Podcast: The Ride - PizzeRizzo with Alicia Stella LIVE

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Live from Orlando, a beautiful rat funeral for a somewhat controversial rat-centric pizza restaurant. This episode contains cheers, boos and very special Pizzerizzo-related secret guests! Goodbye sweet rat-prince!  "⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠More Fantasmic!⁠" episode is up at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever! Dog! Warning! The following podcast will be heard by the live audience and no one else because we left our Zoom recorder in the locker for Tron Lightcycle Run. for Tron Light Cycle Run. One of your hosts may weep involuntarily due to the recent closure of Jelly Rolls. To honor this fallen angel, most of our show will consist of group sing-alongs of Bad Bad Leroy Brown. One of your hosts may weep involuntarily due to the recent closure of Mama Melrose.

To honor this fallen angel, he will spend the show slowly gumming a giant sausage. And now, live from Icon Park, right next to a lot of very dangerous looking rides, it's Podcast The Ride! That was a lot of rigor moral. Wow. A standing ovation because it is standing room for some of you. A forced standing ovation. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to podcast The Ride, a live podcast endeavor that now requires the abandonment of three children. Re now! Back at My daughter is potty training currently, and from what I hear, it's not going well. And I'm not dealing with it right now, but I will be.

You will come home to bathrooms full of pee on the ground. You'll slip and slide as soon as you walk in the door. Much to the fore, Michael. Yes, I will be soaked in pee. Ground stickiness will only be beer that has fallen here at Tin Roof Orlando. Hey, everybody, thank you for coming. Hello, Orlando.

We're back! Was anyone here last time? A couple years ago, a lot of you were here last time. We are thrilled to be back. We've been dying to be back. My name is Scott Gardner. Hi, everyone. Over here we have.

My name is Mike Carlson. Thank you. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan.

And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan.

And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan.

And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan.

And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan.

And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan.

And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sheridan. And I'm Jason Sher show, maybe I'll just turn to you and say, oh my God, that's Jason Bourne, as they do in all of the movies. I, yeah, well, for anyone listening, if we've managed to find a way to record it, we, you are wearing a Bourne's Duntacular hat, you're wearing a Bourne's Duntacular shirt.

Are you wearing, is there a Bourne's Duntacular underwear that we are not familiar with? Unfortunately not, and they really got an earful bornstuntacular shirt. Are you wearing, is there bornstuntacular underwear that we are not familiar with? Unfortunately not, and they really got an earful when I realized there was not. I realized I left my prop bornstuntacular water bottle backstage and my bornstuntacular pill back at, or a pin back at the hotel so I would not lose it.

Those are precious items. You to keep track of those. Everybody's feeling good you're stuntacular-pilled I'm feeling I'm pumped I pre-gamed at Cafe Tutu Tango down the street. Yeah. Are there fans of Cafe Tutu Tango here? Wow okay I know I'm in the right place. I will have to explain this to some people, if you aren't familiar. This is a chain that used to be a chain and now seemingly is only here on iDrive,

which is the case for a lot of chains, it seems. It's the place where they go to die, but like 30 years, you know? Chains get retirement in one little box. It is a place where you can have sangria next to a little painting of Dave Chappelle as Rick James. I had a lot of fun there. I had extremely expensive okay tapas.

And I wanna share my Cafe Tutu Tango love with you. Is there anybody here? Let's do this thing. Who thinks that they may have come from the furthest to be here tonight? Has anybody shout something out? LA! I get you were first with the LA.

You came as far as we did and you aren't one of the LA people who came with us. So join us on stage really fast. I got something for you. Um. Okay. Okay. Hello. Oh wow. Hey, great. Thanks for being here. Hello.

Oh, my gosh. So nice to meet you. My name is Anna. Hello, Anna, and I'm sorry that I shoved the mic in your face in such an aggressive way. What's your name? Anna. Okay. You got the answer right.

Very good. Okay. Here's what I have for you. Oh, wow. Excellent delusion and not scary farm, a great vest. So for, wow, for coming all of this way across the country from a place where we do live shows sometimes. But for being here with us tonight, I appreciate it.

And you get done by a Cafe Tutu Tango artist because there's artists working in there by Kayla Maria Alves, a print of an oil painting of Chucky. Oh my goodness, thank you. Thank you, thank you so much for doing. Absolutely. Thank you, Anna. Thank you for coming.

Appreciate it. Put the frame that, put that above your bed, put it on your ceiling, looking down at you like a mirrored ceiling. And when you see Chucky's scarred face, think of us. Wow. So excited to be here. So yeah, hey, we've been in our favorite place. We've been in the place that we talk about all damn day every day.

And it always feels good. I think it's safe to say that there is never a time that we are happier and more engaged and excited to be doing this podcast than we are here in Orlando, Florida. Thank you so much for having us and for being here. And every time we come, we meet more people, we make more friends. It truly is like such a heartwarming affair

and we really love to do it. How you guys feeling? You feeling as good as I am post-2-2 tango? Well, I'm feeling so good. I bought a fanny pack that said Florida on it. How you guys feeling? You feeling as good as I am post-Tutu tango? Well, I'm feeling so good. I bought a fanny pack that said Florida on it. Step one to moving. Step one to moving. If you just start filling, if everything you own starts to say Florida, it will just be more cost effective to make the move.

Right, because currently all my stuff says California. So it would make sense that I would have to switch states. That's how it works. That's how we all live. Items that you own, you represent your state. Jason, and I haven't even, I didn't see yesterday, you gotta catch me up on some stuff. How you feeling here in your favorite place?

Pretty good, yeah. It's not the best place in the world for someone with heat sensitivity at the start of June, but you may do because the state is full of industrial air conditioning. So hanging in there, you know, Scott, this is the second trip where I've navigated the parks with an ECV scooter.

Yes, indeed. Jason is scootin'. You're on wheels. I am scootin', and I've learned a lot doing that. Now, last time we were here, I had a top five list of the most reactionary t-shirts I encountered. And other than Jane spotting a preteen boy wearing a shirt that said Jesus won. Which I don't know that was really his thing, you know? I don't know that he was really trying to win. Won what? It's unclear.

The 2024 election? I'm worried that's what it means. One what? It's unclear. The 2024 election? I'm worried. That's what it means. Yeah. So. But I did come up with a top five list of observations I've accrued navigating the parks with an ECV scooter. May I share it with you all?

That's perfect because I'm on stage, my audio is amplified, and you are in the audience. You have no choice. All right, top five observations touring the parks on an ECV. Number five, when you are resting your hands like this on a scooter all day, you may get a sunburn on the back of your hand. Oh, no. Don't worry, it's faded and peeling now. Wait, did you not sunblock the back of your hand? Huh?

Did you not have any lotion, just because it's a place you don't necessarily put lotion on? I think I put on gobs of suntan lotion. I just probably like real quick, like rub the back of my hands, not thinking. You need biker gloves. Fingerless biker gloves. Yeah.

Studded spikes, perhaps, like Anna is wearing. Denim. Let's figure out a place so you can get some stuff. Go ahead. Sorry, sorry to cut you off. Number four. I no longer like cobblestones as a design choice. Number three, when a thunderstorm breaks out,

make sure to cover the control panel or the device will stop functioning. No, were you on top of a very tall hill or something? No, that's what we learned like last time, the one day it rained. So I was prepared this time. Hey, good. You've learned already. Also, you very quickly realize when a thunderstorm breaks out and there's lightning in the area,

you are sitting on top of hundreds of pounds of metal. Don't think too hard about that one. Number two, you will have some interesting interactions. Like when I was looking at shirts in the Tower of Terror gift shop and a child briefly leaned over my arm. I did not notice this but the mother said, honey stop leaning over people to look at things. And I very politely said, oh, no worries, because I hadn't really noticed. And the mother responded very curtly, yes, worries.

So I've been just walking around, you know, scooting around for a few days, muttering yes worries to myself. That's my mantra all the time. Yeah. And the number one thing, all handicapped stalls can fit an ECV if you have the will. So that's my top five for this. Very good. Thank you so much.

Wow. Excellent. I wish we had a Paul Schaefer to play jazz out of that talk show bit. This is the one show, the one live show where Paul Schaeffer is not in attendance for us. Are you sure? Are you out there somewhere? To that kids scolding thing, there's always that thing in theme, but you are watching like absolute meltdowns occur at all times.

I had a great meltdown I thought was worth sharing. This wasn't even in like the heat of a park. This was checking into a hotel where it was very air-conditioned, but a very normal kind of fight between two kids broke out, and the mom was being very polite to the concierge or whatever, and then all of a sudden turned around and said, I don't need two kids fighting right now. You're going to end up in Disney jail. ["I'm done, okay?

