Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Vanessa Mayor and this is my brother Jonah.
Speaker 1: We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood
Speaker 1: in nostalgia and how it shaped us into the people
Speaker 1: we are today.
Speaker 2: We are really yo yo excited about our guests today.
Speaker 3: Welcome to How did we get weird?
Speaker 2: So, Jonah, I was thinking about when we were younger
Speaker 2: and how you were in this sort of advanced program
Speaker 2: in middle school for really smart kids that I wasn't
Speaker 2: able to join, I wasn't picked to join. So do
Speaker 2: you want to elaborate on what you did in this
Speaker 2: program called Horizons?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's funny you weren't in this program because
Speaker 1: you ended up going to an Ivy League school getting
Speaker 1: way better grades than me in high school. But this
Speaker 1: was probably around like fifth grade, and I don't know
Speaker 1: how they picked kids to be in Horizons. It might
Speaker 1: have been some kind of standardized test.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We would meet in the mornings and I designed their logo.
Speaker 1: I remember it said Horizons. It had like a mountain
Speaker 1: range in the back and the o was like one
Speaker 1: of those cubes. Everyone drew one of those like three
Speaker 1: D squares with the two the diagonal line. I remember
Speaker 1: it yeah, and we would have just like other assignments,
Speaker 1: Like we would do these assignments. We would meet in
Speaker 1: the mornings, and I don't remember a lot of the content.
Speaker 1: This was, you know, a good right.
Speaker 2: You guys would kind of come up with inventions and stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, computer program inventions. Yeah. We would have projects reports. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, we were young too. I
Speaker 1: mean I think we were like ten, eleven, twelve, so
Speaker 1: no one was coming up with anything to uh groundbreaking.
Speaker 2: I don't think, well, I'll have you know, and you
Speaker 2: probably don't remember this that I was kind of in
Speaker 2: the upper reading class and we had our class while
Speaker 2: some of the kids were in Horizons, you know, obviously
Speaker 2: two grades later than your grade, but we got to
Speaker 2: have donuts in class so the teacher would make us
Speaker 2: feel better for not having been picked for the gifted program.
Speaker 2: And I remember you saying, although I don't think you
Speaker 2: remember this, that you tried to stop that from happening
Speaker 2: in your class because you thought it was unfair.
Speaker 1: I remember bringing in donuts one morning, like I think
Speaker 1: me to get back at like the Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I was like, we should be able to have donuts
Speaker 1: because everyone's getting donuts and why should we be penalized for,
Speaker 1: you know, just being so much smarter than everyone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you wanted to both be in the gifted
Speaker 2: program and get donuts, and that.
Speaker 3: Probably the donuts first, then the gift program.
Speaker 2: Well, I got donuts every week while you little smarties
Speaker 2: want to. So so with that Jonah in your gifted brain,
Speaker 2: do you think we should introduce our guest?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I've also noticed you kind of do this thing
Speaker 1: when you don't want to finish, like an insult, You
Speaker 1: just kind of like let it drift off a little bit.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yes, our guest today is an actor and comedian
Speaker 1: who we first saw were obsessed with is a yoyo
Speaker 1: master castrass on local news shows. You may know them
Speaker 1: from his work on other shows like The Office, Better
Speaker 1: Call Saul.
Speaker 4: Welcome Mark, guys. So, what was the reading class? Also
Speaker 4: a gifted program? Yeah?
Speaker 2: What was a reading So here's the thing is, the
Speaker 2: reading classes were kind of in two sections. I believe
Speaker 2: there was the more advanced reading level and there was
Speaker 2: the regular level or whatever, and we were in the
Speaker 2: more advanced level. So it really sort of extra burned
Speaker 2: that we didn't get into the gifted program. So I
Speaker 2: think we had reading class during the first thing in
Speaker 2: the mornings when Horizons was happening, and so I think
Speaker 2: it only happened once a week, so the Horizons kids
Speaker 2: would like normally be in our reading class except one
Speaker 2: day a week when they would go do their Horizons
Speaker 2: and we felt like absolute shit. So we got donuts.
Speaker 2: So we got donuts in our class. The thing is,
Speaker 2: I don't know if the regular reading class got donuts
Speaker 2: or if it was just for us, like sour pusses,
Speaker 2: who were like, where's our classmates? They went to Horizons,
Speaker 2: you know, screw them?
Speaker 4: We had none of them in our well. I mean,
Speaker 4: we were congenital morons.
Speaker 2: In my town, aren't where are you from again?
Speaker 4: On Alaska, Wisconsin, which is actually a really great town
Speaker 4: and an incredible school system. Maybe we did have gifted programs,
Speaker 4: but I just didn't catch a wind of them because
Speaker 4: I was so low on the academic totem pole. I
Speaker 4: did get donuts once in kindergarten, a donut, I guess
Speaker 4: in my speech therapy class, which included all of only me. Really,
Speaker 4: it was just me and the teacher in my speech
Speaker 4: therapy class. Yeah, I couldn't pronounce my RS as a child.
Speaker 4: I was an adorable little kid that had soft urs.
Speaker 2: I didn't say there ares. I think that our mom
Speaker 2: was like that. Did you know that, Jonah, I think
Speaker 2: our mom had a hard time seeing her RS when
Speaker 2: she was a kid.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So Mark, if you pronounced your rs, well, then the
Speaker 1: teacher w pull a donut out of yeah, out of.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: No, it was a little more sanitary than that, but
Speaker 4: not much more sanitary.
Speaker 2: It sounds like this speech therapy worked. And maybe because
Speaker 2: of the donuts.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do love donuts and I always have and
Speaker 4: so maybe she is like, Okay, this sloughingly child will
Speaker 4: probably like these fatty donuts. That'll get him to speak correctly.
