was
Speaker 1: all about this. I love them because that's the thing
Speaker 1: like for me, if you put Nina Trolls on anything
Speaker 1: like that, that branding and marketing worked hook line and
Speaker 1: sync around me. I was like, I got you, because
Speaker 1: the guys eat this right right right, so like I
Speaker 1: would the guys meaning the turtles being in the Ninja Turtles. Yes,
Speaker 1: the four Brothers. So you thought any food that was
Speaker 1: branded like Ninja Turtles was stuff that they actually ate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was like, I mean that's what kid with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. I was like, I eat their cereal. I
Speaker 1: gotta eat the Hostes buys I'm talking about. I was
Speaker 1: all about Pizza Hut pizza because like it was, it
Speaker 1: was at the beginning of the first like VHS tape,
Speaker 1: it was commercial for Pizza Hut. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I gotta eat Pizza Hut while I watching Turtles, and
Speaker 1: like in Detroit, Pizza Hut wouldn't deliver to my house.
Speaker 1: It was only Dominoes, So like had Dominoes and like
Speaker 1: kind of a grudgingly eat it. But I was like
Speaker 1: I'm eating this and watching the Turtles. You thought, sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling I'm I'm like kind of like trolling you
Speaker 1: a seven year old child because there was a pizza
Speaker 1: before the show. Well, because they were eating pizza, so
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, it must be this pizza. It was
Speaker 1: on the VHS tape before, so like it was not
Speaker 1: the tape that you recorded it on, but like the
Speaker 1: VHS tape that you bought. Okay, that logic makes sense
Speaker 1: to me. By the way, I'm so sorry I'm questioning
Speaker 1: your seven year old logic. Now, just to go back
Speaker 1: really quickly, you were saying I was asking you about,
Speaker 1: like what you think you loved about these shows so much,
Speaker 1: and you were saying you you took martial arts because
Speaker 1: of them, But I'm just curious. Yeah, Well, it's it's
Speaker 1: like very active, and it was like a very clear
Speaker 1: sense of like justice and like right and wrong and
Speaker 1: like physically like implementing justice. You know. So as a kid,
Speaker 1: I felt very feeling spainly very appealing to me. Was like, oh,
Speaker 1: these are like these warriors of right, like this ancient justice.
Speaker 1: Like there's a very clear form of evil and like
Speaker 1: you know, the evil is very obvious, and then like
Speaker 1: these people are these these powers from elsewhere that they
Speaker 1: were because like that's the same reason why I like
Speaker 1: I like Superman. As a kid, it was like there
Speaker 1: was nothing that could happen that wasn't solvable by him,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, yeah, it was like and I love Batman,
Speaker 1: but Batman was very reactionary, like something would happen and
Speaker 1: then he'd go and he'd like figure out and beat
Speaker 1: a person who did it. But Superman would stop the
Speaker 1: thing from happening, you know, and all these shows it
Speaker 1: is like something was happening and they they go and
Speaker 1: they stop it in time, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: before it became a problem, or it was in the
Speaker 1: middle of it become a problem, they'd stopped it, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It was like very active and
Speaker 1: not reactive. That appealed to me as a kid at least,
Speaker 1: but even still like that's what for the cartoons, you know,
Speaker 1: that was the thing. And like for he and also
Speaker 1: like this this duality for like he man was was
Speaker 1: great because he was like this was wimpy thing. Then
Speaker 1: he became the most powerful man in the universe when
Speaker 1: he held the sword up and then said I have
Speaker 1: a power, and like it was just like things like
Speaker 1: very powerful and very strong, you know, yeah with a
Speaker 1: little kid, like I was like a very wimpy, little skinny,
Speaker 1: little little kid. So like the idea of like being
Speaker 1: ultimately powerful totally even as a little boy, I was like,
Speaker 1: I demand power and I got that. That's incredible, that's
Speaker 1: so great. I was just gonna say, like with Power Rangers,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that like in their off time, they're
Speaker 1: like cool teens, and there's probably also something really cool
Speaker 1: about them having all this power but also on their
Speaker 1: time off. That's kind of how I always felt when
Speaker 1: I would watch Roundhouse on Nickelodeon, do you remember, Because
Speaker 1: it would be like they'd be doing sketch comedy and
Speaker 1: playing all these like wacky characters, and then at the
Speaker 1: end they just like be wearing knee pads and roller
Speaker 1: blades and just kind of like hanging out. And I
Speaker 1: was like, then they're gonna go like they're gonna go
Speaker 1: like pizza and like have the best time because they're
Speaker 1: such cool teens, exactly, the coolest teens. Tommy and Jason
Speaker 1: are like doing martial arts in the in the youth center.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, Zach is also doing that, but
Speaker 1: he's also doing hip hop keto, and uh trenis doing
Speaker 1: taichi and Billy's like inventing something and Kimberly is doing gymnastics.
