Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Why We Weren't Each Others' Best Man | Ear Biscuits Ep. 451
Episode Date: December 16, 2024How does that even make sense?! In this episode, Rhett & Link give some sage advice on giving speeches – especially a best man speech – and in doing so, reveal why they weren’t each other’s ...best man. Plus, they give some great suggestions for making up a last name. Get 10% off your first month at https://betterhelp.com/ear To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This, this, this, this is mythical.
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I am so dreading groceries this week.
Why? You can skip it.
Oh, what, just like that?
Just like that.
How about dinner with my third cousin?
Skip it.
Prince Fluffy's favorite treats?
Skippable.
Midnight snacks?
Skip.
My neighbor's nightly saxophone practices?
Er, nope. You're on your own there.
Coulda skipped it, shoulda skipped it.
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Welcome to Ear Biscuits, the podcast where two lifelong
friends talk about life for a long time.
I'm Rhett.
Yes, and I am Link.
This week at the round table of dim lighting,
we're gonna help you give a speech,
particularly if you are a best man
and you wanna give a best man speech in a wedding,
but I think the knowledge that we're gonna drop
is gonna help you no matter what type of speech
you have to give.
Even if it's a worst man speech, which is a new trend now because of the internet.
Oh my god.
I'm kidding.
I can believe you.
I can believe you all day, Rhett.
I could believe you.
I could believe you all day.
Just keep talking.
Hey, there's a worst man at every wedding, but it's not official.
It's just an unspoken thing that everyone knows.
Everyone has a least favorite person in their bridal party.
Ooh, are you talking about not just attending the wedding?
Cause that's.
Someone who you have to make a groomsman
or you have to make a bridesmaid
who you really wish you didn't have to,
but that person needs a name.
Worst man, worst woman.
Worst, worst, worst, worst-ish-er.
We gonna do that, we're gonna talk about some other stuff.
You know, I went to Death Valley.
I heard about that.
All alone.
But with my dogs.
Well, so that's not really a solo trip.
So it wasn't really a solo trip.
I wanted to tell you a little bit about it,
so I'm gonna do that right now, okay?
All right, you ready for that?
Um, you know, I just love getting in a rented camper Sprinter van and just
driving away from everything that I know and everybody that I know.
Oh, it sounds like you should keep that part to yourself.
I like the idea of going out into the desert all alone, letting my freak flag fly.
With no judgment, with no observation. You know, I get it.
God is watching.
If you go out into the... and you know what? She's fine with that.
That's good.
If when you go out into the desert,
you can stumble upon people out there in the desert
who are just naked, who are just, or subsisting.
And I think I get it.
And I feel the call every so often to just go back out there
and just be with me and my thoughts and my actions.
Because someone has to.
It might as well be you.
It might as well only be me. See, it's this type of energy that sends me away.
Right, exactly. Good.
Ha ha ha ha.
You know, the last solo trip I took, which was at the same time as you and we were in
the same place in Sequoia National Forest and we passed as two ships in the night, but
they were vans.
They were identical.
They were identical vans.
I actually think I rented the one that you had last time this time, but it didn't have
any beeping problems for me.
Did you smell me in it?
No, it was cleaned. Did you smell me in it? No, it was cleaned.
Did you use the awning?
I, no.
Well, that was my mistake.
That was probably it.
It was way too windy for the awning,
but I took a Jasper on that last trip,
and I missed Jade, so this trip I took Jasper and Jade.
I got them in their little carrier,
in their passenger seat, and they just like go to sleep there,
or just stare at me, hoping that I'm gonna let one of them sit in my lap while we're driving,
but no, we can't do that. That's not safe.
And safety is on the list of items that I'm thinking about,
but as you can tell after I tell you this story,
it's not number one.
Yep.
We went to, not Death Valley technically,
we went to the Panamint Valley, which is one valley over.
So it shares the mountain range with Death Valley,
but it's on this side and it was a shorter drive
because I wasn't, we were working that morning
and then I was leaving and the sun sets at 4.30
and you don't like to get to a campsite after dark,
especially when you're completely off the grid
in a place you've never been,
when there's nobody else around.
You know, it's just not a good feeling
to just show up in the dark.
It does help when you're in the van though.
Oh yeah.
Cause you can park and lock up.
I've had that happen a couple of times
and I was just like, okay,
I could just see what this looks like in the morning.
I don't think I would go on a solo trip
much less in complete isolation in a place where,
you know, if it turns out I wasn't completely isolated
and there was a murderous companion on my hill,
I'd like to know that I can be inside of a van
and completely locked up and I can just crank it up
and drive over her.
Oh, so God and the companion in this sense are women.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Women usually don't hang out in the woods
waiting to murder people, I'm just saying.
Yeah, and I love women for that.
I'm saying that they can do that,
they are capable of that,
women are capable of murdering people.
I'm just saying they usually don't.
Yeah, statistically speaking.
But I don't wanna take that away from them,
because they can do it.
Right. They can murder just as good as men. The fact that they don them, because they can do it. Right.
They can murder just as good as men.
The fact that they don't is what makes them so great.
Right.
So much better than men.
Like us.
That's right.
We're constantly trying not to murder people.
Right.
I've almost murdered all of you in the last 30 minutes,
just since we've been here.
I mean, I'm constantly keeping myself
from murdering all of you.
The fact that I've never killed anybody is just a great
credit to me.
Well, I'm glad you gave it to yourself.
Yeah.
There's a ghost town called Ballarat out there. You know, they're looking for gold back in them hills.
How old is the, when was it ghosted?
I don't know, Rhett.
Well, you know, does it have a gas station?
Oh no, no.
There's one structure and then,
well, there's two structures.
One is like a general store kind of thing and a museum.
And there was somebody in there selling like
Fago and koozies and rocks.
Did he know that the town had been ghosted?
I did not talk to him, but yes.
There's no, from what I can tell, there's no power,
and there's no cell service, there's nothing.
You're completely off the grid there,
but there are a few, like, ramshackled RVs in this area,
and the sign when you're, you have to drive through the ghost town, which is just this little general store
in another structure labeled jail, which I think was actually the jail
back when they, during the gold rush.
What's it called?
Ballarat?
Ballarat, B-A-L-L-A-R-A-T.
And on the sign it says, it starts pointing
in different directions.
Surprise Canyon this way, I knew I was going through town
towards Surprise Canyon to get an isolated
but established primitive campsite
in the middle of this valley.
But the sign also said, enter at your own risk.
But I think that's just some gamesmanship from the local.
Weed people out.
Yeah. Turn around now. And don't drive over 15 miles per hour because you don't want to
kick up dust on these people. They live in the desert but they don't like dust. So I
respect that. I drove through the town because the sun was setting and I needed to get to my spot.
And this valley is... the reason why I didn't go into Death Valley was the timing,
but also there's a lot of people in there and there's a lot more rules about where you can camp.