I'm done in a park at nine in the morning. Look, the heat drives people nuts, you know? You go a little nuts when it's hot enough, you know But you know not us that's the thing getting to be like to feel like among the people who are having the least amount of Breakdowns who are having some of the most fun, which is what I feel about all the folks here I think I like this group Where are the theme park fans who are enjoying it the most and I think we've run into some of you folks Over the course of the last, wait, wait, make some noise if we've seen you,

if we met you at some point. Oh, great, great. I'll hopefully meet more of you later. But I think we met some of you in a very specific spot, and that maybe takes us into the topic of tonight's show. Because we always wanna be in Orlando. We wanna be in Orlando as often as possible. We sure do.

Uh. Ha ha. Easy outlaw, easy. Not yet. Makes me feel real good is all. Orlando Mike is coming out. Orlando Mike's hopping right out of that fanny pack. The fanny pack is very pro wrestler core.

So it's really, it's adding to the aesthetic in a lot of ways. I'm becoming my true form. He's gonna be unleashed over the course of the night. But with this, you know, we always wanna be here, but this felt like a time where it was like, we had to come. It was a calling, it was our duty,

because it's been a very exciting month in theme parkdom. There's a lot of stuff that I think we're all thinking about, a lot of very exciting changes in the last couple of weeks. Some things have occurred, some recent news has happened. There are things happening that are certainly going to have an epic sized impact on the Orlando theme park universe. Right. Wouldn't you say?

I am talking of course about the closure of Muppets Courtyard. Yep, yep. I heard some boos. Let's make sure those boos are for the concept and not for us. But you know, get your boos out, right? I think we all should do it.

Boo! Hold on, I have a question. Is anyone in the room happy it's closing? Hey! We got one! We got one! You motherfucker. Get that motherfucker outta here! Get him outta here!

Enjoy your door coaster. That guy really loves Star Wars. What the hell is that waiting area? Launch Bay? The Launch Bay, he loves it. He hell is that waiting area? Launch Bay? The Launch Bay, he loves it. He loves it, he's glad Launch Bay is safe. No, that's right. They finally heard everybody's complaints

about Disney's Hollywood Studios. We want there to be less to do. Shut down a bunch of stuff. As we record, I feel like, you know, we were here and designed this to be here for history. We were recording this on Sunday, June 8th, 2025. On Saturday, June 7th, 2025, just yesterday, Muppet Vision 3D ran its final show after 34 years in the park. A sad affair, an emotional affair. How many people were there for it?

How many people got to see it yesterday? One last time, yes. And that's a sad thing, definitely. But it puts us in a bind. We've already done an episode about Muppet Vision 3D. Might feel repetitive to do it again. There is something, dare I say was something. I'm still getting used to it.

I'm not excited to say it. There was something in Muppets Courtyard that we have not done an episode about. Something that has been, oh yes Jason? Fountain. Fountain and that's it. It is the fountain. No, it is, it's a little bit bigger than that, it was something of an establishment, it is something that has been the subject of debate on podcasts, The Ride, for a number of years. What is it, you ask, if you haven't figured it out already. Why, let me tell you, it's rat pizza. I am seeing jackets already.

Okay, hey, we chose right. Good pick. Oh boy. All right. So tonight it is happening. You are here for the very day after its burial, a salute to all of Muppet's courtyard, but mostly pizza riso. That is our show this evening. OK, all right. I'm glad we see we debated this a lot.

What topic do we do? Wait, hold on, hold on. Oh, oh, a change. A change is happening. It's coming out. Strip, strip, strip, Jason, strip, strip. Yeah. I see Beaker, Beaker was a peeker.

I bought this shirt 26 years ago when they bothered to open the store in Muppets Court. Oh, God. They weren't selling a shirt yesterday. Oh yeah, what the hell happened there? There was not a goodbye shirt. I read somewhere that there was a goodbye shirt offered for Ellen's energy adventure, but not for the Muppets.

What lends itself to shirts better? All of the Muppets or a weird, rotting animatronic that didn't look like Ellen in the first place? Speaking of shirts and such, please raise your hand or make some noise if you are currently wearing Muppet memorabilia of some kind. Pretty good. Wow, wow. Not even knowing that that's where this was headed.

Can I ask this question? I hate to keep derailing, but is anyone here wearing any Aerosmith merchandise. I assume that means everyone because no one raised their hand. It's assumed they all have something on their person. That's all the underwear. That's stuff we can't see. That's thongs. Oh, yeah.

What if they used to sell a thong at the Rock and Roller Coaster gift shop? It was 99, baby. It was a different time. One little story from yesterday, now that you bring up Aerosmith, is we did what might be, that's a little scary, could be Mike's final ride with the bad boys of Boston on the rock and roller coaster. Because they're being replaced by the Muppets. Now let's boo the Muppets. Boo! Boo! We can have it both ways. No, you maybe did your last Rock and Rollercoaster with Aerosmith.

Probably, yeah. So that was your emotional affair. Right at the exit, we decided to take a photo with a photo that is up, as you make your way out of the ride, of the full lineup of Aerosmith. I told Mike, stand next to that, and right at that moment, somebody walked by and said, hey, there's the tastemaker. There's your proof. Yeah, yeah.

Duh. Yeah, that was the one time you saw it. It happens to me ten times a day. Happens all the time. When you're not around. Mm-hmm. Okay, no, but we're here to talk about, I mean, Pizzorizzo, but I think there's maybe a little bit to say about, so folks here got to see Muppet Vision one last time.

Would you say that you got sort of like a bit of a rowdy audience? Were people like, people making noise Talking a lot. I feel like my friend Andrew is here He did one right before the one we went to and he said it's exciting because everybody is cheering all of the stuff Then we got in there and no one cheered all of the stuff. It was deadly deadly serious. So respectful I had the gall to go Sweetums came in is Should we not applaud for Sweetums like Kramer coming in? And I did a little golf clap, as did people in the row with me, and then it just went away. It just went into the air.

And now I'm hearing that in every other show, people were screaming for Sweetums. What happened? There's respect and then there's too much respect. You all make as much goddamn noise as you want. Let's make it rowdy like Muppet Vision. Anyone wanna cheer Sweetums right now? There we go. Better. That's for Sweetums.

That's for Sweetums. That's for Sweetums. Is there a member of Aerosmith you'd like to get a cheer? Careful, careful. Who's the least problematic of all of them? The least problematic? Joey Kramer. Yeah. They don't make Joey Kramer's coffee anymore. The drummer of Aerosmith had a coffee for a couple years and now he doesn't do it anymore.

He doesn't sell coffee anymore. See, this is the effect you had. You said Joey Kramer and I immediately, part of my mind went, does he have coffee or does he have a whiskey? And this is what you've infected my brain with, tastemaker. Well, I'm not doing a very good job if you couldn't remember. I was 50-50. Okay, true, you did say coffee. So I take it back. I remember. I was 50-50, I was pretty good. True, you did say coffee. So I take it back, I apologize. Eat notes, write W for whiskey, C for coffee. What else do celebrities have?

Restaurants that are opening very slowly, like John Taffer down the street. Oh yeah, well. We'll be back here for that. We'll talk about that later. Yeah, yeah, oh, there'll be no ends to the John T. You all will miss rides and theme parks so much when the one stupid taffer restaurant opens.

Hey everyone, this is Tom Sharpling, the host of The Best Show, the weekly live comedy podcast where I interview celebrity guests, talk to callers from all over the world, play music, and have as much fun as you can possibly have on a podcast. It's three hours of mirth, music, and mayhem every Tuesday,

and you can check out the latest episode of The Best Show streaming right now on Amazon Music. Hi, this is IMHO The Podcast. That's Darby. And I'm Darby. And I'm Alexis. Hey, Darby, what does IMHO stand for? I'm so glad you asked.

In my homosexual opinion. That'sby, what does IMHO stand for? I'm so glad you asked. In my homosexual opinion. That's right. In my homosexual opinion, the podcast answers your weird questions because we have weird answers. Yes, and we also want to hear all of your stories. Maybe there's a situation you've been put in and you just don't know how to get out of it. Well, we'll get you out of anything. Yeah, or maybe you've seen a dead body. Yeah, I need to know about that. I would actually love to hear about that. Alexis and I, we are professional podcasters.

We've made all the podcast charts and now we're ready to make your podcast hearts. Okay. We know you need a new podcast to be obsessed with and what's more obsessive than two drag queens talking into microphones? So listen to IMHO,O. the podcast anywhere you get your podcasts.