Speaker 1: Like that was like and You're like, oh, that seems
Speaker 1: the best place to hang out, and I want to
Speaker 1: be one of them and among them. And they're at
Speaker 1: the juice bar hanging out with Ernie so cool Balkan
Speaker 1: Skull or like trying to pick on them, But I
Speaker 1: don't know why Balkan Skull picked. They were trying to
Speaker 1: pick on Billy and like and I would work, but like, Billy,
Speaker 1: you are a superhero. But that's the fun part because
Speaker 1: like he's like the nerd and getting beat up, but
Speaker 1: then like he can transform and then turn into the
Speaker 1: Blue Ranger and like fight the world's greatest threats. The
Speaker 1: duality duality Do you ever watch because it seems like
Speaker 1: they remake a lot of these cartoons now, Like me
Speaker 1: were watching an old cartoon and then it's like there's
Speaker 1: like a new version like Strawberry Sharkcake or Muppet Babies,
Speaker 1: where like everything's like kind of this weird like three
Speaker 1: D D I And it's like to me, I'm like
Speaker 1: me and my wife were just saying that the old
Speaker 1: cartoons are so much better, right, There's so much but
Speaker 1: I I like I I go back because because sometimes
Speaker 1: you feel like, oh, I'm just being an old man
Speaker 1: and like, well my back in my day things. But
Speaker 1: then you know you watch and you're like, no, this
Speaker 1: was it was truly better. I mean some some of
Speaker 1: the things are stuff like like he Man like as
Speaker 1: an animated show, truly not incredile because you can see
Speaker 1: like they were like saving money. They would because they
Speaker 1: would like reuse a lot of cells and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But but even still, like even the world they built
Speaker 1: was very cool and advanced because they mixed like Viking
Speaker 1: culture with like technology and like with sort of like
Speaker 1: these like eroticism truly, like they're all wearing like tights
Speaker 1: but also like armor and like these huge belts and
Speaker 1: like fur and they'd be like you know, or not
Speaker 1: even tights but just like thongs and then like bear
Speaker 1: legs and big boots with fur on the boots, and
Speaker 1: you're like, that's sexy. You know, they did it. They
Speaker 1: did that for us, thank you. And one of our
Speaker 1: episodes we played the new Muppet Babies song and like
Speaker 1: you know, the old ones like so iconic, and then
Speaker 1: the new ones like this woman being like love no
Speaker 1: gun like it so like, no, don't do that. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm remembering it. Jonah, You're right, that's very accurate.
Speaker 1: It was like this classic kind of do oppy thing,
Speaker 1: and then they remade it into this weird pop No
Speaker 1: was like my baby Babies, Like I was like, it
Speaker 1: was like but that wasn't like what was the modern
Speaker 1: music at that time, because that came out in the eighties,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't like of the time. So they make
Speaker 1: that poppy, you have to make that. They gotta make
Speaker 1: a disco song, what I mean, if you're gonna do
Speaker 1: the New Muppet Babies totally totally. Yeah, it sounds like
Speaker 1: they were not keeping rhythm. They're motivating thing whatever. I
Speaker 1: can't remember that motivating element. Yes, motivating call back. If
Speaker 1: I'm going to just sidestep for one second, that work backstep.
