#4504 Don’t Psalt My Game

Summary

Podcast Summary: TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
Episode #4504: Don’t Psalt My Game
Release Date: July 7, 2025

Join Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh as they navigate through a myriad of topics, blending humor with insightful discussions. In this episode, they delve into upcoming events, pop culture moments, personal anecdotes, and the ever-evolving landscape of social media.

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1. Introduction and Housekeeping (00:00 - 02:20)

The episode kicks off with Luke and Andrew addressing new and existing listeners with a lighthearted welcome to "Vault 4." They touch upon everyday topics like foosball table sign-ups, bathroom etiquette, and ensuring newcomers are well-informed to avoid common mishaps.

Luke Burbank (00:12): "And obviously welcome to Vault four. Just some housekeeping. A few things to be aware of."

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2. Upcoming TBTLathon in Friendship, Wisconsin (03:12 - 05:51)

Luke introduces the exciting news about the forthcoming TBTLathon scheduled to take place in Friendship, Wisconsin, on July 21st. John Sklarov, TBTL's dedicated employee, provides a live update from the Historical Society, setting the stage for the event.

Luke Burbank (03:12): "We will be in Friendship, Wisconsin, broadcasting live from the Historical Society there on Main Street."

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3. Black Sabbath's Final Concert (03:51 - 04:18)

The hosts briefly discuss the monumental event of Black Sabbath performing their final concert, highlighting Ozzy Osbourne's nostalgic performance of "Mama, I'm Coming Home."

John Sklarov (03:51): "I'm ready to smoke the world with the rock and roll."

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4. 4th of July Reflections (04:30 - 06:42)

Luke and Andrew reflect on the complexities of celebrating Independence Day amid current societal and political climates. They ponder whether traditional festivities align with contemporary sentiments and discuss the influence of recent Supreme Court decisions.

Luke Burbank (05:14): "I feel like the main conversation that I had this fourth of July is what a weird fourth of July."

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5. New Phone Notifications and TikTok Pushes (06:54 - 12:21)

Andrew shares his frustrations with the push notifications on his new phone, particularly focusing on TikTok's intrusive prompts to connect with contacts like "Alex Silverman." The conversation delves into privacy concerns and the overwhelming nature of modern app notifications.

Andrew Walsh (07:26): "I got a new phone recently and one thing that I've sort of noticed is the things that are set to give me push notifications have sort of gotten shooken up a little bit."

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6. Bigfoot Sermons on TikTok (23:00 - 29:41)

A humorous and detailed discussion unfolds about bizarre AI-generated content on TikTok, specifically "Bigfoot Sermons." The duo descriptively breaks down these surreal megachurch sermons delivered by AI-apes, blending amusement with curiosity about AI's role in creative content.

Luke Burbank (23:00): "This is called Bigfoot Sermons, but it is an ape. It's a giant... AI ape."

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7. "Somebody Somewhere" and Family Reactions (34:33 - 42:39)

Luke shares a heartfelt narrative about introducing his parents to the HBO show "Somebody Somewhere," starring Bridget Everett. He expresses joy over his parents embracing diverse characters, highlighting the show's positive impact on their perceptions.

Luke Burbank (36:07): "It's so cool for them to get a chance to watch characters... without any references to their identities."

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8. Discussion of "The Wire" on Max (44:03 - 45:44)

The hosts reminisce about the acclaimed TV series "The Wire," discussing its narrative depth and character development. They share personal favorites and critique certain seasons, emphasizing the show's enduring legacy in television history.

Andrew Walsh (45:04): "I just feel like they couldn't. I felt like the docs was a big step down."

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9. TBTL Billboard Experiences and Listener Voicemail (55:27 - 60:45)

John narrates his encounter with the TBTL billboard in Friendship, Wisconsin, expressing delight over its reception. The episode features a voicemail from listener Laura, who praises the initiative and shares her positive experience visiting the billboard.

Listener Laura (59:58): "I just think it's really, really fun that you guys did this. It is not at all what I expected, but it is. I find it just delightful."

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10. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Plans (70:03 - 82:14)

As the episode winds down, Luke, Andrew, and John discuss their plans for the TBTLathon, including logistical details like venue setup and catering. They also share personal anecdotes and playful banter, wrapping up the episode on an upbeat note.

John Sklarov (66:59): "It's absolutely incredible."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Luke Burbank (00:12): "And obviously welcome to Vault four. Just some housekeeping."
• John Sklarov (03:51): "I'm ready to smoke the world with the rock and roll."
• Andrew Walsh (07:26): "I got a new phone recently and one thing that I've sort of noticed is the things that are set to give me push notifications have sort of gotten shooken up a little bit."
• Luke Burbank (05:14): "I feel like the main conversation that I had this fourth of July is what a weird fourth of July."
• Listener Laura (59:58): "I just think it's really, really fun that you guys did this."

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Conclusion

Episode #4504 of TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live offers a blend of humor, personal stories, and engaging discussions on contemporary issues and pop culture. From exploring the peculiarities of AI-generated sermons to celebrating community events in Friendship, Wisconsin, Luke and Andrew ensure listeners are both entertained and informed. Whether it's reflecting on the significance of the 4th of July or sharing heartfelt moments about family, this episode encapsulates the essence of TBTL's charm and camaraderie.

Transcript

[Luke Burbank]

Sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but our overseer wanted to say a quick hello. Overseer, Benjamin, this is Lucy and Titus.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hey, guys.

[Luke Burbank]

Just wanted to say hi.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello.

[Luke Burbank]

And obviously welcome to Vault four. Just some housekeeping. A few things to be aware of. Stay out of level 12. Obviously, we'd prefer you not go there. Oh, and we only have one foosball table, so if you want to play, you, you gotta sign up. If there's no pencil on the signup sheet, please let me know. I do have pencils. Oh, and if you're unfamiliar with how the bathrooms work, just ask. Asking is less embarrassing than getting it wrong.

[Andrew Walsh]

Trust me.

[Luke Burbank]

We've had incident after incident with newcomers. Okay, that should cover it. Any questions or concerns beyond foosball or pencils or bathrooms. Birdies available. And once again, welcome to Vault 4. We're glad to have you.

[Andrew Walsh]

TBTM. That was really, really, really terrible. But everyone does that kind of stuff sometimes. It happens like once or twice or three times in every life, but. Or twice or twice. I mean, one or once. How'd it go? Well, he's gonna acknowledge me on Instagram, so I guess you could say it was one of the best conversations of my entire life. I saved a life. My own.

[John Sklarov]

Am I a hero?

[Luke Burbank]

I really can't say.

[John Sklarov]

But yes.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm not very good with chit chat. I like a structured communication.

[Andrew Walsh]

I like a hard out.

[John Sklarov]

You.

[Luke Burbank]

Chit chat.

[Andrew Walsh]

Chit chat.

[John Sklarov]

Chit chat.

[Andrew Walsh]

Where are we going right now? It's kind of weird.

[John Sklarov]

I feel like I'm being interrogated, but.

[Andrew Walsh]

By someone who doesn't really want to.

[Luke Burbank]

Know anything important for the sake of customer service. Try to chill out my mom, Stinky. All right. Hello, good morning and welcome everyone, to a Monday edition of TBT all, the show that just might be beautiful to live.

[Andrew Walsh]

I say, what's up, dog?

[Luke Burbank]

My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host.

[John Sklarov]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

He admitted coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio perched high above the mighty Columbia. Absolutely beautiful day.

[John Sklarov]

Oh, ma pa.

[Luke Burbank]

It's just beautiful. As I watch my dad, my 70 something year old dad Walt, go up and down a ladder, replacing a window. The top story of my little house here as I sit in here talking to all of you for my job. What a weird. What a weird life. And yet, somehow it's been going on for so long. I'm talking about 4504 episodes of this in a collector's series, Let the Fun Begin. That's where we have arrived on this Monday, and we are going to get an update, a live update from Friendship, Wisconsin.

[Andrew Walsh]

Making Friends is the name of this.

[Luke Burbank]

Show where we have TBTL employee Numero uno, John Sklarov doing some very important advance work in advance of the TBTLathon. I don't even know what number of TBTLathon we're going to be on, but I do know it is going to start in two weeks, the 21st of July. We will be in Friendship, Wisconsin, broadcasting live from the Historical Society there on Main Street. So we're gonna hear what it's looking like down there, over there, up there, around there coming up. Also, Black Sabbath played its final concert this weekend.

[John Sklarov]

I'm ready to smoke the world with the rock and roll. Good deal.

[Luke Burbank]

And like, I'm not a Black Sabbath head, per se. I found it oddly affecting seeing Ozzy up there singing Mama, I'm coming home for the final time. So maybe we'll get into that also. We'll get into this guy's life. He's the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. Speaking of that rock and roll lifestyle, the man who brought the rock and.

[Andrew Walsh]

Roll edge to the Eagles.

[Luke Burbank]

By that, we mean Eagles Aerie number one on Lake City Way. He's Andrew Walsh and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[Andrew Walsh]

They told me to leave the rock and roll edge at the door. I said, I can't do that.

[Luke Burbank]

I noticed that the Aerie number one, the one that you belong to, was actually closed for the 4th of July, which makes sense. So the folks that work there can have their July 4th off. But it also seems like exactly the kind of place people might want to go on the 4th of July.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't. I didn't know that, but I don't know. Like, I love, I love our Eagles area, but it doesn't have, like an outdoor area. I think a lot of people, you know, because it's such a beautiful day, there would maybe be one or two people who would maybe sit in there and nurse a drink or two. But I also think it's like a staffing issue. I know that we're short staffed and everything. And so it probably just doesn't make sense to have somebody, you know, there just to take care of one or two customers and on the 4th of July. Although I guess you're thinking like, because it's like a fraternal organization, patriotic or whatever.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I guess maybe that would more be like the American Legion or something where people want to go on the 4th of July to, to feel patriotic. All this is of course, a very complicated fourth of July. I feel like the main conversation that I had this fourth of July is what a weird fourth of July. What a weird feeling to sort of live in this country and love this country and love the ideals of this country. But think about the current state of things and then ask yourself, should I put on some red, white and blue and go shoot off some fireworks over this?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, certainly. I mean even under the last administration, we have this pattern now in our world where the, like the Supreme Court clears its docket like right before the fourth of July. And the way the court has been for the past while now, it's always like this barrage of like anti freedom news that comes out like day days before we're supposed to go out there and celebrate our so called freedom or everybody's so called freedom. I'm doing fine. But yeah, so that's always been sort of an issue to me. I mean it kind of, you know, I don't know if I mentioned this on the show. I mean it kind of breaks my heart a little bit. Like somebody asked me to go to one of the baseball games around. I don't know if it was like the July 3rd fireworks night or the July 4th daytime game or what it was, but they asked like a month ago or more and I was like, no, I am steering clear of anything that will, you know, have the whiff of patriotism. I can't be around that. I can't.

