Take Off Your PJ's

Summary

The Commercial Break — “Take Off Your PJ’s”

Episode Date: December 12, 2025
Hosts: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley

Overview

In this refreshingly candid episode, Bryan and Krissy confront a major turning point for The Commercial Break. After years of high-volume weekly content, the hosts openly discuss shifting their approach to prioritize quality over quantity—a "TCB 2.0" if you will. The episode features Bryan’s trademark storytelling on Thanksgiving illness, a deep (and hilarious) dive into multicultural life as a “gringo” in a Venezuelan family, a viral controversy at the Las Vegas Sphere, and even a check-in on the infamous “Fyre Fest” organizer. It’s a self-aware, energetic, fan-focused episode about embracing change, audience engagement, and evolving both as a podcast and as people.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Announcing Big Changes: Less is More

[03:53–17:15 | 22:50–24:01, 66:28–68:55]

• Show Reduction:

  • The Commercial Break is moving from four episodes a week down to two (streamed Tuesdays & Thursdays, released Wednesdays & Fridays).
  • Guest interviews will now be “strategic,” not every week.
  • Motivation: improving show quality, creative energy, and—most importantly—listener engagement.
  • Bryan emphasizes, “There’s just too much commercial break. And I think we can all agree we’ve oversaturated the market…” [11:41]

• Tone & Motivation:

  • The hosts want episodes to feel special again, not “another chore” in a sea of content.
  • Krissy: “We want it to be where people actually are excited for the next episode.” [21:27]
  • They recognize listener fatigue and their own: “If I’m taking the temperature of the audience… there’s too much commercial break, I can’t possibly listen to every episode.” —Bryan [13:54]

• Call for Community:

  • More live streaming (YouTube/Twitch), more ways for fans to participate, more opportunities for chat/interaction.
  • Bryan: “We want more engagement, less content. How’s that?” [13:41]

• Memorable Metaphor:

  • The show’s evolution:
    • Krissy: “We’re going to be the little trattoria down the street instead of the Cheesecake Factory.” [17:28]
    • Bryan: “…instead of Walmart, Super Walmart with a McDonald’s in each corner.” [17:32]

2. Thanksgiving “Vomit Fest”: Tradition, Illness, & Saltines

[05:48–10:20]

• Bryan humorously recounts his streak of post-Thanksgiving illnesses—4 years running with various bugs (“the traditional Thanksgiving vomit fest”).
• Honest, gross-out storytelling:
  • Vividly describes the awfulness of norovirus (“hit me like a train… I throw up like a two year old… I am not a quiet thrower-upper”).
  • Salty solace: “Saltines… God’s gift to sick people… you never eat them, except when you’re sick.” [09:08]
  • With comic wisdom: “Kids vomit. Adults don’t—or at least, they’re not supposed to.” [08:03]

3. Bryan’s Viral “Multicultural Gringo” Instagram Journey

[28:49–47:13]

• Bryan describes his recent viral success creating Instagram reels about being an American (“gringo”) married into a Venezuelan family.

• How it started:

  • A joke about a Venezuelan “democracy drop” on New Year’s Eve sparked viral resonance in the diaspora community.
  • Bryan: “My Instagram’s gone wild… for us, it went wild. Why do I talk about this? Well, you’re starting a class on how to be Venezuelan as a gringo. And for $19.99…”

• Connection & Community:

  • He is being DM’d by other Americans/foreigners in multicultural relationships seeking advice and solidarity.
  • Real-life story: American men, and even a Spanish guy, asking for tips navigating their Venezuelan partner’s culture, especially early culture shock and dancing customs.
  • “You are her true north. If you’re unstable in these conditions, then she’s not going to feel stable at all.” [40:29]

• Embracing the Content:

  • Bryan wants to bring more of these cross-cultural conversations into the show—possibly a “Dos Gringos En Vivo” segment or more listener advice.
  • Krissy: “The Venezuelans sound like my kind of people… They love to eat, dance, drink, party all night.” [42:33]
  • Heartwarming stories about the closeness and hospitality of Venezuelan people.

4. The Las Vegas Sphere & Viral Satanic Panic

[50:51–60:06]

• The Zach Brown Band played the Sphere, unveiling a visually intense intro sequence causing social media to explode with “Satanic panic.”
  • Bryan recounts:
    • The first 3 minutes feature dystopian imagery: skeletons, fire, demons—meant as a troubled childhood metaphor.
    • Out-of-context clips led to wild conspiracy chatter: “Sphere is a portal to hell… Zach Brown sold his soul to the devil.”
    • Bryan: “Listen, I watched the imagery and I thought, what the fuck does this have to do with Zach Brown Band? Chicken fried? We’re doing chicken fried with the devil?” [58:14]
    • He notes artists have always worked with dark/light imagery, referencing Pink Floyd & Ozzy Osbourne.
• The Sphere’s financial woes:
  • It’s massively expensive to run, needs constant tech support, and Vegas as a whole is hurting.
  • Why? “Hedge funds are ruining everything and they’re ruining Vegas. They’re making it prohibitively expensive…” [60:35]

5. “Phoenix Fest”: Fyre Fest’s Billy’s Redemption Attempt

[61:48–64:12]

• Billy McFarland (Fyre Fest infamy) put on a “Phoenix Fest” on a tiny island off Honduras.
  • Only ~150 people showed up; logistics were chaotic (no infrastructure, people boated in).
  • Bryan’s take: “Give Billy—he’s come a long way since asking Brian Green for $500 to show up at his festival.” [63:22]
  • There's incredulity and surprise that he managed to get it done at all, even on a small scale.

6. Culture, Engagement, and Looking Ahead

• Audience Invitation: Listeners are encouraged to join the live recordings, bring content ideas, call or chat in, and even join the stream (camera on).
• Show Reflection:
  • Honest admissions about the strain of high output, the struggle to remember old episodes (“I forget what I even talked about”), and the liberating sense of narrowing focus.
  • Bryan: “It’s a necessity for survival… so that we can keep going without feeling like we’re stuck in this kind of… ball and chain.” [24:01]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Show Evolution:

  • Krissy: “We’re going to be the little trattoria down the street instead of the Cheesecake Factory.” [17:28]
  • Bryan: “…instead of Walmart, Super Walmart with a McDonald’s in each corner.” [17:32]
  • Bryan (on content reduction): “It’s a lot. And we know it’s a lot. And we’ve known it’s a lot for a long time. We just felt… obligated… Guess who said we would do it? We did. No one asked for it.” [17:32]

• On Listener Engagement:

  • Bryan: “None of this means anything if you’re not engaged with the content.” [03:53 & 24:01]

• On Venezuelan Family:

  • “I never would have understood what true family was if it wasn’t for Venezuelans… it takes on a deeper meaning.” [42:44]
  • On dancing customs: “Don’t be afraid if they dance with your women… you handle it the only way you can… you smile and appreciate that she’s having a good time. And then you seethe deep down inside.” [41:09]

• On The Sphere Outrage:

  • “Chicken fried? We’re doing chicken fried with the devil? What is this?” [58:14]

• On Podcasting & Change:

  • Bryan: “The only thing that ever stays the same is that nothing ever stays the same.” [16:56]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:53] — Audience engagement philosophy; show status update
• [05:21]–[10:20] — Bryan’s Thanksgiving norovirus saga
• [11:41]–[17:15] — Announcement: moving to two episodes per week
• [21:24]–[24:01] — Why less is more; emotional side of the change
• [28:49]–[47:13] — Bryan’s viral multicultural Instagram, listener DMs, and Venezuelan family stories
• [50:51]–[60:06] — The Vegas Sphere, Satanic panic over Zach Brown Band
• [61:48]–[64:12] — Phoenix Fest (Fyre Fest 2.0), Honduras/govt/Bitcoin tangents
• [66:28]–[68:55] — Final reminders about new schedule and engagement

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Conclusion

This episode encapsulates TCB’s blend of improvisational humor, candid confession, and affection for community. Bryan and Krissy’s willingness to reset and refocus, plus their comedic take on life’s curveballs (and literal stomach bugs), deliver an episode that feels as much like hanging out with old friends as it does traditional podcasting. Listeners are left with a clear sense of where TCB is headed—and an open invite to come along for the ride, as the “little trattoria” of comedy podcasts.

