Staying Alive LIVE! w/ Katie Dippold (HDTGM Matinee)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Staying Alive LIVE! w/ Katie Dippold (HDTGM Matinee)"

Introduction

In the April 15, 2025 episode of How Did This Get Made?, hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas delve into the enigmatic and often criticized film Staying Alive. Joined by guest Katie Dippold, the team embarks on a comprehensive analysis of the movie, dissecting its plot, characters, themes, and overall execution. This live matinee episode, recorded at Largo in Los Angeles, offers listeners an engaging exploration of one of cinema's more perplexing productions.

Initial Impressions of "Staying Alive"

The discussion kicks off with the hosts sharing their initial reactions to the film. Jason Mantzoukas remarks humorously on the movie's obscure nature:

Jason Mantzoukas [04:10]: "He couldn't make a decision on his album cover to put on the leather jacket. So it's just over one side of his body. It's a pretty great album cover."

June Diane Raphael and Paul Scheer express a mix of frustration and bewilderment, highlighting the film's convoluted storyline and character motivations.

Character Analysis: Tony Monero and Jackie

A significant portion of the conversation centers around Tony Monero, played by John Travolta, and his tumultuous relationship with Jackie, portrayed by Katie Dippold. The hosts critique Tony's character as unsympathetic and self-serving:

June Diane Raphael [08:37]: "He just wants to dance, and these bitches be weighing him down."

Paul Scheer further emphasizes Tony's lack of redeeming qualities:

Paul Scheer [30:45]: "He's a monster. Like, horrible."

Katie Dippold adds depth to Jackie's character, portraying her as a resilient and talented dancer caught in Tony's destructive pursuit of fame:

Katie Dippold [07:19]: "She is the doormat that he is. Like booty calling."

The hosts discuss the lack of genuine connection between Tony and Jackie, ultimately categorizing their relationship as merely "fuck buddies" rather than a heartfelt romance.

Themes and Plot Analysis

The hosts dissect the film's themes, pointing out its attempt to blend elements of dance, ambition, and personal downfall. They critique the narrative for its disjointed plot and inconsistent character development:

Jason Mantzoukas [26:11]: "This movie reminded me how disgusting New York was. Like, it really looked gross."

June Diane Raphael questions the film's coherence, wondering about the characters' motivations and the overarching message:

June Diane Raphael [33:22]: "Every song is so specific. There's no subtext. It's just a textual analysis of the events of the movie."

The discussion highlights the film's reliance on Frank Stallone's music and its repetitive musical motifs, which the hosts find both perplexing and overused.

Directorial Choices and Comparisons to "Saturday Night Fever"

A recurrent theme is the comparison between Staying Alive and its predecessor, Saturday Night Fever. The hosts acknowledge the attempt to emulate the success of the original while criticizing the sequel's shortcomings:

Jason Mantzoukas [58:16]: "It's the same song from how about Sunday Matinee fever, Sunday and Wednesday. Matinee fever, Sunday."

Paul Scheer muses on Sylvester Stallone's directorial influence, suggesting that Stallone's self-aggrandizing perspective permeates the film:

Paul Scheer [65:33]: "Trying to stay alive even with these dumb broads trying to, like, keep you down."

The hosts also discuss the film's homage to 80s aesthetics and its questionable artistic choices, such as the extensive use of slow-motion sequences and exaggerated dance moves.

Audience Interaction: Questions and Reviews

Engaging with the live audience, the hosts address listener questions and read out unconventional five-star reviews from Amazon, which range from praising the film's unapologetic embrace of its flaws to absurd endorsements likening it to self-help tapes.

Jason Mantzoukas [73:22]: "He is using that as a manual. A manual for success."

The hosts humorously critique these reviews, highlighting the dissonance between the film's content and the enthusiastic acclaim from some viewers.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In wrapping up the episode, the hosts collectively express their bewilderment and frustration with Staying Alive, ultimately deeming it a convoluted and poorly executed sequel that fails to capture the magic of Saturday Night Fever. Despite the film's ambition, they conclude that it lacks coherence, compelling characters, and a clear thematic direction.

June Diane Raphael [84:05]: "I'm leaving that in. And so he concludes by saying, if you do that, amazing results will come naturally. Try to treat your body as what you expect from and overall terrific health."

Jason Mantzoukas humorously suggests that despite its flaws, the film has elements worth salvaging, such as Frank Stallone's musical contributions.

Jason Mantzoukas [84:31]: "I can't stop listening."

The episode concludes with the hosts encouraging listeners to approach Staying Alive with a sense of humor and an appreciation for its unintentional comedy, solidifying How Did This Get Made? as a go-to podcast for celebratory breakdowns of baffling cinematic efforts.

Notable Quotes

• Jason Mantzoukas [08:37]: "He just wants to dance, and these bitches be weighing him down."
• Paul Scheer [30:45]: "He's a monster. Like, horrible."
• June Diane Raphael [33:22]: "Every song is so specific. There's no subtext. It's just a textual analysis of the events of the movie."
• Jason Mantzoukas [73:22]: "He is using that as a manual. A manual for success."

Timestamp Highlights

• [04:10]: Discussion on Frank Stallone's album cover decision.
• [08:37]: Critique of Tony Monero's motivations and relationships.
• [26:11]: Commentary on the film's depiction of New York.
• [33:22]: Analysis of the film's use of music and narrative.
• [58:16]: Comparison between Staying Alive and Saturday Night Fever.
• [73:22]: Reflection on unconventional five-star reviews.

Final Thoughts

How Did This Get Made? successfully navigates the complexities and absurdities of Staying Alive, offering listeners a thorough and entertaining critique. Through sharp wit and candid analysis, the hosts illuminate why some films bewilder audiences and celebrate their often unintentional comedic value. Whether you're a fan of the podcast or a novice listener, this episode provides insightful commentary wrapped in humor, making it a valuable resource for anyone curious about the enigmatic world of "so-bad-it's-good" cinema.

Transcript

[Nathan Fielder]

This episode is brought to you by max, the critically acclaimed HBO original comedy series. The Rehearsal returns for season two on April 20th on max. The rehearsal follows one man's journey to reduce life's uncertainties. With a construction crew, actors and vast resources, Nathan Fielder helps people prepare for life's biggest moments. In season two, his project grows to address an issue affecting everyone. Created by and starring Nathan Fielder, The Rehearsal Season 2 premieres Sunday, April 20, exclusively on MAX. Make every celebration feel uniquely you. Your dog's birthday coming up.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Throw a pupperoni pizza party.

[Nathan Fielder]

Or maybe you're planning a game night. Make it a silent disco and charades night. From inspo to all the items you need, Amazon can help you create a truly custom celebration. From birthdays to holidays, Amazon offers convenient one stop shopping for any party. Shop everything for every party on Amazon. Vitamin Water was born in New York.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Because New Yorkers wanted more flavor to pair with all the amazing food in the city. You can have the best meal in the world here if you can get a reservation. Vitamin Water is so New York. Its three favorite cheeses are chopped cheese, bacon, egg and cheese and a slice of cheese pizza. We know where to get the best sushi in the city and best nachos and best bagels and best. You get it and you can find food trucks better than five star restaurants. Drink Vitamin Water. It's from New York. Imagine Black Swan if it was directed by Sylvester Stallone with music by Frank Stallone. We saw Staying Alive so you know what that means.

[June Diane Raphael]

Now it's time for celebrate some failure.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not just be a hater.

[June Diane Raphael]

Can't you be wonder how did this remain? Let's wallow in the mediocrity of subpar art. Perhaps we'll find the answer to the question how did this get made?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Hello people of Earth and hello people of Los Angeles. We are here tonight at Largo, our home in Los Angeles with an amazing audience. You just heard them and we have a very, very exciting show. It's appropriate that we are doing this show in a theater because this is a show about theater, about the art, the craft of dance and we are gonna talk about this movie. But we're gonna do things a little bit differently tonight as I introduce everybody. Here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my co host for the evening.

[Nathan Fielder]

Please welcome.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Jason Man.

[June Diane Raphael]

June, Diane Raphael.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And special chest Katie Temple. That was the dulcet tones of Frank Stallone. I have seriously nonstop been listening to that song.

[June Diane Raphael]

That song should be called Nonstop. It is relentless.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It is an amazing. It's A beautiful song. And I'm so glad that we got.

[June Diane Raphael]

I'm play that when I have sex next. I'm going to be like, hey, give me just one second. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm done, ladies.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

When I heard that song, I had heard it, like, in things that were making fun of staying alive for so long that I was like, who wrote. I thought, is that a Bee Gees song? And then I realized, no. How much Frank Stallone stink is all over this movie. Seven songs of Frank Stallone.

[June Diane Raphael]

Thank God.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Frank Stallone. If you do search him. Like, I've been searching him his album cover. He clearly couldn't win decide you're making.

[June Diane Raphael]

That documentary Searching for Frank Stallone.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right. He lives in a studio in West Hollywood, so he.

[June Diane Raphael]

But he couldn't make his mom Jackie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He couldn't make a decision on his album cover to put on the leather jacket. So it's just over one side of his body. It's a pretty great. Pretty great album cover. Welcome.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, guys, this was a dream.

