Blank Check with Griffin & David - Toruk: The First Flight with Rachel Lang

Episode Date: December 4, 2016

On September 11th, Blank Check & friends attended the Cirque du Soleil/Avatar crossover Toruk: First Flight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. But is this show more than just rope dancing? Was the Toruk app worth the download? Does this tie into the upcoming 4 sequels slated to be released? Join #thetwofriends, guest Rachel Lang and Producer Ben as they guide you through the live experience including reverse puppetry, how much they spent on their drinks, the condiment stands, election predictions and dangling.

it's Turok the first podcast that's right and there are no lines not really yeah hi everybody my name is Griffin Eamon. My name is David Sims. This is a podcast called Blank Check with Griffin and David. That's right. We are hashtag the two friends. That's right. We do miniseries. That's right.

About directors who early on had massive successes. That's right. And then get a series of, I don't know what, blank checks, one might say. One might. I was feeling a little saucy that day. Yeah. To do their own creative project, sometimes those checks bounce,

and sometimes those checks deposit. Slow it down. I'm trying to get saucy now. This is a miniseries called Podinator, colon, Judgment Cast. That's the name of the miniseries. It is a miniseries about James Cameron. We have been talking about James Cameron.

Yes. Now, you and I have only been talking about him for two episodes. We're doing this a little early. This is our bonus episode. It's going to come at the end. Yeah. But we had to get on mic right away. Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures.

Yeah. Okay. And on September 11, 2016, never forget, something came up. Okay? Something came up, yeah. At that time,

we had only recorded Prana 2, The Spawning. Prana 2 and The Terminator. Right. And usually we like to save the bonus for the end so that we can come up with our final thoughts,

our insummation about the filmmaker. Oh my God. But something flew into New York City. Yep. On orange wings. It wasn't a plane, thank god. No, Jesus.

It would have been too soon! It would have been too soon! I don't endorse that joke. It would have been, I'm not joking, it would have been too soon for that to happen. I don't think it's funny. Move on. I don't either. A dragon flew into New York City. That is right. A dragon by the name of Turok and it was his first flight. Turok.

I keep on getting confused with Turok the dinosaur. Turok the dinosaur hunter who is an N64 computer game hero. Yeah. Turok is a big orange dragon thing. Hero? Villain? Or both? Both. That's what the show questions.

A Cirque du Soleil-inspired show that functions... It's an Avatar-inspired show. It is a Cirque du Soleil show. I mean, I assume they inspire themselves regularly. Yeah, well, I think that's part of the creative process for them. And also, I'll say this felt a little more like a Cirque du Soleil-inspired show than a Cirque du Soleil show. It felt like a show-inspired thing. Like, I wouldn't go as far as to call it a show in some respect.

It was definitely inspired by entertainment. Yeah. It was brushing up against entertainment. Yeah. You know, it was coming up to the border of something entertaining. Yes. And then just stopping. Right.

Turning around. So. Maybe sitting down. I felt like this was an omen. Well, okay. So I should say a few weeks back, a friend of the pod, Esther Zuckerman, who talked aloha with us a while back, she IM'd me in the morning and said, David, the Cirque du Soleil has a show.

It's based on Avatar. It's called Tarouk the First Flight, and it's going to be at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in September. What perfect timing. We're doing a James Cameron miniseries. You should go. What perfect timing. You should go.

Yeah. And I said, no, I don't want to. I don't want to do that. No. To Esther. And she said, okay, great. I'm going to tell Griffin right away. But she did.

And he's going to make you do it. But she did. And she did. And she knew you would. And she knew that once you knew I didn't want to do it, you would only be more resolute that we had to do it. Well, that's what we call a griff bit. Exactly. Yeah, my friends have long called it a griff bit when there's something that I find very amusing that only angers everyone else.

Right, right. And then maybe- And then it has to happen. And then maybe months down the line people laugh at it in retrospect. People are like, all right, you know, it's pretty funny that you did that. But in the moment, no one likes it. No, no. I was pretty unhappy about it.

I did not want to go to the Barclays Center, certainly not on September 11th, 2016. Well, it was a little too soon. It was. Just because. It'll always be too soon to see this show. We were early in our miniseries. It's a little too soon. Yeah, that's also true.

Because we usually record the bonus after. But I'll tell you what. I publicly shamed you. You publicly shamed me. But here's what happened, really. Yeah. Something big happened. Well, a lot of things happened.

We'll get to that. But no, it's more like, you know, I was like, well, why would we even go? You know, James Cameron didn't even direct it. No, I'll introduce her. I'll introduce her. Okay, because I'm going to do a segue. Okay. Well, you know, James Cameron didn't even direct it.

And you were like, the bonus episodes are never about something that the person directed. And a Matrix. And a Matrix. Buried secret of M. Night Shyamalan. And I was like, fuck, he's right. And Rhodey's Cameron only directed half the season. Well, yeah, that was. That was kind of a boss. secret of M. Night Shyamalan and I was like fuck he's right Rhodey's Cameron only directed half the season well yeah that was

that was kind of a boss whatever anyway so so we went alright what's your segue and then there was something else that got you excited

there was there actually was something else that got me really excited one of the greatest friends of this podcast absolutely the first guest

we ever had is that true that is true really is that true oh no no no, no, no. I'm sorry. We had Conor Ratliff on season one. You were the second guest we ever had. One of our earliest guests and best

buds. Yes. Yeah, one of my absolute favorite people in the world. Yep. Old trivia cohort of ours. And part of a two-time champion. Anakin Padme, ultra shipper. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And big James Cameron fan. Sure.

Huge James Cameron fan. Huge Aliens fan. Yeah. Huge Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney. Sigourney. Sigourney. I hit her name weird there.

Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney Weaver fan. Formerly Susan Weaver, as you all probably know. Absolutely. I mean, what a good choice. Yeah. The great, the amazing, the effervescent Rachel Lang is here. She is here, and she was here at the Barclays Center with us and a couple other folks.

We were publicly arguing about this on Twitter. She said, oh, my God, I would go with you guys. When you're going, I'll buy tickets. And then I didn't buy tickets. I said I would buy David a ticket, and then I didn't. You were in there. Well, look, I got a Venmo you 50 bucks. Yes, you did.

Yes. We all went along with the wonderful Alex Pitts. Of course. Absolutely. And Ramona Head. True. Who was also part of our winning trivia team. That's right.

And someone else. Someone else, huh? I'm going to tap my chin. Huh. God. You know what? It's funny. I can remember the face because I remember looking and seeing someone leaning forward on the edge of their seat.

Oh, man. What a great picture. I have it on their chin. We'll tweet it out from the account once this episode comes out. We should save it until then. I'll remember to tweet it out 11 weeks from now or whatever. Great. I just wrapped eyes open like a child transported into a greater world. open like a child transported into a greater world. For once, he wasn't working. Because we all know him as one of the hardest workers in the business, right? Absolutely.

For once, he was enjoying the art himself rather than creating the art. And for once, he wasn't, you know, as he constantly is watching a movie because he's our finest film critic. He is our finest film critic. Is he our finest circus critic? We'll find out. He might be. Like a good circus. He is our finest film critic. Is he our finest circus critic? We'll find out. He might be. Like a good circus. He is the producer of the show.

Some call him Producer Ben. Some call him Purdue or Ben. Some call her the Banducer. Some call him... Her the Banducer. Wow. Some call her the... Look, gender is fluid.

Some call him Mr. Positive. Some call him the Tiebreaker. Some call him Birthday Benny. Some call him the Fuckmaster. They do not call him Professor Crispy. Nope. They do call him the Pobreaker. Some call him birthday Benny. Some call him the fuckmaster. They do not call him Professor Crispy. Nope. They do call him the poet laureate. Sometimes.

They do call him White Hot Benny, which is a new one that we're sort of trying out. Yeah, we're thinking about it. What do you feel about that one? White Hot Benny, it feels a little racial to me. Oh, interesting. Didn't even put that together, but now that you say it, I can't unthink it. So there's that. That's my problem. I thought of it say it, I can't unthink it. So there's that. That's my problem.

I thought of it, and now I can't. It feels a little charged to me. We're living in extraordinary times. Sensitive times. It's very sensitive times. Of course, you know, he has graduated to certain titles over various miniseries. That is true. Such as Kylo Ben, producer Ben Kenobi.

Kenobi. Kenobi. Okay. Ben, Night Shyamalan Bensai and he's gonna have oh and Benny Lane he's gonna have a Cameron name

but we are not even close to figuring out that yet no we'll do that one episode before the episode you're listening to probably also you know there is a vocal contingent

that is arguing for a recount and they want it to be say Benny thing instead so you know keep that flame yeah I mean if I get enough tweets about it

then i might care yeah yeah uh producer ben hey guys wish him a hearty hello fennel please do you can always say hello to me on the streets so uh but i was there and you were there me and ben hung out in the oculus which is the front of the barclays center and rachel for a good 45 minutes while griffin did not was late because the 5 train was being weird or something. Correct. I didn't oversleep that day. I was wide awake. You were wide awake.

In the words of M. Night Shyamalan. In the words of M. Night. But we went to see the show. And then we went to see Tarouk, the first flight, a Cirque du Soleil jam, a touring production. It's a touring production. At the Barclays Center, inspired by the film Avatar, but set a good 3,000 years ago. Inspired by James Cameron's film Avatar. James Cameron's Avatar.

Yes. You're talking about the actual, yeah, here. The full title of the show is Turok, the first flight inspired by James Cameron's avatar. All right. Well, you know, good for them. A Cirque du Soleil experience. You are so excited to be looking things up on your computer right now. Oh, my God. So, guys, I have wired internet today. Wired through a wire.

We're not complaining about Wi-Fi anymore because... No way, baby. David's got a dongle. And I probably will, again, bring that up many episodes earlier. But whatever. This is the first time it's actually happening. Now, let's talk about the most important element of the show. Steven the Ticket Taker. So, Steven's a big deal.

For one, I actually want to say, I've been to the Barclays Center many times because I go to a lot of basketball games. And it's cheap. I'm not a Nets fan, but it's cheap and it's near where I live. I don't think any of you guys have ever been to the Barclays Center before. I have seen, I saw a Yeah Yeah Yeah's concert there okay cool wow they can fill an arena good for them

yeah yeah cool yeah it was pretty cool yeah yeah it was a sacrilege tour I went with my sister around I have a Yeah Yeah Yeah's t-shirt

that now is kind of a sleeping shirt it's been so long Rachel you have to say it two more times now yeah yeah yeah yeah and now Beetlejuice has been summoned

great Beetlejuice has been summoned. Great. Beetlejuice is going to be our guest on the Terminator 2 episode. No. Okay. Okay. So. Hasta la vista, baby. I've always been totally impressed with their service at the Barclays Center.

I think it's a well-run place. But I got to say, Stephen, second to none. Unbelievable. So we go. We hear the show is starting. Oh, we hear the show is starting because Griffin is super late. Correct. And as we walk into the arena where it's like.

Shrieking and drums. I asked everyone to get there 45 minutes before the show so we could record our. And we did. Which of course meant that I got there 45 minutes after I said I was going to be there right as the show was starting. Exactly. meant that I got there 45 minutes after I said I was going to be there right as the show was starting. Exactly. There's a very long will call line.

Yeah, that's true. So you had to get in the will call line because you had booked online. Right. And it's like, oh, fuck. I hear the show starting. I got my tickets. Okay. Everyone come in. You go through security. We go to Stephen the ticket taker. And he goes, I'm sorry. These seats no longer exist. You have to get your seats exchanged. Right. And we're like,

oh, Jesus Christ, we just need to get in there. Are you fucking kidding me? No, it wasn't Stephen who said, oh, no, it was Stephen. It was Stephen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking Stephen. I gave him a little sass because at this point I was stressed out because I was hearing. You didn't say fucking Stephen. No, but I was like, I just picked these tickets up. And he was like, I know. I'm sorry. You got to go back.

