Wonderful! - Wonderful! 411: Boy Movement Equals Sleep

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Rachel's favorite extraordinary performance of a well-known song! Griffin's favorite roving hangout opportunity! Music: “Money Won’t Pay” by bo en and Augustus – https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya Border Angels: https://www.borderangels.org/our-services.html

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Wonderful is this show. You're listening to it. It's a podcast where we talk about things we like that's good that we're into. And folks, the year's 2026. What do you think the next thing is?

So, okay, so first it was just audio. And now it's video. Snoo snooze fest. And what's the next thing? Touch. Podcast's going to touch. I know we are, it's important. to sort of set boundaries and avoid kind of toxic parisocial dynamics, but also touch is the next podcast thing.

How is it going to, how's it work? Well, hey, it's good that you and I have been working out because they'll get some muscles. That's true. That's true. You will know the touch of wonderful from the street, though. We're not dinosaurs. We're hip, young, fresh talent. And I want to, you grimaced when I said that. And baby, let me say something because I do a little video stuff. It's just the word young. I mean, compared. I don't know that it's appropriate anymore.

I guess maybe not. But I am talent. Can you say I am talent sincerely? I am talent. When you do a live show, like all of the like, like the security people there refer to you as talent. And it always does make me feel hugely uncomfortable. But it does also make me feel like. Are you like, hey, talent was my father.

Call me Griffin. Call me Mr. Talent. Call me Mr. Worldwide. No, I don't big time pretty much anyone ever for any reason. But it does make me feel like I'm the president and I have a special code name. And I do like that part of it, the code name part of it. Yeah. No, that's a good point.

Do you have any small wonders? I'm going to say games that we can play with our children where we don't have to move our bodies. Wow. That's specific. Can you give me an example of what you're talking about? Last night, you were moving a little flashlight on the ground and they were chasing it. Sometimes they like to pretend to be little kitty cats. And we need them to move because boy movement equals sleep for us.

Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm not proud of it, but I was just shining a little flashlight around on the ground and letting them chase it like kitty cats. There was also a game where you were playing fetch with Gus. I walked in on that one. and you were very defensive immediately. He wanted to do it. I would never, ever, ever do that as a, it's so demeaning and dehumanized. But like, he wanted to pretend to be a little puppy boy.

And so, yeah, I'll play fetch with you. Absolutely. It's the next best thing to play and catch with a kid, I think, which is a classic sort of like father. We're working our way up there. Maybe, maybe. I've seen them catch things before. Yeah. It helps if it's like a big thing.

It does help if it's a big thing. I'm going to say, oh, we got these Lego smart brick Star Wars sets and they're okay. I feel like they oversold a little bit like what the smart brick could do. What did you think it was going to do? I don't know, man. They like talked about how it would be like, you know, the Lego play of the future and it will know what you're putting it on and make special sounds. And it does kind of do that stuff, but it's also like, I don't know, it has been a little bit hit or miss. However, Gus has gotten very into sort of like the Star Wars ships and droids and stuff.

Wanted to learn more about R2D2 and what have you. Yeah. And I don't know, Henry never really showed a ton of interest in that stuff. True. Although he was pumped when we saw that Mandalorian and Grosue trailer before, oh, Hoppers also. That could be a good small one. wonder? Yeah, we saw hoppers. We saw hoppers. It's good. I did not know this movie existed like a week ago. Yeah. And my dad was telling me about it. And then Henry was like, oh yeah, I want to see hoppers. And we were very excited

about that because we really like seeing movies with our kids because again, sit still. Yeah, absolutely. Not a lot of boy movement in that. So it doesn't convert over to sleep. You do have to like, there is a comeuppance that comes after watching it. But yeah, it was nice. It was a nice movie. I feel like I worry sometimes about a movie that, you know, it has a very, very strong sort of environmentalist message and is all about sort of how we live alongside nature. And I always, I don't know, I worry sometimes that, like, that is going to be presented in lieu of, like, character, like, development or, like, as a shorthand for, like, a shorthand for, like, And now you have to, but they, I don't know, it was, it was just a fun romp from start to finish. Really, really, Bobby Moynihan turned in a killer performance.

