Do Go On - 427 - Josephine Baker : The Showgirl Spy

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

On this epsiode we learn about the fascinating life of Josephine Baker - singer, dancer, actress and ... spy. This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 07:37 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/ Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.thenation.com/article/world/josephine-baker-france-racism/https://www.biography.com/performer/josephine-bakerhttps://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-josephine-baker-6485580https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/siren-resistance-artistry-and-espionage-josephine-bakerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amana, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hello Dave. Hey, Dave.

Hey, Jess. Hey, quick question. How good does it be alive? Well, personally, Matt, I wish I was never born. Oh, that's a bit rough. Coming to the end of this fine year of 2023, I think a lot of people are saying another great one. One of the best. We didn't think you could get better, but year on year it does.

Yeah. We're just sort of hot streak lately. Honestly, I start every year feeling a little. because I think, well, bloody, here we go. How do we top that? I've had the best year of my life. And then time after time. Don't worry.

And you think you've had the best year of your life? I think the world's had the best year. Yes. Just going from strength to strength. I haven't had to feel any kind of guilt or shame about how much I've been crushing it. Because so is everybody else. You know, it's hard to just continue to succeed when everybody else is suffering. But it's been really easy.

It's been a beautiful time. And I'm sad there's only a few days left in this miraculous. year. One of my best. But don't worry, 24. That's where it's going to be even better. It can't possibly get better than this. Even better.

That's right. We're raising the bar every year. Wow. That's exciting. Both for the show and for humanity. It's a huge claim. Now I'm feeling a little anxious. I'd love Jess, now that you are feeling anxious to throw something more on your plate.

Can you explain how the show works? Absolutely. Each week, one of the three of us, research is a topic usually suggested to us by our wonderful listeners. We go away. We learn all about it. We come back. We tell the other two who very politely listen, who never interrupt with dog shit riffs,

and who just, you know, all around have a really respectful and polite time. Yeah, I'm ready to be polite. Matt, are you ready to be polite? I was born ready to be polite. And it's just any day now, he'll do it. And we do usually start with a question. And it's your turn. It's my turn.

I have a question for you. It's a two-part question, okay? Because I'm going to help. I don't think you know this topic, so I'm going to help you build it. Two points over grabs? Sure. Great. So first part to help your pieces together.

So we're going for two names. We're trying to figure out the name of this person, right? Firstly, what was the name of one of Charlie Chaplin's daughters? Oh, okay. Just go for old-timey names. Glenda. Not Glenda. Guineav.

No. Mary. No. John. Marilyn. No. Grace. Oh, that's pretty good.

No, that's kind of old. Catherine? Oh, no. But in the right kind of wheelhouse, I feel. As in names? It is a name. Edna. It is not Edna.

Mavis. It starts with a J. Janice. Gillian? No. Jill. No. Junk.

Longer name. Janine? Jacqueline. No. No. And no. Jezebel. Genevieve.

No. No. He didn't have a Genevieve. Geraldine. But. Geraldine with a J. No. I'm just saying.

Think Eine as well. Justinine. Justine. No. Janineen. Jean? It's not Janineen? Jeannie.

Oh my God. This must be really brutal to listen to. Okay. Okay. What are Charlie Chapman's name? Think Een. Hang on, hang on. So Joseph.

Ene. Yes. Josephine. Josephine. Or is it Josephine or is it Ene? It's Josephine. Okay, just checking. So Josephine.

I meant to say Jesus, Mary, and to get you to get to Joseph. And then I just said Joseph. So I helped you out a little bit there, but Josephine is correct. second part and probably, God, hopefully easier. What is the job title of a person who starts work very early? Baker. Yes. Can I read the rest?

Sure. And is responsible for making bread, cakes, slices, scrolls and other assorted treats. Oh, yeah. I spent ages writing that. Butcher. Baker is correct. Josephine Baker is correct. Dave a point there for piecing it together so bravely.

Thank you. Is that a name that rings any bells for you at all? Yeah. Really? A bit. Possibly because I put her out for the vote. Right, yeah, one of those. Doesn't ring any bells for me,

unless related to Julian Baker, the musician. No. Okay. So it doesn't ring a bell for you then by the sounds of it. And it's not surprised that you've put this up to the vote because it's been suggested by so many people. Yeah, I think that's why I've seen the name Pop in our suggestion hat. So I will read those names to you now because, again, there's heaps of them.

Do you need us to guess the names? Yes. So it starts with an X. Really? Yeah. Xavier from Quebec. Zylophone. Casey from Eldridge.

Tom Rock from London. Zoe from the New South Wales Central Coast. Chauvin Russell from Cedar Creek in Queensland. Lucas Bender from Germany. Hannah Lang from Washington, D.C. Kalina from Brisbane. Adriana from Virginia. David Glew from Endeavour Hills.

Beck Barrett from Melbourne. Olivia Gatliff from London. Alec McElroy from Kansas. Daniel English from Sydney Josh Harmon from Garland, Texas Broderick Henry from Lexington Baden from Fertry Gully Adam Legg from Derby

and Ashley F. F.F. from Virginia. Quite a lot of people. Jess, were you just reading from the phone book? Yes. Baden from Fentry Gully made you laugh for some reason. Yeah. No, I think it was the one before. Broderick Henry from Lexington.

No, it was glue. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, sorry, David Glu. You did love David Glu. I'm obsessed lately. We've had David Zest, is the name that I was obsessed with. And a few weeks ago, we had a Patreon supporter whose name was David Coupay. Yes.

And now we've got... Drive away, no more to pay. I love it. And David Glew. I'm just trying to think of ways I can make my name better, and there's three options right there. Right there. But they already exist. Yeah, but I'm going to...

Oh, not if you kill them. And then take their identity. Yeah. Okay, so figure out which one of them. them has a cooler identity. Oh, do I think David Coupe? I was going to say, there's no, I don't think David Glue can compete with David Coupe. What if David Glue is like a multi-millionaire?

That's true. Philanthropist. Maybe invented glue. Maybe a flanderer. G-L-E-W. So, who knows? Why, I can't even spell. It's exciting.

So, yeah, this is a story of Josephine Baker. One person, kind of in their, in their suggestion, Jen had like the, I know this could be the title maybe, but Josephine Baker, the showgirl spy. Love it. If that sells it to you a little bit. We're in. Earlier this year we had a princess spy. I know got a show girl spy.

This is very cool. Yeah, it's great. We love women who spy. We do. We actually do. So. It's just like a nice way of saying eavesdropper and gossip. It's better than saying, gosh, she was a gossip.

But essentially. No, no, she was a spy. She was a spy. Work for the government. Gathering Intel. Yeah. Through gossip. Gathering Intel.

Did you see what Christine was wearing? And the government are like, this isn't helpful to us. This isn't relevant to the war. Okay, well, that's a whole section of my report that now doesn't need to be said. Geez, she's aged. Yes. That of that sort of stuff. They.

Oh. Oh, geez. That's not pure shade. Trouble in paradise I've heard. That jacket's from three years ago. Anyway, so Frida, jose. Josephine McDonald was born on June 3rd, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. I can't make, there's a St. Louis and a St. Louis.

I'm pretty sure the Missouri one is St. Louis. I think that's St. Louis, right? Like the spirit of St. Louis. Yes. Is that plain? Yes. Not St. Louis. I'm pretty sure.

Anyway, we're going to say St. Louis for this one. It doesn't come up that much, but that's where she was born. She was raised by her mother, Carrie. But the identity of her biological father has been disputed over the years. All right. I'm willing to put my hand up of now. Yeah, I get it. That's what you've brought me here for today.

It was me. Wow, that was easy. You really are old. I thought I'd have to go through the whole thing, but yeah, no, got him. You're going to go through it and shame. I'm sorry. I just keep bringing up how good it would have been if she had her father in her life. Anyway, this really sad thing happened.

It could have been prevented if her dad was there, but he wasn't. Oh, what just wasn't in the right headspace? It's taking you a century to... 1906. How old were you? You were 1906. I was, you know, I was just a young buck of, you know, three, 400 years old. Yeah.

I forget. Yeah, it's tough. You lose count. Yeah. I was born before Abacus. And everybody, put yourself in, in Matt's shoes. Think of when you were three or four hundred years old. Well, no, I was three or four hundred before shoes.

Put yourself in my clogs, sandals. Put yourself in my bare feet. Yes. Can you think sandals came before? shoes? Didn't they? Like, I'm thinking like Jesus sort of. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They went wearing like, like some business shoes, were they? It's funny that you go, that's not shoes. That's not shoes. These are shoes. Well, I think if a shoe is like a, you know, a covered, a covered toe. Yeah. I mean, in the Adidas episode a few months ago, we did discover that they only had running shoes about a hundred years ago.

Before that, they were running in loaves of bread. Yeah, that's true. So. Baker's involved. Back to Baker. Beautiful segue. Some sources say that. that vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson was her biological father while others dispute this.

His fridge is as a bag of peas. Still were frozen. You might be thinking a bag of fresh peas. No, no, no. No, I'm talking about ones that have been deep in the freezer. What was his name again? Eddie Carson. Eddie Carson.

Yeah. I doubt he even had a pinner. I doubt he even had one. Wouldn't I know what to do. with it. The man was as frigid as the North Pole. They didn't have a pole as far as I know. Well, Matt is one of the many who disputed this and claimed that her father was a white man actually. It was what a lot of people said.

Yeah, it doesn't get much wider than me. I'm a pale man. You are. Get some son. Jesus. Yeah, that's not good for me either. No. It's really no winning, is there? No. Get a spray tan, though, because it is glaring. Oh, okay. Yeah.

So yeah, that's probably the happy medium. Yes. See, I'm either really pale and off-putting to you. Yes. Or I get cancer and die. But that would at least not be off-putting to you. I'm going to do an open casket. That would have no impact to my life.

You're like, oh, but he died with a beautiful glow. But he looked healthy for the first time. Academic Benita Jules Rosette, an amazing name, author of Josephine Baker in art and life, wrote about the difficulty of establishing the truth of Baker's early life, given the factual and counterfactual reworkings of her numerous biographers and Baker's own numerous and often contradictory reworking of the story, which frequently lacked coherence. So it's one of those things of like, we're not really sure because she said a bunch of different stuff

and every biographer has a different theory, so we're not really sure. But regardless, young Josephine spent her early years in the St. Louis neighborhood of Chestnut Valley, which is quite a cute name and sounds like a farming video game. I would play. It does sound like something you'd love. I would love that. Star Jew Valley, chest nut, valet. Like, I would play the shit out of that.

Isn't that where Brendan Fraser's nut job was set? That was chest. It was chest. It was set in the chest. It was set in the chest, in the heart. If you zoomed out, the whole thing took part on a chest. It's really beautiful. A beautiful chest, yes.

