"Phish" w/ Josh Sharp RE-RELEASE

Summary

Podcast Summary: StraightioLab – "Phish" w/ Josh Sharp (Re-Release)

Release Date: January 6, 2026
Hosts: George Civeris & Sam Taggart
Guest: Josh Sharp

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Overview

In this energetic, self-aware, and consistently absurd episode, comedians George Civeris and Sam Taggart welcome back Josh Sharp to "hold a mirror to straight culture." The trio embarks on a nonlinear, humor-forward exploration of Phish fandom as a straight cultural phenomenon, while continually riffing on queer identities, community dynamics, culture war nostalgia, and the blurry lines between being "Q" (questioning), "A" (answering), and "ampersand" (occupying liminal spaces). Key themes include outsider subcultures, the desire for uncool spaces, trend cycles, and the unexpected overlaps between jam bands and theater.

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Structure and Segments

• 00:00–04:00 – Opening Banter
• 04:04–13:09 – Guest Introduction (Chaotic Style)
• 13:09–24:02 – Punk Rock Sensibility, Show Promotion, and Bits
• 26:28–29:00 – "Straight Shooters" Rapid-Fire Segment
• 29:00–47:26 – Bit-Driven Banter, Gay/Queer Culture, and Trend Cycles
• 47:26–75:15 – Deep Dive: Phish, Subculture, and Queerness
• 75:15–End – Closing Segments, Shoutouts, and Final Thoughts

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Chaotic Podcast Energy & The "Liminal Space"

• The show launches into existential, meta-commentary on podcasting as performance. The hosts and guest riff on never actually introducing the topic or guest, poking fun at their own structure ("the podcast actually starts 10 minutes before").
• [05:17] Josh Sharp: "Every beginning to you is actually in media res to us... you are seeing your hosts, your friends, in the middle of something."

Punk Rock Sensibility & Subversive Promotion

• Josh is repeatedly "not introduced," playing with the lines between guest, friend, and outsider.
• Discussions of the tension between being authentic, punk, or subversive and the real need to self-promote in show business.
• [15:16] George: "You have the instinct to take a dump on it, to give it a twist?"
• [15:23] Josh: "What if you made it harder and more inaccessible in a way that gets me going? But then I'm like, does anyone but you like this?"

Queerness, Questioning, and Vibes

• Extended riffing on the spectrum of LGBTQIA+ terms, the opacity/ambiguity of "Q" (queer/questioning).
• Discussion of "Q" as the foundation, or "bedrock," of queer identity—everyone is questioning in some sense.
• [12:25] Josh: "The Q is the bedrock, honey."
• Running joke: “The drill is a warm bath” (origin: intro banter, repeated as an in-joke and meme), plus musings on naming conventions, trend revivals, and “club, club, another club” as a state of creative existence.

GQ = "Gay Questioning"

• [17:11] Sam: "You guys, I just figured out what GQ stands for: Gay Questioning."
• The group explores the significance of hidden messages and coded communications in straight and queer media, GQ Magazine as formative—an emblem of uncertainty and self-discovery in gay culture.
• [17:35] George: "No, you're getting the GQ and you're saying, I have received the subliminal messages you are sending me, and I will be in the bathroom in 15 minutes."

Bit-Driven Banter, Community Codes, and Trend Cycles

• Kim Petras, Fiona Apple, and the musical/thematic riffing define the episode's tone—song and album titles are playfully invented to encapsulate every discussion ("Slut Pop Philly", "Limb Anal Space", "That Part").
• Extended joke about trend cycles and "archiving" lingo/phrases for future resurrection—debate over what will come back next ("Yas Queen," "bacon core," "Queem").
• Banter on straight and queer spaces: what makes a space "cool," "uncool," or "Philly" (low-pressure, unpretentious, and free from the "arms race" of coolness in big city gay bars).
• [56:05] Sam: "Lame... as in good."

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Featured Segment: "Straight Shooters" (Rapid-Fire)

[26:28]

• Rapid this-or-that on straight cultural themes and wordplay.
• Notable exchange:
  • Sam: "French Revolution or NYC Stench Pollution?"
    Josh: "NYC Stench Pollution."
  • George: "J.W. Anderson or D.W. from Arthur?"
    Josh: "D.W. from Arthur."
• [27:43] Sam: "That was a particularly good round."
• Commentary on the refusal to ask clarifying questions, leaning into ambiguity.

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Deep Dive: Phish, Subculture & Queerness

Phish as a Straight Cultural Space

• Josh describes being obsessed with the band Phish as a closeted high schooler in rural North Carolina; it offered a sense of unique identity and belonging.
• Phish culture is portrayed as intentionally insular, with its own memes, gags, and an obsessional drive shared with things like baseball fandom.
• [43:22] Josh: "For me, it was a big part of developing my personality... driving to Asheville and seeing third-tier jam bands... I am a person, you know, I exist."
• Difference from the Grateful Dead: Phish as improvisational, more free-form, longer shows, lack of mainstream radio hits, and strong aversion to commodification/branding.

Insularity, Queerness, and Space for the "Uncool"

• Phish provides a "safe space for straight, boy-on-girl and girl-on-boy oriented people to do a lot of the other broader cultural Q that we do as Qs"—a straight version of a queer social structure.
• Debate about whether Phish culture is sexless or not, with nods to its overlap with rave and party culture ("People are doing drugs and being weird, but not hooking up").
• The tension between the need for iconic, singular divas in queer spaces, versus Phish's anti-brand, collectivist dynamic.
• [66:01] Josh: "Gay people need like a hierarchy... There is something almost anti-branding and anti-capitalist about the whole machine."

Subcultural Touchstones & Community Memory

• Reframing queer/straight spaces through the concepts of "Q" (questioning), "A" (answer), and "&" (liminal/ampersand).
• The trio riff on gay bars and spaces, coining "Philly" as shorthand for uncool, fun, welcoming—loved for their lack of trendiness and performative cool, unlike many Brooklyn or NYC gay venues.
• Trend cycles and nostalgia as forms of queer cultural self-awareness—embracing earnestness, uncoolness, and spaces that aren't part of an arms race.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the performance of podcasting:
  • [05:17] Josh: "Every beginning to you is actually in media res to us."
• On "Q" as the bedrock:
  • [12:25] Josh: "It's the bedrock, honey."
• On gay men and Julia Roberts:
  • [06:54] George: "No gay guy is saying, my favorite actress is Julia Roberts, even though when push comes to shove, she is one of the great American actresses."
  • [07:03] Josh: "They're saying Erin Brockovich is my favorite actress. They're not saying Julia Roberts is."
• On trend cycles and reclaiming "Yas Queen":
  • [30:29] Sam: "I have a really exciting theory that I think you're gonna like. I think Yas Queen is about to come back."
• On Phish as a straight-coded "safe space":
  • [38:05] Josh: "It does feel like it's a space for a certain type of straight person who is like, this society is not for me... while still never once dabbling in GQ."
• On the straight/queer binary and new frameworks:
  • [39:16] Sam: "It's not gay straight anymore... It's Q and A. Wow. So you're either question or answer."
• On playing with "ampersand" (liminal space):
  • [40:06] Sam: "It's sort of the liminal space is the ampersand."
• On the paradox of answer vs. question:
  • [41:19] George: "It's interesting. You think the A is the more limiting option, the Q... There's actually something about the Q that is, like, demanding an answer."
• On Phish's anti-commercial practices:
  • [66:33] Josh: "For 30 years they've demanded that every venue... any forward-facing ads to the audience are covered... How do we eliminate brands from this magical space?"
• On "Philly" as an idea:
  • [57:02] George: "Metro is now... I'm one of the girls who is no longer going to Metro..."
  • [61:04] Josh: "...You see that bell? And you say maturity? Our nation came out of that fucking hole."
• On subcultural identity as a limitation/expansion:
  • [54:23] Josh: "I do now, looking back, love and appreciate it [Phish]... that it's an uncool space. Because so much of queer spaces are about the currency of cool."
• On knowledge and subcultural fandom:
  • [76:19] Josh: "Even now, if you played a live Phish recording, I would know the song. And I probably could tell you the year and maybe month of it."

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Shoutouts (Final Segment)

• [81:32] Josh: Shouts out to "Love on the Spectrum" — his feel-good, "warm bath" TV recommendation.
• [82:43] George: Shoutout to watching Family Guy mindlessly as a form of self-care and "ampersand" energy.
• [84:23] Sam: Shoutout to productively leaning into middle-of-the-night insomnia—journaling, reading, and creative bursts at 3am.

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Memorable Running Jokes and Recurring Riffs

• "The drill is a warm bath" (origin, repetition, transformation).
• Invented Kim Petras album and track titles to underscore every observation and side tangent ("Slut Pop Cambridge," "Coastal Alick," "Limb Anal Space").
• "Yas Queen" as a linguistic time capsule, and the notion of cultural archiving for later resurrection.
• GQ = Gay Questioning—reading hidden meaning into straight-coded institutions.
• "Philly" as shorthand for intentionally uncool, low-pretense, liberating queer spaces.

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Conclusion

A whirlwind of meta-commentary, cultural mining, and absurdist bit-making, this episode uses Phish as a springboard to dissect the boundaries of straight and queer spaces, trend cycles, and subcultural identity. The hosts and Josh Sharp weave in promotion for Sharp's one-man show, but always with layers of irony and reflexivity. The episode excels as an example of queer, intellectual humor—full of inside jokes, layered discussions, and acoustic nods to the ways we find meaning, belonging, and respite in subcultural spaces, however "uncool" they may be.

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For Further Exploration:

• Josh Sharp's Show: www.josharptada.com
• Upcoming Stradiolab Shows: Find links in their Linktree or on Instagram

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Listen for:

• Meta-podcast humor about beginnings, endings, and narrative chaos
• Deep dives on subcultural codes and queer meaning-making in straight spaces
• Banter around identity, performativity, and the cultural value of being “lame”
• Rich, evolving inside jokes and real-time meme creation

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“You want to engage in the joie de vivre of trend forecasting and the like, gay guy play... but you’re catching a vibe. And as Qs, we are trained to catch a vibe.”
— Josh Sharp ([33:07])

Transcript

[Josh Sharp]

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[Josh Sharp]

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[George Severis]

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[Josh Sharp]

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[Sam Taggart]

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[Sam Taggart]

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[Josh Sharp]

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[George Severis]

Happy New Year. We hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. We promise we will be back next week with brand new episodes. But today we are re releasing our 2025 episode with Josh Sharp because he is taking his one man show ta Da to London this February. And you can find tickets to that at Josh Sharp tada. Com. That's Josh Sharp tada.com and you can also find tickets to our two San Francisco Straighter Lab shows on January 22nd and January 23rd. One of them is a standup show and one is a live podcast show with special guests@link tree.com Stradiolab the link is in our Instagram bio or you can find tickets on the SF Sketchfest website. They're both part of the SF Sketch Sketchfest 2026. And you can also see me, George Severas, do stand up in London on February 23 at the Soho Theater. Okay? We promise we will be back next week with brand new episodes. We love you. Happy New Year Talk.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, podcast starts now. What's up, everyone? You are listening to Stradiolab. We are in New York City live from Times Square.

[Josh Sharp]

George, still reeling from what happens. Joey, you're not allowed to speak.

[Sam Taggart]

Sorry, Josh silenced. He said something poetic right before we started recording. And I said, not on my watch.

[George Severis]

I actually am. It's like one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.

[Sam Taggart]

Do you want to say what it was?

[George Severis]

I said, you know, we're getting prepared. Usually we explain the podcast to the guest.

[Sam Taggart]

This time, none of them have ever listened.

[George Severis]

Sorry, I just had a moment in the middle of that sentence where I remembered, I'm being recorded. Do you ever. I was just like, I was truly on autopilot. I was like, all right, I should like, try to be charming. Anyway, so I'm Andy Cohen and welcome to watch what happens live.

[Sam Taggart]

George, this is not how you act.

[George Severis]

What the hell?

[Sam Taggart]

Whatever. Keep going.

[George Severis]

So I was. I said, you know, I said to Josh, you know, you know the drill. Like, you know how this works. And Josh said, oh, I know the drill. The drill is a warm bath. The drill is a warm bath.

[Sam Taggart]

The drill is a warm bath.

[George Severis]

And then of course, Josh wisely said, that is it Fiona Apples. That's the title of Fiona Apples song.

[Sam Taggart]

And here we are.

[George Severis]

And here we are.

[Sam Taggart]

So now that we've covered that, what I think is.

[Josh Sharp]

Can I say something briefly?

[George Severis]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

Out of turn. Fine. To the listener. Remember? No, I see our intro. I'm going to say one thing and I'm Done. Remember, to the listener, every beginning to you is actually in media stress to us. Like, you are seeing your hosts, your friends in the middle of something, and that is keep introing. Yeah.

[George Severis]

You never know.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm done.

[George Severis]

I'm done going through.

[Sam Taggart]

People don't give us enough credit for when we say podcast starts now. It actually started 10 minutes before that.

[George Severis]

People don't give us enough credit for pretty much most things that we do. People don't realize that everything we do is an insurmountable mountain that we are in the middle of bleeding from all holes and trying to climb. And at the peak, it says, I heart music.

[Sam Taggart]

I have to say that this run of recording we have been. You know, it has. I'm like, oh, is this what it's like to be Julia Roberts? You know, it's sort of like that. Like, club, club, Another club. Airplane.

[Josh Sharp]

Airplane club, yes.

[George Severis]

Julia Roberts famously. Club, club, another airplane. She's performing during the midnight DJ set. She's going to the gay bar. She's performing at Fort Lauderdale Pride.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm mixing metaphors, and that's okay.

