The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Emma Slater from Dancing with the Stars Joins the Andy Richter Call-In Show!

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Andy’s Dancing With the Stars partner, Emma Slater, joins the Andy Richter Call-In Show this week to discuss their experience on the show, the incredible online reaction they've been receiving, and much more! Plus, Andy’s ACTUAL high school homecoming date calls in to the show! This episode taped on October 1, 2025. Want to call in to a future episode? Fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER or dial 855-266-2604.  Tell us your favorite dinner party story or ask a question. This episode previously aired on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio (ch. 104). If you’d like to hear these episodes in advance, new episodes premiere exclusively for SiriusXM subscribers on Conan O’Brien Radio and the SiriusXM app every Wednesday at 4pm ET/1pm PT Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Conan O'Brien Radio Conan O'Brien Radio. Hi. Hello, everyone. Andy Richter here, which is pretty convenient because it's the Andy Richter Call-in Show. Like if it was Charles Barkley, you might be excited, but it would not make sense. Anyway, today is a really fun day because my partner from Dancing with the Stars is guest hosting.

Yes. And we get to, and we were definitely aware, because the show was last night, we were definitely aware that today could either be a happy, a happy continuation of our partnership or a tearful reunion. Yes. But I made it through last night. So we're still, in fact, we just, we, I just was learning. a Viennese waltz, everyone.

Yes. In case you were wondering what I was doing. And he did it very well. We are emotionally, positively charged today. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Charged up. And I found out what makes a waltz vienese

is just lots of whipped cream. I did not know that, but that's what it is. Yes, you're right. I believe they call it slug in Vienna. But here, let me read what they put on your bio. My credential. I didn't. Probably my dad wrote this years ago, so we'll see what it says. Oh, good, good, good. Yeah. She's a very bad girl.

Yes. She's a dancer and choreographer and TikTok genius. Who wrote that? Oh, I love you. My producer did. That's great. She's performed across theater film and television around the world and was even featured in the 2008 film Mamma Mia. Yes. Which, by the way, was shot nowhere near Greece. It was in a cold, dreary London studio. Totally. There was only two weeks that were in Greece and it was everything that was beach related. And it was literally two weeks of the whole thing. But it was months.

And you didn't get to go. And I didn't get to go. Yeah, yeah. She joined dancing with the, it says dancing with the star, Sean. Maybe from her perspective, she is dancing with only one star. I am now. But the name of the show is dancing with it. She joined Dancing with the Stars in 2012 and won the competition with Rashad Jennings in season 24. Yes. I mean... We could do it again.

Yeah, sure. I think I might be a double Mirabal winner by the time Thanksgiving comes around. Let's go, Andy. Have you seen some of those other people dance? Well, I've seen them. Oh, my God.

I've seen them. I've been, you know, I'll say like, I'm 30 years older than those people, but even 30 years ago, I don't think I could have done this shit they're doing. Well, you know, some of them have got a lot of professional dance experience, which the show welcomes, you know,

it's just this season that happens to be a lot of those people. Yeah, yeah. You know, and then it's funny because last night, I don't know if you, everybody watched a show, but Carrie Ann made a comment. It was like, well, I don't really, somebody danced. And she said, I don't really know how to score this because there's kind of like two competitions going on right now. It's like everybody in the advanced group and then everybody in the beginners group. And then you turned to me and you said, there's only one person in the beginners group and it's me. Well, actually, that's not like Dylan is a beginner.

Yeah. And I think Danielle is a beginner. I think Jen, I'm not 100% sure she might have had some dance spirits, I don't know Maybe Jen, but I feel like all those Mormons dance Like they have to dance You know, contrary to what the film

Footloose would have you think Yep They're, they're There's huge there Huge dance community Because there's a lot of Utahans and Mormons are on the show Yes, that means

Even in the troop Beautiful dancers There's some fantastic studios there And they're very like heavily dance oriented. So, you know, when you, when you grow up in Utah, it, boy or girl, you're probably going to dance. Like, it's just a big culture thing over there. And they're great at it. They go hard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm from a rough area of, I mean, with love, I say it in my heart,

you know, I'm from Birmingham, which is, if you ever watch the peekie blinders, it's kind of like a kind of rough northern sort of middle of England type city. But has better technology. Better technology now. Yes. But, but, you know, up against a these Utah girls, they have so much fire and so much like, grr about them. I'm like, oh, man, I've got to step it up. And probably lots of, and I'm just going to say it pent-up sexual frustration. Potentially, potentially, yeah. I think that can fuel all that hot Mormon dancing.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That and the lack of caffeine. They have to get charged from something, from something from anything. Well, I mean, you've been doing this since you were a kid, right? Like you left home at like 16 to become an answer, yeah. I did and I remember the day that my parents dropped me off in London and my mom was such a mess. Like she was crying.

She describes this as quite a traumatic experience actually. But they did drop me off. I finished high school and then I got almost like serendipitously, if that's the right word to say. I got this job offer to come and do a theatre show all around England and I got to do it with my dance partner. So we went and did that. And it was fantastic.

And it was just a ballroom dancing show. Just a ballroom dancing show in a theatre. So with, you know, audience members and then we'd do a week somewhere in England. And then we would drive, because England's obviously very small, but condensed, you know, with population. We'd drive 30 minutes and then spend another week in that place. And it would still. And people loved it because, you know, it was really big over there. Yeah.

So I did that for two years and then did Mamma Mia the movie and then moved into London and stayed in London for a few years. And then by the time I was 22, I think I was 22, that's when I came to L.A. and did Dancing with the Stars. How did that connection happen? Well, at the time, I was dating Sasha Faber, who's also on the show. And was he in London? He was a dancer in London at the time? He's from Australia, so not in London, but we were actually on a touring show. So we were doing, we were traveling internationally together with a big group of people. Those touring shows are so romantic.