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How to Get Involved

• Watch the live stream: Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 1:00 PM (YouTube.com/thecommercialbreak)
• Instagram: @thecommercialbreak
• DM with ideas or join the stream for a chance to be on-air
• Podcast releases: Wednesdays & Fridays

“None of this means anything if you’re not engaged with the content.” — Bryan Green [03:53, 24:01]

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End of Summary.

Transcript

[Brian Green]

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[Unknown Narrator (possibly a historical speech)]

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street. And there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do. And there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that Today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad, worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy. So we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller. And all we say is, please, at least leave. Leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel belted radios, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone. Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, I'm a human being, God damn it. My life has value. So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore. I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore.

[Brian Green]

On this episode of the Commerc, YouTube restream, IO, kick, twitch, go to one of those platforms, watch us do this live, get involved, engage with the content. We would love, love, love to have you. That is ultimately our end goal, is that none of this means anything if you're not engaged with the content. None of it means anything if you're not engaged with the content. We used to do the show just for ourselves, but after 880 episodes, we've decided we want to get you involved. Brian got a little less selfish. Just a little less selfish. And decided, well, what about them? What do they want? The next episode of the commercial break starts now. All right, all right. A little slow on the buttons, but it's been, you know, like, four weeks since we've recorded, so.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Really? Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Green]

Excuse me. I'm a little slow in the buttons today. Just give me a break. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Hello. Welcome to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co Host of the aforementioned commercial break, Kristen Joy Hold. The best to you, Chris, and best to you, Brian. Best to you out there in the podcast universe. How the hell are you? Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. So, as the title will mention on our live stream, currently, a change is going to come, so let's get right into. Well, first of all, how are you? I haven't seen you in months.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Well, yeah, the last time we recorded it was before Thanksgiving.

[Brian Green]

It was way before Thanksgiving.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

And we knew we were going to take the week of Thanksgiving off.

[Brian Green]

We had that. We had that one planned. Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

But then it just didn't work out.

[Brian Green]

The way we had intended.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Virus struck and possibly as well, like Mercury's in retrograde and lunar landing. I don't know. Something. Something was in the air last week.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, something was in the air.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

So I'm good. I think the question is, are you? How are you?

[Brian Green]

I. I'm good. I'm good. I'm feeling better. There you go. Now that I'm not mirroring the camera and we're backwards, that feels much better. We're live, by the way. Twitch YouTube kick. Go to our Instagram at the commercial break. Follow us. We'll let you know when we're going live. Except for this one. We didn't let anybody know because we're doing this on the sly right now. And thank God, because it's already been a hot mess. We're just two minutes into the show. I'm good. I. I did have my traditional Thanksgiving vomit fest, which it's like three years in a row. Three years and four years in a row. Four years. Every year we've been doing this commercial break. Except for one, the first one. I have had some kind of illness directly after Thanksgiving. One year it was salmonella. One year it was norovirus. One year I think I had Covid. And again norovirus again this year. And it hit me like a train. Hit my head in my stomach like a train. It was terrible. Anybody who's gone through this this year, and I know a number of people. I know a number of people who have because I'm sure I gave it to a number of people.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

So I've been reading about how the cases are way up.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it's nasty this year. It really is. Norovirus is that nasty virus that sticks around forever on everything. You can't get rid of it. And we have it had it in the house. So we had Thanksgiving. It was just fine. Everyone was perfectly lovely. And then late on. And Friday Most of the day was okay. I ate something on Friday night and then I went to bed and my stomach was really bothering me. Like really bothering me. I was like, God damn, Brian. Like you know, you got like something's going on there.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

It was burbling and gurgling.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. 3:30 in the morning. I woke up, I went to the bathroom. I won't get into it, but I. It was terrible. But I just went to the bathroom and then I went back. I managed to lay down, I managed to close my eyes. Four thirty I woke up, my eyes opened and the only thing that I could hear myself talking to myself.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, run up.

[Brian Green]

Run.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Go, go.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, run. I knew how nauseous I was and I knew it was coming and I needed to get to the toilet and I did. Astrid came in. All the commotion woke everybody up because I throw up like a two year.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

It's so awful. I hate it is. I hate it.

[Brian Green]

I am not a quiet thrower upper either. And I don't do a lot of vomiting. Like you're an adult, you don't, you don't get. That's for kids. Kids vomit. Adults don't every once in a while. But this has just hit us a couple years now and it's like, it's really terrible. And then it absolutely knocked me out. I managed to go back to bed at like 5:36 in the morning. The vomiting stopped. I managed to go to bed and I did not wake up till like 2:30 the next afternoon. Astrid had to come in and check on me. She's like, honey, it's 2:30 and I'm like 2:30 in the fucking afternoon.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Wow.

[Brian Green]

And that went on for a couple of days.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

It wipes you out. You're dehydrated, you just can't eat anything. So then you don't have any energy either. It's just a whole cycle.

[Brian Green]

Well, I'll tell you what. A friend of ours who is a pediatrician, I mean not a pediatrician, a friend of ours who is a doctor sent in some medication for me. Some anti vomiting medication. Ostram or something along those. I don't know the exact name of it, but he sent it in. I was feeling nauseous for days afterwards and I couldn't eat anything because my stomach was so bad I didn't want to eat anything. It's like super crackers, maybe Sprites.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Soda crackers.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, the soda crackers are. I don't, I don't know what God's gift to sick people is. Saltines. Yeah, I Swear to God, it is. You never eat them? I mean, sometimes I eat them on occasion, if I eat, like a quick snack.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, yeah, something like that.

[Brian Green]

But. But when you're sick, that's the only thing. It's the only thing that you can eat is like, ginger ale, Sprite, and soda crackers. Those three things seem to. I don't know, they bypass the vomit section of your stomach or something. They have some magic that they work. Then they. They allow the food to sit in your stomach for more than three minutes. But anyway, this guy calls in this prescription, and I. He called it in on Saturday night. I didn't manage to get it till Sunday. So now I'm sick all day. All. All late night on Friday, all day on Saturday. The pharmacy closes without filling the prescription. I get it on Sunday morning. I'm still feeling so nauseous. That medicine worked like fudgeing magic, really. I put it under my tongue, one of them, and within 30 minutes, I was feeling 90% better. And he said, take up to two credible. I took the second one, and I was no longer nauseous. Now I still felt sick, but I didn't feel nauseous, which was amazing. So anyway, it was not a good week around here.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Then everybody else got it.

[Brian Green]

Then everybody else got it. We went through the house. We all thought we were in the clear. And then on Tuesday, Astrid started throwing up, so it was a whole thing. And then the kids started throwing. You know, it goes through that. Yeah. So anyway, so we're back and we're better. And that meant we have to take. We had to take off time, and we had to kind of, you know, do the commercial break on the fly when I felt up to it. And actually, for the first time in six years of the commercial break, we missed a scheduled episode on Friday. I don't know if you noticed that, but. And we missed it. Not because I was still sick. I was not. But because decisions have been made. People have been talking, things have been changing. We've been chewing the fat, so to speak. Synergies are happening. We're focusing in. We're. We're getting holistic views. We're looking at the data, we're parsing all the information and the analytics, looking in our third eye, looking at our third. Looking at. Looking at our anus chakras, and big decisions have been made. And here it is. There's just no other way to say this. And I know to some people this will be disappointing. To other people, it'll be quite a relief. I think to most people, actually be quite a relief. The commercial break. There's too much commercial break. And I think we can all agree we've oversaturated the market and it's gone. It's done two things. It is made. It has made us, first of all, creatively feeling a little stuck. But then also I think if I'm taking the temperature of the audience because I can look at certain data and. And parse it and give it a good whirl and spin it around my head and chat and chat. Tcb. Yeah, chat. Even Chad thinks there's too much commercial break and that's its job. And I think what has happened is it's just too much information, too much commercial break coming at an audience and therefore dilutes. And, you know, we might do five hours of the commercial break a week. Maybe an hour of it is good. Maybe an hour. Maybe an hour of it should exist. The other hours we are doing because we have pigeons hauled ourselves into this. So many episodes a week. We've loved it. It's been a good run. But I think now we need to think about being more. I think we need to think about quality over quantity.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Strategy.

