Boys and Girls

Summary

Podcast Summary: RISK! – “Boys and Girls” (November 6, 2025)

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Episode Overview

In this special throwback episode, host Kevin Allison revisits the 2013 "Boys and Girls" show, featuring four deeply personal, hilarious, and poignant stories about love, longing, heartbreak, and coming-of-age between men and women. The stories, told by Brad Lawrence, D.C. Pierson, Nina Davis, and Selina Coppock, offer honest reflections on romantic and emotional milestones—both triumphant and awkward. True to RISK!’s ethos, these stories are candid, uncensored, and often unexpectedly moving.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “Let Me Sleep On It” by Brad Lawrence

[04:04-18:02]

• Setting: Brad recounts his early twenties working at a bookstore in St. Louis, where he meets Carrie through a spontaneous duet of Meat Loaf’s “Let Me Sleep On It.”
• Friendship & Tension: They become inseparable friends, developing their own private language and being insufferable to others. Underneath, mutual but unspoken romantic attraction grows.
• Complicated Relationships: Brad denies his feelings to others (including his girlfriend, Lee), while Carrie aligns almost perfectly with his romantic ideal—causing both tension and confusion.
• The Pivotal Moment: After years of friendship and near-misses, Brad and Carrie share a moment of truth in a park but, paralyzed by guilt and indecision, he backs away from acting on it.
• Reflection & Regret: Years later, Brad’s regret over losing Carrie haunts his other relationships, but eventually, love—and perspective—arrives in a different package.
• Realizations About Love: The final takeaway is that real love allows mistakes and growth together, unlike the oppressive, high-stakes “rom-com” romance he once imagined.

Notable Quotes:

• “I looked at her and I said, I cannot do this right now. I have to end things the right way with Lee...I know in this moment that this is the last opportunity I was ever gonna get at this.” (16:35)
• “The thing I didn’t understand when I was making that horrible mistake is that real love is about being allowed to make mistakes. And anything else is just a crush.” (17:55)

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2. “The Boob Story” by D.C. Pierson

[18:25-36:05]

• Setting: Summer after freshman year of high school, a period marked by awkwardness, nerdy obsessions (the X-Files, Weezer), and a friendship with Kim, his older drama club friend’s girlfriend.
• Growing Closeness: Kim decides she and D.C. will be best friends, and a strange, rule-filled, semi-romantic connection develops—including driving around, inside jokes, and sharing mixtapes.
• Quasi-Cheating Repertoire: They engage in various forms of physical intimacy (stomach kissing, then boob touching), carefully skirting the definition of “cheating” on Kim’s boyfriend via a comically awkward “Treaty of Versailles.”
• Firsts & Awkwardness: The story captures the unusual and messy nature of sexual milestones, especially when filtered through guilt, teenage rationalizations, and the deliberate avoidance of “kissing on the mouth.”
• Comic Climax: The saga builds awkwardly and climaxes with an underwhelming but formative first blowjob, followed by an anticlimactic lunch at KFC.
• Aftermath: D.C. tries to make sense of the story’s emotional meaning years later, realizing sometimes what you think is your profound “Wonder Years” moment is just, as a fellow comic called it, “the boob story.”

Notable Quotes:

• “If anybody walked in on us doing that, they would just be like, they couldn’t be mad at us—they’d just be like, ‘Oh, these kids are idiots, they don’t know how it works.’” (29:20)
• “Maybe it's not the Wonder Years. Maybe it is just a boob story.” (35:54)
• “When a guy named Kevin tells you that something is your Wonder Years, you have to listen.” (36:00)

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3. “Remember, You’re Like a Child” by Nina Davis

[38:07-58:03]

• Setting: Summer of 1973, the summer before high school. Nina moves from New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale but first visits the Jersey Shore, where she meets David.
• Instant, Innocent Connection: Upon meeting, there’s an immediate and intense mutual attraction—a “bubble” surrounds them, isolating them from the world.
• Day of First Love: They spend the entire Fourth of July together: talking, walking, gentle intimacy, sharing hopes and fears, and listening to music (David plays Cat Stevens’ “Wild World” for her).
• Parting & Lasting Impact: They don’t become physically intimate, but exchange meaningful tokens. Nina moves away, but the memory of David and the desire to know his fate remains powerful for decades.
• A Search Through Time: Over the years and aided by the internet, Nina persistently tries to find David, facing dead ends, misinformation, and changing surnames.
• Final Connection: She finally reaches David by phone many years later, learning about the winding, difficult path his life took—including addiction and recovery—but also that he, too, never forgot her.
• Resolution: Rather than seeking romance, Nina sought only to know David was alright. Finding him alive and well, and hearing he treasured her memory, finally brings her peace.

Notable Quotes:

• “It was as if a bubble had just come down from the sky and surrounded us.” (39:05)
• “David said, ‘Nina, no, your first time, it should be so wonderful... This is not the right time and place for you.’” (48:50)
• “I kept your jean jacket for so many years. I could still smell you.” (55:38)
• “I felt so validated. I felt like, wow, I had made this human connection...and he had too.” (55:44)

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4. Selina Coppock’s College Love Story

[58:03-70:51]

• Setting: End of freshman year at a small college, where Selina meets John, a funny, affirming alum at a fraternity party.
• Intense Chemistry, Longing: They hit it off, leading to playful correspondence, New York visits, and mutual support. John validates Selina’s humor and writing in ways no one before had.
• Heartbreak: The relationship fizzles when John moves on and starts dating someone new. Selina endures heartbreak, locking herself away with Journey’s “Lights” on repeat.
• Closure (Or Not): Years later, at a bar, they reconnect. Instead of closure, old feelings flare up, only for life to move on again.
• Long-Term Impact: More years pass, and Selina gets an unexpected, movie-like chance at closure during a campus reunion. They share honest feelings, mutual gratitude, and ultimately say goodbye—Selina recognizes that her growth was rooted in the affirmation John offered years before.

