Podcast: The Ride - Disney Princesses with Amanda Lund

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

Amanda Lund (The Big Ones podcast) joins us to discuss all the ins and outs of of being a Disney princess! Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus Chicago Live Show Tickets: https://chicagoimprovproductions.ticketspice.com/chicago-podcast-festival-presents-podcast-the-ride Orlando Live Show Tickets: https://www.sakcomedylab.com/shows/3341 Most Rockinest Moment in Theme Park History available at The Second Gate: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever Dog handsy dads. We're talking Disney princesses on Podcast The Ride, hosted by three guys who do go to Disneyland by themselves, but I swear do not do princess meet and greets by themselves. Although I don't want to make an assumption about you guys. I'm Scott Gairdner, Mike Carlson. I'm Mike Carlson, and I have never solo gone and met a princess. Other characters, 100%. Yeah gone and met a princess other characters a hundred percent yeah but not a princess i think seeing a human face is a little too much i couldn't deal with it and i don't want them judging me but like if it's eeyore's face i can't tell what the

performer is thinking about me you can't see their perpetual pout and disgust with you a single man so i don't want to meet them uh Jason Sheridan, is this true of you? Yes, that is true. Much respect, much respect. But no, not usually one of my go-tos. I shouldn't throw shade at anybody who wants to do it. I just have my questions. Yes, we at least solo have not had a ton of experience

with the Disney Princess meeting greets, but we're joined today by somebody who has lived it, who's lived it internationally even. She is a writer and a podcaster uh from the big ones her podcast amanda lund is here thank you so much for having me thank you for coming yeah no i love talking about this stuff oh boy but well and you've and there is a ton to talk about clearly clearly. A pretty tenured career, it would seem. Yeah, definitely. I was a princess at Disneyland and California Adventure for probably six, seven years, I think, from like 2001, 2002 to like 2008. Wow, wow. Geez, a lot.

And then, were you exclusively that were you doing other jobs in the meantime or just like pursuing the acting and stuff well i started i got the job when i was in high school so i'm from southern california i think so my end of my sophomore year i started working at disney when i turned i think i was 17 when i started working there you can do it that young wow yeah definitely yeah wow and i guess within the the princess world that's the the desire i get because they sort of i was looking into qualifications for this this program for being part of it and there is sort of an age cut off a little bit loosely, it would seem. Like 27, they say. That seems right.

If you think about it, because in the movies, I mean, I think Princess Aurora is maybe 14. Yeah, I think that's around it. Yeah, I feel like they're all younger than you think. I think Cinderella is 16. And Ariel, I think, is 16. It's so funny, because seeing the movies as a child I was like well they all must be 30 years Old of course

Must be that old It's much responsibility surely They're all getting married Right I guess the laws And all the fairy tale kingdoms are different I suppose Straight okay so

You enter this in high school Were you Orange County or did you have to commute a ways all the fairy tale kingdoms are different i suppose uh straight okay so uh yeah you enter this in in high school you were you orange county or did you have to commute away always yeah so i'm from long beach so and long beach is technically la county but you know it was probably a 25 minute 20 minute drive to anaheim sure to go to disneyland so i was it wasn't bad um and so i was you know a group growing up, I had a season pass. And I would just like go to theme parks all the time. And I had one of my best friends, her older sister worked there, and she would always see the princesses and they would have post flyers for open calls, you know, so she was like, Amanda, you should audition to do this.

Right? Yeah, gotcha. And then is it sort of a... Was it part of a big cattle call or are they doing it sort of perpetually? Yeah, I feel like they maybe auditioned a couple times a year, but it was definitely a cattle call. It was like a two-day, two or three-day process. Geez. Wow. Wow. Could you estimate

the amount of people on the way? I mean, I think like a couple hundred. Yeah. Probably. Do you remember like the mood of it because if i feel like that's what that's the job that's very sought after that's what i think other guests have talked about how like that is an elite status of theme park performer is the is the princesses specifically so like is it do you remember it was it tense in there like yeah i mean i definitely peaked in high school when i was doing this job absolutely um but it was so they have the first call is a big

open call and i think it was at some sort of big dance center you know in like a big sort of dancey big open room and you had like hundreds and hundreds of people. And it was just like all different types of people, like people who you're like, oh, I could see them. You know, they're like the right age range. Like, you know, they kind of look like a character maybe I've seen. And then there's just people who are Disney fans. And they are just coming probably for dual purposes.

Maybe one purpose is that they want a peek behind the curtain. And then I think another is that they think maybe they could get the job or some sort of job. So you just have all sorts of people at these open calls and like everyone is just so excited to be there. It must be like maximum chipper-ness, like 300 princess types yeah all in one room together right but they're not all princess types like some people are just like i mean just disney fans who come from all over to like just i don't really know what their intention is but it's crazy because what they the first thing they do is they bring you in in groups of i think 20 or 30 and they line you up in sort of a grid so it's like be like um four rows of 10. And they just, whoever

it is, it's usually three or four people running the audition. And they're all like, you can tell they used to be face characters. And now they've kind of graduated to management. And they just come up to you and they get really close to your face. And they look at you and they just go, hi, how are you doing today? And you just say, I'm good. Thanks. And you stand there smiling and then they cut 90% of the people. Wow. Just from that. Wow.

It's like Miss America, right? Where they cut like 40 of the contestants immediately or something, right? Isn't that what they do? Yes.

I haven't really watched pageants. I don't know. Mine's a big pageant guy. You follow. Look, my mom made us watch Miss America when we were younger. She did? Yeah, she loved it, I guess, for whatever reason.

It was an event. Our high school band would play at it pretty regularly. Play at the Miss America pageant? It was in Atlantic City, because it's only two hours away, hour and a half drive. Wait, you're on the stage? You were playing. I wasn't playing. Oh, okay.

I wasn't. Friends in the band would go down and play. That's wild. I mean, I definitely think there is some Disney princess pageant girl crossover. Sure. That's for sure. That makes sense. Going into it, were you like, was it a thing you were like, oh, I would do that?

Or were you like, no, I'm going to, that is cool. Like, I'm very excited about this. I was just like, oh, I need to get a job. This is something I could do. I was a dancer. I always did ballet. So, I knew there was like some dancing involved. And I was like, oh, this could be fun. You know, I kind of had an interest in performing. And I was a Disney fan. I grew up watching all the movies and I loved going to the theme park. Also, a couple of my girlfriends worked at Downtown Disney, like some of my best friends. So I was like, oh, they're working at Disney.

You know, they were at the Jazz Kitchen being hostesses. And so I just thought like, oh, I'll audition for this. And then, yeah, I got it. And it became my like my life. Wow. Wow. Not to sidetrack. We're heading into an extensive series about downtown Disney in the near future.

We're going to cover it in depth. Do you recall anything specific about your friends and their experiences? Do you think the Jazz Kitchen was a pleasant place to work? Oh, I'm sure. If you want my friend Lauren on the podcast, she has a lot of stories from the Jazz Kitchen. Wow. But there was a whole, I mean, a period of my life one summer where I was just like a jazz kitchen regular.

I was like 19 going to the jazz kitchen, being served with my fake ID. Like we would just like go there and then just loiter around and meet boys at downtown Disney. One time we met these guys and we were probably like 19 and they were in their 30s and anthrax was playing at the house of blues yeah and we were like we like anthrax we had no idea what it was and we just would like go see concerts with i mean it was a whole i mean i really i that was my stomping ground regular at the jazz kid with a fake idea committing fraud at uh oh my god ral at Ralph Brennan's face.

Yes. But no, I'm a big fan of all of the downtown Disneys like around the world. Oh, sure. Yeah. Which there are a lot of them. No, I was just going to say, was Jazz Kitchen number one of a hangout as far as downtown Disney?

Or were there other like, was Tortilla Joe's there at the time? Yeah, Tortilla Joe's was there, but we weren't big fans. I mean, we were definitely Jazz Kitchen loyalists right for sure it's the one we haven't really done i think we have to i've done the quick i've done the express jazz kitchen i just did it i just got a sandwich from the express okay you need the you need the full service i know i know i could do that ralph Bredin is one of the acclaimed chefs of New Orleans.

But I went for a quick lunch in the restaurant once and had like a fish sandwich that was like filet-o-fish quality. I was like, I'll have to come back and have jambalaya or something. Save it for the series, Jason. I know, I know. It'll come back. It'll come back. I was curious to get any pre-information. There's a spoiler there.

What you thought of the fish sandwich. So your dream is just to have an excuse to use that as the home, Anaheim is the home base for your high school and college years. And you, okay, so you pass by this bizarre, this facial profiling, essentially. Yeah. Very strange. It also seems like there's just a height cutoff.

They have really specific criteria. Whatever written down, it's okay. Most princesses, 5'4 to 5'7, and then fairies and Alice and Wendy are all 4'11 to 5'2. Yeah, that sounds right. And I'm 5'7, so I was on the tall end. But they would like Princess Aurora

Could be a little bit taller I think some of the Girls were they'd make if you were 5'8 You could you know you could sneak In there be some leeway Slouch or something you could stand up taller Like you could I mean you look when you're Princess Aurora you look taller anyway because The bangs are very

They're a feathered bang Oh sure yeah isn't there some headpiece a lot of the princesses cinderella have the feathered sort of um 1994 bang okay so you pass the you pass the height requirement then then what what's what's after uh let me stare at you for a second? What's the next tangible step? So that's the big cut. And then later in the day, if you've made the cut, they have you come back to learn a dance.

So it's, you know, you spend maybe an hour being taught very basic choreography, sort of like anyone who's done like a level one ballet class. I mean, think about that it's kind of like a step touch step touch step twirl and take a bow and touch your heart and you know and blow a kiss and then you have maybe a moment to freestyle where you wave and laugh and you know put your hands next to your face and raise your shoulders and go like and you're physicalizing all of this right now and you've you've still got it clearly oh yeah that's something you you don't forget yeah sure yeah i was i was born with that seems like there's a lot of it's a lot of risks to that like it like

a lot of what you were just doing is like uh what would you even call what's uh uh i don't know there's just like like wrist fluidity yeah well it's, it's the wave. It's like nothing you've ever seen unless you've literally seen royalty. And this is how the royals actually wave. There was something in the tabloids a while ago about Queen Elizabeth reprimanding Meghan Markle because her wave was too aggressive. You're supposed to do it. It's a very fluid wave. Your hand doesn't face front. So your hand is more tilted.

