Podcast: The Ride - Jekyll & Hyde Club with James III

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

New Yorkers love a lotta things: electrodes, plastic skulls, wolf creatures and decent tasting macaroni and cheese. That's why NYC was the perfect place for these now dead (RIP) restaurants. Former Jekyll and Hyde performer James III (Astronomy Club, The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish) fill us in on the gory details. New Star Tours Levels (2024) is up at The Second Gate: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide  FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever! Dog! others. Today, unleash your madness with discussion of clackety sphinxes, fraudulent purchases in Nantucket, and the defunct New York theme restaurant Jekyll and Hyde Club with Jekyll and Hyde graduate James III on Podcast The Ride. welcome to podcast the ride where we know the Greenwich Village folk scene paled in comparison to the Greenwich Village broken robot scene. I'm Scott Gardner, joined by Mike Carlson. Hi. Hi, yes, here. It's so much more like needing a documentary, really, when we talk about the broken robot scene. Yeah, absolutely. Needing, you know, we can fictionalize it there's the documentary version let's like let's you know let's follow i think like 10 part documentaries about every performer

every animatronic right the clackety uh old sphinx that's definitely uh you know you could show that through the years the evolution through the decades yes uh jimmy buffett's best friend frank marshall is doing a lot of rock and roll type documentaries lately, and I think he might be the guy to do. That was fast. Well, just a quick- Within first two minutes. Just in case this is your first episode

and you didn't know who Frank Marshall was. In case, yeah, and you need to be acquainted with, there'll be a lot of Frank Marshall talk. He's a movie producer, Indiana Jones, blah, blah, blah, but most importantly, he was Jimmy Buffett's best friend, and he makes a lot of rock and roll docs. Jason Sheridan is a perfect reason to stop talking about that.

Jason Sheridan, hi. Hi, yeah. I was just just thinking i was thinking about the village folk scene i wish there had been an episode in the early seasons of mad men where because don draper ends up at like a coffee shop performance venue at some point but if he was just surrounded by male functioning robots yeah that would have been a great juxtaposition oh we don't know what he got up to um yeah after the series ended he might have been one of the the people who funded the animatronic movement oh he might have given nolan bushnell his money sure start the checky cheese chain uh um to me well we're gonna start we're gonna start digging in here because what we are doing today is a a deep dive into a theme restaurant technically a theme

restaurant chain there were there were a number of them though seemingly briefly i feel like most of the run briefly there was one uh it is called jekyll and hyde Club this was a a haunted explorers club is the if that tells you anything if that means if that phrase means anything to you it was a weird like horror themed restaurant with a ton of animatronics a ton of performers and just like a generally creepy spooky sort of vibe correct yeah it's like rainforest cafe if instead of a rainforest it was a haunted house and if the storm went off like way more often. If it was kind of always the storm. If the storm was pummeling you with the storminess of whatever the type of storm it was.

Yeah, many, many storms within the bigger storm. We talked about this place a little bit on stage in New York, having come literally from there to do the live show we did a couple years ago. But that was not the exhaustive conversation. I think this can be that. We need more conversation about this restaurant. Let's get exhausted. That's what the listeners demand. But especially because I'm so excited that we could do a deep dive here

with somebody who was on the inside, who worked there. And that's why this has come about. A former employee employee a former performer uh accurate and i i made a point of not asking too many questions so we could we could find out uh together uh also a a writer on the out very soon fairly odd parents a new wish from astronomy club uh he's got a kickstarter for a comic book he's writing Called Junior, it's James the third Hello Yes, excited to do it The way you were just, a deep dive I was like, oh my god, am I

The whistleblower of the Oh gosh, it depends Only you can tell us, only you were on the other side Of those walls James, so excited to have you here And we We were emailing back and forth About stuff to talk about a little bit. And you had some theme parks you were fond of that you grew up with and some memories.

But it was kind of a like, do I have stories about this place or do I not? We're trying to find the one. My memory is I don't have it. It's gone now. It's fully gone everything is like thin vague like blurry photographs is sort of my entire memory of my childhood

so this is going to be like a psychological harm where we are helping you uncover but landing on this was simply because I spent so many days of my life there that like that like there has to be some there has to be some chunks of things that i can talk you'd have to imagine well that

was you know so we're like we got some theme parks and i was like well you know when we do other stuff we do this that we talk about like theme restaurants sometimes and then you you did like a full backup like wait wait wait did you say theme restaurant do you happen to know what Jekyll and Hyde club is oh do we we absolutely do and yet never fully fully did it um so let's let's let's dive in what was the what are the details of your employment at this place when and what did you do so I was there uh shortly after college for me so it would have been something like uh to 2009 2010 somewhere around there and uh and so at the time there were a couple locations one was um one was at 57th street and 7th avenue uh-huh that was the main location that's where i was okay and then there was like

tall that is a like they expanded to that maybe like later in the 90s that is like a four-story like yeah the most nuts one although i don't know the others fully to compare it to yes and then the and then the other one which i think was the was the first one was in was yeah was uh on 14th street or something like that the pub the jogging ride pub oh i didn't know that designation okay yeah and there's there's one actor there there's several actors at the at the club there's one actor at the pub um and you know you that was something that like you looked forward to having that opportunity of like i just gotta chill at the pub for a little bit there's like a handful of of customers maybe you know like it's like a it's a lighter day there right like less animatronics and stuff there too okay which it's and it's funny you say that because

that's the one that we got to go to kind of on its last legs and and it's funny that that is the less animatronics because it did look i mean we, we were there to do that, do the stuff. Yeah. But we were also like chatting with friends. Our mutual friend Griffin was with us. And like, boy, is it a place where like you start to get on to some point and then like, hold, stop. Like just every, boy, is it the loudest. Right.

And so when I say less animatronics, I think I'm more mean. Were they interactive? Could you talk to those robots or were they just robots talking at you? Mostly talking at us. Yeah. Yeah. And so what I meant, there's less responsibility for the actor to, uh, to, uh, puppet up a puppet and talk to people.

Okay. Which is something that we're doing a lot at the club. This is a full dimension of the place then that i do not read not only are you maybe like out in a laying a mad doctor uniform but you're also behind a wall yes being a i don't know a werewolf i feel like i saw those yeah you're being there there was a lot of different people there's a gargoyle uh there's a there's a werewolf there's a head there's like a two-headed doctor there's like just a like a head in in a corner i'm trying to remember who else but there was a every floor had at least one and the main room had one that performed to all the floors

like the gargoyle performed to all the floors okay um and stuff like that. Okay, okay. So you're hired as a performer who can take on any number of these things? Yes. Okay. So the perk was you got your equity card for doing the job. Wow. Yeah.

And so there was a lot of, as an actor at the time, you're sort of going like, do I want to get my equity card right now? And do I want to get it for this? You know, because you're not sure what the prestige of that is going to be. You know, once you become a union actor, your price point goes up in a way. And so it's like, you can't do the non-union jobs.

You can't do this, that, and whatever. Oh, so you're like, am I ready to get pulled out of things that are potential work right and that could be good work for me as somebody developing as as an actor sure yes but i was like some guy in an eyepatch or whatever it is while serving pizza but i was like excited about like i was excited about doing voices i was excited about improv like i was like i was i and oh and i should also say i went as a kid we did i'm from ohio and we did a couple trips to new york in fourth and fifth grade and i went as a kid and like had a ball it was i loved this place so then when i learned like i could work here i could i could i could get it you know and so yeah and so you're you're

essentially hired to play characters and to do the voices of the good guys. Gotcha, gotcha. That is the sense that I get, is that if you were in New York, yeah, like you're 10 or 11 or 12 or something, and you could do a birthday party here or something, that this place was pretty ace.