[Brian Green]

Strategy. That was the funniest thing in the world. George Bush said that, and then Will Ferrell did it on Saturday Night Live that weekend. I remember watching that live and I just pissed my. If I had. I had TiVo or streaming, I would have gone right back. It is too much, too fast. And it is. We are leaning into content just for the sake of creating content. And I don't think that that is serving us well here at the end of 2025.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, it's been five years. We just many to switch it up.

[Brian Green]

We did one episode a week for the first year of this show, one episode a week. And we were new little baby podcasters and we didn't know what we were doing. So we struggled to get that one episode out. But then we thought it was wise to do, too. I thought probably that was a sweet spot at the time, but then changing market conditions and requests from networks and all this other stuff, we started to do more and more content. But I'm not sure that anybody who's listening to the show ever asked us to do more than three episodes a week. I think it was just people who wanted to sell advertising into the show that. That did that. And so we did it, and it was our job. But I want to be more. I want to. Here's what I really want. Here's what Chrissy and I really want. We want more engagement, less content. How's that? Like, we want more engagement on content that we create and less just creating content.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Delusion.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. That's diluting everything. And I have a feeling that if you're listening to this podcast episode right now, you've said the same thing to yourself. There's too much commercial break. I can't possibly listen to every episode.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And, you know, maybe one or two episodes would suffice. And so that's where, where we are going to head with it. It starts immediately. There is no downtime here. We are going to start next week. We have some TCB infomercials that we have. So you may get a Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday episode. But from now on, the schedule is as follows. Chrissy. It has been deemed on Tuesday and Thursday we will stream the recordings of these episodes live on YouTube. You can follow us at the commercial break on Instagram. You will be notified before we go live. Let's assume it's going to be around 1 o' clock on those two days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, there will be no time limits on the commercial break if we decide. Usually we try and cut at an hour to get out, but now since we have less content and we might have more to say, we might go a little longer, we might go a little shorter. We don't know. We're going to figure out we were.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Going longer even like what, two weeks ago when we were recording.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, when we were streaming. We tend to go longer, I think, because I don't know. I don't know. That was an interesting phenomenon, more to say. But I also think because of the weird schedule we've had for the last couple of months, really since you went to Mempho, that maybe we just had more to say because we were recording less, you know, so Tuesdays and Thursdays we will record. We will broadcast live. We will stream live, let's call it YouTube.com/the commercial break. Follow us. Subscribe. Hit the notification bells. We will let you know when we're going live. We will do that on Instagram also call it one o' clock if you each. Tuesday and Thursday we will not be doing interviews every week. Moving forward, we will be doing strategically strategies. We will take strategy and we will place guests where we think we need them, but we will not be doing them obligatory every week moving forward. Additionally, we will release those episodes that we record on Tuesday, on Wednesday. The ones that we stream on Thursday, we will release on Friday. So if you're listening on the podcast, Version we will do Wednesday and Friday we will do those on video. You will be able to see them all on Spotify moving forward. So if you have the video enabled Spotify application on your phone. Welcome to the 21st century. Chrissy and I will use chat TCB and we will ask it how we exactly we put those videos on Spotify and we will do it. Actually, I was doing it for a while, but I stopped. Yeah, we did at the request again of other people that were not me or the listeners. But so that's how it's going to go. And that starts immediately. And we love you to death, all of the people who've been listening to the commercial break, so many of you for a long time, interacting with us. If we've been a little quiet on the phones lately, it's because we've kind of been stewing in our own world over here.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Swirling.

[Brian Green]

It's time for a change. Six years of the commercial break. It's time for a change.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yes, it is. That's the only thing that's constant, that.

[Brian Green]

The only thing that ever stays the same is that nothing ever stays the same. And we have done a lot of content and we have done a lot of content very similar to other content that we've done. And so it's time to just change it up a little bit. Grow up a little bit. Change up a little bit. Slick it up a little bit.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Fresh coat of paint.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, amen. And, and streamline the show just a little bit. Make it, you know, less about volume. And I think that's really the, like the, the underline here is that the commercial break will be Chrissy and I. It will continue to be Chrissy.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

We're going to be the little trattoria down the street instead of the Cheesecake.

[Brian Green]

Factory, instead of Walmart, Super Walmart with a McDonald's in each corner of it. Yes, that's exactly right. It's just, I don't want to, like, belabor the point or beat it up, but it, it's, it's a lot. And we know it's a lot and we've known it's a lot for a long time. We just felt, I guess I feel I felt obligated. Yeah, I felt like, oh, we said we would do it, so now we can do it. But guess who said we would do it? We did. No one asked for it. No one asked for it. And there are so many people that are on that communicate with us and they love the show and they get, they get involved in every episode. And I love you to death. You don't know how much that means to us.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, for sure.

[Brian Green]

It's gasoline in our tank. It's refreshing our batteries. It's recharging the system. But even with all of that, it'll be okay with just two episodes, I promise you. Everyone will get used to the new vibe. Everyone will get used to the new way of doing things. Just like when we added episodes, we got used to it. We'll get used to it by doing less episodes. And what I really want to encourage, Chrissy and I. What do we really want to encourage is you to get involved in the streaming version of the show. Engage with us, talk with us, Content, ideas. You can even join the show by putting your camera on, going on one of these platforms, going on Restream IO and asking to join the stream. And occasionally we'll take people in and we'll have conversations with them. This is going to be a positive thing in the end. I know it is.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

I feel like I just gave a pep talk to a team that's lost a game. I feel like I'm feeling Falcons. I feel like I'm giving a eulogy. It's going to be okay. We're all going to be okay. The Falcons. Falcons are fucking miserable.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, my God. It's bad.

[Brian Green]

However, the Bears are fantastic. Let's. Let's look at the silver.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Okay, good.

[Brian Green]

The Bears are fantastic. I don't know. Did they Bears. I think they won against Green Bay. I don't know. I can't. I. I was watching the first half of it, but then I have children, so I can't do anything. You know what they did last night? They did. Disney took Monday Night Football and they put it into Monday Night Football. Meaning Monsters. M O n D A y Monsters. You know the Pixar movie Monsters?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Green]

So Disney has done this with a couple of different sports. What they have done is they. They take the actual live game that's happening.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I've seen that with hockey.

[Brian Green]

Yes, they did it with hockey. With big city greens. Yeah, we talked to what's her name about that. I can't remember what her name was, but we had some big city Greens people on here and we've talked to them about that.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Such a cute show.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it is a cute show. And they took the hockey games and they put it in cartoon version. So what they. What they did is they took the actual live game that was going on and they superimposed the characters, the cartoon characters onto the actual game. So you're watching the actual game, but it's the cartoon characters that are, you know, passing the ball and tackling each other. So last night it was monsters doing Monday Night Football. My son was so excited about this. We. We. He stayed up way too late. We watched a lot of it.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, that's fun.