Right. And I'm hearing like, da-da! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. got to go back. Right. And I'm hearing like, Behind the black curtains. Right. Like they had like screened off the stage. That's what you have. Right. Okay.

Except they didn't do that. They didn't do the James Horner score. They did more of a, Like it was like the survivor thing. I'm like, oh God, go back to the counter. Cause we're going to miss it. And we're not, we're going to be lost. Yeah. We're counter. Because we're going to miss it and we're going to be lost. Yeah.

We're going to miss the beginning of the story. To be fair, we did miss the beginning and we were kind of lost. Yeah. But do you think that would have helped?

No. Because I do not. No, I don't think so. We did miss, like, the first five minutes of the show. They don't even have coming attractions. No, which was really weird.

Yeah. Yeah, they should have had some coming attractions. They should have had some trailers. You know, for Doctor Yeah. They should have had some coming. They should have had some trailers. You know, for Doctor Strange. I'm like, does Steven even know what he's talking about?

I just picked these tickets up. How could they be exchanged if the person just hands me off the computer, right? Sure, sure. So I go and I'm like... We walk over to the ticket desk and we're like, we're in section 222. We got the cheapest tickets we possibly could which is a nosebleed seat nose right up at the top the very top three decks up

the tippy top yeah and i go like he said i need to exchange my tickets i don't know what this fucking guy's talking about right she was like okay yeah and what clearly happened was we closed that section the show undersold so they yeah they undersold. They took everyone in the nosebleeds and pushed them into one section and 90% of the nosebleeds were completely vacant. And there was one section that everyone was crammed into. And they were like, you know, overflow of the nosebleeds now that we

don't want staff roaming the rest of it. Here are your new tickets. Row 9. Yeah. Courtside, essentially. We're suddenly fucking courtside. Yeah, we have like $1,500 tickets. And I went up and I was like, Stephen, thank you. Stephen was like, see, they're much better. But Stephen, before he even said that, he went, whoa.

Yeah, he was impressed. Because he thought we were going to get upgraded to like second tier. Right, right. At best. He was overjoyed for us. I've never felt like someone else was happier for our fortune than I did there with Steven. No, and I've never felt happier to have someone in my life than I did to have Steven at that moment. Right.

So we now sit down. We sit down, row nine. The show is underway. Very much so. Ramona is lit. She somehow has already consumed a couple gin and tonics. Yeah, our friend Ramona is very drunk at this point. She's wearing a sweater.

Rachel and Alex, you guys are having a good time. I was odd. I was sitting in between. Yeah, you were odd. Yeah. Not odd. You are a little odd. I am odd, but I was also odd.

So we walk in, and it was pretty... It was also because, again, there were black curtains around the stage. So in a basketball game, when you walk in, you can see the court. You know, like it's like everything's open. But they had blacked it all out. And so we walk in. It's like we're being transported into another world. The world of Pandora.

Lang, would you like to sort of describe what we see when we walk in in a general sense? What the show looks like? Yeah. I mean, you're going through those black curtains and then it's totally black in the stands as well and someone is ushering you down and you turn toward the stage and it's a full basketball court covered in like uh like paper mache and uh projected lights projected lots of projected scenery you could tell that they didn't really want to like paint or build too many things and instead

use lights to make those colors in effect, which worked for me quite a lot. They had a giant tree, which was not the tree of life or spirits or the important tree. It was a home tree. It was a home tree. Right. You know, the big tree. And that tree- Then there's also the, what's it called?

The soul tree? What the fuck is it? Mother tree or Then there's also the, what's it called, the soul tree? What the fuck is it? Mother tree or whatever it's called. Jesus, how do we already not remember? It was house or- Yeah. Yo, it was house.

Yeah. But the tree is sort of like almost functions as the curtain. It opens up when they need scene changes. And then there's a couple sculptural pieces that can transform.

Sure. But there's a lot of projection. There's this big ring of wood hanging from the ceiling. It's like a lot of projection. There's this big ring of wood hanging from the ceiling. It's like a wooden, yeah. It's like a wooden crown. And there's like a center pillar that everyone sort of dances on

at some point in every scene. Yes, that is true. There's one other thing we're leaving out. Which is a cast of tens of Cirque du Soleil's finest dressed as the Mighty Navi. Dressed as either the Mighty Navi

or dressed in black so that they can do puppeteering of animals. And yet, even the black costumes also had tails? Yeah, so the black costumes, they were like silent, like invisible sort of like puppeteers. Right, you know, stagehands. And stagehands and whatever.

And they, all black, no definition, no color, but. But tails. And the ears. And the ears and all black, no definition, no color, but. But tails. And the ears. And the ears and the ponytail, you know, the braids. As if we would be so taken out by the appearance of a non-Navi figure on the stage. They were shadow Navi. Right. Well, the show asked, if nothing else, it asked to transport us to another world.

It said, may I transport you to another world? Absolutely. It said may. Yes. May I. And I think ideally, you know, they would love if every audience member had horse blinders on so they couldn't look at their friends sitting in the seats next to them. Because they would love it if it was completely immersive. And this, well,

they were trying to be immersive because this was an experience where you could download an app. What was it called? Taruk the app. I mean, this is Lang's? Taruk, the app. I mean, this is Ling's territory because Ling discovered the app. Yeah, I was just doing a lot of Googling about this show

beforehand. I really wanted to get a primer so that I was familiar with the material and could honor the story and the experience appropriately. That's always your priority is honoring the story. I love research and I love story. I would say you may have honored the story better than the Cirque

du Soleil did. Yeah. You did a great job at this show. Thank you so much. So this app Yeah, the app would kind of just do nothing. Sure, no it's not really an app, it's like a flashlight on your phone that looks like lights, that looks like eyes, sorry

sometimes. Yeah, it could, it would just sort of rumble once in a while and be like, point your screen at the stage. But so I thought that it was going to, I thought that the light from your phone was going to be a signal to some sort of camera or puppeteer in the show who would then like drift like fireflies from the show toward you or like interact with you interacting. And no, it was just a beacon or some sort of activator. It was like a lighter. It was like holding up a lighter.

It was just basically telling you to hold up a light. But it was cool. It was effective at parts in the show where it was supposed to make it seem like there was a bunch of those creatures in the audience. And the eyes would all be glowing throughout the stadium. That was really cool. Yeah, I'll say it was more exciting to watch other people do it than it was to do it yourself. It was kind of a hassle to do. Especially because you would hold it

and then you'd sort of look at your phone like, it's still going? Okay, it's still going. My phone was slower than everybody else's phone, so Griffin and Ramona have their beautiful, scary viper wolf eyes pointing out at the audience and I'm still trying to load the app. Yeah, I didn't even download the app. I had a pretty low battery. It was the end

of the day. I did too, but I wore my battery out running the app. My phone died in the second half. Yeah, it seemed like one of those apps that had run your battery low. I forgot my password. It's your phone? Yeah, no. Ben had forgotten his iTunes password so he couldn't download the app.

It was sad. Yeah. So, I mean, clearly you can tell we're really into the show by the amount we've discussed it so far. Yes, I just want to explain in a little more detail what this app does. So there's a tab that says further explore the world of Pandora, and you're like, oh, cool, it's going to have a glossary or whatever. And you hit that tab, and it just sends you on a link to the Turok website. Sure. So there's

nothing in app that like tells you anything further about the show right and then there's a check-in so you like tell them where you're sitting and you're like oh is this going to this feels like this would activate things coming towards your seat or whatever the fuck it is nope never comes into play but you tell them you're at the show and it's sort of linked up to the the show and so at certain times when there's a moment in the show, it says, like, you know... The Viberwolves are coming. Right, and it says, like, turn your phone, your screen, towards the stage in 30 seconds.

And then I think the full list of things that happened were there was, like, when there's sort of the flying, sort of glowing sprites in the Avatar world, it would be, like, the audience would hold those up, and it would look like a lot of sole, like lone lights in the audience. But it also just felt like, well, so there's one part where there was a thunderstorm

and it activated the flashlight on the back of your phone so it looked like lightning. Sure, yeah. There was the Viper Wolves part where it was like the two green glowing eyes. And if you held it up, it looked like a sea of eyes in the shadows. And then there were some parts

where it was just like flashing colors. Although Ben, I remember Ben being very excited by, I think it was the finale, and the lights were changing colors and flashing in time with the music. Yes. Oh, yeah. That was so cool.

That was pretty chill. But it was kind of, as you said, just like a digital lighter. Yeah. I mean, right. I kept getting alerts that i had missed all of the alerts so it really sucked for me i would say i had 25 notifications from the tarak app uh like and some of them were just like visit the merchandise stand which

we'll get to that there's definitely a merchandise spotlight here oh jesus christ yeah i forgot all right okay okay taruk the first fight so we walk in, we're in media res. I guess so. By default, because I was late. Because we were late. But we were only like five minutes. Yes. The show had barely started.

Yeah. Right. I think we thought we had missed more and then realized as the show went on, like, oh, this doesn't really have a- There's not more. Right. There's not more. Right.

So we enter to a bunch of people as Navi like going up and down ropes and jumping around and going like ahhh and speaking Navi and doing some trampolining. Yeah. This show's a prequel right? To Avatar. Alright so I did some looking on the Avatar wiki. It's like a long time It's set in the

7th century BC. It's set in the 800s. 800 BCs. Or does it go backwards? BC? Look, I don't know. It's set in 873 BC. In Avatar, they believe in Jesus Christ? Yes, they believe in Jesus Christ. Of course they accept him as their little savior. Well, no. BC stands for Before Cameron.

Cameron's the Jesus figure. I actually want to look this up. If Avatar, the movie, it takes place in like the late 2000s, right? Like, yeah, 21 something. I just loaded the last Airbender wiki. That's a problem.

Here we go. Avatar takes place like 21 and change. I'm going to guess 2139. Ooh. Okay. Let me actually, let me confirm that for you. 2154. Hey.

Pretty close. Pretty close. There's a lot of years around there. In Avatar, as I'm sure we discussed in our episode, the character of Jake Sully mounts One of everyone's favorite lead characters.

Mounts Taruk and becomes Taruk Makto. And that's what impresses everyone and everyone's impressed with him. The biggest fucking Leonopteryx or whatever they're and that's what impresses everyone and everyone's impressed with him. The biggest fucking Leonopteryx or whatever they're called that there is. He mounts it. And he's the fifth guy

to mount it. Okay, fifth. Yeah. But it's not a thing that happens every day. Not a thing that happens every day. I'm looking it up. No, he's the sixth. I think he's the sixth. And it happened five times before. What this show is about is the first time.

So in a nutshell, this show is about the first time that someone wrote a big-ass dragon. Correct. In the world of Pandora, among the Na'vi, and according to the Avatar Wikia, which is james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com, because they have to distinguish themselves from the cartoon. Which is so insane. wikia.com because they have to distinguish themselves from the cartoon. Which is so insane. That happened in 837 BC.

837 BC. Okay. So basically 3,000 years ago. Yeah. This show takes place thousands of years earlier than the movie. Now, can I just ask, because I've never seen Avatar. Yet. Does.

Yeah. By the time. Oh, that's true. Yeah. That's weird. But yes, at the time we're recording this, you haven't seen the film Avatar. Sure. So does their world

have anything to do with music streaming? Does their world have anything to do with music streaming? I can't wait to hear where he's going with this. I don't know what this is,

but go on. No, it doesn't, Ben. Why? Pandora, Pandora. Oh, I get you. I gotta say, my girlfriend was there and she was looking

over my shoulder at the app, and it said, like, jump into Pandora. And she was like, oh, like, is there a playlist? She thought that, like, there was a link up with Pandora. Oh, sure, right, right, that you could do a Pandora streaming. Would make sense. That's such an obvious tie-in. You remember when Pandora was a thing?

Yeah. I feel like Pandora's just not enough of a thing anymore. Well, people still do it. Okay, I'm sorry. You seem judged. I only know that because my friend tweeted about refusing to date people who use Pandora. Interesting. Also,

title has taken over the world. Should mention that Alex and you had seen Avatar. I thought you were going to say had seen the first one. We saw it every day. Ben and Ramona had not. Had never seen the movie.

