BONUS The Friday Show - Ringside Scares and Electric Chairs
Guest:that animated opening if i turned on my tv today if i'd never seen this thing and i turned on my tv and i saw that 30 seconds yeah and i had no idea what any of it was i would not be going anywhere like i'm watching this whatever this is this looks horrible and i must find out what this is
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Brendan.
Guest:How's it going, my friend?
Guest:It's good.
Guest:We're heading into the real shank of spooky seats.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:You really, you know, last call sort of thing.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:We carved a pumpkin yesterday.
Guest:Nice.
Guest:It came out great.
Guest:I realized, man, like this is like the best part of it.
Guest:Like when you're, like the preparation, like, you know, if you're not a kid anymore, like the actual trick or treat, like,
Guest:You're just an observer.
Guest:You get to watch it going on.
Guest:You're writing shotgun.
Guest:These final days of prepping stuff, we carve the pumpkin, we cook the pumpkin seeds.
Guest:Oh, nice.
Guest:You get those smells in the air and everything.
Guest:Man, I love it.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:That's some good stuff.
Marc:Did you go apple picking at all?
Guest:No, we can't.
Guest:You know, my wife with a broken ankle and everything.
Guest:We haven't done something like that this year.
Guest:We used to do it every single year.
Guest:Here in New York, we would drive up to Fishkill Farms, which is, you know, maybe about an hour and a half north.
Guest:And man, that's the best.
Guest:You go on the hay rides, you go in the corn maze, you get some apple cider donuts.
Guest:Like, I can't, like, the way I talk about it and I think about it, it's like how most people are at like Christmas, right?
Guest:We're like, you know, oh, yeah.
Guest:Get the mistletoe out.
Guest:Right, exactly.
Guest:Oh man, I love this time.
Guest:I love everything about fall.
Guest:It's probably from being like a lifelong Northeasterner.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:There's the leaf peeping and all that good stuff for sure.
Guest:How about you?
Guest:You doing anything Halloween-wise?
Marc:I'm going up to Sleepy Hollow on Saturday.
Marc:They're having like some sort of Halloween parade.
Marc:And my wife's friend is dressing up as like some Labyrinth character, like David Bowie's character from Labyrinth.
Marc:And she asked everyone to dress up as a character from them, from that show.
Marc:From Labyrinth?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So I...
Marc:You're Jennifer Connelly?
Marc:No, I'm dressing up as this, I don't know, it's like a blue worm.
Marc:I've never seen it before.
Marc:It's a blue worm.
Marc:I have to have like a blue wig and it looks awful.
Marc:Wait, what?
Marc:Yeah, I don't know what this character is.
Marc:You never saw Labyrinth?
Marc:I mean, I've seen it once.
Marc:I'm not like, oh, yes, Labyrinth.
Marc:I can recite poetry from it.
Marc:Have you seen it more than once?
Marc:Oh, I remember this thing.
Marc:Yeah, you look kind of like that.
Marc:Oh, that makes me feel terrible.
Guest:Oh, I'm just burying you on this thing.
Guest:That thing is, yeah, that's just like a little classic Jim Henson puppet.
Guest:It's a tiny little thing.
Guest:So you have a red scarf and everything that's going to go along?
Marc:Oh, I need a red scarf?
Marc:Yeah, I have a red scarf up in the attic.
Marc:Oh, go for it.
Marc:I have one of those things that late-era Hulk Hogan would have.
Marc:What's that thing?
Marc:The blue thing?
Marc:Well, anyway, it would be like Hulk Hogan colors.
Marc:It's like a—what's it called?
Marc:A singlet?
Marc:No, it's like a thing you drape over yourself.
Guest:A boa.
Marc:Yeah, a boa.
Marc:That's the word I'm looking for.
Marc:Yeah, so I have one of those.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, it'll be fine.
Guest:How about your entertainment diet this week?
Guest:What have you been taking in?
Marc:Dude, I mean, I saw Killers of the Flower Moon, which... Oh, yeah, that's right.
Marc:Go out and see it.
Marc:It is the best.
Marc:It is the best three and a half hour movie you'll see.
Marc:Go see it in the theater.
Marc:It is fun.
Marc:I mean, it is just...
Marc:Awesome.
Marc:It's awesome to see a Martin Scorsese movie.
Guest:I had that same reaction with the Irishman in the theater.
Guest:Like I went to see that in the theater and was like, this is the best.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, and, you know, it could have been three more hours.
Guest:I would have been totally fine with that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:This movie is awesome.
Marc:There's, there's only one problem with it and it's a, it's a, it's a little speed bump, but besides that, it is a perfect, perfect movie.
Guest:And you'll know, like that's that sequence that's in a anime style.
Yeah.
Marc:The stop motion was really strange.
Marc:I mean, I don't want to say anything.
Marc:I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.
Marc:Go see it.
Marc:It is the best thing I've seen in all of entertainment this week, for sure.
Marc:Oh, that's great.
Marc:But I've also been on a steady diet of your show.
Marc:I really enjoyed Joan Baez, who I personally was never into her music.
Marc:And Mark mentioned that he was not really into her music up until he was prepping for this
Marc:interview we watched the documentary which I'm really fascinated about I kind of have to seek it out now but he got like a whole new appreciation for her which I thought was great and has that ever happened to you was there ever like a phenomenon that you just didn't get into at the time but you later found it to be you know incredible
Guest:Huh.
Guest:I mean, I think it's a lot more likely for it to happen in regards to something that's from before my time.
Guest:So specifically something like Joan Baez, there'd be no way for me to have any context about what it was like in the 60s to be experiencing that.
Guest:It's all through history, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I think a situation like that...
Guest:There's a lot more focus on it historically than something that just kind of passes as a fad or as something that had popularity at a time before I was alive or conscious of it.
Guest:You know, so it's like...
Guest:We lived through the grunge era and everything, right?
Guest:So there's nothing that you're going to say that surprises me about the popularity of some early 90s band.
Guest:Even if I wasn't into them, I'm not going to feel like, oh, that got by me and now it's shocking.
Guest:But I will absolutely admit to the fact that...
Guest:in my forties, I have now come to like appreciate Steely Dan.
Guest:Like that is totally like a version of that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, like literally went from being in my teens and twenties where I was like, this is the worst, get it off the radio.
Guest:This is my roommate in college.
Guest:And I used to call it filler music.
Guest:We were like, this is the songs you put on in between the good songs on the radio.
Guest:Oh, that's just to like fill time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, uh, and then I kind of like got ironically into Steely Dan, like, you know, like the, well, like, like, uh, from, uh, Oh, hello.
Guest:The, the John Mulaney thing, like how those guys love Steely Dan.
Guest:And like, I, I would enjoy it from the level of you could goof on it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But there was just some point, I don't know.
Guest:So it's probably like summertime stuff, like what, what, you know, yacht rock radio or some shit like that, which in itself is like making fun of it.
Guest:It was for douchebags on a yacht.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, and, and I just, you know, got to listening to it and it's, it does exactly what all the like stereotypes about it does.
Guest:It's like way overproduced.
Guest:There's like all the, and that, but then at this age you start like listening to it and you're like,
Guest:oh, wow, I hear what they're doing in the background there with those horns.
Guest:That's amazing.
Guest:And it starts to sound great.
Guest:And you know my friend Pete, and Pete works in a speaker shop.
Guest:They refurbish old speakers, and every now and then he has a demo session.
Guest:Come check out our speakers.
Guest:And man, you go there, and he just plays some Steely Dan on those speakers, and it sounds great.
Guest:Fucking incredible.
Guest:So yeah, I, I would definitely check that off my list of like things I did not get and totally get now.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, I, I did that with, uh, uh, with the talking heads.
Marc:I was, uh, I, I didn't get into them when I was a kid.
Marc:Um, but I saw, uh, the, the, uh, David Byrne, um, American utopia and.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:That late, huh?
Marc:That late.
Marc:It was like during the pandemic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Hey, like, listen, here's the thing.
Guest:Can I offer a little bit of advice to somebody who just heard Chris say that if you heard him say that and you went like, oh, my God, you didn't get into talking heads until 2021 or whatever.
Guest:Slow your roll.
Guest:And be thrilled that he is into it.
Guest:Like, it is a thing.
Guest:I had to condition myself to this.
Guest:It's like, Mark used to say it all the time on the show.
Guest:There's no late to the party anymore.
Guest:Like, let people get into things whenever they get into them.
Guest:And then you should be thrilled that they're going to experience it anew.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because, like, I went to see Stop Making Sense with you.
