The Eric Metaxas Show - #177 - Victoria Jackson

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Saturday Night Live alum Victoria Jackson joins Eric to reflect on their recent Socrates In The City retreat in Oxford. Victoria opens up about living with cancer, facing mortality with humor and Christian faith, and why the experience has made her appreciate life even more. She and Eric also discuss C.S. Lewis, Addison’s Walk, The Kilns, John Lennox, scientist Denis Noble, the mystery of creation, and Victoria’s new book of poetry, Not Dead Yet.⭐ ORDER NOW:Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World📕: https://a.co/d/0ir3NlapTODAY'S SPONSORS:🛏️ MyPillow — Save BIG with code ERIC: https://www.mypillow.com/☀️ Honest, fast, and free Medicare plan guidance: https://askchapter.com/metaxas/0:00 Victoria Jackson Joins1:44 Exploring C.S. Lewis’s Oxford5:36 The C.S. Lewis Poem That Moved Eric8:57 Victoria Opens Up About Cancer11:26 Denis Noble, Richard Dawkins, And The Mystery Of Life20:23 John Lennox And The Oxford Retreat26:34 Inside C.S. Lewis’s Home29:29 “Aslan Is On The Move”33:34 Victoria’s New Book Not Dead Yet35:47 The SNL Song That Never Aired41:11 Victoria Takes Eric To Paris- - -LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/@ericmetaxas#EricMetaxas #TheEricMetaxasShow #News #PoliticsChapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.

Hey there, folks. Eric Metaxis here. This is the Eric Taxis show. And I think I told you that when I, no laughing, there's people laughing in the background, I think I told you that when we did our Oxford trip, this Socrates in the city retreat, there were many special friends, old friends, new friends. And in particular, Victoria Jackson was on the trip. She and her husband, Paul, I couldn't believe it when I read the list that they were coming on this trip. that we got an SNL alum, an alumna, an alumna, that's the plural female, an alumna of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. I said, really? Is this true? And it turned out, actually, it was true. And I thought, wouldn't it be great to get her on this program so that we could together tell you about our experiences in Oxford? Because I can just tell you by myself, it's not as interesting. It's much more fun with Victoria Jackson Victoria, Vicki, welcome to this program. Thank you. Eric for taxes. I can't stop talking like I'm in Oxford still. You know what? Every time I go to England, that happens to me. For some reason, this time it didn't happen very much.

It's, I don't know why. Normally when I go there, I just can't stop it. It's awful. And my daughter wants to kill me. But seriously, Vicky, I was so happy when I found out you guys were coming. Where do we even start? First of all, let's just say there were five interviews. I did five interviews, two of them with John Lennox, in the most beautiful room in the Randolph Hotel. Just a gorgeous room. We had an audience of about 40 people. And so that was, I mean, that's kind of like the main thing.

But then there's all this other stuff, punting on the river Charwell. and I don't know, all kinds of stuff. We went to C.S. Lewis's house and all kinds of stuff. But you and Paul, I don't know, what struck you? Well, let me begin by saying that, oh, oops, I slipped out of it. Your cameraman, your cameraman, he was following us everywhere. And we were listening and listening. And we were having tours of where the students at Magdalene College go.

And it's not Magdalene. It looks like that. It's Madeline because the G is silent. Actually, it's Maudlin. It's Maudlin. Because the G is silent, but it's spelled like Mary Magdalene, who it was named after. And the girl who gave us the tour was a tour. She was a student there, and she was adorable and young, and her hair was like this,

and she was talking like this for real, not faking it. And so here's the weird thing. I'm sorry I didn't get to go on that. I didn't, you know, a lot of times because I'm kind of working, I don't get to, I don't get to do all the fun stuff. And so I didn't get to go on the Marlachian College tour. And I'm a little bit sorry that I didn't, that I couldn't do that. But, Vicki, wait, wait, wait, we got to explain.

