Latest / Heavyweight / 2025 Update: Joey

Transcript

2025 Update: Joey · Heavyweight

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin Khalila Holt, Welcome to the studio.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: You don't have to welcome you to the studio. Every
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: time I feel welcome, I think they're welcome carries over
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: week to week.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I am a host of a nationally broadcast podcast.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: It's what we do host with the most.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We're contractually obliged to welcome our guests, and you are
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: my guests. Make no mistake about it.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: You're going to like offer me something to drink or no.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So now we're going to be listening to a encore
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: presentation of a little episode called Joey.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And actually there is a line in this story that
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I still quote that we both oh, that's true. At
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the end of our meetings, Yeah, that's true, one person
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: will say to the other adios.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's you guys late to audios.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And as you listen, you'll be able to hear
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: where that quote comes from.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So maybe you guys can work that into your
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: lives too.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: All right, So let's get to it. Coming right up,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: an encore presentation of Joey And at the end of
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the episode, we're going to check in with Joey and
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a surprise guest.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I can't wait to find out who it is.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It's not you. No, you're a guest, but you're not
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a surprise guest.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: No.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: People are like, yeah, that makes sense that she is there.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: But first a word from our sponsors. Hi, John, Okay,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: if I were to plan a surprise vacation for us,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: where would you want to go? Did you say vacation?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Surprise vacation?
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: It could just never happen with my work schedule, like
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: I can, that can never happen.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Where would you want to go?
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: Why would I want to go?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: For fun in the sun? Listen, no stress, you sound
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the idea of actually being on.
• 2:03
  Speaker 6: Vacation with you, nice idea.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be vacation with any It would be a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: slight caation because we do everything on a sleigh. We
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: dashed through the snow and I don't know, like check
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: our phones and argue. Occasionally you'd hang up on me
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and I'd start the show. But up bump from Gimblet Media.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode. Joey
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: as a young man, whenever conflict arose, my go to
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: move was to roll up into a fetal ball and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: pray to go unnoticed. Of course, this only made matters worse. Case.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: In point one afternoon, while riding a trolley, I fell
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: into a daydream and missed my stop. Anyone else in
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: my position might have yelled, I missed my stop. Up
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: or open the door please, But in imagining all these
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: trolley riding strangers turning around to stare at me, my
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: mind went blank. So I decided it might be simpler
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: draw less attention if I just jumped off. As I
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: landed onto the street, I heard a high pitched scream
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: that I would later realize was coming from me. Instead
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of drawing less attention, I was now center stage. The
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: trolley conductor skidded to a halt, and all the passengers
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: ran to the windows to watch as I painfully crawled
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: into a nearby bush. Once in the bush, I hid
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: waiting for the trolley to leave. For young Jonathan Goldstein,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the cost of staying silent that day was two twisted
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: ankles and the loss of my pride. Hey, Joey, hey.
• 4:04
  Speaker 7: There to hear from you.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: This is young Joey, and he recently had a bad
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: day that forced him to realize his fear of being seen,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: his fear of speaking up was exacting a far greater
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: cost than a mere double ankle injury. It was ruining
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: his life, and so he's reached out for help from.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Me and just never get myself in a situation like
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: this again.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I think Joey is twenty two years old, and the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: lead up to his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: day begins right after his art school graduation, when he
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: moved into an artist's loft in downtown.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: LA live in that downtown city life kind of living,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: that communal living style.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: The downside was that the loft had bedsheets for walls
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: in six roommates. But the plus side, the loft had
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: bed sheets for walls and six roommates, six super cool roommates,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a DJ, a dollmaker, a photographer, a guy who quote
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: trimmed weed, and super coolest of all, a podcaster.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: And I pictured these cool artist types having great parties
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: and a lot of cool people over and all the
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: artists in the LA scene would come through and I
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: was gonna come in and hopefully fit in immediately.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: But Joey didn't fit in immediately. He never felt comfortable
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: just hanging out with everyone, never knew what to say,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and so he ended up spending most of his time
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: alone in his room, rehearsing icebreakers. I like your tattoo,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: he'd repeat to himself, your tattoo. I like it, sweet tat,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: he'd say, pointing limply at the mirror, like a socially
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: crippled Travis Bickle. Unable to come up with anything that
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: felt right, paralysis set in. Joey began spending all day
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in his room, a shadow behind a bedsheet.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: They'd all be in the living room right next to
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: my room, hanging out, watching a movie, drinking, hanging and
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: doing the thing, and I would be in my room,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: just like making people uncomfortable with by not, you know,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: being out there.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Joey had been living in the loft several weeks when
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: he realized just how isolated he'd become. One day, well,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: waiting outside the bathroom, he ran into one of his
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: new roommates.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: She She was like, oh, Hi, what's your name? Oh
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: where do you live? I was like, uh, here, I'd
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: live here.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Eventually, Joey began avoiding the loft altogether. He'd spend every
