The Josh Innes Show - The Last Showgirl

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

I went to see a lovely movie called "The Last Showgirl" yesterday. The movie stars Pam Anderson as an aging showgirl who is about to be out of a job. I thought it was really good. As I tend to do, I related the plot of this movie to my own life and was really reflective while watching. Shocking, I know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hi, friends. It's Josh. I went to see a good movie last night that I would recommend you see as well, wherever you see your major motion pictures. If you're in Houston, I would urge you to go see it over at the Marquee in Houston, because that's where our friend Demir is. That is an unpaid advertisement for Demir, but he's a friend of the show and he's listened for a long time. And I love him. So he's a good guy. He runs the movie theater there. Does a great job.

Loves movies. So he's always willing to talk with you about them. So I went to see The Last Showgirl yesterday with Pam Anderson. And it's depressing. It's not, you know, there's really no uplifting part of it. It's just kind of sad and depressing. Not like Schindler's List depressing or like the beginning of Saving Private Ryan depressing. But it's depressing in that people kind of witness their mortality and what they really are in life. And I felt like I kind of related to the subject matter in a way.

So I'm sitting there in the theater and I'm watching this. And the plot of the movie, and I don't want to spoil anything in the movie because I think you should see it. It's not overly long, so you're not sitting there watching a two-and-a-half-hour just slog of a movie. It's about Pam Anderson, a woman in her 50s. She's playing a character. So it's not like it's not a Pam Anderson movie. She's playing the character of this woman. Sherry it's not a Pam Anderson movie. She's playing the character of this woman. Sherry, I think is her name, Shelley.

And she is a showgirl in Vegas. And this show that she's in, like she's in one of these old school showgirl shows. And she finds out that the show is closing in two weeks. And she's been doing this for 30 years. And she's having a hard time just kind of accepting her own kind of mortality she's obviously not a rich person like she never really made a ton of money and this is really all she knows and she's trying to balance like her family and a bunch of other shit in her life with the end of her time as a showgirl but it's kind of interesting because like there's other sub

plots and they're like jamie lee curtis is part of like a small little offshoot in this about because she used to be a dancer too in this and like I'm watching this and I'm like is this like what my like I kind of felt like this was how my life is you know like you're at the top of the world you're in an industry that at the time really matters so like in her world it was like being a showgirl in Vegas in the 19, you know, in the early like 50s, 60s, 70s and into the 80s. The showgirls were like the ambassadors of Vegas. Like when you thought of Vegas, you thought of the Rat Pack and showgirls. They were like the standard of glamour in Vegas. And now here she is in the 2000s and the 2020s. And the type of shit she does doesn't matter anymore. She's old.

And this thing that she's known for her entire life, that she's built her life around and given up sacrifice, relationships, and everything for is now coming to an end. And you're like, was it all kind of worth it? What do I do now? Who am I now? And that's kind of how I feel sometimes. I grew up wanting to be in an industry that is gradually dying and getting worse and worse by the day, getting less and less interesting and relevant by the day. You go through these times where you're on top of the world. She's like the face of the showgirls and everything. Now she gets older. She's not.

At one time, you're the dude that's the star on 610 in Houston. You're the guy that's the star at WIP in Philadelphia. And now you try to get jobs in this place and people don't fucking call you back. And you're like, what the fuck did I do? You know, like, look, I'm not trying to make everything about me, but it is the Josh Ennis show. It is my podcast. And I when I watch this, I'm just telling you how I felt when I was watching this movie in a way I felt it kind of, you know, like it, it spoke to me in this way of like, shit, like, is that what I'm currently going through? Am I going through one of these things of like, what does it all mean? And like, did everything I did, like at one point she's like, I've been doing this for like 30 something years and this is all I know or whatever. Like I have been doing daily talk radio slash sports shit in some way since 2004. I started doing like play by play and shit for a hockey team in 2001. So it's been over 20 years. But when I was a senior in high school, I was doing a daily sports

