← This American Life
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- [00:01]
Ira Glass
Support for this American life comes from Indeed. People are driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search. Match with Indeed. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com American terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. A quick warning. There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website thisamericanlife.org the state of Iowa has a little.
- [00:43]
Narrator
More than 3 million people. One million come to the state fair. Strolling past the swine barn and the kids talent show stage and the lemonade shake up stands and the many many corndog stands and the Central Iowa Railroad Club exhibit building and the chainsaw art and the live snakes and the vast slowly moving rivers of people. Every one of those million is here on their own personal quest for what they want out of the fair. Stuff they want to do. Stuff they want to see. Everybody has their own mission. Declan and Killian for instance. Seven and nine years old, brothers from a suburb of Des Moines. They want to see the giant bull. Gillian, the big brother. Talk to my co worker Diane Wu.
- [01:29]
Declan
Why are you excited to see the bull? It's one of my favorite animals. How come they can see red and red's my favorite color? What? You said it was black like every day.
- [01:41]
Narrator
That's a little brother Declan with a fact check about Killian's favorite color being black. Another fact check. Bulls can't actually see red. The boys wander around the outside of the cattle barn looking for the right entrance.
- [01:53]
Declan
Super sized bull that way.
- [01:57]
Narrator
The bull's name is Teddy Bear and it weighs 3,060 pounds. Signs duct taped onto the pen say do not touch the bull. Which is like yeah.
- [02:07]
Declan
What do you think? That's cool. I thought it would be smaller. Yeah, it'd be smaller. Okay, a little bit.
- [02:19]
Narrator
When you see a giant animal, if you're a kid or an adult, what is there to say other than yeah, okay, that's about right. Elsewhere.
- [02:38]
Adam Ross
Cowboy Mountain shooting is one of the fastest growing equestrian sports in the country. It's a timed event where we use two.45 single action long Colt pistols in.
- [02:46]
Narrator
The cowboy mounted shooting competition. Each competitor is on horseback and they ride a course shooting burning embers from their guns. They try to pop five balloons with one pistol. Then they change guns Shoot five more balloons with the other pistol, then gallop to the finish line, all without stopping.
- [03:02]
Adam Ross
Some of these runs we're going to be doing today are going to be nine seconds. That's less than a second per shot with a gun change. It's a lot happening all at once.
- [03:09]
Narrator
Adam Ross is actually ranked sixth in the world at this sport, but somehow he has never won first place here in his home state of Iowa. That's his mission for this year's fair. I told my coworker Ike Shriek Kondaraja, I'm naturally competitive.
- [03:23]
Adam Ross
When everybody else puts their horses away in the winter, me and my wife take our horses to the barn and we ride all winter long. We try to outwork every one of our competitors.
- [03:30]
Narrator
And when you survey this room of competitive riders in your level, who's the one you're most keeping an eye on?
- [03:37]
Adam Ross
I look right in the mirror at myself. I know that I'm the fastest one here. I have the horse that's the most proven here this year. So as long as I don't beat myself when I go out there and run my match, I know that there's nobody that will compete with me.
- [04:00]
Narrator
A slightly slower pace. Over at the replica of Iowa's first church. The original was built in 1834. It's a cozy log cabin where the goal is to reflect on God's goodness. Right in the middle of a gigantic noisy carnival. They hold services twice a day during the fair where Iowans are not officially permitted to pray. But they are. The guy leading the service says allowed to sing prayers.
- [04:26]
Adam Ross
Thank you.
- [04:30]
Narrator
High above nearly everything at this fair, looking down on everyone stands beyond age 11 on the giant slide for her very first time. It is a massive metal slide that you fly down on a felt mat. And she has a simple goal of her own.
- [04:44]
Declan
So we're gonna go on the slide. And I'm very terrified right now. Cause one where I move and I'm deaf.
- [04:49]
Narrator
Then she and her sister Iselli grab the mats and push off.
- [04:58]
Declan
Oh, my God.
- [05:10]
Narrator
The Buried Industries building is an enjoyable mishmash of T shirts and household stuff for sale. But also expensive devices to help your blood circulation or your horse's blood circulation. Plus a guy in one of the more surprising missions at the fair. I thought Marty golden in a neatly pressed blue uniform and navy hat. He was standing in front of a Booth promoting the USS Iowa battleship, a World War II era ship that's now a floating museum. It's restoration paid for in part by grants from the state of Iowa.
- [05:40]
Adam Ross
We Want to make the citizens of Iowa more aware of the battleship Iowa and let them know that anybody that's a resident of the state of Iowa gets on board the Iowa battleship for free. And if they let us know they're from Iowa, we'll take them behind the scenes to places that are not open up to the general public.
- [06:00]
Narrator
But there's a catch. Iowa happens to be landlocked. The ship is docked in Los Angeles, hence Marty's mission to get Iowans out there. Marty did two years in the Navy, 30 years in the reserves. He served on a ship right off the coast of Havana during the Cuban Missile crisis. He's also a marine biologist who studied ocean life. Retired now, but he loved the Navy enough that now he's a tour guide on the Iowa, which, again, is in the port of Los Angeles. Marty is not an Iowan. He lives out there.
- [06:35]
Adam Ross
I miss the Navy so much that I volunteer now about once a week down in the battleship Iowa.
- [06:40]
Narrator
And they flew you out here?
- [06:44]
Adam Ross
More or less.
- [06:45]
Narrator
Oh, you flew yourself out here.
- [06:48]
Adam Ross
I contributed a substantial amount of the effort to get out here.
- [06:54]
Narrator
So basically you said, let me go and do this. It'll be fun. And they're like, great.
- [06:59]
Adam Ross
Yeah. They probably would have covered all of my expenses, but I believe in the ship, and the ship is always struggling to bring money in to keep operating, so.
- [07:13]
Narrator
So you didn't want to take any money away that could have gone to the battleship.
- [07:16]
Adam Ross
Correct.
- [07:24]
Narrator
The Iowa State fair began in 1854, which is eight years after Iowa became a state. They hadn't even picked a location to build their state capitol building yet. But they wanted to come together for a fair. Reasons that aren't that different from why we do it today. And what are they? I think at a state fair, so much of what's on exhibit is us. We come, the animals we raised and our pies and sewing projects, our spelling bee skills and our expertise at shooting balloons from horseback, and our love for a Navy museum battleship. And we think others would love also if we could just tell them about it in person. We take in the exhibits, and we are the exhibits at a state fair. That's what's so different about a state fair from everything else. Today we hang out with some of the 1 million people at the fair and see if they get what they wanted and dreamed of from the fair this year. WBC Chicago. This is American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay with us.
- [08:31]
Ira Glass
Support for this American life comes from. Indeed, people are driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring. The best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search. Match with Indeed. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com American terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Support for this American life comes from GoodRx. Did you know GoodRx offers 20 popular diabetes medications for under $20? Check GoodRx before heading to the pharmacy and get up to 80% off your prescriptions. GoodRx is free and easy to use. Search any medication, get your coupon and start saving. Even if you have insurance or Medicare, GoodRx could beat your co pay. See how much you could save on diabetes and everyday prescriptions@goodrx.com Tal Throughline is.
- [09:31]
Narrator
A podcast where we tell stories about a place shrouded in mystery, the past. And to really understand it, we take you there.
- [09:41]
Kenny Brunell
Something happened to our collective psyche after the atom bomb.
- [09:46]
Narrator
Listen to hear us reopen stories from the past and find clues to the present on Throughline, the history podcast from NPR. Just American Life Act 1 Carney Confidential so Bailey Levitt has a different relationship to state fairs and carnivals. For most of us, it always feels.
- [10:06]
Bailey Levitt
Good to be back on a midway. When I come out here, I smell it. It just feels like home to me.