And then you move your wrist from the elbow. So it's elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, touch your heart and blow a kiss. Haunt me. It's really upsetting. I know. The first part of it looks like you're just Pretending to wash The top of a car Yes that's exactly What it is

Because if you think About it When you're waving You might be on a float So you're looking Down sort of At your subjects And then if you were

Going to wave At someone in close proximity Like if I were Passing you in the park I wouldn't do this I'm putting my hand out And kind of waving it Crazily

It's like this Like Which is like A little finger wave Which as I'm watching you do this it occurs to me maybe the more aggressive wave would not photograph well maybe some of that maybe with royals and disney royals it's something about like it's slower so that you're it's there's no like strobing or blur exactly and you know it's like the you know about the point right you never

direct someone with a one finger point no no i don't okay so all employees at disney know this you never would point with one finger like the restrooms are over there it's always the two finger point oh yeah it's less aggressive yeah aggressive yeah interesting huh huh just relieves the pressure fingers are like the full hand like anything that's not w Walt just didn't like an accusatory point. Oh, which, yeah, that feels extremely familiar. As soon as you switch to the two, I flash to like a hundred of those I've seen in my park going career. Right.

Huh. Huh. Makes sense. So, yeah, there's a dance audition. And then I think that was all for the first day. They make a big another big cut after that. And then they bring you back the next day and that's when you have to tell a story and then do a little improv interaction um where you talk to a grown man as though who's role-playing a five-year

old girl okay yeah and then if you can make it through that then you get to come back the next day where i think it they put you you have to do like a almost like a media oh no that was once you get into princess training which is a whole thing so then i think then they cast after you have the interaction with the grown man pretending to be the little girl wow are these things all just happening in sort of weird undecorated back rooms somewhere strange uh he's not literally like on his knees and like doing a voice or like really oh no i think maybe even literally on his knees wow this sounds hellish oh it it is it's very um dystopian yeah this is the future conservatives word that's about. Yes. I don't, but I guess that trains you for just, you know, height, people being, but also that like, there's got to be a little bit of dude creepiness at some point in all the, in your

interactions. Maybe not. I don't know. Oh, for sure. Oh yeah. The dads. Okay. Oh yeah.

Yeah. You have to learn how to kind of navigate some of the fathers is that in the training or is that something the princesses just discuss amongst themselves later they train you a little bit for it like if you're um you know people will try and get handsy sometimes like the dads are you know it's it's always the dads uh like coming up and trying to put their hand around your waist and you're not supposed to be photographed i mean you're a married woman so when some guy comes up and you're 15 so right so you always say when a guy tries to take a

picture with his arm around your waist you go oh let me teach you how to stand like a prince and then you fold his arms in front of him and then put loop your hand through his arm right right right right oh so anybody's listening and has been told that yeah you're there yeah yeah you need you need some hand training yourself yeah yeah

there is I did a little pre research about this and learn this from a wiki how article on how to be a dizzy princess course the best place to learn stuff and see wonderful drawings like this is the watch out for the dads there's so creepy this is so scary it's sort of a it's sort of a goofus and gallant type like you're showing us diagrams of a that what you just showed us a bald man angrily pointing at a cinderella-esque woman a brunette cinderella which is maybe to get them well you know copyright free uh there's other stuff in here like learn the requirements schedule your audition attend your audition

this is the picture for attend your audition it is a woman being signed in by what appears to be a frenchman he looks like a Waltz. He does look like Yung Waltz. He walks in Europe and he's got like a newsy hat. Let's see. We have to post a lot of these. Don't talk about Disney Protocol. We're breaking that today. Oh, I know. You're not on the clock anymore.

No, I think I'm in the clear. You don't sign any agreement that says never. You do sign something, but I you know i'm not worried about it have you done a one-person show about this that's funny you say that because my senior thesis in college was i wrote a one-woman show about this but i never performed it i just wrote it okay yeah but i know there's part of me that knows someday i need to like do something with this experience i mean i did matt gorley whoourley, who is on your podcast, is my husband.

And we met at a theme park. We both worked at Disney at the same time, but never met. Although I'm sure our paths cross. But it's such a big place. You could work there and never, you know, you only kind of stay with your little group. But anyway, we wrote a show about it, a pilot about it for Fox, but it didn't get picked up. Oh, gotcha. But yeah, eventually I want to do something with it.

I just have so many stories. Yeah. You know, he was saying by the time when you guys actually met, am I getting this right? That it was a Universal Studios, like British street rock urchin sort of experience. It was like an ill-fated uh test they were doing there was like because we are jason's guests i recall was oh were you one of the like new yorker in the window people and like no no there were british people in the window for a little while and then the little british area uh and you wait were you he described you as being sort of like spice girl

esque well when i first got the job i was playing like a fancy lady who was drinking tea. And then they were like, this isn't working. So we're going to give the guy a guitar and make him like a rock star. And then you get drumsticks and you're going to sing while he plays the guitar. And I was like, okay. I mean, I have the worst voice and I've never sung publicly in my life. But I was at Universal mic miked improvising songs. And I was just like,

this is what I do, but found your life partner. It was a lot. Singing doesn't come into play in, in princess. Not that you're in shows, I guess. Yeah.

In fact, so the interesting thing about being a princess as well is, you know, it sounds like a really cool job. You're actually non-union. So there's the performers union called AGVA, which is the representation for all of theme

park employees, which was actually started as a union for strippers and circus performers. And now it's the theme park employee union oh yeah yeah we got into this a little because in florida recently the costume characters are in the teamsters and right james hoffa son of jimmy hoffa had to come down and clean up the local in orlando and and then but then some people are equity in florida right but okay so there's so the princesses that you know is the there's, so the princesses,

the, what you know is the face characters and the parade princesses, none of them are union, which means you cannot sing. You can't be miked in a show. Yeah. So then if you ever see a princess who's singing like with a mic, she's union,

which means she's not really probably an official face character. She's like a performer portraying cinderella or a performer portraying bell if you see the beauty and the beast live show that is not that is not somebody like moved from the princess program into the show that they hire separately right which means the flip side of that is like while we're working twice as much as most of the agvas the union performers were getting paid half of what they're getting paid so it's so like where the the union performers would like maybe work 25 minutes and then have like a half hour break we're working 45 minutes with a 15 minute

break and getting paid i think i was getting paid 14 an hour while they're making like 25 an hour oh my god much like the disney princesses the films, various degrees of subjugation and being limited by the, in this case, Triton is the corporate overlord of Disney. Right. Or the Wicked Stepsisters. The same thing. Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Holding you down. With the characters, like, and I just saw this.

Did everyone see this? There's, like, an evil queen at Disneyland that's gone viral. Is this? Oh, no. I did just watch this last night. What's she up to? She's very good. She's in character just kind of roaming around and telling, you know,

little kids to straighten up or whatever. And it's, like, people. There's a, she consistently refers to your phone as a as a mirror. Like, all she knows is mirrors. So which I kind of like that that terminology. That's fun. And then like a couple years ago, Gaston, especially in Florida, I think it's only in Florida, honestly. Like he was like doing pushups.

And like, is that another tier of performer? Are they face characters? They're face characters. OK. Yeah. So some of them are really good but yeah it's not um as far as i know at least when i was there they were all in the same tier as the princesses okay gotcha i wonder if there's the pressure today to try to get a viral moment yeah that's funny i bet there is i mean i was working there before iphones so camera phones there were camera phones but it wasn't like how it is today so yeah

like for sure if you were walking around today there'd be like dozens of videos of you but yeah there is there evidence of that did you ever like make a point of documenting uh well part of the job is like it's all about pictures so yeah I have tons and tons of photos um yeah and just i mean not as much of my own photos but we would always like i would find some photos of myself online and then occasionally you'd have fans who come and they would give you a big stack of your photos like park regulars you would yeah kind of know that all the different princesses and yeah. Do you have those? The photos? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You copped all of like, do you have like a, like they would bring a photo album to you of you and them in many pictures? Yes, or just candid of you like walking around. Yeah, no, it's a whole thing. The fans is a whole sort of crazy thing. Especially I worked in Tokyo Disney, too, and that's beyond the fans there. Jeez.

Sure, sure. It's wild. They don't know your real name, so they're just sort of classifying you, but like, oh, it's that Cinderella or whatever. Yeah. We had one guy who would give us all nicknames. Oh, boy. So mine was Rookie because I was new. Oh, no.

And so, yeah. It's also like negging you. Yeah, it was a little negging. Yeah. Jeez. Also becomes inaccurate at a certain point. That's true. That is true.

You're no longer new. You just are. That's true. You probably recycled that name, too. I would assume. That's not the first rookie that he's named. What's going on in Japan? How is it different in Japan?

I mean, I loved Tokyo Disney. Have any of you guys? Yeah, Scott and I have gone. We have been pretty still in the throes of love with the place ever since we got back yeah yeah and you went to tokyo disney sea i'm sure you covered it all on this podcast yeah the fed in like the longest episode we each did one that we're just like bursting at the seams there's too much there's too much it's so good but yeah being you know a fan being a fan is like a big part of japanese culture it's like a lot of people are fans of various things,

and they go all out. I mean, whether it's baseball or the Big Bang Theory. It's like they love, and especially with Disney. So yeah, we would have people. I mean, that would be seemingly their full-time job. As they come to the park, you'd see the same people every day, and they would take pictures of you, and they'd kind of decide on one of because you would go out on an eight month contract or i think it was a six or seven month contract and they would know when the new

batch of face characters would come in so they would kind of pick their favorite and become this is a negative word but your stalker in a way. Or and they would know, you know, where you would go, the bar we'd all go to after work. They would sometimes show up there. One time I was on the train just as myself on a day off, like going into the city and someone just handed me a package and it was a stack of photos of myself. Oh, my God. It's like the start of a horror movie. Yeah.

