Ep. 488: "A Safe Place to Be Angry"
Merlin: I hate you.
Merlin: Hello.
Merlin: Hello.
Merlin: Hi, John.
Merlin: Hello.
Merlin: A listener probably won't notice.
Merlin: You did.
Merlin: I made a gulpy sound and then I made a yummy noise because I'm drinking a coffee that I like.
Merlin: A yummy noise.
Merlin: I got a store-bought coffee and I'm enjoying it.
Merlin: I'm sure the listeners will notice.
Merlin: You never know.
Merlin: You know, audio is an elusive beast, John.
John: Yes, elusive beast, they call it.
John: The elusive beast.
Merlin: I think it was Brian Eno that said that.
Merlin: Honor thy elusive beast as a hidden intention.
Mm-hmm.
Merlin: Oh, Jesus.
Merlin: Store-bought coffee.
Merlin: Did you go to Safeway?
Merlin: Where did you go?
Merlin: That's a very good question.
Merlin: When I'm at my home, my kid and I like to drink something called Stoke.
Merlin: And it's got a long O with a line over the O for the long O. And that's a nice coffee you can just buy that's really good.
John: Stoke.
John: Stoke.
John: Oh, dude.
John: I saw a picture of that kid the other day.
John: Holy shit.
Merlin: That's a good-looking kid.
Merlin: Oh, the one waiting in line at the Chinese restaurant?
John: Probably.
John: Yes.
John: You were at a sports event or something?
John: I don't know.
Merlin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Merlin: We went to the Lunar New Year parade.
Merlin: One of the great sports events of San Francisco.
Merlin: I am a fan of sports.
Merlin: I'm always pulling for my teams.
Merlin: Like most men, though, I'm mostly just angry about sports.
Merlin: You ever notice that guys that are really into sports are mad about sports a lot?
Merlin: I do know that.
Merlin: Do you think that's part of the fun, John?
John: I do think it's part of the fun.
John: It's a safe place to be angry.
Merlin: Holy shit.
Merlin: Right?
John: Whoa, wait a minute.
Merlin: One minute and 55 seconds in, you've already nailed it.
Merlin: You nailed that jelly of the tree, my friend.
John: Yes, yes.
John: It's safe to be mad in that space.
John: You can throw popcorn at your best friend.
John: You can pound the top of the TV.
Merlin: I'm not saying this is true.
Merlin: I'm certainly not saying this is gendered.
Merlin: Is it kind of like how book clubs mainly became about drinking a very, very comically large glass of wine with your friends?
Merlin: You're talking about how nobody has orgasms anymore?
John: Oh, wine.
John: Oh, wine.
John: I haven't been in my book club for a while.
John: I miss it very much.
John: A book club.
John: I could use that.
John: Well, it's so wonderful.
John: Online book club is actually better than it sounds.
Merlin: Oh, I'd love to hear it.
Merlin: Was this a COVID invention?
John: Yeah, didn't I tell you?
John: You probably did, but remind me.
John: Well, you know, it's my friend Christopher Frizzell, who used to be the editor of The Stranger, if you recall The Stranger.
Merlin: We don't say throwaway paper, but one of the great independent large formats.
Merlin: Better than the Bay Guardian, that's for sure, RIP.
John: That's right.
Merlin: It was a good-ass paper, a really good-ass paper.
John: Alternative Weekly that ended up producing some Pulitzer-winning writers.
Merlin: Was that Dan Savage?
Merlin: Was he The Stranger?
John: Dan started at The Stranger.
John: Albert Camus started there.
John: A lot of people don't know.
John: Camus, that's right.
John: Sartre, he loved his Dodge Dart, and he worked at The Stranger.
Merlin: Oh, and he was in that movie A Band Apart.
Merlin: That's right.
John: Yep, yep.
Merlin: And he also said, he said in French, he said, never hold in your farts.
Merlin: Okay, I got nothing.
Merlin: I got nothing.
John: But Christopher, he was a young guy, just a young, handsome, carefree guy who became editor of The Stranger.
John: I think too young.
John: I think he was too young.
John: I think it robbed him of his childhood.
John: But he's a very smart guy.
John: And during the pandemic, he said, why don't we all...
John: Read Moby Dick.
John: Oh, wow.
John: And so a bunch of us got on there, got online.
Merlin: That is ambitious in a number of ways.
John: And, you know, I'd read it once as a kid, but I didn't understand it at all.
John: I think by reading it, I mean my eyes...
Merlin: took in the work took in all the i had to read it for a class which i mean i mean i mean in almost every way because i think in retrospect if i read it today i might enjoy it more but you know you know it is you're in college you've already got a lot of reading to do and then on top of it all you're like oh god i have to i think had you previously stipulated you like the weird chapters about like how the whaling industry works and things like that didn't you say you like those chapters
John: I do like those chapters, but part of what's wonderful about a book club is that you have other people to – and unlike college, we took – we booked several months to read it.
John: So every week you're just reading two chapters.
Yeah.
John: And it's very manageable, and you can sit and think about it.
John: And then you get in this space with these other people, and you talk about what you read.
John: Because Christopher is such a smart character, and like I say, he was much too young to have all the responsibility he did.
John: You grow up fast, John.
John: You do.
John: And he knew all these smart people, these other smart people that were smarter than you in different ways.
John: And they're bringing all this other stuff.
John: They're the people that are like, oh, that's a biblical illusion.
John: And there are people...
John: They're like, oh, that's from Shakespeare.
John: And then you sit and you – what I realized after reading Moby Dick with the book club is that I never could have read Moby Dick.
John: anywhere close to the way I read it with them.
Merlin: There's a lot of literature where you need to know a lot about literature to enjoy Wyatt's literature.
John: Yes, yes.
Merlin: Something like that or Tristram Shandy or especially Tristram Shandy and that, like two pre-postmodern, is that a thing?
John: That's exactly what they call it, pre-postmodern.
John: Really?
John: Yeah.
John: I might be learned.
Yeah.
John: Yeah, I think you may be.
John: It's the new college of Florida.
John: It's in the news all the time.
John: It certainly is.
John: It's going great.
John: Then we read – Stop hitting yourself.
John: Stop hitting yourself.
John: We read several other books and we read David Copperfield together.
John: Oh, neat.
John: And at that point, Christopher had gotten a story about his book club.
John: Someone wrote an article about it in the Washington Post.
John: And so here's Christopher with his humble little book club of several people.
John: I mentioned it a couple of times online, on my Patreon, and then the Washington Post.
John: Well, all of a sudden, there's 150 people all reading David Copperfield together.
John: And it's all on Zoom.
John: You can see everybody.
John: My goodness.
John: A lot of the people are what you –
John: what you might refer to as retired State Department people.
Merlin: You've got a lot of – Isn't that kind of what you want it to be?
John: It was.
John: And so you look – and a lot of them are married.
John: And the female partner is sitting close to the camera and the male partner is sitting on a couch somewhere in the middle distance.