[Luke Burbank]

As long as Neil Gorsuch can barbecue up some hot dogs on July 4th without a lot of important cases hanging over his head. We like him to be able to get that clear so that he can just really enjoy his fourth of July.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. I'm glad somebody's having a good time out there. Can I tell you something? This is, I'm. This is a huge change in the conversation. It's not cause I'm scared of it. It's just because I was doing something right as you were introducing me. And I'm just, I'm processing a lot of information here. And it begins with my phone and without sounding like a total luddite, I got a new phone recently and one thing that I've sort of noticed is the things that are set to give me push notifications have sort of gotten shooken up a little bit, if that makes sense.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, notifications are not particularly. Well, what would it be like? Not moderated, but curated at this point. Like you're getting. I get this from Safeway. Like, there is no one I want to hear from less than Safeway, but somehow they have snuck through my push notifications sort of rubric.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. Although for me, right now I'm not getting. Well, with the example that I'm about to give. I'm not getting tons of like, kind of spammy stuff, but it seems inconsistent with my old phone. Like, what is giving me updates and what isn't as far as apps are concerned? Because, like, I don't want to. I'm not trying to like Big Dog or whatever, but I, I have a Yahoo. Mail account that I still use. Like it's like my tertiary account or something like that. I know, it's just, it's. Yeah, there's a lot of privilege there in having this Yahoo. Account that it was my very first, like third party email account and I should, I guess I can't say the name of it. It's a ridiculous name. Yet I remember in like 1998 being surprised nobody had taken that. I was like, nobody's taken this name. Everybody in the newsroom was like, yeah, why would they take that email name?

[Luke Burbank]

Is it [e-mail] so that it's a play on the Australian actor Yahoo. Seriously from the 80s Yahoo.

[Andrew Walsh]

Serious film Festival really had.

[Luke Burbank]

That guy really had a moment. At least in the age cohort I was in. We talked a lot about Yahoo. Seriously in the 80s.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do you remember the Simpsons joke about the Yahoo. Sirius Film Festival? No. I have the drop of it here, but I think I cut out. Believe it or not, I had to cut out the Yahoo. Sirius reference because I wanted to make it work for us as a generic drop. It's Lisa looking. It must be the Simpsons Film Festival episode or something. Or maybe it's unrelated to that. Either way, there's some scene where she's walking under a marquee and it says, yahoo. Fear Yahoo. Serious Film Festival. And she says, I understand. I understand those words, but that sign makes no sense. As in, how could there be a Yahoo. Serious Film Festival? Yeah, I can't find it on the fly while I'm talking. Anyway, already making this too long. Point is, my new phone, for example, will not give me updates on my. Like when I get a Yahoo. Email, which is kind of important because sometimes I'm like trying to get through security on something. You know, I'm trying to get my baseball tickets or whatever. It's like, well, we've emailed you the confirmation link at your Yahoo. Email address. And it's kind like, oh, why am I not Getting notifications and why isn't Yahoo Serious here or whatever. So there are some apps that I could use a little bit more nudging from. But then there's another app that you have heard of, I believe, called TikTok, which I barely touch on my old phone. I got no notifications from TikTok. I must have just turned it off at one point because I don't really play in that space all that much. But when I got my new phone and started serving me up push notifications and I was like, I'll just.

[John Sklarov]

Just.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm so checked out from social media. I'll just, like, see what the push notifications on TikTok say from time to time. For some reason, I decided not to turn them off. One thing that I do believe I told my phone, though, was, no, TikTok, you cannot have access to my contacts. You know how when an app is new, it's like, hey, it would be great if I could have access to your contacts and then I can figure out who's on, who else is on this social media platform and maybe hook you up with old friends. And I'm like, no, no, those are my private contacts. I don't want Tiki talking. Going in there and reading my address book. Yeah, I swear I told it no. I swear I told it no. But I keep getting push notifications now that say, hey, you know, from your contacts, this person is on Tik Tok.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah. And that too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And that's a little. It feels a little. Because they asked. I'm pretty sure I said no because I. If I have this feeling, I wouldn't have said yes. Yet somehow TikTok decided just to go. I'm sure it's a good company. Like, I'm sure there's no security there. It's fine. But all of that is to say it. You know how you often will say now sort of in my head too, like when you say, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. And you take a drag, like, I keep on seeing these names. Yes. Because it's somebody I put in my address book as a professional contact years and years and years. Somebody I was booking or whatever. And just as you. Just as you were introducing me, I mean, I apologize.

[Luke Burbank]

Would I know this person?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that's the question. I know that you worked with this person. I think if I say this name, you will. It'll. I feel like it might be hard to get you to remember them because I don't think you were closely with them. But we did share a newsroom with this person at one point.

[Luke Burbank]

Is it James Reina Chevitz?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's not James Rena Chewitz? It's not somebody who is ever part of my social circle.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. This is a person. Was it Dan Restione?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's not Dan Restione. I would say that Dan was sort of adjacent to my social circle. This isn't somebody that you.

[Luke Burbank]

But this is somebody from Cairo.

[Andrew Walsh]

It is somebody from Cairo, but it's from, like. I'll tell you what, it's from the first Heather Bosch era. And it's not Tim Hank. It's not Tim Hake.

[Luke Burbank]

Tim Hake on Tick Tock. I would look at Tim Hake talk. I'd smash the like button. Yes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hake talk.

[Luke Burbank]

I love people are wondering if people are wondering. Yes. This is the part of the show where I just name people that Andrew and I used to kind of vaguely work with for one to two hours. That's what this is going to be. That's going to be the whole show today.

[Andrew Walsh]

When I say the Heather Bosch era, does that help you at all? Because I feel like this person and Heather Bosch were sort of, sort of on similar career. Career trajectories at the time. That's a very difficult thing for me to say.

[Luke Burbank]

So this. Was this person a reporter?

[Andrew Walsh]

This was a reporter.

[Luke Burbank]

Is it Jessica Gottesman?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I forgot about Jessica. Yes, of course.

[Luke Burbank]

So much fun for us and so unbelievably boring for you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Want to see another hamburger? Come on. This is.

[John Sklarov]

Is.

[Andrew Walsh]

This is going to be good for something.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, boy, oh, boy.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do we get any negative feedback on that?

[Luke Burbank]

I don't even know if that's on the Internet yet. I think John's been busy getting down to Friendship, Wisconsin. So we've had a slight delay, thankfully, in the world seeing just how you look great. You look. Absolutely.

[Andrew Walsh]

I look like a guy who's just casually eating a burger. It sucks.

[Luke Burbank]

I look like an absolute freak. This is from Friday's show when we tried to do this Big Mac challenge. I mean, it's like, you know, I. I won, but I lost. Okay? I managed to eat my Big Mac. Finish it three seconds before you did. But, like, at what cost to my soul and by. By the way, to my brand. I look so. I've got special sauce all over my face. My. My eyes are tearing up. I'm like. It was a. It's a bad look. Meanwhile, you just look like normal and chill. You're just like eating a burger.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. It's not. And again, I came very close to finishing in time. Not quite. As you said, it was all still in the upper deck. I didn't get the last swallow in, but I really. The. So in the moment. I mean, I just have never done a food challenge before, so I was really, like, kind of. I was beside myself for the rest of that show. And then, you know, even narrating your. Your.

[Luke Burbank]

Because you felt like you could have done it if I just.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, that and my. My. I had a lot of adrenaline and the stomach, and I was so hungry, but the food hadn't hit my stomachs. I eat it so fast. But I was just in my head about a lot of things. And so I don't think I was a good analyst of my own experience until later when you sent me just sort of a. Because I had never seen this on TikTok before. We're going to come back. You're going to continue to name people in the Cairo newsroom in the 2010. Is it Ursula Roytin? It's not Ursula. It's not Ursula. I don't think you're gonna think you're gonna get it. But I also could just do this forever. The question is, can you? I was just gonna say that I. Later on that evening, I think it's Friday night, your Thursday or something, you sent me a video of Rando, a young woman on TikTok, doing the challenge. And that was like the first time I'd ever seen anybody except for you and I do it. And then also rewatching you do yours, it really underscored the fact that this. Even putting aside the fact that I would have gagged on that sauce because I don't like that kind of sauce. The sauciness of that adds to the difficulty. I know we said, oh, well, to a certain degree, it can lubricate the experience of trying to eat this burger fast, but I'm seeing that it's all. It's an impediment. It's all over your face. At one point, like you said, you even wiped your face. Like it is caloric. Like there's a. There is. I had no idea there was so much sauce on a Big Mac because I ordered mine without it. And seeing you monsters do it, I'm like, no, I don't. I think with a sauce, I would have been like 20 seconds behind or 15 seconds behind. I think I have a bit of stolen valor is my point.

[Luke Burbank]

I listen, if the result for me would have been looking less freakish and. And I would have. It would have either taken me longer or short. I just wish I would have done whatever it would take for me to not look the way I look in that video. But you know what? The whole thing was my idea. And it will be going out on Instagram, I think, probably at some point today or tomorrow. So, you know, at the very least, we better get. People better smash that, like, button. It better get a lot of interaction because it is somewhat humiliating. Okay, back to naming nuts.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not Jessica Gottesman. That's such a good poll. And also I miss her. She was a good colleague.

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. A true professional. Jessica Gottesman. It's so this. It's not Aaron Covey, though, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

It's not Aaron Covey. I never had the pleasure.

[Luke Burbank]

It's not the voice of.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, Matt.

[Luke Burbank]

Pa.

[John Sklarov]

It's just beautiful.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nope, it's not that. And it's not. I also never had the pleasure of meeting the person who was a TBTL legend for her discussion of Ross Dress for Less.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, sure. That was Katie Springer.

[Andrew Walsh]

Katie Springer, who went on to have. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Produce various. Absolutely. So that. So it's not Katie Springer.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nope. Never met her. Always a fan, though.

[Luke Burbank]

But I wouldn't have I heard this person's name.

[Andrew Walsh]

I mean, that's why I think this game is so interesting, because I'm sure you've had conversations, conversations with this person while they were at Cairo, but it just wasn't somebody we paled around with. I will say that.

