BONUS The Friday Show - RJ City's Violent Muppet Show
Guest:you know, Chris over there has like the, the AMC pass.
Guest:He's going to five movies a week or whatever.
Guest:And three, but sure.
Guest:Well, okay.
Guest:Like, I don't want to overstep.
Marc:Don't bury the guy.
Marc:You are down.
Marc:I have a wife.
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Marc:Hey, buddy.
Guest:What are you chuckling about?
Guest:You look like you're up to no good.
Marc:No, I had a really surreal experience listening to your shows this week, especially the bonus episode.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Going off of producer cuts.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:About Mark was talking about taking his car to Toyota and getting air filters and stuff.
Marc:Dude, I was listening to that episode while I was walking to Toyota to pick up my car that I just had service there.
Marc:So it was like.
Marc:I was like, is this a joke?
Marc:Is this like, is this happening in my brain?
Marc:But yeah, it was, it was really fun.
Guest:You know, it's hilarious about that.
Guest:Cause yeah, that was something I took out of an episode.
Guest:It was a long, like 10 minutes about his car.
Guest:And I was like, ah, we got to get to the guest faster on this one.
Guest:So I'll just leave this for producer cuts for, for next month's producer cuts that people are going to hear, which is stuff from this month, right?
Guest:November.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's the exact opposite.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I have left in the shows all this bullshit about vacuums and cleaning his closet out and all that.
Guest:And like on the cutting room floor is like, I think we're all dead.
Guest:Do you see dead people?
Guest:I do.
Guest:They're outside, man.
Guest:that's great and but you know it's so funny because like you know mark will text me like before he does the monologue and he's like i don't know i don't know what to talk about with this the world and this and i'm like dude you talked about vacuum cleaners for seven minutes and we got a thousand emails about vacuums like you know it's like just talk about that shit like the lesson we've learned since day one
Guest:At Air America, which was a political radio station, was that people cared more about the bullshit that he talked about at his house.
Guest:Like, you know, making food in his kitchen and getting the cats.
Guest:So much more care about that than anything he talked about having to do with politics.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:And I'm sure you'll get tons of mail about the animal versus the animal too.
Marc:I don't know what the fuck he's talking about, but apparently he got the wrong vacuum yet again.
Marc:He has so many vacuums.
Guest:I'm starting to think it's a kink.
Guest:Like he's like, he's like, you know, it's like some people like, you know, like foot photos and that he just likes looking at vacuums.
Guest:Like he's like, I'm going to line them all up in a row.
Guest:Look at these pretty maids.
Marc:He has so many of them.
Marc:And then he's talking about getting rid of clothes.
Marc:He's there.
Marc:There's a lot of like, he wants to clean, but he's, he kind of doesn't know how to go around doing it.
Marc:He just wanted, wants to get more and more items.
Guest:The thing about the clothes is ridiculous.
Guest:It's the same thing.
Guest:You mentioned this a couple weeks ago about how he just figured out how to cast something onto a TV from his computer.
Guest:This was some wizard revelation to him.
Guest:Like, wow, I could put my Netflix on this TV.
Guest:And it's the same thing here.
Guest:It's like...
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You can give clothes away.
Guest:Like there's lots of places.
Guest:There's lots of ways you could do this.
Guest:Like meanwhile, he's like just standing in front of a closet.
Guest:This is like, what the fuck do I do?
Marc:So many clothes.
Marc:Not a flat holes guy anymore.
Marc:What do I do?
Marc:Oh my God.
Marc:Uh, I like my shirts a bit more complicated than flat.
Marc:Oh, by the way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You, you like a lot of patterns.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Guest:You found a store that's just your style.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Also, I loved in the Robert Patrick stuff that you cut out in the producer cuts, there was a great pause with Robert Patrick where he said his wife wanted to come, but she was.
Marc:And there's a pregnant pause.
Marc:And it's like, you could have paused and be like, all right, everyone, guess what Robert Patrick's wife was doing.
Guest:Yeah, what Mad Lib is the fill-in for this movie?
Marc:Yes, and if you would have guessed, volunteering at a Guide Dogs of America company, you win.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I would never have expected that.
Guest:On the Family Feud, that's the one that had like one response in the survey.
Marc:Yes, totally.
Marc:I also loved him being obsessed with Eric.
Marc:Like, what did Eric do?
Marc:That really busted Mark up.
Marc:I love that.
Guest:I told him.
Guest:We talked about it when we talked about that episode.
Guest:He's so much like Mark, Robert Patrick.
Guest:They have a lot of overlap.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Marc:But another great episode.
Marc:I honestly don't know.
Marc:I didn't know a lot about Cynthia Erivo.
Marc:But can I just say, I don't think she or Mark needs free shoes.
Marc:I don't know what sneakers they were talking about.
Marc:They sound really expensive, but I'm pretty sure they can both afford them.
Guest:Well, I think any person who's in their level of show business can afford shoes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I think it's like a Dyson thing, though, right?
Guest:Obviously, Mark's out there buying these vacuums.
Guest:Dyson's not sending them to him.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Oh, yet.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Dyson might just be sending them, like, just be the four model guy.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:But I do get the idea that, like, if you're, like, you commit to a pair of shoes, right?
Guest:Like, you're like, ah, I'm locked into these shoes now.
Guest:What's nice is when, like, a company gets wise to the fact that, like, you're a public person and you're talking about them, and they send you the types you would never have gone and bought for yourself, right?
Guest:So I do get that idea of freebies from that perspective.
Guest:Like, oh, yeah, I wouldn't have tried this because I'm locked into a certain type.
Guest:But now I get to, you know, experiment with this one that, you know, I didn't bother with.
Guest:You know, I honestly, why is Cynthia Erivo not getting free shoes?
Guest:She's she's going to be the biggest movie of the season.
Guest:Go give her shoes so she'll wear them on her television appearances.
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:I love that the Wicked Witch of the West had a Fitbit on under her outfit.
Guest:That was like my most fascinating moment of the thing.
Guest:Like if I could have paused time and I would go back and be like, wait, please tell me every scene that I know I will be looking for the Fitbit.
Marc:Yes, totally.
Marc:Also, I feel like I listened to the show enough that I know Mark's, it's not a trick.
Marc:It's just his way of saying,
Marc:And this whoop thing that he has on his phone.
Marc:And like, I love that whole stretch.
Marc:And it's just something that you would never get anywhere else but right here.
Guest:Well, I noticed lately that it happens a lot.
Guest:I think this is as Mark is getting older and...
Guest:And, you know, he can turn on charm and he can get, you know, he can be an ingratiating presence to people.
Guest:But, like, when he's got, like, 30-year-old actors coming into the garage, there's now a 30-year gap between them, right?
Guest:25 to 30 years, whatever.
Guest:But something he knows that anyone at that age starts thinking about is...
Guest:their impending health decline the anything having to do with like aging mortality and that like it's where it starts to percolate so like i i you know it's it's been happening lately and i noticed it happened with like elizabeth olsen happens again here with cynthia cynthia revo is this 60 year old man that
Guest:starts relating to these ingenue actresses about like their health ailments.
Guest:And you're like, what, what, why aren't they just like, who is this old guy?
Guest:And when you listen to them, they're like their way in it too.
