Podcast: The Ride - New Jersey's Bowcraft with Andrew Weinberg

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Andrew Weinberg (Jury Duty, Eagleheart) joins us to discuss his time working at Bowcraft, a now closed North Jersey park. Featuring a rightwing crank owner, obnoxious preteens, and we discover a new website! Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure Up at Club 3: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus 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. bird whisks us to a true fantasy land scotch plains new jersey it's bowcraft amusement park on podcast the ride Welcome to Podcast the Ride, a podcast about theme parks, but also about the treachery of communism, the beast that wants to suck America dry. I'm Patriot Scott Gairdner, joined by the equally concerned Jason Sheridan. That's right. At ease, soldier. They can't get us here in the garage. When we release this recording, though, they might listen and learn what we said. Oh, we'll turn it on our back.

Yeah, yeah. Be careful where we release it. Mike Carlson, equally vigilant. Hi. Very vigilant. And I will stay on a tilt-a-whirl all night until I know everything is safe. The world is safe from communism. So that's like my anti-protest.

Yeah. That's the last mention of safe that will be said on this episode. That's fair. These hopefully are enticing previews about today's topic, a park that you may not know about. Except for, like, I feel like there's, like, three to five listeners who are like, wait, what? When this showed up in the feed, like, probably Jersey natives. Yeah.

Like, they're doing this, and I'm excited we're doing this. It comes to us from Jersey native uh and amazing comedy writer one of the greats uh from the history of late night with conan o'brien uh the co-creator of the legendary series eagle hearts that's right i use that word uh and now uh one of the folks behind the very funny reality bending comedy is that fair it's not oh here well i'll let you the show is called jury duty i didn't want to call it a prank show exactly okay okay that's that would be verboten uh uh jury duty is the name of the show which is out now on freebie it's andrew weinberg what's going on hello hi thanks for having me uh thank you so much for doing this and for bringing us this place that we did not know.

And I guess, okay, I'll dive in and say we've known each other for a while now, worked together in various forms. But I have never, for some reason, I never put you in the theme park box. It did not occur to me to have you on the show. What percentage of the general public is outside the theme park box oh that's a good question um well i think there's boxes within the box yeah there's different boxes and this is we don't have time for this we don't have time to discuss what kind of box we cannot discuss the hierarchy of the box see that you know like attending and visiting and enjoying or tolerating a theme park is one thing, but then like,

you know, knowing the names of every, uh, street and fake area and type of trash can that's ever been at, you know, these are the depths of the box in the box that we, we sit in. Everyone's a little bit in the box though.

Cause like we had an engineer in New York who did our live show at the bell house and he didn't seem like a theme park guy, but we talked about Mars 2112 and he came up and he was like, I remember that place. Like there's always gonna be that yeah so that's the biggest box is somebody who just goes i remember that yeah um but uh somewhat rare and that i worked at a theme park yeah yes indeed well this is why i feel like a fool for not asking you previously discovering that you are in in fact, a former. I've been enjoying laughing at your foolishness all these years. More than I've wanted to be on the show.

One day, it's going to hit him like a ton of bricks. This idiot. Well, look, that's me now. Here I am eating crow and saying i'm so delighted to have you knowing that the writing whatever but the the legacy the legacy of a seasonal employee for bowcraft amusement park in new jersey now i'm interested uh tell us about bowcraft and and your time there a little bit okay so i grew up in mountainside new jersey union county uh on route 22 that's our main um it's one it's not like a freeway first of all we don't call them freeways there okay we call them highways or and we call them route or route route 22 route 78

and jason feel free to corroborate any of these Jerseyisms. Where are you from? I grew up outside of Philadelphia, but I spent a lot of time in South Jersey. Sure. And I have family down there. Me too. Did you go to the shore? Yeah, we went down the shore.

Oh, where did you go? We would go to Ocean City. Okay, so Jillian's Wonder Pier. Jillian's, yeah, is it Wonderland? I thought it was a pier, even though it's not on a pier it is not on a pier it's called wonderland yeah i could be wrong but yeah the gillian family is like well entrenched in ocean set like the current mayor is a gillian really his father was a a mayor before him uh and i hate to butt in here on the website it says Jillian's Wonderland Pier oh

so both that's a total tie yeah both right wow and too many words too many things yeah a little too complicated

so yeah we used to go to the shore just north of there halfway to Atlantic City called Margate where the elephant is where Lucy is yeah

and so I spent a lot of time on the Ocean City Boardwalk wait what's Lucy? Lucy is a giant. I'm amazed we haven't done a second gate on Lucy. Lucy is like a multi-story tall elephant. It's like 50 feet tall. And it was a hotel at one point.

Yeah, it was a hotel. I think it was an eccentric man's house at one point. They moved it several blocks. Yeah, it survived a number of hurricanes. It's been moved a few times to rot yes in the mid 20th century uh this it's a museum you can still go to it oh wow um and yeah they saved lucy how wait a minute this doesn't seem like big enough how many rooms could this hotel have not that many one people were smaller than yeah and they

were willing to share bathrooms you just pee down the trunk yeah well that's good yeah yeah you have any number of release valves with an animal anatomy yes yeah by the 90s it was mostly like come take a tour visit the gift shop that sort of thing which i did yeah uh but uh gillian my greatest memory there is uh what do you call the ferris wheel where the cars are attached at the front and back and they oh shit that's exactly what you told me that's okay that's all right well we also should we should have cleared the space okay well i used my gesticulation yeah that's true gesticulation zone we should have known you were gonna come to ferris wheel car you're in a cage that's like a roof and the cars are attached to the front and back and they spin side we have like a steering wheel and they spin

sideways so they like loop upside down it's not the zipper the zipper is like the oblong one everywhere kind of calls it something different like there's a ride at um uh the park at bowcraft yeah that we always just called no matter what it was called we always just called it the himalayas and it's just a ride that kind of goes up and down the hills and it goes behind a backdrop yeah part of it kind of goes the main important part of the ride is that pop music has played like eardrum shatteringly loud. Is that the one with, there's like rock stars painted on it? Sometimes there's rock stars or there's snowmen. Or his mashup with Batman.

What you realize is these are basic shapes and they're modular. Yeah. And you can add the rock stars or yetis yeah yeah or both or like all the jokers on one wall yeah every joker yeah yeah you can make airbrushed airbrushed too as long as that's the only through line between all of them is airbrushed oh airbrushed yeah i mean if we're if it's jersey if you go further up there if you go to like wildwood or seaside heights then it might be airbrushed yeah tony soprano uh uh scarface when you think of jersey shore you're thinking up there what we're talking about is more of a philly crowd yes uh but you're so you're from north i'm from talking. That kind of trash. It's clarified types of trash.

Yeah, we're different kinds of trash. We respect each other, but we don't often interact, except at like christenings, I feel like. So this is very special that the two of you are facing each other. Bar mitzvahs or christenings, yeah. A rare piece of cords between types of trash.

That's right, that's right. Okay, so Boatcraft is in like, it's in a similar neck of the woods to... Boatcraft is in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, next to Mountside. It is a, by definition, a roadside amusement park. Yeah. They had, like we were talking about, those kind of just modular rides that go around in a circle. Some of them are flat circles. Some of them are tilted circles. Some of them are tilted circles.

So elevated. Or the Himalayan was like a sort of a wavy circle. Right. Every type of circle. You could have met a Ferris wheel, which is a vertical circle circle tipped on its side from hell on steroids. Yeah. Not your daddy's circle.

So, and then they had a little bit bigger, the next level of like the spider. You know what that is? I don't think I can picture a spider. I know. Yeah, my dad and I got stuck on a spider once. Oh. With the arms,

and then it kind of goes up and down, but also spins. It spins in a circle while arms with pods at the of goes up and down, but also spins. It spins in a circle while arms with pods at the end go up and down and you spin within that. Again, spinning is the key. It's kind of like Dumbo if you were like on a big spider low. Instead of Dumbo cars, it's like... If you could spin Dumbo in a circle, that would kind of be like this.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not good. we never talked about and there was a scrambler i feel like that has multiple regional names i'm looking on the website scrambler this is just called screen okay okay it's both the ride type and the ride name it seems like they would combine them in some cases at this particular place. It's like the Q-tip or Xerox of the... Is it the brand or what we've just come to call it? In this case... I was a ride operator for two, maybe three summers. Wow.

And I just did the basic level rides. I was only certified for that. No certification whatsoever. That was part of it. basic level rides i was only certified for that but no certification yeah i was gonna say that was part of it is like you were given basic information about like how you can turn the ride on and off and that was about it wow uh so this has to be a a little more nuanced than on and off usually i mean i don't know yes but there were no like i guess because they thought the potential for injury was low there wasn't like you need to like drill these procedures sure so most of them okay if you want me to get into the mechanics yeah get us under the hood okay so most of the rides like okay they had boats which were

spinning boats on a going around in a circle like pony rides on the circle um kiddie boats seems to be the name for anyone keeping yeah so i would do that uh i did the motorcycles which same deal but they were motorcycles just on like a metal platform. But at one point there was a ramp and the motorcycle would go up and then back down. That's pretty good. That's advanced as far as these go. Well, no, it's not. The scrambler I did do and that was, there was like more you had to do.

There were like gears. Oh, wow. Yeah. And how old were you? I was 17, 18. Okay. Maybe 19. Previous summer jobs to this, shittier jobs than this?

