02-17-26 - Brady's Insane Asylum Play Story From College - 2015 - BO

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Holmberg's Morning Sickness (02-17-26)

Episode: Brady's Insane Asylum Play Story From College (2015 - BO)
Air Date: February 17, 2026
Hosts: John Holmberg, Brady Bogen, Bret Vesely, Dick Toledo
Podcast: Holmberg's Morning Sickness – Arizona, 98 KUPD

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Main Theme

This episode dives into Brady Bogen’s unforgettable college experience: participating in a theater production at the Athens Mental Health Center (an insane asylum) alongside patients. The crew reminisces about the wild, darkly funny, and sometimes disturbing memories of bringing “Finian's Rainbow” to life within the institution’s walls. The show is packed with irreverent banter, teasing, nostalgia, and the signature offbeat commentary that defines the Morning Sickness crew.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Brady’s College Anecdote: Theater in an Asylum

• Brady shares his experience acting in a college play at the Athens Mental Health Center, recounting that the institution hadn’t changed much since the 1800s.
  • "[The facility] was built in the early 1800s... things did not change much, even from one [generation to the next]." – Brady (01:24)
• He describes being paired with a patient, Gary Crow, for “Finian's Rainbow.” Patients were incorporated into the show.
  • "You were basically paired up with someone... I was paired up with a guy named Gary Crow. And Gary Crow would call you, 'Goddamn nut. Killed my mom.'" – Brady (02:02)
• Gary goes missing before opening night; Brady is tasked with finding him, revealing lax supervision at the asylum.
  • "They sent the college sophomore to find the lunatic. They didn’t have people for that." – Holmberg (02:52)

2. The Absurdity & Risk of the Setting

• The hosts express shock at Brady’s nonchalant approach to walking around the grounds searching for an escaped patient.
  • "Why was an innocent 19-year-old kid looking for an insane asylum patient that was missing?" – Holmberg (04:28)
• Holmberg highlights institutional failures and risks:
  • "Bottom line is you don't know what's going on behind those walls." – Holmberg (05:24)
• Brady reflects that most of the patients could have left if they wanted to, underscoring both the institution’s porous boundaries and the era’s attitudes.

3. Memorable Inmates and Disturbing Stories

• Brady recounts the legend of a patient who went missing for days before being found deceased, with her outline left in the concrete.
  • "And there was the body outlined in the concrete. The fluids left a lining of the body." – Brady (06:12)
• The crew recoils in mock horror; Holmberg insists this is proof Brady was in “horrible danger.”

4. The Play’s Execution & Reception

• The play was a student’s senior thesis; inmates participated but only got short lines due to medication and cognitive challenges.
  • "One thing she discovered earlier is you can't give them long lines to memorize cuz the medication could barely..." – Brady (07:35)
• Brady jokes that the experience was “hilarious,” with his friends also involved.
• The audience included other patients and even Brady's father, who, as Holmberg quips, probably wondered which group Brady belonged in.
  • "Having to tell everybody in town my boy's an actor at an insane asylum." – Holmberg (08:56)

5. Dark College Humor & Irreverence

• The group laughs over typical college antics—ordering pizzas for the deceased, making fun of oddball classmates, and escapades that defined their own college days.
  • "I just ordered pizzas for dead girls." – Holmberg (12:54)

6. Reflections on the Value of a College Education

• In the aftermath of these bizarre stories, Holmberg questions Brady on whether he learned anything consequential in college beyond these shenanigans.
  • "Think real hard about a class that really changed you from college. And it has nothing to do with ordering pizzas for dead people or a kid crapping his pants." – Holmberg (13:34)
• Brady cites a canoeing and skeet & trap shooting class as another college highlight, with the crew teasingly downplaying its educational value.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Holmberg (on Brady being sent to find Gary):
  "They sent the college sophomore to find the lunatic. They didn’t have people for that." (02:52)

• Brady (on the reality of the asylum’s oversight):
  "Yeah, pretty much, yeah." (06:44, dryly admitting nobody was really in charge)

• Holmberg (on Brady’s dad discovering his son’s new acting career):
  "Having to tell everybody in town my boy's an actor at an insane asylum." (08:56)

• Holmberg:
  "You give them 40,000 bucks... here's the papers. Great job in the play, I'm out. Holy crap. That was easy." (13:00)

• Brady (on his college classes):
  "The first half was canoeing. Second half was skeet and trap." (14:00)

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Noteworthy Timestamps

• [01:15] – Brady begins his asylum play story
• [02:00] – Gary Crow’s background and the “Goddamn nut. Killed my mom.” line
• [02:52] – Brady finds Gary missing, gets sent to look for him
• [06:12] – Grim tale: patient gone missing, body found outlined in concrete
• [08:56] – Mockery about acting at the asylum and parental pride
• [12:54] – Callback to college pranks: “ordering pizzas for dead girls”
• [13:00-14:17] – College courses: from canoeing to skeet shooting and the “Boy Scouts for kids” jab

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Overall Tone

The episode is laced with the Morning Sickness’s trademark sarcastic, irreverent, and dark humor. The conversation ricochets from genuine curiosity to incredulous mockery, all while Brady earnestly tries to relate his wild college memory—much to the delight and horror of his co-hosts.