Anyways, but it's you know, it's all a bummer. And I think it's really hard for me to imagine a Hollywood studios that doesn't have Muppet Vision 3D in it, because like, come along with me on this. Do you all have the memory of you are in the hotel room or you get the VHS because you're coming to Disney World soon, or you're just watching a special on TV, and what do you see but the 3D and the letters are in your face. And then you see Fuzzy and the pie, and the pie is literally coming out of the screen. And then it cuts to the audience, and the pie is flying over their head,

and they are reaching up to it like dopes trying to touch the pie. I'm like, that's the perk to me. I'm gonna miss that so much. And just as one commemorative thing, and maybe this is something we would all enjoy on this kind of mournful weekend, I'm gonna get my phone out.

Could I ask all of you to pretend that there is a giant pie in the sky above you? Let's do a little bit of live filmmaking, okay? Okay, you know what, actually, Mike, can you help me out? Can you just like, you know, whenever, like, you know, Marmaduke is a tennis ball. Will you just point in a direction that you think everybody should be looking for the giant pie, okay? All right, and your motivation is-

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, yeah. Look at the Florida fanny pack. Okay, well they already were. They obviously already were. I know. Okay, and your motivation is there is a giant pie in the sky, and you're trying to touch it.

OK, OK, let's go here. I'll go fish eyes, so we fit a lot of people in. All right, and action. Reach, reach. There we go. OK, here, and then run all the way to the other side of the stage. Go, go, go.

Yes, good, good, good. OK, OK, drop the mic. Very good. OK, all right, and now it drops and crushes all of you and you are dead. That was good, y'all. Wow. I'm not even doing that theme parkie. Give yourselves a round of applause. You all made a noise without me asking. That was awesome. That was really good. All right, I'm gonna try to edit that as quick as I can. I don't know 3D imaging, but I'll try.

If you can help me out, maybe I can crowdsource it or something. I will try to get that up as soon as I can. Thank you for being great actors. Okay. Scott, would you be able to do a quick voiceover snippet just at the end of Cosimicin Cloud, the center of the action?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh-huh. Can everybody make the end of Cosimicinclad, the center of the action. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh-huh. Can everybody make the sound of a bow going into a big target? All right, here we go. No, no, the arrow goes into the target. Oh, wait, no, no, isn't it a bow? I think it's a bow. I think I said the right thing. Okay, arrow, here we go, Three, two, one, arrow. Three, two, one.

That was really good. Oh, that was great. Whoa. That was great. Thank you so much. Now do the bow going into the target. All right. Three, two, one.

You all made a decision. You made it loud and clanky and clunky. This is great. This is a wonderful crowd. I'm very excited. Okay. Anyway, let's shift over to Pizzarizzo, the reason that we are here. The Cliff Notes for anyone who doesn't know. Does anyone here not know Pizzarizzo? Dear, what a room we are in paradise. Wow.

These are smart people. This is our crowd. This is great, the most educated crowd I've ever encountered. For any fools back at home, unaware, next to Muppet Vision 3D, right around 2016, they kicked out a Pizza Planet restaurant that didn't resemble the Pizza Planet from Toy Story in any way, shape, or form form and they put in a new restaurant that is a Muppet owned restaurant that is specifically owned by Rizzo the rat. This is the famous joke

that you can see on the outside of it there's a neon sign it says the city's top rated pizza sometimes some of the letters burn out and all that is left is it's rat pizza. The catch phrase of the place, I think that phrase is sticky. I think that's like a reason that this thing is burrowed into a lot of our brains. But I think there's a lot of reasons it's burrowed into our brains.

Personally, like the debate that's gone on about it over the years. Why don't we just get a general, before we even like hash out the debate, fans of Pizzarizzo. Yeah! Woo! Not fans of Pizzarizzo.

Woo! Get these motherfuckers outta here! Go get Gordon Ramsay fish and chips you can stay you can say I'm sorry it just got mad well no it's well you know the fact that the audience is a little torn there was a little more anti than I expected and that that reflects a little bit that this has been a debate on our show since like 2018 that was the first that I was yeah do the forensics of when we started talking about this and for how long. And let me just take you through what happened here.

I think around that time, Mike took a trip to Disney World and he made reference to popping into a Pizzeria. And with apologies, Mike, but I think you can take it because you're tough, you're Orlando Mike, you're outlaw. You can do it. You've got a big brave fanny pack and I think you can take it because you're tough your Orlando Mike your outlaw you can do it You've got a you've got a big brave fanny pack, and I think you could do it. I'm gonna read Something that you said about pizza Rizzo I Was wrong there he goes. He's all the way in the corner He's under the table that we cannot even see the fanny pack. Go ahead. Okay, I'll try to do it quickly.

This quote was said by Mike. It's supposedly a Muppet themed pizzeria and there's barely anything that would let you know it's Muppets. How do we feel about this? Oh. That wasn't, you know what? It's okay. That wasn't a deafening boo. It wasn't so bad. You survived, you did it. Was that it, was it more? Look at that. Okay, yes, defend yourself, defend yourself. Well, look.

It was a quick trip. So maybe I didn't notice all the little details, you know? Maybe I didn't notice, maybe I didn't go in the banquet room or the party room, okay? Well, I believe that is exactly what happened. I think that you popped in there and you didn't go to the second floor, which is kind of where the action is.

It's where the most theming is, because really, you just order downstairs, and the food is not particularly, there's not like Muppet puns in the titles of the items or whatever. You go upstairs and that's is not particularly, there's not like Muppet puns in the titles of the items or whatever. You go upstairs and that's where you see like, you know, brown Derby style drawings of the characters and it's where you have the banquet room,

which we'll talk about in a little bit. That seems really like the heart of Pizza Rizzo. Does that seem fairly accurate? Okay, yeah. I thought maybe it'd get a cheer, but it didn't get a cheer. There was, you know, an aft to. Okay, yeah, I thought maybe it'd get a cheer, but it didn't get a cheer. You don't have to. Yeah, you don't. I'm tired. This has been a very interactive show so far. No, it's just so fun, you know? Usually it's just us in a room. We don't get to point to a bunch of

people and make them all yell a lot. Here we go. Yeah. See, I'm just addicted to it. Drunk with power, yeah. That's right, and liquor. But here's where it went from just a statement that Mike made to a debate. A friend of ours, Doug Jones, oh, this wasn't even Doug on the show. This was just, he heard the episode and then texted Mike as soon as he possibly could, pizza riso is good.

Yeah. He made his arguments there, but then he came on and made his arguments on the show. Here's something that he accused you of. He said that you walked in, said, this sucks, turned around and left. And he felt that you didn't really give it a chance. And from Doug Jones, that simple yet effective phrase, pizza Rizzo is good, I think has resonated certainly with me. It's something that I've questioned and wondered, and like, do I agree with this statement?

Will I ever agree with this statement? It also feels like, and I don't know, around this time, I also just started seeing it. I remember seeing Jack Black wearing a pizza riso shirt not long after this. And I'm not saying our show did it, because I don't think it did, but it definitely felt like all of a sudden,

maybe I unlocked, like my evil words unlocked some groundswell in general that swept the world. Because all of a sudden, I feel like the discourse was there, and I was not aware of it before that. For once, our words did not just kill an aging character actor.

Putting Bizzarizzo in the zeitgeist is much nicer. I believe our word, from what I've read, our words have recently killed one of the Hooters in the Orlando area. Our apologies if that's the one that you liked. We of course hate all of them boo Hooters. We would never, you didn't tonight did you Mike? I swear to God if you went and you're not telling

me. Who thinks I went to Hooters tonight? He would never tell you. I won't tell you. He'd be, but he's worried you're gonna throw your drinks at him. So that's one Hooters and potentially the most beloved cast member of Cheers. Actually, that is not correct because the episode where we mentioned George Wint was recorded before but hasn't come out. That's a question. How does the PTR curse work? If it's in the can but we haven't put it in front of you, does that mean that we killed the actor? I refuse to mean that we killed the actor?

I refuse to accept that we killed George Wendt. I will not take that. But what do you think? Did we do it? Yeah! Yeah, we recorded it like the day before. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

For me? Okay. Was it Has Amigos did you say? Wow, Has Amigos has arrived! Thank God bless you. Wow! Wow! Casamigos right on stage.

Where'd that come from? Who sent that? Who sent that to me? This is where, like, the trouble for me is I haven't identified enough specific brands of liquor to have it sent to me. You just sniffed that like you didn't, now you're like you don't like it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm brands of liquor to have it sent to me.

You just sniffed that like you didn't like it. No, no, no. I was trying to act cool. That's it. I could tell. Do you have your usual tiny shaker of salt hidden in your shoe heel? I have my little gun in the right shoe. And that little shaker of salt.

My little shaker of salt in my left. Your little gun in the shoe. You are turning Florida. I guess I gotta do it real quick. But here's the thing. So, oh yeah, yeah, do it. Oh, you shoot it? That was a shot!

That was a shot! Wow, damn. Lime in the mouth. Damn, dude. Wow, wow. Well, how about that? You feel that tea rising? What's that?