That's definitely the sense I got. I don't think we're there. I think we knew we were not there in the peak of the existence of the place. We were the only table there full of people, perhaps? I believe so. I mean, it was an odd. It was a Sunday at three o'clock.

It was perfectly naughty mealtime, so I will give them that. But I'll also say especially at the pot and and depending on when you went they might not have had any there was a time square location that popped up at one point and and i don't know if 57th street was still going but like the pub even when i was there and at a time that we were sort of there was bustling you know it was always like quiet there the late night shifts were always it was bustling, you know. It was always, like, quiet there. Gotcha. The late night shifts were always, it was like no one was there.

If you went back to, like, you went back to Ohio. Hey, I went to New York. I did this thing. How did you describe it? I want to make sure we capture the, like, what this was at its peak. Like, what is the shorthand that made you excited then and that made you excited to work there later yeah i mean what made me excited then was like i i fully remember there's a there's like a an animatronic of of an explorer who like it's like something's

coming to get me you know and? And like, I remembered that. I remembered that moment. I remember that moment being fun for me as a kid. Growing up, I just, I mean, once I was like there and actually working, I just called it like, I called it like Chuck E. Cheese with Explorer. Like it's Chuck E. Cheese, but there's, but it's mad scientists. It's Chuck E. Cheese, but Explorers. Sure, sure.

Which is so insane that that's like like because it's not an idea that's not an idea that like this is not like a natural idea to make happen you know what i mean like it's not like of course million dollar idea but it's also really neat it is just like you know it's kind of a cousin. There's shades of... I mean, it predates Trader Sam's, the enchanted tiki bar at Disneyland, or the Adventurers Club was before that, down in Disney World. It's like a cousin of those things. But doing this in New York, definitely strange.

And then it was working for a time. It does feel tourist trappy. Sure. Obviously, it doesn't feel like authentic New Yorkers are going to go here every day it wasn't yeah it was always it was tourists it was it was drunk people any any level any you know from all walks of life drunk people would would come also so it was like kids and and you know someone who's like drunk at 4 p.m sure sure i kind of didn't know was real i think i first became aware of the

concept a when uh the unbreakable kimmy schmidt started airing and titus burgess works at a jekyll and hyde stand-in kind of restaurant yes there's a specific line he says in that that like i felt like we were being read for filth where he goes he goes i'm uh auditioning for the doctor role then i get to have a monologue that was exactly what it was it was like the premier role you got to play was the doctor and the doctor had the three minute show every it would happen every hour or every whatever every 30 minutes or something and like and once you got to be and and we like admired to the people that were like good at the doctor and like the people that could like do that well you know uh because you're you're carrying it in a big although but aren't you in any because any role that you have has improv as part of it

you're on the whole time yeah you every role you had to be on the whole time and we were like scrutinized if it like seemed like we weren't like if it ever seemed like you were like laxed or whatever yeah you know uh but the but the doctor specifically uh would have to it would it was like you were commanding a friend who who did it steven leferrier is his name he he said if i were if i then this sort of answers a question that you had he was like if i were to tell my younger self he'd be like uh you know i i do uh eight shows a week at a at a fancy midtown manhattan location you know like for, like for several crowds of people, you know, like-

People from all over the world. That's how he would describe it to his younger self. Because like that is, there were times where it really felt like the quiet of the four floors was like, it was like, wow, like everyone's listening to the doctor, you know?

Oh, you're commanding the entire restaurant. You're right. I don't have eyes on you. Wow. Wow. And was it a speech, like a completely written speech that you'd have to do verbatim?

So, and you could, uh, you could improvise around it. Okay. But, um, um,

there was like a speech that you had to, that you had to do. You remember any of it? I'm not telling you, I don. Do you remember any of it? I'm not telling you you have to do it but do you remember any of it? I don't remember any of it. I remember a lot of Stevens actually because I watched a lot of his. I don't remember what I what I said but I remember that

my doctor character you can tell me if this sounds like anyone you're familiar with. But he kind of talked like this. Oh. Okay. Okay. Got it. What does that word sound so familiar like a little bit like and um is this a doctor who had i don't know an affinity for jello pudding pops every now and again he would have the jello um and uh and you would and you were essentially bringing a

frankenstein's monster to life so there was a lot of like, life, give it life. And I remember Stephen doing a line of Shakespeare. He would go, blow winds, come rack, at least I'll die with harness on my back. Shakespeare, I thank you. Give it life. And it was always like, this freaking, this guy's a rock star. Like, it was like, it truly felt like wow you know you know i'm a you know

young kid fresh out of college looking at him like wow i can't believe it if you go to the you know like you're starting out at an improv theater whatever and like who who are the stars yeah there at the time like remain stars to you forever yeah uh so yeah like the you know the big dog doctor of course um even if you graduate, okay. So congrats on graduating to doctor. Yeah. That's, that's, those are in order.

Uh, thank you. I, wait a minute. So, so that's like, okay. The centerpiece of the evening, like there's, there's all these little shows going on, but where everybody, where the doctor that gets everybody's attention and it's to bring a, this isn't, it's, it's, it's to bring a this isn't it's it's not dr jekyll no and so dr jekyll is there uh i think dr jekyll is who like grabbed that explorer that i remember remember but but no one's ever no one's playing dr jekyll okay this is a big question yeah yes like because that's the the namesake but it all

seems like uh like people he knew or associates or people who like tell his legend it's an explorer's club you know who and you could like you could know dr jekyll if you if your character chose to my my first character what i never knew dr juggle that was never something that my first character was an explorer he had snakes around his neck his name was colonel plunder um and then you there were explorers you could play there were uh scientists you could play and then there were butler butler uh house staff that you could play so i was a butler okay an explorer and a doctor okay okay gotcha um and in that way does colonel plunder come to you or is that an existing character uh yeah and so uh he was an existing character i didn't have like an example of

somebody playing it and i he just sort of had like a, it's Colonel Plunder was his deal. And yeah, and you just had, he was like, he liked adventure and was suave and stuff like that. Okay, sure. I feel, oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say,

so like Colonel Plunder was an existing character. Yes, Plunder was not a name I came up with. I was just going to say, so like Colonel Plunder was an existing character. Yes. Plunder was not a name I came up with. I remember that being given to me. But you would have like maybe like guidelines or no? Yeah. I mean, the essential things were like, you could essentially do whatever you wanted. I knew that he was like adventurous. Right.

You know, club members, so like doctors and explorers had to carry around a drink. And then that was it. You could just, you just had to go around and you had to, you know, go up and talk to everyone at all the tables. And I don't remember any of his like log line, except for that he was, his name was Plunder.

Okay. So yeah, you really could go nuts with whatever backstory you wanted. of his like log line, except for that he was, his name was plunder. Okay. Okay. So yeah, you really could go nuts with whatever backstory you wanted. Be like, my wife passed away today. Like you could really bum people out of you want it. You could make them happy. Like who knows?