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For fans of offbeat, cringe-worthy college stories and classic HMS banter, this episode is a perfect listen—proving reality is often stranger (and far funnier) than fiction.

Transcript

[A]

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[A]

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[D]

The best of Homburg's morning sickness on 98 KUPD the greatest couple.

[E]

When I was in college, I end up doing a play, you know, but it was at the Athens Mental Health.

[D]

Center because it was right next to the school, right? Yeah.

[E]

And it was in the early 1800s when they built this facility. And things did not change much, even from one.

[D]

That's the point. No one noticed.

[E]

But those hallways, it. You look at the. These pictures that we're looking at, and there's some similarities of the background and the. The cells where they would hold them. She's looking at me.

[D]

Looking at me and you at the same time. Toledo. And her diagnosis is just general paralysis. Yes, she's been paralyzed. Also known as crazy Kill it Photograph at first for generations to enjoy later. Some of them are just dementia. What was your play that you did for the Nuts?

[E]

Finian's Rainbow.

[D]

And did they enjoy it?

[E]

Well, the whole deal is incorporating patience with. So you. You were basically pal. Paired up with someone? I was paired up with a guy named Gary Crow. And Gary Crow would Call you. Goddamn nut. Killed my mom.

[D]

You. You pen palled with Gary for a while. No, no, no. You were done with him that day.

[E]

Just my sheriff. I was senator. Billboard Rockins was my.

[D]

Billboard Rockin.

[E]

Billboard Rockins.

[D]

I don't. I don't know Phineum's Rainbow very well, so. And he was. He played the role. How was he as an actor? Any good?

[E]

Well, just before the opening night. You know, it's an outdoor drama opening night, which I had to. Gary disappeared. He went off the res. Oh. And I found him in a second building just before we had to go on.

[D]

What are you doing out a second? They sent the college sophomore to find the lunatic. They didn't have people for that. I found him. Yeah. No. Why were you looking? The whole place should have been locked.

[E]

You know, he's probably 200ft away.

[D]

He killed his mother. Whenever he can't be found, lockdown, the authorities. Go get Gary. What are you.

[E]

I don't know about Gary. If he killed his mom or something.

[B]

Where was Ferris Ratched?

[D]

Yeah, where was the lady that's in charge of Gary?

[E]

It was a guy, Larry Lankis.

[D]

Oh, Brady, this is terrifying.

[E]

And every time he'd come over there, Larry would, how are you? And he would hug you and press his cheek again.

[D]

Well, Larry's also insane. He's not in charge of anything. If Larry's hugging and kissing and holding men in public that he's just meeting, he's not a facilitator of. He's a. He's an inmate. You and Larry were looking for Gary, the missing.

[E]

Don't worry. Gary's harmless, Right?

[D]

According to Larry, another lunatic.

[E]

So where did I find Gary? Oh, there's this. There's a row of buildings. You know, it's one or two over. It's not that far from the stage because it's outdoor, but Garrett, Gary happened to find 40 of Miller. There's a bottle.

[D]

Oh, we got a little beer.

[E]

I think someone either, you know, and put it underneath the crawl space. Gary, what are you doing?

[D]

Leave me alone, Brady. I already got a mother.

[F]

Hey, we're on in 10 minutes, Gar.

[D]

It's like an after school special. Where were the people working there?

[E]

They're around there.

[D]

Do you not ask yourself that question? Why was an innocent 19 year old kid.

[E]

No, Gary was probably you. Oh, yeah.

[D]

Why was an innocent 19 year old kid looking for an insane asylum patient that was missing? I don't care. Well, it wasn't like.

[E]

Yeah, but it wasn't like an Amber alert. That the question was off. The rest I might have exaggerated.

[D]

Where's Gary is the question right?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Where's the inmate from the insane asylum? Automatically means no civilians are looking for him.

[E]

Right. And then I found him.

[D]

But you did, because nobody else was looking. That's horrifying. You don't see the error in that anywhere.

[E]

Well, he couldn't go anywhere. But he did the facility, huge. I'm saying he could wander around there. Yeah, he could, but he had a.

[D]

Place to be and he disappeared. And there were regulars mixing among them, right? Yeah, but they're losing track of a prisoner on visiting day.