Yeah. Just a fun flick, start to finish. Really charming. We did see the trailer for the new Toy Story. How did that make you feel? Better than the initial reveal trailer for Toy Story 5, which is basically now there's tablets and the tablets. Yeah. The tablets is the bad guy this time.

And the kid doesn't play with the toys anymore because the tablet. But then this trailer is like, yeah, we're really doing this. But you know us. You know buzz. Now there's like 100 buzzes. I was more worried that it was going to be a movie that I would go to and I would feel guilty. Yes. And I would feel preached to.

Yes. And then my kids would still come home and want to watch screens anyway. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's, I mean, yeah. I think what is a movie theater? but a big iPad. And so what? I'm supposed to go there

and take my kids to the big iPad so that Woody and Friends can tell me what a bad parent I am? I don't think so, Woody and Friends. You go first this week.

I do. So my topic, I think, started kind of general and then it got smaller because originally I was just going to talk about just musical guests, actors appearing on Sesame Street.

Yeah. Because back when we got to watch Sesame Street, and I think we could, again, we just have to get it in the algorithm. We do, yeah. There are some real good bops. A lot of, like, parody songs of existing, like, pop songs on Sesame Street. Everyone that goes on just seems delighted to be there. And then I feel like, you know, the characters are always a little winky about, like, we know who this guy. is. Yeah, I've always loved that vibe. That is not what you are bringing, I would say, to this particular episode. What I am bringing is the first celebrity guest on Sesame Street.

Oh. And that is James Earl Jones. Yeah, I didn't know he was the first. I didn't know that that was the, okay, that makes a lot more sense because the vibe of the segment that you brought to us today. And I do think we can play like a little bit of the audio of it just to kind of give people a feel for what we're talking about was so mesmerizing. Yes, exactly. And perplexing. Exactly. So this is James Earl Jones on Sesame Street reciting the ABCs.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J. I don't know how much of that we were able to play. But you truly do need to watch it to see the, facial expression. He runs the gamut, man. Barreling the camera, playing background. His head is shaved because he was filming a movie at the time that required that. And it's just him not breaking eye contact in that deep James Earl Jones voice reciting the alphabet like he is auditioning for a man that recites the alphabet. And he'll go on stretches like C through F. It's like he seems pretty disappointed in the alphabet. But then you hit I and he gives you a little.

wink and it's like, oh, we're just playing around. And then Jay is fucking, Jay is, Jay looks like his response, his sort of facial reaction to Jay is as if he is saying like, who, what, me, Jay? Like there's a, like, a clasping of pearls and like a, like, rearing backward during Jay. But then he gets, then he starts getting, having some fun with it toward the latter letters, just a truly just staggering performance. What is really significant is that like space in between each letter is so powerful

and so like uniquely something that only he could really do. Sure. To like sit in the comfort of that, I feel like most people could not. There's like a weird reverse echo. I don't know if this was like... I noticed that. Maybe that was just the video. It could have just been the video or otherwise Sesame Street was on some pretty psychedelic shit

because like you would hear before he said. like pee, you would hear like pee, pee, pee, pee, right before he said it. And it would, I don't know, it was just a trip. Well, I started to wonder. So I tried to find information about this video. And there was an education researcher from children's television workshop who said, quote, Mr. Jones' recitation of the alphabet takes a full minute and a half. At the time the sequence was made, his head was shaved for the role of Jack Johnson and the Great White Hope. His immense hollow voice booms the letter names ominously. And then he says the letter is shown on the screen a second or so before he says the name of the letter. And there is a pause.

This pattern allows kids to say the name of the letter if they recognize it and then have the name reinforced by Jones. If kids don't know it, they repeat it after him. They coined this the James Earl Jones effect about talking about how if kids are more more visual or have auditory processing issues, seeing the letter displayed, and then seeing Jones' clear mouth movements as he slowly says each letter are helpful learning aids. He does. He does. The way his mouth moves is really profound.

