Loading summary
Transcript487 lines
- [00:00]
Andrew
Check out these hidden gems in Highland Park. Nah, I'm done gatekeeping. The best authentic Mexican taqueria in Highland park is home state. This is real LA street food. Nothing says tacos like brisket. I wanted to try a legit Oaxacan beer, so I ordered the shiner Bach to watch down these Tijuana panthers. It's my lunch break. Please don't tell my boss at Allbirds.
- [00:21]
Andrew Walsh
Mmm.
- [00:21]
Andrew
You can taste the agave plant. I've been gatekeeping this next hole in the wall for far too long. Mendocino Farms. If a wildfire hits. These bricks are fire resistant, so the last thing stand in Highland park will be Mendocino Farms. The sandos here are table to farm and cage free. Nah, the watermelon poke salad is gas.
- [00:41]
Luke Burbank
Damn.
- [00:41]
Andrew
Look at this green juice slime. But the cheat code is getting a half sando, half soup for dipping purposes.
- [00:47]
Andrew Walsh
Mmm.
- [00:48]
Andrew
This is busting like some hospital food, twin. I got gatekeep once and hated it. So I'm about to spill some tea. If you get homestay and Mendo back to back and say the secret password culture, you get $8 off Jenny's ice cream. Tell the mendo sent you the homestay to Mendo to Jenny's. Pipeline is about to go. Stupid twins. So tip well. I'm not really sure what these places are. I'm only familiar with new brick buildings that look like an orange theory.
- [01:12]
Andrew Walsh
TBTL. So happens I am on a first name basis with some of the most influential, some of the most powerful people in this business. So get Chuck Woolery on the phone. I love to peel the strawberries.
- [01:35]
Luke Burbank
It's nothing like when your lips content as skinless strawberry.
- [01:41]
Andrew
I don't even know what that means.
- [01:42]
Andrew Walsh
No one knows what it means, but it's provocative.
- [01:45]
Luke Burbank
He's my devil, my dark lover, my alter ego. Sometimes I think he's my conscience.
- [01:51]
Andrew Walsh
I should have prepared, but I just.
- [01:53]
Luke Burbank
Watch DB I could really use a win here. All right. Hello, good morning and welcome, everyone. Welcome everyone to a Wednesday edition of TBT all the show that just might be too beautiful to live. I'm so excited about this show. My name's Luke Burbank. I am your host. Never let me slip. Because if I slip, then I'm slipping. Coming to you from midtown Manhattan. That's right. Not the same hotel that we were recording at the last two days, I have moved about four blocks. Did I take a lift the four blocks between my different midtown Manhattan hotels so as to avoid wheeling two suitcases through what is notoriously the most annoying four block stretch of maybe anywhere in America. You bet your sweet patootie I did. It's also very loud where I am. Like I'm in a different hotel. I'm a few floors up. But it's near where guys like to play drums on buckets. And I'm really happy for them that that's working, that that's a business model that is successful for them. But it's fairly constant, I've noticed since I've been in this room.
- [03:05]
Andrew Walsh
So too loud and too specific.
- [03:06]
Luke Burbank
Hopefully we will be able to get through this show without too many interruptions. This show that is at episode 4591 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. I am here in New York City a day that New York is in the news. Got lots of news based on the election of Zoran Mamdani last night as mayor of this fine city, New York City. I'd like to talk about that, I guess. Also of course, some of the less covered news. Pigeon theft from a guy who is trying to battle wage theft to a guy who's trying to commit actual pigeon theft and is honestly getting off kind of light. We'll talk about what's going on here in the Big Apple. And also we're gonna do something kind of special today.
- [03:52]
Andrew Walsh
This is special.
- [03:54]
Luke Burbank
This is special. We will do some early blurs day messages. That's right. We're doing the blurs days on a Wednesday because our, our Thursday TBT all got a case of the Fridays. So we'll, we'll celebrate those birthdays together today. If, by the way, if you didn't get yours in in time because you were waiting until Thursday, just send them in and we'll, we'll celebrate. Any late stragglers next week who we miss this week, I'll tell you somebody that we would, we couldn't even do the show without him and so that we're never missing him because he's always here and thankfully always standing in as the longest running co bro of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships.
- [04:33]
Andrew Walsh
He was king of the Tuk Tuk sound.
- [04:35]
Luke Burbank
He's Andrew Walsh and he is joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
- [04:38]
Andrew Walsh
Good morning. Were you slowing down your introduction to me because you saw I was finishing an email and don't say no because that would be the sweetest thing ever.
- [04:47]
Luke Burbank
Also that would be a high level of professional ability.
- [04:52]
Andrew Walsh
You know what I mean? Yeah, it seemed like. Because I. You don't know this, I guess, but I was just getting to the end of an email that I was furiously typing out and I was doing that thing. I was just signing it with the all cap. Thank you. With a lot of views. And I know that right as I was getting near the end, you started slow walking your intro to me and it felt like we were very much in sight. Sink.
- [05:12]
Luke Burbank
I would love to get the props on that. I would love to get the credit. That was just a little bit of. I guess you could say serendipity. But I do think I could do that if need be. Maybe we can work out some system where you're letting me know, you know, like basically stretch. I mean you this famously. Did you ever use any of those hand signals in talk radio in your day?
- [05:36]
Andrew Walsh
That I'm doing. I'm stressed. What I'm doing is I'm putting my fingers together like I'm holding a. Not even a rubber band, but more like a silly Putty and I'm pulling it apart like that. Is that what you used to do? Yes.
- [05:47]
Luke Burbank
Stretch the number. The nothing which would. Would strike terror in my heart as a host. Like looking through the glass and seeing a producer doing that.
- [05:59]
Andrew Walsh
That's a really good point. I only think about it.
- [06:01]
Luke Burbank
Some guests had not shown up.
- [06:03]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I don't think that I've done it. I don't think I've been subjected to that. That's a really good point. That I was thinking that you were gonna say that you did that to hosts as well. But no, you had people doing that to you. Yeah. That seems irritating. I mean, sorry, every host I ever worked with.
- [06:18]
Luke Burbank
But also you were a host of the Andrew Walsh show. And there must have been some point at which Nick had to say, hey, the guest isn't here. Hold on. Just kind of keep. You know, it was always dancing.
- [06:27]
Andrew Walsh
It was always implied that I had nothing to say. It was like stretch for three hours. Luke. It's not started at seven. And it was just a continuous Silly Putty string.
- [06:36]
Luke Burbank
I was reminded being here in. In New York City. I love that we have this absolutely historic election last night of Zoran Mamdani. And I like to talk to you a little bit about the Joey Reynolds show on WOR radio, which I believe ran from maybe midnight to 4am during the week. Back in the day, back in the like the. The late 90s when I was out here interviewing for the job. I was in the. Listen, I was in the cab the other day and the guy had wo. On the radio. It's just like a AM Talk station here in New York. And I was, I was, I was being reminded of the fact that had that job paid more than $24,000 a year or something in 19, maybe 99, probably 1998, 1999, I came out here for this job interview. But what it would have involved is producing for, again, an amount of money that would make it impossible for me to live in any one of the boroughs of New York or any of the parts of Jersey that are close. It also involved producing a show. I think it was at a minute, it might have been five hours. I think it was five hours of live radio overnight. And I didn't know a lot about talk radio at that point. I had worked at kvi. I guess what I knew is that there's no way in God's green earth I was going to be able to produce that amount of overnight radio. That sounded like a living hell to me. That sounded like three in the morning. No one's calling in, Larry King is drunk and things, you know, the wheels are coming off the operation. I don't know how that was, how it might. That might still be on the air. They might. The Joey Reynolds show might still be going for five hours overnight on War. I don't know. But my. I'm just saying my hat is off to whoever the producer is there who has to probably constantly go, stretch, stretch, stretch. Joey Reynolds. It's. It's 2:30 in the morning and we have no callers and we've still got to do this for two and a half more hours.
- [08:29]
Andrew Walsh
Well, I have some good news for you. Joey Reynolds is an. Is on Wikipedia, not a was on Wikipedia. So that is good right there. That's always very good.
- [08:40]
Luke Burbank
Yes.
- [08:41]
Andrew Walsh
Joseph Pinto, better known as Joey Reynolds, is a longtime radio show host and disc jockey. Reynolds, do we have disc jockeys anymore? I guess we. Does anybody consider themselves a disc jockey?
- [08:53]
Luke Burbank
I think they're still called DJs even though the discs have not been jockeyed for years.
- [08:58]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I guess that is.
- [08:59]
Luke Burbank
The discs have gone un jockeyed.
- [09:01]
Andrew Walsh
Nobody's jockeying my discs, Luke. It's a real problem. Nobody clipped that. Wow. He has worked for a lot of stations. Oh, my gosh. So can I. Actually, before we switch off of this, I'm interested in this. What. Tell me more about the show. This was not conservative talk radio. That was your background at the time. This was just like kind of whatever pop culture, kind of nighttime radio.
- [09:21]
Luke Burbank
It was just kind of, you know, it sort of does now to me as a, I guess a person who's a little bit older and I think I like things that are quirkier. But at the time I think what I wanted to do was work somewhere on something that had like, that had like the high prestige guests. I wanted to be somewhere where it's like we're getting on the important people who are writing the important books or these important politicians or actors or whatever the deal is. I didn't want to be like, we're going to go a full hour between 2am and 3am with the like, you know, the guy who, you know, makes a certain kind of a cookie down in, you know, lower Manhattan from Sal's Cookies and he's going to come on and talk about his or whatever, you know, like, like the quirkier side of like. Because the only way you can do a show of that, like literally that many hours a night, that was what stopped me in my tracks because at that time I think I was producing three hours of live radio and that seemed like a lot of work. And this was like, I think maybe. And I just thought, I just imagined how unbelievably unhurried the conversations would have to be to fill that much time that I just thought like, I don't want to do that. And the irony, Andrew, the irony is here I am having a very unhurried five day a week conversation with you. So I mean, I basically created the Joey Reynolds show here, but we call it tbtl. But that whole vibe of just kind of like we're hanging out, we're talking, we're not in a rush, there's nothing of any high stakes is happening here. Like that was what was kind of turned me off about the idea of doing, of producing that show. And yet here I am voluntarily for many years now, maybe going on what, like 17 years or something doing that thing here with you.
- [11:07]
Andrew Walsh
Well, don't forget we, well you were able to book MSNBC's or Ms. Now's Chris Hayes on election week 2025. Like, don't make it sound like we're not booking the big guests.
- [11:20]
Luke Burbank
I mean that was, you know, that was again to use that word, that was fairly serendipitous that we were talking to him. Can we talk for a little bit about this Ms. Now thing? Because I noticed when, when we were at Chris's house, when I was in his studio, he's got this, you know, he's got this great podcast. Why is this Happening? And I was, I was impressed at how on it this company is about the change of the name. So you know, it's been called msnbc. They're going to start calling it Ms. Now. They had, he had a little kind of sign that was his, his logo, if you will, for his podcast, why is this happening? And it says MSNBC almost in an imperceptibly small letters in the corner, like nothing you could see. If you're watching a video of him, you know, that from him interviewing a guest or whatever, in the way background, there would be this picture of him, this kind of illustration of him, and it says msnbc. And they had already sent him the replacement that said Ms. Now in the same tiny font. I was like, wow, they're really getting ahead of this. And last night, as the election results were rolling in, I was sitting on my bed in the hotel room watching the results like a, like a kid, you know, opening his Christmas presents early or something like it was. It was a very heartening results to see. Now, they didn't have Kornacki on msnbc, they had Ali Velshi. And I thought doing the election map, I thought Ali Velshi did a great job, but I did not appreciate NBC poaching Kornacki from msnbc. I know they've been doing that for a while now, but that just feels like a real New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers kind of move. Like Kornacki, you know, you simply visited the election map. Steve Kornacki was born in it. Like he is the bane of pushing those districts and interpreting the information. And he started doing that on msnbc and he got so good at it and became such a weird, quasi cultural phenomenon that now on this special day, this is MSNBC's day to shine. Then they come in and pluck Kornacki and they bring him up to the big, to the network level, away from all the people who he knows and loves, the only people he's ever known and loved. I don't like it, Andrew. I don't like it at all. And that's not a knock on Veli. I thought Velshi did a really good job.
- [13:26]
Andrew Walsh
Well, first of all, I'm writing a headline right now. Tbtls Luke Burbanki to Bain. And then let's see here in quotes underneath.
- [13:37]
Luke Burbank
Yes.
- [13:38]
Andrew Walsh
So I look at it.
- [13:39]
Luke Burbank
TBTL's Burbank claps back at Kornacki Colon fam. What is he like? Bane fam. So Luke Burbank no longer gatekeeps his opinion on Steve Kornacki.
- [13:51]
Andrew Walsh
I was gate kept once. I didn't like it. I do you want to shout out that comedian actually at the top of the show, that tape we.
- [13:56]
Luke Burbank
His name is. His name's Carmen Christopher. He's on that. He's on the English Teacher. Wait, wait, no English. What's the show that I actually really keep meaning to watch because it's got a bunch of people I like. It's got Brian Jordan Alvarez on. I think it's just called English Teacher.
- [14:12]
Andrew Walsh
I don't think I know this at all.
- [14:15]
Luke Burbank
So he's one of the teachers on that show. It's a. It looks like a really, really funny show. Actually. He was also on that Joe Perra show. We play a different intro tape of him. He's the one that we're sitting around the campfire and he says, like, my mom needs a new liver. That's Carmen Christopher.
- [14:31]
Andrew Walsh
She's hanging in there. I didn't realize that was him. Okay. And I've never heard of this show called the English Teacher. I'm looking at it now. So that's interesting.
- [14:39]
Luke Burbank
The clips that I see, it looks really funny. He's. Yeah, Carmen Christopher is a very. He's also. He shows up and I think youk should leave stuff. He was in friendship. He was part of that crew of friends. He's the guy who says. He says a really funny. His name is really funny at the end of friendship. Remember. Remember how.
- [14:57]
Andrew Walsh
When the. When. I don't want to spoil it, but that last big climactic scene.