Right. But wait, was it you? I had seen it maybe twice. No, but Alex like only seen it, but like thought it was the cartoon. Yeah. My girlfriend had gone to see it, was invited by her friend in 2009. 2009. Right.

Yes. She told this story. This was a great story that she told me before we went into the show. So I think you missed this Griffin. 2009. 2009. The great Alex Pitts is invited to see Avatar, and she's all excited.

She gets to the theater, and this weird movie starts up with a spaceship and people flying on it and another planet, and she goes, wow, this is kind of a long trailer. Yeah, she was like, when are we going to the fucking cartoon, man? This is what I'm here for. She thought she was seeing Avatar, or The Last Airbender. It was a big disappointment for her

it is crazy those two movies came out within a year of each other within six months even okay so this show takes place thousands of years earlier I think that is because as we know James Cameron has now threatened to

throw four Avatar sequels at us. He has. Promised, not threatened. Promised. He's broken his promises before. Yeah. And he keeps on pushing them back.

And the scope keeps on getting bigger and bigger without him really disclosing what's happening in the other films but i think like cirque du soleil in making an avatar inspired show had to keep like give him a lot of space because it's like he's doing four more movies i get you they can't fuck with the current avatar world at all right right but also even like maybe not even a prequel right even with prequel elements like across four films like who knows how many directions he's going to go into and i I read an interview he did with Vulture, and they said the incubation of the show, they immediately came to the question of well, it has to take place before

humans make any contact with Pandora because the scale issue will become too huge. Right, well, they're supposed to be bigger. The Navi are big. They are big, but in this show, they're person-sized. Right. It, they're supposed to be bigger. The Navi are big. They are big. But in this show, they're person size.

Right. It's because they don't have anyone to compare themselves to, any humans to compare themselves to. But he said, like, you know, if you have Cirque du Soleil performers playing the Navi, which is what you obviously want to do. I don't know.

Maybe they shouldn't. Maybe they should have only had basketball players. I mean, they were at the Barclays Center. Manute Ball is... Go on, go on. Manute Bowl is Go on. Go on. They Manute Bowl is kind of

built like an avi. He's got the long spindly limbs. He's very long and spindly. Cameron said that even at a certain point looked into projecting

the humans at three feet tall so that they could have humans. I would have loved that. I wish that would have happened. Wait wait he said that? They were like

can we project them? Can we do holograms? Like what can we like? Holy shit. I've got the perfect fix. Just, wait, he said that? They were like, can we project them? Can we do holograms? Like, what can we light? Holy shit. I've got the perfect fix. Just use all the props and stuff and make them like hobbits. Like, you know, like trick, like that visual trick. Like, make them real small.

You can't do that when there's people at all perspectives. That's the problem is you would need a V and a human standing next to each other. You would need everyone to be sitting in the same seat somehow. All right. Well, I tried. So they were like, let's set it thousands of years before and tell a story that one could argue has no impact on the Avatar films whatsoever. So is that why this show took fucking seven goddamn years to be on stage? Like, just when the right moment when nobody cares about Avatar anymore.

It's like, here it is, Tarouk. It is the weirdest moment to possibly do this show. Because we're what? Cameron's saying 2019 we're getting Avatar 2? Maybe 18? I can see what he's thinking. Blazing fast internet.

Love looking things up on this internet. Oh well, apparently maybe 2018. 2018 is how it's listed on IMDb. Okay. So I would say it's going to come out before 2030, maybe. Yeah, right, right, right. Well, because he's doing, as someone tweeted, and I forget who, but it was a great joke, he's doing the Breakfast Club thing where it's like Principal Vernon threatening Bender

with more and more detention every time he speaks up. You want to make it two weeks? It's three now. Four weeks.

You know? Every year he goes like hey I'm sorry Avatar 2's been pushed back a little bit but good news another movie. Like it started out

as Avatar 2 and then became an Avatar trilogy and then it was he's going to make four movies and now it's five. I feel like we're going to talk about this on the Avatar episode. This is also maybe the space to talk about. It might be.

Waiting for it. So this is now the first new piece of Avatar content released since 2009. It's been a while. So like Avatar is at its peak in the public consciousness despite being still the number one highest grossing film of all time worldwide. public consciousness despite being still the number one highest grossing film of all time worldwide. And one would think if they held on to the show for another two years and sort of released it as part of the

pre-Avatar 2 ramp up. Maybe they'll do the second ride. Turok the second flight. Oh, Turok ride 2? We're going to have to go if they do. Yeah. Just kidding, we don't have to. But this is a weird moment. The show has no impact on the larger narrative of James Cameron's Avatar universe.

And it's just telling you, like, a thing that happened in the history of the Navi. Sure. But we should mention this. The main Navi in the show do not speak in English. They speak Navi. Yes. The constructed language that was created for the film Avatar. That now has over 2,000 words.

That's insane. Yep. There was only one English speaking character in the entire show. Yes. And his name is. The narrator. His name is the storyteller. The storyteller.

He is a man. The storyteller. In sort of red robes. And he's speaking in this like very, very like crisp. Yes. You know, mid-Atlantic voice. And he's walking around the stage and you'll always hear him talking. You know, kind of like scanning.

Oh, there he is. He'll be like in a corner of the stage. Like he was over by us a lot. Or in the audience. He was planted in the audience. It got really confusing for me because every time he would appear, you know, I would start to get ready for it. And then I would like see a guy coming down the stairs with two popcorns for his family. And I was like, nope, not him.

Yes, this was a big problem. This was a really big problem is that the stage, the audience was lit so dramatically so that people, because at points that are planting Naveen in the audience, the storyteller was always popping up. That like there was a part where I thought a guy was about to make an entrance and he was a dude in a yarmulke. That would have been a great twist. But it was very confusing. The storyteller was, when we walked in, he was describing the daily habits of the Navi, right? Yeah.

Like he's planted the eyes. You were basically just seeing, yeah, like the sort of hunting and gathering rituals. It was like David Attenborough. Yes. Yeah. And I was like, this is an interesting take on the show. It's like a live

dance-based Navi nature documentary. But then the storyteller like kind of like pieces out. He like bones out for a while. Yeah, he's around

but he doesn't do much. But I thought he was gonna like narrate the whole thing because it was like, well Cirque du Soleil, it's not a dialogue-based thing. You're getting to the fact that after he leaves

it's just Navi. Yeah, it's a little like the Star Wars holiday special. Right. Where you're just like- Yeah, it's like, well, Cirque du Soleil, it's not a dialogue-based thing. You're getting to the fact that after he leaves, it's just Navi. Yeah, it's a little like the Star Wars holiday special. Right. Where you're just like... Yeah, it's like Chewbacca and the Wookiees, yeah. Yeah, and you're just sort of watching shit happen, and then he would come by and give you like one or two sentences at a time explaining what's going on and then leave you for like 10 minutes.

Yeah, I mean, it's acrobatic. Yes. Yeah, but they tried to force the story on it. They did. And I still don't really know. I looked it up after the fact too. I looked it up after the fact as well.

So like apparently there were two main characters. Maybe at least two. Maybe three. So there's Ralu who I think was Mohawk. No I don't know what they look like. So there's Ralu, who I think was... Mohawk?

No, I don't know what they look like. I mean, they're all blue. The Mohawks were all just the one tribe. Yeah, the Mohawks were the one tribe. Right. The basic crux of this show is... I don't know. There are two male characters, Ralu and Entu.

One of them rides Taruk at the end of the show. Spoiler alert, but I actually don't know which. Yeah. And then there's a girl. Oh, I know which. Which one? So the way it goes down is. Well, don't spoil the ending.

No, spoil the ending. The way it goes down is what? It's like we start out with one tribe and it's these two characters you just mentioned kind of like almost rivals in the sense they're trying to like, you know, move on to manhood or like warriorhood. And there is the one male character who he's defeated and he runs off. And he's the one at the end that defeated Navi, who rides Turok. Okay, right.

Because, oh, yes. He rises to the occasion. There was a test at the beginning of the show. This show was very like dangle based. Like it's a lot of dangling. Yeah, it was basically like, and now the trials begin. They have to dangle. Yeah.

And now they have to get the thing, this artifact they have to dangle on a rope. Because like Cirque du Soleil, in addition to sort of like body contortion sort of stuff, is also known for like a lot of like aerial kind of like beauty and majesty. Yeah. And this was like there wasn't any sort of trapeze. For a show called The First Flight, I was ready for more wire work. There was no wire work.

It was like double dare. It was like double dare. They'd like drop a rope from the ceiling and then they'd do some dangling. Isn't that their thing? Like I have never seen Cirque du Soleil before. I thought there was like a lot more. I mean, I've never seen Cirque du Soleil. I thought there was going to be, I'll say I thought there was going to be a lot more flipping i mean i've never seen circus so like i thought there was like gonna be i'll say i thought there was gonna be a lot more flipping uh-huh there was

not much flip there was hardly any flipping there was a lot of tumbling which i really like tons of tumbling i loved the tumbles um and yeah there was a lot of like spinning on a single handed like twisty rope yeah which is like sort of a spin on a dangle. It's not quite a dangle. It's a spinning dangle. Where were the clowns? They're in Queens. Ben had a lot of complaints about circus elements that were missing. Not a lot of circus, for sure. Like no animal.

Viper wolves! I'm looking this up. Dire horses? There are puppet animals. There are puppet animals. Yes. Done through reverse puppetry. Yeah.

Which is puppetry from the ground up. But there was. That's what it's called. There was a lot of like, yeah, I mean, it was like they'd like get on a thing and then they'd like hold on to it and they'd do some climbing and then they'd like let go and they'd be holding on with their legs. And they'd like flash you like all of their like inner organs. Yeah.

Yeah. And their bones. You got a good sense of their skeletons. I saw a lot of pelvic floors. Yeah. Definitely. But yeah, they're clad in head-to-toe body stockings with abs painted on.

And like Navi, the blue little tattoo-y kind of markings on their bodies, the spots and the stripes. And you could tell these people were, they are fit athletes. These are, yes. That's the circus performance. These people have like perfect bodies. But you're almost not even seeing them because they're in these kind of lame stockings, I guess that's sort of how it goes.

It felt like a disservice. David and I were talking about how like I think we would have preferred for everybody to be like. Nude. Nude. Nude. Painted. Yeah.

Painted blue. Painted nude.ainted. Yeah. Painted blue. Painted nude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a weird, because they were like body socks. I mean, they were like very thin material. But not thin enough.

Yeah. Because it just felt, it felt like. Not thin enough. Not thin enough. Yeah. We should say there was no nudity in this show. No. Which I thought was surprising.

It's a family friendly show. There were a lot of kids in the audience. There were. We were aggressively shushed once by somebody with a couple kids who was, as far as I could tell, filming the entire show on her phone. She filmed all of it. I was sitting right behind her. Her phone was filming the whole thing.

She was at row three. I mean, you gotta be there. You can't really experience Turok unless you're there. No. I mean, here we go fucking Cirque du Soleil and James Cameron are holding hands trying to transport you to the world of Pandora and you're hiding

behind your fucking phone. Yeah. If that's not what Avatar is about, I don't know what it is. It's about getting back in touch with nature. It's about fucking

becoming yourself. No, it's about like finding five specific items from the five clans. Well, I'm saying the world of Avatar is about the S. Oh, sure, sure.

Okay, so early on the show there's some dangling test where they're above a fire. They have to dangle above a fire, which is kind of cool. Right, and they got to dangle, and one of them dangles really well, and then the other one slips in the dangle and falls down. Can I just say- And then breaks his bow.

Right. Out of anger. Out of rage. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was kind of an odd choice to base a show about acrobatics and about using your body well around a character who is bad at that. Sure.