He really makes a meal out of every sort of enunciation. He gave an interview. This is really funny. He talked about when he was first sitting down. with the people that were putting the show together because he was there in 1969 and he said I've got to warn you

the cookie monster and the Muppet characters will not work because they'll terrify children. He said that about Sesame? Oh my God. He was so certain that it would be like too much for kids. I think of all the beings on Sesame Street. I mean, I don't know who was around in 69 but like Big Bird was part of the original cast.

Yeah. That's a huge bird. Like, I think that's maybe of the original set, maybe the scariest. Cookie Monster, no. Yeah, but he does eat everything like voraciously. No, he doesn't eat everything voraciously. He eats cookies voraciously, and I am not a cookie. I don't think they introduced Cookie Monster with like a table of food and said,

eat cookies. I think the only thing you saw was him eating cookies. So there was no reason not to assume he was. wouldn't do that to everything. Yeah, that's a fair point. He doesn't say like, me, no eat kids. He doesn't say me, no eat kids. He hosted a walking tour of Sesame Street in 1979 in honor of the show's 10th anniversary

and said on the special quote, I'm proud to say that I was the first one they asked to help with the alphabet, and I did it without cue cards. Wow. He also says one through 10. If you're looking, that's on YouTube. Oh, wow. Okay. So you could see him say count to 10. I found it so delightful.

I feel like James Earl Jones because, you know, like obviously he's been a celebrated actor for a long time. He did theater, movies, television. Him in Field of Dreams is so amazing. That's the speech he gives. That whole like people will come speech. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's been played to death as almost like a, a pro-tebrose. meme. I feel like you hear that reference so much.

But like I remember the first time I actually watched Field of Dreams after knowing that just via cultural osmosis and being like, wow, this fucking hits, man. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Just like that being the first guest appearance was so powerful. And I love it. I think a lot about the India Ari ABC arrangement. Yeah, gosh, that's a good one.

That she sings with Elmo. The ABC, ABC. Yeah. That gets stuck in the old noggin from time to time. Feist did one, two, three, four, naturally. Feist. Adam Sandler did his song for Elmo. That's incredible.

Classic. Yeah, there's a lot of good ones. Gotta watch this performance gang. Got to see James Earl Jones absolutely make a meal of the alphabet. I will say you won't be surprised in that it is the letters you know. Yeah, no, I mean, there's not It's just He doesn't come up with new

Although he, I swear to God He puts an extra syllable in WU The way he like puts a pause in there Where he's like, WU WU Like, and the emphasis, I don't know It caught me by surprise took my breath away Just powerful

Just really powerful stuff Hey, can I steal you away? Yes I try to not bring too many topics To the show that I don't think you have like a ton of direct experience with. I tried to do it as a sometimes food. But I've,

I've been thinking a lot recently about a sort of landmark event from my childhood. And that was the post-closing night cast party for one of the many community theater productions that I did as a kid. And so I would like to talk about the cast party today, if I may. Oh, okay. Not a specific, like one cast party that I went to, like one kick-ass cast. Dull best cast party of all time. No, God, I couldn't even choose, man.

Yeah. They were also good and memorable in so many different ways. Remind me your theatrical... Did you do tech for some stuff, or am I misremembering that? I never did tech. You ran a production of the vagina monologues, I believe. That was in college. That was not in high school.

I mean, that counts. You can go to a cast party in college. I bet it's even more live. A couple one-act plays with my friend, Cat Door, who you have met. Yeah. They had like a spring one-act festival. Okay. And so we wrote, I kind of used her to piggyback because she was the big musical theater star.

Right. And so I kind of like snuck in with her and did that. But no cast party. For a one-act play. I do think you have to have at least two acts in order to qualify for a cast party. Yeah. No, I don't, I mean, I don't think I've ever been to a cast party. Okay.

