transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] Are you going to do what you want to do? Are you going to stare down the barrel and deliver this line that was written in the 1920s? And you're like, nope, I'm a tin man. I'm not going to break. I'm the tin man. Hey, everybody, welcome to Don't Make Me Come Back There. We are Funny Podcast About Family. My name is Dustin Nickerson. I'm a stand-up comedian, the host of the Before I Mention podcast. And as alongside me in our state-of-the-art recording studio about public square coffee in downtown La Mesa, California is my lovely wife, my co-host, and my best friend, Melissa Nickerson.

Speaker 2:
[00:53] Hey there.

Speaker 1:
[00:54] Good to see you, Melissa. Melissa today is wearing a sweatshirt that she colored with one of those things that give you the five different colors of the highlighter, and then she just did that one streak above, you know? When you could turn it and it's a different highlighter color, you get them at a lot of conferences.

Speaker 2:
[01:13] Oh, I see what you mean. The star, like the five-point thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[01:18] Not to be confused with the clicker thing.

Speaker 2:
[01:19] That's pretty fun.

Speaker 1:
[01:21] That was, you know, that was our iPad.

Speaker 2:
[01:25] Yep. Our fidget toy.

Speaker 1:
[01:28] Oh, yeah, yeah. 12 colors.

Speaker 2:
[01:29] Yep.

Speaker 1:
[01:29] 12 colors. Yeah, those were kind of the OG fidget toy, weren't they? The little clicker.

Speaker 2:
[01:34] I saw a meme and I was like, oh, these were all fidget toys.

Speaker 1:
[01:38] Yeah. You know?

Speaker 2:
[01:38] Like those little gel dropper things.

Speaker 1:
[01:42] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[01:43] All those things that we loved.

Speaker 1:
[01:44] What about gels? Gels, shoes. Remember jellies?

Speaker 3:
[01:48] Jellies.

Speaker 1:
[01:48] Remember jellies?

Speaker 2:
[01:49] They're back.

Speaker 1:
[01:50] Are jellies back?

Speaker 3:
[01:51] Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[01:53] Jelly sandals? Like the plastic sandals?

Speaker 1:
[01:55] Yeah, they're back. Jellies are back?

Speaker 2:
[01:59] Yeah. I mean, they're for women.

Speaker 1:
[02:01] I know. I'm not looking to buy them.

Speaker 2:
[02:05] I was like, are we talking about the same thing? Yeah. That's what I was. Yeah, they are back.

Speaker 1:
[02:10] Really?

Speaker 2:
[02:11] Yeah. And not just for little girls. Now, women are wearing them and they don't have a plastic sole. They have like a cork sole, so like you're not just like sweating.

Speaker 1:
[02:23] Yeah. Oh, Andy, you'll be a pretty, this is related. Andy. I love this.

Speaker 3:
[02:29] Where's this going?

Speaker 1:
[02:31] You know what else is back right now? Rainbow sandals.

Speaker 3:
[02:36] I didn't know they, well.

Speaker 1:
[02:37] Well, that's the 40-year-old man in you. So, that's exactly, so.

Speaker 3:
[02:42] I think it's a San Clemente thing in me because they're from San Clemente.

Speaker 1:
[02:46] Yeah, yeah. But they did go away, FYI. They, you just didn't think they went away because they still sponsor, they have an Adopt-a-Highway still up there and that track of I-5. The children are wearing rainbow sandals. And I'm a 40-year-old man who needs the arch support, so I can't wear any sandal. But.

Speaker 3:
[03:07] What's wild is they're probably wearing their parents' sandals because of their lifetime guarantee.

Speaker 1:
[03:10] Yeah. You know what's interesting though is they are not, I think they're the same price as they were when, because they were expensive then.

Speaker 2:
[03:17] They're not, they, I don't know how they did it. They're still like 60.

Speaker 1:
[03:22] Yeah. But they're not like Arizona Iced Tea where Arizona Iced Tea has always been cheap. It's, they, Arizona, rainbow, Arizona sandals. Rainbow sandals were very expensive or maybe they were just really poor.

Speaker 2:
[03:35] I mean, because they're leather, there's some leather.

Speaker 3:
[03:36] For like a young person, like, saying they always wear sandals is a lot of money.

Speaker 1:
[03:39] Yeah. But asking you.

Speaker 2:
[03:41] You can get a plastic counterpart for like.

Speaker 1:
[03:43] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[03:43] Seven.

Speaker 2:
[03:43] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[03:44] Yeah. But even asking your parent.

Speaker 2:
[03:46] A dollar and a half maybe.

Speaker 3:
[03:47] Yes.

Speaker 1:
[03:48] But even asking your parent for a $70 pair of flip-flops in the early 2000s was they were like, what? But I couldn't, I did my inflation math, I was like, so rainbow sandals are $1,000 now? Is that what they were at? No, still in the $70 range.

Speaker 2:
[04:05] Yeah. I think for like kids' school shoes, I want to say it's Converse is like kind of the first name brand at the lowest price point, you know? Like for kids' like shoes and it's $60 or $70.

Speaker 1:
[04:21] No, I'm walking, I will drive by my daughter's high school and see Jinko jeans, rainbow sandals and Abercrombie shirts. And I'm like, do you guys have an original idea of your own? I mean, you are a cool generation, but it's because of us, you're just wearing our stuff. But I remember when, it's so funny because it is very sick because our parents said the same thing when we started wearing bell bottoms. And pookashell necklaces, which again, San Clemente, you're like, when did that ever stop?

Speaker 2:
[04:55] You're like, we always had those. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[04:59] But anyways, we're not here to talk about any of that. We're here to talk about Theta, something that's been around even longer than Rainbow Sandals, the Theta.

Speaker 2:
[05:07] Believe it or not, yes, and are you going to plug your comedy shows?

Speaker 1:
[05:13] Why don't you plug my comedy show? No, I will happily. Yeah, everybody.

Speaker 2:
[05:17] Do I have to do everything? It's a joke.

Speaker 1:
[05:24] No, usually what we'll do is we'll introduce the topic and then not hit the topic right away. I wasn't segueing into theater right away.

Speaker 2:
[05:34] Oh, yeah, I know. Well, yes, today we're talking about theater, specifically youth theater and community theater.

Speaker 1:
[05:42] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[05:43] Yep.

Speaker 1:
[05:44] It's news to me. I thought we were talking about Rainbow Sandals the whole episode. Guys, upcoming shows. Yeah, please.

Speaker 2:
[05:53] We're going to do a continued episode of Rainbow Sandals.

Speaker 1:
[05:57] Yeah, and next one we'll do on Alkaline Trio for you.

Speaker 2:
[06:02] Millennial.

Speaker 1:
[06:03] Yeah. What date is this coming out?

Speaker 2:
[06:08] In the near future.

Speaker 3:
[06:10] No, no.

Speaker 1:
[06:11] Because Graham's Thursday.

Speaker 3:
[06:13] Graham's is Thursday, so maybe this is next week.