- [10:12]
Narrator
Bailey Groban Carnivals comes from a family of carnies. Wait, I'm smelling. What is the smell you're talking about?
- [10:18]
Bailey Levitt
So I smell turkey legs for sure. I could smell the cotton candy, that burnt sugar smell. And there's always like an underlying kind of grease smell, the diesel smell from the rides and from the generator which is giving power to all the rides. It's so comforting to me.
- [10:35]
Narrator
Bailey read on Instagram that we were going to be doing this show about state fairs and she wrote in talking about her family's life on the road as carnies, mostly out west. I thought it would be fun to walk through the midway with her and see it through her eyes because she notices all kinds of stuff, big and little, that you and I don't know enough to notice. She grew up with a different vocabulary for everything around us here. She calls all the games joints.
- [10:58]
Bailey Levitt
Well, it's a four sided joint, but then three sides cut and candy stands.
- [11:00]
Narrator
Are poppers, food stands are grabs, prizes are flash. Carnivals themselves are shows, as in actually.
- [11:08]
Bailey Levitt
Still on that show. And I think he's managing rides, a.
- [11:10]
Narrator
Bunch of different shows. Thirteen independent companies provide the games and rides for the Iowa State Fair. We walk up to a balloon game that must be, I don't know, 20, 25ft tall. A structure made from aluminum scaffolding with flags and prizes hanging everywhere and two giant banners saying bust one wins. Bailey gives it once over. She's impressed.
- [11:30]
Bailey Levitt
You can tell that they take good care of the joint because you see how clean all this stuff is, where all those connectors, connection points are.
- [11:36]
Narrator
You're pointing to the frame of the.
- [11:38]
Bailey Levitt
Stand itself, the joints where different pieces link up. For this game, all that stuff is really well maintained.
- [11:45]
Narrator
Bailey tries to spot who's greenhalp, who's a 40 miler, that means just there for a bit and who's a genuine carny. Before I met Bailey, I honestly wasn't too sure if people still use the word carny or if it has some sort of derogatory old timey feeling to it. She told me some carnies hate the word, but she and her family embrace it with pride. These days, Bailey works for a little software company that her mom started. Two of Bailey's brothers and her sister are still on the show. And her dad and stepmother run a show in Alaska that her dad tries to pull her back into now and then. Bailey has happy memories growing up running around carnivals and state fairs. She could ride any ride or play any game for free, surrounded by adults, her parents, employees who kept their eyes on her. There were incredibly special days like stock day when the stuffed animals for the fair, the stock would arrive on a giant semi trailer truck.
- [12:33]
Bailey Levitt
And it was a giant pile of toys that I could literally jump in and swim in like a ball pit, but with stuffed animals. That was my favorite.
- [12:43]
Narrator
Bailey started to work in the fair for real when she was 10, working.
- [12:47]
Bailey Levitt
A goldfish game, a four sided center joint.
- [12:50]
Narrator
Billy's mom Tina joined us for a while in the midway. She was watching Bailey's baby while Bailey and I walked around. Tina co managed the family carnival for years and jokes that her kids learned to count by counting money. She says Bailey was great at drawing a crowd, loved the attention, loved performing when she was little. Her flaw as an employee, she did not care about convincing people to spend more money on the game.
- [13:12]
Bailey Levitt
She would sit there and talk to people and sometimes she would get in trouble because if she's talking to people, she's not actually making money, she's just talking to people. But then as she got older, she.
- [13:24]
Jenna King
Focused a little bit better.
- [13:25]
Bailey Levitt
But weird that your child labor didn't pay off like you thought it would. Child labor Laws do not apply to family, and they learn that very young because they.
- [13:36]
Narrator
Is that true?
- [13:37]
Declan
It is true.
- [13:38]
Bailey Levitt
At least that's what I told them, and they believed me.
- [13:41]
Narrator
So I'm actually right about that one. Something I don't think about too deeply as a civilian fairgoer looking for fun is that for the people working the fair, it really is all about money. How much you can make and how quickly and efficiently you can bring it in. Among other things, the state fair is a collection of small businesses attracted by the massive crowds. And among the people like Bailey, who work games and rides, the workers who make the most money are called agents. The word agent means different things in different regions of the country, among carnies. But where Bailey was a carny, agents were just the best. There was so good at getting families and guys trying to impress their girlfriends to throw money at games that carnival owners would pay them more than anybody else, and they would jump from show to show their agents, as in free agents. As we walked through the fairgrounds, the thing that Bailey wanted to show me more than anything was an agent.
- [14:34]
Bailey Levitt
Yeah. So an agent is someone who can do what we call putting a mark to sleep, where they're going to be able to kind of put you in this state where alls you want to do is continue playing their game, you want to work towards whatever prize they have you working towards, whether it's popping balloons or knocking over milk bottles or whatever, you're going to spend way more money than you planned on at that game. And whenever you get somebody in that state, if you're able to do it really well, it's called putting a mark to sleep.
- [15:04]
Narrator
Bailey and her stepdad once watched an agent who put a mark to sleep so well that he spent all of his money, left the game, and then came back with more money.
- [15:13]
Bailey Levitt
I'm getting chills as I talk about it. I've never seen anybody do that. Once a mark leaves your game, usually they're awake and it's done.
- [15:21]
Narrator
I wanted to see this. I wanted to see an operator put somebody to sleep. So we headed out in search of an agent.
- [15:30]
Bailey Levitt
There's going to be a lot of agents here.
- [15:37]
Adam Ross
Come on up and come on in, guys. Who else wants to have some water gun fun?
- [15:41]
Narrator
Today we head over to a game where there's a row of 14 chairs in front of 14 targets. The way this game works is you sit, fire a water pistol at the target. When you hit the bullseye, the water goes into a tube, filling it up. First player to fill their tube wins. The stuffed dow.
- [15:57]
Adam Ross
All right. Yeah. Number one.
- [16:04]
Narrator
As long pauses, your hearing barely disapproves. All right, this guy's trying to get people to sit and play the game. Three players sit and a fourth. Ten seats are empty.
- [16:17]
Adam Ross
Last call for this race. At the sound of the bell, the water will start. Everybody ready? In three, two, one. Here we go. All the way to the top. Keep your eye on the dot. Don't work off this. Water racing and water chasing today, number eight, winner, winner, winner.
- [16:34]
Narrator
So what do you think of him?
- [16:35]
Bailey Levitt
He's okay. He's not the best I've seen, but he's not the worst. Like, he. He's doing good at trying to engage people and make him play, but he's had a lot of pauses where he's not talking at all.
- [16:47]
Narrator
Bailey knows this particular game well. The water race. She's been the one on the mic running the water race for her dad's carnival in Alaska. She always taught to do lots of rhyming when you're on the mic. Lots of alliteration like watch him race him, watch him chase him. That's when she did. This guy does not do much of that.
- [17:05]
Bailey Levitt
Also, he's only getting three to four players each time.
- [17:09]
Narrator
Do you think he can be pulling in more people?
- [17:11]
Bailey Levitt
Absolutely. Yeah. It's a nice game. It has great stock. The joint looks really nice, really clean, but they could be making a lot more money in my opinion.
- [17:21]
Narrator
Do you think this guy is an agent?
- [17:24]
Bailey Levitt
No, definitely not.
- [17:32]
Narrator
We cross the fairgrounds to find another water race game. And this one's huge and beautiful. 26 seats instead of 14 like the first one. It's what Bailey calls a double sided joint.
- [17:42]
Bailey Levitt
Double sided joint.
- [17:43]
Narrator
There are two rows of chairs facing each other and the guy on the mic stands in the middle on a platform between the two rows. Huge fluffy prizes hanging everywhere. And the guy on the mic, get.
- [17:53]
Adam Ross
Ready, get set, go, go, go, go. All right, don't waste the tippity drop trying to get to the tippity top. Stop, watch and see who's it going to be. Hey.
