12 Days Of TCB: Drama Drops & Yule Logs

Summary

The Commercial Break Podcast Summary

Episode Title: 12 Days Of TCB: Drama Drops & Yule Logs
Release Date: December 13, 2024

The twelfth episode of The Commercial Break kicks off a festive and content-rich holiday series titled "12 Days of TCB." Hosts Bryan Green and Chrissy embark on this special series to deliver daily episodes filled with their signature improv comedy, insightful interviews, and a deep dive into the year's events and guest experiences.

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1. Launch of the 12 Days of TCB (03:07)

Bryan announces the commencement of the "12 Days of TCB," highlighting the commitment to release brand-new episodes every day from December 13th through the 25th. This initiative is likened to a continuous festive offering for listeners, emphasizing the hosts' dedication despite the typically quieter holiday period.

• Bryan Green: "We're gluttons for punishment. So we have the 12 days of TCB coming at you December 13th through the 25th." [01:33]

2. Review of the TV Show "The Bear" (04:46 - 09:12)

The hosts delve into their thoughts on the acclaimed television series The Bear. Bryan shares his mixed feelings, praising the soundtrack while expressing reservations about the show's portrayal of high-pressure culinary environments.

• Bryan Green: "The soundtrack to The Bear is fucking fantastic... But I didn't love the show itself. I liked it. I didn't love it." [05:29 - 05:47]

Chrissy adds context by referencing real-life reports of toxic workplace behaviors in high-end restaurants, providing a balanced perspective on Bryan's critique.

• Chrissy: "There has been an expose on these, like, really, you know, high-end restaurants..." [08:40]

3. Chrissy's Weekend: Billy Strings Concert (09:12 - 17:00)

Chrissy recounts her recent experience attending a Billy Strings concert in Memphis, praising the artist's performance and the unique light show that enhanced the live experience. Both hosts express their admiration for Billy Strings' ability to make bluegrass accessible and engaging to diverse audiences.

• Chrissy: "Billy Strings was really good... The light show was really incredible." [09:27 - 09:35]

Bryan contrasts Billy Strings' touring lifestyle with major pop stars like Taylor Swift, highlighting the passion and dedication of independent artists.

• Bryan Green: "Billy Strings is like a fish type tour person. Is he really hitting the road a lot?" [11:19]

4. Discussion on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour (12:17 - 16:33)

The hosts shift focus to the conclusion of Taylor Swift's monumental Eras Tour, reflecting on its cultural impact and personal sentiments about its end. Bryan shares a poignant conversation with a friend who felt the tour's conclusion marked the end of an era, underscoring Taylor Swift's unparalleled success in the live music industry.

• Bryan Green: "I can't remember ever in my lifetime... people going as crazy over a musical event as they have over the ERAS tour." [12:34 - 14:12]

Chrissy and Bryan discuss the possible future of the Eras Tour, contemplating whether Taylor Swift might embark on additional tours despite the massive scale of her current one.

• Chrissy: "She's definitely gonna tour again." [14:47]

5. Charity Feature: St. Jude Foundation (20:15 - 22:06)

In the spirit of the holidays, Bryan and Chrissy spotlight the St. Jude Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free medical care to children with life-threatening illnesses. They emphasize the importance of supporting reputable charities, contrasting their selections with less transparent organizations.

• Bryan Green: "St. Jude provides free care, travel, accommodations, accoutrements and food to families..." [20:25]

They encourage listeners to donate directly to St. Jude, ensuring contributions effectively reach those in need.

• Chrissy: "If you want to send us money, if you want to send us money as a charity, as our own..." [21:42]

6. Year in Review: Guest Interviews and Experiences (22:06 - 63:00)

Bryan and Chrissy reflect on their extensive lineup of guests throughout 2024, predominantly featuring comedians, actors, and entertainers. They share anecdotes about memorable interviews, highlighting both positive experiences and challenges faced with certain guests.

a. Memorable Guests:

• Hannah Bérner & Dez Bishop: Praised as one of the first and most enjoyable interviews.

  • Bryan Green: "Hannah Bérner doesn't have to stop by the commercial break, but she did." [26:50]

• Reggie Watts: Described as a "unique, one of a kind individual," with initial interview struggles that later turned into a positive rapport.

  • Bryan Green: "Reggie is a very intellectual... He is not like the other." [31:36]

  • Chrissy: "Reggie Watts was a sweetheart..." [32:21]

• Margaret Cho: Lauded for her down-to-earth demeanor and ease during the interview.

  • Bryan Green: "Margaret Cho... there was just no pretense about her whatsoever." [36:09]

• Steve O: Initially intimidating but revealed to be more mature and pleasant than expected.

  • Bryan Green: "Steve O. Was one of the more intimidating ones... but he was a very down-to-earth, pleasant guy." [36:27 - 37:03]

• Lunell: Appreciated for her brash personality and entertaining interview style.

  • Chrissy: "She's got this kind of brash sense of personality..." [61:44]

b. Challenging Interviews:

• Veer Das: Described as a "train wreck" interview due to awkward moments and lack of rapport.

  • Bryan Green: "If you want a good laugh, knowing what you know now, go listen to the Veer Das episode." [29:56]

• Reggie Watts (initial interview): Started off poorly but improved significantly after engaging on common interests like drugs.

  • Chrissy: "Then he ended up sending us a case of the special drink." [32:46]

• Brad Williams: Overwhelmingly talked about unrelated topics, making the interview lengthy and unfocused.

  • Bryan Green: "Brad Williams did his entire set for us, and it took him about an hour." [35:07]

• Neil Brennan: Identified as the least favorite guest due to his dry and cynical demeanor, leading to a challenging interview dynamic.

  • Bryan Green: "Neil Brennan was my least favorite guest." [53:04]

  • Chrissy: "He is very dry... we were like, so." [53:01]

7. Drama Drop: Least Favorite Guest (63:00 - 58:06)

In a candid segment titled "Drama Drop," Bryan and Chrissy reveal their least favorite guest of the year—Neil Brennan. They discuss the difficulties faced during his interview, characterized by misaligned communication and personality clashes.

• Bryan Green: "We were like, it's time to take a break, but some of us have to work right now." [63:01]

• Chrissy: "Neil Brennan... his delivery is... very cynical, and he's very pedantic." [53:07]

Despite the challenges, Bryan acknowledges Neil Brennan's talent and contributions to comedy, maintaining a respectful tone while expressing their personal frustrations.

8. Upcoming Content and Adjustments (63:00 - 66:07)

As they navigate through the "12 Days of TCB," Bryan and Chrissy contemplate reducing the number of guest interviews in future episodes to focus on higher-quality content. They express a desire to be more selective with guests to enhance the show's overall quality and listener experience.

• Bryan Green: "In 2025, maybe we'll do a few less guests and we'll be a little bit more choosy about the guests." [62:38 - 63:00]

They also tease upcoming episodes that will continue to blend humor with insightful discussions, emphasizing the show's commitment to entertaining and engaging its audience throughout the holiday season.

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Notable Quotes:

• Bryan Green: "The soundtrack to The Bear is fucking fantastic." [05:29]

• Chrissy: "Billy Strings was really good. I had not been to a straight Billy Strings concert." [09:28]

• Bryan Green: "The ERAS Tour is probably the most successful live production that has ever, ever been put on for any show." [14:12]

• Bryan Green: "St. Jude provides free care... and they're one that I have been giving to for a long." [20:27]

• Chrissy: "Neil Brennan... he turned out to be the exact same person." [53:01]

• Bryan Green: "We tried our best to be nice to everybody and sometimes that didn't get responded to in the way that we wanted." [61:02]

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Conclusion:

The episode seamlessly blends humor with genuine reflections on the hosts' experiences over the year. Bryan and Chrissy's candid discussions about their guests provide listeners with an insider's look into the dynamics of podcast interviewing. The "12 Days of TCB" series promises a festive lineup of episodes, combining their unique comedic style with meaningful content, ensuring a memorable holiday season for their audience.

Transcript

[Brian Green]

This episode of the Commercial break is sponsored by Ring. The holidays are almost here and between traveling, hosting family and finding the perfect gift, it's such an exciting, busy and yes, sometimes stressful time. Ring helps you stay connected to the home for all the merry moments. Even when you're on the go with Ring, you've got the whole home covered. Their video doorbells alert you when gifts arrive and you can even chat with the delivery people to let them know where to leave the packages. The Indoor Cam. It's a game changer so easy to set up, you can use it to check in on your pets when you're and with two way talk, you can even talk to them. Plus, if you want some privacy, you can just flip the manual cover to turn off the camera and microphone. Wherever the holidays take you, Ring makes sure that you're always home for the holidays. So head to Ring.com to find the latest deals on Ring, video doorbells, cams and alarm kits. Ring makes the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And thanks to Ring for being a sponsor of the commercial break.

