The Boy George Bachelor Party!

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Commercial Break — "The Boy George Bachelor Party!"

Host: Bryan Green & Krissy Hoadley
Episode Date: February 25, 2026
Episode Theme: A comedic deep dive into Bryan’s brother’s bachelor party in Maggie Valley, NC, casino adventures, Boy George encounters (or not), and musings on aging, pop culture, and the American experience—all delivered in the show’s signature loose, irreverent style.

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Overview

In this lively episode, Bryan and Krissy meander through tales of a very un-stereotypical bachelor party in rural North Carolina, spinning off into casino people-watching, run-ins with Boy George superfans, questionable celebrity restaurants, and philosophical takes on midlife, nostalgia, and 80s pop culture. Along the way, they lampoon everything from strip club cliches and decrepit cover bands to reality TV self-destruction and the changing face of American gambling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bachelor Party in Maggie Valley (00:10–09:21)

• Aging Bachelor Energy:
  Bryan explains the anti-climactic, "no-dancing-girls" vibe of his brother’s bachelor party; the group is too old for wild antics and is instead excited about elk sightings.
  • [00:30] "And to a bunch of old guys, that was just as exciting as seeing tits. I mean, we're of a certain age, we've seen tits." — Bryan
• Nostalgia-fueled Reunions:
  The party turns into a time-machine trip for high school friends, reliving old stories and band memories (especially about their short-lived band “33P”).
  • [07:47] "We regaled ourselves with stories about the old days... It was like everybody will have those moments as you get older in life." — Bryan

2. Harrah’s Cherokee Casino: Small-Town Vegas (09:21–18:56)

• Casino Impressions:
  Harrah’s rises “like a phoenix from the ashes” in Maggie Valley and hosts the World Series of Poker and a Boy George concert, described as the “Walmart of casinos”—a hodgepodge compared hilariously to the Cheesecake Factory.
  • [12:06] “No offense to anybody involved in Harrah's, it is the Walmart of casinos. That's the best way to explain it.” — Bryan
  • [13:55] “They’re the Cheesecake Factory.” — Chrissy
• Observing Cover Bands:
  Bryan and his old bandmate Mike muse about aging rockers in spandex playing wedding covers—contemplating whether the dream of musical glory just morphs with age.
  • [16:19] “Maybe the dream never really goes away. Maybe it just comes back in a different form.” — Bryan

3. Guy Fieri’s Restaurant & Bachelor Party Disappointments (18:56–25:11)

• Dining at Flavortown:
  The group opts for Guy Fieri’s restaurant after failed attempts at fancier options. The experience is underwhelming: slow service, cheesy Guy Fieri TV loops, and questionable menu items like “lobster popsicles.”
  • [21:59] *"If you call something a popsicle, I don't want it. Lamb popsicle, Lobster popsicle…" — Bryan
  • [23:59] "It shows up and I'm telling you what, Chrissy, I was so fucking hungry, I could have eaten my own hand. It was not good. It was not fucking good." — Bryan
  • [24:41] "I'd give it one and a half willies out of five." — Bryan

4. People-Watching & Boy George Encounter(?) (27:34–33:15)

• Casino Characters:
  The best entertainment comes from observing "slices of Americana"—tweakers, blackjack drama, and the unique mix that casinos attract.
  • [38:27] "I guess they don't care. I mean, you know, there's enough security and there's a camera—seven cameras on the table. But this is like the slice of Americana." — Bryan
• Boy George Doppelgänger:
  After dinner, the group meets what they think is Boy George—only to discover it’s an uncanny superfan in full Karma Chameleon attire with a thick Southern accent.
  • [30:00] "So after a few seconds... I go, excuse me, are you Boy George? And this is what came out of his mouth: ‘No, but I sure do look like him, don't I?’" — Bryan
  • Highlights on Boy George’s legacy, impersonator stories, and 80s nostalgia.

5. Poker Tournaments & Vegas in Decline (33:15–41:46)

• Poker Scenes:
  Detailed description of World Series of Poker regional tour, high-roller habits, and how long players grind at those tables.
  • [39:02] "Hundreds of tables, all their own little universe… girls in bright green vests massaging certain players." — Bryan
• Vegas Rant:
  Bryan rails against Vegas’s new era of nickel-and-diming visitors and its attempt to become like Disney for gamblers, suggesting Harrah’s and similar regional casinos are taking up the slack.
  • [34:26] "Parking is no longer free… they're pricing the middle-tier consumer out of it so that they can get the high rollers." — Bryan

6. Aging, Gym Avoidance & Lucid Dreaming (04:03–06:02; 41:54–44:49)

• Gym Antics:
  Bryan jokes about dodging his gym's persistent trainers and redefines success as simply showing up, not striving for fitness goals.
  • [04:31] "My personal fitness assessment is just to show up at the gym. That is my personal goal for 2026." — Bryan
• Lucid Dreaming & Pet Parenting:
  In a lighter segment, Krissy shares a dream about Bryan giving away his dog, Blue, and discusses the effort of pets vs. kids.
  • [43:34] "Maybe in an alternate universe. Blue. I had to get rid of Blue." — Bryan

7. Pop Culture, Reality TV, and Social Commentary (46:24–53:15)

• Love Is Blind Drama:
  Both hosts admit to swearing off the show but can't avoid hearing about its controversies, reflecting on online obsession and public shaming.
  • [48:47] "Who wants to be put through that? ...your life is completely dissected by everybody." — Bryan
• “Bread & Circus” Philosophy:
  Bryan references the ancient idea that a public distracted with spectacle ignores real issues—linking it to reality TV and even The Commercial Break podcast.
  • [49:53] "Give them bread and circus means give them something else to digest while we’re over here robbing the bank, essentially." — Bryan
• Epstein, Royals, and Accountability:
  Candid takes on Prince Andrew’s arrest and wider implications of wealth and impunity—with calls for justice for elites.
  • [51:32] "That is a shocking revelation... that is the abuse of power." — Bryan

8. Political Divides & Podcast Recommendation (53:55–55:10)

• Family & Partisan Divide:
  Bryan endorses a podcast (“The Necessary Conversation”) where children grill their parents about Trump support, illuminating generational and ideological divides.
  • [53:57] "It will be studied, I guarantee, for decades to come. Because it's a family torn apart." — Bryan

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Realities of Aging Out of Party Culture:
  [00:30] Bryan: "We saw some elk. And to a bunch of old guys, that was just as exciting as seeing tits."
• On Boy George’s Enduring Appeal:
  [30:00] Bryan: "Excuse me, are you Boy George? ‘No, but I sure do look like him, don't I?’"
• On Guy Fieri’s Restaurant:
  [21:59] Bryan: "If you call something a popsicle, I don't want it… No, I don't want anything that I'm supposed to eat with protein in it to be called fucking popsicle."
• On Small-Town Casinos:
  [12:06] Bryan: "It is the Walmart of casinos."
• On American Entertainment:
  [38:27] Bryan: "This is like the slice of Americana. Everyone's doing their own thing. There is no better entertainment, in my opinion."
• On Gym Motivation:
  [04:31] Bryan: "My personal fitness assessment is just to show up at the gym."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:10–09:21]: Bachelor party stories & nostalgia
• [09:21–18:56]: Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, cover bands, and the chaos of regional Vegas
• [18:56–25:11]: Guy Fieri’s restaurant critique
• [27:34–33:15]: Meeting a Boy George doppelgänger and reflections on pop fandom
• [33:15–41:46]: Gambling, poker tournament culture, and Vegas changes
• [41:54–44:49]: Gym dodging, lucid dreaming, and pet stories
• [46:24–53:15]: Reality TV, social commentary, and bread & circus parallels
• [53:55–55:10]: Podcast recommendation on family political rifts

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Tone & Style

True to form, this episode blends sharp, self-deprecating humor with sincere observations and rampant tangents. Bryan and Krissy’s long-standing friendship shines, and the episode feels like hanging out at the back table of a dive bar with two riotously funny friends. Personal anecdotes, pop culture asides, and the slow-motion train wreck of aging bachelorhood are all given equal comedic and thoughtful treatment.

