Tell Em Steve-Dave - #689: The Boomers

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

Brian Nashel joins TESD to talk Paisan-Con, the Mafia, Midget wrestler funeral, diarrhea woman, Hulkamania, Walt likes/dislikes, Empty nest, anniversaries. theperfectjean.nyc code TESD15, https://public.liveread.io/media-kit/tesd, IG: @Tellemants

The fucking world is ending. Ignorance is the way to go. You're the lady who sprayed diary all over the middle of a car. Tell him, Steve, Dave. Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Tell him Steve Dave. I'm here, Brian. Gittem's here. Walt's here.

Oh. And we got another Brian. No Brian Quinn this week. He's out in L.A. So we got Brian Nichelle. Hello there. How you doing, Brian, Michelle? I'm doing great.

Thank you for asking me to join. Oh, thanks for coming. Yeah, we were, we needed a guy. And we thought, who's the next best guy we could get to Brian Quinn? And we said, probably like four or five names. And then yours and name was like sixth, seventh maybe. And we're like, all right, Brian Nichols available. Let's do it.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Either way, I don't care if I'm the first pick or the last, when you guys call, I drop whatever I'm doing and I rush to the studio. That's what we love about you, man. Commitment. Walt, you scoffing at me? I saw a little. Like a disbelief.

Is it not true? Was that? I saw a little disbelief when I said I come running. No, I was impressed. Okay. That was like, you know, exasperation of like, that's impressive. Okay. I just don't want to have a higher opinion of my commitment than you do.

You mentioned that you brought some topics, which is unusual for a guest. We don't really have guests to come in and bring their own topics. But in case we run out of stuff, you brought stuff you want to talk about. And I think we start with that, right? Yeah. I would love to talk about the topics that you want to hear. Okay. You'd like to talk about.

I mean, listen, that was not even my intention. I just, I always like to be prepared in some way. You're a heavy prep guy. Yeah. So just in case, I don't know if you were going to ask me for topics, whatever. I certainly want to take over the podcast and start injecting my own topics and whatever you had planned. But if you're asking, I'll throw one of them out. We're asking, okay.

I've been seeing a lot lately about something that I didn't know existed. called Paizan Khan. Oh, the Sopranos thing? Yeah. Yes, I went there, not last year the year before. And it seems to not only be Sopranos, right? It's like there's people from Bronx Tale. It's like anyone who was remotely connected to a movie about mobsters is there.

And it was pretty cool because I went through the roster and I'm like, wow, he's alive, he's alive, he's alive, like Sopranos was so long ago. Yeah, like when I look at con lists of guests, it's like if it's hard for me to find somebody like, oh, I'd be excited about meeting him. But Paizan Khan, there's like a litany of people. Right. And I'm like, this would be cool to meet this guy. Right. Like you want to meet Johnny Sack, right?

Yeah, of course. Oh, and I want to meet Jesus Rossi, the rapist. Oh, was he, is he on the list? He was there the year I was there. And I was like, who the fuck gets their picture with the guy who raped Dr. Melfty. That's who holds of him. I mean, if I'm him, I'm coming with security. Yeah.

Because he's the really the one person on the Sopranos who everybody wishes got turned over to the mob. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they wanted to see him get torn apart. Yeah. But pretty, pretty genius ending how she just withheld that. She wouldn't cross that line. She crossed many lines, in my opinion, but not that one. Not that one.

Yeah. Yeah. As an Italian, how do you feel about a con celebrating probably the worst stereotype of the Italian? Italian culture. Yeah. The mafia and mob stuff. All right. Well, I'll answer this as a Jew.

You're not Italian? I was waiting for this. Who grew up with a lot of Italians. It's my only friends. So it's a common... Nichelle's not Italian? No, Nichelle is a shortened Polish name. The shell was originally Nishelski in the old country.

Oh, okay. Many moons ago. Did you have to drop that for it to go when you join this to the entertainment? No. No, my great When I would hire him. The typical story. When my great grandfather came over, it was dropped.

Oh, okay. You know, at Ellis Island, one of the Ellis Island, butcheries. What do you like better, Nishell or Nishelsky? Nishel. Nishelsky sounds fun, though. Yo, Nishelski, what's going on, bud? Yeah. Sounds like it's fun to say.

Yeah, I guess I'm just, it's just too strange to think of him having it. That's the Shelsky. Yeah. Sounds like some sort of KGB agent. What do you think? Okay. My wife's Italian. Yeah.

And she doesn't like, you know, that, you know, there's a whole, like, pop culture is just celebrates, you know, the worst stereotype of the Italian culture. And it's like, how do you abide by that? Because it seems like some guys, like some Italians just don't care. They love it. Right. They embrace it. Right. I think it's at this. point, I think it's a bygone era that's being celebrated to a large extent. I just don't think it exists the way it did even when the Sopranos was in full bloom, 25 or so years ago. But I think that it is certainly the part of the Italian-American experience that put them on the map and gave them recognition in a way. But also, I think along with it,

Certainly in the Sopranos, they showed the other side of that coin. They did address that issue in the Sopranos. And I think that Italians may be as known for their delicious food as well as some criminal activity. They're not having a con about Italian food con. What else about Italian heritage would be conworthy? Yeah, nobody takes, nobody pays for a picture next to a bowl of lasagna. You got your Mario Battalies of the world. That's true. The cooks, you know, the superstar cooks.

I think that's probably it. But also you've got that sort of chic Italian culture, Milano and the runways, you know, and you've got your slew of sports cars too, right? Oh, the sport. You got your Ferraris and your Lamborghinis. So, you know, I don't know. But I think at this point it's a badge of honor. I think it's a badge of honor in the way that, you know, this generation or our generation of Italians, I mean, once they come after, are sort of like, well, we did it. You know, we wanted to live the American dream like everybody else. We were discriminated against, as most groups were, that came over trying to carve out a little place for themselves.

But we said – But we did it through violence and intimidation? Yes. Yeah, listen. I mean, sometimes you just got to take it. If they're not willing to give it to you, you got to take it. I mean, it's a lesson learned. That's a tough lesson.

It is a tough lesson. It's a tough lesson for the man. You know? Do you feel really believe, though, it's gone? Like it doesn't exist? I mean, that seems to be... It's not totally gone because I see people in the paper all the time that are like, this guy got buster for this. There is. I don't think it's gone. But I don't think they have like the stronghold like on the like on the shore and stuff like they used to. No, it's not as embedded in the industries. It used to be in, you know, it was embedded in construction. You know, you couldn't do a construction progress. You think that's been eliminated. They've eradicated that from the construction? fully eradicated, but it certainly is nowhere near as influential.

The mob is not as influential in these businesses as it used to be. I mean, how did it, how did it wane? Like, how did they just stop? They arrested everybody. It was through law enforcement. Yeah, yeah. It was like the late 80s with John Gotti and Rudy Giuliani. That broke up a lot of.

Yeah, when they started, they created the RICO, the RICO Act, you know, which, so they were able to catch people on, you know, minor crimes and then, and then couch it into a RICO charge. Like a larger conspiracy. Yeah. And then start taking people down. And then everyone started snitching on everybody and, you know, the bosses were gone. There was no America. So there's, you don't believe there's any godfathers out there right now. There's no, like. There definitely are. There are. There are. Five families still exist. I would imagine they do. They called, I mean, I forget the last Don. There was a Don after Julia, after Julia. after John Gotti, Serta, what was his name?