[Chrissy]

Looking to improve your diet in the new year? Try seeing a personal dietitian with Nourish. Nourish has hundreds of dietitians who specialize in a variety of health concerns including weight loss, gut health and more. Meet with your dietitian online and message them anytime through the Nourish app. Nourish accepts hundreds of insurance plans. 94% of patients pay $0 out of pocket. Find your personal [e-mail] that's usenourish.com hey Chrissy.

[Brian Green]

Best to you.

[Chrissy]

Best to you Brian.

[Brian Green]

Best to you out there in the podcast universe and happy Holidays. Sometimes podcasts like ours will take off a lot of time during the holidays, but not us. We're gluttons for punishment. So we have the 12 days of TCB coming at you December 13th through the 25th. Brand new episodes every single day and live fresh episodes during the entire holiday season. As the Great Clark Griswold once said.

[Chrissy]

Holy. Where's the Tylenol?

[Brian Green]

Find it quick and join us this entire holiday season for brand new episodes of the commercial break. 4:00 Wallow in self pity 4:30 Stare into the abyss 5:00 Solve world hunger tell no one 5:30 Jazzercise 6:30 Dinner with me. I can't cancel that again.

[Chrissy]

7:00 Wrestle with my self loathing.

[Brian Green]

I'm booked. Of course if I bump the loathing.

[Chrissy]

To nine I could still be done.

[Brian Green]

In time to lay in bed, stare.

[Chrissy]

At the ceiling, and slip slowly into madness.

[Brian Green]

But what would I wear? The next episode of the commercial break starts now. And we're gonna have the hap Hap. Happiest Christmas since Finn Crosby tap dance with Danny fucking K. Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is the jingle to my Jangle Chris. Enjoy. Hodely. Best to you, Chr.

[Chrissy]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

The best of you out there in the podcast universe. Welcome to the first annual, the inaugural 12 Days of TCB. Don't you feel privileged and special? Doesn't this feel very. Like a totally different episode than normal?

[Chrissy]

Yes, it does.

[Brian Green]

I'm wearing my festive clothing. Kristen's got her. Chrissy's got her festive. What is that a shirt over there?

[Chrissy]

It's his festive shirt with a bow.

[Brian Green]

I was hoping you were gonna wear a bra, like one of those. A sparkly Christmas bra like, you know, like in the. In the vacation mov. What was her. Beverly D'Angelo would always come out with some festive negligee on.

[Chrissy]

That's right.

[Brian Green]

I was hoping you're gonna wear a festive negligee. We all lose on this one. We all lose. Except for Jeff. Jeff's the only winner of this one. The 12 days of TCB. Thank you very much. This will start the first of 12 episodes of the commercial break every single day. Why I agreed to this, I have no clue. But here we are doing it as. As we all rake ourselves over the coals.

[Chrissy]

Yep.

[Brian Green]

You know, our network comes to us with great ideas, and I just agree up. I just agree. I don't know why. I'm just an agreeable guy. I'm like, yeah, that sounds great. How many bonuses you need? 30? Sure, why not? Yeah.

[Chrissy]

Well, you agreed months ago, so, you know, it's one of those things where it sounds like a good idea until you're doing it.

[Brian Green]

Well, listen, it sounds. It sounded like really good news when they came to me because they were like, listen, deserts. Pressure on inventory in December. And we're gonna need to get extra bonus episodes out there. And I'm like, sure. And they're like, so can you come up with an idea for a bonus episode or two? And then I come up with the 12 days of TCP. 16 extra episodes. There you go. There's, like, only two days of December where we're not putting. It's fantastic.

[Chrissy]

We're in it now.

[Brian Green]

Well, listen, we're gonna take it with. We're gonna Take it with a smile and grab your mistletoe and your mistle below and we'll all get through it together.

[Chrissy]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

I was thinking about the 12 days of TCB and I was watching the bear, which I have started now. Hot take.

[Chrissy]

Good for you.

[Brian Green]

Hot take. Not my. Not my favorite show.

[Chrissy]

Years later.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Six years later, Brian starts the Bear. Well, we actually had like a night with nothing. I mean, a night where Aster and I put the kids to bed and we were both still awake with a little bit of energy left in the tank.

[Chrissy]

Right. Which is rare.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And so she says, let's watch a show. Let's get into a show. I'm like, all right, which show? The bear. Okay, sounds great. I like that. That idea. Everyone's been talking about it since 2017. Let's get into that show. And here's my hot take. Loved the music. I mean, the music.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, the music's great.

[Brian Green]

The soundtrack to the bear is fucking fantastic. Anytime Wilco, Pearl Jam and Beastie Boys is in a first episode, you can pretty much be guaranteed that the soundtrack is incredible. But I didn't love the show itself. I liked it. I didn't love it. But, you know, I don't know, maybe.

[Chrissy]

There'S been buildup for you because everybody's been saying how great it is and it's fantastic. And then now you're. You have these huge expectations.

[Brian Green]

Like a lot of the women in my life. Like a lot of the women in my life, the buildup was huge. And then it was such a letdown.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, I will.

[Brian Green]

I'm going to see it through. Yeah.

[Chrissy]

Give it some time.

[Brian Green]

I've only gone through two episodes, so. But I. I don't get. Can you explain to me why the bear in the cage at the beginning of the show?

[Chrissy]

It's been so long since I watched that first season, I can't even remember the bear in the cage. Now.

[Brian Green]

It's the very first scene of the very first show. The bear comes out of the ca. And at first I thought, is there some, like, symbolism. Symbolism there for Chicago and the bears and the cubs. And so I thought maybe that's why they call him the bear. But maybe I just haven't gotten to the part where they explain why he's called the bear.

[Chrissy]

Fill me back in on that.

[Brian Green]

Okay, I will. But let me. Let me ask you about another part in the show that maybe somebody out there can explain to me. There is he. This noted James Beard award winning chef comes back home after his brother dies to take over Italian Beef sandwich shop, which. Okay, let's suspend disbelief just for a second that a James Beard award winner is coming back to the Italian beef shop in Chicago. He comes, but then there are flashbacks of when he is working at like French Laundry and moma and these, you know, incredible fancy restaurants. And then I can't remember the guy, the guy used to do talk soup. What was his name?

[Chrissy]

Joel McHale.

[Brian Green]

Joel McHale. Joe McHale comes in. He plays an executive chef at what I think is MoMA or French or French Laundry.

[Chrissy]

That's right. I forgot about that.

[Brian Green]

And then he's like talking to him in his ear, and he is just degrading. He's like, you go die. You should die. That's how terrible you are. And I thought to myself, that seems a little bit unrealistic. Maybe this is dreamlike.

[Chrissy]

No, they've. There's been expose on these, like, really, you know, high end restaurants, how the main chef is just awful.

[Brian Green]

Well, I know main chefs can be awful. I've seen it in action, but go die.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. Really, it gets extreme.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I mean, the way that they show the upper class, like the part of his career where he was in these very fine dining, like the best restaurants in the world, like, French Laundry is intense and it's whitewashed and it's like a. I don't know, like a. It's like an army. If all the chefs are like in an army and they all are directed by a general, and that general is no holds barred, and he's going to break you down and build you back up, I suppose. But, but I've been with. I've worked in a lot of restaurants and I've worked with a lot of asshole chefs. It tends to be, I guess that's the way a chef has to be, is to get everybody in line. He has to make sure that everything's up to standards and up to snuff. But that seemed to be, to me to be a little bit unrealistic that a chef would say, go die. But you've read an expose where these chefs are.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, no, I mean, I've. Well, Anthony Bourdain's book, you know, that came up, Kitchen Confidential about it too. You know, so it's, it's a kind of a thing. And I think there was a backlash. I think there's been a backlash from all of that toxic workplace behavior.

[Brian Green]

Okay, all right, that's. I, I don't know. Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna keep going with the bear. And we'll. We'll see what happens. But I wasn't like, the first two episodes. Didn't. Didn't get me. I wasn't like, I. Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul where I was like, oh, my God, I gotta watch the rest. I can't.

[Chrissy]

Right.

[Brian Green]

I can't wait for the next episode to come out. So tell me about your weekend. You texted me and said you. I have to hear about my weekend.

[Chrissy]

Oh, God. I know. It was. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. We went to Billy Strings on Friday night.

[Brian Green]

Billy Strings.

[Chrissy]

Billy Strings was really good. I had not been to a. Just a straight Billy Strings concert.

[Brian Green]

Okay.

[Chrissy]

I had seen him.

[Brian Green]

Have you been to a gay Billy Strings concert?

[Chrissy]

I have not either. I've seen him play at festivals and.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, me too.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, so. And he's great. But, yeah, the show was amazing. It was. The light show was really incredible. And the visuals that they had up there, it was a lot different than I expected. I think there was five, maybe people up on. Five or six people up on the stage.