[Paul Scheer]

I watched this whole movie just in awe.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, just my. It just. I wanted to. I hated it, but I also wanted to live that life at the same time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, it was nothing about it, but it pulled you in 100%. The movie makes no sense. We should just get out. I mean.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, it doesn't.

[June Diane Raphael]

It is.

[Katie Dippold]

But to open with A Chorus Line.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, yeah.

[Katie Dippold]

To me is just like. It's a dream come true.

[June Diane Raphael]

I'm gonna say something. I'm gonna say something that is perhaps not controversial at all and has maybe been said a million times before, but I did not know because I have never seen this movie before. This movie is Showgirls.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was thinking about this movie too. And I also felt like the reason why Stallone directed it. Cause I feel like he was also trying to make it like Rocky too. Like, it felt like Rocky.

[Katie Dippold]

Rocky. It's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, A dance Rocky. Yeah, but I dance Rocky very rarely. I see.

[June Diane Raphael]

Which also just failed on Broadway. I believe it did.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It closed very quickly. I was like, very rarely do I know that I'm going to love a movie from the first. Literally the first second in this movie. You can't beat it. I mean, here. This is just so you get a chance to see what the.

[June Diane Raphael]

I would honestly be okay with playing the whole movie if you were like, oh, let me just show you one second. And then we just watched the whole movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is only 20 seconds. But you'll get a sense of how electric the opening is.

[June Diane Raphael]

You will come.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You're gonna want it longer.

[June Diane Raphael]

You will come at second seven.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Here we go. I'm in love. I'm in. I'm 100% in.

[June Diane Raphael]

And I'm done.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is the opening of the movie.

[June Diane Raphael]

Cause it's how you wanna see dance movies. It's how you wanna see a dance in tight close ups.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Every Step up movie can suck a dick because it does not start like that.

[Paul Scheer]

They also did the thing where there's an audition sequence and it lasts 10 seconds and the director's gonna be like, we'll let you know tomorrow. It's just like, dun, dun, dun, dun. That's it. Okay, goodbye.

[Katie Dippold]

Well, okay, so if we can. Well, should we dive in?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, we dive in.

[Katie Dippold]

Okay. Because in that sequence, they choose the girls right there. Because they cut a lot of girls and they choose their girls. And then the guys come out and John Travolta comes out and the director says, I'm gonna need 24 hours.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And I'll also. The director of this just interesting to note, Kurtwood Smith.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yep.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Who clearly I did a little bit of research, was just in Rambo with Stallone. So I'm sure he was like, we'll get him in as the choreographer with no lines.

[Katie Dippold]

So I was confused from the beginning because I wasn't clear even from this opening chorus line sequence, like, what. What his problem as or Achilles heel as a dancer was like what was holding him back? That he wanted self, but no way, because was he. He was going off on his own and improvising.

[June Diane Raphael]

Improvising.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, no, no, no. He was improvising. I only have a couple more seconds. Wait. Oh, no, wait. His improvisation. I thought he just couldn't catch the breaks. I didn't get that he was improvised.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, people keep getting cut. It gets down to, like, the final few guys. And then he jumps off and does a couple of like, doodly doos on his own. And the next time. Doodly doos. I was the dancer. And the next time he's cut and he's like, oh, God damn it. But he learns a very important lesson and does the exact same thing in the finale and wins the movie.

[Paul Scheer]

Can I say something about his character journey? And I don't know if I could articulate this correctly. So there's this new hot thing that he's into and then there's his girlfriend, this poor woman. This poor woman.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She is. Understand this relationship.

[June Diane Raphael]

To call her a girlfriend is being generous.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Really generous.

[June Diane Raphael]

She is the doormat that he is. Like booty calling. When booty calling meant, can I find a payphone? And is the person literally home to anthro?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He was literally fucking a girl, finishes fucking her, and then calls the other girls, like, hey, can I come over to you now?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah. So he gets. He keeps having arguments with both of the women. And it seems like it's a story about a character that's, you know, he wants something, but he's demanding it from two people, and he has to learn his lesson. Like, that's what it seems like. But I don't know that Sylvester Stallone was in on that. You know what I mean?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, it almost felt like if Sylvester Stallone were to give a logline of this movie, it would be like, oh, these two broads are giving him a hard time, you know?

[Katie Dippold]

Right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, he just.

[June Diane Raphael]

He just wants to dance, and these bitches be weighing him down.

[Katie Dippold]

Well, no, by the way, I think you're right, because not to cut ahead, but the last line of the movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, wait, yo, you're gonna get into that?

[Katie Dippold]

No, I know that's far.

[June Diane Raphael]

I love that you all reacted like, don't spoil it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That last line of the movie is a treasure chest that needs to be opened. But you know what?

[Katie Dippold]

But in terms of his journey, he's by himself at the end, just simply strutting.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yep.

[Katie Dippold]

You know, so that is his journey. Like, it's not really about fixing any of his flaws.

[June Diane Raphael]

No. It's about learning to tell everybody to fuck off and just do his own shit.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But wait, wait. But the crazy thing is, is, like, I do believe it was directed. Like, Stallone wrote this movie as he writes every movie, and apparently he wrote it. And is this the movie where they wanted to take his name off it? No, that's the next movie. But Stallone wrote this movie. But I feel like he wrote it from, like, his perspective of, like, I like to fuck girls, and if they can't get behind me, fucking multiple girls.

[June Diane Raphael]

This is literally what happens at the end of the movie. He's in the final dance number. He has ascended through the ranks to be the lead of I don't know what this is on Broadway. I don't know if this is a show that exists on Broadway.

[Katie Dippold]

Broadway shows. I don't know. I've never heard of Satan's Alley. I don't know.

[June Diane Raphael]

Sort of nonsense. This is like some sort of Moog fantasy jazz nightmare.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I don't know. Was this ever a thing? I mean, were there plays like this?

[Paul Scheer]

There was called Satan's Alley, right?

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes. But this was like. This was like a Showgirls show. It looked like a Showgirls.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, the dancing is just like sped up. Voguing, Madonna voguing. It's like, yeah. Fanning each other's face. He's. And by the way, the same dancing from the opening is in the end. There's no. It's not like, oh, that show is different.

[June Diane Raphael]

They're all the same show.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

He ascended through the ranks. He's already triumphed. He shamed the dumb guy who danced like a robot. He's the lead. His mom is so proud. But what he has to do in order to truly succeed is take the British girl who is his partner in the show, throw her in the garbage. That happens and throws her away. Then you think, okay, he's choosing his girl. He's choosing the fuck buddy. And he's like, all right, babe, I love you. I love you. And she's like, we did it. And he's like, yeah. And he basically face palms her down and is like, I'm fucking out of here. Kicks open the door. I win.

[Katie Dippold]

I was looking at. I was looking to Satan's Alley to see. To see if it would provide some insight, like if Satan's Alley was going to be. If he was gonna have a similar journey as a character in Satan's Alley.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yep. Well, he is a figure.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Did you sense Satan's Alley?

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. June thought it was a beautiful play.

[Katie Dippold]

I love.

[June Diane Raphael]

I thought the book was great, if.

[Katie Dippold]

You go back to the source material. But see, the thing with Zayton's Alley is that he starts off as, I think, a Christ like figure and there are all these demons coming after him.

[Nathan Fielder]

For sure.

[June Diane Raphael]

He's whipped. He's in a Christ like pose at one point. Yep.

[Katie Dippold]

And then Satan comes to get him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which is Fiona Hughes, right?

[Katie Dippold]

Yes. The British woman from General Hospital. And she.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And.

[Katie Dippold]

But see, then he pushes her away. And that was a move that he, you know, improvised himself. But then at the end, they still end up together.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, he ends up. No, he's now Satan's Alley at the end. Apologize. I apologize.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Katie Dippold]

At the end of Satan's Alley.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So this is a Satan's Alley kind.

[Paul Scheer]

Of talk right now, Jason, I do.

[Katie Dippold]

Think, and I'm not trying to give Sylvester Stallone credit here, but I do think that if we look at Satan's Alley as sort of a microcosm of what the whole movie was, which we should be okay. I think he ended up, you know, in hell with the devil and didn't learn Anything?

[June Diane Raphael]

No, he doesn't.

[Katie Dippold]

If he.

[June Diane Raphael]

This is what I think. Go ahead.

[Katie Dippold]

If he had learned anything, instead of reaching out to her, he would have pulled up Jackie to take that solo.

[June Diane Raphael]

Great. And I love that. But he is rising up out of hell and casts his hand down.

[Katie Dippold]

I'm listening.

[June Diane Raphael]

Cast his hand down and says, jump. Christ offers his hand to the devil and says, follow me to heaven and I will take you out of hell. She is doubtful. She's a doubting Thomas. She jumps and makes it in her arms. He thrusts her over her head. Because Christ wants the devil to get to heaven before him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Because he. Because Christ turns the other cheek, he forgets about it. But because he'll take the devil to heaven.