Guest:I had no idea that you were kind of, like, newly into the talking heads from that.
Marc:Yeah, I'm newly into it and love it.
Marc:I listen to it like weekly.
Marc:I absolutely adore it.
Marc:So yeah, I was late to the party.
Marc:At the time, I'll just let everyone know, I was listening to like Led Zeppelin.
Marc:So I was like 10 years removed from Led Zeppelin.
Marc:You know, I was like an 80s, 90s kid and I was still listening to Led Zeppelin in the 90s.
Marc:So really, I just sort of skipped over the talking heads.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So yeah.
Guest:I think you need, you know, anytime something comes, it has its heyday before you're alive, right?
Guest:You need that entry point, right?
Guest:And if it's not a clean cut, like, you know, if it's not something where you're like, oh, this is a thing that I already love and it has brought me along to this other thing, right?
Guest:So for me, Talking Heads, I'll tell you exactly why I got into Talking Heads.
Guest:Why is that?
Guest:Weird Al Yankovic.
Guest:why so when i was a kid i had all the weird al albums and i would say this is not exclusive to talking heads this happened i don't know i want to say a dozen times maybe maybe 20 artists that i first discovered because i heard weird al do some kind of parody or or a style uh version of their song and there was a there was a song on his album polka party called dog eat dog and it's not
Guest:a straight up parody.
Guest:It's like a style parody, he would call them, where they're like, you know, in the style of a band, right?
Guest:Gotcha.
Guest:And it's like a guy singing about being like a paper pusher at an office job, and he's singing like David Byrne, and it's like,
Guest:I remember thinking, like, this sounds so cool.
Guest:This is great.
Guest:And, you know, you look it up, and it's, like, in the style of talking heads.
Guest:And I think, you know, I probably knew about Burning Down the House.
Guest:Like, that maybe had some radio play or airplay.
Guest:But once I was in on that Weird Al level and could go seek stuff out, I think the next big step was Once in a Lifetime, right?
Guest:Like, once I hit on that, and that's a, like, real poppy song, basically.
Guest:Like, you could...
Guest:You know, you could be in any type of music fan and you like once in a lifetime.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And and then I remember seeing the video and doing the thing with his hand and he had the big suit.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like all the iconography.
Guest:Like once that clicked in, I was like, oh, great.
Guest:Can I have an album, please?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then it's like.
Guest:Oh, remain in light.
Guest:This is awesome.
Guest:You know, but, but if you don't have that and it's from before you, you know, it's why Mark always talks about having that like older brother or the guy at the record store, right?
Marc:You need, you need an inroad.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:Totally, yeah.
Marc:I don't have that still with Pink Floyd.
Marc:I still can't stand them.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah, I cannot.
Marc:Like, they are my Fleetwood Mac, where if a song's on the radio with just, like, ambient noise, I'm like, oh, this must be this band I can't stand, Pink Floyd.
Marc:Oh, that's funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But that's interesting, because I wonder where that caught you.
Guest:Like, is it because you've heard, like...
Guest:it was because you've like listened to like classic rock radio and there's like, you know, stuff from dark side of the moon.
Guest:That's got like, you know, long, almost like prog rock jazzy parts.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you're like, I can't latch onto any of this.
Guest:Right.
Marc:It is.
Marc:It is not something I like.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:No, hey, that happens.
Guest:I get it.
Marc:I also liked your producer cuts.
Marc:I really like a monthly roundup of producer cuts.
Marc:That was really smart of you.
Guest:Yeah, that's kind of how it's shaping up, because they just wind up being an episode's length of stuff once a month is up.
Guest:So yeah, I think as long as we keep doing that, that's fine.
Guest:If we skip a month, because I shouldn't be going out of my way to come up with stuff.
Guest:It's just if it happens, it happens.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Yeah, it was like the fact that I can put longer chunks of things in there.
Guest:Like if I like with the Gary Goldman episode, I wound up cutting out about like 10 minutes just for length.
Guest:And and that winds up going into the producer cuts or it's just like little things like the LeVar Burton thing.
Guest:Like, OK, yeah, I just want to hear that one minute or whatever.
Guest:Star Trek.
Marc:How is that possible?
Guest:I think I told you this, that I had to send him aggravated voice memos of me pronouncing it so that he would stop saying Star Trek.
Guest:I guess it probably started somewhere around the William Shatner episode.
Guest:I just noticed it.
Guest:It was just noticeable.
Guest:I was like, is he saying Star Trek?
Guest:Like he's not saying and I like there's some words Mark says that aren't exactly the way I've heard things pronounced.
Guest:Like he says like, oh, what's the one thing that he says that's really, really weird?
Guest:When I've seen it come up in a script or something, I'm like, I got to change that because he says it too weird.
Guest:Oh, it's it's he can't say the word won't.
Guest:Like the contraction of will not.
Guest:What does he say instead of won't?
Guest:Won't.
Guest:Like two O's.
Guest:Shut up.
Guest:Yeah, he says you, like, I remember it was something in an ad copy that was like, you won't be caught off guard.
Guest:And he kept saying, you won't be caught off guard.
Guest:I was like, what the fuck word are you saying?
Yeah.
Marc:How?
Marc:I mean, listen, talking into a microphone is very hard, as I can now tell you.
Marc:But how do you get that word wrong for so long?
Marc:How did we not?
Guest:It's just what is in his head for that word.
Guest:And if I say it to him, I'm saying, can you say won't?
Guest:He's like, yeah, won't.
Guest:I'm like, I still hear the weird shit in there.
Guest:Like, it's like, it doesn't come out a hundred percent.
Guest:It's like, it's still, I still hear there's, it still, still sounds shitty.
Guest:Like, can you make it not shitty?
Marc:That's amazing.
Marc:Now all I want him to say is won't in the weird way that he says it.
Guest:Holy shit.
Guest:Poor Donald Glover.
Guest:He can't say that guy's name either.
Guest:No?
Guest:What did he say?
Guest:No.
Guest:I've said, I've told him a million times.
Guest:It's Glover.
Guest:Like you wear a glove.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he calls him Glover.
Guest:No, come on.
Guest:All the time.
Guest:Anyone with the last name Glover.
Guest:Danny Glover.
Guest:Any Glover.
Guest:What?
Guest:It's Glover.
Guest:It's Glover.
Guest:Interesting.
Guest:Yeah, like Grover from Sesame Street.
Guest:That is amazing.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Don't even get me into what he was calling Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Guest:I threw my headset off my ears.
Guest:It's like, oh, my God.
Guest:We got to put an end to that right away.
Guest:We need a speech coach instead.
Guest:I'm not going to get canceled just because he can't say this guy's name.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Imagine you didn't correct him the entire time.
Guest:That would have been an act of sabotage.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Well, I loved the producer talks, like I said.
Marc:Michael Simon, I really appreciated your reason for cutting the Michael Simon stuff.
Marc:Because him rattling off other celebrity chefs where you don't know their last names would have been just too, like, obscure.
Marc:And I couldn't.
Guest:And it's fine if somebody says, hey, these are chefs that, you know, like so and so and so and so and then hear the clip.
Guest:That's fine.
Guest:But it does.
Guest:No, there's there are so many times where I'll just like put the mental brakes on something while I'm listening to it and go like, I can't.
Guest:This is not translating going forward.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I have to stop and pull it out.
Marc:Did you do that on the Chevy Chase interview as well?
Marc:I remember, like, the intro to that is like, oh, well, or maybe it was someone else.
Marc:But you were like, oh, so, you know, I'm talking about so-and-so when I say this person's name or something.
Marc:Yeah, sometimes I'll point that out, too.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Because it'll be something I either don't want to or really shouldn't remove, like, if it's...
Guest:fairly important in the in the conversation i'll tell him hey look just set this up right like you know and he does it well he sets it up well like we well we just got to talking and we wound up mentioning the name you know rick and rick is this person you know like i'm fine with doing it that way too
Guest:yeah i gotcha uh but with uh restaurants are you are you a big food guy do you like go out of your way to like go to michelin star restaurants and that sort of thing no not anymore i feel like i've i feel like that time has uh passed for me i feel like you know it was uh there was a period of time where i'd like to go to any restaurant that i heard get talked up or a big review or something you know you see uh something on like uh you know the food network oh that the
Guest:best burger i've ever had is at this place in new york and it's like well i could go there why don't i try it you know there are there are also always like lists of like oh the best this and the best that i think uh you know grub street the website oh yeah do that stuff all the time so i would seek that stuff out but like yeah i think those days have passed
Marc:Yeah, same for me, honestly.