Yes. I just wanted to put that out there. I think that's a very good point. I also will say at the moment he fell from the dangle, I thought we were watching some Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark shit. Oh, you thought like things had gone wrong? For one moment. Until everyone reacted very theatrically. Right, right, right. For one moment. Until everyone reacted very theatrically. Right, right, right.

For one moment, I was like, oh, fuck. It was convincing bad dangling. Yeah. But, like, okay, so the test goes, they break the bow, they run off. And then there's this sort of, like. Yeah, this is Ralu and Entu. It's two boys on the brink of adulthood who decide to take matters into their own hands when they dream that an earthquake is going

to hurt the soul tree or whatever the fuck it's called. And they have to get five artifacts to stop that. Well, their elder sort of does some sort of mystical, like, looks into the thing and then conjures some thing. Yeah. There's this elder lady who sings. Yes. She sounds like Bjork.

She's sort of the CCH Pounder type character. I guess she's the mystic, but she's got- I took a video of her. She's got like a Bjork voice, and she's wearing this dress of like, I don't know. Those of the Jewish faith could relate her to a cantor.

A cantor. Yes. She sort of reminded me of the cantor at my local shul. Sure, yeah. That's what I remember, because she pissed me off. I got bad vibes from both this character and the cantor at my local shul sure yeah that's what i remember because she pissed me off i got bad vibes from both this character and the cantor at my local shul and she sort of like throws out like suddenly like the plot's cooking right it felt like after like 20 minutes of a lot of dangling and like a lot of

sort of like movement work she like throws down the gauntlet and you went like five artifacts right and you were like okay here's video. Video game. Video game stakes. She said, in order to stop the earthquake, you're going to have to unite the five tribes. It won't be easy. There are five artifacts you got to collect. And it's like, great. They got to go to different places. They got to talk to hostile tribes.

And from each tribe, they got to collect a relic. Easy. The stakes are so clear. In a nonverbal show, I'll understand exactly what's going on. And then what proceeds to happen is about an hour and ten minutes or more dangling. Dangling, dangling, dangling. It'll be like well, go on, Rachel.

I thought that it was just scavenger hunt, but then I realized that the, and when I say I realized, I mean I read it online after the show, that the artifacts are not necessarily to unite the tribe. They are to summon and then and then ride Taruk. Just clearing that up.

They don't talk about Taruk much. His shadow is seen before the end of the first act. Remember? It's prophesied that he's the only one who can stop the earthquake. And we'll get to how he quote unquote stops the earthquake. But so they have to go to various tribes. Yeah. And each time they have to do

a new kind of dangling. So at one point they go up to the big wooden ring and they get like a tulip bulb out of it or something. Yeah. But did you notice this recurring pattern of every time they met a new tribe, the tribe would just laugh at them? And then they would have to prove themselves by rope dancing, basically?

Yes, correct. The new tribes were hard to distinguish because it's all blue people. Yeah. Like maybe they have like a yellow hat or something, but it's pretty subtle, right? Yeah, some of them had like Tangerine Ninja Turtle armor. Sure, yeah, some of them had some armor, that's true. They had some shells. There was the tribe with the mohawks. Yeah. One girl had like aangerine Ninja Turtle armor. Sure, yeah. Someone had some armor. That's true. They had some shells. There was the tribe with the Mohawks.

Yeah. One girl had like a yarn skirt. Yeah. So, but like there's one where they go to the crown and they get the tulip bulb. There's another where they build a skeleton seesaw. I thought it was a telescope. Yeah. Rachel leaned over to me and said, they're building a skeleton telescope.

She got really excited. Yes. The narrator had said, here, this tribe, they see the stars and they predict shit and whatever. And I was like, oh my God, they're building a telescope out of bones. This is amazing. It was just a seesaw and they got on either side of the seesaw and it went up and down. But it's a seesaw in the shape of a skeleton of a Thanator. I guess so.

A mighty Thanator from the world of James Cameron's Avatar. Correct. Then there were some other, I already forgot some of the other tasks. Do you remember any of them? There was water. Yeah, there was some water. There was a raging river and there was the turdipede. Oh, yeah, that's right.

There was like a turtle, but like a turdipede that was skating around this floor. And the floor was like they projected water onto the floor. Which I liked. It was cool. Yeah, and they had like a canoe and the that was skating around this floor, and they projected water onto the floor. Which I liked. It was cool. Yeah, and they had a canoe, and the canoe was moving around, and we were like, how's that moving around? And then we looked closer and it had wheels. Right.

So that shattered the illusion, but whatever. But they were projecting like wild rapids. You said that the turdipede looked like a Roomba, which it did. It was just sort of a motorized big thing that kept on going around. I loved it. I mean, here's the thing. So, they Cirque du Soleil has done has adapted the works of musicians before.

The Beatles. They did a Beatles show, they did an Elvis show, and I think there's one other one I'm forgetting. But they've done three music-themed shows. They have never adapted like a dramatic property before, right? I don't think so. I know this for a fact, because James Cameron was bragging about it

in this Vulture interview. They did a Michael Jackson show? That was the third one. It was Michael Jackson, Elvis, and the Beatles, the sort of three cornerstones of popular music. And then other than that, they've always done original shows, and they are ostensibly non-narrative pieces. Yeah, they're based on del delirium or like party.

Clocks. Right. Yes, clocks, which you can now see in Vegas. It's at the Blasch. I swear to God that's in Queens right now. Really? I mean, maybe it's just steampunk. No, I did get the flyer for that.

Oh, yeah, the steampunk one, right. Yeah, what's it called again? It just looks like clocks to me. And they had a Criss Angel show. There's Paramore right now on Broadway, which is like the magic of movies themed but it's

sort of about like it's about the magic of movies. It's not like a narrative, you know? There was Zarkana which was like a magic of stage

like stage magic one. They are like There's a lot of them. The crux of it is like I think they've run out of like stuff. They've done a ton of shit and it is like

you know, if you go to Vegas there are like 10 simultaneous running Cirque du Soleil shows run out yeah it's like stuff they've done a ton of shit and it is like you know if you go to vegas there are like 10 simultaneous running Cirque du Soleil shows and i asked my friend when i went to vegas my friend sam rugal uh i i was like uh but does every fucking casino have like their own Cirque du Soleil show and he's like that's the standard by which casinos judge themselves there are six current running Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas alone. He was like, if you don't have a Cirque show, you're second tier.

Like, that's the thing is people fight to become legitimate enough to get a Cirque show. Why the fuck do you? Okay, so how many people were in the audience? I think like 5,000 maybe? Maybe. Like, Barclay Seats 20. Yeah. I don't know.

I mean, 4,000. Like, not a lot of people were there. I'd say three to four. Were people jazzed about this show? It didn't seem like it. The people who were there seemed jazzed about it. I mean, but we did see people lining up to go in. There wasn't, like, a lot of clapping.

No, but it was... I tried to clap very vigorously anytime anyone went up and down a rope. Because we were staring, and we were, like, at, like, reaching distance between the performers and us. So it was, like, really awkward. I just didn't feel like, you know, like a real atmosphere in the crowd of, like it was, like, really awkward. It just didn't feel like, you know, like a real atmosphere in the crowd of, like, oh, shit, you know. But let's say this also.

Skeleton, seesaw, I don't know. This is kind of a point I was building up to. It was a surprisingly austere show. Like, it was very invested in sort of, like, the self-serious integrity. It was weirdly austere, yeah. That, like, James Cameron has invested his world of Avatar with, right?

There is no joy in this show. Yes, and also, like, okay, so if Cirque du Soleil is doing, like, a steampunk show or, like, a history of the movies or fucking Elvis, it can just sort of, like, explore the feelings of a thing and then just go wild in terms of physical movement

and just, like, fucking convey that however they want. But this show has, like, one-fourth of a plot, which means that they sort of have to abide by this thing that creates confines of how much crazy physical shit they can do. Right. And it cuts both ways because it's like, well, the show is less physically,

you know, like, aerobatically stunning than Cirque du Soleil, I think, can be because they're trying to tell this thing but also the narrative doesn't really work because the narrative is like trying to like have some propulsion behind it and be like there are stakes the earthquake is coming they have to unite the five tribes but in order for Cirque du Soleil to do the things that they do best things have to slow down to a crawl so it's like characters are dangling and tumbling when it's like they're like time crunch this seems like the least efficient way to get across this river is for them

to just keep dangling for a while. Dangle, dangle. Like the show was like very slow. It was excruciatingly slow. Yeah. Yeah. I,

I would say it was short. Yeah. It was an hour and a half, a 20 minute intermission. Yeah. About an hour. It also made me think of medieval times. Yeah,

it did. It had that kind of vibe to it. Yeah, but they didn't have any audience participation. They had the app. Yes. No, but I wanted to get in the ring with them and do a thing. Ramona kept on leaning over to me and saying that she wanted to quit her job and join Cirque du Soleil. Yeah, but she was, again, lit. Very lit. I think she would have been wonderful in this show.

She would have been great. That's not in question. She also claimed that she was as physically capable as everyone in the show. Anytime they did something, she went, I could do that. Well, I mean, the most impressive part for me was on the bone

seesaw. It felt like... The bone saw? The bone saw. The bone saw. You ain't going nowhere. Yeah. Sure. Bone saw. Bone saw McGraw. R.I.P.

It felt like the Olympics because they were just on like a what is that the beam the is it called long beam

what is it called? Yeah. Yeah. Long beam. Yeah. Okay. High beam. Balance beam.

Yeah. Balance beam. I believe it's a bone, the long beam. Yeah, okay. High beam? Balance beam? Yeah, balance beam. Whatever, yeah. I believe it's a bone saw. McGraw. My favorite Olympic event, yeah. So it felt like that, and that was cool, and I was like, okay, this is moving up and down, and you're doing the shit that I just saw

like Simone Biles do, and I'm very impressed, and I love it. Do more of this. And then it was just tumbling, and also like, they did like a lot of throwing spears and catching them, but like not throwing them at anything, just like throwing them up in the air like, okay, we're ready to go on this hunting mission. And I caught my spear and then they would walk away with it. So that's this like weird thing. I've only seen one Cirque du Soleil show prior to this in my life.

And it was probably like 15 years ago. And I don't remember it that well. Right. But I just remember you have seen one. I've seen one before. I saw one probably like when I was life and it was probably like 15 years ago and i don't remember it that well right but i just remember you have seen one i've seen one before i saw one probably like when i was back when it was hot back when it was the cool new thing in the like late 90s yeah i think i saw one i think i probably saw one like 2001 right uh and i just remember being like this sort of like there was so much stimuli you know there was was just so many things happening simultaneously, whereas this felt kind of like,

as you said, like an Olympic event where it's like, all eyes on this, one person's going to do one thing. And they're also limited to what the characters would be capable of doing in a way. That's almost the problem with setting it in another universe. Right. Yeah, and also having characters with a thing to accomplish.

But you get, I can see, so apparently they saw the early cut of Avatar before it even came out, like some Cirque du Soleil. You can see why they'd be like, oh, this is right up our alley. And it has sort of a vibe-y thing. Blue people, they're all spindly, they jump around and fly, come on. And even just the music and the aesthetics of Avatar feel kind of Cirque du Soleil adjacent. Right. Yeah, it felt like world music, like a world music concert, kind of. Right du Soleil adjacent. Right. It felt like world music. Yes.

Like a world music concert kind of. Right. Yeah, yeah. And this sort of like... They were banging on some skeleton bones, you know. Lots of like mournful whale singing, you know. Like, yeah! And just like kneeling and crying. And this kind of like faux spiritualism. You know, this

earthy like... Yeah. I always think of like any war movie, you know war movie any modern war movie or any Hollywood movie that has scenes set in the Middle East there's always that thing where it'll cut to Saudi Arabia and yes over the subject

The Prince of Egypt Come on, let's get someone in here do some world music yelling over the soundtrack no effort is made Which Avatar does too Let's get, come on, let's get someone in here, do some world music, yelling over the soundtrack. Like, no effort is made. Which Avatar does, too. It does, but I mean, Avatar is playing in that pool of like, that's what the Navi and are. They're this sort of like catch-all native folk.