So it sounds really cute and wholesome. But at the time, it was a low-income neighbourhood consisting mainly of boarding houses, brothels and apartments with no indoor plumbing. So sort of a roughish kind of area. I've just looked up the Brandon Fraser movie. It's set in Oakton. And I was like, yeah, but it was chest. I'm sure of it. Oak trees have chestnuts, right?

Yeah, yeah. Or is that a chestnut tree has chestnuts, probably. Oak tree has oak nuts, you idiot. Yeah, come on, mate. Jeez, we all know that. God, you're embarrassing. So her mother Carrie married Arthur Martin, who was described as a kind but perpetually unemployed man. Arthur Martin.

Arthur Martin. Arthur Martin. But I'd call him Artie Marty Marty. Artie Marty. That's good. I'd give Marty Marty a job. But not many people did. Yeah, because he didn't rebrand.

Or he would get a job and then, you know, not have a job. Okay. But so her mother, Carrie had a son and two more daughters with Artie Marty. To make ends meet, Carrie took in laundry to wash to make some money. And at only eight years old, Josephine was sent out to work as a maid for white families. At eight. Oh, a bit late. Bit late.

Bit late. Got to start earlier. Tiger Woods was hitting golf balls at the age of three. You think you're only going to get on the top of the game in the maid world? I think it would be number one maid ever. At starting an eight, good luck, grandma. I never thought about it like that. I just thought, wow, that's awful.

But you're right. Yeah. Yeah, awfully late. Awfully late. Apparently, one woman burned Josephine's hand as a punishment after Josephine used too much soap in the laundry. Oh. Too much soap. Yeah.

You've got to leave them wanting more. It's too soapy. My clothes are too clean. I smell too fresh. Yeah. They're not going to want to come back for weeks now. I don't think I was making my own school lunches at eight, let alone doing laundry. Right.

You know? Yeah, no, eight, what's that grade? Three, two, two or three. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely wasn't. Nah. I was cooking my own dinner. At eight?

Yeah, I was sorbeying my own flombards. Wow. Sounds delicious. You couldn't think of any food. No. Did I get one of those two words right? Sobeying? Yeah.

I guess. Okay. But I don't think you soorbe a flombard to answer your question. Okay. But do you flumbay a sawbar? Yes, that would have made more sense. I had it back to front. That was your problem

You couldn't think of a single food Try now Desert A crumble A crumble A crumble Sure An apple crumble

Apple crumble Yeah I often get Desert and dessert Confused as well So that's fine It's tricky One S

Has it ever meant so much I don't know if it has Anyway So it sounds like She was Working and attending School for a few years which is wild, but by 12, she dropped out of school and at 13 was working as a waitress

at the old chauffeers club and busking on street corners for extra money. At times, she lived on the street, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food from garbage cans. I don't know what was happening at home in that time, but... What kind of busking was she doing? Like dancing? Ah, dance busking. Yeah.

And what year are we talking about? It's like the early 1900. She was born in 1906. Dancing back there. So what are we up to the 20s now? If she's 13. It's probably like ballroom dancing, I guess. She's doing ballroom dancing with a broom.

I don't know if this is happening all over Melbourne, but there's two intersections that I drive through every day where people have started juggling every single day. At the light. At the lights. And the first day, I was like, that was fantastic. Here's some money. But I can't afford to pay every.

Every day. Because I go through it four times. You can't afford to pay a couple of bucks every day to a juggler. Are you okay? But I want a way to be more memorable so they remember this guy's already paid. Oh, you think that that should get you multiple days of juggling. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I don't need any days of juggling.

I think what you need to do to be memorable is you either, you need to get out of the car and start juggling too. Oh, okay. I'll pay you in kind. A juggling takeover. Yeah. Not a takeover, just like a momentary juggling duet. Oh, or I say. And then you're back at the car.

I'll say, you take five. I've got it, buddy. Yeah. Have a round. You make a bit of cash. Yeah, but I pay it forward to him. Oh, okay. What?

I think you need a way like, because the old version of that was wiping your windows down, cleaning your windows. Yeah. They still do that. You just give it. I'm okay, thanks. If you don't need it. So they start juggling.

I'm okay thanks. No. No juggling. for me. I'm good. Just do that. Ah, ah. Ah.

Thank you though. No, all good. Do they come to your window? With a hat. Jesus Christ. Tipped out and I just have to do this. Oh, I'm fiddling with my radio again. Sorry, I didn't say it.

But who has cash? Yeah, that's the thing. They've got a QR code. They don't. Yeah. QR code. I'm not doing that. I'm not getting my phone out while I'm driving.

That's unsafe. You go scan it. Log on to their PayPal. No. Transfer. The lights don't last obviously that long. No, that's unsafe. I've already seen a juggling show.

Dave, I think you've got to go get some coins out so you're just ready for the juggler. And be prepared when you go and get some coins out because I have to do that fairly regularly. They will say, oh, laundry day, is it? And I go, yeah. No, I'm just driving past the juggler. Now you can say that to them. Yes, I said no.

No, I'm driving past a jugglers. But they're going to love that even more. Oh, juggling day? Are they up to clubs yet? A bit of fun. Wow. What fun must be to work in a bank? What working in clubs?

Have you said many jugglers in clubs? Yeah, club juggling. What are we doing? Jess, please are going. So she's, this is how we got here from dancing. Oh, yes. Street dancing. Basking.

She's busking. Around this time, she met Willie Wells at the old chauffeers club and married him soon after. Okay. She's 13. Oh. How old's Willie Wells? Unsure, but I hope he's similar. He's from the old chauffers club as well.

This is like a club for retired chauffeers? I don't know what the old chauffeers club is. Oh, wow. And you imagine, like, shofers on movies are always really old. anyway. So to retire, you'd have to be like a hundred. Yeah. So that's quite a gap. A hundred year old now, we've got 13. Oh my gosh. I can't spell a chauffeur. What would they have in common? What would they even talk about?

Shofers club. I had to, I couldn't figure out how to spell Shofa. Oh, don't worry about it. Anyway, it was some sort of club. He's probably older and it's a bit suss. Yeah, and she's 13. The marriage lasted less than a year and she was divorced by 14 years old. Oh, yeah. What a way to live. from this website I found called Wikipedia.org, which is all about like movie stars and shows.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. From Wiki, it says, In her teen years, she struggled to have a healthy relationship with her mother who did not want her to become an entertainer and scolded her for not tending to her second husband, William Howard Baker, whom she married in 1921 at the age of 15. Wow, second William in two years. Yeah. William Howard Baker.

She left him when her Waterville troop was booked into a New York City venue and divorced in 1925. It was during this time she began to see significant career success and she continued to use his last name professionally for the rest of her life. So the surname Baker came from a brief marriage when she was 15. Right. And she just kept that name forever. So she's been briefly married at 13 and 15. Yeah. She's already, she's been divorced twice.

She's Dave loves a world record She's on world record pace I'd say If they did that line You know in the swimming pool The Olympics She'd be ahead of the line She can't even see the line

Yeah The line's miles back I'm looking at up for a world record For most divorces Wow Well apparently the highest divorce rate Is from the Maldives Number one

10.9 We live in paradise 10.9 per 1,000 marriages 10.9 No sorry 10.9 7.9 7 divorces per a thousand inhabitants per year. I don't understand what that means. It's double at least the second, which is Belarus.

But I don't understand what that means. That's a per-head divorce rather than a per-marriage divorce, which I think would... Yeah, so every thousand people that live there, every year, 10 people, 10 of those people will get divorced. So is that five divorces or 10 divorces, so 20 people? Oh, that's a good question. What is it? 1%.

That's not that bad. If you're like, there's a thousand people and 10 of us are going to get divorced, I'd feel pretty good in those odds. Yeah, but each year. I think it would be a better... But then more people would get married. Yeah, a better percentage would be how many marriages end in divorce.

Okay. I found our winner, Glyn Wolfe, also known as Scotty Wolf. Okay. From Party Five? No, but... What a reference. Was that his name?

I don't know. Party of Five is before our time. Yeah, no idea what you're talking about. Scotty Wolf was an American Baptist minister who resided in blood. California. He is best known for allegedly having the largest number of monogamous marriages having married 31 different times, although one of his marriages was annulled and several remain unconfirmed. And you know on Wikipedia how there's a column under the photo,

usually saying their marriages and there might be two. This is what his looks like. It's just, it's just, oh, wow. It's just, oh, man, you would lose count. Like, as in, I reckon you'd forget some of their names. Wow, 19 children. Good on your Scotty Wolf. That's, yeah. Yeah, pretty low rate of children per marriage. Yeah. Yeah. Scott Wolf was from Party 5, as was Matthew Fox. Important things to know.

Fox and Wolf. How about that? How about that? Wow. Anyway, so I mentioned a vaudeville troupe in there. So at around 13 years old, her consistent badgering of a show manager led her to being recruited for the St. Louis Chorus Vaudeville show. She traveled with the group to New York to perform and ended up auditioning for and securing a role in the chorus line of a touring production of the Broadway review, Shuffle Along.

I love old-timey show names. I mean, all of them sound ridiculous, but... Shuffle along. Yeah, back in the days when any name was available. You could have anything. You could have called it wicked. The wicked wasn't taken. They could have called it cats.

You could have. You know? Yeah, like now, it's a struggle to come up with that. Could have got it. Ziggfried and Roy's magical hour. You could. Could have called it David Copperfield makes a ship disappear. Yeah.

I could have called it David Coupe starring David Coupe. You could have called it that. You could have called it Diagnosis Murder. But they went for Shuffle Along. Shuffle Along. From Wikipedia again. In Shuffle Along, Baker was a dancer positioned at the end of the chorus line. Fearing she might be overshadowed by the other dancers,

she used her position to introduce a hint of comedy into her routine, thereby making her stand out from other dancers. Wow. So she's doing a little like, on the side, like funny dancing. Like you don't get overshadowed. That's the point of a chorus line. You're just one big thing, isn't it? But she's like, I'm going to stand out.

I don't want to be overshadowed by these other people doing exactly what I'm doing. It'd be great if they all had that thought, though. They're like, I'll do the funny dance tonight. And then I'm just upstage freestyling. Whoop, who, whoa, whoa. It's like, you're just supposed to dance across the stage and leave. I don't know. They're all out there.

It's crumping. Yeah. It's where crumping was started. Yeah, it's crazy. She first entered Shuffle Along in 1922 in one of the US touring companies. Once she became of age, she was transferred to the Broadway production, where she remained for several months up until the show ended in 1923. The next review baker was cast in was The Chocolate Dandies,

which opened on September 1st, 1924. Again, she was cast in the chorus line. It ran for 96 performances and closed in November of 1925. So she's working fairly consistently, and she's still very young. And she's still like trying to show. child up the others? Oh, definitely. Yeah. The rest of the dandies? Yeah. When you hear of someone who's been divorced twice,

you don't expect years later to hear the line when she became of age. I know. Isn't that crazy? Married at 13. I feel like being divorced, you're of age now. Yeah. I think you just, numbers don't mean anything. Yeah. I'm picturing her like, she's smoking a cigarette.