- [15:01]
Luke Burbank
And there is something. I forget now, the specifics of it, but there's something about what I think his name is on the show that was just like, you know, in the movie, like they're introducing themselves or something. There's something with Carmen Christopher's character's name and friendship that was like the last little Lagnop of comedy for the whole movie. But, yeah, he does these great videos where he's just basically completely sort of parodying a certain style of TikTok video, which, because I'm terminally online and terminally looking at TikTok, I've been given two weeks to watch Andrew. They've said it's terminal. I know what the forms are like. I really enjoy TikTok parody because I spend too much time looking at the actual thing that's being parodied. And there's a certain kind of like, I'm walking around a neighborhood and I'm introducing you to all the cool stuff video. Except his is, what if that guy was in a very gentrified neighborhood now, like Highland park, but all he went to were things like Mendocino farms and Other massive, like regional chains. And if he kept talking about how he wasn't gatekeeping everything fam.
- [16:03]
Andrew Walsh
To get that Oaxacan taste, he drinks a shiner box.
- [16:06]
Luke Burbank
Shiner box.
- [16:07]
Andrew Walsh
Taste the agave.
- [16:09]
Luke Burbank
It's so, it's so really, it's really, really good stuff.
- [16:12]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, so that's cornetti. So it was my understanding. So I want to use slightly different because you were talking about, about NBC plucking him. Now, I could be wrong about this, but I would use different terminology. It's almost like NBC, maybe they hired him bogarting him because I thought that's. I could be wrong, but I thought that I read that first news actually happened that like, as Ms. What is now MSNBC breaks away from NBC. And you know, you have a lot of people who worked for both. It was my understanding that NBC was keeping Steve Kornacki in the divorce. But I guess he could spend some holidays with Ms. Now, possibly depending on.
- [16:50]
Luke Burbank
He does get to election day presence. So that's kind of good. No, you know what I didn't even think of, I'm still thinking about MSNBC and NBC as being connected, but they're not. I mean, only in like the most tenuous of ways that there's something having to do with the spin off that is still. Maybe it's NBC shareholders or something, but it's. They are effectively separated now or will be. And you're absolutely right, of course, of course. They just basically, he got called up to the show, Kornacki did and now he lives there. I don't know why I expected to see him on msnbc. And again, I do think that Ali Velshi did a really, really great job. It was fun to see somebody poking counties and seeing numbers that didn't make me want to fill my pockets with rocks and walk into the Columbia River. Like, it's been a while, my friends. It's been a while since I've gotten to see that. And like it was, you know, it was the complete opposite. And unfortunately, I guess you could say the stakes are not quite as high this time around as they were in the last election cycle. But that experience of like watching somebody poke and if people don't know what I'm talking about, they have these election maps now that are highly digital, highly interactive, highly sort of up to date so that you're always. And we, we live in an age where we always want more information and more data points and things. And so you've got somebody in front of this big digital map poking these little tiny areas of A state. And telling us in this county, here's how Donald Trump did last time, and here's how the Republican candidate is doing this time, and here's how the. Here's how Kamala Harris did there versus how this. And it's all this. It's basically this way of. For me, of trying to allay my anxiety by seeing trends that are positive, by seeing that, oh, well, the Democrats are now overperforming Kamala Harris from 2020, and in fact, the Republicans are underperforming Donald Trump. And that means that maybe our nation has somehow collectively gotten its shit back together. Like, that's what I'm looking for with that Data. And in 2020, I knew very quickly, as many of us did, that things were trending in a very bad direction because we were seeing all of these counties where we wanted. If you were voting like I did, you wanted one sort of thing to be happening. And it was never quite happening. It was never quite, oh, we're over. Democrats are over. Oh, Kamala Harris is over, performing where Joe Biden was here, et cetera. So that was tremendously gratifying last night and kind of felt. Felt really nice. I will say, seeing the Ms. Now, and I don't want to just say this because we're friends with Chris Hayes or whatever, I didn't feel tremendously jarred. I don't think it's that jarring. Like, I know some people point out that it might be almost like Ms. As it refers to a woman, you know, miss or whatever. And, like, I know there was. People were kind of having some fun with it when they first announced it, I have to say. Like, I'm not just trying to, like, I don't know, be a apologist for the network that our friend works on, but, like, it feels like I read a story in the New York Times that they're spending $20 million. I think it's $20 million on the campaign to rebrand it and let everyone know it's Ms. Now. And I was looking at it. I was like, I would have done it for 100. Give me a hundred dollars and tell me it's Ms. Now, and I'll just start calling it that in my mind. And then they were playing these promos last night during their election coverage, and Chris was introducing some of them, and he was saying, look, I just want to tell you, we're gonna. It's gonna be called Ms. Now. You don't have to do anything different.
- [20:15]
Andrew Walsh
He said that? Oh, yeah. I didn't know.
- [20:17]
Luke Burbank
Literally, he Said he was like, you're just going to keep watching this TV channel you're watching right now. The shows are the same schedules, the same. The only difference is we're going to be saying Ms. Now instead of msnbc. And like, I mean, that's just kind of been it. I. I guess what I. I guess what I'm trying to say is I have been. I've been sort of not very riled up by this, considering I'm a power user of msnbc, regular viewer of it, but I thought that would seem, and I'm very quick to want to corporate criticize corporate culture, but I. To me, it seemed like an okay solution to the problem. Like, we're just going to call it Ms. Now and, you know, and whatever. I mean, I'm sure I'll call it MSNBC for a long time accidentally. But it just seemed like the idea that it's costing $20 million to tell people that now. It's just got a couple different letters, by the way, it's got two different letters. It's only the O and the W. Right? They've changed.
- [21:11]
Andrew Walsh
I have a confession to make regarding msnbc. I've been gatekeeping a story from you, Lu, which is only, like, quasi related.
- [21:19]
Luke Burbank
I was gatekeeped once, and I did not like it.
- [21:21]
Andrew Walsh
That's only, like, quasi related to this conversation. But the reason I'm thinking about it is because I did watch some MSNBC last night for the first time in literally a year. Because first of all, I don't have cable, so I don't have easy access to msnbc. Last night I didn't really watch the results come in because Genevieve and I were recording. But as soon as we were done recording, like, all of the results, all of the major results were basically already in. And so I got a text from our buddy Hauser, who was letting me borrow his Fubo during the baseball postseason, and he said, oh, I'm watching on msnbc. You should watch too. I'm like, oh, that's right. Because I think he's canceling his Fubo. So he's like, we got to use it. We got to use it as much as possible. So I'm like, okay. So I have a little laptop set up in my dart area, and I'm kind of just throwing darts. I had a day where I was, well, this is an important whatever. I just had a day where I was very productive. But I was sitting in my chair all day long yesterday, and it felt so good to stand. I know that sounds nuts, but like, so I was like, okay, I'll just like, I'll turn on msnbc, watch the, like kind of the speeches, the victory speeches and throw some darts or whatever. Genevieve was downstairs, she was keeping an eye and we both were on the local results, which were still coming in at that point. But all of that is to say it did sort of have a nostalgic feel for me to be watching msnbc. The last time I followed MSNBC was the audio only feed on my phone that I listened to one year ago on the night of the presidential election results coming in. And Luke, that was a bad night for me.
- [22:52]
Luke Burbank
How did that go, by the way? I don't. I'm trying to remember what the outcome of that was.
- [22:58]
Andrew Walsh
I got it written down somewhere. But one thing I told, as awful as that night was, Luke, you know what I never told you? I set my kitchen on fire that night. This is the one year anniversary of me setting my kitchen on fire, sort of.
- [23:11]
Luke Burbank
That tells you, that tells you how shaken up we were by the results of that election. That I set my kitchen on fire did not enter the discourse the following day.
- [23:22]
Andrew Walsh
Now I'm exaggerating a tiny bit. I did set my oven on fire. I mean, literal fire, flames. And I'm realizing now, and it's weird that I'm making this connection right now, isn't that exactly what happens in the little cartoon, the one panel cartoon of the dog with his kitchen on fire? And he's saying, this is fine, this.
- [23:40]
Luke Burbank
Is fine, this is fine.
- [23:41]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, because I believe you.
- [23:42]
Luke Burbank
This is Find yourself, sir.
- [23:46]
Andrew Walsh
What I was doing that night was it became, I think that it was pretty clear early on that things were going badly. It was very clear early on. And so it was like, how much of this will we follow? But I was still listening to the MSNBC audio feed on my phone. I was drinking, as you might guess. And I was listening to it and then I remember thinking, well, God damn it, I'm just going to make that frozen pizza. I think we had a frozen pizza in the freezer or something. And I just remember being.
- [24:16]
Luke Burbank
I mean, we all grieve in our own way.
- [24:18]
Andrew Walsh
I was just so full of despair. I remember being like, well, I can't describe my feelings that night, but they were really bad. And it turns out that things were even worse than I thought they were going to be on that night for this second administration. But I was just in, like, I was just in such an ugly way. I just don't, I don't know. I just remember my whole Brain being this toxic black cloud. I remember at one point being like, just make that fucking pizza that's in the freezer or whatever. And so I pull it out and I start heating up the oven. I'm like, you know, preheating the oven and it starts to smoke a little bit. You know how sometimes when you have some gunk on the bottom of your oven and it starts to smoke shit that makes the house smell bad?
- [24:59]
Luke Burbank
I've actually got some of that going right now, which means my. I could clean it or I could just stop cooking anything in the oven and that's what I'm going with.
- [25:07]
Andrew Walsh
Or you could just move, you know, that's.
- [25:09]
Luke Burbank
I'm considering it.
- [25:11]
Andrew Walsh
So I look in the oven and I think that I had roasted a chicken, you know, in the prior week or something. And I think I didn't realize because sometimes your oven just gets a little bit dirty and it needs some care, but you can just kind of power through it. But I peek in the oven, I'm like, oh shit. There's like a whole bunch of either grease or butter or something like that that had like kind of spilled out of some sort of a baking tray at the bottom of the oven. I'm like, oh, that's kind of rough. And again, my whole. And I'm listening to the election results and I'm drinking and I'm angry and I'm just like, everything just seems terrible. And I'm like, well, this is getting worse and worse. It's smoking so much that I don't want to power through it. Even if it would work, it'd make the pizza maybe taste bad or something. This is worse.
- [25:58]
Luke Burbank
You're essentially smoking a pizza, which I promise you, you're going to see someone on Instagram telling you that that's the only way to make a pizza.
- [26:05]
Andrew Walsh
That's how you get to smoke it for 12 hours. Absolutely. So anyway, this is where I make a really, really bad decision. Instead of like letting it cool down and just saying, I'll deal with it later. This is so dumb. This is. You do not do this. I'm like, you know what? This is a self cleaner function. And I'm trying to think maybe I use it once or not. And you know what that does? That just locks the oven up and puts the oven to extreme temperature. Like 800, 900, I think possibly some ovens go up to 900, like extreme heat. And that's how it, that's how it's quote unquote, self cleans, just chars everything in there and then you can go in and vacuum. But the thing is, you're not supposed to self clean when it's that. When it's that deep of a. Of a spill in there. Right. And so. And I didn't realize that. I wasn't thinking. I was just angry. And so I just. Fine, I just take out the pizza. Or the pizza is not in there yet. It's just preheating. And so I just turn. I just put on self clean. And what do you think happens? As the oven gets hotter and hotter, the smoke turns to flames. And I'm looking in my oven and I have. My oven has become a fireplace. And I'm trying to think, was this my new oven?
- [27:17]
Luke Burbank
Did you take a picture of this?
- [27:18]
Andrew Walsh
No, I wasn't in the. I wasn't in the mode for that. And you know what? It must have been.
- [27:22]
Luke Burbank
You weren't contenting, Andrew, and that was your mistake.
- [27:24]
Andrew Walsh
I was contenting. I didn't even tell you the story for a year. I'm trying to think if it was our new oven. I feel like it must have been our old oven. I think it was. Maybe our new oven was coming right after that or something. Because I think. I think I would remember this differently if this was our brand new oven. I was doing this to. I know that we got our new oven around this time around Thanksgiving. So let's just say it was the old oven. But now I have it full on fire for the first time in my life. I have to find the fire extinguisher in an emergency. And we. Luckily we have them under two different sinks. And at first everybody who's in any kind of a relationship, romantic or otherwise, but shares a home with somebody probably has a moment of, do I have to involve somebody else in this right now or can I get away with this?
- [28:07]
Luke Burbank
Definitely doing everything in my power to not alert the person I live with that this is what I've just done on this of all nights, on this.
- [28:15]
Andrew Walsh
Worst of all nights. And now I literally have flames going up. And then. That's right. It got to the point where the flames and the smoke were so bad I couldn't be in the kitchen. Like you hear about houses burning down and the inhalation and all this stuff. Like I've never had anything even close to that sensation before. But this got so bad, we did not end up deploying the extinguisher. I know that because that would have been a whole cleanup in and of itself. I think I just was able to stop the self clean Turn it down. I obviously did not introduce water into the situation. I might have.
- [28:52]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, that's a big one they talk about. Is that because of. Is that because of. If it's an electric stove.
- [28:57]
Andrew Walsh
Grease. It was a grease fire. Is.
- [28:59]
Luke Burbank
It was a grease fire. So the water is not going to help that.
- [29:02]
Andrew Walsh
I guess I've always known that you.
- [29:03]
Luke Burbank
Don'T throw water on a. You don't throw water on a fire. That's happening with the stove. But I never knew why that was.
- [29:08]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I think because water and grease will just separate. Somebody could explain it better than me. I don't know. All I know is that it's not a good thing to do. And it can just like, spread it. It could just splash around, essentially. So I know I didn't use water. I do remember at some point being like, I got to loop Genevieve in on the. She's downstairs in her own just misery cave, like, in front of her computer screen watching. Watching the world burn while I'm burning the kitchen up. So I'm just like, veebs, there's a fire. I mean, I'm like, can you find the fire extinguisher?
- [29:40]
Luke Burbank
What was her. Do you remember what her response to that little breaking news was?
- [29:46]
Andrew Walsh
She said, I'd divorce you if you existed. No, no, no, no. I remember her being just like, jumping to the moment. Like, she. As far as I remember, she never gave me any grief about my dumb decision leading up to that moment because I think I was probably self flagellating anyway. Yeah. And I. Anyways, I kind of don't remember, but I just remember her kind of like, oh, my God. Okay, I'll get the fire extinguisher from down here because we have a sink upstairs and a sink downstairs. And I think I was like, yelling at her while I was scrambling, looking for the fire extinguisher under the sink upstairs. Intellectually, I knew that we had one under both sinks, but in that moment, you're like, did I move it? Do we just have one? Have I been imagining, you know, so I'm like kind of knocking over a bunch of.
- [30:31]
Luke Burbank
How many fire extinguishers do you think I have in my house?
- [30:35]
Andrew Walsh
You need to get one, Luke.
- [30:37]
Luke Burbank
I have seven.
