Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Drinking the Pop Culture Kool-Aid | Ep. 285

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

The guys share the tentpoles of culture that to them can do no wrong, like how Daniel will bend like a pretzel for Andor and Soren will follow his Alpha Dog anywhere. They also reminisce on Soren's days as a morning radio contributor and decide being a morning zoo DJ must be the best job in the world. Follow Soren & Daniel on Bluesky:https://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.social/https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.social

I've got a quick quick question for you, alright I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick quick question for you, alright The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite? How did you get? How do I be remembered? Words without words, word and all that How do we know? Oh forget it Saw a movie Daniel O'Brien.

Two best friends and comedy writers. If there's an answer they're gonna find it. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here. Soren saw this today. What was he doing? They saw this today. They believe this.

They, here in New Jersey, they broke ground on a new Netflix studio. It's going to have 12 state of the art sound stages. Fort Monmouth, the old Fort Monmouth and Monmouth County. Governor Phil Murphy says it's going to be the Hollywood of the East. Thanks to ASPCA Pet Insurance for supporting Quick Question. To explore coverage, visit aspcapetinsurance.com slash question. This is a paid advertisement. Insurance is underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced petinsurance.com slash question. This is a paid advertisement. Insurance is underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company

or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by PTZ Insurance Agency Limited. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. You know, so we've listened to another podcast before, you and I. Yeah. Done by some guys from Family Guy

in which they will do jokes that are, they'll make up jokes for Johnny Carson, like a show that has not been on the air for, I want to say 60 years. And they will do bits for him based on like, yeah, topics that come up in the news. And the minute you started doing that, I was like, oh, this is a really good idea. And then I was like, oh, no way. I've seen that in practice and I don't care for it. So it's funny that you assumed that I was doing Johnny Carson bits. I was doing something similarly out of time because I'm auditioning for sort of a dream gig that I

want now, Soren. Because last week tonight has run its course. So I'm looking for what's next, what's hip. And I'm in physical therapy twice a week. I've been for a couple of months now. And in physical therapy, they have the like morning, not necessarily morning zoo radio station, but some kind of morning radio. Like, like I think it's Robbie and Rochelle or Robbie and Michelle, someone who is my dad will correct me if I get it wrong. But they, in the hour that I'm there,

this is the only time I listen to this, the only time I'm exposed to it, because in the podcast, in the car, I listen to podcasts or radio, or Spotify rather. And so I'm there and I'm just hearing two people and sometimes like a random third guy comes in and they play in the course of an hour, maybe two songs and the course of an hour, maybe two songs.

And the rest of it is just truly my dream gig, where sometimes you'll hear them shuffling paper, and it's just this DJ, I assume Robbie, who has been handed a stack of headlines that one of his producers vetted. And sometimes it'll be like a New Jersey News, like the thing about Netflix building a studio out here and sometimes it's just like Florida man woke up with eggs in mouth And then he just talks about that for a while and then she talks about it for a while

Yeah, and if they're not doing news they will just do like Today you can tweet at us or send us a text message to the following number. Today our topic is what are things that your parents did when you were a kid that you thought was normal and then you found out it wasn't. What are the rules of your household? And then they will just read the responses and riff on them. And that's it.

And sometimes not even riff. Sometimes not even riff. Sometimes just like, wow. Can you imagine that? Can. And sometimes not even riff. Sometimes not even riff. Sometimes not even riff. Sometimes just like, wow. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? This person.

No, no I can't. That's crazy. That's like being, you ever go to a relative's house where all the furniture was covered in plastic? It's like, ah, of course I know. I know that. Like, I don't actually think anyone has done that because this radio station is locked in the 90s and they're playing

with a bunch of 90s tropes and they're like rediscovering things that I would consider to be retired tropes. They rediscover them for the first time every single morning and it's so fun. Aren't you jealous? I just want it so bad. I was so jealous of like, even when I was driving in my car yesterday, I was thinking about how the last time that we did this podcast, we opened up and you've done this new thing where you don't do an intro. And it startles me every time because I'm like,

oh, I'm supposed to talk now because nobody's doing anything. And the last time I was like, let's come in laughing. Then I was like, wait a second. Surely I've seen that 16 times. Surely I've seen like people on a date or like there's like, they wanna impress somebody and they're walking by and like, oh, pretend I just said something really funny. Or like, let's just like, let somebody walk in on you while you're laughing.

And I was like, that's a trope that's been around for a very long time. I feel like I would have gone to the next step other than that. I'm surprised that I'm on laziness. I was like, surely we should have come in angry. That would have been fun. And you're right. That would be a very fun thing. Quick, quick. Oh, that's the girl I have. Quick. Pretend I said something really offensive. Be angry. Let's just growl at each other. Or pretend we're just ending an argument. That's a very fun way to come in. But as I was thinking about it, I was like, yeah, it must be... I'm

just jealous of people who don't have a context or foothold in culture in any way, so everything is brand new. What a dream. Yeah. These are people in a radio station talking to an audience of people who are in their car listening to FM radio. So I can't say anything to anyone on either side of this conversation because I want to come in and say like, did you see the president's fucking truth social or did you see Matt and Glacies' sock puppet account on Blue Sky? No one's gonna give a shit about that because they don't know what I'm talking about.