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For New Listeners

If you haven’t heard this episode, expect improvised comedy meets modern Americana: a hilarious, rambling, and only slightly filtered conversation about life, nostalgia, weird American institutions, and why eating at Flavortown might not always pay off. You’ll come for the Boy George anecdotes, but you’ll stay for the rants about donkey sauce, the perils of gym memberships, and the evolving meaning of a “wild” night out.

Transcript

[Brian Green]

On this episode of the commercial break, I gotta skip a lot of it because of course you don't. You don't kiss and tell at a bachelor party, right? But there wasn't any, like, dancing girls or anything like that. We're all too old for that bullshit. And plus, in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, the options are limited. Yes, let's put it that way.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You settled for seeing some elk?

[Brian Green]

Yes, we saw some el. And to a bunch of old guys, that was just as exciting as seeing tits. I mean, we're of a certain age, we've seen tits. You know what I'm saying? It's like. And the groom doesn't want it, we don't want it. And then just to have some strange girl and probably a guy sitting outside in a car, the, you know, the security guard or whatever, it's just a weird. It wasn't that kind of party, let's put it that way. Which is fine with me because I've. I've been to. I've seen enough dancing girls in my life. I've dated enough dancing girls in my life.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, you have.

[Brian Green]

I'm over it. The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chrissy.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

And happy birthday to you, Chrissy.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Thank you.

[Brian Green]

We didn't get a chance to say happy birthday because we didn't. We didn't have a chance to jump in the studio last week, but happy birthday.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Brian Green]

What is he, 29 now?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. Holding.

[Brian Green]

Holding steady.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, thank you.

[Brian Green]

Stay on target. You don't look a day over 30. Chrissy. Don't look a day over 30. How do you keep that magnificent skin and that taut body of yours?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Tell the world lots of oils and lotions and potions.

[Brian Green]

Does Jeff help you with the oils?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

He does sometimes get into it, yeah.

[Brian Green]

Hey,

[Chrissy Hoadley]

lotions and potions and oils.

[Brian Green]

I do love me some crazy Oli.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, my God, that guy.

[Brian Green]

Guy. What was that guy's name? I can't remember. After all those years, what was his name? No, what was his name? Hey, it's me from Podcast Universe. What was his name?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I can't remember it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, all right, we'll. We'll remember. I'll go back to episode three and figure.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, I think that's when he made an appearance.

[Brian Green]

First, First. First season for sure. Anyway, thanks for joining us in the streaming Universe and the podcast universe. Hey, Candle Cane. Candle Cane's always in there.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, he is.

[Brian Green]

He or she? We don't know. We don't know. Is it Candle? Is it he or she? Or they? Or them? I don't know. I don't want to be offensive. So, anyway, happy birthday to you. Congratulations on yet another. You know, I got the world's kindest compliment today. I was in the Starbucks meeting my Starbucks boyfriend, of course, as I do. Okay, I have a boyfriend. His name is Lance, and I love him and we love each other. In South Georgia, Sean is in the house. Let me stop for a second and say I did read that. It was South Georgia Sean's birthday. Sean, I'm sorry. He was on the phone. I didn't get back to him because I had a long weekend. It was his birthday also. I don't know when it was sometime last week, but happy birthday, South Georgia Sean. I was in the Starbucks today doing my coffee boyfriend date, as I do, and one of the girls said it was her birthday last week. And I said, oh, well, congratulations. She said, I turned 35. I said, that's wonderful. And she goes, I've never asked. How old are you? And I go, oh, you. How old do you think I am? She goes, my age, 35, 36. I was like, yeah, that's it. There you go. Done. It's the best compliment I could receive all day.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Drop. All right, I'm out. Thank you.

[Brian Green]

It really put me in a good fucking mood this morning. I was like, hottie, doody, Hot dog.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's that tan skin.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. No, no, no. Yeah, it's that tan skin. It's gonna make me look 80 when I'm 55, but that's okay. Stay on target. Yes, Stay on target.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

We need to catch up with your gym membership, too.

[Brian Green]

Oh, my gym membership. I've been to the gym a few times, and they continue to bug me, and it's really starting to irritate the piss out of me, if I'm being honest. What's that still? Yeah, they don't fucking let it go. I mean, I'll talk about it in a few minutes, but the guy, he just doesn't. He just doesn't leave it alone. He doesn't leave it alone because I've now either avoided or ghosted him on three separate appointments, and now I think he sees it as a personal affront

[Chrissy Hoadley]

and he wants, like, a challenge.

[Brian Green]

It's a challenge to try and get a personal fitness assessment with Brian, but my personal fitness assessment is just to show up at the gym. That is my personal goal for 2026. I am winning by simply stepping in, by checking in. I have accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish. I have no goals. I don't want to add a pound of strength. I don't want to make my bicep. I don't care. I just don't want to look like an old, flabby man. That's it. That's all I want to do.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

There you go.

[Brian Green]

That's assessment. Tighten and tone it just a little bit. I have no. I have flabby arm. You see me on those machines. I should be wearing long sleeves and long pants because you see me on those machines. I'm just a flab master. I'm like. My arms are all like Popeye. I look like Popeye lost all his gumption.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Maybe need some spinach.

[Brian Green]

Maybe I do need some spinach. Listen, I saw the most interesting video the other day that. That said the. It. It hypothesized, and then it backed that up with fact that the creators of the cartoon Popeye used spinach as a metaphorical. As a metaphor. Metaphorically. Meth. What, that spinach was meth? Yes, because he was in the. He was what? He was a navyman, right? He was in the Navy.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yep.

[Brian Green]

Okay. That's what Popeye had, that big tattoo of that anchor. He was in the Navy. And this cartoon was. Was written. We all remember Popeye and, you know, olive oil and Bluto and all that other stuff.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

They were doing a bunch of math in the Navy.

[Brian Green]

They were giving meth to the. To the navymen, to the sailors, and to the pilots as far back as World War I. And in World War II, the Japanese. It was like their secret weapon. They would dope those kamikaze pilots up so fucking much and then tell them to go fly the plane right into the aircraft carriers. So this is not a secret. It is well documented as the Germans were doing and the Americans were doing it too. It's just not as well documented. But it is documented that they were doing this. And so I believe that Popeye is a World War I character. I think he was around, like, back in the 30s or 40s, but there's this whole video. I get fucking caught up in these fucking videos. Yes, you do fucking cares. I'm watching how Popeye might have been taking meth instead of spinach, and I'm so fascinated by it. It's information that is completely fucking useless, as if there's nothing better to do with my time than to Figure out whether Popeye Spinach was a metaphor for fucking meth.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It is interesting though.

[Brian Green]

It is interesting. I'll tell you what is a metaphor for meth. Harrah's Cherokee Casino is a metaphor for meth. That's what it is. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Had my brother's bachelor party this weekend and it was a fascinating series of events, most of which I can't get into.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I'm very excited about hearing some of these stories.

[Brian Green]

It is a bunch of high school friends that had a moment in the sun. There was a hot tub outside. And at one moment, at one moment in time, I firmly believe we were inside the movie Hot Tub Time Machine.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Hot Tub Time Machine that we had

[Brian Green]

all traveled back to 16 year old selves. And we were in this. We were having a moment in. A moment in the sun.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's fun.