But here it was Bureau land management. Like you can camp pretty much anywhere
there's an established firing, or pretty much anywhere. Super, super isolated.
Like you look in either direction.
There's one road that runs through it,
but from where I was, I couldn't see the road
and I couldn't see anybody driving on it.
And I saw this, I passed this one big RV
that was like down in the middle of the valley
in a more accessible place.
But by the time I got to where I was gonna get,
that RV was like a speck.
Just couldn't see anything.
Is this like a slot canyon kind of situation?
No, it's a very broad, very wide canyon.
Yeah, it's just like, and there's hardly anything growing
in this particular valley and It's very rocky.
And so I camped the first night. Everything was good.
A nice little sunset.
I get up the next day and I knew that I'd read about
Surprise Canyon, which is called that because
all of these, it's got water running through it.
You know, it's basically the backside of Death Valley,
yet it's got these-
Flash flood.
Well, it's got spring-fed stream running through it.
That's the surprise that there's a spring?
That's the surprise,
is that there's a lot of running water in there.
What was the temperature?
It was pretty much perfect.
Like at night, it got into the like 40s
and then it got to like 72 during the day.
But the wind was pretty aggressive at times.
Might've been 40 mile per hour gusts at one point.
I had to park the van sideways so that I could sit outside
and use the van as a windbreak.
And then when I went to sleep both nights,
like the whole van was just shaking because of the wind.
That's why you're so glad you're in a van.
That's why the van's so good.
If you're in a tent, it'd be miserable.
Now, if you want to rent one of these vans,
especially, I mean, out west, there's so many
places you can drive and camp. Like, back east, it's just, it's really, you really can't
find all these open spaces and do this type of camping.
Doesn't exist.
Doesn't exist. You have to be on established campsites, so like, being isolated is something
that I didn't know, I never heard anybody doing back in North Carolina.
Well, you can go into the woods.
You can go into the woods, yeah.
Yeah.
But it's so easy because you're driving this thing.
The app is Outdoorsy,
the one that I use to rent this Brenna van.
And then I use iOverlander to find the spots where I camp.
And people review the spots where I camp.
And they like, people review the spots and mark them and you can Google map straight to it,
even if you lose cell service, you know.
I lost cell service like an hour before I got there.
Like that's how isolated this was.
I was driving for an hour.
Just driving through a town where there's like no
service.
But you got your satellite phone.
I got that little spot on GPS thing, which I used. Now the iPhone update has a
satellite communication capability now.
You can send texts?
And it knew that. I had updated actually the night before, and so it said, would you like to send text via satellite?
And I said yes, and I tried to text Christy,
and it didn't go through.
So I don't know.
Does your thing.
If my hardware needs to be updated through.
Can you text through your satellite thing?
I was not able to.
No, the Garmin thing.
Yeah, the Spot X device, yeah, has a full keyboard.
It takes a while.
I think we have the same thing.
It creates a website, basically, that tracks your progress that you can just share with a loved one.
And be like, this is gonna follow me where I'm at.
This was the thing that I took comfort in
when I decided on the next day to go on a little excursion
up Surprise Canyon, which I could see it miles away.
The road looked pretty established going up
just like whoop and then right in between,
right up into this canyon that,
everything blends together so much that like,
it's hard to tell where one mountain ends
and another one begins and where the valleys are
and these things, because it's so desolate.
Like beautifully desolate, but still,
it just all becomes a wash until the sun sets,
and then you can start to see dimensionality, right?
And so I'm like, I'm going for that dimensionality.
And so I start driving and I mean,
it had four wheel drive, high clearance,
so I was able to like slowly go on this gravel road,
but the thing that I read about was
how easy it is to get flat tires out there
because of the type of, these very sharp rocks.
And then if there are flash floods,
it exposes sharper rocks.
Everything's not worn down.
But the road seemed pretty good.
And I had my portable tire pump.
And I got nervous and I was like like I'm gonna deflate my tires
To reduce the chance of getting a flat tire
And so I did that and then I started creeping up and going up this canyon
And I just I mean it's just a few miles of going up right beside this stream a couple of places
I'm like driving across the stream
And I'm starting you know my armpits are starting to sweat a little bit
because I feel like...
Yeah, I don't like this.
I'm taking a little bit of a risk here, going up here, but the road was
established enough and I was feeling okay and I was having a good time, so...
No turn back now. No turn back now. That's what I was saying myself.
I started using shorthand.
These vans, in my experience, they're no FJ Cruiser.
No.
Like, my FJ Cruiser could go through anything, and I always felt like I was gonna get out
of it.
Oh, it would have been a breeze. It wasn't technical. It was never a point where it felt
like I needed someone to get out of the van and tell me where to drive.
I would never have done that.
Even in four wheel drive sometimes they're like,
they're spinning out and stuff.
A lot actually.
So I was gaining elevation and it was,
it started to get more treacherous and then at one point
there was a big thing that I needed to go up
and I saw that I could just turn around.
So instead of going up this, I was like, you know what I saw that I could just turn around. So instead
of going up this, I was like, you know what? Dogs, we're gonna stop here, I'm
gonna turn around, I'm gonna get off the road, because there's a place to do that,
I'm gonna face the other direction, towards the exit. I'm gonna go around this big
rock. It's almost as, well, not as big as this table, but it was a turnaround
spot around this rock, and the rock was big enough that I couldn't put my arms
around it.
You tried to hug it, though.
Well, I'm just trying to give you an idea of how big it is.
That's how lonely you'd gotten.
Well, when I tried to hug the rock, I couldn't. I couldn't!
I will tell you that later on in the story, I did try to hug the rock.
Okay.
But it wasn't out of loneliness. So I turn the van around and I park it.
And then we start hiking, and we hike not much longer, a quarter of a mile up the
road, and then I can see as I come around this corner,
there's like two identical Suburbans up there.
Oh, Suburbans made it.
Now if they were black, I'd have been like,
okay, what is this, Secret Service?
Right, right.
They were white Suburbans.
Okay.
So, no, but they were identical because they were rentals,
which I don't know how these guys did this,
there was one guy there and I talked to him
and he was like from Kansas City.
And him and his boys were doing a Death Valley trip
and then they were leaving once the guys came back
from hiking and they were gonna go to Vegas.
And, um.
Quite a trip.
So these are the only people that I saw
and talked to my entire trip. So these are the only people that I saw and talked to my entire trip.
With these guys. It's weird seeing people when you haven't seen people.
I hiked up a little bit. They said, we saw a rattlesnake, but there's beautiful
waterfalls up here. And I was like, I'm not gonna take my dogs up here.
There's a rattlesnake. I came back out, and while I was thinking,
I'm glad I pulled over,
so that, because they said they were leaving.
And so by the time I went, I hiked back down,
they had already packed up, and they were leaving.
They, like, I saw their taillights,
and they were out of there.
So then, when I get back to the van,
after looking around, it's like old mining equipment
and stuff up there, pretty cool,
like a lot of relics and whatnot.