[Luke Burbank]

And I want to translate to the listeners Andrew Means palled around with. He doesn't mean put into a bucket and carried around.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think it's fine. Volkswagen. You said Volkswagen twice on Friday. I didn't interrupt. I wouldn't let it lie. But anyway, so that's why I think this is interesting is it's just. And I will. I mean, do you want gender? Do you want more details?

[Luke Burbank]

Yes, I do.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay. I will say that this was a young man. He was a bit younger than us, but he seemed like he was going places. And he was.

[Luke Burbank]

He was a young man who was at Cairo. He was doing news updates.

[Andrew Walsh]

He was not doing news updates. He was a reporter.

[Luke Burbank]

A reporter. Okay. Who was out there in the field going places, doing things. Was it Jason Brooks?

[Andrew Walsh]

It was not Jason Brooks, who's not.

[Luke Burbank]

Also not younger than us, but is a reporter that worked there when we worked there.

[Andrew Walsh]

I didn't know that. I don't think I knew Jason Brooks. That might have been before my time or I'm forgetting Jason Brooks.

[Luke Burbank]

Can you give me another Hint to get me towards this person's name when.

[Andrew Walsh]

I say he was going places, he was going to New York City. Which is one of the reasons I connect him also with Heather, because they both got gigs at wnyc. Not wnyc. Whatever. The. The big New York. I think the actual New York, cbs. I think they got. They got sucked up into the network that.

[Luke Burbank]

Like 10, 10 wins maybe or something. I don't know who the CBS station is in New York. You think I would know?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I think it was the network, though. I think it was cbs.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, yeah, sure, sure. The cbs. The network office. Yeah, cbs.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm pretty sure him. And wow.

[Luke Burbank]

I feel like I would have been. I would have tracked this because I would have been like, you know, impressed. I would have been like, bully for them. If you, if you managed to go from, from Cairo, from the local station to the national level. That does not, that does not ring any bells for me.

[Andrew Walsh]

As far as this person, Alex Silverman.

[Luke Burbank]

That name is familiarish. I don't think I ever worked with. Maybe briefly I worked with that person.

[Andrew Walsh]

Like, we definitely worked in the same office. I know that I. Because I never worked there when you didn't. Right. Was there a period maybe you weren't allowed to?

[Luke Burbank]

It's part of the contract.

[Andrew Walsh]

I had to wait outside. I said, yeah, will you buzz me in? They said, only Luke can buzz you in. I was like, but I have to go potty. And they said, nope, only Luke. I was like, all right. So I just read. But he like, I say like, I'm not surprised you don't remember because he, he was just on it. He came in, I believe he was. We were already working there. He came in. He was maybe there for a year and then was just like, again, like a real gangbusters. He kind of reporter, not flashy, but just kind of like business and just like on. On an upward trajectory. I'm going to keep using that word until it feels normal in my mouth. And then he did. He went to New York and then he's bounced around. I see his was there in. In la, which it looks like maybe they had.

[Luke Burbank]

He's director of news and programming.

[Andrew Walsh]

Unfortunately. Yes. Unfortunately, though, it looks like that has come to an end with belt tightening or whatever it says that. But I mean, this is a man who is drawing headline. When you type in his name. He draws headlines in various media, on various media websites, which, you know, they're. They're not like, it's not the New York Times. These. What am I looking at Radio Inc. Daily Headlines here. But I'm certainly not. They're not spilling any radio ink on me, I'll tell you that much.

[Luke Burbank]

So you're getting these invites on TikTok to follow these people that are in the sort of distant past of your life or the outer rings of your life. I remember the first few times that happened to me when I was looking at TikTok. I didn't understand that. Well, what was actually happening was I would see people doing TikToks who were in my contacts. That's another form of this. So it's not even just going, do you want to follow so? And so it's just delivering them. It's delivering their content to me because it. They know. It knows that that person is in my contacts. And so they think maybe I'll be more intrigued by the content. But I didn't realize that's what was happening. So there were a couple of people who I thought, oh, my God, is this such and such person a Tick Tock celebrity?

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, I was. I was literally like. I was like starstruck that I was seeing random friends of mine or random people that I've known it who are also contacts on my phone doing a TikTok. I was like, holy, Is it happening for them? Are they going viral? Am I just observing? And then I realized, no, no, it's just because they're one of my contacts. Tick Tock, trying to get me to look at their stuff.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. And again, I'm not somebody who is freaking out over Tick Tock or, like, I didn't really weigh in emotionally about the. About banning of Tick Tock, the unbanning of Tick Tock, any of those things. But I do just sort of feel like, yeah, if there's one company that I don't. Well, I mean, I guess any of them. Again, there's a. That thing is like, the. What they kept on saying the. The red carpenter, the reds, but they would say the communist China is on your phone or whatever. And it's like, yeah, so's awful. Facebook and so is awful. I logged into WhatsApp for the first time. I'm like, oh, this is a meta thing too. Like, I don't want any of them rooting around in my stuff. But it does sort of feel like TikTok is kind of like, hey, I keep trying to give you this candy and you're not. You're not walking down this candy lane that I'm kind of making for you. So I can. Am I doing a. Am I Doing a Hansel and Gretel thing here. I don't know what. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing, but I feel like TikTok is like. It keeps on trying to sweeten the pot for me with these push notifications, and it's like, hey, what about, hey, your pal Alex Silverman is on tick tick tock, don't you. How about that, Andrew? I'm just like, no, I just keep ignoring them. I guess I should just turn off the push notifications. But you still got. You still got TikTok just rooting around in my. My. My junk drawer of contact information.

[Luke Burbank]

And meanwhile, all they need to put on their TikTok for me to watch it is amputee babies singing Bless the Lord, O my soul. That's the content. That's the content that I look for. And they've got me. If they just keep producing, they don't need to tell me about my contacts. Just keep. And then also. Sasquatch.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, please. I wanted to ask you if you could talk about this now, because I.

[Luke Burbank]

Know that you've described as a Sasquatch, Pastor, Although it's. There's so much wrong with this one. It's not a Sasquatch. I don't know if you've watched these things yet.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, no, no. I've seen in the show. You said you're obsessed with this. I need you to describe this to me. Leave no detail out.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay. First of all, I've got to actually go find this. You think even though it's been on the show sheet for over. Over a weekend now, you think, I would have this at the ready. But let me go find. I think I was, of course, texting it with our friend, television's Chris Hayes, because our main form of discourse now is just comparing notes on truly weird stuff we see on TikTok. But basically, it's listed as. It's called, like, it's called a Sasquatch.

[Andrew Walsh]

But again.

[Luke Burbank]

Okay, here we go. It's called. I found it. It's. It's listed as Bigfoot Sermons. Okay, so. But it's very clearly an AI ape. But this AI ape is huge and very buff and wearing, like, one of those megapaster, like, headsets.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh.

[Luke Burbank]

As it's preaching. And this. And it's naked, but it's holding a towel, like a gym towel, and it's pacing the stage of a megachurch where it's giving a sermon. This is a. It's called Bigfoot Sermons. But again, I can't overstress this. It is an ape. It's a giant. It's a giant. It's a giant. Like Lord. Like Lord of the. Or Planet of the Apes style ape. And he is again, he's naked, holding a gym towel, pacing on the church on a megachurch stage. And this is what the ape is saying.

[John Sklarov]

Will you accept the free gift of Christ's salvation?

[Luke Burbank]

Now, this is where it gets really weird because now it cuts to a different ape who. This one is weirdly is dressed and is playing the keyboard. This somber keyboard music that you're hearing in the background. A very, very contemplative, different monkey who again has clothes on, is playing the. The keyboard for this.

[Andrew Walsh]

To be honest, we don't deserve it.

[Luke Burbank]

Then there's another monkey who's in a suit, who's on the drums, who's just got his head bowed in quiet contemplation of everything.

[John Sklarov]

We didn't earn his salvation.

[Luke Burbank]

His mercy alone cuts back to this enormous, massively buff naked ape with the headset microphone and the hand towel, standing behind the.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's the voice we're hearing.

[Luke Burbank]

It's the pastor.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes. I feel like the voice doesn't match the. I'm. I'm purposely not watching this. I just want to go along for the ride the way you're setting it up. But I'm having a real disconnect between what I'm picturing and the voice coming out of this. I wanted it to be more Planet of the Apes. Y. I think, yeah, it's, it's.

[Luke Burbank]

It is like there's a bunch of different things that kind of don't make sense about. This is the only reason we have it now. There is a choir sitting. There's a choir of gorillas that are all wearing choir robes and reading the Bible and sitting behind him, just listening. Again with great concentration.

[Andrew Walsh]

Paul tells Titus. But when the kindness and love of.

[Luke Burbank]

God our Savior appeared and the monkey is the pastor monkey, the pastor gorilla is now resting one hand on a Lucite like lectern, like podium. He's got his towel hand on the podium while he's just casually talking about this. And then somehow attached to his body. It's unclear how is the battery pack for the headset microphone. I don't know how they attached it to his fur. Like when I'm doing a TV shoot, that has to go in my belt, you know, kind of. They hook it into my belt. There doesn't appear to be anything holding the battery pack on his body, but he's got it.

[Andrew Walsh]

He saved us. Not because of righteous things we had.

[Luke Burbank]

Done, but because of his mercy. I'll point out also that this pastor gorilla is not anatomically correct. He is naked, but we do not see any of his gorilla parts. They have.

[Andrew Walsh]

The towel is dropped.

[Luke Burbank]

He's been holding the towel in his hand.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, I thought I'd been picturing it like he just got out of the shower and it's wrapped around his waist.

[Luke Burbank]

No, he's holding it like he just got done doing a set at the gym.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, no. I have bad weaknesses on me. Oh. This whole time I'm picturing him like, so I see he's just holding it sort of. Okay, locker room.

[Luke Burbank]

He's just holding like a. Yeah, a hand towel in one hand for some reason as he sort of strolls around the stage. Now, here's the other thing about this content. This is oddly very, very comforting for me because it is a style of preaching that I grew up with. I mean, and peace and love to my dad, Walt, who I'm currently looking at right now. My dad was the pastor of our church for a while. I would say the sermons, whether it was my dad or even the pastors that preceded him at the church at Gospel Outreach Christian Fellowship, I would say some pastors have a way with words. Some less have way. Like, this is high level, like mega church pastor, you know, sort of sermonizing that's going on that you're hearing in this tape. You're hearing a person who's really dialed in the kind of emotional impact of what they're saying and how to really deliver this in a way. And like, the contemplative music behind like this is. This is high grade stuff that's going on.