[Brian Green]

We regaled ourselves with stories about the old days. How we used to do this, how we used to do that, how we used to make out with this girl, how that guy did this and how those kids did that, right? It was like everybody I think, will have those moments as you get older in life when you get taken back to a moment. The same music, the same substances, the same amount of inebriation, the same people are trying, the same people.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Had a former member of 33P there

[Brian Green]

with 33P, Mike Skersky, which I'll give him a shout out. We called him Scooter. Scooter was his name. Scooter was a phenomenal drum drummer and he was our drummer in 33p. So Mike and I spent hours going back over all of the moments which were like three, about 33 penis. And it was fun, it was good to know and so. But I got to skip a lot of it because of course you don't, you don't kiss and tell, right? But there wasn't any like dancing girls or anything like that. We're all too old for that bullshit. And plus, in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, the options are limited, let's put it that way.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You settled for seeing some elk?

[Brian Green]

Yes, we saw some elk. And, and to a bunch of old guys, that was just as exciting as seeing tits. I mean, we're of a certain age, we've seen tits, you know what I'm saying? It's like. And the groom doesn't want it, we don't want it. And then just to have some strange girl and probably a guy sitting outside in the car, you know, the security guard or whatever, it's just A weird. It wasn't that kind of party, let's put it that way. Which is fine with me because I'm. I've been to. I've seen enough dancing girls in my life. I've dated enough dancing girls.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, you have.

[Brian Green]

I'm over it.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, it was just a big get together.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Strippers were never really my thing anyway. Unless I was dating them. But it wasn't really my thing. Like. Anyway, whatever cares. Okay, so we go to Harrah's Cherokee Casino in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, which is a huge facility that rises up out of the ground in the valley of a mountain. It is unbelievable. There is nothing anywhere. And then all of this. You were riding on these mountain roads that are crazy windy, twisty, turny. And then all of a sudden, boom, this building rises out of. Yeah, it's like a phoenix rising from the ashes. It is amazing. It is huge. Not as big as the Vegas casinos, but not small by any stretch of the imagination. It's a really large facility and it was packed. I'll explain why. World Series of Poker. Oh, and Boy George was playing live at Harris Cherokee Casino. That's right. Unbelievable. He's on the casino circuit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

God bless. And as. As. And in the middle of dinner. Okay, let me tell you. So we get to. I'm driving. You know, I'm, I'm not. I don't usually. At least not at this part of my life. I, I'll get back to it in my 60s or 70s. I don't partake in a lot of substances. So I said, hey guys, I'll. I'll drive. That'll be my contribution to the group. I'll drive as many as I can get in. There was about 10 of us. Five of us get in my car. I drive down these crazy roads. Thank God I wasn't drinking because this was an insane road. To drive up and down those mountain

[Chrissy Hoadley]

roads can be crazy.

[Brian Green]

They were. It was intense. And had you not really been paying attention, I could see how you could get in trouble real quick.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And gosh, you guys were going to be. I mean, there was all that blizzard and storm stuff going on, but I guess it didn't reach there.

[Brian Green]

Not, not when we were there. Might have snowed up there. It was snowing actually when I left on Sunday morning, but it was snowing. It wasn't like sticking on the ground, it was just the snow. Anyway, so we get to Harrah's dinner at 9 o'. Clock. We get there at about 7:30. This is on Saturday night, Friday night, everyone hit it really fudgeing hard. I mean really fucking hard on that

[Chrissy Hoadley]

first night when you're all back together again.

[Brian Green]

Absolutely. You just. Everyone's going golfing at 11, but no one seems to understand that there's a clock and it keeps moving and no matter what you do, you're going to have to show up. And these guys are like, they're hell bent on going golfing. Me, I'm a take it or leave it kind of guy. If I'm hungover and I don't want to golf, I don't go golf. Some people in the group, it doesn't matter how hungover they are, they want to go golf.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

They're making it.

[Brian Green]

It's like the cure for hangover. But there's nothing about being out in the cold, wet, damp, in middle of nowhere for four and a half fucking hours, driving on a golf cart that makes it even colder than it already is. That seems interesting to me when I'm hungry. Yeah.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And you guys had a big group too. 10, 10 of a lot of people to get through.

[Brian Green]

Three of us stayed back at that.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Right, Okay.

[Brian Green]

I stayed in the wharves. I was good with that.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

In the hot.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And I wasn't even hungover, but I wasn't planning on golfing anyway, so, anyway, okay, so we get to Harris, 9 o', clock, dinner. We leave at 7. We get there at 7:30. So we have an hour and a half to kill Harrah's Cherokee Casino. No offense to anybody involved in Harrah's, it is the Walmart of casinos. That's the best way to explain it. It is the everyman every day super discount.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Go get your gambling on.

[Brian Green]

Go get your gambling on. No matter your fit or fashion, you're welcome at Harrah's. And man, does it take all kinds. I will explain to you.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's why they're making so much money.

[Brian Green]

They are killing it. It was absolutely packed. They have a 12 story, 10 story, 12 story parking deck. I had to park on the very top.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh my God.

[Brian Green]

On the very top. That's where I had to park. Oh.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Saturday night at the casino.

[Brian Green]

Saturday night at Harris Boy George in the World Series of Poker. They're both going on there, right? Okay, so we get there, we park, we walk seven miles to go to find the casino. We had to go through the hotel and through the food court and the restaurant and the retail district and all this. And we get there and we go to the middle bar. The middle bar is exactly what it sounds like middle of the casino. There it is. Huge round bar. And when I say huge, I mean huge. I showed Chrissy pictures of it.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It did look huge.

[Brian Green]

It's huge. It's just a big circle. And in the middle of the circle, about 15ft in the air, is a stage.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I can't believe that part I was surprised at.

[Brian Green]

Unbelievable, right? Okay, now there's no vibe at Harrah's Cherokee Casino. There are many vibes. There are Chinese dragons hanging from the ceiling. There are.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It was just Lunar New Year.

[Brian Green]

Lunar New Year. There are like lit up Rubik's Cubes and Tetrises on the stage. There are. There's like an old pirate theme in the background. It's all a mishmash of. Of shit, I guess. Whatever you want. They.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, they're the Cheesecake Factory.

[Brian Green]

The Cheesecake Factory. That's it. Better than the Walmart or the Cheesecake Factory. A big, large menu. Whatever you want. The casino is huge. The bar is big, the stage is large. And as we get there, there is a group of guys that are setting up, getting ready to play. And I got to tell you, if they. If any of them were under the age of 60, I would have been surprised. And I'm sitting there talking to Scooter and we are again regaling about the old days of 33 penis.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And how wondering if you can sit

[Brian Green]

in wonder, wonder wondering if we could do it one more time, right? I mean, there's some like, honest talk, like, I think some earnest talk organically about could we do it one more time? Could we mount one more comeback, one more show. Could we all get together, we get the old guys together, play the old songs. You know, Mike was saying these songs were good. They were like, immature a little bit, but they were good. Like the. We just didn't have enough time to. To really, you know, polish them. Yeah, and I thought you could polish a piece of shit all day long. It's still going to be a piece of shit. I'm saying. I mean, listen, okay, maybe we could.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You could do a farewell tour. Because you never really did a first farewell tour.