[George Severis]

What if they booked Julia Roberts at Fort Lauderdale Pride, and she did, like, the monologue from Pretty Woman, but it was never explained.

[Sam Taggart]

We actually need to talk about. Do gay guys care about Julia Roberts at all?

[George Severis]

What the hell?

[Sam Taggart]

It's a valid question, I think. I think she is not disrespected enough.

[George Severis]

You're absolutely right.

[Sam Taggart]

For gay guys to actually care that much.

[George Severis]

This. You are so right. She has never had an underdog narrative.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, she.

[George Severis]

She has been that girl from the beginning.

[Sam Taggart]

So everyone's like, yeah, she's good. Like, she's beautiful. She's amazing. But there's not that emotional.

[George Severis]

No gay guy is saying, my favorite actress is Julia Roberts, even though, of course, course, when push comes to shove, she is one of the great American actresses.

[Josh Sharp]

You know what they're saying? This will be brief, and then I'll leave you.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, Josh, we're trying to do our intro.

[Josh Sharp]

They're saying Erin Brockovich is my favorite actress. They're not saying Julia Roberts is because.

[Sam Taggart]

Aaron Brockovich is an underdog.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you.

[George Severis]

Aaron Brockovich is an underdog.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm done. I won't talk.

[Sam Taggart]

I freaking hate our guest today.

[George Severis]

Yeah. I'm, like, so annoyed.

[Sam Taggart]

It's like we, like. So what our listeners don't understand is that the podcast actually starts 10 minutes before. And what our guestly doesn't understand is actually, it started, like, way before he even got here. Like we were talking about.

[George Severis]

Yeah, you think you're what, the third co host?

[Josh Sharp]

You think you're just like to sit here to cuck. To cuck, One to cuck. It's like I should get to come in at that point. But I just think, or give me. Let me key grip or something.

[George Severis]

You're ignoring the like.

[Sam Taggart]

Do you want to check the shots?

[Josh Sharp]

I would love to. I'd love to. Checking the gate. I die to check the gate.

[George Severis]

I think. I do think there is something very particular about not having a role. You know what I mean? Like being in a liminal space between roles. Before we started recording, you were the role of friend. When we introduce you, you will be in the role of guest. Right now, you are nothing.

[Josh Sharp]

Nothing.

[Sam Taggart]

But is that sort of sensory deprivation? In a way. Are you finally free?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, it's freeing.

[George Severis]

Well, it's free, but in another sense, you keep fighting against it.

[Josh Sharp]

You're in a subspace.

[George Severis]

If you actually feeling like you're trying to touch me. If you were actually feeling liberated, you would be basking in the silence. But I can see you wanting so badly to have a different role. That's why he's.

[Sam Taggart]

You know what? He's. He's asking for us to say, no, Piggy, be quiet.

[Josh Sharp]

I hope I'm never brought in. Quite frankly, I hope we ling at this for you. I think perhaps the whole episode exists in this.

[George Severis]

You know, we used to have the bravery of the chutzpah and the punk rock sensibility to do that.

[Sam Taggart]

Josh, what happened to our punk rock sensibility?

[George Severis]

Yeah. What? No, because as soon as you said that with I heart, literally, as soon as you said we should do the entire episode like that, my instinct was like, well, we can't. We should bring him in soon. Whereas if this was 2020, if this was May 2020, I would be like, that is so fucking badass. Like, let's do it.

[Sam Taggart]

Something really funny.

[George Severis]

Never introduce a topic. Never promote what you're here to promote.

[Josh Sharp]

Exactly.

[George Severis]

Which I'm not going to say.

[Josh Sharp]

No, nor I. I'm not on yet.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, and why would we promote when our guest isn't even here yet?

[Josh Sharp]

I'm not here. I'm not on. I don't exist.

[George Severis]

What were you gonna say last night?

[Sam Taggart]

Somebody said they'd been listening to us since 2016. And I was like, well, darling, we haven't been on since 20. We started in 2020.

[Josh Sharp]

Time is a flat spot.

[George Severis]

Well, there is something about 2016.

[Josh Sharp]

All right, all right, all right.

[Sam Taggart]

2020 was just 2016 again.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

And 2024 is just 2016 again, like, we're just doing 2016 over and over. It's Groundhog Day but for 2016.

[Josh Sharp]

But 2016 drag.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Finish. Do the intro.

[George Severis]

I'm sorry, it's time to do 2016 drag.

[Josh Sharp]

What do you make of this? Yeah.

[George Severis]

Josh, be careful.

[Sam Taggart]

Please be careful. That was hard to set up.

[George Severis]

So for anyone who's not watching on YouTube, where our numbers are plummeting, by the way, what Josh just did is.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, they can't plummet because they were never high.

[George Severis]

Excuse me? They were never high because we never promoted it, because we are sort of above it.

[Sam Taggart]

And yet it's out there.

[George Severis]

And yet it's out there. So what Josh did for anyone not watching is he took the mic and actually physically moved it away from himself so that even if he's tempted to participate in the conversation, he can't physically. So now he's sort of evoking a kind of meditation state. But it's actually. But it's actually being so jittery that it's almost like an argument against meditation as a concept.

[Sam Taggart]

It's sort of like, oh, damn, this guy really can't sit still.

[George Severis]

Yeah, it's like, oh, my God, is he okay?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, don't let him.

[George Severis]

Is a hard. No.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Self harm incoming. I think we should bring in our guest, please. Welcome to the show, our dear friend and who's show is having a run, Josh Sharp.

[George Severis]

Ta da.

[Sam Taggart]

By the time this is out, you will know all about it.

[Josh Sharp]

You'll be all over. Www.josharptada.com.

[George Severis]

Is that the site?

[Josh Sharp]

Absolute.

[George Severis]

Ooh.

[Josh Sharp]

And where is it all of Time? It's on the Internet, sweetheart.

[George Severis]

Where is.

[Sam Taggart]

Where's the show, mama?

[Josh Sharp]

It'll be at the Greenwich House. Some of y' all know it as the Barrow Street Sweeney Todd and the Pie Shop. But it's at the Greenwich House Theater in beautiful West Village blocks.

[George Severis]

And you're playing. You're playing Sweeney.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm playing Sweeney, yeah. And Mrs. Lovett in Rep. You're playing.

[George Severis]

Just to be clear, this is one of those, you know, like John Proctor is the villain and Juliet. This is one of these contemporary reboots of a classic musical.

[Josh Sharp]

Sweeney is the hero.

[George Severis]

Yes. Like, it's more kind of like woke and lgbt. Right. So it's about how actually, right.

[Josh Sharp]

To end at T. Yeah.

[George Severis]

No, there is no Q.

[Josh Sharp]

There's no Q.

[George Severis]

And there's certainly no points.

[Josh Sharp]

There's no A.

[George Severis]

No, I. No A.

[Sam Taggart]

Can I actually bring up an issue with Q?

[George Severis]

Oh, is your issue. Is it queer? Or is it question?

[Sam Taggart]

Yes.

[George Severis]

Yeah, but here's the thing.

[Josh Sharp]

Queer, Right?

[Sam Taggart]

But sometimes it's questioning.

[Josh Sharp]

But doesn't this plus include.

[George Severis]

I'm sorry, this instinct is so anti Q. Like, that's true. Q is this all encompassing thing that is like, what isn't Q but Q Being questioning.

[Sam Taggart]

It's like I'm questioning if I'm even Q. Like, that's such a crazy meta narrative.

[George Severis]

Show me someone who isn't questioning.

[Josh Sharp]

Exactly. If you're any of the letters and you're not Q questioning. You haven't seen the Matrix yet.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

The whole point of being under the umbrella is that we see the Matrix.

[George Severis]

Yeah. So it's like the implication that if you're LGB or T, you have this certitude.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

You're like, oh, yeah, I'm firmly B. I'm firmly G. It's like, no, you're not.

[Sam Taggart]

The Q is like underneath all of them. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

It's the bedrock. It's the bedrock, honey.

[Sam Taggart]

It's the bedrock.

[George Severis]

The Q is the bedrock.

[Josh Sharp]

So it is to be queer, which is to be lgbtin plus. You know what I mean?

[George Severis]

The question is the bedrock.

[Josh Sharp]

The question is the bedrock. The drill is.

[George Severis]

Yeah, it's. The drill is a warm bath lead single. The question is the bedroom bedrock.

[Sam Taggart]

Josh, I have a question. I have a cue when it comes.

[Josh Sharp]

Bedrock me, bitch. Go ahead and bedrock me up and down.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm about to rock your damn bed with this one.

[Josh Sharp]

Let's go.

[Sam Taggart]

Insert. I can make your bedrock here. The punk rock sensibility is, of course, complicated because at this point, you are trying to promote a show that actually you have been working on. Actually does have a weeks long run.

[Josh Sharp]

Months, even.

[Sam Taggart]

Months, which is one of the longest weeks we have.

[Josh Sharp]

I know, I know, I know, I know.

[Sam Taggart]

And so it's sort of. I feel sort of mixed on doing a bit about the show and sort of misleading.

[Josh Sharp]

No, Bits only.

[Sam Taggart]

Bits only.

[Josh Sharp]

I mean, I don't care. We can do whatever. But bits.

[George Severis]

You want to sell. No. Tickets.

[Josh Sharp]

I want to sell. No. Well, I think the bits sell the tickets. Do you know what I mean?

[George Severis]

It's one of those things. Well, but only if you then follow up with what the show is.

[Sam Taggart]

You're not craving a like. But seriously, the show is about this and this and this and this.

[Josh Sharp]

Do you think they want that?

[Sam Taggart]

I don't fucking know.

[Josh Sharp]

What do you think your audience wants?

[Sam Taggart]

Our audience thinks we started in 2016. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. No, we're not dealing with mentally.

[George Severis]

They're Saying, get that orange Cheeto out of the way.

[Josh Sharp]

They're saying, get that cheetah out. Pantsuit Nation, rise up.

[George Severis]

They're saying, pants go to Josh. They're saying, hey, Antsuit Nation. I just discovered the podcast straight away lab these really amazing LGBTQ plus guys, and they talk about politics, media, cultural criticism. They would not have said us. If you think we need to get this orange Cheeto out of the White House, you better give it a listen.

[Sam Taggart]

Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe.

[Josh Sharp]

I don't have a strong feeling.

[George Severis]

I highly doubt that. Knowing you, I feel like we will talk as we.

[Josh Sharp]

Or I guess the strong feeling is that we will talk as we. That, like, for us to do a sort of, you know, if we naturally do what's the show about? Great. If we don't, you know, they're gonna get it. They're gonna go to josharptada.com no matter what and find out what it is. But I guess canonically, it's the off Broadway one man show that so many of our peers and ancestors have done before us.

[Sam Taggart]

You are stepping into a rich tradition.

[Josh Sharp]

It's my iteration on that. You know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

And there's a bit of a meta conceit within it. So that it's not just me, you know, into the microphone for 80 minutes that doesn't justify the ticket. That would be amazing. And yet that is valid soon. I love some of those. For me and my own punk rock sensibility, I said I can't ultimately only do one of those. Is it sort of a thing happening?

[Sam Taggart]

You know, this is something. I wonder. Do you sometimes get suffocated by the punk rock sensibility to not do the thing that is the thing that everyone does?

[Josh Sharp]

Yes. And this is deep therapy. Talk of, like, how much are you? How much are you trying to explore an unexplored space? And how much are you just, like, standing in the way of your own success? You know what I mean? How much are you going, this should be weirder. Wilder. Instead of ultimately, just how much are.

[George Severis]

You producing something and it's good, and yet you have the instinct to take a dump on it, to give it a twist?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. And for me, it's often not even taking a dump on it as much as it is. What if you made it harder and more inaccessible in a way that gets me going? But then I'm like, does anyone but you like this? You know what I mean? This is the question.

[Sam Taggart]

It's really hard to tell. It's complicated.

[Josh Sharp]

It's Complicated.

[Sam Taggart]

And we've answered that question as we're now normal on this podcast.

[George Severis]

But are we. Is this episode normal.

[Josh Sharp]

Already abnormal?

[George Severis]

Yeah. We haven't introduced you.

[Josh Sharp]

We haven't. We haven't even done the intro.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, we kind of did. We started.

[George Severis]

Well, what if we just sit in the space between introducing and not?

[Josh Sharp]

Welcome to the podcast.

[George Severis]

Shout sharp. Sam. Steven, even though he is being so Pan Suit nation right now.

[Josh Sharp]

He's being so Pantsuit nation, you need.

[George Severis]

To, you know, sort of access this current state that we're in where there's no democratic leadership.

[Sam Taggart]

You know what?

[Josh Sharp]

You need to.

[George Severis]

You're still nostalgic for Hillary.

[Sam Taggart]

You guys, I just think if you didn't vote for Jill Stein, we would have a different country right now.

[Josh Sharp]

Do you know what Sam needs to do that he's not doing?

[George Severis]

What?

[Josh Sharp]

Question.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, you think I'm not on the fucking bedrock? You don't think I'm not rock bottom on this bed?

[George Severis]

Sam, are you not questioning.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm questioning everything.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm asked the question, and that was declarative. Isn't that so interesting? Sam, are you not questioning? Question mark?

[Sam Taggart]

I'm not.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm not. Exclamation.

[George Severis]

I've never seen anyone so firm.

[Josh Sharp]

Ask me. Sam, are you not questioning?

[George Severis]

Are you not questioning?

[Josh Sharp]

What about me makes you think I'm not.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

You're not questioning. Am I not doing it at all times?