But if someone on the radio was like, you know what my favorite day was as a kid in elementary school was once a month, pizza day, and everyone's like, yes, pizza day. Did you finally, someone said it for the first time. Tell me this, did you tell me this pudding pop? Did your did your school have those square pizzas? Yeah, yeah they did.

My school had square why is it only schools that have square pizza? Yeah, yeah. Ah, I want it. I want that gig. So we you know that we have a foothold in this world already. You're aware of that, right? Cause podcast is radio? No, because I was on terrestrial radio every single week

for about three years. Once a week. No, in a, not St. Louis. Oh, fuck, they'll kill me. In Kansas City. It was Slim Jim and Rob. What was it? It couldn't have been that.

Oh, it's so close. It could have very easily been that. No, it was Church of Laszlo. It was Slim Fast and Rob? What was it? Oh, it's so close. It could have very easily been that. No, it was Church of Laszlo. It was Slim Fast and Laszlo. Slim Fast and Laszlo. I'm pretty confident they're still in the air. They, every single week I would come in and I would talk about some cracked article. Or after a while, it was not, it became not about the cracked articles anymore. And I just got to riff with them.

Man. And it was... And you don't have to prepare. It's either news stories or people calling in and saying stuff and then you could just sort of like react and riff and play with whatever's given to you. Yeah. And that was, I mean, to be fair, their finger was much more on the pulse of pop culture than it sounds like what you're listening to. They're good. They're really funny.

And we would send gifts back and forth, like joke gifts to each to. They're good. They're really funny. We would send gifts back and forth, joke gifts to each other and stuff like that. It was very fun to be the arty of that show for a while. The only time where I was like, it really turned a corner when I would just come on and I'd just talk about the articles and I'd joke about them. And then at one point I heard Laszlo was eating during it. He was eating a sandwich or something. He's not even just chewing the mic but also being like, did you get any of the sauce? It's good. You should try the sauce. And I was, I asked, and like there's a pause and I go, is this even a real show? And they both lost it. And they're like, yeah. But it took them all, you know, it takes somebody else

to re-acknowledge that you're like, we're doing this every single day. We're taking a lot of it. There's a long leash for us in terms of what we're allowed to do on the air because we have to fill this time. Right. All you need to do is occupy time until there's a commercial that pays the bills.

This second to last time I was in PT and they were talking about, let's hear it for the boy, very confidently saying that it was a song, you know, originally first appeared in Flashdance and the other host was like, oh, I didn't do that. Yeah, Flashdance, all right, now we're gonna play it now. And my therapist was like, I don't think that's true. And I said, no, it's footloose, but it doesn't matter.

Yeah. I mean, they're not gonna issue a correction the next day. Yeah. Even though that would quickly become my favorite bit. If every Friday they were like, listen, we took your calls about all the times. We just sort of talk shit off the top of our heads and hear all the things that we got wrong. Corrections. I mean, what a great time for lying blind.

I've talked about my dog, Jackson, before. It goes without saying that he has really saved my life. I first rescued him. We rescued each other 13 years ago when we were both puppies. We were running around and on all of our hips worked and it was awesome. And he flew with me from Los Angeles to New York. And then we survived COVID together, a pandemic.

There were many days where I was so grateful to have Jackson as the sole excuse to get up and put some clothes on so I can walk him outside. He is my hero. He is very, very important to me. I love him all the time. And we have an agreement that he will never die. So when you have a pet, you'll love taking care of them

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Yeah, these guys are great though. I think that they're still doing it. Like they're a very successful show to the point where a lot of my, when I was on X and Twitter, a lot of my followers had come from Kansas City because we'd gamble on the air. We gamble on Broncos and Chiefs games. We do everything you could think. There was a point where they were like, we have to get to ads. And I was like, oh, that's cool. I'll read them. And they were like, really, will you? And I was like, I'll do, I don't have the copy in front of me, but I'll do my version of

the ad. And they let me. Like we do like an ad for a car or something. And I would just riff on like civics. And it was so fun. It was so fun to call. I was like the highlight of my week every week to call into this radio show, Church of Laszlo, and just fucking riff on the air with some guys I've never met. I imagine there are some very frustrated listeners right now hearing about my dreams of morning radio DJ stardom and they're like, what do you think the podcast is? Do you think this is a buttoned up version of morons talking? It's different. It's different. It's different.

First of all, there would be a woman there. That's our other foothold into this world that I thought you might latch onto, which is we used to work with a woman named Sarah Ricard, who had been the Robin Quivers of whatever radio show she was on. Yeah. And if you don't know the dynamic, there's usually one or two guys who are supposed to be doing the fun and the laughing and the jokes and everything. And then there's a woman on the show

who they very coarsely call the whole. Yeah. And her job is not to talk too much and to just laugh at their jokes. Because again, radio shows are stuck in 1993. It's pretty brutal, pretty brutal name. And she was like, she was the hole and she referred to it fondly. And we were like, that's terrible. She's like, ah, I guess it is. Right. Yeah. She had Stockholm syndrome by the time she came to cracked and was like,

I was the hole at Bunny and the Bugs. And we're like, oh, we're really sorry. And she's like, for what? It's like, cause we're, cause you can't. That's pretty rough. Cause we're not allowed to call people holes anymore. Yeah, we're sorry that we're not allowed to call people holes anymore. I'm not sure we ever were.