I took a video of the singing, too. Yeah, you took some videos. I took a couple. I took a couple videos. Not as many as that lady. Yeah, my favorite part of the show is when David took a video and said, this is going to make a great vine. And then he vined it. Motherfucker vined it.

I vined that shit. It was a skeleton seesaw. The lady in front of us was literally, started recording at the beginning of the show, finished recording at the end of the show, just recorded the whole show. Yes, that is right. Only stopped at one point to shush you guys. Yeah, but she didn't stop the recording. No.

Ben was quiet, quiet, quiet, just watching the show. As a mouse. Yeah, I loved watching him watch the show. I was taking it all in. I've never seen Ben look so intensely focused. You know, when I get put into a circumstance where I have no idea what's going on, I really try to figure it out. Hey, can I tell you guys what my favorite part of the show was? Please.

You know how they had plants that came out of compartments? Yeah. Dude, that shit's cool. I loved that, too. Yeah. That was cool. You were really into that, though. Yeah.

I was really into it. Was it Ben or you who started being like, I want my life to have plants that come out of compartments. That was Ben. And I wasn't quite grasping what Ben was saying. I don't know. Oh, I also ate a mac and cheeseburger, but I think I talked about that. We should cut to

our experience. So we recorded a lot of audio at intermission. So just to catch you up, by intermission, I think they had gotten three of the five relics, right? Three of the five artifacts. That sounds right. And then this is the audio. I think we knew they'd gotten two, and then they were like, now they have

three artifacts! And we were like, oh, I guess the third one was in there somewhere. The third one was inside them all along. One of them was a doll that looked like Tauruk. I think that was the first one they got. It was sort of a merchandise spotlight within the show. Okay, anyway, go on. This artifact is available for $65

at Tauruk, the first merchandise stand. So yeah, so in the middle of the show Ben brought a microphone into the Barclays Center. Snuck it past the camera. And we did a little recapping of our Insta thoughts, right? Yeah. Right, so these are

our halftime thoughts of Turok, the first flight. You got one? Alright. So, here we are, blank check, halftime for the Turok. Turok, The first flight. This is me, Dave Sims. Oh, yeah.

And this is producer Ben. Hey, Ben. We've just taken in, I would say, the first hour or so. Yep. We're in the intermission. So we're just now eating some Paisano burgers. Yeah, we got some Paisano burgers. I got the, what's it, Mac Attack burger?

It was the Mac Attack burger. So it's a hamburger with mac and cheese on top, which is a classic Italian-American dish that Paisano replicates faithfully at the Barclays Center. So, all right, Ben, I'm going to give you some thoughts, and then I want to hear your thoughts. Of course, of course. So going into this, I would say my feelings were

I was nervous and I was upset, and I was a little hot. It was very hot today, and we had to stand outside for a while because Griffin was really late. And then we were supposed to sit in section 222. Right. But then they moved us to section 5. And just that's like, it's a lot closer. Yeah.

We're like, we are very close. And we're in section 9, row 5. Right. So we're basically, I mean, I think if you're in a basketball game, these seats cost like $1,500. Oh, my God. Like, you know, we're in Section 9, Row 5. Right. So we're basically, I mean, I think if you're in a basketball game, these seats cost like $1,500. Oh, my God. Like, you know, we're courtside, essentially.

But we're not courtside for an NBA game. We're courtside for Tauruk, the first flight. For rope dancing. Rope dancing, a lot of rope dancing. So there seems to be a lot of Pandora and Marginalia. You know, like, everyone looks like a Na'vi. They're talking in Na'vi. There's a lot of Na'vi animals, Pandora and Marginalia. You know, like, everyone looks like a Navi. They're talking in Navi. There's a lot of Navi animals, Pandora animals. They are speaking in, like, the Avatar language.

They're speaking Navi. Yeah, they are. So did they put out, like, a whole, like... A dictionary, maybe? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Maybe they did. I mean, they built the whole language out for the movie. Okay.

So that's great. I'm really happy they're respecting the tradition of the Navi with that. But my biggest thought is... Here, I have to give ramona another fried no i don't want one okay she doesn't want the fried pickles all right um my biggest thought is it's mostly rope dancing yeah you know like with all that window dressing but it's really just rope dancing what do you think ben well i think um great butts i want to start there. Muscular, athletic butts. Oh, man. Everyone's got a great, great butt.

I love the design of it, like the set design. One really cool thing is they keep having plants come out of compartments and then shrink back in. That's really cool. I'd like to incorporate that into my daily life. Or into blank check? Maybe. You could have some plants.

I mean, yeah, we could do that. We could have a plant that comes out of the table that you record at. I'm thinking more, though, I like that as a design element that I'd like to incorporate into my daily life. I want there to be tables where you push a button and something comes out of it. That would be cool. And then another point, there was a flame.

That was pretty cool in the center of the stage. Oh, gosh. All right, hold on. I've got to hand this off to Griffin. I'm going to give this over to Griffin. All right. This is David. I have the microphone right now.

We're being told to download the First Flight app, which has been part of our second screen experience. Now I'm going to talk to Griffin Newman, co-host of Blank Check, Griffin and David. Hi, everybody. This is Griffin Newman, co-host of Blank Check with Griffin and David. Hi, everybody. This is Griffin Newman, co-host of the podcast Blank Check with Griffin and David. Griffin.

We're with our friend Ramona. She's drinking a gin and tonic. I'm getting drunk with my third gin and tonic. I'm drinking. I'm on my first gin and ginger ale. I should mention that Ramona has never seen the movie Avatar before. That is true. That is true.

Neither has Ben. Neither has Ben. So, Griffin, thoughts after Act 1? I think it's just a Cracker Jack show. We talked about butts already. You have your butts. So I'm going to give some unqualified praise. Oh, there are a lot of good butts in this show. If you like well-formed

butts, I mean, obviously, look. The sample of quality on Cirque du Soleil, we know we're going to see well-toned bodies. Griffin, just want to remind you, there are tons of children sitting within earshot of us. I'm going to be very clean in the way I say this. You're seeing people in peak physical condition who have honed their bodies with precision, like the blade of a knife. It is sharp, it is precise, and it is designed.

And it's super hot. It's super hot, and it's designed to do one task, and that is to communicate to us the story of Taruk the First Flight. No, no, no. The correct answer is to go up and down ribbons. Okay, there are a lot of ribbons in this show and people going up and down them. I've said this is a very dangle-heavy show. Most of the stunts are connected to dangling.

Wait, I have a question. Taruk the First Flight. We know that Taruk has flown at least once before this. In the film Avatar. In the film Avatar. This is a prequel. Prior to this. No, it killed the person with the red mohawk's family. Well, do you want spoilers? So what about this is the first flight? No, I think someone is going to...

Alright. This is conjecture. It's speculation. This is what we believe. My guess is by the end of the show, someone's going to mount Tarouk and fly on him. Tarouk FYI. Ramona's real buzzed. Tariq FYI is the big orange thing. Tariq is

one of these flying things? He's not a Navi? No. No, didn't you see the shadow? And also it's pronounced Navi. Bro. So guys, just I'm talking with my mouth full, but that conversation you just overheard should give you an idea of just how incomprehensible the show is. The show is great.

It's nice, clean, economic plotting. The show moves like a freight train. There's no fat on it. Right. It's like from ribbon scene to ribbon scene. And here's the thing that everyone else isn't saying. This show is really funny. It has a razor-sharp wit.

Just two notes to that. One, no one's saying anything about Tariq the first flight. Two, it's not funny. It's very funny. It's got a dry, subtle wit, and you have to get on its wavelength. You might not notice the laughs if you're not looking for them because it's really kind of a test of intelligence. But the show is very funny.

All right, so, like, Driven's just doing intelligence. But the show is very funny. All right, so like, Driven's just doing a stupid bit. It's not funny. It's also... Get out of here. It's hilarious. It's hilarious. I mean, it's got the...

Driven, look. The razor sharp barbs of a New Yorker cartoon. This is, look, look. Maybe you're not... Gales of laughter aren't heard, but you're quietly laughing to yourself. All right, all right. Look, I'll give you that, of course.

It does have... It has a barbed wit. That's true. But this is, you know... Look, I'll give you that, of course. It does have, it has a barbed wit. That's true. But, you know, we do our podcasts for fun, but, you know, we're serious critics. Very serious.

Ramona, what are you about to say? Ramona keeps leaning in very threateningly. Ramona's very drunk. Threateningly? Did you mention the seat upgrade? I mentioned the seat upgrade.

I've given our listeners the full story of the seat upgrade. And do you give a shout-out to Steven, who hooked us up with the seat upgrade? Steven, who works at the Barclays Center. We'll talk about him the full story of the seed upgrade. And do you want to shout out to Stephen who hooked us up with the seed upgrade? Stephen, who works at the Barclays Center. We'll talk about him on the rest of the pod,

but I just want to say the service at the Barclays Center has been extraordinary. It's a great arena and I support its staff especially. This is definitely the best $13 gin and ginger ale I've ever got. Oh my god. $13. I spent $12 on my Mac Attack mac and cheese

burger. Alright, Ben, do you want the... Let's go to Lang and Pitt. Alright, Ben, I'm going to hand you over. So you can talk to Lang. Are you still eating? No, I'm done. You can have the last of these fries. No, no, no, you can eat the fries. Oh, no, yeah, Ramona can have the fries. Okay, wow, she... Ramona

dove for those fries like Tarouk diving for the families of the Navvi that he has slaughtered. Maybe, I don't know. Does he actually kill people? It's hard to tell. All right. Then, if you want to ask a couple questions from our other seatmates, please go ahead. Sure. All right. So, okay. Yeah. Hey. Hey. Hi there. Previous guest on the podcast. Hi.

Rachel. Thank you. How are you doing? Great, so great. Good, okay. So I wanted to talk to you about how you like the show so far, and please introduce your friend who's joining us today for the show. Sure, sure.

This is my girlfriend, Alex, Alex Pitts. Hi, hello. Yeah, Columbia grad and Great, okay. And English major. Wow. Yeah, uniquely qualified, actually, to review this show, I think. Okay, so from a literary standpoint, how do you feel the story is unfolding? Is it, can you follow it in any way? Yeah, I feel like Joseph Campbell would be proud of this show.

There's a real hero's journey happening, a quest that is being fulfilled, so yeah, I'm happy. I mean, I don't know what's happening. I haven't seen the movie either, but I don't think that that matters. I think it's just not... There's not much of a story. It's just like, you know, rope stuff.

It's a... What's it called? A scavenger hunt. It's a scavenger hunt. And we're here at intermission. With a lot of tricks. And I can't tell if it's been completed or if there's more. There's two or three more talismans. Okay, great. So that answers that.

The English major's on it. She's got it. Yeah. Still going on. All right, this was a thought I had while I was watching it. I think that they're doing some really great stuff with, like, the set dressing and the costumes. There was those fan costumes.

Yeah, that was cool. I really like the sound, the ambient sound of water in a stadium. Any thoughts? Love it, love it. And i love projected stars on the floor because i feel like it's different like you'd expect the stars to be like on the ceiling or on the walls for example and oh i think it's starting well okay it's been great yeah thank you for being on the just gonna sign a few comments all right the lights are darkening bits uh ben smells of cigarette smoke. Dry ice is wafting onto the stage. The Na'vi are coming down the stairs.

Everybody's abs are going haywire. Guys, this is insane. I don't know if we're going to survive this. It's been wonderful talking to you. This is David Sims with Blank Check. And then, great, those were our thoughts on Turok, the first flight. And then great, those were our thoughts on Turok the First Flight. Now in case you couldn't tell, I was having a laugh about the show being funny.

Yeah, you were doing this whole annoying bit where you were like, this was a really subtle, wet, barbed, funny show. I think everyone who listened to it will agree that my bit killed. Of course, it murdered. Rachel didn't get the chance to talk about something that happened whilst we were purchasing burgers. We have to talk about Sauce Boy. Well, that didn't happen to me.