Speaker 1:
[06:15] Yeah, this is next week.

Speaker 2:
[06:16] 23rd.

Speaker 1:
[06:17] Guys, currently, I'm in Portland, Oregon. This will come out the Thursday that I'm in Portland, Oregon. So I'm doing shows in Portland right now. Missoula this weekend, Spokane, Vancouver, BC. Guys, May we've got Vegas, Birmingham, Atlanta, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Buffalo, Pittsburgh. This is way into June and beyond now. Milwaukee, Denver, Eugene. We had another show. Springfield, Columbia. Summer, we're going to do August. This is Q4. Ready? Here's the Q4 cities. Ontario, California, Irvine, Omaha, Des Moines, Jacksonville, Orlando, Dayton, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse, Brea, San Jose, Lowell, Arkansas, Naples, Florida, Tampa, Huntsville, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Michigan, San Diego, California, Indianapolis, Indiana, Austin, Texas. Also just went on sale. Fresno, California, August 22nd. Don't tell me I'm not a man of the people. Love me some Fresno. Good folks there in Fresno. So those are upcoming dates. We got a Patreon coming up.

Speaker 2:
[07:23] Yes. Tuesday, May 12th, 5 p.m. Our monthly Zoom hang. Patreon's a way to give a little and get a little. We've got monthly Zoom hangs, VIP meet and greets, merch discounts, behind the scenes every week, Nickerson Family Christmas card, all cringy stuff.

Speaker 1:
[07:49] All cringy stuff. So yeah, speaking of the Patreon meet and greets, we had a couple up there in Tacoma. Tacoma, you sold out so many shows and we had some in Everett. Tacoma and Everett, so many shows. Thank you everybody for coming out. It's great. Wonderful time. Just hometown love.

Speaker 2:
[08:12] Gloria was up there with you a few days.

Speaker 1:
[08:14] Gloria was up there. We went around UW, we went around the U district, showed her the old haunts around there. I do want to give a shout out to, I want to remember the name of, there's a newer coffee shop in Tacoma that I had not been to.

Speaker 2:
[08:26] Downtown?

Speaker 1:
[08:27] Yeah, Outer Dark. Outer Dark is where I had that vegan Macaroon. Macaroon. But the coconut macaroon that I really got into. So thank you everybody for coming out of the shows. It was very, I don't even know, it's just one of those, I think, career moments that you go, awesome. Nine sold out shows. I think, maybe I told you this, I don't remember if we did. We did not.

Speaker 2:
[08:52] We told our patrons.

Speaker 1:
[08:53] So we did not break the sales record in Tacoma. However, we did break the burger sales record. More burgers in a week than any, at least 20K in burgers. That's what Jordan, our opener, was saying. We did 20K in burgers.

Speaker 2:
[09:10] We laughed really hard because our fans are responsible and kind of down the line, I'll get a burger, it will fill me up.

Speaker 1:
[09:20] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[09:21] I get some protein and just be responsible.

Speaker 1:
[09:28] I threw out a poll recently on my Instagram and I would love, back seaters, your take on this. Discuss in the dust.

Speaker 2:
[09:36] The value?

Speaker 1:
[09:37] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[09:38] It's killing me. Just like, okay, hold on. The cheeseburger just noticed out the responsible.

Speaker 1:
[09:44] Well, I'm gonna elaborate on that thought here in just a second. I know exactly what you mean.

Speaker 2:
[09:51] Andy and his beef podcast.

Speaker 1:
[09:52] Yeah. I asked fans where they preferred to see shows, comedy clubs or theaters. And I asked on Instagram, I would love your guys' takes on this. Shoot us emails at Don't Make Me Come Back There at gmail.com and also sound off in the comments. And also the Dustin & Nickerson comedy fans group. Let us know where you prefer. But to me, the strongest argument against comedy clubs as a consumer is the two item minimum. And that most clubs, they require, in addition to your ticket price, they're usually a cheaper ticket price. And I intentionally try and keep my costs low. There was, I had a friend Reese's like, dude, how much money did you make at that Tacoma weekend? And the number he said was double what I said. I was like, well, yeah, no, man, I don't charge that much for tickets, man. I like to have at least one ticket item that starts with a two when I can, you know, even in theaters, we're trying to do that as best as we can. But, you know, in theaters, it's if you can get one that starts with a three or four, it's tough because those things are expensive. But the point being, they, where clubs make their money is on the food. What Melissa is getting at, which is the savviest use of your two-item minimum, is to get to the club early and make that your dinner. And that is one of your items.

Speaker 2:
[11:24] So then you're not doing our dinner reservation.

Speaker 1:
[11:25] Exactly. So now it's just one full outing. You got the burger, which-

Speaker 2:
[11:31] A drink.

Speaker 1:
[11:31] Listen, Tocoma Comedy Club is one of the ones that has good food. A lot of clubs have very mediocre food. But if you can make it your meal, and now you're set.

Speaker 2:
[11:41] You're saving money.

Speaker 1:
[11:42] Now it's a full dinner and a show.

Speaker 3:
[11:45] I will say, when we shot the special, when doors opened, I was like, this place is packed already. Everyone's just eating.

Speaker 1:
[11:52] My club-

Speaker 2:
[11:53] Oh yeah, everyone was- They were there taking the plates before you got on stage.

Speaker 1:
[11:59] Clubs love it. Clubs love that. And as the comedian, I love it, because I would love you to be done eating by the time, you know.

Speaker 2:
[12:08] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[12:10] I'm talking, but-

Speaker 2:
[12:11] I mean, as soon as you could get in there, everyone was in there.

Speaker 1:
[12:14] I love it.

Speaker 2:
[12:15] They'd order.

Speaker 1:
[12:15] Clubs love it. I love it. I think it's great for business. Clubs really, really like my fans. They always tell me.

Speaker 2:
[12:24] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[12:24] And they're big drinks. Do you remember?

Speaker 2:
[12:27] Well, that was the funny part. We asked the patron on the Zoom hang, what drinks do you think our fans buy?

Speaker 1:
[12:36] Yeah. I'll give you- Go for it, Andy. We have four guesses of what these are the four alcoholic and non-alcoholic bevs that are-

Speaker 2:
[12:46] Comedy clubs.

Speaker 1:
[12:47] That Dustin & Nickerson comedy fans get.

Speaker 3:
[12:48] So I get to pick four?

Speaker 1:
[12:50] Just pick four of what you think they are.

Speaker 3:
[12:51] Sound off for what I think.

Speaker 1:
[12:52] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[12:53] I'm going to probably say Coors Light, Chardonnay, Coke Zero, or Water.

Speaker 1:
[13:02] Well, yeah. No Water. Don't take Water off because the Water is free.

Speaker 3:
[13:05] Diet Coke.

Speaker 1:
[13:05] Okay. So that's kind of the same as Coke Zero. So give me another, a fourth option.

Speaker 3:
[13:10] Dr. Pepper.