Notable Quotes:

• “He told me I was so funny and he…‘yes, and’-ed everything I did.” (59:18)
• “I listened to our song, which was ‘Lights’ by Journey. I listened to it on a fucking loop… So you think you’re lonely? Well, my friend, I’m lonely too.” (61:15)
• “You told me that I was funny and you told me that I was a good writer and you told me that I should love myself. And now I’m a comedian and I’m a writer and I finally love myself.” (69:36)
• “Maybe we get to say goodbye and this is how the story ends.” (70:20)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• The spontaneous Meat Loaf duet in the bookstore (04:12)
• “Real love is about being allowed to make mistakes. Anything else is just a crush.” – Brad Lawrence (17:55)
• The “Treaty of Versailles” of sexual rules (28:45)
• “If anybody walked in on us doing that...‘These kids are idiots, they don’t know how it works.’” – D.C. Pierson (29:20)
• Nina’s exquisite description of young love’s “bubble” (39:05)
• “I kept your jean jacket for so many years. I could still smell you.” (55:38)
• Selina’s journey from heartbreak to self-love, with John’s affirmation as a pivotal turning point (69:36)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Brad Lawrence – “Let Me Sleep On It”: 04:04–18:02
• D.C. Pierson – “The Boob Story”: 18:25–36:05
• Nina Davis – “Remember, You’re Like a Child”: 38:07–58:03
• Selina Coppock – College Love Story: 58:03–70:51

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Tone & Style

The stories balance humor, nostalgia, and sometimes heartbreak, with a tone that’s self-deprecating, sincere, and often unfiltered. Storytellers are candid about their hopes, failings, and the sometimes ridiculous circumstances of young love—creating a bittersweet, universally relatable episode.

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For listeners new and old, “Boys and Girls” delivers the classic RISK! mix: tales that make you laugh, cringe, reflect, and maybe even reach out to your own “what might have been.”

Transcript

[Kevin Allison]

Foreign.

[Kevin Allison (Host)]

Hey folks, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share. I'm Kevin Allison and every Thursday we release these special episodes where we look back at content from our earlier years. And folks, there's still time to jump into my eight week long online storytelling workshop starting on November 16, 2025 at Eastern Standard Time. These workshops are so inspiring and profound and packed with over 16 years of knowledge that I've gained about storytelling from producing Risk. And also just really fun. You know, some folks are complete and total beginners. They never even imagined they'd be doing it. And then others are repeat customers. But everyone is so supportive and thoughtful in these groups. You might not think you have stories, but I can promise you you've got big ones, you've got little ones, you've got funny ones, you've got moving ones. Don't be shy. Just email me at kevinrisk-show.com and I'll send you all the info. Now, this week we're featuring an episode that premiered in August of 2013. It's an episode we call Boys and Girls. Hello kids, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they'd dare to share. I'm Kevin Allison and this is Jonathan Geer behind me. Now, calling this week's Sorry I had to get some gremlins out of my jowls. We're calling this week's episode Boys and Girls. There's four stories of love between the ladies and the gents. Now, you can imagine we're about to have a slightly emotional roller coaster ride of a trip in the coming minutes. 60 of them, more or less. So we're getting all heteronormative today, as they say. In a little bit we're gonna hear from the brilliant comedian, an actor, D.C. pearson, you might know from the sketch comedy group Derek Comedy. But before that, my good friend Brad Lawrence, a real fixture in the New York storytelling scene, a great host. He hosts a lot of burlesque shows in town. He was a co host of the show and I am not lying for a while, regular host of the Moth. But his even greater gift, as you will soon see, is for storytelling. And here he is now. This is Brad Lawrence with a story we call Let Me Sleep on it.

[Brad Lawrence]

I was 23 years old and working at a bookstore in St. Louis. And one of the main features of this bookstore was this sort of grand stairwell that connected the two floors. It was really late at night. We had closed the store and after closing we were all cleaning our various sections and whatever else. And I was assigned the mystery section, which is at the bottom of the staircase. And I'm cleaning the mystery section all by myself. And I have this song stuck in my head. And so I am singing to myself as I'm cleaning the section. Let me sleep on it, baby baby let me sleep on it Let me sleep on it and I'll give you an answer in the morning. And I'm doing this when all of a sudden I hear from the top of the grand staircase, someone, a female voice, reply, I gotta know right now Will you love me? And this is how I meet Carrie. And I step out from the mystery section, and I look up and she's coming down the stairs. And we proceed to do the entire duet until we are meeting on the landing at the bend in the staircase, sort of face to face, doing the. It was cold and lonely doing the entire nine yards. And as we're doing this, our fellow employees are now sort of peeking furtively out from the stacks of books like forest animals. And they're seeing us do this, and they're thinking what they will be thinking for the next three years. And that is, when are these two gonna do this? Became an inseparable friendship, which was not hurt at all by the fact that Carrie kind of fell into exactly everything I look for in a woman. And it's hard for me to say if Carrie fit the ideal or if Carrie made the ideal. The minute I saw her, she had a sort of Holly Golightly kind of thing to her. If Holly Golightly could potentially kick your ass and make you feel bad about yourself at the same time. She wasn't saccharine. She was sharp and smart. And she was not afraid of letting you know that immediately. And this just set me on my heels and kept me there. Which apparently was exactly where I wanted to be. Because I followed her around like a puppy dog. And she seemed more than content to have me and would, in fact, like, sort of arrange things for us to do activities, mainly things that she thought I would hate. She kind of seemed to like to watch me get worked up. Apparently, I entertained her most when I was angry about what I had just seen. Performance art is usually bad in major arts capitals. By the time performance art, installation performance art, has filtered down to St. Louis, Missouri, you're not getting grade A installation performance art. I barely remember what they did. It involved people in tights. I went sort of blind with rage upon seeing the people in the flesh toned tights. And to this day I have, like a real aversion to anything that mimics skin. I just find it horrifying. And I think that's probably what I was ranting on that made Carrie think, we'll do this every weekend. We were spending all of our time together and all of this brought about a kind of two person language, a sort of code, a set of nods and facial expressions and inside jokes and little gestures. And, you know, we both knew what those things meant. And this made us insufferable to be around for anyone else. And we would go out with other people, we'd go out with co workers and our friends and they would be like, you guys are so annoying. And by the way, when are you going to just go ahead and do it and get it over with? So all this annoyance you've cost us will pay off. And my friends would say, you got a crush on Carrie. My girlfriend Lee would say, you've got a crush on Carrie. And I would say, I do not have a crush on Carrie. Carrie's my friend. We're just friends. I don't have a crush on Carrie. Relax. And I would think to myself, I am so in love with Carrie that I don't know what to do. And I know that that went both ways because that tension would build. It would build to the point where separately, on two separate occasions, both of us started fights with one another just so we could get away from the situation. The fights were started over ridiculous things because at that point you've got to do something. The tension is built so much. And you either have to and do what you really want to do, or you have to allow yourself the escape and stage a conflict that allows you to run away. And both of us did that. And we didn't speak for a month each time. And then that month would go by and one would call the other. I'm really sorry. I really miss you. There's a foreign film you'll hate. Let's go see it next weekend. And so off we'd go. And this was the pattern of things. If not particularly satisfying, it was sustainable for a while. And then at some point, both my girlfriend Lee and I, we hit the skids. This dovetailed nicely with the fact that Lee's work was transferring her to Michigan. And it came down to the point where we'd been fighting for months, but we both knew she was going to leave soon. And I don't know the logic behind not breaking up. There's a sort of secret agreement we both just kind of hold on until she left. And then we wouldn't have to do anything painful we couldn't forgive one another for. And here we are. It's about three days before she's gonna leave, and I go hang out with Carrie. And you would think if it really meant something, you'd be spending all of your time with the person who's getting ready to leave. But no, I'm making time for Cary. He'll still be here when Lee's gone, and we go out and we see a movie, and we have dinner and we drag the evening out, as we always do. We ended up in a park. Walking around a park in the middle of the night and having this long conversation. And there was something in the air, or maybe some, you know, Lee's impending departure. I don't know what it was, but for some reason, this. This conversation suddenly took a turn towards what was really going on, what was really there. A turn we had always avoided. And it just kind of comes out. And how it finally comes out is we've walked the entire park, We've worked our way back around to our cars, and we're standing by the cars, and I finally say to Kerri, it's just when you know that there is something else, someone else for you. Do you know what I mean? And Carrie looked me in the eyes and she said, yes, I do. And that's it. Everything had fallen away. All of the maneuvering around this we had done for three years suddenly just dropped. And there is this one foot of empty space between me and her. And all I have to do to have everything I've wanted for three years is reach through that one foot of empty space. And instead, I fucked it up. I looked at her and I said, I cannot do this right now. I have to end things the right way with Lee. And this is blinding stupidity. I can't do this right now. If not right now, when? Three years. And if not right now, now's it. Now's the time. But I. I say this thing, and when I say it to her, I see Carrie's eyes drop. And I know. I know for a fact in this moment that this is the last opportunity I was ever gonna get at this. This is the last opportunity I was ever gonna get with Carrie at all in any way. Because I know right there in that moment, I know I've lost Carrie. I know her very well, and I know she has this kind of rom com idea of romance that she uses as a shield. And she's a smart woman. She knows it's Bullshit. But she also knows that if she has that up, if someone can't complete the rom com perfect moment romantic formula, if they don't do that, then she knows she's never making a mistake. And the thing that Carrie dreads the most is making a mistake. And she let her guard down. And it turns out to both of our horror, that I was a mistake. And I know she can't have that. And I know I've lost her. And I'm right. Because I see Carrie one more time.