Yes. Some people were really good at that also. Like I didn't have a, my guy was just always just like trying to have uh plunder was always trying to have fun my butler was always like he was kind of sniveling and and and you know like kind of you didn't really like him and um but like yeah you could you could you your story could be influenced by the people you're talking to or the day you're having or whatever how would you get evaluated for your performance by like the owner okay yeah so um the there was a head of

entertainment who was the person who like you auditioned for and who would would rate you and um it it mostly had to do with like how well your because the because the the animatronics had had pre-recorded voices right so like how well are you are you matching those and like they shouldn't sound different once a person you know but there's also like there's a variety of different people all day playing all of the different characters so they're going to sound like how they're going to sound and then i think i think it really was just like guest satisfaction like right if if if they're what they're there they're watching you know they're the whoever the if it's not the entertainment the head of entertainment it's it's whoever is like

the shift captain for that day and they're watching the monitors there's cameras everywhere so that you can like talk to, you can like actually talk to the people. You know, that's what the cameras are for. But like also it's like, well, I haven't seen you at this table. You haven't done the this. You haven't done the that.

I see. I was just picturing like, is there ever like an undercover boss situation where somebody goes in there and they're like, Colonel Plunder, do you like exploring? And then you're like, no, I don't.

I don't like it. There were, because the actual owner and people that knew the owner were people that would also come all the time. Yeah. And you didn't know. Right. You just didn't know. I can't tell you what the owner's name was or what he even looked like, but they would be there all the time. At any point, that could be some of the people that are there so if you were like

having a slow day and you just didn't feel like going over to the corner but you're like i was on that floor yeah you're screwed if you didn't go and talk to specifically them you know right okay yeah um how often are you encountering people? Like how often are people into it, doing it with you? And how often have people been dragged there or trying to like poke holes in you and the story happened too many times that people didn't want to, I would say, I would say 75% of the time people are like jazzed. Like people are like, just like, I just like i like i'm now remembering uh to to the point of like getting a voice right i are now remembering being the gargoyle uh and talking

to the entire crowd and like some woman on like the third floor being like is that colonel plunder like screaming at me and i'm trying to like yeah like i was i didn't mask it enough to like so like most of the times people were like that but whenever people were there and like hating their lives it was like why did you come like yeah don't come here yes we're in new york city infinite yeah you could go be in a corner you could be in a like in an unpopulated you could sit at the corner of a sad bar two feet away. Infinite places where people will be rude to you as far as waitstaff is concerned.

They will leave you alone, essentially. And you don't have to do improv with them. You could go across the street to Outback Steakhouse or down the street to Les Miserables and just occupy yourself otherwise. Absolutely. And I will feel that forever about anything like like don't don't make my i have to talk to you you know like i just yeah if i don't talk to you i'm gonna get they're gonna say that you were such and such as best friend and i'm gonna get fired or whatever but you didn't have to be here you could have gotten um you know jalapeno poppers from any number of other popper establishments did you

ever get hit with somebody who was like too excited in the sense you were like i love colonel plunder or whatever and they're like hello there you're like whoa no no no no too much yeah plenty of people would come in and want to play characters too um we we we also had like people that like wanted to do it but like didn't like you know like didn't book or whatever and they would they would like come in and be like you know really yeah like hangers hangers hang hang around and kind of like yeah stuff like that happened i don't any. I wish I had like a specific story of a time. Like somebody was like playing to the third floor for an hour before we realized he brought his own. He brought his own like cleaver in the head from a Halloween store.

There was a guy when I worked retail at the container store when I was like 21 or something. There's a guy in the parking lot that bought an old cop car and would come in and kind of show it around and you like he wanted you to get the like the idea that he was a cop yeah but he wasn't a cop so it's like there were like jekyll and hyde people going in there like doing voices and they kind of wanted people to think maybe they were part of it yeah i mean i know i i just recall people being like excited about it on that level, but, but never like, um, but never to that degree of like, you shouldn't be, you have to go like, you know,

not full like stolen valor where they were taking like orders or something. Yeah. And yeah. And to that point, uh, it had to, you had to be separate. The,

the waitstaff could have fun, but we were the characters and they were you know and like and that was always a weird strange like they're having they i do recall in terms of the like scrutinizing like they're having more fun with the waitstaff than they're having with with you guys you have to blah blah blah that's something you're not keeping up with they're they're just liking talking to a friendly person who is regular. Did you ever get approached by, did a customer ever go like, this fettuccine Alfredo is cold, can you send it back? Would you just have to flag down the waiter?

And that was always weird and strange because we're supposed to be not employees. Yes. And you'd have to like act like whatever do you mean I'm enjoying my drink go talk to whatever you know then you don't want to but then you want their satisfaction to be right like they're at the point where they're like if you don't do this

for me I'm going to whatever race hell they can do but they're like I haven't been paying attention to any of this as far as I know you're like, I haven't been paying attention to any of this. As far as I know, you are the server. I didn't look anyone in the eye in any part of this. It would be funnier if they were yelling all this at the gargoyle, though. Yeah, right.

Damn. Like, can I just put it in your mouth and you'll take it somewhere? Yeah, yeah. Can you ingest this? And do your pipes go back to the kitchen somehow? This burger's supposed to have bacon on it and it doesn't yeah this is very funny to hear like how intense this was because the

trip advisor reviews from like 21 2021 and 2022 are all about covid protocols and coupon errors yeah and like that is such that's such a bummer that that is how like it eventually folded is like they didn't honor a coupon right i mean i feel like that was probably i can i can i can understand why uh people were probably upset about covid protocols given how it was when i was there i mean mean, I don't, I, it was, we had the vibe that it felt like corners were trying to be cut as much as possible. But, but I can't speak, I can't speak. I wasn't there then, but like, I can, I can understand, you know?

And I can imagine like people were mad about like Groupons not being honored the whole time, like the entirety of them. Seems like part of the, if you're involved in getting Groupons, like chances are you're kind of excited to maybe go write some reviews about them not being, that's part of the Groupon experience. Dissatisfaction with the Groupon experience.

I also remember the vibe of stuff like that being like, being like you would go to a higher up. If someone did come to you about a problem, you'd be like're worried about this and they'd be like i don't know what that is would be there would be would be the top person i can talk to his reaction to that thing there's no way to handle it or or or deal with it at that point when they're just like what even is that you know and then walking then walking away. Yeah. Yeah. Especially cause yeah. If you're, if you're dressed as a night in that scenario, um, yeah,

some more. Okay. The characters and all this, this was one of the things that was like, uh, really fogging my brain as I was getting ready for this because, okay. It's called Jekyll and Hyde club.

And it's kind of, you know, it felt all right. If you read the description of the place, it is like Dr. Jekyll and Hyde Club and it's kind of you know if you read the description of the place it is like Dr. Jekyll assembled many unusual friends souvenirs and artifacts in his quest to rid himself of Mr. Hyde so that's what okay these are all

all things he did to try to go cold turkey on being Mr. Hyde yeah now I'm even more confused actually but we brought them all together so it's like a place for his wares and what he's collected. So, okay, so we're not going to meet Jekyll while doing this. We are going to meet a doctor, and there will be like bringing a thing to life.

But between their own website and reviews of the place, it went on and on and on. The amount of characters and mythology usually in in ways where i could not tell which one is an animatronic and which one would have been you or one of your friends like that no nowhere is there delineation to where i was reading you know i'm reading about like tobias bloodworth okay and then it took me like a couple days to realize tobias bloodworth is a is a werewolf head. That's not a guy walking around because nothing in that name tells me Tobias Bloodworth could be a guy.