Speaker 1:
[13:11] Okay. So you got two of them right. So diet sodas, that's all, whatever they serve. Coke Zero, a lot of diet sodas, a lot of wine, a lot of beer.

Speaker 2:
[13:23] That was my second guess.

Speaker 1:
[13:24] Wine and beer, which is not always super common, a lot of wine and beers. And then the number one cocktail that they order, I'd love for you. I don't know if you're going to get it. I can't believe somebody got this, but this is-

Speaker 2:
[13:35] Yeah, a patron got it.

Speaker 3:
[13:37] So number one cocktail.

Speaker 1:
[13:38] The number one cocktail of a Dustin & Melissa Nickerson fan going out and having a night of comedy.

Speaker 3:
[13:43] I've got two in mind, and I'm having to split and guess here. I'm going to go margarita.

Speaker 1:
[13:48] It's in margarita!

Speaker 3:
[13:50] How did we get it? How does everybody get this? That's a Tommy Bahama drink, man. It's Gen X, but millennials still like it because it's like pseudotropical.

Speaker 1:
[14:05] I can't believe people get this.

Speaker 2:
[14:07] It's just like, I'm out. I'm on a night out.

Speaker 1:
[14:10] It's just so funny because we don't drink margaritas. I like margaritas. Don't get me wrong. I just never think to get it. My dad, it is a very Gen X drink.

Speaker 2:
[14:21] Yes, his favorite.

Speaker 1:
[14:22] They're like, dude, margarita.

Speaker 3:
[14:25] I want to party a little bit.

Speaker 2:
[14:26] Ooh, get a margarita.

Speaker 1:
[14:27] Let's get a margarita.

Speaker 3:
[14:29] It's the same people are going to Chevy's getting fajitas. I mean, that is-

Speaker 1:
[14:32] Listen, I love a margarita. Don't get me wrong. It is just such a funny thing. And that you got it and one of our patrons got it too, just proves to me that that is, because you would get a margarita. You'd be like, sure. It may not be your first-

Speaker 3:
[14:44] I get them all the time. I really do.

Speaker 1:
[14:47] I would have not guessed it in a million years. You're going to give me 20 guesses and I'd have been like, old-fashioned or, you know, but that's like a, that's more niche, you know, not a lot.

Speaker 3:
[14:57] It's niche enough. It was my first guess.

Speaker 1:
[14:59] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[15:00] I stopped, I paused, I'm like, that's not going to be the most common thing though.

Speaker 1:
[15:03] But the person who's getting there for a 6.30 show, they're getting it at 5 p.m. and they're ordering the burger, the side salad and a margarita. Sounds like a great night.

Speaker 2:
[15:16] I'm ready.

Speaker 1:
[15:17] And that's how you become the Burger King of Tacoma Comedy Club. You're looking at him. So thank you everybody for coming out. This last weekend, so I was in Omaha for a corporate gig and I want to give a shout out to Archetype Coffee. Very good. Omaha's great. I like Omaha as a city.

Speaker 2:
[15:36] I've been.

Speaker 1:
[15:37] It's clean, it's nice. The people are very, very friendly. Everyone you talk to is from there. And I'll be like, oh, where are you from? They'll be like, Omaha? They'll be like, no, no, no, no, no. And they'll be like, like an hour outside of Omaha. And I was like, so Omaha. So, yeah. So I really like Omaha. I did a corporate gig. It was, Archetype was there. I took your guys', what was really your pushing. I got a toast thing with goat cheese. It made no difference. I almost pooped my pants walking back to the hotel. I was in bad shape because I saved it for the podcast. I was like, the only way I can really test this is if I don't do it with a lactate. I have to just see what happens because according to Andy. What about goat cheese? What about goat cheese? According to Andy, there's less lactate in it.

Speaker 3:
[16:36] Yeah, I guess it depends how they pasteurized it.

Speaker 1:
[16:39] Lactose, that's the word. There's less lactose in it. Gluten? Yeah. It was a fast, long walk back to the.

Speaker 3:
[16:51] I'm sorry.

Speaker 1:
[16:53] I was also mixing it with three cups of drip coffee. Parmesan.

Speaker 3:
[16:56] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[16:57] But I could tell by how the stomach felt that it.

Speaker 2:
[17:00] What about Parmesan cheese? You could try that.

Speaker 1:
[17:04] Yeah. I just don't need it.

Speaker 2:
[17:07] Yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 1:
[17:08] But archetype coffee did taste delicious. Whatever I got, I forgot about. But it was delightful. And they're great. And the corporate gig was great. And the fundraiser was very, it was nice. And then Saturday, I was in St. Louis area, Belleville, Illinois. Here's the thing I learned about the St. Louis area. They don't love crossing too many rivers to go somewhere. They have this mental block. And this was confirmed by multiple people that a lot of them are like one river max. Which is so funny, because as I joked about online, the Midwest will knock out a hundred land miles. And it's nothing to them. But crossing the river is, I think it's something, there's some mental thing now. Granted, one of those is the Mississippi. Those are hardy rivers, don't get me wrong. But it's a bridge. I'm like, there's some mental gap that they have where it's like, I think it's because they're just going, it feels further away in their mind. Like they're going to a whole different place on the other side of the river, so.

Speaker 2:
[18:17] So what exactly do you mean, like, people are like, it's too far?

Speaker 1:
[18:21] They don't want to, they won't drive over multiple rivers. They're like, I will, I will, like, if you're like, I'm willing to drive five hours, but not six hours, they're like, I will cross one river. I will not cross two rivers to go see you.

Speaker 3:
[18:33] I think I could see the existential challenge in your brain, because I think you're thinking, if something happens on that bridge, getting back over could literally cost me my entire night. Oh, that's interesting. You know, it's like, it's a limited roadway and there's no way to get there. So it's like, you kind of immediately think, how many risks do I want to take to get to XYZ? That's my first thought, like why I think I would feel similar. I'm like, yeah, there's only one way in, one way out. So I don't want to take too many risks on that.

Speaker 1:
[19:01] I could see that. I think also it might be like, in some instances, they're also crossing a state line when they do it. And so sometimes that can feel, there's a taxing this to crossing a border.

Speaker 3:
[19:16] I may not come back.

Speaker 1:
[19:17] I may not come back. I'm going to a place that is not my own. I feel like maybe it just feels like they're leaving further away. They're going to a very different place when they're crossing the rivers.

Speaker 2:
[19:26] So who is telling you I can't come because I have to come, but they told me this was a thing.

Speaker 1:
[19:33] It became like a thing that someone said to, somebody saw me setting up merch pre-show while the opener was on. And she made a joke about like, we crossed the river for this. And I was like, is that a thing? She's like, yeah, but people here don't love crossing rivers. And then I went to the green room and I talked to Courtney and the people from the radio show that were promoting it. And they said that like, that's a whole thing here. People do not love crossing too many rivers here for shows. And we had to cross at least one river to get to the show. So thank you, St. Louis and Illinois, for crossing several rivers to be there in Belleville. It was there at the Lincoln Theater. I brought back Mel some popcorn and she was excited about that. And stayed at Greg Warren's house, did an episode of The Consumers that had come out this week. We did it on Costco. Very excited. Here's one more pop quiz thingy for Andy. Busiest Costco in the world? Any guess?