Messerita, Massino, Joe Messino. And he was regarded as the last Don, I think, basically, that wielded any power in a big way. So the godfather of 2026, it's not the same job as it was in the, even going back to the 90s. The fact that we don't even know if that person exists or what that person's name is. Did we know who it existed back in the day, though? Did we know who it was? I mean, John Gotti was. How the fuck do you operate then if everybody knows here the Don?

That's how you end up in federal prison. I mean, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's weird how long it takes for them to prove a case. Like years they'll build a case while these guys are just doing shit or we're doing shit. But the very fact that like everybody knows he's the Don seems to me to be counterproductive to running a crime organization. Yeah, well, that's why the old Don's did not look favorably upon. John Gotti with his, you know, his $3,000. Flamboyant lifestyle. Yeah, he was out there like

a celebrity. Yeah. All right. I'm looking at the five families currently. Bonano crime family, Michael the nose Mancuso, the Colombo. Theodore skinny Teddy Percico, Jr. Teddy? Yeah. The Persico's been around a long time.

Yeah. Well, yeah, like his relative, I think, he was like grandfather and his father, right? Carmine the Snake Persico, is that him? Gambino Crime Family, Dominico Cepalou, Genovese is Libertorio Salvatore, and Lucchese is Victor Amuso. All right, I mean, he's still in,

he's in jail, though, Victor Amuso, with Big Mike DeSantis serving his acting boss. Yeah, so it's still going on. Yeah, they're still doing it, but, you know, from what I hear, you know, nose to the ground. You think it's drugs, prostitution. I think there's a lot of, like, cyber crime, too, going on. Cybercrime.

Identity theft, that kind of shit. I bet you some of the old Gambine would be rolling over in their graves. Like, you know, you're like, it's kind of like an unmasculine way to make money, to steal on the internet. You do. You want to hear on the internet. It's just so, it's so, like, low class.

You want to hear, like, undignified. John Gotti Jr. was shaking down strippers at scores before you went to jail. Like, that's pretty low. Like, give me your fucking lap dance money. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, the heyday's gone. In any case, the heyday's gone. And now that culture is being celebrated in cons.

You know, like crony con. You know what I mean? I don't know. Let's all pretend. I didn't know. Yeah, I didn't know there was a con. I mean, I didn't even know there was, there's a crime con. There's like a Bravo con.

There's a car. That's the gay cable channel? Yeah. So all the cult shows back in the day. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's pretty. You know, meet your favorite Bravo stars.

And Bravo won't belly up? No, Bravo's still going strong. Yeah, they have all the Hollywood of Housewives of Hollywood, all that stuff. Yeah. I think so. I mean, you know. I got rid of that channel. Women.

Yeah, yeah. Better safe than sorry. Call the cable company. I was watching too much. I was like, we got to cancel cable. I love doing it. I'm like binging on Bravo shows. I feel funny.

I'm starting fights at the table and feel tingles. Cast table over. Very dramatic. I watch it 10 hours of Bravo's great. Bravo's going strong. I did one Bravo show in my career and I vowed to never do another one. Why? The women, right?

No, it was brutal. The whole, just the experience I had with the network and the executives from that network. I mean, this was like, probably 20-some odd years ago. It was not a good experience. It didn't fit. I mean, creatively didn't really fit with my sensibility, but I could do it. You know, I did it. It was a fashion type show, but just the, just editorially, it was not good.

Very heavy-handed from the network and very fake. Everything was very fake. You know, we captured more of like sort of a, I don't want to call it reality, but, you know, it was pretty doc style what we did with this fashion show. And that was all just weeded out for, you know, fake drama and big, big noisy sound effects with shocked looks on people's faces and stuff, trying to build up drama between people. Anyway, it wasn't for me. Going back to the mob thing, let's say things, let's say you were Italian.

Yeah. And things are not, look, you don't have a lot of prospects out of school. Could you see yourself maybe be trying to become a made man? Well, he could never be made because he's not Italian. Yeah, I couldn't be made. I said if. Oh, if he was Italian. Oh, okay.

At this point in my life. Young Brian Michelle, the stories I've heard. Young Brian Michelle brushed up. Yeah. No, Brian Michelle brushed up. It would take one or two, like, hey, could you run this bag down to this guy? She won some numbers. Many of my peers ended up being roped in by the mobsters in our town.

Seriously? Oh, yes, yes. You know made men? Yes, I know made men. Oh, we don't know made men. No, I know. So you have to kill somebody, right? Closest I've brushed up against the mob is Antony when he brought in his cigar smell in comics.

The most of the most of the fake mobster was Anthony. No, I don't know. I can't speak for the inner workings of La Cosa Nostra. But, yeah, you're growing up in North Jersey, just like in the Sopranos. You have kids in your class who are connected, their fathers are made, their uncles are made. And you know this as a student. Absolutely. And you're like, that kid's untouchable.

Yeah. That's fucking wild. Yeah. That's wild. And like, how does a kid know that? Their parents have to say, hey, if you don't. share your lunch with, you know, Anthony. Yeah.

You know, Anthony's father is going to really put a hurting on us. No, you could fight those kids. They would be in, you know, they're not getting protection from the mob for normal teenage stuff. You know what I mean? No one's doing a hit because someone punched their son in the nose. You know what I mean? Okay.

But I do have some tragic stories from my town, the kids who followed in their footsteps and ended up in prison, dying in prison, getting shot, you know. All right. So let's say you go down this route. Could you, again, not current Bryant yourself. Think of going in your wild youth. Could you shake down like some guy who owns a shoe store? Some innocent comic bookstore owner?

Some of the shoe store and be like, hey, you got to give us your monthly protection money. No. Could you do that? No way. No way. Wouldn't you rather just give the money and be like, yeah, he gave us the money? Yeah. There's no way.

You wouldn't be a very good collector, man. No, I wouldn't be a collector. You know. I think my place would be like, I could do a hit if it was like, you know, another gangster and they're like, you know, so-and-so's ratting or so-and-so's cutting into our business. How would your hit go down? Oh, it would be very specific, Walt. I can't, you know, reveal it here.

I would have to tailor it to the person in the situation. But would you do it, like, just go up behind them, non-confrontational, just like, you know, take him out? Shot to the back of the head. Yeah, maybe a little 22 to the back of the head. Or I think maybe a... Nothing theatrical. No, a goroiding, like, you know, like Clemenza did to Carlo and the godfather, you know? A garot, you mean.

A garot. Yes. I guess it would be called goroading if it's in the... I don't know, maybe I combine the word with throat. I don't know how you say it. But, yeah, I wouldn't want to shake down a hardworking shop. What is the mindset of a guy who could do that and not really lose any sleep? They're bullies. They're just, they're just bullies. I mean, they, they, they, they were

around my town and they were no, no different than, you know, your local town bully. You know what I mean? You're just threatening and imposing your will on people through threat of force or use of force. It's, it's disgusting. Well, like in early, in the early 19, but those, those con numbers don't seem to be showing any signs of that, you know, the society is disgusted by it, though. In the early 1900s, it was like, do you remember the black hand? It was like a group of Italians who would prey on newly arrived Italians. Like they were praying on their own people as opposed to like going and like, you know, collecting from outside sources. They were like really directing all their focus on. I really thought you were going to say that they were a group of Italians who were like, we're going to take down the mob.

Oh, no. Like a like a, almost like a counter the flip side. Right. You know, like they will target mobsters and they will clean up their own, their own people. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be a part of that group. You see it in Mexico all the time where it's like a new mayor is promised to like demolish the cartel. And that new mayor's head is like hanging somewhere and his body's hanging somewhere else. Yeah, yeah.