Speaker 4: And now you do, and now I do, and I
Speaker 4: still eat donuts. So this is fascinating and I'm happy
Speaker 4: I brought this up for every one.
Speaker 3: We are too. We are too.
Speaker 1: If you're going to have a donut these days, are
Speaker 1: you into just like a classic kind of like diner
Speaker 1: donut or do you like the more kind of fancy,
Speaker 1: kind of more unorthodox donut.
Speaker 4: I like the classic donuts. My favorite is a chocolate
Speaker 4: covered custard Bismarck and whoa, I'll go on, and those
Speaker 4: are probably the least healthy. Those and apple fritters. And
Speaker 4: apple fritters are in credibly unhealthy even though they have
Speaker 4: fruit in them. They're just terrible for you. And at
Speaker 4: the very bottom is like the super fancy hipstery donuts
Speaker 4: that they have now and cake donuts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, cake donuts are tough for me too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, They're just dry, and yeah.
Speaker 2: They're not as good donut. I think I know what
Speaker 2: your favorite donut is. Can I guess?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure what it is, so yeah, please guys.
Speaker 2: I feel like, at least as a kid, your favorite
Speaker 2: donut was a jelly filled donut.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I still do like a jelly filled although once in
Speaker 1: a while I feel like I get one and I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is disgusting. But I think they can be really good.
Speaker 1: It depends on the jelly.
Speaker 3: Add yeah, I hear it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I also think the amount of powdered sugar
Speaker 4: on the outside.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4: We used to call those goppies in my family, and
Speaker 4: I remember going to the grocery store once with my mom.
Speaker 4: I have three older brothers, so we would buy a
Speaker 4: bunch of donuts on like Sunday mornings. And I remember
Speaker 4: one time as skiing for two of the goppies and
Speaker 4: the woman had no idea what I was talking about.
Speaker 4: And then we got back in the car and my mom,
Speaker 4: I remember this so clearly. My mom said, you're too
Speaker 4: old to still call those gapies. And I was just like, well,
Speaker 4: that's what I thought they're No, they're jelly filled donuts.
Speaker 4: You're too old, and it's just, oh god, that's grim.
Speaker 4: It was one of those moments where you're like, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm I guess I'm older than I thought I was.
Speaker 4: You know, oh I don't you know, you're starting to
Speaker 4: say goodbye to your childhood.
Speaker 2: And it was yeah, yes, yeah, And gopies were they
Speaker 2: were powdered donuts.
Speaker 4: They were jelly jelly film jelly fillies.
Speaker 1: Were those kind of the last ones to go in
Speaker 1: your house or people like that. Oh people love them, Yeah, okay, great, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean you know, you have three older brothers.
Speaker 4: It's you try to get as much food inside of
Speaker 4: you as quickly as possible, especially when it's sweets, So.
Speaker 2: Sure it makes sense. No, Well, we're so excited to
Speaker 2: have you here today?
Speaker 4: Mark?
Speaker 2: And Jonah and I both discovered you, and I believe
Speaker 2: it's because Jonah sent me clips of it when you
Speaker 2: used to do this character, Kay Strass, where you would
Speaker 2: go on morning shows as a yo yo master, and
Speaker 2: it's one of the funniest things either of us has
Speaker 2: ever seen in our life.
Speaker 1: How did you come up with the idea? And like
Speaker 1: how did it work? And like cause it seems like
Speaker 1: it would be something much harder to do today for
Speaker 1: some reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and will you kind of explain what it is
Speaker 2: for the audience who maybe has you know?
Speaker 4: Sure? So, Kay Strass was this character that a friend
Speaker 4: of mine and I came up with, and the idea
Speaker 4: was to go on morning shows and in character, and
Speaker 4: that the hosts or no one at the station would
Speaker 4: know that I'm playing a character. They thought I was
Speaker 4: a real person coming in. And the idea would be
Speaker 4: that if I was able to do like ten in
Speaker 4: a row, you would get a couple storylines about this
Speaker 4: guy's sad life and it would conclude in episode ten.
Speaker 4: And we built a fake website for this fictional toy
Speaker 4: company that I was, you know, going out and about
Speaker 4: working for, and a press release that we sent out
Speaker 4: to a bunch of TV stations, and the idea was
Speaker 4: that my character Kase Strass Kenny kay Stras Strasser was
Speaker 4: coming to their town to teach kids about the environment
Speaker 4: through his yo yo makes no sense, like it just
Speaker 4: on its face makes no sense. We would say in
Speaker 4: the press release, like he's coming to area elementary schools,
Speaker 4: So that way it's kind of a sign off for them,
Speaker 4: like they don't have to worry or do too much
Speaker 4: due diligence if a school has already signed off on
Speaker 4: your The other thing was we promised that he would
Speaker 4: do a demonstration of yo yo ing. And thirdly, it's
Speaker 4: the idea that he's talking about a hot button issue
Speaker 4: like the environment, right, so it was kind of catnip
Speaker 4: for morning shows who just need people to come on
Speaker 4: and fill some time. And then when I would get on,
Speaker 4: of course I can't yo yo personally, I don't like
Speaker 4: yo yo ing, and I would just talk about how
Speaker 4: you know, what's going on at the schools when I visit,
Speaker 4: or what's going on in my private life, and then
Speaker 4: usually screw up a yo yo trick or two, and
Speaker 4: you would just see their eyes start to get wide
Speaker 4: as I would begin talking and they realized like, oh,
Speaker 4: this guy's am more on. How am I going to
Speaker 4: deal with all their training and experience comes flooding back
Speaker 4: in order to handle the situation that's increable.
Speaker 1: I mean, what was a moment like I guess like
Speaker 1: when you're in You're wearing the suspenders, the shorts, you
Speaker 1: got the hat on, and they're about to go live.