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: day wandering the street, only returning in the evening.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: When I was back in my house at night, I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: would sneak into my room and then make and then
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: make it drink make sure I didn't drink too much
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: water so that my bladder was empty so I wouldn't
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: have to leave my room to pee. My new goal
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: was to just be as unobtrusive as a roommate as possible,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: be invisible, so in this time I would just try
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: to spend all my day out of the house, out
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: on my rollerblades, which I had also recently taken up.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Everyone needs a hobby, and Joey found one that provided
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: both good exercise as well as a way to free
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: himself from the oppressive yoke of human dignity. And so
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: it was while rollerblading that Joey discovered his new home
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: away from home, the pizza Parlor. The pizza parlor played
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: cool music and had cool art on the walls. It
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: even served cool pizza. There was one shape like a
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: marijuana leaf, and other shape like circles. But because Joey
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: was Joey, even a simple thing like ordering pizza was
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a challenge, and so he rehearsed his icebreakers.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: I found myself like making sure I could you know,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: have something to say, like preparing something for the quick
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: interaction while I buy my pizza.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Like kind of thing.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know, Like if it's raining out, I would
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: have something clever to say about.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: That, Or give me an example of the clever thing
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that you would say when it was raining.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I'd say, oh, man, bummer, and this is not rollerblading weather, okay,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: like I would, or I don't know what I'm trying
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: to say.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Slowly, Joey began making social inroads, even managing to earn
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: himself a nickname, that rollerblading guy. His fantasy is a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: fun and friendship with his bohemian loft buddies were over,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: but his fantasy is a fun in friendship with his
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: bohemian pizza parlor buddies had only just begun.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: I had planned on continuing to visit there and making
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: these friendships grow and hopefully progressing them to real life
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: friendships outside of the shop.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: And so every morning Joey would blade straight to the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: self service refrigerator that housed the day old dollar slices.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: I pretty much exclusively ate pizza from that moment on
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: for all your meals pretty much. There was definitely days
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: that went by when it was just pizza, Like how
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: many slices a day. Were you eating to say four
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: or five two for breakfast and then stick them in
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: my backpack for the rest of the day.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: What were you doing for fruits and vegetables?
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: I occasionally got the veggie slice.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: And that was Joey's life, eating za, rolling blades, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: waiting for old man scurvy until one terrible, horrible, no good,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: very bad day, January fourteenth, was like every other day.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I woke up to go get my pizza, headed into
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the shop and unfortunately I only found pepperoni in the fridge.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Joey is a vegetarian, and so without having prepared anything
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and clever to say, like pepperoni pizza, Oh man, bummer,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Pepperonis aren't vegetarian, he instead said nothing and tried to
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: just roller blade back out the door without anyone noticing.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: But he'd only bladed a couple of blocks when he
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: saw a familiar face biking towards him.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: And it's one of the pizza chefs. So I just
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: thought he was gonna hell, I don't know. I thought
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: he was gonna say, what's up, man, let's hang out.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: What's your name?
• 10:38
  Speaker 8: Will?
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: Let's you know. I thought he was just interested in me.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: So I was excited to see him biking towards me,
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: and I took off my headphones to greet him. And
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: the first thing he said is don't come back. I said,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: excuse me. He said, you're taking slices.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I said what, And then it clicked, flipping through the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: dollar slices and then abruptly leaving in silence. Looked fishy,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: like Joey was stealing pizza.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: And I was kind of like panicking talking to him,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: like I could feel that I could hear the panic
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: in my woice and stuff. But I didn't know what
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: to say, so I kind of just I was kind
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: of speechless, and I, you know, didn't have the confidence
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: to keep fighting. Okay, Yeah, and then he.
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: He biked away.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: I started crying on the streets, and I must have
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: looked ridiculous, rollerblading down the street while crying.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: At that point, it was a terrible day. It became
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: horrible as well as no good and very bad when Joey,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: crying on the street, received a phone call bearing more
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: bad news.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: The roommates had been kind of talking and they that
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: they used the words getting under their skin.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: The roommates found Joey's silent, sneaky ways, unsettling. They wanted
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: him out.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: I like went and got my stuff, and I don't know,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: I basically moved out in that moment. I like just
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: left without without seeing anybody, and I kind of ran away.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: As the day came to a close, Joey called the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: one person he always calls, the person he's leaned on
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: his whole life, Elise, his twin sister.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: She gave me the same advice that everyone did, which
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: is just you know, go talk to them, be normal.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: But I don't know, I mean, I never was able
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: to take that advice from anybody coming from her, though
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: it was especially I felt especially bad.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: He was like almost in tears telling me this story.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Elise knows Joey better than anyone, and he's relied on
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: her socially his entire life. When he started dating, Elise
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: introduced him to her friends, and when he was too
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: anxious to attend family functions, Elise would go in his place.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: And he told me about how he cried, which is
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: always he doesn't cry that often.