This is amazing. Get him. Who's that? That's Don Nishel over there. Get him? Yeah, well, he came up with some names. The classic jersey mob names are Big Boss Nichelle, which is simple old school and carries the weight of a guy running North Jersey. Brian, two times, Michelle, for a guy who always double checks the work, confirms the take and makes sure the job is killed twice just to be sure.

And no cut in a shell, no one on the street for never taking a discount on his taste and never given target a break. Oh, I see. So the target, if you were a hitman, he would have no chance. No, no chance. Trying to talk his way out of it. No, once you're on the list, you're done. You're on the list. Do you think that guys who are, who predominantly dabbled in hits, they probably were on the verge of being serial killers, right?

Like, you remember the Iceman from Jersey? Yeah. He basically was a serial killer who just got hooked up with the mob. So he got paid to fucking do what he was probably going to do in his free time anyway. For sure. Right? Yeah. What a psycho that dude was, man.

Yeah, the sociopaths. They're all sociopaths. That best. Yeah. Yeah. It's a world. Listen, it is a world that I saw suck in a bunch of my peers, and they all paid the price. All Italians or no?

Let me think about that. Some of the Jewish kids. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they got their own mob, Jewish mob. They got their own thing going on. Yeah, but they always worked with the Italians, you know. Yeah.

The classic setup between Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. you know my great my grandfather my father's father I touched on him he owned a liquor store in west New York New Jersey called Nichol Wine and Liquors and they had major dealings with the mob in Jersey so he was very good friends with them in the back room was a bookie booking operation do you think that speaking of that do you think all the onset of legal gambling has a really hurt, you know, the mob's ability to run gambling. Because when you have, when you can just do it online now, who wants to deal with a fucking, a guy who could kill you if you don't pay up?

They definitely took a hit. Right. I mean, the legal gambling really had to put a crimp and have probably made them lose millions and millions of dollars. Yeah. I mean, when something's illegal, they make money. Same with booze. You know, there was no mom basically.

They had no power before prohibition. That's how they made their money. That was it. That brought. them to prominent. So they don't want like drugs and prostitution legalized because that's you know, then it's only leftist stealing identities then. That's it. That's all you got.

I mean, if we talk about this any longer, there's a chance we're getting whacked. What's your next topic? My next topic was something that Brian Johnson, you sent me this and a bunch of other people started sending me this. If you remember, I had the show, Big Little Brawlers on Discovery, the Midget Wrestling Show. Yes. I mean, Brian. So Psycho was one of the main wrestlers, main characters on the show, Psycho, and he's married to Pinky. Now that, where did that air? What channel?

That was Discovery Channel. Yes, you said. Okay. And it was one season? One season. And they are, they're big on social media. And Psycho's mother died. And they have decided to make this fodder for all of their postings for the last week or so.

It was really weird. It was like the first one that I sent the show was a picture of the script. She was normal size. right his mom no okay yeah she was a midget too um her in the coffin like and like she didn't look great no she didn't look great yeah it wasn't like oh wow what like a touching photo was like kind of taken from a weird angle which made her look bald and then i saw more posts where like they showed like them carrying it was like all midgetts carrying the coffin yeah and uh one other one where it was just like still pictures of like the the wife what was her name pinky yeah pinky crying and shit yeah

In like a black, right? Yeah, yeah. It was, it's really strange. It's very theatrical, you're saying? Yes, very. Yes. But, but there's photo after photo of this poor woman in her casket. Yeah, there she is crying.

Look at her. I mean, that's, let me tell you something. I don't want to speak out of her here. Yeah, but that does look a little bit like staged. Yes. You know, it's, it's, I do not like this. all. Were they like the hat with the veil on it and all that stuff they all have it on? Have you kept up with any of the little brolers? Uh, more with their boss. I talk to their boss a lot.

You know, we just, we had something, some business dealings. Um, are you into business with him? No, no, no, no, no, just some opportunity. You own a stake of little broiler, I mean, of the wrestling federation. No, no, no, but we'll take some meetings. We're still, we would like to work together in some way, again, to bring this thing out there. But, I mean, you know, it was just so, uh, de-class-a and tacky. And I think. And I think. And, you know, we'll, we'll think so, there it is. There it is. There it is.

Walt. It's so. Yeah, but everybody grieves differently, though. You know, it's like you don't know what, you know, they're going through something and maybe when they get a little bit space in between it, you know, a little time to reflect. Maybe they'll like, maybe probably shouldn't have posted all those pictures. Or maybe they feel like in the moment, you know, in their grief there, they're doing more, they're doing more of a tribute.

And they don't, maybe they don't actually see what. you know, what is maybe with the rest of other people looking in on it, you know. Yeah. But they're at the funeral throwing up like devil horns and shit. Yeah. I don't know, man. I just, what, I wasn't specifically looking to attack these people. It just brought a whole thing to my mind of like, of, of just people in general need to have a little more discipline and self-control with when they whip that phone out and what they're putting out there to the world.

I mean, you know, I don't know. Could it be any, like I always wondered that could it be a little CTE though? I don't know. I mean, the wife agreed too. Yeah, I don't like it, man. I don't like it. Well, because it also brought another topic that I have on here is like this made me also think of like my new show on Discovery, right? How to Catch a Dirtbag.

Yes, airing Wednesday. Wednesdays at 10. Yeah, episode four aired last night. So we've got four more to air. but what happened with that is like I'm not a big social media guy right like I didn't even get an Instagram account and I have like a fake one just when I got the midget show to watch the kids call it Finsta oh yeah your your fake Instagram account so I have that I never put anything up I just have to like monitor what the cast members were doing right but on this show how to catch a dirtbag I've been inundated I mean we're basically done with it now with clips that I would never normally watch I got to see how terrible society is I got to see what's going on on the internet because I don't sit there and scroll and see all this shit. But that's the basis of this whole show. And I'm telling you, it changed.

I knew shit was bad and people suck, whatever. Right. But man, because I had like a team of researchers and associate producer sending me clips all day long as, you know, possible fodder for the show. So all of a sudden, I'm one of these guys who's sitting there ingesting all of this horrible shit. And that's what they're looking for, the worst stuff on the internet. And now I'm watching it. And I'm in shock. I'm like coming to the party like 10 years too late where I'm like, people are doing this.

People are doing the shit and posting it. This is how people are treating each other in parking lots and malls and beaches. This is horrible. I can send you a couple links if you're still looking. My God. It's really bad. Yeah. Yeah.

When do you think things changed? Like people didn't behave like this when we were kids. Or were you just not aware of it. Yeah, possibly we weren't aware of it because there were no cell phones. There was no internet to show you what's going. on constantly or somebody posting their own cell phone videos of people behaving like animals. But I don't believe people are behaving like this when we were younger. It's gotten more wild.

Yeah. I just think that there's something snapped. Do you think there's always been Karen's though? Like they just recently gave it a name, but there's always been Karen's, right? The, they all want to speak to the manager. Because that's another big thing on YouTube. That has existed probably since, you know, there was a Karen Caveman, I'm sure. Right, complaining at the service desk about the Bronsaurus burgers.

I believe there was. But the behavior, though, I believe, is more abhorrent now than it's ever been in any point in human history. In terms of, like, how people will react to shit is just, I don't think they did it like this one. There was very little shame, it seems. Well, I saw that one with the lady taking a dump on an offender bender, right? And she just gets out and just goes to the bank. after one of the other cars. Yeah, she sprays some diarrhea on her car, boy.

Like, who thinks to do that? Yeah. And how do you come back from that as a human being? Like, your family, everybody, you go to Christmas. When Aunt Sheila walks in, I don't care if it's 10, 15, 20 years later, you're like, you're the lady who sprayed diary all over the middle of a car. I got to tell you, there's another aspect of this show that has me sort of wrestling with the ethics of the whole thing. So there's certainly, you know, bad behavior going on that we're putting out there.