[Kevin Allison]

After that.

[Brad Lawrence]

And I never see Carrie again. And this haunts me for years. Every time I go through a breakup, every time I find myself alone, feeling miserable and sorry for myself, I think back on Carrie and on that one moment that night in the park and how I screwed that moment up. And when I tell myself in those days, dark, dark nights when I am so alone and so sad, is that the reason I will be so alone and so sad forever and ever and ever is because I had the one. She was right there within my reach. And I it up. And because I it up, I am doomed. And then I met a girl, and I fell in love and I got married. I met her while I was wearing. And she was wearing a mummy outfit that she was actually stripping out of. She was go go dancing at a bar. I determined not to hit on the go go dancer until I was really good and drunk. And then I got really good and drunk, and she humored me. She consented to go on a date, and the rest really is history. I mean, it was just sort of when you find someone who rearranges your entire world and, you know, introduced you to a whole different side of life and you realize, oh, this is what I've been looking for the entire time. You stop dwelling on every mistake you've ever made and start thinking about every possibility that lies before you. That's the huge difference. I had that now, and it was wonderful. But then Facebook does the thing that Facebook does, and suddenly, thanks to the Internet, I have reason to think about Carrie again. And I have not thought about Carrie because I'm not thinking about my mistakes. But now, thanks to Facebook, I'm confronted with this and I have to sort of think about Carrie again. And I'm thinking about her, but how I'm thinking about her has changed because my mistakes are not. They don't have romantic comedy stakes anymore because I'm not living that fantasy nowadays. When I make a mistake, she lets me back up and try again until I get it right. It's Never make or break. About two or three months into us being together, we were at a bar, and she was talking to a guy I knew. They had gone on a couple of dates. And then when I walked up to say hello, she introduced me as her friend. And it was a hissy fit. Let's be frank. It was an unseemly scene. And I marched out all indignant, certain I'd been wronged, basically. In reality, she loathed the guy, didn't want to discuss her current relationship or how that had come about. She basically was, like, being polite, getting out. I walk in for, like, the tail end of that, take one thing wrong, have a fit. And she basically just kind of watched me spin my wheels, let it all sort of peter out, told me everything I've just told you, and then waited for me to grovel the appropriate amount. And then it was done and it was over, and we moved on. She was entirely confident I had learned whatever lesson I needed to learn. Nothing was ripped asunder for all times because we would just move forward. And so now, confronted with Facebook and Carrie again and sort of thinking about that life and that time and that night, I don't think about it in the same way. Because the thing I didn't understand when I was making that horrible mistake is that real love is about being allowed to make mistakes. And anything else is just a crush.

[D.C. Pearson]

We'll be right back.

[Kevin Allison]

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[D.C. Pearson]