And they wait for you outside of work and will kind of walk you back to walk you to the bus stop. And it's a whole thing, but it's really, you're not really supposed to like accept or exchange anything with them, but people do all the time. And a lot of them were really nice and kind of became, you know, you become friendly with them. Sure. But it's this whole fan culture over there that's

taken to an extreme wow interesting yeah but it was a great place to work i loved doing that okay yeah so you're out for for how long then all told yeah um in a day so you usually i just meant like in japan oh in japan i was there for seven months geez yeah which okay outside of disney how is that like that's where you live for a period of time? It was awesome. You get your own little apartment and I took a year off of college and I went out there and did it. Oh man, that's a dream.

It was my first time living really independently and it was awesome. I think us and a lot of people listening probably dream of if you could just be there for a long period of time. I know. listening probably yeah dream of yeah if you could just be there for a long period of time i know it was so like it's the first vacation i've taken where i was since disney world as a kid where i was teary-eyed leaving like on the plane like oh no i don't want to go i know don't you want to move there and live there for a while yeah that is i was just looking at pictures like two nights ago like just going like i know i want to go back like it's the only place i want to ever travel to yeah i could see that just making the choice yeah i take

trips to one place and it's here because you'd have a completely different time every time yeah so that was when i was there when i i turned 21 out there and then um a couple of years ago i went back with matt and we did the whole disney thing there and, uh, just traveled around and he loved it too. So, geez. Oh, wonderful. Um,

whereabouts in the, so where you like in Tokyo proper and some weird outskirts. Um, yeah, you're kind of, you know how, um, Disneyland's in like a suburb of Tokyo.

It's like a 20 minute train ride. So we were in a little suburb of the town where Disney is. So, uh, I forget what it's called. I think it's, Oh, it's called Shin Uryasu.

So it was about a 10 minute train ride to get to work geez oh that's great that's easy and efficient and then the job is silly and quicker than getting to anywhere from anywhere to anaheim yes like it's such a burden it was so fun and they put you in this um it's called e-village when i lived there this big apartment complex so it's all the princesses all the princes um and then you also have all the other people that come in to be workers at Disneyland, like the Polynesian fire throwers and the mariachi band. So you're living at this apartment complex with like all these amazing, weird performers, like the acrobats, like everyone. So it's like this big, diverse place to live. And you'd be like, the mariachis are having a party tonight.

Let's all go cluster in their little one bedroom apartment and like, you know, drink and watch a movie. Wow. Oh, my God. Well, and getting to go to, if you're going to live in Tokyo for a while with a like base, a class of English speakers, which must provide so much comfort and ease. So would everyone start at the same time? Was it a total, like, was it getting on a, like getting on a cruise? No, you don't have different call times. Okay.

Like, like when you got to Tokyo, like you were saying contracts. So was it most people started at the same time? Yeah. Everyone would, it would be a full, you'd have like a crossover of two weeks while you were kind of being trained and the other people were like you know doing all their paperwork to leave so you'd have you'd cross over for two weeks and then you would yeah you would take over and it would be like a full new fleet of people although a few people would get extended and some people stayed their contract after contract after contract like if they really liked you they would extend you wow so i don't want to if this is a

sort of subject i'm so sorry but were you offered an extension? I was not offered an extension. Oh, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. Would you have stayed? No, I don't think so because I had to go graduate college. That's true. Let me ask this because I've heard stories about how like even at the domestic parks

there's like the a team and the b team like the a team is the one when a celebrity comes oh yes anything did you ever get to do anything where it's like yeah yeah that's a that's interesting and it reminds me that i kind of forgotten about that but yet even at disneyland there's definitely kind of they have their favorites and so those are the people who get asked to do special events yeah um so yeah I did those a couple of times which were kind of fun like oh god what was there was some movie some Disney movie that came out I forget what it was but I got to like they wanted some of the characters on the red carpet I got to do that is it a pirates did they do a pirates premiere, I think it maybe was a Pirates or something.

I think they closed off Main Street. Yeah, it was something like that. And then, yeah, you would get to do some special events. One time I got to travel for work, which was exciting to go. Well, it sounded exciting at the time, but I had to go to Texas to work in a mall for a day for the opening of a Disney store. Oh, sure. in a mall for a day for the opening of a disney store oh sure yeah and it was exciting for me because i'd never tried i was like you know 17 i'd never traveled for work but um yeah i remember like having to if you had to go to the bathroom you had to go to the lens crafters use the bathroom and it was so mundane it was not really glamorous um but yeah johnny depp would come all the time to Disney and there was like a specific Peter Pan he would always request and they would have like a private meet and greet. He was with kids or just himself? He would have, I think there were children around as well.

Whether they were photo op children or his own, we don't know. Whether Lily was there or not. Yeah. But at the time when I was working there, it was before they put in the whole princess fantasy fair. So, which is now the princesses are all in one location. So, you can go through a line and hit three or four princesses, you know, and get the autograph from the picture and then exit through the gift shop. And there's a whole little show that happens.

But before princess fanfare, as we called it um we were just roaming around like we would just they were like you live here this is you know your castle and you just walk around and then at some point you have to stop and there's a line and but the line wherever that was would change depending on where you wanted to stand and you had a lot more freedom. If maybe sometimes, you know, if it was toward the end of the day and you could like go on a ride or you could find one really cute kid and kind of walk around with them for 10 minutes or play a game or, you know, you could have a lot more freedom. And then unless you worked in dining, which is a whole different thing. But otherwise, if you were just in the park, it was really cool.

And now it was this whole thing of like they're, you you know penning us up and people just want the autograph oh and it's a little bit more they're just like kind of rubber stamping an experience over and over here right next next next it's interesting because they're doing that they're doing that now in the star wars land where there's no characters they're not like in a spot they're roaming and they're like there's videos of like ray playing with a little like a game of little girl which is so cool so maybe they're gonna like get back to that but at the time when i was there and this started when i was a kid i mean i had an autograph book it was like people wanted to get their money's worth and they'd be like i've been at the park all day and i haven't seen cinderella i paid 150 bucks to be here. So then they decided like, well, we'll just put Cinderella in a cage and everyone can take a picture.

Oh no. Yeah. Trap Ariel. I think the wandering characters is more built into Disneyland than Disney world in Florida from what I've read about it, where it's in Florida, there are a lot more planted. So,

cause people were saying like, Oh, how will the galaxy's edge wandering characters do how will people like that in florida where that's less common than out here you just walk into disneyland at any time of the day and you can stumble upon mary poppins or the mad hatter or like and they made it on main street they're setting the place on fire we want them stationary i would like to take a behind the scenes tour of those princess fairy tale cars because it's like impossible architecture

of like the same room multiple times and like yeah doors where it's set up where like this two cinderellas couldn't come out at one they couldn't meet each other oh yeah even if they're doing simultaneous meet and greet you may yeah that's you'd have a very um yeah delicate schedule that you know you really had to go out at the correct time because if you misread the worst thing that could happen is you walk to your spot and there's another cinderella there oh yeah and then it's just i mean that happened to me one time but there was a story where this, and I played Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and Ariel. I don't think we said that. Yeah, we haven't said it. So those were your big.

Those are my big three. Pretty big three. Yeah. And then in Tokyo, I was Cinderella and Mary Poppins. Oh, wow. Yeah. So there was this one time when I was walking out to my spot and I think I had gotten the time wrong or the schedule

was wrong and I walk out and there's like another Cinderella there and there was like the fairy godmother there so she tried I mean this is so dumb but she tried to cover by pretending she had done like a spell to make two but then I just had to like run back and I mean it's just like was horrible I think I cried I felt like so ashamed there was a cinderella straight to dvd movie about time trial i think it was called a stitch in time or something so you could have just she could have preferred well if you've seen the dvd my dvd or dvd time travel is possible they love the princesses talking about technology yeah yeah yeah buy the dvd and blu-ray did we were talking about so your characters.

When you were auditioning, was there a character specifically you wanted? Did it feel like there was one superstar character everyone wanted? Yeah, I don't know about any particular character. Cinderella was always my favorite movie, so I think I wanted to do Cinderella. Sure. But Ariel was really fun, too, just because you get to wear the fin oh okay and that well that's a question also is that's always a weird like how do you place ariel in the timeline is it pre or post transformation so that so you were a you

were finned ariel i was finned ariel and then i think maybe three years into working there it was a huge deal because they were like we we're going to give her legs. And so then they gave her legs and a dress and then stuck her in Ariel's Grotto. Oh, OK. Yeah. And Ariel's Grotto being the restaurant in California Adventure that's now the Lamplight Lounge. Oh, did they change? They took out Ariel's Grotto.

Yeah. OK. Yeah. So I was there for the opening of Ariel's Grotto and that would be the one place you could go and see all the princesses. But doing dining, I like doing Ariel's Grotto because it was easy. But when I first worked there before she had legs, you'd have to go to this really scary, very damp backstage area that had an inch of water on the floor. And I don't know if you guys know this, but when you're a princess and you're not in costume

backstage, they give you the old space mountain jumpsuits that the line operators used to wear like back in the 80s. Those are like your coveralls. So all the princesses are backstage, at least they used to be when I worked there there in these blue coveralls and their wigs. Wait, but like then with like a gown stuffed in there? You take your gown off and put the coveralls on. And that would be like your loungewear. But they were the old Space Mountain Ride Operator uniforms. It's a bunch of like astronauts with big updos.

Yes. You could have done meet and greets as ripley from aliens in that exactly sci-fi princess yeah they're actually yeah kind of fun to wear um but yeah so backstage behind the grotto before you had legs you would go back there you'd you'd hop into your tail then you'd hop on and sit on this like plastic shiny seahorse and then someone would wheel you out into the lobby of the restaurant and that would be you would just sit there for like a half hour while people came to be seated um and just be like hi you know welcome to my braudo yeah i want to hear about the specials. Yeah. Whoa. Strange.

