Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Voice Acting for Animation + Post-Hollywood Businesses (Definitely Not Scams) | Ep. 297

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Daniel and Soren split their time between two topics: voice acting for animation, where Soren takes us behind the scenes of American Dad for some interesting observations about talent and skill, and then a titular Quick Question from titular Daniel about starting franchise businesses. The first half covers everything from Homer Simpson’s changing sound to Seth MacFarlane’s least favorite voice to why impressions can’t replace original delivery. The second half imagines what kind of franchises they’d bring to their own towns — from Daniel’s deliberately short-term fitness studio to Soren’s dream of importing Tucson’s beloved Beyond Bread to Los Angeles.

I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. I want to hear your thoughts, I want to know what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight. So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When will I be? I remember.

What's it out? Word it all. Oh, forget it. I saw a movie Daniel O'Brien. Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer They're going to find it I think you'll have a great time here

I think you'll have a great time here Welcome back It's quick question here with Soren and Daniel This is a podcast I'm Daniel That's Soren, Soren say hello for first time listeners So they can hear how our voices are different Hey, hey, everybody, it's me. Hey, it's Shoren.

I'm, and I'm coming with the homeroom, with all the hands and jokes. It's not just about our voices being different. It's like a completely different type of guy. It's just a person who. What do you prefer not to listen to? Somebody would be happy to walk away from. I was watching a viral internet thing on my Instagram feed about voice casts. And it was, it was family guy.

So like a neighbor of. of your, of your, your, your stuff. Physical, too. How, Seth was talking about how Peter's voice naturally got higher over time. And like Seth Green was saying the same thing, you can listen to the first few episodes. And Alex Bornstein, too. Everyone's voices, the character voice, just got higher over time. Did that, have you noticed that happen at American Dad at all?

Well, I'm jumping right into the questions. Yeah, no, this is great. I mean, I can give you a little pepia in the curtain here. Seth doesn't enjoy doing Stan's voice. It's hard on him. It doesn't sound like it should be. It is like a deep voice and he has gotten higher over time to compensate for that because he has to go so deep for it.

It's not a comfortable voice to do for him. And he doesn't like it. But I haven't really noticed it with the other characters. I guess I should go back and actually see the first season of my show one of these days. I bet that there's some difference. I mean, you can hear it in every show you hear it. You know, like you hear it with Homer, obviously. Homer was a completely different character.

Yes. They all sounded a little bit different. I mean, I was just reading The Simpsons book and Dan Caslinetta was like famously in the beginning trying to do a Walter Mathau thing and then softened it and became this much like easier to like palatable version, which made so much sense for the character because when the show started, it was kind of centered around Bart as the star and then it became the family and there was a lot of it where it was just like, oh, Homer is the star. So you kind of want him to have a voice that makes you smile more than hearing Walter Mathaus does. But you hear that softening with Mars.

too. Yeah, yeah. And it's not a Neely's Raspi anymore. Um, that was when I, I remember early on listening to that and being very afraid of Homer. And then this Homer like became the, the dummy main character. It was like, I love this guy. I love him. Him wine is so funny. Morge, there's a spider near my keys. Like, you know, just like that. Like I just nailed it right there. I had, you did. Uh, we were all transported. I loved reading this. Um, John Schwartzwelder interviewed. He's written more episodes of The Simpsons than anyone. He's like, he's famous in comedy writing communities as someone who's written just some

of the purely funniest things. He's, probably he and Conan, more than any people, are responsible for like what I think comedy is, just in terms of the sheer impact of their writing. A sense of comedy. Yeah. And he's written all these things. And then he just, uh, backed away from writing for television and just self-publishes books.

wrote the uh the frank grimes episode of the simpsons which is yeah infamous to a lot of people for like how dark it is that there's this character who works at the plant that homer works at he is uh worked his entire life from poverty to get to this position and like he just can't catch a break this guy and he is so disgusted by homer simpson as as almost anyone would be that this is a guy who this this big, dumb, kind of mean oaf who is in this position in charge of a lot of people's safety at this plant. And Frank Graham just doesn't think he deserves it. And he's like, who's this, who's this fucking guy? Why does he? How is the luckiest guy in the world got this job? He's got this big house and he's got this beautiful wife and this beautiful family. And it doesn't seem

fair. I worked hard my whole life and I'm unhappy and I'm lonely. And this fucking moron. And this fucking moron gets everything and everyone in the office likes him and he screws up and there's no consequences and everything works out for Homer Simpson and I want to take him down and it drives Frank Grimes crazy and he by episodes and accidentally

electrocutes himself to death being Homer. Pretending to be Homer and Homer falls asleep at his funeral and starts talking in his sleep and everyone laughs at Homer's funny joke while Frank Grimes hardworking American died and is dead in the ground. It's a very famous Simpsons episode for

like, is that too dark? Like, this is a very sad thing to happen. And then this interview with John Schwarzwielder, who wrote the episode, doesn't give a lot of interviews. He gave this Mike Sacks interview a couple years ago. And Sacks was like, well, this was for, I think, the New Yorker or Vanity Fair. It didn't make the book. And Sacks was like, what do you have to say about um how dark this episode was and george was just like he had it coming he was he was coming for our homer he was antagonizing homer he got what he deserved it was such a wonderful for an episode that is like famously dark it's such a sweet read of that episode of just like yeah no don't this isn't about like your uh philosophical internal

sense of justice and who's right and wrong, we like Homer because this is Homer's show and Frank Grimes was mean to Homer, and he deserved to pay for that. Yeah, and mod too. I had it done it.