So this story takes place the summer after my freshman year of high school. All you need to know about me at this time in my life was that a. I had just joined my high school's drama club my freshman year, and I was enamored. And the second thing you need to know is that two or three years previous to this story, when I was in middle school, I was on a bowling team with a few of my friends that were also in the Gifted and Talented Reading program with me at school and on this bowling team, in between frames, all of us guys would go back to where the balls are and the tables where you eat really good bowling alley fries. We, for luck, in between frames, would kiss a picture of the X Files Gillian Anderson, which I had ripped out of a Entertainment Weekly that I had bought because the COVID featured the X Files Gillian Anderson. So that's all you needed to know about me, was that it happened just like two years before this story. Like, if I need to follow that up by saying at this point I was of virgin and still hadn't even really kissed a girl, you're way too optimistic. But I had a friend at this time in my life named Matt who was also in my high school's drama club. And he was a senior when I was a freshman. So he had just graduated from high school and we had become friends. Me and my group of friends, young kids in the drama club had become friends with his older group of drama club friends because they realized when we came into drama club that we were as funny as they were. And so they had to ally with us or else we might destroy them. I'm not just making that up to sound cool, but it does sound pretty cool. He actually told us that when we decided to, like, all become friends. And then we celebrated and consecrated our new friendship with a 12 hour marathon of the video game GoldenEye. So Matt had a girlfriend named Kim, and Kim was a year younger than Matt. So at this point in the story, she's going into her senior year of high school and Kim was also in drama club. And like a lot of drama club girls, she kind of, when she would get around, her friends would sort of turn into a Pokemon. Like they had their own little secret language of like bleeps and bloops that would be interspersed with Rent lyrics. But despite her Pokemon ness that she would have sometimes around her friends, she was a deep girl. Like, she had the poem Invictus on the wall of her bedroom, which is this thing that's about like dark as my soul from pole to pole or whatever. It's like intense. Like, she, she liked the second Ben Folds Five album more than the first Ben Folds Five album. Like, she was deep. You know what I mean? She was deep. And this summer after my freshman year, Kim decided that she and I were, were going to be best friends. And she would come over to my house every day after she got off work at Cold Stone Creamery. And so she would come over and she smelled like ice cream. And we would drive around in her car, which was this little blue 80s hatchback that she had christened Scanny, because high school girls in theater club think that they need to name their cars or else their cars will be sad. And so we're driving around one day and the song, I think it's called Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette, is playing on Kim's mixtape that she had made. And there's a line in the song where Alanis Morissette says, you're my best friend. Best friend with benefits. And Kim turns to me and goes, that's like, you. You're my best friend. No benefits, though. And I was like, huh? Because I really, really wanted there to be benefits. But I couldn't say that because she was still dating my friend Matt. And I was convinced that Matt was a really terrible boyfriend to Kim. I was mostly convinced of this because Kim never stopped telling me what a terrible boyfriend he was. According to Kim, Matt's cardinal sins were drinking and talking to friends. Like, he drank too much, and he talked to his friends too much. And in my head, when she would tell me this, I would just be like, well, if I was with you, I would never drink because I'm underage. And so, duh. And I would never talk to friends. That's ridiculous. Like, who would do such a thing? I would never talk to too many friends if you were mine. And so a good example of what their relationship was like, according to Kim, was one night, all of these drama club kids came over to my house for a movie night, and we were going to watch Mall Rats. And Kim told me later on AOL Instant Messenger. Cause it was that summer that during the movie, she had wanted to watch the movie, but Matt kept trying to make out with her. And she kept being like, no, I'm trying to watch the movie. And in my head, I was like, oh, my God, this girl is even more perfect than I realized. She would rather watch a movie than kiss me, too. Not that I've ever been given the option, but I would like to think that if I were given the option, I would always choose movies over kissing, because movies have always been there, and that is loyalty that deserves to be rewarded. So one night. Oh, and I guess another important thing to know about our relationship is that she. That summer, it was this, like, auspicious, just like, wonderful summer of my life where she turned me on to two very culturally important things to me at that point, which were Weezer's the Blue Album and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Yeah, Big dip in applause. Rightfully so. People are like, woo, Weezer. Ooh, Ayn Rand. Correct. When given the choice between Weezer and Ayn Rand. Always choose Weezer. Even the later stuff. But so into Weezer's the Blue Album was I. And so into Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged was I, that I immediately went home and downloaded all the individual tracks for Weezer's the Blue Blue Album off of Napster. Because it was that summer and in short order had convinced myself that the first song on Weezer's the Blue Album, My Name is Jonas, is actually about Atlas Shrugged. I was like, the workers are going home. What more evidence do you need? That is a joke that requires you to have knowledge of both Weezer's the Blue Album and Atlas Shrugged, the Venn diagram of which the circles are in separate counties. But. So it was that summer. It was that summer and it was all very alive for me. And one night, Kim comes over to my house. It's really late at night, I'm probably up listening to Weezer's the Blue Album and being like, this is about the Fountainhead. And she shows up at my doorstep and she's wearing this kind of like black and white dress and she's clearly been crying and she's like, can I come in? And I'm like, of course. We go up to my family's playroom and she tells me that Matt at the party had like, done something to make her cry. Like he had drank too much or talked to too many friends. And so we end up with her laying across my crossed legs, I'm sitting cross legged on the floor, she's like, crying. And I'm trying to be what I thought of at the time as being sensitive, which was really just like being like, ew, you know, And. But I'm doing what I think of as being sensitive. Then at a certain point I just like screw up my courage and I don't know why I do it, but I reach down and I lift up like her blouse or whatever she's wearing, like just a little bit and revealing just like this like, strip of stomach. And I bring my head down and I start just like kissing this strip of stomach. And she doesn't stop me, so I keep doing it, just keep kissing her stomach and she doesn't stop me, so I keep kissing her stomach and I'm kissing her stomach for like a really long time. And then at a certain point we realized that my arms, the way I'm leaned over, my arms are kind of like trembling. And I'm like, is that okay? And she's like, yeah, it's fine. Because as I've come to learn, being intimate with me requires a very high tolerance and for male trembling. And then at a certain point she gets up and she pulls her shirt down and she leaves. And then the next day we have this like, summit. We're like, what are we going to do? Like, we just did this thing. But I still want to be friends with you. But we can't cheat on your boyfriend. We can't do that. That would be wrong. We can't cheat on your boyfriend. But I want to do that again because that was so great. And so we reached this treaty of Versailles where we could somehow still do stuff without it technically somehow in our convoluted teenage Ayn Rand filled heads without it being cheating on her boyfriend. Because I guess that would be anti life or something. I'm really riffing a lot of Ayn Rand jokes here. I hope you guys appreciate it. And so what we determined in this treaty of Versailles is that we could only do what we had already done, which basically amounted to just me continuing to me kissing her stomach, which if you think about it, is kind of brilliant because if anybody walked in on us doing that, they would just be like, they couldn't be mad at us because they would just be like, oh, these kids are idiots. They don't know how it works. And so we keep doing it. Now our every hangout is fraught with the possibility of illicit stomach kissing. The white guy with dreads in the front row has been nodding emphatically this entire time. He knows what I'm talking about. And so, so after a while, like the stomach kissing repertoire after a number of hangouts is becoming like a little too well rehearsed. You know what I mean? It's like, hello, dc, hello, stomach, how are you? Mwah, muh, muah. You know, like we get it. And then one night we're in my bedroom and it's dark and she's laying across my bed, moonlight coming in through the window, and I'm doing the stomach kissing repertoire. And at a certain point I again screw up my courage and I just like bring her shirt up even more past the point that I had. Like, I, you know, it's like appeasement doesn't work. I'm taking more, you know, I'm invading the Sudetenland, you know, And I pull her shirt up to reveal her brow bound boobs, but only after doing the sexiest thing that a gentleman can do, asking. I'm really glad he agreed with that part too. We can all agree it was not certain. So there they are, the boobs, the bra bound boobs. In my memory, they're in a leopard print bra, but that may have just been added after the fact by the part of my brain which controls tackiness. And it's great, but I'm treating them very awkwardly a little bit, but I'm trying to not be Awkward. I'm trying to seem skilled. It's a little like. Like I'm like a old white dad whose daughter has just brought home, like, a new, cool black boyfriend. You know what I mean? And I'm, like, trying to show that I'm down, but the more I try to show that I'm down, it's clear that I'm not fucking down, but I just keep doing it anyway. And I think she eventually tires of that awkwardness and that weird, like, stilted teenage boy reverence, and she just, like, sighs, and she reaches down and she pulls the bra up, and there they are in all of their glory. And I start engaging with them. I start engaging with just the bare breasts, and it's so awesome. But it also has that feeling of kind of like, I don't know, like, meeting the Japanese investors. You know what I mean? Like, there's a. You know, this might be very lucrative for all of us if we obey a very strict set of customs. Okay, how are you? All right. Everything's going according to plan, and it's great. And so that's now added to the repertoires, like stomach kissing and boob touching, and that's integrated into the program. And then that keeps going, and that's every hangout now we're doing all of those things, and eventually that becomes too well rehearsed. And by the end of the summer, that's a little bit like the 20th year of cats on Broadway, you know? Like, we can do it. It's muscle memory. We can get high before the show. Like, it doesn't matter. It really does. They're tourists. They're not going to know the difference, you know? And so one afternoon, we're over at her house, and it's Labor Day, and her dad and her brother are gone, and he's a single parent, so there's nobody in the house, and we're alone, and we're doing the stomach kissing and the boob touching. Entirely too well rehearsed. And then at a certain point, without any warning or fanfare whatsoever, she just goes down on me, like, without a hype man even coming out to get the crowd pumped. She just does it. She just goes into it, and it is so, so terrible. But, like, so was the first airplane, you know, like, yeah, maybe the first airplane was, like, one wing was bigger than the other, and it was awkward, and it barely got off the ground, and it was way too heavy on the teeth. But that. That was the first step. That airplane was the first step towards mankind finding his destiny among the stars. So attention and reverence must be paid to that blow job. And then we got up and we put our clothes on, and we went and had lunch at KFC throughout the entire summer. I'm telling Kim, I'm in love with you. Break up with Matt. Break up with your boyfriend. Break up with Matt. And finally, right as school starting again, she's like, you know what?