You see a lot of that in Death Valley.
It was a big surprise cannon.
They like, this guy bought the land
because they found gold there, and he brought in all these people, And they like, this guy bought the land
because they found gold there, and he brought in all these people,
and that's what created the town,
and just a boom town.
But after being there for a couple of weeks
up in Surprise Canyon, there was huge flash floods,
and it destroyed the entire camp.
And the guy had been creating a railroad from Santa Monica.
Santa Monica, it's like millionaire, billionaire dude,
was trying to build a railroad from there to Santa Monica
and he's starting in Santa Monica.
He never made it because then there was this flash flood
and the whole thing got, the whole endeavor got washed away.
These are the type of things that happen.
There's a lot of space between there and Santa Monica.
I know! It's on the sign and everything.
I read about it. You think I would make this stuff up?
Just to impress you?
It'd be an interesting thing to make up.
Yeah. I probably have some of it wrong, but I know for a fact I'm right about it.
Don't look it up. Anyway, I get back in the van, and I've gotta work up a slurry to wash my dog's
feet, because Jasper was walking in the water, and I'm like, I don't know what he
could have picked up. I'm just like... So I'm washing him off, then I'm eating something, and then I get
in the van, and we finally drive off, and I was already like pointed in the right
direction. You know, I'd made all these decisions of how I was gonna exit before
we even went on the hike. And so when I start to pull off,
I'm turning back to the right,
and I'm not gonna go in the stream,
and I'm gonna take it easy,
and then all of a sudden, very quickly, I'm like,
not going.
And the first instinct I have, right or wrong,
whenever I'm off-roading and I encounter some resistance,
is to give it a little bit more gas,
because you don't want to lose any momentum you have.
So I gave it a little gas, and I did not make any progress,
but instead I heard this like screeching slash crunching
metal, frustrated metal sound hmm and and I immediately put on the brakes, and I was like oh shit oh
No, oh no. Oh, no, and I'm like I immediately begin. I'm like I'm stuck
And what am I gonna do because I'm way up here and these guys have left and there's not gonna be anybody else
No, you'll be hiking out.
And I said, I turned to the dogs and I said,
don't panic.
You know, it's really good having dogs there
because I have somebody to talk to that is a lot more
even keel than me.
They didn't panic, I got out of the van,
and I walked around to the back and remembered
that big ass rock that I'd totally forgotten about,
that I'd driven around.
And so then instead of going-
And it was right in front of you when you started to go?
It was beside the van when I started to go,
but then I turned right so that the front tire
was already past it, and when I went to the right
a little bit, it was in front of the back tire.
Well it was actually, the muffler comes in front
of the back right tire.
Cool, the muffler.
So the muffler is in front of the tire
and so that's what's pinned against this rock.
And I'm like, oh shit.
And then so I'm like, I get down, I squat down,
and I bear hug the rock.
Because I'm like, well, I'm just gonna move the rock.
Will this rock move at all?
No.
And so this is when I realized that like...
Strap your dogs up to it.
I can't.
Ha! Two mule team. Yeah, I reached my hands around the rock. I could not get all the way
around it. That's how big this rock was. And I go, huuuh!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I had have been there, I would have said we shouldn't try that.
I mean, I was just, I was not panicking. You know, that was what was important.
I was like, I'm just testing things out here. And then I realized, okay, it's just
against the muffler. If I... And then I realized if I get back in the van and I turn the wheels totally to the left,
I think I can just skirt this rock in a vert disaster.
And so I get back in the van and I do that
and thank God it works.
And then I just, I was kind of shaken up at that point,
but we slowly drove out of there,
and there wasn't actually any damage to the van
that's visible unless you lay down and look underneath.
Which when I returned it, they didn't,
I don't think they did that.
I wonder if they're fans of the show.
I hope not.
It was just a little perturbed spot on the muffler.
You know, normal wear and tear.
No, we're wearing normal wear and tear.
But it really gave me pause, because I'm like,
you just don't want to be out there in the middle of nowhere
with just two chihuahua poodles.
Like, stuck. Now, I did have, I was able to communicate, and if I had to walk, I could have hiked down to the town if I had to.
Yeah, it would have been a long hike.
So I mean, on this side, I probably could have hiked to that RV that was a speck.
So I knew these things. Like I knew where I could find people
and I could communicate,
but it would have been a real shitty day.
Right.
Probably a shitty two days.
So the lesson that I'm taking away
is whenever you're in a place like that, Link,
and you're about to drive off from anywhere.
Look. Give it a... look. Give it a circle.
Just go around. You think you know what you're doing, but maybe something changed.
Maybe a rock crawled up underneath...
A rock grew.
A rock grew underneath there in between your hike and when you parked.
Just reacquaint yourself with all your surroundings.
This is one of my takeaways from this trip is just,
you gotta be responsible for yourself.
You gotta think about worst case scenarios
and what you're gonna do about it.
Now that doesn't mean it's gonna talk you out
at doing things, but you gotta have a plan.
So I had like, I had the, you know,
I had some sketches of a plan.
Concepts of a plan?
Yeah, as it's been said.
I had concepts of a plan, but I didn't have a plan.
Right.
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You know, one of my favorite parts of the holiday season
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Huh, yeah, cause they're all the same.
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I'm gonna have to look at my phone.
Like you're retired.
Because you've disengaged from the hustle and bustle of life.
For some people, it's wrapping up in a blanket
with a mug of hot chocolate.
I could dig it.
They think that's the best way to spend a month of December.
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["Skies of Terror"]
So after that, I just, I went back to the same spot, your podcasts. [♪ to on a leash while I was in the van, and he was outside as like, the sun hadn't set yet.
It was like four o'clock by this time,
and he was, I had a blanket out there
so I wouldn't track dirt into the van.
And so I look out of the van and he's down there,
he's like, he's at the absolute limit of the leash,
like pulling as hard as he can.
Now Jade is in the van, and she's too little
to jump down out of the van herself,
so she was secured inside of the van.
Jasper liked to sit outside, so I let him do that.
He was stretching and had his nose on the ground,
and he was whimpering, and he was trying to get
to the edge of the blanket.
And he would not hush about it.
And then I looked, I was like, what are you looking at?
And I picked him up and put him in the van, and then I took this video.
Sorry about my bare feet, that's for size reference.
So you should see my blanket, and then right there. Oh wow.
That is a big ass tarantula just crawling.
I've never seen one of those in the wild.
Right there on the edge of my freaking blanket.
It is coming onto your thing.
It's crawling on the blanket.
And look, I'm grabbing the blanket and I'm shaking it
to try to get him to run away, and look, nothing.
Doesn't move at all.
You can pick him up.
Well, I was, and then he just wipes his butt
with one of his legs, and he just stands there.
So because he didn't move, like, when I saw this,
and I freaked out, because I'm not fond of spiders.
And the bigger and the hairier they are, the less fond I am of them.
But I do know some things.