Speaking of that, that godly family, maybe this is common knowledge, but within the show, but they do talk about the four-finger phenomenon that all the characters, obviously have four fingers because that's easier to draw as a cartoon, but all, in every single show characters have four fingers, they still live in a base 10 society, which doesn't make any

sense. Base 10 means that everything's built around tens, right? So you're, and that happened for a reason for us throughout society is because that's as high as we could count on our fingers. And so like, that's where we were like, okay, after that, you get to start over. You can get to go to the next number. And so they were thinking about why on the Simpsons, everybody lives in a base 10 society while they only have four fingers. But when in the episode where Homer meets God, God has five fingers. Yeah. And so they were just like, they didn't answer it in the show.

They didn't say that. But you can only see the bottom half of God and God has five fingers on each hand. And they're like, yeah, it's that way because God is base 10. God decided it would be that way. And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty brilliant. I wish I'd have thought of that. Just and also the humors of the writer. to being like, well, if God exists in the Simpsons universe,

he is more like us than he is the Simpsons. Because we are better. We tell the Simpsons what to do every day. They are our little toys that we push around. I'm fascinated about your boss Seth and his... I assumed, because I don't know shit about fuck. I watch Family Guy. He does a million voices on that show.

And then I watch American Dad, which is his follow-up to family guy. And it seems like to a layman, it seems like this is the most obvious thing in the world to go from a show where you're affecting a higher-pitched, very exaggerated regional accent to a guy who is straight down the middle American baritone voice. That seems like he is moving from a hard thing to an easy thing. I mean, honestly, yeah, like Roger. feels tough. Roger feels like you're gonna like Roger is a tough one to nail and then also I there are other characters on the show that he does that are also very high and tough Greg. Greg is the newscaster and like that's as high as you get it's like it's Greg's a soprano almost and he's like no I like doing Greg doesn't like doing doesn't like doing stand

um it Stan is tough on his voice um I don't it's it's to the point where like we're like occasionally like we should give we shouldn't do re-records for this one because Stan's really hard on him, and we should look out for him. It's another week where Stan is at a work conference and everyone else. Stan saw a tragedy and became mute for this episode. He's just not talking. The family hasn't worked him back yet, but he'll get there. There's a Billy West talk that stuck with me.

Billy West is a renowned voice artist who was Doug funny for years and years. And then either they brought Doug back or they moved it from Nickelode into ABC family. And they couldn't meet his quote to voice. And he's Doug and he was Roger Clutz and he was a few other characters on that show. And they couldn't meet his quote or they didn't feel like paying him what he deserved. So they just hired someone else to be Doug. and he was not in that anymore. And so when it was time to cast him in Futurama,

he made Fry as close as his own voice as he possibly could so he couldn't be replaced with anyone. Yeah. It just seems like such, it's smart and such a like, I mean, no branch of the entertainment industry is safe from anything. But it seemed like surely, that Doug from Doug could stay being dug forever

and you wouldn't have to like stack the deck in your own favor to protect yourself. But no, no one is safe. And you've, and then that's, they constantly looking to, yeah, they're looking to shame money and they're looking to save their own asses. So like, if there's, if you have an actor who's older and like you're concerned that they're gonna die,

and you're like, well, should we start looking for replacements for this person? Like, and like those mandates come from, come on down. And here's it, like, What happened with Justin Royalin and stuff? It's somebody has to go. And then you find these people online who are doing an exact aping of that person. And everyone's like, yeah, hire them.

You've got to hire them. They sound exactly like them. What they're not, maybe we already talked about this on the podcast. What they're not considering is the initial delivery. That person is an AI, basically. They're copying what somebody else did. And they're like pretty good, right? It's the original like intent and delivery.

Like, that's acting. It's the original intent delivery that's what makes it funny. So if you have somebody trying to do that from scratch, reading it off the page and like trying to figure out where to put the right cadence and everything, it's nobody's as good as that person. That's why they have the job. It's two quick stories on that week. We definitely did talk about something similar to this years ago in our Danny Fernandez episode where I really enjoy watching people on YouTube and Instagram doing impressions. but the thing that always makes me a very uncomfortable secondhand

is that someone being a really good impressionist does not necessarily make them a good writer and it's very cringy for me to watch someone was like and here's Christopher Walken ordering a sandwich and it's just like man your Walkins on point but like your sketch comedy is dog shit you can't craft a scene well I'm not entertained after like two words

just because I've seen the magic trick and now it's just bad writing. Right. And the other quick story about that I don't know if this is even our story to tell, but our friend Cody Johnson, uh, Johnson or Johnston? Johnston. Johnston. Our friend Cody Johnston. Sorry, he's calling Fully on his podcast crowd.

I know. That's fine. He was, uh, asked to audition to replace Rick or Morty when, uh, Royland was out there and they very very pointedly in the audition they were like do not do an impression of Justin Royland do you know make it sound like Rick but make it you make it you know they're doing like their right fit by saying like bring some of you to this because we don't want AI we don't want a sound alike do like your version of the Rick character um and so that's what Cody did I imagine he did his version of of Rick and Morty and then they fucking

and cast it with people that sound exactly like Justin Warren. Exactly. Just sabotaged him. 100% clones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at this point, our show has been on the air for a very long time.