This actually was one of the better summer jobs. Like retail sucks. I worked at Abercrombie and fitch one oh wow summer and winter break and i folded clothes for however eight hours whatever yeah not you you weren't sent out shirtless i really i was talking about this with someone else i really don't think this was like 97 96 97 maybe i don't really think it was that yet i recall more like you know what they call preppy stuff sweaters with stripes and khakis uh yeah i wonder how long they actually had the shirtless guy i don't know i will say that they did have a like you had to be good looking enough and my friend's girlfriend worked there so she was like come when

i'm there and i'll say you're good looking wow because they write down like a number when they're like whatever application or whatever so they would say like you're an eight or something? I don't think they would tell you, but they'd be like, thanks. Wow. Whoa. Wait a minute. And is the girlfriend convincing the others? Or is she one of the scores that counts in the total tally?

She's like an Olympic judge. She's a judge, like vouching for me, for whoever will ultimately hire me. Right. Okay, right. And I don't know, like, if I, it's like a lie that would be easily exposed. On day one when you start? I assume that, like, manager never actually came to the floor. People are like, sales are down today.

The staff is not as attractive as. Yeah, take what we can get. Wait, actually, we're all saying this as if... We're not giving you numbers mentally. No, I haven't given you a number mentally. But I'm curious, were you offended by the suggestion that you... That I needed the help? Yes, you needed to rig the system.

If I'd known that they were looking for that, I would probably not have been like, yeah. Well, she had to be like the trans. Abercrombie Fitch was run by the one who couldn't see evil, and one could speak no evil, one could hear no evil. Was it a Les Wexner company? Oh, I don't know. Oh.

Is that what you were saying? No, no. Okay. Sorry. So other jobs, yeah, I worked. uh so uh other job yeah i worked um my friends his family was like had these all marine industries like salvage and like scrapyard there's a uh they use it for sets a lot in staten island there's like a ship graveyard oh wow um and they own that so one summer he and i worked for a few weeks i believe he quit after one week uh at the family the company's paint recycling facility on staten

island oh god yeah nothing in here sounds great yeah um and that was yeah so you know like when you recycle paint and you drop off your cans wherever then those go to a place like this and someone like me uh sorts them into like three one of three basic colors or something in 55 gallon drums and then so yeah i did like stuff like that another summer uh at their like on the docks in Port Newark, like, where, like, welding and stuff happens. These are real things. These are real jobs.

Dear God. I was a laborer. Thank God for comedy writing. So, Bowcraft was not actually that bad. Yeah, yeah. Oh, seemingly. Can you compare? Yeah.

And, like, easy. Easy training, period. like easy easy training period yeah um oh another per it's in no particular order not sure the uniform was a red and white vertical striped shirt about maybe two inch thick stripes and can you picture another place where you see that uniform um tgi friday exactly yes so we went there to the tgi fridays at the blue star shopping center after work one day with my friends who didn't work there so i was the only one wearing the red and white striped shirt and i honestly didn't like think about it at the time yeah i was walking into friday's wearing a friday's uniform yeah yeah and they had me uh join them in a birthday you know singing to a party you were just immediately grabbed yeah put to work that was

is it bucket list moment. To be part of the excitement. Friday's staff. The world's famous Friday's birthday shows. Here's what's weird is that I know that the uniform was red and white striped shirts because I did a little bit of digging and I found a Facebook group about four people who used to work at Beaucraft. Really? Yes. There were not more than 20 people in this group. Facebook group about four people who used to work at Beaucraft. Yes.

There were not more than 20 people in this group. I did not see you active, at least. This is on Facebook? This is on Facebook, yeah. Can I see it if I don't have a Facebook account? Yeah, I... Oh, wait, no. Well, I have like a burner account, basically. I did not join...

Yes, you don't have to join. Oh, okay. You have a burner. You're welcome to use my login to see the group if you want. I think I saw everything that there was to see. I have the highlights, and there's four highlights. Okay. One is about the red and white striped shirts.

This is from someone named Dina. Do you remember Dina? I don't remember. Okay. Two of the someone named Dina. Do you remember Dina? I don't remember. Okay. Two of the posts are from John. Do you remember? Oh. No, John, I might.

I know exactly which John it is, too. I'll not dox him with the last of this. Say no more. John posted about someone named Gene and how the board needs to have a picture of Gene. The what? The message board? I thought you were talking about there's a board of directors of Beaucraft. Oh, no, no, no.

The message board is the Facebook group. Do you remember a Gene and did you work for a Gene? He was in a management position? It's implied, I think, contextually. I honestly wouldn't remember anyone by name. Probably by face. Makes sense. So this was not, you did not meet lifelong friends.

There were not memorable summer feelings. At least if everyone else was a big family, I was not part of it. Can you corroborate then something else that john says which is if someone told me the things that went on at bowcraft i don't think i'd believe them i mean he'd have john would have to be a little more specific i never saw like orgies or child sacrifice uh I did see one ride operator get led away in handcuffs on the job once. Whoa.

What's the story there? I never found out. None of my business. I feel like that was kind of normal. Wow. It was that kind of employee. Like, what's the... uh-huh that's like collective employees oh i see yeah okay oh so like a a mildly shady bunch is what you're very jersey yeah sure

okay i was not above that right all right uh um and how comforting for the guests of Boca Raft to know. Yeah. So my experience actually operating rides. Yeah. So the motorcycle one, there are age and height restrictions for like everything. And this is smart. People, I didn't put up much of a fight if parents were like, let my kid go on. Sure, sure. So this is motorcycle one they were like let my um possibly walking toddler go on with uh you know his older brother these were two-seaters uh like maybe maybe this is a three

step uh toddler not a uh walks on their own yeah well yeah i would find out soon so my other problem is i was not very attentive so most of these rides would they'd be like a egg timer just twist it till it reached there was like a peg where it would stop oh and then that starts the ride and shuts it off when it's done okay you wouldn't have to shut it off the ride would auto shot shut down yes yes um it's jacuzzi but it was you know like a red button sure so i'm like yes you're um baby you can go on the ride. Sure. I don't care.

And so I turn on and I'm like, just looking at other things. It's like blood curdling scream from the mother. The baby is like clinging for dear life. Hanging on the side of this motorcycle. Oh my God. Which, hey, credit to the baby. If the baby is old enough to cling, much less for dear life. To go on this ride.

It doesn't rhyme, but. This is not the last instance of someone to clinging on for dear life. Yes. That would be utter. After each one of these stories, we you live post to the facebook group hey does anyone remember a baby clinging to well they will remember one of them yeah but that yes that's a side one of them makes it in the new york times yeah yeah yeah sure yeah a little more publicized than this one you were able to keep it quiet until that happened on the scrambler

where these parents were like let our baby one, one-year-old, whatever, baby come on with us. Yeah, yeah. Let's not miss Scrambler. And The Scrambler, if you've ever been on it, because I myself, as not a baby, because I remember it. So I had to be at least four. Yeah. Four is the cutoff from where adults remember things. I think so.

Yeah, Yeah. So I was on it with my sister and I, it's just like a bench. And then the thing that just like swings closed. So other than that, there's nothing keeping you in place. So I slid down into the wheel well, uh, and I'm just bouncing around in there.

And like, I remember that. Uh, and I, is that also, is that one of the first memories then by like, is this haunting? And I'm just bouncing around in the air. And I remember that. Jesus. Wow. Is that one of the first memories then? Is this haunting? Well, that's what made me afraid of metal.

You know how I scream when I see metal? Oh, yes. I've noticed. Not fun to drive with me. A lot of you. Many, many opportunities. No. But so then i uh went on i know you're like this is too perfectly crafted a narrative no way this is true uh i went on to operate the very same scrambler it is that one really wow and yeah so these parents are like we're going on with our baby uh and i look and the kid is like standing on the bench and the parents are like i guess holding him but like this is like a pretty

fast ride like a baby could get hurt yeah i considered it not my responsibility you don't own the place yes uh customers always right that's true they insisted you craft an experience sorry i thought service came first uh uh my favorite memory as a ride operator was the aforementioned boats kiddie boats yeah um are you looking up pictures so you get... It's not that important. I think you'd get what I'm saying. I do have the website.

It just seems like sometimes you are and sometimes you're not. Yeah, that was a weird... I'm on and off. Okay. If you'd like me to stay on, I can stay on. A weird discovery that the full website is still active. So for a brief moment, I thought this place was open. Yeah, it closed a few years yeah the wikipedia

page uh quickly discovers that like yeah closed down in october 2018 yeah still yes there's no indication on the website anywhere that this is not a place it's not even like a the rides are rotting the rides are gone it's like condos now space jam website oh yeah yeah ancient web artifact you were saying now wait now i'm looking at the boats although it doesn't give me a full it's a pretty tight shot so if i need to know about the mechanism i can't again this isn't this is a standard egg timer ride slow day and these like teenagers, like young, you know, like 14 years old, maybe like the perfect, like just the worst age kids, you know, the most annoying. I think it's around 13, 14. It's maximum annoying.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I know I sucked then. Yes. I did too. I suck now. I'm sorry. But so it was like, it seemed to be that there was a boy and girl couple and then like another boy hanger on third wheel.

Always a great combination. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially at that age. I gonna show her that like, I'm cool too. I swear to God, he said this out loud. He said his own thoughts. Really self-damning. Really embarrassing.

So he's like, hey, I want to ride the kiddie boats. And I'm like, you're too big. And plus, there's nowhere else online, so I don't want to run it. But I'm like, no, you're too big. And he's like come on i want i was like gave it was like no he kept fighting i was like you know what like sure go ahead go on yeah gets in the tiny thing you know like squishing in this boat that's made for little kids you know like thinking he's funny saying whatever to his friends. Turn it on. I think it's two minutes.

It starts to get down. And I reset the timer. At this point, it's like his jokes have slowed down. The time goes down. I reset it again. So now he's on there, you know, like six minutes. His other friend and the girlfriend just want to leave. He's like, come on, no, wait, wait.