Speaker 1: So I got so into Power Rangers. Me and my
Speaker 1: friend Lamar, we would like make our own Power Rangers
Speaker 1: show because we've been through it, and we watched Power
Speaker 1: Rangers in through well passed when we should have been
Speaker 1: watching it, you know, I mean to the point where
Speaker 1: we were like, oh no, we if we were gonna
Speaker 1: become Power Rangers in real life, it would have happened
Speaker 1: now because we're the actual age right, just holding on.
Speaker 1: We had the power morphers like the toys, and we
Speaker 1: always keep them on ourselves. And the idea was like,
Speaker 1: here's the thinking. If for some reason in the universe
Speaker 1: it becomes real and a monster attacks by transitive property,
Speaker 1: our morphers should work and then we will also become
Speaker 1: Power Rangers, like we so just have it on you
Speaker 1: just in case, because you don't want to be without it.
Speaker 1: And then if it works and only one of us
Speaker 1: has it and it works, you'll be so mad. So
Speaker 1: have it and be ready. We're so obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: Did you ever feel like it was starting to work
Speaker 1: and you were like, wait a second, Oh, I think
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be the one. No, not, damn it,
Speaker 1: it's more time. And that was the closest closest been yet.
Speaker 1: That's the closest it's been. I think, like my shoes
Speaker 1: started to change, but I wasn't looking down at them,
Speaker 1: so I'm not sure. Okay, okay, okay. So I got close,
Speaker 1: got pretty close, but then I got so into it
Speaker 1: that I've discovered. The Power Rangers came from this Japanese
Speaker 1: thing called Sentai. These are Japanese action shows that for
Speaker 1: the America. What they did was they took the action
Speaker 1: parts of it, cut it and then put American actors
Speaker 1: in the off costume parts. So very so they made
Speaker 1: power You just were very cheap. In Japan. These were
Speaker 1: like huge budgeted, like big shows with like explosions and
Speaker 1: like all the fight scenes would be like humans and
Speaker 1: then people in costumes. It was like very big, it's like,
Speaker 1: but then the haim Saban took that and then made
Speaker 1: it Power Rangers, and so they and the tremendously underpaid everybody,
Speaker 1: and my very cheap I found out about it, so
Speaker 1: I got my hands on the tapes. I had my
Speaker 1: dad order the VHS tapes with Japanese with English subtitles,
Speaker 1: so sub obsessed. I watched this it's called Jew Ranger,
Speaker 1: and I knew everything about it, so I got so
Speaker 1: deep and and then like I would like know all
Speaker 1: the theme songs to the Sentai shows, so like Zoo
Speaker 1: Raw and and and like Go Go five and Die
Speaker 1: Ranger and all these things, because I was like obsessed,
Speaker 1: and like even still I'm like I just like know them,
Speaker 1: like starts trying to learn Japanese to like know how
Speaker 1: to watch these shows better and then get in the
Speaker 1: anime and all that stuff. Anyway, that's the obsession. I
Speaker 1: was obsessed. If anyone could have morphed into a Power
Speaker 1: Ranger in real time, it would have been you and
Speaker 1: your friend. I still think I will be able to
Speaker 1: do you still carry that thing. I usually had it
Speaker 1: like right there. I wish I might have put it
Speaker 1: away because if somebody was coming over to the house
Speaker 1: and I was embarrassed about it, I say, what if
Speaker 1: a force of people is trying to sabotage you and
Speaker 1: hit it, mean on one, probably pretty important to locate
Speaker 1: that thing where it gets into the wrong hands. So,
Speaker 1: as an adult, then got this limited edition Green Ranger
Speaker 1: Dragon Dagger. So I have this thing and it's a
Speaker 1: gold plated and it's like an adult version of the
Speaker 1: toy prop and the Green Ranger who was like the
Speaker 1: ultimate cool power Ranger who came in later into the
Speaker 1: season and like was like was rocking everybody's socks off,
Speaker 1: and then had the dragons or, which introduced like a
Speaker 1: new thing. He'd use this to call his dragons ord.
Speaker 1: How's this work? And like when you would do that,
Speaker 1: he would like play this like dagger as like a
Speaker 1: flute and they would call the dragons ord and then
Speaker 1: the dragons would come. It was like this big giant
Speaker 1: robot dragon that would fight alongside the mcazord. And there's
Speaker 1: a big deal when he when they both transformed into one,
Speaker 1: they became a dragon Megazord. But I had this toy
Speaker 1: and then So I got this thing as an adult.