Speaker 3: I mean, what's that moment?
Speaker 1: What was that moment like where you were like, oh,
Speaker 1: this was like a funny idea and now I actually
Speaker 1: have to do it on TV.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's interesting. As long as I'm in character,
Speaker 4: I don't worry. I'm not embarrassed by anything. I'm not
Speaker 4: too scared or like stressed out about anything as long
Speaker 4: as I'm in character and I'm not method at all.
Speaker 4: I just I feel like as long as they think
Speaker 4: the characters are moron, it has nothing to do with me,
Speaker 4: and I'm just doing my job right. In fact, for
Speaker 4: them to catch on, I felt I was more scared
Speaker 4: about that than like figuring out I'm faking. So from
Speaker 4: the moment I got out of the car to the
Speaker 4: moment I got back in the car, I was in character.
Speaker 4: Just because I was so terrified of them figuring it out.
Speaker 4: But I mean it was exciting. I remember lying in
Speaker 4: bad the first day that I was going to do this,
Speaker 4: and I had to drive up to I was living
Speaker 4: in Wisconsin. I was unemployed at the time, living in
Speaker 4: Wisconsin and in Milwaukee, and I had to drive up
Speaker 4: to Green Bay, which is like two hours. I had
Speaker 4: to be there at five thirty am. Wow, And that
Speaker 4: night was an awful blizzard, And I just remember waking
Speaker 4: up at like two thirty and thinking, you know, I
Speaker 4: could just not do this and just stay in this nice,
Speaker 4: warm bed. But then I was just like and then,
Speaker 4: what like, what's the rest of my life look like
Speaker 4: if I don't do these things once in a while.
Speaker 4: And it's crazy that there was that moment where I
Speaker 4: made a decision to do it.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. So you're saying when you would arrive and
Speaker 2: you would be in character right away, and then I'm
Speaker 2: sure leaving in character was that must have been kind
Speaker 2: of a challenge because the hosts and everyone at the
Speaker 2: station were probably already so frustrated with you. So did
Speaker 2: you how did you handle leaving? Did you apologize? Would you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, almost every time the hosts would just
Speaker 4: walk away like I had the plague or you know,
Speaker 4: or something, And it was always the camera person that
Speaker 4: would have to come up and get the mic off
Speaker 4: of me. And without fail, and I started doing it
Speaker 4: just as a joke to myself. Without fail, I would
Speaker 4: always say, ooh, that did not go so well, did it?
Speaker 4: That did not go so well? And without fail they
Speaker 4: always said, well, no, it wasn't that bad. You got
Speaker 4: your points across. And that was when I almost started
Speaker 4: to laugh, because it's like, what points did I get,
Speaker 4: Like my misguided ideas on how to rear children, the
Speaker 4: fear of my father. I mean, it's just so so
Speaker 4: strange that they thought it wasn't as bad. I mean
Speaker 4: they were just being nice, you know the Midwest.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure we do that in the Midwest. I have
Speaker 1: a question, and this Vanessa knows what I'm going to ask.
Speaker 1: This is a question I've wondered about for many years.
Speaker 1: There's a line and I've I've always been curious if
Speaker 1: this is improvised or written when they ask how long
Speaker 1: you've been yo yoing? And you ask in the most
Speaker 1: like it's the most normal question in the world. What
Speaker 1: year did Schubert Dip come out the YMF rack album
Speaker 1: and for some reason, there's the way you say it,
Speaker 1: and just that album titled to me is like one
Speaker 1: of the funniest things I've ever seen. Did you make
Speaker 1: that up or were you thinking about because it's such
Speaker 1: a bizarre reference.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I would say eighty percent was improvised
Speaker 4: and the rest was just written lines that I had
Speaker 4: in my head. That one was a written line that
Speaker 4: I had And there were two other versions, which was
Speaker 4: when did baby Jessica fall down that well? And what
Speaker 4: year did the Challenger explode? So just awful, awful moments
Speaker 4: that this guy equates to when he began yo yoing
Speaker 4: for some reason.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's it feels like a huge tree to get
Speaker 2: that answered. Jonah, Jonah, it's.
Speaker 3: Big for me.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ninety one Schubert Dip came out. I looked at
Speaker 1: up recently.
Speaker 4: Subert Dip was my favorite.
Speaker 3: So were you an actually MF fan? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2: When you came on this morning shows, just for people
Speaker 2: who haven't seen it, you would obviously, like you said,
Speaker 2: you would go through this narrative and it went from
Speaker 2: everything from like you know, you talking about how you
Speaker 2: haven't been you've only been in one school to then
Speaker 2: you're saying that they just fired you. And then on
Speaker 2: another morning show you say that your girlfriend broke up
Speaker 2: with you and you don't want to like you kind
Speaker 2: of talk about how you don't want a girlfriend and
Speaker 2: so all the stuff did you get through your narrative?
Speaker 2: Were you? Cause? I remember, Okay, god.
Speaker 4: No, no, unfortunately not. It's interesting, Like I was so
Speaker 4: angry the day that this dead Spin article came out.
Speaker 4: So basically people started uploading these videos. They would be like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, look at this idiot on our morning
Speaker 4: news show, and it got picked up by dead Spin
Speaker 4: and they wrote this big article about it, like they
Speaker 4: can't figure out who this guy is. Because I was,
Speaker 4: I took found any information, little information about me. You know,
Speaker 4: I got rid of all my social media and that's
Speaker 4: been through this article up and it kind of blew up,
Speaker 4: which I didn't think, Oh, this could lead to like
Speaker 4: LA or Hollywood or a gig acting or anything like that.
Speaker 4: That was so far from where my head was at.