And he's going around in a circle, you know, so he's like, what? And I just kept resetting it. He was like, just let me off. And I was like, I can't. It's on a timer. I kept him on there for like 14 or 16 minutes. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. And he just sat there for most of it. Yeah. So he just gave up. He just believed that there was nothing I could do about it. You did convince him of the reality of this ride that has one move. Yeah. It just happens in perpetuity they decided that like the for the most enjoyment

14 minutes correct ride length really wait we focus group tested this where this one you're gonna need some time yeah they said look 90 seconds too short like three days is too long you will probably want to go home and get a good night's sleep and try it again but we're still tinkering we're open to a three-day excursion yeah i was pleased with that that's that's incredible so you used your powers of poor right operation for good and for well they're not evil but negligence yeah i don't think it meets any other anyone's definition of good except like it was fun for me more morally good i feel i it depends on who you ask in that scenario for an

eye or something yeah yeah yeah revenge he was annoying so he had to get dizzier yeah yeah something annoying had to happen to him yes there was no yeah and that's not that's not like if he was on the scrambler for 10 minutes he might start to get sick oh yeah no this was like he wanted to be funny guy going on the little kids ride and i didn't want to have to operate the ride just for him and you're ultimately who is the the funny guy him who got shut up or you telling the story on a comedy podcast professionally? Yeah, actually, I think he he wrote for Modern Family

for seven seasons. He has a bunch of Emmys. You recognized him on stage three years in a row. And he married the girl that his friend was dating yeah using that sad story in who just goes from like one unseen hulu show to the next like just it's work the dream yeah um well that's that's all great was there any repercussion for did anyone notice the peril that you put babies in or care i was never like asked about it later like what happened there or something and the scream's not enough to get the attention of other ride

operators i don't think no yeah nor would. Nor would they. No, just Karen. Blended into the other screams. Yeah. It's like when we were at Six Flags, like if I wanted to complain to someone, there was no one around. Like I couldn't find like a person to like be like, hey, you know what?

The Superman ride's just running and no one's there. No one's working. Like we didn't know where to go. Is this Magic Mountain? This is Magic Mountain. Yeah. Yeah. Have you been?

Have you had the pleasure? I have. My daughter, Nico, who is 14, loves rides. So for a few of her birthdays, we went there. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Was everything to your liking? Well, I'm judging it against Six Flags Great Adventure. Oh, sure.

Yes. Which I've not been to in 30 years, but apparently has a lot of huge rides. That's the Kingda Ka one. Yeah. Yes. They also have a drive-thru safari, or did. Oh, yes. Still have that?

Still there, yeah. I think they've changed it a little. But Great Adventure, while very crowded and overrun with teens, does sit on a lake. It's full of lots of nice landscaping and trees and stuff. I don't like where you're going with this comment. You're saying it doesn't just bake in the sun like Magic Mountain. No, it doesn't...

On the top of a mountain. Yeah, as you climb any number to elevations to discover what rides are closed that day. And it had the like gondola chairlift thing. Yes. To take you from one end to the other. As opposed to Magic Mountain where I think there is the building for that

that hasn't been open for three decades but they haven't gotten rid of the building. The red tower? It's not. There's some like Hugh Hefner connection or something. I can't remember what that story is. That's closed. Does he own that

only in Magic Mountain? It was supposed to be a Playboy Club, but he and Magic Mountain. I like the rides at Magic Mountain. It was supposed to be in Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club in Chicago. A giant tower? That's the legend of it. Wait, the big one? I believe so, yeah.

How is that going to be in the club? I realized they could not fit a tower inside a restaurant. The tower was originally built for Hugh Hefner and was to be the centerpiece for the Playboy Club of Chicago. But how could a centerpiece be hundreds of feet taller? I see it on two websites.

Is this like a country club? Playboy Country Club? I'm going to need to do more reading to answer any of these questions. Must be serious acreage to allow this. We'll find out. We got to report back about this. This is fascinating.

So that was what you operated, or was that all of them? It's kind of the same deal that reaps everything? Yeah. There was a thing. There were these go-kart type things with like big fiberglass racing car shells that went around the lake and had a rail like the disney cars that exactly like that sure um those were kind of fun to operate because there you would uh stop them at point b and that was like 50 feet from point a where the riders get on so you would stand on the outside of the car and like push this lever with your foot while like riding it oh it's a little

like standing right yeah yeah they do that at utopia the disney one too i feel like yeah short distances yeah yeah a little driving it's like about as fun as ride operating god at bowcraft that does but again i think we have never talked about that in relation to the utopia the little the little stand and drive yeah yeah that kind of no matter the uh budget of park that is the most efficient way to move those kinds of cars apparently apparently. And it has, yeah, as far as a job, it has the appeal of like the garbage man who's standing on the back of the truck. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

The perk of a slight breeze. I always thought like that looks like the most fun job ever. You get to stand like outside of a moving truck. And possibly necessary for smell purposes. outside of a moving truck. Possibly necessary for smell purposes. Well, in my town, those guys would pick up the can and dump it in. It wasn't the trucks grabbing and lifting. Yeah, the trucks do it now. It takes so long.

It's like herky-jerky. It doesn't seem like the best way to collect garbage. No. And where I grew up outside of Philadelphia, it was everyone just kind of bought whatever garbage can they felt like. So every house's garbage can was different. You could express yourself via garbage can. You could really express yourself.

Yeah, that's nice. Flags, lawn ornaments, crazy garbage cans. Yeah. What kind of can did you have? It was just a brown round can. Nice. All right. It's just because everyone's like, oh, God, I got to rake.

Or no, I guess you just raked leaves to the sidewalk and left them on the curb. Really? You left, yeah, a truck would come around and suck up leaves every fall. Really? A few times. You guys had a suck up leaves truck? Yeah. We had to put them in a bag.

I'm from the Midwest. We had to put them in a bag and then they would come and maybe do a special collection. We might put them in a bag to drag it to the sidewalk where then you dumped it in piles. Yeah. This is familiar to anyone? I mean, I know in West Coast. I don't remember what we did with our leaves. I think there was like a secondary market for them we sold them some inevitably one or two houses would

just burn them in the backyard in a metal can and then everyone in the neighborhood you would just hear like your parents and the neighbors going like you've seen them burn in their leaves again it's like yeah i know and i'm just like i don't know why first off i don't know why everyone's mad and second off i don't know why those people were burning their stinky dead leaves and why are all the parents discussing it in such hushed tones they'll burn us if we don't if we talk louder well because it's sometimes dead silent in the summer so i think sound can just travel blocks and blocks. What were they saying about our leaf burning? Every now and then you'd hear a barking dog.

I feel like the neighborhood I grew up in, and I'd go outside, see where it was. It was houses and houses away. You lived in a really eerie, it sounds like Truman Show-esque like uh perfect audio all around this is actually suburban philadelphia yes in pennsylvania or new jersey in in delaware county uh in in like a mayor of east town country right so i yeah no i only remember that one stuck out in my mind because they were always like everyone had like big either like german shepherds or yellow labs or black labs and there was a couple

of dogs who it's like okay that is a german shepherd and it's very friendly and that one is german shepherd and is mean and i saw one attack a mailman once. Oh, no. And I believe the mailman maced the dog and then vaulted over a fence and ran back to his car. And I saw this from half a block away. And I was just like, whoa. Why? Well, I'm going inside the rest of the day.

I'm never going to tell anyone this until I'm on a podcast 22 years later. Jason saw a mailman Mesa dog, and we haven't heard the story in six years of doing the show. Yeah. That's shocking to me, honestly. It was, because I didn't want to tell anyone, because it was actually one of the nice dogs, and I think it just got startled from a mailman. I think it was sleeping on the front step, and it just got startled by a mailman i think was sleeping on the front step and it just got startled by a mailman oh remember when german shepherds and dobermans were as scary as dogs got they were

like the scariest dogs there were as opposed are you saying that there are now scarier breeds yes i don't know that i i don't have a dog i don't know so i'm not then i'm not walking it was like in movies if you were a guard dog was a german Shepherd or a Doberman, possibly a Rottweiler. But there was no Pitbull or King Corsair. What was Cujo? He was a Mastiff. Just very slobbery. Yeah.

Possibly a mange. What's the Sandlot dog? St. Bernard. Yeah. And we loved St. Bernard's in the 90s because of beethoven sure they weren't scary they were right everyone loves they were large yeah was that's hey that's where the laughs came from in the case of beethoven and groden the straight man he anchored it you see of course um i was thinking you're the torture of the kid on the ride, making him stay on the ride

and go over and over. That is the third act of the film Clifford, which comes up a lot with Charles Grodin, makes Clifford be, oh, you want, how bad, how much do you want to be on this? And he's a mouthy kid. You did Clifford in real life. What year was Clifford? Clifford was, well, it was made in like 90, but sat on the shelf until 94.

So it came out in 94? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely didn't see it in 94. Okay, okay. Not a lot of people did. You're accusing me of ripping it off. Clifford has reached peak popularity now, I would say in the last year,

as multiple podcasts have started to talk about it. I think Tom Sharpling's a big Clifford. A big Clifford head. He has props. He has the collection. Oh, that's right. He has the suit. A real Clifford suit. We started calling our audience Cliffords. But due to their

theme park enthusiasm and their eternal childlike wonder, and half of them like it and half of them will still sometimes find a way to pretty good that's kind of what i thought it would be honestly it stuck more than i ever thought it would yeah yeah yeah i did not intend for it to be the official name of our audio where we're saying it not even as a hey clifford so we got a show coming up click on the link like it became so casual so fast yeah i'm sorry if you're a clifford who doesn't like it but you are but i did still call you a but you

are a clifford so deal with it let's be honest we are too but you are too that's why it's there yeah uh since we're talking about uh kids i watched i i was able we're all afraid of this you'll know what segue we're afraid of when we get there no it's not the fairest will one uh that was like a byron allen segue so i understand you've gone on a date i just didn't want to forget the story because it involves the scrambler specifically but i sure i got a pretty good uh video view of Bowcraft because there was a YouTube account called Coaster Kids. Coaster with a K. Kids with a K. And they were

riding all the rides at Bowcraft. It appeared to have the park to themselves. When was this? This is maybe five or six years old. So they're all... Five or six years ago, excuse me. And they all seem to be in their

like pre-teen years so they're probably all in college and probably if family brings it up they're like i don't want to talk about coaster kids anymore um hey excuse me aren't you one of the coaster kids shut up man i told you hey dude check it out over here. A coaster kid. And they didn't seem super jazzed to be at Beaucraft, but the moment that stuck out to me was when they rode the scrambler and the main girl yelled while sitting in a scrambler bench, this bench is really hot. Oh, yeah. I remember that, too.