• 13:29
  Speaker 7: Hm.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: Hm, you could tell it was a big deal that
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: he expressed that he cried about it. And he told
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: the whole story and I was laughing so hard because
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: it's a really funny story, and I wanted him to
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: see that it was funny too, and he could see
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: the humor in it, but he was also pretty clearly devastated.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: When I ask Elise what's so funny about her brother
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: crying on the phone, she makes a pretty strong case,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: casually eviscerating him in the way only a loving sister can.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Him and his rollerblades and often like funny looking tank tops,
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: his like creeper mustache, and his mullet definitely wait, just
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: the look.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Of him, Hang on a second. He has a mullet.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Full mullet full, full, creepy young child mustache, and his
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: shoulders and arms look looks strong, but they're small, and
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: same with his legs. His legs are shockingly skinny. They
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: do have an incredible shine to them, I will admit.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Does he does he play?
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure that's ointment. I'm guessing that's just his
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: oily self.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I don't want Joey to have to wait years and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: years like I did, just to know the sweet joys
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of uncrippling an abnormality. So I asked Joey's oily self
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: what he most wants out of all this, and the
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: answer he delivers is pretty to the point, almost like
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: he's rehearsed it.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: I want to say sorry that that I wasn't able
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: to leave my room. I wish they knew how I felt, basically.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: But when I put forward my action plan for Joey
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to fix his bad day by rerollerblading through it, rerollerblading
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: back to the pizza parlor to clear his name, and
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: rerollerblading to the loft to apologize for being such a creepy,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: sneaky roommate, I can hear the beads of sweat squeak
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: out of Joey's hairline and saturate his mullet.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I'm definitely Yeah, I've definitely been meaning to,
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: but the prospect is pretty scary. Just mentioning it, I
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: got nervous, for sure.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Joey still wants to be invisible, but decades of experience
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: have taught me that oftentimes the more invisible you try
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to make yourself, the more visible you become. So if
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I have my way, Joey will no longer have to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: hide in the metaphorical bush like a young metaphorical Jonathan Goldstein.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: After the break helping Joey to stop spinning his wheels. Okay,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: hold the line for a moment, Joey, all right.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Sounds good. Hang on, I'm practicing my witty retorts anything.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Don't do that, Okay.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: During the ad break, while you were loading up on
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: unbelievable deals, I was considering the full extent of Joey's
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: dilemma as much as Jonathan Debonair Goldstein wanted to help him.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: The truth is, Jonathan Stuart Goldstein is actually a lot
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: like Joey, and so I made a phone call to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: an old friend, a man whose example and critical feedback,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: some might say overly critical feedback, have helped me to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: become the animal associate alibis. I am today, happy, confident,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: out of the shrubs and loving it. And I was
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: hoping you could work the same magic on Joey. Joey,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: this is my friend Gregor.
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: Howdy.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Hey, So Joey was living in this loft and he
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Gregor is the exact opposite of Joey and me in
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: any given social interaction. He's never afraid to stand out,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: never afraid to say the wrong thing. Case in point,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: was Johnny kidding when he said you're wearing rollerblades.
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: No, I am a rollerblader, but.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: So you rollerbladed into the store wearing your.
• 17:48
  Speaker 7: Rollerblades, that's right.
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: I have these very vivid memories of being in Central
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: Park and seeing these people, mostly grown men, on rollerblades
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: with that folded hands over the lower back and their
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: body bent forward like zipping around in like a lycroskin suit,
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: the big giant grin as they gasped for breath, and like,
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: goggles on.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: You got all that out of your system.
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: I hate rollerbladers, and I hate everything about rollerbla but
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: I think most people don't have the cardage to ask
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: for help. It takes a very big man to ask
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: for help. Okay, so the guy wants to roller blade.
• 18:15
  Speaker 7: Fine.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Since Joey feels most comfortable when he's rehearsing social interactions,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I suggest we do some role playing. Joey plays himself
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and Gregor plays the pizza shop owner. After ten minutes
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: deliberating over his character's name, Gregor decides on Carmine, please
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: call me Karmi. All right, stop just trying to a
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: little depth of the character. Don't do that. Once I
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: finish offering some helpful direction, we begin. So Okay, so
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you're you're the owner. I'll do the folly work. I'll
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: make any necessary sounds. Okay, Joey, you're coming up to
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the pizza parlor, tingle, tingle.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Hey, so it's been a long time. I don't know
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: if you heard I.