Speaker 4: I was so annoyed when it blew up. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: then people started canceling. I mean, you know, yes, I
Speaker 4: had mentioned we sent out I think it was like
Speaker 4: fifteen press releases and by the end of the day
Speaker 4: we had twelve booking. Wow, and so it was it
Speaker 4: was it lined up perfectly, but yeah, no, we weren't
Speaker 4: able to finish. And then the we tried to wrap
Speaker 4: it up with this WGN appearance and it just, in
Speaker 4: my opinion, didn't work. It just didn't work.
Speaker 2: So remember this one morning show kind of did a
Speaker 2: second story where they like had had you on, and
Speaker 2: then they did another thing about you where they kind
Speaker 2: of exposed you for having which actually just made them
Speaker 2: look so stupid, Like it didn't really put you in.
Speaker 4: A bad light.
Speaker 2: It more made them look like really naive for not
Speaker 2: having caught on earlier.
Speaker 4: That was interesting because, like you said, they're like blowing them,
Speaker 4: you know, blowing it up in their own faces and right,
Speaker 4: but then again I felt like they were some of
Speaker 4: these places tried to backpedal as quickly as possible to
Speaker 4: show oh no, we figured it out right away, and.
Speaker 2: It's but they right, right, right, right right, And is
Speaker 2: there anything like in terms of the storyline of this case,
Speaker 2: strass character, were there some major plot points that you
Speaker 2: didn't get to that you'd be willing to share.
Speaker 4: Yes, what happens is my character gets injured in a
Speaker 4: jet skiing accident, right, and they bring in this new
Speaker 4: yo yo master who actually we found this guy who
Speaker 4: actually was a good yo yo master, and then there's
Speaker 4: one episode that's just him. By the final morning show appearance,
Speaker 4: he's disappeared and I'm back and they don't know where
Speaker 4: he's gone. I have nothing to do with it, and
Speaker 4: I just keep talking, you know, just keep digging a
Speaker 4: hole about how I had nothing to do with this
Speaker 4: guy's disappearance. You know, maybe it's better that we didn't
Speaker 4: get to finish it, just because it could have gone
Speaker 4: off the rails and been not as interesting for people.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, that's amazing. So was did you get
Speaker 1: like more? You know, obviously you've been on all these
Speaker 1: kind of popular shows more recently, Like was this kind
Speaker 1: of the way you kind of broke into.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. The writers on the
Speaker 4: office would watch it during their lunch breaks, and this
Speaker 4: writer at the time, Omily Gillette, reached out to my
Speaker 4: friend because she knew him from the Onion. This writer
Speaker 4: I Onlee Jillette, who I'm burying the lead she's now
Speaker 4: my wife. Yes. I reached out to my friend. He
Speaker 4: had worked in the distribution of The Onion and she
Speaker 4: wrote on the Onion and she was like, hey, is
Speaker 4: this guy? Do you know this guy? She figured out
Speaker 4: some website was made under his name, and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's my friend Mark. And she's like, would he want
Speaker 4: to talk to Paul Lieberstein from the office who plays Toby,
Speaker 4: And Paul was running the show at the time, And
Speaker 4: so I get this call from Paul Lieberstein. He's like, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, would you maybe want to be on the
Speaker 4: show or come out and take take a little, you know, visit.
Speaker 4: And I was like yeah, So they flew me out.
Speaker 4: A month later, I'm on the show. I mean, it
Speaker 4: was that crazy.
Speaker 2: And then five years you were like yeah regular, like
Speaker 2: you were really right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I did, I think nineteen at the pisodes for the
Speaker 4: last three seasons. I mean, it was really trial by fire,
Speaker 4: like if I remember distinctly being like, all right, this
Speaker 4: is it. If you can't do it, you can't do it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, and then five years later I married that
Speaker 4: writer Amily Gillette, and yeah, it's crazy making a jackass
Speaker 4: of yourself on morning shows. Paid off for me.
Speaker 2: I guess when you watch it, you can also just
Speaker 2: see how good your comedic timing is because the way
Speaker 2: that you stretch certain things out and the way that
Speaker 2: you just know exactly what to say to sort of
Speaker 2: make a dead end for these hosts so that they
Speaker 2: have nothing, there's nothing they can say.
Speaker 1: Did they kind of pretend it didn't happen, Like they
Speaker 1: kind of just like pretend the whole thing didn't happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, again, it was just a deer in the headlights
Speaker 4: with them, and you know, some of them would be
Speaker 4: grumpier like as the segment went on, and so I
Speaker 4: would get like I would get angry at them for
Speaker 4: like what if I was real like how mean?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: This poor guy this way? And so I would lean
Speaker 4: into it a little harder.
Speaker 1: But that's so amazing because yeah, it makes sense the
Speaker 1: Office too, because that was like that awkward kind of
Speaker 1: sense of humor. Especially in the Bridge version too. That
Speaker 1: was so much that sensibility. I mean, it totally translated.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very lucky that that show was on when it
Speaker 4: was and.
Speaker 2: They're so lucky to have you too. Oh yeah, so
Speaker 2: we're going to put a video link in the show
Speaker 2: notes so that people can watch these incredible clips of
Speaker 2: Mark if they haven't seen them. We're going to go
Speaker 2: to a quick commercial break and we'll be right back
Speaker 2: with Mark Brooks.
Speaker 3: And we're back earlier.
Speaker 2: We were talking about your case strass character, and we
Speaker 2: were talking about what our topic should be for today,
Speaker 2: and we were thinking morning shows because they do feel
Speaker 2: like kind of a nostalgic thing. And did you know
Speaker 2: that morning shows are referred to in the biz as
Speaker 2: breakfast television.