Yeah. And that might have been part of it is that that footwell it was like one of those solar ovens which is like every angle was hot metal yeah and i was bouncing around i i've written a lot of scramblers and um that kind of doesn't go away no matter how fancy the park is. But they rode this, and when they got off, they were viewing it, and the girl went, this is probably the sketchiest scrambler I've ever been on.

My seat was held together by duct tape. Yeah, that could be. You never want to hear that. That's not the thing you want to hear that. Yeah. That's not the thing you want to hear. I remembered that Beaucraft is featured in a Bruce Willis, Demi Moore movie. I don't remember the name. I have. It was like a- Mortal Thoughts, I think is the name. Yes, yes, yes.

So there was a poster in the main building slash arcade for mortal thoughts and if you didn't know that trivia you'd be like why are you like fans of this huge mortal thoughts fans it well it's made especially because i was like oh yeah i'd like to see how this is you oh i like a good movie filmed in a theme park and you put it on it it's once it's also like, it is a brutal rape slash murder scene. Like in the parking lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just like, it's the background essentially of like a horrifying sequence. And they're very proud of their place in cinema history. Hey, without us, it would have been all sad. There wouldn't have been some nice bright lights behind that. A lot of people seeing that movie going, i'd like to visit that place behind this horrible thing yeah rather be in there than in this scary van that the scene happens you know who's buried in uh scotch plains no uh go around guessing until we get it. Dudley Moore.

Really? I don't, I like, I don't, I haven't looked into why, what his connection to Scotch Plains, New Jersey is. Wow. Was he, was it a mistake? He fell out of a car? It was a mistake. Like the packing slips at Scotch Plains.

Oh, well. Just leave him here. Just follow instructions. packing slips at scotch plains oh well just following instructions um i found a little scotch plains history in terms of birth famous people from scotch plains it's the birthplace of judy bloom of composer mark shaman who's come up a bunch of times lately. This is just a dry statement. John Gano, the man who baptized George Washington. That's a historical character I didn't know about. I think as an adult is what- Yeah, since he wasn't born in England. Oh, yeah.

Oh, wait, yeah. So to be born there and then quickly go on to baptize George Washington? Why did he have to be baptized later? I don't know. When I started looking into this, there were people who thought it was fake. Like, no, he would have been baptized as a... Historians were arguing about whether George Washington was baptized as a baby or not. Was it another one of his PR things?

I remember George Washington's PR man, Mason Weems, when all of the different George Washington legends were fake. Like the wooden dentures? Yeah, it was all his PR guy talking about what a great guy this was. Really? Could this be fake? This is another Weems exclusive. That's right.

Wait, sorry. Is Weems a recent person or an at the time person you mean like a new guy who are guys from the 18th century that's it that's what i want like george washington's current agent essentially yeah you're saying the ip of george washington is still being preserved and there would be a pr person now still trying to push an area yeah you bring up these weirdos who like the person who's holding the bozo license or whatever who has the george washington license i guess you might call that the estate but i it's more fun to think of him as an ip okay here we go usually mason weems mason lock weems october

11th 1759 to may 23rd, 1825, usually referred to as Parson Weems, was an American minister, evangelical bookseller and author who wrote the first biography of George Washington. Immediately after his death, some of the popular stories about Washington can be traced to Weems, including the cherry tree.

That he threw a cherry tree across the Potomac. Yeah, that was fake. That was the crossing. Wow. Geez. He's like a Trumpian. Who was the one who skipped a coin or a rock across the Potomac?

Is that also Jefferson? I don't know. It probably was a lie, though. Yeah, I mean, why? Yeah. How does that make him fit to be a leader? That's like a trick. It doesn't make you strong.

Show strength? Yeah. Just like wrist strength is not much. What are you going to do with that? Maybe he's good at dealing cards. Slightly 3% more quickly than a typical card dealer the name parson weems sounds familiar but i don't know i'm okay i'm kind of into colonial era publicists yeah that's the number one it doesn't get bigger than we never thought it would come up in the

if i could give him some pr advice if his name is mason lock weems i feel like calling yourself mason lock just sounds like a stronger makes a stronger impression okay if you were mason lock weems's agent you would have told him to change his yeah i would have changed didn't have his own parson weems yeah i was like ervin erving thalberg just going like you're judy garland now you're fred so-and-so now right yeah see he was so busy helping his clients he forgot to help himself yeah the curse of weems oh weems the curse of weems oh mr weems um scott you also mentioned i think when we were talking about uh doing this episode that uh the other movie filmed here is the rob reiner movie north yes yeah another like um what he filmed it yeah no poster at bowcraft for north what year

was north i think also 94 94 yeah and also like i hated like sat on a shelf like clifford i remember uh roger ebert's review like him hating that movie more than any movie he'd ever seen in his life. I remember that. I never saw it. It was such aggressive hatred. I'll get around to North. I did not know that was shot there. I feel like kids would have known that at the time. Unless North was so... If they were listening to Ebert as I was as a young child, 10-year-old.

Kids had gotten a hold of the script and said, this is going to turn out to be a bad movie. Let's not go to Beaucraft and try to see it being shot. This is a bizarre elijah wood john lovitz jason alexander alan arkin dan akroyd kathy bates julia louis dreyfus reba mcintyre john ritter abe vagoda bruce willis yeah because they were all prospective foster parents he wanted a free agent he was like i hate my parents i want new parents i'm gonna like audition parents so it's probably like each of those was like coupled up right and like had a scene or two where like try us we're we do funny things okay we are extremely broad mom and dad characters but all clearly not right for you so that that's why it comes this early in the movie.

Not right. We have him for a day, though. Yeah. So get him in and out. Per law, we get to hang out with him for a day or two. It's probably a fun shoot. Yeah. Elijah must have had a blast.

Was that also a rape scene? I hope not. Something about the boat craft parking lot. Yeah, they're like, guys. You know, I wasn't planning on putting it in the movie, but now that I'm seeing the parking lot, it just kind of feels like. You know, no one's seen it here, so we'll never know. Yeah.

Could be. It easily could be. Well, look, if we're talking about horrible things, why don't we talk about what happened after, let's be very clear, after you were a ride operator. Yes. Let's absolve you of this. By after, you mean like a week after.

Was it that close? Yes. Oh, my God. I left sometime in August to go to college. And, yeah, it was like the next week um a kid fell off the top of the ferris wheel which is like i don't know 30 40 feet i saw 50 yeah even more okay yeah that's a big i was gonna say 50 but i was like you don't need to like try to impress them with how tall the Ferris wheel was. You'd be like one of those Hugh Hefner things.

We've got to look into it more. Yeah, I'm not self-conscious about the size of Bo Crab's Ferris wheel. I'm going to really bomb out on this podcast if I fake brag about Ferris wheel numbers. Yeah, what's he compensating for? What a little man. Little man with a big Ferris wheel. Big

Ferris wheel lies. Okay. So kid fell off and he didn't die. Which allows us to have a little fun talking about it. Everyone breathe a sigh of relief. Which allowed him to have an act two in life.

So, I don't know. It's a few years, 10 years or whatever. At some point, I was like, whatever happened to that kid? Maybe I didn't even know if he had died or not. So I Googled, like, Bowcraft Ferris wheel fall or whatever, found the kid's name, and then Googled that name. he comes up and he was part of a uh robbery gang like bank robberies possibly or maybe just store robberies it's like gas stations okay yeah yeah like 12 10 or 12 yeah it was like a yeah first off i i did this same thought process i looked at the kid's name i said well maybe there was a follow-up with him 10 or 20

years later how are you doing what are you doing now and the only other results of that name are indicted yeah part of a string of robberies yeah across like northern new jersey or your hometown he was from uh my he was living in my hometown, Mountainside at the time. Wow. He was known as Naeem. I apologize that, you know, a couple of towns over is John Gano, the man who baptized George Washington. But all you got is Ferris wheel,

fall survivor and gas station robber. I feel like that's a pretty good defense of like your honor well that fell off a ferris wheel when i was younger and yeah that's what i thought it was like some phineas gage type thing but it didn't seem to work it didn't there was no mention of i i'm surprised none of the articles about the rivalries were like, by the way, one of these people fell off a Ferris wheel and was talking right after the incident. Like, was fine. Fractured his skull, but they repaired

and he was fine. Do you think he was going in the gas stations going, give me all the money and I fell off a Ferris wheel? People are like, wait, what? How do you do that? Just shut up. I did it. Give me the money. Alright, well, here we go. Wait, you survived though? How many feet? Of course I survived.

Money. Oh, that's right. I'm looking at you. They were just afraid it would set a dangerous precedent if they let them off that like kids growing up maybe like in poor you know, would be like I should fall off

a Ferris wheel because that'll give me license to rob stores later in life and that's how i'll get by yeah parents would be like nudging them off like oops my kid fell off he's free to rob stores now yeah surely the joker has done this as an alibi like it's like i just I fell in the access chemical stuff and I ain't been right since. And then there would be like kids trying to fall off like lesser rides. Like I fell off a Tilt-A-Whirl.