[Brian Green]

We never did a tour. Yeah, it's hard to do a farewell tour. When you ever did a tour, it would be the. It would be the inaugural and the farewell tour at the same time. Anyway, we're talking about this and we're watching these guys get set up on there. And these guys are dressed like spandex, long hair. I mean, these are straight out of the 80s. And Mike is looking at Me. And he's like, these guys think about this. They are probably retired. They come up here every fucking Saturday night and they play these cover tunes, and they probably each get, you know, 600 bucks, 500. 600 bucks. And he goes, would once you do that? And I was like, yeah, I guess. Yeah. Look, they have a crowd. There are people that love. There are people that love them. Obviously, they're doing what they love. A huge crowd playing the same fucking tunes you play at a wedding, you know, don't stop. I will find her love inside her. You know, the same fucking shitty tunes everyone plays. You know, the Foreigner and Def Leppard and Van Halen and all that shit. This kind of stuff that people love to rock, dude. And these guys were doing it, and they were doing it terribly, but they were doing it. And I said to myself, you're right, Mike. That is the dream. Like, is the. The dream is. Maybe the dream never really goes away. Maybe it just comes back in a different form.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

True.

[Brian Green]

Maybe 33 penis wasn't meant to be the Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains of its time. Obviously it wasn't. We didn't. We played one show. Two shows.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

He's so close.

[Brian Green]

Mike thinks we played three shows, but I say two shows. We were so close. If anybody had attended those shows, I think we really could have taken off. If we had an audience, I think we could have taken off. He says. He says, but look at this. I mean, these guys are doing what they want to do, and they're probably just like us when they were kids. And I was like, yeah, minus the talent, we. Minus the ability to actually play our instruments. We could be these guys. And I thought to myself, yeah, maybe. Maybe this is it. Maybe you go down to the Villages and you play every Friday and Saturday night, and you get your 500 bucks and there's your dream. It's just a different form.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. Doing what you love.

[Brian Green]

That's it.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Meeting people, staying social.

[Brian Green]

Staying social.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Making a little extra cash and getting

[Brian Green]

the gratitude and appreciation for the. For the art that you love to do. You know, you're gonna have to play somebody else's songs, but that's it. Anyway, these guys started playing. They were terrible, but whatever.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I mean, openers for Boy George or.

[Brian Green]

No, they were. This was just.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, Boy George was probably in the theater.

[Brian Green]

Boy George was in the theater.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I forgot they've got those theaters.

[Brian Green]

So everyone is like, we all meet at the Middle Bar. And everyone is kind of. They're all. Everyone's a little distracted. Let's Put it that way. They're distractible. How's that? That's a better word. To put it. Everyone's kind of doing their own things again.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Casinos are just like, you know, sensory overload.

[Brian Green]

Bright lights, big city, lot of people, a lot of dinging machines. A lot of people yelling and screaming because they're making money and everyone wants to go gamble. So everyone's kind of off in their own little world, you know, little pairs doing whatever. And me and Mike are sitting there at the bar waiting for the. Patiently waiting for our appointment at guess whose restaurant.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, God.

[Brian Green]

Guy Fieri.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I just guess that. Oh, my God.

[Brian Green]

Guy fucking Fieri. Listen, there are not a lot of options that. That you or I would pick. Yeah, there is Gordon Ramsay's food hall, which is exactly what you expect it to be. Gordon Ramsay's food hall. It's like, you know, burgers and fries, fish and chips, pizza. Big, big Gordon Ramsay face right there. It's this huge food hall. Gordon Ramsay's face. 10ft tall right there.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Well, that adds a little class to it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, you got to class up the joint when you're at Harrods, but, you know, it's a food hall, so we're not going to go eat there. Ruth Chris Steakhouse, I would think is probably the best option that is available. Ramsay. They also have Ramsays, which is a. Ramsays. Yeah. You put an A at the end of his name and all of a sudden it's fancy. I don't know how, but there's Ramsays. But, you know, it's hard to get a reservation on a Saturday night. And I don't think. I don't know if everybody wanted Ramsays ruse. Chris was the original choice, but again, they couldn't accommodate us at a time when we wanted. Which was 7 o' clock initially, but got pushed back to 9 o', clock, I think because of what happened on Friday night.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, exactly.

[Brian Green]

Everyone wanted to go to dinner early. Everyone wanted to get a nap in between golf and dinner.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You've got to.

[Brian Green]

Of course.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

That's what I did. Wr. That's what I did. While they were golfing, I went and took a nap. And I wasn't even drinking and I needed a nap. So we go to Guy Fieri's restaurant. This huge. I mean, the ceilings are 40 foot tall. It's huge. It's open. There is no descript style going on at all. There's. It's nothing. It's modern, minimalist. Right. Tables scattered throughout.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I would think it would be some kind of like diners drive ins kind of theme.

[Brian Green]

You would think they would give it some kind of fucking theme. But the only theme that was available were the 16 televisions inside of the restaurant that were playing Guy Fieri's television shows. Diners Drive Ins and Dives, Triple D guys, grocery games. And then a guy's Fantastic America or whatever it's called. It's just on. This is on a loop. They're playing clips of the show. It was so weird. And listen, we all talked about it. Like, if you got to watch a television show, Triple D is not the worst thing that you could watch.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's not. It's. It's mindless.

[Brian Green]

It's mindless entertainment. He's. He's entertaining enough to, to bounce it along. He always interrupts the chefs. He never lets them cook. He never lets. Lets anybody do anything. He's the guy, he has to tell you what's in it. But you know, the chef will be making something and it'll be like half a spoon of garlic. And the chef will be like, yeah, how did you know that? You know, because you already got the recipe. So he keeps on interrupting. Whatever. Anyway, you can watch it. It's a mindless entertainment. Guy Fieri had a series of burger joints before he joined Food Network.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, he did?

[Brian Green]

Yes. And apparently they were well liked by it on the West Coast. And then I think he had one in New York. But he had like four of these restaurants, Guys, big burgers or something like that, and people liked them. If you go back and you read those reviews, if you look at any early magazine articles or articles about Guy Fieri, people really liked those burgers. They thought they were good. Smash burgers. They thought they were really good.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You like a good smash burger?

[Brian Green]

I do too. So what do we have on the menu? We got smash burgers. That's what we got. Smash burgers, Hot chicken, fried chicken and a couple knickknacks, right? But then it takes about 5, 10 minutes for the waiter to come up. That's not good. The waiter. It takes about another 10 or 15 minutes for the waiter to get the drinks to the table. That's not great. It takes about another five, ten minutes for him to get an appetizer order. And we. And somebody orders lobster popsicles, Fried lobster popsicles. And if you call something a popsicle, I don't want it. Lamb popsicle, Lobster popsicle. No, I don't want anything that I'm supposed to eat with protein in it to be called fucking popsicle.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I agree.

[Brian Green]

That's 1992 bullshit. Leave it alone. But anyways, Guy Fieri's what are we going to do? And then there's like these.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

What are we going to do?

[Brian Green]

And what are we going to do? Sky Fieri's here.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Lobster pop.

[Brian Green]

Lobster pops. Okay, get the lobster.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Lobster on a stick.

[Brian Green]

Yes. And then Guy's amazing cheesy pretzel bites or something like that. Those lobster popsicles show up. I didn't have one. Everyone said they were good, but they came in like a basket full of fries on these sticks. It just looked terrible. I mean, it just looked terrible. It didn't look appetizing to me. The slop that came out with the pretzel bites. I don't even know how to explain it. It was drowning in some kind of liquid cheese with bacon and Guy's donkey sauce all over it. It's fucking donkey sauce on everything.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Is that his thing?

[Brian Green]

That's his thing, the donkey sauce, which is essentially garlic aioli, which is terrible. Yeah, yeah. Don't put that on anything. I'm eating, please. I don't like garlic aioli. The mayonnaise and garlic together, it's just not. It's not for me.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

It's too overpowering.

[Brian Green]

It's way overpowering. I want a burger to taste like a burger. Not like a garlic mayonnaise, like a donkey donkey sauce. I don't want any donkey punch sauce on my thing, okay? So these cheese bites were beyond description. I had one and I was like, wow, that. That.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's all I need.