- [30:38]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, good. Oh, I thought you were gonna say that you're living.
- [30:40]
Luke Burbank
They're everywhere. Good people comment on it. No, I hit this. I had some time, some moment, some evening, some dark night of the soul, where I thought, after all of this work and money to try to make this little house a home. If it were to catch on fire. I would be so bummed, like, so incredibly bummed because of all the process of getting it kind of the way that it's all set up now. And I took that anxiety and I just turned it into just hammering, hammering Amazon.com and purchasing, like, a comical amount of fire extinguishers so that, like, every time you turn around, there's one. I think you even noted one, maybe.
- [31:18]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, yeah. You did have one Photo. No, no, we were on a photo call. We were in a zoom call, I think, and I noticed you had a fire extinguisher that was up on your mantle, almost displayed or something.
- [31:28]
Luke Burbank
I know that's how many I have. I'm trying to turn them into art so that, like, it. You know, it. I just. I. I decided that I wanted it to be the case that if something were to catch on fire, like, you're describing any direction that somebody turned, they would just, like, find a firework signature. Like. Like, you could not panic so hard that you would not be able to locate a fire extinguisher because they were going to be, like, basically omnipresent to the degree that it's, like, a little weird now. And I have put some of them in a closet because it was, like, too many. But that's my fear, is that something will catch on fire and I will go into such a panic that I will lose the ability to think rationally.
- [32:00]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Yep. And that's where I was in this darkest of moments. I think what ended up happening was I turned off the oven. The flames died down on their own. I let the oven cool off, but it became so smoky. And again, these were flames. Flames. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not exaggerating that part as exaggerating.
- [32:19]
Luke Burbank
Did the flames leave the interior of the oven? Did they ever.
- [32:23]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, that's what I was saying. That's why when I said I set the kitchen on fire, I was exaggerating a bit there, but it was like looking into a fireplace through the glass door of the oven. And then when it finally died down and I had to, like, start airing the place out, the rest. Well, certainly immediately afterwards, I couldn't be in the kitchen. It was the first time I ever had so much smoke in a room that it was burning my eyes and lungs and burning everything. And again, Genevieve was very cool about this whole thing, was glad it didn't get worse. I think we just had other things on our mind. Right. And so she went back downstairs, and I just had to open. I think this was during a period where our storm door on our front door was broken too, or some. I might be wrong about that, but I think I had to, like, make sure the cats were downstairs so that I could just open the front door. And there was no screen or anything like that. I just opened the front door and I opened our kitchen window. And of course it's November, it's cold outside, and it just took forever. I think even still, the next morning the house smelled like smoke. And this was all just happening on election night. And I just remember thinking, like, could this be more perfect?
- [33:30]
Luke Burbank
I mean, just like that. Sort of trying to get the smoke out. And then eventually, presumably, like, I guess you couldn't open the oven for a while still, because it was still, like, probably in locked cleaning mode. But just like doing any of the small tasks of life that are not particularly fun on a good night, that's where I'm not. I don't think I'm built for. I think I'm built for tough times because, like, I don't like doing a lot of stuff just normally. And then you throw on the end of democracy and then I also still need to go find some, you know, Brillo pads and some, you know, Bon Ami hasn't scratched yet and get to work on it. Like, just the mundane tasks of life when they're happening against the backdrop of what feels like such a macro threat to life as we know it and to just justice. I just. I don't do well in those situations. I don't know what I would have done, but I think you handled it better than I did.
- [34:23]
Andrew Walsh
Well, that's why I was in such a fuzzy state.
- [34:27]
Luke Burbank
That's why the oven fire you set last night was kind of fun.
- [34:30]
Andrew Walsh
Well, that was a celebratory fire.
- [34:32]
Luke Burbank
Yes. You're roasting marshmallows.
- [34:34]
Andrew Walsh
Well, that's why I don't think this would have happened if I were in a different mindset. You know what I'm saying? Like, I do think there's some causality here. I think I was just in this mode of just like, I don't know, I can't handle it, whatever. Put on self clean.
- [34:51]
Luke Burbank
Well, no, you wanted to self clean America.
- [34:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, exactly. Like, I just, like, I think that if I were in a more regular state of mind, I'd be like, whoa, I must have spilled some butter in here or some, you know, chicken fat or whatever it was, and I would have probably let the oven cool down and I would have put on a podcast and I would have, like, known to go in there with some rags and like clean up the worst of it and then maybe maybe do a self clean after that if need be. You know, like you just can't self clean a puddle of oil. And I just think that I was in some sort of a screw it mood and just probably that led me to do that. I also got to say I didn't discover self cleaning cleaning functions on ovens until pretty late in life. And they're really awesome. Like when used appropriately, like they're so. I don't know if you ever use that.
- [35:34]
Luke Burbank
I have never deployed the self clean option. It to me is like, it is, it's sort of literally and figuratively the nuclear option. It's like, it feels to me like I need to go, I need to put on. First of all, I need to put on a high waisted tweed suit and a fedora and get a pack of cigarettes because I'm Oppenheimer at that point. I am, I'm starting a reaction in the kitchen environment. I need to go hide behind a couch. Go hide in a hut behind a couch. You've seen Oppenheimer, I believe, right? Yes.
- [36:04]
Andrew Walsh
It seems like you're wearing those glasses, you're wearing those dark glasses.
- [36:07]
Luke Burbank
The ramifications of what you have set in motion, you know, it's. I have become oven cleaner, I believe is the quote.
- [36:16]
Andrew Walsh
Famously. Well, I am really sad that this is the story that you're hearing related to self cleaning ovens because I gotta say, I made a mistake this time because there was way too much gunk in there. And that's not how that works. But they especially. You must have a modern stove, right? You just redid your whole.
- [36:33]
Luke Burbank
I have the same kind that you do.
- [36:34]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, really?
- [36:35]
Luke Burbank
Lg, it's got, it's. Well, yeah, mine is an LG and it's got that ceramic, that blue ceramic blue.
- [36:41]
Andrew Walsh
I do like that blue. Isn't it funny how you just add a little bit?
- [36:44]
Luke Burbank
Is yours, is yours. Is your LG part of the. What's the name for these? Because they're technically like, it's, it's technically WI FI enabled. Right? Like, and it's got like insight or something. It's like the LG Insight network of things. Because my, my stove is one and my microwave. I've never gotten them successfully to talk to each other or even maybe, I don't know, stage a mock wedding with me as the bride. Other things that you would do if you get all of your kitchen appliances to come to life Cinderelli style. But yeah, It's. Oh, no, it's like Think.
- [37:18]
Andrew Walsh
I'm looking to see here. I don't know.
- [37:19]
Luke Burbank
It's the Think network. But the Think is the. It's a Q. It's like T I H A T I T. H I N Q is what I think the. The name for the way that you could. If you have the same one that I do.
- [37:30]
Andrew Walsh
Yep, I see it now.
- [37:31]
Luke Burbank
And. And I think you. Here's what you're supposed to be able to do with that bad boy. Like, if you're on your way home with the kids from soccer practice, like you are so often, and you realize that that oven's supposed to be preheating, you can start preheating from your phone.
- [37:44]
Andrew Walsh
I don't know for sure that we have that. Like, ours definitely has some sort of Bluetooth technology, if you could believe it. I hope you're right about this. Here's the deal. I am not somebody who likes to read instruction manuals and never feel the need to, but I really need to sit down and just watch a quick video or read the manual for my oven, because I'm not. We love this new oven. We hated our old one so much and we love this new one. But I'm not using any of the functionality that a modern oven allows. You know, I'm not using whether it's WI fi because I thought that, like, I. My understanding of, like, this quote unquote smart features on mine were very limited to, like, well, you can hook it up to your phone and the app will tell you maybe you can set a timer or something. But I didn't think you could actually control the oven functions. I hope I'm wrong. And as I say this, it sounds like I probably am wrong. I just haven't. Like, I kept thinking, like, well, one of these days I'll get into that. I'm still very confused about, like, when to use the air fryer function versus the convection oven.
- [38:44]
Luke Burbank
For when it was that one.
- [38:45]
Andrew Walsh
I was using air fryer all the time. And now I realize I'd rather just take my time. Things are coming out better in the convection or in the. In the conventional oven settings.
- [38:53]
Luke Burbank
We've got the greatest scientific minds of our era trying to understand the difference between convection, air fryer.
- [39:00]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [39:00]
Luke Burbank
Etc. And they. And by the way, they're stumped. Absolutely stumped at this point. Yeah, we must have the exact same oven because mine allegedly has those features. I've never used any of them.
- [39:09]
Andrew Walsh
You just use bake mode.
- [39:11]
Luke Burbank
I just. Yeah, I just use it like what I think of as a regular oven. I love that it has that enamel, that blue enamel inside. It fills me with. It sparks joy. I know I love you each time I open the oven. But short of that, I've never. I haven't done. And. And. Well, here's something I. A while ago, I haven't had this. Haven't had her come by in a while, but I started hiring someone on the sort of rare occasion to come over and actually, like, just do a little bit of house cleaning at my house. I'm a pretty tidy guy. But what I'm not, what I don't naturally think to do, is deep clean and clean in all of these little nooks and crannies of my house. And so what usually happens is this person comes over and I'm always. I'm a little sheepish when she comes over because I wonder if she thinks, like, is this a prank because the house is totally clean, right? There are no dishes in the sink. There's no like. But then what she does is she goes around one. She steams the floor.
- [40:07]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, geez. She.
- [40:09]
Luke Burbank
She does something where after she's like, vacuuming, it's a hardwood floor. She steam. It's the cleanest I've ever seen a hardwood floor. And she cleans out the inside of the. Of the stove. And it's super duper clean. So for now, and. But again, this is maybe, maybe once a month. Not even that because I've been traveling a lot. But like, I also, if you want to know, this is so bad. I really hope my mom doesn't hear this. I love you, Mom. I love you so much. But usually when this person would come by, would be on a Friday, that's the part of their schedule that I'm in. And a lot of times that Friday would also be a Friday that my parents were passing through town. And we're gonna like, stay for a couple of nights. And I kind of feel like I don't want to get the house cleaned, like, really cleaned right before my parents show up, because they are basically feral. And it will be a waste of the deep cleaning because everything will be like, just so. And then deep cleaned. And then all of a sudden it's just a woohoo party going on. There's just like, I feel like when my parents are. I feel like when they come into my house because oftentimes I'm not there, I might be doing the show with you. I might be already out of town and they'll come through. I Feel like the first thing they do when they get into my house is they move every single thing by half an inch. Like they make it a goal to just go and just slightly move everything. Like, hey, you know, oh, that chair usually goes in this direction. What if we turned it around? What if we. And that thing, they just move everything. I think it's mostly my mom, honestly, but they just like every single thing in the house gets slightly adjusted in some weird way that I then have to go back through and move it back to the way I like it.
- [41:51]
Andrew Walsh
I swear this is a lot of a Thurber book or something like that. Or am I thinking or something where people are driving somebody is crazy just by like changing things a tiny, tiny bit.
- [42:02]
Luke Burbank
Yes, exactly. Like it's this kind of. It's this kind of thing designed to make me go insane because everything is just a little bit. A little bit not how I left it or a little bit messed with. So what, what the reason that I haven't had this person come by for the last couple of times has become. Has been because she was going to come by on the day or the day before my parents were going to be there and staying over and I was like, I don't really want to. I don't want to waste it. It's like the. For me, the perfect expression of having this person come by and clean my house is she does this before I'm going to be home by myself for a week. That's what I want. I want to just be like enjoying it. I want to be like going, golly, it's clean around. Gosh, there is no dust anywhere. That's. I want, I paid for it. I want to be able to enjoy it. So. But I, but she, she does clean out the, the oven and man, that thing is really spotless.
- [42:53]
Andrew Walsh
That's interesting. So did you. You must have. We had a housekeeper very briefly in Los Angeles. And you know, we had lived in a relatively small apartment, like two bedroom apartment or something. But it was just nice. I think she did very basic things. You know, she'd come in and just do what you just think of as basic housekeeping. You know what I mean? She'd clean the floors, hardwood floors as well. You know, one of the things I liked is even though I keep my spaces really neat anyway, if you do have a little pile of something, the pile had to be moved to clean underneath it anyway. So then you come back and everything is like especially tidy as well as like wipe down and clean. But when you, when you Hired this person. Did you have to have like, kind of a conversation? Say, what I'm looking for is, I got that stuff. I got the counters, I got the main stuff. I need you to do the more nitty gritty stuff, like the oven. Because, like, I don't think like our housekeeper ever, like, went in the oven or anything like that.
- [43:42]
Luke Burbank
I think I said to her, I'm fairly. I'm pretty tidy, but I'm not good at a lot of, you know, like I said, detail stuff. So she cleans the sink out really, really well. That's good because there's. Because again, that's the thing. There's not. And what I try to do is make sure that I don't. Because she's only there for like maybe an hour, right? So I try to make sure that I have not left out anything that's going to be. Take up time out of the hour for something that is not a good use of this person's time. So, for instance, I don't want her or need her anywhere near any dishes situation, whether it's the dishwasher, whether it's dishes in the drying rack, whether it's dirty dishes. I have a system for that. Also, all of my dishes go in very specific places in the cabinetry, in the cabinets. And that's a whole other thing. Like, I just know the system because I set it up. I don't want someone else to be standing there, like, looking up into the cabinets, trying to figure out what the system is. So I like, I try to make sure that I've removed every. All the stuff that I do on the regular. I try to make sure it's all done so that what's left for her to work on is again, stuff like steam cleaning the floor or really getting the, like the sink, because I have these stainless steel, like, undermount, kind of like farmhouse kind of sinks. Like it's two sinks. And I try to keep them clean. This is just turning into spotless now. I try to keep them generally pretty clean. But. But there's always, you know, there's always. I could do it much better. And like I said, you know, she's a professional. She knows what she's doing. It's also one of those things where, I mean, I don't know if it's inappropriate or not to. The amount of money this person charges is 25 an hour, which I feel.
- [45:18]
Andrew Walsh
Is too low, like, incredibly affordable.
- [45:22]
Luke Burbank
It's. It's wild. It's. It's like. And so I.
- [45:25]
Andrew Walsh
Why does.
- [45:27]
Luke Burbank
I was. I asked, and she. She politely declined. I said, like, you know, I. I basically. I was like, how much do you charge? She said, 25. I said, that seems kind of low to me. She goes, oh, that's just what I charge. I was like, okay, so now I.
- [45:43]
Andrew Walsh
Always, like, you said that to her. Well, I'm just thinking that I think I would too.