Merlin: I do that when we do school calls.
Merlin: I'm always in a chair in a different part of the stadium.
John: It's a whole thing.
Merlin: It's a whole thing.
Merlin: And sometimes my wife doesn't know how to turn.
Merlin: I'm sorry.
Merlin: I have to mention one thing.
Merlin: Every time I sit in, we do a call.
Merlin: We talk to the teachers.
Merlin: We do whatever.
Merlin: Like, you know, you do it a few times a year.
Merlin: And I love my wife.
Merlin: But, you know, she works at home three of the days a week and does a lot of meetings.
Merlin: And at the time, last time we did it, she didn't know how to turn off the fuzzy background.
John: Oh, so you just kept coming in and out of like some Hawaiian scene?
Merlin: I look like some kind of like Korean water ghost where sometimes a part of my face would appear and then rescind back into the fuzz.
Yeah.
Merlin: I agree.
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: I think it's been pretty good.
John: You were like Slimer.
Merlin: No, no.
Merlin: See, you get a preview for that.
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John: They're all super educated 75-year-olds.
John: They've got African masks on the wall from their time when they were working at the embassy in Kinshasa or whatever.
John: And so you've got this whole group, and at first it seemed like, and again, Christopher, how can he do this?
John: There's so much responsibility.
Merlin: So he put it together and then he would sort of lead the discussion and moderate?
John: Yeah, he gives a little lecture and then among all the people that joined his book club, there are all these
John: kind of luminaries, right?
John: That are friends of his throughout the years, throughout, you know, because of all of the people that he knows, you know, having run this newspaper and so forth.
Merlin: Were any of them people that you recognized as published writer people?
John: Oh, absolutely.
John: There's a former cast member of Saturday Night Live.
John: There's the person that runs— Should I try to guess who it is?
Merlin: No, no, no.
Merlin: I mean, you can't.
Merlin: Is it Taron Killiam?
John: No.
No.
Merlin: Was it Garrett Morris?
Merlin: No.
Merlin: I got a couple more.
John: Hang on.
Merlin: It's a good guess.
Merlin: Was it in a gas tire?
Merlin: No.
Merlin: Oh, did I ever see Taron Killian?
John: Yes.
John: Okay.
John: But it wasn't.
Merlin: It's so interesting to read for intrinsic reasons.
Merlin: It sounds like such an odd thing to say, but, you know, again, I went to a weird liberal arts school where, in any case, everybody was reading a lot, but because of the area of concentration I was in, I was reading a lot, a lot.
Merlin: And I don't know.
Merlin: It was just as a side note in passing.
Merlin: I think one of the interesting skills, one of the pains – I feel like in some ways it wasn't until I was in my first year of college that there were several kinds of scarcity.
Merlin: I had a lot of scarcity throughout my life.
Merlin: But there were several kinds of scarcity I hadn't confronted quite before.
Merlin: Or like generally I turned in my homework late and poorly in public school in Florida because –
Merlin: I didn't try very hard, and I was lazy.
Merlin: But even with every little bit of effort and skill that I had, I don't think I could have done... Let's put it this way.
Merlin: I could not have done a great job on every single assignment that I had in a given week or month.
Merlin: Even with...
Merlin: Most of the time, first year or so, I barely had a work-study job at the library.
Merlin: But I was fortunate enough to be living at college, going to school.
Merlin: And one of my first scarcities I had to confront, apart from all the money stuff, was just that almost really every day, I would have to make a game-time decision about what I was going to, to put it positively, spend less attention on than other things.
Merlin: Sometimes, you know what I mean?
Merlin: Sometimes that was about...
Merlin: the uh you know something that's due soon often it was about something i neglected doing for a while and there were just times where david dykstra short story class got short shrift and i just sure i just read the fun house real fast that week you have to do the triage that they do in mash where they bring in the bodies and they're like not this one this one's not going to make it
Merlin: And I don't know.
Merlin: And I wasn't proud of that.
Merlin: And I really felt like, hey, I had kind of that weird poor kid syndrome where I really wanted to shine and be acknowledged and everything.
Merlin: But did you ever feel that?
Merlin: That sense of like, oh, there's no way this can all fit in.
Merlin: And even if it's – it's such a classic grown-up kind of lesson, not to like –
Merlin: hi-hat here, but it's such a grown-up lesson to go, it's all important, and that's why I can't do it all.
Merlin: In fact, there's no way that this all fits in, and I feel like to finish the pivot, that's a lesson that everybody should take with them through their life and career, which is –
Merlin: You should not be counting on everyone you know to have a meeting about how John's doing or about how Merlin is doing.
Merlin: You are the sole project manager of all of that.
Merlin: I only say that because I thought that was a good lesson, but also that, like, you know, I felt so rushed.
Merlin: I read Moby Dick in a class –
Merlin: called American Masterworks.
Merlin: And I think it was, it might have been 14 weeks, might have been seven weeks.
Merlin: No, I think it was a full semester.
Merlin: And we read two books I didn't like and one book I did like.
Merlin: We read The Ambassadors and Moby Dick and Absalom Absalom.
Merlin: And there was just times where, sorry, Mr. James, you're just not going to get ambassaded very much this week because I did not like the book.
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: I did not understand why we were reading it.
Merlin: But you know what I mean?
Merlin: Like, sorry, Professor D'Amino.
Merlin: This is going to be the one that gets short shrift, and I go, oh, I think the use of words was extensive.
John: I read a lot of words this week, and I was in favor of that.
Merlin: I'm curious to hear what other people think about the way the whaling industry works.
John: What did you think about it is what I'd really rather know.
Merlin: What did you think about Miss Rosa this week?
John: I was laying in bed last night thinking about – because what you say is exactly true.
John: And unfortunately, as you know, project management is not in my top four skills.
John: And I know you struggle with it in a different way.
Merlin: But I was – If I hadn't been a not very good project manager, I would be in worse shape today.
Merlin: It was the crucible of having to – Also a great book.
Merlin: Oh, yeah.
Merlin: I think it's a play.
Merlin: Yeah, sure.
John: Was he married to Marilyn Monroe?
Yeah.
John: I'd really like to know what you think about it.
Merlin: Actually, it's so interesting that you should say that.
Merlin: Which chapter did you like best?
Merlin: Let me see.
Merlin: I have it right here.
Merlin: Mr. Man, I'm going to stop you right there.
Merlin: You're being a little bit sweaty in your use of poons.
John: I was thinking about this time because my friend Ramey, who lives there in San Francisco...
John: And Ramey was the fellow that used to put on – he loves music.
John: He knows a lot of musicians.
John: And he likes to be a kind of promoter.
John: So he was the one that did the last waltz every year back east that I used to do.
John: Yeah, you did that.
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: And he came up with this great idea.
Merlin: And that's a restaging of the band's last concert from 1976, right?
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: Famously Thanksgiving Day at the –
Merlin: Fillmore or Winterland?
John: Winterland.