And I liked that job because you got to work alone, which might sound bad, but I'm kind of an introvert. So sometimes it was difficult to be in a break room filled with people. So this was nice because you could just be in that like scary warehouse. Bizarre leaking. Yeah. Spacesuit zone uh uh did you do any of the like walk around like goofy's kitchen buffet like buffet stuff too definitely yeah and those are odd because you go table to table and you think everyone would be there to meet the characters but not everyone is some people it's really like you're intruding on their meal

you know and they'll just be like they don't even want a picture like they just came to eat pancakes and they're not interested in you but you still have to stop by and there's only a handful of breakfast buffets you just wanted a breakfast buffet that's right yeah i would imagine that there's probably people that even just when they're booking it and it's like character buffet and they're just like yeah that's characters on the wall or something and then like they get there they don't give a shit about like meeting anyone yeah do they just anybody just ask you for coffee uh refills oh totally yeah people would just be like yeah asking you questions like that all the time do you what's the part you then have to

like politely say what is it just like Just like, well, your server is over. I'm not even you just say like, oh, I'm not sure. I had breakfast with Mickey this morning. So, you know, and then walk on. It's insane. Also, that all the that's the fuzzy lines of that. All the characters, regardless of mythology, all live at Disneyland together. And that, yeah aurora's hanging

out with pluto and gus gus yeah it's all a big weird mishmash it is is the training for the buffet different i'm trying to think now the buffet training because i'm trying to think like when i've done multiple character buffets in the last few years uh the characters of the costume characters will sometimes like sneak up on you. Like all of a sudden you'll be eating and I'll just feel like something touching me and I'll turn and it's Dale. Yeah, no, they don't train you to do that.

So that just must be that particular Dale. You have these interactions with characters. Well, and Minnie kisses me. Minnie's kissed me multiple times. Different Minnies, I assume. So I wonder if they like yeah did they say like yeah just just scare the shit out of someone while they're eating a sausage no that's just boredom boredom breeds trying to mess with people right which is a good question in general

and matt talked about this a little just getting like just drifting and like oh what can i do to make keep this interesting? Because you did a number of years. Yeah. Were you like, did you push the limits of what a princess could do just out of your own boredom? Of course. I mean, yeah, definitely. I mean, you get to the point where you're like,

I mean, because they watch you. But when I was there, they weren't really always watching you that closely. So you had a lot of autonomy. So it would be like, depending on watch you. But when I was there, they weren't really always watching you that closely. So, you had a lot of autonomy. So, it would be like, depending on who you were working with, you're like, let's just do a walking set. Where you just walk the whole time and wave at everyone. And maybe if you're with a prince, you stop and do a little dance or put on some sort of little improvised play. You know, just doing stuff like that.

I mean, sometimes you could go on a ride, which would be really fun. Like, you'd find some little girl or little boy and be like, come with me on the storybook ride. And you'd like go up and cut the line and go on a storybook ride. And that kind of ate your whole set. Really? That's great. But then you could also, there was a chance if you did that, you could get written up. Oh, so that was against the rules.

It was kind of ambiguous. Like if you got permission, sometimes they're called leads. They would be like, okay, the last set of the day, you can go do this. Or let's, you know, let's do a game this set. But then as I worked there, as it got further along, they started to not let you do that kind of stuff anymore. Now they love that stuff going viral. That's like free marketing for them.

That's all feels very planned to me. Sure. Yeah. But I i mean the kids freaking out like there was a few stories recently of like princesses helping calm down you know very upset children oh i don't know yeah that wasn't a rant like i mean it just again the viral moments weren't really a thing unless it was something really bad like you know ticker groping someone or it should go viral in a different way yeah that's in the crime blotter that's not really on the instagram discover page do you recall any uh anything that anyone got fired for oh yeah there was uh this was a universal but some a guy did a naked cartwheel in the break room. He got fired. I think that would get you fired from most positions and most jobs.

I also like, do you think if he was just naked in general, it wouldn't have been a fireable offense? It's the cartwheel specifically while naked that was the issue? I don't know. I'll have to, yeah, look at the files. But at Disneyland, a couple of girls got written up for kissing the kids because, again, I'm a broken record. But when we first started working there, you could kiss the kids and leave on their cheek, of course, get your mind out of the gutter and leave like a big princess kiss mark on their cheek. And it was really cute or like kiss a little boy on his forehead and they'd have like a big kiss mark. And so then they started saying, hey, don't kiss the kids, which is fair.

Fair? Yeah, fair. A number of reasons. For one, measles outbreaks recently. Yes, yeah. That's right. But a couple of the girls, you know, they were resisting change.

So they didn't like that because they liked, a couple of the Sleeping Beauty specifically continued to kiss the kids. And so they were, you know, they got in trouble. Whoa. I was drawing a line in the sand yeah i don't like that can you imagine though the conversation they're like i am not going to

listen to their fucking rules i am kissing these kids that's what i'm here to do this is i'm sleeping fucking beauty oh no like literally those are the conversations wow i'm the boots on the ground i'm the slippers on the ground These kids are going to leave this place With empty foreheads I won't have it That stuff's funny to me I was a tour guide at Universal And the kinds of things

That everyone is all up in arms about Like you describing They're going to put everybody in the corner And you're just going to be in this one room and you don't get to have the those kinds that i remember having a lot of that like the things you're up in arms about and then a decade goes by and you're not there anymore and like why was i mad i know and people are so into this job i mean i was never like that i mean i always thought it was cool and i liked doing it i also found it super exhausting just having to talk to people like that all day, you know.

So I was never I mean, I never had a hill to die on. Right. So there was never like a change that happened that you were very upset about? No, no. I'm fine. No, I was all good. Yeah. Well, it's also like you know you could say hey you podcast you talk for long stretches of time but like there's a difference between doing like

this for a while and and and doing like height well hi there right i can imagine like 45 minutes of that in the sun has just got to be physically pushing it. Yeah, it was truly exhausting. Right, right. And that was sort of the, it's like 45, like something in that stretch? Yeah, you do 45 minutes and then have a 15 minute break. And I think you do seven or eight of those a day. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah.

Wow, wow. What do you, and then in the meantime, you're just chilling out? You're just. Yeah, like in the break room. Yeah. Yeah, just chilling. you're just yeah like in the break room yeah yeah just chilling just bring a book i mean i was in school studying reading sure oh yes you had stuff to do yeah i had stuff homework right right uh uh i guess i haven't asked about the the language barrier in uh in tokyo like how did that well a lot of japanese people they learn english in school so it it was actually really cool because all the little kids, they learn it really young.

So they would, you know, want to practice their English with you. And then I learned a tiny, tiny bit of Japanese where I could have a conversation with a three-year-old. But nothing really beyond that. But yeah, the language barrier wasn't really an issue. Because even if they kind of were shy about speaking english over there most people understood i think basic english sure sure and maybe and possibly a good chance to practice and stuff yeah that's what they like when we were guests there was somebody at the at that uh pan galactic pizza port was just like like asking really basic questions like or like i'm

going to america soon what should i do which made me realize like what it was like I probably would ask that to somebody living in Japan what do I do here and you go it's a whole country it's a pretty hard question where are you going yeah there's a pretty there's a world of difference it's weird how I never I disconnected from that like Japan it's all one thing right and then when somebody asked me what do you do in America Golden Gipridge Statue of Liberty Target Walmart they're different Universal City Walk yeah

mainly yeah at least five days I any bizarre interactions where you felt not up to speed on mythology as much as you should have been oh i mean people try to trip you up all the time i mean you guys know there's like i mean there's a lot of fanatic like disney fanatics out there who are so into the minutiae so yeah you would um well

ariel sometimes some jerks would come and be like, name your six sisters, Ariel. And I used to be able to do it, but I think it's like Andrina, Adela, Arista. I can't, Alana. They're all A's. They're all A's. Oh, she makes it much harder. I know. So it's just stuff like that.

Yeah, people would want to trip you up on everything. Or they'd say like, oh, I just saw you at breakfast this morning. How'd you get all the way over here so fast? You know, or like I saw you yesterday and you looked different. You know, if they saw another girl, like they would try and catch you. Or how are you here and at Disney World at the same time? And I'd be like, I'm not. Prove.

So get someone on a, there's no facetime then so they can't really send somebody to see a cinderella at that moment is there yeah was there a rule book like response to all of those things yeah there's a princess hand like a literal princess handbook for each character and in it i should have brought it because i still have one of them but it's all the questions you might get asked like ariel how do you go to the bathroom they have a canon response to that yeah of course because you get asked that a lot and you just go well that's a silly question how about a photo i mean it's true that no you't, to no person should you ask, how do you go to the bathroom? No, it's rude. Yeah.