[Andrew Walsh]

The patience. Have those swells, right? The patience and the confidence in your words that you can just let it sit there for a long time.

[Luke Burbank]

Exactly. That. This is. This is elite sermonizing going on here. But it is. It's sort of in the neighborhood of what I grew up with. And it again, all of the terminology they're using about, you know, basically, we didn't deserve this. We don't like this whole big part of the evangelical sort of. I don't know what you call it, dogma, that like, we're. We're complete POS's and we don't deserve the love that God shows us. But he did it anyway. That whole kind of rap, it's like very. It takes me back to a very young place because I grew up listening. Let's listen to another one.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know, it bothers me Sometimes I, I think the, the God doesn't know people can change, Luke. God doesn't know.

[Luke Burbank]

You think this is slicked. This is pushed back.

[Andrew Walsh]

Wait, hold on. You said another one. I, I am very into this, by the way. I could do the, the rest of the show like this, but.

[Luke Burbank]

What.

[Andrew Walsh]

So is that the end of that one? Are you.

[Luke Burbank]

That's the end. Well, here there's about seven more seconds.

[John Sklarov]

Your.

[Luke Burbank]

The monkey choir starts singing. But I can't stress this enough. Again, all AI generated and. But very hyper realistic. So that's something called Bigfoot sermons, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Huh.

[Luke Burbank]

But there's also something called gospel. There's also something called Gospel with Bigfoot. There's a whole different feed of a different monkey who's preaching. This one's wearing only a polo shirt. Only a polo shirt. Let's see what this guy sounds like. This guy's supposedly. If it'll play for us anyway, it's Proverbs. Oh, it doesn't want to play for some reason. This is interesting. I wonder why. Well, this, this file may be it played for somebody else. There's 94, 000 likes on it. It just says Bible sermon with Bigfoot and then it says Proverbs. So I assume that this Bigfoot slash monkey is going to be talking about the book Proverbs. But this guy just has only a polo shirt on and no pants and he has got the same kind of headset mike.

[Andrew Walsh]

A little bit different.

[Luke Burbank]

Let's see, there's another one called Gospel with Bigfoot says stop scrolling and listen to God. Let's see what this guy has to say. This is yet a different. This one is, I will say, more Bigfootish than the other ones. For some reason, Gospel with Bigfoot does not want to play on my computer, which is quite disappointing. But my point is that there's a whole subsection of TikTok right now is people somehow using AI to create monkey like vaguely Sasquatch ish characters that are basically giving megachurch sermons.

[Andrew Walsh]

So it's not often that I have the perfect idea, but I have the perfect idea because I want to see something. And it occurred to me, oh, this could be the show. I mean, it might seem a little exploitative, but I'll just run it by you and you let me know what you think.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

So obviously, especially as you were describing that first video in great detail, yet somehow I still got some of the details wrong.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I said he has a towel. I could see why you would imagine he'd be wearing it.

[Andrew Walsh]

He could Naked, except for a towel. So. But what I'm sitting here thinking is, how would your dad react to this if you just put a phone in front of him and said, hey, Walt, what do you make of this? Just take it all in and then give me a reaction. I'd be interested in that. And then I was like, oh, actually, your mom too. And then I'm like, you know what I'd love? I'd love to just have eyes on an audio on, like your dad watching this for the first time and then your mom watching it for the first time separately. Then they get together with you and you all have a conversation about what you just watched and their reaction to it and how they interpret it. Because, I mean, I think there's a lot of interesting things here. I mean, the birth of AI is a weird, scary thing, but people always have opinions about it. But then also, you know, coming from, you know, kind of a preaching background, I'd be interested in your dad's perspective on this whole thing as well. But you don't give him any context. You just say, watch this and let's react.

[Luke Burbank]

And so then would we. Would I present the results tomorrow?

[Andrew Walsh]

I think this is a new podcast and this is a whole new. I think it needs spin off. I think it's a spin off podcast. I think that maybe what we do is every. When I say we, I mean, you.

[Luke Burbank]

Called Sasquatch and with Susie Squatch, it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, something along. There's something in there, certainly. But I don't trust myself to riff on anything regarding anybody's mom. It just seems like. Is it called I'm so bad at Crypto Zoo?

[Luke Burbank]

Waltigy.

[Andrew Walsh]

See, you don't need me. You don't need me for this. But you're an idea man. Yes, I think I proved that with Sasquatch Mountain. We just. Maybe you show them a new AI thing every week. But I definitely would. I'm definitely unironically interested in hearing their pure, unfiltered, with no context reaction to this particular video.

[Luke Burbank]

What I will try to do when I get done here, we get done with this show today. What I will try to do because my mom's leaving midday at some point, and then I'm actually getting on a plane and going to New York City tonight. So I'll try to play this for them and get their reaction maybe during my dad's lunch break and see what they have to say about it. Here's my prediction. I think my dad will in some way connect it to Donald Trump because he Connects everything to Donald Trump. Like we were watching CBS Sunday Morning yesterday and there was a really lovely piece by Mo Rocca on there about the history of the Statue of Liberty, which I did not actually realize that the Statue of Liberty was originally created at the base of the Statue of Liberty there are broken chains. And it was, it was, it was obviously a Statue of Liberty, but it was, it was related to the fact that slavery had finally been outlawed in the United States. Like, it wasn't an immigration thing. Except for the fact that Emma Lazarus, who wrote, of course, famously the inscription that's now at the base of the Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus had written that poem, or whatever you want to call it, about, you know, bringing your huddled masses yearning to be free. But it wasn't. The Statue of Liberty was not pitched as a, it wasn't an immigration thing. It just so happened that Ellis island was set up like across the harbor from the Statue of Liberty. And so it became then very much associated with people coming to this country from other places. But that was not the original intent of the thing.

[Andrew Walsh]

The intent. So the intent as. Because it was a gift, right. I don't know really much about it.

[Luke Burbank]

There's a gift from France.

[Andrew Walsh]

From France. And this was. So it was, I think I did remember that it was post Civil War, but it was, the gift was actually related to the end of slavery here.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it was just, I don't, I don't know if it was expressly an anti slavery statement, but it was a statement about liberty. And it was not immigration. It was not like, this is the statue that will welcome people that are coming, coming to America from other places. That was not the original intent. And in fact, you know, of course it was a gift from France, but the problem was America still needed to pay for building the entire sort of foundation and the whole whatever you would call it, that the Statue of Litter was going to go on, which is kind of huge itself.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was just talking the other day. It's kind of like, it's like getting somebody a big piece of like wall art for their home. It's like, you better really know these people and know that they have a space, space on their walls for something. Like you can be a little framed. Yeah, it is framed, right?

[Luke Burbank]

So bas, we were going to get this statue, but the problem was in order to build the place where it was going to go, that cost a bunch of money and Congress had no interest in funding it. So they had a mini Statue of Liberty that they would bring around the Capitol Showing to people like, hey, we're going to get a big one of these. And we would need to raise the money to actually get the thing that it's going to go on paid for.

[Andrew Walsh]

What is this? A Statue of Liberty for ants?

[Luke Burbank]

I think. I think the Statue of Liberty tended to undermine.

[Andrew Walsh]

That's right. They say good cultural references for that. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

But anyway, we're watching this piece. It's a.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's.

[Luke Burbank]

It's. Again, it's. You know, it's. It's Mo Rocca, who I love, and it's really informative. And we're joining it. My mom and I are sitting there. My dad comes in from outside, whatever he was doing, and he's like, huh? And I'm thinking, oh, he's going to enjoy this piece. And then he just goes like, well, I'm sure Trump's going to figure out a way to undo it or something. He starts muttering about Trump and then.

[Andrew Walsh]

Walks out the door. Yeah. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I was like, Walt. I was like, you know, again, I am very happy that my parents are on the side of this that, you know, my parents got obsessed with over the weekend. Somebody Somewhere, the show on HBO that is, you know, starring Bridget Everett, who I'm actually on my way to interview. That's who I'm interviewing in New York this week and also Manhattan, Kansas. And I told my folks, I was like, hey, you know, there's this really great show called Somebody Somewhere, and I'm gonna be going to interview the star of it. You guys might enjoy it. And I totally forgot that, like, one of the. I don't think you've watched that show, have you?

[Andrew Walsh]

No, I haven't. Now there are more and more people in my life who are disappointed or angry at me for not watching it.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I don't think that's fair. I'm not. I'm neither of those two. But I do think it's a really good show that you would enjoy. I'm constantly recommending it to people, including my parents. And then I remember, oh, yeah. And I'm gonna use a. I'm gonna use a word here that we don't use on the show. Well, maybe I'll spell it there. I forgot that there is a point in the show where Bridget Everett's character, her sister, kind of opens this sort of Etsy thing that becomes very, very popular. And what she's doing is she's selling pillows that say C U N T on them.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay.

[Luke Burbank]

It's, like, stitched onto the pillows. And, like, there's just Like a bunch of things like that that don't, doesn't even, I don't bat an eye to that. But then my 70 something year old parents, you know, they don't see the C u n T word on a pillow a lot.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah. When you're watching it, you're not watching it with that filter of like, what if I was done with my folks watching this?

[John Sklarov]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

So I was like at Becca's house over the weekend and I called and I was like, so when I left my house on Friday after we had done a tbtl, I, I, my parents were starting to watch the show, but it was like the middle of the day, my dad was already falling asleep. It was like two of the afternoon, my dad was falling asleep. There was something about watching that show when it's bright daylight out felt weird to me too. Like I was like, this is the worst possible way for these people to get into this show that I really like and that I want them to enjoy. Right. And so I leave and I'm like, this is never gonna work. And then I call them the next day and I go, did you get through that episode? They go, we're on season three.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, wow.

[Luke Burbank]

They fully just binged the show. And they were like, it is a little fresh. It is a little fresh, but we're enjoying it. And then it was so cute because when I got home yesterday, it was all they wanted to talk about, the plot of the show. Another thing that's really beautiful about this show is, is that it is a story of a kind of a group of people that are living in Manhattan, Kansas, who are all friends, who are, most of them are, you know, LGBTQ + or are somehow just not in the sort of. Right down the middle, I don't know what you'd call it. Kind of typical Manhattan, Kansas person, right? She has this group of friends that are a really diverse group of folks and they have all kinds of different things going on, but it's just this really awesome, loving portrait of what a group of friends like this looks like. It's also a of group that my parents don't spend a huge amount of time considering in their day to day life. You know, folks who are like, I actually don't know if this character is trans or a drag, a drag king. And I don't honestly totally know where one stops and one begins. It's a person who definitely is living their life. Male, who was a born female, assigned at birth or whatever you would say. But they just like, this character's Named Fred. Fred is so great on the show. And they just, like. My parents are just like. Like, love this Fred character. And I'm like, this is so great because this. My parents do not spend a huge amount of time in the company of people who are, you know, LGBTQ+ and stuff, but they've, like, it's so. I don't want to sound. I don't want to sound paternalistic or anything towards my parents, but it's so cool to. For them to get a chance to watch characters. And by the way, that's not the. Or that's not even brought up about the character. That's not the point of the character's existence in the show. Yeah, there's just a friend of the main character and they're on a softball team together, and it is literally never referenced.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Yeah, I like that.