Marc:There was a year where it was like right after the pandemic, you know, or right after the height of the pandemic, where we went to a few of the best restaurants in the world.
Marc:Like we had saved up our money and, you know, we weren't going anywhere.
Marc:So we flew to places.
Marc:Like I went to this place in Italy that's like the number three restaurant in the whole world.
Marc:I went to Per Se and the guys say, they're all super not fun.
Marc:They're the opposite of fun.
Marc:It is a bore to be at these really nice restaurants that if you drop your napkin, they have someone come over and fold you a new one.
Marc:It's just not a fun experience.
Marc:There's only once.
Marc:We went to a really nice restaurant and it was...
Marc:Super fun.
Marc:It was this place in Barcelona called Tickets.
Marc:And it was an incredible time.
Marc:It was the best dining experience that we've ever had.
Marc:The food was playful.
Marc:The atmosphere was like being at a carnival for dessert.
Marc:They whisk you off to a different room.
Marc:And it's just like Willy Wonka where, you know, you go through a tunnel and you're in this like...
Marc:really fun pastry shop and you know they're making the pastries for you it was it was fantastic and unfortunately closed because of the pandemic but yeah yeah that was i i would recommend it to absolutely everyone but i as i was telling aaron um after like the latest like nice restaurant i went to was like you know what i'm kind of done like these places are not fun for me if you want to go that's fine i'm not in i'm gonna go to like like
Marc:A normal place like there's this restaurant called Roschioli, I want to say.
Marc:It's an Italian shop.
Marc:They just opened one in Manhattan.
Marc:Fun.
Marc:It's bare bones.
Marc:It's just you order pasta and it's delightful.
Marc:We're also going to London.
Marc:We're just going to all these Odolenghi shops.
Marc:Do you know Odolenghi?
Marc:No, that's a guy I would love for Mark to interview.
Marc:He's yeah.
Marc:He's from Israel.
Marc:All his his food is Middle Eastern and it is just delicious food.
Marc:I actually make it.
Marc:He has like 20 cookbooks.
Marc:Wait, is he the laser wolf guy?
Marc:No, he's not the laser wolf guy.
Marc:Because we went to that place.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And that's as high end as I want to go, by the way.
Marc:Yeah, right, right, right.
Marc:That was delicious.
Marc:There were dips.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:But yeah, Odolenghi, super fun, super accessible.
Marc:He has like little delis in London.
Marc:Can't wait to go to literally all of his little restaurants.
Marc:But yeah, that's a guy I would love for Mark to talk to one day.
Guest:Well, that's cool.
Guest:You know, Mark does love talking to chefs and a little preview here.
Guest:You know, I don't usually do this because when we haven't actually recorded the interview yet, you know, it's always, you know, it could not happen.
Guest:Somebody cancels, somebody gets sick, whatever.
Guest:But we're supposed to, in the first week of November, have Jose Andres.
Guest:Oh, awesome.
Guest:Awesome.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So that's that's an exciting one because, you know, obviously he's a great chef and he's got fun stuff to talk about with food.
Guest:But also but like his real story is that he's flying around the world trying to feed everyone and going to disaster areas.
Guest:And that's the real crux of having that guy on.
Guest:I want to talk to him.
Guest:So, yeah, Mark always likes talking to chefs and it usually pans out well.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:Yeah, I really enjoy it.
Marc:It's, you know, ever since Anthony Bourdain, it's just like, oh, yeah, this is just like a fun time.
Marc:Mark likes cooking.
Marc:He likes, you know, this sort of thing.
Marc:I'm all for it.
Guest:And the personality type of a chef is often very close to that of like a comic.
Guest:Yeah, totally.
Guest:You know, traveling entertainer.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You take your wares on the road and yeah, for sure.
Marc:For sure.
Marc:Also this week you had Jeanette McCurdy, who was a trivia, part of a trivia question from Learned League.
Marc:Do you remember that?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I do, I do.
Guest:And, you know, basically, I was well up on the book by the time that it came out and everything.
Guest:But, I mean, I had no context for her either because, you know, I'm too old for iCarly and those Nickelodeon shows, but my kid is too young for when they happen, right?
Guest:Like, I could imagine if I was 10 years older, I would have known her entirely because it would have been on in my house all the time.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Or if I was, you know, 10 or 15 years younger, maybe even younger than that, I would have been watching it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because it's like they were the popular kid sitcoms of the day.
Guest:When that book came out, I was like, well, that's interesting.
Guest:Like just as a concept of the book.
Guest:Good title.
Guest:You know, it was provocative.
Guest:And I looked into it and I was like, oh, my God, this is like a person who has to talk to Mark.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And they're like kindred spirits.
Right.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And so when the book first came out, we tried to get her on and it just couldn't line up.
Guest:But so now with her doing this podcast, I figured it was a good time.
Guest:Also, you know, the book is still it's still on the bestseller list.
Guest:It's been on there for like 60 weeks or whatever.
Guest:So it still worked out that it was just one of those great ones where Mark fully trusted me on that because he was like, I have no idea who this is.
Guest:Never heard of her.
Guest:Never heard of the book.
Guest:catchy title i'll read it and he read the whole thing and as you heard from that that interview he was in yes i i couldn't have been happier with that one just like as a as a listener even not even just the person who produced it i was like wow this is like stuff i have never heard before
Guest:Just people talking about this and they, you know, I have a good relationship with my parents, so I don't have the same problem that they're going through.
Guest:But I also am always looking for ways to engage my empathy around this kind of stuff.
Guest:And like, anytime you can present something to me where it helps me understand other people's life better, I'm...
Guest:more than open to it.
Guest:I would welcome it.
Guest:And yeah, that was a, it was more than just her story.
Guest:It was more than just Mark relating to her story.
Guest:It was the knowledge that there are millions of people who are going through this same type of thing that is no fault of their own.
Guest:just truly from traumatic abuse, emotional or manipulative abuse in their childhood that has caused myriad problems and how are they getting through it.
Guest:I was really blown away by that talk.
Guest:It was one of those kind of talks where I was like in the middle of listening to it and I'm texting Mark like,
Guest:dude, this is remarkable.
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:It was, and like you were saying, it wasn't just Mark's side of the story or her story.
Marc:It was actually them interacting.
Marc:I love their interacting.
Marc:And like, I could tell when Mark busted, you know, busted her good.
Marc:And like, she like, you know, keeled over from laughing.
Marc:Cause like, it was just great.
Marc:And like him doing the therapy thing, like, all right, well, that's our time.
Marc:Come back next week.
Marc:Like it was amazing.
Marc:It was such a deep talk.
Marc:I just really enjoyed it.
Marc:And I felt seen, you know, and like, you know, I don't have as big of a body issue, but like, you know, it's there, you know, I'm a person living in the world, you know, who's not exactly or who's overweight.
Marc:So, you know, I have a thing, but it was great hearing these two people talk in such an honest and open way about this really
Marc:sensitive sort of subject that not, you know, it's not first date type of talk.
Marc:It's really, you know, deep talk.
Marc:So I really, really recommend that episode.
Marc:If you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it because it is great.
Guest:Yeah, that might be the thing too.
Guest:People might think like, you know, oh, that was a person from Nickelodeon.
Guest:I don't know who that is or whatever.
Guest:Skip, yeah.
Guest:I think, you know, especially if you come to the show as a person who has always liked the dynamic Mark has with other comedians and, you know, likes the way that they just talk about life and their struggles and their problems.
Guest:That's the spirit of this conversation, even though they're basically two people from entirely different worlds and generations.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Aside from the emotional turmoil, they have very little in common.
Guest:And yet they're able to connect very, very quickly, like right out of the gate of that talk.
Marc:I was actually curious after Mark's intro, like what music is Brendan going to choose for this?
Marc:And it's just like a rock, you know, rollicking vibe.
Marc:And I was like, okay, this is going to be kind of a, you know, a speedboat type of thing where things are...
Guest:I picked that song that's funny because like I was like what I don't I want to make sure this is not like some down tempo like you know feeling of like we're going into the dark territory right like it's dark stuff and it's heavy and that but it's like these are two people who are not like apologetic about it they're not like well I'm so it's so hard for me to talk about this no they're like yeah let's go let's talk yeah yeah
Guest:Well, yes, if you thought anything about those episodes and want to send us a comment, just go to the episode description and click on the link.
Guest:If you're new here to the Friday show, this is basically what we do.
Guest:We spend some time talking about what was on WTF in the past week, any behind-the-scenes stuff you might want to hear, anything that we've been watching or listening to or otherwise engaged with.