Listen, it's out there. I mean, a lot of the clips we're showing have, you know, already have 10 million views, whatever, on the internet. But so we're putting it on the show now and sometimes getting the victims or the perps to interview and kind of explain their side of the story and what exactly happened. But the other part of this I wrestle with sometimes, and listen, I'm not going to turn down the money. I'm very grateful to have a TV show. But is the fact that, like you were saying, Walt, this. This one woman blew a fuse. She took a dump on another woman's car.

And in the old days, that may have been the end of it. They may have tracked her down. She would have gotten arrested. It would be an urban myth. He would know he would believe it. Right. Right. He would check Snopes to see if it was true.

Yeah, this would be the girl that we all heard that never she killed herself on a stick shift. But she had, she ingested too much Spanish fly. That urban myth would be, yeah, there was a lady who got so pissed off. She got she crawled up on the top of a car, fucking squirted out some diarrhea and then fucking disappeared into the night. You're right. And they dubbed her the Delco Prooper. No. But it's on video.

She's triumphant about it. So, go ahead. So, no, what I was saying, some of the people we have on the show have committed crimes. And I'm glad that they're, you know, that they've been caught and they're paying the price. And great, put them on blast. warn the public, this guy's, you know, a terrible person. But then there's some people who are involved in incidents that are just like, you know, they had a bad day. They blew up.

They did something they shouldn't have done. No harm, no foul. And, and before. this era, those people may have gone their separate ways. Nobody was injured or whatever. It was just an annoying incident. Somebody, you know, yells at somebody and threw a coffee cup into their car. And then they chased each other or something. And it's over. But now there's a video of this guy screaming obscenities and throwing a coffee cup into somebody's car. And that becomes all this guy's known for in his life. And we don't necessarily know.

maybe he just got horrible news as he was driving. Oh, yeah. This person tried to cut them off and almost murdered him and his adrenaline got up. You don't have the, nobody has the full story or the guy who did something maybe, you know, horrible. You know, you don't know what kind of day he was having. That's what I mean. It's just like the worst day you overreacted. You didn't smash somebody in the face on baseball bat.

On your worst day, have you ever thought about, you know what? I'm going to defecate on this in public. That's extreme. Your worst day. That's a pretty bad day. You've got some issues there. So I ask you that. Did you pitch the counter to how to catch a scumbag?

Yeah. Which would be like America's got sweethearts. And like you just show clips of people doing beautiful, wonderful things for an hour. And then you're looking for a new job because of tanks. There was. Is there no market? No, no, no. I mean, listen to this.

Maybe the Hallmark Channel, maybe. I got to tell you. But it's so funny you ask, well, because the guy who's based, you know, the show's based on the guy who was doing this, Tizzy, he will post. You know, it's all, it's all crazy shit. But on Fridays, he'll do a feel good Friday post. And it'll be something like that, you know, you save a cat from a tree. He's not getting 10 million views. But I pitched it to the network.

I'm like, hey, maybe we work in, you know, he does a feel good Friday. Maybe we work in a feel good story to each of these episodes. like dead silence. Those are fucking sharks in there. They don't want to look at for blog. They don't care about feel goods. That doesn't equate to ratings or dollars.

So not even a segment. Keep your feel good. Not even a two-minute. No. No, no, no. Certainly not pitching a whole episode of that. But anyway, you know, it's been like, you know, it's just been an education for me

because I know the shit's out there, but to be inundated with it all day for a couple of months, was really eye-opening. And I think you had to do it because it was your job. But I do feel like if you can insulate yourself from that, you're better off. Yeah. I was better off. Yes. I 100% agree. Yeah, but now the cat's out of the bed. But then you're not aware of what's going on in the world, you know? So what? But is it going on? Is it going on? How is it different that he knows? He seems like it's going on. Now, what's, he just feels like more disillusion now. Yes.

Right. From knowing. Yeah. Ignorance is absolutely. So he's red-pilled, man. Man. He's based. Ignorance is the way to go. People are just really unkind to each other. Yeah. You know, man, it was disheartening. Absolutely.

It's, if you're not disillusions and bummed, you know, watching these videos and seeing how people act, if you're desensitized to it, yeah, then you have to wonder what's wrong with you, in my opinion. I'm looking at that guy right over there. Feel Good Friday. He's filled in your mission if I see a Feel Good Friday story. Nobody wants to see that. You know, there's a couple things on my list. That's your list? There's more on the list.

Okay, but I was going to say, that's very careful. I was like, he's such a pro. He's so good. On his list was a self-promotion for his show. He's a professional we brought in right here. I thought you might notice that. We were going to talk about it. Come on.

It was great that you heard it up. Wednesday nights, 10 p.m. Before you go on to your next topic, Nichelle, got to talk to you about perfect genes. I'm not talking about Sidney Sweeney here. I'm talking about the perfect gene. NYC. And speaking of genes, I did want to publicly apologize.

I'm not into public apologies like some members of TSD town. Right, of course. But in this instance, I do want to publicly apologize. I don't know if you listened to last week's show in the show, but I kind of took a show. shot at you and I want to apologize for it right here and right now. You took a shot at me? Yeah, you actually didn't listen, right?

I don't think I did. Yeah, because Brian brought up a topic. You would have heard the clip in the opening theme. Brian took Brian brought up a subject that was somebody on the internet was really being mean to Chuck. And I guess he was saying he wasn't

a masculine or manly and Brian brought up Brian tried to compare like, well, you know, Chuck's not a Brian a shell, right? He's not the most, like he's not a, he's not a masculine. He's not an alpha male, I said, like, Brian is a shell. And I, in an effort to like try to pick up Chuck, I kind of fucking like pushed you down. And I don't know why he did it. I don't know why.

I was like, I go, well, I think I saw Brian a show wearing skinny jeans once, I said. Oh, came out of nowhere. Yeah, I mean, I got to say, I do feel a little slandered here. I don't own skinny jeans. I never, I don't think it's, I know. I just think it's because you've got nice slender legs. And just anything you wear, you're going to look like you're wearing skinny jeans. So I was just read, I couldn't find anything.

I was just kind of like, you know, he was using you to like, kind of like, you know, crap on on Chuck. I didn't know. I was, I was jumping to Chuck's defense. Yeah. But in doing so, I shouldn't have fucking like threw you under the bus. I really shouldn't. I want to apologize. All right.

You don't wear skinny jeans. I don't know why you said it. I was scrambling to try to find some way to be like, well, he's not so many. and Lee, he does this. I couldn't find anything. I was like, oh my God, he's got skinny legs, though. I do have skinny legs. Yeah.

So I was like, that's all I can think of in the moment. All right. That's understandable. And listen, I'm always there to help. If I can help, you know, pump up Chuck's ego or his standing in the world of masculinity, you can throw me down a notch. Okay.

That's fine. All right. I was wondering, yeah, I was hoping you didn't list. I don't know if I was going to face some music today. No, but I am going to listen. You know, I do have skinny legs, which is probably the reason I don't want to wear skinny jeans. You know what I mean?

They look like. Leggings or something. Jaggings. I don't want to do that. All right, but back to perfect. Oh, we got some thunder going. Yeah, it's very humid out there. But perfect jeans?

Perfect jeans. Perfect jeans, yeah. Do you have any frustrations with your jeans in the show? I don't. You don't? You must be wearing perfect jeans then. I'm a traditionalist. I've been wearing...