We got to explain. Marlund College. It's spelled Magdalene, but it's pronounced Marlund. Marlon College, that was C.S. Lewis's College. So I've been there many times. I spoke about it. I've probably spoken about it. But you all got a special tour of Marlestone College, which is one of the like 33 colleges within Oxford University.

It's beautiful. It's medieval. It's medieval. I don't know what year, but yeah. Her major is medieval literature. And I said, what do you call this? architecture that I love so much, and she said, Gothic. It's called Gothic. So anyway, it's like you're in a storybook, and we got to see where C.S. Lewis walked every day and worked and talked,

and this tree was 200 years old, and we went on Addison's walk, named after a poet, and C.S. Lewis's poem was on the wall. You read it to us, and that was my highlight. I wanted to see where that poem was and take pictures of it. And everywhere we went, you had a cameraman videoing us. And I realized after a couple days why I was so uncomfortable with it. Because I've never had a camera pointing at me where I was doing nothing. I was listening. So like every shot he had me, I was like this. Well, that's not bad. What's bad about that? And it's not like we're going to broadcast it all. He was just getting, some shots. Because you're going to ruin my reputation as an entertainer. If the camera goes on me,

I'm being boring. I've never been boring on camera. So you know what I started doing? I started entertaining him and he didn't like it. Like he'd show our group and then I'd go, it's a jolly older day with Mary. Mary makes you all. That'll teach him to train the camera on you. Thank you very much. He quit. He quit. Good, good. But I don't think he was with our group. I think that was just a pepper razzo, you know, just showing up because you were there, because you were there. Now, that poem, I want to say, the poem that I read, it's called Addison's, sorry, it's a C.S. Lewis poem, and the title of it is, what, what, what's the matter? I can't remember the title.

Well, I can. I can. It's what the bird said early in the year. And it starts out. It says, I heard in Addison's walk a bird sing clear. This year, the summer will come true. This year, this year, this year, I have to tell you, I get choked up, even reciting the first part of it. It's so beautiful. I think at C.S. Lewis's greatest poem. I actually think it's one of the greatest poems in the English language. And it made me think about poetry written in the 20th and 21st centuries and how almost none of it is very good. But that poem is so powerful and so beautiful. I should write an essay about it, actually, because there's so much to it. And you're right, the night before we were at, Where were we? We were at that pub together, and I read it aloud the whole poem to our group, because I wanted to kind of tee it up for everybody. And then to say that, oh, yes, there's a plaque at the beginning of Addison's walk, which Lewis writes about in the poem. There's this gorgeous plaque, which was installed in 1998. I was there when it was installed or unveiled. And it has the poem on it. And, but it's such, I mean, I still can't get over how beautiful and, powerful this poem is. It's just, it's astonishing because it says so much. There's so much, there's so much to it. And it's so Lewis because, I mean, the idea that a bird is singing something, not just, you know, music, but saying something. It's, it's like out of Narnia. And it's just, uh, anyway, is he's talking, the bird is talking about the kingdom of heaven.

That's what it's about. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, poetry and art, you know, the listener or the viewer reads their own thing into it. But I start, it inspired me to start writing a poem about that walk. And so, you know, there was a bunch of deer. There was a herd of deer on that walk. And I've never seen a herd. I've seen five, seven deer, but I've never seen a herd like cattle.

And they were all standing in a row like a chorus line. And some were speckled and somewhere albino and they were a beautiful deer. So my poem's going to start out. This time next year, the deer will still be here, but I may not. This time next year, the deer will still be here, but I may not. Bicky, I have to tell you, that's powerful. And then it goes on and it's about my husband being a widow. And how happy he'll be.

A widower. Yeah. A widower. Now, Vicky, now hold on a second, because I don't want to get, you know, I don't want to skip. I don't want to skip past this. But you, you're dealing with, before we get into the more fun stuff of Oxford, we've talked about this on the program, you're dealing with cancer. So can you say how you're doing with that?