Well, then this is, I'm going to take you behind. the curtain. But I have seen Lynn Manuel's performance of Crucible cast party. Yeah, I mean, that was very, very, I mean, that's a classic sort of encapsulation, sort of of the experience. I also think just a lot about

that episode of Penn 15, where I think it's just called play where Anna is like the stage manager and Maya like gets cast in the show and there's like all this drama about like a kiss and the divide between the

cast and the tech. Yes. It's really classic. So if you've never traipsed across the boards, as they say, you maybe do not know. It is customary, usually after wrapping sort of the closing night of a production to have a cast party, where the crew and the cast go out and sort of celebrate the scale and location of that celebration differs, I imagine, based on the budget of the production in question for a, for, for me growing up, first stage theater company was the name of the company that I did most of my work

with. The most common sort of locales for a cast party, that's either going to be Gino's Pizza Pub, which was like, man, this wild spot on Fifth in Huntington. I don't think it's still open, but like it had a big dining room, obviously pizza for days, but it had this dining room that was all like neon and like red vinyl and like felt sort of happy days kind of esk. Yeah. Like they were going for a 50s sort of sock hop kind of energy. There was a place in St. Louis called Happy Joe's. Okay.

That I think largely had burgers. Okay. That I went to once after a football game when I was in marching band. Yeah. I mean, that sounds amazing. Gino's Pizza Pub also had like a little stage in the dining room where sometimes they would hire someone to like sing. And they would, I remember every time I went there like,

a guy would lead everyone in doing the YMC. He'd be like, get up. We're doing YMCA dance. And I remember thinking, like, I got to get out of here. Because there was also a huge arcade at Gino's pub. So it made it like kind of the perfect spot for a cast. I always assumed the cast party was at somebody's house. So that is the other kind of comment.

The other one is Applebee's. That was just for us. And that always felt like last minute like, oh shit, we didn't play anything. Let's just take the kids to Applebee's. I went to there. I went there and like steak and shake after a lot of football games. Yeah. And I was like,

Whatever. But the grown-ups usually paid for all the absence and zirts and stuff. So that was all right. But yes, someone's house was kind of, for me, the most kind of exciting cast party opportunity. Because like that's sort of a weird vibe for a kid, I think, to be going to like a roving party inside someone's house. Usually someone involved with, I mean, always someone involved with this show, where people kind of just hang out in small groups in different rooms. without much parent, like direct adult supervision. Yeah, because your experience with like a house party prior to that is like a birthday party. And birthday parties are very structured. Very, very, very structured, right? Like, it's not like you're at a birthday party where you're going to the gym factory to bounce around on the trampolines or, you know, doing it at a Gino's pizza pub and going to the arcade. Like, it's not, it's just kind of how adults hang out in a house at a house at a park. party.

It's a good point. And that was like pretty exciting. The stuff that happens at a cast party, lots of singing in my experience, either music from the show that was just concluded or from rent, which I imagine is still part of the repertoire of karaoke or just. I don't even think the machine was not necessary. You would just stand around. I would not.

This was not usually my. I would not usually lead us in song or prayer. Even when you had the lead role. Yeah. In Susical. If there was a piano and someone was like playing it and doing songs for the show like, yeah, I'll get up in there. I'll do a little bit of it. Please don't make me sing.

Please don't make me sing. But it's like, you know, a natural sort of thing that theatrical sort of minded kids want to, want to do. And they just finish doing it on a stage. So like, yeah, they're going to keep singing at the cast party, of course. This is something I've talked to Griffin about. is that it's hard for me to reconcile theater kid Griffin with the kid I know now because theater kid Griffin, I associate with what I understood to be theater kids, which was just very like comfortable being in the center of attention, just like very

loud and expressive. and like the theater kids I knew like announced themselves proudly. Yeah. And I just feel like you're you're not that guy. No, I didn't. I wasn't so much. I don't think so. I mean, I'm not going to tell tales out of school.