- [45:49]
Luke Burbank
Like driving to my house in a truck. Truck. It's gotta eat gas.
- [45:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [45:54]
Luke Burbank
Like.
- [45:54]
Andrew Walsh
And you're tipping, though. You're leaving a big tip, I'm sure.
- [45:57]
Luke Burbank
Well, that's what I'm doing now on Venmo, by the way. My Venmo is private, but if anybody saw it, they'd be like, why is Luke giving this random lady a hundred dollars every three Fridays? And it's because I'm like, so, you know, I am definitely trying to make up for, you know, make up for. For what I think is her charging too low of amount by tipping her. But I guess my point in that is. And this has sort of come up before on the show, somehow this feels related, but not related to Zoran Mamdani, actually, this idea of, like a living wage and also the work of that people have to do. A lot of people have to do in a. In a city environment or even outside of a city. But, like, you know, it's weird to me that this is one of those things where I. You can hear it in my voice, my discomfort around talking about it, because I feel like it's the bougiest thing I've ever done in my life. And it involves me paying somebody $50, potentially. Like, if she was there for two hours or if she was there for an hour and change, and I'll round it up to 50 or whatever it is, you know, now it's probably $50, probably once a month when it's all said and done. And yet it feels like the kind of thing that I need to be so careful around talking about. I feel so. Because we didn't grow up with anything like that. I have never in my adult life ever hired someone to do any kind of cleaning at my house on the regular. And there's so much other stuff that I spend $50 on. I don't know why. This is the one thing that makes me feel like I'm in the 1%. And I have to be like, I'm. I'm like, in weirdly embarrassed about it as a topic. I have to keep saying how she's not there every week and how mostly. And I'm even telling you how Much I'm paying her so that you know that I'm. I don't know why. This is a very uncomfortable thing for me to talk about because I associate it somehow with being, like a rich person.
- [47:37]
Andrew Walsh
I can't articulate it better than you, but I understand the discomfort there, and I would share it to a degree as well. I don't know if it's about the. I think it's. It's. I think it's the human connection. I said I can't be articulate about this, so why not keep talking?
- [47:55]
Luke Burbank
I'm listening.
- [47:56]
Andrew Walsh
But don't you feel like it has something to do not with how you're spending your money, but the fact that it's like you're spending it on this particular service that a human being. I think it has more to do with not the spending habits, but just the responsibility, maybe that it's like, well, why can't I clean up my own messes or something? I feel like there's a psychology there that goes beyond just the money and just like, well, this is what rich people do, but also the idea of having people who are serving you in.
- [48:25]
Luke Burbank
This way, it's the closest thing that I would ever have to a butler or a. Somebody who's like. I don't know if we use this term anymore, but like you said, a servant of some kind. Because every other job that you might hire someone to do in the home environment, it kind of makes instinctive sense. It's like childcare. Well, it's really, really. It's an intense thing to take care of children. And you might work outside the home. And so we're gonna. Nobody thinks it's weird if somebody has childcare for their children when they're working or whenever they're doing whatever, or I'm hiring, you know, less now. But I was hiring people left and right to come build things at my house and fix things and. And whatever, because I don't know how to do. I don't know how to mud and tape Sheetrock very well? And so that's like, yeah, of course. You hired someone for that. Yeah, anything that seems hard.
- [49:13]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, good.
- [49:14]
Luke Burbank
We hire people for. And we don't. It's not like, oh, yeah, you had to hire a plumber. Yeah, my sink was backed up. He had to hire a plumber. It doesn't feel like at that point you've abdicated your responsibility in life. But there's this one thing which is like, yeah, I didn't really feel like cleaning my toilet properly. So I. I'M paying someone maybe not enough money because that's the circumstance of their life and they're here doing that. Like there's something. You're right. That's very. There's the human connection with that and also like the human decision making, I guess, process to say, yeah, I'd rather spend $25 than. And by the way, I want to be also very, very clear if you think I haven't at least given the toilet a pretty good once over before this person gets there, you do not know me. I would sooner die than have this person get to my house, clean the toilet and be like, ugh, this guy's.
- [50:04]
Andrew Walsh
Well, you're not taking out the toilet brush and brush and using toilet cleaner. You mean really? Because not a toilet cleaner. How do you improve on that then? Like, I would understand if you took a paper towel or a balled up thing of like toilet paper and sort of did some preliminary wip wiping around the rim just in case, you know, it had accumulated anything and just like, you know, trying to make it seem not gross. But if you're taking out a toilet brush and getting that thing wet, then nobody's gonna improve upon that.
- [50:29]
Luke Burbank
Very minimally, I'm here. I'm not putting in any. You know what she's got that I really like? She's got, I don't know, one of those little. It's like a sticky blue thing that kind of. It's like a. It's not 2,000 flushes blue. Which, by the way, one of the greatest commercials for my. Were they playing that in Ohio when you were a kid?
- [50:45]
Andrew Walsh
Was that the one that had the little sailor man in a boat in the back of the tank? No. You know what I'm talking about.
- [50:50]
Luke Burbank
This was.
- [50:50]
Andrew Walsh
Right.
- [50:51]
Luke Burbank
I don't think I know that. This is the guy who invented it. And he's extolling the virtues of 2000 flushes blue because it's going to last for 2000 plushes. But he was always like, you know, I'm David Marks and I invented 2000 flushes blue. And then he's like flushing a toilet. And I always thought it was funny how he said 2000 fleshes blue with.
- [51:13]
Andrew Walsh
A bit of an accent. Is that almost a New York?
- [51:14]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it was some New Yorky thing. It was. It didn't seem like it was like, it wasn't like he wasn't from Seattle.
- [51:19]
Andrew Walsh
Right.
- [51:20]
Luke Burbank
And I just always thought 2000 flushes blue was like the funniest thing when I was a kid.
- [51:24]
Andrew Walsh
That does ring a bell. I Know that my, like, I don't think we had those kinds of things that the, the stuff that you would either put. I think usually those would be discs that you would drop in the tank, right? And then when you flush it, then the, the water would be like this, this very artificially blue color. And we didn't have the. But I think like one of my grandparents did. I think Grandma. Clink, clink. Did Grandma Simcik.
- [51:46]
Luke Burbank
I think they're a great idea.
- [51:47]
Andrew Walsh
It's cool. I remember it was like so much fun when I was a kid. You couldn't stop flushing the toilet 2,000 times.
- [51:52]
Luke Burbank
But what this, what this gal does is she like sticks on a little. There's also this version of it where it's like a little gelatinous disc. And it. You've got an applicator that's like a long tube and you stick it to the inside of the toilet bowl so that as the water comes through, it gets a little bit of this cleaning solution on it. And then over time, the thing just like washes away and washes off. So she does a little bit more like she's got the gloves on. She's going, you know, probably up into the crevice. What I'm just trying to make sure is that she never has the experience of coming opening the toilet seat and just kind of like shuddering. Like, I want to make sure that there's a minimal amount of any other kind of unpleasant visual indicators in that toilet.
- [52:31]
Andrew Walsh
So I just found something incredible here on YouTube. Luke, I don't know if you're familiar with YouTube.
- [52:36]
Luke Burbank
I wanted to figure out a thousand flushes blue.
- [52:38]
Andrew Walsh
No, I'm gonna let you look that one up. Cause I was like, who's this little sailor man that I remember floating in a boat in the back of commercials? And that's for Tidy Bowl. And he was the tiny bull man. So I wanted to see if I could find a commercial and I was able to find a montage of commercials. But it actually opens not with one of the original commercials, but a parody of the commercial. Luke, from none other than Mama's Family, I believe here.
- [53:03]
Luke Burbank
Oh, man. Vicki Lawrence.
- [53:05]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Or I think this is. I think this is Mama's Family. Let's take a listen to this. It'll. It'll start with whatever this parody is. And it looks like in this version she opens up the tank of her toilet and the Tidy bowl is Man. Man is in there in his little boat, but he's also got a stand up base for some reason. So this Is gonna. We're gonna start with the parody, and then it'll roll into the real one, I think. Could this just be the Carol Burnett Show? I think it wasn't Carol Burnett in Mama's Family. I think I'm just confusing the two.
- [53:35]
Luke Burbank
Well, wasn't she. Oh, this is going to be bad. I always thought that Mama was a character that was on the Carol Burnett show, but wasn't that also Vicki Lawrence? And then it was its own show that was just all Mama's Family, like, maybe almost a spin off from the Carol Burnett Show.
- [53:49]
Andrew Walsh
So that was. Vicki Lawrence was on the Carol Burnett Show. Is that why I get them confused?
- [53:54]
Luke Burbank
I think so, because I don't know.
- [53:56]
Andrew Walsh
The difference between Vicki Lawrence and. And Carol Burnett. In fact, I couldn't even keep them both in my head.
- [54:02]
Luke Burbank
They're definitely different people.
- [54:03]
Andrew Walsh
Okay.
- [54:04]
Luke Burbank
Carol Lawrence, Carol Burnett used to. I called them the same person. I. Them in one person. So is this a. What are we. Are you. Are you bailing on this?
- [54:12]
Andrew Walsh
No, I'm not gonna bail. I'm gonna tell you this. I'm gonna play it for you, But I just need to figure. So I did just go to Wikipedia, though. Mama's Family. American sitcom starring Vicki Laura as Mama.
- [54:21]
Luke Burbank
Okay.
- [54:21]
Andrew Walsh
The series is a spin off of the recurring series of comedy sketches called the Family, featured on the Carol Burnett show and Carol Burnett and Company. The sketches led to the television film Eunice and finally the television series. So they were sketches.
- [54:36]
Luke Burbank
We got a lot of Vicky Lawrence, by the way.
- [54:38]
Andrew Walsh
You're right that it was Vicki Lawrence. But who am I seeing here? I think I'm seeing Carol Burnett. So I think what I'm seeing here is a Carol Burnett sketch. I really feel like I should have just played a commercial, not the parody of this. But I'm in too deep now. She hears something. I think she hears this music. I think it's diegetic. And now she lifts up the toilet tank lid, and she sees I'm the man from Tidy Bowl. Okay, now she flushed the toilet, and the scene ends, which I guess if you flush the toilet, that does sort of screw the Tidy bowl guy, because he's not in the. The toilet bowl. He's in the tank. So what does happen to him when he's flushed? That's a really good.
- [55:21]
Luke Burbank
It's like he's in a. Yeah, he's like, in a. I guess he's just got to avoid that drain, right? Or he's living with the alligators.
- [55:28]
Andrew Walsh
He's got to spread out his arms and legs. And try so hard not to end up in the bowl, because that's rough stuff. All right, let's get to the actual commercial here. That follows this. I don't know how chopped and screwed this is. I picked the wrong video, man. I'm fed up with Scrubby. Excuse me, but you need Tiny bowl here. Oh, it's you, the Tidy bowl man.
- [55:46]
Luke Burbank
Will this help?
- [55:47]
Andrew Walsh
Sure. With each flush, Tidy bowl releases strong cleaners that help keep toilet bowls stain free. How do I know Tidy Bowl's cleaning? The sparkling color tells you that it's working hard. Tidy Bowl's powerful and safe on plumbing. That's great. Comes in lemon fresh blue or pine scented green.
- [56:03]
Luke Burbank
With Tidy bowl, you'll scrub less safe on plumbing, too.
- [56:07]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, you know, lemon blue.
- [56:11]
Luke Burbank
Oh, the classic Andrew. I'm looking at this now, this Tidy bowl stuff. They were not playing this in the Pacific Northwest or I was not watching during the right time. This is totally new to me and fascinating. This is a major pop culture blind spot for me. This guy standing in a boat next to this basically upside down jug of cleaning solution that's going to slowly let itself out into the toilet water supply.
- [56:36]
Andrew Walsh
Can I ask you a question? It's a little bit of a personal question. Does it make you want to buy a tiny boat? It kind of makes you want to buy a tiny boat, doesn't it?
- [56:44]
Luke Burbank
Very, very possibly. Okay, now, this is not going to pay off, but can I just. I found 2,000 flushes blue. Okay. And I don't know if this is again, I think this is the commercial, but here we. Let me play it for you here.
- [56:57]
Andrew
These blue turtle creams Only last about six weeks. 2000 flush of blue lasts up to four months. Drop in 2000 flushes blue, and it cleans and keeps the water blue up to four months. 2000 flushes blue or original clear.
- [57:12]
Luke Burbank
I believe that's al Eisen of 2000 Flushes Blue fame.
- [57:15]
Andrew Walsh
Can you play that same one again? Because it sounded like he said six squeaks, which I kind of like as a measurement of time, even though I know that that's not what he actually said. Did you close it out?
- [57:26]
Luke Burbank
I did, but luckily the Internet, like the north remembers, and it's gonna take me back to where I was a second ago. But yeah, he was like. He was sort of. To me, he was spiritually connected to the. I'm not only the president, I'm also a client or whatever. I'm not only a client, I'm also the president. You know the Hair Club for Men guy like, these were, like bald guys, probably from New York, who were kind of quirky. Here we go. This is back to our buddy Al invented something amazing.
- [57:56]
Andrew
2,000 plushes, blue plus bleach.
- [57:59]
Luke Burbank
Oh, you know what? This is a. Sorry, this is a different conversion.
- [58:01]
Andrew Walsh
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's just. It was funny the way he said six weeks.
- [58:04]
Luke Burbank
Here we go.
- [58:05]
Andrew Walsh
Here we go.
- [58:05]
Andrew
These blue toilet bowl creams only last about six weeks. 2000 plus blue lasts up to.
- [58:11]
Andrew Walsh
That's the movie in the chipmunks.
- [58:13]
Luke Burbank
2000 flushes.
- [58:13]
Andrew
Blue lasts up to four months. The bowl creams only last about six weeks.
- [58:20]
Luke Burbank
Only lasts about six weeks. I wonder how Al Eisen's doing. I mean, I have a feeling Al Eisen might be a. Was just looking at him on video here also. I don't want to get into talking about bodies and hair and things like that, but he really was from an era where guys of a certain age were, I think, more bold. I feel like the era of the comb over. Don't you think that the world of the comb over has really come to an end? I think particularly for kind of guys of a certain age.
- [58:51]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Cause is he combing over in this? Is that what you're saying so much?
- [58:54]
Luke Burbank
I'm saying he has the classic. He's got the classic comb over where it's like. He's got. His hair is gray. It's. It's very thin on top. But then he's grown it super long. But then he's combing it over. But, like, it just so happens that I froze it. I'll send you this as a show pick, Andrew. Maybe if we don't already have one, I fro it. Just randomly froze it on YouTube in this exact moment where it's like this combo is fooling absolutely nobody.