[June Diane Raphael]

The biblical allegory here is very obvious, by the way.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The audience seeing this, this very, very modern dance show is all oldies. There's nothing in that. And they give him a rousing ovation, like a standing ovation. My biggest question about Satan's Alley as a show is they do the first number, and it seems to me that we see all the cast out on stage in that first number. Then they all kind of take a break after that first number, and they're like, you.

[Paul Scheer]

You.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You did. You fucked up. You go over here. Like, what was going on on stage? It wasn't the intermission yet. The intermission is a later beat. I just was confused about where the show. What was happening.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, that was on stage in those scenes were the B story of Satan's Alley, which.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What's happening there?

[June Diane Raphael]

Jackie. Oh, I wish Jackie was. I loved Jackie.

[Katie Dippold]

I love Jackie. Well, here's what's weird, too, about that production of Satan's Alley. The director, when he casts him as, you know, Jesus Christ, says essentially, like, I need you to channel your anger and your fury and your emotions. And then when he does, he says, you just need to dance the dance. Which I found confusing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Good point.

[Katie Dippold]

Also, it seemed like the director was given this huge monologue at the end, as though he was a character we knew at all. You don't know this person.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The only way I knew that director was that he dressed like Zod from Superman ii, and that he might have just been a villain from another realm coming here to fuck with New York City. Before he attacks Superman. He's like, I'll direct the Broadway show, get in Metropolis, headspace. And then I'm gonna do a bigger thing. Right now, I just need to regain some power.

[June Diane Raphael]

And Jackie's haircut is a little bit like the lady in that movie as well.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

Zod's lady. Yes. Thank you.

[Paul Scheer]

Is that the blonde lady who.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Stepmom. And she said she was a real bitch.

[Paul Scheer]

Can I take us back to a moment?

[Katie Dippold]

Go ahead.

[Paul Scheer]

If I could take us back to him. There's a moment in the beginning when John Travolta is like. Has a lot of self doubt and he's looking to this poor girlfriend for, like, to feel better. And he says, like, you know, I just. You gotta. I can't remember what he says, but he's feeling bad and she's making him feel better. And then she. He's like, don't you ever want to, like, do more? Like, push yourself harder? And she says something along the lines of, you know, how it's different for a female dancer? We have half the life male dancers do. And his response is just like, yeah, I guess that's true. And he does not make her feel better. It just goes back to making him feel better.

[Katie Dippold]

Okay, I agree, because I did have the thought at one point, why aren't they auditioning to replace both of them? Like, she's helping him practice to get the solo or to get the lead part. Like, why isn't. Why do they both go up there together?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I do also want to just talk about the bigger concept on all of this because this character is a stalker at points. He's a chauvinist. Always. He's an adulterer. I guess he's a cheater. He's everything bad. But he's definitely not the character from Saturday Night Fever. Right? Can we all agree to that? Right?

[Paul Scheer]

Can I? Well, just. You talked about the ending of the movie when he struts to the song from Saturday Night Fever and it's like, oh, yeah, this is supposed to be from that movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

And that's it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, remember he walks by the Odyssey because that's where he used to dance all the time.

[June Diane Raphael]

But remember that at the end of Saturday Night Fever, they raped that girl in the car and someone jumps off a bridge.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

So, like, that kind of darkness and weirdness is still woven in here.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But like, you, like, you did not leave Saturday Night Fever going, oh, that man wants to be a modern dancer on Broadway. No, like, that was. Agree, like, it was just like, oh, he's a good dancer and it lets him, like, get out of his. Like, his life is troubled and girls are getting raped and friends are jumping off bridges and he can at least go to the club and live a little bit. It wasn't like, I will say this.

[June Diane Raphael]

I was a solid 30 minutes into the movie before I realized this was the same character from Saturday Night Fever.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Also has lost his accent. And they make it like, well, now he's in Manhattan. Manhattan is like over the bridge. Like he says at one point he's like, hey, don't get apple pies like this in Manhattan. It's like, you walked here.

[June Diane Raphael]

Okay, can we talk about that?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

From the other spot?

[June Diane Raphael]

Can we talk about that? Because he's at home. He goes home, he has doubts. He goes home, he wants to see his ma. And they're sitting there eating breakfast, which is pie. And she's trying to push, have another slice of pie. And he's like, I don't want another slice of pie. Have another slice of pie. I don't want another slice of pie. And it's this weird. And she's kind of pushing it on him. And it's that weird scene that I feel like a mom of an anorexic is trying to get the anorexic to eat a little bit more. And it's weird. And then he finally is like, I will have another piece of pie. And he picks up the pie plate and brings it into frame. And there's only one piece left.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

Which means they've eaten a whole piece pie for breakfast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's how they do it in Brooklyn.

[June Diane Raphael]

Which I thought was very insane.

[Nathan Fielder]

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[Katie Dippold]

I think I. Okay, so I think I missed something really important. I. I left the movie. Still not understanding where she made her money.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Who?

[June Diane Raphael]

Who?

[Katie Dippold]

Laura.

[Nathan Fielder]

Laura.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, you're right. That was unanswered.

[June Diane Raphael]

I agree.

[Nathan Fielder]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Laura is Fiona Hughes and from General Hospital. And General Hospital is wearing fur coats, being driven around in limousines.

[June Diane Raphael]

Whose limo is this? Whose limo is this? Does anybody know whose limo this is?

[Paul Scheer]

And that's. It's never answered.

[June Diane Raphael]

Never answered. There's like the gold. There's the sugar daddy looking guy. Right, right. Who they. He runs into that guy. She's clearly been with the director. But then at one point, the director.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

By the way, is all beard and leather jackets. Really is. I have to say, no problem with that.

[June Diane Raphael]

I was like, that's the part I maybe would have got. But I did feel like. Then there's somebody says a line that they think she has money. She came from money or something.

[Paul Scheer]

She came from money.

[June Diane Raphael]

So there are a couple of things posited, but I don't know. And I agree it's ridiculous because her success is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But modern dance. You would make a lot of money in modern dance, Twyla Tharp. I mean, you make hundreds of thousands of dollars a week.

[June Diane Raphael]

She's still alive.

[Katie Dippold]

I gotta say, though, Paul, I don't know that they're doing modern dance.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, well, I don't know much about dance. What are they doing?

[Katie Dippold]

It felt to me more like jazz.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, oh, jazz.

[June Diane Raphael]

How much do you know about dance, man?

[Katie Dippold]

I don't know a ton about dance, but I think modern.

[June Diane Raphael]

You're more about dance than you do about gorillas, for example.

[Katie Dippold]

I think so. I just thought it was more. You keep on calling it modern.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, it's not modern.

[Katie Dippold]

I just don't think those head shakes are. That seems like very jazzy without getting.

[June Diane Raphael]

Too out of control. Does this thing have a name, audience?

[Nathan Fielder]

Contemporary.

[June Diane Raphael]

Contemporary.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Contemporary. All right.

[June Diane Raphael]

Contemporary dance.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, if you saw this now, would it be a valid art form?

[Katie Dippold]

Like, I think when. Here's the thing, I think when people are like, all of the dance numbers, at least in the auditions were like 5, 6, 7, 8. And then like a line of people would run up to the stage. Like, I think that running is like all. I think that's jazz, though. I don't think that's modern.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, well, we'll clearly never know.

[June Diane Raphael]

It felt to me. Those are the scenes that I was like, this feels like a Vegas show to me. This. This is what Vegas. That's why I felt like it was Showgirls. Because all of the show elements felt that kind of cheesy and vegasy.

[Paul Scheer]

Nothing delighted me more than imagining Stallone approve all the costumes he was wearing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Do you think that Stallone and Bob Mackie sat down and he's like, not this. Yes to this.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I would love to have seen that meeting. Apparently Stallone and Travolta work for a year and a half on all the dancing. Oh, wow. A year and a half.

[Katie Dippold]

There was a lot of dancing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I mean it showed.

[Katie Dippold]

That makes sense. Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

Can we talk about the scene in the movie early on where Travolta is, you know, he's dancing, he's teaching dance classes at like an Arthur Miller kind of dance school. He's also like a waiter in a dance club. And he turns down a three way with two New Wave girls.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, guy. When two New Wave girls are like, we wanna take you home tonight. You go home with the two New Wave girls.

[Paul Scheer]

This was my favorite part. They wanted so much. To show how much he hated being a waiter and how much he wanted to be a dancer. He was the angriest waiter ever. There's a point a patron bumped into him and he's like, oh. And a woman said something like, I like watching you walk. And he basically was like, fuck you. Like, it's crazy.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Angry guy. He's an angry guy.

[June Diane Raphael]

Walking is. This is his thing. There is just two movies on. Watching is his thing. You're right, you're right, you're right.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But look, he didn't want to go home with those New Wave girls because as he said verbatim, I almost got brain damage because you two partied too hard.

[June Diane Raphael]

Please, come on.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But no, he wouldn't cheat. That's what I think makes like in Stallone's mind, he's like, he's a good guy. Cause he won't fuck these New Wave girls. He'll only fuck really good dancers. Like he is a funny cheat. He only cheats up.

[Katie Dippold]

Well, that's what was so weird about his relationship with Jackie at one point I thought because he forgets to call her to meet her. I mean a million times in the movie, constantly. A million times.