You feel that tea rising? I do feel like my tea jumped 50 points. They're points, not a level of, hmm. Orlando Mike. Orlando Mike's coming out. I was hoping they were coming up here to scold you. Like, it's like, oh no, what did Mike do? Well, we know what he did. He didn't give Pizzerizzo full respect.

And then you started noticing that a lot of people out there, like Jones included, like Pizzerizzo. And something that we definitely have noticed more and more as the years go on, if Pizzerizzo is ever mentioned on the show We noticed that one name is said of if you ever do pizza Rizzo on the show You need to have this person on the show and the biggest obstacle to doing this was that we had not met her This had not occurred yet, but now it has happened. We met this person but now it has happened. We met this person from the YouTube channel ParkStop and the podcast Park Talk.

Please welcome Alicia Stella. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. at anywhere you are. Right, it's like, yes, Beetlejuice scenario situation. I've been to Pizza Rizzo three times, here I am. Wow, well, and we're so glad that you are. This is a good excuse just to meet you in general. And we figured we might end up meeting you, you know,

just tonight right before the show, but instead we ended up meeting you yesterday. And why is that? Where were you yesterday? The weirdest thing, I was in Pizzeria Rizzo. Where was I in Pizzeria Rizzo, by the way? Where did you find me? Well, you know, unlike, admittedly, most days of this quick service pizza restaurant being open, there was not a line and stanchions out the door, anticipating the crowds that were coming.

But on this final day, there was a queue set up, there was a rope drop for Pizzarizzo and who was not just in it but number one in line but Alicia Stella. You know it disappointed me too that when I got there there wasn't already a line because I thought I was late. Oh. I thought there's got to be like 10, 15 people that are gonna be there because the park's been open for half an hour already. And no, I was first and I stayed first for another half hour and I don't know if that's like testament to me or Pizzeria Rizzo but that place was packed when you found me at the back of the upstairs like a mafia boss eating spaghetti. I'm in that back booth, this is

my restaurant, I can see clear across and seeing it full for the first and literally last time was magical to be honest. Well that mafia boss that you must have felt that way because how many people came up to you, how many people talked to you, recognized you, this must have been like you really must have felt like you were in your element. I mean it was next to to the bathroom, so I feel like people were accidentally finding me. You can't take credit for people needing to use the bathroom. That doesn't have to happen. You are obviously very associated with Pizzarrizzo.

Let me just ask, can you broadly answer the question, why is it that for five years we just say, Pizzarrizzo, we got to talk about it someday, and so many people would say you have to talk to Alicia Stella. Do you know why that was you know four years ago? Anytime anyone said even the most like slightly negative thing about pizza riso I have felt like it is my duty to defend it because it is not the worst pizza at Walt Disney World. It is the second worst. Okay, it has AC and very little buildings in that whole park have AC. So like Disney food blog. I love you. I love AJ. Oh, I love you. But man every single time the ten worst restaurants at Walt Disney World and the thumbnail is Pizza Rizzo.

And it's like AJ come on, please pick a different thing to rag on just once. Can I, will you reveal the worst pizza? Oh, it's Pinocchio's Village House in Magic Kingdom. Okay, great. It's not pizza. It's if you put Play-Doh on the carpet, smooshed it out, tomato sauce from Spaghetti-Os and didn't cook it. Yeah, I feel like a pizza place in the dead center of fantasy land is not going to be

very authentico, you know? Pizza Rizzo is great because it's small, but it's a large pizza for a rat. It's rat-sized pizza. That's why it's rat pizza. Oh, that's all right. I like how you canonically absorb that. That makes sense. You also, for anyone just listening to this,

as she referred to a rat, she held up a rat because Rizzo is here. She brought Rizzo. Hey, how you doing? You know, when you got to see the quiet Muppet Vision, was your pre-show also quiet? Because every time they introduced Mickey Mouse and it was Rizzo, the crowd went wild in my pre-shows.

Well, this is a sad thing. You know what happened to us? We were rushed through the pre-show. I didn't get to say goodbye to the pre-show. I'm the person who doesn't like cues and stuff, and I was dying to see that pre-show. I especially wanted to see Rizzo as Mickey. I'm really sad I didn't get to see it. We asked, like, we said, like, we'll just stay, we'll stay.

We'll just stay, and they said, you can't do that. There are 700 people coming to every screening of this today. Any other day, you could have done that, but not me. Could have? Why did I listen to that person? I'm non-confrontational. I like hiding under tables just as much as Mike does. This is... I made my pilgrimage to both Muppet Vision 3D and Pizzarizzo on Wednesday and just kind

of sauntered into both. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A normal day. A normal day, yeah. There was plenty of people in both, but yeah, it was a little more manageable, which was why I went then. So not only people are, you know, connecting the dots, you know,

between you and us, re-PizzaRizzo, but you also just, you spoke to a different media outlet two days ago, you said, about PizzaRizzo. Would you like to say what that was? The story hasn't come out yet, but I spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Yeah. They're like, do you have a moment of your time

for a very important interview? I get on the phone like, so what about Pizzeria? The state of the world. And you're calling me, you know what? It is that important. It is. We talked for 28 minutes, by the way. I spoke to them once and I talked a lot.

And they just used my explanation of what rides are like they just use like this the Haunted Mansion a scary haunted house so you go through in a doom buggy and they they cut whenever I was like here's what's really special about it yeah so I just sounded like an idiot with a little stipple drawing. They contacted you for exposition. Basically. Release the transcripts. Release the full Jason tapes, damn it. And the stipple drawing next to me is Tony Baxter. And I'm like, okay, well, this is not maybe punching above my weight here. Nonsense, nonsense. Two experts.

Yeah, just two people explaining lines. You waited a line and then you enjoy the thing. You are good at exposition, I must say. Thank you. Excellent exposition work tonight from Jason. You are clearly doing doing a full media tour because you're here with us. You were there all day yesterday. Wall Street Journal.

And then you're doing your on the ground reporting and discussion of it. I'll be there tomorrow to vlog. So I get to do my own coverage. Wow. There's so many ways to experience your views on Pizza Rizzo, including your on X. You said, you just posted two photos and you said, my final Pizza Rizzo, and that received over 2,000 likes. Massive.

You're putting up stats. You are so, like, the algorithms are pushing people. One of my posts was up to 4,000. I did a Last Supper because that table is really long, but it has a bench. So me and my friends were all sitting there. And I'm like, I'm not in the center, though. Rizzo is in the center, first of all.

It's very important. It's a distinction there. The Jesus of Pizzeria. Yeah. Rizzo won. Rizzo won. Rizzo won. Woo!

Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Why do fintechs like Float choose Visa? As a more trusted, more secure payments network, Visa provides scale, expertise, and innovative

payment solutions. Learn more at visa.ca slash fintech. But yeah, I didn't see, like I was just randomly posting things to Twitter, by the way. It's called Twitter. I wanted to. I should have. I go home at 3 a.m. in the morning and I'm like, 4,000, 5,000 likes, 6,000 likes? What are people vicariously living through my Pizza Rizzo last experience?

Good. Good. Wow. Wow. You provided a VR patch right into the last day. When you've done a lot of writing about it, I also noticed you wrote something for touring plans. I'm gonna read your own writing to you.

Because this is like- Good, right? You don't have to get under the table. You are not mentioned in it. Good, good. Oh yeah, yeah. No, no, no, this is a thing to be celebrated, I think. This was years ago.

I don't know where you wrote. I think you'll sign off on it today. What you bring up is the struggle of admitting that you're a pizza Rizzo fan You know what with mics out there trying to shame you you said I'm not going to lie It was hard to admit at first that I actually like pizza Rizzo There was a time not long ago when it just wasn't something you admitted out loud Sure you might go there out. Sure you might go there. There's a weird Pride story going on in this. Sure you might go there and enjoy your meal between rides on Tower of Terror, but you

wouldn't dare post a pic of the, quote, pizza. That is still an interesting choice. Well, it's not pizza. It's rat pizza. You wouldn't post a pic of the pizza on Pizzeria. Then one day I decided to just let the world know I like Pizzarizzo. Is it a coming out story? You just do a little copy. No, we time this correctly, calendar wise. I think it really shows the trajectory

of trying to improve the image of Pizzarizzo that just a few years ago, I had to frame it in such a way that others could come forward. That it can't just be me and Jack Black. That others must know that this pizza is somewhat edible, and this location has AC. Well, let's talk about, why don't we do kind of a gradient

from things that are sort of undeniable about it, that are fun about it, to things that maybe require a little bit more debate. Because in that article you said the six best things about pizza riso. You mentioned the air conditioning. This is an important aspect, obviously. That's literally one of the six. So there is that.