Guest:And then I could take some of your comments at any point.
Guest:And there are a lot of things coming in based on episodes we've done recently.
Guest:Got a ton of feedback about the Siskel and Ebert episode.
Guest:And just general things that are coming in.
Guest:We will do a mailbag episode, like full investment in your comments coming up.
Guest:But because there's so much here about Halloween...
Guest:I want to just focus on those right now.
Guest:The Halloween playlist episode that Chris and I did where we kind of like refreshed the things that happen at Halloween habitually, the movies that get watched, the music that gets played, the costumes that get worn.
Guest:We had people write in with their suggestions and almost everyone wrote song suggestions.
Guest:Got very few movie or costume suggestions, but a ton of song suggestions, some of which I've thought to myself, well, of course.
Guest:Like, why wouldn't I have thought of that?
Guest:Like, Denim from Olympia said, Bella Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, which is absolutely, should be at the tippy top of a Halloween playlist.
Guest:In fact, when we go over to the movie theater by our house here, The Nighthawk,
Guest:They do like a pre-show where they, you know, show clips of things and anything at the holiday, the Halloween season.
Guest:Has that song?
Guest:You know, they, they have like a, yeah, they have like a little like spooky reel that goes as the pre-show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, uh,
Guest:But it doesn't matter what movie that you're seeing, they'll show a clip of Bela Lugosi's dead by Bauhaus because it's actually it's not just the song itself.
Guest:The video is like, you know, black and white, old Hammer film style monster haunted house video.
Guest:So, yeah, that's a great one.
Guest:We got a couple of suggestions from different people on Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Guest:The songs Rattling Bones, that came up a couple of times.
Guest:And then someone else mentioned the song Emmalina's Lullaby.
Guest:Both of those by Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Guest:Someone recommending You're Dead by Norma Taniga, which is the theme song from What We Do in the Shadows.
Guest:That's a great one.
Guest:Oh, awesome.
Guest:I know that.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I mean, that works.
Guest:Even if it wasn't from that show, that would work perfectly.
Guest:But now that it's associated with Dracula's, it's a good one.
Guest:Of course, Hell's Bells by ACDC.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:That one, I feel like probably has gotten a little co-opted by sports.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I don't mind taking it back for Halloween.
Guest:That would be great.
Guest:A bunch of people mentioned Oingo Boingo songs, Dead Man's Party, Flesh and Blood.
Guest:You can even throw Weird Science in there.
Guest:Those all kind of work as Halloween songs.
Guest:And of course, it's Danny Elfman.
Guest:Like, he's Mr. Halloween in many respects.
Guest:Right.
Guest:These three all came from Chelsea and Craig in Portland.
Guest:Ghost Town by The Specials.
Guest:Anything by Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
Guest:I definitely have... I put a spell on you on my playlist.
Guest:And then Every Day is Halloween by Ministry.
Guest:Those are from Chelsea and Craig in Portland.
Guest:They also recommended The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, which I kind of feel like is standard at this point.
Marc:Yeah, isn't that...
Guest:the mainstream Halloween at this point?
Guest:I think so.
Guest:I think you hear it a lot.
Guest:You probably don't hear it as much as Thriller or Ghostbusters or whatever, but I feel like it has crossed over.
Guest:The movie gets played in our house every year.
Guest:That's one of my son's favorites.
Guest:But yes, the soundtrack, and really, Danny Elfman's soundtracks in general, now that we're talking about Oingo Boingo, like...
Guest:A lot of the Danny Elfman stuff is perfect for Halloween, even if it's like Scrooged, which is like a Christmas one.
Guest:But that sounds great at Halloween.
Guest:Someone else sent in a 38-song playlist from Spotify.
Guest:They sent the playlist link.
Guest:And I haven't even gotten through all of it.
Guest:But I'll just pull a couple out of here.
Guest:Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish.
Guest:Dance of Death by Andrew Bird.
Guest:There are a couple of Andrew Bird songs on there.
Guest:when i saw them there i'm like oh of course or like this one you want it darker by leonard cohen uh yes leonard cohen is a halloween guy yeah go nuts with leonard cohen at halloween okay now some longer comments here i want to read these uh in regard to your halloween song suggestions i've got one i'm in manage and produce a punk cabaret band from missoula montana called pale people
Guest:We have a song off our third album, The World Is Yours, called Spirits.
Guest:It's about a couple who are too busy fighting to notice their house is being haunted.
Guest:It's one of our favorite songs to close shows with.
Guest:And one time at a show in Idaho, a guy in the audience had to be carried out by his friends because he sprained his ankle trying to dance to it.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:I can relate to that, my friend.
Guest:uh it is on youtube all streaming platforms again it's called spirits and it's by a band called the world is yours and that's one of our full marion listeners uh so go nuts with that one uh some other comments here about uh the halloween stuff we were talking about particularly the movies uh this person says i love young frankenstein and i'm so old i saw it in a theater
Guest:No way.
Guest:And that's from Randy.
Guest:Now, Randy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think that is totally well-intended, and it shows a good moral grounding of you to say this, but I will say this about Young Frankenstein, which I probably saw at age, I don't know, five for the first time, maybe younger, maybe a little older.
Guest:How about you, Chris?
Guest:You were a kid when you saw it?
Guest:Yes, I was probably 10.
Guest:What did you think was happening with the monster and Madeline Kahn?
Guest:uh i thought they were wrestling i and uh yeah like like i had no idea yeah right no clue uh some things just go over your head like mark was saying about his comedy act that's right what about what about putting on the ritz did you identify that with anything like that seemed like a disabled person or it was not at all
Guest:No, I thought it was a funny monster.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That sounded hilarious.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, like, I totally get it.
Guest:And look, the context of all things should be taken into consideration.
Guest:Like, I think about this all the time with stuff that was, like, made in the 80s when there was, like, all this bad, like, sitcom-level sexism.
Guest:Or, like, you know, we were talking about it here on one of the shows a couple weeks ago about how, like, vacation has this, like, really uncomfortable racial...
Guest:undercurrent to it and and you know it's like some of that stuff you know you're not gonna like show to your kid like oh this is the most hilarious thing i ever saw but like do also trust the fact that like these jokes they're not gonna get kids are not gonna pick up on things that they don't have any context for right and like when i was a kid i didn't know that she was looking at the monster's gigantic dick yeah
Guest:No idea.
Guest:I had no idea.
Guest:And then I had no idea that the monster's dick was awesome and he was good at fucking.
Guest:Had no clue.
Guest:So take all the warnings into consideration.
Guest:I agree with Randy on that.
Guest:But also Young Frankenstein will probably just land for them like it landed for us as like a hilarious movie about a crazy looking Willy Wonka guy and his monster.
Marc:Literally.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:another comment in here it says when you said that Halloween was old and stale at the beginning I thought to myself they need to listen to werewolf bar mitzvah which we did I'm with you on all the recommendations movie wise cabin in the woods and the monster squad have become standard for my group of friends when we gather at this time of year wolf man's got nards indeed
Guest:You guys seem like you might enjoy doing a holiday or Christmas horror movie top five.
Guest:Recent years have yielded more than ever before, but there's some greats out there.
Guest:Rare Exports is holding a high spot on my top five.
Guest:That's a Finnish horror movie about an evil Santa, which I have not seen.
Guest:I didn't know about it until a clip of it was used in our movie trivia league.
Guest:And I was like, what the hell is this movie?
Guest:This looks kind of awesome.
Guest:And it was rare exports, which I still have not watched.
Guest:I'll have to remedy that.
Guest:And yeah, we'll do that during Christmas time.
Guest:I think maybe some type of like offbeat Christmas movie list because Christmas movies definitely need to be freshened up much like the Halloween stuff.
Guest:And I have a lot of good ones and it's not diehard.
Guest:And it's not love.
Guest:Actually, I'm guessing.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Oh, this is a good comment here.
Guest:I want to, I want to focus on this for a second.
Guest:I'm going to respectfully disagree with your opinions on Halloween.
Guest:Granted, I'm a horror fan.
Guest:Yet the main appeal of Halloween is that it's one of the only holidays that allows for nonspecific independent celebration.
Guest:So many others have family tradition or just barbecues.
Guest:Halloween allows everyone, parents and non-parents, to freely participate as they see fit.
Guest:Whether it's watching the movies you were generous enough to suggest, or listening to The Misfits, or Goblin, or just ignoring trick-or-treaters, there's no wrong way to spend the day, and that makes it the best holiday.
Guest:I am totally in agreement with that.
Guest:Fully on board.