Don't know. We, I believe met Tobias Bloodworth. I went through our videos. We were there. So we were there in April, 2022. The place I believe closed one month later.

We were right there. And the whole vibe, Mike, was was it was it not very like you couldn't tell if the it was like wow it's themed to being a place that is very like full of decay oh it's falling apart oh what a creaking created old restaurant that's been lived in for centuries with such accurate cobwebs and dust. And that stench, whatever could be in that stench. And it's empty to give you that eerie feeling of, who's around the corner? Wow, what have they done to this magical place? The floorboard is loose.

Well, I'm glad to know that, because I was there a good 10 15 years prior that they maintained their their like yes the the blurred lines between is this thing messed up or is it and i and i say that having never been to the times square location which from the outside looked like it was like nice in there do you know what i mean like that they like it was you know newly it was newly built so it had to be like things were like fresh and working well and and and every every animatronic like moved with a glide instead of like a you know creek yeah yeah yeah yes like it's it's dying as it's turning on yes jittering um but anyway i brought up to say that to buy his blood or whatever the wolf the werewolf i was looking at that i'm filming doing a line of dialogue uh red eyes glowing and just mouth not opening or closing in any way just firmly on there and then let me like i'm just gonna say

some names tell me if you have any associations with these names even if it's just called bloodworth but could not remember that it was a werewolf head i'll say that okay that'll give you my frame of reference oh do you remember the name the last name of the doctor unless this is a different doctor character is that somewhere there were various doctor characters so okay so because we weren't all the same doctor and even sometimes this was always a thing like if someone predominantly played a Doctor character, when you arrived, you were, like, told, like, you're this role, you're that role, you're the other, you know. But, like, there couldn't be two Doctors at the same time. Ah, okay. You know, and that would always be confusing.

And so sometimes that would happen just for someone being like, this costume's clean or whatever. Like the other ones. But so they were all different. If you could, you had to be like technically be a dentist or something. I know I'm in a lab coat, but what I saw a lot was a doctor named Dr. Hackenoff. Okay. Saw that a lot. A maid named Tippi Toppingsworth. Yes. You remember Tippi Toppingsworth? off okay saw that a lot a maid named tippy toppingsworth yes you remember tippy toppingsworth

uh what was the name of the actor who played i think sarah i can't remember her last name but i remember a tippy i remember it to be like being present like uh and she uh she had a yoo-hoo every time she like entered or exited a room. It was always fun when Tippi showed up. That's a character. I get a sense of the character from that. Crowd pleaser. Dr. Sawyer Bones.

I like that. That's good. What you could tell me was the full name of the lead character on the show Bones, as far as I know. Sure, Dr. Sawyer Bones. David Boreanaz was Dr. Saw dr soyer bones it might have been sorry i'll never know or not know um aloe vicious ghoul the wacky chief mortician yes um you got jervis

the were you were you jervis maybe that was a butler jervis might have been the name of my butler character. He comes out of the butler. Oh, that's good. That's where he was. Yeah, yeah. So that feels like a Jervis to me. I wonder if you're going to keep talking. I'll be like, no, that was the guy. I feel like I remember Plunder the most because that was my first guy.

And then over time, you're doing like 12 hour you know 16 hour shifts and it's like i don't remember you do that many i don't think 16 hours was how long but i would do you would do double 12 hour uh 14 hour doubles yeah you lose your mind you absolutely and in that space absolutely i mean it's probably why i can't remember any of it but like yeah you would and you would and i think in the event of a double you you would be the same character all day. You wouldn't like switch. I don't know. Yeah, because that could be potentially confusing for anyone.

That was. Would you get. Who was there all. Who was also there for 12 hours as a customer. Why are they still here? Would you get stuck like Austin Butler playing Elvis? Would you come home and be like yeah yeah i mean that would that would happen to a to a degree like after afterwards i i just remember like um

i just remember like leaving and sort of still talking to people like in my t-shirt i was like you know like you know um uh but never like i'm so mad too long yeah but a little like maybe you stop somewhere in time square like you stop at the gap or something and you're like just a quick interaction with the employee and you still have a little bit of a voice going yeah why'd you say the word prithee so why'd you say pray tell ordering tacos uh uh i'll just rip through gertrude k boom dr brain uh major michael magoo philip andrew edward carrington the fourth now we're into somewhere there's no like pun or anything i don't know what this is i don't know what kind of monster you are priscilla plank ariel boatsman that's just almost a plain name yeah that's what i'm saying and then you're throwing out plunder you're throwing out ones i've never seen and then it still keeps you

sydney femur and marty patella sydney femur sydney femur sounds familiar okay okay i also never know if any of these were in the the pub as opposed to the club. Right. There was some confusion there. Yeah. I mean, there were some. I don't think there was anything that was pub exclusive because club, where I spent most of my time, was the offshoot of that. So I think that they had the handful of things that were there, I think, and then expanded on that. Sure, sure. things that were there i think and then and then and then expanded on that sure sure um i mike any other memories of our time at at pub since that's the biggest overlap uh i mean it was

it was memorable and yet when we were talking about it on stage two hours later i just i just i felt like i've been like i feel like i've been hit by like a bunch of soft baths or something. Nothing that hurt me, but it was confusing. It just left me in a... I felt like I've been soft pummeled to where I recalled nothing too specific. I could not make some big judgment about the place. Yeah, I didn't have anything so profound to say about it, nor do I have anything to say about it in that way now but it

felt like yeah like you went into that halloween section of the home depot um and it was really squeaky like all the all the robots were extra squeaky and then the one perform human performer uh was really good i felt yes um but it was one of those things where the pressure now because you're like the only table in there is that you need to be the audience for this guy. Yeah. And I get very anxious when it comes to that. I get very anxious when there's like a person doing like close-up magic right on top of me

because I really want to perform for these people. I want to be like, yes, or yes, so funny or whatever. But then I start to get like, oh my God, I'm going to have to like put it on, but maybe it's going to sound fake if I'm not impressed or I don't think what he's saying is funny. So I felt the pressure of that where it was like like if he kind of just did a quick glancing blow of a joke at us. Great.

But I felt like, oh, he's here. He's still here. He's still here. Yeah. And I'll say the quick glancing blurting out a joke is how I preferred to be because I'm that way in both scenarios. I'm like, I'm feeling uncomfortable being directly in front, like having to perform directly in someone's face.

And I'm also feeling uncomfortable if I'm the audience member as well. But you had to stay. You could not, you couldn't, if you did that, someone would know. And that was the other thing about, but that was the other thing about the pub that was nice was that you didn't have that as much oversight as you did at the club. So if you wanted to kind of be a little bit more casual, you could,

but it would somehow get back. Like somehow they knew. Like someone would find out. Dr. Jekyll would find out. Yeah. Yeah, and we were also, we had been up till like 6 a.m the night before yes like i slept about three hours yes jason didn't make it jason wasn't quite there i didn't make it i i guess i yes clinic that morning all right it's been two years i'll say now i drank

too much rye whiskey at an snl after party and i woke up with like a froggy voice. You sure did. So then I, yeah. And that's why the last time I really drank whiskey. Oh, wow. Oh, geez. A lesson learned. I had a Boilermaker when we were celebrating the end of the City Walk saga. Okay. And that was the first time in years. That was a whiskey on retirement.