[Brian Green]

That's all I needed. But I was optimistic because I ordered Guy's famous Smash Mac and cheeseburger.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, you want Mac and cheeseburger?

[Brian Green]

Double patty, Mac and double Smash burger, Mac and cheese, bacon, all on the same bun. Yes. And then flot or lopped or whatever they call it. Lettuce, onion, tomato, pickle, plot. I don't know what they call it. And then, guys, donkey sauce, right? So I say to the guy, I say, hey, listen, give me everything that is meat and cheese and everything else. Leave off of it, right? Bacon, cheese, Mac and cheese. That's it. That's all I want. And the guy says, okay. And a lot of other people order this because it's like the thing that he's known for.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Sure. It's his famous thing.

[Brian Green]

It shows up and I'm telling you what, Chrissy, I was so fucking hungry, I could have eaten my own hand. It was not good. It was not fucking good. I was so disappointed.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. Because especially when you're Hungry, too. And this is supposed to be his famous thing.

[Brian Green]

This is his famous thing. It's a fucking smash burger. You take a fucking griddle, you take a fucking spatula, and you smash it. That's it. That's all you do. You put a bunch of cheese on it. Mac and cheese could have been Mac and cheese out of a box. And that's all you had to do. Two strips of bacon. Done. I would have loved it. This wasn't it. And plus, I asked for no donkey sauce. I got extra donkey sauce. And I'm telling you what, that donkey sauce was like a donkey punch to my mouth. It was like.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, I know. I've had, like, fries with that cover all over it, and it's too much.

[Brian Green]

Guy Fieri's not the best review. No, I. I'd give it one and a half willies out of five. One and a half willies out of 5. That's what I give it. I wish it was. I really wished it was better, but it just didn't turn out to be good. And. I don't know.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Well, you got it. You were at a casino. You gambled, you lost.

[Brian Green]

We took our chances. We rolled the dice on Guy Fieri's and we lost. But the most entertaining part of dinner did not happen in the restaurant. It happened outside the restaurant. Everybody went and smoked. I had my one cigarette a year.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Green]

At the bachelor party. Yeah. And I. I just get so excited about that one cigarette a year, and it's a disappointment every time. Tastes like I'm chewing on a cigar. Do you know what I'm saying?

[Rachel]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

It was not good. I don't know. I. I feel like I. I get so excited about having a cigarette, but then it never works out in my favor. Do you understand what I'm saying?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I do. Because we both used to be smokers.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And we've both quit now. And ever since then, which I've quit now, I guess, like 10 years.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. 10 years I've been. I've no cigarettes.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. And so I. I did the same thing for a little while where I was like, oh, I'll just have a cigarette. And every time. It just wasn't. It's gross. It's gross.

[Brian Green]

It's gross.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

So I've stopped.

[Brian Green]

I'm just done. Okay. Well, I'd still do it once a year and whatever. I'd rather smoke a cigarette than a cigar, if I'm being honest, because cigar is overpowering, Even though I do have a cigar every once in a while. Okay. So we all go outside to smoke a cigarette, and what we found out there was the most entertaining part of the entire night. Let's take a break, and when we get back, I'll tell you all about it. Oh, yeah, we got to give you the cliffhanger because we're already an hour into the episode because Brian can't shut his mouth. Oh, and there's Blue. Blue's here for you. Episode number. Out of 967 episodes, I had a

[Chrissy Hoadley]

900 about Blue last night. I'll have to to tell you about it after the break.

[Brian Green]

Okay, we'll talk about it after the break. We'll be back in two and two.

[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 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 212-4333, TCB. 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 going to go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors, and then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break.

[Brian Green]

Okay, so we get to the. So. So we go outside, we go to smoke a cigarette, and who walks up on us? Chrissy?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Guy Fieri?

[Brian Green]

No, I know.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Boy George.

[Brian Green]

Boy George. What? I wish. I wish that I was kidding and. Let me explain. I'll walk it through a little bit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

Boy George had just gotten done with the concert, and we noticed that there were a lot of Boy George fans dressed in their 80s regalia with their T shirts, and some of them even had, like, the makeup and the hair and the whole. You know, they were all. They were all decked out. They were very excited about Boy George. You have to be a really big Boy George fan to make it to Harris Cherokee Casino and Maggie Valley to see Boy George. But this might be your only chance to ever see Boy George, so who knows? I must say this. Not only was the World Series of Poker going on, not only was Boy George concert going on, but then they had some kind of Dungeons and Dragon tournament, like, unofficial tournament going on in the lobbies. They had these large groups of a

[Chrissy Hoadley]

lot of different types of people.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And they were like, they were. Some of them had coup d' etat trays, like they had brought themselves cut up vegetables. It was really weird. Anyway, whatever. Okay, so out walks Coup d't. The coup d't tray. Out walks what I can only describe as Boy George.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's incredible. Full long hair with the braids.

[Brian Green]

Long hair colored braids. The hat, the makeup, the jacket, the big, you know, Technicolor jacket. Right. Straight out of Karma Chameleon.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Karma.

[Brian Green]

Karma Chameleon video. Yes.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Nice. That's fun.

[Brian Green]

I'm like, holy shit, this is Boy George. He's standing right where that television is right there. And I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, it's Boy George. So after a few seconds of trying to wrap my head around exactly what's going on, double taking and triple taking in quadruple taking. Why would Boy George be standing outside in the valet area of Harrah's Cherokee Casino? I go, excuse me, are you Boy George and this is what came out of his mouth? No, but I sure do look like him, don't I? And I was like, fucking, hey, you. Are you an impersonator? Not an impersonator. Just a real big fan. Real big fan of Boy George. Okay, Chrissy, you could have fucking fooled me. I mean, I'm no Boy George expert, right? I haven't.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Right.

[Brian Green]

But he's not on my playlist.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You know what he looks like.

[Brian Green]

I know what he looks like because my mom was a huge fan of his. Like every other mother in the world. They grew up in the 80s, right? It was love. Boy George and all that. Yeah. You know, Culture Club and all that other stuff. This guy was like a spitting image of Boy George. And if he didn't open his mouth, you would have never known the difference. He looked short. He had everything about him look like Boy George. He was just a guy who dressed up like Boy George to go see Boy George.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Boy George. But he was. That was his disguise, you know, I,

[Brian Green]

I, I don't know.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

He didn't want to be bothered.

[Brian Green]

We started talking like he ended up being chatty. And so I. And he started talking about how much the Boy George had affected the music culture in the 80s and blah, blah, blah. None of it untrue. None of it really true. Like, he was a big influence on. He was certainly one of the first video stars, let's put it that way. And he had a few big hits, right?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

You know, what's that song? Do you really want to hurt me? Yeah. And then comma, comma, comma, comma, comma, comedian. Okay? Those two songs, you come and go. You come and go. And then. I don't know any other songs. Yeah, but those two songs, okay, they were on rotation, no doubt about it. Lot, A lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of times. But this guy was a spitting image of Boy George. And what came out of his mouth was just the only distinguishing factor. It did not match what I was seeing. It was hard to believe because I expected that fucking British accent to come out of his mouth, and I expected his voice to be a little higher and of no offense to anybody in the crowd, a little bit of a lisp, right? You've all heard Boy George talk, and that's not what came out. It was full redneck accent, spotlight.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's a hilarious.

[Brian Green]

I go, hey, man, you really look like Boy George. I sure do, don't I? Man, I'll tell you, when I heard Boy George coming up here, I got so excited, I had to get ready playing my outfit. And I'm like, do you do this like you follow him? I've probably seen about 10 times. And I go, oh, wow, okay. So you.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You done this before?