Eight legs.
They're not poi- eight legs.
They're not poisonous.
But I'm freaking out and I'm like talking to myself and saying like,
okay, don't freak out.
It's not poisonous, but they can,
I think they can throw their hairs as darts.
And I don't know what that would do to a dog.
And I don't know what a bite would do to a dog.
It would make them upset.
So, for the next two hours,
we just, we stayed in the van with the door shut.
You didn't have anything to kinda sweep it away?
I looked out the window. Or to pick it up with something
and just move there. Well, I tried with the thing.
So then he was just, so he was there,
so I just locked myself in the van for a while.
Trapped by a spider.
And then when I came back out, I was like,
you know what, I'm not letting this spider win.
And so we went out, we went back out there.
He killed it.
No, no, he's...
Just kidding.
After that time, he was gone.
But you better believe I was checking my shoes
before I put him on.
It's kinda crazy that you...
And they're out there all over the place, apparently.
Yeah, but the number of times that I've camped in the desert
and I've never, I've seen scorpions.
Seen scorpions.
Never seen a tarantula and I was just like,
there's things named after tarantulas.
I'm like, maybe they're lying.
Maybe they don't exist out here.
They do.
My friend was telling me that when he was young,
he was going like on an overlanding trip
with his like dad or something.
And they got to this place in the desert,
and there was like a dark spot,
and they were like, what is that?
Is that water, is that a hole?
And then when they got close to it,
it was just a huge pile of tarantulas.
Sex.
Sex?
Tarantula sex.
Oh, they do it in huge groups apparently.
Yeah, or is it a transula orgy?
Going all across the road and he said that they started slowing down and they drove as slow as they could, hoping that they would just skitter away.
They were going across the he said that as he drove over them,
the crunching sound was like,
it was like very, it was like Indiana Jones or something.
Okay, so he did kill them.
Well, he killed the ones that were under the tires,
but there were like hundreds of them.
Maybe it was a trance-like protest.
Think about what a nightmare that would be.
You never know what they were organizing for.
Yeah, they didn't have signs.
If they did, he didn't tell me about the signs.
He told me about the crunches and it disturbed me.
But yeah, that kind of scared me.
But then after that, I checked my shoes
and I started wearing shoes outside.
Wasn't just chilling out barefoot.
I noticed your blanket on the ground.
It's a moving blanket.
Do you know that they highly recommend these,
I got one from my trip, my last camping trip,
that it's a blanket that lets the dirt through it
and then stays on top. I bought one of those for the beach. You can use, oh, through it. Mm. And then stays on top.
I bought one of those for the beach.
You can use, oh, use it while camping.
It's too thin.
I need a cushiony or a blanket.
Put down the moving blanket, put that over the top of it.
Okay.
And then you keep the surface clean.
There's no sand here.
It was too much, if it was sand, that would have helped,
but this is, this is only rocks and tarantulas.
So. I'm glad you're okay. I had a great time, I made it back. I'll do it again. I'm learning a little bit
more every time.
Yeah, I gotta go back out. I gotta schedule a solo trip.
The best thing, though, was at the... You remember the episode where we both tried
the wearable sleeping bags? and you had the cheap one
and I had the expensive one?
Did you take that with you?
And I said, I want this, and I took that with me,
and it was the best thing I have ever experienced camping.
Like, it was so good, it's just, it's amazing.
Everyone should have one if you're camping
in cold, windy conditions.
So you just wore it outside. Did you actually sleep in it?
No. No. Because I was in a van.
Um, okay. If you're listening to this on the day that it drops audio-wise,
that's Monday, December 16th, today is pen day.
Mythical pen day. Mythical pen day. And this is where you can get all 12 pens of the month
from the entire year in case you missed any of them.
Yeah, because we only release them for 24 hours
once a month.
And that's, so this is your only chance to like
get the ones that you missed if you really want them.
Today's pen of the month,
or this month's pen of the month
is the cotton candy, Randy Klaus.
And how long is that available for?
The month of December, and it is available.
It's not available for 24 hours?
How does that work?
I think it's 24 hours.
All of them are.
Is that how we do it?
It seems right to me.
That's it, that's it, that's how we do it.
You know, you gotta hop on the train or it's gonna seems right to me. That's it. That's it. That's how we do it. You know, you gotta hop on the train
or it's gonna go on without you.
And so that's at mythical.com where the rules
and regulations will be featured.
We're a little fuzzy on how things work around here
sometimes. Yeah.
Well, I feel like I just forget.
I hate your Andy Claus pen. I forget.
I just forget. Just get it today
because then you'll know you have it.
What we're not fuzzy on is helping you with the things
that you need help with in your life.
Let's hear a voicemail.
Hi, I absolutely love the podcast.
My name is Brooke, I'm 20 and I'm looking
for a little bit of advice.
Okay.
Due to an unfortunate family situation,
I've got to change my last name.
And so since I've got the opportunity,
I want to change it to something cool or funny.
It'd be a waste to spend all this time and money just
changing it to Smith or something.
But I also don't want to regret it too much when I'm older.
So I figured you guys are creative and funny guys,
so you might have some suggestions.
Any advice is welcome.
Thank you so much.
Keep up the great work.
Thank you for the compliments.
It's Brooke, right?
I like Brooke's tone.
I kind of see Brooke going like this.
Brooke seems pretty upbeat, given the fact that
they gotta change their name for not upbeat reasons,
it sounds, so this is turning lemonade into,
I don't know, some sort of a sorbet.
Well, it's interesting, Brooke, that you mentioned Smith
because I think that this is an opportunity
to name yourself in the way that people
have always named themselves before we just became,
you know, just absolute victims of our culture,
just woke up with a last name,
is that they would give themselves names.
In fact, Smith comes from blacksmith, goldsmith,
silversmith, people who were working with metals,
and then they were like,
they shortened it eventually to Smith or whatever.
Right, Jack comes from lumberjack.
That's what those people were called,
and then they just shortened it.
So all of the names,
and even like McLaughlin,
because like Loughlin was like of the lake
or something
like that, right? It was based on...
He gave you information.
You could. Like what are you into?
Well, she's not on the call right now.
Right, but like I'm just saying, listen, we can assume some things based...
She's into podcasts.
Okay.
Mickey or biscuits would be an example. There's an opportunity. There's an opportunity here for branding.
Brooke may like to listen to other podcasts.
Brooke McBiscuits.
Brooke McListener. Just listen. Brooke listens.
That sounds like...
It sounds like the name of the podcast.
So, I mean, we don't know what she does.
Or what she wants to do, and this is a way of manifesting it.
She's 20.
She could be embarking on a career, be thinking about that.
Hollywood star.
Well, that's, I mean, let's be realistic here.
What's the most common job?
A teller.
Just because statistically, since we don't know.
I mean, there's lots of tellers.
I think it's probably, is it some sort of retail?
I'm putting a Mick in there because I'm partial.
Brooke McRetail.