Yes, I can. You know, I could talk about it for hours, but I will spare your audience the grimy details. Actually, you know, cancer, you don't really feel it unless it's on a bad organ. Like when it was going into my windpipe, I couldn't breathe, but they took care of that with radiation. So I'm pretty happy and feel great. But the way I deal with it is, well, first of all, I feel super guilty. right now because I'm in Paris. Because after we went to Oxford, I'm like, Paul, we got to go to Paris.

It's only two hours away. And I'm dying. I can get anything I want. I just go, I'm dying. So, you know. You're killing me, I'll tell you. I like, go, oh, I want that $250 perfume. I'm dying.

So I would, I do feel kind of guilty being in Paris. because it's such a luxury. But if your audience is listening and they feel a little speck of covetousness, they've got to realize, I'm dying. And for some reason, in all the movies, people go to Paris when they're dying. It was even in hacks.

You know, the Netflix show hacks, they go to Paris because she's dying in Canada. No, I don't. I don't. It sounds, I mean, you know, when you die, you go to a place infinitely better than Paris. So it's not like you got to squeeze in some great places on your way out of this world, Vicki. I thought you already knew that.

But I want to, I just want to, I want to the best of our ability, tell our audience what we did at Oxford. I mean, I can't remember. Did you, were you there when I interviewed Dennis Noble? I was impressed with the very last interview you did. missed the one that morning because it was so early and I'm not good at getting up early, especially when I've jet lag. But I saw the second, are you talking about the guy, the second guy on the last thing? That was Dennis Noble. Yes, Dennis Noble. I was so impressed with your interview because first of all, when it started, the interview started, of course, you can hear a pin drop and all of us

intellectual wannabes are listening quietly. And he looked sad. And, you know, you, You made him smile. And I was like, yes, Eric. He looked kind of grim. I didn't know. Forgive me for interrupting. Don't lose that thought. But what I was, I just want to tell the audience, Dennis Noble is 89.

He is one of the top scientists in the world. I mean, he, he's, he didn't win the Nobel Prize in science and biology, but he, he almost did. Like, he basically, in 1960, in 1960. in 1960, 66 years ago, when he was, what, 23, he designed, he came up with the first mathematical model of the human heart. I will not go into what that is because I know very little about what it is. But the point is he's a very big deal, scientists and biologist. And he has, in recent years, spoken out very very little.

strongly against Richard Dawkins, who was his student, who was his doctoral student in 1966, when Dawkins got his doctorate on the, whatever, the board that determines whether you should be given the doctorate, sat Dennis Noble. And here we are all these years later. And he has come out very, very strongly against neo-Darwinism and against Dawkins' whole idea of the selfish Gene. So it's a fascinating thing. But anyway, that's just the background on who he was. He's 89 and really a delightful human being, I have to say, not a Christian, but open to spiritual things, which most, many scientists are certainly not. Richard Dawkins is certainly not. But you, so somehow that interview impressed you. Well, first of all, you stayed toe to toe

with him on all of that, oh, man, jargon that, that, that, the, that, the, that, the, that, the, that jargon about the inside of a nucleus of an atom of a molecule and the DNA. And I was trying so hard to concentrate. And what I took from the whole hour talk was he doesn't know. So basically agnostic. He was saying that there's 40% they can understand of how your body fights this and that and how your, you know, body is a miracle. And he knows all of the logistics and the numbers of how shockingly amazing the design.

You definitely got that. You're quite right. And I had to read his book. And that's what you pick up. You think that the level of complexity, it's actually so breathtaking. It's heart-stopping. It's beyond, it's almost painful to face the complex. And he has faced it.

He's an expert at describing the complexity of the human body. But he doesn't know, quote, unquote, how it appeared of nowhere. And you very respectfully and very subtly slipped in the concept, maybe God was the design. What if they call it the designer? the something designer what is that called something design i don't i'm not familiar with that jargon i don't know you know the argument be there's got to be a designer because it's such a magnificent design it's going to be yeah i mean the anyway you slipped in god but it wasn't preachy and it wasn't disrespectful and it wasn't holier than that it was just well it could be god

and basically what i took away from it was he is a His mind is blown at what he has learned about the complexity of the human body and its amazing systems and how they work. But there's 60% that's unknown, mysterious, and no one can figure out, i.e., he said that if COVID would have been left alone, our immune systems would have figured out how to fight it in five days, which I thought that even I have. I haven't been to Oxford for 20 years, but I knew that. But anyway, yeah, my takeaway was, God, God did it. Jehovah, Jehovah created it. Well, look, we don't know how God did it. We can't pretend like we know much more than he does.