And like, if you didn't know that it was an insult to be called the hole and you're learning it from us, that's in fact what we're sorry about. I vaguely remember somebody in the room, because there were a bunch of us in the cracked room, we all paused from our desks. And I think someone was like, they called the hole because that's like the joke hole, that's where all the jokes go. And she's like, no, it's because I'm a woman. And we were like, oh, fuck. Yeah, we all kind of figured we were hoping it was the other thing. So anyway, there's a little peek into terrestrial radio for you for radio zoo hours. I also think it would be very fun to do a zoo hour. We grew up listening to them. I shouldn't even say grew up. When we were in Los Angeles, we all listened to

the same ones on K-Rock, right? It was Kevin Bean. Even then, Adam Carolla had one for a really hot minute that was before his political leaders. Before he was different. I found that one very entertaining. He had like a lot of good long running bits on that. There was this guy, Brian, who was his sound engineer, who was fucking amazing at like dropping sound bombs and stuff. And that show was great. And I remember thinking on my way to work every single day, like this would be so much fun. It'd be so much fun to just show up to work. They talk about it there in their sweatpants or slippers and stuff.

And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that. When I was in the physical therapist's office and it was the week before Easter, man, they had so much to talk about. That's just like, what a gift that must be for them to be like, oh, it's Easter. So on Monday we could talk about like your favorite Easter candies. And on, we could talk about like your favorite Easter candies.

And on Tuesday, we could talk about Easter traditions. Wednesday. Uh, I guess we talk about our favorite Easter candies. It gives a shit. We'll just keep milking this. And then the week after Easter was still like Easter week, part two. I don't know people, you know, we no reason to check the news. No reason to like invent a new thing to talk about. We just keep talking about Easter.

Yeah, I do. I also remember writing a crack and occasionally you would go search one of your articles to see if it's being stolen somewhere. And they frequently were. That was a really, that was an exercise in torture. But finding a radio zoo hour that had picked up one of my articles

about like things I predict will be defunct in 2020 or 2019 or whatever it was. But it was like, sketch your shoes is one of them and stuff. But listening to a radio show just read your article was amazing. Not like credit or anything like that, because they're not beholden to anybody. This is the Wild West. They're just like, here are things that we predict will be gone by 20 or like 2015.

Yeah. And then they just read this article and you're like, okay. Glad I can provide content for you as well. Hey, it's tough out there. I get it. Yeah. It's gotta be hard.

Oh, speaking of content. Yeah, content. Go ahead. Should we make a show? Hold on, hold on gotta be hard. Oh, speaking of content. Yeah, content. Go ahead, let me see. Should we make a show? Hold on, hold on, hold on. There we go. All right, let's see what we got here. What do we got?

Oh, quick question. Oh. No, no, go ahead. Soren, is there a piece of pop culture that you have, or an artist, creator, you have so thoroughly consumed the Kool-Aid of, and you recognize you're no longer objective about that person or that piece of art, that they can do no wrong in your eyes no matter what.

And I will go first because of a thing that happened to me recently. I'm watching this incredible show, Andor, on Disney Plus, stupid name, they should call it Disney Plus. Stupid name, they should call it Disney Max. I'm watching the show Andor, and it just concluded its second season. And the way Andor was released is they would do, every week they would drop three episodes at once. And each episode, each block of three was basically a mini movie. And then the next block of three is one year later from that mini movie, and then another year later from that mini movie.

And I had finished an episode and it ended. And there are no spoilers anywhere, because the show takes place between the events of Attack of the Clones and the movie Rogue One. Rogue One itself takes place before Star Wars and New Hope. So you know where all of these characters are going. Most of the ones that you're seeing on this show die in Rogue One. So you basically know you're looking at a bunch of people who are going to die and the

people who don't die in Rogue One, you're safe to assume most of them are going to die somewhere in this show because they don't make it to Rogue One. Yeah, so I'm watching this episode and a character in and I love the show so fucking much. A character in it dies and I was like damn, rest in peace to a real one. And then some other stuff happens. And there's the episode concludes gloriously and tremendously. And I immediately was like, what a perfect way to end this series. This is the series finale.

What a perfect way. There's this guy died and knew he had to die. And there's other stuff that like you didn't exactly see what happened to this other person, but he probably died off screen and like that's what's cool about this show that they do stuff like that, that they don't give you everything wrapped up neatly because life is not like that. And there are loose ends in life. That's in the stars. This is so perfect. 10, 10, no notes. And then I did the tiniest Google after I was celebrating how it was a perfect series finale, the tiniest Google revealed

there were three more episodes left. Oh, shit. And I was like, oh. No, yeah, that's perfect, too. The ending that I thought was perfect and it couldn't be better, but I'm open to what the next three episodes are. I bet they'll be perfect too. I bet I'll have no notes when that rolls around. Just like fully humiliating that I was like, yeah, we never knew what happened to this

character, and that's good. We shouldn we never knew what happened to this character and that's good. We shouldn't have known what happened to that character. Oh, what? Oh, the next episode is called that character. Oh yeah, I should stick around. I should probably see what happens. I'll bet they'll handle that really well. That'll be nice.