- [18:03]
Bailey Levitt
And the winner is right there. All that rhyming. Number alliteration team number 18.
- [18:08]
Narrator
Winner.
- [18:08]
Kenny Brunell
Winner, winner.
- [18:09]
Bailey Levitt
He's constantly talking. He's using a lot of alliteration and rhyming and catchy things to draw people in.
- [18:15]
Narrator
Even I can tell this guy's got charisma. He's a stocky bald guy with five o'clock shadow. When he's on the mic, you cannot look away. And that great gruff rock and roll.
- [18:27]
Adam Ross
Voice get ready, get set. Go, go, go. Who's it gonna be? Stop watching, C. Oh, man, it's close. It's neck to neck. It's toe to toe. Don't wait for the drippity drop. Winner, winner, winner, winner, winner, winner, Winner, Winner, winner, winner, winner, chicken dinner.
- [18:46]
Bailey Levitt
Yeah, this setup is great. They've got really, like, hyped up music, flashing lights. They also got their mic turned up, so his voice is a lot more clear than that other guy.
- [18:56]
Adam Ross
Do that quick, huh?
- [18:58]
Bailey Levitt
And.
- [18:58]
Adam Ross
All right, let's see.
- [18:59]
Bailey Levitt
He's playing off his customers. He's joking around with them.
- [19:03]
Narrator
Do it again.
- [19:04]
Adam Ross
All right.
- [19:04]
Bailey Levitt
He's good at what he does.
- [19:07]
Narrator
Billy's mom, former carnival manager, she's watching him too.
- [19:10]
Bailey Levitt
He's not a 40 miler, he's a carny.
- [19:13]
Narrator
I do get the guy to talk to me. And little snatches of conversation while winners are picking their prizes. His name's Jeremy Bouvier. How long you been doing this?
- [19:20]
Adam Ross
24 years.
- [19:22]
Narrator
How many months of a year do.
- [19:23]
Kenny Brunell
You work all year?
- [19:24]
Narrator
Work all year. Do you have a house or apartment somewhere that you.
- [19:28]
Adam Ross
I had an apartment up until January. I got tired of paying for it. I'm always gone. I'm buying a motor home in November.
- [19:35]
Narrator
So if you have a motor home, then you just take the motor home with you as you travel?
- [19:38]
Adam Ross
Yeah.
- [19:39]
Narrator
What city was the apartment in?
- [19:41]
Adam Ross
Lewiston, Maine. That's where I'm from.
- [19:43]
Narrator
And who do you travel with?
- [19:45]
Adam Ross
I go. I bounce around.
- [19:47]
Narrator
Bounce around. So this isn't. You don't just travel with this ride?
- [19:49]
Declan
No.
- [19:50]
Narrator
No. And you're staying in bunks here?
- [19:53]
Adam Ross
No, I stay at hotels.
- [19:54]
Kenny Brunell
Haven't seen.
- [19:55]
Adam Ross
You like the play.
- [19:56]
Narrator
You're doing good. What percentage are they paying you of the gross here?
- [20:01]
Adam Ross
I can't tell you that. It's good money, though.
- [20:03]
Narrator
So are you an agent?
- [20:06]
Adam Ross
Pretty much. All right. I gotta get back to work, though.
- [20:11]
Bailey Levitt
He's with it. He's an agent. You heard him talking about how he floats around and he just goes to different shows. He doesn't travel with any particular show. That's all agent stuff. Staying in hotels. Agent, agent all the way. Not talking about money. Agent. That's all agent moves.
- [20:32]
Narrator
So we saw an agent, but the truth is we never got to see him really do his thing full force. Because it was after 8pm this section of the fair Keddy land was dying down. So he never filled more than half the seats in his game. We didn't see him put anybody to sleep. Keep him playing and spending money. But there was One more person. Bailey and I watched. He was not, strictly speaking, fellow carney. He was a salesman, traveling salesman. But Bailey and I both watched him, mesmerized. He was in one of the prime spots that anybody could possibly get at this state fair for selling anything. This was outside the varied industries building, next to the door and also the corner of the building. So he saw him approaching from two different directions. The Iowa State Fair charges a bunch of extra money for that spot, of course. This guy was calmly making bank. Kenny Brunell. He sells nozzles for garden hoses.
- [21:29]
Adam Ross
Well, I haven't been any color you want, as long as it's green.
- [21:32]
Narrator
Some agents, Bailey says, are high energy, but some are the opposite. They win through calm. That's Kenny. And, okay, just to describe his setup, he's standing next to a clear glass box that's maybe 2ft by 2ft by 2ft, spraying water into it with a garden hose whose nozzle Kenny twists clockwise or counterclockwise to make the spray bigger or smaller.
- [22:00]
Adam Ross
Going from left to right. You're going to have a little soft soak for potted plants. You got a heavy rinse. You can get the house, the car, the windows. You get a wide fan. As you turn, it will go down to a pinpoint J. That'll clean the windows, the siding, and the gutters. And last but not least, you got a fine mist for delicate plants.
- [22:19]
Bailey Levitt
This guy, he puts people to sleep. He's putting marks to sleep. That's what he's doing. And he's good at it. Like, even his voice is kind of hypnotic, kind of like getting them in the zone.
- [22:32]
Narrator
We stare at him as he puts people to sleep.
- [22:34]
Adam Ross
If you guys need a second one for the backyard, we do two for 75. You guys like to feel it as well.
- [22:40]
Declan
We bought one, then we bought another.
- [22:42]
Narrator
Now we're going to buy another.
- [22:43]
Adam Ross
Thank you. I appreciate that.
- [22:45]
Bailey Levitt
He's got a great visual presentation, but he's just really, like. He has really calm energy, and so you feel like this is a comforting guy, safe. So, yeah, of course he's going to make the sale.
- [22:58]
Narrator
They have a new group of customers. Can he hits the product against the ground, show how durable it is? He makes the same jokes, and I.
- [23:04]
Adam Ross
Haven'T been any color you want as long as it's green.
- [23:07]
Narrator
No purple.
- [23:08]
Adam Ross
No purple yet.
- [23:09]
Narrator
He gets a minute between customers to talk. Kenny Brunell tells me that his grandfather sold at state fairs and his father, his own first memory of selling, is doing a salsa maker demo at the Colorado State fair. One time with his dad when he was five and a half. He enjoyed it. When he was 10, he toured with his parents to state fairs and had his own booth selling radio controlled cars. As he got older, he learned to.
- [23:33]
Adam Ross
Demo kitchen products and was pretty decent at it. But in my early teens, I was like, my heart's really not into kitchen gadgets. You know, just not something I felt. And then I took a liking of this product and I was like, I want to sell that.
- [23:50]
Narrator
He wanted to sell that because it has a great visual pitch. It's a quick pitch. Also, the water is loud. It's attention getting. There's a wow moment when you hit the jet spray. There's another wow moment when you go to the mist. And another advantage of these things, they're tiny.
- [24:05]
Adam Ross
You know, you can fit a whole fare's worth of inventory on one pallet.
- [24:09]
Narrator
A quick trade show, he can check all the nozzles he needs into a carry on bag. Way better, he says, than when he sold pillows. That was 24 years ago when he started selling these. Some of his moves today, of course, he doesn't stop talking. Of course he puts the product in the customer's hand. That's something he saw his dad do. He's learned that to talk for 12 hours straight for a week and a half for a state fair. To preserve his voice, he'll consciously pitch it a little higher or a little lower for stretches at a time. Here in the Midwest and also in certain cities like Seattle, he said he mostly does not make direct eye contact during the pitch. And notice that I was taught in.