Speaker 3:
[20:29] Oh man. I can tell you that Hawaii Costco is crazy.

Speaker 1:
[20:32] Honolulu. This guy. This guy's crazy.

Speaker 2:
[20:35] You're crushing it today, Andy.

Speaker 1:
[20:36] This guy's unreal. It's Honolulu. Yeah, it's number one in the world.

Speaker 2:
[20:41] So you have been to a Hawaii Costco?

Speaker 3:
[20:43] Maui. Maui Costco. That was my reference in my mind. So I didn't get it exactly right. But I mean, I knew that the Maui Costco, I went in there, I was like, this is a whole other thing. I didn't even know how insanely busy it was. I've never been to a Costco that busy.

Speaker 2:
[20:57] Was it just on a vacation? You were just grabbing some stuff?

Speaker 1:
[21:01] Yeah. I had no idea that they got that busy. I also didn't know that it's the third biggest retailer in the world behind Amazon and Walmart, which is crazy. I would have let you guess it, but you would have gotten them. You're crushing it. You're on fire. What a day. So anyways, thanks to everybody coming out shows and hope to see you guys eating more burgers and drinking more margaritas in future shows.

Speaker 2:
[21:20] That's right.

Speaker 1:
[21:21] Burgers and Margaritas Tour. Burgers and Margaritas Tour. Yeah, this is very, I mean, this is literally the two Jimmy Buffett songs, Cheeseburgers in Paradise and Margaritaville. These are the Jimmy Buffett songs. Full circle, ready? I went to one Margaritaville, or one Cheeseburger in Paradise my entire life. It was in Maui with my dad.

Speaker 3:
[21:43] Rest in Peace.

Speaker 2:
[21:44] Yeah. He has a restaurant named that?

Speaker 1:
[21:47] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[21:47] I think it burned down.

Speaker 1:
[21:50] Yeah, we had the cup in our house forever. My dad had a Margaritaville singing. Gee, it was the best day of his life.

Speaker 3:
[21:59] I got all hit right now because I was like when we took our honeymoon. I got a full on picture in there too.

Speaker 1:
[22:04] It's great. Yeah. RIP obviously to Jimmy Buffett too. Anyways, segue.

Speaker 2:
[22:10] All right.

Speaker 1:
[22:11] We're going to bring up the Maui fires and segue to Mel and the death of an icon.

Speaker 2:
[22:16] Thank you. Yeah. Well, we did see the new Mario movie. Whatever I said was not going to go over. So funny because we got on our Patreon Zoom and we were like, anyone see the Mario movie? Crickets.

Speaker 1:
[22:35] Blank stares.

Speaker 2:
[22:37] So that's okay.

Speaker 1:
[22:38] It did well though.

Speaker 2:
[22:40] You know, we are big Nintendo people. That's what you should have done to the consumers.

Speaker 1:
[22:48] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[22:48] When they get the Pokemon, I mean.

Speaker 1:
[22:50] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[22:51] No kidding.

Speaker 1:
[22:52] That would be a good one for me.

Speaker 2:
[22:53] So anyways.

Speaker 1:
[22:54] That one my wife lets me go to Pokemon, but not that you can go to a Pokemon, but that was the funny thing about us in Costco is Mel won't go.

Speaker 2:
[23:04] Oh, on the episode?

Speaker 1:
[23:05] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[23:06] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[23:07] That's fine.

Speaker 2:
[23:07] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[23:08] I brought that up briefly. Yeah. But yeah. So we went and saw Mario. It's, Mario is, I've seen the full wave of like, it's a classic thing where it's like 40, 50% or whatever from critics and then 98% from fans.

Speaker 2:
[23:26] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[23:27] I've seen the full wave of being, people being like, I've seen all three cycles, which are, this is a very plot weak movie, it's not very good, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's just a product. To the response to that, which is like, it's a kids movie, relax. It's okay that something is just fun for little kids. And then the next wave behind that is people are like, yeah, but some kids movies are great and everybody likes them. And that is true. But I will tell you, as somebody who watched those like heavy, like Pixar and type movies, like your little kid does tune out during those parts that you like. They don't love the Sally lightning love story. That's totally lost on them. They don't care about that or they don't care. There are parts that they like, what I'm saying is a two year old loves Mario, start to finish. There are no dull moments. I think it's like the Lego Batman movie, if you like the property, which our family does, then you're gonna love this thing. And then if also you're just like, hey, I'm just here for a good time and to laugh at Yoshi pooping eggs and walking through New York. I'm into all this. I also didn't buy that the plot was like that weak compared to a lot of kids movies I've seen. I thought the Bowser and his son thing was interesting and kind of touching at times.

Speaker 3:
[24:55] Yeah. I think they did that thing where they inversed the moment of like, it's the bad guys, but now you've got empathy and they're trying to change. I mean, those themes were fine. Like I thought there was plenty of like...

Speaker 1:
[25:05] I thought the Star Fox thing was totally forced. That was I didn't care about. That was the only one where I was like, and you probably were a Star Fox guy. I didn't hate it, but I did be like, okay, this was a plot device. And just to work this because he's probably going to get a spinoff. And that's fine. I don't care.

Speaker 2:
[25:23] They introduced him.

Speaker 1:
[25:24] Yeah, I didn't think that like I didn't, I thought the Bowser, Bowser Jr. thing was super interesting. Yeah. It's great. It's funny. Our kids liked it all 18 year old, 16 year old, 14 year old, 12 year old, 41 year old, 44 year old. We all liked it. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[25:43] So yeah, it was a good time. Four out of five Bingo Dingoes.

Speaker 1:
[25:48] Oh, there we go. Yeah. Yeah. Four out of five of it.

Speaker 3:
[25:53] Yeah. I think I got to go four out of five too, because I think the first one was five out of five.

Speaker 1:
[25:57] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[25:58] It wasn't as good as the first, but it was great.

Speaker 1:
[26:01] Yeah. It was good. Donald Glover is Yoshi. Great.

Speaker 3:
[26:03] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[26:06] Let's just do one comment and then we'll get into the episode. This is from Angie. She said, Hi, Dustin, Melissa, and Andy. Longtime listener, big fan of the show. I just wanted to drop in and say that I just went to my first live comedy show last weekend and it was a game changer.

Speaker 1:
[26:24] Nice.

Speaker 2:
[26:24] Something about live comedy is so much funnier than anything you can experience through a film show. We live a couple hours from any comedy club, so it is a bit challenging to get to. But after this weekend, I'm sold. We will be making the drive more frequently as it's definitely worth it. We just purchased tickets to Dustin's show in Spokane, and can't wait. Dustin is so funny, I think I'll need to wear my waterproof mascara this time.

Speaker 1:
[26:48] Nice.