[E]

There is no threat of Gary mixing.

[D]

In, of course, but there is a threat of him grabbing a regular and choking it out.

[E]

No, he said, all right, he was no threat.

[D]

Bottom line is you don't know what's going on behind those walls. But he was no threat to you because he was on his best behavior. He'd probably just been shocked before he saw you. And on this day, he smelled out some beer and hid in a corner.

[E]

There was one patient that did that, that wandered off up in the attics of the. One of the buildings, of course. And it was a double lock. Once that door locked on either side, and the patients kept on saying they heard noises for about a week. They're like, there's banging on.

[D]

Oh, he's upstairs dying.

[E]

There's a. There's a woman.

[D]

Oh, geez.

[E]

And sure enough, they went up. Then all of a sudden, through the vents and stuff they're smelling.

[D]

Can you see?

[E]

They found the body. And she was sitting there the whole time where only a piece of light would go through them.

[D]

Oh, she's right there in the light.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

And there was the body outlined in the concrete. The fluids left a lining of the body.

[D]

You're disgusting. Can you see that? I've taken your rose colored glasses off. And you were in horrible danger the day that Gary disappeared. No, you gotta admit, a little bit of danger was in the air.

[E]

If you met Gary, you'd.

[D]

I don't care about Gary so much. Just. You had to realize at that point that there was nobody really in charge of the facility.

[E]

Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

[D]

So it wasn't just Gary. It was all of them. Now, it just. It could have been a domino effect. They needed to put the place on lockdown. First off, you don't need college kids doing plays with inmates. That's a bad idea.

[E]

This one girl's senior thesis, she wanted to do this and incorporate to see if it could be done. And we Couldn't give him long lines. She had asked me to do them.

[D]

Like you were trying to bump.

[E]

No, no.

[D]

Why not? She was big.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Okay. There's stories.

[E]

I had a couple of buddies that were involved and sounded hilarious, so. And it was hilarious.

[D]

The mentals.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

So it's more just poked a bear.

[E]

Oh yeah.

[D]

Her thesis was what happens when we get a bunch of insane asylum patients. Can they do a play to mingle with frat boys?

[E]

You know, one thing.

[D]

Make them perform Finian's Rainbow.

[E]

You know one thing she discovered earlier is you can't give them long lines to memorize cuz the medication could barely.

[D]

Give you the medication. No, it's saying nothing with the medication. They're not in there for being medicated.

[E]

Good cop out. Bl it on the medication of their medication.

[F]

That isn't cuz God touched them.

[E]

It was great. Just follow me and you repeat what I say. We're going to get those. We're going to get those guys.

[D]

That sounds. Who paid for this? Who was there? Did Bunny.

[E]

Yeah, they did Bunny down see performance.

[D]

Of View with Ian's inmates. Man, oh man.

[E]

And my dad stayed for years.

[D]

Sure, they probably thought that's where you were. I don't know any difference between the guys he was with and his frat buddies. Heck, between Gary and this guy over here, calls himself Large. I don't know who the retard is. Anyway, it was a different time. Well, that's great. That's great stuff. I'm sure your education. I'm sure your parents were thrilled to be throwing dough at that. How do you even call your parents with that? I wouldn't even bother my mom and dad with that.

[F]

Yeah, I'm in a big play this weekend at the insane asylum. You guys getting the old movie?

[E]

I gotta check this out.

[F]

They say hitch up Bessie to the coach and drag your asses down here.

[D]

Hey, that sounds great. Having to tell everybody in town my boy's an actor at an insane asylum.

[F]

I'm also a fire truck and a piece of corn.

[E]

Pretty much.

[D]

That's great. Good for you, Brady. What a weird education. What a weird life. Once you got out of Ohio, you had to see a whole new world where this is just irregular behavior. Without that laying the groundwork, he would have never been the mascot of the. That's true.

[E]

Maybe inspired by.

[D]

Look, I don't want to. I don't want him in disguise too.

[E]

Actually, the guys that were in the. The other two buddies of mine were in charge of that whole. You never sat With Gary's island mascot. And they're the ones that wrote me in the guy.

[D]

So you never once sat down with Gary during rehearsals and said, so what's the deal? Gary? You didn't get.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

What was he there for?

[E]

Well, Gary was. I believe Gary was a lifer. He'd been there since.

[D]

For what?

[E]

Just because, like you said back then, the people who said didn't want him anymore. Yep.

[D]

He was making too much noise and he was taking up space.

[E]

Yep. And then 3/4 of those folks that were there could basically leave if they wanted to. But they wouldn't.

[D]

Right. It's free and they know that out there. Scary. That's kind of the same way with committed people now. Yeah, commit them if you want, but they can leave. Can't hold you anyway. But they're not doing many plays. I don't remember that happening too. I don't remember ASU's big production down there on 24th street in Van Buren with the nuts.