• 19:05
  Speaker 7: I had a bit of a.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Joe trails off even in a simulation. His nerves get
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the better of him. I try to inspire him with
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: more folly work. Tingle, tingle. The place is starting to
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: fill up a little, so you might want to spit
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: it out. Tingle, tingle, tingle, tingle.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: Oh my god, it's like radio lab. Suddenly a monkey
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: came in. Gregor call me Carmen the whole duration of
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: this shoot. I need to be in character. I'm like
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: Daniel day Lewis. I will only answer if you call
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: me CARMI.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Why did I even have you be the shop owner?
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Why wasn't I the shop owner?
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: I could be your son who's got like bigger dreams.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: I don't want to spend my whole life singing pizza
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: derailing that I got big dreams. I want to get
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: into real estate, commercial real estate. I want to least laundromats.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: See I'm not like you.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: You really, I want to.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: Have a self storage unit. They're very profitable, don't you see?
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: Now we're gelling as a team right at the very end.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: As you start to fade us down, you can't even
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: hear what I'm saying anymore.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Sure, Gregor was taking none of the work seriously, But
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Joey was enjoying Gregor, and in his own way, Gregor
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: was enjoying Joey. It looked like Gregor was in I
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: noticed that you like to sit very close to the gate.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Gregor and I meet at the airport for the flight
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to see Joey in La. While squatting on the floor
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: staring fixedly at the gate, Gregor shares some insider tips
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: on air travel.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: Because when they say extra time getting down the gate,
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: joe Way, you're allowed to run.
• 20:44
  Speaker 7: Past those people.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: You're allowed.
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: See if like I could easily run outrun that little
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: girl in the purple. Anyway, Johnny, stick with me. I'm
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: gonna show you how to board this big bird. That's
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: where I stay at the pilot when I bought the claim.
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: Let's bring this big bird down brother. That way, he
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: knows I'm a member of the free Eternity of aviation.
• 21:21
  Speaker 7: Cross check at ready to grow accomplies.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Once we've board it, running down the jetway like a
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: couple of giggling idiots, Gregor regales me with stories the
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: time lou Reid threatened to put an ashtray through his head.
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: No he didn't, Yeah, heavy glass one.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: The time a taxi driver told me he had eyes
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: like his dead brothers. That's a terrible story. The time
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: all dozen or so members of the Wu Tang clan
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: squeezed onto his living room couch. He asked for my
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: seat to t Then come the aviation stories, all the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: flights he's been on where people have died.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: But then there was another photos on when someone died
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: right next to me, and they were literally doing the
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: thing on the PA where they're like there's any doctors
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: on board? And I was like, I'm kind of a doctor.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: How are you kind of a doctor?
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: I'm a very good diagnostician. Look, we're on twenty five RL.
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: It's one of my favorite always.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Gregor and I rent a car and meet up with
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Joey at his favorite coffee shop. From here, we planned
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: to head to the pizza parlor, get him unbanned, and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: then go to the loft so Joey can apologize to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: his former roommates.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Morning, nice to meet hi.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: How are you Hi?
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: How you?
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: As well as being rollerblade footed, Joey's just as chopstick legged,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: mustache lipped, and mullet headed, as his sister Relise had cautioned,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: did it take you a while to decide like what
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: you were going to wear today? Joey seems anxious, so
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I asked him, Joey, are you anxious? But before he
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: can answer, Gregor steps in.
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: John, Let's take it from here. You don't want to
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: make the guy nervous by asking me if he was nervous,
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: why don't you go around in a circle and each say,
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: a member of the woutang until we get on.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: With his idiot's game. What Gregor's really doing is distracting Joey,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: protecting him, in this case, protecting him from me. Ready, Okay,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I'll start the diju. Let's stop just this is the genius, genius? Okay,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: stop number one? The pizza parlor? Is this the place?
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: What time they open? Eleven?
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: Oh?
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I'm getting nervous. My stomach is jumping.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Oh wait here, Joey, I have some in the creer
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: just in case. As Joey's mentor, I know he runs
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a pretty good chance of choking, so I prepared him
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: some notes during my flight. Okay, here you go. Read this.