Merlin: Anyway, but their final concert where they had to airbrush out all the cocaine on Neil Young's nose.
Merlin: Yeah, and I played the – Do you remember this?
Merlin: You ever seen it?
Merlin: Oh, yeah.
Merlin: When he has the actual giant booger, Canadian booger just hanging out?
Merlin: Yeah.
John: I played the role of Neil Diamond in that production every year.
John: And I think stole the show.
John: I think everybody agrees I stole the show.
Merlin: What's his song?
Merlin: No, not Cherry Baby.
Merlin: What's the song he does?
John: No, he only plays it once.
John: I think he only played it live once, and that was at The Last Waltz.
John: What song was it?
John: Dry Your Eyes.
John: Oh, I don't think I know that.
Merlin: I've seen the movie a couple, three times, but I don't think I know that tune.
John: Universally, I think when people watch The Great Waltz, as they call it,
John: No, they watch The Last Waltz and, you know, people like to rank things.
Merlin: Well, it's just every time Robbie Robertson gets out there and he goes like, you know, like you're just like, oh, my God, who's going to announce now?
Merlin: And he goes, Jim Hawkins.
Merlin: Or he comes out and he goes like, you know, like Joni Mitchell.
Merlin: Like he goes, ladies and gentlemen, Bob Dylan.
Merlin: You're like, oh, my God.
Merlin: It feels like it was like it's like the 9-11 of superstar rock music.
Merlin: You never know what's going to happen next.
John: So exciting.
John: The general consensus is that Neil Diamond was, A, why is he there?
John: When he announces Neil Diamond, everybody's like, say, what?
Merlin: Why is Neil Diamond here?
Merlin: I think I said his name wrong, but there was that guy that they toured with when they were the Hawks.
John: Yeah.
Merlin: That one guy, was it Jim Dandy?
Merlin: Is that the guy's name?
Merlin: But anyway, that guy who influenced David Lee Roth more than David Lee Roth admits.
John: From the Arkansas, the great Arkansas conspiracy or whatever that band was called.
John: The Ozark Mountain Boys.
Merlin: Yeah, I think Dwayne Allman was with them for a while.
Merlin: But anyhow, anyhow.
Merlin: So yeah, but it's a really, God, it is such an exciting, and like Rick, fucking Rick Danko.
John: I know, I know.
John: But anyway, Neil Diamond's song is not very good, but he wears a powder blue suit, and I happen to have a powder blue suit.
John: I feel like I remember him having almost an Elvis suit.
John: It is an Elvis suit, and I happened just completely by coincidence to have...
John: A very, very similar suit.
John: And so the first year I showed – the first year it was in San Francisco.
John: We did it in San Francisco.
John: I think of the Great American Music Hall.
John: And I was in Ireland and I had like a terrible cold, the worst cold, like COVID-level cold.
John: And I was sweating.
John: I was on tour there.
John: And, you know, like before the shows, I was lying on the floor of the dressing room just perspiring into a towel and I would get up and I would do my like my set and then I would walk back and just lay on the floor until they scraped me up and took me to the hotel.
John: And I got on an airplane in that condition and flew from Dublin to San Francisco, just like laying on the back, just like completely.
John: Were you by yourself in Ireland?
John: By myself.
John: I was opening for Keen acoustic.
John: So that's already a very hard gig today.
John: Right, because they're playing these big halls.
Merlin: I mean, as good as you are, you're still kind of cannon fodder for the big band, and you're by yourself out there.
Merlin: You're not going to be able to rock the house.
John: Well, and also my stage band are like, hey, how's it going out there?
John: Are you guys still dumb as you look?
John: And that's not how you get a keen audience.
John: I know.
John: Nice hat.
John: Is your girlfriend made of farts, Governor?
John: They're so sincere because they really love that band, and they're just like, here to rock out.
John: And then here's this American guy who's like, hey, you know, your mom.
John: Before we carve the turkey, your uncle would like to tell you some of his jokes.
John: It was pretty bad, you know, although great of them to ask.
John: But so then I landed.
John: I got to San Francisco.
John: They put me up in a really nice hotel.
John: I just lay on the floor sweating.
John: I mean, I'd been doing this for like six days.
John: I couldn't.
John: And then I get up.
John: I got my blue suit and I go and I do Neil Diamond.
John: Wow.
John: And I think, like, the fever broke while I was on stage.
John: It was a wonderful moment.
John: Oh, that's such a good feeling.
John: And I felt like this was – and, you know, and it was a group of very accomplished musicians.
John: And I felt like kind of just one of the gang.
John: So we did it every year.
John: And then Raimi had this wonderful idea.
John: I'm going to start a new concert series called Alone and Together.
John: And he was just going to find, like, seven –
John: Great musicians, and put them on tour, and he did.
John: And I was lucky to be a member of it.
John: And did you mix it up when you play?
John: That's the thing.
John: So it's like Game Changers, but entertaining.
John: Exactly, exactly.
John: So the guy from Guster was there, and Matthew from Not A Surf, and...
John: and fruit bats and so on, you know, like a bunch of accomplished people.
John: And we went and we did a tour of all the whaling churches in New England.
John: We went to Nantucket.
John: We went to Martha's Vineyard.
John: Played all these churches.
John: My friend, that's a license to print money.
John: Well, it should have been.
John: You know, like Guster alone.
John: Yeah, because they were super popular for a couple years, right?
John: They still are.
John: They can play for 2,000 people everywhere they go.
John: You just, you know, it's one of those bands that you just wouldn't know.
John: It's like...
John: How many seats can the old 97 sell?
John: Are you serious?
John: But they can, right?
John: Guster's massive.
John: But this tour, like, hey, all your favorite stars playing in whaling churches, nobody came.
John: It was like every night there we were playing to 30 people.
John: We didn't even use microphones.
John: We just would sit in the center of the church.
John: It was very rustic.
John: It was a wonderful experience.
John: That sounds like it.
Merlin: If it's people you like, that must have been incredible.
Merlin: It was great.
John: Ramey says, here's what I'm going to do next.
John: It's going to, it's called piano recital.
John: And I'm going to get all these great musicians and you're going to sit at a piano.
John: The thing is, none of you will be piano players.
John: You're all going to be, I'm going to pick musicians that are like famous for their singing or their drumming or their guitar playing.
John: Right.
Merlin: If you were introducing yourself, although you've, I think you could argue, a friend of mine just posted a video recently covering Commander Thinks Aloud, my friend Krista.
Merlin: And it's like, that's a pretty straightforward three-chord song, but there's a lot of feel.
Merlin: But you wouldn't introduce yourself as, hi, I'm John Roderick and I'm a pianist.
John: No, I wouldn't.
John: And I said, what a wonderful idea.
John: And he said, yeah, it's going to be great.
John: And so it was in Los Angeles.
John: It was at a venue down there.
John: And I flew down there.
John: And guess what?
John: I got super sick.
John: John.
John: This is back when I would get sick every six months.