Oh, wow. It wasn't. So, but we had a show to do that night, and you guys were like, we're going to Jack Land to hide it. I was like, I need to stay at the hotel. I'm alternating cold water and hot tea

to heal my voice. I'm sure they have both of those things. The finest ever. How many doctors are there on any given night? They could have fixed it in no problem oh yes perhaps leeches for you

I had also fallen James the intensity of management kind of makes sense because when we were planning this trip

to New York I looked at the website and I was like oh my god it's like 50 or 60 bucks ahead and you gotta to buy dinner and there's a show. And like,

this is where I was. I was so real decision back at home. That had nothing to do with every, there was timed entries. There was time stuff. And I was like, guys, I don't know if we'll be able to do that.

And then Griffin's like, no, it's just a bar. You just walk in and it's empty. And it's like, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Especially at that time. Yes.

But of course, I want to follow the rules. So I maybe at the time might have still been like, okay, but now our timed entry, it says 320, not 310. Is that okay? And then walking in and like, oh, no one is here. There is no human being in this. There are more robots. It's a shame that they implemented stuff like that when no one was there because we would have, there's like a thing that happened.

I don't know about at the pub, but at the club, there's like a show that happens to even bring you in. So we would have to like sometimes in the winter be like, you have to wait while the show happens for whoever's walking you know in and like it's a little like is it an equivalent sorry of the like uh you know like the haunted mansion like that you're in an elevator or the stretching room before you go into the ride there's they like hold you in a place to like kind of set the scene exactly exactly like that that like ends with like i think there's like we're all gonna die uh enjoy your meal you know like this is what the bible that was but i think it takes like a couple

minutes and uh and yeah we would always i feel like it was it probably is better to be like yeah you set a time and you come at this time and then everyone comes in you know yeah sure did you have to hold people out in the cold? Yes. All the time. All the time. There are a number of reviews of like, we had to stand outside despite it being 30 degrees.

We were not allowed to use the bathrooms if we were with. Can we just pop in? No, no, no. This whole thing. The bookcase swings. You had to go through that experience.

You had to hear, I believe it was a butler up front or a butler or maid or whatever house worker would do whatever their spiel was. And you had to have that experience in order to go in. There was no other way to get in. Yeah, literally, there's no side entrance. There's an exit. So there's an exit right next to it so sometimes you would come out like you'd be done with your shift and someone would try to get it and you know you'd have to like you'd have to make sure they didn't get in so you're you know still at work for like

30 seconds before me like you could technically you could like go through the kitchen but you don't want to do that you don't want to let the ear. You don't want to let people, the customers in that way. Wow. So much funny procedure. Okay. Oh, can I ask, how long did you work there for? I was there for about a year and a half.

Okay. Yeah. Which is not enough time. That's enough time to like, you did it, maybe you didn't get too sick of it. Or did you? How do you feel?

From the beginning of the experience to the end. I mean, it was, I think it's that thing where it was i like really was excited about the the job and it had a variety of different like things that would like reinvented like oh now you're playing this character now you're playing that character now you get to go to the pub i think the owner also like had like a he also had like a couple um like amusement parks i remember like doing a day somewhere like somewhere else you know so like in his little sister wait yeah yeah in long island yeah okay yes that must be it was like pirate bayville adventure park yes i mean i think that's exactly it and you could go as uh i went as an explorer because i guess teamed into like like tied into

um adventure but like so there were things that like would would would re would reinvent it but i was ultimately like it was it was like a job there was a point where it became a job and not like as as fun as it was yeah yeah Which a funny thing for that to become rote is starting off like you listlessly doing, welcome fellow traveler. Right. I, so the, what's that? No, I was just like,

today's special is jalapeno poppers. It really is. That's also funny that it's like, it's an assembly of the creepiest kooks and the most odd ducks from all over. And you're in like vaguely the late 1800s, maybe seemingly. You know, it's hard to like, you don't end up in the area of like, what is that strange device? Right. But bacon on top of macaroni and cheese.

Now I have seen everything. The food is very, for it being like, you know, that you're going to like old foggy London town and then the food is like spinach and cheese dip, nacho chili supreme, margarita chicken quesadilla. The New York Times did a review of this place where they called the pasta sauce red-tinged water. Sure, sure.

And granted, the guy, he wasn't even being that harsh. He's like, I was there with my nephew and niece, and what do you want at that age? Red-tinged water water i serve this at home to my four-year-old that's exactly what he wants uh you got they're vaguely uh themed with the you got a mummy burger you got a baddie burger that was the thing i couldn't remember was if the if the food was was themed or not a little but then baddie burger is like cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a pickle. Where does the batty come in?

Well, the mummy burger should be wrapped in something. Right. But it certainly wasn't. Sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese. That almost with the holes, it almost looks like the netting around. Yeah, but then you touch it and you get the cheese all over your hand. I guess you could wrap it in bacon. So it would be a ton of bacon

but still it would be wrapped in... It kind of looks like decaying skin. You could put it in one of those paper little wrappers like In-N-Out comes. So that might work. Yeah. I don't think they did anything like that. I think it was all like

it's this by name solely. That's like problem number one for any themed restaurant is that the food sucks or is unimaginative and then it it starts out that way generally and then just quickly goes very very far downhill yeah yeah well you know you know there's at least at some point there was a conversation with this with some like you know uh like he a debilologist who like concocted a strange array of like you know that like budgetarily they started by talking to a guy who invented 70 things that look like you're like and it's like you're pulling the top off and it's brains but the brains is really a stink and it's just painted and then at some point it becomes it's got look it's gotta be potato skins there's no other way we're gonna make money there's a

place where there's a truck that will come here and bring us potato skins and we heat them up and that is the end of this operation it's the same thing we've talked about forever is that it's like dad is gonna get confused yeah it's at the menu we can't have dad be confused we were at disneyland yesterday i suggested my dad eat shawarma. What is shawarma? That turned into a whole thing. It's the same food you have everywhere else, but rearranged slightly. It's chicken and it's chicken and bread, basically.

I remember the idea of the food was that it was pretty bad. But you got a shift meal depending on how long what time you arrived or how long your shift was and i just remember like needing i was also like you know very poor at the time even though i have this job and i'm blah blah but like being like there is a you know a vat of a casserole i'm gonna eat this whatever and it is like it's watery it's it's a soup it's a casserole but it's going to eat this, whatever. And it is like, it's watery. It's a soup. It's a casserole, but it's a soup, you know?

But I'm like, I'm eating this. I need it. It's here. It's the, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. I had the, I got the blandest pizza of my entire life. Yeah. But it was before, like before shows,

not to get too processed. I'm just like, I'm usually not hungry, but I'm like, but I have to eat so I don't faint. So I essentially want a paste. I want paste on top of mush. And that is kind of what I got out of this. And it was honestly, I'll always be fond of any food that helped me not faint somewhere. So I give it up to the pizza.

Do you have any mush that will be good for my blood sugar levels? Blood sugar mush is really what I'm looking for. Oh, fries? Just get the fries. Got it. Thank you. But fries sometimes taste like something. Will these?