[Brian Green]

He just, like, got the biggest kick out of it. And I thought it was pretty fun, too. I thought it was pretty funny. And, you know, I wasn't really watching the game, but it was fun to watch the characters do the game. It's a little janky, too. It looks like a kind of a weird video game. And sometimes the heads will, like, you know, they're gone. Like, there's no head on a player. And you're like, what's that all about? Where does head go? But at the end of the day, it's a cool thing that Disney is doing, and they're trying to pull the. Of course, it's the NFL trying to pull in the youngest possible demographic.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Of course. Get him hooked young.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And I appreciate that the NHL is doing it. Hopefully MLB and basketball will do it soon, too, if they haven't already. I haven't seen it, but if they haven't already. Yeah. So this is the new dictate here at the commercial break. And here. Ye. Hear ye, hear ye. We will no longer be in your ear so much. Hear ye, hear ye. We heard ye. And we know it's too much. It's the right move.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

It is.

[Brian Green]

I think it's the right move.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I think so, too.

[Brian Green]

I think it's definitely.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Well, I mean, we want it to be where people actually are excited for the next episode.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Like the next week. Yes.

[Brian Green]

We want it to be like, hey, oh, my gosh, the commercial break comes out tomorrow. I can't wait. Yeah, Not. Oh, my God. Another episode I have to listen to. Because the truth is, I don't think you do listen to it. And that's. That's the reality for us. It's not. That's not. I'm not knocking you. I'm knocking us. Like, I think when there's so much coming at you and you have so many other choices of great podcasts and content and videos and Instagram, all of it. In this. It saturated environment of media content, how could you possibly want to be willing to. Or able to keep up with five hours of the commercial break every week? It's hard for us. And, like, like we said, it's hard for us to do. Yeah. Because it's a lot of Content to create. If we were a news program, it would be easier because we would talk about whatever was in the news. If we were a sports program, we would talk about the baseball game, football game, whatever. I get why how those talk shows can do that, because they constantly have stuff to chew on. We don't know the first fucking thing about sports. And we tend to stay away from the news. So it's just the way that it is. So hate me now, thank me later. I promise this will be the right move for everybody, and you will enjoy the new commercial break. We should put, like, commercial break on our sign. 2.0.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

2.0.

[Brian Green]

Actually 6.0, because we're going into our sixth year. It's fucking crazy. Or seven seasons.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Not believe it.

[Brian Green]

It's insane. Wow. And after seven seasons, it's time for a change.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Let's rearrange the furniture.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Put some new colors, new drapes, new paint. Let's rearrange the room.

[Brian Green]

Your lips to God's ears. Look at Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan Season one is not Joe Rogan's season 22 or whatever he's on. I mean, it's a totally different show than it was at first. It was just him and a bunch of guys on their webcams bantering. Right. And then it evolved over the years. I don't want to, like, put Joe out as an example, but, you know, it's evolved over the years into now this weird sociopolitical commentary for four hours. But credit to him, he has always been changing, always been evolving into the next thing. Like it or don't like it. Same with a lot of other podcasts that have been around for a long time. I think about my friend Mike Pesco, who's been doing the gist for a long time. Yeah. It's not the same show it was two years ago. It's not the same show was a year ago. Everybody changes over time. It's a necessity for survival and so that we can keep going without feeling like we're stuck in this kind of like.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, like it's a ball and chain.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I don't know if you've noticed, but if I don't mention it three times an episode, what a pain in the ass it is to do four episodes a week. That should have been the first indication is when I was complaining every five minutes. And Chrissy doesn't complain, but she was complaining silently to herself and to Jeff and to her friends. Yes. She was in some group chat somewhere going, fuck, I got to do another episode. Okay, so that is the state of the state with the commercial break. Stay with us. We welcome your advice, your thoughts, your input. Go to the chat. Go to the chat on one of the platforms, YouTube, Restream, IO, Kick, Twitch. Go to one of those platforms. Watch us do this live. Get involved, engage with the content. We would love, love, love to have you. That is ultimately our end goal, is that none of this means anything if you're not engaged with the content. None of it means anything if you're not engaged with the content. We used to do the show just for ourselves, but after 880 episodes, we've decided we want to get you involved. Brian got a little less selfish, just a little less selfish and decided, well, what about them? What do they want?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, I'm interested to hear from people.

[Brian Green]

I think it'll be fun when we do. Yes, I think it'll be fun when we do. Okay. Hey, let's take a short two or three minute break and we'll be back. We gotta pause for, I hope, sponsors. I don't know, maybe they're there, maybe they're not really sure.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

It's all a big experiment.

[Brian Green]

It's all a big experiment. Welcome to content creation in 2025.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Exactly.

[Brian Green]

Okay, we'll be back.

[Rachel]

Okay. You're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at tcb. It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute. Well, lovely Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid too? You know you do. Leave a message for her or me or Chrissy at 212-4333, TCB. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show, too. Just call and say something, anything. Or text us and we'll text you right back. Promise. Then head over to tcbpodcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker, and we must abide. You get the point? Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and watch all the episodes on [e-mail] thecommercial break. Best to you and Astrid, especially Astrid.

[Brian Green]

This episode is sponsored by our longtime sponsor, Squarespace. I am working on a new project information tbd. It's very secretive. It's very hush, hush, hush around here because, you know, podcast secrets are a thing. Anywho, there is only one all in one website tool that's designed to help my new project stand out and be successful. And that one tool is Squarespace. Squarespace can help me through every step of the process. The launch, the scaling, the branding, and the growth. No matter what part of the journey I am on. Squarespace is an all in one website platform, so it'll cater to my needs every step of the way. There are so many benefits, services and tools built into Squarespace I would need a 10 minute commercial to name them all. Cutting edge design, search engine optimization tools, domain management, analytics, email campaigns, the ability to host videos, and most importantly, the ability to get paid. So if you've been thinking about building or upgrading your website, now's the time to head to squarespace.com commercial for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, make sure to use the offer code commercial to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. That's squarespace.com commercial. Then be sure to use the code commercial when you're ready to launch. Squarespace has been with the commercial break for a long time and we have been with Squarespace for even longer. This is a company we trust, it's a product we use. And there's one overarching reason why it makes my life easier. Go build yourself a beautiful website, squarespace.com commercial and thank you to Squarespace for being a sponsor of the commercial break. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. You know one of the perks about having four kids that you know about is actually getting a direct line to the big man up north. And this year he wants you to know the best gift that you can give someone is the gift of Mint Mobile's unlimited wireless for $15 a month. Now you don't even need to wrap it. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Rachel]

Of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. New customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes if network's busy. Taxes and fees extra. See mint mobile.com.

[Brian Green]

Okay, we're back. Sorry, we. I had to do stuff. I'm important. I have to do stuff. Okay, so here's what I want to talk about in case. And I don't think because we really haven't publicized this yet, but I mean, we haven't publicized that we're live right now. But some of you may, may take note if you have been paying attention at all to the Instagram scene that Chrissy and I have created millions of followers, then you will know that the commercial break Instagram feed remains clips of the commercial break largely. But some of those now I've been tagging the commercial break in posts that I have been creating about my multicultural marriage, multiculturalism and Venezuela. Something we talk a lot about here on the show. And I have just decided to kind of condense what we talk about here on the show and put it out as real stuff that I observe. Things that I find are funny, you know, little observations, I think is the best way to put it. And it is causing quite the stir on social media right now and amongst the larger diaspora of Venezuela. I would say it's interesting, to say the least, that I've had that account since Simcoe FM. So I've had that account since 2012 or 13, which I think is the year that Instagram started. Actually, that Instagram came out. 2011.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

That's right. It did come out around that time.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I've had that account forever and ever. I have rarely posted on it. I think before I started the commercial break, I had seven posts, and they were largely stupid shit, like, you know, a picture of some funny dude in a wig or something. You know, snow day, you know, me drinking a beer, whatever. I think I averaged one, like, per post. And then we started doing the commercial break, and it gained a little bit of steam. But the commercial break was a slow burn. We had 500 followers on January 1st of this year. And then we talked a little bit about Venezuela on the show, as we have been doing since the show started, because my wife is Venezuelan and I have Venezuelan friends, and Chrissy knows Venezuelan people, and we all are into all Venezuelan things, and we love it, love it. And we put a reel out after we did the 12 days of TCB. I mentioned I was talking about how Venezuelans celebrate New Year's Eve. Chrissy asked, do they have a ball drop? And I said, no, I think they have democracy drop. Which became quite the hot reel amongst the Venezuelan community. And that was viewed over three quarters of a million times. It was shared, I think, a hundred.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Thousand running around Astrid's birthday party in the New Year going, oh, my God.