Merlin: And just as our listeners now, if you'll forgive me, when John gets sick, John gets sick very hard.
John: So sick.
John: And ever since COVID, I haven't gotten sick like that.
John: And it's the thing I'm most grateful for.
John: So I'm down there and he put me up in a really nice hotel and I'm laying on the floor and I'm sweating and I've got a friend that came to see me like, oh, hey, I'm going to come to LA and we'll hang out and I'm just useless, just lying there like sweating.
John: And miserable.
John: And what I hadn't done was rehearse any songs.
John: Oh, my goodness.
John: Did you have an assigned song?
John: Well, no.
John: I was supposed to play like three or four songs.
John: Oh.
John: And I hadn't rehearsed them.
Merlin: Oh, my God.
Merlin: Oh, this is like a nightmare to me.
John: So I'm there.
John: I'm sweating.
John: And it's like, OK, well, soundcheck is at X. And I limp down to soundcheck.
John: And there's seven musicians or whatever.
John: Everybody gets their allotted 10 minutes sitting at the piano.
John: And I sit at the piano all hot and screwed up.
John: And I like plunk my way through some chords.
John: And they're like, okay, great.
John: You know, doors are at eight.
John: And I go backstage and I'm like, so is there a piano back here that I can monkey around with?
John: No, no piano.
John: I'm like, it's a piano gig and there's not a backstage piano?
Merlin: This is almost as bad – excuse me.
Merlin: Obviously, the scale is different.
Merlin: But this is almost as bad as the time you had to learn bass in a night.
Merlin: Yeah.
John: To play on – was it Craig Ferguson?
John: No, it was – what was it?
John: The Late Show with –
John: Mr. Handsome.
John: What was his name?
John: He did the Daily Show and then got booted.
John: Oh, Craig Kilborn.
John: Craig Kilborn.
John: There you go.
Merlin: And when you were in Harvey Danger in the touring one, was Aaron sick or something?
John: Well, Aaron had cystic fibrosis, so he was really sick.
Merlin: Yeah, and you had to like – they're like, oh, by the way, John, you're not just going to – I think in some ways it sometimes feels like – I don't know who this is more of an insult to, so forgive me in advance, but it's like you and Sean equally can get by on keyboard, but it's neither of your first gift.
Merlin: No.
Merlin: No.
Merlin: But you were already the keyboard guy, and then you had to figure out how to play a plugged-in bass.
Merlin: You'd never played a plugged-in bass in front of people until you were being recorded for a television network television show.
Merlin: That's right, national television.
Merlin: You put yourself in extraordinary circumstances, John.
John: Yes, you know what?
John: It's danger zone.
John: That's not challenge zone.
John: That's all the way to danger zones.
John: Oh, in your model of the zones.
John: Yeah.
John: Yeah.
John: You know, you want to be in challenge zone.
John: You don't want to go too far into danger zone.
John: And that for, I think for a lot of people like, Hey, you're going to be on national television tomorrow, playing an instrument you've never played.
John: Good luck.
John: Uh, would be danger zone.
John: And for me, I think that's challenge zone.
John: And the, here's the, here's why, here's why it's challenge zone because they asked me, like if I screwed up,
John: the screw-up was kind of on them for thinking that I could do it.
Merlin: Yeah, I mean, it's a high-ceiling, low-floor opportunity in some ways, because if you can just get through the song without numerous tremendous clams... I mean, and let's be clear here.
Merlin: Like, a guitar is basically...
Merlin: A bass is a big neutered bass guitar in some way.
Merlin: It's the low four strings of a guitar, but playing it... I mean, the fact that people like me and Lou Barlow are obviously guitar players who play bass, notwithstanding, you've got to press down really hard on those strings.
John: Oh, well, it's a completely different animal.
John: It sits in the song in a completely different place.
John: It does a completely different job.
John: It's not...
John: The more I have tried to play the bass... It's not like playing Farfisa instead of Grand.
John: No.
John: In a way, it has nothing to do with guitar.
John: The notes are in the same place on roughly the same piece of wood, but it's just like, I don't know.
John: And when I watch that television show, I'm always... What's so amazing is that now, more than 20 years later, it's still not embarrassing.
John: I'm still like, yeah, look at that.
John: The only clams I hit are in the vocals.
John: And, and I'm just, I'm just flying on a pure oxygen at that point.
John: But this thing, this piano thing.
Merlin: So you are going to have to get out there.
Merlin: You're sick.
Merlin: You have not rehearsed.
Merlin: And you've got to get out there and not just get through three or four songs, but you have to be John Roderick and like be entertaining and relaxed and all of those things.
John: And Ramey knows a lot of great musicians and I watched the soundcheck and I know that the other six performers, although not known as piano players, are all phenomenal piano players and singers.
John: And they're just like running around.
John: It was pretty hot how good everybody was.
John: And I'm backstage like, is there a piano?
John: And they all have this like, oh, and they're also 10 years younger than me.
John: And beautiful.
John: And they're all wearing those kind of slouchy off-white cowboy hats and like jade jewelry and stuff.
John: Like Southern California chic.
John: Oh, like retired to Taos kind of feeling?
John: Yeah, except they're all 30 years old and they have like a 29-inch waist.
Merlin: That sounds like Ira.
Merlin: Uh, very much.
Merlin: Is Ira sort of an avatar of that?
Merlin: He, he would wear that, uh, that, uh, hipster.
Merlin: I love Ira, but he would wear that hipster doofus, uh, like straw cowboy hat thing.
Merlin: Wasn't that a thing he did?
John: Oh yeah, for sure.
John: For sure.
John: And Ira actually was, was one of the drummers on the first year of this.
John: Okay.
John: Um, but no, I'm talking about the, the, you know how the kids started wearing really big cowboy hats, like super ones that fit over their ears, you know, like,
John: John, it fit over their ears?
John: Yeah, it goes over their ears.
John: It's so big.
Merlin: Is that for when you're out on the plane?
John: I don't know.
John: I never saw a hat that big until Pharrell wore it.
John: You know, remember when Pharrell wore that hat?
John: When he looked like the Arby's sign for a while.
John: Yeah.
John: And then all the kids are doing it.
John: And it is some Taos thing.
John: But so Eric Johnson, who's the phenomenal singer of the fruit bats lives in Los Angeles.
John: And he said, well, I'm on my way over to my house to feed my cat.
John: You can come with me.
John: I've got a piano there.
John: And so sick as a dog, I ride over there.
John: There's a piano.
John: He goes and feeds his cat.
John: And again, I sit there at the piano and I'm just like, I didn't even know what three songs I was going to play.
John: So I was like, can I play this one?
John: Clonk, clonk, clonk.
John: Long story short, during the concert,
John: Even though they're wonderful performers, Ramey has put me toward the end of the show because he holds me in high esteem.
John: And I stumble out there and in front of everybody do the thing where I start a song and I get halfway through and I don't know what the next chord is and I stop.