Yeah, yeah. Reminds me my first husband. How old are you? 16. So though Baker traveled, she would return with gifts and money for her mother and younger half-sisters, but larger career opportunities pushed her to make a trip to France. Oh, okay. Exciting.

In 1925, age 19, she sailed to Paris and performed in an all-black review that October. In Paris, she became an instant success. A writer, Gary Young writes, She scandalized and titillated Paris, appealing to the sense of the primitive and the exotic that pervaded Europe during the jazz age. She's in constant motion. Her body writhing like a snake or more precisely like a dipping saxophone

wrote the critic Pierre some sort of very confusing French name. Like a snake. Sorry, let me be even more specific. A dipping saxophone. He goes on to say, music seems to pour from her body. She grimaces, crosses her eyes,

wiggles disjointedly, does the splits and finally crawls off the stage, stiff-legged, her rump, higher than her head, like a young giraffe. She's crawling with her rough high. She sounds terrible. She doesn't know she has nothing like a snake. She's got a cross-eyed and just...

Is she possessed? Is she having a seizure on there? I think so. But she wiggles disjointedly. Then she does the splits and then she crawls off the stage stiff-legged, but with her ass in the air, in her head down. The rest of the chorus line are just perfectly in time shuffling away from her. And she's just...

What the hell? And they're like, oh, she moves. like jazz. She's like crawling along the ceiling like Exorcist style, vomiting, spewing, head turning. And they're like, wow, she's mystifying. She's a star. Later, Baker said, no, I didn't get my first break on Broadway. I was only in the chorus in shuffle along and chocolate dandies. I became famous first in France in the 20s. I just couldn't stand America and I was one of the first colored Americans to move to Paris. And she says, oh yes, bricktop was there.

as well. I'll talk about Bricktoe in a sec. Oh, Bricktop. No, thanks, Turkish. Yeah, I knew that would come up. Me and her were the only two and we had a marvellous time. Of course, everyone who was anyone knew Brickie and they got to know Miss Baker as well. She talks like she's in the 20s. I love it.

So Ada Bricktop Smith, very famous American jazz singer who owned the famous nightclub Shea Bricktop in Paris from 1924 to 1961. She's been called one of the most legendary and enduring figures of the 20th century American cultural history. So Bricktops quite famous as well. But yeah, was in Paris around the same time. So Gary Young, he writes again, Baker was something of a pioneer in this journey, but she was by no means alone. During the decades immediately before and after World War II,

a significant cohort of black artists facing repression in the US would seek exile in France, where they found not only acceptance, but adulation. There is more freedom in one square block of Paris than there is in the entire United States of America, wrote novelist Richard Wright, who moved to France in 1946, claimed French citizenship and died there in 1960. And another writer...

Sorry, he moved there in 1946. Yes. Like a year after they'd taken it back from the Nazis. Yeah. A lot of freedom there, and there always has been. Yep. Definitely. Resources are high.

Food, very available. But he felt more free there than in the US. And the US is the land of the free. So I can only imagine that this... Paris is... New town. Paris. Jeez, that must have been free.

God, is that sure for paradise? I believe so, yes. And it's the kind of place where you could walk stiff-legged with your rump in the air and people would celebrate you. That's how free it is. Bravo, madam, they would say. Incredible stuff. You wouldn't get that in the US. No.

No matter how hard you try. So the... It is funny because America did have a little something to do with Paris having freedom. Imagine leaving America just after they've helped free a lot of Europe from the Nazis. And I'm like, glad I'm away from that stinkhole America. And here in the land of the free, Paris. And these are specifically... Oh, the Nazis, I can still say him walking out.

But God, I'm free. What were you up to? Where are you going? But it is, it is kind of interesting because, like, I mean, these are specifically black artists. So it is very different for them. But Gary Young, this writer that I'm quoting, talks about, he's a black English man. And he talks about living in Paris in his uni days in the 90s and facing huge.

racial issues. Yeah, they've got big issues there. It was just at that time, it was pretty good, you know. In comparison to... In comparison to the US. USA, there's a lot of segregation. Exactly, yes. I was, uh, looking at that all through my slightly privileged lens, I should say.

But yeah, it's just like, yeah, it's kind of like, oh, wow, it's great. And then this guy, Gary Young's like, well, I'm in the 90s. And you're like, okay. I think it's been a bit grim there since the night. It still is, I think, in Paris some... Yeah. Anyway, so Kristen D. Burton writes for the National World War II Museum. There's a great article written there.

Unlike the United States, France did not racially segregate public places on a large scale. When Josephine and her castmates boarded a train in France, they were surprised but happy to learn they could sit anywhere they liked. Right, okay. We're seeing what they're talking about now. Josephine was also shocked to see the costumes created for her to perform in. One consisted only of a bikini bottom covered in flamingo feathers. After one performance, Josephine quickly took to this kind of erotic dancing and became a rising star. Do you think there's a more erotic bird than the flamingo?

I challenge anyone to find a more or a lot bird. Man, it's a horny bird. What are that hot bird in Dublin? Oh, man, it was a magpie. We were losing our mind. The Irish magpie. My God. That is a hot bird.

It's the hot bird we've ever seen. We were like, look at that fucking bird. It's so beautiful. I wouldn't believe our hot bird. And the Irish listeners saw the video. I'm like, it's a magpie. It's a magpie. They're daum a dozen.

We're losing our minds. They didn't say like that. They said, Darry Dame a doll. I can't do the Irish accent. That's just a magpie. There's a dime a dozen. Thank you.

Beautiful. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I'm sure Irish listeners would agree. That was very good. That was spot on. So over time, Josephine became the most successful entertainer in France.

Like she has just hit the scene. She's a huge star. They love her. Awesome. She performed the Dance Sauvage, wearing a now famous costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas. Okay. Is there a hornier fruit than the banana? Maybe a peach, but I think peach is second.

Yeah, yeah. Because it looks like a butt. They're top too. Did I have to explain that? Did you get that? Oh, I got it. It looks like a butt. Oh, my God.

Banana looks like an even weirder butt. Yeah, that's like a really, really good. That's like get that checked, because that's what your butt looks like. So yeah, she's quite famous for that. it was just a skirt made out of bananas. So much of her success was of course due to her talent and her stage presence, but she also had incredible luck with timing. Her early success coincided with the 1925 international exhibition of modern, decorative

and industrial art. It was designed by the French government to highlight the new modern style of architecture, interior decorating, furniture, glass, jewelry and other decorative art in Europe and throughout the world. And it said that this is the world. exhibition gave birth to the term Art Deco and also brought with it a renewal of interest in non-Western forms of art, including a big interest in African art, a fun tidbit and something that a lot of people mention when suggesting her as a topic. I think she sort of lent into the

African thing. She had a pet cheetah named Chequita, who would often accompany her on stage in her later shows. Chiquita, adorned with a diamond collar, would often escape into the orchestra pit, terrorising the musicians and delighting audiences. Is there a hotter land mammal than the cheater? I think so. Certainly not a faster one. Definitely not a faster one. But like so people...

And that's sexy. Yeah. Speed. Get it done. I got things to do. Yeah. That's sexy. But into the orchestra pit and then people are cheering on. Oh, it's got the bassoonist.

Oh, a bit of fun. He's bleeding in the neck. Fun. Throwing tips. Um, yeah, anyway. I don't know this for sure, but I assume a human could take a cheater. Is that not right? I think we should put it to the test.

UV cheetah. I'm going to go average cheetah weight. Okay. 75 to 140 pounds, 34 to 64 kilos. Yeah. Are you going to take it? Yeah, I reckon. I think you'd, you would want to be aware.

Like, if it pounds is on you from behind, you know, like down low in the graph. Can we put little corks on its teeth? No. Okay. No, I probably can't. off each other in a boxing ring. Okay, so it has it got boxing gloves on? Yes.

So it can't quite walk properly. Then, yeah, I could take it out. And no biting allowed. Is it normal boxing rules? That's why I said. I said no biting. Yeah, no normal boxing rules. Yes. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. But it's coach is Mike Tyson, so who knows what will happen. Okay. Yeah.

But what sort of brain capacity do they have to learn tricks like boxing? Yeah, that's true. I don't know how smart they are, but they are fast. You're roper doping it up. They've got no chance. Oh, I do. Yeah, because they're sprint. They're 77 centimetres tall at the shoulder.

I'm so much tall than that. That's bigger than I would have thought. But I've got bigger reach than them. Oh, yeah. And every time I reach out, they bite another arm off. And that happens for two times. Okay. Not again.

Google knows me so well. I've Googled cheetah just to look at it. And then I've started typing, can a human? And it's autocorrected to beat a cheater in a fight. Yeah, your algorithm is spread. Spot-on. A fit, strong adult human who was willing to take some damage would probably defeat a cheetah. Thank you.

They weigh about 50 kilos and are more lightly built than other big felines. Are you willing to take some damage to them? Yeah. Well, I'm playing a bassoon. I don't have a lot of choice. He just said, thank you. Thank you. I probably could take one. Thank you.

I thought so. Well, thought so. Yes. There's multiple eyes. I'm honking away on the bassoon, right? And obviously there's a cheater in there. What's a bassoon sound like again? Remind me?

That's a, what kind of tune do you want? What's jazz? Jazz. Oh, so it's about the notes you don't play. It's the notes you don't want to play. Okay. I'll play the ones in between those. Yes.

And now you're getting attacked by a cheetah. Oh, damn it. So you could have taken the bassoon out of your mouth at any point. You know what? In the heat of the moment, I didn't even think of that. Because you see the bassoon is really a part of you. Yes, it's an extension of my lips. Yes.

Am I thinking of the raw instrument? I believe so, yes. I couldn't work out of a Scooby-Doo or Mr. Bean playing the bassoon. In the part of the bassoon, we have Rowan Atkinson. We have Scooby-Doo. Anyway, so... So she's got a cheater. Love that.

It's a cheater. It's attacking her musicians. It's fun. After a while, Baker was the most successful American entertainer working in France. She was a celebrity. Ernest Hemingway spent hours talking to her in Paris bars and called her the most sensational woman anyone ever saw. Wow.

Picasso created paintings of her and her captivating beauty. She was hugely famous. In 1929, she became the first African-American star to visit Yugoslavia while on a tour of Central Europe. In Belgrade, she performed at Luxor Belkenska, the most luxurious venue in the city at the time, and she donated some of the show's proceeds to the poor children of Serbia.

One of our favorite things to do is when people turn up to look at trains, She was received by adoring fans at the train station. However, some of her shows were cancelled due to opposition from the local clergy and morality police. Oh, yeah, they're like, it was the opposite to Elvis. They're like, no straight-legged dancing. No, okay. You have to film her from above the rump. You can leave the stage, but your legs must be bent.