[Brian Green]

Five musicians. Okay.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. And it was good. It was something that Billy Strings have.

[Brian Green]

Like, a Pink Floyd, like, light show that's going on while he's playing.

[Chrissy]

It definitely had, like. It had kind of a fishy Schwisberg, Panicky type vibe to it. So that was. That was interesting and good.

[Brian Green]

Where did he.

[Chrissy]

Playgrass isn't my favorite go to genre of music.

[Brian Green]

I think Billy made it. Made it a thing.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can appreciate it, though. So. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Where did he play?

[Chrissy]

He was in Memphis at the FedEx forum.

[Brian Green]

He was.

[Chrissy]

For two nights.

[Brian Green]

For two nights. So that's what, like 12,000 people?

[Chrissy]

Something like.

[Brian Green]

Something like that. So 24,000. I mean, Memphis, I think, would be a place where Billy Strings would do well. So big light show. Billy Strings plays bluegrass. I do like bluegrass. He plays more of, I think, a mainstream version of bluegrass. He makes it accessible in a lot of ways. He's also the second fiddle. No pun intended. He's the second fiddle to a lot of other musical acts. You know, he shows up places and he steals the show. And then I think that makes people want to go. I mean, there are videos out there of Billy Strings playing in, like, a basement at the end of a party to, like, two people playing a song and they're blown away. And the videos are grainy and awful. And he's just. He's really amazing at what he does.

[Chrissy]

I agree. I agree. So I encourage people to check him out.

[Brian Green]

So I would Imagine that everyone was sober at the Billy Strings concert.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, of course.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chrissy]

I got handed a double tequila right when I first got.

[Brian Green]

Oh, you did? Is there a big scene at a Billy Strings concert?

[Chrissy]

There seemed to be.

[Brian Green]

Is there a Shakedown Street?

[Chrissy]

No.

[Brian Green]

No.

[Chrissy]

Well, I didn't. We didn't go to the shakedown.

[Brian Green]

Are there string heads?

[Chrissy]

Might be.

[Brian Green]

Are there stringing it. Are there string cheese heads? I don't know. Are there people who go.

[Chrissy]

I think there's definitely a base that is following him around.

[Brian Green]

Is he doing like 203, 200 nights a year? I mean, I know he's doing 200 nights a year somewhere, like with somebody. He's showing up places and he's doing things. But I'm interested to know if Billy Strings is like a fish type tour person. Is he really hitting the road a lot? I guess you must be. If you have a light show and all that, you must be doing a lot of shows in a row.

[Chrissy]

Right?

[Brian Green]

Because that's a big investment that you gotta make. Speaking of big shows, Taylor Swift ended her Heiress tour.

[Chrissy]

It finally came to us as we're.

[Brian Green]

Recording this over the weekend. I mean, yeah, you'll hear this on Friday. So over the weekend. And apparently that left a lot of people distraught, including myself, because now what's my wife gonna talk about? I mean, what's gonna go on for the.

[Chrissy]

What an amazing thing to go. I mean, how long does it. Has it been going on for two years?

[Brian Green]

Almost two and a half years, I think. I don't have all the details, but it certainly is. So Astrid was sharing with me. I said, you. She was sad in a way. And I. And she goes, I don't know. I don't know why. I feel like this end of an ERAS is an end of an era. Right. And she said to me, you know, I don't feel like I've ever felt connected to an event, a musical event, in the way that I felt connected to the ERAS Tour. And over 10 million people have come in and out of the turnstiles to see her do perform this show. I think we can all agree the ERAS Tour is probably the most successful live production that has ever, ever been put on of any show. I mean, maybe with the notable exception of, like, Broadway plays that have been going on forever and ever, like Phantom of the Opera or whatever. True. But as far as musical acts are concerned, you know, pure live music acts, I think Taylor Swift has put on the biggest, the best and the most attended, certainly the most, the highest grossing, and there are Just so many little details that people have hung onto that then Taylor makes special for the audience. That's sweet that it's. I. I think I can understand where Aster is coming from. She's gotten really involved in those little details, and it's made it fun for her to see which dress she wears during which, you know, community of people.

[Chrissy]

Talking about it, too.

[Brian Green]

Which song is she gonna play? Who's the little kid who's gonna get the hat at the. In the middle of this set? And all the other little things that people have kind of gravitated toward that have made the ERAS tour so special and have given people a reason to pay tens of thousands of dollars to see it. I mean, it is insane.

[Chrissy]

Incredible.

[Brian Green]

I can't remember ever in my lifetime, maybe with the exception of the Michael Jackson bad tour, I cannot remember people going as crazy over a musical event as they have over the ERAS tour. So the ERAS tour comes to an end. So Astrid was like, it's just sad there won't be another ERAS show. And, you know, whatever. I won't get to see this person talk about this. And content that she's basically been ingesting online. And I explained to her, I said, but don't be so sure that this is the last ERA show that's ever been. When you spend a billion dollars on a stage and all of the equipment and all of the.

[Chrissy]

Oh, no, I mean, she's definitely gonna tour again.

[Brian Green]

She'll tour again. But will she do the Errors Tour? Will she do the Errors show again? And I said, don't be so sure. It's all over. There's a possibility that there's a big paycheck. Some, you know, Ticketmaster says, or Live Nation or who, whoever the fuck is fucking us right now says, hey, listen, will give you another billion dollars to get out there on the road and do another hundred shows. And I think that's the way it happens a lot, I think, you know. And she said, well, she's a billionaire and she doesn't need to, you know, make. I said, well, it's what they do. It's like. That's what they do. It's like a Billy Strings or a Fish. I don't think that Billy Strings or Fish, and I don't even think of Billy Strings need to be on the road making additional funds. It's what they do. They're in love with.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, they're in love with making the music.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chrissy]

Connecting with the fans.

[Brian Green]

Connecting with the fans. Making a billion dollars. Getting high in blowjobs all the time. I mean, what. What could you possibly. You're a verified rock star. And I think we can all agree that's something. Somewhere deep down in us, that at some point we've all wanted to be just a little bit. At least I have.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I was a rock star for a minute. I just didn't have anybody showing up to my shows or get any money or have a record album or anything, or.

[Chrissy]

Cocaine and blowjobs.

[Brian Green]

Cocaine and blowjobs I got on occasion, but I had to work hard for it. It wasn' I had to work hard for those. That cocaine and those blow jobs. It didn't come naturally like I'm sure it does to Billy Strings. Billy Strings, Married?

[Chrissy]

I don't think so.

[Brian Green]

We know so much about Billy Strings here.

[Chrissy]

I do know that he's sober, so he's not doing cocaine.

[Brian Green]

I did know that, too. I think he had his moment and he shared, I think sober with. But. But smoking marijuana.

[Chrissy]

Something like that.

[Brian Green]

Something like that, yeah. There's married. He's married.

[Chrissy]

Oh, he's married.

[Brian Green]

How old is Billy strange? 32. He's 32. He is young. Yeah, he's young. And he's been in the spotlight since he was like, 18 years old, I think.

[Chrissy]

True.

[Brian Green]

He's been in the spotlight for a long time. He. He's not taken any kind of traditional road to success like Fish or Widespread or Grateful Dead or whatever. He's just kind of been out there touring, making a name for himself, and he's doing well. I don't have anything to complain about with Billy Strange.

[Chrissy]

No, it was a great. It was a great concert.

[Christina]

So, you know, today is the very first time I've ever heard the name Billy Strings.

[Brian Green]

You've never heard the name Billy Strings? No.

[Christina]

No shade, no tea. But I haven't.

[Brian Green]

Hey, listen. Okay. It's just not your thing. Yeah, it's all right. Listen, I. There's a lot of musicians. When I see them on Instagram and I'm like, who the fuck is that? Yeah, there's a lot of times when I see. I'll see someone post something in there and I listen. There's a whole different universe of Latina and Latino artists that I really have no idea about.

[Chrissy]

I guess you've been introduced to a lot of venues.

[Brian Green]

Well, living in a household with Venezuelans, then you get introduced to some of them, at least. And I looked on my Instagram the other day and I must have seen 6, 7, 10, 12, I don't know, a lot of posts of people who were down at the State Farm arena for a Latino singer that I had never heard of, but apparently, like four nights in a row, he sold out State Farm Arena. State Farm Arena. Yeah. And it's. It just is amazing to me. When I grew up, back in the 30s, when I was growing up and MTV was around, you were going to know which artists were going to sell out State Farm Arena. Now because of the Internet, you can independently grow your audience, and it can be like you can go under the radar for so many millions of people, but for the millions of people that love you, you're the thing. You're it.