Right? They're so romantic. Everybody sleeps with everybody. Right. I mean, it's kind of the thing. And dancers are like that. I'll be, you know, the first to admit. Yeah, and I'll tell you, the place is full of horn dogs. The whole thing. It's uncomfortable, frankly. So he was amazing and we're still super, super tight. Like, love that guy. He's awesome. He actually had an interview. Before we got together, he had an interview for Dancing with the Stars. They wanted him to join, so he went and joined, and then I went and visited him over there. What year of the show is this?

This was 2012. So how far into the run of the show? This was season 13. Okay. And now we're on season 13. 34. So this was 21 seasons ago. Midway, yeah.

Midway, yeah, a little before midway, a little earlier than midway. Yeah, a little earlier than midway. So this is we're talking like, I think, maybe 14 years ago. Yeah. And so I want to. visited him. I had an interview with the producers in which Sash set up and I thought it went really bad, but they said it went really good. I think I was a bit of a mess, you know, and

floaty and all over the place. And they said, oh, she's great. She'll fit in and so I joined and it was, it's been epic. I've been so fortunate. And you didn't go, you weren't in the, because there is the troop, which is sort of like backup dancers. Yes. I did that. Oh, you did I did do that for three years, or three seasons, so a year and a half. So I did that, and then they gave me my first celebrity, who was coincidentally a comedian, Bill Engville, and it went really well. We got to the finals, and people loved him. It was a great, just mix of just wonderful, wholesome personality with genuine, like, warmth, and he tried his hardest, and people applauded that and appreciate that, and he did so well.

Huh. Yeah. Sounds familiar. It sounds familiar, right? Except he, he's the January article. I'm a phony. You're not a phony. I'm a real fucking prick.

I can't wait for people to see your viny's waltz, Andy. Well, tune in, people. To Tuesday. Tuesday. I'm, I'm, the thing that, I mean, I'm impressed with so much of what happens around there. But, but choreography is such a, it amazes me because there's no, like, you know, when you're writing a song, you write notes on a piece of paper. yes like and when but when you're choreographing there's no way to yeah you just got to hold it in your head and I see you when you you know and our pieces are relatively short right as you know they're a minute or so but I can see you knowing exactly like what step where in the song this particular step is totally and how long does it take to get to that to be able to do that and and do you have to demonstrate to them like oh I can choreograph before you're going to take to get to that to be able to do that and and do you have to demonstrate to them like oh I can choreograph before before they throw a Bill Engval at you.

No, that's the thing. Oh my gosh, I was scared, can I swear? Shitless, yeah, yeah. I was scared shitless when I joined the show because we can dance, that's one thing. And even teach, but even that is to teach somebody else and to understand, I believe it's a lot of psychology. Like with you, I use a lot of metaphors and I try to find what triggers you. And I mean that in a good way. Like what you respond to.

And I'll hit that. and but teaching someone's hard choreography they don't vet you beforehand it's not like hey can you try this now when they audition people because the show's gotten really really popular and I think there's a lot of people trying to get on the show and apply to be the dancers

I think now they try to put people through hey you know we're going to give you a sample celebrity and it'll just be a producer and they get you to try to put some choreography together and they'll see how you are at teaching them they'll see how you are at putting steps together they'll see how you are on camera, like as in an interview.

So it's kind of a bit of a process now. But back then, oh gosh, no, they just, like, they knew me as a dancer. They knew, you know, what I'd done in competition, so they knew I was good enough to do it. And they saw me on camera and they were like, okay, great. And they just threw me in. And then you have to learn. That's why I really do think it's very important to be on the troop before you're a pro. personally I think it helped me

I don't this it does not apply to everybody because some people just don't need it at all they just drop in and it's like they've been there forever like I think yarn this season is doing a great job especially someone who is not necessarily from a boring background I think he's doing a great job but being on the troop really helped me because it allowed me to watch the current professionals

at the time it allowed me to watch them and how they choreograph it allowed me to see there is a formula to this like anything there's a formula And you can break out of that and be creative, and sometimes that's rewarded. And sometimes trying to do something different and trying to break the mold can backfire. And it's better to go with the formula and find moments in other ways. But when I choreographing, you've seen me, because you'll see me kind of go around the room and then make faces.

And I think I look super strange when that happens. But it's me holding it in my head. I can see you picturing it and stuff. And, yeah, and there's, there are moments where I just stand and you sort of make faces and move around, do little steps. You should see me do that in the supermarket. People start to back away. Who's that weird girl by the pickles doing something weird? And if you leave me, if you leave me standing for long enough, I'll, like, go to the bathroom.

Yes, you do. And I love your expression because you'll stand there and you'll wait, like, the most perfect angelic student, just kind of like watching me like that. sometimes like today you did it with your hands out and I said just stay there and you went like this and you just stayed there and then after a while you were like I'm going to go to the bathroom and I was like yeah that's probably right and you also see how the other pros

come into our rehearsal room or other people's rehearsal room and they ask for help because it's like it's a family like we've got you know there was in the second week there was a bit where it was a tangoy bit where I was that the second week no that was the first week No second week. First week was cha-cha.

Tango was a second week? Did I say tango? Yeah, yeah, I forget. No, you said second week. You were right. Yeah, yeah. But I think I said, well, it doesn't matter. Whatever.

But at any rate, there was a bit where there was a moment to the camera and Mark Ballas said, how about if he kisses your arm, which I guess is a very tango-y kind of thing to do. And so we put that in. And it's just really nice that everybody's willing to give each other gifts. and moments and good ideas and then they're not stingy with it. Totally. No, it was so helpful. I mean, and Mark is fantastic with character. So he's like, oh, you should have him do

like a real tango kiss up the arm. Then you started doing a, I said, now you've got to connect to the camera and give it some energy. And then you started winking to camera. And then I think it was Alan that said, what if he lifted your arm and winked under your arm? Yeah. And it ended up being great. So it was an accumulation of you know, Mark's input, Alan's input, Your input, my input, all into that one thing.