[Brian Green]

Oh, my God, what happened? What is going on? It's nuts. And we gained like 4000 followers in two weeks just. Just on that reel alone. But we, you know, the commercial break is not all about Venezuela. So we are. We were careful not to dip our toe in that water too much. But on my own personal Instagram, I had largely still not done anything with it. I would put together a goofy reel here and there. Astor was begging me, begging me, telling me, you got to do content outside of the commercial break. It can't always Be just you tagged in the commercial break. People follow the personalities, not the shows. Like, you have to. She's, you know, younger than I am, so she understands this more than I do. But I was always very reluctant to do it because I really didn't know what to do about. I'm talking 17,000 hours a week on this show. I don't want to create yet more show related content. So Astrid said, okay, if you can't think of anything funny to say, think about some stuff about, you know, like, you talk about Venezuela, think about like a multicultural thing that you find is funny. And so I did that in October of this year. We're talking two months ago, and it's gone wild. And I continued to put my foot on the gas, taking things I've talked about here on the show and condensing them into 2 minute, 2 minute or less bites and putting them out pretty frequently. Like every third day, every, every other day. And my Instagram's gone wild. And I say wild. Wild for me, not wild in general. Like, I got 12, 13,000 followers. It's not like things went internationally global, but for us, it went wild. Why do I talk about this? Well, I talk about this because you're starting a class. I'm starting a class on how to be Venezuelan as a gringo. And for 19.99amonth, you could join my class. So we're only doing the commercial break Wednesdays and Fridays now, but every other day of the week, I'll be teaching Spanglish to all my gringo friends. You want to learn how to eat a tequeno? I got you covered. You need to learn which empanada you like best. Don't eat that one. You don't want that one. You want to know which dance. Yeah. You want to know which dances are safe to do with someone else's wife and which ones are not. I can. I got all that stuff. How about Ora de loca? You want to learn a little bit more Perfectly normal. I got you covered, Brian. The gringo greens. The funny. Here's the. I'm going to stop for just one second because I want to say this. Putting together these reels and I'm putting together on Edits, Instagram's editing platform app. And they have a closed captioning part because captioning. Closed captioning can be in. In English, but then they will translate it into Spanish for people who have their settings on Spanish on Instagram.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

When it. My tagline is gringo married to a Venezuelan. Whenever it does the gringo married to a Venezuelan? At the very beginning of the reel, it spells gringo, not G R I N, G O, G R E E N Green Go. Which I thought was so cute. It kept doing it. It did it on every single reel that I've put out. And I had to, like, correct it. And I'm like, astrid, this is like, look at this. This is so I'll just call myself Green go. And she's like, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. You're an idiot. Don't do that. What are you talking about? She's like, you're such an old man.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, thank God.

[Brian Green]

I talk about this for two reasons. Number one is that. But, you know, I think I would like to in the future talk a little bit more about multiculturalism, because it's a big part of my life and I think I can share that. But number two is it's very interesting to watch on Instagram how engagement can take on a life of its own, right on. On social media, on any platform, how engagement takes on a life of its own when it's real and it's there. Like, when it's real and it's there and people are talking and they're sharing and they're DMing you and it's authentic, and I absolutely love it. One of the things that I find to be most fascinating about the last couple of months in this little, you know, zoomy ride I'm taking here on Instagram, as Instagram is shining the algorithm light on me for a minute, I'm sure it'll go away. And it's my luck. Tomorrow I'll be at 2000 followers, I'll say something, and then I'll go away. I'll put out a Teresa Caputo video, and they'll all be like, I like Teresa Caputo. One of the things that is most interesting is that I have gringos, guys that are American men that are married to Venezuelans or in some cases, span. There's a guy from Spain, there's a dude from Canada, American or gringo men that are DMing me, asking me for advice, really, about their own relationships with their Venezuelan partners. Even a gay guy who said, I'm with a Venezuelan, and there's some stuff that I don't understand. I need some help with, navigate. And I was like, wow, fascinating. Like, I live my life. I've been around Venezuelans for 30 years almost. They took me in. The moment that they saw that I was a long lost puppy. They needed some help. They took Me in.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

You and Rafa slept in the same bed?

[Brian Green]

We slept in the same bed. Well, not the first night, but we have sense. Not sex, just in the same bed. It's a Venezuelan thing. You wouldn't understand, but one of the things that. But I never really thought about how many other people might be in a very similar position that might not have the context or the pretext of 20 years of Venezuelan culture and knowledge. Like being around the culture previous to meeting their loved one and getting married. I was lucky because I already was in it. I already knew it's not all of it, but. And I certainly understand it much better.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

You're familiar with it?

[Brian Green]

I was familiar with it with a lot of the customs and cultures and things that were said. And I. I know what it's like to be in a room full of people speaking Spanish, mostly about you. Why you don't understand. I understand. I know what it's like to have other men dance with the person you brought to the party. You know, it's not a sexual thing. It's just a thing that they, you know, it's just about love and having fun or whatever. I knew about all that. And what's interesting is the. The guys that are reaching out and asking me about their own relationships and their own.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Can you share any of. Any of the things?

[Brian Green]

Well, without talking about them specifically. So obviously we would leave names out and I'll try my best to make it as like generic as possible because I didn't ask them if I could talk about their dm. But one man in particular reached out and he said, I really. Not only is my wife Venezuelan and I'm new to the culture, but then she's new to the country. So we're having a little bit. It's that time difficult. It's. There are. There are moments that are great. There are moments that are difficult. We found a little community. 20 or 30 Venezuelans.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I remember when you guys were going through this.

[Brian Green]

Yes, still going through it to this day. Listen, assimilating to a new culture is not a thing you do overnight. It takes a long time to do. And it's very heart heavy for the person who's dropped in a strange land among strange people. And even though Astrid speaks perfect English and she's been to America, had been to America many, many, many, many times, she knew the lay of the land. It's different when you live there.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

When you live. That's your everyday.

[Brian Green]

So I told this guy, I said, listen, you know, you're right now, you're the true north. You're the rock. You're the stability. In an ocean of instability and in a hurricane, you need to be as calm, cool, and collected about all this as possible. There's going to be outbursts, and there's going to be upheavals, and there's going to be bad days, there's going to be good days, and there's going to be things that she doesn't understand and things that you don't understand about her culture. You need to make the best effort to keep your eyes open, your ears open, and be willing to understand that a little bit of her culture makes. Could make her feel so much better about her day. Oh, yeah, right.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I can see that.

[Brian Green]

That they're not always. That she's not always going to get used to everything you're doing, places, you're bringing her American customs, culture, things. She's not going to get used to that overnight. So if she goes somewhere and it looks like maybe she's not having fun, she's not tuned in, she doesn't understand whatever. You're her guide number one. But number two, that's okay. Like, maybe that's. It's just gonna take a couple times or whatever. And I said, you just need to.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Bring her to a fish concert.

[Brian Green]

Bring her to a fish concert. Which is what I did.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

That's why I said it.

[Brian Green]

I brought Astrid to a fish concert within three weeks of being a new American, you know, green card holder. Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Here, honey fish, check out this culture.