But I want to commit more tame crimes. So mine will be more like a little more petty. Like parking tickets at least. Stealing like Build-A-Bear skins and stuff secretly. Just low level, $25 crimes. Yes.

Just the outside. You know what I'm saying. The skin of the Build-A-Bear, not the stuffing. Stealing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not the outside of the store, but of the bear. Was the Tilt-A-Whirl at full speed when you fell off? Yes, your honor.

Okay. All right. So you. Yes. All right. You're free to go all right when so then it's also it's potentially like if you know that paying for college is not going to work out for your kid at an early age all you got to do take a ride on a ferris wheel well that's why they started uh in line for Ferris wheel. You had to take a polygraph that you were not in this for financial gain. That you just wanted to enjoy the ride.

Are you here for fun and frivolity? Yeah. Yes. Do you have any ulterior motives for riding the Ferris wheel today? No. Zip, zip, zip, zip. Okay. Are you aware of the story of the boy from 1994?

Do we even know about this law? What? Oh, never mind. You can go on. Your Honor, my client couldn't have done this. His retinas were damaged when he was very young by any number of sun-bleached colors at Bochum. This is a big thing that stuck out to me when I saw the park. Like, look at this messed up, sun-bleached, like, Pinocchio statue.

Oh, God. Let me take a look at that. Well, they certainly did not have license to use Disney characters. Oh, sure. I would also argue the bigger problem is the design of Pinocchio there, not necessarily just his faded colors. That he is bulbous and frightening? That would be what I'm getting at.

You know what? They did have a Griffith Park-style small tree. Not the tiny one, but like a little bit bigger than that. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's good. It feels like a place I would take my kids to. It doesn't seem shady, despite all of these.

It really wasn't. No shadier than any other amusement park. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it seemed like a roadside carnival that just put down roots. Yes. It seemed like it was much more of a nature park in the 40s. I believe so. And the owners were very into their roots.

Oh, yes. Well, let's get into that. You might be wondering, what is this name? Why Bowcraft? And it's because it started as a small archery and ski equipment store. So that was the business. It was a guy named ted miller then he went to war and did like odd jobs in the war sharpened uh bayonets and such made enough

money to buy the property surrounding bowcraft and turn it into other stuff uh ski slopes and miniature golf and then it slowly you know became a theme park did they still have miniature golf when i worked i don't even remember i think that may i don't think i ever played no they did they did okay all right well then i'm i'm wrong then i'm pulling things out of nowhere um but so uh he and his wife were the ted and isabel Miller, are the owners. And you can find a couple things about them pretty quickly. One, Christian scientists. Two, members of the John Birch Society. The hyper-conservative.

I mean, I'm no expert in this, but like very arch-conservative, crazy, conspiratorial. Really right-wing, very anti-communist. Uh-huh. I think used to be a little more like people like, oh, they're crazy. Okay, we're conservative, but we're not John Birch Society conservatives. Now they're like the mainstream Republican Party.

Do they still exist, John Birch? I think in some form or another. I think so, but is it a little like mission accomplished? Now the whole party is the John Birch? I think in some form or another. I think so, but is it a little like mission accomplished? Now the whole party is the John Birch. They never seem to be happy so they're probably still complaining. Because communism keeps threatening

us. He's coming. Damn it. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Around every... You know, on like Netflix shows and drag performances, there's communism everywhere. Bud Light marketing. You just can't get away from it. And this is what the owners of Voguecraft were trying to warn about.

Quote some local website, they would often put up anti-communist and right-wing slogans on the message board facing Route 22. So they were very out and about with that stuff uh and i found an ad that was in local papers for when it was still just a ski shop bowcraft ski shop um and there's you know nice things and uh our goals are quality merchandise service friendliness, friendliness, constant improvement, and perfection. Then a little box under that. We are also an American opinion bookstore with books and pamphlets which tell the truth about the treachery, lies, and enslavement of communism.

Yes, I also had the little box. We own a nice little box. What a loaded box. Great, sounds like you have everything you need, my sporty needs. Great, one more thing. Oh. Hey, you know that weird bookstore? You know they opened a bunch of kiddie rides?

Oh, that sounds good. I want that with my carousel. That's a well. I want my five-year-old to learn about the treasury. Yeah. What year was he alive? This owner, I think he was still alive when you worked there. I don't know.

He might have sold it a couple years later. Did he have? After the accident. He was running it when the accident happened. Oh. Yes. Did you have any sense of the right winginess of this place? For some reason I knew about John Birch.

I don't think I really knew what that meant. And I was not aware of like who owned the place, who was like in charge. Sure. Sure. It wasn't reflected in it. There was no like you asked for a raise and And then, like, what do you mean? Get out of here, Binko. Well, I certainly never asked for a raise.

Look, I've been here three weeks now. Barge into the office, slam the door, and the door just falls apart behind you. No babies have died on my watch. Beenmed and screamed possibly but it's not a death stronger for it um i when i bring all this up that it is a theme park that grew out of odd little roots where it was one little business and then became a theme park, but that there was a right-wing John Birch influence infused in the early days of the book. What does this remind us of?

Where have we heard this story? Oh, well, you're not very far. Knott's Berry Farm. Of course. This was something we found long, long ago, one of the first episodes with Ryan Perez, that, I don't know if you knew this, but the same thing with Knott's Berry Farm.

Walter Knott, who started the place had this agenda of well it's it's a it's fried chicken and then we'll open a calico ghost town and then also there's a little thing called the freedom center a very sad little book stuff i think for the first time i saw a picture of the freedom center it is the plainest sign yeah the saddest little room so one of the things you could do in the early 60s at least at knott's berry farm was go and get conservative literature with titles like uh i found a couple of the specifics the socialist plan for conquest and communism on the map yeah we found that like newsreel of walter not saying like espousing his his beliefs oh we did oh i thought i found that for the first time okay i

can't remember we played it on the show i can't remember if that was was that playing in the freedom center or was that just something he was getting like interviewed i can't remember i'm not sure i just know that you would go in and get really dry and scary little pamphlets. Yeah. And we've been talking about the Freedom Center ever since. It's come up many times. And I wanted to see if I could come in with something more specific than the Freedom Center when it comes to Walter Knott's John Birch conservatism. And I really like what I found, which is that Walter Knott did a very special week of live entertainment in Anaheim, in Disney's backyard.

And, well, I mean, it was entertainment, but it was also a school. It was a school that went by several names. One was Christian Anti-Communist School. And another one, a little blunter, was Anti-Red School. Wow. Anti-Red. Wow. Auntie Red's School. Okay. And so this, what this was, was like a big outdoor event in like a football stadium,

like a high school football stadium. And families came. People brought their kids. People, Orange County parents were encouraged to pull their kids out of quote unquote real school and put them into, for this week, anti-communist school and watch really dry lectures about the commie thread. This event was put on by not just Walter Knott, but also the founder of the Crystal Cathedral down near Disneyland and Carl Karcher aka Carl's Jr.

Carl. Wow, really? Yeah. They put on a little anti-communist Coachella. Wow. That lasted a whole week. That's wild. Can't get that out of your head the next time you see a Carl's Jr. He was like a Walter Knott.

These people made Walt Disney look like a socialist, I guess. Yeah, really. Yes. Much is made of the kind of traditional people made Walt Disney look like a socialist, I guess. Yeah, really. Yes. Much is made of the kind of traditional nature of Walt Disney, but he was nowhere near this. You have to think about the kind of person that wants to create an amusement park. Well, first of all, the kind of money that they have and property ownership. And where does that put you? Like a mass amount of property. Where does that put you like a mass amount of property where does that put you politically but what were you saying well just that like no this is what the world should be

oh yeah that's something yes carefully manicured that usually involves some element of like the way it was back in the old days yeah you know before all the stuff. Yeah. Remember a simpler time. They have been remembering simpler times. Like, I don't even know if anyone, certainly no one's around for the simpler time. But it's just like, man, you guys start remembering the simpler time like a month later. Well, also, like, at this point, are old people talking about, like, the 60s and 70s as simpler times? Probably. Good, strong gasoline with lead. Yeah, everything was copacetic in the 60s and 70s.

My memory of circa 1968 is that things were functioning great. Everybody pretty chill. Most months had no significant assassinations his entire weeks would go by without a very famous assassination an unthinkable there was also uh one of the big stars at this great school that kids got to go to was a guy named herb philbrick uh And he would get up and say things like, the free world is shrinking and the communist-controlled world is growing.

It's the old salami tactic, one slice at a time. Oh, the old salami tactic? I got salami for lunch today. Did you really? Yeah. Okay. Jimmy John's. Oh, really?

Yeah. Okay. Well, you've heard the salami tactic before? Yeah, that's how I order every time. It's hard through these apps. You order ahead and you put salami tactic. They don't know what the hell you're talking about. Use the salami tactic.

Use the salami tactic. I'm curious if that was an existing phrase or if he was the first and last person to say salami tactic. Well, we haven't started to apply it to anything else, which I guess, hey, mission accomplished. It only refers to communism. Is it like you can trick people into eating 10 pounds of salami by serving them one slice at a time? You know, yeah.