You bet you bend those legs. That is ungodly. Bend those knees. Bend those knees God gave you. During this trip, she was accompanied by her manager, Count Giuseppe Pepito Abbotino. Oh, my God. Who was not actually a count. Oh, wow.

But he said he was, and the two became lovers, while he was also managing her. They couldn't marry because she was still technically married to Willie Baker. But under the management of Abatino, Baker's stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice was transformed. She released her most successful song in 1931. I have two loves. Both called Willie. Both called Willie. The song expresses the sentiment that I have two loves, my country and Paris.

Okay. Yeah. Baker starred in four films, which found success in Europe. There was a silent film, Siren of the Tropics, Zuzu and Princess Tam Tam. And false alert in 1940. It's in French, but I was like, I think I can figure out what that one is. She was funny and charming and artfully clumsy,

and audiences fell in love with her. So those films were 1927, 34, 35, 40. So she's like in films, you know. She's on a hot streak. She's on a hot streak. But despite her popularity in France, she was never really able to reach the same level of stardom in her native USA. She returned home in 1936 to star in the revival of Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway.

Unfortunately, the show wasn't commercially successful and she was replaced by another actress later in the run. American critics were unkind in their reviews Like I couldn't read them on the podcast Kind of unkind Like racial slur kind of unkind And she returned to Europe heartbroken And not long after she gave up her American citizenship

And became a legal citizen of France When she married Frenchman Jean-Leon So she's married now for the third time And now she released a new song I have one love Yeah And it's Paris Fuck you

It's beautiful in French It sounds terrible in the Australian accent but beautiful in hers. But here's where her story takes a bit of an unexpected turn. So in September of 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany. In the Douzeme Bureau, the French military intelligence agency, recruited Baker as an honorable correspondent. She was to work with a man named Jacques Abtey, the head of French counterintelligence in Paris. Abtie sought to recruit people who could engage in espionage to help resistance efforts against the Nazi occupation.

Baker was an ideal candidate for this work as her celebrity allowed her to move easily between countries and offered her enhanced protection. When Abdi approached Josephine to see if she would take the risk and join the resistance, she said, France made me what I am. I will be grateful forever. The people of Paris have given me everything. I am ready, captain, to give them my life. You can use me as you will. So she's like, fuck out, this, bye. Have we going back in time again?

A little, yeah. I jumped ahead in terms of some of the films she was in. It's all kind of overlapping. I had already emotionally moved on from the end of the war. No, we're deep in it now, babe. We're back. We're back in the war. I'm sorry to make you move on and then move back.

What a vicious cycle. Yeah. So using her star power and social reputation, Baker attended parties and functions at embassies, ministries, nightclubs. socialised with the Germans, charming them and gathering information. So you weren't wrong when you were like, she's getting gossip. But she was getting like good goss. Yeah.

Obviously she went to Abdi and she was like, she was wearing this and she looked hideous. She's such an autumn. But also, this is the port they're going to attack. She had useful stuff. Can you believe it? The way that, the colonel. Oh my God. He is going to bomb.

You wouldn't believe who he's going to bomb next. takes a sip of her drink while they're all just to build tension. Because of who she was, it was easy and not suspicious for her to be rubbing shoulders with high-profile people. From high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, she'd gather information and report to Abdi what she heard. From the World War II Museum again, Josephine came to represent much of what Hitler and the Nazis despised. She was a successful black woman in an interracial marriage with a Jewish man, who was also openly bisexual and had multiple long-term, semi-public relationships with other women. When the Germans began to advance on Paris in 1940,

Josephine, like millions of other Parisians, fled the city. She moved to a chateau she rented in the south of France, where she took in other refugees fleeing the Nazis. So she's got chateau money. And she's like, come stay, come just hang out with me at the chateau. She housed resistance fighters at her chateau and supplied them with visas. She attended parties and diplomatic functions, including parties at the Italian embassy,

that brought her in the orbit of high-ranking access bureaucrats. She collected information on German troop movements and what harbors or airfields were in action. Josephine was confident that her celebrity and connections would protect her and that no one would suspect her of espionage. She wrote down intelligence on her hands and arms, pinning notes inside her underwear. She did so knowing that she would never face a strip search.

She's like, I'm hugely famous. They're not going to strip search me. She's walking around like, all these poster notes in her pants what's going on here it sounds like you're walking through a pile of leaves but would you would you say that to like the most famous person you'd ever seen in your life

no Brad Pitt walks in here you're not going to be like you sound funny when you walk Brad Pitt take off your clothes I'm going to search you you're not going to say that are you not like that anyway no I wouldn't so but her other super secret way of taking notes is on her hand. So, yeah, how many troops you got there?

Just let me write this done. Nothing's us, just my hand. Then she puts gloves on. Can't see it. Oh, okay. But it's, yeah, it's on her arms. It's obviously under clothing. I don't think it's in like big black permanent marker on her skin.

And she's like, yep, that'll be fine. And they're like, watch. And she's like, can you spell that for me while she writes it down? Sorry, I just had a great idea for a new dance. I'm just going to write it on my arm. You inspired me. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to call it 18,000 troops at midnight.

It's beautiful. The Nazis had gotten wind of the resistance activity happening at Josephine's chateau and visited the estate. Now, I can picture this in like in the film version, being very tense. Absolutely. Josephine had been hiding several resistance fighters at the time of the visit. She successfully charmed the Nazis when they questioned her, but she took the close encounter as a sign that it was time to leave France. She managed to charm them like, don't check the house. Anyway, shall I dance?

We're okay, thank you She's straight leg in her Oh, actually, yeah, we've got another place to check out This chateau is haunted and shit I'm not going in there Anyway, so she's like, I gotta get out of France So Abtie contacted general Charles de Gaul Who we know from the airport

Train station, airport Yeah, I think of an airport is sort of like It's a plane station It's a plane station Yeah For the, yeah, for sky trains. That's right. So Charles de Gaulle instructed both of them, Abtee and Baker, to travel to London via Lisbon, which was neutral.

Between them, the pair carried over 50 classified documents and secret intelligence. In their underpants? No. She carried hers by writing the information down in invisible ink on her sheet music. Oh, yeah. Wow. That's pretty cool. That is amazing.

But that's pretty scary that they've got all these like classified important documents and there's sneaking information around. It'd be so scary every time, you know, a Nazi pulls out a lemon to squeeze on his pancakes. And you're like, oh, please don't splash on her. Does that just splash under the notes? Please. But again, it's on her like sheet music.

You can imagine, you can imagine musician being really like, protective of their shit music. Oh, sorry. It's not, there's nothing to hide here. I just don't want to get any of your pancake batter onto my sheep music. Yes. But please enjoy your breakfast. And then you get the Invisible Link, like, from a, from a, did it come free with a comic book or something? Yeah, it's the only time I've seen Invisible Link.

X-Rose specs. She got sea monkeys. She's got the full lot. Just to cover it. She's like, no, I just love all this crap. I'm a child at heart. I love this. Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa.

The stated reason was Baker's health. She was recovering from a case of pneumonia, which I think she'd had a few times. But the real reason was to continue helping the resistance. She continued to do this through illness, not just the pneumonia I mentioned, but also an infection that developed after a miscarriage requiring her to undergo a hysterectomy. So she had this infection, the infection spread, and she developed peritonitis and then sepsis. So she's really unwell. Her health wavered over the coming years, but still didn't stop her.

And the French, they had no organized entertainment network for their troops. You know how like there was always, it was not Johnny Carson, or whatever. Bill, no, Hope. Bob Hope, thank you. Bob Hope. Or Captain America was there to entertain the troops.

The French didn't have like a specific organized entertainment network. So Baker and her entourage took it upon themselves. So she started touring to entertain British, French and American soldiers in North Africa. They juggled just on the, at the trenches or whatever. And then held out a hat. I've also got a QR code. That's fine. That's okay. I understand. Can't carry cash in war. But surely you're carrying PayPal.

We'll take that or Anzac Bickies. Whatever you got. I will also accept pictures of your girl back home. But she didn't charge any admission, didn't pass around a hat. And only allowed troops to attend. No civilians are like, yeah. They got to pay. She was there entertaining the troops. Following D-Day and the liberation of Paris, Josephine returned to her adopted city wearing a military uniform. She was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation.

The, I can't say that. Dave, you know French. Oh, please don't put this on me. I can't even tell my last. I can't even tell my last. Can't even know. Another medal. I could say it.

John Minister. Yeah, what's this one? Croy de Guerr. Yeah. Yeah, that is Croy. Is it? Because there's a Tissomember, Eugene de la Hocreubon. Oh, yeah, okay.

So I think that's Croy de Guer. I think that's about right. By the French military. And she also got a Legion of Honor medal from Charles de Gaulle. So she's got some medals on her, which I think is very cool. Yeah. She quickly took note of how terrible conditions were affecting many French people after the Nazi occupation. So she sold pieces of jewelry and other valuables to raise money and buy food and coal for poor citizens of Paris.

So she's quite like socially minded, which is nice. But this time she was married for the fourth time to French composer and conductor. Jo Bullion. She's in her early 40s now, but she is reinvigorated post-war, and her career picks back up again in a big way. From Wiki, it says, bolstered by recognition of her wartime heroism,

Baker, the performer, assumed a new gravitas, unafraid to take on serious music or subject matter. The engagement was a rousing success and re-established Baker as one of Paris's pre-eminent entertainers. In 1951, she was invited back to the US for a nightclub engagement in Miami, After winning a public battle over desegregating the club's audience, Baker followed up her sold-out run at the club with a national tour. Rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences accompanied her everywhere.

So she's finally getting some success in the States. Right. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People granted her the title Woman of the Year, which is huge as well. Ah. Because she gets sort of right into the civil rights movement too. Many years later, of course, in Australia, sportswoman of the year. It was won by the horse black caviar. We gave sports women of the year to a horse.

Slightly controversial. Beautiful stuff. Well, you know, we're... That's a country. I think we're pretty cool. I think we are pretty cool. I think we're pretty cool. Okay.

Given that her previous shows and film roles had given her nothing but criticism, this successful tour is a huge deal. But it was a little short-lived. During that trip to the US, she and her husband Joe were refused reservations at 36 New York City hotels because of racial discrimination. Wow.

36 different hotels refused them. She was like this huge star. Not that that should change anything, but you do see examples sometimes of them turning a bit of a blind eye in that case when it's like somebody who's famous or rich, but not the case. Enraged by this treatment, she wrote articles about the segregation in the US. She refused to perform for a segregated audience that Miami Club offered her $10,000 to do so. and she refused and they eventually gave in to her demands.

And there was a bit of a ripple effect. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate live entertainment shows in other parts of the country as well. So, yeah, she's kind of like, she's been living in Paris where there isn't segregation and, you know, she's treated like a person. And then she goes back to the US and is racially discriminated against and audiences are segregated. And she was like, the fuck is this?