Speaker 2:
[26:49] So thank you Angie. Thanks Angie. Thanks for buying tickets. And yeah, I mean, the best part about a live show is it's a one of a kind experience.

Speaker 1:
[26:59] Yeah, and you're sharing it with people. I think it's closest to that like old thing of just like laughing with strangers that we had in movie theaters back in the day.

Speaker 2:
[27:08] The audience changes every time, so the show changes every time.

Speaker 1:
[27:12] Yeah, and there is just a spot in 80 to it, and you're there for that as opposed to like casually kind of consuming it on your phone. And I wonder who she saw, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[27:22] Personally, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[27:23] I wonder if I will live up to it. I told you about the woman who came between Belleville and she'd been on the cruise. She's like, oh my gosh, I just, I love your stuff. And you know, I'm just such a fan. And she goes, I do have to say though, I love all the Nateland comics. I was like, great. She goes, but John Crist is my favorite. And I go, why'd you have to say it?

Speaker 2:
[27:44] You didn't have to say it.

Speaker 1:
[27:45] You didn't have to say it.

Speaker 2:
[27:45] She wanted to talk about John Crist.

Speaker 1:
[27:49] Go, listen, that's great. He's a friend. We've been friends for a long time.

Speaker 2:
[27:52] Yup.

Speaker 1:
[27:54] But it was just, but John Crist is my favorite.

Speaker 2:
[27:57] Well, she goes, you're a comic and I have a favorite comic and I want to talk about him.

Speaker 1:
[28:02] Yeah. Yeah. That's so funny. We also, somebody, we did like a Q&A, The Courtney Show for like a host show. And one of the questions was like about Taylor. And I'm like, take that out. I'm not, you know, like I'm not here to give you a goss on Taylor. You know, if it's like, how's your friend Taylor doing?

Speaker 2:
[28:23] Sure.

Speaker 1:
[28:23] But it was not that. But anyways.

Speaker 2:
[28:26] Well, we'll just move down, Andy. And one more, one more. Here we go. So Dustin, I, last week, I woke up and I had had a stress dream about theater, youth theater. And I told you what this dream was, but it was like, you know, as you're waking, you have these like weird random dreams. And the production manager was like, come out here, Melissa. We have a whole nother week of shows and you have not purchased any flowers for your daughter yet. And she's like, so I'm going to need you to pick out two bouquets and give me $90. And I was like, that seems like a lot. And I already purchased one bouquet, but we're adding a second week?

Speaker 3:
[29:24] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[29:24] Like a second show week?

Speaker 3:
[29:26] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[29:27] It got picked up for the Run Continues.

Speaker 2:
[29:29] I'm like, what? And so, yeah, so it was just, I don't have a lot of dreams. So the fact that I had a stressed dream about theater.

Speaker 1:
[29:39] It shows how deep you were into it last week.

Speaker 2:
[29:42] So funny to me. But I guess two or three weeks ago, our daughter did a show week for Lil Labner. And they take, we've talked about this before, but they take a whole week off of school and they do like eight shows Wednesday through Saturday, matinees and evening performances.

Speaker 1:
[30:07] We have a very, very good local theater.

Speaker 2:
[30:09] Yeah, and then Monday and Tuesday, they're there 12 to 15 hours rehearsing, costuming, like blocking everything to get it ready. And so yeah, so we, it's an annual tradition now, this is her third year with the production and, or with the, I don't know if you call it a production, with the-

Speaker 1:
[30:31] Theater company?

Speaker 2:
[30:32] The company, yeah. So it's a fourth through eighth grade. That's the age range of the kiddos. So kind of middle school. And so this is her third, and this year was super unique because Dustin got to be a part of the show. So yeah, so we just have thoughts and, I was gonna say thoughts and feelings, but just thoughts about being theater parents, and we asked you guys, and we got some fun info back from you. But I wanted to start by trying to remember the shows that our kids have been in. And-

Speaker 1:
[31:20] It's been a lot, yeah. Gosh, we've been in a lot of theater.

Speaker 2:
[31:23] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[31:24] 11?

Speaker 2:
[31:25] And then I believe Claire has been in 11 shows.

Speaker 1:
[31:29] Wow.

Speaker 2:
[31:29] Yeah. Yeah. So-

Speaker 1:
[31:32] Trial of Goldilocks, Goldilocks.

Speaker 2:
[31:34] Stuart Little, We All Get Eatin By Sharks, Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid, Adam's Family, Seussical, Beetlejuice Jr. That's the one they're working on right now, right? That's the one she's in now. Annie, Music Man, and then just a couple weeks ago, Little Abner. And then our older daughter did a couple years of theater. She did Mary Poppins and Lion King. Lion King was on Zoom. Very special.

Speaker 1:
[32:00] I forgot about it. She was one of the hyenas.

Speaker 2:
[32:02] Yes. And of course, there were... I mean, you did a church play, I remember.

Speaker 1:
[32:09] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[32:09] You were in a church play. I did a little community theater. I did church plays growing up, but...

Speaker 1:
[32:15] I didn't know you did Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 2:
[32:16] I did Annie in Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 1:
[32:17] When were you in Wizard of Oz?

Speaker 2:
[32:18] Sixth grade. Chorus. Yeah. In sixth grade, I was Annie because I looked young. And then in seventh grade, I was in Wizard of Oz. So I was an Ozian, you know, just chorus.

Speaker 1:
[32:35] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[32:35] But we had Littles play the... Not the orphans, the munchkins.

Speaker 1:
[32:41] The munchkins, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[32:42] Which can work in a community theater situation. So yeah, I did a little community theater myself, and what about you, Andy? Do you have any... your kids, are you or Mercedes?

Speaker 3:
[32:55] So I didn't, like, I did... I mean, there's a side story I'll get to after this, but my kids, yes, currently do theater. They've done theater. Sunflower's done. Annie and Shepherd is done. Susie Cole, and he was a who in Whoville, the Elephant Bird, and then, then, of course, the other theater stuff they're in is church-level theater, currently with King's Kid Production Company, and they've done God Squad, which is the last one. And then, as we mentioned before, Danny and the Shacks is current, so he's the lead in that. And then my other son, Rose, is King Nebuchadnezzar in that. And then my littlest is also in there doing something. I think he's an animal, something like that. Yeah, but I did try to do drama when I was in freshman year, and we did have to do Grease in class at the end. But the better part of that story is really that I met a friend who had a ska band, and he's like, oh, you play saxophone, you should join my band. And that was the beginning of my entire career.

Speaker 1:
[34:05] It was your gateway.

Speaker 3:
[34:07] Yeah, so the drama club was my gateway.

Speaker 1:
[34:09] Drama was a gateway to ska.

Speaker 3:
[34:11] To ska music, which is like its own form of theater.

Speaker 1:
[34:14] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[34:15] Then into band life all through high school. But yeah, we had a really prominent drama theater arts program at that school that launched tons of people and other stuff like that.

Speaker 1:
[34:29] Yeah, the theater kids in your community really like theater in general is this really rich community that you don't know about if you're not in it.