There is that. The theme, what is your favorite? Because I noticed yesterday you didn't go up and eat in the banquet room. You ate over by the, you did the last supper table as you said You ate over by the caricatures the sort of classic Hollywood caricatures of so many Muppets and Muppets say it goes it goes deep It goes deep into characters whose names I don't know and won't try to say because we'll get a lot of comments and emails about it. Yeah For me personally and it's gonna be weird using past tense like terms, but I would sit upstairs

I like the red and white tablecloth I felt I feel like the small see Italian music the red and white tablecloth the frozen cannolis that come to you and by the time you go to eat it for dessert is finally Dechilled it reminds me of going to pizzerias and Italian restaurants of my youth. This is like the 80s and 90s and Italian restaurants of my youth. This is like the 80s and 90s Italian restaurant experience where if Frank Sinatra's playing or like everybody Mambo's playing in the background, I feel like I'm back there in my childhood.

So you go in the ballroom and it's playing 90s party music. I wanna get up and dance. That's not what I want. I want a quiet meal with Frank Sinatra in my ear. Oh, wow. That makes sense. That's a very, very well justified choice. So you like the air are you fond of any of those any of

that specific those pieces of art in particular? There's some fake records on the wall that I'm quite fond of little puns there there's there's actually a piece there there was a piece of the streets of America. This is tough this is tough isn't it? I'm gonna cry by the end of this this is some weird like get get me to cry on stage experiment it's not a trick it's not a trap I swear yeah there was like a piece of a subway station sign from the streets of America that closed down and they put it in there so it's funny that that's now got a move it's like a time capsule we got to move to a different yeah yeah maybe it

could be part of Monstropolis. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. Just put an eyeball on it. Mark my words. Anything that remains from the Muppet courtyard and it stays for Monstropolis, they'll paint an eyeball on it. Oh, yeah.

That makes a lot of sense. That's easy. That's only two colors, Max. Mm-hmm. Very easy. Got to keep that money. So yeah, OK, you got records. Yeah, you got an electric mayhem record,

there was a record by the Mice Girls, is that correct? Okay, yeah, yeah. That being a Spice Girls. But only four, why are there only four? What happened there? I guess they were protecting the era post- There were four for a while, yeah, when Jerry left. Mice?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, mousetraps are a thing. I don't know where you're getting. Oh no! One of the mice curls got snapped. Yeah, yeah, mice have lots of babies. It's a numbers game. We're off track.

There's like photos all over the wall. There was photos all over the wall. Okay, take your time. They like Photoshop rats into real photos. So it's like just people in New York and then there's a rat or like, and they're Muppet rats. So it's like, this is Muppet themed. There was little hidden gags, like the ballroom,

the banquet hall has a sign that says who's getting married. And it's like Phil and Jill. And if you remember Muppets take Manhattan, it's like, what do you think, Phil? What do you think, Jill? It was like the marketing people, anyway. Yes, when he's like, Kermit forgets who he is, and then he knows all of these people whose names rhyme.

Yeah. This is one of the big things. It's like a push pin. Like it's a sign where you push the letters. Yeah, and then the letter, behind it, you can see faded letters for Emmett Otter, jug band that was performing there. And that's like a deep cut,

because that's not even on Disney Plus. That is weird. That's really strange. As we hope that Muppet Vision 3D will end up, damn it, right? They have to put it there, don't they? I mean, it's hard to get an applause out of that because we all still secretly hope

they're going to move it somewhere else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone in this room is like Magic Eye Theater or that villain show they just opened. They put real seats in there, clearly that's for the Muppet. Yeah, can't they move it to one of the like five Disney World movie theaters that show essentially nothing? There's so many. You don't like 3D DVD extras? I swear there's one of those where they're still showing just a preview of the Tim Allen shaggy dog. No one's noticed.

No one's tried to go in. Well, Scott, it's a double feature. It's half shaggy dog and half changing gears. Shifting gears. Let's all correct Jason about the show none of us have watched. They're filming it with cast members on Tuesday, I believe. Oh, right, right.

Hopefully they get the curtain working, or at least fake it, have people quietly on the floor moving the curtain. Oh, sure. But they're not going to move the musket animatronic stuff. They're just not going to do it set, I don't think. So it'll be... anyway. Is there any way to... Is there any way to...

Quiet sadness throughout the audience. We're all in the bargaining phase at this point. Like, can't we just get a mini version somewhere in the park? With the large bar in back, this is essentially an Irish wake for a Pizzeria. That's a good point. Everyone gets sloppy drunk. We'll understand. We all have to cope. It is funny that though that this is like, you know, we've maybe said like, I don't know,

is the place a little light on theming? And then the response is no, there is a cork board with faded letters of an otter's funeral. What's great is that I actually covered the opening of this. I was looking back at my article from 2016, December, when it first opened, and I'm looking at the bulletin board, and I'm like, they actually added more photos and little things to the bulletin board. So this four-foot space has more theming than it did when it opened. So if anything, they've doubled the amount of Muppet theming in there.

Wow. It went from 12 Muppet pieces of paper to 24. Yeah. Well, this is, let me bring up, this is maybe, this is a serious debate, this is a serious thing to bring up. Maybe some of the disappointment, or just feeling like, all right,

if anyone is not super in love with Pizza Rizzo, was it that when you think of a Muppet restaurant, you think of a crazy madcap place with a bunch of animatronics or puppets or videos of things going haywire? That might be the... And that's probably not the fault of the... They probably got an amount of... That was the original concept is what we have just been told. Yeah, Melrose was actually built and designed to be Gonzo's Pizza Pandemonium, I believe? Pandemonium Pizza Parlor. There's no other room where you can shout that and expect recognition.

It's amazing. It's interactive. You can still see the wood. The rats are going to be above you. The legend is that the rafters were built there for tracked animatronics to be bringing the food back and forth. to be bringing the food back and forth. Rats bringing the food back and forth. And there was something happened. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something big happened that I'd rather not get into because Jim Henson passed away. Oh, right. That. Okay. There was a plan for a big giant great Muppet movie ride. There was a plan for this whole area to be Muppet studios and they kind of backtracked

and they turned it into Mama Melrose last minute because they weren't even sure they were going to have a Muppet area. Wow. Right. Wow. Yeah. Disney was actually going to buy the entire Muppets and that got sidetracked for years. What a strange thing.

So like there was like the Madcap Muppet Restaurant of our dreams. So how does it go from that to many, many years later, it is suddenly open and there's a couple of bulletin boards? You know, don't make me say the words modern Disney. Because I try to be positive on my podcast, and it's hard to be realistic and say... Ha! Ha! Ha! Say more has been said.

Yes. You're right. I didn't... In 2018, when I was criticizing it, I didn't say, these stupid Imagineers, why would they do this? Right? I didn't say that, right? I don't know.

Check the... Doug Jones will have to tell us. Never blame the Imagineers. Doug, did I say that? Imagineers have great ideas. It's the money. It's the money. It's always the money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always the money. It's the money. It's always the money.

No, and that's what, yeah. And if we're mad about things, it's that. Because I'm sure if you asked Imagineers, would you like to build 20 animatronics and rats exploding out of every wall, or would you like 24 pieces of paper? I think they would pick the animatronics. But I guess you have to go, all right, well, if this is, if what was budgeted was like kind of a quick turnover of the Toy Story thing, then I think you can tell that it was done with love by people who liked the Muppets, who were deep Muppets fans,

and who put those lollies to exempt. They printed out as many things on that laser printer as they could afford. They put it in as many Walmart frames on that wall as they could. Color ink even. It's more expensive. You can feel the love was in the Photoshop. The theming budget might be $150. Yeah. It's like if we asked somebody to leave here,

we handed them cash, will you go make a cork board and bring it back for the late show? Have you guys been to Regal Eagle? I have not actually. No, I haven't. Audience has, audience has't. Audience has. Not yet, no. They're enthusiastic. We still have a lightly themed Muppet quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World.

Right. It exists. Right. And it is even lighter themed. It has four pictures. One for each barbecue sauce. How is the barbecue? I mean, it's really good.

Oh, good. It's shockingly good. Good. I have to beat around the bush on the Pizzeria Rizzo. High food standards in World Showcase. So happy to hear that. Well, that's interesting that the food is good. Because, so one thing, I went into Pizzeria Rizzo

and I explored it a couple of years ago, and we'll talk about some of that stuff in a minute. I came to appreciate the Easter eggs and the theming. But yesterday was the first time that I tried the food. Okay. You know, I'll make my way to the table. I'm sorry. And I'll very meekly say, what would a Pizzarizzo fan say to somebody who thought that maybe it wasn't

the best food that they've ever had? Look, I use the quote when I call it pizza because it's really a pizza bread bowl. Now think about it. So I just need to change my thinking is all. If I am thinking of it as pizza, I might be very disappointed. Yeah. You don't have to use the modifier very, but go ahead. You just change the incognito behavioral therapy.