radio show. I would leave school around lunchtime. I would go do the talk show and then I would come back to school. Right. What a great talk show and then I would come back to school, right? It wasn't a great talk show. I probably sucked at it, but I did it, right? So that was important. And I've been doing that. This kind of marks 20 years of me doing daily radio, talk radio, sports radio. Now I've done music radio. So that's 20 years. That is a large part of my life. It is nearly half, it was over half of my life has been spent doing daily radio. And now you look at what you are now and you look at the fact that you got a couple of severance checks left and you look at the fact that you're, you know, you're trying to find a job and you want to like have the balls to just move back down to Houston and start

a podcast and, and I'll take the podcast you already have and really send it to the stratosphere and you want to have the balls to do that. But then you realize that you got to have some fucking cash and you realize that you're in debt because of like all the times you've moved and the money you've wasted and like you get all that. And you sit there and you start to really ponder and think about what you've done and what your life has become and what you've done. And you're like, holy shit, there comes a time that it ends. And that's what I'm thinking when I'm watching this movie. It was like, there's a time when it just kind of ends. And you don't know when it's going to end. You don't expect it to end. A year ago, I didn't expect that I'd be sitting here two months away from being out of severance and

wondering where I'm going to go next. I thought I was going to be in St. Louis for fucking ever. I thought when I signed here that this is where I was going to be. That's why I came here. I didn't think I'd be sitting here on my bed in my underwear recording this podcast trying to correlate my life with a Pam Anderson movie, right? Which also, the movie was more profound because you can kind of feel that that's probably something that happened in her life as well as someone whose whole worth and value to the industry was that she was hot.

Nobody took her seriously as an actress, to no fault of her own, but they didn't take her seriously. She was on Baywatch. She was in Barbed Wire. No one took her seriously in that way. So she was just always known as this hot chick with a big rack, CJ Parker. Borat to CJ Parker. That's how she was viewed. And now as you get older, like I watched the documentary about Pam, I guess last year. And one of the big takeaways is how people were just floored by how hideous she looked without makeup.

But I'm like, that fucking sucks. Like your whole worth and your whole value is in what you look like. And she made a lot of money from it. She became very famous. I had the Pam Anderson, CJ Parker poster and the red bathing suit holding the little life raft deal against the truck. I had that. But like when your whole worth and the value that people see of you is your beauty, it's kind of like, fuck, that ends at some point. And then what? You know, you got a good life out of it, but then what? So like I was just going through all these weird, profound kind of emotions watching this movie. I'm aware that sounds lame as shit but i

was i'm like like what is life i was having like these deep thoughts about this like is this thing that i've done for 20 years this thing that like all i ever wanted to do growing up after i decided that you know i didn't want to um you know work in in, you know, making movies. My first dream was to be a motion picture film director. And my inspiration was Alfred Hitchcock. On the wall in my bedroom, I had a mural that was painted of Psycho, from the cover of Psycho. And I had the Bates Motel light up sign. And like, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to make horror movies. That was my dream. And then I would say that people would ask me, hey, do you want to be on the radio like your old dad? Like, no, God, no. And then I decided that that's what I wanted

to do. And it was a passion that I had. It's a passion that I still have, which makes things and decisions you make difficult, right? But when you sit here and like your whole life is revolved around this thing that you've wanted to do, and that's the only thing you've ever cared about, and the only thing you've truly been passionate about was doing this. And then've wanted to do and that's the only thing you've ever cared about and the only thing you've truly been passionate about was doing this and then you come to the realization that whether it's to your own fault or the fault of the industry the fact that's dying whatever that maybe the road is over and you have to think of something new like it is a fucked up type of feeling and i think that's why i related and read this movie kind of resonated with me uh let me