Guest:And I, I feel like it's a little bit of like, he figured out a secret sauce there.
Guest:Like, like how to, how to make this work.
Guest:Because not everybody would be able to do this.
Guest:I think there would be a case where we'd come across as complaining.
Guest:But I do think what winds up happening is they're like, oh, this guy's like me, even though we're super different, right?
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:He meets them halfway.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:For sure.
Guest:But it's also a hundred percent genuine.
Guest:Like he's not making this up.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:What do I have to do to say that will be similar to what they're thinking?
Guest:It's like, no, no, no.
Guest:This guy is super concerned about every calorie he's putting in his body.
Marc:Yes, absolutely.
Guest:I did like that, you know, to do this interview, you know, Mark had to go see Wicked.
Guest:And, you know, it's funny.
Guest:It's like, you know, we pick these things, you know, see a list of names, see people coming out and doing things, going around.
Guest:And, you know, we're pretty discerning.
Guest:We don't just say yes to everyone who's got a movie coming out.
Guest:Mark's got to find something interesting.
Guest:I think, you know...
Guest:he's always interested in people who are musical performers, primarily, you know, coming from, especially, you know, as he always brings up when people are singers, he's like, how do you do that?
Guest:That's so, it's so vulnerable.
Guest:I've always been so scared of it.
Guest:So it's like, there's all that.
Guest:Then he sees Cynthia Erivo and stuff like Harriet and whatnot.
Guest:And he's like, she's an impressive person.
Guest:So he wants to talk to her and I'm like, great.
Guest:That sounds, it makes sense.
Guest:But I know like, well,
Guest:you should see the movie.
Guest:It's wicked.
Guest:You just like anybody coming on, you should see what they've done so that, you know, he can, you know, be aware of it, be conscious of it.
Guest:You know, he mentioned that time he lied to Maggie Gyllenhaal because he didn't watch her movie and he felt like it went poorly.
Guest:So, you know, I know he's going to have to see Wicked.
Guest:And we book Cynthia Erivo.
Guest:And then after we book her, we're told there cannot be any screener links, which is how he sees most things, especially like when he's away.
Guest:And that's a lot of times is how we can pressure it is that we're like, I know you don't get like, I won't say what it is, but there's a guest coming up who has a movie coming out.
Guest:And they were like,
Guest:mark has to go see the movie at a location and i was like can't he's got no time and it was legit he had no time before the guest was coming in uh he was you know on set he was doing the movie then he was away for a weekend and i was like i i got no time to get him into a movie to see it so we're gonna have to cancel and they didn't want to cancel so they were like okay we'll get you a link but do not tell the person
Guest:That we gave you a link because that person was insistent that we do not give out screener links.
Guest:The person wants the movie seen in a movie theater.
Guest:Was it Christopher Nolan?
Guest:I think that one they would not have given the link.
Guest:uh but uh but yeah so you know that that's a thing like we we really want to make sure he can you know see these things and driving over to somewhere studio city or whatever and going to see sit and spend three hours of his day at the screening rooms not great so we try to avoid that wherever we can with wicked uh we had bumped cynthia once
Guest:Like a scheduling snap, something scheduling happened.
Guest:So we were like, we can't do it then.
Guest:Can we move it to a following week, two weeks later or whatever?
Guest:And we moved it.
Guest:And then they said, you know, we're not giving out links to this.
Guest:So he's got to go to see it.
Guest:And I had lost my leverage.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because like we already inconvenienced them.
Guest:So now they're being like this.
Guest:And if I'm like, I can't take him to that.
Guest:They're like, what the hell is wrong with you guys?
Guest:You know, you just don't want to be unprofessional because then you just lose capital.
Guest:Right.
Guest:and so i tell mark like uh i gotta get you gotta go see this wicked movie uh in order for us to do this oh fuck you know he's freaking out he's gonna go do this i'm like you know what you just go in i don't care if you put a hat on and fall asleep just go right he goes to this thing i also made sure not to tell him a it's two hours and 40 minutes
Guest:Smart.
Guest:B, it's part one.
Guest:You're not even getting an ending.
Marc:Which, by the way, you're doing the same thing the marketing is doing.
Marc:They're not telling that either.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I shouldn't feel guilty about that one.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But so he goes to see this thing and like he was good enough to not text during the movie.
Guest:But when he was over, it was over.
Guest:He's like,
Guest:I don't even get an ending.
Guest:I sat through that whole thing.
Guest:I didn't even get an ending.
Guest:And, and there were no munchkins.
Guest:I was waiting the whole time for the munchkins.
Guest:I was like, yeah, you know, I don't think that's right anymore.
Guest:I think that it's like we've moved past that.
Guest:He's like, what the fuck?
Guest:They're not going to give these little people jobs.
Guest:There's jobs there for them.
Guest:They could get their job.
Guest:Oh man, I'm wondering if I should even tell this because it hasn't happened yet.
Guest:Ah, fuck it.
Guest:I will.
Guest:It just reminded me of it because I had to massage that.
Guest:This is what you pay for here when you're getting the service.
Guest:You get some backstage stories.
Guest:If you want to get a sense of sometimes how I have to handle things as a producer.
Guest:So that was one of them.
Guest:Then yesterday...
Guest:And we had a guest coming over again.
Guest:I won't mention the guest because it's not, you know, it's not fair to them.
Guest:But the guest was running late.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:The guest was set to start at two o'clock.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So I talked to Mark.
Guest:I talked to Mark just right up until about two and then hung up with him, figured he'd go in and do the interview.
Guest:If a guest is late, you know, and he's there by himself, nobody to greet.
Guest:There's no publicist showing up.
Guest:There's nobody greeting.
Guest:He will usually text me within like 10 minutes or so.
Guest:So like a person's not here.
Guest:So then I'll find the person.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I didn't hear anything.
Guest:So I just assume the interview has started.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then it's like 25 minutes after the hour, he texts me and says, she's a no show.
Guest:And I was like, what?
Guest:Now here's the problem.
Guest:I think he just kind of like lost track of the time himself because otherwise he would have texted me sooner and been like, I don't have a guest here.
Guest:What's going on?
Guest:Instead, he was probably like doing something or whatever.
Guest:And then was like, huh, I wonder if she's late and looked at the time.
Guest:It was like two 25, you know, fuck.
Guest:And then he texts me, she's not here, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:And yeah,
Guest:There is reason for him to have suspicion about this guest for his own personal reasons.
Guest:Like, the way he does with younger people, that he's like, is this person trying to fuck with me?
Guest:You know?
Guest:Like, is this a power move?
Guest:Right?
Marc:Just saying completely personal.
Marc:Personalized.
Marc:Right, right, right.
Guest:The reality was...
Guest:they will explain it when they're on the show traffic or literally life waves all around but he's now getting all pissed off and he tells me he's like well it's not happening today and I'm like whoa give me five minutes because I've already set all these balls in motion like I've already got people on the hunt like I'm doing my job like to get people to find out what's going on here and as that's happening he's like I think she just pulled up but I'm pissed and
Guest:oh boy and i in that moment it was so like i i had i it was like a split second thing i had to do it exactly right i had to say the exact phrase properly in order for it to hit and so all i typed was okay well you can larry king her if you want
Guest:And then I saw the three little dots come up on the text.