No, no, no. Don't worry about that. There are, like, if you get bad steak fries, right? Those are sort of the thicker fries. Yeah. If you get bad steak fries, those are still good usually as long as they're not like rotten. Yeah, no, the sort of soggier, the sort of like lack of being done, the better with the steak fries. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Did I have, I'm going back. Just existing, yeah, yeah. Hi there, I'm Ryan Reynolds, and I have a list of things I like to have on set. It's just little things like two freshly cracked eggs scrambled with crispy hash brown, sausage crumble, and creamy chipotle sauce from Tim Hortons. From my rider to Tim's menu, try my new scrambled eggs loaded breakfast box. From commutes that become learning sessions to dishwashing filled with laughs, podcasts can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC Optimum points everywhere you shop. I'll see you next time. This is a sphinx head. This is my main memory of it because this was- The sphinx.

Okay, I'm glad I brought up the sphinx then. Okay, this is a big part of it. It was my main memory before I started diving in this week. And here is the audio. It's just like the lower jaw is going, and this is right above our heads. It could not be closer to us, and I think the audio, we'll paint a real picture of it. It's like it's a telegraph machine. Yeah, so I forgot that, looking at that image.

Because that's at the, that's the pub Sphinx? That's the pub, yeah. Yeah, the pub Sphinx has color to the face, right? It's like lit up blue and then the eyes glow. Oh, you had a much better view. That looks great from where you are. The Sphinx at

But it sounds exactly the same. Yeah, we had to like, ooh, we're the the sphinx i can't remember what the voice reference was but like this is where he drive time dj yeah guys the party man he was yeah he was a horizon he was a fun one but i think we were told him and fang who i this is not going to sound like like peter lorry but this was how the sphinx the fang was supposed to sound and those are the gargoyles the gargoyle yeah and those are the two that were like fun to to do but it was always like you had one that you liked to play so it was like you can't you gotta switch it up you can't just be the sphinx all day you can't

just do this okay okay which is good to make you a more well-rounded performer, to find your in on characters who aren't exactly yours. That's good training. Yeah, but the thing I was saying, I just remember that the Sphinx in Mint Town was, he's just like brown. He's just like stone.

And yeah, and so that's, I guess, one of the potential differences but same deal just his just his mouth goatee moved you know just you're puppeting it if you're doing yeah and so it was just like uh it was like an arcade game was how you would puppet them there's like a joystick and like a couple buttons um and yeah and it would and i had i had like songs that i would like to sort of, like every now and again, like if I didn't want to play a character at the moment,

I would like put a song on as like the, there's a doctor with a two-headed doctor on the third floor and I would do Monster Mash for like whoever was sitting in that corner with the doctor. Got the biggest show, but everyone would, I would like turn on other puppets, you in that corner with the doctor. Got the biggest show. But everyone would, I would like turn on other puppets. You know what I mean? So everyone's a part of the.

You could do a little multiple. Get your hands. You could do a couple. Wow. Wow. Wow. That was fun. That is fun.

I remember another strong memory. No, actually, I forgot until looking at videos. I'm so glad I remember now that the there is a like they do have a version of the like he's alive kind of like a frankenstein so that was the power show yeah okay okay i think this was entirely oh maybe the performer was in it but it's like a it like a kind of a metal bed descends from the ceiling and then the thing sits up and there's a lot there's narration pre-recorded narration about how like he's out of control get him with the tranquilizer but he's doing nothing yeah there essentially uh so you just gotta take their word for it but then

that video ends then i go to the next like oh what's happening in the next and it seems as though the creature coming to life then gave way to a full restaurant performance of i got the power and watching us all kind of like confusedly listlessly dance to i got the power and watching us all kind of like confusedly listlessly dance to i got the power over with some uh some house white wine at 4 p.m at an empty restaurant it's a vibe it was something i'm glad i got to you know did i get a real new york expect i have done something cooler with a more cultured thing yes but uh but you know you got get a real New York could I have done something cooler more cultured thing you absolutely could have but you know you gotta go with what's up your alley

so let me just call out details before we wind it down here let's see I don't know there were skeletons who play the piano and their heads spin around any other just big images that you're like well that's you can't bring it up.

I mean, the Sphinx is clearly one of them. Yeah, I'm remembering the skeletons now. And they had like set songs that they would sing. Two-headed doctor. I'm trying to go through the floors. What were the main puppets that you would do you would do uh let me ask was there a magician um i saw people mention a wandering magician yeah yeah i i uh there were club members so like the club members were like adventurers and there were also magicians i don't recall anyone actually

doing magic though if that makes sense so like it would be like your character was a magician that could you know could do magic it's seemingly do magic um but i don't recall there being any any actors at the time that i was there that could actually do it there there was one review that said um the lovely they had been there once before and they said the lovely magician is gone and replaced by an annoying old man who comes around to the tables so just imagine just all these characters and it's like all right your father time go bother them like right but it's like depending on the time that you come there's all these set things that happen but there will be different characters the lovely magician might be back another time right you know that was a thing for people people needed to remember they could maybe just came at the wrong time luck of the draw your

best bet is to just go if you're gonna go once go three times that week yeah different times of the day oh yeah and turnover was always was really like i was there for for you know a year and change and that's long for like people that are just like trying to get their equity card and always was really high. Like I was there for, for, you know, a year and change. And that's long for like people that are just like trying to get their equity card in pounds. Sure, sure. That happened, that happened a lot,

you know. Wow, wow. Generally solid run for you. That sounded also like that person was maybe like, had, was smitten with a magician. Yeah. A lovely magician.

Yeah. So would, would guests ever, because we, which episode was it we were talking about how there would be fans of specific people playing Disney princesses? It was the Amanda Lund episode.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. In Tokyo Disney specifically. Would people come in that were super fans of yours? I didn't have anybody that was a stalker of me in that way. I do remember, I'm thinking back to that woman that was like is that colonel blund you know i do remember there being times where people would be like you're my favorite of the day you know okay like oh i'm so glad you're here you know i don't like that that other right you know okay um but there was there was there weren't any like

i i fortunately didn't have anybody that was like following me home or like waiting outside like when you get off the shift and could you stay in character when you're out yeah let's get a drink but you have to have a vague british accent don't tell me you are not slightly british or this is over okay well that's good um the the girls next door went to this they made hef go here i went and watched the episode i've been missing out also on girls next door clearly a fine broadcast i used to watch it but i don't remember that episode i uh yeah well they went season one they were there early on uh hef had to like kind of clap along while like a lady did some like blood curdling somebody mistook him for one of the skeletons on the wall how'd you come loose nail him back up put him back up there wow really

realistic though as far as what performer pure ash comes out of his mouth who's puppeting this guy uh um so there's that you know hey it's a hot spot. Hef is there. Things are working out great. But I think the Times Square location stretched them kind of thin because that goes to, I think, the other one that you worked at on 7th, I think, merges with Times Square. But then Times Square goes down because that's a high-pressure place to do something. Meanwhile, they were trying to expand. They did Chicago and they did Dallas. They did. It was at one of the mills grapevine mills okay thank you yes um and neither of those made it very long chicago is now in italy that's what that is and then dallas be mad at that. No, yeah, it makes sense. I like Italy. I love a good Italy. That is a four-story business establishment where the model makes sense.

Yeah. So they start going down. The other ones, I believe the Mills one became an indoor skate park, and now it's a Legoland thing. So people just across the country did not have it in their heart to accept these 1800s theatrics. And then it's down to one. It's down to the pub.

But it was not looking so great when we were there. And I think even then, they had already declared bankruptcy. Oh, and the whole enterprise was not doing well in 2013 already because it was announced that they owed $2 million to their landlord. Yeah, I was going to say, I thought that we were done. I was surprised when Times Square happened. I was like, how?