John: And I turn to the audience and I go, I'm really sick and I don't.
John: Ramey said that none of us were supposed to know how to play the piano.
John: And I don't.
John: And everybody else apparently does.
John: And, you know, and I pulled it off, right?
John: The audience laughs.
John: It's a show.
John: I'm the class clown.
John: Right.
John: I managed to limp my way through three songs.
John: And there's a certain amount of pathos in them because my songs are sad and I don't know how to
John: play them and I'm sweating and I'm sick.
John: And so at the end of, you know, at the end of the show, I hit the big notes on, on commander.
John: And you can tell that not only was I the class clown, but I also was just impressive enough that I, that I, that I earned my spot on the bill.
John: You pulled it out, but I was humiliated by my own lack of project management.
John: And I,
John: I thought about it last night because the last time – Ramey continued to do piano recital.
John: And the last time he did it was at Carnegie Hall with a bunch of musicians that were at Carnegie Hall level of, I've never played the piano before.
John: And I was not on the bill at Carnegie Hall for –
John: For obvious reasons, but also because that time, which it might have been my audition, I stumbled.
Merlin: I get what you're saying.
Merlin: It's one thing to survive and another to thrive.
John: Yeah.
John: And there are a lot of those in life where I did the triage on something.
John: And said, oh, you're not going to take priority right now.
John: You've got a bullet in the shoulder.
John: Right.
John: But a lot of times the thing that takes priority, the thing that I'm like, oh, there's a bullet.
John: This one's got a bullet in the lung is actually just sitting and staring out the window.
John: Yeah.
John: And that doesn't have a bullet in the lung, but somehow it makes it through triage.
John: And the thing that I say has a bullet in the shoulder, that bullet's going to get infected and kill that patient, sometimes in front of a large audience.
John: And I still don't know how to do that.
John: It's the triage that I don't know how to do.
John: Not just the work, but the trio.
Merlin: I totally understand.
Merlin: I don't know.
Merlin: I mean, my angle on this is an angle that comes from being a person with ADHD, which means that my body does not create and regulate dopamine well.
Merlin: So I have, over time, I won't drag this out, but I used to blame that very much on myself.
Merlin: And obviously, it is me.
Merlin: That's the problem.
Merlin: But...
Merlin: But I also did eventually realize that for myself, it's a fine line that enables me to be motivated enough to do a thing that I know I need to do when all my chemistry is telling me it's not a big deal.
Merlin: Because in the absence of that dopamine, in the absence of that adrenaline, it's sort of like, whatever, like it'll get done when it gets done.
Merlin: So, I mean, I don't know.
Merlin: I've become a little bit more gentle with myself and others.
Merlin: Nobody asked me, but being a little more gentle with myself about learning to truly understand what can get things from stasis to motion.
Merlin: And for me, it's not fear always that does that.
Merlin: Like today, I told you I've got a thing right after this where I've got to record something.
Merlin: I'm unprepared for this show, less prepared than I normally am.
Merlin: And I have to go on a podcast with people I really enjoy and talk about a TV show that was on last night.
Merlin: That I watched, but I didn't watch as carefully as I normally do.
Merlin: So I'm sitting here with my dick in my hand.
Merlin: Like when I'm done with this, I'm going to have to go watch the last 20 minutes of The Last of Us again.
Merlin: Because I remember the puns.
Merlin: I remember the siphoning and then Melanie Linsky's there.
Merlin: But like I have nothing smart to say about it.
John: Well, and this is the episode that everyone in the world is talking about.
John: That was last week.
John: Oh, okay.
Merlin: So this one was a little bit – this was a little – it was a nice, you know, kind of breaking it up a little bit loud.
Merlin: It's a very good show.
Merlin: I would say if you can only watch one Craig Mason show, I would still recommend Chernobyl personally.
Merlin: I think it might be one of the greatest things of all time.
John: It's truly a great show.
Merlin: I just turn it on sometimes, which is terrible.
Merlin: Oh, wow.
Merlin: It's not like a comfort show.
Merlin: Oh, John, I was telling Alex about this.
Merlin: Sometimes I'll just be like, hmm.
Merlin: I wonder if I'll watch the third episode of Chernobyl tonight.
Merlin: It's like, dude, you shouldn't do that.
Merlin: That's the one where you can see through the guy's skin.
Merlin: Don't do that.
John: Wow.
John: What a very strange show to be like.
John: So well done.
John: This is my comfort show.
John: I'm just going to turn this on.
Merlin: It's like watching The Godfather almost.
Merlin: Anyhow.
Merlin: So I'm with you.
Merlin: I think it's everybody's got to find the thing that gets them motivated.
Merlin: And for some people to give a name to that thing I just kind of described, the mean dad voice, the thing that tells you you're such a piece of shit.
Merlin: And if that motivates you and it produces results you like, that's good.
Merlin: But you can't always count on it.
Merlin: And I've discovered quite the opposite.
Merlin: Sometimes I need to go the other way.
Merlin: I need to just calm the fuck down and get into whatever this thing is right now.
Merlin: Which is hard with my brain.
Merlin: A person with anxiety and ADHD is forever running from the past and running toward the future.
Merlin: And it's difficult to like just sit the fuck down and go, I'm just going to have fun with my three friends and talk about an HBO show without, you know, declaiming all of my like, you know, oh, I didn't really get to watch it very well.
Merlin: I'm a piece of shit.
Merlin: Don't hate me.
Merlin: Oh, yeah.
Merlin: Well, you know, actually my performance just much like 10th grade is pretty good considering I only did it the morning before.
John: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John: Well, for my part, I love that you're being gentle with yourself and I love that you're being gentle with me.
John: Somebody needs to be.
John: Well, yeah, I could use a little, you know, I could try a little tenderness and I could use a little gentleness.
John: And I'm trying to learn to do that too.
Merlin: uh what just exactly what you described but i'm still not that's not that's not in your nature john no no it's almost it's almost literally antithetical to at least my understanding of your internal monologue i don't know but the voice in your head is is very much not the kind of person who goes well maybe you'll do a better job if you just calm the fuck down
John: No, no, no, that's not a, and, and, and lately, you know, I've been, I, I, it's not like I've been struggling with anxiety like I did back in the Aloha days.
John: Um,
John: But I have been really struggling with – You have a lot on your plate right now.
John: Yeah, with feelings of well-being.
John: And I should say, just for those following along at home who are playing Roderick on the line bingo or whatever, that I – Roderick Wang.
John: That's Roderick Wang.
Merlin: 24, 16.
Merlin: That's Robert Wayne.
John: Simon from Somerset.
John: I have, I think, come to a resolution with my neighbors who I've been in a protracted dispute with for exactly a year.
John: The dispute started on February 10th of last year.
John: For an entire year, I have been.
John: Right, you've been dealing.
John: I've been in a state where multiple times a day, I had to, that voice inside my head was saying,
John: It's a catastrophe.
John: You're going to lose your home and you've made poor choices your whole life and nobody loves you.