Speaker 1: I keep on saying as an adult, and I I
Speaker 1: mean it because I am as an adult. I am
Speaker 1: an adult, I swear, But like you know, I still
Speaker 1: have like all this memorabili and stuff because bandis who
Speaker 1: makes the toys. They know that, like my generation grew
Speaker 1: up watching stuff, so that now they're like and they
Speaker 1: call it the legacy line, like and here's the legacy Morphers.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, yeah, of course I'm gonna buy it.
Speaker 1: Of course I am. There's no way. So I do
Speaker 1: have the legacy more for like the new one. And
Speaker 1: I sent my friend Lamar who lived in England. Now
Speaker 1: I was always a Blue Ranger, he was always a
Speaker 1: Black Ranger, So I sent him the Black Rangers like
Speaker 1: Morper to be like, hey, I remember this and our
Speaker 1: power coins. So we're still excited. When he got it,
Speaker 1: he was so excited because I mean it was our life,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like we were obsessed because
Speaker 1: we would go, especially in the summertime. We would go
Speaker 1: like when week at his house when we can at
Speaker 1: my house, back and forth all summer. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about like watching Power Rangers were watching you know,
Speaker 1: anime watching like whatever and then like coming up with
Speaker 1: our own Power Ranger shows and all that. So it
Speaker 1: was such an important part of our lives. That's sending
Speaker 1: him this thing. I was like, oh, it's just like
Speaker 1: a crystallization of what our childhood wash. And then it's
Speaker 1: on a sad note, the guy who played the Green Ranger,
Speaker 1: Jason David Frank, just passed and maybe a few weeks ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like he because he took his own life, and
Speaker 1: it was really the saddest thing because like it was
Speaker 1: such an important part of me growing up. I remember
Speaker 1: like the first time he came up on there. This
Speaker 1: was just maybe a few weeks ago. And so like
Speaker 1: me and my friend Lamar hadn't talked in like a while,
Speaker 1: not not not for any reason, because he lived in
Speaker 1: England and some the time difference is hard, you know,
Speaker 1: so like just to like keep up is like a
Speaker 1: hard thing. But like we talked to each other, and
Speaker 1: it was like a really nice thing to kind of
Speaker 1: like talk and remember and reminisce on that. Like but yeah,
Speaker 1: it was nice in the in the in the face
Speaker 1: of like that really sad thing. I mean, I was
Speaker 1: just I just wait, I just hold onto the vittle
Speaker 1: more for you know, and ay the time comes, I'll
Speaker 1: be ready. All right, Well, we're going to take a
Speaker 1: quick commercial break, but we'll be right back with this in. Okay,
Speaker 1: and we're back. So Sam, now we want to play
Speaker 1: a little game with you that is called legit moan
Speaker 1: or unnecessary growing legit moan, necessary groan And basically this
Speaker 1: is inspired by a now defunct column in our local
Speaker 1: paper growing up called the Cleveland Plain Dealer, And there
Speaker 1: was a section called Monday Moaning that we used to
Speaker 1: read where every Monday the paper would print extremely petty
Speaker 1: complaints that their readers would submit. We used to find
Speaker 1: them very funny as kids, and we find them even
Speaker 1: funnier today as adults. So we picked a few for you,
Speaker 1: and we will decide whether we will individually decide whether
Speaker 1: we think they're legit moans are unnecessary groans. And again,
Speaker 1: these are all at least ten years old, but let's
Speaker 1: get to it right. So I found these this morning.
Speaker 1: First one is from Parma, Ohio. It's a short one.
Speaker 1: My moan is about people cutting grass. I don't know
Speaker 1: who's lazier, people who have their grass cut or people
Speaker 1: cutting the grass. With equipment worth ten dollars for a
Speaker 1: postage stamp sized a lot. So this person is upset
Speaker 1: saying people are lazy if I hire someone to cut
Speaker 1: their yard, but also saying people are lazy if they
Speaker 1: buy a lot of equipment to cut a small yard. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you want from these people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess they think people should use like more equipment
Speaker 1: that's cut it themselves, but use more paired down equipment
Speaker 1: if they I think that's what they're saying. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think. But like even the complaint is like confusing.