It's a much less elegant version of what is the thing of like boiling the frog yeah yeah where they don't notice yeah just like you slowly turn up the temperature you slowly feed persons slice after slice of salami and they don't even realize they're eating pounds of salami you know what they're gonna notice they're gonna eventually notice if it's in a period of time has anyone ever eaten lots of salami without realizing well let's ask the guy who might have oh well i was gonna i thought it was more like the potato chip like oh you can't just eat one potato chip and then you just start eating potato chips and you're all the way in that is better that is much better because it

comes in a bag you maybe don't't notice. You're watching TV. I can't imagine the scenario where like, God, an hour went by. And sure enough, my body is entirely full of salami now. You know how when you start snacking on salami, you can't stop. You just keep going. You get a football game. You got the big bowl. And we've all wondered, does the host have some ulterior motive for me eating all this salami?

Are they fattening me up like foie gras? What's really behind this that I'm too blind to realize? No, keep eating, please. Okay. Your home is my home, and my salami is your salami, as long as it's all of it. She's going to leave the salami out here next to this picket fence, this bucket of white paint with a brush, and just keep eating

the salami if you feel like brushing it up. I'm not trying to get you to rely on me for your salami needs because you're no longer capable of getting your own salami. The salt and nitrates just hooks them. You have full salami freedom. I imagine you will. I don't want you to become dependent. You have full salami freedom. I imagine you will.

I don't want you to become dependent on me, big salami brother. Forever indoctrinated into only eating salami. Trying to recruit others to eat salami. The other, and with this guy who's saying this, whole thing he he would frame it is that why he was never asked back you when his speech went on to include 30 more somewhat inelegant salami related metaphors the one about the casing is what, really?

It's like the entire Earth is getting trapped in a giant salami casing, sucking us closer, trapping in the taste. He had clearly eaten a submarine sandwich for lunch, but forgotten to write his speech. Shit. You're on in five. Okay, one sec. Maybe if you weren't so busy eating salami you would have time to write your speech of course but sure enough the speech came to him quickly

and as he got up exceedingly slowly lurched to the stage his belly about to explode. This was the children or? Yeah, kids come. It's a day in a park. You get to skip school, right? Miss Knot is going to be there from Knott's Berry Farm. The burger guy is going to be there and Herb Philbrick, an

FBI spy who hid in a communist organization to rat on them for a decade. Oh, no. That's who this is. That's Mr. Salami. Why did he think that analogy would appeal to kids? Kids would understand.

You kids understand what salami is. You all use salami bags staring back at me. You kids who are just presented sandwiches and don't really think about where they come from or how the contents are acquired. Every Halloween, going from door to door, getting fat with

the salami slices you're handed. All you do is say trick or treat and you get it for free. The commie price. One slice at a time that's what's crazy is i forgot that wasn't even the one i was gonna read and i'm sure glad i did now the other one i was gonna the other thing he said was communists are rough tough nasty and they hate you

and then furthermore the events organizers explained that anyone who considered this rough, tough, nasty, and they hate you. And then furthermore, the events organizers explained that anyone who considered this school alarmist may themselves be a communist. Of course. Wow. Wait, can you say it again? Rough, tough, and nasty? Rough, tough, nasty, and they hate ya.

Anyone who says that the salami slice metaphor is confusing is undoubtedly a communist who probably had a big old lunch of salami so walter not look he gave us some rides that we like and he set up uh one of the great speeches ever given to children um so this is you know john birch society and themed entertainment go hand in hand always a great fit um i'm trying to think anything else on the bowcraft one one thing that bowcraft did i the coaster seems like it was all right the coaster seems like a it's called the crossbow in keeping with the um this is new me. Oh, maybe it's new. Okay.

So they did not have anything that good when you were there. A decent sized little Oh, wait, wait, wait. Was it one of those like it fits in like a little pen? Yeah. No, not quite. No, it had a

genuine decent size that like went up the crossbow was the end of the hill. The crossbow was the name of it. Is there anything on it online? Yeah, you'd find it. I think they sold it off. The Coaster Kids, I believe, gave it mostly one scream or 1.5 screams. And said it was mostly very rattly.

I'm going to assume that the Coaster Kid rating is higher than 1.5. No, no. I'm sorry, the total amount of screams you can get. Oh, yeah. Is it four or five or ten? How bad was this coaster? I don't know. Well, they were the only ones on it,

so if they made any noise, you would have heard it across the way. Yeah, Crossbow operated from july 2006 to uh 2018 there you go well i'm happy to be here when you learned that this part got a what i thought looked like an okay roller coaster but the coaster kids have taught me is not yeah the coaster kids would know yeah i would know i found a reddit thread where people were uh remembering bowcraft did you see this no um uh i think well two things uh one one commenter said when i was growing up this place had a reputation of being owned by white nationalists and someone replied no not white nationalists john John Burt Society tights, but not Nazis. So, Clay, we got that.

Let's be clear. Just people who associate with a lot of Nazis under the guise of free speech. Crypto Nazis, yeah, yeah. The fact that I really liked someone said, Fun fact about that carousel. Assuming the setup didn't break by the last time your kid rode it the music it played wasn't physically part of the ride in the middle there was a cd player and a very large speaker uh whoever was operating the ride would have to climb into the middle and restart the music

manually every time it finished oh that must be why it just played all the time when I was there. They just restarted, they hit it on loop and just let it go. If you were near the carousel, you heard the carousel at all times. Wow. So once CD players developed the loop option,

they stopped making teens climb into the center. I think I did do the merry-go-round or carousel. And I don't remember climbing in the middle. Was it like a record album and you'd have to put the needle in the front? I don't know. They didn't go into it. They said they

shazammed it and it was a mass-produced CD but then they never found what the name was again. Some lovely memories of the park. And those are mankind's two memories. That's all that's left of this place. Yeah, the

carousel was kind of janky and then another person chiming in, hey, we need a bunch of white nationalists on that. I was like, no, no. It's just kind of white nationalists. I don't know, it was just it didn't have any weirdness associated with it at the time. Yeah. The rides went in circles.

They didn't, if you got up above them, you would not see rides that went in swastika shapes. Yes. It's a very impractical shape for a ride. Yeah, no, that's, yeah. It would never work. He planned to bring one of those Hugh Hefner towers so you could see it from above. I'm going to inspect these rides, make sure there's no weird capes.

To talk about the, well, what really becomes the legacy of the place, unless anybody has anything else before I head to the exit here. So as you said, Jason, it closes in like 2017, 2018. 2018, the fall, yeah. It just becomes like apartments, townhouses,

just boring stuff. For white supremacists. They will only accept. But what happens to all of these rides? You don't just have to get rid of the ride. You don't just bulldoze them. There's another potential all of these rides you don't just have to get rid of the ride you don't just bulldoze them there's another potential function of these things so all of the rides

went up for sale on a website called rides4u.com number 4 letter U and you have rides4u up right now great perfect what a great thing to find out about Rides4U.com. So exciting.

Are some still for sale is what you're going to say? I think some of them are still on there. And I mean all of them because the roller coaster was like it's everything from there was a price list. You're like even the biggest, most expensive one is still there. Somehow I'm able to find a buyer. Post the demise of Michael Jackson, there are not a lot of buyers for uh small roller coasters out there um yeah that way you could buy that from for 500 000 uh down to you know a helicopter for five can you search by park? You can search. I'm looking at the, you can go like used. I don't think it actually has by park.

Yeah, it seems to be by. Some of it you have to figure out from context. Or you would have to do some forensic work to figure out if that's. It'll tell you like what year the ride is from, but I don't know. You have to really, you have to dig a little bit. It doesn't tell you if any of the rides are in the background of the Bruce Willis film, Mortal Thoughts. Tilt-A-Whirls. There's a couple Tilt-A-Whirls available that are used.

There's one Scrambler available. This is, I don't know how, we have not come across this. This is shocking that we haven't. No, no, no. No rides for you. Because we talk about trying to buy, usually's mcdonald land stuff yeah like playground equipment but we have not i mean we've mentioned what rides we might want to own if we had a our own ranch let's say um but i we have not seen this i'm shocked that this hasn't come across our this is it's a it's a really good

source for if it was ever going to be an opportunity, there's probably some more work involved in terms of getting it out here. Unless we just go, we let this drive our decisions and we go move to rural New Jersey. It's not rural. Well, no. It isn't. I mean, we will find rural New Jersey.

To rebuild MoCraft. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Right, right. You can buy thisCraft. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Right, right. You can buy this log flume for $800,000. How have we not seen this? A used log flume.

It's a lot to wrap your head around buying. And like, where is it all sitting right now? A log flume in parts? It's kind of crazy. Well, that's like that Batman and Robin roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventures sat like just the pieces parts it's kind of crazy well that's like that batman and robin roller coaster at six flags

great adventures sat like just the pieces were rusting in the woods for a while after because i think it was supposed to get flown to brazil and then parts of it did and the park went under like some sort of crazy thing wait which what uh there was a uh batman and robin themed after the batman and robin the movie from the late 90s and um at what park at great adventure yeah i remember that near freefall it was i i forget gotten rid of freefall uh but then this this opened uh and it was kind of controversial when it opened because it drew from the local power grid and kept causing brownouts. The one ride? The one ride because it would do like a zero to 60, zero to 70.

It would do a big launch and that requires a lot of power. So like when Universal built- Six Flags was like, we don't really feel like being here. We're sorry. The Incredible Hulk-themed roller coaster at Universal Orlando, they built a power substation just for this.

But Six Flags did not do that. They were on the main grid and kept causing power outages. They just plugged into one outlet, long extension cord, and the residents pay the price. That log flume, I believe, is from Adventureland, the place we talked about with Gabrus. And you could buy a Ferris wheel.

You could buy a drop tower, the Double Shot, which is from another strangely named Jersey Shore, Playland's Castaway Cove. Oh, is that for sale? another strangely named Jersey Shore Playlands Castaway Cove. Oh. Isn't this your park? Is that for sale? Yes, you can buy that ride from Rides4U. Yeah. I thought that was still there. I'll have to look that up.