[Chrissy]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

That's what I think also makes, like what Taylor Swift did so quite amazing. Is that it? It doesn't matter if you like Taylor Swift. You hate Taylor Swift. You're into it. You're not into it. You know who the fuck Taylor Swift is. She's got to be one of the most famous people on earth.

[Chrissy]

I would think so.

[Brian Green]

Right? Right next to Billy Strings.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, they're right there together.

[Brian Green]

Christina's like, I don't know Billy Strings. And I could give a shit about Taylor Swift. It's okay. You're not a Swiftie. Us swifties know each other. We have a special handshake. We have a special handshake with a Platinum American Express. We shake each other's hands. It's a white wink with a white American Express card. That's for sure. Hey. During the 12 days of Christmas, and we do have some special content coming up after the break, but during the 12 days of Christmas, we are going to shine a light on certain charities that we would love to get a little extra attention during the holidays because we think they do some good. And we've done some research. I've done some research to make sure that they are not spending 98% of their budget on marketing like that. Cars for fucking kids. For kids. Nine, nine, nine nine. Cars for kids. Our CEO makes $10 million cars for fucking kids.

[Chrissy]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

What do you do with those cars? I want to know now. You can give your house or a boat to them.

[Chrissy]

We did a whole deep dive. When was that? Two years ago or so on. Two years ago on that whole charity. And yeah, they do not give a lot of their money to the kids.

[Brian Green]

No, they don't give almost any of their money to kids. It's charity wrapped in charity wrapped in charity. And then the CEOs and the executives are getting paid a fortune and it's all tax free thanks to, you know, the non profit System here in the United States of America. And that's how a lot of these nonprofits are actually. So when we're sharing with you information about these, please know that we've looked into them, we've given money to them ourselves.

[Chrissy]

There's a site that you can go to.

[Brian Green]

There is a site that you can go to. I went to that site. There you go. I did too. So today's charity will be the St. Jude Foundation, St. Jude's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. Based out of Memphis. They do a lot of good.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, you have to have your hole in the head not to have heard of St. Jude. But St. Jude provides free care, travel, accommodations, accoutrements and food to families whose child has or child or children have been diagnosed with terrible long term or life threatening illnesses, mainly cancer. So they provide that cancer care 100% free to families that otherwise could not afford it. And they give some of the best medical treatment in the world to children. St. Jude's does this and they do it all on the backs of donations from people like us and organizations, stuff like that. But St. Jude's Hospital, one that I have been giving to for a long.

[Chrissy]

Time, there was just a race when I was up in Memphis this past weekend.

[Brian Green]

They do a lot of different, like charity things. And while they also do a lot of commercials, a majority of the money goes to actually caring for those children in dire situations. And what is the children do? Honestly, what did the children do? Leave them alone, care for them, give them some money. We'll put a link in the show notes directly to St. Jude so that just to be clear about this, we are taking no money for these charities. We have nothing to do with them. We, we are not even.

[Chrissy]

Don't send us the money. And if you want to send us money, if you want to send us money as a chair, as our own.

[Brian Green]

Charity, buy a spot on our show. Contact Odyssey. Buy a spot on our show. Give us some sponsorship money. We'll take that, that. But honestly, I'd rather, I'd prefer you in this case to give it to St. Jude. So today's charity is St. Jude. We'll take a break and then we're going to talk about Chrissy, our favorite and least favorite guests from 2024 drama Drop. We'll be back.

[Christina]

Have you been missing something from your life? Of course you have. You listened to the commercial break and what you've been missing is me, right? No. Damn. Well, if what you're missing is a little giggle, you should follow us on Instagram hecommercial break and on TikTok CVP podcast. Because you know we're posting clips, we're being silly. You'll get a little laugh out of it, I promise. If what you're missing is communication, text us or call us and leave us a voicemail at 212-433-3822 and someone will respond. Definitely. Unless you're being creepy or mean, in which case we won't. And lastly, if what you're missing is a jaunt through the Internet, check out our [e-mail] and explore to your heart's desire. And those are really all the ways I can help you. So maybe you're missing something from our sponsors. Let's find out.

[Brian Green]

This episode is sponsored by free alcohol from ZBiotics. I am not one to imbibe a whole bunch anymore. I've got 13 to 15 children checklists to get done and jobs to do. But even with moderation, I don't bounce back like I used to from a night of drinking. I find myself having to make that choice. Can I have a great night or a great responsible day tomorrow? A tough choice to make indeed. That is until I found Pre Alcohol zbiotics Pre Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by a PhD scientist to tackle rough mornings after drinking. And here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in your gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for that rough next day. Pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break down this byproduct. And just as long as you remember to take pre alcohol as your first drink of the night, then drink responsibly. You'll feel your best tomorrow. We've now been out for a few nights of drinking where pre alcohol is the first thing that I drink. Let me tell you when I can get up in the morning, take care of my 12 to 13 chill children, still record an episode of the commercial break and make it to bedtime with a little bit of energy left in the tank to watch bad television. I know that pre alcohol has done its job and with the holiday season upon us, I know I'm going to be consuming just a little bit more alcohol than usual. But with pre alcohol I can stay on track and not let the holiday season throw me off course. Go to ZBiotics.com commercial to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the code COMMERCIAL at checkout ZBIOT ZBIiotics is backed by a 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to ZBiotics.com commercial and use the code COMMERCIAL at checkout for 15% off. Thank you to ZBiotics for being a sponsor of the commercial break and for making my mornings after drinking just a little bit easier.

[Chrissy]

Where'd you get those shoes?

[Christina]

Easy?

[Chrissy]

They're from dsw. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com the holidays.

[Brian Green]

Are all about sharing with family meals, couches, stories, Grandma's secret pecan pie recipe. And now you can also share a cart. With Instacart's family carts, everyone can add what they want want to one group cart from wherever they are. So you don't have to go from room to room to find out who wants cranberry sauce or who should get mini marshmallows for the yams or collecting votes for sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then share the meals and the moments. Download the Instacart app and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes. Plus enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees and terms apply. Alright, and we're back. Creasy in the 200 plus episodes that we have done, we will have done in 2024, a large chunk of probably the most amount of time we spent on one particular subject has been interviewing celebrities, mainly comedians, actors and actresses, here on the commercial break. It was a change that we made in season five. We typically said no guests because we couldn't get it right with just the two of us, let alone adding a third voice into the room. But then things changed in season five and we decided, why don't we spice things up because variety is the spice of life. Let's change things up and let's add some guests into the mix. And so that's what we did. And unbelievably the guests came and they came for what reason, I don't know. They probably fired their agents.

[Chrissy]

They didn't know. A few times they were like, who are These people.

[Brian Green]

I am 100% sure that the guests came having no clue. Actually, a few of them did come prepared.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, they did.

[Brian Green]

A couple of them did. Like Hannah Berner said that she had listened to the show and she had mentioned that. And that felt very nice to me because Hannah was one of our first interviews. And a big celebrity like Hannah Berner doesn't have to stop by the commercial break, but she did. And she could not have been more pleasant as well as her husband.

[Chrissy]

That's right.

[Brian Green]

DEZ Bishop, who was one of my favorites for the year. DEZ Bishop, I thought was Hannah and dez. They were both.

[Chrissy]

They're a great couple.

[Brian Green]

Do you need me to remind you of who has shown up to the commercial break?

[Chrissy]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Brian Green]

Oh, you want me to tell you?

[Chrissy]

Yeah. Okay.

[Brian Green]

Okay, Starting backwards, I'm just gonna name a few. I'm not gonna go through every single one. Ron Funches, Nikki Jam, Jay Farrow, Reggie Watts made two appearances. Kelsey Cook, Morgan J. Doug Bass, Natasha Leggaro. Doug Bass. Doug Bass, which by the way, is one of our most listened to episodes. That is just unbelievable to me. No knock on Doug Bass. But of all the names I'm about to tell you, Doug Bass is probably one that you're not going to be familiar. Or maybe you are. I don't know. Who knows? Lewis Black, Dulce Sloan, Gina Gershon, Fortune Filmster.

[Chrissy]

There are a lot of good ones.

[Brian Green]

Brian Moses, Scott, Maz Jabroni, Tom Papa, Sam Morrill. Rachel Feinstein was a ton of fun. Mo Welsh. I loved Des came in. Deus Bishop, Hannah's husband, Margaret Cho, the great and powerful Margaret Cho, Mo Gilligan, Henry hall and Daniel Thrasher from the television show Dinner with the Parents. Joe Dombrowski, Preacher Lawson, Brad Williams, Leslie Liao, Kyle Kanane, Paul Scheer, Lunell, Joanna Houseman. So many. And of course, the one that you were not here for, which was Steve O. That's right, Steve O. Steve O. Also came in. And then our very first unfortunate victim of the commercial break testing would have been. Oh, what was his name? Now I can't remember. Do you remember good old Veer Das?