Which I can understand would be. a real weird sort of 180. However, after this incident, it got a lot of press. She began receiving threatening phone calls from people claiming to be from the KKK, but she said publicly she was not afraid of them, which is also pretty ballsy. That's badass. She's like, I went up against the freaking Nazi. She's like, I don't give a shit about the Ku Klux Klan.

When they were like in charge of the country that I was living in. Yeah. She's like, whatever. I'm badass. She's pretty badass. So, also in 51, this is all when she's in the US. There was a Manhattan nightclub, the stalk club, which apparently she was at and they refused service.

And she sort of openly criticized them for their unwritten policy of discouraging black patrons. Apparently, Grace Kelly was there when that happened and went over to Josephine Baker and, like, took her and was like, I'm never coming back here and left as well. And then those two became lifelong friends. Oh, cool. Princess Grace. Although apparently, when we're a period, said she did go back like five years later,

so she lied. So I'll never trust Princess Grace again. I thought Princess Grace's word was her bond. Apparently not. But she's just yet another windbag. She is full of, I don't like swearing, but she's full of crap.

Matthew. Sorry. That's a princess you're talking about. Well. A long dead princess. Yeah. Yeah, princess of Monaco, more like princess of bullshit. Whoa!

He said it. Maddie. I'm sorry. I've never seen you so worked up before. I'm sorry, but I just think if you say you're never going back to the, whatever, Stork Club. Stork Club. Then you don't go back to the Stork Club.

You don't go back to the Stork. Now, has this spelled S-T-A-L-K? No, S-T-O-R-K. Okay. O-R-K. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Oh, okay.

Should we all commit on this podcast right now that I am never going back to the Stalk Club? I won't commit to that because I have a dog ship memory and I'll forget and what if I accidentally go to the Stalk Club? Yeah, right. And you'll be papped. We've got you. I know. Then they're like, Jess, we have you on the record saying, and I'm like, I don't remember anything. Yeah, never say never.

I don't think I can be held accountable for anything I say on this podcast. I... Because I don't remember the second we turn off the microphones. Yeah, I agree. I can't say I'll never go back there. What if someone kidnaps me? And takes you there. Put a hash and sack on my head.

And dumps me at the Stalk Club. What if you want to drink and it's the only place? Yeah, what if I'm really thirsty? What if there's a cool event on? And I'm invited. And I'm invited. Or I somehow find myself there. Am I not to go?

Yeah, ridiculous. So, Dave, I don't think you can possibly ask that of us. But Dave has set it on record. So I'll need you can wait out of the front for us. I will never go to this club that shut down in 1965. I'm on the record. Okay, okay. Oh, the Stalk Club never got to see the Saints when they're won and only premiership the next year.

Oh, that is sad. Sorry. That is sad. Poor bastards. So, anyway, she's had this incident at the Stalk Club. She is, like, really publicly criticizing them for it. And then she called out Walter Winchell, who was a former Vortaville performer and now a columnist. I think he was a bit of a gossip columnist for not sort of coming to her defense.

And he retaliated with a series of rebukes and an accusation of communist sympathies, which at the time, massive deal. That's a big claim. That's a career ruiner right there. So the ensuing publicity resulted in the termination of Baker's work visa, because remember, she's given up her American citizenship. So she's there on a work visa now. So it forced her to cancel all of her engagements and return to France. And it was almost a decade before the US officials allowed her back into the country. Wow. Isn't that wild? Because of a gossip columnist. Calling, saying she has communist sympathies. They're like, get out. It's just the witch trial stuff all over again, right?

And you just say, I heard that were communists. That seems to have happened a lot around that time. Goody Baker, communist, commie. More like commie baker. Yeah. Comey. Let's throw her in the river. If she floats, she's a commie.

If she sinks, still a commie. She's a dead commie. She's a dead commie. She's a commie. Yeah. Yeah, really strange. So she's thrown out. But she really threw herself at the whole civil rights movement.

She was really angered by the treatment she received in the US. This is a quote from Wikipedia. As the decorated war hero who was bolstered by the racial equality she experienced in Europe, Baker became increasingly regarded as controversial. Some black people even began to shun her, fearing that her outspokenness and racy reputation from her earlier years would hurt the cause. But she's just like, I don't give a fuck. I've experienced the opposite.

that like I get treated like a person in Europe, and she just kept standing up for, yeah, against this racial segregation against everything. In 63, she spoke at the march on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King Jr. Not everyone involved wanted Baker present at the march. Some thought her time overseas had made her a woman of France, one who was disconnected from the civil rights issues going on in America.

In her speech, one of the things she said was, I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents and much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee. And that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth and then look out because when Josephine opens her mouth, they'll hear about it all over the world.

She's just, she's pissed off. She sounds, she's like a real life, Forrest Gump. She's just walking through the pages of history. Yes. This story's wild. So, she was next to Martin Luther King. Yeah. She's 1963.

What? Yeah. She was there with the Nazis. What, against the Nazis, I should say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's incredible. Isn't it wild? She's in Paris in the Jazz Age.

Yeah. You hang out with Hemingway and Picasso. She's like one of the most famous people in Paris. Incredible. Amazing. I can't, I can't believe this story. Has there been a big, big budget movie made about it? Oh, there's been, like, she's been the subject of quite a few TV shows, movies, all sorts of stuff.

I don't know if I've seen anything huge. I want a big budget. I don't think I've seen anything big budget yet. I want Tom Hanks to play. God, yes. God, he'd do a good job. He would do a good job, wouldn't he? Oh, he would just capture her essence.

I don't think there are many that could pull off Josephine Baker. No. But I think Hanks is one. Get Hanks on the line. We've got a roll of a lifetime. Send him a typewriter. He loves those. He loves typewriters.

Apparently, after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, you'll find this wild, Matt, considering what you were just saying. His widow, Corretta Scott King. approached Baker in the Netherlands to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the civil rights movement. And after many days of thinking it over, Baker declined saying her children were too young to lose their mother. So she's like, I would love to. I'm honoured, but I can't lead the civil rights movement in America. I have a table tennis tournament.

Especially when it would be hard as well because she's like, and many of the people inside the movement. Do not like me. Yeah, out of touch with the movement. It would be a hard thing, a hard thing to lead perhaps from that position. I know. Especially if you're also trying to look after a couple of bloody little rugg rats. Yeah, well, it's interesting because you might be thinking, children. I was thinking that.

Yes, I know, I'm in your head. I'm in your head. I thought that, but I also thought, hmm, I obviously zoned out for a moment there. No. During her participation in the civil rights movement, Baker began to adopt children, forming a family which she often referred to as the Rainbow Tribe. She wanted to prove that children of different ethnicities and religions could still be brothers. And that part sounds kind of nice, but parts of this feel very off.

So, see how you go with this. Right, yeah, the headline sounded good. Well, from Wikipedia, she often took the children with her cross-country. And when they're at the chateau, she arranged tours so visitors could walk around the grounds and see how natural and happy the children were in the rainbow trial. Oh, she had a human zoo. Her estate featured hotels, a farm, rides, and the children singing and dancing for the audience. She charged an admission fee to visitors who entered and partook in the activities, which included watching the children play.

It's a small world. That's a bit weird. Oh, that's really, really. It's tricky because we're just saying like, what an impressive person. What a way to live life. Wow. And then you're like, oh, that's a bit crook. Charging admission is the thing that probably pushes it over the edge.

Everyone's welcome, you know. We'd just have an open house here. Yeah, yeah. And you wouldn't say, and come and observe the children. Yeah, they'd just be there. And living their life. But it'd be like, there's the free range paddock over here. Yeah.

Behind the bars here, that's our savannah, where we let the children run free. And I thought you're going to say, it got a bit weird. She took the rainbow thing literally and painted each child, green, red, yellow, indigo. Instead she's there like handing out bags of bread saying you can feed the children. You can. Just be, don't get too close. They might bite your hand. Just, you know, a closed fist at first.

Let them sniff you. She created dramatic backstories for the children. What? She also raised them in different religions in order to further her model for the world, taking two children from Algeria and raising one child as a Muslim and the other as a Catholic. One member of the tribe, Jean-Claude Baker, said, She wanted a doll. Essentially, she wants dolls.

She's kind of forgetting these are people. That's one of her children said that. Yeah. So a bit strange. In total, she raised 13 children. Two daughters. French-born Marianne and Moroccan-born Stalina. And 11 sons.

Japanese-born Janot and Akio. Colombian-born Louis. Finnish-born Jari. French-born Jean-Claude. Noel and Moise. Algerian-born Brahim. Ivorian-born coffee and Venezuelan-born Mara. Later on, she would become the legal guardian of another boy also named John Claude

and considered him an unofficial addition to the Rainbow Tribe. So I include him in that as well. So you're unofficial Jean-Claude. They have two Jean-Claude. Okay, you're a standby, Jean-Claude. And she's got them from all different places around the world. Understudy, Jean-Claude. Yeah, the air and the spare Jean-Claught.

Yeah. Air and the spare. Air and the spare. That's a little strange, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Man, it was all just tics until this point, wasn't it? Wow, what an awesome. It was dowser?

Ticks. Ticks. Ticks. Sorry. All pros and cons. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Sorry, the human farm. But I couldn't not mention it, could I?

Of course not. No. Because then everybody who suggested it would be like, what the, why didn't you mention the rainbow tribe of kids? It sounds like she's lost her mind. It sounds like it sort of started from a good place, but then it went a bit sideways. I also did read, and I left it out, but I did read at one point, one of them, when it was about 15, came out as gay, and she kicked him out and made him go live with her now ex-husband. But she was by.

I think she learned a lot from being persecuted through her life. Yeah, she's like, no, that's different. Is it because it wasn't the storyline for that quite unquaint character? I've read you an arc. Yeah, yeah, sorry. This isn't in it. You'll become, no, this isn't it, you'll be coming back. This is redemption.

Yes. Jean-Glord, too. He's gay. Yeah, so that's kind of interesting. Because like you say, possibly good a place. Obviously, I don't do. I haven't done any of the research, but is she trying to show the world that everyone can live together? Everyone can get along.

That seems like the kind of vibe, yes. But it is strange to have. But also, don't be gay. Yeah. Also, do not be gay because I haven't decided that for you. And I've picked your religion. I've picked your religion. Yeah.

You don't do that. But you're this person now and then also people pay to see you. It is a bit, I don't know, off. And I did read that like in an interview in like 2003 or something, Angelina Jolie kind of credited Josephine Baker. Because you know, Angelina Jolie has... They say the rain... Yeah, she says...

Has adopted... A rainbow family. I've seen someone say that maybe. Yeah, something like that's what I thought when you said Rainbow Family, I'm like, oh, that's like... Yeah. Jolie. Exactly.