Merlin: I mean, one of those voices, we might share a voice on this, is that like, well, you know, you knew, you know what a fuck up you are and you knew it would eventually be your undoing.
Merlin: The phrase I use, you knew, you know, your undoing was coming.
Merlin: It's just now, you know, you deserved it and now here it finally is.
John: Yeah, exactly.
John: That's exactly the voice.
Yeah.
John: And to imagine, if you can imagine at home, listener, a thing that would have made me long for a time when my biggest problem was Bean Dad, where I was like, God, do you remember a year ago when all you had to think about was everybody in the world hated you?
John: Now, as of a couple of days ago, there were lawyers who were here and
John: Multiple lawyers here at the house.
John: On site.
John: Tromping through the woods in their muddy boots.
John: Oh my goodness.
John: All of them complaining that they had worn the wrong North Face jacket because they were freezing cold.
John: And me standing there in a Filson hat saying, you've made the wrong choice of layers, I'm afraid, lawyers.
John: Ha ha ha.
John: Everybody laughs.
John: And then everybody's serious again.
John: And in all of it, and there are multiple colors of tape running through the forest, pink tape and white tape and blue tape.
John: It sounds really indignified.
John: It was terrible.
John: And it's terrible for the forest.
John: And the owls and the coyotes, they're like, are you kidding us right now?
John: And I'm like, look, man.
John: Yeah, as one, they're like, really?
John: And as the listeners to this program, who are also lawyers, have written me on the side and said, don't talk about it on the program.
John: Um, and so I won't.
John: And my own lawyers have said, you're not going to talk about it ever again.
John: You're going to be quiet and you're just going to be quiet.
John: And I'm like, it's really hard for me to be quiet.
John: And they're like, is that being quiet?
John: And I'm like, no, you're right.
John: I'm sorry.
John: I'm so, I'm so.
John: Counselor, could it be argued that I'm being somehow opposite of quiet?
John: Am I, is this talking too much?
John: And they're like, yes, any amount of talking is too much, but it was, it, it has been resolved.
John: Not completely, but to the level where now people are bound by – Can I use a phrase I know from television?
Merlin: Have you reached an agreement in principle?
John: We have reached an agreement where pieces of paper have been signed that are legally binding.
Merlin: Oh, wow.
Merlin: The principle is your power.
John: There was no principle – well, I've already said too much.
Merlin: Yes, no, I agree.
Merlin: Are you cool with – marker, marker.
Merlin: Are you cool with what we have here?
John: Oh, yeah, yeah.
John: That's fine.
John: All right, cool.
John: I mean I can only – I am as God made me, sir.
John: Just twisted old fruit.
John: I also said that to my lawyers like – I say it all the time, John.
John: I am as God made me, sir.
John: And they're both in their 30s and they're like, I don't know that reference.
John: And I'm like, it's all right.
John: It's okay.
Yeah.
Merlin: I went to school in Boston.
Merlin: I went to school in Connecticut.
Merlin: It's not a big college.
Merlin: No, not a big.
Merlin: Wow.
Merlin: Now that's a nice pull.
Merlin: Thank you.
Merlin: Uh-huh.
Merlin: But so, so.
Merlin: Remember when they all have the cold sore?
Merlin: Of course.
John: Bobby Fleckman.
John: I've had that experience.
John: Oh, my God.
Merlin: She's so cute.
Merlin: Oh, my God.
Merlin: Fran Drescher is so cute in that.
Merlin: And Dana Carvey is a mime.
Merlin: Did you know that Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal are mimes in that?
John: Yes, I did.
John: And I was trying to explain to my daughter last night because my daughter said she said she said the following thing.
John: She said, I love jokes.
John: But when people make jokes, although I think they're funny, I don't laugh.
John: And I said, that's very common.
John: And she said, but I love it when people do impressions.
Merlin: oh and it's true she loves impressions does she does she need to know who the people are that are being impersonated no she just likes it well you gotta go watch those those youtube compilations of the trip of rob bryden and uh steve coogan yes that's one of her mother's favorite shows you're supposed to blow the bloody doors off but what i was saying to her was when i was a kid
John: People that did impressions were actually huge stars.
Merlin: They were gods.
Merlin: Rich Little was huge.
Merlin: John Beiner.
Merlin: John Beiner, the guy who was – what was John Beiner?
Merlin: Was he Frank Gorshin?
Merlin: Also the Riddler?
Merlin: He was a big impressionist?
John: Right.
John: He did impressions.
John: And Dana Carvey, of course, really great at impressions.
John: And she was having a hard time understanding, first of all, what is a talk show?
Merlin: That's the kind of thing Daddy plays bass on.
John: I was trying to explain, like, there were a lot of famous people that everybody knew that were in their 80s in the 70s.
John: And they were still kind of all you saw when you turned on the television.
Merlin: You would see Jimmy Stewart or an impression of Jimmy Stewart.
John: Yeah.
John: And then these guys who were half their age were doing impressions of them.
John: And they were still in their 40s.
John: Yeah.
John: And so I was thinking about Dana Carvey and thinking about showing her like a sizzle reel.
John: of Dana Carvey doing, yeah, exactly, Jimmy Stewart and, like, I don't know, Harold Lloyd.
Merlin: There's a lot.
Merlin: I mean, there's always, like, the classics, like, you know, Cary Grant or, you know, or, like, I was in a talent show when I was eight, and my mom thought it'd be funny if I impersonated Jimmy Durante.
Merlin: So I did.
John: Oh, sure.
John: Everybody loves Jimmy Durante.
John: Huge fans.
John: You know what inspired it?
John: We went to the movies yesterday.
John: Yeah.
John: And apparently, I don't know if this is true for your child, but all the kids today love the movie Clue.
Merlin: Oh, we watch Clue every single Christmas morning.
Merlin: Really?
Merlin: It's beloved.
Merlin: And it features the great Spinal Tap actor, Michael McKeon.
John: Whom Marlowe agreed was the handsomest actor.
Merlin: I think I know we were going with this because we watched Better Call Saul, and there's a certain movie I keep threatening to show my kid, but I realize there's no way to explain Spinal Tap to a 15-year-old kid that isn't really stupid and not – how do you give people context for what people thought of heavy metal in the early 80s?
Merlin: It's so awful to know that – You can't appreciate how perfect that movie was.
John: All the years that I've been saying I'm going to – one day I'll have a child and I'm going to show them on their 16th birthday.
John: I'm going to show them all the John Hughes movies of the 80s and realize – Automobile?
John: They're not going to care.
John: No.
John: But then Spinal Tap, they would – it might as well be in Latin.
Yeah.
John: It might as well be like a Regency drama.
John: Yeah, exactly.
John: But this movie theater, the Central Cinema in Seattle is one of those where you go and they serve pizza and beer.
John: Did you see Clue there?
John: So we went to see Clue there.
John: I have a crush.
John: Oh, Merlin, you've been there.
John: Have I?