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: You guys were like family to me, and when you
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: accuse me of theft, I try it slower.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: You guys were like family. Go ahead.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: You guys were like family to me, and when you
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: accuse me of theft, I mishandled the situation. I became discombobulated.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: I should have defended myself, told you I'm no thief.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Although we want to offer for Joey help, it's important
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: that he do this on his own. No Gregor, no Jonathan,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: no Elise. We'll be there with Q cards and emotional support,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: but ultimately Joey needs to enter the pizza shop and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: make his case solo.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: We're gonna let Joey shine.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think like you bring your shinebox, Joey.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Are you getting the reference to the shinebox?
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: That would be a You guys got a lot of references.
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: O don't that?
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Have you seen Good Fellas? Do your joe pesci for
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Joey just to loosen him up a little.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: Ed was one tough irishman. I put his head in
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: advice three days until his eyebowl pop.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: That yet, get too vegetarian pizzas stuff. I instruct Joey
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: to order pizza and kombucha's for his roommates. This way,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the pizza parlor crew will see he's not just a
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: dollar slice guy, but someone capable of committing to an
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: entire pie and a vinegar and bile based beverage. It'll
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: show personal growth.
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: Just have fun.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Joey swings open the door and roller blades inside. Remember
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the rollerblading this whole time, Joey's been wheels down wearing
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: his blades. You might want to rewind a few minutes
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and re listen with that image in your mind. And
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: it's not just the roller blades. Joey is also wearing
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a wire. So standing outside, Gregor and I can eavesdrop
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: on how things are going inside the parlor. Do you
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: want to hear?
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: Wow?
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I can't stand well. Gregor paces back and forth on
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the sidewalk. I cut an earphone and listen as Joey
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: rolls up to the counter.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Hey, how's it going?
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Joey is greeted by a pizza chef.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if you remember me, I used
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: to come here all the time. I was kicked out
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: of your shop a couple months back for stealing slices,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: even like I was accused of slices. No, I totally
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: know why you thought it was me, because it looks
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: like I mean, I came in.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Gregor and I watched nervously through the storefront window.
• 26:17
  Speaker 7: Oh he's blowing it.
• 26:19
  Speaker 8: I rushed him.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: Sat.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Joey isn't mounting a defense, and he isn't offering a
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: counter narrative. Instead, he's exhibiting a level of mealy moothery
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: not seen since a young Jonathan Goldstein tried to explain
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to a trolley conductor why he was hiding in a bush.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: And I was kind of hoping I could come back
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: just because I love But as Gregor and I bicker
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: over whether to walk inside and roll Joey out the
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: door like a dessert trolley full of flaming horse manure,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: we noticed something. I know, it's weird that's been so long,
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: but I just like felt really bad at me, was
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: really embarrassed.
• 26:52
  Speaker 7: Really, I'm sorry, she's really nice.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Saw like someone come in and with like roller seats.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I remember that day I was recommitting. Not only does
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: she remember that day, but she also remembers Joey always.
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: A guy who came in like several times.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Just like, yeah, no, I see, I think that was me.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Kind of remembers Joeoe.
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: I came in.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I'm a vegetarian.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I saw that you guys only had Pepperoni slices because
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, not for me, And I just
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: turned around totally looks like I just grab one.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And since he didn't do it, you know, you don't
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: have anything to apologize for.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to make sure you, like you
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: guys don't think I did a man Okay, okay, cool?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if he was willing to come back to face
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: his accusers, she says, he probably didn't steal the pizza,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and with that, Joey orders his pies and kombucha's with
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: her faces pressed against the window. Gregor and I watch
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: with amazement as Joey waits for his order while engaging
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: in some completely unscripted repartee cool song. He says, totally.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: She says this band is so cool. He says yeah.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: She says, we didn't prepare Joey for any of this,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: but here he was riffing and scatting away like some
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: kind of improvisational jazz cat. Carmine would have been proud,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: thank you very much, and tingle tingle. Joey emerges from
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the restaurant holding our pizzas aloft like trophies. Joey, oh
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you did it.
• 28:27
  Speaker 7: Oh my god, I'm shake it.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I'm shake it. You did a great job. Despite his
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: fear of saying the wrong thing, Joey had managed to
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: put himself out there and stumble his way through. Joey,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that was great, Like, yeah, you really like and you
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: did it by yourself. We didn't have to go in
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: or anything.
• 28:43
  Speaker 7: That's awesome.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: Oh I really really was nervous that I felt my
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: leg completely shaking. I thought she was going to look
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: down and just see my leg shaking like it.
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: Okay, on one to ten, how do you feel did
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: you wrestle the bear?
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: Because I know I still have to go to the loft.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: It's you know, the relief has it come.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: But after the break, Joey tries rolling up a much
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: harder hill, apologizing to people he actually knows.
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: Those people you live with, they actually know the real joy.
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: I mean, maybe they didn't like the real joys. But
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: they knew who you were.