And that's what I love about the show. Yeah, it is really nice. Yeah, people, like, help me with this, help me with that. Yeah. It's really nice. Well, hey, everybody. I forgot this is a call-in show. We should take some callers.

Our, and this is a total coincidence, but our theme is dance. Can you believe it? Wow. It's our theme. Yeah, yeah. That is our topic today. So we're looking for your dance story. So if you've got a good one, give us a call at 855-266-2-604.

We've got somebody coming in here. We've got Jay from Florida. Hello, Jay. Hello. Hi. Hi. Hi, welcome. Oh, so excited to be here.

Congratulations. Oh, thank you, thank you. Last night was amazing. Thank you so much. Yeah, so I know you here. a lot of horror stories sometimes about things that went wrong. They're fun, though. I love them.

I love those stories. Well, okay. Well, you can tell me a nice one, too. I'm not a monster. Okay. Well, I'm going to share a story that's about my best high school dance ever. Oh, nice. I love this.

Can I share it? Of course you can. Yeah, that's why we're here, Jay. He's not going to cut you off. Okay. That's awesome. That's awesome. So, okay, so I grew up.

up in Illinois and a really, really small, small town. Name it. And this was in the 1980s. What town was it? You really want to know? Yeah, yeah. I'm from Illinois. I grew up in the cornfield in Yorkville, Illinois.

You see, she's playing with me because that's where I'm from. Is it? That was my small town. Really? Wait a minute. All right. I know who this is. I know who this is.

this is Julie Kraft Oh, I Yeah Is it? Yeah, yeah We went to a dance together Oh, is this what she's going to say Is this a good story?

Well, then say, okay, I'm sorry Spoiler alert Rewind and listen to Or I mean, fast forward or whatever Well, hello, Julie Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, oh my gosh, I love you, Andy. I love you too.

Now, you're not, but you're not Julie Kraft anymore, are you? Yes, I am. Oh, you still are. Okay, good. Well, I went away and now I'm back. I like a modern woman that keeps her last name. No, I'm single, Andy. I'm single. So it's fast again. Hey, guys. Anybody out there? Okay. I know, right?

So tell the story, because my memories are so weak because of the medication. See, I know. So I apologize as well. We're getting older. So I think I have all my facts straight. and I even reached out to your brother to try to double check on the fact. Yeah, because he is a photographic memory. Yeah. Yeah, that's funny. Okay. So there's this one guy in high school.

His name was Andy. Yep. You know who he is. And he, like, followed me everywhere. And, like, we ended up doing all of the same things. We were both in the school plays. We were both in the student council. We were both on the speech team.

I love that. Andy played sports. I was a cheerleader. And I even got out my yearbooks last night just to make sure I didn't miss anything. We were also both library aids. Oh, the library. The library was the best. The librarians were so cool and so fun and it was just like a great place to hang. In England, that would not be that. No. Librarians would not be considered cool. I think they're cool, but they wouldn't be considered. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. No, they were really great. I think we did that just to get out of class. I'm not sure.

but it was kind of funny. Okay, so after school, we spent a lot of time together with the point. Like, we were together in all these events, the school plays, so we were always together after school. And it was a play practice. We were hanging out after school, and Andy was just like, every day we were just laughing, and we were trying to, like, change up the script because we wanted to be funny. Yes.

So we were always laughing, and he's just like, one time Andy asked me to go to the homecoming dance that was coming up, and I started laughing because I'm like, this is a joke. surely. And then he's like, no, I'm serious. Like, we're friends. It'll be, it'll be the best laugh of the year. So we're like, okay. That's great. And how was it? So Andy asked me to, well, okay, I'm going to tell you the story. So he said, well, I gave him one condition. I said, I'm only going to go on one condition. He's like, what's that? And I said, well, I went to the homecoming dance the year before with a guy named, okay, I'm going to put it out there, Jeff. And he brought me flowers and in the flowers for

homecoming there was a cowbell so like every time I moved the bell is going off and so I told Andy I'd go but like no cowbell that was quite a sacrifice to me to me I went home and I said mom she doesn't want to

cowbell but what about Maracas where do you stand on that okay so Andy has the coolest parents in town we're growing up in the 80s had this really nice house, a big yard. And so Andy was said that his parents were leaving town at like eight or nine, nine or ten, I mean, that night of the dance. And so he was going to host an after party after the dance. So I'm like, wow, that's amazing. So I'm like, okay, now my parents are

really strict. My dad was father of the president of the school board. So I'm like, okay, it's going to be a three-hour discussion to try and sit them down, ask go the dance, ask to stay out afterwards. and I sat down with my parents ready for the negotiation and they said well who's who asked you you know to go and I said Andy and my parents are like oh that's amazing we love Andy like one second like Andy erased my curfew oh right yeah oh yeah oh Andy no curfew he's absolutely harmless no problem exactly they're like he's so nice we love Andy We love his mom. We love his grandma.

They're like, you can stay out as late as you want. So I was like, that's amazing. Okay, so now Andy and I are like, okay, we're going to the dance. Well, obviously we need alcohol. And so we weren't old enough. I didn't have a car. So we put into place Operation Get Booze. And so I called my friend Angela.

Well, I probably didn't call her because we didn't really have cell phones. So walked over to Angela's house. And she had an older brother. So he bought the booze. He bought the Boone's Farm, Strawberry Hill, the best, for Andy and I to, you know, kick it. And so she put it in a box, wrapped it in birthday wrapping paper, and then she brought it to my house the day of the dance. Because she knew my mom would open it, like, or be all over it. So she's like, here, give this to Debbie.