[Brad Lawrence]

Fine.

[D.C. Pearson]

And so she leaves my house, she goes out and gets in scanny. One night, she drives Scanny over to Matt's place because he's moved back in with his parents for the summer. And she's like, you know, she. She comes back afterward and she seems, like, upset with me, but she's like, I did it, and I don't really understand why she's upset with me at the time. And I'm like, how did it go? What happened? And she just tells me. She's like, well, I mean, he kind of just, like, took it. He seems kind of resigned to it. And as I was leaving, he asked if he could see my back, because I guess he said my back has always been, like, his favorite part of me. Which, I mean, it does actually kind of make sense because if you think about it, I had sort of been colonizing her front all summer. But again, she seemed sort of upset, and I didn't understand why. And now, throughout this entire time, throughout the stomach kissing and the boob touching, part of our treaty of Versailles was that we would never kiss on the mouth. We had done everything I just described and a lot more awkward, weird stuff that you don't do once you can have actual sex, because it is bullshit without kissing on the mouth at all. And eventually, after we officially decided we were together, we did kiss on the mouth, but we didn't kiss on the mouth that night, even though she was technically broken up with her boyfriend, because we wanted it to be special. We wanted to save it and preserve it and have it be when we were both in a good mood. And thinking back on it now, I don't remember kissing her for the first time. I don't remember that first kiss at all. I think maybe because this experience kind of programmed my brain to only want to remember the things that are, like, illicit or dark or messed up because they seem worth remembering, because they seem dramatic. And the stuff that's all above board and cool and fine, like, isn't really worth remembering because it's not necessarily a good story. And it's weird that all of my sexual milestones kind of happened under this, like, friendship threatening Like, Sword of Damocles of us really cheating on her boyfriend. But I wouldn't have had it any other way, now that I look back on it, because I was never gonna be one of those guys that was just gonna, like, round all the bases at once, like, pumping my fists, like, while being drunk at a party, because I didn't drink. I wasn't of age, so how could you? You know, I wasn't gonna be that guy. So it was kind of like all of my sexual milestones, I really had to, like, pay attention because they were so. We had to really, like, go into them with such trepidation because it was all part of our ever expanding, secretly cheating on her boyfriend repertoire. It was kind of like my sexual development was like a menu that had been programmed by this, like, really sadistic chef who was like, try the boobs. You know? And I did. I did try the boobs. I tried the shit out of the boobs. And I told this story. I told this story one time at a standup show, and I got off stage, and I felt like I'd really poured my heart out. I just started telling the story, like, I hadn't thought about it in years, and. And I got off stage, and I was just, like, spent. And another comic on the show was like, dude, I love that boob story. And I was kind of heartbroken because I thought this was my wonder years. You know, this is my defining everything about myself, pretty much. And I was like, oh, maybe it's not the wonder years. Maybe it is just a boob story. And then I was telling the story in preparation to be on this show. The first time I did it to the guy that runs the show, Kevin Allison. And I was telling him the story, and I said that part about, oh, maybe it's not the wonder years. Maybe it's just a boob story. And Kevin was like, no, it is. It is your wonder years. And I was like, when a guy named Kevin tells you that something is your wonder years, you have to listen. Thanks, guys. I'm in D.C. pearson.

[Brad Lawrence]

Every now and then I fall.

[Kevin Allison]

Every.

[D.C. Pearson]

Now and then I lose control.

[Brad Lawrence]

But.

[D.C. Pearson]

In your eyes I see your thoughts.

[Kevin Allison]

Surrounding me and I have a little bit of fun for you this is Risk.

[Kevin Allison (Host)]

This is Dan Kroll behind me now. And we just heard from DC Pearson, who has a new novel out that's getting a lot of attention. It's called Crap Kingdom, somewhat of a fantasy novel and a young adult novel. And from all reports, absolutely hilarious. In a little bit, we will hear a story from the great Selina Coppock. But before that, a Risk fan who did a storytelling workshop with me, one on one over Skype, Nina Davis, shared this story with me, and I asked her if we could record it. Nina, as you will soon find out, is just an absolutely lovely, wonderful lady. It's been a joy coaching her, and we're very grateful that she shared this one with us. So this is Nina Davis now with a story we call Remember your Like a Child.