Well, unless, I think it's possible that, because they only show you pictures of the rides in context, and I think it's possible that they are selling rides before they have been removed from their initial setting. now it's the time to get it out sound the alarm about that practice it just doesn't seem like a good because if people are paying the part that isn't that isn't it double dipping yeah and aren't there commies involved somewhere in this process that one one last thing, because you mentioned that, because there

was seemingly a big Playland sign outside of Beaucraft. Did you see the commercial? Yes. Like 80s commercial? Yes. I have it. Do you have it? Playland? Who wants to play it? In Rye, New York? Or no, this is, I think

Beaucraft was called Beaucraft Playland. Is that what you're saying New York? Yeah. Or no, this is, I think, I think Bowcraft was called Bowcraft Playland. Is that what you're saying, Jason? Yeah. The fabulous Bowcraft Amusement Park experience with acres of fun for everyone. Ride the all new giant Skywheel, the exciting bumper car ride. The Go-Kart Tilt-A-Whirl kiddie ride. It's a fun-filled day for everyone and close to home, so you save gas. Bowcraft Amusement Park, Route 22 at 22 at scotch plains open tonight till 11.

i don't know what day it is. maybe seven of those commercials. not open tonight. close today. don't go. so if you see the ad drive over uh yeah it's pretty fun That was just, there aren't that many YouTube results for Bowcraft, and that's like the first one. There's some decently well-produced, but they really stress,

both of the ads out there stress the cheapness and the saving gas. Yeah, the cheapness. Close to home, save money on gas. Like, that made me laugh so much when I saw it. What do you want to go to Great Adventure for? What's so great about that? Think about how much goddamn gas you would use. I think the song in the 94 one refers to cheapness.

That explains New Jersey. Affordable family. Oh, my God, yeah. You remember this? Bookraft Amusement Park. Yeah, I remember that. Pay one price. Available 10 a.m. to 1 p.m every day

tonight yeah that i totally remember wow wow um that might have been when you worked there potentially i probably did i have one more thing from rides for you.com because i think we're all thinking about the the opportunities this opens up andrew especially. This is your shot for ride ownership. And to operate again. Aren't you hankering to get the old, the finger, the button-pushing finger? But now you own the means of production as well. That's the dream of any ride operator.

Well, this is the biggest opportunity that we all have is that a big, tall thrill ride, that seems impossible. What are we? You have but this one. Thrill ride owner for millennials. Thrill ride ownership is just

beyond. Yes, our generation has been screwed. It's like we'll never own a ride. Our parents each had a couple couple Tilt-A-Whirls. You guys are renting your thrill rides. Our only hope is that our parents, generationally, we've become ride owners. That's right.

This is the only possible... There's categories of ride, right? There's Tilt-a-whirl and scrambler and that kind of thing and then i saw the tab dark ride oh yeah please please please because like andrew generally i think we start salivating over dark rides just to talk about or to think about because a lot of these rides are fun but they don't have stories and with a dark ride you get like an immersive world and a tale and the idea that they are selling every part of a dark ride you get like an immersive world and a tale and the idea that they are selling every part of a dark ride yeah so exciting to me and it's not just any dark ride

it is a ride called tomb rider 3d it is a name that is a ripoff of tomb ra, but a font that is a rip-off of Indiana Jones. Yeah. Yes. But a ride where if you watch the ride through is more of a rip-off of the Revenge of the Mummy from Universal. So it's got a great little triptych of rip-off going. This

ride was made by the Ripley's Believe It or Not organization. This ride was in by the ripley's believe it or not organization this ride was in downtown san antonio literally across the street from the alamo wow you can do a google image of where this now closed ride was and then just whip it around and see the alamo is there like a hollywood boulevard in front of the alamo like a tourist trap yes Yes. It's an entire, it's all Ripley's and Guinness Book of World Records. Like the Great Pyramids.

There's like the Pizza Hut right next to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Is that one true? It is. I've seen pictures like through a Pizza Hut window of the Great Pyramids. Jeez. There's a Bubba Gump shrimp very close to every historical landmark.

This ride, to bring up something that was mentioned a little earlier, this ride shared a wall with the Jimmy Johns. Shared a wall. How lucky. Something Jason could

only dream of. Did you have to put the connections together of like this ride looks familiar or does it list where it was um i don't think it lists where it was but it shows you the sign and it shows you every every part of it like a lot of photos yeah there's so many photos uh um there's the like here's the opening scene where there's like skeletons who can talk warning you not to go in there I guess they're trustworthy skeletons not like some of the others

game there's like little root this black light rooms with here's bats and scale and bad skeletons stay away from the shoot those it's a laser tag by the way yeah you have like it's like you're yes look like the original Nintendo's upper guns it is exactly like that the cheapest little guns yeah Yeah, you have like a blue and red gun. Yes. That look like the original Nintendo Zapper guns.

It is exactly like that. The cheapest little guns. Yeah. I watched a ride through of it, and I would say that the user, like the person filming has about 0.5% accuracy, and I am not blaming that person. I am blaming the tiny, tiny targets.

I think he gets three hits for the entire ride, which is a long ride um this ride looks great it's a piece of american history i value much more than the alamo i would love to get my my hands on it to start shooting skeletons again there's some there's a really great thing on the front of or inside the ride they've just basically taped a sign reminding you to buy a photo at the end of the ride it's just literally like it's literally taped yes to the front uh it says don't don't forget view your ride photo located at the exit elevators it's got that hot metal that you were rattling around as a child it's kind of going for it do you know about that dark ride the scary ride i think it was also new jersey that uh had a real dead body in it jesus no no yeah one of the like you know like zombified

it's not it wasn't just like a skeleton because i feel like once a body is a skeleton it's just like a skeleton but it was like some kind of like don't call it a body is a skeleton, it's just like a skeleton. But it was like some kind of like... You don't call it a body anymore. Yeah. That's like the baby toddler designation. It's the opposite of the baby toddler designation. There was like a skeleton of a dead guy. You'd be like, well, I guess.

But it was like more than that. And it was in this... It was on the old HBO autopsy show. Whoa. Wow, really? Do you know where? this uh it was on that that old the old hbo autopsy show oh wow really yeah where uh i think it was somewhere in new jersey like in like seaside or something jesus and they were like where did this body come from and just there for a long time before anybody whoa wow uh listeners if you know if you've seen this episode of Autopsy, let us know.

Is this coming to Max? We'll be able to see this on Max. A question, are you going to keep the old autopsies on after you turn it into Max? Wait, can I ask a question? Where is Cinemax in all of this? That's what I wanted to know.

Cinemax is weird, right? They were just like, but we're, Matt, and they just shoved them's what I wanted to know. Cinemax is weird, right? They were just like, but we're Matt. And they just shoved them aside. You don't count. They don't have to listen to you. Nice Max, get yourself one. Did Cinemax become

something else? Did they become like, is S.T.A.R.S. or E.P.I.X. the former Cinemax? No, I don't know. I think Cinemax is still around, though. In its regular form. They just seeded the Max. I gotta check that out. Are they part of the family of...

David Zaslav made them a part of it. Put a knife to their throats. Give up the Max. It used to be HBO got the new release movies first that were out of theaters and then they would move to Showtime or Cinemax

in current times the HBO Max recently added lists like Miss Congeniality check it out wow it was known for having the like soft core porn yeah yeah it says add Cinemax to your TV

subscription now it's still its own thing I think it's still its own, it says add Cinemax to your TV subscription now. It's still its own thing? I think it's still its own thing. There's also another thing that says some Cinemax content is on HBO Max. But apparently you can just order Cinemax. Wait, so they have worked out a deal then?

Wait, it is! It's owned by HBO? It is part of Warner Bros. Discovery! Mystery solved. How insulting that no one was concerned there'd be confusion. Everyone's just trying to lie low. They're not trying to ruffle any feathers, you know? Just take Cinemax's name. No one's going to know.

They won't care. Do you? Do you? What, are you going to stand up for yourself, Cinemax? Cinemax. No, sir. Yeah, what are you gonna stand up For yourself Cinemax Cinemax No sir Yeah What are you gonna hit me

With your soft core porn Some people Some people prefer that Scramble my face Like your screen is scrambled They don't admit They watch me But they do

It's a formative part Of everyone's upbringing Yeah It's nothing to be ashamed of It's a good It's a good be ashamed of. It's a good transition porn. Nothing too shocking.

And maybe a little story in there, too. No harm. I wish we could buy pieces of Tomb Rider. Just some of it? Maybe they piecemeal it. It's all or nothing? We don't know it's all or nothing, but if you talk to the owners, maybe we talk to the owners the owners which we know their names because they're in these articles and i have to look down on my phone what i bet it's a buyer's market on all these rides

tomb right it's expensive tomb raiders expensive though but much cheaper than a lot of them yeah there's like you can buy a down payment on a house you can you can buy a total Tomb Raider's expensive, though. How much? Cheaper than a lot of them. Yeah. It's just a down payment on a house. You can buy a Tilt-A-Whirl. You can live in it. That's what you do. You double up, and we all do it. Yeah. Our families live together now in this tomb.

It's a fake tomb, a fun tomb. There's a Kmart parking lot not too far away, and no one's really in there right now, so you can park a tomb rider in there you know you wonder it's 250 000 yeah for tomb tomb rider and all it would entail is that our kids wake up every morning see the shape of the shadowy shape of a person and wonder if it is their mom and dad or the other mom and dads who live there or scary skeletons. Yeah. The worst thing is their keys are just the old laser guns and they can't get in the house.