[June Diane Raphael]

He treats her like human guts.

[Katie Dippold]

So much so that at one point I thought. I think he is genuinely forgetting. Like I think that he's just like. Like it's not even like, oh, I got caught up and I, you know, I knew I lost track of time. I thought I was gonna get to you? Like, I think he's, like, not remembering, but all that.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She exists to me, like, that was my. I thought that, too. Like, it took me half the movie to realize that they were even boyfriend, girlfriend. They're not.

[June Diane Raphael]

They're not. They are fuck buddies.

[Katie Dippold]

I thought they'll be Jason Cheese.

[June Diane Raphael]

And until he says I love you in the middle of the movie, they are just, like, hooking up.

[Paul Scheer]

But he gets mad when she's looking at.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, Frank gets mad and she gets mad. She gets mad.

[June Diane Raphael]

But he's like the British girl who, for a very brief period of time, I thought was Niles's wife from Frasier.

[Paul Scheer]

Marisol.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Perry Gilpin.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

Is this Perry Gilpin? No. Is it Perry Gilpin?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I think.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, Jane Lee, sorry.

[June Diane Raphael]

Perry Gilpin was Roz.

[Katie Dippold]

I love Roz. But then.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But to your point, like, he literally just. That girl, the British girl, and then calls up the other one. But then it's like. It's kind of like a booty call.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, but he kind of is just making sure she's alone. He's like. He's like, is anybody there next to you? She says, no. He goes, okay, good. Goodbye.

[Paul Scheer]

You're right. There's a. When he first meets the hot, fancy lady, he looks to his girlfriend.

[June Diane Raphael]

He is alien.

[Paul Scheer]

Sorry, I requested that music follow everything.

[June Diane Raphael]

I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Running under the whole.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The whole show. I hear that on the loop.

[Paul Scheer]

To me, this. He's like a sociopath. He's talking to his girlfriend, this poor woman, when he sees the fancy lady, and he immediately says to her, he's like, she with anyone? And the girl is like, what?

[June Diane Raphael]

And then she says, I don't want to hear about this stuff.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. And then he's like, I just think she's a great dancer. Don't worry, you're good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

So horrible. Like, to me, this movie. He's a monster. Like, horrible.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Irredeemable on every level. Irredeemable. Like, his girlfriend helps him. Helps him get the lead in this show.

[June Diane Raphael]

And he.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like you said, he. Fucking face palms was like, get out. Need to go at this by myself tonight. I'm celebrating with this guy.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh. And anytime. Anytime another guy shows interest in her, he, like, shits his pants.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[June Diane Raphael]

Like, when the guy from the band comes in is with her, he's like, who's this? He's a musician. You're with a musician? Are you kidding? Like, wait a minute, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. On the hierarchy, we're Ranking dancers above musicians.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's what I. I wrote that down. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, I don't think that's how it works. Yeah. And then she goes, he's a rhythm guitarist. Oh, that's the worst. A rhythm guitarist is the worst. But that is not true. That is not true here. The horn section is the worst.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, now here's my question about Frank Stallone's amazing role in this movie. As the rhythm guitar. As the singer. Okay. He. There's so much I want. I want to talk about a couple things. Sorry, I'm gonna jump around. I didn't get what Laura's job was. So Laura was on Broadway, but also a singer.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, no, you're. You're speaking of Jackie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, sorry, Jackie. So she was on Broadway wanting to be a dancer, but she's in a.

[June Diane Raphael]

Show with the show that they are. That he goes to watch.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right. But he's also like, I need to also.

[Katie Dippold]

Because I think to Katie's point, she's. She understands that a dancer's shelf life is very short. So she's trying to get somebody.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She's trying to cultivate, like, a fallback career.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, if this career life as a dancer doesn't work out, then I'll be a rock star. Great. Got it. Very logical. Very.

[June Diane Raphael]

I gotta say, she's killing it at both. Yeah, she is great in the movie. I'm on board for it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, do you want to see who also is in the movie? I want to point this out.

[Katie Dippold]

She's wearing, though, like, a corporate 80s outfit.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She's dressed like Hillary Clinton. This is a little of her singing, which.

[Paul Scheer]

Every song in this movie is showed from beginning to end in real time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

If you took out the dancing, this movie would be about 17 minutes.

[June Diane Raphael]

And every. Every single song that is sung in its entirety is so relevant to the events of the movie that it had to have been written that day to make sense. Like, every song is so specific. There's no subtext. It's just a textual analysis of the events of the movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That is music. That is why Frank Stallone is so good here.

[June Diane Raphael]

Only Frank Stallone can begin a movie with a song whose opening line is, this is the end.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I want to. I want to come back to this at the end, but I also want to. I have two blow your mind cameos. The first one, you can't see it at home, but you in the audience can see it. Check out who's also in the band. Oh, Richie Sambora. Right over there on the left. Or Right. That is literally. Literally. He asks her to come here during the middle of the song. She does come there the stage. She leaves the stage mid song, ladies, to see him.

[Paul Scheer]

Ladies, learn a lesson from this movie.

[June Diane Raphael]

She has no self worth. I know Travolta, who is not her exclusive boyfriend, is able to beckon her from the stage during a song she is singing. She jumps down happily in order to have a conversation with him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And it's not the end of the song. It's clearly not the end. Oh, no.

[Paul Scheer]

Can I just say, her low point to me is in the final performance. He tries to kiss the fancy woman and she punches him in the eye. And how humiliating it is for the girlfriend. And he walks off stage. I swear to God. She goes, is your eye okay?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's why I feel like Stallone is writing this as him. He's like, yeah, this is how women should be. This is like. He's like. Like, this is so clearly from his point of view.

[Paul Scheer]

He's like, I just need some filler here. What would she say?

[Katie Dippold]

What's weird too is in the context of the movie, like, what does the fancy lady Laura want? Like, what does she want out of all this? Satan's Alley?

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, she's like Gina Gershon. In Short Girls. She just is. She is the villain of the movie. I feel like. Like she has a very strange role. She is the challenge to him, or I couldn't. Their meeting of him bursting into her dressing room.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes, Amanda.

[June Diane Raphael]

And like, antagonizing her. And like, she then becomes the thing he has to conquer or whatever. And then it turns into. You think it's gonna be a love story, but then, like, it all falls.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Apart and you find out that he's dating someone else.

[Katie Dippold]

Find out that he's dating someone else. But here's what's weird about the movie. And I'd say this for John Travolta too. Like, everybody is constantly, like, shitting on people they want to be with and then inviting them to places after rehearsals or performances. Like, that to me was the entire movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

We just fucked. Get over it. Come over to my house tonight. We're gonna have cocktails. Okay.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, there's a lot of, like, invitations and then people not showing up for those events.

[June Diane Raphael]

There's a lot of mid scene emotional reversals, you know, like coming at it one way and then I'm gonna come at this a whole different way.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Cause arguably you would argue if they kept the Tony Minero from Saturday Night Fever. He is dating a girl from Brooklyn who Wants him to work for her dad's shop or something like that. And she's like, give up your dream. You'll never make it as a dancer. And then he meets Fiona Hughes, and she's tough, but she's got it. And she kind of drives him to become himself, but technically he just has a girl's like, yeah, go for your dreams. And another one's like, fuck you, you're a piece of shit. And he's like, I like that one. I like the fuck you go. The piece of shit girl. He goes for the opposite girl.

[Katie Dippold]

It's also weird because you see him really, like, going for his dreams, and he'll knock on any door, even the Times Square agent.

[June Diane Raphael]

So good.

[Katie Dippold]

Times Square agent. But then. But then when, like. But then he's so obsessed with this idea of, like, people doing him favors. Like, he doesn't want to get in to any of the shows because someone put in a good word for him, which seems like. Well, you know, use whatever connections you have.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait, did that ever become. I can't remember. Did that become an issue? Like, did he find out she put in a good word for him or anything? Because it felt like it was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think he did, like, in the stairwell or something like that.

[Paul Scheer]

Because a lot happened in that stairwell.

[June Diane Raphael]

I don't know. I don't.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I thought he found out.

[Paul Scheer]

His production team only had the stairwell for, like, a good month of this whole filming.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

My favorite. My favorite thing is stairwell is there's, like, a big emotional scene, and then the camera just rises up and just catches, like, the director at the top of the stairwell, like, watching the entire thing. I heard it all. That doesn't even really come into play.

[Paul Scheer]

It rises up and you see, like, 10 minutes of leather and then the beginnings of a beard up his trench coat.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, speaking of coats, guys, do we like the homage to. He takes out the old Saturday Night Fever jacket. He's like, this is old. And then he puts on, like, a Miami. He makes, like, a Miami Vice jacket.

[Paul Scheer]

And it's just like, oh, that's sad. That other thing was so fun.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He wrecked the one thing that. It was like Superman again, to go back to Superman. Because I also believe that. Whose bedroom. Oh, whose bedroom looked like a Superman set? Like, when they, like, showed the. Oh, her bedroom. Fiona's bedroom. Didn't it, like. Wasn't it all, like, silver and stuff like that?