But when I write a line for Scott Grimes or for Wendy Schall, these are people who play Steve and Francine on our show. But I know that as soon as I get in the booth, their delivery of it is going to be like, fucking spot on. They'll make it better. Yeah. Whatever I write, they're going to make it even better because they're so good. Their deliveries are so good. And obviously, and I think I talked about this in the podcast before, but Seth, Seth is amazing. Seth will, Seth doesn't ever come in.

He records from his house. He records on his own. And he records into a mic while holding each line of the script. And then when he gets to the end of that page crumples that page up and throws it on the floor. and life but he he gives you like two takes and without fail you're like oh shit that's really good that's that's better than i even in my head i heard it and i've been writing this character for seven years like he's he just they know it so well and they know how to make it the best version of that it's amazing i feel also incredibly lucky that that i have a boss who will elevate the weirdest

and dumbest material like he really tim that's right our executive producer tim really sells the joke But John is just very good at like delivering and understanding every word of every line of every joke that he says on the show and you never have to worry I feel like I watch other late night shows that I won't name and it just seems like a host is just rapid fire delivering monologue jokes sometimes it seems like reading for the first time while doing it

just like getting all the words out and moving to the next one. And I never have to worry that a joke will fail because John delivered it wrong. The jokes fail because the writer is bad. But it will always be John trying to make the joke singing and give it a shot to succeed. Yeah. I am curious now. Do any of the actors ever talk either directly to the writers

or to an intermediary to the showrunners before the writers to say like I'd really like to sing a song at some point like I have a character who hasn't sung yet but knows they have a good voice or a character who has like I've been toying around with this like sort of truck driver baby voice can you work it into the show

do they ever come to the writers with requests not us they would come to Matt maybe Matt, Matt's for one of our showrunners, and they might come to him with that kind of thing. I've never once heard it. The closest I've heard is that there, and I did an episode with a B story that had, it had Jeff in it and it had Haley in it, who are Jeff Fisher and Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, is that sister. And they did it and at the end, they were like, this is what, like, and they're, they're, they're, it's based on real life. we had an event with my wife where we were in a canoe together thinking this would be a lot like a really fun thing to do on the boundary waters and just almost getting a divorce in a canoe

like just neither one of us thinks the other one's doing it right yet at any moment we're like drifting sideways into reeds and stuff like that we're like what the fuck and so um i had the two of them like really like losing it at each other and it was supposed it was even a much longer beastory than what it ended up in the show but like we did the table read and they were like Jeff and Haley should be fighting way more often. Like that's what, like, they're just excited about the prospect of that. And like, I can do mad.

I can do what I was hearing. It was like, I can do mad. Like, we both can do mad. Like, it's so fun. It's a fun color for us. Let us do mad. But that was the closest I've ever heard. And I don't even know if that was like a real request. They might have just been excited because they were like, that was fun. And like, or it wasn't fun for them. And they were like, what do we say to this writer? What do we say to him?

We had a lot. It was good. We should do that all the time. Thank you for that. We should do that all the time. Such an easy blanket compliment from a voice actor to a way. You're like, we should, oh, we should do that thing that you did. Oh, man, if every episode was like that, oh, what a gift, we should do it. Yes, I don't know if they, I mean, obviously we just, they, their talents are, are there on full display.

All of them sing and all of them sing better than anybody I know in my life. Anybody like anybody I listen to on the radio, they're all amazing. Has Jeff's song? Jeff sings a little, I don't know if Jeff has a voice or not. He does sing in it, but he sings as Jeff. And I think we've chosen that Jeff doesn't sing very well. And it's incredible. Like we've had them, yeah, all in the car together, singing together.

And it's like, shit, our show should just be a musical. There's no reason for us to keep doing the jokes. Um, but yeah, it's there, I've, no one has ever, like, approached me or approached any other writers that I know, been like, this is who Klaus should be. This is like, this is better. Man, it seems like it's got to be such a temptation for an actor if you know you've got a thing that is untapped. Yeah. To try to get it on. I guess they're all just like secure enough in their talents and in their jobs that they don't, they don't feel like they need to push for anything. Um, they know that. do have them come in and try just different stuff out. If, like, we have another character that they're going to be playing that particular episode.

We'll, like, it just has two or three lines, then we'll, they'll come in, they'll try stuff out. And it's clear that they've, they've just got people in their pocket. They've got other, other stuff. Eddie K. Thomas, who does Barry on our show. Do you know who bury? Barry's one of Steve's friends. Who sounds like, well, no. Okay.

That's Eddie K. Thomas from American Pie? Yes. Wow. Eddie K. Thomas and Eddie K. Thomas will be like, hey, can you do a trucker? And he's like, yeah. And he'll just do a trucker. And you're like, oh shit. You just had that in you. Which I think goes towards the old saying, like, let other people discover your talents. Don't show them. Yeah. And it like means way more to them. And I'm like, yeah. He's been holding on to that. Never said a word about it. And then did it. And I was like, good Lord. That's amazing. Let's get into the show. Let's get into the show. Quick question with Sorin and Daniel. Mm-hmm.