[Nina Davis]

A month before I turned 14. It was 1973. It was the summer between eighth grade and ninth grade, and we were moving in just a few days from New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale. And my mom decided that she wanted to go out to the Jersey shore and say goodbye to some really close friends. And so we arrived in the night on July 3rd, and we must have gotten there so late that I didn't even remember coming into the house. And when I woke up in the morning, there was so much light coming into my bedroom, just streaming in. And my bedroom had sliding glass doors. And I went and I stood there and I could see the ocean. So I got dressed really fast because I wanted to explore. And I walked outside. There was a huge wraparound porch. I was on the second floor. And as I started to walk down the steps, there was a house right next door. And a boy was coming out of his house. I got down to the bottom of the steps at the very same time, he had left his house and was walking across the beach. We met there, right in the middle between the two homes. And we just stood there. This was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. He had chocolate black, thick, straight bangs. And he was a little bit taller than I was, and he was solidly built. And we just stood there looking at each other. And it was as if a bubble had just come down from the sky and surrounded us. It was as if nothing around us was happening. We could look at each other, and we were total strangers to each other, but it was this peaceful, peaceful, at ease feeling. And then Franco burst out of the house. Franco was the son of my parents closest friends. We were the exact same age. We had essentially grown up together. And he was so excited that I was there for the day. And he came running towards us and he said, nina, Nina, this is David. David, this is Nina. And we're gonna do so many great things today. And he was rattling on about all the things that we were going to do. And David and I are just standing there staring into each other's eyes. And I swear I Felt as if I was falling in love. Prior to this point in my life, as far as boys were concerned, I had boys that were friends, boys that I liked. I was so awkward and clumsy. But none of this was happening with this boy, David. I felt none of that. I wasn't nervous. I felt so calm and in unison. As Franco is jabbering away, we just turn and we walk towards the ocean. And I know that Francis Franco tried to keep up with us, but I think he was actually bounced back by our bubble, and he eventually just wasn't there anymore. And when we got to the ocean, the very first words that David ever said to me were, which way do you want to go? And I said, it doesn't matter. And because that was July 4th, people were setting up their barbecues on the beach. They were staking out their places even that early in the morning. And we would wander from one group to the next, and they would be really welcoming and tell us to come back later and what they were going to be serving. And I'm pretty sure that David knew all of these people because this wasn't a summer home for him. This was actually his only home. We spent that day in each other's company, talking about everything. Talking about our fears, our hopes, dreams, what we wanted to be when we grew up. And David knew that he wanted to do something with music, because when he'd gone back to his house and gotten his guitar, he had started to play for me. And he. He was unbelievably talented. Any song, I said he could play it. And he had the most beautiful V. Finally, we had some time where we weren't bumping into other people on the beach, and we ended up on a dock where there was a light at the end of the dock so we weren't in the darkness. And we got to watch the fireworks go off. And we were in each other's arms, and we had been kissing and kissing all day in the most natural way. And he was holding me and playing his guitar at the same time as he was holding me. And it was as if we just couldn't get enough of simply touching. Touching our fingers together. And at some point, I realized I truly had fallen in love with this boy. And I wanted to make love with him, and it would have been my first time. And I told him so. And he said, nina, no, no, first of all, we're on a dock. Anybody could walk down this dock. And it turned out that he had already had sex, and it hadn't been this wonderful, loving experience. That it should have been because the girl and he were not in love. And he said, your first time, it should be so wonderful. And you're leaving, you're moving to Fort Lauderdale, and I may never ever see you again. This is not the right time and place for you. And he said, but I want to give you something. He said, I want to give you this song because you're going to need this song. This song will be your song, and this song will help you and protect you. And so he sang me cat stuff. Steven's Baby, Baby, It's a Wild World. And then that was my song. And I had given him something too. As the sun went down, I had given him my jean jacket to wear. And eventually it really was time to say goodbye. It was one o' clock in the morning. We had spent the entire day together since about 7:30 in the morning. And I knew my mom was frantically looking for me. And I said, tell me your last name and I will never forget it. And he said, reinbeck. It's David Reinbeck. And I said, okay. And we hugged one last time. I got into the back of my mom's car and I said, david Reinbeck. David Reinbeck. David Reinbeck all the way home. After that, we moved to Fort Lauderdale. And many Fourth of July's passed. And I started to measure all of the years by the Fourth of July. And so eventually I was up north again. I was going to college. I spent one weekend driving down to Pennsylvania to see my father. And he told me that of all people, Franco was going to Penn State. And I was so excited because I never stopped thinking of David. And I knew that if anybody knew where David was, Franco would be that person. So I called him up, he came over to my dad's, and we're sitting at across the kitchen table in my dad's kitchen, just Franco and I. And he's very, very handsome, and he knows how handsome he is. But to me, Franco and I might as well have been cousins. I mean, we'd known each other forever. And I could see some disgruntledness as we were talking, because what I was talking about was how I had fallen in love at first sight with David that summer. Franco was so not interested. This story had nothing to do with him. So when I asked him if he knew how I could get a hold of David, he sort of smirked. And he told me that he heard that David had been in a terrible boating accident where the engine of the boat had exploded and that he had been severely burned. And he Thought that he had died. And I said, franco, how do you know this? How do you know that he died? How do you know? And he said, I don't know actually if he died, okay? But I know that he has to be crippled and he has to be severely deformed. And I pressed him for more information because I didn't care if David was deformed or crippled. He was alive, and that is all I cared about. And Franko was not forthcoming with any more information, But I trusted him. I believed he knew nothing else. I mean, this was essentially a family member to me. And that was that. And Then many more 4th of July's went past and the Internet started and you could search for people. And at this point in my life, I had fallen in love many times. I'd never fallen in love at first sight, but I had fallen in love with a man enough to be very happily married and have a son with him. So I was not mooning over David. I just had to make sure David was okay out there. And then I would feel okay, but nothing would ever come up in my searching. So a few more 4th of July's went past and Facebook happened. And guess who wanted to be my friend on Facebook? It was Franco. So this time I played it a little bit more cool. I traded emails with him for about three weeks, then we had long conversations on the phone. And finally, maybe a month or two months of this, I felt like I wouldn't scare him away by asking about David. And I said, franco, that summer on the beach, that boy, David Reinbeck. I have never stopped thinking about him. Can you remember anything about his mom, his dad? Can you think of any way that I could find him? And Franco said, well, first of all, you have his name wrong. It's not David Reinbeck. It's David Reinbach. And he said, I think he is doing rock opera. And I said, great. First of all, it's music. Second of all, it's so esoteric, I know I'll be able to find him. So I thank Franco and I start searching all over again. And this is crazy, but I find him. He is the backup guitarist on a woman that has a rock opera CD on her own website. And I contact her and she calls me and I tell her all about love at first sight and the song summer of 1973 and the 4th of July. And she loves this story. And she said, this is so amazing, Nina, because David Reinbach left my band two months ago and he moved to Fort Lauderdale. And my heart skips a beat but she says, I don't think he's your David because I don't think he was born in 19. I think he's about 35 years old. And at this point I think I'm about 49 or 50. And I said, oh, this is not my David. And I thank her and as we're saying goodbye to each other, she says, wait, wait. Oh my. I think I know who you are looking for, but you have his name wrong. She said, it's David Reinhardt west and he does do rock opera. So I thanked her, I hung up and I started to search again. And unbelievably, I found a video of a man playing guitar and dancing. And he had blonde spiky hair and my David had chocolate black thick bangs bite my fingers. And I blocked out these blond spikes. And I saw David and I was so relieved he was alive. He looked pretty happy. He was playing music. And I only took it one step further. I googled his name in the white pages and there was a phone number and I called it and an answering machine came on and it had his voice. And I left a message. I said, hi, this is Nina and I have a story for you. And then I forgot about was maybe 9 o' clock that night when the phone rang. The last thing I was thinking of was David. And I answered the phone and I said, hello. And there was this voice that said, hi, this is David and I understand you have a story for me. And I could not breathe. Oh, I was trying so hard. I was trying to talk and I was stumbling over my words. And he said, whoa, now wait a minute. When you left the message, I couldn't understand your name. Could you just repeat your name for me? And I took a really deep breath and I said, nina. My name is Nina. And there was this silence. And he said, oh, Nina, I kept your jean jacket for so many years. I could still smell you. And I, I felt so validated. I felt like, wow, I had made this human connection, this incredibly intense connection so many years ago. And he had two. And it was reciprocated. He had never forgotten me either. And we talked and we talked. We talked for hours and we talked just as freely as we had that summer, that day on the 4th of July. And it turns out that I had reason to be worried about him all of those years and concerned that he was alright because he hadn't been alright. In fact, when ninth grade started, he didn't even make it through that school year. He left home. He ended up in New Orleans. He was living on the street. He had his guitar. He was a heroin addict. And he eventually made his way to New York City. And this angel of a man came up to him one day and said, I hear you playing all the time, and I want to know where you get your material. And David said, I write it all myself. It's all mine. And the man said, I'd like you to come up with me. And he took David to a very prestigious music school in the Northeast. And they interviewed David and they offered him a full scholarship on the spot. And they took it away just as fast when they found out that he had never finished high school. So David went back and he got his act together. He quit drugs, he got his ged, and he went back to that school, and he got his degree in music. And he met a wonderful, beautiful woman to fall in love with and marry. And he had beautiful children, and everything was great. He was loved. Someone was taking care of him. And it was the best news that I could have had heard. I was just so happy that someone that I had cared about so deeply for only a day, that everything had indeed turned out wonderfully for them. What I think is so interesting about this story is that I think when people hear it, they assume they know where it's going and how it's going to end up, that David and I will ride off into the sunset. But that was never my intention. When I contacted him, I felt like I just needed to check and see if he was okay and to find out that he was loved and to see pictures of his kids. And one of them looked exactly like David did when he was 14. I. I couldn't have felt more generosity of the spirit. I just was truly, truly at peace. I didn't have to worry about him anymore.