- [24:49]
Adam Ross
Raised to always make direct eye contact. What I found nowadays is I'll make eye contact roughly three times a demo. That's what I aim for. One in the beginning, one in the middle, one right at the end. When you're explaining the warranty and how much they are. But not too much because I've done that a few times. This fair where I'm making, you know, I'm demoing and doing it like, you know, east coast style, you know, I'm making direct tie contact and you can see them kind of like looking off down the aisle and they're just, they're intimidated and I don't want that.
- [25:22]
Narrator
It's too aggressive to do the iconic.
- [25:24]
Adam Ross
It's too aggressive, yeah.
- [25:27]
Narrator
Kenny, this is Bailey, who's worked a ton of fairs, a ton of carnivals.
- [25:31]
Bailey Levitt
I grew up in the carnivals, so.
- [25:33]
Adam Ross
Okay.
- [25:33]
Bailey Levitt
I just think you're great at what you do.
- [25:35]
Adam Ross
Thank you.
- [25:35]
Bailey Levitt
I appreciate that.
- [25:37]
Narrator
And then they got into a little chat about headset microphones. Bailey wants to know why I didn't use one. Was like I usually do, but I had a problem with my mic and then a problem with my backup mic. Billy was sympathetic. They liked each other. Game recognizes game. In my line of work, I have to say putting somebody to sleep means you are not doing your job right. It's one of the worst things you can say to somebody. When I told Kenny that's what Bailey said about him, he laughed and decided to take it as the compliment it was. He ended up selling $33,000 worth of nozzles over the course of the fair. That's 877 nozzles in 11 days. Or put another way, for 12 hours a day, every single day, Kenny sold an average of one hose nozzle every 10 minutes. Coming up, we go on a roller coaster of sorts. One filled with bunnies. That's in minute from Chicago Public Radio. When our program continues, this message comes from Capital One. Say hello to stress free subscription management, easily track block or cancel recurring charges right from the Capital One mobile app. Simple as that. Learn more@capitalone.com subscriptions terms and conditions apply.
- [27:05]
Ira Glass
Support for this American Life comes from Squarespace, the all in one website platform with features to help you start a fully custom on brand website. Use Squarespace's latest AI enhanced website builder, Blueprint AI. It can transform basic information about your brand or business into an elevated online presence with curated premium quality content automatically added and matched to your profile and aesthetic. Head to squarespace.comamerican for 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
- [27:36]
Narrator
This is American Life. Myra Glass Today's show Meet me at the fair. We hang out with some of the 1.2 million people who came to the Iowa State Fair this year to see if they got what they hoped for. And we'll get back to that in a second. But first, let me tell you a story. Back in 2013, the Bayern Motley crew was getting older. One of his founding members had gotten a degenerative disease. The drummer Tommy Lee is going around saying they wanted to stop doing shows before they had to start replacing bandmates.
- [28:06]
Kenny Brunell
That's such a bad look when yeah.
- [28:08]
Narrator
Like bands are still playing the fairgrounds, you know, A year later, Tommy Lee said, you're not playing county fairs. But Wednesday night at the Iowa State Fair this year, Malik Rue played. They rocked. Fans partied legalized coke.
- [28:28]
Adam Ross
Hell yeah.
- [28:31]
Jenna King
How was the show?
- [28:32]
Narrator
Huh?
- [28:33]
Jenna King
How was the show?
- [28:34]
Narrator
Dude, I'm so drunk, I Can't remember that. Curious about what it is like for the band to do this thing that they had sworn repeatedly they would never, ever do, we asked for an interview. The band said yes. And then a day later, we were told they would still love to talk to us. With one condition. They would not discuss playing state fairs. In other words, Motley Crue is chicken. So I just want to say to the band right now, our offer is still good. We actually do want to hear what this is like for you to do this. Reach out if you change your minds. With that, we turn to Act 2 of our show. Act 2, how bad is your bunny? So many people who come to the fair arrive with dreams tied to farmyard animals. There are non stop animal competitions in hundreds of categories. All 11 days of the fair, one of our co workers, Dana Chivas, went to watch the 4H rabbit competition. She had no idea what an emotional rollercoaster it would turn out to be. The 4H rabbit program is meant to teach kids lessons about animal science and breeding and caretaking, which they do learn along with some other lessons. Here's Dana.
- [29:59]
Jenna King
The rabbit show takes place in an industrial building on the outskirts of the fair. Tin roof, beige metal siding, no frills. Rabbits don't get the respect they deserve, except from the kids. Hello. Hi, I'm Dana.
- [30:14]
Declan
I'm Molly Fox.
- [30:16]
Jenna King
Molly has shown rabbits at the county fair before, but this is her first year at the state fair. The big time. She's waiting in line to present the incredibly fuzzy black rabbit in her arms, a breed called Lionhead, named for the poof of mane it's supposed to have around its head. This competition is about presentation skills, demonstrating your knowledge about your animal's breed to a panel of three judges. Molly tells me she's not nervous. She carries her bunny to the judge's table.
- [30:44]
Bailey Levitt
All right, you may start whenever you are ready.
- [30:47]
Declan
Hi, my name is Molly Fox. I'm 12 years old and I'm from Hamilton County. This is Onyx. He is a. He is a junior buck lionhead and his color is black. First, I'm going to check the ears. Um, let me find the ear tattoo. There's so much fluff.
- [31:09]
Jenna King
Molly flips Onyx onto his back and opens his little rabbit mouth so his teeth show. Says she's checking for buck teeth, peg.
- [31:16]
Declan
Teeth, malocclusion, wolf teeth, and broken or chipped teeth.
- [31:21]
Jenna King
The goal here is for the kids to look for the things a veteran judge would look for if they were evaluating this rabbit. Molly runs through the checklist. She Memorized with her dad. Ears, nose, teeth, and then wraps it up with this professional assessment.
- [31:35]
Declan
I would like to see more of. I would like to see more of the wool type of fur on his hind legs. But overall, he is a very. He is an excellent rabbit.
- [31:51]
Jenna King
Molly's learned her 4H lessons well. The judges have no questions. She gets 94 points out of 100. Most of the kids I meet are proud of their rabbits. They talk about how soft they are, how nice their markings are. Except for Jillian King, who is 11 and who has absolutely had it with her rabbit.
- [32:15]
Declan
He's molting and he's really ugly right now. If I could get rid of him. Oh, baby, that sounds bad, but it's true. He needs Molly hair. He doesn't match breed standards. He's just the best rabbit I have for this right now.
- [32:30]
Jenna King
The rabbit in question is named Chacho. He's small and brown and has a bad case of bedhead hair puffed out in all the wrong places and a look that says he knows he screwed up. Oh, he's so cute, though.
- [32:42]
Declan
He is cute, but not cute enough to be like that.
- [32:46]
Jenna King
What's his read again?
- [32:47]
Declan
Lionhead.
- [32:48]
Jenna King
Oh, he's a lion head. I want to see.
- [32:51]
Declan
Well, there's a better breed standards ones over here. He is not quite up to the best breed, but the better ones are over there.
- [32:59]
Jenna King
Jillian takes me a few rows over and points to two bunnies and holy hell, I am telling you, these bunnies are some good ass looking bunnies with that kind of calm demeanor that comes with effortless beauty. One is brownish gray with dark brown ears that stick up in a regal way and hair that seems feline. The other one has a classically pretty bunny face. Light brown, chubby cheeks, button nose. He's sitting up like a dog, or like a bunny, I guess. His eyes locked on the back of Chacha's fuzzy head. Wow.
- [33:29]
Declan
These two are very up to breed standards. They are gorgeous. They have a perfect mane and skirt and saddle and everything that you should see.
- [33:43]
Jenna King
Jillian holds Chacho up in front of these hot bunnies, so I can see the difference.
- [33:48]
Declan
He should have a lot more hair. His hair didn't grow out as well, but he's also molting. So he's losing a lot of it right now. But it'll.
- [33:57]
Narrator
It'll grow back.
- [33:58]
Jenna King
He's going through an awkward phase right now, though.