- [59:16]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. That's why I understood those.
- [59:18]
Luke Burbank
And yet it was a real default setting for lots and lots of guys. And then I feel like. I don't even know if the term comb over was in use, but it was just a known thing that a lot of older guys were gonna do this with their hair. And then we started calling it a comb over. It started to become kind of this thing that we sort of joked about, became a story when Rudy Giuliani finally, like, fixed his. Which I don't know if you remember this, but, you know, he. Giuliani was. He cut his hair differently, and it looked a million times better. And I think he might have been on Oprah. This is back when he was still America's. Mayor. See, everything comes back to New York City mayoral politics today. See what I'm doing here? I remember he was on Oprah and Oprah was complimenting how much better his hair looked. And he refused to admit that he used to have a comb over. He just kept trying to play it off as my barber cut my hair different. It was like, listen, brah, it's all right. You had a combover, no shade, but it looks a lot better now and we all like it. It. But that was, I remember it being a big story that Rudy Giuliani wasn't having his comb over anymore. And now I think because of just like, it's just, it's, it's more acceptable for, you know, just to kind of keep your hair short, maybe even shave your head or whatever. There's different hair systems, there's lots of hair transplants. Now this era of like a lot of guys of a certain age having this very unconvincing comb over. Like, you just don't see that. I was just, I was going to tell you about this. I was just in the weekly editorial meeting, the show meeting for CBS Sunday Morning over at the broadcast center. And it's, you know, it's a bunch of different people actually of all kinds of different ages. But there's certainly a, there's enough fellers of a certain age that work on the show or are involved with CBS stuff. None of them had comb overs. No comb overs. Nobody's combing over anymore. That would have been. It looks worse than three.
- [61:04]
Andrew Walsh
I'm sorry. It's like as my, is as my, you know, as I'm losing more and more hair. My only issue is when my hair gets longer and it gets like stringy and it exemplify or it magnifies, I guess I should say the baldness even more in a very unsettling way. And that's what a comb over is, right? It's like leaving. Are you taking photos of me? Of my bald?
- [61:25]
Luke Burbank
No. Of Al Eisen? No. You. I would never do that.
- [61:29]
Andrew Walsh
The show pick today is just going to be a huge close up of where I've got these two little patches of hair hanging on in front. Why won't you guys just go away like the rest?
- [61:37]
Luke Burbank
I was, you know, I was, I was rub some 2000 fleshes blue on there. They'll die really quickly.
- [61:43]
Andrew Walsh
I blew myself.
- [61:44]
Luke Burbank
Yes, you did.
- [61:45]
Andrew Walsh
But anyway, yeah, I mean, for me it's just like I can't shave my head because I also have a beard and that's a Consideration. And that's a. You know, a lot of men do that and they look good, but, like, it's just. I don't think that would look good on me. Shaved head, beard, and I don't want to lose the beard. If I lost everything, I would just be really upsetting. Looking for folks, I got to think about the other people's experiences as well.
- [62:03]
Luke Burbank
I told you this. You're not going to enjoy me. You're not going to enjoy this piece of feedback. So just try to tolerate it, try to survive it. It. Try to get through it. But like, one of the big takeaways from our TBT on week in Wisconsin when we didn't then did a meet and greet with a bunch of wonderful TBTL supporters and friends who came out to that, like, kind of barbecue thing. I heard repeatedly from people, Andrew is much better looking in person than I expected, based on how Andrew describes himself on the show.
- [62:32]
Andrew Walsh
Well, in a certain way, that. That. That works because somebody did. I can't remember who it was, but somebody did say, you describe yourself as a troll, and they're like, you don't look that bad. I'm like, well, then I guess setting those expectations, it's working. It really works, right? But all of that is to say, yeah, the comb overlook just. And again, everybody can make their own decisions. Like we were talking the other day, like, you know, there are people who wear wigs. And I'm sorry to use. I'm not saying this to dunk on him, but I just think, like, as a public figure, Rick Riz, the baseball announcer for the Mariners, is that. I guess that's a toupee, right? I guess. I mean, but it's getting. It's covering more and more and more. And the last photo I saw on the side, it, like, goes down. And like, I'm not saying that to make fun of him. He can wear that. I think, like, my grandfather wore a wig, and I think he wore it like it was a hat, sort of. And so if that's what makes you feel comfortable, that's what makes you feel comfortable. I'm serious. I'm not in the. I'm not in any position to be making fun of people's fashion choices, if you would call it that. But having said that, it's not convincing. You don't look at him and say, wow, Rick really has a good head of hair. You know what I mean? Like, literally anybody who sees him knows that he has a big thing of hair setting on top of his real head, you know, And So, like, to me, it is an interesting decision. And I've told you before, I'm a little sensitive about. I like to wear hats. I've worn hats my whole life. But I really. My only sensitivity about my baldness is that I don't want people to think I'm purposely trying to hide it. And I am just like.
- [63:58]
Luke Burbank
Which is known in some circles as hat fishing.
- [64:01]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly.
- [64:02]
Luke Burbank
That's true.
- [64:03]
Andrew Walsh
I didn't really. Oh, I thought you're making that up right now.
- [64:05]
Luke Burbank
It's. Sometimes I would see, like, women on, you know, like TikTok or whatever that would say, like, they go on a date with a guy, he's wearing a hat the whole time, and then you find out on like the second or third date that he is balding or bald or whatever. And they call that colloquially hat fishing.
- [64:19]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And I just.
- [64:19]
Luke Burbank
Instead of catfishing.
- [64:20]
Andrew Walsh
And again, I can't weigh in on that world because I'm just. I never dated in that. You know, I'm not of that or I wasn't of the age at the right time to be doing that, but I would not probably do that. Like, if I can't. It's so hard for me to imagine myself being on the apps. I just don't think. I think I would just be in my basement playing darts and just listening to podcasts by myself instead of with Genevieve, you know, but like, I. I would be very, I think, self conscious about, like, if I'm hiding it all the time, at what moment does the real me come out? And that does seem like a pretty uncomfortable situation to put yourself into mid lovemaking. Here's Johnny.
- [64:59]
Luke Burbank
Dramatically remove your Mariner's hat. Speaking of this meeting that I was in. And I'll try to keep this quick because actually, you know what? Let's do this. Can we thank some donors? And then I'll just tell you about my experience because I haven't been in something like this in a long, long time. Like a real, actual staff meeting at a place that I really actually kind of work. And it was interesting. Thank you, baby. All right, let's do the donor. Thanks. Right now, this is where we take a little moment out of the show to thank some of the folks who are supporting this thing voluntarily. Voluntarily. They. They've heard us pleading with them, reminding them that this is listener supported podcasting. And they could have just been like, yeah, someone else will take care of it. They're not that. They're not that kind of person. They're not somebody who just says, like, I've got mine. You better go get yours. They say, hey, you know, a rising tide lifts all ships, even tiny little.
- [66:06]
Andrew Walsh
Boats in the back of a toilet.
- [66:07]
Luke Burbank
Tank, just like the one that I'm saving up for. We want to thank Chad Norman in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
- [66:15]
Andrew Walsh
Hey, Chad, thank you, as always.
- [66:18]
Luke Burbank
Very pleasant up there on that mountain, South Carolina.
- [66:21]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [66:22]
Luke Burbank
Yep. Natasha Donovan is in Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Now, that also sounds. I can prom. I've never been there, Andrew, but I can tell you right now, that's fraking beautiful.
- [66:34]
Andrew Walsh
Natasha, thank you for being our herdy Gertie gal.
- [66:39]
Luke Burbank
Okay, now you need to unpack.
- [66:41]
Andrew Walsh
I get that Donovan reference.
- [66:43]
Luke Burbank
Oh, Donovan is the last name. Natasha Donovan right there. Thank you, Natasha.
- [66:48]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [66:48]
Luke Burbank
I thought that was a Salt Spring island reference. Maybe he had written about. Have you heard of Tofino?
- [66:53]
Andrew Walsh
I.
- [66:53]
Luke Burbank
There will. If you haven't, Andrew, there will come a day where Genevieve is going to walk into the studio or some other part of the house where you are, and she's going to say, we got to go to Tofino.
- [67:02]
Andrew Walsh
No. What is Tofino?
- [67:04]
Luke Burbank
It is a absolutely beautiful little kind of area of British Columbia that's just renowned for its natural beauty. It's right there on the water. I I It's on. I think it's on Vancouver Island. I don't know if it's its own island, like, near Vancouver, or if it's just an extension of it, but it's like, when I see pictures of it, I'm like, I need to move to Tofino immediately. I've never even been there, but I'm ready to move there. And knowing that Genevieve and I are are similar with these things sometimes, at least we get. I feel like Tofino is going to, like, cycle through everyone's Instagram page again at some point, and you're going to hear from Genevieve that you guys should think about making a trip to Tofina.
- [67:41]
Andrew Walsh
Well, you know what? Genevieve came into the studio and told me that we're going to in January, something that is advertised as BBC, the big black comedy show in Las Vegas. Genevieve is planning a trip for us to Vegas in January for our anniversary, and she was looking at all kinds of shows we could possibly go to. I thought we might go to one of those, like, you know, with the high step and kicks kind of Showgirls kind of situation. I don't know. I don't know what you call that stuff. But instead she said, hey, we're going to the big black comedy show. I said, what is that? And It's Vegas freshest comedy production. Get ready to laugh out loud. But when I opened it up, it looks like. And I'm pretty sure if you Google this, Luke, I'm pretty sure it's represented by an AI comedian. I'm pretty sure the face of this and the BBC is ridiculously large, which I believe is more than a double entendre in their advertising of this. I believe it is marketed specifically towards adult humor. And they won't say anybody who's actually part of the performing. So that's, you know, so it's just going to be, you know, kind of. And when you watch the video, they don't identify any of the people who are in it. I don't know if you're on it. Is that. Oh, yeah, that fella is AI, right? Like, yeah.
- [69:02]
Luke Burbank
I want to. I want to be. I want to be careful with how I talk about this for all of the very obvious reasons, mainly being that Caitlin Woodley of Eagle, Idaho, has asked me to be careful when I talk about BBC comedy shows.
- [69:15]
Andrew Walsh
Right.
- [69:15]
Luke Burbank
But, like, I'm. I'm having a hard time understanding what it all about. This advertisement worked on Genevieve because it is. You're right. Absolutely. A guy who is AI in front of a brick wall. There's also AI. There's. He is so unconvincing as something. Someone who is funny as a humanoid, as a human. Like, it's the opposite of. It doesn't even. It doesn't even get close to looking like something that would be funny. And then you go through and you're not able to actually see, because I thought when you said the big bad comedy show, I thought, okay, it's gonna be a selection of black comedians. Andrew's gonna start naming them. I'll recognize at least a handful of the names. And I could see that being a really fun night. This looks like something absolutely right out of AI Hell, where.
- [70:06]
Andrew Walsh
I am so excited to report back on this, Luke, because the little blur.
- [70:10]
Luke Burbank
Exact take.
- [70:12]
Andrew Walsh
What's that?
- [70:13]
Luke Burbank
Was this also your take on the situation?
- [70:15]
Andrew Walsh
Well, I was just. I. I thought it was. So here's the deal. And I don't. I really don't want to in any way, like, kind of make it sound like I'm throwing Genevieve under the bus. I. I've never been to Vegas before. We. Genevieve plan any trip that I take. Genevieve plans down to the last detail. I don't do anything. So I definitely don't want to make it sound like I'm unappreciative. I'm actually Looking forward to this. Just to like, see what something like this is, you know, because again, like, there's no headliners. I originally thought it was gonna be the same as you. Like, oh, these will be some folks that I've heard of and then some folks I haven't. But their description, I love this. The Big Black Comedy show is Vegas's newest and funniest production. They might not be household names like Dave Chappelle, Katt Williams, or Kevin Hart, but this rotating cast of up and coming comedians are every bit as hilarious. Now, do you think that is true? They are every bit as hilarious as Katt Williams, Dave Chappelle, and Kevin Hart. Katt Williams, by the way, I was thinking about him during the show yesterday because he had a dream of buying a Washington state decommissioned.
- [71:16]
Luke Burbank
He did, you know what?
- [71:16]
Andrew Walsh
And he didn't buy it.
- [71:18]
Luke Burbank
I failed you as a co host and a scary monster to mention that when we were talking about buying fairies, that, yes, Katt Williams was on the record as wanting to buy a fairy.
- [71:26]
Andrew Walsh
Of his own in Washington when he was stuck here. I think because he hit somebody in the head with a microphone. And then because of legal issues, he couldn't leave for a while. So he started reading the Seattle Times, heard about a decommissioned ferry, and then floated on Twitter that he might be interested in buying that ferry. I don't think it ever happened.
- [71:42]
Luke Burbank
The thing about this, I mean, there will probably be some comedians that night who go on to have really bright futures. But the fact that this show is specifically designed so that there are no specific comedians being promoted ever. That the. What is being promoted is that their skin will be a certain color that seems to be. That will be the number one KPI for anyone performing that night. And that seems to me like a way to put some comedians up who will have, let's just say, varying abilities of being funny and being comedic. What I would do if I wanted to see a comedy show in Las Vegas, this is a real thing. Because I'm now just like scrolling through vegas.com. i would go see Carrot Top. I mean, I think Carrot Top is kind of having a moment where he, you know, obviously was. He was very popular for a time. Then he became kind of like the punchline, the kind of joke of what you don't want to be as a comedian. And then I started to see a little bit of a rehabilitation of his reputation or like a rethinking of him where I'd start seeing him on like, Joe Rogan. This is before the Rogan thing was Politicized. You just see Carrot Top kind of showing up on podcasts, and he's actually like, kind of a likable dude. He's just kind of like, you know, he was basically a victim of being a prop comic and then just his own success, you know, being on the Tonight Show a lot and then having a Vegas thing, which was kind of considered uncool at a time. I feel like seeing Carrot Top in Vegas is the most Vegas thing you can do if you want to go see Vegas. Y comedy.
- [73:13]
Andrew Walsh
I First of all, it's interesting that you skipped over a huge part of the Carrot Top story, which is at some point he got swole as hell. And I feel like that had something to do with the reinvention invention of Carrot Top as well. Not that everything is.
- [73:25]
Luke Burbank
Well, I think that was part of the fall of Carrot Top was like, what is going on with this dude? Yeah, at least it was. My brain's reaction was like, okay, he's out there in Vegas just, just absolutely getting shredded and, and, and, and, and still, like, pulling out a golf club that has a urinal on it or something, you know, so you can pee while you're golfing.