[Kevin Allison]

I met John at the end of my freshman year in college. He was an alum from our small liberal arts, New England small school. And he came back. He was an alum, and he came back for a fraternity party on campus. And I was there at the fraternity party. It was actually my birthday, and I was having a blast. It was the football fraternity, which is my favorite. So we met and we got along like a house on fire. Immediately, we just hit it off so well. And he was everything I wanted in a guy. He was older, he was funny, and he was an alum of the meathead fraternity. Ding, ding, ding. So we spent the night in my freshman dorm room and had a great time. And then the next morning, he left his business card, and I was like, Business card. He's a man, you know, it blew my 19 year old mind that he had cards. So he left and went back to New York City, which is where he was living. He was originally from the town where our college is, so it was a townie, if you will. So he went to New York City and we started corresponding by email and by phone and it was just so much fun and so hilarious. Just quips, quips, quips. And that summer I came to New York City to visit him and we had such a blast. I met all of his friends and it was just so hilarious. I felt like the guys in high school always thought I was a little bit too much and, and never quite could handle my energy. And John just embraced it. He told me I was so funny and he, to use an improv term, really, like yes. And did everything I did, you know, he would just get on board with me. I remember we were riding in a cab and I was in the back with all his pals and he was up front talking to the cab driver and I was like, God, John looks like that muppet guy, Smiley. And John was like, what's that? And I told him and he started doing a guy smiling brush and he was like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. You know, with the like flip top. Just the fact that he would like go with the dumb things that I came up with, he just, we were so playful together and he was so proud of how funny I was. And he was like, you are hilarious. You were the funniest gal. And we just had such a blast. So then that fall, I was a sophomore in college and he came up for alumni weekend to visit. Had so much fun. February, I came back down to New York and we went out again with his friends. A lot of great times. And then sophomore spring, towards the very end of my sophomore year, I emailed him and I invited him to my sorority formal. And I don't know why I thought a guy who was now two years out of college would want to come back to campus to go to a on campus formal that takes place in a dining hall. But I really thought that he'd want to come and we'd have a great time. And he wrote back and was extremely gracious and said, you know, Selena, I won't be coming with you to your sorority formal. But you know what? I actually will be in town that weekend. Actually, I will be bringing my new girlfriend to meet my mom. Yeah. Oh, I was heartbroken. I don't know why I thought that a 23 year old guy living in New York City would stay home at night and pine after a young girl in upstate New York in college. But I was bewildered. I was stunned and I was so upset. And I remember that night so vividly. It was so pathetic and sad. I locked myself in my quad. My three roommates went out and they were like, selena, come out with us. And I was like, no, I'm staying here. And I listened to our song, which was Lights by Journey. I listened to it on a fucking loop. And if you're not familiar with that song, it is delightful. You probably are. It's the one that's like when the lights go down in the city. And the best line, it's like, so you think you're lonely? Well, my friend, I'm lonely too. Oh, I listened to that for hours. I pity my neighbors. And I just. I drank a jug of wine. You know, those giant jugs that have the tiny little hook, you know, drank a jug of wine. Shane smoked cigarettes and just cried. And a friend of mine showed up to my room and tried to help me. And no good deed goes unpunished because I just puked on his comforter. It was a doozy of a night. Oh, and let's not forget, I also found the local phone book and called up the house where John had grown up. Thank jsu. No one answered. Whoo. But it was just really, really a dark time, exacerbated by the fact that earlier in the day I had actually passed John and the new girlfriend in our cars on the street. And John and his girlfriend were driving in their open top Jeep and her hair was flowing, they were smiling, and I was in my gray Altima, smoking alone. Just like, pretty sad. So that was the end of sophomore year. Life goes on. I did always try to ask some fun friends or fraternity brothers if, you know, just sort of inquire what John was doing. And, you know, I mean, life goes on, but there's still that sort of 19 year old crush that it's just hard to shake, you know? So cut to end of senior year. I'm, you know, I'm at a party downtown at a house off campus, and a girl in my sorority comes over and says, hey, Selena, I just wanted to give you a heads up. We're about to go to the bar. John's at the bar, and I am, like, stunned. Like I haven't seen him in years. I kind of thought I would never see him again. And I am stunned and I literally start, like, shaking. I have to go to the bathroom to, like, calm myself down. Thank God. I looked phenomenal that night. I had been working out like a motherfucker. That's what I do in stressful times. I was about to graduate. I was like, what's happening with life? I've been doing a lot of crunches, and. And I happened to be wearing kind of a belly top.