[Brian Green]

Yeah. You. Do you dress like this on any day, or is this just, like, for Boy George? He goes, you don't ask me twice if there's a Boy George event. I'm. I'm there, and I like to dress up. And, you know, I oftentimes get mistaken for Boy George. I go, really? Because, as a matter of fact, tonight I got mistaken for Boy George. I was walking into the venue, and they said, are you the artist? And I said, well, damn, I wish I was.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Well, you mistook him for him, too.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I missed it. I said, I can. I see why you were mistaken for him. Anyway, so we're all out there smoking cigarettes, and I just. I just. I didn't know that people went to the Boy George concert and dressed up like Boy George, but I saw more than a few.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, I can imagine. I mean, he had a definite cult following. And, you know, there's those types Of. Of people that really just. They make an impression.

[Brian Green]

They do.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And then you have to. You know, it is a certain time of your life. It really made an impression. And then you just. You. You want to follow them around.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, it's. It was. It's a moment in time. It's a small moment in time. But I do remember how big Boy George was for a moment in time. But now he's playing Harris Cherokee Casino.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, I bet it pays well, though.

[Brian Green]

Oh, they got to be paying him.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

$100,000, $150,000. Yeah, there's. Listen, comedians do it all the time. There's people that make good money going and doing those. Just the Indian casinos, just the Harris Cherokee, the. The Bargada in New Jersey or whatever. That's the thing. There's been a lot of talk lately about Vegas and how Vegas is really hurting right now and all the different reasons why Vegas is hurting. I'm not a huge Vegas guy. I've been there about 10 times. I go there for 48 hours maximum. Max. Max, yes. Because there's no reason to be in Vegas More than 48 hours. There's nothing else to do except for gamble, drink, and be awake. That's it. And so that gets exhausting after a minute, and it gets kind of boring, if I'm being honest. I'm not a huge gambler, so I do like to. To spend a little bit of money, but not a huge gambler. There's a lot of talk about why Vegas is seeing a real downturn right now. Is it the casinos that are charging you for everything? I saw a video where a guy ordered room service and he got charged $25. I think it was by the Bellagio. By the Bellagio. For silverware. Extra silverware.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, wow.

[Brian Green]

He ordered a plate and then he wanted an extra pair of silverware for whoever his guest was. And they charge him 25. And then they charge him $15 to bring it to the room. And then they charged him $12 to drink a bottle of water. Another guy got charged $10 just to open. Just because he opened the mini bar. The mini bar, right. He didn't take anything. He just opened it and they charged him a resealing fee or something like that. Parking is no longer free. Parking was always free. You don't get free drinks at a lot of the places unless you're spending money at the high, high roller facilities. That was the deal for Vegas a long time. It was, you could go and not spend a fucking dime on booze. Cause you Just walk in and out of those places stand. I mean, you've been to Vegas. I think we're all old enough. You've been to Vegas. You would stand anywhere close to a table and someone would be right there taking your drink order and they wouldn't charge you. You tip the lady a nice $5 and then you'd be on, be on your way. You got the lady or the guy. It's not like that anymore. It's. Everything is being charged and it's be. You're being the regular gamblers being priced out of Vegas because the hedge funds are in there and people believe they're trying to make it that way. A lot like Disney World, they're pricing the middle tier consumer out of it so that they can get the high rollers in spending the kind of money they want to make. They figure if they can't get your dollar, they'll make it up with the rich dollar that doesn't care about being charged $25 for silverware. But I got news for you, Vegas, everyone cares about getting charged 25 for silverware. That's insane. Anyway, you don't need to go to Vegas anymore. You can go to Harrah's, and that's where these people are. That place on Saturday night was packed. Packed. Every table, every machine. Not every machine, but most of the machines.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of other people walking around the the floor, spending money in the food hall, seeing the show at the World Series of Poker. This is like, like these people are making money hand over fist.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, yeah, they've got to.

[Brian Green]

And how quickly you can lose money at those places is amazing to me. One of my brothers took, I don't know, thousand dollars or whatever and he was playing blackjack. Right. And I just stood and watched him play blackjack. And he played it well. It wasn't like he was, you know, being an idiot, but he played it well. Doubled down when he needed to double down, you know, hit when he should hit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And he, you know, he'd go up a few chips, it go down. It go up a few chips and he'd go down. It took about an hour. And he, I think he lost total. He bet a thousand. He lost $400. Right. So he walked away with $600.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. I mean, I think that's the thing. You're paying just for the act of playing.

[Brian Green]

There's this guy at the table. So I'm standing back and I'm watching my brother play, and there's a couple other People at the table. And one of the guys is there with a very beautiful young woman who's dressed very nicely. And then there's four seats. So it's. It's my brother, this guy and this girl. And then there's an open seat, and up walks a jelly roll looking. He looks like jelly roll. That's the best way to put it. Right. He's got sunglasses on, the fake leather jacket. Young guy. And you can see a whole deal go down with him. And the guy that was with the girl. Okay, okay, let's call him baseball cap guy. So there's a deal that goes down. I watched it all.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Like a drug deal.

[Brian Green]

A drug deal. I've seen enough of these go down. I know what happened, right? The guy comes, whispers in his ear. The guy stands up. They walk away from the table for a second. There's a handshake, there's a thing, there's a pocket. You know, the whole thing. And Maggie. Yes. And the guy, the jelly roll looking motherfucker, he was desperately tweaking. I mean, he was just, like, fidgety all over the place. I could see what was going on. So the jelly roll guy sits down at the table after this whole deal goes down, and he goes into his wallet and he's got. He pulls out money, and it's like 20 bucks. Well, he loses it immediately, right?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And so then he goes and whispers to the guy he just did this deal with. And the guy he did the deal with then pulls out however much money and gives him money on the table. I was like, holy shit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

This, like. I guess they don't care. I mean, you know, there's enough security and there's a camera. Seven cameras on the table. Yeah, I guess they don't care. I don't know. But this is like the slice of Americana. Everyone's doing their own thing. There is no better entertainment, in my opinion. I had such a good time just people watching, including the people I was with. Just people watching everything that was going on at the Harris Cherokee Casino.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, it had to be entertaining. And like I said, too, for all of those, the World Series of Poker. So was the World Series of Poker. It was like, there. They weren't just airing it. No, it was there.

[Brian Green]

Well, it's a circuit. Okay. So the World Series of Poker, the big one is in Vegas, where they have, like. That's what I thought, $20 million pot or something. This was a $2 million pot. So the winner would walk away with about $650,000.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

But it's a three day tournament. So my brother Kevin had a friend that met us up there. I'd never met the guy, but him and Kevin have been friends for a couple of years. And he is like, plays professional poker now. He didn't enter this particular tournament, but he was there to gamble for the weekend. And he said, listen, and I would, but I have to be somewhere on Monday. And he said, and if you are, do well. You could be sitting at those tables for three days.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, I can imagine.

[Brian Green]

He said, so when we were there, it was Saturday. And we were like, can you just go watch it? And he's like, yeah, it's in the event center. You can just walk in and watch it if you want to. Hundreds of tables, hundreds of tables. All their own little universe. And there are these girls that were in these bright green vests and they were massaging certain players. So the players were getting massages. I'm assuming they were paid to do this. They were getting massages. There was a girl every third table, like massaging somebody, right? And they'd be playing poker and the girl be working on their arm or their back.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

They've just been sitting there.