Like I loved, I loved, I don't know, the feeling of having attention. Yeah. I was and remained like pretty nervous about performing, about being in front of people and performing. But like there was and still is like something very exciting about kind of like tackling that anyways that I always really liked. But mostly for me it was just like there is a there is a sort of energy that I think most theater kids kind of possessed, which is this sort of flare for for the dramatic like being very kind of like in touch. touch with your emotions. Yeah. Being like hugely sort of romantic about events or people.

Yeah. And so like doing theater definitely did that. And also at the cast party like there is that incredibly bittersweet sort of last day at camp energy that is just the sweetest Ambrosia to someone like me as a kid where there's, you know, you're wiping tears on your matching showtie. shirts and like talking about how you'll never forget this experience when odds are you're all going to audition for the next show in a couple months anyways. To me, I envision like I can't hardly wait situation where you're like, this is my last shot. Oh, I mean, yes. Like if I had a showmance

that the other person maybe didn't know about. Thank you so much for bringing up the showmance because as a young romantic, yes. The cast party was sort of like a major inflection point. It really was a speak now or forever hold your peace if you want to if you want this showmance to happen and usually I would never ever act on it before the cast party for me it had to wait no absolutely um you don't want to the art comes first yes that's all there is too I know but also like isn't it even more romantic to start up a showmance that lasts for about an hour and a half until the cast party is over and then you break up on aOL instant messenger like two days later isn't that Better. Isn't that so much better that way? I think so. Well, you can use it, you know?

Yeah. You can use that tension in your performance and it can really power you to a level that maybe you couldn't get to otherwise. No, absolutely. And then maybe you know, maybe you hold hands behind the piano where someone's playing Joseph in the Amazing Technicolor Dream Code or whatever. Is this true? No. It's a it's an example, but it's one that feels true, doesn't it? It feels very true. I don't know. I, I, I, I am hesitant to sort of project my own stuff out there, but I felt like, the thing I loved most about doing theater was the people that I did theater with. And some of those people are still, you know, my, my closest friends. And I think that one of the reasons that, like, theater kids bond so much, especially during cast parties and things like that is like, I don't know. I had this very strong desire to have meaningful, dramatic things happen to me in my life. Yeah. And I didn't really have much of an avenue for that elsewhere. And I also like, you know, at church or at school or whatever, like, I wasn't really seeing a lot of other kids that were feeling that way. And so being in an environment where like that is something that everyone is kind of striving for all at once, like made me feel very.

normal and made me feel very like like I was fitting in in a way that I maybe didn't get in a ton of other places. I had such a complicated relationship with it because I was really drawn to it because I wanted to find people that were funny and creative. And that was kind of like the easiest like shopping mall of people that were funny and creative. Right. But I also was so incredibly introverted. that like I couldn't really feel like I was fitting in, you know? Like I was enjoying the company and the people, but then I also felt like I can't match this. No, yeah.

I mean, you could have done tech. You could have done tech. You would have been great. You as a props manager. The people that did tech were not. Careful. Hey, please be very, very careful. Please be very, very, very careful.

Not for me. It's too far the other way, I guess. Okay. I guess I'm definitely not an extrovert and I am introverted but not at the point where I want to like wear all black and like hide behind a curtain. Yeah. I want to be somewhere in the middle. Yeah.

Where do I go? The loneliest job was Spotlight Operator. Yeah. Of course. And you're just like up in the balcony by yourself. Yeah. For long stretches of time. At least stage manager, you get that cool fucking headset and you get to like talk to other.

that was always like, I don't know, that's why that episode of PIN 15 absolutely kills me. Oh my God, it's so good. But yeah, I don't know. The cast party is such a, there's so many hormones kind of just sort of coursing through the, you know, drywall of the house where the cast party is taking place. Like they're pumping it in through the HVAC systems. And I just have so many kind of like memories from that for so many reasons. Because it's kind of just this like culmination of all the reasons why I was doing theater as a kid. And knowing that I was like at a party with people who were kind of feeling the same way.

Like if I had brought one of my like church buddies to a cast party, there's no way, dude. They could not hang. They simply couldn't. That's intense. Well, they wouldn't know the songs. They would not know the songs. They would probably enjoy some of the Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat stuff until it got a little bit. to, I don't know, interpretive, I guess.