[Luke Burbank]

And it's so.

[Andrew Walsh]

It just.

[Luke Burbank]

It makes me so happy. It makes me so happy that my parents are here for it. It makes me so happy that they. That they're finding entertaining that they then want to talk about the characters. I just think it's so. It's so good and it's kind of fun that I'm getting to go talk to Bridget Everett.

[John Sklarov]

It.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm going to try to not. What are the chances in the interview that I'll start talking about my parents watching the show and I'll start crying?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

What's north of 100%?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Actually, have you gotten significantly choked up doing a CBS thing?

[Luke Burbank]

Not that I remember. There might be an example that I'm forgetting, but it just definitely has the chance of being that. Just because, again, whatever. It's like. It's not like. It's not like this is changing the world or something, but just this idea of. Of my parents getting to just have the normalcy of other people's lives, particularly other people who have a very different lived experience than them, that the normalcy of it reinforced for them I just think is amazing and really good and really, like, just. And that they're here for it. That they weren't like, we don't, you know, we don't approve of the lifestyle of these, you know, characters or whatever. They don't even give a shit. They're like, this was really funny when this person did that thing. And I'm just like, yes, this is. It's working. The propaganda is working.

[Andrew Walsh]

The propaganda. Yeah. You know, this is the future liberals want. That's so funny.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, that's all. That's all we have at this point is Somebody, Subway. We're losing on every front.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Except this one HBO show that is like actually super heartfelt and like, you know, is gonna win over again. Not that my parents needed particularly winning over. So then this is what happens after that. Andrew. My mom goes. Because now they've. My mom has watched the entire show. My dad is think maybe, you know, got up to like, he needs to watch two more episodes or whatever. But like, then we're sitting out on the deck last night and my mom goes, have you ever watched the Wire?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. You want to watch it together, Mom?

[Luke Burbank]

We did last night. We started the Wire, me and Walt and Suze. My mom was like, it's got 87% on rotten tomatoes.

[Andrew Walsh]

She loves it.

[Luke Burbank]

Is the lens through which my mother.

[Andrew Walsh]

87%. How is it not 100?

[Luke Burbank]

Season one. Season two gets a higher.

[Andrew Walsh]

I think travesty. Season one is the docs.

[Luke Burbank]

You don't think the docs were as good?

[Andrew Walsh]

I thought the Dax. I do like some of the characters they introduced and I only watched that show once all the way through. It's been years, but I just remember season one being the high watermark not just of that show, but of TV in general. And I just sort of felt like they couldn't. I felt like the docs was a big step down. Yeah, I thought I did.

[Luke Burbank]

I did. I did think the docs were less compelling for me than season one. I think I felt like then season two and three kind of got back on track for me. I would have to rewatch the Baltimore sun season to try to remember if. If. If you know where that one listed for me. But. But because there was schools.

[Andrew Walsh]

So the first one was just like the low rises and everything. Then there was like getting to know the. The universe. And then season two was Doc. Season three was maybe. Does that take place in the schools?

[Luke Burbank]

Maybe.

[Andrew Walsh]

And then the newspaper is that it was.

[Luke Burbank]

The newspaper was one of them. Well, K Government, right.

[Andrew Walsh]

Than the Karketi one. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel like again, it's just. I think it's whatever. I don't have to get into analyzing the Wire, but they just came out of the gate so strong. And talk about a show that was like, this is going to be a difficult thing for you, the audience to keep up with, but we trust you. And I just love it when a show trusts the audience does. They don't over explain. It's not corny. It's not ice tea explaining the drug of the week on a procedural. You know what I mean? It's just Kind of like this is going to be really confusing. You're just have to keep up and maybe watch it again. Anyway, go ahead.

[John Sklarov]

That.

[Luke Burbank]

So we watched episode one with the closed captioning very much on. I've never seen the N word represented in closed captioning this much in my life. And then me pausing it. I couldn't tell if it was annoyingly so or if it was helpful to just kind of contextualize a little bit. Like, okay, this is Jimmy McNulty. This is what this is. You know why everybody's mad at him in the first episode? Because he's kind of like. He sort of of pointed out that there were these guys, you know, this criminal syndicate that was basically throwing cases, that they were having a lot of influence and that nothing was being done about it. Which then launches this special detail that's going to go and like what it was, Andrew. It was like I walked into. It was like I walked into a, you know, a room somewhere that was full of dear, dear friends of mine who I haven't thought about for. Yeah. Or 20 years.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was just like, Kima, yes, right. You know what I mean? She's like, oh my God.

[Luke Burbank]

Like, it's just like bunk.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh man, it's just like every single watch this week, aren't I?

[Luke Burbank]

I'm getting back in every single character. I was just like, oh my God, I love you. Like I haven't thought about you in forever and here you are. It was so much fun. Also, I totally forgot Michael B. Jordan is in it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah, right. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

He's one of the kids, you know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, yeah. That's how he kind of got his start. Right, right.

[Luke Burbank]

I totally forgot that he was part of this, you know, just like. Anyway, it's just, I mean, cannot recommend highly enough if you, if you have watched the Wire re watching it or if you haven't watched it, starting it now. I mean, again, it does take a little time investment to figure out what's going on, but it's really, really. I just did not ever see the day when me and my parents would be sitting down to watch the Wire on a Sunday night.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, well, you've always said that's your favorite Max show. I mean, that's what you've always said. Just like you love a nice Sunday evening. You sit down with Max.

[Luke Burbank]

I love it. Right. When I'm done watching the entire catalog of man versus food also available through Max, then I bop over to some prestige Max. It's not television, it's Max classic.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello and welcome to Top Story.

[Luke Burbank]

All right, Our top story today is that the TBTL a thon is mere weeks away. You might even say week away. We will be in Friendship, Wisconsin, broadcasting from the Historical Society there on Main Street. And this has been something that has been in the works for a long time. We've been trying to sort of monitor this stuff, I guess from the Internet. I think all three of us, Andrew, at some point or another have been on like a Google street map, just like walking around Friendship, Wisconsin, trying to figure out out what the scene was and also where our billboard was going to be, because that's where our TVTL billboard currently is. By the way, love the photos of people driving up to the billboard and taking pictures in front of it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

In fact, we got a photo like that this morning from our own John Sklarov, TBTL employee, numero uno, call it friendo, who is actually calling in live right now from ahoy hoy, Friendship, Wisconsin, where he finally, a TBTL employee, has actually been in Friendship, Wisconsin. Can actually see what the scene is like. What is the scene like there, John?

[John Sklarov]

Oh, it is a beautiful day in rural Wisconsin. I'm standing currently at the lake at the park where we're at picnic. It's. It's incredible, guys. It's really nice.

[Luke Burbank]

Do we know what the name of the lake is it? Friendship Lake or Lake Friendship or, you.

[John Sklarov]

Know, I think it's Castle Rock. It's Castle Rock park where the, where we are. I guess that's a reveal we haven't specifically mentioned. I think that's the name of the actual park. I should know.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nothing bad ever happens in Castle Rock. That's good.

[John Sklarov]

No, that's Castle Lee Rock you're thinking of. So it's a different situation.

[Luke Burbank]

Kathy Lee Rock.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, but it's the lake here. This is interesting. This was new to me when I moved to Midwest because in Minnesota we have similar things. It's a part of the Wisconsin River. And actually, actually after talking to Michael at the Historical society because of the dam, they've dammed up the river. It created this lake, but it's just, it's a part of the actual river. It's not a standalone lake.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, interesting. Okay, so that's where we're gonna have our meetup on Friday. Right. Just to reiterate for folks, it's absolutely free. Have we decided on the time yet? Are we still. I mean, we haven't announced the time.

[Andrew Walsh]

We haven't announced it, but I think we've agreed on it. The three business Boys. Right.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, then.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Should we then just. Should we just say it's going to be 5pm local? Is that going to be the meetup time?

[John Sklarov]

Yep, that's what I have it down as.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay, good.

[Luke Burbank]

Wow, that silence really scared me. Maybe I had said something I shouldn't have said.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're all being too polite. No, no. 5pm yes. And this is a very TB tale in the way we're rolling this out. We're all kind of like searching our memories. When did we say? 5pm so it's. So it's Castle Rock Park. That's the name of the park, John.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah. Oh, see, I literally just drove past the welcome sign. But I believe the time, the details will be in this week's newsletter, right?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's right.

[John Sklarov]

If you're not subscribed, subscribe today.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, we're gonna have all the details for this meetup. And the meetup is on the Friday of the TBT elephant, which I believe is the 25th, if I'm. If my memory is working right. 5pm at this park. And we are sending out a little rsvp. Obviously, it's free to attend, but we're just trying to get a headcount so we know how much food and stuff to bring. So anyway, that is what's gonna be happening at the end of the Thawne. But I'm very excited about what's gonna happen during the Thon as well. So we're trying to set it up so that we're gonna have a little broadcast studio. We're gonna turn like, I guess a conference room or something in the Historical Society right there in downtown. Friendship. In the heart of friendship. We're gonna turn this into a little radio studio at the Historical Society. And you've checked out the.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah.

[Andrew Walsh]

How is this going to go?

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, it's so cool. So I actually did a little tour with Michael, the guy that we've been in contact with. Very friendly, wonderful guy. He showed me around the. The. The Historical Society at one point, for a long time was a bank. So there's. There's vaults in there in case you need to find important information up or case anyone needs to get locked in. I don't know what. That's. That's. We shouldn't do that, you guys.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know I'm a werewolf, right, you guys? So there is going to be a time when you're going to need to implement those vaults.

[John Sklarov]

Is there a full moon? Is there a full moon while we're here? Yeah. So. So I got to walk around Michael, see their office space, see the upstairs and the actual museum portion of it, which is really fascinating, really interesting stuff. And then in the front of the form. The front. The front of the building is this conference room area and there's big windows that open up onto Main Street. I think we've. We've kind of described as. It's real northern exposure vibes to it. I don't think there will be any grizzly bears or anything walking around. But it's got a real. It's really quaint little cute downtown. In friendship. There are three bars literally two next door and one across the street down the Fan Pack.