Like, on what? You're in there. How do we have? And part of the appeal was that you could have an experience like this and you're not having to fight through everybody to get to Madame Tussauds or whatever. Oh, sure. Being not in Times Square was what was good about it to a degree. A little off the beaten path. Yeah, yeah.

Because it's around a corner. It's not like, yeah, yeah. You're not fighting crowds. Sure, sure, sure. But were you also in there going, even in success, are you like, this seems weird. Yeah. How does this place exist? I'll also say like, to it being off the beaten path, I worked a New Year's Eve there once.

And it's like one of my most memorable New Year's Eves. Oh, wow. Because it was like afterwards, you could just leave. Like I was there through to like, you know, 1230, maybe 1 a.m. But you could just leave. There's no traffic. like you know 12 30 maybe one maybe 1 a.m but you could just leave there's no trap there was no people there was no nothing it wasn't because because of how far away it was you know wow um and like and everybody that was there was like having a ball like everyone wanted to be there you know like um wow better than i've never understood being there in the time square when the ball drops. That seems like an absolutely, that is the last place I want to be.

Has anybody ever done it for some, like, I don't know. No, I've never done it. You have to stay there too, right? Like for like eight hours. You can't, yeah, you're there and you can't go to the bathroom. You can't do anything. You're stuck. Jesus Christ.

You have to like pee in your pants. Yeah. But that's what I was saying. Take a diaper and then you do, yeah. You have to pee in a diaper. Yeah's what I was saying. Take a diaper and then you do. You have to pee in a diaper. You are baby New Year. Everyone in Times Square is baby New Year that night. They pee and poop.

And it's cold. It'll harden up. It'll be just like you're wearing a second layer. You're wearing an ice diaper. It'll freeze the diaper to your balls. Your pee will freeze to your balls. Sucks. The odd structure of it, this is where i'm like yeah like when did this ever seem like it's doing out because there's bankruptcy and then they owe two million two million dollars and they're the the the

company that owned the plot of land was called uh the very normal name af Africa Israel USA. Okay. Ultimately, they owe all their money to Africa Israel USA, an odd-sounding group that apparently also is one of the main funders of Hard Rock Park. Oh, wow. The Hard Rock theme park in South Carolina. Oh, so this is a spend money to make money endeavor. Yeah, maybe. I guess this aligned with whatever they needed to do to burn cash. And the company that owns Jekyll and Hyde is Eerie World Entertainment.

Yeah, yeah. Eerie World Entertainment, which also owns a lot of other things. There was something called the Slaughtered Lamb or something. Do I have the animal right? There was supposedly a restaurant. The theme is that it is owned by a family of werewolves. Right. Because the Slaughtered Lamb

had a wolf head logo. I had never been, but I remember thinking, I, so to your question, like, yes, I thought it was weird, but I also thought, at least going into it, I thought it was so cool. I thought it was like, cool. I remember seeing all the logos next to each other. And I had from the fourth grade, kept one of the pamphlets that explained what Jekyll and Hyde was.

And I had that. I remember, I think I took it with me when I moved to New York as like a, you're now here, you know, type deal. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I just remember thinking it was cool. And then, you know, the longer I was there and the more it was just, the more it just sort of felt like, oh, I don't know if we're, how are we keeping afloat? And like, what's all of this and that and whatever feeling like, oh man, it's not as fun as I. Yeah.

Isn't that, that's been our arc doing this podcast. We've taken all of these things that we felt the same way about when we were nine. We've poked holes in their business plans and more than understanding of why they all went away. Yeah. There's so many familiar patterns, too. Yeah. I feel like we've really, you know, we've talked about theme parks for a few years and that's been fine and whatever. But really what we've been doing is figuring out how to perfectly run a weird chain restaurant and open franchises and know how slow to expand

and know what markets. I think we've been giving ourselves an education about when we finally decide to go all in on a very fun, stupid idea. This whole thing has just been like a thesis level grad school for ourselves to ultimately get it more right than anyone ever has.

We've learned the most right way to do it is money laundering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is sort of watching like, okay, you have the cash, but you need to wash it, quote unquote. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's not the same cash. And make sure it's people who are good at it, who've done it for, who aren't new to the money laundering game. You need to be in there with pros. That's right. You need to have like seven other businesses just like this professional money launderers and also we need a bunch of people fresh out of 401 at the uprae city

bright-eyed bushy-tailed improv kids speaking ofed too fast. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, no. Wow. Wow. They needed to learn. Like, we're learning. It's what this is all about. They need, yeah.

Anyway, honestly, then COVID hits, and that's not good for anybody, but it's especially not good. You know, this place just ends up on its last legs. Like, because of COVID and COVID protocols? Well, not exactly because ultimately the thing becomes we get to this headline owner of jekyll and hyde theme restaurant faces up to 30 years in prison for using covid relief money to buy nantucket home come on bro did you know any of this no i didn't and can. And can you remind me, what's his name? His name is Donald Finley.

Okay. Donald Finley is the guy, Mr. Eerie World Entertainment, who is one of these figures who, like the weird Rainforest Cafe guy who built the Rainforest Cafe in his house before it opened, who has this odd, okay, so his thing is horror and pulpy novels, and we're going to, I don't know it's cool he like he found a thing everything up until this seems fine but then he gets like three million dollars from the government and immediately buys out we should have done this for the podcast and bought houses

we blew it everyone all of us should have james i hope that you took out i hope you took a million dollars i'll tell you my accountant kept at the time kept asking me to do it he kept saying take out a ppp loan the money is there the money is there take it out and i and i for like my s corp which is my business that, you know. Sure, yeah. But I was just like, what are you talking about? What am I going to say? I'm not going to do this. He's like, you work the Jekyll and Hyde improvise. Just figure something. If IRS calls you, just weave them a tail.

I am not surprised that that is what happened, though. I'm not like I and I can't even remember what the lore was about him at the time but i think we all kind of generally felt like i don't know about this guy is he more mr hyde than dr jekyll i remember there was a day of the week where he would show up to get the the it seemed like i don't know if this is what he was doing but to get the money do you know what i mean like he left with with like briefcases every weekly it happened when it happened weekly um uh but i don't know to the werewolf's mouth like tapped it and a bill came out every time but you know what i mean it was like i would see we would you would see him come and then you would see him leave with something and it was always like two sort of suitcases at his side.

With dollar signs on them. It was like, yeah, cartoon. Yeah, yeah. And in one case, he had a bit like poke out of his jacket pocket was a bit like a clearly labeled deed. Nantucket home. Yeah, he always talked about how it was important everyone was spooky, but then he would go on and on about how beautiful parts of Nantucket were. It's the anti-Transylvania, believe me.

We should have, oh, we would all be living in Nantucket if we took these pee-pee meals. Yeah. Oh, my God, yes. We'd be living next door to him, too. Welcome to Podcast Arise, a podcast about theme parks that suddenly, for no particular reason, is coming to you from three separate Nantucket mansions.

We've just been very lucky. The Patreon's been very fruitful. What can I say? Anyway, that was like a year ago that that got announced. And then just a month ago, it came down two years. Went from 30 to two. So things worked out for old. Maybe he hired one of your old improv buddies to be his lawyer

were there any lawyer characters in the show there weren't any lawyer characters uh but i wouldn't be surprised if if if some of us are lawyers no mr scott free or mr loophole Mr. Loophole. That would be somebody. Mr. Scratch-my-back. I scratch your back. I scratch your back. You scratch mine. Let's all run together. It's a Polish name.