[Chrissy]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

He was our guinea pig. And we poked and prodded him. We rolled him over, we put him on a spit and turned him.

[Chrissy]

We tried to send him a pillow.

[Brian Green]

So we tried to send him a pillow. All right, so now we're going to give a little bit of the tea about some of the guests that we had. And this is not a shit talking session, but it is a shit talking session, but we're also going to. He prays on people that we like. So here we go. We're going to give you the drama. Vier Das was our very first guest that we had. And this. I think this brought quite a bit of anxiety to both Chrissy and I, but mainly me, as I ran around the studio trying to make sure that everything worked, sweating profusely. I did so much research about Veer Das to learn that Veer is quite the celebrity. Maybe not here in the United States, although he does sell out a lot of venues. But if you get into India or the Middle East, Veer Das is one of the biggest celebrities they have. And Veer agreed to come and talk to us. I think he was in Minneapolis or something waiting for a show and he. The first thing that he did when he got on air was complain that the pillows in the United States were too fluffy. That in India they were just like, flat.

[Chrissy]

Flat?

[Brian Green]

Yeah, they were like an inch thick and they were flat and they were hard. And he preferred his pillows that way. So Veer suffered through an hour of Brian's incredibly dumb questions and ass kissing. Veer took it like a champ and pretended like he liked us for an hour sitting on the floor of this hotel room because he didn't like the pillows on the bed. When we got done, I contacted his agent and I thought, well, you know, what a nice thing to do would be, Chrissy, let's send him a pillow with, like, a flat pillow with the commercial break logo on it. That way he'll remember us. And I contacted the agency and I said, can we please have a forwarding address for Veer? We have something to send him to, which the agent politely responded, no, that's okay. No, that's okay. You can't send him anything. I think Veer Base, I think, you know, the agent and Veer clearly saw us for what we were, a bunch of amateurs doing amateur hour inside of the commercial break. It's one of the few interviews that I got really uncomfortable with. It was just a total shit show from beginning to end. If you want a good laugh, knowing what you know now, go listen to the Vier Das episode, which in my opinion is a train wreck from beginning to end. But maybe you have a different opinion. Tell me what your. What do you think was the worst interview that we did of the year? Not the worst guest we had, but the worst interview?

[Chrissy]

Oh, the worst interview that we did. Well, it might have started off with Reggie Watts in the beginning.

[Brian Green]

I don't disagree because we didn't really.

[Chrissy]

Know how to take him. And we heard some things, I guess maybe from either read some things.

[Brian Green]

I don't disagree with this, but it.

[Chrissy]

Turned into being one of the best. One of the best. Yeah. And then he came back.

[Brian Green]

Reggie is a very.

[Chrissy]

He's very intellectual.

[Brian Green]

He's an intellectual and he's very out there. And he has a certain brand of comedy. He has a certain brand of. Certain brand of humanity, quite frankly. He's like just a unique, one of a kind individual. Never seen anybody like him. Probably will never see anybody like him. All you have to do is watch 30 minutes of Reggie Watts stand up to understand he is not one of these things, is not like the other. And Reggie is that thing.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And so we had heard because sometimes we get prepped by agents and stuff. You know, listen, Reggie is a certain way, but if he likes you, you know, it'll be a great conversation. The first 30 minutes of the first interview we did with Reggie are so incredibly painful. It is so incredibly painful that I just want to bail. That's all I want to do is bail. Because I'm not on the same wavelength. We're obviously not speaking the same language. And I don't know what changed it.

[Chrissy]

It was our talk of drugs.

[Brian Green]

Talk of drugs?

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

I thought to myself, he talks about drugs a lot, so why don't I just throw that out there? And I did. And it changed the entire tone and tenor of the conversation. And all of a sudden, Reggie and I had something to talk about. And he was a sweetheart.

[Chrissy]

Then he ended up sending us a case of the special drink.

[Brian Green]

He ended up sending us our very first guest gift and he wanted to come back. And I thought that that just tickled me pink. And the second time we spoke to him, it was as if we had tuned in to the same channel. Yeah, we were old buddies. And I just love Reggie. I think he.

[Chrissy]

I do too.

[Brian Green]

I admire him. And I think that's why the first 30 minutes of the first interview, he.

[Chrissy]

Listened to his own drum for sure. And I love that.

[Brian Green]

And now he's in love. And I like the in love vers of Reggie. Something about that makes me very happy. Every time I see him, he's always posting kind of weird, a little bit admirable. Like he's admiring his girlfriend from afar. She's doing something and he's videotaping her. And then he posts. It's a little creepy, but I like it. It's like he's doing it out of love. And I can appreciate that. Reggie Watts. That's very interesting. Who else did you think. Who else did you think was a unique interview? I'll tell you one of mine.

[Chrissy]

Well, yeah, go ahead. I think I know who you're gonna say.

[Brian Green]

Well, I'm gonna save that for last. I'm gonna save the worst for last.

[Chrissy]

Okay, you go.

[Brian Green]

But I'm gonna share with you that Brad Williams was another wild card. That was hard. I could see Christina cringing in the background. Brad Williams, who is extraordinarily popular comic. I mean, he is just selling out room after room after room. He's been doing it for a long time. But Brad Williams, like a lot of comics, comes with their own set baggage. And that baggage had us a little bit.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

It had us questioning whether or not we should actually interview Brad Williams. But I thought to myself, well, okay, maybe we'll get. We'll bring Brad on, and if. If the opportunity presents itself, we'll ask the tough questions about some things that he said during an interview about his early days as a comic. And I won't get into all the details. You can Google Brad Williams. It's all over the Internet. Internet. But I thought, okay, the opportunity presents itself. Let's ask him that question, and we'll see. See how he responds. The opportunity did not present itself because Brad Williams launched.

[Chrissy]

He launched into a whole 45 minutes. I don't think we got much. Much in.

[Brian Green]

Brad Williams did his entire set for us, and it took him about an hour. Actually, you know what? I don't even think he did a set. I think I asked him about a wrestling cruise, and he went on for an hour about wrestling. It was the most unbelievable thing. I've never seen anybody talk like that for a straight hour without any. Any breaks.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

But at the end, I found Brad to be at least an enjoyable human being. I didn't have to do much work for that interview. Yeah. Let's see. Who else was interesting? Margaret Cho, very interesting. Was one of my favorite guests of the year. And here's why. Margaret Cho is a legend. I mean, I think she'd have to be on the top of anybody's standup comic list in history. Margaret Cho, like a groundbreaking for so many different reasons. Comic, A female comic. And when you have, like, a legend on the show, you.

[Chrissy]

It's a little intimidating.

[Brian Green]

Well, you wonder if they come with legend attitude. No legend attitude about Margaret show.

[Chrissy]

No, she was, like, laying down. I think she was laying down.

[Brian Green]

Petting her dog.

[Chrissy]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

In San Francisco. She was like, hey, Guys. And we're like, hey, Margaret.

[Chrissy]

I know.

[Brian Green]

And there was just no pretense about her whatsoever.

[Chrissy]

And I found that very easy to talk to.

[Brian Green]

Yes, Steve O. Was an interesting interview.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. I wasn't here for that.

[Brian Green]

Chrissy had been called away. So I called Tina and I said, tina, I know you grew up.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Watching Steve O. So you'll know who Steve O. Is. Can you please come in and do this interview with me? It was our second interview ever, and Steve O's walking in the door. So Tina comes in and I said, okay, Tina, I'll take it. I'll ask the questions. Just jump in whenever you want to. Like, just you do whatever you want. And Tina said, okay. Not only was it Tina's first time ever meeting a celebrity, it was for Tina's first time ever on a microphone.

[Chrissy]

The microphone, yeah.

[Brian Green]

So Tina, I don't know any other way to put this was a deer in the headlight for sex. Straight minutes. But something so comforting about having my good friend in the room when I was doing an interview was so that was a little.

[Chrissy]

Had to be a little intimidating, too.

[Brian Green]

I think Steve O. Was one of the more intimidating ones simply because Steve O. You think of Steve O. He's a wild card. Like, what are you going to get with Steve O? He staples his balls to his leg for a living. I mean, what are you going to get with Steve O? Are you going to get crazy Wild man? Is he going to do some stunt or is he going to bring in some bullshit? Is he going to be in character for some reason or another just to kind of throw you off because that's better content for him or for you? We didn't know what to get. And what we got was a very down to earth, pleasant guy. I was actually surprised at the level of maturity that came in the door. Yeah. And no stapling of the balls, which disappointed me just a little bit. Just a little bit, if I'm being honest. I thought maybe go ahead and staple your balls. And Steve O. Certainly told one of the best stories that's ever been told. On the commercial break, he explained serendipitously, as we would talk about Mike Tyson a lot in the future in the. Later on in the year. He explained that he had done an eight ball of cocaine with Mike Tyson in a bathroom in Las Vegas. And yeah, it's wild. Like, I was so floored by this that you would go in to a bathroom with a certified killer, like a guy who could knock you out and murder you in one punch. His hands are weapons. And let's face it, Mike Tyson has not always been known to be the most mentally stable human being in the world. And then you add in an eight ball of cocaine into the mix. Only Steve O. Could feel comfortable in that situation.