[Luke Burbank]

Wisconsin does historically lead the nation in alcohol consumed per capita.

[Andrew Walsh]

I believe I was bummed is one of those bars. You're counting though the res recently defunct out of Luck Tavern. Because I saw. Did you guys see that? I think I sent you a screen cap. There's like a. It looks like a small little bar, like neighborhood bar, maybe even a dive bar. And the sign says out of Luck Tavern. And I think it's a guy maybe pulling his empty pockets out of his pants.

[Luke Burbank]

How could a place like that go out of business?

[Andrew Walsh]

That's what I want to know. It looks so much like my kind of place. But when I was looking at it on Google Maps the other day, it said it was. It was closed down.

[John Sklarov]

Down. It might. Avlock might have been one. I note all the names of all. One was Family Affair Restaurant was one of them. But you say. You say a dive bar. Andrew. I'm pretty sure every bar in this community would classify with no disrespect. I love this town driving around it. But I think they would all be quote unquote dive bars.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, that's kind of forward to.

[Luke Burbank]

They've got casino games in the Last Call Pub and Grub.

[Andrew Walsh]

Last Call Pub and Grub. Oh, I haven't heard.

[Luke Burbank]

We'd love to see that. It looks like. It looks like you can play those. Those slot machines. We can support. Support the state of Wisconsin educational programs one spin at a time.

[Andrew Walsh]

You know one thing, John. This is going to get a little bit personal and I hope it's okay to say this, but when we. When we brought you on board, when we knew that we wanted to go independent, of course we knew that we wanted to do it, the three of us, but we had to, you know, set up a proper job description for you. And I'm pretty sure there's a line in there that says other duties as assigned or something along the lines of access. Yeah, boilerplate. Other duties include being the designated driver for the business boys, because I believe this town is about 10 miles away from where we're actually staying. Is that correct? So we're going to need you to be ferrying me back and forth.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, I did drive. Did the. Excuse me. If there's some background noise, there's some people driving in and out of the park. I did drive from our air. From the Historical Society to our Airbnb to see how I go about. I think it's about nine, 10 miles, but super straight shot, like a couple turn two or three times when you're there. I think Andrew, though, because that will be after hours. That's. That's no longer other duties. That's nine to five.

[Luke Burbank]

There's got to be a Friendship Wisconsin Cab Service that we could avail. Maybe become friends with him. I can already tell you it's a guy with a cell phone.

[Andrew Walsh]

I was going to say, if there's a cab service, it is a person named Ted, probably. And we will get to know him.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, when you call him, he will just answer his cell phone and he will come get you and take you to where you need to go.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Unless he's taking Doreen somewhere.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, Doreen, I think is on Wednesdays, right. Because she has bingo on Wednesdays.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, Yeah, I was gonna say. I was gonna say because I like Genevieve a lot. Andrew, I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you. How's that?

[Andrew Walsh]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[John Sklarov]

A wonderful person. I'll make sure you're safe.

[Andrew Walsh]

Great.

[Luke Burbank]

Excellent. So the Historical Society. So this room that we're gonna be broadcasting from, it opens right out, or it looks right out onto Main Street.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, yeah, it's right there. There's. Yeah, it's right there. It's really. It's really incredible stuff.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now you guys are. Well, Luke might be mad if I brought this up, but is. Does this mean that if tens wanted to make the pilgrimage while we're broadcasting from there, they could stand outside the window and look at us?

[Luke Burbank]

Absolutely. I'm not mad about that.

[John Sklarov]

There are blind there. There are dark blinds if we want privacy, please. When I first got there, they're actually historical societies, closed on Mondays. Michael made special appointment to come meet me after. After he and his. His partner, his wife, I believe, just came back from Reykjavik. They spent some time in Iceland. And he still. Jet lag. And he still met me there, which is really sweet of him. And when I tried to poke my head in the window to see what I could see of the space. It was. Nothing was visible. So if we want to close the blinds, it'll be. We could be incognito, but if we, if we don't, if we want to.

[Luke Burbank]

Open the door, I want to be neat folks. I want us to be cognito.

[Andrew Walsh]

Okay?

[Luke Burbank]

Because this is my lifelong dream of broadcasting from a storefront on a. On a main street, usa. It's finally going to happen. And yes, if some tens that were in the area wanted to stop by and wave at us through the window, I think that would be, I think that would be actually really fun.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Andrew Walsh]

And we do know, as you mentioned or alluded to earlier, Luke, there are tens who are making the pilgrimage out to the billboard right now to take photos of themselves. In fact, I have a voicemail I'm going to play for you guys in a little bit from somebody who just made the trek over the holiday weekend. John, what is the state of the billboard? Because it was my understanding that maybe some of the locals were revolting and kind of trying to tear it down like a Saddam Hussein statue.

[John Sklarov]

It's in total disarray. It's totally. No, guys, I cackled. Here's my experience of the billboard. I was coming into town and the way I was coming. My map, my Google maps that turn right here to get to the historical society. But Luke, as you alluded to, like, we've been living in street view over the last several months as we've been planning this thing. And so as I'm approaching this four way stop, I'm like, wait a minute, I know exactly where I am. And I ignored the maps and I drove. I went straight instead of turn right and then I made a little U turn and it's staring at me. You guys were staring at me. And it like, like, oh my God. I, I feel, I feel giddy just thinking about it. Because like, I know we talked about this recently on the show. Like talk about this independence thing and like being here. It's like we could just, we just did that. We did that against all better marketing judgment and maybe budgetary judgment stuff. We did it. And then, you know, totally worth it, totally justified. Because I looked at this thing and it brought me so much joy to see you two staring down at me from the roadside. I just, just, I lost it. It was so good. It was amazing.

[Luke Burbank]

Still, as far as I understand, Andrew received zero calls.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

From the phone number from people from, let's say, strangers to the show. Like as far as anyone calling the number that is so far has yet to happen.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. So for folks who don't know what the billboard looks like, if you just happen to be, like, kind of dropping in on today's episode, this billboard does not mention anything about us being a podcast. It looks like. It looks like we're, like, kind of injury lawyers, and we're standing there with our arms crossed, and it just says cranky board call, and it has our phone number. 206414TBTL. Right. Or is it the numbers? I can't remember. Did we put. Yeah, tbtl.

[John Sklarov]

I think it says tbtl.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, of course. And that's the only reference to actually who we are, of course, is in the phone number tbtl. And so we were thinking that people might just call 206-414-TBTL and see what's up. But so far, I have been keeping an eye on the voicemail line, and I'm not seeing, like, a bunch of random calls coming in. It's still mostly our listeners who are, like. Like, you know, kind of familiar with what's going on. But I. I'm, you know, I'll remain hopeful.

[John Sklarov]

Can I tell you guys a quick story about billboards?

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, go for it.

[John Sklarov]

Oh, sorry.

[Andrew Walsh]

Do it.

[John Sklarov]

Quick story about billboards. Years ago, when my wife and I started dating, we were on a little road trip out to Boston, actually, just to visit my sister and some friends out there. And this was the part of the relationship where I was always trying to make her laugh, to show her how. How, you know, that was worth her time. I still haven't proved that yet, but that's besides the point.

[Andrew Walsh]

Just more jokes. More jokes. That's what I've learned. Learned when?

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, more jokes.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, exactly. When the partner is sort of not reacting well to the early jokes. Just lay them on and sometimes peppering them. Yes.

[Luke Burbank]

Sometimes louder, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Louder.

[John Sklarov]

Yes, yes. Well, I'm not known for being a quiet person. So we're driving past this billboard. She was driving, and we're pulling past his billboard. And it was. It was a religious billboard, Right? I don't know. Something about, like, need Jesus in your life? Call this. And me being the Jewish guy from New York, I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be funny if I called this number? So I called the billboard. Like, no, nobody picked up. Immediately after I hung up, almost immediately, they called me back and proceeded to call me three, four times a day for the next three or four days while we were in Boston. And the entire time just kept looking at me like, well, this is who you get for being an idiot. But I thought it was at the time, genius. So I guess the power out of the story, even though there's not any. Sorry. Would be. If I saw the TBTL billboard in the wild, I would call it to impress my girlfriend.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right.

[John Sklarov]

But you're saying we haven't got. We haven't gotten any of those.

[Andrew Walsh]

Not that I.

[John Sklarov]

No one's.

[Andrew Walsh]

No, not that I've. Like I say I do have a voicemail from outside the billboard, which is pretty fun. But that's from a 10. That's from somebody who knows, who knew what she was getting into when she traveled out there.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Do you want to play that. Play that V Mail for us at some point, Andrew?

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, I can play it now if you want. We can. We can we. Let's just do this now. I think I was ready for it at the end of the show, but we can do this right now. This is from listener Laura.

[John Sklarov]

Hello, friendos. This is listener Laura, usually of Madison, Wisconsin, but currently planted next to the billboard at the Two Brothers family restaurant where they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And they offer truck parking and showers. And I drove up here this morning because I'm an independent person and it is Independence Day, so today seemed like the right day to come up and see it myself. I'll send you guys pictures. Anyway, I just think it's really, really fun that you guys did this. It is not at all what I expected, but it is. I find it just delightful. So what you do is so important. And I will be listening to you later. Bye.

[Andrew Walsh]

You can feel the energy just coming off. I love it because when you're in the. When you're basking in the power of the billboard, it kind of flows through you.

[John Sklarov]

You.

[Luke Burbank]

I'm also really excited. And John, I guess you know this too, having been there, that this place, Two Brothers Restaurant, is operational. There is a roadside restaurant by our side because remember when we were trying to get this billboard put up, that was a whole other thing. We were like, enhance, enhance enhancing on like Google street view of this restaurant to try to figure out if it was open or not or if it had like a tarp over the sign or whatever. But I'm at their website now. It seems extremely operational, which again, somehow just. Yeah, I just like that our billboard is by a going concern. It's not just by, like a overgrown, abandoned, you know, like, parking lot or something.

[John Sklarov]

I think part of the trouble, Luke, was more looking street view. If you're going one direction on the county highway, it's if it's like from the year 2018 or whatever and it shows clothes. If you're looking from the other view, it shows like a different restaurant in the same place that's open. So there was. That is it or it isn't it? But yeah, no, I think it's definitely very much active. We'll have to for sure get a meal out there. There. That'll be when we walk in the door. Yeah, do it. Do the. Do the staff or, or, or customers look at you guys like it's the guys on the billboard. That's what.