[Brian Green]

And to which she replied, what's that smell? I said, which one? Because it's pot. Patchouli, body odor, probably a yeast infection. I'm not sure what it is. It's a lot of stuff. But I just kind of told him, like, you know, you are her true north. So if you're unstable in these conditions, then she's not going to feel stable at all. So you.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

That's good advice.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And I would say that it's not about him being the man. I would say that to anybody, like, if it was a woman, about a man or whatever. And then he also talked about. I had put a reel out about how don't be afraid if they dance with your women. Right. And what I meant was if they dance with anybody, but if you dance with your ladies, they're gonna dance with your ladies. And he said, that's so funny, because that's one thing that actually happened to me. And I got. I got a little bit frazzled. Like, we're out on the dance floor, we're at a party and my wife went and danced with another guy who was in this group.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

But it wasn't like, you know, super. This wasn't dirty dancing. Right. They were just doing a little salsa together, whatever. A little two stepping.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And he said, but I didn't know how to handle it. And I said, you handle it the only way you can handle it. You smile and you appreciate that she's having a good time.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Sit this one out.

[Brian Green]

And then you seethe deep down inside about all the jealousy you have. I said, hey, dude, you did the right thing. You gotta sit it out. You gotta just sit back, enjoy the show. That's the only. That's the only way to handle this. But anyway, like, the larger point that I wanted to make is if you're following me on Instagram and you're wondering why all of a sudden all the Venezuelan content is really not all of a sudden. It's just that I decided to put my foot on the gas a little bit. I do enjoy. I do enjoy talking about it.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I love it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Maybe I can.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

And I learn from it too.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I was thinking to myself, maybe in this new 2.0 version of the commercial break, we could do a couple things. These are just ideas. We could have like an Ask the Gringo Day, right? Dos Gringos Envivos where Chrissy and I go live. And we can invite some of the Venezuelans into the conversation and they can ask gringo, or we can ask them, right? And then maybe even Latinas in general, Latinos, the larger. The larger community. But then also maybe I introduce you to some of the customs and cultures that I have enjoyed over the years. Like, I want you to try an ayaka. Let's see if, you know, let's see if you like an ayaka.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I would love to try. And you know, I've been telling you this for years. The Venezuelans sound like my kind of people.

[Brian Green]

They are your kind of people.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

They love to eat, dance, drink, party all night.

[Brian Green]

That's it.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Family. They love their family. So close. I mean, I just. I love everything about it. So it is.

[Brian Green]

They are so lovely. I mean, listen, it sounds like I'm blowing smoke up their ass. And maybe I am a little bit, because I am so. It kind of enamored with the culture. Right. But I think I largely wouldn't understand what true family was if it wasn't for Venezuelans like that. It takes on a deeper meaning. And they're caring and they're loving and they're. They're accommodating. And it doesn't matter what you do. We'll figure it all out. Right? And I tell this story. I think this is like the most shining example of how Venezuelans treat each other. I know a lady who got divorced from her husband and got remarried to a new man. The man that she divorced fell on hard times. After she got remarried, he fell on hard times. And for three years, the ex husband lived in the basement of the house with the new husband.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, wow.

[Brian Green]

Three years. Three fucking years. I mean, that is some. Yeah, that's high level of maturity to do that. Right. But I don't think this story is not unique. There are so many situations where someone did someone wrong song, but they, you know, they bring them back into the fold. It's just like it's a community of, of love and forgiveness. And I. I wish that upon everybody. I mean, quite frankly, I think we need a lot more of it, not less of it. And that's why it drives me crazy when I hear all this talking going on about Venezuelan. Right. Venezuela right now. It's like it's largely not true. Of course there are bad people. Of course there are bad people. There should be news to nobody.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah. In every culture, in every country.

[Brian Green]

Yes. But it's. I don't know. Anyway, okay, so I. I have some ideas about how we might invite that conversation into the commercial break and make it more focused and less scattered. You know, it's like if you listen to a week of commercial break, Brian's talking about Venezuela four times in a week. But it's just not concentrated conversation. It's just like, you know, me kind of making an off the cuff remark. So maybe we concentrate in a little bit more on that. And then also maybe having nothing to do with Venezuela, maybe we invite our listeners in to ask for our advice on a particular situation, romantically or otherwise. I love those two. We don't do enough of it, mainly because we don't have enough of that type of engagement. We don't ask for it. So people don't engage with us in that way. I also think that's why maybe some people don't engage with us at all, is because we don't ask them to. We say, we say text us, but what does text us mean? You know, hey, loved your last episode. Which one?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Number 622?

[Brian Green]

Yeah, number 898. Oh, you mean 1,000 episodes ago? I forgot what I even talked about. That's the other thing. Well, that's terrible about creating so much content Is I. Honestly, it goes in one ear and out the other. I have no fucking clue what we talked about.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I'll have people say, yeah, I listen to. To that latest episode and it was so funny. And I'm like, what did we say?

[Brian Green]

What did we say? Yeah, which one was that? What's that? What did we talk about? Was it fun? Was it funny?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Good.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, because that was a long time ago. That was many episodes ago. That was back when we knew what the fuck we were doing. Because we're only doing two episodes instead of five episodes a week, man. I know this guy, Mike Pesca does six episodes a week. That's sick. Well, he does five live and then they do like a recap show on Saturdays. But. But that is a ton of content. But he's a news and political commentary show, and I think it's a lot to talk about. Yeah, but it's probably makes more sense for him to do a daily show because. And he. He puts the show together at like 6pm so he'll. He'll record it and then he'll put it out at 6pm so that people get the daily news that day. So he records it in the morning, puts it out at 6pm that was a thought that I had too, is like, what if we recorded the show, put it out later on that night? But that's just. That's too much pressure. I have children. I can't do it. Yeah, a day is fine. It'll be out the next day. Yeah, okay. If you want to hear it in the moment, then tune into the stream. That's it. All right, so let me remind you, Tuesdays and Thursdays, we're streaming live. Wednesdays and Fridays we're putting out the episodes that we just recorded on that stream. So if you want to get involved and then the recorded version will still have the bits and all that other stuff. So you can still tune in and, you know, get all your goofs there. How's that?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Get your laughs.

[Brian Green]

Get your laughs off. We have a hundred and I have 150 some odd bits. I looked in chat the other day.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Wow.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, so we can. So I'm going to reuse a lot of them. Don't expect any new ones soon. I got problems over here. All right, let's take a two, three minute break and then we'll be. Oh, I forgot to open up the chat. I'm asking people to get involved in the show and I forgot to open up the chat. I appreciate your gameplay and your content. It's fun. To watch and would love to be a friend and fan to support your stream. If you're cool with it, feel free to add me on Discord. Thanks dickhead. Best viewers and streamers ever are available here. Thanks. So so far we've gotten two spam comments so now you can see how it's important and we start to get some engagement. Yes, that's not the dudes. We're not buying any views so you can off right now. Okay, that doesn't work. We'll be back.

[Rachel]

Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on tcb. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears. And I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to tcbpodcast.com and visiting the Contact Us page. You can also find the entire commercial break library audio and video just in case you want to look at [e-mail] Want your voice to be on an episode of the show? Leave us a message at 212-433. That's 212-433-3822. Tell us how much you love us and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode. Or you could make fun of us. That'd be fine too. We might not air that, but maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text, we'll respond. Now I'm gonna go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return to this episode of the Commercial Break Holiday PSA from dsw. This is your reminder that shoes are a gift.

[Brian Green]

Literally.

[Rachel]

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[Kristen Joy Hold]

An excuse to stay in.

[Rachel]

Or sneakers that feel like pure joy.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Because shoes aren't just shoes, they're exactly what you wanted.

[Rachel]

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[Kristen Joy Hold]

You open the fridge, there's nothing there. So what's it gonna be?

[Brian Green]

Greasy pizza.

[Rachel]

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[Kristen Joy Hold]

Visit blueapron.com terms for more.

[Brian Green]

Let's talk about the Sphere and what happened over the weekend. Did you see? Are you plugged into the Sphere? And what's going on over there at the Sphere?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, the Sphere.

[Brian Green]

No fear in Las Vegas. This monstrosity, this, you know, the most. Yeah. You've been the most technologically advanced theater in the world. Yeah. Maybe the most technically technologically advanced thing besides AI or robots, you know, like, entertainment thing ever.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, yeah, it's huge.