Guest:Here's what I would say to this person who wrote this in.
Guest:That can be true while at the same time, as is the case with all holidays, there are culturally dominant strains, right?
Guest:Like there are things that wind up taking over through repetition and through just sheer force of like the commercial entity behind the holidays.
Guest:right you go into the spirit halloween store they're going to be pushing like five big costumes that year right there's going to be the like michael myers animatronic that they're moving and then everybody has it out in front of their house right so like there is a cultural current that goes along with this stuff and so to this person and anyone else that wants to like have their own halloween where they like you know just watch one specific thing or like hell you listen to the misfits you know watch the spirit whatever you want to do yeah but what
Guest:our intention with that episode and any suggestions we make going forward is like freshening up that cultural strain.
Guest:Let's not just let the, like the wave of the monster mash envelop us all.
Guest:Let's get, let's get things moving in here.
Guest:Let's get like some, some fresh things into the bloodstream.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:I, I, I fully stand for the side of individualism, like go nuts with that stuff.
Guest:But like when it comes to the monolithic stuff, the,
Guest:there's a way to make it more inclusive and less stale.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Open it up for new, freshened things, for sure.
Guest:Okay, one last thing.
Guest:You know, I could save this for when we do a mailbag episode, but there's Halloween-specific stuff in here, and I just want to read it.
Guest:You don't have to talk about it too much.
Guest:It's just a really, really nice comment that Chris and I got, and I wanted to share it with you.
Guest:So it starts out.
Guest:Hi, Brennan and Chris.
Guest:Before I forget Halloween.
Guest:Growing up in the 70s in New York, there were days when I came home from school to see an Abbott and Costello movie at 430 until Roger Grimsby and Bill Boytel came on at six to bring us the news.
Guest:Bud and Lou met Dracula, Frankenstein, and the werewolf in one movie.
Guest:Ab and Costello meet the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Guest:I love them all.
Guest:Mysteries, eerie music, campy effects, and a Halloween vibe with famous actors and actresses.
Guest:It's been years since I've watched one so I don't know if they withstood the test of time.
Guest:I just remember being a sensitive kid who never watched horror movies but loved the suspense and humor of those movies.
Guest:I've been wanting to write to you to tell you about how much your Friday show has meant to me.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:I grew up on Long Island, and for many years, my memories were of a shithole that I ran away from in 1996.
Guest:At first, I thought your choice of adding a show about wrestling was a silly idea, but I had heard the interview with Chris Jericho, and I watched every episode of GLOW, so as a rabid fan, I listened.
Guest:Brendan and Chris, you remind me of days watching Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant and hearing my grandmother, aka old piss and vinegar, laughing and screaming at the television.
Guest:Screaming was also a part of watching the Mets every year since 1962, with the exception of 1986.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Those were times when she wasn't yelling at me and this was good.
Guest:But what I liked the best were the stories.
Guest:Your shows remind me just how entertaining those stories were.
Guest:I used to listen to Tim McCarver share stories while he called the game on AM radio.
Guest:Stories, music, painting, and art, these are good memories and the gifts that were given to me.
Guest:Thank you both.
Guest:Come to think of it, my grandmother would yell if she came home and I was watching Bud and Lou.
Guest:She hated them.
Guest:She also hated Danny Kaye, another 430 movie actor preference of mine.
Guest:I know Knock on Wood is a comedy, but that film terrified me.
Guest:I'd say it's also a good Halloween candidate.
Guest:As an adult, Sweeney Todd comes to mind.
Guest:You can't go wrong with a macabre Sondheim song.
Guest:Gratefully yours, Kristen Louise.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:That was a great letter.
Guest:That really was.
Guest:I loved it.
Guest:Holy cow.
Guest:That's the goods.
Guest:And Sweeney Todd happens to be my favorite musical.
Guest:I've seen it more times than I can mention.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:And in more venues.
Guest:And so, yes, that just in the overall sense, spirit of what we're talking about here, that's absolutely a great Halloween edition.
Guest:Watch or listen to Sweeney Todd, preferably the Angela Lansbury, George Hearn version.
Guest:that was taped off of Broadway.
Guest:And yes, Sweeney Todd is a great one, but I don't want to get sidetracked.
Guest:Kristen, great, great letter.
Guest:I couldn't appreciate it more.
Guest:It meant a lot to me and Chris to read that and to know that the show that we're doing here on Fridays is...
Guest:is working for some people.
Guest:And that one of the things that we've done is talk about wrestling on the show.
Guest:Like Kristen said, it's not necessarily something she's a fan of, but there were memories.
Guest:There were things about it that sparked a feeling for her, an emotion, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, all of that stuff.
Guest:And as we approached the Halloween season, and we're just a few days away now, one thing I couldn't get out of my head was wrestling.
Guest:an absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible match that was part of the WCW Halloween Havoc show, October 27th, 1991.
Guest:It might be the worst match that I had ever seen when I was watching wrestling regularly, where I identified it as like, this is terrible, but I could not look away.
Guest:And I felt that I had to go back and rewatch it.
Guest:Chris, I don't believe you ever saw it.
Guest:I don't know that you even knew about it.
Guest:So this was new to you, correct?
Marc:Yeah, it was new to me, Brendan.
Marc:I mean, we're friends, right?
Marc:I mean, you say we're friends.
Marc:Mark says that a friend, I can't believe Mark says that.
Marc:But why did you have me watch this absolute garbage of a match?
Marc:This is...
Marc:Probably the worst thing I've ever seen.
Marc:Well, that's enough of a reason to watch it, isn't it?
Marc:It is.
Marc:I mean, first of all, the name itself.
Marc:What is it?
Marc:Chamber of Hearts.
Marc:Chamber of Hearts.
Marc:It sounds like the next Harry Potter movie.
Marc:It is.
Marc:Quite, quite honestly, historic piece of shit.
Marc:Like, I cannot understate how bad this match is.
Marc:And the setup to it, everything is just horrible from the very opening of this paper.
Guest:All right, wait, wait.
Guest:You got to talk about that opening.
Guest:So it is, I think, charitably described as an animated opening.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:It's animated.
Guest:What would you say happens in this opening?
Marc:Okay, so there's slightly spooky music happening.
Marc:And there's like this lawnmower man type graphics depicting a cemetery.
Guest:The most 90s.
Guest:The most like 1991 thing you could possibly make for $5.
Marc:They're showing faces of wrestlers appearing as ghosts, which, to be honest, it's kind of spooky looking back because most of those wrestlers are dead now.
Marc:So I'm just like, this is just weird and morbid.
Marc:They are haunting you from beyond the grave.
Marc:They are, but it is, and they're going through this horrible house, and we finally get to the actual arena, and it is dressed in what can only be described as a second grade class's Halloween activity.
Marc:Yes, where they have horrible tombstones with horrible writing.
Guest:Wait, wait, wait.
Guest:The tombstones.
Guest:Okay, hang on.
Guest:Hold on.
Guest:Wait a second.
Guest:So, yes, you're correct about you show up at this arena and it's dressed like a second grade play.
Guest:What I will say, though, is that animated opening, if I turned on my TV today, if I'd never seen this thing and I turned on my TV and I saw that 30 seconds and I had no idea what any of it was, I would not be going anywhere.
Guest:Like I'm watching this, whatever this is, this looks horrible.
Guest:And I must find out what this is.
Guest:Like it was so immediately pulled me in.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:And, and then you get Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone, our AEW friends right off the start there.
Marc:Jim Ross has the unfortunate pleasure of getting to some business out of the way.
Marc:He says that there are four championship matches tonight, and we still don't know the identity of the mysterious WCW Phantom.
Marc:What is that?
Marc:So, yes, I know you didn't wind up watching the rest of this pay-per-view, I gather.
Guest:Oh, I did.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:You did?
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:Yeah, because I'm a glutton for punishment.
Marc:But even then, I'm like, okay, who is that wrestler that is the WCW Phantom?
Guest:wait you didn't know who it was you didn't get to the reveal oh wait he pulled off the mask or something yeah yeah yeah yeah it's rick rude oh that is yeah it's it's it's actually one of the legit good reveals in wrestling like uh you know usually those things don't pay off guy in a mask and oh we're gonna find out who this is that is one of the actual few that actually does pay off and it's a legit star so
Marc:So Tony actually says at the end of the match, oh, he did the rude awakening.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:So I guess that's the giveaway there.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:But then he comes out in a promo and takes the mask off.
Marc:Oh, I must have passed out for the promo.
Guest:My apologies.
Guest:No one will fault you for that.