It's Debbie's birthday. I know you're going to see her tonight. So it was a wrapped birthday present that I had a clever. That's super smart. Okay. So we go to the dance, the dance totally sucked. It was like, you know, Cindy Lopper, girls just want to have fun. So all the girls are out dancing, but like it wasn't like a boy girl thing.

Like the boys are all sitting in the bleachers just watching. That happens. And it's like, okay. That absolutely happens. Boys need a bit of encouragement, you know? Yeah. Some boys. But like, I don't know.

Maybe it was the Guns and Roses. Maybe it was the music at the time. But like the boys were just sitting in the bleachers and wouldn't move. I think Andy and I, we slow dance like one. And so I think that was for one of the teachers to go back and tell my dad that we were actually there, you know, the spies to tell them. So we actually went to the dance. Yeah. Okay.

So I'm almost to the after party. Okay. So Andy and I looked at each other. We're like, we need to go. Yes. So we're like, okay. So we start heading towards the door. So our theater coach, Mr. Fry, was like the door monitor.

and he was just like, well, you guys know if you leave, you can't come back. And Andy and I were like, yeah, we know that's the plan. Thank you. That's the plan. Yeah. Open the door. So I'm sorry, Emma, but I wanted to tell you that, like, that was Andy's first fox trot because our mascot was the foxes. Yeah, we were the Yorkville foxes because we were on the Fox River.

Oh, okay. That's wicked. out the door. So you do have dance experience, is what you're saying. Yes. We should expose this. Just getting out of dances. Yeah.

Getting to back, getting to where the liquor is. Happened to in the 80s. Well, so his parents were not gone yet, so we couldn't go to Andy's house. So we're like, okay, where are we going to go? So where do we go? We're in the Midwest, middle of nowhere. We took our booze and we went to the cornfield. Yes.

Out there. Sounds fun. in the cornfield we used to they used to have what they would call road parties oh which would just be because there was a big farming area yeah you could go out to just there were just country roads where just posse cars could park on the side of the road and you know kids like we have muscle head kids that had big speakers that would come out of their out of the trunk of their car and they would just stand around in a ditch and drink that's uh you know that was pretty much it And sometimes you didn't know exactly where it was.

You know, you kind of had to drive around until you saw where they were. And occasionally a cop would come out. But it's like, you know, there's probably five cops for the entire county. So your odds of not getting caught. Yeah. So that was, there was not a lot to do. There was not a lot to do. That sounds amazing.

That's community right there. It sure is. We were in the cornfields drinking. It was really fun. And we were like, what, a mile from Horn Seas, you know. the only store in town. Yeah, it's like a five and nine. So then we go over.

Yeah, that was fun. Okay, so Andy's the first person that really ever took me to the cornfield. So that was kind of fun. And then we went to the Astor Party. So we go over to Andy's house. And Andy is like so nice, so welcoming, like he was letting anybody in. And I have two, two memories of the after party. That's it.

Otherwise, my memory's gone. But they're both kind of funny. Okay, well, no one's dad. 20. Okay. So the sad one is that Andy had a dog growing up. And so we're outside. The party was all outside. He had a picnic table. But people filled the dog, and I'm not going to name names, but they filled the dog bowl with alcohol. Okay. And so I saw Andy's dog just like stumble and do a nose dive right right off the picnic table. Oh, no. I'm glad I didn't know about that. Yeah. Yeah. She wasn't She wasn't the smartest dog. She wasn't the smartest dog, so her being drunk was probably easy to miss.

Oh, well, baby. Yeah. Kids are stupid. Your, your mom talked about the fish dying, so I know your dog was okay. Yes, good. She was fine. Okay. Okay, so the second story, the second memory I have of Andy's party is that Andy, like, you know how at a high school party, people like a rumor starts or everybody just

starts whispering, they're like, oh, so-and-so are up in the bedroom, you know, or like a rumor gets going and everybody at the party is talking about it. It's usually about someone up in a bedroom. But at Andy's party, the rumor that went around was that Andy has a bidet. Because we were in like the, I know, we're like this small farm town in the 80s. Nobody had a bidet. And most people had no idea what it was. Yeah, well, that's it.

Biday is quite European, right? Yes, absolutely. I mean, my nan had a bidet, B-day. I mean, in England, we butcher the name. It was a B-D-Day, you know. So that's normal for me, but not normal in Illinois? Not at all normal. And I'll tell you the reason.

No, it was not normal. The reason was because my stepfather was a plumber. Oh, way. And so he got, they, my parents, my mom and my stepdad's bathroom was a show place. Uh-huh. There was a bathtub, there was a soaker jacuzzi in the middle of the room, a walk-in shower, toilet, bidet, and two sinks. Wow, you guys had lots of options to be clean. It was huge because they built a wing on, we lived in the house that my great-grandfather actually built, and they built a wing onto it, and it's such an ugly thing.

They just put this giant box on the side of this beautiful. old farmhouse but they had as much room as they wanted so they made this giant bathroom that was just you know that it was and the and the jacuzzi was yeah sweet oh that's awesome a big and i remember yeah it was like um like like a red orange color oh oh yeah it's like very very of the time yes and then all the fixtures were like cocoa brown like the toilet and the beday and the sinks which is a terrible thing because every every drop of urine shows. Oh, no.

It's just, yeah, dark, dark toilet fixtures are a nightmare. Yes, no. So, but yes, so everyone, I'm sure. We didn't have cell phones. Yeah, I'm sure everybody went up. We didn't have cell phones, so there's no evidence. Yes. But everybody went up and checked out the bidet, I'm sure.