[Brian Green]

They've been sitting there for so long. And when I walked in there, probably about midnight on Saturday night, there were maybe of the hundreds of tables, there were probably 50 still playing. So it was largely empty, but there were 50 still playing. And so I just stood there for a minute. It was another guy that was standing there and he goes, it's pretty amazing. It isn't. I said, it really is like all these people just playing poker. I said, how long will they play into the night? And he goes, you play until you play. He goes, you know, eventually they'll stop for the night. He goes, could go to 3 or 4 in the morning. And I was like, holy shit. He goes, they'll be back at, at 10:00am tomorrow. Wow. I thought to myself, wow, I can't concentrate on anything for that long. I really can't. Let alone when there's like, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, but a $1700 buy in, then you could walk away with 650. If you win, win. But there are thousands of players you, you know, but this guy was explaining that this goes on regionally every month. There's another World Series of Poker somewhere. This one was not televised, but some of them are. But the one in Vegas is like a 15, 20 million dollar pot. The winner walks away with 5 million bucks or something like that. It's that, that yeah, that's the big one. Yeah, that is a big deal. I went into a casino once in Aruba where they were having a high stakes poker tournament, like a regional high stakes poker tournament. And the buy in was $175,000. And the pot, the winner.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Some high rollers. Yeah.

[Brian Green]

The winner would walk away with, like, 10 million bucks.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Which is like. That's a crazy amount of money. $10 million to win. But in that case, there were only, like, 100 players total.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Sure.

[Brian Green]

So, yeah, I mean, that's, you know.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, that's what you do. Up the. Up the entrance.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Do the math. Yeah, do the math. And there it is. All right, let's do this. Let's stay on track. Let's get a. Let's get a short break, and then I'm going to hear your story. You just.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, well, I just had a dream about bl.

[Brian Green]

So what's the dream? Tell us. Do tell.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Okay. So the dream was that I came over to record, and you had a couple of puppies running around. And I was like, oh, my gosh, Puppies. Those are so cute. And you.

[Brian Green]

I kicked one.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

The kids were playing with them, and there were a couple these little.

[Brian Green]

Cute.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Little, like, black lab puppies or something running around, and they were so cute. And then after a while, I was like, what? Wait, hold on. And you go. Yep. You go. I got rid of Blue. And this is to distract the kids from knowing that I got rid of Blue. And I was like, you did?

[Brian Green]

You did it.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I was like, God, you got fed up. I remember I was talking to, like, Astrid about it, and she's like, he just couldn't take it anymore. And so we had to do something to replace. So these are the new puppies, and we think that Blue has found a

[Brian Green]

new home in an alternate universe. Are you dreaming when you're awake? Are you awake when you're dreaming? I've started to do lucid dreaming again. I did it when I was in my 20s, started to work back on lucid dreaming, where you can identify that you're in the. Then in the dream. And in some cases, you know, with dreams, a lot of times, the behavior, the things you're doing, the things you're seeing, whatever it you. You know, it's all just kind of a watercolor.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Right.

[Brian Green]

And you can't control what you're doing in the dream. With lucid dreaming, you can identify that you're in a dream and be the witness to what's going on. So you can start to pick out Things in a more realistic way. It's interesting. And I've done it before. Not. Not to great effect, but.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, I've done that before, too, but I've seen it.

[Brian Green]

And you could train yourself to do it. Like, there's, like, psychologists give you tips on how to do this. Anyway, maybe in an alternate universe. Blue. I had to get rid of Blue.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

You had to?

[Brian Green]

Because she drives me crazy.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. I was like, I can't believe he did it. He finally did it.

[Brian Green]

I go to that Starbucks, and Lance has a dog named Chipper. And Chipper is a white, snow white bully pit bull.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

Right. And it is the most gentle, kindest, sweetest dog. And this dog is in love with me. When I walk into the Starbucks and Chipper is there, Lance has to let the leash go because she just comes

[Chrissy Hoadley]

up and she wants to have some of you. Yes.

[Brian Green]

Sits right by me while we're doing. You know, she just. I just love this dog. And I was telling Astor this, and she's like, what about blue? And I'm like, what about blue? That's blue sparking in the background. I mean, I love blue, too, but, you know, it's the candy you cannot have. It's the candy everybody wants. Do you know what I'm saying?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Maybe it's a little black puppy.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. We're not getting another dog. That's it. Astor and I have talked about it. No more dogs. I just don't think. I just. I just don't think I'm mentally in a position to have another dog after having three children. And Blue.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[Brian Green]

Blue is a lot. Blue is a lot. And so are children, by the way. They're about the same amount of aggravation. But the kids are. Are to me, like, they take a priority.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Of course.

[Brian Green]

Poor Blue. She had. She was ruled the roost until we started having children. C' est la vie. C' est la vie, Blue. C' est la vie. All right, let's take a short break. 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] the commercial break. Best to you and Astrid. Especially Astrid.

[Brian Green]

I found video of Boy George at the Harrahs. Okay. Let's see what he's doing here.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Looks like a fun shot.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. Well, now that I see the actual Boy George, that guy looked nothing like Boy George. Wow. That is a huge facility. Oh, my God, that's huge. There must be 5,000 people in that facility.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Oh, and it's all this Culture Club. Not that I know the difference, but. Okay, there you go.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Culture Club. Was the. The rest of the band.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, the rest of the band. But I don't know if he always tours with Culture Club or he just. Whatever. Anyway, we swore on all that was holy that we would not watch Love is Blind, and I have stuck to that. I stuck to it. I am. I watch 15 minutes of it here. Because it started playing on Netflix.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

No, I have. I have banned myself after last season. I was like, I cannot do it again. This is so dumb. They know what they're doing, and you have to keep watching. If you watch, then you have to keep watching.

[Brian Green]

Roped in.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I mean, the claws. Just the claws get in you.

[Brian Green]

So it's a little succubus.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. I was like, I can't do it.

[Brian Green]

No, fuck it. I'm not doing it. And everyone who goes on the show wants to be famous or has a serious mental disorder, and the producers know it, and they have done all their homework and they know exactly the buttons to press. So I have not watched it, but I have kept up online because there is quite the controversy going on about one of the contestants, whose name is Chris, I guess. Oh, there's two guys that are apparently just shitheads, and they're lying out their asses about everything, and people are investigating. This is why I would never want to go on a Love Is Blind. Not in season number 10 or 11, season one, maybe, because everyone's like, wow, what's that?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, it was a new concept.

[Brian Green]

It's a new concept.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

And a couple of those people, or at least I know that one couple is still together and had babies, and

[Brian Green]

one couple just divorced. One of the. The one.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I think the last season, too, did not tell you that no one got married.

[Brian Green]

No one.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Not one Single couple got married. So love really isn't blind. I mean, I guess at the end of the day. But there is. There is quite the controversy about these two guys and about how they're. They went on and then they're saying things that are not true and then everyone's investigating them online. And I am not giving a bit of sympathy to you if you are going on and hurting feelings and lying to people and being deceptive, not giving an ounce of empath. What I am saying is, who wants to be put through that? Like, how shitty is it that your life. And I guess this is what happens when you decide to go on a show that's watched by millions of people in 2026, but your life is completely dissected by everybody. Every ex girlfriend. This one guy Chris had is now coming out of the woodwork, sharing voicemails, sharing text messages, sharing what a shitty guy he was. He didn't pay for dinner when we went on vacation. He didn't hold the door open. He called me drunk and yelled at me. You know, and all these behaviors, maybe not cool in and of themselves, but who amongst us hasn't had a relationship where maybe we made a few missteps? And every single one of these. It's just to me that you sign up for it feels so insanely Truman esque. Like Truman show esque. And I don't feel bad for the guy. I feel bad for our society.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And all that. There are so many problems in this world. And there was a guy. I put out a reel the other day. And the real. Or not a real, but I shared a story. And the story was if people got upset about Bad Bunny at the super bowl, get ready for the World cup when Latinos take over for like a month. Right. It's because that it's true. Like, you know, it's gonna be crazy. And the point was is that everyone got so fussy about Bad Bunny, and then now the World Cup's gonna come. Are having their moment. They really are. They're in the sun right now.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, I love it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, me too. Hey, listen, I'm. You don't have to know me very well to know that I'm basically half Venezuelan. But it wasn't for my skin, I'd be Venezuelan. And my language.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

That's what you're trying to achieve with.