Speaker 2:
[34:42] No, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[34:43] You just get invited to a play every once in a while and you were like, oh wow, you guys have been working on this for a long time.

Speaker 2:
[34:50] It just took a lot of work. Memorized.

Speaker 1:
[34:52] And you're like, when's intermission? Yeah. Yeah, we've gone, I didn't see this coming with our life and we've become a big theater family. So the way that I got involved with it was, so there is a scene in Little Abner where the long, the bad story long version of this is some little kids take a tonic and they turn into grown men. That's the basic idea of it. They're not little kids, but they're supposed to be little weaklings and then they turn into muscular men, AKA the dads. Captain America. Exactly, yeah. And so me and seven other dads, and for each show, there was a rotation of us who would come on for a scene or two. That was awesome. Coming on stage, and I was in a scene with Claire. So Claire was like singing on stage in front of me.

Speaker 2:
[35:44] She was a scientist.

Speaker 1:
[35:45] Ah, it was awesome. And then she had to like evaluate me and she had her little doctor tool and she would hit me very hard with it every time. She was trying to break me. She was trying to get me to laugh. And then we would stand next to each other at the goodbye wave and I would try and stomp on her foot and make her laugh. So, you know, deeply serious people were trying to sabotage the entire production, me and my little daughter of ours.

Speaker 2:
[36:07] So well, you actually were on, I think it was three scenes.

Speaker 1:
[36:11] Yeah, they kind of, they kind of, yeah, we were a little woodwinked. We were a little roped, they were like, you just come on for like a second. We actually were on for multiple scenes and headlines.

Speaker 2:
[36:22] Yeah, and like, timing, you guys had to like come out.

Speaker 1:
[36:28] I had to do a little, Yeah, we had to do a little bit of acting too. Just a teensy tiny bit of acting. And you're like, okay, well, I've got to get into character. And as I told the theater director, I go, listen, man, like, if you film this like, and distribute it, I'm sag, I'm going to need my rate. And he misquoted that and put it on a button, but it's okay. But yeah, super fun and great. And I don't know, there's something very, like our kids have played sports and they've achieved at very high levels in that. And our kids have gotten solos and choirs and stuff like that. And that's all been fun and great, but there is a uniqueness to the theater community that there's something, I don't know what it is, but there's just something very magical about live theater. If you're into it, if you're not, I get it.

Speaker 2:
[37:23] Yeah, maybe this is like the worst thing I could say, but when I go to the zoo, I know this is gonna sound terrible, I wanna see like one unique thing about an animal.

Speaker 1:
[37:37] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[37:37] Right? Like somebody is like interacting with us or like doing something cool. And so when I go to, cause I do see a lot of kids theater like with Claire and I'm looking for like or you know like an assembly or a thing, I wanna see like something funny.

Speaker 1:
[37:55] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[37:55] Or like one kid who's like really nailing it.

Speaker 1:
[37:58] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[37:58] You know like their part or their dance.

Speaker 1:
[38:02] Or something funny like ma'am this is Les Mis. Hey, what are the yuck yucks coming? It's kind of a downer. Ma'am, ma'am, what play did you think you went to?

Speaker 2:
[38:24] Everyone's like, oh, you're doing that one?

Speaker 3:
[38:28] Oh, look, he's wearing a mask running around.

Speaker 1:
[38:30] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[38:32] Hmm.

Speaker 1:
[38:35] But you want to see something special.

Speaker 2:
[38:37] I don't know. So I'm just looking for one little interaction that's funny or unique or well done. You know?

Speaker 1:
[38:46] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[38:47] That's kind of what I focused on.

Speaker 1:
[38:49] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[38:50] You know?

Speaker 1:
[38:50] Yeah. I'm like, I, you know, God bless coaches and teachers. But I have grown a deep appreciation for theater directors that you can make kids stand still and sing. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 2:
[39:10] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[39:12] I mean, that is it's harder than herding cat. I would be less impressed if you got cats to sit there and sing. There are shows. Yeah. I just, I can't, I can't believe that a theater director can keep like, 60 to 80 kids, just squirrely eight year old boys, singing, doing choreography up there. It's unbelievable. It's really impressive. That is not easy to do. It's, you know, it's, I don't know. I, it's, it's really remarkable and I, I think I, if you're looking for like the little scenes in that, I'm impressed by the big overall moving parts that you got that many kids to memorize that many lines and to show up to that many rehearsals and usually, usually the only hitch is something to do with, usually it's an adult that messed up and didn't turn the right mic on or something. You know, a lot of time those are the only hitches that happen at these type things. So, A Good Theater Program is, A Good Theater Program is a blessing to your kid and a blessing to your community because it is an incredibly positive impact on that kid's life. It puts on live performance and encourages the arts in your community and breaks down all those dumb stereotypes of like theater kids being cringy and different and weird and, yeah, they are, but they put on a heck of a show because that's who puts on good shows because like the normal like the quote unquote like normal kid that fits in and every other social place, he doesn't need to act. Yeah, he doesn't need to act. He's not a good daddy Warbucks. I'm sorry. He doesn't need to act is funny. Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[41:13] I think like what it would seem about like program directors is that it's because you're placing people that have to express what it is for the program, but they all have to uniquely have that ability to express it.

Speaker 1:
[41:27] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[41:27] So it's like their insight to everything is like, oh, you're going to make this great part.

Speaker 1:
[41:33] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[41:33] So the ownership, I think that's what's so beautiful about it is they're giving something that creates agency and excitement for them to all kind of come together like that in a great successful program. That does happen in sports, but sometimes a position in a role seems or even looks mundane watching it on the outside. But in theater, it's like the ownership to make it all come together is that these kids shine and to your point, like, oh, I don't fit elsewhere, but someone thinks I fit somewhere. And it feels like that's theater.

Speaker 1:
[42:01] Well, and I think that there are a lot of parents who reminisce about the good old days and miss things being old fashioned. And I will encourage you, put your kid in theater. Theater is very old fashioned in that regard. They're memorizing lines, they're working together on a production, they're in green rooms, they're not allowed to have their phones. They have to take very precise, orderly directions. You know, they're playing cards between scenes. It's kind of, it's every like 90s camp we went to. You know what I mean? It is, and it is, I mean, and it's, I mean, on a much deeper level, it's old fashioned of, you know, like it's, this has been going on for thousands of years. And sometimes the message of the play is also a bit old fashioned. You're like, I'm sorry, how's this story in? In Music Man, they're okay that she's okay that he lied the whole time?

Speaker 2:
[43:06] We're keeping the con man.

Speaker 1:
[43:07] We're keeping the con man. She's in love with, okay. Well, it's an old fashioned message as well. But there is very some, I find myself using words like wholesome with theater that I don't use those words in sports.

Speaker 2:
[43:25] I think it can vary a lot. Like a lot of directors like kind of pick the newer plays, you know? And just like this company in particular does older ones, you know, more often.