Or they ask, how old are you? You say, well, you never ask a princess your age. How old are you? You know, you just kind of spin it around. Oh, okay. Anything you ever, that came out of nowhere though? Like, oh, I got nothing there. Oh God. I mean, so many times I'm trying to remember a specific one but you just i mean you can always just play dumb

i mean really that's what they you can just like laugh and then be like haha smile i mean and then next you know like if a kid's asking too many questions You can literally just like not answer them Right Fair Yeah I gotta keep the line moving Would the worst questions come from the kids or the dads? Yeah I mean the dads Every once in a while you'd get just like A dad who's like trying to be funny

And flirt with you And yeah But no the kids were always pretty cute You know I mean usually the kids were good at their worst they were like covered in something sticky you know and at their best they were so cute and they'd make your day oh geez oh that's nice i uh in looking up a little bit of you know you know reddit threads or like people talking about having this job the one that really jumped out at me was the you know the the the issue of pocahontas being a real character a real person uh in the world uh and how do you

like manage that mythology with being pocahontas in the party and somebody a kid coming up to pocahontas in a meet and greet and saying when my class visited your grave last year oh no that was a mental floss I saw that and the like yeah I don't know that there I don't think she might have been dumb I'm not sure there was a response there

how in the world do you I think you'd probably say like oh I don't think that's quite right let's have a photo are you sure rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated oh my god that's hilarious wow uh pocahontas apparently the one of the few if not the only one who gets approved can get approved to use their own hair because everything else is wig yeah right no pocahontas is a wig oh it is yeah yeah so i don't know where you got that information i think buzz buzzfeed did a big really i think in some rare instances like it's been their own hair but for the most part it's usually not yeah because otherwise it's like you just have

to look consistent so almost everything is a a way but yeah maybe there's one girl who just had such good hair but i think doesn't pocahontas have a bang as well i think it's very long it's very long there i don't know i think there might also be a bang you'll have a weird upswoosh like katherine o'hara and waiting for guffman bizarre like front part yes uh uh how did you land on the which ones you ended up playing they just cast you as it so a lot of times um like cinderella and ariel could kind of double because they both kind of have like you know ariel cinderella and princess aurora are all like blue or green eyes um cinderella is blue typically and then aurora can kind of be like what it's a lot of it has to do with eye color and just like how your face looks

yeah is there any voice voice testing does that matter really voice it's all just like a generic princess voice like they try to kind of tell you like princess aurora is a little bit more ethereal a little bit more princess like um you know they pose you in slightly different ways where like Princess Aurora might have, say, your left hand kind of like poised at your heart and your right hand out. And then Ariel, you could get away with hands on hips where like Princess Aurora would never do that. And Cinderella maybe could have hands on hips because she's a little bit more modern. And then Ariel, you could say things like neat and cool.

Like Cinderella would never say cool. Oh, okay. Yeah. Sort of hip or spare. Take that in. That is like, I will remember that. Honestly, that's the only thing I'm going to forget. I think it just, does it just in a way stem from the, she came out in the 80s.

It does. Like mall girls a little more? Absolutely. Elsa and Anna can say fart and stuff, probably. Well, I don't know about fart. I'm just saying they can get a little bit bawdy. Yeah. Me and that viral clip of Elsa going, oh, shit. John's my reindeer thing.

But it is funny because you think, oh you just like get someone who kind of looks like them and slop a dress and a wig and some makeup on them but they they put a lot of care into teaching you like even though at the end of the day it doesn't really matter but there is a lot of like there's a difference between all of those characters sure is makeup different yeah makeup is different yeah but it's funny how they a lot of girls when i worked there they would try and get creative like they'd give you all the makeup and teach you how to do it but it was like it's like drag queen makeup right i think they give you bobby brown and there's some other brand of makeup that is used like it's like stage makeup

oh is it ben nye yes ben nye it's ben nye yeah that's what it is um so they give you all this ben nye makeup and then you're taught to do it by this man who's been working there for forever i think used to be a prince charming and it's just like the way they want you to do it is so 80s um it's a lot so much so much blush it's like pink lips, blue eyeshadow, like eyebrows. And so when I was there, it's like the girls, it's when MAC was really big. I mean, this was in like the early 2000s. And so they would try and get some highlighter going and a lot of glitter.

And then you could get written up for experimenting with your makeup. But I think maybe they've maybe changed the makeup now since i've been there and i think they've also toned down the bangs a little bit okay huh yeah that's a because now we're a long distance from the 80s it's pretty like crazy to stay with 80s makeup standards when you would get like a different character like when you would change was it like you got an assignment assignment essentially like hey today you're off you're doing this they would just dictate whatever depending on the day or would you like did you do six months of one and then another six months oh it's day to day and sometimes

in the same day you'd play more than one character and meet the same family over and over again really yeah wow weird uh-huh and when did you ever get called out about that yes all the time oh wow yeah people a lot of times parents would notice and be like, we think we met your friend at Goofy's Kitchen this morning. Cinderella, do you know her? And you'd be like, yes, that's me, you know. And so that was kind of fun. We also had a pair of twins who were working there.

So sometimes you'd have Cinderella and Princess Aurora side by side and it was, they had the same face. Oh, weird. That's a certain cognitive dissonance. Yeah, it's odd, right? It's like Uncanny Valley. Strange. Hi, Podcast The Ride listeners. It's Jason. We're taking a quick break to talk about an interesting story from the good people at The Lead we saw this week.

The Lead, of course, a brand new daily sports podcast from Wondery and The Athletic. It's all about the stories behind sports, drama, heartbreak, controversy, cultural impact. Yeah, all of the things. All of the things. The stuff we talk about, about theme parks, they talk about sports. That's right. Which helps fill in gaps because our sports knowledge is very little but you get to hear stories about all kinds of things that are you don't even realize are related

to sports things like the ice bucket challenge remember that i remember the ice bucket challenge i make a point sometimes of going back and watching specific ice bucket challenges uh that's the internet's just littered with them especially uh george w bush uh he says he's not going to do the ice bucket challenge because it wouldn't be presidential and laura sneaks up behind him and pours the bucket yeah and she says i i didn't want to do it i don't want to get my hair wet and then it gets very serious again but you get to see them joke around what a blast there's a howard stern ice bucket challenge which with a little tiny cup of water because truly he thought and this is something i think my mom said at the time getting ice water

on your head that'll give you a heart attack you'll get a heart attack and you'll die if somebody dumps ice water on your head really like it would just trigger like the temperatures too yeah i said my mom when it was happening my mom texted me like no ice bucket challenge like she was really wanting me not to do it. Seriously? I swear that's happened. If it's too cold, you could go into a very mild version of shock. Sure.

Potentially. Anyway. So you didn't get to do it. You didn't get challenged, I hope. No, thank God. Okay, yes. We were too busy icing each other in 2014. Remember that?

We were keeping that alive. Yes. We're a little behind the times. But anyway anyway the ice bucket challenge you couldn't escape it in 2014 people were pouring freezing buckets of water on each other or just tiny cups in some cases uh to raise money for als research and awareness well as it turns out the ice bucket challenge when it all began was the brainchild of the university of arizona women's basketball team that was for them to raise money. And then it ended up growing into the most successful online fundraiser in history, raising millions of dollars.

Oh, my God. Yeah. From that to the former president all around the world. It did do a lot of good, even though culturally it kind of got away from us. Oh, sure. Yeah. But the actual intention, no matter how many failed bits it led to. Yeah. Yeah. So the coach of the Arizona team, Naya Butts, is the one that actually came up with the idea of making the ice bucket challenge competitive, not just doing it yourself, but challenging other people to do it as well.

So the virality of it was built into it by the U of A women's basketball coach. And how do I know all of this stuff? Because I heard it on the U of A women's basketball coach. And how do I know all of this stuff? Because I heard it on the lead. I love hearing stories and then reframing them to people because I found them interesting. And the lead's a great source for that. Yeah. And the lead is like, it takes you through the story, which is really fun. And it's an anecdotal and compelling way to tell a story.

They have great interview with Naya Butts herself, all about how she applied coaching strategies to turn the Ice Bucket Challenge from a local fundraiser into an international phenomenon. It's an incredible story. You should definitely check it out. The lead has a new episode every day of the week

covering sports stories just like this one. So let's say from Podcast to Ride, go subscribe to The Lead on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to this podcast right now. And now back to the show podcast

the ride to our interesting stories yeah was there uh like with this evil queen like that was did you associate with the princesses ever associate with the villains was that all in the same area um sometimes like if you were lucky maybe you'd have like a pass by You would probably never do a whole set together But sometimes you'd have a little fun When you kind of like walk past each other Or the queen might kind of Circulate and come by you you know Maleficent or whatever if you were Aurora

Oh and you had to like Have a little Interaction Yeah throw some shade But were you at all clicky with the other princesses and were the villains clicky with themselves? I mean, I think that's usually in any sort of job, that's what ends up happening is just whatever group

you've been lumped into, you end up associating with those people more. Yeah, I think that that's true. And most of it had to do with what break room everyone was in. So a lot of times the villains would be over in DCA, which is, you know, talk for Disney's California Adventure, which I'm sure your listeners know. And then, you know, so sometimes you would make friends

across the tracks, the train tracks. If you had, you know, we're in a break room. I also did this show called Drawn to the Magic, which was in Disney's California Adventure. I don't know if it's still there, but then you, in that case, you were in a break room i also did this show called drawn to the magic which was in disney's california adventure i don't know if it's still there but then you in that case you were in a break room you were the only princess and then you had like a goofy and a mickey and a couple of singers agva singers and so you'd become really close with them okay oh yeah wait so we yeah i was looking that up drawn to the magic it was a uh that was in that it's in that weird stage that's just behind facades.

It's just big, like, steel beams, basically. Uh-huh. And then it used to be right in front of, what was that weird center where you'd go in and it was all dark in there? The animation building? Yeah, the animation building. It used to just be out on the street and right in front of the animation building. Uh-huh. And this was

Also this is where Matt did Like improv You didn't cross paths with him I think I saw him once riding a bike in a lab coat And he Refuses to admit that he ever wore a lab coat He did ride a bike Statistically he must have worn a lab coat

If he was doing improv in a theme park That's what I think And i think i remember seeing him but you know he would not have been able to pick me out of a crowd because there were a million of me yes yeah and several people with the same face it's confusing yes uh so okay drawing the magic was a show where animators sing and dance and then draw on a piece of paper and then the drawing comes down and then the real character is there? Yes. Okay. And like Aurora's in that?