We just know, oh, yeah, the God of the Bible, he did it. But do we have a clue how? That's what's so fascinating is that once you look into the complexity, it's it's I keep saying this it's it's almost painful the complexity is so overwhelming that it makes you just want to fall on your face because God is so amazing that it's too much to bear and it is it really is too much to bear but Dennis Noble what what I find interesting about him and what I love about the man is his honesty he's honest about not knowing he's honest about seeing the mystery, about seeing, I mean, this is a man who has studied the biology

in such a way that he's able to say there are things going on that are dramatically more mysterious and complex than what somebody like Richard Dawkins would allow. Richard Dawkins gets very disturbed because Dennis Noble, he's done the science. He's not just speculating the way we are. He's done the actual science. He's seen that the, you know, the basic idea of what the Neo-Darwinist says that it's all determined by the genes. And Dennis Noble says, actually, it's not. It's like the genes is like the music on the page.

It's dead. You need somebody to play the music. Who's playing the music? What is going on there? There's a tremendous mystery. And Dennis Noble, and, To me, this is what's so beautiful. He's doing actual science.

He's actually thinking about what do we see here and what are the implications and what do we not know? That's humility. That's actual science to try to say, well, if it leads us to someplace that's mystery, we admit that it's mystery. Whereas you have people like Dawkins, they're uncomfortable with that mystery. So they have to say, no, no, no, it's this and it can't be that. It can't even though things appear to lead in that direction, we know they can't lead in that

direction. And Dennis Noble says, no, we don't know they can't lead in that direction. Why can't we admit that it looks like they're leading in that direction? Anyway, but I'm so glad you were there for that interview. Me too. And I think God is in the center of every nucleus. And that's, I know they're looking for the God particle at CERN and Switzerland. But I think that God is in the middle of every nucleus of every atom and molecule. And that's why he can be omnipresent. Okay. And I don't. That's my theory.

And also, I think God only gives us little glimpses of his glory because we can't handle anymore like you're saying. It makes you fall down on your face in awe and worship. When I was at church and they're singing a worship song, sometimes I get a and my eyes tear up. And I feel like the Holy Spirit's there. And it's like God gives me this tiny little taste of heaven, this tiny little taste of his glory. Because in our human body, in our human brain, we can't take it in. Like when God walked by Moses in the burning bush, and he said, you know, turn your head away.

I'll burn your brains out if you look at me and all. So I think that's what Noble was expressing from a non-Christian person's scientist. viewpoint. He was expressing what we express when we talk about how amazing our God is. Yes, I agree. I agree with that. It was, by the way, this will all be available at Socrates in the city in the weeks ahead. Well, we're going to post these interviews and people should go to Soxies and City.com and sign up because we're doing more retreats and more. I mean, we did so much more than these interviews. And that was probably the hardest, intellectually, hardest interview in a way. But I had a wonderful conversation with Lord Nigel Bigger about colonialism and

some of the positive things that the British Empire did, like abolished slavery, for example, abolish the slave trade, kind of a positive thing. We talked to John Lennox. I did two interviews with John Lennox. Anyway, so those are just the interviews, but there was so much else. I mean, I'm trying to think that there were just walking around Oxford. is so beautiful. Well, first of all, Lennox is fantastic, and I went to YouTube and I looked up his debate with Christopher Hitchens, and it's, you must see. You must see John Lennox versus Christopher Hitchens.