And so she said... But it's tricky because, I mean, It's not a bad thing to give a home to somebody who needs a home. To collect them from around the world? And to charge admission. And I think you could achieve what you wanted to achieve there without making it such a spectacle. I think just by living your life with your children of many ethnicities all seeing each other as their own family. Which is more of a jolly, the jolly method, right?

Yeah, I guess. I don't think she charges admission. I don't think so. but I haven't checked recently. But yeah, no, I think, I mean, I don't know. But it does also feel like just like particularly going around the world and taking kids away from not only their, you know, their local neighbourhoods, but their whole country saying, hey, let's see how you go in this public zoo.

Yeah, a bit strange. But fascinating and weird. Who am I to judge? Yeah. You know? Just because you adopt local. Yeah. It doesn't mean everybody else.

Yeah, it's a rescue. How old? He's six. Came with the name. Can't change it. Keith. That's a daxon. In her lady years, a baker was in a bit of financial strife. She lost the chateau due to unpaid debts, and her close friend, Princess Grace of Monaco,

let her live in an apartment that she owned in southeastern France. Beautiful. She was back on stage at the Olympia in Paris in 1968, and then at Carnegie Hall in 73 and at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in Paris 1974. So she's like in the 60s and 70s she's like,

she's back. She starred in a retrospective review at the Bobino in Paris celebrating her 50 years in show business. The review financed by Prince Rainer, Princess Grace and Jackie Onassis opened to rave reviews. Wow, incredible financiers.

Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. Like she was massive. The opening night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassie, Diana Ross and Liza Manelli. All went to see her. Crazy. So that was in 75. How old she in her 70s? Yeah.

68. It was only 50 years in entertainment, so she's 52. Yeah. 50 years. Yeah, that's right. Celebrating 50 years. Also her 50th wedding anniversary. But she's not even 70 and it's her 50th, 50 years in showbiz.

That's incredible. Crazy, right? So, yeah, opening night, that's a huge, huge lineup of people going to see her. They cannot fit everybody in. That many people want to come see the show. Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed, surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma.

after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage and she was taken to hospital where she died age 68 on April 12, 1975. Wow. That, it's a, wow, that's sad. Well, actually, it sounds like not a bad way to go. Is that a painful way to go? I don't know.

But you know what they say? Never read the reviews. That's right. They can be deadly. I kind of like that she was found surrounded by praise. That is nice. Like, that feels her, you know? And also that she finally.

She obviously had a lot of praise But also had negative and criticism That was unfounded and racist Yeah So it's nice that She sort of had this huge show Where a lot of people wanted to see her Some of the most famous people in the world

Wanted to see her and were there at her show People that credit her with Inspiring them And then she just dies surrounded by praise If you listed the things she The different things she saw in her life And the things she achieved I would have said

Probably died at 140 150 68 68. That's redong. If you do that much in life, you don't need to live to 140. No, you squeeze it in. Just done.

Just squeezing it all in. It's amazing. That's why I'm going to live a long life. I'm spreading it out. You are getting nothing done. Mick Jack has not come to a single one of my shows as far as I know. You'd know. Oh, you'd know.

Prants and about. Yeah. I'm here. I'm here. I think he got some of his dance styles from her. Oh, geez. He started off at the end of a chorus line as well. People like, maybe you should, Mick, sorry, Mitch, maybe you should start your own thing.

You'd be a front man. Your ass is too high in the air. It's too high, you've got to stop. So yeah, sadly, all good things must come to an end. But someone with such a varied and successful career, who also did so much for others, is bound to leave behind quite a legacy. Writing in the online BBC magazine in late 2014, Darren Royston, historical dance teacher at Rada,

credited Baker with being the Beyonce of her day and bringing the Charleston to Britain. Oh, Dave, you mentioned the Charleston earlier. Yeah. Not on pod. I believe that was on a different podcast. I was thinking, going back, going back. But you did mention it and my little brain went, oh. Oh, oh, I know this is coming up.

Have I got something about the Charleston for you? Two of Baker's sons, Jean-Claude and Jari, grew up to go into business together, running the restaurant, Shea Josephine in New York City. Any relation? Yes. It celebrates Baker's Life. and work, which is nice. The chateau where she lived and raised her children is open to the public and displays her stage

outfits, including her banana skirt, which apparently there are actually several of. It also displays many family photos and documents as well as her Legion of Honor Medal. Well, I'll never go there. Not as long as Princess Grace is still alive. She's dead. Okay, great. Let's go. Let's go to the chateau.

In May 2021, an online petition was set up asking that Josephine Baker be honored by being re-buried at the Pantheon in Paris or be granted the Pantheon honours, which would make her only the sixth woman at the mausoleum. So that was in May, in August of that year, 2021. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Baker's remains would be reburied at the Pantheon in November that year following the petition and continued request from Baker's family. Wow, that's quite an honour. And six women sounds like a low number, but people got to remember that women don't naturally grow in France. That's right.

So they're all imports from other countries. Yes. I don't think a lot of people know that, but yeah, there aren't no... I genuinely think Marie Curie is buried there and she was Polish. Yeah, exactly. So there's no... I could be wrong. Women can't be born in France.

They can't. It's like, you know, like with chickens, the certain heat on the eggs. Yeah. We'll make it a male or a female. Yeah. It's the same. Yeah. The climate in France means...

Only boys are born. Yeah. Yeah. So if you want to have a girl, you've got to leave France. Yeah, you've got to leave France, I'm afraid. Cross over the border, go to Monaco. Hang out with that dog grunt. That disloyal friend.

So, yeah, they, they essentially, it was like a symbolic casket. They were like, we're not going to totally rebary her there, but they buried a casket that contained soil from various locations where she'd lived. So St. Louis, Paris, south of France and Monaco. Oh, so she's not in the box. It's just dirt. Yeah. Is there any greater honor?

honor than having some dirt in a box buried for you. There's probably a plaque too. That's nice. That is nice. I wouldn't say no to a plaque. Yeah, I'd take a plaque. So they did that and she became the first black woman to be honored in the secular temple to the great men of the French Republic.

So only the sixth woman, first black woman, pretty cool. She's been the subject or inspiration for countless film, TV shows, documentaries, stage performances, books, poems, songs. and pieces of art, and I can't believe I hadn't heard of her. Yeah. Which is wild. So Kristen D. Burton sums it up nicely, I think. Far more than a vaudeville dancer and a jazz singer,

Josephine Baker was a force of nature who vaulted racial barriers of the era and achieved the highest level of celebrity. Her status became a shield behind which she could fight the horrors of the Nazi regime. Fearless and outspoken, Josephine found new ways to challenge those who sought to diminish or silence the suffering or oppressed. In strengthening her own voice, she found innumerable ways to both charm and resist. How cool is that? So cool.

What a life. Incredible life. Josephine Baker, the showgirl spy. Maybe that's what I'm called. That's pretty cool. Yeah, one of the most incredible life stories I've ever heard. Yeah. And I'm actually glad that she was a weird human zookeeper.

Because for a while there, I'm like, come on, Josephine, save some for the rest of us. Yeah, give me something. Yeah. Give me something to feel better than you're about. I'm like, okay, well, I've never done that. Whereas through the rest of the point, you're like, I've never done that. I'm never done that. And then that one, you're like, well, I've never done that.

And there's a difference, an important difference. So, yeah, there you go. That's the story of Josephine Baker. Thank you to everybody who suggested that topic. That has to be up there with one of the most suggested topics. Still on that, do you think? Probably, yeah. And I did put it up to the vote, and it quite clearly won very early on.

People are like, this sounds great. So, and it probably came from, I remember a little while ago being like, there aren't this, like, it's a bit of a dude fest in the, in the suggestion. So if you know a story of like a pretty badass lady, let us know. And I think a lot of these people did. Because some of these suggestions go back for a while. Yeah, and anyone can suggest a topic at any time. Do go on pod.com.

There's a little thing that says, suggest a topic. If you scroll down, click that, tell us why we should do it. And we'll probably get to it. Yeah. And there's a drop-down category selector as well. Yeah. Maybe I should add a new one, woman. That would be good, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It'll help us find women in the hat. Woman. Woman. What category should I put on a? Woman. So I feel like doing a biography this week. No, maybe I feel like doing some sort of event. No, woman.

Woman. So, yeah, pretty great story. There you go. Loved it. What a rapport, Jess. I loved it from minute to end. From minute to end? From minute to end.

The first minute it didn't like, but from the minute mark to the end. Yeah. Loved it. And most of that first minute was Dave. Yeah. Dave's intro. I didn't want to say that, but yeah. Fair cop.

So I actually, that was a huge bit of praise for me, and I appreciate that. But now it is time to move on. Okay, just. Okay, Dave. And Dave, let's stop sitting here. Stop it. I haven't spoken for an hour and a half because I just thought, I really fucked up that first minute. I sounded like an idiot.

Yes, you did. So why do I say that? We spend about half an hour at the end of the show, sometimes up to 40 minutes, sometimes down to 20 minutes. Who's to know how efficient we can be? We're hitting a 40. Yeah. Yeah, this is a stop the clock.

Oh, we're hitting a 40. But we start and middle by thanking some of our great supporters. And if you want to be one of these supporters, go to Patreon.com slash do go on pod, a bunch of different levels. Just what are some of the things you can get involved with there? You can get a Christmas card once a year, not all the time. You can get access to a bonus episode. Three bonus episodes a month.

You get into the Facebook group, the kindest corner of the internet. We love it. Early access to tickets for live shows and all sorts of fun stuff that we do. And yeah, it's just a beautiful place, a beautiful way to support the show. It's so beautiful. And the first thing we do is for the people who sign up on the Sydney-Shineberg level or above, we get to give them a fact, a quote or a question. No, they give them to us.

Forget what I just said. They give them to us. We don't give them to them. Yep. And they also get to give themselves a time. title and I read them out for the first time on the episode. So you'll be listening to me going, geez, it sounds like he's rehearsed this. Well, I haven't. He's just that good. And this week, to kick us off, we have a jingle, I think, the section of the Shards of Jingle,

goes something like this. Fact quote or question. Ding. Always remembers the ding. She always remembers the thing. Thanks to clearing your throat there, Jess. I don't know if you realize that, but that actually jogged my memory. Oh, no, I was just preparing to do the jingle. Oh, well, there you go. The first one this week comes from Andriana Janaldi. Absolutely nailed that. No notes.

Yeah, it does sound like you've raced. Well, it's only because I would have said Andriana Janaldi, but it says after that in brackets, the A's are pronounced like, ah, as in, ah, yes, I see that you know your judo well. Ah, yes. Oh, if you could make Andrea Anna. Everything to do like in life, like compare it to that video. I'd be a lot of it.

There was a period of time and it was while we were touring that any yes from any of us was a, ah, yes. Do you want to go get a coffee? Ah, yes. And Andriana's title is Junior Cat Herta. Andrea is asking a question as well writing, it's starting to get colder I am. And that means it's soup season. Yes. That's really tickled you.