30 minutes. I can't hit it. No way. I have to pee. All right, all right. Wait, how about this? Wait, there's a different dark ride where you can just buy the two passenger vehicles,

which were made by Sally Dark Ride. It looks like you're like in a barrel. Sally Dark Ride. Oh, we love Sally. Sally's like kind of the di where they're like the indie cool ride makers but this we could buy just the vehicles and then we could take them over to the big dog garage and we could convert them into real cars oh yeah drive those around bourbon go to the bob's big boy and show them off. So that would be good, too.

We're doing it, but we have to get the permission of Jay Leno's garage to do this? Well, the permission, we're paying them to actually make them into real working vehicles. Oh, we're paying for

their mechanical services. Yeah. And by that, you mean Jay himself. Yeah, I can make that and get this down the road. There's no employee

there, I assume. Well, no, because there was his friend who pulled him out. I know all about the fire story. And sat on him and put on the road. There's no employee there, I assume. Well, no, because there was his friend who pulled him out. I know all about the fire story. And sat on him and put out the fire. I was admitting a story I knew very well about Jay Leno's burn to make a joke. I mean, thank God there's other people who work there.

It could have been much worse for old Jay. Yeah, Jay, what? He got that motorcycle accident and the burn within like three weeks of each other. But no, now he's going to build us a real car now things are looking up for jay because wait look the show's been off the air the guy needs a job yeah

besides working besides doing probably like 400 stand-up dates within 365 days a year 500 episodes of you bet your life that he films within three weeks. If that same voiceover guy said, come see Jay Leno's stand-up. He's on tonight.

He would be correct on any night. Any night. Why is this 22-meter Ferris wheel only $200,000? That seems suspicious. What year? What year is it? Hmm. What year? let's see

it is a 90 94 model technical good year good year for we need to become like car guys in that regard yeah oh yeah what year is your ferris wheel yeah in 87 oh beauty what a beauty. Great year for Ferris Reels. Great year. You just got it. 95 was a bad year. Because this one is $549,000. Oh, it's a 2018, so it's right off the showroom floor. It's like buying a used car. But it depends on if you want classics or the new stuff. Skydiver is the one I was talking about where they're attached at the front and back.

Oh, I see. Yeah. How much is skydiver going for? You can get... What's it going to take to get you into a skydiver tonight? I can go as low as $89,000. Oh, God. I mean, look, my wife wants me to bring home a SkyTag.

All right. Not a penny more than $90,000. No hidden fees. I'm looking over this contract. Well, look, we're going to get down to business. We're going to figure this out. Somebody here is going to buy a ride, and we will make sure that the slow the show slowly becomes very technical and lacking in comedy yeah just like jay's transition from the show to leno's garage

of course which where there is no room for jokes that is not what he's there for we are there for there for car information yes um closing thoughts about bowcraft fun to go back mentally yeah the commercial i had not heard that in many years and it reminded you of helpful information remind reminded you of the value of saving gas for your entertainment purposes yeah like local commercials i feel like that's not a thing anymore yeah that's true yeah yeah i do miss it well that's part of you know that's not a thing anymore. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. I do miss it. Well, that's part of, you know, it's not the way things used to be. Can we go back to the way? That's our simpler time.

Yeah. Something that was around the corner needs to be advertised to me on TV. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you could return to a simpler time with us. Chancher Whiteford. You survived Podcast the ride. Let's exit through the gift shop because I know you definitely

have something to plug. You were part of one of the main creative minds behind this show, Jury Duty on Freebie. I don't mean to make you just pitch the show, but it is a crazy,

like unprecedented reality bending. I believe i said yes that's accurate right yes uh and uh and it doesn't quite feel pranky because it there's no like dachaism to uh yeah so i stand by my earlier statement yes and i stand by but um anything refusal um what can you tell us about? Yes. So we, this guy, Ronald, answered an ad, a Craigslist ad, to be part of a documentary about the legal system on following a jury in a trial. We picked him, and he showed up for this trial and got on the jury. And we kept him sequestered for 17 days without his phone,

living in a hotel with four of the actors actually lived at the hotel with him. He's surrounded day and night as an entire world of actors, the trial and what he goes home to. Everyone he basically ever encountered in the 17 days was an actor. Yeah, it was incredible that we pulled this

off. Just because any time you try to do something funny or even not is an opportunity to blow it. And it's not like, it's like reverse borat where like instead of having uh one sky controlling everything with a bunch of people who don't know you have a bunch of people steering this and trying to work, like having to trust everyone from top to bottom to every day not screw up. And we somehow didn't.

An immersive environment. Much like Walter Knott, the manicured world. I think our anti-communist message comes through yeah we built this like world around him and he became involved like emotionally invested in like these other people's like drama that we threw at him like forced him to be a part of this is the craziest thing about it i feel is that like the pulling it off is one thing but but then it becomes like a, it functions as a sitcom also where you are into the characters, so many funny people in it,

you are following their stories and sometimes you can like lose sight of the fact that like, oh wait, he's not, they are fake and he is real and he doesn't know that they're fake. Like the stories work even regardless of that, which is fascinating. Yeah. And also we had to create a court case a civil lawsuit that he would sit there and listen to and think about uh for hours a day and like like witnesses coming up and we'd like

write you know a bunch of dumb shit for this like expert witness uh and like everything had to like line up like yeah you couldn't like you couldn't just do like you're watching the viewer now on freebie is watching the like greatest hits and the fun stuff that happened but you had to sell the reality and make a bunch of boring well yeah we would have we had witnesses that didn't make the show to fill more court time. A witness would sit there for an hour and a half or something doing dry testimony that had two jokes in it because that's what we were going to show,

and we didn't want them to stand out. It's like any time something strange happens, and he might be like, wait a minute, you have to follow that with hours of nothing. So it falls back. That's the thing is like, it's like, well, these people are kind of crazy. And like James Marsden is here. Yes, that's true. Yes.

The real actor as himself is serving jury duty. Yes. And it's like, is this some kind of prank or something? And then you just watch James Marsden sit there doing nothing for six hours. And you're like, I guess it's probably not. He is not getting up to a story, clearly, every time that he's around. I'm not in the TV business, but this does not seem like a TV show to me. It's so crazy and relevant to the listener.

One of the episodes, episode four, I will direct people, I mean, watch all of them, but I will direct people specifically to episode four, which films at a hallowed location for you the Cliffords I'll say again there is an entire sequence of the show filmed at Margaritaville in City Walk where you had to take over you got to you had the honor

of having full run of one of our favorite places do you want to know that I've been in like the kitchen and the bathrooms? We would like to know that. I'll erase the whole episode we did. It's filthy. No, don't tell us that.

Jimmy would never allow that. No, the kitchen seemed like a normal kitchen. Then there's like if you know the layout, I assume you do. Oh yeah, sure. You've got the bar, you've got the blender at the front got the you got the bar you got the blender at the front you got the store right behind the stage is this like another kitchen but like a sort of smaller and i hung out in there a lot but that soda machine didn't work so then on the other side

at the top of like that ramp by the gift shop is a little like hidey hole that has a soda machine in it and like some other so i hung out i would just stay in there ah um and i had an earwig in because i donned the blue oh my god yes wow and i was on the beautiful the ultimate blue uniform in our society wow yeah honestly i may have been wearing these very same pants. Oh, my God. That would have been perfect. Those pants are perfect for the employee of a Margaritaville. Yes, and I still have the black Skechers I was given to be.

To be consistent with the uniform of a Margaritaville employee? Because I was on the floor with an earwig because the whole restaurant was extras the waiters were mostly real waiters uh but one the one who interacts with the group is an actress and so i had to if any extras were acting up or to give the actors any notes like if ronald got up to the bathroom you know we pulled them away somewhere i would have to run up to them and be like do this oh we've got a chance to like give some notes so you can see me a couple times well yes i did see you in the yeah yeah you're yeah you're in the cut yeah um where like hey and back to the bowcraft roots yeah yeah i've worn a lot of fun colorful uniform outfit um i i read an interview also with Jake Szymanski, who directed the show.

Great guy, Funny or Die alum. And he said that you, Ronald, the real person, is aware that this camera is for a lot of it. But in this particular instance, he did not know. Like, it was all hidden cameras that had to be built into the Margaritaville surroundings? Yes, because the Margaritaville was just like they had the night off to hang out together. So the cameras weren't going to be watching them. But yes, we built all these hides. It's like bamboo hut with a mirror.

Another just like mirrored column that a guy was in is that then a mirror that it can shoot through on the other end a lot of that if you ever are in a situation that you're not sure about and you see inexplicable mirrors

all over the place you're probably on some sort of show you haven't been told about. Go to Freebie, where I believe this episode's coming out. All the episodes

are now posted. Crazy to watch what you guys pulled off, but also that it's funny and fun, too. It's not just like social experiment and that's it.

It's fun characters. Everybody's did a great job. And you're on a streaming service that literally has free in the name and you can see it uh anywhere which is a nice change of pace yes apparently not canada oh okay disappointed can well sorry canada all right well if there's any content anywhere in america the country that matters we ignore we don't even want to hear the word we call our canadian amazon was you wish you got clifford amazon was like this is gonna be available worldwide and i was like uh-uh not as filthy as a john birch society member a lot of feelings about them uh go to free v

and and thank you for doing it in a place where the V is free. Where the V is boo. Yeah, bring the next one to Vue Boo, please. And thanks for being here as well. Thank you for having me. For us, you can find us on the socials at Podcast The Ride. Merch is available

on our TeePublic store. And for three bonus episodes every month, check out Podcast The Ride The Second Gate, or get one more bonus episode on our VIPip tier club three you'll find all of that at patreon.com slash podcast the ride and a couple dead body episode coming soon hugh hefner tower episode coming soon um and extremely dry just uh numbers and years uh money crunching yeah for sure there's

a lot of new trade groups i hadn't heard of on that rise for you website so be excited to dig into them i think we've got some work to do trade groups we're coming for you 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

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