Guest:And they stopped.
Guest:And then they went away.
Guest:And I like sat there in my chair and I went, yes.
Guest:Like I got him.
Guest:You did it perfect.
Guest:In case anyone doesn't know what that is, it's that when Mark interviewed Larry King, he went over to Larry King's house.
Guest:He was late.
Guest:Mark had the wrong time.
Guest:And Larry King ripped him a new one and was really rude to him.
Guest:But, you know, it was because Mark was late.
Guest:Mark had the wrong time, even though he had thought he had the right time.
Guest:It was his fault.
Guest:And Mark was super pissed off.
Guest:And he still to this day, even with dead Larry King, is like fucking Larry King, you know?
Yeah.
Guest:And I had to like figure if I had said to him in that text, like, you know, well, listen, you remember Larry King pissed you off.
Guest:You don't want to be an old bag of shit like Larry King, do you?
Guest:Right.
Guest:He would have been like, fuck you.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Whatever to me.
Guest:Right.
Guest:to be larry king that it made him look inside himself and be like wait a minute i don't want to be larry king he's an old bag of shit like i i don't want to do that you neutralized it it's so well i felt like arty from the larry sander show like i i was like wow that's an arty moment man i felt very happy about that
Marc:That's why they pay you the big bucks.
Marc:See, no one else, and I mean, I say this a lot, but no one else has ever been able to communicate to Mark in a way that will just make him understand.
Guest:Well, if Malcolm Gladwell is worth a shit, and I don't think he is, but my 10,000 hours has paid off, man.
Marc:Absolutely.
Guest:Oh, shit.
Guest:Well, we're in a little bit of a time crunch because we are recording two episodes today.
Guest:Two?
Guest:Two.
Guest:Ponderous.
Guest:But I did want to make sure that we got in our selections for...
Guest:for the movies that we're going to present, both me and Chris, things that we have never seen before, or at least have no memory of seeing.
Guest:And I said we each need to pick one, and we will do those in two weeks at the beginning of December.
Guest:And I will call this series the Never Late to the Party screening series.
Guest:in that we are always, you're always now able to come to stuff anew because there is no late to the party anymore.
Guest:So Chris, what is your selection for a movie that you've never seen that we should all watch together?
Marc:So I did some thinking and I realized there's a gap in my movie, just, you know, life.
Marc:And it, I wanted to pick this movie because A, as a kid, I,
Marc:I was pretty much sheltered to sex stuff.
Marc:So there was no sex.
Marc:Like, you know, my dad would, you know, turn the channel.
Guest:You watched edited VHS tapes of movies.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So...
Marc:But there's a director who I love, makes great movies, great casting, and it's always been a movie that I wish I saw and never did.
Marc:And that is Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
Marc:Oh, interesting.
Guest:Which, by the way, despite the title, Minimal Sex.
Yeah.
Guest:Damn it.
Marc:That's fingered false advertising.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:I'm excited about that.
Guest:I'm excited because I think it's been 20 years, 25 years since I've seen it.
Guest:So absolutely.
Guest:Great pick.
Guest:Mine is, I bet you this is going to surprise you.
Guest:that I've never seen this.
Guest:It's not that old.
Guest:I would say, I think this is from 2012.
Guest:And definitely falls into my blind spot of movies, which was Baby Zone.
Guest:When you have a baby between like one and two years old, you see very minimal films.
Guest:And this came out during that period of time for me.
Guest:And I missed this one.
Guest:I've always wanted to see it.
Guest:It is a film in one of my favorite filmographies that exists.
Guest:And I've just never seen this.
Guest:It's the one blemish in that filmography.
Guest:It is a filmography of two people, the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
Guest:What movie did you miss?
Guest:True Grit.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:You've never seen that?
Guest:I have never seen the Coen Brothers True Grit.
Guest:So we are going to watch True Grit and Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
Guest:You've got two weeks out there if you would like to watch those as well.
Guest:I had another pick, but I'm going to save it.
Guest:I'm going to save it until we hit next year.
Guest:Because it's a film from 1995.
Guest:And so I think we can do an even 30-year retrospective of it.
Guest:But I've never seen it.
Guest:A 1995 film.
Guest:That's your one hint.
Guest:But for right now, we do True Grit and Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
Guest:And it got me thinking about another movie that I can't say I never saw it.
Guest:It was definitely on, especially in my household where we watched a lot of old movies.
Guest:But earlier this year, I made it a point to...
Guest:to rewatch the film all about Eve.
Guest:I felt like I didn't have enough of a grasp on it and I wanted to watch it again.
Guest:And there's a very specific reason why I rewatched it.
Guest:And in order to tell you that reason, for anyone who's listening to this that's not really sure of where this Friday show started...
Guest:I'll briefly mention again the kind of evolution of the Friday show.
Guest:We started doing this as a supplement to a series we did with Mark where he started to learn about pro wrestling.
Guest:Got a lot of wrestling fans listening and subscribing to the Full Marin.
Guest:And so we, Chris and I, started talking about wrestling and then started talking about
Guest:other stuff having to do with WTF.
Guest:And this has slowly evolved out of that.
Guest:And now, as you hear it week to week here, we were talking a lot about movies mostly, really all the things that are kind of on our radar at any given time.
Guest:Something that's still on our radar, we just don't talk about it as much, is wrestling.
Guest:And an interesting thing is that in wrestling over the past year, really was like from like the very beginning of the year through about September, there was this storyline playing out that...
Guest:oddly like was mirroring the exact storyline arc of all about eve right down to the main character of this storyline being a person who is presenting herself as a kind of classic hollywood starlet she was called timeless tony storm and they would even shoot her in black and white
Guest:Even when she was in the ring, they would do like a split screen of her in black and white and the other person in color.
Guest:It was very elaborate, but it was mirroring all about Eve directly.
Guest:So then flash forward to a couple of days ago, I get an email from one of the people from AEW.
Guest:Says they're coming into town, doing a pay-per-view in Newark, New Jersey.
Guest:And Chris and I are going to that.
Guest:But he wanted to know if we wanted any guests.
Guest:We used to do that a lot when this was a wrestling-centered show.
Guest:Can we have... You want to have any guests on?
Guest:And I thought, hang on.
Guest:We have a perfect opportunity here for like a crossover.
Guest:Because there is a guy who is a wrestler...
Guest:But he is also now on the program as a interview host, as a person writing behind the scenes.
Guest:He has been an actor.
Guest:He has been a comedian.
Guest:And he is the guy that has a big hand in this all about Eve story.
Guest:storyline that they played out on wrestling TV.
Guest:His name is RJ City, host of the AEW comedy talk show Hey EW.
Guest:He co-hosts their pregame shows.
Guest:He co-hosts a show called Dinner and a Match, which is like dinner in a movie.
Guest:And like I said, he's involved with the writing, the producing of all the storylines, a true jack of all trades.
Guest:And as Chris and I found out,
Guest:a very, very funny guy, a guy who is steeped in movies, in old Hollywood, in comedy.
Guest:He is basically one of us.
Guest:In fact, I will tell him right at the start of this conversation that Chris and I had with him how I knew he was one of us.