Brilliant debate on whether there's a God or not. I mean, is God great? Same thing. And then I went strolling around the neighborhood. I was struck with how interoperable. international it was. There's students and people from everywhere. I was kind of hoping you'd be like Mary Poppins and everyone would be like from the movie Oliver Twist, but it was more like, you know, New York, very international. But then I saw a church that was built in 1,000 AD.

I was in walking up the steps of a stone tower of a church that was built, a thousand. Go up there? I've never been up there. It's the Norman church and it's right there. It's only it's very close to where to the hotel Randolph where we stayed, but I've never been up there. But I think Suzanne told me that she's been up to the roof there and it's a beautiful view. And it's hard to believe it was built a thousand years ago. Yeah. And I have hip pain and I suffered through every step because I had to do it. Of course, I have pain pills. So that helps sometimes. But yeah, about my cancer, like I have cancer. on five vertebrae and my pelvic bone, but the doctor's not sure that my hip pain is coming from

cancer or just arthritis because I did do a lot of gymnastics back in the day. But anyway, I got a ukulele there. I got one at a used shop and I had fun mingling with the, there's the townies versus the gownies, town versus gown, and the town of Oxford is a bunch of people. and then the college is a bunch of people, and sometimes they have sports games against each. I just love talking to people who are really lived there and, you know, getting their point of view on things.

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So you, you, you and Paul were there for the whole thing. And I'm just trying to think of some of the other stuff we did. Were you with us when we walked down Queens Lane that night? I'm trying to think there was a group of us. Queens Lane, it's sort of, it's, it's, I'm not going to. I won't. I won't get into it. I won't get into it. Then maybe you weren't there. It was cobblestone, right? I don't know.

Probably. I don't remember Queens Lane. But I did see a guy who looked homeless and he had a sign about genital mutilation. And I went up to him and I said, are you referring to a group of people who moved here who believe in that? And he said, I'm not political. And I said, oh, you're just, this is your one issue that you have a poster about. Okay, just curious. And then our driver, our driver was Muslim and he grew up in England.

So he talks like that. But we picked his brain about politics and such. It was very fascinating. Unbelievable. Did you eat anything that you thought was interesting? What did you think of the food? Some of the food we had really was great food, I have to say. I'm not a big fan of English food.

Not a big fan. Well, not all the food we had was English food. But I did love the Randolph. I felt like I was in a fairy tale castle, and my room had Lewis Carroll up there, and it had a lot of Alice in Wonderland-themed things. Oh, my favorite thing was C.S. Lewis's house. Uh, why do you tell us about it, Vicky? loved it so much.

Well, I loved that he was kind of a bachelor and him and his brother would smoke all day and all night and they talked about the nicotine stains in the roof and everything and the carpet. And they would just put out their cigarettes in their carpet. I mean, no joke. See, from my point of view, I've heard this story so many times because I've been there so many times.

The kilns, which is about three and a half miles outside of Oxford, it's where he lived with his brother and Mrs. her name and you know it was but I have to say you know bachelors can be disgusting even if it's C.S. Lewis it seems like they were disgusting like they were smoking all the time and they absolutely genuinely put the ashes in the carpet so it's just unbelievable how disgusting it must have been and the ceiling was black with from the smoke it was disgusting and they also had they also had blackout curtains during the war, and the blackout curtains, I mean, really, it's repulsive. It's repulsive. Yeah, it looked like they took a wool blanket and just stapled it up there,

which they said they did staple it up there. But it was just so cute. They said they would have books, not on a bookshelf, but just sitting all the way up to the ceiling, kind of holding the ceiling up. And it was so humble. And it was like nooks and crannies and just humble and cozy. and he has such a funny family story. But the thing that impresses me is that he had the Shroud of Turin's picture on his bedroom wall. Because back in his day, I don't know that they thought it was real. Now they're saying they think it's the real thing. Well, no, I think back, I think there's always been debate about it.

But I think that he thought it was real. And he had a reproduction of the face of the Shrout of Turin in his bedroom. And I guess somebody asked them about it and he said, it reminds me that God has a face. And I think that's that's so Lewis and so beautiful and so Christian, right? The idea that, yes, God has a face. He made us in his image. And he came to Earth and showed us himself. You know, that's, that was central to Lewis's life.