Judge, look the other way. Anyway, in the sentencing, the judge tied his profession into it. so much jekyll and hyde he was like that's that'll be too obscure of a reference but he says uh today's sentencing means that no one was amused by this bayville adventure park owner's criminal acts and he will now facetime in prison wow they try i mean they should have said amusement park yeah just to like super but that's not he doesn't write for a Little polished

Sentencings are not exactly what he does It always blows my mind Even though I've seen it a million times And it shouldn't blow my mind But like I forgot to pay my target bill For my credit card one month I got the most aggressive phone call Of like well here's how much you owe

And here can we do that now I see you have a thing on file now Can we just put it through now And I'm like the most aggressive thing ever aggressive phone call of like well here's how much you owe and here and can we do that now let's pay it i see you have a thing on file now can we just put it through now and i'm like the most aggressive thing ever and then it's like two million dollars are owed from a restaurant in times square enough time the more we talk about these restaurants and figure out their fail we just become by the time you know when we're what, he's like 60 or so. A great time to go to jail, by the way. But like, that's what we're building towards, you know?

Yeah. We got like, yeah, in 20 years we'll be pros. Yeah. Just like, why does the government though seem to care more about corporations and businesses than people. You know what I'm saying? I mean, they are our betters. Jason figured it out.

They were like, he's gonna pay. He's gonna pay. A gigantic, huge person. I don't have office space well that's true i don't know i don't own anything i don't think like i don't even think do i am i do i own myself even what yeah i don't know yeah it's hard to say i i don't yeah that's

that's what's going away not just homeowners homeownership, but just ownership. Yeah. Ownership of the idea of owning. Oh, yeah, that's, you own nothing. But it's all like, I bought my car, but I still owe so much. You know what I mean? I still owe, like, I don't own it yet. Still. You know? And then will I ever, like, will I ever actually pay this off?

You have your foot in the door to own. To own a thing. At some point um i well so i don't know a weird tale of uh ancient horrors that ends in uh current modern horror you're not surprised seemingly but you'd like still fond memories glad this was like a formative uh interesting time truly going back to those days if this has been very nice for me in a way like i'm surprised at how fondly i remember that stuff because i i do remember towards the end being like i can't wait to get out of here you know kind of thing but also i need to

work i don't know what else am i gonna um uh so yeah i'm surprised at how much of it was like yeah i loved that i really wanted to do that job. Yeah. A really specific dream came true. And if you were ever called on in a pinch to push a bunch of buttons and operate a series of puppets. I can do, you know, they have to be dated to that. I can't do whatever they're doing now. It's probably some crazy stuff now. Too advanced.

As long as they haven't updated the system in decades. They look, some of those stuff at Disney parks now look like the Pixar movie Just Alive. Have you seen those? The stuff that they're doing? Like the new Tiana. The Tiana animatronics look. It just looks like she's moving in the movie. Yeah.

Like Roger Abbott style, the cartoon just is in the world now. Yeah, but in the world. Right. Yeah. Yeah, but in the world. Right. Yeah, absolutely. It is pretty wild. So I don't know how they, I don't know what kind of controls that. Especially if you have to do it live, yeah. But give me like a shrew with fangs that's operated by me pounding on a one red button. And then I turn the head with a joystick.

I'm good. I got that. Sometimes I say happy birthday and then I'm good. I got that. Sometimes I say happy birthday, and then I'm set. Well, what a fun world to visit, and I'm glad we got a bunch of time to talk about this crazy place, especially with your experience. James III, you survived Podcast The Ride. Wonderful to have you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

And let's exit to the gift shop. Anything you'd like to plug? Yes. Please watch Fairly Odd Parent's New Wish. Yeah. Especially if you've got kids or have fond memories of that show. That's on Nickelodeon Paramount+.

I actually don't know. It's going to be on TV or something. And my comic book Kickstarter, it's called Junior. You can follow me at RuleOfThreeInc or just search for Junior or Daddy Issues on Kickstarter and you'll find it. Great, great.

I'm just going to toss in two. Good Burger 2. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What do you call your role on Good Burger 2? So what I, it was this, I wrote on Good Burger 2, but I punch up Ryder on Good Burger 2. Okay.

And I also am a voiceover. I do voiceover for the burgers. There's several of us, but one of those voices is me. Wait, does it open with like a dream sequence? It opens with a dream sequence. That's right. Yes, yes, yes.

Okay, okay. And so I'm in that, and then I'm also singing in the Bring Good Burger Back montage. When there's celebrities. I don't know if the burgers are in that, but I am singing as a burger in that. Which is kind of, look, that's a basic puppety. That's very much Jack O'Lantern style. I mean, I didn't get to puppet those but but yeah i don't because i had said out of and

i've just said to a number of people anyone who will listen i thought good burger 2 was so great and it's like it's so glad i it's i i yeah i i hope you're super proud of it and i like and and it's a genre i think that's really fraught, the bringing characters back after the way, way later sequel. It's a really rough area. Oh, yeah. And I was so pleasantly surprised by it. As I was, I didn't really grow up with the first one. I only threw it on with a bottle of wine five years ago.

I was like, oh, damn, Good Burger's good. Will I feel the same way about two? And I absolutely did. My wife and I were so so delighted i'm so glad you feel that way because i know it's a i've i've not read all of the reviews but i've seen how many people enjoyed it and also how many people like didn't feel like it captured the same thing i would say that my role as a writer and why they asked me i worked on the all that reboot and my role in that room was predominantly having an encyclopedic knowledge of the show oh yeah well we did it like this and you didn't do it like this blah blah or whatever um and so i i feel like that's why they asked me

to come in on on good burger 2 keenan and kel like it was like a glove getting back into those characters like yeah so I mean yeah like we of course we know we see Kenan so often that it's a given that Kenan is gonna be right Kel was so fucking just like so on it hadn't missed a beat and especially the and I

don't know forgive me if I'm giving if this is not your compliment to the when Ed gives a speech the inspirational speech that is only one line and then the rest of it is just silence with the shots that would be there if there was yeah a full speech to get that i that is honestly my funny my favorite like comedy set piece in anything in a while kevin and heath the right the the movie, were there for the, you know, original

and they will tell you that like, they, there's so much stuff on the cut room floor from that first movie. Really? Oh, wow.

They're just jokes and bits and jokes and like, they're just, they're machines in that way and the script that I read before I was even brought on, I was like,

you could just do this. Like, you could, it was so, but that moment is one of those moments like from the, like from the original where they were just like,

they were just like ready for it. It's just like, that could have been, and I think, and it's a scene I think we would have all, if that had been in the first one, we would have been like,

oh yeah, Good Burger's great. It has that part in it. No, that's, okay, well that's crazy bun scenes info, but yeah,

everything you did on it, fantastic. James james very funny man uh check out the kickstarter and uh yeah so glad you could do this yeah thanks for having me okay as for us next week we are off the main feed for memorial day but for bonus episodes that just keep coming three of them every month check out podcast the ride the second gate or get one more bonus episode on our VIP tier Club 3. You will find all of that at patreon.com slash podcasttheride. So now for Memorial Day, we transform into our alter egos. Three guys taking a nap. Oh, scary.

Par for the course for Jason. Ha! Forever. Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram at Forever Dog Team and liking our page on Facebook.