Speaker 1: It is because like you can't be mad at both.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to use proper equipment, let them
Speaker 1: then get somebody professionally to come and do that lawn
Speaker 1: for them. Also, you're trying to have garden workers and
Speaker 1: like lawn care professionals unemployed out there right, no unnecessary
Speaker 1: What do you think? I'm saying the same thing. If
Speaker 1: you want people that cut their lawns, you don't get
Speaker 1: to pick their lawnmower kind of grip. I cut my
Speaker 1: lawn and I have a pretty modest lawmower. It's electric.
Speaker 1: It's not a big deal. You would love you but yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think I fit in that category of having
Speaker 1: a pretty small set up from my yard. But I
Speaker 1: also would think if I got a nicer lawbower or
Speaker 1: hire someone to do it, that would be cool. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say, like, that makes me lazy. So I think
Speaker 1: this is a really misguided moan. I agree, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say unnecessary grown as well, a lot of spirit time.
Speaker 1: And then they're they're watching somebody how the lawnmowing goes,
Speaker 1: and they're like, ah, you should do what I do
Speaker 1: for my land. And then all your gear is too small,
Speaker 1: We're too big. It shouldn't be that. I picture this
Speaker 1: person on their front porch. The person next to them
Speaker 1: has landscapers. He's like, they're lazy. The person that read
Speaker 1: them has like a riding lawmower, is like, they're lazy
Speaker 1: and something else to worry about. Find something else. Exactly.
Speaker 1: They're out there like cut each blade individually with scissors.
Speaker 1: See that's you know, the exactly alright. So we're growing
Speaker 1: on that one, Vanessa, Do you want to read this?
Speaker 1: Next one is a little bit Halloween theme, but I
Speaker 1: think it's still you know, just relevant. I think it's yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: to the gentleman who was surprised when trigger treaters discarded
Speaker 1: his wife's homemade brownies. Certainly tossing them as garbage into
Speaker 1: your yard was pretty rude, but are you really surprised
Speaker 1: they weren't eaten. It's a shame that your wife's thoughtful
Speaker 1: efforts went to waste in this age of demented people
Speaker 1: trying to harm children by poisoning them or putting pins
Speaker 1: into their candy. I wouldn't allow my daughter to eat
Speaker 1: homemade brownies unless they were from somebody I knew well
Speaker 1: enough to be certain she wouldn't come to harm by
Speaker 1: eating them. Stick to store bought candy. It's much less
Speaker 1: work for everybody involved, and you can be certain it
Speaker 1: won't go to waste. That's from a dino Ohio, I
Speaker 1: think legit mo And they even call out the fact that, yes,
Speaker 1: it's rude to throw it in the front lawn, but
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be given out like strangers baked goods because
Speaker 1: also who knows allergy that we don't know what you're
Speaker 1: doing with? Yes, I agree, just don't you know what ma'am?
Speaker 1: First of all, yeah, just buy some candy. Also, get
Speaker 1: in or get out, get you know exactly. Jonah and
Speaker 1: I have talked about, you know, there are worse things
Speaker 1: to be given, including pennies and apples, which we've gotten
Speaker 1: yes Halloween, and those are But yeah, I think this
Speaker 1: person has a very it's a legit moment. I think
Speaker 1: this is a good point, Like you just in this
Speaker 1: day and age, you can't be making your homemade brownies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's aside from just even if we trust this woman,
Speaker 1: we don't know her well enough to have a list
Speaker 1: of ingredients, yeah, exactly, or even if they're posted, like
Speaker 1: can we really true? Like who's the overseeing I that's
Speaker 1: like making sure she's using these ingredients? Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, what's the standard here? I bet it
Speaker 1: goes back in this thing like I'm sure her husband
Speaker 1: or whatever her neighbor was like it's lazy to buy candy,
Speaker 1: you gotta make it yourself. Yeah yeah, just let's get
Speaker 1: over this, lady. Let's let's use the things that we
Speaker 1: can buy to make all of our lives easy. That
Speaker 1: is called capitalism. I mean, I think the tone of
Speaker 1: the letter is harsh to the gentleman, like in this
Speaker 1: age of demented people, Like it's like very kind of traumatic.