It's either Aurora or Cinderella were interchangeable and then there's a Mickey and then I think it was either like a Woody or a Goofy. Okay. Sure. Sure. How did that one rank amidst? Was it a strong show i would say it's like a mid to low

level show i mean it was exciting i guess when we came out but not really and then we would just do a little meet and greet so yeah that one i mean i think it was just kind of a time killer all of early california adventure seems like sort of uh um curb expectations like this is fine you'll see something that's fine definitely were you there like did you work there then when california venture opened i believe i what what year did that open do you know 2001 yeah i think i would have like just started working there uh did you sense that a general feeling of like uh-oh like this is um there's some problems here i loved california adventure right off the get right i did yeah i mean i guess i'm just i liked the roller coaster a lot i loved soren when it first opened i don't care for it now

oh you're a california uh purist yeah sure um and so i i really liked california adventure and i think it's just because i was excited to have another theme park in my backyard basically sure yeah so i wasn't i didn't have a real refined theme park palette back then um now i see the flaws but at the time i was just you know grateful to have an upside down ride oh yeah that's true yeah not one on the on the disney property yeah uh was good was disney sea open by the time you worked in japan uh yeah disney sea was open sure sure so that's a mind blow that you're that you are there every day is our dream amazing it's like walking into game of thrones when you go into disney sea it's incredible absolutely yeah yeah so epic we always say there's like walking into Game of Thrones when you go into Disney Sea. It's incredible.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So epic. We always say this, like, no, or Mike had said it, you can't take a bad picture in there. It's crazy. It's impossible. I mean, when you're comparing California Adventure to Disney Sea, I mean, yeah. Makes you want to throw up.

And we got what? Yeah. They tried to hide it from the Americans, though i feel like yeah that's kind of true we've talked about that how like i wasn't even aware it was built at the time you would think there would have been a big thing like this go visit this wonderful park overseas but it was like don't let them see what we did right right we don't want them to know we put up all our own money this is we get to use it. There's like a special I found. There's like some travel channel special on it on YouTube.

And I was like, this was not broadcast far and wide over here. Your parents trying to not show you that other people are way richer than you. Yes. Right. Yeah, yeah. We're all the same. Shield them. It was also like Hong Kong Disney, which opened in 2005.

I didn't know that existed for years not for years at least well i didn't know that's when i had a couple of girlfriends who did the hong kong disney circuit as well and who were there for the opening of it and i mean talk about crazy stories i mean it sounded like hellish they just did not know what to do with the princesses like it's just they just have the craziest in terms of uh they just didn't have an established program so it was a mess yeah and i just think there were some like cultural differences where like it didn't really translate and um yeah it was it was an interesting experience I think they have it all worked out now. And now it's like an okay place to work.

But at first, I think it was just kind of nuts. Is there like, you have like a craziest day at working that comes to mind? Oh, I had one day that was really crazy because I got heckled by this old man. I was working. Sometimes you would have a set at the front gate, which is when you first walk in that little area before the, where the train and like the flowers are. And you would sometimes have to do a set there.

And it was always really chaotic because people would just like, Oh, like swarm you trying to get a picture real quick before they went into the park. So like no one wanted a fun, magical moment. They just were like, get her. And you would be sent there without any sort of assistant you normally would have a host with you who would help you kind of control the crowd but they would just send you out there on your own so

i was just like i had this circle of like a hundred people surrounding me and you have to be like trying to control them and still be polite and like pleasant and i was already getting really sort of overwhelmed and they tell you if you're about to snap, you're allowed to go take a people break is what it's called. So you can go like stand off stage, be like, excuse me, I need to go, you know, talk to Mickey or whatever. And then you'd go just like stand off stage and collect yourself and then come back out because they don't want you to they understand you can be pushed to your limits. Yeah. So I was kind of like almost about to take a people break when this old man just starts shouting from the crowd he's kind of or he's not even shutting he's just standing there off to the

side cinderella your mascara is running and i remember just being like looking at him like i don't know what he's talking about and and then he started saying like my granddaughter is prettier than you like it was just really weird stuff that didn't make sense but he was just full on like heckling me and a couple of the moms were kind of looking at him like do we need to like get involved and he just he kept saying all these really weird things and i just burst out in tears and ran off oh my god oh my goodness ran off set what a ghoul it my goodness. Ran off set. Jeez. What a ghoul.

It was really, I don't know what was going on. I feel like he had escaped from somewhere. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like some sort of center. Or like there was a bus that like had a, like the flat tire

and like he snuck off the bus into Disneyland. Yeah, knocked someone over the head and took their clothes and he was like an escape convict or something. Sure. Finally a target And I'm assuming you didn't have any time to like say I have to go talk to Mickey before you ran away

No, I just, I think I just Darted out of there I have to talk to Mickey Screaming Luckily in those movies, a lot of princesses running So they probably just thought like, oh, like the movie She's running away Oh yeah, the clock's about to strike midnight it's like nine yeah it is she's on a different time i guess uh you also when we were emailing you alluded to the the

plaza inn uh being a less than uh yeah great place to do yeah. Yeah, my memory about the Plaza Inn is kind of fuzzy, but all I remember is there was like a year when they were making us work at the Plaza Inn, which is, you know, the dining, it's like a buffet, I think. It's a main street restaurant. And for some reason, it was so terrible working there.

And I think there was some sort of, there was some reason why they had put us there because there was construction happening somewhere else or something was going on at the plaza and where they needed to kind of like make up for something and so they had us there but it was the worst place to work because it wasn't advertised as a character dining experience so no one wanted to see you and you just kind of had to stand there and everyone was really mean um and so at the end of the year the people who worked there a lot got like a bonus like an apology bonus wow wow yeah

wow all right um for enduring the smell of fried chicken yeah it is good fried chicken but yeah actually the fettuccine alfredo is pretty good too. That's interesting. But being around it all day, every day. No, it was tough. Yeah. Did you see a difference like in the, over the years in the average guests? Like types of like, is it less families, more childless men in their 30s coming to the park? Was there any difference you could spot or was it basically consistent?

I think it was basically consistent i mean you always you know it's always a big diverse group of people um i mean i think the only real difference i did kind of see is people more just like out to get the picture and the autograph and like less people wanting to have you know sort of just like a interaction however that might have been an idea that was implanted in my brain by other people like i you know what i mean like i feel like that was always something people were saying but i don't honestly know if that was really the case yeah it was like some story yeah some corporate idea that they sort of like were pushing or yeah or like the like some cast members who were like too into the job were saying that you know um but there are always people who like oh there's a lot of guys there i think that go on their own you know like annual pass holders

like yes yeah i just feel like that was just like oh there, that's an AP. Sure. Yeah. Right. Which is us. Yeah, no, we've all done it. Oh, for sure. I mean, there's also a whole lot of people who have special needs and it's cheaper, adults, it's cheaper for their families to just get them annual passes than to put them in any sort of care. So you get a lot of people who are dropped off there every day and just hang out at the

park all day. Oh, we talked about this, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a place you could trust. so you get a lot of people who are dropped off there every day and just hang out at the park all day i talked about this i think yeah yeah just a place you could trust a safe space so you have those people who you know you get to know as well that's nice yeah were there any red because i there are there regulars who they're an older couple who go on peter pan every night whoa like like i think that's right i think i don't know if they're still doing it but like supposedly for years and years and i feel like i read something about like if if they would say they were in line uh and then a person got in line behind them at the end of the night they'd be like no no please like you go because we they want to be the last ones oh how

funny yeah did you run into anyone like that i mean we had a guy who had come in from Arizona like a couple times a year. And he was like this. There was something going on there. But he'd come in with his mom. He was maybe in his late mid-20s. And he'd always bring all these brand new Sharpies. And he'd give you one. So, you always got to pick like a nice new Sharpie.

Oh, scented or plain? No, just plain. Just regular. You could get the high. You could get high from it probably still. Oh, sure. Yeah. Maybe that's what he's trying to.

Yeah. And then there was Mr. Tuesday. So he would come every Tuesday. And yeah, actually, he has a really sad story. So he ended up passing away. Yeah. But anyway, he would come every Tuesday for a long time. And I guess he was in recovery.

So this was like part of his recovery was to come every Tuesday to Disneyland. Yeah. So there's all types of, oh, there was someone named Norma. I think her name was Norma. And she was this like old kind of old broad. And she was just like, would aggressively flirt with hercules like really hard wow follow him around characters norma would flirt with her yeah huh interesting the regulars are interesting to hear about but if you had to hang out with the regulars i mean mr tuesday is a great

name yeah i was reacting to that great oh no he was nice oh yeah it was that yeah it was a sad case but you know he loved coming to disney so sure i wonder like i have been to especially this year i've been a lot alone to disney i wonder do i have some nickname name among the people who work there you might be mr laptop if you're because i've been working around there. Oh, that's cool. Dib shit. I mean, I'm sure people are recognizing you. If you come and you kind of do the same thing,

I mean, like, people pay attention to the guests. Yeah, it's not that frequent, but maybe. Yeah. Maybe I have some. There's nothing wrong with it. Some of the regulars are really cool. Yeah, we'll see. If anyone's out there that works there

that knows that i'm there do i have a nickname just answer some people think you're a plain clothes like a cop yeah you're the undercover security i do look uptight like some sort of narc busting people with the edibles in line that would be cool honestly if they thought it was a cop yeah that would kind of be like me Give a little spring in my step Yeah Anyway The undercover cop is a podcast I thought he was just an insane guy

Yeah no He does something with his life What have we not covered You also did You were saying you did some things Outside of Princess World At Universal You hosted the special effects stage

the special effects show uh-huh um was that a uh what in the chronology what what were you pushing at that time or is it uh uh is it the statue of liberty uh hitchcock thing that has been removed so for me it was a lot of minions and paranormal oh that's really specific you might be the only person who has a strong feeling the werewolf that the kid controls with the suit that was gone i don't that was gone i don't oh no no that was there and that was when the werewolf dances jump out yeah yeah no no this is the one when i was there. And that was when the werewolves danced. It would jump out. Yeah. No, no, no. This was the one. When I was there was the guy would come out in the green suit and pretend to be like motion capturing.

And then I think I forget what was actually you would see like an alien or some monster doing what he was doing. It was sort of a fake mocap. Yes, that's what it was. Yeah. But the special effects show was so challenging. I was terrible at it because there was just so much like made up jargon you had to memorize. And it was all really like the special effects.

I mean, it wasn't exactly cutting edge. Sure. Yeah. So, but still to me, it was mind boggling because I don't understand any of that stuff. But just having to like come out and get like a crowd hyped, like, hey, everybody, how's everyone doing today? I can't hear you.