• 29:20
  Speaker 7: No, I don't think they did. I mean I hope
• 29:21
  Speaker 7: they did that.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Do you think it's a good sign that the roommates
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: did not respond. No.
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: No.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: To be honest, I'm pretty nervous about that.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Joey had tried to contact his former loftmates via group
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: text to let them know he'd be coming by to talk.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: But as we stand on the street in front of
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the building, our kombucha bubbling and vegetarian pizzas congealing, Joey
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: checks and re checks his phone, not a single one
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: of his former roommates has responded.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: Not even like any response is not a good sign.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Well maybe that's better than like responding by saying I'm
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: not interested. Right, the loft is on the second floor,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: behind the metal gate, and there's no doorbell.
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: All right, let's figure out how to get into this fortress.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: There's no drain pipe to shimmy, no fire escape banister
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: to reverse oli. All we can do is wait for
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: someone to come in or out. Gregor fills the time
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: with yet another aviation story.
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: When I was going through the TSA, the lady was like,
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: could you pull your pants up a little bit?
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: You just told me to take my belt off.
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: Now my pants are falling down. You want me to
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: pull my pants up?
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: Which is it?
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: You really get told to play an?
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: I get told that every time I go through the t.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Where's a belt with a pair of shorts? You wear
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a belt and shorts?
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: Yep, I never heard of that. How do you think
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: I keep mouth?
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I think someone's coming. Thankfully we're interrupted.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Yoh, how's it going?
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: One of Joey's old roommates emerges. He's a hip young
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: man who, if not wearing a straw pork pie hat
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and carrying a gondola paddle, is certainly giving off that vibe,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a Venetian boatman vibe. Joey, foregoing all social foreplay, dives
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: right in.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm here because I want to apologize. I don't
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: know if you've got the group text. Oh yeah, I
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: just wanted I felt really bad about how I left
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: things here, so I brought some pizza and my friends here.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, Joey gestures over to his friends, two balding middle
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: aged men slumping behind him like bald scarecrows stuffed with
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: muse ley.
• 31:31
  Speaker 9: Hey, right, okay, all right, well this is really awkward
• 31:35
  Speaker 9: in a surprise.
• 31:36
  Speaker 6: All right, I was just going.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Out of my car.
• 31:39
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: So the boatman isn't very receptive, but Joey persists, does.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Anyone else tell him if you want to, like, ask
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: if they are okay with me coming up like that?
• 31:50
  Speaker 7: Okay, thank you so much.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: It's taken all of Joey's courage to return to the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: place where the coolest art kids in La live, and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: he's still being denied entry. As Joey stares in silence
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: at the steel door that's just clanged shut, in his
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: mustachioed face, I struggle to come up with something positive
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: to say. I think you handled yourself.
• 32:14
  Speaker 7: Well, I'm extremely nervous right now. I don't feel good
• 32:17
  Speaker 7: about how this is going.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Upstairs, the gondolier is saying to his roommate something along
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the lines of, Hey, remember that silent roller skating weirdo
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: we kicked out of our art loft. Well, he's downstairs
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: with pizza and his two gay dads. But then, yo, hey, what's.
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: How you doing.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Zach is the unofficial head of the household, the guy
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: who takes care of all the square noormy stuff like
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: throwing out expired cottage cheese and paying the rent on time.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: He's bearded and shaggy. He turns to Joey. Joey stares
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: down at his rollerblades and starts mumbling explanations.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just thought, I mean, I didn't think it
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: was just like, I just thought, like.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I haven't heard this much mealy mouthing since I guess
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: an hour ago, when Joey was at the pizza parlor.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Zach looks at Joey skeptically. His arms are crossed. Nonetheless
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Joey's soldiers on, I.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: Just feel really bad about kind of how how I
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: left things here. Yeah, I know that I wasn't the
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: best roommate, and I feel really bad and just kind
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: of uncomfortable about like just you know, even just how
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: you guys think about me. But I just wanted to
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: apologize and make things right.
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: There were things like that bugged me. Here we go.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Whereas the pizza chef had been impressed with the mere
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: fact Joey had returned, for Zach, that wasn't enough.
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: You had your headphones on a lot, and you had
• 33:56
  Speaker 9: noise canceling headphones.
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: You're just like in your world.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: He launches into a laundry list of grievances.
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: Didn't clean the bathroom, and I was just.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Like dude, Joey ignored everybody, never cleaned up after himself.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: I ever even washed a dish.
• 34:10
  Speaker 9: The amount of rant or who's paying what? Or why
• 34:13
  Speaker 9: are you paying her and not paying Ah?
