Wonderful! - Wonderful! 222: I Am Magic Claw

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

Rachel’s favorite poet that makes it look easy! Griffin’s favorite subtle show about processing emotions!Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoyaTransgender Law Center: https://transgenderlawcenter.org/ MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hey, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Hey, this is Griffin McElroy. And I'm wonderful. Hey, this is Griffin McElroy. And I'm here with Rachel McElroy, and this is wonderful. Hey. Hey. Hey.

A little late, a little late. Oops. But y'all know, y'all already know how it is. Y'all know how it is. Yeah. It's fun in a way, isn't it? It is fun it's like we're like your fun aunt who swings by you know 20 20 hours late for the family holiday gathering and everyone left a lot 20 hours is such

a long time yeah you've put the food away you're you've changed out of your party clothes here we are here we are here we are drunk no um yeah sorry it's but i mean any number of things there was illness there was a covid scare it was birthday there was a big beautiful birthday there was cat illness There was cat illness. There was cat illness what got in there. Not ours. Yeah. We didn't have one. Yeah. Our child's caregiver while we work had a cat illness.

A cat illness. It's been a really wild one when you put it down on paper like that. But we're here. We're here. We're ready. We're ready. Yeah. I'm psyched out of my gourd for this one.

Do you have a small wonder? I do, and it is not at all small, but I will say the appropriate amount of fanfare that Griffin provided for my 40th birthday this week. Lordy, lordy. Look who's 40. And I'm going to say rocking it. Oh, thanks. Absolutely smoking. Look who's 40. And I'm going to say rocking it. Oh, thanks.

Absolutely smoking over there. And yeah, it was fun. I also had a good time on the 40th birthday celebration. Yes. Yeah, that is true. That is true. I was whisked away on an adventure with many components and Griffin participated with me all along the way. And, and I feel like you have figured out the thing that nobody else has figured out, which is when celebrating or purchasing gifts for me, just do things that I wouldn't do for myself. Yeah. That's like 100 percent the right call which fortunately for me as your partner encompasses a great deal of things um you have a very you have a spartan lifestyle yeah if you cannot purchase it at a discount it is likely that i have not consumed it right uh no

we had a very we had a very good time i'm gonna say what am i gonna say oh there's a new kirby game out i've been playing with henry i'm gonna say just in general henry's been playing games with me more lately uh and it's cool it's very cool he gets very frustrated i feel like we're still trying to find that right game. We tried dipping into Minecraft, but that's like anything in first or third person where you have to look with one stick and move with another is out of the question. Yeah. So Minecraft is a little bit too heavy. But that new Kirby game hits the sweet spot. And that's the thing, right?

Most games aren't designed for his age group. And if they are, they're blatantly educational, which is just not going to work for him. Snoozefest. Yeah. Or sadly, he does enjoy a certain category of like iPad or iOS game that I could just sort of call a if you don't want to wait, pay me $10 game. And that sucks because it's having to explain to him like, no, son, we can't buy that robot dragon because that costs 30 fucking real world dollars. And the disappointment on his face every time is a tough pill to swallow. Oh, you made me think of another small wonder.

Oh, boy. Can I just drop it? Yeah. When Griffin talked about graphic novels our friends at first second sent us a huge box a big box of all of the various graphic novels they have published for a younger audience yes it was incredible been reading mighty jack that series gets a little intense for our five-year-old. We might have to circle back on that, but I liked it. Investigators has been

very, very funny. There's a character in there that is a neurosurgeon who turns into a news helicopter whenever newsworthy stuff happens. It makes me laugh every time. Yes, thank you. Thank you for those many books for a second.

Hey, you go first this week. I do. Let's hear what you got. Okay. No kidding. No, keep going. No, finish the song. See, it keeps going to the 76 trombones.

Yeah, that is what that was. I was trying to tell what it was. You're not even like a musical theater fan. No. It's not really the jazzy Poetry Corner vibe I wanted, but yes, we are going to the Poetry Corner. Yeah. I can't wait.

It feels like it's been ages. I don't think it has. No, it hasn't. I feel like I've really been hitting that corner a lot more lately. Maybe it's just because this episode's late. That's possible. The poet I wanted to talk about is Denise Duhamel. Oh, yeah.