And so I forgot about that. It's so, to me, it's unreal to be in the bedroom where he lived, to be. be in the room where he composed that some of the greatest works ever written. Yeah, little. The bed was little. And the funny story is he lost the key to this door. So instead of getting a new key made, he had a staircase built by his windows. We could crawl up there at night. It's just funny, funny stories like that. And I did a deep dive on him before we went. And now I'm a big fan of Aslan. All the time, I just think, Aslan is on the move. And so reading that Narnia for the first time this year was very powerful to me.

Aslan is on the move. You had not read the Narnia Chronicles until recently? No, I'm not a big fan of fairy tales. Well, let me tell you something. I didn't read the Narnia Chronicles until I was about 30. and I consider those seven books to be some of the greatest literature ever written, certainly in the English language. And I think maybe my favorite is the silver chair,

but oh my goodness, the depth of it. The depth of it is just, I'm in awe. I mean, because I am a writer, obviously, and I'm in awe of the talent of C.S. Lewis. I don't love everything he did. I love bits and pieces of. of what he did. I obviously love the poem that I mentioned

what the birds did early in the year. I think it's his greatest poem and one of the greatest poems ever written. But that's so interesting. The Narnia Chronicles, I mean, yeah, people think, oh, they're for kids. They're not for kids. They're for everyone.

Kids can appreciate them, but adults can appreciate them far more, I think. Yeah. I didn't love the fairy tale parts. I like the talking animals. I didn't like the people who are half animal, half-heaval. half human.

That was kind of creepy, but I do like the Scentor. What, what people that are half, the centaurs? Yeah. All the weird things that come out of the forest

are not a big fairy tale person. I think reality is much more interesting than fiction. But I got to love, I love C.S. Lewis. I think people just love him. You know, that's what they say about art.

People are just buying the person, not necessarily the painting or the book, but anyway. Well, that all depends, but I appreciate what you're saying. Lewis was lovable. Now, John Lennox, during his... He's lovable. He's lovable. And he's, how old is he now? Is he 80?

79 or 80. But his health has been challenging him. And we were so happy that he could be there. And he tells the story of in 19... when he was a student at Cambridge, actually, Lewis was lecturing eight lectures on the poetry of John Dunn. And John Lennox attended a couple of them, I guess. And he said that Lewis was by then, of course, very famous,

and the room is packed. And he says Lewis would appear and walk down the aisle. and as he enters the room, he's wearing his coat, his hat, and his muffler, and he starts lecturing the moment he walks in the room, walks all the way to the podium, lecturing as he walks, undoing his muffler, taking his hat off, taking his coat off,

as he's lecturing. So by the time he takes his clothes off, his overcoat, his hat, and his muffler, he's into the lecture. And then at the end of the lecture, he starts the process in reverse. Now, this is John Lennox saw this with his own eyes, and he told us, I've heard him tell the story before,

but he told it in the thing, in the interview I do with him, and he said that Lewis reverses the process. So he's lecturing, while he's lecturing, he starts putting on the muffler, winding it around his neck, putting on his coat, putting on his hat, and walks out, and times it perfectly,

so as he walks out the door, it's the last word of the lecture. I mean, that sounds, you know, like something out of a movie, but that wouldn't really happen. But knowing Lewis and knowing Lennox, I don't think you'd make that up, but that tells you something about Lewis. Yes, Eric, I have just published a book of poetry. I'm glad you brought that up.

What's the title of this book? I have a copy of this book. It's a beautiful book, Vicki. It is a beautiful book. Thank you. It's called Not Dead Yet. and I like to fantasize that after I'm dead, people will realize the magic and wonder and depth and intellectualism of my poetry, and they will start teaching courses on it. Well, it will be called victorology, and that people like Lennox will be in CS-Lewish types and like you will be having classes to explain.