Speaker 1: It feels like also it feels a little bit like
Speaker 1: how did this guy find this out? Like did this
Speaker 1: other guy that confide in it, or like did this
Speaker 1: other guy tell him? And instead of him being like,
Speaker 1: I think it's okay, like she should like be just
Speaker 1: buying candy, he decided to just go straight to Monday
Speaker 1: Morning with that opinion, right right right, Sorry to interrupted,
Speaker 1: it's okay. I was just actually just watching Freaks and
Speaker 1: Geeks and there's an episode with the mom like fake
Speaker 1: stuff and none of the kids will eat it, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of sad for her. And I
Speaker 1: do think like there can be a nice sentiment of
Speaker 1: like wanting to make something and do something special. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it just feels like that time has just kind of
Speaker 1: passed and we need to kind of accept it. And
Speaker 1: a lot of these Monday Moments are people who are
Speaker 1: very stuck in the past. It's just not the way
Speaker 1: things are now. Just buy some candy. It's just easier.
Speaker 1: Just make your life easier. You know, you don't need
Speaker 1: to cut every blade of grass, you don't need to
Speaker 1: bake brownies. Just yeah, you're grouping these people together. Why
Speaker 1: am I making such an asshole? Today, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: making out these observations that are so like, okay, so
Speaker 1: what do we think that we think this is a
Speaker 1: legit moan? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's messaging is harsh,
Speaker 1: but the message is salient. Yes, yes, okay, exactly, very
Speaker 1: well put this is the last one. This is short
Speaker 1: but sweet Lyndhurst, Ohio. I wish neighbors on either side
Speaker 1: of me would tend to their own business and not mine.
Speaker 1: I mean, what do you think, Sam, I feel like
Speaker 1: we're missing a little bit of context. Exactly. I think
Speaker 1: so too. And then you're like, what is on either
Speaker 1: side of you? That's a problem, that's I was maybe
Speaker 1: either side of me and the police and the Child
Speaker 1: Tective Services would just get off my back. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you're not giving us the whole picture here, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, yeah, tough one to judge. And also, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to write this into a local paper and
Speaker 1: not provided that was my first thought was like, do
Speaker 1: you have a friend or is there Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: if I can take a leap here. The logic is
Speaker 1: maybe my neighbors will see this and they will know
Speaker 1: it's me, and it's like a subtle message my only
Speaker 1: thing about that is almost everybody in Lyndhurst, Ohio has
Speaker 1: neighbors on either side of them. Yeah, you know, unless
Speaker 1: you live on you know, the first house on the
Speaker 1: street or something like that. So and even in that case,
Speaker 1: you might be in a corner where there are people
Speaker 1: on either side. So the point is, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to get into the way the city is divided, but
Speaker 1: I just want to say, yeah, it is really unless
Speaker 1: this person is always telling their neighbors how much they
Speaker 1: love my day moaning and love to write into it,
Speaker 1: or if they purposely planned to write this and then say,
Speaker 1: did you see Monday moaning today one of my complaints
Speaker 1: got posted. It could be it could be a little
Speaker 1: too subtle, yeah, or like in my head, they tried
Speaker 1: to do that and then they get a little nervous
Speaker 1: about it, so they wrote in like some details and
Speaker 1: like that's too obvious thing outlined by line until that
Speaker 1: was all that was left. They kept cutting out the
Speaker 1: details until there was literally just my neighbors with mine
Speaker 1: their own business, so many exces on that paper, just
Speaker 1: lines crossed out. Yeah, this one is truly a hard
Speaker 1: one to judge, but just based on this person's coping
Speaker 1: mechanisms with when they're faced with neighbors they're not crazy about.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's hard for me to support it
Speaker 1: because unless you know, sometimes we've once found like a
Speaker 1: continuation of like some and responded to someone else's Monday moaning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like I wonder if this person would respond to
Speaker 1: their own moaning like the next week and say, like,
Speaker 1: just to be a little more specific, this is who
Speaker 1: I am, and these are the specific things that happened,
Speaker 1: and like you know who you are neighbors. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's something that I made up that I probably didn't happen.