Like a date circled on the calendar and it says, first soup of the season. Soup season. What is your favourite type of soup to have on a cold day? And Andriana has done what I always ask. If you ask a question, please answer it yourself. And Andrea. O'Driana has done that.

So I'll read Andriana's answer first. Favorite soup? I'm a fan of the Italian wedding soup. Oh. If I want a soup to be the main deal. and have butternut squash soup as a side. Italian wedding. Oh my God,

it came up immediately. The problem with it is, you know, how many Italian weddings you get invited to? Green vegetables and meat in chicken broth, apparently.

It does look good on the images I'm looking at. Yeah. My favorite, I think, is probably the butternut squash soup but I just call it pumpkin soup. Yep.

I just love a creamy pumpkin soup. Delicious. Oh my gosh. With some buttered toast. Oh, yes. On a cold day. It's been my favourite since I was a kid. My taste buds have not matured since.

Yeah, I still go for like a can of tomato soup. I still can't handle. Tomato soup always... Too acidic? I thought too sweet, but maybe it is acidic. But there was something as a kid I just couldn't get around it. Because I love tomatoes in every other form. I think it's great at the first spoonful, but it's just exactly that over and over again to me.

Pumpkin soup. No tomato. I love pumpkin. But my favourite suit, growing up, legendary in my family, my grandma would make what we called green soup, which was broccoli soup. Okay. And I didn't love eating vegetables as a child, but this somehow, yeah. Just pureate it.

Yeah. Probably because of the esophagus issues that we were undiagnosed at that stage. Yeah. Yeah, it's mostly broccoli, but then also a bit of potato and a bit of carrot boiled down. A bit of stock in there. Give it a bit of oomph. Yeah, and it is so good. Yum.

I imagine also part of it would have just been the association with, yeah. Dear Grandmama. Exactly. You know what the other main ingredient was? Love. Love. And she lived in the country about four hours away, so we only maybe went up there two or three times a year.

She came down maybe a couple of times. So it was only a few times a year that we'd be getting it. So it was ultra special. And I still, I can just look back and taste it. And you know what the other secret ingredient was? Rum. You were drunk. Thank you so much.

Drea. Next one comes from Jacoby Austin de Angel, who's given. the title of asker of the same question. Third time's a charm. Oh. Not the charm either. A charm. Oh, are we going to finally get Jess's answer to this question?

Oh my God. Yes, we've been asked this twice. You know how you always bail on us before this section of the show? Like you never hear? Mm-hmm. Yes. Well, two of the times that that's happened, this question has been asked and you specialize in it. So.

Yeah, you're the expert. Jacobi's going for one more time. Oh, my God. Jacob, I'm so sorry. We couldn't believe the second time that you went here again. Because we said, please ask this again. We'll get Jess and then we'll know. Actually, I have to go.

Well, I think you would be good at answering this. Jacobi writes. I'm good at answering anything. When I noticed that Jess was going for episode 420, blazer it, I quietly thought to myself, wouldn't it be funny if this is when my fact quote a question, which I resent weeks earlier and the hope she'd be there to answer it was read out. And in some ironic twist, that's exactly what happened. So I'm writing the same FQQQ.

hoping that Jess is there to answer this time around. My question is, which Parks and Rec character are you? Oh, and which are all of us. We tried to have a go. Oh, great. Matt and I have, like, seen a bit of it, but not enough to, like, know all the characters. Oh, fantastic. Okay.

So we were like, please, Jess, just tell us who we are. Great. Do you remember who you thought you might be? Because don't tell her. See if we're right. Yeah, I think someone maybe in the Facebook group maybe gave us assigned us names. Oh, but I've forgotten them already. I didn't see that.

Okay, great. Was 420 the one where I got hit by a car? Yes, it was. It was the man in black episode with El Cetromo. So I hope you feel pretty bad. Well, no, I just think you got to stop blaze in it, Bob. Yeah, before I get on a bike. Rising and riding.

Okay, well, and this is what I, this is what I'm Leslie. I'm a Leslie nope. Pretty much 100%. We thought, I think we've got that. Yeah. I think that was because that was the only name we knew. I have been, I just finished watching it again. And, yeah, there are so many.

Leszineaupe scenes where my partner just sort of goes, that's you. I'm like, shut up, I know. But I might have to do combos for you too. Okay. Because I think, oh, Dave, I think you're a, you're a bit of a Chris Trager, but also potentially a bit of a Tom. A Chris Trager is Rob Lowe. That's correct. Oh, okay.

I've got the characters in following. I would have been like, this is meaning nothing. And who else? Tom, Aziz Ansari. Oh, okay. I think that we said that I was Ben the nerdy one. No, you wish you a fucking Ben. Who's Ben?

Adam Scott. Isn't he like the super uptight boring one? Okay. Tell me you haven't actually seen the show. Yeah, he is uptight. He's tightly wound. He's not boring. He's a bit of a dork.

I guess you could be a Ben. Okay. Coming around to it. No, but I'm happy to. But I mean it as a, I mean, Chris Trager is. Ultra pleasant? Incredibly polite. Like, he's like super positive.

Yeah. Okay, I'm loving that. He's great. He doesn't need a lot of therapy, though. Maybe you're a Ben. But Tom... What elements of Tom? Is this Anzari's character?

Tom is, like, one of my least favorite characters. And that's why you see... That's why I see it. No, but I think he is an entrepreneur. He is like, nah, you're not Tom. Maybe you are a Ben, but there's someone else in there, too.

And I can... Oh, you're a Ben and a... Jerry. You're Ben and Jerry. There's a Ben and Jerry on there. Yeah, yeah. This is because of all the ice cream? So the long-running joke with Jerry is that anything he does, everybody like teases him for it. Or like, they get mad at him for doing his job or like he does something well and they yell at him. He does something badly. They laugh at him.

His name's not even Jerry. Is that right? That's right. But he has a smoking hot wife. And he has like this. This does sound like Dave. I think part of why it's funny or part of why you don't feel bad as an audience, member laughing along with this joke is that Jerry's life is fantastic. Like he has a beautiful family. He loves his wife. He has like, you know, so it's all kind of, it's water off a ducks back to him because he is a very

complete person. So you're a Ben and you're a Jerry. Matt. Okay. See a Jerry and a Ben. Matt's true. No, Matt is definitely not a Ben. But he's not a Ron.

No, because Ron's got a lot of practical skills. And you're not as dumb as Anne. Andy. Hmm, tricky. But you are very dry and kind of low, like I say this with love, lowish energy. So you might be a bit of an April. Is she? Aubrey Plaza.

Aubrey Plaza. I think you could be. A big, beautiful eyes. Oh, yeah, you're beautiful. I think you could be, I think you're a bit of an April and an Andy. April, Andy. Chris Pratt. Yeah.

They're a husband and wife. And like, they're complete opposites. You're their child. You're Jack their child. Yeah. Yeah, you're the best of both of them. Oh, best of both of them. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, my God. Because Andy is like, he's dumb and I don't think you're dumb. But Andy is also like super loyal and like a lot of fun and yeah. So I reckon you're in April and an Andy. And I'm just a straight up, Leslie. Wow. There's a list of characters I've got here. One of them is just John Sina.

Oh. Well, Dave. So Jess nearly ran him over. Yeah, I did. That's true. Do you see me as a cross between John Sina and anyone? What the fuck is John Sina in it? I don't know.

Anyway, I got lost in that. That's great. I could think about, I'm going to keep thinking about that. Because I don't know if I've 100% nailed it, but I am a Leslie. And maybe an A&, but they're, you know, they're just best friends. I am an intense best friend. Yes. Let me just double check.

Did Jacoby answer this question? And I'll answer your question. John Sina was in season seven. When? Jacoby says, if she's gone again, I'll take it as a sign and change gears for my next fact quota question. I will say, Dave is definitely Ben, Adam Scott's character, but I would suggest that Matt is closer to Eagleton Ron. What does that mean? That's not bad.

So, Pawnee and it's rival town, Eagleton, join, and they have a merger, and there is another Like a bizarreo Ron. Kind of, but like the two sort of parks departments have to come together and they have to decide who they keep who goes. And there's the leader of that parks apartment is Ron. And initially, Porni Ron is like, oh, good, I like this guy. But then it turns out he's a bit of a hippie and Ron really hates him. Like he's really like positive and like he doesn't get his hair cut. His hair just sort of falls off when it's ready.

and something like falls off. Yeah, it's really stupid. It's really funny. I love it. Cheers, Jacoby. I'm glad we finally got that question to Jess. Did Jacob say who I was? Leslie?

No, he didn't say, but I guess, hang on, did he say? No, I didn't. But I think everyone just agrees with Leslie. Yeah. It's not even up for discussion. John Cena is in the episode that I always skip. Oh, yeah. That's why I thought it's in it.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's just like it's an episode within the series. Like it's by that stage, Andy has his own TV show. called The Johnny Karate Show, and it's an entire episode of the Johnny Karate show, and I usually don't watch it. Oh, right. I'll skip over it. But it's meant to be a good episode, right, but you don't need to watch it over and over.

Yeah. Okay. The next one comes from Skyy, with the title of Just a Weird Little Person. Okay. And Sky asks a question writing, hello, Jess, Matt, and David Zest. Ah, yes. Yes. I'm afraid I have re-branded as David Coupey, though.

Please address me accordingly. David Coupain, drive away no more to pay. The question is, what is your silliest tattoo? And if you don't have a weird one, what's your favorite? But Sky does answer their own question saying, my dumbest one is LXIX on my right forearm. LXIX is 69 in Roman numerals. Nice.

That's funny. My favorite is a skull mandala. Also on my. write for him. I don't, am I saying Mandala right? Yeah. All right, I can answer this. Dave's, this zebra keyboard. It's his only tattoo. Yes, because that's my favourite and worst. Yeah. And stupidest. Is that the question? Was it stupid? Uh, yeah, I think so. Silliest, I think. A nice way of saying stupid. It is whimsical. It is silly and it is my only one. So it's my favorite, George. I would have been you, Bob. I would argue that most tattoos are a bit silly. I think any really

sincere tattoo. It then goes into silly anyway. I think the worst one is my first one, which is the thing on my, the rewind sign on my wrist. Just because it's too thick. She said that's the thinnest needle you can do. And I've since had much thinner tattoos done. Technology's come on. Hasn't it just. Since the olden days when you got that done, grandma. Yeah. And I do have, I've got a Paul Kelly quote on my arm and I just have to cross my fingers. He never gets cancelled. Because that'll be so awkward. Yep. But you have the. silliest one. Which one?

The more recent one, I think is sillier. Beer can, in a good way. Beer canned cowboy? Yeah. You got a beer canned cowboy. That rules. But designed by Mr. Heggy. And I got it during the filming of the second season of Beer Pioneer, which hasn't come

out. But I think it's being edited at the moment. Long process that one. Yeah. Because I feel like you've had that tap for a while. Did I film that last year? I can't even remember. I think it was last year.