[Brian Green]

That's right. I'm trying to go full ven. So anyway, this guy said, give them bread in circus. And that is a line from an old Roman poet and also from a Natalie Merchant Song Give them bread and circus means give them something else to digest while we are over here robbing the bank, essentially. Give them. Give them what they want. Yeah. Give them what they want. Give them the candy they want. Right. And so I think about Love is Blind, and all of these people are spending endless amounts of hours investigating these guys while real shit is going on. And then I think about us doing the commercial break for endless amount of hours while real shit is going on.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

But that's. We're providing the break.

[Brian Green]

We are. We're providing the break. We're providing a service. Those people are just, you know, investigating people on a reality show. Sounds like a noble cause. I'm not sure the commercial breaks a noble cause.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I don't care that much.

[Brian Green]

No, I don't give a shit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I mean, I might Google something, but other than that. What? I'm not gonna delve. Delve deep.

[Brian Green]

How about Prince Andrew going to jail?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, did you see that picture of him? He looked shocked.

[Brian Green]

For someone who doesn't sweat, he seemed to be sweating quite a bit. He was in quite the tizzy. Yeah. He looked shell shocked. That's huge news. To have a member of the royal family and not an insignificant member of the royal family, the brother of the king.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

To have him go to jail, actually be arrested, handcuffed, put in a jail, investigated like this. First of all, God bless the United Kingdom, because they are certainly taking this Epstein thing a lot more seriously than anybody in the United States.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

Government is. First of all. Second of all, that is a shocking revelation. It is. And. But if you see. If you're even just like a curious watcher of the Epstein files and this Epstein saga, then you know that Prince Andrew is one of the most notable offenders. That was with Epstein doing a lot of shenanigans.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah. But I mean, I guess the real thing, too, is that he's not even getting arrested for what he did, you know, with the girls. And it's the. He was giving secrets away or giving government information.

[Brian Green]

But that's whatever it is. It is, right? It's. Yeah, he was. He was privy to government secrets, and then he was handing them to Epstein. And now you start to understand why Epstein was the.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, he had so much power.

[Brian Green]

The spoke. I mean, the. The wheel that had all these spokes. Because he had a lot of power, a lot of secrets, a lot of information. And some people say this is just the tip of the iceberg. And it very well may be. And I gotta be.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I wanna see it all unravel. I want the truth.

[Brian Green]

I gotta be honest. It's starting to look a lot like the Trump files where Epstein is mentioned. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's, it's very interesting. And all of them go to jail. Trump, the Clintons, all. Anybody who's involved in it, let them all go to jail. Bill Gates, I don't give a. It's like, you know, you can't get away with that. That is the. It's the abuse of power. But I guess when you are so wealthy and so famous and so powerful, you just feel untouchable. There are just. You can buy anybody off, and they're certainly doing a good job of it now, at least in the United States. But in the United Kingdom, they don't fuck around. They decided, you know what? Somebody needs to go to jail for this bullshit. And we'll figure out how to make it work.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, I mean, I guess he's gonna have a trial.

[Brian Green]

Let it happen.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, yeah. I guess Charles was like, yeah, I will support it.

[Brian Green]

He has no choice.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

No, he doesn't.

[Brian Green]

He has no choice. And it's. He. He said the right thing. Thing. Let the law take its course. And that's the right and only thing to say. Right. Can you imagine Trump saying, let the law take its course? That would never happen. Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, you remember I told you I'll say this and then. And then I'll leave it alone because I know this is about the commercial break. Right. But do you remember what I told you? The most fascinating podcast online right now is the one where the two children are grilling their parents about being Trump supporters.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh. Oh, yeah, I think you told me about this.

[Brian Green]

Two children, left leaning, two parents, hardcore, blind as a bat. Trump supporters. Anything he does, they're all about. Okay, this podcast, it's called the Necessary Conversation is the name of the podcast. You can find it on Instagram, YouTube, podcasts. I highly recommend you go listen to it. It will be studied, I guarantee, for decades to come. Because it's a family torn apart.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, that's happened a lot.

[Brian Green]

Yes. And these two parents are the epitome of what a blind Trump supporter is. Anything he does, it doesn't matter. They find excuses. They find a way. What about ism? Listen, whether you like Trump or whether you don't, he did wrong things, just like Biden did, just like Obama did, just like Bush did. You know, you got to be able to see the right and the wrong at the same time. No one can be a right 100% of the time the mother has started to turn and it is a fascinating, fascinating, fascinating thing. She has started to say, I think Trump is covering up the Epstein files. She has started to say, I think Trump was wrong about ice. She has started to say. And she's like turning a little bit.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

And it's, the whole Internet is going crazy. These people get like millions of views on their Instagram posts, by the way, and the whole Internet's going crazy. It's like, oh, my God, the monster's turning. We get her.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Nice. Okay, I need to check this out.

[Brian Green]

I'm like, it's not about that. It's not about like winning or not winning. It's about like seeing reality for the way that it is. And I, I hope that she does so. And you listen. We'll see what happens. We're going to need to welcome people back.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes, that's very true.

[Brian Green]

We're going to need to welcome people back at some point and maybe this is a road map for how to do that. Maybe. We'll see. All right, Chrissy and I are going to go back live in about 15 minutes. If you're streaming and you'd like to watch another episode, we're going to do two today. So we give you more of the commercial break back to back episodes. So in about 15 minutes, 2:15 Eastern Standard Time, we'll jump back on. For those of you listen to the podcast version, thanks so much. Press play. I guess you did.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yes. You're listening to this. You have press play.

[Brian Green]

Press play. And then we'll be back on Thursday. Just to let you know, we'll be back on Thursday. And then the first TCB classic came out this week. So thank you very much to everyone who wrote in Two Weddings and a Funeral. You can go listen to, to that. One of our most, one of our most sought after episodes.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Green]

It's now the third time we've run it as a TCP classic. And then maybe on Thursday, too, we'll let you video call into the show and we can all talk together. More information on that on Thursday. We'll go live again for two episodes on Thursday. Okay. Also, we'd love it you, if, if you would do us a favor, follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. You can of course watch all of the episodes that we have ever recorded on [e-mail] the commercial break. And if you'd like your free TCB sticker, we still have some available tcb podcast.com go to the website, drop us your physical address and we will send one to you. Give us a week or two. We don't just sit around waiting for. For you to request stickers. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying?

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Yeah, we let a few build up and get them all out.

[Brian Green]

I'm at. I'm watching Boy George at Harris. Yeah, I'm meeting Boy George in the smoking section.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Look alike.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. By the way, when I look at that, Boy George doesn't look like the guy. No.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

Okay.

[Brian Green]

I should have known.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

The guy maybe was what he used to.

[Brian Green]

Used to look like. Yeah. Boy Joe George looks skinnier. More facial hair and more work done. Yeah, let's put it that way. He looks better. He looks good. Good for him. Good for him. That's all I gotta say. And he's still working. Listen, that's all you could want sitting in front of 5,000 adoring fans on a Saturday night. What else could you want? All right, we'll see you back here in 15 minutes. Or we'll hear. Or you hear us tomorrow. Either way, you got more than can handle. Okay. All right, Chrissy. That's all I can do for right now.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I think so.

[Brian Green]

But I'll tell you that I love you.

[Chrissy Hoadley]

I love you.

[Brian Green]

I'll say best to you. Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until very soon, we'll. Yeah, we will say. We do say. We must say goodbye, Sam.