- [34:00]
Declan
Poor guy. But he's still not as good as these guys. These guys would beat him in a regular show. They would just easily beat him. They're just better.
- [34:10]
Jenna King
At the rabbit show, each rabbit is sized up against its breed standards. And then the judge awards the rabbit handler a ribbon. Confoundingly, purple is the best, followed by blue. A blue ribbon says your rabbit is up to breed standards but isn't exceptional enough to get a purple. Next is red, which means your rabbit is a delinquent. And then white, which means you are a delinquent. Jillian and her older sister Jenna, are both having a bad hair day. Get it? Chacho is a mess, and Jenna's best rabbit, Martini, just got disqualified. Jenna's sitting in a camping chair in tears. Can I ask you what happened?
- [34:52]
Declan
So I breed harlequin rabbits. I was told one of my rabbits is sick, that her nose is running, and she's the best coloring I've gotten. I don't know why she's sick. I'm just super disappointed right now.
- [35:09]
Jenna King
Disappointed and also worried. She loves this snotty rabbit. We walk over to Martini, who's lying across the back of her cage.
- [35:19]
Declan
That's Martini.
- [35:22]
Jenna King
She's beautiful. She has black and white bands across her body and a perfect face split, which is to say half her muzzle is white and half is black. A very desirable trait in a harlequin rabbit to my untrained eye. She seems pissed. Jenna says Martini and her sister Tequila don't really like people. She bred them herself, choosing to pair a rabbit named Whiskey with good coloring. To a lady rabbit named Fawn, who has a great face. Split out of that blessed union, Martini was born.
- [35:53]
Declan
It was the week that things got really cold in January. Like, negative 40. Half of her litter did not make it. It really sucked. But her mom got two of them through, which is good. So she's like a little miracle rabbit.
- [36:09]
Jenna King
Was that really sad?
- [36:10]
Declan
Yeah, it was my first litter too, so, you know, that was a little bit rough. If you can't let it hold you back. I mean, you only get better the farther along you go. Can't really quit in the beginning.
- [36:23]
Jenna King
Well, I guess you could if you wanted, but. Yeah, but Jenna and I have a difference of opinion here. I'm totally for quitting, especially if the activity involves frozen bunnies. As we're admiring Martini, Jenna's mother, TJ Walks up with news.
- [36:39]
Declan
She doesn't. She's what? She's allergic to the sawdust. I just talked to that guy who said, hey, it's an allergy.
- [36:45]
Jenna King
Martini is not sick. She does not have Snuffles, which is rabbit sniffles. She's just allergic to the sawdust they put in all the rabbit cages at the fair. Jenna doesn't use sawdust at home, so she had no way of knowing this. She's crying again.
- [37:00]
Declan
That's so good to know, right? I said we're learning things the hard way this year, and that sucks.
- [37:04]
Jenna King
I suspect the lesson TJ Is referring to is don't put sawdust in a rabbit cage. But I could see another lesson appearing on the horizon. One about the inevitability of disappointment. How disappointment leads to growth. How you don't need some technocrat from the Bunny industrial complex to hand you a ribbon to know in your heart that you've got an outstanding rabbit. How's that make you feel? Better?
- [37:28]
Declan
Yeah. Way better. I really thought something might have happened and I didn't see it. And they invited us to the show in Boone in October because she a phenomenal rabbit. Yay.
- [37:39]
Narrator
Come here.
- [37:40]
Adam Ross
Come here.
- [37:41]
Jenna King
They hug it out.
- [37:42]
Declan
I'm glad now that we know it's just an allergy that makes me feel like again, 20 times better. Did you just hear what they said over the loudspeaker for Harlequins? The best rabbit here today had to be disqualified.
- [37:55]
Jenna King
Understanding washes over Jenna's face. More tears.
- [37:59]
Declan
Don't cry. I'm going to cry for you. You know what that means. I don't want to make sure Martini again when she's not hate sick. Yes. And that your breeding program is exactly on track where you want it to be. That is the moment you take away from this. Okay. That you did something phenomenal genetically. It's not about the show. Okay.
- [38:18]
Narrator
So proud.
- [38:19]
Declan
You be proud of that. I know. Me too. I don't have any. Don't cry. That's great. I'm excited to braid her. Now.
- [38:33]
Jenna King
Jenna plans to match Martini with Mo, the rabbit in the cage next door, who's a few months younger than Martini and seems like a doofus, but I'm no expert. And what about poor Chacho, Jillian's discombobulated rabbit? He ends up getting a red ribbon, which is second to worst. Or if you ask Chacho, third best. Jillian's surprised.
- [39:01]
Declan
It was better than I was expecting.
- [39:02]
Narrator
Yeah.
- [39:03]
Jenna King
Are you less mad at him now?
- [39:05]
Declan
No, not really. I'm still getting rid of him. So he's cute, but he's not what I'm looking forward to bring into my breeding program.
- [39:12]
Jenna King
So the lesson Chacho takes home from the state fair is show business isn't for everyone. But he has a happy retirement to look forward to. Jillian plans to sell him to a good home where he'll be someone's pet, or maybe better for Chacho, the young buck in someone else's probably unsuccessful breeding program.
- [39:39]
Narrator
Dana Chivas is a producer on our show. One quick program note before we go any further. Some of you may have noticed a word usage that you're getting ready to email us about. I just want to say right now, yes, we know that hare is not the same thing as a rabbit, but can I say puns breed around this office like punnies. Fact 3 Limp Bizkit so every Iowan that I talked to outside the fair this year, when I mentioned that I was going to the fair, what we would end up talking about was food, food and what to eat. Food is a big thing at so many state fairs. News coverage of Iowa's fair always includes the latest stuff like this year's Bacon Cheeseburger egg roll. There are nearly 200 food stands at the fair and they rarely become available for people who want to try to create the next hit themselves. Those spots are highly coveted because there's so much money to be made. Fair's management says that some vendors earn their entire annual income for the year at those 11 days at the fair. Chris Bender had followed one family that tried to jump into the game this year.
- [40:46]
Kenny Brunell
Of the handful of new food stands at the fair this year, it was obvious which one would be the most interesting to watch. It's run by a couple, Jamie and Jennifer Adkins, and as best as I can tell, they're different from the other food stand managers at the fair in one important way. So you guys have not run a restaurant before?
- [41:05]
Declan
That's correct.
- [41:06]
Kenny Brunell
And you guys haven't run your own stand at another state fair before? Correct.
- [41:12]
Declan
This is our first big gig.
- [41:14]
Kenny Brunell
All the other new food stands in Iowa this year are owned and run by people in the restaurant business or they've done other big fairs. So how did Jamie and Jennifer end up doing this? Well, for a long time Jennifer had dreamt of opening her own coffee shop. Then her husband saw this opportunity not to launch a coffee shop exactly, but to launch an 11 day long state fair version of it. He heard about a food stand that was withdrawing from the state fair. They could save money by buying its used trailer and equipment. Jennifer could sell coffee drinks and they'd do some food on the side, biscuit sandwiches. They decided because there aren't many vendors selling breakfast at the fair and so they jumped in and prepared to launch Biscuit Bar. But when I talked to them in July before the fair opened, they each had very different expectations for how much money they'd bank.
- [42:02]
Declan
I tend to be more frugal and conservative about finances, so I'm really just.
- [42:10]
Bailey Levitt
Hoping to be able to help pay.
- [42:14]
Declan
For some of the expenses that we've had.
- [42:17]
Bailey Levitt
That's really what I'm hoping for.
- [42:19]
Kenny Brunell
Jennifer just wants to break even, cover all their costs. But she told me she didn't think they'd do that. The costs were too big. They had spent $300,000 for the trailer and all the equipment. And that's before you get to salaries and food costs. Plus, the State Fair takes 19.5% of every dollar every food vendor brings in. Jamie, her husband, owns a successful trucking business, and when I reached him by phone, he was confident they'd make everything back this first year.