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something out in life but it is interesting when something you've cared about i'm sure it happens to athletes like now it's easier for athletes because you can just kind of find yourself a big star in sports and then like you're almost guaranteed at least a shot at television or a podcast, or in the case of Jason Kelsey, every single possible media outlet will have something for you and you'll be overexposed. So now it's a little bit different. You go back and watch some of the movies of guys who were old school athletes that weren't making a billion dollars, and where do they go next? What becomes of the guy that was the star player in the sixties? What has he become? You know, what is, you know, go watch everybody's all American, which is a kind of boring movie,

but it's a movie I enjoy. But like you, you go from being like the star in high school, then you're the Heisman trophy winner. And in this case, in this movie, it was LSU, but like you win the Heisman trophy at Lsu many people feel this movie's based on billy cannon for what it's worth it's not but there's a lot of parallels but you know you're the star at lsu you marry the star cheerleader you go off to the nfl and you're a big star but then what happens when it's over what happens when the ride is over these dudes now don't have to worry about that because there's a thousand outlets any football player in the world could go start a podcast today and get enough listeners to make a couple of bucks and stay relevant. That wasn't the case in the 1970s. If you're a star player in the 60s, you

retire, what do you do next? It's not like you banked millions of dollars where you can go out and just work on your vanity projects. Now you got to find a way to keep food on the table. So like what happens when it's over? happens when the ride ends what happens when the people are done chanting your name now i sound like adrian and rocky five you know like i know that tommy makes you feel like you're winning again but you're losing us god i hate adrian so much you should hate adrian too she's a dream fucking killer but then she's always there to glom on she's always there to get on top of the old rocket whenever things are going good. But she's always there to tell you shit's not going good.

But I digress. But that's what it's like. You know, like what happens? How do you latch on to that? How do you accept what you are? Especially when you're at a young age. Like this is what happens to like old school athletes. You're 38 years old.

You're washed up. Nobody wants you anymore. What do you do next? And I can tell you, like, it is something that can just crush your fucking soul at times. Because, like, you go from being somebody that everybody's calling. Like, when I got the job in Houston the first time and I was doing the morning shit for, you know, um, you know, with Mark and John, there wasn't a day that went by that I wouldn't hear from somebody that's like, Hey man, like, do you want to start doing like a full-time? Do you want to be like the afternoon guy in Kansas city? Hey, we have an opening in Miami. Hey, we have an opening here. Like,

and they were all interested now looking back on it with the benefit of hindsight and age and experience. Well, the reason they wanted to hire guys like me is because I was good. They weren't going to put a schlub on the air. Now they put schlubs on the air. They don't care how good you are. They just throw your fucking ass on there and they go, hey, this guy will fit. He's cheap, whatever. Back then, you still had to be good. So I had talent. But they were going to hire me because I was 22, 23 years old, making $37,500 a year at 610. And they're like, if we give this guy like 50 to come to Kansas City, it's a huge raise. And we can get ourselves some cheap labor

and good success for a couple years. Knowing what I know now, I know that, you know, like, I know too much, I look too much into this shit. But like, you know, that now like, you know, that that's why people wanted you then because they wanted to get the cheapest talent they could find. And they wanted good, cheap talent. It becomes harder when you're not the cheap talent anymore. It becomes harder when you're a guy that's, you know, been to these places. Then there's a part of you that goes, you mean to tell me that I've worked? When I get on these rants, I'll rant on this to my friends.

Like, yesterday I found out that, like, there was a job I thought I could have maybe sort of had like they, that place liked me and I thought I was going to get a job potentially. And then it turns out they just stuck with what they had. Like after I talked with them for a couple months and you could tell by like the lack of interest in our conversations after a while that I wasn't going to get it. So I just kind of asked like, Hey, where's, where does this stand? And they're like, no, sorry. We're just going to stick with what we already have, which

is fascinating when you talk to places and they tell you everything that's wrong with what they currently have. Cause that's why they want you. But then after, after you talk with them, they're like, you know what? I know we just told you everything that we have and why it's bad, but we're not going to take you. We're going to stick with what we have. And you're like, then why the fuck did you talk to me? But I digress. So whenever those kind of things happen and I get shut down, which I do sometimes, you know, like if I reach out with someone,