Do you have a question for me, Daniel? I have a couple of, if I could steer us away from industry questions. I've got, you can decide if you want some homeowner questions or if you want some sort of blue sky questions. okay um let's go with blue sky okay soaring yeah you've recently come into a little bit of money i did how did you know that yeah how did you know you're because i killed your relative that much of the money you're in your town as it is now and the smartest thing for you to do with the money is open up a little franchise what are you opening up what is what is what do you what do you bring into your community i have mine and i want to be absolutely clear

that i don't think it'll help my community i think it's just for you some money and then i'll leave what is it like hold on how big is your community first of all it's much smaller than the area i live in this little mama i mean i i called los angeles i'm making my community a couple of surrounding towns because i technically live in an unincorporated swamp and We don't have police force, but we borrow other people's police forces when we need them, which isn't that often because we don't have crime yet. But I would say like four or five neighboring towns. I have a pretty broad.

Okay. Yes. For what my franchise would be. Something that's not there already. Yeah. Okay. I want to know what it is. I am opening a something like, but not exactly, an Orange Theory Fitness or an

F-45 or an Alpha Fit Club. These are these, I don't know what they're like in L.A. Because L.A. has always been its own planet. But these classes, the way it's, it's a fitness studio that only operates in class four. And I've done all of them. I did circuit works. I've done Alpha. I've done R.S. Theory.

I've done F-45. there's always some kind of gimmick or twist that makes them unique but it's roughly the same thing where this is an hour and it's a group activity and you're moving from thing to thing you're never in one station for too long circuits your heart rate is up

the weights are never to be that heavy you're going to work up a sweat some of them they hook you up to a heart monitor and you can see on a screen how many proprietary points you are accruing in your fitness that day and you get very competitive. It shows you what anabolic zone you're in and you try to stay in this zone at this time. They're incredibly addictive classes. I love them.

I've done all of them. I don't actually know if they do anything. I am very suspicious that they don't. And on some level, you can say like, hey, it's. It's an hour per class where you are moving your body and you're sweating and you're doing things. So you must be doing something. Sure.

Maybe. I don't think there is, if your goal is a specific body type that you don't currently have, I don't think any of these classes are going to get you to where you need to go. What is it? Orange Theory is like the orange. Orange Zone is like they have. that's the one where they hook you up to a heart monitor and you have uh it's it's both things where where you are uh in different colored zones depending on how hard you're working and like

red is that you're really really working orange is like you're working pretty hard but not sprinting and then the level levels go down from there and they want you to stay in the orange zone for a big chunk of it because for every minute that you're in the orange zone you get a splat point and if you get over if you get over 11 splat points then you've met your goals

and that means you will continue to burn calories for the next 24 hours just because you have 11 splat points do you know where I what zone I work out in Dan what is it? The danger zone I work out in the in the in the in the in I work out wow I work out in in the in the in the in the I think we got it the first time I think with I think the and I know that we want to give you

options but like I think your first take was best take sometimes that happens I work out in the danger zone all right um cut up well okay so you got you got you got you got you got a you got you got splat points that's gross and dumb you get splat points I mean they all they're all a Again, no disrespect to anyone who does them. I do these classes. They're fun for me to do once a week. And I am moving for an hour and sweating. And I feel I like the class atmosphere.

I like the competitive nature. That's what these franchises are selling. Class atmosphere, competitive nature, plus some fun gimmick. And you're moving fast and you're jumping around and there's music playing. And there's a coach just hiding you up. Huh? Frankly. Frankly, you need to, like, if you're, you wouldn't be able to do this on your own.

And that's sort of the point as well. 100%. No way I'm doing that much shit on my own. I am finding shortcuts to get me out of the gym. Yeah. Yeah. And you make friends. It becomes a social thing. Like the alpha is the class that I do now. And I like the people who are there and every once in a while, they're like, hey, we're doing a member appreciation thing where we're having a barbecue and you can meet the other people at gym. And it's very fun. And I like it. These things are such a fucking racket. I just know it. I just know all it takes is space. and all that equipment and some kind of gimmick. I don't know if my franchise, I'm going to invent my own gimmick or if I'm just going to be like, I'm going to franchise an Orange Theory or an AlphaFit Club for my particular area because there isn't one right here. There's a CrossFit cult, there's some normal gyms,

there's Pilates, but they don't have this very specific... They don't have hit. Yeah, they don't have hit. They don't have the circuit works. They don't have a hit. I think I could do it. I think I can get a lot of people, a lot of bodies in. Because I know the demographics of these neighborhoods and I know that there's outside

of my swamp, there's, there are some pretty affluent towns. And it's a lot of stay at home folks with disposable income that like to work on their bodies. And I just know that we can get them in the building. It seems really smart. You don't have to have, I mean, it's opening a gym without machines. Machines are the most expensive part of your job, and you're opening a gym other than like a treadmill or whatever. Like, you don't have, people aren't doing weighted machine work.