Speaker 1: So in that case, I'm going to call this an
Speaker 1: unnecessary grown just because there's too general. I agree, Sam,
Speaker 1: what do you think I'm going to say unecessary growing
Speaker 1: because it truly, quite literally you're groaning, but there's no details. Unnecessary,
Speaker 1: you haven't said anything, so it's unnecessary. I'm gonna agree
Speaker 1: with both of you, and I think by calling this legitimate,
Speaker 1: you're really rewarding this like the most like passive aggressive
Speaker 1: way problems. And I just cannot I can't put my
Speaker 1: stamp on that. I'm saying uncessary grown all the way
Speaker 1: on this one. I agree, and if this was a herald,
Speaker 1: each of those scenes, the scenelets would have been about
Speaker 1: all three of the houses. And then so the one
Speaker 1: in the center has the lawn that's not taken care of,
Speaker 1: or it has a lawn a complicated of a lawnmower,
Speaker 1: and then big brownies, and the one on one side
Speaker 1: is complaining about the lawnmower and on the other side
Speaker 1: is complaining about the brownies. And then that's how it
Speaker 1: all comes together the last act. All it makes one
Speaker 1: big scene where you've seen all the little things and
Speaker 1: they all come together that last one and complain about it.
Speaker 1: And this is the letter of the person's like, get
Speaker 1: off my back seeing Oh my god, incredible. And then
Speaker 1: at the end they go, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming tonight. Be sure to tip your bartenders. They're going
Speaker 1: to use that money to pay for dumb things like
Speaker 1: rent and insulin. They use a stuff like college dues
Speaker 1: and rent child support. So okay, So Sam, what a
Speaker 1: delight this has been? And where can people find you?
Speaker 1: You can find me on the i G. I'm on
Speaker 1: the i G. You know, the Sam Richardson. I don't
Speaker 1: really use Twitter because I don't like to type things
Speaker 1: you can find me on Twitter, I guess and just
Speaker 1: in life, you know, after party you seem an after party,
Speaker 1: after party, yes, and just other various shows. Go back
Speaker 1: watch Detroitter's watch Champagne ll oh, Champagne Ill, Yes, I
Speaker 1: didn't mention that so funny and and Detroitters. Just if
Speaker 1: people haven't seen it, it's absolutely a hilarious work of art. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, okay, is that okay with you all? Okay
Speaker 1: with you all? Y'all cool with that? I hope that's
Speaker 1: fine with you, and I hope you're right with it.
Speaker 1: I'll say, also, go see Office Christmas Party if you've
Speaker 1: got it. Yeah, Oh my god, oh my god. The
Speaker 1: time we spent in Atlanta doing Office Christmas Party together.
Speaker 1: Who could ever forget? You could ever forget the Confederate
Speaker 1: cemetery across from our hotel and being like we probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't be here. You know, there was like a cannon,
Speaker 1: Confederate cannon that was pointed directly at the elevators. When
Speaker 1: you get off the elevator, you're faced by a cannon
Speaker 1: that was used to kill i'd say, hundreds of soldiers.
Speaker 1: Very spooky, scarily for us, and they would do like
Speaker 1: demonstrations and stuff and like have reenacted. Oh yeah, they
Speaker 1: would do demonstrations. Yeah, there was like a big Confederate
Speaker 1: funeral reenactment or something one day, and yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: we'll steer clear of that. Yeah. Yeah, the memories, the memories. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much Sam for joining us today. That
Speaker 1: was it has been the best. Thank you. It's been
Speaker 1: so much fun. Oh my gosh, this has been incredible,
Speaker 1: and we wanted to say thank you that everyone is
Speaker 1: listening and say if you enjoyed that, please subscribe them
Speaker 1: podcast and keep an eye up for next six episode
Speaker 1: of How Did We Get Weird, where we'll discussed more
Speaker 1: stories from our childhood and cultural touch stones like action
Speaker 1: packed started around This is pul mean is real silly
Speaker 1: mood action packed television shows. That's what I meant to say.