Guest:But I hope you enjoy this.
Guest:I hope you enjoy RJ City.
Guest:Even if you have no care in the world about wrestling, I think you will like this talk that Chris and I had.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Hey, RJ.
Guest:Hello.
Guest:How are you?
Guest:How are you?
Guest:This is thrilling.
Guest:Very good.
Guest:I'm going to record this, but we're not using video.
Guest:It's audio only.
Guest:So no one will see how yellow the hotel lighting is?
Guest:Is that what you're telling me?
Guest:But it's very soft.
Guest:You've got a Barbara Walters thing going on there.
Guest:I'm appreciative.
Guest:You know, we've got our fake background, so it's different on our end.
Guest:I have the glow of the Philadelphia airport out my window.
Guest:Perfect.
Guest:Beautiful.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's cold sun shining off the concrete.
Guest:A cheesesteak haze that you've got wafting in.
Guest:Oh, yes.
Guest:RJ, I knew you were our people about a year ago when... Thanks for waiting this long.
Guest:Yes, it took a while, right?
Guest:But I feel like that's your thing.
Guest:You're like, the longer the better.
Guest:You like to draw it out of people.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And you drew it out of me.
Guest:I'll tell you specifically when it was.
Guest:It was like, I don't know, maybe it was for TikTok or something that they did the walk around the backstage area and ask everybody what their favorite holiday movies are.
Guest:And you had two.
Guest:Do you remember what they were?
Guest:Am I wrong in saying, was it the March of the Wooden Soldiers with Laurel and Hardy?
Guest:That was one.
Guest:I was like, that was the first thing you said.
Guest:And I was like, hello, wait, hang on one second here.
Guest:And the second was not a movie.
Guest:It was not a movie.
Guest:It was a special.
Guest:Was it the Paul Lind Christmas special where he tries to be a serious actor?
Guest:No, but that's amazing that you said that.
Guest:Can we take a detour?
Guest:Can I mention that for one second?
Guest:Because it's horrible.
Guest:Because people love, obviously, the Paul Lind Halloween special, right?
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:I love that you say people love it.
Guest:People are talking about it.
Guest:Universally beloved.
Yeah.
Guest:But they go, oh, he did a Christmas special too?
Guest:And he always seemed to resent that he was never taken seriously as an actor.
Guest:So he did a follow-up special.
Guest:It was a Christmas special.
Guest:And they just did a serious, legitimate version of The Night Before Christmas.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Oh, so it's just like, it's like, it's like the, the version of Scrooge in, in Bill Murray's Scrooged, like the, like the, the Buddy Hackett one.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's like, you have to accept me as being straight and serious.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Twas the night before Christmas.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:That's amazing.
Guest:No, what you said at the time, and you instructed people, and I like that you're instructing this to generally a wrestling audience.
Guest:You said what you can watch at all times of the year, it's not just for Christmas, is the Pee Wee's Christmas special.
Guest:And anyone who's listening to this knows I've already talked about this last year when Chris and I did our Christmas stuff.
Guest:And I, again, put that on at all times.
Guest:And and that was like to to kind of bring it all around to then when we heard like, oh, who can we have on the show?
Guest:Oh, RJ.
Guest:Yeah, that's a good idea, because, you know, it's been this hard thing since the day I first started getting Marc Maron into wrestling.
Guest:was like trying to convince people what is like people have this preconception of what wrestling is they i don't think realize that like the a guy who would tell you to watch march of the wooden soldiers and peewee's christmas special is as much a wrestler as hulk hogan ever was maybe more frankly right but i think the key is first of all you know the way you tried to get mark into wrestling was incorrect yeah
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Stick him in a room with Eddie Kingston.
Guest:He's like, oh, my family life was rough.
Guest:And I was like, this is not this isn't helping.
Guest:Hang on.
Guest:Hang on.
Guest:Hang on.
Guest:That was the one guy who Mark was like, oh, I know what's going on in there.
Guest:That's that's me in there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:With him.
Guest:He became a fan of Eddie Kingston.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They probably text each other therapy notes and whatever.
Guest:But I think the real thing is not only do I say, oh, Marshall, the wooden soldiers and Pee Wee's Christmas special, but the thesis is they're the exact same thing as wrestling.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:But now why don't you expand on what that is?
Guest:Well, so I always say wrestling is the Muppet show.
Guest:It's just a violent Muppet show.
Guest:It's about putting on a show.
Guest:And there's a real vaudeville quality to it in that, hey, guys, you're watching a show about a show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, we're trying to do the show and everything seems to go wrong.
Guest:Nothing goes right in wrestling ever.
Guest:And there are larger than life characters, which I hate saying sometimes.
Guest:But there's this circus like atmosphere to it.
Guest:You have these kind of you have the, you know, the the acrobats and then you have the clowns and then you have the fire eaters.
Guest:And I also say, like, wrestling is amazing.
Guest:Wrestling has a messaging problem.
Guest:Going back to what?
Guest:Like, like, just like it being about fights?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I mean, that whole thing of like, oh, wrestling's fake.
Guest:And it's like, well, this is like our consequences for telling everyone it was completely real for decades.
Guest:An industry built on con artistry has consequences.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I mean, if you like magic, like you're going to always look for how he did it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it's like, who cares?
Guest:That's not what this is.
Guest:It's just a show.
Guest:And I also think, I will also say, and it's similar to comedy in a sense where like,
Guest:If you go to a stand-up show, especially like an open mic, let's say 80% of it is bad.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know?
Guest:But that shouldn't turn you off to comedy.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So there's a lot of wrestling where I'll try to get someone into wrestling and they'll go, hey, I went to an indie show and some guy bled on my wife.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Not great.
Guest:And then I have to say, keep watching.
Guest:There will be something there that you enjoy.
Guest:So, you know, I do favor a lot of people who are able to break through the noise and reach non-wrestling fans.
Guest:My thing was always like, if you like wrestling, you'll like me.
Guest:But if you hate wrestling, you'll love me.
Right.
Guest:I want the business to grow.
Guest:And the only way to do that is to reach new people.
Guest:Well, and it's interesting you bring up comedy because I feel like these are the two things where it is okay to tell people to buy a ticket, spend your money, and show up at a thing that has only the genre on the marquee.
Guest:and be okay with that whereas like no one goes to a place that just says music or like oh we're gonna walk into this building what's playing movie like no you go you know exactly what you're going to see with wrestling and with comedy it's very likely you have no idea what you're going to see when you walk in there that night so like there is an interesting overlap and and i guess i mean did you what was first for you wrestling or comedy or were they both at the same time
Guest:it was wrestling in the Muppet show.
Guest:That was it.
Guest:Like neck and neck as a kid.
Guest:I don't remember not wanting to do either.
Guest:And obviously couldn't become a Muppet, but I could become a wrestler.
Guest:It is really like fascinating.
Guest:I have a bit on like, you know, I don't care that a wrestler says he always wanted to be a wrestler.
Guest:Cause like every kid wanted to be a wrestler the same way they wanted to be a Power Ranger and a fire truck.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But like the only difference is you can become a wrestler.
Guest:Right.
Guest:There's a pathway.
Guest:There's no firetruck school.
Guest:It's completely obscene.
Guest:It's so ridiculous that this thing exists.