Yes. Yes. They were giving tours of Andy Zaffir. That's funny. Oh, that's so funny. I love the stories. And you think that 40 years later, like my memory is, of not like of the after party is not like of a like wild night with you know whatever a person up in the bedroom it's like of and seeing you know andy's bidet yeah that's right yes i knew how to get the ladies upstairs yes with plumbing fixtures um well i'll tell you julie the one i remember i remember being in the car and dropping you off for your as you as and we just dropped you off and i let you get out in the driveway and walk up to your house

And I had the instant thought. And it's, you know, how you have to learn how to date. And I had no coaching whatsoever from anybody. But it's like as I let you out and you walked up this, you know, walked up the driveway to your house, I sat there and I went, oh, I think I'm supposed to walk her to her door. And I still remember that and still feel like, God damn it, I should have walked you to the door. I'm sorry. Oh my God.

That's funny. And the other thing that I remember, my parents would have invited you in. The other thing that I remember and that you made the right choice that you mentioned was because we did, we would have fun. Like we were kind of theater kids in a town that didn't have theater kids because there wasn't enough kids to have that much of a separate sort of subset. Got it. So backstage at the school play while we're rehearsing, we had fun. we talked and had fun and goofed around and the next play which I must have I don't know it was fall or spring but the next play and I was I knew I was a pretty good actor like I just

had a natural ability and there was a big part in the next play and all the plays were stupid they were just like one was called it was Halloween themed and it was called boys and ghouls together and my brother played a mummy in it um and but they they were just dumb but there was a big part and i and i think i was just i was a sophomore i think but i was read i knew like okay i should get this big part and i read for it and i did better than anybody else and because the auditions everybody's sitting around so when he posts him i had this small part this little part oh and uh i asked him I went and said, hey, what the fuck?

Yeah. And he said, well, I talked to Mr. Barron's who ran whatever it was the previous play. And he said, and this is a direct quote, I will never forget, that you and Julie Craft were a disruptive influence backstage. So he was punishing me by giving me. And he told me in that same talk. He told me in that same talk, he said, you are the best natural actor. have ever had come through this school. Wow.

But I'm giving you a shitty part because you and Julie Kraft did what you're supposed to do. Yes. Backstage at the play. Oh my gosh. I was kicking himself now. I don't think I had the nerve. In my mind, I want to say that I said, well, I don't want to be in this play and then I just quit.

And I think that is a possibility, but also is a possibility that I just did that play and then never did the play. And then never did it again. But I never did a school play after he told me. that because I just was like Oh I'm so sorry Yeah and there's no I don't think that You would have been disruptive

I just think you would have been having fun Being creative and listen People lose sight of that you know Mr. Barron's The good thing about Mr. Barron's Which was also like a complicated thing Was that his real dream was to be a Like very conservative

Minister like he wanted to be a preacher Got it And he would preach on the weekends or like he was like assistant minister at some real kind of conservative church. And he used to there was there was a, there was a, it was during the time when the devil, you know, like rock and roll is satanic. Right. And there's secret messages in rock and roll. And if you play this song backwards, you'll see this. And there was a whole.

And this is a thing too that it's looking back on it. It was such a scam because there was a particular ministry that. sold you an entire audio video package that you could then take and do their little show about how the devil is in rock and roll we would beg him he was an english teacher yeah give us the rock and roll devil thing like should tell us and he would play it for us and be very seriously you know about like you know like hotel california like the the eagles said they sold their soul to the devil and we're all just like yeah who cares yeah yeah yeah play play stairway to heaven backwards again so we can hear it

but you know but so that's that's who was saying it was a disruptive influence right got it was a guy that was kind of born uptight i think you i think it worked how well for you though yeah yeah so yeah and julie was you know julia is an older woman julia's a year older than me oh yes i believe you were you a sophomore and i was a freshman or was were you a junior and i was a sophomore. I can't remember. I can't recall, but yes, I'm a little bit old. Just a little bit. Just a smidge. But I mean, but at the time, you know, we were practically a cougar in my mind because I was, you know, you were, you know, in high school, in high school, no, but I mean, in high school for a boy to date an older girl, it's, you know, to go to the dance with an older girl. That was, you know. No, I remember that. I remember that. Like it, you know, it's a sexist world. I don't know if you did. Yeah. Progressive. I like that, Julie. Progressive. Thank you so much for calling in. This was, this was exciting to me. I mean, as you were saying it, I was flashing back to some of the memories, but then there were other things you were saying. I was like, I don't remember that at all. It's been a long time. Yeah. I, you know. And I like that you had that you got my brother to refresh your memory because I'm sure he remembers every bit of it. Okay. Can I tell you? I messaged him. I seriously did. And I said, do you, you had the day. right like i just like i wasn't imagining that right and he you know what he said he said yes he goes and we sold it today this was this morning he said you sold your what i don't know i hope it's because

the house changed hands again like it somebody else bought the house and they were i think they were tearing out old stuff and they kept yeah they kept sending gus pictures my brother's name is Gus, pictures of, like, old shit from our house. You want this bench? Because there was a built-in bench that, you know, like, especially my little sister and brother had scribbled stuff on there. And he's like, do you want this? But it's like, it's just a big old plywood bench.

Well, Julie, thank you so much for calling. And it's great to hear from you. Nice to hear from you, Julie. Thank you so much. Wish you all the best. And I'm teaching now, so I have all my students voting for you guys. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Julie. That's the best. Bye. Love you, bye. Bye. Bye. All right. That was fun.

I know it was. That was fun. I was not expecting that. Not at all. Sean had told me that Julie had called that, but I didn't realize that that was what the story was going to be. That's great. And the cornfields too. Like, I can really like picture that.

It's so different from how I grew up. Yes. And then I was just, like I said, I was just. It was, Julie and I were, you know, we were, she was fun and cool and great to hang out with. But beyond that, I had no idea what to do. Yes. Like, I just, and I mean, I still feel like I don't have any what is known as game. And back then I certainly didn't have any idea like what dating was or like, how do you go from friends to more than friends?