I don't know. Traditionalist and T. Testita means perfect jeans. Yeah, but now I was going to say, but now I'm ready to get some perfect jeans. Yeah, look, that could be you, Michelle, running in your jeans with no shirt on. We're watching a little video here. He's having a lot of fun. muscular guy running down, he's fucking lifting logs over his head. He's all ripped and shit. Yeah, he's running by trains.

These are rhetorical questions. Okay. Okay. Have your jeans ever quietly ruined moments for you? Not catastrophically, but a low hum of discomfort that you accepted as normal? Probably. Probably you got like a tight crotch or something and you move the wrong way. I don't like that.

It's not going to happen with perfect jeans. Let's see. NFL preseason kickoff. You've claimed a spot in the parking lot before the Hall of Fame game. Pop propped in a folding chair with a plate balanced on your knee every time you lean forward for the grill. The waistband digs into your. It's a pop, pop, pop, pop. Oh, my God.

Perfect jeans. They pay for this one. This is a freebie. This one's on the house. No, no, no, we still got more. Do you like all the fit and styles and washes they have of perfect jeans? Yeah, they do have skinny jeans if you want them. They have, I'll read the kind that they have in a little bit because that doesn't say here.

What do you typically pay for jeans? 200, $150, $300 like Ming Chen. With back-to-school list and Labor Day plans already eating into the budget to spending $7999 on jeans, you'll actually reach for over $200 jeans collecting dust in the closet, feel like the smarter move. The perfect gene looks great and feels great at $799. Would you buy more pairs? Have you already?

I got my free pair of perfect jeans in a shell, and I did go and buy a second pair. I did. It's the truth. It is? Mm-hmm. The size range angle, built for actual bodies, waist from 26 to 52, length from 26 to 38, six fits from skinny to thick, 18 washes.

That's over 5,000 combinations, which means the guy who's been buying a size up in the waist, just to get room in the thighs and the guys who's been hemming every pair he owns, and the guy who's been told by every other brand that is like Levi's, that his body is the problem, they can all find the perfect size. Marcus, the quiet upgrader. If you're currently shopping for the version of yourself, it doesn't quite feel like your wardrobe is holding you back with football season kicking off and your social calendar filling up with tailgates draft parties and the last few rooftop parties of summer, you want to look put together without trying too hard or even thinking about it.

With the perfect gene, you don't have to. Manage your outfits around your schedule, they're effortlessly stylish. And with over 13 different washes, there's an option that works wherever the day takes you. So, listeners get 15% off their first order, plus free shipping at vperfectgeen. nyc or google the perfect gene and use code t-esd-15 for 15% off go to uh yeah perfect gene dot nyc and uh you can read all the stuff that i'm not this copy i'm not kidding around is probably seven to eight pages long and i have to go through it before we before we do this and

pick out like you know what the more important parts are and that's when that's what you deemed the most important parts those are the most important parts yeah there's so much fucking clutter in in this copy it's nuts So anyway, yeah, that's the perfect, the perfect gene. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. What's next on your topics? You really want to keep with my list? Yeah, this is like, pretty good so far.

Yeah, I've been enjoying it. I watched the Hulk Hogan documentary on Netflix the other day. He's got a four-part documentary on Hulk Hogan. Were you guys caught up in Hulkomania? No. No. We're not into wrestling. Yeah, I wasn't either.

But it's so funny, you know, as, as, we've discussed many, many times, the nostalgia market is huge. So when I was watching the doc, I'm like, yes, I remember living through this. Okay. It was like prime time for my life. And I remember some people being obsessed with that kind of entertainment. Entertainment. But my God, man, they played this guy out to be like the greatest American hero of all time. and as someone who lived through it, I get it. He was huge and so was Prince,

so was Bruce Springsteen, so was Pat Benatar, Madonna. I don't know. There's this like, you know, this deifying of people. Well, I think you have to recall wrestling before Hulk Hogan

and nobody really can because it was like roller derby. It was something that was on at 1 a.m. on Channel 9 with a bunch of like really like thick, unmuscular, kind of like, just like dad bodd wrestlers and unitards

and not sexy at all, not electric. And this guy comes in and is a bolt of lightning that captures mainstream media's attention. Enough so that he was in, what was it, Rocky 3?

Yeah. Yeah, that put him on the, map and not saying what you're saying is what you're saying is a hundred percent true and that the the era of wrestling you're talking about is the error is the only era in which i was watching well what bob backlin yeah bob backlin and the samoans and superfile you could hear you could hear the crowd speaking yeah like you know like it was so quiet and so like mundane yeah it was it was it was almost like it was hollow it was it was devoid of energy it was pure It was pure.

But you're a wrestling guy. You're like a real wrestling, like Roman wrestling. Yeah. Greek wrestling. Yeah. Roman Grecoe wrestling. That's true. Like you were a champion wrestler in high school, right?

I was a wrestler. Yeah. So you appreciated the sport of wrestling. So as somebody who was a purist, you see what wrestling became, which was a, you know, a celebrity kind of like drama. Yeah. It was scripted and everything. You know, I mean, it always was. And I'm not taking away what Hulk Hogan brought to the world of professional wrestling.

You know, he took it from that thing. And actually, at his memorial they showed in the last episode, Triple H actually makes the exact same comparison you make. And he says, if not for Hulk Hogan, we may have gone the way of roller derby. He made the exact same comparison that you made. Oh, wow. I don't know what Triple H is, but he's a piece of smart cookie. Yeah. He's one of the more respected wrestlers.

All I'm saying is they're definitely. was Hulkomania fever living there. But as I'm watching it, I'm like, you would think that you couldn't leave your house in 1985 without running into like a pack of Hulkomaniacs in ripped up yellow shirts screaming, you know, Hulk, Hulk, Hulk. There's just, it made me think of how we take a look at the past and then blow it up and just idealize it. Yeah.

and live in it. Yeah. And that the previous generations always look back and go, wow, that must have been an amazing time to live. It was. It was way better. Well, that's what happens. Everyone thinks it's way better. And the generation that came before us looked at us in the 80s.

It was like, you ran outside and you saw people wearing ripped up yellow Hulk shirts. Today you run out and you see fucking 40-year-old Karen shitting on cars. What's a better hour to live in? I don't know. Now I'm scratching my head. I don't know, man. You can't discount MTV's getting into bed with WWF, though. That really helped when you had Cindy Lauper, who was at the height of her fame somehow, some way, embracing wrestling.

It made no sense. It did make any sense. But it made so many people pay attention to something that they would have never paid attention. you know again I think the doc did a great job of of giving the Hulk is due did they gloss over some of the sord uh things that the Hulk was involved in the racist stuff and the racist stuff no they know they dressed it all yeah pulled no punches no they addressed it all um but i don't know that was all i watched it and it was it was it was you know it was great to live in that nostalgia of it but you know with with sort of a real

realistic view on what was happening. Do you, if I throw out one of the, one of the, like, if there's no Hulk Hogan, the most famous wrestler, if we're going to also like throw out Andre, what is going, right now, like in an alternate world where there's no Hulk Hogan, it's Bruno Semenemanty. But what was like? San Martino. With the hairy back. Yeah. Completely unsexy. He looks like everybody's dad in the 70s.

No, yeah, no. It never blows up to this. He was a cartoon character. The Hulk was a cartoon. Let me ask you something. I meant to ask you guys this. How was it that he could use the name the Hulk and not get sued by Marvel? Because I think it was Hulk Hogan.

Yeah, but they were literally calling him the Incredible Hulk. I guess even Marvel back then is like, hey, he's so huge right now. I mean, why would be? They could only draw attention to us. Okay. Yeah, I can't imagine that they even. But, you know, lawyers. Oh, you know how lawyers are.