Speaker 1:
[43:43] Yeah, I mean, you say that, but and that is true, but there's a Wizard of Oz in every city in America this summer. You know, like they're, they are doing some new ones, but the hits are.

Speaker 2:
[43:54] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[43:55] Going out.

Speaker 2:
[43:56] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[43:56] The way we're going, we should be getting a Starlight Express again soon.

Speaker 1:
[43:59] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[44:00] That would just be crushing.

Speaker 1:
[44:03] They're like, this year, the sixth graders are doing a Book of Mormon. Wait, what?

Speaker 2:
[44:07] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[44:09] Are they?

Speaker 2:
[44:11] Will you scroll down a little bit, Andy, for me? Thank you. Boop, boop, boop. Yeah. Another element of community theater is how much they rely on parents to volunteer.

Speaker 1:
[44:30] Also very old fashioned.

Speaker 2:
[44:33] All hands on deck.

Speaker 1:
[44:34] All hands on deck. Also, you don't have to drive. It's usually in the community. It's very old fashioned. Honestly, I can't speak for everyone, but the prices are old fashioned. It's not very expensive.

Speaker 2:
[44:47] I mean, this company does require parents to volunteer on like two committees.

Speaker 1:
[44:56] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[44:56] And because it's literally everyone is volunteering. Nobody is taking a salary. So it is lower cost. And another really cool thing this production company does is the three matinees in the morning are like local elementary schools.

Speaker 1:
[45:14] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[45:15] And they bus them down and they pay for the buses. So you are exposing kids for free to theater and like etiquette and like how to watch a play.

Speaker 1:
[45:26] And somebody got their hat taken away. Classic.

Speaker 2:
[45:30] Yeah. It happens. But and it's probably a very stressful morning for the teachers.

Speaker 1:
[45:36] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[45:37] But you are exposing kids to art. And that has a lot of value.

Speaker 1:
[45:41] I think there's I think there is an immense value in gosh, how could I say this? I think there's incredible value in a kid having to go on stage and receive live audience feedback. That will and that is one. And theater is one of the only things that gives you that, where you are going to look in the eyes of other parents, but also your peers, your friends from your school are there, and they're just going to like yell out stuff or you're going to see them not looking, and you're going to in that moment, you're going to decide like what kind of person am I going to be? Not how am I going to act the scene? You're like, you're digging deep. You're like, am I, am I going to just do this? Am I going to stand here and take it? Like life, that, theater is a good life lesson. And you're like, hey man, you're going to pay attention to them or not? Are you going to do what you want to do? Are you going to stare down the barrel and deliver this line that was written in the 1920s, that you, words that a, the third grader can't even understand. And they're getting in trouble out there because they keep throwing the hat around. And you're like, nope, I'm a tin man. I'm not going to break. I'm the tin man. That's real value in that.

Speaker 2:
[47:05] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[47:06] You know?

Speaker 2:
[47:07] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[47:07] You know, you're going to be a better husband, spouse, parent, employee, if you can just stick, you know, creator, artist, if you can just sit there in the face of a hundred squirrely third graders and go, no, I'm the tin man. I'm not going to smirk. I'm just going to be a theater professional.

Speaker 2:
[47:31] This sounds like a graduation speech.

Speaker 1:
[47:33] I'm the tin man.

Speaker 2:
[47:37] In a world of squirrely third graders, be the tin man.

Speaker 1:
[47:40] Anyways, did you guys know I'm writing for this season's Ted Lasso? That does sound like a Ted Lasso speech.

Speaker 2:
[47:48] It does.

Speaker 1:
[47:49] Be a tin man.

Speaker 3:
[47:50] What?

Speaker 1:
[47:51] Melissa heard a dad totally pawn off Be A Goldfish as his own.

Speaker 3:
[47:57] Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2:
[47:58] I think it was just funny because these are fourth, fifth, and sixth graders playing volleyball.

Speaker 3:
[48:04] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[48:05] He did the Be A Goldfish and I was like, well, they don't really know what that means.

Speaker 3:
[48:12] Tell them to set it and they expected they would understand the reference.

Speaker 1:
[48:17] Flush it down the toilet? Is that what you mean?

Speaker 3:
[48:19] I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[48:19] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[48:20] A goldfish died last week.

Speaker 1:
[48:21] Yeah. Be a goldfish. Have a short lifespan.

Speaker 2:
[48:24] What? It made me laugh.

Speaker 3:
[48:27] Don't mention.

Speaker 1:
[48:28] Anyways, you've got some comments.

Speaker 2:
[48:30] Yeah. We have a couple of comments. Sheena emailed. Okay. This is a funny story. She's a former theater kid and a current theater mom. Her freshman year of college, she had to drive her brother and his high school theater friends to a cast party. They had to go to a different town.

Speaker 1:
[48:54] They had to go to Perkins.

Speaker 2:
[48:55] Because their town was too small for the cast party. They only had two bars open past 10 PM. So she's driving a minivan of freshman theater boys and a half a mile from Perkins, she got pulled over. She may have been going over the speed limit. But the cop let her off with a warning and she also knew the cops daughter and was friends with her. So that might have been part of it. But her brother and his friend still bring it up and joke with her about how she got pulled over on the way to the cast party. She also, her daughter has a spring musical and she's like, I don't know if we have the energy to see Nate the night before. But she can't decide. She can pull off both.

Speaker 1:
[49:47] She buy the tickets already? I mean, Nate tends to sell out. I'm a, you can make the decision the night before comic for certain shows.

Speaker 2:
[49:59] Yeah. So she's in a precarious position there. Why don't you read Damaris, our patron?

Speaker 1:
[50:08] My favorite role. She says, Mom, a former student that was finally politely asked to leave the musical board two years after their kid graduated. Didn't know I needed to take a break until they forced it on me. Joking, that's Spanish for hot. But seriously, my favorite role was while I was legitimately, but seriously, my favorite role while I was legitimately helping was ensuring lobby sales ran smoothly and that the boosters made a profit for three consecutive years. Let's see how well they do this year without me, Nadine. Not bitter. That's so funny. That is so funny. I love that.

Speaker 2:
[50:48] So she was a front of the house.

Speaker 1:
[50:50] Yeah. Volunteer.

Speaker 2:
[50:51] Volunteer.

Speaker 1:
[50:53] I told Mel we're going to work the green room together.

Speaker 2:
[50:55] Yeah. I'm always in the green room. That's always what I do.

Speaker 1:
[50:59] Yeah. We'll be a good team.

Speaker 2:
[51:00] Yeah. I did have to make a cast party dinner for 300. That was a whole thing.

Speaker 1:
[51:08] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[51:08] But I prefer the green room because it's busy and I also like to follow the show and call the kids for their roles and their scenes. It's just fun. And I like being with the kids because they have so much energy.

Speaker 1:
[51:23] Yeah. There's a lot of good energy back there. That's what made me want to be back there more.