[Sam Taggart]

You're doing an improv exercise. And don't think I don't know that. You think I don't know that that's an improv exercise.

[Josh Sharp]

I'll honor my roots.

[George Severis]

Wow. Too late. And my presentation to stake a flag and say, I know this. I can't think of anything more toxic and masculine. I know this.

[Josh Sharp]

Anything more G, quite frankly.

[George Severis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Why are you being G? I thought you meant ghb.

[Josh Sharp]

Certitude of the G. Yeah. You know what I mean? The wisdom of the L. Oh, my God.

[Sam Taggart]

You guys, I just figured out what GQ stands for. Gay Questioning. When you're subscribing to GQ magazine, you're subscribing to Gay Questioning magazine. And that's why there's all those hot guys on there.

[Josh Sharp]

That's awesome. Because they're like.

[Sam Taggart]

They're being like, are you turned on by this?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. For so many people, GQ was gay question.

[George Severis]

It was gay question.

[Josh Sharp]

For so many of our community to get that and go, I'm receiving this modality different than my peers.

[George Severis]

No, you're getting the GQ and you're saying, I have received the subliminal messages you are sending me, and I will be in the bathroom in 15 minutes.

[Josh Sharp]

And you're going, wait. You don't all receive this this way. You know, like that moment that makes you realize you're the other queer Q queer. You know, it's like, you're right. It's gay questioning. It's gay questioning.

[Sam Taggart]

I actually think this is one of the smarter things I've ever realized that.

[George Severis]

GQ is gay questioning.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. The drill is a warm bath.

[Sam Taggart]

The drill is a warm bath.

[George Severis]

The drill is a warm bath.

[Sam Taggart]

The Q is gay question.

[George Severis]

GQ is gay question. Because that's more Kim Petrus. I'm sorry to say Fiona passed on that one.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, that's true.

[George Severis]

GQ is gay questioning is a little more slut pop Miami.

[Josh Sharp]

That's true. That's been done at Rosemont.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, whatever. That's good.

[George Severis]

Also. Whatever that's good is a Kid Petris track as well.

[Josh Sharp]

Whatever that.

[George Severis]

Whatever. That's good.

[Josh Sharp]

Respect. Respect.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, GQ is gay questioning.

[George Severis]

GQ is gay questioning.

[Josh Sharp]

And all of this will be addressed.

[George Severis]

In my show, which is Ja sharp.

[Josh Sharp]

Ta da. Ja Sharp, Ta da.

[Sam Taggart]

Ta da.

[Josh Sharp]

Ta da.

[Sam Taggart]

Which doesn't stand for anything. It's a word on its own.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Are there multiple? As in ta da?

[Josh Sharp]

It's gonna be ta da. All lowercase.

[George Severis]

Did you ever think of naming it tada for and it's like a pun.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, God. Call my lawyer. Is it too late to change? Oh, no, I've made a mistake. See, that version of the show, I'm selling out the Garden.

[George Severis]

Right?

[Josh Sharp]

He's like, what have I done? Myself.

[George Severis]

You have to have a pun in the title.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, I've got one.

[Josh Sharp]

To ghettoize myself at the famed Greenwich house when I could be playing the Garden.

[Sam Taggart]

Did you? Everything was sort of going Chelsea Handler mode and calling it to Darfur.

[Josh Sharp]

Almost every day I wake up and consider going Chelsea Handler mode. And I'm waiting. And the day that I do, it's over for y' all when I go Chelsea Handler. No, when you are four, I have.

[Sam Taggart]

Seen you go Chelsea Handler mode in private spaces, and I have burns from it.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, you have to keep some things to yourself as a person, in the public. In the demi public. You have to keep some things for yourself.

[Sam Taggart]

You know what I mean? Yeah, of course. In order to remain whole. Cause these 100 to 200 people that know who we are.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, absolutely.

[Sam Taggart]

They'll take everything.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, they'll take. They'll take rip you limb from limb. Are you kidding? Down to the bone.

[Sam Taggart]

I saw what they did to Britney Spears.

[Josh Sharp]

Like a whale at the bottom of the ocean. Every bit of the ecosystem that is the Stradio Lab fan base comes in in their time. The predators, the mitoplankton. All of it comes until you are not but carcass they've been plotting since 2016.

[George Severis]

Trust.

[Josh Sharp]

Trust.

[George Severis]

You don't think we know what the. What the riots. The January 6 started as. It was literally in the Streeter Lab. Discord.

[Josh Sharp]

It would be fun if you called your fans Pantsuit Nation.

[Sam Taggart]

There's a world in which.

[George Severis]

There's a world in which. That's another Fiona Apple. There's a world in which. There's a world in which. It's actually one of those Fiona Apple tracks that's so long. You know how her album titles are so long. But then people abbreviate it as There's a World in which. But yeah, there's like four girls. It's like a poem she wrote and then she did a little drawing next to it, and it's dedicated to one of her dogs. The one that has a terminal illness.

[Josh Sharp]

The one.

[George Severis]

If you don't think every dog could be on an apple as it has a terminal illness. I don't know what they.

[Josh Sharp]

I don't know what to tell you.

[George Severis]

You clearly are not cute because you have not considered it.

[Josh Sharp]

Not one moment, to be honest.

[Sam Taggart]

Like, being a dog is a terminal illness. Yeah. Like, let's start there. The moment you have a dog, you're like, okay, clock's ticking.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

The sands of time.

[Josh Sharp]

The sands of time.

[George Severis]

Talk about dog. Like someone not comfortable when they don't have a role. A dog. Like, when that dog is between friend and guest, they're just like, but please give my life meaning.

[Josh Sharp]

Please bring me.

[George Severis]

Whereas a cat is. The entire thing is Q. Cats are obviously the most cue. I mean, they're just like.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, they. They derive ultimately like certitud, the questioning. You know, they really. The bedrock is strong in cats. We know this. We know this.

[Sam Taggart]

We know this.

[George Severis]

We know this, we know this.

[Sam Taggart]

When I meet like a. A person with a puppy, like, there is something sort of old showgirl where I'm like, you just wait.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, like.

[Sam Taggart]

Like, oh, God, I've seen it all.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, God. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

You don't know what's about to happen to your life. And it's. It's funny to be so young and to be able to have that perspective.

[Josh Sharp]

And have this fun and be so.

[Sam Taggart]

Lucky and to be so Lucky.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm so successful.

[George Severis]

I'm so successful.

[Sam Taggart]

My dog is so. I have a dog who's old.

[George Severis]

Should we do our first segment?

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

At last the bath has been drawn. I sink in deeper.

[Sam Taggart]

I sink in deeper.

[George Severis]

That's another track.

[Sam Taggart]

Poetic as hell today.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. Get thee to the Greenwich House. Poetry abound at the Greenwich House. Seven times a week.

[George Severis]

Seven times a week.

[Josh Sharp]

It's maybe too many times we were discussing this off mic, but I could bring it to on. I've never done one of those runs and it'll be curious what it does to the mind of the body. Something this is. Did you read Jack Novak's New Yorker piece when the special based on the show was coming out?

[George Severis]

Yes.

[Sam Taggart]

No, I didn't read it.

[Josh Sharp]

Something I loved was when she talked in about it. And this is good to cue up the New Yorker. Integral to the topic we'll be discussing later. She talked about how she realized that doing an off Broadway run was her birthright. And I read that and went actually low key. Same. And now here we are.

[George Severis]

Well, no, it is sort of, when are you going to be chosen?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

And.

[Josh Sharp]

And I was already working on this show at the time and I read that. I was like, wait, it should be one of those. It turned a page for me, quite literally.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, that's nice.

[Josh Sharp]

Huge. Like, what's the journey for this thing you're making? I said, it's that.

[Sam Taggart]

It's that.

[Josh Sharp]

Wow. And then. And then. And then the producers abound.

[George Severis]

Oh, there are so many producers.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, God. To have a mic and a Carly. God, you'd be lucky to have a mic or a Carly.

[Sam Taggart]

Some people have both.

[George Severis]

You're sneaking in the more traditional promotion I see.

[Josh Sharp]

Do you see how we're doing it in such a cute way, though?

[George Severis]

That is such a cute way.

[Sam Taggart]

It's very sort of the Little Women reboot.

[George Severis]

Yeah. And which is what?

[Sam Taggart]

Nonlinear.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. Oh, yes.

[Sam Taggart]

Non linear promotion.

[Josh Sharp]

It's Gerwig as fuck, the way I'm pronouncing it.

[George Severis]

I love calling the little Karate Gerwig's Little Women. The Little Women reboot.

[Josh Sharp]

It's so good.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, what else would it be called?

[George Severis]

It's like, oh, there's a new miniseries. That's great Expectations. Like, oh, they're rebooting expectations.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm being normal.

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[Sam Taggart]

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[Josh Sharp]

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[George Severis]

So, Josh, our first segment, as you well know, is called Straight Shooters. And in this segment we ask you a series of rapid fire questions to gauge your familiarity with and complicity and straight culture where you have to choose one thing or another thing and the one really is you can't ask any follow up questions about how the game works.

[Josh Sharp]

Now's the time where Q becomes illegal. Sam, you're going to thrive.

[Sam Taggart]

This is sort of the 40s.

[Josh Sharp]

This is. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, Josh, a watched pot never boils. Or can you watch my spot while I go to the toilet?

[Josh Sharp]

A watched pot never boils.

[George Severis]

Roy G, Biv or boy please give.

[Josh Sharp]

Boy, please give.

[Sam Taggart]

French Revolution or NYC Stench Pollution?

[Josh Sharp]

NYC Stench Pollution.

[George Severis]

J.W. anderson or D.W. from Arthur.

[Josh Sharp]

D.W. from Arthur. Good one, though.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay. Pimple popping vids or simple topping tips?

[Josh Sharp]

Pimple popping vids.

[George Severis]

Shopping at an H and M or choking on an M and M. Oh.

[Josh Sharp]

Choking on an M and M. Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

Defying gravity or implying you're mad at me.

[Josh Sharp]

Implying you're mad at me.

[George Severis]

No smoking or. Relax, I was joking.

[Josh Sharp]

Relax. I was joking, honey.

[Sam Taggart]

We've all said that before.

[Josh Sharp]

That was a particularly good round.

[Sam Taggart]

Thank you.

[Josh Sharp]

So many of them evocative. A question will not be asked, but a statement will be made. So many of them colon evocative.

[George Severis]

That's another.

[Sam Taggart]

The reviews are in.

[Josh Sharp]

So many of them evocative.

[George Severis]

So many of them colon evocative.

[Josh Sharp]

Wow.

[George Severis]

That's actually Kim Petrus trying to do Fiona Apple, but she like, sort of doesn't quite get there.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, honestly, if Kim Petrus had a song called Evocative that would be iconic or a cocative.

[Josh Sharp]

And cock it is. Love pop Cambridge. She does like. She does like her sort of like literary horror album.

[Sam Taggart]

The medium is the sensual massage.

[Josh Sharp]

That's good. That's good.

[George Severis]

You could. The medium is the massage. She is writing down.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, Josh, she's on the live stream.

[Sam Taggart]

No, she's on the live stream.

[George Severis]

She is on the live stream and she is pressing hard face.

[Sam Taggart]

She's being like, seriously, guys, you got to vote.

[George Severis]

Kim has been listening since 2016.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, that was who I talked to last night. It was Kim. She came up to me and she was like, Oop, I've always loved you since 2016.

[George Severis]

So, Josh, we rank each guest's performance on a scale of 0 to 1000 dubs. But now it's Blades of grass in honor of the new Lady Gaga album.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, and Walt Whitman, of course. No, he original Cruising queer. Let's say that all y' all can. All y' all Sniffies. Queens. Give it up to Walt Whitman. He invented.

[George Severis]

Walt Whitman would have absolutely gone off.

[Sam Taggart]

No, he was literally like creating a location, being like it's the creek with all the boys that are shirtless.

[Josh Sharp]

Literally. The original Sniffies was blades of grass, let's say.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow.

[George Severis]

The original sniffs.

[Josh Sharp]

The original snippets was blades of glass.

[George Severis]

And that's a profume genius track.

[Josh Sharp]

Exactly. I'm vast. I contain multitudes of. Of sons.

[George Severis]

Oh, I'm. I'm seeing our coffee.

[Josh Sharp]

Flying in coffee.

[Sam Taggart]

Thank you so much.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, this delicious.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh my God. This.

[Josh Sharp]

To this I say this.

[Sam Taggart]

Hey, cheers.

[Josh Sharp]

Cheers.

[Sam Taggart]

Cheers, girls. Damn.

[George Severis]

Now I feel left out. Loser.

[Josh Sharp]

Want to sit? Wait. Speaking.

[George Severis]

Oh my God. Under your breath. Speaking of this has. Aaron. My favorite thing is that part.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. Well, I love just to put sort of like a three year delay on Lexicon.

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For the most part.

[George Severis]

Yes, yes.

[Josh Sharp]

But it's like the things that are happening now in conversation for the most part. First of all, it's all a la carte. If you're slavishly devoted to every bit that the kids are saying.

[George Severis]

No, it's true.

[Josh Sharp]

It's pathetic. You pick what works for you. But often I'm putting them in a little lockbox. 2016, I'm putting them in a lockbox and I'm saving them for three years from now. And that's one where I'm like, finally, let's do.

[George Severis]

I think I'm ready to do that part. Sam has a theory.

[Sam Taggart]

I have a really exciting theory that I think you're gonna like. I think Yas Queen is about to come back.

[Josh Sharp]

See, that's what I mean.

[Sam Taggart]

I.

[Josh Sharp]

We're getting the point where I'm like, absolutely, I'm down for that.