You heard her? Oh, dang. She's been in the game for a while so i thought there was a chance i've heard of josh do hamel is that it's spelled similarly so maybe that's how she pronounces her last name unfortunately i did not look into that okay that's tough names are tricky names you know they are okay uh born rhode island 1961 has been publishing books of poetry pretty much non-stop her most recent one came out in 2021 called second story uh and she's the best she's just the best um in what metric using what metric she she's another one of those poets who

intentionally makes her poems accessible and about real life circumstances. And I feel like she's a great point of entry for people who maybe have poetic inclinations but are a little intimidated. Right. She did this great interview in 2021 with the Adroit Journal. And she talked about just kind of this desire to be published when you are younger and just trying to write poems for particular magazines. So like looking at the magazine, seeing what kind of stuff they publish, and then just trying to like ape that in your own submission. Okay. seeing what kind of stuff they publish and then just trying to like ape that in your own submission okay and so she said in this interview there was a joke in the early 1990s that if you wanted to

be published in the new yorker that your poem needed to contain a dead father a bird bath and something else i can't remember which i thought was great um and then she goes on to say one of the things i really tried to focus on was clarity in voice. I was always committed to being accessible. So when my poems were a muddled abstract mess, I translated them into Frank O'Hara speak. I always tried to say something that a general audience, not only in poetry nerds like myself, would get. Frank O'Hara is actually a poet that i have mentioned on wonderful yeah i was gonna say don't understand that reference but there was a dismissive way i think i mentioned it on the show

of talking about his poetry is i do this i do that poems oh right okay uh and i just i think to me it's very similar to the the way that comic actors talk about comedy and how kind of underappreciated it is by the like awards community. Yeah. Of just suggesting like sometimes it is harder to do the thing that looks easy. Yeah, of course. And I feel like Denise Duhamel

is another one of those poets who makes it look easy. And so I wanted to read one of her poems. Please. So this is Ego. It was in her book Queen for a Day, which came out in 2001. I just didn't get it. Even with the teacher holding an orange, the earth in one hand, and a lemon, the moon in the other, and her favorite student, the sun, standing behind her with a flashlight. I just couldn't grasp it. The

whole citrus universe, these bumpy planets revolving so slowly, no one could even see themselves moving. I used to think if I could only concentrate hard enough, I could be the one person to feel what no one else could. Since a small tug from the ground, a sky shift, the earth changing gears. Even though I was only one mini spec on a spec, even though I was merely a pinprick in one goose bump on the orange, I was sure then I was the most specially perceptive, perceptively sensitive. I was sure then my mother was the only mother to snap. The world doesn't revolve around you. The earth was fragile and mostly water. Just the way the orange was mostly water if you peeled it.

Just the way I was mostly water if you peeled me. Looking back on that third grade science demonstration, I can understand why some people gave up on fame or religion or cures. Especially people who have an understanding of the excruciating crawl of the world. Who have a well-developed sense of spatial reasoning and the tinniness that is to be one of us, but not me. Even now, I wouldn't mind being God, the force who spins the planet the way I spin a globe, a basketball, a yo-yo. I wouldn't mind being that teacher who chooses the fruit or that favorite kid who gives the

moon its glow. That's good. Thank you. We never. Very rarely on the Poetry Corner does something earn snaps, but that was a good poem. I'm glad you stuck with me. I realized as I was reading it, I was like,

oh, this one's kind of long for the Poetry Corner. Oh, I liked it, though. I liked it so much so much there was i don't know if this speaks to the accessibility of it but there was like a a almost a pattern to it that uh i felt like i could almost predict what the next line was going to be uh like the playfulness of it i was like well humans are also mostly made of water i wondered she did it yeah i i love i mean it's such a great way to construct a poem right like you root somebody or the reader in this very strong image of like somebody standing in a classroom holding up fruit you know and like moving it around and trying to explain how the solar system works and it's like you're in that image and then you're just like taken somewhere else and then you're taken back to where you were

before at the end of the poem and it's so relatable like learning about the scale of existence is like a tough thing to kind of wrap your mind around, especially when you're a kid. And to sort of, I don't know, reminisce about that is very powerful. Yeah. Yeah. And this idea, like when you find out that the planets are rotating and that the earth is moving and this sense of like, how do I not, like, how, how does everything feel completely still? But that is true. Uh, yeah. So I, anyway, I, uh, Denise Duhamel, I really think she's incredible. She's still teaching an MFA program, uh, in Florida at Florida international university, uh, which is always crazy to me too. Like to me, that would be the biggest reason to pursue an MFA

is that these like famous poets whose poems you've read like you can just go like sit in a room with them like multiple days a week for like a semester yeah very cool just very cool and she has written just tons of books and if you like that poem you'd probably like all of her poems