[Brian Green]

It's huge. There's a couple things going on with this fear. But let's talk about what happened over the weekend. Zach Brown. The Zach Brown band of chicken fame.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Chicken Fried from Atlanta, Georgia.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, Zach Brown. I saw something. This is a little like pretext on Zach Brown. He's got a couple of songs. I know that you've heard them. Into the Mystic, Free. Into the Mystic, Chicken Fried, there's a couple other songs.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

He also has a wine.

[Brian Green]

He does. It's like a Boone's Farm. Farm. The kind of wine. Yeah. And he sells it at like Costco or something like that. But. But good on him. Okay. You know, he's got to diversify. That band is largely a touring band, just like the jam bands, just like Kenny Chesney, you know. Oh, Kenny Chesney's had a lot more hits. But you get it. They have that very much. They have that Margaritaville vibe. That's the thing. As a matter of fact, Jimmy Buffett said, I'm passing the torch on to you. To Zach Brown. And there's a very famous Live at Austin City Limits, I think, where Zach Brown and Jimmy Buffett. The Zach Brown Band and Jimmy Buffett do it together. And they do their song Free and then into the mystic, back into their song Free. It is beautiful. I have it on my playlist. I think it's wonderful.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I need to listen to it.

[Brian Green]

I have seen Zach Brown, the Zach Brown Band here in Atlanta, at many a bar, mainly one bar here in Atlanta, Dixie Tavern, where he would come and play on a Wednesday night, and the place would be incredible, incredibly packed. He built an audience, one person by one person. And he said to him. He said on a. On a reel that I recently saw that it was 10 years of them going around the Southeast and going into sports bars, mainly bar circuit, and saying, you know, he would. They would. They would be like, oh, yeah, you play on a Friday night, we'll give you $100 plus, you know, free beer. And he'd be like, no, I want your Wednesday night, and I want it every Wednesday night. And if I can pack the place out, then I want the door. Just give me a tab. I just want a tab. Give me, you know, 300 worth of free food and booze, and if I can build it out, then you'll give me the door. That's what I want.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And that's what they did for 10 years until they had all of these weekdays and weeknights they were playing at these bars around the Southeast and a lot in here. In Atlanta, they became famous for playing the Dixie Tavern every week. And they would pack the place out, mainly playing covers. And then they started doing original tunes, like a lot of bands, like a lot of musicians do.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

You start off with the covers.

[Brian Green]

So Zach Brown, they're a touring band largely. That's how they make their money. But they also put out albums, and they do pretty well for themselves. They're known as a country. Country artist, but I would not consider them purely country. I think they're, you know, pop, country, rock, maybe.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, you say that's kind of the vibe.

[Brian Green]

So they got their shot at the Sphere over the weekend. They're gonna do a residency there. They did two shows this weekend. They're doing two shows next weekend. They're doing a couple shows in January. Like, four shows in January. And the visuals were stunning, as they always are at Sphere. But. But. And there's a big but.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Oh, I was gonna say. What were they? I'm always curious as to, like, what.

[Brian Green]

It was a lot of that Jimmy Buffett type.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Okay, like.

[Brian Green]

But here. Here's what I have to share with you. And I'll. I'll show this. I can't show this on the stream, but I will show it to Chrissy and you can Google this. Okay, Do Zach Brown, Sphere intro. That's what I want you to do. Intro. Okay. And now watch this. Oh, I want to I want to show you from the beginning all these yahoos talking about this. Let me explain it to you and then I can show it to you afterwards.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Okay?

[Brian Green]

The sphere's dark. All of a sudden a little red door comes at you. There's a boy standing at the red door. And you start hearing knocking. And then a Pink Floyd the Wall song starts playing. And it is goodbye. Did you hear the frightened ones? Did you hear the shooting guns? Did you ever wonder why the gun. And in the cold blue night. It's a song about war. It's a song about being scared. It's a song about waking up to nightmares. Right? It's the beginning of Pink Floyd's the Wall. But the imagery that went along with it was highly, highly focused on nightmare fuel. Big skeletons on fire, demons crawling everywhere. The boy eventually isn't sitting in a bed. He. He sits up, he's got a knife in his hand. There are. There are there. It's bloody, it's fiery, it's weird. Wow. And when this. And then when Zach Brown Band comes on, it starts popping, starts singing the songs. He has a crown on, a red crown that looks like the same crown that the skeleton, AKA Satan, in some people's opinion was wearing. This huge glass crown, red, fiery, on.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Top of Zack had it on.

[Brian Green]

Okay, and this continues for the first few minutes. Now, out of context, it's easy to see why some people who are inclined to get upset about the. This type of stuff, Satanism and worshiping Satan and devil worship and all that, would be able to take that first three minutes and totally take it out of context. And, man, have they really. They have gone wild on social media. You know, Zach Brown sold his soul to the devil. This is a portal to Sphere as a portal to hell. Everyone there has been indoctrinated. Now. They're all Satanists, you know, know, you need to leave now. Don't go. I can't believe Zach Brown. He sold his soul to the devil. While other people who stayed and actually watched the show said, this is a journey that he takes you on from his troubled childhood through to redemption. And it's. That's like the whole. The whole show storyline, right? The storyline and that. It gets much brighter and better and clearer as you go on. But you'd have to be there and watch the whole two and a half hours, whatever it was. Listen, I watched the imagery and I thought, what the fuck does this have to do with Zach Brown band? What? Chicken fried? Is this chicken fried? We're doing chicken fried with the devil. What is this? It does. It is pretty fucking intense for Zach Brown level music. But if he's telling a story, if he's going like all in on the storytelling, then okay, he just got some imagery that was really intense to show in that part of the story. He has notably talked about his very troubled childhood. So maybe that is, you know, know, may. Maybe that's. I. I don't know. May. Maybe this was meant to represent the.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Troubled childhood and then comes to the.

[Brian Green]

Other side, and then he comes through on the other side. It's a story of redemption. It's a journey. It's, you know, things are bright and happy after you have whatever. I think people are too quick. Like when that whole thing happened with Travis Scott and people quickly took to the Internet to talk about how the devil had showed up, shown up and taken people's lives. And they show the imagery behind Travis Scott and the music that was playing and the things that he had done in the past. It is easy to get convinced, in my opinion, that something nefarious is afoot if you just live in that bubble. But Travis Scott is, you know, he's always kind of been a troublemaker. Like, not troublemaker, but he's always kind of been rowdy. That's his whole vibe. That's his whole thing. And by the way, this has been going on in music and movies forever. There's good boys, there's bad boys, there's devils, there's angels. Ozzy Osborne, and then we all loved him when the Osbornes came out, right? The coolest show ever. Cutest family. Love those people. It's just. It's just part of being an artist. It's a tortured artist point of view. And yes, the imagery is intense. I agree. The imagery was intense. When I saw the first videos coming out on Friday night, Saturday night, whatever it was, I was like, wow, that for the Zach Brown Band.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

You don't associate that with that band.

[Brian Green]

You do not. But I will share with you that now, having read through and seen some other videos from the night, it looks like this was just a really intense part of the show. Like it was meant to kick off like that. And God bless if you were on any kind of hallucination.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Well, I was gonna say.

[Brian Green]

It was not a good night for you if your night started like that. It was not a good. You went in expecting Jimmy Buffett's, you know, Cheeseburger in Paradise, and you got the Wall. It's like, those are two totally different things. Listen, the Wall also has some fucked up imagery. In it too. The actual movie is intense. The movie, the stage play, all of it. It's. It's all very intense. Zach is just following in the footsteps of a long line of artists who put on these big productions that take this type of imagery and, you know, kind of bend it to their will, so to speak. So well.

[Rachel]

And that's the.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

And that's the Sphere's thing to have this crazy experience. Mind blowing visual.