But I've never heard at Marvel ever even address it, though, in terms of, like, you know, being upset or maybe a cease and desist. No, no, I don't think it ever crossed their minds if I had to guess. I never thought of it before, but watching four episodes of that, I'm like, wait a minute, there is a Hulk that they call incredible Hulk, you know? How did they get away with this? Took four episodes for you to figure that out? Yeah.

I never thought about it before. So if you were into the Bob Backlin era, you tuned out by 86 when the WrestleMania, like, blows up with Captain Lou and the rubber bands on the fucking new cheeks and everything. Yeah. You were like, this is not for me. It's too Hollywood. No, it just was not as interesting as booze and girls and rock and roll. Yeah.

Okay, all right. That's what I was doing in 85. You just grew out of it. I did what I thought most people would do is like grow out of it once you get into your teens. You know what I mean? We got to be careful, though. as hot button as politics is on TSD, wrestling. We have a gigantic listener base who adores wrestling.

And I always want to be cognizant of that and never saying anything that will upset a listener. You know, because they worship at the altar of wrestling, you know. Yeah. I really. I'm not worried about Tom so much being upset. But I really do see it as. And we did this on comic book men when we had, you know, the wrestlers on. I mean, I'm not saying anything that everybody doesn't know.

It's such a comic book. I mean, the storylines, when I was watching the documentary, they're going through some of the storylines that really popped for them. And it's just like, yeah, these are comic book characters. It is what it is. That they are, they look like comic book characters. The storylines are straight out of comic books. I'm no wrestling officianto.

I did do a wrestling show, though. What is it called? Big Little Brawlers. Oh, okay. That's right. Yeah. I'm just sitting here, like, I'm in disbelief that we have to cater to the, wrestling contingent now.

When you're running a business, you have to be cognizant of everybody's feelings. I don't even have anything negative to say about wrestling, but I want to think something up. Well, I mean, I don't like wrestling, but you know, I even, I take, I have to, I took some flack last week too, because they said some listeners were upset that I didn't like Spider-Man as much as, I guess the world liked the new Spider-Man movie. and it made me contemplate and I actually wrote back to this person and was like, look, early on in TSD, I tell the story about a fan coming into the stash and he had just seen the new Transformers movie and I can tell he was absolutely like over the moon for it. Like couldn't be more excited by it and he came up to me. It was like, what did you think of the Transformers man?

I could just see the fucking joy on his face. And for a second, I was like, I was going to tell him how I thought it was garbage. But I was like, it wasn't worth the effort. I was like, I loved it. I said, I absolutely adore it. One of the greatest pieces of science fiction I've ever seen put to put on film. Yeah. And he was happy.

And he brought a whole bunch of shit. And he was like, and he walked out of there a happy go lucky dude. Yeah. I didn't shit on it. Yeah. I can do that, again, if that's what listeners want me to do. I will fucking say every fucking movie was awesome. It's no skin off my nose.

I have no dog in the fight. I have no, I have nothing to do in any of these movies that come out. If they would rather have me be like, I loved it, you fake Walt. I can do that fuck a 24-7 in my sleep. I don't understand, man. I don't understand. Why? Like, why people, like, if, like, I like something, right?

And I find out that, you know, like, I listen to podcasts. If I find out they don't like it, it has no effect on it at all. Not at all. Like, I just like, it's unbelievable. It really, it is a strange thing. I guess I think that there's a like a relationship that you don't realize that some people have with the people that they're listening to. Right. And when they hear that I don't like something, they're disappointed and they're bummed out, they said.

It's almost like a friend doesn't like it. Yeah. And I like, I don't want bum listeners. I'll lie. It's no big deal. I will sell you whatever you want. It doesn't matter. like, oh, I loved it. And everyone's like, it sucked you, the food.

I don't know. What do I do? I'm like, oh, I just put my finger up. I'm like, oh, that's the way the wind's going. I hate it that shit. That's what you do when you're in business. Yeah. You're not wrong. It's funny.

In my business, people will ask me to look at stuff. Pitches or videos they've made, you know, sizzled reels, development reels. And unless they specifically ask me for notes, I will universally say, yeah, it's great. I wish you all the best with it. Good luck. Really? You won't give any critical feedback.

No. And there are many people I know in my business who will give, you know, unsolicited notes on stuff. And I think it's kind of disgusting. You know what I mean? This is interesting. Because people will be excited about something they've made. Hey, man, here's my sizzle.

I'm going out. I'm going to pitch it to a bunch of production companies. And they're, you know, it's like, They're pitching it next week. It's done. And they're showing it to me. Oh, okay. So there's nothing you say he's going to change anything.

If they came to me early and asked, you know, hey, what do you think of this? I can give honest notes and make it better probably, you know? But if it doesn't serve them to have me give my honest opinion about it, I just say it's great. Good luck. I wish you all the best with this. And I think it's in a way that's kind of what you're saying, Walt, because what's the end result of challenging on them. challenging them on it. Like they're,

they've worked on it, they've invested money, they're going out, they've got a couple of meetings set up. So, you know, if somebody loves a movie, what's the point of you saying it sucks?

Unless the other side of that's his honest opinion. Yeah. That's why. It's not a purpose though. Yeah, unless, if you don't want to get into a debate with that person or just,

let's call it a discussion, then you're better off going like, I loved it. But I think amongst friends, like if Brian says to me, hey, I love the new, Spider-Man movie, and I'm like, really, I didn't really care for it.

Well, then... And then we could talk about it. Yeah, but then Brian just has to say, well, or I have to say, well, anything I say about it is going to be off the record. Okay. Okay. Okay. Take it off the record. Take it off the record.

Like, yeah, so like, when the new Avengers movies comes out, you can bet your bottom dollar, I'm going to love it. You don't even have to email me or tell me you're upset that I didn't like it, or that I'm a negative Nancy or that, uh, uh, You don't want to listen anymore because I'm too negative. And I'm like, I said I actually like the Spider-Man movie. I fucking, the only person in America who liked the new Supergirl movie. I love The Odyssey. I was like, I enjoy the new re-shirt. Like, I am a ball of positivity when it comes to fucking current media.

But it's not enough it feels like so. I'm like, you know what? I can love it even more if that's what people want. No big deal. What if you just withhold your opinion? What if you just make a statement? And that's a statement in itself. Well, how is it a statement?

You just... I'm not willing to... Oh, yeah. We've run into that before. Can't do that either? No. You damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

Absolutely. In 2026? Yeah. Well, you know, this is the problem with like, with grading art. You know what I mean? It's a problem with award shows. You know what I mean? Like, uh, what's the best TV show?

Who's the best drummer? Who's the best guitar player? Well, what do you like? Why does it, why does there have to be a best? But hasn't fan bases been having those arguments before there was Before there was chat rooms Before there was magazines before there was newspapers people were That's how you spend your time

You're like well I think he's the best at whatever He's the best trumpet player you know Back in the 30s or the 20s or whatever But then if your buddy doesn't think that that guy's the best trumpet player Does that mean that you know he has to tell you you're an idiot and a dummy? Well that's why well no that's why I want Like you said, when society broke, probably because of the internet, most likely because of the internet, yeah, something nuance and discussion and the ability to accept another

person's point of view or preference or opinion just died. Well, you're not on their team. No. There's always a team. And if you're not on the right team, then you're on the wrong team. Comics, sports. Any number of things. Podcasts.

Even podcasts. Damn. Devices. It's affected us. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, these are great topics.