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: The worst thing Joey could imagine was happening. He was
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: being seen and told that he'd always been seen. He
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: put all his effort into trying to become invisible and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: absolutely no effort into doing his share of the chores.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: That's why his roommates wanted him out. They'd seen him
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: visibly not cleaning the loft, visibly not taking out the garbage,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: trying to hide but not really hiding at all.
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: He taking an advantage of And that's what I was.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Like, whoa O If ordering a pizza had given Joey
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the Jimmy legs, facing Zach was giving Joey the Joey
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: leg a name I've just coined for a condition in
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: which one's entire body becomes one single Jimmy leg that
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: is a Joey leg that won't stop Jimmy ing is like.
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: A liberty, you know.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: But while Joey is Jimmy ing. He isn't folding, He's
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: not running away.
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: But it was just the way that it was done. Yeah.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: As Zach finishes speaking, Joey maintains eye contact, and what's more,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: as the la breeze whips up the hindquarters of his mullet,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: he does not fall prey to his lifelong crutch, silence,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: without notes, without wittyish rejoinders. He responds, all this stuff,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: like the.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Not paying rent on time, and just all the story stuff,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: all that stems from this shyness, this like the weirdness
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: and like just feeling uncomfortable to like, I don't know,
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: be in the public space kind of just because I'm
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: weird and shy. And I can't blame it on anything
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: but myself. I mean, it was all It's all me.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: It's like my own things. Zach looks at Joey's I
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: wish I was more able to like be friendly with you.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Guys, sees him struggling, and his face softens.
• 36:02
  Speaker 9: I understand like having social anxiety, having like issues where
• 36:06
  Speaker 9: you're like you feel something that's like strangling you in
• 36:09
  Speaker 9: a position where you have to converse or whatever.
• 36:11
  Speaker 6: Like I can understand that.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I only wanted to just be friends with you, guys.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: I have I appreciate it. Where were you staying now?
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Awkwardness is just a step along the way to vulnerability,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and being vulnerable, allowing yourself to be seen is the
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: only soil from which friendship can grow.
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: I love your funky style.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: And what better fertilizer than a mutual love of the mullet.
• 36:36
  Speaker 9: I've been contemplating a similar mullet as yours, but I
• 36:40
  Speaker 9: don't know if my hair would work as much as yours.
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: You have a different volume.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: So as Zach and Joey wax on about the beauty
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: of Joey's ape drape, another loft made appears in the stairway. Nice, yeah,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: if that's okay, that's great, Thank you, Holy cow. This
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: is a really big space.
• 37:08
  Speaker 8: It's good.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Joey leads Gregor and I on a tour through the
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: old audio cassettes and dummy heads, past the kickboxing bag
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: and vinyl collection, and ends the tour in a truly
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: empty V cribs kind of way at his old bedroom
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: where the magic happened. And by magic, I mean where
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Joey slept on the floor wrapped in unwashed blankets.
• 37:32
  Speaker 7: This is where they used to stay.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Did you have a mattress? Joey breaks out the pizza
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and kombucha, and we all gathered by the hot plate
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: for a toast.
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: You're supposed to actually look up, look at each other's eyes.
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: The communication.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: After we choke back our kombucha, I suggest the symbolic gesture, Hey,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: you want to you want to wash all the glassy
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: This is totally ridiculous.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: You're gonna use soap and everything.
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: I don't know if it's good with the vision or
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: something that.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: Stop with them.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Just as we're about to leave, Gregor decides he'd like
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: to use the bathroom. And whereas a couple of shrinky
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and sneaky violets like Joey and me might just slink
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: off looking for it, Gregor does not.
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: It might be too much of in a position if
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: I was to leave a little urine in your toilet
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: on the way out.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: By embracing the awkwardness of life, acknowledging that we are
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: creatures who require toilets, Gregor somehow makes things less awkward,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: at least for himself. Gregor has mastered something that Joey
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: is still learning, the art of saying here I am,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: even when ping into a toilet while wearing a lapel microphone.
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: You're welcome, Thank you, take it easy.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Thanks.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: After leaving the loft, there's only one thing left to redo.
• 39:40
  Speaker 8: Hello.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Joey phones up his twin sister release and this
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: time he isn't crying. It was so good, it was
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: so cool. Yeah.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: I think he genuinely forgave me.
• 39:53
  Speaker 7: And I did it all on my lone, son.
• 39:56
  Speaker 6: No, you did it.
• 39:57
  Speaker 7: You needed so much help.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: Well after I got the help, I did it on myself,
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: you know, I mean, but now I just feel like
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: I can do it on myself by myself.
• 40:06
  Speaker 7: I'm very I am really proud of you that I know.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: It takes a lot, it did.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: It takes a lot from me.