We say change the lens that you're using to look at something. Pizza bread bowl with a baked crust, it explains the amount of bread around it. The toppings in the center, because those are the pizza bowl filling. It really is, you get the quickest little smattering right in the middle. It really is like pizza but tired of all that cheese. Yeah, it's a lot of crust. Jason, we weren't with you,

so we don't know your opinions at all. What'd you think a couple days ago? I had walked through it a few times before and liked it, but Wednesday was the first time I ate it. And it was a little earlier in the day, so Jane and I split a cheese pizza, which came with Caesar salad. Now, for years I've wondered,

what is with this tiny Caesar salad? People must love this thing. And I didn't realize it came with it. Oh, you thought people were ordering it in addition. People were like, oh, I want some vegetables. The other option just said carrots. So I'm assuming it was a wet bag of baby carrots. You thought it was the new butter beer. Everybody's having the Caesar salad. But I went through the mobile order too quickly because I missed the partially frozen cannoli.

And as someone who spent a lot of time growing up on boardwalks, I love a frosty cannoli. But yeah, pizza risotto, it was very crust heavy I I just say it was edible it was edible it was it reminded me it reminded me of like back East where it's like oh you want to wonder yeah I do you want to do you know this or that pizza it's like I'm sick of those and we could can do DiCenzo's. And it's like, huh, it's okay. I guess we'll do it for a change.

That was Pizzerizzo. What a review. Yes, these created edible. If they put that in a banner over the song, over the door, people would be like, I guess. Third or fourth choice, it's something. Can I? It was like my high school cafeteria pizza.

It was definitely some sort of like, you could buy this in bulk. Maybe it was probably just frozen. I don't know how they prepared, I'm just saying, but the pizza in high school was probably prepared already and it was like 45% crust. And then- Wait, you didn't have the square trays of pizza that they cut with the roller?

You missed out. No, we weren't so lucky to have those. You missed out. But then they had like a, just a very sugary tomato, the sugary tomato sauce, I feel like is the same as it was in high, as my high school, like cafeteria pizza. What I wrote down was that the sauce

tasted like tomato by way of metal. There was a metallic taste, yes. Yes, I believe Dave Meske is with us, your buddy. I think I'm quoting him correctly when he said that, when he took a bite and then had some water, and he said, I think the water enhanced the flavor. It's like ingredients of a soup add water and then the flavors come to life. Oh, I did have a non-alcoholic mocktail.

It was an alcohol-free peach Bellini. Oh, the specialty of the house. Yeah, it was the specialty and it was delicious. It tasted like I was just drinking slurpee syrup. Yeah. I know, it was great. It tasted like I was just drinking Slurpee syrup. Yeah. I thought it was great. Ha ha ha. We should have gotten that. That sounds good.

It was. It was really good. Oh boy. Oh boy. Can I ask, is there a chance? Do we know this is getting demolished in the plans? Well, it's in all the concept art. It is, right?

That's exactly the same building. Even the big billboard that says it's rat pizza is still in the concept art, but with like an advert in Monsters Incorporated. So, Pizza-Razzo is what I've been pitching. Pizza-Razzo, it's always watching. That's good. That's pretty good.

Right there, right there. Because honestly, it's not like it changed that much from Pizza Planet. They just took away the video games and the fun. You know what they'll do, too, to your point about the eyes? It'll be the little bready circle. One giant pepperoni. And then, yeah, one big pepperoni.

And then they'll pass that off as like, no, like, why did I only get one? It's fun. It's because that's the pupil. It's the Mike Wazowski pie. The Mike Wazowski pie. It's Instagrammable, this is gonna go viral. I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot

of Mike Wazowski themed stuff in the Monsters area. A lot of just a circle, you know, maybe two. Sounds modern Disney to me. Oh no, oh no. Let's talk about the cannoli a little bit. I felt like narratively because as I was disappointed by each eye, and I really, because I'm like, I have an audience, I want to come and say

the food was wonderful and get a cheer, and then I'm like, I have to I can't I can't I have to live my truth. He was by the way, he was worried yesterday. Not that I'm not worried now. I'm just saying, like, what are we going to tell them? You literally have the biggest fan of all time of this restaurant. I'm calling it mid. Like you have nothing to worry about.

OK, I can rely. I know I know where the bar is. The bar is in Edible. I'm calling it mid. Like, you have nothing to worry about, it's okay. I can rely. Now I know where the bar is. The bar isn't edible. But Scott has a car running back over in the parking garage to get out of here if he needs to after that pizza review he just gave. Look, I have spent a lot of years

getting booed about living with the land. I'm always prepared for the worst. Yeah, see? Yeah! Boo this man! Get him out of here! Get him out! Some audiences reactions I don't like.

But I bet I'm not going to get that same degree of boo about the cannoli. I wanted to, like narratively, I was like, this must be, I didn't like the pizza. The salad, I might say, is the literal worst salad I've ever had in my life. So it has to be that the cannoli will save the whole thing. And here's what happened. I took a bite of it, I put it in my mouth, and I said, mm, because I wanted that narrative to be true. And then I chewed and I chewed,

and 10 to 15 seconds went by, and our buddy Andrew Grissom, who came out with us, said, Scott, I noticed you haven't swallowed your bite yet. And even I hadn't noticed. I wanted to like the taste so very much, but it just sat there. It just sat there like I was chewing a paper towel. Look, what I left out is that the pizzerias and Italian restaurants of my youth were terrible

Yeah, the nostalgia works in funny ways like that. What cities are we tell what part of the country South Florida? a lot of old retirees a lot of retirees ah Pizza capital no Naples, Florida What is pompano Beach not known for its pizza? I started, you know, I did, we did eat in the banquet room, which, you know, we should talk about a little more because, you know, like a lot of places is tables and it is restaurant style. And then you have, I mean, it is this delightful room that is like a room that you could rent

out, you know, theoretically, canonically. In story, yeah. Yes. And there's signage saying that it can fit, you know, 125 people, which equals 700 rats, like, just like that, which I like. And then it does have this, like, old Italian wedding venue vibe. I mean, that's great. It's a lot of fun in there. There's a disco there.

Mike, you were wrong to not go up into there in 2018, I have to say. I was, well, thank you for scolding me. Yes, I agree. I'm just trying to get you booed. I'm trying to even the score. Not gonna work. I know, I know that. I'm too below. I know that.

The only person who's not getting booed whatsoever tonight is Jason. This much we know. Well, he will not happen. Thank you. And I liked that there was some music playing. We sat down and there was music playing and you'd see one person dancing,

but mostly people eating it very seriously, much like the viewings of Muppet Vision 3D. Everybody was so mournful and just slicing and cutting, or maybe that was just their live reaction to the food that they were eating. I mean, it sounds like you're around Taurus in 92 degree heat. That's a good point.

Yes, good point. They're dead inside. It's day three at Disney World. Good point, yes. But there would be a sign, hey, we walked in, and don't stop till you get enough is playing. And then eight minutes of silence, and then another song.

Why is that such a long break between songs? Plenty of songs to be played. I think the world has at least a thousand songs they could play. See, I had a different experience. There was a bunch of kids and adults like dancing on the dance floor. So it definitely added to the atmosphere.

Yeah, but there's such long breaks between the songs. Yeah. You have to give the kids a break so they can go eat their kid's meal, which is a smaller version of Pizza Rizzo's pizza. Yes, we got one kids' meal. That's what Andrew Grissom, our buddy, had, the smaller version, and I want to say he did not finish the smaller version.

But he was getting up to dance very often. Well, now, there is a touch of old Disney in the restaurant in that when you order a soda, they don't give you a lid. Just like the 1970s Disney. That's a very specific poll. This was a no lid time. They didn't care if you get rain drip drops in your soda throughout the day. Yeah, a little lead paint to enhance the theming.

There are no lids at Disney World anymore, unless you go to the DVC lounge. Is that true? Yeah, you gotta get the points before they get a lid. Oh, jeez. When did they get- They get everything. When did they get rid of lids? When they got rid of plastic straws.

Really? Yeah. Is it a Biden thing? And they hide, and they, modern Disney, and they hide... And they... Modern Disney... And they hide the paper straws behind the counter, so you have to ask for them. Oh, wow, really?

And they dissolve within like a minute, so you have to keep asking for them. You have to have... You use nine paper straws in one drink. Wow, I didn't realize that, no, there were no lids. I... Now you know. Now you've all learned. Uh, uh, the... At one point, a song that I like came on,

Footloose by Kenny Loggins, and I started making up my own song along to it because it kicked in right as my stomach was starting to feel a little not great, and I changed the lyrics and I turned it into this. Now I'm gonna get stool loose, stool loose, diarrhea out my caboose. He pulled this real quick too.