John: You've been there because when You Look Nice Today did their one tour with Jesse Thorne.
John: Yeah, yeah.
Merlin: The Monsters of Broadcasting.
John: You guys played at the Central Cinema.
John: Is that when Adam brought out the chicken and acted like it was a baby?
John: Adam brought the chicken and acted like it was a baby.
John: I played the banjo.
John: I don't even remember what.
John: I think you play.
Merlin: Yeah, you might have played the little You Look Nice Today song.
Merlin: But you opened, you came out and stood in front of the stage.
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: Yeah, I remember that.
Merlin: I don't even know where I got a banjo.
Merlin: Oh, that place, did that have a crazy high ceiling?
Merlin: It did have a crazy high ceiling.
Merlin: Yeah, I remember that.
Merlin: Wait, so you went and saw Clue there?
Merlin: How about that maid, huh?
John: Oh, the maid.
John: She's extraordinary.
John: But of course, I'm always waiting for the Jane Whedland scene.
John: It's so brief.
John: You only get 20 seconds of her, but it's 20 of the great seconds.
Merlin: Oh, she's so blunt.
Merlin: And you get Leslie Ann Warren.
Merlin: You get Madeline Kahn.
Merlin: You get Lee Ving of the band.
Merlin: What was his band?
Merlin: War?
Merlin: War.
Merlin: War?
Merlin: No.
Merlin: No, War is what it's good for.
Merlin: He was in that band.
Merlin: That song, New York's All Right If You Like Saxophones.
Merlin: What's the name of the band?
Merlin: The New York Dolls?
Merlin: God damn it.
John: Continue.
Merlin: I'm going to yell it out in a minute.
John: Don't worry.
John: No, but she said that Leslie Ann Warren was the character that she identified the most with, and I was like, okay.
John: Fear.
John: Oh, he was in Fear.
John: Yeah, they were on SNL once.
John: That didn't go great.
John: But before the show,
John: They were watching Looney Tunes.
John: They were playing Looney Tunes at the cinema, and all these kids are watching Looney Tunes.
John: Oh, I get it.
John: Oh, that's so fun.
John: Yeah, and they were not – none of them – and this is a tragedy.
John: Which is how it all started, right?
John: Those used to be shorts before Warner Brothers movies.
John: But the kids had never seen –
John: Looney Tunes.
John: At one point, Sylvester comes on and my kid turns around and looks at me and goes, what's this cat's name?
John: And I'm like, oh, that's Sylvester.
John: He's not a cat.
John: He's a putty tat.
John: And then Tweety shows up and she's like, that's Tweety Bird.
John: Like she knew who Tweety was, but she couldn't remember Sylvester.
John: And I'm sitting with some Gen X dads and we're all like kind of crying in our Diet Cokes because –
John: By the time we were three years old, we knew every Warner Brothers cartoon backwards and forwards.
Merlin: Oh, John, last week I spent – well, what I spent was years trying to find the Warner Brothers cartoon that has a line in it that I say twice a week.
Merlin: And I could never find it.
Merlin: And I finally found it like a week or so ago.
Merlin: And do you remember the one where it's like two mice and it's like –
Merlin: It's like, oh, shit, where are the guys on The Honeymooners?
Merlin: Art Carney and Jackie Gleason?
Merlin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Merlin: There's supposed to be Ralph.
Merlin: Yeah, anyway.
Merlin: And there's the cat, and they're pursuing the cat.
Merlin: And it ends with the Art Carney character opens the door, and he goes to look and see what happened after the dynamite exploded.
Merlin: And he goes, no casualties.
Merlin: And then they show the cat hanging from the overhead kitchen light, and he goes, ha!
Merlin: No casualties, he says.
Merlin: I've had that line in my head for 50 years.
Merlin: It was so satisfying to find it.
Merlin: But I'm guessing, I don't want to steal your bit, but like Spinal Tap, it's really difficult to go like, yeah, this is the basis for a ton of stuff today that you would never expect.
Merlin: If I tried to dig out... When you're watching Home Alone, I mean, they're pretty...
Merlin: I don't know, Home Alone's comedy, they don't lean on the sound gags a lot.
Merlin: But the whole stuff with the Wet Bandits is very Warner Brothers.
John: Right.
John: As I was saying, if I had to dig out every Warner Brothers quote from my – a lot of them – From your pantheon.
John: They're so assimilated that I would have a hard time going all the way back to like, wait a minute.
John: Is that from the Barber of Seville, Bugs Bunny?
John: Like I – it's so deep in me.
John: But so these girls are all sitting and watching.
John: And the entire Sylvester and Tweety Bird show –
John: relies on a knowledge of a Hitchcock impression.
John: Like the narrator.
John: Oh.
John: The narrator of the episode.
Merlin: He comes out and he says, good evening.
John: Yeah.
John: And throughout the episode, there's this Mel Blanc impression of Alfred Hitchcock throughout the show.
John: And all the jokes are like punctuated by Hitchcock.
John: Yeah.
John: And so the kids are already trying to understand how a mouse, how can a mouse hit a cat with a mallet?
John: I mean, but you know, they've seen.
Merlin: They stole all this from Itchy and Scratchy.
John: Yeah, they've seen Itchy and Scratchy, right?
John: So there's some concept of it.
John: But then the Hitchcock thing, and I'm just like, oh, so where do I start with Hitchcock?
John: I didn't even know what those were about in 1972.
Merlin: But you knew about it in the same way that you would know about, like if I say to you, Ancient Chinese Secret, you just know that because of exposure to that goddamn Calgon commercial over and over and over.
Merlin: Ancient Chinese Secret, huh?
Merlin: Here's his Ancient Chinese Secret, Calgon.
Merlin: Mr. Lee, how do you get your shirts so white?
Merlin: What?
Merlin: I'm the sole survivor.
Merlin: Latchkey child, latchkey child.
Merlin: He's seen all the commercials so many times.
John: Oh, the songs.
Merlin: I feel like chicken tonight.
Merlin: But yeah, okay.
Merlin: It's a San Francisco treat.
Merlin: I went back and I found the, I mentioned in passing, I think, I think I ended up using this for, I think it was here, but was it here that I mentioned the TV show Phyllis and in kind of like as a reference to San Francisco and my first, apart from Rice and Roni, my first concept about San Francisco was from the opening of Phyllis.
Merlin: I went and I looked it up and I found the credits from the opening credits in the first season.
Merlin: I'm not going to suggest you go look at it, but it does open with what appears to be a chorus line of men in blackface.
Yeah.
Merlin: Which I don't remember.
Merlin: I do remember the Fisherman's Wharf sign.
John: But then that didn't extend to the second season?
Merlin: I did not.
Merlin: My scholarship on this is a little bit thin.
Merlin: I'm sorry.
Merlin: I took you way off your topic.
Merlin: So you're in a theater filled like you and you've got Roland Barthes swimming around in your head.
Merlin: There's all kinds of crazy semiotics and connections going on.