Guest:I can't believe you didn't pass out sooner.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And then Jim says, well, and there's a lot of controversy surrounding the Chamber of Horrors steel cage match.
Marc:And then they they we cut to what could only be described as like the the surface of the sun because it's so bright out.
Marc:It is.
Guest:Well, it's so bright, but it's also like they're shooting it like, you know, in a parking lot or it's like the back of the arena.
Guest:They're at the bottom of a hill.
Guest:There's like a poorly sodded hill.
Guest:like this the is what is this shot that they chose you can put this shot anywhere you can put it just put a blue sky behind them there's this put the back of the arena guys like when i was a kid we did like wrestling in the backyard and filmed it on our camcorder and it looked better than this
Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So, yes, we see a shockingly young Eric Bischoff in a fucking tuxedo.
Guest:You know what's hilarious is that I saw that come out.
Guest:I saw him there standing there and I'm like, you know, this is Halloween havoc.
Guest:This guy looks like Dracula, like he should just be in a Dracula suit.
Guest:Then what happens?
Guest:He's in a Dracula suit.
Guest:I'm like, oh, I'm a genius.
Marc:I knew exactly what this guy was going to look like.
Guest:totally so i don't really understand what he's doing i think he's trying to get intel on the wcw phantom but all he's doing is is like waiting on the valet line for yes all these cars show up guys get out he identifies who they are they move along yes it's all just a setup so that there's cars and guys arriving and so this is they could do an injury angle where uh two guys arne anderson and larry zabisco attack barry windham as he's getting
Guest:out of his car and break his arm now wcw is great with the arm breaking they used to do this all the time like a guy get his arm slammed in the car door or whatever this is like their go-to thing of like oh we're gonna injure a dude yeah dusty roads used to do it all the time right like they attack him in a car slam his slam his arm in it hit him with a bat and then he's out for a month or whatever oh my god
Marc:But they push the car door so gently onto Barry Windham, but he immediately knows that his arm is broken.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:And that's it.
Marc:They're gone.
Marc:And that's the end of the segment.
Guest:Well, I think that was just the context there is I believe he was supposed to be in the Chamber of Horrors match.
Guest:So he was written out of the match with that segment.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And so then we cut back to the to the stadium, which is just you could drop a pin and hear it.
Marc:It is so quiet.
Marc:They are either very somber or they're just bored at this point.
Marc:But then we finally get to start the Chamber of Horrors match.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And we see this set you were talking about, which has like sputtering pyro.
Guest:Like, I don't know if the pyro is supposed to be like that.
Guest:It's just kind of like winking in and out like it's just barely there.
Guest:Or was that malfunctioning pyro?
Guest:Like, was it supposed to go off?
Guest:But now it just looks like Orange Cassidy's pyro.
Guest:It's like like a little.
Guest:little wilted pyro happening everything about this is amazing there's this backdrop that looks like you know it's like charlie brown christmas play type of uh a thing that the cage is looks like it's made out of tinfoil yes surrounding the ring it's so chintzy there are uh giant coffins stacked up in there for no reason like why there's a reason there's a reason we'll get to it
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But then there's these gravestones that you were talking about, which like someone went to Disney world and saw the haunted mansion gravestones.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And was like, Oh, we can have those.
Guest:Like that's what we'll decorate the set with where there'll be puns and stuff.
Guest:But their version of the, the haunted mansion gravestones are here lies bear.
Guest:He was full of hot air.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Here lies Mike.
Guest:He lost it on his bike.
Guest:Oh,
Guest:There's one that's just for the Minnesota Twins.
Guest:I'm guessing maybe they just lost the World Series, right?
Guest:1991.
Marc:Yeah, that makes sense.
Guest:But then there's one.
Guest:Did you see the one that's like right in the front?
Guest:Which one?
Guest:It says, here lies Keith.
Guest:His friends called him Kevin.
Guest:We called him Kurt.
Yeah.
Guest:Is that a fucking KKK reference?
Guest:Like, were they?
Marc:Really?
Guest:What the hell?
Guest:It doesn't rhyme.
Guest:It's not a joke.
Guest:Why?
Guest:What does that mean?
Marc:That.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What does that mean?
Marc:That's that's fucking actually fucked up.
Marc:i mean this is a weird company it's based in atlanta okay it's got like these weird vibes from that yeah oh my god i i was too transfixed on the r in bear being backwards and the the was uh being w-a-z to see the kkk reference oh yeah yay that gives me some fucking heebie-jeebies
Guest:Well, okay, if that didn't give you the heebie-jeebies, then you get the introduction of what this match is, where they're going to explain to you the rules of the Chamber of Horrors.
Guest:Thank God.
Guest:They throw it up to the ring announcer, Gary Michael Capetta, and he says, the first contest of Halloween Havoc from Chattanooga, Tennessee is the chance.
Guest:Chamber of Horrors!
Guest:This special attraction will involve two teams, each team consisting of four team members.
Guest:The match will be confined to the Chamber of Horrors, which is equipped with several instruments of torture.
Guest:The object of the match is to put a member of the opposing team in the Chamber of Horrors chair of torture, and then to pull the fatal lever
Guest:which will render one of the teammates helpless.
Guest:And now the participants in our electrifying first contest.
Guest:The amazing thing is the euphemisms.
Guest:Like they can't call it an electric chair.
Guest:So it's the chair of torture.
Guest:They can't say, then you will pull the lever to electrify the person.
Guest:They say you will pull the fatal lever, which fatal means he's dead.
Guest:Dead, yes.
Guest:It's even worse.
Guest:And then it says it will render one of the teammates helpless.
Guest:Not helpless.
Guest:Helpless means they're not helpless.
Guest:There's plenty of help around that could help.
Guest:They're just going to be electrified.
Right.
Marc:It's an overly complicated situation from the jump, right?
Guest:Speaking of overly complicated, then the teams come out.
Guest:Why do the teams not come out together?
Marc:Well, wait, hold on, because before we even get to that, the team names...
Marc:are team number one and team number two we we didn't we didn't want to take another swing at that we just we just team what was a and b not available what the fuck they got used up in the cemetery
Guest:we used our a for what for the was they get they they trot out these teams and i'm not sure who's on which team the entire time because they they they go all right so el gigante he comes out first yeah he's on team one yeah and then you get three guys from team two in a row
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Why don't you just put all four guys from Team 2 out next?
Marc:It makes no sense whatsoever.
Marc:So Big Van Vader comes out from Parts Unknown.
Marc:Still love it.
Marc:And Vader's got this cool mask.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It was like a samurai helmet that he brought over from Japan and it blew smoke.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That gimmick was pretty cool.
Guest:And yeah, he got rid of it later on.
Marc:But they missed it.
Marc:First of all, he takes it off.
Marc:And then second of all, they cut to a wide shot and they missed the whole smoke.
Guest:When he's blowing the smoke.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And I'm just like, well, you guys blew it.
Marc:You guys blew this one shot.
Guest:I mean, welcome to WCW.
Marc:Yeah, I guess so.
Marc:So Diamond Stud comes out, Razor Ramon.
Marc:Yeah, super gassed.
Marc:He is on so much juice.
Marc:Yeah, he's from the Diamond Bine, by the way.
Marc:Yeah, the Diamond Bine.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:And yeah, I can't believe this is team number two at this point.
Marc:So now team number one has Cactus Jack.
Marc:No, he's on team number two.
Guest:no cactus jack is with big van vader and the diamond stud i'm telling you it's so needlessly confusing yes so he comes out with a chainsaw but he leaves it outside the ring for some reason even though this is a no holds barred thing that implements of torture within the ring go use it no then we go back to team one yeah rick and it's rick and scott steiner right
Guest:Then we're back to team two for Abdullah the Butcher.
Guest:This is like that.
Guest:Remember that Mr. Show sketch about like the pre-taped call-in show?
Guest:And it's like, if you're calling about this topic, call now.
Guest:But next week we're going to talk about... That's how I felt watching these teams come out.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:100%.
Marc:Oh my God.
Marc:And then finally, after Abdul the Butcher comes out, we finally, and also none of these guys have theme music.
Guest:It's all just one theme.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:It's all, it's also a ripoff of the, the Top Gun song, you know, flying to the danger zone song.
Guest:Oh yes.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Listen to that again.
Marc:It is a, a fucking, you know, a copy of that song.
Guest:I,
Guest:I guarantee they just had library music and there was probably a file that literally said highway to the danger zone sound alike.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So that, that was it.
Marc:And then finally we get sting who comes out to his own music and everyone pops for it and it's great.
Marc:Uh, but yeah.