Speaker 1: I had no idea, it's true, and we did some
Speaker 1: research on this. The first morning news show was called
Speaker 1: three to Get Ready in Philly from nineteen fifty to
Speaker 1: fifty two. There was one in Cleveland where we grew up, Yeah,
Speaker 1: called The Morning Exchange that ran from nineteen seventy two
Speaker 1: to nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4: Ooh prime years.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, and the Morning Exchange was supposedly used as a
Speaker 1: template for a little show called Good Morning America. Oh really,
Speaker 1: when you were a kid, Mark, would you, because obviously
Speaker 1: we didn't have the Internet, we didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of options that things to watch. Would you grab a
Speaker 1: couple gobbies and watch the morning morning news with your family?
Speaker 3: Was it on in your house?
Speaker 4: Jonah, you're too old to be saying gobbies. Yeah. No,
Speaker 4: we always had morning news on. You know, both my
Speaker 4: parents worked and so from six to like seven thirty
Speaker 4: in the morning, there was always a TV on in
Speaker 4: the background and it usually had on Good Morning America.
Speaker 4: We were a Good Morning America household. But every once
Speaker 4: in a while, like if I stayed home from school
Speaker 4: sick or what have you, and you are so bored,
Speaker 4: you're just watching. And this was before like in my bedroom,
Speaker 4: I had a black and white TV that was not
Speaker 4: connected to cable, and it was like a hand me down,
Speaker 4: hand me down, hand me down from my older brothers.
Speaker 4: So I had to watch either ABC or CBS. I
Speaker 4: couldn't even get NBC, which is a huge gap in
Speaker 4: my development. I didn't get any Cosby Show or any
Speaker 4: of that stuff I was growing up. I'm oblivious. But
Speaker 4: I would watch you know, the daytime TV and it
Speaker 4: would always be you know, game shows, and then at
Speaker 4: noon on each station would have like the News at noon,
Speaker 4: but it was more of a talk show, you know,
Speaker 4: where they have the dogs from the Pound and this
Speaker 4: week's kid of kid of the Week or month of
Speaker 4: the week. They even did it for adopting kid and
Speaker 4: I know it's grim, but I loved it. I loved
Speaker 4: it so much, and it gave me such a weird
Speaker 4: feeling like there are retired people and you know, people
Speaker 4: staying home from work for whatever reason watching this show
Speaker 4: right now with me. I don't know. It's a hard
Speaker 4: thing to explain, and I sound like a nut, but
Speaker 4: I think that really formed me a lot, just watching
Speaker 4: awkward people trying to fill you know, dead air fill time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, there is something really interesting about how
Speaker 2: those morning shows and kind of this noon show that
Speaker 2: you're referencing as well, they're just supposed to be so
Speaker 2: kind of pleasant and they're just supposed to sort of
Speaker 2: they seem like they're from a different time even though
Speaker 2: they still you know, exist, And now there's you know,
Speaker 2: the Today Show and Good Morning America are so popular,
Speaker 2: but just that it's supposed to sort of Jonah found
Speaker 2: this thing that it's called Breakfast Television and it's scheduled
Speaker 2: between five and ten AM, and it's just a small
Speaker 2: team of hosts and it's supposed to be for the
Speaker 2: people who are getting ready for work in school and
Speaker 2: stay at home adults and parents, and it's just supposed
Speaker 2: to be kind of like this nice thing to like
Speaker 2: get your day started, and it just is funny that
Speaker 2: they have to kind of keep it in a certain
Speaker 2: tone for so many hours and just sort of it
Speaker 2: is so funny to go back to your case draws
Speaker 2: character that like there's just like certain buzzwords they're trying
Speaker 2: to hit, like pleasant you know, like environment, you know, kids, school,
Speaker 2: just sort of all of the kind of like local
Speaker 2: pleasant things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so much of it is just a shill
Speaker 4: for local businesses, right right. There's a couple morning shows
Speaker 4: that I'm a fan of one and they're syndicated. One
Speaker 4: is called The Daily Blend and that you pay to
Speaker 4: be on to hawk your wares. But they act like
Speaker 4: it's a talk show and it's syndicated. They have them
Speaker 4: all throughout the United States. I think they're all Fox.
Speaker 4: I think it's a Fox thing, and so they act
Speaker 4: like it's news, but they're just shilling, like, oh, bridal
Speaker 4: bouquets come down to Kate's bridles, you know. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: they're acting like it's news, and that's such a I
Speaker 4: this infotainment yeah yeah, oh yeah, poral that we're in
Speaker 4: is one of the reasons you know I came up
Speaker 4: with k Strass.