Guest:Well, so we tried to get that across to people, especially when we started doing this show on Fridays, because we knew we had a large audience here that was not...
Guest:ostensibly wrestling fans or even cared about it.
Guest:But we tried to communicate that to people.
Guest:But what we have wound up talking about a lot more and find a lot more like connective tissue with the audience that we're talking to is, you know, a variety of movies.
Guest:It's almost like an opposite of what I was saying before, where we kind of just have... Chris and I are not like...
Guest:film critics, we're not movie specialists of any particular strike, but we kind of find a lot of connections and connective tissue in movies and we talk about them a lot.
Guest:And it's interesting because I feel like movies and wrestling have a similar thing where like most people are pretty casual about them.
Guest:like like like if you put wrestling i put wrestling on for mark and he liked it but i don't think he's thought since the the day we went to dynamite like hey what's going on with this or that storyline it's like if you just show it to someone they are interested in it just like you know most people are like yeah go to the movies like on thanksgiving weekend but then they don't like think about it all the time like what what's my movie routine this weekend you
Guest:you know, Chris over there has like the, the AMC pass.
Guest:He's going to five movies a week or whatever.
Guest:And three, but sure.
Guest:Well, okay.
Guest:Like, I don't want to overstep it.
Guest:Don't bury the guy.
Guest:He's basically Nicole Kidman's best friend.
Guest:He knows, he knows her intimately at that theater.
Guest:Let me take a huge detour first because I don't want to forget this.
Guest:And I don't think you guys know this, but it's pertinent.
Guest:I was friends with Paul Rubens for like 15 years.
Marc:No way.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So, okay.
Guest:Pertinent.
Guest:With the Christmas special, he told me that was the one thing he did where he got everyone he wanted.
Guest:And he was like shot.
Guest:He was like, it was the hottest I was ever been when I could just pick up the phone and everyone was like, yes, I'm in.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he could not believe like all those people were there, which is just, I mean, the opening of that where he just lists off the guests.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:He's just a bit in itself.
Marc:What was Paul Rubens like?
Marc:How'd you guys befriend each other?
Guest:I met him at his Broadway show.
Marc:Oh, no kidding.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He had just done wrestling.
Guest:He had just done some WWE stuff.
Marc:Oh, right.
Guest:We started talking about that.
Guest:And we hit it off and we hung out a bit.
Guest:And then David Arquette came into the picture when I wrestled him and teamed with him.
Guest:David's friends with Paul.
Guest:And then it was this weird kitsch triangle.
Guest:That's funny.
Guest:For lack of a better term.
Guest:And it was a blast.
Guest:And he would come to see us wrestle all the time.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:I've seen a picture of the three of you, but I had no idea it was something that lasted beyond that picture.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then we did a family feud together.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:But I will say he was, he was like the nicest person.
Guest:I just, he was so kind.
Guest:He was so sweet.
Guest:He was so helpful to me of like, creatively speaking, he's like, if everyone goes right, you go left and you just, you don't even think about it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Don't do what everyone else is doing.
Guest:It's just not interesting.
Guest:It's not worth it.
Guest:And he was... It's weird.
Guest:He almost felt like he was beyond funny.
Guest:Like he had beaten the game.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like how much more did he have to do to be funny?
Guest:And then he was just around sort of...
Guest:I mean, I don't know, like the totality of his social circle, but I feel like a Gary Shandling in a sense where he took he took people on seriously, you know, passing along his knowledge and his experiences.
Guest:And so that that seems like that was the Paul of him, like he held on very tightly to Paul.
Guest:And certain people, and you sound like you're one of them, got the privilege of meeting Paul and knowing Paul and getting this type of advice.
Guest:And then that way he could keep the character separate.
Guest:And the character had all this integrity because it existed in the world of Pee Wee's...
Guest:and Pee-wee's world.
Guest:This kind of timeless, you know, fantasia of like a grown man child.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So similarly, he found a lot of parallels between the Pee-wee character and wrestling.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:In that it's a real character in the sense that, I don't know, Borat for a bit was a real character.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, they would appear as... And so, you know, when you meet...
Guest:Tony Storm, for example, more often than not, you're meeting the wrestler Tony Storm.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, you're not meeting whoever she is in her home life.
Guest:I don't think she has any other version of Tony Storm all the time.
Guest:But like, it's this extra.
Guest:So another example is I always say wrestling is like a play where the audience is inside the fourth wall.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's like, you know, going to a medieval fair.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That makes a lot of sense.
Guest:You play along.
Guest:Because yes, we, we, Chris and I talked about that show red and fair that was on HBO.
Guest:And like, we were, we've said the same thing.
Guest:We're like, there's a lot of wrestling in here.
Guest:And in particular, like with that show, the guy was almost like a, you know, Vince McMahon type running the rent there.
Guest:And, but the, the idea going back to what you said earlier of the,
Guest:like the thing you dream of when you're a kid.
Guest:And then it becomes attainable.
Guest:Like at that Renfer, particularly that one in Texas, these people were going to it since they were children.
Guest:And it was like there one day they'd walk through the gate of this place and then they'd become this other thing.
Guest:And they, and,
Guest:And everyone played along.
Guest:And so, like, that doesn't happen when you go to the box office and, you know, cash your ticket.
Guest:And, you know, I guess on rare occasions it does, which is probably why that Marvel universe got so huge and popular to the point where people are in the theater screaming and cheering at the end of Endgame.
Guest:Because they did actually feel like, I got to be a part of this for eight years, ten years, or however long.
Guest:And it was different than just like, oh, I watched a movie and I left.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's this communal experience, which is exceedingly rare.
Guest:So it is nice to experience.
Guest:I mean, that's the point of if you want to watch wrestling, you really have to go see it live.
Guest:It's a whole different ballgame.
Guest:But back to the casual consumption of things.
Guest:There is so much wrestling out there now.
Guest:I mean, even AEW does five hours a week.
Yeah.
Guest:You can't consume all of it.
Guest:Right.
Marc:No.
Guest:Too much.
Guest:Not in that way, which is good and bad.
Guest:It's good in a sense that everything is so spread out and so diverse, I guess, that we can offer different things.
Guest:And if AEW didn't exist, there are a lot of people here that would not be successful.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because everything was very like, no, WWE, you do this way and you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:And then by adding more, you're,
Guest:you're able to add different things.
Guest:And, like, great examples of that are, I don't know, a guy like Hook, who is, like, allowed to be his own character.
Guest:He's very unique.
Guest:He's not a character.
Guest:It's just him.
Guest:And he's unique.
Guest:He's minimalist.
Guest:And he's just got a real look to him and a real vibe.
Guest:And you're like, well, where else would this exist?
Guest:Danhausen's another example.
Guest:Orange Cassidy is another example.
Marc:Totally.
Guest:And it's just like, you know, it's like a music scene blowing up.
Guest:And then they split off into these little subgenres.
Guest:Well, I mean, Toni Storm herself is a great example because she was in WWE.
Guest:She went through the WWE system.
Guest:Nothing against her own talents, but there was nothing that particularly stood out about her character-wise when she was in WWE to the point where I think it became kind of universally accepted among wrestling fans that she was being wasted.
Guest:She is very talented.