[Sam Taggart]

Like when I heard I. Because I'm in a hotel currently and they have like in the elevator, they have all these like fake buttons that have like letters on them and then some of them are highlighted and it says Yas Queen. And I was like, that is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

[Josh Sharp]

I love it.

[Sam Taggart]

It's so back.

[Josh Sharp]

If you looked at my phone, the amount of alarms are set. It's all alarms for four years from now. Remember to bring back this. Do you know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

Well, you're like an archivist.

[Josh Sharp]

You're like overheating. It is hot to the touch. My device because of how many long term alarms I have set to remember these things.

[George Severis]

So give us an ex Give us sort of an idea of what types of things are you seeing maybe in the coming year. Oh, that's going to make a comeback. Like, I'm like, okay, so Yas Queen, what else from that era? I mean, are we talking boob pillows are coming back? Like a pillow that has line drawings of boobs? Are we talking or is it like.

[Sam Taggart]

I wonder if there's. This is sort of akin to Yas Queen. It's a little further back, but like, is bacon core like, oh, being like.

[Josh Sharp]

Can I also say I've always loved Yass Queem with an M at the end.

[Sam Taggart]

Queem.

[Josh Sharp]

Something about that is really right to me.

[George Severis]

Q stands for queen.

[Josh Sharp]

Queem. Are you queer?

[Sam Taggart]

Question.

[Josh Sharp]

It's not queer.

[George Severis]

It's not questioning.

[Josh Sharp]

It's not queer.

[George Severis]

Or queem. Actually, that is the spectrum. Is Q. Q. Q. Queer questioning? Queem.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, honey, I know where you start and I know where you end. And I won't say them because I know them and you should know them. What do we think is coming? Or no, you want.

[Sam Taggart]

No, you go.

[Josh Sharp]

No, I was gonna go. What do I think's coming back? But I don't have the answer in my head right now.

[Sam Taggart]

And this is one of those. That's a question that Q is so answer based. That I do think is somewhat illegal for a podcast when you're asking a question that requires an answer.

[George Severis]

Well, I also think there needs to be.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, this. We could dissect more than answer the question. This idea is fruitful because I do.

[Sam Taggart]

Love obviously answering asked questions.

[George Severis]

By the way, Dick Sect is another Kim Petras track for Slut Pop Cambridge. For Slut Pop Cambridge, yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Dick section.

[George Severis]

Dick Sect. And it's sort of about, you know, analysis of texts.

[Josh Sharp]

Also, this is another Dick one, so they wouldn't. Yours is probably better.

[George Severis]

No, if you know her work, she's going to have two Dick ones in a row.

[Josh Sharp]

Dewey Diximal system. Is there something to that?

[George Severis]

Wow. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay. Ideology spot.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, that's the lead single.

[Sam Taggart]

That actually has a little musicality to it. Yeah, that's kind of nice.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, that's good.

[George Severis]

So my thing, here's where I'm struggling with trend based stuff is like trend forecasting is over. You know what I mean?

[Josh Sharp]

Oh.

[George Severis]

And yet.

[Sam Taggart]

But to say that is trend forecasting.

[George Severis]

I know, I know, I know. But it's like. But that's, that's the bind we find ourselves in. You want to engage in the joie de vivre of trend forecasting and the like, gay guy play. That is like, this is coming back. This is so five years ago.

[Josh Sharp]

But you know what you're doing? You're not trend forecasting. You're doing the ultimately queer act of reading the vibe. You know, you're catching a vibe.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

And as Qs, we. We are trained to catch a vibe. You're. You're reading GQ and you're catching a vibe that only is for you. A secret message that's only for you.

[Sam Taggart]

Is it just me, or is this gay questioning?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. So I think you're catching a vibe, you know. Wow.

[George Severis]

Okay.

[Josh Sharp]

Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

Should we get into our topic?

[George Severis]

Sure.

[Sam Taggart]

Josh, what topic did you bring today and what's straight about it?

[Josh Sharp]

Well. Well, we have the New Yorker to think.

[George Severis]

Wow, that's the New Yorker.

[Josh Sharp]

And it's not the New Yorker, though. Has anyone done the New Yorker? That would be good.

[George Severis]

Well, we actually.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, we did Toads, but mostly the New Yorker.

[George Severis]

Toad. One of our recent guests is a staff writer at the New Yorker, and.

[Josh Sharp]

Her topic was, did they write the article that I'm gonna reference?

[George Severis]

Sadly, no.

[Sam Taggart]

Who did?

[Josh Sharp]

Too bad. Actually, I should know that.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. Really? There was a few topics I was considering, and then there was an article today about the band Phish, and I found myself crying at it. And then I was like, maybe we have to talk about Fish.

[George Severis]

Let's shout out the LGBT creator who wrote it.

[Josh Sharp]

Amanda Petroch.

[George Severis]

Oh, yes. They're a music critic. Yeah, yeah. No, she's. She's great.

[Josh Sharp]

So I think. I think we should get into Fish.

[Sam Taggart]

So Fish.

[Josh Sharp]

But I've learned in our pre discussions, our off mic that's now on.

[Sam Taggart]

That.

[Josh Sharp]

This is a really foreign topic for you and a mostly foreign topic for you.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

What do you know? Let's start there.

[George Severis]

I would say there are certain things.

[Josh Sharp]

Not to make you give an A.

[George Severis]

No, no, totally. There are.

[Sam Taggart]

Some A's are easier than others.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

There's something very comforting to me about knowing that certain things are, like, not for me. Not for me at the base level. But then on top of that, also not for me to criticize or judge or respond to.

[Josh Sharp]

Like fishing, which is something I love about the space. It's sort of hermetically sealed and earnest and uncool.

[George Severis]

That's exactly it. I actually. There was a time in my life where I felt musical theater was that. But then late in life, I have actually become involved. I think I can.

[Josh Sharp]

But there's profound similarities between.

[George Severis]

Actually, I would say anything involving the Winter Olympic other than ice skating. Anything involving the Winter Olympics, for me, Is that, like, I don't relate to it. To me, the Summer Olympics are ancient Greece. That's my culture. Winter Olympics. I've never found out what bobsledding is or losing or anything like that. Like, nor do I think it's good or bad. Like, it's not for me to judge.

[Josh Sharp]

You know what's cool? Running things.

[George Severis]

Don't even know what you're talking about.

[Sam Taggart]

What?

[Josh Sharp]

Formative text to me, the 90s Disney family comedy about the Jamaican bobsleds.

[Sam Taggart]

Jamaican bobsled team.

[Josh Sharp]

Cool. That's what really implants me. I've never heard of it because I was gonna say, I agree with your sentiment, but as soon as you said bobsledding, I said that I know intimately. That's me too.

[Sam Taggart]

It's so important. There was a lot of child media about Winter Olympics. There was a lot of ice skating movies. There was a lot of snowballs.

[Josh Sharp]

You already exempted ice skating.

[George Severis]

I have exempted ice skating, of course. My point being that I have let.

[Sam Taggart]

The record show we've exempted ice skating.

[Josh Sharp]

And Sam and Josh have exempted bobsledding under the cool runnings clause.

[George Severis]

And by the way, bobsledding is another track off of Slut Pop Norway, which is her winter themed one. Sled Pop Oslo. Okay, so point being, I have known. Fish is one of those things that you're born knowing. You are born knowing that fish exists and that the thing with fish is that people follow them on tour and it's like a culture and you're either a part of it or you're not. And that's it.

[Sam Taggart]

And I pretty much know the same thing. Except I did listen to a comedy podcast about fish.

[Josh Sharp]

Scott Aukerman. Yeah, I didn't listen to it, but he is a fan. He's a fan and he's talking to someone else who's not a fan and sort of explaining it. We're doing our cover of the podcast.

[Sam Taggart]

We're doing our cover. No, Harris Whittles is the fan and he is teaching Scott Aukerman to like it. So you, like, listen and what it.

[George Severis]

And was it compelling to you?

[Sam Taggart]

It was compelling. I mean, I know a lot.

[Josh Sharp]

You probably know a lot.

[Sam Taggart]

Actually, I never learned to. I never, like, downloaded an album and listened to it, but I, like, did hear a lot about it.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, and the truth is, I'm gonna be a lot more Q than Widdles. I'm not here to convince you to like it. Do you know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm here for us to swim. Swim. To play around in this pool.

[George Severis]

I would actually.

[Josh Sharp]

I don't. Wouldn't say I like it anymore. What made me weep today was just remembering my former self, remembering the me who was obsessed with them. And actually I can still. I'll go like every two years and sort of have a nostalgia trip. But I'm not an active participant in this space anymore. Definitely. I remember being the only gay person in the room of 20,000. Like, it is just literally a decidedly straight space.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

But upon processing, there are some like, queer elements, but done in a very straight way. You know, I mean, like we said, there's like a drug and a party culture, but also none of them are grooming or bathing.

[George Severis]

Well, there's also a community based element to it that is very like queer co op potluck.

[Josh Sharp]

Absolutely. That it does feel like it's a space for a certain type of straight person who is like, this society is not for me to like jump over while still never once dabbling in gq.

[George Severis]

I mean, it's literally a safe space.

[Josh Sharp]

It is a safe space for straight, you know, boy on girl and girl on boy oriented people to do a lot of the other broader cultural cue that we do as Qs.

[Sam Taggart]

You know, I sometimes do feel bad for these types of straight because they don't have much.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, there are a few scenes. A lot of them are musical. I'm realizing, like, there's like. Like hardcore is like such a straight scene, but also weirdly very gay.

[George Severis]

Totally.

[Josh Sharp]

Australian rugby. Well, you know, men who become so masculine, they double back around and they're like, oh, yeah, I'll like, grab my buddy's cock. But I've. I've never once had sex. I've never once thought a single sexual.

[Sam Taggart]

I've done.

[Josh Sharp]

I've not done an iota of gq. Yeah, you know, there's like, there's, there's places for them.

[Sam Taggart]

You know, I just realized we need to reframe the entire gay straight thing.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

To no, it's not gay straight anymore.

[George Severis]

Oh, okay. So the entire premise of the podcast has changed.

[Sam Taggart]

It's not gay straight anymore.

[George Severis]

Okay, what is it now?

[Sam Taggart]

It's Q and A. Wow. So you're either question or answer.

[Josh Sharp]

So the new podcast is called Aeolab. The new podcast is called Aeolab. Old Macdonald Had a Farm. Aeolab.

[George Severis]

By the way, Q and A, parentheses, queef and ass is also another track off of Kim Pentress La Pop Cambridge. So I, first of all, of course, love this.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you.

[George Severis]

It begs the question, in defining Q and A. Are we creating another binary that is even more rigid?

[Josh Sharp]

What's the liminal space between Q and A exactly?

[George Severis]

Like, what is. You know what it is?

[Josh Sharp]

It's a statement reading a vibe.

[George Severis]

Yes. And it's a statement that ends in ellipses. Like, it's like a Q ends in a question mark, A ends in a period.

[Sam Taggart]

It's sort of the liminal space is the ampersand.

[George Severis]

Whoa. Already in it.

[Josh Sharp]

It's already in it.

[Sam Taggart]

And A.

[George Severis]

The options are Q, A, or.

[Josh Sharp]

And that's true. And no one's even seeing. And as the third option, it's right there.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

But we need it to be expansive because it can't just. We can't make it a, you know, a trinomy anymore. Like, it's like, you know, we can't make it three.

[George Severis]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Josh Sharp]

That carries the same expanse of two. Oh, no. You're on the right path. But we have to way to break apart it as the third and.

[George Severis]

Isn't the ampersand, in assigning it the role of the third option? Aren't we othering it? Do you know what I mean?

[Josh Sharp]

But it is the continuation, literally. And is the ellipsis. And what else? Say more on that. Say more on that. The and is. Say more.

[George Severis]

Right.

[Josh Sharp]

And so the idea of, like, always exploring. Say more. You're seeking. You're seeking. That's the.

[George Severis]

And here's a question for you, though.

[Josh Sharp]

Absolutely.

[George Severis]

Isn't that the cue? Literally seeking more? What is it?

[Josh Sharp]

But I guess what the Q is inherently asking for is the A. You, at a certain point, stop talking to get the A. Maybe the and is just, you know, we're just. We're. We're riding the wave.

[George Severis]

It's interesting. You think the A is the more limiting option, the Q. There's actually something about the Q that is, like, demanding an answer.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, the Q has to stop for the A to exist.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

Yeah. The.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

The cue has to go.

[Sam Taggart]

The Q is going. Thoughts?

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, oh, oh, oh. Okay, I guess it's me now.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

The cue is an accusation. Accusation.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you. Thank Cue.

[George Severis]

And by the way, you're wel. C U M. Which is another track off of Impetus. Slap Pop Cambridge.

[Sam Taggart]

That's. That's Slut Pop Manners Edition.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, you're welcome. Slut Pop Dear Abby or whatever.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, it's like. Like, that's. There's track on it called that's My Tossed Salad Fork. That's that me Tossed salad Fork.

[George Severis]

That's that me Tossed Salad Fork, featuring Sabrina Carpenter. Actually.

[Josh Sharp]

Absolutely.

[Sam Taggart]

Absolutely. And it's an interpolation.

[Josh Sharp]

The way this has my lips chapped. That's when you know it's good.

[Sam Taggart]

The lips are chapped.

[Josh Sharp]

That's when you know it's good. Watcher listeners. That was to the watchers.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, so fish.

[Josh Sharp]

You call them listeners and watchers we don't.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, so you love fish.

[George Severis]

We don't. That was so a of you.

[Josh Sharp]

That was really a no. Yes.