Like, no idea. No idea. It took, like, years for me to. to sort of catch on to that in even like a ham-fisted way. I love that. I love that. So your game is you're like, you're genuine. So even if you're confused.

And it takes forever that way, though. Yes. When you're genuine, you really got to put in the time. Read a book handy. Read a book. All right. Well, let's get 855-266-2604 is the number. and we've got Chris from Maryland.

Chris, did I take you to a dance? No, you did not. All right, well, there's always tomorrow. Absolutely. All right. I'm rooting for you guys. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

And you've been a fan forever. Thank you. I've been watching you from back when you all were on television and we had to either tape it or actually catch it live. Yes. Those were the old days. You and I are a similar age. So 33 years ago this Saturday, my wife and I got married.

Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. So this is a story about the six weeks prior to our wedding when we took Arthur Murray dance classes so that I could learn how to dance. Because my version of dancing was to just stand there and move from side to side and swing your arms and you know with the overbite like yeah white guy dance so um we yeah exactly i didn't want to say it i'd let you say it um so we took these courses through

arthur murray and um i'm i'm the kind of person who really concentrates and tries to to get a handle on what i'm doing but i just cannot remember dance steps so it it wasn't going well but you know i I was trying my hardest, and we ended up doing a waltz. And so, you know, it's one, two, three, one, two, three. So I'm in the video of our wedding when we were dancing, because I'm a concentrator, I tend to poke my thumb out of, or poke my tongue out of my mouth. And so on the wedding video, there's pictures of me with my tongue out of my mouth, and you can see that I'm counting.

And, of course, my wife is mortified by all of it because her dad had played in the big bands. So she and her mom had danced together when she was growing up. So she was a great dancer. Wow. So, but I can tell you that 33 years later, we still dance together. Oh, that's beautiful. That's amazing. That's beautiful.

Have you broadened your repertoire, or is it all waltzing, or is it freestyle? No, I can tell you. We've learned lots of different things. We just not too long ago did another round of dance courses through the Fred Astaire Dance School. And again, every time we would go back, the instructor would say, do you remember the Fox Trot? And I would be like, no.

Sound familiar, Emma? Yes. I'm somewhat of an expert in this, Chris. I am willing to get up every now and then when my wife puts on music or when we, we hear something in a movie and she'll be like, do you want to dance? And so we'll get up and dance. And when we go out to events, we dance together. That's great. That's amazing. Who's more enthusiastic about it? You or your wife? Definitely my wife. Oh, yeah. I got to tell you, Chris,

when you said that when you concentrate, you sometimes stick your tongue out of your mouth, you should see my face when you said that because my dad does the exact same thing. And I didn't know. I don't know anybody else that does that But he really sticks his tongue out And that's what he does when he concentrate And I used to do that as a kid too Not in dancing But if I'm concentrating on like maths or something

I'd be like why is my tongue out of my mouth What am I doing? Often I see people do it like when they're doing sort of tasks Like screwing something in You know, yeah It must be some kind of psychological thing Michael Jordan famously used to do it Oh he did? I didn't know that

When he was flying through the air tongue would stick out to the side Wow. In the same sort of way. I'm going to have to look that up, but I just, I can imagine you there. I love that story. Yeah, that's great. One, two, three.

Are you still there? Oh, yeah. It's been a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm here. All right. It's been a lot of fun. I've dancing over the years.

Oh, good. Thank you, Chris. Keep dancing, Chris. Thanks for sharing. All right. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you, Chris.

That reminds me just that him counting. Like, first of all, I can totally see myself doing that. and it just reminded me of I was one of the one of the role I had a role in a movie called Big Trouble and in it I play a security guard at a mall and I have to run and fire a gun like four times and then fall flat on my face yes and after the first two takes the sound guy came up to me and said because the gun had blanks in it so it was actually firing I know what you're in the sign he came up to me and he came up to me and he said, you're going, peo, peo, pew, pew, every time you squeeze the trigger. I had no idea. Oh, okay, I guess I'll stop saying,

peep, pew, pew. I bet a lot of murderers do that, too, though. I bet they do. Probably very common. Yeah, exactly. That is hilarious. Oh, my God. Kelly, Kelly calling from Madison,

I assume Wisconsin. That's right. Hi, Kelly. You've got me and Emma. Hello. Hello. Hi. Big fans of you guys.

It was never cool enough to be invited to one of the cornfield parties. Yeah, me of all been feels very cool. Yeah. I felt like I was there. I love Madison, by the way. Oh, thank you. You've been here. Yes, it's fun.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. So great. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. My alma mater, which is why it took me six years for a bachelor's degree. It's too fun.

So my story is I have always wanted to be a backup dancer for a rock and roll band. That's like, when does that happen? And no dance training at all. I just really love to dance and love to go to rock shows. And I just feel like, man, I'm biving. like what rock and roll band would it benefit from rock and roll dancers back there just like sure totally i love that you know why don't they think of that so um i'm in at the time i'm in my 20s and live in one of those like music towns college towns that's got a lot of great venues

so there's just one street with like six venues and you know on a weekend they've got like six different rock and roll shows going on and so i went to this amazing show and um it was just face melting and excellent and I thought you can do some backup answers and I also remember like the band members were easy to remember them because they had sort of like Axel Rose flash thing going on like one of them make giant big permed hair and one of them was like straight long hair and so after the show I'm bopping around that street going to the various bars and whatnot and I see the guys and I'm like oh my god awesome show

and I said really face melted exactly what I was after and then I said by the way have you guys ever considered having backup dancers

or your rock I know that you know not normal really but why not and they were like holy shit you're not going to believe this but just

tonight we were talking about how thick it would be if a rock and roll band had backup dancers and I said oh my God

I would love to view backup things. And they were like, dude, for real. Yeah. It's fate. Yes. It's fate. And then I said, I was like, yeah, man, thanks. And anyway, again, great show, you know, over.