Guest:And...
Guest:So she comes to AEW, and I want to take listeners who don't know this, you know, kind of through the arc.
Guest:She's a heel at one point.
Guest:She's, you know, with a bunch of other kind of bad girl heels.
Guest:And then loses the title and starts to, her character changes in that she is kind of losing it.
Guest:She's kind of walking around a little loopy.
Guest:And, you know, in wrestling parlance, they'd say, oh, she snapped, right?
Yeah.
Guest:And I think that's around the time where her persona starts to shift into this Norma Desmond type of presentation.
Guest:She's like talking like she's from old Hollywood and she's wearing more flowing gowns and capes.
Guest:And I want to know at what point in this process of her character do you come in and get involved and turn this story, I guess...
Guest:you know, with the discussions and input of everyone around into a year long trajectory that resembles all about Eve.
Guest:How does that happen?
Guest:Um, I don't know, which is to say it happened very naturally, which is, I think is the best way for things to happen.
Guest:Um, but all, all credit to two people named Tony, uh, Tony Khan for saying like, Hey, there is something here and let's go with it.
Guest:And also what he does is, is really creates the space where people to play an experiment.
Guest:And if they land on something, he's like, he adds to it and enhances it.
Guest:And he's like, let's go.
Um,
Guest:I don't know anywhere else in wrestling that that would be possible.
Guest:That was my question about that.
Guest:It basically started with Tony Storm doing this persona as someone kind of slipping into this affect of like an old Hollywood person.
Guest:And then he saw that.
Guest:Yeah, it all seemed a lot less deliberate.
Guest:Looking back, it's like, oh, that's great.
Guest:But then you're like, no, that wasn't the way.
Guest:It was like, you know, she started wearing her hair like this and then started wearing different robes.
Guest:And she was sort of getting into a scene.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:For lack of a better term.
Guest:And then she just started.
Guest:And it really seemed like something that was inside of her that was finally given permission to come out.
Hmm.
Guest:I've never seen anything like it in my life.
Guest:Like, I did not anticipate that coming out of that person.
Guest:But when it came... I don't think anyone did.
Guest:But it came just bursting out and it's like this beast.
Guest:It's like runaway beast now.
Guest:And I think...
Guest:Everyone was just swallowed up in it, including Tony Khan.
Guest:He was like, there's all this stuff here.
Guest:And Tony Khan, as much as he knows about wrestling, and it's an insane amount, he knows so much more about movies.
Guest:He knows so much more about failed 90s sitcoms.
Guest:He knows shit about Wings episodes.
Guest:He remembers the titles of Wings episodes.
Guest:I'm like, what?
Guest:Are you reading the IMTP?
Guest:What?
Guest:This is really unnecessary.
Guest:So he's really culturally minded.
Guest:And it is so perfect that AEW is on Warner Brothers and Max.
Guest:And there's a whole history there that he's like, wow.
Guest:And I've always been – not always, but I got to a certain point.
Guest:I had similar –
Guest:frustrations with the the box that wrestling was in namely wwe and that's not to disparage them it's just the reality of the situation i i i had a tryout and they told me we have nothing to offer you that would keep you here because i was singing ethel berman and i was like
Guest:You know, totally left field.
Guest:And you're like, OK, so I don't, you know, so then what do I do?
Guest:And then I thought, gee, I'm going to do stuff that is satisfying for me.
Guest:And to tie it back to Paul Rubens, like WWE said no.
Guest:I mean, he spent an hour on the phone with me telling me how he lost out on Saturday Night Live.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And he said, you know, he said everyone was talking to me like I was going to get it because it was like I was funny and I have characters and all this shit.
Guest:I think the story is like he got passed over for Gilbert Gottfried.
Guest:He avoided that, you know, bomb sixth season or whatever it was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was a blessing in disguise, but he got so angry and frustrated.
Guest:He was like, use it.
Guest:And he, you know, doubled down on Pee Wee.
Marc:And is that what you did?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I guess.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, there was a thing where I was like, gee, if I'm not going to get signed, and this was before AEW even existed, I said, I'm going to enjoy not being signed.
Guest:I'm going to do stuff that I probably couldn't do if I had a job, which carved out a great little place for myself.
Guest:And I was doing a thing on YouTube where I make coffee in my underwear.
Guest:And the next thing I know, I have all these wrestlers on and then Mario Cantone's on and then Steve Austin's on.
Guest:and i was like gee i couldn't have done this if i had been if everything worked out it wouldn't have worked out right i think you also you know i've i've seen you say that you're not retired because people what people think you're oh rj city he's a retired wrestler because i see him do the interviews and i see him do this and i saw you say like i'm not retired i just wound up getting paid better to not get hurt it's it's nice work you can get it
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then, you know, it was that little, I'm like, I'm just going to crank out this shit.
Guest:And like, not, I don't, I have to answer to anybody.
Guest:So I, I created a little, I guess, role for myself in wrestling.
Guest:And then WWE ended up calling me during the pandemic because they need people who talk at their computer.
Guest:And I seem to be great at that.
Guest:And then that was a, you know, whirlwind.
Guest:We got some stuff on when that was good, but then,
Guest:You know, Tony Khan was taking note of it.
Guest:And I had no idea.
Guest:You know, I'm just like, I'm going to put my work out.
Guest:I'm not going to have a plan.
Guest:I'm just going to be, I'm going to do what I want to do and see what happens.
Guest:And then right after that ended and he was like, hey, can you, and a perfect example in the same way, I guess he treated Tony Storm of like, here's a space to like do your stuff.
Guest:And now I've done this little wrestling interview show at AEW.
Guest:We've done 121 episodes.
Guest:And no one's giving me notes.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Guest:Or really editing.
Guest:They're like, hey, just do this.
Guest:And I get to basically torture wrestlers for 10 minutes with a line of questioning.
Guest:And it's led to some really magical...
Guest:stuff because it's not produced and it's not planned and it's it's funny you also get something out of the wrestlers that I feel you don't often get to see on TV there's so much stuff the thing is always like
Guest:It's like a likability thing because you only get to see them in 30 second bursts doing a promo backstage.
Guest:And now when we have them on, hey, and we get to ask them about how they feel about Joe Marie Payton leaving Family Matters in the last season, whatever their answer is, you're seeing a side of them you've never seen before.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Well, and the freedom that you get doing stuff like that on the internet, which obviously, you know, is kind of how you got some notice.
Guest:You got, you know, as you're saying, you were able to kind of branch yourself out, not be boxed in.
Guest:But then when it comes to being on the TV show where...
Guest:Television time is precious.
Guest:I do want, like, what were you specifically thinking about, like, working with Tony Storm and working on that whole character or arc or storyline, whatever you want to call it, in the sense that, like, did you worry, like, I don't know if people are going to respond to this.
Guest:We're doing a whole thing based on a, you know, a classic movie from the 50s.
Guest:And, you know, or did you feel like that doesn't matter?
Guest:We're just going to plow ahead and the character will come out on screen.
Guest:I always think it's really important to get to a place where you go, gee, I don't know how anyone's going to react to this.
Guest:When you don't have an answer, they may like it.
Guest:It may work.
Guest:It may not.
Guest:I don't think I've ever gone.