Brooke.
Brooke McMerchandiser.
Brooke McMerchandiser. Uh-huh. Brooke McTurn... Brooke McTurn Specialist.
It could be something that... it's less about...
Brooke McTarget employee.
Your vocation and more just like your sort of office in life,
like Brooke McCitizen of the world.
Brooke McBeat. And then World. Brooke McCut Beat.
And then it's kind of like a meta world piece.
Okay. See, I mean, she's upbeat. Brooke McCut Beat.
There's also putting O's in front of things.
Uh, Brooke, oh my God.
Ha ha ha.
Brooke-OMG. Now, what about, I'm always a fan of doubling up.
Brooke is a great name.
Why change it?
Brooke Brooke.
Brooke Brooks.
Brooke Brooks.
Ooh, that is a weather.
There it is.
That is a weather woman or potential.
And you still have the E from Brooke.
Newscaster.
Brooke Brooks.
It's spelled exactly the same as your first name,
just add an S.
Trafficking weather on the fives?
Brooke Brooks.
Brookemanship, Brooke McBrooker.
Brooke Brooker.
Brooke Broken.
You could probably do Brooke,
you could, while you're doing it,
you could have Brooke, Brooke Brooks.
So there's a hyphen between.
Yeah, change your middle name too while you're at it.
No, no, no, no, no, this is a,
I'm creating a hyphenated last name.
Brooke, Brooke Brooks.
And you say it like you would say Brooke,
but Brooke, Brooke Brooks.
Brooke, Brooke Brooks.
Brooke, Brooke Brooks.
Brooke, Brooke Brooks.
What does she likes to read?
Brooke, Brooke, Brooke Books.
Brooke Books., Brooks. What does she likes to read? Brooke, Brooke, Brooke Books. Brooke Books.
Brooke Books.
Yeah, that's a good one too.
That's good.
How about Brooke Shook?
It's kinda like Brooke Shields.
No, Brooke Shook.
Brooke Shields.
Brooke Shook.
Shook.
Shook for Brooke, it would be like a poster if you were running for class president of a high school.
You know?
Okay.
So let's not do that.
There's also an opportunity to bring some last names back
that are just exist in like popular culture, like Doubtfire.
So you can be called Miss Doubtfire.
You could do that.
What are some other famous last names that are not real?
That you can claim as your own.
Broca-realius, go a little Roman with it?
What about, there's a branding opportunity here. You know, you could be Brooke Pepsi.
Yeah, and if we get involved with that,
we could get a percentage.
Could you change your name to a, you could do that.
There are rules about this.
There's probably, yeah, I wonder,
could you change your name to a? There are certain things that. There's probably, yeah, I wonder, could you change your name to?
There are certain things that you cannot name yourself.
Because it's, but trademarking doesn't prevent that.
I think it does.
Maybe it does.
Yeah, yeah, I think you can't be like Brooke Home Depot.
I don't think you can do that.
I think you gotta talk to her first, Brooke.
Brooke, you gotta talk to Home Depot first.
But Lowe's.
Lowe's, Brooke Lowe's, and after Lowe's,
it depends on who's asking.
Exactly.
Because then you get covered.
Home Depot is much more obvious than Lowe's.
Brooke Belk.
That's too regional.
Well, I don't know where she's from.
That department store hasn't made it everywhere.
Brook Sky City.
What about... I mean, what about your favorite food?
Brook chicken fingers.
Okay, I like that.
Brook... or just Brook fingers?
No, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Brook, Brook, Brook, Brook, Brook is it.
You know what? We've come back around.
That's it, that's it.
And I applaud you for seeing this, the silver lining here.
This is your opportunity to be creative
and to be your future self.
Take your identity by the horns
and ride it into your future. Brooke, Brooke, Brooke.
And it could just be B-R-O-O-K-S.
Brooke, you don't have to spell out the whole Brooke
the second time.
Brooke, Brooke, Brooks.
Brooke, Brooke.
Okay, yeah. Brooke, Brooke, Brooks.
So take it as you will.
Take it as you will.
Of course we are all gearing up for the year end
and the holidays just on this side of it.
And I'm just really thinking about do I have everything
for everything that we're doing
and everybody we're hosting or the decor.
I mean, it's go time for all of this.
Well, cause one of the things about the holidays
is making sure that the environment at your home
for your family, but also the people who come over,
has that holiday vibe.
You know, you gotta have that holiday vibe.
And the IKEA winter sale is here.
Gives you that vibe.
So now's your chance to make the holidays
a little more magical and less expensive thanks to IKEA.
And IKEA has products that are great for the whole family.
I'm thinking about what I'm gonna get for different people.
Some people want housewares.
Mm-hmm.
You know, that could be a good gift.
Pie plates.
I love having pie in the house.
Yep.
They got that.
I think that one of the things about making your home
have that holiday vibe is the lighting.
I'm not talking about the lighting on the outside.
I'm talking about the lighting on the inside.
You know, having these little accent lights
and things that you don't have other times in the year,
like these lantern LED table lights.
You know what I'm talking about?
Like it almost makes you feel like your house
is a restaurant.
I like that.
You know? Yeah, yep.
And I know Jessie would love them.
And they're cool because you can get 40% off venture fint
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Woo, don't get me started with ottomans.
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And IKEA's got you covered there as well.
They got so many different types of storage cabinets,
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So that one.
Let us know.
Let us know.
We wanna see a birth certificate
or whatever it would be. Hi, Link. Hi, that one. Let us know. We want to see a birth certificate or whatever it would be.
Hi, Link. Hi, Rhett. I am calling because I am the best man of a wedding coming up
next summer and I have never had to give a speech in public like I will have to
next summer. And I'm pretty nervous. I know you don't know the circumstances of
who I am or who the groom is, but I was hoping you could give some tips of what
to say, what not to say, and what I can do to get over my nerves to give a
speech. Thank you all so much. Love you. Say back.
I know we agree on one thing. Let's just get that out of the way. And this goes
out that we don't say it back? Uh, this is...
Yes, we agree on this.
This is a cardinal rule for speeches.
Primo rule number one. Yes.
And it is violated at least 60% of the time.
It's the most amateur move that you can make.
And it's so tempting.
And you think of it, and because you thought of it,
you think you need to go with it.
Here's the rule.
In your speech, do not reference your speech.
Yeah, don't talk about the speech.
Don't be like, when I was preparing for this speech,
don't say that!
Don't you do it.
Just don't, everyone wants to say that.
Never. It's an amateur move, don you do it. Just don't. Everyone wants to say that. Never.
It's an amateur move. Don't do it.
Take it out of there. Do not reference the speech
in the speech.
You don't wanna be meta world speech.
It's a sign of weakness.
Alright? That's not you. You're better than this.
You have thoughts about other things than what it is you're doing.
Cause you don't want people listening to your speech
to be thinking about the fact that it's a speech.
Yeah.
You're transcending speech.