- [42:48]
Adam Ross
It'll work. I guarantee that it'll work. No doubt about it, it'll work. It's just how much the profit is. You know, my personal thought for this year was I'd like to do about gross sales of 300, 350 on the minimum side. It's kind of like going to casino. You go there to win. You just hope you win more than you lose.
- [43:13]
Kenny Brunell
You know, this kind of confidence. Of course, this is exactly what you'd need if you're an amateur and you decided you're going to get into any part of the restaurant business, a notoriously difficult business to make money in. But Jamie has a cousin, Joanie, who runs two popular, very successful food stands at the fair. Jamie's helped her out a little in the past, and seeing his cousin's operation made the idea of raking in lots of cash seem way more possible, at least for him. Again, here's his wife Jennifer.
- [43:43]
Declan
Probably for him, you know, because it really looks effortless for her.
- [43:48]
Bailey Levitt
She's just so good and there's no.
- [43:53]
Declan
Way I'd ever be able to get up to her level.
- [43:57]
Bailey Levitt
And I think for him, she really.
- [43:59]
Declan
Is inspiring, for sure.
- [44:03]
Kenny Brunell
Could that be almost a tricky thing because she makes it look deceptively simple?
- [44:08]
Declan
Possibly, yes.
- [44:18]
Kenny Brunell
6:30Am, August 8, the first day of the fair. And this employees scraping cooked food out of pots into storage containers is the sound of a food stand about to debut itself to Iowa. The gates of the fair don't open until 8am so let me give you a sense of the place. Right now I'm in the open air kitchen that's behind Biscuit Bar. This is where all the raw materials, materials, meats and eggs and biscuits are cooked and then get passed into the trailer where they're assembled into Sandwiches. Everyone's calm. They're ready. Can I ask what you guys are doing at this point?
- [44:51]
Adam Ross
Cleaning tubs.
- [44:52]
Kenny Brunell
Yeah, cleaning tubs.
- [44:53]
Adam Ross
We got all our stuff made.
- [44:55]
Kenny Brunell
The trailer Jamie and Jennifer paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for is gleaming with a green and pink facade emblazoned with real pictures of biscuit sandwiches, but also cartoons of friendly anthropomorphized biscuit sandwiches. The word espresso appears in four places. And then at the top, outlined with dots of neon lights in big letters, biscuit bar. There are three registers out front, each with a teenager behind it. Lily is the most chipper by far. She's ready to sell.
- [45:24]
Declan
We're really excited to be here. We've got a couple great new items. We have the piggy and a donut, which won an award especially for our piggy. Yes, our piggy secret sauce. It's kind of got a kick to. It's got some chipotle in it. So if you're feeling something a little bit spicier, definitely that's the way to go. We also have a bubbly latte, which is kind of like a hybrid between your.
- [45:42]
Kenny Brunell
Like it's about 7:45am Some of the people who are allowed in early fair staff people here to show livestock. They start lining up at Biscuit Bar. Eager for breakfast and coffee. I find Jamie inside the trailer. He's got a buzzed head goatee, gruff voice, but soft eyes. He's assembling coffee orders alongside one of his new employees.
- [46:02]
Adam Ross
What do you need?
- [46:03]
Narrator
Coffee.
- [46:04]
Adam Ross
A small iced espresso, vanilla and ad wet topping. So it's a small.
- [46:10]
Kenny Brunell
They're both wearing these hot pink biscuit bar T shirts. Everyone here is. And in this moment, I'm struck by how something as simple as matching T shirts can create a unifying sense of shared fortune, of teamwork. It's almost beautiful to behold. Wait. Actually, there's some kind of issue with the espresso drink.
- [46:27]
Adam Ross
See, it looks weak to me. That's what she was saying, too. What is going on here?
- [46:35]
Kenny Brunell
This ice drink looks weird. It tastes weird. Jamie starts inspecting the backside of the large espresso machine.
- [46:41]
Declan
See, I've always been intimidated by this.
- [46:45]
Adam Ross
Somebody shut the switch off. That's why it wasn't brewing, because. Because it's not hot. This is never supposed to get shut off. And somebody had shut it off. It's going to probably take like five or six minutes. Let's just see.
- [47:01]
Kenny Brunell
When Jamie says it'll take five or six minutes for the water to reheat, he actually has no idea how long it'll take. A couple espresso drink orders are already waiting and more are coming in five minutes pass. The water still isn't hot. Jamie shows Jennifer.
- [47:16]
Adam Ross
The problem is that it's not hot. Jennifer. It's going to take like five more minutes probably.
- [47:22]
Declan
So we need a vanilla ice disgrace.
- [47:24]
Adam Ross
And there's fresh grounds in there ready to go. But the water isn't hot enough yet. So somebody shut the switch off on the bottom. I don't know what they was doing.
- [47:32]
Kenny Brunell
But Jamie leaves Jennifer to figure out the coffee. Meanwhile, the employees assembling the sandwiches inside the trailer are shouting out the window to the kitchen. They need supplies. Brisket. For the brisket sandwich won't be ready for 20 more minutes. And there are other shortages.
- [47:48]
Declan
We got sausage gravy.
- [47:51]
Kenny Brunell
Sausage gravy.
- [47:53]
Adam Ross
Do we have more gravy made?
- [47:55]
Narrator
Nope.
- [47:55]
Adam Ross
Okay, well then we need to be making gravy.
- [47:58]
Narrator
Wow.
- [47:59]
Kenny Brunell
Or a little later.
- [48:00]
Declan
Can we get sausage patties, please?
- [48:04]
Adam Ross
What's she want?
- [48:05]
Narrator
Sausage patties.
- [48:08]
Adam Ross
Okay, we better put some more on. Do you know where they're at?
- [48:11]
Kenny Brunell
Jamie starts rummaging through the fridge looking for more individually wrapped sausage patties. He started the day with just 80 and now they're almost out. Jamie does find a huge bag of raw sausage and gets people to start molding that into patties. His brother Jeff starts grilling them. Jamie feels like these handmade patties are a workable solution. Jeff, who is like a shorter version of Jamie with a dash of Joe Pesci mixed in, does not.
- [48:37]
Adam Ross
We can make them right here. Yeah.
- [48:39]
Kenny Brunell
Them don't cook like the other ones do.
- [48:40]
Adam Ross
They're painting their fucking dick.
- [48:42]
Kenny Brunell
In case you didn't catch that, Jeff said the handmade patties are a pain in the fucking dick to cook.
- [48:46]
Adam Ross
Because then you gotta check every one of them. Cause they're not the same thickness, not the same shape. It'll be all right.
- [48:55]
Kenny Brunell
Jamie does have a secret card he can play in this situation. He phones up Joanie, his cousin with a successful food stance, to see if she has extra patties.
- [49:04]
Adam Ross
Hello. I think I'm gonna run out of pork patties before I can get time to go to the kitchen. And get what? Josh dropped me. We are busy. We had a few people fucking Albert.
- [49:21]
Kenny Brunell
Albert is the guy who was supposed to deliver the milk.
- [49:23]
Adam Ross
Give me that milk.
- [49:24]
Kenny Brunell
Another problem.
- [49:25]
Adam Ross
Must not have brought me home milk. I'm fucking kill him. Told him 12 gallon of whole milk and he brought me all skin.
- [49:33]
Kenny Brunell
This is a problem. You can't make gravy with skim milk, motherfucker.
- [49:38]
Narrator
Good bud.
- [49:45]
Kenny Brunell
Meanwhile, out in front of the trailer, there's a semicircle of customers waiting for their orders. They all seem pretty calm, including Erica and Chris, two women who are wearing athleisure wear.
- [49:56]
Declan
We're waiting.