I bet I would can I steal your way? Yes And she has written just tons of books. And if you like that poem, you'd probably like all of her poems. I bet I would. Can I steal your way? Yes. Got a couple of stromboli boys here. The first one is for Alex TJ. And it is from Katie, who says, Hi, Sunshine. I'm so lucky to love someone as kind,

funny and handsome as you for the past three years. Thank you for being the griffin to my Rachel and making my life wonderful. I can't wait until long distances behind us and to make a life together full of cute pets. I love you mostest. It's immortalized in a podcast now so ha love your angel that is delightful i love the idea of there being a griffin to a rachel yeah what does that mean to you um just somebody who always will order chips and guacamole. If it is available on the menu. That's true. Even when it's not requested by your partner. Just like knowing that chips and guac are gonna be there when you need it. It's so helpful.

Don't you think? Yeah. You've never said that about me, but I know you think it. No, I like that. I don't have to say, hey, Griff, will you order an appetizer with this meal? Like Griffin will always order an appetizer.

Always gonna get you there. You want to hear the next one? Oh, yeah. This message is for Molly. It is from Alfredo to my wonderful fiance, Molly. I am lucky to have you as a loving partner and am so proud of us achieving the millennial dream of buying a frigging house. I look forward to making memories with you and our grumble bug of a cat in a place we can call our own.

To many more years of happiness and surviving the stress of wedding planning. Love, Fredo. Oh, the joys of home ownership. Yeah. Yeah. You're obviously very fortunate in this climate, but one day that shower gets fucked up

and it's like, oh no, what do we do? Do you remember that feeling though of buying the house and you're like, this thing is mine. This is the biggest thing I have ever bought and it is mine. And it's all good. Let me go take a shower. What the fuck?

Hi, I'm Biz, host of One Bad Mother. Whether you're a parent or just know kids exist in the world, join us each week as we honestly share what it's like to be a parent. I signed my stepson up for a camp that is actually in another state. I feel really stupid, and I don't think we're going to get the money back. And then he found out that the car manual is a book about cars. So now he's reading our car manual. We are...

So join us each week as we judge less, laugh more, and remind you that you are doing a great job. Download One Bad Mother on MaximumFun.org. And yes, there will be swears. Hey there, beautiful people. I'm Travelle Anderson. And I'm Jared Hill. We are the hosts of Fanti,

the show where we have complex and complicated conversations about the gray areas in our lives, the things that we really, really love sometimes, but also have some problematic feelings about. Yes, we get into it all. You want to know our thoughts about Nicki Minaj and all her foolishness? We got you. You want to know our thoughts about gentrification?

Perhaps some positive? Question mark? Uh-oh. Aspects of gentrification? We get into that, too. Every single Thursday, you can check us out at MaximumFun.org. Listen, you know you want it, honey, so come on and get it. Period.

I can't wait to talk about my thing with you. Okay. Because I just know you're going to have a lot to say about it as well. My thing this week is Bluey. Oh. I'm talking about Bluey. This show's a miracle i can't believe i get to be alive at the same time that bluey is being aired on on television i feel like it's to me i

forget that there are people that probably don't know about that show there are many people who don't know about that show because we have a lot of people in our lives that have children are the age of our children. And so we just assume kind of like Bluey is something that everybody knows. But that's probably not true. That's probably not true. I would imagine that a lot of people know about it just through osmosis. Like there's lots of Bluey toys and clothes and stuff like that.

But if you're not aware, Bluey is an Australian animated series about a family of dogs who love each other very much. And in every episode participates in some sort of like wild imaginative play. And episodes are super short, too. Right. So episodes are only seven minutes long. And there's 52 episodes in each season that's been ordered. There have been two seasons so far, and they're working on a third one. So right now there's over 100 episodes of Bluey. And so it's very easy to just turn Bluey on and then watch 30 episodes of Bluey. Yeah, I always treat it as this kind of like sneaky thing. I try and get it on early in the morning and then I hope that I can keep it on as long as possible because it's maybe my favorite children's program right now. Oh, for sure.