[E]

There was a Marion, about 70 years old and she would watch MTV videos back then. And she dressed 70 year old lady, maybe no buck 85 and wear tight shiny spandex.

[D]

And I'm guessing one night at the frat house. Tom Brennaman. That's who I nailed last night. That crazy old broad dresses like Martha Quinn in downtown Julie Brown. Hit it. Good night, boys. I gotta go wash the feces off my fingertips. Gotta call Marty. He'll love it anyway. Wow. You know, I've never heard of a story from you. What you learned in college.

[E]

It's all about you guys that one time.

[D]

Like you guys being in your underwear, playing basketball, effing around with crazies. Never I never a sense. It started with I had this really great class. Yeah, this professor changed my life. Nope, the other one.

[F]

There he is.

[D]

There goes Brady.

[F]

That's everybody's college experience. Didn't everybody get to do a play with the Nut Owls?

[D]

Sure they did.

[F]

My God, Holmberg's done it again. Taking these awful glasses off and showing me reality.

[D]

Ordered pizzas for dead girls. I know all your stories. I don't know.

[F]

Anytime you're like Professor Johnson changed my life with the theory of Immanuel Kant's Philosophy on the World.

[D]

Yeah, that was a great moment in college, wasn't it?

[F]

I used to do papers on graph paper I barely got through. But we did order a lot of pieces for dead girls. And then stood in the bushes and.

[E]

Watched so sorry Test South.

[D]

Oh, he remembers. That's what you learned. Those were learned things. That's what he learned in college, to remember their names. This is the anniversary of her death. And you had a pizza.

[E]

I had a fraternity brother that was visiting from San Francisco and he wanted. He was in town. So I met him and he's looking up the image. I go, your reservation's under Test South.

[D]

You guys still do it?

[E]

He's like all.

[D]

Oh, my God, we all remember that from college.

[F]

Remember that one, Professor? No, I'm not done yet.

[D]

I don't remember any of them. I didn't go to a single class. I just ordered pizzas for dead girls.

[E]

Lif Heffelfinger.

[D]

And then we did a ballroom dancing with the Insane Asylum. That was all I remember about college. You give them 40,000 bucks and they'll give you. Here's the papers. Great job in the play. I'm out. Yeah, you're done. You can give that to anybody and get a job. Holy crap. That was easy.

[E]

No credits for that master's degree.

[D]

If you make out with the old lady, watches mtv.

[E]

How long?

[D]

I just got my masters.

[E]

That's why Brennaman had to, you know, didn't get his.

[D]

Oh, man.

[E]

Get it right away. Had to get that extra two credits.

[D]

Good Lord. Think real hard about a class that really changed you from college. And it has nothing to do with ordering pizzas for dead people or a kid crapping his pants.

[E]

One of them that I thought was skeet and trap shooting. Did you take that? Yes, I did.

[D]

Hey, that's a skill. That's a good skill. You don't need to go to college for it. Go to Ben Avery right now.

[E]

It was. The first half was canoeing. Second half was skeet and trapped.

[D]

All right, so it was the Boy Scouts for Kids.

[E]

And you went out to the various lakes in the Southern and you canoed. Yeah, and learned a good J stroke.

[D]

That's great. How's that applying today? It looks like you're awesome.

[E]

Kind of condition whenever I'm trolling around looking at all the litter.

[D]

So that'll be a lesson to all of you if you're in a pinch and you need a rower. Brady went to college.

[E]

I'll teach you a good J stroke.

[D]

Yep, speaking of J strokes, crazy old TV broads got one in both hands. Holy moly. Turned me into a wacky straw. It's out of control now. 98k u PD it's John Holmberg here from the morning sickness to tell you about the Core Institute. People who met me found out that I've had four major operations in the last four years, they're blown away. I've had both shoulders replaced and both hips replaced because I was an absolute disaster before my surgeries. I was in pain. Now no one knows I've had any issues. People who hear multiple, multiple surgeries assume they'll never be the same again. That's just not true. I'm better than I've been in 20 years. Stop quitting the things you love and get back to being the pain free you you love. The Core Institute.com It's John Holmberg here from the Morning Sickness for Lifechangerloan.com I got a little note from Shane O', Grady, the head cheese over at Life Change Alone. He said, this week three wonderful listeners all made the move to Life Change Alone and each of them will be paying off their homes in under four years. That's right. And that's normal too. So many people try to refinance. Go to lifechangerloan.com and see if it's right for you. Maybe you like paying debt off for 30 years and spending $200,000 extra in interest. I don't. I know a better way. And it's not magic. It's just math. Lifechangerloan.com.