- [49:56]
Kenny Brunell
Has it been a bit of a wait?
- [49:58]
Declan
Just a little bit. But that's okay. They're figuring things out.
- [50:00]
Kenny Brunell
Can I ask how long you've been waiting?
- [50:03]
Declan
Right now we're at eight minutes.
- [50:05]
Kenny Brunell
Back inside the big green and pink trailer.
- [50:07]
Declan
Hey, we need another like three piggies.
- [50:09]
Narrator
And a hot chick.
- [50:10]
Kenny Brunell
It's very tight in the trailer. And to assemble sandwiches, people are constantly squeezing past each other because the sausage and biscuits and eggs are on one end and the sauces and dressings and cheese are on the other. Then they drop the finished sandwiches wrapped in foil near the front window. But the problem is, there's nothing written on the foil. They all look alike, which is why one of the cashiers sticks his head in and asks me.
- [50:34]
Adam Ross
What's this? Did you hear what this was? No, it was nice. It's probably a regular.
- [50:40]
Kenny Brunell
Over and over, the staff have to gently unwrap the corner of a sandwich to check what it is. Of course, there's a simpler solution to this. A way to label the sandwiches, but.
- [50:50]
Bailey Levitt
Marker.
- [50:51]
Declan
Where's the marker? Do you have a marker, Brook?
- [50:55]
Kenny Brunell
Jennifer, who's in charge of the trailer, cannot find the one permanent marker that they had. Oh, and also, some of the orders aren't showing up on the overhead computer screens inside the trailer. So everyone's resorted to just yelling out orders at each other.
- [51:07]
Narrator
I need a regular.
- [51:09]
Declan
Need a hot mess. 1107, we get confirm on that hot mess. Yes.
- [51:15]
Kenny Brunell
Things feel so out of control that just 45 minutes after the fair's gates have opened, Jamie calls for reinforcements. His 12 year old daughter and his 19 year old stepson, Alex.
- [51:26]
Adam Ross
Hello? Where are you at? Okay, you need to get to work. I know you're not supposed to start until 10, but we are slam busy. Just get down here as quick as you can. There's people lined up close to the street and your mom probably needs you on the inside.
- [51:48]
Kenny Brunell
Back out front, I tracked down the customers, Erica and Chris again. They'd just gotten their food.
- [51:53]
Declan
It's tasty, it's good, but not worth 35 minute wait.
- [51:57]
Kenny Brunell
35 minutes?
- [51:59]
Narrator
Yes.
- [51:59]
Kenny Brunell
And what do you think?
- [52:00]
Declan
It's very good. Yep.
- [52:01]
Kenny Brunell
Okay.
- [52:02]
Declan
I wouldn't wait again.
- [52:03]
Kenny Brunell
The whole thing's kind of painful to watch. People are requesting refunds. It's Obvious this is not how this is supposed to go. I was curious how a food stand at the fair is supposed to work and I didn't have to go far. A Couple Stands down is an incredibly successful food vendor that's been around for years.
- [52:21]
Adam Ross
Brad and Harry's cheese curds have been at the Iowa State Fair since somewhere in the mid early 90s.
- [52:27]
Kenny Brunell
Matt Rebar runs three cheese curd stands and one poutine stand here at the Iowa Fair. And, and the way they operate has been refined over decades. And the biggest difference I notice from Jamie and Jennifer's biscuit bar simplicity all emanating from this fact.
- [52:41]
Adam Ross
We have one item, one item that costs one amount. We know they're in line for cheese curts right? We know what the change is. We can see in their wallet and know what bill they're going to grab. And we can already have the change ready by the time that transaction.
- [52:58]
Kenny Brunell
Biscuit Bar, by contrast, has 11 food items and 16 beverage choices, many with a bunch of different customizations.
- [53:05]
Adam Ross
It's volume. That's what we're after, is the volume quality, but volume.
- [53:11]
Kenny Brunell
Inside his trailer, it's tightly packed with employees in a smaller space than Biscuit Bar, but somehow it's more orderly.
- [53:19]
Adam Ross
But as far as workstations and like positions in here, that's another thing. Everybody in there has one job and they are within one foot of what they need to do. They don't have to take two steps to do anything in there. Really. We have enough people where if you needed to take two steps, we're going to put another person in there to do that for you. Just to be efficient as much as possible.
- [53:41]
Kenny Brunell
The trailer was custom built so every step of making the food is laid out in perfectly sequential cheese curd assembly stations. Over at the Biscuit Bar, employees make complicated coffee drinks and smoothies and pour fountain drinks. At Matt's cheese curd stands, his employees don't make drinks at all. Matt sees that as inefficient.
- [54:00]
Adam Ross
Instead, we've got a self serve pop Pop takes a lot of time. So if we can hand them a cup, they can go take their time, fill their ice as much as they want or as little as they want.
- [54:10]
Kenny Brunell
One last note about the simplicity of Matt's cheese curd stands. Paper towels. People need them constantly in a kitchen. And Matt has positioned a roll that hangs horizontally from a bungee cord above the workers. They can grab and tear them off effortlessly without taking up any space. Meanwhile, Beckett, biscuit bar, this stupid fucking thing. Jamie had one of those Large, black mechanized paper towel dispensers that you find in public restrooms. The kind you have to wave your hands under. This morning, it was spitting out only a couple inches of paper towel at a time. The whole first morning, it seemed like Biscuit Bar couldn't catch any luck. Then in the early afternoon, finally feels like Biscuit Bar rights the ship.
- [54:52]
Narrator
A piggy.
- [54:53]
Bailey Levitt
I'll get him a piggy.
- [54:55]
Kenny Brunell
Everybody's talking at a more normal volume. The wait times are way shorter, and the kitchen is feeding the sandwich makers what they need when they need it.
- [55:03]
Adam Ross
There's you some more brisket.
- [55:05]
Kenny Brunell
The lines are shorter now. Not exactly 10 or 12 people deep, like during the breakfast rush. But there's still a steady flow of customers. People really like Biscuit Bar. I feel hopeful for them. For the first time, I think maybe they could break even. By the time I catch up with Jennifer again, It's closing time, 10pm she's at the cash registers printing out the daily totals. Is this like when you print out the totals from the registers? Is that the first time you're seeing the numbers?
- [55:38]
Adam Ross
Um, yeah.
- [55:40]
Kenny Brunell
Jennifer looks over the receipts, then tucks them away. Her face is hard to read, maybe a little solemn. Can you tell me, looking at the receipts from the first day, do you have a sense of like, oh, at this rate, if we do this for 10 days, we could break even or get close to my go?
- [55:59]
Declan
No, we just have so much money in this stand.
- [56:03]
Kenny Brunell
And really, even with. Even with this big first day, it feels like.
- [56:07]
Declan
Yeah, yeah.
- [56:09]
Kenny Brunell
Just then, Jamie wanders over.
- [56:11]
Declan
He was asking if we were at this rate, if we would break even.
- [56:16]
Adam Ross
No, we got. We got a lot invested in the stand. And my guess, it's two years, three years.
- [56:31]
Kenny Brunell
Ten days pass, the fair ends, and I check back in with Jamie and Jennifer. They'd Both worked from 5 in the morning till 11 at night, on their feet for 11 consecutive days without a break. It was grueling, and the money was way less than they'd hoped for. Less than half of what Jamie had predicted. After the food costs and operating expenses and after the fair took its nearly 20% cut, they were left with about $70,000 profit. $70,000 good money, but all of it would go towards paying back their original investment, which was, remember, $300,000. At that rate, Jamie and Jennifer will be working for free for four years before they pay off their debts. And after four years, they'd take home $70,000. Every state fair before taxes. A solid chunk of money for sure. Lots of families would Take that deal. But this was still so much less than they talked about earning. Remember, Jamie's estimate would have had them pocketing two or three times that amount. So I just wonder, does that math, like, how does that sit with you? Does that feel worth it to you?