[George Severis]

Anding.

[Sam Taggart]

He gave me a cue. I had to give an. Like, he was literally being, like, gunned to my head. That's what you call them. And I said, no, but this is.

[George Severis]

I'm really. It's like. You think the A is the oppressive one. No, the Q is what is oppressing the A into giving a declarative statement.

[Sam Taggart]

I mean, many straight people would argue that is true.

[George Severis]

Yes. But that is. It's like the straight people are the ones that are oppressed.

[Josh Sharp]

Done. Done.

[Sam Taggart]

Hit send.

[Josh Sharp]

Which is why they take refuge in fish.

[George Severis]

It's why they find these places. And not to be so standard Q and A. I do want to sort of go back to basics, and I kind of want to give you a platform.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

To talk a little bit about fish.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. I do feel like a lot of, like being a closeted high schooler in rural North Carolina. It was a big part of developing my personality. Not just fish, but just like. Like driving to Asheville and seeing third tier jam bands at the orange peel was how I was like, I am a person. You know, I exist. I've been intro'd. I've been brought on. You know what I mean? It's like that, really. So I would. This is the primer. Let's try to make it as succinct as possible. And we're gonna go. We're gonna Little Women reboot it. We're gonna go out of time. I'm not gonna. I'm not. We're gonna start in the middle, as the podcast does.

[George Severis]

Josh, I just want to say if you. If you started in the beginning, I would tell you to get out of your chair and leave. The idea that you would come to this podcast and do linear storytelling as though you are like, it's insulting.

[Josh Sharp]

I even.

[George Severis]

It's insulting to the Q's, A's and the ampersands.

[Josh Sharp]

Cut this part of the episode because it's insulting.

[Sam Taggart]

Cut this part of the episode and put it at the end.

[Josh Sharp]

Also, by the way, just for accountability, keep this part of the episode. Cut the part where I said cut It. But keep it.

[George Severis]

And the idea that you're coming in and you're saying, you know, a normal person would do linear, but I'm gonna.

[Josh Sharp]

Do Grandma doesn't exist.

[George Severis]

That's like you. It's like very Sam Smith saying, am I the first gay person to win a race?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, exactly.

[George Severis]

Like, it's like not even in this category, doll.

[Josh Sharp]

To being different. Yeah. Not even in this catego.

[George Severis]

Like, no other people do what you're doing. It's called conversation. Like, no one is actually going.

[Josh Sharp]

Exactly. You're so right. So what. What you know about them is sort of tapping into when the Grateful Dead ended because Jerry died in 95, Fish, who was already, like, a really burgeoning popular band, had started to, like, play arenas, became, like, mega successful because their fans were like, we need to flock to them. But actually, they're rather different. They're very similar in cultures, but different in musical construct. They both improvise, so they do a lot of improv, which you all know as. That's your UCB training.

[Sam Taggart]

I celebrate.

[Josh Sharp]

And much more freeform. It's actually more of a jazz style than a ucb. Amy Poehler told you the rules.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh.

[Josh Sharp]

You know what I mean? Like, it's. It's very. It's very free forming, but it's very. Yes, Andy.

[George Severis]

Okay.

[Josh Sharp]

And so thus, there's this culture of people who are chasing the dragon, because not only do you hear a song more than once, and it can go very different directions. You know, you're trying to see Sandino do the perfect chessboard Herald, honey.

[Sam Taggart]

Preaching to the damn choir, you understand?

[Josh Sharp]

But also, they then sort of extrapolate that on. Create a broader culture where, like, for them, the shows are very long, like four and a half hours. So they're like an experience. And if you could see them every night for a week, they don't repeat a song. So you just hear. Every show is literally quite different structurally. And then also, even if it were the same show played twice, which they never would do, they, like, embrace the energy of the space and let it go different places. But musically, the Grateful Dead was basically like a folk band who then were like, it's pretty easy to just, like, take LSD and riff on these two chords forever. They sort of started as a Prague band, and we're writing these intensely composed, like, crazy, epic suites that were psychotic and then finding out how to improvise within them, which is like a weird mashing of dualities. So musically, but also, if you told me this is unlistenable, I'd be like, valid. There's a high hurdle to get into it. But then when people do, you're down, bad for it. And it taps that part of straight people's brain, like baseball, where you're like, I need to memorize every statistic. There's a.

[Sam Taggart]

There's an obsession. You're allowed to obsess.

[Josh Sharp]

It's obsessive. It's obsessive. But. And there's a. There's a lot of. In culture stuff, as we know from Yas Queen. That part. There's all of these things that only this culture knows that are fostered by the band to the audience and vice versa. They, like, literally do gags with the bands.

[Sam Taggart]

I have a cue that demands an A. What's their. Yes.

[George Severis]

Queen.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, great point. And I know actually that one of. One of the people in this room is more actively in Phish. So you can gut check me at any point. Point. Would you say it's. Would you Feces drive me to a frenzy? Is that their Yas Queen. That's one of the big ones. One of their most epic songs has this sort of undecipherable lyric that's just sounds that people are always sort of trying to figure out what it actually is. And. And then they've never explained it, but people have a lot of theories of what they're trying to say. Wow. And it's definitely a shorthand for, like, knowing the band.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, so. Okay, so for like a. You're, like there for four plus hours. You're, like, doing drugs and you're like, I'm crazy. I've never been anywhere this, like, where part of what feels straight to me about it and I'm down to be wrong because I'm just shooting in the dark. Is it sexless? Are people hooking up?

[Josh Sharp]

Sexless?

[Sam Taggart]

So that's interesting.

[Josh Sharp]

Sexless. Wouldn't you agree? Sexless. I don't think Fish is that straight.

[George Severis]

Oh, interesting.

[Josh Sharp]

Wow. Well, but I think literal of the amount of straight people, which is profound and overwhelming.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

You know what I mean? But you're right, there are a lot of overlaps because it's.

[George Severis]

It's.

[Josh Sharp]

It circles back this thing. I mean, again, any type of any.

[George Severis]

Subculture is apparently to be so basic, inherently queer, because it is, like, outside the main street, they're the most successful.

[Josh Sharp]

Indie band of all time. You know what I mean? It's like they can. They can sell 13 nights in a row at the Garden and aren't on a label, you know, and nobody listens to their. They've never had a pop. They've never had a radio hit ever. So. Which is.

[George Severis]

That is what's most intriguing about them to me is like everything else. Else that is a subculture you can at least point to. Like the one time they were mainstream.

[Josh Sharp]

They had a very brief moment of trying it.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

And the record did like, okay, but didn't do anything. And then they turned in the next record, this get referenced in New Yorker and like, here's the next one. And the A R person was not just like, this is a bad direction. He was like, I refuse to even try to do this. Yeah, yeah. So then they're like, all right, well, never mind. They didn't even give notes. They're like, no notes. Cut and run.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, okay, here's my theory. Ready?

[Josh Sharp]

Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

They are. It's not like a band in the classic sense. It's a theater show about a band in a way.

[Josh Sharp]

Yes. I mean, one of his early pieces, this guy was writing sort of like this like fantasy musical that he did. Dissertation. Stereophonic. A fantasy. Yeah, exactly. And so I think there's always. And he's now since written musicals. Like a lot of it is drawing from the. That space of like narrative world building, you know, characters. There's characters in songs. There's like, you know.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

So you're not state of play profoundly.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh God. Profoundly a state of play. There's a lot of that. Because again, they're like one. Improv is like, we're playing together. And then they then wanted also they have a light sky who's like known in the business for being the best at what he does. Because you see most big arenas, stadium shows, they're programmed to hell. You have like 90,000 pre programmed cues.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

He goes in with I think normally like four and improvises the rest of it. And so he is working these massive lights and improvising with them. So then sometimes they're doing things musically and he responds to it. Or vice versa. He'll do lights and they'll go, we should play along to that. Then they extrapolated that to the audience. There was a time they literally would throw four big balls in the audience, each of which represented a band member and only play when an audience member touched it. Because they were. They were like, we want you to play us. And that's become a thing where they're always like, how do we make you as active a participant in this as we are? Yeah, that literal sense of play.

[Sam Taggart]

That's a sense of play. I like that it reminds me of, like, me at over the eight. Like, there's something.

[Josh Sharp]

No, it's very over the eight coded.

[Sam Taggart]

Which.

[Josh Sharp]

And then there's all these facts you wouldn't know. Or do you know that, like, in the Y2K, not to bring it back to 2016, but in the 1999, that's.

[George Severis]

When Y2K was right.

[Josh Sharp]

Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know that they did a concert on New Year's Eve that was the biggest attended New Year's Eve event in the world.

[George Severis]

Where was it?

[Josh Sharp]

In a. It in Florida. It was a big Cypress. Native American. I was gonna say a Seminole, like, reservation in Florida. And they had, like, hundreds of thousands of people there. And they played all night. They started at 10 and played until like 8am the next morning after the sun came up.

[Sam Taggart]

That makes sense.

[Josh Sharp]

That's rave culture.

[Sam Taggart]

That's rave culture. Do they wear diapers? Diapers.

[George Severis]

So here's my question.

[Josh Sharp]

94. The first new Year's, they played at The Boston Garden, 1150, they went backstage and at like, 1153, they came out.

[Sam Taggart]

Folks, they're wearing diapers.

[Josh Sharp]

But that was just a bit. Right. It was their, like, first ever New Year's gag. Yeah. Now they do gags every New Year's, and it's always a big surprise because they literally do like, a theatrical thing as. As part of the show. So people come every New Year's being like, what's the gag going to be? And they actually, like, make a. You know, like an opera or whatever. And this past year, it was edm. Oh, yeah. It looks so lame. It was pretty lame.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, this is really shocking.

[George Severis]

I'm, like, getting frustrated that all these people are having more fun than me.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, that's what I actually do. That's something I realized too, when I actually. The part that made me cry was him thinking about his sobriety. He was talking about his sobriety really.

[Sam Taggart]

Poetically because when did he become sober?

[Josh Sharp]

The band, like, busted up because he became so drunk. I mean, many reasons. I think the operation got too big and they had, like, 50 people to employ. And then it was like, oh, you have to keep doing this. And then the lead guy was, like, doing opiates and. And heroin and stuff. And so, like, that became unsustainable. So they, like, briefly broke up.

[George Severis]

And when was that?

[Josh Sharp]

2004. 2004. To have a fact check.

[George Severis]

This is tough.

[Sam Taggart]

I feel like you. This is tough because you're literally now being.

[Josh Sharp]

No, I'm. This is. I have to have the right a's. You have.

[Sam Taggart]

It's. It's become an A podcast.

[Josh Sharp]

I have to have the right A's.

[Sam Taggart]

You have to have the right A's.

[Josh Sharp]

But this is what media needs. Fact checkers in the room. Are we talking about. I mean, this is 20.

[George Severis]

It's true. It's true.

[Josh Sharp]

If we fact use this Cheeto. Fact check me like we should. That Cheeto.

[George Severis]

If you haven't. If you haven't heard of Cambridge Analytica, you're only getting half the story.

[Sam Taggart]

Cambridge Anaclitica.

[George Severis]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

That's literally the best one out of.

[George Severis]

Out of Slop Hop Cambridge. Literally.

[Josh Sharp]

Cambridge Anaclitica.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow.

[George Severis]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Sharp]

Then, like, two years after the breakup, he got arrested with, like, heroin and pills in his car and apparently was just like everybody says, like, the. The most kind and gracious person to ever be arrested. Because I think he was like, finally, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. But then he tells the story about. Then he was on. Like, he managed to avoid jail by doing basically house arrest and, like, got an apartment next to the jail and couldn't have a car.

[George Severis]

That was an option.

[Josh Sharp]

Apparently they, like, worked it out with a judge where he was like, I'm going to do two years of community service and I'm going to live by the jail. And. And he said it was like, the most, like, beautiful, humbling experience because he's still in Vermont. He's a rock star. People are coming up like, Trey from Fish. He's like, I'm scrubbing toilets and being like, thank you. And then he said his kids would come and visit him on the weekends, and they look back and say it was the best part of their lives, because before that he was on tour and doing drugs. He's like, this part where I cried at that.

[Sam Taggart]

That's pretty emotional.

[George Severis]

I mean, that's beautiful.

[Josh Sharp]

But then it got me just thinking about the time in my life when I cared about this stuff, and I don't anymore. And that's, you know, that's what changed. Oh, that's a great question.

[Sam Taggart]

You became gay.

[Josh Sharp]

That's. I became gay. Honestly, I became gay. And I said, wait, there's a different version of this and it's Berlin and.

[Sam Taggart]

I can have sex there.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, you can get your dick sucked if you do this in Berlin. It's literally all the same things.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, it is kind of a bummer. I've been thinking about what gay takes from me, what G takes away from me, where now I am just like, well, I could be doing this. Like, I could be Getting into this niche subculture. Or I could go somewhere and probably have sex.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, well, these are connected. The part I was gonna say is I do now, looking back, love and appreciate it even more now that I think they're even lamer that it's like an uncool space. Because so much of queer spaces are about the currency of cool.

[Sam Taggart]

It's an arms race.

[Josh Sharp]

It's an arms race for cool. And that theirs is basically everybody agreeing, like, so you're lame. Like, I'm lame. And it's having so much. That's what it's like. That is admirable. We should bring that to our Q spaces.

[Sam Taggart]

We should bring that to some Q spaces. But then you and I try to do this when we celebrate what we call Philly.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, that's true. Have we explained this theory to George?

[Sam Taggart]

George Philly. Philly. Not real Philly.

[Josh Sharp]

This is gonna.

[George Severis]

I don't know the concept down.