I always love seeing shows like the caterpillar room or whatever. And they go, caterpillar room. What are you talking about? I'm sorry, you guys tonight at the caterpillar room. And they were like, we played at OK's corral. And at that moment when they said, we play the okay's corral, like a movie, I see at the other end of the dark bar, all of a sudden, something's lit up. And there is like another dude with big curly hair, and there's, like, another little rock and roller with long hair. Oh, no.

You guys did work this band at this show, and they were like, oh, no, and they were all immediately so offended. And I just first saw laughing. It's hilarious, and I'm like, well, that's fucking. crazy, but anyway, that's hilarious, right? Let's do this. I'll still do it. Yeah, what you play, I don't give a shit. Yeah, right? Yeah, it's like, come on, I'll do it for you. That's brilliant.

I did recognize this. And they were like, no. Would they really offended afterwards or what? No, they were absolutely just so offended. Oh. You were more hilarious. Yeah, yeah. That's brilliant.

I was just repeating my dreams. Never again. That's awesome. Great story. Did you go up to the original people? Were like, hey, have you considered backup dancers? Yes. Okay.

The pits did not land. Oh. The vision. And I even told them, I thought I would open the story about the mistake I just made. They also did. Oh. Oh, double whammy. Oh, no.

So many offended rock and roll stars. Yeah. It's awesome. One day. One day. I was just so glad that it didn't end up with a... I was picturing, hey, have you guys ever considered dancers? And they go, why, we were just talking about dancers.

Would you care to audition right now, you know, in my van? Oh, yeah. No. No. That was that. That's where my mind went. Right. Totally. All right. Well, Kelly, thank you so much. Wait, what did you say? Thank you guys. I'm glad that this is where it ended up. Right. Yes. Exactly. It's a funny story. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you, Kelly. Thanks, Kel. Thank you, guys. Bye.

All right. Thank you. You too. Bye. 266-2-6-2-604 is the number. We're getting to the end of the hour, but we got time for a couple of more. Here, Kevin from South Dakota, you've got Amy and Amy and Amy and Amy. A-A-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-A-M-A-A-N-A-A-N-A-A-N-A-A-N-A-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-E-N-A-L-E-A-N-A-L-E-A-Furn-E. Hi there, very-time call-E. I'm normally asleep.

Thank you. Cool. So, well, I work as a dispatcher overnight, so 9-1-1-discatter overnight, so I don't wake up until the afternoons. But my story takes place in university where we offered ballroom dance classes. And I took an intermediate ballroom dance class. And this young lady was also taking it, and she was getting married in the future and wanted to learn the tango. And she wanted to do the tango as her first dance. Yeah.

Or her fiancé refused to take the class. So one day, after class. Yes. Yeah, that is a hurdle. It gets even better. So one day after class, another student videotapes me giving instructions of how to do the tango dancing with his fiancee, giving step-by-step instructions of how to hold her, how to do certain moves, et cetera, all after class. And I'm like, why am I doing this? Yeah, yeah.

What's going on? It doesn't make sense that I'm dancing with his future wife. Yes. And I've been dancing with his future wife for weeks at university. and I have to teach him how to do the tango via video that I don't know if you'll understand even what I'm saying right right for instructions and so how does it end up

surreal yeah does she ever let you know that he learned and or does she barely he had to watch it like 20 times and she had to explain half of my verbiage oh I see I should have just come in people don't realize how fun it is yeah I didn't and now I'm a dancer

I took ballroom dance on a whim Because I needed a PE class at university And as a history major We don't get outside a lot So I thought, no, why not? Oh, good for you! And do you still dance? Unfortunately, I suffered a shoulder injury dancing

So I don't dance too much anymore Oh, wow I'm sorry to hear that I hurt my rotator cuff Yeah Oh, that's a common thing to that's common really With dancers Sorry to hear that

Yeah, I was dancing like five nights a week at one point and my rotator cuff just bailed and I gave up. Yeah, well, don't scare Andy. Andy, don't worry. You'll be fine. I'll go gentle on you. I'll just, I'll tone down the Saturday night fear points to the sky. I do have a quick dancing with the stars story since, you know, we have more.

Yeah. Why not? So I used to watch the show when I was ballroom dancing a lot. And I would always watch the show for inspiration to come up with new moves. Cool. To try out during the dance class, like, what can I do new? And I've actually created a new dance move that I'm not always successful at because it is complicated, but I always watch the show for inspiration for new moves. Is there any move that you're like particularly, oh, I took this from, you know, Vow's number or something?

A lot of dips, a lot of turns. Cool. And a lot of like cross-body leaves that go into dips that go into slides underneath the legs and stuff. Oh, good for you. It sounds very swingy, jivey, salsery. I love that. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.

Wicked. But, yeah, just dancing with the fiancé, with the husband refusing to take the class, and she wanted to do with the tango to the tango for Moulon Rouge. Oh, yes. So good. She wanted to do that song, too, which was one of the harder ones, the tango, too, especially for a beginner.

And she wanted to do that song, tango, and show him how to do the moves. And I'm like, oh, my God, why? Good luck. Why God, why? Yeah, yeah. Good for you, Kevin. Yeah, thank you, Kevin. Thanks for calling in.

Thank you. Thanks. Bye. Bye-bye. I mean, you know this, but I, and I feel like I've mentioned it before, but my wedding dance, because I just got married two and a half-ish years ago. And my, you know, it was my second wedding. So for me, you know, and it was my wife's first. It was kind of like, you know, I was like, whatever you want because I'm fine with.

And it was a great wedding and it was just basically a party at a pretty house. We set our vows and then everybody ate and danced and drank. Right. But there was like the part of the night that was our dance. And my previous marriage, we got married at City Hall. So we never had anything like that. Got it. So I was like, okay.