That'll be nice to get some closure. It would have been weird if we didn't have closure on that person. That would have been strange. Yeah, so you trust Andor with your life. 100%. I did love the first season of it. I haven't even started the second because I'm still, man, we're in this fucking, I

don't even want to call it golden age. It's like a platinum age of prestige television where I'm not even in the last of us because I'm still watching the previous season of the last of us. I know. And really, really enjoying it. And there's a moment in there where Bella Ramsey is you. The girl that she was in love with before the show even started, takes her to a mall and shows her a mall. And she's like, I want to show you the four wonders of this

mall. And the first place she takes her is to a working escalator. And that's not one of the wonders. They just need to get to the next floor. But Bella Ramsey is so taken by the escalator in such a charming way that they stick with it for a while. They let her play on this elevator for like a minute and a half and it doesn't get old. And that's you. That's you with Andor. It's just like- S1 05.00 It's truly a child who sees a statue of a dolphin and wants to get on top of it and play with it and look at it and is like, oh, thank you so much for taking me here. And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is the entrance to a water park. You are going to love the water park. I know the dolphin is fun, but just wait till you go just a few feet further. I am very charmed by how much you love the simplicity of this and I don't want to take that from you. I did pay a lot of money to take us here. It's important to me that we do get and we touch the water at least. And I know you're happy but like I can't have you going back to school and tell people that

for summer vacation I took you to see a stone dolphin. Yeah you're gonna take you away from me. Yeah I can't have you, at least you can't know the name of this water park because if you tell people you went and they ask about it and all you talk about is the dolphin out front, that sounds like I'm a bad dad. Yeah, I'm gonna make the news.

I definitely have these, I have these, I mean, Last of Us obviously is one where I'm like, I'll follow you anywhere. This is so beautiful and well done, structurally good. But there are actors, individual actors that I feel this for badly and I have for a long time. Ben Foster is somebody who I will follow anywhere. He does a lot of movies that are not big movies too.

Oh, let me give you some context. Let me back up here. Ben Foster is an actor. I will follow anywhere. He does a lot of movies that are not big movies too. Oh, let me give you some context. Let me back up here. Ben Foster is an actor. You have seen him in 310 to Yuma. He was in Hell or High Water. He was in... Alpha Dog.

If you saw Alpha Dog, he was in that great... He was great in Alpha Dog. He's really, he's like the best part of Alpha Dog. It's not, he's really good in that. Alpha Dog might be a good movie. We should, it could be a dangerous banger easily. Hell yeah. I do remember really loving it.

But the main character in it is from NSYNC. The main character is, what's his name? Justin Timberlake? Yeah, Justin Timberlake is like- He's a little bit more than from NSYNC at this point. He's that boy who did NSYNC and then nothing else after that. What was that? Mickey Mouse Club Kid? What's that son of a bitch's name? That's it. Clearly I don't feel that way about him.

But Hostiles I think was like the most recent like big movie that he was in. I just looked at his IMDB and he's doing a shitload of other movies. I got very excited because I was like, I'll watch every single one of these because everything that he's in, he's electric. He's so good. And I felt that way. As you know, I'm very good at picking out rising stars.

Totally. A decade after they became a star. So like when I saw Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise as a child, I was like, this boy, he's going somewhere. Not realizing that I already seen four other movies with him, just seeing this boy and being like, he's so magnanimous. I'm so magnetic.

So Ben Foster is somebody who I saw in Flash Forward, which is a show that used to be on the air. Kids show. Yeah, Nickelodeon or Disney, I can't remember, but it was a kids show. And he's so good on it. He's so fun and energetic and like good at comedy that I was like, this is the one, he's going places. And I stuck with him.

Like he was like, when you follow somebody up from like the little league up to college, and then you see them in professional sports and like, you don't necessarily like their team, but you like that player. I love him so much. I think he's, he brings it all to every single role that he's in. He's completely different in every single role that he does and completely underappreciated. I'm sure that most people when they hear the name Ben Foster, they're like, who, who is

that? And if you go and look at him, you'd be like, oh yeah. And then if you really went through his catalog, you'd be like, fuck, he's the most important person in Hollywood. He's so good. And so if I found out that he was also very staunchly against abortion or something, I'd be like, well, maybe I should look into it. Maybe I'm wrong. I was very hung up on this because you mentioned supporting a professional ball player since Little League. Are you scouting a lot of little league teams and following their baseball careers? Now that I am a baseball coach,

I can't help but think about it. I can't help but think there's kids on the teams who I'm like, especially this area, just cause we're, I don't know if it's the proximity to Elsa Gunddo or what. Elsa Gunddo was the one that won the little league world series a couple of years ago. But there is like a real wealth of talent in this area. And you notice it

when you play against teams in other like areas of Los Angeles where you're like, oh, shit. Like these kids are just head and shoulders above everybody else. It's crazy. And you see these kids who are just these naturals out there. And you think, if I got that kid's autograph right now, do you think that that would be worth a bunch of money in about 12 years? No. And not just because handwriting experts wouldn't be able to verify the signature to make sure that it tracked across decades.