Speaker 1: Well it's amazing, And I think K Stress also hits
Speaker 1: on the entertainment aspect because it's like bands will play oh,
Speaker 1: like you know, they'd be like, oh okay, like Collective
Speaker 1: Souls playing acoustic today, and then you got to I've
Speaker 1: worked in the music industry a long time, I think
Speaker 1: like it's like the worst gig for a band to
Speaker 1: have to get up early and load in and like
Speaker 1: no one cares and it's yeah, like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the Lacrosse, Wisconsin where I was growing up, it's
Speaker 4: like free River band and it's just like these guys
Speaker 4: who you know will not make it, and you know,
Speaker 4: you have to wonder like they took you know, they
Speaker 4: took the day off from the railroad and came down
Speaker 4: to play sure, and it's you get like this incredible
Speaker 4: snapshot of real people instead of like on Good Morning America,
Speaker 4: which is so overly or not overly produced as produced
Speaker 4: exactly how they want it, but produced and it's celebrities
Speaker 4: and they're all on yeah with local TV, and I
Speaker 4: watch it to this day up in when I'm filming
Speaker 4: up in Toronto, there's a good Buffalo station that we
Speaker 4: get up there WBBZ Buffalo and it's a me TV station,
Speaker 4: which I usually am watching me TV anyway, but they
Speaker 4: have programming of their own on there as well. And
Speaker 4: there's a kid you not a show called Poka Buzz
Speaker 4: and it's out of Buffalo and it's Ron Dombrowski, I think,
Speaker 4: is the host, and it's literally each week they're at
Speaker 4: a different PoCA.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: And then there's Beat the Champ, which is a local
Speaker 4: bowling show, and you really like That's where I'm most
Speaker 4: inspired as far as like acting goes. Because I didn't
Speaker 4: go to school for acting or anything like that. I
Speaker 4: just watch these people and that's where I get so
Speaker 4: much of where I'm so inspired is from real people.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of a good segue to just talk
Speaker 2: for a moment about years ago. You told me about
Speaker 2: this pilot that you made once that was sort of
Speaker 2: it was a fake morning show, but you were the
Speaker 2: only one who knew it was fake.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was. I did it with my dear
Speaker 4: friend Jason Walliner, who directed Paul T. Goldman and The
Speaker 4: Last bore at Yeah, the sweetest guy and brilliant, and
Speaker 4: the idea was ka Stras flipped on its head, so
Speaker 4: where he hosts a morning show, not kay Strass, it's
Speaker 4: a different character. But he hosts a morning show, and
Speaker 4: everyone from the you know, the weather person, to my
Speaker 4: co hosts to the people coming in for cooking segments,
Speaker 4: they all think it's real.
Speaker 3: So you still watch these.
Speaker 1: And I actually performed on our local morn show in
Speaker 1: Cleveland when I was a teenager.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like it's perfect for like high school bands and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yep, I played in a band in high school and yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually I think I told the story another podcast,
Speaker 1: but I actually was working at Kids r Us at
Speaker 1: the time and I said I can't come into work
Speaker 1: or didn't show up, and then I went on the news.
Speaker 2: And played you said you were sick, right.
Speaker 1: I said I was sick. I don't remember exactly what
Speaker 1: I said, but I definitely didn't say I'm going on
Speaker 1: the news.
Speaker 3: I was just like, I can't come in.
Speaker 1: I made up some excuse and then I came into
Speaker 1: work the next day and they were like, Jonah, why
Speaker 1: we saw you on the news and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and they were like, I think I kind
Speaker 1: of got fired. But I didn't really realize at the
Speaker 1: time because I was like seventeen or eighteen, and I
Speaker 1: was like, didn't really there. I was like, oh yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: Like so what's the schedule for next week? And they
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, you're You're like not on the schedule anymore.
Speaker 1: It's like okay, cool. Like years later, it's like, I
Speaker 1: think I got fired because of that.
Speaker 2: Maybe right right right, sounds like that's what happened.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so so Mark, you still kind of watch
Speaker 1: some of these shows, and obviously this has been kind
Speaker 1: of this reoccurring theme in some of like your your
Speaker 1: own projects, and so I find that really kind of
Speaker 1: interesting that you explore that dynamic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's endlessly fascinating and hilarious. To me, nothing is
Speaker 4: funnier than the reactions of real people, right, Especially the
Speaker 4: way I do it, or the way that I think
Speaker 4: it's the funniest is if I'm the moron and they're
Speaker 4: just reacting to this moron. It's never me trying to really,
Speaker 4: you know, make them feel like idiots or anything like that,
Speaker 4: just because I wanted all on me, like I want
Speaker 4: to be the idiot. And so yeah, nothing is funnier
Speaker 4: to me to this day.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, great, well we're going to take a
Speaker 2: quick commercial break. But we'll be right back with Mark Crooks,
Speaker 2: and we're back pretty short break home Mark.
Speaker 4: That was really short. I got ye two maybe three
Speaker 4: breaths in. Yeah, yeah, wow, it's quick.
Speaker 3: It goes quick past.
Speaker 2: Well, we're going to play a game. Now, do you
Speaker 2: feel ready for a game?
Speaker 4: I am ready and willing. All right.
Speaker 3: It's called legit moan or unnecessary grown.
Speaker 4: Legit moan, unnecessary grow.
Speaker 1: And basically this segment was inspired by a now defunk
Speaker 1: column our local paper growing up, the Cleveland pain Dealer,
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Plane Dealer and every Vanessa's going to make
Speaker 1: fun makes fun of me every time I mispronounce something,
Speaker 1: so I can see her face just getting ready from
Speaker 1: the Plain Dealer, Plain Dealer, Thanks, thank you. And they
Speaker 1: had this segment called Monday or Not segment. They had
Speaker 1: this article now like feeling so nervous.
Speaker 4: Well, it's nice to have a sister there cheering you.
Speaker 3: Nice. Nice to have a supportive sister.
Speaker 1: Yes, they had a recurring column I guess you would
Speaker 1: call it called Monday Moaning. We used to read it
Speaker 1: every Monday, and basically the paper would print these extremely
Speaker 1: petty complaints that the readers had and we always thought
Speaker 1: they were super funny as kids, and there's an archive
Speaker 1: of them online, so we found three of them. They're
Speaker 1: from ten years ago or more. If you think these
Speaker 1: are legit complaints, you can say it's a legit moan,
Speaker 1: or if you think they're unnecessary, it's an unnecessary groan,
Speaker 1: and we'll vote on each one.
Speaker 4: Love it?
Speaker 3: Okay? You want to kick us off fantasy, you can
Speaker 3: kick us Okay.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll read the first one. The first one is
Speaker 2: from someone in Lakewood. They don't say their names, they
Speaker 2: just say where they're from in Ohio. This person said,
Speaker 2: my complaint is about the severe storm warnings on TV.