Can you sing the order of the colors when that coat? I got to work my way up to it. Okay. It was red and yellow and black and green and blue and violet and orange and purple and indigo and crimson and cerulean and brown. No, it can't be serulian. Brown and gray and yellow. Did I do yellow already? I think so. Do you don't know what our friends at home are talking about? Yes. Sarah says, my small wonder is a ginger beer that is extra spicy. I don't want a ginger flavored soda. I want an assault on my senses. I want to sneeze from the effervescence of this spicy beverage. I want to feel the ginger in my sinuses. I want the drink to fight back and leave its mark of my taste buds. I think that's just wonderful.

Was it the main brand, M-A-I-N-E? Maine, that's some spicy shit, but there was a place in Austin we would get from a farmer's market. That was not. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about, though. I don't actually enjoy typically like a very kind of low-level ginger beer. I also like the super intense. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. I don't drink really a ton at all these days, but I would, I fucked so. hard with ginger beer as a cocktail mixer. I mean, it helped the tummy, but also like you can't taste the yucky liquor because of how incredibly assertive the ginger beer play. Shannon says in honor of last week's episode, My Small Wonder is a hockey cellie. I witnessed as a teenager. It came from a 14-year-old girl on the opposing team.

She flung herself down in an upright sitting position, slid across the ice and used her stick to paddle like she was kayaking. It was random. I forgot to be mad. She scored on me. I've seen like a version of that. Yeah. All these ones where you have to squat down, the core work and like the leg muscles

seems like it would have to be crazy. The presence of mind, you know, I mean, I guess if you get used to scoring goals, you're able to recover quickly. But when I think about scoring a goal, I feel like I would just kind of be so elated. I would forget like to do a fun little thing. I would drop to my knees. I would absolutely. There would be just a full kernel panic.

Like I would cease to cease to function. Gosh, I bet it feels so good to score a goal. I bet it feels incredible. I bet it feels so good. I still remember in my gym class in elementary school when I scored a goal when we were playing street hockey. Oh, yeah. It happened from the other side of the like, quote unquote, ice. Yeah.

And I just like shot towards the goal and it went in. And I like raised my arms in jubilation and then I realized nobody saw me do it. realized it happened. Can you imagine how good William Eklund felt after he scored that crazy goal where he was like upside down and he like batted it out of the air? Folks, if you do not watch hockey, please watch the goal that San Jose Sharks, a player named William Eklund scored a few days ago is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my whole whole entire life.

Yeah, it's not uncommon for a player to hit a puck out of the air, but this man was also like falling to the ice when he did it. pivoted a full 180 degrees to turn around and bat it. It was so fucking cool. Thanks to Bowen and Augustus for the use of our theme song, Money Won't Pay. Find a link to that in the episode description. And thank you so much to Maximum Fun for having us on the network. Go to MaximumFund.org. Check out all the great stuff they've got going on over there. I've been listening to a lot of triple click lately. It's a gaming podcast that is very insightful and just a really enjoyable listen. We got merch over at Macroymerch.com. And I had been

have a book out. I'll probably only talk about it for another couple weeks here, but it's called the Stowaway to choose your own adventure book. It's $10.bitt.L.Y.Sach Griffin Stowaway is where you can go. And I'm doing a couple of events to sort of like talk about the book, one here in D.C. That's actually sold out, which is very exciting. So yeah, please think about grabbing that book because I'm real proud of it. And it's so good, guys. It's so good. Thanks, babe. Our big son really fell into it the past few days, and it's so wonderful. It's great.

He's giving me a lot of feedback. He just has ideas, right? Yeah, no, it makes me very, very excited. Like, yeah, I'm, I get very emotional sort of, like, thinking about it. And you know I love that shit now that I've talked about. You like to go to whole parties where people are emotional. I do like to go to emotion parties. Anyway, that's it.

Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with the new episode. So keep it locked. Stay tuned. Be good. Be nice. And have fun. And goodbye.

Goodbye. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.