Like you're speaking in order to say something.
It gets me every time and it happens at most weddings,
and I'm gonna really go again.
When I was thinking about what to say,
just think about what to say.
Don't tell us that you're thinking about it.
You should have, yeah, just, when you were thinking about what to say. Just think about what to say. Don't tell us that you're thinking about it. Yeah, you should have, yeah, yeah, just,
when you were thinking about what to say
so that then you could say it.
Now we wanna hear it.
And here we are.
Here we are, we wanna hear it.
It's filler.
I mean, the only thing that might be redeemable about it,
and it's not, but it might, could be. Are you about to confuse the issue?
No, I'm just saying, one can make an argument, I'm not making it.
Oh, God.
That it endears you to the audience. It lets you pull, they pull for you because
they know you're not a professional speech giver, obviously. You're talking about your speech. You're, I mean, saying you're nervous
is like akin to this.
It's like, don't do that.
But that's less, that's somewhat forgivable
because it just might be true.
You know, and if you have,
if you need to have something written down, that's okay.
If this is the only speech you're ever gonna give,
you can have some stuff jotted down.
But maybe you don't have to just read it verbatim.
Okay, but, hold on, because I'm going off on this tangent
because it's like.
That's the next place I wanted to go,
so finish the thing about.
Gotcha.
I'm just saying that it,
you're putting yourself out there,
you're showing some vulnerability,
but there's better ways to show vulnerability
than saying, giving a backstory about how
you had to think about what you were gonna talk about.
And I think, because I think that's the reason.
People who don't have confidence in their speech.
I know why people do it.
Why do you think people do it?
Yeah, because they're not confident and they don't do this on a regular basis. It might be the first time they're doing it. Well, why do you think people do it? Yeah, cause they're not confident
and they don't do this on a regular basis.
It might be the first time they're doing it.
Right, okay.
And so you are thinking so much about the fact
that you're giving a speech that it's the first thing
that you want to say is you want to acknowledge the fact
that I am doing the thing now that I am nervous about.
But just let that all happen internally.
And then when you, because it's one of the most,
it's totally not engaging. It's not a great way to start the speech. And it also kind of makes the
speech about you right out of the gate. Exactly.
When I was thinking about what I would say versus what's the person's name?
Brooke McBrooks. Brooke McBrooks. You know, start there.
Yep.
You know, say their name first.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's what you do.
Matter of, cause the other thing you might want to do is introduce yourself.
Yeah.
And let people know, like, the context with which you are related to this person.
Or why the hair are you the best man.
Right.
Don't do that either. At first. Here's a nice
little thing. Just plan the first thing you're gonna say to the people. And we can have some
thoughts about that.
I have a good idea for that.
And then at a certain point after that, but still early on in your preamble, introduce
yourself. So you're gonna say a little something, and then that's your preamble, introduce yourself. So you're gonna say a little something
and then that's your preamble
and then you're gonna introduce yourself.
My name is Brooke Brooks
and I grew up with Mandy McManus.
Yep.
I like that. And then you keep going.
First thing you can say,
especially if you're nervous and you just need to adjust to the fact
that you are standing up and all these people
are looking at you.
Even as someone who does this on a regular basis,
in certain situations, especially like a wedding,
I'm gonna be very nervous.
High pressure.
I'm not nervous if I'm in front of a bunch
of mythical beasts because we all know what's going on.
Right.
But mixed company, you know, I don't know.
I lose it in those situations. How do you think I feel? I know people don't know how's going on. Right. But mixed company, I don't know, I lose it in those situations.
How do you think I feel?
I know people don't know how to take me.
Right.
So it's like.
I think a good way to start
is to just say the couple's name,
John and Amanda, and then smile,
and then maybe make some like, mm, mm, mm.
Yeah, yeah. You just let John and Amanda,
you can say it up to three times.
Yeah, yeah, you can.
Okay. I think you can.
And this is you, my mouth still works.
Right. I don't have to tell you
about when I was preparing for this,
John and Amanda.
Amanda and John, you can reverse it.
You should.
It's 2024.
But then if you're doing it three times, you're re-reversing it, so it sounds like
you've decided which way sounds better. That's not right.
Amanda and John. No, let's go with John and Amanda.
I'm not saying you have to do that. I'm just saying it's a potential way to start,
if you're nervous. But to the point of...
But make sure that you have something to say after that.
I love the fact that you're talking about,
I remember the first time I ever saw Amanda.
You know?
It was through her window in her backyard.
Yep, thought maybe I could marry her.
So typically you wouldn't, so if you're the best man,
you would not say, I remember the first time I saw Amanda.
I remember the first time I saw John.
Yeah, and so this is a,
to use a story to establish your connection
with the couple.
And this is your life experience.
And then I remember the first-
You should be able to tell this
without reading off a sheet of paper.
And so, and to the point- But keep it short.
To the point of reading versus not reading.
Again, I agree with Link.
It's not bad to have something written down
if you're gonna be super nervous,
but my strong suggestion is that whether you write it down
or not, there should be a speech written down somewhere
that's an outline of the ideas that you want to cover,
of the concepts that you want to cover.
And if you can memorize that outline
or if you need to look at that outline, totally fine.
Yeah.
Encouraged, if not.
But, and if you have to read it word for word,
it's better than not doing a speech,
but it's only a little bit better.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Just being honest.
All right.
You know, you're asking for the best possible advice here
to make the best
possible speech. We're gonna give it to you.
Here's a hack for that, though. If you feel like you need some tracks to run on and you
wanna read, after you've done your preamble, which is just saying the names two to three
times with the right expression afterward, and then you introduce yourself and how you
know the groom.
Via story. Via story.
Because then you're off to the races.
It's a short story.
Then if you still need something,
you can have something that you're motivated to read.
Like I'm going to read the email that John sent to me
when he first met Amanda.
Or the text, most likely.
Text.
And then you're actually reading something
and you have complete tracks to run on
and it's motivated to read it.
You wouldn't have memorized this.
You need to read it. And then you have memorized this. You need to read it.
And then you're feeling more confident.
You've gotten some engagement.
You might've even gotten some laughs.
Definitely smiles.
And then you're off to the race.
And then after that, you're just gonna say one thing.
And I don't know, it needs to be,
I don't think it needs to be advice, I don't think it needs to be advice.
I don't think it should be advice.
I think it should be
something that inspires you about-
Sharing of hopes.
Sharing of hopes.
And then at the end, you can make it a little bit about you.
Like if you wanna plug your Instagram.
Yeah, yeah, your podcast.
Or your podcast or something like that.
Like you've won them over,
now is the time to just really capitalize
on this moment for yourself.
Maybe there's a GoFundMe that...
I spent so much time preparing for this speech.
I had to quit my job.
I had to call in sick to work.
I have a GoFundMe to make up the difference.
And then, yeah, you pass the plate and sit down.
Keep it short. Keep it short.
Keep it short.
Shorter than you think you need to keep it, and practice it and time it.