Speaker 2: All you hear is the loud warning sound slash beep
Speaker 2: throughout the program. When it comes to the commercials, all
Speaker 2: you hear is the loud commercial. They don't have the
Speaker 2: storm warning interrupting them. With all these bad storms these days,
Speaker 2: the advertisers and the money they make should be the
Speaker 2: ones to worry the worst.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, Mark, what are your thoughts on this? Do
Speaker 1: you understand it first time?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Well, that last sentence is a bit James Joyce
Speaker 4: in what their argument is. I get what they're saying though,
Speaker 4: because I have thought the same thing. Why do these
Speaker 4: only run during the TV shows and never during commercials? Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's said, I think because the answer to that is
Speaker 4: because they're trying to make money, right, right, so they
Speaker 4: can keep putting on these shows. So I'm going to
Speaker 4: say unnecessary grown, Yeah, don't you just take it a
Speaker 4: step further you understand the situation?
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I agree with Mark. This person is
Speaker 1: sort of saying they think because the advertisers are so
Speaker 1: rich they can afford to buy ads, but then have
Speaker 1: them completely inaudible. I don't know if that goes for
Speaker 1: all the advertisers if you're a local business. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of generalizations happening here. And I think
Speaker 1: if there is a storm, right like, it's during the show,
Speaker 1: and then the commercials aren't that long, and then you
Speaker 1: get back to the storm warning, so I think that's fair.
Speaker 3: What do you think, Vanessa?
Speaker 2: I agree. I think nobody goes, oh, commercial's on now,
Speaker 2: the storm must be over, And to be fair, usually
Speaker 2: there is some kind of a like ticker thing at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the screen that says there's a storm
Speaker 2: warning going on. So you know, this person should know
Speaker 2: that without these advertisements, they wouldn't be able to watch
Speaker 2: this TV station for free, so I think they need
Speaker 2: to you know, maybe chill fair enough. And I call
Speaker 2: it also an unnecessary grun So we're in agreement now, Joana,
Speaker 2: you want to read the second one.
Speaker 1: Second one. This is just from Cleveland. I looked at
Speaker 1: a couple of cars. I liked what they had, but
Speaker 1: the car start at thirty two thousand dollars. Who can
Speaker 1: afford a car that costs that kind of money? And
Speaker 1: then the price goes up and up. Somebody's laughing all
Speaker 1: the way to the bank. Mark, what do you think
Speaker 1: about this?
Speaker 4: I think it's an unnecessary.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: I mean you can find cars under thirty two thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Also that's a very specific number. You know, maybe the
Speaker 4: Audi's and sure Beamers aren't in your future, right, and
Speaker 4: you can find a perfectly nice Hyundai or Kia. Yeah,
Speaker 4: unnecessary groan all the way. Okay, this actually pisses me off.
Speaker 4: I'm so angry about.
Speaker 3: This, Vanessa. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2: I would agree with Mark. I think this person started
Speaker 2: out first of all, maybe don't start your complaint with
Speaker 2: I looked at a couple of cars that's not really
Speaker 2: a complete sentence, you know, to start something with. But anyway, hey, Bud,
Speaker 2: look at a couple more. I think if you just
Speaker 2: looked at two cars, or around two cars, and they
Speaker 2: were above your price range, go somewhere. You know this
Speaker 2: is this feels like an insane complaint to me. It's
Speaker 2: just if this person had written in and said the
Speaker 2: car that I like, the prices have gone up so high,
Speaker 2: and name specifically what brand, and like what they're you know,
Speaker 2: that complaint makes more sense to me. This one just
Speaker 2: I looked at a couple of cars. I liked it,
Speaker 2: but they start it's it's we weren't there with you, Bud.
Speaker 2: You gotta give us the specifics and also you got
Speaker 2: you gotta do a little more looking before I think
Speaker 2: you send in this complaint. So I'm calling it an
Speaker 2: unnecessary groan. Jonta, what about you?
Speaker 1: Well, I did a little research on this, and thirty
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars in twenty ten, which I think is
Speaker 1: probably when this was written, is about forty four thousand
Speaker 1: dollars today. Okay, so let's sugjust it for inflation. But
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think the principle stays the same. Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's like there are cars at different price points. I
Speaker 1: don't know if these manufacturers are quote unquote laughing all
Speaker 1: the way the bank because these more expensive cars probably
Speaker 1: cost more to make too. You know, they probably similar margins.
Speaker 1: So I think you can find a less expensive car.
Speaker 1: And so cars are expensive, but you know, they're one
Speaker 1: of the most expensive things you buy. You have it
Speaker 1: for a long time, hopefully you enjoy it, and hopefully
Speaker 1: you know, you shop around and really take your time
Speaker 1: making your decision.
Speaker 3: You don't just look at two cars and then just
Speaker 3: just give up.
Speaker 4: Also, was this person in a deep coma car prices
Speaker 4: have gradually increased since I've been alive. Yeah, right, all
Speaker 4: of a sudden you stepped out and they went from
Speaker 4: nine thousand to thirty two thousand. Yeah, I'm just sorry.
Speaker 4: This is really upset me.
Speaker 3: Way person finds out how much college costs these days?
Speaker 2: Right, Oh, bokay, Well, somebody's laughing all the way to
Speaker 2: the bank. And it's certainly not the Plain Dealer because
Speaker 2: they have to print stuff like this.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: I don't even think they exist as an independent company.
Speaker 2: I think they're part of Cleveland dot com. But that's
Speaker 2: for another day.
Speaker 4: Make sure you bring me back for that.
Speaker 2: Pick you back for that day. Okay. So this last
Speaker 2: one is from someone in Broadview Heights and they said
Speaker 2: it is shameful that young women choose to wear shorts
Speaker 2: and spaghetti straptops to church on Sunday. Some of these
Speaker 2: girls are with their parents. Parents, speak up and teach
Speaker 2: your children to respect a place of worship.