[Chrissy]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

They locked themselves in a bathroom, did an eight ball of cocaine, and spent a long night having conversation with each other. You know, I don't think I would do the same thing. I just don't think I would do the same thing. Okay. Favorite guest of the year. Favorite conversation of the year.

[Chrissy]

That's hard to. That's hard to pick one.

[Brian Green]

Just. It doesn't have to be the forever. It's not.

[Chrissy]

I love Tom Papa's.

[Brian Green]

Tom Papa was very good.

[Chrissy]

He was really good. I really. I did. I loved Hannah Burner. I loved Natasha Leone, which we both keep doing. I liked Fortune. She was great.

[Brian Green]

Fortune was fantastic.

[Chrissy]

There's. I mean, the majority of everybody has really been a great guest, even if I wasn't that familiar with their work beforehand, then afterwards. Oh, I mean, well, Heather. Heather McMahon. I didn't.

[Brian Green]

Heather McMahon.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. She was amazing. I did not know who she was, and now I'm a huge fan of hers.

[Brian Green]

Heather is a rocket ship to the moon. I mean, that lady doesn't stop. She was also very pleasant with us when clearly we had no fucking clue.

[Chrissy]

It was like our third interviewer. Something.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it was our third interview. We had no clue what we were doing. And Heather handled it like a champ. Like she. And it's you. There are. I've learned now that we've done a number of these. I've learned, like, people come in one of two ways. One of three ways. They come in, they can see it's amateur hour, and they become the professionals and help guide us. In other words, they're the ones interviewing us. They're taking the lead and just making sure that everything is okay. They don't. So that they don't sound like idiots and we don't. Number two, they come in and just act a little bit off, like they. Now it's amateur hour, and I'm going to make them feel like it's amateur hour. In other words, they're not so nice. Right. Or number three, they don't know what to think, so we all end up being friends.

[Chrissy]

You know what I'm saying? Exactly.

[Brian Green]

They don't know what to think, so they just end up having a conversation, which I think would be probably. Our style of interviewing is more, let's just have a conversation. Because anytime I try and do too much research about a guest, it ends up sounding like veer Das. In 1990, 1997, you won an award for most peaceful Indian comic ever. Tell me about that. Yeah, yeah. It's sounding like such a shit show. Natasha Legaro was fun, I think. Who is my favorite interview of the year? I think it would definitely would have to be either Fortune Des or Hannah would be one of those three. But Tom Papa comes in a very close than any of us.

[Chrissy]

I had been a fan for so.

[Brian Green]

Well, I think because Tom Papa talks to so many like he has. That's what he does for a living. You know, he's got the Tom Papa Break spread or whatever it is. What is that? Tom Papa Breaks bread. Is that what it is?

[Chrissy]

I think so, yeah.

[Brian Green]

Tom Papa Breaks Bread. That's a show we just made up that Tom is going to be doing here.

[Chrissy]

It does involve bread.

[Brian Green]

It doesn't involve bread.

[Chrissy]

You make bread.

[Brian Green]

Tom Papa's bread. Papa cooks bread. Tom Papa cooks with you. Do you know the name of that show, Tom Papa Podcast? I'm looking. I think it's Tom Papa Breaks.

[Christina]

It's Breaking Bread with Tom Papa.

[Chrissy]

Breaking Bread. Okay.

[Brian Green]

There you go.

[Christina]

Tom Papa Bread.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. We were so close. We were so close. But I would now like you to think about this over the break, Chrissy. I would like you to think about who your least favorite guest of the year was. This is going to be the drama drop. I want you to think of your least favorite guest and I want you to think of why. And you must tell us here, on the very first day of the very first 12 days of TCB, we are going to make sure that we have no interviews in 2025 by talking the shit out of one of the guests that we don't like. I think we're going to have the same guest. I think it's going to be the same person.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, I think so too, because I.

[Brian Green]

Think it was clear probably even to the audience that this was not going well. Well, but if it's not, then we'll, you know, we'll. I guarantee this will become the most listened to episode of the commercial break after we tell you who our least favorite guest was. So let's do this. Let's take a break. And we'll be back on the first 12 days of TCB. We'll be back.

[Christina]

Brian might have just said it's time to take a break, but some of us have to work right now. And by work, I mean gently nudge you, nay, beg you to follow us. On Instagram at the commercial break and on TikTok @TCB podcast because, listen, the more followers we get, the more clout I get with Chrissy and Brian. If you've got something to say, give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 212-433-3333, TCV or shoot us a text. One more thing. Check out our website tcvpodcast.com where you can find all of our audio and video and even request a new sticker from the Contact Us form. Bye.

[Brian Green]

Today's podcast is sponsored by Midi Health. At any given time, 61% of adult women say they want to lose weight. But for many, that's easier said than done. If you've had trouble losing weight, don't lose hope. Midihealth uses a deep understanding of women's hormones and a combination of weight loss medications to create a customized plan for each user. Midihealth can help you achieve more effective and sustainable weight loss by addressing hormone imbalances. Midi can also prescribe proven weight loss medications that help you experience reduced appetite and increased feelings of fullness. When paired with hormone optimization, you're not just managing your weight, you're also supporting your body's natural processes, which means you can overcome those weight loss plateaus that in the past have been so difficult and move beyond. So if you're ready to combine the power of hormones with the power of weight loss medication, visit joinmidi.com today. Discover how this innovative approach can lead you to lasting success. That's Join m I d I.com when you feel a cold coming, shorten it with Zycam, the number one cold shortening brand. Oh no, not before the holidays. Your cold is coming. Your cold is coming. Thanks Revere. I really should keep Zycam in the house. Getting the cold is on no one's wish list. Take it from America's most revered messenger. Shorten your cold at the first sign with cold shortening products from Zicam, the number one cold shortening brand available in stores. Or see where to [e-mail] okay, so we're here on the first of 12 days of TCB. Brand new episodes for the next 12 days taking you through your Christmas. Grab your ultimate log and your other Yule log. Grab them both and grab a hot toddy. A Yule log. Is the picture like a fireplace with that log that's burning?

[Chrissy]

Well, no, but I think there's an.

[Brian Green]

Actual like they make something called the Yule log that you can go and you can buy and it burns and I don't know what it's made of.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, I gathered that.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Actually, I think a yule log is that. I've seen these in Germany. Isn't it, where they split them open and they set them on fire. Fire.

[Christina]

It's a cake. I guess it's also. Okay, have you ever heard of, like, a bouche de Noel?

[Brian Green]

A bush de what?

[Christina]

I don't know how to say it, but. Bouche de Noel.

[Brian Green]

A bouche de Noel.

[Christina]

It's like a Christmas roll cake.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Christina]

Like, you ever seen those? Because it looks like channels. Yes, But.

[Brian Green]

Oh, there is a really good one.

[Christina]

With chocolate and specially selected log burnt on a hearth as a winter tradition in regions of Europe.

[Chrissy]

Selected log.

[Brian Green]

Yes. I was just telling. I was just telling Astor this. So we went on Friday to the local tree lighting ceremony here. The local tree lighting ceremony. They stop, you know, they block off the streets. Starbucks brings free hot cocoa. They have s'mores that they. In bags, and they have a bunch of fires that you like.

[Chrissy]

Fun.

[Brian Green]

It does sound like fun, except for one thing. They blow real snow around the tree in this little square. So they have real snow, like, half a foot of real snow in these grassy areas around the tree.

[Christina]

What do you mean, real snow?

[Brian Green]

I mean real, like, you know, fake snow. Like actual snow. But it's actual snow.

[Christina]

How can it be actual snow?

[Brian Green]

Don't you know that they have snow machines that make actual snow? I didn't know that it was real snow.

[Christina]

I thought it was fake snow. Oh, for skiing. Okay.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Christina]

But I was like, it's cold enough there. Was it cold? I guess it must have been.

[Brian Green]

It was cold enough on Friday to keep that snow high and tight.

[Christina]

I'm with you.

[Brian Green]

Okay. So they blow a bunch of snow, and then so the kids can, you know, have snowball fights, which just means a bunch of teenagers being shitty and throwing them at the parents, you know, because it's so dark out and the teenagers are back there making snowballs and just throwing them into the crowd, which. Fine, okay, we get it. There was actually one mother who ran in the middle of the. Ran in the middle of the square and started yelling at the teenagers. Everybody was afraid. I was afraid. I was like, hide your kids. Hide your wife. This lady's on fire. It's kind of mother that you probably don't want to be the child of and the kind of mother you don't want to be on the bad side of. But okay. All right. So, you know, they have the whole thing, and then there's a Bunch of bars and restaurants and they serve the Christmas flavored drinks or, you know.