It's like, it's all free weights and something like that, because you're moving from stations to station with free weights, and it's low free weights. Dude, sometimes it's just TRX. Sometimes it's just fucking worse. It's nuts. So it's a lot of, it's your own body weight too, which makes it like, all your body weight. providing is the is the whip crack basically yeah like you're providing the hey you've got to

fucking do it or you or you'll feel back so you can get all the splat points that you could have gotten and community and community soren community so I found out from my gym because I was walking around one day I've got two different gyms I go to one both of them are in LA fitness I should preface that both of them are in LA fitness but they're in different locations one is outstanding one is amazing immaculate like basically it is a what's the equinox it's an equinox but the other one is such a shithole like it's a rusty shithole and I go in there and I'm like looking for let's say 27 pounds and I'm looking around for them and I can't find them anywhere and this happens regularly

and I'm like I don't think these are in the gym anymore it's like I'll go to the front desk like do you know where the 27 is there and they're not out there and I'm like no I'm like someone probably took them I'm like what and like yeah people take weights all the time from the gym. That's super common that someone goes in there with a backpack. They grab one free weight at a time or whatever and they are taking weights from the gym. All the way to like 30s and 35s. And I'm like, why? They're like, well, because they're like, they want a home gym. They want to do it at home. And so they're just stealing from the gym and taking it home with them. And I think you could do that. I think that you pay even less, less overhead. You join a gym for how long

is it going to take you six months to get all the weights you need. Yeah. And you just steal from a gym. Just like, I mean, it's expected. Could steal from the gym. I think another hallmark to my success is I would bring in you, incredibly fit, high energy, you. And my incredibly fit childhood friend, Jamie and her incredibly fit. And my friend, her husband, Scott, they are.

are fantastic, fit, wonderful, high-energy, healthy people. I would get them and you and some of my other very fit friends. And, like, this is my freshman year class of coaches. And people see you on Instagram. People see, like, this fit crew. And they're like, I want to learn how to be fit from that. Because it's always the people who teach, famously the people who teach at probably all of these, but certainly I know Orange Theory.

I had a coach that I would see once a week when I took that class. And then later I'd see her at my other gym doing her real workout. Because like the most fit people don't get that way from Orange Theory. They get that way at the gym. And so I was like, look, just all the fit people that I know come and be coaches. You don't need to say that you take this class. You just need to teach it. That's my favorite part of it.

People will draw their own conclusions. there's a there's workout instagram which is like just people showing you different workouts you could be doing and they're like get shredded in in 20 minutes doing these like core workouts and they give you like five different workouts and they show you them doing it without a shirt on and they are absolutely jacked and you're like that's great you did not get that way yeah what do you do that and also like it's algorithm driven so they have to be like are you wasting your time on bench stop doing bench it's the worst exercise for you it's like that's not true man you have to say that because you have to get incite people everyone does bench that's the point yeah I like to try them out because they're they're fun I see the same viral workouts as you or someone was like this is this is what Miles Teller did for the shirtless scene in Top Gun it was 20 minutes of cardio and then it was flutter kicks squats pushups dips repeat that three times and then 20 more minutes of cardio and And I did that and I was like, no, it fucking wasn't.

No, that is not what he did to be shirtless on a giant screen. You're out of your mind. I remember seeing Barbie and seeing Ryan Gosling singing a song, but he's like, you know, he's singing he's like hunched over and he's shirtless and he's like got his hand on his head and like the thinking man. And he's singing a song that way. And I was like, what on earth. that he do to get to the place. He's over 40. He's hunched over with his singing. It's like with his full diaphragm and his abs are just like bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, and like still just

fine in a hunched over a position. In a position, like, no one is supposed to look good in that position. It's not expected of you. In the history of time, no one has. You have even 2% body fat and it all goes to that one spot. And when you hunch over like that and it's all, and he looks incredible and I was like man what did he how did he get to that and it's like the answer is never this is these are the workouts that you get to the answer is you get unhealthy for a week and you film it you starve yourself you dehydrate yourself you eat nothing but grains and maybe a couple pieces of like protein right you ask the AD when is the shirtless hunched overseen let me put it in my calendar and let me tell a trainer this is when I need to be

shirtless I need to be shirtless for 25 minutes on this day three weeks from now and they're like all right i will get you prepared for that moment and it happens in the kitchen man it happens like it's when we watch limitless with uh chris hemsworth he's doing that like a lot of that is like it's a period of time in his life where he is the most unhealthy when he's shooting because your body can't sustain that it's like being at the at the top of everest for too long like this is the dead zone man this is uh you're this is you're running an engine on nothing and it's about to break. Yeah.

I think you can see in the Guardians movies that like there's the big shirtless Chris Pratt scene where he looks fucking carved from marble. And then you see the rest of the movie. He's not in bad shape, but it's it's kind of hard to believe that they're the same person. It's because they're not. It's because that was one day that he prepared for that. And he like stopped drinking water for 72 hours.

so his fucking skin would cling to his bones that's the same way you see them in tabloids when they're at the beach and you're like man what happened to Chris Housworth? No, that's his normal body

that's him on a normal day also still pretty checked but like I guess Chris Pines are not Chris Pine there are a couple other ones that are like just better examples but like they're like that's what a guy looks like

before he shreds and the shredding is not a healthy thing that he's doing. All right, here's the thing about yours that I'm worried about, Dan. You're going to get Jamie and me and Jamie's husband, you're going to need a racist there. I'm going to need a racist? You're going to need a racist there.

Then I'm only saying that because every gym, that somehow, I don't know what the personality type is, but there's always somebody in one of those gyms who is like the most, go get her type. They're good at getting her way to follow them, but they're also, for whatever reason, deeply maga, or they're like deeply racist. Jillian Andrews is a great example. Sure. From the biggest loser. She sucks, man. She sucks so bad. But like, it's that personality type

that turns you into that, like, it tracks both things. It makes you very good at your own fitness and it makes you like, everybody should be pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. History does not matter. We are all starting from the same place and look what I did. Yeah. And you know, you know, orange theory, racist. No, I mean, we used to go to a gym together that was called burn fitness. One of those guys, biggest racists I've ever seen now, now that we discover later. We for sure discover that later.