I saw it happen in real time. I had to transcribe it. It's pouring out of me. He didn't work very hard on it. I almost used the queasiness as an excuse to be a little, to revert to my no launch Queen ways and to not go on Rockin' Roller Coaster, but I thought I fought through, I fought through the

bizarre salad and through the tasteless cannoli and I did the ride and I survived and I did not end up... thank you all, thank you! A cheer! Let's hold on to that, let's hold on to the cheer part, I liked that. It should have been on the banner. You may not puke this up on roller coasters. Good. But I, okay, you know what I think it might be time to do? This has been wonderful spending time with you, somebody who has a lot of pizza riso credentials.

You know, a Riz, as they say. A lot of Riz, as they say. A lot of Riz. And there's somebody else here who I think has credentials possibly to match, because now we're all people who have eaten at Pizza Rizzo, in one case talked to the Wall Street Journal about Pizza Rizzo, but there is somebody here who worked at Pizza Rizzo. Seemingly because of our show, seemingly we caused

employment and I am so curious to ask some questions about this. So now I would like to welcome to the stage, I'm so happy to welcome one of the best listeners a podcast could ask for, Malia Schnefke. Wow, in a Kermit column. Malia, hi! Hey, good to see you. So thrilled to be here with Alicia for the Pride Month episode of Podcast The Ride. What was just shouted?

What was just shouted? Somebody shouted something? Queen of rat pizza! Queen of rat pizza! Wow! What was just shouted? What was just shouted? Somebody shouted something? Queen of Rat Pizza! Queen of Rat Pizza! Wow! This is why you get to hold court where people are yelling Queen of Rat Pizza at you. Now there are two people on the stage with pizza slice earrings.

Oh yeah. Did you all not get the memo? Yeah, I'm sorry. I should have gotten pierced. I left my mind out for too long in the holes. Is there a Claire's near here? Oh my god. We do it before the end of the show.

Statistically, yes. Very likely. Most likely. So glad you could be here. Thank you for joining us on stage again here at Tin Roof, as you did last year. Oh my god, it's the only room I've ever been popular in. This will change.

This will change on this day, because popularity is deserved. It's been great meeting you through the years, including that I met you the first time at Pizzeria, when you worked there. I did, very true. That was one of those Disney world, just fun little happenings where you,

I indicated that I was there and you threw out, hey, I'm working if you want some rat pizza. And I was like, yes, I can make that work. I can pop in and do it. And that was so delightful, I think like four years ago or so. So four years ago, as you may all remember, there was a small thing called the coronavirus pandemic.

And everyone, yeah. And so everyone that worked at Disney World got laid off via email at about 4 p.m. on a Saturday. Oh my God. You were- Modern Disney. No, sorry. What were you doing then?

So I was actually working in costuming for some of the shows in Magic Kingdom. Oh, okay. And they all said, we're good. Thank you so much. And eventually, they said, you can come back to work, but all that we have available is quick service food and beverage. And I thought, I don't need to do that, unless.

Because of this show and because of the Pizza Rizzo lore, I thought, if my way to work back at Disney World is working in quick service at Pizza Rizzo that would be really funny and so I asked the recruiter in my interview I said I don't really want to work quick service but if you have a spot at Pizza Rizzo I would do that and wouldn't you know in in about June 2021, not a lot of people wanted to serve at Pizza. But someone had to answer the call and that was me.

Wow. What a tale. Thank you for your service. Thank you so much. Thank you for your service. Yes, yes, everyone's. Now, Scott went through Pizzarrizzo when he was there in 2021 and met you.

I went through in 2021 and I asked, oh, is Mel working today? And they told me they are off today. So. Somebody had to do it. Yeah. How dare you? You should be there seven days a week.

I'm so sorry. Saving away for the rats. Okay, so, and you've sort of assessed this as like, you've posted about like, I got a job there for the bit, essentially. This is a rare, this is an incredible thing to get to do, a bit job. So, last anyone down my credentials, I did work at Pizzarozo for almost six entire months because I thought that it would be funny and it was. Okay, day to day, just what are like, was there just a basic fundamental,

it is funny and you were proud that like, my job today is the rat pizza restaurant? Is that sort of- It was also absolute hell. Ah, that too, okay. The people that work in quick service food and beverage are our strongest soldiers. pizza restaurant. It was also absolute hell. That too? The people that work in quick service food and beverage are our strongest soldiers. That job is miserable. If you guys are familiar, it might be a little bit past your time, but Club Penguin, the

online game, had a little mini game where you would work in the kind of pizza restaurant. And it would just go faster and faster and you would put toppings on the little premade pizzas until you lost. And that is sort of what working at Pizza Rizzo was like. Except I was like putting pepperoni and sausage onto like frozen DiGiorno pizzas and burning all my fingertips off. So if you need any crimes committed, I don't have fingertips because of Pizzarizzo.

Wait, so you have like information, you have like intel. Oh, absolutely. I can ask you questions about how Rizzo, like as a boss, like worked, okay, how early in the morning are the Caesar salads made and how long do they sit in a fridge? So they are made actually every day and it was one of the fun jobs because you just sort of put on these very long food service gloves and they gave you just sort of a bucket as well as like that tracks ah

the classic salad bucket yeah And so you would have your pre shredded lettuce that you would tear out of the little plastic bags and your giant plastic container of Caesar dressing and you would just sort of mix it together. Like a vat? Like a vat of... Yeah, absolutely. And you would just hand mix it together at about 8 a.m. every day and you would put it

in all the little cups and like as far as jobs there went, it was pretty fun. I like the three or four croutons right on top. Yeah, absolutely. Especially after they've been in the fridge six or seven hours. Just hard as a rock. It's so good. So good.

Is there something that you like, is it all just like, the answer is it's just frozen and remade, and it's just whatever. Or did you see anything that we would all be aghast at? I don't think so. As far as quick service restaurants at Disney go, Pizza Rizzo and Mama Melrose's did share a back of house kitchen space. And so a lot of the stuff that we had was the same as what they had.

And I don't think a lot of people really put that respect on their name. That's amazing, because I spent $38 on an entree at Mama Melrose a couple of weeks ago. OK, but yeah, but the smell could not be beat. Priceless. Would burning stove? In theory. Sure. Actually, what was the smell situation day to day? Um, so this was during COVID and so I was just wearing the heaviest, hottest denim shirt and pants that you've ever seen in your life, as well as like full double masked at the hottest oven you've ever seen. Just absolutely dying, waterboarding myself with

smut, like cutting pizzas, burning my fingertips off. But it was again, very funny. And I didn't have anything else to do. I mean, you're right. Did you hurt your arms hand tossing that dough? Yes. Wait, wait, wait. Can we talk about the oven? Is it load bearing? And that's why it has to be a pizza restaurant every time

they redo the land? Listen. When you have a pesto pizza in six to eight years when Monsters Inc. land reopens, and it's a pesto pizza with the coldest, driest burrata you've ever seen to me, Mike Wazowski's little eye. Then you'll know.

One little olive on top. Sorry, sorry, that's actually burrato. There are standards for burrata. They can't call it that. But if you draw the O and you draw a smaller O inside and then a filled in circle Mike Wazowski. ["The Little Mermaid"] ["The Little Mermaid"]

["The Little Mermaid"] ["The Little Mermaid"] ["The Little Mermaid"] ["The Little Mermaid"] ["The Little Mermaid"] Something else happened, not during your employment, but that came from your love of this place. And that is that what I have caught

is that some sort of event was held. Yeah. And that, if I am correct, the event was Pizza Rizzo Prom. That's right. Who were your... Well, you know, at first, tell us a little bit about Pizza Rizzo Prom. So, I think the idea of having a prom in the Pizza Rizzo

Bankfoot Room had been sort of a joke amongst friends for a very long time. Because you go there, and you go to the sad place where parents and their small children are doing the Cupid Shuffle to get in the air conditioning. And you think that it might be fun to put on very elaborate dress and go hang out there and drink some mobile ordered Bud Lights. And so when the closure was announced my friends Taryn and Ali and I talked about how this was the time we

have to throw our pizza riso prom before they take it away from us. And so we did we did it in February, Alicia came, it was an absolute delight. I spent $160 on my dress. As well you should. I spent three months, or how long was this since you announced? Looking for that dress. I went prom shopping, I went total high school on this. You have no idea, I made the joke that the three like happiest moments of my life was

my wedding day, the birth of my child, and Pizzarizzo prom, and I don't think I'm kidding. That was the best experience. Yeah. Was anyone else here at Pizzarizzo prom? Yeah. That's a, wow. I don't believe it.

It's 125 people in that room. What was better, high school prom or Pizzarizzo prom? Oh, Pizzarizzo prom, without a doubt. I got to be gay there. 25 people in that room. What was better, high school prom or pizza riso prom? Pizza riso prom, without a doubt. I got to be gay there. It's better to be an adult than be a teenager any day. The vibe seemed a lot better than my high school prom. It was so special.