Marc:Sting.
Guest:Sting is like the only guy who cares about being in this match, by the way.
Guest:Like, he's clearly like, you know, he's like the U.S.
Guest:champ at the time.
Guest:He's full surfer Sting.
Guest:He's like their version of Hogan.
Guest:And like this guy knows like it's up to him to carry the company.
Guest:And, you know, he's supposed to be the number one baby face.
Guest:He is trying so hard right away to get this garbage over.
Guest:He fails, but he tried.
Marc:Well, it starts outside the cage.
Marc:So Sting and Cactus Jack are grappling and then Sting throws Cactus Jack into the steel cage.
Marc:And I honestly thought the whole thing was going to crumble at that exact moment.
Marc:It's shaking so much.
Marc:This isn't steel, guys.
Marc:It is like aluminum.
Marc:It swayed and bent when Cactus Jack was slammed into it.
Marc:I was, oh my God.
Guest:It's like an erector set.
Marc:Yes, yes, that's exactly what it is.
Marc:And finally, they all get into the ring.
Marc:But at some point, Jim Ross says, remember, the object of this match is very simple.
Marc:And I nearly spit out my water.
Marc:This is not anywhere close to being simple.
Marc:This is like the most convoluted match I've ever fucking heard of.
Guest:Well, also his thing about how it's very simple is that basically there's no rules until the electric chair comes down.
Guest:So I guess in that level, it is simple.
Guest:You just do whatever you want.
Guest:And then when an electric chair is down, you got to somehow figure out how to put a guy in the electric chair and electrocute him.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And the electric chair is still hanging on the roof or whatever.
Guest:Yeah, we don't see it yet.
Marc:Yeah, we don't see it yet.
Marc:So they're...
Marc:there there's a lot of stuff going on in this match there are refs with cameras on their heads uh the referee camera yes the referee camera but brendan can i ask you something there there are no rules in this match right correct why the fuck is there a referee in this fucking cage just to film it i guess and to be there to to register that the guy was electrocuted to death
Marc:There's a cameraman standing on the ring in this match.
Marc:We don't need this person there.
Guest:This referee is just in harm's way of death.
Marc:All the time.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Also, the referee camera.
Guest:Like, it's actually not the worst idea because it's basically like a GoPro.
Guest:But this is 1991.
Guest:So this thing looks like Homer's hidden camera hat that he wears into the quickie martin.
Guest:it's so big and it like i i guarantee it's just making noise the whole time just like it's the biggest thing ever the guy looks like he's in a camp where he needs like to have a helmet on his head all the time because he's at risk of falling like yes that's exactly what it is
Guest:But then, oh, okay.
Guest:So you were saying there's no reason for coffins in this caged area.
Guest:The cage goes around the ring area.
Guest:It's not just like, it doesn't just stop on the ring.
Guest:So there's room for them to fight outside the ring, like the hell in the cell.
Guest:Thank God, by the way.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Well, then that's, but now that's all, a lot of that space is taken up by these big, dumb wooden caskets.
Guest:And then suddenly, just a dude.
Guest:One dude.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:random jobber in a mask comes out of the coffin.
Guest:Now, is this a friend of team two or team one?
Guest:We'll never know.
Guest:Is he there to help somebody cheat?
Guest:Yeah, we won't know because he is just obliterated.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:and never does anything else that's like that would be the last time we see him except he's stuck in this cage yeah he gets handcuffed to the dead why do they even bother with the guy there's at some point they handcuff him to the cage and so he's just got to sit there well everyone fights around him there's zero point other than they thought it'd be fun to have a guy come out of the casket but then do something with him
Guest:Have him be like a giant and kill everybody.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Have him come out at the very end.
Marc:Not in the middle of this match and there's no pop for him because it just like happens.
Guest:It's just a random guy.
Guest:He might as well be a guy in the ring crew building the ring.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Oh, I'm sure it probably was.
Marc:It's like a grip or something.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He just, he gets annihilated and that's it for him.
Marc:There was no, there was no excitement.
Marc:The ref, the referee cam glimpses it.
Marc:Uh, and that's all we see of it.
Guest:And yeah, it's very, I think Tony Giovanni was like, I think someone just came out of a coffin.
Marc:So, so unbelievable.
Guest:So now at some undetermined interval, the chair of torture descends into the match.
Guest:It almost crushes our friend McFoley to death.
Guest:Like he accidentally is underneath the platform of the chamber of the chair of torture as it's coming down.
Guest:And like the other wrestlers have to be like, get out of the way.
Guest:Like, yeah, they're trying to get killed.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Right.
Yeah.
Marc:Wait, so this chair is on a platform and it's now with another cage around it.
Marc:Yes, with another cage for no reason around it.
Marc:And can I tell you, dear friends, this entire platform renders the ring useless.
Guest:I wrote the exact same thing.
Guest:The ring is now completely useless.
Guest:I read that sitting right there in my notes.
Guest:Their ring is small to begin with.
Guest:And then they put this thing smack dab in the center.
Guest:It's got, I guess, like a platform of about two or three feet coming off of it.
Guest:And so, yes, they can now not use the ring.
Guest:There's nowhere to bump.
Guest:There's nowhere to move.
Guest:They can just kind of fight at the entrance of this inner cage that now has an electric chair inside of it.
Marc:There's nowhere to, you know, wrestle, you know?
Marc:So now the ring area, the outside of the ring area is now the only place you can wrestle.
Marc:And it's kind of cartoonish, the action in this match.
Marc:Sting throws the cheap wooden lid of one of these caskets up and hits Cactus Jack on the head.
Marc:And it's like a piece of plywood, but it sends him onto the ground.
Marc:Like they're really trying to do something, anything with this.
Guest:anything because they know right at this point they have to know all right we're scheduled to go another seven minutes or however long it is we got to get something going here so then they all start blading there's color everywhere and and then wait wait wait wait before you get to the end then
Marc:They're also trying to climb the steel cage for reasons I don't quite understand.
Guest:Because you can't get out of it.
Guest:You can't get out of it.
Guest:It has like a lip at the top.
Marc:Yeah, where it like points in.
Marc:But also, why would you want to get out?
Marc:You don't win if you get out.
Marc:It just didn't make any sense why they were climbing the ring, except they had nothing else to do.
Marc:So yeah, it was kind of a debacle.
Marc:And then what happens?
Guest:Well, then there are more people who enter the arena.
Guest:There are, I don't know, what would you say?
Guest:Eight to 10 wrestler looking guys in white outfits and white makeup.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they bring stretchers out, I guess, because they're going to take whoever gets electrocuted to his grave.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And Jim Ross identifies these guys by saying, what are these?
Guest:The ghouls?
Guest:My favorite line in the whole match.
Guest:But they also look like these look like eight dudes from, you know, the surrounding Atlanta area who got like 50 bucks for the night to come down instead of like their trucking route.
Guest:They're doing this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're the most nonchalant ghouls you have ever seen.
Guest:Just kind of like, they're sitting there, they're taking a knee.
Guest:It's like a bored flag football team.
Marc:Yes, yes.
Marc:They don't give a shit.
Marc:They're just waiting for this segment to end, as are most of everyone that's involved.
Guest:Now, it can only end, as they said, when you pull the fatal lever, which is attached to the side of the cage,
Guest:this fucking thing.
Guest:So the first time they show you the lever with a closeup, it's already down.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like it has been turned to the, the on position, which is down.
Yeah.
Guest:And I'm noticing that because it's like you see the part that says off.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And the thing is not up on the off part.
Guest:It's down.
Guest:That's strange.
Guest:On the on part.
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:Why is that thing down?
Guest:So then you see a ref in another shot climbing the cage.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:To fix it.
Guest:So he pulls it up.
Guest:This thing will not stay up.
Guest:It costs five bucks.
Guest:So it keeps falling down.
Guest:At one point he goes up and tapes it up with actual packing tape.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Remember, this has to factor into the finish of the match.
Guest:You have to flip the lever.
Guest:So it gets to a point where you got two guys fighting over who's going to go in the electric chair.
Guest:It's Rick Steiner and Abdullah the Butcher.
Guest:Abdullah the Butcher puts Rick Steiner in the chair, and Cactus Jack climbs the cage to get to the lever, and it falls again.
Guest:So now he's got to stand there with the lever held up until his cue to flip it.
Guest:His cue to flip it is that Rick Steiner...
Guest:Jumps out of the chair, flips Abdullah into the chair, and now Cactus is supposed to think Rick is still in the chair and he's going to flip the switch and electrocute his friend, his teammate.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, when he flips Abdullah into the chair, he now has to connect him to the electrodes.