I do remember a coach that I, I'm stretching the definition of dated from certain works. who had for sure tendencies that speak to what you're talking about it's it's wild I don't know it's just the same type of person does both things yeah and so you get your

it's always a gamble I mean if you were to meet somebody at CrossFit or something like that that can very easily be Marjorie Terrell degree right there I would I would understand if you said if I open this gym I am going to get some racists. You said I think you need somebody on staff. Yeah.

You need somebody on staff because I don't think that those people somehow are contagious. Not their political beliefs, but their motivation is contagious in ways that I don't know that I could do. I don't know that like Jamie or her husband could do. Because

like we're going to be nice. We're going to be kind to everybody and like, hey, let's work on this. I think that maybe those people are not super nice. and also pretty deeply selfish and push you a little bit harder, but you also want to please them for some reason. I did. There's a lot of human psychology that I totally understand. They can seem very inspiring.

I mean, we cover this on our show when we were discussing the Make America Healthy Again movement. And that's a pretty big tent under RFK that includes a lot of like anti-vactors and lunatics and fringe people, but also concerned parents and a lot of these. quietly racist fitness people and there are people who are incredibly fit and high energy and they're very dogmatic about individualism and how the

the pathway to fitness peak condition is determination and self-reliance and like you control what you eat you can eat healthy you can run faster you can work harder you can do all these things you are in control right get rid of the companies who are giving you shitty processed food that's good work out that's good do all these things drink water sleep well don't go to parties don't go to the clubs

just take care of yourself and you will be the healthiest person in the world it's a very inspiring story the um unspoken opposite side of that coin is like and if anyone is unhealthy it means that they didn't work hard enough. It is a failing. It's a moral failing on their part. They wanted to poison themselves and their children. And that's why they're unhealthy, unlike me. You can see that, I don't know if it's a slippery slope or if it just starts on the same

ground of, I'm healthy, therefore good, you are unhealthy, therefore bad. Yeah, it's scary. Yeah. And yeah, you're absolutely right. And it is like that self-determinism of the American dream. I think so many fitness people live and die by that. They're like, I did it. I was unhealthy or I had an accident or whatever that put me out for eight weeks.

And then I turned my life around and I did it and I got healthy. And that means anyone who's not doing that and putting the work in like I did, they're failing themselves. Like, it's on them. And here's the really scary twist to this is that those people are also doctor. There are so many doctors who are like, you know why you feel like this? It's because you're fat. Yeah. You know why you're having, yeah, like any problem they come in with like you're fat.

You got fat. You let your, this is a moral failing on your part. You could fix this yourself. Yeah. It's like I don't care what type of body type your mom has or your dad has or like what's in your genes or if you might have an actual illness that is underlying under all of this. under all of this if your fat's making it worse and so like and and there's a I don't know that those people are necessarily racist but it does like it's the same people who are like I you have any idea what I did I went through it's like people being in a war they're like I went through

all of this I went through horror to get to where I am right now you don't understand anyone can do it because they're thinking of you know med school and everything they had to do to become even doctors. But I don't know, maybe that's unfair to the Western medicine that I said all, because it's not all of them, certainly. Some of them are really good and really helpful. There's a guy who does, and fitness too. Fitness, there's a guy who does this thing called knees over toes, which I think also

started from a very serious accident where he like could barely walk. And then he's, but he's like a fitness dude. He talks a lot about the importance of leg workouts, I want to say. but he is he's also like the most accepting and kind person I've seen I'm surprised that you're the problem that you saw with my gym is that I won't have a racist person I think I swear dude first of all if you build it they will come second of all I think the biggest problem with mine is that um like already I feel like are RN theory is seeding some turf to the RN's theory type gyms that are coming after it, you know, because this system is sort of tailor made for one-upsmanship that someone does Orange Theory dedicated for years, five years. They like it and they like their community and they like their team. They might not notice the change they want and they also might get.

a little bit bored because Orange Theory changes up its routines every, every day, every week, but there's only so much you can do because you're bouncing between lightweights, TRX machines, treadmills, and rowers. You'll get bored by it. And then what's this? Here's this new gym down the street that promises, that has a different scientist that was like, you actually, according to my research, you actually don't eat treadmills. And treadmills are fucking stupid and you look dumb when you run and it bounces your and they're taking years off your life and it's bad so we came up with you're taking years off your balls you're so many years off your balls so over here at hammer fitness everything we do is hammer based and hammer actually uses

the entire body and then suddenly all these orange theory people are like you know what I'm kind of bored of orange theory and this hammer thing says that it uses the whole body and it's got a new member discount and it like shakes things up so let me give it a shot and then orange theory is toast and everyone is into hammer fitness now that's what's going to happen to my gin when i open it it's got a shelf life of a couple of years before someone opens a hammer fitness and i know i like made up hammer fitness as like a straight off the top of the dome no really there's hammer fitness Is that there? Specific.

Yeah. I think we both know a tractor tire. We knew someone who used to do hair and makeup for the crack.com sketches, who then joined one of these style gems

that I think is just about like pounding sticks on the ground. I think that is fully, I think it's called pound it. And I think it's fully like the entire franchise is based around like, you don't eat weights, you don't eat tread wheels.