Guest:They've hated it, but I've gone.
Guest:How are they going to react like this?
Guest:And I would say the same thing when you have a new joke and you're trying it out and you're like, I really don't know what the response is going to be.
Guest:yeah at all and it's uh you know she's really in her own world and i also you know refuse to accept any credit because she's just a fully formed human being that's like totally in this in this world that you don't know if it would work otherwise yeah um i don't i don't
Guest:remember what she was like before this.
Guest:It's just totally spun off into the, and then what makes me happy, and it is the same thing I do with AEW, and then she was able to break through where it's, you know, non-wrestling people start noticing.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And to me, a non-wrestling fan's attention is worth three times as much as a wrestling fan's attention.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, I got to say, I saw you with my friend Tom Sharpling on The Best Show, and I was like,
Guest:You've got to be a kind of well-traveled comic mind to roll with Tom.
Guest:It requires some skill.
Guest:I mean, he's a great guy and he's super nice.
Guest:It's not like he's going to intimidate you or anything.
Guest:But his synapses in terms of what's funny and comedy and how to slow burn things...
Guest:it's very fine tuned.
Guest:He's fine tuned with, with John Worcester over like 25 years.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so like, I watched you with him and I'm like, that's a tell like somebody who can like bounce off Tom like that.
Guest:And I hear Tom giggling.
Guest:Like I know right away, like, Oh, that's, that's an interesting way to work.
Guest:And like, you, you've got, it's got to help you out in, in this business that you're in because like everybody's different.
Guest:You've got all these different minds.
Guest:You've got all these different talents, all these different personalities.
Guest:You're going to have to be nimble.
Guest:yes it helps and it hurts where it's like I always want to go especially when like we're talking to non-wrestling people I always want to go beyond the shallow like is it fake how does this work it's like who gives a shit yeah I'm like
Guest:Nobody cares.
Guest:It's insane.
Guest:So if I can meet him on a different level, I feel like I'm a good representative for the business and for AEW.
Guest:But it hurts in the sense where it's like there is so much wrestling that so many people fall into conventions and
Guest:what a good guy is or a bad guy is or what a matches.
Guest:And it's like, sure.
Guest:There's been patterns of stuff.
Guest:A body slam is a body slam, but we can do whatever we want.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No one's telling us what to do.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Really?
Guest:So why don't we do like, it would be such a waste of time and resources to not go into areas we haven't gotten into before.
Guest:sure just to me just as like a i feel like i'm the board wrestling fan you know what i mean and especially when you you get close to success or seeing wwe and you're like okay well i was there and i still wasn't thrilled about what was going on i'm more interested in what else can we do what does happen when you sing ethel merman to a wrestling fan
Guest:Let's just find out.
Guest:What's the harm?
Guest:Would not be the worst thing that's happened in wrestling.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Were there any ideas that were just a little too, you know, Tony was like, maybe, maybe not.
Guest:Maybe we shouldn't do X. I will say, Tony Storm, as a person, has much, much, much... She's always the one with the wildest ideas.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Easily the most.
Guest:And I also think that...
Guest:Comes across, especially just in AEW in general, that the talent is driving the creative and that they're connected to it.
Guest:This is them doing what they want to do.
Guest:Whether they realize it or not, they have the space to do that, which is great.
Guest:No, the one thing I will take, I'll take credit for nothing but this, and that is getting Ben Mankiewicz involved.
Guest:I was going to ask you, who did that?
Guest:It was you?
Guest:That's all me.
Guest:Everyone else takes every credit for everything because, and I'm serious, they should.
Guest:Tony Khan, Tony Storm, Ben Manguis is fucking mine.
Yeah.
Guest:um the great collaboration we did we did we did a thing where it's like there was these short films and they and then tony say introduce them as like i introduced them tcm style and i said like like robert osborne and he's like robert osborne's dead like ben mankowitz and i said i'm not ben mankowitz and ben mankowitz to me is like my babe ruth oh yeah this
Guest:You're like, ooh.
Guest:So I started one of them off by saying, good evening, I'm not Ben Mankiewicz.
Guest:Which, I mean, it's my sick, perverted, let's mention Ben Mankiewicz on a wrestling show.
Marc:Like Beetlejuice.
Guest:But if I have that little space, I'm going to go, well, no one said that before on a wrestling show.
Guest:And then TCM grabbed a hold of it and messaged me because they've had no one on their social media under 65.
Guest:So they were thrilled.
Guest:This was like, oh my God.
Guest:And I was like, guys, I'm available.
Guest:Like whatever you want to do.
Guest:And I knew Mario Cantone and he was friends with TCM.
Guest:And I'm like, guys, I'm like, please, whatever you want to do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was so friendly.
Guest:And the TCM people were so nice.
Guest:And the Warner people are so nice.
Guest:And it snowballed into this little thing.
Guest:And then, like, he did the intro for Tony Storm once.
Guest:And I was just like, oh, rarely.
Guest:Of all the amazing stuff that goes on in AEW, I'm usually so bogged down.
Guest:And, like, the workings of everything that you like.
Guest:I don't get a second to enjoy it.
Guest:But that was just like.
Guest:Yeah, he got a full graphic and everything.
Guest:Ben Mangowitz tonight.
Guest:And then, like, wrestlers' mothers were messaging them going, I'm watching the show tonight, Ben Mangowitz is on.
Guest:But it is.
Guest:When you do different things, you reach different people.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Guest:It's not a waste.
Marc:No.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:And you got to be at the TCM studio where Ben does his thing, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:How was that?
Guest:That was unbelievable.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So it was at the, in Atlanta.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:And that's also where they had filmed a bunch of old WCW stuff.
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think they did power hour or whatever they did.
Guest:There was like one guy there who was like 75 and he was like, I remember Mike today.
Guest:And it was amazing just to be there and then to walk on that set, to say hi to him.
Guest:I was just like, don't fuck this up.
Guest:It's all I could think was just don't fuck this out.
Guest:And then he was great and he was fascinated by all of it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did he watch, you know, matches and stuff?
Guest:He's all up on Tony Storm.
Guest:Okay, great.
Guest:We got him again to narrate the story of Tony and Mariah before –
Guest:They wrestled at Wembley Stadium.
Guest:It really was one of those things where this to you, you're saying you mentioned it, you thought it was this kind of fun thing to do on the air, then it winds up snowballing and becomes a thing.
Guest:But then when you look at it as the end product, especially the end result of this whole story they told,
Guest:It was a great element, like it was a necessary element almost to kind of help put that whole story over the top.
Guest:And so I just think it's one of those things, part of a creative process where every little thing matters.
Guest:And in the end, somebody's contribution here winds up snowballing into somebody's contribution there.
Guest:And that's how you tell the whole story.
Guest:Yes, but I will say none of it would be possible without a crew of just incredibly talented wrestlers.
Guest:That's absolutely true.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, that was the base.
Guest:I mean, and believe me, I've just fucked around before.
Guest:It is not that good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like tweeted LeVar Burton before, and he didn't really add anything to my wrestling career.
Guest:Well, you've talked all about this stuff, you know, that you do the kind of sum total of you, all these things.
Guest:And I want people to know that if they want to watch what RJ's talking about, his Hey EW interview show, that's on the AEW YouTube channel.