- [73:46]
Andrew Walsh
I gotta be honest with you, and this might, you know, I, I, I, I could take this back down the road, but I am more interested in finding out what this show we're going to is going to be like than going to a Carrot Top show. Like, the idea of going to Carrot Top doesn't sound. If Genevieve had come in my office yesterday and said, we're going to see Carrot Top, I would be like, oh, really? This I think, is so funny because there's clearly a double entendre going on here that Genevieve was fully unaware of because she's an innocent child. And so I had to explain that to her that this is going to be kind of adult comedy too, that I don't think that she was kind of realizing. I think for her, it was like, we're doing this Vegas adventure, which is very un. Andrew and Genevieve.
- [74:32]
Luke Burbank
And I love that you're doing it, by the way. Doing it.
- [74:34]
Andrew Walsh
Like, why not just jump into the sides of us that are doing things that we would never do, you know? And this just seems. She's like. And also I think affordability had something to do with it as well. She's like, like, what? Why spend tons of money on something? You know, I would assume that Carrot Top would be more expensive because he's.
- [74:54]
Luke Burbank
Not a lot more.
- [74:55]
Andrew Walsh
Maybe, maybe not.
- [74:56]
Luke Burbank
They're on the same website and you'd be surprised. There's a lot. A lot of shows to fill for.
- [75:00]
Andrew Walsh
Old Carrot Top, right? Yeah. I mean, maybe. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But I. Honestly, for whatever it's worth, I saw this, and I saw this AI comedian in front of a brick wall, and I am way more curious about this. Like, I am less curious about what Carrot Top will bring. I mean, I guess there's a chance that I could be. End up being surprised and charmed by him. I'm not even trying to throw Carrot Top hate out there. I mean, you're the one who introduced him into evidence. I'm not trying to speak ill of your favorite comedian, but I. This one has a lot more mystery around it to me.
- [75:34]
Luke Burbank
Oh, it sure does.
- [75:35]
Andrew Walsh
So I have some.
- [75:36]
Luke Burbank
It's a literal and figurative black box, and I will be very, very, very curious to hear how the show went. And also, if you unwittingly became part of the show.
- [75:48]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. Oh, wow. That had not occurred.
- [75:50]
Luke Burbank
There is a very high degree of possibility around that, my. My friend.
- [75:55]
Andrew Walsh
And that's introducing something.
- [75:57]
Luke Burbank
And that would be really. I would really, really be interested in how that.
- [76:02]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I got to raise that to Genevieve because I got to say, like, that you.
- [76:05]
Luke Burbank
Again, that do not sit near the front.
- [76:08]
Andrew Walsh
No, that's a really good call. That should put panic in me. Like, when we went to the Magic Castle, somebody called on me a couple of times because we were singing the Front Row, and Genevieve said it was kind of embarrassing because I. So I was giving out that, like, do not talk to me. I don't want to be a part of this thing. And then he picked on me, and then I wasn't game enough. It just. The whole thing, like, I ruined the energy of this guy's show and he finally moved on. But, like, I do not like that. But again, in this situation, I sort of feel like la. I lived la. That was just an evening there. You know, I sort of feel like Vegas Andrew doesn't have to be accountable to regular Andrew. You know what I mean? Like, nobody knows who. I just feel like there's going to be such a sense of anonymity for me and. Did I say that funny? Anonymity?
- [76:51]
Luke Burbank
No.
- [76:53]
Andrew Walsh
Sorry. I'm high as hell right now. Do you know that the kids are calling it gardening, by the way?
- [76:57]
Luke Burbank
Yes.
- [76:58]
Andrew Walsh
Hannah Brooks.
- [76:58]
Luke Burbank
It took me so. It took me so long to figure out what that meant because I would see people on TikTok and they would be talking about doing gardening, and I didn't immediately put that Together as what they were talking about. And I just thought, well, maybe they're into like growing things. And then. And then I had to finally, like, eventually I kept seeing it in ways that I knew there. I know you're not talking about, like, you were just out growing tomatoes. It's gotta mean something else. And then I finally was like, oh, green garden. Oh, that's okay. That's getting high.
- [77:27]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. And I think Hannah said it was sort of. It's part of that tick tock language of getting around any kind of censorship or flags of mentioning drugs or the other things you can't mention.
- [77:37]
Luke Burbank
Right. We can do all that here, but we can say whatever we want. Thanks to Matthew Morita of Kapaea, Hawaii. Hey, I'm going to.
- [77:45]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, Matthew, it's our bud.
- [77:47]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, it is. By the way, I'm. I hope I'm reading that right. If you notice, Andrew, in the notes, our system seems to really be struggling with the writing of and I guess maybe the use of apostrophe in Kapaea. So I'm hoping that I. Yeah, the.
- [78:01]
Andrew Walsh
Spreadsheet did something nice.
- [78:02]
Luke Burbank
I said that. Right? Matthew, appreciate you so much, man. Also, we appreciate Lexi Janicek of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I told you on my theme of. Oh, yeah, Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
- [78:16]
Andrew Walsh
I almost corrected you because I wasn't looking at it and I was like, oh, yeah.
- [78:20]
Luke Burbank
I mean, that's what it says there.
- [78:21]
Andrew Walsh
Twist. Yeah. No twist. End sending. Yeah, no, but we got.
- [78:24]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. When I read that, Andrew, I thought I was reading Michigan. I mean, I guess I read it right. Because I'm just such a professional. Yeah. How much longer do you need me to talk while you're sending that email? Right, exactly. But like I was thinking Grand Rapids, Michigan, when I was saying Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I wonder who had it first. I wonder who wore it better.
- [78:41]
Andrew Walsh
Well, I don't want to get into judging who wore it better.
- [78:43]
Luke Burbank
No. But what we can say is Grand Rapids, Minnesota is the place because it's where Lexi. Jana Check is. Thanks, Lexi. And then Lindsey Randall is out there in Nashville, Tennessee, home of the very, very competitive Vanderbilt Vandy's football team, which is really fun to see. They are really good this year. They have this really fun quarterback. Love that Vandy is doing well. Love that, that we've got fans in Nashville and just love that Andrew, this is a thing that is still working. When I was, when I go to these, when I make my, like maybe yearly or a couple of times a year, like little appearance at the CBS headquarters at the broadcast center I'm always like, people are how you doing? You know, like the other producers there and the folks, you know, the editors and the. Like, I'm always like, fine. Are you still? They never know how exactly to try to understand tbt. Here's what they know about tbtl.
- [79:38]
Andrew Walsh
I'm embarrassed that they know anything about tbtl, which is not a good sign.
- [79:41]
Luke Burbank
I try to keep it to an absolute minimum.
- [79:43]
Andrew Walsh
Them.
- [79:43]
Luke Burbank
What they know about TBTL is that when we're filming things, I'm a real pain in the ass with my schedule. Because every other correspondent they go out with is like, I work for CBS Sunday Morning. I'm here to film you tell me where and when. And I'm always like, how's. Could we. Could we. Could we roll at 2 or could we roll at 6am and then stop rolling at 10 and then restart rolling at 1? Like, I have a lot of like, holds on my day when I'm, you know, when I'm out there filming with them. But it's like, I can just tell that, like, I think people are generally positive about it. They think it's kind of cool that I have this podcast, but they don't really understand it. And they're. I a little surprised. Like today I was there at this meeting and I said, I gotta get outta here. Cause I gotta go do my podcast. And they were like, oh, wow, you're still doing that. And I'm like, yeah, I am. And we're still doing it. Thanks to the donors. So thank you all for making TBTL possible. All right, I'm not going to even fire the whole top story sound effect thingamajig. I'm just going to tell you that I was in this. This. I didn't realize. Actually this tells you how this shows you how not plugged into the world of CBS broadcasting I am. I didn't actually realize that there is this editorial meeting on Wednesdays. And what it is is everybody, everybody who works on the show, who wants to be there, I guess, who cares about how they're perceived by the bosses? Which would be my way of saying, Andrew, this is the first one of these I've attended in like 12 years. First and only.
- [81:07]
Andrew Walsh
How big is this? This bit? My question, this whole time, it's big.
- [81:11]
Luke Burbank
Well, first of all, it's a conference room that's totally full of people. And people are standing around the outside of the conference table. And then it goes all the way outside into the hallway. It spills out and then there's a big screen and on Zoom there's like 40 more people on Zoom.
- [81:27]
Andrew Walsh
Wow.
- [81:28]
Luke Burbank
Many of them are at their desks in the building, but you can't physically go into. The conference room is too small for the meeting. So it's a. And it's everybody's representative. I mean, there's people in Europe, there's people overseas and other places who are like, God knows what time it is for them. But, like, basically what happens is this is. This is the meeting. After the pieces have been selected that are going to be in this week's show. The producers and sometimes correspondents are then kind of, in a way, re. Pitching the stories to the bosses. They're. I mean, these shows are in the schedule, so they've made it that far, but now is like a kind of a. Almost like a redo, where the producers have to kind of like, sell the bosses on why this story is actually interesting and good and why it should continue to have the amount of time it's budgeted for. That's like the big fight. And so, you know, it's obviously the kind of thing that I should know about. I should have been. I should have been going to these forever. But, like, my relationship with this job has always been, I'm gonna go to the place they're asking me to go and interview the people, and I'll let the producers handle a lot of the, like, going to meetings stuff, a lot of the, like, advocating for the pieces. Like, I sort of liked a little bit. I kind of like the idea of being like. And. And by the way, with all the stuff that's been going on with all of the, like, you know, installing Barry Weiss with the editorial and all the stuff that's been going on with CBS this, It's been mildly relieving to just be like, yeah, I don't know. You know, people are like, oh, how's it going for you? I'm like, you know, I don't know, because I don't. I don't interact with any of the stuff that isn't the making of the TV stories. That's just pretty much what I do. And then the rest of it, I just let the chips fall where. Wherever they're falling. And that's been probably a way of me just kind of burying my head in the sand. It was. It was interesting to be in the meeting where decisions are being made and to realize that for again, however long I've been doing this correspondent thing for the them. However many Emmys I've won, Andrew, and it's been a lot. I've got to be honest with you. I've never been in this meeting once just going, here's why this is a good story. Like it's. That's mind blowing to me that I never asked, hey, how do I get on the meeting? Because nobody ever made me. You know, again, there's producers that are on the meeting and. And they're often on there. They're advocating for the piece that's going up on a given week. So it's not like it's not mandatory attendance. But the fact that I didn't, just in the interest of professional development, think I should try to be on this more just as a. I will tell you what it has created is a certain sense of mystique around me.
- [83:53]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, right.
- [83:53]
Luke Burbank
Because. Because the way the meeting starts, I'm standing out and I'm thinking, like, I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna watch like five minutes of this and then I'm gonna bounce because I gotta do TBTL back here at the hotel. But I'm standing like out in the hallway and I hear my name. I hear the boss of the whole show, a guy named Randy, go. And we have Luke Burbank here. And everyone turns around and when I tell you, Andrew, how mortified I was like, please don't. Please don't. Everyone look at me. I walk into. So then they like, get in here. So now I'm going into the inner sanctum. I'm now invited into the conference room.
- [84:25]
Andrew Walsh
You were kind of more in the hallway crew.
- [84:27]
Luke Burbank
I was so on the periphery of this. I was not only in the hallway, I was down the hall, around the corner. I was as. Because I was like, there are real professionals here. Are who. Who come into these offices five days a week and work really hard to make this. And I am just kind of like a carpetbagger who's passing on through. I don't wanna be taking up a spot. I don't wanna be. Somehow it felt to me like I was injecting myself into something I didn't belong in. Which is funny. Cause I work there and I do put stories on television. But so they're like, get in here. And I kind of push my way into the conference room and applause goes up.
- [85:00]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, my gosh.
- [85:01]
Luke Burbank
And they were excited. They're like, we have two correspondents here. Because Morocco was also there. It was a. It was a big deal to have two correspondence.
- [85:09]
Andrew Walsh
I was told, wasn't Mo originally that kind of your connection too?
- [85:12]
Luke Burbank
Yes, 100%. And he'll never let me forget it.
- [85:15]
Andrew Walsh
It's really.
- [85:16]
Luke Burbank
Honestly, it's kind of messed up. I think it was all a hustle.
- [85:18]
Andrew Walsh
So did he sort of like, in this moment. So Mo kind of puts his arm around your neck, sort of almost gives you a little noogie in front of everybody, like, kind of.
- [85:26]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Like, you got to stop taking up all my air time, buddy. Remember, I'm the one who skidding a little too hard. That's classic Mo. If you've seen him on tv, you know, that's his energy.
- [85:34]
Andrew Walsh
He's kind of over the top. Right, Right.
- [85:36]
Luke Burbank
Isn't he sort of, like, very butch? He's over the top and very. Kind of a bully, really. A lot of physical. A lot of physical hazing. But. So then I'm in the. Now I'm in the inner sanctum now. I can't just, like, leave. That's why I was texting you. I'm still at cbs. We're going to need to push this recording back because I'm now in the me, I can't leave early.
- [85:55]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Of attention.
- [85:57]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. And I'm like. I'm also. But this is the thing, Andrew. I'm enjoying the feeling of actually being in the room where the decisions are happening and just, like, learning stuff about this show and this job that I've had for a long time that I just never even took the time to learn. Just kind of like, one of the things is. So each story gets presented as to, here's what's good about it. Here's why it deserves to be to remain in the show. Rundown. And then there's some housekeeping things like, okay, what is the title going to be? And they were having this big. I don't think this is too much talking out of school, because there's like, you know, there's a title that's showing on the screen when the story is introduced. And the debate was, there is, as of right now, there's going to be a profile of an actress, an Irish actress who I guess is becoming a big deal, but who I hadn't heard of. And it's a profile that Seth Doane is doing. He's our correspondent in Italy. He does a lot of European stuff. And the question was, this actor, and I don't remember her name, but she's, like, very big in Europe and in Ireland, but is in America, maybe not as well known. Although, like, about half of the meeting knew of her, half of us didn't. And the whole debate was around if it was disrespectful to this Actor to say introducing so and so as the title card. So we're going around and around about, is it okay to say introducing the title card, introducing her versus in conversation with. Because to say introducing her is to act like people don't know who she is. And maybe that's just our blind spot. So, believe it or not, as geeky as it is, I love these conversations. Like, this is the stuff I miss about actually working on a staff at a show. And everybody knows everybody and everybody's got, like, inside jokes. And our editor Emmanuelli's got this insanely cute dog that he brings around that I didn't even know he brought around. And everyone's playing with the dog. I think the dog was named Apollo, maybe. Anyway, it's a great name. And we're just like, it's just fun being in the room with colleagues. Like, again, I just didn't realize that I actually, I really kind of missed that for about 25 minutes.