All you need to do is take these sticks and like, them to the beat that we are pumping through the speakers yeah I mean it's anything you're doing at you're working out and also you're gonna plateau at a certain point like that's the thing about lifting and working out in general trying to get your body to a place where you think it should be is like you start to see progress and you get very excited and you're on board with whatever you've been doing and that community now feels like oh those are your friends they're all

doing it together certain point you plateau because of the type of workout you're doing and then you're like I'm not progressing yeah and then you see something else, like, well, these hammer people are all pretty strong. Should we try that instead? It's like, yes, I will go do that now. And I'll also say, when people are trying to get in shape, it's almost, looking better is about, or like, just being stronger and healthier is like 10% of it. There's something else going on in their brain, man. There's something else that, like, has drawn them to this part where it's like, I need to change my life somehow. And like, this feels like a good, easy first step. And it feels that way for a very

a long time. And then as you get accustomed to that and it becomes part of your routine, you're no longer getting that high from it, but the other part of you that's hollow is still there. And you're like, oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. Maybe he's a lead to a sledgehammer on a tractor tire will do it. Hey, I've been paying $75 monthly for three years to change my life. And it hasn't. So where should I be putting that money now instead? Anyway, I think that's deeply exploitable. I think you could do that then. I think it is too. And one of my many problems with capitalism and getting a business off the ground is like, I don't think we infrastructurally are set up for me to lead with my business plan of existing for five years and then stopping.

And then running away. You need to like, if you want to be a business, you have to like prove need. You have to establish why you fit in this community, in this marketplace, and how you are delivering something that the community needs. That's the only way you're going to get a license to do any of this. And they don't want you to say, I'm fly by night, but I am and it's true. And I want to say, like, this is, I'm going to do Hammer Fitness for five years in my swamp. and then good news to you you could use the space

for whatever you want you could whatever replaces Hammer or if you don't want to replace Hammer and you want to be a bakery for fucking dogs that's fine too I'm giving someone else a chance but like I know that there is a clock on my business

and it's five years and I just want it and then I'll be gone doing a new business plan not skiing I would be very clear for the sharks that it's not a scheme. You can tell them. And I understand this is your space that I'm renting.

If you want me to predict next, I'm going to say, dojo. Dojo would also be very successful here. Could do dojo or we could completely pivot and open some kind of like some kind of smoothie shop. You know, the people who think a fitness class is going to change. their life. They will think a smoothie shop will change their life too. They will think this is the thing I got to just drink this green juice once a day. Oh my God. Turn the gym into a juice cleanse. Ah, that's perfect. Jim to juice. Juice cleanse. Jim to juice. Jillian Andrews is like, juice. No, no, Jillian Andrews. Juice. All right, she's the worst. I'm giving you ample time to think

of your franchise. my answer. I do have an answer for this. It's not nearly as thought out. It's also not a scam. It's just something I selfishly want here. It's not a scam. It's a temporary business. It's a bunch of people working together for a very short amount of time to make some flies by night planes and we love it. I would do a beyond bread here. Beyond bread I would open up a friend It's a chain that already exists but it exclusively exists

I think in Arizona maybe just Tucson But it is a sandwich and bread shop It's also they do baked goods as well And it rules I can't understand why it's nowhere else There is vegan options there yeah Oh but so the beyonds forgive me The Beyond does not a play on like beyond It just bread

They do more than just bread. They do bread but they do more than just bread And the whole vibe of it it rules. It's so fun. You walk into this place. The menu is a giant that's not folded or anything like that. It's just this giant piece of laminate that you have to hold and you decide what you want. You look down the list and they've got all kinds of great in the morning baked goods. They've got some soups and stuff. And then they've got some of the best sandwiches. They've locked in sandwiches. They figured it out. And it's maybe just the type of sandwich that I want.

But I'm going to go there. I know that I'm going to get, if I get there, chabata, they put a little tooth next to it because it means on the menu, it means you're, you can't chew this. Not a single person has ever chewed through this chabata. It's that chewy. It's really tough. It's going to scrape up the roof of your mouth. It's, uh, it's, we've recycled them basically. When people come to us and said, we can't do it and we just scrape everything off and put it on a new sandwich. It's, it is, but it's, it's my favorite. It slows me down when I eat. I think that their ratio of like meat to everything else is outstanding. They've locked it in. Everything down to their soda founts, the people that

worked there are all like, they're great. The people who work there, memorize your order right away, and it rules. I will bring a beyond bread to Los Angeles, and it would be huge and successful here. Not only because it's just a nice atmosphere and everything and it tastes good, it has this undercurrent of health to it that I don't know how they got. They've established that like this is a healthy option for lunch. It's all carbs, man. It's all Danishes and stuff like that. Are you, are you prepared for the sharks to say, hey, how is this different from Panera? Because I'm hearing God for the first time and I'm looking at the venue and looking at pictures of the building on Google and it looks like a Panera. Yeah. It looks like

it snuck in and took over a Panera. So I think this might have been what Panera was when Panera first started, it might have been a lot, very similar to this, but obviously it's gotten bought out by conglomerates and they cut every single conceivable corner there is. And they, Panera now is like, it's, it's rough, man. It's rough going into Putnera. Beyond Bread is, it, there's a real dedication to quality there. I love this place. Every time that we were going to Tucson, that's what hypes me up. What I get very excited about is I'm going to go get a Joel. Jolt. That's my sandwich there. I can't eat it because the chabata is so fucking tough. Sure. But I let it marinate. I let it marinate for like an hour and then oh, then I'm going to eat that sandwich. It's got halpanios on it. They just and they're great of turkey. That's another thing with a lot of sandwich shops is like they're great at turkey. It's just dog shit. And here it's it feels really, really good. I don't know what kind of mayonnaise they're using. It's outstanding. All their their Italian meats outstanding. This place.

is this is the spot. I'm opening it up here. We're in desperate need and people don't even realize it. Sandwiches are coming back. Sandwiches are coming back. This is exciting. I have heard the sandwiches are coming back. I mean, bowls have had their fun. It's sandwiches. I've got to be back now. It's just, it's, it's, we're done with bowls. We're done with bowls. I'm starting to realize that maybe this is where a lot of different sandwich places started exactly like this. And then they turned into whatever there now. Quiz knows, I think when it first started was probably an outstanding sub-shop. Yeah.