You gotta do this. You gotta practice it and you gotta time it.
And don't try to go off the cuff.
I wanna wing it so bad because I hate planning, and it hurts so much to, like,
plan a speech and to like
to say it out loud in a room by yourself, or much less to like run it against somebody.
But you have to do it.
No, but this is why the beautiful medium...
Just do it.
The beautiful medium here is, or compromise between those two things, is not planning
every single word, but planning the conception, the conceptual aspects
and the flow of the speech is something that you need.
And you need to practice a couple of times
and you can change some things up.
Also, I think the humor should not come from planned jokes.
Right.
That may not work, but if there's gonna be humor,
and there doesn't have to be,
if you're not funny, don't try to be,
but something like, oh, I've got this text
that John sent me about Amanda one time.
Now you're just relaying factual information
that will make people laugh.
Yeah, that's what you want.
You find that kind of thing,
something real and authentic that's not like,
oh, he looked up a joke online or something.
Right.
You know, you can think of funny things that have happened.
You can think of a funny story.
You can find a funny text.
Let that be the source of the humor.
Keep it under three minutes.
Yeah, which is gonna require practice.
And that's gonna be, that's gonna come real fast.
And I was, you know, I was joking about the plug at the end.
You got to have a strong closer.
You got to have the last thing that you're going to say.
And it can't be, that's it.
Yeah.
Again, just as important as the beginning not being about preparing the speech.
You can't have a word that's like, well, that's it.
Thank you. Don't even say thank you. Your objective is not even... you want to say something so you don't have to say
thank you.
Well, I think the easiest thing to do, because assuming this is at the reception,
you've got your glass in hand, you say the last thing and you say,
to John and Amanda. And then you sit your ass down.
Or Amanda and John. Let's go with John and Amanda.
And then you've got a throw at it.
Yeah, maybe. If that worked at the beginning, you could do that at the end.
But you gotta have that mic drop moment. You gotta know when to stop talking.
And don't say okay at the end.
I'm so bad at that. I'm so bad at this. I don't plan, and I'm like,
I'm just gonna wing it and it's gonna be honest and people are gonna feel it,
and that's gonna carry me.
And I just, you know.
Well, and there's a time and a place
for a completely off the cuff.
That's the middle.
That's the middle.
And something may come to you.
It's not the beginning and it's not the end.
It's just the middle.
It's the safe little scrumptious middle
where anything goes because people are only gonna remember
the end, or the middle if it goes good, or really bad.
But the thing is, is just because something was premeditated
does not mean it's not authentic.
No, no, no. Those things are
mutually exclusive. No, I'm saying I use that
as a ploy so I don't plan.
And it's a falsehood.
We're really passionate about this.
Well, because, I don't know, it's just,
every time I see it happening, I'm like, mm.
Right.
Mm, I have some thoughts, I have some notes.
And we haven't even taken Toastmasters.
No, no, no.
This is groups of people who get together
and they learn how to talk in public.
And it really works, they'll take you through things like
where to put your feet and where you stand
and where to put your hands.
Yeah, spread the legs.
Spread the legs.
Oh.
Gestures.
But the thing that.
No pointing.
The title of this episode.
We have to talk about this.
Our best man speech is for each other.
I did not give Link a best man speech
because I was not his best man. I did not give Rh Link a best man speech because I was not his best man.
I did not give Rhett a best man speech because I was not his best man.
And the only reason Link wasn't my best man is because he got married first
and didn't make me his best man.
Yep, so I wasn't gonna return the non-favor.
So I was not Rhett's best man out of revenge.
But you were not my best man out of tradition.
The daddy is the best man. And that's true for me as well.
In the South, for some reason,
your best man is your dad, which now this is not,
I'm sure that there are people who got married in the South
who didn't do this, but it was tradition in the circles that we ran in for your dad
to be your best man, which he's your dad. It just feels like it's an opportunity
for someone who's actually, not because of biological reasons, but because of life
circumstances and choices is your best man. Your dad's your dad. He's still there.
He's still in the wedding party. Whatever, you know? I'm not saying that your dad's not your best man.
Rhett's clearly still hurt by this.
But what would have happened to... Well, no, here's the thing. In my wedding,
if it wasn't my dad, a lot of people would have expected to be my brother.
Mm-hmm. Right? You didn't have to worry about that.
Yeah. So making it my dad was actually an easy way out to not be like, well, it's my brother or Link.
It's like everyone's thinking that it's gonna be Link.
In fairness though, your dad can give a good speech
and your brother can give a good speech.
Oh, they're both great at it.
But better than me.
Is that what you're thinking?
Oh yeah.
Is that the real reason?
No, I don't even remember.
We also like did, I don't even remember, we also like did,
I don't remember what the reception,
I don't remember how speeches happened in my reception.
I don't remember that either.
Or your wedding, I remember your rehearsal dinner speech,
which we've talked about before.
Which I've, yeah.
But yeah.
Don't address each person individually at any party
from a place of giving the speech.
Don't do that.
That's uncalled for.
Nobody wanted that.
I did that, nobody wanted that.
This is what happens when you don't plan.
When you wing it and then you create
an absolute mayhem.
An epic, an epic long speech.
I mean, you can't even call it a speech.
It's almost like, when does somebody get up
and they just read forever?
I wasn't reading, it was off the cuff,
but it was just like babble, babbling.
Very babbling.
Personalized babbling.
I'm gonna babble about you and you and you.
But yeah, I mean, I don't
know, man. I'll renew my vows. You wanna be the best man? See, I feel like my dad
still needs to be the best man.
For a vow renewal? I don't think there is a best man.
Well, I would only be doing it for you.
So I could do a speech?
Yeah.
It has nothing to do with you and Christy. I keep telling Christy, the last thing I wanna do a speech? Yeah. It's nothing to do with you and Christy.
I keep telling Christy, the last thing I wanna do is a vow renewal.
I don't believe it.
I'm happy for people who do it.
A destination, like, it implies, vow renewals are for people who the
marriages, they had to piece it back together.
Yeah, and if that's the case. Then go for it. It's a great thing to do.
It's like a rededication. It's like I got saved and then I got actually saved.
Your back's slid.
I got saved and then I got saved again because I wasn't sure if I got saved the first time and then I had rededicated later.
Because you were actually saved. So that's why it's a rededication.
Yeah.
You're just, you're manning up and you're saying,
I'm gonna do the right thing.
And so in a marriage.
That's what renewing the vows are for.
It's a public.
You guys have a way out of this though.
Your birthdays are so close to each other
that you could have a birthday extravaganza that you have
and you also are turning the same age, right?
You wanna be the best man at my birthday?
No, no, no. I'm just saying that if you wanna create a destination, like,
when y'all turn 50...
I'll do yes.
Yes.
Like, I mean, first of all, I'm gonna do something for my 50th.
I don't know what it's gonna be, but it's gonna be the biggest party I've ever had.