- [88:02]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [88:02]
Luke Burbank
And in about the 26th minute is when somebody. Very nice guy, actually, from. I don't know if it's technically it or not. It's some division of Paramount that controls the system that we use to book crews, to book, you know, a camera person and a sound person. I don't do this, but if I did, if I was a producer, you'd used to be in something called SharePoint.
- [88:29]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, yeah. And they're like, that's a Microsoft SharePoint.
- [88:32]
Luke Burbank
We're here to let everyone know that we are phasing out SharePoint and we're bringing in, it's like called, like, Wolf Edge or something. It literally has a wolf in it. And we're transitioning to Wolf Edge. And here's the system for. And here's what we're going to do. And starting on this date, and there is mandatory training. And I tell you, Andrew, I could not get out of that conference room fast enough. Like, it was. I experienced every kind of experience that I've had in a conference room in my life. One of really enjoying the camaraderie of my colleagues, enjoying kind of seeing the process and even getting to have a small say in the process, as we were all kind of debating some stuff. Stuff. And then also just being like, I don't, I, I, I don't. Please don't make me go to the mandatory meeting about transitioning from SharePoint to Wolf Edge or Wolf Ledge or whatever.
- [89:23]
Andrew Walsh
Wolf Ledge definitely sounds like a casino that you'd be interested in that.
- [89:27]
Luke Burbank
Or a show on the BBC that I'd only be getting limited access to through my stupid BritBox app, which, by the way, cannot highly un. Recommend that. Enough. Don't get fooled, people. If you, like me, are a public radio listener and you hear these Brit box ads, it is not what it is cracked up to be. It's the leavings. It is just random leftover episodes that they, for some reason feel like letting us watch for $10 a month or whatever it is. But no, it was a. It was a. It was a kind of a. You know what else actually was just this is like super duper full disclosure and probably oversharing. What was really nice about being there was it felt like it usually feels when I'm there, there, because I've been hearing reports, you know, we had layoffs last week. There's all this stuff with the editorial. There's a lot that makes me have apprehension about the future of the show or maybe my future at the show or whatever. And just being there with everybody and seeing all of these folks that I've known and worked with for many years and just like going through an editorial meeting and then finishing up with a couple of awkward jokes as we break camp and we all move on to go do our thing that we're doing.
- [90:30]
Andrew Walsh
How long was the whole thing? About an hour. Hour.
- [90:32]
Luke Burbank
An hour? Probably.
- [90:33]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [90:34]
Luke Burbank
It felt deeply normal to me. Like, it felt like a normal meeting that happens at a TV show that's not getting canceled.
- [90:40]
Andrew Walsh
It didn't feel like a chilling effect, which is.
- [90:42]
Luke Burbank
No, there was no. I was wondering. And again, this is really getting into like a lot of behind the curtain stuff. But like, you know, I've been out on the west coast mostly and I'm. I'm like reading things in the New York Times about what's happening to the network and the show and, and all of this. And it's like, well, what's the vibe like? And I've just been like, like, oh, actually, vibe is the vibe. The vibe is exactly like it always is. It's. People are working, people are putting stories together, we're putting the show up each week. I. It didn't feel funal, which was like a massive relief to me. Just like the energy was the. The same energy that I'm used to. And, and I, I sure hope that that's kind of how things stay. You know, just like us getting to keep doing the job that we like doing and, and playing the, you know, playing this for people. I was trying to make like a joke kept getting stepped on and then I finally just had to abandon it. At the end when they were saying. So after we had this whole debate about if it should be introducing this actress, they were talking about whatever, Wolf Ledge or wolf something. And then they were talking about how. How it should be, how people should find out about. Or whatever. And I said, is introducing Wolf Ledge disrespectful to Wolf Ledge? But everybody was talking. Nobody heard it. Then I did. Then I. Then Andrew, I really rolled the dice.
- [91:53]
Andrew Walsh
You tried it again?
- [91:54]
Luke Burbank
I waited for. I waited for another opening. I tried it again.
- [91:58]
Andrew Walsh
Also.
- [91:59]
Luke Burbank
No one really heard it. Slash, checked it, registered it. And then I just. Then I called.
- [92:03]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, good.
- [92:04]
Luke Burbank
I was going to be like somebody.
- [92:05]
Andrew Walsh
In the movie theater, like, don't go in there. Don't go in door number three.
- [92:10]
Luke Burbank
That be saying before you go into BBC Comedy, don't go in. There's a right way to rock and.
- [92:18]
Andrew Walsh
A wrong way to roll.
- [92:20]
Luke Burbank
You can't just listen to your soul.
- [92:24]
Andrew Walsh
Just remember that life is number one.
- [92:28]
Luke Burbank
You can be having so much fun. Just remember that life is much fun. You can be nothing but one.
- [92:45]
Andrew Walsh
All right. You probably have CBS stuff to do. You're. You're a New York York through the end of the week. Is this right?
- [92:51]
Luke Burbank
No, I'm flying home tomorrow.
- [92:52]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, good, good.
- [92:53]
Luke Burbank
Gonna be cutting it close, too. It's gonna be dangerous because. Be careful, though.
- [92:57]
Andrew Walsh
You can't say dangerous anymore, can you?
- [92:59]
Luke Burbank
I can't, no.
- [93:00]
Andrew Walsh
That's rude.
- [93:01]
Luke Burbank
Honestly, if I'm gonna lose a word, I can deal with it being dangerous. I don't think it would be my life.
- [93:06]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [93:06]
Luke Burbank
You just say for my lifestyle.
- [93:08]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Right.
- [93:09]
Luke Burbank
But no, it's 100. It's been. It's been Russell Wilson itized. But no, I'm gonna be recording some commentary. I actually. One of these commentaries that I'm recording tomorrow, I don't hate. They're basically like tips and tricks for watching the super bowl or being at a Super bowl party if you're not a football person. But it's mostly just excuses to make jokes about how dumb I am and, and, and, and like, and how superstitious I am and things like that. It's me laying out that jinxes are a real thing. So, like, if you say that the person is definitely gonna make the field goal, it means that they're gonna miss it and it's your fault. But if you say they're gonna miss the field goal, they're also gonna miss it and it's your fault. There's no.
- [93:52]
Andrew Walsh
It's just.
- [93:53]
Luke Burbank
It's a very complicated thing. So it's basically me just talking about mostly my football weirdness. So that'll be kind of fun. But yeah, I'm taping those tomorrow in the afternoon after Jane Pauley is done, whatever her deal is. I guess she needs to use the studio for some reason.
- [94:07]
Andrew Walsh
And.
- [94:08]
Luke Burbank
And then I'm going to be doing one of those moves where it's like, jump right in the taxi cab, head right to the airport and hope that I make my flight. So we will see.
- [94:18]
Andrew Walsh
Genevieve's got me nervous. I gotta fly to Ohio soon. And she's got me nervous saying all the. There's TSA delays or anything. Have you clocked?
- [94:26]
Luke Burbank
I did not experience that flying out here. For what it's worth, I think it's very hit and miss. I've heard that in Texas, maybe it's even Houston specifically. They've had some real issues of late. But I think that, I mean, listen, hats off to everybody at the federal level who is working and not getting paid. I mean, I just don't understand how this is happening in this country, but also how folks are trying to make it through. And, you know, the fact that an airplane can take off right now safely and then land somewhere else safely so that I can, like, do my stupid super bowl commentary is because people are working for no money right now. So thank you to those people, really and truly.
- [95:06]
Andrew Walsh
It's a good reminder for me to be very gracious to those folks as I'm going through the TSA security. All right, let's do some blurs days. This is where people wish themselves or others a happy birthday message. You can send me your blurs days. AndrewBtl.net is my email address. Put Blurs day in the subject line so that I don't miss it. And we are doing these. If you're clocking these. We're doing these a day early today. Yes, Wednesday, so that I can get to the airport. So the first one comes from listener Jessica, who says happy Blurs day to my amazing 11 Mark, who has been listening to TBTL with me for the past 15 years and even went to the live show in Philly with me.
- [95:47]
Luke Burbank
Oh, nice.
- [95:48]
Andrew Walsh
If Mark. Oh, that was Mark's dog.
- [95:50]
Luke Burbank
They let dogs in to this hotel.
- [95:51]
Andrew Walsh
Astro, if he's got that dog, Mark's.
- [95:54]
Luke Burbank
Got that dog in him.
- [95:55]
Andrew Walsh
Wait, it wasn't Sam. Apollo. Apollo. That was Apollo.
- [95:58]
Luke Burbank
Apollo. But Astro was a famous dog, remember?
- [96:01]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that's. That would be a good name for a dog, too.
- [96:04]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I might. You know what?
- [96:06]
Andrew Walsh
I think it's gone away now. It's come back.
- [96:08]
Luke Burbank
A friend of mine. Yes, a friend of mine in the, in the early 2000s, he had a dog named Astro. That was a great dog name from the Jetsons, right?
- [96:17]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, now that you say that. I, you know, I, I had some regret and then some non regret with our cat Bingo. I really like the name Bingo for him. And there he is. Wow. Hello, Bingo. No, no, I need the mic now. I need the mic. And we named him Bingo immediately. I think we had the name maybe in the back of our head. And if we met a cat that seemed Bingo ish, maybe go with that. Bongo was also in the, in the running.
- [96:43]
Luke Burbank
But anyway, was Bango in there?
- [96:46]
Andrew Walsh
I don't think Mango was in there.
- [96:47]
Luke Burbank
But Bingo, Bango, banga.
- [96:49]
Andrew Walsh
When we brought him home, I think it was maybe that day or the next day, we noticed that he had like. Well, we noticed, we saw right away. But he's got this black circle just around his face. And it was a very distinct circle at the time because he's a cat that looks like a kind of a Siamese cat. But the black around his face was almost a perfect circle. And after we had named him Bingo, and we're comfortable with that, at one point, one of us said, oh, we should have named him Spaceball. Cause there was just something like Spacebally about his little round face. Like a little moon face or whatever. Like, oh, Spaceball would have been a great name for the cat. But then as time went on, that circle essentially has gone away. Like all of Bingo's little features as a kitten were much more distinct. And then as his hair grew out, now he's just sort of like. It's just a fade from the darkness to the lighter fur. So if we name him Spaceball, it would have made absolutely no sense. So I actually spent a couple of weeks really regretting not naming him Spaceball. And now I'm so glad we didn't name him Spaceball. And now he's my little Bingo.
- [97:50]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, he definitely looks like a Bingo.
- [97:51]
Andrew Walsh
He definitely looks like.
- [97:52]
Luke Burbank
And moves like a Bingo. Actually, he kind of moves like Jagger, right?
- [97:56]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, he is. He moves like a bongo. Did I finish Jessica's message? Did I even start it? Happy blursday to my amazing Levin Lev. Mark, who has been listening to TBTL.
- [98:06]
Luke Burbank
With me, got that dog in here.
- [98:07]
Andrew Walsh
For the last 15 years and even went to the live Philly show with me. If Mark hasn't listened for a while, he always asks, how are the guys? Usually after making fun of my tonight pants or My TBTL drops references. Anywho, here's Demark, an amazing father and husband. Can't wait to foist more TBTL merch on you in years to come. Luke, we forgot to mention the Merchant.
- [98:31]
Luke Burbank
Okay, why don't we mention it now and later? Why don't we mention it? Well, maybe on Monday's show. We got merch, everybody. New merch.
- [98:40]
Andrew Walsh
We are excited about it. We can. We have to wrap up the show. Yeah, we were supposed to mention this at the beginning of the show. Today. We created a. I'm not even gonna say. Well, should we say what it is? Should we give a little hint? Yeah, just go to the merch store. Okay. Yeah.
- [98:52]
Luke Burbank
The problem is I don't have my. I don't have my. My special. I wish I had my music for what the new merch is referencing.
- [98:59]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, right. Well, I will just keep. If you find it, I'll kill the music underneath it now. You got it.
- [99:05]
Luke Burbank
I think I've got this here. Okay, so if you remember when we've been talking for more than an hour and I want to just start talking about some especially boring stuff, I have decided by a professional executive fiat to just start calling it the Badlands. And therefore, I'm allowed to talk about whatever I want. And we said, oh, we need, like one of those kind of a Clint Eastwood Good, the Bad and the Ugly songs for that. Anyway, we called the Badlands and.
- [99:32]
Andrew Walsh
Whoa.
- [99:32]
Luke Burbank
Sorry. I have the full one. I've got the full one here. Just bear with me.
- [99:40]
Andrew Walsh
This is going well, I think.
- [99:43]
Luke Burbank
So why is it that we. Why don't we sell more merch? Andrew, what's wrong with. What's wrong with our approach? The fact that he has this. That El Ropo. Okay, the fact that El Ropo has that. He must have loved the Cisco Kid kind of reference that joke so much that, I mean, it makes no sense to have that. And then the El Ropo Good, the Bad and the ugly thing, he just put them together because he couldn't pick one. He couldn't decide which one was better. You know what I mean? Like, they're a very, very incongruous pair. Okay, so here we are in the Badlands. And guess what? You can now buy@tbtl.net by going to the merch page at tbtl.net, yout can buy T shirts and mugs and water bottles and all kinds of fabulous stuff with the new TBTL Badlands logo on it.
- [100:40]
Andrew Walsh
El Ro. El Ro.
- [100:52]
Luke Burbank
I think that it turned out really well by the way Andrew. And that was 100% because of you. Nice work on that.
- [100:58]
Andrew Walsh
The announcement worked out well. Oh, no. The actual merch. Oh, yeah, the logo.
- [101:02]
Luke Burbank
Yeah.
- [101:02]
Andrew Walsh
No, no, I think people are. I'm sorry, I am so.
- [101:04]
Luke Burbank
I think we're announcing.
- [101:05]
Andrew Walsh
I am so confused as to what's going on now. Is it fair to say, say, introducing the Badlands, Luke, or should we talk about.
- [101:13]
Luke Burbank
Is it hurtful, is it disrespectful to say introducing the Badlands? No.