Oh, I met her. Yes, that's a real voice. Let's analyze this poem, this poem right here. Now, listen, listen. I've told you. What was she wearing when she was writing it? I've told you this. I've said it many times, and I said it to you the other day while we were in the car driving to Blenheim Palace, which is the birthplace of Winston Churchill.

In the car, you recited a poem. that you'd written for Saturday Night Live, which they never aired, it was about Dan Quayle. And that poem and many other poems that I've heard you recite are extremely clever and witty, and I don't say those things lightly.

I really mean that. You can be very clever and very witty. You've written some wonderful poems. What do you like? And so this book, so this book is filled with those poems. And folks, I'm not kidding. Like there's some great stuff in there. There's tons of photographs of you doing handstands all over the world.

But the title of the book is Not Dead Yet by Victoria Jackson. Vicky, I'm not kidding. Like, you should be very proud. You've written poems for decades now. And there are many of them are very witty and clever. You're very clever. And you also write songs. It's the same thing.

The lyrics are very clever. Eric, would you like me to share the Dan Quail song right now? You know what? I would. A good. I don't want to shock anybody, but yes, I would. Oh, good. Okay, this one is not in the book because I just remembered it when we were in Oxford.

I just thought of it. But the thing is we got to tell people, ladies and gentlemen, this is a long time ago. This is from 1988, I guess. It's the year that I was born again. It's a long time ago. It's 38 years ago. And so Dan Quayle, of course, was the running mate for. George H.W. Bush. People were making fun of him because he seemed so young and an experience. He was just a congressman from Indiana. So anyway, yes. So the poem now is about Dan Quayle.

I think he was the vice president. And then he was trying to be the president. I think he was trying to be the president. Okay. So then this would be 92. This would be when he was trying to be the president and he didn't make it. And I wrote this about Dan Quayle. for Saturday Night Live and it got rejected. I was going to sing it on update. It's the only thing that got rejected. Almost all the songs I submitted got on update. You know, I sang, I did handstands, and I did a tap dance and everything. Okay, so here it goes.

So no one's heard this before. Except for me. Except for you in Oxford. And by the way, that Blenheim Castle thing, that was very fun and interesting. And the sweetest thing was Paul was pushing me in a wheelchair. I know. I couldn't help but notice that you got to sit down through the whole tour, which is a big tour.

But so, Vicki, tell us this is the poem. This is the, is it a song or a poem? Song. It's a song. Yeah. Okay. Picture me in a men's suit, man's suit with a hat, like Frank Sinatra hat. I'm sitting.

I'm sitting. I'm sitting at parties alone. dejected. They tell me I'm stupid, yet I got elected. I'm young and I'm cute, and I look good in a suit. So why do they keep shooting quail? I'm sick of the bird jokes. I'm proud of my name. I like my wife's hair, and she feels the same. I work in the White House. I got money and fame. So why do they keep shooting quail? I'm J. Danforth quail. It's self-evident. I'm the most qualified to be vice.

President. Maybe he was running for vice. President Bush, who you think is so nice. Only four years ago was the invisible vice. I'm a national star. And I am like Kennedy. ways than you are. So why, oh, why, oh, why, why do you keep shooting quail? Because people were making fun of him. Well, look, I have to give the back. I got to give the footnotes,

okay? So I'm going to be the critic, you know, like you write these poems. I'm going to be, I'm going to have to be the person explaining them to the world. So when you meant, first of all, you said he was president, Bush was president. So if Bush was president, then obviously, Quail was vice president and this was now four years after Bush and Quail were elected and Quail, well, wait a second. No, Bush was running again. Bush used to be the vice and then he became the president and then Quail was the vice and he wanted to be the president. But what I'm confused by is if this is 1992, Quail was not running for president. Bush was running for president. He was running as his vice president again.