[Brad Lawrence]

Hey.

[Kevin Allison]

And some sort of low pants. So I was showing a lot of midriff, and my hair looked phenomenal. Some things never change. And so I went to the bathroom, like, got my shit together. And then I was like, let's go to the Village Tavern. Like, here we go.

[Brad Lawrence]

Let's go.

[Kevin Allison]

I felt like a boxer before a fight. I'm like, bring it. Bring it. I was so excited to bump into him. So we go to the bar, and there's a. It's a wonderful kind of townie bar. And there's a circular bar. A circular bar within the tavern. And I walk in, and I see him across the bar. And of course, I pretend that I don't see him, because that's what you do, you know? And I just sort of chat with my friends, and he comes right over and is like, selena, I've been reading your column in the newspaper. What's this about hooking up with a townie, huh? And my heart skipped a beat. I'd been writing a column in the on campus newspaper for the whole spring of my senior year, and apparently he'd been reading it, and that just blew my mind. And he was like, you're an amazing writer, and I'm not surprised at all. You're so funny. Of course you have a column. And, oh, it just warmed my heart, you know? I mean, not only was he the first guy to know I was funny, then he was, like, kind of the first guy to validate my writing, and it just blew my mind. So we had another great night together, and I sort of was like, oh, this is closure. You know, one last hurrah. This is closure, right? No, it's not. It fucking starts it all over again. Like, closure would be walking away, you know? It was not closure at all. It completely reignited everything. But, you know, it was one night I was graduating, and then I moved to Chicago, and then you know, just sort of went about my life, but was always checking the alumni review to see what he was doing and just always so curious about what was happening and so embarrassed at how I had fallen so hard. So cut to this past winter. I graduated college in 2002. So cut to this winter. My alma Mater calls me and says, hey, we want to do a stand up and storytelling show at the reunion this year in June, so will you come back? And it was not my reunion year, but I am a sucker for dollar drafts. So I was like, yeah, I will go to get some cheap brews.

[Brad Lawrence]

Fine.

[Kevin Allison]

And I absolutely adore my alma mater. So a couple weeks ago I went up to my school and I drove up with a bunch of stand ups and storytellers from New York. And we had some drinks on campus and then went downtown to the bar downtown. And I'd been thinking in my head I'd kind of done the math and I was like, oh, it's John's year, he'll be there. But I knew from reading the alumni review, I knew that he was married and he had two kids and you know, life goes on. But I was like, I wonder if he'll be there. I wonder if he'll be there with his wife. I wonder if he'll be there with his kids. I wonder if it'll be a very curt hello or maybe he won't even be there at all. He has two kids and he doesn't live nearby anymore. So I go and we go down to the tavern downtown and I walk in Circular bar and I look across the bar and there's John, same spot. And I'm like. And again I pretend I don't see him. And I just like chat with my friends because I don't know if he's there with his wife or his kid. You know, I just, I'm like, I'm gonna keep some boundaries up because I've been in therapy. So I just sort of kick it with some of my gals for about 30 minutes. And then I'm like, you know what? I'm go to the bar and I'm gonna deliberately make eye contact with him. So I go over and I look at him from across the bar and he waves across a really crowded, loud bar. And then the bartender hands me a shot of Jameson and says, this is from the gentleman across the bar. And I look over and he's taking a shot. So I take a shot and then I go over to him and I'm like, thank you so much for the shot. And then we just start talking and we talk for hours about, you know, he tells me about his wife and his wonderful kids and he shows me photos and his career and I tell him about, you know, moving from Chicago to, to Boston to New York and doing standup for eight years and he's selling A book. And it just came out. And, you know, I'm doing a lot for that and. And we just catch up about everything. And I have a chance to say something to him that I've been wanting to say for 11 years. I hadn't seen him. That last across the bar look was 11 years ago. And I just said, john, I was like, I'm so embarrassed at how I behaved. I was so head over heels for you, and I was so young and I was so. Just excited because you were nice to me and no guy had ever been nice to me and fucking believed in me. And you just thought I was so funny and you were just. You had my back and you were the first guy who'd ever been like that to me. And John was so gracious and he was like, of course. You're such an amazing person. And it was just. I mean, it was the kind of conversation where if I saw this play out in a movie, I would be like, shut the fuck. Fuck up. That never fucking happens. No one gets closure like that. But I did, and I couldn't believe it. And we just had such an amazing conversation for so many hours about everything. And he was so curious about what I was doing and he was so on board with it. And finally it came time to sort of call it a night, and he was like, well, what now? See you in five years? And I was like, no, I'm not on the same rotation as you. I. I'm just here for this stand up and storytelling show, so I'll probably never see you again. And he was like, God, that's. That's. You know what, that's crazy. And I was like, no, maybe. Maybe that's good. You know, you told me that I was funny and you told me that I was a good writer and you told me that I should love myself. And now I'm a comedian and I'm a writer and I finally love myself. And maybe we get to say goodbye and this is how the story ends thank you for us. What made it through the flood is now covered in r. It's not really working like I thought But I can't take it back like something I wish I'd never bought I'm sorry that I dragged you all this way.

[Nina Davis]

For no.

[Kevin Allison]

One to call us back no one you can play with I could plant.

[Nina Davis]

A thousand little seeds.

[Kevin Allison]

But I can't see a garden Just dirt up to my knees Ram Ra.

[Kevin Allison (Host)]

Well, that is all for this week, folks. This is Waterdeep behind me now. And we just heard from the wonderful, the fabulous Ms. Selina Coppock. You can find [e-mail] with that said, folks, today's the day. Take a risk.

[Kevin Allison]

Need a second chance. I need a second chance.

[Brad Lawrence]

You want a heart?

[Kevin Allison]

You don't know how lucky you are.

[Nina Davis]

Not to have one.

[D.C. Pearson]

Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable. And remember, my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.

[Kevin Allison]

Oh, it ticks.