And then mine will be after, so I'll be able to top it.
Yeah. And there's a difference in doing like a party in town
with a lot of people or a destination where just your
closest friends are willing to go out of their way
to go someplace.
And you don't have to leave California for that.
That's true, it's a beautiful state.
Lots of desert.
But that's the beauty about y'all's birthdays being so close
to each other. Is that...
We can make a bigger deal out of it.
Yeah, you can do a co-birthday party, which you've done before.
And then you... you wanna give a speech there.
I would like that.
And I would like for you to be the best man at my birthday.
I just got it. I'm the best birthday man?
I would like for you to be my best birthday man.
Not my dad. He's invited.
But he'll be my dad then.
Because this is such a novel thing I might start my speech with.
When I was asked to be Link's best birthday man,
I was like, what the hell is that?
Because then I'll get a laugh.
You know, I might violate my own rule.
You can't do it!
Come on, I'll take it back.
My dad's gonna do it.
You can have more than one toast. I can't do it! Come on, I take it back. My dad's gonna do it.
You can have more than one toast. I would like to get...
But there's only one best man.
Let me just say, I got a lot of advice about this, and I think given the time
to prepare, I could do a really good job. What I'm not good at is the impromptu,
you know... Oh, I didn't know when people were saying things.
You're not bad at that, no.
Because once you can tell that it could happen,
I can tell you go into that mode.
And here's a good thing that you do.
Like your brows furrow and you're like,
you start brewing it up.
Yeah, because you're not gonna wing it,
you're gonna plan something, you're gonna plan an opening.
But you know who is like expert at this?
Yeah, Mike.
Mike McCargh.
Oh yeah.
And I can tell when he's coming up with something too,
because he doesn't throw his brow.
He just sort of like gives a soft focus.
Yeah.
And the brain starts going to work.
Right, and you do not let him go before you.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
You let him go last.
Yeah, and he knows that.
Yeah.
And-
Because if he goes first in his popcorn,
ain't no more kernels are gonna pop.
The reason he's so good at it
is what he has the ability to do,
is he has the ability to construct the entire speech in his mind and then just say it.
Yeah.
And so you can see he's like piecing it together and he's like...
It's not a fair comparison.
He's writing it and then he's just going into that file in his brain and just
reading it from it.
I think the...
Most people can't do that.
The best thing, and you're good at this, is whenever you're put on the spot, or even when you've got something planned,
the best thing to do is,
like you're reading the room and you're present
with the previous things that have happened.
If there's people who've spoken before you
or things have happened,
like the 10 minutes leading up to you talking,
you're looking for something that you can acknowledge or refer to.
That's just like, and it's not really the start of your speech, it's almost like a,
it's like a soft launch, like when they open a restaurant.
Five minutes ago when somebody farted and no one said anything?
That was me.
That was me.
Right. And that doesn. Right. Right.
And that doesn't count as speech.
That's like...
You get the crowd on your side.
That's like, you know your mouth works,
and you're ramping up to your actual speech.
Right, yeah.
At least you masterclass this shit, man.
I think...
I love this kind of stuff,
because I think this is what makes things more fun.
It makes, like, when somebody gets up and just knocks a speech out of the park,
everyone's like, holy shit, whose dad is that?
Like, I'm just saying, it makes everyone feel good.
Everyone's like, that was awesome!
And growing up, that was the type of entertainer we could aspire to be.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we didn't know. We didn't know entertainer we could aspire to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we didn't know.
We didn't know what else we could do.
It's like, I mean, the whole reason we're here right now
is because we turned the rehearsal dinner speech
for Greg into a comedy song.
Yeah, that's true.
That's the whole reason that we're here now.
Right.
You know, because that was our audience.
That's why we thought about this so much.
Also, growing up in the church though, because you've got like...
Yeah, you've got the little speeches that happen.
You might have to give announcements this Sunday.
Yep.
I mean, I preached a sermon at least once.
Yeah, but like giving announcements or like praying before a meal or like
orienting people how to go through the potluck.
I mean, church is full of popcorn type impromptu speeches.
Yeah, and there's not a lot of social settings
just in the secular world where that happens.
And so people aren't great at it.
But you get people who come up in church
and they are one of the people that had to say some stuff.
I might go back to church just for the audience.
Just shh.
Shhh. I'm here, I don't believe any of this stuff, I might go back to church just for the audience. Just for the audience. Just shhhhhh.
I'm here, I don't believe any of this stuff, but I love to talk.
And the bar's lower.
I get in where I can fit in.
It's like, I mean, I see that clip of, that Tim Robinson clip, it's not from I Think
You Should Leave, it's from his...
Detroiters.
Detroiters, where he goes up to that guy, the pastor, and he was like,
I just want to let you know that that was funny. That was only funny
because you were...
Because you were at church.
Because you were at church. Or was it a funeral? I can't remember.
He was just making the point. That was only as funny as it was because nobody
expected it to be funny.
Yeah, and boy, we know about those environments.
That has been the key to our success.
We thrived in those environments.
Yeah, yeah.
Where it was like, I wasn't expecting this to happen.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And it's not hard.
It's almost uncalled for.
To exceed expectations because they're low. Or spiritual.
Yeah.
Yeah, so maybe that's my end back in the church.
Hmm.
Ripe crowds, ready to laugh.
Maybe like Kiwanis.
Yep. Yep, I could be more chamber of commerce oriented.
I don't want to have to adopt a dogma that I don't believe.
Right. All right. Well, good luck with that. I feel really good about it, I think.
I think we gave so much advice it was overwhelming. But you have time. Just...
Yeah, did we build it up?
Just play it again and again.
Hey, here's the last thing to say.
No one's gonna be thinking about as much as you are.
I mean, we just said that a great speech
makes or breaks the entire reception.
For us.
But we won't be there.
I know we implied that.
Like, you and your hands hold the power
to make everyone have a good time
or everyone have a bad time,
but I want you to know that it's really not that big
of a deal.
You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna do great. Yeah. You're gonna do great.
If you follow everything that we said.
Hey.
Which is why we have a number.
I mean, you call it, we listen to what you have to say,
and then we talk a whole lot about it.
One, eight, eight, eight.
Ear Pod One.
Next week, we're gonna be doing our top moments,
that's right.
Oh yes, favorite episode of the year.
We are, I've already gone through.
I've already gone through my photos
to figure out what happened to me.
I'm gonna wing it this year.
Okay.
And I haven't put mine in order yet,
but I am excited to share those with you.
And with you.
All right, so I'll catch you next week.
Hey, Rhett and Link, my name's Mike, I'm from Michigan.
I was in the Army for about 10 years.
I just wanna say that you guys have helped me
with my PTSD and getting through a lot of dark times.
Thank you.
But listen to this week's podcast
and I have an idea for a shirt.
Where the hell is it? Let's go
Link. Let's make that shirt. Where the hell is it? And I will buy one. Thanks boys. Love
you.