And I feel like Henry knows that we like it maybe more than he does. And at some point he usually realizes like, hey, wait a minute. Yeah, Spider-Man's not in this one. So it's a family of four dogs. There's mom and dad. There's the six-year-old Bluey and her four-year-old sister Bingo. And they play,

usually just like role-playing mundane interactions that adults go through like every day like yeah yeah sometimes though they're like pirates or mermaids sometimes they're pirates or mermaids sometimes they're adventurers exploring uh their dad's big blue stomach uh and going on adventures in the have you seen that one where they're like hand puppets and they're just exploring the world? I don't think so. Oh man, it's so good. Uh,

and, and all the characters in this world are, are dogs of some sort. Uh, the show takes place in basically this sub tropical utopia loosely based on Brisbane. Uh, and the show is like very Australian

through and through. There's a lot of sort of like, you know, sheepdog breeds and things like that. But then, you know, in one episode, they'll go to a billabong or have a wombat encounter. And it's, it's, there are so many like very special things

about the show that are kind of difficult to summarize. In fact, the creator of the show is a guy named Joe Brum, who has two daughters. And so the show is is loosely based on his experience, like raising them and the kind of thing that they resonate resonate with which is this like super imaginative play uh which is true of you know all kids and he has talked about how it was a difficult show to kind of pitch not because it's a particularly like you know high concept television program but rather like the opposite yeah because it's just about a family who plays games together. Well, and the thing I think that I talk about with Griffin sometimes is this concept of like playing with your children on their level

is relatively new. Yeah. I feel like our parents' generation was maybe the first generation that kind of dipped their toe in that. Yes. And then I feel like that's like a tremendous pressure I feel like people in our generation kind of put on themselves uh and so i have like interacted with people who uh

are made uncomfortable by bluey because it sets this expectation that you are like always going to be down to like go on a on a big long fantasy with your children yes i feel like every parent kind of puts that pressure on themselves of like i i have to create this incredible world with them at all times but at the same time the show is genuinely instructive in how the the parents who are admittedly like hyper-idealized parental units give the kids space to like do their imaginative play even when it makes like no sense whatsoever. And more importantly, like gives them space to feel their feelings and like legitimizes those feelings and helps them name them and work through them right and it's

not like uh there's not like an enemy in the episodes it's just like uh i feel jealous of my of my sister like i feel jealous that she got to play this thing and i didn't get to play this thing or uh i i regret what i spent my you know allowance on yeah uh it's in or i feel like i was kind of bullied into making this decision oh my gosh the dance episode is one of my favorites yeah so there's an episode where uh they're supposed to do something with bingo the youngest daughter uh and they they don't end up doing it and she's very hurt and so they give her three dance like i forget what they call it but basically it is a a thing that she can do that will then make one of the family members dance anywhere in public no matter where they are but then the other family members make bingo use the dance yeah in particular

circumstances when when bingo doesn't want to use them then and then bingo gets very hurt because bingo feels like oh i didn't get to use them the way i did and everybody else got to make these decisions for me and i didn't uh and that's like such a ridiculous episode with a ridiculous premise that explores something that is huge. Yeah, exactly. A huge concept for children. And this is like, when I say it's genuinely instructive, like this is something that we like have to work on all the time. Yeah.

Is to like fight off our instinct to swoop in and try to solve away like every little problem yeah that henry or gus has when giving those problems just giving you know our kids a little bit of space to kind of like feel that stuff and figure out on their own like how to how to handle it and just helping them with that process like that's what the show's about. That's fully what the show's about. And that's, that is an incredibly nuanced thing. I will also say in the tradition of great shows about kids, like, there's a lot that goes on with the parent dynamic that you get to watch. And then there's a lot that goes on with kind of the sibling dynamic. Like Griffin was saying, like being the younger sibling or the older sibling and what that means um yeah it's just it's so good it's so good so there are episodes that like the parents aren't in at all that is just about like hyper elaborate

imaginative play there's a a great episode called calypso that takes place inside of bluey's preschool and the whole premise for the episode is like these that takes place inside of bluey's preschool and the whole premise for the episode is like these different groups of kids in bluey's preschool are all having pretend play in different ways so like one of them has a fish and chips shop but they don't have any fish for sale and then another one are like roman centurions and then another one is like building a very tiny town and all of these kind of disparate stories come together to like thread into like one narrative and then there's an episode where like bluey's in the woods with her friends and trying to play uh pretend that they own a pet shop

or a pet supply store and that's it and then they argue about who gets to be the clerk and who's the assistant clerk and who's the pet owner and who's the pet and what's it and then they argue about who gets to be the clerk and who's the assistant clerk and who's the pet owner and who's the pet and what's the money and uh in seven minutes in seven minutes they tell these like pretty delightful stories uh it's it's always a very charming show it is occasionally an incredibly funny show yeah Yeah. Particularly the dad has received a lot of praise for being, you know, not the stereotypical TV dad, which is like not the first time that that mold has been broken on television before,