You got more? Are they? Yes. I did like the Hulk. Did you like it? Would you recommend it? I would recommend it. I thought it was very entertaining.

You know why? Because my wife and daughter were out and I'm like, I'm going to watch something now. I'm going to relax and watch something that I know they're not going to watch. So I snuck it in. Exactly. Do you like Ritcher? If you watch Ritcher? I watched the first season of Reacher, and I really liked it, and I've heard you talk glowingly about it.

I just never, I started at season two, and then never, season two is not that good. Yeah, but I never, I, I, maybe, I, maybe two episodes in, maybe. Yeah, it was a kind of a miss, a season two, but this new season is a return to form, and like, like, you'll, like, be like, man, some of these shots they're getting. I'm sure it's all drones and everything. Yeah, yeah. But the, the camera work is fucking beautiful.

Yeah, man. I've heard you talk about it. And it is, I do love it for all the same reasons you love it. And it will be like, like next time I'm away for a, you know, a couple of weeks filming or something. It may be something I get back to on my, on my computer. But I like that dude. I mean, the dude's an old school action hero. I mean, I told you, I texted you. I watched that Netflix movie. If they were going to do a new Conan movie, I know they're supposed to talk of a King Conan with Arnold coming back, but if they were going to cast a new Conan movie, this is the dude. I got no, it's like him or Jason Momoa. I'm tired of him. Yeah, I'm tired of him. Let's go with this guy. I can't say that. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, I'm not tired of anyone. You love him, right? I'm always the best Conan ever. Let's have two Konans. Conan brothers. Now you're talking. We'll have two conans. They're sharing the screen.

Alternate scenes. Let's get it done. I'm down with that guy for Conan. All right. What's your next topic? What do I have here? You know, if you guys cared about, you know, my personal life at all. I can see it from here. It says, are black's too saucy?

I'm getting my empty nest back later today. We had the kids home for the summer. How's that feel? Melancholy or are you a little bit more like you're used to it now and it's not the downer it used to be? No, no, we got used to the empty nest real fast. And now you're like, when are they going back? Yeah, it was an adjustment, dude. When they came back, there was like shit all over the place, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to start putting pants on around that house. Those skinny jeans. Squeeze into my skinny jeans again. Yeah, that was also, yeah, when I leave here, we're packing up Daisy. But Daisy's going to Rutgers again, you know, her last year at Rutgers. So that's close by, you know, to my... Where's your son? My son's upstate in Ithaca, near, you know, near the five, not far from the fives.

Oh, he's all the way up there, huh? Took him back last weekend. So, you know, time marches on. But, yeah, I think that we've adjusted well to the empty nest. You know what I mean? I like... Don't think about adopting a kid. Oh, no.

No, no, no. It's like my wife's brother has... Get him your first on my list. My wife's brother has an eight or nine-year. old kid and I don't even like when he's in the house. Like I don't want any like kids in my house anymore. Right. Like under 18. You know what I mean? Like he'll come over. He's noisy. He's banging on the piano. You know what I mean? Yeah. Piano. Yeah. La de la de la. Well, you and Johnson certainly have something in common. Yeah. We're rich. Who's the piano for? Who's the piano player?

This, well, you know, my dad is a piano player. Okay. But so we always had a piano in our, in our apartment or house. But this piano was actually Faith's grandfather's piano. And when he died in Florida, we had it shipped up. It's a very old Baldwin. It's a beautiful old upright piano, like a stand-up piano. Kind of falling apart, but it still works.

But the kids were taking piano lessons. So we brought the piano up. Old. Old, probably from the 40s. You don't know how to play it? I don't know how to play it. No desire to learn, take piano lessons. I wish I, I probably should have learned from my father when I was a kid,

but of course, part of rebelling against my father was not playing the piano and playing the drums instead. I wish I could play the piano, but yeah. So anyway, I don't even like having that kid in my house. You know what I mean?

If you're under 18, I don't want you in my house. So anyway, that's just what, just a little thing that's going on when I leave here, you know, pack up the old truck. So, yeah, when you're going up this afternoon? Yeah, we're going to go like a night. Some of the other girls are moving in during the day. So we're going to go like a little later.

Yeah, we moved my daughter in last week. Yeah, she's up at N.J. College. I don't know. A doctor's her. Okay. Yeah. Well, she's in college right now. But what year?

She did community college for two years. Now she's a, I guess it's, I don't know what the third year is called. Junior. Junior. Junior. Yeah. So that's, yeah. Moving right along.

But, you know, that's all. Any other topics? No, the other topic was, you know, had my 25th wedding anniversary, went to Italy. That was a lot of fun. I just had my sixth. I went to Atlantic City. Beautiful. How was Italy?

Italy was awesome. How was the food? Food was okay. Overrated a little bit. I get just as good Italian food in North Jersey. Wow. Did you see the ruins? I saw Pompeii.

Yeah, we went to Pompeii. so the ruins of Pompeii We didn't go to like Rome Oh okay We just went to like the Amalfi coast And so you saw the Where the lava And everything right

Where the people Yeah Where the Suvius exploded So they're frozen in time right Yeah Isn't there a masturbator there Like somebody who was jerking off When the volcano went off

How morning you gotta be To jerk off during a volcanic explosion You know there's some sickos back there like Oh my God The fucking world is ending Oh I would imagine The greatest fucking climax

of all time. You know what was interesting. You know, you've always seen those images of the people that were like, you know, frozen in the lava. I'm not serious. Wasn't there a guy with his dick out? We didn't meet that guy.

They didn't tell us about that. You didn't have that on the tour. No. Here he is. You didn't ask. No, I didn't know about it, Walt. Oh, you should have told you. No.

I didn't know about the, I would have asked about the masturbator. But it was very cool. And what I learned, what I thought was really interesting, which, you know, Gettam probably knows already is that they weren't, what they're showing you are not exactly the people frozen. They, they were like the spaces where the people died and then they then they decomposed for the most part and left sort of a, an imprint, like a vacuum where their bodies were. And then this dude filled that with like plaster and then made the shape of that vacuum where the body was. It was really interesting.

That guy is that guy's masturbating right there. I mean, maybe the lava rock hit him in the balls. He was like, oh, who knows, man? It does look like he's masturbating. It's very, with the knee bent like that, you know? Yes, the expression on his face. He's like, oh, yeah. He was assuming the position.

I can't imagine in my last moments of life that I'm going to be able to get, you know, in a state to masturbate. Yeah, like being in a plane that's going down and you're like, oh, my God, I got to jerk off real fast. Like, how do you get aroused? Maybe it's that rush of adrenaline. Yeah, exactly. It looks like he's almost petting a cat or something with his left hand.

Anyway, that was an exciting thing that happened. How long were you there? We were there for about 10 days. Great time. Would you be okay if I was to guess alike? I'm curious what the budget is for a 10-day trip to Italy in 2026. Yeah. Would you be okay if I was in the ballpark?

Yeah. 10 days, Italy, staying there, flights, 18 grand. I'm going to go 12. Very close. Brian's closer. All said and done, meals and everything I'd have to say about 15 is what I've been saying. 15. I've been loath to actually add it up.

I barely looked at the bills when they came in. It's good. Oh, yeah. I knew I was going to take a hit, you know, but the talk of what we're doing for our 25th has been going on for five years. You know, the 26, it's got to be just like, you know, back to the church. Chick-fil-A. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. A movie. Maybe Netflix. Maybe not even going to the theater. Rewatching the Hulk Hogan documentary. Absolutely right. Yeah. But you know what, man?