Probably about a year ago. Wow. Or even more. How many episodes? Must be hundreds. I think it's going to be 10. An episodes, man. Hundreds of episodes?

Hmm. Yes. So, yeah, I guess that is. My other one's pretty silly as well. It's flames on my leg. They're all silly. Yeah, they're all pretty silly. Well, tattoos are silly.

But I mean, 69 in Roman numerals. That's a level of silly I can get around. The moment that they thought of it. Yeah. That's a funny moment. My old mate, Arnie, he was bored one day at school. So he went out and got left and right tattooed under his feet. Oh.

On the foot. On the, yeah, soul of his feet. Oh, apparently that kills. Yeah, but it's the most painful, but also that's where they wear away from quicker. So he's like, it's no, you know, it doesn't really matter. It's like, well, why are we doing it then? Why do it if it's excruciatingly painful and it won't last? No one can see it.

Yeah. I liked it about it. Did you come back to class and was like, check this? Yeah, limping in. I mean, yeah, I thought that was a bit of fun. That'd hurt. Pretty silly. And can I confirm was left on left?

Left on left. Oh, good. because it'd been funny to the other way around. Or two lefts. You know what I'm like. The last one this week comes from Matthew Abad, pronounced Abad. Oh, nailed it.

And Matthew's title is the one Mamma Jama, who dares to be good. And it's a quote. Oh, we love a quote. This quote comes from Stephen King's IT. How did you do a movie about computers? And it is, you can't be careful. careful on a skateboard man. Far out.

This quote. That makes you think. This quote is spoken by a child to a 39-year-old man. It's a bit of a thematic reminder that life can sometimes be unpredictable and even scary. But that's the life that's worth living. Being in my 30s myself, I remind myself of this quote so I can hopefully never grow out of getting uncareful from time to time. So to all you doogies out there, remember, you can't be careful on a skateboard, man. I love it.

I reckon that's a tattoo ready to go, Matthew. Yeah. A bad. A bad. Thank you so much to Matthew Sky, Jacoby and Andrea for those fantastic facts, quotes and questions. The other thing we like to do is shout out to a few of our other fantastic Patreon supporters. Jesse, you normally come up with a bit of a game based on the topic? You'll never believe what I've done.

I will not. So you know how I love a horse name generator. We love that you love it. I was able to find a song name generator. You can put in a mood and a genre. So I have chosen romance slash love and the genre of jazz. So I'm going to give them a jazz song. All right, Dave, why don't we go one for one if Jess is going to be doing all the things else?

I don't know him, Anna. All right. Well, I'll kick us off. I got a great one. If I can thank from Ackerkeek in MD, maybe Maryland in the United States, This is Michael Hemp Hill. Famous for their song, I believe in lounge.

Oh, yeah. That's good. You believe in lounge after lounge. It's going to be jazz-y-out-lounge. Yeah, so many. I would like to pay tribute and say thank you from Tom Ball in Texas. Cammy Jamison. Oh, my God.

Cammy-Jammy. What about? What about afternoon? What about afternoon? There's not a question. So it's like, what about afternoon? Yeah. Why'd you leave afternoon out? What's your favourite time of day? It's all questions.

Midnight. Midnight. Morning. What about afternoon? Midday. Do you believe in afternoon? Can I think from Belcarus or Belcarre in, I reckon Saskatchewan in Canada, it's fire with a pH. Oh, and convenient because the next one I had was that warms your game. Oh, yeah, it really does.

And fire already had a sweet game already. That warms your game. It makes sense when you hear the song. Okay, thank you. From right here in Melbourne, a big shout out, and thank you to Liam Ware or Liam War. Probably where? Just a light drink. Oh, okay.

Isn't that good? Just a tipple. It's like flassy order too. Yeah. Oh, I've got a great one. Keeping a little mystery alive. Just a light drink. Anything in particular?

Surprise me. Yeah, yeah. I'm a jazz man. Doop-de-bap? It's more about the alcohol you don't put in the glass. Oh, not tequila, thank you. Do you think jazz lovers are really over? Yeah, I think they might be.

Over that joke. Blakeview from, I'm saying this in a jazzy way, Blakeview from South Australia, it's Caitlin Dowden. Caitlin Dowden, I believe in a thing called World. These are AI. How does it do it? It keeps generating these brand new ideas. I believe in a thing called world.

Yeah, some people don't believe in the world, but I do. Yeah. Yeah, what, what shape is it? I tell you what. Cube. It's a cube. Cubic. It's a world gone mad, which is the name of the Screaming Jets album from the late 90s,

and on the cover was the world as a cube. Wow. That is mad. They were ahead of their time. Yeah. I'd also love to thank from North Ridgeville in God's country itself. Ohio in the United States. It's Captain Bonclay.

Captain Bonclay. And Matt, you'll love this one because this is called loving love. And you do love love. I love love more than anything. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know a lot about love, but I know what I like. And that's love. A little line from my festival show last year.

That's how good it was. Wow, you're quoting yourself here. Wow. Do you know if I jump back in? Oh, please. I would like to thank from Dunblane in Scotland. Ewan Morrison. It's another one that makes sense when you hear the song,

but it's called First Time of Sounds. Oh, yeah. I still remember my first time. Of sounds? Yeah. What was the sound? It changed my life. It was, oh, God.

Damn it. Oh, he's torn me apart. I did two in a row there, didn't I, Dave. So you want to do two in a row? Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for noticing me. And writing this wrong. From Sorrel in Tasmania,

Melanie Gleason. Famous for main squeeze moves. Oh, that's good. That's the best so far. Main squeeze moves. Let me show you some of my main squeeze. Oh, okay. We're talking a different...

And that's the beauty of art. You can interpret it in all sorts of different ways. And your side squeeze can have different moves. Yeah. Possibly better. Yep. But different. Different.

And finally, I'd love to thank from McKay. Mackay. Mackay. From Mackay. I was laughing at the song. From Mackay in Queensland in Australia. It's Lauren mount me. Lauren mount me.

I'm barely even, yeah, it doesn't really work when they're already doing. Lauren is, I'm just going to try to save you here, mate. Lauren, famous for whatever happens tomorrow, I had my choice. Geez, the robots tried so hard to think, isn't it? Whatever happens tomorrow I had my choice. Oh, Lauren, not me. Thank you so much to Lauren, Melanie. You and Captain Bonn.

Caitlin, Liam, Fire, Cammy and Michael. The last thing we need to do here is welcome a few people into the Triptitch Club. Dave, you explain it so well. How does it work? This is our, basically, our tribute show, our lounge, our clubhouse, our hangout zone, our chill pad for people that have been supporting the show for three consecutive years on the shoutout level or above. We've already given them a nickname or something earlier on to enshrine them forever.

We welcome them into the Hall of Fame. Your name goes up on the board. It goes on a plaque. run in to the zone, which is a bit of a theatre of the mind. We've got a band. It changes every week. We've got Jess behind the bar with some food and cocktails. It's a, it's a lovely place to be. I'm the door man. And I've got the list of names. Three names on list tonight. When I read out your name, you run on in. Dave will be on the stage. I'm seeing the show hyping up with some weak word play. Jess, you're behind the bar. What's the drink this week? We've got French

martinis. You're going to put a little French flag in them just for fun. I got some Scargo. It was really gross. Please don't eat them. I've befriended all. of the snails. Oh, yeah. They are my friends now. Yeah, don't eat them. Please don't eat them. But we do have French fries.

Also, I have befriended the French fries. Yeah, please don't eat. Please don't eat this week. Just don't eat. Just drink. Just drink on an empty stomach. You'll be fine. Yeah.

And Dave, you've booked a man. Who you got? You're never going to believe it. I didn't know that this subject would be set in France. And we have one of France's greatest bands joining us this week. It is ultra vomit. Oh, my God. Are you serious?

But they will be playing exclusively tracks that Josephine herself would have played. Because in this, you can book anyone, including living and dead people. Yeah. This week's episode was about an entertainer. Yeah, you couldn't have gotten Josephine. She was... Well, obviously, that might be coming up. That might be next week.

I don't know. That's a good point. People often confirm with the last minute. People have this high calibre. They don't want their schedule being published in advance. Dave, are you ready to hype some people up? Let me, Adam. All right.

Here we go. Three names this week, Dave. Firstly, welcome in to the club. You can never leave, which is a good thing, from Brooklyn in New York City. It's Brandon Wang. Brandon, Wang, here for a good hang. Woo! From High Wickham in Western Australia, it's Tamara Potts.

Tamara Potts. I've got the hots. For Tamara Potts. For Tamara Potts. Yeah, yeah, that's good. Not your value, but you're hot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And finally from Priorki in.

Great Britain, it's Chris Williams. More like Great Chris Williams. Great Britain. I'm guessing I've got Trierki. Pretty badly wrong there. That cannot be Triochi. How would you say? Trierkey.

Dricken's Trollky? Trollchy. Just the name Chris Williams makes me assume Welsh, which means I got no chance. Getting raunchy within Trotchy. There it is. It is in Wales. Oh, well done. Yeah, you give me the pronunciation and then I'll work something into it.

That's a... Triorki. Is that what I said? Yes. That's Triorki. Holy shit. Having a great talkie with my mate from Triorke. There it is.

Well, come into the club. Grab yourselves a martini or whatever just said. French martini. French martini. Enjoy it, the ultra vomit. Which is extra good if you donate this week. Can I just find on the metalarchives.com, the genre is death metal slash grindcore early.

Then various later, their themes are humor and parody. So they're a fun band. They sound like they go wrong. The party's going to go. all night long tonight. Welcome into the club. Chris, Tamara and Brandon, make yourselves at home.

Enjoy ultra vomit. And yeah, that brings us to the end of episode. Anything we need to tell people before we go? That you can suggest a topic. There's a link in the show notes. It's also over on our website. Do go on pod.com. And you can find us on socials at do go on pod.

And do go on podcast on TikTok. We're huge over there. Hey, if you want to see these faces, talk the talk. Which some people have said they find very upsetting. Check us out. On TikTok, absolutely. Yep, Instagram. Yeah, our faces.

We're talking now. Yeah, we're old. We're on Instagram. Go there mostly. I was going to say we're all in our 30s. That's not true, is it? Oh, I'm millions of years old. It was great to go into the windy city last year or this year.

Earlier this year. To see where my younger brother is doing, the wind. It's always good to catch up with the little bro. But yeah, anyway, all of those things. And Dave, booted home. Hey, thanks so much for. joining us in the glorious year that's been 2023. We hope you have a safe

end of the year and we'll see you back. Never. We're actually, this is our last ever episode. I'm always saving it till right now to tell you. That's our good 2024 is going to be. It's going to be so good. We're too busy. No, podcasting never sleeps. We'll be back next week and until then. Also, thank you something for listening. Happy New Year and goodbye.

Later. Bye. Happy New Year. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester.

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