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, no, that was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, rhinestone.

[June Diane Raphael]

Rhinestone.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sorry.

[Katie Dippold]

No, hers was silver, too.

[Paul Scheer]

There was something going on. There's two. Yeah, there was like, two willow trees on each side and just like a circular. Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What were they talking about? Like, Fiona, like. No, like, Fiona does.

[June Diane Raphael]

It's a legit question applied to the whole movie. What were they talking about?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Cause they literally. They literally, like, there's a montage of them just, like, walking through New York chatting.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yep.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's like these two people have nothing to say to each other.

[June Diane Raphael]

They, in fact, have previously had only contempt for each other. Although he did say to her after kind of like all of his come on lines didn't work, and she slammed the door in his face, and he opened the door back up because he will not take no for an answer. He says, the thing is, I respect your dancing talent and I respect your womanhood.

[Paul Scheer]

What does that mean? What does he mean when he says your womanhood? What is that?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That she can have babies and she has different organs than him? I mean, I don't know.

[Katie Dippold]

That's what he was trying to say is like, I respect you as a colleague, but I also respect you in a romantic way as well.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Katie Dippold]

Like, I respect, like, your skills and all that. But I want you to know, I also respect what you're giving me just right here.

[Paul Scheer]

To me, it feels like. It's almost like I respect that you're weaker and trying your best and, like, I won't take advantage.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right. Like, and you have a limited shelf life as a dancer. I respect.

[June Diane Raphael]

I respect your talent. I also respect your womanhood and how it lessens your talent.

[Katie Dippold]

Well, see, to me, it would have made more sense if she had been like, a by the book dancer. Like, if she had been like, someone who, you know, was obsessed with all the counts and all, like, the steps. And he was coming in and being all loosey goosey, but was all passion and emotional.

[June Diane Raphael]

I feel like that's what her being British was part of that.

[Katie Dippold]

Okay.

[June Diane Raphael]

I feel like Stallone was, like, her being British, everybody's gonna think she's uptight and fancy.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, well, he literally.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Doesn't he say that as a line? He's like, oh, her accent, it makes her so smart. Like, you know, like, he's so blown away by that. But it does.

[Katie Dippold]

But nothing she says to Jackie. I mean, you're right. He does tell Jackie, like, basically, I'm in love with this other woman.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes.

[Katie Dippold]

He cannot stop talking about her.

[Nathan Fielder]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay.

[Nathan Fielder]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

It is ready.

[Nathan Fielder]

It is next gen. I feel like I'm in Mission impossible of skincare.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay.

[Nathan Fielder]

Get ready to change your life and your skin. Head to sharkbeauty.com to get yours.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay?

[Nathan Fielder]

You're going to love it. I guarant guarantee it. Little exercise for you here. What is your perfect day? Being on a beach, going camping, seeing a movie, having a perfect meal. Imagine that. But now picture you stink. You stink from your pits. Okay? The only thing that can wreck a.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Perfect day is your body odor. Okay?

[Nathan Fielder]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right?

[Nathan Fielder]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

How did the skimmitus hitting the road?

[Nathan Fielder]

And here's the thing. I need to have some outfits, things that I feel good in. And that's where Quince comes in. Okay? Quince is a place where I get all my high quality travel essentials at fair prices. Now look, I'm doing some shopping for myself, but you can also get bags, hats, jackets, whatever. But this time when I went to Quint's, I decided I would go the button down route. That's right. I got myself a beautiful button down and I got these very comfortable travel pants. And why do I love going to Quint's? Well, because I can look like I spent hundreds of dollars. But truthfully, Quince's Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands because they partner directly with top factories, cutting out the cost of the middleman and passing those savings on to you. I swear to God, these looks on the site sell for so much more in other stores. So get in, get early, get yourself the best stuff, like lightweight European linen styles from $30, washable silk tops and comfy lounge sets. And you can pair it all with premium luggage options and stylish tote bags. Quint's is for you. So for your next trip, treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve from quint. Go to quints.com bonkers for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com bonkers to get free shipping and 365 day return returns.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Can I show you guys just for a second, my favorite scene in the movie? This is when. When Travolta finds out that he got it, he got the part. Here it is right here. So he's living. He's living in a flop house.

[June Diane Raphael]

Wait, we should. Okay, we should set it up a tiny bit.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

He lives in a gentleman's hotel.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

So that is like where he beat.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

His wife beaters in the shower, keeping.

[June Diane Raphael]

Him clean and all. It's like it's populated by bums, basically. He basically lives in a flop house.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Meanwhile, he can walk home at any point. He could live with his parents, no problem.

[June Diane Raphael]

Nope. He's gotta live in Manhattan, has two jobs. And so he's pacing around in the common room where all the weirdos who also live there are sitting around.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's waiting for the phone to ring. This is just after the phone. He's waiting for the phone to ring. And it finally does. And this is him celebrating that he got the part.

[June Diane Raphael]

Here we go. Do you have the phone call itself?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I believe so. Yes. I hear it.

[June Diane Raphael]

I want you to really just pay attention to the pace of this phone call.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Also, I know it's tough to imagine, but he's literally holding a radio in his hand like a cell phone. That's not a phone that he's on. He's just really grooving out to music that close to his ear. So here we go.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes, this is Tony Monero. Are you kidding?

[June Diane Raphael]

Focus.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Hold on a second. Turn it.

[Nathan Fielder]

Turn down the radio.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes, I got it.

[Nathan Fielder]

You kidding me?

[Paul Scheer]

Wait a second.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That was just happening just a little bit. Of it.

[Paul Scheer]

I just. If he. If he says, turn down the radio, what was it? So he has a radio and his hand that's not operating as a phone or the overall radio.

[June Diane Raphael]

His radio was the radio he used.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

To be turned down his radio, which was playing Frank Stallone music, which was the same song that he saw the night before. Like, there's no delineation. Like, Frank Stallone, I guess, is very popular.

[June Diane Raphael]

The macro music for the scene, the soundtrack music for the scene is revealed in that phone call section to be diegetic to the scene itself. Right. I choose that. Right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right. Yeah, I. I think you did. I don't even know how it was right or wrong.

[Paul Scheer]

So he's holding, like, a speaker. What is he holding?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's like, holding a radio. Radio.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay, I still don't understand.

[June Diane Raphael]

But he says the other person on the other line has had no opportunity to say any words. And he says. Hello? Yes, this is Tony Monero. Hold on a second. Turn down the radio.

[Katie Dippold]

What?

[June Diane Raphael]

I got it. I can't believe it. And then all at once.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And the other. Just talking about songs and music, purveying. This is the thing that blew my mind.

[June Diane Raphael]

This was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This is because it's so kind of big.

[Nathan Fielder]

Okay.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The movie opens with that amazing Frank Stallone song. And it looks like he is choreographing a dance to that song for a play that's not Satan's Alley. The finale song of Satan's Alley is the same song from the beginning. Like, you would think that they were.

[Katie Dippold]

Auditioning for Satan's Alley or that you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Would just say, like, let's do a different song. Like, let's not bookend the movie with the same song. It's two very different parts.

[June Diane Raphael]

Right?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, is that weird, or.

[Paul Scheer]

I would love to hear you talking about this with Sylvester Stallone during production. Do you know what I mean?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

When he's like, we can't replay your brother's songs four times.

[June Diane Raphael]

The song is good. It's all Moog arpeggios and a sweeping sound. It's perfect. Plus, it says this is the end, so it should be at the end, too.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like, I really feel like they should have kept that song for the end. It would have had, like, an impact. But to open and close with it in two dancing scenes that are unrelated to each other is weird.

[Paul Scheer]

That scene also, to me is so, like, a glimpse of, like, the worst. It just. It seems like, to me, it's like a story of, like, the average monster in Los Angeles. Do you know what I Mean, like, I don't root for that person. Like, I don't know. No, him. If I saw that. If I was sitting in that room and some guy was pacing because he was obsessed with, like, getting this moment of fame, like, and just pacing and scre. I don't know, I would just be like, this is a lunatic.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I wrote down. I wrote down. Is this guy sympathetic? He's not.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, no.

[Katie Dippold]

Oh, heavens, no.

[June Diane Raphael]

Even when he tries to go home and apologize to his mother and be like, I acted like an asshole. I wanna apologize. She's like, fuck you. She's basically like, fuck you. Don't apologize. Being a bastard is what got you out of this neighborhood. And he goes, so you're telling me being a bastard is what's gonna get me ahead? She's like, yup. And he's like, okay. No lessons to learn here.

[Katie Dippold]

I guess I just say it.

[June Diane Raphael]

Behaving like a piece of shit is gonna be my mo.

[Katie Dippold]

Yep. Or I think it would have even been sympathetic to see that he loved to dance. Like, I never really felt like. I mean, he says it well, then there you go. But I feel like.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, but this is more of like a. He wants fame. Yeah, he does.

[Katie Dippold]

Like, there's no.

[June Diane Raphael]

That's, like, the jerking part of him.

[Katie Dippold]

That's like, I'm in it for the art. Like, he just wants the fame of it all. The fame of being a Broadway dancer.