Like that's so not my energy. So I was just like, that was the very end of my theme park career. I think once I got that job, I did maybe a couple of shows and then I was just like, I just, this isn't right. Sure, this isn't a forever thing. This this isn't this one's not for me so i didn't flourish in the special effects

show well those kinds of uh uh there's i've talked about the show this there's this disney afternoon live show in florida hosted by cj who i who was dying c CJ was not really characterized she had a cap and a headset mic and seemed to be cool or self assured and I don't know what you're supposed to just like CJ off the bat and I'm not sure why I only remember all this because my dad

after every show like I'm gonna see that CJ show again I kind of like the CJ your dad was in love with CJ I really need to cover the cj's thing in full but i what you're describing in the special effects show like like why like what are you are you you're like the production helper you're there's like nothing when you're a princess everybody oh i know her you had to like out of the gate like i'm this made-up thing and you love me right yeah it was like i was supposed to be, like, the young tech one,

and then there was, like, a slightly older man with, like, a corduroy blazer who was supposed to be, like, but what a rememberer from Hitchcock. And I would be, like, well, now we have technology. Like, you know, rear screen. It was just, like, I literally don't remember a word of that show it was like my memory it's like something that my body has just blocked out for me um yeah because what what are you portraying there's nothing like that in the world you don't go to work on a movie and there's that person around there's like and then speaking of like the special needs people who had come to

the park you'd have the same people who would come and sit front row and want to volunteer. And they were like the special needs people who'd come. You'd see the same people at every show. And so they kind of warned me before my first show, like, hey, they're going to be there. They're going to want to volunteer. But they come to every show. So like we try not to choose them every time, you know, because like otherwise, like, but they're going to be right there. So I was like, OK, OK. And I got out there and I had to pick the volunteers, you know,

and I just got nervous and I picked this all special needs people to be all the volunteers in the whole show. And I just saw my co-host, like his face, he just like stared at me like, what have you done to me? Cause he's the one who has to kind of like instruct them what to do. They have to hold these big tentacles to play this big sea monster. And anyway, it ended up they ended up doing a good job. But I think I was their favorite after that because I chose them because I was like, this is so rude to just ignore them. They're like, I'm like anyone in the back. And they're like literally waving their hands in my face.

I'm like, you're right. You can do this. This is rocket science. Like like you'll be fine but then you covered them then you never had to pick those specific people again i know um what a strange was it in the the castle theater was it down and on the lower um yeah it was kind of on the way to the tram so it has its own theater it's like this huge theater yeah i'm kind of by the simpsons yeah okay yeah yeah oh yeah yeah i never saw it up there at some point for a long time it was next to backdraft on the lower lot yeah yeah beetlejuice was there for a

while yeah i guess i lost interest in that i never saw that the latter day iteration do they still do it they do yeah do they it was running the other day oh yeah they definitely. Do they still do it? They do. Yeah. Do they? It was running the other day. Oh. Yeah, they definitely, I know they still do it. That's where the short-lived creature from the Black Lagoon musical. Oh. That was practically a hate crime. Yes.

That was an iconic failure. Yeah. Spectacular failure. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And Spider-Man Rocks?

Same play? Spider-Man Rocks. Yeah. Boy. Yeah. When Universal fails, they fail hard they do it really well yeah they swing bag made i made spider-man rocks look like camlet yeah yeah i went to like an employee like preview of it i still worked there it was jaja everyone everyone walking

out was like how could they like that was their that was on the cover of the map out was like, how could that? That was on the cover of The Map. That was like the new thing. Like Creature from the Black Lagoon, the musical. He pushed it. We got to do a few of those. And even in 2009, I was like, I don't know. They should be telling that joke. Like, I don't know, man. Yikes.

I assume Universal-wise, you were probably too young. But was there ever any talk of you playing Lucille Ball Well actually They're really funny about their face Characters so like I think Marilyn And Lucy Have to be approved by The estates

So maybe not Marilyn But Lucy has to be approved By the estate so that's why There's really only one Think while I was there there was one woman who had been Doing it for a long time and then Someone else got approved when I was there and it was Kind of a big deal wow so

Yeah they're really picky about Who plays The Lucy I've seen there Is real good yeah Like you so I could see where yeah That's interesting so So it must, I bet it's tougher to get the Lucy job

than any of the Disney princesses. Probably. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I never did any face characters there.

I only did Agva performer stuff at Universal. So I was something called a dino chaser. You guys have ever talked to a dino chaser

before? I just was down by Jurassic Park with like, dressed as a, I had this like little golf cart that kind of looked like a jeep and it would play like the jurassic park music and i drove it around and then had half of like a weird animatronic dinosaur i would control um and it was weird and then i did the british window and uh i did grinchmas as well where I played a who. Oh, so you had the snout.

Oh, yeah, it was horrible. That was, if you ever say that I did not pay my dues, let me tell you about Grinchmas because that was tough. Self-applying, awful, like nasal constricting. Horrible. And then it was all during the winter, so your nose would be running because it was cold. at the end of the eight hour shift you'd lift up like peel up the lip area and it would just flood out it was

it was torture torture she was all from this just we talked we did an episode about grinch miss and the just that like the choice in the in the making of the film that like, no, no, no. They need big dog snouts. Then leads to dozens of performers yearly on both coasts having to wear these awful mechanism. Why? Why can't they just be people? It was crazy. Yeah.

They have to. The who's our dog ladies, which is really important. It's upsetting how that looks. I do not like. I had the pictures of myself with that. It's not right. It is very unpleasant. If you were handed a stack of those, you would slap it to the ground.

I'd run. Did you have a specific who or was it like random who? Oh, you work very hard to develop a character. Really? Yeah. So mine was like an ex-beauty queen who. I had like a candy cane suit with fur trim and like this crazy red wig. You're sort of like the Christine Baranski character.

Yeah. I'm like her like friend. Did you have a name as well? I had a name, but I don't remember what it was yeah is would you do like the grinch meet and greet or that show where the tram tour would drive by yeah not the show i was literally just like wandering around the snow zone okay it's just such a whimsical name said with so much disdain. Another Disney snow zone. It seems like you probably had to, like, you're in Disneyland and people are pushing each other to the side to meet you.

Like, Cinderella, Cinderella, Cinderella. Universally, it seems like you're, are you more like forcing people to have this interaction? Because somebody has paid for this. And you aren't like famous like cinderella they don't know they don't know who the the who is there's also like universal i don't know how they do it but they're just like there's hundreds of you walking around it's like and sometimes you're outnumbering the guests and so it's like people really don't care which in some ways i mean universal is just a lot more relaxed so you would just kind of like talk to your who friends right your who buddies that counts as a shift

yeah just shoot the shit and like they don't care where you are you're just like roaming around right could you go to like the lower lot sometimes you just like ride the escalators wow cool yeah um is there a craziest universal story at universal let me try to remember um just riding the escalator up and down mostly i mean universal like not a lot crazy happens it's just because you would think it would because it's more lax but the pressure cooker of disney probably leads it to be more. Disney is an event for people.

So it is a pressure cooker. I think when you're at Universal, you've already done Disney. You're probably a little white. Right. Yeah. The vibe, I just recall being mellow and I'm like only if one person smiled in the tram, I was wow i killed yes but mostly they are not paying attention you realize they can't hear you that well and then employees that's also you go back to that break room nobody's it's not sad it's just like all right yeah it's a c plus vibe

totally i mean probably the craziest thing that happened to me at universal is like literally like falling in love with my husband like on a balcony dressed as a british person that is pretty crazy that's notable and just like sitting up there and like just i mean we were just like so into each other and like not doing our job at all was it you know did it like cross the threshold where it was it literally like day one oh nice to meet you never met before and then like a month later like oh our improv is a little flirty. No, it was like instant. It was on the first orientation day.

Whoa. That's funny. He said that too. I was curious to hear the other perspective. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's insane.

No, it definitely was like love at first chit chat. It's not like he thought that's what it was. And then I'm like, you know, after, you know, I just recently fell in love with him post-marriage at least it happened yeah yeah eventually well that's good did you like then like change the characters to be like there were no characters the characters those characters were really underdeveloped was the who character more developed than the british character definitely yes all right well there's a like a specific place you come from yeah and there's another Was the Who character more developed than the British character? Definitely. Yes. All right. Well, there's like a specific place you come from.

There's an estate there, too. Of course. And the nose gives you like a weird character voice. Oh, yeah. It's a little bit, you know. A dying person. Yeah. A person who, if the shift isn't over in 90 minutes, you'll pass out. A pretty unique character disease as well.

Bacterial infection known only to Who performers. That nose was a sponge. It was pretty disgusting. Yeah. Of all of these jobs, Scott has talked about how he would like to maybe like one day a year do his tram job still. Oh, yeah. Is there anything where you're like, once in a while, it would be fun to like do this aspect or like is it yeah whatever yeah i mean i definitely would love to be a princess for a day again like i really that job was it was challenging i mean i mean obviously it's not that

hard but you know like a very literal it's it's not like operating a crane yeah it's a pretty cushy job that a lot of people would be would really want to have so i would love to go work at tokyo disneyland again like i would honestly do that once a week um like for the rest of my life i um you know i just think that that was so fun and the kids i mean there's nothing cuter than a Japanese three-year-old. Oh, boy. I mean, they are so cute. Who are there for you. Yeah, and they love you.

Like, it's like mom, dad, and you're number three, almost. And that really was, like, my only real brush with fame was, like, being a Disneyland princess, you know? It was, like, it was kind of a cool experience to have but yeah just to be able to interact with the kids sure was would be really cool I would I would do that again but not ever full-time and also I've aged out of it but you age out of it really quickly seemingly like it's a pretty you have a decade I mean you can do it to like i mean there were some people especially in um japan people would kind of push it into their early 30s yeah because they have to like bring people out so they're not going to be as strict i guess yeah

but there were a couple kind of lifers and then you kind of graduate either into like management or you know you could become a fairy godmother I was gonna say yeah wait Yeah you could just shift over Which by the way I've seen fairy godmothers with like Plastic faces Oh yes Like there's a creepy way they do that Yes Japan I think they do wear a head

In Japan Yeah It's not Jessie it's Bo Peep now There's a new Bo Peep out here and she's got the plastic mask. Oh, it's so disconcerting. V for Vendetta. The purge. The purge doll mask.