[Chrissy]

Bold wine.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, Bold wine. Here's a hot. Oh, mold wine. Yeah. Oh, God. Mold wine is disgusting. Have you had mold wine?

[Chrissy]

I have.

[Brian Green]

With the cinnamon sticks and stuff in it. Oh, God. Did you like it?

[Chrissy]

I mean, it's kind of like a side.

[Brian Green]

It's gross to me. I like the way it smells.

[Chrissy]

It does smell delicious.

[Brian Green]

I don't like the way that it tastes. But anyway, so we go there. It's 19 minus 19 degrees outside. It is so incredibly cold. The kids do not want to bundle up because kids don't want to bundle up.

[Chrissy]

I don't.

[Brian Green]

For some reason, I keep on trying to explain to them, get your gloves on, put your hat on, put a scarf on. It's really cold. Within seven minutes you're going to be freezing and complaining. And within seven minutes they're freezing, they're complaining, but they refuse to put their gloves and their hats on. They just want me to hold them for my body. And I'm like, guys, this is not a doable thing. I can't have 13 of you hanging off me. So let me explain. So the kids, they're supposed to light this tree at 7:00. For the last couple of years, they've done this and they've lit the tree so late into the night that all parents around the entire town have been complaining. Our kids need to go to sleep. Please light the tree quickly. So they have this tiny little stage that's set up. They have local organization after local organization singing terribly, you know, Christmas, you know, Christmas carols. And the local band is up. The local string quartet is up there. It's minus 19 degrees. I got news for you. Your strings aren't going to sound so good when it's 19 degrees outside. They're all out of tune. So all the music is terrible. I mean, God bless them, they're trying, but all the music is terrible. Everyone's cold, everyone's miserable. Teenagers are throwing snowballs into the crowd.

[Chrissy]

Sounds like a blast.

[Brian Green]

It was just miserable. The whole thing was miserable. And Now I've got 13 to 15 children that are cold and they go out and they play in the snow. And then they're complaining that their hands are cold. And I'm like, what did you think snow was? Did you think snow was hot balls? It's not a call to hot balls called a snowball. Kids, it's freezing cold. So now one of the kids wants my gloves because he can't put on his Gloves. He wants my gloves. And I'm like, I'm supposed to suffer because you don't want to wear your gloves? I'm not that kind of parent. Okay, kid? I don't want to suffer because of you. So we go there. The most ridiculous thing is they can't for the life of them manage to get the tree lit in a reasonable decent hour. So 7:00 is supposed to be the tree lighting. Fine, 7:00 so that the kids can go home and go to bed by 8:00.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Brian Green]

7, 10, 10, 7:27, 30. All of a sudden everybody's clearing out because everyone, it's. The whole crowd is like we. And the crowd, let's be clear, is just little children. That's all it is. Who else wants to watch a tree lighting? I've seen a lit tree. I know what it looks like. I don't need to be excited with a moment that a tree lights. It's not something I'm interested in. It's for the kids. Lighted at 5:45. Please, for the love of Christ. Amen. Chris. Chrissy. Amen. So the eulog, Chrissy, also is a tradition that back in the day when they had the three networks at a certain time on Christmas, they would put the eulog, the lit fire log. Okay, here's why I started this whole conversation in the first place. It was so cold out there, they could have had some additional fires in Europe. When we went to a. Esther and I went to a theme park called Europa Land and it was like the middle of January in Germany, it was freezing fucking cold. And at night they have the roller coasters going and everything. There's no stopping it. It's just, it's, you know, you're going to go on a roller coaster. It's 19 degrees outside, you're going to be freezing. But what they do have is they take these huge tree stumps, they cut them open and they light them on. They're dried out. They light them on fire in the middle and they burn forever.

[Chrissy]

That's nice.

[Brian Green]

And they have them every 15ft. So every. So the whole place is warmed up because you have all of these logs that are just burning, burning. Why can't my local municipality do that? Who's in charge over there? Why are we so late? Why did we put real snow on the ground? And where are the Yulongs?

[Chrissy]

I think you need to talk to your old friend, the politician, the mayor. Your child school.

[Brian Green]

The mayor. Yeah, the mayor, also known as. I'm not even gonna say it because this episode is gonna get Shadow banned. But, yeah, he should be in Germany as a. He should be in Germany as mayor of a town. That's my opinion. Okay, speaking of mayor in Germany, tell me, who's your least favorite guest of 2024? Chrissy?

[Chrissy]

Oh, well, I think we. I think we're on the same page probably when I say it. Neil Brennan.

[Brian Green]

Neil Brennan. I think Neil Brennan was my least favorite guest.

[Chrissy]

Also, not any shade on Neil.

[Brian Green]

Listen, Neil is who Neil is.

[Chrissy]

It just turned out to be the exact same person which I had watched his special, which is hilarious.

[Brian Green]

Fucking hilarious.

[Chrissy]

It's hilarious, but it's also hilarious because of the way that he. His delivery is and the way his. He's so cynical, and he's very pedantic.

[Brian Green]

He's very dry. Very dry.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, very dry. And he turned out to be that same. That exact same way for the interview.

[Brian Green]

Okay.

[Chrissy]

And I think we were like, so.

[Brian Green]

Let'S walk it through, because it's very possible that we started off on the wrong foot with Neil. Actually, I felt like we started off on the right foot with Neil. Neil came in, we had a very pleasant conversation with him. He was very interested in what we were doing and, you know, Atlanta and all this other stuff. But as soon as we started to press record, I tried to ask him about something in his special, and when I did, I tried to prompt him to tell one of his jokes. And in the process, he thought I was trying to tell his joke.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, that's true.

[Brian Green]

He said, no, don't worry about it. You go ahead, Tell my jokes. And it went south from there. It didn't get any better.

[Chrissy]

It did.

[Brian Green]

It did. To be fair to necessarily, Neil, this is amateur hour over here. So it's not like we're the best podcast that's ever lived. I'm not Dana Carvey at David Spade, and I don't stand up for a living, so I'm not one of them. Like, as much as we like to get in conversations with standups, we're not standup comedians ourselves. We don't know what that's like. We've never put together three minutes of good material, let alone an hour of good material. Okay. But I felt like. Like maybe he could have been a little bit more gracious about. About the fact that. Okay, you're here on a podcast. We're trying to promote your special and, you know, just roll with the punches. Right?

[Chrissy]

Yeah. But I agree.

[Brian Green]

And to be absolutely fair to, like, let's just, like, lay the cards on the table. Neil is who Neil is, and Neil came in being exactly who Neil was. What you see is what you get. There is no two ways about. I tried to ask Neil about ketamine, and he explained that probably you'd go watch the special about it.

[Chrissy]

Also, he's like the youngest, I think, of 10 children or something, and he's had a lot of trauma throughout his life that he's widely talked about before.

[Brian Green]

And, well, that's his thing. That's his whole shtick. Right?

[Chrissy]

So. And I think it's part of the thing is that he's trying to work on himself and do ketamine, ayahuasca, all of those kinds of things, to look inside and get past this trauma that he has. But, yeah, it was. It was kind of like pulling teeth.

[Brian Green]

That's part of.

[Christina]

He could work a little harder, says Christina.

[Brian Green]

That. That. That is part of why I like Neil so much. That's part of why I enjoy his comedy. That's part of why I was so excited and interested to interview Neil. He also has his own podcast, which is a fascinating podcast. Podcast. And what you. What you saw on the commercial break is what you get on his own podcast, too. It's nothing different. It doesn't matter if you're famous. Neil comes at you the same way every single time. Neil, I don't know any other way to say this, but Neil reminded me of that guy in the room who's much too smart to be in the room. Do you know what I'm saying?

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Much too smart to be in the room. And then everybody knows it by the end of the night. It's kind of like, well, okay, yeah, all right. Yeah, I'm probably not going to invite him to our next party, that's for sure.

[Chrissy]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

I want to say to anyone, but.

[Chrissy]

His special is hilarious.

[Brian Green]

All of his specials are hilarious. He's really good at what he does. And he co created the Dave Chappelle show, which is one of the most brilliant sketch comedy shows, if not the most brilliant sketch comedy show show that has ever been. So you want to talk to Neil Brennan. You're really interested in what he has to say. He's been so close to greatness. He created greatness. And you're like, wow, that guy. He's probably. He's probably a wealth of information. But, you know, when you come into the commercial break and Brian's doing your jokes for you, maybe you just feel like, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna go anywhere.