Guest:Abdullah, who weighs 400 pounds easily, is sitting on them.
Guest:Yes.
Yes.
Guest:You have never seen a guy panic so blatantly as Rick Steiner trying to pull this thing out from the back of Abdullah.
Guest:He is, it's just like, I'm surprised he didn't kill him.
Guest:Like I was surprised he didn't decapitate him by accident.
Guest:Like he's just so recklessly trying to find this thing.
Guest:And like, he knows he's got like Mick is standing over there on the hook to flip this switch.
Guest:So he's got to put this electrode on Abdullah's head.
Guest:Finally gets it.
Guest:Mick has now been standing with his back to the cage, to the chair.
Guest:It's like a minute.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's at least 30 seconds.
Guest:Felt like forever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He finally decides to pull it now that Abdullah is in position.
Guest:And I think you could describe this...
Guest:what happens here or at least abdullah's performance here is on par with martin landau in ed wood when he has to look like the octopus is trying to kill him that's oh my god that is pitch perfect holy shit i want a side-by-side of the both of them
Guest:he is just jiggling and shaking while a little light show goes off and a modest amount of pyro that sets surprisingly large amounts of things on fire like legit fire the ring apron gets caught on fire while this guy is doing this dumb like
Guest:approximation of being electrocuted or as jim or tony says one of them says he's getting cooked yeah
Guest:uh and then he dies i guess we're supposed to believe he was dead he is he is lifeless or what is it uh helpless helpless he is completely helpless that's for a few minutes there as helpless as any corpse has ever been uh so team one the vaunted team one
Guest:comes away with the victory team two are the losers and at this point Cactus goes to revive the helpless Abdullah the Butcher who then wakes up from his electrocuted slumber and destroys his friends destroys the ghouls goes on a general rampage of anger from being electrocuted in this match which again as we said possibly the worst match of all time.
Marc:And can I just say, you fix the control panel, the fatal switch.
Marc:The fatal lever, yeah.
Marc:You fix it by just changing the off and the on stickers.
Marc:Yeah, you pull it up.
Marc:Yes, that makes sense.
Marc:I've seen that in movies.
Marc:Like, you just pull it up.
Marc:Mission accomplished.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:What an embarrassing match that was.
Guest:Well, I got to say, I mean, this is...
Guest:Par for the course for this era of WCW.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Well, look.
Guest:They were recently, I think about three years prior to this, purchased by Ted Turner.
Guest:Jim Crockett Promotions, bought by Ted Turner, turned into this WCW product.
Guest:And the guy who he was put in charge, all he knew was he was a TV executive.
Guest:I think he used to be a manager at the corporate headquarters of Pizza Hut.
Guest:And so he's just like a guy thrown into the job here.
Guest:And what he knew was like, hey, you know what's successful wrestling?
Guest:WWF, like Hulk Hogan and all that stuff.
Guest:So we got to do stuff like them.
Guest:And like, look, WWF, they did this stuff too.
Guest:And it was rarely good.
Guest:but we've gone back and watched like, you know, WrestleMania three and stuff.
Guest:And there's, there's like, you know, a guy with the snake and the guy who's the Elvis impersonator and the guy who is the barber, but their whole universe was that stuff.
Guest:It was a, it was a walking.
Guest:Everyone was a walking cartoon.
Guest:So a snake guy didn't seem out of place.
Guest:A barber guy didn't seem out of place.
Guest:This was like the home of Ric Flair.
Guest:And like,
Guest:wrestling right and then all of a sudden they're like grafting on top of it this cartoon bullshit and so this is what you get you get like a match which has great wrestlers in it the steiner brothers cactus jack and
Guest:yeah scott hall playing a vader right these are great wrestlers we've we've enjoyed much of their work throughout their lives and they have to play around with these ghouls cartoons the fatal lever electrocuting a guy to death i mean like no one had a prayer of coming out of this thing unscathed
Guest:I agree with everything Chris has said about how bad this is.
Guest:And yet I would make it part of my regular Halloween tradition to watch the chamber of horrors match and, and at least the animated opening to this Halloween havoc.
Guest:I feel like that should go up there with like, it's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Guest:You should just watch it every year.
Marc:I would not recommend anyone watching this.
Marc:This is, I mean, just horrific.
Guest:Well, I,
Guest:I guess this is like the, this is like our friend Matt who recommends all these terrible movies off of to be.
Guest:And like, there comes a point where we're like, Matt, we just don't have enough time to watch this garbage.
Guest:And he's like, but it was good.
Guest:It was so bad.
Guest:And we're like that.
Guest:Those two things don't go together.
Right.
Guest:Oh, that's great.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, to go from the worst to the best, what was the best thing in wrestling this week?
Guest:Dude, I got to be honest with you.
Marc:There's a lot of good wrestling that's happening right now.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:We're in the salad days.
Marc:That's for sure.
Marc:There's a lot to choose from.
Marc:Like everything MJF is doing, there's a lot of shit going on.
Marc:Can I say...
Marc:The women's division.
Marc:Remember, I remember a mailbag question being like, oh, don't you think they've kind of, you know, they haven't done well with the women's division.
Marc:The women's division is doing great now.
Guest:Well, Toni Storm is very over.
Guest:And so it's like, I can't imagine they're not going to put the title on her at some point.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Probably a full year.
Guest:Yeah, that character is elevating a lot, but they did the right thing.
Guest:They also have the belt on a good worker, Hikaru Shida.
Guest:She's good in the ring.
Guest:So, yes, I like, look, I've always said, give it a little time, give a little patience.
Guest:The proof will be in the pudding.
Guest:Is it perfect yet?
Guest:No, but I feel like it's getting there.
Marc:Yeah, and they got Sky Blue popping.
Marc:Like, she's super popular.
Guest:Yeah, they're giving them characters.
Guest:They're giving them development.
Guest:Like, it's not just, you know, a match that goes out there for a pee break.
Guest:Like, I'm encouraged.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:So that's going great.
Marc:But for me, what Bryan Danielson is doing on a week-in, week-out basis is phenomenal.
Marc:And his match on collision against Andrade El... Andrade, yeah.
Marc:And Andrade was phenomenal.
Guest:phenomenal that's my thing too man no kidding it was it was the best one yes i had the same feeling i was like man i watched so much good wrestling this past week yeah and like there you know danielson also was in the tag match main event on dynamite it was just so much good stuff and i was like man this that collision match with andrade it just was so good
Marc:Yeah, from the jump.
Marc:Like, the fans were hot.
Marc:They were like, this is wrestling.
Marc:And I'm just super over for that when a crowd gets hot like that.
Marc:And just, they were great at this match.
Marc:They were just so, so good.
Marc:And I didn't want it to end.
Marc:And it is just phenomenal that they pulled that off.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we keep talking about Bryan Danielson on a weekly basis here about how good he is.
Guest:We said the same thing last week about Kenny Omega.
Guest:And it's like, if you're not into wrestling, look, there's maybe just some situation where you're never going to be.
Guest:And that's fine.
Guest:Most people aren't.
Guest:But if you ever have any curiosity about it and you're wondering like, well, what do these guys see in this?
Guest:Like, I would encourage you to watch their matches.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, like they are the ones who are doing it at the highest possible level.
Guest:It really is like you can watch a match where Brian Danielson is running the match.
Guest:He's the guy in charge out there.
Guest:And you're like, oh, that's what it is.
Guest:He's telling a story with this athletic contest.
Guest:That's and that's an art form.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, it's, it's the best and you should definitely check it out if you haven't, because it is worth your time.
Marc:Like, like that, that Halloween havoc was not worth your time.
Marc:This, this match is worth your time.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:I would quibble with that just a little bit, but only, only for really terrible reasons.
Guest:Is it worth your time?
Guest:Like, you know, just like sometimes you've got to, you know, see the worst to see the best.
Marc:It's very how did this get made-esque, right?
Marc:Yes, there you go.
Marc:You see something terrible, for sure.
Guest:All right, well, that'll do it for us.
Guest:And if you have any suggestions of things that we should watch or anything you wanted to ask us, go ahead, put it in the comments in the episode description.
Guest:There's a link right there.
Guest:Send us a comment.
Guest:Send us a question.
Guest:I think in one of the upcoming episodes, we'll have to devote to your questions because we've got a lot coming in, a lot of reactions to stuff we've done on recent shows.
Guest:And we will address that coming up soon.
Guest:But until then, I'm Brendan.
Guest:That's Chris.
Guest:Peace.