[Josh Sharp]

Just to warn listeners and watchers, we're worried about me. Coastal Elite, but in a way that doubles back and becomes praise. So this is Australian rugby, right? So this is so straight, it's gay. Trust us.

[George Severis]

And by the way, Coastal Elite is one of the tracks on sluggish Coastal Alick.

[Josh Sharp]

My cock stole a lick.

[George Severis]

My God.

[Sam Taggart]

So KT Kunstal.

[George Severis]

KT Kunstal.

[Josh Sharp]

KT Tunstall.

[Sam Taggart]

That's featuring KT Kunst Tunstall. Okay, so Philly is a real city. That's what this theory is based on.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. And Philly rules.

[Sam Taggart]

I know Philly is one of the places.

[George Severis]

Of course.

[Sam Taggart]

We love Philly Places to go. And I specifically love the gay bars in Philly because they have this, like. They remind me of, like, when I was 21 and going to, like, sort of a lame gay bar in Chicago and, like, dancing music with, like, my girlfriend.

[Josh Sharp]

Can I introduce something that we can all use? Because I love to use this conversation. Lame, open parentheses, complimentary close parentheses.

[Sam Taggart]

Yes.

[Josh Sharp]

We're not saying it pejorative.

[Sam Taggart]

Lame.

[Josh Sharp]

This is lame as in good.

[Sam Taggart]

And so now that I'm. So when you go to Philly, you kind of experience these types of bars, and they're too big for some reason. The music, it's the liminal space.

[Josh Sharp]

You're unwatched.

[Sam Taggart]

You're unwatched.

[Josh Sharp]

You're not in the arms race.

[Sam Taggart]

You're not in the arms race at all. And you're finally free.

[Josh Sharp]

Not a single insta crush is there. No one could care they're putting Bruno Mars on. Literally. That's the liminal space.

[Sam Taggart]

And you're Dancing to it. And so now whenever we're in a space that is uncool, we both bond on really enjoying that and we say it's Philly. Specifically, we're thinking of the bar. Can we doxx them?

[Josh Sharp]

I feel like we should doxx them, but this is again, doxxing complimentary. Sometimes we go to Metro, which is my favorite gay bar, but because there's some newer girls in the neighborhood who. Who the quote unquote cool people want to go to. Yeah, they're not going to Metro anymore. And it's Philly.

[Sam Taggart]

It's Phil.

[Josh Sharp]

I love that.

[George Severis]

Oh, Metro is now.

[Josh Sharp]

We go there and I'll cop to it.

[George Severis]

I'm one of the girls who is no longer going to Metro and haven't been because of.

[Josh Sharp]

Do you want to name it? Do you want to actually dox him?

[George Severis]

What?

[Sam Taggart]

The. The actually animal.

[George Severis]

Yeah, because of cool.

[Sam Taggart]

The cool list.

[George Severis]

But it's not even just that. It's like a return to like Christopher street for me too. Like, it's a really bad. I would actually.

[Josh Sharp]

Julius is number one.

[George Severis]

Well, Julius is obviously number one. And that's not even. That exists of the cool, uncool spectrum. But I'm even going to like, Julius is the empress. I just went to the monster.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm going to pieces upstairs to the monster.

[George Severis]

Incredible.

[Sam Taggart]

You're going to pieces.

[George Severis]

I've been to pieces recently.

[Sam Taggart]

Damn.

[Josh Sharp]

What queens are you seeing?

[George Severis]

I don't remember what her name was, but she was okay.

[Josh Sharp]

I saw a great drag show. Say more on that. I don't remember her name, but she was okay. That is such a great. That wasn't the ax.

[Sam Taggart]

There wasn't anything about.

[George Severis]

Because there is this when it comes to uncool gay spaces is if it's long enough ago, then you are basically like wearing an ACT UP T shirt and pretending it's the 80s.

[Josh Sharp]

Metro is that part. You know, it's like.

[George Severis]

But I think that's the part.

[Sam Taggart]

Metro is that part. Metro is.

[Josh Sharp]

It's like it's not happening anymore and we're going.

[George Severis]

Metro is Yas Queen.

[Sam Taggart]

Metro is.

[Josh Sharp]

Metro is yas queen.

[Sam Taggart]

Metro's 2010's Hell's Kitchen is Yas Queen.

[Josh Sharp]

Metro is that part.

[George Severis]

And that's the final frontier. Because when are the cool gay guys gonna suck in it the fuck up and go to Hell's Kitchen?

[Sam Taggart]

Well, when it doesn't take a fucking hour to get there, that's when.

[Josh Sharp]

Let's start with Christopher street and let's start with Josh sharp. Tada. Joshda.com, mere blocks from Christopher Street.

[Sam Taggart]

God, I'm loving how nonlinear this is.

[Josh Sharp]

Let's start there with what we get these gay guys to do. Bring back Duplex.

[George Severis]

Literally bring back Duplex.

[Josh Sharp]

Bring back Duplex. Do you know how much of the scene that you love the podcast cabal is born of Duplex in many ways.

[George Severis]

First time I ever did a half hour of comedy was at the Duplex.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you.

[George Severis]

I split a bill with my friend Julia. We did half hours together, and the show was called George Severis and Julia Colon. That's a stretch.

[Sam Taggart]

Love it. Love, love.

[Josh Sharp]

Birthed Aaron and I. I mean, UCB did, but when we were like, what if we, like, broke out of ucb? We hosted our variety show at the Duplex. Cole was running their, like, the hit show at the Duplex for a long time.

[Sam Taggart]

Was Cole.

[Josh Sharp]

Cole was like, paying the bills at Duplex.

[George Severis]

So I think, by the way, if you want to learn more about that, Jeffrey Self's book of essays. Jeffrey describes the Duplex era and working with Cole.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, I would love to.

[George Severis]

First essay. You don't even have to read the whole book.

[Josh Sharp]

So Christopher Street. Yeah, we. But this is to the Philly of all.

[Sam Taggart]

This is the Philly of it all.

[George Severis]

Yes.

[Sam Taggart]

And yeah. So Philly, the non cool gay guys, is a movement that we actually do believe in. And so we're trying to push that.

[Josh Sharp]

And not to be binary about it, because actually now I'm gonna sort of do the opposite where I'm gonna say, like, the in between space is what I don't like. But in these kind of things, there are certain places that are actually cool. You're at a certain, like, warehousey rave and you're like, you've nailed the cool assessment. Yeah. Then there are the Philly spaces where it's like you are owning your uncoolness. It's these places that think they're cool and they're not that are living in. What is the, you know, this thing in relief when it comes to gay spaces?

[George Severis]

I mean, is it.

[Josh Sharp]

Now the ampersand is bad, where I'm like, you need to just be it or not it.

[Sam Taggart]

Can you describe what a place that thinks it's cool but isn't feels like?

[George Severis]

Is that Hell's Kitchen then? Is Hell's Kitchen the medium? And that's why it's sort. We don't know what to do with it. Because there is. It is. Hell's Kitchen is attempting to be the gay spot. Like, that is its goal.

[Josh Sharp]

It's. There's A tackiness, but without any camp.

[George Severis]

Right.

[Josh Sharp]

And there's sort of a. And I'm not against basicness. Like, as we know, basicness can be. There's beauty and simplicity, but there's a time that has no cue or. Sorry, I should say there's a type that has no cue. There's the type of basic where it's like, oh, you haven't considered anything outside of the slain. And that's not that you've, like, considered it all and of kind gone. What if I embrace the basic. You are only there no Q.

[George Severis]

And in this narrative, is Philly only there, no Q? Or has Philly considered.

[Josh Sharp]

Wow. Don't you feel like Philly has sort of considered.

[Sam Taggart]

I think Philly has considered.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

I think Philly has seen what cool could be and said, I'm good.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. I think they've chosen I ride with my friends. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. It's like, I don't need to do all that. There's a maturity to Philly.

[Josh Sharp]

There's a maturity to Philly. Well, it birthed our nation. You see that big old cracked bell?

[Sam Taggart]

You see that bell? And you say maturity? Our nation came out of that fucking hole.

[Josh Sharp]

You know there's a maturity.

[George Severis]

You know what it is?

[Josh Sharp]

That big old cracked bell?

[George Severis]

It's Lana Del Rey. It's Lana Del Rey.

[Sam Taggart]

American standards.

[Josh Sharp]

Kimpetras. Philly, Crack my bell.

[Sam Taggart]

Crack my bell.

[Josh Sharp]

Crack my bell. Open, bitch. Slut pop Philly.

[George Severis]

Slut pop Philly.

[Sam Taggart]

Now that I want to see slut.

[Josh Sharp]

Philly would be big.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, my God. That's amazing.

[George Severis]

Do you think Philly is Lana Del Rey dressing normal, but not as an ironic hipstery thing. It's like she has decided she has seen what cool is. She's been dressed by all the big designers, and now she is shopping at Target.

[Sam Taggart]

I know. Don't.

[George Severis]

Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

I think Philly is almost Perry. Kelly Clarkson.

[George Severis]

Kelly Clarkson. Yes.

[Josh Sharp]

Here's the thing that I think is wrong, but I'm gonna say it. Or is filly Tate McCrae? And then you go, wait, you know Arca?

[Sam Taggart]

Do you know what I mean?

[Josh Sharp]

We're like, I knew I liked something about you. Oh, you're friends with arca.

[George Severis]

But I think that is more.

[Josh Sharp]

I didn't. You didn't give friends with ARCA to me.

[George Severis]

Don't you think, though, that is.

[Josh Sharp]

That's the maturity.

[Sam Taggart]

No, that is the maturity.

[George Severis]

Interesting. Okay.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Because Kelly Clarkson's not totally right either. I'm trying to think of, like, what is right. Natalie Imbruglia.

[Josh Sharp]

Katie Tunstall.

[George Severis]

I Mean, is it Adele?

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, maybe Phillies Adele.

[Sam Taggart]

But that's tough because I don't identify with Adele.

[George Severis]

That is tough.

[Sam Taggart]

I do identify with Philly.

[Josh Sharp]

What's keeping you?

[George Severis]

Yeah, what is keeping you?

[Josh Sharp]

I ride for Adele.

[George Severis]

I love Adele.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm just sort of like.

[Josh Sharp]

I actually do.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

I mean, she's fine. Like, it's. It doesn't inspire hatred or love, but you don't.

[Josh Sharp]

What about Bruno Martin? Does that feel like I ride for Bruno Mars? You know, I used to, as a hot take, say that you remember this era. This was the duplex era. Say he was better for than Lady Gaga. I would be like song for song. Name me a Gaga song and there's a better Bruno song. I don't stand by that. It was just fun. Yeah, I sort of agreed with it. But I do ride for Bruno.

[Sam Taggart]

No, I think. I think Bruno is. Is properly Philly. I think that is a good.

[George Severis]

Yeah, I think Bruno is Philly.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

What is pink?

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, yeah, there's something Midwestern about. Yeah, there's something Midwestern.

[George Severis]

I think they're gonna go ahead and play pink after the Bruno in Philly.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, they're gonna play it, but she doesn't. She doesn't symbolize the whole city.

[George Severis]

Is Philly. RuPaul's Drag Race.

[Josh Sharp]

When? 2016.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Peak RuPaul's Drag Race 2016, season eight.

[George Severis]

It's bringing out the signs that say vote.org.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, it's Bobwinning after Violet. Vote.org.

[Sam Taggart]

You know what I mean? You know what to me is an essential. Okay, here'. Okay, I'm tying it to fish. Ready?

[Josh Sharp]

Good.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay. Philly and fish.

[Josh Sharp]

And if you've read it with Josh Sharp, tada too. If you pull that trifecta, that's gonna be fucking wow.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, this is on you potentially something. That is us. The whole show has been a sign of Philly. Like a true tried and true sign of Philly is walking around with shot glasses that are in, like, neon.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

When I see that, I say I am safely mark my location as in.

[Josh Sharp]

Philly marked as safe from Philly, Texas.

[Sam Taggart]

And I actually think fish is also. They don't do shot glasses in test tubes. But the culture is similar.

[Josh Sharp]

Absolutely, absolutely. They do nitrous. They do. They're sucking out of the balloons from the dentist. You know what I mean? That's the shot glass of the fish scene.

[George Severis]

It's sucking out of the bi Loons is actually another track on slept Pop Philly.

[Josh Sharp]

What about Philly's balloons, do you think?

[George Severis]

What About Philly's balloons. Do we think. And now we're back to Fiona Apple.

[Sam Taggart]

Now that's non linear question asking.

[George Severis]

You are ampersanding your boots with that one.

[Josh Sharp]

That part.

[George Severis]

That part.

[Josh Sharp]

That ampersand.

[George Severis]

That ampersand.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, I just want to know what like are you going to try to incorporate something to symbolize to your the attendees of your show that you're there in Philly?

[Josh Sharp]

Well, the Christmas tree of it all. It's so easy to do two show night where you're seeing Josh Sharp. Ta da. And then Holly Box brains at pieces. You know what I mean? Like you could see an incredible queen or as George would call them. Okay. And I'm not. That's not a subtweet of the queen I named earlier.

[George Severis]

I'm just, you know, sub tit, by the way.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, sub my tit. You could see an incredible piece's Drag queen post show any night of the week. You could go to Duplex and sing Rose's Turn any night, both before and after my show.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

So it is sort of right in the peak neighborhood for. For the monster at all.

[Sam Taggart]

You know why Fish doesn't connect with gay people?

[Josh Sharp]

Why?

[Sam Taggart]

Like, how do I say this? There's no like, I know there's a lead guy, but like he's not a diva.

[Josh Sharp]

No. And it's a collective.