But it does, I do think that there are people who, and maybe not through, through high school, definitely. Through high school, college, and into the pro careers, especially for baseball, because everybody's, their own stat heads in baseball. Everybody who is a baseball fan is actually a math fan. And they, and I think that those people definitely follow people throughout their whole career and get real excited for them.

Yeah. But that's not me. What's always felt weird, I mean, it makes sense when you understand that like, you'll know about Steph Curry as a high school player because his dad is a famous basketball player and he was coached, Curry, young Steph Curry was coached by famous coaches

as well. And there's like certain places that scouts look to find good players. They're not, they're not just out there like throwing a dart on a map, the United States and going to check out the local little league team. There are like paths, there are very clear like trajectories that you're on if you're in a family or if you're showing like a really, really strong, uh, prodigious talent for something. You are going to be in, uh, on the radar. Yeah, you're going to be put in the radar on the radar intentionally. Uh, it still just seems so bonkers whenever you hear about like, ah, this

boy, we're really excited about Cooper flag, I think they were saying like four years ago when he was 16 years old or something like that. Just like, leave, stop, just leave him alone. Let the high school kid play basketball. We don't need to like try to think strategically about what team is going to land Cooper flag four years from now, especially because who could have predicted the Dallas Mavericks? You can see it. There's entire TikTok accounts that are dedicated to what happened to this

person where it's like, we all remember baby Gronk, but how come baby Gronk's not playing in the league yet? Or somebody who actually would be of age. But they definitely are like, this kid was amazing. We all saw them 10 years ago. Where are they now? Like, can you believe it? They're selling cell phones at a kiosk in the mall. Like, yeah, I can. Because they were like eight years old when we all latched onto them.

It was crazy. We shouldn't have done that. Yeah, we looked at a high school freshman and we were like, this guy is gonna be huge in football. And then he fell off the map. Oh, I bet he started fucking. And then was like, not interested in football anymore. Yeah. That happens to people. It's amazing how that happens. Oh, I bet he started fucking and then was like, not interested in football anymore.

That happens to people. It's amazing how that happens. They're not interested in the same thing their entire life, despite the trajectory we put them on at a young age. When you say they follow individual players, there also is just these hotbeds. Oakland is a hotbed for football that down here in Los Angeles, like is a real hotbed for like up and coming rising basketball stars. So many basketball players started out in Los Angeles. And it's like, for whatever reason, I don't know if it's just like you're surrounded by other talent that it makes you high, it like raises the bar for you.

Or if there's just access to coaches here that are really good and good at like finding people's ceilings. But it's the same with baseball here. And I think that that's unfair. Not to the people. Probably unfair to all the people who want to be baseball stars and live in Scranton, Pennsylvania. But also unfair to the kids who live here. Like, my son is not going to be a professional baseball player, I don't think. He's great. He's doing good, but I don't want him to, I also don't want to put him on a trajectory like that where it's like now, okay, spring's over. Now he's got to be on a summer travel team. Now he's got to do fall ball. Now he's got it like getting him into baseball all that time feels like, first of all, detrimental to the muscle groups that you have to use as a child to do that sport over and over again.

But also, let's think of a different way. Let's just like, let's not evaluate anyone until after high school. Let's just let them come up, let them have a childhood for everything, including gymnastics, by the way, even if they're like, their prime is in high school, I don't care.

We're not gonna do, we're gonna take a break from hurting these children. We're gonna wait, let them come up their own way, let them have like a childhood, let them play and explore other sports or other recreational activities. They can learn the French horn. Right, because basically if you were just a phenomenal baseball player from Champaign, Illinois.

You're the best kid in your town. You're the best kid in your middle school. You're the best kid in your high school. You're the best kid in your college. By the time you get to be on, like if you want to get serious about it in college, if you decide in college, I think what I want to be is a baseball player, the way a lot of us decide what we want to be when we're in college. At that point, you have very likely missed your shot because you haven't been working with the coaches

since birth. You haven't done the conditioning and you were just like the best player in your town who is still starting from a few laps behind everyone else because they happen to be born in El Segundo or Toms River or wherever else it is where they make great baseball players. And I feel like we should have learned our lesson with Todd Marenovich. Do you remember that story?

Is he the football prodigy who got super into crack or something? That's the guy. So Todd Marenovich's dad. Mitch Marinovich, I think, he was the one who created the NFL Combine, which the Combine is what they put all players through to determine their ability to play in the NFL. Some people consider it useless and some people are like, I live by the Combine. That will determine the success of anybody going forward.