Guest:You do this YouTube show with Renee Paquette, Dinner and a Match.
Guest:That's also on YouTube at the TBS YouTube show.
Marc:I love that, by the way.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:It's, you know, we, it took so long to get made and it was like our tribute to dinner in a movie.
Guest:And then they brought back dinner in a movie.
Guest:And it's like, fuck you, Jason Biggs.
Guest:You got nothing else to do.
Guest:Sit at home, cash the Saving Silverman residuals.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like your own business.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Stay off my lawn.
Guest:Some pies that need attention.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I also want people to know if you're in the Chicago area that RJ and and our friend Colt Cabana are going to be doing all elite comedy live at the Chicago Lincoln Lodge next Tuesday.
Guest:I don't know if you're sold out yet.
Guest:It looked like you were limited tickets left.
Guest:I was told yesterday that we are sold out.
Guest:All right.
Guest:So maybe you're out.
Guest:I'm sure they didn't respect fire codes.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Squeeze in there or go, go, go, uh, you know, black market yourself some tickets too.
Guest:Let me say this.
Guest:It's the real hook is that Tony Schiavone is doing standup.
Guest:That's what I have on here.
Guest:I was going to say, what is Tony Schiavone going to do on this thing?
So,
Guest:We had a thing, like we set up the comedy show, I think the first one, and you have to clear it.
Guest:You have to send like an email of just like, these are the dates, this is what we're doing, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Guest:And then I got this message saying like, hey, do you have any time on your show?
Guest:What?
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Yeah, I do.
Guest:I was like, whatever you want, as long as you want, like whatever you want to do.
Guest:Oh, that's amazing.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I'm thrilled to be at this show.
Guest:You have a poster with all the wrestlers on there.
Guest:I see Orange Cassidy.
Guest:He's a funny guy.
Guest:Harley Cameron.
Guest:That seems makes sense.
Guest:You know, Evil Uno.
Guest:I see him on Twitch all the time.
Guest:And then there's Tony Schiavone.
Guest:I'm like, what is he going to be like Ed McMahon?
Guest:Is he just there to like chuckle and laugh the whole time?
Guest:He's doing comedy.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I'm very excited.
Guest:This was all his.
Guest:And I said, whatever you want to do.
Marc:Oh, that's great.
Marc:Does he have a tight 10 or what?
Guest:Hey, I hope so.
Marc:An ambling 20.
Guest:I don't want to give the lights to Tony Schiavone.
Guest:I don't need that in my life.
Guest:And okay, well, you also will be at the Full Gear pay-per-view this Saturday.
Guest:Chris and I are going to that in Newark.
Guest:And you can watch RJ on the pregame show, The Zero Hour, which is on YouTube starting at 6.30 Eastern.
Guest:And the talk about bringing people in from other areas, the Ben Mankiewicz idea and that on this pregame show is going to be a thing that Chris and I have had to educate ourselves on.
Guest:We had no idea what this was, but the Costco guys who are very popular, very popular TikTok thing.
Guest:And I do have to know, are you going to fight the Rizzler?
Guest:Let me say this.
Guest:Obviously, I balance everything out with the high culture end.
Guest:Someone had to tip the scales to the other side.
Guest:For every Ben Mankiewicz, there's a Costco guy.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:You're like, I'll be over here doing a James Mason impression and Costco guys will be raiding a donut.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Hey, Rizzler, do you like Peter Falk?
Guest:So the Costco guy used to wrestle 20 years ago.
Guest:And clearly he's had this void in his life.
Guest:And now he's got this TikTok thing which blew up.
Guest:He is a worker, man.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm fascinated.
Guest:I don't know if I like it or I hate it, but I'm fascinated to see it.
Guest:I think it's wrestling in a nutshell.
Guest:My only, you know, I just hope I can get them on AEW and hopefully just get to the bottom of like, what is a TikTok family like?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:How did you steal this child who's not in your family and have him at your side all the time?
Guest:I'll give away my first question for HeyW is, why does the algorithm love you?
Marc:Can your second question be boom or doom on Jessica Lange?
Marc:Go through all the actors.
Guest:Well, listen, RJ, thank you so much for giving us your time, giving us your insight and having fun.
Guest:You're a fun time, as everyone knows.
Guest:I don't think there'd be any other reason why you would be able to sit across from someone like, I don't know, Jay White and say ridiculous things to his face.
Guest:You did say one thing.
Guest:It was recently to a wrestler named Diamante, who's an out wrestler.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And you said this.
Guest:I wish I had this in my hip pocket when I took Mark to wrestling because his fear was like, oh, this is going to be a bro thing.
Guest:I'm going to show up.
Guest:It's going to be like a UFC fight and whatever.
Guest:And I wish I had this line, which you said to her.
Guest:You said, wrestling is so gay that being gay in wrestling is actually less gay than not being gay.
Yeah.
Guest:And that is something I've been searching for to articulate my whole life.
Guest:And that's perfect.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It is the outlet for male intimacy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There you go.
Guest:It really, really is.
Guest:So it's not a bro thing.
Guest:The bros are running from what this actually is.
Guest:as you know hopefully they run much farther than they have yeah and if if mark needs to follow up on the homoerotic underpinnings of this entire industry let me know oh absolutely you'll be on speed dial yes thank you all right rj thanks a lot this is yes whatever you guys ever need you guys are fantastic thanks man awesome all right thank you guys
Guest:Okay, like we said, AEW's full gear is this Saturday.
Guest:That's a pay-per-view.
Guest:But if you want to watch RJ City, that is free on YouTube.
Guest:That pregame show starts at 6.30.
Guest:Hopefully, he will give a stink face to the Rizzler or whatever.
Guest:And you can watch his other stuff on YouTube.
Guest:As you could tell from us talking to him, he's a super fun guy.
Guest:I'd love to have him back.
Guest:We should have him on to just...
Guest:talking chit chat about bullshit from from time to time and in fact there's something kind of perfect that he could have probably contributed to that we're going to talk about for next week's show it is the 2024 film the beekeeper which chris told me to watch and i am still not sure i have forgiven him for that
Guest:And so because of that, we will go through that next week when we are actually not here on Black Friday.
Guest:We're going to record that in advance.
Guest:So next week will be a special Friday show presentation where we pick apart the beekeeper at Chris's request.
Marc:And for everyone, for everyone, it's on Amazon Prime.
Marc:It's a great movie to watch Thanksgiving night.
Marc:Your bellies are full.
Guest:When you have the like a turkey hangover.
Guest:Yeah, that might be the best possible way or some other kind of, you know, delusion.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like you do a bunch of heroin and watch this.
Guest:Fine.
Marc:Don't do heroin and watch this.
Marc:That doesn't seem fun.
Guest:Don't smoke crack.
Guest:The other thing to mention is that Sex, Lies, and Videotape and True Grit are the movies Chris and I have picked.
Guest:We will be watching those and talking about them in two weeks.
Guest:Get up on those.
Guest:And before then, I want you all to have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.
Guest:Thank you for joining us here on the Friday show week to week.
Guest:We appreciate you being here.
Guest:We appreciate you being with the full Marin.
Guest:And I am Brendan, and that is Chris.
Peace.