It's related to what happened to you. I missed both of these things. Did you go to the merch stand in the intermission? I did a cursory sort of scanning and decided I would wait until the end of the show, and then I went and got drinks. But I was not online for food with you folks. We went to go get food.

Me and Ben and Rachel, I got a mac and cheeseburger, as previously mentioned. I spent $15 on a Budweiser and water. Yep. Really good about that still. I did $26 on two gin and tonics. Wow. That's better value than $ bucks for a Budweiser. Yeah.

And then Ben and David and Alex and I sort of all made eye contact at once and then we made eye contact

with the cashiers and it was as though a cloud had sort of come over all of us waiting in line for food.

I think you had said I can taste the fart in my mouth. I think that's the quote. I remember something to that effect. It was very strong. It was dense like fog. We were wading through it.

Yeah, it was like, oh, okay, a brief tangent. My grandpa is from this small town in Pennsylvania that is known for the Denora fog, which swept over the town one night. Wow, a fluoride fog. It killed like 20 people and made like

106. Thousands. 7,000 people were injured by the Donora smog. That's where my grandpa's from and I felt his legacy. One of the worst air pollution disasters in the history of the United States. This is like a real thing that happened in the real world. This sounds like a plot point from Avatar 4.

Like a fog that can kill people. Okay, until. Until this moment in line for my $10 Budweiser. Not since the Dora fog. No. As an airborne attack. So all the cashiers were pretty startled. What was really funny

was that chefs were coming out from behind to smell it. And then I heard someone be like, you nasty, come on. What do you want to smell a fart for? Okay, I have some questions to ask since I wasn't there. Sure. Was there any sort of theory as to who had laid it?

Like, was there a scanning around to see who looked guilty? I was thinking it was either an old person or a kid. But there wasn't a person you could see who looked like you. This sounds like something that happened and a person moved on and it was laid down. That's what I was going to ask. Do you think it was a crop dust? I have a theory now. I didn't see this man at the time in line, but that doesn't mean he wasn't there.

I saw him later. He was an older gentleman. I would say late 60s, early 70s, and he had a button-up shirt that was like not the material that those ever are. It was like the material, it was like a stretchy button-up shirt. Interesting.

That was completely skin-tight over his whole top half. Kind of, he's the purpose of buttons. Yeah, and he kept sort of walking around all weird around the merchandise stand, and when I saw him later, I thought, that guy. This guy could be a phantom farter.

Yeah, absolutely. He's a farting around guy. Other than that, no idea. Okay, interesting. Ben, any other ideas? Yeah, I saw an old lady online with us, and I felt like, you know, you get older, you start taking medications,

and it's just like sometimes you let things slide out. Great. Ben Hosley, fart detective. Can I throw out a theory? Sure. And I wasn't there. No. In hindsight, it's 2020.

It did. And I'm certainly not telling, you know, the three of you are three of the people I respect most in this world. Absolutely. And I'm not saying you should have been doing anything differently because, you know. Will you please say your theory? You were looking on the ground. Uh-huh.

We should have looked in the sky? Taruk? Taruk might have farted and he would have been able to get away from it really quickly. He is. And he's a huge dragon. We don't know what's in his fucking diet. They call him the last shadow. Yes. That's what Turok means. If there was a fart unlike anything

you had ever smelled before, then perhaps it came from a creature unlike anything you've ever seen before. Do you know what I'm saying? Of course I know what you're saying. To think this was terrestrial. It's a logical theory and I'm glad that we've aired it on this podcast. I mean, it's a good thing to talk about. Turok the first fart. Can you tell the second

story? What's the sauce point? Okay, so me and Ben were getting food and Ben was telling me how much he likes condiment stands. I love, if you've got a, like, if you go to a place and they've got like a really fancy condiment stand, I'm like, whoa. Which they've got at the Barclays

Center, they've got okay condiments. It's not many options. You know, it's and I told him when we were getting our food, I was like, I don't know if you're going to love the condiment stand because I've been there enough times. I know, you know, you got your ketchup. Yeah. You got your mustard. Yeah. They got some sauerkraut.

Yeah. And they got the kind of like hot chili you can put on a hot dog. Oh, that's pretty good. Not every place will have that. I think they have banana peppers. Yeah, but it was all open air, you know, just like hanging out. Okay. And I don't feel will have that. I think they have banana peppers. But it was all open air. It's just like hanging out. I don't feel good about that.

So me and Benny collect our food. We walk over to the condiment stand. And I was sort of saying, it's not great. And Ben kind of looks over at me. And then he sort of stops himself. And he's like, we'll talk about it later. And so I'm like, oh, okay. And so we move on.

We go back to our seats. And then, Benny, you want to take it from here? Sure. So there's a gentleman who worked at the Barclays Center who was sort of like manning the station. By manning, we mean standing. Standing. By the station with his arms at his side. Sort of just wiping things down.

I guess. And I didn't want to talk bad about what he does. But I did refer to him as a sauce boy. Well, you wanted to refer to him as a sauce boy, but you didn't do it in front of him, right? No, no. So that's, I think you were about to say, like, sauce boy. I was going to be like, yeah, this sauce boy

isn't holding up his weight here, you know? Something to that effect. But then I corrected myself whilst telling this to David, and I said, he's more of a condiment man. Condiment man was how you put it. Right. But I just like sauce boy. So that's the sauce boy story.

He joins the ranks of bad zoo boy. Yep. Yep. Bad zoo boy. That's right. Ben's bad boy team. So Ben's bad boys. One day we'll do a whole episode just with them.

Ben's bad boys. Yeah. Okay. That would be like Blank Check the Movie, as Ben has to unite the bad boys. Right. Are we in Blank Check the movie? What? Are we in Blank Check the movie, or is it just Ben uniting the bad boys?

We're in Blank Check the movie. You guys are the narrator. Yeah. And Martin Lawrence. Well, then, good segue to part two. Okay, second act, two more relics, artifacts to go. One of the relics is in the floating mountains, and they sort of pulled some mountains up on strings.

And they looked cool. That looked okay. You're giving me a real strings. And they looked cool. That looked okay. You're giving me a real like They looked cool. They looked okay. Yes. And they meet the clan that like jumps around

on the mountains. Once again, time is of the essence and they're taking a really long time to get around because they got tumbling and dangling to do.

Ribbons. Yes. And then Taruk shows up. Oh, well first they come out with kites and they're all sort of Oh yeah. That was really cool. It was fine. Parts of it were cool. They had small first they come out with kites and they're all sort of. Oh, yeah. That was really cool.

It was fun. Parts of it were cool. There was just sweeping the kites over the seats. That was kind of cool. Small dragon kites and the kites were pretty. They were pretty kites. And that was like the regular, what the fuck are they called? Lianaprix.

Yeah, you know, the dragon things that they all fly. There were like four kinds of kites. There was like a parasailing thing as well. And there was the one that felt like those cat toys that look like little fishing rods and you just like boing boing boing boing boing. That was exactly one of the ones. I was impressed by how in sync everybody was. I know that's their job. But when twisting something in the wind

and walking, you could sort of see the fear in their eyes. But that was when the show felt like the most real to me. And then Turok shows up. Yeah. Well, and just, you know, we haven't, we've mentioned this, but I just want to point out, the creature puppet work was really good. I mean, you sort of derisively said, like, well, this is just the Lion King now. Like, you were like, they're just taking Julie Taymor's thing.

No, I said that, like, early into the first act. It was literally they ripped off the Julie Taymor animal puppets. Yeah. Yeah, but it was that kind of style where it would be like someone was, like, behind legs, and they're dressed in black, and then they're, you know, controlling the first leg. They're operating some legs. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was all really good. I mean, all the puppets looked really cool and were well-operated, I thought. Most of them looked good. Ben had a problem with one of them. Yeah, there was the horse guys. Dire horse? The dire horse?

Yeah. Yes, the dire horse. Because it was two people in it. Right. And then the person who was the back half, he controlled a third set of legs. Yeah, they were six-legged. They were six-legged horses, yes. Yeah, and the one guy was terrible.

He was just not selling the clop, clop kind of thing. So just to clarify, there were on stage, I'd say, four dire horses. I think that's right, yeah. Each dire horse was operated by two people. That's right. And Ben specifically took umbrage with one of the eight people performing the front. Yeah, it was sort of a left shark situation. Hey, Rachel saw it too.

I did. I'm team Ben on this one. I saw it, and he was just, everybody else had like a rhythm to like, okay, this is the front left, and then the front right. Sure, right, right, sure. And you know, and it was all going, and this guy was just stomping, stomping, stomping, and then anytime he wasn't moving, he would still sort of like aimlessly wiggle them, and it just didn't work for me.

He was showboating. Yeah, no. He hadn't showed up to rehearsal. It took me out of it. I felt like I was immersed in the blue world and then I just got pulled right out. Ben has not seen Avatar at this point. So

there are two more artifacts. They get to the dragon people and then suddenly Turok shows up. He flaps around for a while. Now let me say two things that might sound contradictory. Turok looked amazing. Looked pretty cool. It was pretty, it was big puppet, way up in the sky, operated by a few guys underneath.

Eight guys, I believe. I think we all had the same complaint at the same time. Which was? Thought he'd be a little bigger. It wasn't that big. It wasn't huge. And especially when the show is just building up. Like, we're at, like, fucking minute, like, 78 now.

Yeah, we're like, all right, well, you know, we're in the final act here. Come on. Right. He was, like, the size of the big, like, flower nipple that was dangling out one of the artifacts earlier on. Yeah. It was, like, the same size. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It was okay. Like, and- He was big enough to probably, you could imagine, like, maybe two of these guys riding him. Right. He kind of looked like the size of a regular dragon thing. That's what I was going to say.

Because in Avatar, they give us a sense of scale when you see the regular dragon riders, but then when the big Turok-esque dragon comes in, it was humongous. Jake Sully looked tiny on his back. And this looked like one of the normal-sized dragons. But it was pretty beautiful looking, and it's flying around from the ceiling.

And they're all sort of, I guess, simultaneously terrified and entranced sure i mean they crouched in fear so many times there was some story element where he had like killed the family of one of the characters right but that was sort of vague oh and at some point they like at some point these two main characters, the one who failed the test and the one who succeeded, collect a third person. At some point, it became three people. Guys, no one cares about this. She's a princess.

She was a princess. Yeah, she was a princess of one of the tribes. And they were like, just take her. Look, anyway, someone tries to ride Taruk. It doesn't work out. But then how does that catch on fire? Then there's an earthquake. Then a volcano melts all over theook. It doesn't work out. But then how does that even catch on fire? Then there's an earthquake. Okay.

Then a volcano melts all over the stage. It was lava. And once again, the lava's projected on the floor, which is cool. The floor projection was cool. And you've got the soul tree thing, the big USB hub that they all plug their brains into. Yeah. And that's under threat from the lava. Then they open a waterfall, and it kind of kills the lava, but it doesn't as well.

It was hard to pick up what was happening. It hardens the lava on the ground. But then there's still a fire, I guess. The tree was still on fire. They broke open a mountain to create a waterfall. Right. Which I think David and I were theorizing, it stopped the lava from continuing to be lava. Yes.

But then there was a resulting fire still. It was still too hot. Right. The lava on the ground had stopped, so people could walk on the ground, because at first there was a river of lava underneath their feet. And that stopped, but the lava had already hit

the base of the tree, and the tree was on fire. And the tree is not wilting, but collapsing into the stage at the Barclay Center. Like it was sort of just like crumpling up, right? It's like getting shorter. And then our main character had sort of like disappeared. Like it seemed like maybe he had died. Yeah.

And Turok had sort of disappeared. And then they like re-enter. Like he's on Turok's back. And it's like, oh, he's the first rider. He is Tame Turok. He's the Turok Makah. And it's like, oh, he's the first rider. He has tamed Turok. He's the Turok Makah. Mekto. Mekto.