[Brian Green]

Yes. The Sphere itself apparently is not doing very well financially.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Well, I mean, it took a lot of money to do all that.

[Brian Green]

Took a lot of money. And apparently the upkeep is very expensive. Yes, apparently they have like the 100 engineers or people work, technical people working 24 hours a day at the Sphere.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Well, Vegas in general is suffering.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Right now too.

[Brian Green]

Well, and I'll tell you why this would be a good thing to get into on Thursday. And I'll. I think I understand a little bit why, because I follow some people that are like in this Vegas insiders, people on their Instagram account, they talk about Vegas. They're in the business of Vegas. And I think I understand why. And it has to do with hedge funds. And the hedge funds are ruining everything and they're ruining Vegas. Why? Because they're making it prohibitively expensive for people and family. You know, it used to be a place where you take your family and you know, the adults would go out gambling and we'll go to the show and we'll do this.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah, they did have a lot of family stuff for a while. Also international.

[Brian Green]

That's right. Canadians are not coming to the United States right now because they fear they won't get out of the country. And that is a legitimate fear. Yeah, it is not like there's some made up thing that their grandmothers are telling them. It's a legitimate fear. You could go to the. Come to the United States and end up on a plane in Honduras or something like that. It's just weird. So. So we'll talk about Vegas and then we'll also talk about the Fyre fest. Billy put on the Phoenix Fest this weekend. His long awaited triumphant return. He put on a really okay party for 150 people. And it was.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I mean, listen, so he started a new thing now.

[Brian Green]

He started the Phoenix out of the. Out of the ashes. And I have some imagery and some stuff to show you. You will not believe it. Listen, listen, I give credit where credit is due. Billy has been through a fucking lot of bullshit and he did not stop. And he managed to put together a Festival. Okay. All right. So you got to give him credit, right?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Gathering.

[Brian Green]

You got to. He put together a gathering safely. I don't. I understand. There were no deaths or injuries. That's good. But it was literally a tiny little island off the coast of Honduras that had no infrastructure whatsoever. And Billy got somebody to give him some money to build a stage in two weeks and put together a pina colada stand and some porta potties. And they had. I forgot who they had. Who, who was it? I don't know. A couple of rap stars and a couple of DJs. And about 150 people, 200 people showed up and they had to. They had to boat them in because Billy. Because there is no infrastructure. There's no roads there. So Billy had to boat them in and he wasn't allowed to like hire any hotels, so people had to get their own hotels. And he got a sponsor last minute for the main stage. That's like some shitty bitcoin company. I mean, honestly, like, I do give credit where credit is due. Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

He's not going away.

[Brian Green]

You know, character is built through adversity and he has had a lot of self inflicted adversity and he managed to put it all together. So give Billy. He's come a long way for. Since asking Brian Green for $500 to show up at his festival in New York.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

They're asking people to pay $1 million million to. To. To come to a festival that never happened.

[Brian Green]

He had like the Phoenix tickets that he sold for like, you know, naming rights to the. Whatever. The boat, the launch. Right, the whatever. It was like the highest price ticket. And I think he sold it for about $71,000, which is a lot of money.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I mean.

[Brian Green]

Right?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Wow.

[Brian Green]

But there are some people that just have way too much time and money on their hands and they probably bought it just to go hang out in Honduras for a weekend. You know what I'm saying? So. And apparently Honduras is the new hotspot. That's what I. I've heard this for like two decades, but now I'm hearing more and more people are going to Honduras. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just telling. I'm just giving you the 411, Chrissy. I don't know if it is or if it isn't, but if anybody wants to send us to Honduras to the next Phoenix festival, then Chrissy and I will report back.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Is that the president that, that.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Trump just pardoned?

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

The actual narco trafficker.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

That was on the run. Yeah, well, the. He.

[Brian Green]

Oh, God.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Well, the reason the bitcoin, all of those people really like him is because he let the. There. There's some kind of. He let the creation of these different, like, independent.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Things happen there.

[Brian Green]

There's a lot. Like in Honduras, you can go hide.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Your money there, basically.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. A lot of people are getting rich. A lot of locals, a lot of natives, they are getting rich because they were taught by a group. A couple of groups of people went down there, they set up shop, they have mining operations there. And they were teaching the locals, they were setting up infrastructure to actually use bitcoin to buy. And then they were putting mining machines in the middle of town and people could go and they could help. They actually did something good with bitcoin besides, you know, sucking up all the energy and being unable to buy anything with it. Honduras actually set up some infrastructure and some Americans and some other people went down there and did that. And Honduran president kind of let it all. He let it fly. He was like, okay, you know, good on him, but then bad on him because he used all that bitcoin to buy cocaine and send it to Canada. And he got busted. And he got busted and he was on the run. Yeah. So we're really concerned about drugs up at the top of our government. I'm sure of it. And all those DEA agents that are now arresting, you know, people who, you know, missed a court appointment for their immigration status. And this is not what we should be. If you really care about drugs, why are you taking DEA and FBI agents and putting them on the case of non criminal immigrant? Like civic. Like civic. Immigration matters, it just. Civil immigration matters, it just doesn't make a lick of sense. But then again, you know, poor Trump, he's just trying to keep his eyes awake. He's just trying to keep his eyes open during the day.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

He's sleeping during most meetings.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I know.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. So am I, to be fair. So there you go.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I was going to say, I probably would be falling asleep, too.

[Brian Green]

I would, too. I. I've seen some of those meetings.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

Show up to. And I'm like, oh, when do I get to fly on the plane? Roughly?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Get me back to the place where's.

[Brian Green]

There a state dinner when I can have some good wine and talk to some internationals. That's what I would like to do. So. All right. Okay. There's all the news that's fit to print. Remember, starting next week, we will have an infomercial on Tuesday. But then Wednesday and Friday will be the days that we release the episodes we stream on Tuesday and Thursday. So if you want to catch the episode early, get involved. Involved. To be a part of it, go to YouTube.com the commercial break. Follow us. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the notification button because then you'll be notified when we go live. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can get involved. You can chat with us. We'll have a big conversation. It'll be a lot of fun. Someone just die. Yeah. And then on Wednesdays and Fridays, you can listen to those episodes on the RSS feed. It's been a good run with four episodes per week, but it is officially over. Yeah. Starting today, actually. Yeah, I'm honestly starting today. I love you. This is the Wednesday episode. You'll get the Friday episode also. And then we'll just go from there. We'll see how it all works out. Two things you want to do. Follow us YouTube.com the commercial break. Follow us at the commercial break on Instagram. Chrissy's personal.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Tcb. Chrissy, which I never even.

[Brian Green]

You're getting followers. Did you notice that?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

No.

[Brian Green]

You're up to like a thousand Brian W. Green on Instagram. That's me. You can go to our website, tcbpodcast.com all the audio, all the video. If you want to dig into the 850 episodes we've got, you feel free to do that on our website. And yeah, that's that chat. If you want to get a hold of us, DM us at the commercial break on Instagram. The phone. We're gonna phase out a little bit here. It's becoming a little bit much. If you've got the number, keep the number. You can text me. If you don't have the number, don't worry about it.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Use it for call ins. Like while we're doing live shows.

[Brian Green]

Yes. If you're texting currently, text. Go ahead. Feel free. But if you want to get a hold of us moving forward at the commercial break on Instagram, that would be the best place for you to get a hold of us. Okay. What else?

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I think that's all for now.

[Brian Green]

TCB 2.0 coming at you. Effective immediately.

[Rachel]

Yeah, Bing.

[Brian Green]

Chrissy and I will be here, just not as often. Okay.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

More concentrated. What?

[Brian Green]

Concentrated. It's like OJ from concentrate. That's all I can do for now.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

I love you.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

I love you.

[Brian Green]

Best to you.

[Kristen Joy Hold]

Best to you.

[Brian Green]

Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy. And I will say we do say and we must say goodbye.

[Rachel]

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[Brian Green]

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