- [57:41]
Narrator
I think so.
- [57:42]
Declan
I mean, look, I'm not really bothered by it, you know, now after the fact.
- [57:48]
Adam Ross
I think it's worth it. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it.
- [57:51]
Kenny Brunell
Jamie told me he was completely unfazed when he saw the numbers come in. You didn't feel anything about. Well, I guess we're going to be a little short of kind of half of what I wanted. No, no, I think a lot of people would have a hard time adjusting to that reality.
- [58:09]
Adam Ross
I wouldn't wait.
- [58:11]
Kenny Brunell
Really. I mean, you're. You're a really blunt guy, Jamie. But on this one thing, I gotta say, I don't know if I believe you.
- [58:18]
Adam Ross
Yeah, no, he. You can believe me. I deal with it all the time. The truck. My trucking business a couple years ago, done right at $12 million in sales, gross sales. And we won't even be 8 million probably this year. I've been in business long enough that I know that just because you made that much money yesterday don't mean you're going to make it today. You know.
- [58:46]
Kenny Brunell
I didn't appreciate at first just how much Jamie sees opening a business at the fair as being like a trip to the casino. When he predicted that they'd make 300 to $350,000 their first summer, that wasn't because he'd done some careful calculations counting the number of biscuits you could sell each day. It was just a wish. He was going to put his money down on the table, roll the dice and hope for the best. And even though it'll take years before they pay off Biscuit Bar's debts, Jamie is already encouraging Jennifer to open up her coffee shop this upcoming spring. Jennifer isn't so sure if the finances will work. Jamie, though, he feels lucky.
- [59:34]
Narrator
Chris Benderev. He's one of the producers of Today's episode, Act 4, Last Stand. Saturday night, the part of the park with rides for little kids closes down at 10pm I stopped by there a little before that, wondering if I can talk to Jeremy, the agent of the water gun game.
- [59:53]
Adam Ross
Come up. Look, I got a family special here for you guys. Closing special, guys. If I get four people to play, whoever wins it gets a big choice prize.
- [60:00]
Narrator
That hoarse, exhausted sounding person is Barry, who's doing stock handling prizes For Jeremy earlier in the day. Now Jeremy's the one handling prizes and Barry's on the mic.
- [60:12]
Adam Ross
That's one. I need at least two to start.
- [60:15]
Narrator
There are a few straggler families left and they are keeping themselves as far as they can from Barry, Holding a distance of maybe 35, 40. They look beat and they are not interested in Barry shenanigans on the mic. Finally, one woman sits down at the game.
- [60:29]
Adam Ross
I got one in the door and at least one more person to start. I see you peeking out there.
- [60:33]
Narrator
You can't win it by looking at a girl.
- [60:34]
Adam Ross
Come on, give it a shot. So mouth's done.
- [60:36]
Narrator
Second woman pulls up in a motorized wheelchair. Barry pleads with people to sit when I ask him what this is about.
- [60:43]
Adam Ross
We're like a hundred dollars short from our goal tonight.
- [60:46]
Narrator
Jeremy tells me that they ought to go to bring in $10,000 that day for the game. Now, I want to be clear. This was not management that set this goal. Jeremy did. He said that's the number he wanted to hit. He and Barry each got a percentage of that $10,000. They decided on how much they wanted to make for the day and then they were going to use everything they had to make that number. Begging people to sit down.
- [61:10]
Adam Ross
I got two in the door. I'm looking for two more. What? I need more than two.
- [61:15]
Narrator
Barry ends up running a modified two person version of the game for a smaller prize and keeps going with more rounds. 10 o'clock comes, rides around us start shutting down. Ferris wheel lights go off. That feels weird. This gigantic multicolored bright thing suddenly pitch dark. Very tired clumps of people wander past it towards parking lots. But the water gun race, there's an island of light and noise.
- [61:41]
Adam Ross
Come on, come on. Last race. Last race of the night. Haven't seen. Guys, one more time, we're gonna give another big one away. Guys. Last race of the night. Last race of the night, guys.
- [61:49]
Narrator
Come on up.
- [61:49]
Adam Ross
Give us that one more person.
- [61:50]
Narrator
They finally run their last race. Four minutes after 10:00. Four minutes after this part of the park officially closed.
- [61:57]
Adam Ross
Neck and neck. It's toe to toe.
- [61:59]
Kenny Brunell
Go, go, go, go, go.
- [62:00]
Adam Ross
Who's it gonna be? Stopwatch. NC number.
- [62:04]
Narrator
Winner, winner, winner.
- [62:04]
Adam Ross
22. All right, guys, have a great rest of your night. Thank you all. Appreciate you.
- [62:13]
Narrator
They're done. Sound system's off. They made their goal. They told me. Jeremy said when 10 o'clock hit, of course they had to keep going.
- [62:23]
Adam Ross
We had a goal. We needed five more dollars. All right, we got a Flash. Yeah, we got to do stuff.
- [62:31]
Narrator
Gotta flash means they're not done for the night. They have to head over to the prizes store, get some prizes, come back to the game and put them in place for tomorrow. They said they started to work around 9 that morning. It was 10 at night. They had another hour's work to go. We kept going, Jeremy said, because we like money.
- [62:53]
Adam Ross
The Mary is beginning to slow now have I stayed too long at the fire?
- [63:10]
Kenny Brunell
The music.
- [63:14]
Jenna King
Has stopped and the children.
- [63:18]
Declan
Must go now have I still stayed too long at the fair?
- [63:28]
Narrator
Our program was produced today by Chris Benderev and Ike Sris Kondarajo. The people who put together today's show include Bim Adawoonmi, Sean Cole, Michael Kamate, Aviva de Kornfeld, Hani Hawasli, Henry Larson, Seth Lynn, Miki Meek, Kathryn Ray, Mondo, Stone Nelson, Ryan Rumoury, Alyssa Shipp, Marisa Robertson, texter, Matt Tierney and Diane Wu. Our managing editor, Sara Abdurahman. Our senior editor is David Kestenbaum. Our our executive editor is Emmanuel Berry. Special thanks today to Yolanda, Stephen, Clinton Wallace, Jody Weeks, Andy and Scott Schaefer, Jenny Wonderlich, Mindy Williamson, Tyrus Thompson, Chris Olsen, Jeff Jones, Sam Struzas, Melissa and Megan Schwartzen, Ruber, Anapas Lopez and John Wiederhorn. Our website, thisamericanlife.org you can stream our archive of over 800 episodes for absolutely free. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by prx, the Public Radio Exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Mr. Tory Malatio. Just this week, he turned down Timothee Chalamet's offer to help him and his wife conceive a child.
- [64:24]
Declan
He's cute, but he's not what I'm looking forward to bring into my breeding program, so.
- [64:29]
Narrator
All right. Glass back next week with more stories of this American Life.
- [64:34]
Kenny Brunell
How long?
- [64:40]
Declan
Stay too long at the faith?
- [65:13]
Narrator
Next week on the podcast of this American Life, there's this machine that'll simulate the pain and cramps that women get when they have their periods. And skeptical guys get dragged to it by their girlfriends and wives who want them to understand. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. Okay, enough, Enough.
- [65:29]
Adam Ross
Sorry.
- [65:29]
Narrator
I'm sorry that happens to you, but does that change them? Do they act differently? After answers next week on the podcast or on your local public radio station.
- [65:47]
Ira Glass
Support for this American life comes from Solventum 3M Healthcare is now Solventum, a new company with a long legacy of creating breakthrough solutions for their customers. Salventum's diverse experience spans the healthcare industry and they're ushering in a new era of care, pushing the boundaries of health material and data science to break through barriers and solve big healthcare challenges. Because at Solventum, they never stop solving for you. Learn more at Solventum.