And then as it got bigger and bigger, they cut more and more corners. And now it's dead? I think it's dead. I don't think there's a Quiznos in the world left. Yeah, Quiznos is dead or dying. Subway, I don't know how it's still in business. Like, these are places that when they're like, let's do it at a scale and it just didn't work. I don't want to do it at a scale.

I want to open one restaurant in Los Angeles. Yeah. I really, uh, I didn't really try. but when I was 22 years old, I thought about trying to come up with a business plan to bring fat sandwiches to California. Yeah. Because fat sandwiches are huge on the East Coast. They were born in Rutgers where I went to school. And it's an affordable sandwich that is like a perfect late night college treat.

It's a submarine hoagy shaped piece of bread with way too many ingredients inside. Chicken fingers, Matsuel sticks, French fries, and burger all in one sandwich. It's $7.000. It's great. Chicken parm. I used cheese steak on the same. When I moved to L.A., I would go to a bar every once in a while to make friends called 90 West. It was in Marina Del Rey.

It was down the street from where I lived. It was in a shopping center with curves. And I think just a cigarette store. It was not a heavily trafficked area. but I went there and I would try to meet friends and I would do some writing there. I didn't have any money. So like the bartender was okay

that I would nurse one beer and do a whole lot of writing. And I got to talking to the bartender about fat sandwiches. And she was like, do you know anyone out here who is doing fat sandwiches? And I was like, lady, I don't know anyone out here. Yeah.

I don't know anyone who's doing anything. You're my best friend. You're my emergency contact. And she was like, we can, we can open a kitchen here. Do you know the recipes? Do you like remember the ingredients? We could do that here and just start selling them at this bar and see what happens.

And I'm like, that's a great idea. We never followed through on it at all because I was 22 and didn't know shit about fuck and wasn't going to do like a business with a stranger. And I think eventually Fat Salz franchised and came to Los Angeles, the brainchild of Turtle from Entourage. yeah so yeah all that's the idea is in good hands the thing about los angeles restaurants is that they're all they're named after a star so like there's trillo's tacos and there's like turtles fat sal like it's we we can't we obviously can't do it without a star attached so that's how this year really excited for you to have beyond bread featuring uh ralphi from impractical

Jokers. Yeah, that's the best one for it. That's exactly what it should be. Yeah. Oh, man. There's a fat sales here. It burned down and then they opened up another one right down the street. Fat sales burned down?

Oh, my, yeah. There was one in Westwood. Oh, okay. There's one in Mid City, like Miracle Mile area on Western or something like that. And it burned to the ground. And then they, Liberia, I think. And it burned down. And then they put one in like a block away that's bigger and like a better space.

And everyone is like, did you sell, fat cell? Did you burn down your own restaurant? Did you do this on purpose? It just seems like the kind of thing someone named Fat Sal would do. See that sell. Be honest with me. Take out of me, Fat Sal. Does you burn out of your restaurant?

Yeah, and the other fat salads is still just sitting there torched. Like, no one hasn't even bulldozed it yet. It's just like, it's still straight a restaurant. Okay, well, yeah, that's my answer. I want to be on bread. I do think it would be successful, but really, it's for me. It's like, I just want the sandwich options. Sandwich and pizza, we have not nailed in Los Angeles.

We're not good at it. Yes, there are places throughout the city where you're going to get what you want. but they do they do do it right but that's it's it's they're never near each other it's not like there's like it's not as it's not like you could just walk through new york and go to a deli and be like yeah i'm going to have one of the best sandwiches i've had because the delis all have it locked in you don't do that here and i'm pissed because as we all know turkey sandwiches my favorite meal there is and bay cities closed i have that's fucking heartbreaking i love Bay cities. I have so many sandwich places to take you to when you visit my swamp.

Yes. Excellent. I mean, visit is not totally fair. When you move here to temporarily teach have our fitness. Okay. I'm in. I'll come. And I'm promising you right now, whatever racist lady you find, she's going to be like the star teacher of that. Everyone's going to want to be in her class and you're no one no one is going to be more shot than when the racist hammer fitness coach finds out that you are not one of her she it's going to rock her whole world i know she'll say she's such a good read of people can i show you some brochure and you've seen a puck am i wrong maybe that's how I do it. That's my left of the end.

Well, thank you for listening everybody. This has been a quick question. You liked our theme song. That's Merex. You can find their music anywhere you listen to music. Or streamful albums or buyful albums. I don't actually know. Merex.com. If you liked this podcast in audio format, boy, are you going to love it in video format?

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The answer's not important I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When do I be in remember? Was it out where did all that? Go to me? 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. I think you'll have a great time here.