I get why they're doing it with Buzz and Woody. And I'm assuming that's the logic is like, well, she should have it too. But her face is not as cartoonish, I feel like, as theirs is. Yeah, that's not right. That shouldn't be happening. Yeah. Those crosses are boring. Recycled SpectroMagic. as cartoonish i feel like as theirs is yeah that's not right that shouldn't be happening yeah yeah those crosses of border recycled spectra magic i feel masks yeah is the only older woman you could play the fairy god i guess there's like those queens this is in the walk around like the evil

queen you've got cruella deville who's really fun and you could be i mean she's usually like late 20s too or mid to late 20s sure sure um yeah and then yeah you get into the fairy godmother um i guess the mother and the stepsisters but this the stepmother and the stepsisters they're more they don't come out all the time so there was they're just more special occasions maybe weekends um i should also real quick for the 50th anniversary i was working there and they brought out like a bunch of characters that had been you know put away for good so i got to play magara from hercules whoa cool which was cool and so yeah i was the only one who got to do

it and her the reason why they don't have her anymore is because well one that she wasn't that popular but also she has this huge ponytail so the way the wig works is it's a helmet like a hard helmet with this huge ponytail and you have to pin it into your head on there's only two points where you pin it into your head so women were getting bald spots from the wig yeah only when it was regularly in operation yeah geez suffering for your art yes really wow insane the only the other i was just saying the only other aging aging part would be just auditioning for the lucio ball estate i guess so this is what it's come to i would love a documentary about that yeah about like who runs it and who do you have to audition for and do you go to some weird like

mansion and chatsworth like whatever like desilu manor where some of them still live well he did um warner brothers very briefly did like some halloween events the last couple years i don't think they're doing it this year but there was a feud show there was a betty david betty versus joan there was a maze no there was a show oh a show sorry and i'm like do the estates have to weigh do the davis crawford estates have to weigh in on this like bawdy haunt show maybe probably probably right yeah geez that's a bizarre one uh anybody you wish you could have played uh or that if you wanted to add another to the arsenal i always well i was glad i

got to play mary poppins in um in tokyo because that was one of my other favorite movies and so that was just the costume is so good yeah i love that costume she in the parks is it like a is it a hat with flowers yeah she's got the white the white the jolly holiday outfit on oh that one oh where it okay yeah it's a little red belt so i love i loved playing her um and otherwise i mean this would never happen but jasmine would be fun sure just because that outfit sure i saw complaints on the reddit though that they were they were like the worst targets essentially for gross dudes because it's like essentially yeah yeah Oh yeah Jasmine and Ariel Get sexually harassed All the time

Yeah A bare midriff sends people a flutter I know It is really weird Do you ever like watch like Tangled and you go I could play Oh yeah I think maybe my face isn't round enough To play Tangled

To play what's her face? Oh, wait, so who are the latest Disney princesses? I'm trying to think of it. I've been- I looked this up because I was curious, and I watched a weird ceremony, the like induction ceremony of Merida. Oh, the redhead.

Yeah, yeah. From Brave, what's that? Milano. Milano since then, which brings the grand total up to 12. And then before that in descending order, Rapunzel, Tiana, Princess of the Frog, Mulan, Pocahontas. And then so then it's the 90s.

Right. Yeah. And Elsa. Are they not princesses? They are royalty. Oh, yeah. They are. They are.

Yeah. Because I feel like I saw things that I think maybe they I think it may be like merch lines are the arbitrary divisions. They might not be in the Big 12, Princess. They might have their own silo. Because they're probably popular enough to not be under the Princess

umbrella. But maybe at some point they will be moved over to the Princess area. Interesting, yeah interesting yeah no none of them i mean i honestly like cinderella to me is like the most iconic one yeah yeah but she's got the hoop skirt i mean that's kind of one of the best dresses i think yeah that's pretty you're wearing these like iconic like things you've been watching since you were a kid that all the like you're probably talking to like little kids who are dressed like you and like that adds to the magic of everything yeah

it was pretty special getting to wear the the cinderella outfit like that never really got tiring except it was itchy i'm sure yes besides the physical nature of it sure um god anything else i feel like we've like there's been this is one of the pockets it's been the most like just question this has been the most pure interview like inquisition essentially and uh what else and uh also um i uh did you have to like oh here's there's maybe one more thing did anybody ever did you have to like Oh here's there's there's maybe one more thing Did anybody ever did you have to like Keep mythology straight in your head Because I read a thing about how you know You if a kid it was very confusing

If a kid asked about Thomas the tank Engine like I don't know Tom you just can't acknowledge Other IP oh Interesting yes I think Yeah you were if they asked you about like I mean I'm trying to think like, who's the princess?

What was that knockoff Disney movie? Anastasia. Anastasia, which I actually loved Anastasia. But yeah, you would just, it didn't exist to you. Sure. You're like, I'll talk to Mickey about it, you would say or something? Yeah, yeah. I'll talk to Mickey.

I'll ask Mickey. Yeah. I'll write a letter about that. I asked Mickey. I'll ask Mickey. Yeah, I'll write a letter about that. I asked Mickey. He got very upset and stormed off. So take from that what you will. I'd say don't. He said something very mean about

Jeffrey Katzenberg. Whoever that is. Whoever that is. I don't know who that is either. But Mickey hates him. I've got a lot of questions for Nikki. I'm going to do that in my real life when I don't know the answer to a question. I'm going to ask Nikki about that. And I just kind of like look away or something.

Do you want a picture? Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I use my princess skills all the time. Yeah. Sure. How so? And just like diverting uncomfortable questions. Sure.

You know, and waving to people diverting uncomfortable questions. Sure. You know? And waving to people. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. Has it affected your real life waving? I think it probably has. Yeah. I mean, it definitely does.

I mean, I'm able to just like be super fake. Really easily. It taught you how to flip on the fake switch Yeah It's like you'll get in the car after that and be like These three nerds, these fucking nerds That was terrible You're fooling me

It's all that matters But it also is all like We're talking to Matt about this It is improv It's like one of the most practical applications of improv skills Oh for sure yeah you're like doing half of an improv show essentially to somebody who doesn't know they're in an impression yeah definitely yeah and just like being in character and

i mean yeah it is it literally is improv but it's the same improv over and over and over again sure so it starts to become plug and play like i know all of the answers here uh um awesome well hey this is all this is all so cool to hear about amanda lundy survived podcast the bride uh thanks for uh thanks for telling us all this stuff for surviving the the inquisition especially uh uh uh let's exit to the gift shop is there anything you would like to plug oh thank you well thanks so much for having me this was really fun um and i would love to plug my podcast the big ones which i host with my friend maria blasucci and we discuss life's big moral quandaries like would you rather be 20 more attractive or 20 smarter um or god we just did one of my favorites we had mad on and we discussed so there's um a

murder trial you're on the jury and the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but their conjoined twin and the twin is innocent do you send them both to jail or do you let a murderer go free whoa gosh i don't have an easy answer for that it's not there's no easy answer i guarantee you yeah and there's no you couldn't like make somebody be in half of a jail because they would still be stuck i know you could put them like the other side of the wall is a park but uh then there's you're still then you're stuck between a wall essentially i know it takes a lot of resources yeah you would have to have somebody. My quick, now I'm thinking about it, would be like, a person follows them around and makes sure the one doesn't get to do anything fun that the other one's doing.

That's kind of where we landed. Not to give away too much, but we went down a lot of, I mean, there was a lot. Like if there was not no movies, if a movie you have to put headphones on and like a mask on and they don't get to see the movie. Or the one, the innocent one gets to decide what movie to watch every time that's good too unless they probably share taste though if they're yeah because it's sharing similar things vr helmet might take if you put somebody in a pleasant world or an unpleasant world a vr helmet that is fixed to their head and they see jail and they see jail we did not think of this

well actually matt did come up with some sort of head jail but he we he didn't go as far as to say vr we were just more thinking a bird cage man in the iron man but anyway this was just a glimpse into the types of discussions we have on the big ones. And that's on my podcast network, Eerios Network, which is a woman-run network. So, if you go to Eerios, just Google Eerios Podcast Network. We've got a bunch of good shows. Sure. How do you spell that?

It's E-A-R-I-O-S. Cool. Big moral quandaries would be faced by the princesses because they, as rulers of kingdoms, you don't see that side of things. They have to probably sentence people to death or decide whether to go into a war or not. I mean, it's true. We did do the Little Mermaid dilemma. Would you give up your identity for love? Oh, right.

Yeah. Is there a clear deterrent? Well, I shouldn't say it. I mean, listen, we all have different moral compasses. Sure. That's true. Yeah. So it's not really black and white all the time, except for this VR helmet solution,

which is genius. All right. Clear. I mean, truly, you win. Like, that is the solution. Using my knowledge of theme park-esque technology. Yeah. You're correct.

Awesome. Well, yeah. Yeah. Check all that out, erios.com. And as for us, hey, live shows are all happening. Awesome. Well, yeah. Check all that out. Eerios.com. And as for us, hey, live shows are all happening. Chicago is now out there. Orlando. Check the hyperlinks in this.

Right. We can do that. We can do that. You can click right there and then buy tickets to see us in Chicago and Orlando in October. October 19th for Chicago. Yes. October 24th in Orlando. Yes, that's right. Great. And then, yeah, buy tickets to those. Yeah.th in Orlando. Yes, that's right.

And then, yeah, buy tickets to those. Yeah, come see us. That's the main thing. But besides that, for more Podcast the Ride, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And there's three bonus episodes every month if you subscribe to Podcast the Ride, the second gate at patreon.com slash podcast the ride. Thanks so much, everybody. Dream is a wish your heart makes.

Yep. Let's go. Let's go ask Mickey about some stuff We'll go talk to Mickey Bye Forever Dog This has been a Forever Dog production Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan

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