Rider of the Lost Shadow. And then so he flaps around for a bit. Then Turok keeps touching lava. He touches it with his wing. Tapping it with his wing. And it's like, oh. And he touches it with his tail. His dainty little feet.

And then he dies. But then he kills the lava. I didn't understand. The Turok comes out. And it's clear, like, okay, this is Chekhov's gun. Like, you know, the first act they set up Turok, right? Now the tree's on fire. Obviously, Turok's got to start it. And then when he came out, you and I turned to each other, and we were like, how's he going to stop it?

Like, what, does he have water breath? I thought he was going to, like, flap his wings and blow it out like a big candle. I thought he was going to flap his wings and blow it out like a big candle. But instead they lowered him very close to the floor. And then the wings would just sort of tap the fire a little bit. Okay, I just got to talk about his legs for a second. Because they were like big long frog legs. But they were sort of stuck together like a Barbie leg or something.

And they just kept sort of daintaintily like tapping down and hitting things, and I thought it was so cute. It was so annoying. It was pretty cute. I liked it. It was pretty cute. She had a ferocious growl. That is true. You know what?

Actually, good sound design for the show. Yeah, the sound was pretty good. It was sort of a quakey sound. You could really feel it when it was loud. I had commented I loved the sound of dripping water. I love it. And I loved hearing it in a stadium even more so. And the sound system was really good.

I mean, Barkley Center, top-notch tech specs. But they, yeah, Turok sort of pats the fire a little bit and then at some point just dies. He dies, but that kills the fire. I guess the idea is he's blowing it out with his wings, but we do not see that. And I feel like they could have accomplished that. Now, here.

Like, visually, on stage. Like, it was possible. Yeah, but it felt like the only thing they designed the puppet to do was flap up and down, so there wasn't a lot of performance ability. It was a huge puppet. But could have been bigger. Could have been bigger.

Definitely could have been bigger. Maybe, like, bigger. Right. Like, my note might be bigger. Big. The could have been bigger. Maybe like bigger. Right. My note might be bigger. The trees there, all the fiber optic cables are lit up, and as we know in the motion picture avatar, no spoilers

for Benny, but it has been seen to have the ability to perhaps resuscitate one, or at least transfer them into a new body. Exactly. There is revival. You can plug your consciousness into it. As a byproduct of the tree. So you're like, well they're gonna save

Turok because obviously... No, but he doesn't have a braid. And then Turok just dies next to the tree. But they stretch the cables out. That was the part. They had the cables and then you thought you knew all the cables and then more cables came out and they got really long. And then it was just sort of like they're lying there

next to like a dead dragon. Where did the Na'vi like how does the Na'vi plug into the dragon? I know he doesn't have a braid but they plug into each other right? He does have something yeah he has like a port. He's got a port. Oh he's got a butthole. Ah. It's not the butthole. It was the butthole.

No it's like a port. That's what a butthole is. Yeah a butthole is a port the butthole. No, it's like a port. That's what a butthole is. Yeah. A butthole is a port to the toilet. Oh, boy. All right. So it's been too long since I've seen Avatar. Port-a-potty, that's what it's named after?

Yeah. Yeah. Port Authority? They call it that because it's like a butthole. It's like New York City's butthole. It's New York's butthole. It does. It really does function that way.

Shits into New Jersey. It shits you out of New York City into New Jersey. Slowly. So that's Turok Velo's first you out of New York City into New Jersey. Slowly. So, that's Turok the Lost First Flight. Let's never speak of it again. Okay, so I have some more things to say about it.

The dragon just dies. They're all there with the thing and we kind of turned to each other because we were like, well, so we thought that

the, when, Go on. Jake Sully becomes the Turok, Makaha, what's it? Turok. Mekto. Mekto, we assumed it was the same dragon that we were seeing in this show. Right.

But this dragon conclusively dies. We were like, they have to bring him back to life because he's in the movie. No, but I think it's just his ancestor. The fucking thing doesn't live for 3,000 years. So my question is, is that like Turok V? Is that like James Turok V? The biggest dragon. In the film Avatar? Is it James Turok the Fifth? The biggest dragon. In the film Avatar? Is it James Turok the Fifth?

Yes. And how do they make more of these dragons? The biggest one is Turok. Are there dragons banging? That's how it works. So is Turok not his proper name? Is it a title? Yeah, Turok means last shadow.

Right. In Na'vi. Right. Yes. He's like the TOTUS. The English title for him is- He's Turok of the United States. Exactly.

He's TOTUS. Yeah. English title is Giant Leopterix. How do you know all of this? I have the avatar wiki. Super fast internet. There can be only one? Is it sort of like whoever is the biggest dragon at that time?

Well, there's only one that's the biggest, right? Right. So you get the title when you're the biggest one. I guess so. So it's not necessarily like a family lineage thing. It's like when one dies, they're like, okay, who's the next biggest? What if you're there and then one gets bigger? Then what do you get called?

If someone supersedes you as... Number two. Great question. And see, this is why we have you on the show, because you're not afraid to ask the tough questions. Thank you. Thank you. No answer. No answer. I mean, Jimmy, come on. Flesh out this world. Give us those 12 more Avatar movies.

We got unanswered questions. Maybe it's like Mr. President. You still get called Mr. Turok. If you were a Turok, you always will be a Turok. Yeah, maybe. Even if you're not the Turok. You know what, though? The Kryn acting Turok.

Guys, you know what, though? What? It doesn't matter. Nobody cares. But here's what does matter. We've left something out, which is that the show had a huge twist. Oh, shit. I forgot about the twist.

Okay, guys. So Turok saves the day. They're all sort of mourning him. They're all plugging in. They're fucking the tree. And then the narrator comes out, the storyteller. Yeah, the storyteller.

And is like, that is the story of the first Turok. Sure. I keep on forgetting. Makto. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rider of the last tree. Right.

And he gave his life to save our tree and keep our people alive. Turok, I keep on forgetting Mekto. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rider of the last tree. Right. And he gave his life to save our tree and keep our people alive. Turok, to be clear. He was the first Turok Mekto, but he wouldn't be the last. And how do I know that? Because that Turok Mekto was me. And this was my story. Blackout. Hard blackout.

And I... Turns out it was a memory play. And I went like this, like this sort of mind blown face. You were so impressed. The gesture. And one of the, I saw one of the performers looking at me as I did this. Yeah. And with like a big grin on my face.

I'm really close to the stage. And so I felt doubly happy because I think he genuinely was like, yeah, we got him. We got him. Bam. But it's like in a show that didn't have much of a narrative, they do this rug pull at the end that was like, you thought I was just an impartial narrator? Nah, bro. This was

my story. Boom. And I can speak English, and I've been speaking Navi this whole inner show. When did he learn English? Well, that's hopefully what the sequel is. I mean, we've joked about Turok Flight 2, but that's hopefully what the sequel is. They're never going to dooked about Turok Flight 2, but that's hopefully what the sequel is.

They're never going to do it. I hope they do five more. I hope they announce that they're going to do five of them. So that was, it was pretty good. What do you think? Verdict?

I mean, look, I had a great time watching it, but I was with some of my favorite people. Exactly. We were all having a good time. We were having a great time. And we were sitting close to the stage. If I had been sitting

in those nosebleed seats, especially because we saw the poor 30 people who were stuck up there. We would have been miserable. I would have been very unhappy. A lot of our enjoyment came from the fact that we were 30 feet away from everyone at all times. If we were as early as we were supposed to be, we might not have ever gotten those seats. It's true.

You are welcome. Yeah, thanks. Thank you, Five Train and not Griffin. And Steven. Yeah, and big ups to Steven. Big ups to Steven, big ups to the whole Barclays Center crew who clearly did not give one shit about Turok the first flight. They all seemed kind of bummed.

Ramona, who was not sitting with us, totally just walked down to our section and sat next to us. Nobody cared. Because they had put Ramona in. She had bought tickets. I bought tickets for the five of us. They looked at our tickets once and they were like, in. She had bought tickets. I bought tickets for the five of us. They looked at our tickets once and they were like, hey, you're over there. I bought tickets for the five of us and Ramona bought her own ticket

independently. So she was not reassigned. She was put into that one shitty nosebleed section and she just walked down five sections with no trouble. I think everyone who worked at the Barclays Center was a little embarrassed to be working. Yeah, they're used to, you know, pretty sold out Nets games and, you know, pretty sold-out Nets games.

Yeah. And, you know, Jay-Z concerts and what have you. It was probably like a relaxing payday. Yeah, I don't know what it is today. Avatar. And it was September 11th, which added this weird air to the whole thing. There was, and they had two shows.

This was their second show of the day, so that's pretty impressive. I think there's six shows in total. Six shows in Brooklyn. You want to know where they're going next? The Prudential Center in New Jersey, I believe, is next. I think you's six shows in total. Six shows in Brooklyn. You want to know where they're going next? The Prudential Center in New Jersey, I believe, is next. I think you're right. I keep getting ads for it after searching it.

My computer keeps trying to get me to go to the Prudential Center. I get a lot of ads for it in Facebook or whatever now. That'd be a targeted advertising for Cirque du Soleil. Also for the steampunk one. Now, Merchandise Spotlight. They had a merch table. They had a lot of stuff. A lot of the stuff was stuff you were supposed to use while watching the show.

Like light up sort of shit and fucking whizamadoos. Flower crown. Flower crown that lit up. The flower crowns were on these busts that were like, they were sort of like mannequin busts, but they had been painted with the face paint of the Naveen. They looked great. And I turned to Ben and I was like if they had that for sale I would buy that. Like I would just buy a mannequin head

of a N'vi. And then they had like a lot of Turok stuff like a plush Turok, they had a Turok kite, they had the soundtrack for sale, they had like a program, and then they had like a lot of shit that just said Turok on it. Like a mug, a magnet, a t-shirt. They had a shot glass but like

that was like a big one. It was like a big shot glass. You could get like three shots out of it. But like all this stuff was just sort of like solid color and then just said Turok, the first flight, inspired by James Cameron's average. Like it wasn't like super cool looking, right? But there was one item there that caught my eye,

and I said, what sizes do you have that in? And they said, only children's sizes. And I said, can I try one on? They said, sizes do you have that in and they said only children sizes and I said can I try one on they said the biggest we have is 12 and I put it on and it was snug but kind of a perfect fit and as Ben himself said it kind of wouldn't have been worth owning if it was any

less tight than it was yeah I mean it fits the way that we just you know the way that everyone looked at the show svelte, Very Svelte. Svelene. Terse. Sinui.

It was a child's Navi costume hoodie. I tweeted a pic. With the September 11th memorial in the background. Yep, the lights are lit behind me representing the two towers that fell on that day, much as Turok fell on that day.

Oh my God. And we, the hoodie was made to look like Naviski, and it was the blue with the lighter tummy and the stripes and the dots. And the ears, yeah. But it also had ears and-

And a little tail. And a little tail. A short tail. Not a big tail. No. But it was a great item. And no pockets either. Yeah, that was a little bit of a bummer.

But I'll give them props for accuracy. Naveed don't have pockets in their tummies. No, they don't. Well, no, I don't think so. They're not a pouch-like people. No, they're not. My only complaint about it was that it wasn't like a full-body onesie.

The only thing that could have made it better for me is if I had the bottom half. I'm sure you could get such a thing. Just buy the bottom half of it? No, just a jumpsuit. Sweatpants, yeah. But it was great. I loved it. Get you a hoodie that can do both.

Absolutely. This kept me warm once there was a chill 9-11 breeze coming through. But it also helped me, you know, look, if we know anything, it's that people have a hard time leaving the world of Pandora.

Right. Why the motion picture made 700 some odd million dollars. Domestic because people had to go back and now I can feel

like I'm always back in Pandora with just the flick of a hood atop my head. Yeah I don't know I detected no real enthusiasm for the

world of Pandora. I feel like I'm worried about Avatar too. The enthusiasm might be gone. Enthusiasm for my hoodie. For your hoodies, sure. Now here's the biggest takeaway I had from the first flight. Right. Based on

Avatar. This was the biggest thing it did for me, okay? What? It was one of the greatest sort of explanations of it's the singer, not the song I've ever seen. Okay. Because one of the greatest sort of explanations of it's the singer not the song I've ever seen.