John: Wait a minute.
John: Colleen Camp was in Apocalypse Now?
John: Yeah.
John: She played Yvette the maid in the movie Clue.
Merlin: Oh, you know what I'm looking at right this second.
Merlin: I'm looking at what's going to be our show art, which is Leslie Ann Warren.
Merlin: Colleen.
Merlin: What's her name?
Merlin: Colleen.
Merlin: Camp.
Merlin: Colleen Camp.
Merlin: Oh, was she one of the Playboy bunnies?
John: Oh, must have been.
John: Must have been.
John: She was in Police Academy.
John: Great, great film.
John: Great series of films.
John: She must have been one of the bunnies.
John: Yeah.
John: There are no other women in Apocalypse Now.
Merlin: I'm trying to think.
Merlin: There's, yeah, not a ton.
Merlin: Oh, yeah, there's the woman that they blow up from the helicopter.
John: Oh, right, right, right, right.
John: Lady in the Hat.
John: She's Lady in the Hat, who dies.
John: There are a few ladies in hats.
John: But no, she was.
John: She was one of the bunnies and then went on, according to Wikipedia, to be an actual Playboy centerfold in the October 1979 issue, for those of you who have a complete collection.
John: of 70s playboys do you have that in braille i do i do not that you know of yeah i have the i have some 90s playboys so you got to see warner brothers cartoons on a big screen yeah and in fact one of the gen x dads leaned over to me and said why did they why did they just use mel blanc for everything why didn't they get another voice actor right and i said because how do you improve on perfection
John: And he said, no, but I mean, wouldn't you want a little variety?
John: And I was like, Mel Blanc has all the variety you need.
Merlin: He's got a really funny appearance.
Merlin: Actually, I will just – I don't need this for our listeners, but I'll find it for you.
Merlin: Mel Blanc was on Letterman in probably the mid-'80s.
Merlin: And it's – he's such an entertaining guy.
Merlin: And he knew –
Merlin: Gosh, for some reason now I'm thinking of Adam Scott in Party Down.
Merlin: Are we having fun yet?
Merlin: He knew what people wanted to hear.
Merlin: They wanted to see this man, this little man, balding man with a mustache, come out and do the voice of –
Merlin: Let's be conservative.
Merlin: I could probably right now name a dozen characters with different voices that he did.
Merlin: And just to see them all coming out of his mouth is so entertaining.
Merlin: And I get giddy when I watch it.
Merlin: That's a good point.
Merlin: Why not?
Merlin: But he was the guy.
Merlin: Do you think it was for money?
John: Well, and eventually this dad wouldn't let up.
John: He was like, yeah, but – and I'm like, it's Mel Blanc or Blanc.
John: You don't – it's like Moog or Moog.
John: You don't argue with the master.
John: And the dad wouldn't let up.
John: And finally I was like, well, I'm sure that they paid him.
John: So you blew him up with dynamite?
John: No, I have –
John: What a revolting development.
John: I'm sure that they didn't pay him the additional car fee.
Merlin: It's Warner Brothers.
Merlin: He was on staff, probably.
Merlin: He probably got $1.50 an hour.
John: The canteen would have to make five different chipped chicken on toasts.
John: If you had five actors and they only had to make one chipped chicken on toast.
John: If it's Mel Blanc.
Merlin: Knock on effects of scale.
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: Yeah.
Merlin: I think it's going to Benoit Blanc.
Merlin: You might be thinking of you might be thinking of Benoit Blanc.
Merlin: Benoit Blanc.
Merlin: Benoit Blanc.
Merlin: Mel Blanc.
John: I think.
John: Is it Mel Blanc?
John: Because it's.
John: I'm not going to correct you.
John: I don't know.
Merlin: I don't have a dog in this fight.
John: But yeah.
John: No.
John: I mean, I was watching a Geddy Lee thing that somebody sent me this morning.
John: They were like, look at this thing from Geddy Lee.
John: And I said, you are my fact-checking friend.
John: Aw.
John: You're my fact-checking cuz.
John: What about the voice of Geddy Lee?
John: But Geddy Lee is apparently doing a raffle of a Moog Moog synthesizer.
Merlin: Oh, like the subdivisions?
Merlin: No, it's like probably an Oberheim, but really?
Merlin: Interesting.
John: And he, I think in this video...
John: First pronounces it Moog, and then he calls the keyboard a Moog, and then when he's talking about Bob Moog, he calls him Bob Moog.
John: Celebrities.
John: They're just like us.
John: But I thought that was very clever to say the keyboard's a Moog because that's what everybody calls it, but he's Bob Moog.
John: Uh-huh.
John: Like, oh, well done, Geddy.
John: You covered both sides.
John: You're right and you're wrong.
John: Yeah, he's no dummy.
John: He's no slouch.
Merlin: He's not a dummy or a slouch.
Merlin: Not a dummy or a slouch or a douch or a slummy.
Merlin: And so your youngster, your progeny, has enjoyed Clue before, correct?
John: Yes, and I don't get it.
John: I don't get why the kids...
John: She has no interest in me showing her movies from my childhood.
John: She's not interested in 80s movies.
John: She did not at all enjoy.
Merlin: I can't just love Clue for years.
Merlin: It's the wildest thing.
Merlin: Where did it come from?
Merlin: I don't know.
Merlin: There's so many good movies.
Merlin: My kid will still not sit down and watch Alien like a gentleman.
Merlin: Wow.
Merlin: But, oh, I've seen it already.
Merlin: No, you're on TikTok and you think you've seen everything.
Merlin: Shut up.
John: Yeah.
Merlin: But, oh, I've seen it on a big screen.
Merlin: That must have been kind of fun.
Yeah.
Merlin: It was, it's very fun.
Merlin: Although, you know, I'm sitting there like, I bet your envious of that house is what you were.
John: Well, the house with the secret passageways I like, but really I'm just doing the thing where I'm like, wow, these chicks are hot.
John: And, uh, there's a lot of innuendo in this movie and that's fun.
John: I like a little going home to my wife.
John: And there's Howard Hessman at the end.
John: And none of the Gen X dads recognized Howard Hessman, who only ever looked like Howard Hessman.
John: And I'm like, so my kid says, who was the, was that J. Edgar Hoover at the end?
John: And I was like, no, no, it wasn't.
Merlin: That's Dr. Johnny Fever, who's also the manager of the other band in Spinal Tap.
John: That's what I said.
John: I said, it's Dr. Johnny Fever.
John: And the Gen X dads were like, what?
John: That was Howard Hessman?
John: Like, they know...
John: And I'm like, where were you?
Merlin: What's happened to education in this country, John?
Merlin: Exactly.
John: And these are people our age.
Merlin: They don't know who they are anymore.
John: They don't know our history, Merlin.
John: Our history.
Merlin: Well, you know, those who don't remember WKRP are forced to repeat it.
Merlin: Is that Arnold Tony?
Merlin: Who said that?
Merlin: I forget.
John: That's great.