• 40:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, more than anyone.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Your proudness feels good. I'm not surprised that Elise is proud,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: but I'm taken aback to see that. Gregor looks proud too,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: proud of himself, of course, but also with Joey. So
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: once Joey gets off the phone, Gregor offers up some
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: fatherly advice.
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: I understand what it is to be young. It's a
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: tough phase until you're about forty five. Life is really difficult, okay,
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: and then from there on in it's all just sitting
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: in one of those soapbox derby cars rolling down the
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: hill to your sinescence and eventual death.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Gregor, you're depressing the guy.
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: I'm coming to my Hallmark inspirational line. I'd say it's
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: a tough fifteen to twenty five year period. It's very unpleasant,
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: really most of it.
• 40:56
  Speaker 7: Could you repeat that Hallmark line again?
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: And with that, Joey pulls off his unlikeliest feet, yet
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: he gets in a genuine off the cough zinger. Gregor
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: and I had brought this big bird down, Guang. There
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: we going.
• 41:39
  Speaker 8: Now that the fernitures returning to its goodwill home, now
• 41:48
  Speaker 8: that the last month's rant is skating with the damage
• 41:53
  Speaker 8: to Posle, take this moment to dissolve.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: If we meant it, if we talked, we felt around
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: for far.
• 42:08
  Speaker 8: Thanks accident.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Hello Joey, Oh wait, here comes our surprise. Guest.
• 42:20
  Speaker 7: You ready for it?
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: It comes? Gregor, you look very moisturized.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: Did you have an HR policy where you're not supposed
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: to comment on people's physical appearance? Because I think Johnny
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: skipped that day when he was getting on boarded.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Well that, I mean, that's a compliment, don't you think, Yes,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: young lady, you.
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: Look great in that druss.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: You really fill it out.
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: Well that's a compliment too. I mean, come on, I
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: that's time like you had a mullet and were rollerblading
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: and eating a slice of pizza and had like eleven roommates.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: Not too much has changed. Some things are have improved.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Can I see the back of your head and you've
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: still got a mustache?
• 43:01
  Speaker 7: I do, it's grown in. That's what seven years will do.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Wow, look at that, you've grown up, just in the
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: blink of an eye exactly. So we just wanted to
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: check in with you and see how you were doing.
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: I want to hear about how now like you were
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: sort of pushed out of the nest that instead of
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: falling to the sidewalk and getting eaten by a cat,
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: you have taken off to soar with the seagulls.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Bernie and ethel seagull. All right, listen, we're getting off
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: track here, Joey. We're here to hear about you.
• 43:33
  Speaker 7: I was enjoying this.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: So what's going on in your in your life? Are
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: you in la? I?
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: Actually I'm in New York and I moved out here
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: about four years ago.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: How many roommates do you have?
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: This will shock you zero.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: So no, no bed sheet walls, just all you.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I do live in like a large studio apartment railroad
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: style where there's like multiple rooms without proper doors, so
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: they are separated by what kind of looks like a
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: bed sheet.
• 44:01
  Speaker 7: It's like a curtain. I don't know if you can
• 44:02
  Speaker 7: tell the back.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Was that something that you were looking for? You you
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: told the real estate agent that you wanted something with
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: bed sheet.
• 44:08
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: I don't feel at home unless i'm around bad shoots.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Joey's doing. Joey's thriving. Look he's got a cow. Is
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: that a couch you're sitting on?
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: It's a share I don't have a couch.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: Oh are you still rollerblading?
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: Of course I still love rollerblading, but I also I
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: found that I love riding a bicycle too.
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: I have a question.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Oh go ahead, gregor.
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: Not too personal? Are you drinking your own urine? What's
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: all right?
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: So good talk, Joey. Any thing you'd like to say
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: in parting?
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: I guess I want to say thank you for helping
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: me all those years ago.
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: It actually, I do think meant something and it worked.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: Did it?
• 44:50
  Speaker 8: Really?
• 44:50
  Speaker 7: I think it did? How so I felt a lot
• 44:53
  Speaker 7: more confident after that.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: Just yeah, I mean the lessons imparted on the day,
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: but also just hearing it back.
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: Over the years, I've revisited.
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: It and whenever I do, it makes me laugh first,
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: but also kind of shows me how far I've come.
• 45:09
  Speaker 7: So I'm grateful.
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: This may come across a slightly patronizing, but I feel
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: like Joey's all grown up.
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: I think I am. I think you're right.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's close this out by all together ready. Woo
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: tang tang, Woo tang. Thanks to everyone who helped put
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: this episode together. We'll be back next week with another
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: encore presentation of Heavyweight
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: Cont