- [101:18]
Andrew Walsh
Okay, here's the deal. We really did make a cute little logo for the Badlands and we have now put that on hoodies and T shirts. They actually would make really nice looking little camping hoodies or T shirts and water bottles and mugs and everything that you said. Plus we have our, our usual store items up there, things that say TBTL and the stickers. But we did add that just this week and we've been meaning to mention it and I keep forgetting and I apologize.
- [101:42]
Luke Burbank
No, it's on me.
- [101:43]
Andrew Walsh
I do want to say one thing too. We are putting this up here just as an option for you guys if you're looking. Especially John was, John was very thoughtful to say, hey, the holidays are coming up. People like to look for things for loved ones who are TBTL listeners. But just so you know, this is not a fundraising effort for us. We don't make money off of these things. So don't, don't, you know, rush to the store because you think you're supporting tbtl. Just rush to the store if this is a need or a want that you have. I just kind of want to be clear about the tbt, although I'm being very different from what this is. This is not.
- [102:15]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, this is not the thon. And honestly, we don't really make any money. We just think it's fun for people to be wearing TBTL T shirts and drinking out of TBTL coffee mugs if possible out in the world. Also, another thing is if you, if you got the tambourine that's got this sort of Alvin and the Chipmunks version of me and Andrew and John that our friend Max from right here in New York City designed, that's also a T shirt.
- [102:37]
Andrew Walsh
That's right. How did I forget about that?
- [102:39]
Luke Burbank
That's in addition to the Badlands shirts. And by the way, I am really proud of. I think it was John's idea. And then you actually kind of. You were the one that did the design on it, Andrew. But the TBTL Badlands logo, the official TBT Badlands logo. It's as. As if you're entering a national park and there is a Badlands national park and it says, but you're entering the TBTL Badlands. So I actually am very like, from just a design standpoint, from just a sort of, I don't know, aesthetic, that word gets overused. I think that they look really cool.
- [103:08]
Andrew Walsh
I like the.
- [103:09]
Luke Burbank
I'm very proud of this.
- [103:10]
Andrew Walsh
That logo because it looks like the national park sign with that classic font on the colored hoodies and T shirts. They just look like kind of park ranger ish. In a good way, kind of. I don't know. It has a nice cozy sort of outdoors vibe to me personally that I really like. So, yeah, yeah, do check that out if you guys are looking for things. And once again, thanks again to Max for creating a really amazing piece of art for the Chipmunks.
- [103:34]
Luke Burbank
Absolutely.
- [103:34]
Andrew Walsh
Also, happy blursday to Mark.
- [103:39]
Luke Burbank
We haven't thanked him yet.
- [103:41]
Andrew Walsh
Okay.
- [103:42]
Luke Burbank
He's got that dog in him.
- [103:43]
Andrew Walsh
Jared says, happy blursday to my wife. Can you let her know, quote, you are my soup snake. The office reference. I love you so much. Happy Blurs Day and 12 year anniversary. So, so happy Blurs day to Jared's wife. Jared did not include his wife's name, which maybe, you know, that's for personal reasons, but I'm just hoping there are no other soup snake references in the blurs case. Ann says, happy belated birthday to Sebastian in San Diego who turned 18 on Monday. Seb is funny, kind, thoughtful, and a very talented musician. I am proud of the young adult adult he's become.
- [104:24]
Luke Burbank
Aw.
- [104:25]
Andrew Walsh
And I'm so excited to see what the next chapter of his life brings. With lots of love. Auntie Ann in Massachusetts.
- [104:32]
Luke Burbank
Cute.
- [104:36]
Andrew Walsh
I could go for some Auntie Anne's now. Those were the pretzels right in the mall.
- [104:40]
Luke Burbank
Oh, I had a full on hot pretzel the other day from a New York street vendor. We were walking. Must mustard.
- [104:50]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [104:50]
Luke Burbank
Nice. I mean, it was weird though, because, like, I figured, isn't that. Wouldn't that be in your mind, wouldn't that be the most natural thing? I mean, I think honestly it was maybe the only option. I go to buy this pretzel. It's near Central Park. This is when we're watching the marathon. We're kind of trying to get back somewhere to the, I guess the starting line. I walk, I'm hungry. I walk by this stand that's selling all kinds of different things, including pretzels. And I go, one pretzel and just Hands it to me dry, and I go, can I get mustard with that? And he goes, come back here. I have to step behind the cart where he then just gets out a thing of mustard that he's also using on hot dogs or whatever. And he just like hits this with some mustard and hands it back to me. But it's like now it's like a large surface area that I'm trying to keep the mustard from falling off. Remember when you were a kid, you had those boxes with a marble in them and you could kind of go up and down and you try to get the marble to go through the course?
- [105:41]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah.
- [105:42]
Luke Burbank
A maze, if you will. That was me with this mustard, trying to keep it from falling. And I thought, how is there not like a little cup for this? Or is. Is. It seemed to be genuinely surprising to him that I wanted something to put on this hot pretzel. But don't you think it's weirder to just raw dog a hot pretzel? Like a hot pretzel without any kind of a sauce of some kind on? It just seems like that would be really weird to me, but that seems to be how people are taking their hot pretzels.
- [106:08]
Andrew Walsh
Well, listen, I've eaten a lot of just non dipped soft pretzels in my lifetime because when I was a kid, I didn't even really like mustard that much. And I would never use a cheese dipping sauce, which I think would be the other natural option there. But I was a weird kid and I, you know, didn't have any condiments on a lot of the things I ate. But at this day and age. Yeah, you'd expect to have at least the option. And it should be a little paper ramekin or something like that was exactly.
- [106:33]
Luke Burbank
What I was expecting.
- [106:33]
Andrew Walsh
The little cup that the pills come in in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Right. In fact, they should have a whole One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest theme for this whole hot dog cart. Luke, I have an idea. Do you have this guy's contact information about branding? Making it sort of about anyway. But yeah, no, that's weird. And I really dislike that idea of. Yeah. Carrying this thing around and you're trying to like kind of like balance it. That seems very. Like walking and eating already is a little bit tough.
- [106:58]
Luke Burbank
Tough for me, it was. Well, at least it's not electric yellow mustard that will stain forever.
- [107:04]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [107:04]
Luke Burbank
If it gets on you. But it was kind of good, actually, because what it meant was I only ate half of the pretzel which is the amount of pretzel I needed. You know what I mean? But, like, pretty soon, I got tired of dealing. What I really wanted was, like, two bites of a hot pretzel in New York City. And so once I had done that, I was like, this is a mess. It's getting on my hands. It's like I gave. I tore off a little piece for Becca, and then I was like, like, okay, now we're just tossed. Actually, you know what? I gave it to the birds. I left it out for some pigeons, which seems very also on brand for this city.
- [107:32]
Andrew Walsh
So, yeah, Hope they like mustard. It's kind of funny. It doesn't really matter to the audience at all, but your camera froze a while back, and you're just leaning behind the camera and you're looking really, really intense, but you're frozen like that on my screen. It's intimidating.
- [107:48]
Luke Burbank
Oh, great.
- [107:49]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, there. It just stopped.
- [107:51]
Luke Burbank
Yes, I'm back.
- [107:52]
Andrew Walsh
Now you're not as intimidating anymore. I kind of like that. Trapp says, I want to send out a happy blurs date to my awesome wife, Heather. She's having the big five zero on November 12th. That's my wife. She's an OG 10 that has successfully converted me to a 10 as well.
- [108:08]
Luke Burbank
She knows that's so hard to do.
- [108:10]
Andrew Walsh
That's points point. We're giving out a million points for that. She now gets one recruiting point. Oh, yeah, she. She has also unfortunately converted me to a Mariners fan. So now I better understand. So now I better understand the heights and joy and the depths of despair.
- [108:29]
Luke Burbank
I think it's going to be joyful for a few seasons.
- [108:32]
Andrew Walsh
I hope so.
- [108:33]
Luke Burbank
That's my prediction.
- [108:35]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, a friend texted me today and said, I hear the Mariners are in the Skubal market. Which is a nice thing to say, but wouldn't every team at this stage say that they're in the Skuba market? Almost like, who wouldn't be in the Skuba market?
- [108:49]
Luke Burbank
True, true.
- [108:51]
Andrew Walsh
I don't know what the report is, though. I don't know.
- [108:54]
Luke Burbank
I've been seeing that for a while. I mean, that is just pure. Well, maybe there's some new news there. I mean, obviously the idea, the thought was that Terry School maybe is going to want more money than Detroit can pay him or wants to pay him, and so then that means someone else gets to have him. And who would that someone else be? I mean, presumably the Dodgers, but it would be cool if it was the Mariners. That'd be amazing.
- [109:13]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, after all, we already kind of owned Them. Hey, that was rude.
- [109:18]
Luke Burbank
I don't have my rim shot.
- [109:19]
Andrew Walsh
That was rude to our Detroit fans. I'm just kidding. It was a good series. All right. Max in Seattle says, writing in to wish myself my annual happy self blurs day.
- [109:29]
Luke Burbank
Nice.
- [109:31]
Andrew Walsh
Wow. This year I entered into the depths of the end stage of the twilight of my thirties. I didn't pre read that. That got me scared. I wasn't sure we were going with that.
- [109:39]
Luke Burbank
Of the end stage of. Of the Twilight. So he's turning 39, I'm guessing.
- [109:44]
Andrew Walsh
I'm doing everything in my power to make this one a good year and feel happy for myself. I'd like to give a shout out to my fellow scorpion. Ooh, I never have heard that before, but I like that. Scorpitens.
- [109:55]
Luke Burbank
Are we in Scorpio Scorpio town right now? Is that sign.
- [109:59]
Andrew Walsh
I'm basing that strictly on Max's message here. Keep up the good work. What we do is so important. Now, it does say when we do is so important. I don't know if that's a joke about astrology. Is that an astrology joke or is it a typo? I don't know. Like, I'd like to give a shout out to my fellow scorpion. Keep up the good work. When we do is so important. I think that's.
- [110:21]
Luke Burbank
I think that. No, no, no. I think that's a. That's a. Yeah, they're saying because when. Yeah, when you were born is so important.
- [110:26]
Andrew Walsh
When we do is so important. Okay, good. I like that better. And I'm glad that I corrected it then. Thank you, Max. Just glad that I'm doing everybody justice today with these blur.
- [110:35]
Luke Burbank
Hold on. I need to talk about the merch more, but let me get this song dialed up.
- [110:41]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, and we've run out of music, which I've already restarted twice. Riley says I'm writing. It's like a 17 minute file, by the way. Riley says I'm writing to wish a happy blurs day to my fiance, Minnie. Minnie is a smart, sweet, and funny person. A loving cat mom and a talented gardener. Oh, we're just talking about gardening. The cats and I are lucky to have her in our lives, and we all hope she has a great year. I'm not even starting the music again, by the way. You guys are getting this.
- [111:07]
Luke Burbank
This is my gardening ambiance. Ambiance. I love that.
- [111:10]
Andrew Walsh
Happy blurs day, Minnie, from Riley and your friends at tbtl. And finally, Molly says a very happy belated blurs day to Laura. I have so much Fun living vicariously through you on Instagram, and I love to see that you're doing well. We got some positive news on election night, so let's hope the momentum continues to work in our favor. That's from Molly. That must have just come in today. I didn't even realize that.
- [111:32]
Luke Burbank
That's. Yeah, that's gotta be breaking. That's fresh breaking news. But we. Hot piping hot fresh breaking news. That, yes, for at least today we're. We're enjoying reading the newspaper and seeing all the think pieces about. About how the. The Democrats have their. Their mojo back, as it were. So.
- [111:50]
Andrew Walsh
Indeed.
- [111:51]
Luke Burbank
All right, that's gonna do it for today's episode. Boy, we, We. We went a while today, didn't we?
- [111:56]
Andrew Walsh
And this was probably not a day that you could afford to go, I'm looking here.
- [111:59]
Luke Burbank
Oh, no, no, I'm good.
- [112:00]
Andrew Walsh
Close to two hours here. Good.
- [112:03]
Luke Burbank
Well, you know, we just have to follow where the spirit leads us, my friend. And that's where it led us. I've been staring out here on Times Square. I'm actually where my room is located is very cool for people watching and also for just like sign watching. But one of the recurring ads, you know how basically the way it's set up is all these giant digital billboards will just show the same four ads just on a constant, like one minute loop. And the one that keeps coming up is for the Ringer podcast network run by Bill Simmons.
- [112:33]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, that's where Bill and Gil just went.
- [112:36]
Luke Burbank
And I'm a fan of Bill Simmons work. I like him and everything. But like, one of the podcasts that's on his network is. It's the Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montagu. They were on that show the Hills, and it's called. They were called Spidey. That was like a combination of their names and like the fact that the Spidey podcast is being promoted in Times square once every 45 seconds. And, and we're not Andrew. That's tough for me to take. That's. That's kind of dispiriting.
- [113:06]
Andrew Walsh
So I wonder if Bill Simmons could use some of his budget to promote tbtl. Genevieve's a huge fan of his Rewind.
- [113:13]
Luke Burbank
That's the. That's the show that they're. That they're promoting. They're promoting the Rewatchables. And then. And then all of a sudden it's Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag.
- [113:21]
Andrew Walsh
So anyway, can I. Before you wrap up, I want to tell you something. You said that you have all these, like, flashing lights and you're having a very Manhattany moment. I will tell you that the camera on your computer that we're talking on is sort of probably at desk level, so you have it sort of tilted upward. So I mostly can kind of see.
- [113:39]
Luke Burbank
The lights behind me.
- [113:40]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. And I've been watching all show. I even was considering asking you about it. I've been seeing. Because you have a. A. A white. Looks like maybe painted ceiling or maybe a tiled ceiling. And I've been watching the colored lights flashing. They're the reflection of those signs in the. In the.
- [113:55]
Luke Burbank
You know, the one you're getting is. It's kind of unfun. It's Coca Cola.
- [113:59]
Andrew Walsh
That's what I'm seeing. Okay. That.
- [114:00]
Luke Burbank
The red is the. Is Coca Cola.
- [114:02]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, I can almost see the a bottle now. I'm not even joking. Is there a bottle kind of in.
- [114:05]
Luke Burbank
The middle of it?
- [114:06]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, look at that.
- [114:06]
Luke Burbank
Yep, yep, there is. There is. That's exactly what you're saying.
- [114:09]
Andrew Walsh
It's all about reflections. TB tale is all about reflections.
- [114:11]
Luke Burbank
It's a famously a visual medium, this podcasting that we do, so. All right, thanks for listening, everybody. We'll be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio. In the meantime, have a great Wednesday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall.
- [114:22]
Andrew Walsh
And good luck to all. Power out.