but like he's always ready and available and supportive for the whole family and ready to just frankly debase himself. There's one where like he kind of gets kurt with uh bingo because he's like on a work call and bingo is like trying to get him to come see these dominoes that she set up and then they all make pretend that fairies have invaded their house and are like braiding everyone's tails and doing all these pranks on them and the only way to make them go away is for the dad to like strap roller skates onto his hands and do a fairy dance around the mailbox outside in

front of like tons of people. And he does it because he wants to make things up to bingo. But he is so fucking funny. Like that character is hysterical and says great, like almost defeated stuff all the time. Yeah. and says great, like almost defeated stuff all the time. Yeah, I would say it is one of those kids shows that does not feel specifically for kids. I mean, it clearly is for kids,

but I feel like if it were on, like on a Friday night on network television, like everybody would still watch it. Absolutely. I wanted to point out my favorite line of the dads is from an episode called The Claw, where they go to some arcade or something and the kids lose at a claw machine. And they're really bummed out about it. So when they get home, the dad pretends to be Magic Claw, the living claw machine game.

And then he starts to abuse his power and makes the kids like do chores and turns at the claw machine and never actually win anything good uh and at one point the mom is looking for him and he says i'm not dad i am magic claw magic claw has no children his days are free and easy it's just magical it's so good and it's like i don't know that i've ever seen a show about it like this that is educational but not in any kind of formal sense where it's not about like reading or addition or anything it's about like life skills and common emotions that are important to know how to process yeah and. And it does that so well. No, that's very true.

It's not oversimplified. It's like a very kind of subtle show. You know, because I would say like shows like Sesame Street do definitely like talk about emotions. It's not like this is the first show, but it's done in a way where it does. It feels kind of sneaky. It's just like you're watching these kids play

and then all of a sudden at the end of it,'re like oh i see what they did uh-huh uh it's really good it's all on disney plus i don't know the long strange journey that it took to get there because it was like commissioned by like the australian yeah yeah and i think in conjunction with bbc i want to say um but then like you know it has it has set the world ablaze. And for good reason. I wonder if we'll ever get a Bluey film. Probably. There's a Bluey stage show that's in development.

Oh, really? I can't imagine, like, would they do so much with seven minutes? I can't imagine what they would do with a longer form. Yeah. So that's Bluey. I'm sure there's lots of parents listening to this who are just, like, ho hollering right now because i don't know any i don't know many parents who have watched this show and not fallen deeply deeply in love with it but yeah keep it coming australia doing great just in general just in general y'all y'all know what you're doing down there

that's it thank you so much for listening thank you to bowen and augustus for these for our theme song money Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description. And thanks to Maximum Fun for having us on the Maximum Fun Network. I had Griffin listen to an episode of Stop Podcasting yourself

so that he would understand my devotion. I've listened to Stop Podcasting. I don't listen to podcasts really at all these days just because I don't have particularly long drives to make. And when I do, Henry makes me listen to Pokemon rap battles and shit in the car and not the stuff I want to listen to. But yeah, I mean, it's a phenomenal show.

It's the Bluey of... It's Canadian podcasting bluey is what it is yeah it's a great one hey we're gonna be on tour and we're coming to St. Louis Kansas City in Minneapolis very soon yes this month when you're hearing this because it's April 1st today because we're very late

so please come see us go to macroy.family and click on the tour link and just come check it out, please. It would be so great to see you. It's in like a couple weeks that we're going to be doing this Midwest tour. So if you live in the Midwest, it would mean a lot if you would come watch us do our show. Griffin, it starts on 420. Does it?

How could you not remember that? Yes. Well, okay. Well, that show is going to be weird then because I'm going to be totally toked out on the good, wild, green stuff. Wait, that'll be going to be weird then because I'm going to be totally stoked out on the good wild green stuff. Wait, that'll be in St. Louis. Your parents will be there. That'll be weird. I truly believe that your parents know how to party, though, and they're just not.

My dad does the same thing where he's like, party? Me? But you know Clint McElroy. You know Clint, yeah. With his softball buddies. Hey! Working on it! Money won't pay! Working on it! Money won't pay! Working on it! Money won't pay!

Working on it! Money won't pay! MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Audience supported.