Okay. Because like watching this show that is not directed by James Cameron and is set within the world of Avatar you're like

this shit's pretty dumb. Yes. This shit's like not that cool. Oh boy. And it isn't like And it makes Pandora and the Navi

seem real stupid. Right. And you're just like And everyone makes fun of Avatar And it's easy to make fun of Avatar Because it's pretty primal And it's pretty like broad You know Absolutely

But it was always like Dude just knows how to Fucking sing it Right And you look at like You know Like Avatar the movie For me

And we'll have discussed this At length in the previous episode Yeah so let's not go too crazy But Avatar the movie for me Is like Is like Aretha Franklin Singing happy birthday You know I see It's like basic fucking song And who is this at length in the previous episode. Yeah, so let's not go too crazy. But Avatar of the Moe for me is like Aretha Franklin singing Happy Birthday. You know?

I see. It's like basic fucking song. And who is this singing Happy Birthday? No, it's Hedda Belton. This is like me singing Happy Birthday. It's just me going like, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.

Wow. You know? And it was like... And then you like forget a verse. Yeah, yeah. And that's not to like, you know, like, you know, criticize the wonderful performance of Strict Dislike because they all did their job very well. But it's just like the inherent performance of Cirque du Soleil

because they all did their job very well, but it's just like the inherent material of Avatar is not that interesting. The only thing I'm interested in is James Cameron, and if James Cameron wants to tell stories that take place in Pandora, then I'm on board. Sure, I'm interested in James Cameron's wonderful directing of action

and grasp of space and visuals. Jimmy Crameron is the mother tree. Jimmy Crameron. Jimmy Crameron's the mother tree, and Crameron. Jimmy Crameron's the mother tree, and I want to plug into his vision, you know? But if you're like, oh, there's also another mother tree off a rest stop in New Jersey, and that's like Turok the First Hunter,

the first flight, I'm like, I don't really need to do that. So it's like, you said enthusiasm was waning. It definitely felt like we're at a low point in terms of cultural excitement over Avatar, right? Right. Perhaps as these films get closer, the excitement will ramp up. Or very likely people will go into them being like, this is going to fucking suck. Which also is what happened before the release of Avatar and what happened before the release of Titanic.

And almost every James Cameron movie, people were like, he's going to fucking fail. Yeah. But then every time he just drops some fucking like November surprise on us. And we are going to talk about this a lot on the Avatar episode that people have already listened to. I know. But I'm just saying, it definitely felt like excitement had waned watching this.

But I feel like Slippy Jim is going to slip another one past us. You know who I think had a great time at Tarouk? Who? I was just looking on Getty Images, and I came across some pics of Sigourney Weaver holding up a little cardboard thing, hashtag Tauruk. At the premiere, I believe. Yeah, and I tweeted it at Blank Check Podcast.

We will retweet it. So just check it out. She looks happy to be there. She looks great. And yeah, I'm happy for her. Sigourney, as we'll probably say in the Avatar episode, she loves Avatar. She loves Avatar. She loves Jim.

She's like, bring me back. I don't care how. I want to be in Avatar, too. She's so on board. And she threw a lot of shade at Hurt Locker for winning Best Picture. She's like, Avatar, yeah. She kept on being like, Avatar, though. Avatar, though. sure like she's like Avatar yeah like she kept I mean like but like Avatar though Avatar though

um yeah so Tarek did not like uh I would say it lived up to my expectations which were low

yeah they were low it didn't like stoke the flames of my excitement for the Avatar sequels but it also made me like appreciate

James Cameron even more that's a good call yeah yeah I thought it was gonna be uh I would say that it did not meet my expectations. I'm not going to say that I thought it would be amazing.

You were probably the most hyped of us all. Because I love a silly, fun, like, tumbling show. It was like in the overlap of the Venn diagram of everything you like. Yeah. Silly costumes, jumping, hopping. You love sci-fi. I love sci-fi i love sci-fi i love love anything related to james cameron right um i love world music uh so went into this

and i felt like sort of the same way i felt when i think i was in ninth grade and my french teacher took us to see an all french 4d production of the of The Tempest, which I had never read. Cool. What is 4D? I still don't know. It was mostly just projections and maybe a hologram. There were no smells. I was looking forward to smells.

Did you get sprayed with water? No, I got nothing. I just got like, yeah, it was just projections. But anyway, yeah, that's what this felt like. Pretty underwhelmed. Right. Let's also say that the music was not done by James Horner, who has died. R.I.P. James.

But they also didn't reuse his themes. No, at least they had. His music is good. Avatar. His music is not good. His music was pretty, because I had the soundtrack for sale, and I was like, it just feels like stuff they would play while you were getting a massage. It doesn't really have any real kind of emotional waves

or hooks to it. It was just kind of ambient elevator music. Right. But there was one track they played on repeat after the show ended. It was hard to get out of the theater because there were a lot of people, right? And they just kept on playing a loop, this thing that was like,

da-wa-da-da. Yeah. Da-wa-da-ta. Da-wa-da-ta. Da-wa-da-ta. Da-wa-da-ta. And it was just that, just cycling over and over again. But it was really catchy, and I haven't been able to get it out of my head.

Okay. And then there was a notification the second we walked out of the Barclays Center being like, hey, download an exclusive track on the Turok app. And a lot of you had already deleted the app. Yeah, I deleted the app before I got out of the building.

All right, we're done. We're done, so. That was Turok the first flight. Yeah. This has been the final episode of- Oh, I didn't get to share my final thoughts.

Oh, Ben, final thoughts. Go ahead, Ben. Well, all right. So they used to do these kinds of shows on ice. Yes. And now they're doing, like, tumbling and stuff. Yeah.

What's the next thing? The sky. Exactly. This was a show about the sky. I mean, this was starting to get into, like, tipping our hat to the future, which is, like, make it airborne, maybe. Because, you know, we had Turok flying, but, but like a lot of it was literally grounded you know right yeah I'll say this if you know they

had hired me to conceptualize an avatar inspired Cirque du Soleil show I would have gone like fucking like don't even try to do a narrative sure this isn't your strong suit you're going to be reined in by what you can and cannot do within the confines of what Cameron is trying to plan out for the future of

this franchise do a fucking like walk in with dinosaurs experiential thing like when we walked in and the storyteller was like explaining the rituals that we were seeing and it was just like Navi doing Navi shit I was like if you do this but you do it to the nines and you make it really dramatic and you just have like here's a fucking hunting scene here's like their food here's like they're this the prayer and you just show me like hyper visual physical things for like 82 minutes i would have like been more down than this where it felt like at times they had to like pay service to the story which was already so like secondary that was like, you know, moving along. Yeah.

But I still give it a gentlemen six. Right. I'd give it an F minus. That's what I gave it. This has been... Rachel? Out of 10? Yeah, out of 10.

It could be a letter or a number. Ooh. Like a D out of 10. I'm going to give it a C minus. Great. Experientially, it was great, though. We had a great time. I think it was a nice little evening. It definitely was. Yep.

This has been a city bike tome. Podnator Judgment Cast? This has been Podnator Judgment Cast. What are we doing next? I don't know. And we have no final thoughts because we haven't seen the other movies, so we don't have... Well, we've seen the other movies. Well, but I'm saying, you know, we go on this journey, and by the end of watching all these movies

in a short period of time, we have some sort of summation thoughts. We'll have those in our Avatar episode. Let's predict the election results. Well, but I'm saying, you know, we go on this journey and by the end of watching all these movies in a short period of time, we have some sort of summation thoughts. We'll have those in our Avatar episode. Let's predict the election results. No. Oh, Jesus Christ. Will this drop after the election? I think so, yeah. Oh, fuck. I don't even want to talk about it. Oh my god, during this show, okay, I had my phone, last thing. Yeah. I had my phone out

to use the app and I got a New York Times alert that Hillary Clinton had pneumonia and I would say that it colored the second act of the show for me. This was the morning the day of the fainting in the car obviously. Never forget.

I don't even want to talk about it. My heart's actually beating a little faster. So I hope that I'm going to listen back to this episode and laugh and be like oh god we were so worried but things turned out okay. But maybe I won't. Maybe I'll be in a very bleak world. I mean, the question is, will the earthquake, you know, metaphorically open up the volcano and create a lava world in which we can no longer live?

Or will metaphorically a Turok come down from the sky and pat it gently and, you know, if not ultimately resolve everything, just allow things to maintain a status quo. Tap its wing into the lava. I'm actually really alarmed. I don't like it. I don't either. And I'm excited for whatever filmmaker we decide to talk about next, I guess.

Yeah, look, I mean, we have a couple people we've talked about. We'll do a Twitter poll between the time that we record this and when the thing will happen. And hopefully the episode before this one we will announce something and you'll be annoyed

that you're listening to this part where we don't know. Or hopefully it just is the apocalypse. Yeah, that'll save us a lot of work.

We won't have to record episodes if the world has ended. Yeah, there won't be any power. I want to cry. Rachel's making a face. Alright,

bad note to end on. Good note, James Cameron's great. Medium note, Cir. Rachel's making a face. All right. Bad note to end on. Good note. James Cameron's great. Medium note. Cirque du Soleil is whatever. Right. Great. Yes.

Tune in next week for the first episode of Pod Dogs, our miniseries about the films of Walt Becker. Absolutely not. No. Next week will be Ben's choice. Ben's choice. Or, I mean, there's some other one-off ideas we've talked about. Okay.

I mean, I'll just throw this out. We have talked about, I do want to, at some point, do episodes devoted to THX 1138 and American Graffiti because Lucas is the only filmmaker that we haven't covered in totality because we just were doing the Star Wars movies, and I'd love to do his two Star Wars movies someday. Well, maybe we will. Maybe we will.

I don't know. I love you folks so much. Love you back. Love you. I, maybe we will. Maybe we will. I don't know. I love you folks so much. Love you back. I love my blankies. Do you know there's a Reddit group? What? For Blank Check? Someone created a Blank Check Reddit group and there's one post in it and it

hasn't been responded to at all. So I just want to start directing people to the Blank Check Reddit group. What is it? Maybe r slash Blank Check pod? That didn't work. Is it all about living in the Blank Check universe? Reddit group. What is it? Maybe r slash blank check pod. That didn't work. Is it all about living in the blank check universe and never leaving? Yeah, that's the goal.

There is a blank check Reddit, but it's about the film blank check. There is one for our podcast. It might be slash blankies. I got it. It's reddit.com slash r slash blankies. Yep, there you go. Wow, that's a pretty good grab. Yeah.

Great. Everyone go to reddit.com slash... Keep supporting us. We appreciate it a lot. And hopefully exciting stuff coming in the future, including new miniseries, new power cleansers. Who knows? Sky's the limit. We're like Turok, flying up into the sun.

Thank you for listening. And as always, I really, really hope Donald Trump wasn't a little bit present. Agreed. We just heard that the ninth floor of the UCB is going to conduct a fire drill, so that's good. We don't have to. Great. Okay, cool. So we're going to not do that.

Leave that in. It's going to go off. Cool. How's that going to be for us? Well, there we go. There it is. There it is. Cool.

Ben, you can put this at the end, maybe. This is a lot like being at Taruk the first flight. You know what? Definitely. Actually, yeah. this at the end maybe this is a lot like being at taruk the first flight you know what actually yeah so this uh this is a rare morning occur recording for us i overslept in that i woke up a minute after we were supposed to start recording got here almost an hour late and then now there's a fire drill you know these things happen it's how it works yeah manhattan office buildings and

uh that's that's that's you know that's the thing and that's how it works. Yeah. The Manhattan office buildings. And that's, you know, that's the thing. And that's how it goes. I will say that is the shortest fire drill. It was pretty short. They did one Blair. All right. Let's get back into the thing. This has been a UCB Comedy Production.

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