And it's just a test of strength, of speed, of like your ball handling skills. It's just a bunch of tests all over a couple of days and scouts come and watch these kids play. And it really helps determine draft order and everything. He helped develop that. When he had his son, Todd, he was like, I'm just gonna, I know what it takes

to make a professional athlete. Why don't I just start? And so like his son was a baby He was like, I know what it takes to make a professional athlete. Why don't I just start? And so his son was a baby and he was already doing exercises with him before he could walk that he knew would help develop his legs in such a way that he would be better when he finally could walk and that he would just be ahead his whole life. And he gave him a very specific diet, very specific sleep schedule, how he handled losses and wins once his kid did start playing and like just basically

made the absolute best quarterback the world had ever seen to the point where this kid was on Sports Illustrated when he was 12 and like, and everybody was like colleges were already looking at this kid when he was in middle school and everybody was so excited for this career, Tom Renovitch. And they're like, yeah, what if we just started making players when they were born? Like, well, look at how well this is working. And then he got to college and lost his shit because he had been on such a regimented schedule his entire life and suddenly his dad wasn't there and he lost his mind. He went to USC and like went crazy, found cocaine, found other drugs,

and was like, and found McDonald's. Right. I was going to say, it probably started with a slice of, oh, you've never had Domino's? That's crazy. He's like, huh, this is the best thing I've ever had. What else has been kept from me? Right. And so now he was unleashed and went absolutely nuts. And then did actually, I mean, continue to play really well all throughout his USC career. I think maybe there were some dips there, but then he went and was drafted by the Raiders and really collapsed once he was like

playing professional football and didn't last very long and burnt out so quick. And everyone was like, oh, yeah, okay. I see now we fucked up. Let's start and win there five instead. And I'm like, no, yeah, okay, I see now we fucked up. Let's start and when they're five instead. And I'm like, no, that's not the lesson we should have taken from this. The lesson is don't look at a child until they're 17

and then you can address like, okay, are they good at anything? Now let's work from there. Yeah. I think it's unfair. I think the sports are unfair. Sports are totally unfair and math has ruined them. Math sucks.

Nerds suck. There's one other person, by the way, I want to bring up for your... That was my first long-winded answer to that question. Yeah. Your first answer was Mitch Marenovich. That's Soren's ride or die. My next answer is somebody who I feel like is... Maybe it's just the characters he plays,

but I think that he is a very specific type of guy who probably came up without acting, and now it just turns out to be phenomenal at it. And it's totally possible that he's gonna break my heart at some point. And that's, I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right, Iban Mas Bakrak? Correct. You are pronouncing his name wrong,

but I respect you too much to correct you at this moment. He is so fun to watch on anything that he's in. Okay, so for anyone who doesn't know, he's in The Bear. He's cousin of The Bear. He's on this dance show, Dance Stupid Star Show. He's in the first season of He's, he's on this dance show, dance stupid star show. He was in the first season of Andor. That's right. Yeah.

He was in a couple seasons of Girls. Yes. Yeah. And he's so fun. He's so, oh, he was in Punisher. He was in the Punisher show too. He's really, really fun to watch. And I think so good at every single role that he plays. And I'm genuinely worried that I'm putting him too high on a pedestal.

Do you like him? I like him a lot. Yeah. I'm very excited for him as the thing in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Oh, great. And I think I'm really curious to see him do other roles because he didn't make much of an impact on me and girls when I was watching that show, so much so that when I saw him on The Bear as Richie and he was so fucking good, I was like, where did this guy come from? And it turned out I'd seen him before.

I did not make the connection at all because his character on Girls, apart from a pretty memorable scene, didn't even like register to me as a memorable character or actor. So I worry with someone like him. Like, is he just, is it possible that he's just perfect for the bear? And it's amazing that of all the timelines that we could have ended up in, he was the right age for this part at the right time. He was

available as an actor. Is that just the amazing lightning in a bottle was the right age for this part at the right time. He was available as an actor. Is that just the amazing lightning in a bottle that we're getting for a few years with him on the bear or maybe he'll surprise and he'll take on another show a year from now and be, you know, outstanding, fucking huge and outstanding. It's do you think that the thing is not too far field from no, that's what I'm I'm not worried about. No, that's what I'm... I'm not worried about... Like, I don't think an actor who... And I'm not saying he doesn't have range. Caveat number one.

Caveat number two, I'm not necessarily saying an actor is bad if they don't have a lot of range. I think it's... not better, but it's still really good if an actor completely knows themself and like what they can do really well and they just deliver on it perfectly. And maybe he's an actor who's like, I have a part for which I am perfect and no one's written it yet.

And finally, here it is. Great. I'm going to do all of the many tricks that I have and I'm going to do this part. I'm going to do R part. I'm going to do Richie on the bear. It doesn't necessarily mean that he should be the man who came to dinner. You know, we don't... A good actor doesn't mean you can be...

Frazier and Tony Stark and Charlie Chaplin. Uh, two out of three roles played by Robert Downey Jr. And he's been Sherlock Holmes, which is kind of Frasier-coded. He's a bad example of three characters. But you get what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. As I was listening to you, I was also looking up his early life to make sure that I wasn't just completely duped and that he hadn't been like an actor, trained actor his entire life and he's just very good at what he's doing.