[June Diane Raphael]

Cause even when.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Cause his contemporary dance.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, contemporary dance.

[June Diane Raphael]

His success isn't enough. Like, he succeeds and gets in the show. That's awesome.

[Paul Scheer]

That's great.

[June Diane Raphael]

But then he has to challenge the lead of the show to become the lead of the show. That's not even enough. He then has to throw away the female lead to improvise a solo, which gets a standing ovation.

[Katie Dippold]

Which, by the way, I still feel like, you know, just his trajectory as a dancer after this movie. I know he did a strut and everything, but I don't think he'll work again. Like, he didn't.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He's gonna be clearly kicked out of a union. The union will not let that happen.

[Paul Scheer]

He shoves his other lead across the stage and dances by himself.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's crazy. There's no reason for it, because you would argue, like, okay, when he first starts dancing with her, she doesn't trust him. And then they show in the rehearsal footage that with a very long rehearsal footage, literally the last half hour is all dancing, that she starts to come over to his side. And then in the show, they seem to be working together. As a team. And at that point, he's like, get the fuck out of here. It's not like she doesn't betray him on stage. Besides punching him after she kisses him.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, she does.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, no.

[June Diane Raphael]

I think the reason he chucks her is because in the middle of the show, she says, you don't have it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, right.

[June Diane Raphael]

She says, you don't have it. And I feel like the chucking her was his way of being like, I'll show you. But if you think about it, I think correctly, he is the villain of the movie.

[Katie Dippold]

Yes. So too.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So whose movie is it? Whose movie is it then? Is Jackie the star?

[June Diane Raphael]

Jackie is. Yes. Jackie should be the protagonist.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So maybe, like, when he walks out the door at the end and announces that he has a strut, she's finally free. She can move on with her life.

[June Diane Raphael]

But in fact, will probably kill herself. Just kidding. She'll be in Flashdance. It's fine.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Did you guys. What'd you guys think of Patrick Swayze? Boom. In the movie. He was in the movie right here. You can check him out. Patrick Swayze is a background dancer who is dressed in a. Like a weird half shirt with white suspenders.

[June Diane Raphael]

He played the Oompa Loompa, looking like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A glistening Corey Feldman.

[Katie Dippold]

And here's what's weird about this movie is that there is something so inherently sympathetic about A Chorus Line Dancer, like what they're put through and having to learn. I mean, there's also something.

[June Diane Raphael]

Somebody should write a play about them.

[Katie Dippold]

But truly, like, they're cut right away.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You would never catch on.

[Katie Dippold]

Truly, like, you automatically sympathize with these people. So you do have to go a long way to make him unsympathetic. And they do, and they do.

[June Diane Raphael]

And they succeed very quickly.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Anyone?

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, I had. I caught something that I don't know if you caught.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I think if we're going to the same place, are we going to the same.

[June Diane Raphael]

Right before the show starts?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, yep, got it. All right. Yeah, yeah, please. I don't have it as a.

[June Diane Raphael]

And I only caught it because I happen to be watching the movie with subtitles on or whatever. So I read it because otherwise I would not have caught it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I had to rewind it because, like, wait a second.

[June Diane Raphael]

Okay, so they're going around being like five minutes or whatever. Two minutes to show or whatever. Okay. Ba, ba ba, ba, ba, ba. And then somebody. A bunch of people run through frame and somebody goes, yo. Hey. Yo, Adrian, Showtime.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yo, Adrian, Showtime. Amazing.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yo, Adrian, Showtime. I also want this movie.

[Katie Dippold]

Also catch during intermission when, like, it had gone so well, I guess the first half of the show, they sort of did a. Or maybe it was out. Maybe it was after the show. And, you know, the audience was giving standing ovations and they sort of panned over all of the dancers in the dressing room celebrating. And one dancer just threw her bra on top of the other dancer face. Yes. Like a gigantic bra.

[June Diane Raphael]

I couldn't tell if it's how gigantic.

[Katie Dippold]

I couldn't tell if someone had thrown it on her or if she had taken it and thrown it on her own face. Like, see, it was so strange.

[Paul Scheer]

In what kind of ridiculous movie do I not even notice that? You know what I mean?

[Katie Dippold]

Like, that just wasn't anything like any normal movie.

[Paul Scheer]

I'd be like, what the fuck? But that didn't even, like, pass through my brain.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah, well, maybe that's a dance thing. At the end of a successful show, everybody put your bra in your head.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I do have a question about Broadway stuff again, and I'm opening up to all of you. In a Broadway show, does the director or choreographer stand in the booth of the lighting tech and go, give me a spotlight now. Bring down the lights. Give me a wash. Like, he was calling.

[Katie Dippold]

That's the role of a stage manager.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But he was calling it as if he was improvising it too. He's like, spotlight, now. Now give it a spotlight. He was creating it on the spot. That was the most insane thing I've ever seen. To give him a role that would have been done in tech long ago.

[Paul Scheer]

Nothing. In this movie, you see an hour of rehearsals and nothing would have prepared you for this final show because nothing links up to anything you saw before.

[Katie Dippold]

There's not, you know, not to go Dirty Dancing, but there's not, like, one move you're worried about, or there's nothing you're connected to.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

There's no conflict. I mean, really, there is no conflict. The only thing that happens is, like, he's a guy who can't catch a break. He catches a break and he was right all along. Like, I mean, like, there was no. Like, he's like, if only I caught a break, then I'd be the biggest hit on Broadway. He catches a break and he's the biggest hit on Broadway. Like, nothing really happens.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, what happens is he happens to all the other people in the movie. The conflict is between those poor people and this sociopath that is ruining their lives. His mother is like, how did he learn to do this? What? Nobody cares about him.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So. So John Travolta is quoted as saying that Stallone is his favorite director because he knew how to make him look best on screen.

[June Diane Raphael]

So fuck you, Quentin Tarantino.

[Paul Scheer]

I will say he looks super amazing.

[June Diane Raphael]

His body was rocket insane.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

There you go. Then. You guys agree?

[Paul Scheer]

So best director.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Here are the two taglines of the movie. I just want to read them because they're pretty fucking amazing. This is the tagline, how they sold the movie. Tony Monero knows the old days are over, but no one's gonna tell him he can't feel that good again.

[Katie Dippold]

See, that's interesting.

[June Diane Raphael]

Hey, bro, are you gonna see Stayin Alive, man? Well, I don't know.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

What's it about?

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, dude. Well, the tagline says it all.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Here's another one. It's five years later for Tony Minero, and the fever still burns.

[Paul Scheer]

That's like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That one is really upsetting to me.

[June Diane Raphael]

See a doctor like that.

[Paul Scheer]

I saw the movie. I just didn't feel like the fever was still burning.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Ew.

[June Diane Raphael]

Gosh.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, gosh. Well, I feel like this might be a good time to talk to everybody in the audience. Cause I'm sure I see people with sheets of paper out here. You guys have questions. We'll probably have some answers for them.

[June Diane Raphael]

While you get ready and walk out. I have a request for you guys or the Internet nerds. There's a lot of slow mo dancing where everybody's faces look like sex faces. Everybody's dancing faces are horrible looking.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know what?

[June Diane Raphael]

While you're talking, do a super cut.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, you got one while you're talking about it? I'll just play it.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah, so if you could. If somebody could make a super cut of all of the gross, slow mo sex faces. Yeah, that's a. That's a good one.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, they're.

[June Diane Raphael]

Jackie is. Look at him. Oh, yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

This is them just hanging out, too.

[June Diane Raphael]

She is a badass.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, she's.

[June Diane Raphael]

Jackie is a fucking badass. She's my favorite person in this whole entire movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I want to see a spin off with Jackie.

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah. But, yeah, she married Richard Marks.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, really?

[June Diane Raphael]

Yeah, she did. Like, she has, like, seven credits. And then married Richard Marx. And then they got a divorce.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She got that sweet Marx money.

[June Diane Raphael]

She got them Marx books.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Anybody have any questions? Things that we might have missed? Okay. Okay, I'm gonna go to you because you have a sheet of paper in your hand. Oh, both of you have sheets of paper. Okay. Your name. Your one word review of Satan's Alley. And your question. Here we go. My name is Ren. My one word review of Satan's Alley is what the director said. Perfect, right? Love it. Here we go. What's your question? So I came from Warsaw, Indiana to ask June this question. Wow. Warsaw, Indiana. Here you go. June, you might get shot.

[Katie Dippold]

I'm terrified.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So at the end of this movie, between the oiled up John Travolta, very muscular, and Jim Varney from Ernest Goes to Jail. No, let me finish, let me finish. Which one of those two is more, as you would say, oozing sexuality? Great question from Indiana. The question to June, who oozes more sexuality?

[Katie Dippold]

See, I think you know the answer. Jim Varney Alphabet.

[June Diane Raphael]

Is that real? You would take Jim Varney earnest over. Over, like, like perfection of Travolta at this era.

[Katie Dippold]

That's what you have to understand. I agree that Travolta looks better in this movie. Of course he does. But the sexuality that I'm interested in, it's not just about the looks like Varney as bad. Ernest is channeling something else. It's not just about the physical. For me.