[Sam Taggart]

It's a collective.

[Josh Sharp]

Even though he's profoundly the lead guy. It's with a lot of like, we, I have built this machine and we're all equal parts. Yes, I'm the architect. But you know, gay people need like a hierarchy.

[George Severis]

Well, yes, there is something almost anti branding and anti capitalist about the whole machine. Because for example, with the Grateful Dead you might not know anything but you know, the teddy bears, the rainbow bears dancing around.

[Josh Sharp]

Do you even know the Fish logo?

[George Severis]

Do I?

[Josh Sharp]

This is so cool.

[Sam Taggart]

I literally don't.

[George Severis]

What is that?

[Josh Sharp]

Maybe this speaks to it. Because something else they talk about in the article is at the time they were getting big, they just talk about how much like most bands, when they finally have like access, they would like make use of things. But they were like, oh, finally we have the freedom to do. To say no to all the stuff we want to do. For 30 years they've demanded that every venue they're in, any forward facing ads to the audience are covered. So people go early and cover with curtains. Any like billboards or advertisements in the space. Cause they're like, you should not come in and see like a Coke ad.

[George Severis]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Josh Sharp]

And Every venue does it because they sell a billion tickets. So there's things like that where they're like, oh, at a time when you be like, what's my brand deal? They're like, how do we eliminate brands from this magical space? Slay.

[Sam Taggart]

No, that's cool.

[Josh Sharp]

Slay.

[Sam Taggart]

Kind of credits do, but don't.

[George Severis]

But that is capital ones.

[Sam Taggart]

Lady Gaga could never.

[George Severis]

Well, first of all, I want to go back to the logo, of course, for mattress, but I do think that's a big part of why it's so siphoned off from the rest of culture, is because there's, like, no advertising of it. It's literally, like, by word of mouth. And if you know, you know.

[Josh Sharp]

And even then you need a guide. And even, like, even if your friends, like, listen to Fish. Ish. They'd have to be like, but let me make the playlist.

[George Severis]

Yes.

[Josh Sharp]

Or else you will go. You will not get it.

[George Severis]

It is a fashion community building. Where else are we seeing that?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah, yeah. Other jam bands also, you know, weirdly, they've sort of invented festival culture.

[George Severis]

Right?

[Josh Sharp]

Like, that is massive. The Coachella of it all. I mean, also, you know, Jane's Addiction did. Nobody wants to have that conversation. The originator of Lollapalooza.

[Sam Taggart]

I didn't know this.

[Josh Sharp]

It was originally a festival that Jane's Addiction started in the 90s and then became Lollapalooza. But at the same time, Fish was showing, throwing festivals that are only fish and 100,000 people come. There's no other bands but Fish, but they do, like, build a village, and there's, like, art and installations and weirdo shit happening. When Bonnaroo started, which sort of started the modern resurgence of last 20 years of festivals, because they knew, because it was more of a jam band festival at its inception, they went to Fish as people were like, how do you do a festival? And so Fish top Bonnaroo, and then now we have Coachella.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow.

[Josh Sharp]

You know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

So there's so many weird things where it's like. It's crazy that Fish is that girl. Until Billy Joel did the Billy Joel, they were the band that had most played the Garden.

[Sam Taggart]

That's crazy.

[Josh Sharp]

They played there, like, a hundred times and sold out every show. 87.

[George Severis]

Whoa.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm getting fact checked again, and I'm appreciative of it.

[Sam Taggart]

And if only we could do that to the Cheeto in chief.

[George Severis]

Oh, my God, if only.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you.

[George Severis]

But he won't come on the podcast. He's afraid.

[Josh Sharp]

Have you tried?

[George Severis]

Yes, Josh. We tried.

[Sam Taggart]

Could you imagine?

[George Severis]

I think we haven't tried.

[Josh Sharp]

What topic do you think he'd do? I think what if he did Cheetos.

[George Severis]

And it's, like, charming because he's making fun of himself and he.

[Sam Taggart]

He is, like, really self aware.

[Josh Sharp]

It's, like, amazing. Yeah. What.

[Sam Taggart]

What.

[George Severis]

What topic would he do if he was really self aware? I guess he could do Cheetos. He could do, like, Apprentice.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Business.

[George Severis]

Business.

[Sam Taggart]

I think it would be funny if, like, one day he got bonked on the head and, like, woke up and.

[Josh Sharp]

It was an all period, just as a physical gag.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, just.

[Josh Sharp]

I know there's more, but just period. Well, he gets bonked on the head. That part. I'm laughing.

[George Severis]

That part.

[Josh Sharp]

That part.

[George Severis]

No, he gets bonked on the head and wakes up, he's like, I want to do a run of my show.

[Sam Taggart]

If he got bonked on the head and then was like, oh, my God, isn't it weird that I'm doing this? Like, isn't it crazy?

[George Severis]

Like, that would be really fun.

[Josh Sharp]

Funny little cartoon birds flying around.

[George Severis]

Big dizzy eyes holds a press conference. Never mind. That's my Trump impression.

[Josh Sharp]

It's so good.

[George Severis]

That's.

[Josh Sharp]

This is your new hour, right?

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Here's mine.

[George Severis]

Never mind. Wow, that's really good.

[Josh Sharp]

Here's mine.

[George Severis]

And that's the title track from Fiona Apple's new records. She recorded it all at home with her dogs. That's the sound of the dog with the terminal illness.

[Josh Sharp]

Rest in peace the dog she had at that time. Rest in power that time, that time, that time, that time, that time.

[Sam Taggart]

This is Trump Pop. That's.

[Josh Sharp]

That's good. Instead of that part, maybe if Trump.

[George Severis]

Got bonked on the head, he would release Trump pop. Miami.

[Josh Sharp]

This is Trump Pop. That's good.

[Sam Taggart]

That's really good. Get your bonks out.

[George Severis]

January sex.

[Josh Sharp]

That's good.

[Sam Taggart]

Terror in my anus.

[Josh Sharp]

Ifs rolls off the tongue.

[George Severis]

Rolls off the tongue. That's another track.

[Josh Sharp]

There we go.

[George Severis]

Rolls Royce off the tongue. That's a Kim Petrus track.

[Sam Taggart]

Lick my Cheetos.

[Josh Sharp]

I can't wait to be brought in. I can't wait for the intro to be over. Should we bring in our guests?

[Sam Taggart]

Guests, please welcome to the podcast Philly's favorite comedian, Josh Sharp.

[Josh Sharp]

Yes, I'll be playing the Philly Theater.

[George Severis]

Oh, I love that theater.

[Josh Sharp]

Josh Sharp. Tada. The big Philly Theater right downtown. You can't miss it. It's just under uptown. And it's. It's gonna be amazing.

[George Severis]

Have you ever been to Denver?

[Sam Taggart]

Actually, no, you can't ask some of that, George.

[George Severis]

I'm going. Sorry to be so cute, but I'm going to Denver. There's no way around it because I'm seeing Rylo Kiley at Red Rocks and that rules.

[Sam Taggart]

When you posted about that, I thought you were me.

[George Severis]

Kidding. Kidding. No, serious.

[Josh Sharp]

That rules.

[George Severis]

And so we've been looking for where to stay and whatever are they doing.

[Josh Sharp]

Like the 20th anniversary of Blacklight tour or whatever.

[George Severis]

I don't remember if it's. It might be.

[Josh Sharp]

But you guys need to get into Ryla Kylie more. That's like a. Such a. Like so like a. You know what I mean?

[George Severis]

I. Rylo Kylie is one of. I actually recently had this experience with Gossip Beth to do's band where these are things I think everyone knows and everyone stands and then you realize no one. I saw Gossip live posted. It literally got one reply.

[Josh Sharp]

I feel the same about the Night Knife. Another band from that era.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, different Knife.

[Josh Sharp]

But so many gay guys have. No.

[George Severis]

So many gay guys don't know they are like. Or her solo career post.

[Josh Sharp]

The Knife girls are at the raves and you. Yeah, it's all good. Yeah, it's all good. Anyway. Fever Ray. That's.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah. But yeah, let's talk Riley.

[George Severis]

That part.

[Josh Sharp]

That part. That. That part.

[Sam Taggart]

I actually don't know Ryo Kylie. I'm coming clean.

[Josh Sharp]

You should like Jenny Lewis at all.

[George Severis]

No, it's her band. Oh you.

[Josh Sharp]

It's really good because there are. There is a class of gay guys not you we now know who know Ginny Lewis and don't know Rylo Kylie at all.

[Advertisement Voice]

Hello.

[George Severis]

It's like gay guys that know Caroline Politic but don't know Cherry.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you.

[George Severis]

And that is. That is that part.

[Josh Sharp]

That is such a. That part. Yeah. What you just said is such. This is why we need it back. Because that is the response to that. My whole body screams that part. You know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

Damn. That's so. That's so Walt Whitman of you.

[Josh Sharp]

So true.

[Sam Taggart]

My whole body screaming that part.

[Josh Sharp]

As I take loads in the Brooklyn.

[George Severis]

Navy Yard Wart Titman is another track.

[Josh Sharp]

Off of Slut Pop Cambridge Back to Cambridge. Back to Slut Pop Cambridge Cambridge Slow.

[George Severis]

Pop Walden Pond actually is coming out soon.

[Josh Sharp]

How many grasses did I get out of a thousand? I don't know if we said it. We got. We went on a tangent. So we are sort of still in that segment.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, it's still non linear.

[Josh Sharp]

Well, we're liminal. We're still in that segment.

[George Severis]

Yeah, but we can't But I think because we're so liminal, we can't give you a number. I think that's true. Your score was bare emoji.

[Josh Sharp]

Understood.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, yeah. Score was bare emoji.

[Josh Sharp]

That's. Well, damn. That's what that is.

[George Severis]

That's either good or bad, right?

[Josh Sharp]

Either good or bad.

[Sam Taggart]

That's ampersand.

[George Severis]

What if you named your child either?

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, either. Oh, that's good. You have to hear the mother yelling it out.

[George Severis]

Either would be such a. And it also. It is actually really.

[Sam Taggart]

You're gonna have a mother.

[Josh Sharp]

I am the mother. I am the Mother.

[Sam Taggart]

Come through RuPaul.

[Josh Sharp]

Come through RuPaul. Vote.

[Sam Taggart]

I am the mother.

[Josh Sharp]

Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack. Vote. That's another track vote.

[Sam Taggart]

But seriously, you guys, get out there.

[George Severis]

But seriously, you guys, please vote.

[Sam Taggart]

Should we do our final segment? How long I've lost track of. We've been so liminal and so non linear.

[Josh Sharp]

You tell me where we at.

[George Severis]

Where are we at?

[Sam Taggart]

Time wise?

[George Severis]

Yeah, we should do our final segment.

[Josh Sharp]

Any lingering fish notions? I mean, we're really. You're asking us just things.

[George Severis]

That's very cute.

[Josh Sharp]

Things. Yeah, it is cute. I just want to know if there's anything that you needed addressed that didn't address.

[George Severis]

I know. And I do feel like it was.

[Josh Sharp]

A touchstone for us.

[George Severis]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

You know, it didn't need to be the bedrock. It was a touchstone.

[Sam Taggart]

It was a touchstone.

[Josh Sharp]

If we're just making different sort of geological rock based touch.

[George Severis]

My stone, by the way, is another.

[Sam Taggart]

It was like a limestone layer, you know.

[Josh Sharp]

Good. They played a festival in limestone, Maine. There we go.

[George Severis]

Oh, my God. And I was at the Limestone Festival in Bloomington, Indiana.

[Sam Taggart]

You're literally just like.

[George Severis]

I'm sort of like Fish. Can I ask something basic?

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

What is the backstory of the name Fish spelled with a ph?

[Josh Sharp]

Great question. I don't know. Do you know that? I do. Yeah. Of course. There's a couple different stories, but when they first started. So they started in 83. And when they first started at Goddard College. At Goddard College, which had 33 people.

[George Severis]

In every year when they graduated.

[Josh Sharp]

Whoa. They wanted to be. That's what the band name wanted to be. And that's why it's the ph. But people, everyone was just like, what? Oh. And then it became Fish. This is news to me.

[Sam Taggart]

I'm learning they wanted to be Fish.

[George Severis]

Do you think that's ahead of their time? Because I'm thinking of that very pitchforky band that is three Exclamation points.

[Josh Sharp]

Chick, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick.

[Sam Taggart]

That's it.

[George Severis]

That's so fish.

[Josh Sharp]

I love to learn that, because even though I'm so tapped out of this scene, because it was the thing I obsessed over from years 17 to 22. Like, I think even now, if you played a live fish recording, I would know the song. And I probably could tell you the year and maybe month of it. You know, I mean, like, it's still a part of my brain that knows every single thing about this band. So to learn something new, that's huge.

[Sam Taggart]

That's.

[Josh Sharp]

That's huge for me in all of my. As someone literate in the lore. I didn't know that part.

[George Severis]

That part, that part, that part.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, that's just like how we want to be called Aeolab. And people kept saying.

[Josh Sharp]

And so you just became Stradio Lab.

[George Severis]

First time we ever sold out. One of many.

[Sam Taggart]

One of many. It's a slippery slope.

[Josh Sharp]

One of many.

[Sam Taggart]

But seriously, you guys, how down the.

[Josh Sharp]

Barrel this episode has been because you guys sold out now. Yeah. You resisted that urge to make this one punk. And it's just so clear and cogent and literate. First time listeners would know every single word.

[George Severis]

Oh, yeah. No, this is the blueprint.

[Josh Sharp]

This is the blueprint. This is gonna be the FYC episode. Yeah.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah. Well, you know, everything you touch becomes a. For your consideration.