I'm kind of right. I figured I saw him as like this blue collar guy who like accidentally wandered into an audition. Like that in my dream scenario, that's who this guy is now like, yeah, you're perfect. Let's use you. He did go to Columbia University, but he went for English literature. And he did toy with other majors during that time, but they were not theater. They were like history and music major. He's a history music major for a while. So he was living a fairly normal life. I wonder if we could do an episode of really great actors with no range or not no range,

but just like perfectly cast. One very specific thing they do well. I was reading an article with Josh Holloway today because he's got a new show coming out on HBO Max, the one to watch, called Duster, I believe. Josh Holloway was, if you don't know, Sawyer on the show Lost. That was a show where he truly seemed like someone who came out of nowhere. I don't believe he was in anything else. I certainly didn't see him in anything. He shows up on this show, this big, huge cast of very different types of people. And he is a guy who crash lands on

this mysterious island. He's got long hair. He's got a beard. He's built. He's a fucking asshole. He's Southern. His name is Sawyer. He is hoarding all of the medicine and he's trading it for secrets from people on the island. And he is such a great foil to Matthew Fox is cop coded Dr. Jack. And he is just perfect. He's just like he just him being there is like, I'm fucking Sawyer and I don't give a shit about you. And I'm going to slap this lady on the ass. And I'm like, yeah, of course you're Sawyer.

You were born to be Sawyer. You're a perfect Sawyer. He was magnetic on screen. That show ended after seven seasons, however many years it ended up being. And then it's like, hey, it's Josh Holloway. And now he's Magnum P.I. And the rest of us are just like, no.

No, that's Sawyer. No, get out of here Sawyer, what are you doing? You can't do that. There is, I could, off the top of my head, there's somebody else I can think of that's exactly like that. When I've seen them in other stuff, I'm like, no. And that's, again, name butchering.

Nicolaj Coster Waldo. Yeah, Game of Thrones Sawyer, for sure. Yeah, Game of Thrones, he for sure. Yeah, Game of Thrones. He's one of the, yeah. So he's the hand or the Kingslayer who is so good. He's so fucking good in that show in Game of Thrones. You absolutely believe him at every turn. He's wonderful.

You hate him when you're supposed to hate him. Yeah. And then your heart breaks when it's supposed to. He's in Oblivion, which is like a Tom Cruise movie and he's completely forgettable in that. Anything else I've seen him in, I'm like, hold on, you're in the wrong time, mister. Let me get you back where you belong. You're not supposed to be here. Yeah.

I saw him in posters and trailers for some romantic comedy movie with Kate Upton and others. And it was just like three women who are all dating this guy and they're all mad at each other. Then they really should be mad at him. And I was like, guys, you're all focusing on the wrong thing. Don't be mad at each other. Don't be mad at him. Ask what this fucking time traveling prince

is doing in modern America. What is Prince Charming up to? Why is he here? Why is he speaking in that accent? Stop it. He's going to his job at the bank. No, he's not. Jamie, get back, take my hand, Jamie.

I'm gonna take you home. Yeah, that would be actually really fun to find those. I have like six others in my mind that just like popped in where I'm like, yep, yep, yep. Well, the people along the way that I saw as a star because I'm that sort of talent scout. Sure. I went, that baby, oh baby, that one's going to be a star.

And then I was like, well, let's see what else they're in. I looked at the other stuff and I was like, no, it was just this one thing you were absolutely perfect for. This is phenomenal. There's a band of brothers guy like that, that is so fucking good. It's like the best episode of television I've ever seen. And I was like, I'll follow this guy anywhere. Oh no, I won't.

I see you in one of the thing and it's, I've decided I'm not doing that anymore. But you were really good in this. Which band of brothers guy was it? Was it David Schwimmer? He's no. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, I'll get his actual name, but he was the medic

on Game of... I mean on Band of Brothers and there's an entire episode dedicated to him and just how hard it is to be a medic in war because you can't get too attached to anybody and you don't have a particular person that's your like you're a good friend and it's it's so it's such a sad and like grim nihilistic episode but it's really really good uh his name is Shane Taylor. Shane Taylor? Yeah I'm pretty sure that he's English he plays a like a creel medic he plays this He plays a like a Creel medic. He plays this guy and he, the episode, I can't recommend it more highly.

And in fact, I don't think you even need to see the rest of Banner Brothers. That's not true. In general, always please watch Banner Brothers. I watch it once a year, but you don't have to have seen the other episodes for this one to make sense. And it's this bottle episode that is, it's so well done.

And he's like, she should win awards for this episode. He's so good in it. He certainly looks like a good actor. I was ready. I was ready to follow him through hell and high water to Ben Foster. My boy. I learned my lesson about not following too hard behind somebody who you absolutely love very early on in my childhood,

because I loved Kirby Puckett. And Kirby Puckett was a player for the Minnesota Twins. He was there for both of their World Series victories. He's a center fielder. He was this big fat dude who was amazing. He was a big fat dude who could crush a ball and was also so athletic on his feet. Just like a real twinkle toes of a 280 pound man.