What did y'all get up to? How did you make it special once you were in the prom event? So right before the prom, I sort of got very scared that perhaps thousands of people might show up and I was gonna get banned from Disney World because we had no RSVP process and people from the Disney food blog were reaching out

and saying, hey, can we write up about this so people can come? And I said, you have 1.4 million Instagram followers. Please do not do this so I don't get in trouble. But all of our friends showed up and we wore silly little outfits, we had a little costume contest and it was a delight. We just sort of hung out and ate frozen pizza. And did the Cupid Shuffle.

Absolutely, yeah. We had our mobile ordered Bud Lights, we took pictures and that is what prom should really be. There was a prom court. There was a... Absolutely, yes. We had our little costume contest to sort of, you know, spread the love of prom court out and do something that was a little like fun for everybody.

So we had our different themes and people wore muppet outfits. People wore kind of traditional prom outfits. People dressed as Pizzarizzo. Yes. Amazing. My friend, Tare, and my co-chair had a sort of very elaborate outfit that displayed the entire menu of Pizzarizzo,

sort of about their person. We had people dress up as the actual ballroom, complete with like the little ivy walls and stuff. By the way, co-chair. Absolutely. There were their positions in the organization. Absolutely. The loop of music in the room is?

Yeah, it's small. It's about 30 minutes. Yeah, do you know all of it? Could you remember? You don't have to do it now. I'm just saying. But you're like, oh, here. I feel good by James Brown is coming up next.

I feel like there are at a max 10 songs on that music loop. And sometimes they just play without the pauses in between. And then sometimes you have to wait eight minutes for the Cupid shuffle. The DJ is taking a break. Absolutely. This wasn't just that something was wrong that day this is a known thing about Pizza Resort, the eight minute music gaps. I feel like that's a pretty new thing. It didn't used to be like that. Correct me if I'm wrong. I actually had a concern that the floor was going to give out. Because if anyone remembers this building when it was Pizza Planet, there was no room

here. There was just a balcony and you can see down into the ordering stations. This is an addition that Rizzo built. I don't trust Rizzo and his building code. So it says it can hold 100 people. We were like 70 to 90 people at our most. And we're dancing all the same time on this tiny dance floor.

And I'm like having visions of like those other countries where the floor collapses at a wedding. And I was so, I literally, I was having a heart, like I'm having a heart attack. I'm not enjoying the prom. I have to step outside. I'm like, please don't die. And loved ones like, so what happened?

How did Alicia die? Yeah. Well, long story. Just as the fortune teller foretold. We did get that group photo of everyone. Absolutely. It was amazing. It was so sweet.

It was truly the most special day. Everybody was so cool and so chill and not weird and aggressive, which is what I was afraid was gonna happen, that I was gonna get banned from Walt Disney World for inciting riots We're pretty calm bunch Surprisingly considering how weird Muppets is absolutely very like earnest kind-hearted just like people ready to play It was a delight there were tourists outside the doors because we took over

Children that were like what is happening and they're looking in like in the world? Because we're dressed to the nines. The assistant manager just making phone calls like, hey boss, there's people in the restaurant today, what do I do? There were like three people in business casual that were just sort of posted up outside and we sort of took turns going up and being like, hey, I promise we're all going to be cool. This is all that this is. We didn't bring our own like Bluetooth speaker. We're not here to truly like start a riot and chain ourselves to this building.

Like we're just going to eat our frozen pizza and hang out. And that is what happened. And everybody was normal. It was a delight. Someone asked me where, like how we smuggled in the disco ball. Like, or put up the decorations on the walls. And it's like, no, this is how this always is. We're just finally utilizing it.

Wow, and that's a cow. It has all its potential, yeah. That's one more thing it has we haven't brought up, but disco ball. It did have theming, it had stuff. I did see a tweet yesterday that, you know, Disney corporate was like asking people in more complicated outfits to please not pose for photos together in order to protect character integrity. And if there has ever been a phrase that is called for a wedgie, it's we must protect character integrity.

Are you talking about the Muppets? People brought Muppets so good that they were getting in trouble. Yeah. For having Muppets. Yeah. And it's like Disney, if you brought your own Muppets, we wouldn't have to take them. Exactly. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Did somebody bring a Muppet and then have them throw the pizza up? Was that? Oh, no, I'm sick. God. No, they just throw it in their mouth, and it falls out to the side. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Ah, come on. We have to throw it down, I guess. We need to protect character integrity for when there's a single three second you'll miss a Janice that pops up when you get a launch on Rock and Roller Coaster. They're gonna move that Wilkins coffee can that was in the Pizzeria lobby into the queue of a new Rock and Roller Coaster and then you'll all see how much we care about Muppets theming. Oh, there's gonna be a flat for Animal

on the big Hollywood sign on the ride. That's what I was saying, we were saying, we think the theming on the new ride is gonna be you go through Animal's mouth one time, the end. As the end of the re-theme. We will be lucky if we go through Animal's mouth. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, God. That will be, I have a, can I predict real quick?

I have a prediction the overlay will take two and a half weeks. I've already said overnight, but okay. It's like Price is Right rules, you're gonna win, I bet. Here's the thing, if they bring back Ken Marino for the pre-show... That'd be great. What a nod. Then I'll be okay.

Well, okay. I mean, clearly what we're finding here is that this place has fostered community and fun. So much, like, you know, I think it was really about, like, baking pizza riso your own. That was the answer. That's what you did. Like any of any place. It's an empty shell that we could put whatever we wanted into it. Literally and figuratively.

Uh huh, yes. Like the pizza itself. Mostly empty. But if you put your own, bring your own toppings, you could have a great time. But so, but what we're finding, I think, maybe what we're landing on is that that initial discussion of pizza riso is good. I mean the vibes feel pretty good right now don't they? I mean it's getting much easier to make that verdict and when we were up there and seeing and like meeting a bunch of meeting a bunch of listeners and talking to Alicia and like and seeing it full and packed and people in amazing shirts and everybody's so nice up there I started thinking about where this all began.

And that, like, you know, with the initial debate, and Pizzarizzo is good, that statement coming from our pal Doug. So when I was up there, I texted him, and I said, you know, we're doing a show tomorrow, and it's gonna be about Pizzarizzo. And I said, do you have a statement about the closing of Pizzarizzo?

And he sent one. But then, after sending the statement, he said, well, you know, I'm at LAX right now. I'm coming to the show. So now to make the statement officially here in person, Pizzarizzo's longest time defender on Podcast The Ride, please welcome our pal, Doug Jones. They don't.

No! No! Wow! This is very brief statement. This is basically what I texted you yesterday. I'm just gonna read it out loud in front of the audience. Oh, well thanks for saving me the reading work. I mean, thank you for flying across the country

so I could save my voice a little bit. I'm so happy to see you, by the way, Doug. Happy to have you on stage with us finally. Let's, you started all this, how do you feel right now? I'll tell you how I felt yesterday when I texted you and then I'll follow that up by just my opinions on some things that were expressed on stage. Okay, okay. Alright, alright. Again, this will all be very brief. Here we go. I never thought I'd get anyone to take me seriously. Thank you good boys and fellow Cliffords for re-evaluating Pizza Rizzo as one of the finest theme park quick-service restaurants of the 21st century.

We had to. We had to. Thank you for duty. Thank you for your bravery. So early. Yes. So early. You spoke up just like you wanted. Yes, we're speaking up. But it seems like you have to speak up about some other stuff too. There was some criticism about the quality of the food and to that I just want to say, shut up. It's fucking rad pizza. Wow. Wow. Doug, you said it. Aggressive. shut up it's it's fucking rat pizza Wow

Doug you said it. It's fucking rat pizza I refuse to use the past tense here at the end of this show it is fucking rat pizza and pizza riso is good is good. Yeah! Woo! Woo! We did it. And, who's here? Stay up with us, stay up with us.

And let me say to the group and to all of you, you survived Podcast The Ride. Yeah! Woo! Woo! Oh my God, what a blast. Our thanks to Alicia Stella. Woo!

Woo! Our thanks to Malia Schnefke. Wow, thank you for being here. Our thanks to Malia Schnefke. Wow, thank you for being here. Our thanks to Jug Jones. I'm Scott Garner, that's Mike Carlson and Jason Sheridan. This was an absolute blast. Thank you everybody at Tin Roof Orlando. Who's sticking around for the 10 o'clock?

Are we going to see you again? Good, good. Thanks everybody. Forever Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gardner, Brett Boehm, Joe Silio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts,

please visit foreverdogPodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest ForeverDog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram, at ForeverDogTeam, and liking our page on Facebook.