[Paul Scheer]

I feel like a woman, a woman in her 20s would choose John Travolta, but a grown woman would choose.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, let's not age me.

[Paul Scheer]

Katie, be very careful.

[Katie Dippold]

Be very careful.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean. Katie, say what you mean. A girl chooses John Travolta. A woman chooses him.

[Katie Dippold]

Thank you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Would this movie would have been better with Jim Varney? Not as earnest. Just. He got this script and he did it. What do you think? Would you like to. I think he could have done it, actually. Jim Varney in the role of Tony Monero.

[Katie Dippold]

Jim Varney can do anything.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, he is. He has passed.

[Katie Dippold]

Could have done anything. Could have done anything.

[June Diane Raphael]

I will say again, this conversation is very upsetting.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Your name. A piece of advice for Tony Monero in your question. Here we go. My name's Jay. My piece of advice is Burnt fire. Great. I was wondering if that's where Artie Lang got fire from the.

[June Diane Raphael]

No, that's from acdc. And first, I just want to know if you guys noticed that the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The costume for John Travolta in the.

[June Diane Raphael]

End was a precursor to the Ultimate.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Warrior costume of the 90s. Oh, it does look like the Ultimate Warrior costume. It's very similar without the face paint. But if you put face paint on him, that is. Who's the Ultimate Warrior from wwf.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, oh, oh, yeah. Okay. I knew that. I'm cool with wrestling.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Ultimate Warrior rip. Much respect.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, absolutely.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But I also wanted to ask if you guys would give the patented.

[June Diane Raphael]

How did this get Made offer to have this group write the movie version of Satan's Alley, we could get into real rights problems.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I mean, we could. I mean, we'd have to write it with our bodies because there are no words in Satan's Alley.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, it's one of those things that we could take the music from Frank Stallone, we could take what choreography we've seen in the movie, and we can extrapolate outwards and create something, I bet, pretty erotic, like, really deep.

[Paul Scheer]

You'd have to find an actor that would shove people aside and choose his own adventure of a show.

[June Diane Raphael]

I will say. I will say, if you're gonna modernize this part, the only person that comes close to the, like, the ferocious male magnetism and dancing capabilities is Channing Tatum, I think.

[Katie Dippold]

Wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Now that's Magic Mike 2. Magic Mike 2. Satan's Alley. This could be.

[June Diane Raphael]

It gets out of the strip club Satan's Alley.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, I have a question about this. Okay, that show was a hit, right? Satan's Alley got a standing ovation. Now does every night they do it again? Does he push her out of the way? Like, do they go, well, we gotta keep that because that's what people responded to. Or do they go back to the old way? Or does he just die? Because when he goes out to strut, he does disappear. Was he a ghost the entire time? Did he never exist? Did he die on stage?

[June Diane Raphael]

Amazing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like Black Swan? That was his final swiz.

[June Diane Raphael]

I wonder if they ever had an idea to make this a trilogy and what the third movie would have been.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, man.

[June Diane Raphael]

Breakdancing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Beat Street. Okay, what is your name? What is another title for Staying alive too, or staying alive? 1. And what's your question?

[Paul Scheer]

My name is Jordan. And actually, my.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I was going to ask about the.

[Paul Scheer]

Name of the movie Staying Alive, and I thought that the name should be from one of the many may Frank Stallone songs.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And so I was going to ask you guys, what do you think is.

[Paul Scheer]

The thematic significance of the title Staying Alive, considering it has about 30 seconds.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Of playtime at the very end of the movie? Ooh, great question. What? Well, I'm going to gander a guess. You got to stay alive to get these great parts. If you kill yourself, you're never going to be on Broadway. That's just the facts.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, I guess I feel like it's probably just the thing that has name recognition for that character. So instead of calling it Saturday Night Fever again, they called it Staying Alive. Linking the two, though, because that's the.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Song from how about Sunday Matinee fever, Sunday and Wednesday. Matinee fever, Sunday.

[June Diane Raphael]

Matinee bronchitis.

[Paul Scheer]

To me, it's like trying to stay alive even with of these dumb broads trying to, like, keep you down.

[June Diane Raphael]

That's what most movies are because they are life.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right, your name. Who would you cast as the. The lead role in this movie if you could recast it? And your question, go. I'm Ronnie. I'm from Huntington Beach. I would definitely recast this role with Frank Stallone. Current day, modern day Frank Stallone, obviously. My question is, he invited his mother to this movie with a Pulp Fiction esque gimp costume montage in this. I saw that. Yeah, they were all covered in leather. Well, you were just saying, is it appropriate to bring your mother to a show where those people didn't get covered?

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, she has asked him not to. To take his clothes off. And he definitively takes his clothes off in this movie, which never gets comment. There's a lot of setup for jokes. Like here's one. He never gets a message. He asks the guy at the front desk like a dozen times. Any messages? Never once does he get a message. Because when the call comes, guess what? He's there.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, I mean, there's a really funny joke in it. Like when he's really upset, like, he gets bumped by this, like real rich, cool Italian guy, Sylvester Stallone. You guys remember that part?

[June Diane Raphael]

No. Where was that?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, you don't remember that Stallone was in this movie?

[June Diane Raphael]

No.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I gotta play that clip. I have that clip.

[June Diane Raphael]

I missed it.

[Paul Scheer]

It's the best, most unnecessary cameo.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

How is he dressed, sir? He's dressed like, like Kraven the Hunter.

[Katie Dippold]

All right, I'm gonna play it.

[June Diane Raphael]

That's awesome.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

June's gonna queue it up. This is the best. You'll see it. We have the sound off, so you just have to watch I think there, boom. Blink and you miss it.

[June Diane Raphael]

Totally missed it.

[Paul Scheer]

All right, let's just point out the real time shooting of him going from point A to point B. I feel like we saw him walking for 30 minutes.

[Katie Dippold]

Everything was real time.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This movie reminded me how disgusting New York was. Like, it really looked gross. All right. How are you, sir? All right, who your piece of advice, Tony Monero. Your name and your question. Here we go. My name's Tony. My piece of advice is stop being a dick to everyone and stop stealing my name, please. And now Satan's Alley is also the name of the fake movie in Tropic Thunder that Robert Downey Jr. S character is in with Tobey Maguire. Is that movie in a movie, an adaptation of this show, or vice versa?

[June Diane Raphael]

Boom.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Mind explosion. Amazing question. Question of the night. The fact that anyone's raising their hand means that they can beat that. Great observation. Wow. Three positive. Let's see. Beat it.

[Katie Dippold]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

My question is, given that this movie was so, like a 90 minute music.

[Katie Dippold]

Video and so dreamlike and ended at the same note as Saturday Night Fever begins, do you think it's plausible that this movie was just a dream?

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, is it? You're positing this is a Jacob's Ladder scenario.

[Katie Dippold]

And then Tony just wakes up and he's like, time to go to my job at the paint store, you know?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, that actually feeds into what I think. Cause he disappears. Like, he literally disappears like that. I'm not making that up. He disappears.

[Katie Dippold]

You're right, though. It does feel. Here's the thing. It feels at the end of the movie like he's not. Like he's not gonna return to this show. He's not gonna return to dance. Like he's walking into another, like, dimension. Kind of like there's a sense of like, I'm leaving everything behind and I'm just gonna continue strutting.

[Paul Scheer]

Like the third movie just picks up of him walking into becoming like a. A beekeeper or something.

[Katie Dippold]

Exactly. Like there's going to be no connection.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait a second. We just watched what if. What if he was beamed up by the race of aliens from Battlefield Earth and he starts a whole new planet? That may be. This may be a prequel to Battlefield.

[June Diane Raphael]

They were. They were watching Earth and were like. He is clearly its highest form.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He showed all those rat brains what dance is for.

[June Diane Raphael]

He. He renounced all of the weaker sex and succeeded only on his own. We will take him. Elron Hubbard demands it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sir, you have a question? Yeah, I want to address the. I. I have feelings for the Bee Gees. They wrote like five or six new songs, and yet all their songs are kind of used in all the wimpy dialogue moments. And then like, is Frank Solono. Are the Bee Gees. Were they like the abused first wife? Like, and now. And Frank Solone is the trophy songwriter.

[Paul Scheer]

I can't see, but is that a member of the Bee Gees asking that question?

[June Diane Raphael]

Barry Gibb? Get out of here.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Without a doubt. Well, I'll set this up. Obviously we have an opinion about this movie, but now it is time for a second opinion. These are five star reviews that were pulled from Amazon. I actually pulled a couple because they're so fucking good. One of the best ones. All right, this one is. It's titled Andy Warhol. Loved it by Unlucky Frank. And this is just a part of his gigantic post. If you appreciate Kama Sutra paintings, you're gonna love this flick. The routines are sexual. There are tons of tight butts, legs and thighs floating through the shots. Reason enough to give this five stars.

[June Diane Raphael]

Now, not that he delineates paintings. Karmasuch of paintings.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This one, I think goes to answer your question about staying alive. This is titled Good Movie. He did give it 5 stars though. It's good. By Edwin Perla. And he writes it is a great musical movie about something that happens every single day in everybody's life.