Speaker 2:
[51:29] Yeah. Ruth from Facebook says, Yay. I can't wait to hear this episode. My oldest daughter is the same age, almost to the day, of your youngest and also loves theater. This is year number three for us and I'm loving being a theater parent. This spring's production is newsies, so that will be a good time. Let's go down. Sorry, Andy. Let's see. Oh, this is a good one. Why don't you read this one?

Speaker 1:
[52:00] Andrea said on the Facebook group, My kiddo loves musical theater, but she always felt more comfortable being in the ensemble and not a lead, even when she was encouraged to go out for it. Her previous theater company participates in musical theater competition every year, and she competed with a solo from Susical the Musical and got third place. She couldn't believe it, and it was her first solo. They gave her so much confidence, and she opened up to taking bigger roles. She's now playing club volleyball, but she's looking forward to doing both in high school next year. Love that. Love that, Andrea.

Speaker 2:
[52:33] That was from Andrea. Let's see. Let's do, I don't know how long you want to go.

Speaker 1:
[52:40] I'm going to do Brian. We usually go an hour. This is, our patron Brian said this. This is great. I was part of a private Shakespeare theater company in high school. Why, yes, I was homeschooled, but we were edgy and did a full dark emo version of Hamlet. It was pretty dark play already, but yeah. Which included a soundtrack featuring my Evanescence, Chevelle, et cetera. Andy's excited now. I got to get rolled out on stage playing a drum kit on a riser with wheels because of course, Hamlet was in an alt rock band. Epic. Nothing says early 2000s teen angst more. That's awesome. That's very funny. That sounds like an SNL sketch.

Speaker 3:
[53:20] That does sound like an SNL sketch.

Speaker 2:
[53:22] Yeah. Sarah on Facebook says, proud theater mom here. My daughter is in her second show this spring. She started with Matilda and is now in Grim Fairy Tales. I was also in Fiddler on the Roof this summer. I love the community aspect of our theater company. The kids always get assigned big little partners that they call Bittles. This spring, my daughter and her Bittles share the same birthday. The man that runs our soundboard requests part of his payment in cookies. He enjoys walking around and visiting all the backstage departments and giving the parents cookies during each rehearsal and show night. My daughter and I often get to make the cookies and she loves that special assignment. Yeah, I think we're, I think we're good.

Speaker 1:
[54:07] Yeah, that's good stuff. I was going to tell you guys one thing. So I was driving around a little bit. Or did you want to read this? Benefits of using?

Speaker 2:
[54:14] No. Okay, great.

Speaker 1:
[54:15] It's fine.

Speaker 2:
[54:15] I think we're good. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[54:18] You know how like, we talk about seasons a lot and the turning of the seasons and things that kind of clock. You were talking about, you know, it's spring because it's getting warm, more light, allergies, things are blooming, track, stuff like that.

Speaker 2:
[54:37] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[54:38] I have road versions of them.

Speaker 2:
[54:40] Okay.

Speaker 1:
[54:41] You know, obviously the airports.

Speaker 2:
[54:45] Spring break.

Speaker 1:
[54:46] Yeah, the airport busyness I catch and then I'm like, okay, we're getting out of winter storms, we're getting into spring storms. Usually those will hit you through spring, June, usually July, but summer trap. But I did some driving this week as it was in the Midwest. And people probably noticed this in their communities and I would notice it a little more if we didn't live in California where it was more prominent. But I was like, oh, it's spring, summer's approaching. How do I know the little roadside VBS signs are out?

Speaker 2:
[55:23] Oh, yeah. It's time.

Speaker 1:
[55:28] Time to start advertising for VBS.

Speaker 2:
[55:31] Yep.

Speaker 1:
[55:31] Time to get the Mario themed VBS or whatever the big movie was this year. Oh, I'm sure. I don't know them, but I bet it's going to be a big space one. I bet we're going to have a big old NASA.

Speaker 2:
[55:47] That would be a good one. Maybe an Olympics one.

Speaker 1:
[55:51] Well, it's not an Olympics year.

Speaker 2:
[55:53] Winter Olympics.

Speaker 1:
[55:54] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. But it is a World Cup year.

Speaker 2:
[56:00] I do like the big theme.

Speaker 1:
[56:01] Yeah, his World Cup, you know. That could be a big one. Oh, I gotta go pay for our parking.

Speaker 3:
[56:09] The World Cup, a celebration of communion.

Speaker 1:
[56:13] Yeah, a Don't Be Too Worldly Cup. Alright, bye!

Speaker 3:
[56:24] Bye!

Speaker 1:
[56:29] Hey, everybody, thanks for listening. We wanna give a special shout out to our As Essential As Oils patrons. That's our $25 a month and up. Our highest givers, thank you so much. First off, Alex Foods and Sam Graham.

Speaker 2:
[56:42] Avril Griffiths.

Speaker 1:
[56:43] Allison Nelson.

Speaker 2:
[56:44] Andy and Darlene Girton.

Speaker 1:
[56:46] Bonnie Galindo.

Speaker 2:
[56:48] Brandon Schoenberger.

Speaker 1:
[56:49] Brian and Amy Nagel.

Speaker 2:
[56:52] Byron Smith.

Speaker 1:
[56:53] Kerry Teague.

Speaker 2:
[56:54] Chris Finn.

Speaker 1:
[56:55] Christopher and Bridget Finlin.

Speaker 2:
[56:57] Code to Grow.

Speaker 1:
[56:58] Courtney Eibling.

Speaker 2:
[57:00] Cynthia Carpenter.

Speaker 1:
[57:01] Marius Diaz-Stevens.

Speaker 2:
[57:03] Daniel Owens.

Speaker 1:
[57:05] Dave and Melissa Cox.

Speaker 2:
[57:06] Dave Hoeglund.

Speaker 1:
[57:07] Debbie Klein.

Speaker 2:
[57:09] Dustin Daley.

Speaker 1:
[57:10] Jason and Francis White.

Speaker 2:
[57:12] Jonathan Ribera.

Speaker 1:
[57:14] Jordan Cowan or Cohen? Cohen. Cohen, Cowen, Jordan, I'm never sure. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2:
[57:19] Juliana Smith.

Speaker 1:
[57:21] Christy Harad or Harad? Harad, Harad? I'm not sure. I'm covering my bases here. Hopefully not Harad, like, you know, King Harad. But, you know, people are getting a little extra on this one. Go ahead.

Speaker 2:
[57:33] Laurie Amis.

Speaker 1:
[57:35] Lauren and Nick Rachel.

Speaker 2:
[57:36] Nick Cordell.

Speaker 1:
[57:37] Naomi Walker.

Speaker 2:
[57:39] Preston and Rachel Wilson.

Speaker 1:
[57:40] Restless Mosaic.

Speaker 2:
[57:42] Robert and Nellie K. Penn.

Speaker 1:
[57:43] Scott Elliott.

Speaker 2:
[57:45] Steven Mimia.

Speaker 1:
[57:47] Yvette Williams.

Speaker 2:
[57:48] Zachary and Tammy Moyle.

Speaker 1:
[57:50] Timothy Frey and Tiffany Penn. Thanks everybody.