I think you're right. I know I'm right. And also we have to remind people that Lloyd Benson, who was running for vice president with who, why can't we remember this? Benson ran with Dukakis in 88. So in 1988, it was Dukakis and Benson versus Bush and, Quayle. And Benson, in the debate with Dan Quail, made a very nasty comment because Quail had been

saying, well, listen, you know, John F. Kennedy was young when he ran for president and I'm young. And Benson, in one of the nastiest moments in a debate, said, I knew John Kennedy and you're no John Kennedy. It was really nasty on Benson's part. Lloyd Benson was nasty. But that's That's what he was referring to in your song. That's what you're referring to. And his wife's hair was in a flip like that girl. And they made fun of that too. It was a 60s flip.

And I always loved that flip. I thought it wasn't just retro. It just looks good. And it's retro. But listen, this is what the left does. They have to mock. I mean, you know, that's what they, that's what they do. So, but that's a beautiful song.

It's a great song. I'm sorry I didn't make it on SNL, but it made it on this show. Yes. And would you like to? see this statue of liberty would you like to see the Eiffel tower before we leave you mean actually see it yes you're gonna because i found this hotel online a couple years ago and i thought i don't know if i'm being scammed or not it says there's the view of the Eiffel tower and i got here and it wasn't a scam you actually can see the ivel tower from your window are you going to carry a

us over there so that the whole audience can see the Eiffel Tower over. Oh my goodness. And it sparkles at night. It sparkles at night. Wow. You know what? In the cheaper rooms, it doesn't sparkle at night. Oh, I'm losing you.

Are you still there, Vicki? Did we lose you? I think we lost Vicky. Hello? I'm losing you. Come in Rangoon. Did we lose Vicky? I'm losing the Wi-Fi.

Oh, no, you're back. I think the Vaua. So Vicky, that's the real, that's the actual Eiffel Tower from your, and the, even the, the, the, the, the, the balcony looks Parisian. I mean, you really got it. It's a nice room there. Yeah. That's great.

Yeah. And are you going to go get croissant and coffee or did you already do that? Oh, well, my plans for the evening are, I've been following this stranger on, you. YouTube. And I'm going to give her my favorite devotional tonight. I'm going to meet her for the first time. It's the Anne Graham Lott's devotional called Daily Light. And I don't think this woman knows Jesus yet. And I've taken it upon myself to, I bought one of her artworks. And she's going to meet me for dinner and give me the art I bought. and I'm going to give her the word of God. How did you find this woman online and what do you mean you're buying her artwork?

We've only got a minute or so. Go ahead. Well, if you want to look her up, it's called the Purple Palace. And she's a beautiful young blonde who is from Florida. And she's bilingual and she lives in Paris now and she's a singer. Bilingual. That's against the word of God. Okay.

Okay, so wait a second. But wait a second, Vicki. Wait. So does she live in Paris now? Yeah. Okay, so you somehow, you discovered her online, you bought a piece of her art, you're going to get the art from her, and you're going to give her this Anne Graham Lott's devotional. I have two copies of that Anne Graham Lott's devotional. In fact, Anne Graham Lott gave it to me herself. How sweet of you to do that. And I engraved her name on it. I engraved her name on it. Her name is Shana Clee. And she's beautiful and she's... Clee. Is she related to Paul Clee? I don't know.

But I told her she reminds me of when I was young and I moved to L.A. and I had no money and no contacts. And she had a dream and she's chasing her dream. But sometimes she says, the universe, the universe is helping me. And I say, I think God is protecting you, not the universe, but the God who created the universe. So I shoved myself into her life and I hope that she likes me. Well, we're out of times. I just want to say the universe doesn't do Jack, but God created the universe and God does more than Jack. And speaking of Jack, I'm glad we talked about C.S. Lewis.

That was wonderful. Vicki, I don't want to say goodbye. There's never enough time with you. Thanks for making me laugh and entertaining me. And thanks for coming on this trip to Oxford. We are out of time, but the name of your book is... Not dead yet! It is loaded with poems, folks.

I'm not kidding. I gave it a great blur because it's a great book. Not Dead Yet, Victoria Jackson. People are going to buy this book. It's fantastic. Vicki, thank you. We love you. Bye-bye.

I love you.