[Josh Sharp]

That part.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, we should do our final segment.

[George Severis]

That part.

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[Sam Taggart]

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[Sam Taggart]

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[Josh Sharp]

Correct.

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[Josh Sharp]

Lenovo.

[Sam Taggart]

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[George Severis]

Ooh.

[Sam Taggart]

So sashay your way to P towntourism.com the Official Guide to Provincetown. That's ptowntourism.com hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for.

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[Josh Sharp]

Shop in store and online, and save.

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[Josh Sharp]

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[Josh Sharp]

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Buy two participating products. Offer ends January 27th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary.

[Josh Sharp]

Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details. This is Jacob Goldstein from what's yous Problem?

[George Severis]

Business software is expensive.

[Sam Taggart]

And when you buy software from lots.

[Josh Sharp]

Of different companies, it's not only expensive, it gets confusing. Slow to use, hard to integrate.

[George Severis]

Odoo solves that because all Odoo software.

[Sam Taggart]

Is connected on a single, affordable platform.

[Josh Sharp]

Platform Save money without missing out on the features you need.

[George Severis]

Odoo has no hidden costs and no.

[Josh Sharp]

Limit on features or data.

[Sam Taggart]

Odoo has over 60 apps available for.

[George Severis]

Any needs your business might have, all.

[Josh Sharp]

At no additional charge.

[George Severis]

Everything from websites to sales to inventory to accounting, all linked and talking to each other. Check out Odoo at O D o o dot com. That's O D O O dot.

[Sam Taggart]

Josh Our final segment is called Shoutouts, and in this segment we pay homage to the grand strait tradition of the radio shout out. Shouting out to anything that we are enjoying. People, places, things, ideas. Imagine 2001, you're in times Square shouting out to your squad back home.

[Josh Sharp]

What's funny about that is I'm literally in Times Square right now. But it's 2016. That's the part that's the same. Yes, it is, but the part that's the same is Times Square.

[Sam Taggart]

So that's the same.

[Josh Sharp]

We're coming to you live from Times.

[George Severis]

We are coming to you live from time.

[Sam Taggart]

We are coming to you.

[Josh Sharp]

No Captain Cap.

[George Severis]

No Cap. Is that coming back?

[Josh Sharp]

No, it's too, too fresh. But it could in like three. But I. I'm more warm on BET being something that's fun to do in.

[George Severis]

Four years, by the way, no FAP is another track off of slop, and.

[Josh Sharp]

Instead of bet, people will get that. That's bet.

[Sam Taggart]

When you said profoundly earlier, I was trying to think of a pun, and the only thing I got Was propound me.

[George Severis]

And you didn't say that out loud.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, because.

[George Severis]

What the hell is wrong with you?

[Sam Taggart]

Because I.

[George Severis]

Leaving ideas like that on the table.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, because I was like, if I say propound me, no one's gonna be like, that's profoundly.

[Josh Sharp]

We would know that.

[George Severis]

Oh, I see what you're saying.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

But also, there's so many lyrical directions there. Like, I am pro. Pound me. I am pro. The idea of you pounding me.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm definitely pronounced.

[George Severis]

I'm pro at being pounded.

[Sam Taggart]

Pro pound pro.

[George Severis]

I'm a pro. Pound me.

[Josh Sharp]

Yeah.

[George Severis]

Wow.

[Sam Taggart]

Should we do. Okay. How do we do it? I'm like, george, I don't have one.

[George Severis]

Oh, yeah. I don't either. Josh.

[Josh Sharp]

I could do one.

[Sam Taggart]

You want to go first?

[George Severis]

That's.

[Josh Sharp]

Sure, if you need that.

[Sam Taggart]

I actually.

[George Severis]

We always think of them on the spot, but of course, I just had.

[Josh Sharp]

One come to me on the spot.

[George Severis]

Okay, go.

[Josh Sharp]

Great. And this helped. You know, I came in too early on the intro. I should come in too early on the clothes. Yeah. Don't you feel as if it bookends for the listener and especially the watcher? It gives a bookend.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

Okay. Shout out to Love on the Spectrum. It's the greatest show on television. I'm so happy it's back. These are my absolute friends, y'.

[Advertisement Voice]

All.

[Josh Sharp]

This is the Friends cast to me is Love on the Spectrum. I talk about a warm bath. I'm spending time with David, with Abby, with Tanner, with Connor. I'm loving my life. All of the new people are so good. I was weeping like I'm reading the New Yorker fish article. Watching this season of Love on the Spectrum I have. I wish every person would watch that show. I think it is so that part the best. You know what I mean?

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

So shouts out to all of them. I would love to meet or work with any of you. Please find me. Run up to me in a public space with a weapon if you need. I want to know you. I want to be friends with you, and I want to celebrate you most of all.

[Sam Taggart]

I have also been. I started season one, like, two weeks ago ago, and I love it.

[Josh Sharp]

It's the best. Yeah, I, I. I am very fish about it, where it's like, I have such earnest admiration for the show and the people on it, and they're so funny, and it's.

[Sam Taggart]

It's. It's. It's really nice.

[Josh Sharp]

They're so funny.

[George Severis]

Okay, I have one.

[Sam Taggart]

Thank God.

[George Severis]

What's up? I'm gonna keep going with the television theme. What's up television viewers? I want to get a shout out to this very particular state that I can will my brain to be in. It is a. It is a version of the Sunken Place, but it is, I think has a little more joie de vivre. And I have been accessing it every night over the last calendar month when every night I am watching Family Guy on hulu dot com.

[Josh Sharp]

Seems to me I am on season.

[George Severis]

I didn't start from the very beginning, but regardless of where I started, I'm on season 11. I am watching it, I am letting it autoplay and I am fully watching Family Guy by myself on my computer.

[Josh Sharp]

In bed as God intended.

[George Severis]

I am shutting off any part of my brain that is reacting to anything and it is washing over me the same way. Honestly, a warm bath would. I think when I am ready to comment on what I am seeing, I will activate. But for now, I am in this very special brain state that I think is very liminal and is very ampersand. And I think rather than judging myself for it, I am going to sit in it and see what comes of it.

[Sam Taggart]

Wow, that is crazy.

[Josh Sharp]

Pre activated. Yeah, I can't wait to see.

[George Severis]

If you want to see people, if you want to see people, look shocked. If you want to see the light drain from people's face, tell them you've been watching Family Guy. People on all communities, we're talking gay, straight, alt, mainstream, old, young. I've never seen a reaction like that. And I've done many things that have that are. You've done many things that are considered taboo thing.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, what's up freaks, losers and perverts around the globe. I would like to give a shout out to. You know that thing when you wake up and you're like really stressed out and it's like 3am and you're like, why am I awake? And then you lay there. I want to give a shout out to getting up and saying, you know what? Enough. I'm gonna do stuff. I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna fucking do stuff until I get time. And I find that this is a much more productive way. I'm. Well, one, I'm reading.

[George Severis]

Jerking it.

[Sam Taggart]

Sometimes I'm jerking it. Sometimes I'm having a beautiful water, sometimes I'm journaling. Sometimes as soon as I write down everything that's running through my mind, I'm like, oh, that's it. Okay, time for bed.

[Josh Sharp]

You need to download.

[Sam Taggart]

You basically just have to walk around and be like, okay, enough just laying Here. And then I have a book. I've got a little light for my book so that I can read it without waking up. Mish. And it is an amazing, amazing feeling to just lean in. And honestly, sometimes when your mind is racing, you actually are having good ideas and you just have to roll with it because you can't. You can't know when the spirit of creativity is going to enter you. So when you wake up at 3am, just roll with it. Xoxo, Sam.

[Josh Sharp]

I'm an adherent of this, but it's a practice you can't always follow because it's happening in a space, a liminal space, where your mind is not always your. So there's times where the next day I forget that I know this is the North Star. And I'm so frustrated to not have, you know, pointed my sled dogs towards it.

[George Severis]

By the way, I just read on Billboard that Limb Anal Space has just premiered. Limb Anal Space has just premiered and it's the lead single of celeb pop.

[Josh Sharp]

Cambridge Limb Anal Space.

[Sam Taggart]

Anal Space.

[Josh Sharp]

That's good. Wow.

[Sam Taggart]

If anybody out there has a lot of time and a Photoshop account, we would love for you to make an album cover with the track list of all the tracks that we have named today.

[Josh Sharp]

Please, I want the tracks be www.josharptada.com that is graphic on this graphic that you will share far and wide on the Internet.

[Sam Taggart]

Canyoumakeit.com and then it'll work. Yes dot com.

[Josh Sharp]

Perfect.

[Sam Taggart]

Okay, perfect. Well, everyone go see Josh's show and.

[Josh Sharp]

July 7th tickets on sale now. Tickets recently on sale at the moment that this episode is coming out.

[George Severis]

Josh Sharptada.com Yep.

[Josh Sharp]

And you know, I need the Stradio Lab freaks there. Oh, honestly. And I'm gonna say this on this podcast and. And no else, y' all will get the show more than every other podcast audience.

[Sam Taggart]

We know that you say that to all the girls. You're going on Exploration Live and you're saying that exact same.

[George Severis]

You're going to the Daily and you're saying, michael, Barbara, your listeners are gonna absolutely freak.

[Josh Sharp]

No, the Daily listeners will hate my show. And I will tell that to Michael Barbaro. I'll say it to his face. I'm here to talk about the topic of the day, but not my show. I do not want your listeners there. I will say to Barbaro, do you.

[Sam Taggart]

Think you could turn him gay again? Again?

[Josh Sharp]

I think he's got some cues. I think some cues.

[George Severis]

This podcast kind of the king of being Cute.

[Sam Taggart]

He's like Ampersand coded.

[George Severis]

He is so Ampersand. He is Ampersand down.

[Josh Sharp]

Have you had him on?

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, yeah. Actually, no.

[George Severis]

Well, we had him on, but it was a bad episode. We ended up.

[Josh Sharp]

Not really. We deleted it.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah.

[Josh Sharp]

This was mutually agreed upon from both parties.

[Sam Taggart]

Yeah, yeah, we told him to off.

[Josh Sharp]

Is this known or is this kidding?

[George Severis]

I cannot believe.

[Josh Sharp]

I don't know. I don't know what y' all podcast queens be doing. Y' all have. Y' all have a community. Y' all are the fish. You know there's an fish.

[Sam Taggart]

Y' all are the fish.

[Josh Sharp]

Y' all are the push.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, Michael Barbaro. It's an open invite.

[George Severis]

It's an open invite.

[Josh Sharp]

Actually, Barbaro, you can come to opening night. I'm gonna save you a ticket in the front waiting for Guffman style. I'm gonna see if Barbaro comes reserved for Barbaro.

[Sam Taggart]

Oh, that'll be nice. And every night you look and you. He's not there and you're like, fuck.

[Josh Sharp]

I guess this one's just for me.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, Josh, thanks so much for doing the pod.

[Josh Sharp]

Oh, my God. A blessing. An absolute blessing. And to be in the IRL kind of way.

[Sam Taggart]

I know. Thank God.

[George Severis]

And I just want to say thank you everyone who has participated in the week of Stradiolab.

[Sam Taggart]

Six episodes and a live show.

[George Severis]

One live show. Endless opportunities and endless fun and endless play. Fish style.

[Josh Sharp]

Thank you.

[Sam Taggart]

Well, bye bye. Podcast ends now.

[Josh Sharp]

Want more?

[George Severis]

Subscribe to our Patreon for two extra episodes a month. Discord Access and more by heading to patreon.com Stradiolab and for all our visual learners.

[Sam Taggart]

Free full length video episodes are available on our YouTube.

[George Severis]

Now get back to work.

[Sam Taggart]

Stradiolab is a production by Will Ferrell's big money players network and iHeart podcasts.

[George Severis]

Created and hosted by George Severis and.

[Sam Taggart]

Sam Taggart, executive produced by Will Ferrell Hansani and Olivia Aguilar, co produced by Ban Wang. Edited and engineered by Adam Avalos.

[George Severis]

Artwork by Michael Fales and Matt Grubb.

[Sam Taggart]

Theme music by Ben Kling.

[George Severis]

This is Julian Edelman from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jewels. Sunday mornings, I've got my game day.

[Josh Sharp]

Ritual, coffee, lucky socks and now new morning uncrustable sandwiches. It's all about that 12 gram protein bar boost with the new uncrustables. Bright eyed berry or up and apple flavors.

[George Severis]

Bright eye berries got a feisty receiver.

[Josh Sharp]

Energy up and apple. Your classic do it all tight end.

[George Severis]

Soft, pillowy, packed with protein and easy.

[Josh Sharp]

Enough for Gronk to grab from the freezer. Whether you're on the couch, driving to the tail gate or heading to the locker room, New Morning Uncrustable sandwiches are the MVP of snacks.

[George Severis]

Your new Sunday kickoff ritual starts here with new morning uncrustable sandwiches packed with.

[Josh Sharp]

12 grams of protein.

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[Josh Sharp]

Lenovo.

[George Severis]

Live CBS Sunday.

[Josh Sharp]

Hollywood's biggest party is now bigger than ever.

[Sam Taggart]

Perfect. No, no.

[Josh Sharp]

The Golden Globes. With more stars, more glamour, more chaos and more host Nikki Glazer, we're gonna.

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Laugh at the celebrities that can take it and completely ignore the ones who can't. I'm just kidding. They're not safe either.

[Josh Sharp]

The Golden Globes. Live CBS Sunday, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific and streaming on Paramount.

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[Josh Sharp]

This is an iheart podcast. Guaranteed humor.