And I loved him growing up. He was my favorite player. He could do no wrong. I have to this day probably have every single Kirby Pocket card ever made. And then some allegations came out that he followed a woman into a public restroom, followed her into a stall and was like trying to like make out with her and hook up with her. And I was like, as a kid, I was like, no, he didn't.

No, somebody's framing him. And it's like, had to really sit with that for a long time and come to an understanding that maybe the people you fall in love with earlier are not so great. So yeah, I've fallen for that before. Sure. I think I'm more susceptible to creatively cosigning someone rather than make like a personal hero out of someone we've seen enough famous people behave really poorly, that I'm not like, I'm not going to cosign everything that Tony Gilroy says and does just because I like Andor. There is a comedian on my list of, I direct the Kool-Aid, I co-sign everything, even though the work might not be as good anymore. But I don't wanna say- Adam Carolla.

I'm gonna save it for Patreon because I don't wanna burn the bridge on main because I would still really like to work with this person. So I'll only burn that bridge. Even if he- Well, hold on. You should say some people that- If he finds out that I burnt the bridge

and then decides to never work with me because he heard me say mean things about him, at least he'll have paid $5 once to hear it. At least he'll subscribe to the Patreon. I'll take that. I also want to like, I want to say this is not Bill Cosby, it's not Louis CK. Don't worry. No, it's none of the ones you're thinking of that are like that kind of bad. I mean, this is just just like someone whose work I've followed and really loved and talking in the circles that I'm talking in where people are like I think I think he's maybe

Lost his touch a little bit or lost a step and is perhaps I don't want to give anything away about who I'm talking about But perhaps he's bitten off more than he can shoe doing a weekly live Netflix show. Whoa, I Meanwhile and watching this show and I'm like, no, he's still great. It's still really good. Even the parts that I don't like are good. And- I just haven't figured out why yet.

I will not engage in this conversation. That's crazy. I did not know that Netflix gave Joe Rogan a show. Yeah, every single week. So I know that feeling. I felt that with novelists as well. Martin Amis is one of my favorite novelists of all time, written some books that I live by. And then Martin Amis became a real nightmare of a human being. He became super right- wing. He's English, but he's became super right wing and really unsympathetic to the plights of anyone else in the world.

It just became like a rich old asshole. And I was like, well, I just haven't figured out how he how this is for me. But that to me is easier than what I'm thinking about and dealing with. I think it's easy for if you like someone and then they say something horrible to just like, well, they're bad now and I can move on. We've talked about my love for Ben Folds on the podcast before where he has not said anything politically or socially horrible. I just, I've followed his

career my whole life and his music's just not for me anymore. He's just making... Oh, interesting. That's my delicate way of saying it. His music is worse now. The stuff that he's making has moved in a direction that I think sucks and I don't know what to do about it because for the longest time, like liking him made me cool. And it was important to me to like, to know and to share what was good about him. And whenever someone didn't like him, I was like, huh, you're a fool.

You're not an intellectual like me. And now the latest like maybe 10 years of his output. I'm just like this. I don't like this. Good. I kind of wish you'd stop. But I know there's only one way to make you stop and I don't want that to happen to you. That's really sad. I'm sorry that that's happening, Daniel.

You guys grew apart. That's okay. I could still listen to his good stuff. Yeah, his early things. Man, it's always troublesome when that happens and it's around drugs where they're like, I got better and you're like, great. Oh, I don't like any of your shit anymore.

That was, I can't remember what we've talked about. Bare Naked Ladies, a band that I unironically loved. And then they had a falling out with one of their two lead singers, Stephen Page, who got busted for, I think meth. It might've been, it'd be great if it was cocaine that he got caught with, but I think it might've been like a scarier meth drug. And between that and other differences, they kicked him out of the band and went separate ways.

And then he had a solo endeavor and the band continued without him and his shit was better. I don't know what to say. I'm really sorry guys, that the asshole drug addict really made your band. That's tough, man. It's real tough. A getty was a problem to work with, but like, if you can see past that, put some asses in seats.

Uh oh. I don't like what that means. I do privately think that every single time that somebody goes to rehab and gets better and they're like, and you know what? I was so worried that my comedy was born or like my music was born from this one particular place of darkness and that I wouldn't be the same without it. But I realized like I'm way more now. I'm way more now that I'm sober or more happy. And I'm like, well, I'll be the judge of that.

Wait, make something and I'll tell you if you're the same. Well, that's our show. Thank you everybody for listening to us, Well, that's our show. Thank you everybody for listening to us, VAMP for 45 minutes. If you want to catch us on terrestrial radio, we are Tic Tac and the Pudding Pop. And you can find us on every Zoo Hour. It needs, that's not quite right. Tic Tac and the Pudding Pop.

They can't both be names like that. They have to, one of them has to be like Garfield and then the other one can be something inanimate. Sure. A normal name like Garfield. A normal name, like Garfield, like a president. Yeah. All right, thanks, bye.

Bye. I've got a quick, quick question for you, all right. I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind. I've got a quick quick question for you alright The answer's not important I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favorite? How did you get it? What would I be if you remembered? Words without words, word at all now

What are we going on? Oh forget it! Saw a movie Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers Oh forget it!