[Katie Dippold]

What?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And you can learn how to stay alive.

[Paul Scheer]

Wow.

[Katie Dippold]

Wow. Wow.

[June Diane Raphael]

So for this person, this movie is a how to how?

[Katie Dippold]

It's a resource.

[June Diane Raphael]

Wow. Oh, fuck. Wait, hold on. Shit. I feel on the verge of death. Put Staying Alive in. I need to remind myself how to do this. All right.

[Katie Dippold]

Oh my God.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Now, Jason, you joke, but S. Bogges writes Staying Alive to Stay Alive continues this thought by saying watching Exercising to both soundtracks of Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive with John Travolta would definitely make the change of of many lives. If you have not danced to one of the songs per day, you would not need any weight loss. You would not need any over the counter medications or supplements. I watched this and having lived those days, it's amazing how music was the cure to everything. Overall great health. Many obese persons would never have weighed heavier than the normal muscular body mass of one that is structurally built. It's a fun dancing experience that might help with depression. I would send a major recommendation to just work out to one of these songs by dancing when you have a few moments alone or not daily.

[June Diane Raphael]

Paul, can I ask you a question?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[June Diane Raphael]

Do you have one of these songs on your computer?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I do, I do.

[June Diane Raphael]

Could you queue it up?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, you got it. You got it.

[June Diane Raphael]

Everybody up. Everybody needs this exercise. You podcast listeners are disgusting human beings. So this isn't for us. This is for everybody. We're all gonna get up and dance to this.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right, ready? Here we go.

[June Diane Raphael]

Let's go. Get up.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, I know you right now are listening to the podcast going, what is happening? Basically a full on dance routine is breaking out. So just picture me, June, Jason and Katie Dippold dancing on stage. Aggressively reminder you're not really dancing. Touch the person next to knock them down. Take the stage, take the stage.

[June Diane Raphael]

Try and lift someone. I'm kidding. Don't do that. In the middle. You guys dance.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Amazing. Wow. What an amazing love story between the two of you. I really got it now. I really understood it.

[June Diane Raphael]

That one was a big fuck you to the podcast listeners.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And what's going on?

[June Diane Raphael]

What's going on?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Not edit it out. I'm leaving that in. Here we go. And so he concludes by saying, if you do that, amazing results will come naturally. Try to treat your body as what you expect from and overall terrific health. What would it hurt to try?

[Katie Dippold]

You guys, seriously. I am realizing that a lot of people found this movie not having any understanding of like the song Staying Alive or the cultural reference, like just literally saw it in the library or the video store.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Wait, wait, wait. In a library?

[June Diane Raphael]

That's the first place.

[Katie Dippold]

Honestly. Yes. I feel like both of these gentlemen found this movie in the library. In the library. Okay. I'm dead serious and are deeply troubled.

[June Diane Raphael]

Well, the guy, one guy was like, there's lots of close up pictures of butts and stuff and thighs. They're like, you're gonna have to bring that back.

[Katie Dippold]

It's really quite sad though. They just saw the title and thought, I need this.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

They thought of it as like a self help help tape.

[Katie Dippold]

Yes, yes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The final, the final five out of five star review is one of my favorites. This is actually the review is the VHS tape, not the DVD.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh no.

[June Diane Raphael]

Don't pity the people who use VHS.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It was only 2001. It was only 2001.

[June Diane Raphael]

Oh, that poor person doesn't have that movie Blu Ray.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This. This is written in all caps. I will not read it yelling though I fail to understand why so many people slate this movie. Hey. Yes. The script is not written in any way to reflect an intellectual plot or a masterpiece. The journey of the character played by John Travolta is only skin deep. But how much can you go in two hours? A lot of movies would disagree.

[June Diane Raphael]

And plus, how much can you go in two hours?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I work as a professional actor slash dancer, having qualified from one of the top academy in the world. And I have met and worked with Sly. And no other filmmaker can give an audience an adrenaline rush like this. The film inspired me throughout my time at drama school. It inspires me. It's honest, it's real. In observing the mechanism one goes through to succeed, yes, it speeds it up a bit, but it's a film for God's sake. It's escapism. The ideology of a guy wanting to be in a Broadway show and how he gets there is full of conviction for me. Get this movie onto dvd. Quick. It's simply the best for any aspiring dancer and actor to draw inspiration from honest experience. It. So he. He is using that as a manual. A manual for success.

[June Diane Raphael]

Everybody's getting so much life affirming content from this movie, which is about a monster destroying the lives of those around him in order to succeed.

[Katie Dippold]

Yeah, but day by day, did he not stay alive?

[June Diane Raphael]

You got me there, June.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You could argue he started the movie alive and finished the movie alive. So he did it. Is there anything else we'd like to chat about? Anything that we missed? Anything from the audience? Did we miss anything that we. That you. There's a glaring. All right, this guy says there's a glaring thing that we missed. This better be good. Here we go.

[Nathan Fielder]

Go for it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's actually not from the movie, but I wanted to. I wanted to. Did you guys know that this was a choose your own adventure book? It was made into a choose your own adventure book. What? Hold on. Let's all leave right now and go to ebay.

[June Diane Raphael]

Look at me. Look what I'm doing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

All right?

[June Diane Raphael]

I am.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Do you have a picture of it? He has a picture of it. You're starting up your phone book. So it's a choose your own adventure book. So I guess you can, like, fall in love with Jackie or you can treat her like shit.

[June Diane Raphael]

I think the only option is you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Treat her like shit.

[June Diane Raphael]

That's the only. Don't take. Take no for an answer. Go to page 36. Don't take no for an answer.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I. I bet all, like, all the. All the options are like that scene in Terminator where it's like someone knocks on the door and it's like, fuck you, asshole. It's all like, tell someone to go to hell or tell someone to fuck off. I'm going to look at the. Well, this is amazing.

[Paul Scheer]

I imagine some chapters end just like, fuck you. You'll go to page 25.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He yells @ you, go back. You made the wrong.

[June Diane Raphael]

If you're a man, choose whatever page you'd like. If you're a woman, turn the next page, dummy. Which it's not on ebay currently.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which leads me to my question, like, literally, who is this movie for? I mean, a Choose your own adventure book is for children, right? I mean. I mean, is this for children? Like, should children be reading a Staying alive choose youe own Adventure?

[June Diane Raphael]

Yes. In a word, yes. I read all the Magnum PI choose your own adventures. Worth it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, my gosh. Well, any. Anything else from you guys? Anything else at all? Oh. Oh, my gosh oh, my gosh. You guys. Okay, well, geez. We have two more from the crowd. We don't know if we're doing this. Here we go. What you got? Come to me. I would just like to point out that if you hunt around on YouTube, you can find a great making of featurette featuring Stallone and Travolta. And you asked who this movie is made for. The host of that little piece is Geraldo Rivera. Get back out. Leave again. We got homework.

[June Diane Raphael]

I do want to say this. Our audiences are the fucking.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You guys.

[June Diane Raphael]

You guys.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

The reason.

[June Diane Raphael]

Get it. I feel bad for your lives, but you get it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Would you recommend. Would you recommend watching this movie 100% instantly?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I would not only recommend getting it, but searching Frank Stallone and getting that album. I can't. I literally can't stop listening.

[June Diane Raphael]

Please, Please fuck to this tonight. Please. You're here with your boyfriend or your girlfriend or somebody that's. It's a date. You, whatever, go home and be like, well, I said fuck to it. Should we fuck? Yes, fuck to it. And tell us about it on the message boards, you weirdos.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm gonna argue, and I say it's a better Finger Bang song. Find more movies.

[June Diane Raphael]

I am so sorry, June. I am so sorry.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, sorry. Sorry about that. Well, we have to.

[June Diane Raphael]

This is, for me, like, a top 10. How did this get made? Movie?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Katie Dippold]

100%.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, it. It was a huge hit, by the way, and that. Well, thank you guys for coming. That's it. That's our show. We did it. We did it. It was great. Thank you. Thank you. Katie Dippold. Give it up. Thank you guys so much for coming out. Well, we definitely did it. That was another live episode. Live from Largo. If you want to come see us at Largo, go to Largo, la. Big hand for Katie Dippold. She's an amazing, talented writer. She's written on Parks and Recreation, of course, wrote the hilarious movie the Heat, and is doing so many more cool things that are probably secretive and I.

[Nathan Fielder]

Can'T share with you.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And a big thank you to July Diaz, who recorded the episode. Amazing job.

[Nathan Fielder]

Amazing.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And everybody who helps us out. I'm talking about Liana Waldron, who does.

[Nathan Fielder]

All of our graphics.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm talking about Avril Haley, who does all of our amazing clip pulling. I'm talking about Nate Kiley, who gets all the research done. I'm talking about all these people because I love all these people.

[Nathan Fielder]

They're so good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And of course, Katie Dyer, who helps us out with the social media aspect of the show. All right, everybody, that was a lot of fun. Have a great day.

[June Diane Raphael]

Hi.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[June Diane Raphael]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[June Diane Raphael]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[June Diane Raphael]

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[Jason Mantzoukas]

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[Nathan Fielder]

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