[Luke Burbank]

Will you bring that suit, Andrew, please?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I've been avoiding that because I'm trying to figure out. But I sort of. Seems like we kind of have to bring the suits. My suit is not super well fitting, so it'd be a very uncomfortable brunch. But do waist up photos.

[Luke Burbank]

But you're thinking we need to wear the suits, walk and stand in front of. Oh, okay.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Well, that. Well, also we should. We should wear the suits and for a photo in front of the billboard. But also it would be really something to strut into the Two Brothers Diner dressed in our suits and then see if everything.

[Luke Burbank]

And the whole time we're back to back like we are the whole time.

[Andrew Walsh]

We never unclench our arms in front of us.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

We're trying to eat with our arms.

[Luke Burbank]

Feed us. John has to spoon feed us everything because we have our arms permanently in that position. By the way, I'm looking at the menu of Two Brothers Restaurant. They list egg, egg salent omelette.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, good.

[Luke Burbank]

Egg salent omelet, a sizzling skillets. And then they've got French toast and pancakes. That's just the breakfast menu, guys. I mean, this thing, there's all kinds of stuff they're doing at Two Brothers Restaurant. This is very exciting. This. I feel like this has to become one of our hangs while we're there. Like we have to become kind of local.

[John Sklarov]

Absolutely.

[Andrew Walsh]

What's it got in the heart smart section of that menu there?

[Luke Burbank]

Well, they've got refreshing salads, Andrew. You know, that's right where I go for these things. They got a chef salad. They've got a California grilled chicken salad, a Mexican salad, a chicken BLT salad, a buffalo chicken salad, a Tuscan steak salad, and then a locale chicken or hamburger plate. In the kids corner, we've got Mac and cheese, cheeseburger, grilled cheese, chicken strips, hot dog and spaghetti.

[John Sklarov]

I like it. We're just doing promos now for Two Brothers Restaurant. Friendship, Wisconsin.

[Luke Burbank]

I love the men. The logo for Two Brothers Restaurant is so great. It's some very obvious clip art of two guys. Like the silhouette of two men. I assume these are the brothers and the clip art they must have been searching for. Triumphant. Two men triumphantly get to the top of a mountain because they both have their arms up triumphantly, and then it has the number two over it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Two Brothers Restaurant on the Google Maps. When you look at it from the other direction, it's clip art of a turtle that looks like he's having some sort of, like, distress, some sort of gastric distress. Sitting on a toilet and shaking. Yeah, it's funny. It's just like, it depends when the photo was taken.

[Luke Burbank]

Very much about the angle. Very much about the angle.

[John Sklarov]

So.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I mean, I have to say that this. Like, I said this to you in a text message this morning, John. Like, I'm never not delighted by seeing a photo of this billboard. Seeing a photo of you with the billboard, the listeners with the billboard. I love that our contact at the Historical Society, Michael, who I've only pretty much emailed with and maybe had one phone conversation with, is. Is delightful and is going to be super helpful and that, you know, just everything about this seems to be coming together in a way that is just really making me excited about this.

[John Sklarov]

Really.

[Andrew Walsh]

Week.

[Luke Burbank]

Coming week.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah. Can I pull. Can I pull the curtains back on TBT business for a moment? I'm the. I'm the one when things are slightly amiss in our meetings that's, like, trying not my best not to freak out, and I don't do a good job of it. I'm like, well, we got to redo this. We got to do this. We got to do this. And you, Luke, especially Badger YouTube, Luke, you say it's gonna work out, and then you call the Historical Society. Because, I mean, I guess. Well, I should preface by saying there were some Internet concerns. Right. And that's how we landed in part, at the Historical Society. And it's just like you say, it's come together. This is two weeks from today. Two weeks the three of us will be here broadcasting the show.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes.

[John Sklarov]

And. And it's just. It's just like. It really seems to be like it's come together, and it's like you plan these things for months, and then you drive here, and there's a billboard of you two looking down the highway, and there's a building where we're going to do this from that that seems to fit exactly our needs and just kind of the vision of it. So it's really. I'm just grinning ear to ear the whole time I'm. I've been talking to you guys and just driving around here because it's like, it's so fun and cool to see this. You know, it's like, we did it from your parents basement, Luke. It's like, okay, we know the technology, we know the space. We did it from your, your house last year, Luke. We know the technology, we know the space. And it's like, all right, this year is the curve ball year for us as an independent operation. And it seems like it's going to work. And it's incredible. It's absolutely incredible.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, I want to give Andrew some big credit on this too, because there was a moment in time where we realized that the. So the plan was we were going to do the shows from the same Airbnb that we had rented and kind of make it, you know, just our central hub for everything. And then we learned that the Internet there was like, incredibly, incredibly slow. So then we were like, well, maybe we can go do it from town. But then we actually were having a really hard time figuring out what the, what was in Friendship, Wisconsin? And it was like, is there actually a downtown core or somewhere we could do this? And we were really, really striking out. And Andrew had the bright idea to just Google the post office of Friendship, Wisconsin.

[John Sklarov]

Right.

[Luke Burbank]

And then you jumped on there virtually, Andrew. Then you started wandering around and then immediately this whole thing opened up for us. But had you not had that thought, I don't know what, we might, might be doing this in my parents basement again.

[John Sklarov]

That's true.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Well, I did, because I really was not sure if there was going to be any place when we heard how, like, I did not know that you could have negative Internet speeds, but somehow the place where we were originally looking had negative Internet speeds. If you tried to stream the show, the Internet actually kind of got sucked up into a black hole. So, yeah, so we were a little bit. We're a little bit trying to figure out at wit's end, trying to figure out what to do. And so I don't know why I thought that, but I was like, well, where's the post office? I didn't. I remember thinking, well, there probably isn't even a post office. But then isn't there something about a classic post office building that just gives you hope? Flat roof, that classic font. What do you call it? Like, don't post offices usually have like, where it says U.S. post Office isn't it usually like those floating letters kind of like you have on the outside of your studio, Luke. It's quite.

[Luke Burbank]

I don't know what the name for that is, but yes, it's. It's very comforting. It just tells you everything is going to be okay. It tells you. Yeah, you're going to be waiting in a pretty substantial line.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, exactly. With a very. Not heavy, but awkward box that you're going to have to like kind of sometimes hold on your knee a little bit and then hopefully get close to the counter just so you can set it up there. But John, honestly love the energy, love that you're down there. Thank you for making the trip down there. Really, really appreciate it. That's great.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, yeah. No, happy to be here. Happy to see how things are coming about. Happy to be at the park for the, you know, where we'll be hosting the picnic again on the 25th at 5pm so please call out if you're not signed up for the newsletter and you're interested in going to that sign up up so this week you can RSVP so we make sure we have enough food for folks and know how many people to expect. Because I think that's gonna be after the thon, which is always a very exhilarating but also like, honestly, kind of exhausting experience for all of us. Obviously, you know, there's a lot of emotions, a lot of excitement around it. It's always the end of the week where it's like, we're ready to crash. But I think having the picnic this year, like, doing this is gonna be, like, it's gonna be such a celebration of the community of friends of tbtl. So I'm so excited that we agree. We DEC people are going to come out for that. So we just being here at the park, it's just. It's incredible. So it's really awesome.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, I did have one thought which was we are planning this kind of celebratory thing for Friday, assuming that we will have money in the TBT budget for like, hot dogs and buns and, you know, Kool Aid or whatever. Like, like, it better go. Okay. Like, we better actually manage to hit our goals and, you know, kind of keep this thing, this financial ship afloat because we're, you know, we're definitely already promising in the hundreds of dollars of free food for the tens that come out to the picnic in Friendship, Wisconsin. So let's just cross our fingers that this thing works out.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. If you get to the picnic site and we're handing out like little mini bags of frozen peas. Things probably didn't go as well during the thon.

[Luke Burbank]

If you could respect our privacy during this difficult time of realizing we don't have jobs anymore.

[Andrew Walsh]

Exactly. We also got to hope it doesn't rain. Huh. Guess we got to start watching cover.

[John Sklarov]

Though, right now that you said that.

[Andrew Walsh]

Is there a cover, John? Is it like a. An area?

[John Sklarov]

So we have. We rented the pavilion.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[John Sklarov]

So we have a pavilion space.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, yeah. I mean, we got billboard. We're billboard boys. Of course. We're not going to be doing this out in the. Out in the open. We have a pavilion.

[Luke Burbank]

No. Yeah. Would two guys with a billboard be doing the show in the rain or doing the.

[Andrew Walsh]

The.

[Luke Burbank]

The get together in the rain like. Like Commoner.

[Andrew Walsh]

Good grief. What was I thinking?

[John Sklarov]

And I should also mention, for folks who are coming out, if you're interested, there is a public beach here. So if you bring it, you know, you. Or you're bringing your fives with you or whatever, you know, if you want, plan to be in the water. Assuming the weather is nice, I assume, Andrew, you'll just be floating in a tube with like a beer in one hand and a hot dog in the other. Just floating around the river maybe, but that's available too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. I love me a clothing optional river, so. Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. We cannot get this man to put a shirt on most of the time. So I'm sure, sure it's gonna be a lost cause on Friday, so.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, yeah, John, I just want to echo Andrew's sentiment. Thank you for making the trip down there and thanks for the enthusiasm. Hearing the excitement in your voice. Even when we weren't on the air yet, you were just driving around and you had us on speakerphone. You were getting so hyphy that it was making me feel really hyphy about this.

[John Sklarov]

I'm excited for it, guys. This is gonna be great. It's. I'm looking forward to seeing you two in person and doing this. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And I can't wait to see the tens in person too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Nice.

[Luke Burbank]

Nice.

[Andrew Walsh]

All right, man.

[Luke Burbank]

Thanks, John. Drive safe.

[John Sklarov]

Okay, great. All right, thanks, guys. I'll talk to you later.

[Luke Burbank]

Oh, I love that sound. That makes me excited. For if, again, the technology cooperates, the plan is. And again, this is, you know, we're going to have to kind of see what it's like once we're all set up at the historical society. But the plan is we are going to be trying to stream the show live. For the thon week, as we typically do now. And we are going to be trying to grab phone calls. And that little sound, that little hanging up sound.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah, it's like a very.