sometimes I just don't even get a response because people are dickheads. Sometimes I get a response and they're like, no, we're just going to hire from within, which is fine. And then sometimes when they actually talk with you and you think you got a shot and then they dismiss you is when I really get pissed. So I'll talk to every friend I fucking have. I'll go, these motherfuckers. Like that's when I get like my angriest and like, I'll start ranting. Like what the fuck's the point of working in Philly and Houston if none of that fucking matters and they're going to hire some dickhead that's

never done half the shit I've done. Like I'll get in those kinds of moods sometimes. Like I'll just be pissed about it. I'll be enraged by it and I'll just fucking unload on my friends. I'm like, like when you really think about it and you think about what you've been able to accomplish in 20 years, like, yeah, I haven't had that longterm job somewhere. A lot of that's my own fault. A lot of it is self-sabotage. I think I have an element of what you might call imposter syndrome where like for whatever reason, like I don't, like I can't let myself be fully successful because in a way I feel like I don't deserve it. It's a weird thing. I probably need to see a shrink. I self-diagnosed by reading like online shrinks, right? So I don't have to talk because I don't trust a psychiatrist what if they tell my fucking secrets i'm not telling you anything ma'am so i'm all fucked up we get this

but like you go and i start talking to my friends who are in radio and i'll be like you know what what the fuck's the point of working in market six and market eight like and at the end of the day i've worked in like five or six top like full-on full daily shows and not just like voice track like hey here i am talking up records in dallas which i've done before but like i'm talking top like full on full daily shows and not just like voice track. Like, Hey, here I am talking up records in Dallas, which I've done before. But like,

I'm talking like straight up full on show in like, I believe the number was, let's say you go Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, uh, St. Louis,

Nashville, and Memphis, which are all top 50. I've, I've been in six daily doing a daily show in six top 50 cities in the country. Kind of impressive. And no one gives a fuck. They're like, yeah, whatever. Like we're just hanging on, bro. We're just seeing what happens. And you're like, then what was the fucking point of ever doing this? You know? And that's where I come into it. And then I'll get into these moods where I'm like now I just want to go down and I want to prove all these motherfuckers

wrong and I want to like go down there and really build something and then they'll be calling me like hey will you come back and I'll be like no go fuck yourself and like I want to do that but then I'll get into moods where I'm just like completely fucking like just woe is me what the fuck like I like I go up and down like that Billy Joel song I go to extremes a lot of these times I do you know like and I don't think I'm like bipolar or anything like that but like like you get really high at times over the idea that somebody wants to hire you and then when they don't it like gives you a punch in the fucking balls you know but then all it takes is like interest to grow again and all of a sudden you think you're big

shit again and then none of that matters like it's a very fascinating thing but all it takes is like interest to grow again. And then all of a sudden you think you're big shit again. And then none of that matters. Like it's a very fascinating thing, but all of this is what I was thinking of when I was watching this movie yesterday, this, uh, the last show girl, which I thought was a lovely movie. You know, it's kind of gritty. It's, it's sad, but like it, by the way, Bautista, Dave Bautista, the wrestler, phenomenal in this movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, phenomenal in this movie. Pam, phenomenal in this movie. It was just such a good movie. And that was kind of what was crossing my mind when I was watching this.

You can say, Josh, you're arrogant. You're narcissistic. You think about yourself all the time. There's an element of truth to that. Sure. Why not? We all do. Everybody thinks about how things impact their own life. you watch a movie like a father and son movie you

think about what your relationship is with your dad when i was watching that michael keaton movie a couple months ago about the relationship with him and his daughter i'm like that's gonna make me think of me and my dad that's just natural people say you're arrogant or narcissistic for that fuck them everybody thinks about their life and how it relates or how they can correlate it with other things like this so anybody who would tell you that you're a narcissist or that you're full of shit or whatever tell them to go fuck themselves but anyway like go see the movie watch it i don't know if it'll be on demand probably pretty soon i don't see this being a movie that's in the theaters very long so you wait to rent it on amazon or whatever

last show girl good fucking movie go check it out