I'm pretty good about, you know, saving money and not, you know, going out and like trying to live the rock star life. But I felt like, you know, she's good, man. She doesn't go out on big shopping binges or anything. I was like, I am going to treat. this woman 25 years with me and actually to tell you the truth it wasn't only our 25th wedding anniversary it was the 40th anniversary of our first date wow that's a long time yeah what year did you meet or what year did you start becoming in a relationship like a committed relationship well in high

school 1986 so i'm 88 so you precede me you've got the record in tsd town brother yeah yeah that was we still have the ticket stops our first day we went to see gung ho how's that gung ho with mike Keaton about the auto industry It's a comedy, right? Oh, yeah, wow. Long-Dong is in it. Whatever's real name is. That's the forgotten Keaton movie.

Yeah, yeah. She fell asleep. So, yeah, that's what, listen, we haven't seen each other, and that's why. I've been out of a galivanting, making the show, you know, going on luxury vacations. Yes. You know, but now we're back. Guys, I mean, can I, can I reveal what the big, uh, the next podcast we're going to do together might be?

I don't know what you're talking about. We've got to shoot the finale. Oh, for Tales behind the big cast? Yeah. Oh, yeah, you could reveal it. I mean, we have one episode left of film, and we're just struggling with a way to make it feel special. Yeah, special.

You know, the kind of send-off it deserves. And you have lofty. You had lofty expectations of a live band of, we'd be on stage, we would have, you know, confetti. And I was like, I don't know, that's a lot of, you know, we don't have the budget to go to Italy, bro. We got to. I want to stay home. I did a show at the Pompei Rooms. I was thinking maybe we do it there.

Yeah, I mentioned maybe, this is my idea, and I could tell you hated it. But I was like, I'd like to rent for a night, the old 35 Broadlo, location where it's now a mattress store. Yeah. And we podcast on the display bed. And then Chuck fades in and out pictures of the place where it used to look like where we're sitting. And we just record the, we go down into the basement. And we're at the spot.

The last episode is filmed at the location where we filmed the show for the seven years. And you looked at me like, I was like, are you fucking kidding me? That's what, that's it. I want a live band. they're never going to fit in a stash. You know, it's growing on me. I just thought us laying on a bunch of, you know, postropedics and temperedic mattresses wrapped in plastic.

I thought it was a little lowbrow. I think you're not thinking about the metaphors and the comparisons and the, the melancholy kind of like, it used to be this. now it's this. Is that what we want to give our viewers melancholy, a melancholy send-off? It always has to be that way

in the final episode. Yeah, I think every send-off. If you're loved, if you're beloved and you are appreciated, when you tell someone goodbye, it should be sad. It can't be fucking like, that's a better word.

It should be bittersweet. And I thought that would be kind of fitting is to do it the last episode where it all started and where it all happened. And we'll sit on the mattresses?

Yeah. On the same mattress or we can spread out? Well, there's seats around them. Like the mattress holds the mics. It's like the table. You thought it was going to be like a teenage sleepover where we're all like hanging out of the mattress together. Sitting around it like a table, the mattress. Like there's chairs all around the bed.

Okay. And then the mics are on the bed, you know, and it's right where the fake. counter was. Oh, all right. You're selling me. Yeah, you're selling me. I'm more into this. I was picturing like that scene from Greece where the girls are having the sleepover and they've got rollers in their hair and the... Yeah, I guess, yeah, I didn't paint a good enough picture because, yeah, I didn't think we're all laying down together. Oh, I did. Yeah, we were just using the mattress as the, as our podcasting table. Okay. What do you think? Do you think we can get this I don't know.

I mean, I would start the legwork or the plant the seed and whoever's renting it now and be like, hey, do you think we could rent the place for after hours one night for two and a half hours probably is all we need? Yeah. And just tell me what you need for us to like what price makes this, you know, appealable to you. It's unusual request. You know, we're not going to do anything. It's just a podcast. I don't know if you know the history, but we filmed the show here, you know, and we're doing a retrospective on it and see what they say.

They might say no, you know. But other than that, that was really, and that's why I've kind of been like, I don't have any other big ideas that would be, you know, appealing to you. I don't think. Like, they're not, I don't know. I guess we still have to, we have time to think about it because we have like six episodes in the can. Yeah. Of fake counter that haven't been released yet. I've, I've, I've, I've complete trust in your creative vision.

So I'm down for whatever. I, you know, are we going to get this in the can before the end of the year? Oh, I think so. All right. I think, you know, you mentioned doing a live version of it. You know, we do. We rent a place and we, I just don't know how that show parlays its, on a live stage where we're doing a retrospect of looking back at episodes in front of an audience, though.

No, it probably doesn't. I can't, I couldn't ignore the audience. You got to forget I said it. Throwing shit against the wall. Yeah, don't let that inhibit your vision for what this should be. But I am sad thinking about it, love doing tales. Yeah. Well, I mean, like I said, just because tails is over doesn't mean you won't be involved in other stuff, though.

that's always been the plan. That's always been the plan. I mean, listen, I still can't believe it. I'm at the big table here. I love it. I love getting the nod. But I have been listening to a lot of the episodes. I think I texted you guys a couple of times.

I've been doing long walks in the morning, listening to Tesde. I feel like I got my friends with me on the walk. It's nice. Yeah, it's like I think a lot of people like that, they think they have their friends with them. And that's why they get upset when they hear something that I say negative and it bums people out. So I'm not going to do that more.

What's it like to have friends that just universally agree with everything you think and say? What's the guy's life? Yeah, I mean, that's true. I mean, it is rare. I guess you just, you work at surrounding yourself of people who just agree with everything. Like minded. Yeah. You know, that is the greatest, you need to send me that picture.

That is going on my wall. That is the greatest AI creation ever made. Wow. I have to apologize, public apology. Another one. Yeah, for last week's episode. If you remember, Walt, my last joke was such a bomb. Like when we got out of the episode and he said, tell him Steve Dave.

My last joke was such a bomb and I'm like, I got to cut it out. It's too awful. So I cut it out and then I moved to tell him Steve Dave up just a little bit, you know. And just to cut out that joke, and I guess I forgot or somehow deleted the Tell him Steve Dave. So for the first time ever, in Tell him Steve Dave history, there was no Tell him Steve Dave at the end of the episode. Oh, really? Yeah. Somebody pointed it out, and I was like, how the fuck did that happen?

And I figured, like, yeah, I probably deleted it accidentally. All right. I was cutting. Well, you know what? I think to shake things up, because, I mean, we are in our, how many years is this? 16 years now? Maybe we just do away with that. the end, you know, like, that's a new twist.

That'll excite people, right? Like, did you hear that they're not saying, tell them Steve Dave, at the end? Then we've got to say what to say. When you just, they end organically. Bye. You'll end up like me on tails. Fumbling. Floreslanders, struggling.

Don't do it. I like to tell them. You got to, really, isn't it played out? It's tired at this point. I thought it was played out when we started. Right? People are bored with that shit. I love it.

I have to tell you, I love it. I look forward to it. It's very satisfied. You were disappointed last week when I couldn't have. I didn't hear it. Now I'm definitely not going to listen to it. I get trashed. You don't say, tell him Steve Dave.

Why would I even tune in? Sounds like a very frustrating episode for me. You know what I want to try? I don't know if he's going to pick up, but I want it to call a cue real fast. Okay. What time is it there? It would be like 10 something, 10, 15. He's probably up, right?

I would think so. All right. Now, whether or not I can reach him, that's the question. All right. It's rain. Sounds good. Yeah. Jesus, listen to that rain.

I listen to Q not picking up. All right. Tell him, Steve, Dave. Nice.