[Chrissy]

I'm not gonna try.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I mean. Okay, fair enough. And so there we go.

[Chrissy]

Drama drop.

[Brian Green]

Drama drop. Neil Brennan, our least favorite. Favorite. And I forgot also that and for.

[Chrissy]

No fault of his.

[Brian Green]

No, no, it's our fault. It's all our fault. It's Brian's fault. Let it be Brian's fault. Let it be Brian's fault. Anil was a terrible guest. Now you'll go listen to that episode with a whole fresh set of ears. Did you think that episode was bad, Christina?

[Christina]

Are you kidding me?

[Brian Green]

No, I want to know. Did you think the episode was bad?

[Christina]

Yeah, it was so bad. I. I was cringing when I was working on.

[Chrissy]

It's kind of painful.

[Christina]

I was like, this is a trainer. Not good. Well, I just felt like he really could have been nicer.

[Brian Green]

He could have been.

[Christina]

He really could have been, like, just even a little bit fun.

[Chrissy]

I think that's just his personality. It was just him.

[Christina]

How do you get this far without being nice to people?

[Brian Green]

Well, I don't understand, you know, I think there's lots of people out there who get pretty far without being nice to people. But I understand, like, what you're saying. But I also think when you have the bonafides that he does, when you work on shows, that gets like our pinnacle of pop culture, that opens doors and no one's going to turn you down. You're not going to be the co creator of the Chappelle show when someone's not going to interview or you're not going to open the door. Not going to take your pitch because that's. You created something that was so great.

[Christina]

But then again, like, you are coming on the commercial break.

[Brian Green]

True. So he agreed to it, right? Yeah. Okay, I know. I take. I think the point. I think the point is well taken. Then again, maybe we just got who Neil is, and maybe it just didn't sit well with us because I think generally, generally, even though when the guests are not here, we cut up. I may sound like a dick, we may say things that are, you know, off color, dour, sour. When guests come in were pretty fucking nice.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, I would think.

[Brian Green]

I think most people would. I think most guests would walk away with the sense that maybe I won't go back, but at the very least, they were nice to me. Right. They didn't. And I'll never forget something that I think it was Rachel Feinstein said. Rachel Feinstein came on the show and she certainly didn't have to either. She's a big, huge success story. She comes on the show, we End up having a great time. She brings her aunt into the conversation at some point. Remember that? Okay. So now it's a big party. Everyone's having a great time. And then, as we usually do, we talk to the guests for a few minutes beforehand and we talk to them for a few minutes after without recording part. We do.

[Chrissy]

Right.

[Brian Green]

So in this case, we say goodbye to Rachel. And I don't think she realizes that we are still listening to what she is saying. She's still being recorded on the thing.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And she says to her aunt, wow, those people actually ended up being really nice. I really like them. As if I actually expected them to be a couple of. Right. Which was pleasant to hear. It was very. I don't think Rachel would mind me saying it was a nice thing to hear. I don't think she thought we were on the. On the call and we were on the call and we heard it. So I think the thing you would take away is that we were nice. We tried to be with everybody this year, at least nice and welcoming. You're not, you know, this isn't a gotcha show. You're not going to come on here and we're going to drum up all your old dirt. We're not, you know, who's that guy? The guy who's. We're not Katt Williams. We're not going to throw a bunch of shit in your face. And so the fact that we tried our best to be nice to everybody and sometimes that didn't get responded to in the way that we wanted, you know, I guess I don't know if that's the fault of ours or the fault of theirs or. It just didn't work out, everybody. It just didn't work out. And I'm not sure we're gonna go on a second one.

[Chrissy]

Personality.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. With Neil. But I do have to say, besides that one experience and maybe the fact that Vierdas will probably never ever say our name again out loud, I would say that all the other interviews in some way, shape or form I enjoyed.

[Chrissy]

Oh, me too.

[Brian Green]

I really did.

[Chrissy]

Definitely.

[Brian Green]

There were a few I enjoyed more than others.

[Chrissy]

Pleasantly surprised on quite a few of them.

[Brian Green]

Wendy Mc was another one that I really enjoyed.

[Chrissy]

I really loved her.

[Brian Green]

She could have come in here.

[Chrissy]

Her new show is good, actually.

[Brian Green]

Everyone's talking about it. Saint Elsewhere, Saint McLeod. Saint McLeod's family. I think it's Saint Denis Medical is doing very well.

[Chrissy]

Well, it's a cute show.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Lunell came in.

[Chrissy]

Oh, Lunel.

[Brian Green]

And Lunell was super sweet. Lunell is another, like, super. Do you know that Lunell is a bona fide superstar?

[Chrissy]

Yeah, she really is.

[Brian Green]

She is.

[Chrissy]

She's attending Madonna concerts with Paris Hilton and all these guys.

[Brian Green]

Where did Lunel come from? Like, I know that Lunella was a pretty popular character when we. When they pitched us for her to come in the show, but then I was like, wait, I had no idea she was that famous.

[Chrissy]

Yeah, she's like her own character, too. I mean, she remembers she was wearing the funky glasses, and, you know, she's just got this kind of brash sense of personality, and it was great.

[Brian Green]

She really. You have to go watch that on YouTube because she's got, like, to go boxes behind her. She's eating something. She's eating some kind of food while she's. During the interview. Lunell was a great interview. We had a lot of fantastic guests this year. And thank you, Chrissy, for sticking with me while I went on that. While I got that out of my system.

[Chrissy]

You did get that out of your system.

[Brian Green]

Got that out of my system. And I think there's another thing that we learned in 2024 that we may be more careful about in 2025. There is an overkill of guests. We also, I don't know if we need, you know, one guest a week. So in 2025, maybe we'll do a few less guests and we'll be a little bit more choosy about the guests that we have. Come in.

[Chrissy]

We'll see what happens.

[Brian Green]

We'll see what happens.

[Chrissy]

We do need content. Content.

[Brian Green]

It's true. We need content for the next 11 days. Please text us and let us know. All right, so the first of the 12 days of TCB. There you go. Juicy drama drops. We talked over the guests of 2024, and we're gonna be back tomorrow and then the tomorrow and then tomorrow and then tomorrow and then tomorrow. There you go. All right. Donate to the same Jude foundation link in the show notes. I know they would appreciate it, and it'll make us feel good that at least one of you paid attention to something we said. There you go. I want to thank. I want to thank all of our guests, even Neil Brennan, for coming in in 2024. You've all been wonderful. And a few returning guests in 2025. Question mark. Will Reggie make a third appearance?

[Chrissy]

I think he should.

[Brian Green]

Will Hannah Burner remember who we are? Will Des Bishop decide to be the third co host of the show?

[Chrissy]

Yeah. Offered himself.

[Brian Green]

He did. He offered himself right on the altar of the commercial break. He said, call me, I just need an hour's notice. And I said, okay, but I'm not calling because I'm afraid he'll say no. It's like when you meet a hot girl at the bar and then you're like, I think she was just drunk. I don't think she really thought that. All right, tc.tcb podcast.com. that's where you get more information about the show. All the audio, all the video, the aforementioned show, notes with all the links, sponsors, codes, everything you got. It's all there at the website. You can also get your free TCB sticker. Hey, if you want a mempho sticker, I found a pile of them. We have a pile of mempho stickers. So if you want a mempho sticker from three years ago, we'll be happy to send you. We'll be happy to send you one. Yeah, let us know. Go to the contact us button, drop down menu. I want my free sticker. Give us your address and we'll send it off to you. No muss, no fuss. I think we still have a few of those possum stickers left too.

[Chrissy]

Oh, those are cool.

[Brian Green]

In case you want one of those.

[Chrissy]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

YouTube.com the commercial break. Every single one of our episodes now on YouTube soon on Spotify video. If I can get the fucking thing to work. Honestly, it takes like two hours to upload a video to Spotify. It keeps timing out on me, but we'll figure out that's technical issues you don't want to hear about. But pretty soon all of our episodes on Spotify also. But I did learn how to put clips on Spotify.

[Chrissy]

Good job.

[Brian Green]

So now you can see clips of the show. Like video clips of the show on Spotify. They're like reels, but for the episodes. It's really cool. Speaking of reels, at the commercial break on Instagram, I would say our tick tock, but TikTok might not be around for too much longer. So we'll. Are we gonna do. Seriously?

[Chrissy]

Yeah, I know, I know.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. 212-4333. TCB 212, 433. 3822 questions, comments, concerns, contents, ideas. We're taking them all. Please do us a favor. Donate to one of our causes this week. We certainly would appreciate. Okay, Chrissy, that's all I can do for today?

[Chrissy]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

I'll tell you that I love you.

[Chrissy]

I love you.

[Brian Green]

Best to you and best you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chris. Chrissy and I always say we do say we must say happy new along.

[Chrissy]

Best to you.

[Brian Green]

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