Speaker 4: Mark, what do you think, Oh boy? I do have
Speaker 4: an issue with adults who dress like they're at sleep
Speaker 4: away camp when they go to the airport. Okay, I
Speaker 4: have an issue with that. Have some self respect kids.
Speaker 4: You know they're expressing themselves. Yeah and yeah. As an adult,
Speaker 4: we think it's silly. If it really crosses the line. Sure,
Speaker 4: you know I'm gonna go with moan. You're legiti, moan, legit, legit,
Speaker 4: because I feel like this one isn't so cut and dry,
Speaker 4: and I feel like I've seen too many people wearing
Speaker 4: baseball hats to funerals to not speak up. I guess
Speaker 4: I have to admit I wrote this letter at any rate. Okay,
Speaker 4: that's my choice.
Speaker 2: My opinion on this is I would agree with you
Speaker 2: if your interpretation of it was correct, which I'm not
Speaker 2: saying it's incorrect, but I guess I sort of am.
Speaker 2: This person starts by saying it's shameful that young women
Speaker 2: choose to wear shorts at Like they're not talking about
Speaker 2: just young kids like dressing casually or formal places. They're
Speaker 2: specifically targeting young women meeting and I think they mean
Speaker 2: girls and teenagers and how they're you know, they don't
Speaker 2: think that their standards for like what's appropriate and not
Speaker 2: appropriate is okay. And I just got to say to
Speaker 2: this person too, the fact that these kids are going
Speaker 2: to church every Sunday, like give them, let them wear
Speaker 2: whatever they want, Like that's so good that they're like
Speaker 2: willing to do that. And also they're going with their
Speaker 2: parents parents. Some of these girls are with their parents.
Speaker 2: The ones that aren't with their parents, really you should
Speaker 2: really give them credit because they just went on their own. Like,
Speaker 2: I think this person needs to chill out and just
Speaker 2: be so grateful that these kids are even going to
Speaker 2: church or you know whatever. You know, I guess they
Speaker 2: said church, so I won't I won't broaden it to
Speaker 2: other places of worship. But that's my take is that
Speaker 2: this person needs to just chill Jonah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: I think that we're, you know, getting in this territory
Speaker 1: of having kind of an unreliable narrator here. And I
Speaker 1: think this is a very judgmental. And I bet you
Speaker 1: if we saw what this person was so worked up
Speaker 1: with it, like, oh, these are just like normal looking
Speaker 1: people in regular clothes. Yeah, but I've got a feeling
Speaker 1: that this person's going into it with more of a
Speaker 1: kind of old school attitude. And I find the tone
Speaker 1: to be so patronizing. Parents speak up and teach your
Speaker 1: children to respect a place of worship. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's very The tone is tough for me because it's
Speaker 1: very judge Yeah.
Speaker 4: Can I have a rebuttal?
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4: I agree with both of you actually on this. It
Speaker 4: did hit a nerve with me about parents not settying
Speaker 4: a good example of proper attire for certain situations. Shorts
Speaker 4: to the church, sure, spaghetti strips, whatever. Yeah. For me,
Speaker 4: it's you know, wearing the baseball hats or just looking like.
Speaker 2: A ripans to a future.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know it is.
Speaker 1: You know, Mark, what you said up at the airport
Speaker 1: is interesting too, because it seems like, you know, flying
Speaker 1: used to be much fancier and you know now it
Speaker 1: is what it is, and it's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: delays and stuff, but it does seem like there's like
Speaker 1: a memo sent out like ten years ago it was
Speaker 1: like everyone, you can just wear pajamas now and now just.
Speaker 3: Like that's what everyone does. And it was not like
Speaker 3: that when we were kidding.
Speaker 4: No, not at all. And you know, I'm not one
Speaker 4: for like certainly not conservative, but you fly in Europe
Speaker 4: and you see people at airports over there and they're
Speaker 4: they're you know, they're not dressed up, but they don't
Speaker 4: have on, you know, gravy stained Bart Simpson sweatshirts and
Speaker 4: you know, right cut off sweatpants. I don't know, I
Speaker 4: just I feel like I have a little self respect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I get what you're saying. So I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I get that we've touched on something that yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really bugging you. But I understand where the sentiment is
Speaker 1: coming from, because this was like a big kind of
Speaker 1: a big kind of shift and it can feel jarring.
Speaker 2: Sometimes, yes, And yet I hope neither of you ever
Speaker 2: sees me in an airport. They absolutely look like I
Speaker 2: rolled out of a garbage can.
Speaker 4: No, that's okay. You get a pass.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mark. Well, it looks like we're mostly in
Speaker 2: a we met here and to anyone who is offended
Speaker 2: by me kind of lightly burning the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
Speaker 2: they did it to themselves. Okay, Mark, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for doing this today. We had so much fun
Speaker 2: having you on. I know I just did a perfect transition,
Speaker 2: really cool, great segue. But we just had so much
Speaker 2: fun with you and for our listeners, they where can
Speaker 2: they find more? Mark Crooks?
Speaker 4: Gosh, I have nothing going on on cinema, which I
Speaker 4: do with my bodies, Tim Hidecker and Greg Turkington. We're
Speaker 4: always working on silly stuff. Great. Great, Thank you guys
Speaker 4: for having me on. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 2: It was so fun to have you, and thank you
Speaker 2: to everyone for listening. If you enjoyed this, please subscribe
Speaker 2: to the podcast and keep an eye up for next
Speaker 2: week's episode of How Did We Get Weird, where we
Speaker 2: will discuss more stories from our childhood and cultural touchstones
Speaker 2: like local morning shows. Thank you again, Mark, so fun
Speaker 2: and honestly just such a treat to get to talk
Speaker 2: to you so much about. Oh, thanks, things that we're
Speaker 2: obsessed with
Speaker 3: That you do