Just pick a really short song Like the shortest song you can bake And I told her at the time It wasn't that I was against dancing with her It was just I just everything comes to a stop And then you got all these old relatives staring at you Yes And it was more about the eyeballs

And it was just like By that point I've had enough you know Like I know I know what I do for a living But that kind of attention like You know like to be in a party and everyone focusing on you and everyone wanted to talk to you, it gets exhausting to me.

So I was just like, I just don't need that part of it. And I think I even advocated, can't we just skip that part? Really? Yeah, yeah. But when I started doing dancing with the stars, she's like, how the fuck are you going to do that when you can't even dance at our wedding? I said, you just watch. You just waste.

You just watch me now. All right, we got time for one more. And luckily, Emma, we have a, we don't, we don't, We're not particular about the topic. Yeah. We'll take, you know, off-topic calls. And we call them wild cards. Okay.

And Ryan for Maine, I believe he has a wild card call. Yeah, I've got a wild card. All right. Hey, how's it going? Hi, good. How are you? I'm doing pretty well. I'm a handyman and I love installing bidet.

So I enjoyed that. Sorry a little bit back about the bidet. I want to see that bathroom. It's like a butt fountain. It's fantastic. Exactly. They are fantastic, by the way. It makes a big difference.

Yeah. And the real, the Toto toilet does not compare to the real European one. The real European one, that's cleaning power. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Indeed. Or the Japanese ones where it's got all the crazy setting. Yeah, but I still, yeah, I still think you don't, you don't, you, a wand does not do what a just a fountain fixture.

Yes. That's just, you know. In fact, my little brother and sister. one time with our bidet they're nine years younger than me they're twins and there was we down in the living when we noticed water dripping through the ceiling and we hadn't seen them in a while and we went to the door knocked and they said you can't come in like open the door now no you can't and they had turned on the bidet so high that it was hitting the ceiling no and then they just packed it with towels because they couldn't figure out how to turn it back off.

And it had been running for like an hour and a half. No. Oh, yeah, no. So, yeah. But that's the kind of cleaning power I'm talking about. Yeah. Enough to flood a room. This care of business.

Yeah. So anyway, go ahead, Ryan. I'm sorry. No worries at all. So like I said, I'm a handyman. I'm always listening to podcasts. And what I've been doing is listening to the back catalog of all your podcasts. And I got to say the three questions.

questions, fantastic. You do a great interview, great conversation. I'm really enjoying listening to all the old episodes up to the current ones, but obviously also hearing this one, and a few weeks back, there was dad stories, and so I had the thought of a good dad's story. So my dad is sort of a stoic kind of guy, but he kind of, I think everyone of our family were all kind of on the spectrum. So sometimes he says things that, like, could be construed as rude, but actually have a bit of truth of them. And so I'm the youngest of three in my family, and I was about to have my first son, and my first son was going to be in the genealogical branch, like the 14th boy in a row. So, like, I'm really proud of myself because my brothers don't have any kids, and I'm doing my part to help the bloodline or whatever.

Keep the family name alive. Exactly, exactly. So I'm really excited about it. I'm like, this is all I wanted to do in my life is to have kids. And so the day of the birth comes And the baby comes along Beautiful baby And I'm just so happy and proud

And we're there in the hospital room And the baby is maybe five, six hours old And I'm just glowing the sunlight Looking at my son Oh, so beautiful My father's watching me And he just sort of walks over and he goes Ryan, you know, I'm really proud of you

I'm so happy for you This is just a great day for you But I just want you to know Someday that little boy is going to hate you I get all upset. I'm like, how can you say that? How can you say that? And then I think back and I go, oh, yeah, there was like a year or two where I hated you.

You're just laying the foundation. Right, right. And honestly, it was like some of the best parenting advice was like right away. I had that in my head that like, yeah, this is good right now. But there's going to be rough times ahead and just people paid for that. But you know what? He could have, I questioned his timing. Timing.

Yeah. He could have waited a few years. Yes. He had a few years. to give you a runway before he had to drop that bomb on you. Yeah, and also hate, like, hate is a strong word to go around in there. Someday he might, you know, he might question you, but, you know, that little beautiful angel baby's going to hate you one day.

That's like saying like, yeah, that baby might be cute now, but someday he'll be changing your diapers, you know, which is there, that's true too, you know. Welcome to Fatherhood. Yeah, yeah. Well, Ryan. Indeed. yeah so oh go ahead go ahead and finish your thought

yeah a little upsetting at first but it's since become like a funny family story and we tell it at the holidays and stuff yeah yeah all right well thank you Ryan thank you so much thank you so much guys okay all right well Emma we're done we're done we did another episode of the Andy Richter

call in show I love and we at the end me and the guest toast usually pick a favorite but there's no other favorite other than Julie Kraft calling in. I think I was about to say, Julie was a favorite one because I love hearing the pastimes. I like to hear about you. You get to hear about, yeah. Yeah.

Yes. It's your name. What a Casanova I was at 15 or whatever it was. Yeah. And did you notice we talked a lot about bidet on this on this call-in show? Yeah. You got to have a clean bag. You got to have a clean bag.

Yes. It's important. It is. This was fun. So anyway, thank you for doing it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. coming over and uh i got i i would be remiss if i did not remind you all yeah uh next tuesday

between 8 p m and 10 p m eastern time and whatever that is if you're in another time zone for here so here on the east coast that's five to seven text andy to 21523 you don't have to watch the show you can just text andy to 21523 10 times that's all that's all i really need yeah that's up to 10 times per couple per method, you can also go to DWTSvote.abot.abst.com. Yes. And that's it for us. Thank you so much, Emma. Thank you so much. You're the best.

It was really great to have you here. And thank all of you for listening. I'll be back next week with more of the same. Conan O'Brien Radio