[Luke Burbank]

A very pleasant sense memory for me of when we're talking to the tens.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's such a nice sound too. I'm with you. I love it because it's like such a gentle landing as opposed to like a. I also like the click, click sound of somebody hanging up too. As long as it's not too angry. Have you ever had that thing, Luke? Did you ever have an opportunity? My friend Paul, you know Paul, he always wanted to do this. He always wanted to have one of those cinematic moments at a phone booth. Booth where like, you're so mad, you're like talking on the phone, but then you take the phone, you go to hang up, but you kind of like slam it down like four times in a row or whatever. At a phone booth. Ever having the opportunity to do that?

[Luke Burbank]

No, but I would love that. That was a big part of the sort of, you know, the big part of the movies of our. Of our youth were somebody at a phone booth. Or else there was the thing that actually precedes us, I think, which I don't know if this had to do with the days when you'd have to. You'd call the operator and you would tell them, Hawthorne 532 or something. But I feel like there used to be a trope in movies where somebody would just be like toggling that thing going like.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hello. Yeah, Yeah.

[Luke Burbank]

I mean, like, what does that even. What do we even call that?

[Andrew Walsh]

I know what you're talking about.

[Luke Burbank]

Yeah, not the button. What do we. What do we call that on the phone? Oh, my gosh.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. They would hang up. I don't even know.

[Luke Burbank]

Receiver. The receiver is the thing you would talk into.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hang up button. I think it just. Right, right. Just kind of. I know it's not a button, but the little button.

[Luke Burbank]

But particularly on the. On the payphone. Sometimes people would be. Because, you know, that thing was. It wasn't even like a button. It was like a flap.

[Andrew Walsh]

It was like a metal flap. Yeah, I mean, I can totally feel. I can totally, totally feel it. Absolutely.

[Luke Burbank]

And you'd be like hitting it up and down going, hello, hello, hello. Like trying to get through to someone. Like, I never understood how that was going to help you get through to somebody.

[Andrew Walsh]

What about this? I'm trying to think if this is from a movie, is this a movie scene that actually you've told me about that you find really endearing. I can picture like Jimmy Stewart and somebody else both like him and a woman both using the same phone. But it's one of those old fashioned phones, like the kind of the two piecer where like you would talk into one piece and hold the little horn up to your ear. But I can picture him in a woman Stewart movie. Yeah. And is this so evocative in my mind because you've talked about this scene before, I wonder.

[Luke Burbank]

But I think also it is pretty iconic. It's from It's a Wonderful Life.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yes, I would have seen that.

[Luke Burbank]

So, okay, so Jimmy Stewart. Stewart is, he's, he's visiting Donna Reed's house. This is his love interest, but he has not expressed it as such. He just is sweet on her. And while he's there, a guy named Sam Wainwright, who's kind of a friend of his but also slightly a romantic rival for her affection calls. And they're on the phone, but they're sharing the same. Like it's an old fashioned telephone, like you said. It's got that little ear kind of thing. And then the part you're talking to and them having to be very close together to hear Sam Wainwright on the phone is the closest they've ever been in each other's physical presence. And it's sort of like, you know, they both kind of just get lost in the closeness of talking to each other. It's a very cute scene. It's also kind of a trouble, not a troubling scene. But it's also like one of those scenes where they like end up having a weird argument which is only there to serve the plot of the movie, which is like he's clearly in love with her. She's clearly in love with him. Him. But for some reason he doesn't want to quite admit it. So he's trying to be a cool guy and then she gets her feelings hurt, then he storms out and then you think, will they ever be together? Spoiler alert, folks. And I do feel comfortable spoiling It's a Wonderful Life.

[Andrew Walsh]

It's on my list. It's on the list.

[Luke Burbank]

They do end up together. We are doing this weekend, you know, this coming weekend I'm having my siblings over and I've been planning out the weekend. Maybe over planning it. But one of the things I want to do is a Burbank family film festival where we basically watch some of these, these truly ludicrous movies we used to watch as kids. Like there's a, there's a Christian musical called High Tops that we used to rent from the Evangel Christian Bookstore. This is when we were all homeschooled at the same time, which is to say unschooled. And I went and I bought the download of this Christian musical, High Tops, and downloaded it to my computer so we can watch it on Saturday night. I was tempted to say we should watch It's a Wonderful Life, but we all watch that every Christmas. I don't think we need to watch that in the middle of July, but I'm trying to. Maybe some Anne of Green Gables. Maybe some Pride and Prejudice with. My sister Sarah used to call pret and pretty.

[Andrew Walsh]

The mini series or the miniseries, right? Not the movie.

[Luke Burbank]

I think it was a BBC.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because you were kids. Yeah, the BBC miniseries I didn't actually.

[Luke Burbank]

Watch that was a little after my time of, like, being home watching movies, you know, like, with the fam. But I know my sisters were really into that one. They were really into Anne of Green Gables. I think the British. Or. Sorry, the Canadian version, which was with starring. I think Megan Follows was maybe her name. But anyway, it's gonna be. It's gonna be a fun weekend. I've got it all. Got it all planned out. It's gonna be nice and be very exciting.

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm surprised you so. So High Tops, though, still a going concern. You can still find it. Like, you didn't have to go on the. The. The black market. Yeah. The dark web.

[Luke Burbank]

Well, no, I went to. I went to. You know what? I had to go to Andrew. Salty.com as in P S A L-T Y.com as in Salty, the psalm book book.

[Andrew Walsh]

Oh, my God.

[Luke Burbank]

Salty, the singing song book. There was this whole universe of, like, Christian musicals that me and my siblings were in that were all, I think, written by the same married couple. So there was, like, Salty, the psalm book. He was a singing book of psalms that would show up and teach kids lessons about Christ. And then there was also Colby, the Christian song computer. Different guy, I think. Same. The same company was creating all this stuff, and they would write these musicals, and then they would, like, license the music to churches. And so you. If your church wanted to put on a Colby or a Salty musical, you would, I think, pay some kind of a fee. And then you would get the music and the backing tracks, and then you would put. You'd stage your version of one of these things. They also happen to be the people that created the Christian musical High Tops. So you go to their website, you pay 11.99. So I now have a bill on my debit card from salty.com for the 1199 download of high Tops the musical.

[Andrew Walsh]

I just, I understand that they're trying to do a play on Psalm, but the fact that it's salty is just so sublime. Like, he should be so cantankerous. He should be smoking. Yeah, he should. He should be salty.

[Luke Burbank]

Yes. He should be like the. I'm just a bill Bill. But on hard times.

[Andrew Walsh]

But hard times. Like a little bit. Not drunk, unshaven. Unshaven.

[Luke Burbank]

Has like a. Like still has like there's a half consumed whiskey out from last night.

[Andrew Walsh]

Right, Exactly. Working and, and kind of yelling at the kids a little bit or certainly just like very leave me alone kids attitude.

[Luke Burbank]

It would have made it so much more interesting than the ones that we actually did. I don't think I was ever in a Salty production, but I know my sister Sarah was Charity Church Mouse in one of the Salty production. She was the big star of that one. I mean, she was. That was the lead role. Charity Church Mouse. Are you kidding me?

[John Sklarov]

Me?

[Andrew Walsh]

I'm just writing down don't salt my game Possible show title.

[Luke Burbank]

I love it.

[Andrew Walsh]

Maybe smooth it out later, but there you go. All right, well, I'm excited and I'm glad we got to hear from John down there.

[Luke Burbank]

I think you can all hear the actual legit excitement in his voice. So this is going to be a very fun week for the Thon. And again, we hope you can tune in and critically, we hope you can support tbtl. So I can still have money to download Christian musicals from the 1980s. All right, thanks for listening, everybody. That's going to do it. For today's show. I will be coming to you all from New York City tomorrow post Bridget Everett interview. And by the way, what's interesting about this, Andrew, is one of those times where I'm going to take a red eye flight to New York City and then take a taxi cab to where we're filming the shoot. So that's always an adventure. We'll see how that goes, but I'll have a full report tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Take care of yourselves, Please remember, no mountain too tall.

[Andrew Walsh]

And good luck to all.

[Luke Burbank]

George, Sam wants to speak to you.

[Andrew Walsh]

Hi, Sam. Well, George Baileyovsky.

[Luke Burbank]

Hey, a fine pal you are.

[Andrew Walsh]

What are you trying to do, steal my girl? Oh, well, what do you mean?

[John Sklarov]

Nobody's trying to steal anybody's girl.

[Andrew Walsh]

Here, here, here, here's Marion. Wait a minute, wait a minute.

[John Sklarov]

I want to talk to her.

[Luke Burbank]

Tell Mary to get on the extension.

[Andrew Walsh]

You talk.

[John Sklarov]

Mother's on the extension. We.

[Andrew Walsh]

I am not.

[John Sklarov]

We can both hear. Come here. We're listening, Sam.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, look, I have a big deal coming up that's going to make us all rich. George, do you remember that night in Martini's Bar when you told me you'd.

[Luke Burbank]

Read some place about making plastics out of soybeans?

[John Sklarov]

Chili beans.

[Andrew Walsh]

Shut up. You remember out of chili. Out of soybeans.

[John Sklarov]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, soybeans.

[Andrew Walsh]

Yeah. Well, listen, dad snapped up the idea and he's going to build a factory outside of Rochester. How do you like that? Rochester? Well, why Rochester? Well, why not? Can you think of anything better? Well, I don't know. Just why not right here?

[John Sklarov]

You remember that.

[Andrew Walsh]

That old tool and machinery works? You tell your father you can get.

[Luke Burbank]

That for a song.

[Andrew Walsh]

And all the labor he wants, too. Half the town was thrown out of.

[John Sklarov]

Work when they closed down. Was that so?

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, I'll tell him. Hey, that sounds great. Ah, baby, I knew you'd come through. Now, here's the point. Mary.

[Luke Burbank]

Mary, you're in on this, too.

[Andrew Walsh]

Now, listen, have you got any money? Money? Yeah.

[John Sklarov]

Well, a little.

[Andrew Walsh]

Well, now listen. I want you to put every cent you've got into our stock, do you hear? And George, I may have a job for you. That is, unless you're still married to that broken down building in loan. Well, this is the biggest thing since radio. And I'm letting you in on the ground floor. Oh, Mary. Mary. Well, I'm here.

[John Sklarov]

Will you tell that guy I'm giving.

[Luke Burbank]

Him the chance of a lifetime, do you hear?

[Andrew Walsh]

The chance of a lifetime.

[John Sklarov]

He says it's the chance of a lifetime. Now you listen to me. I don't want any plastic.

[Andrew Walsh]

I don't want any ground floors.

[John Sklarov]

And I don't want to get married ever to anyone. You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you're. And you're.

[Andrew Walsh]

Power out.